#and then we’d sit in comfortable silence while we both read in her room
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Gone
Issues with previous updates, so if you’re reading along you may want to check out the links for previous chapters. The complete fic is also available via FF.Net & A03 - CreativeGirl29
Tagging 🔖 Sorry if I’ve missed anyone - If you would like to be tagged in these updates then please let me know and I’ll add you to the list: @janetm74 @drileyf @katblu42 @psychoseal @weirdburketeer @alexthefly @misstb2 @thundergeek59 @burningcowboyhoagietaco @dragonoffantasyandreality
Previous. Chapter 40. Missions.
Chapter 41. Woken.
After sitting for several minutes in silence, Scott decided to speak. “Okay, let’s look at the facts… We have Doctor Emily Sanderson, she’s had a very bad childhood, but ended up coming out of it a lot stronger. The only motive we can find so far, is that her father was reported by dad to the police… Then we have Nurse Maria Andrews, she lost both parents at Crest Valley, plus her two youngest brothers were horrifically injured. So, her motive is possible revenge against International Rescue, and possible monetary gain.”
“So, you think it’s Maria then?” Alan questioned.
“I’m really not sure,” Scott frowned, “as I’ve said before, she’s stepped up and took on the parenting role to her three younger brothers. If I was her, then I’d just be grateful that you were alive, and I still feel like there’s more that we don’t know about Emily.”
“I agree Scott,” Jeff sighed, “John, can you do further checks into the backgrounds of Emily’s brother and aunt?”
“Of course!” John confirmed.
“Maybe look at Maria’s other brother as well?” Gordon suggested.
Jeff smiled. “That’s a good idea Gordon… Penny, can you call your Police Commissioner friend, and see if he knows what’s going on with those two women?”
“No problem Jeff, I’ll get on it straight away.”
“Good, then I suggest that once you’ve all seen Virgil, and we know what’s happening at the station, then you should all return to the hotel and see if you can help John,” Jeff stated, “we’ll meet back in the canteen tomorrow morning, and go through everything we have found”
“FAB!” They all chimed.
After each of the boys had spent a short amount of time with Virgil, Penny had informed them that the commissioner had revealed that, because of an ‘anonymous tip-off,’ the Hood’s former hideout had been found. Due to this development, the police had decided to hold both women overnight for further questioning. However, they had all been warned that unless further evidence presented itself, or if upon waking Virgil remembered one of them being there, they would both be released the following day. Upon hearing this their grandmother, alongside both Parker and Penny had returned with the rest of the boys to their hotel, while Jeff had remained at Virgil’s side. All of them determined to help John with the additional background checks on the two women. Hoping that it would yield something that would point them to the correct offender.
… …
The next morning: 7am.
Nurse Carrie Greggs, who was on duty for the day shift, gently shook Jeff’s shoulders to waken him. “Good morning,” she greeted, when Jeff finally opened his eyes.
“Hello,” Jeff yawned.
“I’m sorry to disturb you,” she smiled, “I’m just about to take Virgil of the sedatives.”
“What… You are?” Jeff responded in surprise.
“Yes,” the nurse replied, “his readouts have been good during the night. So, we’d like to give this a try now.”
Jeff pulled himself up into a more comfortable position. “How will this work?”
“We will start by switching his infusion off,” Carrie explained, “because Virgil was on Propofol, he should start waking up soon. We will then check his breathing and see how he’s doing. If he's still needing support, then we will keep him on a lower dowse of sedation so that he can interact with you. If he can breathe on his own, then we will have to ask you to stay in the waiting room while we remove the tube. Once that’s done we will provide him with some oxygen until he’s feeling a bit stronger.”
“I just hope he’s more with it today,” Jeff grimaced.
Carrie smiled sympathetically. “Just be prepared. Even if he his sensible, the tubes will make him cough!”
“Okay,” Jeff replied, gently holding Virgil’s hand in his.
After a short time, Carrie began to speak. “Okay, Virgil is starting to wake. Mr Tracy, we’re going to ask Virgil to squeeze your hand. Please let me know if he does.
Jeff nodded. “Come on Virg, you can do it!” He quietly willed.
“Virgil, can you hear me?” Carrie asked. “If you can, then I want you to squeeze your dad’s hand,” Carrie glanced at Jeff, but he shook his head to confirm that there was no reaction. “Come on Virgil, I know you can hear my voice. Please squeeze your father’s hand for me.”
“He did it!” Jeff grinned, when he received a response. However, his heart immediately sunk when Virgil’s head began shaking from side to side, like it had done the day before.
Carrie immediately took Virgil’s other hand in hers and held it, so he couldn’t pull at the tubes. “Talk to him. Let him know you’re here.” She said.
Jeff nodded and leaned closer to Virgil. “Everything is going to be okay Virg.”
“Keep going,” Carrie said, when Virgil didn’t respond.
“Please son, open your eyes for me,” Jeff pleaded.
Virgil’s eyes, unfocused, slightly cracked open, as he began coughing against the tube.
“Virgil, look at me… You’re in intensive care. There’s a tube in your mouth helping you to breathe. Do you want us to take it out?” Virgil nodded his head, turning red from the amount he was coughing. Nurse Greggs pressed a few buttons on the monitors. “Virgil, I want you to try and take a deep breath for me?” Virgil responded to her command. “Well done, that’s it!”
A doctor, followed by another nurse entered the room and observed the ventilator readouts. “Okay, he’s breathing on his own,” the doctor confirmed, “we can go ahead and remove the tube.”
The new nurse started gathering up equipment, while Carrie addressed Jeff. “As I explained, you will have to leave the room while we extubate. I promise it won’t take long, and as soon as we are done then you’ll be able to return.”
Jeff nodded. “I’ll see you in a bit,” he whispered in Virgil’s ear, before leaving the room.
Virgil, stared at the door watching his dad leave, his focus being brought back by the nurse’s voice who had been in the room with his father.
“Virgil, we’re going to take the tube out now, okay? Come on Virgil, look at me.” Carrie soothed, as the panic and desperation grew more evident on his face. “Everything is going to be okay!” Virgil locked his eyes onto the nurses, as she continued to reassure him that he was indeed safe and secure. “That’s it.” She continued, while the doctor and the other nurse worked together to pull the tube. “You’re doing really well. It will all be over soon.” Carrie smiled at him when they had finished pulling the tube. “There we go, all done now!”
The other nurse placed an oxygen mask over Virgil’s mouth and then adjusted the bed, so he was now in a slightly raised position. While the doctor observed his monitor readouts. After a few more checks they both smiled at Virgil. “Can you say Hello for me?” The doctor asked.
“Hello,” Virgil croaked.
“Well done!” He replied. “Your throat will be sore, you can have some ice chips in a bit, okay?”
“Okay,” Virgil slightly coughed, “where’s my dad?”
“Your father is in the waiting room,” the other nurse replied, “we just need to do a few more checks and we’ll bring him back in. Just try and get some rest for now.”
Virgil nodded and closed his eyes.
… …
Even though Jeff knew the nurses were all doing the best job possible for his son, he had still apprehensively left the room, wanting to remain at Virgil’s side through the extubating process. However, as he had no choice but to leave, to relieve his tension Jeff had gone into the corridor outside of the ICU, and called the hotel. Scott had been the one to answer. His relief at Virgil being awake obvious. He quickly passed on the information to the rest of the family who were in the room with him, and declared that they would all be there as soon as possible. After finishing the call, Jeff anxiously returned to the waiting room, hoping that someone would return for him soon, and he would once more be able to be with his boy. After another five minutes, which had felt like hours, Carrie opened the door and signalled for Jeff to follow her.
“How is he?” Jeff asked as they made their way back towards Virgil’s private room.
Carrie smiled. “Good! The tubes out, he’s breathing well, and he’s able to talk.”
“If there are any side-effects, when will they show,” Jeff questioned.
“Any side-effects should be apparent already. However, because of the sedation he isn’t aware of them yet. As soon as the sedation is out of his system they will hit him. Given the size of the overdose, that’s most likely going to be sooner rather than later!”
Jeff exhaled after taking all this information in. Once Carrie was satisfied that Jeff was ready, she opened the door and allowed him to enter the room. “Hey Virg,” he said softly, gently squeezing his hand.
Virgil opened his eyes and smiled weakly at his father. “Hey,” he mouthed, squeezing his dads hand back.
Jeff stroked his hand through Virgil’s hair. “You gave us all quite a scare!”
“What happened?” Virgil croaked.
“Do you not remember?” Jeff asked.
“Alan gave me my chain,” Virgil muttered.
“And that’s the last thing you recall?” Jeff questioned.
Virgil furrowed his brow in concentration. “Yes… Sorry.”
“Not your fault son... Not your fault at all!” Jeff responded, before looking towards the nurse with understandable concern. “Is that normal?”
“It has been known to happen with Rynax,” Carrie replied, “It sometimes stops the brain laying down a new memory.”
“Any chance they won’t come back?” Jeff questioned.
“Occasionally,” she answered, “give him a bit longer, and once the sedation as worn off, see if anything comes through then.”
Jeff sighed, hoping that now Virgil didn’t remember which woman it was, his brothers had uncovered something in their search.
“Dad,” Virgil muttered, “what did happen?”
Jeff looked towards Virgil who was looking perplexed. “You had a really bad reaction to some drugs you were given… I promise I will explain more later, for now I want you to try and get some rest for me.”
Virgil frowned not wanting to rest, but finding his eyes were naturally shutting as he drifted off to sleep.
… …
A few hours later:
Over 24 hours she had been held for questioning. Over 24 hours, in which, somehow, she had managed to keep her cool, and answer all the questions that had been fired at her. It had been extremely difficult to maintain the façade. Especially when the police had revealed that they had discovered the Hood’s hideout, and had somehow managed to get the computers working. ‘No doubt because of the Tracy’s,’ she inwardly scowled. Knowing, because of information divulged to her by the Hood that they were also International Rescue. Thankfully though, the recorded imagery hadn’t been retrieved, thanks to the help she had received. Plus, when no other evidence had presented itself, and luckily Virgil had woken and not remembered anything, the police had eventually believed that she was an innocent victim, who had been dragged into all this business by the Hood’s insidious lies.
Now as she stood outside of the police station, she beamed an inner smile. It felt amazing knowing that despite the bad luck she had been having she had so far gotten away with everything! All she needed to do now was to make sure that it stayed that way. Plus, she still wanted and needed revenge against Virgil, and his family. She breathed in the fresh air that freedom brought her. Firstly, she needed to go home, shower, and make sure the damn bite that Virgil had inflicted on her hand was healing. Secondly, later that afternoon she would make her way to the hospital for a meeting she and her colleague, who had also been accused, had been asked to attend. Thirdly, she would need to gain access to Virgil Tracy, just in case his memories did come flooding back to him, and silence him once and for all!
Then finally, she would need to make sure that she did continue to look like an innocent victim, not only to the police, but also to her work colleagues. Pondering her thoughts on how to do this, she smiled to herself, maybe the way forward was to make sure the blame was firmly placed onto the other woman. She knew that she could arrange that, she just needed to make sure that the wheels were firmly in motion!
NEXT. Chapter 42
#thunderbirds fanfiction#thunderbirds#cg29fics#thunderbirds original series#tagficgone#virgil tracy#scott tracy#john tracy#alan tracy#jeff tracy#gordon tracy#whump#thunderbirds are go#thunderbirds fandom#thunderwhump#tag fic#tag fic gone#Gone
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Story #52, In the Silence of the Night 1/2
This is The X-Files fanfiction. Read it on AO3
A light tap on the door pulls her out of her slumber. The TV is still on and Mulder is sleeping peacefully across from her on her little striped couch. Her bare feet are juxtaposed with Mulder's head, and his sock ones are dangling over the arm of the couch near her face. A silly thought - they look way too cozy with one another as if they are spouses, siblings, anyone but merely work partners – comes and goes. It reminds her of her childhood and how she used to make a beeline in the middle of the night to her parents’ bed only to find Melissa and Charlie had already been there. There wasn’t enough room for all the Scully kids, and mornings would often find Dana with her face somewhere around her sister’s feet, with her mother’s hand in her hair. Ironically enough, Bill would never join them.
When Scully frees herself off the pile of limbs and cushions to open the door, Maggie Scully greets her with a smile so bright that Dana squints at her, like the sun is shining straight at her face.
“I brought you something,” Maggie says, letting herself in and heading to the kitchen. “We need to stock up your fridge properly. Can’t let you live on anything but nice home meals.” While you are still recovering from cancer, the end of the sentence implies, but neither of them brings that up. Dana’s remission is nothing short of a miracle - still so new and fragile, and both fear to dig too deep into it, lest any careless stir can reverse it.
She joins her mother at the counter, her eyes flicking back and forth following Maggie’s hand diving into what looks like a dimensionless shopping bag, as she pulls out one Tupperware container after another.
“That’s a lot of food, Mom. Are we throwing a party to feed an entire floor?”
“Oh, dear, wasn’t it Fox I’ve just seen dozing off in the living room?”
Maggie asks in that deep mellifluous voice Dana always finds solace in, and immediately her face goes scarlet matching her flaming hair that, if one looks any closer, is quite mussed, creating the perfect ensemble with her smudged mascara and wrinkled blouse. Scully doesn’t lift her eyes off the counter to meet her mother’s half-joking but penetrating gaze. Instead, she occupies her hands with cups and tea bags.
“Well, I can’t imagine him not hanging around here with you all weekend. He’ll help you empty the fridge.” Her mother continues nonchalantly. “You hungry?”
“Not really. Mulder ordered a pizza earlier and made sure I ate at least half of it. I thought I was going to burst. Just some tea for me.”
As they finally settle at the table, Maggie reaches out to her daughter’s hand and gives her a gentle squeeze.
“How are you, Dana?”
"As strange as it sounds, I feel alive.” With delicate fingers, she grazes the golden rim of her snow-white porcelain cup.
“I feel good, Mom. To be honest, right now I have more time than I know what to do with, but as soon as Mulder lets me come back to work, I’ll make good use of that.” To a stranger, her words may sound a bit harsh as if she’s displeased with her partner’s over-protective behavior, but her mother knows better. Behind the façade of the feigned sternness, Maggie recognizes the notes of playfulness.
She can’t seem to avert her eyes from her daughter’s elegant hands, still deadly pale, with thin bluish veins running across her soft skin. For a long time, they just sit there, across from one another, sipping their tea and soaking up the comfort they find in each other. Mulder is still sleeping peacefully just across the wall, covered up with a blanket lovingly.
“You know, Dana, I didn’t believe we’d have you back.”
“Mom…”
“No, I need to let it out. After you told me that your cancer metastasized and spread to your blood flow… I didn’t see how we could have you back.”
“Neither did I, Mom.”
“You are a scientist in our family, Dana. I could see it in your eyes – the moment you gave up. That was how I knew - there wasn’t anything left to be done for you.” Maggie draws in a breath and braces herself to continue.
“Fox wouldn’t give up, though.” Her voice is quiet, careful and measured, mindful of the aforementioned partner sleeping just a few feet away.
Subconsciously, Scully turns to the living room, the corners of her lips tug up slightly.
“He wouldn’t let you go. I believed then he was ready to follow you. It was like the first time.”
“The first time?”
“When you were abducted.”
“Mom, it’s over.”
“My faith left me, Dana.” There are tears in her mother’s eyes, and Dana reaches out to pull her in a tight hug. Her strong brave mother, who, by some absurd coincidence, is doomed to outlive her beloved husband and a few of her own children. Her beautiful mother, whose faith and courage have been tested repeatedly. There’s only so much one can take.
“I don’t know how, Dana, but somewhere along the way, I lost my faith. When you were abducted, I didn’t believe you would be returned to us. And then you had, and I didn't believe you would make it. We went as far as to turn you off the life support because that was what you had stated in your will. We stayed with you to say goodbye. Fox was there too, Missy wouldn’t let him off the hook.”
“Missy?”
Maggie smiles sadly at her daughter.
“Yes. Fox wouldn’t come to join us. He thought it was wrong, that we had to fight for you. Unlike us, he still believed you could make it. I think Missy found the right words for him because, in the end, Fox was there for you. He didn’t come to say goodbye though. He came because he still had hope. If it weren��t for him, we wouldn’t be sitting here with you now.”
“Mulder is a dark wizard.”
“You didn’t see him then, Dana. It was like all of a sudden, his whole world fell apart. Then one day you turned up in a hospital and nobody knew anything, nobody was able to say what was wrong with you, and Fox just,” Maggie’s voice hitches and she takes another sip before she continues. “He just ran amok. Fox was devastated and dying along with you, but I didn’t think he’d have followed you. Not back then. He would have set on a journey to find everyone responsible for what had been done to you.”
Dana chooses not to interrupt, sensing her mother’s need to vent it all out.
“This time though, he would absolutely have. I’m terrified at the thought of having been so dangerously close to burying not just one, but the two of you. He was aching for you. He still does. Maybe you should let him in.”
Maggy departs, somehow leaving Scully both totally in disarray and maddeningly calm. She hadn’t the faintest what Mulder went through during her abduction. She could get some bits and pieces - from her family, case reports (her own file stored right there in one of the drawers), and occasional worried glances from Skinner. Allusions galore, but never anything specific.
While she tried to find a workaround for her trauma, Mulder was learning (by trial and error, no less!) to deal with his guilt complex – about being the reason for her abduction, about not getting to her on time, about failing time and again. Those were feeble attempts on both their sides and eventually, by unspoken agreement, they decided to ignore the matter entirely. As if it had never existed. It was easier that way. It was safer.
Even in his sleep, Mulder looks tired. Like he hasn’t been sleeping for days on end, that is likely to be true - he probably hasn’t been sleeping since she was diagnosed and the tumor started growing, spreading its treacherous cells and filling her mind with uneasy thoughts. She cannot bring herself to stop contemplating whether his thick brown hair turned silver on the temples because of her. She doesn’t remember him having any gray hairs before. And that signature frown line between his brows seems to have deepened and now is defined sharply. She wants to reach out and smooth that wrinkle away from his beautiful face.
Of its own volition, her hand cups his stubbly cheek, and her thumb traces the plump bottom lip. She can’t remember when they stopped being just partners and became friends. Probably somewhere around day one. She can’t remember when she stopped wanting him to be just her friend and become her lover. Probably somewhere around year one.
Lifting his head gently off the pillow, she squeezes herself in between it and the armrest, so now his upper body rests on her lap. His long legs are bent at his knees and tucked into the cushions and Scully’s bare feet are perched on the coffee table next to the empty box of pizza and she’s stroking his hair languidly. She pulls on an invisible thread and then tucks her cool hand under the neck of his t-shirt. Mulder’s skin is soft and hot under her touch, and as she caresses the expanse of his upper back, Mulder turns his head and sighs contentedly into her stomach.
“Hey,” he mumbles. His eyes are still closed and he shifts even closer and presses Scully deeper into the cushions all the while lifting her shirt with his nose and burrowing it deep in her belly button. She makes a sound, something between a moan and a chuckle.
“It tickles.”
She doesn’t attempt to stop him, though. Puffs of warm air breeze across her skin and trails of chaste, almost imponderable kisses send tingles down her spine.
Lay the blame on her being drunk with his closeness. Lay the blame on him being under the spell of sleep.
The last remnant of doubt vanishes when Mulder’s weightless dry touches turn into bold open-mouthed kisses. She wants to be closer to him. So close that she doesn’t know where she ends, and he starts. Mulder is the only man she can ever imagine herself with, and tonight he has her undivided attention.
There’s no way to resist an uncontrollable impulse to kiss her partner. They are magnetically drawn to one another. Having Mulder by her side has become second nature to her. He’s the oxygen she can’t live without. He seeps into her skin and permeates her thoughts.
She doesn't have delusions of ever having a normal family with him, where they both do their fair share of prosaic daily routines. There’s no house with a white picket fence in that equation - Mulder offers her the basement with overfilled file cabinets and dusty shelves. Over the years she has come to appreciate everything he gives her - Fox Mulder is the constant exercise to her brain, her guide and mentor, her best friend and platonic lover. He's the butterflies in her stomach and goosebumps over her skin.
Sometimes it feels like too much, and she wants to rip him off like the band-aid and expose herself to the world outside Mulder’s suffocating presence. That she did a couple of times before, only to realize that she had lost sight of herself not because of him, but without him. The air Mulder doesn’t breathe with her chokes her, and when the need to fill her lungs with Eau de Fox Mulder becomes unbearable, she calls his number. “Mulder, it’s me.”
“What are we doing, Scully.” He stops and lifts on one elbow, his face is level with her chest.
“We are… celebrating?” She asks unsure, one hand still tangled in his silky waves.
“Celebrating what?”
Everything and nothing in particular, she wants to say. Every day is a holiday now since we are alive. And so she says it.
“That I want to celebrate.” Mulder agrees.
“I think we deserve it."
Her eyes roam his handsome face, delicate fingers stroke the rough shadow of his jaw.
“I want it.”
#x files fanfic#writing in english#creative writing#english is my second language#in the silence of the night#x-files fanfiction exchange#one in five billion
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Born This Way (Because Of Negligence Towards Basic Scientific Safety)
(IDK how far apart the Fenton kids are in age, so Jazz is an Undetermined Age Where She's A Toddler But Also Very Verbal. Maybe it's the Genius Genes letting her learn faster. Let's go with that.)
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Maddie coughs, spitting out another glob of ectoplasm. "Well, at least know it's not an issues with the cooling system."
Jack sneezes out the ectoplasm stuck in his nose, and then grins and stands triumphantly. "Still a step towards success!"
Jazz frowns from where she's playing with her doll, safe within a Fenton Anti-Ghost Toddler Chamber. "Mommy, you should cover your mouth." She points at her own mouth. "Mr. Wummy on TV says dat getting weird stuff in your mouth is bad."
"Mr. Wummy is a cartoon, dear. We're seasoned scientists, we know what we're doing." She wipes herself off, and sits down. "If there were any side-effects to accidental ecoplasmic consumption, we'd know."
"But what if Danny doesn't like it?" Jazz point at her mother's belly.
Maddie pats her belly. "The baby is still just a fetus, sweetie. It can't tell what it does and doesn't like yet. And why are you so sure it'll be a boy?"
"Because I'm your baby girl. So now you need a baby boy!"
Maddie tilts her head and smiles lovingly at her daughter. "Oh, you're adorable." Nothing cuter than Child Logic.
Maddie stands back up, and puts her hands on the workbench. "Now, let's see about that firing mechanism..."
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Maddie brushes her teeth, sighing when her toothbrush comes away glowing green. "We really messed up a lot of experiments today. I think I swallowed a whole ghost's worth."
Jack spits a similarly colored mouthful of toothpaste foam out. "At least it doesn't taste as bad as it smells."
Maddie puts her hands on her belly, the bump now quite obvious. "II hope we're right about it not having side effects."
Jack's expression softens. He gently pulls his wife into a comforting hug. "The doctors all say he's as healthy as can be, Mads. You don't need to worry."
"I still worry anyway, though."
"Of course you do. You're his mom! But we'll worry together, and if you ever need me to, I'll do the worrying for us both! While you relax and give him more tips on how to avoid ghosts once he learns to walk."
Maddie giggles, and sighs. It'll all be fine... nothing to worry about.
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Jazz has her arms crossed, a teddy bear hanging from one hand. "Five times!"
"Yes, and did we mention we're so proud that you can count so we-"
"Five times!" She shouts again, waving her little sticky toddler hand at them. "I saw you eat the bad green stuff five times!"
"We didn't eat it," Maddie says patiently, "It got into our mouths by accident."
"You swallowed it!"
"Only a tiny bit, only on accident, dear."
Jazz puts her hand on her mom's belly. "Danny is gonna be here soon and he's gonna be mad!"
"He won't even know it happened, sweetheart."
"Yes he will! He'll be the smartest ever, just like me and like you and like daddy! And he'll be so upset and never stop crying!"
"Babies do that anyway, sweetie." Maddie rubs her belly. It's true, Danny is due any day now. And yes... there's been some extra Ectoplasm Incidents lately. Maddie just can't stay awake sometimes, and... well. That's not exactly good when working on ghost hunting machines.
"Your baby brother will be perfectly fine," Maddie assures. "He's a healthy baby boy, and he'll be just as healthy when you meet him."
Jazz lights up at the mention of meeting him. She can't wait!
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Jazz bounces excitedly in her dad's arms. She gets to meet her baby brother! Finally! She's going to read him bedtime stories, and protect him from closet monsters, and show him how to throw a tea party!
Jack chuckles. "Calm down, sweetie, you don't get to play with him quite yet! He's still very fragile."
"But he's okay?"
"Yes, he and Mommy are both okay. Better than okay."
Jack knocks on the hospital room door, and they enter.
Maddie is holding Danny, and it looks like she fell asleep. Jazz gasps, even though all she can see so far is the blanket bundle.
"He's tiny!"
"Very." Again. Ah well. Jack had always hoped one of his kids would groww up to be taller than him, but maybe it'll have to be a grandkid.
He walks over, and smiles at his sleeping wife. "Okay, let's be quiet," he whispers. "We don't want to wake mommy."
Jazz nods seriously.
Jack sets her on the bed, and Jazz carefully crawls closer to Danny. She moves the blanket to get a good look at his face, grinning widly-!
She frowns. "Where is he?"
"What?!" Jack hurriedly picks up the bundle, making Maddie startle awake. "Holy-"
"Jack? Honey? What is it?!" Maddie's tone becomes increasingly panicked.
Jack, looking a bit pale, hands the bundle back to her. She gasps.
It's empty, and freezing!
"Where- where is-"
And then suddenly. He's there.
Fast asleep, wrapped up snug and tight. His little face still red from being brand-new to the world, his tiny tongue sticking out of his mouth slightly as he snoozes.
He disappears again.
Maddie thinks she's about to pass out.
Finally, Jazz breaks the horrified silence. "I told you to cover your mouths!"
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Danny sleeps all the way home, and all the way up to his room. Jazz is waiting by the bassinet, and peeks in as soon as he's placed down. She frowns. "Mommy, his hair is white. He's not old."
Maddie sighs. "No, he's not. Apparently it just... does that, sometimes."
Danny yawns, and opens his little eyes. Jazz's own eyes widen as well. "He's glowing!"
"Yes... that happens too."
Danny screws up his face, and starts crying. Maddie picks him up and rocks him. "Poor baby... he's so cold."
"Why?" Jazz tilts her head.
Maddie sighs. "Well... your father and I... we think he's half-ghost."
"How?"
"... Probably... the ectoplasm," Shame burns in Maddie's veins.
Jazz, wide-eyed, reaches to to try and touch Danny. "Is he dead?" She doesn't sound sad, because it looks to her like even if he is dead, he's still alive.
"No!" Maddie shuts the idea right down. "He is a very healthy, living boy! But he's... different."
"Are you gonna trap him?"
"Wh- Jasmine, why would you ask that!"
"He's a ghost."
"No! No, we never treat him like any other ghost. And he's only partly ghost, so it barely counts. Now, Mommy has to feed him so he can go back to sleep. How about you go pick a movie for tonight?"
Jazz nods. She takes that job very seriously. There's a science to picking movies.
She heads off, and Maddie looks at Danny's sniffling little face. His eyes are back too baby blue, but his hair isn't quite black yet.
At least he's still visible.
At least the side effects seem mild.
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It's about 6 am when Jack bolts up too use the bathroom. On his way back, he decides to check on the kids.
Jazz is asleep, cuddling a stuffed animal. Jack smiles.
Danny is also asleep, wrapped up in a cute little onesie and floating above the bassinet FLOATING ABOVE THE BASSINET?!?!
Jack runs over and grabs Danny from the air, pulling out a Fenton Ghost-Whapping Baton!
And then he looks at Danny, who's whining, and sees sleepy glowing green eyes looking at him.
"Oh. Um, sorry, son." He puts away the baton. "I thought a ghost was stealing you."
Danny yawns. Jack sees a cold breath puff out of his son's mouth, despite the room being temperature-controlled to keep him toasty during the nights.
Jack puts Danny back into the bassinet. He leaves, and comes back a little bit later with some equipment.
He sets up a rudimentary ghost-shield to keep Danny from floating away during the night, but won't trap him. He can still float a little, if need be.
"The scariest ghost we've faced yet," Jack mumbles. He kisses Danny's forehead, and sits there until Danny falls asleep. By then, Danny is human again.
Jack leaves, and in the morning he and Maddie begin working on some upgrades for Danny's room.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny babbles happily as Jazz plays peek-a-boo with him.
"Boo!"
Laughter.
"Boo!"
More laughter!
"A-boo! A-boo!" Jazz can't stop grinning. She's a great older sister! Look at her go!
She takes Danny's hands, and moves them over his face. "Now, where's Danny? ... Here he is! Oh."
Danny isn't there. But his clothes are, and something's inside of them. And Jazz is still holding two chubby baby arms, even if they're cold and invisible.
Jazz stares for a second, and then speaks. "... Peek-a-boo?"
Danny reappears, and squeals with laughter!
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Maddie sits down to give Danny his bottle. She's brought him out shopping with her so she can grab some replacement parts that fried in their latest invention, the Fenton Ecto-Extractor!
