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dragons-and-dwarves-are-nice · 9 months

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To the Shadows that Cry Witch /// Chapter 17

Hello! So I've made this one a little longer to make up for the two weeks of posting I missed, even though it's still a bit of a filler chapter, but I promise more exciting things are coming. Also I may be going on a small hiatus after posting this or the next chapter so I can get myself ready for uni. But apart from that, Enjoy! <3

Summary: Magic was real, but it came at a price. So when two girls end up in the one place they never thought they could reach, strange things began to happen. Good or bad? That's up to them to find out.

Tags: Kili x oc/reader - Fili x oc (POV to be written soon) - Thorin's company × ocs/reader (platonic) - fluff - angst - EXTREME slow burn - crack - Bagginshield

Word Count: 3013

Warnings: Mentions of injuries and distressing events from previous chapter.

Taglist - comment or message to be added!

PLEASE START FROM THE BEGINNING IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY OK LOVE U

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Now available on Wattpad and AO3 (please let me know if links aren't working)

<; Chapter 16 // Chapter 17 // Chapter 18 >

Part 2: Chapter 17 -

I am confusion.

Moira (Definition): A person’s fate or destiny. (Noun / Origin: Irish / Moi·ruh)

Hobbiton, The Shire – T.A. 30th September 2939 of the Third Age (1339 in Shire-reckoning)

“And he just dragged you both in unconscious and decided to let you stay? Just like that?? Yavanna he is a strange hobbit.”

We both nodded in unison at Mrs Greenfoot’s questions and watched as she let out a guffaw, her eyes widening in disbelief at the story we told about our arrival. We had left out the parts where our belongings had materialised out of thin air and the near-death experience we had falling from the sky, otherwise I was sure we would be chased around with a cane and one unhappy hobbit lady yelling about us being delirious.

We were currently sat what seemed like a sewing room, with a folding screen standing tall on one side, whilst the other wall was taken up by a large cabinet and further shelving, that housed threads and fabrics of all kinds of colours and textures. I was currently sat on a small circular ottoman stool, watching Gladiola as she stared at the numbers on a measuring tape she had wrapped firmly around Kay’s waist. Brushing a brown curl out of her face, she released the tape and turned to a small table next to her, jotting numbers down on some paper.

“Well that’s a first.” She began. “It’s not every day Bilbo just lets anyone into his home. Not after he found Lobelia that one time trying to nick an entire drawer of handkerchiefs, my word,” she said with a chuckle, “Their screaming match could be heard from across the river!”

“He didn’t ask us right off the hook, though.” Kay responded. “We explained our situation and managed to convince him in the end.”

“Right.” Gladiola said whilst wrapping the tape around Kay's bicep. “Just make sure you two stay out of trouble – for both your reputations and Bilbo’s. The hobbits here love gossip, nor are all of them friendly to outsiders, if you haven’t already noticed.” She warned.

“Yeah we’ve noticed. I counted 9 who changed their route to avoid us, and don’t get me started on the staring.” I answered unenthusiastically.

Gladiola let out a short laugh. “You’re going to have to get used to it for a little while, I’m afraid. At least until they warm up to you. Hopefully.” She made one final note on the paper and put her tape measure away. “Now, keep in mind I am limited to what I have access to in Hobbiton, but why don’t you two tell me what kind of clothes you want.”

We spent a while sharing our ideas – I asked about a simple layered dress with a bodice that was similar to what Mrs Greenfoot was wearing, and some dungarees. Kay described a something similar, but with her own colour scheme, Gladiola nodding along as she wrote it all down. During that time, Bilbo had returned with the tea, and had a kettle boiling away as we all sat at the dining table.

“Ok, I’ll see what Mrs Brownlock has at her stall tomorrow morning and get started.” Gladiola explained.

Bilbo reached into his pocket and brought out a sack of coins, handing it over to Gladiola, insisting she had some form of money-based payment for the help she was provided, and she received it gratefully. I stood up and walked over to the stove to pour another cup of tea. At that point, loud chatter was heard outside, growing nearer, and soon enough the front door swung open, several small figures darting in with haste, followed by a very out of breath older hobbit.

The taller hobbit leant on the door, his face glowing a rosy red as he heaved deep breaths, and we all watched as several hobbit children scampered around, yelling with glee as smiles plastered each of their similar faces. All of them had mops of brown curly hair, varying in shades, lengths and styles, that swished around as they tumbled down the hallway. Though that came to a stop as they reached the kitchen.

The tallest of the children entered first and immediately froze, her large, dark blue eyes, that matched her dress, widened as they honed in on us. Another two crashed into her, causing her to stumble, and one by one the rest followed, crashing into each other until they all were stood still in the hallway, staring in with wide eyes.

Finally, the older hobbit caught up, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. He wore a grey button-up, tucked into a simple pair of brown trousers held up by suspenders of the same brown colour. A striking pair of dark blue eyes that matched the tallest child in front of him were slightly hidden by a mass of dark brown curls that spiralled down just past his pointed ears. His eyes were wide, darting around as his face held an awkward expression at the sight of the four of us.

“My love,” he greeted Gladiola, who gave him a warm smile in return. “I uhh – didn’t… realise we were having guests today?”

“Are you an elf?”

My body jerked slightly, startled as I looked down to find one of the smaller kids had silently approached me, and was now staring up with giant brown doe eyes as she poked at my knee.

“Uhhhh, no?” I answered confusedly.

“But you’re so tall?!” This time it was one of the boys that spoke up, hurrying over to join what I guessed was his sister to where I was stood by the stove.

“She has long straight hair like an elf!”

“And look! Her ears are pointy!”

“Ah, no,” I answered with a nervous laugh, “They just look pointy when I face forward.” I turned my head and pointed at my ear. “I can assure you they’re round.”

The two of them looked like they didn’t believe a word I said, and I felt myself begin to sweat slightly at the pressure of their staring. That was, until the girl glanced at Kay, and immediately set her sights on her.

“What about you!” She exclaimed, causing Kay to jump in her seat. “Are you an elf?!”

“She not tall enough.” Said the boy, and I burst out laughing at the sight of Kay’s offended face, her mouth open in shock. “Maybe she’s half elf.”

“Melba! Rothad! That’s enough!”

Gladiola’s voice resonated through the room, silencing the two kids.

“Sorry ma.” They both said in unison.

“Mum, who are these people?” Piped up the tallest who had come through first. She was definitely the eldest of the group, her protective nature showing with the wary look on her face as she subconsciously picked up the smallest child and held her in her arms.

“They’re friends of Bilbo’s dearie,” Mrs Greenfoot answered. “They’re staying here for a while, so I’ll be making them both some outfits to fit in.”

“But I thought Bilbo didn’t like outsiders?” Revealed the eldest, much to Bilbo’s chagrin.

“W-well it’s not that I dislike everyone who comes through the Shire,” He defended with a red tint to his ears. “I’ve just happened to have some unfortunate encounters with the men of Bree during the odd visit, that’s all.”

The eldest looked unconvinced, her brows pinched as she pinned him with an intense glare, causing Bilbo to shrink in his chair slightly at the sight of the challenging child.

Gladiola quickly went to break the tension, distracting her eldest child with a suggestion to introduce everyone, to which she did.

“My name is Menegilda, and these are my sisters, Melba, Berylla and Lalia.” She gestured to the girls on her right, then to the three boys grinning on her left. “And these are my brothers, Rothad, Griffo and Madoc. Also, this is our father.” She pointed her dad who had sneaked passed the seven kids, and was pouring himself a cup of tea.

He gave us both a warm grin, walking over to give his wife a kiss on the forehead, before introducing himself. “Gilbert, it’s lovely to meet you both, and to see you again Bilbo!” He clapped the other hobbit on the back, sitting down on the chair by Gladiola, who turned towards us.

“I hope you guys are up for the challenge, cause you’ve got seven kids to look after.” She said.

Her sentence was met with a wide range of reactions: Kay and I nodded in agreement, whilst Gilbert slumped in his chair with a sigh of relief (turns out he likes having his weekends off with the kids, but it was nice to have a break sometimes). The children were a mix, most of them shouting in excitement whilst others like Menegilda and Madoc – who were the eldest of the group – looked unsure at the thought of strangers looking after them. I didn’t blame them though, I’ve had my fair share of babysitters in the past, and not knowing them beforehand made things a little awkward when it came to them telling you what to do.

Though we no longer had any choice on whether or not we wanted to get to know them, because the two of us were instantly swept away, Melba and Rothad in the lead as they dragged us further into the house. I gave Kay an exasperated look.

“I think I’m gonna have a hard time remembering all these names.” I whispered as much as I could over the yelling.

Kay scoffed. “But you can recite the names of over eighty Transformers characters? It shouldn’t be that hard.” She smirked as I pouted with a frown.

It wasn’t long before Kay and I found ourselves sat on the floor of one of the kid’s bedrooms, being prodded with questions as some played with our hair, whilst the others scurried around the room, grabbing random things of theirs to show us. Menegilda had remained in the corner at first, but soon enough she was sat in front of us with the youngest in her lap – Lalia – after seeing my wrist splint and asking how it happened, but now she quietly spoke about what the seven of them usually got up to.

Hours passed, and we found ourselves waving goodbye to the Greenfoot family, exhausted from the children’s constant playing, and full from both Bilbo and Mr & Mrs Greenfoot effortlessly putting together the last 4 meals of the hobbit day - Luncheon, Afternoon Tea, Dinner and Supper. As a thanks, I promised to make another batch of Victorian sponge cakes, much to the excitement of the large family at the thought of trying a new type of pudding. And with that, the two of us and Bilbo finally made our way up the grassy path, dimly lit by the dying light of the golden hour, ready to go to bed.

25 Days Later – T.A. 25th October 2939 of the Third Age (1339 in Shire-reckoning)

It had been almost a month since we were introduced to the Greenfoot family, and things had been getting better. Kay’s concussion had finally cleared, the dizzy spells it caused now completely gone, and the large cut on her forehead was slowly losing its scabbing. We also found out, much to Kay’s relief, that her spinal injury was simply a bruised bone, and the blood-red bruising on her back had finally begun to turn into a mottled green-yellow.

As for me, my ribs were slow on their recovery journey, my breathing still painful from time to time depending how much rest I had that day. My ankle had stopped swelling finally, after Erard had found out I had been up and about too much for his liking and had threatened to twist the other ankle if I didn’t take bed rest. He came in once a week to check up on us and change my wrist splint, which apparently wasn’t going to fully heal for another 4-8 weeks, much to my disappointment. The large gash on my hand was my least favourite to think about – it was fine, not infected or anything, but it wasn’t nice to look at the reddened, gnarly raised skin, knowing that soon there would be an ugly white jagged scar replacing what was once the smooth skin of my palm. I also hated the fact that every time I looked at it, I would be reminded of what was probably the most terrifying and painful night of my life. But apart from that, all our other scratches and bruises had disappeared, apart from the larger cuts scarring slightly here and there.

A knock sounded at my bedroom door, and I was snapped out my thoughts as Kay called through, saying that Gladiola was in the kitchen with some of the clothes she’d made and if I was able to come out. Standing up from my bed, I approached the door and opened it, following Kay to the kitchen.

We spotted Mrs Greenfoot as we entered the kitchen, greeting her as she hauled a large bundle of cream coloured material onto the table. Pulling it apart, she separated it into two piles, picking something out of one of them, before unravelling it.

I gasped in delight as I recognised the shape of clothing that spanned that was longer than Gladiola herself.

“A shift!” I exclaimed excitedly. “I’ve always wanted to make one of these!”

“Well now you have one!” Gladiola announced proudly as she admired her work. “It’s only a simple undergarment, but the cotton is breathable enough for you both to wear it comfortably under any outfit.” She explained.

We both chattered excitedly with the hobbit, who had handed us our garments along with a set of cotton pants and a type of chest covering that was similar to a modern bra, and ushered us off to try them all on to check that they fitted well.

Twirling around, I admired the shift as much as I could in the small mirror on top of the dresser, watching as it swayed with my movement. It was only an undergarment, but for some reason it made me feel so happy and giddy inside.

Sitting on the bed, I slipped on the knitted socks, admiring the patterns in the cream colour that wound and twisted upwards until it reached halfway up my shins. Wiggling my toes at the soft feel of the wool, I stood up and bounded out the door, eager to show Mrs Greenfoot how well everything had fitted.

Kay appeared not long after me, sporting her own matching shift and set of socks. Gladiola was immediately upon us, tugging and prodding at the fabric to check if it fitted her standards. Apparently it did, and she relaxed back onto her heels with a satisfied huff.

“It looks like nothing needs adjusting, are you both happy with what you have so far?” she asked looking up at us. We both nodded with a ‘mhm’, smiles on our faces. “Brilliant, I best be off then, got a linen delivery coming in the hour.”

“Wait!” I blurted, and quickly hurried to the pantry, much to the surprise of the hobbit. I returned not long after with a basket in my arms, a light blue tartan cloth draped over the top of it, and handed it over. “We made some scones for you to take home, and there’s some clotted cream and strawberry jam that Bilbo taught us how to make in there as well.”

Gladiola let out a noise of delight as she lifted the cloth up to reveal a batch of giant scones, taking a deep breath of the freshly baked scents. We walked her to the door as she thanked us both, and waved as she disappeared down the hill.

Returning to our rooms as it was now late in the evening, I busied myself with tidying up, before sitting down and playing around with the ribbons on my dresser and trying to see what hairstyles suited the heatless curls I had put in last night . Deciding on a loose low ponytail that allowed my light fringe and curtain bangs to flow freely, I tightened the ribbon, and froze on the spot.

That same feeling had returned. The same one from almost a month ago when I thought I was going to be mauled to death by some ghost-looking beast. I still hadn’t decided whether it was a dragon or a demon yet, since my fear had blocked me from remembering the creature.

I forced myself to glance the my left, using the mirror to look at the wardrobe behind me that stood ominously in the faint glow of my candle. No blue. Thank god.

But that feeling didn’t leave.

It felt like a pull – a sudden motivation to do something you hadn’t thought of. But this time it didn’t pull me towards the wardrobe. Instead I felt it wanting me to walk out the door. I stood up, but not before I opened one of my drawers, taking the sharp sewing scissors and zipping them into the pocket of the waterproof coat I had worn when we dropped into Middle Earth. Slipping the coat over the shift I was wearing, I kept the wool socks on and slid on my walking boots, grimacing at the small splashes of old blood stains that scattered the material.

Picking up a lantern and lighting it, I quietly made my way through the hallways and reached the front entrance, before a voice called out.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

I spun around, staring into the darkness that stretched beyond the light of my lantern, until I spotted a concerned Bilbo as he emerged from the shadows holding a candle.

“Uhhhhh, just for a walk.”

“At night.” He deadpanned.

“I think all this bed rest is making me restless.” I half-lied, since it was kinda true.

He eyed me suspiciously, but backed down. “Alright, but be no longer than half an hour.”

I nodded, and after he disappeared back into his room, I opened the door and crept into the night.

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

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pensat-i-fet · 2 years

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The Journalist’s Footballer- Chapters Twenty One and Twenty Two (Rúben Dias)

Word count: 1036

*Author’s note: these 2 chapters act as a bridge between what could be seen as part 1 and 2, so it is more like a filler chapter to connect things so they make sense. But you don’t want to miss what’s coming on Wednesday and Friday 👀 *

Chapter 21:

Rúben

With Spurs only four points behind us, this match is a must-win. We need to head to the World Cup securely at the top of the league.

I laugh reading Christina’s message.

“I won’t wish you good luck today because I hope you lose”.

“This is technically your team now, so…”

“Not my team when you play Spurs, it says so in the contract. Sorry! 🤷"

To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if she tried to add that to the contract. A contract I talked about with Tom. The moment I asked him about it and about Christina, he only told me that no, there isn’t a rule that forbids her from dating the players.

Well, interesting that he knew that was what I wanted to know. He had a good laugh seeing my face. I’m that obvious.

When we head to the pitch, I know there are two targets for me today. Winning and doing something else. I immediately find the person who can help me with one of those tasks and he is on board with it. Perfect.

The match, however, is not perfect. We lost Grealish at the beginning of the second half when he got his second yellow card and Spurs managed to get a 78th-minute equalizer through Son.

“I guess a draw is ok. Also, you were amazing today. MOTM performance 😉❤️"

How does she manage to put a smile on my face with just a few words?

Pep wishes all of us going to the World Cup luck and tells us he'll see us when we are back.

I can’t help but have mixed emotions about leaving.

Christina

These last few days in Brighton are all I needed. Seeing my parents, catching up with my sister and spending hours playing with my nephew. The smile hasn’t left my face the entire time.

“Chris? Can you come here a sec?”, asks my mother when the match ends.

“Sure. What is it?”

“What is going on between you and this Rúben guy?”

I blush and try to think of how I can deflect this.

“Don’t try and deny it. I’m your mother, darling. You are going to live in his apartment. You have visited him before in Manchester. And I could see the way your face lit up when he was shown on tv”.

That only makes me blush more. “There is nothing going on, mum”.

“Yet, you mean?”, she says with a knowing smile.

“Maybe”.

She sees me trying to get my hair out of my face and goes behind me to braid it. She can make me feel like an 8-year-old with just one small gesture.

“Just be careful, ok? I know footballers seem like a very attractive option, but many don’t have good intentions”.

“Mum…”

“I know, Rúben is not like that”, she says, finishing my braid and turning me so I look at her. “I want to believe that more than you. But just be careful, ok? I know you are a smart woman. I trust your good instinct. But still”.

“I will be careful”, I say, hugging her.

“Just tell him that if he hurts you, Portugal isn’t far away enough. I’ll find him”, says my dad when he gets inside the kitchen.

I snort. “Ok, dad!”

“It wasn’t a joke”, he shrugs.

Chapter 22:

Christina

Moving day is finally here. Knowing my stuff is on its way, I relax on the train. It’s quite a long journey from Brighton to Manchester, so I brought more than one book with me.

When I finally get to Manchester, my body aches from sitting for so long. I need to decide whether I should do some yoga or take a bath. Probably both.

Closing the door behind me feels weird. This will be my place for the next two months, but it isn’t mine at the same time. It’s Rúben’s.

I walk around the apartment, making sure everything is in order and I see a package on the kitchen table with my name on it. There is a letter next to it, so I read it first.

Dear Christina,

Welcome to Manchester! I wish I was there to help you adapt to the city, but I’m sure you’ll do well on your own.

The apartment is all yours, remember. Nothing is off-limits, so please enjoy your time there while I’m gone. I know you’ll take good care of everything.

I thought I’d leave you a little present, as a welcome. Though it’s actually two things. One so you see I’m always thinking of you. The other so you, maybe, root for me when England isn’t playing.

I haven’t left when I’m writing this, yet I can’t wait to be back to be a part of your new journey.

See you soon.

Rúben

I’m always thinking of you. It’s the closest any of us has come to confessing any type of feelings.

I wipe the little tears from my eyes and I open the package. The first thing I see is a white shirt. A…a Spurs shirt! And it’s Son’s!

I see it still has grass blades on it. Oh my God! He asked Son for his shirt after the match so he could give it to me? I’m laughing and crying while hugging the shirt. It’s such a thoughtful thing to do. And the suggestion that even during such a big match he was thinking about doing something like this for me. My heart couldn’t be more full.

I put the shirt down for a second, so I can see what else is in the package. A red shirt? I open it to see what it is only to reveal a Portugal shirt. I turn it to see the back and I see Rúben 3 printed on it. I move my fingers over the letters forming his name with tears in my eyes and a silly grin on my face. If I wasn’t falling for him before, I definitely am now.

After the bath, I put on Rúben’s Portugal shirt and go to bed. Sadly, it’s brand new and he hasn’t worn it, but it still makes me feel like he’s right there next to me.

#ruben dias #footballer x reader #ruben dias fluff #ruben dias imagine #ruben dias x reader #footballer imagine

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doyouevenshipbr0 · 3 years

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gruvia drabble

author’s note: ok. hi. here we are again. i go on a 1948392 year hiatus and then become inspired to write something from the most RANDOM thing. but this was too good to pass up. so essentially i saw a headcannon by @incorrect-ft-ez-quotes and then @bbygirljuvi added onto it:) look at my most recent reblog for reference if u want hehehe. yeah ok maybe i did add some bs healing abilities to juvia’s powers... sue me! ok here we gooooo i hope u cuties enjoy!!!

“Popsicle,” Natsu sighed. “What the hell are you doin’ back here?” He held his door in one hand as he stared at a recently familiar face.

“What, a guy can’t stop by and visit his best friend?” Gray nervously chuckled.

Happy and Natsu weren’t buying it, exchanging suspicious looks as Gray impatiently stood at the door frame.

“Best friend?” Natsu rose an eyebrow.

“And for the 4th day in a row?” Happy jabbed, hovering beside Natsu’s head

“Would ya’ just let me in?” Gray spat out, clearly looking jittery.

“Fine.” Natsu groaned, stepping aside so Gray could step in.

“But we’re gonna’ start charging rent!” Happy exclaimed.

“Whatever, I don’t care, just as long as I can hang out here for a little while.” Gray hustled in, plopping himself onto Natsu’s worn down couch.

“Ok, you can stay here on one condition, tell me what it is you’re freaking out about. And gimme’ the real reason you’ve been comin’ here.” Natsu folded his arms.

“Aye!” Happy mimicked Natsu, crossing his little paws.

Gray let out a groan, bowing his head between his legs before whipping his head back up. “It’s Juvia, ok!?”

“Juvia?” Happy asked.

“But, you haven’t tried avoiding her in forever. You guys have been all buddy-buddy lately.” Natsu was trying to piece this all together in his head.

Gray blushed, averting his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I guess you could say that.”

“So what’s the deal?” Natsu was doing his best to get straight to the point, as nuance was not his strong suit.

“W-well... we... kind of... sort of...” Gray scratched at the back of his head, searching for the gall to say it. “We got drunk the other night at the guild, and then I went to walk her home since she was pretty wasted, and...one thing lead to another and... we almost kissed.”

Natsu was as confused as ever. “So?”

“So?!”

“Well, don’t ya’ like her?”

“W-well-!” Gray stammered, and gave out a defeated sigh, bowing his head again. “Yeah.” He mumbled to the point that Natsu or Happy could barely hear him.

“So then why don’t you wanna’ smooch her?” Happy was almost as dense as Natsu.

“Gah! You guys don’t get it!” Gray sprung up. “Forget it. I’m gonna’ find a new hiding spot. Preferably, one that asks less questions.”

Just as Gray made his way to Natsu’s front door, there was a sudden knock. Gray froze in his tracks as a chill went up his spine. He had a knack for this sort of thing, knowing when Juvia’s around, and that chill only ever meant one thing.

“Shit.”

Gray needed an escape route, but his head wasn’t on straight. He frantically scoured the little house, looking from wall to wall, but there was only one door, and Gray was just feet away from it.

“Natsu, whatever you do, don’t-“

“Be there in a sec’!” Natsu shouted at the door.

“You idiot!” Gray whisper yelled.

Natsu opened the door to none other than Juvia. She was known for her expressive nature. The look on her face could tell you anything you want to know, without her having to say a word.

“Hi, Natsu-san.” Juvia said both frantically and nervously. “Juvia was just wondering if Gray-sama was here.” She held her hands together promptly, hoping that he would be there.

“Actually Gray-“ Natsu was cut off at the sound of shattering glass. He instinctively spun around to a disastrous scene, displaying a broken window, shards of glass everywhere, and no Gray to be found. “Just left.” Natsu finished the thought differently than he originally intended.

Juvia heard the shattering too, and she had her answer. Her Gray-dar never failed her. Using her Gray-dar she quickly scurried to the back of the house, crossing her fingers that Gray hadn’t gotten away yet. The first thing she heard was a hiss of pain, and as she turned the corner, there sat her Gray in the ground, holding his bloody knee.

“Son of a bitch!” Gray yelled in pain, applying more pressure to his cut knee. Sure, he was used to getting beaten to a pulp in a fight, but he wasn’t exactly expecting a busted up knee right about now.

“Gray-sama!” Juvia’s eyes widened at the blood, and she hurried to his side.

Gray finally realized her presence. He stopped writhing in pain for a moment, and tried to appear as casual as usual. “Oh...” He forced a laugh. “Hey Juvia. what are you doin’ here?”

“Juvia should be asking you the same thing.” She knelt by Gray’s side. “But first, let Juvia help.”

