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babypandawrites · 3 years

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Allies, Pt. 2

Jet

Pairing: Sokka x F Reader Warnings: Injury Word Count: 5,386 Summary: In your travels with Team Avatar you meet Jet. You do not like Jet.

-Navigation- | -Allies Masterlist- | -Atla Masterlist-

After a while of travelling, Y/n, Aang, Katara and Sokka found themselves resting in a clearing, alongside Appa. Y/n sat on the ground, leaning against one of Appa’s legs. While the others gave a short explanation as to why they wanted her to join their group, she still didn’t completely understand. It felt like there was something else that none of them wanted to bring up. But what other reason could there be exactly? It made perfect sense they’d want her survival knowledge if they were travelling the world and having to be outside a lot, there shouldn’t be a different reason. It wasn’t often her instincts were wrong, but it didn’t make sense for them to be right on this. Aang stood up from where he sat, looking around. “Where’s Momo?” A yowl from the lemur echoed through the forest. They all started to look around, trying to tell where it came from. “That way.” She pointed to the trees in front of her. “I think.” Nodding, Aang ran off in the direction, Katara, Sokka and Y/n close behind. It didn’t take long for them to get to another clearing, Momo had been caught in a snare. “Hang on Momo!” Aang used his airbending to leap between the trees, and reach up to where Momo was trapped. After a few short moments, Aang, Katara and Sokka had gotten Momo down and out of the snare. The animal was quick to go at a handful of nuts on the ground, seeming to forget that he’d just gotten trapped, from what she could guess was something similar. Groaning, Sokka hit a hand to his forehead. Breathing out a quiet laugh, Y/n reached down and snagged the nuts from the ground. Momo jumped up onto her shoulder and took them from her palm to eat. She patted the lemurs head, watching as the other three freed some Hog Monkey’s from another snare. “Let’s be a little more careful, alright Momo?” He chittered quickly, before going back to his nuts. Sokka approached one of the traps, and kneeled down to examine it. “These are Fire Nation traps- you can tell from the metalwork. We’d better pack up camp, and get moving.” They went back to their little camp, and started to pack their things up on Appa. “Ah-ah… no flying this time.” “What?” The three paused, looking at Sokka with question. “Why wouldn’t we fly?” “Think about it. Somehow Prince Zuko and the Fire Nation keep finding us. It’s because they spot Appa- he’s just too noticeable.” Katara was about to say something, but Y/n stopped her before she could. “Woah woah woah. Wait. You guys are being chased by Prince Zuko and the Fire Nation?” Aang, Katara and Sokka looked between each other. Katara glared at her brother. “Did you not tell her?” “I thought Aang was going to tell her!” “Wait, Katara I thought you were going to tell her.” Sighing, she rested her forehead in her hands. “That would have been nice to know before I agreed to help… Okay it’s fine. I’ve had run-ins with the Fire Nation before, this is fine. I think Sokka is right, if you’re running from the Fire Nation, it’ll be pretty easy to be found when you’re riding Appa. He is pretty noticeable.” “He’s not that noticeable!” “Thank you Y/n- Yes he is! He’s a gigantic fluffy monster with an arrow on his head- it’s kinda hard to miss him!” Appa turned his head to look at Sokka, and groaned at him. From where he sat, Aang patted his head. “Sokka’s just jealous ‘cause he doesn’t have an arrow.” “Listen, I know you two want to fly, but my instincts tell me we should play it safe this time and walk.” Katara crossed her arms over her chest. “Who made you the boss?” Sokka raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m not the boss- I’m the leader.” “You’re the leader? But your voice still cracks!” “I’m the oldest and I’m a warrior.” Pausing, he tried to speak in a deeper tone. “So… I’m the leader.” Y/n scoffed. “What kind of warrior gets scared by an arrow?” “A warrior that doesn’t want to die?!” “I thought warriors weren’t supposed to fear death?” “You know what-” Getting between the two, Katara shot glances to both of them. “If anyone’s the leader, it’s Aang. I mean, he is the Avatar.” “Are you kidding- He’s just a goofy kid!” The three looked over to Aang, who was dangling upside down from Appa’s horn. The bison looked unimpressed. “He’s right.” Groaning, Katara rolled her eyes. “Why do boys always think someone has to be the leader? I bet you wouldn’t be so bossy if you kissed a girl.” The girl's comment caused Y/n to break into laughter, receiving a glare from Sokka. “I-I’ve kissed a girl- you...you just haven’t met her.” “That sounds like something a person who’s never kissed a girl would say.” “You stay out of this! I bet you’ve never even kissed a boy before!” She looked at him with a blank expression. “I’ve lived in the forest by myself since I was ten, I have an excuse.” “Sounds like a poor excuse to me-” Once again Katara had to reinsert herself into the conversation. “Who Sokka? Gran-gran? I’ve met Gran-gran?” “No- Besides Gran-gran! Look, my instincts tell me we have a better chance of slipping through on foot and a leader has to trust his instincts.” “Okay, we’ll try it your way Oh Wise Leader.” Aang stepped over to the group, wearing a backpack. Momo sat on top of it. “Who knows- walking might be fun.”

The group trudged through the forest. Sokka was in the lead, Y/n not too far behind him. Aang and Momo, then Katara and Appa followed behind them. “Walking stinks! How do people go anywhere without a flying bison?” “Usually by walking…” Her comment was ignored. “I don't know Aang. Why don’t you ask Sokka’s instincts- They seem to know everything.” “Haha. Very funny.” “It was kind of funny-” “I thought you were on my side?!” “Hey! I just agreed that Appa was noticeable, I never agreed to force everyone to walk when they didn’t want to. Anyways, my instincts say that your instincts are wrong. This was a terrible idea.” “Oh yeah because I’m sure your instincts know what they’re talking about.” “You know, they’ve never been wrong actually so-” Aang groaned. “I’m tired of carrying this pack.” “You know who you should ask to carry it for a while? Sokka’s Instincts!” “That’s a great idea Katara! Hey, Sokka’s Instincts, would you mind-” “Okay okay! I get it. Look guys, I’m tired too. But the important thing it that-” He pushed a branch to the side, looking back at Aang and Katara. “-we’re safe from the-” “Fire Nation..” “Yes! Thank you, Y/n.” “No, Sokka. Look.” Sokka turned to look back in front of him, expression dropping at the Fire Nation camp that sat in the clearing in front of them. Most of the soldiers were seated on logs at the opposite side of the camp, bowls in hand. “RUN!” The soldiers leaped up from the logs from Sokka’s exclamation, swords in hand. One of the soldiers launches a fire at them, it misses them, but sets the bushes behind them on fire. “We’re cut off!” “Sokka, your shirt!” Looking at his shirt, Sokka yells in panic at seeing that it got caught on fire. While Katara used her bending to put out the fire, Y/n got her bow ready. The four stood with their backs together once they had been surrounded by fire and soldiers. “If you let us pass, we promise not to hurt you.” Katara whispered to her brother quietly. “What are you doing?” “Bluffing?” The one eyed caption smirked. “You? Promise not to hurt us?” Y/n aimed an arrow at his good eye. “Yeah. I suggest if you want to keep that eye you call off your men.” This time it was Sokka who whispered. “What are you doing?!” “Not bluffing.” A quiet zip then a thud sounded. A surprised expression took over the captains face for a moment, before he groaned and doubled over. His men lowered their swords some. Aang glanced at Sokka. “Nice work, Sokka! How’d you do that?” “Uh… instinct?” “Look!” Katara pointed up above them. A figure stood on the massive branch of a nearby tree. The person dropped something, and drew two blades from the middle of their back. They stepped back off the branch, but instead of falling, they used the blades to catch onto the branch, allowing the person to sling themself in the direction of the camp. Thet kicking over two of the soldiers furthest from the group, landing with a foot on each of their backs. Now that the person was closer, Y/n could tell they were a young man, who looked to be around her and Sokka’s age. The boy rushed forward, sword in each hand, hooking the ends of the curved blade on two soldiers' legs making them fall backwards. “Down you go.” Y/n was about to run into the fight, but was stopped by Katara grabbing onto her arm. Lowering her bow, she shot a glare at the girl, but stayed. Katara looked pleased at the help, Aang was in awe, while both Sokka and Y/n weren’t very happy about it. The boy had fought off two more of the soldiers, one of the soldiers who’d managed to land on his feet looked up. “They’re in the trees!” A small boy dropped down from above, and landing on the soldiers shoulder he spun his helmet around blinding him. He staggered, while the boy on his shoulder laughed. Before the last three soldiers could react, several arrows shot down at them, disarming each of the soldiers without hurting them. After a few minutes, the group joined the battle. “Finally..” Y/n mumbled, running at one of the soldiers. He swung his sword at her, but she was quick to duck out of the way, and swipe her leg under his feet knocking him down. She kicked the sword out of his hand, and used it to block an attack from a soldier who approached her from the side. Before she could get an attack on him, the boy from before ran by, knocking him down with his curved sword. She glared at the boy. “I had him.” “My bad.” He shrugged with a smirk before rushing back off into the battle. A grump Sokka walked over, leaning an arm on Y/n’s shoulder. “He did it to you too?” “Yeah.”

After a bit more fighting, and a bit more aggravation on Sokka and Y/n’s end, they gathered back together. Aang looked at the boy in awe. “You just took out a whole army almost single-handed!” Sokka scoffed. “Army? Pfft. There were only, like, twenty guys.” Next to him, Y/n crossed her arms over her chest. “I could have done that…” The boy seemed to ignore them. “My name is Jet, and these are my Freedom Fighters. Sneers, Longshot, Smellerbee, The Duke, and Pipsqueak.” Aang approached The Duke and Pipsqueak. “Pipsqueak- that’s a funny name.” The larger of the two bent down to Aang’s level. “You think my name is funny?” Despite being nervous, Aang plastered a smile on his face. “It’s hilarious.” After a short moment, the three of them ended up in laughter.

The Freedom Fighters had started to raid the camp. Jet leaned up against a trunk, Katara approached him. Y/n was sitting on the ground, close enough to hear their conversation. “Um… thanks for saving us Jet. We were lucky you were there.” Y/n rolled her eyes. Again, she could have taken care of those guys. Wouldn’t be the first time after all. “I should be thanking you. We were waiting to ambush those soldiers all morning- we just needed the right distraction. And then you guys stumbled in.” “We were relying on instincts.” “You’ll get yourself killed doing that.” Y/n scoffed, causing the two of them to turn to her. She pushed herself off the ground. “Following wrong instincts will get you killed. Not the right ones.” Katara gave her a look, but didn’t say anything as she walked away. Sulking, she moved to sit next to Sokka. He leaned close to her ear. “Please tell me you don’t like these guys either.” “Not one bit.” “Glad to know I’m not the only one…”

They’d ended up following Jet to the Freedom Fighters hideout. After a little while he stopped. “We’re here.” “Where… there’s nothing here!” Jet held out a rope with a loop at the end to Sokka. “Hold this.” “Why… What's this do?” The loop was put around his wrist, without warning he got pulled up by his arm. “Woah!” It didn’t take long for him to disappear among the branches above. Jet offered a similar rope to Aang and Momo. “Aang?” “I’ll get up on my own.” Momo launched himself from Aang’s shoulder, the boy following with an airbending move. Jet then offered the rope to Y/n with a smile. “Here, Y/n.” She snatched the rope from him with a glare, using one hand to hold onto the loop she used the other to keep a good grip on her bow. Not too long after she got up to the tree house, Jet and Katara appeared. It did not take an expert to realize Katara was having a teen girl crush on this kid. Yikes. Taking a look around she had to admit, it was a nice treehouse. The craftsmen ship on it was amazing. Aang and Momo fly over to the landing area. “Nice place you got!” Looking around, Katara nodded in agreement. “It’s beautiful up here!” “It’s beautiful… and more importantly the Fire Nation can’t find us.” Smellerbee landed near them. “They would love to find you. Wouldn’t they Jet?” “It’s not gonna happen, Smellerbee.” The group walked along a bridge, sans Aang and Momo, who were zip lining around the tree house. Katara looked at Jet with raised eyebrows. “Why does the fire nation want to find you?” “I guess you could say I’ve been causing them a little trouble. See, they took over a nearby Earth Kingdom town a few years back.” Jet and Katara had been leading the group, Pipsqueak behind them. “We’ve been ambushin’ their troops, cutting off their supply lines, and doing anything we can to mess with ‘em.” Behind Pipsqueak, Sokka tried to see over the large boy, hopping to get a peek over his shoulders. He wasn’t doing very well. Y/n didn’t have as much interest in trying to see past him as Sokka did. Jet started to talk again. “One day, we’ll drive the Fire Nation out of here for good and free that town.” “That’s so brave.” Grabbing onto Y/n’s wrist to pull her with him, Sokka managed to push past Pipsqueak and get behind Jet and his sister. “Yeah, nothing braver than a guy in a treehouse.” Y/n laughed at Sokka’s sarcasm. “Don’t pay any attention to my brother or Y/n.” “No problem. They probably had a rough day.” “So, you all live up here?” Sokka sulked and slinked back at being ignored, Y/n resting a comforting hand on his shoulder. “That’s right. Longshot over there? His town got burned down by the Fire Nation. And we found The Duke trying to steal our food. I don’t think he ever really had a home.” “What about you?” Jet stopped, and aside from Katara the rest of the group moved on.

Later that day, they all gathered at a banquet table. While everyone ate, Jet stood up and climbed up onto the table. “Today, we struck another blow against Fire Nation swine.” The fellow Freedom Fighters cheered, Aang and Katara watched with smiles, Sokka and Y/n watched grumpily. “I got a special joy from the look on one soldier’s face, when The Duke dropped down on his helmet and rode him like a wild hog monkey.” A helmet-less Duke stood up and joined Jet on the table. Amid the cheers, he took a victory walk around a fish platter. “Now, the Fire Nation thinks they don’t have to worry about a couple kids hiding in the trees.” He paused, taking a drink from his wooden cup. “Maybe they’re right.” The Freedom Fighters booed. “Or maybe… they are dead wrong.” This time they cheered. Jet hopped off the table, and took a seat on the platform between Katara and Sokka. Katara turned to look at him. “Hey Jet, nice speech.” “Thanks. By the way, I was really impressed with you and Aang. That was some great bending I saw out there today.” He paused, turning to look past Sokka, and at Y/n who sat on the other side of him. “And your fighting was really good too, Y/n. You definitely have a good mark of intimidation on you.” She didn’t say anything in response. “Well, they’re great. Y/n is a great survivalist and Aang’s the Avatar. I could use some more training.” Katara blushed softly, when Jet turned his attention back to her and Aang. “Avatar huh? Very nice.” “Thanks Jet.” “So I might know a way that you and Aang could help in our struggle.” Sokka stood up from his spot. “Unfortunately we have to leave tonight.” “I have to agree.” Y/n said, standing up herself. “Sokka, Y/n, you’re kidding me! I need you two on an important mission tomorrow.” Stopping, Sokka turned around to look at Jet. “What mission?” “Seriously Sokka…?” Y/n face palmed.

Somehow, Y/n had been convinced to come along with Sokka and Jet. She really didn’t like it, but would rather not leave Sokka alone with that guy. Something about him rubs her the wrong way. The three of them were perched up high in the trees. Jet cupped his hands together and made a bird call whistle. Several trees down Pipsqueak and Smellerbee step into view from their branches. There is a reply call back. Sokka rammed his jawbone knife into the trunk of the tree, gaining a skeptical look from Jet. “What are you doing?” “Shh… it amplifies vibrations.” He looked impressed. “Good trick.” Cupping his hand around the pommel bone, Sokka put his ear to it. “Nothing yet.” He lowered his voice. “Wait! Yes, someone’s approaching.” At his words, Y/n prepared her bow. “How many?” “I think there’s just one.” Jet whistled. “Good work, Sokka. Ready your weapon.” He looked at Y/n with a smile. “You get prepared fast, huh?” She simply offered a nod to him. “Wait! False alarm… he’s just an old man.” Despite Sokka’s words, Jet still stood. Extending his hook swords, he leaped down to the ground. As she lowered her bow, the two watched in horror. “What are you doing in our woods, you leech.” “Please sir, I’m just a traveler.” Jet stepped closer to the old man, swiping his sword at his cane. It flew to the side, as the old man backed away. He tried to flee, but ran face first into Pipsqueak’s chest, the force of the impact knocking him to the ground. “Do you like destroying towns? Do you like destroying families? Do you?!” The poor man looked horrified. “Oh… please.. Let me go… Have mercy..” “Does the Fire Nation let people go?! Does the Fire Nation have mercy?!” Jet got ready to kick the man, but Sokka snagged his foot with his club to stop him. Y/n jumped down from the tree, landing in between Jet and the old man. “Jet, he’s just an old man!” “He’s Fire Nation! Search him!” Pipsqueak grabs onto the man and holds him up, Smellerbee steps up. “But he’s not hurting anyone!” “Have you forgotten that the Fire Nation killed your mother? Remember why you fight?” “The Fire Nation killed my parents too, Jet! That doesn’t mean you get to go around harassing everyone who’s from there! This man has travelled through my forest before, he’s not a danger to anyone! You aren’t supposed to fight to hurt others, but to protect those you care about! This is pointless. ” “This is protecting the people we care about!” “We’ve got his stuff Jet.” Smellerbee holds up the satchel the old man had. “This doesn’t feel right.” “It’s not right.” “It’s what has to be done, now let’s get outta here.” Jet pushed past Sokka, as Smellerbee and Pipsqueak pushed past Y/n. The two looked at each other, before looking at the old man. “Come on you two!” Y/n ignored Jet, as she helped the man up, giving him his cane. Sokka waited for her to be finished, before they ran back to the others.

Aang leaped off the zip lines and onto the platform. “Sokka! Y/n! Look what The Duke gave me!” He wore a satchel, and pulling a small pellet from it he tossed it at the platform next to Momo. It exploded with a pop, Momo puffed up like a startled cat. He growled, before lunging for the satchel. Momo crawled up onto Aang’s shoulder, and tossed pellets at his feet. “Ow! Quit it!” Sokka sat oblivious to his friend, sitting with his back to one of the tree trunks, he looked up at the platform above him. Y/n sat next to him, her head resting on her knees. Katara approached the two. “Hey Sokka. Is Jet back?” “Yeah- he’s back. But we’re leaving.” Aang looked at him with confusion. “What?” “But I made him this hat.” Katara pulled a cap made of stitched leaves and flowers from behind her back. Y/n lifted her head to look at them. “Jet’s a thug.” “What? No, he’s not.” “Your boyfriend is messed up Katara.” “He’s not messed up, he’s just got a different way of life- A really fun way of life.” “He beat and robbed a harmless old man!” “I wanna hear Jet’s side of the story.”