Jazz had thrown a fit when she'd heard the name, and it startled Jack so bad he'd turned it on too early and it completely collapsed on itself! It took half an hour to convince Jazz that they weren't trying to use it to make Danny normal, just using it for themselves now that they know it can cause... strange things, to happen.
Danny drinks the bottle with no issue, and burps as soon as she starts his back. Really, he's a pretty easy baby. Except for the ghost part.
Maddie is getting him back in the stroller when Danny's face screws up. She watches a cold, visible breath leave his mouth, and then he starts to scream. Sobbing, wailing baby screams, attracting the concerned and/or annoyed attention of most people around them.
"He's just tired," she assures loudly. His breath is still puff out in cold clouds, even though it's perfectly warm in the mall.
Maddie quickly picks him back up and hugs him, bouching and singing to try and calm him down.
Danny starts to quiet down. She puts him back in the stroller, but as soon as she does (as soon as he looks behind her with those bright, bright green eyes) he starts crying again.
She sighs and picks him up, hurrying back to the car. She'll just come back for the parts later. Clearly, something is upsetting him.
Something that she just can't see.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jazz leans away from Danny, grinning. "There!"
Danny is propped up on her bed. Maddie and Jack needed to quickly decontaminate themselves, and so Jazz had to watch Danny for just a minute.
And in that minute, she's does some redesigning.
Danny's fluffy white hair has a little bow in it, and she's put some of her kiddie makeup on him.
Danny disappears for a second, and the bow falls. When he reappears, it's not on his head anymore. He looks at Jazz blankly.
Jazz crosses her arms. "No fair! I was making you pretty!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maddie stumbles into Danny's room. She flicks on the light, and turns off the Fenton Ghost-Shielding Hanging Mobile. She reaches in and pulls the crying Danny out of the bassinet, shushing and rocking him.
Danny's eyes are bright green again, and Maddie can see his breath. "Oh, you always get so worked up when this happens," she says softly. "Is the cold upsetting you?"
Danny doesn't answer, just cries more.
Maddie takes him to her and Jack's room, and lays down with him on her chest. Jack rolls over in his sleep and puts his arms around her, cradling both of them.
Danny falls back asleep soon, and Maddie sighs. She can still see his breath, but at least he's calm now.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jazz holds up her drawing, and shakes her head. She goes back to scribbling, and moves closer to Danny. "This is black," she says to him, pointing at the crayon she's using. She picks up another color. "And this one is red."
Danny stares as Jazz keeps scribbling. Jazz assumes that means he's learning.
"I'm going to let Mom and Dad know I saw this in my closet," she says seriously. "I think people know you're special and want to steal you!"
Danny blows a spit bubble by accident, and laughs when it pops.
Jazz's eyes hold more determination than ever. She scribbles with the fury of a million warriors. "You're very valuable." She learned that word yesterday. "So you need lots of protecting."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Do you think this will make her feel better?" Maddie asks as she closes the panel.
Jack lifts his soldering mask and nods. "If one thing can make a person feel safe, it's fifty anti-ghost devices hidden in their walls!"
"I just worry about that doodle. What if something really got in?"
"Mads, you personally handcrafted every single sensor put up in the kids's rooms! If a ghost had gotten in, we'd know! To get past then they'd need deep knowledge of exactly how our deigns work and how they detect ghost energy, and no ghost has that!"
"You're right, you're right. Still, I hate to think she might be having nightmares about something like that. It looked like it had devil horns."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Peek-a-boo!" Jazz grins at Danny. "Peek-a-boo!"
It never gets old for him! No matter how many times they play, Danny loves it!
"Peek... a-boo!" Jazz does little jazz-hands.
Danny disappears, and Jazz grins. "Where's Danny? Where'd he go?"
Danny reappears, and-
"B-b-boo!"
Jack and Maddie dart into the room! Maddie swoops Danny up, eyes wide!
Danny giggles, and says it again. "Boo!"
Maddie and Jackie both tear up. In unison they shout, "HIS FIRST WORD!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny gnaws on the toy with his little baby gums.
"I can't believe it. Already teething," Maddie sighs, holding him. "Seems like only yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital."
Jack wipes his eyes. "He's growing into a young man already."
"Oh, Jack, stop it, he's not nearly a young man."
"But he will be before we know it!"
Maddie pats her husband on the back comfortingly as he begins to blubber.
Maddie closes her eyes, thinking about those early months with Danny, figuring out how to prepare for his floating and invisibility, learning to not panic when his eyes and hair changed color, learning that sometimes when they do his clothes change color as well...
She's startled out of her thought by something warm and wet on her lap.
She looks down to see the teething toy on her thigh... and a whole lot of nothing where Danny's head should be.
Then it' back when she blinks, and he's beginning to whine for his toy.
She quickly picks him up off her laps and retrieves it, giving it back to him.
So... the ghost abilities are still developing, then. She'll have to let Jack know about this later.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Daniel Fenton," Jack says, the most serious Jazz has ever seen him, "You're in big trouble this time, mister. I don't know how you did this-"
Jack shakes the empty tube of baby snacks, safe for teething babies.
"But I will get to the bottom of it!"
"Look like he already did," Maddie jokes, setting Jazz's breakfast down for her.
Jazz laughs, because it sounds like a Smart Adult Joke and she thinks those are funny, even when she doesn't understand them.
Danny babbles, smacking his chair's food tray.
"Oh no you don't, mister! You're getting regular baby food this morning and that's all!" Jack grabs the jar of food, and holds up the spoon. "Now, here comes the Fenton Ghost-Tracking Copter!"
He puts the spoon up to Danny's mouth-
-and right through his head.
He gasps and pulls back, and Danny's head reappears. He babbles, smacking the tray again.
Maddie drops her fork. "I can't believe I forgot! That's what I was going to tell you about!"
Jazz looks at her parents. "You didn't know he does this?"
They both gawk at her. "You did?!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny reaches up and grabs Jazz's nose. Jazz wrinkles it, and he laughs.
Jazz sticks out her tongue and crosses her eyes, and Danny laughs even harder!
Jazz looks at her parents as they finish setting up the picnic blanket. "I'm the funniest big sister ever!"
"You sure are, sweetie!" Maddie scoops Jazz up and gives her a kiss on the cheek. "You get it from me."
Jack laughs. "It's true! Your mother could get the whole Ghost Hunting Club laughing out HAZMAT suits off all day long back in the day! ... 'Course it was just the three of us, but still, three's a crowd!"
"May as well have been doing stand-up," Maddie says, setting Jazz down on the blanket.
They enjoy the little outing, the sun shining but not beating down, the cool breeze just enough to crispen the air but not freeze.
And then Jazz looks at Danny. She sees glowing eyes, and a puff of breath come out of his mouth. "Uh-oh. Mommy! He's gonna cry!"
Maddie picks Danny up right as he starts to wail. She hugs him, and is shocked. He doesn't feel cold this time!
Is he just cold inside?
Or is there some other problem?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack rubs his ears. "That child wails like a Banshee!"
"He could very well be doing exactly that," Maddie points out. "We still don't know what other abilities he'll develop as he ages!"
"Or how well he'll be able to control them. ... Mads... should we homeschool him?"
"It's a little early to worry about that, Jack."
"I know that tone, you're worrying about it too."
"... We can't just keep him isolated from the rest of the world, Jack. It'll be unhealthy for him. And what if it makes him lean into his ghost side too much?"
"So you think we should let him go to school."
"Yes. ... But not pre-school. We'll teach him to not use his abilities around other kids, and then send him to Kindergarten."
"... Alright, Mads. If you think that's what's best, then that's what's best!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Come on, that's it! Yes, yes, WHOO!" Maddie picks Danny up as soon as he walks over. "Who's a strong little Fenton? Who's the best little boy at walking in the whole wide world?"
"Danny!" Jazz cheers from the couch.
"Danny!" Maddie and Jack both cheer at once.
Danny laughs and squeals, kicking his legs and flapping his arms. His first proper Walk! Not just a step or two and then crawling, that was real walking!
Jack takes Danny, holding him aloft. "You're a real butt-kicker in the making, son! You'll be as strong as your old man someda-"
Jack feels something bump him, hard.
He shouts as he goes down! Danny going with him!
But as Jack meets the floor, he feels Danny's weight disappear from his hands!
He lands with an "oof", and looks up to see Danny floating above him, surrounded by a faint white aura. Danny looks down and babbles, sucking his thumb. Then... he moves.
He's only ever floated in place before. But as he looks down at his dad, he kicks his little legs and moves! Moving right across the room!
And then he looks behind his dad, and his breath comes out in puffs. He starts crying and wailing hysterically.
Jazz peers at where Danny is looking. "Mommy, hit the air with the stick!"
Maddie gently grabs Danny. "Why, sweetie?"
"Danny is scared! So we have to protect him!"
Maddie grabs her Fenton Baton, and gives the area Danny was looking at a good thwack. She expects it to go right through the empty air.
Instead there's a loud zap! There's a cry of pain! And then a semi-transparent form zooming out of their house!
Maddie's jaw drops. Jack scrambles to his feet and grabs every ghost weapon in radius, forming a protective circle around the family with them!
Maddie looks at Danny, who's now calm.
And his breath isn't visible.
Hmm...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We're just seeing if my hypothesis is right," Maddie assures.
Jazz sobs, clinging onto her leg. "NOOOO! HE'LL GET HURT! OR STOLED!"
"Stolen, sweetie. And Mommy and Daddy would never let that happen."
Jazz scream-sobs again.
"What if we can promise you the ghost will be in a big, big box?"
Jazz looks at her mom with watery eyes. "Like around Danny's crib?"
"Yes, like that."
"But-but he's so little."
"It'll just be a second, sweetheart."
Jazz sniffles again. "... Can I hold the stick?"
Maddie smiles softly. "Yes, sweetie, you can hold the stick."
A couple hours later, Jack and Maddie return home with a ghost in a box. It's yelling something, but the box is soundproof.
Jack sets the box down, and goes to grab Danny. He comes back, and holds Danny firmly while walking towards the ghost. Danny's eyes are covered by a too-big hood on his little shirt. He can't see, or hear, that there's a ghost nearby.
Danny's breath comes out a visible puff about two feet away from the ghost, and he starts crying. Jack steps back a ways, and Danny's breaths become normal again. He settles down.
Jack walks closer. Puff of breath, and crying.
Jack steps back. Normal breath, calm Danny.
"He can sense ghost's," Maddie says, looking in awe at her baby boy. Her face breaks into a grin. "He's his own portable ghost detector! He'll never be caught unawares, he'll be able to always defend himself!"
She runs up to Jack and hugs them both, kissing Danny's little forehead. Danny babbles.
"He'll never be caught unawares," Maddie says again in relief. "Oh, this makes me feel so much better."
"Mommy? ... Does that mean we're haunted all the time?"
Maddie's relief hardens and breaks in her chest.
All those times Danny's Ghost Sense has gone off inside! All those times!
She pulls away. "Jack, we're upping our security!"
Jack nods. "Time for FentonWorks 2.0!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny giggles as his dad chases him around the house. He phases through doors and turns invisible in hiding places, always giving himself away with laughter.
Jack grabs Danny just before he phases through the next door. “Gotcha!”
Danny laughs, happy little kid squeals that you can hear through the whole house. Jack puts Danny on his shoulders and heads into the kitchen. “He’s getting pretty good at running! Say, whatcha making, Mads?”
“Meatloaf. Would you mind helping?”
Jack sets Danny down at the table and helps Maddie make dinner, while Danny eyes something on the counter.
“Cookie.”
Maddie looks over. Danny is staring at the cookie jar. “No sweetie, no cookies yet.”
“Cookie!”
“Not yet.”
Danny starts to cry. “Cookie!”
Maddie walks over, and gives Danny his binkie. Danny refuses it af first, but once he has it he calms down fast.
He looks at the cookie jar still, though.
And, slowly, he lifts out of his chair. He kicks his little legs, pushing himself forward. He plops down on the counter, and reaches into the jar with an intangible hand.
He pulls out not one, but two cookies!
He gets so excited that he starts waving his arms, making happy noises.
Jack looks over. “What? Maddie, he’s gotten into the cookie jar!”
“I’ve got it!” Maddie walks over and scoops Danny up in his old Anti-Ghost-Phasing Blanket. Soft, warm, and totally ghost-proof.
Danny whines. “Cookie!”
“I said not yet, honey.” Maddie grabs the cookies and puts them on the counter. She safety pins the blanket around Danny like a little cape, except it takes away his powers.
Danny sits in his chair, throwing a fit! But to no avail. Eventually he just sits there, tear-faced and angry.
And then Jazz walks in. She looks over at the cookies, and then at Danny.
She walks over and snatches them off the counter as quick as she can! She casually walks over to the table, and hands them to Danny.
Danny brightens up. He shoves one cookie in his mouth, and gives the other back to Jazz. His original intention.
Jazz smiles, and scarfs the cookie down just before Maddie turns around.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Why?” Danny looks at his mom with wide, innocent eyes.
Maddie’s heart aches. “People might get scared.”
Danny frowns. “Scawy?”
“No, no, you aren’t scary. But the... idea of ghosts, for a lot of people, can be scary.”
Danny thinks, and then walks over to the fridge. “Scawy.”
Maddie looks at the drawing Danny is pointing at. It’s Jazz’s drawing of The Ghost.
The one that’s been haunting them for months.
Black horns, it looks like. Red eyes. Deathly blue skin. It makes Maddie shiver, knowing it had direct access to her children for so long.
Danny starts to cry. “I scawy!”
Maddie scoops him up. “No, no sweetie! You are nothing like that monster, nothing like it at all! And you never will be, I promise!” Maddie hugs him tightly. “Oh, my poor baby... how about we take a break? Do you want to help Jazz paint something?”
Danny sniffles, and nods. They head upstairs, leaving the talk for another day.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Kindergarten, Jack,” Maddie says, packing the little lunch box. “He’s already in Kindergarten!”
Jack is already openly sobbing as he makes Jazz a sandwich.
“Do you think he understands what he needs to do?” Maddie asks no-one in particular, just worrying.
“He understands perfectly!”
Maddie jumps a little, and turns around to see Jazz smiling proudly. Danny stands right next to her, a shyer smile on his face. Maddie tears up at the sight of him with his little backpack and school outfit on.
Jazz looks at Danny. “Go ahead! Show them what we practiced!”
Danny puffs out his chest to look strong. “I won’t go through anything, turn invi-invisi- um, turn not-seeing-me, I won’t fly, and, um... and if I feel another ghost, I’ll use this!” He pulls his little Fenton Emergency Pager out of his pocket.
Maddie wipes her eyes. “Perfect, honey,” she says, letting the pride seep into her voice. “Oh, my baby boy! Growing up so fast!” She picks him up and kisses his face. Danny wraps his arms around her neck.
“Do I have to go, mommy? They’ll think I’m scary.”
“Oh, honey. You aren’t scary, I promise.”
“... What if I need to be scary?”
“Mommy will come be scary for you.”
“She very good at it,” Jack chimes in, shivering a little as he remembers the time a ghost attacked while Maddie was buying Danny’s first pair of little shoes. By the time it was over, Jack almost pitied the thing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maddie gives Danny one last hug. “Remember, calls u anytime you need us, okay?”
He nods. “I love you, Mommy. I love you, Daddy. I love you, Jazz.”
“You’re just going to school, not saying bye forever.” Even as Jazz says it, her lip wobbles and her voice cracks.
Danny floats up to the car window give her a hug, before being quickly held up by Maddie to cover the power use.
“That’s the only time today you’ll do that,” she reminds him.
Danny nods.
Eventually... the goodbyes are done being dragged out. Danny’s family drives away as the teacher leads him inside.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny sits on a swing by himself, not sure what to do.
Usually at home he plays using his powers. He doesn’t know how to be good at tag without making it so people can’t touch him, or how to play hide-and-seek without turning invisible.
He kicks the sand. This is stupid. He misses Jazz. He can play with her.
“Hi.”
Danny looks up. Another young boy is standing in front of him, holding some kind of electronic. The boy holds out his hand. “I’m Tucker.”
Danny shakes his hand, focusing very hard on keeping it a real hand. “I’m Danny.”
Tucker shows him the electronic. “Want to play my game?"
Danny looks at it. It’s a coloring game. He nods.
They pass it back and forth between each other for a while, both coloring in different parts of the same picture.
Eventually it’s time to back in. Danny and Tucker ask if they can sit closer together.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“So, how was it?” Maddie asks, gripping the steering wheel tightly as she picks Danny up. “Have fun?”
“I made a friend!” Danny yells! “His name is Tucker and he’s really nice!”
Maddie relaxes. “Oh? How did you meet?”
“He let me play his coloring game!”
“That’s wonderful!”
“We made a tower out of blocks and it was the strongest ever! And I never used my powers!”
“I’m so proud of you, sweetie!”
Maybe Maddie can stop worrying now. ... Probably not.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“What if we gave it big scary horns?” Danny says as he doodled something in crayon. “Like the thing that watches my window.”
Tucker looks at him with wide eyes. “A monster watches you?”
“My parents don’t let it touch me. They hunt ghosts.”
“Oh. Do you hunt ghosts?”
Danny shakes his head. “I’m too little.”
“Oh. Me too.”
“You should give it bat wings.”
They both look up. The quiet girl who usually sits in the back is standing in front of them, her hair pulled back in a tight black braid and her clothes perfectly pressed.
Danny looks at the drawing, and nods. He adds the wings. “We’re drawing the monster from that story we heard today.”
The girl sits down. “I bet it had claws. And could breathe black fire!”
Danny adds them on. “You’re really smart!”
The girl nods. “I am.”
“I’m Danny.”
“I’m Tucker!”
The girl grins. “I’m Samatha.”
“Wow... that’s a long name,” Danny says, eyes wide. “My sister has a long name too. Do all girls have long names?”
Samantha thinks. “I dunno. I haven’t met all girls.”
“Oh. We don’t know all boys, either.”
They spend the rest of free time coloring. Once it’s over, Samantha moves to sit with them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“So, how was today, sweetie?”
“I made another friend! She’s really good, and her parents make her have long hair but she wants it short, and we made this with her!” He shows Maddie the drawing.
Maddie grimaces a little, but turns it into a smile. “It’s lovely, dear. Looks... a little like Jazz’s picture.”
Danny nods.”The monster in the story lived in the window. So does this ghost.”
“... What?”
“He lives by my window. But he can’t come inside, so I make faces at him and make him mad.”
Maddie speeds up a little. “Danny, we’re going to be altering your windows when we get home. Okay?”
“Okay.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny leads Sam and Tucker to his room with his tiny arms full of snacks. He brings them inside, and proudly stands in the middle. “This is my room!”
"Cool!” Tucker exclaims. “Whoa, you have a computer?”
Danny shakes his head. “That’s to keep ghosts out. Ghosts hate us.”
“You’ve seen some?” Samantha asks, eyes wide.
Danny grins. “So many!”
“Can we see some?”
“Sure, I can even-”
They hear a gasp in the doorway. Turning to look, they see Jazz. “Danny, you didn’t let me meet your friends!”
Danny looks horrified. “Oh no!” He runs over and pulls Jazz into the room. “This is my big sister Jazz! She’s the coolest big sister!”
“I’m Tucker!”
“I’m Sam!”
Jazz grins. “Guess what I learned yesterday?” She points out of the room. “How to use the remote!”
The trio of toddler’s eyes sparkle. They cheer for Jazz as all of them descend, ready to Take Control Of The TV!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“-and this is The Box Ghost,” Danny says, showing his friends the doodle him and Jazz made at home. “He’s silly. He wants to be scary, but he isn’t.”
Tucker and Samantha nods like it the most important thing they’ll ever learn.
Danny pulls out the next drawing. “This is Scary, the ghost from my window.” It’s a new drawing, a little more detailed thanks to Jazz being better at drawing now. And Danny having seen the face so, so many times. “I don’t see him anymore. Mom and Dad kicked him out of the window.”
“He’s ugly,” Samantha says, wrinkling her nose.
“He looks stinky,” Tucker agrees.
Danny looks over at the window. “Shhhh! He’s here!”
Tucker and Samantha look at the window. They see nothing.
They look back at Danny. They see little puffs coming out of his mouth, and his eyes are the wrong color.
Danny pulls his pager out. “It’s okay. Mommy will come scare him away.”
“We can’t see him,” Samantha says.
Danny nods. “He’s hard to see.”
“Do you have to have glowy eyes like yours?” Tucker asks. “I have to have glasses. Are your eyes like Ghost Glasses?”
Danny thinks, and then nods. “I guess so. ... OH NO!” He covers his eyes. “You aren’t supposed to see that!”
“Why not?”
“Mommy said it’s a secret! You’ll think I’m scary!”
“But it’s not scary.”
Danny tilts his head, still covering his eyes. “It’s not?”
“No, it’s cool!”
He slowly uncovers his eyes. “... Do... you think this is scary?” He holds out his arm, and makes it invisible.
Tucker and Samantha gasp! Danny pulls his arm back, about to cry. They think he’s scary, they won’t be his friends anymore-
“That’s so cool,” Samantha says.
“I wanna do that!” Tucker exclaims.
Danny can’t believe it for a second. And then he grins. “I can do more stuff too! I’ll show you at my house!”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maddie paces the floor while Danny sits on the couch, his little face burning with shame.
Jazz sits next to him, arms crossed. Jack stands in front of him, Maddie pacing beside her husband.
“You told your friends?” Maddie asks again.
Danny nods, keeping his head low. “I didn’t mean to. I saw Scary, and my eyes turned green, and I can’t fix that.”
Maddie sighs. “I know, sweetie, but you showed them more after! We caught you flying them around your room! How can you even carry both of them at once?!”
“It’s easy when I’m a ghost,” he says, still keeping his head low. “Everything’s easy when I’m a ghost.”
Maddie stops pacing. “Oh, sweetie... I know it must be strange for you to suddenly have to hide it.”
Danny nods. He sniffles a little.
“It’s for your own safety, son,” Jack says. “You understand that, right? We just want you to be safe.”
“Other kids can be mean, Danny,” Jazz says. “I’m smart, and some kids are mean to me for that.”
“But Samantha and Tucker aren’t mean!”
“No, they aren’t,” Maddie concedes. “... I guess what’s done is done. Danny?” She kneels down in front of him and gently lifts his head up, wiping his tears away. “We aren’t mad. We’re worried. They’re your friends, but they also don’t understand this the way we do.”
“... Can you make them understand?”
Maddie nods. “We’ll absolutely have a talk with them. You can go get them from your room right now, even. But Danny? No-one else. Okay? These two kids are the only kids you will ever tell. Promise?”
Danny nods, still sniffling. “Promise.”
Maddie puts on her HAZMAT glove and holds out her pinkie. “Fenton promise?”
Danny links her pinkie with his, letting it go ghostly. “Fenton promise, Mommy.”
“Okay. You can send your friends down now.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny waits for his mom to come pick him up, Samantha and Tucker sitting next to him.
Samantha looks up suddenly. “I don’t like my name.”
Danny and Tucker look at her.
She stands up. “From now on, my name is... is Sam!”
Danny and Tucker clap, because they learned that’s the polite thing to do when someone has a dramatic moment like this. They learned it from watching the older kids do a play.
Sam sits back down. “I’m Sam,” she says happily. “Sam.”
“Sam is a good name,” Danny says.
“Easier to write,” Tucker says.
“Yeah.” Sam is very proud of her new name.
They wait a bit longer, and a long black car pulls up. Sam stands up, but her parents don’t step out.
A tall, white-haired man does, one none of them have ever met before. He smiles down at them. “Hello, Danny. Hello, Danny’s friends.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m a friend of Danny’s parents,” he says, giving a slight bow (or maybe just bending over to hear them better since they’re so much shorter than him).
“I don’t know you,” Danny says, accusatory. “Mrs. Emma told us about people like you!”
The Man shakes his head. “I’m not a stranger, I promise. Your parents and I are very close.”
“I don’t know you,” Danny says again. He steps between The Man and his friends. “I’m gonna tell Mrs. Emma on you.”
“Danny, really, your mother called and asked me to pick you up.”
“You liar! She always picks me up!”
“She’s fighting a ghost right now.”
“She leaves fights to come get me!”
The Man sighs. He grabs Danny’s arm. “Stubborn like your parents. Come on, I promise you’ll be fine.”
“NO!” Danny yanks his arm, trying to get away. “LET GO OF ME!”
“Stop making a scene!”
“LET GO! YOU-”
Danny gaps, a puff of breath coming out and his eyes turning green.
“S-Scary,” he whimpers. “SCARY! MOMMY! MOMMMYYYY! SCARY HAS ME!!! HELP!!!”
Danny yanks again, Tucker and Sam finally running inside to get Mrs. Emma!
The Man scowls. “I’m trying to help you, little badger!”
“YOU’RE THE SCARY IN THE WINDOW!” Danny looks at him with bright eyes, tearful and afraid. “GET AWAY!!!”
Danny’s little hand glows green, and suddenly The Man is clutching his stomach instead of Danny’s arm. Danny runs inside, right into Mrs. Emma’s arms. He sobs to her as she frantically calls the police, trying to read the plate of the car speeding off into the distance.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maddie hands Jazz a Baton. “This is in case this ‘Scary’ come after you,” Maddie says, still shaking a bit. “Okay?”
Jazz nods.
“Danny, this is for you.” Maddie hands him a black-and-white suit. “This is to keep other ghosts from sensing you, okay? So wear it under your clothes.”
Danny nods, still crying.
Maddie looks at Sam and Tucker. Their parents were late picking them up, but with the attempted kidnapping it was decided that they’ll stay with The Fentons for a few hours until their parents could get them.
“You two get these.” She hands them Fenton Pagers, and Fenton Fun-Sized Ghost Stunners. “They can hurt people too, so only use them on ghosts. Or if someone tries to do... what you saw today, ever again.”
Sam and Tucker nod.
“And Danny? From now on, wait with Mrs. Emma until we come inside to get you.”
“Yes, Mommy.”
“And when I get my hands on this ‘Scary’, I promise you’ll never have to worry about him again.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny looks around to see if anyone is watching. He, Tucker, and Sam are crouched under a desk in the classroom while everyone else is out at recess.
He holds out his hand to the stack of paper, and closes his eyes. For a second, nothing happens.
And then it glows green, and a small beam shoots from his hand! Tucker and Sam gasp!
“You’re like a superhero!” Tucker exclaims, standing up.
“A ghost superhero!” Sam says, standing up too. “You need a superhero name!”
Danny shoots up, smiling widely. “What should it be?”
They all think for a long, long time.
Sam perks up. “I know!”
She grabs a book from the corner. The book is a Halloween one, mostly for pictures with just a few words. She flips to a page, and points to it. “This word! It means Ghost!”
Danny and Tucker peer at it. “How do you say it?” Tucker asks.
Sam grins. “Phantom!”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Phantom?” Maddie says, looking at the doodle.
Jack nods. “Apparently Sam came up with it! Our boy wants to be a ghost hunter after all!”
“Superhero, this says.”
“Same thing!”
“Jack, what’re you making there?”
Jack holds up the suit, one of the prototype Anti-Ghost-Detection suits for Danny. “I got out my old needlepointing stuff and am making him a superhero costume! See, it’s a P!”
Maddie squints, trying to get a better look at the outline. “It looks like a D.”
Jack looks at it. “Hmm. I guess from some angles. But it’s a P! Or, DP! Danny Phantom!”
Maddie’s expression goes soft. “Awww! Okay, you keep making that, and I’ll hang this doodle on the fridge! But no actual ghost fighting until he’s at least fourteen, right?”
“Absolutely!”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny steps into the school “Halloween Party” with his hands on his hips and a bright grin, looking like a mini-version of his dad behind him.
“Aww, and what are you dressed as, Danny?” Mrs. Emma asks.
“A superhero ghosthunter!” Danny says proudly. “My parents made this for me!”
“It’s great,” Mrs. Emma says genuinely. “Alright, go mingle! We’re going to make paper jack-o-lanterns later so now is the time to trade candies!”
Danny walks over to his friends, still striking the pose. Tucker, dressed as a robot made out of cardboard boxes, pouts in slight jealousy as Danny comes over. Sam, dressed as a vampire, grins. “P for Phantom!” she yells.
Danny runs over faster. “Yeah! My dad put the logo on!” He shows it off proudly. “I’m gonna be the best ghosthunter ever!”
“You can work from the inside!” Tucker says, getting over his jealousy thankfully quick. “Make them think you wanna haunt stuff too!”
“Yeah!” Danny strikes another pose. “But I’m actually going to catch them all, because I’m Danny Phantom!”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny and Jazz are playing with dolls in the living room. “Pow! Take that!” Danny shouts, making his doll punch Jazz’s.
“Nooo!” Jazz cries out in a husky voice. “But how? I’m The Scary! Nothing can not fear me!”
“I don’t fear you!” Danny waves the hand of his doll, making laser noises. Jazz shakes her doll around, making dying noises. “I’m Danny Phantom, the strongest ghost boy ever!”
“Nooooo!”
Maddie chuckles, watching them. “That Scary better watch out for more than just us.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Where are we going?” Danny asks again.
“It’s a surprise!” Jack says again, still as excited as when the road trip started.
Danny huffs, looking out the window again. “Why couldn’t Sam and Tucker come?”