“I’m fine.”

“Let Juvia see it, Gray-sama.”

He sighed, giving in and releasing his hold. Juvia quickly took her hands and placed them on Gray’s knee. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and suddenly her hands became water, but it wasn’t normal water. It was soothing, and it was making the stinging in Gray’s knee go away.

“Juvia has been working on some healing techniques. It’s nothing like Wendy, but I can heal some minor, surface-level things.” She explained, using her water hands to massage the area.

“Now that Juvia has finally caught you, why have you been avoiding me?” She finally looked at Gray who blushed at the sudden eye contact.

“I haven’t.” Gray tried to sound as natural as possible.

All Juvia had to do was give him a look that practically screamed “oh, please.” before he cracked. “Ok, fine. I’ve been avoiding you.”

“Juvia knows!” She exclaimed.

“I just don’t want things to be awkward between us!” He explained.

“But you don’t think avoiding me for days would make it awkward?” Juvia finally finished his knee and reverted her hands back to normal.

Gray groaned. “You’re right.” He ran his hand through his hair, trying to hide his face.

“Is this about... the other night?” Juvia finally asked.

“Do ya’ really have to even ask?” Gray avoided eye contact.

“But Juvia thought the night went well! I had a lot of fun!”

“So did I! Until...” He cut himself off.

“Until we almost kissed?” Juvia finished it for him.

“Yeah.”

“I see.” Juvia paused. “Are Juvia’s lips chapped?”

“Huh?” He finally peaked up at her.

“Or did Juvia have something in her teeth maybe?” She was going into panic mode.

“No that’s not-“

Juvia cut him off with as gasp, and her hands slapped against her mouth. “Or does Juvia’s breath stink?! Is that it?!”

“Would you knock it off!” Gray finally stopped her. “It doesn’t have to do with any of that stuff.

“Oh.” Juvia sunk. “So Gray-sama just does not want to kiss Juvia then.”

“No!” He instantly cut off that thought, even though he was embarrassed by how eager he sounded. “Not that either.” He grumbled.

“Then..?”

“We were drunk. Yes, we were having fun and all, but, I dunno’.” Gray grumbled, looking for the right words. “We haven’t had our first kiss yet. So when we do, I want it to be... kinda’... special. I guess. In a way.” Gray finished with some filler words to try and take the heat away from his face, but it was no use.

“S-s-special?! Gray-sama wants our kiss to be special?!” Juvia lit up, almost freezing in time waiting for someone to pinch her, because she figured this had to be a dream. However, she still was a bit lost, so she put a pause on her momentary fantasy. “Wait, so then why have you been avoiding me?”

“Because I didn’t know how to tell you all that. I was trying to buy some time until I could figure out what to say.” Gray released a deep exhale. “But I guess I’ve said it all now.”

“You sure have.” Juvia said giddily right before she launched herself at Gray, tightly clutching Gray’s shoulders in her arms as her cheek was pressed up firmly against his.

“Gah!” Gray shouted in surprise, trying to keep his balance as Juvia leeched onto him. They were still sitting, but she almost knocked him flat on his back.

“But you know what, Gray-sama?” Juvia broke her clutch, making sure she was looking right at Gray.

“What?” He looked down at her curiously.

“Juvia thinks every moment with Gray-sama is special. So to Juvia, any time is perfect for a first kiss.” She smiled so sweetly is made Gray’s heart just about burst.

“Yeah?” Gray felt the corner of his mouth tug up.

“Yep.” She nodded in assurance.

“If you say so.”

And without a second thought, Gray closed the gap between them, planting a sweet and soft kiss on Juvia’s lips. As they parted, they leaned in and pressed their foreheads against each other, both wearing matching grins.

“That looked pretty special from in here!” Happy interjected from inside the house, followed by Natsu’s laughter.

Gray and Juvia jumped, startled by the sudden noise. “Happy, shut it!” Gray turned his head, looking through what used to be a window, and seeing Natsu and Happy standing in their living room.

“Maybe we wouldn’t be able to hear you two slobbering on each other if there was a window here!” Natsu yelled, referring to the gaping hole in the middle of his wall.

“We were not slobbering, you moron!” Gray blushed furiously, finally standing up and facing Natsu.

“That’s what it looked like to me!” Natsu teased back, wearing a devious smile.

“Aye!” Happy seconded.

“Mind your business, flame-for-brains!”

“Next time you need to hide out for a week, you ain’t comin’ here!” Natsu shouted.

“Fine by me.” Gray scoffed.

He then looked back at Juvia as she appeared a little on edge, wondering if she was going to have to break up a fight between Gray and Natsu.

He grinned once again, at the girl he couldn’t wait to spend more special time with, making more memories, and growing even closer

He reached for Juvia’s hand and squeezed it. “I was gettin’ tired of running away anyway.”

#gruvia #doyouevenshipbr0 #fairy tail #gruvia fanfic #gruvia fanfcition #gruvia drabble #fairy tail 100 yq #ft 100yq #anime #manga #gray x juvia #juvia x gray #juvia lockser

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onceuponaloonatic · 2 years

Note

Hey its been a while but i been thinkin bout Surrogate au for a while n was wondering for d part from This and maybe minayeon talking to girls like a filler from wen the girls figure it out and when minayeon ask Sana to meet in a fill that was included after Jihyo n Nayeon met n had a staring match if the ok with you - 🍍

sorry i was a little confused by the ask so i just did a little continuation of this, i have a request for the girls and sana meeting i will get to in a bit so hopefully the combination was what you were looking for !!

“Look okay, let’s talk about this later.” Mina sighed as she looked at Saya. She had been trying to put them to bed for hours now, and they were not letting things go. After a horrible lie about them being wrong, they hadn’t let it go, guessing about every adult they knew was their birth mom. Even after they had started their bedtime routine, none of the girls were letting it go at all.

“Please tell us Ka-san.” Saya asked. “I won’t sleep until you tell us.” “Saya it is ten pm, you look exhausted please sleep.” Mina looked over at Sai, who was half asleep watching them. “See? Sai’s ready for bed.” “Saya I want to go to bed.” Sai whined. “We can do this tomorrow.” “Okay fine.” Saya sighed. “But Ka-san, just tell me one more thing?” “Okay.” Mina sighed, fixing Saya’s covers so she was tucked in. “You are super pretty, just like your mommy is.” Mina gave Saya a kiss on the forehead. “Now, my pretty Saya, please go to sleep.” “Okay.” Saya yawned. “Goodnight, I love you.” “Love you too.” Saya closed her eyes and Mina smiled as she turned the lamp off on Saya’s bedside table. She then turned to Sai, who was already half asleep.

“Goodnight Sai-chan.” Mina whispered, grabbing Sai’s favorite stuffed otter and making sure he was next to her. “I love you.” “Love you too.” Sai smiled as Mina gave her a kiss on the forehead. Once Mina turned Sai’s beside lamp off, she left the room and quietly closed the door. She finds the door to Saki and Sae’s room still open, and she can see Nayeon sitting next to Saki’s bed. She slowly went into the room, noticing Sae was fast asleep already.

“Aren’t you tired Saki? Please drop it.” Nayeon sighed. “Sae’s asleep.” “I just want to know.” Saki whined. “I know, baby.” Mina sighed as she sat next to Nayeon. “But it’s time for bed. We can tell you more about this tomorrow if you really think you are ready, okay?” “You promise?” “We swear.” Nayeon nodded. “Okay.” Saki nodded. “Good girl. Goodnight, sweet dreams, we love you.” Nayeon kissed Saki’s cheek and made sure she was tucked in before Mina gave Saki a kiss. After dimming the lights, they both quietly shuffled out of the room and went to their own room.

“We have to tell them.” Mina sighed.

“Mina we can’t.” Nayeon nodded, grabbing her wife’s hand. “We, we can do this.” “I don’t want to keep doing this Nayeon.” “I know babe.” Nayeon wrapped Mina in a hug. “I’m sorry.” “It just, this all sucks.” Mina sighed. “It does.” Nayeon kissed Mina’s head. “It really does.”

#twice #minatozaki sana #im nayeon #myoui mina #surrogate au #3na #🍍 anon

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erensonly · 3 years

Text

Cuddle Buddies (Bakugou x Black! Reader)

[series masterlist], [previous chapter], [next chapter]

Chapter 13: Mall Time

(song of the chapter)

(this is a slight filler bc i have no clue what to write about and i'm working on another one rn)

Today was the day Aizawa finally gave everyone permission to go and do what they wanted. The whole class decided to go to the mall in the group chat you all were in.

"Kacchan! Are you ready yet?"

"Stop calling me Kacchan. Give me a second." He was lacing up his shoes (no more church3000s)

Stepping into his room, you see him fixing the cuffs of his pants and walking to the mirror to make sure the fit was clean. He looked good, per usual. (my fashion sense is horrible, especially for boys so imagine what you want him to wear.)

"You look nice, Kacchan," you smiled up at him, wrapping your arms around his neck. Reaching up, you peck his lips lightly. "You ready to go now? Everyone is getting ready to be on their way."

"Yeah, let's go." He grabbed your hand, walking with you down the stairs. "You know what you wanna get?" he asked you.

"Of course not. I was thinking you could pick my outfits for me."

"Then you have to pick mine." You had a pretty good understanding of his style and how he picks his clothes. Picking his clothes should be pretty easy. The question was, 'Was he able to pick your clothes?'

(start song)

Walking outside to the parking lot, he opened and closed the door of his car for you and got in himself. You hear a knock on the window and you see Kiri and Denki standing there, smiling. "Hey, y'all!" you exclaim. Doing the made-up handshake the three of you made, they started greeting you and Katsuki.

Plugging your phone into his aux cord, you open spotify. Clicking 'OhMami' by Chase Atlantic, you teasingly start to sing to Katsuki.

Cuban link, diamond cross I got a spanish chiquita, no habla ingles, not at all, no

Katsuki by now had started driving, and he was already tired of the three of you. The condiments in the back and started to sing along as well.

And I got a kilo, no kilimanjaro, baby just a mountain of coke

Looking back aft the two boys in the backseat, nodding at them to make sure they got the message.

OHMAMI, THIS A NEW 'RARI

The three of you screamed the lyrics of the song playing. Katsuki was slowly shaking his head at the three of you, slightly grinning.

"C'mon Katsu,"you whined playfully, "Sing with us. I know you know the song."

"Yeah, Kacchan. Sing along,"said Denki.

"Tch..."

OHMAMI, I GOT BLUE MOLLY

The four of you sang loudly. Katsuki started to drive a little faster now, making you, Kiri, and Kami hold onto the little handle thingies on the roof of the car.

You all started giggling and laughing at how Denki got thrown at Kirishima when Bakugou did a sharp turn. Turning around you ask him, "Y'all okay back there?"

"Yeah," Kirishima said, fake crying. "Kinda hurt."

"Shut up, shitty hair. It didn't hurt that bad. Aren't you supposed to be a rock?"

"Damn, Bakugou. Why you going so hard on him," Denki laughed.

"Because I can. You next."

Slapping his arm, you tell him to stop messing with them.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

Pulling up to the mall, you see everyone else outside, more than likely waiting for you four. "Hey bestie," you greet Midoriya.

"Hey friend." You turn and see Todoroki next to him. The two of you didn't speak much but when you did, it was usually either a dry 'Hi' or him saying something that he doesn't realize is funny.

"Hey friend," Todoroki said as enthusiastically as he could. You chuckled a little bit. This was new. He usually just said your name, but not today.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"Of course not. You just surprised me. Hey Friend," you smiled at him.

"Baby, let's go. I wanna get your clothes." Entwining your hand with your significant other, you wave bye to the two friends and let yourself get dragged off.

Walking to (favorite store), you let him walk you to the shirts. "You want a crop top, tank top, cut off shoulder, regular tee-shirt, or what?"

"I don't know. You're supposed to be picking it out for me."

"You're no help," he grumbled.

"I know," you smiled. Walking away from him towards the accessories, you hold up earrings and necklaces to see which ones you wanted.

"Baby, I'm done. Don't pick the accessories for this outfit, I wanna do it."

You see him hold up accessories to the clothing to see which ones you would match.

"I'm paying, no arguments allowed."

"I wasn't gon argue anyway," you sassed back. "My turn. What store do you like?" Walking to (his favorite store idfk🤷🏾‍♀️), you immediately see a shirt that would look amazing on him.

"Don't look, nosey." He looked away, surprised you caught him trying to peek without looking at him. "Go look around and find something you like. I'm paying."

Walking around begrudgingly, he looks at the other shirts they have, some catching his eye and some making him question who made it.

When he looks up a second time, he sees you already at the counter. "Did you find something you like?"

"Yeah, I'm paying for it."

"No, I'm paying for it. We already agreed."

"No, I don't wanna owe you nothing."

"I don't care what you don't want. I'm paying. Hurry up, we still gotta get shoes."

Hesitantly putting his stuff on the counter, you pay for the things and drag him to the foot locker that wasn't too far from the store you were just at.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

By now, you both had picked everything and bought matching shoes. You were now in the food court trying to decide what to eat so you could meet with everyone else.

"Kacchan, I want pizza," you groan.

"Then get it. I don't want pizza."

"But I want you to order it for me."

"No."

"Fine, I'll get Midoriya to do it for me." Walking away from him to your best friend, you pay him on the shoulder and ask him can he order for you. (social anxiety go brr)

Making your way back to the table, you sit in between Midoriya and Katsuki. Todoroki was next to Midoriya making small talk with him.

You start to eat, but you feel someone staring at you. Looking up and around, you try to spot who can't keep their eyes in one direction. Then you see it. A girl with dark hair and eyes and is fairly curvy, not as curvy as you but you get it.

You see her gaze shift to Bakugou. The you got the message. You scoot closer to him, trying to politely give her the message he wasn't available. She just wasn't getting it.

Then she decided to get bold and start to walk towards the table everyone had pushed together. "Hey, I'm Meiko." She tried to scoot bin to sit next to Bakugou, but you were quick to scoot closer to him.

At this point he had no space to move his arms and he was confused why this random was talking to him. "Me?" he questioned, pointing to himself.

"Yeah, who else would I be talking to. No one else here is on your level."

"Ok... You need something?" He was just trying to eat and go back to his dorm with you to re-watch Haikyuu. (kenma is so fine man 😡😭)

"Yeah, your number." Who does this dry flirting ass girl think she is.

"He's not available."

"I didn't ask for you opinion," she rolled her eyes and turned back to Bakugou.

"But you're talking to my man. So Imma give to you politely before I have to beat your ass, Kay?"

"Why are you dating someone like... that when you could have me?" That's more than enough.

"I don't know or like you." He's trying to keep his composure since he's been working on his temper.

Standing up, you feel someone grab your wrist and someone else grab your hand. "I'll say it one more time if it didn't register in that small ass head of yours. He's not available, especially not to you. If I have to say it again, I'll be going to jail. Got it?"

She tried not to show she was intimidated by walking closer to you, getting in your personal bubble.

"Then do something about it." She threw, or tried to throw, a punch at you, but it didn't connect. Now you could say it was self defense (be smart kids👩🏾‍💻)

There was no time to waste. Connecting a punch with her face, you drag her on the floor to get the advantage, even though you already had it.

You didn't stop. Your brain had went into autopilot and your body just did what it wanted to do.

The next thing you know, there's people trying to pull you off. Multiple people. You couldn't hear anything, ears ringing from the anger you were feeling.

"Baby, let's go." He had finally grabbed you off, dragging you away from her. "Deku, grab our food and bring it back will ya."

There was still anger in your system, but you just let him carry you back to the car. Denki and Kirishima already arranging for them to ride with someone else.

"You ok?"

"Mhm." You turned your head and looked out the window as he was pulling out of the parking lot.

He grabbed your hand and stayed silent. You both were similar in the aspect of not wanting to talk when angry.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

Arriving back to the dorms, you see Aizawa already sitting on the couch waiting for you. How does this man get information so fast?

"I heard what happened."

"It was self defense." You weren't even going to put up a big fight against him. You had a better chance arguing with a raccoon than with Aizawa.

"I don't care. You still did that in public. You're lucky people didn't take pictures and videos."

"Ok..." you said, waiting for him to get to the point.

"You're on cleaning duty by yourself for three days and you have to do extra training."

"So I we just supposed to let her hit me and flirt with my boyfriend in front of me?"

"That's not what I'm saying-"

"At this point, I don't care." Stalking off to your room, you sulk on your bed. Feeling Katsuki plop down on your bed, he pulls up netflix, playing Haikyuu.

"C'mere sweet thing." You both cuddled up, excited to rewatch the volleyball anime for the 3rd time.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

and that is a wrap. i haven't updated in forever don't bash me too much. i hope you enjoyed it and these outfits i envisioned bakugou picked out for you 🖤 (I chose different styles bc i know ppl have different tastes :))

#bnha #mha #mha fluff #mha bakugou #black reader #bakugou x black reader #katsuki bakugo x reader #kenmasblackwife

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orangeseaside · 3 years

Text

some lukewarm total drama takes

long post ahead! my takes are in no particular order:

i don’t think that leshawna was ‘derailed’ in action. i think her actions made her more realistic.

i’m not really a fan of noco - mostly because i don’t really vibe with cody

not a big fan of zoey/mike. i like them ok, but i found that other characters like dawn, b, and anne maria were more interesting and i wished we could’ve seen more of them.

i think what ruined mike/zoey for me as well was how clueless zoey was about mal even though a lot of people were trying to warn her. also, the way tdas made an off button for mal was questionable

i think that the tdroti finale should’ve been scott vs zoey or scott vs mike

they should’ve tied in lightning’s backstory with his dad way earlier

i genuinely like justin’s character and think that he’s hilarious (”math is for ugly people”)

sierra should’ve been obsessed with more than just cody considering that she’s a super fan

the love triangle was so messy and i’m not sure if it really developed anyone’s character

that being said, even though the gwuncan breakup was messy, i think that it was consistent with gwen’s character - she tends to break things off instead talking about her issues with her partner

i quite like the ‘bland’ filler characters like trent, and i wish that fresh would use them in a new season rather than bringing back a lot of the more ‘popular’ characters that are already well developed (unless they still need to resolve some issues, but i still think that they should be an early boot)

i love ridonculous race and would love if they made another season of it

dj’s animal curse got old so fast

the way that team victory was picked off... why bother? they could’ve just had two teams, so that the eliminations felt less onesided

lindsay was robbed in the paris runway elimination

and speaking of lindsay, i love her but her outfit doesn’t really match

i know a lot of people don’t like beth, but i thought that she was pretty funny

i liked all the teams on ridonculous race. there were definitely storylines that didn’t have to drag out as long, but i liked that most of the characters were relatively well developed

actually, i can’t stand macarthur. i know that she’s comic relief, but her actions just rub me the wrong way

tdroti felt rushed and the eliminations felt onesided. i liked that chris could switch around the teams, though - it allowed some characters to interact with others outside their original team

i wish that they did another season of the roti cast before doing all stars

it felt like there were no stakes in the finale once it became mike vs zoey

i would’ve liked to see courtney in the tdas finale. zoey/mike/scott already had really big parts in roti and i would’ve liked to see them in the roti finale instead of cameron/lightning. courtney vs mal... i feel like she’s so far removed from that storyline that it doesn’t make sense for them to be rivals. the writing in all stars makes zoey the protagonist again, so maybe courtney vs zoey?

tda should’ve been lindsay vs duncan, lindsay vs courtney, or harold vs courtney. harold vs duncan would’ve been ok too, but i feel like they made peace until the whole leshawna jr thing.

pahkitew island was a mess

scarlett should’ve had a bigger character arc - it feels like she had one episode of spotlight and then got voted off

sugar was annoying and skave was a mess

i like the concept of sky, but the way that the writers tried to push that she was somehow innocent... and then the way they treated dave...

a total drama spinoff where they all go to the same high school would be awesome - like it would have sixteen/detetionnaire vibes

i think that by tdroti, the challenges and the whole toxic waste was getting out of hand. total drama didn’t feel realistic/relatable anymore.

feral zeke and dakotazoid...

i miss island chris

i loved chris and chef’s friendship drama at the end of tda

i hate that fresh made trent really obsessive just to break gwent up

all of lindsay’s eliminations have been questionable/felt plot gimmicky

the sisters should’ve been in the rr finale

i actually thought that the adversity twins were really funny

owen didn’t need to come back in tda

not a fan that the writer’s forgot about heather and leshawna’s friendship after in world tour

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darkpoisonouslove · 3 years

Text

Riven x Musa

Ok, so I keep seeing posts everywhere that basically badmouth S8 and after seeing ten seconds of the trailer (YIKES to the animation, what’s wrong with the industry that they are making everything anime? Powerpuff Gen Z, I’m looking at you – obs: I didn’t watch it fully yet) I can see where some of the criticism is coming from but anyways…

My favorite Winx!couple EVER has always been Musa x Riven since I was kid and first watched the show (Netflix is not helping ‘cause I ship them even there).

I remember yawning at Bloom/Sky, rolling my eyes at Stella/Brandom and making a completely incredulous expression that I could literally feel forming on my face at Helia/Flora (can anyone say ‘unrealistic’?). Timmy/Tecna are a second favorite.

And why my Winx OTP are Riven x Musa followed after Timmy x Tecna? Because it reflects real life. In real life you’re not gonna stumble into people whose real and deep relationship problems are solved in twenty four minutes (not even that considering that some episodes present the “problem” half-way through said 24 minute-episode).

The breakup between Riven and Musa in S6 (spoilers everywhere after all) was one of the most mature breakups in the history of breakups with the hope for the future (yes, I’m completely ignoring S7, sue me, the whole thing was one huge filler anyways). And, after reading a lot of opinions on both ends (defending Musa/attacking Riven and defending Riven/attacking Musa) and watching the episodes in question (reuniting through reconciling) I think I can give my own analysis.

Since Musa AND Riven (individually and as couple) are my favorite characters in Winx, I think I CAN give a fairly unbiased view (hopefully).

*clears throat*

Ok, keep in mind that I’m defending BOTH of them, because I ship them too hard not to.

Musa Being OC (sometimes being called ‘brat’): C'mon, people! Musa and Tecna are OC since S4 anyways, where are the tomboy and the nerd? With the sneakers, T-shirt and comfortable-looking clothes? Noooo, now they all need neat skirts and hot pink high heels and long, glamorous hair. Do they look good? Of course, but and I would totally be less pissed if there was ANY indication on the reason for the change. Are they just maturing? Expressing themselves differently? Crowd mentality? Tune and Stella finally broke Musa down and Tecna followed soon after? Was it just to please Riven and Timmy? ANYTHING (even the 'pleasing a boy’ would at least be A reason - a ridiculous one that would piss me off, but A reason none the less), was just a sudden impulse that took?

Sure, we can talk about “character growth” until we are blue in the face, but the matter of the fact is that there was none.

The changes we see in Musa and Tecna are basically the creators making them more like the rest of the Winx (I’m including Aisha in this too, where is the sporty girl that matched the boy’s interest in extreme sports? C'mon! Even Bloom and her Girl Next Door looks are replaced with Bratz and Clueless-level of outfits).

Is anyone really going to look me in the eye and say Stella wasn’t a shallow (if friendly and good-natured) Mean Girl? She got better, but as I re-watch the show (currently in S3, meaning almost half-way through the content), Stella still worries more about her hair than anything else even while under literal fire.

More and more, Musa, Tecna and Aisha are losing their identities and what made them, IMO, the more badass Winx.

How did the two on the left went from this…

… to this:

Yeah, yeah, Musa still sings, Tecna still technobabble and Aisha is still a Warrior Princess but Aisha was the first one to go Bloom and Stella on us with Musa and then Tecna following soon after. It’s not just their clothing style, it’s the way they carried themselves too.

Right now? The only thing keeping them apart is their BF blues (different kind of blues) and some personal interests (singing, shopping, tech, the whole drama with Domino/Sparks, etc). But that’s IT, their personalities are going down the drain!

Sorry for the long-winded text, but the reason I’m expressing my disappointment at their change is because Musa’s reaction fits it. S6 we have such an AMAZING breakup (didn’t even think that was possible, WTH, right? Amazing breakup?) only for her to be mad as hell at Riven at S8? Bad writing, that has been dragging her (and the rest of the Winx) down to becoming just one unilateral, shallow character (the Specialists are also falling into that pit, what in the world did they do Helia in S8? He sounds like Thor telling about his “brave exploits” there, yikes). And continuity what? What continuity? Do they even remember how the breakup was written?

