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spine-buster · 3 years

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peaceful easy feeling ft. b.boeser | three

A/N: Thanks again for your positive feedback on this mini-series! Please keep those canon questions coming as you guys know I loooove answering them to help build the canon! This one is a short one but it will be made up for by the last two chapters.

CONTENT WARNING: parents with disease/sickness (Parkinson’s); swearing; sex; alcohol use; lots of emotions.

* * * * *

Brock and Grace were having fun. Actual, genuine, real fun. Whenever they were together, they were smiling and laughing and kissing and having a good time. They’d go out to eat at Vancouver’s best restaurants. They’d take walks in parks or along the seawall. They’d get coffee at cute little cafés and munch on bespoke cookies or donuts that would make Brock complain about extra hours in the gym. They’d invite Elias and Svea with them and it would be great, because they were great, and they’d all just be constantly laughing. Grace and Svea got closer – much closer. Elias and Brock were tearing it up for the Canucks. Grace and Svea would go to bars for a glass of wine before going to games together. They’d cheer and clap and sing along with all the songs being blasted throughout the arena.

Fun. Life was fun.

***

“How do I bite it?!” Brock was incredulous at the size of the cupcake Grace got him. It was bigger than his jaw could open. Elias and Svea were already ready with their damn phones to film him. “I can’t…” he tried to bring it up to his mouth.

“Just put the whole thing in your mouth!” Grace exclaimed.

“That’s what she said,” Elias mumbled, only to garner a disapproving mother look from Brock and a slap on the arm from Svea. “What! Isn’t that the joke?!”

“Don’t be crass,” Svea chastised before focusing her attention back on Brock. “Just bite the thing, Brock. Just…just stuff it in there,” he pretended to do the motion herself.

“Again, that’s what she said.”

Grace hit Elias too this time.

***

“You can get us reservations to Hawksworth?” Svea asked in shock.

Grace nodded casually, like it was the easiest thing in the world to get a reservation at Vancouver’s best and most exclusive restaurant. “The Gillespie’s own the Rosewood Hotel Georgia.”

“You do?”

Grace nodded again before sucking back on an oyster. “When do you want to eat there?”

“Oh, I – I don’t know. Can I get back to you?”

“Of course! Just let me know.”

“Wow Grace,” Svea said. “You really do have the world at your fingertips. Vancouver especially.”

Grace shrugged her shoulders. “It’s a blessing and a curse. I can’t go anywhere without running into someone that knows my dad or knows who I am and thinks they know me. It’s even worse when they knew my dad a long time ago and only ask about how he’s doing with his Parkinson’s now. Most of the time they don’t even truly care. And I’d trade it all in, every single penny, if it meant my dad never got Parkinson’s.”

Svea couldn’t imagine living that kind of life. She didn’t know how Grace did it – or Brock, for that matter. She would be a sobbing mess on the floor every single day. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be insensitive when I—”

“Oh God no. No no no – you don’t need to apologize. I just…” Grace paused, trying to collect her thoughts. “I know how fortunate I am, believe me. I just don’t think people know that – that I know I’m fortunate. But Parkinson’s – any chronic illness – it really humbles you. Most people don’t know what that’s like. And like, thank God they don’t. But they think they know.”

All Svea could do was nod her head and listen.

***

Whenever Brock sent a text that said ‘come over and watch a movie’ Grace knew what that really meant. But instead of finding it lewd, she’d slather on some raspberry chapstick and be on her merry way to Brock’s apartment.

When they were done, and lying in bed together, with her head on his chest and her hair sprawled everywhere, that’s when the talking would begin. “How’s your dad doing?” “Are the new round of meds working?” “Is he having more trouble getting up now?” “What are the doctors saying?” “How’s his memory?” “How’s the swallowing?” “Are the doctors recommending speech therapy?”

“When I quit dance, my dad was so disappointed,” Grace revealed one night as Brock was running his hands through her hair. “It was the only thing I was ever really, really good at. I wasn’t the best in school. I just didn’t get things the way other kids did. And when I told him the reason, he made me promise I’d keep doing dance in some capacity. I maybe wouldn’t do it super-competitively anymore with him driving me all around BC and flying me all over Canada and the US to attend competitions, but I’d still do it. That’s why I teach at the Goh Ballet. Like…I know I’m not the smartest girl in the world, but I like to think I have a big heart. And I just hope that people see that.”

“I wear number six because it was my dad’s number,” Brock revealed too, one night when they were alone. “I wanted…I wanted to make sure that if he wasn’t around, my career would still honour him in some way. I want that to be my legacy…like, everything I do, I do for my dad.”

Grace nodded. She completely understood. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who knows and understands exactly what I’m going through,” she said. “Do you think it was fate that brought us together at that meeting?”

Brock found himself nodding his head automatically. “Of course,” he said softly.

***

“I’m sorry we couldn’t have you at the house for dinner, Brock, but our chef is on vacation,” Eliza Carmichael, Grace’s mom, smiled from across the table as she sipped on her glass of wine. From beside her, her husband, Grace’s step-dad James kept perusing the menu, as did Grace’s two step-brothers, Jasper and Theo, who were seated at opposite heads of the table.

“Oh that’s no problem at all,” he smiled politely, grabbing Grace’s hand underneath the table and squeezing it gently before putting it in his lap. “I actually come here with the boys sometimes. The food here is amazing.”

“It is, isn’t it? James knows the head chef,” she said. “Grace tells me you’re a hockey player.”

It was at that point that James put down his menu. “Honey, he plays for the Vancouver Canucks. We’ve been over this.”

Eliza rolled her eyes playfully before picking up her menu. It was only at that point that Brock noticed the giant rock on her finger. It was the size of his eyeball. “Grace tells me you live in Shaughnessy,” he said, trying to make polite conversation. “I hear that’s a beautiful neighbourhood.”

“Oh, it is. Perfect place for the quiet life hockey player’s lead,” James joked. Brock forced out a chuckle.

***

“I love this song!!!” Grace exclaimed as the DJ began to play some old school Rihanna. She downed the rest of her drink and slapped the glass against the bar before grabbing Brock’s arm with one hand and Svea’s hand with the other, knowing that Svea would, on instinct, grab Elias’s arm and drag him to the dance floor too.

The club was completely unstuffy. There were no girls dressed to the nines, no four-inch stiletto heels digging into Grace’s feet, no people showing up just to be seen in booths with bottle service. It was completely unpretentious and that’s how Grace liked it. Considering her lifestyle and her wealth, it was actually how she liked everything. So when the DJ began playing pop songs, she couldn’t help but start dancing uncontrollably. To his credit, Brock did too. It was like he lost all his inhibitions and began moving his body in tune with the music. Even Elias and Svea did, and Grace knew how…well, quiet they were. This wasn’t their scene at all but they were having the time of their life dancing with each other, spinning each other around and moving to the beat of the music.

For at least a night, Grace could forget. She could forget how her parents used her to get back at one another during an awful divorce. She could forget her mom re-married an equally as nice guy as her dad but became more pretentious as the years went on and the wealth accumulated. She could forget that she made the decision to quit dancing professionally. She could forget her dad had Parkinson’s. For one night, everything was perfect. Everything was fun. Everything was how it should be.

***

“Fuuuuck, baby,” Brock groaned as he watched Grace climb on top of him, leaning forward so she could press his breasts up against his face. He immediately took the opportunity to place wet, open mouth kisses all over her breasts, kissing down to her nipples before taking them in his mouth. He could feel her grab his cock and lower herself onto it, sighing at the feeling of him filling her up. “Feel good?”

“You always feel amazing,” she smiled, her hair falling around her face. “That’s why I can’t stop fucking you.”

Brock chuckled, a cocky smile on his face as he reached up and brought Grace’s face down so he could kiss her and stick his tongue down her throat. “Ride me, baby,” he mumbled against her lips.

Grace began rocking her hips back and forth, her body moving so expertly and so in tune with Brock’s. Almost immediately, she began to moan, and Brock grabbed her hands and intertwined their fingers so she’d have something to brace against. Brock was in a trance – as he usually was when Grace was riding. He was completely and utterly transfixed by her in every sense of the word, and in every way; from the hair on her head to the red nail polish on her toes.

“God, I fucking love you, Grace.”

The words had barely escape Brock’s mouth before he realized the magnitude of what he said, how he said it, and when he’d fucking said it. God, he was such a fucking idiot!!!!! During sex?! Really?! Way to live the cliché Brock Boeser! Way to be a fucking idiot and—

“I fucking love you too, Brock,” he heard Grace say, a smile adorned on her face. The both of them giggled, and couldn’t stop giggling for a while even though she was still riding him. It was miraculous. “Way to say it for the first time while I’m riding you,” she joked.

“I couldn’t help myself,” he said.

“You’re lucky I love you, because that’s such an amateur move, Brock.”

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toomanyrobins · 3 years

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a little birdie told me pt. 10

Summary: Y/N “Birdie” Parker left New York and her family three years ago in the middle of the night. Now, a call for help to her best friend brings her back into the fold of the Three Families and their “business”

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Parker!Reader

Content warning: physical abuse, miscarriage, mentions of forced marriage, mentions of alcohol abuse

Word Count: 1.8k

series masterlist // next part

Y/N was in the kitchen when she heard someone return home. She had been sitting at the kitchen island, staring down at a glass of whiskey. She had poured it to settle her nerves, but had yet to pick it up. Pepper walked in and immediately could tell that something was bothering her daughter. She saw the glass and slowly slid it out of Y/N’s hands, “What’s wrong? I thought last night was a success. Did something happen?” The younger woman nodded and refused to meet Pepper’s eyes. It didn’t take much for the intuitive woman to guess what was ailing her daughter. She nodded, “You finally realized you are in love with Steve.”

“I didn’t mean to be,” Y/N wailed as she slammed her forehead onto the island, “ow.”

“Why is this such a bad thing?”

“Because the last person I was with was a terrible person,” Birdie grumbled, “I had every intention of staying single forever to avoid feeling like shit every again.”

“Honey, that’s insane. Anyone with eyes can see that Steve is disgustingly in love with you and would move mountains to make you happy.”

“It’s just so soon. Too soon.”

“There’s no timeline for this kind of thing. When you know, you know.” Pepper laughed to herself, “The funniest thing is that when I confronted your father about the arranged marriage, he told me that the plan was for you and Steve to get married.”

Y/N shot her head up and nearly toppled off the stool, “What? He picked Steve for me? I—I have to go.”

Y/N was trying to keep her head on straight as she walked into George’s office. The entire drive over, she had tried to calm down and approach this with some levelheadedness. Before she could even sit down across from the desk, that plan was thrown our the window, “I need answers and I don’t think Dad will tell me everything. Why were you going to marry me off to Steve?”

George sighed and leaned forward, “First of all, I’ve told your father that you should’ve been told about all of this. The truth of the matter is that we needed stability in the families and this was a way to bring us together. HYDRA had started gaining power and your marriage was a way to secure some balance and open up channels that had previously been closed off to us. Also, we had seen the two of you together. You got on well. Why the sudden interest?”

“I don’t know if I can stay here. Apparently, everyone has decided I’m Jamie’s mom. No kid deserves to be stuck with me as their mother.”

He leaned back in his chair, “He really did a number on you.”

Y/N felt like the air had been sucked from her lungs but she tried to play dumb, waiting to see how much he knew, “Who?”

“You think I don’t know things, Birdie? I’ve got your medical records from your hospital visit. I know that your hospital visit wasn’t a one time thing. I know about the miscarriage. I may not know his name, but I will soon.”

“Ho—how?

“I'm a Barnes. A third of the group that runs New York. You think I can’t get information?”

“Have you told anyone?” They both knew who Y/N was truly worried about.

“I haven’t told Steve or Tony. You should though. I highly doubt they would be mad at you for anything,” his voice softened, “You were abused, Birdie. Nothing that he did to you is your fault.”

Her nails were digging into her palm, trying to focus on anything else, “I let him kick me in the stomach. I didn’t even try to stop him. What kind of fucked up, evil person does that?”

“You’re not evil. You’re hurting and have been for a while. I don’t think running will solve anything for you. Are you truly capable of leaving Jamie behind? Your family? Can you leave Steve when you love him?”

Y/N looked at her godfather, “I don’t love Steve.”

He laughed, “You used to be better at lying. He has always brought you back down to earth. I thought a match between the two of you would settle you down. Steve even agreed to it, but he stipulated that you had to go to college first and that you had to agree. He couldn’t force it on you.”

Y/N couldn’t believe it. She thought that he had just been hiding the marriage from her. Never had she considered that he knew he was her future husband, “He knew the whole time? Why would he want to marry me?”

“Of course, he knew. God knows why, because you were insane, and still are. He was ready to marry you. Clearly he thought you could make each other happy.”

“He didn’t tell me he knew it was him the whole time. I just thought he knew you were marrying me off.”

“Seems he wanted a chance to romance you all on his own, but you were gone before he got the chance.”

“This is so much information,” Y/N rubbed her temples.

George poured himself a drink, “I was like you for a really long time. I fought with my father every time I saw him, and I spent most of my teens and twenties drunk and alone. It’s a sad, lonely life that you have an opportunity to avoid. Take a chance, make mistakes. It’ll be worth it.”

Y/N sat there for a minute, trying to absorb all of the information that had been thrown at her. The office door burst open and Tony came in, “Good, your mother said you’d be here. I need you to do something.” Y/N’s nerves immediately felt like they were on fire. The moment her father had that look on his face, it was a problem, “There is a deal coming up and we need to present a united front. With the rumours swirling since your return, we’ve discussed and think the best move is for you to marry Steve.”

“Tony—,” George tried to warn him that it wasn’t the time. The whole office was frozen as she absorbed the information.

The laugh that broke the spell was harsh when Y/N realized he wasn’t kidding, “Oh my god. OH MY GOD! That talk about not wasting my life was just a load of crap.” She whirled around to Tony, “You will never learn, will you? I am not some piece of property that you can trade!”

Her father tried to walk closer but she stopped him. He continued anyway, “What is your objection to Steve, exactly? He’s a good man...mostly. We thought he'd be a good match for you three years ago and you are even closer now.”

Y/N started to walk towards the door but she turned, “I knew about your plans for me then. It’s part of the reason I left. You move people around like pawns and don’t seem to know or care that your choices affect us. All I’ve ever wanted is a say in my life and every fucking time I think maybe it’ll be different, you manage to prove me wrong. So congratulations, you continue to fuck it up.” She stared unblinkingly at Tony, “I think it goes without saying that I’ll be taking you up on your offer.”

Y/N walked down into the Ivory bar on a mission. She found her brother in his usual booth with the group. She marched up to the table, “Evening, gentlemen.” They all nodded at her before she turned her attention to Steve. She planted her hands on the table, “Look here, Rogers, you can just move on to the next girl and stop wasting my time and yours. Do me a favor and lose my number. I’ll never marry you.”

She didn’t look back as the men watched her through the window. She swung her leg over her bike and shot off. No one said a word and instead turned to look at Tony and George who had come down after her.

After she had left, Y/N pulled off near Central Park and parked. She wandered for hours until she bumped into someone. She had felt the weight of someone’s gaze for a while. Spinning around, she expected to see a familiar guard and was ready to tell them off. Instead of one of Tony’s men, it was the person who haunted her nightmares. “Better watch where you’re going, darling.” The voice made her blood run cold. Y/N was looking into the eyes of Brock Rumlow, the devil himself.

