#and our clever boy put two and two together | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

evenmoreofadisaster · 10 months

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Click here for the link to the chapter :)

Edit: I’d hold off on reading this chapter until the issue with ao3 is resolved (´∀｀)

Edit 2: I've posted a copy of the fic under the cut, for those who still want to read it :)

The Fast and the Furriest

Running errands with Splinter was definitely not what One had planned for the day. Yet, somehow, the rat had managed to abduct One to a dirty place called ‘Walmart’ across the city, which had to be the farthest possible route to a grocery store EVER. As if the surprise journey wasn’t horrifying enough, One was practically forced to witness Splinter squeeze into skin-tight jeans and an ugly tie-dye shirt too snug for the fat around his tummy. The only way One could avoid the displeasing sight was to turn around and put on a disguise of his own.

Unlike Splinter’s bold choice of wardrobe, the rat had brought a loose hoodie for One to wear, blue and way too bright to be an effective disguise.

The long and unpleasant trip took half of the day, at least. One was stealthy enough to smuggle every item on Splinter’s prolonged list without getting caught by security, but the rodent didn’t seem to care. If One didn’t know any better, he’d think the unwarranted detour was Splinter’s annoying way of genuinely trying to spend time with him. But the slider is far too clever to be fooled by the rat’s fake pleasantries.

By the time One returns to the lair, both of his arms are burdened from wrist to shoulder with the majority of his and Splinter’s “purchases”. The rat himself carries a single bag into the kitchen.

“Boys!” the rodent calls as he places the items carefully onto the counter. One follows Splinter into the room and drops the remaining plastic bags next to the essentials.

“What’s this?” Two’s voice pierces through the near-silent air. When he looks up, One catches his brother’s scrutinizing eye from the entryway, where the living room blends into the kitchen. One matches his twin’s glare with a steady look that reflects the slider’s incredible tolerance for his brother’s temper.

The stare-off is promptly disrupted when the orange one walks in between them on his way to the counter. “Oh, sweet!” The younger turtle exclaims as he begins taking the grocery items out of the ripped bags. “You got stuff for dinner.”

Splinter helps with putting the items in their proper place. “Yes, Blue is a natural at… acquiring our necessities.”

One breaks eye contact with Two and forces a prideful smirk towards the rat and his “son”, ignoring the small portion of his ego that triumphs over the compliment. “Yeah, did you know you can get onions for free if you just take them without paying?”

“Aw, that’s great,” Orange coos.

Two scoffs from the other end of the kitchen as he trots inside. “Spirits, I wonder why that could be,” he declares, then grabs One tightly by the arm, “— and sidebar,” the softshell mutters and pulls One aside.

“Hey— what?” One protests.

“What are you doing?” Two hisses. “We have a mission.”

“Hey, Raph. Catch!” Mikey shouts. One looks up, watching the orange-clad turtle toss a jar towards his older brother as Red joins him in the kitchen.

“Woah!�� The snapping turtle just barely catches the jar as it’s thrown. Just past him, the rat faces away from the boys to put some cereal away, one ear swiveled in One and Two’s direction.

One’s brows pull together tightly as he looks back at his brother, yanking his arm free to snatch Two roughly by the collar and drag him further out of earshot. If this conversation is going where One thinks it’s going, it would be much better to talk about it in the tunnels.

“Yeah, I know,” One retorts. “What do you think I’ve been doing?”

Two squirms. “Frankly? Slacking,” he bites back. One drops his brother when he feels they’re far enough to not be overheard.

Two whirls around. “Aren't you supposed to be a leader?”

“We’ve been over this,” One groans in mild annoyance. “I'm just buttering them up,” he explains. Honestly, it feels like he’s done so a hundred times. “Everything's under control.”

“It’s been weeks,” Two argues, “and we have made no discernible progress.”

“Trust me, it's all part of the plan.”

One notices the way Two’s jaw tightens in response to his excuse. One knows his brother well enough to know when he’s about to blow. “What plan?” Two snarls. “There is no plan, I don't see a plan!” Two throws his arm out, voice rising with his large gesture. “What is that over there I wonder?! NOT A PLAN!”

“Keep your voice down,” One hisses.

“I’m not going back empty handed.”

One pauses and regards his brother for a moment, noticing his clenched fists, bared teeth, and the sharp glint in his eye. The slider counters Two’s posture, leaning back and crossing his arms coolly.

“Why are you upset?” he asks flatly.

Two bites his cheek. “I’m not upset,” he counters. “You’re not taking this seriously.”

“Not taking this seriously?” One scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Okay, you’re not in charge. I am.”

“I am simply thinking about the mission,” Two argues. “To be successful, we need–”

One cuts him off. “That’s not your job. Your job is to follow orders,” he reminds his brother blatantly, flicking him in the forehead. Two flinches back with a hiss, but One doesn’t quit there. He steps forward and jabs a finger into Two’s plastron. “When you question me, you question Dad,” he continues without missing a beat, locking his brother in a firm gaze to make sure that he receives the final part of the message, loud and clear.

“Remember your place.”

Two’s shoulders stiffen, eyes flashing furiously but he doesn't argue.

One backs off with a stiff sigh. Really, what does Two have to worry about? All his brother needs to do is relax and let him do his thing! But One could see that Two is having a hard time accepting that. Again. His brother is smart, but sometimes he thinks too much.

The slider plants a hand on his hip and leans his weight on the same foot as he looks out of the tunnel, watching the Hamato family with disdain. If he could move this along faster, he would. But he needs to be careful. ‘Cause one wrong move could blow his cover and then what would he do? Start over? The likelihood of ever getting close to the Hamatos again is second to none. Especially since two of them are already suspicious of him.

He needs to change that.

One’s keen eye zeroes in on the rat, who is the more obvious threat to his plan. These past few days, the slider has noticed Splinter’s “subtle” ways of diverting One’s attention whenever he’s about to make a move. Which makes it almost impossible for him to do anything without getting caught— which is frustrating. And the lingering mass of questions surrounding the rat is just one more reason why he needs to be dealt with. And quickly. Before he ruins everything.

“We’ll get them,” One tells his brother, though his eyes don’t drift from Splinter. “Just play along until then.”

He can’t see Two’s face from where he’s standing, focused on the rat, but One can practically feel the tension emanating from his twin’s scales. He’s not as reassured as One would like him to be, but he knows that his brother won’t step too far out of line. And that’s good enough for now.

The rest of the evening was smooth-sailing. In other words, boring. One had taken his difficult brother back to the group, where they were preparing for dinner. As One observed them, he decided that the best time to take care of the rat is when everyone is asleep. But first, he’d need to know what he’s getting into— or rather who he’s trying to take down. Always know your enemy.

The slider winds skillfully through the dark tunnels as he hunts for the rat’s dwelling several hours later. He had made sure to note everyone’s whereabouts beforehand so he could snoop around. He discovered Raph and Mikey to be asleep in their rooms. Splinter was on the sofa.

It takes longer than expected, but One finally makes it to the two sliding doors. The shadows peek through a narrow slit between the doors, inviting the slider into the cryptic rat’s bedroom.

A sour expression twists One’s face when his enhanced lenses adjust to the darkness. The slider looks around the absolute mess of a room in exasperation.

How the hell am I supposed to find anything with all this junk?!

One’s claws twitch impatiently at his side as he debates moving forward. But with a lot of mental effort, he proceeds.

“Eugh,” One groans in disgust when stepping by a rotting pizza box.

As he explores the dump, One finds a modest cabinet flush against the wall to his left. There’s a sign, sloppily made, taped to one of the shelves, reading: DO NOT TOUCH. Which can only mean there’s something in there that Splinter doesn’t want anybody to see. In other words, I am going to touch everything on that shelf.

One leaps silently over to the cabinet and rustles through the shelves, looking for something— anything that will give him a sliver of information about who Splinter could be. But after digging through the collection of items… he finds nothing.

A terse growl erupts from the back of One’s throat. There’s nothing. Nothing. Just more junk.

One’s hands jump to the next shelf just when something clatters to the floor, snapping his attention to the ground. He tilts his head in interest as his lenses focus on the artifact. One bends down and picks up the round object, too big to be a coin. A medal, maybe? One’s thumb brushes the surface of the object before turning it over.

Engraved in the center of the stone is the Hidden City’s symbol. One raises an eyebrow. This is a gateway into the city. A key, they call it. The people who carry these are typically active or retired criminals. Usually thieves and smugglers, who like to pass freely in and between the Yokai and Human realms. People who have challenged the law before and aren’t afraid to risk crossing the line again. Or, even worse, the people who are paid to do it— like bounty hunters or agents of the council, who like to zap in wherever they like and snatch their victims. The slider’s brows pull together tight. If there’s one thing One detests, it's the thick-skulled thugs the government throws money at to get its self-righteous shady shit done.

So why would the rat have a key?

One’s fist tightens around the stone. This isn’t enough. This isn’t an answer, this is just another question. He’s just going around in circles that keep spiraling deeper and darker. Who is this rat? Who does he work for? What does he want? What does he want with them? One’s claws cut into his gloves and through his skin, drawing a thin layer of blood. I don’t need more questions, I need answers.

A dull scrape cuts One’s ears and he’s blinded by light suddenly pouring into his peripheral vision. One jumps and knocks his elbow into the shelf, then spins around quickly. The contacts quickly adjust to the brightened lighting but his nictitating membrane stays closed protectively over his eyes. The curtains open, revealing a stout shadow in the doorway.

“Blue.”

Splinter stands where the light bleeds into the dark of the room. One’s eyes narrow in the rat’s direction as he silently puts the key back on the shelf.

There’s a pause. “Come with me,” Splinter says. The muscles in One’s shoulders tighten. He releases his claws from their curled fists, eyeing the rat cautiously, searching for tells. But regardless of whether or not the rat has caught onto his snooping, One steps forward and lets the old man take him wherever he wants to go.

They both stay silent as they walk. One eyes the rat, mind lingering on the key. The very same kind he saw frequently as a child, when he and his family were on the run.

There are too many unknown variables. No innocent bystander would have a key like that. But at this rate, digging up the doubtless piles of dirt on the rat will take longer than One can afford. He needs to get rid of the rat before he stops his friendly charade and becomes a threat. Besides, they can’t have any loose ends scurrying around the sewers when One finally puts this game to an end.

One follows Splinter willingly into the garage, and checks over his shoulder to make sure that the door closes behind them. The slider keeps about three paces behind his target, watching his every move and waiting for the right moment to strike. The garage is isolated and sound proof. Two had transformed the neglected but generous space into the perfect place to work without grating One’s eardrums or burning his scales while he slept. It’s also the perfect place to exterminate a victim. He should thank his brother for his convenient engineering later.

One watches Splinter whip out Two’s keys to the tank. One remembers his brother telling him how he had just finished working on it, but needed a chance to test it out before they could use it. Personally, the whole tank idea seemed pretty useless, since One can just open up mystic portals to go wherever whenever he feels like it. Well, almost. Frustratingly enough, his weapon’s magic can only carry him so far before his heart either falters or gives out.

Before One can close in on his target, Splinter jumps up on the vehicle, using the side mirror as a foothold to reach the roof of the tank. The corner of One’s lip twitches upward in annoyance. He needs to be quicker.

One joins Splinter on the roof of the car just as the rat finishes opening the top hatch. Splinter drops inside by the time One has the opportunity to make another move. The slider huffs, but jumps in after him.

Okay, there’s literally nowhere to run, One thinks as he rises to his full height in the tank’s central control bay. The slider doesn’t waste another second after he stands before he leaps forward and swipes his sharp claws at the back of Splinter’s head.

But Splinter jumps into the driver's seat impossibly quick, dodging One’s attack effortlessly. The hard-hitting miss makes One stumble forward. “Shit,” he curses under his breath, but quickly regains his footing and swipes at Splinter again, who ducks just in time to put the keys in the ignition.

One misses— again— but he catches himself against the wall of the tank. His jaw is tight as he glares down at Splinter, who’s preoccupied with starting the vehicle. As the rat sits up, One leans off the wall and waits impatiently for Splinter to settle before going in for another attack.

As he moves, Splinter punches him in the stomach with his tail and sends One crashing into the passenger's seat. “Ugh!” One grunts, then stubbornly climbs out of the seat as Splinter slams his foot on the gas pedal and speeds out of the garage. One flies into the rounded and sealed back hatch.

Now in a heap on the floor, the slider gruffly and unhelpfully recalls the lecture he gave Two about how they absolutely don’t need a tank, but Two was still riding the high of his looting expedition and insisted it would come in handy. One’s current ordeal would be a great counterpoint to his brother’s outlandish claim.

As if this assassination couldn’t have gone worse, the rat decides to butcher One’s eardrums by blaring ‘80s music on max volume. While the rodent speeds the two of them onto the streets of New York City, One scrambles to the front of the tank, but slides and crashes into the wall when Splinter makes a sharp turn.

“What the hell?!” One cries over the ear-grating music.

“Buckle up!” Splinter shouts, though One has a hard time hearing his orders.

“What?!” he yells.

The tank comes to a quick stop at a red light and Splinter grabs him roughly by the belt and forces him into a seat, buckling him up tightly in one fluid motion. As the stoplight flashes green and the traffic clears, One watches in horror as the old rat flips neon orange, ‘80’s style shades over his beady eyes and floors it. One swallows a scream as the sudden acceleration crushes him into the seat.

“Woohoo! Isn’t this fun?!” Splinter exclaims, then sends the tank flying into a 360° spin on the surprisingly open road.

One grips the edge of his seat tight, claws tearing through the leather as if it were paper. When they continue on a straight path, the slider quickly unbuckles himself and slams his fist into the radio. The music cuts off sharply with a dying warble and soon the only thing filling the tense silence is One’s heavy breathing.

“What is wrong with you?” One snarls.

“Wh— rude. Didn't your alchemist teach you a good music taste?” Splinter retorts, making One pause and stare at the rat.

“What?”

One doesn’t recall ever mentioning Draxum in the rat’s presence. He’s made every conscious effort not to, in case Splinter turned out to be one of those bounty hunters or some shit, always after his dad’s ass. Which One thinks he could be, despite his unassuming… everything.

“Sit down!” Splinter orders before hitting the curb.

The tank bounces, knocking One back into his seat, though the slider doesn’t take his prying eyes off the rat. “How do you know about Draxum?”

Splinter’s ear twitches, muscles going stiff. “Uh—! Who doesn't know about Draxum, really.”

In any other circumstance, One might’ve brushed right past Splinter’s awkward defense. Because, really, it’s true. Draxum’s wanted posters used to be plastered all across the Hidden City. He and Two even gifted their father a framed copy for his birthday after they noticed their dwindling numbers. But literally everything else about that statement— the way Splinter said it, the way he avoids glancing in One’s general direction— makes One call bullshit. He’s hiding something.

One leans over the armchair, and narrows his eyes. “Who are you?”

Tell me, you old rat. I need to know. I need to know if you’re a threat to my mission. I need to know that my brother is safe.

From where he’s sitting, One thinks he can see sweat glistening under the rodent’s fur, but Splinter doesn’t give him a good chance to wonder if that’s because he’s nervous or because of his reckless driving.

“I am about to take a right,” is One’s only warning before Splinter suddenly swerves in that direction.

One is thrown to the left, but catches himself on the other armrest with a grunt.

Splinter erupts into a fit of laughter and One feels his jaw tighten. “Oh, Blue! You are a riot, aren’t you?”

The slider whips his head around and snaps fiercely, totally unamused. “Okay, what’s the point of this?! Just tell me what I want to know!”

Splinter doesn’t seem to have noticed his little outburst as his laughter still echoes obnoxiously off of the tank’s walls. “Oh, uh. Yes. What do you want to know?”

“Who are you?” One presses again. “What do you want with us?”

“Want with you?”

“You have two genetically mutated experiments living in that dump you call a home and you have a key to the hidden city. Why?” He demands.

“Oh, that old thing?” Splinter pauses as he breaks at another stoplight. “Uh… I think it’s broken. What do you want with that?”

One scoffs, but he forces his voice to relax into an even tone. “Broken?” he asks flatly. Yeah, right.

The light turns green and Splinter continues down the road in a more calm manner.

“Yes. I am not surprised,” Splinter smiles to himself. “I learnt very quickly that my boys are very rambunctious. I had my hands full with just the two of them.” He falters, “Although… sometimes I wonder if it may have been easier if I had all of you.”

One could never guess, for the life of him, why Splinter would think that. The very thought of growing up in the sewers with this weird family makes One sick to the stomach, so he doesn’t dwell on it too much. “Probably not.”

“You remind me of Orange,” Splinter says, catching One off-guard and making him cringe. The rat’s tired eyes soften on the road. “He would ask so many questions when he was much smaller. Still does.”

The accusation leaves a bitter taste in his mouth, but as much as One hates being compared to someone so small and inferior, he brushes off the jab for the sake of his mission. “Yeah? I guess it runs in the family.”

“Yes,” Splinter agrees after a moment. “I am glad you are back with our family.”

One falters. Our family. One’s stomach twists. Our family. Really, he should be thrilled that his plan is working so well, but the heavy sincerity in Splinter’s voice makes him worry that his plan is working a little too well.

One scoffs and eyes the rat awkwardly. “Really?”

“Yes,” Splinter says simply. “You asked me before who I am. I am a father and you are my son. Even if you do not trust me, what I truly want is for you and your brother to know that you have a home with us. You are safe here.”

And One is so glad that the rat’s old eyes are fixed on the road, because he is having a very difficult time processing Splinter’s response.

You have a home. You’re safe.