“Because they’re spending Summer visiting their families,” Maddie says. “And so are we, sort of.”
“I though Auntie lived in Spittoon,” Jazz says.
“She does! This is different.”
After hours (years in the minds of the kids), they pull up to a mansion. All fo the boredom washes away instantly, Jazz and Danny cramming into the window to see it!
“Are we rich?” Jazz demands to know.
“We’re well-off, but not quite. Welcome to your honorary Uncle Vlad’s house!” Maddie cheers.
“Vlad was out best friend in college!” Jack says, grinning. “He got back in contact with us a few years ago and we’ve been thick as thieves since! He asked us too come over this weekend, and we thought we’d surprise him and let him meet your two at the same time!”
Danny and Jazz cheer! THEY GET TO STAY IN A MANSION!
The family piles out of the car, and stand in front of the door! Maddie and Jack make sure Jazz and Danny look extra nice, and ring the doorbell!
It takes a long minute, so they ring it again!
Finally, a man opens it up! “Oh, Maddie, Jack, I’m so sorry I didn’t hear-”
Danny shrieks. His eyes are glowing bright as they can, his breaths giant puffs! He holds up his hand and send a little beam right into Vlad’s side!
Vlad falls back with an “Oof!”
“Danny!” Maddie scoops him up. “What on earth has gotten into you? Oh, Danny!”
Danny is sobbing pointing at Vlad. “It-it’s him! The-The Scary! He-he tried to take me!”
Maddie and Jack freeze. Slowly, they both look at Vlad. Jazz pulls out her Baton.
“Vlad?” Maddie says coldly.
“Didn’t I only invite you two?” Vlad wheezes.
Jack points a ghost detector at Vlad. It goes off.
“Now, now, I can explai- AGCK!”
Jazz starts happening him with the Baton before he can finish his sentence. Maddie hands Danny to Jack. “Sweetie, close the door and take Danny back to the truck. I need to have a word with Vlad.”
Jack does as told, holding Danny in his lap and soothing him.
“He-he tried to take me,” Danny sobs again.
“Don’t worry, son.” Jack hugs him tightly. “No-one’s ever going to be able to do that. We’ll always keep you safe. We promise.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“And what do we always wear while testing new devices?” Maddie asks, handing Danny a Fenton Ghost-Zapper that would use Danny’s own ghost energy to work.
Danny grins, and puts it on. “Face mask!”
“Because?”
“Because lab safety is very important!”
Maddie grins. “That’s right! And who do we thank for reminding us of that every time we’re in the lab?”
Danny points. “Jazz! Thank you, Jazz!”
Jazz grins proudly.
#danny phantom#Danny Fenton#Jazz Fenton#jack fenton#maddie fenton#vlad masters#vlad plasmius#kidnapping tw#attempted kidnapping#fanfic#my attempts at fanfic
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first kick (pregnancy series)
Series masterlist
George:
Me and George have been having a super chill weekend together after a few busy weeks which he has tried not to do throughout the pregnancy because he wants to spend time with me and enjoy it but sometimes work just takes over and thats ok and he knows that but he still feels bad. We have been watching a lot of movies today now that our baby can hear things we have to introduce her to our favourite films like Harry Potter which we have been binging all day.
About halfway through the 4th film George went to get more snacks for us because I was really craving popcorn today. When he left I thought I felt movement in my stomach but I couldn't be sure but then it happened again and was much stronger this time, it was definitely a kick which was something that hasn't happened before.
"George come here" I said
"What is it?" he asked running over
"She's kicking" I said
I took his hand hand put it in the place where I felt the kicks before and it wasn't long before they happened again. They hurt a little bit because the kicks are right in my ribs but it was still an amazing feeling to know that our little girl is moving around and happy in there. George looked like he was about to explode with happiness at feeling his little girl moving around. He left his hands on my bump for ages not wanting to miss a single kick but eventually he had to let go when I had to use the bathroom but he quickly put his hands back on my bump when I got back.
Our movie marathon was quickly forgotten about and instead we mostly sat in silence watching my bump for any signs of movement only occasionally talking when we got bored of staring at nothing but our baby doesn't like the attention not being on her because as soon as we'd start talking she would begin kicking again.
Dream:
One thing about being pregnant is not being able to sleep. I have been really struggling to get to sleep tonight not because I wasn't trying but just because I couldn't get comfortable and when I did I would need to pee which is just a continuous cycle.
I was tossing and turning before I felt small little kick in my stomach I ignored it at first because I thought it was just my sleep deprived brain but when it continued I realised that it was the baby kicking. It felt so odd to know that was our baby kicking especially because we have waited so long for this moment because despite starting to show quite early on not much has happened since which worried the both of us but our doctor just told us that everything was fine. The doctor warned that when she starts kicking she probably won't stop because it has been so long of a wait which I'm not very excited about.
Clay has been editing most of the night so he's in his office so I thought I would get up to tell him seeing as I'm not going to get any sleep anytime soon. When I went in the room he was talking to Sapnap but he muted when I came over.
"Are you ok? Is everything alright?" He asked
"Yeah I'm fine but shes kicking" I said
I guided his hands to the place that I could feel the kicks so that he could feel them too, he almost squealed when he felt the first kick but he kept it mostly together although there was a huge smile on his face. He unmuted to tell sapnap because he was just so excited.
"She's kicking Sap shes kicking" he said
"Yeah shes really going for it" he added
I couldn't hear what Sapnap said because Clay had his headphones on but by his responses I could tell he was also excited for us. Sapnap and George have been really involved with his pregnancy mainly because Clay tells them everything so they are generally just as excited as we are at each milestone.
Clay made me sit with him while he finished editing so he could keep his hand on my bump to feel every kick and it was quite relaxing actually and for once I actually felt tired enough to fall asleep so the two of us went to bed and I had one of the best nights sleep I've had in ages.
Sapnap:
I'm chilling watching Netflix while Sapnap streams and of course thats when I start to feel movement in my stomach I have felt things before just like the baby moving around so I didn't think much of it but the feeling soon changed and was more forceful. I immediately knew that it was kicks and I felt bad that Sapnap wasn't here to experience it.
I thought about what to do and in the end I texted him to say I was going to come into his streaming room just incase he had facecam on so he could be prepared. He text back worried about me but I decided not to respond because I was almost at his door.
Sapnap looked at me as soon as I opened the door and told his chat he would be back in a minute before muting his mic. He rolled his chair over closer to me and I took his hands and put them on my bump without saying anything so that he could work it out for himself. His expression changed very quickly into one of pure joy and a small squeal left his mouth as our son continued to kick.
He didn't want to go back to his stream but I made him at least for a little while so he didn't just end and make the viewers worried so he did but he wanted me to stay in the room incase the baby kicked anymore. The mood of the stream changed and it was much more upbeat and he was playing a lot better than he was before which I thought was really cute that he felt so motivated by it.
Quackity:
Me and Alex are out on a drive like we do sometimes, we have nowhere in particular to go we just like driving around blasting music and other people probably judge us from their own cars but we never care because we enjoy it.
We were driving around not too far from our neighbourhood when I felt small little kicks in the bottom of my stomach which I knew right away was the baby but I didn't say anything for a minute because I didn't want to tell Alex if it was going to stop and he was driving. But when it continued I decided to tell him because I didn't want him to miss this moment.
"Alex shes kicking" I said
"No way hang on let me pull over" he said
He found somewhere to safely stop the car ands we both took of our seatbelts off and I got him to put his hands on the bottom of my bump where the kicks were still happening. He was so happy when he felt her kick using his free hand to grab one of mine and squeeze it.
We sat at the side of the road for a while before the baby calmed down and stopped kicking so much which gave us the chance to go back home. On the ride home we talked about how exciting it is that our baby is moving around and we get to feel like she's really with us on an everyday basis.
Karl:
Karl has been gone all day filming and he still won't be back for a few more hours but I just started feeling kicks in my stomach which are so strong you can see the movement on my bump. I felt so awful that Karl wasn't here to experience it but to make him feel like he hasn't fully missed out I filmed it for a bit and sent it to Karl.
He FaceTimed me as soon as he read the text and I had the camera on my bump as we talked and I tried to make him feel better that he wasn't here in person to experience it. He was so excited to get home and try and get the kicks to start again so he can feel them which he has been looking forward to for a little while.
A few hours later he came home and we sat together on the sofa trying to do everything we could to get our son to start kicking again. We tried most things before I played some music which seemed to do the trick because the kicks started again and Karl watched it before putting his hand on where the kicks were happening. He was so happy and that made me happy despite the uncomfortableness of the constant hard kicking. We went to bed to lay down while the baby kept kicking to make it at least a little more comfortable but it really didn't do a lot and I just had to wait for it to stop again.
Wilbur:
The baby has been super active recently but not really kicking just like wriggling around especially today I've been super busy and she has been joining in. I finally got a chance to sit down this evening and thats when I felt kicks, the feeling was different to just movement it was stronger and more concentrated in one spot.
I knew Wilbur would be sad to miss this seeing as he's at his office streaming but I decided to text him so that could know it was happening. I watched him look at his phone to read my text because I was watching the stream and right away he told chat he needed to end and that was it the stream was over. I got a text back saying he was on his way so I tried to keep the baby kicking until he got back.
Wilbur made it home in record time and didn't even lock the door when he came in to not waste anymore time. He sat in front of the sofa as I laid down and guided his hand to where the kicks were still happening and he could definitely feel it because a huge smile appeared on his face.
"Wow she's really active isn't she" he said
"Yeah she's been moving around all day I swear she doesn't sleep" I replied
"I hope she sleeps when she's born" he said
"Me too" I agreed
#georgenotfound x reader#georgenotfound#george#george x reader#gnf#dream x reader#dreamteam#dreamwastaken#dreamwastaken x reader#dream team#dream#sapnap#sa#quackity x reader#quackity#quackityhq#quackityhq x reader#karl x reader#karl#karl jacobs#karl jacobs x reader#wilbur x reader#wilbur#wilbur soot#wilbur soot x reader#mcyt#mcyt x reader#dsmp x reader#dsmp
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105 for Nessian 👀
Hey, Gourdgeous
Nesta Archeron x Cassian - Pumpkins
Prompt: "Wait a minute. Are you jealous?” Halloween Edition
Masterlist | Read on Ao3 | Halloween Collection
Warnings: Language
2000 words
*******
“What about this one?” Nesta asked over the wind as she held up a bright, orange pumpkin.
Cassian lifted his head from where he was critically inspecting a pumpkin of his own. He smirked, sitting back on his heels in the sparse pumpkin patch. “Nes, come on. We said we’d pick each other’s pumpkin.” He wiggled his eyebrows and Nesta rolled her eyes, struggling to understand how her boyfriend could make a dirty joke out of that. “Just pick whatever one you think I’d like best.”
She grumbled but set the pumpkin back down. It was nice, but it wasn’t right.
Cassian had planned a whole Halloween-inspired date which included them going to the local pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin for the other person, going home to carve said pumpkins while drinking spiked cider, followed by admiring their pumpkins, setting them out of the stoop, and watching Halloween movies until they fell asleep. Preferably with some sexy time thrown in.
She knew Cassian loved all the fun parts of Halloween—the dressing up, decorating, and all the pumpkin-flavored treats—and not necessarily the spookier parts like haunted houses or horror movies in the dark. So when he suggested a Halloween movie Nesta knew to be prepared to watch Halloweentown, Hocus Pocus, or something as equally fun. She doubted he would pick an actual horror movie. Although, it would give him an excuse to hold her close—not that he needed an excuse. So who was she to complain?
It didn’t take much longer for them to find their pumpkins, which was good because Nesta didn’t want to admit that she was cold in just her jacket and scarf. It wasn’t fair that Cassian had all that muscle to keep him warm. Or the foresight to wear a leather jacket over his deep red and black flannel for extra warmth.
As if sensing it, Cassian grinned and slung a heavy arm around her shoulders, pulling her close where she could feel the heat radiating off of him, as his other arm held the pumpkin she’d picked out snug to his opposite side. Nesta maneuvered her free arm to wrap around the back of his jacket while her other cradled her smaller pumpkin close to her chest.
“Let’s go drink and use sharp knives to cut these things up.” He declared, and Nesta couldn’t help but laugh at the child-like joy radiating from him as he pulled her towards the car.
***
As soon as they got home, Nesta set to turning on the skull lights and putting on their Halloween playlists while Cassian moved the sofa to the far wall and laid down old newspaper on the floor along with large spoons, a few knives, and markers.
He took both their pumpkins and got to work cutting off the tops and scooping out the seeds while Nesta pulled out the spiced apple cider and cinnamon whiskey. By the time she walked back into the living room, a steaming cup of spiked cider garnished with a cinnamon stick in each hand, Cassian had finished getting rid of all the slimy, orange innards. Nesta waited until he wiped his hands off before handing him his mug and sitting down across from him where he’d placed her pumpkin.
Soon, both she and Cassian sat in comfortable silence as they each planned how to carve their pumpkins. He apparently knew exactly what he wanted and immediately started drawing his outlines in marker before carefully choosing a knife and carving out small sections at a time.
Nesta wished she could blame her less-than-amazing pumpkin on the distraction sitting in front of her. The tongue out in concentration, long hair pulled back in a surprisingly sexy bun, sleeves pushed up to show muscled forearms, grinned and winked whenever he caught her eye, kind of distraction.
But even Nesta could admit that the poor excuse for a design on her pumpkin had less to do with her too damn distracting boyfriend, and more to do with her own lack of carving skills.
Frustrated, Nesta threw her knife down and crossed her arms. “What are you making?” she asked as Cassian’s brows furrowed in concentration as he finished carving out a sliver. He grinned and twisted his pumpkin around to show her a halfway finished carving of three bats.
She snorted, “That’s how you chose to carve your pumpkin?” she rolled her eyes and smirked. “A little generic, don’t you think?”
She laughed as Cassian threw a small piece of pumpkin at her. “Ah, but they aren't just regular, boring bats, Nes.” he shook his head as if upset she couldn’t understand that, but his eyes shone with mischief as he pointed to the bats.
He grinned, “It’s Az, Rhys, and I.”
Nesta looked down at the bats again and raised an eyebrow, not hiding the large smirk stretching across her face. “The likeness is astonishing”
Both affectionately and mockingly, everyone in their odd circle of friends called those three the Bat Boys due to their large matching back tattoos of bat’s wings. Apparently, Cassian was taking that quite literally now.
Cassian pointed to the one in the middle, the largest and fully carved. “See,” he grinned wolfishly “I’m the biggest.”
Nesta smirked and made a sound of agreement that caused him to wink at her, before pointing to the one he was currently working on. It was thinner and had its wings flared in a surprisingly pompous pose. How Cass had managed to carve that, she didn’t know. “This one is Rhysie,” He said. Then he pointed to the other which so far was just a drawn outline. “And this one will be Az.”
“Lovely.” She snorted and grabbed her cider.
Cassian set his pumpkin back down and looked at her pumpkin with was surrounded by chunks of misshaped pumpkin parts. He chuckled as she followed his gaze with disdain at her own work.
“It’s called ‘carving a pumpkin’ not ‘brutal pumpkin murder’. What, did you chop up half of the thing already?” he laughed.
She glared at the pieces and the front of her pumpkin which couldn’t even be described as any kind of real shape. She scoffed, “Not all of us can be pumpkin carving masters, Cass.” She crossed her arms, feeling both more self-conscious and more defensive of her pumpkin.
He opened his mouth to say something but as his eyes danced across her features, his mouth stretched into a shit-eating grin. “Nes,” he drawled, sitting back and cocking his head, still grinning.
“What?” she sniffed, side-eyeing the perfect pieces in his discard pile.
“Sweetheart,” he said, drawing her attention back. “Gourdgeous.” she rolled her eyes as he drew out the word making sure she caught the pun. Then he picked up the knife closest to him and slowly cut out another chunk as she waited for what he was going to say. As he pulled out the slice and tossed it aside, he watched her gaze.
“What, Cass?” she asked again, her glare following the smoothly cut piece.
He chuckled. “Wait a minute,” he paused until she met his eyes, crinkled at the edges with amusement. “Are you jealous?”
Nesta scoffed again. “Jealous? Of what? Of your supernatural ability to carve a perfect pumpkin? Of course not.”
He laughed, and despite her desire to contradict his accusation, she couldn’t help but smile at the sound of his voice.
“Let’s see it,” he said once he’d quieted, jerking his head towards her own pumpkin.
Immediately, she frowned again, staring at the jagged lines and cut-outs where there shouldn’t be cut-outs. Shaking her head, she protested, “No, it’s not meant to be seen by anyone who wants to keep their sight.”
He huffed a laugh, “Nes, come on, it can’t be that bad.”
She roughly pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and glared at him. “I beg to differ.”
He smirked, “You know I love it when you beg, Sweetheart.”
Nesta rolled her eyes and scoffed but couldn’t help her traitorous lips from curving up—again—at his teasing. “I’m serious” she insisted, gesturing to all the pieces of what used to be her pumpkin now surrounding her.
Cassian set down his knife and stood up.
She arched a brow, “Where are you going?”
He stretched, and then he sauntered towards her until he was directly behind her. Nesta twisted and craned her neck up to meet his amused eyes with her questioning ones, trying to hide her disaster of a pumpkin from him. He sank down and stretched out a leg on either side of her before his large hands gripped her waist and pulled her back flush against his chest.
“Let’s see if we can salvage this.” He whispered into her ear and she could feel him smirk against her skin as she shivered. His hands left her body momentarily to pull the pumpkin and knife closer, and she immediately missed the heat of him. He must have too because he pressed himself impossibly closer and rested his chin on her shoulder.
They both stared at the disfigured pumpkin. Nesta could feel her face heating up as her boyfriend continued staring in silence. She shouldn’t have been embarrassed but his was so good, and she hated people seeing her as anything but perfect. But he wasn’t people, he was Cassian. Which somehow made it worse? She was about to shove the pumpkin away when he squeezed her hips, pressed a kiss just below her ear, and picked up a knife, placing it in her hand and folding her fingers over the handle.
“I think we can save this.” He said, and Nesta could feel the reverberations of his chest at her back. “it just needs a little loving care.”
She relaxed further into him and he helped guide her hands
They spent the next few minutes switching between knives, Cassian’s hands wrapped around her own, as he guided them to slice pieces out of the slowly-healing pumpkin. Every few seconds, he would press a kiss to her neck or below her ear and in response she would squeeze his fingers with her own which led to him saying something low and raspy in her ear and causing her to shiver or press further back into him, just starting the cycle again.
After one particular slice, Nesta started laughing. Cassian paused their cutting to pinch her side. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing.” She said through a laugh, taking a breath and trying to calm down. “It’s nothing.”
Cassian shook his head and kept cutting. As he guided her hand again, she couldn’t stop the snort that erupted, and then she was leaning her head back against his shoulder and laughing.
He set down the knife before she cut herself and rested his hands on her hips until she had quieted enough for him to ask, “Seriously Nes, what’s so funny?”
“It’s Ghost, we’re Ghost.” She snorted again.
“What?” he asked incredulously. “We’re ghost? What are you talking about?”
She rolled her eyes despite him not being able to see it, “Ghost—the movie. You know that one scene where Demi Moore is sculpting pottery and Patrick Swayze’s ghost comes in and sits behind her and has his hands intertwined with hers and they’re sitting like this and—come on, we’re Ghost.”
Cassian chuckled, his breath fanning over Nesta’s neck. “Whatever you say. Just as long as I get to be Swayze.”
***
In the end, Nesta’s pumpkin sat next to Cassian’s outside the front door. It was clear who’s was who’s, but it only made her smile as Cassian placed the battery-powered candles inside and lit them up to glow.
They cleaned up the mess and moved the couch back in place, settling in each with a fresh cup of the spiked cider. Leaning into Cassian’s side with his arm wrapped around her and a blanket sprawled across their laps, Nesta smirked into her mug as the words Hocus Pocus flashed across the screen.
*****
Taglist:
@acourtofsnakes @allthebooksunderthemoon @astra-ad-mare @becarefuloflove @booklover41802 @charlizeed @cookiemonsterwholovesbooks @danibutterr @doubt-less @emily-gsh @enormousbooklover @foughtconquered @fromthelibraryofemilyj @hakunamatatazz @i-have-but-one-brain-cell @in-love-with-caramel-macchiato @jorjy-jo @lemonade-coolattas @mariamuses @mayhemories @midsizewitch @rowaelinrambling @morganofthewildfire @nehemikkele @rowaelinismyotp @rowansfirebringer @sayosdreams @sheharahu @sleeping-and-books @stardelia @story-scribbler @superspiritfestival @themoonthestarsthesuriel @swankii-art-teacher @tomtenadia @westofmoon @whimsicallyreading @moodymelanist @angelic-voice-1997 @realbookloverproblems @gracie-rosee @julemmaes @yesdreamblog @the-regal-warrior @rowanaelinn @thestoriesyoutell @autumnbabylon @sunflowermoonshinewrites @maastrash @annejulianneh111
#nessian#nesta#cassian#nesta archeron#cassian x nesta#nesta x cassian#nesta and cassian#cassian and nesta#nesta archeron x cassian#a court of thorns and roses#acotar#nessian fanfiction#nessian fluff#nessian fic#halloween#pumpkins#carving pumpkins#answered prompt
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Ch.11: Out of the shadows
Chapter 11 of Cherry
A/N: I hope you guys enjoy the chapter 😏
Warning- ANGST, LONG CHAPTER!, Talks of loss, violence, fluff, swearing, SLOWBURN.
Pairing- Jean Kirstein x reader,
Episodes- 3x38-3x39
(Let me know if you want to be tagged)
————
“Is she still out there?”
Sasha looks out the big glass window and nods her head to confirm your wandering question. Albeit she doesn’t linger behind to worry over Historia like you were.
For days now, ever since arriving at the secluded cabin, Historia has liked to go outside a few minutes before the sun set to sit on the grass all by herself. She never asks for company, or explains why she does; mainly because she rarely speaks, but nevertheless she just sits outside all by herself and doesn’t return inside until the night has completely taken over the bright sky.
Except for today. Historia was outside, but there was no sunset to admire. The sky was invaded with dark clouds that brought rain to patter down onto the earth, making the air smell bitter and yet sweet, but not allowing the sky to give any clear indication when day transitioned into night. Not like Historia seemed to mind as she stayed under the rain, letting you build the courage to go speak to her. Even if it meant with you'd get dirty and soaked.
“Mind if I bring some light?” You ask her quietly as you set the lamp down beside her.
Historia slowly drags her eyes up to your face and right away notices the hesitance on your face. She doesn’t speak about it and instead shakes her head to answer your question before returning her gaze to nothing in particular.
“Okay,” you breathe out as you painfully sit down on the ground beside her. “Nice night, don’t you agree?”
“I suppose,” Historia shrugs gloomily.
You smile softly and lift your hand to watch the raindrops collect on your palm. “I love the sound of rain.” You ball your hand and turn it around to then open your fist and let the rain drip down from your hand. “Especially when I’m reading, I like to sit by a window, with tea and a book. It’s very comforting.” You blink to look back at her, seeing that your words went through one ear and left through the other. Her wavered attention didn't discourage you, it should have, but you stayed prominent to your spot and goal—“You know,” you continued in a much softer voice. “When I miss someone who’s gone, I like to wear something that belonged to them. It doesn’t smell like them anymore, but knowing that they used to wear it brings me comfort.” You sigh deeply and look down at your hands on your lap.
Historia finally pulls her attention from the dark horizon ahead and shifts her eyes to look at you. She stays quiet and let’s the sound of the rain falling on the roof of the cabin, and on the ground play uninterrupted for a few minutes as the meaning behind your words processed in her mind. She thought of not answering and being content with your suggestion in silence, but she needed to ask. Just once. “Do you miss him?”
You lift your head and turn your eyes to meet her blue ones that gleamed brighter by the tears welled in her eyes, and the light of the lamp in between you both. “Who?” You question cluelessly.
“Reiner.” She shares, making you grow stiff. “I mean I just saw the way he looked at you, the way he treated you. Were you guys dating?”
You shake your head and mindlessly begin fiddling with your fingers as you choose to answer her with the truth to one of her questions. “No we weren’t dating.” You pause and swallow thickly, taking note of your habit and instead tucking your hands into your sleeves to wipe the rain off your face. “It was just a fling, nothing to it. Plus,” you exhale deeply as your voice softens. “There's no room in my heart for traitors.”
“Was Ymir a traitor?” Historia asks bluntly, once again making you grow rigid with her very straightforward questions. This time instead of answering right away you wait and think of your words very carefully. You didn’t lie to her, or avoid answering, there was no need to with this question.
“No,” you shake your head, “she was different then the other two.” You shift around where you sat to be able to fully face her, while you kept ignoring the pouring rain that made your clothes stick to your body, and brought your body temperature down to an uncomfortable level. “When I was with them, after they took us, the one thing she was sure of was protecting you. She cares about you. She didn’t betray you. She wouldn't.”
Historia’s lip trembles before she drops her head to hide her emotions expressed on her face. Emotions she failed to contain and let out as quiet sobs that caused her whole body to tremble with cold and emotions. You wanted to comfort her, grab her shoulders or rub her back but she shot up and began to cry out what she had contained since Ymir left. “I can’t stand it! Why? She chose them over me?!” Her eyes snap up to meet your bewildered expression. “She said we’d live for our own sakes. But now she’s left me behind.” She falls down to sit on her knees, letting out a shaking breath and dropping her head again, letting the rain shower over her hunched body. “Just like everyone else did. My father, my mother—Ymir left me.”
“I’m sorry,” is all you could offer in a broken voice as your own eyes fell, and filled with similar glum emotions. “I can’t offer you a clear explanation as to why Ymir left, but I can offer you some comfort.” You look up at the same time she does. “As to your parents, just know you’re not alone. My father left me too. My mother…well,” you shrug, “I don’t remember her. Not even a bit, so I don’t think she was a good person worth remembering.” You offer her an assuring smile while you wipe off the water that dripped down your nose. “It hurts. I know, trust me, but you said that you and Ymir would live for your sakes right? Well, do it. No matter what.”
Historia’s eyes flicker up to you and she wipes the tears and raindrops off her cheeks. Her lips maintained her frown, not giving any indication if she would take the advice, but she did nod stiffly, letting you know that she was at least listening to you.
——
“I’m done cleaning upstairs!” You exclaim as you rush in the kitchen. “It took forever since no one helped,” you look at Connie. “But,” you sigh in relief, “It’s spotless.” You pull the mask off your mouth and let it hang around your neck, seeing Eren look back at you to address your comment.
“Good. Captain Levi is almost here. We just need this area here before we’re done.”
You swipe the bandana off your head and can’t help but smile sadly at a passing memory of Petra, Gunther, Eld, and Oluo in a similar cleaning situation. It’s something you couldn’t help but share out loud. “You know what this reminds me of?” You direct to Eren. “Cleaning with the Levi squad. The first one.”
“Yeah,” Eren nods slowly as his eyes fall back to what he was sweeping. His shoulders dropped but he hid what he felt with annoyance. “Only they knew how to clean.” His hands clench tighter around the broomstick and he begins to grumble. “Now it feels like we’re the only ones doing all the work.”
Connie shoots his head up and glares at Eren. “Hey man! Am I painted on the wall or something?”
You smirk and throw the bandana on the dirty pile basket. “You have room to learn.” Before he could add a snarky remark the door opens and Sasha, Jean and Armin walk back inside with the boxes of rations that had arrived.
“Hey!” Eren exclaims to the group, “did you guys wipe the dust and dirt off your shoes before you came in?”
“Huh?” Jean questions as he looks up at Eren whilst he sets the sacks of food down. “No, we didn’t. Can't you see all the stuff we’re carrying?”
You scoff at Jean’s comment and grab the canister from Armins hands to put it on the table whilst you watch Eren march towards Jean to complain further. “Do you seriously think that attitude will satisfy Captain Levi?”
You peek over at the duo and pretend to do something around the kitchen to continue listening to the argument—“If I hadn’t personally made your bed this morning—” Eren argues, making you snort.
Jean hears you and looks to you with a widened and almost horrified expression before his eyes snapped back to Eren to shout at him out of embarrassment. “Shut up! Quit nagging! Who are you, my mom?”
“We’re back.” Mikasa announced as her and Historia finally rejoined the group inside.
“Wait,” Armin protested, “were you just chopping firewood?”
You tilt your head and narrow your eyes on her. “I thought I told you no heavy lifting, and to tell me when you were leaving.”
“Gotta stay in shape.” She quips.
“You got grabbed by a Titan!” Armin shouted as he stepped towards her. “You should be in bed.”
“I try to stop her, but she won’t listen,” Eren interjects in a grumble. “I saw her doing sit ups earlier!”
You sigh and watch Armin follow after her to continue scolding her in his own gentle way before Sasha interjected. “It’s almost like we’re back in the Cadet Corps.”
“Yeah,” you nod.
“Why do you figure we were chosen for the new Levi Squad, though?” Armin can’t help but ask. “Protecting Eren and Historia is such an important mission.”
That was a good question, and one with many different possibilities, but only one you could think of, and Sasha said that for you. “Because we’re talented, I assume.” Albeit she didn’t say it in your exact words. Regardless, as she was answering Armin, she quickly shoved something in her bag that caught your immediate attention.