She stumbled back, trying to put some distance between them, “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you. You think I’d just let you leave?” Brock grabbed her arm and jammed a finger into her stomach, “You’ve got my kid in there.”

She laughed in his face, “No, I don’t.” He gritted his teeth and tightened his on her arm. Y/N knew that she was going to have bruises later.

“You killed our baby?” she shook her head, but Brock was blinded by rage. He shook her, “Don’t lie to me, you traitorous whore.”

“You beat me so badly that night that I lost the baby. There is no one to blame but you. And now, you have no claim over me.” Y/N wrenched her arm away, “You lose.”

“That’s where you are wrong, darling. What would Daddy Stark think of you running away to be with me? A member of HYDRA? Would they keep you if they knew the truth? You really would be a traitorous whore in everyone’s eyes.”

Y/N thought she was going to be sick. Brock was a member of HYDRA? She couldn’t believe she hadn’t known. This was so much worse than she could have imagined. “Stay away from me.” She turned and walked away.

He called after her, “I’ll be seeing you, baby!” The moment she rounded the corner, she took off in a run. Y/N’s thoughts flying as fast as she was down the streets. Once she was a block away, she cut off into an alley. She needed a moment to get her plan organized. As much as it pained her to admit it, Brock was probably right. If everyone knew the details about his connection to HYDRA, at minimum, she’d be exiled and never be able to see her family again. At worse, she’d be dead… a traitor to the Three Families. Y/N knew that there was only one thing she could do to make her position more secure and she hated it more than anything: she needed to marry Steve Rogers.

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

@samwinter09

@founding-fuck-bois

@animegirlgeeky

@inlovewiththefictionalcharacters

@spntiel

@marvelofwitch

@hollandstanevans

#avengers au #avengers imagine #toomanyrobins #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers x reader #avengers x reader #mafia au #mafia!avengers #mafia!steve #mob!au #mob!avengers #mob!steve #steve rogers #steve rogers au #avengers #captain america #captain america imagine #captain america x reader #mafia!steve rogers

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grandninjamasterren · 2 years

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For the oc ask game! How about Watcher Two/Keeper, Ardun Kothe, Draahg, Tala-Reh, Numen Brock, and—of course—Hunter?

With as many ocs as you wish :>

~ @firebird-legacy

Watcher Two

Jazelin: something between mother and sister; someone to be heeded, but she has your best interests at heart

The Hell Twins: she was their protector, the one to care for them when their mother was on assignment- she did her best with them and it wasn't enough-she had no idea what was going to happen when she gave Jemsyn that first round of stims (he still names his firstborn after her)

Kye'lin: he loved her, they would have followed her anywhere, just because she asked.

Kivath: when you've lived your entire life one way, you can't really picture it differently. (He gave her a Father's Day card once)

Ardun Kothe

Jazelin: a gilded cage is still a cage, and even if your master is kind, you are still a slave- if things had been different, they might have been as close as family, instead his blood is on her hands.

Kye'lin: love takes many forms, sometimes its a plate of food in the fridge for if you get hungry, or a silent hand on your shoulder as you cry, sometimes it's the desire to bundle you up against the cold world

Tornys: he was in the way

Kivath: what are you supposed to do when what you want more than anything is all the people you care about all together- but knowing that the second they see each other there will be blood

Draahg

Rev'ela: Dinner!

Meiriyn: such a pity he doesn't respect his betters

Jeylaen: yelling 'cuck' out the window as one of those huge pick up trucks passes you doesn't count as road rage

Tala-Reh

Riviar: his understanding of Mandalorian culture serves him well when dealing with the Voss. Celebrate your warriors well and remember their names, for while they are named, they are eternal. (With her death, he adds both her and her husband to his list of Remembrances)

Jentrie: Sel-Makor offered her power- power enough to destroy the Sith. They may have been kindred spirits, but Jentrie is beautiful and bright and angry and above all else, a survivor.

Numen Brock

Ra'iben: flirted like hell to the cute twi'lek- it was mostly just for fun and nothing ever came of it.

Jemsyn: he just got tired of help Ra'iben clean up this kid's messes; he's got better things to be doing.

Hunter

Jazelin: This is a threat- take him down before he can attack

Kye’lin: you never intended to fall in love like this- you didn't think you were capable of it

Tornys: honestly, were you expecting to not fight with your sibling?

Kivath: Isn't he cool? Don't you want to be just like him when you grow up? Don't worry, you will be...

#star wars #swtor #my oc #ask game

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blankdblank · 3 years

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Brother Dearest Pt 76

“There is nothing I support more than mothers caring for their children. Our Democracy is built on the combined efforts of our mothers. Baroness Bunny Pear Howlett swore before God and the world to joyously welcome every life she will be given the gift of bringing into this world and raise them in a God fearing home. I will never oppose her honoring that vow and raising more citizens of this fine country and our neighbor to the North, Canada. We have no right to lay our opinion higher in respect than that vow and her responsibility to love and cherish the precious gift those children are. That is all I have to say on the matter.” The words were a bullet to the head of any try to shoot down a try to erase your achievements for the simple stolen glimpse of your cleavage exposed to the world.

On the cusp of speechless Truman had called you and had wanted to see where you stood on the issue. All you had tried to do to mend the issue led to his argument in support of said efforts no matter what his personal thoughts of showing nursing mothers on the front page. In truth you were clearly as blown over by the story and after calls from the Brocks and even Father Thomas, who offered words of support agreeing that it was a beautiful intruded upon moment and any effort you could use to support any other struggling mothers should be acted upon.

It seemed that this would blow over and papers dug back to what they knew, it was a beautiful moment, because you didn’t have very many of those left and James was supportive to not blemish the legacy of his daughters’ mother for them to grow up aspiring to. Even Mr Yarbrough had to admit it was a bit amusing for how people had gone to such extremes in this matter and calmed after to at least a dull roar. And was all the more pleased as he sat grading your latest assignments while you sat for the exams in History, Geography and Religion to see that the issue had not thrown you off of your school work.

“Is that me?” Loki asked in his stroll into the sun lit room that had a few easels propped up and drying. From the easel you turned lowering your paint brush having painted a portrait of Loki lounged on one of your armchairs with a bouquet of fireworks hovering above his palm. “It is almost lifelike.”

“Took me a while to get the fingers right, I think I might have made Beau and Jeff’s arms go numb in letting me stare at their hands.”

Lowly he chuckled and stated, “It is masterfully done. I am flattered, thank you.” He stepped to the other easels noting the portrait of James and Victor both seated in armchairs in front of the fireplace with their children from their first marriages, Xander on the arm of his father’s chair and Victor’s children on his lap. A portrait now that they had their younger daughters would grant some proof of their elder siblings for them to grow up with that the men treasured and readied a nail in a special place to hang it when it was properly dried and framed. “This one is beautiful, more relatives?”

You caught his eye answering, “That is Xander, James’ son from his first marriage and Victor with his daughter and his son from his first marriage.” Loki’s eyes swept over your face taking in the hint of sadness in your expression. “They’re all buried in the family graveyard on these lands with their mothers. We talked about when Leanora was born having some sort of portrait for the girls to know what their older siblings looked like. The guys asked it just be the kids, didn’t want to have me and Jeanie having to peer up at our predecessors.”

“You have done them justice. Our grandfather does not have as skilled a portrait executed with such love in it.”

“They’re beautiful babies. Almost makes me wish there was easier access to cameras back then to have given them more to hold onto. Part of why they have taken trunks of pictures since we’ve met I bet. Deep down they’re making notes to hold onto for when they imagine they will have to bury me.” Loki chortled and you said, “They’re going to be so disappointed when we have to build a new house for the pictures we’ve accumulated by the time I hit a century and have still refused to die.”

“I doubt disappointment would cross their minds in reaching the first century mark on your second lifetime.” His eyes traveled to the third couple portrait that could be hung separately or together of a trio of people seated for tea, “And these?”

“Friends, Howard Stark and Ana and Edwin Jarvis. They chose some cribs for the girls for our Brooklyn home and I’m terrible at picking gifts for them. Howard is very rich and I believe Ana and Jarvis have all they could want already.”

“A gift of this caliber would be treasured.”

“What do you do for fun?” You asked making him grin at you as you finished a detail on the edges of his finely draped velvet cape down the front of the leg of his chair of a charming bit of speckled fur that he now dearly ached to have one just like it.

“I have taken up glass blowing recently. Quite agitating at first, however I am told that I am improving, perhaps a different view point of a Master Smith could see my efforts is helpful in such a discovery.”

“I could imagine burning myself rather frequently in that hobby.” You said making him chuckle again.

“The heat is rather a fickle aspect of the hobby. Remaining hydrated is key, a pitcher of water is always nearby in case of overheating.”

“Loki, welcome back,” James said carrying two of his girls with the third in a sling he fashioned across his chest. “I’ve found a way to grow another arm.” He said making the Prince chuckle again. “You are just in time for lunch, Sarah made some lemon squares, don’t know what’s in them but you look up for an adventure.”

“That I am.” He said smiling in the excited coo of the girls who saw him when he came closer. “Their curls are coming in nicely. A very good sign for healthy childhoods for my people full head of hair early on.”

“Yes, dad said I had a full head of curls by my first month too.” Drying the brush you rinsed off with a half damp and paint stained rag you left on the table to say, “Should be time to pump again, before they get fussy on you.”

“They would never,” James teased as you came closer kissing the trio on their heads and raised palms to lead the duo to the sitting room in your wing.

As the pump worked underneath your bra and t shirt against your bent legs you gave each of the girls some personal time while Victor lounged with his Petal reading her a story to Teddy and Loki’s artistic battle in making their own castles out of the hoard of colorful blocks while Marigold stretched for a nap across the Prince’s lap. The phone ringing turned your head and with a stretch of your fingers the phone floated closer so you could lift the receiver, “Hello, Howlett Pear, Creed residence.”

“Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth is calling for the Baroness,” an aid spoke through the line in a cool crisp tone.

“Oh, of course, I’ll hold for her Majesty.”

“Just a moment, Baroness.”

The line switched and her voice came through the line, “Bunny, how are you this morning? We have gotten a copy of Mother magazine it was quite a masterful spin on the hassle at hand.”

“Thank you, and we’re all doing well here.”

“And your classes are going well, the papers have all stated that your grades are pristine top marks.”

“Classes are going well, still tutors at home twice a week until next Tuesday when I start on campus.”

“We all certainly hope that you will be treated with ample respect.”

“I will be, everyone is very respectful up here. If I can how is Princess Elizabeth’s pregnancy going?”

“Swimmingly, the first trimester was rough but on her way to the third she is very strong. Thank you for asking. She has been very happy to hear that things are lightening up for you. Have your girls gained any more weight?”

Questions continued as more information was shared and eventually she had to hang up and see to other matters leaving you to return to focus on your family and keeping Teddy and Marigold from Lording over the Prince more than he could handle for as long as he could.

“We finished another bundle of the Spain trunk, did you want to give it a look?” Jeff asked and after a moment to register what he meant from the mindset of playing you gave him a nod.

“Sure, where would we have to go?”

Beau smiled saying, “The directory is in the sitting room by our room. Not far of a walk.”

Once on your feet with the whole group including the children, the elder three watched the brothers guide you to the sitting room with a bronze fountain shaped like a tree with layered branches topped with groupings of bronze leaves layered with crystal leaves settled inside of a bronze basin filled with pebbles shaped from crystals. “I’ve seen this before,”

Beau stated with a smile, “Not uncommon a reaction for the first return to using it.”

In your step closer Loki took notice of the familiar structure to the one back on the abandoned Beserker territory on Asgard that with a lift of your palm had the top of the fountain light up and release a fine mist that in the more it pooled out into the room and darkening as it did. Similar to your galaxy mist in silvery blue it chose a more silver and pink tinted hue with soft hints of cheerful chimes from the creatures who dwelled inside of it that let out in recognition of who was tapping into the hive minded database.

Jeff to the list of runes that hovered in front of your raised palm stated, “We should start here,” and showed you the meaning of the runes. “This shares the translations both in written word, spoken and in reenactments. And we can show by means of the map that will show exactly where it took place and when.”

Up to your lap when you took a seat for the replay of your history you took hold of one of your girls with James at your side treasuring the tales while holding his other two daughters while they napped. Perfectly content in knowledge of the path that helped to lead you three here to this coveted moment. Both of the brothers however took enjoyment in the end of the translated bits to hear what had been learned on their own travels before this lifetime. All of it a road map to now with details that even stunned Loki, including in his trips to Norway as a child that you had been there, a fact that stunned not just himself but his mother when he returned and as usual gave her an update on how things with your family were going.

That tv of yours however had Frigga on the visit before gather up a collection of books from their own schools for children to help advance your knowledge even more as she had grown to see how unfair it was to keep you from copies on such an ignorant planet compared to their own. Materials would be far from accessible to you but at least in time until your full power had awoken she might be taken as an ally in hastening the growth of your ever hungry intellect that scoured for more. Even she could sense that the gap in knowledge was hindering your return and when she approached Himdall his grin eased out along with his palms to accept the books bound together in a leather set of straps.

“Heimdall, kindly gift these to Mother.”

He bowed his head, “I shall, and she will be ever grateful for the gift.” She nodded and timidly turned to head back to the doorway she would transport herself back into the Palace. However she paused and looked back at him when he said, “Mother bears you no ill will, Queen Frigga. The decisions of Odin and his father long ago shall not bear down upon you or your sons and people. These books will help greatly to improve her capabilities to effect change upon Midgard as she always had. You have no reason to fear her growth in the coming years, in fact a friendship should very well grow if you would welcome it. For now, I shall deliver your gift.” There was no time for an answer as in a galaxy colored mist his body vanished to appear at the doorway of your library in a final touch up of readying the table for your tutoring the following day.

A gentle knock on the door had you look up to find Heimdall there who bowed his head and approached as you greeted him, “Heimdall, you can come in. Hope it’s nothing serious to bring you out here to our little planet.”

In a shake of his head he lifted the books on his palms stating, “Not at all, Queen Frigga sent me with these for you,”

When he came closer his eyes adoringly shifted over your girls, namely Nova in your arms who let out an excited squeal that had you and everyone around you chuckle, “Our girls have learned they can be very loud.”

“A joyful greeting, I am honored.” He said lowering the books onto the table that your fingertips smoothed across the leather bound cover of the top textbook larger than a phone book with runes you couldn’t read across the cover.

“Are these in your language from Asgard?” you asked and he nodded offering his hand to the girl who wiggled her fingers his way that wrapped around his fingers in a cross eyed awed stare.

“Yes, Ancient Asgardian.”

Elliot spoke next, “I have some ledgers that we can help teach you from when you are ready.”

And your father said next, “Those books can be quite dense at times, best to take it gradually and we will explain the lessons thoroughly as they tend to build upon the prior lessons as you work your way through in several of their subjects.”

When you looked to Heimdall you said, “I thought Asgard was afraid of me. Why would Queen Frigga give me these?”

“With aid of our Brothers in time you would have learned of these some day, Prince Loki has shared the difficulties of education here and its limits so far with Queen Frigga. Our lessons to what you are learning now would have you equal to a child’s lessons on Asgard. That is unfair, and in the coming years a great deal more to gift you would be helpful for what you might face.”