There’s a very clear and obvious difference in the rat’s voice. There’s no more deflecting, no awkward shuffling around the truth. He’s being genuine. The thought churns the slider’s stomach.

Still, One’s suspicions aren’t so easily discarded.

One watches Splinter for a long time before he asks, “Why am I here?”

“Oof…” Splinter winces and rubs the back of his neck. “That is… a loaded question.”

“I mean in the truck. Why did you bring me out here?” Why, if he poses no threat, did Splinter decide to drag him away from his temporary “home”, from his brother? If he’s supposed to feel safe, why isolate him?

Splinter raises an eyebrow. “Oh, can I not have a pleasant casual outing with my son?”

Oh. Well, that’s stupid.

“That’s it?” One says flatly. He thinks back to the grocery trip earlier that day. “You wanted to ‘spend time’ with me?”

Just behind the shades, the rat’s expression turns depressing after the question, which makes One very uncomfortable for some reason. “Is that so hard to believe?”

Before One can answer, the tank comes to an abrupt stop, sending both One and Splinter forwards.

“What? What happened?!” Splinter cries in distress, shifting the clutch around.

One groans and pushes himself upright. “I have a pretty good idea,” he mumbles. Right as he says it, a robotic voice filters in through the speakers.

“Shopping cart protocol activated,” the voice says.

“Ugh, I don’t suppose you know how to fix this thing?” Splinter asks.

As One leans back, he watches Splinter rifle through the glove compartment. “No,” he replies blatantly. “Not really my domain.”

Splinter pulls out a wrench. “Ah, then we will figure it out together.”

One doesn’t respond, but watches Splinter as he leaves the vehicle and walks around to the front, opening the hood to mess around with the engine underneath it.

The slider thinks about his next move carefully. After some very clever detective work, One’s concluded that whatever sob story motivated the rat to adopt a couple stray turtles really doesn’t pose any kind of threat to his plan. In fact, a devoted father could become useful.

It takes Splinter about ten seconds to realize One is still in the tank. “What are you still doing in there!?”

As lame as it may be, Splinter’s expecting him to help. Though he’d rather get his head shoved through a beehive, the slider decides to hop out and join the rat. For the sake of the mission.

When he makes it to the front of the vehicle, One finds Splinter sticking his nose right into the engine. The slider raises a brow and peers into the interior of the hood, where Splinter is working and bashing the wrench into the tank’s engine.

“I thought you were trying to fix this thing, not break it more,” One chimes in after a moment.

“Yes,” Splinter says, smacking the engine again and rearing his hand back for another strike. “That is what I am doing!”

One watches unhelpfully as Splinter continues to beat the tank’s engine into complacency. With unsurprisingly no luck, the tank remains immobile.

“Well, well, well!” a low voice rumbles behind them. One spins around, eyes shooting up to greet their ugly guest.

“Yeesh, that face isn’t hard to forget,” One mumbles as he immediately recognizes Experiment 00E1-Alpha 9, or as One remembers Raph referring to the sweaty pig as ‘Meat Sweats’, which he hates to admit is a much better name.

“Oh, good! Could we catch a ride with you?” Splinter asks the large mutant. “This baby's done all she can for us,” he says mournfully as he pats the closed hood.

Meat Sweats’s mouth twists into a smile. “But of course. I was just whipping up a meal, too. Perhaps you could join me.”

Splinter looks past him, at the food truck. “Oh, good! I was getting hungry,” he chuckles and willingly walks over to the food truck. One figures he’s probably unaware of the pig’s cannibalistic habits and the slider has no intention of warning him.

His straying blue eyes drift up to Meat Sweats, whose crooked smile gives One goosebumps. One considers bailing… but a distant… familiar… angry voice rings down the street. Everyone looks up.

“HEY!”

One whips his head around, instantly spotting Two perched on the roof of a nearby building. He leaps down with Raph and Mikey beside him and advances with a burning gaze directed right at One.

One winces. Screw that.

His brother’s wrath is a force to be reckoned with, and One has just spent much more energy than he was willing to expend handling the rat. Number Two is the very last thing he wants to deal with right now, and his brother’s furious march right towards him makes hopping into Meat Sweats’ murder van seem a lot more bearable.

Apparently, Splinter has the same idea. “Uh-oh. That is our cue to get out of here!” he says quickly before jumping into the food truck. One turns without a word and follows Splinter inside, where he is already leaping into the front seat.

“Blue, take the wheel!”

“Wait, what?!” Meat Sweats cries in protest after joining the pair inside.

At the same time, One’s head swivels around. “What?”

“Go!” Splinter shouts, crouching to the floor and hitting the gas pedal with his front paws. Meat Sweats is thrown backwards as the truck launches forward.

One grabs the back of the driver’s seat for balance, but as Splinter speeds up, the vehicle starts to swerve uncontrollably. One catches the wheel as he falls into the seat. The second he has a grip on the truck, and its direction in his firm control, his eyes light up like a kid with a new toy. He realizes now that he’s never driven a car before and it is thrilling.

And, he’s pretty good at it. His turns are rough, but considering the speed they’re going and the fact that they haven’t crashed yet, One is pretty confident that he’s uncovered a hidden talent.

That is, until something rams into the truck's rear.

One grunts as his upper body jerks forward. He steals a glance at the rearview mirror, and sees that his brother and his tank are right on his tail. Through the windshield, One catches Raphael yelling something to Two, who ignores him and slams another button on his console. A second after, three loud clangs reverberate in Meat Sweats’s truck, and One whips around to see three round dents hammered into the truck’s hull.

“Ohoho, so that’s how you wanna play it?” He taunts his brother in spirit right before he yanks the emergency brake and stops the truck completely. The two vehicles collide instantly, with the tank rear-ending the food truck. One faintly hears more shouting from the tank, which swerves but doesn’t stop. Though they’ve crashed, the tank’s strength and speed keeps both vehicles racing across Brooklyn Bridge.

“My truck!” Meat Sweats wails.

“What are you doing?!” Splinter shouts over the sound of screeching rubber as One jumps out of his seat.

The slider unsheathes his ōdachi weapon and draws a wide circle in the air, making a portal that he can step into and onto the roof of the truck so that Two can see him.

“Is that the best you can do?!” One goads his brother, flashing his sharp canines in a toothy grin, which earns a muffled shriek of outrage from his brother.

“You pretentious, self-obsessed, WRITHING LITTLE MAGGOT!” Two barks loudly enough for One to hear. His brother’s next course of action is to pull a lever, which releases metal appendages that reach up and shoot at One.

The slider veers out of the way and cuts effortlessly through the appendages. When the path is clear for him to cross, One leaps onto the hood of the tank and flourishes his ōdachi. He gives Two an obnoxious grin before stabbing his weapon through the metal, killing the engine. He tugs the sword free and swings it back in an arc to rest on his shoulder. As soon as he does, the portal he cut into the back of the truck blinks to life.

As the tank sputters and dies, One steps back coolly into the portal that takes him into the truck so he can rejoin Splinter at the front. The slider smirks as he leans against the emergency break to unlock it. “Floor it,” he commands.

Splinter cackles and pushes into the gas pedal. The food truck surges forwards as it regains its own speed.

“Wait— argh!” Meat Sweats cries as he flies back through One’s portal and out on the road. Oops.

One and Splinter only get a few leagues further down the bridge before something suddenly thuds against the truck and pulls, sending it into a spin back towards the tank.

“Hey!” Splinter shouts and One grunts, holding on tight.

When the truck finally stops, One has a clear view of the scene at the tank through the truck’s windshield.

Two stands on the smoking hood with a massive cannon aiming over his shoulder and into Meat Sweat’s face. The tank’s final appendage holds the larger mutant tightly in place as he cowers from the giant weapon.

“Bring them to me.”

Meat Sweats raises his hands and One barely has the time to make an escape before two tentacles shoot at the truck and punch through its sides. They snatch up One and Splinter and pull them out, dropping them unceremoniously just outside of the tank.

“Ow!” One hisses.

“Take the rotten lot,” the mutant sneers, although One catches beads of sweat rolling down his jaw. “I’ve had it with them.”

“Two!” Mikey cries behind the softshell. He flicks his kusari-fundo and One follows the trail of its cord behind him as the end unlatches from around the truck. He narrows his eyes.

As he faces forwards, One sees his brother hold his position a moment longer before his shoulder twitches and he powers down his weapon.

“Get out of my sight,” he hisses and Meat Sweats scrambles back. He glares at Two then the rest of the group.

“Blasted turtles.” The mutant chef snorts and turns, retreating to his vehicle. “I’ll just get takeaway!”

They all listen to the sound of his tires screeching off into the city. After a brief pause, Two turns around.

“I wasn’t going to kill him,” Two huffs.

“Oh, really?” Mikey replies, unconvinced.

“It was set to stun.” Two grumbles. “It would be idiotic to murder my own experiment.”

“What?” Raph says.

Two ignores the last statement and swivels his head around. His brother’s sharpened gaze falls on One and the fire in his eyes blazes. He snarls and steps down from the tank.

“YOU.”

One sighs and stands, but doesn’t have long before Two reaches him.

“You’re DEAD!” Two lunges at his brother. One grunts as his shell hits the asphalt roughly. He fights Two off with a hiss, swatting at him and kicking. Two fights back with just as much fire, managing to grab One’s right arm and press his knee into his plastron.

For the most part, One lets his brother push him down, generously allowing the softshell to beat him up a bit, since he’s down an arm. One waits patiently for the moment when Two’s grip lets up. As soon as that opportunity presents itself, One takes advantage and flips them around, swinging Two towards him and shifting out of the way just in time to shove him into the asphalt with a knee pressed into his back, careful to steer clear of the sharp spikes raised along the spine of Two’s shell. Two grunts.

One holds his brother down with one arm as he squirms. “Okay, you need to relax!”

Two yelps and flails his arm. “You took my tech!” He barks. “It’s still in beta and you ruined it! How could you do that!?”

“It’s fine! It’ll survive a scratch or two.”

“It’ll take weeks to find a replacement!”

“You’ll find it.”

Two throws his elbow back and One has to dodge the sharp point of its armor. “What if you got your stupid arm blown off, idiot!” Two seethes.

One pushes back and Two gets a gentle face full of dirt. “Oho, you’re lecturing me about losing a limb?”

Two growls. “Don’t start–”

“Which one of us is the one who nearly died in that accident? Oh right, it was you.” One pokes at the folded fabric covering Two’s stub. “So don’t you dare scold me about my lack of self-preservation.”

Two shoves against One with a warning hiss. One hisses back.

While the boys are busy with their squabble, Splinter walks by and takes a good look at the tank, which has stopped smoking. “Excellent job, Purple. This is a sweet ride.”

Both boys freeze. For a second One and Two stare incredulously at Splinter. When he looks at his brother, One sees Two’s eyes blown open wide, completely speechless. It’s an expression One hasn’t seen since Draxum last applauded Two’s skillset forever ago. One’s eyes jump back to Splinter, who is gazing approvingly at the tank.

What? That thing?

One scoffs, muttering, “It’s not that great…” as he pushes off his brother, who’s still too stunned to comment.

“What was that? Is everyone okay?” Raph asks, joining them on the bridge.

Splinter faces his son. “Yes, we are okay,” he assures.

Red glances uneasily at One before he looks at Splinter. “Okay… good.”

Mikey jumps up next to him, crouched low enough to rub his cheek on Splinter’s. “I’m glad you're okay, Dad,” he churs. Splinter smiles softly and pats his head. “Now, let’s go home!”

As everyone piles into the tank, One falls behind to watch what Splinter considers to be their family. He watches stiffly as Two opens the hood and excitedly shows Splinter what appears to be a backup engine. Something cold and greedy writhes restlessly under his scales.

His thoughts are interrupted before he can dwell on them too much.

“One!” Raph calls. One shifts his gaze to the snapping turtle as he finishes ushering Mikey into the tank. “You comin’ brother?”

One adjusts his sword and climbs into the tank.

#emd au #emd up

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benk625-blog · 2 years

Text

Roughing it

"I bet terrans ain't so tuff without alla that fancy tech they got!" Yazz grumbled before tilting the filthy stein of beer down his gullet.

"Shows what you know" Snork snorted derisively.

"Bah" Yazz waved "Under that power armor they're helpless." Shouts from the crowd and various handfuls of bar snacks are hurled at him. "Alright, some of them are scrappy. I'll give you that, but they all complain about the slightest inconvenience, right?" Various grunt and nods prompt him to continue. "Can you imagine what those crumbly little pastries would do without matter converters, scanners or teleporters? Curl up a die, that what!" Hearty laughs and cheers greet this point.

"You forget they are deathwolders." Snork sneered.

"We're all deathworlders in this pit ain't we boys?" More cheers. "Where's their hide? Their tusks? Their venom glands? In place of natural advantages they gots all in those clever machines of theirs. And, fair is fair, they have kicked all our collective asses out of civilized space. But if we were dropped in a no tech world with any of us they'd be the first to go."

"Codswallop." Snork snarled. "I’ve seen otherwise first hand. And, fair is fair, I thought much the same way you did in that situation. You sees, I was part of a mixed race mercenary company. Our tranpo got shot down and we made an unscheduled landing in the middle of a forest. Crashed, you might say.

“Half the boys were minced meat in the tin when all was said and done. Ol’ sarge survived out of a sheer need to keep reminding us what a bunch of sorry sacks of slime we all were. He starts barking about disaster kits and all the Terrys start grabbing backpacks and duffle bags.

“‘Snork!’ Snapped the sarge. ‘Where’s your gear?’ ‘Ain’t got none’ I sez ‘Fine. You get the dead men’s weight.’ So I ask my squad mate what the hell dead men’s weight is. The boys look at me and start going through this pile of belongings whose owners were now part of the great scrum in the stars. They tied together a couple of bags and slung them on my shoulders.

“I can’t make snouts or stingers of the stuff we’re all carrying. No high tech to speak of. The most advanced thing in the lot was a bunch of short wave radio transmitters they called tally-wallys or somefink like that. One thing in abundance was multipurpose hunks of metal.

“Fellas, if you fink their high tech is tops, you should see what their low tech does. The same piece of metal has a cutting edge, sawing edge, prying tip, knuckle duster grip, screw head studs and wrenching slots.

“In a matter of hours they stripped the wreckage. They cobbled together an emergency beacon from bits of broken machinery and bits from the items in their packs. Hull plates became improvised shelters called skinny 2s. The next priority was of course, fire. Terry’s love fire. I can kind of see why now.

“Over the fire they criss-crossed metal struts from the ship. A big pot of water was placed on the grull and the humans started pulling out various paper pouches. After a bit of argument they decided which bags would be opened and put the others away. The contents of the selected bags were dumped into the simmering water and the bags were tossed to the flames.

“In less than an hour I was eating my first stew. Some of the humans had separated themselves from the rest and had tied strips of cloth over their eyes. Squadmates told me this was done to prepare for night watch duty. Others spent their time gathering all the packs into a net and hoisted the whole lot so that it hung suspended over a tree branch to protect it from local fauna.

“After falling asleep to ‘campfire songs’ I was woken up to a chilly pre-dawn glow. Night watch had scared away a pack of nasty-wasties. Two of them pursued the hunters deep into the unfamiliar forest. This led them to a stream of running water 3 kilos away. I had been assigned to join the foraging group.

“We made our way slowly to the water. Each forager carried several metal pots in both mitts. A few of the Terrys had compact books called field guides. Inside were extensive survey notes on edible flora on the moon’s surface. We gathered nuts, fruits and roots on our way to the water. First meal was by the water’s bank and consisted of a variety of food bars stored in the endless array of pockets human clothing has.

“We filled the empty pots with water. I was about to take a deep slurp kneeling in the mud. Sheila boxed my ear and advised me not to drink from the flowing water until it was properly treated. I followed this advice as only a fool would ignore a human’s warning. Using their hand tools, some small trees were fashioned into limbless trunks that were slung across shoulders. Big lunks like me got several water pots hanging from our sticks. The small fry mostly carried the food pots, but they did their best to be fair about who got whats.

“The return trip took almost as long as the first leg as we were being careful not to spill the water. When we got back to camp, the Terry’s were obsessed with treating the water. I’d say a quarter of their gear was focused on cleaning water. Some had rolls of finely meshed fabric to filter out large particles, this was then filtered a second time through fabric the humans swore could capture microscopic impurities. Then it was boiled and had sanitizing tables dropped into it as it cooled. Some humans even had flavoring packets for the water as they did not like the taste of the sanitizer.

“And so the days passed, foraging for food, gathering water, doing watch shifts and trying to amuse each other with story and song. After a particularly unpleasant day the Terrys played a strange game. They started telling stories about trips even worse than their current predicament. Each tale topped the previous in misfortune.

“Loads of these stories referred to times in their childhood. Raising their runts from seed to soldier involves regular periods of survival in deathworld biomes. They call it camping. Eventually the story contest became more and more unbelievable and the Terrys started calling bullshit on obvious lies.

“Shelia, one of the smaller female Terrys, spoke up and a hush fell over the campfire. Her expertise on roughing it was deferred to even by the Sarge. She starts pointing to a line of numbers on her arm: 20, 40, 60, 80, 120, 180 and 365! The numbers indicated commercial survival contests called “Naked and Afraid”. These humans survive deathworld locations with one piece of equipment and no garments to protect them from the elements.

“Yazz, me mate. Lots of humans would be easy pickens without their tech. But you don’t want to meet Sheila like that. Like as not, your hide would become her tent and she’d carve your tusks into tools.