But ok, let’s put the Audience View aside for a moment and focus only on the In-Universe terms.

S6: You’ll always be my hero.

S8: What on EARTH are you doing here.

I laughed a bit, the contrast just got to me but instead of getting mad at one or the other like most of the fandom, I laughed.

Musa followed that by saying that Riven has not maintained contact and just in that I would be beyond pissed as well and giving my support to Musa. WTH, Riven? I think that each season is more less six months to a year? Sort of? Still, zero contact for so long even after ending on amicable terms and wanting to stay friends? And he went off on his own! A text now going, “I’m not dead” would be the bare basics for Musa not to worry herself bald!

BUT then I also read comments about how this was a two-way street, why didn’t Musa call either? That’s unfortunately something that I very much doubt will ever be explained. One of those: did it or didn’t it? Musa could have called and went straight to voicemail with no signs of life from Riven or she might not have called and just expected him to call as if feminism were dead and all initiative must come from the guy (which doesn’t even fit because they parted as friends).

Since we have no info on the above, I put it on both of them. It’s not fair to say, “HE should have called!” or “Why didn’t SHE call?” because we don’t have fricking context. So the only thing we can take is: no contact.

BECAUSE I put the lack of contact on both of them, Musa’s reaction was a little too much, however, Riven shows up all smirks and leaning against a tree with his arms crossed and I would have flashbacks to S1 if it wasn’t for the animation style that made all the guys look like girls. Dude! Not the time for that kind of posture. Not saying that he should be all sheepish and rubbing his arm as if he had done something horrible (again: we don’t have context on the no contact) but a more neutral approach was warranted here. Nobody does themselves any favors with that kind of attitude no matter what how high of a horse they may be (rightly or not) riding on, if anything I would react like Musa solely on that one.

Next episode we have that Riven convinced the guys to follow the girls in some mission and Musa was angry. Again: I would be too. WTH? Yes, yes, they helped and if it wasn’t for them, the Winx would gotten seriously injured but Musa did have a point saying that this demonstrated that they had no trust in them and need their hand held, it was no sanctioned mission like on Earth after all. BUT, Riven does something that I would never expect from in S1-4: he explains, he reasons it, he puts it in all the words that he does trust Musa and co and that he only wanted to show that he’d be there for her (you know? One of the main issues in S6 that made them breakup in the first place? His inability to conciliate Specialist work with supporting his girlfriend and ultimately failing or feeling like failing in both?) and Musa still pouts, crosses her arms, and turns around. Geez. I expected that one from Stella, not Musa. I think the closest Musa has ever come to THIS was back in S2 when Jared explains that Riven was the one to recommend that he interview Musa and yada yada yada and she got mad and stomped off on the poor guy that didn’t even understand what was going on (only to immediately apologize to Jared and recognizing that it wasn’t him that she was mad at… like I said: what character growth?).

Riven then goes to show that he indeed grew when he asked for advice from Sky and Brandon (WTH, right? Can we picture that happening back in S1-3? He very grudgingly would LISTEN to UNSOLICITED advice from Nabu and Helia in S4-6). And does a very, very goofy and embarrassing show of affection. Yeah… again… I can picture Stella loving the light show with her face for IDK how many people to see but not Musa (although can we really blame the guy after the series went out of its way to make Musa all Stella-like? Clothes, attitude, the only thing missing is making Riven carry her shopping bags around and call him “Shnookums” (although the mental image is already enough for me to fall over laughing, just for the face Riven would make). Still, I have to count that one against Riven if only because (as much as the show gives only lip service to it) Musa isn’t Stella.

Riven being mind controlled (again) aside, those two are back together. And on the overall? Riven showed more growth than any other character in the show COMBINED (he is the Zuko of the show), that doesn’t go to say that he didn’t make mistakes since coming back in S8 (but that was more a guy trying to win back a girl than… betraying his friends for a pair of nice legs or… IDEK like in S1 – where, mind control or not the show itself made sure to make it clear that he had free will) or that he is now the one out of Musa’s league. I think that NOW it can actually work… if the show allows him to keep the progress, Musa is the next to see her flaws and work on them (which she showed to be able to do since S2) and put effort in the relationship. The difference between them is that Musa can actually work on herself and the relationship at the same time. That’s not me saying she is better than Riven in any way, everybody has their own pace and their own way to cope, to improve and to self-reflect.

I still root for them.

~*~

PS-IDK why, but I read posts about how Riven changed so much and posts about how all his progress disappeared and he is now back to his S1 attitude and I’m just cofused. Yeah, different of opinions and so on, but such opposite opinions on the subject of a guy whose relationship was focused on three episodes?

#winx club #winx musa #winx riven #musa x riven #rivusa #anti stella #submission

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mysterylover123 · 3 years

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Mysterylover watches Bleach episodes 166-167: Ichi/Hime is Legit, ya’ll

mysterylover123

1. So the comments last week informed me that something Controversial is coming up with Orihime. Which I’m actually kinda excited for. Bring on that controversy girl. I’ll have your back.

2. OK we resume where we were before with Hollowfied Ichi protecting Orihime and we have A LOT of close-ups of Hime’s eyes and Ichi’s back-of-the-head. Followed by a seriously cute moment where Ichi reassures her again.

3. Music ramps up and the Match of Shonen Rivals begins. And Ichi asks Hime to protect herself and Nel because she’s a badass. Some day I really want the two of them to work together to fight a villain (Ichi and Hime I mean).

4. Ooh and GJ is doing the “This isn’t even my final form” villain thing where he shape-shifts into a weird animal looking thing. Damn though with the longer hair he’s kinda pretty now. Like Bishonen cat boy kinda pretty.

5. There’s this weird choir of lady Espada watching the match like the Greek Muses or something. Are they gonna interfere or just be the peanut gallery? Anyway Ichi finally lands a hit on GJ who has the “Oh no I underestimated him” look now.

6. I wonder if Ichi’s gonna actually try and go for the killing blow here? I don’t think GJ’s gonna die here though, he’s had too much storyline to just go out now, like this. So I dunno I guess they’re just gonna rough each other up good enough for now and have tons of rematches later on.

7. And Ichi again gets distracted cause GJ apparently aimed for Hime again. Despite the fact that Hime has a force field up. Dude! SHE HAS A FORCE FIELD. And Hime is apparently spooked by the Hollow Mask. Cause it reminds her of some villain...I think the hollow who killed her brother? Hard to tell.

8. Grimmjow definitely crossed the Bishonen line here tho. Like I dunno what it is about the crown and long hair that dials it up to 11. Just really suits him.

9. Hime is having a freakout about Ichi’s Hollow Form and flashing back to her Hollowfied Brother from Episode 3. Damn HIme why you gotta stab me in the feels like that.

10. Nel is telling Hime to be a cheerleader, and reprimanding her for being scared of Ichigo. And that Ichi is getting hurt to protect her. Aw. Please be inspired to go kick Grimmjow’s ass for him Hime. I mean I think that’d be a lot more helpful than just cheerleading.

11. Hime is having thoughts about how everyone came to save her and how she wanted to protect everyone. Aw! And she does in fact start cheerleading. While crying. And tells him not to get hurt.

12. Ichi has a cool bit where he just without looking turns around and grabs GJ’s hand. And tells him he can’t lose. Damn Hime those are some serious cheerleading skills you got there. (If she was teaming up with Ichi they’d make such a perfect fighter team. Spear and shield.)

13. Ep 167! Grimmjow is fine of course. Getting cut in half doesn’t really do much to Shonen villains does it? On the other hand it doesn’t phase Shonen heroes much either.

14. And we cut to what looks like the death eaters running around. Huh. What? OK it seems like this is here for the sake of providing exposition about the various mods of Espada.

15. OR IT’S GRIMMJOW’S BACKSTORY. He used to be a tiger apparently. Huh. He really is a cat boy.

16. And it looks like he’s struck a fatal blow on Ichi (that’s twice in one day. Damn Ichi your insides must look terrible.) GJ keeps swiping at him. Like a cat. And Ichi is getting cocky. Wow that looks good on him.

17. And Grimmjow apparently has the classic Shonen rival inferiority complex. He’s pulling an Ultimate Move on him now. And apparently his backstory involves eating his BFFs to level up. WOWSA.

18. Ooh Ichi’s saying that he’s really here cause he wanted to fight and beat Grimmjow. WOW DUDE. Really? And now he’s flashing back to Rukia, Chad, Uryu, Renji and Orihime, his NAKAMA who he is here to protect. OK good Ichi still got those priorities right.

19. Damn he actually won? POWER OF FRIENDSHIP STRIKES AGAIN. This is a shonen after all. OK so he’s rejoining Hime. We gonna get a friendship moment between them?

20. OMG THEY ARE SO EFFING CUTE. SMILING AT EACH OTHER AND ALL. Nel ruins it by head-butting Ichi but damn they were both smiling adorably. Anyway he rejoins Hime on the tower. And she takes his hand. My god this is pretty damn romantic.

21. I’ve never seen a Shonen couple actually get this kind of intimate emotional development, at least not until like, the last arc or something. Usually it’s left for fillers or regulated to to the sidelines. Here it’s like, front and center. Hand holding, long gazes, putting it all on the line for each other...I don’t care what anyone says Ichihime is Legit.

22. So what next? I’m presuming they’re off to go bail the rest of the gang outta their various fights. I mean, damn, you team Miss MageShield and Mr. Hollowfield Sword fighter up and they can just go kick Aizen’s ass here and now, maybe go out for shwarma afterwards. Just saying.

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silvia7272 · 4 years

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9 ~ Revelations Revealed

Hey guys. I can’t believe how many notes I have on My Cardigan Story. It's truly amazing and I love you guys so much thank you. I hope you’ll enjoy today's chapter, and I hope you’ll understand some points I make and whether or not you like it is completely up to you.

I’m going to Headcanons that the Kwami’s can’t see what their holders do once they transform, however, I do think some of their personality does get passed onto them when they do transform. Marinette becomes confident and strong like Tikki, Chat Noir is playful and funny like Plagg, I always thought they matched once they transformed.

Word Count: 3249

Also, how would people feel about having 3 in 1 fics? So, I’ll put 3 fic stories in one post, that way there's more content to enjoy, around the same length as the others and it may but just a little bit of filler so you can enjoy more interactions. They may seem less important so I think the 3 in 1 fics will be canon but not as relevant, if an idea has it's on fic, it's important/I wanted to expand on it.

Tags: @queenmj10, @fangirl39, @animegirlweeb, @northernbluetongue , @maribat-is-lifeblood, @raisuke06, @indecisive-mess-named-me, @luleck, @themotherofhogwarts, @more-or-less-human-i-guess, if you wish to be tagged all you have to do is say. Also, if you change your name please tell me, I don’t want to leave you out since you’ve asked to be tagged.

***

“Marinette how could you?” Uggh this again? Could they not give it a rest? This was the same routine Marinette had been living by before Chloé and Rosina entered the picture. It didn’t matter what she did, Lila would be persistent about making the class hate her, even though she had accomplished it she still wanted that hatred to be directed towards someone.

She just so happened to be that someone.

If she said the truth, she was of course lying.

If she denied, she was lying.

If she did anything, she was lying.

And god was she sick of it. Couldn’t they see Lila was just spinning so many tales to grab their attention it was unbelievable?

But she couldn’t do anything else.

Because it still hurt so much.

And she couldn’t tell anyone.

“I didn’t do that, she’s lying.” But of course, they all rolled their eyes at her. Lila was ‘hysterically sobbing’ into the arms of Mylène, they never saw the smirk the brunette gave her.

And they just believed her. With no evidence to back it up.

Man did it make her mad.

She also didn’t miss the disappointed look Adrien had given her, but she was quickly able to go back to her friends and act as if nothing had happened.

Because she had to.

If she continued being angry, then she would get Akumatized.

The day she was nearly expelled was close enough, she could never let something like that happen.

So, she thought the best option was to bottle everything inside.

But she remembered how it all came crashing down on her when Rosina let her enter that Trinklet world. She knew it was bad when she had cried for a long time, she didn’t know how long due to the no time concept, but it must’ve been awhile.

And yet she still bottled everything in. How else was she meant to deal with it?

“Maaaaaaaari? Are you ok there? You’ve been spacing out?” A hand was waved in front of her face as she blinked out of her stupor.

“I’m fine, I’ve just had a lot on my mind, I’m fine really, hahaha” She was trying to play it off as cool and hoped the other two wouldn’t notice.

“You really need to learn how to relax Marinette. I’ll plan a spa day for us all” Marinette had to stop the blonde from pressing anything.

“Nonono, Chloé really it's fine, I’m almost done anyway” She laughed nervously. And it played out like the day usually did.

The day ended and they went home, she ignored that feeling of eyes upon her as Rosina bounced along beside her.

She ignored the feeling of eyes upon her as she was nearing her house with Rosina looking around.

She ignored the cold hard stare in front of her as she bumped into Rosina who had halted midstep… And stopped bouncing.

“Rosina? What's wrong, is everything-”

“Aunty!” Rosina leapt and hugged the tiny woman in front of her.

“Amoretto! Cease this public display of affection!”

Whack

“Sorry, but I haven’t seen you for so long. And I have so much to tell you. Marinette’s been great, she’s my first ever friend here, and I’ve made other friends as well and-” Franchezca put her arm up to stop the young girl from retelling her everything the girl deemed necessary.

“That’s all very good, however, there are some important matters I have to dish out. To Miss Dupain-Cheng. Alone” the girls widened their eyes.

That did not seem good.

“Wha-What? Why?”

“We can discuss that privately, now let’s get going… You’ll soon learn that I can be a very impatient person” She slowly walked out and before Marinette could even process what was happening she felt as if she was being pushed.

“Whoa whoa whoa, Rosina stop pushing I’m gonna-”

She fell.

“I’m so sorry Mari. It's just that, it must be really urgent if Aunty wants to talk to you” As much as Marinette wanted to deny seeing her, she was vaguely curious.

“But, why not bring you along? You haven’t seen her in weeks” The redhead shrugged.

“I don’t mind, she’s always like this, but you better get going. She really hates waiting” Marinette nodded before running off, knowing Rosina would make an excuse to her parents.

She didn’t know why the former Ladybug holder wanted to have a word with her, but she did grow with slight nervousness with each passing moment.

“Finally you made it, next time I ask to meet you, it should be quicker” Marinette huffed before glaring. She was talking to her niece, why was she so grumpy anyway?

Before she could ask, a light was forming around the older woman. She was shocked, that was the same thing Rosina had! They both had one?

“Ladybug! Hurry up and come hither” She stepped inside this light and disappeared.

“Don’t say that so loud!” She followed before disappearing as well, luckily no audience was watching them.

***

“Where are we?” This was not like Rosina’s Trinklet. Hers was a lot more peaceful and fuller of nature. This had tons of doors on either side of them when looking around it seemed very narrow, like a never-ending office. But it seemed that Hernandez knew where she was going, heading towards a certain red door.

She opened the door and the blue-haired girl walked in.

“What is this place?” Looking around all the girl saw was darkness, except for a large white light in the middle of the room.

“We’re going to take a trip down memory lane. Now look deep into it” Franchezca commanded. Marinette rolled her eyes at this order but proceeded, she really wished she wasn’t going to be treated like this, but she looked deep into the light, ready for whatever she was about to face.

She didn’t expect to see Alya of all people.

“He cannot be allowed to hear that message Alya, if he does I’ll die of shame” This was the past, how was that possible?

“Okay okay, I got an idea. If Adrien’s phone went to voicemail it means the dudes busy, which also means you can get to it before he does” Back when they were friends. This was the day Theo made that statue of Ladybug and Chat Noir.

The past Marinette excitedly ran and pulled down the traced schedule of Adrien’s life went into…

It flashed from event to event, from stealing Adrien’s phone to abandoning Paris, being rude to André and planning to gate-crash Kagami’s chance of being near Adrien. Once she had lost all her friends to Lila, she was able to recognise that this behaviour was unacceptable and extremely creepy, she regretted it as she realised her jealousy got the better of her when it came to Adrien. Hell, she wasn’t even sure if meeting Rosina a year ago would let her be sane, her being so close to Adrien and all, would she have blown up at her? She didn’t want to think about it anymore, that was the past and she was living in the present. Sure, she was younger, but that wasn’t an excuse for her behaviour. At least she was learning as she swore, she would never do it again.

“These are the mistakes you have made Ladybug. And you need to recognise everything you’ve done from past to present. You need to understand your actions aren’t always right.” A red dot immediately zoomed out and came into view of Franchezca’s face.

“Marinette may have made some mistakes in the past but she’s acknowledged them and became better and! -” A hand shushed her before she could continue.

“I’m not finished yet, bug. And do not interrupt me again” They glared before Tikki reluctantly flew back to the blue-haired girl.

She muttered a sorry before flying back into the girl's purse.

“You’ve continued this even, you stole the boy's phone, read other letters, rude to people when you were upset-”

“Hey so are you!”

“I have a reason.”

“You don’t treat the Chat Noir as your partner, more like a sidekick, although that I can’t reprehend you on that, all Chat Noir’s are sidekicks, a Ladybug holder has more power than Chat Noir.” Marinette would’ve interrupted but she was silenced by yet another glare.

“All of your past mistakes are there, written in black and white, are here for you to see”

“But I’ve changed since then, I’m not friends with any of them, I even learnt to forgive my bully. I have new friends that I can trust not let me do that anymore. Your Niece helped me a lot Mlle Hernandez, and I thank her a lot, so I don’t understand what I need to do?!” She didn’t mean to raise her voice, but she was really struggling to comprehend the solution, if there was any solution in fact.

“You still keep all of that anger and regret inside of you” Marinette widened her eyes. She… Does?

“I don’t blame you for not recognising the symptoms, or anyone else for not noticing. You put on a mask to make sure you don’t seem hurt, but you are. And that negative emotion is going to eat you up until either you explode or an Akuma gets a hold of you. And I seriously doubt you’d want that to happen.” She nodded, still trying to process the new information handed to her.

“And you need to let that go”

“Huh?”

“Do you want to end up cold and bitter, like me? You are young, still young, you children make stupid decisions all the time, because it’s a part of life, and first-hand experience is the best way to learn. It's up to you if you want to forgive or forget, but don’t harbour any negative emotions towards your past. So, let it go”

“Why are you giving me this advice? Don’t you hate me?” Marinette retaliated.

“What reason would I specifically hate a 14-year-old girl? I hate everyone equally so don’t flatter yourself. Even if I still don’t agree you should be Ladybug, you also shouldn’t burden yourself and ask for help once in a while, you don’t need to only rely on yourself. This is meant in and out of battle, so remember that you aren’t alone, you have your sidekick after all”

So, she just wanted to help? That seemed completely out of character for someone like her, but Marinette guessed that since she didn’t know her like Rosina, it wouldn’t be fair to make that judgement.

Plus, it was true, even if Marinette didn’t want to admit it. She was still taking her time with asking for help from others, normally she would gladly take on all the work whenever her friends asked for anything, or she would offer to make banners for Alix whenever she had a race, or help out in the art room whenever she was free, and she only noticed how unhealthy that was, she was desperately clinging onto her friends now since she didn’t want to be abandoned again.

Maybe she did need some help?

“Thank you, Mlle Hernandez, I get it now. I’ll learn to let my anger go and focus on my future” The older woman was about to respond but Marinette beat her to it, she smirked inwardly as well.

“But I’m also determined to prove to you that I am a good Ladybug, even if you don’t think so. Maybe not now, but I swear in the future I will prove you wrong, and I won’t fail Paris. With my friends, we will defend Paris and defeat Hawkmoth”

Ding

Franchezca felt something, or technically saw something, a silhouette of Rosina behind her, smiling like she always would be.

She grinned, that determination was contagious, she knew that feeling all too well.

“Very well, Ladybug. Prove me wrong, but prove yourself right before that” She turned on her heel as Marinette and Tikki hugged another.

“That was awesome Marinette, you were so confident”

“Thanks, Tikki. It may have been tough, but she just wanted me to understand I guess” They would’ve continued if not hearing a voice.

“Well, Ladybug? If you want to prove to me that you’re serious then we need to get you out of that ridiculous level 1 costume, it’s a disgrace to all fashion designers. Kwami, have you really not informed you're chosen of the levels?” Tikki shot out again, she was still angry with Franchezca with that comment about Chat Noir.

“You know as well as I do that there are too many power-ups to explain all at once. We still have so much to clarify, I didn’t want to overwhelm her.”

“…What?”

Something told Marinette she would be staying here for a loooong time.

***

There was a lot to discuss yesterday.

And the cold hard truth was exactly that, cold, hard, and straight to the point. It may not be exactly what the blue-eyed girl wanted to hear, but she was glad to hear it now than later, in the midst of battle.

If R-

“Marinette!”

Uggh, here we go again.

“Yes?” It was coming. Any minute now.

“Care to explain why you sent horrible texts to Lila yesterday, especially after we confronted you, if this is because we found out your true colours then say it to us don’t be mean to Lila!” God damn, they were so ignorant of everything, she just wanted to-

Wait. This is exactly the same routine, and yes, she couldn’t stand it, but it was her life.

And she was going to change that routine.

“Fine…”

“How da- wait, what?” Even Lila seemed surprised, she was normally meant to fight and prove her innocence, not cave over immediately. What happened?

“I said fine, I promise not to text Lila, even though I don’t have her phone number, ever again. And I don’t know why she keeps bringing me up in conversation. But you can go back and forget about me and I’ll promise never to talk to her or text her ever. I really don’t care, I have plans with my friends anyway. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom. But seriously, just please tell her not to drag me into her fallouts, I don’t care about any of that stuff.” She wanted to laugh but had to hold it in as she passed them all and walked straight into the restroom. Once she sat in a cubicle the red Kwami flew out of her purse.

“That was great Marinette. Franchezca’s advice really helped.”

“Mhmm, yeah I guess she really was right. After I let go, I feel calmer and happier, plus I have more free time now, unless an Akuma comes obviously, but, I sorta feel… Better”

“That’s wonderful Mari-” They heard the door open so Tikki covered her mouth and whizzed back inside Marinette’s purse.

Marinette was unsure who it would be, but for all she knew it might be someone completely random, or someone she didn’t know.

There was no way to- it was Lila.

Marinette would’ve glared but soon remembered to let it go, huh that reminded her of Frozen, maybe she should watch that with Rosina some tim-

“You seem different, finally grew a backbone?” She instigated.

‘Just ignore her Marinette, she isn’t worth your time anymore’ She continued washing her hands, not daring to look in the mirror to see those green devilish eyes at all.

“It doesn’t matter, I swear I will make sure your empire will crumble, I can be very persuasive-”

“That’s nice” That slipped out, but she wasn’t really paying all that much attention anyway. She wanted to get back to her friends. Chloé still booked that spa day, and even though she was against the idea at first, she was excited to see what that would entail.

“-And your new friends will leave you”

Crack

Marinette should’ve ignored it. She knew Lila was just trying to get under her skin. But it was so hard, and this was only the first day.

“Aww, Mari~” The brunette mocked, using the same tone Rosina would use.

“I’m sure they are nice people, but I can be nicer, and they will leave you. Don’t take it too harshly I’m just stating facts”

“Stop”

“What? Sorry didn’t hear you, does the little mouse finally talk?” Lila laughed whipping her hair, about to make an exit.

“I don’t care”

That stopped Lila.

“You don’t care about your friends, oh my looks like you’ve been lying this entire time”

“Stop, just please stop, I don’t care anymore just stay with your other friends, will you? I don’t care that you’re lying, I don’t even care that Adrien knows. Just leave me alone will you? You’re so annoying.” And she walked off, she needed to chill and have some time pass before going to find Rosina and Chloé.

Maybe she could ask Rosina to take her to that opposite world again? She wondered if she could research some relaxation techniques to use, maybe some meditation?

She was sure to write everything down, that would surely calm her.

She didn’t care about the look a pair of green eyes were giving her.

She was starting to become happier. A sudden weight was lifted off her shoulders.

Besides, she had a meeting with Chat and Crisono later that day.

***

“Where is she? Ohh Bugaboo? Where are you?” The message Chat received didn’t scream urgency, but he couldn’t help but feel he had been duped into coming here as a prank.

