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buckyalpine · 9 months

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As requested, just a little back story for how you and Bucky got together after this fic (Steve cheating on you with Sharon). You could read this as a standalone. Turns out the backstory is longer than the OG fic but I hope you like it! <3

Warnings: Cheating, angst, smut, flufff, comforting, protective Bucky falling in love with you

"It's-it's not what it looks like"

It was pathetic even for him.

What else could it possibly look like.

Steve scrambled up to cover himself as if he wasn't balls deep in someone else while Sharon squeaked, pulling the sheets over herself. You didn't move from where you were standing, still blinking at the flushed captain while he struggled to pull his boxers on, nearly tripping as he ran over to you.

"Sweets, it's not-

"Please don't" You whispered shaking your head, tears you didn't notice streaming down your face, still looking at Sharon's fucked out form, the deep blush on her cheeks and messy hair enough to let you know they had already been at it for a while.

"Let me explain-Wait, y/n!!"

You walked as fast as you could in desperate need of air, hoping you wouldn't run into anyone as you dashed down the hall, your eyes trained on the floor. You nearly bit through your lip, throat closing in on itself painfully tight, not noticing Bucky as you dashed by.

"Y/n?" Bucky was on his way for a run when he saw you leave Steve's room, surprised to hear a sniffle as you ran off with your head down. It wasn't his business to pry into the relationship but seeing you upset made him worry, now also concerned for his best friend.

He made his way over to Steve's room instead of chasing after you, his blood turning ice cold finding a half dressed Sharon along with Steve still in nothing but his briefs.

"What the hell"

"I-" Steve froze, stuttering when Bucky's eyes flicked between him and the other blonde with disgust, stepping outside again till they were both fully dressed.

"What the fuck Steve" Bucky's fists were balled at his sides trying not punch his best friend square in the face, giving him a chance to explain himself first. Not that it mattered.

"It wasn't supposed to happen"

"Which part, you cheating or y/n finding out" Bucky stared at the Captain while he sat down on the edge of his bed in defeat.

"Relax, Barnes, it's not like she was your girl-

"You shut the fuck up" Bucky growled when Sharon tried to speak up, pinching the bridge of his nose in an attempt to collect himself.

"Leave. Just leave" Steve turned to her, ignoring the annoyed huffs she made as she collected her things, slamming the door shut behind her.

"It was just the one time. We never did anything else before th-this" Steve's voice cracked on the last word before breaking into a sob, running his hands through his hair while Bucky made his way over to sit beside him.

"Is that supposed to change anything punk?" Bucky shook his head in disappointment, now worried for you instead. "Why would you do that to her"

Silence followed Bucky's question while Steve wracked his brain for the answer.

Why.

Why the fuck would he do that.

You were nothing short of perfect for him. Beautiful on the inside and out. When Steve first met you, he had the same feeling in his stomach as the day he'd met Peggy. His heart started to beat a little bit faster. Cheeks a bit warmer. He mustered up all the courage he could to ask you out on a date and the second you said yes, it became the happiest day of his life. He felt so strongly for you, it almost hurt.

However along with his passion came an equal amount impulsiveness and carelessness. It showed during brave, heroic acts where he threw himself out of buildings or on top of grenades. Now it was showing during his less gracious moments where he gave into a moment of temptation, not thinking about anything else when he took the blonde to his room, falling for the batting of her lashes and soft touches.

"It was just the one time sweets, I promise. I've never done anything else"

Steve's desperate voice made your heart hurt, his red rimmed eyes and puffy face were full of regret. You chewed your lip to keep it from quivering, the both of you sitting on the edge of your bed.

"What was the reason?"

"I-I don't have one" His head was hung in shame, unable to meet your eyes while he fidgeted with his hands. No answer would dignify what he did and you certainly deserved better than any pathetic excuse he'd come up with. He couldn't hold himself back when he heard you sniffle, pulling you into his lap and cradling your head to his chest, hugging you tightly as you shook in his arms.

"I'm so sorry sweets, I'm so sorry" His voice cracked again, tears dampening your hair as he cried with you, rocking you gently, "I know you deserve better, I shouldn't have- m'so sorry baby"

You sobs died down to sniffles, eventually calming down to shaky breaths, the room falling silent again. The wounds were too fresh, exhaustion taking over stronger with all your emotions in turmoil. The scent that always brought you comfort and love now stung when you inhaled, still hiding away in the crook of his neck.

Old habits die hard and you found yourself falling asleep moments later, still tucked in his arms while he continued to whisper apologies, begging for forgiveness, hoping for one more chance he knew he didn't deserve.

"Can you give me another chance? Just one" Steve whispered when your eyes cracked open, your body till drained and head throbbing. "Just one darling, you don't have to tell me right now, I just- "

"I'll think about it"

Steve nodded, leaving your room to give you some space while you thought it over. You tried to take a hot bath to ease the heartache but it did nothing. You hated how quickly you had melted into him the second he comforted you. You hated how much you wanted to forgive him easily because you loved him so much. He had just slept with someone else and you went and fell asleep in his arms.

Pathetic.

You eventually made your way downstairs for a snack, unable to fall asleep, embarrassment crawling up your cheeks when you saw Bucky nursing a cup of coffee, seeing your disheveled form. Before you could do or say anything, he pulled out a chair for you, having you sit down and pecking the tiniest kiss on top of your head.

"I'll make it for you" Bucky smiled, pulling out your favorite mug with kittens on it and putting the kettle on. He knew your go to was chamomile tea during late nights, grabbing a box of chocolate chip cookies to snack on.

"He wants another chance" you mumbled between sips, "and it's pathetic that I'm considering it"

"That's not true y/n" Bucky sighed, giving your hand a comforting squeeze, the cool metal easing your nerves. "It's not pathetic. You really loved him, that doesn't just disappear over night"

"I'm supposed to be stronger than this" You shrugged but Bucky wasn't having any of it, scooting closer to you.

"You are strong. Its hard because you loved him. And you still do"

"I wasn't good enough, was I" If it wasn't for his super hearing Bucky would've missed the whisper of your voice, his eyes growing wide at what you said.

"Don't. Doll, in the most respectful way possible, you're beautiful. On the inside and out. Anyone can see it. I don't feel comfortable around others the way I do with you. You're one of the wonderful people I've ever met and I've been alive for 103 years. The prettiest doll too. If you were mine-"

Bucky blinked as soon as the words left his mouth, no. There is no if you were mine Barnes, that's the girl your best friend loves-

"Sorry" He caught himself, cutting himself off, not wanting to overstep, "What I'm saying is you were not the problem here. Not in the slightest. There's no way the sweetest angel I've ever met is not good enough"

"Well, I was clearly lacking something, there's just me and he's the great Captain America" You scoffed.

"To the world" Bucky nodded, shaking his head thinking about the person that he knew from all those years ago. Steve Rogers, a skinny kid who got beat up in back alley ways. "But he's also that punk from Brooklyn who got all excited when some blonde kissed him for his bravery while also being in love with Peggy Carter. Melted into her arms and then tailed after Peggy like a kicked puppy seconds later when he realized he fucked up. He's not always the brightest bulb in the box even if he is the bravest. Sometimes"

"I don't know what to do"

"You don't have to know right now" Was all Bucky said, not wanting to persuade you to do anything when you were already struggling emotionally. He made you another cup of tea before walking you to your room and giving you a tight hug, letting you know he was always there if you wanted to talk before bidding you good night.

It had been a few weeks. You tried. You tried with all your heart to appreciate the efforts Steve made to mend the relationship but your mind would always flash to what you walked in on that day.

Their clothes on the floor.

Warm, flushed skin.

Sounds of pleasure.

Whenever he kissed your cheek, you thought of the way he probably did the same to her. You weren't ready to be intimate with him and you weren't sure you'd ever be able to again. In the mean time, you spent more and more time with Bucky. It helped having someone to talk to who also understood the person you had been in love with.

With every conversation you had with him, you started to feel confused. The fluttery feeling you used to have with Steve started to happen with Bucky instead. But maybe that was because he was the one person you knew you were able to turn to. Maybe.

But then you started hanging out with him even when you weren't sad. When it was just the two of you left back at the compound, you'd enjoy walks around the city, visiting art galleries, movie marathons and late night drives. Sometimes you'd both end up falling asleep together, waking up wrapped up in each others arms, only to pull away without saying a word once the sun rose again.

Your friendship was purely platonic is what you kept telling yourself when you found yourself trying to find nicer outfits to see Bucky, adding a touch of extra makeup and finding excuses to cancel on Steve just to relax at home with the team his bestfriend instead.

You slipped on some comfy clothes, ready to go to sleep when there was a knock at your door. You knew exactly who it was considering it was just the both of you once again, your facing feeling warm as you made your way to the door.

"Let's go for a ride?" Bucky gave you his signature cheeky smile that stuck with him from the 40's, his eyes sparkling when you took the other helmet from his hand, playfully rolling your eyes

"Alright Sergeant, let's go"

Bucky happily led you to the garage, ignoring the way his heart flipped when you wrapped your arms around his waist, tightly holding onto him when the engine roared to life. He had no reason to ask you to go on a ride with him. You were doing perfectly fine. You were trying to work things out with Steve and that alone had its issues but you were doing much better than before.

You didn't need to use him as a distraction.

You didn't need him at all.

But he was starting to feel like he needed you...

He couldn't think of you like that...

He shook those rogue thoughts away, zipping through the near empty streets, the cool wind making you shiver, snuggling closer to him. Bucky found himself placing his hand above yours often whenever he was at a stop light, neither of you saying anything every time your fingers intertwined instead. Once he parked back at the compound, neither of you said anything, letting the thick tension between you two linger as he walked you to your room.

Then he said good night.

Kissed your cheek.

Stayed rooted in place when he should've walked back to his room instead.

That night Bucky made love to you for the first time. It wasn't supposed to happen. It wasn't planned. Your underwear didn't match. He didn't have protection.

But none of that mattered.

It was different.

You knew Steve loved you and constantly told you how beautiful you were but a part of you still always felt insecure whenever you were intimate with him. Like you'd never be perfect in his eyes though he never said such a thing.

But not with Bucky.

You let his eyes roam your body, kissing every bit of your skin he could touch. You didn't doubt for a second that he found you beautiful everywhere. His hands roamed the soft skin of your tummy and you didn't tense your stomach. You kissed his shoulder where mental met flesh and he didn't flinch, feeling just as safe around you.

He was inside you and it still didn't feel close enough. You were wrapped up in each other with your arms and legs tangled together, soft moans filling the room as if you were still trying to keep what was happening a secret. It wasn't right, it should've have happened but it did and neither of you wanted to stop.

"Angel, I-I love you" He whispered, desperation and shame clouding his mind because he knew Steve was trying but you deserved so much more loving. "I know I shouldn't but I do. Fuck, I love you so much" His voice was muffled against your neck while he continued to rock his hips, hitching a knee up to push himself deeper.

"I love you too" You surprised yourself with how easily the words followed, feeling guilty from how true they were. You did love him. It wasn't in the moment. You had loved him from before. You loved him more even now.

"M'gonna treat you right princess, I promise. Swear on my life, whenever you're ready, if you'd have me" He pulled away from your neck, his wide innocent puppy eyes pleading with you to believe him, that he'd take care of you with his whole heart, "I won't break your heart precious girl"

"I'll be yours" You moaned as he moved faster, desperately chasing both of your climaxes. You clung into him tightly as he started to fill you up without a second guess. "One day, I'll be yours"

That started it. Neither of you said anything, not acknowledging what it was. After all, you were technically still Steve's girl. But it didn't stop Bucky from sneaking into your room in the middle of the night. It didn't stop you from sneakily holding his hand under the blanket during movie nights.

Maybe you were not ready to tell Steve yet but you were more certain about what real love felt like now than ever before.

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lazycats-stuff · 8 months

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Im so sorry ,in advance, its okey to ignore the request Batfam x child here this scenario:

Batfam where on a mission catching some criminals, like usual but then hearing crying noise on the dark alleyways, when Batman or anyone in the batfamily check to see,

When they looked, they saw a crying child with little bit blood on their face , they asked “why are they crying?are you hurt?” or “ are you okey? What happened?”

The child pointed at darkest corners of the alley. they looked where the child was pointing at, they saw two of the parents died

in the same manner like Batman backstory , when the child look up at them still crying , they lift their arms and said “ c-can I-i *sob*have a-a hug?*sob* p-please”

How would the batfamily react? Or what to do to calm the child reader

Oh my poor reader... Bruce would jump in immediately.

Summary: Bruce sees a child in a similar situation like he did many years ago.

Warnings: murder, corpses, Bruce sees himself in (Y/N), protective batboys.

This is an important mission. They have been preparing for this mission for months on end. Endless intel, interrogations, surveilling, scouting the buildings, research on the important members... The entire family was on the verge of killing someone.

Even Bruce was ready to commit murder, despite the strong moral code and despite his self control. They were stretched thin and the moral of the team was down. Bruce didn't think it could ever get so low.

This a breaking low. But none the less, they have persevered and through some teamwork, they got the intel that they needed. That's why they were on the roof top, waiting for a perfect moment to strike. Bruce was ready.

Everyone was tense and waiting in the darkness of the roof top, watching and waiting. Bruce was perched over the edge, ready to go at the moment's notice.

He looked back when he heard gunshots. The others were ready to jump, but Bruce stopped them. It felt off. Bruce looked down and saw it was their target. And a small shadow running. Bruce jumped, knocking the criminal out.

The others spread out, going to the building to check the location out. According to the intel they gathered, the drugs they had been looking for should be here.

Bruce moved into the dark alley listening for any sounds. What he didn't expect to hear was crying. And it didn't sound like it's an adult crying. It sounded like a child crying.

And he was proven right when he saw a child, shaking and sobbing. Bruce could see some blood on his face.

" Hey, are you okay? " Bruce asked softly, trying to see if the child was hurt. The child pointed at the dark corner and Bruce was hesitant at first. He thought that he was going to stop breathing when he saw the dead parents.

They were shot in the chest, one each. It felt all too familiar. Bruce's breath hitched for a moment. This was just like him, all those years ago. He closed his eyes and he calmed down. There was a child that needed him.

He walked back and the child cried harder. He put his hands, flexing his little finger. " Please, I- I need a h-hug, I-I'm scared... "

Bruce picked him out without a word, putting the child's head in the crook of his neck, just to make sure he didn't see anything. He gently patted his back.

" What's your name? " Batman asked, walking towards his sons.

" (Y/N). " The child mumbled, clutching onto Bruce tightly.

Everyone stopped in their tracks when they saw Bruce holding a child. Everyone wanted to ask questions, but they saw that it wasn't the time. They saw that child was under a lot of stress and Bruce softly shook his head.

It was a clear sign of not now. Everyone understood what it meant and they understood that something happened. But it seemed like (Y/N) wasn't hurt.

At least one good thing tonight. If you exclude the drugs and the drug ring they brought down.

" We called Gordon, he is on his way. " Dick said softly, walking up to the child. (Y/N) was still crying, but not as hard as before. He was crying quietly.

Bruce was torn. Does he adopt him? Does he put him at a foster home? What does he do?

One thing was for sure. There wouldn't be any help in the foster home. Or even the orphanage. Wherever he went tonight.

The others knew that sooner or later, Bruce was going to adopt him. Emphasis on the sooner. Maybe even tonight.

#dc comics #dc x male reader #x male reader #batfamily #bruce wayne x male reader #batkids

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ryuki-draws · 4 months

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Alright, I just randomly discovered your blog, and I inhaled like all of the Local Trains AU content in less than half an hour. It makes me so happy and I can't wait for how it continues! I'm still incredibly new in the Transformers fandom and it's artists like you who make me want to learn the lore(s) even faster so I can also do silly stuff with my own little guys properly.

Also, as a Czech person, I admit I stared at the screen a bit too long when I read the AU description (≧▽≦) Czechs represented in fandoms? In this economy?! The RegioJet space shuttle made me cackle, too. Move over, NASA! I just hope the interior is more like the buses, 'cause that's the stuff...

Anyhow, keep on drawing, Astrotrain and Grease are absolutely lovely together and I need more of them. You've got talent! ⸜( *ˊᵕˋ* )⸝

Hi, hello! :D Thank you for such a kind message, I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the trains! There's a lot to explore in the TF fandom with many creative people around, I'm sure you're going to have a great time on your big vehicle robots journey. There are so many possibilities for OC creations and backstories!

YES, a fellow CZ & SK fan! :D I mean, it's fun to see all the stuff happen in canon, but what about we bring them here for a while? I want to see Optimus Prime as Tatra 815, thank you very much! (or, you know... a RegioJet Astrotrain). I've never actually been on a RJ bus though, shame on me. Though the idea of Grease boarding Astro for the first time and the interior is like in a Low cost train car... what a trip to the Moon would that be :'D

I definitely have more planned, their little adventures are really fun to draw! Thank you so much! ♥

Here's Grease and Astro dealing with your typical winter on Czech and Slovak rails :'D

#ask #koorinokujira #train asks #local trains AU #good luck on the way down the robot rabbithole #it's almost bottomless haha #but don't feel pressured to dive into everything all at once #take your time and enjoy the ride :D #thank you!

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sokkastyles · 3 months

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I'm already seeing people saying they are gonna "soften" zuko in the first season heh it made me think of your prediction

Listen, the marketing team of this show knows their audience. Zuko is already being marketed as one of the main protagonists. His character and his redemption arc is hugely popular and known as one of the main draws of the series. Does anyone honestly think that the writers of the show are gonna be like "now, listen, we can't make him too likeable." He's their cash cow, and they know it, and of course they're going to play that up.

That doesn't necessarily mean they're going to soften the character, but we'll probably get more of him being portrayed as a protagonist and not just a villain early on.

