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anonnie-in-wonderland · 10 months

Text

Call Me Crazy...

Rating: T

Word Count:11.8k

Warning(s): anxiety/anxious thoughts, near panic attacks, injury, but also beware the fluff for it is potent

Summary: When Y/N gets her hands on the newest Samsung phone, she thinks at most she’ll get a little clout with her friends and fewer dropped calls. A direct portal to BTS? Not so much.

Tags: bts x reader | ot7 x reader | poly| FM!POC!reader

Ch.3: Don’t Hold Your Breath for a Break

A/N: Hiiii, sorry I’ve been away for so long. 🥺 Life has been pretty stressful. But, I’m back now, new chapter, whoo! I have had this on my mind for a while now, and finally got the chance to incorporate it into this chapter~ I really do hope you enjoy the arrival of the next BTS member to show up, whose dynamics with Y/N are already among my favorites. Also, always feel free to chat with me about this fic if you’d like, I don’t bite and thrive on the engagement! 🤗 I wanna know if anyone wants to guess what is going on or has figured it out yet. This chapter is especially dedicated to the blog who had a super easy tutorial on how to keep your formatting from google docs to tumblr!! Saved me a lot of time. Hehe *PLEASE do not ask about the taglist in this story’s comments*

In the days that followed, Y/N completely fell down a rabbit hole. It felt prudent to look more into BTS, or more specifically, Park Jimin. From a strictly legal perspective and nothing more.

After all, she was sure his attorneys would be sending a court summons any day now just as soon as they managed to find out her identity and track her down. It was something she lived in fear of.

Binna was none-the-wiser that the reason she suddenly seemed so attentive about the band’s recent lives was because she wanted to know if they’d mentioned anything. Any clues that would tell Y/N when her days as a free person were coming to an end.

Honestly, she hadn’t found much. Nothing that would be helpful in allowing her to participate in her own legal defense. Speaking of that, could she even afford an attorney that would be able to stand up against Park Jimin’s? She was sure a global superstar would have the best in the country.

Y/N listlessly scrolled through yet more photos of Jimin—looking for hidden meanings in the recent videos the group had posted was starting to make her feel like she was overreacting at best and paranoid at worst.

There were pictures of him with a variety of hair colors and outfits, taken over time, and he was flawless in all of them. Even ones she came across where he wasn’t glammed out in full makeup made it obvious he was just one of the lucky ones, naturally born attractive.

“How many wardrobe malfunctions can one person have throughout their career?” Y/N found herself muttering, spying yet another photo where Jimin’s fancy jacket was sliding down his arm. “Is he allergic to keeping his shirt on his shoulders?”

Though, given how many fan compilations existed that compiled every single moment where Jimin’s shirt or jacket hadn’t quite managed to stay all the way on, it didn’t seem like there were many complaints. Army was swooning and swooning hard if anything.

But really, being sued within an inch of her life wasn’t even the worst part about it all. If someone saw the “notes” section of her phone, they’d have her committed first, and ask questions later. She’d have her committed, under normal circumstances.

Because what she had experienced not once, but twice? It went against everything she stood for. Logical, grounded, a firm believer in science and fact. Facts didn’t support phenomena like getting sucked through a mirror and ending up in an idol’s dance studio.

Facts didn’t support seeing the face of another idol—because she now knew the reason the man in the mirror looked vaguely familiar was because he was another BTS member, Seokjin—instead of her own reflection when she went to brush her teeth. It just…didn’t make sense.

Science couldn’t support it. It was nuts. Yet it happened to her. And that was the only reason she believed it. Too bad no one else would. Or worse, if and when Jimin announced he’d be pressing charges for assault, and she had confessed beforehand to someone…it would probably be taken as evidence the attack was premeditated.

Sure, they’d have to prove how she got in. But…but still! She couldn’t risk it. Wouldn’t. Which meant her phone was her only safe secret-keeper. They were co-conspirators in it all.

Speaking of the damned cursed thing… trying to outright return it hadn’t worked, even though she had the receipt and everything! She still remembered the bizarre events that day.

Y/N was almost out of breath by the time she entered the phone store, embarrassingly worked up in front of the few strangers milling around inside. She got a few curious, side-long glances, and then they went back to perusing the inventory.

“Welcome!” Called an employee already speaking to other customers. “Someone will assist you shortly.”

Y/N gave a short, affirmative nod, trying not to come off anxious as she glanced around. Everything looked…the same as the night she had bought the phone. Shiny new models on display, the monitor above their heads playing a loop of advertisements for different Samsung products, and everything neatly put away and organized. Absently, she began to think over the store’s layout, and the fact that it could have a strong subconscious effect on the consumer. Organization of inventory could actually play a role in whether or not someone wanted to buy something.

But, putting that aside, the store didn’t look like the kind of place that would sell someone a phone that would ruin their life. Looks could be deceiving, though. Who knew what was actually afoot?

“Oh, can I help you, miss?” A middle-aged woman wearing the store’s polo top came over with a tag that said her name was Hayoung asked in an attentive tone.

Y/N was quick to nod. “I’m here to make a return, actually. I bought a phone from your store not long ago.”

“Was the item not to your liking?” Hayoung asked, guiding her over to an available station.

The university student glanced down at the phone in question, which she’d placed back in the original purchase box. “You could…say that.” She mumbled. “I’ve thought about it, and I really don’t need anything even half this fancy.” Telling the woman she thought the phone might have it in for her was out of the question. “So I’d like to exchange it for something simpler.”

Hayoung dutifully accepted the box, scanning the barcode and then lifting up the lid. Y/N had anticipated a smooth return in which she’d flash her receipt, maybe some ID, and have the exchange completed in no time. But when Hayoung’s brow furrowed, she knew she wouldn’t like whatever the saleswoman was going to say.

“Is…is something wrong?”

“Well,” she paused, “Are you sure you purchased your phone here? From this store? I know we’ve had models similar to this in stock before, but this one’s just not ringing up.”

“Really?” Y/N shook her head, rummaging around in her purse. “I don’t see how that could be. I have the receipt if that helps…”

She then proceeded to go through her small purse, searching the exact spot she knew she had folded and placed the receipt. “Um, hold on a minute please,” Hayoung waited expectantly as Y/N kept looking, growing increasingly more frustrated as she turned the contents of her purse inside out hunting for the receipt.

No, no way was she ever that careless. She had made sure she put it into her purse before leaving the apartment, and she didn’t exactly care that much in it to begin with! It was all zipped up tight, so how could it have fallen out?!

It took several more long, awkward moments of searching futilely in vein for her to realize it was true. The receipt was no where to be found. Trying to fight down the flush of defeat crossing her cheeks, Y/N cleared her throat, speaking diplomatically, “I’m sorry, I don’t seem to have my receipt on hand after all. I guess I’ll just…try to search it out and return when I do.”

“Oh, there’s no need. Our system can search for and find the purchase if you happen to have the card on hand.”

Y/N wanted to slump over in defeat, “Actually my friend bought it…”

“Oh,” Hayoung tilted her head, “Do you happen to know the account number used?”

Y/N mentally wondered if Binna was free. She shouldn’t be in class right now, right? So it would be okay to quickly give her a call and get this sorted out. She had to leave the store without this phone. That was a must!

“H-Hold on please!” It was a little embarrassing, snatching the phone she had been trying to return from its box and powering it on. In anticipation of making the return, Y/N had thought to wipe it and remove the SIM card chip, but then recalled hearing it was best to do that at the store when the transaction was complete, in case there was something forgotten on the phone that still needed to be retrieved.

Hastily scrolling down the admittedly short contacts’ list, Y/N located Binna’s number and pressed the button to dial. The phone rang three times, and she anxiously tapped her foot as she waited to see if her friend would pick up. ‘Please, Bin. Come on. Please.’

Of course, as it always was when she needed something to work out, it didn’t quite go smoothly. Binna hadn’t picked up, and she had ended up ending the call right before it switched to voice mail. Typing out a text message asking for the information she needed, Y/N had glared spitefully down at the phone.

“Do you recall the name of the clerk who sold you the phone?” Hayoung asked gently.

Y/N thought it over, the sales associate’s face floating to mind. “Yes, his name was Suk-kyu.”

“Hmm, that name doesn’t sound familiar.” Hayoung shook her head. “I’ve been employed here three years and never heard anyone go by that name,”

It was unlike her, but Y/N felt she was entitled to a bit of out of character behavior when her jaw actually dropped. “You’re kidding…”

But, Hayoung assured her, she was not. She didn’t think they had ever carried the exclusive Army Edition of the phone. She didn’t know who Suk-kyu was, and Y/N couldn’t find her receipt, the only bit of evidence that might have been able to successfully lift the burden of the phone from her person. She had left the store, apologizing for wasting the patient woman’s time, and feeling like she was at least partially going crazy.

Needless to say, Y/N had been…anxious about the phone since then. A bit scared, even. A fear she had no choice but to shoulder in silence for the time being. There wasn’t much she could do but continue searching high and low for the receipt and hope it turned up soon.

In the meantime, she didn’t let on that anything was wrong, using the phone like before, though limiting that to when it was really necessary. No more playing around with it or downloading apps. Nope, she didn’t want to risk getting too attached to the thing.

The only thing she did besides make calls was research. Things she never would have thought about looking up before. Like, unexplained phenomena with electronics, most of which led to completely wild conspiracy theories or dead ends.

Y/N had been so engrossed in breaking her brain over what to do, she jumped when the apartment door swung open, turning around on the coach to see Binna march in, a few grocery bags in her hands. Keys in her mouth, she gently kicked the door closed, humming to herself until she happened to look up and spot Y/N.

“Oh!” Binna hustled into the small kitchen to set her bags down, then her keys. “Y/N, didn’t expect to see you here right now. You’ve got class today, right?”

“It was canceled…” she sighed, sliding down the couch cushions and placing her phone on the coffee table. “The professor’s out sick with the flu.”

Binna winced in sympathy. “Yikes, poor guy…”

“Yeah,” Y/N took great care not to get sick, so she hadn’t so much as had a cold in years, but she still remembered times when she was a child in bed with chills, body aches and a fever. Once she had even had pneumonia, her mother forced to call out from work and nurse her back to health. “He just wanted us to go over the assignment we’ve been working on since the start of the semester. You know, take this as independent study time basically. But…”

“Buuut, knowing you,” Binna smiled, “You’ve already taken the initiative and gotten a head start a long time ago, so you’re ahead of everyone else.”

“Done, actually,” Y/N confirmed, not afraid to admit to her efficiency.

Her roommate made a noise of encouragement as she began to put the groceries away. It didn’t look like much. A loaf of bread, some bottles of sauce they’d been running low on, some eggs and a carton of milk.

“That’s great, since it actually kind of works out. Chin-Mae and Min Su invited me to check out this new steak house that just opened up. I heard reservations are booked out for weeks already, but thanks to Min Su’s connections, we can go this evening. What do you say?” Binna wiggled her eyebrows, trying to entice Y/N.

“Alright, I’m in,” she agreed.

“Because I’m sure they won’t mind adding just one more to our party, especially if that person is you…” Binna continued to ramble.

“Bin, did you hear me?” Y/N clucked, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I said I’m in.”

Eyes round as the eggs she had put away, Binna blinked, nodded, and finally broke out into an ear to ear grin. “Oh, wow, that’s new. I m-mean not that it isn’t great you wanna join us, but…”

“What?” Y/N felt a little defensiveness creeping up on her, and she probably didn’t do the best job completely hiding it from her tone. “You made the invite, and you said Min Su and Chin-Mae would be fine with it. Did you not…really want me to come along?”

They thought she would kill the mood, the nasty little whisper entered her head unbidden. They thought she was so stuffy and boring.

“What, Y/N, no!” Binna immediately denied, “I’m really glad you can make it,” she shot over to the couch, wrapping her arms around her friend’s neck from behind as she bent over for the hug. “It’s true you normally put up a little more resistance when we ask you to come somewhere. You stay so busy, so I was a little surprised is all. But I’m glad you’re agreeing.”

Y/N’s tense shoulders relaxed, and she mentally sighed to herself, feeling silly. Of course, of course her friends wanted her there. And this was Binna, who struggled to have a bad thought about anybody. Secretly resentful definitely wasn’t her style.

But with the stress she had been under, and the dread she’d done her best not to give into, Y/N could admit her nerves had been on edge. “Yeah, sorry about that…” she laughed weakly, reaching up and patting one of the arms looped around her neck. “I don’t know where that came from, but I’m happy to eat a little steak if Min Su’s recommending it.” The man had the best luck finding good places to eat, or stores that sold exactly what you were looking for but probably overlooked.

“Good girl,” Binna uncoiled her arms and leaned back against the couch itself. “That’s the spirit. And hey, I heard from some of the girls in the campus’ BTS fan club that one of the guys on campus might be related to one of the waiters who might have catered the food on the set of a music video for Taehyung!”

She said it in a breathy squeal, and Y/N couldn’t help but smile indulgently. She was almost sure she knew which one Taehyung was, but she still wouldn’t put money on it. It might just as soon be someone else. Maybe Namjoon?

She’d gotten more familiar with their names but as most of her time perusing videos and photos had been spent investigating Jimin, she wasn’t entirely sure on the others’ faces. Well, besides Jin and J-Hope.

“Nice,” she said, letting Binna get all her gushing out as she texted Chin-Mae just to make sure it really was okay if she tagged along. Stupid to be anxious about feeling unsure if everyone really wanted her to come, but better to be safe than sorry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She was impressed the minute they walked through the door. Min Su stopped trying to sneak an arm around Chin-Mae’s waist and immediately went over to talk to the maître d. The two men spoke cordially, the head waiter confirmed their reservation, and then they were led to their table with a flourish.

Binna was practically bouncing on her heels, squealing under her breath. “Can you believe this place?” she whispered excitedly, “I feel like a movie star, coming here.”

The restaurant was definitely lavish, so she understood where her friend was coming from. The tables were polished stained oak, and lit by a candle to provide ambiance, and the floors were a gorgeous brown tile that Y/N suspected to be marble.

The restaurant was done in a mixture of black, gold with high beam wood ceilings and low atmospheric lighting. They walked past a bar, long and oval, with shimmering glasses the team of bartender would pull down as they did impressive tricks to wow the gathered guests.

“It’s one of the hottest spots in Gangnam right now,” Chin-Mae commented as they sat down. The table comfortably fit the four of them, and everyone got settled as a young woman hurried over, handing them menus and introducing herself.

“This is so cool,” Binna exclaimed, still wiggling in place. She shook Y/N’s arm. She was all done up with some icy blue eye shadow that matched her aqua dress, and a more subtle plum shade of lipstick.

Her hair was secured in a complicated twist by a pin she recognized from the last time they had gone shopping together. Y/N adjusted the shawl draped over her shoulders, pulling down her own strapless dress. Binna had helped her pick accessories, which were mostly shades of amber or gold, and apply some light makeup.

Y/N chuckled, nodding as she scanned the menu, trying her best to ignore the listed prices. She had come fully prepared to pay her own way, but Min Su insisted the meal was going to be on him. It must have been nice.

The perks of being from an affluent family, she supposed. The guy was already well on his way to being a successful lawyer, following the family tradition. He had moved all the way from his hometown in China to come and work on his master’s degree at one of the top universities in Korea, just for a change of pace. “Thanks again for letting us crash your date night, guys.” Binna beamed.

“Please,” Chin-Mae scoffed lightly, not looking up from his menu. “What was I supposed to do all evening? Talk to him?”

Min Su pouted, but it didn’t diminish the fond glow in his eyes as he leaned over his boyfriend’s shoulder and whispered something in his ear that gave Chin-Mae pause.

Their friend cut a sharp look at his partner, smacking his thigh and then proceeding to ignore the man who was happily leaning into him and commenting on the menu. Yeah, nothing new there. Min Su was totally gone on Chin-Mae, as always.

There was nothing about Chin-Mae’s bluntness or dismissive attitude in public that ever put him off. If anything, the mean behavior only served to make Min Su try harder. Though, she and Binna both knew Chin-Mae wouldn’t be with someone this long if he wasn’t just as serious about them.

He was just a straight shooter, raised in a family that wasn’t completely accepting of who he was, and unfortunately awkward and out of his depth about how to handle someone as affectionate and doting as the man he happened to fall in love with.

They were well suited in that regard. Min Su was patient and persistent enough to shower Chin-Mae in all the attention he needed to overcome the lingering doubts about being worthy of such deep love and devotion.

Y/N was perfectly fine, pursuing the path she was. Career goals first, everything else second. But sometimes, watching them, a little envy did ignite.

It must have been nice to find something like that, and she was truly happy for them. It didn’t seem likely she’d have time in the near future to go out and chase it for herself, of course. And she wasn’t really worried about it.

“So, what’ll it be for you guys?” Y/N cleared her throat, interrupting the warm and cozy silence they’d all been existing in.

“Ohh, I think I’m gonna have the smoked chicken and spinach salad, and a side of the fried mushrooms,” Binna announced, tongue poking out in concentration as her finger followed where the items she wanted were on the menu.

“You’re going so easy on him.” Chin-Mae remarked. “I’m getting the iron skillet trout,” he squinted, leaning further into the menu. Min Su only smiled, plucking the reading glasses from Chin Mae’s breast pocket that he had forgotten to put on and placing them on his face for him.

The absent-minded pat he got on the hand for it made the law student’s whole face light up. “And the chicken fried steak. That okay, babe?” He might not have looked it, exactly, but Chin-Mae had a healthy appetite. And if they were coming to such an exclusive restaurant for the first time, it wasn’t surprising he wouldn’t be keen to hold back.

Min Su was nodding encouragingly before Chin-Mae had even fully gotten the question out of his mouth. “And what about you, Y/N?”

She clammed up slightly, having been looking at the menu, mentally ruling out what seemed too expensive, or wasn’t quite her taste. “Uh, the pot roast sounds like a filling entree.”

“And?” Chin-Mae prodded, interlocking his hands together and leaning on them.

“And nothing,” Y/N shook her head. “It comes with two sides, that’s more than enough.”

“Boo,” Her friend hissed dramatically. “Fine. If neither one of you is going to take advantage of this, then I guess it’s up to me.”

Their waitress returned with a tray of drinks at precisely that moment, and as she set them down in front of the correct person, everyone began telling her their orders, which she jotted down without missing a beat.

Only Min Su had actually ordered any steak, but, given the price of a 24 oz there was just no way she felt comfortable doing that to the poor guy, even if he was a good sport about it and more than capable of handling a large bill.

As they sat, sipping their champagne and waiting on the food, something Y/N had been putting off thinking about started floating through her mind. Ever since the whole Jimin fiasco, despite her deep diving and frantic searching, nothing had turned up that indicated anyone was coming after her.

But she just wasn’t willing to believe she’d gotten away that easily. She almost killed a celebrity. And, due to that, she’d really wanted to seek legal advice from Min Su, under the guise of some far-fetched hypothetical, of course. Her friends weren’t onto her, and she couldn’t give them a reason to be.

She just had to find a way to casually broach the topic…

“Oh,” Binna gasped from her side, drawing the whole table’s attention to herself. She was carefully scrolling her phone with a freshly manicured nail, scowling slightly. It was so rare that Binna displayed any actual disdain, it had Y/N a bit curious.

“What’s wrong, Bin?”

“It’s nothing,” she replied immediately, then paused. “Well it’s not nothing but, it’s just…I really wished we lived in a world that respected idols as people, you know? Some people call themselves fans and act like famous people aren’t allowed to have any boundaries.” She then went on to describe how there’d been another sasaeng incident reported on a news site she followed to keep up with celebrity gossip.

Apparently, it was a pretty serious one, and crazed ‘fans’ had attacked an actress a well-known idol was reported to be dating. Her bodyguard had fended them off, but the actress still went to the hospital with some injuries.

Y/N perked up slightly, but Min Su and Chin-Mae were thankfully too engrossed in listening to Binna rant to notice. It would be much easier to bring up her question using the information Binna had just provided them as a pretext.

It was about time she had a stroke of good luck. Stopping to think it over, Y/N cringed. Not that she wasn’t sympathetic to the poor woman who had been harmed because of someone’s delusions. But it just…presented an opportunity she had to take, and….

‘Oh, why am I trying to rationalize it to myself?! I should just ask the question before the subject changes.’

That decided, she opened her mouth and spoke, doing her best to make it seem as casual as possible. “So Min Su, you’re practically a lawyer. What kind of charges could that person face? Attacking a celebrity and inflicting bodily harm isn’t the same as harassing them for a photo.”

Y/N silently patted herself on the back, sitting from her glass with an expression carefully schooled to look only mildly interested. Inside was another matter. She was rocking back in forth, heart hammering and eyes wide, waiting for an answer with baited breath.

“Hmm, well, I’ve mostly studied corporate law.” He admitted, playing with a ring on his index finger, “But I do know that given the severity, it’s likely both the actress and the company she’s represented under will press charges. Things are also moving faster these days, prosecuting people who do things like that.”

Y/N swallowed, eyes fixated on Min Su’s thoughtful expression. “There were also witnesses, so it’s very likely to result in a conviction.” Yes, there had been a witness in her case too. Well, J-Hope had only seen her fleetingly. Maybe. Hopefully not. But if she was on any camera then…it was most definitely over for her.

“The court could go light on them if it was a first offense…they might be sentenced to a large fine and community service…” Okay, Y/N thought. It would probably drain her savings, but it was still possible to bounce back and have a future, right? She could still put it in the past and become a CEO one day, right?! “Then again, it was a premeditated attack. Jail time is also a strong possibility.”

Her heart sank back down to her feet. Jail. What successful CEO in Korea had been to jail before graduating, and for assaulting an idol no less.

‘I. Am. Done.’

“What’s the matter, Y/N?” Binna giggled, “You look like you smelled a rotten egg. But I guess hearing about how far some crazy people will go is pretty disgusting, isn’t it? I don’t think I’ll have much sympathy for them, whatever happens.”

“…Yeah…” Y/N said once her words came unstuck. That was another thing. Her sweet friend was going to think she was a criminal. She had known Binna since high school, having shared a homeroom class with her. They were vague acquaintances then, friendly enough to speak from time to time but by no means close enough to hang out between classes or after school.

In fact, admittedly, Y/N used to wonder if Binna’s perky personality was just an act. It had to be, in her cynical rationalizing, because who was really that upbeat, in high school?

Later on, she would realize she was just projecting, and once she stopped doing that was when she truly came to appreciate Binna for all that she was, steadfast and supportive. Although they didn’t become close, didn’t become friends, until meeting at orientation when arriving at Korea University.

“They knew the consequences before they did it.” Chin-Mae joined in, swishing the last of his champagne around before drinking it down. “It’s stupid to think your life won’t be impacted when you run wild like that.”

Except, Y/N wanted to wail. She hadn’t known. She wasn’t a sasaeng, and she knew she had assaulted someone but at the same time she hadn’t really done anything wrong. Except maybe buy a cursed magical phone, that somehow was behind all this.

…Yeah, she’d just keep that thought to herself.

“Well,” Y/N smiled, “Thanks for giving your input.” She told Min Su, who nodded, humming with a cheerful ‘no problem’.

A cartoony chime went off, and Binna groaned as she stared down at her phone, “Nooo,” she sighed, sounding truly remorseful. “Right now?”

“What’s happening?” Chin-Mae raised a brow.

“Jimin is going live!” She whined, “And normally I’d watch but I’m having such a great time with all of you, and I don’t want to be rude…”

“It’s fine, go ahead.” Y/N said, forcing a smile. “We know how addicted to that stuff you are.” Really, she wanted the floor to swallow her into the abyss. She knew the minute she heard that sound what was going on. If her phone had been turned on, they would have heard the same noise coming from her purse too.

She had made an account on several apps BTS often broadcasted their lives to, and set an alert for just that occasion. There were a couple of false alarms she hadn’t tuned into once she saw they weren’t from the person she was basically stalking at this point. But this was it. The big moment.

He hadn’t done a solo live since the accident…but Binna said his members had mentioned that he had a small accident while practicing and was recovering well.

All of Army was behind him, sending him tons of well wishes from all over the world. It was sweet, but she wondered how fast they would turn if they knew she was behind their beloved idol’s injuries.

“Yeah, what Y/N said,” Chin-Mae rolled his eyes. “Check on your man,” he joked.

Binna giggled, flashing them a cute heart. “He’s not my man,” she replied playfully, “I’d have to get in line for that. Plus, I’m really more of an OT7, you know? It’s really hard to stick with one bias.”

Nonetheless, when she began to watch, since Y/N couldn’t exactly whip out her phone and do the same without raising suspicion, she subtly leaned closer to at least listen.

Of course, Binna was always more astute than she let on. “Oh, did you wanna see too?” She angled the screen so they could both see before Y/N even had the chance to protest.

And the live was just starting, the exact same idol she had seen what felt like a lifetime ago was sitting in a room by himself. It looked like he was on a couch, legs crossed, looking small in his soft oversized sweater and giving the camera a cute wave. “Hi, everyone,” his sweet voice said. “Thank you for waiting on me!”

Gushing comments poured in, cheering him and welcoming him back, asking him what he’d been up to, and telling him he looked good. Jimin tilted his head, a coy, secretive smile appearing on his shiny lips. Y/N couldn’t tell if he was wearing gloss or if they always looked like that.

She had been a bit too preoccupied the one and only time she had the opportunity to see them in person. He had dyed his hair a different color, though. It was now a shade of strawberry blonde that complimented his angelic features well.

“Well, I haven’t been up to much. Just resting, really.” he explained. “Even on days when I felt better and tried to join practices, the members just shooed me away.” He laughed. “Oh, but look at this!” He reached down, his head dipping out of screen for a minute, popping up seconds later holding a little pot. “Taehyung got me this ‘get well’ plant!” He showed them a cute little sapling.

Binna cooed, Y/N glancing at her then refocusing on his words. Who knew when a hidden meaning would pop up.

“I don’t know how well I’ll be able to take care of it; I’m not sure if I have a green thumb. But I’ll try my best!”

Comments came pouring in again, people saying he was going to enter his plant dad era, because collecting succulents could be addicting.

Other people gushed at the sweetness of the VMin friendship, whatever that was, and yet more people reminded Jimin that he looked really good. Yet one comment in particular seemed to catch his eye, and he squinted, seemingly intrigued.

“Hmm? You wish you were a plant so I could take care of you?” He repeated. “You don’t have to be a plant for me to want to take care of you.” The statement was very matter-of-fact, “You’re Army. I’ll always watch over Army.”

Binna sounded like she released a tiny sniffle. “Is he not just the sweetest?” She asked, nudging Y/N a bit. “Since you’re new to BTS, have you chosen a bias yet?”

Y/N wished she could tell her the real reason behind her sudden interest, but that was kind of out of the question. “No, not yet…”

“Y/N’s a BTS fan now?” Chin-Mae asked, “Since when?”

“Pretty recent.” Binna replied.

Y/N was only half listening to her friends, mostly focusing on Jimin’s chatter. Someone was still insisting they wanted to be his plant, and he looked nothing short of amused.

“Okay, if you insist. Should I start a garden then?” He asked his fans. Y/N watched, stunned, as his bright eyes narrowed into a practiced and very effective smolder. She had seen it in pictures before, but in real time it was really something else, “It’ll be full of so many pretty flowers, and you’ll all bloom just for me, right?” The heady purr of his words sent a shocked shiver right down her spine.

Binna swooned, while Y/N felt her breath hitch. ‘What… the…hell…was that?!’ A flirty throwaway line like that had never had that effect on her before.

But then, thinking back, he had flirted with her in the dance studio too. She’d just been too worried to pay attention. Clearly, the man was an old hand at the art of duality, going from wholesome to heathen in five seconds flat. That was…dangerous.

Binna seemed to already know how she felt, leaning into her with a sigh. “That, Y/N, is what happens when Jimin turns from angel to demon.” Her friend explained. “I’d say you’ll get used to it, but odds are you probably won’t.”

Jimin then went back to amicably speaking to everyone, as if he hadn’t just teased fans within an inch of their lives. The conversation moved on, and he was speaking about upcoming projects he was excited about or a funny habit that he had noticed in his band member. All normal, non-threatening stuff. Y/N was almost thinking she could relax. Almost.

“What? You want to tell me a secret?” Jimin was reading another comment. “Okay, I’m listening…”

Y/N quirked a brow at the comment. “Sometimes I dream about you.” it read.

The idol grinned, replying casually. “Sometimes I miss Army so much I end up thinking about all of you in the middle of the day.” Y/N’s blood ran cold as he looked intensely at the screen. “It’s almost like you’re there…”

That was it. The sign she was waiting for! He was talking to her.

“I…” Y/N stumbled to her feet, startling Binna. “Need the bathroom, I’ll be back.”

“Oh, okay.” Her friend said slowly, setting down her phone. “Is anything wrong? You don’t…look so good suddenly.”

‘You wouldn’t either in my shoes,’ she thought miserably. ‘Park Jimin is going to sue me within an inch of my life.’

“It’s alright,” she held a hand to her stomach, selling the illusion of sudden nausea. “Just…lady problems.” She said lamely.

Poor Binna didn’t even question it; she nodded, eyes full of sympathy. “Well text if you need anything.” She squeezed Y/N’s hand. “I’ve got a few extra tampons in my purse.” she whispered discreetly. Really, Binna was too good of a friend for her.

Y/N rounded the corner in a hurry, blindly guessing where the bathrooms might be located. She passed their waitress, rolling out a cart that she was pretty sure contained their meals. Everything looked delicious, and of course she couldn’t even enjoy the great evening Min Su had generously provided. All because she was screwed.

She hustled into a bathroom as fancy as the rest of the steak house, and so spacious there would probably be an echo. She hustled over to the sink, activating the handless system by shoving her trembling fingers under it. As she splashed her face with warm water, the dread twisting up her stomach gave way to deja vu.

‘This is just like…the event at the internship.’ The wild day that would be the beginning of the end of her life. Removing her hands from the water, she gently pressed the pad of her thumb up to her eye, tapping it a few times.

Her makeup was well done, but it still felt like she could see bags. ‘At least it can’t get worse.’ She assumed. After all, what was worse than this? The dumb phone was put away in her clutch, turned off, and back at the table.

The very least she could do was fake a smile so she didn’t ruin everyone’s meal, and enjoy what might be her last chance to experience this. They probably didn’t serve many steakhouse dinners where she was going.

That thought firmly in mind, Y/N squared her shoulders and prepared to march back out, tightly gripping her clutch at her side. Wait, her clutch?!

Binna must have handed it over to her, assuming she might need it. She had said to text if she needed anything, and Y/N couldn’t exactly do that without a phone. Well, at least it was off. Y/N wasn’t totally sure what kind of phenomenon had disrupted her life, but it all started with that phone.

No sooner had she backed away from the mirror than a wave of dizziness overtook her, sending her keeling forward. Instinctively, she clutched the sink to maintain her balance, almost screaming out when she looked up as the dizzy feeling passed.

The mirror in front of her was the same as always, a reflection of her wide, mortified eyes. But the long glossy mirror that made up the entire wall of the bathroom at the entrance of the restroom?

A reflection of another room, just like before. “No…” she whispered, not ready to admit that it was happening again. What was worse? All of it being real, or her losing her mind? “Not again…!”

She clenched her eyes shut, then attempted to get her feet moving. She would keep her head down and hurry right on past, to the exit. That was the plan at least. And she was making good progress to move without falling over in her modest heels, but the minute she actually got closer to the mirrors, a strange feeling overwhelmed her.

Almost like a compulsion to stop. Y/N felt like she was watching a scene in a movie, watching a victim wander down the hall of a haunted house, towards the homicidal attacker lying in wait.

Her feet were making her move on her own! Her fingertips reached out, and yet she had no control. She had to touch the mirror, see if that room on the other side was real. But deep down, she knew the answer before her fingers made contact.

It was a strange emotion somewhere between surprise resignation when she wobbled onto a floor that was not marble and found her eyes darting around a room that was not the steak house.

Pressing against the mirror desperately, she confirmed what a large part of her had assumed. There was no give to the mirror, apparently no way back from the time being. Was she even still in Gangnam?

Her senses were feeding her all kinds of information, and frankly, it was starting to overwhelm her. The raw scents of sweat, male musk, and ammonia could only mean one thing, and it was further proven when she peered around the blind corner of a painted brick wall, only to see two people exercising.

Well, one was doing stretches, and with the way he hopped up, he had just finished. An older man in a tank top and sweats had pads strapped to his hands, and Y/N watched closely, not even daring to breathe, as the younger man sat down and laced boxing gloves onto his taped hands.

He stood up, and who she assumed was his trainer got into a defensive stance while the younger man hopped around nimbly. Y/N watched, wide-eyed as they began to train, the guy in the black hoodie practicing blocking, jabbing and dodging.

It was clear he had put a lot of dedication into this. Y/N was never much of a sports person, but she knew the result of hard-work when she saw it. His moves were fluid, and instead of slowing down, they got quicker the more he went at it.

Somehow, it never felt like a good time to draw their attention to herself, go wobbling over in her dinner attire, and ask for directions back to the High Tower SteakHouse. She had a few other options, of course, like calling Binna. Or maybe Chin-Mae…but how did she explain it?

She had gone to the restroom for a few minutes and wound up in a completely different location without leaving the restaurant?! Then again, it meant they would really have no choice but to believe her.