“Sokka, Y/n- You told them what happened but you didn’t mention that the guy was Fire Nation?” The four of them and Jet were in a lantern-lit hut. Jet was sitting on a hammock bed, the others standing. Sokka and Y/n stood as far away as they could. Aang had donned the hat Katara wore. “No, they conveniently left that part out.” “Fine! But even if he was Fire Nation, he was a harmless civilian.” “He was an assassin, Sokka.” Jet pulled out a knife and thrust it into a nearby block of wood. The blade was curved, and four spikes evenly spaced along the grip with enough space for singers to go between them. There was a ring on the butt of the knife. “See? There’s a compartment for poison in the knife.” He pulled on the ring, and removed a small glass tube filled with red liquid. “He was sent to eliminate me- you two helped save my life.” “I knew there was an explanation.” “I didn’t see any knife!” “That’s because he was concealing it.” “See, Sokka? I’m sure you just didn’t notice the knife.” Arms crossed over her chest, Y/n glared at Jet. “Sokka didn’t notice it, because it wasn’t there. He’s lying!” “Yeah, there was no knife! I’m going back to the hut and packing my things.” Turning around, Sokka left the hut. Y/n was close behind him.

When Aang and Katara entered the hut they had been staying in, Sokka and Y/n were both getting their things together. “We can’t leave now with the Fire Nation about to burn down a forest!” “I’m sorry Katara. Jet’s very smooth, but we can’t trust him.” “Sokka’s right, there’s something seriously wrong with that guy.” “You know what I think? You two are just jealous that he’s a better warrior-” Katara paused, looking at Sokka. “And you’re jealous he’s a better leader!” “Katara, I’m not jealous of Jet. It’s just that my instinct-” “Well my instincts tell me we need to stay here a little longer and help Jet.” “That’s great Katara! But my instincts agree with Sokka’s, and they’ve never been wrong before.” “Come on, Aang.” Katara left the hut. Aang looked between the two. “Sorry Sokka, Y/n.” He followed her out.

That night inside the group's hut, Katara and Aang slept on their bedrolls, while Sokka slept propped up against his still packed stuff. Y/n found herself awake. “Let’s go.” She reached over, and shook Sokka awake. He stirred awake, looking at her confused. “Wh-” She brought a finger to her lips to shush him, and nodded outside. On the ground below them, the Freedom Fighters were quietly pushing a loaded wagon as Jet led them out of the camp. Sokka and Y/n stealthily followed them. They emerged from the forest, onto a bare cliff that stood above a dam. Jet goes to the edge of the cliff and looks down at the dam, before turning back to the wagon. “Now listen, you are not to blow the dam until I give the signal. If the reservoir isn’t full, the Fire Nation troops could survive.” The Duke jumps off the wagon. “But what about the people in the town, won’t they get wiped out too?” Jet placed a hand on his shoulder. “Look Duke, that’s the price of ridding this area of the Fire Nation.” He turned to Longshot. “Now, don’t blow the dam until I give the signal- got it?” Longshot nodded. Sokka and Y/n watched them incredulously from the bushes. Rustling could be heard. Before they could react, Pipsqueak grabbed them by their hair, dragging them out from the bush. Smellerbee had a knife to each of their throat’s in seconds. “Where do you think you’re going?” Jet watched as the two were dragged out. Pipsqueak kept his grip on their hair. “Sokka, Y/n. I’m glad you decided to join us.” The two were pushed onto their knees. Sokka rubbed his shoulder. “We heard your plan to destroy the Earth Kingdom town.” “Our plan is to rid the valley of the Fire Nation.” Y/n glared at him.” There are people living there, Jet. Mothers and fathers and children.” “We can’t win without making some sacrifices.” “An entire town isn’t some sacrifices!” Sokka pointed an accusatory finger at Jet. “You lied to Aang and Katara about the forest fire!” “Because they don’t understand the demands of war, not like we do.” “I do understand. Understand that there’s nothing you won’t do to get what you want.” “I was hoping you’d have an open mind, Sokka, but I can see you’ve made your choice.” Jet looked at Y/n, as Pipsqueak and Smellerbee grabbed Sokka. “You understand where I’m coming from, don’t you Y/n? I mean we’re basically one in the same, parents killed by the Fire Nation, living in the forest with no one but who we run into. You get it, right?” Gulping, she glanced between him and Sokka. “Yeah, I do get it.” As Sokka’s expression fell, Jet offered a smile. “I get that you’re just as ruthless and horrible as the Nation you hate so much.” She was quick to flip backwards onto her hands, kicking Jet in the chin as she flipped into a landing. Jet stumbled back, as she jumped up to grab onto a branch and pull herself into the trees. “We can't have them warning Katara and Aang! Get her!” Longshot offered a silent nod, pulling himself up into the trees. Jet looked at Pipsqueak and Smellerbee. “Take him for a walk. A long walk.” “You’re not gonna get away with this Jet! Y/n is going to get to Katara and Aang!” “No, she won’t. But cheer up Sokka. We’re gonna win a great victory against the Fire Nation today.”

Y/n was quick to jump between the branches of the trees, behind her she could hear someone following. Jumping across a long gap between trees, she was barely able to grab the branch. Before she could pull herself up, an arrow zipped through the air, stabbing through her right hand and pinning it to the branch. She shouted in pain. Using her teeth, she bit down on the arrow and pulled it from the wood in the tree. She didn’t have time to try and get it out of her hand, so she opted to break off the end with her teeth so not as much was sticking out. As she was pulling herself up onto the branch, another one lodged into her ankle. Not having time to deal with this one, she just left it there for now. Gritting her teeth, she did her best to keep jumping through the trees. With the two arrows in her it was hard to move around, and it made her slower. Longshot was catching up to her. When he jumped onto the same branch as her, Y/n jumped down to the ground, hitting it with a roll. The arrow sticking out of her leg hit the ground awkwardly, making her yelp in pain, but at least some of it broke off. She groaned in pain, but forced herself up. “Y/n!” Turning around, she saw Sokka running at her, Smellerbee and Pipsqueak hot on his tail. Longshot jumped down to the ground, landing right as Sokka passed him. Running past Y/n, he grabbed onto her wrist and started to drag her along with him. The two of them jumped over a pile of leaves, while their three chasers did not. Smellerbee, Pipsqueak and Longshot all ended up getting caught in a snare, hanging several feet in the air. The two stopped, turning to look up at the snared trio. “While you two are up there you might want to practice your knot-work.” Sokka held up the bindings they had been using for him as he spoke. Y/n laughed quietly at his words, following him as he turned and walked away. “You have a plan, Sokka?” “Yeah-” His expression twisted to concern when he looked at her. She was limping a bit. Were those broken arrows sticking out of her hand and leg..? “You’re hurt.” “I’ll be alright.” Wordlessly, he grabbed onto her arm, and pulled it around his shoulders, wrapping his other arm around her waist to help her walk. She breathed out a quiet sigh of relief. “Thanks.” “No problem. C’mon we need to get to Appa. I don’t think we’ll be able to stop Jet, so we’ll just need to warn the town.” They’d been quick to find Appa, and ride out to the town. Y/n had stayed up on Appa while Sokka warned the town. When they doubted him, the old man from before vouched that he was telling the truth. The town was completely evacuated, a few minutes before the dam was blown and water flooded it. They flew up to the cliff Aang, Katara and Jet were at. “Sokka and Y/n didn’t make it in time.” “All those people… Jet! You monster !” “This was a victory, Katara. Remember that. The Fire Nation is gone and this valley will be safe.” “It will be safe, without you.” Their entrance really didn’t need to be so dramatic, but she was sure that Sokka would disagree if she brought it up. Katara and Aang looked at them with relief. “Sokka! Y/n!” “We warned the villagers of your plan, just in time.” “What!” “At first they didn’t believe me. The Fire Nation soldiers assumed I was a spy. But one man vouched for me- The old man you attacked. He urged them to trust me, and we got everyone out in time.” Jet glared at them. “You fools! We could’ve freed this valley!” Scoffing, Y/n rolled her eyes. “Who would be free? Everyone would be dead.” “You traitors!” “No, Jet. You became the traitor when you stopped protecting innocent people.” Jet looked over to Katara. “Katara. Please, help me.” “Goodbye Jet.” After Katara and Aang climbed up onto Appa, Sokka flicked the reigns. “Yip yip.” “We thought you guys were going to the dam. How come you went to the town instead?” Katara leaned forward on her elbows, looking at her brother. “Let me guess- Your instincts told you.” “Hey! Sometimes they’re right.” “Um… Sokka? You know we’re going the wrong way right?” Y/n let out a laugh. “...And sometimes they’re wrong.”

#avatar the last airbender #atla #avatar the last airbender x reader #atla x reader #reader insert #sokka x reader #sokka x y/n #sokka x you #team avatar #slowburn #book one allies

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monstersandmaw · 3 years

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Male vampire x male character (nsfw) Part Four

Edit which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.

Sorry for taking 84yrs to post this. I thought I had shared it. Sorry. Hope you enjoy all the same.

Wordcount: 10,904 (story total: 23,704)

Heads up in this part for continued, but easing, tense familial relations, some angst/heartache (not heartbreak though), and some (consensual) blood drinking.

Part One (sfw), Part Two (nsfw), Part Three (nsfw)

Alec let out a shaky breath and crossed to the sofa, sinking down onto it as his legs finally gave out. “Vampires,” he said, hardly daring to believe the word he was uttering.

“Yes.”

“And you’re one?”

“… Yes.”

“And my family…?”

Sebastien’s voice was tight on the other end of the line as he said, “Hunts my kind. Well, those of us who aren’t registered with the ‘Guild of Hunters’ —” his tone turned acrid as he spat the words out, though he kept his voice low and quiet.

“What does that even mean? I don’t know what any of this means… And did you know about my family? I mean, before? When you started dating me?”

Sebastien took another deep breath. “Yes. I knew. And it was a long time before I fully convinced myself that you did not.”

If Sebastien had thought it was some kind of trap, that would explain his reticence at the beginning for sure.

“And were you planning on telling me any of this?” Alec snarled. God, his chest hurt so much. The deception was like Jeremy cheating on him all over again, only this time the betrayal was coming from two fronts at once: from his love life and from his family. Not that he’d had all that solid a relationship with the latter to start with. Perhaps this explained why.

“I hadn’t planned on becoming your boyfriend at all,” Sebastien snapped.

“So, what, I was just a quick diversion? A casual fuck you kept coming back for because I’m such a fucking chump? Is that it?”

“No,” Sebastien sighed. “Not at all. I fell for you. Like the horrid cliche I am, the vampire fell for the hunter, and by then I had no idea how to tell you. I’ve not been with a human before, so this is all very new to me.”

Alec ran his fingers through his dark hair to buy himself a moment. “You… You haven’t?”

“No.”

“How… How old are you?”

“Do you really want the answer to that?”

“Yes!” His phone was slippery in his fingers now from the sweat on his palm but he couldn’t bring it away from his ear long enough to put it on speaker. He needed answers.

With another cavernous sigh, Sebastien said hurriedly, “Very well. I was born in 1897 and turned on the battlefields of the Great War — World War I, that is. I was dying, and a vampire named Felicity who had been working as a field nurse turned me. My first run-in with your family was not long after I moved from France to America. They were working with the American Hunters’ Guild on a case which had nothing to do with me.” He let out a shaky breath and said, “I got in the way and I nearly died. Those were the days before the treaty, of course, and before I moved to England.”

Despite his still-spinning mind, Alec managed to croak, “What treaty?”

“Those of us who get our blood from sanctioned blood banks and do not live-feed are exempt from being hunted like animals.” He spoke like he was quoting from a law code; cold and clinical; detached.

God, the way he said it made Alec’s skin crawl. It was as if he were being permitted to exist on the grounds of good behaviour and, he supposed, that was exactly the case. Even so, Alec couldn’t help the next words that just fell out of his mouth. “So you weren’t planning on feeding from me?”

“Of course not,” Sebastien retorted but then appeared to rein himself in with yet another steadying inhale. “No. It’s been decades since I’ve fed from a human directly. I didn’t plan on starting with you.”

Alec slumped back into the sofa cushions and stared up at the ceiling of his tiny apartment. “Fuck.”

After a long silence, Sebastien’s gentle tenor sounded in his ear. “Are you alright?”

“No,” he said. “I’ve never been close to my family - my dad was always an arsehole, but… I can’t believe Theo’s involved in all this. He was such a sweet kid, and we were really close until…” he swallowed thickly around the rising lump in his throat.

“Until?” Sebastien prompted when he stalled again.

“I can’t believe this is all real,” he muttered. “Until he turned sixteen and started to ‘work out’ with dad. I was at uni by then, getting my fine art degree, but whenever I came home he was just… different. Harder. Sharper. More focused. Guess it makes sense now… Well, as much as… you know…” he gestured vaguely to the empty apartment with his hands, “… as much as all this can make sense. Fucking… vampires…”

After a heartbeat, Sebastien added softly, “Quite literally.”

Despite himself, Alec snorted. “So… where does this leave us?”

Now it was Sebastien’s turn to feel clearly uncomfortable. Eventually he said, “Alec, I don’t think it’s wise for me to see you currently. Not with your family being what they are.”

His heart twisted, even though he’d been half expecting it. “You still think they’d… what, stake you, or whatever it is that vampire hunters actually do to you lot?”

“There are many ways to kill a vampire,” he said flatly. “And your family knows all of them, probably more. You need to work this out with them first as well. Talk to your brother. He seems the more reasonable…”

“I can’t believe Ellie’s in on it as well. And my mother? Fuck…”

“Talk to them.”

“Will I still see you at work at least?”

The awkward silence told him all he needed to know, even before Sebastien said, “I just sent in my letter of resignation.”

“That was quick,” he hissed, stomach dropping. “You only just left.”

“Supernatural speed,” he replied bitterly. “Comes in useful for typing papers and getting out of awkward situations…”

That sparked another question in him. “Supernatural powers, huh? Can you turn into a bat too?”

“No.”

Then he thought of Sebastien’s Halloween outfit. “Wolf?”

He thought he detected a faint smirk in Sebastien’s response. “No, sadly. No shape-shifting for me. Felicity is not of any extraordinary bloodline, and thus, neither am I.”

“Right,” he grunted. “Of course. Is she… is she still around?”

“Felicity? Yes. We meet every now and again. She and her wife spend most of their time in Venice these days.”

“Her wife? She a vampire too?”

Sebastien swallowed audibly. “Yes.”

“Did Felicity turn her too? Would that make her wife your sister?”

“No.”

He frowned. “Did she know her as a human though?”

“Yes.”

After a moment of spinning thoughts, Alec asked, “Did… you turn her?”

“One doesn’t tend to turn one’s own intended. Between a sire and their turned, there can grow… tension. Not always, but it can be enough to ruin a relationship that was seemingly solid before. Something about exchanging blood changes the soul… or so we think, anyway. It was an honour to be asked to sire her.”

“Right.” Alec felt slightly sick. “Will I at least see you before you leave?”

“I think it best if we don’t. Not while your family is still… ‘investigating’ me.”

“Are you really in danger from them?”

“Quite possibly. My name is on the treaty, but…”

Something twanged painfully again in his chest, swiftly followed by the fizzle of fear through his veins. “But what?”

“But vampires and hunters are not supposed to sleep together, Alec…”

“Don’t bang the enemy? How very Romeo and Juliet,” he snorted. “Fuck. Why does every good relationship I have turn to shit?” he asked, not of Sebastien but of the universe itself. “What did I do?”

“Alec —”

“—Don’t. Don’t make it worse by apologising or something. It’s fine. We were only together a month. I’ll get over it. You’ll move on. Heck, you’ll fucking live forever, right? What’s a month to you anyway? Nothing, right?”

The bitterness in his own voice nearly choked him, and without thinking, or even saying goodbye, he just hung up and let his phone lie in his limp fingers on the sofa cushions. It lit up and rang a moment later, but he didn’t answer it. Six more times Sebastien tried before finally giving up.

Kay was an absolute blessing in the next few days.

He didn’t tell her immediately about the whole vampire thing, but after he’d calmed down enough to be able to look at Theo without immediately busting a vein in his forehead, he hashed the basics out with him, and then told her everything. Alec told her about his newly-discovered, secret family occupation which, apparently, stretched back centuries. He told her about the fact that his eldest sister and younger brother were monster hunters in their spare time, and he told her the real reason Sebastien why had vanished overnight without a trace — yes, Alec had gone to his apartment building, only to be politely informed by the doorman that Dr. Dulac was no longer in residence and did not leave so much as a forwarding address.

That, above almost everything else, shattered Alec’s hopes of seeing him again. Like thistledown in the wind, Sebastien had simply flitted away somewhere else.

She took it about as well as he had to start with, but when she saw the seriousness in his eyes, and when, three weekends later, she came to his apartment for a definitely-not-awkward dinner with Theo, she saw video footage that Theo and his father had captured from various hunts of supernatural creatures beyond only beautiful vampires. Then she believed him. Ghouls, ghosts, reanimated corpses, demons… you name it and Theo could tell you about it.

Alec spent Christmas with Kay’s family, and Theo met him for New Year drinks in the city, joined by Ellie. It wasn’t anything like the family dynamic he’d always longed for, but the new degree of openness between them went some way to mending his still bruised heart. Slowly. Gradually. Piece by tentative, honest piece. He never joined in, but Theo started to tell him a bit about what they did. It still sounded barbaric to him, but at least it was true.

He had no word from Sebastien, and the number he had saved in his phone had been disconnected.

With the arrival of spring, Alec found himself more than usually dissatisfied with his job. He was a good teacher, and he enjoyed seeing his students’ talents evolve and grow, but the ever-increasing admin ground him down, and the politics of the faculty and the university as a whole wore on him.

“Have you seen this?” Kay asked one afternoon as they shared a takeaway coffee beneath the drifting cherry blossoms. Petals spiralled down like pastel pink and white wedding confetti, and he watched with an absent smile as a terrier snapped and sprung around on his hind legs trying to catch them while his owner stood and talked with her friend nearby. “Oi!” Kay asked, digging him in the ribs.

“Hmm?”

“Have you seen this?” she asked, shoving her phone under his nose.

He blinked, refocusing his eyes, and read the article’s headline aloud. “Council offers artists the chance to win a sponsored exhibition in the town hall with this unique competition.” He blinked. “So?”

“So?” she gawped. “You can’t be serious?”

“Send me the link. I’ll forward it to my students. They might like that.” That earned him a smack upside the head, and he scowled. “What was that for?”

“Alec, you might be the dumbest smart guy I know,” she said. “I showed it to you so that you could enter it, you giant idiot.”

He blinked. “Me?”