A lot of this is par for the course with an adaptation. You have to remember that when ATLA was airing, people didn't know how Zuko's arc was going to play out. Oh, there are lots of hints early on that the writers intended for him to be redeemed from the first episode, bit they themselves have said they didn't know how it would happen. That developed along the way.

Netflix has the advantage of knowing all the beats in advance, in an arc that in the original, was more ambitious than any of the other character arcs. But this poses a new problem, because an ambitious arc that we haven't seen before is less ambitious the second time around. So what to do? The obvious answer is to change things up a bit, to play up the things we know are going to happen later. So I suspect we will get some of that.

Am I worried that Dallas Liu won't be able to quite pull off what Zuko did in the original? Yeah, but that's a testament to how good OG Zuko was. It's challenging to pull off that kind of characterization. That and hindsight are both going to affect how people view Liu's performance.

Even so, there are already people who say that OG Zuko is too soft, or that fans soften him, or try to make him seem worse even after his redemption. That's a testament to how complex of a character Zuko is. I find myself analyzing the few seconds we've gotten of Liu's performance, looking for that complexity. That's a lot to put on the young actor's shoulders.

Especially since everything is going to be more subdued going from live action to cartoon. So my guess is that we'll get a less shouty Zuko. The other thing is that a lot of Zuko's early vulnerability is revealed to us by seeing him getting comedically smashed into a wall over and over again, so there will also be less of that. Which means the show will have to show Zuko's mix of simmering rage, petulance, vulnerability and insecurity in other ways. That plus hindsight plus the netflix episode format of less and longer episodes means we'll probably also get Zuko's backstory much more early on, or at least parts of it, probably as early as the first episode.

As for specifically the fear that Zhao being present on Kyoshi Island means Zuko will play less of a role there, I think it's more likely that the show is expanding Zhao's role both as an antagonist for Zuko and as an antagonist for the rest of the gaang, in anticipation of the season one finale. That also goes back to the fact that things will probably need to be toned down in the move to live action anyway. I've said before that it makes little sense to hold Zuko burning Kyoshi against him since it's the result of reckless cartoon bending and Aang puts the fire out very easily via Unagi in an equally cartoonish way. My guess is that in the adaptation Zhao will follow Zuko there and we'll get a three-way fight, and even if Zhao does most of the burning, Zuko will still be responsible for bringing Zhao there, so it's not like they're exonerating Zuko for something the original show didn't even treat seriously to begin with.

#zuko #atla live action

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kinkandkreep · 8 days

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Yandere Alphabet Continued: Shuji Hanma (Tokyo Revengers)

Letters A-M here

Naughty: How would they punish their darling?

Shuji’s punishments can be physical, mostly some less than playful roughhousing should you decide to do something he doesn’t like

He’s actually not super fond of punishments outside of the humiliation aspect of them, mostly because he kind of likes to see you crying or in some distress

Only if it’s caused by him though

Oppression: How many rights would they take away from their darling?

Shuji’s not super interested in taking away your rights

He may prohibit you from doing certain things and limit your actions, but as for just outright being like “you no longer have the right to see your family,” or something like that, he doesn’t really have that inclination

He kinda thinks it’s fun to see how far you’re willing to push the boundary between what he will and won’t allow, even if he hasn’t made mention of what those things are explicitly

Patience: How patient are they with their darling?

I dunno if I’d call Shuji patient exactly, but I will say that he lets you slide with some things more than most

Shuji’s just not a very uptight guy, so what looks to be patience is actually nonchalance

Now, that’s not to say that he can’t get fed up

He can, and if you push him too far, he will

But he’s got a greater tolerance for any bs you might try to pull than others only because he knows that if he were in your situation, and hell, even if not, he would do the same thing

Quit: If their darling dies, leaves, or successfully escapes, would they ever be able to move on?

This may or may not come as a surprise, but it’s actually highly unlikely that you’ll die while in Shuji’s care or under his supervision, so we won’t touch on that

Just upping and leaving is not an option, unless there’s some sort of extenuating circumstance that requires you to like…ion know, leave out the country or something (and even then, Shuji loves adventure, so he may just follow you then too 🙃)

If you were to escape, Shuji would definitely hunt you down

He loves the thrill of the chase, and while after too long he may grow a bit bored, the thought of your expression and reaction when he finally catches you will keep him going for a while yet

Regret: Would they ever feel guilty about abducting their darling? Would they ever let their darling go?

Feelings like guilt and Shuji Hanma don’t really mix in my mind 😂

Like, I don’t necessarily think he’s incapable of feeling it, he’s just not inclined to

So I’ma say no, Shuji would decidedly not feel guilty if he kidnapped you

He would also not let you go

You are his precious little doll and he loves you too much to just let you leave him

Stigma: What brought about this side of them (childhood, curiosity, etc)?

Shuji’s childhood and much if not all of his backstory is an enigma

That said, it’s kinda hard to pinpoint where exactly the yandere aspect of this iteration of him came from

I would honestly say that Shuji most likely has some undiagnosed mental illness, and that his yandere tendencies stem from that

There’s also something to be said about a deeply hidden sense of loneliness and a craving for affection that permeates deep into Shuji’s being, and that he’s just suppressed all his life

When he encounters you, and begins feeling things he’s not felt before, he kinda just takes the feeling and runs with it, as he’s done with everything else he’s ever felt

Tears: How do they feel about seeing their darling scream, cry, and/or isolate themselves?

Not as amused as you would think, believe it or not

Shuji may act like an ass but somewhere within him lies the desire for you to love him in return

He knows being terrible and kidnapping you is probably not the best way to make that happen but he’s still figuring it out ok? Cut ‘im some slack, these are new feelings he’s dealing with

A small part of him would be amused, the normal part of him that everyone sees and knows

But a larger part of him is distressed, though he hides it well

He doesn’t want to hurt you, honest!

And he really doesn’t even want to see you cry, for the most part

So if you did behave in such a manner, it would likely cause him to internally panic

Unique: Would they do anything different from the classic yandere?

I mentioned this a little earlier I think but Shuji likes to drag you around to the various fights he gets into and have you watch and cheer him on from the sidelines

That sounds weird, and it is, but hey 🤷🏾‍♀️

Vice: What weakness can their darling exploit in order to escape?

Another one who’s pretty unflappable

But, I could feasibly see Shuji growing bored of you and ceasing his pursuit of you if you just never have any reaction to anything

Which, let’s face it, will be pretty hard to do but if you’re willing to give it a try ‘cus you’re just that desperate to escape…

Wit’s end: Would they ever hurt their darling?

Shuji might accidentally hurt you

A lot actually 🙃

He just gets so excited and forgets his own strength sometimes

But now intentionally?

Only if you’ve absolutely pushed him to the edge

And then over it

Don’t worry though, something like this would be incredibly difficult to achieve

But trust me, you do not want to push it

Xoanon: How much would they revere or worship their darling? To what length would they go to win their darling over?

I don’t think Shuji reveres or worships you

He’s not the type for that

He does have an appreciation for you though, and he recognizes that you are a little sliver of good in a world that’s pretty much gone to shit

He can respect that about you

As for winning you over, he’s not overly concerned with that either

He wants you to love him, sure, but you don’t have to be drooling over him 25/8 for him to be satisfied

Yearn: How long do they pine after their darling before they snap?

Shuji “pines” for about as long as you probably assume he would.

Which is to say, not long. 🙃

When Shuji realizes that he wants to possess you and subsequently your heart, he immediately begins making moves to do just that

Zenith: Would they ever break their darling?

Shuji possesses the potential to break you intentionally and unintentionally.

He can be overbearing in the most literal sense, monopolizing, occasionally inconsiderate of your feelings as it relates to your autonomy and overall just wild and incorrigible.

He’s more likely to break you if he abducts you and is subsequently in contact with you more consistently.

He’ll more easily wear you down and whittle away at your patience and sanity if he can keep you in close proximity.

I personally don’t think he’d ever try particularly hard to break you, but the thought might enter his mind and he may be inclined to pursue the notion. 🙃

Let’s hope for your sake, he doesn’t.

#tokyo revengers #tokyo rev #tokrev #shuji hanma #hanma shuji #tokyo revengers hanma

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i-am-a-l0st-gh0st · 9 days

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This one is inspired a bit by one of my ocs backstory but..

The reader is a transmasc person, who tries their best to hide it, trying to seem as if they were a cis man - mostly due to the overwhelming dysphoria they get. Sure, they got the top surgery but... Not the bottom one. The biggest issue was - they were having terrible periods, and I mean TERRIBLE - To the point they can't stand up from the bed, squirm in pain and vomit anytime they move. While they were able to hide it from lyney long enough, saying stuff like "I ate something bad" and other stupid excuses, lyney got clearly very worried and concerned as the same thing happened each month, even when the reader didn't seem to even eat anything close to bad. Now, the reader doesn't know how to avoid the truth, as they're crying from the immerse pain, unable to hide their misery from lyney any longer.

Boys don't cry- Lyney X transmasc!reader

I would say i'm sorry, if thought that it would change your mind. t/w- periods, vomit, headaches, cramps, dysphoria summary- As shown above

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You'd been together for almost 5 months and each month you'd managed to avoid telling Lyney you were trans but for how long? Avoiding it forever was out of the question, you couldn't keep getting you period and telling him you were sick.

The only thing you could concentrate on was the unbearable feeling of needing to be sick. If you stood up you might puke everywhere... And the cramps didn't make it any better... You clutched you stomach trying to make them go away... If only that worked... Your train of thought was lost as your boyfriend walked into the room.

"Dear... This happens every month... I know for a fact it's not food poisoning. Your my boyfriend... I need to know what's wrong with you."

*Boyfriend*. You loved being called that but for some reason it stung... Tears began to form in your eyes, emotions all over the place. Lyney was shocked to see you so emotional. He hugged you tightly, rubbing your hair, bringing you close. He wanted to help... But you couldn't tell him... He would think differently of you... He would see as what you were before you were a boy.

"I'm fine Lyney, just a little sick."

"A little sick? Sweetie you can't get out of bed. I need to know what's up with you."

Lyney was stubborn... Almost as stubborn as you, he wouldn't give up. Not until you were feeling better. The cramps slowly started to get worse, causing tears to well up in your eyes. You tried to turn away from Lyney hiding your face. In response he grabbed you chin forcing you to look at him.

"Mon amour... what's wrong." His face had lost its charm and had turned, not stone cold but almost there.

"Lyney... I...I.."

"Take your time sweetie."

You couldn't tell him, he would see you as girl. You worked so hard to build a life a male. It was all going to crumble now... You felt your cheeks heat up with the feeling of vomit... You quickly got up and ran to the bathroom pushing Lyney out of the way. Knuckles turned white as you gripped he toilet bowl waiting for it to happen.

"Sweetheart! What's wrong!" Lyneys voice had become increasingly worried.

You couldn't avoid the truth any longer... It was right in front of him. He'd have to find out sooner or later.

"Lyney... I'm trans..transgender. I.. I've only gotten top surgery not bottom. So I still get my... Period."

"So that was it? Honey I still love you. You know I don't see you as any less of a man. If anything I see you as more of one. What you go through sounds painful..." His voice had calmed down now. "But why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I was scared you'd leave me.. and this dysphoria gets really bad."

"Oh mon amour... I would never leave you... Now let me take care of you."

Lyney grabbed you hand leading you back into bed, he grabbed you a heat pack placing it on your stomach. He put a bucket close to your bed, just incase you needed it.

"Anything else?" You swear you couldn't love this man anymore.

"Cuddles?'

"Anything for you, my love."

Taglist

@pandragonsoul @atsukawolfcat @keeyisbored

#lyney x reader #lyney #lyney genshin #lyney oneshot #lyney fluff #lyney comfort #transmasc reader #lyney x transmasc!reader #lyney genshin #lyney x you #lyney x y/n #genshin lyney #lyney genshin impact #genshin

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lilflowerpot · 8 days

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Heyyy I hope your doing well and I hope your resting and not wasting all your free time answering these! Don't forget to drink alot of water and sleep at least 6 hours night. I just wanted to know your thoughts on how Lotor would react to being at the garrison. Meeting his last bullies, classmates, least favourite teachers and so on. How would he respond to both them and Keith. Would he show him off more or something like that? Again rest plenty and only answer when you feel like it.

@stinkyexhaust: So if Lotor were to find out about how much of a prick James was to Keith, how do you think he would react? I mean I don't hate James in fact I think he honestly could have had way more screentime to showcase more of his personality and backstory, especially in regards to Keith.

Honey if I only got six hours a night I would be the living dead, but this is very sweet of you nonetheless ♡

I've been asked something of a similar vein once before, as well as the Garrison's reaction to Keith's relationship with Lotor, and I'll repeat now what I said then: it's an important thread of the keitor dynamic (to me at least) that Keith & Lotor strengthen one another by allowing for personal growth beyond simply fighting on their partner’s behalf. So while Lotor mightn't be fond of certain figures from Keith's past—particularly given the little he learnt in chapter 24 about Iverson's handling of the Kerberos fallout—he knows and respects that Keith is more than capable of fighting his own battles, and wouldn't want to interfere with that (something something, galra sense of honour, you get it).

...All that being said, would our favourite prince be practically chomping at the bit to let it be known that he is the man who gets to stand beside Keith Kogane, Blade of Marmora, Paladin of Voltron, and Love of his Life? Yes. yes he would.

With regard to James specifically, it is my personal reading of his relationship with Keith that it was a very poorly handled mutual crush, and yet it was this very antagonism between them that pinged the galra part of Keith's brain in all the right ways. The altercation canon showed us in s7ep01 (which, despite LB being canon-divergent post s4, does in fact remain canon within my narrative bc I actually thought every insight we were given into James & Keith's past was impeccable) wherein James insulted Keith's parents, was a classic case of projection on his part; James strikes me as a privileged kid whose family expected nothing less than perfection—for him to be the best of the best at everything at all times—so I think that effortlessly-exceptional Keith getting the group into trouble simply because he was bored led to an exceedingly cruel comment,,, but I don't believe James actually knew Keith was an orphan when he said what he said.

Naturally, Keith (and we as the viewers with full knowledge of his backstory) assumes James intended to end that taunt with "before they died / abandoned you" but I'm not convinced. James could have just as easily been about to say "before they shipped you off to the military / halfway across the state / out of sight and mind" which I think is exactly what happened to him, leaving him understandably hurt, bitter, and desperate to prove himself. So yes, James—as a volatile teenager with abandonment issues, and oh look, who does that remind you of—fucked up, and payed the price of Keith's fist in his face; ultimately though, I think of Keith as having long since moved past it, and if he doesn't hold a grudge against Griffin, then why would Lotor? Particularly when, by galra standards, that specific instance was been resolved through rite of combat, and the rest of their relationship was, to an Imperial eye, just normal teenage brawling ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#let 👏🏻 lotor 👏🏻 show 👏🏻 off 👏🏻 his 👏🏻 man 👏🏻#Ao3 Little Blade #sa screams back #galaxy garrison crew #prince lotor #keith kogane #keitor

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noyasaur · 3 months

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hi! Can you talk a bit about you jjba dr? (If youre comfy ofc!) ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶

an introduction to my jjba dr! ✩₊˚.⋆

cw: spoilers for jojo's bizaare adventure!

-> hihi! and yes omg ofcc!! i haven't shifted to my jjba dr yet but i would LOVEE to just ramble all about it if you don't mind 😌 gonna make it all aesthetic and cute too cuz hell yea😍

-> all images used (except the dividers) are from pinterest and full credit goes to the authors of these images :)

★ . about my jjba desired reality!

right now, i only have one jjba desired reality which the whole thing about is me going on all the adventures from part three to five!

i think in the future i want to have a few more desired realities like one experiencing part two and part six and maybe even more of the parts if i end up finishing the other mangas! i also want to have a jjba dr set in modern times and also a jjba-based reality with kpop idols!

the timeline: in my main jjba reality, i've changed the timeline of some things so i can experience all the adventures in the different parts with the jojo boys in succession one after the other.

for example, when i first shift to this reality, i start with going on the adventures of part three with jotaro and the other stardust crusaders. the events of part four happen a year after the events of the stardust crusaders adventures when me, and jotaro are ordered to go to morioh by the speedwagon foundation to investigate well, jotaro's 'cousin'😭

in this reality, there was no affair 😙 joseph has a daughter and a son: holly and hugo. hugo is holly's younger brother and when he graduates high school, he goes off to japan for university. however, he meets tomoko there and they become a couple. long story short, he gets her pregnant and he never told any of his family, in fear of what they might say about him having a child so young. so that's how there is no affair that makes everyone go crazy, how josuke exists and how i can experience adventures when i'm not an old lady and i don't have to wait like twenty years between each adventure! (lmao)

obviously i can't live without kakyoin being dead and everyone else, so they live in this version 🤗 also, i made dio sort of less? evil? he doesn't actually commit any crimes against other humans (except blood-sucking ew but he doesn't kill anyone and just keeps people hostage as slaves and maids while he does his evil bidding eek) but is just hellbent on 'destroying' the joestar bloodline.

thinking about adding some other people into this reality too? for example, i was really contemplating adding sunghoon into this reality and making him one of dio's sons or something but during part three, he turns on his father and helps us defeat him 😜 this is a possible addition but i'm not sure if i'll go through with this or not!

i also have some generational pact with the brandos (i didn't do it, my grandpa did smh), though i fight with the joestars. long story short, my grandpas was in love with dio and made a pact that he would swear to protect the brando bloodline (my grandpa = speedwagon but dio's version) /hj might explain this later but im still in the works with figuring out how it's going to work and the backstory behind it!

