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writer1 · 3 years

Text

Forever Life Changing Events

Chapter One

Warnings: needle/injection, transformation, abuse, swearing, mocking, teasing, slight starvation, name calling, blood, slight injury.

A/N: This is a collab between me and @ahsokatano-thetogruta, we both hope you like it. This is in our One Big Family AU

CT-7707 whimpers as the Kaminoan, Nala Se, comes closer with the needle, he flinches at the slight pain in his neck, the wound from his recent surgery still fresh enough to hurt. He’s strapped down to a table, arms and legs bound. Fear engulfs him as the needle is jabbed into his skin, and he yelps. Nala Se glares. “Quiet CT-7707, you are not to be so weak.” CT-7707 whimpers slightly and nods, trying to hold his tears at bay, he’s so scared and confused. He doesn’t know what they are doing? Is this going to fix his voice? Maybe his brothers will actually love him if he can talk right.

He looks over to the Kaminoan. “Will th-this fix my v-voice?” He asks quietly, and Nala Se looks over at him. “No, you are most likely a lost cause. But hopefully with this injection, you won’t be so weak anymore.” CT-7707 stares at her, wondering what she means by that, he then whimpers as a weird feeling creeps into his stomach. “W-Wait! What's hap-happening, I feel ic-icky!” He starts to panic, struggling to get out of his bindings. She rolls her eyes. “Don’t whine, the feeling is only going to get worse, so save your breath, defect.” CT-7707 whimpers as the feeling keeps building and building. “St-Stop, make it st-stop, ple-ple-please!”

Nala Se turns her back to him, leaving the poor, young cadet all alone. He’s so scared as the feeling turns to pain, and tears start to fall from his eyes. He then hears and feels a crack, and he screams. His throat erupts in pain as his bandages soak with red, his bones crack as he grows bigger, and he screams more. “St-St-Stop!” He screams as loud as his voice can go, making Nala Se roll her eyes as she stares at the wall, there's no need for her to watch this.

Fur starts to grow all over his body, as he feels his body morph and change shape. “I-I-I-I-It h-h-hurts, St-St-St-” CT-7707 can’t get any more words out, he’s too scared to get his stutter under control. His mouth starts to elongate as his legs become haunches. His clothes burst off, all except for his pants as he whimpers. Brown fur now completely covers his body, ears pointier and pressing back as he lets out a little howl along with a whine. He notices that he sounds different, a slight growl sitting at the back of his throat whenever he makes a sound. His back arches as he writhes around, wanting nothing else but to get out of there. He yelps when he feels something grow from his backside, looking down to see a fluffy tail, swishing around.

He stares at it before squeezing his eyes shut and throwing his head back against the table when he feels the restraints becoming too tight around his wrists and ankles, making him whimper and writhe around more, only angering Nala Se even more. “CT-7707, stop overreacting, you don’t want to be weak anymore, do you? So stop--” She is unable to finish her sentence when CT-7707’s restraints break off. They had gotten too tight for him, because they had thought that because he is a smaller cadet, he wouldn’t need big restraints.

CT-7707 whines as he writhes around a little more as the transformation finishes, then he accidentally rolls off of the table and lands on the floor with a thud and a yelp when he lands on his tail, making him jolt up so he’s kneeling. He doubles over in discomfort and wraps his arms around himself. With a small huff, he looks up at Nala Se, who looks down at him, her face expressionless. He whines and whimpers, not from pain, but from fear. If he wasn’t scared enough of the Kaminoans before, he sure is now. “CT-7707, get back on the table. I have some important tests to run.”

CT-7707 stares at her, then when Nala Se sighs frustratedly and tries to grab him, scurries away from her and backs up against the wall. “CT-7707, do as you are told right now!” She yells, only scaring him more as he tries to run on two legs. He falls flat on his face and then runs on all fours towards the door. He bangs as loud as he can on it, whining when Nala Se walks over to him. “CT-7707!” She yells, but then the door slides open.

“What’s goin-- Holy Kriff!!” A cadet with a buzz haircut with a lightning strike pattern stands wide-eyed before jumping out of the way of the small wolf creature running towards him. “CT-6116, stop it!” Nala Se commands, but the cadet just stands looking at her with an expression of confusion and shock. “You’ve done it again?!” Kix scowls at her, feeling pissed that they never treat them as actual people, but always treat them as products that they can do whatever they wish with.

xxx

CT-7707 runs through the halls of Kamino, hearing gasps and yells from the brothers he passes, but he just ignores them as he makes a beeline for his bunks. He finally gets to his barracks, running through the door only to see his brothers standing there with wide eyes. Clank’s, the leader, eyes widen. “What the Kriff--” “Cl-Clank, help!” The slightly deeper voice startles Clank, but he recognizes the stutter. He sneers.

“Holy crap! You are even more of a freak than before.” CT-7707 shrinks down as his brothers glare at him with hatred. “Get out of here, Defect. Now!!! Or do you want another beating.” CT-7707 whimpers and quickly runs out of the room, it doesn’t even process in his mind that he is much stronger than them in this new form. They all chase after him, making him yelp and keep running. CT-7707 runs as fast as he can, dodging brothers as fast as he can.

Then he runs by two older cadets and he hears a shout from the blonde one with a buzzcut. “Wait!!!” But CT-7707 keeps running, but after a minute, he slams into two other cadets. “Hey!! What are you-- woah!” The one shouting in surprise has a five drawn on the corner of his forehead, the other has a reg manual. CT-7707 shrinks down as they stare, then-- “Get back here, Defect.” CT-7707 starts running again, as fast as he can. He ignores all the shouts as he finally loses his brothers, and hides inside of a storage closet.

CT-7707 tucks himself up into a ball on the floor and starts to cry, his throat hurts. He reaches up and can feel the tight bandages, constricting his breathing a bit. He starts to cry harder as he feels the fur sticking out of the bandages, he’s so scared, and doesn’t know what to do. He leaves the door to the closet open, afraid of the dark. Then after a few minutes there's a knock on the wall. CT-7707 whimpers quietly, curling up a bit more.

“Hello? It’s okay, I won’t hurt you, I promise.” A head peeks in, and CT-7707 see’s a young Cadet with Blonde hair, but he whimpers. “Do-Don’t look at m-me.” The Cadet frowns, and pulls his head from the door. “It’s okay, I know that this is scary. But it’s going to be okay, can I please come in? I just want to help, please.” CT-7707 thinks of what he wants to do, he doesn’t know why this older Cadet isn’t scared of him, or making fun of him.

CT-7707 looks down at himself and whines. “I-I don't kn-kn-know.” He cries softly into his knees, then a few moments later, he feels a hand on his shoulder, making him look up to see the blonde cadet crouching down right infront of him, keeping his distance but making sure that he can still keep a hand on the young cadets shoulder to make him feel grounded. CT-7707's ears press back as he shrinks down, hoping that if he makes himself small enough, he'll be able to disappear.

“Don't be afraid, it's okay. My name is Rex.” CT-7707 doesn't look up at the older cadet, he doesn't want to see the look of disgust on his face. The hand moves away from his shoulder and the older cadet walks away. CT-7707 was right. He's a lost cause and doesn't deserve help. Who even wants to be around a monster like he is now?--

Suddenly, there's a soft groan somewhere in the room. CT-7707 looks up to see that the cadet has gone, but then there is movement behind a shelving unit. He hears the same cracking as earlier, when his bones were rearranging, plus the ripping of clothes and heavy, growly breathing. CT-7707 covers his ears and curls up into himself, not wanting to hear the scary, horrible sounds again.

About a minute later, the sounds subside and he hears heavy but soft footsteps walking towards him, making him peek out from where he's hiding behind his knees to see a bigger, blonde werewolf. CT-7707 whimpers and tries to move away, but Rex puts his hands up in surrender. “It's okay, Lil'un. It's me, Rex.” CT-7707 looks at the wolf in disbelief for a moment before realising the torn, red pants that it's wearing. CT-7707 looks with confusion, blinking slightly. “Wh-What?”

Rex gives CT-7707 a soft smile, hoping to put him at ease a bit. “You... you aren’t the first one to go through this, the longnecks did the same thing to me about a year ago.” CT-7707 looks up at Rex with wide eyes, but then winces slightly as the bandages on his neck pull tighter, making him pull at them hopelessly, because his claws aren’t sharp enough to cut through them. Rex’s eyes widen when he notices them, and he gets a look of pity. “You’re stuck, can I help?” CT-7707 whines a bit, but nods. And Rex walks over and kneels in front of him, he winces when he sees the blood soaking the bandages.

“Hold still, let me just--” Rex gently places a hand under CT-7707’s chin and lifts it up, then he uses his sharp claws to cut the bandages off, his eyes widen when he sees the slightly missing fur and surgical scars on his neck, including the open wound. He frowns. “What was this for?” CT-7707 whimpers. “I-It was sup-supposed to fix m-me, bec-because I’m def-defective and I stutter.” Rex gets a look of anger, scaring poor CT-7707, but it turns sad as soon as he realizes. “It’s okay, I’m not mad at you, but the kaminoans are wrong, you don’t need to be fixed. Not at all.” Rex moves around and sits down beside CT-7707, gently reaching over and pulling him into his lap.

CT-7707 yelps a bit, but then he settles down against Rex, who’s much larger than him. He whines as he notices blood from his neck, wrists and ankles soaking into Rex’s fur. But Rex just brushes it off. “It’s okay, I can wash it off later.” CT-7707 nods, and snuggles into Rex, nuzzling him almost desperately. Rex frowns as he notices, because he seems almost touch starved. “Would you like me to go get your batch mates? I’m sure they are wondering what happened to you. And can you tell me your name?” CT-7707 whimpers loudly, starting Rex as he snuggles into him, he starts breathing heavily as he seems to almost be going into a panic attack. “Hey, shh. It’s okay, you’re okay, Lil’un.” CT-7707 whimpers again and Rex pulls him closer, letting him snuggle into his chest.

“D-Don’t let th-them find me, ple-please. Th-They’ll hurt m-me.” Rex rubs his back, not understanding until a realization comes over him. “Were the Cadets chasing you your batchmates?” CT-7707 nods, making Rex’s fur bristle with anger, but he pushes it away and comforts CT-7707, gently rubbing a hand through his fur, making the younger wolf hum. He is definitely touch starved. “You’re okay, don’t worry. They won’t hurt you anymore, I promise.” CT-7707 nods as he snuggles into Rex even more than he is, making Rex smile as he plays with his fur. “Do you have a name yet? And how old are you?” CT-7707 shakes his head. “No, n-not y-yet. I’m just CT-7707. Defects don’t des-deserve names, and I’m f-four.” Rex’s eyes widen, his batchmates told him that? And four?! He’s way too young to go through this.

“I promise you that you are not defective, Lil'un. Having a stutter does not make you defective.” Rex says with a sad smile, nuzzling the young cadet's head. He's had many times where Cody would have comforted him, whether it was about his hair colour, being a werewolf or anything really. Cody was always there for him, so Rex wants to do the same for this kid, whatever it is he may need. He can’t believe that his batchmates were chasing him, quite likely scaring him too. No one should ever have to be treated like that, to be told that they don’t deserve something, all because they are different in some way or another.

There’s a soft knock on the wall, making the both of them look up and turn their heads to see two cadets looking into the room. There’s another two cadets with them too, who Rex notices to be Kix and Jesse, but they seem to be more focussed on stopping other cadets from entering instead of just looking at him and the other small werewolf in the room. Rex nervously glances between the two cadets standing in the doorway, not sure why they are here. “You’re Rex, right?” One of them asks and Rex nods “Yeah, I am. Why do you ask?”

The other cadet, with a drawn-on 5 in the corner of his forehead, turns his attention to Rex after pulling his gaze away from the other wolf. “Kix and Jesse, those two cadets outside, said that the kid was in here, so we just wanted to make sure that he’s okay now. Those four other cadets seemed to be giving him trouble, so we told them that Nala Se needed them immediately, so they’re gone for now.” Rex smiles and nods, but then looks at the young cadet in his arms again. “Those were his batchmates?” He says, making CT-7707 tense up and whimper, as the two Cadets get a disgusted look. Just the thought of them is enough to scare poor CT-7707.

The one with the five looks up at Rex. “What else have they done?” Rex tries not to get angry. His angry side is always scarier when he’s in this form. He covers the young cadet’s ears and starts to explain “They were hurting him. They said that he doesn’t deserve a name because he has a defect.” Rex moves his hands to the cadets back, rubbing it soothingly. Both cadets see red, Rex can tell by their body language and how their eyes widen. “What?! That’s disgusting! His batchmates told him that? Everyone deserves to have a name!” The one with the five colored on the corner of his forehead growls, CT-7707 flinches but hums when Rex rubs his back. “Th-They said that I do-don’t, and would be-beat me up if I ask-asked.” Rex tenses up, and so do the other two, then Rex looks down. “They what?” He asks through gritted teeth, trying to keep his temper in check, but he is failing. CT-7707 flinches, making Rex take a deep breath to calm himself down.

“We will take care of that in a bit, but they had no right to hurt you, you are their brother.” CT-7707 frowns and nuzzles into Rex, as the other two cadets walk closer. Rex’s ears flick up as everyone hears sort of a commotion going on outside the door. “Okay, time to go. There's nothing to see.” The voice of 99 puts Rex at ease, but not CT-7707 who ducks down in his arms and tries to hide away. Rex smiles softly. “Don’t worry, that's just 99, and my brother Cody, they won’t hurt you, I promise.” CT-7707 nods, and Rex looks up as he hears a voice. “Can I come in, Boys?” “Yep, come on in.” Rex yells back, and 99 walks in followed by Cody, Kix and Jesse continue to guard the door. He smiles at the two Cadets.

“Now, what are your names?” Both smile and look at eachother. “I’m Fives, this is Echo.” The one with the five on his forehead says, making 99 smile as Cody walks towards Rex. “You okay, Rex?” Rex nods, but then CT-7707 pokes up from his arms, making Cody chuckle, and 99 smile when he looks up. “Hello, you must be who I’m here to see. May I take a look at you?” The soft, gentle voice puts CT-7707 at ease, and he looks up at Rex, as if asking for permission. Rex nods. “He won’t hurt you, I promise.” CT-7707 nods, and 99 proceeds to walk over, Rex sets him on the ground and 99 hums as he takes a look at him.

“Seems the kaminoans did a number on you, didn’t they.” CT-7707 nods as 99 gently prods at his neck, making him wince. “I’m sorry.” 99 apologizes, but then starts prodding his wrists and ankles, once he’s done he smiles. “How about we get you to my barracks, get everything fixed up, and I can make you some cookies. Does that sound good, little guy.” CT-7707 nods, and 99 smiles. “Alright then, Fives, Echo, Jesse and Kix can all come too.” Cody and Rex both poute playfully.

“What about us?” Cody asks, making 99 chuckle. “Of course, come along. Think you can carry him, Rex?” Rex nods and gently picks CT-7707 up into his arms bridal style, making the little wolf yelp. “Don’t worry, I got ya.” Rex smiles at CT-7707 as he carries him out into the halls, CT-7707 whimpers and tries to hide down into Rex’s arms, snuggling his face into the fur on Rex’s chest, making Rex sigh as he holds the tiny wolf close. He feels so bad for what he’s gone through, this shouldn’t have happened to him.

It only takes them a few minutes to get to 99’s barracks, and they all walk in to see four other Cadets sitting around. One is bigger than the others, one has grey hair and looks grumpy as heck, one has longer hair than regulations and one has glasses and is pretty small. They all get wide eyed looks when they see Rex and CT-7707, but 99 hums and just walks into the barracks and smiles.

“Hey boys, think you can get the first aid supplies for me.” They nod and the one with goggles goes running to a footlocker at the end of a bunk, the one with longer hair walks up. “What did the Kaminoans do this time?” He asks gravely, and 99 sighs. “This is Rex, he was given a serum about a year ago that turned him into a werewolf, and the Cadet in his arms was given the same thing today.” Hunter’s eyes widen as he stares at the young Cadet in Rex’s arms, he feels disgusted by what they did, the grey haired Cadet and the bigger one both just stare. “He looks so young, how could they do this?” The one with grey hair asks, a look of disgust on his face.

Rex sighs and sits down on the ground, still holding the Lil’un close. “I don’t know, but all that matters now is that it won’t ever happen ever again.” CT-7707 looks up at Rex, confused as to what he means by that. “W-What do you-you mean? Am I-I not-t going back?” Everyone shares a sad look and Rex shakes his head. “We aren’t going to let you be put back with those bullies. We won’t let them, or anyone else, hurt you ever again.”

CT-7707 tears up, from feeling both happy and thankful. “N-No one has-as-as ever been kind t-to me before. Are you s-sure you want m-me around? I don’t w-want to be the bur-burden I’ve always be-been told that I a-am.” His ears press back, not wanting to intrude into their lives and just ruin it for them. He’d hate to disappoint anyone else-- “Of course we do. You seem like a really nice kid, I can’t see how anyone could dislike you.” Cody tells him, warming his heart as a few tears fall down his furry cheek, which are wiped away with the brush of the back of Rex’s finger.

CT-7707 hums, he’s still so touch starved so it’ll take time for him to heal, to feel normal and loved. The cadet with goggles walks back over to the group with a few medical supplies, handing them to 99. “Thank you, Tech. Now, let’s get you patched up.” CT-7707 whines and flinches away a little, making 99 stop in his tracks. “Sorry, kid. I promise that I won’t hurt you.”

CT-7707 looks up at Rex and back again before nodding. 99 smiles and reaches out to check his wrists first, placing some bacta on before wrapping them up. As 99 continues to treat his wounds, CT-7707 sees that a cadet, who is taller and broader than the others, has walked close to him, smiling and looking at him. CT-7707 doesn’t know what to do-- “Your fur looks so soft and fluffy!” The cadet startles CT-7707 by accident, making him shrink down into Rex’s arms.

“Careful, you’re scaring him.” The cadet with longer hair walks over and smiles at CT-7707. “Don’t mind Wrecker here, he can get a little loud and over excited. I’m Hunter by the way.” CT-7707’s eyes widen, he feels afraid when he hears that. He tries to back up a bit, hitting Rex’s chest. Tech realizes what's going on, and so does Hunter.

“Oh, don’t worry, he’s not that type of Hunter. A usual hunter is a person or animal that hunts prey for food, or game. While our Hunter is more like a person searching for something, as his enhanced ability, or defect, as it is sometimes called. It is actually quite interesting, I could name all the differences between our Hunter and a usual hunter if I wanted--” “Nerd, please don’t.” The grey haired Cadet asks, making Hunter chuckle. “That's Crosshair, he’s pretty grumpy, but has a soft side.” Hunter gets a glare from Crosshair. “I do not!” CT-7707 smiles softly. Hunter then smiles. “We’re the bad batch!”

“Ok-Okay, nice to me-meet you, and it’s ok-okay. I’m just n-not used to atten-attention.” They all nod and 99 walks over and gently gets to work, applying bacta and wrapping up CT-7707’s neck first. “There we go, I’m guessing that was from surgery?” CT-7707 nods. “Mhm, th-they wanted to f-fix me.” 99 shakes his head. “I don’t see what there is to fix.” He then starts on CT-7707’s wrists and ankles, gently applying bacta and wrapping them up. Once he’s done, he smiles and looks up at the youngling. “Anywhere else?” CT-7707 gets a nervous look. “M-My… Um.. tail. I fe-fell on it.”

99 gives CT-7707 a soft look. “Don’t worry, Rex has done the same thing, let me take a look.” CT-7707 gently pulls his tail around, and 99 prods at it with a hum. “Seems like you sprained it, no biggie, I’ll just wrap it with bacta and you’ll be good.” CT-7707 nods and Rex looks over at Kix. “Hey, Kix. Why aren’t you helping?” Kix shrugs. “He might be more comfortable if it's just one person.” Rex nods and 99 finishes wrapping CT-7707’s tail, then Wrecker goes running and returns with a stuffed animal. “Here, you can hold my Lula.” CT-7707 raises an eyebrow. “What's a Lula?”

Wrecker smiles as he hands CT-7707 the stuffy. “She's my friend, and a tooka. You cuddle her and she makes you feel better.” CT-7707 nods and hugs the stuffy close, smiling as he holds it, then he yawns. “Looks like someone needs some sleep, I’m sure one of the boys won’t mind sharing their bunk, and we can have a sleepover.” 99 suggests, and Hunter nods. “They can use mine, if they’d like to stay.” Fives, Echo, Jesse and Kix all nod excitedly, as Cody nods as well. “Of course, we’ll have a cuddle pile!” CT-7707 raises an eyebrow again. “What's th-that?” Everyone gets a sad look, but Rex explains. “That's when you and a few other Cadets all cuddle and sleep together, here, we’ll show you.” Rex picks him up and carries him to a bed, laying CT-7707 down and then curling around him. Jesse and Kix come next and curl up on either side of Rex, as Cody sprawls himself on top.

Then Fives and Echo both lay down a bunch of blankets and pillows on the floor, curling up on them, as Wrecker joins them, Hunter smiles and turns to his other brothers. “Want to join them?” Tech nods and goes lays with Wrecker, and Crosshair huffs. “Sure.” Hunter smiles and pulls his grumpy brother over, and they both lay down. Everyone falls asleep to the sound of 99 humming as he repairs and cleans some equipment.

xxx

CT-7707 wakes up to the sound of soft and gentle breathing, panicking in his mind for only a second before he remembers where he is. For once in his life, he hasn’t been rudely awakened. His batchmates would wake him up early and abruptly, literally pulling him out of his bunk. He smiles, not feeling like he has to force it. His batchmates threatened him that if he didn’t smile when they wanted him to, he would be decommissioned and beaten up. He sighs and snuggles into whoever he is lying on top of, then looks to see that it’s Rex...who’s human! Stutter jolts up and looks down at himself, seeing that he is no longer covered in fur.

Rex feels the movement and opens his eyes to see the Lil’un awake on top of him. “Morning, Lil’un.” Rex ruffles the top of CT-7707’s head, making him softly giggle and hum at the feeling of someone ruffling his hair. “Mor-Morning, Rex.” He looks down at his wrists, seeing that the bandages have slipped off. Rex smiles sweetly “Don’t worry about those, we’ll get your wrists and ankles rewrapped later.” CT-7707 smiles and nods in thanks, then there’s a growling noise.

CT-7707 looks a little embarrassed, his stomach just made, what must be, the loudest noise in the galaxy. “Are you hungry, Lil’un?” CT-7707 nods his head, looking around the room that the others are talking amongst themselves, giving him and Rex some space. Rex smiles and sits up slowly, letting CT-7707 slide off of him. The others then walk over, all smiling brightly at him. CT-7707 isn’t used to the attention. He sees Tech walk over to them both, carrying a set of uniform and handing it to CT-7707. “Here, these might be a little bit big on you, but it’s better than nothing.”

CT-7707 smiles, but shakes the uniform off and checks it over. He looks around the room to see confused faces. “S-Sorry, my old batch-batchmates would place th-these chem-chemicals in my uni-uniforms that caused itch-itching or burn-burning. And even once g-g-gave me hives. I woul-wouldn’t use the sho-showers until it we-went away, bec-because I didn’t w-w-want the others to lo-look at me.” Everyone gets an expression crossed between sadness and anger. They hate that something like this could even happen to someone as sweet as this Cadet is.

Kix brings over some bandages, handing a few to Rex before turning to CT-7707 with a smile “Hi, kid. Is it okay if I help Rex wrap your wounds up?” Kix asks, earning a nervous look off the young, small cadet. CT-7707 looks at Rex and then back at Kix, nodding shyly. “Thank you, just let me know if I wrap them too tightly.” Both he and Rex kneel down, Rex wrapping his wrists while Kix wraps his ankles up.

“There isn’t a lot of privacy in this room, but we can look away if you want to change in that corner over there?” Hunter suggests, pointing towards the other side of the room. “Th-Thank you, that w-would be great.” Everyone smiles as he walks to get changed. Before he undresses, he turns to see the others looking away and talking to each other. He slips off his ripped pants and slips on the new pair, putting his shirt on and then walking back to the group.

“Hey, Lil’un. So we have a surprise for you.” Rex tells him joyfully, making CT-7707 wonder as to what the surprise could be. He’s sure that it won’t be like the mean surprises that he used to get. “A s-s-surprise? For me?” They all nod. This is obviously a joint surprise. Rex crouches down in front of him and smiles. “It was Fives’ idea first, but then we all agreed on it, your name. Stutter.” CT-7707.. no… Stutter stares at them with wide eyes, and Fives walks forward excitedly. “I hope you like it!! I figured that the name Stutter would make you feel better about it, and it just fits you. Also I am like the all time master of name choosing.” He gets a slap from Echo for that, but Stutter still doesn’t move, Rex frowns. “We all agreed that when we think of you, that name fits. But if you don’t like it—“ Rex can’t finish because Stutter slams into him with a hug, then he does the same to Fives. “Th-Thank you, Th-Thank you Th-Thank you!!!” He chants as he goes around hugging everyone, even Crosshair smiles and hugs him.

Rex smiles. “No thanks necessary, everyone deserves a name, especially a sweet little Vod’ika like you.” Stutter smiles happily as Rex stands up and takes his hand. “Now, let’s get some food, yeah?” “YEAH!!!” Everyone chuckles at Wreckers enthusiasm. “Wrecker's right!! Let's go!!” Jesse yells in agreement, making everyone cheer as well.

“Knock knock.” Everyone turns to see Cody walking in with a fresh set of uniform. Rex sighs in relief. “Thanks Cod’ika. We were just about to leave for the messhall, so good timing.” Rex says. And Cody chuckles. “Of course, can’t let you just walk around half naked now can we?” Cody laughs and passes the uniform to Rex, who moves to the corner and quickly changes. Once he’s done he walks back. “Alright, let’s head to the mess hall.” Rex freezes and turns to Cody. “Also, Codes. We gave our young brother a name, It’s Stutter, Fives came up with it.” Cody gets a smile as he kneels down towards Stutter. “So, what do you think of the name?” Stutter smiles widely. “I love it!!” Cody ruffles his hair. “That's great!! Now, let's get you some food.” Stutter nods as he grabs onto Rex’s hand, the seven year old Cadet looking down with a smile, at his four year old brother.

Everyone nods and follows them out, who holds Stutters hand. They all walk through the halls, getting stares from everyone, but they are actually too happy to notice. Once they get in there, everyone heads over to get their food, and Rex helps out Stutter. “There, now let's go sit.” They all sit down, but after a few minutes of eating, they notice that Stutter is just staring at them. “Is something wrong, Stutter?” Rex asks, making Stutter blink a couple of times before replying. “I-It’s just that my prev-previous batch-batchmates w-w-would push my f-food onto the fl-floor, so p-part of me was-s expe-expecting that to...neverm-m-mind, sorry.” Stutter picks up his fork and starts to eat his food, but then his stomach twists when he hears the all too familiar voices of his previous batchmates.

He startles and hides behind Rex, who looks confused but then quickly realises what the matter is when he sees four cadets coming towards them. “Duse? Wow, I would have thought that you would have been decommissioned the moment that the Kaminoans found out that you are a monster.” The leader of their batch, Clank, smirks when he sees Stutter shaking. Rex sees red, holding Stutter close and hiding him from them.

Rex growls, making them jump when they see him slightly transform. He sprouts a little bit of fur, teeth are sharper, ears a little pointier as he gets a little bigger, making his uniform stretch enough to be noticeable, but not enough to completely rip. Cody places a hand on his shoulder to calm him enough to keep him from fully transforming, then he looks at the four cadets. “I think it’s time that you leave. Now. And I suggest that you leave him alone from now on.” Clank snorts and crosses his arms.

“Who, CT-7707? I didn’t even think that he existed or mattered.” Clank retorts, obviously enjoying this. Rex groans, trying as hard as he can not to completely transform. Crosshair glares at them “He has a name.” “Yeah, it’s Stutter!” Fives adds, making the batch look disgusted and then Clank laughs, the others doing the same “That’s a great name, because now he will never forget why he sounds so stupid whenever he opens his mouth.”

“You’re the only one here who sounds stupid.” Echo’s comeback angers the Cadet, but when Clank starts to walk forward, Wrecker stands up and gets in his way, just standing there. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Reg.” He warns, making the Cadet pale a little, but pretends that he isn’t bothered by him. “Tch, come on guys, let’s get out of here.” Clank tells them, walking past the table and attempting to knock Stutter’s food onto the floor, but Hunter can sense what he is about to do, so Hunter grabs his arm and pushes it away. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Clank only glares at him and goes to walk away, but before they leave, Clank just has to open his mouth again. “He’s such a defect, he’ll be decommissioned soon, so he won’t matter much more.” It’s said barely above a whisper, but Hunter and Rex hear him loud and clear. Unfortunately, Stutter also heard what he said, making him tear up and start crying. Rex growls and has to run out of the mess hall to transform, he wishes he could have stayed, but he didn’t want to scare Stutter with his transformation and it's just not very good for him to be seen.

Hunter quickly walks over and pulls Stutter close, when suddenly a whole tray of food goes flying and hits the four cadets, everyone turns to see Crosshair standing up, he has the most evil glare on his face. “I don’t know what you just said, but you made my baby brother cry, and no one messes with my brothers, ever!” Stutter sniffles and looks up at Crosshair, eyes widening when he realizes what was just said, Crosshair walks over and gives Stutter his best smile. He gently wipes Stutter’s tears away. “He doesn’t deserve brothers!!” Clank yells, making Crosshair tense up, and they run as Hunter has to hold Crosshair back from chasing after them. “Yeah!! You better run!!” Fives yells as Kix and Jesse blow raspberries at their retreating forms.

“Yeah!!! Don’t come back, ya Regs!!” Wrecker yells as Echo cheers. “Yeah, ya sorry excuses for Vod’e!” Echo and Wrecker both high five as Cody chuckles, then he looks towards the door. “Okay, we need to go find Rex.” Then he turns to Fives, Echo, Jesse and Kix. “Okay, you four have training, so we’ll see you after.” The four groan, but nod. Fives pulls Stutter into a hug. “We’ll see you later. Vod’ika.”