“Chat quit it with the names already” He heard her voice before he heard her feet land on the ground, strange, he should’ve heard her the other way around.

She was getting better at sneaking up on people.

“Aww, but you know you love my names secretly buga-” He paused.

No longer was he staring at a pigtailed heroine that had captured his heart, no, he was staring at a new Ladybug.

It was the same Ladybug, of course, the voice matched, and he knew she wouldn’t just quit out of nowhere.

But it was different, she was different. Her outfit had changed a lot, she had black gloves and boots with red spots, and an overall that seemed to be covering her bodysuit, and her hair, it was no longer tied up, but down, two pieces of hair tied up.

“Ladybug, you- you’ve… You changed outfits? How? You look even more amazing” She blushed, ahh a sign from the heavens, be still his beating heart, he couldn’t contain his excitement. What made her want to change outfits he wondered?

“Thanks for noticing Kitty, I found out an awful lot about the Miraculous’ yesterday.” Chat slightly narrowed his eyes, here we go again, another secret he can’t be apart off, he should’ve guessed.

“And there's something I need to tell you. But you can’t tell Crisono. She’ll be here any minute now and I’d prefer if she didn’t overhear.”

“What is it?” He would just have to hope she’ll tell him later; they were partners after all. Besides, Crisono was his friend, he had to make sure it was something alright, but by the way his Lady was looking, it didn’t seem to be too pleasant.

She took a deep breath. And he could still remember how everything fell silent.

“The Miraculous cure doesn’t work on Crisono, if she dies, she dies”

***

Huh, this became more of a life lesson than saltiness. Although I still stand by Franchezca, children make stupid mistakes and decisions all the time, and even if I do simply love all ML Salt, I know it's exaggerated and fanon, and that’s alright, we’re able to take a fictional show and write how we interpret it ourselves, because it's not real, and that’s alright, it's real to us and that can be enough. Although I should clarify that this isn’t taking the higher ground, at least I don’t think so, just that Marinette is choosing to forget about them and live her own life, while they choose to either dwell on unimportant matters. Marinette wants to be happy, and if that means choosing to cut her old friends off then so be it. Hope that makes sense.

(Sorry turned sappy there) Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next one should be Piper, unless I get writer's block and do a bunch of 3 in 1 fics, or even some drawings, (I’ve done one of a character not yet shown in the fanfic, feel free to guess) Annnnnnnnd I’ve sorted names and Kwami’s to all the friends, I’m really excited to show them and for myself, to draw them, I went into detail about what I want in my book so I really can’t wait until they’re released. I’m so excited.

Ladybugs costume will be uploaded right after this hopefully, last time I had too many problems to count.

So, stay tuned next time, Cya. Hopefully, the next one will be longer, just wanted to get this out of the way.

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zabrak-show · 4 years

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The Magnificent Twin Suns

A/N: Hello, omg this is my ObiMaul Magnificent Seven Crossover Fic. what have I done?!! Please do not hate me for this. I actually worked hard on it and honestly wanted to do more character work with all of the “seven” but ultimately, only ever wanted this to be a short one shot.

This is an AU of AU’s which if you know the history of Magnificent Seven is fitting. (it’s a remake of a remake of a remake) Which is also fitting of Star Wars being that it is essentially a remake of western films that were remakes of samurai films LOL anyway, expect much OOC weirdness and just whatever I felt like, OK! There is an OC, but she is mostly just filler as are the rest of the characters beyond Kenobi and Maul.

This was heavily inspired by one of my favorite artists on here @savagesleftarm Cowboy Art of ObiMaul this art broke my brain and the aforementioned fic ensued. I hope you enjoy it and if not, go easy on me cowpokes. I am but a simple fic writer tryin to get by.

Also, because I obsessed over this for a week, here’s a playlist I made while I wrote this 😆 I made it to play on shuffle, but I’m not the boss of you, play it how you like if you like!

Warnings: Violence, Blood, Death (no major character death, but still), Curse Words, Alcohol consumption, Cigarette smoking, Angst, specifically ObiMaul Angst

Word Count: 5.7K

gif from tombstone another western gem

The desert suns blazed unrelenting into the face of a crimson zabrak with intricate obsidian tattoos accenting his hardened and chiseled features including a crown of small horns. He brought his Colt Paterson revolver over his shoulder, still hot from the kill shot performed. Another bounty successfully tracked down and bagged. A half smoked cigarette hung from the zabrak’s lips, his face scowled from the smoke and the sun. Gunpowder, cigarette smoke, and death permeated the hot air. The zabrak took one last drag from his cigarette before throwing it down into the sand next to the dead body, the butt still slowly burning until finally it ran out of tobacco and paper to ignite, puffing out into a dusty pile of ash.

The zabrak holstered his gun and roughly wrapped the dead body in a canvas tarp and strapped it to the back of his pale grey horse, Scimitar. He mounted the horse and took off down the dusty path, hoping to get to Mos Eisley before sundown. The zabrak rode fast atop Scimitar, his black leather boots digging into the horse’s sides. His black jeans and black vest collected dust and sand that flew up from the horse’s galloping.

They rode for hours, until finally the zabrak pulled back on the reigns signaling Scimitar to slow down as they entered the Mos Eisley city limits. The city was still growing, with several buildings under construction around the edge of town. The main street area was bustling with different galactic species. Some native jawas and tusken raiders milled about amongst, rodians, weequays, twi’leks, and humans. Many turned to stare at the strange zabrak. His bright golden eyes staring straight ahead, not giving any mind to the civilians around him. He rode Scimitar up to a red brick building, dismounted and tied her to the hitching rail at the front of the building.

He slung the body over his left shoulder and entered the brick building with a calm authority to his every movement, a slight limp to his gait. He dropped the body at the feet of a weequay, leather brown skin matching his long leather overcoat. The weequay’s off-white shirt unbuttoned to show much of his chest; dark dirty jeans and mud covered boots, told their own story of hard work and life on Tatooine.

“Maul!” the Weequay exclaimed with jovial comraderiere, reaching out to grab the zabrak’s shoulder.

“Hondo.” Maul responded flatly.

“Eh, Money for blood’s a peculiar business wouldn’t you say?” Hondo pressed as he peeked inside the tarp and quickly obtained the credits for Maul’s bounty. Maul grunted in response as he stashed the credits inside his vest, and made his way for the door.

Nighttime was approaching, the sky a painted medley of pinks, oranges and yellows as the suns dipped down past the horizon. Maul headed for the Mos Eisley saloon for a well needed drink and to look for his next job. He stepped into the saloon doors and headed straight for the bar.

The saloon was lively and most paid no mind to the ruby red zabrak as he sauntered into the establishment. A red Nikto sat at the piano playing a twangy melody, while animated voices and glasses clanging together filled up the saloon’s auditive atmosphere. The smell of old beer, must, and disappointment assaulted the zabrak’s nasal cavities.

“Whiskey. Neat.” Maul ordered the blue Twi’lek at the bar. She eyed Maul suspiciously and slowly made his drink and slid it down the bar to him. He took out a few credits and dropped them on the bar as he walked away to find a place to sit.

Maul limped to the back of the bar to sit in a small table by himself in the shadows. A light skinned bearded man with a brown cowboy hat, brown poncho, tan shirt and pants burst through the saloon doors, drawing the attention of most people in the saloon with his dramatic entrance. He walked up to a rodian at the bar and they had a quiet conversation, the rodian clearly uncomfortable by the man’s presence. In a flash, the rodian’s head slid off his body as a beam of blue light cut through his flesh. The man was wielding a lightsaber and the show stopping stunt had all but silenced the bar as the patrons all looked on in horror and shock.

“Jedi scum.” Maul growled quietly to himself.

The man having everyone’s attention, now spoke to the crowd.

“Greetings. I am Kenobi, a warrant officer in 3 systems and a licensed Jedi Peace Officer in 10. This rodian was a wanted criminal,” he held up a worn piece of paper with the rodian’s likeness on it. Maul squinted his bloodshot amber eyes at the man and slowly recognized who he said he was. It had been almost ten years and he almost didn’t recognize his old nemesis.

“Jedi. I have been waiting for you,” Maul spoke in a deep commanding voice as he stood and walked over to the man.

“I’m not sure I’ve made your acquaintance.” Kenobi said, barely acknowledging the zabrak.

“I am surprised you could have forgotten me so easily after I killed your boss and you left me for dead on Naboo.” Maul spat out at him.

“It is you.” Kenobi replied in astonishment now looking directly at Maul.

“You may have forgotten me, but I will NEVER forget you.” Maul bared his teeth practically growling at Kenobi, before he stopped in his tracks, hand hovering over his holstered gun. Kenobi stared into Maul’s bloodshot amber eyes with his own ice blue eyes studying the movements of the zabrak.

“I have defeated you before and I can defeat you again!” Kenobi declared, his hand on his lightsaber hilt. Kenobi ignited the lightsaber as Maul drew his gun and took several shots, Kenobi blocking each one with fast as lightning reflexes. Several patrons yelled in terror at the commotion, but the dueling men paid no mind.

“I almost didn’t recognize you, but you’re still half the man in my eyes.” Kenobi leered at the zabrak. At once, Maul jumped towards Kenobi, firing his revolver until he was out of bullets. The Jedi grabbed the zabrak mid air and threw him to the ground, straddled his chest and held his lightsaber to his neck. Maul hissed and Kenobi put his full weight on the zabrak and turned his lightsaber off. To everyone’s shock and amazement, especially Maul’s, Kenobi began laughing hysterically.

“Can I buy you a drink, old friend?” Kenobi stood up over Maul, extending his hand to help the zabrak up.

“You realize I still hate you with every fiber of my being.” Maul snarled at Kenobi as he rose back to his feet.

“Ah yes, ever dramatic as always.” Kenobi replied, putting his hand on Maul’s back and leading him to the bar. Maul growled quietly and drank with the Jedi despite his distaste for the devilishly handsome man.

“Excuse me are you bounty hunters?” a strong feminine voice rang out from behind them. Both men turned to look at the short slender human woman speaking to them. Her brown hair was pulled back into a braided bun and she wore a plain light blue dress that hugged her torso in a worn-in way.

“No, we are not for hire. Move along.” Kenobi brushed off the woman.

“I have money. It’s everything I have.” the woman pleaded her brown eyes searching both men for some acknowledgement.

“It’s not enough.” Maul grumbled and turned back to his drink.

“I’m willing to give you everything I have. Don’t you want to at least hear what the job is?” the woman rang out attempting to appeal to the two rugged men.

“There’s a village. Not far from here. Peaceful folk. Moisture farmers, just trying to get by. The Hutts are trying to take our land out from under us. Killing innocent men, women, and children in cold blood in the streets.” she stated firmly, throwing a satchel into Kenobi’s hands. He opened it and peeked inside at the credits.

“Miss, you don’t need a bounty hunter. You need an army.” Kenobi responded as he threw the bag back into the woman’s arms.

“Missus. My husband was shot dead in the street by Jabba along with several other innocent civilians.”

“So it is revenge you seek?” Maul inquired piqued with interest now.

“I seek righteousness as should we all, but I’ll take revenge.” she responded cool and stern.

“The Hutts you say?” Kenobi perked up a bit, “What’s your name Missus?”

“I’m Jade Abernathy.”

“How many folks are still at your village?” Kenobi inquired, leaning back onto the bar with his arms crossed.

“60 or so. These folks are farmers. Not fighters.” she clarified.

“And how long until Jabba returns to your village?” Maul questioned.

“He said he’d be back in 3 weeks 8 days ago.” Jade stared at them both as she spoke. Maul let out a chuckle and downed a shot of whiskey.

“Well we best get started then.” Kenobi declared. Maul almost spit out his drink at this declaration. Kenobi slapped his back,

“Relax, old friend. We will recruit some help along the way.”

“I am NOT your friend.” Maul shot back with a glare.

The next day the 3 of them rode towards a settlement to which Kenobi was privy, where an old friend would be camped out. They came up to an old sand hut and each dismounted their horses to have a look around. The smell inside the hut was putrefying and large flii buzzed around, fat from whatever death they’d been feeding on. Jade walked into a room where a decomposing body of a tusken raider slumped on the floor. She covered her face and ran out of the room gagging. A figure of a man appeared from the darkness of the hut.

“He was dead before I got here.” a deep booming voice reached out from the shadows.

“Mace is that you?” Kenobi questioned walking further into the room to try and see.

“Obi Wan?” The strange man stepped forward into the dim light. He was a tall, bald, dark skinned man wearing a tan shirt, brown vest and brown pants. The two men embraced without thought of the decomposing body next to them.

“How did you find me?” Mace questioned Kenobi.

“I acquired a tip at Mos Eisley.” the jubilant Kenobi responded. Maul stood back and rolled his eyes at the reunion.

“Jedi scum,” he mumbled under his breath.

“What’s the job?” Mace stepped back, taking a serious tone.

“Going against the Hutts to help out a farming community. Paying us everything they got.” Kenobi replied matter-of-factly.

“What are our odds?”

“It’s suicide.”

The team of three plus Jade made their way now to recruit their next team member. Another friend of Kenobi’s, who went by the name of Anakin. They entered into a small town, where a congregation of people surrounded a young togruta woman giving a show throwing knives at burlap sack dummies. She had orange skin with white markings on her face, blue and white Lekku instead of hair, and wore a maroon vest and pants. A drunk kel dor man stepped out into the area where the togruta woman was performing.

“Yes, you can hit a dummy. Where’s the real show? Hit something live.” he slurred and stumbled towards the togruta.

“Keep talking and I’ll show everyone how easy it is to take someone down.” she threatened.

“oooh I’m sure they’d all love to see it!” he declared raising his arms in a mocking gesture turning his back to her to try and gain favor from the crowd. The togruta reached for the knives stowed at her back and threw them with clean precision into the kel dor’s back immediately taking him down into a pathetic slump. The crowd gasped and cheered.

A man dressed in all black, a scar running down his fair skinned face over one eye, walked around to the crowd with a hat extended taking payment for the show.

“Anakin?” Kenobi asked as the black clad man made his way around to them.

“KENOBI?!!” the man’s blue eyes lit up and reached out to hug Kenobi, nearly spilling his hat of money, “What are you doing here? How’d you find me?”

“Well we are recruiting for a job. Who is your companion? I’m surprised to see you relinquish yourself to the sidelines like this.” Kenobi asked with a concerned look on his face.

“Oh that’s Snips, er Ahsoka. She saved my life. And I help her navigate the wild terrain of Tatooine. She goes anywhere I go.” Anakin explained.

“Well we’d be happy to have you both. We’ll need both of your skills for this job.” Kenobi smiled.

They camped out that night outside the small town where they found Anakin and Ahsoka. The night air was crisp and cool, insects buzzing while Mace built a small campfire. Maul laid out his makeshift version of a bed and propped himself up to attempt resting. Kenobi walked over to his spot and sat down next to Maul.

“I already question why I have agreed to work with the likes of you. Do not try to make it worse with meaningless banter.” Maul scoffed barely looking over at Kenobi.

“I mean no harm. I only wish to bury our past and attempt to start over.” Kenobi spoke softly and sincerely.

“Start over?” Maul ridiculed, “are you going to grow my legs back? Am I to bring Qui Gon back from the dead? We have a past Kenobi. We will never have a future. And I mean never.”

“Such a Sith.” Obi Wan laughed, “it doesn’t need to be like this. We both did what we needed to survive at the time. The war is over. Let it go.” he started to stand as he spoke and walked away from Maul, who growled at the Jedi.

“You are such a pain in my ass.” Kenobi finished while shaking his head and walking to the other side of the campfire. Maul’s eyebrow ridges furrowed in anger as he stared at the dancing firelight in front of him. His body filled with rage and wanted nothing more than to kill the despicable Jedi, consequences be damned. He could not bring himself to do it, frozen to his small patch of desert. He hated the Jedi. He hated Kenobi more than anything. Yet, he respected the Jedi’s skills and combat techniques. The handsome and charming Jedi somehow infiltrated his way into Maul’s impermeable heart and that was what really drove him mad.

Jade sat to the side of both of them and watched the whole thing go down curiously. She gnawed on a dried piece of meat, before finally lying down on the hard rocky terrain to attempt getting some rest. The fire crackled and the soft hum of voices around the fire slowly died down as everyone decided to get some rest. Obi Wan took the first watch of the night, sitting atop a ledge and looking out into the darkness.

They packed up their belongings at first light to set out to find another old acquaintance of Obi Wan’s. Jade rode next to Maul and asked him about the Sith.

“Why don’t the Sith like Jedis? It seems like ya’ll are pretty similar.” she asked innocently enough, but it made Maul gnash his teeth together before responding.

“We are nothing alike. Jedi are fools and liars. They brainwash everyone into admiring them, and for what? For the power they claim they do not desire.” He scowled and spat the words out in his deep theatrical voice. Anakin over hearing this, let out a big laugh and Maul whipped his head around to glare at the smiling young man.

“I would be careful to make too much noise, Anakin.” Maul shot back at him and looked over to Jade, “This man took out an entire tribe of Tusken Raiders.”

“They were enslaving good folks, I did what I had to do to bring justice.” Anakin shouted back.

“There were innocent women and children that died at your hand. Was that for the good of everyone? Justice is merely the construct of the current power base.” Maul’s response was cut short by Obi Wan stopping the team with a fist up in the air.

“We are being followed.” Kenobi voiced quietly while everyone reached for their weapons. They were on a path surrounded by tall rock ridges on either side of them, everyone’s eyes darting around to watch for who was following them. A slender bald pale woman walked out beyond an outcropping guiding her horse on the rocky terrain. She carried a bow and arrow, wore tattered black and red form fitting clothes and had tattoos around her eyes and mouth.

“Quite a mix of strays I see.” She declared as she sauntered over, all eyes on her.

“Ventress,” Kenobi almost sighed out the words, “What are you doing out here?”

“I should ask the lot of you the same thing.” she suggested as she looked around at everyone.

“We are on a mission to drive the Hutts out of a peaceful farming community. Care to join?” Obi Wan asked the pale woman.

“Like you even had to ask.” she smirked.

“When did you become one of the good guys?” Kenobi questioned with a look of surprise on his face.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Kenobi. I’ll take any chance I can get at tormenting you.” she winked and mounted her horse now next to Kenobi. He rolled his eyes and they rode on down the dusty path.

They arrived at an old hut tucked away off the trail and Kenobi dismounted his horse to walk up to the two Jawas milling about outside the front door. They had a short conversation in Jawaese.

“You killed the old man who lived here?!” Kenobi asked them in astonishment. Suddenly, a green lightsaber flew through the air at the 2 jawas, cutting them down where they stood and then flying back into the hand of a short wrinkled green creature wearing torn furs and leathers.

“Left me for dead, those two Jawas did.” The old creature announced as he slowly walked towards Kenobi, dried blood covering the side of his face.

“Yoda, we are assembling a crew to take down the Hutts.” Kenobi cut to the chase and explained the mission to the small wizened creature.

Once Yoda was on board, they planned their initial attack into the town. Jabba was not currently there, but he had several of his cronies watching over the town so they’d need to carefully infiltrate at first. Then it would be a matter of days to train everyone there to fight back once Jabba did show up. The dangerous appeal of the mission was now starting to set into feelings of daunt and apprehension for everyone.

The team rode toward the town with everyone’s mind full of what their mission was as soon as they got there. It was late afternoon and the suns blazed onto the team of misfits. The air was arid and smelled of horses and nervous body odor. Kenobi and Maul rode side by side leading the group. Much to Maul’s bedevilment, as his body and face tensed up at the Jedi’s presence next to him.

“Kenobi.” Maul acknowledged him finally through grit teeth.

“Maul, don’t you think this is childish to still hold onto such a grudge?” Kenobi scrutinized the zabrak.

“I am unlike you foolish Jedi, sequestering your emotions. I was cast aside, I was forgotten, but I survived. Fueled by my singular hatred for you. ” Maul snarled at the Jedi.

“And yet here you are tagging along with us; some former and current Jedis and me, the bane of your existence.” Kenobi pointed out.

“I have my reasons.” he quietly retorted back and they rode on in silence for some time.

As they neared the town, the team split up and everyone besides Obi Wan took the back way into town led by Jade who knew the shortcuts and where Jabba’s infiltrators would not be monitoring. Obi Wan rode his horse directly into the town, it felt like a ghost town. Windows shuttered and barely anyone out and about. Finally, he reached the main drag and several armed beings; humans, twi’leks, and many gamorreans stood in a line on the street. The tall blue twi’lek spoke first,

“We don’t allow weapons in town. Check them in and we’ll return them after you leave.” he stretched his hand out, his long nails glinting in the sunlight.

“Of course. I wonder why it is such fine folks as you should be armed to the teeth when no one else is?” he asked as he reached for his lightsaber to hand over.

“We are this town’s protection against any outside force that wishes to bring harm to these townspeople.” the twi’lek responded looking agitated and spitting out a wad of tobacco as he finished. Obi Wan saw Ventress signal to him from on top of the building behind the men without letting them see his acknowledgement.

“That is not the story I am told. And not the story my friends believe.” Kenobi looked past the line of armed beings and they all slowly turned around to see they were surrounded. Kenobi ignited his lightsaber and cut down the twi’lek while Ventress shot several more from the rooftop with her bow and arrow. More Gamorrean guards rushed out into the street at hearing the commotion. Mace and Anakin shot several down narrowly missing getting shot themselves by a couple guards coming in from the sides. Ahsoka threw her knives at the guards in an instant hitting them in the throats and killing them on impact. Yoda and Maul stood on opposite sides of the street taking down the rest of the guards with calculated precision. As fast as it started, it was over, the warm air overcome with gunpowder, blood, and smoke.

Jade rode in on her horse, yelling for the townsfolk to come out of hiding.

“Everyone! Come out! They are here to help us!” her voice rang out as she rode her galloping horse through town. The townsfolk cautiously came out of hiding, looking around like scurriers expecting to see a rancor or other predator. Kenobi started to walk towards the congregation of people forming when he sensed a hidden Gamorrean under the wooden stairs to the bank building. He reached down and forcefully grabbed the Gamorrean by the arm to drag him out of hiding.

“You work for Jabba?” Kenobi shook the gamorrean in his hands and he squealed in response.

“You tell your boss if he wants this town, come see me. Tell him Kenobi sent you.” He instructed the Gamorrean who grunted in response and ran off with a squeal.

“These folks have assembled to help our town.” Jade’s voice rang out to the small crowd.

“The Hutts will be back in two weeks. How can we go up against them? We are simple farmers not warriors.” a distressed voice called out from the crowd.

“We are going to train you. Sleep well tonight. It may be the last good sleep you’ll see for awhile.” Kenobi answered the disembodied voice and a murmur of nervous voices rose in the air like steam.

The townspeople assembled at dawn to start training with the team of strange warriors. Kenobi had asked them to bring all their weapons and while many showed up wielding guns, axes, and knives, some only carried shovels.

“Oh good they brought shovels. I was worried about our chances otherwise.” Maul snarked at Kenobi, who tried to ignore the zabrak, but had to turn his head and hide his soft chuckle at the jeer.

The days were split up into different lessons. Tactical planning with Kenobi, short range shooting with Anakin and Mace, long range shooting with Maul, bomb building With Yoda, bow and arrow lessons with Ventress, and finally knife wielding with Ahsoka.

The days were long and grueling. The townsfolk were not lying about not being fighters. Everyone’s patience was thin, but Kenobi couldn’t help but notice Maul’s steadfastness with the townsfolk. He was patient and kind, but not afraid to motivate them through controlled aggression.

“You have to hate what you’re shooting at!” Maul yelled out behind the line of townsfolk armed to shoot dummies.

“Maul you have quite the knack for this.” Kenobi later remarked to the zabrak.

“A knack for survival? Yes. I care nothing for these simple minded people. You must know that about me by now.” he scoffed.

“Yes, I think I am getting to know you quite well.” Kenobi raised an eyebrow and moseyed away. Maul’s already hot internal temperature went up and he felt flushed and frustrated from the small interaction.

The week went by in a flash. a day like any other, Mace rode back to town after his watch to alert everyone the Hutts were a few hours away. It was go-time. The children and others unable to fight were hidden in the basement of the general store. The shovels had proven useful after all and many of the fighters hid in trenches that had been dug to camouflage their location. There were mines and bombs set along the path to town to take down as many of the Hutt soldiers as possible before they were able to enter town. Ventress and anyone who excelled at bow and arrow or Maul’s long range shooting course were perched atop different buildings in town.