★ . about me!

background: i was born in australia on the (??\??\???? - not sure on the dates and whether i want it to be set in the 80's or the 00's). i was born with a faint, butterfly-shaped marking on my back. none of my parents knew what it meant but as i grew older, it continued to grow darker, and darker. self-conscious of the odd mark etched into my back, i bandaged it up to hide it. i lived a pretty peaceful childhood. however, the after i turned thirteen years of age, very strange occurrences kept happening to me.

there were some instances where things would become heavier or lighter, or where my parents felt as if they were moving in slow-motion or faster than usual. i would get weird dreams, some of the past, and some of the very, far future.

little did i know, this was all the work of my stand manifesting.

not knowing what was happening, i was shipped off to japan to live with my uncle, in tokyo in hopes that my uncle would be able to fix whatever was going on with me. you see, my uncle is a very spiritual man. while he works as an astronomer and a psychologist, he is very knowledgeable in the likes of tarot cards, magic, and otherworldly forces (etc). he did everything he could and that was in his power to try and figure out what was happening to me, since that was his forte and all.

and thus, after years of dealing with these strange incidents, at the age of 15, my stand manifested before me. i was crossing the street, on the way back to my uncle's apartment from visiting a convenience store. however, i didn't notice a car zooming towards me until it was too late. i shut my eyes, assuming it was all over. this was my fate: i was going to die a horrible and painful death. and there was nothing i could to about it.

i shut my eyes, bracing myself for the impact and my inevitable doom.

i waited.

and waited.

and yet, i felt nothing.

the impact never came. the excruciating pain and blast i expected to feel, never hit my body.

i was alive. and completely unscathed. but. . . how?

i wearily opened my eyes and to me confusion and horror, i saw her. i saw a strikingly beautiful but eerie human-like creature floating in front of me. it had it's arms extended out toward the car, which was now moving at an impeccably slow snail's pace.

after standing there in shock for a few seconds, i shook my head and scurried away.

around a few times after this incident, the frequency at which i had those 'weird' dreams dramatically increased. they turned from being a fortnightly, even monthly occurrence, to having those dreams many nights in a row, back to back.

oddly enough, with every dream i was having, i couldn't help but feel they were starting to feel a lot less like dreams but a lot more like visions.

after two weeks of more odd visions and happenings, i finally told my uncle. he was deeply puzzled as he tried to make sense of what was happening to me. and after a few minutes of pondering, something washed over his face.

was it relief? or more confusion?

did he finally work out what was happening to me?

but in the end, all he told me what that if i were to ever run into a man with the name 'Joseph Joestar' he made me promise i were to stick with him if i ever met him.

i asked him who he was, and all he replied with was: "Joseph? oh why, he's just a very good old friend of mine."

and so, i continue my life as usual, trying to deal and overpower these strange incidents and even became familiar with my beautiful and endearing new creature. luckily for me, i was enrolled in an online school so any incidents i would have would hardly leave a scratch on my grades and records.

although, this completely changed in the last year of my high school.

you see, my uncle wanted me to have a 'fun' and 'memorable' high school experience, especially considering it was my last year. and so, he enrolled me into an actual high school, which would change the course of my fate forever.

and what a 'fun' and memorable year it was. . .

(i am so sorry if this is so corny omg this feels so corny sdsdjs)

★ . my stand!

my stand name: Ancient Dreams (In a Modern Land)

statistics: power: B Rank speed: A Rank range: B Rank durability: A rank precision: B Rank potential: A Rank

abilities: weight drop! (weight change): the ability to change the weight of anything. can make objects or people light, or make objects or people heavier. the stand user cannot use this ability on themselves. the ability can be activated by shooting small orbs or energy at the opposing object or person, where they will have a butterfly emblem on them, shaded corresponding to a highlighted moon phase on my stand, which corresponds to the 'levels' of weight taken off the person. flash! (speed manipulation): the ability to change the speed of any object or person. however, this can only be done when the stand makes contact with the object of person. dream telepathy/communication/travelling: has the ability to communicate with others during their dreams, or enter one's dream through a meditative trance, with the help of their stand. the stand user can appear in one's dreams and communicate with the person, and also manipulate their dreams. however, the stand user cannot physically harm their target's through their dreams. rather, it is a soothing and positive technique that puts the target in a state of comfort. dream energy: the stand has the ability to shoot out energy orbs as a way of fighting. the orbs are made of 'dream energy' and can easily damage and slice through objects, depending on the manipulation of the orb. the orbs can be thrown in their pure form, or even me manipulated into whatever the stand user desires. for example, i could turn dream orb into a 'dream sword,' made from the cosmic energy of dreams and fantasy.

appearance: has a slim and feminine appearance. it's body is a gradient and mix of light baby blue, lilac purple and cotton candy pink, with the phases of the moon imprinted on it's chest. it wears a majestic headpiece of a butterfly on it's head, which is coloured a shimmering mix of pastel gold, purple and pink. it's eyes are a deep blur colour, and has transparent blue 'butterfly' wings.

🪐 saturn's note:

-> um this was a little more than just 'talking a bit about it' but i hope you found this interesting and enjoyed! kinda scared to post this because i've never really talked about my drs like this so it's new to me but also fun 😍 i might update this here and there and i def swill reblog if i do or just make another post for anything else you're interested in!

-> oh and when i shift there? hell yeah am i going to be writing and sharing my experiences omg 😩

#🪐 ― saturn's drs!#⭐ ― saturn's jjba dr!#shiftblr #shifting #reality shifting #desired reality #shifting realities #reality shifter #shifting blog #desired realities #noyasaur

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insertpoetryhere · 6 months

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Dadbastian Week: Different Kids

I was not very polite with this one, and also I need to explain myself for this one bc I made an AU just for this one fic.

The Needed Prelude: It's an AU where Sebastian has both Phantomhive twins. How? I have no idea. R!Ciel is just Ciel. O!Ciel is... unnamed sonboy. Sebastian serves O!Ciel, but R!Ciel kinda isn't his business. R!Ciel is the Earl Phantomhive, but O!Ciel snatched up the Guard Dog gig out from under his feet bc he wants his revenge. R!Ciel doesn't know Sebastian is a demon, he's just chilling and has no idea a revenge plot is happening.

Needed Content Warning: Mentions of the twins backstory. Also favoritism. That's all.

Ok I'm done talking now, it's for @dadbastianweek2023

Have fun, God knows I had fun. I love messy things.

Favoritism

A proper Phantomhive butler did not pick favorites. He serves all members of the household with equal attentiveness, as anything less would be highly unprofessional.

… That being said, Sebastian had a favorite Phantomhive twin.

It was his twin, obviously. The fact that the boy had a contract with him was definitely a factor, but it was far from the only reason that he held the younger of the two in an esteem higher than that of his brother.

Another, much bigger factor is that his own charge caused significantly less trouble for him. The boy was quiet, and when he did need to stir up something for the sake of his revenge it was always the type of mess that Sebastian enjoyed getting tangled up in. The thought had even crossed his mind once or twice that the youngest Phantomhive boy really would make one hell of a demon.

Ciel Phantomhive was a different story. He was loud. He enjoyed pulling silly little pranks on his much more serious brother, disagreeing entirely with the idea that they were both no longer children. It was the kind of behavior that made Sebastian scoff, realizing what his young master had meant when he expressed to Her Majesty some doubts about his older brother’s ability to inherit their father’s secondary title.

Ciel Phantomhive as the Queen’s guard dog. The thought of it almost made Sebastian laugh.

Still, the older twin wasn’t without his charms. He was gregarious, easy to like, and arguably an agreeable young man (though a bit of a people-pleasing doormat if you asked Sebastain for his honest opinion). He really did make a fine Earl Phantomhive, especially considering that his skills in mathematics weren’t entirely hopeless and that he didn’t cower in fear at the thought of a public event.

Sebastian tried not to let his distaste show, but it was hard sometimes. His own master was so clever, something that had been a driving force behind Sebastian’s loyalty remaining with him. He had such a razor-sharp intellect that made even a demon sit at the edge of his seat and watch excitedly for his next move. Compared to such a cunning little mind, Ciel Phantomhive just looked…

Dull.

It wasn’t as if this opinion was shared only by himself. The Young Master also seemed exhausted by his brother’s antics.

“He thinks his job is so hard!” The boy would groan.

“Indeed, if saddled with your position, he would crack under the pressure.“ Sebastian would agree before looking up, his face showing no remorse. “If you pardon my saying so.”

The truth was that the new Earl Phantomhive was stuck in the past, trying far too hard to salvage the past from the wreckage with childish pranks and rude behavior behind the closed doors of his own manor. The worst part of all of it is that whenever he acted in such a manner, he would look to Sebastain of all people for approval. And Sebastain was not one to find such antics endearing.

Yes, the only words to describe Ciel Phantomhive were as follows; Sentimental, painfully unfunny, and so very dull.

So dull he had yet to notice a demon living under his own roof.

---

“Sebastian?” A voice shocked him out of his thoughts, nearly causing him to drop the dish he was wiping down into the empty basin. He turned, his reaction entirely dependent on who exactly was standing in the kitchen doorway.

The shaggy blue-black hair didn’t tell him much, so he moved his eyes down to the eyes. Only one was visible, with the other hidden away behind a sensible black eyepatch. His face softened.

His twin.

“I didn’t even hear you coming, Young Master.” He said with a gentleness that made it all sound like a laugh. He supposed he must have been too wrapped up in his thoughts to feel the boy’s soul approaching him. It happened from time to time, though he did try not to be so careless.

He glanced down at the blue suit the boy wore, raising an eyebrow at it. “Did we not decide on the green one for today?”

His master shrugged, looking down at the floor in what Sebastain assumed was shame. “I spilled my tea. Tanaka helped me change.”

Sebastian tutted softly, turning his attention back to the dish in his hand. “You must be more careful, My Lord.”

Something about his phrasing made his charge tense up, but everything seemed to do so nowadays. ‘Teenagers’, Sebastain thought with the slightest hint of disdain as he waited for the boy to say whatever it was he had needed so badly that he walked all the way down to the kitchen rather than just calling for him.

“... Am I your favorite?”

Well… that wasn’t quite what he expected.

“... Pardon?” This time, the plate was set carefully at the bottom of the wash basin as Sebastain turned to give his full attention to the young boy.

“Am I your favorite?” He asked again with more confidence. “Who do you like more, me or Ciel?”

The question was so uncharacteristically bold that it startled an unbecoming bark of a laugh out of Sebastain’s throat. “You, of course.”

There really was no need for hesitation. It’s not as if he could lie to the boy. Better to just spit out the answer if the question was going to be so simple and of such little consequence.

His young master looked horrified by his answer. In a way, Sebastian could not blame him for such a reaction. It did not bode well if your actions earned you the favor of a demon. And indeed, he most certainly deserved the favor he received.

“What is this about, anyway?” Sebastian teased lightly. “Have you fallen victim to a sudden bout of insecurity?”

His young charge’s lip quivered, so the boy bit it to keep it still. Sebastian paused for a moment, wondering if maybe he had been a bit too careless with the topic at hand. After all, humans were very attached to their senses of morality. No matter how skewed it may be.

“As if you would care.” The boy muttered with such bite that Sebastain felt he had really earned the guard dog title. Sebastian went to open his mouth, maybe say something to mend the situation slightly, but the boy was already gone by the time he mustered the pathetic “ah” noise in protest.

Well…

That seemed like a dilemma in the making.

---

“Sebastian!” This time the voice that called his name pulled him in a way that was more tangible, yanking his movements to a stop as he felt his master’s presence grow strong and irritable. “Sebastian!”

“Yes Young Master, what is it?” He turned, watching the boy run up to him in his… green suit? “The green one is back?”

The younger Phantomhive twin;s scowl wavered just long enough to show his confusion. “What are you-” He growled in frustration, and only then did Sebastian notice the hand placed firmly over his left eye. “Where is Ciel?”

Sebastian looked confused now. “If I remember correctly, the Earl Phantomhive was meant to be out on business today.”

“Well he isn’t,” The boy growled. “And that wasn’t an answer.”

Sebastian’s brow furrowed even more, if that was at all possible. “I assure you, I have not seen him as far as I’m aware.”

“Well he has to be-” Speak of the devil and he shall appear, rounding the corner sharply and slamming a hand right in his brother’s chest.

His younger brother coughed hollowly on impact, forcing Sebastian to bend down and watch closely for an asthma attack as the boy held a fist against where he had been struck.

Once the coughing subsided, he uncurled his fist and showed Sebastain the eyepatch that lay crumpled up in his palm. “You ASS-”

Rather than scold the younger brother for his language, Sebastian lifted his head to demand the older apologize immediately for his behavior.

That is until he saw the back of Ciel’s blue jacket.

He hummed curiously as his charge quickly covered up his eye with the patch and demanded help tying it.

So, Ciel Phantomhive was in fact capable of manipulation.

It indeed was a day full of surprises.

---

“You’re in the wrong study.” That was the only greeting Sebastian got as he opened the door to Ciel’s personal workroom. He had to admit, if upsetting him so was the only way to keep him hard at work even after the sun had gone down, then he should make a habit of being even less sensitive.

No, that wouldn’t do. This much conflict would only get in his way as time went on.

He smiled. “No, I believe I’m in the right place.”

There was no response.

“... I bought hot chocolate,” He tried again. “With cinnamon and cream.”

Still nothing.

Sebastian sighed, placing the cup down in the boy’s line of sight. He supposed he was going to need to be even more direct than he had thought (yet another reason why the other brother was preferable. Bribery was still an option for minor blunders).

“I owe you an apology, My Lord.” He said sympathetically. “It was wrong for me to say such things, even in jest.”

Of course he hadn’t been joking. But technically he hadn’t said that he meant it as a joke either.

Ciel’s brow furrowed, and Sebastian wondered if he was about to witness the elder brother’s version of the famous Phantomhive rage he had already seen on full display so many times.

He hadn’t once ever considered that such a face could be the prelude to tears.

He was too stunned to speak as those glassy blue eyes turned to him, filled with some type of betrayal that Sebastian hadn’t felt was warranted until he saw it firsthand. “Why do you hate me?!”

“I-” He cleared his throat, trying to gain his composure once more. “I assure you My Lord, I don’t hate you.”

How could he? Children were too innocent by nature to truly hate. He just so happened to not find much value in innocence.

“You don’t like me!” Ciel yelled, and Sebastian had to bite his cheek. That part unfortunately was true. “You adore him! When he calls, you answer! When he speaks, you applaud! B-but when I do it, you just- you just-”

Something dug its claws into Sebastian’s spine. Something that seemed like shame. He really hadn’t meant to make his lack of affections so noticeable.

“My Lord,” He knelt down to what would have been eye level if Ciel wasn’t doing everything in his power to not even look at him. “You must understand, your brother sometimes requires special attention. He’s been through a lot-”

“So have I!” Ciel cut him off with a cry painful enough to make even a demon feel guilt burrow into the pit of his stomach.

In his three years as the Phantomhive butler, he had never even considered it. Of course he had been aware that the boys had both been taken the night their parents had been killed. He knew logically that they had both taken the same route from start to finish, the only difference in their memory being what happened in those last few minutes before the horror was over.

When his charge woke in the night, thrashing, screaming, vomiting, clinging to the nearest source of warmth for salvation, Sebastian rushed to his side and held him tight until the memories faded into black and he was brought back to the land of the living, shaking like a newborn deer.

Who did that for Ciel? Did anyone do that for Ciel? Or had he been forced to fight his way through those fits all alone?

Sebastian tried to swallow the sand-like shame in his throat. Perhaps he had misjudged the boy’s resolve.

Slowly as to not startle Ciel, Sebastian reached into his breast pocket and extended a handkerchief to the sobbing boy in front of him.

Lord only knows how pitiful his face must have looked for Ciel to decide to throw himself into Sebastian’s chest instead. He allowed it, wrapping his arms around the boy and allowing him what little comfort he knew how to extend.

“There, there.” He whispered to him in the voice he only ever used for the child’s brother. “You’ve been very brave.”

And it was true. There were few things Sebastian could think of that were more courageous and more human than smiling at the face of hell. It was the type of behavior that Sebastian was sure would make the late Lord Phantomhive quite proud.

But he wasn’t here. So Ciel was vying for praise from the man he felt was the closest thing he could get now in lieu of fatherly affection.

Hesitantly, he placed a kiss on top of the child’s head. “You’ve done well.”

He cried even harder, clinging harder to Sebastian’s lapels. Something about the situation brought Sebastian a sick satisfaction that his demonic nature just couldn’t ignore.

He would not crave his attention if he knew the truth.

After all, he was not as dull as he had initially seemed.

#dadbastianweek2023 #dadbastianweek #dadbastiandifferentkids #I really like messed up sebastian I'll be real #fluffy dadbastain is fun but I'm a sucker for angst

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namism · 2 years

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closer to you | trafalgar d. law

➳ category: modern doctors au · female reader · fluff

➳ warnings: none

➳ word count: 4.8k

➳ summary: There was a senior resident at the hospital you worked at and you didn’t expect to like him so much.

➳ note: assume that law is more “open” here compared to canon law since this is a modern au and it’s impossible for half of his backstory to be true (even though bepo is a character)

i’m also not a professional doctor of medicine y’all i’m literally still about to enter uni LMFAO

There was a senior resident at the hospital you worked at and his name was Law. He was under the cardiology department and had been working his way up the ranks of the Executive Board for the last three years, and apparently, he was always the main attraction for the new ICU residents.

You used to be one of the said residents because you decided a small crush on a colleague who you weren’t close to wouldn’t hurt. Working at a hospital was already hard enough on its own so you wanted to brighten up your workplace by sprinkling in a little bit of spice; and Law Trafalgar happened to be just that. So in your first 10 months of being a resident, the 36-hour shifts everyone feared didn’t seem all that bad anymore, because he would always be there.