The other three join in on the hug as well, and nod. “Yep!” “Definitely.” “as soon as training is over.” Then they all run out of the messhall as Cody takes Stutter’s hand, and him and the bad batch walk out slowly, immediately seeing two boots on opposite sides of the hall, Cody sighs. “Rex was definitely transforming, he probably went back to your guys’ barracks.” The bad batch nod and they all start walking, but Wrecker runs up to Stutter. “Would you...uh, like to ride on my shoulders?” Stutter doesn’t know what he means, but he nods. Wrecker smiles and quickly scoops Stutter up, quickly throwing him up and onto his shoulders. Stutter squeals with excitement as he laughs, making everyone smile.

He lays his chin on the top of Wreckers head as they walk, humming and closing his eyes as he relaxes. He finds that he likes having brothers, good brothers. “My brothers.” He mumbles quietly, getting a large smile, but Hunter hears it. “Yep! We're your brothers, so is Jesse, Kix, Fives and Echo. And also Rex and Cody.” Stutter nods. “They are your brothers too, we’re all brothers now.” Hunter gets a surprised look, and so do the others, but then he smiles. “Yeah, you brought us together, and now we are all brothers, our little group of brothers.” Cody smiles as he listens to the conversation, he can’t believe that one little Cadet could bring together so many different brothers. They have a small family now.

They make it to the bad batch’s barracks, seeing torn clothes once they start to get closer, Cody knocks. “Rex! Are you there?” Cody waits for a few seconds, when-- “Yeah! I’m here.” Cody smiles and types in the code, walking into the room, followed by the bad batch and Stutter. They see Rex, fully transformed, torn uniform everywhere, sitting slumped against the wall with his head hung low. He looks up and his tears reflect in the light. Stutter is the first one to run over and hug him, after jumping off of Wreckers shoulders, softly crying. Rex runs a hand over the back of his head, shushing him.

“It’s okay, they’re gone now. We’ll be here for you.” Rex tells him, but Stutter doesn’t stop crying. “Hey, you alright, Lil’un--?” “I-It hurts. I feel re-really uncom-uncomfortable.” Rex furrows his eyebrows for a moment, then he notices Stutter shifting and changing. “Crap, he’s transforming. Can you guys leave us for a few minutes please?” They all nod and turn, walking out the door and closing it behind them. Rex frowns, hating that Stutter is in so much pain.

“R-Rex, it hu-hurts. Why do-does i-it hURT, AHH!!” Stutter yells as he changes and transforms, bones cracking, fur sprouting and body growing, his face elongating into a snout. Rex knows the pain, that there isn’t much to stop it. Even painkillers don’t help, neither do bacta patches for the muscle pain. He rubs Stutter’s back as he writhes and whines, nearly fully transformed. “Shh, it’s okay, it’s okay.” Rex comforts Stutter as much as he can, pulling off the torn pieces of uniform. Stutter whines when the transformation finishes. “I’m s-sorry, R-Rex. I-I can’t con-control it.” Stutter whimpers, nuzzling into Rex’s chest, who runs a hand up and down his back.

“Don’t worry, Stut’ika. I couldn’t control it very well for a while. Emotions are a strong trigger for it, so it can get difficult sometimes, but I’ll be right here for you, always.” Stutter nods, slightly understanding a little more. Rex smiles as he nuzzles the top of Stutter’s head with his chin. “I still have a hard time controlling it, like today in the messhall. It does get easier to hold it back though, I promise.” Stutter smiles with relief, but then looks up at Rex with sad eyes. “C-Can the oth-others come back in n-now?”

Rex smiles and nods “Of course they can. Guys! You can come back in now!” He calls to the others, who are standing right outside. The door slides open and both the bad batch and Cody walk back in. He smiles as he walks over to Stutter and pets his head, smiling softly as the bad batch walk over. Wecker stares at Stutter, making the young wolf chuckle. “D-Do you wa-want to feel my f-fur?” Wrecker nods excitedly as he gently rubs Stutter’s arm, humming as he feels his fur, Stutter hums at the feeling as well, then Cody smiles. “So, I got you transferred away from that squad of yours, and to mine and Rex’s.” Stutter and Rex both perk up, as the bad batch smile.

“And if those di'kutla batchmates give you anymore trouble, you come to us and we’ll take care of ‘em!” Crosshair reassures Stutter, and his other three brothers cheer, Stutter tears up and hugs Rex, knowing he’s going to be part of his squad now. Rex chuckles as the door opens and 99 walks in.

“Hey, boys. How is everyone doing after last night? I baked some cookies!” Rex smiles. “We named him Stutter!” He gestures to Stutter. “And he’ll never have to see his old batchmates ever again, since he’s in my squad now!!” 99 gets a wide smile as he sets the container of cookies down and walks over to Stutter, running hand through his fur. “That's very good, we should get the other four and celebrate.” Cody shakes his head. “99, they’re in train--” “I don’t care, we all know that you have leeway with the longnecks, go get them.” Cody sighs, but chuckles and runs out the door. 99 turns to see Wrecker trying to snatch a cookie, and promptly stops him. “Wrecker, you have to be patient.” Wrecker pouts, but walks back over to Stutter and sits beside him and Rex.

After a few minutes, Cody returns with Fives, Echo, Jesse and Kix. Fives squalls and runs over, hugging Stutter as Rex sets him down. “Ha! You’ll never have to see those nobodies ever again!!” Stutter chuckles and hugs Fives back, as 99 walks over. “Here, you can have the first cookie, Stutter!” Stutter smiles and grabs one, as everyone congratulates him. They all have a little party, and Stutter finds that becoming a werewolf is the best thing that's ever happened to him.

Mando’a translations:

Duse- rubbish, waste - lit. unclean things

di'kutla-useless, stupid, worthless

Taglist: @pro-fangirls-unsocial-life @ahsokatano-thetogruta @lightning-wolffe @haloangel391

#wererex #werestutter #werewolf #Cadet Stutter #my oc #my writing #star wars clone wars #cadet bad batch #cadets #cadet Echo #cadet fives #cadet kix #cadet jesse #One Big Family AU

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twoidiotwriters1 · 3 years

Text

Iron 10 (Peter Parker x Fem!Oc)

Words: 3, 238

Masterlist

Chapter 9

"And how am I supposed to learn to control them if they forbid me to do anything?" Lily asks from the back seat.

“We’ll talk to your father. Depending on what happens, we’ll send them the necessary equipment,” informs Fury.

"Depending on what happens?"

"Legal aspects.”

"As which?"

"Lily, one problem at a time," Nat interrupts.

“Fine. Where are we going?"

"Do you want a donut?"

"Sure!"

The van pulls up outside the Randy’s Donuts store, Fury comes out. They both look at him from inside the car. Tony’s sitting on the huge donut.

"Why did we come for him?” She grits her teeth, remembering the annoyance towards her father.

"You two should talk," Nat says.

"I don’t want to.”

"If you want us to help you, that is the condition.”

Lily turns away from the window and folds her arms looking at the redhead.

"You didn't say anything about conditions.”

"Now there are.”

"It's not fair,” She sighs and then looks at Nat's outfit. "Why do you wear that? Is it your super spy uniform?"

"Something like that. You like it?"

“You look weird, but I like it. Do you have weapons or explosives?"

“Perhaps."

The agent receives an order from her intercom. She responds and returns to the girl.

"Come on, I'll buy you a donut."

They both get out of the truck and enter the premises. Nat asks Lily a chocolate donut and walks to the chairs where Tony and Fury are, while the girl takes the donut from her and sits in an armchair away from them, with her back to them.

"Huh!" Tony says when he sees Natasha in a new outfit "You're... fired.”

"That's not up to you,” answers the redhead sitting down.

"Tony, I want you to meet Agent Romanoff,” adds Fury.

“Hi."

"I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D. shadow. Once we knew you were ill or out of control, I was tasted to you by Director Fury. Besides taking care of your daughter in risky situations,” She tilts her head towards Lily.

Tony frowns and looks away to meet the little girl, eating a donut while she swings her legs. He goes back to the redhead.

"I suggest you apologize,” answers Tony.

"You've been very busy," continues Fury. “You made your girl your CEO, you’re giving away your stuff, you neglect your daughter without taking into account the high priority over her powers, you let your friend fly way with your suit. Now, if I did’nt know better—”

Tony rolls his eyes. Again, someone else scolding him for whatever stupid thing he does. Although he now knows that he did screw up, he doesn't want to hear it again. He has enough with his own mind.

"You don't know better. I didn’t give it to him. He took it."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, He took it?" asks Fury. “You’re Iron Man and he just took it? The Little brother walked in there, kicked your ass and took your suit?" He says. “Is that possible?"

“Well, according to Mr. Stark’s database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorized usage,” answers Nat.

Tony snorts.

"What do you want from me?"

“What do we want from you? Uh-uh,” Fury says as Natasha gets up. “What do you want from me? You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the center of my universe,” He scolds him.

In that, Natasha injects something into Tony making him scream. The conversation is overheard by Lily, but only when he complains does she turn around.

"Oh, god, are you gonna steal my kidney and sell it?" Tony asks.

Natasha moves Tony's head and Fury sees the lines on Stark's neck slowly disappear.

Fury explains what the substance they just injected does to him.

“Give me a couple of boxes of that. I'll see right as rain."

"It's not a cure, it just abates the symptoms,” Nat explains.

"You need to get back to work, Stark," Fury says and Tony sighs. "And by Stark, I mean both," He points back.

Lily realizes that he sees her and turns away.

"I don't think she wants to work as a team now."

“She has her reasons. You are a terrible companion.”

***

They all return home to Malibu. Tony and Nick sit on the terrace, now destroyed. They both talk about the reactor, the technology that Howard Stark couldn't finish, and about Vanko father and son.

Fury takes it upon himself to explain everything to Tony, while Lily returns from her room after making sure that no one had destroyed her. Nat had told him what happened with Rhodes and Tony.

The little girl walks to sit on the stairs that lead to the terrace, listening to the adults.

“You told me I hadn't tried everything. What do you mean I haven’t tried everything? What haven’t I tried?" Tony points out.

"He said that you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started.”

"He said that?"

“Are you that guy? Hmm? Are you? ‘Cause if you are, then you can solve the riddle of your heart. Or maybe, I should be discussing this with your daughter."

Tony winces and shakes his head. Lily frowns.

"I don't know where you get your information, but he wasn't my biggest fan," says Tony.

"I'm not either," adds Lily, resting her chin on her arm. Tony glances at her.

"What do you remember about your dad?"

This catches the girl's attention.

“He was cold, he was calculating. He never told me he loved me. He never even told me he liked me, so it’s a Little tough for me to digest then you’re telling me he said the whole future was riding on me an’s passing it down. I don't get that."

Hearing that, Lily feels a little sorry for Tony. Only a little. She imagines how could be her grandfather when Tony was her age.

"You're talking about a guy whose happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding School.”

"That’s not true.”

"Well, then, clearly you knew my dad better than I did.”

“As a matter of fact, I did. You can believe and think many things about him, but knowing all that, do you really want Lily to think the same about you?" says Fury and then finishes his drink. More agents appear to drop off several suitcases. "Well then, what else will I know about one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

"What?"

All three get up. Lily walks over to see the suitcase.

"What’s this?" Tony asks pointing at her.

"You got this, right?" asks Fury.

"Got what? I don’t even know what I’m supposed to get,” answers Tony nervously.

“Natasha will remain a floater at Stark with her cover of her intact. And you remember Agent Coulson, right?"

“Yeah."

They both greet each other.

"Oh, and Tony,” says Fury before leaving. "After you fix this whole mess, we should talk about Lily's new training, she needs it more than you do. And remember, I got my eye on you.”

The latter makes Lily laugh.

Natasha and Coulson explain to Tony what to do and what not to do, while Lily walks over to the suitcase.

Property of H.Stark

"Okay, time to work, Kid," says Tony.

“No," Lily walks away. "We've been together for several hours and you haven't even apologized, and now you're just hoping that I'll help you?"

Tony raises an eyebrow, shifting uncomfortably.

“Basically."

Lily looks at him in disbelief.

"I don't want to, I won't help you,” She says and then returns to her room.

***

The truth is that Lily does want to help him, but she knows he doesn't deserve it. Moreover, she cannot be alone in her room doing nothing. She wants to know what’s in that suitcase, but she doesn't want Tony to find out about her.

An idea crosses her mind. She may not be the stealthiest, but she is the only thing she has. She goes into the living room of her destroyed house and presses the hidden button on the emergency elevator that goes alone to the workshop. She enters it and after a few seconds arrives at the workshop.

All the lights are off and Tony is sitting in an armchair facing a projection. Lily sneaks up behind the old project.

They both watch the old Howard Stark tapes, rehearsing the presentation of what is now Stark Expo. The man has several mistakes with words, but something else calls him the attention to the girl. Just as a little boy comes out the other side of the desk where Howard presents a model. The boy takes one of the pieces and Howard notices.

“Tony, what are you doing back there? What is that? Put that back!” He scolds him.

Lily leans in to get a better look at the boy version of her father. Now she can see the resemblance between Howard and Tony when scolding their children, but is also fun to watch.

Several takes with more errors follow.

“So, from all of us at Stark Industries, I’d like to personally show you my ass,” says Howard. Lily can't help but laugh at his words, giving away her presence. Although Tony had listened to her since she arrived.

"I know you're in there, kid. You're too curious to miss this,” She comes out of her hiding place, crawling on the ground until she reaches the other side of the projector.

"I'm still mad.”

Tony sighs.

"I know,” He leans in the chair and sets aside a notebook.

“Tony," says Howard causing both of them to return to the screen. “You’re too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put this film for you. I built this for you. And Someday you'll realize that it represents a whole lot more than just people’s inventions. It represents my life’s work. This is the key to the future,” He shows the model and the reactor. “I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is and always will be my greatest creation… is you,” The tape ends.

"Do you think Grandpa Howard would love me?" Lily asks when the lights come on.

Tony laughs when he hears ‘Grandpa Howard’, he’s sure he wouldn’t like to be called that.

"I don’t know. Maybe he would love you more than me,” He looks at Lily.

"I am more adorable than you.”

Tony nods, unable to fight back. He sighs. He thinks about the words of his father and wonders why he was never like this with him when they were together. Why does he have to find out about this from a tape or from other people? Then he thinks of his own daughter and Fury's words come back to him.

Tony doesn't want Lily to grow up thinking that he was worse than Howard, he knows what he did.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you that day," He begins.

"And?" She says crossing her arms.

"And sorry for what you had to witness at the party.”

"And?"

Tony purses his lips.

“I'm sorry I failed you. I shouldn't have left you alone, or yell at you, or lie to you.”

"Nat told me that your chest was killing you,” He nods. "Didn't it occur to you to ask for help?"

“It is somewhat complicated. When you say that you are dying, everyone panics.”

"But then they help you.”

"I guess so.”

Lily feels a lump in her throat. Just remembering that, she again feels afraid of losing her father without even knowing something about what was really going on.

"I don't like that you hide things from me or lie to me," she says with a broken voice.

“Sorry."

"No, you must promise that you won’t do it again,” she interrupts him.

Tony watches Lily's determination.

"I promise.”

“Mr. Fury said we are a team. You must do your part,” she says as she gets up.

"Mr. Fury?"

"Dad!"

"Okay, okay, I got it!” He argues. In that he remembers an unfinished business. Tony stayed for a moment in the destroyed mansion and as he passed through the kitchen he saw a burned box on the sides.

He walks over to his desk with Lily following him. He removes the remains from the box and carefully takes the gift from him.

"It's a good try…”

"But you didn't even open it," she complains.

"I'm sorry, but you were missing some details.”

Lily rolls her eyes.

"I put it together by watching a video, it's not as if you had explained each part to me.”

“That can change. Do you remember the rules we agreed upon the first time you were in the workshop?" She nods. “Forget the question limit. From now on, you must ask.”

Lily can't help but smile.

“Agree."

"So, are we good now?"

"Yup, but if you do something wrong, I'll tell Mr. Fury to scold you again."

"He didn't scold me," He complains.

"Whatever you say. Now what shall we do?"

Tony sighs and then winces.

“I must go to Pepper, stay here and cover me with the secret agents. I will not be late.”

"Good luck.”

***

After a few hours, Tony returns with the demo that his father had shown on the tapes. He arms it on various tables.

“Cool," says Lily approaching.

Tony orders Jarvis to scan every detail so he can manipulate it, he takes the hologram and moves it away from the table.

“Open your eyes wide, Kid. The answer to our problems is here,” says Tony giving her a bench and he sits on another. They both look at the model.

"What do we have to look for?"

"A new element.”

“Easy," she says sarcastically.

"My father put it here, we just have to move some things,” He brings the projection towards the center, a sphere.

"He must have something at the core," Tony whispers.

Lily sees what is around.

"What if…?”

"What?"

"What if we put everything together?"

Tony frowns, but an idea crosses his mind.

Little by little, Tony is gathering the important aspects towards the center of the Expo and in each step, he’s explaining Lily. In the end he manages to find a new element, the possible solution to the problem of intoxication.

"Dead for almost twenty years, and still taking me to school,” He says watching his creation. "Nice work, Kid.”

She smiles.

"How will you make it work?" She asks.

"Unfortunately, it’s impossible to synthesize," reports Jarvis.

Tony gets up from his chair.

“Get ready for a major remodel, fellas! We're back in hardware mode. C’mon, kid.”

Between Lily and Tony - mostly Tony - they break down some walls, open the floor and use any energy source in the mansion to connect it to the workshop part. They both open some boxes that S.H.I.E.L.D left them and use every material they have on hand.

"Hold the lamp," Tony tells her.

"It's what I'm doing,” Lily claims while she also tries to see what Tony is doing.

"More to the right.”

"What does that do?"

“Gives more energy. Bring the lamp closer…”

In the meantime, neither of them notices that Phil walks into the shop.

"I heard you broke the perimeter,” says the agent.

"Whoops" says Lily.

"Uh, yeah. That was, like, three years ago. Where have you been?" Tony answers.

"I was doing some stuff.”

"Yeah, well, us too, and it worked.”

Coulson checks the boxes. He pulls out some kind of unfinished shield.

"What’s that?" asks Lily.

“It’s exactly what we need to make this work. Lily, take it,” She obeys. "Lift the coil,” He says to Coulson and between them they lift it up a bit. Enough for Lily to put it under. Tony sets the leveler. “Perfectly level. I'm busy what do you want?"

Coulson warns him that he must go on another mission and says goodbye.

"Glad to see you are a part of it, Lily.”

"It was not easy,” she answers making him laugh.

The hours pass and they both go back to work. In the end, Tony gives Lily some special glasses and explains what they will do.

The energy is concentrated in the device.

"Initializing prismatic accelerator," reports Jarvis. Suddenly a fine laser is projected and reflected off a material.

"Get behind me,” Tony orders him.

Stark operates the machine with the laser, but not before cutting part of the wall where he directs it.

"Oh oh.”

“Oops!"

With difficulty, the laser reaches the small inverted triangle that Tony prepared so that the power would be trapped there. After a few minutes, they turn off the machine. Tony approaches and with tweezers takes the triangle and puts it in the reactor. The item’s accepted.

"We did it?" Lily asks.

“We did it."

She sighs in relief, right now she feels the exhaustion. She walks over to the couch and sits on it.

"Wake me up when we're in trouble," she warns him.

"Why would we be in trouble?"

"Rhodey says we have that talent.”

"Makes sense.”

In that a beep is heard.

"Incoming call and with a blocked number, sir,” warns Jarvis.

“My phone privilege is reinstated. Lovely. Kid, we have the phone back!"

“Great," she answers from the couch.

"Coulson. How’s the land of enchantment?"

"Hey. Tony. How you doing?” The voice is unknown to Lily so she settles in the chair and leans out. "I doubled cycle."

"You what?"

“You told me double cycle’s more power. Good advice.”

"You sound pretty sprightly for a dead guy.”

"What?" whispers Lily. She gets up and walks over to Tony. He makes a sign so that she doesn't make noise.

"You too,” answers the man.

Tony removes his microphone from the call.

"Trace him,” he orders Jarvis.

“Now, the true history of Stark name will be written. Your secrets will be revealed at any moment."

"What is he talking about, dad?"

Tony ignores her and keeps checking the call.

“What your father did to my family over forty years, I will do to you in forty minutes and I will make sure your offspring disappear. I hope you're ready,” He says, and then hangs up.

Tony sees Justin Hammer's announcement at Stark Expo on another screen, and based on the coordinates of the call, Vanko may have something planned for the event. He gets up and takes the new reactor.

"Dad?"

Stark replaces the reactor in his chest, after coughing a bit, the man feels the difference.

"Time to go,” He says walking towards his armor.

"Hey! No. You promised—”

"I have to go, Lily."

“But, you must tell me what happens. You promised not to lie to me,” She gets in her way. He sighs.

"Vanko, the man who tried to kill me in Monaco, wants to do something at the Expo and I have to stop him.”

“What does he plan to do?"

"I'm not sure. You must stay here. I'll talk to Fury about sending agents here. Turn on the TV, I'm sure they'll put it on,” He continues on his way.

“Dad," He turns again. "Be careful, please.”

Tony smiles and nods.

"Stay in the workshop in case I need your help.”

"You got it.”

Taglist:

@silenthappyplace @yourbonesareinmybody @aylauwuuniverse @skittles-skittles @hufflepuffzutara @poetryislife0715 @21bruhs @heavenlymistakes @my-love-of-books @dielgonacoffee

#Iron #peter parker fanfiction #Peter Parker #Peter Parker x Oc #Peter Parker x reader #Avengers #Avengers fanfic #Marvel #Marvel fanfic #Tony Stark #Lily Stark #Stark! reader #Pepper Potts #James rhodes #Iron Man 2 #Spider man

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katcadecascade · 3 years

Text

Waiting for These Eyes to Open (ORV oneshot)

*spoilers up to chapter 226

Summary:

He finds himself reaching the 73rd Demon Realm with an archangel, taking ownership of an industrial complex in Kim Dokja’s name, and confronting Asmodeus. Yoo Jonghyuk could not see himself ever doing this for anyone, mostly because no one else would get in this much trouble.

But for some reason he did this all. All to see Kim Dokja again. And that rat bastard is sleeping. This is all exhausting to think. Thankfully, there’s a chair nearby.

If given the chance, Yoo Jonghyuk would avoid the Demon Realm as much as possible. Ever since Kim Dokja became his companion, those chances were never in his sight.

After the confrontation with Asmodeus, an encounter that literally began fracturing Yoo Jonghyuk’s body, it took a while to recover and search for Kim Dokja.

That rat bastard was all the way over in the other Industrial Complex, a place using his name much to the annoyance of Yoo Jonghyuk. Then to top it off, Kim Dokja wasn’t even awake when he finally found him.

In the back room of a clock workshop, Kim Dokja is lying in a spare bed covered in story packs. The sight almost makes Yoo Jonghyuk wince. He is not an expert at story packs but he knows it will be disastrous if a story or more are not compatible with the patient.

The woman treating him, Aileen Makerfield, was hesitant and wary about letting Yoo Jonghyuk see the patient while she injects the day’s dose of story.

“Kim Dokja told me to let him die for an hour,” she grumbled. Her steady hands carefully wrapped new bandages around an arm. Story fragments, sentences really, had spilled out from an open gash. “Now he needs sleep for days.”

It’s not often Yoo Jonghyuk stays by someone’s side when they’re recovering. It almost feels like a clique to be sitting by a sleeping Kim Dokja.

Actually, it feels utterly strange to see Kim Dokja with his eyes closed for more than two seconds.

The last time he watched Kim Dokja close his eyes is when he first became the Demon King of Salvation and died in Yoo Jonghyuk’s arms.

Yoo Jonghyuk is not sure if he feels relief to see Kim Dokja’s current state. The sickly paleness, the various tubes injected into his veins, the heartbeat monitory is louder than the little breaths Kim Dokja takes in. He can barely see the slow rise and fall of his chest, the only movement of the sleeping man.

It’s eerily to see his eyes shut when Yoo Jonghyuk expects those long eyelashes to flutter and see the vast emotions play out in Kim Dokja’s dark eyes.

So far, nothing in his three regression rounds compare to Kim Dokja’s eyes. It’s filled with something Yoo Jonghyuk cannot describe.

“At first I thought he was a smart man, a hero even.”

He nearly forgot Aileen was still here. She’s adjusting the placements of story pack but her attention flickers to him.

“Then he begins to do crazy, risky plans,” Aileen said in a tone of a disapproving mother. “Kim Dokja did it all with cool composure.”

“That is Kim Dokja,” Yoo Jonghyuk confirmed.

Aileen shook her head, “He wasn’t like that when the other Demon King entered the realm.”

Yoo Jonghyuk excused, “It was Asmodeus.”

She raised an eyebrow and in that moment, Aileen looked too similar to Han Sooyoung as she continued, “He was frantic, desperately needed to get to the Gilobat Industrial Complex. I think he even tried to bargain with the constellations too before he decided on this plan.”

He refuses to break eye contact and defiantly says, “All his plans involve him dying.”

That gets Aileen gob smacked, squinting at him and then to her patient. She’s acting as if they’re both madmen and honestly that cannot be blamed.

While the story expert is caught off guard, Yoo Jonghyuk returns to staring at Kim Dokja, remembering all the times he sacrificed himself for the party.

It’s frustratingly an occurring pattern. This man does the same thing over and over again and expects the results to be the same.

Kim Dokja expects his friends to be alive and yes, he’s accurate on that part but it is Yoo Jonghyuk who has to deal with the aftermath.

Those individuals have all soften their emotions for this one man who has left them behind with the measly promise of his return. Annoyingly, they wait.

Yoo Jonghyuk, on the other hand, is impatient.

And so he finds himself reaching the 73rd Demon Realm with an archangel, a terrible idea; taking ownership of an industrial complex in Kim Dokja’s name, because Kim Dokja is not the only one who steals names; and confronting Asmodues, the reason Yoo Jonghyuk regressed into the third round.

Yoo Jonghyuk could not see himself ever doing this for anyone, mostly because no one else would get in this much trouble. But for some reason he did this all.

All to see Kim Dokja again.

And that rat bastard is sleeping.

This is all exhausting to think. Thankfully, there’s a chair nearby.

“He’s not waking up soon,” Aileen has gather up her tools and prepares to leave, “Are you sure you want to stay?”

Without hesitation, Yoo Jonghyuk nods.

“I’ll get you some tea,” she offers with a smile. “Keep an eye on him.”

As she leaves, Yoo Jonghyuk feels impulsive.

The stillness and paleness in Kim Dokja’s face has been bothering him since he entered the room. Now with no audience, aside from the constellations unfortunately, Yoo Jonghyuk hovers a hand over Kim Dokja.

He ignores the slight shake in his hand right before his fingers touch the softness of Kim Dokja’s cheeks. Yoo Jonghyuk expected the skin to feel clammy or cold, instead the unconscious man is warm.

A tiny part of Yoo Jonghyuk relaxes, more so when he begins to trace shapeless figures between the edge of Kim Dokja’s closed eyes and his chin. He carefully pinches a stray eyelash and Yoo Jonghyuk freezes when the eye moves underneath its lid.

Then awkwardly, Yoo Jonghyuk retracts his hand when the sleeping eyes flutter open. For a moment, his heart stops beating as Kim Dokja tilts his head, slowly blinking as the corner of his pink lips form a small smile.

“My protagonist,” Kim Dokja breathes softly, as if painting on silk.

Yoo Jonghyuk ignores the weird noise his throat makes and quickly examines Kim Dokja. He spots the story pack Aileen was securing into the canteen.

It’s labeled Vulnerability of a Cursed Dreamer.

A memory pops up in Yoo Jonghyuk’s brain. It’s of Yoo Mia demanding him to read her a bed time story. It was Sleeping Beauty.

“Shut your mouth Kim Dokja.”

Doing the opposite, he continued, “My Supreme King.”

“Kim Dokja,” he warns lowly.

A tiny huff of air exits Kim Dokja, barely qualifying as a laugh as he says, “My Yoo Jonghyuk.”

Those words tug onto something inside Yoo Jonghyuk. The tone of voice alone shakes Yoo Jonghyuk’s core because has never heard his name spoken with so much tenderness.

Still surprising him, Kim Dokja awed, “You’re not dead.”

“Bastard, you don’t get to say that,” Yoo Jonghyuk instantly shot.

A hot boiling frustration always stews inside him, reserved to those deserving of his fury. His rage is snuffed when Kim Dokja’s smile brightens.

The frustration is back when Kim Dokja attempts to sit up.

“Don’t get up,” he orders, placing a hand at Kim Dokja’s collarbone.

Yoo Jonghyuk is too familiar with feeling the skin here, where he can easily slide up to grasp the neck. This is a new body so there is no evidence of times where he gripped Kim Dokja by the neck and tossed him into oblivion.

This time though, Yoo Jonghyuk secures Kim Dokja in place, making sure he won’t die here.

“I’m happy that you didn’t regress.”

“Of course you are.”

The last time he thought about regressing was at the eighth scenario, the Ultimate Sacrifice. It was the ultimatum and it made sense for him to regress up until Kim Dokja convinced him not to. Kim Dokja had said that this world line should be worth protecting.

He once believed early on, if he regresses, there could be a better chance in the next round. Even now after Kim Dokja’s talk, Yoo Jonghyuk had the thought that maybe he could use the knowledge in this round and be better in the fourth round.

Maybe Yoo Jonghyuk can stop Kim Dokja from dying so much in the fourth round.

Kim Dokja interrupts his thoughts, as he always does, and gives off the suspicious that he can actually read Yoo Jonghyuk’s mind.

“I don’t know what will happen to me if you regress.”

He blinks. Remaining calm, Yoo Jonghyuk states, “You were in the next subway car.”

Kim Dokja shakes his head, it jostles a story pack on his shoulder and Yoo Jonghyuk reaches over to secure it back on.

“It’s not that simple, it can’t be. It is never simple for me.” A cloudy gaze goes over his eyes, full of something Yoo Jonghyuk wants to describe but cannot for the life of him. Mirroring that desperation, Kim Dokja frowns, “I want this. I want to reach the end of this story.”

“You’re not making sense.”

“Would you leave me, Yoo Jonghyuk?”

It’s an unexpected question and yet this has been asked before.

Lee Seolhwa, his wife in the previous regression round, worried about his attribute.