It was impossible for her to have gone anywhere far when they all saw her leave for the bathroom. Maybe she could sneak out while they were distracted and then call when she was outside the gym, not standing around all conspicuous.

Y/N was weighing the merits of her plan when she heard an excited yell, whipping her head around and watching the trainer give his client a few congratulatory pats on the back, apparently satisfied with the work he’d put in for the day.

They began speaking lowly to themselves, and Y/N paled when she noticed the only door out of the room she could spot was behind them…. The corner she was standing behind seemed to be where the water fountains and locker rooms were located.

Hiding out in there was another option, but it didn’t exactly appeal when she would have to keep checking to see when the gym was empty. Right now it was just the two of them, but what if more people came in?

They’d have questions about someone being dressed like she was, right? Then again she could also be found out just staying put where she was. Ugh…it was beyond frustrating.

Her luck was completely shot, huh?

A little hope returned when the trainer waved at the young man and then began heading for the exit. She assumed they were done for the day, and the second guy would be done soon too. But not so, because then she’d actually be lucky.

As soon as his trainer had cleared the room, he gave a loud sigh, beginning to shimmy out of his hoodie. Y/N didn’t think she was close enough to make the door in the small moment he had his vision obstructed, but she was close enough to get an eyeful.

If his training earlier hadn’t tipped her off that he was dedicated, his physique would have. He was all hard lines, though the minuscule glimpse of a thin waist when his shirt rode up with his hoodie was impressive too.

She could see a full sleeve of tattoos decorating one arm, and coupled with his longish two-toned hair, a deep brown that gave way to a raging red, he was kind of…hard to look at. Distracting in a way she didn’t anticipate. She didn’t get distracted, not usually.

He, on the other hand, got straight to business. Oblivious of her presence, he walked right over to the large, hanging punching bag and began to hit it. But he wasn’t just hitting it. Again, Y/N was no boxing aficionado, but she knew he knew what he was doing.

His strikes were always controlled, his breathing never ragged the way she could guess hers would be. He pivoted on his back foot, and she knew that the small movement put more power into his strikes.

He was hitting the bag like it owed him money, grunting occasionally, the muscles in his arms and shoulders flexing in his t-shirt. At some point, Y/N figured he would stop. He would either head out the door, or into the locker room, and that was when she would flee.

Hopefully, wherever the cruel cosmic entity that thought her life was a joke had dumped her, it wasn’t very far from the restaurant. Then again, shouldn’t she have gotten a worried text by now?

She’d been gone for a while. Or, maybe Binna had actually come to check on her and seen that she had disappeared entirely. Y/N could imagine the freak out as Binna flailed her way back to the table and informed Min Su and Chin-Mae that somehow, someway, she’d been kidnapped.

What was her life lately, she thought miserably. With nothing to really do but scroll her phone or continue to watch the mystery man go at it, she turned to checking what news was trending for the day. Normally, she at least kept up with news involving the business world, if nothing else.

The celebrity gossip blogs she left to Binna, BTS investment notwithstanding. Stocks were up at several companies she had an interest in working at after graduation—assuming she made it with her life in chaos lately—so that was good.

A CEO had resigned from his post at a company she had almost interned at but decided not to at the last minute off a strange feeling. Some scandal involving embezzlement. So she dodged a bullet there.

And, lastly, BTS’ Jungkook had endorsed some new sports brand, and now merchandise was selling out faster than it could be restocked. The article included a picture of Jungkook, posing in shorts and a t-shirt next to a mountain of different athletic gear for various sports.

Wait. Y/N could have swallowed her tongue. Wait. That man, the man in the picture and the one boxing…were the same person?!

Feeling like she may just be sick, Y/N did a quick check, and really took in the boxer. That was undoubtedly the idol pictured in the article.

Not only was she going to jail for assaulting one BTS member (albeit on accident) a fact that she had managed to forget up until that moment, she got pulled back into the same thing that got her in trouble before, and ended up crossing paths with another one?!

Once it came out what happened between her and Park Jimin, there was no possible way people would believe she wasn’t a sasaeng. The circumstantial evidence just kept getting more and more damning.

Jungkook. Jungkook. What did she know about Jungkook? Admittedly not much, considering all her focus had really been on Jimin for obvious reasons. She knew…that Binna said he was the youngest in the boy group. He was multitalented, and here her friend swore she wasn’t exaggerating or anything.

According to her, he was like some kind of Barbie of idols, he could do it all. Those weren’t her exact words, but it was the gist. Jungkook also had a habit of being a little shy around members of the opposite sex, or so it was claimed.

Y/N personally had always thought all idols had to be manufacturing some parts of their personalities for public consumption. Who knew which parts? None of the scraps of information she had been fed told her anything about whether he was liable to press charges for stalking him or not.

Then again, he was an idol, and knowing that, Y/N had to assume he had gone out of his way to book private gym time, hence why the spacious work out room was empty save for him. Which meant him catching her was going to lead to a world of trouble.

How good were her odds if she just booked it for the exit the minute he went back to the locker room? Or if he left, she’d wait a little bit to be sure he had cleared the building, then she’d leave too. Waiting…yep…that’s all she could do. If she wasn’t in a dress, and didn’t find the idea so dirty, she would slump over on the floor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jungkook caught the punching bag as it swung back from his last strike, finally feeling satisfied with his boxing for the time being. His limbs had that good burn that he liked, and his heart rate was up, despite his controlled breathing. But he wasn’t ready to leave just yet, so he decided to switch from boxing to something new. After a break.

Unlacing his boxing gloves, he found his gym bag and rummaged inside for his water bottle. Sitting down on a mat, he took a few sips, trying not to gulp it down too fast. His bottle was empty in no time, despite his attempts at moderation, and refilling before he resumed working out didn’t seem like a bad idea.

His footsteps echoing in the big empty gym was probably his imagination, but the weird sight when he rounded the corner? That he was pretty sure was real. Leaning against the wall, a woman…no, a girl, dressed up like she had somewhere important to be was nodding off. He froze, staring, all kinds of thoughts flying through his head.

Who was she? How’d she get in? When did she get in? Was she dangerous? Did he need to call for back up? Jungkook had purposely began training at this gym because it was exclusive. As his fame had grown, unfortunately he had to stop using more easy to find public gyms.

The one at HYBE was an option, but sometimes he wanted something…quieter. Trainees who came in meant well, and they tried to be respectful besides giving him friendly greetings, but they couldn’t help but gawk, and that made it awkward when he was trying to get in the zone. Here, he had thought, was perfect.

But maybe he was rushing to conclusions. He didn’t know anything about the situation besides a girl in a nice dress was falling asleep by the water fountains while standing up. Her head slumped forward, then snapped up quickly as she jolted awake, eyes wide and alert.

That was when they locked gazes, and his loose, sore muscles tensed right up. She, on the other hand, curled away like she was facing a thug in an alley. It was bemusing; yeah he’d bulked up a lot in the last several years after he got serious about training. Jungkook never considered himself all that intimidating, though.

“Are you… staff?” he asked, since it didn’t seem like she was going to speak up first. Not with the way she kept looking like the guillotine was coming down on her head any moment.

It took a reasonably long time for her to compose herself and answer, which was another pretty big tip off that something was not right. He was ready to whip out his phone and call security. Or at least he would be, if he hadn’t put it on do not disturb and left it in his bag.

“This is all a misunderstanding, really,” she warbled, her hands slapped the wall behind her like she was trying to steady herself. “I didn’t…I didn’t mean to be here.”

“What?” Jungkook was definitely growing suspicious. No one who wasn’t up to something just answered like that.

“I was just going to wait until you left and I guess I started to nod off…” she ran a shaky hand through her hair, disturbing it a little. “But really, please, if you’ll pretend you never saw me, I promise, I’ll be on my way.”

He backed away quickly as she lurched forward, but before he could tell her not to do anything funny, she bowed very formally, and the idol watched, perplexed. When he didn’t respond in any way, she resumed her upright position, then tried to brush by him with her head down.

Though, when he noticed the phone clenched tight in her fist, he acted without thinking. Something his hyungs had told him to be careful of doing in the past. At least they weren’t around to scold him.

“Hey,” he seized her wrist, and she stopped in her tracks, though he wasn’t expecting her reaction at all. Her eyes took in the hand on her like she could just flay it off with the intensity of her stare alone, and then she met his eyes head-on, hers surprisingly stony. “Your phone…”

“What about it?” she tried tugging her hand away, but he wasn’t ready to let go just yet. Not until he got some answers. He liked this gym. He wanted to keep using this gym, and at the thought that his privacy was being invaded yet again, and he would have to find somewhere else, yet again, he was getting a little worked up.

“That’s an Army phone, a Galaxy Z Flip 4: Army Edition.”

Her eyes widened, and then she scoffed, shaking her head. “Yeah, I guess you would know. But to tell you the truth, though I can admire your band’s marketability, this phone itself has been nothing but problems. This is just the latest one. Now, please, let go.” There was some bite in her tone now, her voice surprisingly stern.

When she tugged again, he acquiesced, something she probably didn’t expect, since she stumbled before catching herself. And when she felt her cellphone tugged right out of her hand? She rounded on him, scowling. “That belongs to me.” She held her hand out, clearly expecting it back.

“Why are you here? This is a private gym, and you don’t sound like you’re staff.”

She snatched for the phone, but he held it away, using his speed to his advantage. “Are you Army?”

“What? No,” she sounded offended by the notion, which in turn offended him. Then again, a true Army wouldn’t do this to him. Wouldn’t invade his space. “And what does that matter?”

“You’re not Army but you’ve got a phone that’s a rare exclusive. Only Army would want to own something like this. And if you’d go this far, you might be a sasaeng.”

Here, she did pause in trying to retrieve her phone, a bit red in the face under her makeup. “Please, between my class schedule and internship, who would even have the time? The people who think stalking and harassing idols is worth jeopardizing their future for really need…” Surprisingly, the girl tried to jump for the phone like she wasn’t in heels, but he held it above his head, which meant it was way above hers, “…a hobby!”

“So I won’t find pictures you secretly took on this?” Jungkook squinted, not convinced.

“No!” She hissed, jumping again, “Now who’s invading whose privacy, you…you muscle-headed, bunny-eyed brute!”

He was so taken aback, he faltered, and with one last pounce, the mystery girl had snatched the phone, though not without a cost.

Before she could even yell out in triumph, her heel wobbled and her foot rolled. Jungkook watched in slow motion, wincing in automatic sympathy as she went down.

Time sped up as she cried out, on the ground and clutching her ankle in a dress too nice to be touching the bare gym floor. He stood over her, carefully watching her face at first. He could tell she was in pain, but attempting not to show the extent.

Something about that alone…took him back to his early days. A wave of nostalgia he didn’t want to feel washed over him. He would hide his exhaustion, sometimes even hide injuries sustained while on stage until the end of a performance, until he couldn’t hide it anymore, just to avoid worrying his hyungs.

And when they caught him, like they inevitably always did, he’d cry, apologize, worry they would resent him. It didn’t make sense to everyone, probably only to those who had experience firsthand with the feeling. Not wanting to let others down, wanting to live up to everyone’s expectations, struggling with the fact that they were still human.

The girl gingerly tried to shift her injured ankle, and that alone seemed to send a fresh wave of pain throbbing through it. With the way she bit her lip and clenched her eyes to stifle the cry he could just tell.

And even though Jungkook had been concerned about a million things regarding her appearance, including that she might be another delusional ‘fan’, no one could fake pain that expertly. Plus, she’d have to be some actress to make her ankle swell on command.

It was probably stupid of him to drop his guard, even for a second, but he found himself dropping to his knees, almost reaching out, and then hesitating. She stared up at him through her lashes, her own eyes as guarded as his had been, but wavering as she focused on ignoring her obvious injury. “I need…I need to call my friend.”

Making up his mind, Jungkook loosely grasped her foot by the heel, ignoring her half-hearted attempts to swat his hand away. He extended her leg, careful not to hurt her as he manipulated her foot to get a better idea of how bad it was. “You rolled it pretty hard.” He finally concluded.

“Yeah, no kidding.” Jungkook briefly met eyes with her again, but she stubbornly looked away. “I wonder how that happened.”

Guilt hit him pretty fast. Yeah. Even if he thought she was an intruder, he should have just called security and let them handle it. They were never far, and there was no way she could have stopped him. Not by physically overpowering at least.

“Hang on,” he told her, setting her foot down and getting back on his feet. “I can help.”

“That’s a nice gesture,” she ground out, failing to hide a wince, “But really, I have my phone, so I can just call my fri—” she grabbed it and opened it, only for her face to fall. “Really? Now?” He heard her grumble irritably.

Noticing his quizzical face, turned a blank screen to him. “It’s dead.” She deadpanned.

“Okay, then let me help.”

Jungkook didn’t know this stranger by any stretch of the imagination, but he had anticipated what her response would be. It probably sounded something like “no”, since she seemed disinclined to take his help.

Was she always like this, so stubborn? Was it some kind of pride thing? He had been there, too; his hyungs really had their hands full with him over the years, didn’t they?

Retrieving the first aid kit Jimin had gifted him some time back, he made a brisk return to find the girl in much the same position he had left her, staring sulkily at her injured ankle. She looked up when he approached, but didn’t say a word.

“You might have to take off your shoe.” he informed her.

He waited to get a response, the big plastic kit held by his side. Jungkook wondered if she just planned to ignore him, and if he should take her silence as consent and proceed, but that didn’t feel right. Finally, she mumbled, “…This is really happening…isn’t it?”

Nodding slowly, he popped the kit open and examined its contents, locating the roll of compression wrap. While he did that, he noticed her leaning forward, trying to unstrap her heel without moving in a way that would hurt her foot even more.

Jungkook had never worn heels, but he always thought anyone who did without falling over must have some hidden talent. Hers weren’t as tall as some, but she was still plucking at the strap with building frustration.

Guessing she wanted it over and done with just as bad as he did, the idol seized the heel of her foot again, bringing her leg out and reaching for the buckle himself.

If he expected a beaming smile and a grateful attitude, he’d be sorely mistaken. She gave him the stink eye. “I can do at least this much.”

“Maybe, but I can do it faster.” He shrugged, already loosening the heel and sliding it off while holding her foot steady. From so close, and without the shoe in the way, he could really see just how fast the ankle had discolored and swollen. Again, he wrestled with the guilt, absently reaching for the wrap. “So,” he began by holding her ankle at a ninety-degree angle, “Who are you? Because this doesn’t mean I forgot…”

“Believe me, I’m someone who doesn’t want to be here anymore than you want me to be here. I didn’t have a choice, not that you’d ever believe me…” she huffed. “But, because legal repercussions are probably unavoidable, I’ll start by being cooperative. Maybe when they review all this, that’ll work in my favor.” It sounded like she was talking to herself, not him, but then she cleared her throat and extended her hand. “My name is L/N Y/N.”

Jungkook didn’t expect such a strange introduction, and the attempt at a handshake reminded him of Namjoon-hyung. He grasped her palm very briefly, barely holding on to it long enough for their hands to go up and down, but she didn’t seem inclined to want to hold onto him either.

“Y/N…” he repeated.

“As for what I’m doing here…well, again, it’s not something any sane person would believe.” She switched her focus to watching him meticulously wrap her ankle. It was pretty careful care for someone that could have been stalking him, but he had already started, and if he was going to do it, his sense of perfectionism said he had to do it right.

“Are you…insane?”

“Excuse me?” She didn’t look very amused, but he guessed it wasn’t exactly a polite question.

“You said a sane person wouldn’t believe you…” he explained.

“I am not insane,” Y/N rubbed a hand to her forehead. “I just feel like I am lately,” she whispered. “I was dining out with some friends, in the restaurant bathroom and then…”

Jungkook waited while he secured the wrap with some bandage clips and closed his first aid kit. “And then?”

“It’s going to sound insane,” she finished matter-of-factly, “You’re going to call me a liar and accuse me of stalking you, then we’ll be right back where we started.”

Jungkook was torn between still wanting to contact security, but also experiencing some curiosity he couldn’t quite tamp down. “Do you have proof?” It didn’t sound like she did.

“Proof?” Y/N repeated, arching a brow as if he had just said something strange.

“You’re not even going to try to make me believe you?” he goaded.

“Sure, help me up and I’ll hobble right over to the mirror. You’ll see exactly how I got here and this whole think’ll be cleared up just like that.” Her tone was so sugary the sarcasm was evident.

Jungkook figured he had indulged this for this long…why not go all the way. Offering her a hand, he warned her to brace herself, and then pulled her up with ease. “Okay.”

“Okay?” She said warily, trying not to show him how much she was utilizing the wall for support.

“Okay,” Jungkook nodded, “Show me.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Idols were weird. Y/N wasn’t sure if it was just the fact that they lived in a completely ‘different world’ from normal people or what, but she hadn’t expected her first extended run-in with some world-famous celebrity to go like this.

Park Jimin was one thing; he’d been concussed, so that was enough to make him loopy. She hadn’t expected anything out of his mouth to make sense. But this guy, Jean Jungkook?

Totally different. He wasn’t suffering a head injury, for one. And he had seemed angry at first, but still handled her appearance in much the same way a mean boy on the playground would in elementary school. Playing keep away with her phone, really?

He’d even treated her with decency when she tripped and sprained her ankle. God, that was yet another thing she was going to have to deal with. Sprained her ankle! Sprained! How was she supposed to get around campus quickly? It was huge. Though she supposed that wasn’t a concern at present.

The idol’s strange demand was at the forefront of her mind, seeing as he was right behind her while she hobbled slowly to the mirror, her heel in one hand and her phone in the other.

She must have looked like a suffering pigeon, doing a funny little hop. But she refused to let him touch her after she got her bearings. It was humiliating enough to have someone see her make a fool of herself and get injured to boot, idol or no idol. Well actually, his status made it even worse.

And he was watching her oh so closely as she made it to the mirror, taking a deep breath and turned around to look at him with some difficulty. “Here it is.” She said flatly. “How I got in, and how I probably would be able to get out, if life felt like cutting me a break.”

He stepped around her, staring at her incredulously like she knew he would. She would look at herself that way in his position. Jungkook pressed against the mirror with the flat of his hand, one good time, as if to confirm it was solid. “You used the mirror? What, like magic? Like a drama?”

“You’re the one who said you wanted proof; I never said it would satisfy you.” she retorted. “I barely understand it myself, but what I’m saying is the only truth I have to cling to.” Her chin dipped, “No matter how implausible it is…”

She knew she would get the same result he had when she pushed on the mirror, but as if to confirm her fate was truly sealed, Y/N tried anyway. When her hand went right through, the cool glass giving way to cool nothingness, she yelled, pitching forward.

Jungkook made a noise, something startled, and she glanced at him to confirm he was seeing what was happening. His bulging eyes made it evident that he was. Yes! Y/N jerked her arm away too fast, and in doing so almost fell back on her ass, if not for the lightning reflexes of the idol who moved to extend an arm around her waist.

Y/N got her bearings, smoothed a hand over her shirt and her racing heart, and tried to hold back her tears. He could see. He could really see. The weeks of going crazy in silence, holding it all in, and someone else…could see.

“Your arm went through the glass,” he breathed.

“More than my arm’s gone through.” Y/N spoke with more confidence, now that there was no way he could deny it. “That’s…how I got here.”

The idol once again moved forward, pressing both hands against the mirror. Nothing. “How?” He wondered.

“I don’t know.” Y/N replied, “It’s been happening since…since I got this phone. So that’s my only theory, that the events are connected.” She held up the dead device and wiggled it around. “Not that that’s a story anyone would believe if I got caught breaking and entering.”

The idol appeared to be thinking, worrying his lip piercing with his tongue, “Unless they saw it.”

Y/N squared her shoulders, eyeing him up and down. He fidgeted, looking small somehow, despite being fairly tall with a healthy amount of muscle. From close up it was even easier to see than watching him from behind the wall.

“It might come as a surprise for you to know, not everyone would be as cavalier as you about all this. In fact, I’d go as far as saying your reaction was a bit…strange. Has anyone told you that you’re odd?”

‘Nice going, Y/N.’ She thought bitterly, ‘That was over the top blunt. You’re not trying to make an enemy out of the very first person to be witnessing the crazy with you.’

Luckily, the idol didn’t look overly offended. Jungkook pursed his lips, big eyes sheepish as he rubbed his head. “Uh-huh, my hyung.” he said thoughtfully.

“Well…” Y/N gestured vaguely. “Now that you’ve seen what I’ve seen, you know about as much as I do. Would it be too much trouble to ask if I could…go?” Pointing a thumb toward the mirror like she was about to miss her cab would seem dumb if he didn’t know.

“Oh, right,” Jungkook’s tapped the mirror again. “You’re going back to where you came from.”

“Ideally,” Y/N frowned, “I’ve been gone a long time. There’s no way my friends aren’t concerned about that. And when they can’t find me who knows what they’ll think.”

Somewhat afraid the give they had both witnessed was a one-off, Y/N pressed her hand to the mirror once again, happy when it rippled and went right through. It might have been too late to salvage the evening with her friends, but at least she could salvage her reputation.

#call me crazy #ot7xreader #btsxreader #jungkook x reader #jiminxreader #taehyungxreader #yoongixreader #jin x reader #hoseok x reader #namjoon x reader

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cboffshore · 3 months

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surprise! the ( sick and festering ) enabler anon returns with a QOTD! maybe one day i’ll put the enabler in my tumblr bio if i ever decide to do a funny scooby doo villain mask reveal.

anywho, onto the ask! i’ve asked this question before about OSSAS, but on regards to the new fic; any songs that come to mind that you’d like to share when it comes to writing it? i’m a little bit crazy on song analysis ☺️ hope your day has been good!!

Welcome back! I'm horrible with reading bios (like, I maybe do it ONCE when I follow someone and basically never again) but I'll have to keep an eye out 👀

Anyway! ALA songs! That's subject to change with each chapter, as my writing music is VERY rarely consistent, but for now I can take you through the four songs used or implied in c1:

"Baby Annihilation" by Fall Out Boy - that's our title track! I chose that because the lyric "what is there between us if not a little annihilation?" fits Jay and Nya's relationship pretty nicely, if sarcastically. seriously, they NEVER catch a break! All of their milestones center on some kind of destruction. That lyric also works for what they'll get up to in C2, which is the primary reason I chose it.

"Cryptozoology" by Patrick Stump - this is where I got the chapter name from! Something about the entire Soul Punk album strikes me as very Jay-ish, and "Cryptozoology" is a hidden track on that album, which is kind of fun. As with in-universe knowledge of Skybound, you only know it's there if you have VERY specific information available (although this song is much, much easier to find - it's just bundled with another one and presented as an 8 minute track with no interruption - and definitely not traumatic or time-rending). It's also just a fun track. Lyrically, this one touches on self-confidence and bizarre happenings. This entire track is a good fit for what I want to do here when it comes to Jay's Skybound recovery, but I like the second verse and chorus for that especially:

3. "Catastrophe!" by The Fold has the added bonus of being at least reasonably canon, thanks to the band showing up in the SOG finale. And also in prison at some point. (Ask me about how The Fold's existence in-universe also supports the existence of Fall Out Boy sometime!) Anyway! This is the one that triggers Jay's flashback, which is appropriate, because its lyrics have mild shades of classic Jay angst post-traumatic panic attacks. Granted, I'm trying to AVOID that trend, but the song was too good to pass up. Also, the guitar screech I mention is real, albeit VERY quiet. It catches me off guard if my volume is too high, though, so I thought it would work for Jay.

4."BREAKDOWN" by Tessa Violet is the track Jay shuffles to to get out of his own head. In terms of sound, it's a big jump from "Catastrophe!" - it starts with a bouncy, casual, almost understated beat that doesn't get intense til later in the song. "Catastrophe!" is intense right away. Lyrically, it's about violent recovery - not violent as in painful, just loud and confident, a Gerard Way style "in the face of extermination, say fuck you" anthem. It's also got some of the hand imagery from Skybound that I love so much.

Anyway - nice to see you in the inbox again! Best believe I'll be trying to figure out who you are :)

#lila speaks #enabler anon tag #reclamation rambles

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buckybarnesbingo · 1 year

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BBB Weeks 36 & 37, FINAL Roundup!

And with a grand total of 747 fills, Round Four of the BBB is over! We’ve had so many amazing creators making so much awesome content this round, and it’s been fantastic. We are working on putting together a Grand Masterpost of everyone’s masterposts in order to share all of your works, so please make sure you get those posted by the 21st!

Title: Let Me Count the Ways Creator(s): sidepartskinnyjeans Link: ao3 Square: Y5 - Shelter Rating: Mature Ship(s): Bucky x Reader Warnings: Bucky's mental health Major tags: Sad Bucky Summary: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38499523/chapters/106950423 Word count/format: 1338

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Title: Little Snack Creator(s): sidepartskinnyjeans Link: ao3 Square: C1 - AU: Rockstar Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Vampire!Bucky x Reader Warnings: Dub Con, blood drinking Major tags: Dub con, vampire, Summary: Your master gives you the attention you crave (part 2). Word count/format: 489

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Title: Of Witches, Witchers, and Werebears - Chapter 3: Darkness, Flame, and Salvation Creator(s): MuffinEngineer86 Link: ao3 Square: Y2 - Dark Fic Rating: Mature Ship(s): James "Bucky" Barnes/ Darcy Lewis Warnings: disorientation, discussion of mind control, falling from a bridge, memory loss, PDSD, night terror Major tags: Alternative Universe, Witcher Bucky, Hydra are evil warlocks, fae Darcy, witch Darcy, Werebear Bucky, bad dreams Summary: A soft voice relieved Bucky of his mind's torments, freeing him and calming him back into the nothingness of sleep. Word count/format: 100

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SO MANY MORE under the cut!

Title: Route 66 Road Trip [Moodboard] Creator(s): WC_ItalianRoast Link: tumblr Square: U4 - Road Trip Rating: Gen Ship(s): Scott & Bucky Warnings: None Major tags: Moodboard, road trip, Route 66, only one bed, Summary: For reasons that sounded like a good idea at the time, Scott agrees to join Bucky as he decides to take a drive down Historic Route 66. Queue the motels, miles of highway, all the fried foods, and somehow, only one bed! Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: The Chase Creator(s): scottxlogan Link: ao3 Square: C2 - Spy, Secret Agent, Assassin or Hitman Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Tony Stark Warnings: Sexual content, swearing Major tags: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Spies & Secret Agents, Dark Tony Stark, Sexual Content, Swearing, Lust at First Sight, Enemies to Lovers, Light Angst Summary: Bucky Barnes and his team are sent to suburbia to seek out and take down the Merchant of Death after they were given a tip on where he would be for the holiday season. When their intel leads them towards some down time on the mission at a holiday party, Bucky finds himself flirting with danger in more ways than he'd imagined possible when the night began. Word count/format: 11,693

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Title: A Very Good Place to Start Creator(s): Ribbonsflying Link: ao3 Square: Y1 - AU: Flower Shop Rating: Gen Ship(s): Gen or Steve/Bucky Warnings: none Major tags: AU, Flower Shop, New Baby, Nervousness Summary: Bucky arrives at Steve's flower shop in a nervous panic to buy flowers for his brand new niece. Word count/format: 3054

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Title: I1. Next Time Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: U1 - Next Time Rating: Mature Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: The First Avenger, Established Relationship, Night Before Bucky Ships Out Summary: Bucky doesn't even realize that he never guessed Steve's big news until it's weeks later, he hasn't gotten a single letter, and he might die here in this trench in Italy. Word count/format: 100

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Title: U2. Bucky/Steve Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: U2 - Bucky/Steve Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers Warnings: Panic Attacks, Disassociation/Depersonalization Major tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Panic Attacks Summary: солдат remembers Steve. Every fiber of his being remembers Steve. His lifelong mission has been to make sure that Steve is still breathing. But he left him on the banks of the Potomac without being positive. Word count/format: 100

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Title: U3. BDSM Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: U3 - BDSM Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: Subspace Major tags: BDSM, subspace, blow jobs Summary: Steve is never not touching Bucky, his hands gentle as he finger-combs through Bucky's tangled hair, murmuring praise just loud enough for Bucky to hear it over the wet sounds of his own mouth. Word count/format: 100

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Title: U4. Fireplaces Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: U4 - Fireplaces Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: Cabin Fic, Not Civil War Compliant Summary: "Satisfied?" Steve asks, once Bucky has set the bugs inside a tinfoil-wrapped box within a tinfoil-wrapped box. The poor man's Faraday cage. "Yes," Bucky says shortly. His shoulders shift. "They don't need to hear my nightmares. They don't need to hear us." Steve nods, sympathy lining his face. "I get it. Now c'mere. It's nice and warm." Word count/format: 100

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Title: U5. Body Worship Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: U5 - Body Worship Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: Bucky Barnes' Metal Arm, Body Worship, Gentle Kissing Summary: Steve kisses the metal arm like it's really part of Bucky. Like it belongs to him. Word count/format: 100

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Title: Cockwarming Y1 Creator(s): Late-to-the-party-81 Link: tumblr Square: Y1 - Cockwarming Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Sam Wilson Warnings: None Major tags: Light Dom/Sub, Fluff, Smut, Dom Sam Wilson, Sub Bucky Barnes Summary: After a stressful mission, Bucky is stuck in a spiral. Sam isn’t sure how to get him out of it, but then he has an idea, that will hopefully get his lover to relax Word count/format: 2.4k

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Title: Dating Trouble: Happy Birthday, Darcy Creator(s): MuffinEngineer86 Link: ao3 Square: C3 - Free Space Rating: Explicit Ship(s): James “Bucky” Barnes/Steve Rogers, James “Bucky” Barnes/Darcy Lewis/Steve Rogers Warnings: sex tape, restraint, bondage, exhibitionism, light d/s, spanking, gentle dom, praise kink, light choking, edging, orgasm denial Major tags: Neighbor AU, Single Parent AU, submissive Steve, Dom!Bucky, Switch!Bucky, Darcy’s birthday present, Steve’s a good boy Summary: Darcy had to work on her birthday, which put a bummer on her plans. To tide her over till she got home, Bucky and Steve had made her a little surprise. A sex tape. Word count/format: 1262

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Title: Sam dragging Bucky on social media - Part 6 Creator(s): rebelmeg Link: tumblr Square: U4 - metal arm Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky & Sam Warnings: none Major tags: social media, roomies, photo edit Summary: The continuing adventures of Bucky's wandering arm, and Sam's loyal documentation Word count/format: N/A

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Title: Someone Like You Creator(s): sidepartskinnyjeans Link: ao3 Square: K4 - Presumed Dead Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky x Reader Warnings: Angst Major tags: Angst, happy ending Summary: When a lonely Bucky forgoes the Avengers Christmas party he finds himself with an early Christmas gift from America - a glimpse at his life in other universes. Determined to find out if he can be as happy in this universe, he heads to the party. Word count/format: 3231

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Title: Bouquet Creator(s): sidepartskinnyjeans Link: ao3 Square: C3 - Free space Rating: Gen Ship(s): SamBucky Warnings: angst and fluff Major tags: angst Summary: Sam waxes lyrical about Bucky while arranging flowers. Word count/format: 787

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Title: C1. Asexuality Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: C1 - Asexuality Rating: Teen Ship(s): N/A Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: Asexuality, Asexual Bucky Summary: Bucky knows that people around the Tower think he's sleeping with Steve. That's okay. People in Brooklyn thought that, too. Word count/format: 100

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Title: C2. Next Generation Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: C2 - Next Generation Rating: Teen Ship(s): N/A Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: New Avengers Team, Young Avengers Team, Grief/Mourning, Loneliness Summary: Somehow Bucky's become the old guard. Word count/format: 100

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Title: C3. Free Space Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: C3 - Free Space Rating: Teen Ship(s): N/A Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: Bucky in Wakanda, Wakanda, Goats Summary: Bucky has a simple life here, a quiet life. It isn't anything he could have imagined as a city boy in Brooklyn, and he wouldn't have dared wish for it as the Winter Soldier. But it's a good life, and it's his. Word count/format: 100

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Title: C4. Fisting Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: C4 - Fisting Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: Explicit Sexual Content? Major tags: PWP, Fisting, Anal Fisting Summary: Bucky can't quite believe that Steve trusts him--trusts the metal hand--enough to take him inside like this. Word count/format: 100

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Title: C5. Friends to Lovers Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: C5 - Friends to Lovers Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: period-typical homophobia Major tags: 1930s, pre-WWII Bucky/Steve, period-typical homophobia, internalized homophobia Summary: Bucky has a horrible secret to keep from Steve. Word count/format: 100

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Title: Bucky’s Concubine Creator(s): BookDragon13, writing-what-writing Link: tumblr Square: Y1 - Kink: Concubine Rating: Mature Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Reader Warnings: Smut, Concubine Major tags: concubine Reader, gladiator au, gladiator Bucky, implied sexy times, pining, fated lovers Summary: As a concubine in a harem, you don’t always have a choice. That is, until the most famous gladiator, Bucky, has chosen you. Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: Moodboard Creator(s): Metalbvcky Link: tumblr Square: Y1 - Would You Rather Rating: Gen Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: Beaches, Established Relationship, Fluff Summary: "Where would you rather go for vacation? Maybe out west? Or somewhere closer to home?" "How about the Virgin Islands?" Bucky says, his smile reaching his eyes. "I hear they have good weather this time of year." Word count/format: A moodboard with 10 photos