You specialized in anesthesiology and had been the anesthesiologist in Law’s operations for as long as you could remember. Long surgical operations—through the disquietude and uneasiness of them all—were the only opportunities for interaction with Law because he was (reasonably) a busy man. And when the operation was easy enough, you would talk to each other over the music tinkling from the sound system and the beeps and whirs of the machinery.

To your disappointment, you only ever talked about simple things like the breaking news from the Daily Inquirer or mild rumors from your respective departments because the rest of the surgical team would hear everything. There was little to no opportunity for you to make a move (not like you were confident enough for it anyway) so you left your romantic endeavors with Law up to fate. But little did you know, Law liked having you around and rambling away with whatever you had in mind—although whether he found romance within his interest for you or not was still a mystery for him, like an enigmatic clot of emotions buried deep in his heart that he had yet to incise and examine, yet to diagnose.

Law was a busy man with no time for romantic exploits, but he did have time for department lunches after morning operations. Today, with you and the rest of his team, he was going to dine in a restaurant which he hadn’t done in a while.

You were seated next to Law at your table but you paid him no mind as an attempt to keep your excitement at bay. Law didn’t seem to care that you hadn’t talked to him the entire 15 minutes you were waiting for your crew, but he eventually itched to talk to you after Shachi excused himself to the restroom and he had no one to talk to.

When you weren’t speaking to anyone, he inched a little closer to you. “Have you eaten here before?”

Holding in a squeak, you looked up from your phone and let a smile pass instead. “Nope. I don’t eat out anymore but I know they have a lot of food options.”

“That’s great. I wouldn’t know what to choose.”

“You can always ask the waitress for recommendations,” you supplied.

“Yeah”—Law smiled—“I’ll go with that.”

A few moments later, Shachi had come back from the restroom and the rest of the team were piling in. Tables were full and the restaurant buzzed with activity. You had to move closer to Law because of the limited space, and this went on until he was at the very end of the table, sandwiched between you and the wall.

There was less than an inch of space between you and him and needless to say, it was overwhelming. But you kept yourself at ease by talking to Ikkaku beside you, until your nonchalance was shattered with a slight touch of your leg with Law’s under the table.

Your breath hitched and his lips parted, but neither of you noticed the other’s reaction and just played it off like normal. Neither of you moved. Your legs, covered only by the thin cloth of your scrubs stayed put, as if they never touched at all.

You only forgot about this moment when the food came, too busy eating to remember Law’s presence next to you.

But he eventually asked you to pass the condiments, and you obeyed. When you handed him the bottle, however, your hands touched and you gasped.

“Sorry, thank you,” Law said quietly, but even his ordinary calm voice didn’t sound calm at all. He opened the ketchup bottle and proceeded to eat, although unusually quieter than earlier.

Compared to you and Law, the rest of your table was full of life. Bepo was telling a ridiculous story while Ikkaku was rambling about the new residents she encountered. She then tapped your arm and gossiped about one of their engagements, painfully jealous over the couple.

The entire time you were there, Law would be dragged in the conversation and all eyes would be looking toward you. Thankfully, Law was abnormally tall and much more massive, so he didn’t have a problem with craning his head to see the rest of the crew. You decided to just ignore your feelings for the meantime and listen to him talk away for the rest of the meal.

When it was time to leave, your group piled out of the booth one by one after processing the bill. But before you could exit, a waitress hastily passed by you and caught you off guard.

You took a few steps back to avoid bumping into her but it was far enough to hit Law’s body. Your back hit his chest and he had to stop you from losing balance.

“I’m sorry ma’am!” the waitress apologized. She repeatedly asked if you were alright and you reassured her. When she had settled the matter and went back to her duties, you realized that Law had placed his hand on the small of your back. Heat crept to your cheeks and you stepped away from him.

Too shy to look at him carefully, you thanked him with a weary, “Thank you,” and awaited his response before catching up with your team by the exit. Law was stunned by what he did, so his brain could only come up with a meek, “Hm,” shortly before he followed you out the restaurant.

It was back to hospital duty by the time you arrived at the ambulatory, so you parted ways with your team.

Law would had been glad to be back at work, but it wasn’t so easy when you wouldn’t leave his mind for the rest of the day.

II.

Ikkaku was crying over (rambling about, actually) the new residents because she got closer with the bunch over the past few days. She learned that two of them, the engaged couple she was yapping about days ago during lunch, were having a beach wedding and had booked a two-week long vacation for their Honeymoon in the Bahamas. Ikkaku couldn’t contain her squeal when she told you this, and truth be told you were squealing as well.

Suddenly, you were called to one of your patients’ room for post anesthesia care, so you bid Ikkaku goodbye before going back to work. You arrived at the patient’s room, a sweet woman just a few years older than you, and monitored her condition before exiting quietly.

A sigh passed your lips as you sauntered back to your department building, glancing at your watch to check the time. It was 5 PM—just a little more and you could finally go home. The dinner menu was ringing in your ears, and you realized you hadn’t eaten since that morning.

You entered the skybridge and tiredly looked out the glass panes. The sun had already met the horizon and its orange hues painted the vicinity. It was calm. But footsteps echoed from the other end of the skybridge and you were immediately distracted.

It was Law. He was wearing his scrubs underneath his white coat. He caught your eye and you smiled shyly, but it didn’t take long for it to get awkward. With the bridge running about 30 meters from the South Tower to the North, it took a few seconds for Law to be in close proximity, which left enough time for awkward tension to settle in, after already meeting eyes.

When you were near enough, you greeted him a good evening and he nodded at you.

“Good evening,” he greeted back. Then he passed you and continued his way to the South Tower.

As cold as he was, your feelings for Law pursued.

And you didn’t know if it was a good thing or not.

A few days later, you were ordered to deliver documents to Law and a couple of other surgeons before the end of the day. You didn’t mind the job because work was calm then—you didn’t say the word out loud, of course—and because you hadn’t seen Law in a while.

You happened to meet him in the small hallway near the patient ward alone and you chatted for a bit. The conversation went smoothly, although it was mostly about work and the documents you delivered.

Halfway through, a disabled patient emerged from the ward and Law gently pulled you to the side. Your brain stopped functioning. Law kindly let the patient and his nurse pass through, then got back to where he left off in your convo.

Shock registered in you and you let out an uncontrolled chuckle, cutting Law short. “You’ve got to stop doing that.”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, “I made you uncomfortable.”

“No no no, I liked it,” you explained hotly. “Not-not like, in a creepy way.”

His lips parted open, as if he was shocked too. Then he made up his mind to just knowingly smile at you.

“I’ll see you some other time,” he said as he walked away.

III.

You were talking to Ikkaku over the phone hours before you went out with your brother. She helped you pick a dress to wear while nattering about the events at work.

“I learned something from the residents in my department today. It’s something that you might want to know,” she said with a light giggle. She watched you wear your jewelry and let a smirk morph onto her lips. “Where was It that you were eating out again?”

“Wolfgang,” you said. “For my brother’s early graduation. You’re really getting comfortable with the first-years, aren’t you?”

“They’re extremely nice and good at their job,” she replied. “They also have connections here and there, so y’know where I get my gossip from.”

“Of course, classic Kaku.”

“You’re the one to talk, girlypop. I know you’re getting into somebody’s pants at ours.”

Your eyes widened. “What?”

“A certain Mr. Trafalgar,” she said in sing-song.

You wanted to scream.

“Oh, don’t you dare give me that look (Y/N), it’s pretty obvious that you’re sneaking out together.”

“We aren’t sneaking out,” you defended. “We aren’t even together.”

“There are sparks though, right?” She pointed a teasing finger at you. “Hmm, whole ICU knows including the patients, so you shouldn’t be afraid. Workplace romance is very normal.”

“I don’t know where you’re coming from, but you’re totally wrong.” You huffed as you finished tending to your jewelry and hair. Suddenly, a call from your brother interrupted your flustered exchange, and you started packing your things at the notice. “I gotta go. Little brother’s here to pick me up.”

“Wait!” Ikkaku yelped. “Don’t you want to know what I was about to say earlier? From the residents?”

You frowned, upset that you had to decline. “I’m sorry. Can you text it to me?”

She sighed, but there was still a hint of tease in her voice. “Never mind, just find it out yourself. Have a fun night lovely.”

You dropped the call as you bid goodbye and all but ran outside your building and climbed into your brother’s car. As the vehicle sped off, Ikkaku’s words echoed at the back of your mind.

You arrived at Wolfgang 30 minutes later and were met with greetings from staff and assistance from valet. You and your brother were then led to your reserved seats for two and ordered your food once settled.

“Congrats on making it into the Honor Roll,” you said. “Higgs isn’t an easy school.”

“You know it was because of you and dad always telling me to work my ass off.” He rolled his eyes. “And he didn’t even make it here in the end.”

“He’ll be here in a few days,” you reassured, “and you did the work yourself, so at the end of the day you get the credit too. We were just there to help occasionally.”

He frowned, painfully visible in the candlelight. “I hope he gets here. It’s always just you, while mom is . . . doing whatever the hell she’s doing.”

“You have me,” you reassured again. He pursed his lips and shifted the conversation to your work life, and you shared a thing or two about your hospital experience and great bonding time with Ikkaku. You subtly mentioned Law as the cardiothoraccic surgeon who you liked to work for and it luckily didn’t bring enough questioning from your brother.

The food arrived and you dug in. You hadn’t dined like this in more than five years and the experience was overwhelming; steak was served well-done and chardonnay was poured into delicate champagne glasses. Headlights were dimmed and candles lit every table. Your dress matched the dinner ambience, the food was good, and you and your brother were happy.

“Their steak is juiced up,” your brother murmured as he took a bite. “Love the honey flavor.”

“I always had an inkling that you would go to a culinary arts school if it weren’t for your becoming in law,” you commented.

“No, you’re right,” he said, “but I’ll finish law school then enter culinary arts. I have time. I’ll make it there.”

You blinked. “You will?” You didn’t know about this goal, never heard of it before. “That’s . . . really cool.”

“I will. I’m sure you’ve met Sanji before. He got me into all that cooking stuff.” He shrugged.

“Oh yeah, that blond guy with curled eyebrows?” You laughed. “He was nice. He was really . . .” You trailed off, distracted.

“Yeah”—your brother rolled his eyes—“flirty.” You laughed nervously but you had stopped paying attention to what he was saying. Your eyes had flitted to a table of three, 4 tables away from you and had focused on a black-haired man dressed formally in a black dress shirt and slacks. He faced your direction but was engaged in conversation with two other guests. He looked down on his food, took a bite, then lifted his head back up and glanced at your table.

It startled him for a split second but Law regained his composure and went back to the conversation. Out of all places in the city, he didn’t expect to see you here on a Saturday evening in a beautiful dress and sparkling jewelry. You didn’t strike him as the type to eat out so it was pretty shocking to see you dolled up for a candlelit dinner with a . . .

Who’s that? Law thought to himself.

But never mind the guy. He had to worry about not looking obviously panicked when he met your eyes a few seconds ago, which he would hate if he ever failed to, because it was uncharacteristically him to be obvious.

“I’m glad we got to squeeze in this dinner today,” his cousin spoke, snapping Law out of his trance. “Duty has been peaceful recently. I think a big one is coming soon.”

His fiancée elbowed his side. “Don’t say that, you’re cursing the three of us.”

“We’re not at work,” her fiancé deadpanned.

“It’ll be fine. It’s only happened a few times,” Law said.

The couple across him laughed and continued to bicker about work. Law joined in. He felt that he needed to as the guest, and that he should give this one evening to his cousin and his fiancée who had both applied for an internship at the memorial hospital he worked at. Law didn’t know about it until recently because he had overheard Ikkaku talk about it with Bepo during break. Now that their wedding was fast approaching, it felt appropriate to treat them to an evening dinner as an early wedding gift.

The woman’s phone buzzed, and she shyly excused herself out. “Sorry, I have to take this.”

Her fiancé nodded in approval and she walked out to take the call. Law excused himself to the restroom while she was away, to both catch his breath and use the actual restroom.

You saw Law get up from his table and walk to the back of the restaurant where the restroom stalls were. You watched as he snuck into the comfort room and disappeared behind the door.

Would it be wrong if you met him outside?

Would he mind?

You could follow him and pretend to use the restroom even if you didn’t need to, pretend that you had to wash off a stain, or grease from your hands. But you weren’t sure if it would work, especially on a man like Law.

Well, even if it did work, you would still go back to ignoring your feelings anyway because of your job.

You told your brother about your business and strode to the comfort room, where a vanity stood behind the small partition from the dining area to the lavatories. You fixed your appearance—patting down your hair, smoothening out the folds of your dress, and retouching your makeup—until Law emerged from the men’s room and met your eyes in the mirror.

You flushed. Law was surprised.

“Hi, um,” you stuttered, “nice to see you here.”

“Hi.” You spun around and met him face-to-face. “You’re with—?”

“My brother,” you replied. “He’s graduating his undergraduate program for-for law school.”

“Law?” Law chuckled. Your cheeks grew hot. “Congratulations.”

You laughed nervously and thanked him, then Law explained that he was out with his cousin and his fiancée to celebrate their engagement. Law mentioned that they worked at your hospital, and it rang a bell in your head.

“By any chance, are they interns?” you asked.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “First-years.”

Your eyes widened, realizing what he just said.

So this was what Ikkaku wanted to tell you.

“If I remember correctly, Ikkaku is one of their friends. She must have told you.”

“She did, kinda. I’m-I’m just surprised to see you here.”

From the corner of his eye, Law could see his cousin regrouping with his fiancée who had gone back to their table. Looking back at you, he said, “It was unexpected,” then hesitantly added, “You look really good tonight.”

Law (uncharacteristically and internally) shoved his head into his palms as he let the words out, surprising both you and him. Your heart thumped loudly in your chest, and you couldn’t stop the genuine smile that formed on your lips. You laughed lightly.

“Thank you,” you said.

Law looked at you one more time until he had to excuse himself out and walk back to his table. You did the same after regaining your composure and fixing yourself again. Your brother met you at the table, confused on what took you so long.

“Just a girl thing,” you told him when he questioned it.

Meanwhile, at table six, Law was distracted for the remaining time he had left for dinner. He couldn’t fathom the encounter with you, couldn’t understand his unusual reaction and the strange feeling in his chest. Law thought he was going crazy when he couldn’t stop thinking about the first time you touched at the restaurant, or when you both awkwardly greeted each other in the hallways.

He couldn’t understand what was happening, or why he kept playing into it at all. But he rethought it all out and wondered deeply. Did he really not understand?

Or was he just afraid to admit that he was starting to?

He was probably lying to himself.

And the glimpse you took at his table, which he happened to catch just in time, confirmed that.

IV.

A month had passed since your encounter with Law and it had been a pretty fun four weeks.

Meetups were more frequent and conversation became less awkward. You had gotten comfortable with him when he began to approach you himself, sometimes due to work and sometimes just for fun. Neither of you acknowledged it, but it was clear that there was something going on between the both of you.

You and Law had finished an emergency operation together and were cooped up in the break room to get some rest.

He was exhausted, unsettlingly quiet with hooded eyes that screamed no sleep. He held a cup of water and periodically took small sips from it as he spaced out, thinking to himself deeply.

Your team went in and out of the break room until it was only you and him left. It was silent, with the only sound source coming from the air conditioner. It was nearly 1 AM and you were wondering how to get home.

Deciding between walking or being patient enough to wait for a cab, you stood up from your seat and disposed of your cup. Law looked up from the floor and watched your actions closely.

“Are you going home?” he asked softly. Tiredly, if you might.

You nodded. “You?”

“I’ll check out in a bit,” he said. “Are you commuting?”

“Um, yeah. I’ll probably find something.” You shrugged, evidently not caring about it much. You had gone through the trouble of commute a couple of times before and you were an expert at that point. The only problem was, commuting late at night took a lot of time and patience.

“You’re commuting home?” He furrowed his eyebrows unpleasantly, almost as if he was displeased that he had guessed correctly. “Let me help you. I’ll take you home.”

“Law,” you started, “I’ll-I’ll be fine. You need to go home too, you’re tired.”

“I will not allow that.” Law refused to let a woman go off on her own unattended at night especially if it was you. There was nothing in this world that could sway him to let you be in this situation. Law argued against your refusals until he was up and standing, properly trying to reason with your dilemma.

“I don’t want to bother you. It’s late, get some sleep and go home,” you whined when he didn’t budge even after a minute of convincing.

He sighed. Looking down at you with tired eyes, he said, “Please. Stay safe.”

You nodded in promise, glad that you had persuaded him despite his strong arguments. Law planned to leave, but he just gazed at you deeply.

You looked back at him.

Then, he glanced at the door and at the corners of the room for any signs of a camera. When he proved that it would be safe, he leaned into you.

He brushed your hair to the side and pulled himself close. Then he kissed you.

Your lips parted in surprise but you kept them open as Law kissed you a little harder. He moved his lips in sync with yours, remembering the pretty looks and touches you’ve given him the past month. Once you were comfortable, he started to guide you through the kiss until your lips were finally in motion with his.

You pulled back for air but continued. Law kept his hand on the side of your head still while you placed your hands on his chest. He was unbearably close and you swore your legs touched. When you ran out of air the second time, the both of you pulled back.

“Can I take you home?” he asked again, breathless.

You nodded.

Definitely.

Moments later, Law led you to your locker where you packed your things and checked out. He checked out along with you and offered to carry your bag as you both set foot for the parking lot.

In just a few minutes, you were in the passenger seat as Law drove out the lot and into the empty midnight streets of the city. A couple of cars zipped by when you reached the overpass while billboards showed themselves and littered the perimeter. Soft noise from the radio and the hum of tires on asphalt kept you awake.