Both she and Kim Dokja wondered about his mindset, as if regressing was a drug he’s addicted to and not a necessary last resort.

Previously, he wondered why Lee Seolhwa asked because by the next round she had forgotten who he was. Hell, she poisoned him in this round because he was careless around someone who became important to him.

Now applying that situation with Kim Dokja is a headache.

“…a regression without you sounds tempting.”

“Be honest.”

Again, Yoo Jonghyuk cannot read the emotion in Kim Dokja’ eyes. If he had to guess there is a bit of terror but that should be preposterous. Never before has Kim Dokja ever been scared of him.

Yet, Yoo Jonghyuk has an ache in his chest at the idea of Kim Dokja in fear. Be it fear of Yoo Jonghyuk or for him, it is an uneasy feeling.

It truly means that Kim Dokja puts so much trust into Yoo Jonghyuk.

He’s used to this responsibility, ignores it mostly because it is from the masses and feels its weight in his bones. But it is different coming from Kim Dokja.

Kim Dokja who knows him and his future, who knows the depths of Yoo Jonghyuk and the rest of the party. Kim Dokja who became a constellation, became a Demon King, and became Yoo Jonghyuk’s companion.

In life and death, Yoo Jonghyuk cannot imagine ever leaving Kim Dokja’s side.

With raw honesty, Yoo Jonghyuk says, “If there is a chance that I will lose you, I will not regress Kim Dokja.”

“Yoo Jonghyuk,” he smiles so sweet, “you’re a cool protagonist.”

He sucks in a sharp breath of air, not becomes this is touching but because Yoo Jonghyuk is keeping together his restraint to not throttle Kim Dokja’s neck.

It is very tempting due to how stupid Kim Dokja is.

Yoo Jonghyuk pinches the bridge of his nose, composing himself into civility. It is a tall order when it comes to moments like this. He places his hands on his lap to berate this idiot when something catches his eyes.

The story pack on Kim Dokja’ shoulder. It is labeled Loose Cognition of a Bad Luck Charm.

Does that mean…

He blinks a few times, processing and in that silence, Kim Dokja has closed his eyes and breaths slowly.

Sighing, Yoo Jonghyuk strokes hair away from Kim Dokja’s face. “Sleep and forget this conversation.”

For the next two peaceful days, Yoo Jonghyuk waits for his companion to walk up. He is half-worried if Kim Dokja remembers what they discussed. His paranoia is for naught at the end of the week when he meets Kim Dokja’s eyes.

They are wide and shocked and happy and if Yoo Jonghyuk could read his mind, he’d bet Kim Dokja is thinking, ‘You are alive.’

Bastard, Yoo Jonghyuk thinks as they catch up and at the end of it, he tells him, “Let’s go back to Earth, Kim Dokja.”

#my fic #yoo jonghyuk #kim dokja #orv fic #orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #dokhyuk

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princessizumi · 4 years

Text

Stitches

Random idea I came up with. Please let me know if you like it! <3

Azula had finally gotten Izumi to sleep. Ty Lee was trying to help earlier but she had only managed to rile the girl up more so Azula banished her from the room, telling her to get ready for bed herself. It took a few stories and empty threats, but she had done it, the girl was sleeping soundly now.

The woman slowly removed herself from the bed and tip toed out the room. Zuko had left Izumi with Azula and Ty Lee for the weekend, the little princess had begged her father for a sleepover with her aunts and he couldn’t say no. Although he did leave them with very specific instructions on how to care for his daughter and to please, please send for him should they need anything at all. Azula had scoffed. Her? Need him? She found it an unlikely scenario.

Ty Lee was still in the bathroom so Azula decided to make sure their quarters were locked up before heading to get washed up herself. On the way back to the bedroom she notices a trail of little droplets of blood coming from the guest room where Izumi was sleeping. Azula rushed to push open the door only to find that the little girl was not in bed.

Impossible! She couldn’t have left her alone for more than ten minutes! A rush of dread fills Azula’s entire body. Stay calm Azula. You should investigate before you start to panic.

The princess followed the trail of droplets all the way to her bedroom. Inside, Azula found her niece sitting cross legged on the bed cupping her hands on her chin. She was waiting patiently for Ty Lee to come out of the bathroom.

“Izumi what happened? Where did all this blood come from?” Azula asked bewildered.

“Zuza I fell. My chin hurts.” Izumi blinked sleepily.

“Fell how? I thought you were sleeping.” She walked over to the child. “Let me see.”

“I dunno. I fell off.” Izumi pulled her hand away from her chin revealing so much blood.

“Oh sh- Ty Lee!” Azula banged on the bathroom door. “Ty Lee come out right now!”

“Yesss?” Ty Lee sang cheerfully as she opened the door. Azula pushed her way inside to grab a towel.

“Hurry we need to see a physician.” The aunt rushes over to press the towel against her niece’s chin. “Izumi is bleeding.”

“Oh!” Ty Lee calmly came over to examine the young princess. “It looks like you broke your chin! You’ll probably need a few stitches. I’ve had to get stitches there before. Azula, remember that one time I-.”

“Ty Lee!! I don’t have time for this! She’s bleeding!” Azula yelled as she picks up Izumi, pressing the towel on her wound.

“Alright, jeez, calm down before you scare her.” Ty Lee turned to the child “Everything’s gonna be fine Izumi, does it hurt?”

“Yeah, a little.” The girl said, anxiously looking between her aunts.

“You’re so brave! And you’re not even crying!” Ty Lee clapped her hands. “Congratulations!”

“Enough!” Azula was looking for her shoes while still carrying her niece. “Stop wasting time, we need to send for the physician!”

“Alright, alright. I’ll have Zuko send a doctor.” Ty Lee was about to leave the room before Azula stopped her.

“What!? Do not tell Zuko about this. He does not need to know.”

“Azula, I think he’s gonna find out sooner or later.”

“I don’t care! He will just make things worse!” She looked panicked, holding Izumi closer. She just knew it, Zuko’s going to blow up on her because of this.

“Hey.” Ty Lee laid a hand on Azula’s arm. “It’s ok, Zuko’s not gonna blame you. He trusts you.”

“It doesn’t matter! Now go find a physician, bring them here now, and whatever you do, do not call the Fire Lord.” Azula pointed to the door.

“Ok Azula, whatever you say Azula.” Ty Lee shrugged as she left.

Azula set Izumi down again at the edge of the bathroom counter to further inspect the wound. Her chin was definitely split open but most of the bleeding had stopped. Azula felt a little more relaxed knowing that her niece wasn’t going to bleed out on her.

“How does it feel?”

“It hurts.” Izumi looked remarkably calm considering the hysterics Azula had been in a few moments ago.

“I know.” She tried comforting the child. “Just don’t touch it.”

Shortly after, Ty Lee arrived with the physician who assessed the situation. He confirmed that Izumi would need four stitches in her chin.

“Alright then, do it.” Azula demanded. “And be careful, that’s a royal chin you’re stitching.”

Izumi looked nervous as the doctor set up all his equipment. “Zuza, what’s he gonna do?”

Not sure how to explain it gently she said, “He’s going to use stitches to close your chin.” That didn’t seem to soothe the young girl. The doctor got to work while Azula and Ty Lee watched over his shoulder.

“Maybe you should hold her hand Azula, she looks pretty scared.” Ty Lee whispered.

“Ok.” Azula grabbed Izumi’s little hand in hers. The girl squeezed her eyes shut when the doctor injected a drug to numb the area. Ty Lee applauded her for being so brave. Azula just held her hand tighter as he began stitching.

“Maybe you should talk to her, tell a joke, you know?” Ty Lee suggested.

“I know how to comfort my own niece Ty Lee, thank you very much.”

A couple minutes passed in silence before Azula said. “I’m surprised your chin didn’t break the floor instead, Izumi. It’s so sharp. If you’re not more careful you could puncture the hull of an empire-class Fire Nation battleship, leaving thousands to drown at sea. Because... it's so sharp.” Ty Lee smacked a hand to her forehead.

Izumi giggled. “You’re weird, Zuza.”

The physician finished up and Izumi didn’t let go of Azula’s hand once. Azula was proud of the four-year-old, she hadn’t cried at all through the whole ordeal. The doctor gave the young couple instructions on how to care for the stitches and how long it would take to fall out and then bade them goodnight.

“A whole week for them to come out?” Azula snarled. “How irritating. Do you think we can keep her here for a week, so he doesn’t find out?”

Izumi was sleeping in between them in their bed. The last thing Azula needed was for her to roll off again.

“Nope. He’s gonna be here bright and early tomorrow to pick her up.” Ty Lee frowned.

This was a new feeling to Azula. Zuko was usually the one afraid to confront her, not the other way around. Azula gently pushed back a lock of hair on Izumi’s face. Surprisingly the girl had taken to Azula ever since she was a baby. Even when Azula was moody or aloof Izumi would ask to play with her or follow her around. There were a lot of people responsible for the person Azula was now, her brother, her wife, her mother. But Izumi was different. She never saw Azula as scary or crazy, she was just her Aunt Zuza. And Azula loved it, no matter how much she pretended she didn’t sometimes. She loves Izumi.

And now Zuko would probably never let her see her again.

“Don’t worry Azula. Everything’s gonna be fine. You’ll see.” Ty Lee pressed a kiss to her lips and laid down to sleep.

Azula watched Izumi’s sleeping face for a few moments before getting out of bed. She put on a robe and shoes and headed out the door. Azula walked all the way to the nearest guard post. The soldiers inside were shocked to find the Fire Lord’s sister demanding to use the communication line that connected directly to the palace.

She had to wait for over fifteen minutes by the time Zuko came on the line. She heard his confused voice over the receiver ask. “Azula what’s wrong? Is it-”

“Listen Zuzu,” Azula interrupted him, “I just called to let you know what’s happened, but rest assured I’ve already handled it, so I don’t want you barging over here at this time of night, that would be completely unnecessary considering I’m doing you the favor of calling.”

“Handled what? Azula what are you talking about?”

“You have to promise me you won’t overreact like you always do.”

“Azula! Tell me now or-”

“She broke her chin. She rolled out of bed and broke it. She has four infinitesimal stitches in her chin, and they will fall out in one week. She didn’t cry not once and was very brave and if you come get her now you will have to wake her up and that will just upset her more than she already is.”

“Oh.” Was all Zuko could say as he processed the information.

“It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t push her out of the bed if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Azula, I wasn’t-” Zuko sighed, “She’s Ok?”

“Yes, she’s sleeping soundly with Ty Lee right now.”

“And she didn’t cry?” He sounded surprised.

Azula laughed, a genuine one. “No, not at all. She’s brave, that one.”

“Yeah, she’s something else.” Zuko sounded proud.

There was a long silence over the line. “So, you’re not angry then?”

“Well I’m annoyed that you didn’t tell me when it happened but no, I’m not mad. It was an accident.”

Azula wouldn’t admit that she was relieved. “Yes, well you have a bad track record of overreacting.”

She heard him huff over the line, “I can’t help it. When you have kids, you’ll understand.”

“No, I think one little gremlin for a niece is enough for me.” She rolled her eyes.

“Thank you, Azula. For taking care of her, and calling me, a- and everything else.”

“Of course, Zuzu. Anytime.”

#Azula #Ty Lee #Zuko #Tyzula #Atla #Izumi #Princess Izumi #Fire Lord Zuko #Fic #Fire Siblings

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aponderingcharming · 4 years

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We Have What We Have When We Have It - Part 1

Part 1/3. Pre-Time Heist in Endgame. Steve notices Natasha’s been quiet all day and checks in with her before the mission tomorrow. By the end of the conversation, each of them fully realize what the other means to them. Now all they have to do is win the mission. Read on AO3.

“Hey, you got a sec?”

Steve leaned against the door jamb and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans just to give them something to do. It was evening now but it had been a sunny day, maybe even the nicest day they’d had in a long time. He took that as a good sign, as though the universe was letting them know that it was on their side. Remnants of low sunlight beamed in through the wall of glass, the rays framing her perfectly as she sat there in front of him. She looked lost in her own thoughts, her teeth chewing on the bottom of her pen and her brow furrowed in that quizzical way it always did when she was trying to work something out, but at the sound of his voice, Natasha raised her head from her notebook. A small but genuine smile formed on her face.

“Sure,” she replied, placing the notebook onto the coffee table in front of her. “What’s up?”

The man drew in a breath and took a step further into the room.

Her braid fell over her shoulder as she scooted forward on the couch and though he’d never said it, Steve liked the combination of red and blonde she was sporting lately. The red because it was just so Nat, but the blonde reminded him of those years they were on the run together, forging this unbreakable bond they had. And that’s what they had; a relationship that was more real and more important to him than he could have ever imagined. An unlikely partnership that just worked. A friendship born out of shared experiences and understandings. A constant. Something he wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.

And maybe, just maybe, even something more.

Not that they ever talked about it. Whatever it was between them, whatever chord that linked them together, it couldn’t be defined. It just was.

“Everything okay, Rogers?” she asked when he didn’t speak. Her smile had turned a little worried.

He snapped himself out of his reverie. “Yeah, sorry. Was just thinking,” he said, shaking his head. “You all set for tomorrow?”

Natasha’s eyes flicked to her notebook again and then met his eyes. “As much as I can be for time-travel.”

“Technically it’s a time heist,” he quipped.

She laughed then, husky and soft. “I know you were encased in ice and woke up 70 years later in essentially a whole new world so you’re not really new to weird things happening to you, but did you ever picture yourself being able to travel through time?”

He bucked an eyebrow. “You seem to forget that I was a human experiment and injected with super serum in order to become an enhanced soldier. After everything we’ve seen over the years, time-travel seems par for course, really.”

“Time heists,” she corrected, laughing again.

Steve loved the sound of her laughs. She had a few of them; there was the one she used when she was flirting and trying to get information out of someone on a mission – that one was higher, looser; there was the one she had when she was with everyone and they were just having a good time – that one was more guttural, like it came from a deeper part of her; and then there was one that was only for him – that one was soft, intentional, melodic, real. He wasn’t sure when he started logging and categorising them but he found out early on that there was a true joy in learning the many facets of Natasha Romanoff.

“So what’s going on, Cap?” she implored again, eyes more alive. She rested her chin on her clasped hands as she leant her elbows on her legs.

After the debriefing when they finally put a plan in place and everyone’s roles had been assigned, they ordered in food and spent time just hanging out and trading old stories. There was this anxious yet giddy crackle in the air that was undeniable. Everyone was assured, but there was still this undercurrent of apprehension that no amount of joking or rationalizing could diminish. At some point in all of it, Natasha had slipped out of the room. It was only when the stressed delirium had started to fade and everyone began excusing themselves to spend some time alone – or falling asleep in Thor’s case – that Steve noticed she was gone, and that she hadn’t been overly chatty over dinner, either.

That’s when he found her.

“Penny for your thoughts? You seemed kind of quiet earlier.”

Natasha offered a small shrug, green eyes open and honest. Raw. As time went on, there became fewer walls between the two of them; they had been through a lot and seen a lot over the years and with that came an unspoken understanding and respect. There was no point in lying to each other anymore. “This is…this is a lot, you know? I just never thought anything like this would or could happen.”

“Yeah, me neither.” He moved over to her and took up the other side of the couch in a gesture of friendship, with a posture of being ready to listen to whatever it was that she wanted to say.

She turned her body more in his direction, letting her arms fall onto her thighs. “The last five years have probably been the toughest of my life. I mean, I’ve been through a lot but when I finally found a purpose and a place where I belonged, I then realized what it meant to lose something. To really lose something. And I tried - you know I tried - to do whatever I could, to be the best version of myself, to keep pushing on but it just felt so helpless. Our job as Avengers is to fix the problems and save the world – and we couldn’t do it.” The beginning of tears swept over her eyes but she kept them in place with a purse of her lips. “But now we can help. Clint can get his family back, you can get Sam and Bucky back, Wanda, and Peter…everyone can come back. We’re going to restore families and friends. We’re going to make a difference, Steve. Whatever it takes, we’re going do it.”

The words washed over him for a beat. “You know for a second there you reminded me of me.”

A loose snicker escaped her then. “You must be rubbing off of me. Can’t spend a lot of time with Captain America and not learn a trick or two about making impassioned speeches.”

“I guess not,” he agreed with a chuckle. “We have been through a lot, you and me.”

“More than most. Aside from Clint I don’t think I’ve ever had someone stick by me through so much.”

It was an off-hand comment, not made with much intent but he couldn’t let it go unchecked. There was strange urgency in the air over the past couple of days and it seemed as though there was some kind of emotional shift happening between them all. Maybe it was this sense of reconnection, of renewed purpose, of righting wrongs but whatever it was, it brought with it a compulsion to leave their barriers down.

“And I’d do it all again, Nat,” he declared earnestly, causing her to meet his gaze. “When I woke up from the ice, I didn’t think I would ever feel like I belonged or that I would make friendships or relationships that would mean anything to me. Truth be told, I don’t think I wanted to. But you proved me wrong.” A timid smile flashed across his face. “You saw something in me – I don’t know what it was, but you showed me trust and loyalty when not many others did. And every time I look around in a fight, there you are. Every time I’m in a bind, you swoop in from somewhere and help me out. You always have my back. I don’t think there’s anyone in my life I trust more than you.”

Honesty was important to Steve; it was the backbone of his entire sense of self. But even he surprised himself at how easily and quickly those truths came from him. He had observed as hours and days and months and years of striving to do better, to be better had resulted in this new warped view Natasha had of herself where her only purpose and value was centred on this role she had as an Avenger, as someone who had to save the world, and while that was integral to who she was, Steve felt as though she had lost sight of how far she had come and how much saving she had done, and was doing, by just being her. She had saved him so many times and in so many different ways. She was already better, already more than enough, already someone of great significance. And she deserved to hear it.

Something came alive in her eyes, a dancing of flames around her pupils and her mouth opened just that little bit like she was about to say something and then suddenly stopped. It was like she was searching his words, examining their meaning as though they were physically floating in front of her and she was trying to figure them out. He just waited, praying that the sincerity would shine through.

Suddenly, she reached out and took one of his hands in hers. He tried to ignore the electricity that fizzed up his arm. Voice low yet strong, the words tumbled past her lips like they had to get out of her.

“When everyone started disappearing after the snap and it was just chaos, the only thought in my mind was, ‘Please let Steve still be here’. How horrible is that? Everyone just stood there watching as friends and loved ones literally turned into dust in front of their eyes and I’m there selfishly begging the universe to give me some kind hope to cling to - as if I had any more right than them.” Her eyes squeezed shut for a moment, face crunching in that way it did when she was admitting something that she was ashamed of. ‘Please let Steve still be here’ resounded throughout his mind, though. It was like it woke something inside of him, something he had tried to quash down a long time ago. Though it didn’t feel like the right time to say it, he had thought something similar that day. He just never had the courage to tell her. Natasha continued on though, completely oblivious to his internal struggle and held his hand tighter. “And then when I saw you? I don’t think I’ve ever felt relief like that before. I couldn’t imagine doing this – any of this - without you. You’re always by my side, no matter what. And I know I haven’t made the last five years easy and I know I wasn’t the Natasha everyone knew, but I was so happy that you were still here. I felt like, despite it all, everything would be okay. You were like my tether to this world, keeping me in check, keeping me sane.” Green eyes pierced his blues. “I want everybody back more than anything but, Steve, just know that if it was just you and there was a chance to bring you back, I would do it.”

That floored him.

It floored him mainly because if it was just her he knew he’d do it, too.

No hesitation.

“I would do it for you, too, Nat,” he practically whispered.

Surprise split through her usually cool and collected demeanour. The glimmer of hope that took over her face gave him pause and he noted the way his heart thrummed with more determination at the way her head slightly cocked to the side as she appraised him as if seeing him for the first time.

And then it was just them; two souls on the same wavelength not really saying anything but saying everything. Their hands idly caressed each other, unbidden and loose, tracing and tracking the patterns of skin and bone.

Steve couldn’t remember a time when had ever felt something so strong. Words couldn’t define it; it was this emotion that swept over and all around him, consuming him to the point where it was all he could feel.

He wanted to kiss her.

He wanted to tell her how he felt.

He wanted to tell her he loved her.

But the words wouldn’t come.

Natasha was the first to break the silence that had overtaken them. “So tomorrow…” she started, her tone still low but lighter than before.

“Tomorrow,” he mimicked, clicking back into place and remembering what lay ahead of them. It was risky; unchartered territory. Steve trusted Tony and he trusted the science but it was like nothing they had ever attempted before. It was truly so much bigger than any of them could fathom.

“I’m going into space.”

Her delivery pulled a soft laugh from him. “Yeah, you are.”

“And you’re going back to our first Avengers mission.”

“That’s gonna be…weird. And freaky. I gotta make sure I don’t run into myself. Who knows what kind of ripples that could cause.”

Her expression turned mischievous then. “Two Captain Americas in one place,” she mused. “Doesn’t sound half bad to me.”

“Easy, Romanoff,” he jested easily.

“Just be careful, that’s all,” Natasha said, the intent a joke but the result came off a little more serious. Her shoulders dropped then. “I know we know what we have to do, but it somehow feels like it’s not going to be that easy. I can’t shake that feeling.”

Steve nodded in agreement. He’d been thinking that pretty much the whole time but he could never pass up the chance to get his friends back and restore the world to its proper order so he shoved the worries and the doubts to the back of his mind and became laser focused on the task at hand. It was only really now, as the woman before him confessed her reservations, that he felt that feeling, too. “Yeah, I’ve been feeling that as well. You be careful, too.”

She lifted her chin. “How about we both promise to be careful?”

“Deal,” he smiled and pumped her hand twice in assurance. He could get used to holding her hand; it seemed to fit so snugly in his, as though it belonged there.

“Good. I’m going to hold you to that, Rogers.” Her smile was wider now and it reached her eyes, brightening up her whole face. “What do we do when we get back after all this? Everything’s just going to be different. And weird – in a good way, but still weird.”

He pondered that for a minute. And then, “I think it’s time we get a life, don’t you think?”

A dramatic, melodic sigh flowed from her. “I don’t even know what that looks like.”

“Neither do I but we’ll figure it out. We always do.”

Natasha bowed her head bashfully as she bit her bottom lip. “Yeah, we do.”

His heart swelled.

After five years of living in this uncertain and confused state, Steve finally felt like things were turning a corner. He now pictured himself with a different life and a newfound sense of reason and identity. Captain America but better.

Hope was a very powerful thing.

But as much as he could have stayed there forever – and right there in that moment he genuinely felt like he could, he still had prep to do and a few notes to go over and he really wanted to spend some time gathering his thoughts and maybe drawing a little to ease the tension he could feel starting to build up in his muscles.

The sun had set now and the room was beginning to darken, dark shadows starting to make appearances.

“I think everyone’s doing their own thing tonight so that movie night that Thor was pushing for is gonna be no-go,” Steve eventually murmured.

“Yeah I think that’s for the best. The last thing we all need before tomorrow is a war over what movie to watch,” she quipped. “ Save that for when we get back.”

He peered down at their hands once more. “I’m gonna go and do a few last minute things for tomorrow. Turn in early.”

A flicker of sadness crossed her face but as soon as it was there it was gone. “Well, you are an old man; must be hard to stay up late at your age.”

“Ha-ha,” he said dryly.

She bumped her shoulder against his playfully. “I got a few things I have to do, too. I don’t know if I mentioned it but I’m going into space tomorrow.”

He played along. “Space? Really?”

“Really. I’m not just your average spy, you know.”

“I’ve never thought that for a second. There’s nothing average about you.”

She tenderly rubbed her thumb along his in response. “I suppose you’re above average, too,” she said with a wry smile.

A deep chuckle rumbled in his chest as he rose to his feet, breaking their contact. In an instant he felt cold, like he had lost a part of him. “See you tomorrow, Nat.”

She gazed up at him with fresh eyes. “See you tomorrow, Steve.”

When all of this was over, when they had won and brought everyone back, he was going to tell her how he felt. No holding back, no chickening out at the last minute, no more waiting around. He was tired of waiting and he was tired of pushing away his desires and wants.

He loved Natasha Romanoff and he was going to tell her.

And he was going to kiss her.

The rest they could figure out later.

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nicka-nell · 4 years

Text

Friend with the enemy - Chapter 2: Smile for me

Chapter 1 - the pretty boy | Masterlist | Chapter 3 - An unfortunate reunion

Chapter: 2/4 | Oikawa x reader Words: 2.563 Warning: fluff, angst

(y/n) = your name | (l/n) = last name | (e/c) = eye colour | (h/c) = hair colour

The next few days are flying by and before you know it’s Monday afternoon. You tell Ushijima that you’re meeting a friend and that he should eat without you tonight. He just crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow. “Just a friend. Sure. Have fun, but don’t be late. After all, tomorrow is a school day, and we have to get up early." he says seriously before he says goodbye to you. Arrived at Aobajohsai, Oikawa is already waiting for you with his hands in his pockets. When he sees you, he waves to you and comes to meet you. “Hello (y/n)-chan, I’m really looking forward to seeing you again." He laughs friendly and scratches his neck. “Hello Tooru, nice to meet you." You answer him briefly but kindly. For a short moment, you both look deep into each other’s eyes and remain silent. You don’t know why, but you’re so nervous all of a sudden, and you feel your heart beating out loud. Oikawas smile is simply seductive. Hold on... (y/n) what do you think right now? You ask yourself and shake your head. “Shall we go?” you ask with a high voice and are surprised by your voice. Nodding, he moves and you follow him. Once at the fair, you’ll see lots of stalls, colorful lights, a lot of people and an incredible amount of smells that drive your hunger. “Mmmh here it smells really good like fresh milk bun." You mumble to yourself. “Huh? Are you hungry? Do you want a milk bun?" He’s looking at you. Hardly noticeable you nod embarrassed and look to the ground. “Come on." now you hear his voice and feel his grip on your arm. He pulls you behind him towards the bun stand and greets the seller, who smiles at you with a strange look. Is that supposed to be seductive or something? It’s disgusting, you think. In Oikawas corner of the eye, he recognizes your slightly disgusted look at the man and the man’s eyes on you don’t escape Oikawa either. “I’d like two milk bins. One with chocolate and the other..." Oikawa pulls you to your waist and makes you look into his eyes. “What do you want, my love?" he asks you with a narrow grin. “A- Also with chocolate." You answer quietly. What in the world has gotten into him? You ask yourself before he lets you go again. “You heard my love. Then two milk buns with chocolate." Demanding he looks at the seller who now fiercely reaches for the chocolate-filled milk buns and holds them against you. Oikawa puts the money on the counter and hands you one of the buns. "Fits like that." he says arrogantly and turns around with you in his arm. “Tooru, what was that all about?" you’re asking all confused as he pretends like nothing happened. “What do you mean? The guy tried to eat you from top to bottom with his eyes. I just wanted to make it clear to him not to look at you. Because you do not belong to him." Now with a serious voice he bites into his bun and looks at you from the corner of his eye. “I don’t belong to you either!" you yell at him. But somehow you thought it was sweet of him. “Yeah, but that’s not what I was saying... I... I'm sorry (y/n). I’ll make it up to you. Come on!” Weeping, he grabs your hand again and pulls you behind him. What’s he up to now? He stops in front of a score and looks around. “What is the best prize you can win here?" Almost energetically he asks the man who works at this stand. “Eh... So the teddy bear here is our biggest and most expensive prize. But for him, you'd have to knock down five times, all ten cans. But you only have two attempts per pyramid." He stutters uncertainly before himself. “Give me the balls!" he calls now still more resolutely and you consider briefly whether you should stop him from his plan, however, notice fast that it would not accomplish anything. With the ball in his hand, he breathes in and out completely concentrated. He’s completely changed from now on. And even before you can pronounce 'Teddy Bear', he has already brought down all five pyramids with only one stroke per pyramid. With big eyes and open mouths, the staff and you stand in front of Oikawa and look at him speechless. “The teddy bear I would like to have." he says surprisingly calmly and the employee hands it over to him without comment. “Do you forgive me, (y/n)?" He looks at you with puppy eyes. How could you say no here? Especially since you weren’t mad at him. Smiling, you take the bear and thank him. You guys keep moving. You with your big bear in your hands and Oikawa with two more milk buns he took. It’s dark by now, but you still have your fun. In front of a Ferris wheel you stop and look at the top cabin. “Do you want to ride the Ferris wheel?" Oikawa looks over to you. Now that you think about it, you’ve never been on a Ferris wheel. “Mhm..." you nod embarrassed and go to the Ferris wheel. Just before you want to climb into an open cabin, the man on the Ferris wheel tells you that you can’t take the bear with you, but he keeps it for you in the small ticket office until you come out. You are now sitting next to each other in a cabin and the rails that are in front of you are automatically folded down. Briefly you twitch together, but are calmed by a warm hand on your shoulder and a quiet smile from Oikawa. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. I'm right here.” He whispers quietly to you and the Ferris wheel moves. Having arrived at the highest point of the Ferris wheel, the Ferris wheel suddenly stops. “T... Tooru?” Panic you look in his direction and grip the rail that is close to your bodies. ’Please remain calm. We’ve got a power outage on the Ferris wheel. Our security staff are on their way to fix the problem. Nothing can happen to you. We apologize for the inconvenience.’ You hear a man talking in a megaphone. “Damn..." Oikawa sighs. “Don’t worry about it. It’ll be all right. Let’s do something nice. Look, there’s a bright star over there. Doesn’t he look beautiful?" he’s trying to calm you down. Still a little anxious you look forward and see a very bright star in the starry sky. “Yes... really nice...” you stutter quietly and try to move as little as possible. Oikawa realizes that you are still afraid and thinks about how he can change that. “Did you know... When I was little, I was very afraid of injections. I started crying three days before. But don’t tell anyone." Embarrassed he looks at you and notices how your facial features relax. Oikawa is really afraid of injections? Such a tall man? You don’t know why, but it makes you feel better that even Tooru Oikawa, who seems perfect in everything, is afraid of something. Without wanting it, you start laughing. You don’t laugh at him. No, it’s a happy laugh, and now Oikawa is looking at you with his eyes wide open. His amazement makes you look at him too. “You... You are really beautiful when you laugh (y/n)” still astonished but also serious he speaks softly and you fall silent. You notice how your cheeks turn red and your heart starts beating wildly. Oikawa doesn’t say anything anymore but just looks at you. With his left hand he approaches your face and caresses your cheeks, then pulls your face a bit up by putting his hand, which was still on your cheek earlier, under your chin and pushing it up. He looks deep into your (e/c) eyes. “I'm sorry. You're also beautiful without a smile on your face (y/n)." He whispers softly and his face comes dangerously close to yours. You can already feel his warm breath on your skin when suddenly the Ferris wheel shakes. You both twitch together and the Ferris wheel starts to move again. Did Oikawa... just wanted to kiss you? You keep quiet until you get down there and the co-worker puts your big teddy bear in your hands again. “It is already late. Should I take you home now?" Oikawa asks you smiling and calm as if nothing had happened. A little confused, you just nod when you two head home. All the way you talk like two old friends, however, you both behave differently than before. Somehow the mood is tense. When you get home, you stand in front of your front door and get your key out. “Thanks for the nice evening Tooru." With a smile you look up to him. “I have to thank you... I had a really nice time with you. I hope we can repeat that soon?" his voice is so soft and calm. Not like your heart. “Yes! Gladly!" You respond too enthusiastically and put your hands in front of your mouth. Giggling, he leans over to you. "Good night (y/n). Sleep well.” he whispers softly and gives you a kiss on the cheek. Without looking at you again, he turns and leaves. Your body feels weird. You feel so weird. You can’t get a clear thought when the door opens behind you. “You’re a little late." You hear Ushijimas voice behind you. You look at your watch to make sure what time it is, when you find out that it’s already past midnight. “I'm so sorry Toshi. I forgot all about the time." You apologize and want to go in with the bear in your hands just as Ushijima takes it away from you. “Take a shower and get ready for your bed. I’ll take the teddy bear to your room." A friendly smile draws his face. “You certainly didn’t get it from your friend?" he says ironically. “Eh... Anyway, I’ll take a shower... See you tomorrow then." you answer embarrassed and disappear quickly in the bathroom. - You spend a lot of time with Oikawa over the next few weeks. You always come very close to each other but you are interrupted again and again by others and again there is a oppressive silence afterwards. Since this constant back and forth becomes too stupid for you, you decide to ask Oikawa if he sees more than just a friend in you. He is somewhat perplexed in front of you and does not know exactly what to say when his cell phone rings. It is his coach who asks him for extra training. He says goodbye to you quickly and tells you that he will call you later and then you can talk.