“I saw those charcoals you did the other week of the cathedral! They were amazing!! And the abstracts too… I still want one, by the way.”

“It’s already wrapped up for your birthday,” he groused. “You really think I should do it?”

She rolled her eyes and drained the last of her coffee without gracing him with an answer. Of course she thought he should.

“When’s the deadline?”

“Next Thursday,” she said without looking at him.

Alec licked his lips and swallowed. “Will you help me pick some images to submit?”

Her answering grin was feral.

In all honesty, Alec forgot about having even entered the competition until the letter dropped through his door six weeks later announcing that, to his utter astonishment, he had been selected as the winner. Tears blurred his eyes and he sat down heavily at the tiny kitchen table. He’d never entered any of his own art into anything like this in his whole life, and the first time he does, he gets a whole fucking public exhibition out of it?

“Maybe this year won’t be so bad after all,” he murmured. “New year, new start…” His chest still ached when he thought about Sebastien, and he hoped he was doing alright, wherever he was.

Theo had been searching for him, probably by way of apology for lying to his big brother for all these years, but he’d turned up very little. Sebastien had gone to Venice first, it seemed, presumably to spend time with Felicity and her wife, but had disappeared completely after that, with only rumours flickering here and there that he was in Paris, St. Petersburg, Prague, and then potentially Florence. Maybe.

“Venice seems like a pretty sunny place for a pair of vampires to live,” Alec commented, but Theo shrugged.

“They don’t burn up immediately in sunlight, or your professor would never have been able to take a day-job at the university. They’re sensitive to it, some more than others, but it takes a full day of constant sunlight beating down for them to burn properly.” The callousness of his brother’s response shook him, even after all these months, and Theo must have seen it on his face because he sighed. “I’m sorry,” he said, and then added, “You really loved him, didn’t you?”

Alec shrugged. Yes, he wanted to say. I thought so. “I only knew him for a month or so,” was what he said carefully instead. “And even then… turned out I didn’t know him anyway.”

Theo, who had been lounging on Alec’s sofa with his legs spread and his head tipped back into the cushions while Alec made supper, asked quietly, “Did he seem… normal to you?”

“Normal?” Alec asked, not sure he’d heard his brother correctly.

“Yeah… like… did you ever suspect he wasn’t… you know…?”

“Human?”

Theo grunted and nodded his head. “Yeah. I guess.”

“No. Obviously not. Never crossed my mind. Why would it have?”

Theo scowled and turned his eyes to regard him. Alec knew that Theo looked like a younger version of himself, if maybe in better shape, and he wondered if he’d have the same steely look in his eyes if he’d been deemed ‘man enough’ to become a hunter, or whatever bullshit criteria their arsehole father had used to select which members of his family were to become soldiers and which would live normal lives.

“What?” Alec demanded.

“But you slept with him, right?”

“I’m not talking about that with you,” he said, briefly brandishing the wooden spoon at him.

Theo pulled a face. “I’m not asking about your sex life. Gross. No, I mean…”

In that moment, Alec spotted a flash of something in his brother’s blue eyes that softened him to the kid. He turned off the gas and went over to where Theo was now sitting hunched over with his elbows on his knees, running his hands through his hair. When he looked up at Alec’s approach, his face showed open vulnerability in a way he’d not seen since they were young children and Theo had got himself into trouble at school.

“What’s going on?” Alec asked, seating himself next to his little brother.

Theo bobbed his knee like a deprived caffeine addict and bit his lip. With glassy eyes, he croaked, “I keep asking myself if we did the right thing…”

“What do you mean?”

The bravado of Theo’s early twenties melted away to become a worried, frightened, guilty little boy again and he said, “I mean… if what we do is right…”

“You mean… hunting?”

“Yeah,” he croaked.

“What set this off?”

His brother quirked him a humourless smirk and said, “You always did know when something was bothering me.”

Alec remained quiet, just watching him.

“We teamed up with some hunters from Edinburgh for a ‘vamp gone rogue’ case and we finally found her yesterday. She… She’d been turning people; trying to amass some kind of small army to take over from another vampire further up north. She was insane… like, completely, sociopathically insane, but… the people she turned… they were just…” he blinked, and Alec saw with a jolt that his eyes were full of unshed tears. “They were still just people.”

He feared he already knew where this was going. Still, he asked, “What happened?”

“Father wanted to put them down. They were terrified, chained up… still on the point of lashing out…”

Bile rose in his throat. “Oh god…”

“One of the hunters said she knew of a vampire who could help rehabilitate them; help them adjust to their new lives. One of them didn’t want to live as a vampire though, so father just…”

Theo didn’t need to finish that for Alec to know that father had ended the newly-turned vampire’s life in a heartbeat. “And the rest?”

“The other three went with the hunter. I don’t know what happened, but… I trust her. It’s just… father taught me and Ellie that vampires are mindless killers when they feed… that you can’t get close to them, that all they want at the end of the day is blood no matter what they tell you… but…” he looked up at Alec. “You’ve been fucking miserable since the whole Sebastien shit-fest. I know you’ve been trying to hide it, and you’ve got the exhibition coming up next weekend, and that’s great, but… I know you’ve stopped putting yourself out there. And we did that. We fucked it all up for you. I just…” he ran his hands through his hair and sent it into wild disarray. “I just wonder if you could really have been happy with him after all.”

Alec pulled his brother close and hugged him. “I’m not going to lie,” he murmured into his brother’s dark hair. “I’m furious with father for keeping everything from me, and for making you and mum and Ellie lie to me and Angie about it as well, but… if I hadn’t seen Sebastien’s eyes go red — yeah, I thought it was just a reflection or something — and if I hadn’t seen the way he sleeps literally like the dead… I’m not sure I would have believed you anyway. I don’t forgive him for it either, but…” he sighed deeply. “I forgive you, Theo. And Ellie.”

“And mum?”

“I’m still working on that.”

Theo went slack beneath him and snaked his arms around his brother’s waist for a moment. “Thanks,” he mumbled into Alec’s shirt.

“You’re still coming to the exhibition?” Alec asked as he pulled back and went back to the stove, giving Theo a moment of privacy to pull himself together.

In truth, Alec was a little shaken too. Their relationship had been slowly patched over the intervening months, but it still wasn’t particularly close, and the matter of Sebastien had been a permanent, proverbial elephant in the room. That Theo was questioning their father’s teaching came as an immense relief to Alec though. He poured them each a glass of wine, and the two spent the rest of the evening in a quieter kind of closeness than they’d yet shared.

When the evening of the exhibition drew round, Alec was quite frankly, a bit of a mess.

“C’mon,” Theo grinned, patting the lapels of his jacket down for him and grinning up at him. “Where’s that Twayblade hunter courage, huh?”

“Must have skipped me and all gone to you,” he quipped back. “Fuck. I’m so nervous. Why am I so nervous?”

“No fucking clue,” Theo chuckled. “You’re awesome and they’re gonna fucking love you.”

“Language,” Alec said instinctively and Theo’s laughter redoubled.

“You’re a big fucking hypocrite, you know that?” Theo laughed just as Kay sidled up with three glasses of champagne awkwardly held between her hands.

“Help a girl out here, would you, boys?” she asked, proffering the glasses to them.

Alec resisted the urge to down it in one — he’d probably only choke on the bubbles anyway — and filled his lungs instead with a big gulp of air. He tried to send all his nerves into the air and then blow it out of his body in one heaving sigh to leave him calmer, but it just gave him a head rush, so he sipped the wine and turned to look around the gallery from the corner where he’d been lurking.

“What if no one shows up?” he blurted, earning him a scowl from Theo and a pout-and-eyebrow-raise combo from Kay.

He needn't have worried in the end. The marketing team had done their work, and within an hour the place was heaving and all but three of his pieces had been reserved. Scratch that. Two.

The fact that almost all of his students had turned up as well to cheer him on and trade high fives, and scrounge free alcohol and food from the canape trays, warmed him in ways he didn’t know were possible.

Overwhelmed and a little bit tearful, he stepped out of the town hall’s main exhibition space and into the small corridor that led to a fire exit and a grotty back car park beyond, letting the flush die down from his cheeks. This was what he’d really wanted right from the moment he’d graduated all those years ago; to be an artist in his own right, with people buying his work at exhibitions… It almost made him giddy to think that he had a chance to do this full time now. It seemed that Sebastien had been right when he’d said he could really make something of himself.

Ah, there was the crash in his mood that he’d been waiting for. Nothing good lasts forever, right?

Would Sebastien have been proud of him if he knew about this? Would he have been there that night, by his side? Would they even have lasted that long anyway, even without his family’s interference?

The noise in the room was gradually dying down when he gathered enough courage to step back into the echoing hall. The pale wooden floors gleamed in the low light, the white of the temporary exhibition walls almost glowing, in stark contrast to the black and grey of his charcoals. He’d chosen mostly charcoals for the show, with a few acrylic abstracts for flavour, and apparently people loved them. Every single one had a red ‘sold’ dot beneath the label now, he noted as he cast his eyes around the room.

Then his gaze snagged on someone standing with their back to him, hands clasped loosely behind them, a long, silver-blond ponytail hanging down their back. And Alec’ vision slipped sideways.

Sebastien.

It had to be him.

No one else stood with posture like that. No one else was so tall and lean and elegant and god-damned graceful, even when just standing still. And no one else stood quite as still as that.

He let out a ragged breath and swayed slightly, glancing around. There was no sign of Theo or Kay just then, and only one or two couples meandered admiringly around the room. And there, fixated by one piece in particular, stood Sebastien.

Inhaling for courage, Alec approached and came to an unsteady halt a few feet away from him. He didn’t look real, somehow. His beauty had always been striking, but now in the low light he seemed like a mirage, with his warm olive skin and contrastingly pale hair, that cut-glass jawline and —

— He turned and met Alec’s gaze with dark brown eyes alight and glassy.

“You’re here,” Alec breathed, at a loss for anything else.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Sebastien said, and the sound of his voice sent a wild tingling through Alec’s whole nervous system. The man — vampire — looked uncharacteristically shy, uncertain, as he half turned to face him.

“Gotta say,” Alec said, scratching the back of his head, “I wasn’t expecting to see you again.”

“Should I leave?”

He chewed his lower lip for a second and Sebastien’s eyes tracked the movement before he blinked and looked back at the charcoal in front of him. It was of the Lady Chapel of the cathedral; one of the most tranquil places Alec had ever been. A shaft of light lanced down from a Gothic window high on the right, scattering fractured shards of light onto the stone floor, and behind it, just barely visible as a grey, misty outline, sat the small altar.

“You’re religious?” Alec asked.

“Mm,” Sebastien nodded. “Surprising, I know, given my ‘condition’, but there you have it.”

All the smalltalk then suddenly boiled up into thick irritation inside Alec and he scowled. “Where have you been? And why now? Why come back now? What do you want?”

He must have raised his voice fractionally because the couple admiring the seascape to their left shot them slightly scandalised looks, as if he’d started swearing in a sanctuary, and he bit back the wave of anger, halting it in its tracks.

“Shall we step outside for a moment?” Sebastien asked and Alec nodded tersely.

Passing Kay and Theo who were sitting in the chairs near the drinks table, Alec cast his eyes at them and watched Theo tense visibly. Kay laid her hand on his thigh and shook her head, at which Theo nodded and sat back, eyes hard, mouth set, but at least he didn’t appear to be on the point of leaping out and staking Sebastien on the spot.

Alec mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ at them both, and followed Sebastien out on to the street.

“You’ve patched things up with your family then?” Sebastien began, standing perfectly still beside the brick wall of the Victorian building while Alec paced.

“Mostly just with Theo, but yeah. Why are you here?” he asked again.

“Honestly? I missed you. Couldn't get you out of my head. I went all over Europe, and even to Asia briefly, and nothing I did distracted me from you, from leaving you. I had to come back.”

“You could have called,” he said, instantly regretting the way it came out like a petulant teenager’s sulking.

“And what would that have achieved?” Sebastien asked evenly. “I was hundreds of miles away.”

“You could have come back sooner? Talked to me in person?”

Sebastien sighed. “I was afraid that your family would come after me. I needed to disappear.”

“Theo convinced father to let you go. As you said yourself, your name was on the treaty, and you didn’t hurt me or hypnotise me, or whatever… did you?”

“No,” he said, pale brows pinching with evident distaste.

“Could you have?”

Sebastien levelled him with a dark look. “Yes, but… that’s not something I enjoy doing. It’s a survival mechanism — to make people forget what they’ve seen — it’s not something to be used lightly.”

“Ok, but you could have, and you didn’t, so that was another reason to let you go,” he said. God he wanted to kiss him. The realisation hit him like a gut punch and he turned away. Alec ached inside and out for those lips, those hands, those eyes… “Fuck,” he whispered, barely audible. “Are you staying?”

“Do you want me to stay?”

Alec rounded on him, frustration pouring out of him again. “Don’t answer my question with one of your own. Are you staying or not?”

Sebastien remained eerily calm, but a heartbeat later Alec saw that it wasn’t serenity in his eyes but sadness. “If you want me to, I’ll stay. I want to try again, Alec. I want… I want to be with you. I’ve never felt for anyone what I feel for you.”

“Feel? As in… present tense?”

“Yes. It hasn’t faded. Not with all the days and distance between us.”

“God, you sound like a shitty romance novel hero…” he scoffed. “I almost believe it.”

Sebastien spread his hands and said, “I am who — and what — I am. You know me, Alec, in a way that no one else ever has. I was utterly myself with you, except for the fact that I kept my nature from you. I hope you can at least understand why, if not forgive me. Everything else was genuine. I have never done that — been that open, that vulnerable — with anyone.”

“Even knowing what my family are?”

“Even then.”

Alec looked up at him and saw his own reflection in those dark, rich brown eyes. “Show me.”

Sebastien’s angelic face soured into a confused frown. “Show you what?”

“Your eyes. Your fangs. Show me what you are.”

“Now?”

He looked around. The street was empty on either side, with the only people around gathered outside a bar further up the street.

When he turned back to say yes to Sebastien, he found blood red eyes glowing in the man’s face. “Holy fuck,” he hissed. Every already-chiselled line on Sebastien’s face had sharpened somehow, his cheeks hollowing a little, perhaps to account for the additional hardware he now sported in his mouth, and his eyes seemed a touch more sunken. And they glowed as if lit from within.

Heartbeat thrumming out a wild tattoo, he stepped closer and Sebastien went utterly still. His chest ceased to rise and fall, and he didn’t even blink as Alec raised his fingers to his left cheek. “Show me.”

Sebastien swallowed and parted his lips. Angling his jaw a little to one side, he showed Alec the elongated canines, three quarters of an inch long. “Careful,” he murmured as Alec made to touch them. “Vampire venom is potent, even in small doses.”

“Does it really do what the hunters say it does?”

Sebastien’s red eyes glittered almost playfully. “I don’t know,” he smiled, seeming to relax a fraction. “What do they say it does?”

“Drives your victims wild, acts like a date rape drug, makes humans lose their will and their inhibitions…”

At that, a hardness returned to his features and his lip twitched in a lopsided snarl, like a wolf backed into a corner. “That’s certainly one take on it,” he said. “It creates a rush of euphoria. It’s supposed to make feeding a pleasant experience for all concerned. Endorphins in the blood make the taste sweeter, and the human feels no pain or fear.”

“Right. Gotta say I like that one better,” Alec said with a shaky smile. “But I’m not gonna risk it right here… And fuck me, your eyes are incredible.”

“They’re still red, hmm?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Closing his eyes and tilting his face upwards a little more towards the cloudy night sky, he inhaled deeply. His features softened again, and Alec watched, fascinated, as the slight bumps behind his closed upper lip slid away into nothing, presumably as his canines retracted into his gums. When he opened his eyes, they were their usual, endlessly dark brown once more.

“Better?” Sebastien asked, oddly self-conscious.

“No,” he said. “Just different.”

Something prickled on the back of his neck and he turned to find a woman silhouetted against the light of street lamp halfway up the road. “Friend of yours?” he asked, tense.

“Felicity. She came with me.”

“Why? Surely you don’t need a wingman… or, you know, woman.”

With a tiny smile, Sebastien said, “You make me more vulnerable than you realise, in more ways than one. And we weren’t sure if your family would be here.”

“Or whether they’d want to flambé you…”

“Precisely.” He inclined his head and the woman did the same, turning and vanishing even as Alec blinked.

“Can you do that too?” he asked, still gawping after her.

When he turned back, he found that Sebastien had stepped in close to him - close enough that his faint, woody cologne wafted gently around them and he felt his knees wobble slightly. He’d missed this. Oh god, he’d missed this. “Mmhmm,” Sebastien hummed. “I can.”

“Kiss me,” Alec whispered. “Please…”

Sebastien didn’t need telling twice. He took Alec’s face in both his hands and crushed a passionate kiss to his lips so hard that Alec’s mind went perfectly blank for a few beautiful seconds. When he came to, he grabbed Sebastien’s narrow hips and tugged him close, making the vampire grunt as their bodies connected.

This time, he took Sebastien’s ponytail in one hand and began to pull on it gently. Sebastien yielded at the pressure and tipped his face back, exposing the entire column of his throat to Alec without resistance. The gesture left Alec stunned and breathless. In his research with Theo over the past months, he had learned that for a vampire to expose their throat to another implied absolute trust. Overwhelmed, he pressed his lips to the bare skin and felt Sebastien gasp, grabbing at his shoulders suddenly to keep himself upright.

Over and over, the vampire shuddered tangibly beneath his touch and gasped sharply again, panting. As he shifted his hips against him, Alec felt Sebastien’s growing hardness, and at the same time, Sebastien drew back, eyes screwed shut. “Stop,” he laughed. “Not here.”

“I want you,” Alec moaned, one hand on Sebastien’s chest. “Fuck, I’ve missed you so much.”

“I want you too,” Sebastien smiled, opening his eyes. They glowed scarlet again. “And because of that, this —” he said, gesturing to his red eyes, “— isn’t going to go away quickly this time.”

“This too?” Alec said, boldly cupping the obvious bulge in Sebastien’s smart black trousers gently with his hand and making the vampire groan.

“Yeah, that too.”

“Your place or mine?” Alec asked with a dizzy grin.

“You decide. I’m booked into a hotel one street over for the next two days,” he said. “If that affects your decision in any way.”

“Yours,” he said. “I… I’ll just…” he looked over his shoulder and caught sight of the exhibition banner dangling by the door. “I should…”

Sebastien nodded slowly. “I’ll be here.”

“You’d better be,” he snarled as he adjusted himself and prayed no one would notice. He took a few steadying breaths on the threshold of the town hall and then disappeared inside.

Kay raised her eyebrows at him when he reappeared.