“I suppose it might help, every now and then there’s mention of the ship headed this way. Can’t help but think if they know so much more that I might be taken as an ignorant fool far below what they expected when they get here.”

Heimdall gave you a comforting grin, “This physical form of yours is merely a piece of a far more breathtaking whole. Mother is with us, always, and while you come to remember that path is all the more beautiful. Midgard is far beyond what we are accustomed, your travels and time here will gift them knowledge in their own ignorance. There is no need to fear, love is patience and trust, together we will learn and grow.”

“Thank you,” you said as Nova released his hand, “And please tell Queen Frigga thank you.”

“I am certain in time we will add a good deal more to your library and when our Brothers will arrive they will have possession of a supply of the records of our people for you to explore as well.”

He bid you and your family a farewell and Elliot called the journal he added to the books he moved to a nearby shelf to be looked over when you were ready so that the dinner your stomachs demanded could be finished and enjoyed.

Across the top of your bed James laid with view of his girls in their squirms calming down to the bedtime story he was reading to them to lull them off to sleep. They had no clue what he was saying but to every stolen kiss or nuzzle of his face against their little selves savoring their scents and tries to keep hold of his head and hands. He absolutely loved these moments and didn’t even look up when you snapped pictures of them as he loved to do when you stole your own time cuddling with the trio. The roll of film was filled and you sighed taking the camera to its usual spot on a table outside the dark room where Victor would see it and in the usual pattern develop the film to give to you later.

Along with his own pictures and those from Dawn and Eddie he savored his time in that dark room surrounded by loving moments with his ever growing family. Proud more and more on the echoes of giggles and racing tiny feet through the manor that had sat empty for so long. Stone and earth held memory and even this place in its neglect since that flood bore a depression much like their own and now seemed to glow all its own glee for the souls now claiming shelter inside its refurbished borders.

Film was bought by the barrel on top of your gifted supply it seemed and a welcome expense to have permanent copies of the gradual growth of every child and the woman he loved who had gifted him his own. Always a bit of doubt lingered he might not be the right choice as a husband but as a father he knew she treasured him for that and wouldn’t have picked another to share this with. Mixed within the pictures of the girls was one of yourself. Normally quite casual the moments James wanted to keep were tame, this one had you in just your underwear, perhaps in a try to lure a more adventurous night when he was in a late shower or changing.

Spread across the bed slumped back comfortably from an alluring pose on your side with curls sprawled about your face that widened his smile. It wasn’t just the moment he’d stumbled across to lure an intrusion but much like the photograph of James on your honeymoon the dance of flame and shadow across your skin had turned this stolen moment into art. Show of his adoration for you and a try to begin again what you formerly had to have him stumble into a far more intimate moment. He knew what his brother felt, pure love and awe at the strong force of a woman who put to test the meaning of labor to birth the girls who looked more like you by the day. A couple more weeks and far from that time in London when you walked out in the underwear gifted to you to see if it was correctly draped across your starved frame now he could see their efforts to coat you with leisurely weight to suit daily energy requirements and to signal you were well fed.

He left it to dry and carried on until he saw the image of the tiny hands tangled in James’ hair and arms holding his head down at his bend to their whim he could but wouldn’t break no matter how easily he could. Every image was left hung to dry to be handed over later and sorted to be added to the collection of others on his way to finish readying for the day trip ahead to go and visit Norma on set as you’d been promised a trip to do so and see how your project was coming about.

Economics, Government, Political science, Anthropology tests and an afternoon trip to town that ended with a rainy drive back home for an early night to cuddle in bed for the drive and flight in the morning. Norma still was on set but now that you had settled a suitable schedule for feedings the brothers zapped you all closer to the airport where Howard’s plane waited to fly you all out to the location that he was filming in today. To keep your girls safe they would remain at home and not even Leonora would be coming at Norma’s request knowing how much press was around to keep her safe from being plastered around the world more than she could manage.

Ample milk had been stored and your parents gladly took charge with Edie of the children while Elliot and the twins delved more into translations of those documents as they had daily to make use of the summer while they had it. Eddie stayed with you as you parked and the stroll over to the waiting plane while Dawn took Teddy and Marigold to her family’s home to get more work done on their paper.

“Bunny, glad to see you, today should be fun.” Howard said when he came close post stroll out of his plane from final checks.

“I’m sure it will be.” Victor said carrying the bag with the paintings in it turning Howard’s head to them.

James said, “Brought you something, Bunny made them.”

Howard said, “You didn’t have to make me anything, not even my birthday.”

“Well consider it payback for the cribs and filming my story.”

“Ooh, now I’m really curious.” He said with a smirk following you inside the plane he sealed the steps to get to his seat saying, “You can sit up front if you like, Bunny.”

Jarvis who was securing your bags gave you a nod and watched you timidly join Howard up at the cockpit to ease down onto the co-pilot seat in the Douglas DC-3 that had you tuck your legs up to sit on to be able to see over the nose of the plane. Howard chuckled saying, “I will be sure to pack a few phone books next time.”

“It’s alright, have to use them for our truck too. Nothing new, I live in the land of giants.” You said making him smirk.

He began to flip switches and start up the plane explaining what he was doing all through the roll to the runway and lift off until you were in the air. “Maybe one day I could give you some lessons. You know the time I flew Steve into enemy lines to rescue Bucky was on one of these. You been in a few in the service I bet.”

“Couple, only it’s a bit odd without the gunfire.”

After another glance your way he asked, “You still doing well? You look well fed a bit more than last time.”

“Still good, first time so far from the girls, but I suppose I have to get used to that for what class on campus start next week.”

“If I can say, we’re all proud of how you handled that press with your magazine spread. Masterful, downright masterful on the shift of it. Everyone on set agreed. You should have never had to face that but you handled it well. Hate that you have to, press can be vultures, but I imagined they had standards.”

“All spilled milk at this point.” After a moment you asked, “Would it be rude to ask if you have another Mrs Stark on the horizon to anger someone else’s dad?”

That had him chuckle again, “Not yet. Always up to help a woman out of a sticky situation if I can help it.”

While others were setting up things for the first scene and gathering the cast that gradually was getting ready your focus turned to Ana Jarvis who came into view with a wrapped bundle laid against her chest. The heartbeat inside had your smile widen and you asked, “Now where did you find this angel?” Widening her smile.

“This is our daughter, Celeste. Last year we found out we could not have children, but there was an orphanage back in New York who called us, a young mother could not provide for her child and put her up for adoption. She is beautiful and has orange hair and eyes like Edwin’s.” She said on the verge of tearing up for how fated the move turned out to be.

“Congratulations,” you said to the both of them and from the bag Victor handed you to bring out the portrait of the couple parting their lips. “If I would have known I’d have added her. A sort of thank you, for the cribs and being so kind.”

Ana said, “Oh thank you,” she said using her free arm to give you a hug that when she ended she turned to look at it again, “It is beautiful, did you paint it?”

“Yes, I have one for Howard too.”

“You have what for Howard?” He asked with a smirk on his path back on his way to check something else only to gape at the portrait and the one of him you offered him. “Bunny, I love it, thank you.”

“I wasn’t sure if you wanted to hang them together or separately, however you liked.”

Howard smiled and said in collecting the both of them, “I’m going to put these somewhere safe until we get the clear to head home later, be back in a few, get comfortable.”

Sure enough like a magnet in the silent nightclub of a set to the piano as the guys took in the artwork and other details soft notes filled the air. Just a few random notes bled into a familiar tune. One that would frequent the radio station Steve tuned into at night when he thought everyone else was asleep. Without thought your fingers continued in their dance across the keys without comment until murmurs could be heard from outside the set, “Did they hire another band?”

Another said, “We aren’t even late!”

“We got a contract! They can’t do this!”

Sight of you however in a blue off the shoulder lace dress with a knee visible under the hem of the skirt on the bench had the band that you had met years prior at the White House dinner after receiving your medals. Jarvis with a grin eased into his usual fix it mode and clarified you were merely passing time. Your notice of the band as they approached had you grin and ease off the bench, “Hello.”

“Baroness Pear Howlett,” they each said offering their hands you shook then looked to their horn player who said, “We have to do a sound check and warm up before the scenes, care to play with us?”

“Don’t you need the piano?” you asked and they chuckled.

Their piano player said, “I am good on a dime, if you don’t mind that is.”

Without anything else to do again the song ‘Into Every Life A Little Rain Must Fall’ recorded by The Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald was what you began with after they named the tune you had been tapping out. A nod from you had the pianist sit beside you on the spacious bench ready to help you liven up the tune to give a wider range for the others to jump into. Hushed giggles and conversation on ways to shift the tune made for a smile worthy sight when Norma hurried onto set to claim a hug and kiss from Victor and cuddled with him as the other actors bled into sight to fill the seating and standing room.

Shirley Temple and her mom beside Howard’s side had him smirk at Shirley’s soft gasp and comment to her mother, “Momma, it’s really Bunny Pear,” clinging to a magazine spread on you from when you had been featured in Kodak’s magazine.

Howard’s arrival had you and the guys stop playing luring a grin from you for a slip away to his side where he said, “Aren’t you just a treasure trove of talents. Guess your Priest wasn’t kidding about those times you snuck in to play the piano.”

“Well you can blame Steve and Bucky. One would get sick or hurt and they’d play the radio or their few records all night.”

“A rude habit that comes in handy, Bunny, come meet Shirley,”

The teen’s wide smile and flash of the magazine had you smile as she said, “I always cut out stories on you.”

“Well I hope last year’s stories didn’t upset you, papers had some fun with the whole frog debacle.”

“I just knew it wasn’t true,” and she asked, “Could you sign my magazine?”

You smirked and accepted the pocket journal and pen James handed you from your purse widening her grin, “Only if you sign my book too.” She gladly agreed and you traded then traded back and the conversations and introductions continued through the rest of the main cast. Beginning with Lawrence Olivier and Vivien Leigh who proudly signed your book trading for a signature of their own to comments on favorite films as Cary Grant shyly traded his own set for yours before a group picture one of the extras gladly took on your camera James remembered to grab.

Howard however stunned you by placing your family in the crowd and had you up again at the piano for the stunning addition for the background music bits of dialog for a few takes of those scenes. However when it came time to have the band perform fully you, for giggles as Howard suggested with the band’s blessing you helped to sing along as they played, ‘If I Didn’t Care’ also by The Ink Spots. With minimal conversation between the leading men that took two takes after you had excused yourself to join the men in the audience. When the lighting and wardrobe was being shifted to move to a different scene earlier in the film for two more of the band’s own songs you accepted a bottle of apple juice Eddie opened for you Cary Grant came over to your side with a nervous glance your way.

“Thank you,” he said luring a widening grin across your lips. “Howard said you picked me specifically for this role, it’s a heck of a role. You wrote a fantastic screenplay.”

“Well you certainly were at the top of the list for who I would have chosen for Roger,” in the twitch of his brow taking the hint that he might not have been your first choice you said, “I actually had the idea from a dream I had when I was pregnant. Though I do have to admit Roger was a tap dancing rhino in my dream.” You said widening his smile again in an amused chuckle. “But outside of a horn and tail you were at the top of the list.”

“Consider me tickled pink the rhinos are all on strike,” he joked making you giggle and smile as Norma came over to help you share more on the story for the continued series of pictures an approved photographer was allowed to take for a spread on the filming so far. Namely a glimpse at the story of yours Howard was bringing to life.

Lunch however for Howard came with his flying you back for the drive home, and when you were safe on the ground again he said, “Don’t you worry. I’ll keep taking good care of your paperback baby.” He said making you grin in his move back to the steps to climb back in the plane not wanting to leave his friends just yet while also knowing that he had to get back to finish filming for the day.

Victor looped his arm around your back needing someone to cuddle with as Eddie said, “That was fun. And that much fun deserves a big lunch. Seems like they are killing the nightclub scenes.”

James smiled at you and said, “I think for certain now we’ll have a spot in the film at least. If he doesn’t put you singing in it.”

“Oh he better not, I’m not in the screenplay.”

You said and Victor chuckled out, “I highly doubt that matters. He’s got exclusive footage with Bunny singing live. Who wouldn’t buy a ticket for that and to see my Nora on the silver screen.”

“Jeanie, yes, me, no. Leave the band to the job they were hired for.” You were helped into the car for the drive back you all joked through until the excited swarm of babies welcomed you back to your home and main jobs of the summer.

Pt 77

All –

@sherala007, @mariannetora, @jesgisborne, @knitastically, @catthefearless, @theincaprincess, ggbbhehe4455, @lilith15000, @alishlieb,

Not nsfw(smut) - @otakumultimuse-hiddlewhore

X Marvel-Cast - @himoverflowers, @theincaprincess

Brother Dearest - @thorinanddwalinsdwarrowdam, @swoopswishsward

#James Howlett x oc #Victor Creed x Norma Jeane #Eddie Brock x OC #Venom #Tutoring #Trip to Stark Filming Location #Howard Stark #Edwin & Ana Jarvis #Marvel #Loki

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brooklynboysficrecs · 4 years

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Ria’s Top 10 Shrinkyclinks Fics

I will admit this isn’t my preferred AU -- I won’t immediately jump on a fic just because it’s pre-serum Steve and WS Bucky. I gotta like the plot, or the premise, or be really, really intrigued by the tags, but to be fair, that’s how I am with everything that isn’t Modern Bucky and Cap Steve, so. That being said, I have read some truly fantastic shrinkyclinks stories, and I do very much love Steven “Fight Me” Rogers at his scrappiest. And these fics also tend to feature protective!Bucky which is another personal favorite of mine. Oh, but also: shrinkyclinks generally refers to pre-serum Steve with actual Winter Soldier Bucky, but a lot of people use the tag just to imply body types, and when they say WS Bucky they mean he’s all huge and muscled and sometimes has a metal arm, though that isn’t required. That’s the definition I’m going with as well, so hopefully nothing’s confusing!

1. If Wishing Made It So by leveragehunters. Before I get into anything about the actual fic, let me say this: leveragehunters is probably my favorite stucky writer. Like, hands-down, I read almost everything they write, and they’re big into fantasy stories, which is a great bonus for me personally. So, so, so many good shrinkyclinks fics by them (Even Underneath the Waves, a mermaid AU that features equal amounts of pre- and post-serum Steve, and A-mage-ing Grace with mage Steve are two of my other favorites, and they would’ve been on the list, but I try not to put more than one story per author, ya know? And IWMIS kinda wins out above the others for me, so). This story features jinn!Bucky who finds himself in the baffled hands of Steve Rogers, who is perfectly prickly and stubborn and good. Bucky’s got a terrible past with humans in general (and Hydra in particular, what a shocker) that he and Steve have to overcome as their relationship progresses, but that progression is frankly beautiful to watch unfold. I come back to this story time and time again because of how much I love these versions of Steve and Bucky getting to know one another, learning to trust each other, supporting each other through the worst the world has to throw at them. Plus, there’s a few more stories in this series if you get as hooked as I am, which is always great!!