The tension in the air could be cut with a knife. Kenobi swallowed his spit and it ran slowly down his esophagus seemingly snowballing into a hardened knot of anxiety until it settled into his empty stomach like a stone. He pulled the brim of his hat down to shade his face from the sun, and looked over at Maul. The zabrak’s golden eyes soothed him in an unexpected way, a calmness washing over him like drinking a warm shot of whiskey. A little intoxicating, but just the one did not dull him too much to think and respond clearly.

Maul nodded at Kenobi as he rode Scimitar down to the trenches, a smile creeping along his face for no one to see. He thrived in the chaos and sensing Kenobi’s nervous energy brought him a small amount of joy. He checked in with the trenches and made sure they understood their directions and to wait for the signal.

Jabba and his soldiers stood off in the horizon. Even from a great distance one could see the enormous slug-like nature of Jabba, laid out onto a big floating sled. He gave the signal and a line of soldiers on horseback ran towards the town.

“Steady, Steady.” Yoda’s voice rang out into the trenches. At last, Yoda gave the signal and shots were fired at the incoming soldiers. Once they reached the marked line of bombs Yoda pressed the lever and a giant boom deafened everyone. Horses and soldiers flew into the air in a cloud of dust and body parts. The survivors broke through the dust and ran forward into town. There was no time for anyone to think. Bullets whizzed past ears and into body parts. More bombs were set off taking down several clusters of soldiers at once.

The surviving soldiers made it into town, firefights ensuing all around. Ventress and the others on top of the building taking down soldier after soldier from their vantage point. Mace, Anakin, and Ahsoka all on foot on the street below shooting down anyone in sight. Kenobi and Maul, still on horseback, rode through the town shooting down their assailants at every chance they got. Yoda and the others from the trenches ran back into town to keep fighting as well.

If there had been only one or two waves of soldiers from Jabba, things would have been looking pretty good. Unfortunately, someone as rich as Jabba had an endless resource for anything they desired in life, including soldiers and weapons. More and more soldiers descended onto the small town. Already, many townsfolk had sacrificed their life for the cause. The foul stench of death and direness infiltrated the air of the town, quickly taken over by the smell of fire.

The General Store was set ablaze and the children were all trapped under the building. Without thinking, Maul shot his way through to the store. Inside, smoke filled his lungs and burned his eyes. The trap door to the basement had a burning beam on top of it, trapping anyone underneath it. A swift, force-ful kick and the beam was slid across the floor. Maul crouched down to lift the door and help pull up the children out of the basement. Jade had now made her way to the store to help and her and Maul led the children and others to safety outside of the burning building. They shot down several soldiers on their way as they protected their helpless herd.

Once the children were safe with Jade, Maul mounted Scimitar and rode over to Kenobi.

“We have to take down Jabba. These soldiers only fight because he pays them, if he is gone they stop fighting.” Maul did not even let Kenobi respond as he reached down and grabbed a stack of TNT from the stockpile, and galloped off on his horse.

“Maul, wait!” Kenobi finally yelled after the zabrak, now disappearing into a cloud of dust.

“You chaotic ass!” Kenobi huffed and rode after Maul. As far as Kenobi could tell, Maul’s mission was suicide and he rode to catch up with an urgency never quite felt before. His jaw was clenched, hands formed tight fists around his horse’s reins, and heels dug into the sides of his horse signaling the beast to go FAST.

Maul already had practically made it to Jabba and narrowly avoided being shot too many times to count. The bullets whistled past his ears but he was running on too much adrenaline to be stopped. He dismounted Scimitar about 50 meters from where Jabba lay out on his sled surrounded by his fiercest guards.

Maul held his hands up in the air in an act of surrender, and slowly walked towards the evil slug. Before he got halfway there, one of the overzealous guards shot Maul in the stomach. The impact of the shot stopped him in his tracks and he fell down to his knees in shock clutching his stomach. He pushed the pain aside to stick a cigarette in his mouth and fumbled with his matches. His hands wet with blood and sweat and shaking found it impossible to light the damned cigarette. Several guns were still pointed at him, but Jabba instructed them to hold off, and one of the guards was sent to light his cigarette for him as Jabba laughed at this foolish zabrak dying in front of their eyes.

Once Maul got his cigarette lit, a feverish smile curved his lips. He reached for the dynamite strapped to his back and fell face down ass up into the ground. The guards all laughed at his death and turned away from the pathetic slump of a corpse. Maul sensed when they weren’t looking, lit the end of the dynamite fuse, and threw it at Jabba’s sled before anyone had time to register what was happening.

As soon as the dynamite left his hand Maul was ripped off the ground and on top of a horse fiercely galloping away. The explosion set off narrowly behind them deafening them both.

The fight was over. The remainder of the guards and soldiers left alive ran off now that Jabba had been destroyed in the explosion. Kenobi slowed his horse’s pace and eventually stopped to assess the situation of Maul’s injuries. He gently carried Maul off the horse and into a soft patch of dried grass. Blood was spilling out of the zabrak’s midsection at an alarming rate. Kenobi ripped his shirt off to apply pressure to the wound. Maul groaned fighting off the urge to pass out from the pain and exhaustion.

“You almost got yourself killed, you fool.” Kenobi exasperated holding down on the wound.

“You know first hand how hard it is to kill me.” Maul coughed out.

“Yes, very well, you are incredibly lucky to have survived that just now.”

“Of course I survived.” Maul reached up to touch Kenobi’s face tenderly. Kenobi took his hand in his own and pressed it into his face, blood dripping down from his hand, his eyes filled with tears.

And so they saved the little town. Jade Abernathy gave them all the payment as promised and they stayed to help clean up the town and give burials to those lost in the battle. Kenobi never left Maul’s side as he recovered in the small doctor’s office in town. Eventually, the rest of the team headed out for their own separate next adventures.

Maul slipped in and out of consciousness for several days. Kenobi figured it was the first time the zabrak had actually rested in his whole troubled life. Eventually, Maul’s strength was enough to fully wake up. He immediately saw Kenobi in the corner of the room napping. Kenobi was sitting in a wooden chair, his legs propped up on a footstool and his hat covering his face.

“Kenobi!” Maul growled. The cowboy in the corner of the room slowly reached up for his hat and a relieved grin spread across his handsome face.

“Maul, I am so happy to see you have your strength back enough to be angry again!” Kenobi laughed.

Maul got out of the small bed and limped over to Kenobi with a menacing look. Kenobi stood tall to meet Maul’s fiery amber eyes attempting to cut through his watery blue gaze. Maul, now close enough to touch Kenobi, slowly leaned in to kiss Kenobi on the lips. Initially, Kenobi slightly flinched so taken aback by the act of affection. He couldn’t help the swelling of his heart, wrapped his arms around Maul’s waist and passionately kissed him back. The moment so pure and beautiful, Kenobi finally softly pushed Maul back.

“Maul, I care deeply for you. But you have got to brush your teeth.”

-.-.-.-.--.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

once again thankee sai for reading my humble writing! Please do leave a comment or heart, it warms my soul.

Tag list: @brilliantbutbatty , @maulieber , @botherbother-blog , @emissarydecksetter , @marvel-starwarsfangirl , @wolfpack-arts-industries99 , @formerly-darth-now-just-maul @mayday1284 , @justalittlecloud ,

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steve0discusses · 4 years

Text

Yugioh Ep 32 S4: Most Disturbing Kid’s Show Award Goes to This Episode

I often talk about how wonderfully effed up Yugioh is. What a freakin delight, how effed up this kid’s show is, somehow still remaining a Y7 kid’s show, despite everything it tries to do to get pulled off the air.

Y’all this was a filler season and it didn’t even have Bakura in it so...why did it go so edge? Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for how many levels of “OK THERE, KID’S SHOW” it was.

But what the hell was that, Yugioh?

Anyway we start off completely normal in this foggy ass graveyard--Halloweens in this season so I’m down for this. Halloween is also...cancelled...this year, so at least I can celebrate it somewhat in a Yugioh episode. Then again, can you imagine how many people would be dressed up as sexy Covid?

So I don’t really talk about the card game mechanics on here, and (full disclosure to any new people) I don’t know how to play this game. But, considering that this card doesn’t usually send you to distant graveyard memories IRL, lets get into it.

We’ve clarified before that Card Graveyard is a place--like an actual place--but that it isn’t the same place that the cards vibe in within the Puzzle necklace. It’s a separate place, but ALSO not the same place as the Shadow Realm, either. Card Graveyard is just...some other third place we never talk about.

TBQH I think the people who make this show have kinda forgotten how many random pocket dimensions we’ve made that are basically the equivalent of hell (including California, PS), and are just like “no one will write a blog about it and list them all in one place, we’ll be fine.”

We’ve only seen Tristan bum out here once in like S1 and he spent most of his time running away from the Grim Reaper. But, if you remember correctly, the Grim Reaper is currently hanging out and living his best life haunting some park in Japan, so now instead of the Grim Reaper it has...this?

So is this a memory stored within the card graveyard, or did Dartz literally take Raphael to the card graveyard and tell him this was a real ass graveyard?

We’ll never know! It gets very vague from here on out!

(read more under the cut)

First off, I’d like to welcome our new guest star--the Rain--there’s a lot of rain in this episode, and we animate it by just making all of our characters glow. This comes through fine in animation, but in caps I just want you to know that no one has gone super Saiyan, they’re just...wet.

PS get a gander at Raphael’s baby boy mutton chop mustache. They somehow got longer with time? And also, when soaked his hair is just as spiky. Everyone on this show has unparalleled hair gel. The real heart of the cards.

Anyway, Dartz shows Raphael a bunch of gravestones and is like “Get it???”

and me, the audience, was like “no???”

The headstones, by the by, aren’t...normal, either, they have Orichalcos symbols on them instead of words. So like...it sort of infers that his family was taken by Orichalcos, too. I mentioned before that it sorta feels like Dartz caused the whole shipwreck to munch up a bunch of yummy souls, and maybe he did in the Japanese version--cuz like...

...why else do all these headstones have Orichalcos symbols on this graveyard that you can only access through a card god like Dartz or Yami?

Just throwing that deep lore out there, and the fact that Raphael can’t really see it or understand is either because that didn’t happen or...Dartz totally killed his family, right? And that makes this relationship between the two of them extremely effed up?

This is a great show for kids with separation anxiety.

Which is...somewhat convincing of a motive for Raphael. He gives Raphael a way to move on from his trauma in the past, and it’s not a GREAT way to move on--but it’s falls in line with things Dartz has done with his other card generals by offering false redemption.

Like Mai needed to move on from her insane jealousy, so Orichalcos was her way to prove she was better than Joey Wheeler (which, honestly, no one needed proof of). Alister needed to move on from his dead brother, so Orichalcos was his way to get revenge. Valon also had a backstory but a bunch of it got deleted in the English version apparently so...

And Rex and Weevil needed...cards? I guess? I think they just needed a ride, mostly. And Orichalcos can give you a ride. It’s not like we had Uber in 2003 and clearly they were not fit for Caltrain.

And like Gurimo.............existed...?

Anyways, they’re looking for justice that they can see. Justice for their pain. To make that pain worth something for more than just suffering. A system where this type of thing can’t happen anymore. But the thing about justice is that...eh...it’s probably not done through cards that kill people.

OH OK, KID’S SHOW.

Mmmmm take in that burying up your grave imagery. Again, this show is rated Y7 for 7 year olds, and I think that’s amazing.

Anyway, this is symbolism that is so heavy handed that it really needs no explanation, so he’s just gonna dig dig dig for...days I guess? Relive his trauma over and over again? Dig up that past like you’re a popular artist on twitter and you gotta make all of your followers relive that time you got called out because you offended a hell ton of people?

(Which is so many people on art twitter right now, ps, you don’t even know which one I’m talking about because It’s SO MANY of them. Art twitter during Quarantine is like watching the fall of Rome but it’s freakin Art Twitter. Everyone’s the freakin worst and just poopin all over themselves as they roll all the way down the steps.)

But I want to know. Who’s grave this is? It has a slightly different meaning if it were his family’s or his own. I guess I’ll have to save it for the fanfiction.

And so to add another level of spook, Raphael’s card mom shows up and kinda just stands there with a sad face?

Raphael’s reaction to seeing his card just alive and hanging out was “I’ll get to you in a sec, I gotta do some unforgivable evil, first.“

WHERE DID THEY GO?

These two shots are like nearly back to back. They’re just GONE. No explanation.

And yes I’m gonna talk about the outfit because it makes no freakin sense, even for a Yugioh card. Granted, this was a show made in Japan, for kids, with a budget that had a limit. A lot of people get involved with these productions, many aren’t artists or historians versed in American History, just basic ass business people. That be TV.

But her outfit looks waaay too modern. Like she’s gonna go to a musical festival, drop acid and climb on top of a statue and take a bunch of instagram selfies and regret all of them 4 years later. If these are Atlantean cards, this is not an Atlantis outfit to match with Dartz, who has been dressed vaguely medieval. So whyyyyy would this girl be dressed more like a vague old western costume bought at a discount so she could vogue in front of installation art at Burning Man in 2008?

Anyway, I won’t even get into the bird that is slowly devouring her face as a stand in for a headdress or wtv. Just a lot of stuff happening here and I just wanna say, Yugioh did it so you won’t need to. Just delete that desire. Yugioh already did it so you are now free from wanting to draw...anything like this problematic situation on your own OCs.

And then Yugioh predicts exactly how I’d feel about this outfit.

And she then lights ON FIRE and falls dead into the grave he just buried for her.

And in case you were like “kinda on the nose there, Yugioh, that got DARK” she climbs out of his own grave with a spooky ass face and no more coconuts to share with her bros and he’s like...

Rapheal’s reaction was like...Ya OK I can get used to this, and Yami is just pointing at the scene desperately trying to follow Raphael’s brain waves.

And like, this is YAMI.

Yami just walked through Yugi Hell earlier today. He’s seen some stuff. He’s already undug his own grave this morning in a more poetic card sort of way. But Raphael’s memories of literally digging up his family’s graves with his bare hands because Dartz told him to was...stuff he didn’t want to see today. (especially since it’s super suggested Dartz was the one who...murdered them in the first place, like I know it’s a reach but...it just feels like we were supposed to reach that conclusion)

But whether or not Dartz put the bodies here or gave Raphael a bunch of phoney graves, Raphael is still essentially siding with the guy who ruined the only thing he has left of his family--this paper card mom--and turned it into an undead evil Mom. And it just had...no freakin impact on Raphael at all.

Like what?

He just murdered your card mom. This is fine?

Card shenanigans continue and Raphael eventually realizes what he should have realized like 10 years ago when he was digging up graves and killing card Mom’s. That maybe it’s a bad idea. So Raphael decides to sacrifice his remaining monsters to “free” them from the graveyard and basically commits suicide. There’s no other way to say it, really. He kills himself.

But wait, right when you figure this episode will end like every other Orichalcos fight before it...They decide not to.

Like an angel from heaven, our drunk ass looking music concert reject descends from the clouds, along with all of Raphael's dead family members!

Yeah.

I REALLY didn’t expect them to show up. This was so much content it’s like...an entire season of any other TV show. I say that a lot with Yugioh but these episodes really like to just jam-pack it in there.

And here I thought I’d actually have to take them off the Death Count one day. Here I thought 4 kids would do something to like...prevent this many dead kids, but I was wrong.

Everyone’s HELLA DEAD.

it’s both vindicating to actually say that, despite 4kids, these kids absolutely died, but also disturbing because even Raphael is like “ah, the hallucinations today are really swell, right?”

NO, GHOST CHILD.

DON’T TELL ME THAT.

And I’ve been over before how “heart of the cards” is a catch-all phrase that can mean literally anything in this show, and it’s not the first time that cards have kept someone’s spirit around. No word on his family members if they are thrilled to be trapped in a Pharaoh situation, or whether they only occasionally drop from the heavens, or whether they have actually been the spirit that was within each of these cards the whole time. I don’t know.

And so the card family “cures” one of the most evil people on this show.

He’s fine now. This guy murdered the hell out of Yugi, our main character, but don’t think nor worry about it. This isn’t the show to worry about such things.

This show has Marik.

Bro and I were talking Star Wars the other day, and mostly about the Kylo Ren arc and how a lot of people happened to dislike that particular ending. Mostly about how there is a difference between your character being redeemed and being forgiven. I think this children’s show wants to redeem Raphael, but honestly, much like Kylo Ren--he’s just forgiven. And that’s fine. You don’t need to have your characters redeemed. We can stop at forgiveness.

And also, Yami forgives him immediately because he knows he can’t throw a single damn stone, his house is made out of 2 mm of extremely problematic glass.

Man, RIP Weevil, right?

Weevil who just pretended to rip up a card that could have been Yugi and got tossed off the freakin Caltrain? Raphael got off so freakin lucky and I am boggled he’s still alive. He freakin killed Yugi!

The injustice to Weevil right now, omg. Not like I enjoy Weevil. I super don’t enjoy that character. But DAMN. Yami murdered Weevil for even mentioning Yugi. Just feels like there’s a bit of a hypocritical line here in how the justice is dished out and...that tracks for a Pharaoh so I’ll just let it go.

And also, looking at that sunshine and I’m pretty sure they’ve been up over 48 straight hours. No one’s slept since Yugi died, right? I mean Yami is fine. We know from Bakura that puzzle people don’t need to sleep, or eat, or have blood in their body. But like Seto really needs to get Mokuba to bed.

(Although I am 85% positive that Mokuba is still part Noah Kaiba so it is...also unlikely that kid sleeps anymore, just leaving Mokuba’s future therapist so much to unpack.)

The GALL of this show right now.

Of all the generals--they saved RAPHAEL? Arguably the worst one?

I would take even Alister. I would take even Weevil.

Raphael?

I mean if he ends up as the next Duke Devlin, just driving us around for the final season of this show I guess I’ll accept this but, damn.

Raphael?

Are you sure, Yugioh???????????????????????????????????

Can’t we just let that guy die? He’s basically dead already, Yugioh. This guy does NOT want to be alive anymore. Literally everyone he cares about is super dead and now he doesn’t even have Card mom because she sacrificed herself to save his soul. This GUY.

I can’t believe Mai is dead but we still have Raphael.

The same disappointment when I watch British Bake off, man, they just...sometimes they save people and I’m like...no man...that one can’t bake. Just because they pulled something off last second does not mean they get to the semifinals. Raphael can’t bake.

Anyway, the episode attempts to end on a cliffhanger but like.

Just want to reiterate how common and boring Earthquakes usually are to a Californian. This was the most normal thing in this episode.

Man.

Freakin Raphael.

Anyway, if you just got here and is like “I don’t know who the hell Raphael even is,” Yeah, I know, I didn’t think twice about the dude until like just now, but if it’s because you’ve never seen my recaps before, I’ll direct you to the link to read these in Chrono order:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

Anyway, stay safe and have a very happy and safe Halloween alone eating your own carmel dipped apple slices.

#yugioh #ygo #recap #photo recap #yami muto #seto kaiba #raphael #weird redemption arc #tristan taylor #tea gardner #mokuba kaiba #joey wheeler #'s still a corpse #someone digs up their own grave at some point #it gets very dark for a character I have literally no interest in #and then like they're cured? freakin #this one was like for the Raphael fans in the house #shout out to you guys I know you must exist or else why is this episode even here?

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cherryrogers · 4 years

Text

bittersweet {9}

pairing: boxer!bucky x rogers!reader

warnings: none for this chapter i think ??

synopsis: The world of boxing wasn’t something you knew much about, but after a certain boxer with blue eyes and an irresistible charm wove his way into your heart, you soon learned that it went far deeper than red gloves and gold medals — you thought that the boxer happening to be your brother’s best friend was bad enough, but darker affairs had only yet to come to light.

a/n: ok this part is a bit of a filler to lead into the climax of the story so i’m sorry if it’s not that great !! i honestly didn’t like writing it lmao,,, it was gonna be longer but i thought you know let’s save all the chaos for chapter 10 ;) enjoy the last chapter of (sort of) peace lads x

series masterlist

Warmth gathered in your chest as you took a prolonged sip of scalding coffee, ignoring the burning sensation at the back of your throat. You were onto your third cup of the afternoon, which didn’t necessarily help with the stirring in your stomach. It seemed to only enhance the unsettling thoughts that were overwhelming your mind with worry. However, you feared that without the energy boost the caffeine provided you with, you’d end up just shutting down.

It’d been a few hours now since you’d gotten home from the gym. Steve had tried to persuade you to spend the night at your home home, but you weren’t sure you could bare trying to process everything he’d told you with him around.

You knew that there wasn’t any time to waste. Friday was only four days away; the match would be happening in the blink of an eye as long as you weren’t willing to accept how real everything was. The fighting ring, the illegal trafficking, the case of a missing man which could easily be closed by Alexander Pierce anonymously tipping off the police — how were you even supposed to deal with the situation if you couldn’t comprehend the reality of it? Would you ever be able to?

There was a time when you and Steve were just kids, when you thought that getting into college and finding a job were going to be the hardest things you’d ever had to face. Brock Rumlow was a kid once, too; had he known the horrible impact he’d have on the lives of people who he then hadn’t met yet, you wondered if he’d still want to become who he was today, if he really never had any morals, any sympathy for those vulnerable enough to be manipulated by him.

Bucky had called earlier, and even through the phone you could tell that he was holding back on his words. He only asked you if you were okay, and said that Steve had let him know he’d told you it all. You couldn’t pretend that you weren’t aware of his own secret, though. You were past the point of letting anyone keep secrets about the fighting ring, especially now that you knew you were directly involved.

“You used to be a part of the ring,” You’d stated simply after ignoring his concern over you. “You told Steve; why didn’t you tell me, Bucky?”

The line was silent for a solid five seconds, and you considered just hanging up on him. As if he could sense your impatience, the boxer tried to reason with you. “(Y/N), whatever you think I did, whatever you think I was involved with—”

“What I think, is that my brother is being threatened with a fucking murder charge if he doesn’t fight on Friday, and somehow you were able to get out of the ring without a target on your back. How is that, James? Why are the rules different for you?”

Bucky felt a twinge of shame in his chest. It wasn’t like you were wrong; he hadn’t needed to agree to a deal to leave the ring. He’d most likely had the best experience getting out of there than any other guy had. However, he wouldn’t be surprised if Rumlow still held a strong grudge towards him. Perhaps there was a target on his back that he wasn’t even aware of. Anyone that was unfortunate enough to know Rumlow would tell you he doesn’t like when people go against him, people that he once considered friends. Bucky wasn’t afraid of him, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t unnerved by what he could do with the power he had. The power that Pierce could give to him. After all, Brock was just another one of his puppets. Pierce probably had the power to have every single on of his ‘boxers’ locked up, and somehow, he’d be able to get away without a trace.

“Look, I can come over. I can come over right now and explain everything.” He offered, ready to run out if the door in only sweatpants and an undershirt if it meant he could make things right quicker.

“No, I don’t— I can’t. Not today, I can’t talk about it anymore today.” You sighed, shaking your head even though he couldn’t see you.

“I can’t stand the thought of you thinking I’m one of them,” Bucky admitted. “You have to know there’s more to the story—”

You cut him off. “I’m not accusing you of anything, Bucky. I don’t think you’re one of them. I-I know the person you are now, I know that you’re nothing like them,” If Steve had his own reasons that’s he was involved in the ring, then you were sure that Bucky did too. It wasn’t that you were worried about; it was why he felt that he had to keep it a secret that didn’t sit right with you. “Can you come over tomorrow? I just— I just need tonight to take it all in.”

The boxer responded evenly, though he could feel his stomach churning. Tomorrow was a day closer to the match, and he still had no idea how he was going to help Steve if everything went south. “Yeah, gorgeous. Tomorrow’s good.”

“See you then, James.” You let out a relieved breath. As Bucky said his own goodbye, you put the phone down and ran a shaky hand through your hair.

You weren’t even mad at Bucky; you hoped he didn’t think you were. Not finding out from him first that he was involved with the fighting ring had you a little disappointed, admittedly, but that didn’t mean your trust in him had disappeared. Today had been... a lot, frankly. You imagined that talking to him the next day would be more productive, and it meant that you could utilise the rest of the day trying to figure out what to think about it all.

Being alone in your apartment, however, meant that your mind wasn’t easily distracted from your problems. That’d been obvious when you decided to set off to see Steve just after Bucky had dropped you home.