However, this does not happen. “Pf... what's going on Oikawa... I’m going to knock on your stupid door until you finally open it, you idiot." You murmur grimly to yourself. With rage, you stomp to Oikawas apartment and want to ask him why he’s been ignoring you for two days. But when you arrive in front of his apartment, your anger turns into sadness and disappointment. “Tooru?” you ask unsettled, with a shaky voice as your wide open eyes look at him. You see Oikawa standing before you. However, he is not alone. He’s with a young woman and not just that. They just kissed each other. Frightened to hear your voice, Oikawa turns away from the woman and looks with big eyes in your direction. “(y/n)!” He still calls, but your eyes already begin to become glassy and you start to cry. How could you think Tooru Oikawa had feelings for you? He’s been ignoring you for the last two days. It was a mistake coming here. Did he really just see you as a friend? A buddy? Your legs start to shake and you automatically take a few steps back. Just as you want to turn around to disappear from this place, Oikawa reaches for your wrist. “(y/n) wait!” he calls to you. But you tear yourself away from him and stand with your back turned to him. “Oikawa... You could have just told me you had a girlfriend and you had no feelings for me. But playing with my feelings... is really the last. But maybe it was my own stupidity. After all, you of all people are known as a flirtatious charmer and womanizer. I know we’ll have a few more games against you... But do me a favor, Tooru Oikawa... Leave me alone and don’t say another word. Don't look at me. Don’t talk to me. Don’t write to me and don’t even try to call me or come home to me. And one more thing... I know you wouldn’t do it anyway, but don’t follow me at all." You say quietly but your sad voice is still clear to hear. Yet you move and don’t look backwards anymore. When you get home, you go straight to your room and slam the door behind you. Crying, you sink to the ground and look briefly at the teddy bear that Oikawa gave you. Even faster your tears flow and you pull your legs to your upper body to bury your face in them. **Knock-Knock** you hear someone knocking on your room door, but you ignore the knock. “(y/n)? Are you here? Is everything okay?" you hear Ushijimas worried voice. You don’t answer him. “(y/n)! Is everything all right? If you don’t answer me... then I come in." even more concerned he continues. Again, you don’t answer and soon you notice how your body and door are pushed forward and Ushijima steps into your room. When he sees you sitting on the floor sad, he says nothing. You get up and walk over to your bed, sit down so that Ushijima can’t see your face anymore. But after just a few seconds you feel how two strong arms pulling you towards him, and he holds you tight in his arms. He still says nothing. You notice how you start crying hard again and turn to him to put your head to his chest. Sighing, he squeezes you and begins to make gentle circular movements with his hand on your back. He just lets you cry because he knows exactly what you need right now. You remain in this position for over an hour until you eventually fall asleep so that Ushijima puts you in your bed and covers you. He gives you a kiss on the forehead and looks at you for a moment. “(y/n)... I won’t let that guy who makes you so sad hurt you again.” He whispers softly and carefully closes the door behind him.

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keishins-ukai · 3 years

Text

I Just Wanna Be Your Favourite Boy

(here’s a link if you prefer reading on ao3)

The amount of alcohol flowing in Kuroo’s veins was not enough to distract him from how pathetic all of this truly was . He was at his first University party, he was surrounded by beautiful people and free alcohol, he should be having the time of his life, right? Tetsurō sat in his friend’s garden with his back resting against the cold brick of the house, his head resting there too. His arms were balanced on his pulled-up knees, his eyes closed.

To any party-goers that ventured outside this would look normal, like the first year partied too hard and passed out super early – it's not like that kind of thing doesn’t happen all the time. Then they’d notice the earbuds still in his ears (though they weren’t playing anything, he just didn’t want to speak to anyone), the dry tear tracks down his cheeks, the ever so slight shaking of his chin. Well, that or the glitter-like sparkle that seemed to be all around the black-haired boy

Tears had become a very common part of Tetsurō’s life recently, a fact he hated with every fibre of his being. Six months ago, you would need the saddest song on earth put in the background of the saddest video on earth and he might have considered crying. Now all it took now was the thought of blond and black hair, golden eyes, mint vodka that smelled like his shampoo…

The stars hadn’t appeared until his first day of university. He had texted Kenma when he’d woken up - Kuroo always texted as soon as he woke up – some dumb chemistry joke he’d found the night before, trying to convey his excitement at finally starting his course. Kenma never usually replied immediately, though this day he did, though Kuroo didn’t actually know why (Kuroo would look back and see it as the first sign. Kenma told him everything)

Kenma had only sent a gif of a cat showing almost complete apathy, but Kuroo’s heart started racing nonetheless, mind spiralling at all of the possible meanings behind the response and never once landing on the real answer (Kenma just woke up earlier than normal). They’d texted a lot of the day, Kuroo only turning his phone off during classes, not wanting to make any bad impressions.

While it obviously hadn’t been the reason, in the following months Kuroo had started to blame turning his phone off as the inciting event as when he turned his phone on he got the notification, the moment that changed everything. It was so small, so seemingly inconsequential.

Instagram: Kodzuken has posted a photo

Kenma’s Instagram consisted mainly of photos from games he was playing, purposely unflattering pictures of himself or animals. But that day was different. He posted a picture of him and Hinata, and the orange-haired boy was positively grinning into the camera, Kenma wasn’t even smiling but Kuroo could tell he was happy, that he was less stressed than he had been for a lot of the summer.

Kuroo knew that what he told himself was unfair, that there simply wasn’t enough data to support the idea of ‘he likes Shōyō more’. But none of that mattered, Kuroo just knew. He didn’t need evidence to prove that Kenma had feelings for the shrimp, the ever so slight dimple was proof enough – even Kuroo had only seen that dimple once, and he wasn’t the one who bought it out.

Crying in the men’s bathroom, as it turns out, is neither very comfortable nor as discreet as one would imagine, though that didn’t matter to Tetsuro as the itching and burning sensation was the only thing he could think about. ‘What the hell is this?’ repeated in his mind as he did his best to stop the small glass-like crystals from falling to the floor and creating even more noise. After spending what felt like an eternity researching what could possibly in all hell be happening to him he moved, hating the quiet twinkling sounds in his pocket.

‘Of course this would happen to me.’ Kuroo would think to himself repeatedly over the next few days ‘Star fucking tears’.

Stars Tears

Caused by intense but unrequited love, always romantic, ‘star tears’ is a rare condition wherein the afflicted will secrete small crystalline shards from their tear ducts, the crystals often being compared to stars which is where the illness got its name. Side effects from stage two ‘star tears’ can include

- Leaking tear ducts

- Dryness of the eyeballs

- Itchiness in the eye area

- Blocked tear ducts

And in some extreme cases

- Partial or complete colour blindness

- Partial or complete sight loss.

As the disease is caused by unrequited love there is no ‘mainstream’ treatment which can cure this, some patients never being cured while others were reportedly healed if the person they loved also loved them back, in a romantic sense.

Even though he was aware of how bad an idea it was, Kuroo remained sat in his friend's garden, though now his earphones were playing something. More specifically he had his ‘Kenma’ playlist on which was playing all of the songs and bands that the shorter boy had ever introduced him to. They were playing at full volume to drown out his own thoughts - the ones nibbling on his mind, making him think of lazy nights playing ‘Majora’s Mask’ with him , of the nights leading up to Christmas making their cinnamon and raisin cookies, of the toothbrush that had been Kuroo’s spare but that he’d stolen because of their frequent sleepovers.

He really didn’t want to cry again, having decided that his new rate of three times a week was far too much, but the stars demanded more still. In the beginning, they would only appear if he’d seen his face, whether it be over skype or as a photo. That had been remarkably easy to handle - Kuroo had just moved all of the photos of him to the ‘hidden’ folder on his phone, and minimise the skype screen when they talked. Easy.

But then Kuroo started to really miss him, started to think of him almost every moment of the day, affecting his sleep and work schedule. That’s when he realised how truly fucked he was. You can’t just pick and choose what parts of friendship you want to participate in and expect it to remain completely intact. Kenma didn’t know what was going on, but he could sense a change, making more of an effort to start their conversations, to not leave Kuroo out of what was going on his life, to make sure that the elder knew that they were still friends.

It was unfair how this made everything worse, that Kenma’s thoughtful inclusions made Kuroo feel more excluded than ever, made him feel both like he had a chance and also made him know that Kenma saw him as his closest friend and that he wouldn’t be more. Kenma had always worried with his crushes that initiating things with them would scare them off, that he would be seen as overbearing. Rather than risking anything, he would just wait until he thought the other would like him back before asking them on a date.

The tears started to increase, them coming at just the thought of Kenma when Kuroo hadn’t got any prevention methods. His most effective was to drown out any other noise with the sound of his own music, even investing in better earphones to ensure that he wouldn’t be hearing any other external noises. However, his playlist choice could definitely be improved upon since every voice, every chord, every bar had the Kenma Kozume seal of approval, making the task of not thinking about the boy almost impossible.

Not even twenty minutes alone and his mind wandered, going to almost every stop in Tetsurō’s brain before stopping at one that made his heart dance. If it were a book the edges would be folded, the spine broke, and some of the pages ripped just from the sheer amount of use.

“Stop looking at my ass!” Kenma had demanded, trying his best to wriggle away from Kuroo “This isn’t for you”. The blond wasn’t looking at him, trying to pretend that his attention was on the syringe in his hand.

“You’re the one who asked me to do this.” Kuroo reminds, reaching over for the injection. “And knowing I was coming over to do this you decided to wear trousers rather than shorts when all I need is your thigh, so…” Their eyes meet and the elder man winks.

Kenma’s face scrunches up in retaliation, fingers lingering for just a moment against Kuroo’s, placing the syringe gently in his hand. “What are you trying to suggest?”

He pretends to think for a second when he wipes a disinfectant wipe on his leg, knowing that he technically didn’t need to but also wanting to be as safe as possible. “That maybe you wanted me to see your ass?”

The youngers face calms into a neutral expression. “Dream on Tetsurō.” Despite being quite scared of needles, he had decided on having testosterone injections rather than pills or any other alternative, finding that needing to do injections more infrequently benefitted him more. He’d also figured that getting someone else to administer the injection would have negated his fear.

Kuroo had agreed, why would it be more difficult for an injection to occur when you’re not the one putting the needle in your skin? The answer; Kenma was a wriggler. He moved back on the bed every time that Tetsurō tried to move closer to him “Come on, kitten.” he chides, the pet name tacked on as a joke.

His only answer is a hiss, a literal fucking hiss, as Kenma tries to move his leg away again, but is caught by the ankle and pressed back down to the bed. Kuroo eventually managed to give Kenma his testosterone, despite the difficulty and found that when he went home there was only one thing on his mind. The hiss.

Most people who met Kenma Kozume thought he was polite, shy and awkward. And he was all of those things, but he was also so much more. He was funny, intuitive, self-assured and weird and Tetsurō loved that so much. As soon as he thought the word ‘love’, everything seemed to make sense. Every look that lasted too long, every thought replaced by one of Kenma, every feeling of longing to be with his best friend.

Tetsurō was in love with his partner in crime. He still is.

Rex Orange County is a band that frequently blasts on Kuroo’s phone, them having many songs that fit the themes of unrequited love so well that he had no choice but to really connect with their music. Though there was one song in particular that is constantly on his mind, the song being called ‘Best Friend’.

At some point in his reminiscing Kuroo had put on the song, immediately pressing the repeat button as he moved his head to stare into the night sky.

But no, it wasn't meant to be and see, I wasn't made for you

And you weren't made for me

When he was younger he’d wanted to be an astronomer, having found the stars and the moon fascinating, but he couldn’t stand the sight of them anymore. His hands were shaking, shoulders shaking, lip shaking. Maybe if he got some closure he could move on and get rid of this disease, finally feel whole again.

Love someone for loving you instead of someone really cool

That makes your heart melt

Tetsurō needed to turn this song off, to stop fucking thinking about him, about the man he had literal scientific proof that he doesn’t love him back, but the pure boost of serotonin he got when he thought about Kenma was worth it. It was worth the pain, it was worth the constantly itchy eyes, it was worth feeling sick to his stomach anytime he sees a twinkle.

Oh, I still wanna be your favourite boy

I wanna be the one that makes your day

The one you think about as you lie awake

He started typing the text before he could stop himself, feeling like he was watching himself make this extremely poor decision but having absolutely no power to stop himself. Even if it wouldn’t make Kenma love him it would be cathartic, right? And as long as he’s vague enough he could preserve their friendship, maybe even claim plausible deniability if necessary. The text read: ‘listening to this and thinking about you’ along with a link to Best Friend.

Kenma’s response was very short, only three words but enough to send his heart into a tailspin, for it to stop completely in its tracks, to make him feel like he’d never breathe again. ‘I’m dating Shōyō’

That night Kuroo lost the golden hue of his eyes.

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

A special thanks to @wanderlustsky for beta reading this! it was amazingly helpful <3

#kuroken #haikyū!!#angst #star tears #no happy ending #best friend #rex orange county #haikyuu kuroo #kozume kenma #haikyuu kenma #kuroo tetsuro

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another-writer · 4 years

Text

Begin Again: Chapter 5

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Word count: 3.1k

We finally have a part 5 I think I could cry. I know this has been a long time coming. I’ve been away from Tumblr for a while and very recently have just felt an urge to finish this series and write a little more. I’m sorry to everyone who was waiting for the next part at how staggeredly this series is being posted. I really hope you guys read it and enjoy. As always, feedback is appreciated!

Warnings: Some pretty kind-of-graphic descriptions of blood and dizziness, stitches (skip the first few paragraphs and then there’ll be a couple in italics further down)

Tags are at the bottom, let me know if I’ve missed you or if you’d like to be tagged :)

You kept one arm locked around your abdomen and the thin razor-like slash where blood was pooling and sticking to your shirt. Your other hand was gripping the bar of your motorbike with as much strength as possible as you cruised sloppily at an alarmingly decreasing speed back to the compound. Noise in your ears was starting to mute; the afternoon sun began to dim.

The words of the stranger ringing alarm bells in your head and making you go dizzy. Your vision was getting hazy. You pulled up onto the side of the road after half an hour and tripped over your own feet as you sat down against a concrete barrier and tried to regulate your breathing; with trembling hands from blood loss, tore the left sleeve of your shirt and wrapped it tightly around your midsection. Blood painted the palm of your left hand and seeped quickly through your makeshift gauze. It felt like there was a lead block in your gut. God, you couldn’t breathe.

You wanted to make it back to the compound, but you knew it wasn’t wise. You leaned back so you were lying down as your head felt heavier and after taking a few deep breaths, you pulled your phone from your pocket; you called for an ambulance and then, unsure of how long they would take, you called Sam.

When you regained consciousness, you were in the compound’s hospital wing. In your peripheral vision was Sam.

As fuzzy as your mind was, all you could think was, Did the ambulance turn up?

‘It did.’

Sam’s voice was distant but it jolted you back to reality; your clothes were so sticky and the gauze was soaked in your blood and the dark spots you had started to see were clouding your vision.

‘I need to see Tony,’ you said breathlessly.

'FRIDAY, I need Stark in the med bay.’

Your eyelids were starting to droop again, as though they were being weighed down.

‘Sam ...’ you breathed.

‘I’m here,’ he said. ‘The stitches tore when we transported you here; close your eyes, keep breathing, I’m gonna re-do them.’

You rested as Sam injected your abdomen with a numbing agent and fished a suture kit from a med cart. Your mouth was dry. There were concentrated traces of blood still on your hands. Your abdomen still stung but you relaxed as as the numbing around it grew while Sam stitched your wound.

You peeled your shirt back down after he finished wrapping gauze around you, sitting up when you spotted Tony march in looking less than happy.

‘What the hell happened?’ he demanded.

You, in all honesty, were still trying to comprehend the situation yourself.

‘Let her breathe, Tony,’ Sam warned, demeanour easing slowly as you began to regain a healthy colour in your complexion.

Once the overwhelming nausea passed, you opened your eyes, blinking heavily.

‘You remember those agents you caught wind of?’ you murmured, voice unable to go any louder.

Tony blinked and furrowed his eyebrows; he turned back to Sam as if unnerviced by his presence, who pursed his lips as he hooked you up to an IV and then disposed of his gloves. It seemed to shake Tony out of his angry bravado.

‘Where?’ he asked more calmly.

‘Queens,’ you replied. ‘Some strip mall, pretty remote.’

Sam passed you what seemed to be a granola bar. You stared at him.

‘We keep snacks here.’

‘This doesn’t count as a snack.’

‘Your low blood sugar says it does.’

‘My low blood sugar can speak for itself and it’s saying it wants a brownie.’

‘Brownies later,’ Tony grunted. ‘Did they say anything?’

Your hands were still numb from the blood loss; Sam noticed how pale they were and he held your left hand and began massaging the tips of your fingers and easing you into making a fist slowly, stimulating the bloodflow back into your fingers. As he did so, you clenched your right hand into a fist on your own, getting the feeling back.

It was all so fuzzy in your mind, you could barely remember the details.

‘Most of their conversation was in Russian,’ you said. ‘But to me, they mentioned you ...’ Your stomach shrank. ‘They talked about a soldier, I think. When I remembered you guys had got intel on Hydra agents around here, I sort of pieced it together.’

You bit a chunk off the granola bar held loosely in your right hand and chewed slowly, finding it difficult to eat but the numbing of your fingers told you that you had to get something in your system before you passed out.

Tony clenched his jaw and squeezed your hand, staying silent. He wouldn’t meet your eyes.

‘They wouldn’t come here, would they?’ you asked. ‘I mean, who actually knows the compound’s location?’

‘It’s not Hydra’s style to start a siege,’ Sam dismissed, seemingly unthrown by the information that only Tony supposedly knew. ‘It is ours, though.’

‘Which means we have to find where their base is.’

Your words pulled Tony back to earth. ‘You’re staying here. I’ll figure it out.’

You rolled your eyes dismissively. ‘Could you not act like the hero this time and just -’

‘You’re staying here,’ he interrupted sharply.

Your mouth was open but no words came out. Tony had never used that tone with you. It was almost parental,which was unfamilar territory from him.

Tony was breathing steadily. ‘I can’t send you home in case they find you,’ he said, almost to himself as if thinking out loud.

‘Barnes wanted to see you,’ he muttered, making a point of looking away and tapping the screen of his watch. ‘FRIDAY’ll alert him that you’re up.’

Having stayed quiet with your thoughts for a moment, you found they were culminating, and said, ‘Can I have, like, fifteen minutes on my own, please?’

Your voice was so small that Tony looked up at you with mounting concern in his eyes; trying to stay calm for you, he asked, ‘Are you okay?’

You felt your eyebrows crease, and a slight pressure in your throat, but you nodded, not in the mood to talk at that moment. There was still dry blood on your hands and your entire torso was sore. You felt suspended from everything around you as the last hours began to sink uncomfortably in your memory.

‘Fifteen minutes, and we’ll figure it out,’ you managed. When you were alone, you leaned back and closed your eyes, breathing in and out at regular intervals through your nose.

Perhaps Tony felt that giving you more time than you asked was inappropriate given the context, and that he was too worried to leave you alone. You had moved with difficulty to a chair by the window, cupping a glass of water, needing to hold onto something, as if you didn’t know what to do with your hands.

He knocked on the door gently and opened it a fraction, giving you time to protest before he walked in and closed it behind him

‘Tony,’ you began hesitantly, ‘I don’t know if it’s a good idea to keep anything from the others anymore.’

‘We’ll get to that,’ he said, pulling a chair next to where you sat. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Nothing is where it shouldn’t be,’ you said, smiling lightly, heart dropping when Tony didn’t return the sentiment.

‘I don’t want you hurt,’ Tony said, ‘you can fight me all you want on keeping you away from what we do but you’re not gonna win.’ He looked thoughtful, mapping out his words carefully in his mind as he tapped his chin in uneven increments. ‘But I need you to know that we can protect you from getting shot. What none of us can control is how you feel.’ He let out a heavy breath and leaned forward, his next words important. ‘It’s my job to do what you did today, it is not yours. I can’t have you in my position.’

You bit the inside of your cheek, turned to place the glass on the window sill, needing a second to look away from him, and then breathed out steadily. ‘Tony, I’m so sorry.’

‘You haven’t done anything wrong.’ He shrugged hesitantly. ‘It’s weird, right?’

You couldn’t help but smirk, huffing a short breath from your nose at his words, you rubbed your eyes with your forefinger and thumb and rested your cheek on your hand.

‘’ve never been in that position before,’ you murmured, eyes watering slightly. ‘In case it wasn’t obvious,’ you added. Your words made his eyes soften, like he was relieved you were talking to him. ‘I dunno ... I knew who they were and what they wanted but, I didn’t want them dead.’

‘And I never want you to have to make a choice like that.’

You bit your lip and asked hesitantly, ‘Does that make me a hypocrite?’

‘Look, sometimes we have to make tough choices,’ he replied, ‘which is what you did. Not wanting to do it again but knowing that you can rely on the rest of us here - that doesn’t make you a bad person.’

You nodded, unsure of what to say. ‘Are you okay?’

Tony looked at you. ‘I will be.’ After a beat, he added, ‘I should call a meeting. You up for it?’

You blinked, eyebrow raised, his question throwing you off.

‘You want me there?’

‘Frankly, I’ll need you for this one.’

It took you a while longer than usual to stand and make your way to the living room where everyone else was waiting, even with Natasha helping you. With what Tony had told you before, that Ross controlled what information was shared and what was withheld, you realised only he, Rhodes, and Natasha were of those present who knew what was happening.

Bucky’s face paled when he saw you sat in an armchair; perhaps he had been filled in, but you weren’t sure. You supposed you simply wore the last couple of hours on your face.

‘Jesus Christ,’ he swore under his breath. ‘Tony said that you ...’ Bucky breathed out heavily, running a hand through his hair. ‘Are you okay? What happened to you?’ His fingers went under your chin, tilting your head up slightly and he frowned, running his thumb with the softest touch over your jaw. You almost winced and figured a bruise must have formed.

You bit the inside of your cheek and shielded your nerves. Now definitely wasn’t the time to go all googly-eyed - especially since the rest of the team were filtering in. You had to figure out how to be careful about this - how to disguise the fact that you were all hiding something from Bucky. Not only you, but Tony as well.

‘In my defence,’ you tried. ‘A lot of people hate Tony.’

‘Why would they go after you?’ Bucky asked, sitting on the stool in front of you, his eyes flitting from yours and then down to your wounded abdomen where there was still a blood stain, the concern ever-prominent.

You weren’t sure yourself. But you supposed that even after it’s official collapse, Hydra had methods of reviving information. Then again, you weren’t supposed to allude that Hydra had made a move on you.

‘I’ve been in and out of the compound before,’ you guessed. ‘I’ve been with out Tony, they must have guessed that I’m close to him.’

‘What did they want?’ But it sounded like less of a question and more like Bucky had already hazarded his own guesses.

You were interrupted (or perhaps saved) by Tony.

‘I want it on the record that everyone who signed the Accords technically hasn’t done anything wrong,’ Tony began, ‘because [Y/N]’s the one who called us here.’

‘Thanks,’ you deadpanned, rolling your eyes at the sudden spotlight on you.

You hoped that everyone’s reaction would be as nonchalant as Sam’s was; you expected it as such, they weren’t incredibly dramatic people. Relatively speaking. But you worried about how Bucky would react to you keeping something like this from him. You knew logically that you didn’t owe him anything, but you remembered a fear of his was having the past several decades repeat themselves; techincally, you had kept a secret related to that fear. But there wasn’t much you could do except tell the truth now with Tony’s blessing - if you had done so before, you might have compromised the agreement he had made.

‘There’s a Hydra base in the state,’ you said. ‘Or, we think it’s Hydra. The only reason you don’t know is because those guys got the info on a recon mission and they were bound by the agreement not to tell you.’

It was, by a longshot, the most intimidating situation you had ever been in. You quickly realised that Steve could be almost scary when you weren’t on his good side.

‘How long have you guys known for?’ he asked, seeming to direct his frigitidy towards Tony, Natasha and Rhodes, more so than you.

‘Not long,’ said Natasha.

‘How long is a long time? It’s all relative, so I never know,’ Tony supplemented.

Bucky’s complexion paled and his breath hitched quietly but like his throat was caught in a vice-like grip. His tongue ran over his lips as he hesitated with what to say. You weren’t sure whether to prompt him or to keep going without addressing him directly.

‘How did you find out?’ Steve asked you.

‘I was curious?’ you said, almost as if guessing if that was the right answer to Steve’s question. ‘Tony’s the one who trained me, obviously I was able to get through his security - he’s just lucky I don’t hate him otherwise it could’ve turned out very differently for you guys.’

‘And you were stabbed.’

‘Yeah, thanks Tony, and I was stabbed in Queens. And they mentioned the word ‘soldier’, so make of that what you will.’

‘How many are we looking at here?’

‘We can’t tell you that,’ said Natasha. ‘Less than what we’ve seen before.’

‘Bucky?’ you prompted softly, pressing your fingers into his gently, uneasy with his minimal response.

‘’m fine,’ he said. And his stoic demeanour told you that he wasn’t fine but he wasn’t also wasn’t surprised. It wasn’t news to him, it was confirmation. ‘So why hasn’t anything happened since?’

Tony was stone-faced. ‘We answer to someone else now. And they wanted to wait.’

‘Well now that we know, we’ll take it into our own hands.’ You wondered if Steve had meant to sound so commanding, or if he automatically went into his military mode by habit.

Tony didn’t seem to have an issue. ‘FRIDAY can run a scan but without fingerprints or hair, there’s no chance of finding a match.’

You picked up on the momentum in the room and figured you could check up on Bucky afterwards; right now all that would seem to make him relax was a decent plan. As you shifted in your seat, your stitches making your abdomen feel itchy, you held your hand over the area trying to soothe it, catching sight of the state of your hands. They looked disgusting, but you also had an idea.

‘Well,’ you began cautiously, ‘... how about a blood sample?’

You cried out when you felt the man sharply drag the knife across your abdomen, a blunt, stinging pain echoing from your torso to your ears. Without even thinking, you kicked your legs out, slamming your heel on the man’s foot, causing his grip around your neck and on your hands to disappear, and kicking the back of his right knee, knocking him to the side. You held him swiftly by the back of his neck and kneed him in his groin, reached behind you and threw your coffee over his eyes and swiped the knife from his grip.

You grabbed the chair next to you and threw it across at the barista, leaping between his legs, dodging his right hook and grabbing his left fist, pushing him back and making him lose his balance, and stabbing the knife through the bridge of his foot, ears ringing with the pitch of his screech. You kicked him down and slammed his head with the chair, knocking him out cold.

Blood had slowly began to gather across your stomach but you ignored the pain as you twirled the knife between your fingers and sliced it through the first man’s back, pushing him backwards so that he fell on his front side, breathing heavily as you tried to keep yourself conscious. You kept an eye on him as you edged to the other side of the room to retrieve your phone, and as you walked out of the door. Both men didn’t move an inch.

You held out your right arm, your fingertips stained with not your blood, but his. ‘There’ll be some on the edge of my sleeve from the jacket I was wearing,’ you added airily as if you were commenting on the weather.

You had more attention now than ever. And you didn’t like it.

‘I left them alive,’ you said. ‘Just, self-defence and all.’

Tony sighed, rubbing his hand over his heart. Panic attack. ‘Nice work,’ he muttered eventually, voice distant. ‘Bruce, think you could -?’

You watched Tony and Bruce leave, unsure if you were more worried about Tony and the inevitable stress this would cause him, or angry that he was trying to be overly noble and protective. You were distracted by Bucky sliding his hand away from yours, missing the warmth of his calloused palm.

‘How do you feel?’ he asked quietly.