2. Roots Have Grown by AustinB. I remember reading this and just... completely feeling what Bucky is going through. Not everything -- he’s an agoraphobic veteran, and I can’t relate to either of those, really, but he’s so... awkward about his crush on Steve. And that’s -- that’s relatable to me. But it’s precious, really, how he tries to help Steve even though he’s afraid to actually meet him initially; he becomes Steve’s sort of... anonymous benefactor? Guardian angel with money? Like, it’s definitely a sugar daddy type deal originally but I doubt Bucky would describe it like that. I don’t know, it’s cute, though, and I loved seeing Bucky opening up to Steve as they became closer.

3. Through The Woods by VenusMonstrosa, alby_mangroves. Okay, hear me out: werewolves. I fucking love werewolves in fiction; I mean, not really the romance novels you’ll see in the grocery store, but. Werewolf mythology is one of my favorite things, so seeing it in fanfiction almost always manages to lure me in. And I was so not disappointed with this story! Steve’s living alone in a cabin in the woods, which of course sounds like the opening to a horror movie, but here it leads to love. Werewolf Bucky is both charming and terrifying, to a degree, he’s a wolf, but he and Steve are fantastic together. This is another story that goes in on the trust aspect of their relationship and I for one am a big fan of that. There’s some violence, minor character death and the like, but it’s definitely not undeserved so. If you can handle that (and the sex, because there is sex in this) then I highly recommend this one!

4. The Joy of Little Things by obsessivereader, Sealcat. And so we move from werewolves to dragons. Yup. Dragons. Another of my beloved mythical creatures that I obsessed over when I was kid. Bucky’s capable of shifting into a human in this, but primarily he’s a big ol’ dragon that surprisingly doesn’t want to eat the scrawny sacrifice from the local village. Steve ends up working for Bucky, instead, and from there hilarity ensues. Steve’s obviously wary of Bucky, but Bucky isn’t at all what he’d been expecting, and they grow closer the longer Steve’s staying in Bucky’s caves. There are a couple of stories with Dragon!Bucky, but this is my personal favorite; it’s cute and heart-warming and, well. I just really like it.

5. I Just Want to Love You in My Own Language by agetwellcard, inediblesushi. So this one has Cap!Bucky (Bucky!Cap?) but again, sometimes it’s more about how Bucky looks rather than his role as the Winter Soldier. Anyway, I remember my biggest take away from this story was how adorable Bucky was in his quest to win the affections of sassy Nurse Steve, who patches him up after missions and is probably playing hard to get. Bucky uses terrible pick-up lines, absolutely awful, and he is completely unashamed of that fact. Which is, as I said, adorable. Steve, initially, does not agree with my assessment, but he gets there eventually. After some requisite drama, of course.

6. Tint & Shade by forestofbabel. Oh, god, this one hurt me, I remember that pretty clearly. Bucky is the Winter Soldier in this, and Steve is a 21st century art therapist who just so happens to resemble his late grandfather, Captain Joseph Rogers, who fought in -- you guessed it -- WWII. Like I said in the intro, if I really like the premise of something I’ll usually read it regardless of the configuration of pre-/post-serum Steve and pre-serum/WS Bucky, and this was definitely one of the fics I got into for that reason. Having actual WS Bucky interact with a modern pre-serum Steve is always interesting, given how much they don’t have in common, generally (there isn’t even really the veteran status that modern Bucky sometimes has in fics), and it’s a journey to see how and why they connect. Having Steve resemble his WWII era grandfather caught my attention, and the fic itself made me grateful that I decided to go for it in the first place. This is another one where is trust is key to their relationship, considering the mental/emotional state Bucky is in at the beginning. Very good story overall!

7. Fourth Floor by dirtybinary, mithborien, picoalloe. So dirtybinary has written some amazing stucky fics, which is why I was so excited when I saw this being posted initially (a few years ago, but still). There’s magic! Mystery! Suspense! Some NatSharon! Looking this over, I’m wondering if I should’ve saved it for the Urban Fantasy list I wanna do (and If Wishing Made It So, if I’m being honest) but I do like it for the shrinkyclinks list. The writing is great, the characterization of Steve and Bucky is great, and like, they live in what is essentially a magical apartment complex, so what’s better than that?

8. my heart tells me you are lonely, too by FanGirling. Alright, so I read this one as it was being published, and the slow burn about killed me. You know, in a good way, though. Bucky lives in Steve and his mother’s apartment building, trying to figure out where to go with his life now that he’s broken free of Hydra and gotten his autonomy back. He’s obviously wary, skittish, but he takes a liking to Sarah Rogers when she reaches out to befriend him, surprised anyone wants to be near him let alone take the time to get to know him. Steve... is not so easily sold on Bucky. And I’m not gonna spoil anything here, but the shit these two go through is intense, and I cried a lot during this fic, sometimes out of frustration because they’re both ridiculous about their feelings (of course Bucky’s fears are valid, the man has been through literal hell, but also I was internally screaming a little as Bucky continually talked himself out of getting closer to Steve.) I wanted to wrap the both of them in about thirty blankets for pretty much the entire length of the fic. God. They’re just -- they’re so incredibly sweet in this one, once they work past their issues (Bucky and Steve are both more than a little messed up from their respective circumstances, but they make it work). Mind the tags on this one, also, especially because there is a chapter that deals with attempted sexual assault against Steve (obviously not with Bucky!), but Bucky handles the situation before anything truly nasty happens, that I can promise.

9. Local Raccoon Befriends Angry Chihuahua by charlesdk. This is yet another author I really love; they have a fantastic farmer!Steve/Modern!WS!Bucky story that I love to bits, as well as other great fics. But anyway, this one. The title sold me the second I saw it, honestly, I can’t even pretend that wasn’t the deciding factor in me reading this. I don’t think I can really do any better than the summary in explaining why I recommend it; feisty tiny Steve and lovestruck grumpy Bucky are a winning combination in my book. This one does feature the boys dealing with homophobia and ableism, though I can’t recall how severe it is. So I’d just mind the tags, and if you’re alright with them, thoroughly enjoy this story.

10. The Road to Hell is Paved with Tony’s Good Intentions by pinlilli. Bucky as a mail-order Russian bride. That’s the detail that pretty much demanded I click on this fic, and oh my god, it was even better than I ever could’ve expected. Tony, in a bid to help Steve get over his awful ex-boyfriend (fuck Brock Rumlow in every universe, honestly), literally orders him a husband -- in the form of beefy James Barnes, who is a fucking gem and I will not hear one bad word against him. He does chores, it’s lovely and adorable, and you will definitely fall just as hard as Steve does. There’s some canon-typical violence in this one that relates to James’ past, but nothing super graphic as far as I remember. Again, Rumlow is a dick and should be treated as such, but he’s hardly the most important part of this fic and I urge everyone to take a look at it if they’re as intrigued by Bucky being a mail-order husband as I was.

#stucky #stevebucky #steve rogers #bucky barnes #captain america #winter soldier #chris evans #sebastian stan #fic rec #shrinkyclinks #top 10

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land-under-wave · 3 years

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As promised, here’s the complete draft of the weird Scott Pilgrim Red/Green fic in its current state. For information about what’s going on with this fic, please see this post. If you’d only like to read completed sections, please start here and keep following the links.

This is very much a rough draft. Aside from simply incomplete sections, there were a lot of things that needed to be revised, such as: awkward tone shift, two sections being too similar to others, a lot of transitions I didn’t like, a really just inadequate Misty section, bad wording choices, etc. I would estimate it was about 85% done.

Content warnings: some amount of creepy old man behavior which I did my best to mitigate but was somewhat unavoidable given the premise. For section-specific warnings, in the first part, Green gets close to panic attack territory, and the ending contains physical slapstick comedy and a few references to Officer Jenny I was trying to edit out. A more detailed warning (which touches on ending spoilers and explains how I tried to handle the creepy behavior) can be found here, and the full spoilers with all the details can be found in this post (also linked above).

A year after Red finally comes down from Mt. Silver, Green gets his head out of his ass long enough to ask Red out on a date.

Surprisingly, Red agrees. Even more surprisingly, the first date is actually a resounding success. Sure, Green panics for half an hour about what to wear, and it gets off to an incredibly awkward start — Red’s mother is hovering anxiously in a corner because he insisted that it be at his mother’s diner, the douchebag, so they spend twenty minutes in stilted conversation while Green makes attempts at small talk and Red gives monosyllabic answers — has he mentioned that Red is a total douchebag? But then Green loses his temper and starts shouting, which gets Red fired up at last, so they start bickering over training regimens, Green’s childhood dickishness, and that time Red vanished up a mountain for four years, and by the end of the meal, they’ve hashed out most of their issues.

On impulse, he grabs Red’s hand on the way out, and Red lets him. His fingers curl around Green’s in response, and it sends a jolt of electricity right up to his spine.

This is . . . good. It’s new and unfamiliar and a little terrifying, and sometimes Green just wants to bury his head into a pillow and scream angrily to deal with the confused tornado raging in his chest, because what the hell are emotions, but it’s good.

A month after they make it official, Green brings Red to a gym leader meeting. Red gets a couple of surprised looks when he walks in, but it fades quickly, and Misty waves him over to the usual corner where she, Brock, and Green sit. If anyone asks, Green is prepared to point out that Red’s still technically champion, but no one does. Everyone must like him enough that it doesn’t matter.

They wait till after the meeting, when everyone’s milling about and talking to each other, in order to announce that they’re dating. That’s when all hell breaks loose.

“What? Green?” Misty shrieks, while Sabrina looks at him with silently judging disapproval.

“Oh my,” Erika says delicately, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth.

“Red, no!” Brock wails.

Green is pretty sure he should be offended. These are his colleagues, after all. He’s been working with them for half a decade — when’s the last time Red even talked to any of these people? Why are they all on his side?

Surge snorts, arms folded. Just when Green thinks he might restore some sanity to the proceedings, he declares, “Think again, boy. You’re not tough enough to make the cut.”

Green bristles immediately. He and Surge have always had a slightly contentious relationship, because Surge is all hard-nosed discipline and Green is — well, he can admit that he’s a cocky bastard. “And why do I need your approval to date Red anyways?” he sneers, with the full disdainful force of all his teenage attitude. The contempt is not hard to muster up. Nobody here is related to them, and even if they were, he and Red are both adults who can make their own decisions.

As expected, Surge stiffens at the implicit taunt in his voice, but just as the tension is about to boil over into an argument, Erika steps in with a raised hand and a warning glare to silence him. “Surge,” she says, and that one word is all she needs to restore order.

Before Green can feel grateful for their calm, sensible supervisor, she turns to him and resumes the thread of conversation. “We have a league,” Erika informs him, serene. “You may not date Red until you defeat all of us.”

Green’s jaw drops open. “Are you serious,” he says, and looks to Red, who just shrugs.

Great. Big load of help he is.

“I’m afraid not, my boy. And I’m afraid you’re no match for me,” Blaine says, before laughing at his own stupid pun.

“Why the hell are you so concerned about Red’s love life anyways? What are you, his possessive loser exes?” Green demands.

He’s expecting a response like, “Don’t be ridiculous,” but instead, to his horror, Erika merely smiles. “What do you think?” she says.

Silence.

Green stares at his colleagues, the seven elite trainers who have been charged with safeguarding all of Kanto, and wonders if he’s losing his mind. Has his hearing gone? He doesn’t think he’s that old, but maybe it’s hereditary. God knows how many times Gramps has misheard his name.

He knows Misty had a crush on Red at one point, but all of them? How the hell did that happen? Red’s never exactly been Kid Casanova here — some days, Green can barely believe Red seduced him — and when did he even have the time for that? He’s spent most of the years since he’s met them alone on a mountain! And hold on a second, Blaine is at least four decades older than him! For that matter, how old is Surge?

Green is about to have an aneurysm.

He holds his head in both hands as he struggles to wrap his mind around the concept. “Okay. So you’re saying all of you have dated Red, and now I need to defeat you to date him,” he says slowly, hoping that saying it out loud will make things sound more reasonable. It doesn’t. It just makes his head hurt even more.

What’s worse, Erika doesn’t correct anything he said. She just smiles and nods. “That’s right,” she says, and as if that’s a cue, the others fall in line behind her in a perfect V formation, sliding into battle-ready stances with smiles just shading into predatory. All traces of friendliness have evaporated, turning them into consummate professionals. Even Brock has dropped the doofy attitude for something serious. Surge’s grin is a little too maniacal for comfort, exposing both gums and teeth, and combined with the glint in his eyes, it’s downright feral.

Green takes a step back, almost involuntarily, and sees Surge’s smile widen in response. Out of spite, Green squares his shoulders and moves back in place, pretending he’s not as uneasy as he actually feels. He scans the seven faces before him, hoping to see a sign of their normal collegial acceptance, but their faces are as solid as stone.

He can’t say he really expected anything else from them. This pose is familiar and well-rehearsed, and they’re all beyond the point where they let the mask slip during official business. Still, Green was hoping that there would be some sign that things would be different for him. After all, this isn’t official business, and in any other situation, Green would be there too, flashing one of his trademark smirks while staring down whatever poor schmuck who Erika decided had earned their ire. But this time, it’s not some hapless criminal or an interfering bureaucrat. He’s the schmuck, and for once in his life, he’s feeling the part.

Green knows he shouldn’t feel this rattled by a battle stance. As a fellow gym leader, it’s easy to notice all the work that went into constructing it, and the flash of eyes and tilt of head that Erika used as a signal is all too familiar. But it gnaws at his stomach anyways, and it’s not even because all his colleagues have turned against him at the drop of a hat. It’s the space. Or the lack of it. Because the spot where he would be standing has already been taken up. Misty and Brock closed the gap without so much as an exchanged look, and in doing so, they’ve erased his years as Viridian Gym Leader like it was nothing.

He didn’t think it would be so easy to replace him.

Green looks at the inch-wide gap between them and swallows, hoping he can swallow down the uncomfortable lump at the bottom of his chest along with it. He’s always tried to ignore it, but sometimes, he gets this sneaking suspicion that they haven’t fully accepted him as one of their own. They’re civil, of course, and sometimes even kind. But kind is different from warm, and that’s what he thinks they lack.

He can’t nail down exactly what it is that separates him from the rest — in terms of join date, Janine’s less than a year his senior, and he doesn’t think any of them except Surge would hold his old, immature attitude against him, since he was mostly grown out of his bratty stage by the time he took over Viridian. But none of that has banished the [sinking feeling] that he’s on the outside, just a little.

So he’s kept his head down like an animal exposing its belly, and every time the doubt rears its ugly head, he redoubles his efforts to earn his way in. He had a hard road from the start, with the stain of Giovanni’s legacy seeped into his gym’s very foundations, but over the years, he’s earned fantastic evaluations, the loyalty of a cohort of talented trainers, and an official commendation here and there. He’s even got a sickeningly gushy page in the Viridian guidebook that made Red laugh at him for twenty minutes straight after one of his challengers showed it to him. When you’re on a mountain with bad reception, those twenty minutes count for a lot.

Green carries all his accomplishments with him, close to his chest, but they don’t do much to dispel the doubts that hang like ghosts in the back of his head. And he thinks that if he stays quiet and still for too long, they might eat him away until he’s nothing.

He sucks in a breath, but his lungs don’t feel like they’re absorbing air. He presses his hands against his thighs, but that doesn’t do anything to ease the trembling. He tries to count in his head. One. Two.

“Wow,” says Red’s voice from behind him. “I didn’t know that all it took to defeat the great Green Oak was dramatic posing.”