#humans are space orcs #humans are aliens #humans are space oddities #humans are confusing #humans are deathworlders #humans are silly

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luka-couffaine-ship-tournament · 5 months

Text

Round 1 Side A - Pair 1

CAMPAIGN

Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng

-They‘re just so good for each other. Luka is such a calming presence in Marinette‘s chaotic life and helps her relax when she feels anxious and unsure of herself, always willing to be there for her and offer a helping hand during tough times. Marinette has a deep appreciation not only for Luka‘s ability to play music but also hear heart songs, as if she understood immediately what he meant after listening to him play for the first time. They feed off each other‘s creative energy and are just generally so wholesome together. I could talk about them forever, they make me so happy!!

-Luka is the best boy, and deserves love from the girl he adores

-I just woke up and am too lazy to think of words for my favorite couple so here's some gifs as propaganda

Gif de gifs-misc

Gif de bizarrelovesquare

Gif de notasiren21

Gif de ouiladybug

Gif de kochengnoir

Gif de jeldraximo14

Gif de notasiren21

Luka Couffaine/Sabrina Raincomprix

-Listen, Sabrina needs someone who treats her well, she needs someone who considers her an equal and someone to show her what real love is like. And I truly and honestly think that she would try her best to understand and appreciate Luka but who he really is (if she can see the good in Chloe she is capable of seeing a God when she meets one)

-Vote lukabrina people. We cant lose this!

-This is just unfair we need to help our girl out!

I'll start!

Item Number One: Viperhound Is S Tier

This is the fucking duo right here, this is endlessly clever and positive tag team action, this is a pair who will NOT fail the mission alright?

They are designed so interestingly parallel and then put right next to each other in this sweeping shot of the new miraculous squad???

Like, am I supposed to not assume something about it??

Item Number Two: opposites contrast

Orange and Blue, extremely Sun and Moon energy, but I don't think that would make this ship sail smoothly. See, Luka likes being a moon. He is happy to support and enjoys being someone's shining beacon in the endless dark of night, and no one needs that kind of anchor to hold onto more than Sabrina right now. Sabrina cut ties with her best and only friend and while we see her hanging out with other classmates just fine, we don't really know how she is with being actual friends with people. I don't think anyone has tries to reach out to her since evillustrator and we saw in that episode how she approaches new potential connections. Overwhelmingly cheerful and warm and oppressively clingy, like a ray of sunlight that won't leave your eyesight on the hottest day of the year. She means well but, boy, she can be a lot. And more importantly, she needs to be the one helping because, what kind of friend is she if she isn't? Who is she if she's not doing everything for everybody else? It would, amusingly and annoyingly and endearingly, put her into conflict with Luka, who is similarly always pushing his own problems aside to help people with theirs. This would lead them into a loving rivalry of "take care of yourself" "no u" that goes both ways, a back and forth that ends with them reluctantly letting the other help them. And after so many years as someone's shadow, Sabrina deserves to have someone in her orbit, someone she shines a light on when he needs to be seen.

Item Number Three: YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE

Look I'm SORRY okay, but I have to say this even tho I also think their ship got done dirty by the show, I still think they wouldn't have lasted. I think Marinette and Luka being "too easy" is exactly their problem, as even if they didn't have everything else to worry about Marinette needs complexity or she starts to lose her mind overthinking things and goes looking for it. The simple nature of her relationship with Luka is what 13 year old Marinette needed, the Marinette who wasn't Ladybug yet, who hadn't stood up to Chloe and maybe even just had her heart broken in a mean prank. It makes sense she'd fall in love with and gravitate towards this living embodiment of all the comfort and security she wished she had, she had desperately needed at that time. But that's just it, she needed it then. And now she can rely on herself a lot better, she has a whole support system to fall back on, and what she needs from a romantic partner is something else. But Sabrina? She's done horrible things in the name of her friendship with Chloe and even enjoyed some of them, but had finally hit her limit of how much abuse she can both dish out and take herself. Sabrina can definitely recognize that Luka is a good person, but more importantly Luka would have to actually try to sympathize with a person, rather than just immedietely like them. Lest we forget, Sabrina is the one who locked Juleka in the bathroom on picture day. Chloe told her to but Sabrina physically did it. Being confronted with someone who hurt his sister but is, herself, hurting, and is determined to help everyone but herself will be a lot of conflicting emotions for Luka, and Sabrina would need to get used to being the center of someone else's attention in a way not entirely dissimilar to how Chloe was for her, although significantly less codependent.

What makes Lukabrina interesting isn't that they're perfect for each other or that it's immedietly easy.

It's awkward and messy and they clash, they push each other out of their comfort zones and find a new one to settle in together.

It isn't instant or love at first sight, but by resolving their issues with each other through communication, honesty and trust, they are able to become a happy and wholesome couple.

Don't fucking tell me the odds lol, I know they're probably not winning but they deserve a fighting chance. So please feel free to add your own Lukabrina Viperhound propaganda!

TAG:

Luka/Marinette - @mikoriin

Luka - Twitter @Karma_sensei_

@lukacouffaineappreciation

#luka couffaine #miraculous ladybug #viperion #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #ship tournament #tournament poll #tumblr polls #tumblr tournament #fandom polls #polls #luka x marinette #lukanette #luka x sabrina #sabrina raincomprix #marinette dupain cheng #mlb marinette #mlb sabrina

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insomniac4000 · 1 month

Text

Hold me closer- W2S.

Prologue

The blonde male sighed as he looked at the girl in front of him. His suitcase sat by his bedroom door, a painful reminder of what was about to happen.

"You can still come with me you know," Harry said to Rebecca who smiled but there was a lot of pain behind her eyes. She shook her head knowing that they were doing the right thing, this was such a head over heart matter but they were doing the right thing, she just kept repeating that over in her head, they were doing the right thing.

Harry was moving to London, his Youtube career was taking off but one of the things that was holding him back a little was the lack of collaborations and lack of opportunities for doing more videos outside. Simply he had outgrown his small home island of Guernsey and it was time for him to grow up and do other things. Rebecca had her own plans, she had scored herself a spot at Manchester university studying Environmental Sciences. Harry was so incredibly proud of her when she told him she got in. When they met in school Harry assumed she was way too clever for him but when they were assigned seats next to each other in science they quickly sparked up a friendship which blossomed into a relationship two years later when they were freshly eighteen and out of school. They went into their relationship knowing that Rebecca was always going to go away at one point and originally they talked about ways to make it work but now with Harry also following his dreams it seemed more and more barriers were put in the way.

"You know I have to go and do my thing, and you have to go and do yours. I love you, I really do but, we're just at two different points in our lives now," Rebecca sounded like a broken record, the couple had this conversation but she kept hammering the point home.

"I'll wait for you," Harry offered, his blue eyes looking low and sad. He was known for his very enthusiastic and animated style of delivery on his videos but in real life he could be quite reserved and shy, especially when it came to the opposite sex.

"For three years?" Rebecca asked, Harry shook his head in understanding, he knew it was a silly thing to say but he was going to miss this girl so much. She was going to miss him too, he was her first love and people say you would never forget them but Harry had such a profound impact on her life she didn't know how she was ever going to forget about him, she didn't WANT to forget about him but she knew she had to.

"This is a lot harder then I thought it would be," Harry admitted. Rebecca snaked her arms around her soon to be ex's waist and he held her tightly.

"It's our last night together, let's try and have a good time, do all of our crying tomorrow."

Harry did indeed leave Guernsey the next day. A young man of nineteen, out on his own in a big city for the first time who has a lot of subscribers and a lot of money spelt out a recipe for disaster and for Harry that was true. He took solace in drugs and started hanging around with some unsavoury Youtubers. Rebecca was called a few times from some genuine Youtuber friends, she did think about visiting of course she was worried about him but she also had deadlines she needed to meet and a part time job in order to pay extortionate rent for a tiny space. It took a week but eventually she relented as she had a free weekend and decided to make a trip to London, Harry being unaware. If he had known he would have made sure everything happened differently.

"Hi, can I help you?" A small girl with brown hair smiled as she answered the door to Harry's apartment. Rebecca swallowed before scrambling to put a sentence together, one of the things her and Harry had in common was they both could stutter sometimes.

"Oh erm, sorry I was just looking for Harry?" Rebecca said as she fiddled with the sleeves of her green parka. The boy in question was lying on the sofa nursing a hangover but even in that state he could recognise that voice anywhere. He jumped up from the sofa ignoring his headache and he couldn't help but smile to see the girl in front of him. She had dyed her hair a light blonde, he wasn't sure he loved it as much as her natural colour but her smile was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

"Rebecca. What are you doing here?" He asked, taking in the sight of the girl in front of him and wanting to do nothing else but touch her to see if she was real.

"Erm, someone messaged me asking to check if you were okay, but you seem to be," Rebecca replied. Although she knew they had agreed to see other people and she had rebuffed his idea to wait it still hurt to see a little.

"I'm ok. How are you? While you're here did you want to catch up?" Harry asked, glancing very quickly at Katie who knew exactly who the girl at the door was, Harry had told her all about Rebecca.

"No, I mean if you want to I don't want to intrude just. You look tired. Look I'm in town the weekend, you have my number if you wanted to meet up," Rebecca offered. Harry nodded and Rebecca made her excuses and said goodbye, but the message never came.

Future chapters will be posted on my wattpad

#w2s #harry lewis #wroetoshaw #harry lewis x reader #w2s x reader #sidemen #fanfic

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v--143 · 9 months

Text

-Dms Request: …can you pls write a fic felix as a lee and lee know and hyunjin as the lers 😭😭😭😭😭💔💔💔💔💔 i need that so bad-

Absolutely yes yes yes Lee! Felix has my heart always YES 🫶🏻 not to mention he’s danceracha’s maknae 🥹

Warnings: Slight Barbie movie spoilers..? Kinda😅

< Awkward >

[Lee! Felix]

[Ler! Minho + Hyunjin]

———————————————————————————

Danceracha often planned hangouts together, despite most of them never leaving the groupchat. They typically loved to just hangout together in any ways they could, spending time outside of the practice room and whatnot. Today they decided on watching a movie at one of their houses together.

It was dark already when they had started, and they all decided on Barbie. It was a hit movie and doing amazingly well everywhere, so they figured it must’ve been good.

They were all in the basement sitting on a couch watching Barbie. Felix was in the middle with Lino and Hyunjin sitting to his left and right.

“Ken is an idiot” Felix said as he put some popcorn in his mouth, “I mean, did he really think he could just steal the dreamhouse and get away with it?!”

“Somebody’s passionate” Minho teased.

“I just think it’s dumb!” Felix argued.

“Well… it is Ken.” Hyunjin said.

They all kept watching the movie and all was just fine.. until a scene towards the end. Will Ferrell had arrived to ‘Barbieland’ and was talking about how much easier it would be to not have to do work. Specifically… how much easier it would be to just “tickle each other” instead of worry about stuff.

When they proceeded to actually begin doing it to one another, Felix’s ears turned red.

He didn’t know what it was… but that concept specifically had him so flustered and shy. He typically talked during scenes like this, but now he was dead silent. He began looking towards the floor as the scene went on and the other 2 were laughing at it.

“Ouuuu looks like Lix didn’t like it” Hyunjin said.

“What?” Felix said.

“You usually have something to say during these kinds of scenes. And, actually, wait- are your ears red?!” Minho noticed.

“What?!” Felix said again as he began to scoot away from him when Hyunjin suddenly grabbed his ear.

“Oh yup they’re red” Hyunjin said as he teasingly blew in Felix’s ear.

“ARGH- Stop that”

“OooOooOooo did that scene get our Lix flustered” Lino cooed, “did it not.. tickle your fancy?”

Hearing that word again was getting to Felix’s head, but there was no way to get them to stop. If they knew how much it embarrassed him, they’d just say it more, so he had to suck it up best he could.

“No it was fine it just got a little boring” Felix said cooly.

“I dunno, I thought it was kind of a true concept, right Hyunjin?”

“Oh yeah, seems like a much easier life that way”

“What are you two eheven talking about” Felix giggled nervously.

“Don’t you agree? Just being tickled instead of having to worry about things? Just doing that all day long? Like a job? Like we all just ti-“

“Okay!! I get it! It’s clever, yes” Felix spat out.

Minho and Hyunjin looked at each other with glints in their eyes.

“So you agree?” Hyunjin asked.

“No! I don’t know! I don’t know, it’s weird” Felix said while trying to desperately imagine himself anywhere else but there. His face only kept getting red.

“Awww don’t be so EMBARASSED” Lino yelled out the last word as he dug his hand into Felix’s stomach and scribbled like crazy. The younger began swatting at him with both hands while squirming away.

Minho suddenly grabbed both of Lix’s wrists and dragged him towards him on the couch. He slammed Lix down on his stomach and lifted both of his own legs, then shoved Lix’s arms fully under them. He then put his legs back down atop Lix’s arms and now had a red-eared boy under him looking up with wide eyes.

“Do NOT. NOHO. Let me go.” Felix demanded as he tried his best not to giggle.

“His ears!! Oh my goodnesssss and his neck wow that scene must’ve really gotten to you” Hyunjin teased.

“Why’d it fluster you so much Felix? Hm?? Tell me and I’ll let you go” Minho said.

“It didn’t! Get ohoff of my arms!!”

“Wrong” Lino said as he poked under both of Lix’s arms. It was easy since he held his arms fully stretched out under his legs, so he had full access.

“ARgh- stohop!” Felix said when he continuously poked there.

“Why’d you get embarrassed then?”

“I don’t KNOW” Felix squealed, “because it was awkward?!”

“Wrong again” Minho began to use all five fingers to scribble beneath his arms slowly.

“Ahhaha mihi- MIHINHOO HYUHANG” Felix screamed as Lino began to pick up the pace.

“Tell me the right answer!”

“I dohon’t knOHOW IT!!!” Felix screamed.

“Yeah, I figured. There isn’t one. You’re just easy to fluster because you enjoy physical touch, aka- tickling.”

Felix’s entire body flushed crimson as he screamed louder to drown out that dreaded word.

Minho was laughing hard and doubling over at Felix’s reactions. With his face practically dug into the couch, his screams were lost down the separated cushions, making it seem 10x funnier than it was. It was like he was screaming down an abyss.

“HAHA look at him” Hyunjin said while pointing at his red neck. He decided to sit down on the back of Lix’s calves as Lino did with his arms and intertwined through scribbling at the back of his knees and feet.

“AAAHAHAHA WAHAIT! WAHAAAAA” Felix squealed and laughed out loud. He had the biggest brightest smile on his face as he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to repress the feelings over his body. Although.. it was more enjoyable than he expected…

“Awwww is our Lix even more embarrassed now~” Minho cooed in his ear.

“YOHOU’RE SO AhahanOYING!! AAAAAAAAAHAHA STOP Whahat is UP with yohou both todahahe!!”

Lino began to dig two fingers between each of Felix’s ribs and underarms while Hyunjin did the same but with his knees and feet. The poor boy was being driven insane already.

“AHAHA- AAAHHAHA- STOAHAHAP” Felix screamed out taking short breaths between each laugh, when he sucked air in he made the cutest crinkly noise with his throat similar to IN’s laugh.

“Yaaaah I didn’t know knees could be this ticklish” Hyunjin said as he scribbled the back of them again.

“STOP. STOHOAP STAAHAHAHA-“ Felix yelled, moreso because of the word he used.

“Aaaand DADADADADADA” Lino teased making cute noises as he spidered his hands all over Felix’s back and sides, arguably one of his most sensitive spots.

Felix was going ballistic at this point, unable to move or defend himself in any way. He could not believe that they found out how he was feeling because of his reaction to a single scene. It just embarrassed him! It’s not like he wanted it or something… right?

After a few minutes Felix was able to get one of his hands out from under Lino’s legs and he quickly squeezed at his knee. Not expecting that, Lino lifted his leg, allowing his other arm to be freed.

But what Felix forgot was that Hyunjin was still sitting on his calves.

Hyune quickly got off his calves and grabbed both Lix’s sides, quickly dragging him into his lap and locking his arms behind his back while he secured one of his arms around his waist holding him down securely.

“That was stupid” Hyunjin laughed. Lix was already giggling and yelling in anticipation, his tear stained face and panting body couldn’t take much more.

“STOHOP! DON’T COOOME” Lix whined.

Lino was still on the opposite side of the couch. He slowly made his way over to Felix while saying sweet teasy nothings to him, only causing him to roll his eyes and get a darker shade of crimson. His heart beat faster with every crawl closer Lino took.

He was evil, darting his hands at Lix’s stomach quickly, eliciting screams from the younger. He would cover his eyes with one of his hands and not do anything for a few seconds, then dive into his ribs the next. This went on for a few minutes until Felix’s neck (that Hyunjin kept teasing and blowing on) was wet with tears.

“I CAHAHA I CAHAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!! PLEASE!”

Lino, also laughing along with Hyunjin at Felix, rested his hands on Lix’s hips. He was panting hard with a big toothy smile on his face, his eyes glistening wet and shiny with both joy and exhaustion.

When Hyune let go of Felix’s locked arms and took his hand away from around his waist, Lix fell limply forward into Lino’s lap.

Lino looked at the younger fondly as his head rested on his thighs. He pet at his hair as Lix continued giggling at the ghost touches left behind on his body.

“…So was that more flustering to you than the movie scene orrrr”

“SHUT. Up.” Felix said out of breath.

Minho and Hyunjin laughed as they began scrolling on their phones. The end credits to Barbie were still rolling and a very happy Felix was still laying on Minho’s lap. He continued to giggle every now and then, partly because of the ghost tickles, but also because of how unexplainably enjoyable those minutes were. He was so thankful for his friends.

And for the fact that he knew they’d do it again in a heartbeat.