The adrenaline rush had already worn down. You had single-handedly wielded a knife and taken down two trained agents. It was messy, and you were scared and alone. You still felt scared because of what could happen next. As much as you knew they were bad people, you didn’t have it in yourself to leave them dead. You were worried they had died after you left.

‘I’m sorry you didn’t know,’ you said, ‘and about what happened to you. But I - I dunno, I couldn’t kill them.’

Bucky huffed shortly from his nose, taken aback by your reply. ‘They were trained, there’s no way you could have -’

‘Bucky, no, that’s not what I meant,’ you said, a lump developing in your throat. ‘I mean,’ you cleared your throat, trying to speak casually, ‘you’re right, they were much better than I was. But,’ you shook your head, ‘I didn’t want them dead because of me.’

Not wanting to focus on yourself too much, you turned the conversation before Bucky could reply. ‘How d’you feel?’

Bucky, thankfully, picked up on your discomfort, and he shrugged in reposne to your question. ‘Part of me isn’t surprised,’ he said wryly. ‘You don’t have to tread so lightly around me, I thought you knew that.’

‘No, I did, I just ...’

‘[Y/N], I don’t need to be treated like I’m fragile.’

‘I’m sorry,’ you muttered; for some reason the words were bitter in your mouth. You didn’t exactly enjoy apologising and frankly, you were embarrassed and ashamed with yourself that Bucky now saw you as someone who treated him like glass.

‘I didn’t mean to make you feel like that,’ you said sincerely. ‘s just that you said you were afraid of this happening and I didn’t want to ... be the bearer of bad news,’ you said pathetically.

‘I can take it, okay? I can’t deal with a problem if I don’t know it exists.’

You weren’t sure what exactly Bucky was feeling but, there was an underlying hostility in his voice that you weren’t sure if you were imagining or not.

‘Sergeant Barnes, Mr Stark needs you in the main lab.’

The AI’s voice rang out from all around the room.

You quirked an eyebrow. ‘Tony has FRIDAY calling you Sergeant?’

Bucky blinked, coming out of his thought process. ‘I-I know, right?’ he said, sounding uneasy. ‘I was kind of expecting ...’

‘Frosty?’ you guessed. ‘Popsicle?’

Bucky flicked you lightly on the forehead, and you gasped mockingly at him.

‘Looks like Tony found him.’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘He didn’t ask me to come,’ you said.

The conversation you had had with Tony weighed heavily on your shoulders. The last thing you wanted was for him to worry about you.

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#bucky x reader #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #series #marvel imagine #sebastian stan #another piece of writing

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spac3bar7end3r · 4 years

Text

Tell Me That I'll Be Alright

Modern Wizarding World, Draco Stays in Muggle Part, Pre-relationship, Short fic, potion master Draco, auror Harry

For the prompt: “Yes, I’m aware. Your point?”

2873 words

read on Ao3

‘For today's weather, the wind is calm. It will be sunny throughout the day. There is a chance of a little reunion happening. The person you don’t expect to see will walk through your door. It’s your choice to decide to close the door or open it once more.’

Luna’s message is cryptic. She is always cryptic, that’s for sure. But today’s message seems specific in a vague way (how can that be?) Normally it would be something like: your lucky person is the man who wears green, or something similar to that.

He loves it though, and it sells well both for muggles and in the wizarding world. It’s Luna’s own business, sending daily cryptic texts to subscribers. He once saw a muggle who has religiously studied her texts like verses in the bible.

If Luna said, he’s going to have a reunion today then so be it. Let’s hope it is not someone who wants to kill him. The weather is too good for a sparring today.

Draco Malfoy put his phone back in his pocket and locks his flat’s door before checking the time on his mobile phone. The young wizard smiles to himself. He has more spare time before work than usual.

He put his keys in his the other side of his pants’ pocket. The sound of the keys jingling echoes through the hallway. He looked up to nod at one of his old neighbour who is also going out of their resident. Draco smiles back when the other sends a smile his way like he always does.

He hums to himself while walking down the street. Maybe today is a great day to order coffee from the shop across the street. He deserves it. He has time to indulge himself in muggles’ fancy drinks (and he will!).

Draco orders a hot latte and a plain bagel. He smiles to the barista with a familiar face. Draco sees this bloke a lot when he becomes this shop’s regular (His first time here was a bit embarrassing because he cannot pronounce macchiato. What a dumb word.) The barista smiles flirtatiously, but Draco pretends like he doesn’t see it. He takes an effort to make small talk and puts the tips in a jar then goes out with his drinks and heavenly-smelled bagel in hands.

He unlocks the door when he reaches his office the muggle way, opening it and waves his hand, sending his scarf flying to the coat rack next to the door. The Closed sign hanging on the door flips itself and now showing Open instead. He turns on the light and the wireless before throwing his body on his chair. The smell of hot coffee and the gently sound of muggle’s music makes him feel lively for a second but then his mood shifts when Draco notices a letter on his desk, his brows furrowed at the pretentious, ugly wax seal and the department behind the symbol of the seal.

Comparing to the first time he received a letter from Hogwarts, this is like a 180 change. It is a letter from Gawain bloody Robards.

‘Dear Potion Master Draco Malfoy,’ written the letter, and Draco has to look up from the letter to sneer with himself for dramatic purpose.

And then he continues:

‘The Department of the Auror of the Ministry of Magic urgently needs your expertise on an important case since we believe your skills and knowledge will assist our works tremendously. We will send one of our officers to your office tomorrow. He will tell you all about the case.

We hope you will regard us in the same way that the Ministry has been regarding and assisting the Malfoy family. I believe it is quite a crucial time for us to support each other for the best of the wizarding world in this time and age.

Warm Regards,

Gawain Robards

Head Auror’

“Warm regards my arse.” Draco quickly looks through the content of the letter then throws the paper to the fire without care. He picks his coffee up and drinks, his mood now soiled. Since the letter was sent to him yesterday (Draco guesses it must be right after him getting out of his office. Robards is sly like that. That prat might have sent it knowing Draco wouldn’t be able to reject it in time.

Then that means ‘one of the officers’ is going to turn up here sooner or later. Draco takes a deep breath, not sure if he can school his expression well when seeing the people from the ministry. Those bastards always sneer at him because of the former Death Eater thing. Of course, Draco sneers back, but it doesn’t mean—

A sound of someone opening the door interrupts his thoughts. Draco lowers the volume of the music then looks at the visitor.

“Welcome—” Draco says to his potential customer but his voice cracks at the end. His gazes fixed on the person who just enters who looks as surprised as Draco (or maybe more).

It’s Potter.

‘The person you don’t expect to see will walk through your door.’ Luna’s message rings in his head. He stares openly at the figure standing at his door.

It’s Potter.

Of course, it’s Harry Potter. Why not?

“Malfoy, you’re wearing a beanie.” Potter blurts out with wide eyes. Draco raises his eyebrows, touching his beanie consciously then he looks at himself from head to toe: Graphic shirt with top buttons undone, muggle jeans and Doc Marten boots. Pansy called it ‘A typical, Hipster Muggle Look.’

Seven years since the war and this is what this blunt prat decided to say to his old classmate? Draco decides to also look at Potter thoroughly. Potter is not the only one who has eyes. He looks at The Gryffindor’s dirty boots, his old jeans that have more tears than to be a fashion statement, his dark blue t-shirt and a dark jacket in his hands… The outfit screams Potter the War Hero that he’s seen before on papers (except his body that well… fitter, more muscle on his body than when he was a gangly kid — but this is not what he should scrutinise at the moment, isn’t it?)

“Yes, I’m aware, Potter. Since it is on my head and all. Your point?”

“I thought the potion master has to be like—”

“Like what? Snape? Slughorn? Potter, need I remind you that this is 2019? Do you think that a potion master has to wear a robe, putting a cauldron in the centre of their workplace and still use owls to contact each other? Please, only people at the ministry do that. Tell them to email me next time.”

“But the ministry recommended you. I thought it would be an old bloke wearing a robe, acting like a ministry agent or something.” Potter explains, “Your manner is still kinda the same, though.”

“I’d bite my own tongue before I behave like those old bastards.”

“I think the current you is quite nice. I, er, I mean, I prefer you than those wizards and witches.”

Potter stammers and Draco tries not to overthink what the other said.

He tries to channel the old Draco Malfoy from his school years, chin up and all, “Actually I thought the ministry wouldn’t really want to ask me,” He twists his lips, directing a cocky smile at Potter, “But I guess they have no choice. I am an exceptional potion master, and they can’t get rid of my pretty face even if they want to.”

Potter has a small smile at the corner of his lips “I guess that’s true.”

Draco doesn’t know which part that Potter agreed with him. Potter is playing with the hem of his shirt awkwardly and just stands at the door. Draco coughs, waving the auror to his desk.

“Nice to reacquaint, Potter.” Draco looks directly into the green eyes. The ones that he’s never thought he would be able to have a chance to stare at again. “Put your jacket on the rack and come sit here.” He points to the chair at the other side of his desk before getting up and brewing tea for his old rival.

* * *

‘It’s your choice to decide to close the door or open it once more.’

Draco’s mind dwells on Luna’s words. What does that even mean? If her random prediction is accurate, then it means Draco needs to do something about…this? What is this anyway? And has he ever open the door to Potter, to begin with?

“You don’t look surprised to see me,” Potter says while he lightly puts the teacup on Draco’s desk.

“And what face do you want to see? I’ve lived around muggles for seven years, Potter. I guess I am great at feigning nonchalant to surprising shits now.” Draco thinks of all the weird muggle stuff he has encountered over the years.

“…”

“So are we going to talk about the ‘important case’ that Robards mentioned in the letter now?” Draco raises his eyebrow. Potter nods, swallowing before he grabs something from his pants pocket.

“We found this in the belongings of a squib in a muggle part of London. We have to work together with the muggle police. They think it was some kind of drug, but we also think it also has some kind of magic properties.” He puts the tiny bottle on Draco’s desk.

“Is there anybody at the ministry—”

“It seems like some chemical that the muggle seems to know of a lot. I heard you—"

“Doing research on muggle drugs and potion-making. Yes, I was. Did they drink this or inject themselves with it?” Draco opens the bottle and lightly smells the transparent liquid inside. They are not that different from the bottle of pure water.

“They drank it. The symptom is a daydreaming-like behaviour, but we also have one frozen wizard who looks like he was cast with the Full Body-Bind Curse. We still have not found a permanent cure for these symptoms.”

Draco nods, opening his top drawer and grabs the notepad. He jots down something quickly as if he’s afraid of forgetting it.

“I am well-acquainted with a muggle who’s in law enforcement. I could find some more details without unnecessary paperwork. Oh, but if you have any important details like the locations, other noticeable symptoms, forward it to me directly via email.” Draco grabs his phone and sends a text to said muggle before he forgets. He doesn’t want to contact this bloke without unnecessary because no matter how useful it is, this muggle is quite clingy, but he also wants to get rid of Potter as soon as possible.

He looks up to find Potter staring at his fingers. Draco stops, tilting his head as if asking a silent question when Potter notices him stopping.

“Uh, I, just, I’m not used to you using muggle stuff.” Potter coughs, blushing. “You even used emoji.” Potter nods towards Draco’s fingers, and with a small voice, he adds, “Is that an eggplant emoji? You used eggplant emoji? To that muggle?”

“Those were old texts.” Draco doesn’t know why he needs to quickly explain that to Potter (Lie. He actually knows why.) He puts down his phone and continues, “I might be able to find a cure. Maybe in two or three days. Do you want me sending the report or just—”

“I can come here for that.” Potter interrupts.

“Good. Because I hate having to getting in touch with the wizardry world.” Draco smiles darkly.

Potter slowly nods before looking around the office, looking for another topic to talk about.

“Nice office.”

“Thanks. I didn’t want the old-fashioned potion master vibe, so I tried to match it with the surrounding.” Draco nods towards the scenery outside the window.

“How is it here? I want to come here a few times but haven’t had a chance.”

“It’s alright. If you want some hipster muggle stuff, you’d like it here. You already have the look for it, I guess.” Draco raises his eyebrow at the auror.

Potter laughs, saying “Luna will absolutely love this place. I also notice a shop selling plants here. I’ll have to tell Neville about it.”

Draco smiles. “I contact Longbottom from time to time. I remembered he did research on some magical plants. He’s doing business now or…?”

“Yes, still about plants though.” Potter smiles. “I’m living in the same flat with him, and his plants.”

“You’re living with Longbottom? In Fulham? I thought you live in House Black’s house or with Weasley—”

“That was six years ago.” Potter interrupts.

Draco thought he became immune to surprising shits now that he’s getting older, but it seems like he still reacts the same way when it is concerning Potter. He raises one of his eyebrows, slowly taking a peek at Potter’s left hand—the part where he tries so hard not to stare since Potter has stepped inside.

However, there is no object that he’s scared to see. No ring. No wedding ring.

He thought Potter would have a happy ending after the war. Having a bunch of kids and living in a big house.

But it’s not like that. Potter’s eyes look sad. They seem like he saw something, even after the war. Something is hidden behind his green’s eyes that Draco doesn’t know what it is.

“So you’re single right now?”

“Yeah, I thought everyone knows that. The Daily Prophet and other editorials always write about my relationships like their lives depend on it. Witches Weekly also does that, putting me in a bachelor list every month or two.”

“Congrats on getting to be on the list, Scarhead. Unfortunately, I don’t get to see your mug on the papers since I don’t read wizard papers anymore because they are shit. Well, except the Quibbler. Luna is great at her job.”

“True.” Potter smiles lightly, “Do you subscribe to her daily prediction? I got an interesting text today.”

“I do, and yes, it was quite interesting.”

“Do we get the same text? How many people does she send it to? Is it randomised or something?”

“I don’t know. What’s yours say?”

“It says ‘don’t hesitate to go through the door.’ I don’t know what that means.”

“‘It’s your choice to close or open the door.’ is what I got.”

Potter raises his eyebrows. He swallows slowly and says, “And you, are you seeing anyone?” Potter asks, and Merlin, Draco hopes that it is a real hope glinting in Potter’s green eyes and it’s not just Draco’s hopeless desire projecting his old feeling from his unrequited crush during Hogwarts years. (Yes, at least Draco is brave to admit that now. Plus, He’s good at Occlumency. Even if Potter’s learned Legilimency, he still wouldn’t get a glimpse. Draco is that good.)

“No…” Draco answers slowly, processing his thought.

“What about that Eggplant Emoji muggle?”

“Merlin’s sake, Potter. That was a text from months ago.” Draco rolls his eyes.

“Good.” Potter nods. “Good.”

“What were we talking about before? Right, work. Case. Potion.” Draco gets gloomy a little when his mind returns to this annoying task (but it actually got less annoying the moment he realised who he gets to work with.)

“Right. I may need more pieces of evidence for the case, and if I find something new—”

“Like I said, email me or text me.”

“Do I need to include emoji in my message?” Potter grins jokingly.

“If you want,” Draco answers with a challenging smile. Potter’s dark skin flushed a little. He opens his mouth as if he’s going to say something, but then he closes it again.

“Well, if it’s not urgent then you can tell me when you come to get a better cure for the victims in three days.”

“Alright. Cheers.”

“We can do it over lunch. So I can introduce you to the street here. I’m sure you’ll like Dalston.”

“Fantastic. I’ve never refused when it comes to food.” Potter grins. “That settles it then. See you in three days. Cheers.”

“I’ll text you the restaurant’s name.”

“Brilliant. See you.”

Potter stands up from the chair. He walks to his coat hanging by the door and puts it on. The sound of the doorbell chiming rings around the office when the auror opens the door.

Apart from that messy dark hair, Draco notices Potter still has awkward habits he did in Hogwarts, like the way he walks, or the expression he made when he’s embarrassed.

Before the door closes, Draco shouts at the top of his lungs, “It’s a date, Potter!”

Potter splutters, face blushing. However, the auror nods enthusiastically, agreeing. He waves awkwardly like he doesn’t know what to do with his hand then quickly leaves.

Draco Malfoy smirks. He stands up and looks at the back of the auror who’s vanishing in thin air a second later.

‘It’s your choice to decide to close the door or open it once more.’

Draco made his choice. It’s depended on Potter now whether he will enter Draco’s open door or not.

Draco hopes he will.

Spoiler Alert: Yes, Harry will definitely enter the door. No hesitation.

And it doesn’t’ have anything to do with Luna’s prediction.

#sbdrarryfic #drarry #drarry fic #Draco Malfoy #Harry Potter #my fic #spacebartenderfic

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fizzingwizard · 4 years

Text

The In Between Times

AO3 link!

Thanks y’all for reading the first chapter :) The second picks up just before the start of episode 10 and then continues after the MetalTyrannomon battle. I just decided there are two break periods in there so I could let Yamato be his angsty aloof crying-out-for-connection self as much as his little heart desires.

Chapter 2: Yamato - The Second Night

They might have missed the cave altogether had the first rays of dawn not come twinkling through the branches at that moment. Once he spotted the craggy gap in the stone, Yamato didn't hesitate. "In here," he called, gesturing for the others to follow, and ran inside himself. He and Gabumon scanned around for any sign that the cave might already be inhabited. It seemed they were in luck. Just in time too, because the others poured into the cave like a tidal wave, sped on by pure survival instinct.

The tall nerdy kid with the smudged glasses threw himself face-first on the ground, ending up with a mouth full of dirt. He let out a pitiful groan that reminded Yamato of air slowly escaping from a balloon.

One of the two girls, wearing a pink dress and fussing over her hat, soon collapsed besides him, offering up similar complaints. The brainy kid who Yamato had met before (in a manner of speaking) sat down with his tablet computer settled on his legs and resumed typing away. The only time Yamato had seen him do anything different so far had been when he was running for his life.

"MetalTyrannomon," the kid (Izumi, was it?) muttered, his thick brow a tight, pensive knot. "Perfect level... Maybe I can..." He trailed off, and Yamato didn't bother asking him to elaborate.

He had other priorities.

As soon as he entered the cave, Yagami had stopped running, but he didn't stop to catch his breath. He still held Agumon cradled in his arms. The expression on his face looked almost bad as his injured partner. Yagami carried him over to a small ledge and set him down ever so gently, as if handling a porcelain figure.

The other girl, the redhead, hovered nearby, and eventually Yamato overheard her suggest wiping Agumon down with a cool cloth. A grateful look spread across Yagami's face. He seemed relieved just to have something to do, other than try to help Agumon recover by sheer force of will.

Red Hair took out a towel and a water bottle from her bag. As she soaked the towel, she turned and murmured something to her partner. "Okay!" chirped the bird, flapping her wings. She landed next to Gabumon. "Do you think you can find some leaves or something to make this rock a bit more comfortable for Agumon?" she asked. "I'm going to find some food. He'll be famished when he wakes up."

"I'll come with you." Izumi's partner raised his... leg?

"Me too!" the flower creature chimed in.

Gabumon tilted his head to catch Yamato's eye. "You know you don't have to ask," Yamato said softly.

With a smile, Gabumon followed the others into the jungle. Yamato hoped they wouldn't be long. Soundbirdmon was on watch somewhere out there, MetalTyrannomon not far behind. But if Gabumon wanted to do something to help Agumon, Yamato wasn't about to stop him.

Yagami ran the damp towel over Agumon's body, crusted mud and sand sloughing off bit by bit. Red Hair held Agumon's claw in her hand, gently massaging it. Neither said much, but Yagami seemed more at ease with her there. Some of the tension drained from his shoulders as he moved the towel in methodical circles. Yamato was glad he seemed more relaxed, because they had to Talk. Yagami had been this close to trying to fight MetalTyrannomon himself even after his partner got K.O.'d, and Yamato certainly had Opinions on that stunt.

"Listen," he began, taking a step closer.

Yagami turned around. Yamato couldn't quite hide the shock that went through him when he got a glimpse of Yagami's quivering chin, the ruddy stains high in his cheeks. He looked like he was barely holding back tears. "What?" he asked, and the stubborn line of his mouth didn't budge even when his voice wavered, as if determined to make it seem like everything was normal. A valiant effort, but he didn't fool Yamato. His eyes gave him away.

"... Never mind." They would still need to talk, of course. But... later.

He shrank away to post himself at the mouth of the cave, ostensibly to keep watch, and tried to ignore how much seeing Yagami so distressed bothered him.

---

"I can't believe I've done more in the last day - or day and a half, I guess - than I have in my entire life." Tall And Nerdy sagged forward with a sigh, bending his reedy body in an S shape. "First there was that giant squid. Boy, does that feel like a long time ago. Then we rode Ikkakumon across the sea, and then we attacked some weird military base. As if that wasn't enough, my textbook disintegrated in that acidic lake thanks to Mimi-kun."

"It's funny how the days feel so long and so short at the same time here, isn't it." Red Hair had taken off her hat and was dabbing her forehead with a towel from her seemingly endless supply.

"They don't feel short to me! Not at all! My feet are killing me!" The whiny girl in the baffling pink cowgirl dress turned to the redhead with a pleading expression. "I need another bandage, Sora-san!"

"Blisters? You should give your feet a soak in Epsom salts. Lets the fluid drain."

"Do you have Epsom salts, Jou-senpai?"

"... Well no, I was just suggesting -"

"Why bother!"

Yamato remained hunched at the mouth of the cave, trying to block them out. For the most part he was unsuccessful.

He was used to working alone, after all, and these people were... noisy.

Nestled against him but not quite asleep yet was Gabumon, a warm, lethargic ball of fur pressing into his side. Across from them, Izumi once again sat frowning at his tablet computer. This appeared to be his natural state. He too seemed to be trying to avoid the noise coming from deeper in the cave, where the others were concocting some form of dinner.

MetalTyrannomon was defeated, so that made it a victory dinner of sorts. He couldn't blame them for wanting to celebrate. It had been quite a day.

In the morning, they planned to split up into two groups. Since the most direct path to the holy Digimon was blocked by that terrifying miasma, one group would take the left route and the other would go right. If all went well, they'd reach their rendezvous point without any trouble and finally be able to do something about the blackout in Tokyo.

That was the only reason Yamato was still here. Though hard to admit, he'd only managed to break into the fortress so quickly because of his new traveling companions. It could have taken him days to figure out a safer way in alone, and according Izumi, they working with a tight deadline.

(Another point in favor of sticking with this group - Izumi could keep tabs on what was happening back home, despite the time lag. Even Yamato couldn't help but feel a little in awe of his powers. Seriously, where had Yagami found this wiz kid?)

Otherwise he'd be long gone by now, he was sure of it. Once he knew they weren't going to get themselves killed or anything, and that they weren't totally helpless when left to their own devices. Already he felt restless. With every minute that passed, Takeru remained in danger. Truth be told, he didn't want to stop for the night, and he wouldn't have if the others weren't so set on it.

Not to mention, he had been pushing Gabumon. Never against his will; more than anyone, Gabumon understood why he drove himself so hard. Even so... he deserved a rest.

There was a fire going now, casting flickering shadows on the cavern walls. Red Hair, Tall And Nerdy, and Pink Dress all crouched close to the flames and began wrapping aluminum foil around some sort of tuber that allegedly tasted like sweet potatoes. Their chatter petered off to a low murmur, broken up with peels of laughter, most often from Pink Dress. It was a marked change from how dour they'd all been that morning.

Yamato fingered the harmonica in his pocket. If he were alone right now (except for Gabumon, of course) he'd play something. Music always helped him wind down.

Just then the sound of footsteps approaching quickly caught his ear. His hand tightened around the harmonica before he let go and stood, senses on alert. An instant later, Gabumon leapt to his feet too. (Izumi didn't budge, even when the footsteps came close enough that anyone should be able to hear them.)

Yagami and his partner entered the cave loaded down with bags, and Yamato dropped his guard some. Yagami's hair looked even more a mess than normal, but he was grinning from ear to ear. It was starting to trip Yamato up, the way Yagami could work with him so well in the heat of battle, then turn around and shoot off this absolutely dopey grin. Noticing Yamato, he held up a bag with a look of triumph.

"What's that?" Yamato let his eyes narrow.

"Fish!" Yagami crowed.

"We caught lots!" Agumon added. Gabumon shuffled over to him and gave the bag a sniff. His fur bristled with excitement.

"Where did you find them?" Yamato asked. Yagami was now standing in front of Izumi, dangling his catch above the tablet screen and lowering it little by little.

"That shore where we met up with you," he said.

Yamato's brow shot up. "You went all the way back there?"

Yagami shrugged. "It's not so far away. And it's deserted now. I just hope none of these guys," he gave the bag a shake, "were any of Gomamon's friends."

"That was really dangerous, you know," frowned Yamato, trying to inject as much disapproval into his tone as possible. Earlier he'd insisted on fighting MetalTyrannomon by himself, and now this?

"Amazing," Yagami said. Yamato quirked a brow, but Yagami was facing Izumi. "No reaction at all."

"Try kicking him," Agumon suggested.

"No! No kicking!" cried Izumi's insect-like partner, buzzing over from where he'd been talking to the other Digimon. "Danger Will Robinson! Koushirou-han, abort!"

"What?" Izumi's head lifted at last. On being confronted with a bag full of fish, he blinked twice and made a confused sputtering noise. "Hn?"

None of this made any sort of impression on Yagami. If anything, he looked even more proud. "Look at all the fish we caught. C'mon! Tonight we feast like kings."

"Well - well done." Izumi leaned away, fingers pinching his nose. "Are we going to roast them?"

"I mean, unless you prefer them raw."

"I am not sure those are quite sushi grade."

"Roasting it is."

They both scampered towards the campfire as Yamato looked on.

"Soraaa! Fish!"

"Ah!" Red Hair yelped as a bag of fish dropped in her arms. "Wow, seriously?"

The others oohed and gathered around her, peeking into the bag as if fish were some rare oddity.

"They look like mackerel!" exclaimed Pink Dress.

"I'm just now realizing I haven't had real food since yesterday," Izumi said.

"These aren't poison are they?" Tall And Nerdy pushed his glasses up his nose, grimacing.

"What kind of question is that? Anyway, Agumon already ate one, and he's fine. Thank us, your fish providers."

"I'll thank you after we eat," said Red Hair. "Now go get some sticks so we can cook them."

Yagami muttered under his breath. "Task master..." But he squared his shoulders and turned back the way he came. For some reason, Yamato followed him. He didn't have anything better to do after all.

Outside, Yagami started stamping around the foliage, nose to the ground like a hunting dog. "Help me look for roasting sticks," he said. He picked up a long, thick branch. "Hmm..."

"Way too big." Yamato easily found a thinner one. "Give me your pocket knife."

"It's Sora's." Yagami handed it over and watched as Yamato started whittling the tip of the stick into a point. "Wow, you're good at that."

"Mmm."

"Have you done it before?"

"Mmm."

Yagami stared at him. Yamato waited for him to make some quip like, "You sure are a chatterbox," or "Cat got your tongue?" Strangely, he didn't. He went back to scanning for sticks, now and then picking one up and inspecting it. When he had a bundle he brought them over to Yamato and dumped them on the ground, before sinking down next to him with a long groan.

"Tired?"

"What, nah."

"You really shouldn't have gone back to the sea by yourself."

"Look, I'm fine, I've got all my fingers and toes, see?" Yagami flopped on his back and wiggled his fingers in the air. "And you get a fish dinner, so what's there to complain about?"

They lapsed into silence. Yamato's fingers deftly worked the knife across the bark of each branch until they had six whittled to sharp points. He hesitated, then started working on a seventh, just in case one of the six broke.

The cloudy sky looked almost black, and a breeze had kicked up, fresh and cool. Something about it reminded him of the Shimane countryside. Of course, back home there were no jungles. Sitting on hard, lumpy earth, though - the repetitive motion of sliding a knife over a strip of wood, campfire smoke wafting in the air, the quietude, the uncomplicated companionship -

"My old man taught me," he said.

Yagami's eyes had glazed over. He looked half-asleep already, arms tucked behind his head and legs sticking out straight. When Yamato spoke he gave a slight jolt and peered upward. "... Your dad taught you how to whittle?"

Yamato nodded, wondering why he was sharing this. Yagami pushed himself into a sitting position with a curious look, and he couldn't think of a way to avoid going on. "We go camping whenever he needs a break from work," he continued. "He's got an RV."

Yagami whistled. "The only camping I've ever done is the class trip."

"Tokyo isn't known for its great camping spots."

"Ha, no."

Picking up the roasting sticks, Yamato stood. "Next time tell me when you're going off somewhere."

Yagami's lips pinched. "I get that you think we're all so inexperienced compared to you, but I'm not some helpless two-year-old.""

"That's not - two people can get a job done twice as fast, that's all."

He took a step into the cave.

"... Oh. That's what this is about?"

Yamato faltered.

"You could have just said you wanted to come with."

"Would you have listened?"

"Someone had to watch over the cave though."

Yamato only nodded, a little annoyed with himself. That morning he'd had plenty to say, when Yagami insisted on trusting Ogremon, a villain who'd tried to kill them multiple times. Now that it turned out Ogremon hadn't been lying, and Yagami made good on his vow to defeat MetalTyrannomon, Yamato felt... not quite speechless, but less inclined to argue.

Then Yagami clapped a hand on his shoulder. He should have shrugged it off. Yamato didn't much go for physical contact. But, as usual, Yagami somehow managed to flip all the rules he'd carefully laid out for himself on their head. "Hey. Next time let's go together."

He grinned again.

In the end, no one knew whether there would even be a next time. Tomorrow they would split up after all. Yamato mulled over their plan as they pierced the fish on the sticks and set them over the fire. The sweet potatoes were rich and buttery. The roasted fish flaked apart between his fingers, not very meaty, but still a welcome change from canned soup and hardtack. He spat the bones into the ashes. Around him, the others bubbled over with talk and laughter, as if this were just another mountainside camping trip, and not another step toward the fight of their lives.

Takeru was counting on him. He couldn't afford to get distracted.

But it was late, and Yagami's head bumped against his shoulder as he started to nod off, loosening his grip on his stick enough that his partner could quickly snap up the remains of his fish before anyone noticed.

One night with these people wouldn't hurt, Yamato thought.

He should probably get around to learning their names.

#digimon adventure:#digimon adventure 2020 #digimon adventure reboot #yamato ishida #digimon #fizz writes

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olivia200312 · 4 years

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My Hero~ Ratchet x Shy! Human! Reader *Request*

Requested by the lovely Courtney the Butterfly Girl Courtney57658 on Quotev.