“Sasha,” you grimace, “what did you just put in your bag?” You turn to face her with a fuming and intimidating glare, but all Sasha does is slowly look up at you with an unaffected expression to lie to your face.
“Nothing bread-related.”
“Why, you!” Jean cut in as well whilst he stormed towards her.
You move towards her and snap back. “Give it back.” “Hey, focus!” Eren interrupts, “we gotta finish cleaning before the Captain gets back!” However no one really listened as you all tried to fight Sasha to put the bread back before said man you were trying to avoid getting upset, walked in.
“What’s the commotion about?” Levi broke the tension, creating a much thicker one as he walked towards the table, causing your shoulders to stiffen, and your angry expression to fall while you met Erens matching concerned gaze. And as Levi swept his hand under the table and dust and dirt fell from the wood, that concern turned to slight fear. Even more so as he lifted his hand and faced the group to address the situation. “I’m quite sure I gave you enough time.” Levi grabs his cloth from his pocket inside his coat and cleans off the dust and dirt collected on his fingers. “Anyways, we’ll discuss your lax cleaning job another time. Eren, Hange is itching to get the experiment started.”
As far as experiments went, you thought it went rather well for the first two hours. Eren listened well to instructions while in his Titan form, he performed all his given tasks well too and you couldn’t deny that he was impressive; he could write, he couldn’t speak because of the shape of his mouth, he could last a pretty long time, but only transform a few times before he seemed to go groggy and lose memory as his consciousness dwindled. The one thing he couldn’t do was harden himself like everyone wanted him to. It was weird, but there was an explanation, there always was.
——
“Huh? What was that?” Levi asks Hange after they and their squad walk into the small cabin, with their face contorted into distress and a hint of sadness.
“He’s dead…” they announce once more. “Pastor Nick. He was murdered. This morning, in the Trost District barracks.”
Levi’s face grows even more serious as the thoughts in his mind begin to churn, he hums and shows no remorse like Hange was. Instead he guided everyone to sit around the table and the couch beside it so Hange could explain in more depth what they and Moblit had seen, and what their thoughts were behind the bloody scene. And as they talked you grabbed the pot of tea you had made and served Levi, Hange and rest of the older Scouts before you walked back to sit on your seat. Albeit before you could serve yourself, Connie pushes his empty cup towards you, and quietly, and discreetly points to it so you could get the hint to serve him first. You smile kindly and grab the cups you set on the table to serve everyone but him.
Now you weren’t being petty, or anything. Not even because he was assigned to clean the table and didn’t clean it well the other day, causing you and the rest of your friends to get a long cleaning speech. No that’s not it.
Regardless you sat down beside Jean and across from Eren, feeling your mood go down as Hange continued with the heavy topic. “I figured the Church would want to deal with Nick since he was cooperating with the Scouts.” Hange explains, “that’s why I hid his identity and had him stay in the barracks, but….to think they would use soldiers to kill him. I was too careless. It’s entirely my fault.”
The room goes quiet for a minute, growing the tension thick enough that it felt as if you were carrying it on your shoulders. You tried to ease the tension, but such a grim topic was hard to brush off, especially as Armin decided to add onto the weight of the tension. “The military police…did they torture Pastor Nick just to find out what information he spilled to us?”
Levi sets his cup down and answers Armin in the same serious and unaffected voice. “Most likely. But it was the Interior Military Police, which means there’s something more behind it. So,” he turns and looks to Hange. “How many nails did Nick have ripped off?”
“Huh?”
“You saw, right? How many?” Levi asks, making you swallow thickly and tighten your hold around your teacup.
“I only caught a glimpse of him,” they answer, “but all the nails that I could see.”
“People that talk, talk after one.” Levi explains, “if they don’t, peeling more won’t make a difference.” Levi looks away from Hange, but continues, not noticing how you began to quickly tap the side of your cup out of uneasiness of the gruesome conversation. Perhaps it was something you needed to get used to, but fighting and killing Titans was one thing, talking of hurting human beings was something else completely. It was never part of your job, nor anyone else’s in the Scout Regiment.—“Pastor Nick…I thought he was an idiot, but. He didn’t turn away from what he believed, all the way til the end. In other words, they have no idea we’ve caught wind of the Reiss family. Though, someone in the government is up to no good, and their eyes are fixed on us.”
Right as Levi finishes, the front door opens and a soldier named Nifa, from Hanges squad, walks in and heads directly towards Levi to hand him a note from Commander Erwin. “I went to tell him about Pastor Nick, but he sent me off with this.” She shares while Levi reads the words on the small paper that made his eyes narrow deeper, and his shoulders stiffen much tighter. Once he finishes reading the note he looks up and urgently addresses the whole room.
“Everyone, out. We leave now.” Levi announces while he stands from his chair. “Leave no trace we were here.”
There was no moment of hesitance after Levi’s announcement, what little you all brought was packed in your personal bags. After that a blood pumping rush ran through everyone as you escaped the cabin to get to higher ground, and deeper into the forest where you could only hope no one was in. With the adrenaline that rushed through your veins you didn’t feel the chilly evening air, nor really catch that you had walked far until everyone stopped on a hill that overlooked the cabin getting raided by military police.
“That was close,” you breathe out while you tear your eyes from the scene down below.
“If we hadn’t left right then, what would’ve happened to us?” Connie asks with his eyes peeled back widely, expressing the shock and slight fear that ran through him.
You glance at Connie to answer his wondering question. “We would’ve been caught, Eren and Historia would’ve been taken and they probably would’ve left us for dead after beating us up.” You’ve seen it happen once when you lived underground, you weren’t supposed to see the Military police beat up a couple of young teens trying to take some food, or whatever it was they had taken, but Furlan, nor Levi managed to pull you away from witnessing the scene in time.
Nonetheless, Connie's head slowly shifts to you with his eyes expressing more horror after your words. His lips part, but all he does is inhale a small breath of air before you turn to check out the small patch of woods in front of you—you couldn’t apologize for your honesty that he hadn’t witnessed before, that he was blind to due to where he grew up. He had to know, those who didn’t know before had to know too. The world was a beautiful place, but life inside the walls also had their own monsters.
“But why?” Armin inquires, “what would make Commander Erwin…?”
“New orders came from the government.” Levi revealed. “There’s been a freeze on all Scout Regiment activity outside the wall. They’re telling us to hand over Eren and Historia.” At Levi’s words, you once again turn your head to look at him over your shoulder, feeling yourself full with buzzing curiosity at the new piece of news that just kept piling on.
“By the way,” Nifa interjected, “right after he gave me the message, the Military Police came for him.”
“They’re treating him like some sort of criminal!” Hange exclaimed bitterly.
“Someone’s not working from the shadows anymore,” Levi continued, “they’re moving for all eyes to see.”
“To go far to protect the wall's secrets.” Hange added while she faced Levi. “What’s more, why do they want us to hand over Eren and Historia? Not to kill, but for them to obtain?”
You clench onto the rifle in your hands and suggest, “Control?” You turn around and continue to add your thoughts out loud. “Whoever is deciding to finally come out and play, is no lowlife scum.”
Levi glances at you and nods, “you’re right. But,” he says as he looks away. “Who knows? Anyways it’s clear the enemy is after these two. Loitering around here is dangerous. We’re moving her and Eren to Trost District.”
“Why?” Moblit protests. “That’s the same place Pastor Nick was killed.”
“It’s worse to head towards the interior. With Trost in a panic, it should be easy to slip in,” Levi says, “and if somehow it comes down to it, we can use these in the city.” He pulls a side of his cloak and looks to his odm gear. “Plus, not knowing the enemy puts us in a tough spot. We need to find out who’s behind this.” he looks to Hange. “Hange, lend me some of your squad.”
“Of course,” they don’t hesitate to answer while they tap their chin and glance down for a brief moment, before once again facing the group. “All right, I’m going after Erwin.” They continue to turn to the man beside them. “Moblit with me. The rest of you will follow Levi.”
“Roger!”
As Hange climbs on their horse, Eren calls to them and hurries after them. “Hange! Here.” He hands them a folded up paper. “I remembered a conversation between Ymir and Bertholdt. Didn’t get to tell you, but it’s here.”
“All right,” Hange says as they grab the note and stuff it in their pocket while they climb onto the horse. “I’ll take a look at it later.”
“Be careful,” you wave at them, making them shoot you a faint smile before they ride off with Moblit. The rest of you being left having to walk through the forest as the sun set further by each passing second.
Levi led the squad, leaving you behind to eye the shadows that lurked in the forest that surrounded you. You wanted to distract yourself by thinking that running from the Military Police, and being seen as some criminal must be nostalgic to Levi since he left the underground to escape that life, but now it seemed it followed him here. Just like it also followed you, something he had wanted to avoid when he thought of making a life above ground. It’s funny how that works.
Regardless, the sun disappeared completely, taking away the security of its bright light and leaving you in a freighenting darkness that lamps couldn’t ease its eerie presence, making you walk closer to one of the people that could bring comfort to this traumatizing situation, Jean. “Why is it that we always have to move in the dark?” You grumble.
Jean glances at you and answers. “Because it’s better to hide in the dark. We aren’t as easily spotted.”
“I know,” you sigh deeply, “it was a rhetorical question.” Your eyes flicker over to him and right as you were going to meet his gaze you look up at the hat on his head, and you can’t help but smile. “I—”
“Don’t laugh,” he grimaces bitterly.
“I wasn’t,” you lift your hands whilst you meet his gaze. “Honestly. I was going to say that I like your hat. I think it looks nice. It gives off, uhmm,” you tap your chin and look ahead. “Cowboy type of vibes, or,” you clap, catching the brief attention of Armin and Eren in front of you, “some sort of a gangster.” You look at Jean again and tilt your head, noticing he seemed to be holding his breath and that his eyes had lost their intimidation. “Maybe that’d work better with a suit though, so cowboy it is.” You grin but he’s quick to look away. “It’s a nice look on you, Jean.”
Unlike Eren, Armin's eyes stayed on Jean and you for a moment longer to study your gestures, and hear the words coming out of your mouths. He could think nothing of it, after all he thought of Jean and you as a weird pair of friends. But he was quick enough to catch Jean’s flustered expression hidden under the hat he had on, and that set off a new curiosity within him that he wanted to further explore.
“Whatever,” Jean brushes you off with his head completely facing away from you, and his expression hidden by his hat.
You scoff lightheartedly and roll your eyes. “It still looks pretty ridiculous at night though.”
“It’s so they don’t recognize me,” Jean snaps.
Your eyebrows furrow and you snort. “Who's going to recognize you out here at night? The shadow man? A ghost? Or maybe a raccoon?”
Jean slowly turns his head to glare at you. “You’re about to become unrecognizable.”
“Oh,” you smirk, “I’d love to see you try.” You look to the front of the group and point to Levi with your eyes. Jean scoffs and leans closer to you to whisper. “Yeah, consider yourself lucky. For now.” He squints his eyes, “but watch your back. Cherry.” He mocks.
Your smirk deepens and you lean in closer to him too, holding his gaze intently and licking your lips as they tug to a smile. “Again. I’d like to see you try. Jean-boy.” Your eyes linger on his for a while, noticing that his lips turned to a smirk as he held his confidence high, not letting show the feelings that he felt fluttering inside. A tension rose between the little gap between you, but you were oblivious to it, unlike him. But he did nothing to point it out and make it clear to you, all he did was watch you blink and look away. After that you proceeded to part away from him and fall at Levi’s side. “Hey, Levi, so how are we planning to sneak into Trost with Eren and Historia? A big group will attract attention, and what if there's some dressed up Military police members in the crowds already expecting us?”
Levi glances at you before he looks at Jean and Armin over his shoulder to simply say, “I have a plan.”
——
“This is so, so stupid.” Jean grumbles beside you.
You shoot him a side glanced glare and nudge his arm. “Shush.” Your eyes return to the streets you’re marching through and they scan every stand open as you pass them, they lift to the roofs and catch the flags that hang from roof to roof sporting bright colors, your eyes search the crowd that is unusually big and clustered, falling from person to person no matter how young or old they are. One just couldn’t be too careful, you needed to look over your shoulder….it needed to become second nature no matter how bad that sounded. You needed to think as if every person that wasn't the Scouts, your friends and family was hostile, even if you hated to think that way of people.
Every person was against you until proven otherwise. Or at least that’s what Levi says in a time and mission like this. But it was so hard to think that way, especially when you saw the hungry and homeless people on the streets asking for food, or money after the destruction created in the city. And it seemed now there were a lot of those around, cities above ground were beginning to look like the underground, it was hard to see their sad and angry faces. So you had to put your hood over your head to avoid searching for those hallowed faces.
“So what, I can’t complain now?” Jean snaps in a sharp whisper. “He does that a lot.”
“Yeah,” you agree, “and it’s annoying. So shut up.”
Jean shoots you a brief glare before he picks up his pace to leave your side. And if it wasn’t for his undercut and his tall figure, from behind his wig would fool you into believing he was the boy he was pretending to be. Not the front though, you could pick him out in a crowd even with the wig on, he….had a very long one of a kind face.
“Try not to walk in a cluster.” Levi repeated to the group, “we’ll stand out. Eren and Historia, just walk normal.”
If he kept talking like that every ten minutes, someone would notice, no matter how far apart you’re all spread out.
“Why is the royal family’s flag hanging everywhere?” Connie asked as his eyes roamed the colorful flags overhead.
“Oh! Today must be the anniversary of the King's coronation.” Sasha answered, making your eyes return to look at the flags over your heads. “Once a year, they hand out a haul of rations.”
A man begins to announce what Sasha had pointed out, but your attention goes to the flower stand you walk by and your eyes get lost on the big, beautiful bright yellow sunflowers decorating the front of the stand. A soft smile tugs on your lips and a gleam sparkles in your eyes. You’re tempted to walk to it and buy some since they were your favorite, but you hold yourself back…as hard that was. It was such a brief moment that you didn’t think anyone would catch you, but someone did, they just didn’t say anything and instead admired your smile as your eyes remained on the yellow petals. When you pass the stand, you pull your eyes off the flowers and notice your group came to a stop, and before you could bump into Connie, you stop in your tracks and listen to what Sasha commented over the man’s announcement.
“What a king! He sure is generous!”
You scoff at her comment and before you could remark something, Levi beats you to it. “He’s got more than he knows what to do with. People are weak, especially when baited with food.”
“I have an idea,” you scoff, “they could take some of those rations underground. There's a lot of people who really need it down there.” You glare at the announcer as if he was the King in charge.
“We’re considered riff raff down there,” Levi replied to your bitter comment. “Or don’t you remember? They didn’t care about us, they still don’t care about them.”
“Yeah,” you huff out after you return your gaze to the path ahead. “I remember.”
The walk after that talk is quiet, uncomfortable and nerve wracking as no one knew when someone was going to attack your group and take Jean and Armin, or should you say, “Eren and Historia.”. Everyone had to keep looking over their shoulders and keep their guard up, only making yourselves more suspicious. Part of you believed you would get away without getting attacked, but you needed to for the plan to work. And it did happen as Levi had planned—“Watch out! Behind us!” Levi bellowed after he stopped and looked over his shoulder.
Before you could look back, you heard the speeding carriage racing your way that he had warned you about. As it sped past you, you jumped out of the way and had to hold back from fighting their attempts as you watched them take “Eren and Historia”. Yet you couldn’t help yourself from screaming out their names. “Je—Eren!” Sasha seemed to have the same trouble as she yelled out for Armin, but soon corrected herself and called out for who they were pretending to be. And even if you were going to save them regardless, the knot in your stomach wouldn’t loosen and you had to fight the urge not to instantly catch up to them. Really just run after Jean.
*A FEW MINUTES LATER*
“Calm down Cherry,” Levi assured you from behind you. “You reek of anxiety. We’re going to save them.”
You gnaw at your cuticles and take a deep breath. “This plan is shit. I can’t stand not knowing what they could be going through.” You lift your eyes and pull your thumb away to stand up as Mikasa joins you on the roof. “So?” You instantly ask her impatiently. “How is it going inside?”
“If we don’t hurry, they’ll see through Armin's disguise.” Mikasa informs Levi and you before looking away from your worried gaze. “And I feel bad for him.” She lowers her head.
Shit—you lift your finger to your lips and begin gnawing once more as you sink down on the roof, hearing Levi respond with a simple, “I see.”
“How is your leg?” Mikasa looks back at him. “Any better?”
You look over your shoulder, seeing Levi peek over his own before grabbing his knee and answering. “I can move well enough. It’s not bad, thanks to the things Cherry made for me.” He looks back at the streets below. “More importantly, these kidnappers…they’re nothing but amateurs. Why would they be using guys like this?” He stands up and takes a step forward, letting your eyes, like Mikasa’s, watch him carefully. “You both can handle the rest on your own. I’m heading for Eren. Once you’ve dealt with the trash, come and meet up with me.” He keeps walking ahead, assuring himself with the short comprehensive answer Mikasa gave him. “One more thing,” he stops at the edge of the roof and looks back. “I’ll tell you, just in case. Tell Armin and others, too. From now our enemy won’t only be Titans,” he pauses and looks away. “But other humans too.”
Your eyes widen and it feels as if all the wind had been knocked out of your lungs. You part your lips to argue, to interject with anything against his comment, but there was nothing you could say, even if you could, Levi left before you could think of anything. After that you tried to look at Mikasa, to see if she was struggling like you were, but she remained expressionless, and cold, or at least that’s what she wanted you to believe. You didn’t know what she was really thinking. She was a lot like Levi in that way.
Nonetheless, there’s a silence that falls over after his comment where you feel your whole body stiffen, and your heart sink to your stomach. Your body grows cold and a grim feeling takes over your anxious state for a brief moment where the silence feels deafening, and the question of “can I really do this?” Begins to linger in your head, making you nauseous. That question was brief before your mind was overridden by instincts that told you that you could and it was the right thing if it came to it, but your conscience told you otherwise. It turns you gloom and makes you stiff as your instinct, and your conscience battled with one another to have a winner.
Neither of them won. Mikasa interrupted you before the battle could be decided. “Let’s go.” She stands up to fly back to the other roof, but stops once you’re behind her to scold you. “And stop eating at your hands. You’ll ruin your cuticles.”
“Right,” you whisper as you pull your hand away and then follow her to the other roof to fall in your assigned position. When you hear the deep voices inside, you peek your head inside the open window, and prepare your fighting stance as you watch the floor and Mikasa down below. In the center of it all, you could see Jean and Armin tied up with their disguises still intact, which was something that should bring you comfort since they hadn’t been discovered, but seeing them in that position made you uneasy.
Regardless, their disguises were beginning to be questioned by the man leading the small group that walked in the storage room. “You’re sure, without a doubt, it’s Krista and Eren?”
“Yes,” another man nods, “they match the description.”
Yeah sure they do. Armin perhaps resembles Historia in some way, but Jean was not even close. They all sucked ass—you think to yourself, scoffing and rolling your eyes before taking a step closer to the window and meeting Mikasa’s dark eyes after they looked up to quietly signal you.
“Huh? Where’s the guard?” With that question uttered, just as Mikasa moves forward, you jump down the window whilst you take your cloak off and let it float down, while you land on the ground and look up at the tall startled man with a cocky smirk. He tries to reach for his gun, but before his fingers could even touch its cold metal, you jump to your feet and roundhouse kick him to the ground, instantly knocking him unconscious after a single impact to his face.
The other two men who had been up front freeze from the shock, and watch Mikasa and you wide eyed out of fear. They try to reach for their guns, but before they could think of shooting, and without a single word uttered between Mikasa and you, you both sprint towards them. She jumps off the floor and you slide down past her body almost as if the moves were rehearsed; she kicks a man with red hair, while you swiftly get up and swing your leg to kick the other man to the floor. He intended to move after, but he couldn’t even catch your fleeting figure before you pin him to the ground and twist his arm to his back, causing him to groan.
A faint proud smirk tugs on your lips once the thought of what you did registers in your mind, but it’s fleeting before you grow serious again. Instead of thinking too much into what you did, you look back, noticing Jean and Armin were tying up the other two men, leaving you to look up to a window on the roof to address the boy you knew was waiting by it. “Connie! Is it really just the four of them?!”
Said boy pokes his head through the window and confirms your question. “Yeah, that’s it! Nobody else in the area!” Connie finishes, keeping your eyes on him and not letting you pay attention to the man reaching for the gun he had dropped. Not until you heard the whiz of Sashas arrow impact the ground just inches away from your hand, and pinning the gun to the ground before he could try to shoot you. The crash made your head snap to the arrow, and made your eyes widened out of shock.
“If you move again, who knows where I’ll hit?” Sasha threatened the man whilst your heart pounded in your ears.
“H-hey!” Jean began to exclaim in an angry tone. “What if you hit Y/N with that!”
“It’s Y/N’s fault for taking her eye off the prey.” Sasha countered.
You nod and look back to the man under you. “Yeah, no, you’re right,” you interject. “Sorry! I should’ve known better!” You stand up and pull the guy up with you.
“All right!” Mikasa yelled out, “first, we tie these guys up, then we meet up with the captain.”
Armin looks at her and questions her command. “What do you mean?”
“Captain's orders, and he sends a message, too.” She shares with your friends what Levi had told the both of you, and they react in the same speechless disbelief as you. This time though, you fought with yourself not to think about it further. Instead you focus on tying up the man in your hold, before you place him with others in a deafening silence that had set in the storage room.
That was until you were done and spotted Jean with the wig still on his head behind you—“Eren,” you say seriously. “Are you okay?” You stifle a laugh.
“Huh?!” Jean exclaims. “What did you just call me?!”
You turn with your eyebrows furrowed in concern to continue with your act as seriously as you can manage. Which was going surprisingly well. “Oh, it’s you Jean. I forgot, you know with the wig,” you point, “you fooled me.” You shrug. “Sorry.”
His eyes narrow to a piercing glare and a venom laces in his voice. “You’re not funny, you know that?” He snatches the wig off his head and throws it to the ground, before he turns sharply on his heels to storm past you and leave the storage room with his chest puffed out in anger. His reaction makes you giggle and you have to run to catch up to him.
“Jean, come on, I was only joking. Just trying to ease the tension.” You smirk and try to meet his burning glare.
Jean scoffs. “Yeah, just be quiet, I'm not talking to you.”
You snicker and grab his arm, making him go instantly stiff. “Come on, don't be a jackass. I was joking. Of course I knew it was you.” You scoff. “I mean anyone with eyes would know you’re not Eren, even with the wig on.” You look away from him to look at the upcoming large doors, whilst you begin to list what comes to mind. “I mean, you’re much taller, your eyes are brown and his eyes are green, you're more muscular than he is. You’re—” you suddnely cut yourself off and feel your cheeks burn hot after you catch what you had been saying.
You glance at him nervously and pull your hands from his arm, missing the smirk on his lips that had swept away any anger he had felt. “Yeah,” you nod and swallow thickly and pretend not to be affected by the tension you felt fall over you as you look away. “It was obvious.” You clear your throat and begin to fiddle with your fingers as you change the subject. “Anyway.” Your eyes flicker up to steal a glance at him. “How are you feeling over what Levi said? I mean, I know I was just joking around, but I’m being serious now.” You throw the doors open and you both walk out the storage room with Sasha, and Connie in tow.
Jean exhales deeply and pulls his eyes away from you to look ahead at Armin and Mikasa. “I don’t know. For the first time, I really don’t know how to feel yet. I mean,” he pauses, and unfolds his arms to clench his fists at his sides and furrow his eyebrows to glare at the dirt ground. “They’re people…that’s not what I signed up for.”
“Yeah,” you sigh and drop your hands to your sides. “I understand.” You lift your eyes to the sky, managing to catch two brown birds flying past your head. “We signed up to save humanity. Not to fight them. I don’t know what to feel either. I wish I could. I wish I could talk…” you pause, and return your eyes to look ahead and watch Mikasa use her ODM gear to fly to a roof that overlooks the street. You follow Armin and her, and don’t finish what you had thought of saying. Was it obvious that you dropped your comment so abruptly? Yes. But you couldn’t finish it. “I understand.” You end up saying. Your eyes flicker to Jean and you offer him a faint assuring smile.
Albeit Jean didn’t miss what you said. He didn’t return your assuring smile, or nod to say he understood, he stopped you after you walked past him on the roof. “Wait. Talk to who?”
You instinctively want to reach for your wings of freedom patch, but stop when you remember that you weren’t wearing your uniform. It saddened you, especially because even if he was gone, his patch brought solace to your aching heart—“We’ll talk about that later, yeah?” You brush Jean off. “Just don’t give up on us, okay?” You peek over your shoulder and meet his eyes filled with confusion.
Jean answers with silence; no nod, no verbal answer as short as it could’ve been. Nothing but silence as he tried to understand the thoughts running through his head. He was assured that you at least understood his struggle of morals…he knew everyone else did too, but he was assured more with the fact that you did.
——
“Gunshots!” You heard Sasha warn. After you hear her, you look to the roof she landed on with Connie and Armin, and follow where her finger pointed to. “I heard a bunch of shots!”
“You two think something happened?” Jean asks Mikasa and you beside him, while the three of you watch the streets ahead.
“Most likely,” Mikasa answers much more bluntly, before she runs forward to jump off the roof before either of you could protest against her quick actions. It causes Jean, and you to share a quick look that spoke hundreds of words neither of you spoke aloud before he, you, and others followed the sounds of gunshots alongside Mikasa.
Finding the commotion didn’t take long as you flew the sky, Connie was quick to spot Eren and Historia, passed out in their newly styled carriage. Following after them, you spotted Levi—“it’s Levi!” You point out with short lived relief, because after you spotted him, and you and everyone else began to change courses to follow him, some thug flew past and shot at Levi. The thug of course missed, letting Levi pierce his grapple hook in the man’s chest to pull him forward, so he could also fly forward to swiftly slice the man’s stomach.
You were left speechless, stunned, and wide eyed after witnessing the bloody scene, but you kept yourself focused on the chaos you were now in the middle of. You had to.
“Chase the wagon!” Levi instructed the squad once you all got close enough. Albeit, Mikasa is the only one who answered right away—“listen up!” Levi continues after Mikasa. “They’re used to fighting other people! They already got three of ours. If we’re gonna get those two back, you can't hesitate! If you get the chance, you kill! Got it?”
“Roger!” Mikasa answered with inspiring determination.
Yet you couldn’t muster the will to answer like she did. You knew what you had to do, what the right thing was to avoid being shot, but you couldn’t wrap your head around killing other people. Mikasa seemed to be so okay with it, she didn’t hesitate to agree and do what needs to be done. And you admired that, envied her ability to not let her conscience get in the way when it came down to it. It would be easy if you were like that too.
“Armin, Jean! Secure the wagon! We’ll cover you!” Levi’s instruction pulled you from your train of thought, causing your eyes to slide over to watch Armin do as he was told, while Jean hesitated for a few seconds, eventually following orders, but just hesitating after witnessing another person being killed. And even if your stomach churned with the speeding thoughts of potentially having to kill someone, you kept flying forward with your blades slightly trembling in your hands, and your eyes bouncing from the carriage and your surroundings. And in that last moment your eyes fell on the carriage, you caught Jean on the floor and a woman pointing her gun at him as he sat paralyzed with fear and hesitation.
Instinct hit you then, like lightning striking the earth. There was no hesitation, your instinct shot straight through the battle of moral debate. Your eyes determinedly set on the pair, as your mind hit you with the possible outcome of what could happen to Jean paralyzed on the floor. And those thoughts didn’t let you fret to speed forward. “Jean!” Fear and panic laced in your voice, just like they vividly expressed in your face. Mikasa seemed to have the same thought in trying to save Jean, since you caught her also swooping down below. But just before either of you could swing your blades, you both heard a shot that made you both gasp and fly past the carriage.
The loud explosion that came from the gun made your heart stop, and your breath catch in your throat. You turned in the sky to face the scene, but you averted your gaze to avoid looking at the carriage where Jean had been. You didn’t want to look out of fear of what you'd see, you let the sound of the wind howling in your ears sound over your cracking heart. You wanted to turn away and avoid looking, avoid potential heartbreak in seeing yet another of one of your friends dead, but you forced yourself to look so you could witness the outcome.
Luckily heartbreak didn’t come this time though. Armin had been the one that shot first. It left Mikasa, you, and even Armin stunned for a few seconds, more so it left Jean alive and in disbelief. Not like you could rejoice over that fact because three thugs then flew overhead with their guns trained on the two in the carriage. They flew in fast and determined, having Levi get Jean out of the way, whilst Sasha picked up Armin just in time before the thugs could shoot aimlessly and manage to hijack the carriage.
However, determined to not let Eren leave, Mikasa began to follow them. Or at least tried with all her might, because after more thugs began to follow the carriage out of the city, Levi stopped her. “Don’t do it! Fall back!”
“But,” you protested as your legs twitched to move. “We can’t let them take Eren and Historia.”
Levi continued to struggle to fight Mikasa’s attempts to follow after Eren, as fear and panic had struck her heart like it had happened with you only mere moments ago. But unlike you, she couldn’t find instant relief in seeing he was okay, or getting him back to her, she had to stay with those emotions aching her heart, only being able to express them out in a loud cry. “Eren!”