The call with Bucky had ended over an hour ago and still, thinking about the entire situation had your heart beating twice as fast. Almost subconsciously, you found Natasha’s contact on your phone and pressed the call button, bringing the device to your ear hesitantly.

Within a number of seconds, she’d already agreed to come over as quick as possible. Upon hearing the waver in your voice when you began speaking, she swore she’d be at your apartment within ten minutes. Even if you couldn’t tell her about what was bothering you, she’d at least be able to take your mind off things for the night.

Unless — you did tell her what was going on?

She worked at a police station, maybe just as a receptionist, but surely she’d be able to do something. Though Bucky had told you the police weren’t ever able to find any evidence of the illegal ring, the circumstances had changed. You were now involved. You were set to be a witness of their crimes in only a matter of days. What if you could be the evidence that the police needed?

Though, both Steve and Bucky had warned you about the secrecy of the ring. If you got the police involved and they weren’t able to find anything again, you’d be majorly screwed. But Natasha wasn’t dumb, and from the way she spoke about her boss, you presumed that he wasn’t either. If you could create some sort of plan before you had to go to the match, maybe the fight could end up being Pierce’s downfall — emphasis on maybe.

A knock on the door interrupted your thoughts. Perhaps you’d had too much caffeine; were you really trying to devise a plan to take down an international fighting ring?

Natasha didn’t waste any time sitting you down on the couch when she came bustling inside, insisting that you told her what was going on. She’d never been one for beating around the bush; if there was something wrong, she was always eager to fix it, even if she ended up doing it herself. You weren’t so positive that she could fix your problem this time, however.

But when she called you out for zoning out mid-conversation again, poking at your arm with her pointer finger, you couldn’t help but ask a question that there was no coming back from.

“Do you know who ‘John Preston’ is, Nat?”

The teasing smile playing on her lips fell slowly, replaced with an expression of shock. After a few moments, she swallowed. “The guy that went missing a couple of years back?”

You gave her a nod.

The redhead exhaled slowly. “Yeah, I’ve heard of him. I didn’t work at the station when his case was active, but I remember when it was on the news... why d’you ask?”

It was now or never. If you didn’t do anything, Brock Rumlow was going to find a way to win the match on Friday, or he’d have Steve in the back of a police car, or maybe the sick bastard would screw the both of you over, you wouldn’t put it past him. All of a sudden, you couldn’t stop yourself.

“I know what happened to him.”

...

You’d never seen Natasha Romanoff speechless. Her mouth hung open, eyes searching for a sign that you were joking even though it’d be a terrible thing to joke about. Waiting for some sort of response, you only stared at her wide eyed. Then, the shock disappeared.

“Steve knows what happened to him, doesn’t he?”

...

“What?” Now it was your turn to look dumbfounded. “How— you know about—”

“I’m not a receptionist at the station, (Y/N),” Nat revealed, her expression twisting into one of unease. “God, I was gonna tell you. I was gonna tell you months ago, but then somehow Steve got involved and—”

Placing a hand on her knee, you cut her off. “Nat, slow down. What— what do you mean you’re not a receptionist?”

“I was one, up until a few months ago,” She started. “Fury, my boss, he’s sort of... like a father to me. Apart from you, he’s the only person I really trust. One day, he told me he thought I’d make a good officer and that should start to train at the police academy. I told him I wasn’t going to do that, not when I’m twenty years old and college is already enough on my plate. But he was adamant that I should work with him. I’d helped him out on his cases before over lunch, I’d looked over evidence and managed to find things that he couldn’t. So, I became his right hand girl. I don’t work with the police, but if Fury needs help with a case, then I’m the first one he calls to do some investigating.”

“He’s allowed to do that?”

“It’s Fury, he does what he wants.”

That explained why Natasha was constantly at work. How she was balancing working towards a degree and investigating crime, you had no idea.

She continued with an exhale. “Only a few weeks ago, a guy was brought to the station for getting involved in a bar fight. I only saw him as he was being brought through the lobby to be detained, but I noticed that he had a tattoo. I knew I recognised the design from somewhere; it looked like a skull with tentacles coming from the mouth. I managed to dig up some research from when John Preston first disappeared, and apparently the cops found a business card with that exact logo on it in his apartment in New Jersey. No number or email on it, just the logo.”

While her description of the tattoo was vague, you couldn’t help but feel like you knew what she was talking about. The skull, the tentacles... you’d seen it somewhere, you were sure.

“So who was the guy with the tattoo?” You questioned.

“He had a weird name; Wolfgang, I think. Again, I did some research and found out that he was a boxer, a boxer at the gym that’s been speculated to be part of an illegal fighting ring for years — a friend of his had also said he was planning a trip to Brooklyn before he disappeared. I thought that was a little suspicious, so I did some more digging at the station and managed to find the CCTV tapes from the cameras outside the gym from one of the inspections the police did around the time John disappeared. I thought if Wolfgang was a member of the gym around that time too, perhaps I could connect John and the gym together, and maybe even the supposed fighting ring too...

... when I looked at the tapes, sure enough, Wolfgang had been boxing there at the time; he was seen entering the building almost every day. And then I noticed someone else that went there as often as he did... your brother.

I didn’t know what to do. I know Steve isn’t one of the bad guys, so I didn’t report it to Fury that I knew who he was. And there was no other evidence to look at; I still didn’t know if the fighting ring was just a myth, or if John Preston had something to do with it. So I left the case cold, again. But I guess I wasn’t wrong if Steve knows what happened to him. (Y/N), you have to tell me everything you know.”

“He won’t go to prison, will he? If I tell you what I know?” You asked cautiously. It was selfish to ask such a question, you knew. Hundreds, maybe more, people could be saved from trafficking and torture if the fighting ring got shut down, and you were concerned for the fate of one person? One person you know would do anything to protect you, however.

“I can’t promise anything,” Natasha smiled apologetically. “But if the fighting ring does actually exist, he won’t have done anything compared to what other men have done; he won’t deal with the consequences they’ll have to.”

Hesitantly, you nodded. With a nervous breath, you began to recite the story that Steve had told you only hours ago, every word still fresh in your mind. You’d repeated what he’d told you enough times to yourself to know you wouldn’t be missing out any details. First, you talked about Steve’s story, still unable to fully understand yourself how he’d went through all of that for you. Nat seemed a little shocked by it too, with the way her brows raised and her lips remained parted. Though, she was glad to know he had his own reasons for being part of something so horrible, and when she thought about it, she wasn’t actually so surprised at him. He would’ve done it in a heartbeat for anyone who he cared about, especially you.

Then, you told her about where you came into it all. With the match on Friday, you weren’t sure if she’d be able to do anything to help your situation in such a short space of time. But if it meant she knew the fighting ring was very real and who the men behind it were, the ones in Brooklyn, anyway, then you’d be getting somewhere at least.

“Shit,” She let out a deep breath once you’d finished speaking, her face contorted with thought. “I’m sorry you had to get dragged into all of this. This is some dangerous territory to be in.”

You nodded in agreement, biting your lip. “So, could you tell your boss everything that I told you? Could you get the place shut down?”

A light laugh escaped her lips. “I wish it were that easy. It’d be your word against maybe fifty of theirs down at that gym. Plus, it’s been investigated a hundred times and no evidence of illegal activity has been found; we need proof that this is all real.”

“Can’t you question Wolfgang again?”

“I don’t think that’d be such a good idea. They can’t know we’re investigating the speculation of the fighting ring again, otherwise they’ll make it even harder to find out who’s involved and any proof of the crimes they’re committing.”

Natasha sighed. So close. She was so close to being able to prove the fighting ring was real. If she had the evidence to prove that everything coming out of your mouth was true, every single person involved would be getting put behind bars. Flicking her eyes up at you, she furrowed her brows when she saw you deep in thought.

“What is it?”

The realisation had hit you like a truck. “The tattoo. I know what you’re talking about, I’ve seen it before.”

The girl cocked her brow, urging you to go on.

“Sam has a portfolio of every tattoo he does. I remember looking through it and seeing that design; the skull and the tentacles. I didn’t think anything of it then, but now...”

“But Wolfgang has had that tattoo since John Preston went missing, before the tattoo shop had opened,” Natasha pointed out. “I saw it when I was looking at the CCTV footage. It couldn’t have been Sam that did it.”

Leaning back in your seat, you shrugged hesitantly. “Maybe he’s not the only one with that tattoo.”

There was a pause, and for a moment you thought Nat was going to burst out laughing at your attempt of getting somewhere with finding proof. Instead, a smirk pulled at her lips, and she immediately jumped up from the couch.

“Looks like we’re paying Sam a visit.”

* * *

The tattoo shop was only ten minutes away from closing by the time Natasha and you had arrived outside. Sam would undoubtedly be pissed that you’d decided to start a whole investigation only minutes before he could head home, but the any information on the tattoo may have given you some sort of a starting point in trying to bring down the fighting ring.

And if you could connect John Preston’s disappearance with the people that actually killed him, then Steve could finally stop running from his past. And perhaps Bucky, too.

Walking into the shop, you gave Maria a warm smile. She was just about finished packing up her stuff for the day, black jacket on and her bag resting comfortably on her shoulder. When she raised a brow at you and asked you why you were there so late, you only shrugged, being the not-so-great liar that you were.

“Oh, no reason. Where’s Sam?” You asked perkily, your voice an octave higher than usual. Natasha rolled her eyes from beside you.

“Just tidying up in the back,” She replied casually, shaking her head at your odd demeanour. “I’ll see you later?”

“Sure, yeah.” You nodded, forcing a smile as she chuckled under her breath before exiting the shop.

Natasha nudged your arm playfully. “Why are you acting so weird? We just need to see the portfolio.”

You sighed. “I just don’t like lying; it feels immoral.”

“Like when you told Steve that Peter was your boyfriend?” She challenged, earning herself a glare. “I feel like that was kind of immoral—”

“Not the time, Nat.” You huffed, relieved to move on from that conversation as Sam entered the reception area. While she didn’t think hiding your relationship with Bucky from your brother was at all a good idea, she couldn’t exactly blame you for doing so given your current... situation.

The man crinkled his brows as he locked the back door behind him, and the way his eyes narrowed suggested that he wasn’t too happy having late visitors. “You know I close at this time, (Y/N). What do you want?”

Not bothering to joke around with him, you cut straight to the chase. “I’m sorry, Sam, but it’s urgent. There’s... a lot of things going on right now which I can’t explain, but we need your help.”

An unconvinced laugh left his lips, and before he could ask what the hell you were talking about, Natasha decided to speed up the process. There wasn’t enough time to explain anything, not if you were going to start taking down an international illegal fighting ring in four days. Well, try to.

The redhead stepped forward, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m a private investigator working alongside Captain Fury with the NYPD. We think some of the guys we’re looking for might’ve gotten tattoos here in the past.”

That made Sam snort, and Natasha cocked her brow questioningly. “You’re not a private investigator.”

“How do you know?”

“You’re a twenty year old college student, that’s how I know.”

“Sam,” You said firmly. “This isn’t a joke. I know it sounds crazy, but we’re running low on time here. I swear once everything is over, I’ll explain it all to you.”

The amusement on the man’s face faded upon seeing the seriousness on yours. He wasn’t sure what to make of the situation, but if Natasha really was somehow working with the police, then he guessed it wasn’t something he was meant to get involved with. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but if you guys are in trouble...”

“We’re not in trouble; just investigating.” Natasha lied, since you were in deep trouble and you were both painfully aware of it. However, the less that others knew, the easier things could get done.

Sam still seemed apprehensive, but after a few moments, he gave in with a sigh. He didn’t take you or Natasha for liars, and truthfully, he just wanted to get home as soon as possible. Hesitantly, he asked you what you needed, and soon enough the three of you were crowded around the reception desk, flipping through Sam’s tattoo portfolio.

The book was thick; Sam’s business had gotten a lot of attention over time, and it seemed that finding the one design you were looking for was going to be impossible. It took around ten minutes, but when you finally turned a page and saw a skull staring back at you, you snapped your gaze up to Natasha.

“That’s it.” You breathed, and you couldn’t help but grin thankfully. Hopefully, this meant you were getting somewhere.

“Do you remember doing this tattoo, Sam?” The readhead turned to the man eagerly.

His brown eyes scanned the design carefully, and after a couple of seconds, he nodded. “Yeah, I do. I remember because around six guys came in wanting this exact tattoo. I just thought they were part of a club or something.”

A club, that was one way to put it.

“Do you remember any of their names?”

He shook his head. “I’m not that great with names, but I think I remember one guy... He didn’t come to get the tattoo, though. He wanted it removed. I think it was... Peter? Or Pietro?”

Pietro Maximoff. The boxer Bucky had told you about; he’d been part of the ring and managed to get out at the expense of losing contact with his twin sister, which explains why he got the tattoo removed if it was a symbol of being apart of the ring.

Natasha glanced over at you, and you offered her a nod to indicate that was all you needed. The two of you thanked Sam for the help before finally letting him close the shop, and your friend didn’t waste any time holding back on asking questions once you’d climbed into her car.

“Do you know Pietro?” She asked, turning in her seat to face you.

You nodded, explaining to her what Bucky had told you about him, as well as his sister having to move out of the country in order to avoid any danger.

“This could be really useful. What if it means that everyone who boxes at that gym has the tattoo? If we manage to shut it down, it’ll be easy to find everyone involved. What if every guy in every gym involved has it?”

That would be convenient, for sure. The theory had you wondering if Steve ever got the tattoo, or if he got it and then had it removed once he managed to get out of Pierce’s clutch. And again, you found yourself wondering if Bucky had the tattoo at some point too.

“So where do we go from here?” You questioned hesitantly. While you and Natasha had made a start on collecting evidence of the fighting ring’s existence, you were going to need a hell of a lot more to make sure that Pierce didn’t find a way to worm his way out of being convicted for every single crime he took part in.

Plus, you were still at risk of being essentially kidnapped by Brock Rumlow in only a number of days; you needed a plan, and you needed one soon.

The girl pursed her lips in thought. “Honestly, I’m not sure. But you’re not going anywhere on Friday, (Y/N). I’ll think of something, I swear on my life.”

Natasha wasn’t one to make empty promises, so her words provided you with a vague sense of relief. It was only a matter of whether the odds would work in her favour, and yours.

* * *

“Hi, James.”

As you smiled softly at the boxer stood in your doorway, you couldn’t help but notice his anxious demeanour. He still thought you were frustrated with him, you could tell.

“Hey.” He breathed. No pet name, no hug; your heart melted for him. Sure, you were a little disappointed you had to find out from Steve rather than Bucky himself about his own past, but if he wanted to make things right and set the record straight, then what reason did you have to hold a grudge?

Sighing, you grabbed one of his hands and tugged him inside, quickly shutting the door behind him before turning to look at him properly. “I’m not mad at you, you know. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

Furrowing his brows, Bucky shook his head in disagreement. “No, I shouldn’t be keeping things from you, especially after I told you about everything else—”

“What matters is that you’re here now,” You interrupted him firmly, assuring him that he didn’t have to apologise anymore. “Lets just sit down and talk about it all, okay?”

When he only gave you an unconvincing nod, you leaned in and pressed a long, gentle kiss to his lips. The reassuring gesture seemed to work, as you felt his body relax once he began kissing you back. After pulling away and seeing a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, you couldn’t help but grin too. You didn’t think you could ever be mad at him; you weren’t sure why he was so worried that you were, not when you were so, well, in love with him.

In love; you figured you had to be. Maybe you were simply naive and starry-eyed and you had no idea what it even meant to be in love. Perhaps it was the safety you felt with him, or how his touch managed to ignite a burning fire of affection inside of you. You could talk to him about your mother without feeling awkward or burdensome, the apartment you’d loved so much because you lived in it alone even felt more homely when he was around, resting comfortably on the couch with you in his lap like he was meant to be there.

And maybe he was. Whether it was wrong in the eyes of your brother, in your own eyes even, it didn’t feel wrong. Nothing about being with Bucky felt wrong.

It was the calm before the storm; you were painfully aware of that. Every bittersweet moment spent loving Bucky Barnes was only adding up to the dreaded point where chaos finally ensued. Bucky’s involvement with the ring. Steve’s match. The deal he made with Brock. Steve learning the truth about you and Bucky.

In only days, everything could be different. Everything you know and love could disappear with the snap of Brock Rumlow’s fingers as he remorselessly strips you of your freedom.

So as you took Bucky by the hand and guided him to your bedroom, you savoured the feeling of his calloused fingers against your palm. And as he began to open up about the part of his life he kept locked away, you listened to his every word intently.

Because after the match against Rumlow, as despairing as the thought was, you mightn’t be able to hear the sound of his voice again for a long, long time.

* * *

@kimvmarvel @printedpeterparker @buckyandsebastian @ilovesupersoldiers @asgcrds @bxrnsfeyson @peterparkerbabyyy @broco8 @hotheadbarnes @stormi-ames @founding-fuck-bois @fizzahocleirigh @loveofmychips @fanfuckingtastic04 [ if your tag isn’t working please let me know !! ]

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #bucky #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x you #bucky x you #bucky barnes reader insert #boxer!bucky #bucky barnes au

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greekgeek21 · 3 years

Text

Percy Jackson & The Avengers: Convergence - filler chapters save lives

Hey...

- your (extremely sorry and depressed) author

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or the Avengers.

Ω ♆ Ω

This was inevitable. Percy was a ball of nuclear energy just counting down to an explosion. It wasn't a matter of if that energy broke free, but a matter of when. The group had thought it had happened when he set off a tropical storm in the middle of Nevada, but they were wrong. He had truly lost control only moments before...

when he killed a man.

Ω ♆ Ω

Percy didn't even spare a glance at the crumpled body before he rushed to Annabeth's side. His eyes raked over her body, checking for injury. When he found none, he pulled her into him, hugging her like she was his lifeline (and she practically was).

"I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." he whispered in Ancient Greek over and over again in her ear, "I love you, I love you, I love you..."

Tears were slipping down both their cheeks, but they didn't move to wipe them away, likely neither of them had even realised they were crying. The couple was in their own world. One where only they existed and nobody could bother them.

It wasn't to last, though.

Someone on the team had to break the silence, and of course it was Tony, "As much as I hate to break this up, can we please get off this goddamned island now?"

He was speaking with false-sarcasticness, but nobody pointed it out. Everyone but Annabeth and Percy's eyes were on the body, or what was supposed to be one. Instead of a humanoid shape, it was a crumpled ball of bones, tissue, and blood. It was an awful sight, truly. Nothing was natural about it.

For everyone there, including the other demigods, it was eye-opening into the more blood-thirsty side of the divine world. Percy's powers were derived from the gods, and they allowed him to be able to do something like this. It was horrifying.

Ω ♆ Ω

Annabeth was the first of the two to come to her senses. She gently pushed back against Percy's embrace, signaling that it was time to come back to the real world; where they had to address what he had done. But that could wait. For now, Annabeth decided the best thing to do was to get everyone home safely.

"We should go, Percy," she whispered.

"I know. I'm scared, though," he spoke in Greek.

He did that sometimes, when he had a particularly bad PTSD episode. It was his mind's way of protecting itself. Even though he had spoken only English for the first twelve years of his life, his first language would always be Ancient Greek, just like all Greek demigods. It was the same for any type of demigod. They were born that way.

However, this wasn't an episode. This was his actions catching up to him. This was his world spinning on its axis once again.

Secretly, Annabeth had feared something like this would happen eventually. He was pushing down so much power, it was bound to break through at one point. That's why she had slowly been trying to coax him to use his powers fully again. Her theory was that the more he used them, the more control he would have on them, and the less they would be fighting against his willpower. He was a battery, and he needed to let some of the energy out every so often.

She would have to be more direct about her suspicions now. When they got home, that is. After he had time to adjust again.

It seemed like they were always adjusting now.

"I know, Seaweed Brain, I know. Let's just work on getting home, first, though. Ok?" she said.

She felt him nod against her neck before he pulled away from her, only to wrap an arm around shoulders a second later. He needed to feel her against him as a calming reassurance. And she needed him for the same reason.

They faced their team. Because that was what they were now, a team. They weren't the Seven and the Avengers anymore. They had been through too much in such a short span of time for them to be separate teams anymore.

"Let's go home," Annabeth announced, and started the trip back through the tunnel with Percy at her side, just like he would always be.

Ω ♆ Ω

Later, after Percy and Annabeth had disappeared into one of the cabins together, the rest of the team met up on the deck. Hazel would normally not like going behind their friend's backs to talk about them like this, but even she thought this meeting was important. This would decide Percy's fate once they reached the mainland again.

"Ok, who wants to start?" Hazel asked, after they had all just stood there in silence for a minute.

If nobody else was going to speak, then she was going to. She wanted this to be over as soon as possible. She had already made her decision regarding her cousin, and it would never change. That she was sure of.

"I can," Jason answered.

All eyes turned to him, but that did not phase him. He was trained to be a leader from a very young age. Having people look at him while he made speeches was part of the job description.

"I support my family, and Percy is family. What he did was horrible, obviously, but it wasn't anything the rest of us wouldn't have done in the same situation. He probably is going to punish himself more than anything else we could do to him. We need to show him that we are still his team, his family."

The rest of the demigods nodded firmly, agreeing with this. They knew Percy. They knew that what Jason had said was very true. Instead of punishing him, they needed to help show him that he was not a horrible person. Otherwise something like this would just happen again.

Time would just keep repeating itself.

The Avengers all glanced at one another, all unsure where to stand in this. Sure, they had learned a lot about the teen since they had first met, but none of them could be sure that this was just a fluke; that something like this wouldn't keep happening if they didn't do anything about it.

"How can we be sure that he won't do something like this again?" Natasha asked, a firm expression trained somehow on all five demigods present.

"We can't. But we CAN try our best to ensure that there is almost no chance. Percy has SO MUCH power, and he has been pushing it down in himself for months. That caused it to react harshly with his emotions. I'm sure Annabeth and Percy both know this. He needs help, not punishment," Piper answered, almost matching Nat's glare perfectly.

Steve spoke up next, "He killed someone, Piper. That can't go unpunished."

Piper kaleidoscope eyes seemed to flash brightly at the captain, "And you haven't killed someone, Captain? In the name of war? Love? How is what Percy did any different than you blowing up some hydra base?"

"That man down there is the best and most loyal man you'll ever meet. I can promise you that," Frank added in, "He would never do something to hurt a good person, not intentionally, just like the rest of us."

Bruce spoke up with fire, surprising everyone, "But that's exactly our point! He would never do something to hurt a good person INTENTIONALLY! But what about unintentionally?!"

Leo's nostrils flared, "You, out of everyone here, have no right to say that...Hulk."

Bruce looked like he had been slapped at first, but then his expression shifted into something resembling sheepishness.

Leo's flaming gaze (literally, his hair was smoking) passed over the rest of the Avengers, looking for any more objections. When he found none, he gave a curt nod of approval.

"I guess that's that, then, isn't it?" he said, and promptly went below deck.

Ω ♆ Ω

Percy and Annabeth were snuggled as close as possible on the bed in their cabin. Not a word beyond 'I love you' had been spoken between them yet. They just clutched onto each other like the other would disappear again any second.

Finally, after an hour had passed, Annabeth spoke, "We need to talk about it, Perce."

His head childishly shook. The sides of Annabeth's mouth lifted just a bit at the sign that her Percy wasn't completely hidden.

"I know it's hard, but we have to. You have to be ready to talk about it with the rest of the team later. They'll want answers, and I want you to be able to give them. It'll be easier with me first," she said, pushing a hand gently through his unruly raven-colored hair.

"You can answer in Greek if you have to. And you don't have to give long answers, you just have to say something," she reassured, "Does that sound ok?"

Percy took a deep breath before nodding his head.

"I'll start off simple. What are you feeling right now?" Annabeth asked.

He took a second to respond, but Annabeth was willing to give him all the time needed to form an answer, so long as he gave one.

"I'm tired. So tired, Wise Girl. My stomach hurts and I feel like my skin is on fire. But most of all, I feel like I don't even know myself anymore. I killed a mortal, Annabeth! How could I even look at myself again?" he answered in Greek.

Annabeth's heart broke just a little, "Oh, Percy. I know who you are. You are my adorable, powerful, and loving Seaweed Brain. You love your mother and blue food, and most of all, you love your purpose. You were put here to protect people, and that is what you did today. You protected me, okay? You didn't do anything that I wouldn't have done to save you. And I love you for it."