Law cooed you to sleep during the ride but you refused to shut your eyes. Although tired, you knew better than to miss out on this one moment with Law where it was just you and him in private, with no work-related problem bugging your minds in the middle of the night. It was just you and him, alone together in secrecy; a dream you had always wished for ever since you took a liking to him.

It felt wonderful to be there with him.

When you neared your residence, Law was disappointed that he had to say goodbye sooner than expected, but one glance at you and he was convinced that you deserved to rest. He parked outside your lot and hopped off the vehicle, then went over to your side to pop the door open and help you dismount the car.

You and him stood at your front gate, faces barely visible in the moonlight but doe eyes blown enough to notice. You keyed the gate open and thanked Law for the night before telling him goodbye.

But courage pumped through your veins, and at the very last second you ran to him with delight and stood on your tiptoes to meet his lips again. Law was shocked but reacted quickly, and he kissed back the same way he did earlier at work.

When you both pulled away, you grinned at him. “Can you text me when you get home?”

He shyly smiled back, but you knew he reciprocated. “I will.”

Law drove off once he made sure that you had entered your home safely, and after 15 minutes, your phone lit up with a notification.

lawdtrafalgar: I’m home.

y/nl/n: You’re safe?

lawdtrafalgar: Just like you asked.

y/nl/n: Good :]

It was an exhausting day. But you were glad you spent it with him.

Three weeks passed and Law made it a habit to take you out to eat or stroll around the city whenever you were free. You didn’t mind it—in actuality, you liked every moment you spent with him because he made you feel safe.

Sweet gestures became frequent but would be kept subtle and at a minimum since Law wasn’t the showy type. Nonetheless, you appreciated all the effort he put.

You walked beside Law on the promenade, where the city met the sea and the sea met the sun. It was a calm Wednesday evening after work and you had time to spare so you pulled Law to a 10-minute walk to kill time. He followed you with no objections, and walked with you in comfortable silence.

You later stopped at a bench and took a seat, Law following your actions patiently.

You found it the perfect time.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you,” you said as you held your gaze at the open sea, “I like you.”

Law didn’t reply much. He was half-surprised and half not because he knew how you felt, but didn’t expect you to say it now. He hoped to initiate this type of thing so it wouldn’t come to him out of nowhere, but this was fine too.

He knew he liked you back, so it was fine too.

After a long pause, he said, “I like you too,” then formulated the proper follow-up in his head and added, “I want to be with you,” a few seconds later.

You smiled sweetly, finally looking at him as excitement built inside you. Your heart thumped wildly the same way it did over a month ago, at the restaurant where things first sparked, in the hallways where you shyly spoke, and during lunch breaks when work was calm enough for a quick interaction. Law rested an arm around your shoulders and you nestled in his warmth.

“You read my mind just right,” you said.

“Would that make us official?”

“I’d say it would.”

Law stroked a comforting thumb on your shoulder and pulled you closer to him. You laid your head on his chest and hummed in content.

As you both looked into the horizon, traffic noise toning down and your surroundings becoming vibrant with each passing second, your worries washed away. With Law closely seated next to you, everything in the world felt just right.

pls be the judge if i should continue writing in this length or if i should shorten/lengthen it a bit <3 i think the problem with this one was that it started off as a chaptered fic until i decided to ka-boom everything in just one post so it seemed rush. i haven’t written in over a year though so i’m really rusty. thank u lot for reading 😭🧡

#one piece #op anime #law one piece #law x y/n #law x you #law x reader #trafalgar d law x reader #trafalgar law #trafalgardwaterlaw

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whoblewboobear · 20 days

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ID2 Thoughts after todays chapter

**spoilers under the cut, read at your own discretion

Cas’ backstory lost me at the book betrayal but they’re still THEE love interest of all time to me. I do wonder though if the same writing team that worked on book 1 are also working on book 2 because.. Cas feels like a different character half the time which is a bummer. I don’t wanna get to the end of book 2 and end up feeling like it being a one off was a better choice when I was so stoked to see these characters again.

I do find everything they’re doing with Gabe super interesting though whereas in book one I found them a lot less interesting. After them overhearing the convo with Libby, Jade, and Aiden I think it’s super interesting that her first thought is to basically be like “if they can’t move on from Cas, I’ll be the new Cas.” Which can only end up hurting everyone involved in the long run. I’m sure it was mainly to get mc to feel better but I love a tragedy. I’m leaning into part of her having a little bit of an Olivia Rodrigo Obsessed moment and Cas doing the same all this time.

All that being said I still truly don’t give a single shit about Terry or the forest bureau because it feels VERY forced. Mc starting the fight with their mom just run out was weird. Lewyn not stepping in to steer Terry off the path of whatever happened to the envoy and then still making it MCs issue is weird too. I’m just 👀 this book is messy. We’re probably at the halfway mark right? And it feels like a lot of filler has happened to pad out chapters and the interesting or fun stuff is over so quickly.

It pisses me off to no end that Libby & co came down heavy on mc when they were kinda friends for a year bc mc began spending a lot more time with Gabe and Cas but are still friends with Gabe who, from what we know, ditched them for mc. Like if there’s anyone they should be more pissed at, it should be Gabe, right?

I feel like the book really shines with the newbie vampire plot line and the ley line powers. The forest bureau has a lot of potential because we I’d love to see what these modern day vampire hunters are like and what the threat level really is. I’d like to explore what a poly relationship between Mc Gabe and Cas would look like but I doubt we’re getting it at this point after today’s chapter. So instead I would like to explore the jealousy and heartache Gabe and Cas are going through and mc having a tough time deciding or having their mind set on someone while the other person pines depending on how you play it.

I say all this to say that I see the problem that choices has when it comes to a lot of their books nowadays. They don’t know which plot lines to cut and which to keep. There are too many plates spinning and one of them will get dropped when it could’ve just been scrapped up top.

#this is kinda ranty so if that’s not your vibe I wouldn’t read this #but it’s not all bad I swear!#I truly haven’t loved an li like this since Elementalists!Beckett and ILB!Tom #im just being overly critical #playchoices #immortal desires #cas harlow #gabe adalhard

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nostalgia-tblr · 2 months

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First Lines Meme

Rules: List the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern!

Tagged by @lokiinmediasideblog

I have provided brief commentary on each of these, to share my wisdom and because I was bit bored.

Thor’s favourite thing of all, if he had to commit to a single choice, is sparring with his brother. (The Marriage Game, mostly-gen Thor thing) This isn't a very exciting first line, I admit. Oh well, there are plenty more after it as this fic is 5000 words long.

2. Sylvie never hesitates to hurt him, whether he has asked her to or not. But when he asks… oh, she revels in it then. (everybody's looking for something, the one where sylvie beats loki with a stick) I think this is quite a good opening line. It reassures the reader who decided to read Loki being beaten with a stick that, yes, the hot stick-on-Loki action is definitely here, the tags didn't lie.

3. The sounds of celebration are more than enough to cover footsteps, but Sif is always alert and difficult to sneak up on, so the touch on her shoulder is no great shock to her. (Out of Sight, sifki porn with angst in) This is an okay line, if I remember right the opening few lines were the last to be written, because I'd started with the (*ahem*) main thrust of the plot and then had to go back and get them close to each other so they could do that thrusting (and angsting).

4. His brother’s funeral has not yet taken place and already he is betrothed to the killer. (The Winter Of Our Discontent, ongoing Sylki Arranged Marriage AU) This is a fantastic first line, well done me! There's a death and a marriage on the first line! The reader can see at once why it's tagged as 'Enemies to Lovers'! It has the word 'betrothed' in it, so you know this is gonna be A Bit Faux-Historical! Oh, how concise I was!

5. This part of the story isn’t true: Loki runs after the variant – the other Loki – and he runs through the time-door just before it closes, and finds himself in another apocalypse. (In My Head I Do Everything Right, Loki series AU where everything is more horrible.) Also good - it establishes that some of the story is less true than other parts, and intrigues the reader by telling them that what they saw happen didn't happen in this version. Bold. Unusual. Exciting!

6. The other Loki finishes his drink and then finishes his story; “So while I was freed from fulfilling a few of my less well-intentioned promises, I was also trapped – I could hardly go home, could I, after all of that? So I stayed in New York and built this little empire instead.” (Match Three, Loki/Loki/Sylvie porn) Bit infodumpy and not remotely pornographic, two potentially serious flaws when the reader is in search of filth. But consider; I dealt with the backstory of this extra Loki in the first line and now we can just move the fuck on to them all fucking without much more preamble.

7. One thing Sylvie wasn’t expecting was for already-broken timelines to heal, and for those that were lost (more accurately murdered) long ago to reassert themselves somehow, and to push their way back into the ever-expanding multiverse. (one (1) returned item, practically gift-wrapped, double drabble) Not a bad attempt to explain what's going on in a story with a very limited wordcount, I feel. That limited wordcount was also strict, which will have affected the word choice here. (I can't remember any details though.)

8. Disconcertingly, River Song doesn’t play by the Doctor’s rules. (Foreshadowing, look everyone it's River Song!) Another short and strict wordcount, not a bad opening line all things considered.

9. With the clearer vision of hindsight, Thor reckons that the hammer might have been the thing that made his brother start to stumble. (Loophole, thorki fic about the perils of excessive pedantry) Oh, a flashback! Why would someone stumble with a hammer? Did he trip over it? You must read on to unravel the mystery! Therefore, a good opening line.

10. “So why haven’t you two fucked yet?” asks the Grandmaster, seemingly out of nowhere. (Love Is A Danger Of A Different Kind, sylki-on-sakaar horrible dubcon-frostmaster thing) Excellent first line, defines the existing relationship boundaries and contains a single shocking swear in a line that breaks all the usual rules of politeness. A wild and very awkward ride lies ahead, it seems to say. I'd keep reading this fic for sure!

I will now tag everyone on tumblr.

#first lines meme #fic related

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votederpycausemufins · 9 months

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We're back with another chapter of Surprisingly Familiar. And I'm posting on here first rather than Ao3 bc it is not loading :')

The first two sections had a lot of backstory, so i tried to have less of that in the last section.

“Try it again. You’re making the curve too round.”

“I’m trying!” Grian huffed as he traced a small spiral in the air. “Can’t we just go back to the easier stuff?”

Grifter had called Grian over for some more magic training. Unlike before, where it had just been along the lines of using magic to do basic spells that anyone with magic could do, he was now insisting Grian work on using magic more specific to Listeners. Apparently it meant drawing the sigil of the Listeners with magic. Something that was apparently very particular.

“Sorry, but no. One of my friends has been looking into your situation. He thinks we can get you back to your time, but that there’s a bit of a time limit on that.”

“What?” Grian stopped to look over at Grifter. “Like, there’s a certain time that it can be done, or what?”

“Like, if you stay in this time too long, eventually you will never be able to get back to your time at all. I’m not going to try and go through all the ‘temporal explanations’ because I don’t really understand it all myself. But he was connected with Evo, so he knows some time stuff.”

Grian nodded a little at that. If it was another Listener who had worked with that world, then they would know about messing with time. Probably. Grifter had mentioned what it was about at one point forgetting that Grian didn’t remember that world.

“From what I can tell, the longer you’re out of your time, the more you connect with this time. Technically there’s always actually having you travel back to the past and then reconnecting, but then it becomes a lot more difficult. There’s a report of some people who had actually made a time machine that tried to just take it back an hour or so, but instead sent themselves back to before the Watchers and Listeners even existed as groups.”

“They… they did?” Grian nervously asked. If that was how bad it could go, then maybe Grifter was right to worry about taking too long.

“Yeah. They eventually got back, but dismantled the machine not long later, as they should have. Essentially, as long as the world still thinks you’re from whatever time, most methods can use you as a focus point. Because something most people don’t consider is that you can’t just travel in time. If you went back even a minute, well, the world moves along in the universe over time. Unless you can tell me the exact moment you got sent here, it would take a lot more work to figure out.”

“Well, I was asleep when it happened, so I can’t help there.” Grian replied, trying not to sound angry at Grifter, but he was frustrated at the situation.

“Exactly. So, if you want the chance to hop back in time and use magic to save Taurtis, we need to kinda rush through training.”

Grian sighed before looking back to where he was working. “Can we at least take a small break first? It’s a lot more exhausting.” Out from the ground stood two spikes of bedrock. Each one was from managing to successfully draw the sigil. While it took a lot of energy, it seemed to be from boosting Grian’s magic, his magic’s color shifting from purple to green.

“Hmm, alright fine. It won’t work well to hurt yourself.” As soon as the words were out of Grifter’s mouth, Grian flopped onto the ground to rest. He had his eyes closed, something Grifter was happy about so that his frown wouldn’t be seen.

Grifter had gone back to try and get some more help with the Grian situation, only to find that a certain someone had figured out how to get into Hermitcraft. That, along with the group of Hermits that were trying to get into this world- well, half hermits, half family, which made it even worse- certain plans needed to be sped along. Lying about Grian potentially getting stuck in this time was just one way to help move things along. Plus, Grian wasn’t actually from the past, so he couldn’t get sent back home. So it would be easy enough to claim something or other had delayed them just long enough that now the easy way was gone. It would probably be best to try and frame it as being Astrid or Flora’s doing. Sure, Grifter adored Flora, but she was getting far too close to Grian, so if he had to throw her under the bus to make sure he could finish this plan, he would.

“Hey Grifter?” Grifter looked up to where Grian was lying, glad to see his eyes still closed. “Is it okay if I hang around the castle for a bit once we’re done here?”

“Of course. It’s technically your castle as well. Any reason why?”

“Flora and Astrid are busy.” Grian lied, badly enough that Grifter could tell.

“Sure they are. What’s really going on?”

Grian hesitated before answering. He could tell the truth, at least part of it, but either way, it wasn’t great. “It’s just… uh…” He tried to wrack his brain for something to say that wasn’t exactly a lie, but wasn’t a truth either. “I saw some of Flora’s family. And their grandmother tried getting close. She… she looks a lot like what I remember from Mum, but at the same time not. And I don’t like that I can remember more of someone that isn’t Mum rather than Mum herself.”

“Ah, yeah I can see how that’s hard to deal with. So I guess they’re spending more time there?” Grifter asked, not looking further into Grian’s answer. Grian gave a small shrug, not really saying no, but also not saying yes.

“I don’t know. I guess I’ve also just been around you a lot, and then around Flora and Astrid, but I haven’t really been near the people who are going to be my husband and kids.”

Grifter couldn’t help but light up at that. Unlike Flora and Astrid, Sense and their boys knew exactly what was going on and could help steer Grian in the ‘right’ direction. “Oh well that is a very easy fix! I’m not sure about the boys, but Sense is probably just busy with redstone and needs a break.”

“So, I could spend some time with him?” Grian asked, getting a nod from Grifter before getting taken away to see the redstoner. It took a little bit of hunting before the pair finally found him working in the castle, indeed doing some redstone engineering. He didn’t notice them immediately, too entranced in his work, but eventually Grifter snuck over and grabbed Sense, making him jump at first before giving a small laugh when seeing who it was.

“To what do I owe this surprise?” Sense asked after noticing that Grifter wasn’t alone and had brought Grian along.

“Well Grian brought up the fact that you two haven’t gotten to interact much, so I figured you two need some one on one time!” Grifter explained, and Grian was surprised when Sense’s smile actually fell. For a moment, he seemed almost scared before it morphed into simply just surprise.

“I uh, I thought you two would want to interact more yourselves?” Sense offered, looking between the two avians again. “Or perhaps all three of us? Or what about the boys?”

“The boys are busy with their own things right now and if I’m not training Grian with magic, I’ve got admin duties to deal with. The regular stuff is already enough but the added bits for helping Grian have made things almost overwhelming, so the backlog piles up when I work with him.”

Grian felt a little guilty at Grifter’s explanation. It was probably that Sense was upset that all Grifter’s free time was being spent helping him and not with Sense. And now he needed to spend that time with a younger version of Grifter that didn’t know him as well. “I don’t have to if he doesn’t want-”

“Oh nonsense! Seesee will be perfectly fine, right?” Grifter asked Sense. “But if he doesn’t think so, I’m sure I can convince him.” And Grifter leaned in to whisper something into Sense’s ear. After a moment, Sense nodded and Grifter smiled. “Well that settles it! You two have fun! Bye!”

Grifter left in a blur after giving Sense a quick kiss, leaving only a feather or two behind with Grian and Sense, having them stand there awkwardly for a number of moments before either of them moved, that being the redstoner getting back to his work. At least until Grian stopped him again.

“Uh, what exactly are you working on? If you don’t mind me asking?”

“I do mind, actually.” Sense replied before pulling away to go back to work. “I’m sure Gri will be too busy to notice if you stick around or not, so you’re free to leave.”

“I’d rather stick around.” Grian spoke up, not even asking if Sense minded this time. “And Grifter mentioned you should take a break from whatever you’re doing, and you know, he’s me, and either way, I think you should too.”

There was a pause before Sense said anything more. “I’d rather not.”

“Please? Just for a little bit?” Grian pleaded, then paused before asking a question. “Do you not want to be around me because of the chance I’ll change the past?” When Sense didn’t reply, Grian continued. “Look, I’m not going to lie, I am going to try and save Taurtis no matter what, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make sure I find you too. Honestly I’d love it if we were able to boot Sam out once and for all and you could be there instead.”

“Is that so?” Sense asked, which pulled a smile from Grian.

“Oh yeah of course. I’m sure you’ve heard plenty about him from Grifter, but he was a giant asshole, still technically is for me, but hopefully I won’t have to deal with him too much longer. And I could maybe also make sure to have you around if I knew what you were doing back then.”