“Not a word,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Your hair’s a mess,” she said conversationally. “Is it windy outside?”

“Fuck off,” he grimaced and she laughed. “Where’s Theo?”

“He left out the back way,” she said. “But he told me to tell you to enjoy yourself tonight, and that he’ll stand by whatever makes you happy.”

Unexpected tears prickled his eyes and he tugged her into a hug that was probably meant for his brother.

“You can thank us later,” she said, shoving him off her. “Go be with your Prince of Darkness…”

“I’m not sure how much he’d like you calling him that,” he said as he stepped back. “I’ll have to wrap things up here first…”

It seemed to take forever, but he finally found the events coordinator and after an interminable conversation full of congratulations, agreed to stop by the next day to take down the exhibition and sort the sales out. His heart was thudding when he stepped back outside, but he let out a huge sigh when he saw Sebastien leaning against the brick building, face tilted towards the moon that was just peeking out from behind a bank of cloud.

“It’s like one of your charcoals,” Sebastien said without tearing his eyes from the sky.

Alec crossed to him and smiled when Sebastien met his gaze, red meeting blue. Alec slid his fingers into Sebastien’s where his hand hung quietly by his side.

“Ready?” the vampire asked.

Alec nodded, and let Sebastien lead him back to his hotel.

They barely made it into the lift before Alec was kissing him, backing him into the mirrored sides of the lift with a thud before the doors had even closed. He stopped suddenly, drew back and laughed, and Sebastien — who looked like he’d just got whiplash — asked, “What?”

“Vampires do have reflections after all…”

Sebastien rolled his eyes and gave an indecorous snort-laugh. The sound was rich and warm and it filled Alec’s whole consciousness for a moment. “It’s only the antique ones with genuine silver backing that don’t show our reflections. Technology has evolved, thank goodness. Now, if you don’t mind, you were kissing me senseless…”

“Sorry,” he laughed, grabbing Sebastien’s white shirt collar and tugging him down again. They nearly didn’t get out of the lift at Sebastien’s floor, but as the doors began to close again, Sebastien slid his foot into the path of the doors and dragged Alec out.

Clothes landed in a steady line on the carpet between the door of his hotel room and Sebastien’s bed, ending with them both in only their boxer-briefs on the pristine white surface of the bed. Alec was tipped back onto the duvet and lay there staring up at Sebastien who was now no longer hiding his nature from him at all. Red eyes blazed in his face and as he opened his mouth to breath heavily, the tips of his fangs were just visible. There was no denying that he was a vampire.

“Was it like this before?” Alec asked hoarsely. “I mean… did I just not see it?”

“I had to work very hard to rein all this in,” he said, kneeling on the bed and crawling a little way up it. His own boxer briefs strained at the crotch where his erection tented the fabric, and Alec’s own black ones were stained with a little spot of wetness where his cock twitched with eager interest. “I only let it slip once or twice, but you were distracted at the time.”

Alec smirked and then moaned as Sebastien’s palm skimmed up over his groin and over his stomach. He’d always been a bit self-conscious about the softer parts of him, but Sebastien worshipped him like he was some kind of immortal god, lavishing attention on him over and over until he was shaking and gasping and sweating. “Please!” he begged after what felt like hours. “Oh god, please…”

Sebastien slid off the bed and deftly removed his own underwear before encouraging Alec to lift his hips for him and drawing his boxer-briefs down too. Before Alec could think or process what was happening, Sebastien was between his legs again and had swallowed the entire length of his cock to the back of his throat in one.

“Oh fuck,” he hissed, mind whiting out.

Sparks of pleasure shot up his spine as Sebastien worked him alternately with his mouth and his hand.

He teased him, licking the slit at the tip where pre-come beaded profusely now, teasing the delicate folds of skin until Alec thought he was going to shatter apart with want. Just before it got too much to bear, Sebastien would take him back into the wet heat of his mouth and work the underside of his cock with his tongue, swallowing occasionally and making Alec’s head spin all over again.

His balls tightened and he spread his legs wider, instinctively opening himself to Sebastien.

The vampire moaned against his cock and Alec whimpered. Pulling off him, an obscenely inviting thread of saliva and pre-come connecting them briefly, Sebastien sat up and reached for the top drawer of the bedside table. “Vampires neither catch nor transmit diseases,” he said, “But if you still wish to use protection —”

“— I haven’t been with anyone since you,” he rasped. “And I’m clean anyway…”

“As you wish,” Sebastien smiled, withdrawing an almost-new bottle of lube and sitting back down between his legs. Alec eyed it and Sebastien laughed shyly. “I opened it last night…” he admitted and Alec grinned.

That smirk shattered into an open-mouthed groan as Sebastien’s finger slid inside him and he began to prepare him. There was nothing perfunctory about it either. Sebastien took his time to work him open, his fingers fucking into him slowly, almost reverently, until he crooked them and Alec yelled as white-hot pleasure shot through him.

“Still so sensitive,” Sebastien crooned and Alec just shivered in response. His thighs were quivering too now from the effort of not bucking upwards into the empty air, his cock drooling freely over his slightly soft stomach with each futile twitch. He knew he was a wanton mess, and he couldn’t quite find it within himself to care. It seem to drive Sebastien wild anyway.

When Sebastien added a third finger, still stroking up and down his thigh with his other hand, Alec broke.

“Please, please, please,” he whimpered, out of breath and desperate. He cracked his eyes open and looked down at Sebastien to find that his red eyes had been almost eclipsed by his blown pupils. He gave a weak buck of his hips to try and encourage Sebastien to get on with it, but the vampire seemed utterly transfixed by him. He worked his fingers over Alec’s prostate gently but with absolute precision, and it was going to make Alec lose his mind altogether.

“Pleasepleaseplease, I need you, please…” he wailed as Sebastien’s mercifully short and blunt fingernail caught him just so and sent another jolt through him.

Finally the vampire moved, but as he withdrew completely, the loss almost shattered him. “Shh,” he smiled, stroking a soothing circle at Alec’s hipbone. “I’m still here…”

Alec whimpered like a wounded animal but his foggy brain accepted that the loss was only temporary, and he watched as Sebastien took his own flushed cock in his hands and slicked lube up the length of it in a couple of efficient strokes, head bowing under the attention it was receiving at last. He’d focused solely, completely, on Alec’s pleasure for all that time, and the realisation sent a fresh wave of lust rolling through Alec’s entire body.

He spread his legs, but Sebastien caught Alec under his left thigh and raised his leg easily, exposing Alec completely. Before Alec could process anything, his tip was nudging at Alec’s entrance, and then he had sunk all the way in to the hilt.

Sebastien froze then, bowed forwards over Alec like a supplicant, canines openly bared, eyes screwed shut, not even breathing.

“Sebastien… please…” Alec grunted. He’d never felt as full and whole as he had with Sebastien inside him, and yet this wasn’t enough. He’d ached for this. For months, he’d ached for it, and still it wasn’t enough. “Bast, please…”

Finally, the vampire opened his searing red eyes and began to move.

Slowly at first, he picked up his pace until Alec’s back was arching and his fingers clawed great furrows in the sheet beneath him. With each thrust, Alec saw stars at let out little fractured, broken gasps. Sebastien was quiet, almost silent, while Alec himself was unable to stop the sounds from tumbling out of him. He moaned and whimpered, gasped and cursed and begged until Sebastien yanked him further down the bed and lifted his hips a little way off the mattress entirely.

From this new angle, it was so blindingly good that Alec went alternately taut and limp with ecstasy. “I’m close,” he gasped over the slap of Sebastien’s hips meeting his skin.

The vampire snarled then; an inhuman sound that sent the hairs prickling all down Alec’s body.

“Come for me,” Alec begged in a whisper, opening his eyes and watching as Sebastien chased his release with a ferocity he’d never shown before. He wasn’t careless with his strength, but he was certainly forceful. Had Alec wanted to grunt ‘stop’, he knew the vampire would halt, but that was the furthest thing from his mind as he watched the flawless perfection of this man above him. “God you’re so beautiful,” he whispered. “Come for me, Bast…”

And at the sound of his name, uttered in little more than an abbreviated wheeze, Sebastien went still, hips spasming as his spine arched back like a bow at full draw, mouth open, head thrown back, fangs bared, eyes rammed shut, a sheen of sweat covering his perfect, bronze chest, his silver hair falling around him like a veil.

The sight of him like that wrenched Alec’s orgasm from him with such sudden force that he almost blacked out, and he clenched around Sebastien’s still-twitching cock as he spilled all over himself. Vaguely, he felt Sebastien trying to withdraw, but he grunted, “Don't… not yet… please… I… unngghh…” Unable to finish the sentence as the last shock waves fluttered through him, Alec went limp against the bed, breathing hard, his blood roaring in his ears.

He wasn’t sure how much time passed before Sebastien did finally move, but eventually he slid his softening cock out of him and Alec grunted at the cool slide of the vampire’s release down his thigh. He was too spent and exhausted to care about the mess though, and as Sebastien collapsed onto the bed beside him, he cracked one eye open.

Sebastien lay on his left side with his cheek pillowed on his bicep, facing Alec with his eyes closed, and he didn’t seem to be breathing. Tentatively, clumsily in the daze of his recent, mind-blowing orgasm, Alec reached out and touched the delicate skin on the inside of his arm. Sebastien jolted like he’d received an electric shock, and opened his eyes. They still burned bright red, but the rest of his face seemed a little softer somehow.

“You alright?” Alec asked.

Sebastien nodded.

“Been a while too, huh?” Alec grinned, flopping back down to stare at the ceiling where little points of light still sparkled across his vision every now and again.

“Not since that last night with you,” he said, words slurred with exhaustion. “Unless you count my rather pathetic climax alone last night, which I certainly don’t.”

“Not at all?”

He shook his head but didn’t speak again. The vampire lay perfectly still — perfectly undead — and perfectly vulnerable beside him without even a sheet to cover him. His cock now lay soft across the top of his right thigh, still drooling a little and making a mess on his olive skin. Not half as much mess as Alec was currently sporting over his torso, he mused with another smile.

With Sebastien showing no sign of stirring, Alec rolled carefully off the bed and headed on shaky legs to the shower. When he returned, Sebastien hadn’t moved, and he slid in beside him, drawing the sheets up around them and lying there to stare at him in the dimness of the unlit room, processing everything. Sebastien was back, and apparently wanted to stay. He could hardly believe how well that day had gone.

Waking the next morning with a cool, lean body pressed against him, Alec sighed, relieved that it hadn’t all been some kind of fever dream brought on by the stress of the exhibition.

The fact that the man next to him was an undead vampire who didn’t breathe in his sleep was a bit unnerving, and the way he had his cheek now resting on Alec’s collarbone and his nose pressed against his neck should also probably have been a bit of a warning, but Alec couldn’t bring himself to move, except to place a soft kiss on his forehead.

Suddenly, as if surfacing from boundless depths, Sebastien’s body heaved and he drew in a great, sucking, rasping inhale through his mouth. His lips brushed against Alec’s pulse and Sebastien began breathing heavily there for a moment.

“That will never not be weird,” Alec murmured.

“Apologies,” Sebastien muttered, trying to roll away. He paused, freezing, and then whispered, “I fell asleep…” as if that was something miraculous.

“Yeah, you passed out almost as soon as we both finished,” he snickered.

Sebastien turned his big, dark, doe eyes on Alec and said, “No, you don’t understand. Vampires don’t just shut down like that the way humans do. We only sleep somewhere we know is secure and safe…”

“Oh,” Alec said significantly as the realisation plunged through him. He tucked his arm under Sebastien’s head and tugged him closer so that their bodies were once again flush with one another. “I’m glad you felt safe…”

Sebastien sighed, trailing his fingertips across Alec’s chest in absent circles. His cock twitched too, and Alec shot him a look.

With a bashful smile, Sebastien said, “I can’t help that I find you attractive, Alec…”

“Wasn't complaining,” he grinned.

It was a long time before they rolled off each other that morning, with the sun well up and the sheets damp with sweat and tangled around their ankles. Vampires, it seemed, had a longer refractory period than humans, but Sebastien also came so big when he did that Alec wasn’t surprised. He gave everything to Alec when he came that Alec could quite happily lie there all day just staring at him as he came down afterwards.

The room was chilly, however, and when Sebastien seemed to have dozed off again around ten o’clock, he headed to clean up. Again.

As the steam billowed around him, he tipped his head back into the stream of searing water and nearly yelped as the shower door opened and let in a rush of cold air as Sebastien stepped into the stall as well. Cool hands found his waist and then strong fingers kneaded his arse appreciatively before Sebastien kissed and nibbled up his shoulder and traps to his neck. Instinctively, Alec tilted his head to one side and Sebastien moaned, pressing open-mouthed kisses there over and over as the hot water coursed around his lips.

The sensation must have been too much for him because he pulled back sharply with a hiss and Alec turned to face him, water still streaming down around them. Sebastien stood frozen, eyes red, staring at Alec’s neck. “I shouldn’t…” he began. “That was stupid of me… I…”

“What happens to the treaty if the human is willing?” Alec found himself asking. He’d thought about it a lot before drifting off the previous night. If Sebastien had wanted to drink from him, to feed on him, what would happen to the tenuous peace between hunters and vampires like him.

“Don’t,” Sebastien said through gritted teeth. His canines were elongated, Alec noted.

“What happens?”

“The only way it’s permitted is if the human agrees by written contract to become the vampire’s source.”

“‘Source’?” he asked. “That sounds like an official title.”

“It is,” Sebastien said, relaxing a fraction and putting his hands back on Alec’s hips. His cock stirred with interest and Sebastien smiled. He leaned back in, as if proving to both of them that he could do this, and kissed down Alec’s neck again from the junction of his jaw all the way to his collarbones. He ground his hips against Alec and they both began to harden again.

Alec’s hand went to Sebastien’s cock and he started to stroke him gently, knowing he was still sensitive from their last round. Sebastien let out a ragged exhale, the cool breath making Alec shiver slightly in the heat of the water.

“So…” Alec pressed gently, thumbing across the top of Sebastien’s flushed cock.

“Hmm?” he asked, a little stunned.

“What is a source?”

“A human becoming a vampire’s source means that the vampire drinks only from that human. It’s… an ancient - ah - custom,” he said, gripping Alec’s shoulders as Alec upped the speed and adjusted his grip to tighten just a little around his now fully hard cock. “Rarely used today, but still… nngh…”

“Mmm?” Alec grinned, loving that the vampire’s thoughts were unravelling under his touch. “Go on.”

“You’re a menace,” he laughed breathily, nipping playfully at his neck and then kissing him hard. Alec’s back suddenly hit the icy tiles behind him and he yelped, rearing into Sebastien who wasn’t all that much warmer, though the heat of the water was raising his body temperature from the ambient temperature of the room.

“So if…” Alec began, somewhat distracted as Sebastien’s kisses continued and the vampire raked his fingers through Alec’s wet hair, scraping luxuriantly across his scalp hard enough to make him break off and groan. “If… if I wanted to become your…”

“Don’t,” Sebastien whispered. “Not yet. Not so soon after… all this time.”

The subtext was clear. Let’s see if this is going to last before I risk my life with the hunters guild and your family, shall we?

“Fair enough. Nothing to say I can’t suck you off now though, right?”

“Nothing at all,” he whispered and then immediately cursed as Alec sank to his knees and did just that.

It was only as he was handing in his own letter of resignation that the truth really sank in for Alec. He’d gone from post-grad assistant in the department to a full lecturer, where he’d stayed for six years, and now he was moving a little way out of the city, and moving in with his boyfriend of a year. A vampire, nonetheless. His life had gone from miserable to wonderful in that relatively short time.

Sebastien met him at the edge of campus after he’d handed the letter personally to the head of department. Standing under the verdant cherry trees, Sebastien looked like a vision. He wore tight, dark jeans and a loose shirt, half untucked, with his long hair tied back in a loose plait, fly-aways wisping around his head like mist. Alec walked straight up to him as the vampire opened his arms, flung his own arms around Sebastien’s neck, and hugged him.

“All done?” Sebastien asked without pulling back.

He nodded and popped back down from his toes. They were both tall men, but Sebastien had a few inches on him still. With a slightly doe-eyed expression, Sebastien smiled and kissed him gently. “I love you,” he said softly between kisses.

“Come on, you big sap,” Alec said. “I’ve got to be out of my apartment at four.”

“Such a romantic,” Sebastien sighed melodramatically.

With Sebastien’s supernatural strength, loading up the little van they’d hired for his stuff didn’t take long, and after giving his keys back to the landlord and signing the final bits and bobs, they were on the road.

The old farmhouse had been a find of Sebastien’s, and it needed some work. “Well, what else am I going to do on long, impossibly sunny summer days while you’re running your own business from the little art studio at the bottom of the garden?” Sebastien had laughed when they’d first viewed it, the back of his hand pressed to his forehead in a terribly ‘put upon’ gesture. “I might as well spruce the place up.”

“It needs more than a light ‘sprucing up’,” Alec had said, brows raised at the rotten wooden beam and the tired 1950’s kitchen. “And don’t tell me you made your wealth flipping houses back in the day.”

“Would you rather I told you I robbed the Bank of England and they still haven’t noticed?” he replied archly before planting a kiss squarely on Alec’s scratchy, stubble-darkened cheek.

With a scowl, Alec had shot him a look. “I honestly don’t know whether that’s a lie or not…”

“It’s a lie,” Sebastien snorted. “I can’t believe you think I’m a criminal.”

“You’re a vampire,” he’d retorted. “You could probably have just walked in there and demanded a small fortune in gold ingots and they wouldn’t have objected…”

“Please. I do have some scruples. And besides, I only use my charms on poor, miserable artists to get into their pants…”

“And their hearts too, apparently,” he’d scoffed as they’d left the dilapidated house with Sebastien’s hand in Alec’s back pocket, fingers firmly cupped around his arse.

It took another six months for the work to be completed, and even with Sebastien’s not inconsiderable talents in the DIY and home improvement departments, they still had to call in a team of builders to fix the pointing in one wall and to sort out a few other structural issues. But by the end of the work, the farmhouse was quite frankly the most stunning place Alec could ever have dreamed of living. Exposed oak beams and a fireplace big enough to park a tractor in were only half of the best features of the place.

One clear, frosty evening in late October, the pair sat outside on the recently finished patio, a small cast iron fire-pit crackling away and sending sparks and heat twisting up into the night sky, a glass of wine each in one hand and their free hand clasped around the other’s.

“Bastien…?” Alec said, not taking his eyes from the mother-of-pearl points of light in the sky above.

“Mmm?”