"But I KILLED a man, Annabeth! How can you even stand to look at me right now?!" he shouted, bursted out of her arms and off the bed.

Tears were starting to form on his lower eyelids.

"Because you are the love of my life, Perseus Jackson, and nothing you could ever do would make me love you less!" she shouted.

Good, Percy thought, Yell at me. Punish me for what I did. I deserve it.

As if she could read his thoughts, Annabeth yelled, "No! You do not get to manipulate me into punishing you for doing something that that horrible man deserved! You are not perfect, Percy, and neither am I. If you hadn't killed him, I probably would have! We are not perfect people, and we never will be. We're screwed up in the head, but we have each other! I will NOT let you go back into yourself."

"But that's the only way I can protect you! I have to hold it in!"

She sighed, "Percy, look at the facts. The only times you've put people in danger have been when you were holding your powers in. You need to let them out consistently in order to stop these large bursts from happening every time you get pissed off!"

Percy was silent, staring at the floor and mulling over her words. When he looked up, a tear had slipped down his cheek, "What if I'm too scared?"

"I'll help you. We all will, Perce. The entire team wants you to feel comfortable using your abilities. We can start off with taking you to some uninhabitable island or something. You just need to make sure you aren't pushing your powers down anymore," Annabeth answered, "Okay? Can you promise me you'll try?"

Reluctantly, Percy nodded, "I swear on the River Styx that I'll try to control and understand my powers."

Annabeth's eyes widened, but then she was crushing Percy in a hug, pulling back only to kiss him.

"I love you, Seaweed Brain."

"I love you, Wise Girl."

Ω ♆ Ω

"Well I guess that settles it then, doesn't it? We trust those ungrateful ingrates now apparently," Tony sighed, tacking a swig from a flask he had procured from somewhere and walking away from the Avengers.

You could always count on Tony Stark to simplify emotional situations. His only goal was to make them last less, though, whereas most of the Avengers wanted to talk it over some more. That wasn't on his agenda. Tony had his own agenda and discussing whether or not a teenager killing a terrorist was warrant for serious punishment was not on it.

Steve shared an annoyed look with Bruce before he nodded, "I guess it is. We'll have to discuss it with Percy when we get back to the tower, but for now, let's just get some rest."

"Yes, sir, Captain," Clint smirked, mirth flashing in his irises before he pulled Natasha over to lean against the railing around the deck.

They were no-doubt not going to let themselves get any rest, but Steve knew well enough by now to let it go. The spies ran on their own fuel and it clearly did not come from sleep, if the amount of times he'd actually seen them asleep counted for anything.

Bruce however, he could count on to actually follow orders, even if they were thinly-veiled ones. The scientist nodded his head at Steve, a small smile curving his lips, before he went below deck, likely to find a nice place to take a nap.

Steve, not wanting to seem like a hypocrite, followed after Bruce. He found an empty cabin quickly, and let himself fall into a light nap. If he had to, he could jump right into action, but he had to let his body get some rest.

He only hoped that the teens on board were doing the same.

Ω ♆ Ω

Steve was right, for the most part. Almost all of the Seven were resting. Key word: almost. Leo Valdez, ever the hyperactive inventor, was down in his makeshift shop, working on the design for his newest project.

The idea had come to him that day, when he saw how broken Percy looked. He had seen that look in his eyes before, right after the man had come out of Tartarus and he was determined to never see it cross his friend's face again. After everything Percy had done for him, Leo thought he deserved some peace of mind.

His idea was to design something to allow Percy to sleep peacefully. Something like this could help present and future generations of demigods forever. But if he was being honest, he had gotten the idea from the dreamless-sleep draught potion from Harry Potter. Before he had learned he was a demigod, he was a diehard potterhead. It was something he had managed to keep a secret from his new life for now, but it was coming in handy now.

Since he didn't have magic abilities like the wizards from the books, he had to compromise with what he DID have, which was a genius-level intellect, spare scrap metal, and some duct tape.

He had come up with more from less.

Leo figured that he could make a contraption that could connect with Percy's brain synapses and withhold some from firing, but only the ones in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that controls dreams. He also had to restrict it to nightmares only, because demigods needed dreams to make sure they didn't die. He just had to make sure he didn't accidentally cause Percy permanent brain damage. This particular part of the brain was vital in his daily function, so it would really suck if it stopped working properly.

At the moment, Leo was drawing out his designs on some paper he had pulled from his belt. His mind was working faster than his hand could, so it was taking longer than he would have preferred.

After an hour of careful and deliberate strokes of a pencil hitting paper, his head popped up from the desk, with a loud shout of "aha!", signalling his completion.

"Gods, I really am a genius, aren't I?" he muttered to himself in awe had he inspected the blueprint for mistakes.

"Talking to yourself again, Leo?" Jason commented, startling Leo as he entered the room, "That's not helping your case claiming sanity."

"Sweet Circe! Don't DO that, Sparky!" he shouted, nearly jumping out of his seat.

"If you were paying attention, you would have noticed me knocking on the door for the past two minutes, weirdo," Jason responded.

Leo rolled his eyes. His best friend knew very well that he lost himself when he was working, especially when it was something this important.

"What are you working on?" The son of Jupiter asked.

Leo grinned, eager to present his project, "I can't build it here, not without the proper equipment to test it, but I already designed it. I call it Papa Leo's Nightmare-restricting Device, or P.L.N.R.D. It's to make it so demigods can sleep without having nightmares. Like it?"

The son of Hephaestus wished he had a camera to take a picture of Jason's face at that moment. It was priceless.

Just when he was contemplating trying to pull on out of his belt, Jason pulled him into a rough hug, squeezing him until he couldn't breathe.

"Jace, I. Can't. Breathe!" he wheezed out.

He was ignored.

"Oh, you beautiful genius! I could kiss you!"

He was spun around in a circle.

"Please don't, it would suck to explain that to Piper," Leo joked once he had been allowed to stand again.

"I gotta tell the others! They're gonna be so excited!" he went to rush off, but Leo grabbed his arm before he could.

"Let's not...yet, okay? I just want to make sure that I get it finished and working before I tell the others. I don't want to let them down if I can't make it work," he said to explain his actions.

Jason looked like he didn't believe that would ever happen, but he gave Leo a brotherly pat on the shoulder, "Ok, McShizzle. I'll keep it to myself for now."

"Thanks."

"No problem, bro."

"Gods, you are such a bro-boy. It's like living around a frat house."

"You take that back!"

"Never!"

Ω ♆ Ω

Sorry for how many time skips/section separators I'm using. I guess it's part of my writing style now. This is on FF, Inkitt, Ao3, Webnovel, and Wattpad too. Like, reblog, & follow!

- your (extremely apologetic) author

other chapters :)

#pjo #fanfic #ao3 #wattpad #inkitt #ff #percy jackon and the olympians #heroes of olympus #the seven #the avengers #mcu #marvel #webnovel #sorry this is so late

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notquitecanon · 4 years

Text

Take Care of Yourself // Criminal Minds/ Marvel Crossover pt. 6

TW: drug use (prescribed medication), borders on depression, self-blame, talks about Spencer’s addiction

A/Ns: I’d like to preface this with the fact i’ve never taken prescription narcotics so if I’m way off base, I apologize. Secondly, this is mostly just a filler bit to showcase how I felt different characters would try to comfort a friend and also set up for the next part.

I’m sorry it took so long to get this out, I wrote and rewrote it and I still don’t like it.

and sorry it is so long!

Other parts here

_____________

You closed your door behind you, not bothering to flip the lock but sighing as you dropped your go-bag off your shoulder. It had been three days since Emily died, and you had just gotten back from her funeral- the clock on your wall read a little past 4 pm. (Garcia was nice enough to let you stay in her Quantico apartment until after the service.) Dropping your keys on your entry table, you furrowed your eyebrows- all your mail was there and sorted, no doubt by Steve. A wave of guilt passed through you, you hadn’t even texted him since before that night. Not that you’d really spoken to anyone, most of the team was still processing- you were stilling mad at yourself.

The funeral had been a good service, elegant and honoring. Rossi, Hotch, Morgan, Spencer carried the casket, along with two of her older friends. Her mother flew in, tearfully thanking the team for trying so hard. Somehow that hurt even more than her blaming the team for her death. The entire team placed red roses on top of the polished coffin. The pastor said pretty words and prayed over the gathering. Then it was over, and the casket was lowered. Garcia, JJ, and Spencer hugged you as you left, while Hotch, Rossi, and Morgan chose simply to nod to you.

Natasha had been following the case’s progress, and called you- you didn’t pick up, instead of listening to her voicemail of condolences. She sounded worried, and you appreciated the sentiment. You passed by your desk to plug up your laptop, stopping to look at the picture by your lamp- a team picture, taken after a case that ended better.

The kid was saved, with no injuries, and the unsub had undeniable evidence against him. The whole team was still wearing their vests, smiling proudly at each other, even Hotch- the photo had been snapped by the local newspaper and Garcia had them printed and framed as Christmas gifts to the team. You and Emily were standing beside each other, Morgan had just clapped her on the back- you smiled remembering how he was teasing her about getting home for her hot date that weekend. Spencer was listing off some facts about the correlation between abductions and first dates, making a wild gesture with his hands while Rossi and Hotch shared a proud look behind him. That had been a good day.

You opened your computer, your lock screen held another memory: cooking lessons with Rossi. It was a candid shot caught by accident. You had handed Reid (who had no idea what he was doing) your phone to take a picture of the girls together. You thought he caught the nice picture of all of you smiling- instead, you got a picture of Garcia throwing plain pasta at your face while Prentiss, caught off guard, snorted laughter into her glass of wine, JJ was beside Garcia hands covering her mouth as she watched the events unfold. Spencer clicked the button too late, but it was your favorite picture. Even the guys in the background looked happy- except for Rossi. Hotch was standing by Rossi, who had just noticed what was happened you remembered him scolding “Italians don’t throw their pasta! Especially that close to my WHITE furniture!” Morgan was barely in the shot but was laughing as the pasta hit your hair.

Everywhere you looked there were memories of her. The blanket she got you for your birthday that you draped over the back of your couch, pictures of the trip to Atlantic City on one of her Gambling weekends, the soap she left in the shower she left the last time she crashed at your place, her favorite wine in your fridge… Sometimes you didn’t notice how much someone was apart of your life until they were gone.

You sniffed, the familiar sting coming back to your eyes, salty tears welling up as you gently dabbed at your face as not to irritate the bruises around your right eye. You finally were able to take the bandages off before the funeral, but they were still tender, purple and yellow dying your face like a bad tattoo and the skin was still split (fortunately, any other bruises or cuts could be hidden by your clothes… mostly).

Fingers knotting into that blanket, you took several deep breaths trying not to breakdown again. A few stray tears escaped, sliding down your cheek and darkening the baby blue material as you half-choked back a sob- the sound was sharp, high pitched, and sad. You watched as the mascara laden tears diffused into a black stain on the blanket, and that pushed you over the edge.

Your knees trembled as you sobbed, the ache of losing a friend was overwhelming but the anger you felt was a close match. But at the moment there was nothing to hit, kick, or shoot so both anger and sadness expressed themselves in pained cries and angry sobs. Normally, you were hard to sneak up on, but your guard was down so you didn’t even hear the doorknob jiggle.

“(Y/N)?”

You startled at the voice, but automatically realized it was Steve. Turning away, you carelessly wiped at the black smears under your eyes and winced when you applied even the tiniest pressure on the bruised and split skin.

“I should have knocked, I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d be…” He trailed off, blue eyes training in on the inky bruises peeking from your collar and then to the way you were favoring one leg, “(Y/N), what’s wrong? You’re hurt.”

You sniffed, chest shuddering as you tried to get your breathing under control. In your peripheral, you could see Steve take a step towards you, his hand twitched like he wanted to comfort you but didn’t know how. Steve had seem a grand total of four women cry: his mother when his father died, Bucky’s mom and sisters when he was drafted, and Peggy when he crashed the plane. Well, heard that last one. He wouldn’t consider himself an expert in comforting crying women.

“I’m fine, Steve.” You croaked, still not completely facing him. He sighed as if he could smell the bullshit in your words. Hoping it would satisfy him, you turned to look him in the eyes, attempting to reassure him, “Really, I’m ok.”

Sometimes, you wished you weren’t so good at reading boy language, right now you wish Steve would at least try to hide his expressions. Your keen eyes watched as his raked over the black eye, split skin, and discoloration along your jaw.

“You look like hell.” He stated softly, shocked expression evening out into quiet worry. You wished your unladylike snort sounded less bitter.

“There’s that famous vintage charm.” You sarcastically chuckled, trying to hold your head up as you smoothed out the blanket. Steve winced at the sharp wit, apologizing quietly before rephrasing.

“What happened?” He asked, but you just looked away- allowing the two of you to stand in a heavy silence (paired with your funeral black attire) telling him a good bit about what happened to your friend, “I’m sorry, is there anything I can do for you?”

You shook your head, finding the passing clouds outside your window, always amazing how even the worst days can be sunny.

“Have you eaten?” He asked quietly, again you shook your head. Meeting his eyes again, you watched as he nodded, affirming his plan in his mind before speaking it aloud, “Ok, you take a shower and put on something comfortable, I’ll pick something up from that takeout place you like. We’ll eat and then you can get some rest.”

The set of his jaw told you that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer, and you were too tired to argue so you just nodded. He almost seemed relieved when you agreed, happy you were letting him help.

“I’ll be back in a while.”

____________

When he got back, you were toweling off your hair on the couch staring aimlessly at the wall. The pajama shorts and tank top gave him a full scope of your injuries: hand-shaped bruises on your arms, split knuckles, the brace on one of your knees, and bruises in a range of colors all over your legs. If you were looking at him, you would have noticed his tell-tale sign of worry/anger: the combination of a set jaw, furrowed brows, and the squaring of his shoulders. As he set down the brown paper bag of takeout, he took notice of the unopened pharmacy bag labeled with your name and hydrocodone.

“You might not be hungry, but you should eat something. The nice old lady at the counter noticed your usual order and sent some sort of family recipe soup. Told me to tell you to feel better… I think… she wasn’t speaking a lot of English.” The soldier rambled, breathing a sigh of relief when you cracked the smallest smile as you got up and shuffled towards your kitchen table.

Steve retrieved plates and silverware from your cabinets and set them down in front of you before taking the seat across from you. It was almost awkward the way he watched you scoop food onto your plate as if you were going to wither away if he took his eyes off you.

Finally, with you unenthusiastically picking at the stirfry he loaded up his own plate and the two of you ate in silence. Until he nudged the white pharmacy sack towards you. Fork stabbing a piece of broccoli, you raised your eyes to him.

“You should take your medicine. You’ll feel better.” Steve stated. You shook your head.

“I’m not big on narcotics.” You shrugged, “Don’t like how they make me feel.”

“Are you saying they can make you feel worse than you obviously do right now?” He asked sarcastically, and you actually laughed- even if it was a bit of a bitter, dry chuckle.

“Fair point, Rogers.” You conceded, ripping into the packaging and then into the pill bottle-. Setting the powdery white pill next to your drink, you continued, “I’ll take this when I’m done eating, don’t wanna fall sleep in my lo mein.”

Steve smiled, happy that you were at least talking now, and that you were kind of joking. “You want to talk about how you got this beat up?”

You tensed, and began to shake your head- but you caught how he deflated and felt a pang of guilt, “I, uh, got grazed by a sniper first.”

You began tapping the bandage you had rewrapped on your bicep before continuing, “The rest of these were from when we infiltrated Doyle’s warehouse. I told Derek to go ahead and find Emily while I handled Doyle’s henchman. Turns out, I may have bitten off more than I could handle.”

“More than you could.. what do you mean?” His eyebrows furrowed in a somehow scolding confusion. Ducking your head in guilt, you muttered.

“I took on 8 IRA members by myself so Derek could go find…” You cut yourself off, not saying her name. Instead, you watched Steve’s eyes widen as he opened his mouth to scold you before stopping himself.

Instead of the long lecture he had on the tip of his tongue, he settled for a quiet, “That was extremely reckless, don’t do that again."

"Yes sir,” you nodded, taking one last bite of the Chinese food before washing it down with your drink. Gathering the trash, you began to get up to throw things away but Steve beat you to it. Instead, he tossed you a bottle of water and pointed at the white pill still sitting across from you. With a sigh you nodded, placing the bitter pill on your tongue before taking a large swig of water.

Knowing it wouldn’t take long before the drugs kicked in, you swallowed another gulp of water before shuffling to the couch. As you predicted, time seemed to slow down once they kicked in. In about thirty minutes, that little white pill had numbed the sharp pains and throbbing aches throughout your body, replacing them with drowsiness and a pleasant feeling in the back of your head.

You were nodding in and out of sleep when you were woken up to Steve pulling that same baby blue blanket over you, muttering out a quiet and slurred, “ThanksssssTeve.”

“You can go back to sleep now.” He assured you, but was apparently still worried, even your hazy mind could see that as he perched himself on the armchair facing you. You giggled breathily, lidded eyes swaying away from him and settling on yet another picture on the team that sat on your coffee table. Unlike the others, this was a posed shot. The whole team was dressed nicely, standing in front of the restaurant where they had just celebrated Spencer’s 26th birthday. Everyone was smiling, even Hotch.

Steve followed your line of sight, moving closer so he could see the photograph, “That’s a nice picture, when was this taken?"

Pulling out of your memories, you answered slowly, "Couple of years ago, celebrating Spence’s 26th birthday. That’s the whole team, happy.”

The blonde glanced at you smiling softly, and prodded you to continue, hoping talking about happy memories might lull you into a deeper sleep. Sliding to the floor, his back pressed against the base of the couch by your feet, he pressed gently, “Tell me about them?"

You hummed in agreement, one finger fighting through the blanket to point to the farthest right, "That’s Derek Morgan, he’s from Chicago. He’s like an older brother to me. He has a good heart, he’s brave and determined. He’s also hilarious and a total player, and likes to tease Spencer.”

Though your words were slurred, Steve still listened, nodding along as you point to the next person, “Beside him is Garcia, sorry Penelope. She’s our computer analyst so she rarely sees field action. Garcia is honestly the sweetest person alive, she likes to flirt with Derek but he’s more of a game for them than anything serious. She has this crazy fashion sense that works for her…"

You trailed off with a smile before pointing to the next person, "That’s Rossi, he partially invented profiling. ‘was in the FBI in the 80’s but quit to become a writer, but came back. He’s basically the dad of the group. Very sarcastic, very Italian. Has been married 3 times.”

Steve quietly chuckled as your train of thought devolved, going from relevant information to random facts as your mind became hazier.

“Next is,” you paused for a yawn, “oh. me. You know me. Then there’s Spencer- sorry, Dr. Reid. He’s the youngest, but also had 4 P.hd’s at 23. He might have gotten another one, who knows at this point. He’s a super-genius, can read something like 20,000 words per minute, which is completely excessive. But he’s also just super awkward and sweet- he writes letters to his mom every day.”

Steve watched as you stopped looking at the picture, “Let’s see, then there’s JJ, who’s your classic mom friend. She had to quit the FBI, but now she’s working at the pentagon. She’s so nice, but also a badass. And she has the cutest kid, Henry. Spencer and Penelope are his godparents.”

“Then, there’s Hotch who’s pretty much our boss. Sometimes I think he’s definitely not human- the man can turn off his emotions. He’s actually part of the reason I’m at SHIELD. But he’s a good man, he always makes the right calls and keeps us in line. He’s a good leader and he’s got a son named Jack- the one I babysit every now and then?”

Steve watched as you slipped your eyes closed, “And then there was Emily. Crazy smart, an amazing profiler, total badass, hilarious. Honestly, one of the best friends you could ask for. She always had my back, and this cat named Sergio- I wonder what’s going to happen to him.”

You went quiet for a while, causing Steve to think you’d finally fallen asleep, but instead, you were just staring at the ceiling, “I went to her funeral today, Steve. The mission failed, we didn’t save her.”

“(Y/N), yo-” He started softly, not wanting you to get worked up, but you cut him off.

“We got there too late, and I let Doyle get away. I had the shot and I didn’t take it.” You admitted in a shameful whisper, eyes trained on the ceiling as a singular tear escaped the corner of your eye. “Prentiss died, and I let her killer get away."

Steve knew this pain, the loss and anger at yourself for not doing the impossible. It was a terrible pain; he’d felt it when Bucky died. Your hand had gone limp, and in an attempt to comfort you, he laced his fingers through yours, thumb brushing your split knuckles. If you noticed this, you didn’t say anything.

"He smiled at me, Steve.” Your already quiet voice broke, “Smiled like he knew he was going to get away with it. And he did.”

Knowing there wasn’t any stopping this spiral, he quietly shushed you. Hoping you’d go back to sleep, there was no point in trying to give real comfort or advice to you in this state. But you quieted, eyes closing and breathing evening out. A minute of silence went by, the only noise was you instinctively curling into a more comfortable position.

“I should have taken the shot, Steve.” Was the last thing you murmured as you succumbed to sleep. Steve frowned deeply, wishing there was something he could do to help. He’d always been a fixer, a helper- even before being Captain America. You’d been an excellent friend, going beyond “orders” to help him, and now he could only sit there as you were hurting. You sniffed again, eyes leaving the ceiling and falling to his, “I should have taken the damn shot.”

Fifteen minutes later, you had slipped into a deeper sleep. It had taken a while, but your ramblings turned to indiscernible mutterings and finally quiet snores. Steve stayed on the floor, staring at the picture until he was sure you would wake up. Then, he scooped you up in his arms almost effortlessly and carried to your bedroom- one of the very few times he’d actually been back there. Finally, he settled down on your couch, googled hydrocodone, saw the wrong side of WebMD, and decided it’d be best for him to sleep on your couch. He didn’t know how else to help, but he’d try his best.

_______________

The next day, you’d woken up at 11 AM to find Steve still patiently waiting for you to wake up. And despite your still aching body, you valiantly argued that he had better things to do, and promptly kicked him out to make him go on his run. He hesitantly left after making you promise to take care of yourself, and you didn’t miss any of his worried stares as he walked out.

At around 1 PM, you responded to a knock on your door as you changed the bandages on your bicep. You swung open the door, fully expecting it to be Steve back to worry about you.

“You look like shit.”

Was not what you were expecting to hear, and you definitely weren’t expecting to see Natasha standing in your doorway with Clint (badly disguised in a pair of sunglasses) behind her.

“Thanks, Barton.” You drawled sarcastically as he shouldered past the redhead and yourself to infiltrate your kitchen. You watched as he went before turning back to Natasha for an explanation.

“He’s right you look terrible.” She nodded, “If you don’t let me in, Clint’s going to eat all your food.”

Wordlessly, you motioned her in just in time to find Clint with cold lo mein dangling out of his mouth. Natasha gave him a pointed look to which he responded with a defensive (and noodle muffled), “What?”

The spy sighed, turning back to you, “We heard what happened to your friend, and wanted to make sure you were…”

Natasha trailed off, knowing “okay” was the wrong word. You also knew the “we” definitely meant that she forced Clint to come, but you still appreciated the notion. You gave her a tight-lipped sympathetic smile. Motioning over your rather extensive physical injuries, you tried to joke to lighten the heavy atmosphere of your apartment.

“Well, if it hadn’t of been for your training, this could have a lot worse.” You smiled, leaning against the back of the couch as her emerald green eyes analyzed everything down to the brand of knee brace you were wearing. She crossed your living room and undid your bandages.

“These are too loose, you’ll get an infection.” She offhandedly remarked, easily undoing the gauze and rewrapping them tighter like an expert. You quietly thanked her as she tied them off. “I guess weekly sparring is postponed for a while.”

“Sorry, you’ll have to wait 3 to 5 weeks to kick my ass.”

She laughed at this, “I’ll just have to settle with kicking his ass.”

As she said that, Clint looked up from his your Chow Fun with furrowed eyebrows. You genuinely laughed as the archer tried to defend himself. From there, it was mostly easy conversation between you and Nat with occasional chiming from Clint. The company was nice, and you didn’t even mind as the conversation turned to more serious topics. You had suspected it would, so you just willingly recounted the tale, yet again.