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Title: Of Witches, Witchers, and Werebears - Chapter 5: Dreams, Memories, and Family Creator(s): MuffinEngineer86 Link: ao3 Square: U4 - More than a partner Rating: Teen Ship(s): James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers Warnings: memory loss, PDSD, night terror, falling from a bridge, poisoning, mentioned child abuse Major tags: Alternative Universe, Witcher Bucky, Hydra are evil warlocks, fae Darcy, witch Darcy, Werebear Bucky, Bard Steve, tiny Steve, big Steve, potions Summary: Bucky dreamed of the man Darcy reminded him of. He was a bard but long before that he was his brother. He remembered Steve. Word count/format: 889

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Title: Words Break Me Creator(s): BBD2BH Link: ao3 Square: Y3 - Sticks and Stones Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: mentions of blood from a bloody lip Major tags: Pre-serum Steve, Secret Relationship, Parallels, CA: TFA, CA: CW Summary: Words have a different effect on Steve than they do on Bucky. Word count/format: 889

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Title: Red String of Fate Creator(s): BookDragon13, writing-what-writing Link: tumblr Square: U4 - Red string of fate Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky/whoever you choose Warnings: None Major tags: mention of Hydra, soulmates, soulmate au, red string of fate Summary: Bucky contemplates the string that leads to his soulmate. Word count/format: 100

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Title: No, it is easier said than done Creator(s): endlesstwanted Link: ao3 Square: K4 - Coma Rating: Teen Ship(s): James "Bucky" Barnes/John Walker Warnings: Injuries, Mention of broken bones, Hospitals Major tags: Team Bonding, Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss Summary: Bucky wakes up from surgery to find out that John has been there all along. Word count/format: 1144

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Title: Does your heartbeat get a little bit louder? Creator(s): endlesstwanted Link: ao3 Square: B5 - Missing you Rating: Mature Ship(s): James "Bucky" Barnes/Sharon Carter Warnings: N/A Major tags: Exes to Lovers, Sexual Content, Gentle Kissing Summary: Bucky and Sharon move the catching up to bed, and it takes an unexpected turn. Word count/format: 992

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Title: Sam dragging Bucky on social media - Part 10 Creator(s): rebelmeg Link: tumblr Square: B2 - fix-it Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky & Sam Warnings: none Major tags: photo edit, roomies, Sam teasing Bucky, social media post Summary: Wonder if he left his towel and swim trunks behind too? Word count/format: N/A

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Title: Hug and a Haircut Creator(s): rebelmeg Link: ao3 Square: K2 - Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky/Natasha Warnings: brief passing mentions of past Hydra things Major tags: soft, trust, emotional baggage, hugs Summary: Bucky's ready for a haircut, and asks someone he trusts to help him. Word count/format: 420

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Title: Hug and a Haircut moodboard Creator(s): rebelmeg Link: tumblr Square: Y4 - touch Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky/Natasha Warnings: none Major tags: moodboard, haircut Summary: Moodboard to go with fic Word count/format: N/A

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Title: Something to Get Me Through the Nothing - A WinterIron Round Robin Creator(s): Faustess Link: ao3 Square: U2 - Hurt/Comfort Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Tony Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Hurt/Comfort, Bucky Barnes Remembers, Classic Cars, Memories, Comic Book Automotive Repair, Bucky Barnes Recovering, POV Alternating, Angst with a Hopeful Ending Summary: Bucky Barnes remembers December 16, 1991 and can't keep it a secret. When he talks to Tony, he finds he's not the only one with issues. They talk and bond over nightmares, unfortunate shared history, and classic cars... and maybe find the start of something more. Word count/format: 2638 (total); my part = 369

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Title: BuckyNat Date Night Creator(s): rebelmeg Link: tumblr Square: Adopted - seeing red Rating: Mature Ship(s): Bucky/Natasha Warnings: none Major tags: moodboards, drabble, sensual/suggestive themes Summary: Bucky and Natasha have a very red date night. Word count/format: 100

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Title: I abandon myself to the glimpses of prior times Creator(s): endlesstwanted Link: ao3 Square: B3 - Polyamory/open relationship Rating: Teen Ship(s): James "Bucky" Barnes/Sharon Carter/Steve Rogers Warnings: N/A Major tags: Slice of Life, Baking, Domestic Fluff Summary: After a disastrous attempt to cook for Steve, Sharon and Bucky come up with a new idea to save breakfast. Word count/format: 1676

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Title: Old-Time Taste of Brooklyn Creator(s): rebelmeg Link: ao3 Square: Y5 - wish Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky & JARVIS, Tony & JARVIS Warnings: none Major tags: Bucky recovering/remembering, JARVIS is awesome, Tony has a heart and also his mind is in the gutter Summary: Bucky has a pizza-sized snag in his memory, but JARVIS is more than happy to help him out. Word count/format: 1209

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Title: Winter shall howl at the walls Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: tumblr Square: B5 - Winter Soldier with Shield (image prompt) Rating: Gen Ship(s): N/A Warnings: N/A Major tags: ca:tws, high way fight scene, angst, memory loss/identity issues, Bucky Barnes needs a hug Summary: The Winter Soldier’s thoughts during the CA:TWS high way fight scene Word count/format: 535

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Title: Till it bleeds daylight (Chapter 7) Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: ao3 Square: Y5 - “Don’t Panic” Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Steve x Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: AU - Detectives, Hitman Bucky, Angst Summary: Steve continues his investigation into the Hydra mole Word count/format: 5196

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Title: All of you, all of me (Intertwined) Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: tumblr Square: C5 - First Kiss Rating: Teen Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: Post-ca:cw canon divergence, getting married, fluff Summary: Steve & Bucky finally get married Word count/format: 782

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Title: Spa Day Creator(s): Turtles Link: ao3 Square: C1 - Take The Shot Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Darcy Lewis Warnings: n/a Major tags: spa day, unidentified goons, misuse of a bus Summary: “I thought,” says Bucky, bringing his rifle up and peering through the sight, “that this was supposed to a relaxing, ‘recover-from-your-vacation’ spa trip.” Word count/format: 352

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Title: Unexpected Getaway Creator(s): Ribbonsflying Link: tumblr Square: U3 - AU: Asgardian Rating: Gen Ship(s): N/A Warnings: none Major tags: Writer Bucky, Asgard, Vacation Summary: Thor and Loki show up at the house of fantasy novelist Bucky Barnes to invite him to Asgard. Word count/format: 485 words/ moodboards

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Title: Don't Panic, They Can Sense It Creator(s): ABrighterDarkness Link: ao3 Square: Adopted - "Don't Panic" Rating: Gen Ship(s): Stucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: Deaged Avengers (Implied), Bucky Remembers Summary: Panicking was bad. Very bad. It was like blood in the water for sharks. He was pretty sure he read somewhere that they could sense fear. Or maybe that was dogs. Yeah, he was definitely panicking. It hadn’t felt so bad on the field, he’d been so caught up in getting everyone out that panic wasn’t even an option. Word count/format: 1024

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Title: Retrieval Mission Creator(s): LBibliophile Link: tumblr Square: K1 - Jailbreak Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky & Alpine Warnings: na Major tags: ex-Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, Protective Bucky Barnes, Alpine the cat, drabble Summary: "BREAKING NEWS: Ex-Soldier Raids Animal Shelter With Assault Rifle, in Full Tactical Gear, To Get Cat Back." Bucky doesn’t like to fight… but that doesn’t mean that he can’t or that he won’t. Word count/format: 100

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Title: Pure hell red Creator(s): endlesstwanted Link: ao3 Square: C2 - Seeing Red Rating: Gen Ship(s): James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov Warnings: N/A Major tags: Modern Setting AU, Flirting, Manicure Summary: Natasha is back in town and looking forward to catch up with Bucky. Word count/format: 1633

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Title: Dear Bucky Creator(s): Laevateinn Link: tumblr Square: U3 - Band (swapped) Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers Warnings: N/A Major tags: Angst, Platonic or romantic is up to you, moodboard, set between Avengers and CATWS, Cemetery Summary: Dear Bucky; Today I discovered a band I’m sure you would have loved. It’s called PostModern Jukebox. Funny name, right? It was a recommendation from Natasha. You know Natasha, I told you about her before. Word count/format: 474

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Title: complimentary colours Creator(s): lavenderbucky Link: ao3 Square: Y2 - Compromise Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers Warnings: N/A Major tags: Interior Decorating, Domestic Fluff, Banter, Teasing, Established Relationship Summary: Steve wants Bucky to stop splashing him with paint. Bucky just wants to finish his accent wall. It'll be a miracle if they get anything done today. Word count/format: 477

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Title: photoshoot Creator(s): lavenderbucky Link: ao3 Square: K4 - Photoshoot Rating: Gen Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: Fluff, Established Relationship, Selfies Summary: Steve likes taking photos of Bucky on vacation. Word count/format: 100

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Title: returning home Creator(s): lavenderbucky Link: ao3 Square: U5 - Fluff Rating: Gen Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: Cuddling & Snuggling, Sharing a Bed, Showering Together, Established Relationship, Fluff Summary: Steve and Bucky return home from a mission and get ready for bed together. Word count/format: 300

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Title: burnt dinner Creator(s): lavenderbucky Link: ao3 Square: U2 - Worst Case Scenario Rating: Gen Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: Domestic Fluff Summary: It's not Bucky's fault he burnt the dinner. Word count/format: 100

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Title: breakfast waffles Creator(s): lavenderbucky Link: ao3 Square: B4 - Handle with Care Rating: Gen Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: VERY brief references to Bucky's recovery, panic attacks and mental health struggles. Major tags: Breakfast in Bed, Fluff, Soft & Gentle, Alpine Summary: Bucky has a bad mental health day. Steve brings him breakfast in bed. Word count/format: 400

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Title: cat show Creator(s): lavenderbucky Link: ao3 Square: B2 - Mutual Appreciation Society Rating: Gen Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: Silly, Humour, Alpine, Roleplay Summary: Steve, Bucky, and a very patient Alpine. Word count/format: 100

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Title: No Matter How Old Creator(s): TrinityDay Link: ao3 Square: K3 - Family Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Sarah Wilson Warnings: none Major tags: family Summary: Bucky rarely talks about his past. It's understandable, after everything he's been through. But his past stretches back to before the war, to a family he left behind. When he finally lets it slip that one of his sisters is still alive, Sarah and Sam aren't going to let him clam up again. They both know what it's like to reconnect with a sibling after years and deaths, presumed or otherwise. Now they just have to figure out how to convince Bucky the risk is worth it. Word count/format: 3653

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Title: No Secrets in the Cul-de-Sac, Ch 1 Creator(s): ChrissiHR Link: ao3 Square: B3 - run Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Bucky/Clint/Darcy Warnings: smut, wholesome fun for the whole gangbang, horniest block in the suburb Major tags: slutty neighbors AU; Exhibitionism; Voyeurism Summary: Global warming is a bitch. Thankfully, the east coast is the best coast—the one that gets actual rain and has a rainy season, so it’s not a total wash of good summer days. It’s just. The nights get so hot and humid. It’s like an oven in her apartment out here in the sweltering suburbs some nights, especially if she doesn’t open the windows. They’ve had frequent rolling blackouts and subsequent brown-outs the last week, with the promise of more to come. As far as Darcy can tell, the whole neighborhood is sleeping naked with the windows open most nights. They get by, though. It’s not so bad. Then the rolling blackouts start up again and the neighbors begin opening their drapes to let in light in the evening. And there are no longer any secrets in the cul-de-sac. Word count/format: 1453

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Title: The Olde Victorian Hotel, Brooklyn, New York, Chapter 3: Darcy Lewis and the Aftermath Creator(s): ChrissiHR Link: ao3 Square: B4 - biting (swapped w/ WC_ItalianRoast for kink: biting) Rating: Mature Ship(s): Bucky/Darcy/Steve Warnings: Thirst Trap, ABO Dynamics Major tags: Thirst Trap; Darcy Lewis is Elvira’s Niece; Darcy inherits a possibly haunted hotel in Brooklyn; it’s like flypaper for super soldiers Summary: Previously, in Chapter 2 of The Olde Victorian Hotel, Brooklyn, New York… …the bed rocked again and the next thing she knew, she was being flung unceremoniously out of it into the darkest corner of her room. She tumbled across the floor, her mattress upended from what she could see of it by the moonlight filtering through the sheers covering her windows. The room was dark, but empty. There was no one there. And just as she convinced herself she must have had a bad dream and pulled the mattress over as she fell out of bed, a terrifying voice boomed, “GET OUT.” Word count/format: 2005

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Title: Seeing Red Creator(s): ChrissiHR Link: ao3 Square: U1 - color blind Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky/Darcy Warnings: moodboard, digital art, general audiences, first meeting Major tags: moodboard, New York City, black & white, red lipstick, digital art Summary: Black and white images of scenes of a day and night out in New York City, an eye, and ophthalmology tools, Bucky in pseudo-EnChroma glasses in black and white, a tube of red lipstick in full color with a matching, deep red background, and Darcy Lewis in full color, wearing a black and white Jack Daniels tee and bright red lipstick. Word count/format: moodboard

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Title: The Olde Victorian Hotel, Brooklyn, New York, Chapter 5: Darcy Lewis and the Much Needed Rest Creator(s): ChrissiHR Link: ao3 Square: U2 - polyamory Rating: Mature Ship(s): Bucky/Darcy/Steve Warnings: ABO Dynamics, Thirst Trap, hurt/comfort Major tags: Darcy is Elvira’s Niece, ABO Dynamics, Mystery, Suspense Summary: Natasha is all of us—a nosy busybody. Word count/format: 1671

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Title: Firehouse Noir Creator(s): ChrissiHR Link: ao3 Square: U3 - cold Rating: Mature Ship(s): Bucky/Darcy/Clint Warnings: swearing, polyamory Major tags: Human AU, No Powers AU, Firefighters AU Summary: Tap, tap, tap. Darcy glanced up from her ledger at the rapid tattoo of fingernails on her storefront window. “Business or pleasure, Fire Marshal Barnes?” she asked in a teasing voice when she stepped out to join him. Bucky gave her a wan smile and opened his mouth to speak, but— “Fuckin’ embarrassin’ is what it is,” Clint grumbled from his spot across the wide stretch of lawn, where he stood, hands on hips, scowling up into the deep red canopy of leaves of the old Japanese maple that shaded their little corner of the block. Word count/format: 1447

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Title: Second Year, Samhain, Meriwether Family Compound… Creator(s): ChrissiHR Link: ao3 Square: U5 - arranged marriage Rating: Mature Ship(s): Darcy/Bucky/Steve/Clint Warnings: arranged marriage, supernatural, pregnancy, mentions of sex Major tags: arranged marriage, supernatural family, pregnancy Summary: Darcy knew a good thing—a powerful change in the air—when she felt it. She was keeping the pack. Word count/format: 973

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Title: The Olde Victorian Hotel, Brooklyn, New York, Chapter 6: Darcy Lewis and the Sweetest Dreams Creator(s): ChrissiHR Link: ao3 Square: K1 - cuddling Rating: Mature Ship(s): Bucky/Darcy/Steve Warnings: ABO Dynamics, Thirst Trap Major tags: Darcy is Elvira’s niece, ABO Dynamics, hurt/comfort, supernatural elements Summary: Darcy dreams and drifts, floating on the softest clouds back into the realm of reality so gently, she makes the transition still thinking she’s dreaming. She’s no longer held aloft by amorphous clouds, but rather by a cozy nest of them, cradling her gently in the warmest, most unutterably soft embrace. Word count/format: 1585

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Title: Beltane, First Year, Fort Salem… Creator(s): ChrissiHR Link: ao3 Square: Y1 - wolf Rating: Mature Ship(s): Darcy/Bucky/Steve/Clint Warnings: institutionalized polyamory; reverse harem AU; succubus AU Major tags: Motherland: Fort Salem AU, witches, werewolves, war college Summary: War packs, like covens, always work best in threes, so when Alpha Steve Rogers meets Cadet Darcy Lewis-Meriwether, he’s surprised her covenmates aren’t joining them for the Beltane celebrations. He’s brought his own pack, after all. If they’re really going to do this, he’d at least like to be on good terms with her coven. Word count/format: 1997

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Title: Steady as the stars in the woods Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: tumblr Square: C1 - Family of Choice Rating: Teen Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: Fluff, Found Family, Slice of Life Summary: Steve & Bucky have their friends over for a BBQ, Bucky contemplates the idea of family. Word count/format: 1913

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Title: Till It Bleeds Daylight (Chapter 8) Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: ao3 Square: U2 - Angst Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: AU - Detectives, Hitman Bucky, Bucky feels, Angst Summary: Steve worries about walking into a trap. He never expected it to all go this spectacularly wrong. Word count/format: 4135

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Title: When in doubt, find the plums Creator(s): Laevateinn Link: tumblr Square: K4 - Plums Rating: Explicit Ship(s): James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers Warnings: None Major tags: College AU, Art museum, Fluff and fun, Moodboard, drabble Summary: Steve and Bucky finally had managed a trip to the Art museum. Word count/format: 100

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Title: Since you are, everything that was is now something new: chapter one Creator(s): endlesstwanted Link: ao3 Square: C1 - Anonymous confessions Rating: Teen Ship(s): Implied past-Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers Warnings: Recreational Drug Use Major tags: Developing Friendships, Light Angst Summary: Snippets on how to be wooed by two super soldiers, a guide by Sharon Carter. Step one: feelings exposure. Word count/format: 698

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Title: Packmates Creator(s): Dogsled Link: ao3 Square: K1 - M'Baku Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes & M'Baku Warnings: None Major tags: friendship, quiet, wakanda, black panther compliant, sad Summary: M'Baku has some words of advice for the White Wolf Word count/format: 906

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Title: Armed and Dangerous Creator(s): Dogsled Link: ao3 Square: C1 - Metal Arm Bros Rating: Gen Ship(s): Tony Stark & Bucky Barnes Warnings: None Major tags: enemies to friends, endgame divergent, steve still leaves, grief/mourning Summary: Tony tries to cheer Bucky up. It's arguable whether or not it actually works. Word count/format: 728

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Title: As a Treat Creator(s): Dogsled Link: ao3 Square: U1 - Open Relationship/Polyamory Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson Warnings: None Major tags: PWP, Polyamory, Blow Jobs, Double Penetration Summary: Sam's exasperation with Steve and Bucky fucking in every room of the house can only hold out for so long. Word count/format: 882

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Title: A Little Restraint Creator(s): Dogsled Link: ao3 Square: B1 - Getting Groceries Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Helmut Zemo Warnings: None Major tags: Stockings, Clothing kink, lace panties Summary: Chores get in the way of sexy times, and all Bucky can think about is what Zemo has on under his clothes. It's becoming a problem. Word count/format: 1000

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Title: The Doctor Is In Creator(s): Dogsled Link: ao3 Square: K4 - Doctor's Appointment Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Helmut Zemo Warnings: None Major tags: doctor/patient, body worship, zemo wearing glasses, sexual roleplay Summary: Bucky wants Zemo to try out a little roleplay with him. Starting with Zemo putting on THAT pair of glasses so as to better look the part. Word count/format: 2303

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Title: Burn the World Down for You (Chapter 18) Creator(s): Faustess Link: ao3 Square: B5 - Domesticity Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Brock Rumlow Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Mention of Mpreg (no details, though), Other chapters include: Masturbation, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Rimming Major tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Brock Rumlow, Alpha Bucky Barnes, Domesticity Summary: Chapter Summary: Yasha and Brock settle into life in their apartment and make a friend. Life's not without challenges, but it's good. Full Summary: Brock had a secret. Scratch that. Make it two secrets. First, he's not the alpha all the guys on his team think he is... and second, he might just have a crush on the Winter Soldier. Either one of them could land him in hot water with Hydra, but both combined? Bad News. Even if he could just walk away from Hydra, could he really leave the only alpha who's ever made him wonder what it would be like to live openly as an omega? Maybe it's all just in his head, though, and the Soldier hadn't really noticed him. It's not in Brock's head. The Soldier has definitely noticed. Note: This is not a Hydra Trash Party fic. Word count/format: 3883 (Ch. 18), 69,286 (total)

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Title: Bucky's Blanket Fort Creator(s): rebelmeg Link: tumblr Square: C5 - blanket forts Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky & friends/family Warnings: none Major tags: drabble, fluff Summary: Bucky makes a blanket fort and has guests. Word count/format: 100

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Title: You Got A Guy? Creator(s): Kinko Link: ao3 Square: K1 - Marriage of Convenience/ Pretend Couple Rating: Teen Ship(s): James "Bucky" Barnes & Angie Martinelli Warnings: Period-Typical Homophobia Major tags: Friendship, Pre-Captain America: The First Avenger Summary: Bucky gets worried about the wrong people finding out the truth about him and Steve. Then he meets a nice waitress with a similar problem. Word count/format: 1143

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Title: I do. Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: tumblr Square: Adopted - Diary Rating: Teen Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: Angst, Bucky’s notebooks, memory loss Summary: He keeps them like treasures, each and every single one of them. The ones from earlier, months ago, read like not more than the ramblings of a mad man, words scribbled over and over, sometimes with painstaking effort to hold a pen or pencil without his hand trembling, with seemingly no intent behind it except to get them out of his head and onto paper, like he’ll feel less haunted that way. He doesn’t, not really, but it helps, at least for a little while, and at this point, that’s all he can ask for. Word count/format: Moodboard + 884 words

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Title: Red, White & Blue Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: tumblr Square: K5 - Live on TV Rating: Mature Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: shrunkyclunks, humor, wrong number shenanigans, bucky barnes needs to get laid Summary: Steve goes on live tv for one of his first interviews post-ice. He’s nervous enough as it is. The texts from an unknown number he receives while on air, that get more explicit by the second, definitely don’t help. Bucky is very horny and thinks he’s pestering a friend, but he’s really texting captain america. Word count/format: 3557

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Title: Till It Bleeds Daylight (Chapter 5) Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: ao3 Square: C2 - Spy, Secret Agent, Assassin, or Hitman Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Steve/ Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: AU - Detectives, Hitman Bucky, Angst, Hurt/Comfort Summary: Bucky gets ready for his mission. Things fall apart. Word count/format: 3950

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Title: Till It Bleeds Daylight (Chapter 4) Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: ao3 Square: K1 - Aftercare Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: AU - Detectives, Hitman Bucky, Angst, Hurt/Comfort Summary: Steve finally figures out what Hydra is planning with the Winter Soldier Word count/format: 4073

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Title: “It is my duty to keep an eye on you.” Creator(s): Girl Back There Link: ao3 Square: U5 - Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow Rating: Mature Ship(s): Bucky/Natasha Warnings: None Major tags: pies & Secret Agents AU, Spy Natasha, SHIELD Agent Bucky, Sex as a Distraction, Subterfuge Summary: Natasha stepped in closer, running her finger along the edge of James’ tie, “I wouldn’t want you to not fulfill your duties.” Word count/format: 408

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Title: K1. Huddling for Warmth Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: K1 - Huddling for Warmth Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: Canon Divergence, First Avenger, Graphic Injury Summary: Steve jumps after Bucky. Word count/format: 100

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Title: K2. Bucky/Darcy Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: K2 - Bucky/Darcy Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Darcy Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: Avengers Tower, Pining Summary: "I'm not shy," Bucky blusters when he manages to find his words. "I'm -- respectful." "Well," Darcy says, swinging her legs. "Then you don't have to be so respectful." Word count/format: 100

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Title: K3. Praise Kink Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: K3 - Praise Kink Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: Bucky Barnes Recovering, Bucky Barnes Has PTSD, Praise Kink Summary: Bucky has a complicated relationship to praise. Word count/format: 100

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Title: K4. Wakanda Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: K4 - Wakanda Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: Wakanda, Languages and Linguistics, Soft Bucky, Soft Steve Summary: Bucky and Steve wander over to a stall that smells amazing, sweet and spicy and full of barbecue char. Bucky orders in Wakandan, and Steve beams. Word count/format: 100

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Title: K5. Ballet Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: K5 - Ballet Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky & Natasha Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: Bucky Barnes Recovering, Ballerina Natasha, Balletomane Bucky, Red Room Summary: Natasha manages to remind Bucky of the steps, the combinations, the posture and perfection, without triggering the pain and fear and humiliation. There's something freeing about moving across the floor with her. Word count/format: 100

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Title: Metal Arm Bros -C1 Creator(s): Late-to-the-party-81 Link: tumblr Square: C1 - Metal Arm Bros Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky x Sam Warnings: None Major tags: Fluff, Disabled Bucky Barnes, Bucky Barnes Recovering Summary: Bucky is a secret. Samuel wonders what it is, but he knows Bucky will tell him in time. Most importantly, it’s making Bucky happy. Word count/format: 1.9k

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Title: Of Witches, Witchers, and Werebears - Chapter 6: Hostage, Dagger and Suspicion Creator(s): MuffinEngineer86 Link: ao3 Square: U3 - Good Guys Gone Bad Rating: Teen Ship(s): James “Bucky” Barnes & Geralt of Rivia, James “Bucky” Barnes/Darcy Lewis Warnings: hostage situation, extortion, good guy gone bad, False suspicion Major tags: Alternative Universe, Witcher Bucky, Hydra are evil warlocks, fae Darcy, witch Darcy, Werebear Bucky, Bard Steve, Jaskier in danger, doppelganger Summary: Bucky brought Geralt to the white fae witch. They talked about the reason for Geralt's visit and what happened to Jaskier. Word count/format: 666

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Title: From Another TIme Creator(s): ruckystarnes Link: tumblr Square: K4 - AU! Bucky Never Fell Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky x F!Reader Warnings: none Major tags: time travel, threats Summary: Bucky comes home to an uninvited guest in his home Word count/format: 685

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Title: Alpine's Master Plan Creator(s): scottxlogan Link: ao3 Square: B1 - Visiting The Vet Rating: Teen Ship(s): James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, Alpine the Cat & James "Bucky" Barnes, Alpine the Cat & Tony Stark Warnings: N/A Major tags: Alpine Plays Matchmaker, Getting Together, First Kiss, Enemies to Friends to Lovers Summary: Finding Alpine was the best thing that happened to Bucky Barnes. Fearing that he may have crossed one too many lines without asking permission in bringing her back to live with him at Avenger's Tower, Bucky is uncertain of how his reluctant host will respond to Bucky shaking things up again. However, Alpine charms Tony and finds a way to work her magic in bringing Bucky and Tony closer together in ways neither expected. Word count/format: 4134

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Title: Safe Creator(s): startrekkingaroundasgard Link: tumblr Square: U3 - on the run Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky x GN!Reader Warnings: None Major tags: neighbours, pining, mild threat, scientist!reader, protective Bucky Summary: Bucky sees he neighbour acting strangely and goes to help them. Word count/format: 1000

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Title: Have You Checked Your Butthole? Creator(s): startrekkingaroundasgard Link: tumblr Square: C1 - don't say it Rating: Gen Ship(s): Clint/Bucky Warnings: none Major tags: drabble, crack, established relationship Summary: “A funny thing to say to someone who’s lost their shit and is stressed out visibly,” Word count/format: 100

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Title: Hold Your Hand Creator(s): startrekkingaroundasgard Link: tumblr Square: B4 - hand holding Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky/Natasha Warnings: N/A Major tags: moodboard, asexuality, established relationship Summary: Asexual BuckyNat; I only wanna hold your hand Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: A Night in the Park Creator(s): scottxlogan Link: ao3 Square: B4 - Date in the park Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Tony Stark Warnings: Making out, swearing Major tags: Date Night, Movie Night, date night in the park, Kissing, Making Out, Swearing, Established Relationship, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Adult Content, Team Bonding Summary: In Tony's latest return from a team mission, he takes Bucky on date night to a movie in the park where Tony has big plans for them moving forward. As Tony gears up for a big question, the team arrives and all his plans for date night go out the window. Word count/format: 4580

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Title: The Asset Creator(s): Kinko Link: ao3 Square: Y1 - Handle With Care Rating: Teen Ship(s): James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes / Steve Rogers (mentioned) Warnings: Talk of Bucky's past as the Winter Soldier Major tags: Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Unreliable Narrator, Misunderstandings Summary: Steve brings Bucky home with him after the whole ordeal with the helicarriers and promises to take care of him. Bucky, who still views himself as the Asset, does not trust him. Word count/format: 807

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Title: After One or Two False Starts - Chapter 2 Creator(s): PoliZ Link: ao3 Square: B3 - Sam Wilson/Falcon Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky & Sam Warnings: none Major tags: Post - Falcon and the Winter Soldier Mutual Pining, Alternating POV Summary: Bucky reflects on how his friendship with Sam has developed, and how he wishes it could maybe be more. Word count/format: 315

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Title: Adverse Possession Creator(s): PoliZ Link: tumblr Square: U2 - AU: Roommates Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky & Clint Warnings: threatening someone with a gun Major tags: Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Gen or Pre-Slash, POV Clint Barton Summary: Three tense months after the fall of the Triskelion and the discovery of Hydra's infiltration of SHIELD, Clint is finally coming back home to his Bed-Stuy apartment. However, it seems someone else has taken up residence. Word count/format: 919

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Title: Moving Forward (Using All My Breath) Creator(s): PoliZ Link: ao3 Square: K3 - KINK: Edging Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Bucky/Tony Warnings: self-image issues, performance issues, Major tags: Orgasm Delay, Dildos, gentle Dom!Tony, Power Bottom, Bucky POV Summary: After being edged for what feels like forever, Bucky finally gets the best of both worlds, courtesy of Tony. But when all is said and done, Tony doesn’t think it’s enough. Word count/format: 896

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Title: Keep me forever, tell me you want me Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: tumblr Square: B3 - Silver Rating: Teen Ship(s): Stucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: AU: Actor/Director, age difference, Actor Bucky Barnes Summary: Bucky is an actor desperate to impress director!Steve Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: If your gonna have car trouble on a road trip... Creator(s): Girl Back There Link: ao3 Square: K2 - "This may as well happen" Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve/Tony Warnings: None Major tags: No Powers AU, Established Bucky/John Walker, Established Steve/Tony, Ultimatums, Breakups, Flirting Summary: Bucky didn’t set out to upend his life in Indiana or his relationship with his boyfriend. Or thought he would contemplate becoming part of a polyamorous relationship with a married couple in a different state. Life can be funny sometimes. Word count/format: 1383

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Title: A Bug In The System (Nexus, Ch2) Creator(s): Turtles Link: tumblr Square: U3 - Comics Rating: Teen Ship(s): Darcy Lewis/Bucky Barnes Warnings: n/a Major tags: Notting Hill AU, Modern AU Summary: It’s the start of another day in the life of Bucky Barnes—wake up, have breakfast, go to work. Nothing unusual at all. Word count/format: 2319

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Title: Throw your knives at my heart instead Creator(s): endlesstwanted Link: ao3 Square: Y5 - Hydra Rating: Mature Ship(s): James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov Warnings: Angst, PTSD Major tags: Hurt/Comfort, Rivals to Lovers Summary: Bucky finds Clint target practising with Natasha, and for a moment he’s the one handling the knives again. Word count/format: 1417

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Title: Two and Two Creator(s): TrinityDay Link: ao3 Square: K1 - AU: Noir Detective Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes & Peggy Carter Warnings: none Major tags: canon divergence, minor noir vibes Summary: Bucky Barnes came back from war missing an arm and missing his best friend. Steve hadn’t been supposed to go overseas in the first place, but Steve always found his way into things a saner man would steer far, far clear from. Now all Bucky has left is his gun, a small sorry office in a broken-down building, and his job as a private detective. He knew from the moment Peggy Carter walked into his office, she was trouble. He also knew he couldn’t resist when she asked for help. Bucky had always been a sucker someone in need. Word count/format: 1419

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Title: I Have Been Waiting For You Creator(s): newtypeshadow Link: ao3 Square: B2 - AU: A/B/O Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Tony Stark Warnings: Threatened Violence, Mention of Howard Stark's Abuse Major tags: Speed Dating, Intimidation, Alpha Bucky Barnes, Omega Tony Stark, A/B/O AU Summary: Tony was beyond confused. He'd walked into this speed dating room expecting to meet Bucky, the kind, sassy, sexy alpha who'd been breaking hearts all over the agency for months by not asking to take home any of the omegas he'd charmed during their ten-minute meetings. Instead, he got Bucky the murder-faced knothead. What the hell was going on? Word count/format: 1591

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Title: Keep me forever, tell me you want me Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: tumblr Square: B3 - Silver Rating: Teen Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: AU: Actor/Director, Actor Bucky Barnes, age difference Summary: Bucky is an actor who desperately wants to impress director!Steve Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: Manning the Store Creator(s): DarthBloodOrange Link: ao3 Square: Y3 - AU: Bookstore Rating: Gen Ship(s): James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers Warnings: No warnings Major tags: Bookstore AU, Shrunkyclunks, First Meetings, Misunderstandings Summary: When Becca broke her leg, Bucky was more than willing to manage her bookstore in her absence. She warns him about one of her returning partons: a mysterious blond vet called Steve. She'd put in a lot of work befriending him, making him feel comfortable hanging out at Bec's Books. Threatening Bucky should he scare her friend away. Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: Of Witches, Witchers, and Werebears - Chapter 7: Arm, Doppelganger, and Rescue Creator(s): MuffinEngineer86 Link: ao3 Square: C5 - Doppelgangers/Evil Twins Rating: Teen Ship(s): James “Bucky” Barnes & Steve Rogers Warnings: torture, violence, murder Major tags: Alternative Universe, Witcher Bucky, Hydra are evil warlocks, fae Darcy, witch Darcy, Werebear Bucky, Bard Steve, big Steve, Bucky has a new arm, teasing, evil twin mustache Summary: Bucky went on a rescue mission to get Steve back, as Geralt and Darcy were going to the meeting place for the trade-off. To Bucky’s surprise, he not only found Steve but also Jaskier. Steve had alarming information. Word count/format: 1068