———————————————————————————

I. Love. Felix. So much 🥹🥹🩷🩷🥹🩷🥹🩷

#tword community #tword post #tword blog #sfw twords #tword skz #skz tickle #stray kids #kpop tickle #skz tickle fic #stray kids tickle #straykids tickle #tickle community #kpop tickle fic #tickle fic #tickle fluff #Lee Felix #Ler hyunjin #Ler minho #ler lee know

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absolutebl · 1 year

Text

This Week in BL - I’m Bored & Conflicted

Dec 2022 Wk 2

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying the most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

My School President (Fri YT) 3 of 10 - Honestly Tinn acts and talks like the voice inside of Sarawat’s head (from 2gether), I’ve never seen a bigger simp. The private tutoring was a good idea (Tiew is another one up for best wingman of the year). The way Tinn keeps getting accidentally defeated in his attempts at flirting is fun, and I love how they keep teasing us with tropes and then flipping or subverting them. GMMTV is being clever with audience expectations around the history of Thai BL and I love that. Also finally Gun is starting to feel something back... we enter phase two of a HSBL - moot pining but they both idiots. YES!

Never Let Me Go (Tues YT) 1 of 12 - GMMTV’s answer to KinnPorsche this is (mafia lite?) spoiled prince + attack dog (whipping boy + bodyguard) suspense BL that’s actually a lot more like Golden Blood. It’s a pleasure to see PondPhuwin in something that’s not FUTS. Jojo (3 Will Be Free) is directing and daddy got himself a bouncing baby drone! We got a very dramatic opening with Paa shot on 18th bday. Puwin’s English is v good. Who knew? And Pond is v good at portraying insta-crush on poor little rich boy and I am not mad about any of it. IT’S GREAT.

Between Us (Sun iQIYI) 6 of 12 - I still like WinTeam but I’m beginning to get annoyed by how many couples there are (5!) and how many of them were (DeanPharm) or are (BeePrince) in an entirely different show tonally. I understand they needed to pad-out this story, but they shouldn’t have, they should have just given us a shorter show. WATCH ALONG HERE.

609 Bedtime Story (Fri WeTV) 4 of 11 - We are finally getting Dew’s side of the story! And… its kinda dull.

Remember Me (Sun Gaga) 10 of 12 - So Name is talking now? And they put Ja in a wig too? Did UWMA teach us nothing? Now I’m just annoyed with this show. Some more marriage equality schilling, because Thai BL has an axe to grind these days. Good luck boys!

I Will Knock You (Fri Gaga) 5 of 12 - Honestly, the costumes in this show are insane and I also kind of like them in an odd way. There’s a Grease thing going on, and thus I keep expecting them to break into song (and being grateful that they don’t). The wardrobe is like the plot and the acting: loud and obvious and not very good but weirdly entertaining. Do I like it? Not really. Am I still watching it? Apparently.

Ai Long Nhai (Mon iQIYI) 12fin - Yes, Ai did use particles to claim Nhai again. Jealous boy. Honestly, this was kind of an epically boring final ep.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

My Tooth Your Love (Taiwan Fri Viki) 11 of 12 - They are so stinking cute together. They also now have all the matching jewelry (not taken by MarkKit). This was a quintessentially them episode 11 of doom, in that they were parted because of communication issues and a maturing relationship occupied by immature characters. Still the leads were apart for most of the episode and that made it a lot less interesting as an episode.

Oh! My Assistant (Korea Thurs Viki) 5-6 of 8 - Kisses and separation! As drama llama episodes go, the reasoning is typically flawed and manufactured, but after watching Why R U? anything goes in an ep 11 (or its equivalent). So I’m still enjoying this show a lot. I don’t need my panicking gay boys and confused bisexuals to behave logically, certainly not in a KBL.

Candy Color Paradox AKA Ameiro Paradox (Japan Fri Gaga) 1 of 8 - A stakeout throws reporter Onoe together with photographer Kaburagi. Kaburagi's haphazard work style and player personality go against Onoe’s ethics. Yet, in joint pursuit of a scandal, these opposites attract move from enemies to lovers. Adapted from manga Ameiro Paradox by Natsume Isaku. Oh no! Our reporter is an unbelievably adorable pouty baby. Also big-ish cast and high production values in a BL, even for Japan. Even though it’s only been a little while since the last JBL, it’s such a pleasure to have one on my watchlist again! And the love interest is a big time flirty player. Very cliché (I still hold that the actor playing him looks like First of JaFirst). This is a lot more serious and a lot less slapstick than I was expecting, and I’m enjoying it because of that. But because it is serious, and this is Japan, we now cannot expect it to end happily. If you or someone who can wait, or likes to binge, and is very invested in an HEA you might want to consider holding off on this one.

The Director Who Buys Me Dinner (Korea Thurs iQIYI) 1-2 of 10 - A new employee whose director claims to have lived 300 years and insists that they have to date (eat, hug & kiss) if baby doesn't want to die. Office, fated mates, and that’s kinda my jam. I’m always annoyed when I really like a show that’s on iQIYI or WeTV. Sigh. But I really like this show, it has a lot of Japanese elements to it not the least of which is the office setting, but also the personality of the uke character. Hilarious to watch Korea deal with a plot that requires physical contact. It’s weird, but I like it, it’s also extremely short. Like shorter than most KBLs even. Each app is so padded there ultimately less than 10 minutes long (which is why is is 10 esp rather than the usually KBL 8, it’s gonna end up the same length in the end).

Choco Milk Shake (Korea Strongberry Tues YT) 11fin - airs Dec 20th

Happy Ending Romance (Korea Thurs Gaga & Viki) 7-8fin - I actually LOVED the ending, very hinting at poly, and mature. But this show ended up not really being a BL, no tropes and not really a romance either.

It’s Airing But I’m Not Watching It

War of Y (Thai Gaga) 20 eps - it’s just all too much for me.

2 Moons 3 (Thai) 10 eps - Possibly a future binge watch. Rumor is it’s banal.

Love Bill (Vietnam Sat YT) - Bah Vinh is back but I’m too distracted. Also there’s a lot of fund raising stuff going on. I’ll wait and binge.

The Star Always Follow You (Vietnam YT) - same Team RL peeps we have seen before (Sunshine, Stupid)

Till the World Ends (Thai YT) 10 eps - ?

Why You... Y Me? (Thai Weds YT) 10 eps - It's not primarily a BL, but another meta show about BL shipping, with side BLs. @heretherebedork is watching it, ask them about it.

Ended This Week

Happy Ending Romance

In this series, all the gay boys romantically behave like lesbians and professionally like straight dudes. It’s... odd. As a BL it kinda isn’t (sorry to say), there’s no tropes dropped and no real romance beats. This is about ego and dishonesty and pride and there is an elegance to the plot. Which is essentially the idea that possession is not love, and therefore, both men who love the Writer have to prove their love by letting him go. Honestly, I’m not sure how to rate this show. This is a blog about BL and this wasn’t it. 8/10 RECOMMENDED (but not if BL is what you’re after). Full review.

Ai Long Nhai

Look this show was just a typical Thai BL university pulp about a confident gay and a clueless manic pixie dream boy. It had potential, chemistry, and earnestness going for it, but no plot and not enough side dishes. In the end, it was boring and you know I always rate boring lower than hot messes (because at least the hot mess TRIED). Still, Ai Long Nhai is better than your average Thai BL pulp, nothing happens but at least the nothing mostly shirtless, the gay dads are the BEST, which is about all I can say for it. 6/10 WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED

In Case You Missed It

With the help of @isisanna-blog, here’s a cobbled together a Domundi line up (peeps behind Cutie Pie) for 2023 Thai BL. Lots of established pairs and it looks good if they can actually make them all, includes beautiful historicals, paranormal, other high concepts, and a royalty bodyguard romance (knight/prince) with ZeeNew!

Next Week Looks Like This:

Still coming:

Dec 21 - The New Employee AKA The New Recruit AKA Shinib Sawo from Korea, (prob Gaga or Viki) - From WATCHA (Semantic Error) virginal Seung Hyun scores the office internship of his dreams but on his first day at work he gets into it with his cool reserved boss. As you do. Stars Moon Ji Yong (Once Again). Based on Moscareto's web novel of the same name, directed by openly gay & queer activist Kim Jho Gwang Soo (Just Friends?).

Dec 28 - H5: Love in the Future from Taiwan (prob Gaga or Viki) - A cheerful and energetic student from 2000 travels to the future (2022), works as a deliveryman, and meets his first customer, an heir with a domineering personality. Directed by Nancy Chen (HIStory 4, Papa & Daddy).

I’m working on my end of year wrap ups, trends lists, and BL stats reported. Let me know in a comment if there is any specifically you want to know of have deep feels about.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Beautiful pining work you’re doing there, Palm. Yearn, baby, yearn. (Never Let Me Go)

Fated mates, always a favorite of mine. (The Director who Buys Me Dinner)

GMMTV got itself a drone. Not sure how I feel about this.

Games is my spirit animal (609 Bedtime Story)

(last week)

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kaylinalexanderbooks · 1 month

Text

Find the Word

Thanks @sleepywriter00 for the tag!

Rules: find the given words in your WIP(s), then tag others with new words

My words: psycho, pranked, soil, grave

Your words: new, clean, decide, system

Tagging with zero pressure @theeccentricraven @mysticstarlightduck @little-peril-stories @blind-the-winds @buffythevampirelover @mk-writes-stuff @eccaiia @cowboybrunch @addicted2coke-theothercoke @gottestod-writes @chauceryfairytales @frostedlemonwriter @talesofsorrowandofruin @steh-lar-uh-nuhs @theprissythumbelina or anyone else who wants to hop on

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @fairy-tales-of-yesterday per usual you can hop on

Keep reading for:

Liam and Maddie discuss the science of shapeshifting

George X Liam is a thing now

Beau creates a beanstalk

Noelle's research finds an article

Psycho Insane (closest synonym) - from The Secret Portal Part Two (Maddie POV)

“Thanks for researching all of this,” I said. “I mean, not being an animal morphian, you didn’t have to.” Liam leaned against the wall. “I always wanted to be an animal morphian. When I realized I got to train one, I just did a bunch of research. To both benefit your learning and just to learn a few things myself. Shapeshifting is just fascinating in general. Like, you can change your mass, like, that shouldn’t be a thing! But it is, and that’s, like, insane.” “Wow,” I breathed. “So what happens to the mass that you lose?” “No idea,” said Liam, smiling. “What if we took the mass from something?” I asked. “Great, but where would that something come from?” “I dunno,” I said. “Matter can’t be created or destroyed. We’ve learned that in science class.” “You’d be right,” said Liam. “But we’re in another dimension.” “So you’re saying matter can be created or destroyed in this dimension?” “Perhaps,” said Liam, pressing his hands together in deep thought. “But what if instead we’re borrowing mass from another pocket dimension? Like, there’s a pocket universe of just mass, and we put our mass there if we’re lessening our mass, or borrowing mass from there if we increase our mass?” “Hm,” I said. “That could work, but isn’t it complicated?” “Who knows?” said Liam. “We’re in another dimension. Anything is possible. The rules of this universe are different than the rules of Ceteri.” “That’s cool.” “Glad you agree, kiddo.”

Actually, matter can be created or destroyed but only with an anti-matter particle :)

Pranked Trick (closest synonym...) - from The Secret Portal Part One

Maddie gave Kelsey a small punch in the arm. She looked past Kelsey’s shoulder. “Hey, Liam, what are you dressed as?” Liam, who was talking with George, wore a black full-piece covering his whole body with glow sticks along his arms, legs, and torso. Upon Maddie’s query, he put a hood over his head, then zipped it shut over his face, glow sticks forming a circle. “A stick figure.” Maddie burst out laughing. Kelsey smirked, clapping slowly. “You win. You win.” Unzipping the hood, Liam smiled at George. “See? This is hilarious. It’s simple, but it’s super clever. I barely put any more effort than Gabe, yet everyone I’ve encountered says this is the best costume here. That’s the trick of Halloween. You either need to go all out or you need to be very, very clever about what you decide to be and what materials you use.” George, now eating what Ceters called a “cupcake,” nodded, very entertained by his new friend. While George loved sharing all of his speedster-induced hours research, Liam always managed to make a good argument out of seemingly everything. It was one of the fascinating things about him. He was glad Liam approached him working on one of the computers about a month ago, otherwise George wasn't sure he would’ve been able to work up to potential rejection from the only boy his age he’d interacted with in a decade.

Soil - from School of the Legends Year One

Beau widened his stance, holding his arm out, palm aimed at where he’d planted the beans. Jack glanced at Jill, both sharing a confused expression. Jack looked at his cousin. “Beau, what are we supposed to see?” “Just watch the soil,” Beau said, his brow clenching together. Jack obeyed, looking at where the beans were. A sprout suddenly poked its head above the ground. Jack’s eyebrows rose, and a glance at his sister told him she had the same reaction. The sprout began growing, now at Jack’s knee. “Beau, you’re...you’re gifted.” Beau’s smile stretched across his face. “Yeah, isn’t it amazing?” He glanced at Jack, his eyes shining. The sprout now shot up faster, and Beau flicked his eyes back to the stalk. “Merde,” he muttered as he tried to regain his concentration. He, Jack, and Jill grunted as the stalk broke the ground at such a force they were knocked to their feet. Beau scrambled up as fast as he could, holding his palms out toward the beanstalk. It slowed first, then stopped. Jack tilted his head back, squinting to see the top of the beanstalk--which didn’t help. “O...kay…,” Jill soon said, breaking the silence. “That just happened.” “What are we going to do with this?” Jack asked, now standing. “There’s now a giant beanstalk in the middle of the yard! How are we going to explain to Da?” “You won’t need to.” Jack whirled around to see his dad leaning against a post on the porch. “I saw the whole thing.” “I’m sorry, Oncle Erskine.” “Don’t be,” he said. “D’ya know how much that would sell for?” He laughed.

Grave - from The Secret Portal Part Two (article Noelle is reading)

One thing I must make clear is that I AM Inutilia. I did not quit because I no longer believe in equality for my people. Quite the opposite. I still am a firm believer that we should get as much equal rights as those with powers. However, Raissa Kamanzi is NOT the way to do it. Ms. Kamanzi is obsessed with power. She does not truly believe in the equal rights of Inutilia, rather the dominance. She wants to oppress the system just as much as the old one oppressed us. A taste of their own medicine, she would say. This is not the answer. All Raissa has given us is a harder time to be accepted by society around us. It gave an excuse for bigots to become even louder, people who considered themselves neutral to become bigoted. It gave those in power a reason to persecute us from a genetic standpoint. We lost access to the portal last year because of her. We can no longer be with Ceters, in a world where WE are the norm. One thing I will say about Raissa is that she is a complicated woman with many heavy burdens and regrets. She holds tight to her morals, and will never cross a line that others would. However, that does not make her morals right. That does not make her policies right. I did not join the Refugae initially because I wanted control of the world. I did not join so others would suffer just so I would not. I joined because I was sick of the lynching, the riots, the massacres, the genetic engineering to attempt to erase the gene. I was sick of the suffering. But I see Raissa’s tactics are only going to deflect the suffering from herself to others. That it is causing people to flee to Ceteri, and those who cannot cross the portal to stay, suffering. Raissa is digging the grave of her own people. The arrival of the Aequales was the first sign. I do not believe the Aequales is the savior we need, for many other reasons, but its preaching of equality and peace is dragging more and more people away from equality. They can still hate us, but if they support Atsila McLain, suddenly, they can wipe their hands clean of their bigotry. Inutilia are still suffering under Raissa, and we have no escape. I ask you to support social reforms and to engage in political action. We must stop this violence. We must in order to survive. For all Inutilia. For all Alii.

I wrote two articles in this chapter - one of someone who worked with Atsila but left, the other who worked with Raissa but left. I really ended up being proud of the articles themselves even though I'm revising Noelle's research purposes later.

It is funny. She's like "hm maybe other perspectives would be nice to read about to form an opinion that seems logical" but then she does that and is like "nevermind these are both biased what a waste of time"

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avatarmerida · 1 year

Text

A Sleeve of Flowers

This is my attempt at a Huntlow Flower Shop x Tattoo Shop AU. There’s no real plot just like a fluff meet cute I guess? It kind of got away from me. it’s also very long for something with no plot lol but oh well If you see any spelling errors no you didn’t

---

Willow looked around the shop in wonder. Every inch of the walls were covered in something; art, pictures of past intricate tattoos, vintage posters of a books series she remembered Gus loved to read, clever memes Luz had clearly made. It was a vast collection of seemingly random things that came together to create the feeling of being inside a collage. She was so distracted by admiring the walls she didn’t notice the boy had entered until she heard him hit the ground.

“Can I- woah!”

Willow looked up to the sound and quickly looked down to see the source, a blonde boy in a jean jacket laying on the floor clearly embarrassed. What she didn’t know was that he had fallen because he was too busy staring at her to watch where he was going.

“Are you Caleb?” she asked with a smile as she offered him her hand. He looked at the girl before him utterly bewildered, she just looked so… classic. Her long black hair pulled into two perfect braids, her rounded golden glasses complimented the light green of her eyes and the matching color in her dress lined with small white flowers which she paired with an emerald sweater. She was a bright spot in the usual dark location Hunter could blame his distraction on how she managed to fit right in and stand out at the same time.

“Caleb? Oh! Because of the name! Of the shop!” he muttered as took her hand and rose to his feet, answering after what felt like hours. “No, no I-I’m Hunter.”