It was a cry that made your feet move forward to try and chase after them. Albeit you also got stopped. “Y/N.” Levi called to you too. “Stop. We have to let them go.”
——
“…it’s okay now. That guy is tied up, and after today you don’t have to worry about him anymore.” Jean’s voice sounded through the echoing silence in the storage room. He had been talking to Armin for some time now; in a soft and low voice that you were surprised you could hear. While Armin had tears welled up in his eyes and his words barely came out in soft chokes. You didn’t exactly know word by word what they were sharing to each other, but you knew the context of their conversation, and it involved something a sick guy that had been guarding him and Jean had done to Armin.
It was upsetting to hear Armin so upset and affected by what happened, it made you want to help comfort him, but with your mind in shambles over the news you were all told, you weren’t a good person to talk to at the moment. You couldn’t provide what he needed, but it seemed Jean was patient, and sweet enough to try and comfort Armin. He was the only one.
“I’m sorry it happened, Armin. I am.” Jean continued. “He’s not going to do anything anymore, and I promise he’ll pay for what he did, for what he said to you.”
At the sound of Jean’s words you look away from the plate in your hands and look up at him to steal a brief glance. Noticing his softened, and worried gaze by the bright yellow light of the lamp sitting in the middle of the group, and seeing his hand gently grabbing Armin’s shoulder. And you didn’t know why, but you caught yourself smiling softly at the sweet interaction. Yes, you’ve seen him act kind before, he may act tough, but if you pressed the right buttons he could be soft, but seeing that now made your heart flutter.
The feeling was sudden, but you did feel it, and it was…weird? Yeah….Weird, but also not unwelcomed or wrong. Just weird because you felt it happen with Jean.
Moreover, while you struggled to understand what you had felt, you were caught off guard and got caught looking as Jean’s eyes flickered over to you. You of course proceeded to look away as fast as humanly possible, and instead foolishly looked down at the food in your bowl in hopes he wouldn’t notice. But you werent blind, or dumb, he obviously met your eyes for that quick second before you could look away—fucking embarrassing that’s what that is.
“Are you going to eat? Or are you going to watch your food get cold?” Levi startled you.
“No.” You snap your eyes up to meet his gaze.
“No, what?” He deadpanned.
You shake your head. “No. I’ll eat.” You return your gaze to your food and scoop some up, but just before you could bring the spoon up to your mouth, you drop a hold of the wooden spoon and once again meet Levi’s gaze to ask him a serious question. “Levi, is it,” you pause and sigh, dropping your eyes to your bowl once more. “…is it right to kill people? I mean we’re supposed to save humanity, not kill them. So is what we’re doing, right?”
Even if you were willing to…kill someone in order to save Jean, in that moment your mind and your body were fueled by this instinct. It was only because at that time your mind wasn’t a clustered mess filled with overthinking, guilt and hesitation, your mind was abundantly clear with what you needed to do. But now that you were sitting, the confusing mess in your head returned and doubled in size. You just wanted to clear your mind again, but in a different way with actual answers to assure yourself with. Even if those questions made Levi have to think of a clear answer.
He exhaled deeply and tried to answer your heavy question, but how could he give you a clear answer when he didn’t even know? He could lie and say it was so you wouldn't hesitate and end up the one dead, but he couldn’t lie to you, or any of his squad members. He promised you the truth ever since you were a little girl, he’s lived to that promise even when things got too difficult for you to comprehend. But he’s always had the truth even if he did sometimes avoid saying it. The only difference now was that he didn’t know what that truth was. There was nothing to avoid, there was just a disappointing answer he could give you.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged, and heard you exhale deeply with discontent. He wished he had the answer, but he didn’t.
You nod. “Okay.” You then sit in silence while you eat your food, not paying attention anymore to what happened around you until Levi broke the deafening silence moments later.
“What’s wrong? This grimy place kill your appetite?” Levi directed at Armin.
“No.” Said boy shook his head. “Jean, there’s something I don’t understand.”
Jean lifts his head and queries. “What’s that?”
“When I shot that gun to save you. I honestly thought I didn't make it in time.” Armin shared, “sorry, but why was I the one who shot first?”
You lift your head and lift your eyes to look at Jean, seeing him lower his head, and squeeze his eyes shut as his breath trembled while he remembered what happened. “That’s…”
“Because the other person hesitated,” Levi interjected. “It’s true.”
Jean’s eyes flew open and widened from the disbelief he felt at the sound of Levi’s words. He was quick to lose the surprise and instead grow serious. Even if you caught the falter in his voice. “Armin, I’m sorry…I should’ve done what I had to do.”
“I know what it is,” Armin spoke glumly. “The person that I killed…I bet they were a nice person. Someone that was much more human than I am. I pulled the trigger so easily…I did…I’m—”
“Armin,” Levi cut him off. “You’ve got blood on your hands now. You can’t go back to who you were.”
“Why would you say that?” Mikasa remarked.
“Embrace the new you.” Levi continued, “just think, if your hands were still clean…Jean wouldn't be here right now.” He paused for a moment to let silence fill the space so Armin and everyone else would understand his words. “I’ll tell you why you pulled the trigger…Because your comrade was about to die. Armin. Thanks to you getting blood on your hands, nobody on our squad ended up dead. Thank you.”
“Captain Levi.” Jean chimes in after, his eyes facing the light before him and his eyebrows furrowing and losing the uneasiness that were expressed in his face before. “I thought it was wrong to be fighting other humans. And wrong for you to order us to do it. I was afraid to be hurting other people. But…I’m the one who was wrong. Next time. I’ll shoot.”
“I never said anything about who was right, or wrong.” Levi countered, making your eyes drift over to him. “I don’t even know myself. Are you really the one in the wrong?” Levi briefly met Jean’s gaze that proceeded to widen right as he let out a shocked gasp. Neither of them said anything else on the matter, Levi left it at that before he stood up. “Now then, it’s about time we hear what he has to say.” Levi refers to the man you had taken down earlier today, a man you caught now, was Dimo Reeves.
Albeit before you could listen to the rest of the interrogation, Sasha returned inside and tapped your shoulder to gain your attention, “your turn. It should be quiet since the sun is setting.”
“Right.” You sigh and turn to head out. “I saved you some soup I made.” You point to the shitty dented pot on a box. “Eat up.”
Sasha grinned and then sped off past you to do as you said without an ounce of hesitation, letting you proceed to walk off outside and take your guarding post in silence.
Even if you knew time in this place was going to come to an end soon, Levi didn’t want to take any risks and be suddenly attacked, so he assigned a guardwatch outside the storage doors. And honestly even if you were out alone, whilst the sun left and the darkness of the night came, you didn’t mind being outside, it left you with time to think.
What's wrong?—you look up to the beautiful, fierce orange and yellow painted sky, and lean your head back on the brick wall—what’s right? I wish there was a clear answer, or at least something besides “I don’t know.”—It’s not as simple as what you wanted, but it would be something you could wrap your head around and understand.
It would be something.
You exhale deeply and drop your head to look at the dirt ground below your feet. Finding solace in the silence under the evening sky, until your peaceful silence was broken by a sudden long, and sharp whistle that sounded from an alleyway across from you.
“Hey, look at you.” A husky voice then broke through, causing you to snap your head up and look at the alley way. Spotting no one. Yet. “You’ve grown, baby Uri.”
Your eyes narrow on a figure that formed now that it was closer, and your hands wrapped around your hilts. “Now, now.” The voice scoffs. “Has that runt of yours not told you not to bring blades to a gunfight?”A bright gleam shines in the alleyway after the light of a nearby lamp hits the shotguns in the person's hands.
Under the light, you could also distinguish the figure stopping just at the end of the alleyway. You recognized that it was a tall, slim, intimidating old man with a hat on his long hair, and his eyes focused on you while his lips turned to a smirk. You intended to step back, but he pointed his gun at you before you could think of running to get Levi.
“Go in, or shout and I’ll tell my comrades to jump in and kill everyone inside. Be a good girl and stay quiet.” The man threatened.
Instead of showing fear; something you deeply felt in your bones at the moment, you instead narrow your gaze to a glare and lower your voice to a cold, intimidating tone. “Who the fuck are you?”
The man stepped forward and snickered, shaking his head and the shotgun in his hand. “Tsk. Now is that any way to talk to your papa?”
Your attempts at being intimidating, cold and unbothered dropped as everything went completely still and quiet. All except for the sound of your in disbelief grumble. “What?”
.
.
.
Tagged- @expectoscamander @greenygreenland @that-soft-lesbian-friend @dai-tsukki-desu @usernamehere91 @avocadopoosae @romancried @victor-criss-bish @moo-moo-meadow
#attack on titan#cherry#attack on titan fanfiction#Jean kirstein#attack on titan season 3#shingeki no kyojin#jean kirstein fanfiction#jean kirstein x reader#jean kirstein x you#jean kirstein imagines#Jean kirstein imagine#attack on titan fanfic#aot#aot fanfiction#aot imagine#attack on titan imagines#mikasa ackerman#sasha braus#Armin Arlert#hange zöe#moblit berner#Levi Ackerman#levi ackerman x platonic!reader#jean kirschtien#shingeki no kyojin fanfiction#snk Jean#fanfiction#snk
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Ski Trip
Summary: when the reader agrees to go on the annual ski trip up to the mountains with her boyfriend, Luke, and her friends she expected to go looking at mountains. But what she ends up doing doesn't require much hiking
Pairings: alive!Luke Patterson x reader
Words: 2.4k
Warnings: THIS IS NSFW FOREPLAY SMUT PEOPLE
If any of you have ever had a conversation with me and you read this fic, no you didn't
...........................................
"What are you two doing tomorrow?" Julie asked you.
You rolled into your stomach and propped your head up in your hands. “I’m not sure, but I know what we're doing next weekend, unfortunately.”
That peaked Julie’s interest, you weren’t usually much of a complainer. “Why unfortunately?” she questioned.
“Because I'm going on the Ski trip with him,” you whined. You wanted to spend time with Luke, you just didn't wanna go on the trip.
“Oh my god, you get to go?” she excitedly asked.
“Not helping,” you commented.
Julie smirked. “Sorry not sorry, I’ve been trying to get you to go for the past two years. And the first year, I couldn’t even go,” she pointed out.
“Yeah, so why would I have gone if you and Flynn weren’t even gonna be there?” you asked. As if on cue, Flynn walked down the stairs.
“Heard you guys were talking about me, all good things I hope?” she spoke as she walked down the stairs.
“Always,” you said, somewhat sarcastically.
She motioned for you to scoot over so she could have some space on the couch.
“So, if we’re done talking about me, did I hear someone say something about the ski trip?” Flynn questioned.
Before you could open your mouth Julie was already telling Flynn about how you were coming on the trip.
“You are?” Flynn squealed.
You tried to not get excited from their joy, but it was impossible; they were contagious.
You shyly smiled. “Yes, I’m going.”
“Yayyy!” Flynn yelled. The girl was practically jumping up and down.
“Oh who are you sharing a room with?” Flynn asked.
“Luke and I are,” you answered.
The girls exchanged a look you knew all too well.
“Shut up!” You covered your face with a pillow.
“We didn’t say anything!” they protested in almost complete unison.
You could feel your cheeks burning up. “Yeah, but you thought it,” you argued.
“Well whether we thought it or said it, you’re sharing a room with your boyyyyyyyfriend,” Flynn sang.
“If you guys start sing teasing me, I will leave,” you threatened.
“Don’t you need us to pick out your outfits?” Julie remembered.
“Oh, shit, yeah.”
“So in other words you have no leverage?” Flynn realized.
“I’m your ride home,” you reminded her.
“Outfits it is, but do not think we will be forgetting about this!” Flynn cried as she walked up to your bedroom.
“Whatever Flynn!” you yelled back.
“She’s right you know,” Julie slyly commented.
You just huffed in response.
The two of them did a very good job at helping maximize your california wardrobe for the mountains. Granted you had to go buy a couple things in advance, but overall, you felt confident that you could bear the cold of the mountains.
“Alright, I think you’ll survive,” Flynn proclaimed.
You closed your suitcase, and surprisingly you didn’t even have to sit on it.
“Thank you guys, I really appreciate it.”
“No problem, it was our pleasure, especially since you’re actually coming this year,” Julie said.
You dropped them both back off their houses and they were nice enough to spare you from embarrassing you in the car ride.
...........
You heard someone creeping up behind you as you grabbed your stuff to head to your second class, and as you felt arms wrap around your waist you knew it was Luke.
You turned to face him. “So I was thinking if we get one of the window rooms then we can see the snow when it falls,” he proposed.
Your face lit up. “Wait, it’s gonna snow when we’re up there?” you excitedly asked.
He happily watched your beaming face “I mean that’s what the weather said.”
“Oh my god! I haven’t seen snow since-” you paused, “actually I don’t remember, but it’s been awhile.”
“Well there’s a good chance that’s gonna happen,” he said.
“You know you’re actually required to show up to school for them to allow you to come right?” you teased. Though originally it had been a legitimate concern.
He licked his lips. “I’ve been coming everyday so I could come on this trip,” he defended himself.
“Coming to school and staying in school are two very different things Patterson,” you playfully reminded him.
He leaned in closer and his voice got quieter. “And what’s that?”
You resisted the urge to swallow and pulled away from him. “One is what I’m doing right now, because I need to go to class.”
He pulled his lips tightly before sighing. “You got me there,” he admitted.
“I always do,” you said, as you started walking off. You turned around to see him still standing there, you would be lying if you said it didn’t bring you joy.
“Go to class Luke!” you yelled back at him.
“You got it!” he saluted you and walked the other way.
You playfully rolled your eyes. That boy would be the death of you, but you supposed there were worse ways to go.
That Friday you didn’t have any school since the school board figured it was pointless to send a bunch of kids to school the day before they went on a ski trip. There wasn’t going to be any actual learning anyway. You usually would’ve spent some of the day at Julie’s; which you did, but today it wasn’t in the studio for practice. You figured since she had helped you pack, you could at least keep her company as she packed.
“So who are you sharing a room with?” you asked her, as she sorted through her jeans.
“Me and Flynn just figured we’d share one,” Julie said offhandedly.
You chose to not comment on how she was obviously forcing herself to be casual.
“Ah I see, do you know if Alex and Reg are coming?”
“Yeah, and get this Alex and Willie are sharing a room,” she gossiped.
“I’m calling it right now, they're gonna start dating by the end of the weekend,” you hypothesized.
“I 100% agree.”
The two of you spent the next hour or so just discussing what sort of things you wanted to do while you were there over the weekend, and of course how much Flynn was running around her house frantically changing outfits. You actually were excited about going, not necessarily about the actual trip, and about dealing with certain classmates, but you were looking forward to being with Luke and hanging out with your friends.
For some reason when you woke up the next morning you were a little nervous, you supposed it was because you had never been skiing or snowboarding for that matter.
You got ready pretty minimally considering you were soon to be on a five hour bus ride. None of your family was up yet so when Luke pulled into your driveway you slipped out the door.
“You got everything?” Luke asked.
“Everything except my chill,” you responded with a smile.
“You’re gonna be alright, and you don’t have to do anything there you don’t wanna do, so if you don’t wanna risk a broken leg, then don’t.”
Despite your anxieties, you knew he was still right.
“Thanks Luke.”
“Anything for you.”
When the two of you got to the bus everyone else in your group had already gotten there. You, the rest of the band, Flynn, and Willie had made a plan for the bus.
“We have arrived,” you announced to your friends as you and Luke took your spots.
“And just in time too, people kept trying to take your seats,” Willie reported.
“Thanks for saving them,” Luke responded.
The two of you continued chatting with the rest of your friends until the bus driver instructed everyone to take their seats. The majority of everyone slept on the way up there but you were too anxious to get there to sleep. Instead you watched youtube as Luke napped on your shoulder.
“Luke, Luuuuuuuuuuuke, Luooooooooooooooke,” you spoke. You were trying to wake him up quietly but you were starting to realize that wasn’t going to work.
Luckily Reggie was awake. “Oh he’s a heavy sleeper, that’s not gonna work.”
Reggie basically got himself so he was dangling off both sides of his chair before yelling in his ear.
Luke awakened with a jolt, looking fairly startled.
You weren’t entirely sure whether you should laugh, throw Reggie under the bus, or maybe both.
“What happened?” Luke asked.
“I woke you up,” Reggie answered innocently.
“By yelling in my ear?” Luke groggily questioned.
Reggie quickly tried to backpedal himself out of this situation. “I mean I don’t think the method is relevant, the important thing is that you’re up.”
Luke wasn’t awake enough to deal with the situation at hand. He just chose to lay his head back on your shoulder.
By the time you had made it to the hotel you were ready to collapse. Luke laughed when you flung yourself onto one the beds.
“Should I be worried?” he asked, mostly as a joke.
“No,” you smiled and rubbed your face, “I’m just really tired.”
“You couldn’t sleep on the bus?” he guessed.
“Yeah,” you groaned.
“You know what would help?” he asked.
“Do tell,” you inquired, from your face down position.
“This,” he said, before he jumped on the bed beside you. He curled his warm body around you and pulled you in.
“Better?” he asked.
“Yes,” you responded. You attempted to melt further into him. You laid there in a comfortable silence for a couple of minutes.
“Luke we should probably go do things,” you suggested. You attempted to get up but he pulled you back down.
You stayed with him but you turned around so you were facing him. “Luke?”
“Yes, y/n?”
You bit your lip, you had to admit, it was pretty cute. “Are you going to let me get up?” you asked.
He looked into your eyes lovingly. “Well if you’re trying to leave then no.”
“So that would be a no.”
“Well if you look at it that way then yeah,” he admitted with a mischievous smile on his face.
“Luke come o-” the rest of your sentence didn’t quite make it out. Your smart boyfriend decided to use your weak spot on your back against you.
“You wanna go now?” he teased.
“Not necessarily,” you lazily responded.
You could feel your willpower fading as the light stokes up and down your back sent a calm wave of chills through your body. But you knew if you didn’t use your chance now there was a good chance you weren’t getting out of that bed today.
“Luke come on we gotta go,” you whined. It’s not like you weren’t enjoying yourself, you most definitely were, but your friends had to be wondering where the two of you were.
“Alright, alright, fine,” he gave in.
“Can I have a kiss though?” he sweetly pleaded.
You gladly agreed, but you realized his plan of not leaving the room hadn’t quite ended when the kiss started leading down to your jaw.
“Luke you’re not sly,” you laughed.
“Oh is that so?” he asked, as he moved down to your jawline.
You nodded your head.
“Then why aren’t you moving?” he purred.
Okay, so he maybe had a point.
“You can tell me to stop,” he reminded you. He looked into your eyes for any sign of you wanting him to stop and waited.
“Unless of course, you don’t want me to stop?” he asked, with the biggest smirk you had ever seen on his face.
“Not necessarily,” you said, completely avoiding his eye contact.
He crawled over top of you, “What was that princess?” he asked.
You forced yourself to look into those beautiful blue eyes, and that devilish smile. “No, I don’t want you to stop Luke.”
“That’s what I needed to hear.” He bent his head down at your jawline, this time starting on the side of your jaw bone. He sucked at the skin and you bit your cheek down on a moan. He moved down from your neck pressing harder and making it harder for you to control yourself.
“Luke,” you moaned.
“Yes?”
“No marks.”
He smirked. “It’s a little late for that one.”
You rolled your eyes at his antics. “You suck.”
“I don’t think you're exactly in the position to be saying those sort of things,” he warned.
You raised your eyebrows. As if he thought you would back down that easily. “Really?”
He licked his lips and shrugged.
“Make me,” you insisted.
“Bad choice of words,” he threatened. In a second his shirt was off and one of his arms held your’s down and above you.
This time he noticed when you swallowed. “Nervous?” he asked, his lips quirked up.
He might’ve been starting to get to you, but you weren’t going to admit to it. “You wish Patterson,” you tested.
His head dipped down towards your collarbone. He lightly sucked on it and gradually increased his intensity until your body unwillingly gave you away and you gutturally moaned.
He jutted his chin out, the fire in his eyes on stage was nothing in comparison to this. “What about now?”
“Yes, Luke,” you groaned out.
He somehow managed to pull your shirt off with you laying down, and managed to unhook your bra with minimal difficulties.
His mouth softly sucked on the very top of your nipple.
“Fuck,” you moaned.
As he continued sucking at a rapid rate you felt the knot in your stomach twisting further, just as you thought it was going to release Luke stopped.
“How much do you want it?” he asked as he slowly pulled your pants down.
You were not going to give him the satisfaction of begging.
You felt a finger glide across your clit ever so slightly and back and forth he kept going, ever so slowly.
A whimper escaped your lips.
“Beg for me, that’s all you have to do,” he promised. He was most definitely enjoying himself.
He moved back up to your nipples but instead he moved as slow as he could, he was trying to break you.
“Come on princess, you know you want it,” he taunted.
A sole finger swiped down your pussy and your breath hitched.
“Luke please,” you moaned.
“What please? I think it has something to do with fucking you silly,” he hinted. He once again crawled over top of you to be able to see your face. Like a predator stalking prey.
“Please rail the shit out of me Luke,” you whined.
“That was all you had to say princess.”
#quillsandtyposwrites#q&t- jatp#q&t- x reader#jatp#jatp renewal#jatp rewatch#luke patterson smut#luke patterson imagine#luke patterson oneshot#luke patterson x reader smut#julie and the fat ones#julie and the phantoms#jatp x reader#julie molina#reggie peters#luke patterson#alex mercer#willie jatp#willex#owen patrick joyner#charlie gillespie#jeremy shada#madison reyes#luke patterson x reader#reader x luke patterson#team juke#juke#smut#jatp reader insert#netflix
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Part of his past, part 2
A/N: Part one here!
Pairing: Daryl Dixon x OC (can be read as reader, i just put a name on her)
CW: a lot of angst, hopefully equal parts fluff, idk i think thats it
Words: 913
Can also be read on AO3!
Back to masterlist.
* * *
Daryl spent the night with Angel and their daughter, he didn't get much sleep however, just sitting up and looking at them both. He kept thinking about how much time he's missed with them both, about how he thought she had died. The regret of leaving her in the first place, not even knowing she was pregnant. It was all spinning around in his head but the one thought that kept him sane was the fact that she was there with him now, safe and alive.
The next day he decided to introduce Angel and their child to Rick and the others. His two families, the people that mattered the most to him. He was nervous about them all meeting but Angel's presence was calming him down greatly while they walked to the house where his friends resided.
Opening the door Carol greeted them in the kitchen with a bright smile. "Everyone's waiting in the living room," she said while nodding to the other room where the rest of the group were hanging out, "we really look forward to getting to know the girl who has managed to capture Pookie's heart." Carol teased and Daryl gave a scoff while mumbling under his breath at the nickname.
"Pookie huh?" Angel said with raised brows, never in her life would she think he'd let anyone tease him like that without some kind of consequences, well except herself maybe. Daryl just shook his head and guided her to the others.
Rick was the first to go up to Angel, greeting her properly this time, introducing her to his son Carl and naming the rest of the group one by one. Meeting the people that had become Daryl's family in all of this was comforting, knowing he had been surrounded by brave, strong, and compassionate people.
While talking to Glenn she had passed their daughter to Daryl, he had hesitated but she insisted he should hold her. Looking over at him on the other side of the room with Carol, doting on his daughter, swaying her lightly in his arms while she slept safely. Angel could feel her heart twisting at the sight, never having felt happier than in that moment.
"So, how'd you and Daryl meet?" Glenn's wife, Maggie, Angels seemed to recall her name being, asked. "Oh, we grew up together. I used to skip school on days he was suspended and we'd spend the days by an old train track," Angel chuckled at the memory, thinking about your childhood with Daryl was always a rollercoaster of emotions. Your relationship had never been the strongest nor most defined but the feelings you had for each other were always true. "How'd you and Glenn meet?"
Maggie explained they had met during all of this, when the group had come to her father's farm, telling Angel about all that happened after that. The prison, The Governour, terminus, their trip to Washington. Angel didn't believe it but she could be considered lucky on her journey to Alexandria.
Daryl and Angel walked back to her house in silence later that night, their child still being carried by Daryl and she was still processing what Maggie had told her. All they had been through to get here, all the people they had lost. Thinking back to how they got separated even before the world went to shit.
"I'm sorry," she finally broke the silence when they entered the house, "I'm so fucking sorry." He looked at her, his face scrunched up in confusion. "What you apologizing for? You ain't done anything." Bending down to put their daughter in her crib, making sure she was tucked in properly then turning back to Angel.
"For before, before everything happened. It's my fault you left, I shouldn't have pressured you into-" Daryl cut her off with a rough laugh, "Nothin's your fault, I was an asshole back then. All ya were asking was for me to stay with ya, to settle down and.." It was his time to trail off as he realized. "You knew, back then, you already knew ya were pregnant didn't ya?."
Looking away in shame Angel stuttered, "I'd just found out myself and didn't know what to do, I was scared to tell you, and instead I drove you away." Daryl ran his hands down his face, "Why didn't you say nothin? If you'd just told me I wouldn't have left and we could've been-" He didn't realize he was practically yelling at that point until he saw the tears in Angel's eyes. Letting out a heavy sigh he grabbed her lightly by the shoulder and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her and pressing her to him tightly. "m' sorry, please don't cry. I'm sorry, baby." Whispering into the crook of her neck he could feel her shaking a little as she tried holding her sobs back, Daryl let her cry into his chest while reassuring her he wasn't mad and that he was just scared and relieved that they'd found each other again.
After standing in each other's embrace for a few minutes more they separated enough for Angel to look up into Daryl's eyes. "It's alright, you're here now and that's all that matters right?" He nodded and kissed her forehead, "Let's go to bed."
Being able to sleep in the same bed again, holding each other again, was all that mattered at that moment. Feeling safe, knowing you could be a family now.
#daryl dixon#daryl dixon fanfiction#daryl dixon angst#daryl dixon x reader#twd#the walking dead#the walking dead fanfiction#angst#fluff#daryl dixon fluff#daryl dixon x oc#my writing#writing#fanfiction#reader
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could you please do Zemo realizing that Reader's ex-boyfriend was hitting and abusing her as Reader always braces herself for a possible hit when Zemo raises his hand to pet her or something like that, and how'd he react to that? thank you🥺🧡
Synopsis: See above
Word count: 1.2k
Author’s note: Sorry it took a bit to write this, I actually found it quite hard and I'm not too proud of it as I haven't done much editing, but I wanted to get it out sooner rather than later so I hope it's okay 💕 once again as it's a sensitive subject I won't be tagging anyone
Warnings: Mentions of previous abuse
Masterlist
(Please check out my master list to see what I will be writing next and if requests are open or closed)
Cross-posted to ao3 under the same username
Sam and Bucky had left you in charge of watching over Zemo while they went out looking for resources. They didn’t want Zemo causing more of a problem like had already had, due to his habits of going off-plan and doing things his way. They also didn’t want to leave you alone with him, Sam strongly argued against it saying he would be okay watching over Zemo but you convinced them. You would be no help looking for resources, unlike Sam. Plus you were sure Zemo wouldn’t do anything. So far he had been considerably well behaved for a convict who had been broken out of prison.
It was strange, usually, you felt uncomfortable around men after what happened to you because of your last partner. Even Sam and Bucky knew to keep their distance from you, but Zemo… would it be strange to admit you felt like you could trust him? Trust him further than most men? You didn’t understand why. He was a criminal, he has killed people, broke up the avengers, manipulated Bucky. So many red flags that you should be feeling scared being in the same room as him. But in these times together he had shown you nothing but kindness. He had covered for you in a fight when you had got injured. Made sure your injury was treated correctly. Every time he saw you he asked how you were, he would actively try to keep up conversations with you. It made you feel comfortable around him but at the same time a confused mess.
You were sitting on the sofa when Zemo walked into the living room. He had slept in today, only coming down at ten for breakfast.
“Are Sam and Bucky out?” he asks as he observes you on your own
“Yes, they’ve gone out for resources”
“Ah,” he says as he looks around the cupboards for something to eat, realising what resources meant.
The conversation came to a halt there as you opened up your book, getting lost in your imagination as you read. You were lost to the world for a few minutes, completely engrossed within the story till you heard a voice near beside you.
“You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you”
Your head snaps around as you realised Zemo was now standing behind you, looking over your shoulder. He nods at the book then looks back to you smiling gently.
“Mr Darcy’s proposal from the book, Pride and Prejudice”
You look away realizing Zemo had been quoting the book you were reading. “Ah of course”
Zemo disappears from behind instead choosing to sit down on the sofa beside you as he holds an apple in his hand to eat.
“Most women believe it’s one of the most romantic proposals. And that Mr Darcy is the man of women’s dreams”
“He’s a guy who recognizes when he has done something wrong and actively tries to correct his behaviour and mistakes without expecting anything in return from Elizabeth, he did it purely out of love and admiration for her. Who wouldn’t want a guy like that?”
“Jane Austin certainly knew how to write a love interest. I’m sure because it was from the perspective of what a woman would want rather than what a misogynistic man writer thinks a woman would want” Zemo replies then bites into his apple
You chuckle slightly then focus back on reading the book, feeling the awkwardness of having Zemo so close to you.
As he finishes the apple he places it down and moves closer to you till you could feel his breath on your shoulder. Snekerly looking out of the corner of your eyes you could see he was focused on the book you were reading, deciding to read it with you.