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Title: Till It Bleeds Daylight - Chapter 6 Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: ao3 Square: C2 - Free Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: AU - Detectives, Hitman Bucky, Bucky feels, Angst, Hurt/Comfort Summary: Carol and Sam try and find a way to help Steve. Bucky accepts his situation for what it is. Word count/format: 3852

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Title: when I come home to you Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: ao3 Square: Y1 - Bucky in Wakanda [Image prompt] Rating: Mature Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: Wakanda stucky, post-ca:cw, canon divergence, softness, happy ending these boys deserve, non-explicit smut Summary: After giving up the shield, Steve hangs up the uniform too, and finally goes home, home to Bucky. Word count/format: 1333

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Title: Rise and Shine Creator(s): TrinityDay Link: ao3 Square: K5 - Image of Bucky and Sam at airport Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky & Steve & Sam Warnings: None Major tags: Runners Summary: Bucky Barnes was back home and recovering from his stint as the longest POW in history. Bucky Barnes was taking his time to relearn about his likes and dislikes, trying new experiences with Sam and Steve beside him to help him navigate this new century. Bucky Barnes was not going to go running with the two masochists that he lived with, no matter how much Steve cajoled. Word count/format: 1835

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Title: Tame as the Wild Ones Chapter 2 Creator(s): TrinityDay Link: ao3 Square: B1 - Carnival Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes & Natasha Romanoff Warnings: none Major tags: Not CACW compliant Summary: Their second meeting (third? Bucky’s memories surrounding Project Insight are still fuzzy) this side of the twenty-first century might have gone better than it had any right to go, but that doesn’t mean Bucky is ready to be brought in yet. He trusts Steve, but not the government that harboured that same organization that kept him captive all those decades. Steve might not agree, but at least his friends believe they’re better off apart. When the Black Widow tracks him down in some small town in Austria, Bucky wishes he could be more surprised, both that she could find him or why she would even be looking. He always knew that his time wandering Europe by himself was limited. She’s come now to ask a favour–a big one. Of course it’s about Steve. Word count/format: 3885

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Title: Insomniac Creator(s): steverogersnotebook Link: tumblr Square: K1 - Insomnia Rating: Gen Ship(s): n/a Warnings: blood, strangulation Major tags: Bucky Barnes, Winter Soldier, Insomnia Summary: Bucky canonically has nightmares about his existence as The Winter Soldier. On those occasions when he can sleep, that is. Word count/format: moodboard

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Title: Baking Rivals to Bakery Co-Owners Creator(s): steverogersnotebook Link: tumblr Square: Y1 - Bakery AU Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes & Sam Wilson Warnings: none Major tags: Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, Bakery AU Summary: Classic cake decorator Bucky Barnes and Contemporary Cake Decorator Sam Wilson are rivals in every baking competition. They're the men to beat. Recognizing this, they come together to open a bakery to showcase both of their styles. Word count/format: moodboard

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Title: Way Up in the Air Creator(s): BBD2BH Link: ao3 Square: C5 - Kink: Mile High Club Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: No archive warnings apply Major tags: Modern AU, Public Sex, Mile High Club, Age Gap, Shrinkyclinks Summary: When Steve Rogers gets on his trans-Atlantic flight, he’s not looking for anything other than getting to the end of it alive. That all changes when his seatmate distracts him from his phobia of flying in a mind-blowing way. Word count/format: 3334

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Title: Y1. Mutual Appreciation Society Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: Y1 - Mutual Appreciation Society Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky & Wanda Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: Baker Bucky, Baker Wanda, Avengers Tower Summary: After that, Bucky and Wanda start to bring each other fresh baked goods every-other morning or so. Steve would complain about all of the sugar, but he loves it--and he loves seeing both sad, quiet people start to blossom around their new friend. Word count/format: 100

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Title: This Isn’t That Kind of Fairy Tale Creator(s): BBD2BH Link: ao3 Square: U3 - AU: Fairytale Rating: Mature Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: No archive warnings apply, references to canon compliant violence on the Winter Soldier Major tags: Canon Compliant, Fairy Tale Elements, Curses, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, Dark Fairy Tale Summary: The Winter Soldier doesn’t get a fairy tale ending, but he does break the curse. Word count/format: 512

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Title: Something to Get Me Through the Nothing - A WinterIron Round Robin Creator(s): PoliZ Link: ao3 Square: C5 - “This might as well happen.” Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky & Tony (Bucky/Tony) Warnings: Nightmares, fear of death Major tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Hopeful Ending, Recovering Bucky Barnes, Nightmares, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, POV Alternating Summary: Bucky Barnes remembers December 16, 1991 and can't keep it a secret. When he talks to Tony, he finds he's not the only one with issues. They talk and bond over nightmares, unfortunate shared history, and classic cars... and maybe find the start of something more. Word count/format: 349

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Title: Lady Natasha’s Consort and Lord Steve’s Companion - Chapter 3 Creator(s): PoliZ Link: ao3 Square: U4 - AU: Arranged Marriage Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve (Bucky & Tony) Warnings: non-graphic autopsy (Chapter 3), semi-graphic death (Chapter 2) Major tags: Royalty AU, Secret Relationship, Political Alliances, Polyamory, Intrigue, Summary: Chapter 3: Bucky exposes a painful part of his past as Doctor Banner performs an autopsy on Rumlow; he, Banner and Tony discuss what comes next. Word count/format: 1025

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Title: Afterglow (Chapter 2) Creator(s): sarahbeniel Link: ao3 Square: U5 - Silence Rating: Mature Ship(s): Bucky/Darcy Warnings: Swearing, Intervention, Sexual Content Major tags: Tropes, Intervention, Snowed In Summary: Bucky and Darcy meet on what was supposed to be a weekend-long team-building exercise, and get snowed in. Word count/format: 4603 so far, for the entire work

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Title: Here, Love Grows Creator(s): Otpcutie Link: tumblr Square: B2 - Domesticity Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Tony Warnings: D/s undertones Major tags: Idiots in love, getting together, first kiss, comfort, D/s undertones, Summary: Tony discovers how much Bucky cares about him. Word count/format: 1.3k

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Title: Fanfic Creator(s): Metalbvcky Link: ao3 Square: Y2 - Without Fear Rating: Mature Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: Fashion AU, Modeling, Auditions, Age Difference, Meet-Cute, Fashion Designer Bucky, Model Steve Summary: Bucky had cultivated a new fashion collection for his brand, White Wolf Exotics, and now he and his team were in the casting process. Only problem, they needed the best of the best. But then the one stepped out from behind the curtain. Word count/format: 3039

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Title: Fanfic Creator(s): Metalbvcky Link: ao3 Square: B5 - KINK: Cock Warming Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: Modern AU, Established Relationship, Dom/Sub, Cock Warming, Face-Fucking, Office Sex Summary: Bucky helps Steve relax while he works, and then later, allows him to let off some steam. Word count/format: 1035

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Title: Afterglow (Chapter 3) Creator(s): sarahbeniel Link: ao3 Square: Y4 - "Just Do It" Rating: Mature Ship(s): Bucky/Darcy Warnings: Intervention, Swearing, Eventual sexual content Major tags: Meet Cute, Tropes, Snowed In Summary: Bucky and Darcy meet on what was supposed to be a weekend-long team-building exercise, and get snowed in. Word count/format: 7631 so far, for the entire work

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Title: Bucky's Blue Coat Creator(s): steverogersnotebook Link: tumblr Square: B1 - image prompt: Bucky in Howling Commandos uniform Rating: Gen Ship(s): n/a Warnings: none Major tags: bucky barnes,howling commandos, what if...? bucky, Summary: A fashion style moodboard featuring Bucky's coat Word count/format: moodboard

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Title: Cat + Mistletoe = Disaster Creator(s): Laevateinn Link: ao3 Square: U4 - Call for Help (swapped) Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: None Major tags: Fluff, Alpine, College AU, Mistletoe, cat shenanigans, banter Summary: Steve and Bucky had only been Alpine’s parents for a few weeks, but she was already giving them grey hair. Word count/format: 714

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Title: Y2. Bucky Barnes Recovering Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: Y2 - Bucky Barnes Recovering Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: Not Civil War Compliant, Bucky Recovering, Bucky Has PTSD Summary: A few months ago, Bucky wouldn't have even recognized his own hunger. Now, he'll stand beside Steve in the kitchen, stirring batter for the French toast. It's a long road. Word count/format: 100

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Title: Y3. Broken Creator(s): https://archiveofourown.org/works/44122671 Link: ao3 Square: Y3 - Broken Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: Panic Attacks, PTSD Major tags: Panic Attacks, Bucky Has PTSD, Soft Steve Summary: Bucky drops Sarah Rogers' teapot. Word count/format: 100

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Title: Y4. Book Club Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: Y4 - Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: Avengers Tower, Nerd Bucky, Book Clubs Summary: Part of Bucky wonders whether suggesting this particular book was Natasha's sneaky way of making fun of Steve, just a little bit. America The Beautiful, and all that. Word count/format: 100

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Title: Y5. Maimed Creator(s): aimmyarrowshigh Link: ao3 Square: Y5 - Maimed Rating: Teen Ship(s): N/A Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Major tags: Secret Injury, Bucky Barnes Has Issues Summary: Bucky is grateful that his uniform is black. It hides the blood best. Word count/format: 100

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Title: I'm Done Running Creator(s): steverogersnotebook Link: tumblr Square: B5 - Running Away Rating: Gen Ship(s): n/a Warnings: none Major tags: Bucky Barnes, Winter Soldier, running away, Summary: Bucky, after the pulling Steve from the river and walking away and did a bit of running away as well. Now, he's done running. Word count/format: moodboard

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Title: Maybe it's Maybelline Creator(s): steverogersnotebook Link: tumblr Square: C3 - Eyeliner Rating: Gen Ship(s): n/a Warnings: none Major tags: Eyeliner, Makeup Summary: There was a time when Bucky would have squirreled away a makeup ad, if caught, he could say it was for his sister. He loved the looks of the models' eyes. Today Bucky embraces the 21st century ability to do his eyes up like the starlets and models he used to study. Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: Wrong Number Creator(s): Turtles Link: ao3 Square: B3 - Wrong Number Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky & Darcy, Bucky & Sam, Sam & Darcy Warnings: n/a Major tags: Wrong number, Bucky makes a new friend Summary: Bucky answers a call from a number he doesn’t recognise. Word count/format: 464

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Title: Secrets and Hope (All These Stars Exist, Ch3) Creator(s): Turtles Link: ao3 Square: K2 - Amnesia Rating: Teen Ship(s): ane Foster/Bucky Barnes Warnings: n/a Major tags: Historical, Regency AU, Lady scientist Summary: Without any chance to protest or decline, Bucky found himself on an excursion to the longhouse with a party of Lord Stark's guests. To his surprise, he found himself in step with Miss Lewis and Miss Romanoff, whilst Miss Foster asked Steve question after question about the mural. Word count/format: 1068

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Title: When Stars Are Involved (All These Stars Exist, Ch 2) Creator(s): Turtles Link: ao3 Square: Y5 - AU: Regency Rating: Teen Ship(s): Jane Foster/Bucky Barnes Warnings: n/a Major tags: Historical, Regency, lady scientist Summary: Bucky is awkward, then an excursion is organised. Word count/format: 759

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Title: All The Single Ladies (In The Future, Ch3) Creator(s): Turtles Link: ao3 Square: U5 - Knives Rating: Teen Ship(s): Darcy Lewis/Bucky Barnes Warnings: Time travel, post-apocalyptic Major tags: Time travel, post-apocalyptic, canon divergence Summary: Turning around, Darcy’s eyes darted in several directions as she oriented herself and she blinked hard at the glare from the sun. Spots and stripes dancing in her vision, she lifted one hand to shade her eyes and peered into the distance. Steve and Bucky take Darcy home. Word count/format: yes

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Title: In The Halls of The Mountain King (In The Future, Ch 4) Creator(s): Turtles Link: ao3 Square: U1 - Alcohol Rating: Teen Ship(s): Darcy Lewis/Bucky Barnes Warnings: Time travel, post-apocalyptic Major tags: Time travel, post-apocalyptic, canon divergence Summary: Darcy gets some medical attention and learns a bit more about Earth’s new rings. Word count/format: 2724

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Title: I Remember all of Them Creator(s): steverogersnotebook Link: tumblr Square: B2 - December 16, 1991 Rating: Gen Ship(s): N/A Warnings: death mention (not pictured) Major tags: Winter Soldier, death of Howard and Maria Stark Summary: December 16, 1991, The Winter Soldier was sent out on a fateful mission to retrieve the super soldier serum carried by Howard Stark and leave no witnesses. Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: The Battle is Never Over Creator(s): steverogersnotebook Link: tumblr Square: U1 - Karaoke Battle Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson Warnings: none Major tags: 40's music is cool, stubborn supersoldiers, Summary: Karaoke night is always a battle. Bucky and Steve occasionally side against Sam just out of principle. Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: Just This Once Creator(s): steverogersnotebook Link: ao3 Square: B3 - Fluff Rating: Gen Ship(s): N/A Warnings: Animal Death Major tags: Animal Death, Adopting a Dog, Kindness of Strangers Summary: Within Bucky's mandatory reparations in exchange for parole, he also has community service to do. He does it at an animal shelter and struggles with the difficulties of the forgotten. Word count/format: 909

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Title: Here Comes the Rising Tide (So Come On) -Ch 1 Creator(s): Ribbonsflying Link: ao3 Square: Y2 - Artist Bucky Rating: Mature Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: Kidnapping, Past Trauma Major tags: Artist Bucky, Artist Steve, Childhood Trauma, Recovery Summary: Almost fifteen years ago, young teen Bucky Barnes was abducted from his own neighborhood in broad daylight. Now he's back home. But after the media and mayhem of Bucky’s return dies down, all that's left to do is for Bucky to try to recover himself again. He thought he was doing fine till the day he met Steve Rogers on a beach. Steve Rogers was terrifying. Word count/format: 2170

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Title: Gimme Shelter Creator(s): steverogersnotebook Link: tumblr Square: B4 - Shelter Rating: Gen Ship(s): N/A Warnings: none Major tags: Bucky Barnes, Rescue Animals Summary: A companion to Just This Once (sq B3), a fanfiction in which Bucky works at an animal shelter. Word count/format: moodboard

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Title: Here Comes the Rising Tide (So Come On) -Ch 2 Creator(s): Ribbonsflying Link: ao3 Square: C1 - "Are you even trying?" Rating: Mature Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: Kidnapping, Past Trauma Major tags: Artist Bucky, Artist Steve, Childhood Trauma, Recovery Summary: Almost fifteen years ago, young teen Bucky Barnes was abducted from his own neighborhood in broad daylight. Now he's back home. But after the media and mayhem of Bucky’s return dies down, all that's left to do is for Bucky to try to recover himself again. He thought he was doing fine till the day he met Steve Rogers on a beach. Steve Rogers was terrifying. Word count/format: 1795

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Title: Here Comes the Rising Tide (So Come On) -Ch 3 Creator(s): Ribbonsflying Link: ao3 Square: C3 - Free Rating: Mature Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: Kidnapping, Past Trauma Major tags: Artist Bucky, Artist Steve, Childhood Trauma, Recovery Summary: Almost fifteen years ago, young teen Bucky Barnes was abducted from his own neighborhood in broad daylight. Now he's back home. But after the media and mayhem of Bucky’s return dies down, all that's left to do is for Bucky to try to recover himself again. He thought he was doing fine till the day he met Steve Rogers on a beach. Steve Rogers was terrifying. Word count/format: 2855

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Title: Here Comes the Rising Tide (So Come On) -Ch 4 Creator(s): Ribbonsflying Link: ao3 Square: Y5 - Resurrection Rating: Mature Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: Kidnapping, Past Trauma Major tags: Artist Bucky, Artist Steve, Childhood Trauma, Recovery Summary: Almost fifteen years ago, young teen Bucky Barnes was abducted from his own neighborhood in broad daylight. Now he's back home. But after the media and mayhem of Bucky’s return dies down, all that's left to do is for Bucky to try to recover himself again. He thought he was doing fine till the day he met Steve Rogers on a beach. Steve Rogers was terrifying. Word count/format: 2985

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Title: The Only Creator(s): steverogersnotebook Link: tumblr Square: B1 - [image] Blue coat/Howling Commandos Bucky Rating: Gen Ship(s): The Howling Commandos Warnings: None Major tags: WWII Bucky, Howling Commandos Summary: The memories slot into place through a collection of photos from Bucky's days fighting alongside Steve and the Howling Commandos. Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: Unexpected Creator(s): BookDragon13, writing-what-writing Link: tumblr Square: Y4 - Kid fic Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky & Kobik, Bucky & RJ Warnings: Lost kids Major tags: Werewolf AU, werewolf Bucky Summary: Bucky, a lone werewolf known as the White Wolf ever since he’d escaped the Hydra pack, unexpectedly finds himself taking care of two werewolf pups Word count/format: 683

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Title: The Selkie Creator(s): BookDragon13, writing-what-writing Link: tumblr Square: Y5 - Kink: stripping Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Clint Barton Warnings: Brief mention of Bucky dying Major tags: Selkie Bucky, getting lost, mentions of a breakup Summary: Clint finds himself lost in Scotland, and ends up finding Bucky Word count/format: 1179

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Title: A Sign of Strength Creator(s): Ribbonsflying Link: ao3 Square: Y4 - Sam Wilson/Falcon Rating: Teen Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: PTSD, anger issues Major tags: Therapy, veterans Bucky and Steve, therapist Sam, crying, PTSD Summary: Group therapy session where Bucky and some others discuss their anger and PTSD. Word count/format: 1762

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Title: Dungeons and What Now? Creator(s): BookDragon13 Link: tumblr Square: K2 - Mission sex Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Darcy Lewis Warnings: Talk of sex, slight Daddy kink Major tags: slight Daddy kink, dungeons and dragons, Talk of sex Summary: A D&D session turns into something unexpected Word count/format: 866

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Title: You’ve Got a Friend in Me Creator(s): BookDragon13, writing-what-writing Link: tumblr Square: C5 - Team Bonding Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky & Thor Warnings: Mentions of past trauma Major tags: Bonding, Unexpected friendship Summary: Bucky finds an unexpected friend in Thor Word count/format: 769

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Title: Soulmates? Chapter 3 Creator(s): BookDragon13, writing-what-writing Link: tumblr Square: U2 - Hurt/comfort Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Darcy Lewis Warnings: None Major tags: Soulmates, soulmate mark, Wintershock Summary: Bucky confesses why he ran away the last time he and Darcy were together Word count/format: 913

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Title: untitled fireman au Creator(s): Wick Link: tumblr Square: C3 - Free Space Rating: Teen Ship(s): Stucky Warnings: Structure fires & firemen Major tags: Fire Summary: Moodboard for the unwritten fireman au I haven't bothered to write yet but has been on my to be written list for over a year now. Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: untitled musician/scientist au Creator(s): Wick Link: tumblr Square: K3 - Band Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/ Darcy Lewis Warnings: Images of space, a guitar, sunflowers, a couple on a date, Kat Dennings and Sebastian Stan. Major tags: AU and romance Summary: Famous guitarist Bucky and astrophysicist Darcy weren't your typical couple but they loved each other in a way some people never know exists. Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: untitled wolf au like #4 Creator(s): Wick Link: tumblr Square: Y2 - Werewolves Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/ Clint Barton/ Darcy Lewis Warnings: Images of the moon, the woods at night, wolves, a flower, JeremyRenner, Kat Dennings and Sebastian Stan. Major tags: Wolves Summary: They spend the moon running and chasing each other. In the morning they wake up in a pile by the backdoor. Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: High Voltage Creator(s): Ribbonsflying Link: tumblr Square: B1 - AU: Biker Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Natasha Warnings: Alcohol Major tags: Bikers, Alpine, Spicy Romance Summary: Bucky and Natasha are bikers that meet at the same bar and he flirts with her even though he’s clearly out of his depth and she gives him a chance because Alpine peeks out of his leather jacket. Word count/format: moodboards

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Title: Sam dragging Bucky on social media - Part 7 Creator(s): rebelmeg Link: tumblr Square: C1 - handle with care Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky & Sam Warnings: none Major tags: photo edit, roomies Summary: Would you consider that colors, or fine washables? Word count/format: N/A

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Title: Exposure Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: tumblr Square: Y2 - Vulnerability Rating: Teen Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: shrinkyclinks, modern au, photographer Steve Rogers, army veteran Bucky Barnes, body image issues, smut & fluff Summary: The last thing Bucky Barnes wanted after losing his arm and getting a Stark Industries prosthesis, was having his photo taken and calling so much attention to himself and how he’s changed. He can barely look at himself in the mirror some days. Too bad that when he signed up for the arm, he also agreed to being part of any promotional campaigns, and doesn’t really have a way to back out of it. Steve Rogers is in no way prepared for the model on his new project. He might end up needing a minute or two to get a full sentence out when he sees Bucky walk in. Somehow though, the veteran doesn’t realize how beautiful he is, and Steve sets out to change that. If some of the photos that come out of the shoot aren’t exactly what Stark had in mind - given the lack of clothing - well, that’s just a bonus. Word count/format: moodboard

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Title: Maybe, baby, I’m just losing my mind Creator(s): cable-knit-sweater Link: tumblr Square: U1 - Accidental Marriage Rating: Teen Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Warnings: N/A Major tags: Vegas wedding, bratty Bucky Barnes, lawyer Steve Rogers, accidental marriage, divorce, sorta enemies to lovers, getting together, happy ending Summary: Bucky gets married in Vegas after a couple too many drinks. He’s desperate to get out of it, but it’s more complicated than he thinks. He doesn’t want his parents to find out, so through a friend, he finds a different lawyer, Steve. Steve definitely judges him for his actions, and thinks he’s a rich brat. Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: Sam dragging Bucky on social media - Part 8 Creator(s): rebelmeg Link: tumblr Square: K3 - ghosts Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky & Sam Warnings: none Major tags: photo edit, roomies, social media post Summary: Now the question is... which one of the neighbors brought it back? Word count/format: N/A

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Title: Sam dragging Bucky on social media - Part 9 Creator(s): rebelmeg Link: tumblr Square: K4 - nickname Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky & Tony & Sam Warnings: none Major tags: social media post, roomies Summary: This episode involves a comment thread! Word count/format: N/A

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Title: Green is Not Your Color Creator(s): rebelmeg Link: ao3 Square: U1 - jealousy Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky & Sam Warnings: none Major tags: jealousy, Bucky knows what he's doing, cat dads Summary: This whole roommate thing would go a lot better if Bucky would stop stealing Figaro's affection from Sam. Word count/format: 316

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Title: Regency Bodyswap AU Moodboard Creator(s): Turtles Link: tumblr Square: Adopted - Marriage Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes & Darcy Lewis, Bucky Barnes/Jane Foster Warnings: Bodyswap AU Major tags: Regency AU, Bodyswap AU Summary: When archeologist Bucky Barnes meets Miss Jane Foster, he's startled to discover she's an astronomer but it doesn't take long for him to decide that he rather likes her. Unfortunately, before he can really make any inroads into getting to know her better, he finds himself in an awkward situation... a very awkward situation. While showing Miss Foster and her companion, Miss Darcy Lewis, around the Viking settlement he and his associates are excavating, the unbelievable and impossible happens--they swap bodies! It doesn't take long for someone to insist that the unfortunate couple must marry. Word count/format: Moodboard

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Title: Bucky Barnes playing card Creator(s): LiquidLightz Link: tumblr Square: B4 - Poker Night Rating: Gen Ship(s): stucky implied Warnings: N/A Major tags: playing card, winter soldier, hydra, white wolf Summary: Bucky Barnes as the White Wolf rescues his Winter Soldier self from Hydra’s clutches. A Queen of Diamonds playing card Word count/format: Digital Art

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Title: play the way you feel it Creator(s): Ribbonsflying Link: ao3 Square: K2 - AU: Arranged Marriage Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Warnings: Brief mentions of death and injury. Major tags: Arranged marriage, 1970s, car troubles, music Summary: In this world, arranged marriages are common in the US and they aren't big community occasions. Now Bucky Barnes's little sister is getting married to a stranger and there's a lot of apprehension that things will go sideways. And things do. Word count/format: 5655

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Title: Too Good to Be True - Chapter W Creator(s): Faustess Link: ao3 Square: K3 - James Rhodes / War Machine Rating: Mature Ship(s): Tony Stark/Bucky Barnes (also Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov and James Rhodes/Carol Danvers) Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply; past chapters have Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture Major tags: This chapter adds "Marriage Proposals" to the others that include Developing Relationships, Touch-Starved, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, Slow Romance, Sleepy Cuddles, and more Summary: Love is in the air when Rhodey finally proposes... which causes a few headaches, some frayed nerves, and finally - ? Word count/format: 5532 (this chapter); 55,820 (total so far)

#buckybarnesbingo2022 #bbb2022 #bbb weekly roundup #bbb week 36 roundup

3 notes · View notes

jediknightjameslunagazer23 · 2 years

Text

Second part of the post to the James Caduceus ID Tag, but this time showing an potential concept of what he could look like in Caduceus EU scrubs following the three year timeskip following the events of Manga UTK/SO entering into Trauma Team and UTK 2 as well as his own standalone story set before Trauma Team.

(Also for some reason I just get a lot of Dr. Maruki from Persona 5 Royal vibes for James' EU look for some reason, maybe it's the goatee!)

For UTK 2 in both manga adaptation and game canon, I'd imagine James would start to take after Derek Stiles appearance wise out of respect for how much of an positive impact the Healing Touch Surgeon had on his life, along with an bit of Tyler Chase as he also played a major role in James' early days as an Doctor at Caduceus USA.

Now much more brave, confident and mature James has become the current ace surgeon of Caduceus EU, and is even better at surgery no longer having any panic attacks during intense moments, and possibly even takes an pair of new doctors under his wing, (still working out that part.) however certain events would later pull him back to USA... and not in an good way.

As stated in the UTK/SO time bio for James, he would probably return around anywhere around Chapter 2, 3 or 4 for those familiar with Under the Knife 2's game story I think you can guess why for Chapter 4.

Afterwards he would mostly stay on at Caduceus USA given Europe was relatively calmer compared to the situation in USA, and would do his part in the efforts, even if Derek would be more famous around this time compared to him, he's not fussed about fame, (and much prefers it that way!)

That's mostly cliffnote and concept ideas I have at the timebeing, I'll probably draw James again and give further idea details for his stories set during the events of UTK 2 and give an more finalised design for him depending on the response this gets but for now, this is one possibility.

#trauma center #fanart #trauma center manga #oc artwork #james lunagazer #caduceus #trauma center under the knife 2 #jediknightjameslunagazer23

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mrsstruggle · 2 years

Text

The Lost Child - Chapter 5 // Teen Wolf x Marvel AU

Summary: Y/N Stark was taken from her family when she was three years old. It's fifteen years later and her family believes she is dead. Then how is she living in Beacon Hills?

Warnings: Mentions of Death, Mentions of Robbery, Characters Grieving, Medical Inaccuracies, Character Having A Panic Attack, Possible Grammar Mistakes (please let me know if there is anything else)

Pairings: Derek Hale x Reader, Steve Rogers x Bucky Barnes, Bruce Banner x Natasha Romanoff, Vision x Wand Maximoff, & More To Come

Previous Pairings: Tony Stark x Pepper Potts, Scott McCall x Allison Argent

Words: 2k

Note: I am posting new chapters every 2-3 days! I am trying to get on a consistent schedule.

Additional Note: While this is a Teen Wolf x Marvel AU, not everything is true to the shows/movies/comics. I had to change things for the story. This also loosely follows Teen Wolf Season 4.

One Last Note: Y/N was adopted by Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. I did this so that more people can see themselves in this story.

***I do not own Teen Wolf or Marvel or any related characters. This is a work of fanfiction and is meant for entertainment only.***

Masterlist

The Lost Child Masterlist

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

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Y/N takes a breath before looking at the three boys standing in front of her, “Okay, start from the beginning.”

“Lydia unconsciously wrote a code which led to this list,” Stiles began, “We then used a password to get into the list.”

“What was the password?”

Scott sighs before locking eyes with Y/N, “Allison.”

Y/N gives him a sad look before looking down at the list in her hand, “How do you know this is a Deadpool of supernaturals? Malia’s name isn’t on here. Liam's name isn't on here. I can’t even tell you who most of these people are.”

“This isn’t the only list,” Stiles informs her, “There’s two more. Lydia is trying to find out the other two passwords.”

“The Walcotts were found murdered in their house a few days ago. They were Wendigos,” Derek added.

“How do you know what the numbers mean?” she questions.

“Do you remember how Peter’s money was stolen?” Stiles asks.

“Yeah, he was robbed when Kate and the berserkers were at the school,” Y/N glances at Derek at the mention of Kate.

“One hundred and seventeen million dollars was stolen from him. The numbers should all add up once we figure out the codes to the other two lists.”

“This doesn’t make any sense.” Y/N started pacing back and forth in her kitchen, “There’s no way I’m worth fifty million.”

“You are a werewolf,” Scott noted.

“And you’re something else as well.” Stiles adds while taking a seat on the kitchen counter, “We might not know what but maybe whoever made this list does.”

Y/N stops pacing and turns to look at the three boys in the room with her, “One, I’m not an alpha. I’m not even a true alpha like Scott. Two, I don’t even know what I am! How does someone else know?”

“Look, we don't know why you’re worth fifty million, but with a prize that high, you now have a giant target on you,” Scott states, looking down at his hands nervously, “We were thinking that maybe you should get out of town for the time being.”

“You can’t be serious,” she gives him an annoyed look.

“You’re not safe here. We know you can protect yourself, but this list is for trained assassins. They are literally trained to kill people! Who knows how many of them are going to be after your head,” Stiles reasons.

“So, I’m not the only one on this list,” she states angrily, waving the list at Stiles.

“Yes, but you’re worth fifty million dollars,” Scott interjects, “We know that no one is going to be worth more than that. You might not be an alpha, but you’re the most powerful person in Beacon Hills.”

“And you’re worth,” she looks down at the paper in her hand, “twenty-five mill. We all have targets on us. Why do I have to leave and you don’t?”

“You're worth the most,” Derek states, hoping this wouldn’t lead to a fight.

“And you're worth 15 mill!” Y/N yells, throwing her hands up in exasperation, “Lydia’s worth twenty, and Kira’s worth six!”

“I’m not talking about the money!” Derek yells out.

“Then what?”

Derek sighs, running his hand down his face, “I mean you’re worth way more than fifty million dollars.”

“I-I don’t understand,” Y/N was confused looking at the sad look on Derek’s face.

“Y/N, you mean everything to me. I already had one girlfriend die in my arms, I won’t let another one do the same. Especially not the one I plan on spending the rest of my life with.” Everyone was looking at Derek with different shocked looks on their faces, “I have very little family left and I’m not losing you too.”

“We’ve already lost mom,” Stiles adds, “Dad and I can’t lose you either.”

Scott takes a few steps closer to her, “This isn’t because we think you can’t protect yourself. We are all very aware that you can. This is because we don’t want something to happen to you while you’re too busy trying to stop something from happening to us.”

“We know you, Y/N/N. We know you’ll try and help everyone without thinking about yourself.”

“I understand that you’re concerned and that you’re scared, but I’m not going anywhere.” Y/N states, looking firmly at the boys, “I have the power to protect people so that’s what I’m going to do.”

“Y/N,” Derek pleads with a desperate look in his eyes.

She walks over to him and holds his face in between her hands, “Der, I love you and I understand that you just want to keep me safe, but I’m not going anywhere.”

Derek stares into the beautiful eyes staring back at him before sighing in defeat, “You’re never leaving my sight.”

“I don’t think I could if I tried,” she smiles at him before leaning in to place a long kiss on his lips.

“Um, I’m still not okay with this!” Stiles exclaims.

“Stiles, you’re going to have to get over it. How many more people in this town are going to pop up on one of these lists? Like you said, the people who get these lists are trained assassins. Not everyone will be able to protect themselves from that.” She states before looking over to Scott, “We protect those who cannot protect themselves.”

Stiles jumps off the counter, walking over to Y/N, “The second you get a scratch on you, I’m driving you straight out of town.”

“Can Roscoe even make it out of town? It broke down like five times coming home from Mexico,” she smirks at him.

“We’ll take your car, deal?” Stiles sticks out his pinky toward her.

“Deal.” She giggles as she shakes pinkies with him.

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Tony walks into Peter's bedroom to find him staring up at the sky through the skylight. After they brought Peter back from the hospital, he went straight up to his room to take a nap. It's now almost 11 PM.

“What are you thinking about?” Tony asks as he leans against the door frame.

“Have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe, that Y/N could still be alive?”

“What do you mean?” Tony pushes himself off the door frame and sits down next to Peter.

“I know they found her body, but what if they were wrong?” Peter turns his head to look at his dad.

“When they first found her body, I spent every day denying that it was her.” Tony lays down next to his son, “Even after they showed me the proof themselves, I still didn’t believe it.”

“I don't know why but I just have this feeling that she’s still alive.”