“Oh, Luz’s brother,” said Willow, recalling the hundreds of photos Luz had shown her. They didn’t do him justice, he was much taller in person and less blurry. And kinda cute. She shook that last thought from her mind and shook her his hand, maybe a little too enthusiastically. “I’m Willow Park.”

“Willow?” repeated Hunter, as her strong grip shook his whole body.

“That’s me.”

“Like, Luz’s Willow?”

“Well, that’s not exactly what it says on my birth certificate but I’ll take it,” laughed Willow. “I guess you're the Hunter she’s always trying to set me up with then?”

“S-set you up with?”

“Yeah, I told her I wanted to do a sleeve of flowers and she said that’s your specialty so she’s been trying to line up our schedules for weeks now.”

“Oh! Like, set up an appointment,” said Hunter. “Duh, obviously.”

“I keep putting it off and with Valentine’s Day around the corner, my shop’s only gonna get busier so when she said you had an opening I thought it must be fate!”

“Your shop?”

“Oh yeah, I work across the street actually,” she said. “Willow’s Wallflowers.”

“That… makes alot of sense actually,” said Hunter, embarrassed to not have made the connection sooner. “That’s why Luz goes there so much on her lunch break.”

“You’re welcome to join us for lunch if you want,” said Willow, looking down and realizing they were still holding hands though the hand shake had already ended. Hunter pulled his hand back,embarrassed, and cleared his throat as he led her to his chair.

“Well we usually take separate lunch breaks so there’s always someone in the shop,” said Hunter as motioned for her to sit as he prepped the needles.

“Well, I can take a long lunch if you ever want some company,” said Willow, removing her cardigan and making herself comfortable. “I'm sure my boss won’t mind.”

“Well I would hate for you… I mean if you’re sure…” Hunter stammered to respond before the dots finally connected. “Oh, it’s you. Y-you’re your own boss.”

“Bingo.” she said with a wink. “I’m actually celebrating one year of being my own boss, so I’m getting the tattoo as kind of a present to myself.”

“Oh, well congrats.” said Hunter. “I’m honored to be a part of the celebration. So Luz showed me the sun-.” he stopped, noticing her bare arms. She was more muscular than he had anticipated and that had never been an issue for him before, but something about seeing this muscle paired with her smile and overall nature like demeanor made his stomach spin. He had a feeling this girl could easily hoist him over her shoulder and for some reason he was very into the idea. But that was not a professional thought. “... flower. The sunflower you wanted. A sunflower. This one.”

He held up the drawing he had made earlier that day, wondering if he had known who it was for if he would’ve spent more time on it. It was perfect, he was confident of that, but somehow he felt she deserved more than perfect.

“Yup” she confirmed with a wide smile. “On my shoulder.”

“Perfect, great choice,” he said as he placed the stencil over the spot and began tracing, trying to be toilet normal about how close he had to be to her. “Is this your first tattoo?”

She nodded. “Maybe it’s a cliche, I’m sure you do alot of flower tattoos right?”

“Well, mostly roses if I'm being honest,” he said.

“Ugh, roses,” groaned Willow. ‘Don’t get me wrong, they’re great, but Valentine's Day is nonstop roses, as though people don’t think other flowers can be romantic. My backroom is nothing but roses right now. And for what? They sit in a vase until they- sorry, I’m rambling.”

“No, no it’s fine, we have a similar stance on roses.” he chuckled as he removed the stencil to make sure she was pleased with the placement. She gave her approval and Hunter began the actual tattooing process. She winced slightly when the needle touched her skin, but nothing like his usual clientele reacted, Hunter was impressed, They sat in silence for awhile before Willow spoke again.

“So, are you busy on Valentine’s Day?” she asked.

“Uh… no I’m single,” he said, wiping off some excess ink. “I’ve got a perfect record of 25 Valentine-less Valentines days.”

“I meant the shop,” she said with a coy smile, not displeased with the answer. “Lot of couples getting matching tattoos I imagine.”

“Oh! Oh, yeah of course,” he chuckled nervously. Why would she ask about him? They had just met. She was his client, he needed to be professional. “Uh, yeah. This year is extra busy because Valentine’s Day falls on a Saturday so that means the day before is Friday the 13th which gets us a line out the door.”

“Oh yeah, you do like $13 tattoos right?”

“Yeah, anything off my flash sheet,” he said, reaching into his pocket to pull out a copy. “This is mine for this year, it’s mostly birds and wolves and some nature stuff. Luz’s does better, she does like creepy stuff that people really like.”

“Well, thank you for not making my flower creepy.” said Willow with a smile.

“Well, no promises on the next one,” he said with a smug smile. “That’s a joke, I’d never give you a tattoo you wouldn’t like. Not on purpose. I mean, that’s why we do consultations and tracings first so you-.”

“Hey, don’t worry it looks great,” said Willow, admiring her shoulder. “When I come back to add the color, would you be able to start another flower?”

“Oh, yeah sure let’s get you booked up,” he said, practically flying from his seat to the counter. “He flipped to his calendar to find the soonest date possible. Which was his usual process, it wasn't because he wanted to see her again as soon as possible or something.

“Um, how about Tuesday? Same time?”

“Sounds good,” Willow said with a smile. Hunter jotted her name down. “Oh, and here,” she said, reaching into her purse to pull out a card and a pen and quickly jotted something on the back. “Here’s my number just in case you wanna call me outside business hours.”

“Oh, cool,” he said, taking it from her and admiring the card. It was simple, the border a delicate vines littered with flowers and the I and o in her name were sunflowers, clearly her signature flower. As he went it tack it on the board, Willow reached back into her purse to pull out a collection of bills and handed it to him.

“Oh, Luz said you already paid,” he said, handing her back the cash.

“Well then consider it a tip,”

“That’s way too generous of a tip, it defeats the whole purpose of a friend's discount.”

“Oh please, she gave me well over the usual friend discount,” said Willow, placing the bills back in his hands. “And we went well over my allotted time, I refuse to be the reason for your small business’s demise. Take it.”

“Fine,” he said begrudgingly, taking the money. “But I’m applying it towards your next flower.”

“Fine,” she said with a dramatic sigh. “Then I guess I’ll just have to find another way to tip you for your services.”

She winked at him before walking out the door and Hunter prayed to every deity above that she didn’t see the blush he knew was covering his face.

---

“So how did your session with Willow go?” Luz asked as she strolled into the shop after dropping off Amity at the bookstore.

“Fine,” said Hunter, pretending he was too focused on finishing a sketch in his notebook to give a more detailed answer.

“Just fine?” prompted Luz, knowing him well enough to know there was more. Hunter groaned and set his pencil down.

“Yeah, we have another appointment on Tuesday.” he replied, still not looking up.

“Yeah, she sent me a pic,” said Luz, sipping her soda. “It’s gotta be some of your best work. It’s gonna look so rad when it’s done. Looks like you two will be spending alot of time together.”

“Guess so.”

“You cool with that?”

Hunter sighed, clearly frustrated and Luz smiled; she was hoping for this reaction.

“Why didn’t you tell me your friend was so cute?” Hunter demanded as though she had omitted to tell him he was walking into a bear trap.

“Um, I definitely did tell you that, several times.”

“Well, you call possums cute and Amity, how am I supposed to trust your judgment?”

“Rude,” said Luz, not taking it too much to heart as she sat on the chair across from him, putting up her feet and making herself comfortable. “But you like her, right?”

“She’s a great client,” Hunter said, not taking the bait. “She has a high pain tolerance.”

“You like her muscles don’t you?” Luz said with a smug grin and the scarlet color that took over his face was the only response she needed. He gathered his things in a huff and went to the back before she could lure any other embarrassing truths out of him.

---

“So how did you get into the tattooing business?” asked Willow the next week as Hunter was at work on her orchid.

“Oh, well actually it was because I wanted to get a tattoo removed,” he chuckled.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he said, focusing on the details of the petals. “Before Camila adopted me, I lived with my uncle. And he wasn’t the best caretaker. He let me get a tattoo when I was 14, which is illegal and I would never do by the way. So after I got out of there and realized how toxic that living situation was it just reminded me of him so I wanted to get it removed. But the removal process is almost worse than the process of getting it, so Camila suggested we cover it. I drafted some ideas and the Owl Lady, who became Luz’s mentor actually, somehow managed to take the ugly sigil and turn it into this.” he held out his wrist and showed Willow the tiny cardinal that rested on his wrist. She never would have guessed it covered anything, it looked as though it was meant to be there. “And ya know I was really into drawing and I'm not squeamish so it worked out. Sorry it’s not the best story.”

“Are you kidding? That’s so sweet ” smiled Willow. “And then you got Luz into it too? A real family business.”

“Yeah, some distant relative left me the building in their will,” continued Hunter. “It used to be a restaurant and we turned into a parlor but we kept the name. It was a nice font.”

“It is a nice font,” Willow agreed and for some reason that made Hunter’s stomach flip. He thought he could control the feeling if he avoided asking certain questions.

‘So what about you? H-how did you get into flowers?”

“Well, I was a flower in a past life,” said Willow simply. Hunter stopped his work and looked at her skeptically. “I’m kidding.” she said with an airy giggle that made him feel lightheaded.

“Oh, yeah of course,” he said and went back to work.

“I just like flowers I guess, it’s not as good of a story as yours, sorry,” she said. “There’s just so many layers, ya know? There’s so many different types and they all mean different things. They’re good company I guess.”

“Just like you,” he said quietly.

“What was that?”

“Uh… just like your tattoo! Which is done!” he said nervously, and Willow turned her arm to admire his work.

“You’ve done it again Noceda,” she beamed, in utter awe of the latest addition. “It’s absolutely stunning.”

“Just like you,” he said, this time not quiet and he did not attempt to cover it up. Willow smiled as he carefully wrapped the new piece, able to marvel at this closeness without worry of distracting him.

---

“You don’t have to keep giving me the discount just because I’m Luz’s friend,” said Willow as went to pay for the latest addition. “That should only apply if she’s doing it.”

“Well then how about I give it to you because you’re my friend?” he said bashfully.

“Well, I don’t want you to think I’m just your friend for the discounted tattoos,” she said sweetly, trying to hide her thrill at his suggestion.

“Well the honor is more mine, I’d say,” he said offering her crooked, toothy grin

“How many other people get the ‘Hunter’s friend’ discount?” Willow asked, leaning forward in the counter, resting her chin on her hand.

“Well you’re actually the first,” he admitted with a nervous chuckle.

“Do… girlfriends get a discount too?”

“Hm? Oh yeah, Luz gives Amity a discount but her tattoos are kind of boring if I’m being honest.”

“And you’d prefer a girlfriend who gets interesting tattoos?”

“I mean, she’s okay and they’re happy so I don’t think-,” he stopped himself as he looked at her flirtatious grin and felt like he had stumbled into a larger question. “Oh, you meant for me?”

She nodded.

“Well I-I don’t, ya know it doesn’t even matter,” he laughed. “I already have plans for Valentine's Day, can’t imagine any girlfriend would like that too much.”

“Kinda nice to know we’re both in the same boat for Valentine's Day though, huh?”

---

“Welcome to Willow’s Wallflowers! How can I -oh, hi Hunter!” she beamed when she saw who had entered her doorway. She set down the pot she held and rushed over to greet him. He gave her a timid wave as he marveled at her shop. It was brighter than his shop, there were more windows which meant more sunlight which the flowers obviously loved. It smelled amazing. He recognized it, the same smell lingered in her hair when she would come by for her sessions. Not that he smelled her hair, that was unprofessional.

“Wow it’s… beautiful in here,” he said in awe.

“Thanks!” she said. She wanted to say ‘It’s more beautiful now that you’re here,’ but she was on the clock and that was unprofessional. “How can I help you?”

“Oh, no,” he said. ‘Well, maybe? But no, actually I had a last minute cancellation and I was wondering if you’d be interested in taking the slot? Do another session during your lunch? Maybe add that Chrysanthemum?”

“Oh, I’d love that,” she said. “You are so sweet to think of me; but I had to skip breakfast this morning for an early delivery so if I skip lunch I might pass out.”

“Oh, yeah no don’t do that,” he said. “Um that’s fine, we can’t keep your regular appointment no big deal.”

“Well what about you? Have you eaten yet?”

“Uh, no I had this scheduled during my lunch so I was just gonna grab a protein shake or something between sessions.”

“Well, how about you keep that time slot open and we have a little lunch date? My treat.” said Willow with a wink. Did she wink at everyone or just him? He never knew what to make of it.

“Oh, well don’t you usually meet with Luz? We still stagger our times so-.”

“Nah, she ditched me for a lunch date with Amity,” she said with a fake pout and Hunter couldn’t help but notice she had used the word to describe Amity and Luz, a couple, having lunch as she did to them having lunch. Did that mean something or was it just a common turn of phrase that he was reading too much into? “So it’ll be just you and me.”

He decided to test the waters.

“I’m not really dressed for anything fancy.” he said shyly.

“I mean, I’m not really either,” she said, removing her apron to reveal a simple green dress. She always looked stunning in green.

‘Are you kidding? You look amazing,” gasped Hunter and she smiled at his insistence. “I-i mean compared to me. Well, compared to anyone… you, uh… you always look… nice.”

“Why thank you,” she said. “But I’m kicking myself; I was in such a hurry this morning I forgot to grab a jacket and it’s actually a little chilly outside.”

“Oh well, here,” he said, quickly removing his jacket and placing it on her shoulder before she could protest. “I always wear too many layers anyway.”

“Wow, you tattoo your clothes too, huh?” she said, marveling at the patches that covered nearly every inch of the jacket.

“Oh, yeah I guess?” he smiled, holding the door open for her as she followed behind and went to lock up, flipping the sign in the window. “Camila got me into sewing, I guess I got a little carried away.”

“It’s amazing,” said Willow, twirling in it as though it was an elegant cape. “How dare you say you’re not dressed for anything fancy when you have this treasure?”

“You really like it?”

She nodded. “You better keep an eye on me or I’m gonna steal when you’re not looking.”

“Well it’s not like I don’t know where to find you,” he chuckled. “It does look nice on you.”

“Oh, can you take my picture in it?” Willow asked, handing him her phone. “I wanna send it to Luz.”

“Uh sure,” he said as she started to pose, looking over her shoulder so the whole jacket could be seen. His usual steady hand was shaky, and when he looked at the photos he was embarrassed that she was blurry and out of frame as he was looking at her and not the picture. She ran over to see the results before he could explain.

“Oh I love them,” she said, laughing.

“Sorry they’re not great I’m not much of a photographer,”

“Well luckily I am,” she said as they continued to walk. She effortlessly slipped her arm through his to guide her as she looked at her phone to edit the photos. Hunters eyes darted down to see what she was doing as she turned his blurry shoots into photos that could’ve been on a magazine.

“Wow, that’s amazing,” gasped Hunter. “How did you do that?”

“I do a lot of floral arrangements for weddings and events so I’ve gotten pretty good at photo editing,” she explained. “I usually use an actual camera, but my photoshop skills have gotten pretty good if I do say so myself.”

“Oh wow so all those photos in your store? You took those?”

She nodded.

“Wow, I should hire you to take some new photos for the front room,” he said.

“Well, here’s a free one,” she said, raising the phone up and pulling him close to her so they could take a selfie. She looked at the camera and flashed the peace sign, and Hunter was caught off guard looking at her fondly. She brought the phone close and smiled at the moment she had captured. “Oh, the lighting is so good! You look so cute!”

“Really?” He said with a blush, looking at the photos over her shoulder.

“Yeah!” She beamed. “Want me to send this to you?”

“Oh um I actually don’t have a phone,” he admitted bashfully. “I mean I have a phone at the shop just not like a phone for that.”

“A man of mystery,” Willow mused. “No worries, it’s not like I don’t know where to find you.”

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “Um, so there’s a place up here? Is that okay?”

“Sure, she said, allowing him to lead the way. “So tell me, man of mystery, why did it take so long to finally meet you? Luz introduced herself with a plate of ginger snaps before you guys were even officially open.”

“Yeah well, she was always better at making friends,” he said. “I guess I’ve always kept to myself,bit of a wallflower you know?”

“Well, luckily for you wallflowers are my favorite kind of flowers,” said Willow. “Especially such interesting., golden ones.”

“R-right,” Hunter said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Oh hey! We’re here! Lemme run in to grab us a table?”

“Sure thing,” Willow smiled, admiring the photo. Just then, her phone began to buzz with a video call request from Luz. “Hey, what’s-.”

“Willow, how did you do it?”

“Um, hi to you too?” Willow said, confused.

“How did you do it?” Luz repeated.

“Do what?”

“You got Hunter to smile,” came Amity’s voice. Oh right they were together.

“Yeah, so? He’s got a nice smile.”

“Willow, he never smiles,” said Luz, seriously. “Every picture we’ve ever taken he looks miserable. Even when my mom convinced him to sit for our Christmas card he looked so uncomfortable we thought his appendix had burst, but you somehow got him to smile and show his teeth? Are you a witch, Park?”

“No, I just caught him off guard, I guess,” she said with a chuckle, feeling proud of her feat. “Also, I feel like he’s smiled at me plenty.”

“Ooh he’s probably smiling because you’re on a daaaaaate.” teased Luz.

“Oh, hush.” said Willow, not correcting her.

“Wait, are you wearing his-.” but Willow hung up before she could further interest her, seeing Hunter wave her inside having secured a table.

----

She wore his jacket to every session, waiting for him to ask for it back. He didn’t. A framed photo of them from that day mysteriously appeared on his desk. He considered it a fair trade.

---

“Hey!” said Willow as she flew in the door, the bell announcing her presence.