You swallow feeling the anxiety creep up your skin by being so close. This might of been the closest you had been to someone since your last partner and that had not ended pretty. Still, you didn’t want to tell Zemo to back off so you just felt you had to suck it up.
For the next ten minutes, you two read contently, enjoying the comfortable silence between the both of you. Zemo however decides to make a brash move. Slowly he stretches his arm up in an attempt to do the cheesy move of wrapping his arm around your shoulder, as soon as you felt his hand brush up against your head however you flinched back, the feeling of his hand near you bringing back nasty memories.
Zemo quickly removed his hand his eyes widening as he saw your reaction.
“I’m sorry, did I do something wrong?’ he asks his eyes grazing you up and down in worry.
“No no” you quickly replied, instantly not wanting him to feel bad about himself
“It’s just…” your words trail off, feeling your throat chock up at the thought of the past, your eyes already swarming with tears
It was as if Zemo could understand all you couldn’t say though. There was a recognition in his eyes as he looked at you. He could tell from how anxious you were around him, Sam and Bucky. How you always hid away when arguments happened, how you flinch when he comes near you.
He could feel anger swarm inside of him as he thought about it. How could anyone ever hurt someone as kind and beautiful as you? In his thoughts, ideas flashed through his mind of what he would do to the person who had hurt you, images of torture, the pain he could cause.
But as he looks back at you the anger subdues. At this moment you didn’t need his rage towards the person, with the promise of revenge. You needed comforting and reassurance and was willing to be that person for you.
Gently his hand reaches out to clasp yours. Feeling the contact you flinch slightly and his eyes gaze back to your, checking to make sure you were okay with it. As you don’t remove your hand from his grasp he gatherers that you were.
“We’d never hurt you y/n” he whispers as he stares intently into your eyes
“I know, I just, when certain things happen it, it brings me back to that time”
He nods his head in understanding, his eyes swarming with sympathy. “Then, perhaps you could tell us what things trigger you, so we can’t avoid it happening in the future”
“You-you’d do that for me?” you ask, your eyes widening in surprise
“I’d never want to upset you or make you uncomfortable if I can help it y/n”
His fingers interlock with yours as a gesture of comfort without it being too intimate and at that moment your heart swooned. It would take time for you to be able to get used to being open with someone again but seeing Zemo wanting to put in the effort for you. It gave you hope about a potential future for you. That’s all you could ever ask for.
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Deadbeat Pt. 6
Lee Bodecker x F!Reader
18+ ONLY
Warnings: age gap (reader is 21), fluff, angst, smut, dirty talk, semi-public sex, cursing, abandonment, toxic parent, violence, toxic siblings, infatuation, cheating/divorce, insecurity, mild housewife kink, mentions of prostitution, mentions of alcohol, corrupt official, fake relationship, jealousy
Word Count: 3.5k
Summary: You work at the bar at the edge of town, the Sheriff is going through a divorce and needs to rent a room.
A/N: I’m terrible at writing summaries and I’m so sorry about that! I don’t think I would consider this a dark!fic, but it does cover a lot of themes, and topics that are darker than I usually write about- but I think that comes with the territory of writing about Lee Bodecker. I’ll make sure to update the warnings for each chapter and do not read if you are underage. I also ignored canon for this one.
Thank you all so much for reading and sharing my work. Everyone whose reached out and told me how much they love the story really makes my day, oh my gosh!! I love you all so much, I’m so thankful.
This is unedited, and I missed anything I should include as a warning let me know! I hope you all enjoy!
Part One // Part Two // Part Three // Part Four // Part Five
Tags and Requests are OPEN
send me an ask or message to be added to the taglist! I think I got everybody who has asked to be added, but to make sure it doesn’t get lost, sending me a message or an ask will make it easier to keep track! Thank you!!! The support has been overwhelming for my first fic I’m so happy you all are enjoying it!
He turns onto your street and as you get closer to your house, there’s a car out front you don’t recognize.
“You expecting somebody?” Arvin asks.
“Nope,” you say seeing a figure sitting on the front porch swing- unable to make out who it is.
Pulling up to the house the figure is a man, but you still can’t distinguish any features as Arvin continues to drive down the dirt road. You’re incredibly nervous and your mind is racing wondering who it would be. You were scared.
“Hey, it’s alright,” Arvin says, noticing as you fidget in your seat. He takes your hand to comfort you, now driving with one hand on the wheel. He parks his truck at the side of the house. It’s Henry Curtis- that damned reporter. Shit, you think to yourself, he doesn’t know that you lied to him at the bar.
“Who is that?” Arvin asks, staring daggers at the man as he flips a page in the newspaper he was reading while he waits on the front porch. You hide your face behind Arvin, leaning back so Mr. Curtis can’t see who is in the passenger seat.
“He’s this reporter that’s been trying to write a story about my mom,” you explain quickly, “He came into the bar the night before trying to talk to me but I lied and said I wasn’t me. He must have gotten the address somehow- he knows the Sheriff lives here… Maybe he’s trying to dig up something.”
“Is there something-?”
“No! Of course not,” you lie, and it makes you feel terrible. It makes you feel so guilty lying to Arvin but you weren’t ready to tell him anything. “Like everyone else in this town, he’s probably heard all the rumors and things people are saying about me and he’s gonna try to use that.”
“What should we do? It’s not like he’s seeing you with Sheriff Bodecker… you’re with me.”
“Wait- Arvin, that’s it,” you say in a hushed voiced. You peer over his shoulder to see if the reporter was getting suspicious.
“What’s it?” he asks with an eyebrow raised.
“Pretend to be my boyfriend?” You ask hurriedly. “If he thinks I’m single he’s gonna keep hounding me. But if I’m in a relationship, he’s got no reason to keep pursuing the dead-end story and maybe he’ll leave me alone.”
Arvin looks at you, and sighs heavily as he thinks about it. He knows it’s pointless because he knows he’s never going to be able to say no to you. Besides, it’s just a one-time rouse, just so this guy doesn’t bother you again. Arvin feels obligated to say yes, hoping this somehow could make his actions in the past up to you.
“Okay,” he says, forcing a small smile. “I’ll follow your lead.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” you exclaim, giving him a brief hug.
He gets out of the car first, tipping his baseball cap to the man on the porch, before coming around and helping you out of the truck. He keeps his arm around your waist, and holds you close to his side as he walked. Christ, he’s missed this.
“Afternoon,” Curtis greets, putting down his newspaper, and leaving it on the swing. “Henry Curtis. I’m a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch.” He comes down the front steps, as Arvin grabs your groceries from the back of the truck. He walks over to the car and extends his hand to both of you, matching his introduction with a firm handshake. He tilts his head, looking at you, immediately recognizing you from the bar. You’re quick on your feet, and good at putting on an act. You spoke quickly before he got the chance to accuse anything.
“I remember you Mr. Curtis,” you say with a smile. You come off as a little shy. “I wasn’t very truthful to you when we first met and I’m sorry about that,” you say. “But I was scared when you came in asking for me,” you explain, “Strange man comes in, asking for me by name without introducing himself first. Would scare any gal, I hope you understand.”
Arvin holds back a laugh at how thick you are laying it on. You were putting on a Southern belle persona, and it wasn’t like you at all. He admired how quick you were on your feet. It amazed him actually how smoothly you were able to pull it off. “I’m (Y/N) (Y/L/N),” you say, introducing yourself properly. “This is my boyfriend Arvin Russell.” His heart tugs a little, but he ignores it the best he can.
“I suppose I understand,” Curtis says, looking the two of you over. “I think that I came on a little too strong when I first introduced myself. I apologize. It’s nice to meet you both.”
“Good to know ya, Mr. Curtis,” Arvin nods, bringing your groceries up to your front porch as Mr. Curtis asks you more questions.
“I hate to intrude,” Curtis begins and you hold back a scoff, “But I had been told by some people you too had called it quits before the Sheriff moved in- a Ms. Perry, I think. When I was just asking around for a way to get in touch, her and another woman told me more than I was asking.”
“Oh of course, Mr. Curtis,” you chuckle. “They would have been right, but we’ve gotten back together since then. You’re in on the news before Ms. Perry it sounds like.”
“Ah, we’ll I’m happy to hear you both are happy,” he clears his throat. He wasn’t anticipating this and this new information has thrown off his hunch about the situation.
“That’s mighty kind of you,” you smile, resting your arm on Arvin’s shoulder when he returns to your side.
“How long has it been?” he asks curiously. You look up at Arvin, biting your lip playing dumb trying to remember.
“About two weeks, I think,” you finalize, “Maybe three. I mean we’d been together since we both got out of high school so it’s more like we’ve done been together for four years.”
“And you both don’t mind the living situation, not to pry in something that isn’t my business, but an unmarried woman renting out a room to a man is very peculiar,” he insinuates, and Arvin wraps his arm around your waist.
“I have no reason to not trust her,” Arvin says, coming to your defense, and you genuinely smile, even though you know it’s not true. It hurts, but you know it’s just for now. Keeping your relationship with Lee a secret was your idea after all, and you thought keeping it a secret would be easier. But now you’re here lying to one of the only people in town you care about.
“I’d be more worried about the Sheriff,” Curtis counters with a laugh. “Well, I came here to talk to Ms. (Y/L/N) about her mother.”
“I didn’t lie to you when I said I didn’t know anything,” you interject. “Honest, I don’t. I wish I knew more. I’m worried sick thinking about my brother and if he’s okay- but I haven’t heard about either of them. They haven’t reached out since they moved out.”
“I believe you,” he said sympathetically, “Sheriff Bodecker let me read the statement you gave at the station. And I’m sorry you are going through this.”
“I don’t know how’d I’d make it through without Arvin,” you say, looking up at him. He leans down and kisses your temple quickly.
“I should be going, I suppose,” he says, “I’ll be in town for a little while longer, so I hope to see you too around. Please, call me if you hear something.” The man hands you both a business card, and then goes to his car, and pulling away, not even bothering to grab the newspaper he left on the front porch.
“What a sleaze,” you shudder, moving away from Arvin’s embrace.
“He seemed nice enough,” Arvin shrugs, “But I guess that’s an act he puts on.”
“He’s trouble, Arvin,” you insist. He nods, trusting you. You both stand awkwardly for a few moments. You were wishing you could tell him and come clean. It felt horrible keeping this secret from him, he didn’t deserve to be a pawn covering up this scheme of yours without knowing. You would tell him, you decided you would, but you needed to wait for the right time.
“I really appreciate you helping me,” you say, cutting across the silence.
“Of course,” he says, putting his hands in his pockets. “I guess I should get going. I need to pick up Lenora at the cemetery.”
“Okay,” you nod, “See you later?”
“I’m always here,” he chuckles. You turn around and bring your bags inside as Arvin drives away. The whole interaction with Curtis made you incredibly uncomfortable, and you just wanted nothing more than to just see Lee.
You put the groceries away quickly, and then needed to change out these clothes. You headed up to your bedroom, and changed into a more comfortable outfit. You felt a little gross, like there was a layer of something on your skin, even though you were fine. It was like the residue of the lie you told Arvin was still crawling on your skin. You kept reminding yourself that it was only temporary.
“It’s okay to be selfish sometimes, sweetheart,” Lee said, pulling you in close later that night as you were telling him about how you felt towards lying to Arvin. He appreciated how honest you were, and he often wished he was more like you.
However, he also couldn’t help the jealousy that was bubbling up inside him. Thinking about Arvin touching you, even if you had been his first- the visual made his jaw lock. It wasn’t that it was just Arvin- any man touching you would send him into a jealous frenzy. He wasn’t worried about you. He really truly trusted you, but he didn’t for a second trust the Russell boy when it came to you.
You rested your head on his shoulder and rested your palm on his chest as he pulled the blanket up for the two of you. He laid on his back, you cuddled up close to his side. He had one arm wrapped securely around you and the other rested bent behind his head.
“I just hate keeping secrets,” you mumble and it makes him sigh. He now combatted with his own guilt. He was torn between telling you about his involvements around town, like Leroy Brown, or telling you about how he’s been covering for his sister. He wants out, and he just wants to protect you. His main concern about keeping that part of his life under wraps isn’t even about reelection anymore, it’s about keeping you safe. Brown couldn’t know about you; it would put you in danger. He just needed time to get out of the whole mess and then he’d confess everything to you, even if the fear of losing you stayed at the forefront of his mind.
“It’s not forever, sweetheart,” he whispers, rubbing circles on your back comfortingly. “We won’t have to keep ourselves locked away in this house forever,” he chuckles, “even though I love it.” His words make you blush and you swat his chest playfully. “What? I do,” he grins, “I love just being home with you. It’s like the rest of the world don’t even exist when it’s just you and me.”
“When that reporter leaves, everything will get better,” you affirm. “I thought keeping us a secret would be easier,” you admit, drawing aimless shapes over his white t-shirt.
“I can’t wait to show you off,” he mumbles, nuzzling closer to you. “Just show the whole world you’re my girl.”
“You did get pretty lucky,” you chuckle, closing your eyes.
“I know I did,” he hums in agreement, pulling you into his chest.
You got the call the next day letting you know you got the job. You quit your bartending job immediately, you’re so excited that you forget all about the stress you were battling with the previous night. You felt like you were walking on air. Things were looking up for the most part. You had secured a stable job, you were going to start making more money, you had Lee- you felt good. It was definitely a calm before the storm.
You’re worries for now floated to the back of your mind and you allowed yourself to just be happy for yourself. You got something, and it was all your own. You worked hard and you did this. You’d start this next phase of your life Monday morning and you couldn’t wait. You wanted to just speed through the weekend. Well, speed through the rest of Thursday, Friday, Saturday- enjoy your date with Lee, and then speed through Sunday.
You had butterflies. You felt silly that the idea of going on a date with Lee made you feel this way but you were really excited. It made you feel like this relationship was normal, and much more doable than you were thinking it would be. The age gap, living together, so many things made you worry constantly about other people and their opinions. Being stuck in that small town really would affect your confidence and self-esteem. You’re strong, and most of the time things that petty don’t affect you, but the consistency of it all is draining.
Now you both are sitting in the front of Lee’s car, not the cruiser- his ’55 Dodge he hardly drove. He kept his car, but because he was always working, it mostly sat in your garage. He’d offer you the keys, leaving them hanging up in the kitchen for you to take whenever you wanted, but something about the town seeing you driving his car was daunting. You knew people would talk regardless of what you did, but you didn’t like to add fuel to the flame when you could avoid it.
Sitting in the bench seat, with your eyes glued to the movie that played on the screen, you kept stealing glances at Lee. He looked nice out of uniform- much more relaxed and like he wasn’t hiding behind some front he felt he needed to live up to the badge. His leather jacket was secured around your shoulders, and you decide to slid over to him. Your actions snap him out of his thoughts and he smirks, pulling his arm around you and pulling you in close to his side.
It was a dark night, you couldn’t see in to the cars surrounding you, even though you were parked towards the back of the lot of cars anyways. The window was rolled down just enough to have the speaker clipped in place, and the breeze was a little chilly. He pressed his lips to the top of your head, giving you a quick kiss while you got comfortable and then you both turned back to the movie.
Lee couldn’t focus on the movie in front of him if he wanted to. It was just like how he felt like that night awhile back when you’d fallen asleep on the couch together. This time though, he shouldn’t be nervous. You were there and his girl. But now he felt nervous like he was a teenager again or something- and you’re there wrapped up in his arms, and the smell of your shampoo is amazing, and he’s just so wrapped up in thoughts of you, he couldn’t even tell you the name of the movie playing, or who was in it, or what it was even about. Then, you rested your hand on his leg and he thought he was going to combust.
“Lee,” you whisper in his ear and he feels a shiver run down his whole spine, “Are you paying attention?”
“Y-yeah,” he says, sitting up a little straighter and you scoff.
“What’s the movie called?” you ask with a smirk, rubbing his leg gently. He fumbles over his words trying to stall.
“I don’t know,” he sighs, running a hand through his hair nervously.
“Me neither,” you giggle, and he let’s out a long breath of relief. You lean up to whisper in his ear, your hand rubbing over the bulge in his pants. “I can’t think about anything but moving to the backseat,” you whisper. He groans as a response and then pulls you into a kiss, tangling his hand in your hair. You teasingly bit his lip, pulling away from the kiss. He pouts at the separation as you quickly kick off your shoes and then climb over the bench seat to the back, accidentally (or maybe on purpose) giving him a view of your panties that you wore under your skirt.
“You’re killing me, doll,” he moans, quickly following your lead, smacking your ass playfully. You yelp in response and laugh as he climbs over the bench seat and crawls on top of you.
He scoops you up in his arms so he can seat stretched out on the backseat and you maneuver so you’re straddling his waist, your miniskirt riding up around your waist. His tongue tangles with yours and his hands grab at the flesh of your upper thighs. Your hands move down his chest to his torso to his belt, fumbling to undo the buckle and then his fly.
“Fuck,” he moans, when he pulls away from the kiss and his hands move to rub your back under your top. You move to pulls his jacket off of you and he holds your wrists gently to stop you. “Keep it on, sugar,” he murmurs, and then dips down to kiss and bit at your neck. You moan as he kisses from your neck downward as he partially unbuttons your shirt, opening it just enough to reveal your bra.
As your hands run through his hair, he pulls back from your skin to kiss your lips frantically again. His hand travels down and pushes his pants and boxers down enough to free his cock, and he swiftly moves your panties to the side. “Please, Lee,” you whine impatiently, and he smirks, feeling your arousal.
“You’re so wet, baby girl,” he chuckles, teasing your entrance and you moan. He loves ever reaction you give him.
“You want me to ride you Sheriff?” you ask lowly batting your lashes. He rests his head back and he has a firm grip on your hips.
“Please, honey,” he says, almost in a whimper. It felt good, it felt really good seeing him under you like this. You smile, leaning down and kissing his neck as you slide yourself onto his length. You take a sharp intake of breath, adjusting as it stretches you and Lee moans. You’re thankful the windows are fogged, and the movie is still playing, but there was something thrilling about this nonetheless. No one would see you if they looked over anyways, and no one would be paying attention to your car.
“You’re so big,” you praise as you begin to move yourself up and down. Lee peppers kisses on exposed part of your breast and moves his hands down to squeeze your ass as you ride him.
“Fuck you’re so perfect, sweetheart, you feel so good,” he moans, his hands helping to move you up and down on him.
His praises just encourage you to quicken your pace and he still helps guide you. Not breaking your rhythm together, he moves one hand to pull out his wallet from his pocket while the other moves to rest on the small of your back as you continue to bounce on him.
“One second, sweetheart,” he mumbles against your lips. “Lay down on the seat for me.”
You nod and follow his instructions. You watch as he pulls a condom from his wallet, quickly unwrapping it and slipping it on. Once he secures it, he bends down connecting his lips with yours again.
“You’re stunning,” he praises, taking off your panties. He takes a minute to just take in how you look- your hair sprawled out as you rest your back on the seat, your chest rising and falling breathing heavy with anticipation, your neck covered in marks he’s left behind and your skirt pushed up around your waist, and you’re wearing his jacket. “Goddamn perfect,” he declares, kissing you one more time before guiding himself into you.
His thrusts are a little sloppy, this new position makes the limited space much more obvious, but it doesn’t matter. You both are close and pressed up against each other, and both of you know you’re close. He can feel as you tighten around him and you can feel every time, he’s hitting the spots inside you perfectly.
“Lee, I’m so close,” you moan, your arms wrapping around his neck, and he moves faster, this time the car rocks a little, making you laugh.
“Fuck, you’re so tight, sugar,” he grunts, “so perfect.”
You throw your head back as you feel your release, and at the sensation he shortly follows.
“Fuck, Lee,” you moan, feeling your orgasm rip through you.
“Fuck, I love you, sugar,” he groans, as he rides out his orgasm. He pulls out, resting his forehead on yours, panting heavily.
“You what?” You ask breathless, your eyes widening at the confession.
PART SEVEN
Taglist:
@scar-is-bi @jiminlife2k18 @asylummaniac01 @rosalynshields @charmed-asylum @jamesbuchananbuckybarnes1917 @alexandrathegreat3 @hersilencedscreams @malar-region @purplerain85 @vesper852 @smilewolfdolan @softshell-taco @champagnebucky
#lee bodecker#lee bodecker imagine#lee bodecker x you#lee bodecker x reader#lee bodecker fic#lee#lee bodecker smut#smut#sebastian stan imagine#sebastian stan x reader#sebastian stan characters#x reader#the devil all the time#tom holland x reader#tom holland#arvin russel x reader#sebastian stan one shot#lee bodecker x reader smut
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read on ao3
“Geralt?”
Jaskier moved closer, his footsteps echoing down the stone hallway. The Witcher was sitting down, his hands in his lap as a thoughtful look crossed his face. He looked adorable, admittedly, brow furrowed and white strands framing his face, which was burrowed into a woolen blanket.
“Hi, love,” Jaskier said softly, and climbed onto Geralt’s lap as he opened his arms in invitation. He gently traced Geralt’s cheeks, pink from the cold wind howling outdoors. “You look... transfixed. Did Lambert try fishing with bombs again?”
At that, Geralt smiled, a soft, small thing, pink lips curving up. His cold fingers traced nonsense patterns on Jaskier’s back, even though layers and layers of warm fabrics stood in his way — sometimes, it was about feeling Jaskier’s skin against his, the touch grounding and pleasant; sometimes, it was about occupying his hands for the sake of doing it, no plans or intention.
“Ciri and I trained earlier this morning,” he rumbled, his voice rough.
Jaskier hummed, his nose brushing Geralt’s hair. “I know. I heard her swearing all the way to the library.”
“Hmm. She gets frustrated.”
“That she does.”
“She’s getting good. Real good. She just can’t see it, I’m—” Geralt’s frown deepened, his mouth twitching like the words wanted to escape him. He closed his eyes and breathed out, once, twice. “She’s really good. I wish she could see that— how far she’s come.”
“Mm.” Jaskier pulled back, only a little, to catch a glimpse of that amber gaze. “Have you told her?”
“Hmm?”
“What you think— have you told her? How far she’s come, how proud you are of her?”
Geralt narrowed his eyes, almost a subconscious thing, and Jaskier could tell he was turning the idea over and over in his head. Jaskier tucked his head in the crook of the Witcher’s neck, then pressed a small kiss over his pulsepoint. He felt Geralt relax against him, if only a bit.
They stayed in each other’s arms for a while, comfortable silence surrounding them, Geralt’s hands running across the bard’s back, Jaskier humming a quiet melody as the hearth rumbled and firewood cracked, sizzling noises filling the air.
“You know,” Geralt murmured against Jaskier’s hair.
“Yeah?”
Geralt shifted his weight on the armchair, pulling the blanket tighter around them both. Some minutes passed, and Jaskier didn’t push, didn’t press — he just waited, knowing the words would come when they’re meant to, if at all.
“She called me ‘Dad’, the other day,” Geralt whispered, and he sounded embarrassed, somehow, his voice thick. “‘T was a slip of the tongue, she— she didn’t mean it. We’d been sparring, and she kept getting frustrated and wanted to quit. Then snow started falling.”
Jaskier found his hand, buried under the blankets, and squeezed it softly.
Geralt smiled, his cheeks flushed a gentle pink. “And Ciri was so tired and miserable, and I was getting impatient too, and I just— I took some snow in my hands, and made a ball, and just— covered her in it. She was furious.” He let out a small laugh. “‘T was war, she said. And we kept throwing snow at each other. She started running, at one point, and I chased her around the courtyards.”
Jaskier felt tears gathering in his eyes, delighted by the story, and by the sentiment Geralt’s voice carried.
“Ciri was laughing so hard by the time I got her, and she didn’t care that her hair was white and her fingers had gone numb,” Geralt continued. “She was so happy, Jas. I— I had never seen her like that. So carefree and happy, like any child should be.”
He took in a deep breath, pressing their foreheads together. Jaskier grinned, his eyes closed, as they breathed in the same air. “We were laughing together,” he said. “And then we stopped, and everything was still for a second, and she said, ‘that was so fun, Dad’, and— she sounded so happy, so... alive. She hugged me.”
Jaskier felt a tear slip down his cheek. “Geralt.”
Geralt looked at him, so open and vulnerable, and his thumb gently wiped the tear away.
“Of course she meant it,” Jaskier said, and his voice cracked. “Of course she did.”
“I don’t know, Jas, I don’t— This is so hard on her. Everything. I don’t want to pressure her into anything she doesn’t want.”
“You’re so lovely, Geralt,” Jaskier murmured against his cheek, and hugged closer, his heart breaking a little. “You’re such a good man, so honest and humble and good— she adores you.”
“Hmm.”
He meant it — he’d seen it firsthand. The first week Ciri spent in the keep, Geralt had made sure she felt comfortable, showing her around and encouraging her to ask questions and wander the grounds whenever she felt like it. He’d train with her in the mornings and, after they all had lunch together, he’d accompany her to the library, where she and Vesemir would sit for hours on end, surrounded by books and bestiaries and ancient stories, all under the Witcher’s attentive gaze. Late at night, after dinner but before the wolves turned in for the night, Geralt would walk her to her room, then stay for a bit to tuck her in and listen to her talk — long conversations about her past, Cintra and her family, or small remarks about her findings in the keep, a hunting trip with Eskel or an alchemy lesson with Lambert. Geralt listened intently every time, and remembered every detail she’d shared with him. He worried about her; sometimes, late at night, Jaskier would wake up to find him sitting outside on their balcony, a foreign expression on his face and a steaming mug of tea between his hands. He cared for her endlessly — he loved Ciri.
Jaskier brushed a kiss against his forehead, warm and loving, and was about to bury his face back into Geralt’s neck, when a soft noise made them both look up.
Ciri padded into the room, her hair mussed and sleep still tugging at her eyes as she rubbed them with the back of her hand. In the firelight, she looked even younger, her rosy cheeks and soft woolen socks the most perfect picture of pure innocence. As she moved closer to them, Jaskier saw it, the worn fabric of Geralt’s cloak, draped over her shoulders like a cape and dragging across the floor, too large to fit her body. He looked at Geralt and saw his own expression mirrored on his face, if only more intense — adoration, raw and blatant, pouring from his eyes, a smile curling on his lips.
“Ciri?” Geralt called, one hand stetched out for her. “What is it?”
She moved closer, entwining his fingers with Geralt’s, so different yet so similar; pale hands that were slowly becoming more calloused and hard as they gained experience. “Fell asleep in the kitchen, by the fire. Vesemir wanted me to tell you he needed help with dinner.” She yawned. “Also grumbled something about you being lazy, but I told him we trained hard today, and he frowned, but said it was okay. That we could be lazy today.”
Geralt huffed a laugh, and Jaskier shifted so Ciri could sit on Geralt’s thigh, too. “Hmm. Good, then. Wouldn’t want to laze around without his permission.”
Ciri wrapped her arms around Geralt’s neck, and rested her head on his shoulder, firmly fighting sleep but losing. “Hmm.”
Jaskier snorted, and swatted playfully at Geralt’s side. “Oh, Geralt, that’s all you. She did not even know how to ‘hmm’ before she met you.”
“Hmm.”
He shook his head in fond exasperation, and leaned back, just a bit, to look at them in earnest. He watched as Geralt now traced small circles on Ciri’s back, her body tucked into his side as she snored softly, a small smile on her face. Geralt looked so content, so peaceful, so at home, Jaskier’s heart ached in his chest, pride and love fluttering in his stomach. They deserved it — every bit of peace and quiet, every moment of tenderness they could get, they deserved them all, and even more.
“You’re being sappy in your head, I can tell.”
Jaskier clicked his tongue. “I’m being sentimental— there’s a difference, thank you very much.”
Geralt leaned back, his head pressed against the chair, and closed his eyes with a content rumble and a knowing smirk on his lips. “Hmm.”
“Don’t know why I put up with you and your nonsensical grunting, really. Must have been dropped on my head as a child.”
“Must’ve been.”
Jaskier gasped with mock outrage. “You horrible, horrible Witcher. Don’t know why I bother.”
Geralt cracked one amber eye open. “Because you love me.”
“Hmm. Yet further proof I was most definitely gravely injured as a child,” Jaskier replied, with but there was no bite to his words. “I’ll go help Vesemir with dinner— someone must, if you’re to stay here and simply laze.”
“Thank you for your sacrifice,” Geralt said, teasing. Jaskier let out a small laugh and leaned down to kiss his forehead once more, then brushed Ciri’s hair back from her face. He took his hand back, but Geralt stopped him. “Thank you. Truly. I love you.”
Jaskier’s chest seized, and he smiled, smitten. “I love you, too. Very much. Now sleep, I’ll come wake you both when supper’s ready.”
“Okay.” Geralt leaned back. “Please don’t burn the keep down.”
Jaskier grinned, and looked back at him before shutting the door. “No promises.”
#mywriting#geraskier ficlet#geralt x jaskier#ciri the witcher#winter at kaer morhen#yes i wrote this at 2 am with nothing but two concepts. yes it's soft. yes i love them very much
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A Little Bit Stabbed
Jake Gets Stabbed Miniseries: First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth
CW: Discussion of past child abuse/domestic violence, description of stab wound, painkillers/drugged but in a good way, brief IV needle reference, some short references to Jake’s religious trauma, some trauma response stuff
“Took four of us to get you onto the couch, you know,” Kauri says, fingers moving gently to brush Jake’s short hair back off his forehead. There’s a hint of humor to his deep voice, but Jake catches the tremor in it, too. “You’re heavier than you look.”