Tony looks up at the sky at Peter's confession, thinking about the worst day of his life. The day they found Y/N.

“Tony?”

Tony looks up from working on his Iron Man suit to see Bruce standing in the doorway with a heartbroken expression on his face. His immediate thoughts were that something happened to Natasha on her mission. He puts down his tools and walks over to Bruce.

“What’s up? Did something happen to Nat?”

Bruce grabs Tony’s shoulder, “You should probably sit down.”

“Just tell me what’s going on. Did something happen on her mission? Was she hurt? Is she okay?” Tony looks at Bruce with so much concern in his eyes.

“She’s okay. Physically.”

“What does that mean?”

Bruce sighs, hating being the one to give Tony the news, “On her mission, she found something.”

“Okay?” Tony was confused. The whole point of missions like Nat’s was to find information. Why is this time different?

“She, um, she found some bodies. Dead bodies.”

“And?”

“Sh-she also found the bracelet she helped Y/N make for her birthday.”

Tony could feel his heart pounding against his chest. His mind was jumbled with millions of thoughts. His vision was blurring. He could see that Bruce was saying something to him but he couldn’t understand what he was saying.

He couldn’t breathe.

He collapses to the ground as Bruce tries to slow his fall. He’s clutching at his chest as he tries to catch his breath. Bruce turns his head so they can look at each other. He tries to focus on Bruce.

“Tony. Just focus on me and focus on my voice. Do you understand?” Tony slightly nods his head at Bruce. “Take some deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out.”

Tony starts to catch his breath as Bruce helps him with his breathing. He’s making sure to focus on Bruce and not the news he just told him.

“I’m okay. I’m okay.” Tony murmurs as his breathing slows and his body starts to calm.

Bruce watches him warily as he shakily stands up from the ground. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Define okay.”

“They, um, they don’t know if they found her or not. Nat said that she didn’t see Y/N, she just found her bracelet in an empty room.” Bruce says while nervously playing with his glasses in his hands.

“So there’s a possibility that they didn’t find her? That she could still be alive somewhere? All you found was a bracelet?” Tony looks at Bruce with small hope in his eyes.

“Yes, but they haven’t identified all of the bodies yet.” Bruce gently explains to Tony, “There were a lot of bodies, Tony. It’s been ten years since she disappeared. Th–”

“I know that it’s been ten years. Just because I haven’t given up like you have, doesn’t mean I don’t know the statistics and what everyone says. Until you can present me with some hard facts, I’m always going to believe that she is still out there. Finding some bracelet doesn’t mean anything.” Tony tries to storm away but Bruce prevents him from doing so.

“Tony, I just told you that Tasha found her bracelet and you had a panic attack! You say these things but deep down you know that there’s less than a one percent chance that she is still alive! I’ve watched for ten years as you and Nat and Steve and Bucky and the others run yourselves into the ground trying to find something that would lead you to her! You never found anything and now that we have something, you refuse to believe it!” Bruce yells exasperatedly.

Tony gives him a cold look, “One percent chance is still a chance. She is my daughter and I will never give up on her.”

“Tony.” Tony turns to see Fury standing at the door a few feet away from him. “The lab just finished running their tests.”

“And?”

“They identified one of the bodies." Fury pauses for a moment, "It's Y/N."

“Why do you think she’s still alive?” Tony asks Peter as he subtly wipes the small tears that had fallen from his eyes.

“I don’t know. I’ve always felt like she was still out there somewhere. Even after they found her, I never truly felt like they did.”

“I would love to think that she’s still out there somewhere, living a wonderful life, but I made my peace years ago,” Tony says, sitting up from his position on Peter’s bad, “After I almost got Wanda killed from being too drunk on a mission, I knew I had to finally confront the truth.”

“If she is still out there, do you think she remembers us?” Peter asks, sitting up to sit next to Tony.

Tony thinks for a moment, “I’d like to think so, but I don’t know. She was so young when she was taken and who knows what happened afterward. Why are you thinking about this?”

“I don’t know,” Peter isn’t sure whether he should tell his dad about the feeling he has about the girl who fixed his leg, “I think it’s just because we’re back at this house.”

“If she is somehow still out there, I'd hope to meet her again someday and let her know that we never gave up and that we never stopped loving her."

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@vicmc624 @mrspetxrs @freyathehuntress @fheresm @stefans-wife @taketimeandappreciate @youralphawolf72 @ornella0910 @shedsblood @ts1mp0ne @beautifulgrungekid @danielle-leah1997 @itmejado @ivettt @james-bucky-barnes-bitch @learning-howto-be-myselfx3 @darkenwolfie @lokiandbuckywife @llamaproblem @emily-roberts @me-unintentionally @inyourmomsworld

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silkscream · 2 years

Text

SWEETEST KILL | PART ONE: DELIRIUM

pairing: peter parker x silk!reader

warnings: mentions of mental illness, angst, almost-smut, not mcu or comics-canon because the world is my oyster

wc: 3.8k

summary: you meet spider-man for the first time.

a/n: feedback is appreciated!!!! i’ve read this about thirty times and i cannot any longer. this is more like a prologue if anything so i’ll post another chapter sooner than later <3

also!! all my graphics/promo insinuates the reader is asian because cindy moon is korean-american, but there are no mentions to appearance or ethnicity in the fic itself. (except height) the reader is essentially a mix of my own oc plus cindy moon’s character.

↳ series masterlist / main masterlist / taglist

↳ part two: verdict

You don’t mean to stare at the back of Peter Parker’s brown curls, because, in your defense, he does have a big head. He’s as charming as he is angel-headed, an underdog who has seemed to grow out of his graceless middle school ways. Lately, his aura has manifested into a lightning bolt that hit you square in the heart. Your senses have been attuned to him lately like he holds the other end of your red string.

For some reason, even though you’ve known Peter for all of grade school, you see him differently now. You’re hyper-aware of his presence when he walks past your locker. You feel his eyes on you in class even though you’re seated five seats away from him. You notice his disappearances during the Academic Decathlon trip to Europe. You also notice that Peter’s arms look veinier now, his eyes gleam differently, and he is most likely extremely, inexorably, superlatively in love with Michelle Jones.

You don’t know why this makes you feel angry. You think you must be delusional — the crush you had on Peter Parker in middle school faded away throughout the years. Sure, he was the first boy to hold your hand. Even though it wasn’t in a necessarily romantic context, you figured that as you grew up, your infatuation with him was purely incidental. He was your crash course in adolescent limerence, but the feelings have long dissipated, you think.

You’re terribly wrong.

Somewhere along the journey of teenage dread and banality, you find yourself attached to the boy no matter what, always feeling a magnetic wave surge between the two of you. You didn’t know why and you couldn’t do anything to control it. Was it the horror of teenage hormones that made you look at Peter in that peculiar way?

High school was an amalgamation of girlish limbs, stretch marks, panic attacks, maladaptive daydreams, palms squeezing taut flesh, academic prison, and now, countless dreams about Peter Parker. It didn’t help that you had an eidetic memory, so the mere fact of his existence would conjure memories that were equivalent to a 4k-quality supercut pervading your brain, a parasite of infatuation.

You thought the cursed genetic mutation that God (or whatever the fuck that radioactive spider was) decided to bestow upon you was bad enough to tack on to the purgatory that was puberty. Now, you had the classic bane of teenage mediocrity. A pathetic, intrusive, annoying crush on a white boy.

You don’t know why, but Peter Parker started taking over your mind like ivy on a tree ever since the first week of senior year. The two of you hadn’t shared any classes since freshman year. You weren't even sure if Peter considered you a friend.

It’s a weird, electric feeling, the way Peter makes you feel. Despite barely speaking to one another, other than casual quips during Decathlon, you feel like all of your synapses are chaotically bouncing around your nervous system when the boy is in the same room as you. When you make eye contact, it feels like an entire conversation has already happened through glances. You think that if your heart rate gets any faster during a school day, you ought to ask your psychiatrist to up your dosage of Xanax.

It’s been three years since the spider bite and you want to gratefully forget how your body’s changed since then, especially because the Blip had made it so you were caught in the void for five years. Now, you’re eighteen and you contemplate death every time you attempt to spin webs in your dim bedroom because of your tendency accidentally fuck up the ceiling paint with your sticky palms.

You haven’t told anyone about Silk. Not a soul. You are so used to being alone that you don’t dare follow through with the usual “awakened as a mutated superhuman” narrative. All you did was wake up with heightened senses that only extrapolated your anxiety disorder and what felt like a new set of slender limbs.

You didn’t have any best friends to tell when you’d gotten bitten, and you sure for hell never going to tell Betty, who at an eighth-grade game of spin-the-bottle inside Flash Thompson’s basement, decided to tell the boy about your past crush on him. The “crush” in question was actually one you had for Flash at age nine, a time when you were stupid and small and smitten for two weeks tops before he spit gum in your hair on purpose during recess. Betty did not mention any of this. This is why, moments later, when the bottle was spun and landed on you, Flash kissed you square on the mouth, to which you punched him square in the eye. No, maybe Betty Brant was a bad option.

Betty Brant was good for some things, like being the closest thing to a best friend to you since the sixth grade despite the two of you being polar opposites. She was certainly talented at dragging you out of your dark lair and forcing you to participate in normal social activities, such as shopping, irregular yoga classes that depended on the fluctuating balance of her membership card at HAUS OF YOGI, and doing her damn best to play matchmaker (she insists that the cashier at your favorite boba shop has his eyes on you).

The reflection staring back at you is familiar, but tainted by frills and pastels.

“Betty, homecoming isn’t for weeks,” you mutter.

“It’s really important to be prepared! Also, look at you! I could eat you up,” she gushes, gripping your forearm tightly and smoothing a pink, manicured hand across the silk chiffon magenta skirt of the dress you’re wearing.

“Yes, because I look like a fucking cupcake.”

“A sexy cupcake,” she winks.

After combatting her berating, you don’t leave with anything from the boutique except a pair of sunglasses. Nursing a coffee in your hand, you go back and forth with Betty about possible Halloween costumes.

“Well, Ned and I might wanna go as Ash and Pikachu, but if not, we should definitely go as the Shining twins!” Betty suggests. You shrug in indifference.

“I was thinking of covering myself in fake blood and calling it a day.”

“Ooooh, hot. Very you. Do you think anyone’s gonna ask you to homecoming?”

Betty leans towards you, her syrupy-sweet smile genuine and lighting up all her features. Betty is the kind of person who makes you binge romantic comedies with her, after decorating cottage core-themed cupcakes in her kitchen with old Taylor Swift playing in the background. You’re happy that she has Ned, but the contrast of her bubbly outlook on life makes you feel like Daria.

“Probably not,” you attest, people-watching the sidewalk from across the street. You notice MJ walking out of the record shop. Locking eyes, she waves at you sheepishly. Betty turns her head.

“What about MJ?”

“What about her?”

“I dunno, I don’t discriminate. But I’m saying there is something very fruity about her.”

“Are you implying there’s also something fruity about me?”

Betty smiles, giving you a knowing look. You scoff.

“Okay, well, regardless, I’m sure she’s going with Peter Parker. Those two ogle at each other every chance they get.” You try not to convey any kind of vexation in your voice.

Betty opens her mouth to respond but is interrupted by the roar of teenagers nearby. The rowdy boys look a few years younger than you, crowded around themselves like a cult-like blob of hoodies and Jansport backpacks. They move like they’re one being, slowly dispersing to reveal a red and blue figure.

Spider-Man is smack in the middle of them. His body language mirrors that of the teenage boys, though his composure and posture make him the obvious center of attention, the celebrity that these boys worship. They all take turns rotating various items for him to sign, from their ratty sneakers to the back of their portable video game consoles.

You can’t tell if you’re certain but you swear he looks right at you. You blink before confirming and he’s fast enough to dismiss his crowd of fans, swinging away on the street. You watch him wave towards you and Betty, though the people at the café around you also happen to be squealing in awe at the sighting of the masked man.

Maybe if you were naive, you would bask in the same fame that Spider-Man does, but having your powers truthfully makes you want to crawl into a hole. You wouldn’t even know what to do if you were on top of a building, crowds below you screaming your name to celebrate your honor.

You have no intention of being a superhero, but you practice acrobatics just in case. You’ve gotten good at swinging around the city in your weird suit made out of your own web fluid, which Betty would probably call avant-garde. You only swing when you can’t sleep, usually before the sun rises. Even though the city never sleeps, you swing fast enough for normal people to assume your lithe figure to be a bird. You’ve gotten so graceful at it over the years that you wonder if you would enjoy ballet.

It’s incredible what five feet and seven inches of a mutated Spider-girl can do with her body. You swing through the city with your new suit, a sewing project that you’d been working on in the late hours of the night. There have been news articles in the past and viral Reddit threads about a new female masked vigilante with similar powers to Spider-Man. Now with this suit, the speculations will come again, but with the query of a hero.

Maybe it was pompous to make your own suit at all. You don’t want to consider yourself a hero because besides halting basic robberies and subduing scummy men, you want to stay as human as possible. It makes you feel guilty, sometimes, but you justify this with Spider-Man’s existence. New York only had room for one Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Person.

Your Silk-sense floods your body immediately. Your ears perk up approximately two seconds later to the sound of a body hitting the pavement with a thump. You look down to the alleyway and see a blurry figure stumbling and limping up a closed dumpster. The stranger shoots a web toward the next building and swings through the air, fast enough for you to consider that you’re seeing a mirage. You hear a snapping sound and see a broken spider-web caught in the air, with the body flying through the air. You catch him immediately with the webs spurting from your fingertips. You adjust your mask as you examine the stranger, now cocooned into a silky chrysalis. Your eyes widen when you realize it’s Spider-Man.

“Hey, wait… you…” Spider-Man pants as he attempts to squirm out of his safety net.

“Um, are you okay?”

“You’re like… me,” the hero says plainly.

“Oh. Haha. That I am,” you reply awkwardly.

There were thoughts in the back of your mind over the years that maybe you should reach out to Spider-Man, that you should get to know him and follow his wing so that he can train you. But then you thought about the responsibilities that would come with that, and you decide that Silk was a secret best kept to yourself. You aren’t sure what to do now in the presence of New York’s favorite masked hero.

Spider-Man is able to break out of the cocoon and get to the rooftop where you are from the fire escape. He clutches his side and groans as he takes a step closer to you. The nerve-wracking afterthought of having to take care of someone else floods your mind and you curse at your selfishness. You can’t stay reserved all the time. An arduous bruise is flowering under Spider-Man’s suit, and he’s trying his best not to reveal it to you. What if you’re a villain?

“Are… are you okay to make it back… wherever you came from?” you question worriedly.

Spider-Man breathes out from his mask and peers at your face, staring at your eyes. He swears he’s seen you before, but he’s currently too sluggish from his injuries and his night of patrol to get a clear look at you, especially as you recoil into the shadows.

“Yeah, probably,” he coughs. “Who are you? I’ve… never seen you before.”

“Um… call me Silk,” you stammer. You reflexively cross your arms over your chest in cowardice.

When Spider-Man takes a step towards you, your body shakes with something that feels like a voltage of electricity. You’ve felt this sensation before. Heat permeates through your veins and you’re not sure what does it. Yes, you notice the suited man in front of you and how his physique is enough for any woman to get on her knees, but the gravity that pulls you towards him is definitely something else entirely. It’s currently knotting your stomach.

“Silk,” Spider-Man repeats after you. Hearing your name come out of his mouth makes you shiver. You aren’t sure if it’s an illusion, but the rooftop you’re both on feels like it’s tilting. The equilibrium between you two is threatening to break and you’d be relieved to just let yourself fall into the abyss.

“Hey, my apartment is nearby. Do… do you need somewhere to stay until you get better? You seem like you’re in bad shape,” you suggest shyly, unsure of what your boundaries are with this person. Just from the sound of his saccharine voice, you want to do whatever you can to comfort him.

“Are you planning on killing me by any chance?” Spidey’s eyes expand like a cartoon.

“No.”

The softness in your voice makes him give in.

Peter knows this is a stupid idea, but his judgment is clouded by your smell, and God, the mere existence of your body being in such a close radius to his makes his body heat up to the point of oblivion. He knows he should walk away and make it back to the apartment so that he can rest and tell Mr. Stark about your little meet-cute later. But your eyes drink him in.

He likes your room. He likes your vintage clippings of nude women from Playboy, your band posters of musicians he’s never heard of, and the dozens of pastel-colored drawings on your wall. In the dimness of your room, he thinks he could stay here forever.

Peter lies on your throw pillows, feeling silly that he’s still taking on the role of his alter ego when he really feels like he’s on an impromptu Tinder date. The glow-in-the-dark stars on your ceiling aren’t as bright as they were before, but it’s enough to scatter the darkness like a decoration of freckles. He browses your walls for something personal, like a photograph, but there’s nothing telling. A diminutive radio is perched on top of your dresser along with a various array of mismatched knick-knacks that bring the same kind of eclectic comfort a thrift store would give.

He tries to count as evenly as possible as he waits for you to emerge from the bathroom, but the seconds feel agonizingly slow. One spider-man, two spider-man, three.

He doesn’t know why he feels on edge, or maybe wired, or was it anxiety? No matter what, the stability of his usual level-headed self is swapped for a state of frantic curiosity.

You return and blink at him shyly.

“Are you doing okay?”

Peter nods fervently.

“Yes, thank you. Um. Are you?”

The sound of your laugh calms him down. You nod. The awkward tension between the two of you is encapsulated in one large fragile bubble that wouldn’t be hard to pop. You look at him with your big eyes, raking over his muscular body on your bed.

Peter had felt drunk the whole time he followed you home like a stray cat, but now you’re close enough for him to breathe in your scent and examine the shape of your eyes. He knows those eyes. The speculation in his mind haunts him.

Rather than facing it, the cowardly intrusions in his mind force him to ask you arbitrary questions, like how you made your suit and what had happened to make you into something like him. You’re not very good at answering these questions. It almost feels like too much to be near you because he can hear the rhythm of your beating heart so clearly. He could make a song out of it if he wanted to.

“Why’re you being so sweet to me?” Peter murmurs.

You don’t expect him to ask this. Wasn’t being a good samaritan all about helping your neighbors? Plus, he’s Spider-Man. You’re positive any girl would love to be in your shoes right now.

“You’re hurt,” you say simply.

You shift closer to him so that the two of you are thigh to thigh. To your humiliation, he hears you audibly gasp when he grazes your knee with his hand.

You’re slightly uncomfortable when he probes you about your spider bite and you spare the gory details. Instead, you retract from yourself, asking him about the Avengers and what it’s like to always be in the public’s eye.

“How come I never heard about you?” Peter lilts.

“Oh, babe, you’re probably the first to know.”

“Really?” His eyes amplify again.

“Yeah. When this… happened to me, I didn’t know who to tell. Um, you’re basically the only person who knows. And you don’t even know me,” you laugh dryly and quietly.

Quietness looms over the two of you.

“Sorry, I’m not really sure how to talk to Spider-Man.”

“Please, call me Spidey. Spider-Man is my father’s name,” Peter jokes, eyes lighting up his features (he wishes you could see) when he hears your laugh.

Twenty minutes pass (yes, he’s mentally counting) and by now he is absolutely sure he cannot resist his urges. It makes him feel like such a fucking boy. He already knows the ins and outs and the birds and the bees, thanks to painfully embarrassing lectures in the past years by Aunt May, but he feels shame in how even the sight of you makes his stomach flip over.

The tiny cut on Peter’s bottom lip makes his mouth taste more metallic than he expects. Despite feeling inebriated, he feels highly attuned to all his senses at the same time. He breathes deeply, savoring the smell of your rose-scented incense billowing a line of smoke.

“Hey,” he whispers, his voice soft, almost lush.

Your eyelashes flutter rapidly like bat wings when he holds your jaw and tugs down your mask. Peter isn’t surprised by the face he sees at all. He curses under his breath.

“What?” Hurt flashes in your eyes very quickly, so you avoid eye contact with the hero.

“Nononono,” Peter pleads. “I’m sorry. You’re just– you’re really, um, pretty.”

Christ, Was he fucking thirteen?

“Oh. Thanks, I guess.” You wonder if whatever superhero handbook that exists in the world offers advice on other superheroes hitting on you. Or if you were being deceived. Maybe this is a test.

He’s grateful you can’t see his face underneath this mask. He’s sure he’s flushed with eyes dilated like a goddamn teenager, and then he mentally curses again when he realizes that’s exactly what he is.

“Can… can I try something?” Spider-Man’s voice is desperate but barely audible. He’s shy all of a sudden.

“’s long as you don’t murder me, I guess,” you mumble, pliant in your tone.

“I won’t. Close your eyes.”

You submit to his requests and you can count every second that passes inside this universe as if you’re waiting to get out of school. You’re hyper-aware of Spider-Man and how his head is inching closer to you, hand perched under your jaw, and you stay still for him. He could break you like fine China if he wanted to. For some reason, you think you’d be okay with it.

The soft flesh of warm lips meets yours. You gasp slightly but reciprocate. The taste of him is electrifying enough to heat your blood immediately, arousal flooding your core to your surprise.

“Tell me… You want me… To stop,” mumbles Peter. His eyes are screwed shut under his mask. If he had a clearer head, he’d pull his mask back down to hide his pink mouth and flee your room immediately.

“Why would I?” you breathe in between kisses.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to stop.”

“So don’t.”

With that, Peter groans as he palms the curves of your body and pulls you closer to him. You imagine his touch like ink spilling into a glass of water, spinning and curdling into itself until the color pervades the entirety of it. Peter feels feverish with his lips on yours, a tantalizing delirium.

It surprises him, his lack of gentleness and apprehension. It surprises you that you let him snake his gloved fingers to your center as it saturates with wet heat, delighting your knotted insides as he puts just the right amount of pressure on your aching core. You’re mewling, whining for more, and clawing at Peter’s jaw and clothed clavicle.

It’s like a ballroom dance, the way you lift your arms for him so that he can undress you with roused determination, suit falling from your shoulders like feathers. His Spider-man eyes expand and it makes you want to laugh — how was this vigilante so utterly boyish?

Slowly, Peter closes the gap between you two again and now you’re straddling his lap, too drunk off his lecherous touch to think even remotely straight. It’s when he palms your breast that his breaths grow even more ragged, wolf teeth nipping at your collarbone. You hiss sharply at the contact.

Your senses are flooded with frenzied avidity, which aptly replaces the angst that’s permeated your body from the past week. There’s a release you’re craving, a cursed catharsis, and he’s not even inside you yet. Hunger makes you a modern girl, doesn’t it?

It takes everything in Peter’s power to break the trance.

He doesn’t mean to shove you or push you that forcefully, even. You’ve stumbled back towards the edge of your bed as Peter backs away slowly. You blink at him and notice how out of place he looks in your room. He pulls his mask down quickly.

You’re convinced that perhaps this is a fever dream. In your bones, you know that when you wake up the next morning, the curve of Peter’s pink mouth will be ingrained in your brain permanently. You sigh.

“I’m– I’m sorry,” Spider-Man attempts. “I didn’t want to do anything we’d regret.”

You pull your knees to your chest and shift uncomfortably. “Right.”

“Not that– not that you’d be a mistake or anything, I– um. I really fucking like the way you make me feel. Even if it’s too much,” he confides, carefully stumbling over his words. His brain is going a million miles an hour. “But this feels… dangerous.”

“What’s your name?” you ask softly. To your disappointment, he shakes his head.

“I’m really sorry. I think I should go. I’ll look for you again another time… if you’re willing,” he whispers.

An awkward beat. He doesn’t say goodbye, but you know he says it with the tilt of his head. You imagine his human eyes, how they’re probably bright and pleading at you right now. Opening your window, he shoots a web, and with a thwick, he disappears immediately.

You don’t fall asleep easily that night.

Chapter Management

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taglist: @mellithevirgo @icoldee @namoreno

#peter parker x reader #peter parker x y/n #peter parker x you #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker x silk!reader #silk!reader #cindy moon #peter parker smut #peter parker fluff #peter parker angst #spiderman x you #spiderman x reader

767 notes · View notes

double-aa-batteries · 2 years

Text

Fic Rec Fridays - Week 3 - KevAaron

If you want to check out any of the other 3 fic recs you can find the master post here

Fluff

Don’t matter (what people say) by @psychomidget (cominupforair) on AO3 here (7k, 1 chapter)

Aaron knew he was bi.

He had long come to terms with it, but he believed that he could pretend he was straight as long as he kept dating girls.

But then Kevin happened. That’s where Aaron’s carefully constructed world really started crumbling. With him and Kevin kissing on his bed, legs tangled and hands roaming each other’s bodies.

a fuckin classic. my first favorite kavaaron fic. I keep coming back to it. TW for past drug and alcohol addictions, internalized homophobia and ableist language

Us by conniptionns / @foxss-evermore on AO3 here (6k, 1 chapter)

commissions prompt: Kevin and Aaron falling in love

set post canon, years later when Aaron is a doctor and Kevin has gone pro. they reconnect.

no TWs, only fluff and romance

sharing beds and then sharing hearts by love_in_the_city/ @delightfulfiresoulweasel on AO3 here (4k, 1 chapter)

and there was only one bed. robin comes to Columbia with the monsters. only, there aren't enough beds.

no TWs. only fluff.

Angst

heaven can't help me now by history11huh / @unholy-goddess on AO3 here (30k, 13 chapters)

a well written enemies to fuck buddies to lovers fic with the addressing of trauma as a side dish

TW: panic attacks, trauma, addiction, alcoholism, mentions of dug addiction, the moriyamas, depression and anxiety

crying zeros hearing one one's by love_in_the_city/ @delightfulfiresoulweasel on AO3 here (5k, 1 chapter)

Aaron doesn't take care of himself and a perfect, unlikely string of events causes him to face the ultimate price

all aboard the angst train. just. pure angst (with a happy ending)

TW: temporary character death, heart attack

the reason by love_in_the_city/ @delightfulfiresoulweasel on AO3 here (11k, 1 chapter)

Aaron thought he would get his happy ever after with Katelyn, but after she refused his proposal, Aaron ends up with the same feelings of worthlessness when his mother was alive. He relapses.

Someone unexpected becomes the reason he holds on.

angst. so much angst. Aaron's mental health. is in the garbage.

TW: depression, suicidal thoughts, drugs, relapse, trauma and unspecified eating disorder

Vide Noir by love_in_the_city/ @delightfulfiresoulweasel (because, yes, I am obsessed with their writing) on AO3 here (15k, 1 chapter)

As the exam week took a toll on Aaron, he felt alone, he wanted someone, he want this to be over, he wanted to stop feeling so sick, he wanted the thoughts in his head to stop, he wanted to stop feeling like a pure black void.

you want some more angst? here, have some. TW for eating disorders, mental health (the bad kind), anxiety, depression, self harm, throwing up, anxiety attacks

Fluffy Angst

picture perfect by officialstarsandgutters description linked here

r u mine? by alex_wh0 descriptions linked here

the home we built by MakeBreakfastNotWar on AO3 here (31k, 13 chapters and worth every single word)

Aaron and Katelyn decide they want to have kids, and ask Kevin to be their sperm donor. When Aaron finds himself faced with raising the twins alone, Kevin steps in to help.

a classic must read of the kevaaron fics

it's easier to remain heterosexual by All_for_the_andreil on AO3 here (3k, 4 chapters)

Kevin and Aaron have been hiding their relationship for a while and when Andrew accidentally finds out, it doesn’t go well...

TW for knives and affection mistaken for non-con by outside viewers

i can't make you love me SpookyMiscreant on AO3 here (4k, 2 chapters)

Four times Kevin and Aaron slept together and the first time Kevin and Aaron /sleep/ together.

a lovely song fic. TW: anxiety attacks, nightmare

coming loose by djhedy on AO3 here (26k, 13 chapters)

it's hot, and the twins are disgruntled, and aaron can't stop hoping for things he can't have.

TW: internalized homophobia and “a smidgen of angst”

labels are only as good as me by permanentchaos on AO3 here (5k, 1 chapter)

He's not sure when Aaron became, well Aaron for him. Kevin's not even sure he's allowed to be anything but Aaron. Kevin wants what he wants, if only he could get his brain to cooperate with his heart.

gold. honestly, just gold.

TW: internalized homophobia

anywhere he goes by allfourthefoxes on AO3 here (6k, 2 chapters)

“Yes, Kevin is Aaron’s best friend. Aaron is falling in love with his best friend, if he hasn’t already.

trans skater boy Aaron and Kevin try to find a way to spend the day, cue some fluff, some angst, and then being adorable.” (+ trans Aaron Minyard and Friends to lovers)

Look. this just. cleared my skin. i just. it’s the definition of slipping into love like a dream in written fic format. I- Yeah. mostly fluff with a smidgen of angst and hurt/comfort. TW: scar worship, mention of scars, crying, mentions of self harm, descriptions of dysphoria, mentions of Tilda and her shit

@intangibel

#fic rec fridays #fic rec fridays in april #kevaaron #kevaaron fic rec #aftg fic rec #all for the game #aftg #aaron minyard #kevin day

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ajaviary · 2 years

Text

Hollow’s Eve Ch 3

Hollow’s Eve Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Summary: Things with Hawks have escalated out of your control…you never expect to run into the man who single handedly made your question views on love. You will do anything to keep him and his little girl safe.

Characters: Shota Aizawa x Reader | Eri | Hawks

Warnings: nsfw content in this chapter. The sfw chapter will be posted up as well because it doesn’t exactly correlate to the plot of this story.

A/N: I would love to know what you think! This has taken on a mind of its own…but I hope you enjoy it!

Word Count: 3499

(Ch 1) | (Ch 2)

Several people tried to approach you after Hawks the famed and the popular Number 2 Hero left you alone on the dance floor. You politely excused yourself, your hero persona so tightly at the forefront you even believed yourself as you lied through your teeth about how you felt. It was a few minutes later that you were finally able to excuse yourself and escape. Your steps took you to the hallway where the restrooms were away from the main Gala and you dipped down one of the side hallways and moved further down the deserted hallway.

You couldn’t breathe, you couldn’t catch your breath and you knew what this was. Another panic attack was about to drag you under as your mind swirled and your stomach twisted and bile threatened to surge from your throat as you remembered his lips on yours, the intrusive way he’d kissed you, the harsh grip of his hands, as though he already had a right to you, when you barely knew each other and it hadn’t been what you’d wanted. He knew that and he didn’t care, because he could take what he wanted from you.

You pressed a hand to the wall and one to your chest as though that would somehow allow air to fill your lungs.

“Careful,” a voice along your ear and a steadying hand along your upper arm had you trying to jerk away, no one could see you like this, could see you spiral. It was too dangerous to your reputation, you couldn’t lose all your hard work. “It’s just me...I’ve got you.” You hated that your body fit so well against his own as he took you a few more steps and pushed open one of the deserted balcony doors.

The cool night air, the open space allowed you to breathe a little easier as you pulled away on unsteady legs toward the balcony railing to let your fingers curl against the cold railing. He let you, but he was right behind you as though his body moved on it’s own, unable to be out of your orbit, as though he were drawn to you, worried for you.

Aizawa watched you work through what you had kept so carefully hidden from the world. Neither of you spoke as he suppressed the urge to draw you closer to him. He knew he shouldn't be here. Had he not come he might have missed your dance, Hawks. His hands fisted at his side as he remembered the other man’s hands on you.

“Better?” he asks softly, resisting the urge to rub your back, to curl his arms around you to draw you closer into the safety of his arms. He doesn't have the right anymore; he gave it up. So why was he here?

You slowly turn to look at him, your dress flattening against the railing. His dark eyes don’t miss the way your eyes are too wide, he also doesn’t miss the faint bruise along your mouth. His thumb brushes over your lips, his dark eyes flashing red, before he’s carefully moving your hair away from your neck, revealing marks you hadn't even had a chance to notice.

“Was that from him?” his tone is low, his whole body tense as he carefully pulls his hand back cupping your cheek. The tenderness in his touch is nearly your undoing. You don’t need a savior, not when you have to save him. Not when you will do whatever is necessary to keep him safe...you won't be the reason he and his daughter are in a media crossfire.

“It could be from my new lover for all you know, either way It’s none of your business. We aren't together...my life doesn't concern you,” your defiant answer is all you can muster as you latch onto the only thing you can control at the moment and that is shoving him as far away from you as you can...being associated with you, now that you've unceremoniously caught the attention of the number 2.

The thin press of his lips, the way his hands tighten at his sides tells you so much. He’s jealous, jealous that someone even possibly has been with you. He doesn't rise to the bait, he doesn't fight with you. As his voice softens, his concern isn’t masked; it makes it worse.

“No one should ever put a mark on you, not like that. No matter how you want to play kitten,” he can’t stop the bedroom pet name from slipping out and you hate the way your body remembers him, wants him. The tension mounts between you both, as you feel his racing heart under your hand, and can see the way his body is reacting to you.

“You should be careful around him.”

Too little too late…

You can't help the bitter laugh the bubbles up, it borders on a sob and your fingers press into the fabric of his shirt. The gesture is half-hearted, but his whole body stills at your touch, at your request for distance. He doesn't back away, but he doesn't come closer to you. Your heart swells at the gesture, at his respect for you...even after everything he still respects your boundaries, respects you.