‘Willow!” Hunter exclaimed, appearing from behind the counter as though surprised to see her and not like he had been watching her skip across the street. “W-we don’t have a session today do we? Not that I memorized it, I mean I do know my schedule even if you’re not on it but um that’s because I uh- what’s up?” he cut himself off, leaning over the counter as casually as he could.

“I brought you something,” she sang, bringing her surprise from behind her back to reveal a flouting plant.

“Oh wow,” Hunter's eyes widened at the sight. “This is gorgeous.”

“It’s a fern,” said Willow with a smile, delighted he liked it. “You mentioned getting a plant and I’ve been looking after this little guy for awhile and I thought he’d be the perfect fit for the shop.”

“Oh wow, yeah,” said Hunter excitedly, “Where should we put him? How much sun does he need? Does he have a name?”

“I’m glad you like it, '' she said, setting it down to the perfect spot. “They're not hard to look after and I have a list of care instructions. Plus I’m right across the street.”

“This is so nice of you,” he said, still not used to receiving presents, “Oh! I got something to show you too!” He reached into his pocket and proudly displayed what Willow assumed to be the last flip phone on the planet. “For texting!” he said, pride shining in his eyes.

“Wow, look at you,” she said. “Do you need any help setting it up?”

“Oh, Luz helped me last night.” he said, handing her the phone. “She already programmed your number in.”

“I see that… and was she the one who put five hearts after my name?”

“Gah! I don’t know how to erase them,” he said shyly, taking the phone back. “But now we can talk… outside business hours.”

“Oh, and… what should we talk about? Outside business hours?” said Willow, rocking back on her heels and batting her eyelashes at him. She thought he would match her teasing tone but instead he looked sweaty and sickly.

“Ya know, whatever friends talk about I guess,” he said nervously. “Fern care?”

---

Willow started leaving clues around Caleb’s for what her next flower would be. When Hunter was away, she’d come in under the guise of visiting Luz and hide the flower somewhere she knew he’d find it before she came in for her next appointment; in a book or on his desk. It was not at all the professional or efficient way of letting your tattoo artist know what you planned on getting, but Willow was starting to care less and less for professionalism and efficiency.

---

“Are you Hunter?” came a voice, much younger than the voices that frequented the shop. Hunter turned around and almost didn’t see the short boy who had walked in.

“Are you… old enough to be in here?” Hunter asked, looking around to see if he had come in with anyone.

“I’m the one asking the questions here,” said the boy. “Now are you him?”

“Yes? Who’s asking?”

“Agustus Porter, student, science fiction enthusiast and president of the WIllow Park fan club,” he said very officially. “I’m here to investigate.”

“Investigate what, exactly?”

“Your intentions,” he said, trying to make his voice lower. “With Willow.”

“Intentions? L-like marriage?”

“Hmm interesting,” said Gus, jotting something down in his notebook. “No one said anything about marriage and yet…”

“I’m confused, did Willow send you? Is Willow coming? We usually-.”

“She’s running late, so I saw the opportunity and I took it,” said Gus. “You’ve been spending alot of time together lately. When she’s not with you, she’s talking about you and when she’s not talking about you, she’s texting you. You’re a very slow typer by the way.”

“Oh, are you Gus? You’re in Luz’s class at the-.”

“Now I’ll admit, being Luz’s brother does give you an advantage,” said Gus continued, consulting his notes. “But this whole ‘bad but sad boy thing?’ I always thought it was kind of beneath Willow. I always saw her with more of a stoic type, like Chief O’Bailey.”

“Chief o- wait; is that a Cosmic Frontier notebook?” Hunter asked excitedly, recognizing the symbol on the cover.

“Wait, you know Cosmic Frontier?” Gus asked with matching growing excitement.

“Know it? I have a tattoo of their ship on my shoulder blade of course I know it!” said Hunter.

“What? No way, that’s so sick!”

“It’s actually fairly healthy, I make sure to maintain-.”

“Can you give me one?”

“Can you show me some ID?”

“Do you want me to tell Willow I don’t approve of you?”

“How about a temporary one?” Hunter offered after a beat.

“Can you make it hurt like it’s real?”

“Probably.”

“Deal,” said Gus, hopping in the chair and rolling up his sleeve and presenting his arm. “Make me cry! Make me cry!”

“Won’t making Willow’s best friend cry hurt my chances with her?” Hunter asked playfully.

“Calling me Willow’s best friend over your own sister?” said Gus. “I think you just earned the Gus Porter seal of approval.”

---

Willow sent him a bouquet of flowers for receiving the Gus seal of approval, which could mean many things. She spotted them in the vase when she walked in for her next session, but he did not mention them. She hadn’t signed them but she felt like he knew.

Hunter wasn’t at the next session. Luz had taken his place at the last minute, which Willow didn’t mind, but she had grown accustomed to explaining each flowers’ meaning to him and counting how many times she could get his face to turn her favorite shade of red. Luz said he was helping their sister Vee move into a new place with her partner upstate and Willow didn’t ask any follow-up questions.

But during the next few days there were no spontaneous lunch dates, no waving at her from across the street, no popping in to observe flowers to practice sketching. Willow went as long as she could without bugging Luz about it. After the third time Hunter was not at their session, she had to say something.

“Does Hunter not work here anymore?” she said bluntly, no beating around the bush. “Or did he change his schedule or-?”

“Oh, are my skills not good enough for you Park?” teased Luz as she swapped needles to start a new color.

“No no, of course,” Willow laughed. “He’s just been here for all my other appointments so I guess I just-.”

“He said… it was a conflict of interest.” Luz admitted, knowing her brother would kill her if he found out she told Willlow.

“Why?”

“He… was worried he wouldn’t be able to do his best work because he was getting… distracted.”

“Is it because I talk too much? Because if that’s the issue. I’m fine sitting in silence, I just didn't know if it would be awkward for him but that makes sense because of course he would need to concentrate and I-.”

“Willow, it’s totally not that I promise,” assured Luz. “Hunter is a pro at tuning people out, I mean he lives with me after all. No, he….well, remember when Amity and I got our Azura tattoos? Hunter did both of ours because he said me doing Amity’s would be a conflict of interest because…”

She trailed off, hoping Willow could finish the rest.

“Because you kept flirting with her and it was taking forever to finish,” Willow recalled. ”But how does that- wait.”

She looked at Luz with wide, distraught eyes. “No….”

Luz nodded. “Yup.”

“Oh my gosh, I’m so embarrassed,” groaned Willow, covering her face.

“Wait… what?’”

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh I can’t believe I made him so uncomfortable I ran him out of his own shop,” she exclaimed, horrified. “Ugh, and he was such a gentleman about it, oh my,...and I sent him flowers?! What was I thinking? Luz, can you please tell him-.”

“Willow, Willow, Willow!” said Luz, reaching out to calm her friend, careful of the fresh ink. “That is… not what I was talking about.”

“Then what do you- unless…. No…”

“I’m gonna need you to say exactly what you mean because I’m afraid I'm gonna guess wrong again.”

“Was he… flirting with me too?”

“Ding ding ding, we have a winner!” exclaimed Luz happily. “And my brother prides himself in his professionalism and insisted he could not date a client, hence the conflict of interest. So the only solution would be to remove you as a client.”

“So he could ask me out?”

“Exactly!”

“So why hasn’t he?”

“Well, he can’t exactly send you flowers, can he?” smiled Luz.

“He’s tried,” laughed Willow. “He called and asked if I could deliver a bouquet to the pretty girl at the flower shop, but I thought it was just a joke. He chickened out in the middle of ordering when he felt he was wasting my time on an order that wouldn’t be going out and then offered to pay anyway.”

“Yeah, that sounds like what his idea of flirting would be,” sighed Luz. “You know him, he’s a perfectionist. He’s logical and weird. He wanted to be absolutely sure of his feelings before he acted on them.”

“And?”

“Can I show you something?” Luz said, rising from her seat to rummage through his drawer before finding a red leather notebook and handing it to Willow. “This is where Hunter works on new stuff for his flash. Before it was mostly birds and wolves, some cosmic frontier stuff. When he met you, there were maybe one or two flowers. Then suddenly-.” she opened the book to reveal pages that envied a garden. “He became obsessed with flowers. Then, soon….” She turned the page and Willow felt as though she was looking in a mirror.

“Is that… me?”

Luz nodded.

“He was gonna tattoo me on people?”

“What? No! I don’t think… no, but he clearly could not stop thinking about you,” said Luz. “Between you and me, he’s never really had a crush before. He’s always been so serious and studious, focusing on school or work or something. I know for a fact you’re not the first client to flirt with him, but you’re definitely the first one he’s flirted with. Or at least tried to.”

“So is he gonna ask me out or is he just gonna avoid me?”

“I think both options are equally terrifying to him,” said Luz. “But this was supposed to be your last appointment so maybe he’ll stop being such a baby. I mean, I’m pretty sure he got a phone just so he could text you, I don’t know what he’s waiting for.”

---

The session with Luz turned into a gabfest so Willow started walking home later than usual. Forgetting if she closed the window, she quickly went over to her shop to double check. To her horror, the door was unlocked and she knew she had locked it before leaving.

Someone else was here.

She grabbed a cactus from the windowsill to investigate as she followed the muffled sounds of shuffling coming from her office. She spotted a flashlight shining from beneath the door. She took a calming breath before raising the cactus over her head and kicking the door in, screaming as loudly as she could ready to attack-

“Hunter?” she said confused, the dim light revealing the panicked boy. He smiled at her nervously, his gap tooth grin confirming his identity as she set her weapon down. “What are you doing here?”

“I used the spare key you gave me!” he exclaimed, his arms behind his back.

‘Well, okay that’s how you got in but why-?”

“I made you a jean jacket!” he said louder than he intended to, nearly shoving the piece of clothing in her face as though it explained his presence. Willow took the jacket and examined it, like his own it was covered in patches but Willow could tell this had been carefully selected for her: flowers, bees, mushrooms. On the sleeve was an elegant W, obviously hand stitched. The whole thing was. It must’ve taken him hours to make.

“Hunter this is… it’s so…”

“It’s too much isn’t it?” he asked, his hands balled into fists at his sides. “I can take some off or rearrange them, I just kept finding ones that reminded me of you and so I-.”

She cut him off by wrapping her arms around him, trapping his arms at his sides. Hunter was used to hugs, his adopted family was extremely affectionate, but something about getting one from her… it was a whole new experience. “Hunter, I love it.”

“R-really?”

“Yes,” she said, slipping it on and delighting in its perfect fit. “But is this why you’ve been avoiding me?”

“No! I mean yes, I mean that’s what I was doing while I was avoiding you I mean… you noticed I was avoiding you?”

“Well yeah kinda,” she said, trying not to show her hurt in hearing him confirm it. “I really like talking to you and spending time with you, and just when I got used to having you around you vanished.”

“Sorry about that I just… I’m not used to being around,” he tried. “That’s not a good reason and I don’t blame you if you hate me but I didn’t know how explain why without sounding stupid.”

“Hunter, I’m sure it’s not stupid,” said Willow. “Unless you hate me, then that is stupid.”

“I don’t hate you,” laughed Hunter, her humor putting him at ease. “I kind of… the opposite of hate you. It’s just that Luz pointed out how much longer I spend on your sessions and I got worried I was taking up too much of your time just because I liked seeing you which wasn’t fair to you so I-.”

“Hunter,” she cut him off with a smile. “Do you really think I needed to spend two hours deciding what color I wanted my lily to be? I was practically holding you captive.”

“I just… words aren’t my strong suit,” he said. “I’m more of a doer, I guess? Every time I tried to say anything to you, I just… words didn’t work. So I started making this and I was gonna leave it on the back of your office chair for you to find and you’d put it on and you’d put your hand-.”

“-in the pocket?” finished Willow, pulling a small green envelope from said pocket with her name written in golden on the front. Hunter looked like he stopped breathing and Willow knew she was meant to find this in private. “What’s this?”

“It's to explain… h-how I feel… about you.”

She fiddled with it for a moment. “Well, before I read it… can I show you how I feel about you?”

“Oh, uh sure,” Hunter said anxiously. “Did you make a bouquet or-.”

No, Hunter had already misinterpreted several floral arrangements. She needed to express her feelings in a more direct and defiantly unprofessional way. She brought her hand up to cup his jaw and he leaned into the touch watching he rise to his level as she leaned up and gently pressed her lips to his, tilting her head only so slightly so there nearly bumped noses. She could tell he was holding his breath, and he truly did not exhale until she parted. He looked at her with disbelief, and she gave him her signature wink that sent a familiar warm tornado over his whole body.

“That’s… better than floriography,”Hunter said with a lovestruck smirk.

Willow smiled, pleased with his reaction as she opened the envelope she gripped slowly and her face could not hide her confusion. “It’s a… coupon? For Caleb’s?”

“Yeah,” said Hunter. “For your next tattoo. It’s a certificate, actually.”

“You… value me as a customer?” she said reading the prewritten sentiment all their certificates came with.

“Yeah, oh no wait, flip it over.”

“'The girlfriend discount?’” she read, breathlessly before adding playfully, “You’re giving me Amity’s discount?”

“What? No! No, uh that’s your discount,” he said. “I-if you want it, that is.”

“My discount huh?”

“Yeah, I’m upgrading you,” he said, dreamily. “I-if you want it.”

“Can I redeem it right now?”

“Really?”

“Well, luckily I have space for one more flower,” she said, holding out her arm to show him the empty spot on her wrist that perfectly mirrored where his cardina was. Luz had only done a few small flowers in addition to his larger intricate ones. He was impressed with his sister’s work, but couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy. “I was thinking maybe a rose?”

“A rose?” he laughed. “I thought you hated roses.”

“Roses signify love and admiration, I could never hate them,” Willow scoffed dramatically at the notion. “Especially if it’s a rose you gave me.”

#huntlow #toh #willow park #hunter toh #toh au #winter toh #its so long and nothing really happens but whatever #also theyre older here obvi because they own businesses #willow is a girlboss

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rohanneofcoldmoat · 1 year

Text

Devan Seaworth:

Salladhor Saan put a hand on Davos's forearm and gave a squeeze. "No. Of them, no. I am sorry, my friend. They were good men, your Dale and Allard. But this comfort I can give you—your young Devan was among those we took off at the end. The brave boy never once left the king's side, or so they say."

Podrick Payne:

And suddenly he lurched to the left, staggering into the rail. Wood split, and Ser Mandon Moore vanished with a shout and a splash. An instant later, the hulls came slamming together again, so hard the deck seemed to jump. Then someone was kneeling over him. "Jaime?" he croaked, almost choking on the blood that filled his mouth. Who else would save him, if not his brother? "Be still, my lord, you're hurt bad." A boy's voice, that makes no sense, thought Tyrion. It sounded almost like Pod.

Egg:

He got his shield up, but this time Ser Lucas struck so hard he split the thick oak right down the middle, and drove the remnants back into Dunk's face. His ears were ringing and his mouth was full of blood, but somewhere far away he heard Egg screaming. "Get him, ser, get him, get him, he's right there! "

Josmyn Peckledon:

The trumpets made a brazen blare, and cut the still blue air of dusk. Josmyn Peckledon was on his feet at once, scrambling for his master's swordbelt. The boy has good instincts. "Outlaws don't blow trumpets to herald their arrival," Jaime told him. "I shan't need my sword. That will be my cousin, the Warden of the West."

Satin:

"Whatever Satin may have done in Oldtown, he is our brother now, and he will be my squire."

Olyvar Frey:

"You have done House Frey a grievous insult, Robb." "I never meant to. Ser Stevron died for me, and Olyvar was as loyal a squire as any king could want. He asked to stay with me, but Ser Ryman took him with the rest. All their strength. The Greatjon urged me to attack them . . ."

Dolorous Edd:

Jon was paired with dour Eddison Tollett, a squire grey of hair and thin as a pike, whom the other brothers called Dolorous Edd. "Bad enough when the dead come walking," he said to Jon as they crossed the village, "now the Old Bear wants them talking as well? No good will come of that, I'll warrant. And who's to say the bones wouldn't lie? Why should death make a man truthful, or even clever? The dead are likely dull fellows, full of tedious complaints—the ground's too cold, my gravestone should be larger, why does he get more worms than I do . . ."

Rollam Westerling:

"Must I go too?" asked the boy, Rollam. "I'm your squire." Robb laughed. "But I'm not in need of squiring just now." "Oh."

Wex Pyke:

Theon felt as though he were drowning. Why am I surprised? he thought bleakly. His father had forsaken him, his uncles, his sister, even that wretched creature Reek. Why should his men prove any more loyal? There was nothing to say, nothing to do. He could only stand there beneath the great grey walls and the hard white sky, sword in hand, waiting, waiting . . . Wex was the first to cross the line. Three quick steps and he stood at Theon's side, slouching. Shamed by the boy, Black Lorren followed, all scowls."Who else?" he demanded. Red Rolfe came forward. Kromm. Werlag. Tymor and his brothers. Ulf the Ill. Harrag Sheepstealer. Four Harlaws and two Botleys. Kenned the Whale was the last. Seventeen in all.

Edric Dayne:

The Hound ripped the sword free and threw away the scabbard. The Mad Huntsman gave him his oaken shield, all studded with iron and painted yellow, the three black dogs of Clegane emblazoned upon it. The boy Ned helped Lord Beric with his own shield, so hacked and battered that the purple lightning and the scatter of stars upon it had almost been obliterated.