The sound of that innocent tone sends Green whirling around on instinct. “Oh, shut up, like you can talk!” he shouts, and it comes out as easy as breathing, so easy that he doesn’t notice how much lighter he feels at first. “All it took to defeat you was realizing Mt. Silver would never return your love!”

“The mountain and I have something special. You’ll never understand, Green,” Red says, very seriously. If it were anyone but Green, they might’ve believed he meant it, but you don’t grow up with someone and not know when they’re just yanking your chain.

“You know, the only thing I got out of being your childhood friend is the ability to tell when you’re being a dick,” Green tells him sourly.

“Love you too,” Red croons, and okay, he’s definitely doing that on purpose. But if he’s doing it to be a distraction, it’s working.

He brushes his hand against Red’s. “Thanks,” he says, low enough so that only Red can hear it. Red curls his fingers around the palm of his hand and looks him in the eye, unspoken question burning in his gaze.

In response, Green draws a breath, takes one final glance at his erstwhile colleagues, and nods.

He can do this.

What he might not be able to do, Green reflects as he starts his first match, is endure any more of Brock’s stupid rock references.

“My Pokemon and I are all rock-hard,” Brock declares proudly. He’s always been cheesy and goofy — probably because of all those younger siblings — but his horrible battle introductions have always taken the cake. And does he realize that by doing this, he’s also teaching his siblings about innuendo? Maybe that’s why they giggle at him all the time.

In all honesty, once you get past all the quirks, Brock is kind of an admirable person. You don’t raise nine kids without earning some respect from Green Oak, and he knows all too well about growing up with absent father figures. But unlike Green, Brock didn’t let that hurt define him growing up. Instead, Brock took on that responsibility without reserve and without complaint, and he grew with it to become a good man. A lot of kind, loving people would’ve broken with it. In comparison, really awful puns and a tendency to hit on every girl in the room aren’t that bad. At least he’s sincere about it instead of just being a sleaze.

But Brock makes it really goddamn hard to get past those quirks. And when he starts urging Onix to use Harden, that only proves his point.

Things go downhill from there.

With the proximity of their gyms, it’s convenient for Green and Brock to have practice matches together, and he uses the knowledge he’s gleaned from those to plow him down in their fastest match yet, one eye twitching the entire time. There’s no way Brock could be making that many hardness references by accident. “I took you for granted, and so I lost,” Brock says glumly. Then he looks in Red’s direction and cries, “Red, my love, I have failed you!” throwing an arm across his face theatrically. Geez, get a grip. Or a life. Or both.

But instead of treating him with the contempt Brock deserves for this patheticness, his traitor boyfriend pats him on the back sympathetically. Ugh, why is he even dating this jerk?

At any rate, at least this catastrophe is over. “Loser,” Green scoffs, and heads out to schedule his next match. He catches Red giving Brock a shrug before following after him.

He never thought he’d say this, but thank god Misty is the Water type Gym Leader. After rocks, they have the most potential for innuendo, but Misty has too much angry dignity to be caught dead like that. If someone tried, steam would come out of her ears and she’d probably yell something about disrespecting the beauty of water types. This shouldn’t be an issue again until Blaine.

Misty might not be a fan of innuendo, but she makes up for it with determination and skill. There’s something different about her this time, a strength in her stance that didn’t used to be there, and it centers Misty too much for him to rattle her.

The first time they fought, she was fourteen years old to Green’s thirteen, a skinny kid who bristled with her inferiority complex and hated anything to do with flowers. Provoking her was a piece of cake, and any suggestion of her inadequacy could send her into a spiral of rage or just as easily send her collapsing in tears.

In hindsight, it is funny how Misty rejected her famous family while Green embraced his too much, opposite ends of the same spectrum. Green dealt with his issues with his cockiness, Misty with her anger.

This Misty is fully in control. She holds the reins to her anger and reels it in, harnessing it as fuel instead of distraction. She’s ruling her emotions instead of letting them rule her, and in doing so, she’s taken on a bright, focused zeal he’s never seen from her before.

She’s growing into herself, he thinks, and out of her sisters’ shadows.

He’d be proud of her if she wasn’t giving him such a hard time right now.

“You definitely weren’t this hard to beat the first time around!” Green growls, sending out his Scizor.

“Oh, that was just business,” Misty says, rather cheerfully, enough so that Green wants to wring her neck. Her smile widens to just this side of menacing. “This is personal.”

Green gets out of it with his dignity intact, but it’s a close one. Not for the first time, he rues having taken over an Earth-based gym, because it means he has to keep at least a respectable amount of Ground types in his regular training rota and he’s a far less flexible trainer now.

“About time you showed up,” Surge says, arms folded, boots planted shoulder width apart. Green looks at the severe military cut and the stern expression and wonders what Red ever saw in him. It can’t be a thing for older men, everyone but Surge and Blaine are within a few years of Red. It can’t even be a thing for men. The league is half women, after all.

“Why did you date him anyways?” he hisses to his boyfriend, low enough that Surge won’t hear.

Red shrugs. “We both like Pikachu,” he said.

The utter loser.

“I can’t believe you,” Green mutters in disgust. “And people think I’m shallow.”

“It was only once or twice,” Red says, in what sounds suspiciously like a consoling tone. He pats Green on the shoulder a few times.

He stares at him in confusion until the dots connect. “What the — I’m not jealous!” Green cries indignantly. He’s just perplexed, and that’s a very different thing. Green Oak is above such petty things as jealousy.

Red just pats him on the shoulder some more.

Green Oak also does not need such things as consoling, so before his boyfriend can be even more of a passive aggressive dick, he turns to Surge. “Let’s just get this over with.” And maybe it’s sheer frustration or his natural tendency to be a brat to Surge, or maybe it’s just type advantage finally being on his side for once, but for some reason, this time the victory comes easier than all the previous.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Green?” Erika asks. She cocks her head to the side, and for the first time since he accepted this stupid challenge, Green feels a sense of trepidation. Erika is, after all, kind of his boss, and she’s also one of the most terrifying people he’s ever met.

You wouldn’t think it to look at her. Most of the people in Kanto never get the chance to see anything more than a sweet woman who likes gardening and flower arrangements. Her colleagues, on the other hand, experience a whole different side of her, with all the talents that got her appointed as Kanto supervisor. Things like her ability to calmly reason with anyone, her backbone of steel, and a carefully hidden serial killer crazy that can outstrip Surge at his worst.

He breaks out into a cold sweat. Is he ready for this? Sure, he’s beaten her before, but the first time he battled her, he was still stupid enough to think Erika was soft and beating her would be easy, and weirdly enough, that stupidity gave him the reckless brilliance he needed to take her down instead of causing his downfall. He might’ve become a better battler in the meantime, but now he’s too cautious to use those same crazy strategies and he also knows that she was taking it easy on him — all gym leaders adjust their level to their opponent’s in official matches.

More than ever, Green is acutely aware of the differences between him and his thirteen year old self. There was a kind of fearlessness that came with being young and feeling like the world was at your fingertips. He spent pretty much his entire Pokemon journey swaggering around like being thirteen meant he was now a real adult and the world would just fall at his feet, and even losing the championship to Red didn’t quite jolt him out of it. Green’s only eighteen now, but he feels unbearably older, more off balance, uncertain of everything he needs to do. It’s funny how he couldn’t wait to get older when he first set out from Pallet Town, but now he just wants the carefree bravado of thirteen again. Why did he decide to grow up? Who told him it was a good idea?

“Backing out now, Green?” says a dry, challenging voice, and all the air goes out of his lungs. But in a good way.

He didn’t have this at thirteen.

Now that he’s back in reality, Green pulls up his disdain like a barrier against his fear. “As if,” he sneers.

“Good. After all, you still have to win me,” Red says. He bats his eyelashes, and the sight is so horrifying that it wipes all thoughts of Erika from his head immediately. “Your princess awaits inside the castle.”

“Princess? Yeah, right. You’d never be able to pull off the dress,” he shoots back automatically. He feels himself ease, the seas inside him settling down as he sinks into the rhythm of the familiar. He even lifts his chin and smirks as he says, “You know what, I think I change my mind. Let’s call the whole thing off, I need someone who’s better-looking than you.”

“Aw, but nothing’s as ugly as your personality,” Red says, and that tone would sound sweet if it weren’t coming from someone who’s halfway allergic to sincerity. But at the same time, he covers Green’s hand with his and gives him a smile like a secret. “You can do it,” he says, with an iron, quiet faith.

Green breathes out, long and slow. “You’re right, I can,” he says, turning back to Erika. He flashes her a smirk full of confidence that he’s actually starting to feel and declares, “I won’t back down.” It comes out as an oath, and he’s not sure if it’s to himself or to Red, but he knows he won’t lose.

She shrugs elegantly, but it doesn’t feel like as much of a threat this time. She’s just an ordinary woman now. “Very well,” she says, and sends out Tangela.

Throughout the battle, Red doesn’t let go of his hand.

Sabrina’s waiting at the door of her gym when Green and Red walk up to the entrance. “You’ve arrived, as I predicted,” she says.

“Uh, yeah, we scheduled the match in advance,” Green points out. Beside him, he can hear Red muffling already-quiet laughter. Why does he enjoy Green’s discomfort? Is he just a sadist?

“We did not arrange that you would arrive twenty minutes early,” Sabrina responds, and turns around to lead him inside before Green can get the last word.

Green fights the urge to make a rude gesture at her back out of sheer spite. He and Sabrina have never been that close. They have a shared interest in freaking people out for fun and games, but Sabrina does it by being sinister and cryptic, while Green prefers sheer power with a dash of douchebaggery instead of mind screws. Even though he knows he’s still a total dick, being around Sabrina makes him feel weirdly benevolent in comparison.

In that regard, she’s a little more like Red—they’re both closed-mouthed and hold their cards close to their chest until something makes them give them away. But it’s weird to think that Sabrina is anything like his boyfriend, so Green shuts off that train of thought as fast as he can. He can’t really explain why he likes Red so much more than Sabrina. It’s not just shared history, there’s something deeper there between them that he can’t quantify. Maybe it’s just that the things Red holds to his chest align with Green’s own brand of awfulness, maybe it’s just that Sabrina somehow manages to be even weirder than Red.

Whatever the case, Sabrina’s tactics might have a point. This battle feels like the worst one yet, not because of the difficulty, but because of the tense, hard air in the gym, Sabrina’s ever-present smile like another ghost skulking in the background. This battle doesn’t excite him, it just exhausts him. He just wants it to be over, and in his haste, he makes mistakes. Sloppy ones, like trying to use Tackle against Gengar even though he’s grown up knowing Normal type moves don’t work on Ghost types. It doesn’t help that the mere presence of Gengar in the Psychic gym had thrown him off to begin with.

Sabrina seems to be sensing his discomfort, because the funny little grin on her face widens with his growing unease. For the first time, he truly sees what a formidable opponent she is, wielding both psychic powers and psychology against her challengers to damage them physically and mentally. It was another thing that his complete and utter self-confidence had made him immune to the first time.

Idly, he wonders if that was the point of this, one big scheme to make him appreciate his colleagues more as trainers. If so, it worked. But was he really that bad before? Maybe he’d ask Erika once this awful quest was over.

If that is the case, though, ironically, it’s also her undoing, because as the match goes on, Green also starts to see the woman he knows inside the mysterious figure at the other end of the gym, and focusing on that familiarity helps combat the unease. In the end, Green can’t really say that it’s his skill that wins the day. It feels more like luck, just a game of who can outlast the other and he happened to draw the winning card. But when Alakazam falls, it seems to break the spell over the room. The lingering tension dissipates, just as ghostly as the atmosphere that had created it, and the world comes back into focus.

Sabrina looks at her fallen Pokemon and, bizarrely, smiles as she recalls it back into its Pokeball. “Your love for Red overwhelmed my psychic power . . . The power of love, I think, is also a kind of psychic power . . .” Sabrina intones.

“Okay?” Green says. Even ignoring the psychic powers, Sabrina has always been a weirdo.

Sabrina says something else, but he’s not really paying attention. Instead, he grabs his boyfriend’s wrist. “Red, let’s get out of here,” he says. He’s ready to blow this joint, and if he has to be in this creepy gym much longer, he’s going to make that literal.

Out of all the other Gym Leaders, Green thinks Janine might be his polar opposite. Sure, they’re around the same age and their names kind of rhyme, but Green is brash and confident and walks like he owns the place, while Janine . . . well, Janine is naive and enthusiastic to the point where she’s pretty much tripping over her own feet. She seems too young for her authority, while Green wields his so easily that people are startled when they find out his actual age.

It’s weird to think that Red could date two such different people. Heck, it’s weird to think that he could get two such different people to date him. Maybe he realized he didn’t like that type and that’s why he’s dating Green now, he muses.

That still doesn’t explain why both Janine and Green agreed to date him. Insanity? That must be it, because it also explains why he’s fighting all of his colleagues over his dick of a childhood friend.

But the biggest difference between them, Green thinks, is that Janine has never gotten over her yearning for her absent father. She still desperately wants to make Koga proud. Even now, he sees in the way she forms her stance that she’s trying to follow his teachings.

Still, in spite of their [different] reactions, struggling to cope with the fame of their family line and its looming shadow over their entire lives is something they have in common. Someday, she’ll have to figure out how she wants to be a gym leader, separate from her father’s legacy. Someday, she’ll have to make a name for herself as Janine, Gym Leader of Fuschia City and not Janine, daughter of Koga. No one will ever respect her if she doesn’t — Green’s learned that the hard way.

Someday, she will have to walk her own path. But that day is not today.

“Are you ready, Green? Cause I’m not going to wait for you to catch up!” Janine calls, sounding very un-ninja-like. Green briefly mourns the loss of the mystique. He used to think ninjas were cool.

“It’s my duty to defeat you on the behalf of all evil exes everywhere!”

“You can’t be serious,” Green says.

“Sure, I am!” Janine says. She pulls out a small, colorful rectangle from somewhere with her magical ninja arts and waves it around. “After all, I’m a card-carrying member of Red’s League of Evil Exes!”

There are cards now. Green looks at his boyfriend and says, “Red, what did you do to them?”

Red just looks at them and shrugs, looking mildly confused himself. But not confused enough that he’ll actually do something about it, Green notes sourly.

Cinnabar’s volcanoes are as fascinating as always, but Green is too busy stewing to enjoy it. He marches past all the ads for hot spring resorts and into the Gym, braced for what lies ahead of him. Blaine is waiting for him inside. “You’ve made it, my boy,” he said, and the expression on his face is almost like a proud parent.

Green scowls. He used to respect Blaine. He is, after all, one of the finest scientific minds in all of Kanto, and while Green isn’t a scientist, Gramps has instilled him with a healthy respect for their work. Even the punning had been bearable. He had earned the right for a quirk.

But this? This was going too far.

Blaine at least has the decency to wait until they’re all set up for battle before he springs the next part of his awful sense of humor on him. “And now, a quiz! What makes you worthy to date Red?” Blaine asks.

“What made you worthy? You’re an old man! Red was a teenager!” Green shoots back. He’s pretty fuzzy on the timeline of Red’s awful lovelife, but there’s no way Red was any older than fifteen whenever the hell they dated. He’s pretty sure Red wasn’t in some demented long distance relationship while still on that goddamn mountain.

Blaine gives him a creaky shrug. “What can I say? Red really lights a fire in my heart,” he chuckles.