“I’ve been thinking a lot lately about… about becoming your source.” He didn’t miss the sharp inhale from his partner, nor the way Sebastien went completely still in the wooden chair beside him. He also didn’t say anything. “I’d… I’d like to ask how often you’d need to feed from me, and… what the repercussions would be for me as the human…”

Still Sebastien didn’t speak for a long time, and Alec worried he’d spoilt the serenity of their evening with the sensitive question. Finally, the vampire cleared his throat and Alec realised with a jolt that he was near tears.

“Bast?”

At the sound of the pet-name, Sebastien blinked rapidly and two mirroring tears tracked down his cheeks in perfect synchrony. “I thought you’d forgotten all about it,” he said in a hoarse croak. “I didn’t want to bring it up again.”

“You should have done, silly,” Alec groused, and he was met with a watery smile that didn’t meet his eyes at all.

“Well, to answer your questions,” he said, trying to sound unaffected even if he clearly was. “Every three months is safe enough, so long as you take an iron supplement. If you don’t, you might feel a little more tired right afterwards. We generally take slightly less than a person would give at a blood donation, if that helps put it into context.”

Alec turned and frowned at him.

“What?”

“You’ve gone all clinical,” he said, shuffling a little and setting his wine glass down on the edge of the stone fire pit. “Do you not want this anymore?”

Sebastien swallowed thickly and looked away. In the ochre and copper flicker of the flames before them, his suddenly red eyes seemed to glow like coals. “More than you know…” he rasped.

“Then what’s the problem?”

He chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment before turning back to face Alec with glassy eyes. “I’m frightened.”

Alec’s scowl deepened and he rose from his chair to straddle and sink down into Sebastien’s lap. Settled in his new position, he kissed Bast’s lips and stroked his loose, white-blond hair out of his eyes. “Of what?”

“Losing control. It’s been… decades since… If I hurt you, Alec… it would break me.”

“How about we start small? Just a taste?”

Sebastien looked so young then in the firelight. He suddenly looked like the twenty year old man he had been when he’d been conscripted into the army and sent out to battle to die, only to be turned at the eleventh hour by a nurse in a field hospital who’d seen something special in him. Thank god she had, Alec mused.

Alec leaned back a little and brought his index finger slowly to Sebastien’s lips. The vampire swallowed, red gaze drifting down to watch its approach before looking back at Alec’s face, searching, questioning, doubting.

Alec nodded and slid his fingertip a few millimetres into Sebastien’s mouth. The vampire inhaled, closed his eyes, and then opened his mouth properly. Alec brought the pad of his fingertip to the underside of his right canine, and pressed.

After a moment, the pressure gave way and a prick of pain like a needle pierced his skin. A bead of blood welled there instantly and he withdrew to let it swell. Sebastien clearly smelled the blood because his pupils dilated and he sucked in a sharp breath.

“Easy,” Alec said. “It’s only a drop.” And with that, he turned his finger over and held it above the tip of Sebastien’s tongue.

Paralysed in a heartbeat of terror, Sebastien sat rigid, frozen, wide eyed, but Alec lowered his finger to meet the slight roughness of his tongue, and Sebastien’s eyes rolled. He moaned and let his tongue play across the tiny pinprick wound, fingers digging into Alec’s hips. The tiny wound had already stopped bleeding, but he sucked gently, drawing a little taste more. Then he released Alec and stared at him, a look of stunned awe on his beautiful face.

“How was that?” Alec asked, briefly thumbing a fond arc across Sebastien’s cheekbone before dropping his hand.

“Manageable,” Sebastien murmured.

“Ok, I have to ask, do I taste good?”

The tense spell that encapsulated both of them broke and Sebastien cracked a smile, fangs and all. “Yes,” he rasped.

“So… I can become your source?”

“If you wish it, yes. You can withdraw the honour at any time. I won’t hold you to it.”

“Good to know,” he said, only half laughing. A moment later, he said, “When… When do you want to start… you know… properly. Formally?”

Sebastien’s eyes had drifted to the rabbiting pulse in his neck.

“Now?” he asked. “It’s only been a few weeks since you went to the blood bank though…”

“That’s…” he said, hands finding Alec’s waist and holding him gently. “That probably works in my favour this time. Are you sure you want this?”

“To be ‘yours’ on your terms as well as mine? Of course,” he smiled, and watched as another tear rolled down his perfect olive cheek. He tilted his head to one side, feeling a little sheepish, and said in barely a whisper, “Whenever you like.”

“Really? Now?” Sebastien hissed, chest suddenly heaving. “Just like that?”

Alec laughed quietly. “It’s not as if we’ve just met. I know you, Bast. I trust you. I wouldn’t offer this to just any old vampire, you know?”

Unable to stop the smile from twisting his lips, Sebastien finally relented with a nod. “Alright. But not here. You’re going to want to be more comfortable.”

“But I’m already comfortable here,” he whined playfully, wiggling his hips in Sebastien’s lap, eliciting a deep, rumbling groan.

With a roll of his red eyes, Sebastien sighed. “Stubborn arse,” he grumbled without sting.

“You love my arse.”

“Yes, you’re right. I do,” he said.

Tenderly he ran his thumb down the line of Alec’s carotid and inhaled deeply. “I love you,” he whispered. And then he leaned close. He took his time kissing Alec’s neck until he was gasping and rocking his hips against Sebastien.

“Please…”

“Last chance,” Sebastien said against the skin of his throat.

Alec shook his head. “I want this. I’m yours.”

So the vampire sank his fangs into the artery. After the initial surprise and sting, Alec’s whole body lit up as the venom hit his bloodstream, and he bucked into Sebastien who held him still with what should have been frightening ease. There was no fear behind the gesture, only longing and love and sweet, aching, rolling, unending pleasure.

“Oh fuck,” Alec moaned, going limp in his arms as Sebastien began to feed, withdrawing his fangs to draw more deeply on him while he held him easily in his arms. The vampire moaned, lips locked against his skin so as not to spill anything. The motion of his throat suddenly fascinated Alec as he swallowed down his own life-force, but before he could raise his hand to touch fingertips to his Adam’s apple, pleasure exploded in his mind and he forgot everything.

When he came back to himself, he was inside, lying on their bed, with a small, soft dressing over his neck, and Sebastien sitting quietly on the bed beside him, staring down at him and holding his hand. As he blinked his eyes, he frowned. “What…?”

“It’s intense the first time,” Sebastien murmured fondly. “I did say you’d want to be somewhere more comfortable.”

“ S’perfect,” he slurred. “Fuck me…” he added, more curse than command.

“Maybe later, hmm?” Sebastien smiled. There was a flush to his cheeks that Alec had never seen before, and a brightness to his eyes.

“C’mere,” Alec said, patting the bed beside him. With Sebastien lying silently next to him, Alec rolled over and hooked one leg over Bast’s thigh. “Love you,” he mumbled, sinking into a deep and exhausted sleep, even as Sebastien’s hand came up to cradle his head.

The vampire smiled, kissing his forehead. “I love you too.”

___

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#vampire #exophilia #male vampire #male vampire x human #male vampire x male human #vampire x human

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lunar-wandering · 3 years

Text

i don’t wanna fight alone anymore - chapter 3

let’s go-

read on ao3

"So what you're telling me is-" MK started, crossing his arms. "-the first thing we need to get on our journey is down there?"

As he said this, he pointed down at the, fairly large, river the ship had landed beside.

"Yep, that's right!" Wukong said, "It's supposedly guarded by some kind of river demon, or something similar. Not sure really, the details weren't exactly clear on that."

"Alright, well then let's go-" MK started, moving to jump off the ship and into the water-

Wukong stopped him, wrapping his tail around MK's waist and pulling him back onto the ship. MK stumbled a little at the sudden change in direction, grabbing onto the golden sleeves of Wukong's loose-fitting shirt for balance. The Monkey King easily steadied him, although the purple scarf he was wearing around his neck slipped a little in the process.

(MK had, the night after they left the mansion, found Wukong sitting in the common area, carefully fixing the tear in the fabric. It wasn't the best fix, the golden thread he'd used made it obvious that it had needed to be repaired in the first place, but it was fixed. Wukong started wearing it the next day.

MK, rather wisely, didn't comment on it.)

"Hold on there, bud." Wukong said, letting go of MK once he was steady. "You can't just jump in there all gung-ho. You're perfectly mortal right now, remember? You'd drown if you tried to go down there."

"Oh....right." MK said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry, I forgot. But if I'm not going then-"

"We'll send Sandy, Mei, and Pigsy down!" Wukong said, causing the aforementioned people to look up at him in surprise.

"Yes! Water Adventure time!" Sandy and Mei cheered, before running off into the ship- presumably to get the material's they'd need. Pigsy, on the other hand, looked at Wukong with irritation.

"And why do we have to go down, huh?" He asked, "Why not just go down there yourself?"

"Uhhh...." Wukong paused for a moment, trying to think of an answer that would be deemed reasonable.

"What? Don't want to get your fur wet?" Pigsy asked, though there was a slight teasing tone to his voice now. Off to the side, from where he was reclining in a chair, a pair of sunglasses and a cool drink in hand, Tang sighed.

"Come on, Pigsy." He said, sitting up. "Everyone knows that the Monkey King is useless at fighting underwater."

"What?!" Pigsy turned to look at Wukong, who very pointedly looked away from everyone else's gaze, nervously rubbing his arm. "What do we do if there's something down there that we have to fight then?"

"Just lure them up to the surface and I'll punch them?" Wukong suggested, and MK snorted in response.

"Literally when did that strategy ever work for you?" He asked, and Wukong lightly punched him in the arm.

"Shut up." He hissed, before clearing his throat awkwardly. "Anyways. Yeah I'm...not the best underwater. I'm sure you three will do just fine though!"

"You say that but-" Pigsy started, only to be interrupted as Sandy and Mei reemerged from inside the ship, carrying various objects they'd presumably need. Sandy picked Pigsy up with one arm, before jumping off the side of the ship.

"Have fun!" Wukong yelled, he and MK waving down at them. Pigsy glared in response.

"When I get back, you better be ready for some underwater training!" He yelled.

"Hear that MK? Pigsy's going to help you learn how to fight underwater." Wukong said. MK smirked.

"You know, for some reason, I don't think he was talking about me."

"So....What are we looking for, exactly?" Mei asked, as she, Pigsy and Sandy floated at the bottom of the river.

"You couldn't think to ask that before we dove under?" Pigsy said, before sighing. "I don't know. Monkey King said something about looking around for a weapon of some sort, honestly would it have hurt him to be a little more specific-"

"I found it."

Mei and Pigsy looked over in shock, to see Sandy holding, what seemed to be, a rather ordinary rake.

"...That's what we came down here to get?" Pigsy asked, "It just looks like a regular old rake to me."

"Trust me." Sandy said, placing the rake into Pigsy's hands, "It's what we're looking for."

"....Well this was underwhelming." Mei said, leaning back, letting herself float on her back. "Didn't Monkey King say there was meant to be guards? I was expecting a bit more of a fight."

"Don't say that." Pigsy said, tightening his grip on the rake, looking around them nervously. "You'll jinx it. I'd rather avoid having to fight some giant monster. That's the monkey's job."

"Well we can't just let him do all the work." Sandy said, "Monkey King deserves to be able to relax too, y'know?"

Pigsy was kept from arguing that statement, as suddenly the riverbed shook, vibrations slicing through the water, knocking the three of them unsteady.

"Thieves!" A voice yelled, and the three of them turned to see a river demon approaching them. "You will not leave this river alive-"

The demon froze as he took them in, and Mei smirked, fully ready and prepared to fight a battle.

"...Wait." The demon said, looking them over, before glancing up at where the ship easily floated on the water. "Are you....with the Monkey King?"

"Yes, we are." Pigsy said, and the demon looked between him, the rake, then back up to the ship.

"....Yeah, it's not worth it." They said, and then vanished in a flurry of bubbles. Mei slumped, disappointed that she didn't get to fight, while Sandy patted her back comfortingly. Pigsy, however, slumped in relief.

"Well, at least that's one thing we won't have to deal with." Pigsy sighed, before looking back up to the ship. "On the other hand though.... we still might be hanging around this river a while longer."

"Oh, are you back already? That was fast." Wukong said, leaning casually against the rail, looking down at where Pigsy, Mei, and Sandy floated in the water. "I hope you didn't run into any trouble down there."

"Demon ran away as soon as they realized we were with you." Mei grumbled, "It was disappointing. I was looking forwards to a fight."

"Aw, don't worry, I'm sure you'll get to fight something eventually." Wukong said, laughing. "Anyways, why don't you take MK down there to spar?"

MK didn't even wait for Mei to give a positive answer, grabbing hold of the stick he'd been using as a temporary staff, and jumping over the railing, splashing into the water. Mei laughed, and she and Sandy disappeared back under the water, bringing MK down with them.

Pigsy stayed, floating, staring up at Wukong.

"....What?" Wukong asked, "Do you need help getting out, I can help if you need-"

As he started saying this, he leaned further over the railing, his purple scarf trailing over the side. Seeing the opportunity he'd been waiting for, Pigsy stuck the rake out of the water, latched onto the fabric, and pulled, tugging Wukong over the railing with a yelp, and the monkey went splashing into the water.

Pigsy bit back a chuckle as he swam down to the riverbed, where Wukong now sat, arms crossed, pouting.

"I told you I'd teach you how to fight underwater." Pigsy said.

"I thought you were joking!" Wukong said, before sighing, running a hand over his face. "Seriously though, you're not gonna be much help. It's just a fact of life, the Monkey King can't fight underwater."

"We'll see about that." Pigsy said, and Wukong huffed, not even bothering to stand up. "Tell me, why is it that you can't fight underwater?"

"Dunno. Just can't." Wukong said, "Trust me, I've tried. Always lost."

"I can't teach you if we don't know what you're doing wrong first." Pigsy said, "C'mon, attack me."

At that, Wukong stood up, a wicked smirk taking over his face.

"You sure? I am, after all, the Monkey King-"

"Enough bragging, just do it."

Wukong lunged forwards, aiming for a punch- but Pigsy easily sidestepped, using the rake to hit Wukong on the back. Wukong stumbled, struggling for a moment to regain his footing on the sand floor. Pigsy moved to hit Wukong in the chest, and Wukong tried to pull back, going for a backflip-

Only to struggle mid flip, falling out of it and kinda wobbling as he tried to right himself, before landing back on the riverbed, his feet slipping out from underneath of him as the ground shifted, and he fell back down on his back.

"...Okay, I see the problem." Pigsy said, casually leaning on the rake as he looked down at Wukong. The way he was positioned almost reminded Wukong of-

No. He wasn't going to think about that. Not know.

"Do enlighten me, great Pigsy, as to what is the problem." Wukong said, groaning a little as he sat up, trying to brush the sand out of his fur.

"Simple, really, you're used to fighting with speed. Air and water are different, Wukong." Pigsy explained, and Wukong rolled his eyes.

"Yes I know that-"

"You didn't let me finish. When fighting, you rely on speed, acrobatics, and force. Basically, to make a long explanation short, you're trying to move like you're in the air, but water is more dense, and thus requires you to move differently. The force of the water is making you move slower, and throwing you off balance." Pigsy said, holding out his hand to help Wukong stand up. "Listen, fighting underwater is less about speed itself, and more so about timing."

".....Huh?" Wukong clearly wasn't getting it, from the confused look he was giving him. Pigsy rubbed the bridge of his nose. Gods, this was going to be a lot harder than he thought it was going to be.

"You move slower in water. Thus, in a fight, you need to be able to predict where your enemy is going to go, as well as figure out where you have to go. Not only that, but you need to be sure you move at the right time to be in the spot you need to be in. You can't just make split-second decisions based on impulse when underwater, you have to think in advance." Despite Pigsy's attempt to clarify the explanation, Wukong just looked more and more confused.

"....Yeah, I think I'm going to fail this class." Wukong said, and Pigsy face palmed.

A few hours later, the whole gang was back on the deck of the ship, eating some noodles Pigsy had prepared for them. Of course, Wukong, not being one for cooked food, sat slightly off to the side, eating some peaches.

"You know, I've been wondering." Mei asked, looking at him, "Are peaches like. The only thing that you eat?"

"...No." Wukong said, sounding very unconvincing. "I eat...other things."

"Come to think of it, I think I've only seen you eat things that are peach flavored." MK said, "Well. That and your own hair."

There was a few noises of disgust from the others upon that revelation, although Wukong just shrugged, clearly unbothered by it.

"I eat what I eat." He said, going to take another bite of his peach-

And then something knocked into him, sending the bowl of fruit flying as he was knocked back. The others ducked, shielding their heads, not sure what had just come at them. Wukong grunted as his back hit the deck, his eyes closing instinctively, although they flew open again once he realized someone's hands were on his shoulders.

Despite the injuries covering the other person, he knew immediately who it was.

"Macaque." He hissed, and Macaque smirked.

"Ha. I finally found you."

#Monkie Kid #my writing #season 3 fanfic

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paperstarwriters · 3 years

Text

The arcana crew as beast-kin

Why? Because I wanna :P

General notes:

Everyone is based off of the card they’re associated with

Beast-kin tend to have magic that lets them look human (three forms; 1: anthropomorphic beast, 2: human with animal ears/wings and tails, and them as a normal human—I’ll be focusing on the animal aspects)

Just because they can do glamour magic doesn’t mean they can do other types of magic.

They still have their familiars, don’t worry.

If you wanna reference for the first form, just watch Beastars. The design is pretty similar (mainly thinking about the birds)

If you wanna reference for beast-kin in general check out the manga “Milady Just Wants to Relax” it’s what I’ve based the abilities off of and just beast-kin in general.

Asra

This sly fox :)

It’s probably because of my ties with anime but I imagine him like a multi-tailed fox

It’s purely so that you have more tails to cuddle and snuggle with.

You know how when foxes are in the snow they leap into the air then get their whole upper half stuck in the snow?

Well, when Asra hears something they want to catch, or they’re playing with Faust, they sometimes just... well....

It’s funny to see honestly.

Lowkey acts like a dog sometimes. They Loves the pats and chin scratches he can get and will whine until you give him more.

Sometimes you wake up to their tail(s) in your face. Good or bad, you decide.

In most folklore that have them, foxes aren’t exactly trusted, so often, Asra uses his glamour to make himself look like a human. However, when a customer runs unsavoury or maybe there’s just some mean brat that he wants to scare, his shadow still shows off his ears and tail(s)

Cuddles??? Cuddles!!!! Foxes are just so fluffy... Asra is no different. (In fact he might just be even fluffier)

Hate to delve a little into angst territory, but as a child since he was an orphan and all, Asra probably learned to basically act like a dog or a cat depending on the person to get more food, or to convince them that they’re a harmless beast-kin.

Nadia

Design wise, I love humanoid bird designs with their wings doubling as their arms and hands. Don’t ask me how this works logically right now we’re talking about crazy fantasy elements anyways, let me have this.