For a moment, Sense actually considered the possibility before remembering how it was just impossible outright. Grian wasn’t really from the past, so he couldn’t go back and change anything. But Grian wasn’t supposed to know that, so he had to play along. After thinking it over a few moments, Sense huffed and pulled himself out of his machine, wiping redstone dust onto his pants before walking towards where he had left his dress shirt and suit jacket. An action that made Grian realize the redstoner was only wearing a tank top above the waist. While he was still covered, Grian averted his eyes anyway for decency, at least until he could see Sense finish buttoning his shirt out of the corner of his eye.

After Sense pulled his jacket on, he went for his tie before realizing it had been caught by his machine at some point and had been shredded up. “Ugh, great. Do you mind if we head to our, er rather, my room so I can grab another tie?”

“Nah, it’s fine.” Grian shrugged before starting to follow behind Sense. “Sorry about that one.”

“It’s not like you could have stopped it from getting destroyed.” Sense waved Grian’s comment off. “And Grifter wouldn’t have repaired it anyway.”

“Really? Why not?”

“He’d prefer me to cycle through my whole collection. I just find it easier to stick with one and our ways of organizing them are different. The last time I went through wearing ties, I found Gri with ties strewn about the room, arguing that patterns shouldn’t be sorted with colors unless the patterns were the same color or whatever.”

“Well I’ll try not to freak out over your tie sorting.” Grian said, crossing his fingers that whatever he was about to see wouldn’t be such a visual travesty.

When the pair reached Grifter and Sense’s bedroom, Grian was reminded of when he had first woken up there. Well, other than the fact that it looked a bit more messy than it had however many days ago. He wasn’t sure if it was due to Grifter being so busy, or if this was how it normally looked and they had just made it look nicer for Grian. Honestly he could see it going either way.

Sense went over to a pair of folding doors and slid them open, revealing the mass of ties hanging inside. For the most part, they were indeed sorted by color, but Grian’s eyes immediately caught on a few ties that looked like they were out of place. As Sense thumbed through the ties in the cooler section of colors, Grian pulled out a tie covered in blue and purple patterns, though the base of the tie itself was a red color. After putting it back, he found what seemed to be an orange tie covered in multicolored flowers that also made it look out of place grouped with other normal orange ties.

As Grian continued to look over the ties, Sense finally picked out another generic looking blue tie, putting it on. As he started to try and close the closet doors again, Grian stopped him, instead pulling out a tie that was a dark green, one that reminded Grian of the magic Grifter used. “Here, why don’t you wear this one instead?”

“I’d rather not.” Sense said after looking at the cloth, pushing it back towards Grian. “I’m perfectly fine with the one I’ve got.”

“But you were just wearing blue!” Grian complained, pulling the tie Sense had on away, finding it easy since he hadn’t managed to actually tie it yet. “You’ve got so many colors here! Wear something else!”

“I prefer blue.” Sense argued, pulling a different one from that colored section. “Blacks and whites are too bland and I like a little splash of color, and Grifter isn’t a fan of me wearing purple, so we agree on blue.”

“What? What about all the other colors?” Grian asked, gesturing especially to the gradient of pinks all the way to greens and even dipping into cyans. “Even a light blue might be nice.”

“I have my reasons for not wearing those other colors as well.” Sense said, attempting to close the closet again, but being stopped by Grian forcing them to stay open, shocking Sense by the fact that it was through magic.

“Then how about you tell me and then I can choose one for you that you might like that isn’t boring.”

Sense glared Grian down before relenting and sitting on the bed. Grian smiled at the action before turning back to the closet and going through the ties. “So I assume greys fall under the same category as blacks and whites.”

“Of course.”

“Okay, What about browns? I don’t see many of those?” Grian looked back over to Sense, wanting to hear about that.

“Leather ties aren’t exactly comfortable to wear.” Sense began to answer. “And I just don’t tend to get many gifts of brown cloth ties. It’s either something colorful or greyscale to be ‘classy’.”

“Well, red ties could be classy too.” Grian lightly argued, pulling out one that matched his feathers.

“Well red is a difficulty for me.” Sense argued. “Not only am I told it clashes with my eyes, but cleaning redstone from it is a pain. Not to mention the fact that my… other self tends to use that color.”

Grian looked up. “You mean like how with Grifter and me and-” Grian hesitated, not recalling off the top of his head what Sense knew about Grifter.

“How you’re from Wels, yes.” Sense agreed. “The two of us have interacted in the past, so I prefer to make sure we don’t overlap, so I don’t wear red.”

“Well how about pink?” Grian asked. “It’s different enough from red, right?”

“A certain someone I hate very much is fond of pink and I will never get over that fact.” Sense crossed his arms. “Potentially, pink would be fine otherwise, but I would burn those things if Gri wouldn’t get upset over it.”

“Okay, good to know.” Grian quickly pushed the pinks away along with the reds. “Orange?”

“Too close to red and yellow and I don’t use either of those.”

“Oh. Wait, why not yellow?” There was silence to Grian’s question, making him look over at Sense and ask again. “Why don’t you wear yellow? It’s… not because of me, right?” Grian’s feathers ruffled, remembering the amount of times that Sam plucked his yellow feathers because he wanted them for himself, since ‘Taurtis is always wearing blue and gets some of your blue feathers, I want some yellow ones!’. The memory made Grian shudder before he remembered where he was. “If I- if Grifter gets upset-”

“He doesn’t get upset if I wear yellow.” Sense finally spoke up, though he was staring at the ground. “I will not wear yellow. I can’t. There’s-” He cut himself off as his voice caught in his throat. “I used to, but then things happened. So I don’t anymore.”

“Can I ask what happened?” Grian asked softly, pushing the ties back in place. He couldn’t help himself when he sorted a green tie out from the yellows and into the dark greens. He needed to do some sorting to help scratch that itch he felt looking at the mess. But after he put it in its new spot, Grian pulled his hands away from the gray tie and grabbed a light blue one before handing it to Sense and closing the closet.

Sense took the tie and put it on, waiting until he had tightened it around his neck to say anything more. “Well, I guess you did already ask about my past. Probably around the time you’re from, I ended up in a… situation.” Grian could tell that it was something Sense didn’t want to fully elaborate on, so he wasn’t going to pry on what the situation was exactly. “I ended up with someone who… he wasn’t quite as bad as Sam I wouldn’t think, but it was a similar problematic friendship.”

“That’s… not great. I’m guessing they’re the reason you don’t like yellow?”

“Sort of. I just… remember an argument we had where for reasons I won’t specify-” Sense immediately clarified, making Grian nod that he wouldn’t ask about those reasons. “-that the fact that I was wearing a yellow tie at the time was actually a large part of that argument. I know that sounds idiotic without the context but-”

“Me hating rabbits sounds idiotic without context. I’m sure a lot of things can sound idiotic or bad or whatever without context. But that made you swear off yellow?”

“Uh, no actually.” Sense continued. “Not entirely. I-” He paused again, a quick laugh escaping before he said more. “I’m not sure what it is, but I’ve lost a lot of the people close to me when yellow has been involved.”

That caught Grian off guard. “Wait, really? That seems weird.”

“Well, there was of course the argument I had with… my ex friend. But after him, I still wore yellow ties for a while. It’s part of why I have so many, even compared to my large amount of blues.”

Grian had to admit, there were a large amount of yellow ties when he had looked. He figured part of it was because if Sense wore mostly blue, those tended to get destroyed one way or another, so there weren’t quite as many as he would have ever owned. “But then something happened again?”

“My father liked yellow as well.” And despite the fondness in Sense’s voice, a chill ran through Grian as he immediately realized the mention of losing people and referring to his dad in the past tense meant that they were dead. “I liked the idea of matching him and I was even gifted a number of ties from him. But because of that, I couldn’t stand to see myself in that color anymore because it just made me think of him. And how I still never managed to do anything about it.”

“How did he die?” Grian asked, not expecting an answer since it seemed Sense was torn up enough talking about it vaguely. But he was surprised to actually get an answer.

“He was murdered.” Sense answered, venom in his tone from how angry he was now, any sadness completely gone. “And unlike the others, he wasn’t brought back since that would oust our new ‘admin’. Not like this wasn’t our third one anyway. And I couldn’t do anything against that hack and his stupid obsession with trying to destroy his brother’s server. Not to mention the fact that he’s apparently coming here.” And then the angry frown curled into a smile. “Well, this isn’t Helscraft anymore, Grifter’s the admin. And you’re not going to be the only hacker around this time.”

“Uh, what do you mean?” Grian asked, making Sense look up and shake his head, having gotten completely lost in his own thoughts.

“Oh, nothing. Just, apparently Gri and I’s old admin isn’t happy about us being here. To the point he’s even involved his brother and a number of wels to try and mess with us. Not to mention bringing along my other self.”

“Really? That’s not great, is it?”

Sense huffed. “Well, if Grifter can’t handle it, it won’t be, but I’m sure he’ll be able to.”

Grian patted Sense’s shoulder comfortingly before the redstoner pulled him into a hug. Grian almost pulled away, but then hugged back. Right now, it seemed like Sense needed it, and he didn’t want to take that away from him. And as they stood there, hugging one another, it hid as the light blue tie seemed to dull as a grayish purple started to coat it instead.

Everyone was just sort of standing around, not sure how to react to what they had just seen. After the jungle had faded away, half the group rushed to check on the other half. Mumbo had quickly gone to look at Grum while Phil and Techno were worried about Wilbur. Paul went to help Doc recover from the whiplash of getting his cybernetics back while also dealing with his heightened hybrid instincts, and finally Xisuma went to go to Tommy’s side.

What had thrown everyone off was Tommy flinching at Xisuma, but not from his reaction to Xisuma but rather Xisuma himself. X found himself dressed in armor that wasn’t his bee themed set, nor his regular set of green. Instead, he was dressed in a gray while standing to the side of the group was the familiar armor he normally wore, but currently being worn by Evil X.

The confusion wasn’t helped as the moment Xisuma called to his brother, they had unfrozen from whatever shock they had been in, running off across the end islands the group had found themselves on. Which left them to their present situation, at least until Phil finally pointed out that they would need to gather blocks to follow Xannes, since he was the only one of their group who could fly.

Doc was helped to sit down, not currently able to help out, but after that, everyone started to work on mining, save for Xisuma, who was staring off in the direction Evil X had gone, and Tommy, who went to Xisuma’s side. “Are… are you okay?”

“I should be asking you the same question.” Xisuma replied, not taking his eyes off the horizon. “You’re not injured from anything that was in the jungle, right?”

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t really remember much after I got separated from you guys. I think I got knocked out pretty quickly. Uh, should we assume this is him going through it now?”

Finally Xisuma looked away and down at Tommy. “I’m.. not sure. I think if it’s not, it’s something of mine that he doesn’t like.”

Tommy glanced towards where he had last seen Xannes in the distance. “Why was he wearing your armor? Mumbo said that was yours, right? Is it because you two are clones?”

Xisuma looked shocked before looking at Tommy again. “What? Clones? Who said we were clones?”

“NPG mentioned he was your clone or something. Cuz Mumbo didn’t know if you were siblings or he was a clone or what.”

“He’s my twin brother, not a clone.” Xisuma clarified. “I suppose it’s because the two of us look so much similar as opposed to…” the admin trailed off as he looked towards where Wilbur and Techno were, Tommy following his gaze and knowing what he meant. “I believe it’s probably because we have matching scars as well.”

Tommy looked back to Xisuma, realizing he couldn’t see through the visor of X’s current helmet to see the scars he knew were present underneath. It was a set of four claw marks that sliced over Xisuma’s face, going over his left eye in a way that impressed Tommy with the fact that the eye itself seemed unharmed.

“I think I remember you mentioning you got them from a dragon?” Tommy asked. Xisuma had shown off the scars to him back when he was still relatively new to Hermitcraft, trying to find ways to connect with Tommy. He had also given a summary of how he got them to Tommy, but he hadn’t really cared at the time.

“Yes, an Ender Dragon. I had managed to bring one into where our family lived and it attacked, leaving Xannes and I with our scars.”

“You think this might be about that?” Tommy asked, vaguely remembering the story a little better now that Xisuma had given the summary again. “I know you lived in the end, but the dragon’s there and now we’re there.”

“I… If it’s for me, potentially” Xisuma admitted after some hesitation. “Evil X liked to taunt me with it. There was one time where he brought in dragons to try and destroy Hermitcraft.”

Tommy shrugged. “I mean, I honestly was worried that we’d end up in a destroyed Hermitcraft at some point, either from you or me. The fact that this is just the boring ass end is pretty good in my books. And one dragon versus all of us looks pretty good in our favor!”

The wince Xisuma gave was hidden behind his helmet. While he knew Tommy was trying to help reassure him, X was also worried about Xannes being on his own and potentially ending up on the other side of whatever they might be fighting. He almost said something about it too, but then the pair of them were called over to help with bridging in Evil X’s direction to try and catch up, and to also talk about what situation they were probably in.

“So, why is he wearing your armor?” Grum asked as they were halfway across a void gap between the islands. No one was completely sure if the void was really there, but no one was fully eager to find out. “And why are you wearing that instead?”

“Well uh, that’s a really long story.” Xisuma replied, his feeble attempt to avoid the topic pretty obvious to the others.

“C’mon X, everyone’s bearing their truths to the world, it’s your turn now, innit?” Tommy asked, lightly elbowing Xisuma.

“Well, I suppose the simple answer is that armor used to… belong to him.”

“Seriously?” Mumbo asked, turning around in shock and having Paul barely grab him in time to keep him from falling off the bridge. “It was his? I can hardly believe him ever wearing anything other than red. Even with all your different armors, he’s kept the same style.”

“Since Hermitcraft, yes, but that wasn’t the case in the past.” Xisuma hesitated before saying anything more, enough that Tommy tried taking back his previous statement, saying the admin didn’t need to actually say anything. “No, you’re right. Especially because I think I know what this is all about.”

“This isn’t about when you banned him that one time, right?” Tommy asked, since he had already heard the story not too long ago. “I could just tell them if you don’t want to.”

“It’s something different.” X stepped onto the next island they reached, turning back towards the group. “As you know, Xannes and I are voidwalkers. That’s essentially the term for End based humans similar to netherborn, aetherkind, and if you want to be specific about it, terrans.”

“Which is what most of us are.” Phil said, gesturing to the group. “Not sure if he counts though.” And that time he pointed to Grumbot.

“I am Robots Georg, an outlier that should not be counted.”

“I’ll pretend I know what that means. Anyway, you were saying X?”

“Well, despite the name, voidwalkers can get what is known as void poisoning. Similar to how despite being in a dimension filled with water, you can still drown, and even netherborns can be susceptible to lava and fire in the right conditions. Some more than others, I know Tango constantly forgets his limits, not to mention-”

“We get the picture.” Techno cut Xisuma off. “Your point?”

“The last time Xannes and I were in these respective armors, there was… an incident.”

“What are you even doing with your life? The family business? You never cared about that before!”

“I care about it now, isn’t that enough? It’s not like you’re taking it up, so someone has to.”

“I’m doing something better! Something our parents can be proud of.”

“You know, you don’t get it, do you? What you do doesn’t matter to them.”

“And I’m sure you know that sooo well, huh? You’re just trying to kiss up to them by taking an interest in what our family has done for generations, huh?”

“Well I’ve been getting good at it, Starting out in the overworld is a little pain but-”

“What, can’t handle a little bit of sunlight or something? Or maybe you can’t stand wearing that suit, huh? Wish you were home where you could be out of that stuffy thing? Just lounging around in bed being a good for nothing waste of space?”

“You take that back!”

“Why should I? Isn’t that all you are?”

“I’m not! It’s not like you’ve been around, I’ve been putting plenty of work in.”

“Sure you have. So much compared to me, right? Except I’ve actually been busy. The reason I haven’t been around is because of all the work I’ve had to do. All the training I’ve had to do.”

“Stop it, you’re pushing me too close to the-”

“And once I’m done, I’ll be able to do just what you can but even better. It’ll be simple and easy. All I need to do is pop in a few commands-”

“-Look we might-”

“-pop into the End and just-”

“Xisuma!”

“Wh- You?!” Tommy looked shocked, realizing that Xisuma was being the jerk in the story, not Xannes.

“Yeah, I agree with Tommy. “ Doc spoke up. “Sure, you did a lot of pranks back in the day, especially with Biffa, but that sounded kinda cruel. You sure you’re not embellishing it to sound worse than it was?”

Xisuma winced. “No, I was an asshole back then, no way around it. I… our parents seemed to constantly put me above him to the point it got to my head. Both in the idea that I was better than him, but also that I could just keep being at the top of whatever I was doing. Around that time was when I first looked into admin classes. Suddenly there were people better than me and… well I took it the wrong way at first. I was so used to our parents putting Xannes down that… I came back to do the same.”

“Wow… yeah you were an asshole.” Tommy agreed. “How the fuck did you manage to come out of it like this?” And Tommy gestured to all of Xisuma.

“Well, for one I ended up dropping out of the class and didn’t again until after Hermitcraft had started and around the time Generik’s residency was starting to look shaky. But the main reason is what happened next.”

“Which was?”

Xisuma sighed. “The two of us both ended up falling, though Xannes managed to keep us from completely falling into the void. We were still stuck on a low outcrop from an End island with no easy way up. Not to mention our suits were damaged.”

“Xannes! Your suit!”

“Huh? Oh, it’s just a tear in the back, no big.”

“The fabric’s almost completely gone! How the hell did you manage that?! Do you have any idea how hard stuff like that is to repair?!”

“Oh, that’s what you’re concerned about… Thanks. Good to know the fabric is so much more important than my well being.”

“Well you’re the one who got us stuck in this mess.”

“Me? You’re the one who pushed us in here. I’ve been living here and could have been just fine with a respawn, but you’ve been away at your fancy school, so it wouldn’t have been as nice for you.”