“And then he just smiled at me. And when the train passed he was gone. I should have taken the shot.” You finished lamely, blocking any emotion from your voice. After extensive debriefings, the funeral, and Steve, it was becoming easier to tell the story. Clint had finally stopped eating,

“He won’t get far. He has the FBI, CIA, Interpol, and SHIELD on his tale.” The archer tried to comfort you. The sentiment was nice, but you knew it was more of an empty promise. Doyle had evaded the government for years, and likely would for years to come.

Both Clint and Natasha’s phone buzzed after a bit of silence, and you knew it as the universal sound of “we gotta go”. They both quickly stood, walking towards the door. Clint was already in the hallway, instinctively doing a sweep for any enemies. Natasha turned back to you, “I’ll spare you the ass-kicking but don’t think you’re getting out of dinner.”

“Yes, ma’am.” You smiled, holding the door open for her as she left. Suddenly, a flash of uncertainty ran across her face- which you didn’t miss. It was quite uncharacteristic for her, but you soon understood when she rushed forward to hug you- something she had never done before. Over her shoulder, even Clint looked surprised. After the initial shock, you relaxed into the embrace and hugged her back.

But as soon as it came, it was gone and the too master assassins were down the hall and gone. As they left, you did feel lighter. The pain of losing a friend and guilt over not bringing Doyle was still fresh after four days, but the searing anger and sadness were morphing into more of a dull ache in your heart.

Now reading 4 pm, you were sure Steve would return soon to check on you and looking back into your empty apartment- you decided you could use some “fresh” city air. So after slipping into real pants and a warmer shirt, you threw your jacket on and grabbed your headphones. Then you were off.

You weren’t sure where you were headed or when you’d get back, so you just let your wandering mind translate to your feet. The sun was beginning to go down when you found yourself in a suedo-familiar part of town. Looking up to a familiar building, your eyes found the prior apartment of Emily Prentiss. That familiar feeling flared back up in your stomach, but you suppressed it- allowing yourself a moment before continuing your walk.

With the sun’s retreat, it became progressively colder but you didn’t let it bother you as you continued. Allowing yourself to zone out, you, once again, let yourself wander aimlessly amongst other pedestrians walking home from work. You’re phone buzzed, bringing back to the present. Trying to stay out of the way, you found a bench to sit on so you could fish your phone out and look at the multiple texts, all from Steve.

Steve: Went by your house.

Steve: You weren’t there

Steve: Everything ok?

You quickly texted him back to appease his worries, knowing he was probably assuming the worst. Truly you regretted telling him about all the serial killers, stalkers, and rapists you had put away- that and introducing him to dateline tv. Like any other 90-year-old, he was now overly paranoid. Slipping your phone back into your pocket, you looked back up, people-watching as you enjoyed the chilly breeze.

Almost instinctively, you squinted down an alleyway- where two tall and lanky figures were shuffling between themselves. Your mind went through a hundred different possibilities- drug deal, prostitution, mugging, murder, assault… Lips setting in a fine line, you watched the interaction. Their silhouettes gave more information than one would think, and even though you weren’t on duty- you couldn’t just watch if someone was getting hurt.

Finally, you determined that whatever was happening wasn’t hostile enough for you to intervene as they parted ways- until the second figure stepped back into the busy street. Your heart froze, bathed in the yellowish-orange street lights and setting city sun was a rather haggard looking Spencer Reid, shoving a suspiciously unsuspicious crumpled up sack into his jacket pocket.

Frowning, you ran through every situation you could to make this not seem bad. With a snap decision, you were after him- zipping across the street and speed walking to catch up with him. Weaving through the other pedestrians, you finally caught up with him.

“Spence!” You called softly, gently tugging the elbow of his coat to slow him down. He visibly tensed, halting in his tracks, and eyes widening as he turned around to see you worriedly looking up at him.

“(Y-Y/N) w-what are you… where are… wh-why are….” He stammered, and you could see the wheels and excuses churning in his head.

“I just needed some air.” You explained, eyes on the poked out edges of the sack in his pocket. He quickly shoved it out of sight, causing you to purse your lips.

“What did yo-… did you-… how long did…” He awkwardly stuttered. Sighing, you took his hand out of his pocket.

“If you’re asking what/ if I saw. I’m hoping I didn’t see what I think I saw.” You softly scolded, trained eyes looking for anything to tell if you were too late. His eyes were alert, albeit red and puffy- which paired with his red and runny nose. His hair was messy and greasy, and his clothes were wrinkled- as if slept it. Unable to hold your gaze, he looked away guiltily. You pressed your lips into a fine line, hoping you weren’t too late.

“Spence…” You trailed off softly, hoping he didn’t mistake your sorrow for judgment, “Please tell me you didn’t…”

He was quick to answer you this time, voice quiet- ashamed, “N-not, not yet.”

There was a flash of relief, and almost instinctively, you threw yourself on the young genius. Normally, Spencer wasn’t much for physical affection, but for once, he practically melted into the embrace. He buried his face in your hair and balled his fists into the fabric on the back of your jacket. Pedestrian traffic hustled around the two of you, but you ignored them in favor of focussing on Spencer’s shuddering breath as he tried not to cry. You were soothingly patting his back, wishing JJ was here- she always knew how to comfort him, and right now you were just trying not to make things worse.

“Let’s go somewhere.” You quietly suggested.

_____

After five minutes of walking, the two of you shuffled up to Spencer’s door. You were watching him jiggle the key in the lock as you thought of how to help. The walk back had been mostly silent after you’d disposed of the Dilaudid he’d obtained. Once inside, he shrugged off his coat and hung in on the rack, which you did the same. And since his apartment was -as per usual- weirdly warm (Spencer had always run colder than most) you went ahead and shed your sweatshirt as well. You didn’t miss the change in the air, feeling Spencer’s concerned look just as you had felt Derek’s, Steve’s, and Natasha’s.

“They look worse than they feel.” You shrugged, hoping to avoid the conversation altogether. Spencer didn’t look convinced.

“As a very smart friend of mine once said, ‘You wanna lie more convincingly, or go ahead and tell me the truth’?” He asked, one eyebrow quirked. You sighed, recognizing your own words.

“I hate it when I’m right.” You muttered before truly answering him, “My ribs and my knee still hurt the worst, and the cuts are healing but still sting every now and then. I’m managing.”

Appeased with your honesty, he moved to the kitchen spouting off facts about knee and leg injuries as he went. Over his voice, you could hear him making coffee at nearly 7:30pm. He returned with a fresh cup of coffee in a mug printed with a physics joke on it and handed it to you, “I did a lot of research after I got shot in the leg.”

“I remember.” You smiled, thinking back to when Hotch basically had you babysit him to make sure he was following a doctor’s (medical doctor, you had to clarify) orders until he was cleared again. Then, there was a pause of comfortable silence while the two of you sipped your drinks. You knew you had to break the silence and bring it up.

Setting the mug down on a coaster that sat atop a stack of well-worn hardbacks, you took a deep breath, “Why tonight, Spence?”

Immediately, he tensed, the doctor frowning as he anxiously drummed his fingers on the side of his mug. His mouth opened and closed a few times as if he couldn’t get his words right before finally, he confessed, “I know we all miss Prentiss, but I just… I ju-. I just miss her so badly, (Y/N). I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.”

Your expression faded into understanding sympathy as he collected himself before continuing, “And I know Emily wouldn’t want this, and I know I could lose my job, and I know I’m nearly 4 years clean. Believe me, I know these things, I’ve run through so many possibilities and reasons why I shouldn’t… But, it just hurts, and I didn’t know how to make it stop. I just want to stop hurting, even for a little while.”

As he finished, his hazel eyes lifted to you- almost as if begging for a solution to his pain. You wished you had one for him. “It’s going to take some time, Spence. And you’re right, it hurts. But you’re not alone. Have you tried talking about it with anyone- Morgan or JJ?”

You paused, “JJ helped you a lot when you first got clean, right?”

“I tried, but I got desperate. JJ’s not answering her phone, and I’ve got to her house for the past three days. Hotch finally told me that she got called away on Pentagon business, something urgent. I didn’t want to bother Will, and didn’t want Henry to see me like this.” He explained. Something about that didn’t sit right with you, but you brushed it off and let him finish, “And no one’s heard from Derek since the funeral.”

You took a deep breath, collecting your thoughts, “Well, the important things are: 1.) You’re still clean, we got rid of the supply, 2.) You’re right, Emily wouldn’t want this, and 3.) You’ve got me, and no matter the assignment, hour, whatever, if you need me, you call me. I’ll answer.”

You finished your promise with an assuring smile, watching as Spencer returned it with a characteristically awkward smile back as he nodded. Deciding it would be best not to dwell on the sad stuff, you force a brilliant smile, “Now! when was the last time you ate? I’m thinking… Indian Takeout?”

Though he already knew your strategy, he went along, chuckling, “You hate the Indian place here.”

You scoffed, mocking offense (though he was right) as you went the binder by the fridge where he stored his takeout menus, “Since when?”

Spencer snatched the binder away, protective of his meticulous organizational method (first by cuisine type, then by alphabetical order, with a color-coding system for price range, and a special sticker for delivery options), as he teased “Since you are it before going out with Garcia and JJ. And learned that Indian doesn’t pair well with ½ priced Margaritas.”

“…Right… well, I can eat rice.” You shrugged, pretending to be indifferent, but really you were just happy he was smiling again. “And for the record, at that point, nothing would have paired well with ½ priced Margs.”

_____

The next morning, you woke up on Spencer’s couch. The TV was off, which was confusing since you fell asleep to Spencer correcting the physics of Star Wars. Slowly waking up, you winced at how stiff and sore you felt, rubbing absentmindedly at your ribs. Couch + no medicine = no bueno. With a little focus, you could hear Spencer shuffling about in his bedroom. You tried for your phone, wondering how long you had slept for. Dead. So with no concept of time, you slowly sat up and allowed your sleepy mind to acclimate.

“Oh, morning.” Spencer chirped as he moved past the living room to access the kitchen for what was probably his second cup of coffee. Then he breezed back by you to collect his iconic leather messenger bag, “I would have let you have the bed, but I fell asleep in the chair.”

You waved him off before he could apologize. Trying to clear the sleep out of your voice, you quietly croaked the question, “What time is it?”

Spencer checked his watch, “7:23 AM, Hotch wants the team there ASAP, time-sensitive case, probably. “

He answered as you stepped into your shoes and weaseled into your sweatshirt. You yawned as he finished packing his messenger bag and then stood. Pulling on your coat, you announced, “Well, I suppose I’ll get out of your hair. Call me if you need me.”

You were about to close the door behind you when his voice caught your attention, “I’m glad you were there. The chances of us being in the same place at the same time and noticing each other are astronomically, exponentially low. But I’m glad you were there.”

You cut him off before he could thank you again, with a smile you nodded, “I am too, Spence. Be careful on your case.”

__________

Still troubled from the previous evening, you spent the walk home mostly thinking of ways to check in on Spencer- but also annoyed by how far you walked the previous night. You must have walked for three hours that night, rambling in odd patterns, because it took a full hour to walk back to your apartment. (It would have been much shorter if you hadn’t of left your public transport card at home).

Finally, at 8:30 AM, you stumbled into your apartment. After putting your dead phone on the charger, you popped some extra-strength ibuprofen and took a hot shower-which worked wonders on the sore parts of your body. Finally, as you got dressed, you fielded the dozens of texts and emails that you missed.

“Guess I’m popular this morning.” You muttered, running a towel over your hair as you read and responded to Steve’s worried messages. Then you answered Penelope’s questions about if you heard from Spencer, Derek, or JJ and if you were ok. Finally, you flipped through your emails and with a deep sigh opened one from Phil Coulson.

The subject line read, “Work to do.”

You skimmed all the attached documents, most of which were extremely redacted. From what you gathered there was a satellite crash in the deserts of New Mexico and for some reason, SHIELD was tasked with handling it. Fury had decided to send you with Coulson and Agent Barton for an undetermined length of time in the desert. Great. And you were leaving later that very afternoon. Even better.

After a quick google about the weather in New Mexico in early April, you threw together yet another go-bag. You hadn’t even unpacked the one from Boston, it sat like a hollow corpse by your closet- picked through for things you needed but left full of bloodied clothes and now irrelevant files. You stared at the bag for a moment before snapping out of the daze of painful memories and moving on to grab a fresh bag out of the hall closet. Making quick work of it, you packed both professional and comfortable clothes.

At 10 AM, you dropped the packed duffel bag by the door. As you turned away from the door you began running numbers on your schedule- it was 10 AM you had to be SHIELD headquarters at 3pm… Your thoughts were interrupted by a strong telltale knock on the door. With a sigh, you turned back around and opened the door.

Unsurprisingly, Steve stood in the doorway- wide-eyed at how fast the door had opened. Smiling, you ushered him in, closing the door behind him before moving past him and into the kitchen. You hadn’t eaten anything but white rice in the last 24 hours, and you were quite hungry.

“I didn’t know if you’d be home. Is your friend alright?” He started, following you into the apartment. You knew the underlying question wasn’t actually about Spencer, but you ignored his worry.

“Crisis averted. Sorry for going MIA, I fell asleep on his couch and my phone died.” You explained over your shoulder as you rummaged through your fridge. You frowned at the empty Chinese containers left in there, muttering a quiet, “Dammnit, Clint.”

Emerging with sandwich fixings, you presented them to him with a quirked eyebrow. He simply shook his head, so you went about making yourself a rather pathetic look meal.

“Did Fury tell you?” Steve broke the silence with a rather ominous question. You didn’t look up but furrowed your brow.

“Fury doesn’t tell me much, so probably not. Did Fury tell me what?” You questioned back, returning a few items to the fridge.

“I’ve been cleared to take physical evaluations and receive modulated training sequences from SHIELDl.” He explained, blue eyes watching your crouched figure. You were glad the refrigerator door was blocking your face- You hadn’t told the Director anything of the sort. Could be why he was sending you out to the desert, to distract you. Impatient Asshole. After your inner thoughts evened out, you wiped the surprise off your face and smiled at the soldier.

“No, he didn’t. But that’s good, you don’t have to sit around here bored all the time. I haven’t been the best tour guide lately.” You shrugged. The soldier hummed in response.

“As much as I appreciate your help, it will be nice to have something to do.” He admitted, always careful not to offend. You nodded back to him, taking a rather unladylike bite of your meager brunch. “I saw your bag by the door, you going somewhere?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m being assigned to New Mexico- super boring, middle of the desert. Something about a satellite crash.” You told him, shrugging. You were expressly stoked for the assignment, figuring it was mostly a distraction to keep you from 1.) Yelling at Director Fury for not listening, and 2.) Going after Doyle yourself, which you had already considered.

Steve nodded for a moment, before his face knitted into confusion, “Why do they need a profiler at a satellite crash?”

Your own eyebrows furrowed, you hadn’t thought about that. There were a dozen different assignments that they could task you with. Why this, what were you missing?

“You know, Rogers, that’s a good question.”

_______________

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#marvel x criminal minds #criminal minds x reader #mcu x reader

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baileys-aurora · 4 years

Text

Under the Surface

Ateez x Reader (fem), Mermaid/ Pirate AU

Part 3/?

Previous Part: Part two

Word count: 2.1k

A/N: This chapter is a filler chapter but the next one will have much more action. Also THANK YOU on almost fifty likes on the first part I’m gonna go cry happy tears now. Hope you enjoy this one too :)

“First things first” The captain stated walking towards your still seated form, “you need to learn how to use those.” he gestured to your weak legs, “Jongho will help you since he is the strongest and can support your weight the best.” As if the boy was listening in, his appearance was made immediately after the captain finished his sentence.

Now that you weren’t so on edge you could accept the beauty of these men, stress from sailing adding maturity to their young selves. He didn’t smile. understandable you thought to yourself, you have caused great mishap for the entire crew and now he had to act friendly and teach you something humans learn early in their lives. “we will begin with you holding the railing on the main deck.” Jongho voiced as if he rehearsed what to say beforehand and held out his hand for you to take. his hand unlike Yunho’s was rough from his time working the ropes and weapons of the ship. You slowly made your way out of the cabin grabbing anything you could with your other free hand to stable yourself. However, nothing compared to the ladders on this ship, they were brutal on your upper legs. Even with Jongho supporting most of your weight.

Once you finally made it to the ships side, you were already exhausted from the small amount you’ve done today. Though, many attempts of you trying to walk to Jongho while holding the railing to stable yourself it slowly became bearable. You even ended up getting the boy helping you to crack a smile every so often due to your strange facial expressions. “Like this?” you would ask over and over again trying to copy how Jongho shows you. “close” he would say every time, his eyes telling you he was trying to be encouraging.

Although he didn’t show it, he was enjoying himself, and even showed you his smile every now and then unintentionally. You were turning out to be very different then he originally thought, less evil sea witch at least. After a very tiring two hours of walking you were able to walk a few steps and stand still for a while by yourself. “I think you will be walking in no time.” Jongho smiled at your sweating form now sitting down on the deck, “are mermaids even able to sweat?” he asked laughing a bit. “I don’t now actually, if we do no one can tell. Just like we can’t be seen crying under the surface.” “that must be nice,” you looked up at him as he looked down at his hands hanging over the railing and playing with his fingers before he continued, “no one being able to see you when weakness takes over I mean” he finished his thought not looking back down at you, as a dull shade of pink tinted his cheek from telling you something personal, eyes fixing on the endless ocean in front of him. You knew touching would be to pushing so you simply replied, “then how would someone know you are in danger from your own thoughts, being weak is ok but trying to handle everything on your own is the hard part.” he looked back down at you and sighed, nodding his head, “thank you” his voice was small. But you understood he needed reassurance.

As San was watching for any movements or shadows on the distance, he would also steal peaks down at you and Jongho, a small smile at his lips that you were doing ok and not like the terrified girl he saw in a cell the previous night.

After a while he began to descend from his spot in the crow’s nest, as it was late in the afternoon and he hasn’t eaten yet. Meeting you and Jongho on the way to the kitchen San offered to take you off his hands so he could return to his work and you could eat, finally. “What is it mermaids eat?” San questioned light heartedly, “The souls of curios sailors” you answered with a serious face. The look on San’s face lying somewhere between horrified and curious, before you creaked a smile at the fact, he believed you. His face relaxing also after seeing your smile and laughing at himself for believing something like that. “so, what are we eating?” you asked still smiling at the gullible boy who was holding your arm for support. “I’m not going to tell you now” he pouted, and wow if it wasn’t the cutest yet weirdest thing you’ve seen a grown man do.

Once you made it to the kitchen the only other person there was Seonghwa finishing his bread. “The fish is cold now, but the bread isn’t stale yet.” he stated minding his own business. Hoping they wouldn’t notice you slowly made your way to the bread, on your own, picking it up to examine it before finding your way to a chair in front of Seonghwa, while San filled his plate. “No fish?” the boy sitting in front of you asked, “not feeling it today” you smiled back trying the so-called bread. It wasn’t bad not as flavorful as you thought but still good. After that small exchange of words, the two men remained quiet as they ate, yet it wasn’t awkward. Once San was done, he waved as he left leaving you with Seonghwa who was still slowly working on the same piece of bread while staring blankly at it.

“Are you ok?” you spoke up carefully, he didn’t look at you at first but continued to pick at the food in his hands. Maybe he didn’t hear you? you thought to yourself, his attention on the bread and mind somewhere else. You poked his hand gaining an instant reaction, “mm?” he looked up at you finally, “I was just wondering what you were thinking about so intently” “oh, um just this whole situation, and um how we are going to fix it.” he replied with guilt in his eyes, “not saying I want you gone but I do want you to get home safe” he clarified.

“I know that me being here is a burden, and I’m sorry I even decided to impose.” “you don’t like us huh?” he asked with a smirk, “it’s because I do like you guys that I’m sorry” his smirk dropping “why? we dragged you to an under-deck cell and threatened you.” “and I tried to sleep with San” you responded laughing, “let’s just say we both did regrettable things in the past 24 hours.” “you regret trying to seduce San” Seonghwa teased showing his relaxed side to you for the first time. Your cheeks flushing red at the thought of it now, “awe look at you blushing~” “shut up” “I don’t think you regret it at all” your face getting hotter more so from the teasing then the subject itself. “you tried to see me naked” you pointed an accusing finger at him, so he would stop.

Now it being his turn to be embarrassed his face also matching the color of yours, “you know that is not what happened” he shot back at you. Which lead to a stare off between you two. Which of course, Seonghwa lost.

“I’ve always have been curious about that though, why do mermaids try so hard to seduce sailors? Why did you?” He brought up changing the conversation back to a serious topic, you sighed before answering, “it’s the only way our family name can be continued to the next generation and since we are all women, sailors are our only option.” “I see, so San could’ve been a daddy” Seonghwa joked again, “well now that I have met others maybe I should’ve chosen someone else” you winked at Seonghwa trying to make him smile or laugh again. Instead however you noticed his features fall, “don’t ever make that joke again” he replied to you coldly, making you feel bad for insulting him. “You are on a ship with men who haven’t had a women’s company since they joined, you could seriously be taken out of context. I don’t want that to happen to you.” You don’t know why but his words put knots in your stomach for a couple seconds. “I’m sorry” you hung your head not really wanting to look back up at him, “I’m not scolding you, I’m warning. Other than the main crew most of the men have the mindset of the man you met last night.” At that moment the knots in your stomach came back stronger but this time brought pain in your legs as well. Maybe it was the from pushing them so hard to support your weight earlier you wondered to yourself quietly. “Seonghwa, I want to go lay down” you said looking back up into his eyes, with your brows furrowed. “I didn’t mean to offend you” he responded quickly, “it’s not that, my legs are killing me, will you help me to the captain’s cabin?”

Once you made it in the cabin Hongjoong looked up at you two with an eyebrow raised. “She is having leg pain” was all Seonghwa said as he helped you to the small mattress they added to the room earlier that day. The captain sighed taking the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger, “okay, I will be back in the morning then” he said while picking up a couple pieces of paper and leaving you two behind. He seemed upset but that was the last thing on your mind.

Seonghwa watched him leave before facing you again, “how bad are they hurting?” “I’m ok just pushed myself to much probably.” You slightly smiled at him, so he was reassured, “I just need some rest” to which he nodded his head and walked to the door looking back at you again to you smiling so he left.

The knots became worse as your legs throbbed more, not long after the pain moved to your head as well, your vision becoming blurred and the room spinning. What was happening? You thought to yourself before becoming sick and releasing the contents of your stomach onto the old wooden floors.

As the sun was setting Hongjoong became curious about how you were feeling and wanted to apologize for his cold personality earlier. As he made his way to the cabin, he noticed a body sitting next to the door, “Yeosang?” The captain questioned the younger boy looked up and smiled, “I wanted to meet her since I’m done for the day but didn’t want to disturb her. So, I just figured to wait.” “She was experiencing leg pains earlier so I don’t think she will be coming out anytime soon.” The sitting boy looked disappointed as he is normally busy, “are you planning on checking up on her?” He asked with some hope left in his eyes, “I wasn’t planning on it” he lied, “but I will now since you want to meet her” Hongjoong began knocking as he finished his statement.

No answer. Maybe she was asleep? He knocked a second time with no answer. Should he enter without permission? He was debating when Yeosang interjected, “since she is asleep can I meet her in the morning?” “Yeah” the elder answered before they both went their separate ways. Something not sitting right with both of them.

As they say, curiosity killed the cat.

San made his way quietly to the captain’s cabin when he was relieved from his shift in the crow’s nest. He softly knocked so no one would hear him except you. When you didn’t answer he reached for the knob, “what are you doing” a voice spoke up next to his ear, causing him to yank his hand back and cover his heart. Turning around he found a smiling Yeosang, “were you about to enter a sleeping girls room?” San’s cheeks turned red as he is still trying to calm down. “I was just going to make sure she was ok” he confessed, “let me come with you” was all Yeosang replied looking at San, “I want to meet her” he spoke up again to clarify any confusion. San nodded his head and reached for the door again, opening it slowly. Whispering that they were about to enter.

But satisfaction brought it back.

They were horrified by what they saw, you are lying on the floor unconscious with your own throw up around you. Rushing towards you, San knelt down next to you and rolled you into his lap while brushing the hair out of you face. Yeosang on your other side feeling your forehead then looking up at San with wide eyes, “she has a really high fever” he stated worry heavy in his voice. “Shit! Go alert Hongjoong and bring back some water.” San ordered as he held your limp sweating body, repeating you were going to be ok.

Next Part

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