“I’m reporting you to Officer Jenny when this is over,” Green informs him. Gym leader or not, perverted old creeps shouldn’t be allowed in society. Especially not the punning ones.

But reporting him to the officer and letting her punish him for his sins would be cheating if Green does it before he beats Blaine fair and square. He doubts the rest of this stupid league would accept that as defeating Blaine and their ridiculous challenge, so he sends out Rhydon and prepares for a fight.

After an excruciating moment, Arcanine falls.

“Oh,” says Red’s voice. Green looks over his shoulder to see him standing along the wall of the gym, near the entrance. It’s completely like the sneaky bastard to come in secret and Green can’t even be mad at him as he looks at the battlefield and asks, “Is it over?”

For a moment, Green doesn’t know how to answer him. He doesn’t even know how to speak. He just breathes, as the adrenaline drains out of his lungs and euphoria replaces it. His shoulders slump. He looks at the ceiling. It’s over. This ridiculous journey is finally over. He can now date Red in peace.

And then the applause starts.

Erika is the first one to emerge, from behind one of the outcroppings of rock near the back of the gym. Brock is next, followed by Misty, while Surge, Janine, and Sabrina come out from the other side. They form a line at the head of the gym, and bizarrely, every single one of them is clapping, even Surge, though he looks like he’s been forced into it. While Green looks at them, too stunned to react, Blaine moves back to take a spot next to Sabrina.

“Congratulations, Green,” Erika says, smiling. She looks genuinely happy for him, as does Janine, but Surge still looks vaguely murderous and Brock looks like he might cry with happiness.

“What’s going on?” Green demands. On closer inspection, Brock’s “about to cry” face is more like a father watching his child leaving on a Pokemon journey, so proud that it’s spilled over to sad. It worsens the distinct feeling that something’s been going on in the background that he doesn’t know about.

Erika coughs delicately. “I’m afraid we must admit to a deception,” she says, serene as ever. “We are not actually a league of Red’s exes.”

If Green gets any more revelations in the next week, he’s going to have a stroke.

After a beat of frozen silence, he splutters out, “You’re not?” in a tone that’s half confusion, half demand for an explanation. He looks all around him and then waves his hand at the entire gym, a gesture which turns sharp and wild with his anger. “Then what was all of this for?”

“Well, we’re not a league of Red’s exes, but we are all members of ‘Red’s League of Allies Against His Evil Ex-Best Friend Who Broke His Heart,’” Misty explains. She frowns at him. “He was pretty torn up over you during his Pokemon journey, you know.”

Dumbfounded, all Green can manage is, “You can’t be serious.”

“But we are,” Janine says earnestly. She produces her card out of nowhere again and hands it over to Green, who’s now close enough to read the letters embossed on the front. It does, as she’s claimed, state Gym Leader Janine of Fuschia City to be a member of Red’s League of Allies Against His Evil Ex-Best Friend Who Broke His Heart. It’s even made out of red plastic.

Well. One part of him is touched to know that Red had valued their friendship so deeply. You wouldn’t know it to look at him, with his stoic man of mystery act.

The other part is just plain indignant. “That was over five years ago!” Green screeches. They started their journeys when they were thirteen, for God’s sake!

A new thought occurs to him. “And if this was all fake, why was Brock going on about his love and hardening?”

“Did he? Oh, that scenery-chewing ham! I knew he would get carried away!” Misty says in disgust.

“I was trying to go for realism!” Brock protests

“That’s only realism for you, you sleazy flirt!” she snaps, and yanks at his ear.

“Ow, ow, ow!” he yelps.

While Misty’s handling that headache, Green tries to replay the conversation where this all started. “I was the one who first brought up the idea that you were exes,” he mumbles, a little horrified.

“Once you made the assumption, I thought it might work to our advantage,” Erika explains calmly. “A test of your reaction to his supposedly storied history, so to speak.”

“So you just made it up on the spot?” Green says, nearly speechless. How on earth had he fallen for a hastily thrown together scheme? What had it even been centered around, seeing if he was the kind of douchebag who’d storm off and call Red a slut? He’s Green Oak. You don’t get to be one of the top trainers in Kanto by the time you’re fifteen without being a good strategist.

Then again, clearly, all of his colleagues are absolutely insane. No one ever taught Green how to anticipate that.

Erika smiles apologetically. “Please do forgive us, Green, but we had to make sure you two were serious about this. Your friendship ended so badly, and we didn’t want this to end the same way. After all, the poor boy was so heartbroken that he went up a mountain to get away from you.”

Green’s jaw drops. “Okay, that one was not my fault!” He’s willing to accept the blame for being a dick, for being generally unhelpful with Team Rocket, and a lot of other things, but he draws the line at the goddamn mountain.

“Sabrina?” asks Janine curiously.

The psychic in question is studying her nails, looking bored. “My powers aren’t meant to be used for answering this sort of nonsense,” she says. “Ask him yourself.”

“Hold up!” Green shouts, before they can get too off topic. “How was this supposed to make sure I was serious about him?”

“You can be a fickle, capricious sort of person, Green,” Erika explains. “So we thought that, with a series of challenges in your way, if this was some kind of idle whim, you would abandon your quest.”

Green tries to wrap his head around that logic and fails. “How was that supposed to work?” he demands. “What if I was just in it for the challenge of beating the entire Kanto League again and not for Red?”

Erika just smiles. “You don’t have enough of a death wish for that,” she says, like she’s sentencing someone to execution.

Green freezes and feels his spine go rigidly straight at the sound of her tone. That smile looks sweet at first glance, but it’s just a little too perfect, a little too gentle, carefully controlled in a way that says she could easily let that control snap at a moment’s notice. It’s the kind of smile that might be the last thing you see before you die.

Holy Arceus, there are no words in the universe to describe how terrifying Erika is.

Green breaks eye contact as soon as he can and shakes his head a few times, just to get out the lingering feeling of dread. He quickly turns his mind to another topic. “Okay, so who really has dated Red?” he asks, just to get everything straightened out once and for all.

“None of us. Particularly not me,” Blaine answers. “You young whippersnappers are practically infants.”

“Misty did ask him out once, but he turned her down,” Brock chips in.

“Hey! That was years ago, and I’m over him anyways!” Misty splutters, cheeks bright red. She shoulders him hard in the chest and snarls, “Stop bringing that up!” still blushing furiously.

“Ow, that hurts!” Brock yelps.

“You deserve it!” Misty hollers back, and the two of them start arguing again.

You know what, maybe Green doesn’t need to get revenge for all the innuendo after all. Misty’s been doing a pretty good job of enacting it for the both of them.

Misty stomps on Brook’s foot, and Blaine winces. “Please don’t call Officer Jenny,” he says.

In the chaos, Green realizes there’s one party they’ve forgotten about entirely. “And you!” He whirls around and points at his erstwhile boyfriend, whose expression is blankly nonchalant. To a stranger, he might’ve even looked innocent. “There’s no way they could’ve gotten away with it unless you played along! But you haven’t dated any of them!”

“Nope,” he confirms, wearing a funny little smile on his face. He’s clearly enjoying himself, and the smugness of his expression only increases as he coos out, “You’re my one and only.”

That tone he’s using is the stuff of nightmares, and Green blanches, reeling back on instinct. He can hear Red laughing at him inside his head. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he demands, refusing to let that deter him.

“It was funny,” Red says, and then, in a perfect deadpan, “Besides, it was a nice revenge. You drove me up a mountain, after all.”

Green is at least seventy-five percent certain that isn’t true and Red’s just playing along to be a douchebag. “Why, you—!” he growls, and instinct born of ten years of childhood games takes over. He tackles him to the ground, fisting his hands into his shirt so he can drag him up by the collar. He hears someone shout behind him, and it’s probably because they’re a little too old for roughhousing, but Red, Red understands him. Red doesn’t panic or protest. Red just lifts his head to meet his glare with a smirk, and then leans up, grabs his head, and kisses him.

There’s still noise in the background, but it fades away as the world becomes nothing but Red.

Later, while they’re falling asleep, Green asks, “You didn’t really go up the mountain because I broke your heart, did you?”

“No,” Red answers, but before Green can let out a breath of relief, he says, “I went up there cause you were so annoying that I wanted a break from you.”

In a display of supreme maturity, Green kicks Red in the shins. Some things never change.

#Fanfiction #Pokemon #OriginalShipping #Green Oak #Red #Crack #Scott Pilgrim AU #At Last I Am Rid of the Albatross

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crimsonbluemoon · 4 years

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26 and terrormoo❤️

I don’t know.

Warning: Slight hint of sexual harassment, but nothing graphic (like one inappropriate joke/line but I still wanna put this here just in case) and not between Brian and Brock

Couple: Terrormoo Number: 26 Prompt: “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“Come on, Bri-Bri.” Harry’s nickname made Brian sneer, glaring at the duo now resting their arms on the wall he was leaning against. The music wasn’t as loud in the coatroom where the men had cornered him; Brian wondered if Harry and Richard were cocky enough to leave the door unlocked for anyone to walk in on their entrapment. Brian could probably take both men with his hands tied behind his back; they were five years older than him and twice his weight, but it was all fat. The martial art classes he took for eighteen years would make breaking their jaws easy. But, knowing where he was, he couldn’t. Brian he was used to dealing with rich scumbags at parties like this; it was the price he paid for staying at his father’s charity events. He didn’t want to go but his mother’s soft eyes asking for his attendance always wore him down. Now, he remembered why he hated being here. “It isn’t like it’d be your first time with a few guys. We don’t have to do it at the same time; we can share.”

“Share what, STDs?” Brian muttered, grinning at Richard’s narrowed eyes. Money meant power in this culture, and he knew his family’s old business carried weight. But some things, like his affinity for being with men and women, tended to close him off to some of that prestige. These two, whose parents were ‘good friends of his father’ came from scummy deals and illegal business, though Brian couldn’t prove it.

“Don’t be so mouthy with us; we spend a lot of money-” Brian cut Harry off.

“Your parents, you mean. The two of ya can’t get juice from an orange without someone else squeezing it.” Brian’s snark resulted in Richard’s hand grabbing his throat, shoving him back into the wall hard enough to send a spark of pain through his back. “Watch yer meat hooks ya fucking asshole.”

“All we’re asking for is a little fun while our parents play dress up. Is that so hard to process? You’re not exactly against getting with anyone, since you’re not picky.” Harry seemed to think Brian was easy, and he knew why; his ex-boyfriend was a dick that Brian had once thought actually cared about him. It’d been the first guy he’d been with, shared his heart, body, and soul with, and the guy sold the information to the first tabloid that could pay him a pretty penny. The love he’d thought they’d cultivated was spilled like spoiled milk on the front pages of every social media, and he’d been painted as a loose bisexual cannon since.

“Get off me.” Brian had to take a breath to keep from reaching out and breaking Richard’s wrist; getting his black belt meant he could be charged with some serious crimes if he used his hands in a fight. His body tensed when Richard leaned closer, overpriced wine on the breath of air puffed into his face.

“Getting off sounds about-”

“Excuse me?” A voice that held less weight than a feather slipped into the conversation, Brian tilting his head past the two idiots to see who had intervened. The large brown eyes that took in the scene reminded him of his mother’s, soft but unwavering as they lowered into discomfort. “But he’s asking you to let go, and I’ll have to ask you to listen please.”

“It’s nothing for a stranger to worry about, kid.” And in truth, scumbag Richard was right; this guy had to be twenty-two, max, which meant he’d be barely a year older than Brian himself.

“So mind your business and continue on.” Harry tried to present as tough when he took a step toward the newcomer, arms crossed over his chest.

“I could do that. But I’ll be swinging back with the police on duty at this event, and since he’s my best friend, I don’t think Officer Wine will be as polite.” Surprised that the man stood his ground, Brian felt his lips twitch into a smile when he saw a hint of defiance in the fidgeting man’s gaze. “Or you could let him go and return to the party. The choice is yours.”

“...Pfft.” The hand let him go, and Brian watched Richard slunk past the newcomer.

“He’s not worth our time anyways.” A bump of a shoulders from Harry didn’t seem to bother the man, who watched with wary eyes until the door of the room slammed behind them. A quick sigh of relief came from Brian’s ‘hero’, who turned his attention back to Brian with a shy smile.

“Uh...hi. You...You probably didn’t need help, so I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or embarrassed, I just came to get my wallet from my coat and...are you okay?” The stranger’s voice was pretty with its humble edge, though it paled in comparison to his flushed cheeks and deep eyes. Brian took in the round cheeks cradling plush lips, his forehead scrunched just like his cute nose. He looked like he’d check in with a killer while being stabbed. This guy was...definitely not the one who needed to be doing the protecting.

“Think I’m a little better now that you’re in here with me instead of them.” He tossed out the flirty line, watching red crawl all the way up the other’s neck. “Haven’t seen you around, though. What company do you work for? Please tell me it ain’t the stock market.”

“No no! Nothing cool like that. I just...I work for the...the one catering your party. Or, well, I’m the chef your father hired for it.” Ah, so the guy knew his family. The bravado and strength from before looked to pour out of his body, as if it was shameful to admit he had a good, stable job. Plus, culinary skills? Brian could only imagine how adorable the guy would be with an apron and chef’s hat. Of course, as he gave an open glance along the other man’s body, he didn’t mind the idea of taking said items off…

“Well, I think I ought to know your name. Since you work for my old man and all.” It had nothing to do with that, but it felt like an easy excuse to use for the moment.

“Right, of course! I’m Brock. Thank you for having us at your party, we appreciate your business.” A polite bow only increased Brock’s charm, and Brian felt his heart demand more attention from it’s increased pounding in his chest.

“The pleasure’s ours, Brocky.” The nickname got a blink and parted lips, which Brian smirked at. “Or should I call you Prince Charming, for saving me?”

“That’s totally not necessary,” Brock replied with a nervous laugh, fingers rubbing behind one of ears in modesty. “Just a chef, no prince here.”

“Can’t you be both?” When Brock didn’t answer, Brian eased up on his teasing, moving to something he seemed more comfortable with. “Well, from what I’ve had, the food’s been great. I’ll totally want to use your services again. You got a number I could have...ya know, for future planning?”

“Your father’s got our information in an email-”

“But I’m not dad.” He cut the explanation off quickly, making sure his implication was known for the slightly oblivious guy. “And I think the dinner I’d want prepared would only be for the two of us.”

“Well, I don’t normally eat the food I’m-oh.” He watched the offer click, and the blush that had started to wane before rushed back across his face. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. So, how about that number? Unless you’ve got a princess waiting at home.” He was sure he wasn’t reading it wrong; Brian had caught Brock’s eyes drop to his lips each time he spoke, despite seeming to try and fight the urge to do so. It was sweet he put in the effort, but Brian was more than okay with the attention of the guy who looked so flustered at his flirting.

“No, no girlfriend. Or uh...boyfriend. Never even had a boyfriend cause-” Another look, which was filled with a longing Brian couldn’t understand, was cast over his mouth before Brock shook his head and fumbled back to the door. “I should probably get back to the party. It’s almost dessert time. I, uh, th-thank you very much.”

“For what?” Brian asked, amused at the nonsensical parting.

“I don’t know.” Brock’s hand fumbled with the doorknob, but Brian still heard the muttered ‘what are you doing’ under Brock’s breath before he popped the door open. “Gotta go. It was...really nice meeting you. I-Please be safe!”