“Then why not let me fall?”

“I could have. If you want I could still push you in!”

“Then do it!”

“...No. I’m not the only one who had their suit damaged.”

“What are you- my helmet!”

“See, at least I can stitch back together my suit.”

“You mean make Mom do it for you.”

“No I don't. I know how to sew. I learned even without Mother’s help.”

“Calling her that won’t make her dote on you.”

“I know that! Look, can you shut up for just… five minutes. Unless you want the void seeping in faster.”

“We did actually stay there quietly for a while, and at one point they even pulled their suit off to start fixing it. They didn’t exactly have the necessary tools on hand, but that actually made it a little more impressive. I had been worried about them not wearing it though, since there’s a reason we wore them even in the End.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re coughing too much. Take your helmet off so I can see.”

“I said I’m *cough* fine! Don’t touch me! *cough*”

“‘Suma, c’mon, let me look!”

“Fine! Whatev- *cough* -ever.”

“Shit, this is bad.”

“What *cough* do you mean?”

“It’s already black. We still don’t know if anyone’s coming, and if they are, how long it’ll take. If they knew you were back then maybe-”

“So? *cough* They’ll notice you’re gone and *cough cough* come looking. How *cough* long are you usually out?”

“... Take my helmet.”

“What?”

“Put it on you derp! You need it more right now. Unless you want to die.”

“What about *cough* you?”

“I’ll just wear yours to make it take longer. They’ll show up soon enough, so it should last me until then.”

“No one showed up for hours. I’m not sure how long it even took because the two of us passed out before then.” Xisuma finished in a somber tone. “Turns out a near death experience really shakes up how you see things. And apparently my own armor was more damaged than I thought, because at some point Xannes switched ours up to make sure it would stave off the void poisoning for me. And he was right, I recovered fairly quickly, but he didn’t.”

“But I mean, he’s alright now, right?”

“I guess.” Xisuma answered, though he didn’t sound sure. “It was after that that they started being a bit more angry and violent towards me.”

“And a side effect of void poisoning is a sort of… unpredictable blind rage, right?” Paul asked. “The void causes a weird decay in the mind, similar to what zombifies creatures, but practically irreversible.”

“Right. And so I just wonder if maybe his current situation is my fault. If I hadn’t started that argument-”

“Well it sounds like your parents were jerks too!” Tommy said, cutting Xisuma off and making Phil wince. “If they hadn’t treated you like a perfect golden child and him as a scum of the… End, black sheep, then it wouldn’t have happened, right?”

“Well, yes, but-”

“Tommy’s right.” Techno spoke up this time. “And look, I’m not trying to use it as an excuse for any of us, but sometimes the actions we take are influenced by others in a way that the blame can be placed on them. It depends on the actions themselves, but in this case it doesn't seem like your fault.”

“The Wither were totally yours though.”

“And I said I’m not using it as an excuse.”

“How about we stop talking and just find Evil X!” Grumbot practically shouted, pointing off into the distance. “There’s lots of lightning that way! So they must be there! Let’s go!”

“So, that was your dad, huh?” Jrum spoke up as the block he was trying to lift with magic fell back down the pixel or so he had managed.

“Yep! That’s Papa! He’s really really really nice and I love him lots and lots!” Vee replied with the biggest smile on her face. “He adopted me, and then my sister, and so now the three of us are a big happy family! Well, maybe not big, but definitely happy!”

Jrum couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Vee at the very least seemed innocent enough, or maybe the better word was oblivious. Her dad had been working with Grifter and somehow hadn’t realized that something was wrong with Grian. Or, well, it sounded like he did know, but completely trusted Grifter with any lies he told. But that was what Vee was saying, and she had also fallen for Grifter’s lies, so who knew, maybe her dad wasn’t lied to, but both he and Grifter were lying to her.

And then there was her sister, which made Jrum more sure that they were all just lying to Vee. He remembered that comm call. He knew the voice on the other end. It sounded like his dad, but simultaneously not. It had to be Grifter then, right? Vee had even said it was Grifter. And he was there through Vee’s sister’s comm. The same sister that was apparently dating Grifter’s niece. They all had a connection to Grifter, so there was no way none of them knew what was going on.

“Ooo! Lookit! You’re doing it really well!” Vee exclaimed, making Jrum realize he had moved the block up a full meter this time. He was a little surprised by that, since he hadn’t even been paying attention to what he was doing, and now that he was focusing on the block, it fell once more. “Aww, don’t worry! You’re doing really really well!”

“Whatever.” Jrum huffed. “You know, you keep bringing up that your dad adopted you and your sister, right? And in that one meeting you mentioned that she had a brother that sucked?”

Vee’s smile disappeared. “Yeah… he was really really bad.”

“Mind telling me?” Jrum asked. They had figured out who Flora or Fleur was supposed to be, but Astrid was still a little up in the air, and since she was around Grifter and maybe also around Grian, it was important to know about her too.

“Um, well…” Vee hesitated, kicking at the ground. “Nightmare was-”

Vee didn’t get a chance to continue, Jrum immediately recognizing the name. “Nightmare?! Her brother is him?!”

“Y-You know him?”

“Know him?! It’s because of him that my brother got kidnapped by Tommy’s stupid hels! And then it turned into a whole mess with Grifter getting involved and hurting my family! And then Grifter came back and made everything worse!”

“Eep!” Vee yelped, and Jrum looked over to her and the spike of bedrock that had appeared from the ground, pointing at her face. Jrum was shocked to see it, looking himself over before looking back up to essentially growl at the spike. Surprisingly, it seemed to react to his growl and disappeared into the ground a moment later. “You g-gotta be careful with that.”

“Yeah… sorry…” Jrum responded, though distracted. Things kept happening when he was angry, so maybe- “How much do emotions affect magic?”

“Uh, a lot?” Vee answered, though she didn’t seem confident with her answer. “Uh, they can help with focusing it. Papa helped me train with music and he said it was because uh… the emotions of the sounds help with how you feel, ‘n then it works as a guide for what you want the magic to do!” That time she started unsure, but slowly got more confident as she spoke, which helped reassure Jrum. Especially when she followed it up with a little magic demonstration of her own.

“So because I keep feeling angry and frustrated, stuff keeps happening for me? Do I just need to be constantly angry?”

“Oh no no no.” Vee quickly waved her hands to stop Jrum. “It’s just stronger stuff makes it react more when you’re new to it! Even sometimes when you’re not new to it cuz Papa has had it happen too. Uh, it’s kinda like when I got scared and then made those boxes.”

Jrum remembered the bedrock that trapped Ren. And then he thought more to his own dad, and the times his magic had acted up when it seemed he was feeling some sort of intense emotion like anger or fear. He could even remember one time when Grian was really happy and that had caused some sudden magic. Jrum almost made a comment about it, but then paused. When he had been trying to eavesdrop on the conversation Phil and Paul had had, way back when the latter had first arrived. He had made a comment about knowing Jrum was listening in to their conversation. He hadn’t known how the man recognised Jrum had hacked his way in, but Paul seemed to know enough magic that if Jrum was using magic instead…

Jrum focused once more on the block in front of him, reaching out and managing to lift it once again. This time he was actually controlling it when it got a block higher, and still when he pushed it left and right before it finally fell on its own, Jrum finding himself a little tired.

“You did it!” Vee exclaimed, jumping up and down before tackling Jrum with a hug. “We should show Papa! Oh wait, he’s busy. I could message Astrid! But she might be busy too. Grifter is-! Grifter is bad, we said that. Uhh… Well I think we should tell someone!”

“Yeah whatever, let me see who’s available.” Jrum rolled his eyes, trying not to smile with how infectious Vee’s joy was. He was easily able to send a message to the world chat, getting an answer not too long later from Joe, who was apparently happy to be available. Jrum thought he would be more involved in whatever important stuff the Hermits were up to, but Jrum also supposed that Vee was already pretty comfortable with him. “Joe says we can meet up with him. Let’s go.”

Vee was bouncing again as they left to meet with the Hermit, finding him a small distance away from the meeting room at what seemed to be a newly set up table and chairs for the three of them to hang out at. “Howdy there you two. I heard you had somethin’ to share?”

Jrum couldn’t get a word out before Vee answered for him. “Jrum’s doing Watcher Magic! Like he could do a little before, but he’s doing a lot better now! He did block moving! C’mon, do it again!” Jrum sighed before moving a new block a bit, though not nearly as much since he was still tired from before, and running over there hadn’t helped him regain any energy.

“I need some redstone.” Jrum panted, surprised when Joe handed some over. “Why do you have-?”

“Well someone pointed out that you might need some since you were doing a lot of work. Well, technically multiple someones, as it was recommended you get somethin’ to eat followed by gettin’ pointed out you tend to eat minerals like redstone, especially since that helps with chargin’ you up.”

“Uh, thanks then.” Jrum ate the redstone before getting some more from Joe, which he put in his inventory to save for later and make sure he didn’t use it all up in one sitting.

“No problem at all.” Then Joe looked towards Vee. “Yes?”

Jrum looked over to Vee as well, finding her fidgeting where she stood. “Um, are you still mad at me?”

“Mad at you? Now what gave you that impression?”

“Well, when you visited me when I was at Stress’ place, you got really upset.”

Jrum saw as it took a moment for Joe to remember what she meant. “Ah, that. Well I’m sorry for makin’ you think I was mad at you. You had just caught me off guard with what you were talkin’ about, and I suppose that surprise came off as anger which you thought was directed at you.”

Jrum was a little taken aback. Joe caught off guard? That never happened. Or well, it could definitely happen, but he had the uncanny ability to always seem to know what was going on when things were serious, like with the current situation. He was a little worried for a second that Joe could be lying, but he didn’t seem to have a single tell that he could have been.

“What had you been talking about?” Jrum asked, looking between the pair.

Vee opened her mouth, seemingly to answer, but was stopped by Joe. “It’s not somethin’ that’s exactly common knowledge. Part of why I was so surprised she knew about it.”

“But Papa said Listeners get to know about it! And shouldn’t Watchers too? And Jrum’s one.”

“And I’d have to agree with you on that part.” Joe replied. “But I believe you mentioned you’re still trainin’, and that seems like the thing to wait ‘til you’re fully fledged to learn about.”

Vee huffed and crossed her arms, slumping in her chair. Jrum looked between her and Joe, now even more confused and wishing he weren’t in the dark about… whatever they were discussing. “Can I at least get some vague clue about what it was?”

“You could, but I believe if you learn a little, you’ll want to know more, so nothin’ at all may be best for you.”

“What if I promise I won’t ask anything else?” Jrum suggested, trying to also give pleading eyes to Joe in hopes he could be convinced. “At least if it has any connection to what happened to Dad?”

“Well, I suppose it does.” Joe started to speak, getting Jrum hopeful. “Alright then. But you’re promising you won’t go lookin’ into it, alright?”

“Yes! I won’t! I’ll just imagine my own answers or whatever!”

“Okay, and Vee, you better not help him along.” Vee nodded, staying silent and even pretending to zip her lips. “We happened to get on the topic due to how Grian ended up messed with due to the mixin’ of magic from he and Grifter. Magic from Watchers and Listeners mixin’ together’s got a special term. And that term comes from when it first happened, specifically on a rather large scale. Despite that, it’s a little bit taboo to talk about the incident itself, and Vee happened to mention somethin’ implyin’ she knew about it more than most.”

“Oh. So like… how Dad talks about stuff when he was younger, and so everyone kinda just says that it’s when he was in highschool, but not any specifics?” Jrum offered as a sort of comparison. Especially since he and Jrum didn’t know as much about that time as the other Hermits did, so it was a similar situation for Jrum himself.

“Now I think that’s a fine comparison.” Joe complimented the bot. “Includin’ the part that he’s probably the one who should be tellin’ you about it. Or someone else older than you.”

“Vee’s older than me.” Jrum pointed out, reminding Joe that he was literally only a year old due to being a robot. “So she could count.”

“Now I’m sure you know that isn’t what I meant.”

“Yeah, I was just joking.” The bot huffed. “I said I wouldn’t ask about it more.”

“Um, mister Joe sir?” Vee carefully spoke up, hiding a little when Joe looked over to her and said she didn’t need to use formalities like that. “Why can’t you just help his dad? Because you’re… a thing I can’t say to Jrum.”

“Hey, I know he used to be Herobrine.” Jrum pointed out before pausing. “Well, I mean he technically still is? He goes by Joe now, but was it just a name thing, or is it a concept or-”

“The nuance of that matter isn’t a highlight of this discussion right now.” Joe said to keep Jrum from overthinking things. “As for your question Vee, despite any connection I have to what you tend to refer to as Hels, my involvement in this situation isn’t one that was ever foreseen as direct involvement. That being said, the situation also isn’t one that everyone is so sure it is.”

“Wait, what do you mean it’s not what we think it is?” Jrum asked. “My dad has been kidnapped and based on what everyone is saying, he’s missing a gigantic chunk of his memory. How is it different from that?”

“Jrum has a point! Why’s it not that? Is it because Grifter is trying something we don’t know about but you do?”

“Grifter’s involvement isn’t exactly what’s causin’ it to be something else. And as far as the Hermits and you are concerned, it is what you think. But there’s plenty of other people involved.”

Both kids looked confused before Vee gasped. “The other Watchers and Listeners! Or at least the Listeners, I don’t think Grifter could lie to the others as easily. But he must’ve done a bunch of lying to them! And… and Astrid and Flora and everyone was with him too! They’re being lied to as well! I need to call Astrid again so she can help!”

“Now slow down. I believe you already did talk to her about that, now didn’t you?”

Vee frowned. “Well, yeah, but now we know more so she needs to know more!”

“Vee’s right.” Jrum agreed. “But also shouldn’t do it yet, because she mentioned something to me.” Joe gestured for Jrum to continue after the bot paused for a moment. “You know how Vee keeps mentioning she and Astrid were adopted? Well, apparently before Astrid got adopted, she lived in the Hels version of Tommy’s server because her brother was the admin. Her brother was Nightmare, Dream’s Hels.”

“Now that is something we didn’t know yet.” Joe conceded. “Vee, you said your sister didn’t get along with her brother when you talked about her at the meeting, right?”

“No, he was really mean! He hurt her and Flora and her whole family and even tried to do it to me once. He was just as mean as my mom was.”

“How much does your dad know about Nightmare?” Joe asked, Vee answering that he probably knew more than she did. “Alright, I’ll need to go back into the meetin’ to tell the Hermits and others about that, you two take some time to rest before you go back into trainin’ alright?”

“That sounds like a good plan to me.” Jrum agreed before standing up, stretching, and then starting to go towards a nether portal. “If you need us, we’ll be at Daddy’s base. Dad’s portal is too dangerous.”

“Perfectly good reasoning.” Joe nodded, waving just before the two were whisked away by magic into the Nether.

“Uh, Jrum?” Vee asked shortly after they had stepped out of the portal and into the hub. “Did it seem like he knew more about what’s going on than he said?”

“Huh? Oh, well, Joe is always like that. I think it’s a mix of him being so old, being a poet writer whatever, being a Hermit, and probably five other things.” Jrum shrugged. “Plus, he probably does but doesn’t want to tell us just yet because they want to know more about it themselves, or because we’re younger. Or heck, maybe even both at the same time.”

“Huh. Okay I guess that makes sense.”

19 notes · View notes

sgt-scottymoreau · 4 months

Text

New Year

(With art!)

Summary: Scotty propose to Ghost to spend the new year with her family. It's not that he doesn't want, but this time of the year, the holidays always bring him bad memories. A past he has buried deep and doesn't want to dig up again.

Warning: None

Word: 4.4k // AO3 // Masterlist

A/N: Because the reboot has given us nothing about Ghost's past, I'm taking his OG backstory as my canon for now. Unless we are given something different, this is it. I wrote this a little while ago as well, earlier this year when I wasn't too sure how Ghost handle the mask situation. So it's a bit all over the place as I tried to correct how I see it now. Surgical like in public, more or less private environment balaclava, at home in intimacy none. Art was done in a semi rush lol ignore the hands please!

After everything that happened, they were more than glad when their request had been accepted and were able to take a week of leave, just in time to spend New Year somewhere. At first, they thought about staying in England, probably only the two of them staying at home and taking it easy. However Scotty received a message from her family asking if she would be able to spend the holidays with them. Come to think of it, it has been a long time since she was able to be around for either Christmas or New Year celebrations. Sitting on the couch, she glanced at Ghost who was watching the TV, not paying too much attention to her conversation back and forth with Gabrielle. Scotty was a little torn apart. On one hand, she wanted to spend the time with her family but would Ghost follow? If not he would be alone. Which on the other hand, wasn't something she wanted.

“Simon?” She asked softly. He replied with just a hum. “Gabrielle is asking if I want to spend New Year with the family and I was thinking that maybe I could accept the invitation.”

“You do whatever you want, love.” His gaze never moved from facing forwards.

“Would you… come with me?” The question took him by surprise and he did turn to face her this time.

“I’m not so sure it’s a good idea…” “If it’s because of the mask, Gabrielle and the boys already know you. I suppose only my parents might be surprised, but they will understand. Especially if we say you just have a very bad scar you don’t want people to see.”

He scoffed at the remark. Scotty could see on his face that he was thinking, probably considering all the possibilities, trying to find the best option. Even outside of work, his tactical mind was racing. His face remained impassive for a moment, before he finally gave his answer. “I’ll pass, for this time.”

Scotty understood, despite a small pinch to the heart. With a smile, she told him it was fine and she might get a train ticket in the morning. She exchanged a few more messages with her sister, before calling it night. She kissed him on the cheeks before heading for the bedroom.