#valyrianscrolls #asoiaf #squiring under the cut #*#polls

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charturnus · 2 years

Text

The sweetest submission

Ship: Maria Hill x Female Reader

a/n: I’ve been obsessed with Cobie Smulders and Maria Hill for the whole week, so I couldn’t stop myself. This was supposed to only be 1k lmfao but things got out of hand. If you liked it, let me know! Come talk to me, I don’t bite (mostly). <3

Warnings: 18+ Minors DNI; daddy kink; legal age gap; college-aged R & milf Maria; strap-ons (the high-tech kind); deepthroating; blowjobs; vaginal fingering; cum filled strap

Word count: 4k

Summary: The Avengers are great at many things, following orders isn’t one of those things. Maria is sick and tired of nobody listening to her, luckily, her girl knows exactly how to obey.

━━━━━━━━━ ✯¸.•´*¨`*•✿ ✿•*`¨*`•.¸✯ ━━━━━━━━━

‘’Next time, you’d do well to remember who’s boss.’’

Just as I reach the end of the long hallway where Maria’s office is located, her voice rings out throughout the space and Steve and Tony emerge from the open door with grim expressions.

‘’What’s wrong with you two?’’ I inquire, taking in Steve’s clear embarrassment and Tony’s annoyance. Steve merely shakes his head, his cheeks slightly red.

‘’The boys thought it was funny to disobey my orders.’’ Maria says, her voice trailing out from the open door. I move closer, so that both her and the two men are in my line of sight. ‘’They just needed a little correction to put them back in their place.’’

Tony pulls a sour face, turning to me with exasperation. ‘’You know, I suddenly feel quite sorry for you, kid. I don’t know why you willingly put up with that one.’’ He jerks his thumb behind him, towards the open door.

‘’She actually obeys me, Stark. And she knows that good girls get rewards.’’

Tony gags audibly, and Steve looks absolutely mortified. ‘’That’s it, I’ve heard enough for today.’’ He says, holding his hands up at chest level, as if admitting his defeat.

Poor Steve has had the hardest time of anyone at the compound to accept Maria’s forwardness in sharing our dynamic with the group. Everybody knows that I’m hers, and they’re all careful to not upset me, lest they face her wrath. Most of them are quite good at it, having the good decency to pretend to not notice that I’m cockwarming Maria when she has me sit on her lap throughout a whole meeting.

Whilst the likes of Carol, Natasha and even Tony, keep their features composed whenever Maria decides to have a little fun around them. Steve appears prone to dropping whatever he’s holding, and scurrying off like a frightened alley cat.

This is precisely what he chooses to do now, hurrying around the corner towards the lift. Tony merely rolls his eyes and sets off after him at an easy pace, peering over his shoulder to shout at Maria. ‘’Don’t go too hard on the kid, Hill. She’s not your stress ball.’’

Maria scowls at this, but I can’t help but chuckle softly as I close the office door behind me. ‘’Ignore him.’’ I tell her. ‘’He doesn’t understand.’’ She humms in assent, pinching the bridge of her nose. ‘’For someone as clever as him you’d think he’d understand how to follow a simple command.’’

‘’Rough day?’’

‘’To say the least. I have over 7 trillion nerves, and yet somehow those two have managed to get on every single one of them.’’ She kicks her chair away from the desk, spinning to the side, and I move forward to embrace her, standing between her open legs.

Her hair is loose today, and I lace my fingers through it as I lean down to give her a gentle kiss. She tastes of apple cider and I drink her in, relishing the softness of her lips, the feel of her tongue against mine. When we part, I’m glad to see a slight smile on her lips, though her eyes are still tired.

‘’Daddy’s had a very hard day, honey.’’ She murmurs against my lips.

Desire tugs suddenly at my lower stomach, my body already knowing what’s to come. At first, I thought she might have called me to her office, so we could grab a bite to eat together. I was sorely mistaken. This has happened countless times before, how could it not, what with the stress of Maria running the compound. She manages it well most days, but there are times when even she needs to blow off some steam.

Before she gets a chance to ask, I lower myself carefully down onto my knees, settling in between her spread thighs. She’s wearing her uniform, with her gun strapped to her right thigh, and she’s an absolute sight to behold. I look up at her through my lashes, trying my hardest to give her those pretty ‘’use me’’ eyes that she loves so much. It seems to work because she groans low in her throat and grabs hold of a fistful of my hair.

‘’God, you know exactly what I need, don’t you, pretty girl? Obeying before I even tell you what to do.’’ Her free hand finds its way to my mouth, and she holds up three fingers for me, which I take into my mouth without preamble.

‘’This is why I love you so much, baby. You always listen to Daddy and you give me exactly what I ask for. Those guys out there might be Avengers and SHIELD agents, but when it comes to knowing who’s boss, you could teach them all a lesson.’’

I glow under her praise, appreciatively suckling on her fingers, staring up at her with big eyes, fluttering my lashes in the way she likes. Truth be told, I do just about everything in my life the way Maria likes it, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I spend my days making our meals, packing her lunch with handwritten notes every day, I do our laundry and keep our rooms tidy. Most importantly, I offer her some welcome relief from the stress of her work-life. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

In return for it all, I get her all to myself. I am hers, but she is also mine. She loves me deeply and is fiercely protective of me. I get to live at the Avengers compound, despite hardly even knowing how to shoot a gun. She takes me to every fancy dinner and gala she’s invited to, clothing me in stunning dresses that she rips to shreds the second she gets me into bed.

Most importantly, I get Maria. Not agent Hill, not director Hill, just Maria. I get toothpaste kisses in the early morning, playing video games in bed, oversized shirts with no pants and gentle murmurs of I love you, every day of my life.

Maria pulls her fingers out of my mouth, and I have to bite back a whine of disappointment. The feeling quickly fades however, when she tips my chin up to look at her, her fingers wet with my saliva. ‘’Are you going to be a good girl and let daddy have her way with you?’’

I nod excitedly, my overeager hands scrabbling at her belt buckle, eager to get her out of her trousers. My mouth waters at the thought of her thighs framing my face as I suckle obediently on her clit.

‘’Ah, ah, ah.’’ Maria chides. ‘’That will come later, I have something special for you today.’’

Her fingers deftly undo her zip, reaching in to pull out a surprisingly short but girthy strap. I don’t recall ever having seen this one before, and I’m confused as to why Maria hasn’t consulted me on buying it. Usually she always allows me to help her pick, reasoning that since I’ll be the one taking it, I should have some say in what it looks like.

‘’Do you like my new cock, honey?’’ She asks, her voice sweet as honey. ‘’I had Stark make this especially for us. Turns out he can be useful when he wants to.’’ My ears perk up at this. If Tony had a hand in developing this, it won’t be just an ordinary toy.

‘’What can it do?’’

Maria grins. ‘’Clever girl. This one is very special.’’ She takes my hand in her own and places it over the silicone. ‘’It’s attached to me, one piece inside, the other suctioned over my clit. I won’t claim to know exactly how it works, but there are sensors in every inch of this thing. When it’s touched, the bits connected to me will active.’’

My mouth has fallen open slightly as I take this in. I consider the unassuming strap, taking in the feel of the silicone against my hand. ‘’Have you tested it yet?’’

‘’Just enough to know that it works.’’

That’s more than enough for me. I shift, propping up one foot, so I can stand. I mean to take a seat in Maria’s lap, assuming she wants to fuck me with it, but she places a firm hand on my shoulder and pushes me back down to my knees.

‘’Nuh-uh, honey. I want you on your knees for this.’’ I allow myself to be guided back to my knees and watch as Maria shifts closer to me, one hand on her cock, the other holding back my hair. Given the choice, I would much rather eat her out. There’s just something about her taste in my mouth and the unabashedly loud moans she lets out when I suck her clit, that drives me absolutely mad for her.

She only ever makes me suck her off when she’s had a particularly trying day, when she needs to feel in control. It’s not so bad though, she’s gentle with me, and I’d do anything to make her happy, so I don’t complain.

So, when she implores me to ‘’open wide.’’ I do so without hesitation. I expect her to slide the strap into my mouth, but instead she maintains a hard grip on my jaw as I open my mouth for her. Maria leans forward, almost as though she's going to kiss me, and spits in my mouth. Before I have time to swallow it, she pushes my head down to her cock, and I know what she wants from me.

"Be careful." She murmurs, carefully gathering up my hair to keep it away from my face. "Keep your teeth out the way, baby."

With my mouth full of cock, I can't reply, but her statement does worry me somewhat. I wouldn't say I'm particularly good at this. Usually I make an effort to look as pretty as possible and to put on a show, I'm less concerned with it feeling good.

I make good use of the extra saliva in my mouth, making sure to get it as wet as possible. Above me, Maria leans back, spreading her legs a little further.

Carefully I take it a little deeper into my mouth, opening wide, keeping my teeth well out of the way. This proves a little difficult, so I decide to change tactics. I take her cock out of my mouth, instead placing open-mouthed kisses along the length of it. Using my hand, aided by the slickness of my saliva, to stroke her wherever my mouth is not.

I am rewarded with a sharp intake of breath as Maria lifts her hips up. I raise my eyes and try to suppress a smile as I continue to work on her. She's so gorgeous when she's like this, with her hair loose, a flush evident on her high cheekbones and her eyes shut tight.

Once I've worked her up for a while, I attempt to take her into my mouth once more, this time with more success. I keep a fist at the base of her cock and take the rest of the length into my mouth. Maria groans loudly as I bob my head up and down, applying my tongue as I would if it were her clit in my mouth.

"God. Fuck." She manages to stutter out, her breath quivering when she inhales. Her hands are tight in my hair, gripping hard and pushing down with remarkable strength. I know she's not one to force me to do anything I don't want, and I can't claim to be a fan of this kind of act. But I know this is a subconscious reaction of her body trying to chase the pleasure, and who am I to deny her?

I remove my fist from the base of her cock, and when I raise my head, the toy almost slips out of my mouth entirely, I make sure to take a deep breath. When I let the cock back into my mouth, I don't stop Maria as she pushes me down, her hips snapping up sharply. The sound of me gagging takes her by surprise, alarmed, she tries to pull out, concerned that she might have hurt me.

I search for her eyes, trying to look as reassuring as one can with tears in their eyes. As she pulls back, I dip my head, taking more of the length, trying to show her I'm alright. Really, I'm just thankful for the limited size of this toy. Any longer and I truly wouldn't have been able to take it at all. When Maria realizes that I'm not in pain, she moans low and deep in her throat. "You're such a good fucking girl, aren't you? You were made to take my cock, baby."

She shifts to the edge of the chair, to give herself more leverage, and begins to thrust shallowly into my throat. It burns slightly, and I gag a few times every minute. Saliva drips down my chin and onto my chest, tears trickling down my cheeks, the sounds coming from me are obscene, but I do not care in the slightest. Not when Maria is above me, moaning desperately, her fingers clawing at my hair, groaning out praise, telling me how good my throat feels, how she's going to fill me up with her cum.

Maria appears on the verge of falling apart, gasping loudly, her thrusts getting sloppier by the second, when all three of her computer screens light up, a harsh calling sound echoing through the room.

‘’Damnit.’’ Maria says through gritted teeth, as she gingerly pulls the cock from my mouth. Looking over at the screens, she reads the name of the caller and curses again. Leaning down, she takes my face in both of her hands, her thumbs swiping at the tears on my cheeks. ‘’Are you okay honey?’’ I nod my head, gratefully taking in several lungfuls of air and wiping my chin with the back of my hand.

‘’Get up on my lap, baby. You did so good, I promise this won’t take long.’’

When I’m secure in Maria’s lap, straddling her thighs, my head resting in the crook of her neck, she answers the call.

‘’Goddamnit, Danvers.’’

‘’Let’s keep it professional now, Agent Hill.’’ I can hear the amusement in her voice, and usually I enjoy the easy way Carol handles our relationship. But right now I want her to vanish from the planet for a few hours, at least until Maria is done fucking me stupid.

I tune out their conversation and focus myself firmly in the present. I nuzzle my nose into Maria’s neck, inhaling her scent, enjoying the feel of her body pressed against mine. Her hands rest on my thighs, hidden underneath my dress, stroking me gently. For the first time, I become aware of the pressing wetness between my thighs. With my legs spread like this, and in the absence of any underwear, the ache is all too present.

When Maria settles her hands on the supple flesh of my ass and squeezes hard, I can’t help myself, and I whine softly, my hips rutting against the open air between us. She shushes me gently, pressing a kiss to the side of my cheek, and settles the palm of her hand against my aching clit. She’s busy talking to Carol, but I don’t need her to tell me what this means. She’s saying go ahead, entertain yourself.

Gratefully, eagerly, I grind my wet cunt against the fleshy part of Maria’s palm. I am almost light-headed with relief, and Maria’s sharp intake of breath when she feels my copious wetness covering her hand, almost goes unnoticed. I hold on to her tightly, moaning under my breath, loudly enough for her to hear, but not loud enough for Carol to notice.

I glide my tongue over the exposed part of Maria’s neck, suckling lightly. I want to lean back fully, take in her face, stare at her like the piece of art she is. I want to watch her as I ride her cock, and bask in the joy of being all hers. I know not to be too greedy though, and I attempt to pace myself, rocking backwards and forwards at a steady pace. It’s just enough to take the edge off, but not quite enough to send me into an orgasm that I don’t have permission for.

As I rut against Maria’s hand, her cock brushes against my thigh and I wonder if she can feel that too, but if she can, her face doesn’t betray anything. I don’t falter in my rhythm as I cup my hand under my mouth to spit in it, and quickly reach down to take hold of the cock. That gets her attention. She stiffens, and she stumbles over her words, but manages to recover quickly. I stroke her lazily, keeping the rhythm steady with the one my own hips have taken up. After a few minutes of this treatment, Maria is trembling, her cheeks considerably redder than before.

When the time comes for Carol to call out a smug goodbye, to Maria, and to me, she looks as though she’s about to combust. She hammers the fingers of her free hand on the touchpad, shutting off the video call, and all the screens in their entirety.

Her hand flies up to my face, cupping my cheek and pulling me into a desperate, heated kiss. She presses hard against my core with the palm of her hand, and slips two fingers inside me. She crooks her fingers on every thrust, making me whimper into her sweet smelling hair. I don’t let up on my grip on her cock, trying to sync my movements with hers, and soon the both of us are breathing hard.

Maria is gasping harshly, her hips raising up, trying to thrust harder into my hand. I lean back to look at her. She’s flushed all over, her eyes glittering with desire. Her lips are red from our rough kisses and wet with my saliva. She looks like a painting. I want to capture this moment and hide it away, remember it for the rest of my days.

She is breathtaking, the curve of her neck, her firm muscles underneath the soft fabric of her uniform. She smells like her flowery perfume, but her hair smells of her shampoo. Her hand is slick where it meets my core, and her skin pressed against mine feels like a little slice of Elysium.

I claw at the front of her uniform, tugging at her zip, to expose the tops of her breasts, spilling over the top of her bra. She laughs when I lurch forward to attach my mouth to soft skin there.

‘’You have a busy mouth today.’’ Her voice sounds raspy, thick with need. Her fingers pull out of me and I whine through a mouthful of breast. ‘’Don’t worry, baby. Daddy will fill you up soon.’’ She pulls my head up sharply, threading her fingers through my hair and holding me tight. ‘’Open up.’’ Maria holds up her fingers, covered in my wetness, and I take them into my mouth without question. I moan, not at my own taste, but rather the feel of her fingers against my tongue.

As I dutifully suckle on her fingers, Maria manoeuvres her cock between my thighs, sliding it through my copious wetness. She pulls open a desk drawer, the one where she keeps toys ready to go, and fishes out a small bottle of water-based lube. She squeezes a generous amount into her open palm and fists her cock, covering every inch of it in the slick substance. Once she’s done, she wipes the excess on my swollen cunt and rubs her cock over my engorged clit.

I raise myself on my knees as Maria lines her cock up with my entrance. When I sink down onto it, there is hardly any resistance. We let out a synchronized moan and rest our foreheads together as we take in this new sensation. Soon, however, I have become impatient and begin to rock my hips. I grind myself against her for a while, before remembering the function of this new toy.

So, I push myself up and let myself sink down again, the ridges of the cock rub deliciously against me as I push myself up and down, up and down. I raise myself high enough to barely keep the head inside, before dropping down all the way, the cock bottoming out deep inside me. Maria is breathing hard against my overheated skin, her hips trying to meet mine the best she can in this position. She’s swearing under her breath and gripping my hips so tightly that I’m sure there will be bruises there come morning. I try to keep a decent pace, but my knees are aching from straddling her for so long. I can tell from the pained expression on her face that she’s close, but that this is not quite enough to push her over the edge.

‘’Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.’’ She leans back in her chair, running her hands through her hair as I try my hardest to move as quickly as I can, up and down over her cock. It’s getting harder for me now, and after several minutes of this I have to take a break.

Maria however, is near delirious with need at this point and groans in frustration when I have to stop. ‘’I’m sorry, baby.’’ She grunts, as she quite suddenly leans forward, lifting me up by my thighs and laying me down her desk, her cock still buried inside me. ‘’I’m sorry.’’ She says again, thrusting into me harshly. ‘’Ah- fuck. I just- I gotta-’’ She doesn’t finish whatever it was she was going to say. Focussing fully on our connected bodies.

Her first thrusts are slow and experimental, but once she gets the hang of what feels good, she sets a punishing pace. She looks almost feral, her zip pulled down to expose the tops of her breasts and her necklace bouncing wildly against her chest. She’s moaning unabashedly, her full weight resting on top of me.

I know it won’t be long when her thrusts get harder by the second, I secure my legs tightly over her hips, holding her close against me. She feels so good inside me, the smooth head of the cock pressing firmly against my G-spot, making me writhe underneath her. I don’t try to stop the stream of high pitched moans leaving my mouth.