One thing I cannot get out of my mind is:

Nadia has her back to Lucio and he’s just talking and chattering nonsense. Then Lucio says something insanely stupid or offensive and whoever is talking to Lucio can see Nadia behind him just—

Whips her freaking head around 180°

It’s worse if she’s somewhere dark cause then you just see two red eyes coming into view as she slowly turns to glare at you.

Our queen is proud of her pretty talons, honestly probably spends a day sharpening them with Portia.

Goes out flying with Chandra at dusk if she has the time, and if you can fly (via spells, wings, a broomstick, etc.) you’re welcome to come along

Super accurate hearing. Honestly. It’s hard to hide an injury from Nadia even without her being an owl but she hears you Yelp in pain on the other side of the palace and she’s there in minutes.

Pretty problematic when she has headaches though :(

Preen feathers with her!! She’ll love having you card your fingers though her feathers making them less itchy. You’ll often help her preen after a bath, but honestly she’ll appreciate the sentiment anywhere but during an important meeting. It’s hard to concentrate when you’re providing her such wonderful affection.

Please don’t make owl jokes. She doesn’t like them. Sometimes she just avoids saying “who” so people don’t make that annoying joke. (It’s Natiqa’s favorite joke to make please spare Nadia the pain.)

“...and to whom will I be sending this?” “don’t you mean to “who” Dia?” *glare*

Julian

This is a happy raven ok? HAPPY. no birdie in a cage, ok?

The look we all know is probably his second form leaning to the first. Nadia’s would look somewhat similar

Crows & ravens are pretty dramatic birds. Reminds you of someone doesn’t it?

Idk if Edger Allan Poe even exists in this world, or any variant of it, but if it does... ooohhh if it does... this guy is totally gonna recite the poem in a dramatic flourish, and when he’s drunk you can sometimes find him chanting “ever more” same applies to any and all raven/crow themed media.

Screams. A lot. “Caw, caw b**ch” or “quoth the raven: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

Once convinced a bunch of birds to just go n take a dump on Lucio & his statue. He helped the servants clean when the work was dumped on them but they all agreed the bleat he made was hilarious(more on that later)

Shiny thing collector. Portia tried to get him to clean his stuff up but he has since bribed her out of it with a ball of yarn.

He and Portia make an odd pair of siblings, they’re still pretty much the same though. Crows are kinda just cats with wings.

“One day Illia, I’m probably just gonna eat you.”

*overly dramatic offended gasp*

All in good humor lol

Speaking of, their familiars are the same animal as they are!

So sometimes Julian scoops up Malak and says in a dramatic fashion (because however else would he say it) “I’ve found you my long lost brother! Oh how I’ve missed you!”

Portia does the same (more on that later)

Because his sister is a cat, Julian sometimes does a lot of cat-like things. (Case in point, he bleps. Tongue just kinda left out after yawning or something.)

Flies around with Malak often, like Nadia does, and sometimes carries Portia around with him. Will do the same for you if you want him to, sometimes if you don’t want him to as well. Expect to be grabbed from the ground and flown up into the sky at some point.

Bread. Boy loves his lobster claws but bread is a close second. “Aww yisss motha freaking bread crumbs”

Sometimes on a bad day, he just walks in dragging Pepi behind him who has her mouth latched on his tail

Portia

(If this were modern times) “you know, like, nya~!”

Look. Portia is so sweet to be around. But take that plus PURRING? And a soft as all frick FUR?

Honestly I think that sometimes when with Nadia has a bad headache, Portia purring is a great way to calm her down. You—you lucky MC, get to fall asleep to that.

She falls asleep on your lap and you are stuck there. Bound by a rule that transcends time and space. Her purring does little to aid the fact that YOU NEED TO PEE. The universe does not care of your internal tides, for your lover, who is also a cat, rests in your lap.

When she’s chasing down Julian for something stupid he often yells about being hunted. All in good fun!

“Mazelinka!!! Portia’s hunting me again!!!” “I wouldn’t be chasing you if you’d just clean your stuff!!!!”

Small boxes are her jam! Julian hates them, and like other birds doesn’t like closed spaces, but Portia loves em.

Good at squeezing into and out of tight places. Which is really helpful for sneaking around, curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Swishy swishy tail.

Cast a little light spell for her to case down. She loves it, you love it, Pepi loves it— everyone wins! (Except for the furniture she crashes into)

Yes, she has picked up Pepi before and yelled very loudly for Julian to hear (often after he’s made the joke of his long lost brother Malak) “Oh Pepi, you’re my favorite sister!!!”

On a bad day, Malak may be found in Portia’s mouth. He’s completely unharmed if only a little ruffled, but it’s gotta be a pretty bad day to find her doing that.

If Camio is in her mouth it’s same business as always. She won’t kill hem either but if Mr. Sh**bird doesn’t shut up she’ll make him shut up. You don’t even know why he keeps coming back.

Not all cats like cuddling, but like Pepi, Portia LOVES it. So long as you’re the right person and not someone unpleasant.

Please don’t step on the tail.

As much as she doesn’t like baths she still does properly was herself. She just really doesn’t like it when her fur is all wet and clings to her body. Do you have a spell to dry her off quickly? Please use it. Save her the misery.

Muriel

pretty sure he’s even bigger as a bear. Like, it’s probably because of the added fur but— woah... Big. Bear.

Big arse bear with scars is SUPER intimidating buuuuut you saw him sitting in the sunlight with Inanna once, just napping in the sun. He looked so peaceful and so dang fluffy!!

He enjoys headpats and gets very flustered at belly rubs. He’s seen you do so to Inanna many times probably kinda wanting you to do the same to him though he would never willingly admit it.

When you two get closer expect to spend some time with his head in your lap. Pat his head rub his ears, Inanna may get jealous if you don’t also provide her attention

Just don’t let him fall asleep there, he’s gonna have a sore back later and you’re going to have numb legs.

Hunting, swimming, carrying you, this boy can do it all.

Unlike his usual(cannon) self, Muriel probably doesn’t carve any bear statures. The only one he’d have was probably a gift from Asra. Carves birds, bunnies, foxes, and wolves instead. Does NOT carve goats. Never have never will.

Again I hate to go int angst but Muriel probably wants to get his claws removed somehow. It’d hurt and it probably insanely unsafe, but they were used as weapons before and its one of the things on him that everyone is afraid of. If he could he’d probably try to change his teeth too.

Show him that claws aren’t something to be feared. They don’t have to be a weapon. They help him climb and hunt food and sometimes to even carve wood. Like humans and knives, his claws aren’t bad or inherently evil, and neither is he.

Giant. Teddy Bear. You will be getting hugs and falling asleep with a Giant Teddy Bear.

He probably keeps in his mostly human form though, because he stands out less that way and he looks a little less intimidating.

Short little bear tail on his butt. Plz don’t touch, he’s going to be blushing so hard if you do (let’s be honest, that’s all the more reason to do so)

In “Milady Just Wants to Relax” Beast-kin are feared as monsters and I don’t think it’d do Muriel any good to have to live with that kind of fear from everyone. However, when you come around un afraid and eager to provide head-pats, but patient enough to let him get comfortable with it, Muriel will probably start using less energy to try and glamour himself.

Sometimes he’s so caught up with you that when you go to the market together he forgets to cast a glamour. While some do get scared off most of the people who you buy from are only a little surprised and take things in stride. They still treat him like he’s human, and he’s forever grateful for that.

If I could write a beast-kin version of his route, the moment you and Muriel meet Morga is probably when you first realize he isn’t human. And it’s because Morga pointed it out.

“Why didn’t you fight? As a beast you’re stronger than them.”

He knows you’ve spent time with Asra but he probably assumed they kept it hidden from you most of the time.

Just love him please. Platonic or romantic doesn’t matter, just give him headpats and belly rubs and boop his nose. Keep him assured that you aren’t afraid of this giant teddy bear.

Lucio

We know of both first and second forms. They’re pretty much cannon, but just not a ghost.

Which means you finally get to pet the fluffy white fur.

This also means his horns can do an irritating amount of damage.

Also he’s so much more noisier now

*loud stupid goat noises*

It’s fun to make him bleat a lot. He tends to bleat when embarrassed. If you’re topping him expect a bleat every time you pin him to the wall.

Tries to butt heads with EVERYONE. Please stop him, Lucio is the only prey animal in the lineup!

Seriously, how has he survived this long?? Muriel is a bear! he could just.... chomp.

not that he would obviously, but I don’t think Asra would hesitate after what he’s done to you and his parents...

Portia too for that matter, if she realized that Lucio had forcefully given Julian the plague, Lucio would be forever running from a feral cat.

I know he’s probably skilled in fighting or whatever, enough to take down various fantastical beasts, but stiiiiiiilllll.....

Is it obvious I dislike Lucio?

Grouchy bias aside, Lucio is really good at climbing. Like I’m pretty sure he’s a sword fighter so just imagine him leaping onto ledges in order to get the high ground.

Still uses eyeliner. I don’t know how since he has fur sometimes, but yeah, he still somehow uses eyeliner.

Honestly he probably keeps in a mostly human form or just entirely human form for that reason exactly. It’s just easier to look good when he’s more human.

But if you wanna pet his luxurious fur then he is all but willing to take on his goat form. In fact, if he turns into his goat form around you (which is always) he pretty much expects you to brush his fur or just run your hands through his fur. He will whine very loudly if you don’t.

Spare everyone else’s ears (especially Nadia’s) and just give him the head pats.

#the arcana #the arcana headcannons #the arcana portia #the arcana asra #the arcana julian #the arcana nadia #the arcana muriel #the arcana lucio #muriel the mountain man #muriel the hermit #muriel of the kokhuri #count lucio #lucio fontana #nadia stratinava #asra alzanar #julian devorak #portia devorak

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thatringboy · 3 years

Note

Hey there!

Saw ur post bout wanting requests and I'm happy to oblige. Percabeth is my absolute OTP and so I would love to read some fics based on them, esp when you write them soo well🥺

1.I've always wanted to read a fic where Annabeth spoons Percy! I think that wud be so cute.

2.Or would love to see a fic where one of them cant sleep at night so they go do smtg spontaneous, like stargazing or roadtrip or trip to McDonald's hehe.

3.A prompt (if that's how you take requests): "Did you just kiss my Achilles Spot?"

omfgggggg the amount of fluff i shoved into this is almost puke level. but percabeth will never get to that level. anyways i decided to do all three prompts because i couldn't pick one. enjoy!

Stargazing in Grey

Warnings: Rachel Elizabeth Dare being a little shit, but we love her anyways (so in other words, none)

Characters: Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Rachel Elizabeth Dare (but only for like two lines at the very end)

Ships: Percabeth

Word Count: 1,405

Summary: Percabeth sneaks out of their cabins to go stargazing and realize (again) how much they love each other. Takes place between the end of HOO and the beginning of TOA

“You know… we could have just taken some Melatonin or something.” Percy made a confused face.

Annabeth rolled her eyes despite knowing that he probably couldn’t see her do that in the dark. “And where’s the fun in that?”

“Who are you and what have you done to my rule-following Wise Girl?” His smile was audible in his voice.

She elbowed him in the stomach and fell back onto the grass of Camp Half-Blood hill, her grey eyes searching the night sky. Constellations danced across her gaze and a smile curled over her lips. Percy’s eyes adjusted to the night enough for him to be able to see her features illuminated by the moonlight.

Gods, she’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.

“What was that?” Annabeth sat up.

Percy realized he had whispered his thoughts out loud and plopped himself down in the grass next to her. “Nothing! So tell me, Wise Girl,” he pointed up at the stars. “Which one is that constellation?”

She laid back down and followed his finger to where he was pointing. “Oh, that’s just Heracles.”

Percy made a gagging sound. “Oh gods not that guy!”

That was the game they played: Percy pointed out a constellation, Annabeth identified it and they repeated. Percy told stupid jokes just to hear Annabeth’s laughter and he felt like he was walking on air everytime he heard it.

This was his Wise Girl, he realized. Starting from “you drool when you sleep” all those years ago and now sneaking out of their cabins at night to watch the stars when the nightmares became too much. Everything else in his life was fleeting and frankly at the mercy of ungrateful gods, but Annabeth was his constant. She was his tie to mortality when he dipped in the River Styx, she was the one thing he remembered when Hera stole his memories and sent him west and she was the one who held his hand in Tartarus when the world quite literally swallowed him up. And now that they had survived two Great Prophecies and were finishing up the summer in Long Island before heading to New Rome, the realization of how much Annabeth completed him struck Percy in the heart. She was the one who kept him humane when he wanted to unleash his destructive powers, she was the one who treated his wounds when he hurt himself against monsters and she was the one who curled up and cuddled him when the whole world was against them.

How in Hades was he so lucky to have fallen for her and for her to have fallen right back - quite literally in their case.

When they had finished their game, Percy found himself staring at her once more. He could examine her face for years and still find new things to fascinate himself with. If he was given Pandora’s box and told that the Hope at the bottom was Annabeth, he’d rip the lid off in a heartbeat and slay all of the monsters that jumped out with her.

She yawned, pulling Percy back into reality, and stretched her arms. “We should probably head back before Malcolm wakes up and flips on us.”

Percy pouted like a child and turned over in the grass to face away from her. “No! This was your idea and I wanna stay!”

Annabeth sighed and scooted closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her face into his back. “You’re such a child, no wonder you live with your mother at eighteen.”

He wiggled a bit so that he could turn his head to glare at her. “I’ll have you know that I missed half of being sixteen and half of being seventeen!”

She squeezed the skin of his stomach to shut him up and the two laid there spooning in the grass for a bit. Annabeth could feel his heartbeat and the way his lungs expanded when he breathed and sighed at the realness of it all. For six months, she was without him. After years of fighting by his side, he had just vanished and both of them were pulled into another Olympus-Destroying calamity that they had to fix. She had found herself cursing out the gods during that time, begging to know why did it always have to be her family that got messed over by the gods? For once, couldn’t someone else take up the mantle? Thalia had died then joined the Hunt, Luke was… well, Luke and all of the other campers moved on and away as time passed if they weren’t killed by monsters. Percy was the only constant she had and Hera had taken him away. Her Percy, the one who held up the sky for her. Her Percy, the one who fell into Tartarus for her. Her Percy, the one who held her tight when a curse had taken her vision and promised to never leave her. Her Percy, the one who turned down immortality for her. Annabeth hugged him tighter and pressed a kiss to his back. She was never letting go of him again.

"Did you just kiss my Achilles Spot?" He turned his head to look at her again.

She pulled her head back and blinked. It must have happened subconsciously while she was reminiscing about the past. “I guess I did, sorry.”

He rested his head on the ground again. “No no it’s fine, I just haven’t had anyone touch there in a while. I guess I’ve always protected it from people, even after the curse is gone.”

And that was another thing. His only weakness, the small of his back, he exposed it joyfully to her. He took his life and placed it into her hands because there was no one else in the entire world who Percy Jackson trusted more than Annabeth Chase.

She untangled herself and sat up. “But seriously, we should get back before the harpies start their pre-dawn rounds. Washing dishes in lava again does not sound like fun.”

He sat up with her and brushed a stray piece of grass off of her cheek with a wide smile. There was still a tiny sliver of grey hair from when they were younger and took turns holding up the sky. “Yeah… you’re right.”

“When am I not?” She leaned into his touch.

Inches, centimeters, touching. The only thought in Percy’s mind was how soft Annabeth’s lips felt against his own and how much she smelled like fresh ink on sunwarmed paper. Was that a scent? It was now. His calloused hands caressed her face like if he let go, she would crumble into sand between his fingertips and she eagerly gripped his shirt right back. For either the third or fourth time that evening, the whole world seemed to melt away. Two heartbeats became one, two souls linked together and two bodies pressed together in such a loving embrace that even Aphrodite herself would have turned away with a blush.

They came crashing back to the real world when the sound of a camera clicked behind them. The two jerked their heads to the sound to see a familiar redhead holding up a camera.

“Rachel Elizabeth Dare!” Annabeth's voice came out as a harsh whisper.

The Oracle of Delphi cackled as she turned heel and ran down the hill towards her cave. Annabeth moved to chase after her, but Percy grabbed her wrist, covering his mouth with his free hand to keep from laughing. “Let’s just get back to our cabins before she goes leaking that to Lou Ellen and Piper.”

The daughter of Athena couldn’t argue with that. They gathered themselves and made the trek back to the Athena cabin. They stood outside the door, not wanting the moment to end, but also understanding that they both needed sleep. Annabeth moved closer and pecked Percy one last time on the lips before heading inside.

Percy made the walk back to the Poseidon cabin with a goofy smile on his face and was humming a tune who’s name he couldn’t remember. His Wise Girl had broken the rules and was ready to fistfight the Oracle of Delphi to keep it a secret. He was so proud of his negative influence on her. He silently made a vow to get that picture from Rachel to hang up in his room in New Rome. It would brighten up his dorm tremendously.

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missdawnandherdusk · 4 years

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Ravenclaw Extensive Dating a Malfoy Headcanons:

Okay, so other than Ravenclaw and Slytherin I have two series with Draco and the other houses but they don’t always get the little moments so here I am adding them in as well as beginning the remaining houses. (Of course you all know how I feel about sorting but for the sake of Draco Malfoy being happy I’ll set that aside). Yes this has been done before but come on, you’re gonna read it anyway. I’ll do one for each house promise.