Your gaze collides with the dark eyes of the man who broke your heart, to be fair you had shattered his too. You tap your finger against your clothed thigh; you refused to show that seeing him, being around him bothered you. You take a slow breath in, straighten your shoulders and let your gaze clash with his own. “I can handle myself,” the retort falls from your lips and you hide your wince at how childish that sounds, how false you don’t even believe that.

“I never -“ He had started to reach out for you, as though he would cup your cheek. The sound of your hand smacking his own echoed in the darkness surrounding you both.

“Don’t!” The bit of your words causes him to withdraw his hand. “You don’t get to act like you care, like you're jealous of him. You wouldn’t ever be seen with me. Do you know what that feels like?”

The question hung there between you two like another landmine. Waiting to explode, his face fell and his eyes averted from your own, as his hands fisted at his sides. He didn’t say anything.

“I was your dirty little secret; you went out in public with everyone else, but not me, you wouldn't be seen alone with me!” you hissed out the words low, your perfectly manicured French nails courtesy of Yu’s make over poking him in the chest, as your fingers dug into his chest above his heart. Your words were venomous and angry, but your fingers trembled betraying something else under the surface.

“It wasn’t like that,” He whispered as he crowded your personal space, even as you stepped back against the railing as his fingers ghosted over your cheek. The tender touch made you press your lips together to keep your emotions tight. You wouldn't shed another tear for him. You wouldn't.

“I just wanted to protect you,” he growled, his lips close to yours, his eyes enraged as his anger slipped, his hair floating along his shoulders. He wanted to drag you into his arms, never to let you go. To never let anything hurt you. Yet he had done just that, he’d broken your heart, let you walk away. He’d left you alone to cry. He even now wouldn't admit how much he fucked up, wouldn't admit that he loved you. That he was hopelessly in love with you.

“Don’t lie Sho,” you whisper, tears of frustration filling your eyes, but you hold them back; you refuse to shed another tear for him. “I wasn’t what you wanted; if I was you wouldn't hide from the world what we were together...I was just an easy fuck for you. I should have known.”

You refused to blink as your eyes swam with unshed tears, but that didn't stop them from leaking out as a tear slipped down your cheek and you tried to wipe it away, but his thumb brushed it away, his large, warm hand causing others to spill down your cheeks as you take in a hiccupping breath, that sounded too close to a low sob, that you desperately wanted to hide.

His forehead pressed against yours, his hands tightening on your cheeks, not allowing you to leave. “You’re out of my league; it was never just sex. It was never just about that, not with you...you burrowed into my heart, made me feel things I haven't felt in a long time.”

You take a slow breath in, unable to do anything else. He hadn't changed out of his pirate outfit from earlier, he stood out among the people here, but he didn't care. He’d come for you, unable to let you go without a fight.

“I’m sorry,” his lips pressed against your temple before he tipped your chin up to look him in the eye. “I’m sorry I thought I was too old for you, that you deserve someone better than me.”

His fingers stroked your cheek and you could only listen as he poured his heart out to you. “I love you, Eri loves you…” he took a breath and watched you. “It’s ok; it's ok if you don't...if you need more time…” he said softly.

Your fingers curl on his wrist, your lower lip between your teeth as you try to stop the fresh wave of tears, the pressure in your chest lessens and you duck your head against his chest and his arms curl around you as your fingers tighten along his white shirt, this…this was home. “I don’t --” you take a slow breath. “I don’t need more time.”

You know you have to walk away, you can’t risk him, you can’t risk the safety of his family…of Eri. Your only option is to walk away, to put the distance necessary to ensure his safety. You arch up on your tiptoes, your mouth close to his ear. “You are the only man who holds my heart…I love you Shota Aizawa and I will love you long after the stars have dimmed in the sky.”

Your confession lights the fire that’s been burning between you two. His hands drag you closer, his mouth hovering over yours giving you the chance to pull away, to stop wherever this runaway train is heading. Your mouth slanters over his lips, your tongue darting out to race against his bottom lip. He groans low, dragging you closer to him, unable to get as close as he wants with the frills of your dress in the way. Your arms curl along his neck and his hands on your waist tighten as he opens for you, letting your tongue dance with his.

This is dangerous, another terrible idea, but you want one more time with him, one more night. You’re in a rather public place even sequestered as you are. One of his hands cup the back of your neck as if to heal the damage done by another man.

The kisses continue, his fingers desperate to touch every inch of you as he places you on your feet, your back against the railing. “I need you,” your teeth graze his ear, loving the low sound he makes just for you. Only you make him feel this way, make him feel alive, loved.

“We shouldn’t…” his forehead pressed against yours, his gaze traveling to the trees behind you, you were in a very secluded spot. Your nimble fingers find his straining cock behind his tight leather pants and he grits his teeth as you stroke him, his hips rolling against your hand, he hasn’t been with anyone else since you and you’ve always done such things to him.

Such sinful things.

You close your eyes and try to push down the sexual hazy. You stroke him in your hand, your fingers tightening just a little and he huffs a low breath of sound. “You’re not making this easy,” he whispers against your ear, his lips latching onto the tender spot just before your ear.

He draws a low moan from you and he grins against your neck, his low chuckle sending a shiver down your spin. “For you, I’ll do this just once…” his fingers have found the zipper on your dress as he carefully pulls the small metal clasp down the cold night air that hits your back causes you to shiver, but it doesn’t last long as his warm hands travel over your newly exposed skin, his fingers parting the material down your shoulders, your arms before it finally pools at your feet. He’s lifting you in his arms, your legs centering over his hips as he tucks you against the wall, his body shielding you from view.

No one is going to be able to see you, is going to catch even a glimpse of you, no he would protect your identity, your reputation -everything about you. Your lips find his again as your tongues dance and curl around each other as he drags his confined heavy cock against your lacy underwear, you’re already wet, and ready for him. “Hold on love,” he tells you breathlessly as your fingers wind through his hair, and your lips press against the underside of his chin.

Your tender fingers massage the nape of his neck, your nails in his hair before watching as he unclasps his belt, and drags the material down and away revealing the flesh underneath. Your poorly concealed laughter at knowing he’s gone commando doesn’t bother him, as his teeth graze your ear. “I don’t want to hear you love,” he mutters as his teeth sink into the upper part of your ear and the soft whine you let out as he drags his hard, aching cock against your navel, your fingers curling around him. “Fuck,” he hissed against you.

His fingers push your thong aside, dragging through you slick, over your swollen nub, he pulls back, enough for his eyes to search yours for any resignation, any hesitation. He doesn't find anything in your face that contradicts you and slowly he pushes his first finger inside you. Your teeth sink into his shoulder, as you roll your hips taking his fingers deeper. It's barely a few strokes in that he’s inserting a second finger, his wrist rolling, the heel of his hand rubbing against your cervix in just the way you need, drawing you higher in your pleasure. Your soft sounds muffled as he pulls your hair, he doesn't man handle you, but he controls you, and let's his lips claim your again, as he swallows down your cries as he changes the angle of his fingers just a little and he's hitting that special place you need him too, that place very few before him could reach.

“That’s it, just like that,” he praises in your ear as he strokes you slowly, drawing out your orgasm as your body clenches around him. Your fingers press his shirt over his shoulders, the fabric getting tangled along his muscular shoulders as he doesn't pay it any mind as he lets you catch your breath. Your gaze watching as he brings his fingers to his lips and licks them, your soft whine at the sight causes him to give that low sexy laugh that he doesn't do often enough.

Your nails dig into his flesh and he moves his fingers under your thighs coaxing your legs to curl along his hips, his cock rubbing against you. Before he draws his hands to your hips and lines himself up as he presses into you slowly, one arm curls along your back, as you take him inch by slow inch. “Good baby,” he praises as he rolls his hips and draws your hips snugly over his, sheathing himself inside you. He doesn't move as your body opens for him, stretches to accommodate his size. His lips press against your cheek. Your weight, not an issue as he keeps you over him.

“I love you,” he murmures as he rolls his hips, slowly inside you, drawing back and sliding back in as though you both have all the time in the world, as though everything were standing still before you.

You can’t help the soft sob that you bury against his neck. Your arms tighten around his neck, as though you don’t ever want to let him go. You’re overwhelmed with guilt, for a moment you almost spill your secrets into this sacred place, in the safe place with him. Your teeth sink against your lip and you fight back the words they bubble on your tongue, instead your hands cup his face, your mouth claiming his as your roll your hips urging him to increase his pace, to find the release in the only way you can share your love with him this final time.

He groans into your mouth, his hands almost stall, but one of yours snares his wrist and he presses your back against the brick and his speed increases, his thrusts become harder, deeper as he drags you both closer and closer to oblivion together.

His lips latch onto your neck, his teeth sinking into the marked flesh, as you come undone around him, he’s following right behind you. His seed filling you up, in a way he should have been worried about, you were too young, your career far too important to risk. “It’s okay,” your soft words reach his ears and your fingers thread through his hair as he spends a few more moments inside you, not ready to leave.

“I love you kitten,” he mumbles, his breath heating your shoulder as his arms tightened around you as though wishing to draw you closer. “I love you too,” your words are soft barely a whisper. As you don’t want this to end, for reality to chase away your happiness, but its already happening.

The Gala is drawing to a close as the voices from below cause you both to tense in each other’s arms as he carefully slips himself from your warmth, before setting you on your feet. Neither of you dared to say a word he dressed and helped you back into your dress, a few wrinkles were the only thing wrong with it. It was so dark, no one would probably notice.

“Come home with me,” he whispers as you two carefully make your way back inside, his hand on the small of your back. You bite your cheek to keep from agreeing as a flash of red catches your attention.

You want to cry as you see Hawks talking with Endeavor and Best Jeanist. As though the young man could hear your thoughts, could hear you, his golden eyes caught you both among the crowd. A single eyebrow quirks upward, but his eyes lose all merriment, his expression doesn’t give away the change. It’s his body language, he smiles toward you, and you can’t breathe as his eyes flicker to the man behind you.

“Till the stars dim, please remember what I said,” your whispered words are spoken so softly that Eraser almost doesn’t catch them, but he notices your distress almost immediately.

“Go home, go to Eri,” you plead softly, stepping further away from him as he reaches out toward you, as though to stop you from leaving his side.

Hawks is suddenly there at your side, his arm along your waist, his fingers pressing against the tender flesh along your hip. “Eraser, what a surprise,” he greets him. His golden eyes are hard, as the two of them size up each other. “Even the hero's work has managed to drag you out of your home. Out with your little one were you?” He questions with a dazzling smile, his question causes the older man to narrow his eyes at him, as though reading between the lines so few were able.

He clenches his jaw, his dark eyes traveling to

You for only a moment, as he chooses his words with greater care than people would assume of him. “Just a quick stop in, it’s already late. I need to be heading home,” he said stiffly as he forced himself to walk away, out of the building listening as Hawks took you back over to the Pro Heroes on a level he would never be, on a level he had never wanted to be.

He never realized how untouchable they really were until it was waved in front of his face. He hit the night air as he walked swiftly to his car, his phone in hand as he dialed Mandalay…he had to know that Eri was ok. Once that was settled…he was going to do some digging. He was going to bring the hero world to its knees.

#Mha #bnha #aizawa x y/n #bnha aizawa #mha aizawa #mha smut #mha reader insert #hawks x self insert #yandere hawks #hawks x you #keigo x reader #hollow’s eve #ajaviary fics

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buckybarnesowl · 3 years

Text

To Serve and Protect - Chapter 3

Pairing: AU!Bucky x Fem!Reader

Series summary: James Buchanan Barnes, Bucky for short, is an ex-cop turned social worker, forced to resign after witnessing a violent police brutality incident. Y/N is coming to terms with the fact that she is stuck in an abusive relationship. He doesn’t know why he’s so drawn to protect her. All he knows is he’ll do whatever it takes.

Series warnings: emotional and physical abuse by intimate partner, police inflicted violence/non-con and derogatory slurs against sex workers (sex work is work!), panic attacks, nightmares, general mental health struggles.

Rating: 18+ minors DNI; There will be some very graphic sexual violence and might be some mild smut eventually, so you have been warned.

A/N: Bucky, reader, and friends have boarded the angst train and we’re finally leaving the station. Final destination: Happy Ending, but it’s going to be a bumpy ride. The next two chapters in particular. Heed the chapter warnings PLEASE, and be safe.

Chapter 3 word count: 3.7K

Chapter warnings: detailed descriptions of sexual assault by police officers, gun violence, nightmares/PTSD, violence against sex workers, derogatory reference to sex workers (sex work is work!)

Previous chapter | Next chapter | Series Masterlist

Alpine leapt off of the armchair as soon she heard the deadbolt click. The white cat was slinking figure eights through Bucky’s legs as he removed his shoes and hung his coat. Setting his bag on one of the kitchen stools, Bucky leaned down to grab the cat’s food dish.

“Hungry, Fancy Feast?” he asked her affectionately.

Alpine had reminded him of that iconic cat from the pet food commercials so he’d referred to the adopted feline as the brand name since day one. The brawny man took care of feeding her and then moved on to feeding himself.

Sighing into the couch, Bucky rubbed his forehead with his right hand, a steaming bowl of leftover pasta being held by his left. He couldn’t stop replaying his meeting with Y/N. When he started social work, he would worry about his clients frequently. But he and Dr. Raynor had worked on building that separation between the job and home, developing healthy boundaries. He’d gotten good at leaving his cases at the center. But for some reason Y/N was settling into his psyche, ignoring the partition he’d set up.

“What am I going to do with this one, Alpine?” The cat didn’t respond, carrying out it’s post-dinner hygiene ritual from her spot on the armchair.

Just then his phone buzzed from the coffee table, and he swapped his bowl of pasta for the device.

Sam: We still on for tonight? Didn’t hear from you today.

Another heavy exhale came from the man. He had completely forgotten it was Monday.

After Bucky had recovered from the accident he'd made the easy decision to resign from the force. In his eyes, it was the only option. As soon as he was out of the hospital, Sam had started showing up at Bucky’s apartment on Monday nights. Sometimes it was for only thirty minutes. Sometimes they had a beer. Sometimes they went out for a walk. Sam figured starting Bucky’s week off with a familiar routine might help him move through the aftermath of it all.

And it did. Following the surgery, Bucky wouldn’t leave his bed all weekend, save for going to the bathroom or filling Alpine’s food dish after the cat meowed enough. But he knew when Monday came around he’d have to get up or else Sam would make him. He learned that the hard way. He’d never imagined having a glass of water dumped on him would be so unpleasant. But the shock of the cold liquid hitting his face after wallowing in his own body heat for two days was jarring enough for Bucky to never want to experience again.

Bucky: Sorry. Yes. Eating dinner. Come by anytime.

Sam: Cool. I’m parking. Be up in 3.

Bucky: Seriously? What if I had a girl over?

Sam: Ha!

Bucky: You know I don’t have to let you in.

Sam: See you soon :)

Bucky was placing his dish in the dishwasher as Sam walked into his apartment a few minutes later.

“Hey man,” the V.A. employee greeted as he took off his shoes.

“Want a beer?” Bucky asked as he opened his fridge. Sam nodded as he took a seat at the island in Bucky’s kitchen and twisted the cap off of the brown bottle.

“Busy day? Usually I hear from you at lunch on Mondays.”

“Not really, just…” Bucky rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand, the cooling from the metal prosthetic always helped ground him a bit.

“Bad day then, huh?”

“I met with a new client. Domestic abuse.” Sam nodded in understanding, encouraging Bucky to continue. “I think she had lied saying she was there for a friend, but I could tell as soon as we met that it was for her. She was so fucking nervous.”

“Is this your first assault case since...”

“Yeah.” Bucky affirmed. “I had an attack as soon as I read her file.”

“Whoa. It’s been a while, no?”

“Yeah. I caught it before it got bad. Your five-things trick, and my stupid breathing app.” He sighed, taking a swig from his beer.

“Proud of you, man. That’s real progress. How did the actual meeting go?”

“Fine. I mean I gave her what I could, considering I had to assume it wasn’t for her. I used the we always do two-week follow up’s trick to keep her connected.”

“Classic, good call. So seems like you handled it well then.” Sam congratulated.

“Sort of. This is the weird part. I think she might have flirted with me, and I may have been ok with it?” he grinned bashfully in his friend’s direction.

“That’s fucked up.” Sam raised his eyebrows in disapproval.

“No, no, I don’t mean like flirted flirted,” Bucky sighed. “I mean, more like… when I greeted her in the waiting area we both kind of caught each other off guard maybe? Like she stared at me and I must have done the same thing. Fuck, I felt like I was sixteen, man.”

His stomach started fluttering the same way it had when Y/N’s eyes had met his.

“Ok so she’s attractive. You know you’re her social worker, right? It’s your job to help her, not hit on her.” Sam reminded firmly.

“God, I know! I didn’t hit on her!” He defended, glaring at Sam. “I kept it so cool, I swear. Even after she told me she thought my nickname was cute.” Bucky’s cheeks started flushing red and he looked down at the counter.

“She what? This seems like trouble, man.”

“Noooo, ugh, I’m making it sound so much worse than it was. Seriously. It wasn’t sexual at all. It was… adorable.” His eyes crinkled at the corners as he remembered her bashfulness. “She just blurted it out and then was so embarrassed about it. She barely looked me in the eye the rest of our appointment.” Bucky’s heartbeat picked up just thinking about it, and he started rubbing his facial hair, one of his nervous tells.

“Oh my gosh you have a crush on this girl! Buck, you can’t continue with her casefile if you have a crush on her.” Sam chided.

“Sam, I know! But I’m the only one at the centre right now. Maria’s still on mat leave for another two months.” Bucky took another swig from his bottle, and then his face became grave. “At one point I slipped up and started speaking as if I knew she was the one needing help. The terror that flooded her eyes, man…” he shook his head at the thought.

“If I reassign her to another centre, she’s going to feel like she’s being passed around. She might not reach out the next time. You know how important it is to make that connection the first time,” Bucky reminded his friend. “I can’t risk that, Sam, I just can’t. I don’t know what it is about this girl, but I have to help her.”

Sam set his bottle down on the counter, and started at the label for a minute. Then he raised his eyes to meet Bucky’s, a soft grin on his face.

“What? What’s so funny?” Bucky scowled at his friend for finding humour in the situation.

“Nothing! I’m just… it’s nice seeing you like this. Interested in a girl. It’s been a long time.” They both knew how much Bucky had struggled after the incident, dating hadn’t really been top of the list for him.

“Thanks for reminding me,” Bucky quipped back, the scowl softening.

“Speaking of which, did you finish setting up that profile?” Same raised his eyebrows.

“Nuh uh,” apparently the scowl hadn’t fully receded, resurrecting itself at the pressure from Sam. “I’m not ready yet. It’s, I just…”

“You just what?” his friend pressed.

“I can’t, alright? What would I say? Hi, my name is Bucky. I had to quit being a cop because the force is full of corrupt assholes, and here’s my metal arm to prove it, and no I don’t want to talk about it, so don’t ask. What’s your name? It’s a wonder the girls aren’t knocking down my door already,” Bucky groaned, sarcasm dripping from his mouth.

“Well they won’t with that attitude. I thought you were working on this with Dr. Raynor? You said you were making good progress.”

“I am! I just... I’m just not ready, man. It’s only been a year. Besides, I don’t want to use some app to meet someone. If I’m going to date someone I want it to be because I felt a connection, you know?”

“Like the connection you felt with your client today?” Sam jabbed.

“Yeah. I mean no! Oh god, you know what I mean.” Bucky’s eyelids thinned, rubbing his chin again.

Sam laughed, “Don’t get your boxers in a bunch, I’m just messing with you.” Sam snickered as Bucky huffed in annoyance at his friend’s teasing. “Jokes aside, I believe you. I don’t think you have any intention of letting a crush get in the way of helping this girl. You’re too good at what you do and you care too much. I know you’d stop it way before it got to that point if there was ever a risk.”

Sam paused then, making sure he got his words right before sharing his next thought. “Do you think you might be so drawn to helping her because of…” He trailed off.

“Why would you ask that?” Bucky’s body tensed at what Sam was insinuating.

“I just want to make sure you’re looking out for yourself. That you’re not helping this girl for the wrong reasons. Helping her won’t bring the other two back.”

Bucky’s metal fist clenched, the other gripped his beer so tight Sam thought it might shatter.

“I know that. You know I know that. Why would you even say that?” Crimson was flooding his neck and spreading across his face.

“Easy, Buck.” Sam put his hand on the ex-cop’s metal forearm. “I’m just looking out for you. You said yourself you’re not there yet, and you had an attack just looking at the file. I’m just making sure you’re not taking on more than you need to. That’s all,” Sam pulled his hand away to let his friend process.

It took a few moments, but Bucky’s shoulders dropped and he sighed, locking eyes with Sam. “You know this is who I am. I need to help. It’s why I became a cop in the first place, and it’s why I resigned. I can’t stand by and watch people suffer. If there’s something I can do to help, I will.”

“I know, that’s what I’m worried about. That you’re putting your clients before your own mental wellbeing.”

“I’m seeing Dr. Raynor twice a month. I have tools. I’m doing ok, Sam. I might not be dating app ready, but I’m ok.” Bucky was was pretty sure he meant it. He smiled genuinely at Sam in hopes he could convince his worried friend as much.

“Alright fine, I believe you. But at some point, you’re going to have to talk to a girl. That isn’t one of your clients!”

The two laughed, the tension dissipating, and then carried on chatting over a second beer before Sam called it a night.

Bucky laid in bed staring at the ceiling, Alpine curled up by his feet on top of the quilt. Did he actually have a crush on Y/N? Was that even possible after only knowing someone for thirty minutes? If he did, and it was, what was he supposed to do? Bucky couldn’t abandon her. And like he’d told Sam, he wasn’t ready to entertain the thought of pursuing someone. Even if she wasn’t a client, it was still too soon since—

His heart rate increased and his chest tightened as his thoughts made the slightest allusion to the incident. God, not now! he told himself. Reaching for his phone, Bucky quickly started one of the guided breathing exercises for sleep and felt the tension fading. After five minutes, he drifted off, though into a fitful state.

***

Three years at his precinct and Bucky had finally got his foot in the door with the drug squad. Sure, it was just as backup and there was little to no chance they’d find anything or anyone at the site, but Bucky was excited for the face time with the unit. Union policy required a team of six for a building with that square footage. The four drug squad members had divided into two cars, each bringing along a junior officer and Bucky had been chosen by Turner and Jacobs, the most senior detectives on the squad. And that’s whose backs would be forever burned into Bucky’s mind.

Bucky was scoping out the second floor of the abandoned warehouse. The three other officers had left, but the two senior detectives he rode with that night were still in the decrepit building somewhere. He heard grunts and laughter coming from a hidden room at the end of the mezzanine and headed towards the sound. Bucky froze when he entered the rusted doorway, his stomach churning as his brain caught up to what his eyes registered.

Turner had one girl on the ground, straddling her fishnet covered legs, his shirt untucked and belt ends hanging loose on either side. She had either taken a blow to the head or was on drugs because Bucky could only make out muffled moans despite her legs squirming in clear protest. Turner had her wrists held down as he rocked his hips at a rough but rhythmic pace. Jacobs was on the other side of the room, fingers gripping the second girl’s throat as he held her limp form against a crumbling brick wall. She was clearly unconscious, and Jacobs was removing her skirt with his free hand before moving on to his belt.

Bucky’s mind and body finally synched up. “What the fuck are you guys doing?”

“What does it look like, Barnes?” Jacobs grunted, getting ready to slide himself into the comatose girl.

“Keep your dick wet, Barnes. You can have a chance when I’m done.” Turner added.

“Where did you… how did they… I don’t…” Bucky's words fell from his mouth as the shock held him in place. They must have been living in the warehouse. Turner and Jacobs must have found them during the sweep and not said anything. Bucky’s thoughts were racing a mile a minute as he tried to assess every option and every outcome. He needed to find the one that saved the two women and he had find it fast.

“They’re just a couple’a hookers, Barnes. This is their job. Just go with it.” Jacobs explained, as if he was recommending Bucky an item from a restaurant menu he’d never tried before.

Bucky’s brain had finally run all the variables and snapped into action. In one fluid motion, he radioed for back up and then pulled his firearm from its holster. “Both of you stop what you’re doing. You’re under arrest for police misconduct and sexual assault. Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law. You have—”

“Are you fucking kidding me right now, Barnes?” Jacobs let the girl's body drop to the floor as he buckled his pants up and turned to face Bucky. “Turner, clean your dick off and get a load of this fucking rookie Liberal dipshit .”

Turner rolled the other girl over violently as he got off her to pull his pants back up. “Jesus Christ, Barnes, I was so fucking close! You couldn’t have waited for your hero moment for like two minutes?”

The detectives started towards Bucky from their respective sides of the room, forcing Bucky to keep repositioning his aim.

“Stop moving!” he shouted, voice shaky with adrenaline, but hands steady as steel. “You’re under arrest. I’ve called for backup.” The two officers just rolled their eyes and kept advancing.

“Give me the gun, Barnes. You don’t want to do this.” Jacobs directed smoothly, inching closer.

Sweat was beading around Bucky’s hairline and started trickling down his neck.

“We can talk about this.” Turner added. “Let’s just work through this, ok? We’re done, see? It’s over. No harm, no foul. Just give Jacobs the gun, Officer Barnes. Give the gun to Jacobs and this can all just be a silly misunderstanding.”

Turner had held Bucky’s attention just long enough that Jacobs was able to grab the firearm out of his hand. That’s when everything sped up like a movie on fast forward. Jacobs shot both women point blank, where they laid on their respective sides of the dust covered room. Then he turned and marched towards Bucky, gun raised, shooting him in his left bicep. And then again. And again. With every bullet Bucky recoiled until he was leaning against the railing of the second floor walkway that had led him to the horrendous scene. Jacobs fired a final shot, sending Bucky over the metal barrier down to the floor below. As he bled out on the concrete of the abandoned warehouse, he heard Jacobs call for backup, asking for an ambulance for an officer down.

***

Bucky awoke, gripping his metal arm and gasping for air. Sweat covered every square inch of his body. His chest heaved as he tried to focus his vision.

Window, curtain, Alpine, quilt, metal hand. Breathing, cars, clock, upstairs neighbour. Cotton sheets, hand on my arm, sweat on my neck. Laundry detergent, face soap. Salt.

Running through the senses exercise did the trick, and he chuckled softly at Alpine, who had awoken and padded up the bed to lick the sweat off Bucky’s abdomen. “Thanks, Fancy Feast,” he sighed gratefully, picking up the cat and leaning back into his pillows. She purred as he held her to his chest. He was trembling, still coming down from the flashback nightmare, but Alpine was always keen to help steady her owner’s nerves.

After an hour of measured breathing and running his hand through the white fur, Bucky finally drifted into an undisturbed sleep, spooned around the vibrating feline.

Dr. Raynor had a cancelation and was able to accept his last minute request for a lunchtime session. He explained getting triggered by Y/N’s case, their interaction, his conversation with Sam, and then the flashback from the night before.

“So you’ve been having nightmares,” Dr. Raynor asked.

“No.”

“So what was last night, then?”

“A flashback. Nightmare. Whatever. But I haven’t had one in months!” He grumbled.

“Why do you think it came out then, after all this time?”

“I just told you about everything that happened yesterday. Were you listening at all?”

Dr. Raynor kept her composure. “James, I was listening. I want to know why you think you had a nightmare after being nightmare-free for months. Let me rephrase the question. Are you afraid the nightmare was caused by something specific?”

Bucky looked away from the psychologist, closing his eyes for a moment before gaining the courage to continue. “I’m scared Y/N is what caused the flashback. I’m scared that I’m attaching myself to this woman who needs help because I couldn’t help the two women in the warehouse. I’m scared that I won’t be able to help her, just like I couldn’t them.” His breathing was shallow and his fingers were digging into his thighs.

“Ok, all of those fears make sense. They come from a valid place. I can see you’re becoming uncomfortable. Why don’t we pause for a minute. Let’s breathe into the belly, two, three, four, and hold for four, and then out for eight.” Dr. Raynor knew exactly when to step in and help ground Bucky before they went further.

After a few cycles, she picked up where she left off. “You look a lot calmer now. Would you like to know where I think the flashback came from?” Bucky nodded. “I think you had it because Sam brought it up during your visit, and because of your fears. That’s all,” she offered matter of factly. “While the feeling of fear is valid, what you’re actually afraid of is not. We know that what happened to those two women was not your fault. We have established that you did everything you could. You were willing to lose your life for them. You did lose your arm for them. You risked your career for them. And when the entire police force was against you, you held your ground and vowed to spend the rest of your life helping your community. Not because you’re trying to make up for something that wasn’t even your fault. But because you’re a good person, James. You, James Buchanan Barnes, are a good person. I want you to say it.” Bucky rolled his eyes. “C’mon James, say it.”

“I’m a good person,” he mumbled.

“No, you need to mean it.”

“I am a good person,” he stated, stronger this time.

“Good. So can you see where your anxiety started driving this scenario?”

“Yes,” he sighed. “Yeah, it makes sense.”

“It’s a series of events that happened. It’s not all or nothing. Were you triggered by her file? Sure. But you managed that—very well, I might add—and you were able to get her the help she needed. You’re being mindful of your feelings. I know you won’t let attraction get in the way of doing your job. You’ve got this, James.”

He hummed in thought for a moment as he processed Dr. Raynor’s words, their fifty minute session coming to an end. “I’ve got this.” He rolled the words around on his tongue. “I’ve got this,” he repeated, more assured. “Thanks, Doc.”

“You’re very welcome, James, but this is mostly you at this point. I’m very proud of your progress. I hope you are too.”

Bucky just smiled as he gathered his things. He rushed back to the community centre for the rest of his workday. He wasn’t relapsing. He wasn’t making unhealthy choices. He was just occasionally still affected by a traumatic experience. And he was going to help Y/N because that was his job. Because that’s who James Buchanan Barnes was.

Next chapter | Series Masterlist

Tag list (if you have a strikethrough on your name it's because Tumblr wouldn't let me tag you): @jo-ha-nna @vicmc624 @ginger-swag-rapunzel @txssellate- @intothesoul @leyannrae

#bucky x reader #bucky x you #bucky barnes #bucky x female reader #bucky fic #james bucky barnes #bucky angst #bucky fluff #james buchanan barnes #bucky x y/n #bucky fanfic #marvel au #soft bucky #feminist bucky #bucky au #bucky and reader

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brookecuzyes · 3 years

Text

three years of you. — tear myself apart

Damiano David x GN!Musician!Reader

Main Masterlist — 3yrs Masterlist

Summary: it’s only been a couple of days, which were full of tears and regret. however, that regret wasn’t on their part until a simple comment was made. (Part 3 of a series)

Word Count: ≈3.4k

Warnings: cursing, alcohol intake, angst (Anyone drinking alcohol in this chapter is of the legal drinking age in the United States, which is 21.)

A/N: thank y’all for reading! this has already gained a lot of readers and so i am happy about that. love you guys sm 💕 songs included in this fic are not mine. any characters mentioned are not mine, and belong to their respected owners. and ofc, i don’t own the celebrities either. i do check comments/reblogs, so please be respectful!!

———————————————————————-

You’ve got this, you can do it.

You tried consoling yourself. Normally, he would be here to help calm you down— or at least call if he could physically be there. He’d be there if you were about to have a panic attack, he’d be there to make sure that you were OK.

But you aren’t.

An entire audience full of strangers who listened to the songs, who listened to your heartbreak. Now, they get to watch your heart break live.

He wouldn’t— no, couldn’t— be there to comfort you. He couldn’t be there to tell you that everything will be fine. He fucked up, he’s the one who messed up that relationship…

“…then why did you show up?”

——

Glasses clinked. Chatter was taking place all around. Honestly, it was a little overwhelming.

You sat down at the booth with the whole band. Saturday had rolled around, which you hadn’t noticed since you were lost in an almost depressive state where time was non-existent. However, the karaoke bar definitely woke you up.

“Alright, guys,” Luke, the lead guitarist, said, holding a couple of drinks in his hands. “Tonight is the night! The tradition kicks in once again, and Monday we start recording. Let’s celebrate and relax.” Julie, the lead singer and the girlfriend of Luke, followed behind him, setting more drinks down on the table. Flynn, the unofficial manager of the band, let out a loud, “woo!”, making everyone laugh. All of you grabbed a glass and clinked them together, all taking a sip at the same time. Your face crunched when you processed the drink.

“Jesus, Luke, what is this?” you questioned.

“Alcohol,” he said blatantly.

“Yeah, no shit,” you shot back, shaking off the effects.

“I just said that we’re relaxing— that’s exactly what alcohol does!”

“Or maybe you're just an alcoholic?” Alex joked, taking a sip of his drink.

“I don’t drink that much.” Luke defended.

“That’s what an alcoholic would say.” The whole band started laughing at the ongoing banter. It isn’t often when Alex made witty remarks like that, and everyone always enjoyed it when he did.

On another note, you felt as if you absolutely needed this drink. Given what’s been going on this last week, you felt like you deserved it. Though, you knew you’d regret this tomorrow. You knew Alex was keeping an eye out for you. The rest of the band didn’t know yet, they just knew that something happened, which is why you left Italy so early. They were all confused, but didn’t ask upon it when Alex glared daggers at them when they tried. So, thankfully, they did back off. But, it doesn’t mean that they weren’t concerned.

You had been talking, making it seem as if everything was fine, but Alex’s heart broke when he picked up on it. However, with the alcohol about to course through your veins, it would be harder from him to be able to pick up on whether you were drunk or going through it. Regardless, he was going to make sure that you were having fun and not thinking about your ex.