"I've actually got one request for the Ratchet and Clank one-shots. The reader is human and incredibly shy, she and Ratchet become close overtime (along with Clank, but they're just best friends and nothing more), but gets captured by Dr. Nefarious, and Ratchet has to get her back. No torturing or anything like that. Just angst and fluff. Hope this isn't too much to read. 😄😊 "

Note: the pic does not belong to me! It goes to the owner!

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

It's a hot day in planet Veldin. This planet isn't known as the hottest planet in Solona Galaxy. Gasper was the hottest planet. It was a normal day in Veldin. There was a garage where the heroes lived. Yes, heroes. The heroes were a kind Lombax, a smart small robot and a very shy human. Yes, even a very shy human. A cute one in fact. The Lombax was called Ratchet and he had a pal called Clank. He found him after he crashed here at night. Clank escaped just in time from the factory before he got destroyed by Victor. Clank explained that he was in Veldin to warn The Galactic Rangers from Drek's army. Ratchet gladly helped. Not only him, but also Ratchet's best friend (and crush) called Y/N. She was 18 just like Ratchet was.

Y/N was found as a toddler close to Ratchet's garage. He was a toddler too at the time. Y/N was completely lost there with absolutely no info or history. Well, there was only one info found. Y/N had a letter that said 'Take care of her. Make sure she doesn't get kidnapped by Dr. Nefarious.'

Once Ratchet's adopted dad, Grimroth or Grim for short, found Y/N and read the letter, he took her in. He was confused why the evil doctor wanted her. Was that how Y/N's parents died or were they alive somewhere? No one knew.

When Grim took Y/N in, she was so shy and scared that she would hide behind Grim all the time. Grim understood of course Y/N. She had a very hard time accepting that her parents were dead or maybe alive somewhere, but they'll never return. Also Y/N was a human while people around were not.

When Y/N met Ratchet, she was scared. Ratchet was very kind and friendly to her. He was confused what she was once he met her, but then Grim explained. Even Y/N was a human, Ratchet finds her very cute or key word: adorable. Once Y/N warmed up to Ratchet, she finds him adorable. He looks a bit like a cat. Heck, he can even purr! Ratchet would let her touch his fur and ears. He would touch her hair and play with it.

That was years ago. The toddlers were now very young adults. Y/N helped Ratchet to become a Ranger. Clank became one as well. Sadly, Y/N wasn't comforable to fight against the bad guys. But sometimes, she would help them by working with Elaris. Ratchet and Clank worked together a lot when they're off. The Rangers loved having Y/N around. The shy human girl wasn't comforable at the beginning, but she warmed up to them. Qwark would be a creep and stalk that it scare Y/N badly. She would go to Ratchet for comfort. The Lombax was angry at Qwark for scaring his crush.

Right now, Y/N was taking a walk around Veldin outside. She was close by the garage. She was wearing shorts and a F/C tank top since it's a sunny day like always. Good that at least it can rain too in Veldin.

Ratchet was busy in the garage with who knows what. Clank was just reading.

Y/N was enjoying the walk, until a big shadow of a ship form hovered above Y/N and a claw appeared! Y/N looked behind her just in time to see it was Dr. Nefarious!

He controlled his claw machine and grabbed Y/N, causing her to gasp in shock. "Now, I got you, Y/N."

Y/N then screamed so loud in terror that Ratchet heard it. He dropped his wrench and ran towards the sound. Clank ran after him. The boys stopped once they saw Y/N.

"Let her go, Nefarious!" Ratchet said in anger.

"How about no?" Nefarious said with a evil smirk.

"H-Help!" Y/N shouted, feeling very scared that she even cried.

Then Nefarious flew off with crying and scared Y/N. Ratchet tried to free her by threwing his OmniWrench at Nefarious' claw, but it didn't work! His OmniWrench was like a boomerang that would come back to the owner if you threw it in a correct way. Good that Ratchet was skilled.

"Y/N! No!" Ratchet shouted, watching Nefarious flying away with crying Y/N.

Clank then walked up to Ratchet and placed his metalic hand on his shoulder. "Ratchet, we must take action now. I have a feeling that Nefarious will do bad things to Y/N."

Ratchet put on a serious face. "Let's go."

At Dr. Nefarious' Lab~

"L-Let me go!" Y/N cried while trying to get herself free from the chains. She was chained up against the cold metalic wall. She was not naked. Thank god.

"Oh, Y/N. I've been waiting all these years to kidnap you," Nefarious said while walking up to Y/N with his arms behind his back.

"W-What are you t-talking about?" Y/N still continued to struggle.

Nefarious pulled a evil smirk on his face. "I know your parents."

Y/N stopped struggling. That caught her attention. She was asking for a long time what happened to her parents. Where were they? Were they ok? Were they alive? "W-What?"

"I know your parents ever since you came into the world. And do you know where?" Nefarious asked with a evil smirk. He then leaned closer, causing Y/N to feel nervous and scared

"N-No."

"Here. In my lab!"

Y/N was shocked by the response. How in Qwark's name did Nefarious knew her parents! So for all these years, Nefarious knew the asnwer?!

"Your parents were patetic humans and your mother gave birth to you! Once you were a toddler, your parents sacrificed their lives to save you! I killed them and I was looking for you to finish my experiment!"

"W-What experiment?" Y/N was having a panic attack.

"To see if I can turn a human into a robot. In fact, I'll start now!" He then pulled out a needle that had a weird disgusting green serum in it.

"No!" Y/N screamed loud again, hoping that someone will come to the rescue. She doesn't want to get turned into a robot! It would be a painful experience!

Nefarious was about to inject Y/N, until... there was a explosion! Someone was here!

"Y/N!"

"Ratchet! Clank!"

Clank ran to the controlling room to free Y/N from the chains, while Ratchet fought against Nefarious. Y/N could only watch with hope if Ratchet would win. Nefarious caused problems all these years ever since he left Galactic Rangers. Yes, you heard it. He was once a member there. He was the expert of creating weapons and gadgets. But the whole team teased and bullied him, especially Qwark. The doctor that was once a kind and smart one, became crazy and insane that he became evil, wanting to take revenge.

Ratchet managed to push Nefarious off, causing the insane doctor to scream, but his flying ship rescued him and took him away, leaving the heroes there. Ratchet sighed in relief and Clank managed to turn off the chains.

Y/N fell on her knees on the cold metalic floor. She was shaking.

"Y/N..." Ratchet said and he walked over to her fast and got on his knees. He then pulled Y/N into his warm and lovely hug, causing Y/N to relax and hug him back.

Y/N whimpered as she hold into Ratchet for dear life.

"Shhhh. It's ok." Ratchet stroked her hair.

Clank stood next to Ratchet with a soft smile. He was glad to see his best friends ok.

At Veldin~

It's been a week now after Ratchet rescued Y/N. She's a lot calmer now. She noticed how Ratchet became very overprotective of her that he wouldn't leave her side. Y/N would blush everytime when Ratchet wrapped his furry arms around her, protecting her from anything. She would nuzzle up to him.

Right now at was nigth and Y/N was watching stars just outside the garage. She was wearing short nigth clothes since it's chill temperature. The temperature was around 20°C so better be in these clothes instead with long sleeves.

Y/N was enjoying it, until she heard footsteps. She looked over her shoulder and saw Ratchet. He was only wearing boxes. He was a Lombax and was a male (+ an adult) which it means that he can sleep shirtless.

"Hey, Y/N. What are you doing outside?" Ratchet asked and sat down next to her. Close.

"N-Nothing, Fuzzball. Just e-enjoying the stars." She felt shy.

Ratchet chuckled and hooks his fingers under her chin to make her look at him. She was blushing madly. "You know, you're very adorable when you're shy."

"H-Hey! I'm a-always shy," Y/N pouts cutely.

Ratchet smiled kindly and gently kissed her, causing Y/N's heart to beat fast. She then kissed him back. She was waiting for this for her whole life!

Then a minute later, they pulled away. Ratchet pressed his forehead against hers. "I love you so much, my shy girl."

"I love you too, Fuzzball." She didn't even stuttered.

I hope you enjoyed this first one shot! :)

The Reader will be a human or a Lombax. It's up to you. The requests will be accepted with plots.

#ratchet and clank #x reader #Ratchet x Reader #Insomniac Games #Romance #One Shot

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phantasticworks · 4 years

Text

If You Don’t Love Me, Pretend - Chapter Eighteen

hi guys! thank you for all the support on the previous chapter (and the story as a whole) it means the world!! i hope everyone is having a good week and i hope you enjoy this week’s chapter!

read on ao3

Words: 12.2k

Summary: Phil takes a work trip, leaving Dan on his own with the kids.

Warnings for this chapter: swearing, mentions of past trauma (but nothing too detailed)

It’s a couple weeks after Halloween, when things have started shifting back into something copacetic in their home, when Phil is informed that he needs to attend an event in Berlin. He tried to fight it, claiming it was too short-notice and he needed more time to make arrangements for his family. When he told Dan about this, Dan had all but snorted tea out of his nose. Not that he wasn’t warmed by the thought of Phil wanting to be around to help, but he wasn’t helpless, and his independent streak rears its head at the idea that Phil didn’t realize this yet.

Still, even as he’d begrudgingly agreed to the trip, Phil still felt the need to complain about it to Dan every chance he got. And when he wasn’t complaining, he was asking Dan if he was absolutely sure that he could handle it.

“Phil. We’ll be fine.” Dan assures him for the many-eth time as Phil’s packing his things. He’s clearly nervous, but not about the trip. No, he’s apparently nervous because this will be the first full weekend where Dan will be alone with the kids.

“I know that in theory, Dan, but I’m still worried.” Phil gripes, folding a clean pair of odd socks and shoving them into a crevice in his weekend bag. Dan is torn between fondness and a wince at the untidiness. “What if something happens?”

“Like what?” Dan asks incredulously. “I’m not sure what dangers you think we might face that I can’t face on my own, Phil. I’m not saying we don’t need you, but we’ll be fine for a weekend.” Dan snags the shirt Phil just put in his suitcase and takes it back to the closet.

“Oi!” Phil complains.

“That shirt looks weird on you and we both know it, Phil.” The older man pouts at this, and Dan bites his lip to keep from laughing. He pulls a short sleeve button down shirt off the hanger and tosses it to Phil. “This looks better with the other things you packed. Oh- and you should just wear your formal shoes all weekend. Then you don’t have to pack them.” Dan crosses his arms as Phil folds the shirt and places it in his bag.

“You’re not my mother,” Phil snaps, still shoving things in the small duffle bag.

Dan rolls his eyes, walking out of their bedroom to the kitchen to start making dinner. Phil follows, clearly giving up packing for now. “Obviously I’m not, but what will people think of me if you look like a newborn monkey dressed you? Or, God-forbid, Amelia. Hand me the pan I like to use for stir fry.” He begins pulling ingredients out of the fridge, glancing over to the downstairs lounge, surprised when he doesn’t see the kids.

Phil’s muttering to himself as he sets the pan on the stove, moving around Dan to get their plates and glasses out to set the table. “You’ll call me, right?” He asks suddenly, his eyes darting up to meet Dan’s.

Dan stares at him, an almost confused look on his face. “Well, obviously,” he scoffs. He begins chopping some onions, glancing over at his fake-fiancé, who’s looking down, his cheeks pink. “Philly, did you honestly think I’d just not call you? I’ll call so much you’ll have to tell me to stop.. And text, and probably Skype as well, so the kids can see you.”

Phil’s lips push into a contemplative pout as he listens to Dan, but he shifts his attention to the doorway when they hear footsteps coming in. Amelia walks in, her face lighting up when she sees that Phil is there. Dan tries not to let that hurt, because he knows that he can’t always be the favorite.

“Dad!” She squeals, holding her arms out as she rushes over. Dan smiles at the way Phil’s eyes light up as he scoops her up.

“Hi, sweet girl.” Phil presses loud kisses into her hair, his eyes meeting Dan’s. They share a smile before Dan drops his gaze back to their cooking. “Where are your brothers?” He asks her.

“Jai’s in our room doing homework and Levi’s in the lounge upstairs.” She informs them, laying her head on Phil’s shoulder. “When are you leaving?”

Phil shifts her weight onto his hip and leans back against the island in their kitchen. “Eager, much?” He wrinkles his nose playfully. “Tomorrow morning. I’ll be leaving for the airport before you guys are up for school.” The little girl scowls at this, and Dan feels his heart squeeze painfully. He knew she didn’t dislike him or anything even near, but sometimes, compared to the magnetic energy of Phil’s charming presence, he felt like second best.

“I’ll Skype you guys every night, so it’ll be like I’m not even gone.” Phil kisses her hair before setting her down, moving around Dan to get some Ribena out of the cupboard.

Amelia considers this before she walks over to Dan, leaning against him. “Daddy, can I sleep in your bed since Dad won’t be here?” She whispers, loudly enough for Phil to hear.

Dan chuckles and ruffles her hair, feeling his heart swell with affection. “We’ll see, babygirl.”

She smiles and nods before traipsing out of the kitchen to bother one of her brothers.

“You’re not really going to let her sleep in our bed, are you?” Phil asks, his tone soft as he leans against the counter beside Dan.

Dan shrugs, a smile on his lips. “Maybe, if she wants to.” Phil rolls his eyes and goes to complain, undoubtedly, but Dan beats him to it. “I’ll be alone for like almost three nights, since you’ll be in so late Sunday, so I mean if her and Jai want to come sleep with me one night, I’m going to let them.”

Phil shakes his head fondly but doesn’t protest. “You’d be the worst if we had a baby,” he says nonchalantly, his smile wide.

Dan’s smile fades slowly as he pictures it, his heart flooded with warmth. He can just imagine him and Phil trying to raise a baby, but with every scary thought that invokes, he just feels so warm thinking about the two of them sharing a baby. Despite the fact that they’re currently fostering three children, the idea of having a baby injects heat directly into his veins.

Instead of voicing this, he just snorts. “And why would I be the worst?” He asks.

“You’d co-sleep from day one. The baby would be so dependent on sleeping with you that we’d never be able to sleep alone again.” Phil grins, and Dan’s cheeks flush. There were no implications present in Phil’s words, but Dan’s mind supplied its own interpretations of what those words could mean.

“I just like to cuddle,” Dan says defensively. “If I had a baby, I’d just enjoy snuggling the little thing, and sure maybe I’d spoil her, but it’d be fine.” He shrugs, stirring the food in front of him with slow strokes.

“Her?” Phil says quietly. When Dan looks at him, he has a soft smile on his face. “So this hypothetical baby of ours is a girl?” He asks, not looking weirded out or angered by this, just intrigued.

Dan flushes, staring hard at the food in the pan while he tries to come up with any excuse or joke. When he can’t, all he comes out with is a soft, “Yeah.”

Phil hums beside him before pushing away from the counter, coming to stand just behind Dan and dropping his chin on one of Dan’s shoulders. It’s comforting in a way he feels it shouldn’t be, but he can’t help but enjoy it. He wants to reach back and tangle his fingers in the soft black strands of Phil’s hair, but he doesn’t.

“Maybe one day,” Phil finally whispers, and Dan’s heart jumps.

“What?” He responds quietly, not daring to hope for the meaning he so desperately wants those words to hold.

“Maybe someday we’ll get to foster a baby and experience that side of parenting,” Phil answers simply, pressing his lips gently to Dan’s shoulder before pulling away.

Dan deflates at his words and the lack of contact but tries not to let it appear so obvious. “Right,” he laughs softly, staring at the food. “Would you mind going to tell the kids that dinner is ready?”

“Sure. Be right back.” Phil turns to go round up the kids, while Dan begins distributing food onto their plates, his mind swirling with thoughts that he can’t stop. He tries not to let himself feel overwhelmed with it, but all he can think of is a nursery and little onesies and Phil cradling a tiny bundle as he smiles up at- no. He shakes his head sharply, trying to dislodge the image from his head.

“I dunno, ask Dan.” Dan hears Phil’s voice and the sound of several footsteps coming into the kitchen, and he turns in confusion.

“Ask me what?”

“Can I invite Ethan over this weekend to work on our science project?” Jaiden asks, sitting beside Amelia at the table.

Dan glances at Phil, who’s laying the full plates on the table in front of each of the kids. The older man shrugs, saying, “Up to you, I won’t be here.”

“Sure, Jai. I can call his mum tomorrow and ask if it’s okay.” Dan nods to the child before handing him and his sister each a small glass.

“Okay.” Jaiden picks up his fork, a pleased look on his face.

“Can I go over to Charlotte’s after group on Saturday?” Levi asks as Dan sits beside him, looking nervous for the answer.

“Sure, if it’s okay with her foster parents.” Dan nods, realizing he left his own drink on the counter. “Phil, can you hand me- thank you,” he says when Phil sets the glass beside his left hand.

“Mhm,” he hums, his hand trailing across Dan’s shoulder before he goes to sit at the head of the table.

“If they get to do something can I do something this weekend?” Amelia whines, repeatedly stabbing a piece of chicken.

“Stop playing with that,” Phil reprimands gently. Amelia doesn’t even blink, putting down her fork and staring at Phil with wide brown eyes.

“What would you like to do, Mia?” Dan asks, taking a sip of his Ribena. “Do you have a friend you’d like to invite over?”

“Are you sure you can handle- er, I mean, are you sure you want to be in charge of so many kids at once, Dan?” Phil interjects then, watching as Dan brings his fork to his mouth.

He chews slowly, staring at Phil as he does so. He’s only a little annoyed at the wording of it, but he’s grateful that Phil had corrected himself. “It’ll be fine. It’s not like I haven’t done it before.” He shrugs.

“Well, yeah, but I was home then,” Phil says, looking down at his own food as he speaks. “I’m not saying you’re incompetent, I just don’t want you to feel overwhelmed, Bear.” He says this so softly that Dan can’t help but feel affectionate.

“It’s fine. If Mia wants to invite someone over, she can.” Dan glances away to lock eyes with his foster daughter, who smiles.

“Can Mrs. Louise come over with Darcy and baby Pearl?” She asks excitedly then, causing both Dan and Phil to exchange a look before laughing.

“We’ll see. I’ll ask what she’s up to this weekend, okay?” Dan smiles, picking up his glass.

Amelia nods happily and they eat in relative silence for a few minutes, aside from her and Jaiden quietly talking.

“How come he’s doing a science project?” Levi asks suddenly, gesturing across the table to his brother.

Dan glances at Jaiden before turning back to the oldest child. “He scored really high on the enrichment tests, so he was put in a few advanced classes. The science class has a science fair this term and I told him he could sign up if he wanted to.” Dan explains, voice full of pride. Although his dyslexia disrupted his reading and spelling, the child was incredibly intelligent, especially in science and math.

“That’s pretty cool, Jai-bird.” Levi grins at him.

Jaiden smiles and nods. “We’re gonna make clouds in bottles.” He says excitedly. He begins explaining this to Levi in detail, since he’s the only member of the family who hasn’t already heard about it.

“Did you pick up the things he needs for that?” Dan asks Phil, nodding to Jaiden.

Phil’s nods. “They’re in the office. I figured I’d keep them out of the way until he needed them.”

“Okay. Thank you,” Dan says, grateful that he won’t have to go to the shop and find the things on his own.

“Mhm.” Phil smiles at him before diving into the conversation, asking questions about Jaiden’s project and his partner.

Dan tunes out for the rest of dinner, mainly just enjoying the little life they’ve got built now. He doesn’t realize that they’ve finished until everyone goes to leave the table, Phil dropping a hand to his forehead.

“Are you feeling okay? You’ve been really quiet.” He studies Dan’s face, a look of concern on his face.

Dan nods, gathering their plates from the table and moving to stand. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired I guess.”

“Hm. Want me to do dishes tonight?” Phil offers, already running the water in the sink to rinse them off.

“No, I’ve got it.” Dan shakes his head before taking Phil’s place, gently brushing his hand down the older man’s back to prompt him to move out of the way. “You should go to bed soon, your flight is really early.” He adds, loading up the dishwasher.

Phil shrugs, taking a towel to wipe off the table. “I’ll go to bed when you do. Did you wanna watch something with the kids first?”

Dan shrugs. “If you want. How about you go ask what they feel like watching while I finish up here?”

Phil nods before leaving the kitchen, headed for the upstairs lounge.

“My vote is on The Incredibles,” Dan calls out, only getting a laugh in response.

It turns out the kids do want to watch this, so they spend the night watching it in the darkened lounge, Dan tucked up to Phil’s side instead of spread out on the other end of the couch like they used to do. One of Phil’s hands rests in Dan’s hair, stroking through the curls absently as they murmur to each other, just quiet enough that the movie drowns them out to the kids. Mostly things about Phil’s trip and any last-minute essentials there, but Dan feels overwhelmed with warmth as he leans his head against Phil’s shoulder, perfectly content.

Amelia and Jaiden have spread a blanket on the floor to watch, while Levi went to his room after dinner to study for a test. The twins are asleep by the end of the movie, so each of them takes one and carefully make their way downstairs to deposit them into their beds after the credits start rolling, somehow managing not to wake either of them in the process.

Dan brushes his teeth and tugs on his ugly cat shirt over a pair of boxers, finding Phil lying in bed with a book when he gets out of their bathroom. Throwing himself onto the mattress beside his best friend, Dan sighs. “I’m so tired. I’m so glad I don’t have to get up in the morning and fly to Germany,” he teases, poking Phil’s bare torso.

Phil squeaks at the contact, shooting an unimpressed look at Dan as he puts the book on his nightstand. “Lucky you,” he sighs. He lays down facing Dan after turning off his lamp, casting the room in pitch darkness.

“Yeah. I’m sure you’ll have fun though,” Dan says softly.

Phil shrugs. “Maybe. I’m gonna wish I was here the whole time though.” He frowns at this, as if he hadn’t meant to say it aloud, and Dan smiles.

“We’re gonna wish you were here too,” he says lightly, rolling over to face the other way. After hesitating for a moment, he shifts backwards a bit, until his back presses against Phil’s side.

Without words, Phil rolls over to press his bare chest against Dan’s clothed back, and Dan sighs at the comforting warmth of his arm curling around his waist. He feels Phil nuzzle into his hair, and shivers slightly as he feels the heavy breath Phil lets out against his neck.

“I’ll miss you,” he mumbles into Dan’s neck, sending the younger man’s heart racing erratically.

Dan clears his throat before responding softly. “I’m going to miss you too.”

He doesn’t get a response, and soon he realizes Phil’s already fallen asleep. He tries not to think about how it’s always easier for them to fall asleep together, because that’s one pain his heart can’t take. Instead he closes his eyes and allows sleep to overcome him slowly.

~~~

When Dan wakes a few hours later, it’s to the feeling of the mattress shifting, and a quiet ruffling that he hears coming from the end of his bed. Rolling over with a groan, he feels his feet pressing against something warm and solid. He yawns, shifting so he’s looking down at the end of the bed where Phil is sat pulling his shoes on.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you,” Phil whispers, glancing back at Dan.

Dan only shrugs, and in his half-asleep state the only thing he wants is to cuddle his fake fiancé. Instead of being normal and ignoring this instinct, however, his mind suggests that it might be a good idea to share this with Phil. “C’mere. Wanna snuggle.” He rubs his eyes and makes grabby hands.

Phil laughs softly, but only stretches over enough to find Dan’s leg under the covers and give it a squeeze. “I can’t, my cab should be here in twenty minutes.”

Dan sits up slightly, just enough to grab the back of Phil’s sweater and tug. As expected, Phil falls backwards against the force, and Dan smiles, snuggling into his side. “Then you have fifteen minutes to cuddle me,” he calculates.

He hears a laugh but feels Phil’s arms move to wrap around him, making him smile. Phil runs a hand through his wild curls, while the other traces circles on his back. Dan hums contentedly when Phil holds him closer, breathing in the scent of his best friend in the closeness. “I have a couple more post-its for you guys in my nightstand. Don’t forget to put them in the lunchboxes, okay?”

Humming, Dan nuzzles Phil’s chest. “M’kay. Might have to remind me.”

Phil laughs and mumbles something that Dan doesn’t hear. The room is washed with soft silence, and Phil is just so warm and inviting, Dan can already feel himself slipping into unconsciousness. “I need to go,” Phil whispers after a few minutes.

“Stay,” Dan whispers back, just on the verge of sleep.

He feels Phil press a long kiss to his forehead, and he tries to ignore the warmth flooding in his stomach. “I wish I could, babe. I’ll be back Sunday, okay? I’ll text you when I land.”

“Okay,” Dan sighs, slowly pulling himself out of the comfort of his best friend’s arms. “Be safe. Make sure you have your charger and passport,” he mumbles into his pillow when Phil has sat up and made his way off the bed.

“I will. Bye, Dan.” Phil presses another kiss to Dan’s cheek then, and Dan can’t hide his smile from breaking out across his face.

Dan hears the sound of Phil unplugging his phone charger and then the zip of his bag, and a thought is bouncing around in his head, dying to be let out. “Phil?” He calls softly, his eyes still closed.

“Yeah?”

Dan hesitates for just a second before responding, his stomach flipping over when he says the words aloud for the first time in what seemed like forever. “Love you.”

There’s a brief moment of complete silence and Dan wonders if Phil has even heard him at all. But then he feels a hand dragging through his hair. “I love you too, bear. Get some sleep.”

~~~

The kids are hyper and talkative the whole drive home from school Friday evening, and Dan is already starting to dread the full weekend ahead without Phil. He berates himself for this; how pathetic is it that he can’t survive even a full day without his best friend? He’s a grown man, for fuck’s sake. He should be glad he’s got some alone time at night when the kids are in bed, some alone time he hasn’t had in a very long time. Still, even that doesn’t make him feel any better, if anything it just makes him passively bitter.

“Daddy, can we order pizza for dinner?” Amelia is asking from the backseat. She’s bouncing around, struggling against her seatbelt like it’s inconveniencing her.

“Sure, love. Sit still until we get home, yeah?” He spares a couple glances at her in his rearview mirror until he sees that she’s settled back down with the seatbelt safely around her.

They’re not far from the flat when Dan’s phone starts ringing in the cupholder. His eyes dart over to it for a second, long enough to see Phil’s picture in the background as it vibrates with sound. “Levi, could you answer that?”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” Levi sounds surprised but grabs the phone and answers it quickly.

“Put him on speaker,” Dan instructs.

Levi nods and does as he’s told. “Hi, Phil,” Levi greets, his voice a little stilted and awkward.

“Oh- hi, bub. What’re you guys up to?” Phil doesn’t sound upset to hear Levi’s voice, just confused.

“Dan’s driving us home,” Levi informs him. “You’re on speaker, though, he can hear you.”

“Hi, love,” Phil says, clearly speaking to Dan now. Dan’s embarrassed to say he can feel his cheeks flush at the endearment. “I was just calling to check in. I can call back later?”

“Yeah, that’s good. I’ll Skype you when we get home, yeah?”

“Alright. Be careful driving. Talk to you later,” Phil says.

“Bye.”

Levi waits until Phil has hung up before setting the phone back where it was. The car is peacefully quiet for a moment, then Jaiden speaks up from the backseat.