“Must be… pretty fucking heavy, then,” Jake manages, voice slightly thin. They gave him something - Nat’s EMT friend showed up with IV supplies while refusing to tell anyone where they’d gotten ahold of everything from, except to repeatedly reassure all of them I know someone, it’s taken care of, I probably won’t go to jail for this. Besides, I’ve been in jail before.
Jake might not have found it very reassuring if he wasn’t halfway to unconscious from the pain alone at the time.
Now, though, there’s a needle feeding a steady supply of something wonderful into his bloodstream, holding the worst of the pain at bay. All he can feel now is maybe a little bit of an itch he knows better than to scratch, and a heaviness to his limbs that keeps them limp and relaxed.
“We had to turn the stupid thing into the pull-out bed just to make sure your feet wouldn’t be higher than your head.” Kauri smiles at him, but there’s worry in those warm blue eyes, and Jake uses every ounce of strength to lift his good hand, the one on the uninjured side, and take Kauri’s, pulling his knuckles to his lips to brush against them.
“I’m okay,” Jake says softly. “I am, Kaur. It’s not so bad.”
“It’s not-... you got fucking stabbed in your own kitchen, Jake.” Kauri’s lips thin and he looks away, over towards the TV, playing Clue.
Funny, Jake thinks, woozy and untethered to any kind of focus. My mom used to play Clue when we were alone, after. Made her feel better for a while.
“Just a… a flesh wound,” Jake manages in a terrible approximation of a British accent.
Kauri just looks at him, expression serious, and leans over until their foreheads touch. He’s warm, and Jake’s eyes close, basking in the body heat that comes off of him, surrounds them both. “Don’t,” Kauri whispers. “Please don’t make jokes. I thought-”
“It’s okay,” Jake murmurs.
Eventually, he should probably tell someone he can only sort of feel the hand on the injured side. But not now.
“It’s okay. It’s not s’bad. I got the good drugs, right?”
“Antibiotics and…” Kauri squints at the label on the bag attached to the IV, then winces and shakes his head. “Sorry. Can’t read today. It, uh. It kind of comes and goes when I’m worried, and today-”
“I get it. But… you don’t have to worry about me, Kaur. It’s over, it happened… I’ll feel better pretty fast. It’s okay.”
“It’s not,” Kauri says softly, but he relaxes beside Jake, keeping a hold of his hand. His fingers are slightly chilled, but they warm against Jake’s. The two of them settle into silence for a while, a woman in black on the TV with eyes blown wide in comic exaggeration of anger speaking in a blur of sound Jake knows by heart but can’t really pick apart from anything else, not just yet, not right now.
He knows this movie by heart. He and his mom used to curl up under a blanket while she closed her eyes and prayed for things to get better and Jake prayed for his dad to die in a car accident or some other terrible way, and make it slow, and then pray with terror not to go to hell for thinking like that.
If men like his father go to heaven, Jake would rather burn in hell.
At least my favorite bands would be there, he thinks, and laughs to himself, shoulders shaking a little, sending a ripple of pain down his arm and spiking into his skull. He winces, but the thought still strikes him as too funny to quit circling woozily around his mind, and he keeps laughing a little.
Kauri turns to look at him, eyebrows raised. “What are you laughing at?”
Jake blinks over at him, those wide blue eyes. It had been hell not to be able to hold him for so long, with eyes like that. Real hell, the kind where you spend your days wishing for a connection that seems too hard to make. “Nothing, just… thinking about shit with my dad,” He says, finally. “My mom and I used to watch Clue all the time. It’s her favorite movie.”
“Yeah?” Kauri looks over his shoulder, back at the television, and Jake’s eyes move lazily over the slight bump in his nose where it was broken by someone years ago, the dip of his lips, the roundness of his chin, angling a little with age. The way his neck would feel to trace with just one fingertip, how he smiles when Jake does it, asks him what the fuck he’s looking at when there’s way more to Kauri that needs attention right now than just his face.
There’s a lazy wave of warmth in Jake, a steady thrum of something that goes much deeper than arousal, at the memory.
Adoration.
“Yeah,” He says, softly. “She’d put it on when he left the house, we’d make popcorn and watch it. Saturday night special, popcorn and a movie, Mom and Jake.”
“Where’d your dad go?” Kauri asks, then the answer catches up with him, and he winces. “Wait, sorry. I think I know where he went.”
“Church.”
That is clearly not what Kauri expected to hear. “I-... what?” He turns back to Jake, eyebrows furrowing. “I thought-”
“Nope. He went to church. Fish fry on Saturdays, he volunteered.” Jake is dimly aware that this might be more than he’s ever told Kauri about his father, at least more than he’s ever said that wasn’t laser-focused on the hurts, the bruises, the concussion, the ER visits where Jake learned to lie. “He was a magician with a deep fryer. Best fucking fish I ever ate.” He laughs, then coughs a little against the new round of ache in his shoulder.
Kauri is quiet for a moment, his eyes searching Jake’s face, maybe looking for an idea of how to respond the right way. Jake knows that look - he’s seen it less and less over the years, but it never fully stops.
Kauri never stops looking for the safe answer, the one that won’t get him hurt. Jake never stops being ready to fight his way out if it happens again. Kauri is still ready to say what the abuser needs to hear, placate and please and keep himself alive.
Jake is still ready to pick up a weapon and use it if his father ever comes near he or his mother again. Not that he ever will. Not that he even wants to, sixteen years after Jake last saw his face.
But he’s still built, deep within, to fight the threat. And so is Kauri, in his own way.
“I love you so much,” Jake says softly. “I hope you didn’t pull anything dragging my ass around.”
“Mmmn, guess I’ll find out,” Kauri says softly, snuggling back up to him, then. “Should we change the movie? If it’s, like, a thing for you-”
“Nah.” Jake smiles, slightly. He feels pleasantly drunk, on whatever the painkiller slowly drip-feeding into his arm is. A little woozy, a little bit in love with it. “It’s like a comfort thing, really. I should call my mom-”
“I already did,” Kauri says, gently pushing him back down as Jake tries to make himself sit up. “She’s driving up. She said she’ll get here in the morning, she had to find someone to watch her dog.”
Jake blinks twice. “Mom has a dog?”
“I think it’s new. But, um. You can’t exactly meet her at her hotel, Jake. She’s gonna have to come here.”
Jake feels a rush of old nerves prickling along his arms, the hair of his neck trying to stand up. He closes his eyes, tries to push it back down. “I’ve never given her my address. It’s not safe for us. What if-... I don’t know. I’ve just never… I’ve always worried that if he found her, you know, that he’d… convince her to tell him where I live. He’d turn us all in just to feel like the big righteous moral hero all over again. Probably hard to feel that way when you’re hitting a teenager. Easier when you’re turning in vigilantes with stolen property.” He spits the words, and Kauri flinches a little. “Shit. Sorry, Kaur.”
“No, it’s. It’s okay. I get what you mean. But I don’t think your mom would do that. She loves you.”
“She does.” Jake exhales, closes his eyes. Inside him there is still an angry child that wants to point out that it hasn’t always been enough. But there’s a grown man, and a decade of fucking therapy, telling him there’s a whole lot more to it than that. “And she’s finally come around to understanding why I do this. Yeah… yeah, we’ll tell her where I am. It’ll be fine. Honestly, it’s not so bad. Jameson really did a great job on the stabbing.” Jake tries to laugh again. “Fucking surgeon with a butcher knife. He managed to miss every fucking bit of me that would have killed me.”
“Except for if you bled out,” Kauri points out, voice small.
“Yeah… but I didn’t.” Jake thinks of Antoni’s face, the focus in his dark eyes, the quick movement of his hands, the blinding agony of the cloth being forced into the wound to soak up the blood, the way Antoni had leaned all his weight forwards to put enough pressure to staunch the bleeding. Jake had never felt pain like that before, and he’s not sure he could handle feeling it again. “Ant was there. It’ll be okay. Where is he?”
“In his room.” Picking at the heavy thick blanket laid over Jake, not quite looking at him now, Kauri asks, “How are you so calm about this?”
“Drugs,” Jake answers right away. “Like ninety percent drugs.” He groans as a throbbing ache travels from the stab wound, up into his skull, all the way down to his toes. “Fuck. The… whatever’s in there helps. But also…” Jake sighs, letting his eyes drift to the ceiling, over the popcorn-texture there. He’d meant to scrape it clean and smooth, when he bought the house, but other stuff kept taking priority, and he hadn’t gotten around to it yet. “This isn’t th’ first time, you know?”
Kauri frowns. “Jake, I have licked just about everything on your body, I’ve never seen a scar from-”
“Not… not stabbed. But… stuck here, on a couch-bed, tryin’... tryin’ to heal from shit. That’s not new.” Jake exhales. Above him, the blades of the ceiling fan circle lazily, and his eyes follow the movement of the shadows.
“No, I guess not.”
“In any case… I haven’t s-seen… Jameson’s upstairs, right? Can you get him down here?”
Something passes over Kauri’s face, a shadow, a discomfort and darkness that Jake can’t quite read. “Jameson’s not in the house, Jake.”
“What? Why?” Jake starts trying to sit up again, and this time Kauri’s gentle push isn’t enough to get him back down. He grinds his teeth against the pain and forces himself upright, trying to shift his legs over the side of the bed. The room spins around him, dizzy-sick flip in his stomach, but he ignores it. He’s felt worse than this and kept moving before. “Shit, fuck, I should’ve made sure he didn’t leave-”
“He didn’t. I made him go.”
The look Jake turns on Kauri is baffled, but there’s anger, too, welling up inside him. “You what?”
“I told him he can’t stay here if he’s a danger to you and the others,” Kauri says, but he cringes back from Jake’s expression, instinctive fear. Jake hates how he looks like his dad - huge and muscular, a threat inherent in his existence that he might not give off if he were smaller. But his bulk and his strength is also the thing that makes him capable of withstanding the danger he puts himself in for them. It’s the reason he could come home and pick Chris up with a broken rib and carry him after they raided the last safehouse he’d lived in. It’s the reason he could finally fight back with his dad. It’s the reason the kids at his new schools, one after another after another as he and his mom moved constantly to try not to be found, left him alone.
“Kauri, he can’t-... Jameson’s not. He can’t live on his own.”
“That’s a lie,” Kauri says, lips barely moving. “That’s a lie they tell us-”
“No, that’s not what I-... Jameson’s like Chris,” Jake says, softly. “Like Chris used to be. He was treated like an animal, Kauri. He didn’t get to use fucking utensils to eat in the last two places he was held, he told me himself. He can’t live on his own yet. If you kicked him out… Jesus Christ, Kauri, do you not remember how it felt when you were kicked out?”
Kauri looks like he’s been slapped. “Wait, Jake-... I didn’t mean-”
“We found you half-dead under a goddamn bush, Kauri, you can’t do that to someone else just because I got a little bit stabbed! Shit. Fuck. I gave him a burner phone, if he’s still got it on him, maybe I can call-”
“Jakob fucking Stanton!” Kauri yells so rarely, and Jake goes still, turning to look at him, seeing the anger written across Kauri’s face. Kauri angry is electric, and immensely sexy, and something Jake had gone so long thinking he would never see unless Vincent Shield showed up with a new idea for how to make up for all his failures by forcing himself around someone who hated him. “Will you fucking listen to me?!”
Jake just sits there, staring at him. He can’t even find the words. Eventually, he just nods.
“I didn’t kick him out on the street, I’m not that awful, and fuck you for thinking I am and we’re going to talk about that later when you aren’t half off your head from painkillers. I don’t want him here until you’re feeling better in case it happens again, so I-... so I sent him home with Nat. She doesn’t have anyone living with her right now, and she said okay, so he’s going to stay with her.” Kauri swallows, reaching slowly out to lay his hand on Jake’s leg. “He and I talked. He said it’s always been men, Jake. All of the ones who hurt him were men, one of them was... was really big like you, I guess. So I thought-... if he’s with Nat, maybe it won’t happen again for long enough for him to, to work it through in therapy and Dr. Berger maybe can give him, give him s-something to help. So maybe he won’t, um, hallucinate or… or w-whatever the next time.” Kauri’s eyes well up, glimmer with tears that don’t fall. “I was trying to help. I thought he’d feel safer with only a woman, maybe, and I sent him alone so that he’d know he can’t hurt Allyn, he was really scared of that, and…”
Jake’s mouth hangs open.
Kauri slumps over, his forehead slowly resting against Jake’s back where he sits slightly behind him now that Jake is nearly off the bed. “I had to make sure everyone’s safe. I didn’t know what else to do. I sent Chris to stay with Laken overnight but he’ll be back tomorrow, Antoni’s fucked up but he’s in his room and he’s safe, and all the rescues promised to stay in their rooms and Allyn tried to go with Jameson and I think they hate me now because I said no, but I didn’t-... I tried to think of what you would do, if it had been Chris or me he’d hurt. I was trying to be like you. I’m s-sorry if I fucked it up, I’m sorry, please, I thought you were going to die, please don’t be mad at me-”
“Kauri.” Jake turns, and uses his good hand to lift Kauri’s chin, meeting his eyes.
Blue on blue, always.
“I’m not mad,” He says, gently. “Not… not now. You’re right, I shouldn’t have… just been a shit deciding what you did without asking. I’m sorry. So, let me just… you spent the last couple of hours really fucking busy, huh?”
Kauri nods, kissing Jake’s fingertips, one by one. “I’m sorry,” He whispers. “I’m not… I’m not good at this, I’m not... not... I was so scared. I didn’t know what you would do, Jake, and Nat said she thought it was a good idea, so-”
“It is. It is a good idea.” Kauri blinks, surprised, and the tears that have been threatening finally run, clear as crystal, down his flushed cheeks. He looks like a fucking sculpture, Jake thinks to himself, like some artist’s idea of the perfect beautiful person. “Kauri, just. Now that I get what you were trying to do… Shit. That’s really smart.”
Kauri huffs a laugh, a kind of half-sobbing sound, and shakes his head. “It’s just, I was just guessing-”
“That’s all we ever do, too,” Jake says, voice soft. “We guess, at what we can do to help. Nat always says we make the hard choices when nobody else can. Kauri, that’s the smartest fucking idea. I’m… that’s some grace under fire shit. That’s amazing.”
“It… it is?”
“Yeah.” Jake kisses him, and Kauri tastes like mouthwash, like mint, kisses back with desperate intensity. “Yeah, Kaur. That’s even better than what I would have done. You’re so fucking smart. What made you decide to slum it with me?”
“You have a really good d-dick and I don’t w-w-want to lose access,” Kauri says, and he’s crying or laughing or maybe both. “You’re my eye candy.”
“You’re my Einstein.”
“Fuck you.”
“Fuck me yourself,” Jake says softly.
“Heal a little first.” Kauri sighs, half-smiling, pulling Jake back into the bed to lay down again. “Everyone’s safe, Jake. At least for now. Everyone’s okay. You need to rest, and everyone’s going to be okay.”
Jake lets his head be maneuvered back onto the pillow, feels Kauri settle back down next to him, pulling the blankets back up over them both. He’s silent for a while, lets the soft sound of the end of the movie wash over him, showing the different endings.
“I love you,” He whispers. The way the adrenaline is fading makes him sleepy, drifting in a new drowsy haze, ready to dose off again. “So much.”
“Love you, too,” Kauri murmurs.
He knows this - the couch-bed pulled out, watching movies and stand-up comedy at a low volume, a throb of pain somewhere that will heal only with time - by heart.
With Kauri’s weight and warmth beside him, it feels entirely, completely new.
-
@astrobly @burtlederp @finder-of-rings @whump-tr0pes @raigash @moose-teeth @orchidscript @doveotions @pretty-face-breaker @eatyourdamnpears @boxboysandotherwhump @whumptywhumpdump @whumpfigure @outofangband @downriver914 @justabitofwhump @thehopelessopus @butwhatifyouwrite @yet-another-heathen @nonsensical-whump @newandfiguringitout @gonna-feel-that-tomorrow @oops-its-whump @cubeswhump @whumpiary @endless-whump
#whump#past child abuse tw#past domestic violence tw#erase to control#jake the shelter guy#caretaker and whumpee#whumpee turned caretaker#caretaker as whumpee#injured caretaker#hurt/comfort#mostly comfort but some hurt#h/c#angsty fluff#stab wound#injury aftermath#box boy universe#bbu#box boy#religious trauma tw#it's vague but still#angry whumpee#angry caretaker#both of them are both!#drugged whumpee#sort of#ptsd tw
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Like You
Trequel to Half Of and The only ghost in Amity Park
“We need to talk, Fenton,” Valerie hissed, slamming Danny’s locker shut in his face. He pursed his lips and lowered his gaze but said nothing. Manson scoffed and stepped right up, putting her finger in Valerie’s face.
“He doesn’t owe you anything, Val so lay off. If he wants to talk to you, he will, not because you demanded it.” Val grabbed Sam’s wrist, strong but still such delicate bones. The goth flinched a bit as Valerie applied pressure.
“Only my friends,” Valerie hissed with a hard look over at Danny, “get to call me Val. But I guess we’re not friends if you kept something like this from me.”
“Val...erie, let her go,” Danny mumbled quietly. “We’ll talk after school, meet me by the equipment shed behind the football field.”
“Alone,” Val said, flicking away Sam’s wrist. “None of your adoring, enabling entourage, new or old.”
“No way in hell,” Sam said, clearly resisting the urge to hold onto her injured wrist. “Like we’d trust Danny with someone like you.”
“What? Human?” Valerie asked back. Danny stuck his hands between them and forced them apart. Now that Val was looking, the entire hall was watching them. Whatever, they didn’t matter.
“Cut it out,” Danny frowned, looking over both of them. “Sam, I’ll be fine talking to her alone.” He turned back to her with his blue eyes. As long as she’d known him, Danny’s had a presence about him. She took it as growing up in such a strange house and later her growing crush. But there was no way to explain away the icy, electric feel of his gaze holding her own. “3:30, equipment shed, just talking. Okay?”
“Fine,” Valerie said, turning and stomping down the hall so she had the last word. The rest of the day passed slowly as she gripped the sides of her desk and bounced her leg, thinking about Danny Fenton. How long had Danny been a ghost or half of one, how was that even possible? Had he always been that way and she simply hadn’t noticed? Her? The best ghost hunter in Amity? How much of Danny was real and what was just a cruel ghostly joke? That’s the question that burned the most. Danny seemed to be the only one who liked this new, more grounded Valerie. What would she do if her closest friend was just messing with her?
Finally, school ended and she stalked purposefully towards the equipment shed. Interesting choice of location, it was almost never used since most every day sports gear was stored in the locker rooms. Did he chose it because it was isolated? Danny didn’t seemed worried about confronting her alone, what abilities could he have that he wasn’t scared of her? That made her pause once the shed came into sight. She’d only heard about Danny’s powers, never having ever seen them firsthand. Valerie took an ectogun from her bag and slipped it in back waistband of her skirt. Just in case.
Danny was sitting on the roof of the shed, weirdly enough. It would be next to impossible to climb so he had to have flown. She’d already heard of him floating but the idea of Danny Fenton and superpowers still didn’t add up in her head. He was rubbing at a tear in his jeans when she approached. Danny gave a little awkward half smile that, a few days ago, would have sent her stomach into somersaults. Now seeing it just made her sick.
“Are you gonna hide up there all day?” She asked curtly, hands on her hips.
“You could always join me up here,” Danny shrugged, getting more comfortable on the roof. Val raised a disbelieving eyebrow, eyeing the lack of handles and the broken splinters on the old shed. “We’re far enough away, no one will see you use your hoverboard.” Just when Valerie thought he was done being surprised. She gaped open mouthed at Danny who got nervous and rubbed his hands anxiously. “You uh you wanted to talk so I thought we ought to lay all our cards on the table.” He took a deep breath, “I know you’re the Red Huntress Val...erie.”
“How!” She demanded, activating her board without thought to get to the roof. She grabbed Danny by the shirt and hauled him forward until their faces were inches apart. His body radiated a soft chill that brushed against her skin. He held up his hands in surrender.
“Since the start, Sam and I, we saw you in the park, remember? You caught us uhhhh,” Danny trailed off, looking away with a blush. It took Val a minute but she remembered one of her first outings with the suit, she was chasing Phantom and his stupid dog only to find Danny and Sam kissing in the bushes. She hadn’t cared about the love lives of losers at the time. It had only become relevant when she started catching feeling for Danny but he’d assured her multiple times that he and Manson weren’t a couple. “It wasn’t real, the kiss I mean. It was Sam’s idea, you surprised us and we didn’t have time to hide so you didn’t...” he trailed off.
"Didn’t, what?” She demanded. Valerie gasped when Danny simply phased out of her grip and assuming his previous position on the roof. She stared for a moment at her hands before looking up again at Danny who was back to fiddling with his clothes. There it was, irrefutable proof that Danny wasn’t human. It felt like her heart was being chipped away with a hammer.
“Look, this has been kind of a hard week for me,” Danny groaned, raking his hands forcefully through his hair. “I get my powers outed, I need to convince my parents not to kill me the rest of the way, keep the ghosts off my back for a period, get the government to acknowledge my existence all the while dealing with everyone’s stares and questions at school.” He tucked his knees closer and flopped his face into them. “I said I would be honest with you and I’m trying but I’ve already had to give so much of myself this week and... I don’t know, what do you even want from me?”
“I want answers!” Valerie tried to demand but it came across as more whiney. She pushed back any tears that were threatening to come. “I want to know what was real! Was our friendship real? Our feelings? Are you even real? And if you knew I Huntress all this time then why... why would you even talk to me? Were you just playing with me? Spying on me? What did you want with me?”
“I’m real, Val, I promise,” He held out his hand and she reluctantly took it. His hand was chilly but there always where, it was also solid with knobbing bones and ropy muscles. Beneath it all, there was a sluggish but persistent pulse. She squeezed his hand, it was a human hand and yet it had also passed right through her. How could he be real and not real at once?
“As for what I wanted, just a friend really,” Danny said, keeping his head on his folded knees but turning towards her. She read nothing but sincerity in his eerily blue eyes. “Sam, Tuck and I, we have serious history. We know each other inside and out. But you, you were someone new. I loved hearing about your interests, your dreams, finding out who you were as a person beyond that jerk who made fun of me the second week of Freshman year for wearing my dad’s jumpsuit to school. I liked being able to be a normal person with you, I think I had started to forget with the whole ghost thing going on.”
“What happened?” Valerie couldn’t help but ask.
“Lab accident,” Danny said quietly, “Sam and Tuck were there, wasn’t pretty. Thought I was goner for sure. I survived somehow but I got some freaky powers out of the deal. There’s downsides but some sweet benefits,” he tilted his head back and looked longingly up at the sky. “Flying is the best.”
“Yeah,” Val couldn’t help but sigh in agreement. She could almost the feel the sensation of the wind whipping against her suit. Hear the roar as she soared through the clouds. It was hard to imagine Danny flying but his eyes shined with understanding she usually only saw in the mirror. “So why did you hang out with me knowing I hunted ghosts?”
“It just sorta happened, You obviously sensed that Sam and Tucker weren’t too happy about the risk.” No kidding, Val had gotten warmer welcomes from freezers. “But you were cool, Val. Plus you,” he paused and seemed to consider his words. “I felt like once we got over the hump you would get it in a way the other don’t. You know what it like to balance two lives, to have insane power at your fingertips, to feel like if you take even a second break that the ghosts will overwhelm the town. It’s just... a lot to deal with alone, Sam, Tucker and Jazz, they try to understand but they just don’t.”
He looked over at her, “I guess it was nice to know that there was someone like me out there,” he blushed, “and that someone uh liked me. For being me, y’know?”
“Clearly I didn’t know everything,” she grumbled watching as Danny winced. Val frowned, she probably wasn’t being entirely fair, she hadn’t exactly been honest with Danny either.
“So you fight ghosts, huh?” Valerie couldn’t help was ask with a little smile. Trying to picture it. The Danny she thought she knew wouldn’t but this Danny... “Is that why you’re always running out of class?”
“Isn’t that why you leave?” He teased back hesitantly. “I’m honestly a little surprised no one figured me out before. I was really bad at hiding at first. Of course it’s only when I get the whole ‘secret identity’ thing down that I get exposed.” He huffed, the ends of his hair lifting out of his eyes.
“Secret identity, so you can turn into a ghost?” Danny was silent. “Have I seen you out there?” More silence. “Have I... have I shot at you?” Everything seemed quiet save for their asynchronous breathing. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“It stung but not enough to keep me down for long,” Danny said, flexing his arms but his smile was strained. There was something about it that was haunting, familiar. She turned to look at the woods because if she stared any longer she’d realize which ghost Danny turned into and neither of them was ready for that right now.
“So now what?” She asked.
“I don’t know,” Danny sighed. “I’m kind of taking it one day at a time. Mom and Dad are nervous, jumpy, I’m not sure if they’re more scared of me or of themselves and what they did. My sister and friends are being annoyingly overprotective. People who hated me last week are suddenly in my face asking questions and demanding demonstrations. The government wants to kill me but,” he snorted a little, and tilted his head towards her floppily. “I'm also talking to you about this part of my life for the first time. Lying was a necessity I never grew comfortable with, I think I could do with a bit of honesty.”
“Yeah me too,” Valerie said, straightening up and looking Danny in the eye. “I’m still not sure how I feel about this. I don’t like ghosts and I likely never will. I’m going to continuing being Huntress and keeping the town safe. But I’m willing to give you chance, give you time to open up completely. It’ll give us both times to come to terms with everything, and maybe then we can figure out where we stand.”
“I’ll take it!” Danny beamed, “I was worried you were coming here to off me with that ectogun you have stashed in your skirt so this is much better!”
“How did you-” She gasped.
He winked and tapped his forehead, “I’m pretty sensitive to ectoplasm, especially out here in the real world. Gotta admit sometimes when my energy was low, I sought you out. Did you know your suit radiates a low level ectoplasmic field, even when you’re not wearing it?” He twisted his face in thought. “Now that we’re talking-talking, I should warn you what side effects excess exposure to ectoenergy can cause.” He twisted his hand and a small green ectoblast formed in his palm briefly before dissipating. “If that worries you, my parents can hook you up with some sweet ghost hunting equipment that won’t contaminate you.”
“So I could have powers like you one day?” She asked carefully, looking over her hands thoughtfully.
“Maybe, I don’t know. Mine was a kind of one in a million accident, well, two,” he made a face. “That’s whole other story, don’t ask. But we could maybe find out together, Val,” he winced. “Valerie.”
“Val is fine,” she said quietly, still thinking too many things. “We have a lot of things to figure out but in the meantime, you can keep calling me Val.”
“I’d like that,” he smiled. “So uh, do you want to come to movie night tomorrow? It’s at my house this week. I uh always wanted to invite you before but Sam, Tuck and I usually end up talking ghost stuff during the movie so we couldn’t before but if you’re interested... could be fun to have you there. We’re watching The Shining.”
“That movie is like a billion years old,” Val laughed with an eyeroll.
“It’s a classic, I was named after the kid in that movie!” Danny defended. “I’ll text you the details but its up to you. Either way, we’ll uh, we’ll keep talking. See you around, Val.” And just like that, he vanished. She swiveled her head around but Danny Fenton was truly gone.
“Jerk,” she grumbled but there was no heat to it. She heard a giggle above her and knew Danny, in his secret ghost form, was probably flying. And it was too nice a day to walk home. She activated her suit and took to the skies herself. Valerie didn’t know if Danny was with her or not, she just turned off her brain and fell into the motion of aggressive loops and high speed dives around her town.
Everything had turned upside down with the knowledge that Danny wasn’t who she thought he was. But again, things had been crazy since the ghosts first came to town. So she and Danny were at a stand still, not friends and not enemies, not open but not secretive either. It was a weird state to be in but Danny was probably used to being in a state of half life himself. But she’d worry about all that later, for now it just her and sky.
#surprise bitch bet you thought you saw the last of me#why am I adding to this series when I have so much else to be doing#anyway tada#if you liked Danny seeming okay and feral the last two parts#get ready for Danny whos actually really stressed and emotionally vulnerable#I actually was gonna have Danny confess everything to Val#but that line that 'he's given so much of himself away already' hit me deep#and I realized neither of them weren't ready yet#Val needed to adjust to this newer danny before learning hes phantom#and danny needed time before he had to let go of more of his carefully hidden secrets#they're at a standstill#who knows how long they'll remain as such#and if Val sat down and thought for .2 seconds she would know#but she *doesn't want to* not right now#at some point she'll make the logical leap but for now she's digesting as much as she can#if you thought Val was taking it too well#I just put faith in that past her anger Val is ultimately a good person and never really wanted to hurt the only friend who never abandoned
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Civil War (Chapter Four)
Summary: In the aftermath of the U.N. bombing, (Y/N) receives a call from Steve and is ‘invited’ to the Joint Counter Terrorism Centre in Berlin for questioning.