“Hey,” Flynn said, “why don’t we start the karaoke? I think we all have enough alcohol in our systems to do this.”

“I vote for Alex to go first!” You said, raising your hand. “Do Micheal Bublé.”

“Woah, hold up, I never even said-“

“It doesn’t matter. What I say goes. Now go.” He sighed, laughing as he stood up from the booth. He went over to the guy and told him what song he wanted to do. They got everything set up, and Alex got on stage.

“Let’s go, Alex!” You cheered on, making him smile and blush just a bit— though that wasn’t entirely visible from where you guys decided to sit.

The song started playing, and Alex started singing. It took you a few seconds to recognize the song but you figured it out.

“Oh, he’s singing Feeling Good. I love that song,” you whispered to Reginald, the bassist, who was sitting next to you. He looked to you over his shoulder, smiling. He hadn’t seen you so “out there” since you got back. It was nice to see you getting back to normal. Though, he didn’t actually know why you weren’t normal to begin with.

And I’m feeling… good.

You cheered Alex on again, dancing along to the beat with the whole band. Alex didn’t sing much, but when he did you cherished those moments. That’s why he songs Now or Never and Stand Tall on the band’s very first album are your favorite.

“God, I love his voice,” Reggie said, as if he read your mind.

“Yeah, and look at him,” you pointed out the way his body is moving with the music. The way he was just lost in a musical haze. It was enchanting. “That’s what his anxiety covers up.”

Alex soon finished, hopping off of the stage with an embarrassed smile on his face.

“Oh, don’t be embarrassed, babe,” you said, noticing his expression. “That was the best performance tonight by far. Not even Julie could compare to how amazing that was.”

“Thanks, Y/N,” she said, drawing out the ‘thanks’ in a sarcastic way. You raised your glass to her.

“Anytime, Jules,” you replied, raising your eyebrow and taking a sip. She laughed, letting the comment you made slip— for now at least.

“Hey, I have an idea!” Flynn exclaimed. “How about we take a couple photos and post them to our accounts? Y’know, to celebrate this very special moment.” Everyone collectively agreed. Pictures were taken left and right— and others were taken throughout the night, too— and each person had a different photo that they were each going to post. You had decided that you were going to post yours now, not wanting to forget later on tonight or tomorrow.

You captioned it:

Just continuing a small tradition tonight with music and alcohol. maybe if he lets me, i’ll post Alex singing Feeling Good 😏🤍

It was perfect and you posted it, after letting everyone see it to make sure it was OK. Within minutes people already saw it and were liking and commenting. You made sure to turn your phone off before it started going crazy. Julie and Luke decided to go up and do a duet with each other. They choose Little Do You Know. Their voices were beautiful singing the song. They mashed just so perfectly. You recorded them, knowing that you would 100% show them this at their wedding. (They aren’t engaged, but it’s bound to happen sooner or later.)

You weren’t paying attention to the notifications spamming the top of your screen, though you did look back once to see if the camera was aligned with their bodies. That’s when you saw a specific notification. One thing that you absolutely forgot when you posted that photo was that Måneskin could still see your posts. The only reason you remembered was because Victoria responded to your post.

Ahhh you look amazing!!!😘

The second you saw it, you put your head in your hands, mentally slapping yourself. If Victoria saw it, then the rest of the band is going to see, meaning Damiano would see it. Fuck, you thought to yourself.

“Hey, Y/N, are you alright?” Alex asked, placing a hand on your arm. You looked up at him showing him the comment. “I don’t understand.”

“Victoria commented. Meaning Damiano’s probably gonna see it.”

“Not if he’s blocked.”

“I didn’t block him, we’re still mutuals.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, Alex. Maybe I just haven’t gotten to it yet.” You realized the angered tone in your voice, not meaning to be rude to Alex. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap.”

“No, it’s okay. Hey, maybe if he does end up seeing it, he’ll just be jealous. Damiano will see everything he’s missing out on.”

“What is Damiano missing out on?” Julie asked, sitting back down with Luke.

“Oh, it’s nothing-“ Alex started, but you cut him off.

“I left Italy because Damiano was talking to another girl. It caused too many problems, so I left.” Everyone went silent. Everyone’s eyes softened at you, unsure of what to say.

“Y/N…”

“It’s fine. I’m here now. It doesn’t matter.” Silence fell once again, especially on Alex’s behalf. He knew you weren’t fine, he knew it mattered— whether you said it or not. “Sorry if I kinda killed tonight’s vibe.”

“N-No, you’re fine,” Reggie said. “You did nothing wrong.”

“Yeah, you didn’t ruin anything. I am glad that you told us, though. We’ve been worried.” Luke said, putting his arms on the table and leaning forward just a bit. You felt your phone vibrate but didn’t think anything of it— probably just another person on Instagram.

“Sorry that I made you guys worry. I just wasn’t sure how to bring it up. It’s just been a hard couple of days. This shit isn’t easy,” you explained, mumbling the last part. Everyone stayed silent, none wanting to make something worse.

“Luke, why don’t you and the guys go grab some food?” Julie suggested, placing a hand on Luke’s back, turning her attention back to you.

“Oh, yeah. Guys, let’s go,” Luke said, getting the hint. The boys got up and left, each giving you a sympathetic look. The girls, on the other hand, all stayed behind.

“Alright, listen up,” Flynn started. “Tonight is not the night to mope around. You can do that tomorrow when you’re hungover.”

“Right now,” Julie jumped in, “you’re gonna forget about that asshole, get your ass out there, and sing your heart out, dammit!” Your eyes widened at the girls’ sternness. A smile started creeping from your lips, Julie and Flynn following behind you. Soon enough, the three of you started laughing your asses off.

“Ok, ok, I’m convinced. I’ll have fun tonight. Thanks,” you said, trying to shake off the laughter so you can speak. You grabbed your drink, taking a sip of it. It was the same drink Luke got you earlier. Damn it, Luke. You shook your head to shake off the kick the drink had. Flynn chuckled at your antics, taking a sip of her, not as strong, drink. The guys soon came back with some snack-type items in their hands.

“Are we all good now?” Alex asked, setting down the plate on the table and looking your way.

“Yep, we’re all good now,” Julie answered, taking a sip of her drink. You chuckle at her, reaching for some of the food on the table. “But, Y/N’s about to sing for us.”

“Woah, wait, now?”

“What did I say? You’re gonna sing your heart out.”

You groaned, slumping back in your set in a joking— yet, not entirely joking— way. “Julie, I didn’t realize that you meant right now.”

“Ok, so? Get up there, Y/N! C’mon it’ll be fun.” You contemplated. I should go, you thought, it could be fun.

“Fine, I’ll go,” you announced, getting up from your seat. Reggie and Flynn got up from theirs so you could get out. When you got up, you turned to Reginald.

“C’mon, you’re doing this with me,” you said, grabbing his arm and dragging him over to the guy supervising the karaoke.

“I didn’t really wanna sing right now. Nerves, y’know?” Reggie explained.

“So? Reggie, I get that nerves are real, but there’s no way in hell I’m doing this alone.” You opened up a book full of songs, and was going through the selection.

“Why couldn’t you just get someone else?”

“Because I think our voices clash very well together.” You turned your head to him and gave him a smile. He shyly smiled back. You looked back at the book and held it up to Reggie. “What about this one?” you asked, pointing to a song. Reggie read it and smiled.

“Yeah, let’s do it,” he said, grabbing the pen and marking off the song and writing your names. You stood back, waiting for him to finish. When he did, he turned around.

“Alright, I’ve got us down. Wanna head up?” He asked, holding his hand out with a playful smile.

“Let’s do it,” you said, grabbing a hold of his hand, him taking you up the stairs and into the stage.

When you walked up, you saw the screen in front of you turn on, switching to the lyrics of the song. The lights were bright, but it wasn’t anything you weren’t used to. You saw some people stare at you, but it was mainly the rest of the band. Reginald walked to the microphone set up on the far left, you took the other. The song started playing, immediately relaxing you. Maybe this isn’t as bad as I thought. The song you chose was a favorite of you and Reggie— Meet Me At Our Spot. Of course, the band loved it too, but they got bored with it after a while since you two were always blasting it wherever you went. You actually had some inspiration from this song and wrote a little tune, but you had no lyrics at the moment.

When I wake up

I cant even stay up

I slept through the day, fuck

I’m not getting younger

——

“Victoria, you don’t understand-“

“No, you don’t understand, Damiano!” Victoria raised her voice at him. They never argued. They’ve known each other since childhood and nothing had ever caused an issue, except for this.

“I did nothing wrong.”

“Really? ‘Cause it looks to me that you broke your lovers heart.”

“Y/N left me,” he said, trying to reason.

“They might have physically left, but, Damiano, you were gone a long time ago.” She started towards the front door of his house, grabbing her keys.

“Where are you going?” Damiano asked.

“Home. But, let me tell you something first, Dami.” She put her hand on the doorknob. “It doesn’t matter how you try to defend yourself, you fucked up. You broke Y/N’s heart. You were talking to someone else. The damage is done. If you’re gonna try and get them back, you’re gonna have to try really damn hard. You want to get Y/N back, right?”

Silence followed. Victoria gave him a second to compose himself, but ultimately feared the worst. “Dami…”

“I mean, yeah, but-“

“No buts. You shouldn’t be saying ‘but’, you have no reason to.” Damiano just looked at her. “Wow… unbelievable.” Victoria opened the door and walked out, slamming the door behind her. Damiano walked up to the door and locked it. He headed back to the living room and heard his phone ding. He picked it up and saw that you had posted a photo.

Just continuing a small tradition tonight with music and alcohol. maybe if he lets me, i’ll post Alex singing Feeling Good 😏🤍

He sighed. He unlocked his phone, and went to go see the photo you posted. You looked nice. Happy. What was the tradition again?

Right, karaoke. The weekend before the band records an album, everyone goes to a karaoke bar. He scrolled down a bit and saw a comment. He saw Victoria’s comment.

Ahhh you look amazing!!!😘

He figured that she saw the post before she pulled out of his driveway. He debated on what he should do.

Yeah, he fucked up. But, it really wasn’t that bad. It’s not like he cheated. It was just talking. He wanted to tell you that you look great, but wasn’t sure how you would feel about it. Like Y/N would care what I think, he thought to himself. You never broke up, though. Plus, he needs to know what’s going on, how you’re doing. He’s concerned. Couldn’t be the worst thing— it’s not like the internet knows yet.

Ok, I’ll just just comment.

——

Caught a vibe

Baby, are you coming for the ride

I just wanna look into your eyes

I just wanna stay for the night, night, night

You and Reginald were jamming out to the song, as per usual. Everyone was loving it, even the rest of the band. It was the most fun you’ve had in a hot second.

When we take a drive

Maybe we can take the 405

Hypnotized by the light

Man, this must be the life

As the song ended, everyone cheered you two on. You went over and hugged Reggie on his side, him giving a small hug back. You guys walked back to your booth, the whole band full of excitement. Alex got up from his seat and let the two of you in, you sitting in the corner of the booth.

“That was amazing!” Luke exclaimed.

“Thanks, we had fun,” Reggie said, practically reading your mind.

“Definitely.”

“Your voices go so well together,” Flynn remarked.

“That’s exactly what I said!” you said, hitting Reginald’s shoulder so he knows your point is proven.

“Ok, we don’t have to be violent about it,” he joked, smirking just a bit.

“Yeah, whatever. I’m gonna go to the restroom real quick. I’ll be back,” you said, waiting for Alex and Reggie to stand up so you can go. You grabbed your phone, stood up, and made your way to the restroom. When you got to the restroom, you went to one of the stalls but checked your phone before you did anything else. However, you almost immediately regretted it because you saw that Damiano had commented on your photo.

What the hell does he want?

You read what he had commented, and, honestly, you wanted to laugh.

You look great tonight, as you do every night, amore

You couldn’t believe it. Amore, really? you thought to yourself. You looked up from your phone, looking at the stall door. You contemplated what to do next:

For starters, keeping the comment wouldn’t be out of the norm for your followers. They knew about you and Damiano. However, if you deleted (which you really wanted to do), everyone would notice. People would speculate. Or, you could just go off on Damiano privately. That would be too harsh. But, this is your account— your decision. Do you want to have your cheater boyfriend compliment you the way he did?

You know what, do it later, you thought, turning off your phone and finally, actually, using the restroom.

Once you finished, you exited the stall and walked over to the sinks. You washed your hands, not able to get that damn comment off of your mind.

You walked out of the restroom and back over to the booth, but you didn’t sit down.

“Alex,” you said, standing next to him. “Can I talk to you?” He looked up at you, unsure of what you wanted to talk about, but got up anyway. You grabbed his hand and pulled him outside.

When you two got out there, you sat down on a bench, Alex following your move.

“Is everything alright?” You opened your phone and went to Instagram, showing Alex to comment Damiano left. “Oh.”

“Yeah. I just don’t know what to do, and it is tearing me apart. Do I delete it? Do I keep it? Do I argue with him?”

“Delete the comment, and, Y/N, please, block him on social media. You don’t have to block his number, but you should block him everywhere else.”

“Why not his number,” you asked.

“Because you need closure. At some point, you’re gonna want to text him or call him and try to get some understanding as to why he did what he did. You haven’t actually broken up yet. Maybe that’s how you finish off?”

After a moment of contemplation (again), you nodded your head slowly.

“Ok. Yeah, ok, I’ll do that.” You lowered your head and searched through your following to find Damiano’s account. You clicked the three dots at the top, and looked for the block button.

“You sure this is the right thing to do?”

“Yes. Want me to do it?”

“No, no, it’s fine. I can do it.”

You looked at the button for a second. You’ve never even thought of blocking him before. I’m your mind, he was the one. Now? Well, you’re blocking him because he cheated on you, so obviously your idea of him completely shifted.

I can do this.

Your hands started shaking slightly, your heart was beating like crazy.

I can do this.

Slowly, you moved your finger over the button.

Click it, it’ll be fine.

And, so, you did. You clicked the button.

You felt free.

———————————————————————-

Taglist for 3yrs — i’m so sorry if i couldn’t tag you!*

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cafedanslanuit · 3 years

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✖ — chapter summary: Now that Zeke has explained what truly happened with Yelena, all your troubles have finally ended. Except that now you need to start avoiding Porco. However, things change once you overhear a conversation in the woman's bathroom.

✖ — pairing: porco/reader & zeke/reader

✖ — chapter tags/warnings: college au, descriptions of panic attacks, lots of self-doubt, gaslighting, hurt/comfort, fluff, referenced cheating.

✖ — a/n: i have posted the playlist that goes with this series! click here to check this post <3

chapter three: me and my husband

Porco looked at his cellphone, an ill sensation filling up his stomach as he read over and over your last messages. For the past few days, he had been trying to reach out to you but he had been rejected every time.

He knew something wrong was going on the moment you said you couldn’t make it to his lacrosse game. Ever since you became friends, you hadn’t missed a single game. He had once seen you finishing an essay on your phone and sending it while you were sitting on the bleachers, excited for the game to begin. He had seen you falling asleep on his shoulder during a party after a game, too tired from studying for a test that you took earlier.

Porco sighed. He wished he could find any other reason to explain your behaviour but the only one that came to his mind was his late night confession to you. He shouldn’t have told you he loved you. Now you were avoiding him and his feelings and he was scared he had lost your friendship completely.

He put the phone on his back pocket and grabbed his keys, heading to the parking lot. After getting into his car, he turned on the radio and drove out of the campus, entering the main highway of the city. He wasn’t sure where he was heading to, but all he knew is that he wanted to stop thinking about you, the moment he thought you had shared and the dry messages that followed.

He had really fucked it up.

…

Sitting on your faculty’s corridor floor, you looked over at the texts Porco had been sending you the past week. It physically pained you to be so curt with someone that meant so much to you. Porco had always been there for you, even in the times you had told him you really didn’t need him. He cared when you got sick, when you were sad and also when you wanted company to crash a party on campus. You two had been inseparable since the day you met and he was already acquaintances with Annie and Armin due to all the time he had spent at your place.

This was the right thing to do, you told yourself one more time, closing your Instagram. You were taking the right decision. Porco had fallen in love with you and then had tried to make you think your boyfriend had cheated on you. If Zeke hadn’t pointed that out for you, you probably wouldn’t have noticed until it was too late. Truly, you were lucky Zeke had been understanding about the whole situation and had forgiven you for not trusting in him.

Porco wasn’t a bad person. You knew in your heart he wasn’t. But you had been wrong to trust he had your best interest in his mind.

That’s what didn’t make sense. Why had Porco, sweet and caring Porco had suddenly decided to put you against Zeke only just because he had caught feelings for you? The Porco you knew wouldn’t have done that. If he truly only wanted to drive you away from Zeke, he would have let you kiss him the night he spent with you. He would have taken the opportunity, right? So, why didn’t he?

Your head started hurting.

Your thumb ghosted over Porco’s contact on your phone, wondering whether to call him or not. You missed him dearly and knew that if you asked him to be honest, he would. There were countless moments in the past where he had been honest with you, from the time he confessed to accidentally stepping on your foundation powder and the time he opened up about his father’s death.

He’ll say anything to make you doubt your relationship with me.

Zeke’s voice resonated in your ears and you bit your tongue. He was right. You needed to remember Porco was trying to put you against your boyfriend.

Before you could think of a counterargument, you shot a quick text to Zeke. Yes. A day with your boyfriend would help you keep your mind busy.

“wanna hang out later? <3”

You watched intently, a small smile on your face as the three dots twinkled on your screen. Zeke’s answer came a few seconds later.

“Can’t. Exam tomorrow :(“

He then sent you a picture of a couple of books over a table that you recognized as the university’s library. He also had the tumbler you had given him a couple of months ago, filled with straight black coffee if you had to take a guess.

“:(( okaaaay, good luck on your exam, love u!”

“<3”

You put your phone away and sighed. You missed Zeke too. The few days after you had confronted him about the time you thought you saw Yelena and him kissing, he had showered you with love. You had spent the weekend at his place wearing nothing but an old t-shirt of his and making love several times a day. You snuggled to him on the couch as he watched an old documentary and playfully took the cigar from his lips and took a puff yourself. ‘Ladies like you shouldn’t smoke,’ he had said playfully as he took it back from your lips and then pressed a kiss on your temple.

Nevertheless, the short honeymoon phase after you made up had come to an end. You knew it was going to happen, but now your body and heart were craving more of him and his classes were taking all his time. If it wasn’t an exam it was a group project or a study session and even if you knew seniors had it way harder than you, you missed him. Missed his beard scratching your neck, his strong cologne and his deep chuckle whenever you managed to make him smile.

Maybe you could walk around the mall. You still had some birthday money and you could treat yourself a little. Maybe a new body cream or a pair of cute underwear from Victoria Secret to surprise your boyfriend after he was done with his classes. Yes, a shopping trip was exactly what you needed to stop thinking so much. Smiling, you walked to the bathroom of your faculty, just a quick detour to freshen up before you got into your car.

You looked at yourself in the mirror and took out your lipstick, fixing it carefully.

“I fucking hate her.”

You turned around as you saw three girls entering the bathroom. They stood by your side, none of them seeming to notice your presence. One of them fixing her hair, another was looking down at her phone, eyebrows knitted together and mumbling more and more curses and the last one just leaned against the bathroom stalls, arms crossed against her chest as she watched the other two.

“We did tell you she wasn’t meant to be trusted,” she reminded the girl with the phone. When she raised her head, you recognized her as Pieck, one of Porco’s close friends, who you had seen around at a lot of parties and on many of his Instagram photos.

“How is that helping me?” Pieck asked icily.

“I’m just saying, Yelena is shady. Telling you all that crap about only being able to open up with you— and for what? For her to post photo after photo of her fuckboy?” the girl in front of the mirror said. “Like, nobody needs to know you’re getting it at the library, why post about it? Literally, nobody cares.”

“She’s not worth it,” the other girl interjected.

“She really isn’t, babe. And Zeke isn’t even that hot,” her friend continued with a mocking laugh. “The one that looks like a clown is her, not you. Just let it go.”

“He truly is a bad case of the monkey face,” Pieck agreed with a snort. “Men like that are what keep me a lesbian.”

“Hi Pieck,” you greeted her. For the first time, Pieck looked your way and widened her eyes, recognizing you in an instant.

“Hey,” she said in an apologetic voice. “I— I’m sorry. Shouldn’t have said that.”

You faked a chuckle. “It’s okay. I just wanted to say you shouldn’t worry about them, Yelena is—”

“Yeah, yeah, we both shouldn’t worry. You’re probably trying to move on and ignore them too,” Pieck sighed and then pursed her lips in discomfort. “But I know you were Zeke’s girlfriend for a while, it’s normal you don’t want to hear about who he’s fucking now—”

“Zeke and I are still together,” you interrupted her.

Pieck’s face fell at your words. She looked at her friends, who were also looking at each other with an indecipherable expression. Your furrowed your eyebrows, confused as to why they were sharing those glances. Why would they think you weren’t with Zeke? Sure, you hadn’t posted photos with him lately but that didn’t mean you weren’t together anymore.

“I’ll catch up with you in a bit,” Pieck said softly to her friends. They nodded and said they would be by the cafeteria before leaving. Once they went away, Pieck closed the bathroom door and walked to you again.

“Why— why would you think we’re not together?” you insisted, your voice trembling more than you would have wanted.

“Yelena and Zeke are fucking,” she sentenced in a soft voice. You shook your head.

“I know that’s what it looks like but Yelena likes women,” you said. “You— I mean you guys were dating or something, right? You know she’s a lesbian, she’s just pretending to have something with Zeke so her parents back off for a while.”

Pieck’s silence was deafening.

“Right?” you pushed. “It’s cool because she’s a lesbian and—”

“Yelena is bisexual.”

You paused, blinking as you tried to understand. After a few seconds, you shook your head.

“She’s not.”

“The reason we’re not dating anymore is because I saw her fucking Zeke at a party,” she explained.

“No,” you said, and shook your head once more. “No, because if it happened at a party then someone would have seen them. Someone would have noticed, there would have been rumours, I would have known . Pieck, someone would have told me, Reiner, Marcel, Porco—”

“They weren’t there. Almost everyone was a senior.”

“Then you! You would have told me,” you cried. “You’re telling me you saw my boyfriend fucking someone else and didn’t tell me!? Pieck—!”

“I thought you weren’t together anymore!” she defended herself. “What was I supposed to think when every single one of his friends at that shitty apartment knew he was fucking her in the bedroom and they all acted like it was a normal thing to do? I see all these photos of both of them and…” she continued, shaking her phone. “Of course I think he’s not with you anymore! Yelena is uploading pictures as she rests her legs on his lap, about their movie dates at his place and you want me to think she has a girlfriend!?”

Tears started falling from your eyes as she spoke. You sniffled, trying to compose yourself but you could feel every muscle of your body shaking.

“Does Porco know?” you asked in a whisper.

“Porco?”

“I know you two are best friends since high school. You— you had to tell him. If this was real, if this happened, you had to tell Porco,” you reasoned. “So tell me, Pieck, does Porco know?” you insisted, raising your voice, hating the way it cracked at the end.

Pieck shook her head. “I told him Yelena cheated on me, didn’t tell him with who.”

“Why?”

“Because he told me not to date Yelena, said she wasn’t a good person. I didn’t want to prove Porco right, you know him,” Pieck said with a small shrug.

You nodded idly, your eyes lost. No. It didn’t make sense, it didn’t— even if it did. It did make sense but it couldn’t make sense. Because if Pieck was right, if Yelena and Zeke were—

No.

“Give me a date,” you whispered.

“What?”

“When was this?”

“I don’t— Two weeks ago?”

“I need to know the exact date, Pieck.”

“Girl, I don’t remember exactly, I—”

“Give me a date, Pieck!” you sobbed, raising your voice. She sighed and nodded, taking out her phone.

You watched as Pieck went through her messages with Yelena, scrolling up as she tried to remember the date. Your breath was hitching, inhaling more than you were exhaling but you didn’t care. You wanted to know when it was. Pieck was going to tell you it happened on a date where he was with you. She was going to say it happened one of the nights you and Zeke stayed the weekend at his place and then you would know she’s lying. Yes, that was going to happen. She would tumble over her own lie and this nightmare would be over.

“March 31st,” Pieck murmured. “I kept texting her, asking where she was before I went to look for her,” she reminisced, before showing you her phone.

00:36

lena where are u

?????

why are my friends saying you’re with zeke rn

yelena answer me

fuck u i’m going there

01:19

FUCK YOU YELENA YOURE THE WORST

PIECE OF SHIT IVE EVER MET

REALLY???? ZEKE?????

HOPE YOU GET HERPES

I FUCKING HATE YOU

babe, i’m sorry

can we talk?

A bitter taste crept inside your mouth as you took out your phone and went through yours and Zeke’s messages, looking desperately for the date. It was the weekend you spent together. It had to be. The memories of Zeke’s kitchen calendar that said April were lying to you. It had to be March. Or maybe he changed the calendar because he was with you on March 31st.

You scrolled up until March and went to read the messages exchanged on that day.

07:23

Good morning! I know it’s really early

But I want to see you today <3

Meet me at the tennis court?

sure, i’ll take an uber :)

Silent sobs escaped your mouth as your phone started shaking in your trembling hands. Pieck whispered apologies and you wanted nothing more than to tell her to shut up, that it wasn’t her fault, that she wasn’t the one that swore she wanted to marry you and then went to fuck someone else at a party, not caring if he was seen or not.

But it wasn’t true. Zeke said it was just a ruse, that Yelena just wanted to hide her queerness, that they were just good friends. He said so. Pieck had to be lying, she had to be. She was just messing with you, lying to see how much you could believe her. Because Zeke wouldn’t do that, you were the one he trusted, you were the one he was going to marry, you—

Pieck was still holding her phone in front of you.

With the very same date.

And Yelena admitting her crime.

But it couldn't be right. There had to be a mistake because Zeke loved you. He loved you and he had told you about his family, he had taken you to meet his grandparents, he promised he hadn’t kissed Yelena that night, he—

Had he not kissed her?

Was it only a movie night?

…

No, it hadn’t.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Pieck’s voice sounded far, your lips parted as you tried to gasp for air. You lifted your head and saw her lips moving but you couldn’t hear any sound but your heart beating out of your chest. Tingles started creeping on your fingers and without you being able to do anything to prevent it, you dropped your phone on the bathroom floor.

Why didn’t it make a sound?

Why were your fingers numb?

You lifted your head and Pieck was gone. Dismissing her sudden disappearance, you crouched down and picked your phone. You winced at the huge crack on your screen and slid your finger several times over it until you could press on Zeke’s contact and call him.

As his phone rang, you pressed your back on the wall, slowly sinking until you were sitting on the floor.

“Baby, I told you I was studying for this test, I can’t—”

“I know about you and Yelena,” you said in a broken voice. You heard him let out an annoyed sigh on the other line.

“Didn’t we talk about this already? I told you she’s not—”

“I know about the party. The day we played baseball and— that same night you went to a party and fucked her,” you sobbed. You wiped the tears on your face with the back of your hand. “Zeke, tell me it’s a lie, tell me you didn’t do this, please, please tell me you didn’t really fuck Yelena,” you begged. “Please.”

“You know what? Get some help. Like, psychological help. This isn’t normal.”

The silence after Zeke hung up choked you. Your chest rose up and down as you sobbed uncontrollably. Your brain was screaming. Loudly. ‘Make it stop,’ you told yourself. ‘Get it together. Make it stop.’

Make it stop.

It’s a lie.

Make it stop.

He lied to you.

Stop.

He fucked her.

Please, stop.

He lied.

I can’t breathe.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

…

When you woke up, Porco was there.

Your head felt heavy as you tried to sit up, rubbing your eyes. A quick look around let you know you were in your apartment but you weren’t sure as to how , or why your friend was there, his phone on his lap and his eyes looking at you filled with worry.

He whispered your name as if his voice could hurt you. “How are you feeling?”

“What are you doing here?” you asked groggily. You noticed your throat was hurting as well. “What hour is it?” you mumbled as you palmed your jean pockets looking for your phone. You found it hidden between two pillows and pressed the power button, trying to see if you had any unread messages.

None.

“Pieck called me,” Porco explained. “And it’s eight and a half.”

Pieck. Pieck with her friends in the bathroom, Pieck with the text messages. Everything came back to you in a second and you couldn’t help but wince at the way your head hurt.

“How are you feeling?” he insisted. You took a deep breath. The small movement made you realize how much the muscles of your back were hurting along with your arms. You licked your lips, hating how dry they felt against your tongue.

“I broke my phone.”

Porco furrowed his eyebrows. “What?”

“I— I dropped it. There’s a crack on the screen.”

He nodded slowly and looked down at his shoes, his forearms resting on his knees. You could almost listen to his loud thoughts, one coming after another inside his head. Porco sighed and turned his head back to you.

“Want me to get it fixed? Marcel knows a guy, I’m sure he can get it done by tomorrow.”

“No, it’s okay. It’s working just fine,” you said, passing your thumb over the crack. “No need to change it.”

Porco watched your eyes get lost on the dark screen and tightened his lips. He had the urge to throw your phone out of your window, make you understand you had to leave it, that it wasn’t good for you, that you didn’t need it, that you didn’t need him —

Instead, he nodded.

“What happened?” you asked.

Porco paused, deliberating his words before speaking. “Pieck called and told me what you guys talked about and that… you didn’t take it well. She said you were crying and— that you had a panic attack, so she left the bathroom to look for help. She found Armin and he was the one that helped you regain your breath. Once you settle down, he called Annie to tell her what happened and she picked you up. When I got here you were already asleep on the couch, Annie said it was okay if I waited here.”

“I… don’t remember much,” you confessed with a grimace. “I don’t remember Armin helping me out. I— I do remember what Pieck and I talked about, though. Wish I could forget it instead,” you snorted.

“Wanna talk about it?”

You shook your head. Ouch . Why did every muscle of your body hurt so much?

“Wanna watch some shitty reality TV?” he offered. He didn’t miss the way a small smile appeared on your face.

In a matter of minutes, Porco had gone into your room and brought your laptop, and started looking for the show on Netflix. He put your laptop on his thighs and let you crawl by his side, your head resting against his shoulder.

“Wish they had Ink Master,” you sighed, as the intro of Netflix’s newest reality show played on your screen.

“We both know Netflix doesn’t have good shows.”

You snorted. “Black Mirror is good.”

“And yet we’re watching The Circle,” Porco teased you.

“Weren’t you the one that binged Season 1 on one night and then asked me to do the same so you could rant?” you reminded him with a playful tone.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied nonchalantly, making you chuckle.

What followed next was a comfortable silence. One episode went by and Porco made no attempts to stop it from automatically playing the second episode. You snuggled closer, the fabric of his green jacket feeling nice against your cheek. How long had it been since you felt so much peace with someone else by your side?

In any other situation, you would be commenting on it, pressing pause just to bitch and rant about the contestants or make quick runs to the kitchen. But Porco was sitting still, his eyes fixed on the screen and his arms crossed in front of his chest. He was trying to comfort you the best way he could, knowing any words would fail, he aimed to create a safe space for you and not force you to behave normally when you both knew better than to completely ignore what had happened earlier.

Right. Zeke.

You felt your eyes watering and bit the inside of your cheek to prevent them from falling down. Focusing on your breath, you inhaled and exhaled rhythmically until the knot in your throat seemed to loosen up. Your feelings towards Zeke were confusing, a part of you wanting to run, look for him and demand an explanation. Another part of you wanted to face with, punch his stupid little face until you got tired and leave him on the floor. And another, maybe a bigger part of you wanted him to cradle you in his strong arms, kiss your temple and scratch your skin with his beard as he whispered sweet nothings to you.

You swallowed. Maybe Zeke was right. Maybe you did need psychological help.

Could you trust his words if he were to provide another explanation? Could you ever trust in him again? Most of all, could you trust yourself? Many voices had different opinions inside your head, yet they all agreed on something.

You were miserable.

“Every time I’m not with him, I’m anxious,” you mumbled, the words leaving your mouth before you thought them over. Porco moved his hand to pause the show, but you gestured to him not to. “And when he’s with me…” you continued, “I feel like I’m drowning.”

Your voice cracked at the end. Porco’s hand twitched, not sure what to do next. Should he hold you, put an arm around your shoulder to comfort you? Should he not move a muscle until you were done? Should he offer a word of comfort? He turned his head to you and noticed tears were silently streaming down your face.

“If Zeke was in front of me right now and told me Pieck lied her ass off, even after all the proof she showed me today… I would believe him. I would,” you sobbed. “And I hate myself so much for it. I’m so tired of this, I’m so tired of loving him, Pock.”

Porco’s hand cupped your head, his fingers gently caressing your hair. You snuggled closer to him, his perfume soothing the pain inside your heart and his gentle gesture comforting you. That was the magic Porco had. You knew he wasn’t always good with his words and most of the time he preferred to show rather than tell and boy, did he do a spectacular good job at showing you how much he cared.

He was there. Even after you had been ignoring him for over two weeks, he was here with his green jacket and his earthy-scented perfume ready to hold you if you needed him. And you did. You could never think of a moment where you wouldn’t want him to be there with you.