‘’God. Fuck.’’ She stutters out, her hips pounding into me. ‘’I’m going to fuck my cum into you, baby.’’ She growls into my ear. I can’t help myself, whining desperately in response, half delirious with pleasure. ‘’Fill me up, daddy. Pl- ease.’’

When she comes, her moans are louder than I’ve ever heard them. Her hips never cease their punishing pace, pushing into me so deeply that the hard metal of her zip presses painfully into my pubic bone. None of that matters though, not when her warm cum is spilling copiously inside me. I hold her tightly, one hand on her back, the other in her hair as she ruts against me, riding out her high.

It takes several minutes for her to come back to herself and when she does, she gives me a sheepish, apologetic look. ‘’Are you okay, honey? I think I lost it there for a second.’’

I chuckle wearily, propping myself up with one elbow to look down as she pulls her cock out of me. Some of the cum leaks out, and the sight of this sends a shiver of desire through me, a harsh reminder of my lack of release.

‘’I loved it.’’ I say truthfully. ‘’The feeling of you coming inside me-’’ I trail off, exhaling shakily. ‘’You did beautifully.’’ Maria assures me, leaning down to give me a long, languid kiss. I yelp when her hands snake around my thighs once more to lift me up, instinctively I wrap my thighs around her waist.

‘’Let’s get to bed baby, you deserve a proper reward.’’

#char writes #c: maria hill #maria hill x reader

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messedupfan · 2 years

Text

A Broken Promise (Wanda Maximoff x Reader) (Anon Request) (Oneshot)

Summary: Based on this request. When Tommy and Billy gain their abilities, Wanda and R have a difference of opinion on what they should do about their children.

No specific gender for reader

A/N: There are many different ways to protect people and many different ways to get hurt doing so. This is my approach. I hope you like it! I have a feeling this is not at all what you were going for but with my other ideas, a happy ending simply wasn't going to work out haha Enjoy!

Masterlist | All Stories Taglist

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“Tommy! Slow down!” You shout at your son as he uses his abilities to finish the course you had set up for him in the woods. You were trying to teach him how to control his speed so that he could slow down in front of other people whenever he needed to run. It was too risky for him to be out in public ever since his abilities came in. He has no control and he doesn’t want any. He was a ten-year-old boy who could run faster than a car. Of course he was having way too much fun.

Tommy giggles and that’s how you’re able to spot him in his path and stop him by grabbing his arm. “Hey! I didn’t know you could do that!” He complains and tries to struggle out of your grip.

“There’s a lot of things you don’t know, kid,” you say and put special handcuffs on his wrists that stop his powers. “Now, behave or else I’m leaving these on.” You hated having to resort to these measures but it was the only way to get him to listen.

He gets a mischievous glint in his eyes and tries to run away from you again but he isn’t able to move a centimeter. He frowns looking at the cuffs, “This is no fair! I doubt mom is doing this to Billy!”

“I know she isn’t, this is our only pair and unlike you, Billy listens.” You retort, making your boy pout and try to manipulate you into removing the cuffs with his big eyes that mirrored your own. He bats his lashes as he promises to behave and you almost take them off until a voice stops you.

“He’s lying, leave them on,” Pietro walks through the woods and you greet him with a grateful smile and a hug, thanking him for making it out. “Are you kidding? If anyone is going to mentor my nephew in speed, it’s going to be me. No offense, Y/n, but you just don’t have what we do. Ain’t that right, champ?” He holds his fist out for Tommy to bump and the boy does with a wide grin.

“Wait, I get to be taught by Uncle P?” Tommy asks excitedly and you try not to take it to heart. You did have the poor kid in handcuffs because you didn’t know what else to do.

“Yes, but only with my supervision. No funny stuff, Pietro. We don’t need him exposing us to the community because of some silly prank,” you warn your brother-in-law. The two of you pretty much grew up together, you were well aware of his mischievous ways. In truth, it’s why the two of you got along so well but now that you were a parent you couldn’t believe the amount of things the two of you got away with. It kept you up at night worrying that the boys might be just as clever as they got older.

“You know there is a place where he might be safer if you’re so concerned abo–”

“I’m going to stop you right there. Wanda and I already discussed this. We’re not sending our boys to some school where we’ll never see them. We’re not like those other parents. We actually love our kids and what they’re capable of.” You explain further. When you found out that Tommy’s power was similar to Pietro’s, of course you called him, but you wish you hadn’t needed to. He worked at Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters in New York and immediately insisted that you enroll them. It wasn’t more than a train ride away from where you and Wanda lived in Westview, New Jersey, but that was still too far for your liking. “We want them to feel normal.”

Pietro shakes his head at the statement. “The only place they will feel normal is at the school, and you know it. You remember what it was like there, it was the best place for people like us. Without that place how else would you and Wanda have met?” You clench your jaw at his point. He had a fair point. Without that school you wouldn’t have known that there were more people that had abilities and that there was nothing to be afraid of. You might not have found love without it. Or even thought it was possible for someone like you. “Come on, I will personally drive them down here every weekend. How does that sound?” He negotiates.

“Like you need to have this conversation with your sister. Her stance is no, that’s where I’ll stand until she tells me otherwise,” you sternly respond.

This makes him smirk, “You’re so whipped,” he mutters. You’re unable to fire back at him because Tommy complains the handcuffs are itching. “Alright, I suppose I’ll let you out of those things.” Pietro holds his hand out to you and you roll your eyes as you hand him the keys. After Tommy is set free he is asking his uncle a million questions, ready to follow anything the man says to him. You enjoy seeing him so happy and watching how good Pietro is with him.

You began to wonder how many other kids might be just as fast as Tommy and what kinds of friends he might be able to make at the school. You knew that you would never feel comfortable with him or Billy making friends with kids at the school here. They could trust the wrong person and the next thing you knew, you and Wanda would be forced to relocate somewhere safe or go into hiding. As the lesson continues on you start to question if you and Wanda were doing more harm than good by keeping the boys in Westview. You knew how quick they were to turn against any mutant that gets exposed. There have been two other kids that got turned in this year alone.

When the sun begins to lower, you call it a day and the three of you head home. Luckily, Pietro had tired out Tommy so you didn’t have to worry about him accidentally speeding home on the walk back to the car. Once you’re home, you notice something off about the windows. Walking through the door you find Wanda putting out a fire and Billy sitting on the stairs with an apologetic expression. The house was a complete wreck and there was no denying that you and Wanda were in over your heads. “Darn, I was hoping to have this all fixed up before you guys got back,” Wanda says breathlessly.

“Woah, Billy!” Tommy says, impressed by his brother's damage.

“Okay, boys, go get cleaned up for dinner,” you direct as you shoo them up the stairs. They protest but ultimately march in the direction. “Wanda, I think we need to revisit–”

“No! I’m not sending them away, Y/n! After everything it took to become their mother, I’m not going to send my babies away for someone else to raise them,” Wanda shakes her head. “I won’t have them thinking that we gave up on them.” You put your hands on Wanda’s shoulders to keep her from getting worked up. That was something that the both of you struggled with for so long. Feeling like your parents abandoned you because they were ashamed of you and your abilities. Which turned out to be true for your parents. However, it wasn’t completely true for Wanda. But that was a mess of a story for another time.

“Look at this place, love, we don’t have the means to teach them here. What if one of the neighbors stopped by while you were teaching Billy?” You hold Wanda’s hands in yours as you try to reason with her. “It will be okay,” you reassure her but she pulls her hands out of yours. She looks at her brother angrily accusing him for turning you against her. “He didn’t do anything, other than show me that I can’t teach our son because I have no idea how to. I don’t have super speed and he needs more than a few hours on the weekends to learn.”

Wanda chews on the inside of her cheek as she considers your words. She shakes her head and runs her fingers through her hair. “You promised me that you would always protect them,” she says in a low whisper.

“This is me protecting them. Wanda, they are kids who can do really cool things! They’re going to want to show off and what happens then? Things could get nasty and then everyone is in danger. I,” you sigh and try to get her to look at you. When she defiantly refuses to, you decide to put the conversation on hold because her brother is there and the kids are still up. You clear your throat, “I will help you clean up.” She mutters her gratitude.

Pietro whistles low and comments on the tension but offers to make dinner for everyone after Wanda gives him a killer glare. Together, you and Wanda clean up the mess that Billy made. As she fixes the television with her magic she thinks about the nights she spent crying in her bed missing home and the promises you made to her when you were younger.

“When we have kids, I swear, I’m never going to send them away from us. If they have abilities, I’ll protect them no matter what. I never want them to feel the way we do,” you say as you gaze up at the stars from where you lie on the ground. The two of you had snuck out of your rooms and met up in a clearing in the woods to have a moment together. You brought a little picnic basket of desserts and Wanda provided a blanket for the two of you to lay on so that the grass didn’t scratch either of you too much.

Wanda turns on her side to look at you with a blush and a smile, “You think we’ll have kids?” She reaches for your hand to play with your fingers.

You turn your head to look at her, “Of course, you’ve always talked about becoming a mom.”

“And you’ve always hated the idea of raising kids,” she reminds you.

You lick your lips and fight a smile, she wasn’t wrong. For a long time, you despised the idea of ever becoming a parent. But you fell in love with her and it didn’t seem like such a ridiculous concept anymore. You take her hand and mess with one of the many rings on her fingers. “True, but when I gave you this promise ring, I said that I would do everything to make your dreams come true.” You flit your eyes to hers and peck her on the lips, “I meant it.”

Wanda kisses you again, “I love you.”

You and Wanda avoid eye contact throughout dinner. Neither of you says a word to the other and the boys can sense that something is wrong between the two of you. Pietro does his best to entertain and distract the boys but he can tell that they are more concerned about their parents. It wasn’t unusual for you and Wanda to have a spat every now and then. But every time the two of you did, the boys never knew how to behave. They enjoyed it so much better when you and Wanda were mushy and playful.

When you send the boys to bed, neither puts up an argument about the early hour. They rush up the steps after telling everyone goodnight. Wanda lights a spelled candle that prevents anyone from listening in on the private conversation just in case either of the boys get curious.

“I told Charles,” Pietro states. “He already knew, of course, but he is waiting for your call.”

You look to Wanda and wait for her reaction but she doesn’t give much of one. “Well you can tell him not to expect one. We’ve got it covered,” she says and you shake your head. “What? You hated that place as much as I did!”

“I was a kid then,” you respond. “I didn’t have the parents that Tommy and Billy do. I love those kids with every fiber of my being and so do you. My parents hate me, they wanted nothing to do with me then and certainly not now. Of course, I hated the place, fuck I hated myself back then. But looking back on it now, I…” you look away from her while shaking your head. “I just remember the good stuff.” Wanda goes quiet as she continues to avoid looking at you. “I will be calling Charles first thing tomorrow and enrolling them, regardless if you change your mind,” you state. Wanda finally looks at you with the betrayal written all over her face. But you had to put your foot down.

She blows out the candle and stands to leave. You try to stop her but she holds her hand up to quiet you. “I’m going to bed,” she says. “Don’t follow me.” She ascends the stairs and that’s the end of the conversation.

You sigh and put your face into your hands. “I better be doing the right thing here, P.”

He pats you on the back, “Only time will tell.”

You scoff and remove your hands from your face, “Good thing you’re not the guidance counselor, that was terrible.”

A couple weeks later, you and Wanda are driving the boys to their new home. The car ride is silent other than the vehicle noises and the wind. Tommy was excited about the transfer when the two of you told them. But Billy was just as upset as his mother. He was surprisingly being the difficult twin this time. He refused to pack his things and kept trying to negotiate, promising to be a better kid if you would let him stay. You felt awful that he thought that way and tried to reassure him that this wasn’t a punishment but every time you tried to get Wanda to help, she would shrug or walk away. You kept promising Wanda that it wasn’t going to be a bad thing but she would just retort with mentions of your old naive promises.

She was really trying your patience but you had high hopes that after a week or so of the new arrangement she would see that it was the right choice. But it took longer than a week. The first couple were tough because Billy would call every night begging for you or Wanda to pick him up. It killed you to tell him to stick it out a little bit longer and every time you told him that you loved him, he retaliated with, “Then let me come home.”

Wanda wouldn’t let you sleep in the room but she would sneak into the guest room, where you slept, and would crawl in next to you for a few hours. You never said anything because you knew she would stop, so you simply took it at her showing that she still loves you even though she was being stubborn.

After the second month, Billy’s calls consisted of a boy named Teddy. The most you ever heard about Tommy was from Pietro or when they came home for the weekends. It was always updates about his progress or how many friends he was making so quickly. Wanda slowly began to stop punishing you when the boys asked you guys to come to the school to visit them instead of them coming home. She finally saw them with other kids like them and the freedom they had while being there. Back in Westview they would have been miserable trying to hide who they are. She saw that now.

Billy stopped seeing the new school as a punishment and when Wanda asked him how he felt about the school he told her that he loved it and thanked her for making him go. That night, Wanda took your hand and brought you to the bedroom.

One day Pietro calls to tell Wanda that Tommy had a bad fall and broke his arm. Fortunately, his abilities included fast healing but Wanda was upset again. She blamed you. “Wanda, boys fall and break their arms all of the time! He probably would have done it if he was still living here!”

“Yes! But the difference is that we would have been there for him! Not an hour away, finding out when it’s too late to do anything for him!” She argues.

“He is safe, he is fine, you heard him on the phone. He thought it was the coolest thing to ever happen to him. Tommy doesn’t resent us for not being there,” you sigh and put your hands on your hips. “Wanda, I don’t know how much longer I can have you upset with me like this anymore. What do you want from me?” You helplessly ask. Feeling rundown and unbelievably hurt by the way she has been treating you.

Wanda clamps her mouth shut and looks at you. She throws her hands up as she considers what could be done about the situation that would make it better for her. It wouldn’t be easy to take the boys out of the school since they really like it there. If she wasn’t too stubborn to admit it, she would have to agree that it was the right choice to send them there. You sit down on the sofa as you wait for her to answer.

There was only one thing she wanted but you couldn’t necessarily give her. “I need my babies,” she says. “I just need my babies back.” She falls to the loveseat.

You nod slowly, figuring that’s what she would say. “I guess I could talk to Charles and Pietro again. Get the kids–”

“No,” she says. “That’s not what I mean.” You look at her curiously. “I want them to be babies again. I want it back to when the safest place they could be was home with us. I want to be able to hold their entire bodies in my arms. I want them to be my babies again.” She says with watering eyes and a tight voice.

You nod and move to sit next to her. Cautiously, you put your arm around her and when you do, she falls against you as she cries. “I know, love. They grew up so fast.” You do your best to comfort your wife. “I didn’t think it would be this hard,” you admit with tears in your eyes. “I’m sorry that I failed you,” you kiss the top of her head.

Wanda pulls away from you at your words and shakes her head, “No,” she whispers. “No, don’t think that. You didn’t fail me. I’ve just been so mad at the world for putting us in this position where we have to send our boys away to keep them safe. I’m sorry that I’ve been taking it out on you.” She puts her hand around your neck and pulls you in for a kiss. “It’s not your fault,” she says between breaths. You pull her into a tight forgiving hug and suggest that the two of you should plan a fun summer vacation for the family and she agrees.

At some point you ask Charles to keep you and Wanda in mind in case a teaching position ever becomes available. He promises that the two of you will be the first he calls if there ever is. Summer comes around and you and Wanda spoil the boys with going to amusement parks nearby. You take them into the city for sightseeing and then take trips out to other popular family vacation spots. The boys were having way too much fun to question it and they were happy to see you and Wanda getting along again.

Before either of you are ready, school is back in session and the two of you are moving their stuff into their room. It happened to be your old room and you were surprised to find where you had carved your initials with Wanda’s on the desk they hadn’t replaced. Wanda blushed when she saw it, she promised to show you how much she appreciated it later. The boys make grossed out noises when they overhear the comment. You laugh. “I know those sounds from anywhere,” a voice says. “Still grossing others out for your own amusement, Y/n?” Professor Xavier rolls into the room.

“Actually, it was this one over here with her inability to whisper,” you tease.

“I see,” the man chuckles. “I used to speak to Erik with my mind whenever we weren’t alone,” he hints towards Wanda. “One of the benefits of gifts like ours.”

Shocked by the information, you let out a short laugh and Wanda covers her face. “How is the old ball and chain doing?” You ask and he glances at Wanda before he answers. Things were complicated with Wanda and her birth father, Erik Lensherr. She didn’t even know that they were related until a couple years after attending this school. It made her feel so much worse about herself. She was abandoned by parents at birth only to be abandoned years later by the people she thought were her only parents. It took you years for her to trust that you would never abandon her.

“That is a terrible term, you know,” he states and you shrug. “And he is doing just fine, thinking about going into an early retirement. I might join him, I think it’s time we gave others a chance to enrich the young minds that come through here. Don’t you?” You find yourself even more shocked than before. The two of them leaving would mean that there would be space available for both you and Wanda to join the staff.

“Wow, I don’t think I could imagine this place without you in it,” Wanda speaks up. “Who do you think would replace you?”

The man smiles, “No one can replace me. I’m one of a kind.” You agree with him while Wanda gets annoyed by the interaction. “I do, however, have a few people lined up to take my position as headmaster. I will be testing them out through this term. Hopefully, I will find someone suitable before next school year.”

It takes two years before you get the call that Charles and Erik have retired, leaving a few positions open. You inform Wanda and ask if she wants to teach there. She takes a month to come around to the idea of it and another month to make a final decision. The next time that you’re moving the boys into their room, you and Wanda are moving into one yourselves to start a new chapter of your lives.

The end.

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