Ghost remained in the living room till way past midnight. He cursed himself since she had left, because he had seen behind her smile. It was not completely fine. He understood her desire to have him with her, in a season many considered the time to be with your loved ones and family. But what did he know of that? Whatever family he had, the little glimpse of something remotely close to it had been taken from him long ago after years of hard time. To put it lightly. He knew very little of a warm and lovable family. He saw it when they stayed at her sister's place earlier this year. Not that it had been planned, but Ghost saw how life could have been if his own brother and his family were still there. Maybe not as close as Camille and Gabrielle looked like, but something decent he bet. It was this that he didn’t share anymore. That complicity, that caring, that love. He experienced this but so late in his life and then it has been removed from right under him. It was a bitter taste in his mouth that he didn’t expect to go away, ever.

Barely listening to whatever program was on, Ghost turned the TV off and went to bed. Silently, he slipped between the bedsheets, trying his best to not make the bed shift too much under him. She rolled around, still sleeping. He watched her. She was so peaceful, so beautiful. It was these kind of vulnerable thoughts he learned to have and accept. Enjoying the moments together, to the point that even the most mundane thing, such as right now, did give him a sense of happiness. He turned on his back, staring at the ceiling while his mind couldn’t turn off. Ghost felt already so undeserving of her; her family would be something else. He could already imagine a disapproving father, an horrified mother and a judgemental sister. The latter probably only sees him enough as a workmate, but not as a partner. His chest felt like he was about to explode, suffocating with so much emotions all at once. In her sleep, Scotty turned around again, this time her arms wrapping on his chest as she held herself close to him. In the silent night, this gesture appeased his raging mind.

After an hour of battling with his thoughts, and the fact that in general he barely sleeps, his hand flew, slowly, to the night stand to grab his phone. Ghost's fingers quickly typed the location, checked prices and after a few back and forth, he put his phone back down. It was almost three in the morning by now and he had to wake up with her. Or at most, before her.

Scotty woke up the next morning. She was all alone. This didn’t surprise her, it wasn’t unusual for Ghost to fall asleep on the couch, in the most uncomfortable position. He would say that it’s almost natural to him. With the army, you get sleep wherever and whenever you can. A quick check on her phone placed the day at eight in the morning. After breakfast, she could still look for a ticket and hopefully find something either later in the day or early next morning, on New Year’s eve. Scotty grabbed the first sweater she could find, lazily made her way to the kitchen. She wanted to take it easy, before having to possibly rush. She turned the corner to the room she was heading to and stopped in the arch. Ghost was already there, kettle brewing and eggs cooking. “Did you even sleep?” She asked with her usual look of ‘if you didn’t I’ll be mad at you because you know I want you to’.

“I did. A little five hours or so.” Scotty smiled on her way to the cupboard to grab mugs and sugar. Ghost brought the full plates to the table, picked up the tea and just like this, they started the day.

“If it’s okay with you, I’ll try to leave this afternoon.” Scotty said, sipping her warm drink. “It’s a long ride home and it’s already so late for New Year.”

“The train leaves at one this afternoon.” Ghost dropped before taking a bite of his food. Her eyebrows frowned. This had been said way too casual.

“What do you mean?”

“I bought tickets last night… at three in the morning while I couldn’t sleep. Now you have to tell them about my ugly face.” He smirked. A grin spread on her smile so big her cheeks hurted. She knew how much he wasn’t fond of social interaction with strangers and she really appreciated this act.

*****

After a long five hour trip, they arrived late in the day in Belgium, where her parents lived. Gabrielle was the one to pick them up at the train station. Camille had kept it silent on Ghost tagging along, which explained Gabrielle's confused expression when she saw her sister's colleague. To make himself less intimidating he had his balaclava instead of his stitches mask he wore on the first time he met her, something he switched from the surgical mask he wore in the train once they were out of the station. Still Gabrielle wanted answers.

"Why is he here?" She asked while giving her sister a hug.

Right! Camille realized she hadn't told anyone yet about her relationship… Between work, the most recent attempt at stopping Hassan, and being unsure how this whole thing would work out, telling her family had been a second thought. "Remember how you teased me about you know what?"

Gabrielle had to pick up her jaw from the floor. "From everyone in your team, you really went with the masked man?!"

Ghost watched the two women conversing. Following that it was about him, between the stare and pointing. And by the reaction of the sister, he understood that he was a surprise on many levels. Who said he needed to know French? Deduction was also good. Gabrielle went from a very excited person to a more worried expression once the information sinked in good. "Mom and dad have no idea he is here and still doesn't know you are dating? Damn it Cam! You gonna give them a heart attack!"

They were in the parking lot while Gabrielle still looked a little upset. Camille rassured Ghost it wasn't his fault. It was her mistake for not telling anyone. "He could at least not wear that thing…" Looking at him in the rear mirror and gesturing around her face.

Ghost finally made his first sentence to her. "The mask stays on because no one needs to see how ugly I look."

Gabrielle blushed furiously when she got caught. "I mean no offense sir. It's just that… this is not really… good for a first impression."

"Don’t worry Gabby, all will be fine. I can quickly call mom, explain to her the surprise and… yeah tell them about his ugly scar once we are there. I'm sure they will understand." Ghost felt a certain uncomfort all the sudden. The situation was getting awkward, because of him. That is why he kept social interaction to a minimum. Not everyone was fond of his mask. But for Scotty? He would do anything. Being in a tense situation wasn’t so different from their mission right? Scotty called her parents, getting a rather loud reaction on the other side of the phone from her mother. He heard the joy even on the back of the car and wondered if Scotty had gone deaf. He softly smiled, with a pinch to his heart. Some memories he thought he buried deep came back to haunt him. He glanced at the outside trying to change him and hopefully not be thinking about any of them.

They arrived at a small house a few minutes later. The engine had barely come to a stop, when the door flung open with two little boys dashing to the car. Camille barely had the time to get out; they were already in her arms, much happy to see her again. Nicolas was the first to notice the guest. "You brought the ghost man!" He said with a smile. At least with kids, she had no reason to explain why. They would just be happy. At least for Nicolas, Mathéo shyly said hi to him before running burying his face in her aunt's neck.

"Mathéo, could you please give your aunt time to arrive before monopolizing her!" An older voice came from the entrance. There stood a woman, with graying hair but still elegant. The boy wiggled to get down and ran back inside. "So is that the man you told me about on the phone?"

Camille nodded. The mother looked at Ghost, as if she was analyzing who he was. "Why the mask?"

"He… was injured recently on duty and doesn't want anyone to see how bad it is." She lied. Oh she hated doing this but what option did she have? "He doesn't speak French, mom." The old woman looked at her daughter. "He is British."

"What! Henri! Your daughter brought back a man home from war and he is a british! God." The woman returned inside to find her husband who was still busy with some preparation. Gabrielle looked at her sister with a look that meant everything. She said she would give a minute to explain the situation to Ghost. Which Scotty did.

"Don't worry they don't hate you!" Scotty said after closing the door behind him. She took his coat and hung it with the others. "It's just a silly thing about French and English getting along so well, right? Even though we are not actually French."

"Can't let go of century old grudges." He scoffed. He looked around the hallway, seeing picture frames hung. Some with very young versions of Scotty, others of more recent ones. Other family portraits that range in the same time line. He stopped on two frames side by side. One was Scotty which seemed to be after her military graduation. The frame next to it had the same idea, but looked older and with a younger man posing.

"My dad is a retired air force. My mom never really liked that I followed in his step and joined the army." Scotty explained. Ghost nodded. A clearing throat caught their attention. The two of them turned their heads to face an old man who, on second thought, reminded Ghost a lot of Price. With a bit more white in his hair, a lot more wrinkles and a missing eye? ‘’Papa!’’

‘’Tulip! So is that the stranger man your mother have been mumbling about out?’’ He extended his hand to Ghost, who quickly handshaked it. ‘’I’m Henri, pleased to meet you young man.’’

‘’Thanks, sir. I hope you excuse that I would rather like to be called Ghost, and the mask.’’

‘’No worries sonny. Back in my days, I knew a few people like you. Some like privacy. Alright right, come in. Diner was almost ready.’’ The dinner went as good as it could have. Despite the rather strange first meeting with Suzanne, the mother, she showed to accept him. She kept filling his plate to Camille's amusement. Some light chatting, Gabrielle and Nathan saying how everything was going back at home, Camille sort of telling some assignments that happened without too much details and Henri telling his favorite story of how he lost his left eye many years ago while he was still in the army. After getting their stomach full, Henri brought them to the second guest room, which used to be Camille’s room. Completely redone of course. They unpacked some of their luggages and decided to call it a night after a long day of traveling.

‘’Is everything alright?’’ Scotty had noticed him being stiff during the dinner, even if he was all smiling and respectful.

‘’It was a little overwhelming, but I’m good.’’ He pressed a kiss on her forehead. ‘’Don’t worry, love.’’ However this had been a few hours since he said this and he was still wide awake in the dark of the night while she was sleeping. His mind was flooded by old memories that he couldn’t keep down in the silence of the room. Ghost had tried to put it down, but seeing Scotty’s mother and her nephews, everyone gathered like this… It hurted him. It reminded him of the last Christmas he ever experienced all of that atmosphere. And this was only day one of their trip. He wondered if he would be able to go through all of it. His mind tortured him for another hour before sleep gave him relief.

The next morning, Suzanne was already ready to prepare the big meal for tonight right after breakfast, her two girls and her grandsons helping here and there. Camille was busy with Nicolas mixing the dough for some cookies when her mother asked a question that made her roll her eyes. ‘’Do you even know what he looks like under that mask or you just choose the first man you saw?’’

‘’Mom… Yes I know what he looks like. When we are at home, he doesn’t wear it all the time. At least dad understand.’’

‘’Young lady, don’t put words in my mouth! I do understand why, it just…’’

‘’He looks cool mamie!’’ Nicolas interrupted. ‘’He looks like a badass ninja!’’ They all chuckled at his comment. Mathéo came into the kitchen and pulled on Camille’s jeans. He gestured at her to bend so he could whisper something to her. She was surprised by his request, but agreed nonetheless. Holding him by the hand, they walked to the living room where Ghost, Nathan and Henri were talking. Mostly the two young men listening to the elder telling military stories. Back in his glory days. Camille took a seat next to Ghost, with Mathéo still sticking to her with his toy in his hand.

‘’Ghost? Little one here wants to play with you.’’ She told him, lifting the boy on her lap. ‘’He’s a little shy. Come on Matt, show him your truck.’’ The boy showed him the toy, telling him that it was his grandpa who gave him it for Christmas. The language barrier and the mask made it hard for Mathéo to see that Ghost was paying attention to him, so Scotty had to play a bit of a translator along the way. Ten minutes later, the boy was sitting on Ghost’s lap with more toys that he brought to him beforehand. Scotty was itching to snap pictures of this moment, but she knew this would mean her getting closer to death. She could already hear him making her promise to never tell any of this to the others. That would tarnish his ‘reputation’. Suzanne called Camille back to the kitchen leaving Ghost alone with the kid. The lieutenant kept playing with him, under the careful watch of the patriarch. Ghost did catch his glances. They radiated something different. He was used to his father’s cold stares and terrible behavior. But here, between Nathan and Henri, it was different. These two men looked like they cared about their children. Was that how it was to have a good father?

Camille finished cleaning her hands when Ghost showed up in the door frame of the kitchen, slightly crouching. Mathéo was all giggling on his shoulders avoiding the wall above him. ‘’Would you look at that!’’ Scotty smiled.

‘’Hey! I also want Ghost to carry me!’’ Nicolas whined before he went to Ghost and begged to be held. The Brit didn’t say anything, simply bent to allow him to climb on his arm. She watched the scene unfold with a smile. No one would believe it if she said how sweet Ghost was with kids. That didn’t stop her from finally giving in and taking a heartwarming picture. She promised him to never show it to anyone.

The rest of the day went rather well, playing board games together, chatting, playing with the kids and eventually setting up for the evening. Ghost had been able to relax more around them and enjoy the time, to his surprise. Till Henri said these words. "You know Ghost, you are a good man. I'm glad to have you here with us!"

This was followed by everyone around the table cheering for that. But Camille had learned to read Ghost's eyes. She had learned to figure out what he was hiding behind the mask. Thankfully this was just after the meal and she could find an excuse. She stood up and grabbed him by the shoulder. "I'm feeling so full, I need fresh air, you wanna come with me?"

While the other men cleaned the table, leaving their wives some time to rest easy, Scotty and Ghost went to the backyard. It was cold enough that their breath would fog each time. But the sky was clear, leaving a great view of the stars above them. The outside was calm compared to the living room filled with laughter. Ghost leaned on the balcony rail, taking a deep breath. "Simon, are you sure everything is alright?" She leaned next to him. "You look tense. Like something is on your mind. What is it?"

Where to start? How to explain? Could he even say everything? Should he? Or keeping some secrets? So many questions and no answers. He groaned, taking his head in his hands. "I don't want to ruin this trip…" He let out.

"How? So far everyone likes you. Nothing has gone wrong. We are just having good times all together."

Nothing has gone wrong… This is what he thought a few years ago before it all went wrong. He sighed and turned to her. Ghost had let himself be so vulnerable with her. He allowed himself to have feelings, to love. She even saw his face before Soap did and he had known Soap for longer than her! He lets her, and loves, when she calls him by his real name! This was more than anyone he let in his life do. But would he be able to be this open to her? No one knew about his past because this was pointless. Or so he thought. "I… used to have a family. A mother. A brother. He had a wife and a nice little boy." Ghost confessed. "I had to drag my brother out of trouble before he had settled down. He was always grateful I did so."

Scotty didn't say a word. She let him say what he had to. He quickly recapped the trouble he encountered with a drug dealer, which was much worse than she expected. Then weeks later on Christmas, he was unexpectedly visited by a teammate from the same mission. They went out for a drink and it was only later that he realized that it was too late. "When I figured out Sparks and Washington were not who they used to be, I ran back home. I had a bad feeling. When I got there, I had lost them all. It was a gruesome scene, I won't lie." He was fidgeting with his fingers.

"I'm sorry Simon…" Her arm wrapped around his, leaning her head on his shoulder. "That's why you didn't want to come? You knew it might bring memories you didn’t want to think of?" He nodded. "I'm sorry. I forced you…"

"You didn't force me. Remember I'm the one who bought the tickets here."

"Still! I'm sorry if seeing us being happy and festive brought back some bad memories." He rested his head on hers. It did but, it also brought some happy memories before that all happened. He wasn't completely against the whole trip. "You did not mention your dad? Did he also die that day?"

The question pierced him. Of course if he brought up his family, the heartless bastard would also be part of the conversation. "No. He died long before that… He was an asshole. Yours is much better."

Scotty didn't push the subject more on him. "Well you can have him as your father then." Ghost turned to her, frowning. "Just like you can have everyone else as your family. They consider you family now. Family isn't just blood, it is also the people around you, who care about you."

Ghost's shoulders began to shake as he tried to keep it together but he eventually let himself cry. Scotty's eyes widened, she never saw the lieutenant like this."Bloody hell, I must look stupid now." He tried to laugh between two sobs.

"Stupid? No. Human? Yes. Come on Ghost, you went through so much bullshit, you probably never gave yourself the time to grief, to experience a second chance. Now, you just get both at the same time. I bet it's more overwhelming than bringing down a terrorist." He nudged her. She chuckled and pressed a kiss on her his head.

"Don't tell anyone about what just happened."

"Like anyone would believe me if I said you cried. They will ask me if I didn't hurt my head somewhere." They laughed. Ghost dried his eyes, before turning to face her, lifted his mask above his lips and kissed her.

"You know, I think my mum would have liked you." He softly said.

"I bet she was a good person. What about going back in for dessert before they think we ranaway?" Ghost agreed. They returned with the rest of the family. Ghost had a small change, a little more relaxed attitude to what she could tell. The rest of the evening went well till midnight rang. Everyone cheered for the new year, wished each other best and health for it and hopefully they could have more moments like this. The twins tried to stay awake longer but ten minutes after cheers, they were knocked out. Camille proposed that Ghost and her brought them to be, giving the parents a little break. They didn't refuse the proposition.

When they went themselves to bed, a little after one, and after receiving a bunch of messages from the rest of the 141 for the New Year, Ghost remained awake a little longer, this time the silence wasn't torture to his mind. It was like he made peace with his demons… or some of them at least. He made peace with his past and was ready to look forward. Would that allow him to sleep more at night? No not really, that was another story. But being close to Scotty made him more safe than ever. He was grateful for this.

A few days later, Ghost and Scotty were back on the train to return home. Her family appreciated their visit and welcomed Ghost into their house anytime. Camille knew that once they are gone Gabrielle will be more than eager to tell all about that one time they crashed at her place and her first impression on the lieutenant. Ghost was mindlessly watching the landscape after waking up from a quick nap, when she tugged on his arm. "Mathéo made me promise to not let you see this before we get home."

"Well then don't show me." He smiled.

She kept unfolding a paper. "Well we just came out of the tunnel, we are in England. In a way home. So… just look at this." She handed him said paper. Ghost looked at it, his eyes still a little dizzy from the fast moving scenery. It looked like the boy tried to draw his family. Well as much as his art skill allowed them. Strange hands, very big or small proportions, attempt at coloring. But he could make out who was who. Everyone was holding hands, even including him. Mathéo struggled at drawing the skull but there was no doubt it was him. He felt another pinch to his heart.

"Are you not gonna start crying again, are you Lt?" Scotty teased him.

"You wish." He replied, holding any burst of emotion. Not this time. "I think we have to hang it on the fridge when we are home."

"That would be nice." Ghost held on to the drawing a little longer. He had found another family again.

#cod fanfic #call of duty fanfic #cod oc #simon ghost riley #oc:camille scotty moreau #ghost x scotty #series: wie goed doet goed ontmoet

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