So being ravenclaw comes with the name calling “nerd” “four eyes” “freak” “weirdo” ya know real high brow stuff

Mostly it comes from Draco and his Slytherin classmates they feel threatened, you’re smart, go figure

It’s not that you’re “smart” it’s that you want to learn especially if you’re Muggle born because WHAT DO YOU MEAN MAGIC EXISTS

So you get good. Very good. At everything. Which infuriates Draco because you surpass him in Potions

He fails a Transfiguration quiz and McGonagall asks you to help him because you’re probably the only one who won’t punch him a-la-muggle

You protest but it’s no use, and McGonagall said she’ll give you extra credit and house points so, ya know what bring it

He hates it of course, sulking the entire time, muttering about “if my father knew about this” which just makes you smile because good lord he’s ridiculous

Your tutoring sessions give you time with Draco alone and though the first few times you’re terrified and stumble over your words, you get more comfortable with him and he’s less snappy at you

He has an ambition for knowledge, you have the means to give it to him

Soon he’ll start sitting next to you in class because you’re notes make more sense to him than the professor’s do

You come to realize that “oh my stars Draco might be dyslexic like you” you don’t mention it to him because you know he’d just shut down and get aggressive but it explains why he likes your notes so much: he can actually read them

People still make fun of your for your brains and knowledge, but it starts to fade over time and unbeknownst to you, Draco began to threaten anyone who bullied you; which accidentally put you on edge because you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop

You’re reading up on the American Revolution and Wizards involvement in the war when Draco comes to you, grinning

You look up at him, nervous and expecting

He hands you his latest Charms exam

He got full marks

You’re so excited you forget yourself and hug him which leads to blushing and awkward “good job” and “thanks”

One day Harry is being Harry with Draco and “she’s only helping you because she’s getting extra credit and house points” Draco knew that but hearing it from Harry is different

You go straight to McGonagall and tell her you don’t want the credit or points anymore you don’t tell draco this, because well... you don’t know

Your study session become less laughter filled and fun... Draco seems almost too distracted to focus on anything he’s moping

You reach over one time in class and draw a smiley face on his notes while he’s sulking. When he glares at you, you offer a smile and maybe he smiles back

“Are you okay?” You write under the smiley face. “Fine.” He scrawls. “I don’t believe you”

He stares at you like you have two heads. No ones ever pressed past his “I’m fine” charade before

That night you’re studying and he comes to you and starts to talk. It starts with school but it goes on to how his family is doing and the looming war and then he finally admits that he’s not as put together as he looks and that the only friend he has is being “paid” to be with him

“Draco, I stopped getting extra credit months ago,” You finally explain what you did after what Harry said that one day and he’s just dumbfounded so maybe his only friend wasn’t being paid to be with him

You introduce him to Muggle Coffee Monsters for late night studying and occasional all nighters theyre “really really really really good” he’s practically bouncing in his seat. You wonder if he’s ever had caffeine before...

You fail a potions test. Badly. Not that you meant to but you don’t know what happened. You try everything to hold back tears because you’ve never failed before. Draco gets perfect marks and you’re just dying inside and so ashamed because you’re supposed to be smart

Draco finds out even though you try to keep it from him and he chases after you in the hall not before pleading with Snape to have you redo the exam. Snape allows it

“Just leave me alone Draco,” you snap. “Just wait!” He calls. “Leave me alone!” You pull out your wand against him and he just freezes. You realize what you’ve done and run, tears streaming down your face

You don’t talk to him in class because you’re just so confused and ashamed and sorry. He slides a note over. “You’re more than a grade,” is written in his careful script. There’s a smiley face too.

You finally peek over at him and he offers you a smile now you’re really confused

You keep that note and whenever you’re stressed or get a grade less than you wanted you read it until the paper is faded and worn from its wear.

You retake the exam you take after Draco spends the week beforehand making sure you know exactly what you’re doing

“You can do this,” He insists. “No I can’t,” you groan, hopeless. “You’re being ridiculous, come on wise girl, if I can do it so can you.” The nickname started as a taunt but now it was something that only Draco was allowed to call you

You get full marks on your retake and run to find Draco and hug him in the middle of the Great Hall with everyone watching and maybe you kiss him because he believed in you when he leads to awkward blushing and stammering apologies before he pulls you back and really kisses you

There’s a chorus of “finally”s from the surrounding students and a few cheers the whole school shipped you two and it was just frustrated to watch you two pine for another

Draco leads you to a quiet corner of the castle, your exam still in your hand as he really asks you if you want this—to be with him. He knows he’s not the best person and goes on listing why he’s a bad person and yadda yadda yadda

You tell him if you’re more than a grade he’s more than a Slytherin

You start dating

Cue blushing and nervous Draco because “I’ve never had a girlfriend what am I supposed to do? Flowers? Chocolate? Dates? Handholding?” The poor boy is a mess

“Draco, sweetheart. Calm down you’re doing fine,” you laugh one afternoon as he fumbles over asking you to hogsmeade with him. “It’s just me,” he just feels so pressured to be perfect you constantly remind him that he doesn’t have to be, not for you

You still study together but sometimes you just end up cuddling. Except on the nights you have an exam the next day or an essay due “Draco I will hex you to next week if you don’t focus”

You both aren’t sure how to be affectionate towards another. Sure you’ve read books and he’s seen other do it but you two are so bad at just talking without stammering or blushing

So you start writing down how you feel and what you want to do and what you’re comfortable with, and he’ll respond and you two actually get somewhere because you’re communicating it’s not “the norm” but at least you’re communicating

Reading books under trees; late nights in the library; sitting together in class; holding hands in the halls; “wise girl” and “pretty boy”

Your friends are happy to see that your happy and can appreciate Dracos ambition for knowledge and that you both are a bit competitive when it comes to grades

His friends are a bit cold and distant and snappy sometimes, but you don’t mind much, you know it’s not a commonality for Slytherin to date outside of House

Draco spoils you at every turn. “You looked at this book in the shop so I got it signed by the author for you” / “you said you wanted this quill once... so here” / “I will never understand Muggle stores but I picked up more Oreos and Monsters” / “I saw this necklace and it reminded me of you so I bought it” / “you lost your other scarf so I got you this new one. It’s unicorn silk” / “here, this bag is enchanted so you can carry all of the books you want and not have to carry the weight”

You love him a little more with each thing he gets you because they’re the most bizarre things that you didn’t know you wanted but somehow he did. He’s like a bird “I saw this shiny rock and wanted you to have it”

Your parents adore him. They were a bit wary about you dating a Malfoy/Slytherin but he spends one afternoon and dinner with your family and they’re completely smitten and tell him to come back any time especially when they hear about getting you that retake exam

His parents are a bit more reserved towards you. Until Narcissa sees Draco smiling at you as you talk about the history of something he really couldn’t care less about but you’re so excited he can’t help but stare and she sees your wisdom and ambition and wonders if the Sorting Hat made the right call about you

Lucius doesn’t talk down to you not that he talked much at all to you but when you ask him more about his job at the ministry/his peacock/family history/possible Veela descent he’s absolutely taken with you because you remind him of a young Narcissa especially when you snip right back at Draco. Lucius chokes on his drink when he hears you call Draco “pretty boy” and Narcissa grins at him because that’s her nickname for him

When Draco takes the Dark Mark you can bet your Galleons your spending every night looking into Dark Magic and how it works to truly understand what’s happening. You feel less panicked when you know what’s going on good or bad and you help Draco understand too

Which means you’re talking to Snape a bit more. Not to use the magic, but you want to know. You don’t want Draco to feel like he’s alone in all of it. You find spells that make the Mark burn less and affect his thoughts/mood less

When Draco starts to slip behind on grades again during Sixth Year, you go back to tutoring him, with gentle encouraging words and soft promises that he can do it

After the war you encourage him to come back to school and finish and though he’s terrified to face anyone his ambition for knowledge is still there and you’ve become a lot more terrifying since learning dark magic that people back off when they see you

Tags: @coffee-addicti @msmcsmutt @ravn-87 @artemismohr18 @whygz @crazywritingbug @fuzzy-panda@bitemebro522 @zombiesnips-blog @jillanaholland @shookyungsoo @savingdraco @welcometomyworldwithoutrules @akari180 @slytherin-emerald @chaotic-good-gemini @memalfoy-spidey@theres-a-dog-outside-omg @queenfeatherwings @fanficflaneuse @go-whovian-universe @spicyshenanigans @darling-im-not-okay-i-promise@dietkiwi@katsukink @takemetothekingdom @strangerr-things@tmnt-queen @mccloudchloe @hxneybgb @justsomerandomgur @belcvayelena @moviesbooksandfandoms @howdycharlie@xtrashmouthxtozierx @cocochanelthepupper@ninacotte@mccloudchloe @braelynn-j @jiggllyy @honeymarvel@go-whovian-universe @darcypottah @atomicpunkrock@thiccheerioss @lottie289 @boredashaeck @beautiful-pegasus @tceedlmao @deadlynyghtshayde @iconjuresnapeingrandmaclothes @anonymous034 @bi-andready-tocry @lunna-does-real-doodle @dragonsandbread @atomicwonderlandmentality @okaydraco @the–queen-of-hell @langdonzvoid @cmxreader @alienmotel @oh-itsnothing @tulippings @thestressedprincess @sunflowerxsadnessw @caps-wilsonn @fattycooter @angelotakunerd08 @thisisahugemistake @fanficsigottaread @gweaslvy @okaydraco @strawberriesonsummer @ughjjloveme @honeymarvel @gaysludge @cleopatera

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dragonshifter-minecraft · 2 years

Text

Chapter 15 - Prejudice

[Previous] ~ [Next]

[Word Count: 2369]

[Content Warnings: Fear | Mentions of Mouthplay, Distrust]

“Run!” the yellow-lime dragon shouted, bounding away to vanish between the trees. The green one half-turned, as though considering following, but kept its eyes fixed on the boy.

Nick couldn’t move. He was completely petrified under the stare of the beast, terrified that any slight shift on his part would spell doom for him. Magic might not have been widespread in Hearthview, but horrifying stories of dragon attacks certainly were. It was said that their breath alone could raze an entire village, their knifelike teeth capable of biting any adult person in half, and their thick scales couldn’t be pierced with arrows or swords, making them practically invincible.

If even adults couldn’t kill such a beast, what chance did Nick have?

Their silent staring match was broken for only a second as the dragon glanced down at the book on the ground, before quickly meeting the boy’s gaze once again.

“Hey, is that yours?” it asked, tilting its head and flicking its ears forward.

Nick suppressed a whimper, slowly leaning closer to the tree that was his only cover.

“Wait, don’t go!” the dragon pleaded, taking a small step forward. Slowly, it bent its snout down to the tome, nosing it gently in Nick’s general direction for a moment. It then looked back up at him, insisting, “you can have it back, it’s okay.”

That was a trick if he’d ever heard one. Even if they were smart enough to talk, dragons were gigantic monsters that killed and destroyed everything in their path. Though the green one before him didn’t seem as huge as the stories had led him to believe. Was it possible that this was a baby dragon? It was difficult to tell by its voice alone, but appearance-wise, it seemed only a little bigger than a large horse – a far cry from the tales of creatures massive enough to sink longboats.

The beast regarded him for a few moments longer, before peering back down at the book. It sat back on its haunches, reaching out with a careful claw to flip open the worn leather cover. Seeing that the dragon was distracted, Nick slowly began to stand, bracing against the tree as he prepared to make a desperate sprint back towards the village.

“Is this a spellbook?” it spoke up suddenly, gazing towards the boy with eyes that seemed to shimmer unnaturally.

Nick didn’t reply, finding himself frozen on the spot once again.

“Can you do magic?” the dragon questioned eagerly, its razor-lined maw spreading into a disturbing smile. “Can you teach me?”

He blinked. Most kids in Hearthview thought the use of magic was weird, and that he was weird for being interested in it. Many friends of his had grown distant when he expressed his affinity for the craft, ultimately shunning him without telling him what he’d done wrong. He’d been so frequently treated like an outsider in his own hometown that he didn’t know how to feel when someone, a dragon of all things, finally reflected his own interests.

This had to be some kind of trick.

“Are… Are you gonna kill me?” Nick squeaked out fearfully at last.

“What?! No!” it exclaimed, its expression warping into what appeared to be shock. Though after a moment, the beast winced, gazing down at its own clawed hands as if it had just come to some great revelation. “…You think I’m scary, don’t you?”

“A little,” the boy replied softly.

“I’m not scary,” the dragon stated with a huff, “humans are scary. If you see one, there’s always more nearby. And if you don’t run, then they’ll all come after you!”

The creature paused, regarding its audience again as it appeared to shrink back a bit.

“That’s… what my dad says, anyway,” it murmured softly.

“Well dragons kill people,” Nick retorted suddenly, making the beast flinch, “they burn down villages and steal gold.”

“…but we don’t do that,” it whined, ears lowering sullenly. The creature looked almost… hurt.

All of a sudden, he felt kind of bad for the dragon.

“Clay!” a distant shout resounded through the trees, and the beast perked up significantly. It abruptly stood, peering at the forest behind it. Uncertainly, it glanced back at the boy, seeming undecided on something.

“Coming!” the dragon yelled at last, turning and bolting in the other direction to leave Nick and the book far behind.

…

It hadn’t been long since Dream’s childhood friend had shown up out of nowhere, and George was already beginning to dislike him. At any given time, his attitude ranged anywhere from irritating to just plain insufferable. That wasn’t to mention his nonchalance regarding Dragonshifters, which was baffling in itself.

Humans hated his kind. It was a simple fact of life he’d known since he was a kid, something he’d just come to accept at this point. Yet regardless of what form Dream was in, he often found the other two playfully roughhousing like they’d been doing it all their lives. They had even attempted to drag George into the fray on a couple of occasions.

Sapnap shared Dream’s propensity for sarcasm and teasing, though to a much greater degree. Although the slayer might make a joking remark here or there in conversation, he always remained fairly lighthearted and courteous about it, never pressing on subjects that truly got George worked up. His teasing was surgical and precise. Meanwhile, Sapnap possessed the same level of delicacy as a cannon. He inexplicably seemed to pick up on George’s unease around him, and paradoxically responded with verbal jabs and jeers that seemed intentionally harsh, as though he was trying to provoke the Dragonshifter.

The most bizarre part of it all was the way Sapnap would basically attempt to goad him into transforming. He’d say something to set George off, then turn around and dare him to fight him in dragon form, which instantly extinguished any frustration or anger he felt at the human – even if he was annoying, George didn’t want to hurt him. Of course, Sapnap swiftly picked up on the pattern, and anytime he wanted to win an argument, he’d just challenge the Dragonshifter to transform. It was maddening, especially because there wasn’t anything George could do about it.

Well, short of actually transforming and giving him the fight he wanted. There was no way he could have pulled the same stunt on Dream, who could and would transform just to teach Sapnap a lesson. More than once, George had heard the green dragon howling with wheezing laughter outside, and he’d glanced out the window to see the dark-haired man pinned down by a single green paw, squirming and whining indignantly.

A few times, George had forced himself to look away when he saw Sapnap hanging out of Dream’s mouth.

That wasn’t to say Sapnap was always over-the-top and in his face. In fact, George rather enjoyed the times when the human would tell stories about his experiences running a market stand in Knightport. Dream, in turn, would sometimes chime in with stories of his own, usually recalling times when a town’s leaders didn’t wish to pay him, or even a few different encounters he’d had with other dragon slayers. This was usually over a meal, when the three of them would be gathered in the same room.

“This woman just would not back down!” Sapnap had exclaimed, waving about the piece of mutton in his hand, for emphasis. “I mean, I like haggling as much as the next merchant, but she was insistent on her offer of five gold! We’re talking a triple-strand necklace made of about forty-to-fifty scales; I’d never go lower than thirty. And when I said as much, you’d think I’d just kicked her kid!”

“Seriously?” Dream piped up incredulously through a mouthful of food, “she wouldn’t even take thirty?”

“Of course not!” the dark-haired man replied in exasperation. “She doubled down on her offer of five, and tried to tell me she was being ‘more than generous’.”

“Oh, come on,” the slayer snarled. “Five gold won’t even get you a bracelet.”

“It gets better,” Sapnap went on, “she put on this whole show of fake-crying and claimed it was for her daughter, so I had to let it go for five. Like, piss off, lady, I don’t need you trying to guilt me into letting it go for cheap; by that point, I had like three people waiting to pay nearly full price for this stuff! Thankfully, a couple town guards kinda stepped in to tell her off, and she just left without the necklace.”

“You know she must have gotten that to work for her, before,” Dream pointed out.

“Yeah, definitely,” the human affirmed. “I’m not gonna be taken advantage of like that, though! Dragon scales aren’t exactly easy to come by, and most people know that.”

“Y’know, it kinda reminds me of this one time, I think the place was called ‘Steepvale’ or something,” Dream began. “It was a smaller village, so I didn’t do as much as I could’ve. I spaced out my dragon attacks to around every week or so, only took a couple sheep, I didn’t even bother to set anything on fire, really. Then when I finally did my big act and went to get paid, the mayor straight-up refused!”

“Bro,” the sympathetic frustration was apparent in Sapnap’s tone.

“I know!” the man in green continued, throwing up his arms angrily. “By then, I’d had a few places try to screw me out of my gold, so I just told him, ‘look, I killed your dragon, I saved your town, either pay me or I will bring that damn thing back to life!’”

There was a bark of laughter from the dark-haired man, while George could only furrow his eyebrows in puzzlement.

“Can you even do that?” he spoke up confusedly.

“Hah, no!” was the answer. “But he didn’t know that. I got my share of gold pretty quickly after that.”

“I bet no other dragon slayer could claim that and get away with it!” Sapnap mentioned with a chuckle.

“Probably not,” Dream acknowledged. “I can only think of one other person that uses magic, and he only uses basic auditory illusions to startle and confuse whatever dragon he’s hunting. Trust me, not a fun thing to be on the receiving end of.”

Moments like that were when George found the human most tolerable, but they only came after hours of annoyance and bickering. He honestly wasn’t sure he could take much more.

It wasn’t until a few days into his stay that Sapnap approached George without any of the usual argument-starters.

“Hey, George,” he began with an unusually friendly voice, “I was just wondering, would you let me see your scales?”

The Dragonshifter blinked, lowering the book he was reading.

“…Why?”

“I dunno, I just want to see them,” the dark-haired man stated with a shrug, “you’re always wearing those glasses.”

“Yeah,” George answered with a hostile tone, “so that you don’t see them.”

“Dream doesn’t hide his scales,” Sapnap pointed out.

“Well I’m not him!” the Dragonshifter spat back, bristling. The human wilted a bit.

“Why do you keep them hidden?” he finally asked.

George deflated at that. He wore his glasses a lot of the time even before Sapnap had come to visit, but he would often push them up if he needed to see better. He’d only nudged them back down on impulse when the dark-haired man had first set foot in the house, and he hadn’t taken them off in his presence since. The thought of not wearing them just felt wrong.

“I… I don’t know,” he murmured at last, “you’re human.”

“What about it?” Sapnap retorted.

The Dragonshifter had no idea how to respond. How could he properly express the fact that so many humans hated his kind? And to someone who didn’t seem to care about that fact, no less! Given the chance, humans would send droves of slayers after even a single Dragonshifter, which was what made the need to hide their scales that much more important. His glasses were the only thing that kept his species hidden to all outside observers; that kept him safe.

He inwardly balked at the thought of taking them off in front of someone that simply wanted to see his scales. What kind of sense did that make? What would his parents say?

And then, it felt like something in him had snapped.

Why did it matter?

His parents had taught him that being a Dragonshifter was something to be ashamed of, and that daring to transform was the greatest sin that someone like him could commit. They’d taught him to hide what he was from everyone, even them. And for so long, he’d listened.

But really, what was the harm in letting someone he knew see his scales? Especially someone who was well aware of what he was, and didn’t seem to care either way?

Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, George wordlessly reached up towards his glasses, hesitating for only a moment before sliding them off. Golden-brown irises made eye contact with the human’s dark blue.