You wiped your face with the back of your hand and reluctantly pulled away from his touch, turning on your seat so you were facing him. You paused your show and put a strand of your hair behind your ear.

“Thank you,” you said, biting down your bottom lip. “For being here and waiting until I woke up. I— I’ve been such a bad friend to you,” you sighed. “I’m so sorry, I just—”

Porco shook his head. “No. I’m sorry for what I said the night I stayed here.”

“No, you don’t need to— I mean— I wasn’t mad about it,” you fumbled with your words, feeling your cheeks heat up.

“I don’t know,” Porco shrugged. “Felt like I made you uncomfortable.”

“You didn’t,” you assured him. “Thank you for staying with me that night. I really didn’t want to be alone.”

“I just— Can I say something else? Promise this is the last time I talk about it.” You nodded. “I didn’t love you the first time I met you,” he blurted, shrugging. “I mean, it’s not like I saw you and caught feelings— first time I saw you you were drunk off your ass at Reiner’s party. I was your friend first. Still am, nothing will change that. And honestly? I wouldn’t be surprised if my feelings went away,” he chuckled. “Who knows. Might finally meet someone else and fall for them.”

“Yeah, maybe you’ll meet someone,” you agreed with a strained smile.

“Whatever happens, know that before anything else, I’m your friend,” Porco said, golden eyes setting on yours. “And that will never change. You’re stuck with me.”

“And you’re stuck with me.”

“See any other reason why I’m watching a shitty reality show on a Tuesday night?”

At this, you hit Porco with one of the pillows, square on his face. You couldn’t help but laugh at his stunned face.

“You’re so fucked,” he said, putting the laptop on the coffee table in front of him.

You took this as a sign to run, the ache in your muscles forgotten at the back of your head as you tried to dodge the pillows Porco was throwing at you. Your legs weren’t weak anymore, as you quickly jumped to avoid the furniture and picked up one of the pillows to throw it back at him. Your heart was no longer aching, but jumping as you cackled when Porco tripped and fell. Even if your eyes were watering again, this time was due to the excessive laughter. And yes, your breath was hitching but it was thanks to Porco chasing you around the living room.

You let yourself fall on the floor next to Porco, the coldness of the floor soothing your skin as he dramatically held his knee against his chest like an injured soccer player. You turned your head to him, smiling at his antics as he filled your heart with happiness once more.

Maybe that had been his power all along.

#porco x reader #snk x reader #aot x reader #porco galliard #porco galliard x reader #porco x you #porco galliard x you #porco galliard angst #porco galliard fluff #porco angst #porco fluff #zeke x reader #zeke jaeger x reade #zeke x you #zeke jaeger x you #zeke jaeger #zeke angst

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onesillybeach · 3 years

Text

New Beginnings Ch. 17

F!reader x Liu Kang/Kung Lao

First chapter posted to my main. Hope everyone finds it.

slight NSFW

@ancientowlgirl @poor-unfortunate-soul-85 @shang-hung

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 *15 16

You weren’t sure if it was because Liu felt like he needed to ‘catch up’ to Lao, but that very night Liu could simply not keep his hands off you. You didn’t mind; You couldn’t keep yours off of him either. You were moaning softly as his hands roamed all over your body. He was being so assertive. What he’d said earlier to you was echoing in your head. He wanted you.

Liu’s room was closer to the dining room, so that’s where he’d led you. Breathing heavily as adrenaline pumped through your veins, you practically slammed his door shut behind him and locked his door. He backed you up as a hand moved under your gi. Feeling bare skin contact was still so alien to you. Goosebumps again plagued you. His hands were rough with calluses, different from Lao’s. But they still lit a fire within you. Another small moan escaped you as he pressed you back against the wall.

Oh, but this was all moving too fast. What were you doing? Liu’s lips moved down to your neck. Mmm. You knew what you were doing. But, why were you doing it? You gasped as pressed himself against you, feeling his excitement. Shit. You knew why you were doing it. Dammit…

Against every biological instinct to keep going, you moved your hands to Liu’s chest and gently pushed. Liu’s lips reluctantly left your collar as he pulled his head back to look at you. His brows knotted when he saw the frown on your face. “What?” He asked carefully. He then straightened and stepped back as flash of panic washed over him. “Am I hurting you?”

“No,” you answered and shook your head. Your hands hadn’t left his chest. You had gripped the lapels of his gi to keep him from moving away any further. You watched as your fingers played with the fabric idly, trying to sort yourself. “You’re not—… You’re not just doing this because you feel like you have to catch up to Lao, right?”

You glanced back up to his face to see his jaw flex. That alone answered it for you. Your frown deepened and you tugged at his gi, coaxing him closer. “I don’t like the idea of sharing you,” Liu admitted as he settled against you again.

“I know,” you said softly. You couldn’t help but feel guilty. “I’m sorry.”

Liu’s forehead gently rested against yours. Your eyes shifted up to his. He was doing that thing again: staring into your eyes like he was staring right into your soul. You could melt right into him. You sighed.

“What is it?” He asked, voice low and just for you.

You wanted to tell him to relax. But you were sure it wasn’t so much him who needed to relax, but you. You wanted to tell him that this wasn’t a competition, but you realised it was. Your silence only made Liu’s concern grow. His hands gently slid down your sides and rested on your hips. “Tell me,” he whispered.

You closed your eyes for a moment. You forced a small grin that left your face just as quick as it had appeared. “Don’t feel like you have to compete with him,” you told him, sighing again.You knew it was contradictory.

And he did too. Liu’s eyes looked over your face, watching the subtle changes in your features as you fought with yourself. “Look at me,” he said. You opened your eyes and looked back to his. “I love you,” he said.

Your features contorted slightly. You weren’t ready to hear that. “You barely know me,” you tried to reason.

“I know enough,” he reassured, his eyes never leaving yours. Dammit, Liu. Why did you have to make this so difficult?

You sucked in a sharp breath and looked away. Was he trying to guilt trip you? Was he so desperate for you that he’d manipulate you like that? No, you didn’t want to believe that. Liu had been so honest and understanding since you’d met him. You couldn’t believe he’d have a selfish bone in his body. “Liu…”

His lips graced your cheek gently. It brought another small smile to your face. Seeing it, he continued to trail light kisses down your neck. Anything to make your frown go away. And instinctively, you let your head tilt to the side, giving him more of your soft skin to enjoy.

Mmm… No. You groaned and weaseled out from between him and the wall. You raked a hand through your hair as you took a deep breath. Liu sighed as he turned and leaned back against the stone wall. You could tell this was irritating him-you were irritating him. But he was doing his best to hide it. “Y/N…”

“I’m sorry,” it came out like a reflex and you found yourself pacing around his room as your mind tripped over itself with rushing thoughts. His room was so neat--so organized. There were so many books. That tightness in your chest was growing. You knew what it was. You recognized it. You took a deep breath and held it as you tried to focus everything you had on not panicking.

But it was no use. It was coming like a big rig and you were a deer caught in its headlights. You’d done it again. You’d worked yourself up. You’d thought about it too much. You put a hand on Liu’s table to steady yourself as your head began to spin. You covered your face with your free hand. Dammit. Not now. Not like this.

A strong hand had gently grasped your arm. Liu pulled you right into his chest and wrapped his strong arms around you, holding you safe and secure. You let yourself lean into him as you wrapped your arms around his neck. The tears came soon after and you hid your face in his shoulder. God, this was so pathetic. You were so pathetic.

“Come here,” Liu whispered next to your ear and moved his hands down your back. He shifted and lifted you. He carried you for a moment before setting you down on the edge of his bed. He then knelt down in front of you, putting himself lower than you. Those deep eyes of his traced over you, so full of concern.

You were shaking. You were softly cussing yourself out for being such a mess. You were futilely wiping the tears from your eyes. You must have looked so pathetic—

“Stop,” Liu told you gently. Your brows knotted to him. Stop? Stop what? Stop panicking? Stop being pathetic? Stop crying? Shaking? He knew you couldn’t! You were about to tell him off. “Stop,” Liu repeated, tone still gentle as his hands took yours, then slowly slid up your arms. He kept running his hands up and down your arms so carefully as he looked into your eyes. “Breathe. Focus.”

You forced in a deep breath despite your chest refusing to expand with your lungs. You kept your eyes on his. You were glad you’d bit your tongue just a moment ago. Liu wasn’t trying to scold you. He was trying to help you. You sucked in another deep breath.

Liu’s lips pulled into a small smile as you began focusing on your breathing. He let his eyes drift down to your hands. You followed his gaze and took hold of his hands as they moved back to yours. “What are you thinking about?” Liu asked.

“That I’m pathetic.”

Liu frowned, but tightened his grip on your hands. “You are not pathetic.”

“I am.”

“You are not pathetic. You’re frustrated.”

You looked back up to him. He didn’t meet your eyes. He seemed more preoccupied with your hands as his thumbs rubbed over the backs of them… Liu was right. You were frustrated. There was so much you were dealing with, and your feelings for Liu and Lao did not make any of this easier… And you didn’t know how to stop it. Could you? Should you? Raiden said this was supposed to happen. Shit, here came the tears again.

You pulled your hands from Liu gently and wiped at the tears. He watched you before settling there on the floor in front of you. He folded his arms on your lap and rested his chin on his arms as he looked up at you. He was so patient with you. You were sure he’d sit there as long as he had to: As long as it took for you to get past this panic attack. And he wouldn’t complain one little bit.

You took in a deep breath. You’d stopped shaking. Your heart wasn’t racing so hard. “Thank you,” you choked out through tears.

“Always,” Liu simply answered, as if this wasn’t such a huge burden.

“No one else has ever been so patient with me.”

“I’m a patient man.”

“Just not when it comes to me choosing between you and Lao,” you said, immediately regretting it. Liu sighed heavily on your lap, but didn’t move away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s alright. You’re right.” You were frowning at him. “I admit that I would like you to make a choice sooner rather than later. But, I know it’s hard for you. I don’t like it, but I’ll wait.”

“Liu…”

“I’m not usually selfish. This is new for me as well. I feel like sabotaging Lao’s chances,” he admitted.

Your brows knotted. “I told you two, no fighting.”

“I know. And I promised I wouldn’t.”

You lifted a hand. You were so compelled in that moment to run your hand through his hair… So you did. Liu seemed content with your fingers combing over his scalp and closed his eyes as he simply rested there. “What is it about me that makes you feel selfish?” you asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Is it because if I do choose Lao, you’d feel like you'll never find someone else?” You could relate to that feeling. You’d felt that yourself. Before you met Liu and Lao, you’d figured you would take the first guy who showed any interest in you because… well… what if he was the only one? You never would have thought you’d meet two amazing guys who both had such strong interest in you.

Liu sighed again. “I don’t get to meet many women here,” Liu answered. His eyes opened as he looked back up to you. “Probably never like you.”

Your face grew hot as you looked back into his eyes. What were you doing? How could you possibly tell Liu no?

How could you tell Lao no?

You groaned. “Why couldn’t you two be the same person?” That would have made this so much easier.

Liu’s brows rose. He lifted his head. And that question he’d asked you earlier came back: “Do you want me to be more like him?”

“No. Liu…” You took hold of his face as you frowned to him. “I was just talking nonsense… Sure, it would make this all easier if you two were just one person, but I don’t really want that.” You could see Liu was getting more confused. You couldn’t blame him. You were confusing yourself. “I meant what I said earlier, Liu. I like you for you. I like Lao for Lao. I’m here with you. If I wanted Lao right now, I would be with him right now. But, I’m here with you.”

Liu used your lap to help push himself up. He then moved to sit next to you, turned to face you. You caught him glancing to your lips before he looked back up to your eyes. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

You froze for a second, then cracked a smile. A small laugh escaped you. “Me neither,” you admitted as he joined you in laughing. And you really didn’t know what you were doing. You never had a boyfriend before. You’d never been on a date before. Your experience was limited to what you had experienced between Liu and Lao. And it wasn’t much. “What do you normally do after dinner?” You asked.

He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. “Meditate? Read?” He nodded to the various books around his room. You turned your attention back to his room. There were a couple books on his bedside table and you reached for them. Unsurprising to you, they were in chinese.

“What are these?” you asked.

“Nothing. I was just doing some research.”

“About what?” you asked as you opened one and flipped through a few pages. You didn’t know why. You couldn’t read them anyway.

But Liu seemed hesitant to answer.

You looked over to him curiously. Was he… nervous? You looked back to the book and really wished you knew some of these words… any of them. What was this book? Before you could flip through it much more, Liu had gently taken it from you and closed it. He then turned your attention to the other book. “This one is about Arcanas. Historical account. I was hoping to find yours in there. Maybe find some way to help you gain more control.

You decided to let that other mysterious book go. Whatever it was, Liu didn’t seem ready to admit it yet. But this one about arcanas… That one he was alright with telling you about. And he was reading it to try and help you… You smiled and opened it to where a scrap of paper had been used as a bookmark. “Did you find anything?”

“Not yet.”

“What’s this then?” You asked, tapping the marked page.

“Fire.”

“Oh!” God, you wished you could read it. “What’s it say?”

Liu chuckled. “Do you really want to know? It’s nothing you can use.”

“So?”

He was grinning as he watched you and surprised when you handed the open book back to him.

“Read it to me,” you said, looking back up to him.

“Read it to you?”

“Yeah.”

Liu chuckled again and shrugged his shoulders. He looked back to the book. “Well, first of all,” he said, then turned the book around.

Your face fell. You’d been holding it upside down? “Oh.” Liu was grinning. “Sorry,” you said.

Liu shook his head as he read over the page silently for a second. The words that came out of his mouth the next second… were not English.

“Hey!” You grabbed his pillow and swatted him with it, earning you another laugh before he used the book to shield himself against another feathered attack.

“You said read it!” He laughed.

“You knew what I meant!” You scolded him playfully. You swung the pillow again, but he’d caught it and yanked it. You weren’t sure if he meant to pull it from your hands, but you hadn’t let go. You were pulled right into him. One of his arms wrapped around you as he finally pried the pillow from your grip.

The book was abandoned as his lips connected with yours. And you didn’t fight it this time. You melted right into the kiss--into his strong arms as he pulled you right onto his lap. It didn’t take long before you felt his excitement again, pressing against you as your kiss grew heavy.

Where Lao’s kiss had be rough and desperate, Liu’s was slow and deliberate. He took his time with you, exploring you. Your tongues were entwinning as his fingers trailed back up under your gi, slowly working their way up your back. You felt him find the clasp of your bra, then follow the band around your sides. You were heating up with his touch. And as a hand moved over your breast, you were reminded just how close you two were.

You gently pulled your head back from the kiss. You slowly opened your eyes to see his eyes, half-lidded as he watched you. Your jaw hardened. This is when you were going panic again, wasn’t it? You didn’t have much time to think about it. Liu had moved a hand to the back of your neck. He pulled you in like he had the first time in the fight pit. Your kiss resumed.

Liu groaned softly into the kiss as you rocked your hips on him. Your hands had begun exploring his body. He was so hard. So vascular. You could feel him flexing beneath your fingers, as if trying to show himself off. And he was throbbing between your legs.

You were weightless the next minute. You grabbed hold of his shoulders as he leaned forward, laying you back on his bed. His hot mouth moved from your lips and down the side of your neck. A strong hand gripped tight to the back of one of your thighs as he settled between them. You bit your bottom lip as you looked up at his ceiling. You were sure Lao wasn’t going to come knocking. Nothing… No one was going to interrupt you. If you wanted this to stop, you’d have to stop it yourself…

A small moan escaped you as Liu’s lip trailed over your collar. Your head tilted back. Who were you kidding. You didn’t want this to stop. Not for a second.

Sliding your hands down from his shoulders, you quickly found his red sash and tugged at it, fingers working to blindly untie it. Liu chuckled into your shoulder as you grew impatient. Pulling away and sitting up on his knees, you watched breathlessly as he untied the sash and slipped out of his gi top. Your eyes widened at the sight.

You reached up, letting your hands trace over his well chiseled abs… He had those strong obliques too. Just peeking out from the waistband of his pants. Looking back up to his face, you found him grinning.

Your turn. Your hands pulled away from him and to your own belt. You made such quick work of it. Without anxiety in the way, you were so eager. But when it came time to slip out of your gi top… you suddenly felt self-conscious.

Liu noticed. He leaned back down to you and brought you back into another kiss. He was slowing you down. And you were thankful for it. His hands began roaming you again. Your own hands returned to tracing his impressive muscles. Feeling Liu's weight rest on top of you was surreal. You wrapped your legs around his waist and gasped when he grinded himself against you, feeling just how hard he was--how much he wanted you. You groaned softly into the kiss. You couldn't deny it, you wanted him too.

But there was a problem…

You reluctantly broke the kiss and reached up to hold his face gently so he couldn't move on to your neck again. "I'm gonna guess you don't have any condoms," you breathed, opening your eyes to look at him.

You were met with a face of defeat. Liu's brows had bunched as his spirits deflated with being reminded that, no, he did not have condoms. He doubted there were any in the temple at all. He groaned his sigh and let his head fall to rest in the crook of your neck.

Liu wasn't angry with you. But he was annoyed. Annoyed at himself for forgetting that one little detail.

You sighed and ran your fingers through his hair. "I'm sorry," you whispered.

To your surprise, Liu began trailing soft kisses up to your ear. "Don't be," he said. "At least one of us is thinking."

You grinned and turned your head to catch his lips with your own.

#mortal kombat #mortal kombat 2021 #liu kang #kung lao #raiden #reader insert #fanfic #fic #reader x character #ludi lin #max huang #tadanobu asano #new beginnings #reader x liu kang #reader x kung lao #liu kang x reader #kung lao x reader

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musical-shit-show · 2 years

Text

Two Sides: Chapter 6

Previous Chapters: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Characters: Musical!Beetlejuice, Female!OC, Lydia Deetz, Barbara Maitland, Adam Maitland

Warnings: anxiety, terrible attempts at flirting, panic attacks, cursing, mentions of death, a lot of bickering, and a little bit of angst if you squint

Word Count: 3,022

Author’s Note: Wow, I had a realization a few weeks ago that I never update this fic. Like ever. And that's a shame because I really liked writing it. AND I just saw Beetlejuice on Broadway this past weekend so I've been inspired to write more for these characters (to fill the void of post show depression of course). If there's been anyone reading this, I'm so sorry it took so long. I will get better at posting now, I promise. Writing brings me so much joy and I have to make time for it at least every other day, so if you've stuck around, thank you!! Please check out my Masterlist here and my About Me page. I also have a couple Prompt Lists if you want to request anythign specific in my Askbox. As always, I appreciate any comments or constructive criticism. Enjoy!

“So help me God if you force me to watch Poltergeist one more time, Beej, I think I’m gonna lose it.”

“Lyds, listen, it’s hysterical. How can you not love that movie?!”

“After watching it a hundred times with you, I’d say it’s pretty easy.”

Cassandra gingerly descended the staircase a little over an hour and a half after her encounter with Beetlejuice to hear bickering between Lydia and the demon, both of whom were sprawled out on the couch, arguing about which movie to select for the evening. Adam and Barbara were in the kitchen, preparing popcorn and a small assortment of candy for the living girls to munch on while the movie played.

“Do you think she’ll come down soon?” Adam mumbled worriedly, pinching a bag of popcorn open and dumping into a large serving bowl. Barbara nodded as she smiled knowingly. “Yes, we just have to give her time,” she cooed at her husband, “Her entire world turned upside down today.” Cassandra felt a pang in her chest at the kindness of the two. However, that warmth was overshadowed by the other specter in the room.

“Ugh, Lyds, come on!” the demon whined, nudging Lydia’s rib cage with his elbow, “you know it’s a classic.” The rasp of Beetlejuice’s voice made the hairs on the back of Cassandra’s neck stand on end, activating her ‘fight or flight’ response and making her stomach plummet. She knew she shouldn’t be nervous about being around him. He was friends with Lydia for a reason, even if that reason wasn’t immediately apparent since he seemed to be, well, a walking disaster. This was going to be tougher than she thought.

Beetlejuice’s ears perked up at the sound of approaching footsteps, but he immediately rolled his eyes when he saw Cassandra descending from the second floor, an uneasy look in her eye. Annoyance seethed through his undead body as he scanned her like a predator stalking its prey.

Seconds later, the rest of the inhabitants of the house noticed Cassandra’s presence as well, the tension growing in the room. Barbara glanced nervously at Adam. She decided that she would tell Lydia about Cassandra’s panic attack in private, seeing as there had been more than enough drama for one day and she didn’t want to embarrass Cassandra any further.

Lydia stared at her best friend with bated breath. Was this too much for her? Had she decided that the lawlessness of her childhood home wasn’t worth the headache any longer, and she would simply walk out, collect her things from their shared apartment, and never speak again?! Lydia’s imagination ran wild with heartbreaking scenarios while her roommate stood in front of the entire household.

Cassandra took a deep breath, attempting to steady herself. “Okay, no more surprises, yeah?” she asked jokingly to the room, cutting the tension like a hot knife through butter. Her voice was still noticeably shaky, “At this rate I don’t think my heart can take it.” Lydia grinned, and the Maitlands exchanged a knowing glance between them. Any friend of Lydia’s would have to be understanding of the unorthodox arrangement the house had settled into over the years, and they were glad that she had found someone that could easily roll with the punches, no matter how bizarre they might be.

Lydia sprang from the couch, disturbing Beetlejuice’s position in the process, in order to wrap her Cassandra in an enormous hug. The demon grumbled, not only because he now had to reposition himself on the couch so he could get comfortable again, but also because his dislike of his best friend’s roommate had permeated over the last couple of hours.

Despite a part of him knowing he had been in the wrong, Beetlejuice was too stubborn and prideful to admit that he has gone too far with the girl. She had, after all, dealt with a lot of shocking information that day. The last thing she needed was to be made even more uncomfortable, and yet Beetlejuice egged her on regardless. Taking things too far was kinda his forte, and he typically had no problem doing so.

The demon’s hair drooped at the thought, turning a deep blue as the two girls giggled softly through their embrace. Cassandra pulled away, looking at Lydia intensely.

“But Lyds, no more secrets between us,” she held out her pinky, eyes narrowing, “agreed?” The raven-haired girl smirked, extending her pinky and gripping Cassandra’s tightly.

“Agreed,” she confirmed, “no more secrets. For real this time.” The two exhaled, feeling a certain weight lift off of their shoulders. With all of this behind them, Lydia felt as though she could finally relax and enjoy a weekend with the people she cared about.

A forced cough came from the couch. “Well, now that that’s settled,” Beetlejuice muttered dryly, his attention now back to the task at hand, his amber eyes glued to the television screen, “Is it gonna be Poltergeist, Exorcist, or Elm Street?” Lydia rolled her eyes slightly at the demon cutting in on a tender moment, but she knew that it was going to take some time for Beetlejuice to actually warm up to her roommate. Cassandra flushed, rubbing the back of her neck.

“Whichever one is the least scary,” she blurted. Beetlejuice’s eyes narrowed, his face twisting into a slight grimace, “Sorry, horror movies aren’t, uh…really my thing.”

“Perfect,” he replied sarcastically, feeling as though he was dying all over again. This was going to be a long weekend.

***

The room was pitch black, save for the faint flicker of the TV screen. Adam and Barbara were curled up on the floor, wrapped in a blanket as the movie played in front of them. Barbara absentmindedly worked on a new cross stitch while Adam drew circles on his wife’s back, a muscle memory that he enjoyed partaking in even though she was no longer warm under his touch.

Beetlejuice sat on one end of the couch, his arms crossed squarely over his chest in a stance of defiance. His hair now sported a faint red tinge, his anger simmering ever since the new breather had infiltrated on one of his and Lydia’s sacred movie nights. Lydia, on the other hand, was unbothered by her demon friend’s pouting. She sat cross-legged in the middle of the couch, separating Beetlejuice and Cassandra, who was clinging to the other side of the sofa, nails digging into the leather upholstery.

Despite being best friends with Lydia, she had a hard time embracing horror movies. Even the older ones still made her jump out of her skin, despite the cheesy dialogue and questionable special effects. She took a breath, attempting to find something within the film to poke fun at so she could stave off her anxiety.

“So, why is Freddy Krueger going after all these horny teens? Doesn’t he have better things to do in the afterlife?” Lydia responded to her friend’s question by lobbing a piece of popcorn at Cassandra’s face, smiling as the kernel stuck to her hair.

Beetlejuice stewed, feeling his chest grow tight with envy at the two girls bonding as if he wasn’t even there. Cassandra didn’t fool him though, especially when it came to how desperately she wanted to please Lydia. Despite her best efforts, he could smell the fear on this new breather.

“Sounds like a hell of a good time if ya ask me,” he huffed, his voice low and menacing, “Piss off the wrong undead guy and that’s what ya get.” The demon looked past Lydia to eye Cassandra, who glared at him in the dimly lit room. She would’ve almost felt threatened by that comment had he not flashed an eerily disarming smile at her. Cassandra’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh, yeah, violent murder. Sounds like a barrel of laughs,” she said under her breath, internally panicking as her words fell impulsively from her mouth, “You must be great at parties.” Beetlejuice’s amber eyes glowered dimly in response to her snarky comment, his annoyance growing as he calculated a comeback in his head.

“Sweetheart, I’m a blast at parties, and I’m even better at murder,” he hissed, leaning forward again to meet her gaze, a Cheshire-catlike smile stretching across his face, “If you don’t believe me, I’d be just thrilled to show ya.” Cassandra felt a pit forming in her stomach, his unearthly irises and wicked smirk striking fear into her more than any stupid horror movie ever could.

“Beetlejuice!” Lydia scolded, the use of his true name making the specter wince in pain, “Stop being an ass and watch the movie.” Beetlejuice’s smile dropped, his gaze not wavering from Cassandra’s terrified hazel eyes. After a few tense seconds, he finally slouched back into the sofa, his eyes now glued to the film still playing on the screen. Cassandra did the same, screwing her face into a defiant frown as her she attempted to focus on the film. Her anger and fear soon consumed her, and she found the picture becoming blurrier as her eyes unfocused and her mind drifted into hatred for the demon.

The rest of the group sat in silence for the duration of the movie, not wanting another spat to break out as the two seethed on their respective ends of the sofa. As the credits rolled, Adam flicked on the lights, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes wearily. Though ghosts didn’t typically sleep, he and Barbara still got tired from time to time. Lydia rolled her shoulders and stood up, stretching her arms to the ceiling after sitting in the same position for such a long duration. Cassandra glanced over at Beetlejuice, still a little nervous to look squarely in his direction.

His hair was again a mixture of fiery red and somber blue, swirling as he furrowed his brow. After staring blankly at the floor for a moment or two, his eye caught Lydia’s, who was heading upstairs to bed. Her eyes narrowed, and he shot her an irritated look, raising an eyebrow. She groaned, dreading what was coming next. Without warning, Beetlejuice snapped his fingers and with a *pop* his form has disappeared from the couch, leaving Cassandra alone and utterly confused, a state she had grown accustomed to over the course of the day.

Adam and Barbara exchanged knowing, weary looks. “Don’t worry, hun,” Barbara mustered, detecting Cassandra’s worry, “It’s their, um, little secret language. Whenever one of them really needs to talk to the other, they give this…look.”

“Wow,” Cassandra scoffed, finally rising from the couch, setting an empty popcorn bowl onto the counter, “I just didn’t think they were that in synch.” She instinctively scratched at her nailbeds, a habit she had picked up in high school to cope with her anxiety. After the last few hours, the skin around her fingernails had become red and irritated from all of the ‘coping’ she had been doing.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Adam piped in, doing his best to quell her nervousness, “Beetlejuice is probably just blowing off some steam. Better he does it in front of Lydia than the rest of us.” Cassandra nodded absentmindedly, making her way towards the steps. The two ghosts smiled at her again and disappeared to the attic, leaving her to venture upstairs alone.

She passed Lydia’s room on her way down the hall, hearing a muffled, albeit disgruntled voice. It was clearly Beetlejuice’s rough drawl, and Cassandra crept up to the closed door, silently craning her body closer to pick up on the conversation more clearly. “I don’t know what you want me to do, Lyds,” he scoffed, “I tried being friends with her, but she wasn’t having any of it!” Cassandra felt her stomach drop. They were obviously talking about her.

“I wouldn’t call hitting on my roommate two seconds into meeting her constitutes as ‘trying to be friends’, Beej,” Lydia fired back, her voice coming clearly through the door now that Cassandra was practically pressed against it. There was a pause, and clearly Beetlejuice had been caught off guard. “Yeah, Barbara told me she and Adam walked in on Cass having an anxiety attack after I leave you alone with her for two minutes. That’s gotta be some kind of record for you, huh?”

Lydia’s words stung the demon, but he tried to tamper his anger as best as he could, his hair growing redder by the second. Cassandra smiled on the other side of the door, feeling glad that Lydia was at least attempting to stand up for her, “It’s not my fault she can’t take a joke!” he shot back, his tone defensive as he rambled, “Seriously, Lyds, I can’t fucking stand this breather. She’s boring and doesn’t laugh at any of my jokes and is a huge know-it-all...are you sure you don’t want me to get rid of her for ya…?”

Cassandra felt her breath hitch in the back of her throat, feeling tears well up behind her eyes. She contemplated running back to her room and crying silently at the demon’s harsh words, but before she knew it, her impulsive side took control. She gripped Lydia’s doorknob and swung it open, startling her roommate and her ghastly companion. “Cassie, I—” Lydia started, feeling her face grow red with anger and embarrassment. She would murder Beetlejuice if he weren’t already dead.

Cassandra tried to speak as hot, resentful tears pooled in her eyes. Beetlejuice could just stand and watch, completely caught off guard by the sudden and overdramatic turn of events.

“You,” Cassandra spat, directing her steady gaze at the ghoul, “Have no right to talk about me like that. All day I have been harassed and belittled by you, and joke or not, if you ever try that shit again with me, I’ll hit you so hard you might just feel it.” Beetlejuice’s eyebrows shot up, and the corner of his mouth twitched upwards slightly.

Though he thought she was completely insane for trying to go toe-to-toe with a literal demon, he almost admired her feisty little outburst. Maybe she wasn’t as dull as he first thought. Still, he felt a pit forming in his stomach; guilt, by all accounts, was a sensation rarely felt by the deceased, especially ones as powerful and mischievous as Beetlejuice.

“As fun as that sounds, toots, don’t get your panties in a twist,” he croaked, straightening his tie, “I don’t really wanna kill ya…unless that’s something you’d happen to be into?” Lydia punched the demon’s arm hard, and he winced despite barely feeling a tickle. All those years of abuse from Juno still plagued his muscle memory. Cassandra scoffed.

“Unbelievable,” she replied with disdain, folding her arms across her chest, “Just…unbelievable.” She turned on her heel, slamming the door behind her. The force rattled Lydia’s room, and Beetlejuice let out a small laugh.

“See what I mean?” he jeered, looking at the still rattling door, “Absolutely no sense of humor in that one, that’s for sure.” He turned to Lydia, but she was staring him down, a look of sheer fury in her dark eyes.

“Why do you have to antagonize every new person that walks through the door?!” Lydia questioned, her voice strained, “I care about Cass, she’s my best friend, and you couldn’t leave her alone for more than a few hours.” Beetlejuice could feel the roots of his usually vibrant hair turning a deep and somber purple, a clear sign that his conscience knew he had fucked up royally.

Lydia pinched the bridge of her nose, as if she were dealing with an unruly child. “Just—look, Cass is clearly very sensitive right now, given the day that she’s had,” the human girl tried explaining as delicately as possible, “Just please, for my sake, go easy on her until we leave?” Beetlejuice scrunched his face in annoyance, not wanting to give in. However, he gave a quick nod to his best friend, and his eyes softened slightly.

“Now get outta my room, weirdo,” she added, her tone more playful. She hated yelling at Beetlejuice, despite having to partake in that particular activity pretty frequently. The demon rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, disappearing in an instant. He appeared outside of Cassandra’s room, and raised an eyebrow at the soft music that emanated from underneath the door.

His acute sense of ghostly hearing didn’t detect any soft crying or muffled sobs. ‘Maybe she finally decided to get her shit together,’ Beetlejuice thought. For a second, he contemplated spying on her again; his previous attempt had proven successful, though it stung to know that this new girl had conjured feelings of such contempt for him so quickly.

Beetlejuice could hear her humming softly, a practice Cassandra had picked up to calm herself after a stressful situation. She even began to sing a little, the lyrics floating quietly out of her mouth pleasantly, soothing Beetlejuice’s mood. He was always drawn to music, and his undead body mimicked the feeling of butterflies in his stomach.

On the other side of the door, Cassandra was humming some indistinct pop song that had lulled her off to sleep on the trip up to Lydia’s house. It was unfathomable to think that less than 24 hours before, her life had been had completely normal. While she wanted to embrace this new reality she had stumbled her way into, it was almost impossible when she had a demon who was seemingly trying to make her hate him with a burning passion.

Beetlejuice had pressed himself up to her door, still listening intently before he realized the position he was in; floating inches above the creaky wood flooring, his undead heart fluttering like a Girl Scout with arrythmia. ‘What the hell is wrong with me?’ he thought, wiping the smile from his face and replacing it with a scowl, ‘She could sing like Celine Dion and it wouldn’t change the fact that she’s a little goody-two shoes.’

And with that, Beetlejuice disappeared from the hallway with another faint *pop*, leaving Cassandra with some true peace and quiet for the first time all day.

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