“Do we have to keep it a secret that we’re getting pizza without him?”

~~~

After getting home and getting the kids situated, Dan sets up the computer at his desk upstairs so that they can Skype with Phil. Levi opts out, claiming he has an essay due next week. Dan allows this on the condition that Levi has to eat with them when the pizza arrives. He agrees easily enough, and Dan goes to sit on the sofa while the twins speak with Phil, giving them a chance to chat and tell whatever stories they’ve been dying to tell him since Dan said he’d Skype him.

“Can you see me?” Dan hears Phil asks, his voice a little distorted through the shitty microphone on his laptop. “Can you hear me?”

“Hi!” Amelia calls, waving at the screen excitedly.

Phil laughs, a sweet sound even through the horrible speaker. “Hi, lovebug. And Jai-bird. Did you two have a good day at school?”

They talk pretty much over each other after that, trying to get all their words in at once. Amelia talks about a very pretty butterfly she and Darcy chased at recess, and Jaiden waits until she’s done before announcing that it was actually a moth. An argument breaks out after that, because of course it does, and Dan intervenes with a deep sigh.

He shoves himself off the sofa and goes over to stand behind them. “Alright, how about we tell Dad goodnight. He’s had a busy day and you guys need to wash up before dinner.” Dan ruffles Jaiden’s hair affectionately.

“Okay,” Amelia says sullenly. “Night, Dad. Love you, sweet dreams!” She’s already shoving her way out of the desk chair Dan had managed to seat them both in, elbows flying into Jaiden’s ribs no doubt.

Phil’s got a soft, fond look on his face as he looks at her. “Be kind to your brother, Mia. And I love you too.”

Jaiden sticks his tongue out at Amelia, and she glances up at Dan before sulking off the chair, glaring daggers at her brother as she goes. Dan can’t help but snort at her behavior. Jaiden shifts in the chair, subtly shaking Dan’s hands out of his hair as he does. “Are you in a hotel?” Jaiden asks Phil, studying the screen curiously.

“I am, yeah.” Phil moves around and moves the laptop to the side so Jaiden can see what his room looks like. “Do you see that ugly painting there?” He asks, pointing to some really atrocious attempt at what looks like a gourd. “I’m gonna bring that home with me and hang it above mine and Dan’s bed.”

“No you will not,” Dan disagrees immediately, his voice not even a little bit joking. “That’s ugly as f-frick.”

Phil quirks an eyebrow at Dan in warning. “Watch your words, Howell. I won’t have you spoiling our kids while I’m gone,” Phil chastises.

Jaiden drops his head back to giggle at Dan. “Yeah, Howell,” he teases.

Dan rolls his eyes, playfully flicking his nose. Jaiden giggles even harder. “Alright, alright. Go play with your sister for a bit, meanness.”

“’Kay. Night, Dad! Love you,” Jaiden hops off the chair with a wave to the screen, not even waiting for an answer.

Phil looks a little lost as he calls after him, “I love you too! Goodnight.” He sighs when Dan sits down in the chair, smiling up at him with a tired look in his eyes. “Hi.”

Dan offers him a small smile. Something about being sat in front of the screen by himself now has his throat closing, his lungs punctured by the memories of all the six-hour Skype calls they had when they were younger. His chest burns. “Hi.”

Even from a thousand kilometers away, Phil can tell. Dan knows he can. He tilts his head to the side, assessing Dan’s mood. Dan feels naked, suddenly. “How’re you?” Phil asks, his voice kind.

Dan shrugs. “I’m fine.” He clears his throat. “How’s the trip?”

Phil shrugs too. “It’s fine, I guess. We’re getting everything done on schedule, so that’s nice.”

“Yeah, that’s good.”

It’s quiet for a moment, and Dan figures Phil’s trying to decide how to proceed from here. Eventually, he settles on asking about Levi.

“Where’s Levi?” He asks.

“In his room. He said he had an essay to work on.” Dan’s apologetic. He knows Phil feels the disconnect from the teenager, just as Dan does, although he sometimes thinks Phil handles that feeling of inadequacy as a parent a little better.

“Oh. Don’t forget to refill the paper in the printer so he can print it when he’s finished,” Phil reminds him.

“I will.”

Phil fiddles with his fingers, and it takes Dan a moment to realize he’s twisting his engagement band. “Are you alright, then?” Phil asks finally.

Dan shrugs. He’s doing that a lot lately. “I reckon so.”

“You look tired, baby.” Phil’s got his head tilted as he looks at Dan, and even though he doesn’t believe in souls, even with an entire sea between them, he feels like Phil’s staring straight at his.

Trying to shove the thought out of his consciousness, Dan makes a noncommittal noise. “I guess.”

The silence after he speaks is interrupted by Phil letting out a deep sigh. “Okay. Well, I miss you.”

Something bitter is under Dan’s ribs, clawing at the cavity in his chest where the ache is only spreading, making it hard for him to speak. “You left this morning,” he says flatly. It comes out wrong. Meaner, somehow.

Phil, in all his patience and loveliness, takes it in stride and laughs. “I know, I was there,” he teases. “I still miss you, though. I’m not looking forward to sleeping by myself.”

Hearing the words again is like a stab to his heart every time. Or maybe a scratch in that direction, as a stab would rather put him out of his misery. Instead, Dan has to hear those words, and process that he feels the same way, so deeply he thinks he might cry. “You’ve got a bed to yourself, you can starfish out as much as you like.” He manages a gentler tone this time.

When he glances up, Phil’s got a grin on his face, clearly pleased that Dan’s trying, because that’s all he can do right now, really. “I do that to bother you. It’s no fun if you aren’t there to elbow me in my spleen, telling me to shove over.”

A traitor tear escapes Dan’s eye as he lets out a strangled laugh. “Fuck you, alright. That shit is so annoying.”

Phil smiles, his tongue between his teeth. “Shut up, you love me.”

Dan’s heart aches. He drops his head, the teasing tone choking him. Squeezing his eyes shut, he pretends he’s not about to start crying, because maybe if he acts like it’s not happening, the urge to do so will disappear. “I miss you,” he chokes out.

It takes a moment of silence for him to look up at the screen, and Phil is there, smiling fondly and waiting for Dan to get a grip on himself. When Dan finally catches his breath and offers him a small smile, Phil copies it. He looks like he’s about to speak, but his mouth shifts like he changes his mind on what to say at the last second. “I miss you too, bear. I’ll be home soon, though.”

“I know. Just feels like forever.” He’s aware he sounds clingy and annoying, but he’s decided not to care.

Phil’s got a thoughtful look on his face at that. “Does this whole thing kinda remind you of when you lived in Reading and I was still in Manchester and we used to Skype for hours all the time?”

Dan can’t help but smile at that, because yeah, it does. “It’s exactly like that, and I hate it. That’s my hot and spicy take on that.” He’s mostly kidding, as he treasured their Skype calls deeply, even to this day. He just doesn’t like being reminded so acutely of how that feels, not all these years later when he has Phil with him almost all the time. Having that taken away, even for a weekend, feels like it should be illegal.

“I don’t know, I think it’s kind of nice,” Phil says. He’s not looking at Dan, and his gaze is unfocused. “Perspective, I guess.”

“I don’t like forced perspective, not like this,” Dan argues. “I miss your stupid face and your stupid long limbs making an attempt on my life while we sleep.”

This startles a very genuine laugh from Phil’s chest, and Dan feels his lips stretching into a smile at the sound. “You make me sound like a murderer!” Phil protests.

Dan giggles. “I’m not saying you are or you aren’t, but I bet I have bruises from where your knees or elbows have caught me while you’re flailing around.”

Phil rolls his eyes, putting on an annoyed expression. “Dan, you know I have to roll over a few times and get comfy before I can really sleep.”

“Oh, I know. But your idea of getting comfy is just, like, two hours of mutilating me.”

“Fine,” Phil says, narrowing his eyes. “We’ll see how you feel about sleeping all by yourself tonight when I’m not there to mutilate you, yeah?”

Dan chews on his lip as he nods. “Alright, I’ll just get ready for the best night’s sleep I’ve had in years,” he boasts. He knows it’s a lie. Phil also knows it’s a lie. Part of this is meeting each other in the middle of that knowledge and making fun of it.

He’s about to say something else, keep the joke going while he’s feeling good about it, but then he hears Amelia calling for him. Phil does too, if his sympathetic smile is anything to go by. “I wish I was there, love.”

Dan forces a smile. “Yeah. We do too. I’m not the only one who misses you.”

Phil looks down, hiding a pleased smile. “Well. Yeah.” He sighs when he looks up. “I guess you need to go.”

There’s another call from downstairs. Dan grimaces, but nods. “Yeah. I need to make sure they get some dinner in them before the world explodes or whatever.”

“Right,” Phil laughs. “Don’t burn our home down while I’m gone, please.”

Dan grins. “Of course not. I’ll text you later, okay?”

Phil nods. “Alright. Well, goodnight. I miss you.”

“Miss you too, babe. Talk later, yeah?”

“Yeah. Tell the kids I love them. You too.” Phil manages to hold eye contact until the very last word. Dan’s impressed.

Smiling, Dan nods at him, already getting ready to get off the chair to go sort out the kids. “I will. Love you too. Goodnight.”

Phil offers him a wave and a sweet smile before the screen goes black.

~~~

Dan tosses and turns on the bed, the sheets stretching for miles around him. He’d really jinxed himself earlier by pretending for even a moment that he’d be able to get any semblance of sleep tonight without Phil there. So instead he ends up having a staring contest with the stupid white ceiling, waiting impatiently for sleep to pull him under. It doesn’t take long for that to get boring, though, and he swings his legs over the side and makes his way to the kitchen.

The flat is silent, almost eerily so, and Dan has the presence of mind to feel a prickle of shame at the way his heart races as he speeds down the dark hallway. He hurriedly clicks on the lights, and the soft, pale glow draws a sigh from his chest. He’s quiet as he moves around the kitchen, pouring water in the kettle and setting it to boil while he goes to get a mug out of the cupboard. He’s just pulled out the box of chamomile tea when he hears footsteps on the stairs. He glances over just in time to see Levi walk into the kitchen, rubbing at his eyes with his wrist.

When he glances up and notices Dan, Levi startles. "Oh."

Dan flashes an apologetic smile. "Hey, bub."

Levi looks halfway to turning around and leaving, but when Dan greets him, he pauses, hesitating in the door awkwardly. "Sorry. I, uh-"

"Can't sleep?" Dan offers.

There's a sigh, and then Levi nods. "Yeah." He sounds so deeply exhausted. Dan's heart aches.

"Me either," Dan admits. "Not used to having the bed to myself, I reckon. Tea?" He gestures to the kettle.

Levi nods, moving to sit at the table. "Yes, please."

Dan is equal parts surprised, pleased, and touched that he agreed to tea, perhaps disproportionately so.. Pulling out another mug, he goes about fixing Levi a cup of the citrus tisane that he’s seen him go for after school and sets both mugs down gently. "It's hot," he says pointlessly, taking the seat across from Levi.

It's quiet as they wait for their tea to cool enough to drink. Levi's got his hands wrapped around the mug tightly, staring so intently at it that the steam catches his cheeks and nose and turns them subtly pink. Unsure of what to talk about, or even if Levi would want to, Dan stirs his tea absently with a wooden stirrer, watching the ripples of liquid lap gently against the mug.

The silence doesn't last long, though. After Dan takes his first sip of tea (still too hot), Levi clears his throat, glancing up at him with troubled eyes. "Can I... Can I talk to you about something, Dan?"

Dan swallows and sets his mug down, clearing his throat and nodding. "Of course. What's up?"

Levi looks away at this. "It's, like, a personal question. I guess."

Apprehensive now, Dan blinks at him and nods slowly. "Alright. Go for it." He almost wishes he wouldn't.

A few minutes pass where Levi seems to be trying to collect his thoughts, scratching absently at the table with his index finger. When he speaks, the question that he asks isn’t at all what Dan was expecting. “Why did you and Phil decide to foster?”

"Oh." Dan has to take a moment to consider that. "Well... I mean, lots of reasons. We both love kids, but it's not like we could really easily have kids of our own. And I wouldn't have wanted that, anyway. I wanted the chance to help someone.” He opens his mouth to say something else, then shuts it with a snap, thinking the better of it.

“And that’s all?” Levi presses. He sounds like he’s fishing for a certain answer.

Dan hesitates. He doesn’t exactly love the idea of airing Charlotte’s dirty laundry to Levi, so he delicately picks his way around the topic. “Well… Towards the end of the past school year, I was approached by a student who was having some issues at home. I had to step in, and that whole situation really affected me.” He laughs then, bitterly. He doesn't know how much of this to reveal either, really, but he feels like if he can relate to Levi with anything, it's having a rough home life. "And I mean, I know what it's like to have shitty parents, so. I guess personally, I can't speak for Phil, but... I guess I just wanted to prove I was better than that, especially after that situation with one of my students."

Levi nods slowly, his gaze dropping to his tea when it's clear that Dan is done speaking. He clears his throat before gesturing vaguely in Dan's direction. "What were they like? Your parents." He looks abruptly horrified. “If you, like, are comfortable. About that.” His voice trails off awkwardly.

It takes Dan a moment to process Levi’s question, but when he does he’s a little surprised. And that's not something he's willing to share with a teenager, especially not one he's supposed to be a parental figure for. "Doesn't really matter, the specifics of it," Dan says with a shrug. "I had a rough time with the other kids at school and neither of them noticed or cared." His mind unhelpfully adds that it was his father that did that, specifically, and it isn't fair to blame that on his poor mum. "I don't think any child should have to feel the way I did when I was growing up," he says quietly.

It's quiet for so long that Dan is afraid he’s inadvertently ended the conversation. "Do you think you're doing a better job?" Levi asks suddenly.

Dan nearly laughs. "Well, I hope so. But I guess I can't really know that for sure. I'm probably doing what most parents do, which is just the best I can. It's not like there are rules to follow or, like, a rubric for parenting." He figures this whole thing would be a lot easier if there was. A rubric on how to handle feelings one has for their best friend would also be pretty clever, too.

"Well. Mia and Jai seem to really like you guys," Levi says. Dan's not sure if he's imagining any bitter tone or if it's actually there. He definitely sees the sadness on his face when he stares down into his mug.

"Does that bother you?" Dan asks gently.

Levi shrugs. "Not really. I'm glad they're not- that what happened to me isn’t happening to them."

He doesn't elaborate, and Dan's terrified to ask him to. His throat is tight and he unthinkingly reaches across the table and rests his hand on Levi’s. It’s the first time Dan has ever touched him, and it’s awkward, but when Dan goes to pull away, Levi gives him a wry half-smile, and Dan allows his hand to linger for just another moment.

"Well," Dan says, drawing his hand back and trying to talk around the lump in his throat. "We want to do everything we can to keep you guys safe and happy."

Levi nods, but gestures vaguely at the room around them. "I know, I get that. I still worry about them, though."

Dan's throat is tight at the idea that he may have ever given these kids a reason to fear for their safety. He knows realistically that he's done everything to ensure that's not the case but hearing Levi's words sends a shock of frozen fear straight to his heart. "I know it's hard to not worry about them. I've got a little brother myself. We're not very close now, but I understand." He hesitates before finishing. "You don't have to worry about them here, though. I know we aren't your real parents, but Phil and I really do care about you guys very much, and we'll do whatever it takes to make sure you guys are safe, okay?"

Levi stares at him for a second, blinking rapidly for a moment before nodding and looking down. He brings his hands up to cover his face and sniffs wetly. Dan is panicking already, halfway out of his seat in some deep-rooted desire to comfort him or help him somehow. However, he doesn't think Levi would be comfortable with that, even if they did just have a deep chat. Instead, he decides to give him some space.

Standing and grabbing his mug, Dan steps around the table to head to his room. As he passes Levi, the boy lifts his head, blinking up at Dan with wet eyes. Dan offers him a small smile, and risks an affectionate gesture, lifting his hand up to ruffle Levi's hair gently. "Finish your tea, and then you need to be off to bed, yeah?"

Levi nods, rubbing at his eyes again. "Alright."

"Goodnight," Dan says as he heads out of the room.

"Dan?" Levi calls softly just before Dan steps into the hall. Dan turns and quirks an eyebrow. Levi looks down, scratching at the table. "I know it was Charlotte."

Dan feels his heart drop. “Oh.”

Levi glances up at him quickly, shrugging awkwardly. “We… She told me about it, once. She asked why I went to your office at the end of the day and I told her you were fostering me, and well… She told me what you did for her and her brother.”

“Right,” Dan says slowly, still unsure of Levi’s neutral tone.

There’s a long beat of silence before Levi finally meets his gaze. “I know you and Phil are just trying to do a good thing. I’m sorry if I make it harder for you to do that.”

Dan’s eyes are misting, and he tries to blink it away before Levi has a chance to notice. “You don’t,” Dan assures him, his voice cracking. “You don’t make it harder for us at all, Levi. We love having you here, okay?”

The teenager nods, staring down at his lukewarm tea. “I… Thank you. For… you know,” he says, gesturing vaguely around him.

Dan isn’t sure if he means the tea, the chat, or the fostering in general, but he can't help but smile fondly either way. "Of course, bub. Anytime." He gestures to the sink with his own mug. "Rinse your mug when you're finished. Love you."

He’s met with silence, but it’s not heavy. If anything, he feels lighter than he has all weekend.

~~~

The weekend is busy, even by their typically-busy standards. Levi does get permission to spend some time at Charlotte’s foster home after their group therapy on Saturday, so after dropping him off before the start of therapy, Dan is sure to get Charlotte’s foster family’s assurance that they’ll drop Levi off at home before dinner. After that, Dan and the twins head home so Jaiden and his friend can work on their science project. Much to Amelia’s delight, Dan convinces Louise to bring her two children over so Amelia can have a playdate with Darcy and baby Pearl while Dan and Louise try to supervise the science project. It’s all kind of chaotic, but Dan’s heart feels remarkably warm.

Still, as soon as their guests are gone and his other child is returned home to him in one piece, Dan finds he really appreciates the way the flat rings with resounding silence and peace.

He’s practically counting down the minutes until Sunday night when Phil’s flight is due to land in London. He feels a little ridiculous for how excited he is, but he just misses him, more than he has in what felt like years. Of course, he always craves Phil’s company and didn’t enjoy their time apart, but this time it just felt different, worse. So, if he struggles to stay awake long after going to bed, in hopes that he’ll be awake when Phil gets home, well, he can’t really be blamed for his own pathetic behavior.

Ultimately, though, he fails. He’s all but dead to the world for an undetermined amount of time, but when he’s slowly jostled into consciousness by a dipping mattress and the shuffle of sheets and limbs, he’s vaguely aware of one thing, and that thing is that Phil has to be home by now or his body would have surely let him continue sleeping in peace.

Rolling over and bumping into something solid, Dan can’t help a sleep-drunk grin from stretching across his lips. “Mm. Hey,” he whispers into the darkness of their room, unsubtly koala-wrapping himself around Phil almost instantly.

Phil makes a sound deep in his throat like a laugh, and Dan really fucking missed that. “Hey. Sorry I woke you,” Phil whispers back.

“Didn’t.” Dan lies unabashedly, maneuvering himself until he’s reasonably sure his face is near Phil’s. Dan’s got his eyes closed, still completely exhausted from the weekend he’s had, but he doesn’t want to waste another moment not touching Phil in some way. Using his hands to help guide him, he skims over Phil’s forehead and nose, getting a gentle grip on Phil’s chin to tilt his head to the side. The expanse of his cheek that Dan can feel just a breath away from his own lips is perfect for kisses, he thinks sleepily.

It’s very possible he’s still half-asleep, which probably fuels his insane behavior as he leans in and presses kiss after kiss to Phil’s cheek and jaw. If Phil has a problem with it, he’s got a really funny way of showing it. He feels one of Phil’s hands come up to card through his hair, and Dan’s living for it.

“I missed you, love.” His voice is gravely and low, exhausted in the way it gets when he’s been awake too long. Dan missed that, too.

Peppering another couple of kisses along Phil’s jaw and dropping one to his ear for good measure, Dan sighs and pulls away, dropping his head to Phil’s chest, snuggling against him unashamedly. “Flight okay?” He says, sleep blurring his words together.

Phil laughs. Dan smiles faintly. “Yeah, it was fine. We’ll talk in the morning, yeah? Go to sleep, baby.”

“Mm. Mhm. That sounds nice.” He’s already drifting back off. He’s not fully under yet, and he feels Phil shift under him. Dan makes a whiny noise of protest at that, but Phil shushes him gently. It’s easy for Dan to settle down after that, a familiar heartbeat under his ear and a hand carding through his hair in familiar sweeps. Yeah, he really, really missed this.

~~~

On Monday, Dan wakes up first. Phil doesn’t have the day off, even as late as he got in the night before, but Dan has no intentions of waking him up yet. He’s careful as he crawls out of bed and heads for the shower, taking extra care to be quiet as he showers and gets ready for the day. After managing to get fully dressed without Phil stirring at all, Dan makes his way out of their room and down the hall to the twins’ bedroom. He listens for any noise before opening the door, smiling when he sees them both curled up with their respective plushies. Flicking the light on, Dan makes his way to the window to open the curtain. “Time for school,” he says in a sing-song voice. “C’mon, kiddos, wake up. Gotta get ready.” Amelia whines as she covers her head with her pillow, while Jaiden doesn’t stir at all. With a sigh, Dan goes over to him first, gently shaking his shoulder. “Jai, come on. Time to wake up.”

After a few minutes of this, Jaiden finally rolls over, blinking up at Dan through bleary eyes. “Is Dad back yet?” He asks, sounding sleepy and confused.

“He’s still in bed, we’re letting him have a lie-in today, yeah? But if you and your sister get up and get dressed really quick, I’ll let you go wake him up. Sound like a deal?” Dan holds his hand out for a handshake.

Jaiden grins, suddenly wide awake. “Okay!” He pushes Dan out of the way before skipping over to Amelia’s bed, hopping up and shaking her rather violently. “Wake up, wake up!” He screeches gleefully.

“Alright, alright, don’t torture her,” Dan says with a pleasant roll of his eyes. “I’m gonna go make sure Levi’s up, but when you guys are finished getting dressed you can go wake Phil.” They agree with excitement in their voices, and he shoots them a semi-stern look as he steps out of their room. “Be nice to him, though, no jumping on him and screaming, okay? He got in very late last night.”

They agree, perhaps only slightly less excited, and then they’re off to their dresser to get their clothes out for the day. Dan leaves them to it, heading upstairs to check on Levi. The door is pulled shut, as it usually is, so he knocks quietly before cracking it open. “Hey, bub. Just checking that you’re awake,” Dan greets softly after poking his head around the door. He frowns when he takes a better look at him. “Levi?”

The teen raises his head up a little, staring at Dan like he’s seeing straight through him. It almost makes Dan’s blood run cold. He wonders, idly, if that’s what Phil sees on his bad days, when Dan can’t even make it out of bed. Just the thought that Phil might feel this way looking at Dan makes his stomach lurch. “I’m awake,” Levi says. His voice is hoarse and flat.

Stepping inside the room, Dan makes his way over to the bed, gesturing at it vaguely. “Mind if I sit?” he asks quietly.

Levi’s eyes flit from the fixated point on the ceiling to assess Dan. They hold eye contact for a brief, tense minute, and then Levi shrugs. Dan takes that as a yes, and settles gently on the edge of the bed, giving Levi plenty of space. He waits to see if Levi will speak first, maybe tell him what’s wrong before Dan has to work out how to ask for himself.

He’s saved from having to do so when Levi sighs a few minutes later. His gaze doesn’t leave the ceiling, even as he speaks again. “Can I stay home today?” He asks.

Dan studies him for a moment. He doesn’t look ill at a glance, necessarily, but Dan can tell that something is definitely wrong. He may not know exactly what it is, but there’s definitely something going on. “Do you have a fever?” Dan asks. When Levi shrugs, Dan reaches forward, settling the back of his hand against Levi’s forehead. He’s not even a little bit warm. If anything, he’s kind of clammy. “You don’t feel like you’ve got a fever.”

Levi shrugs. “Okay.” He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Dan doesn’t think he’s going to ask to stay home again, but he’s not an idiot. He knows he can’t send him to school like this. If what Levi is feeling is anything like what Dan went through at that age, he knows that what he needs is a day off.

“Alright. Stay in bed today, then. I’ll text to check in on you every couple of hours, okay?” Dan stands, not really expecting an answer as he heads to the bedroom door.

“Dan?” Levi calls.

Dan turns to glance at him, quirking an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

Levi looks a little lost for words. “Um�� thanks.”

Smiling, Dan shrugs. “Sometimes you just need a mental day off. I get it. Call me if you need anything today, okay? I’ll leave some money on the kitchen table if you want to order some takeaway or something later.” He turns to head out of his room then, careful to close the door behind him.

“Thank you,” he hears Levi call before he shuts the door completely.

When he gets back downstairs, Dan heads to the kitchen, not expecting Phil and the twins to be there already. They are, though, Phil stood in front of the cupboard with Amelia on his hip, pulling out a box of chocolate shreddies while Jaiden tells him a story about his dream from the table. Dan stands there for a moment, just appreciating the scene in front of him, until Amelia notices him over Phil’s shoulder.

“Daddy!” She says happily. She waves at him, scrambling out of Phil’s arms to skip over to him.

“Good morning, lovely,” he says on a laugh as he scoops her up. “Did you and your brother wake Dad up?”

She nods, covering her mouth as she giggles. “We did! He pretended he was still asleep and then he tickled us!” She sounds positively delighted.

Dan glances over at Phil at this, finding the other man already looking at them, a fond, goofy smile on his face. “Did he?” Dan gasps, pretending to be scandalized. Amelia laughs and nods. Dan smiles and gently sets her down, gesturing for her to join her brother at the table. “Well, we’ll have to ground him for it, I reckon.” Dan grins at Phil as he steps closer to him, accepting the hug that Phil pulls him into.

“Hey, I was the victim!” Phil protests sheepishly. “I was just trying to sleep, and these little goblins climbed in my bed and told me it was wake-up time!”

Dan laughs, although it’s almost a snort. “Right, and it was so horrible being woken up by your children who haven’t seen you in three days,” he teases, petting Phil’s hair.

Phil pulls away enough to grin at Dan, his tongue between his teeth. “Says you, Mr. Crying on the Skype Call but Rolls out of Bed at the Crack of Dawn when I’m Home.”

“Very clever,” Dan deadpans. He pulls away completely, knowing that from the twins’ perspective it probably looks a little strange for them to just stand there hugging in the middle of the kitchen. “I was trying to be nice, you know,” he adds.

“Yeah?” Phil asks, and Dan glances at him just in time to see him roll his eyes dramatically, smiling when he sees the twins’ giggly reaction to his theatrics.

Dan pokes him in the side to get him out of the way so that he can pour their cereal. “Yes, you actual heathen. I was trying to let you have a lie-in. Isn’t that what I told you two?” He asks, turning to look at Amelia and Jaiden.

Jaiden nods straightaway. “You told us not to jump on him or scream when we woke him up.”

Sticking his tongue out at Phil triumphantly, Dan finally turns back to the task at hand. “Told you,” he sings. He’s already moved on, grabbing the almond milk out of the fridge and pouring it carefully into each bowl, when his train of thought is derailed completely by the feeling of arms wrapping around his waist. “Oh,” he nearly squeaks.

Phil kisses his cheek. “You’re really sweet. Thank you for the lie-in.”

Dan manages to stammer out a response, even while he’s trying, and failing, to maintain eye contact in their close proximity. “Yeah, of course,” he mumbles.

There’s a hint of a smirk on Phil’s lips as he leans in, kissing Dan again, this time just a bit closer to Dan’s lips. “I’m gonna go get dressed and then I’ll pack lunches, yeah?”

“Mhm,” Dan hums, setting the twins’ cereal in front of them and going back to retrieve the spoons he’s just realized he’d forgotten, and very much not thinking about how he could feel Phil’s breath on his lips as he spoke. “Do you want Crunchy Nut?” He asks as Phil goes to leave the kitchen.

“Mm, yeah, that’s fine. Coffee should be done in a minute, by the way,” Phil calls over his shoulder, already off down the hall.

Taking a moment to gather himself after what was a surprisingly intimate moment for so early in the moment, Dan waits until he’s fairly sure he’s back to himself before turning back to the cupboard to retrieve a bowl for Phil and the beloved box of (Dan’s) Crunchy Nut. He’s listening to the twins talk while he does the mindless task of pouring cereal when he hears two voices floating into the kitchen. He glances up as Phil walks in, Levi behind him. Levi’s got a vacant look in his eyes as he slumps into a chair at the table, not making eye contact with either of them.

“I thought you were staying home today, bub?” Dan says, his voice saturated in confusion. Levi shrugs, staring at the table, his gaze unfocused. The twins glance between them with intrigue, and Dan gestures to their cereal pointedly.

Phil gives Dan a strange look. “I told him to get ready for school,” he says evenly. He doesn’t meet Dan’s eyes as he steps over to the coffee maker, grabbing two mugs out of the cupboard above it.

“What?” Dan asks, spinning to face him. He’s not mad, exactly, but he’s confused, and a little annoyed that Phil seems to not realize that something isn’t right with Levi.

“He doesn’t have a fever,” Phil shrugs. He pours both cups full of coffee before finally meeting Dan’s eyes. He looks nearly defiant.

Dan stares at him. “I told him he could stay home today.” Dan’s not backing down from this. If there’s one thing he’ll willingly fight with Phil over, it’s definitely the mental wellbeing of their kids.

“Dan, he needs to be-“ Phil starts, his voice tired, as if Dan is a child who doesn’t understand what he’s being told.

“He said he didn’t feel well, and we decided that today he might just need a day off.” Dan crosses his arms then, leveling Phil with a glare.

Phil stares back, clearly trying to assess how to handle this. Finally, he settles on, “I think we should discuss this in private.”

Shrugging, Dan glances over at the kids. Amelia’s already getting up and taking her bowl to the sink, and Jaiden’s shoveling the last couple of bites in his mouth. Dan sends Levi an apologetic look. “Levi, could you go to your room for a minute?”

The teen shrugs but pushes himself away from the table and slumps away, his shoulders sagging like he’s absolutely carrying the weight of the world on them. Dan’s heart aches seeing it, and he can’t help but think about how that used to be how he felt, too. He waits until the twins have disappeared down the hall and Levi’s footsteps fade away up the stairs before turning to face Phil, crossing his arms again.

Phil rolls his eyes. “Please don’t make this a fight,” he pleads.

“I’m not making it a fight,” Dan scoffs. “I told him he could stay home today.”

“You didn’t even ask me how I felt about that,” Phil says, softening his voice. He brushes a hand through his hair, and Dan realizes how tired he looks when his face is tilted, the light making the shadows under his eyes even more prominent.

“I’m sorry,” Dan says, shrugging. He feels a genuine stab of guilt at the realization that Phil is right, but he still isn’t giving up his side of the argument here. “But I think we need to give them mental health days. Anyone who’s gone through the kind of things they’ve gone through at their age is going to have days where they just need a break, Phil.”

Phil sighs, and Dan can tell he’s going to argue even before he speaks. “What if they abuse that privilege, Dan? What then? How do we make them go to school if they decide to claim they need a mental health day anytime they feel like skipping? And if we make them go, then we’re just going to look like dicks for going back on our word.”

“Well we can just give them a certain number of days per term. I honestly don’t think they’ll abuse the privilege, I mean, look at them. The twins have been loving school, and do you honestly think any fifteen-year-old is going to want to spend all day in a house they’re not fully comfortable in, by themselves?” Dan gestures around them as he speaks, hardly even realizing he’s doing it but acutely aware of how angry it probably makes him seem. He takes a deep breath, pausing to collect his thoughts. “Remember that day you called in sick for me a few weeks ago? And you stayed here to take care of me?”

Phil nods, but looks away. “Yeah.”

“I didn’t have the flu, Phil,” Dan says gently.

“That’s different,” Phil says immediately, almost a knee-jerk reaction.

Dan tilts his head at him. “How?”

“Because… you have a legit, diagnosed mental illness, Dan.” Phil rubs his forehead, as if he’s got a headache forming. Dan feels several stabs of guilt all at once.

Slowly, making sure Phil isn’t going to push his attempt at comfort away, Dan steps closer, wrapping his arms around Phil’s waist loosely. Phil looks at him for a long moment, his eyes flickering over Dan’s face as if he’s looking for something. Whatever it is, he must find it, because he sighs, relaxing into Dan’s arms and laying his head against Dan’s shoulder. They stand like that for several long moments, the silence giving them a reprieve from their minor argument.

“I know it’s hard to think about it like this, but babe… Levi probably has a legit mental illness, too. I hate that, and I wish he hadn’t been through hell…” Dan’s throat closes up as he remembers, yet again, how little they actually know about the true nature of the kids’ home situation before they were put into foster care. There’s absolutely no telling what they’ve had to live through before now. He forces himself to finish his thought. “But he has. They all have, probably to different extents. And I know you don’t entirely agree, but I really think we need to let him have today off.”

There’s a long stretch of silence between them, but eventually Phil sighs. “Okay. He can stay home today.”

“Yeah?” Dan asks, unable to hide his surprise as he pulls away and studies Phil’s face. He doesn’t look anything other than completely serious.