Pairing: Steve Rogers X Reader
Word Count: 3k
Warnings/Disclaimers: None
A/N: I’m not too sure about this chapter, it’s all over the place and I’ve rewritten it twice so I can’t tell if it’s good or not lol thank you for reading, I hope you all enjoy!
Chapter Four (Previous Chapter)
While the paramedics finished fastening the bandage around her head, (Y/N) sat in the back of the ambulance and silently watched the chaos unfolding. A fire crew was busy hosing down the still-smoldering ruins and a medical helicopter flew overhead as different government agencies began setting up their base camps on the outskirts of the caution tape. The CIA agent who’d questioned her about the incident had informed her that a large-scale bomb had gone off next to their building, injuring over seventy people and killing twelve; she’d gone on to explain to her that if not for T’Challa’s last-minute warning, many more people would’ve perished in the blast.
Poor T’Challa, (Y/N) thought to herself with a pang of sadness. His father, King T’Chaka, had been the closest person to the blast and was killed instantly. The paramedics completed their work and she thanked them before quickly getting out of their way, knowing that there were many others who still needed to be helped. Shoving her hands into the pockets of her ash-covered blazer, she walked along the edge of the crime scene towards where she’d last seen Natasha and T’Challa; different international news reporters were documenting the tragedy and as she passed by one of them, their words almost made her stop dead in her tracks.
“Officials have released a video of a suspect who they have identified as James Buchanan Barnes, the Winter Soldier. The infamous Hydra agent, linked to numerous acts of terrorism and political assassinations…”
(Y/N) continued walking, afraid that she’d be recognized if she lingered too long, and finally sat down on an empty bench near the CIA’s base camp. Once she got over the initial shock of learning the suspected identity of the bomber, she couldn’t help but feel confused; Bucky had been on the run for over two years, ever since the Battle at the Triskellion and the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., and there hadn’t been any sign of him since. Steve and Sam had tracked down every single lead they could find but to no avail. To her, it didn’t make much sense that after all that time, the wanted man would suddenly decide to do something as massive as bomb the United Nations.
The buzzing of her cell phone in her pocket jolted her out of her thoughts; pulling it out and glancing down at the screen, her eyes widened in recognition and she was quick to answer it. “Hello?”
“Are you hurt?”
“Um…yeah, a little. My right eardrum ruptured from the noise of the blast and my lungs feel like crap, but other than that I’m okay…” She trailed off, listening as Steve let out a shaky sigh of relief. Try as she might, memories of their recent fight came to mind but she forced aside her irritation with him as she continued. “Listen Steve, I just heard about Bucky and I-”
“You’re gonna tell me the same thing Nat did: to leave it up to the Task Force and stay home.”
She blinked, taken aback by the shortness of his tone. “Well, I think she has a point about staying out of it but what I was actually going to say is that-”
“I’m the only one who can bring him in alive, (Y/N), so that’s what I’m gonna do. I just wanted to call and tell you myself so that you didn’t believe I was hiding things from you.” Steve abruptly interrupted and after a moment of tense silence, the hard edge in his voice softened a little. “Look, I’m…take care of yourself while I’m gone, okay? Don’t forget to change that bandage of yours every few hours.”
The call disconnected as (Y/N)’s head snapped up in shock and she hurriedly scanned her surroundings, but the super-soldier was nowhere to be seen. “Bastard.”
“(Y/N)!” She looked over in time to see Natasha striding over to her, her brow furrowed in worry. “(Y/N), I just got a call from Steve a few minutes ago, and-” The spy stopped herself short as she examined her assumedly-angered expression. “I take it you got one, too.”
“Yep, and I’d rather not discuss it right now if that’s okay.”
Natasha nodded. “Fine by me, hot-shot, but we should be going; our presence has been…um, requested in Berlin. At the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre, to be precise.”
Frowning, (Y/N) stood and walked alongside her. “Our? What’s all this got to do with me?” The spy gave her a pointed look and she exhaled through her nose. “Ah, yes, my ‘association’ with Steve Rogers. They’ve guessed that he’d be the first one after Bucky and since I’m his fiancé, they want to hold me for questioning.”
“Pretty much…but there’s another reason that I’ll let Tony tell you about himself when we arrive. It was his bad idea, after all.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By that point, (Y/N) was well and truly sick of flying; they’d taken the Quinjet to the Berlin-Tegel Airport, where a car had picked them up and drove them to the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre. If her head hadn’t hurt so much and she were in a better mood, she would’ve taken the time to admire all the historical landmarks they passed by. And here I thought that week we spent dealing with Ultron was exhausting, she thought with a humorless smile, getting out of the car and walking alongside Natasha as they entered the parking garage’s elevator.
“When you’re questioned by an agent, be sure to answer as honestly as possible.” (Y/N) glanced up from her dirty sneakers and met Natasha’s serious expression. “Cooperation’s the only thing that’s gonna help Steve and Sam out right now, (Y/N). Don’t let the agent get inside your head, though; make sure that you’re the one in control of the situation, just like I’ve taught you. If I know them like I think I do, they’re gonna try and get more valuable intel out of you than just Steve’s whereabouts.”
She nodded after a brief moment of hesitation and the spy’s shoulders relaxed a little. The elevator stopped at the top floor and its doors slid open to reveal two men; one was Tony Stark, dressed stylishly in a dark-grey suit with a tense smile on his face and the other was an older man with salt-and-pepper colored hair that she didn’t recognize. The stranger stepped forward and shook Natasha’s outstretched hand. “Miss Romanoff, thank you for coming in so quickly.”
“Of course,” Natasha replied before glancing over at (Y/N). “(Y/N), this is Everett Ross, Deputy Task Force Commander of the CIA. Agent Ross, this is (Y/N) (Y/L/N).”
Agent Ross smiled and shook her hand, but (Y/N) got the distinct feeling that he was studying her expression and analyzing her behaviors. “I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, Miss (Y/L/N); my niece and nephew are big fans of your novel.”
(Y/N) murmured her thanks and followed the trio as they walked down a covered sky-way, not noticing that Tony had fallen into step beside her until he quietly asked, “How’re you holdin’ up, Austen?”
“Let’s just say that I’ve had better days.” She remarked, glancing over at the billionaire with a raised brow. “Nat mentioned something about a bad idea you wanted to run by me?”
“Oh, I have a couple of ‘em, but I’ll let you get changed before I go ahead and tell you. When I heard about the bombing, I figured that you and Romanoff would need clothes so I packed some before I left the compound.”
Touched by his thoughtfulness, (Y/N) allowed him to lead her to a private bathroom and quickly changed out of her soot-covered clothing; she felt a little bit like her usual self as she emerged from the bathroom, but the comforting feeling her change of clothes had inspired soon disappeared when the billionaire ushered her into a glass-walled conference room in the middle of what she imagined was a control room.
“Sorry if it seems like we’re sitting inside a fish bowl but this is the only place where we can talk without being overheard.” Tony sat down across from her at the long table, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. “And I’m sorry about the civilian consultant thing, Austen. We all found out about it last night when Secretary Ross called to ask who’d decided to sign; he seemed crankier than usual when we told him that we didn’t know what you’d decided to do.”
(Y/N) rolled her eyes and leaned her elbow onto the table, resting her head in her hand with an exasperated sigh. “What, does Ross think that if I sign then that’ll make Steve suddenly change his mind and decide to sign too?”
“Pretty much…but truth be told, he’s not the only one.” Her brow rose in surprise as Tony sat forward in his chair, an uncharacteristically subdued expression on his face. “Look, (Y/N), none of us wants to see Rogers gone. The team needs him and we both know how much he needs the team, so…I was hoping that if you signed, you’d be able to convince him that he’d be doing the right thing by signing too. Once Rogers signs them, then Wilson and Maximoff should follow suit and we’d have our Earth’s Mightiest Heroes all back together again in no time. What do you think?”
“You make it sound so easy…and I wish it was, Tony. I really do.” She stood and walked over to the glass wall, her eyes trained on a large computer monitor that bore her fiancé’s photograph on a wanted poster. “But you and I also know that once Steve’s made up his mind about something it’s impossible to change it. I tried telling him that refusing to sign might put our future together in jeopardy, and do you know what he said?” Turning back around, she met the billionaire’s gaze and mirthlessly smiled. “He said that he couldn’t afford to be selfish and he left it at that.” A lump formed in her throat as she blinked away her tears and shrugged. “He respects the hell out of you, Tony, so maybe you’ll have a better change at convincing him. I’ll be there when you do, but…since I haven’t decided what I’ll do yet, I honestly don’t know how much help I’ll be.”
Just as Tony opened his mouth to reply, the glass door of the conference room slid open and none other than Sharon Carter poked her head into the room. “If you’re ready, Agent Ross would like to ask you some questions.” (Y/N) stood and spared Tony a final glance before following the agent down the hall, pointedly ignoring the jealous pang in the pit of her stomach as she did. “Romanoff mentioned that you weren’t much of a coffee drinker, so I brought you some hot chocolate instead.” She looked over to see Sharon holding out a to-go cup out towards her, a hesitant but friendly sort of smile on her face. “Might help settle your nerves before your talk with Ross.”
She accepted the beverage with a murmur of thanks and took a sip as they continued down the hall; giving the agent a sideways glance, she cleared her throat before saying, “I’m sorry about your aunt, Sharon.”
“Thank you…and thank you for everything you said in your eulogy. Actually,” Sharon stopped beside the stairwell door and gestured towards it. “We don’t have much time, but do you mind if we talk for a quick sec?” (Y/N)’s brow furrowed a little but she nodded and followed her into the stairwell, watching as she leaned back against the wall and shuffled her feet. “You meant a lot to Aunt Peggy, (Y/N), but I don’t think you know just how much she appreciated you. Back before her dementia got worse, she’d call me after her visits with Rogers and we’d talk for hours; she worried about him, always telling me that he was deliberately keeping himself from embracing his new life and that there wasn’t anything she could do to help. But then you came into his life and from what she told me, it was a night and day difference; knowing that you were there for Steve, as a friend and then as something more, gave her piece of mind. She really liked you, (Y/N), and she really respected you. I just thought that you should know that.”
“Thank you, Sharon, that…that really means a lot to me.”
The agent nodded, suddenly looking a little uncomfortable. “I would’ve told you all that after the funeral but you and Steve were sort of…well, you know…arguing. I swear I wasn’t eavesdropping, it’s just that you both were kind of loud and the cathedral has crazy-good acoustics.” (Y/N) started to reply but Sharon cut her off with a firm head shake. “You’ve got nothing to apologize for, (Y/N). I’m not exactly a fan of the Accords but just between us? I think that Steve was out of line back there.” Unsure of what to say, she nodded once and took another sip of her drink as the agent looked down at her wristwatch. “C’mon, we should get going before Ross starts looking for us.”
The two of them left the stairwell and continued down the hallway to an office; Agent Ross was seated at a desk and reading through a file, looking up from his work with a friendly smile. “Thank you, Agent 13, that’ll be all.” With one last glance, Sharon turned and left them alone. “Please, take a seat.” (Y/N) sat down in the chair across from him and crossed her leg over her knee, trying her best to remain cool and collected. “Miss (Y/L/N), we have reason to believe that Captain Rogers plans on interfering with the apprehending of the Winter Soldier; can you tell me when you last spoke to your fiancé?”
“A little over three hours ago in Vienna. He called to ask if I’d been injured during the bombing and then he warned me that he was planning on bringing in Bucky himself. That’s all he said.”
Ross nodded and gestured to the bandage wrapped around her head. “And are you okay?”
“Yes, it’s only a ruptured eardrum; the bandage is just keeping the ear from becoming infected.” (Y/N) shrugged, taking another sip of her drink before setting it down on the desk. “Truth be told, I’ve had worse.”
Nodding again, the agent picked up the open file on his desk and scanned its contents. “Yeah, it seems like you have. In March of 2014, you suffered a moderate-grade concussion, GSW on your left thigh and a severe muscle contusion on the other thigh; it also says here that you even needed an emergency blood transfusion upon arrival at the hospital.” He looked back up at her with an arched brow. “Sounds like a lot for a civilian to go through.”
(Y/N) blinked in surprise. “I-it was-”
“And according to witness statements from the Avengers, the Artificial Intelligence known as Ultron targeted you last year because of your close relationship with Steve Rogers, is that correct?” Nodding, she struggled to keep her expression neutral as her fingers began reflexively tracing along her old gunshot wound. “It looks like you were just a pawn in Ultron’s plan to break the Avengers apart, and it very nearly worked.”
Her first instinct was to snap at the agent but after recalling Natasha’s earlier warning, she swallowed her frustration and gave him a fleeting smile. “The CIA certainly cares a lot about historical fiction novelists, doesn’t it?”
Ross chuckled and leaned forward in his seat. “Only the ones engaged to rogue super-soldiers, of course. Speaking of super-soldiers, can you elaborate on the nature of your fiancé’s connection to James Barnes?”
“There’s nothing much to say that hasn’t already been said; Steve and Bucky were childhood friends who fought together during World War II and when S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, Steve and Sam tried searching for Bucky but they never found him.”
Nodding, the agent reached over and moved his computer monitor to face her; on the screen was a blurry image of a man wearing dark clothing, obviously taken from grainy security camera footage. “And is this James Barnes?”
“Yes, although I’ve only seen him in person once and this photo’s a little blurry.”
“Okay, let me see if I’ve got this straight: Steve’s old pal bombs the U.N. meeting that you, his fiancée, was attending and instead of rushing to your side like any other partner would do, he decides to leave the country to apprehend Barnes himself. Does that pretty much sum things up?” (Y/N)’s jaw clenched tightly and she stared silently at the agent in front of her, who tilted his head to the side as he considered her. “You see, the CIA knows that you and Captain Rogers are close but what we don’t know is how far you’d go to protect a man who doesn’t sound like he’s got your best interests at heart.”
Before (Y/N) could finally lose her temper, another agent poked his head into the office. “I’m sorry, Agent Ross, I know you said that you didn’t want to be disturbed but this is urgent.”
“Fine, fine…”
Ross stood and followed the agent out into the hallway, leaving the office door cracked open just far enough for her to make out some of what they were saying. “Rhodes…all of them arrested…Bucharest…ETA in less than six…”
Thank goodness they’re all right, (Y/N) thought as relief washed over her, they’ll both be charged with obstruction of justice but at least they’re alive. Some of her elation disappeared as her mind drifted back to Agent Ross’ line of questioning; Natasha was right, the CIA was taking the golden opportunity to get intel on Captain America with the knowledge that what they were doing was protected under the Sokovia Accords. The thought of being manipulated and used that way infuriated her but what angered her more was that this all stemmed from Steve’s unwillingness to consider the consequences of not signing the Accords. You’re in control here, she told herself with a calming breath, just do everything Nat told you to do and you’ll be okay…
Agent Ross reentered the office and sat back down with an expectant smile on his face. “Well, now, where were we?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: This story’s a little more challenging to write than The Winter Soldier or Age of Ultron, there’s so much angst to deal with and writing these chapters really takes a lot out of me, so any likes, reblogs and comments are really appreciated ❤️
Thank you all so much for reading and commenting, you guys are truly amazing! I’ve created a Spotify playlist inspired by this series, and I’ll be updating it every time I upload a new chapter. Enjoy!
Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4TsJ2TY1F2HDXhEYOfzCjY?si=f5f309da80a74a63
Chapter Five
Civil War Masterlist
Tagging: @mrs-obrien @lahoete @awkward117 @cminr @natdrunk @momc95 @savedbystyle @miraculouscloud @awkwardnesshabitat @marinettepotterandplagg @khuang3 @supersouthy @benakenalove @brooke0297 @hufflepeople @becausewelie @outoftheregular @supreme-tantrum @ladydmalfoy @mads-weasley @username23345 @crist1216 @aesthethickks
#stumblin' in#civil war#steve rogers x reader#captain america x reader#steve rogers#captain america#natasha romanoff#black widow#sam wilson#falcon#tony stark#iron man#sharon carter#agent 13#everett ross#agent ross#captain america civil war#marvel cinematic universe
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promises, promises
requested: yes
group: dreamcatcher
pairing: bora x fem!reader (plus bora x siyeon)
genre: basically just angst
contents: established!relationship between bora and siyeon but they don’t love each other, coworker!au, y/n just pines alone lmfao, but there IS a happy ending
warnings: none
synopsis: Bora and Siyeon are so used to their relationship that it feels like they can’t ever change. But at this point, is continuing together really their best option?
a/n: afdfasfkasdn i hope y’all like this!!!
word count: 2.6k
“Hey, Bora, if you’re coming home tonight, can you bring some takeout?”
The word ‘if’ echoes in Bora’s headphones as she stares at her phone screen. Siyeon said the word so offhandedly in her message, obviously used to her girlfriend’s constant absent and apparently unfazed by it, but it stops Bora herself right in the middle of the road as she listens to the message.
Honestly, her situation with Siyeon is... difficult. They’ve lived together for years, so they’re both used to having schedules that never match. To an outsider, the minimal amount of time that they actually spend together would be nothing short of a red flag, but neither Bora nor Siyeon think much of it.
There’s a certain comfort of knowing what waits for you at home, even if it is figurative most of the time. Bora has had the same emergency contact for years, and she always knows who to call if she has left something at home. She never has to call a babysitter, and whenever she gets hit on, she can say that she has a girlfriend of 5 years.
But maybe saying it like that sounds too much like a business contract.
The harsh reality is that the rare time she does spend with Siyeon is almost always filled with stilted silence, made awkward by two people both too exhausted to put effort into their relationship. And when it isn’t that suffocating silence between them, it’s anger, arguments that can be brought on by the most marginal mistaken word.
All of that culminates into the fact that Bora doesn’t really go home. Neither of them have the energy to actually talk things through, but neither of them want to let go of that familiar stability either. So they’re girlfriends by name, and nothing else in their hearts.
Bora supposes that it’s as much her fault as it is Siyeon’s.
“Yo, Bora!”
A smile prods the corner of her mouth up, and she pockets the phone. “Wassup, bro?” she calls sarcastically, accepting the overly enthusiastic fist-bump from you anyway. “Since when do you greet me with ‘yo’, especially when you’re about to ask for a ride home?”
You pout. “Is it that obvious?”
“You never come after me after work ends for any other reason, so, yes.” Bora opens the passenger side of her car for you anyway, spinning her keys around her index finger. There’s a hammered silver heart hanging off the other side with her and Siyeon’s initials.
“If you wanted my company more often, all you had to do is say so,” you sigh. As always, you reach for the aux and plug it into your phone. “Are we making any pit stops along the way? Because I’ll shoot you a coffee as payment if you want it.”
“Actually, I’m gonna pick up some takeout for me and Siyeon.”
“Oh. Cool.” You pick some song that you’ve played at least 10 times in the past week, but Bora doesn’t comment on it.
She can’t help but notice that her passenger’s seat bears more evidence of you sitting there than anyone else. The seat itself is adjusted to the way you like it, and you have a habit of leaving your phone in the exact same place on the dashboard, the only rectangle that isn’t covered in dust.
Bora isn’t actually sure about how Siyeon would adjust her seat, actually. Before she can stop herself, she asks you, “Hey, Y/N. What would you say is strictly necessary for a relationship to work?”
You glance at her, surprised. “Uh. Are you forgetting that I’m single?”
“I’m taking that as a sign that the date from last night didn’t go well?” When you shake your head, Bora sighs, “Sorry to bring it up, then.”
“No, no, it’s fine. We only went out like three times.” You lean back to think about the question, biting on your bottom lip as you do. It’s endearing. “I think... sacrifice.”
“Sacrifice? What, like Simba’s dad sacrifice?” Bora tries to joke.
You roll your eyes, “You watch too much Disney, dumbass. I mean like... taking pictures together because one person likes to, even if the other doesn’t. Alternating your favorite pastas, taking like one hour of work off each to have a date night. That kind of sacrifice.”
“Oh. I get it, I think.” Bora does understand it; she thinks about how often Yoohyeon misses a day of work, because she claims that one paycheck isn’t worth a missed anniversary. She thinks about how JiU does the pasta thing despite not really liking Yoohyeon’s favorite, and she thinks about how she and Siyeon never do that anymore. “Thanks.”
“Anytime.”
Bora gets out of the car to get takeout at one point, but she’s deep in thought for the rest of the ride home, even when you wave her goodbye at your own place. Sacrifice, huh?
She thinks that the only thing she sacrifices is her wallet.
Siyeon opens the door for her with a small smile, though, which makes Bora happy enough. Her girlfriend says, “I’m gonna guess you got Chinese?”
“Thai,” Bora shakes her head. The apartment is cold because Siyeon read somewhere that it helps you fall asleep faster, but Bora herself hates it. “I don’t eat Chinese food much anymore, remember?”
“Since when?” Siyeon frowns, locking the door behind her. “Last I remembered, your favorite food was those dumb little dumplings from the place down the street.”
“Last year, yeah. It doesn’t matter, though, let’s eat. What did you do today?”
It’s a boring question, but the other woman accepts it gratefully. “Uh, went to work early, but I got lunch with my mom.”
“Oh? How is she?” Bora questions, already spreading the takeout boxes all over the table. She hasn’t seen Siyeon’s mom in a while, but she misses the motherly figure.
Siyeon shrugs and reaches for her chopsticks. “She’s fine. She wants to know when we’re getting married.”
Bora’s heart stops, and not in the good way. She and Siyeon have talked about marriage before, but it was all in the honeymoon stage, when they first started dating years ago. “Oh? What did you tell her?”
Her girlfriend raises an eyebrow. “That we aren’t even engaged, obviously. Unless I missed an important conversation?”
“N- yeah.” Bora stuffs a shrimp in her mouth to quiet herself, at least for a little bit. It’s not that she doesn’t want to get married-- she just doesn’t want anything to change.
Of course, Siyeon doesn’t let her shock at the question go. “What?” she prods. “Is getting married that scary?”
“I mean... do you want us to get married?”
Siyeon hesitates at that. Eventually, she shakes her head in silence, and that’s enough of an answer.
There’s really nothing wrong with their relationship. But as Siyeon bids goodnight right after she finishes eating, and Bora remains in the living room, she thinks that there might not be anything right anymore either.
Bora asks about the closest engagement ring store before she can stop herself, and you stare at her. “Are you two getting engaged?”
“No. Well, it’s complicated,” Bora sighs, turning right when her phone tells her to. “Siyeon’s mother wants us to get married, and I was thinking about what you were saying. It’s time to make some sacrifices.”
You stammer, “Th- that’s not really what I meant? I meant, like, take a day or two off work and get a vacation together, maybe talk things out for more than a minute? Not... proposing. Bora, I don’t...”
“Well, what would you do if you were in my shoes? Or, better yet--” Bora holds up a hand-- “what would you do if you were Siyeon? How would you deal with me, your girlfriend of 5 years?”
Suddenly, you feel like it’s 500 degrees in the car. But you answer, “I’d... I’d plan a trip. One of those cruises that offer dinners, and then I’d just try and talk with you. Bora, do you really think you’re in the right state to get married?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Bora questions. “We’re comfortable, you know. Siyeon got promoted a month ago, we make more than enough money to afford a wedding, and we’ve been together for so long, I don’t know anything without her.”
“I don’t mean financially,” you sigh. “I mean... do you think she’d say yes? Are you happy?”
‘Do you think she’d say yes?’ To be completely honest, Bora doesn’t know. She doesn’t even know what kind of a ring Siyeon would want, though she does know her ring size. She answers forcefully, “She will. I know it.”
“Okay.” You lean back, thumbs fiddling with your phone. “Bora? Would you mind dropping me off at work first? I don’t think I’ll be much help if I go with you.”
Bora nods. “Sure.”
She ends up buying a simple ring with a blue stone, something that won’t really make a dent in either of their bank accounts, but will still be enough for Siyeon to show off. The box is a heavy weight in Bora’s pocket as she arrives home, quite a bit earlier than she normally does.
“Siyeon-ah?” she asks, rapping on the door as she pushes it open.
“Bora? You’re home early,” her girlfriend replies, turning from where she is at the sink. For some reason, Bora’s relieved that it’s all Siyeon does at home when she’s alone, though there’s no reason for her to suspect anything else. “Did you get off work early?”
“Uh, I took time off.” Bora sets her bag down and takes her jacket off, watching Siyeon open the fridge for something else. “I... remember when your mom asked when we’d get married?”
“Yeah. I remember that, why?” Siyeon silently hands her a glass of water.
Instead of saying anything else, Bora takes the box out of her pocket and pops it open before sliding it over the counter. Blue glints brilliantly under the kitchen’s lights, but even to her, it looks dull.
Siyeon glances at her in surprise, saying softly, “Bora... that’s not what I meant when I told you what she said.”
“Then what did you mean?”
The younger woman sighs, leaning against the counter with her arms crossed. “I. Look, aren’t we happy just as we are?”
A little bit of anger fires up in the pit of Bora’s stomach. It isn’t that she seriously wants to get married, or that it matters all that much that Siyeon doesn’t seem to, but she put in the effort. Like you had told her to, she made a sacrifice, and it hurts a bit that it doesn’t have the effect she wishes it did. “You tell me, Siyeon. Didn’t you tell me when we started dating that getting married was your goal?” Bora demands.
“I did, and that was 5 years ago,” Siyeon snaps back. “Why are you so hellbent on this, anyway? I thought you never wanted to get married.”
Bora hesitates, but she still ends up being honest. She answers quietly, “To make a relationship work, we have to make sacrifices.”
“Don’t--”
“Siyeon. Do you still love me?”
“Obviously! What kind of a question even is that?” Siyeon bites back, anger starting to furrow her eyebrows. Bora wishes she could say that it’s an unfamiliar sight, but it isn’t anymore. “Who told you all that sacrifice bullshit anyway?”
“Y/N, not that it matters.” Bora’s hands clutching tightly in her hair, she sighs, “Look, I got it wrong, okay? I’ll return the ring--”
Siyeon interrupts, “Bora, do you know why Y/N told you sacrifices make relationships work?”
When the older woman doesn’t respond, Siyeon just continues, “It’s because she’s the one making sacrifices. She understands what ‘sacrifices’ should be in a relationship, and it isn’t you buying an engagement ring when neither of us want to get married at all.”
“Look, I don’t want to talk about it right now, okay?” Bora snatches the box up from the counter and grabs her keys again. “I’m going out.”
“What, to talk to Y/N?” Bora turns to stare at Siyeon, who only stands there with crossed arms and the air that says she knows she’s right.
Bora doesn’t respond, but she does slam the front door after her a little too hard.
Whenever she needs to talk to you, Bora takes advantage of the fact that you can always be found in one corner of the office. Unlike all your other coworkers, who like to roam and chat, you’re always in the same space, unless Bora drags you out.
And she does, slamming her palms down on either side of your desk. You don’t flinch, and she says lowly, “I need to talk to you.”
“Okay, but did you have to mess up my sticky notes?” you attempt to joke. Bora just grabs your wrist to tug you out of the office, leading you straight to her car without a word to anyone else. “Bora. Bora, what is this about?”
She takes a breath as soon as the two of you are sitting down, your eyes completely trained on her as she says, “Siyeon said something.”
“Oh. I’m assuming you aren’t engaged, then?”
“What- no. No, nothing close,” Bora sighs. “I tried making a sacrifice like you told me to, because I thought she wanted to get married. Spoiler, she doesn’t.”
You groan, placing your head in your hands. “Bora, that isn’t what I meant.”
Siyeon’s words about you understanding ‘sacrifice’ ring in the other woman’s head, but Bora stays silent and lets you continue, “Look, sacrifice in a relationship doesn’t mean literally sacrificing your own wants and stuff. It means accommodating the person you love, going out of your way to do nice things without doing damage to yourself.”
“Like you do?” Bora’s voice is soft, almost too soft for you to catch, but you do hear it.
And instead of an adverse reaction, instead of denying it, you nod. “Yeah.”
Silence fills the car, and you don’t dare to raise your head. “I’m sorry, Y/N. I don’t think I ever knew.”
“No, I know you didn’t.” You sigh and reach over to fiddle with the keychain you left on the passenger door handle. “I mean, you were so in love when we met. And now...”
“I’m not,” she finishes.
You shrug, “Well, that’s up to you to figure out. You’ve figured me out, anyway. And I’ve waited this long, I won’t blame you for whatever decision you do make.”
“What if you didn’t have to wait?”
Bora suddenly remembers the box sitting in her pocket, and digs it out. She doesn’t know if it’ll fit your finger, or if you’ll even like it, but it’s spontaneous, and Bora thinks it’s the way that things should be. “Take it,” she offers, “as a promise. I know what I have to do, but I want to promise to you that... I’ll come back to you. And I think I should promise that I’ll start loving you the way you’ve loved me.”
You take the box gently, and as light as it is, Bora feels a weight taken away. You’ve always had that effect on her, after all. “Okay. I accept your promise, and I’ll wait. For you.”
The ring is a little tight, and you put it on your pinky instead of the normal fingers, but it feels secure. It feels like Bora will keep her promise this time, to both her and you.
#dreamcatcher#dreamcatcher x reader#sua x reader#dreamcatcher sua#kim bora#sua#sua imagines#sua scenarios#dreamcatcher scenarios#dreamcatcher bora#dreamcatcher reactions#dreamcatcher imagines#girl group imagines#girl group scenarios#dreamcatcher icons
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