“You too, Prince.” The chef was out the door after a stumble, and Brian laughed before leaning back against the wall. For a moment, he was upset that Brock had slipped away. Maybe their Cinderella moment wasn’t meant to be, and Brian would never get his Prince Charming to put on the glass slipper. Brian wasn’t about chasing someone that had no desire to be caught, after all. Not every chance encounter was magical, if his ex taught him nothing else.

Except the way Brock had stared at Brian proved there was more to the unread pages of their fairy tale, and Brian knew just the man (or rather, one officer) to text in order to get the story started again.

>> Piggy, tell me everything I need to know to woo your friend Brock.

#Anonymous #Terrormoo #The Gaming Terroriser #Moo Snuckle #Soft Boys #<3 #Crimson Drabblez

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shima-draws · 4 years

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Shima please tell me about your galaxy brain human Lucario AU I wanna know how it all pans out

NDASKMADMLASMKSA OMG ANON I am more than happy to share :'D This got really REALLY long, I hope you enjoy a good read lmao

So we have. Lucario. As a human. Possibly named after an actual Pokemon Lucario, idk. He's still Aaron's apprentice—trains under him at the castle to become an aura user. However, human Lucario is like. 15, making his connection to Aaron that much more powerful bc he's pretty much baby and Aaron's in his mid twenties practically raising this kid by himself. Lucario views Aaron as kind of a father/guardian figure? He's still so uptight at this point tho;; and he views Lady Rin as a mother (which. Is. SOFT). Rin and Aaron might be in love, it's hard for Lucario to tell, he doesn't Romance. He just focuses on his aura training. Pssh.

Fast forward to the time of the Big Pokemon War. Aaron realizes the only way to stop the fighting is to go find Mew at the Tree of Beginning. However he knows that this is a huge sacrifice—and knowing how loyal Lucario is to him, Aaron knows he'll follow him and be subjected to the same fate. And Aaron's like—Lucario is just a kid, you know? He still has so much more to experience and live for. So while it fucking breaks his heart to shatter Lucario's trust in him (for the time being) and totally ruin his father figure status, Aaron "betrays" Lucario and traps him inside the staff. It's some crazy magic aura crystal thing that seals something inside of it, whether it be a Pokemon, human, spirit, or whatever else. At this point it's also for Lucario's safety—bc nothing can really touch him while he's in there, and they're in the middle of a war, so yeah it's just really good timing and planning to protect his kid. However Aaron, being the adorable himbo dumbass he is, kinda forgets that this is an aura crystal, and therefore needs aura to "unseal" it essentially, which would set Lucario free. Unfortunately after Aaron goes to the Tree and gives up his life to stop the war (cue Titanic music) there's not really any other aura user around. They're pretty rare, even way back then;; so Lucario falls into a deep slumber, being sealed, and is kept there for about 1000 years.

And then!! Ash fucking Ketchum enters the picture!!

Lucario is suddenly woken because he senses Aaron's aura nearby. Absolutely pissed at Dad for leaving him behind, Lucario escapes from the staff and goes to attack, but stops when he realizes Dad is actually not Dad, it is adorable 14 year-old boy who has a similar aura to Aaron. Cue a very disgruntled teenager running through the palace, totally out of place and confused. Eventually he's stopped by Lady Ilene, who explains what's going on. Naturally Lucario's heartbroken—not only is his master/dad/guardian dead, but so is his mother figure, and everybody else he'd once known in the castle. Bc Ilene looks so similar to Rin, Lucario takes comfort from her. Ilene does her best to console him and asks if he'll do her a favor. He leaps at the chance to make her happy—apparently he's a sucker for getting good Parent Figures to like him—and agrees to go help Ash and co. find Pikachu at the Tree of Beginning.

Instead of Lucario doing the Naruto run ahead of the group (which like. How the fuck is he so fast...) he actually sits in the car in the passenger's seat with Kidd doing the driving for him, bc hell if a human can run for that long and not be totally wiped out afterward (also he just woke up from a 1000 year nap. Yeahhh. Not gonna happen.) Also baby has no idea what the fuck a car even is so he's a bit nervous around it, and Kidd's like "Um yeah no I'm not letting you drive. Just tell me where to go" so Lucario uses his aura to lead her. Things progress p much the same way, with Lucario getting strangely attached to Ash despite not wanting to, at all, but it's hard because Ash is just Perfect and a Good Boy and pretty much gives Lucario the sort of attention he craves. Eventually tho that all comes to a head when Ash brings up his friendship with Pikachu. Lucario's still bitter about Aaron and honestly can't bring himself to trust any of them—and is pissed at himself for having taken a liking to Ash despite that—so that leads into their giant fight in the first step of their enemies to lovers trope. Ha. Even so, he still gets consoled by Max (and is given CHOCOLATE!! Which is the most fucking heavenly thing he's ever tasted), and witnesses Ash unable to sleep bc of his honest worry for Pikachu. Lucario does some Deep Thinking to himself about his relations to the group.

The next day, the group activates the Time Flower that recorded Aaron's entire abandonment of Lucario. Believe it or not being a young kid in training for a war tends to give you a bit of trauma, so Lucario freaks out a little and starts attacking the hollow projections of the enemy Pokemon. Ash manages to calm him down. Lucario collapses and asks why Aaron had abandoned him. What did he do wrong? Why would Aaron turn against the kingdom? Why did Aaron trap him in the staff? He doesn't know shit and it's frustrating. Ash comes up to him and apologizes, and as soon as the waterworks turn on Lucario's like oh nooo. Oh NOOOO. Here's this boy laying his heart out on his sleeve and is so honest and open and sincere that he can't help but feel awful for how he treated him. Lucario immediately forgives Ash and is like "I will now protect you with my life" bc Ash is baby and Lucario realizes for the first time!! He's made an actual friend with somebody that isn't his dad or the queen! And if he's friends with Ash that means he can be friends with Brock and May and Max and Kidd too. The prospect is EXCITING. He can trust these people now, he knows, because they saw what happened and they believed him about Aaron. They're choosing to side with him over the "kingdom's hero" and that honestly means a lot—it's a huge commitment and Lucario's just. Super grateful that he has a group of people backing him up. Lucario promises himself that he'll reunite Ash and Pikachu, bc if he were given the chance he'd reunite with the people he once held dear too. Ash and Pikachu really care about each other and Lucario admires and respects that a lot and he wants to make Ash happy so!! He's like. It is my personal mission to see that we find Pikachu successfully. And Ash is just like :'D !!! And it's that moment when Lucario realizes that he might like Ash a biiit more than he originally thought he did. Huh.

Literally not even 30 seconds after that revelation Regirock attacks and Lucario almost has a fucking aneurysm because he JUST made friends with these people!! And now they're going to get killed if he's not careful! Story of his life. He immediately shifts into Protect Ash Mode™ and hurries everyone to safety. Things are crazy. Lucario has too much of a burden on his shoulders. He's stressed. But Ash is with him and that makes things a little bit better so he focuses on getting them to where they need to go and protecting them along the way. Big job for such a young kid. Whew!!

Traveling through the Tree of Beginning, weird antibodies keep voring people, and it's not fun. At one point Lucario takes the bullet for Kidd, but is mysteriously released (probably bc of his aura and his connection to Aaron, who gave up his life, which gave energy to the tree and to Mew. So there's a connection there. The tree kinda sees Lucario as one of its own.) Finally, finally! Ash and Pikachu are reunited! Lucario can immediately sense how close they are and how much of a bond they have. Seeing someone with so much history with Ash makes Lucario a bit shy around Pikachu, but it’s cool, they warm up to each other eventually!

Right after this, Ash and the others find out that May, Brock and Max were devoured by the antibodies. Lucario barely has any time to grieve for them before the Regis burst in and essentially trap him as Ash and Kidd are attacked by the cells next. Lucario watches in absolute horror as Ash is swallowed up. It’s like Aaron all over again—and this time it’s worse because Ash hadn’t done anything wrong, and Lucario had really come to trust him and admire him as a person. It’s absolutely fucking heartbreaking. He watches in hollow-eyed despair as Pikachu and Ash’s other Pokemon cry over him. Everything sucks. The world is a nightmare. Lucario almost wishes he’d gotten swallowed too. Why is it always him that’s the last one standing, the only one left, the remainder to deal with the carnage and the loss by himself? Then Mew performs its voodoo magic and lo and behold!! Ash and the others are miraculously revived! Lucario is absolutely overjoyed and relieved. It’s then that he realizes he’d be absolutely devastated if he lost Ash for good—even more so than Aaron. At this point he’s kinda come to terms about Aaron’s death, though it still hurts because there’s so many questions left unanswered.

Of course right after this Mew collapses and everything goes to shit again. Great. (Can he get like five seconds to maybe just breathe?? Idk.) At the center of the Tree of Beginning, Lucario finds Aaron’s gloves and things start to click into place. Maybe...the stories were true? Lucario activates the Time Flower there and realizes what Aaron had done, his noble sacrifice, and why he couldn’t bear to get Lucario involved. Lucario breaks down in tears bc he’s so relieved and yet so unbearably sad. Aaron was like his father. Someone who cared for him so immensely and deeply. Aaron urged Lucario to continue on and live his life to the fullest—that’s what he wanted for him, after all. But at this point Lucario isn’t sure if he can. Mew needs saving, after all.

Lucario decides he’ll follow in Aaron’s footsteps and save Mew, no matter how sad it makes him to have to leave his new friends so early. Ash immediately protests, along with Kidd, and Lucario tells them that it’s a risk he has to take, just like Aaron. Mew and the Tree need his power more than ever now, and he can’t just abandon them. He starts to pour all of his aura into Mew, but it’s not enough. Ash puts on Aaron’s gloves and jumps in, deciding to help out. Lucario is grateful but also very panicked because Ash literally just came back to life—he couldn’t bear losing him a second time, especially since he already lost Aaron. Lucario tries to bump him out of the way but Ash absolutely won’t let him!! If they’re going down they’re going down together. Ash tells him that he can’t watch Lucario take on the burden by himself over and over—that he wants to split the weight and make things even. Cue a very emotional tense moment between two boys about to sacrifice their lives together. Neither of them want the other to die, but they don’t really have a choice. Mew absorbs their power and then…

Lucario wakes up.

And he’s alive. Holy fuck!! (There’s no fucking way I’d kill him nope not happening not this time bitches)

Apparently splitting the burden of giving one’s life energy to another with a second person eases the consequences—leaving both Ash and Lucario alive (which makes him realize that if he’d gone with Aaron all those years ago and split the burden, both of them would have lived. But strangely Lucario wouldn’t trade that opportunity for what he has now.) Ash literally jumps on him and hugs him so tight he nearly dies a second time, but it’s fine. It’s a good way to go.

The tree is safe, and so is Mew. Ash rejoins the others, bringing Lucario with him. They all have a merry little reunion, and then head back to the castle together.

At this point, Ilene thanks Lucario for all he’d done—for Ash and co. and for the tree and Mew. She then sets Lucario free—saying he can do whatever he wishes, he can follow any path in life he wants to now! Suddenly there’s a whole world full of possibilities, and that world is there for him to explore. He can practically hear Aaron encouraging him to take a step into the unknown, journey to his heart’s content, make tons of friends, and master his aura. Except Lucario isn’t really sure he wants to take the trip by himself. He bashfully asks Ash if they’d be alright with him joining them. Ash is absolutely fucking ecstatic, of course. He asks Lucario to teach him how to properly use his aura, and Lucario has a big self revelation moment like “The student has become the master” and it’s magical. So we hit off a brand new adventure with Lucario traveling with Ash, Brock, May, and Max, and teaching Ash how to hone his aura! Which gives us more aura Ash moments, which everybody craves! And it’s kinda gay and lovely!!

And that is my rewrite happy ending for Lucario and the Mystery of Mew thank you goodnight ✌️

#Shima answers questions #Pokemon #Pokeani #Lucario #Long post #Ash Ketchum #Aurashipping #Anipoke #Lucario and the Mystery of Mew #Human Lucario #May #Max #Brock #Shima’s AUs #I had FUN writing this LOL #Hope you enjoy uwu

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tangledaddict · 4 years

Text

Ranking Tangled the Series Season 3 Episodes

1. Cassandra’s Revenge: Episode 12

I loved every single moment of this episode. Of course, I was angry with Cassandra. But, it was still REALLY GOOD. I was not expecting Rapunzel to get Eugene a ring and when I saw it, I was like AHHH. Eugene’s birthday party, Eugene seeing the ring, Rapunzel saying LET HIM GO. This episode WAS AMAZING!!!

2. Plus Est en Vous: Episode 17

The finale felt like it flew by so fast for it to actually be an hour and a half! I wish there was more songs, the episode answered all of our questions (answered most, but not all), and it would be longer (maybe just another half an hour). I like the overall feel of the finale, but I wish they added more to it. My favorite moment in this episode was the proposal. When I first watched this episode, I was REALLY scared for a moment it wasn’t going to happen. But, when it did, I was like YAY!!!!!!! I loved every moment of that proposal. Except, I was

3. Rapunzel’s Return: Episode 1

This was another shocking episode. We thought it was enough that Cassandra betrayed Rapunzel. But, Cassandra’s mother was mother gothel??!?!?! Crossing the Line and Stronger than Ever Before are a BOP. Eugene was so cute being so encouraging for Rapunzel. It was hard when Rapunzel gave a fake smile after what Cassandra did. I love the ending of the episode because that’s when Rapunzel started opening up to Eugene about the whole and I loved that he said “I’m all ears Sunshine”. This was overall a really good episode. Definitely one I look back at.

4. The King and Queen of Hearts: Episode 7

SO.MANY.NEW DREAM MOMENTS!!! AHHH!!! When they finally signed the book and the kiss AHH!!! Also, Frederic’s obsession with eggs lol.

5. Flynnposter: Episode 15

Eugene as captain was something I didn’t know I needed. First of all, he looks really good in that outfit. Second of all, it makes sense, he did a lot for Rapunzel and her parents. Anyway, I heard Brock Thunderstrike…I’m not going to lie, I LAUGHED! Also, when Brock named his crab. Also, SO MANY MOVIE REFERENCES IN THIS EPISODE…I LOVED IT!!!

6. Once a Handmaiden: Episode 16

Why can’t Cassandra just calm down for ONE MINUTE! They were so CLOSE to being friends again. Freaking Zhan Tiri has to ruin it! Also, Eugene and Rapunzel talking about places not to get married at, LOL. This was a great transition into the season finale/the final episode.

7. No Time Like the Past: Episode 5

Eugene and Lance as kids?!?!?! YESSS!!! And Rapunzel meeting Eugene and Lance as kids?!?!? YESSS!!! Also, Eugene telling Rapunzel he doesn’t want to see her hurt anymore OMG. I LOVE.

8. Islands Apart: Episode 11

So. Many. CASSANDRA’S! AH! But, it was funny. Eugene complaining about Lance opening his moisturizer, Rapunzel and her father looking through her journal. I honestly thought for a moment that the moonstone Cassandra was real. I’m glad to know she wasn’t real.

9. Beginnings: Episode 6

When Eugene said “Hey, Hey, it’s okay” THAT BROKE MY HEART OKAY. Also, I feel like we got to know the reason why Rapunzel never gave up on Cass. It’s because of that event, Rapunzel knew that Cass gave up her dream to stay with Rapunzel.