Sapnap’s face instantly lit up, and he leaned a bit closer to get a better look at the bright azure scales. Despite his immediate discomfort, the Dragonshifter didn’t say anything.

“Woah,” the dark-haired man breathed at last. “Yours are rounder!”

“Wot?” George was baffled by the comment.

“Your scales,” Sapnap clarified. “They’re shaped a little differently than Dream’s. His are more square.”

“You’re a square,” the quiet remark left the Dragonshifter before he could stop himself.

The human looked at him in surprise. Then he started to chuckle.

“Dude, what’s that supposed to mean?” he questioned, grinning in amusement.

“I dunno,” George hummed.

“At least your scales are sharper than you are,” Sapnap mentioned with a sly smile. Now, with his glasses removed, the dark-haired man could truly appreciate the perplexed expression on the Dragonshifter’s face.

“You just said they were round though,” George cited with confusion, only to cringe inwardly at himself as he realized the implication. It wasn’t even clever.

“Exactly!” was all Sapnap managed to get out before bursting out laughing.

“Sapnap!”

[Author’s Note: I had a miserable time writing this chapter. I was really struggling with dialogue in this one, which is why I preferred to describe character interaction rather than showing it. I’m still not entirely happy with how this turned out, but I did manage to get down some dialogue I was pleased with near the end. Next chapter will have better dialogue, and some great Dream Team fluff, so stay tuned for that!]

#dream team #mcyt #my writing #Dragonshifter Story #Part II #tw vore mention #sort of?#dragon!Dream

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tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors · 3 years

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This whole thing came from the single thought of “Wait, can I think of a single fic where Roman is actually a prince?” which was followed with “What if Roman was the Faerie Prince in LAOFT?” The thought wouldn’t leave me be until I wrote it down, and I figured, hey, since I wrote it down, might as well share it. (I think everyone here is sympathetic, because that’s how we roll.)

Now, without further ado, I give you… LAOFT role swap au headcanons!

In which Roman and Remus were Lords of the Forest until a mortal witch came between them. Roman, who had always views the humans as nothing more than, say, characters in a story (small and rather unimpressive), learns one, to never piss off a teenager with a sharp tongue, and two, the meaning of ~friendship~ when a somewhat cocky witch strolls into their forest. Remus, who rarely showed interest in humans aside from the occasional “game,” becomes worried that this witch is going to take his brother from him (be that by the witch betraying Roman, or by Roman choosing his human sister over his faerie brother), and acts accordingly, which, for Remus, probably means a murder attempt or four. Furious that his brother attempted to harm his friend, Roman retaliates. Unlike in LAOFT, where Dee uses trickery to incapacitate Virgil, Remus goes for more of a blunt-force route (see: their first canonical interaction, where Remus hits Roman over the head with a morningstar). Roman is put in the casket though one method or another. Remus probably viewed the whole thing as a prank or sorts, where Roman would be out of the picture until the witch was long gone, and problem solved. Greta, however, may not have gotten that memo, and goes ahead with the deal to awaken Roman. This, to Remus, is where the prank evolves into a game.

We pick up a century-or-so later to meet Patton and his “twin,” Thomas (I’m just switching around the six sides, and leaving everyone else where they were, for the most part). Pat is just the sweetest soul ever, but most are too leery to come anywhere near him.

Exception number one is Virgil, the boy who was blessed by a fairy to have a charming voice. However, something happened (insert angst), and poor V accidentally weaponized his gift (see: tempest tongue), resulting in lots of anxiety and being generally quiet out of fear of hurting someone (instead of using qualifiers to avoid telling people to do things, like LAOFT Pat does, Virgil just doesn’t really say anything at all). Upon learning that Patton is immune to his curse, the two became inseparable.

Exception number two is (one of my favorite concepts in Sanders Sides fics ever: Feral Logan) Logan, the witch’s great-great grandson, who lives with his grandmother and probably already knows all about witchery and will not hesitate to hex someone who acts rudely to his two best friends seven ways from Sunday. Logan stumbled upon Roman when he was younger and decided that awakening the sleeping prince would be a perfect test of his magic. Logan views magic as another type of science, and loves to test all sorts of hypotheses, which is… stressful for any and all other parties involved.

Remus, meanwhile, is doing a wonderful dance of denial. Does his miss his brother? Pshhh, absolutely not! That’s crazy! He’s having a grand old time ruling the first by himself, if you can call what he’s doing “ruling.” Remus doesn’t really put much effort into controlling the fair folk, so they do steal the occasional human from the woods, but he doesn’t actively encourage messing with the humans. (We still have the same dragon-witch-monster-ghost, who is desperately looking for Roman.) Remus might even be a little afraid of the mortals, though he’d never admit it. This may be one of the reasons whatever faerie who gave Virgil his gift wouldn’t be allowed to see him— why give the humans more power then they already have?

Janus I’m not really sure about, but I am gonna pretty much ignore LAOFT’s Dee because I want sympathetic!Janus (that reads kinda rudely, sorry, I do really love how you wrote him, but I’m in a sympathetic!Janus sort of mood)— maybe he’s one of Remus’s knights. Maybe he’s Virgil’s fairy godfather. Who knows? He’s Janus, he can do what he wants.

Plot wise, I’m not sure how much would change. I don’t think Logan would make a deal resulting in the Day/Night split— maybe Virgil would? If we go with that, we’ve got V running about with the faeries at night (that explains the eyeshadow, haha)(though that would open up some questions and plot holes about his gift/curse/blessing/whatever), and him letting Roman out (maybe this follows the magic sword thing from The Darkest Part of the Forest as opposed to your spider-shawl)(which, personally, I think is so much cooler). Roman then goes to Logan, and the two of them collect Patton and Virgil, who’d just come back from the revel? I’m not sure how it’d end, but probably with Roman and Remus getting along, Greta going to rest, true love saves the day, etc. etc.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading my mess of a “What if.” I really, thoroughly, truly loved reading LOAFT, and I get excited every time I get an email to tell me there’s been an update. Thanks for making such a cool series!

(Also, it’s worth mentioning that I’d never heard of The Darkest Part of the Forest before reading LAOFT. I borrowed it from my local library to read, and I don’t think you’ll ever understand how disappointed I was when there were not any witches, haha.)

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V: this is so interesting, i love it sm!!!!!

#submission #submitted by @wisecolorthing #laoft fic #not mine #laoft remus #laoft roman #laoft patton #laoft virgil #laoft logan #laoft greta #eeeeeh im not gonna tag durant #ts janus

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traincat · 4 years

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if you dont mind i would love to hear your thoughts on how and why peter seems to be more fulfilled by lower paying jobs (i.e photography, teaching) rather than by high paying jobs in STEM

(Sorry for the wait, anon! I did get this first ask, as you can see, it’s just that sometimes I tend to hoard asks that I want to give long in-depth answers to and then they get buried.)

So I think to best answer this the first thing we have to do is look at Peter’s 616 employment history -- what jobs he’s had when and for approximately how long. So here we have a more or less definitive list -- I may have skipped over a few minor jobs that aren’t important in the long run of the character history, but for the most part this is accurate. For the sake of brevity I am not going to count things he’s done as Spider-Man that have earned him money, like a brief bodyguard stint or his occasional time with the Avengers, because this is really more about his identity as Peter Parker and how his civilian employment plays into his life as Spider-Man than about his life as Spider-Man.

Works for the Daily Bugle on and off, through a variety of positions from part time to salaried, from the age of 15 onwards. Primarily a photographer. How good of a photographer Peter actually is varies from writer to writer, but he remains unmatched in his ability to get certain shots ranging from ones of Spider-Man (duh) to particularly high risk environments (different duh). He also briefly worked for rival newspaper the Daily Globe, the Bugle’s main competitor. His position as a full time newspaper photographer is his most well known (and most consistent) job.

A TA in grad school at Empire State University. At this point in time he labeled himself as having “the wrong temperament” for teaching -- and I would personally say I think his stints teaching college are much less engaging than high school.

Published author. His book, Webs, a collection of his Spider-Man photography, was a major bestseller that sent him on a book tour around the country. I hesitated sticking this on here because it’s very tied into his work with the Bugle -- and he was still working for the Bugle when the book was published -- but I figured it was worth including for the novelty of the fact that Peter’s technically a best selling author/artist.

Peter worked as a scientist at Galannan Alternative Research for Immunization Development (GARID) in Portland after his clone Ben Reilly took over the identity of Spider-Man. Although often overlooked in discussions of Peter’s job history, I think his stint at GARID is important in part because it illustrates how much of Peter’s time being Spider-Man took up and how a job with flexible hours was necessary for that balancing act. When he was working at GARID, Peter wasn’t Spider-Man, so it wasn’t difficult for him to keep a position at a laboratory.

I mean granted the GARID job didn’t last long and there was sort of a whole big mutated monster case going on with it but you know. Anyway he pretty quickly moved back to New York and started working for the Bugle again.

Peter’s next major job at a lab comes in another period where he’s supposed to have quit being Spider-Man. (Which he did, very temporarily, and then he very much didn’t. Anyway, you’re seeing the pattern here.) He briefly worked at Tricorp, a private brain trust. This is a really short-lived position, even as Peter’s science gigs go, because -- Spider-Man.

At this point things get dicey employment-wise as Peter heads into a weird period of canon where Mary Jane was presumed dead. She wasn’t! But everyone thought she was. It was weird. When MJ came back (and promptly left for LA, not that I blame her), Peter exited this period of limbo by becoming a science teacher at his old school, Midtown High. This is the main career, beside news photography, that I think he really shines in.

Civil War/One More Day/Brand New Day hit and completely tank the direction of Spider-Man history. Peter’s marriage is erased by the devil and also he’s not a high school teacher anymore, for some reason, even though nobody remembers he’s Spider-Man anymore which is the reason he initially lost the Midtown High job. Make it make sense. Anyway, in Marvel’s desperate scramble to take Spider-Man back to the unmarried basics, as if they even got new readers that way, Peter returned to photography. When Dexter Bennett bought the Bugle out from under JJJ while JJJ was sick, Peter began working for the newly minted “DB” as a tabloid photographer. It wasn’t great.

He also briefly at some point in here worked at a comic book store for like five minutes. Mostly he complained about people who read comic books and made jokes about how he doesn’t get along with the X-Men.

Under Slott’s run, Peter began working at Horizon Labs. Slott had a pretty major problem with Peter’s genius not being “recognized enough” and constantly had him inventing new things, showing off, etc.

Horizon Lab became Parker Industries under Otto Octavius when he bodyjacked Peter during Superior Spider-Man and made himself CEO. When Peter got his body back, he was still CEO. It was bad but Peter did tank the company on purpose so that Otto and also nazis couldn’t get their hands on it, which was sort of fun.

Peter went back to work for the Bugle, but as their science editor, because Slott was still in charge and there was some weird commentary about photography not being an adult job. Which I think is pretty weird in a medium that’s very dependent on visual art. But okay.

Then Peter got fired because he was busted for plagiarism of Otto Octavius’ work... that Otto did himself... while he was in Peter’s body... and Peter couldn’t reveal this because then he’d have to explain... and maybe I hate comics.

In MC2 he becomes a forensic scientist! I really like this for him actually. I think it combines his interests and experiences in a very thoughtful way. But I do want to note it’s after a Spider-Man career ending injury, so again there’s not a real conflict there between his work as Spider-Man and a career.

Peter I think is an especially interesting case in how his character ties into his employment history because one of the first things he does in his story is figure out how to make money, and he does this because the Parkers don’t have any. If Ben and May were comfortable -- even comfortable enough that their teenaged nephew was unaware of financial pressures -- Spider-Man’s story would be completely different. But Peter immediately feels he pressure to use his new powers to earn money, at first with brute strength. And what he says he’s going to do with his earnings is that he’s going to take care of Ben and May:

(Amazing Fantasy #15) So the concept of Peter as someone who is very aware of financial pressure and who is pretty explicitly linking money to support is present from the absolute beginning. But at the same time, there’s a kind of selfishness presented in him here -- he’s only going to take care of Ben and May. They’re the only ones he cares about here, because as he’s stated they’re the only ones who have ever “been kind” to him. Peter at the beginning of his story is very rooted in his anger and his bitterness, and it takes him losing Uncle Ben -- because it wasn’t Peter’s “job” to stop the burglar -- to get him to the point where he starts to be able to see beyond that.

Ben’s death also heightens the Parker’s financial pressures -- Ben is the primary earner in the household. (Aunt May in the original context of the early 1960s was most likely a homemaker, and as an older woman especially she wouldn’t be expected to have a job. But even moving the timescale up to a point where she would be expected as a woman to hold down a job, it’s important to note that early in Spider-Man canon Aunt May is depicted as being in very poor physical health.) While it’s not clear in the initial Spider-Man stories what Ben did, it’s clear that with his death whatever income the Parkers had coming in abruptly stops:

(ASM #1) This sets in concrete one of the central conflicts Peter and May have -- both of them lie to protect the other. Peter feigns being an ordinary boy in order to protect May from the stress of his secret life as Spider-Man, worried that she wouldn’t be strong enough to handle the danger he regularly puts himself in. But this is a learned behavior, and here we see that he most likely learned it from May: she doesn’t want him to worry about the very deep financial troubles they’re obviously in, so she pawns her jewelry, and she stresses to him the importance of his education. Again I have to note that there are some pretty significant social differences between the 1960s and today in regards to this story -- Betty Brant, for example, notes that she had to drop out of school and become a secretary because of her own family’s financial problems, something she’s ashamed of. So early Spider-Man is very rooted in money, class, education, and how those things intersect. I think it should be noted that the only early Spider-Man characters who are financially well-off are Liz, Gwen, and Harry. (We don’t know anything about Flash’s financial situation in early Spider-Man comics but retroactively we know his family situation is not well-off.) In high school, Liz’s father is a bigshot who owns a dining club, but later on the Allans experience financial hardship with Liz quite literally being on the streets when Peter reunites with her when he’s in college. Harry’s father is a rich businessman, but from the beginning he’s depicted as emotionally negligent, caring more about money than spending time with his son:

(ASM #40) “After all... I had a business to care of! Money was the most important thing of all! I had to get rich! I needed wealth... for that was the key to power!” So right away you have this link between wealth, corruption, and negligence. Norman’s pursuit of wealth is his given reason for his neglect of Harry. Later on we’d learn that Norman’s father was also abusive and that that abuse formed Norman’s ideas about power and wealth. (Spider-Man! It’s about cycles of abuse!) There’s a very contrast between Norman’s attitudes here and the Parkers loving (but poor) household. Gwen is the only exception here -- she and her father are depicted as comfortable, most likely edging into wealthy, although on nowhere the level the Osborns have been elevated to. But compared to Peter, Flash, and Mary Jane especially -- all from poor households, with MJ and Flash’s fathers both being abusive -- Gwen’s home situation is the picture of stability, both in terms of economic status and in terms of her loving and very present father.

My goal in outlining all of this isn’t to say that Spider-Man’s message is definitively “money is bad” because I don’t think it is. I think as a series Spider-Man is very aware of the comfort that money can provide. But I think there is a frequent message about excess in Spider-Man -- excess power, excess wealth. As Norman says above, in his eyes, money is the key to power. With great power, comes great responsibility. In Norman hoarding and abusing his wealth, he abuses his power. If he provides for Harry, it is solely through money -- there is no love or devotion in Norman’s money-focused world. And I think that’s important when you look at where Peter starts in his story, before Uncle Ben’s death. He’s going to use his powers to make a lot of money and he’s going to provide for Ben and May but he’s not going to care about the world outside of that. I think one of the interesting things about Peter -- and this is where Slott’s run especially fails the character -- is that he’s not interesting in getting rich. He’d like to be comfortable, for sure -- he’d like to have enough money to not have worry about it, to not have the need to hustle impede what he can do as Spider-Man, to be able to take care of his family. (And there’s some machismo stuff linked in here for him too -- in the early days of their marriage the fact that Mary Jane earns much more than him is something he struggles with.) But he doesn’t care about being rich. He doesn’t care about the money; he cares about the support that the money would bring.

That feels like a simple statement but I think it’s actually a really big distinction, especially when you’re analyzing a character. And I think it’s because Peter understands that value that it makes him so empathetic to others who have financial struggles. One of my favorite short self-contained Spider-Man stories is called Windfall, from Marvel Fanfare #42, where a mixup with a check embroils Peter in the personal affairs of a bank teller, a young single mother who is fired from her job ultimately because she refused the advances of her boss. Peter gets her her job back -- through blackmailing the boss for his other sexual affairs, which some people might think is immoral of him, but I think really speaks to Peter’s understanding of how the greater world works, and what he’s prepared to do to get bigger justice. But more importantly he uses his own money to pay the young woman’s rent, and he does it in a way where she never even knows it’s him. Because he understands her situation, the way someone who had grown up comfortable never could. And that understanding I think puts him a place where it’s more important for him to both keep that understanding and maintain that ability to act relatively freely, in the way that bigger, more prestigious positions in scientific fields might restrict him. There’s a reason he keeps getting fired from these scientific positions and it’s not that he can’t get them, because we can see from his employment history very clearly that he can. It’s because the freedom to act as Spider-Man and what he can do as Spider-Man is ultimately more important to him.

And while high school teacher is my number one favorite profession Peter has ever had, I think that his position as a newspaper photographer is also very important to the character’s history, in part because the Bugle is such a big part of his life and the connections he’s made but also because the Daily Bugle itself is important. I think it’s interesting to note that two of the biggest superheroes of all time from both of the big companies -- Spider-Man from Marvel and Superman from DC -- have had long running journalism jobs, Peter as a photographer and Clark as a reporter. I don’t think I really have to go into a whole thing about how good journalists are so important and why it matters that we have these incredibly famous mythic figures that are positioned in the roll of journalists specifically. But I do think it is important to Peter that he’s put in that position as someone who cares about uncovering the truth. So ultimately I think what I mean when I say Peter is more fulfilled by his jobs as a photojournalist and as a high school teacher than by his comparatively more high paying stints working as a scientist in a lab is that Peter gets the most fulfillment out of careers where he can actively see, day by day, that what he’s doing is helping people, and that it’s a very direct line from him to the people he’s helping. His efforts can’t be twisted, they can’t be used for other purposes the way they can within a larger organization. He has a line of control in what he can do to help other people. It’s like how Spider-Man functions best as a street level hero: what he does best is saving and helping individual people, on a case by case basis. And you can turn around and demonstrate that in his civilian life best in jobs where he gets to directly interact with people. And ultimately to Peter making that difference is more important than a better salary.

(Marvel Knights Spider-Man #9)

#peter parker #marvel comics #traincat talks comics #long post/

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