“Yeah. But, this is a test run. We’ll see if he can behave, and if it works out, we’ll work out how the mental health days are gonna work.” Phil looks away then, chewing on his lip. “I don’t want him to feel how you felt, when you were his age. I…” Phil glances at him like he isn’t sure he can complete the thought. Dan nods, encouraging him to continue. “I want him to know he can talk to us, and he has support and a family who loves him.”

Dan nods jerkily, feeling his eyes misting with tears. He tucks his face against Phil’s neck, breathing out softly, trying to get a grip on his emotions. “I…” He falters. He doesn’t mean it the way he should, as a friend; he can’t say it, not right now when they’re both so emotionally vulnerable. “Thank you,” he settles on. “I’m really proud of how much you care about them.”

Phil kisses his hair before gently pulling away, likely remembering they’ve actually got places to be at a certain time. “I care about all of you. I’m sorry I was kind of a dick about it. I know how important mental health and stuff is to you.”

The fact that Phil recognizes that as something that Dan is passionate about makes his heart swell about three sizes. He leans in before Phil can get too far, kissing his cheek. “You were just doing what you thought was best, and I’ll always appreciate you for that. Even if we don’t agree on it.”

Phil tilts his head, giving Dan a small smile. “Yeah,” he says simply. “Do you want me to go tell Levi he doesn’t have to go to school?”

Dan glances at the time, grimacing when he sees they’re almost running late. “I’ve got that, actually, if you’ll do lunches?”

“Oh, yeah. Go ahead, I’ve got it,” he waves Dan out of the kitchen as he goes about collecting their lunch boxes and grabbing the little snacks and treats he stocks them with. Dan’s heart swells with so much love at the simple gesture, he thinks he might actually burst with it.

Before he does something stupid, he ducks out of the kitchen, making his way upstairs to speak to Levi. He nearly trips over him, though, having not noticed that Levi is sat on the stairs. “Oops, sorry, I- were you listening to us?” Dan asks suddenly, cutting himself off.

Levi looks vaguely sheepish behind the clouded gaze. He shrugs. “I just wanted to know if I needed to finish getting ready for school or not,” he admits.

Dan laughs quietly, taking a seat on the stair beside Levi and looking at him. “Right. Well, I reckon you heard us say you could stay home, then.”

Levi nods, glancing down at his hands. He’s got a complicated look on his face. “Yeah. Um… Thank you. For talking to him about it. I… Yeah. Thank you,” he repeats, stuttering through nearly every word. He’s barely managing to keep fleeting eye contact with him, but Dan appreciates the sentiment anyway.

“Of course. He might seem a little… I don’t know, unreachable, I guess, but he loves you and your siblings so much. We both do, yeah?” Dan ruffles his hair gently. He’s noticed that’s one form of physical comfort that Levi seems perfectly okay with.

“Yeah,” Levi nods, still having a staring contest with his hands. “I know.”

Dan’s heart warms at hearing confirmation that Levi knows they really do love them. He knows they’ve tried to be nothing but inviting and comforting, but he was never sure how much that seemed like overbearing parenting or just genuine affection. He’s happy to hear that perhaps it’s the ladder. With a pat on the back, Dan stands, knowing that he’ll be late for work if he spends any more time chatting. “You’re fine staying here alone, right?” he asks, turning to glance over at Levi for reassurance.

Levi nods. “Yeah.”

“Good. We’ll be home when we usually are. You can help yourself to anything in the kitchen, or order takeaway, or whatever.” Dan waits until Levi nods again before smiling and heading to the kitchen to get his things to leave for work, calling for the twins to come get their backpacks as he goes.

Phil is snapping Jaiden’s lunchbox closed when Dan walks in. He flashes a small smile at Dan before his gaze falls somewhere behind him, where Dan can hear two pairs of little feet making their way into the kitchen. “Do you guys have everything you need in your backpacks?” Phil asks, making his way over with their lunches.

“Yes,” Amelia says with a nod. She turns around as she usually does, allowing Phil to unzip her backpack and check before he slides her lunchbox in too.

He’s just turned to do the same for Jaiden when Jaiden points to the sliding glass door over the balcony. “Can I go say goodbye to the pigeons?” He asks.

Phil blinks. “Er, yeah, sure,” he replies, glancing over at Dan with a surprised and confused look on his face. Dan only shrugs in response.

Jaiden walks over dutifully and opens the door, stepping just outside and folding his hands behind his back. “Goodbye Robert, and Millie, and Sam, and Julien, and…” He continues listing off names, far more names than there are pigeons, and Dan can’t help but giggle, covering his mouth so Jaiden doesn’t hear and get embarrassed.

Amelia starts tapping her foot, or trying to, at least. She doesn’t quite have the hang of keeping her heel on the floor while her toe taps so she’s practically stomping, her little arms crossed in front of her as she stares at her brother, the epitome of boredom. That sends Dan even further into hysteria and he can’t help the full-blown laugh that escapes his mouth.

Luckily, Jaiden seems to be finished. He turns and comes back inside, carefully sliding the door shut again before going to stand in front of Phil, facing away so he can place his lunchbox in his backpack. Phil shares a grin with Dan as he grabs the little box. “Alright, all set!” He announces after he’s zipped up the bag.

Jaiden turns to give Phil a fleeting hug, waving without looking as he starts out of the kitchen. “Bye, Dad, see you later!”

Phil stares after him, looking even more bewildered than before. “Uh… Okay, yeah. Bye, love you!” He calls, his voice bordering on sarcastic.

Dan snorts out a very unattractive laugh, grinning when Phil glances at him. “Bye, Phil, we’ll be going now!” Dan teases, guiding Amelia out the door and tossing his laptop bag over his shoulder.

“Uh, no, you’ll kiss me goodbye or it’ll be death by my bare hands,” Phil argues. Dan is definitely, absolutely blushing when he processes Phil’s words.

Amelia giggles from in front of Dan, darting around him to go give Phil a proper hug goodbye. Dan sighs dramatically, spinning on his heel and giving Phil a blank stare. He’s fighting a giddy smile, and probably losing, if Phil’s little grin over Amelia’s head is anything to go by. As soon as Amelia has skipped away, Phil stands from where he’d crouched to hug her, giving Dan an expectant smirk. “Well?” He says, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Dan forces himself not to overthink as he steps closer, bringing his left hand up to the back of Phil’s neck to pull him closer. Their eyes are locked, and even though he’s looking for it, Dan sees no protest in the ocean of Phil’s gaze. There’s just fondness, deep and endless. Quickly, so he has plausible deniability later, Dan presses his lips to Phil’s in a soft, fleeting kiss. “Bye,” Dan says when he pulls away. He jokingly tugs on a lock of Phil’s hair above his fingers, and Phil winces, a little smile curved on his lips.

“Drive safe, love.”

“I will.” He’s already down the hall where the twins are waiting by the door when he remembers something. “Oh! Babe, do you mind leaving a tenner or two on the table for Levi in case he needs it?” Dan calls as he tugs his shoes on.

“Yeah, I’ve got it,” Phil calls back.

“Thank you! Love you!”

Dan hears Phil let out a giggly breath at that. “Love you too! Go to work, you’re gonna be late!”

Smiling, Dan steps out the door, the twins following behind right after him. As soon as they’re all walking down the hallway, Amelia giggles loudly. Dan glances at her, quirking an eyebrow questioningly. She covers her mouth, but he can see the smile. “What?” He asks, wiping his face in case he’s gotten something on it.

She shrugs before sharing another grin with Jaiden. “You and Dad were kissing,” she giggles again as soon as she says it.

Dan blinks. They didn’t, not really. Well. Kind of. “So?” he settles on, offering a confused smile. “We do that sometimes.” They don’t. Well. They usually don’t.

Amelia shrugs again, glancing at Jaiden and smirking as she looks at the ground. Jaiden looks thoughtful as they make their way to the car, but otherwise they’re both silent. They get in and get buckled up, and Dan assumes that’s the end of it.

Until they’re backing out and Jaiden clears his throat from the backseat. “I have a question,” he announces.

Dan nods at him, quirking a brow. “Alright, go for it.”

Jaiden looks dead into his eyes in the reflection of the rearview mirror as he speaks next. “With you and Dad, who’s the boy and who’s the girl?”

Dan is almost positive that he actually dies at that moment.

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lightsupinthenorth · 4 years

Text

A little coffe with your sugar? part 2/2

Here is the second part of my Harringrove coffee shop AU. Enjoy ;)

Part 1

Read on AO3

Steve couldn’t believe he had forgotten to ask what was in the special before ordering it… and taking a huge bite of it, just because he had been flustered that his crush (that Steve thought totally unrequited until then) was flirting with him. It hadn’t helped that Billy had put the banana layer under the chocolate, so Steve hadn’t noticed there was one before it was literally in his mouth, trying to kill him. Steve felt betrayed. Baked goods were supposed to be his friends.

Billy waited with him after calling 911. He looked calm enough, but he was holding Steve’s hand very tightly. In any other circumstance, Steve would have been delighted about that, but his throat was swollen, and he was struggling to breathe, so it wasn’t the best time.

Thankfully, the paramedics arrived quickly and injected Steve with epinephrine. They took him to the hospital, and Billy rode with him in the ambulance, never letting go of his hand. His eyes looked suspiciously shiny.

“Hey, I’ll be fine, Billy. They’re just taking me to the hospital for observation. That’s the usual procedure after an anaphylactic reaction. Thankfully, my parents insist on paying for an overpriced insurance in my name, so I’ve got it covered.”

They were doing it mostly to patronize Steve for choosing a job that didn’t have “good benefits”, unlike a job at his father’s company would have, but Billy didn’t need to hear about that.

“That… that’s good.” Billy exhaled shakily. “It was fucking scary.”

“I know, but it’s okay now.”

“No, it’s not. I’m sorry, I should have told you what the special was.”

“Come on, I’m the one responsible, obviously. I should have asked. I generally remember to, I was just distracted.”

“So, it is my fault: you didn’t think to ask because I was messing with you.”

Oh… so that was all it had been? Billy had just been messing with him? Steve should have known, really. Billy had probably caught on to Steve’s crush and thought he’d have a little fun.

That thought was nearly as much as a bummer as the allergic reaction.

“Look, Billy, it was all an accident, and it was my fault. You couldn’t possibly have known.”

“If you say so…” Billy replied, but he didn’t look convinced.

The rest of the trip to the hospital was spent in silence. Steve was busy enjoying the feel of Billy’s hand in his while he still could, since he was pretty sure it wouldn’t happen again, and Billy was seemingly lost in thought.

At the hospital, Billy texted Robin to let her know about what had happened and he informed Steve she’d be there soon.

When she arrived, Billy apologized again (the stubborn bastard) and bid Steve goodbye. Steve whished he’d stay, but now that Robin was there he had no reason to. It was nice enough that he had interrupted his work day to accompany Steve in the first place.

“Stop pouting, it’s unbecoming.” Robin told him.

Steve hadn’t even noticed he was making a face.

“Cut me some slack, I could have died today.”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s a low blow, dingus.”

It might have been, but Steve didn’t care. He was feeling miserable.

“So, what happened?” Robin asked.

Steve cleared his throat. “Uh… well… I… Turns out there were bananas in today’s special…”

“And how come you weren’t aware of that? I’m sure Billy knows what ingredients he puts in his baking.”

Steve wanted to lie to save himself from the embarrassing truth, but he couldn’t come up with any explanation. He was tired, alright?

“I… I didn’t ask… what was in it.”

“How in the world did you forget something so important?”

Could Robin give him a break? He’d just gone through a traumatic experience. She was being mean! Steve crossed his arms over his chest.

“My mind was somewhere else.” That’s it Steve, stay vague. You’ve got this.

Robin arched an eyebrow. “Where was that, exactly?”

Ugh, she wouldn’t let it go.

“Well… Billy might have somehow flirted with me, and it got me flustered. What can I say? I’m just a man. You can’t blame me.”

Robin sighed. “Ah, Steve. My dear friend. My favorite dingus. You are a disaster.”

“That’s rude.” Steve whined.

“Maybe, but that’s also true.”

He didn’t have anything to say in his defense. It really was true.

“Billy flirted with you though. That’s good!”

Robin had known Steve was crushing on Billy ever since Steve himself knew (which was to say, since the moment he met Billy).

“Not really. He only flirted as a joke, so…”

“What makes you say that?”

“The fact that Billy explicitly said he was messing with me, for starters.”

“Oh… That’s weird.”

Robin looked confused, which was new. Steve had never seen her confused about anything. Unlike himself, Robin seemed to know what she was doing at all time. She generally had things figured out, and Steve was lowkey impressed by that.

“Why?”

“Oh… uh… It’s just… I had the feeling Billy liked you back, is all.”

Steve scoffed.

“As if. Have you met him? He barely tolerates me, on good days.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Steve. Sure, he can be a bit gruff sometimes, but that doesn’t mean he ‘barely tolerates’ you. Don’t be overdramatic.”

“I’m not.” Steve denied half-heartedly. He didn’t know why he even bothered.

After the allergy incident, Steve steered clear of the Upside-Down café, no matter how many times Robin tried to drag him there. He pretended not to miss it, but he was: he’d been moping for weeks.

He needed sugar as well as his weekly dose of Billy. He could get the sugar somewhere else, but it just wouldn’t be the same. Billy made the best treats. Steve would die for one of his cinnamon rolls right now. He groaned.

Robin, who was sprawled on the couch next to him, reading a book while Steve was grading papers, sighed loudly.

“Ugh, I’ve had it with you, dingus. Just get your ass to the Upside-Down and talk to Billy. You’ve been miserable for ages and I can’t stand it anymore.”

She was shooting daggers at Steve with her eyes.

“Rob, we’ve been over this… I just can’t. I’m too embarrassed. I mean, the guy mock-flirted with me and it made me so dumb I forgot to ask about allergens. He left work to come with me to the hospital, just because he felt obligated or something. That’s mortifying. I can’t ever face him again.”

“And here you are, being overdramatic again.”

Steve stuck his tongue out at her, behaving as maturely as one of his pupils.

Steve ended up caving. Robin was nothing if not persistent. The fact that Steve missed the Upside-Down’s baked goods acted in her favor.

It went surprisingly fine. Heather was at the counter, as she almost always was, and Billy didn’t come out of the kitchen while Robin and Steve were there. Steve was slightly disappointed, but mostly relieved. Robin, however, was in a sour mood.

“What’s with you?” Steve asked, simultaneously stuffing his face with food. It was even better than he remembered.

“Nothing… I’m just annoyed.”

“Is there something wrong with you and Heather?”

Their interaction earlier had sounded a bit stilted.

“You know what? Yes, there is. I’m going to talk to her to… you know… clear the air. If you don’t mind…”

“Of course, I don’t mind. Go for it.” Steve said, taking another bite of his cinnamon roll.

Robin went behind the counter and started whispering frantically with Heather.

Steve swore he heard them mentioning some guy. Were they fighting because of a man? No, there was no way. Robin and Heather were the gayest girls to ever gay, and they were also made for each other, so it didn’t compute.

At some point, they both turned toward Steve, which made him realize he’d been staring. He averted his eyes and hid his face in his giant hot chocolate cup, nearly chocking on the liquid.

They got back to whispering for a few seconds and then stopped abruptly. Robin came back to their table and sat down heavily.

“I take it you didn’t solve the issue?”

“Not really, no. But we’re going solve it, alright.” Robin replied.

Well, that was enigmatic. Either that or Steve had missed something. It wouldn’t be the first time…

“Ok… good for you, I guess?”

“You’ve got some icing on your chin, dingus.” Robin pointed out, effectively changing the subject.

Steve blushed and rubbed his chin with the back of his hand. He was lucky Billy, whom he was still very much crushing on despite everything, had not been there to witness that. Not that it would change much, since Steve’s chances were already ruined (or, more accurately, had been nonexistent to begin with)… but still, Steve had dealt with enough embarrassment where Billy was concerned.

Steve started going to the Upside-Down regularly again. At first, he would only go once in a while, and only if Robin went with him, but the frequency of his visits increased when he felt confident that he wouldn’t see Billy. He never came out of the kitchen when Steve was there.

Either Steve’s allergy had made him realize Steve was a disaster from which he’d better stay far away, or it was a coincidence that Billy was occupied when Steve came to the café. The first option was more probable, unfortunately.

And, Steve was mostly fine, even if he missed seeing Billy. The food was still great, and Heather was nice, and at least no one judged him for the amount of sugar he poured in his hot beverages… or if they did, they did it discreetly.

However, it came to a head, one day. One very bad, terrible day. One of Steve’s pupils had broken his leg during recess, which was awful enough, but then the other kids had been unable to concentrate for the rest of the day, whispering among themselves and fidgeting continuously. Steve couldn’t blame them for that, but he was exhausted, nonetheless. And he was as shaken up as his pupils, after the accident. By the end of the day, he was barely functioning. He had tripped on his undone shoelaces and snapped his glasses in two (he had fixed them with tape, but the result left a lot to be desired), and he had a cut on his forehead from when he hit it on his desk after picking up the pen he had dropped on the floor.

Steve was more than ready for this hellish day to be over, but no such luck. His parents insisted he ate dinner with them on the fifteenth of each month, which was precisely that day. They’d proceed to pretend caring about him while criticizing him at every turn, and all that through a seemingly unending meal. It was the same damn thing, every month. Steve didn’t know why he still showed up. It must have had to do with his aversion to conflict.

Steve would never survive this without caffeine, so he stopped at the Upside-Down on his way home from work.

“Wow, what the hell happened to you?”

He knew he looked a bit worse for wear, but it couldn’t be that bad. Could it?

“Hi, Heather.”

“Oh yeah, sorry, hi Steve. Are you okay?” Concern was etched upon her face.

“Yeah… I’m fine.” Steve lied. “It was just a rough day.”

“Certainly looks that way... What can I get you to make it better?”

“Er, double expresso, please.”

Heather looked even more concerned as she rang Steve up. That was far off from what he usually ordered, so he didn’t blame her for being puzzled. He was tired, and depressed, and just needed a boost to go through dinner with his parents without a nervous breakdown. He simply couldn’t be bothered to come up with anything more elaborated, and, anyway, he couldn’t really order a pastry and hot chocolate barely an hour before he was expected to eat a five-course meal.

“Okay, go sit down, I’ll bring it to you.”

“Thank you.”

Steve went to his usual table, and he definitely heard it when Heather went to the kitchen and yelled at Billy to come see Steve. He also heard Billy answer in a lower voice that he just couldn’t.

It wasn’t as if Steve didn’t know Billy didn’t want to see him, but hearing him say it, especially now, was like a punch to the gut. At least, before, Steve could pretend Billy didn’t hate him.

When Heather brought him his double expresso, Steve thanked her again. And, if his voice cracked, it was nobody’s business but his.

“No problem, honey.” She said with a sad smile.

Great. Now, she was pitying him. Because Steve was pitiful.

Once she was back behind the counter, Steve took a sip of his drink and instantly regretted not ordering something with ten times more sugar in it (and to hell with dinner at his parents’).

Oh no.

Now he was crying.

Brilliant. That was just brilliant.

Steve started dabbing his face with a napkin, but the tears kept coming uncontrollably. He was going to get up and leave, because crying in public was not part of his plans for the day (and too many things had gone off plan already), but he was prevented from doing so when Billy put a tray on the table and sat in front of him. On the tray, there were a huge piece of lemon meringue pie, a cup of hot chocolate with extra whipped cream and marshmallows, and a sugar bowl.

Steve cried even harder. Nice gestures made him cry, sometimes. Especially when he was not in top shape.

“No, no, please don’t cry, Steve. It was meant to cheer you up, not make it worse.”

Billy pushed the tray toward him.

“Come on, eat up. Everything is banana-free, I promise.”

Steve laughed through his tears.

“Thanks. That’s nice of you.”

“I mean… I basically had to, Steve. Your order was too depressing. Like, a double expresso? Really? That’s not you.” Billy joked.

“Yeah… I have to agree with you here. What you brought is much better.”

Steve pulled the tray all the way to himself and took a bite of the pie. It tasted delicious, unsurprisingly.

“Man, that’s not fair. That’s just too good.”

“Uh, thank you.” Was that a blush on Billy’s face? Mh, no, probably not. It must have been a trick of the light. “So… what’s with the double expresso?”

Steve understood Billy’s question as what it was: a nice way of asking why he had broken down crying in the middle of the Upside-Down.

“Some shit happened at the school I work at. It was not the best day, is all. And now I have to go to my parents’ house for our monthly dinner, and I hate it. Hence the double expresso. I needed caffeine.”

“I see… That’s rough, man. Do you want to talk about it?”

“Maybe another time.” Steve would surely start crying again if he had to expand on the events of that day.

“Okay. Did you think to disinfect that cut on your forehead?”

“Oh, yes. One of my coworkers did it for me.” It had stung like a bitch, too, but what could you do?

“That’s good, Pretty boy.”

“Don’t call me that.” The words were out of Steve’s mouth before his brain could catch up with his mouth.

“Oh… sure. Sorry.” Billy passed a hand in his curls. “Do you want me to go?”

“No, no… I didn’t mean to snap, I’m sorry. I just don’t like it when you call me this, but we’re fine as long as you don’t.”

It was only half a lie. Indeed, if Steve did like the nickname itself, he didn’t appreciate Billy using it as a joke. There was no need to rub Steve’s crush in his face. Steve didn’t understand Billy’s deal. One second he was really sweet, bringing him hot chocolate and pie to cheer him up, and the next he’d call Steve Pretty boy as if he hadn’t admitted he’d come up with the nickname just to mess up with him.

“I won’t.”

Not wanting to let an awkward silence settle, Steve asked Billy about his day. Billy then proceeded to tell him about the annoying customer they had a few hours earlier. It successfully distracted Steve from his horrendous day until he had to go, lest he arrive late to his parents’, which would without a doubt warrant a lecture from his father, as if Steve was sixteen instead of twenty-five.

That evening, as Steve’s father ranted for the umpteenth time about his job, Steve only had to think about the blue of Billy’s eyes to make his frustration and feeling of inadequacy evaporate like smoke.

After Steve’s breakdown, Billy started coming out of the kitchen again to see Robin and Steve when they were at the Upside-Down. Steve and he were friendly to each other, and it was somewhat worse than when they never saw each other. This was torture. Billy was here but still out of reach, and Steve was pining. That was what Robin said. She was right, but Steve would not admit it. He wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. Pettiness was his only comfort, so he didn’t plan on reigning it in.

“Come on Steve, you should just tell him you like him.”

“Are you nuts? Why would I ever do that?”

“Well, at least you’ll know for sure.”

“I can’t be any surer than I am right now, Rob.”

“Ugh! Like, yeah you’re sure, but you’re wrong! You stubborn bastard.”

Steve rolled his eyes. Robin kept saying he might have misread the signs, but she had no proof of that. Or, if she had, she wasn’t willing to share it with the class.

“Yeah, okay, I’m wrong. Whatever. At least I have some dignity left.”

Not much, after the allergy AND the breakdown, but still a little bit more than he would if he confessed his already obvious crush to Billy only to get rejected even more explicitly than before.

“You’re so infuriating, Steve, I swear.”

“I love you too.” He just said, getting drinks out of the fridge.

They were waiting for Heather, whom Robin had invited to their movie night. Steve had not been eager to spend the entire evening third wheeling, but he was reconsidering. At least, Heather would get Robin off his back by taking all of her attention. It sounded perfect, right then.

At least, that was what Steve thought before he opened his front door to find not only Heather, but also Billy, behind it.

Robin, that fucking traitor!

He hid his surprise (probably badly) and invited them inside. As soon as they had their backs turned to him, Steve glared at Robin. He was also pouting, though, so it might have ruined his attempt at expressing his righteous anger.

“Sorry for tagging along… Heather said you didn’t mind. I brought cranberry white chocolate chips cookies, and also chocolate truffles.” Billy said, putting the two boxes he was carrying on the kitchen table.

Okay, so Steve had indeed not hidden his surprise well.

“Uh… yeah, yeah, of course it’s fine. Thanks for bringing food. It sounds delicious.” Steve rushed out the words, speaking a tad too fast.

Once the pizza Steve and Robin had ordered arrived, they all went to the living-room and set the food and drinks on the coffee table.

“Oooh, we’re watching Lights Out? That’s cool. I wanted to watch it for a long time but never got around to it.” Heather said.

Billy’s face lost all color.

“Oh… right. That’s… cool.” His voice was slightly higher than usual.

“Are you sure? We can watch something else, if you’re not into that kind of things.”

High-school Steve would have made fun of Billy for being a sissy. Fuck high-school Steve, though. That guy was a grade A asshole.

“Yeah, I’m sure. It’s fine.” Billy assured in a clipped tone.

Steve hoped he hadn’t offended him with his question. It was the opposite of his goal.

Heather and Robin curled up together in Steve’s big, comfy chair, which left the couch to Billy and him. Steve tried to focus on the movie, but at first he was more focused on the food, and then he was more focused on Billy, who was sitting straight and looked pretty tense overall.

Every time a loud sound came from the tv, or something appeared suddenly on the screen, Billy would startle. Of course, it was the point of jumpscares, but Billy’s reactions were more violent than most people’s.

“Are you okay, Billy?”

“Yes. Just the fucking jumpscares… they’re annoying.”

Steve wasn’t convinced Billy was alright, but he kept silent. He didn’t want to put Billy on the spot by insisting.

About halfway through, Billy announced he was going for a smoke break and declined Heather’s offer to pause the movie. Steve waited a minute, at most, before following Billy outside. He found him sitting on the front steps of his building, without a cigarette in sight.

“Hey… Sorry I followed you.”

“It’s okay. I… I should have agreed when you suggested we watch something else. I just thought I’d be fine, for once. It’s just a movie, you know. But, like, I’m just too jumpy to deal with this kind of movies. I don’t like loud noises and shit.”

Billy was bouncing his right leg. Steve sat down next to him on the stairs and put his hand over his knee to settle him.

“I get it, you don’t have to explain yourself. Jumpscares are a cheap way to frighten the audience, anyway. We could have gone for a better movie. We can get back to the flat and watch something else if you want, I’m sure the girls won’t mind.”

“Thank you, but that’s not necessary. I’m going to stay here a while. The fresh air is nice.” Billy assured him.

“You want me to leave you alone?”

“I’d rather you stay, pretty boy, but it’s up to you.”

“Here you go again with that nickname.”

Steve took his hand off Billy’s knee.

“Shit, sorry.” He looked sheepish.

“Look, I don’t want to make a big deal out of this, but it kind of is a big deal to me. I just think it’s mean.” Steve said.

He wanted to get this out of the way, so Billy and he could really become friends. Friendship was better than nothing.

“What? Why mean?”

Billy was frowning.

“Well, you know I have a crush on you… I mean, you pretended to flirt with me once and I basically lost all common sense, so there’s no way you don’t know. So, I think it’s really a dick move to call me… call me that, when you clearly don’t like me back.”

Steve had gotten worked up. It was a stupid thing to get worked up over, but his frustration had to find an out, at some point.

“Hold on, hold on a sec. Who told you I don’t like you back?” Billy’s tone was full of disbelief.

“Well, uh, you did. At the hospital. You said that you were messing with me when you flirted before I had my allergic reaction, remember?”

“I didn’t mean I was just pretending to flirt with you, Steve, what the fuck? I said I messed with you because I noticed you were flustered, and I made it worse by continuing to flirt… But it was no joke. Truth is, the first time I called you Pretty boy, it just slipped out… because I keep calling you that in my mind since I met you.”

Billy was now kneeling in front of Steve on the steps, with both his hands on Steve’s knees.

Steve had so many questions, but one of them needed an answer more urgently than the others:

“Can I kiss you?”

“Can eagles fly, Pretty boy?”

Steve was going to tell him to shut up, because Billy was being obnoxious, but he figured that joining their lips would be far more effective, and far more pleasant. So, he bent down to kiss Billy, who instantly put a hand in Steve’s hair.

Steve had been planning on keeping it chaste, but it didn’t happen that way. As soon as his lips were on Billy’s, his restraint went up in flames. He’d been longing to do that ever since he had laid eyes on Billy, after all. And his lips were so soft, and they felt so good. He deepened the kiss, making Billy moan. He’d be very satisfied about that fact if he wasn’t too occupied getting lost in Billy.

“Fuck, Pretty boy, you’ll be the death of me.” Billy said in a husky voice when they separated to catch their breath.

“Well, I think I’ve died already and now I’m in heaven.”

Billy gasped.

“Steve, that was so cheesy.” He was smiling.

“You can’t complain. You started it.”

“I wasn’t complaining”, Billy assured, before going back to kissing Steve.

Heather, who had been sent by Robin to check up on them, found them in the exact same spot an hour later.

“Thank God, you guys finally got your heads out of your asses. I was starting to lose hope you ever would.” Heather said.

Steve blushed and Billy rolled his eyes.

“Okay… so, you might have been right.”

“I might have been?” Heather arched an eyebrow.

“Okay, you definitely were….” Billy huffed. “I’m never going to hear the end of this, am I?”

“Nope.”

Steve could have had the exact same conversation with Robin, so he couldn’t help but laugh.

“I mean… I did have to listen to you pine for ages. Oh, Heather, I can’t speak to Steve anymore, I nearly killed him last time. I’m a menace. And then: no Heather, I can’t be more than friends with him, it makes him uncomfortable when I flirt with him, he asked me not to do it anymore, oh but he’s so pretty, oh and his hair looks so soft, and his eyes are so big… Ugh, you were the worst.”

Billy hid his face in his hands and groaned, probably embarrassed. He should wait until he heard what Robin had to say about Steve’s own pining. She was a hundred percent going to drag him.

Steve kissed Billy’s temple, which made him stop hiding.

“Well, it all worked out, in the end.” Billy said, looking into Steve’s eyes.

“Oh no… You’re gonna be so sickeningly sweet, aren’t you?” Heather looked like she was discovering a flaw in her plan.

“You bet.” Steve confirmed, not looking away from Billy’s eyes.

It made sense for them to be overly sweet, after all, considering how they had met.

Thanks a lot for reading! :)

#Harringrove #Steve Harrington #Billy Hargrove #Harringrove fanfiction #Coffee shop AU #fluff #part 2 #Steve's POV

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