10. Return of the King: Episode 2

I love we got to see more interactions between Edmund and Eugene. It was amazing to see how much they have in common. If Rapunzel wasn’t there encouraging Eugene to interact with his Dad, their relationship wouldn’t have soared in this episode. I really Stan New Dream in this episode. :)

11. Race to the Spire: Episode 13

TWIRL ATTACK! Eugene getting scared, New Dream holding each other, Eugene loving Rapunzel’s compassion were my favorite moments in this episode.

12. Be Very Afraid: Episode 9

Not more rocks! Ah! It was good to see the last moments of Cassandra not wanting to harm Rapunzel. Lances fear and song was really funny! I’m not surprised of Eugene’s fear and Rapunzel not having a fear. And poor Varian.

13. Pascal’s Dragon: Episode 10

The dragon was so cute!!! I’m sad that Pascal and the Dragon were separated. But, I’m glad to see that created such a great friendship. Also, when little big guy rolled over Eugene and later licked his face LOL!

14. The Lost Treasure of Herz Der Sonne: Episode 4

It was awesome to see most of the Corona characters and all the animals all together on a mission. I liked how Lance and Eugene were just sipping tea and eating food while everyone left.

15. Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad, Wolf: Episode 3

I’m glad we got we see Red and Angry this season. I’m really glad we got to see a true side of red. But, these characters are not my favorite, that’s why this episode is not highly ranked. I feel like this episode should’ve been released a little later in the season.

16. A Tale of Two Sisters: Episode 14

I was really mad at Cassandra in this one because Rapunzel was stating the OBVIOUS of how horrible Gothel was. I can’t believe how gullible Cassandra was to fall for the mirror and Zhan Tiri, of course.

17. Day of the Animals: Episode 8

It was great to see more relationships. But, this is a episode I skip. It’s because the animals are not my favorite characters in the series. I really liked Dwayne though, I wish we got to see more of him in the series overall.

#tangled #tangled the series #rapunzels tangled adventure #season 3 #disney #disney channel #rapunzel #cassandra #Eugene Fitzherbert

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spine-buster · 3 years

Text

peaceful easy feeling ft. b.boeser | five

A/N: This is the last part of this mini series! I know this adventure was short but thank you all for coming along on the ride :) A quick reminder that I will be announcing my new fic, who it will feature, a small blurb, & a clue as to what to expect from it this Thursday at 7:30pm EST. Happy reading!

CONTENT WARNING: parents with disease/sickness (Parkinson’s); parent death; swearing; sex; alcohol use; lots of emotions.

* * * * *

“You look beautiful, baby,” Brock cooed as he adjusted his cufflinks – well, not really. He was looking at Grace, not really caring about his cufflinks. Seeing her stand there in her beautiful dress, her hair curled and pinned, and her delicate jewelry hanging off her ears, neck, and wrists…she was a vision. He was so lucky.

They were about to leave to attend the Parkinson’s Foundation of British Columbia Gala. Grace had planned virtually the whole thing, though she worked with the head of the foundation on most major decisions. She arranged the venue, catering, got major sponsors (okay…the biggest were her uncles, but there were a lot more), organized the silent auction, and arranged the entertainment for the evening. Everyone who attended their weekly meetings would be there. Brock knew the Aquilinis would be there. It was a party, yes, and a function to raise money, yes – but at the end of the day, it was a culmination of Grace’s strength after Hamish passed away.

“Thanks, babe,” she smiled over at him, taking one last look at herself in the mirror. “Are Petey and Svea ready to go?”

Brock nodded. “Petey’s been texting for fifteen minutes asking if we’re on our way yet,” he joked.

“You can blame it on me,” she winked. “Unless Petey takes a good look at your hair. Then he’ll know it was you.”

Brock laughed out loud, taking the few steps needed to stand right in front of her and wrap his arms around her. “Hey…before we go,” his voice was low and he looked down at Grace. “Your dad would be so proud of you for planning this.”

Grace nodded her head. She knew. It was a lot of work, and she completely went in head first with planning all of it and maybe, sort of taking over the entire operation, but it was worth it. She had planned something that would raise money that, hopefully, would fund research so that nobody would have to go through what she went through. She didn’t just want to be known as an heiress daughter of a billionaire; she wanted to be known as so much more. An heiress who used her money to fund research projects and arts centres; an heiress who donated her time and money to worthy causes. She once told Brock that she knew she wasn’t the smartest girl in the world, but that she thought she had a big heart. She hoped this was the start of others in her community, and in Vancouver, realizing that she had a big heart.

***

“Grace, this is amazing,” Svea couldn’t help but say astonishingly as she took yet another look around the giant room, decorated to the nines with flashing lights and impeccably dressed people chatting and drinking and dancing. Svea knew Grace would be busy throughout the night, so she wasn’t trying to hog her after their limousine ride together. But now that Svea got her alone, she had to verbalize it again, just like she did when she walked in. “Like, I don’t think you understand. It’s incredible.”

“Want to let me plan your wedding to Elias?” Grace winked, taking a sip of her drink.

“Oh shut up.”

“There she is!” the women both heart Elias yell. They turned around and saw him and Brock walking towards them, both with drinks in their hands. “Grace, this is so cool.”

“Thanks Petey. And thanks for donating your jersey.”

“Anything for you.”

Grace focused her attention on Brock. “Esther wants us to take a group photo with everyone before everyone leaves,” she said, and Brock nodded his head in agreement. She looked at Elias. “If I get everyone together right now, do you mind taking it?”

“Like I just said Grace, anything for you.”

***

Fatigued, physically and mentally exhausted, but still somehow feeling the adrenaline coursing through her veins, Grace climbed into the limousine with Brock, Elias, and Svea at the end of the gala so they could go home. They dropped off Elias and Svea first, naturally, and Elias had to wake Svea up as she slept on his shoulder throughout the ride. It left Brock and Grace alone in the limousine together, hands clasped together as the driver drove through the streets of Vancouver.

“You did amazing tonight,” Brock mumbled, his voice low and full of sleepiness but still so direct and meaningful. “I love you so much, Grace.”

“I love you too, Brock.”

“When we have kids, I’m gonna let them know this was the night I knew you’d become my wife.”

Grace stiffened at Brock’s words, but he was too tired to notice – the small smirk on his face not disappearing despite anxiety – not adrenaline – now coursing through Grace’s veins. She thought about the implications of his words, how he just outright admitted that she was the one for him. She thought about her feelings for him, and if she felt the same. She did. But was it possible to still be apprehensive? She loved Brock with her whole heart. She’d never met anybody like him, and likely would never meet anyone like him again. She loved him too, with everything she had.

But then she thought about her parents.

Her parents were young and in love once too. Her parents were once obsessed with each other and madly in love. Her parents had decided to get married and have a child. Her parents had decided what Brock was laying out on the proverbial table – what Brock was so willing to give her – and look what happened. Things didn’t work out. Love didn’t work out. Love was complicated. They separated. Grace went to live with Eliza but didn’t like it because she missed dad. She told Hamish who told his lawyers. His lawyers brought it to the judge. Divorce proceedings started. Grace went to live with Hamish. Eliza demanded alimony for her lifestyle, to maintain it, if not to exceed it. Eliza demanded child support. Eliza demanded nannies, a multi-million dollar house, and expensive cars. Hamish would tell Grace her mother was selfish. Eliza would tell Grace how stingy her father was. Eliza would tell Grace how her father only wanted custody so he didn’t have to pay child support. Hamish told Grace Eliza only wanted child support and alimony so she could hire babysitters and nannies while she went to spas. A pawn while she was at her mom’s in Shaughnessy; a pawn while she was at her dad’s in West Point Grey. A pawn when dropped off at school at Crofton House. A pawn at the dance studio, her happiest place.

What if she and Brock turned out the same way?

***

“You okay?” Brock asked Grace.

Grace wasn’t there. She was somewhere else, in her mind, thinking about events long passed. “Your father’s the cheapest man I’ve ever met,” she could hear her mom say in the kitchen as she waited for her cereal before school at seven years old. “Cheap cheap cheap cheap cheap! He’s always been so much work to be with, your father. He refuses to get you a Range Rover – did you know that? Your dad wants you driven around in some…in some…I don’t know, some Toyota.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Grace said absent-mindedly, giving her pasta a few more twirls to make it seem like she’d eat it. “Will I still be able to go to dance?”

“Who knows?! Your father may even take that away from you too! It scares me, the things he’s taking away from you.”

“But I love dance.”

“Well then maybe you should stay with me. Daddy will pay me to take you to dance.”

***

“Your mother is a piece of work, let me tell you,” Hamish mumbled as he slapped his cellphone down on the counter. “She was always so much work to be with. Always so much work. Now she wants $60,000 a month in alimony. Alimony!”

“What’s alimony?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Hamish said. “Have your teachers taught you yet what it means to be selfish?” he asked. Grace nodded her head. “Well your mother is selfish. One of the most selfish people in the world.”

“Grace? You coming to bed?” Brock’s voice was groggy as he stood in the doorway of the ensuite, his usually well-kept hair everywhere, his eyes sleepy.

“Yeah…yeah, sorry,” Grace apologized, getting up from her seated position on the toilet lid. “Sorry baby.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah I’m fine,” she said, grabbing Brock’s hand and leading him back to bed.

“You’d tell me if it wasn’t right?” he asked softly as she cuddled up against him in bed.

“Of course,” she said, a nervous lump in her throat. “Of course.”

***

“Gracie…please tell me what’s wrong,” Brock said in a low voice as he tried to wrap his arms around her, only for her to flinch slightly and back away. That hurt him more than anything.

“Nothing’s wrong,” she said unconvincingly.

“Yes it is—”

“Can we just drop it,” she said, taking a sip of her coffee. “We’re supposed to be on a date.”

***

“What’s the matter with you?” Elias asked, sick of seeing Brock so gloomy and moody the past several weeks. He’d noticed a change in him, and though Brock was usually very open about what he was feeling with him, he wasn’t this time, and Elias was…skeptical. Well, not skeptical – worried. This time, Brock had a girlfriend and was moody, and Elias didn’t know what to expect. “What’s going on?”

“Something’s wrong with Grace,” Brock revealed to Elias.

“What’s wrong?”

Brock shook his head. “She won’t tell me. But she…she zones out a lot, like she’s thinking about something…and it’s so intense that she doesn’t even hear me calling her.”

“What’s she thinking about?”

Brock shrugged. “She doesn’t tell me. She’ll never tell me.”

“Well when did it start?”

Brock thought about it. He really thought about it. He liked to think he was in tune with changes in Grace. “The gala.”

“The Parkinson’s Gala?” Elias clarified. Brock nodded his head. “Well, could it be about her dad?”

“It’s something more,” Brock was adamant. He knew she would be sad and would never be the same after her dad died. That was a given. No-one was ever the same after the death of a parent, so he didn’t blame her for that. “It’s…it’s something more.”

***

“Is everything okay with you?” Svea asked delicately as she and Grace were shopping at Holt Renfrew. Well – Grace was shopping at Holt Renfrew. Svea was basically just following her around, because it wasn’t like she could afford anything.

“I’m fine,” Grace said unconvincingly.

“Are you sure? Because you know you can talk to me if things aren’t okay.”

Grace took a deep breath in, trying to compose herself. Knowing what she knew about Svea’s parents and their love story, she doubted that Svea would be able to provide any…critical insight, so to speak. But Grace tried anyway. “How d’you know a guy is your soulmate, Svea?” she asked.

Svea was taken aback. It was quite the loaded question to lead with. “I’d say it’s when you can picture the rest of your life with them. At least that’s one aspect to it.”

“Can you picture the rest of your life with Elias?”

“Yes,” Svea answered automatically, because she could. It was as friends, sure, but she still pictured the rest of her life with him. “Can you picture the rest of your life with Brock?”

Grace paused. Her response wasn’t as quick or forthcoming. “Yes.”

“But?”

“But what?”

“There was a pause there,” Svea said. “But what?”

“But what if, like, things change?” Grace asked. “What if the love doesn’t last? What if it breaks down?”

“You mean like your parents?”

Grace didn’t want to glare at Svea – she really didn’t, because Svea was one of the sweetest people alive – but she did. She glared at her. “No,” she said forcefully, trying to cover.

“Love always lasts. True love always lasts. Look at Elias and I – I mean, we’ve loved each other our whole lives—”

“You and Elias won’t even hold hands or kiss each other,” Grace said angrily, unable to control her emotions at this point. “You won’t even admit you love him romantically. How the hell is that love?”

Svea just stared at Grace, unable to formulate words. Tears welled in her eyes too, and when Grace saw them get red, she hated herself even more. She hated herself already for making Brock worry, for not telling him the truth, for hiding things from him; now, she hated herself even more for making Svea emotional. “I’ve gotta go,” she said, leaving quickly, unable to look back at Svea as she left her in the middle of Holt Renfrew alone.

***

“If you don’t tell me what’s wrong right now or I’m leaving,” Brock said sternly, his voice raised. Both of their voices had been for the last while now, since they were fighting. He looked at Grace as she stared back at him indignantly from across the kitchen. “We can’t have a relationship if we don’t communicate – if you don’t tell me what’s been bothering you.”

“There’s nothing wrong.”

“Is it something I did? Did I say something?”

“It’s not you.”

“Then what is it?”

“There’s nothing wr—”

“Tell me what’s wrong!”

Grace stayed silent. She could feel herself going red. She could feel the emotions in her bubble up. She knew she wouldn’t be able to hold it in much longer. “Leave.”

Brock furrowed his brows. “Excuse me?”

“Leave my apartment now.”

Brock stood stoic in spot. “You don’t mean that—”

“LEAVE!” Grace screamed at the top of her lungs, taking every ounce of strength left in her to not cry.

They were in a standoff. Brock stood stoic. Grace stood stoic. Staring at each other, waiting for the other to move. Neither did for a while, waiting it out to see who would crack first. She didn’t mean it, Brock kept thinking. She doesn’t mean it. She doesn’t mean it. But with every second that passed, with every heave of Grace’s chest, with every moment of silence signaling her refusal to budge…

Brock cracked.

He picked up his keys, gave Grace one last look, and walked out the door.

***

It was a few agonizing, excruciating, unbearably lonely few weeks later when Brock received a phone call in the middle of the night. 2:38am. His phone’s ring blaring throughout his empty apartment.

“Hello?” his voice was groggy, tired, exhausted.

Silence.

“Hello?” he asked once more, louder this time. If it was any one of his teammates he’d knock them dead the next time he saw them – Petey especially.

The voice was small and defeated when it finally did speak, asking Brock the question, “What if we end up like my parents?”

Brock was wide awake now. He got up in bed dramatically, holding his phone against his ear so tightly that he could hear the charger fall out of the electrical socket. “Gracie,” the shock was evident in his voice.

“Will you come over?” she asked.

Brock threw the covers off his body dramatically. “I’m on my way right now,” he said. He’d drive his car in his slippers if he needed to.

“Be careful.”

“I’m coming. I’ll be there soon.”

***

“C’mere,” Brock said the millisecond Grace let him in, wrapping his arms around her and engulfing her into a hug as she clung to him like he’d float away and wrapped every limb she had around him. He’d made it to her apartment in record time, speeding through the streets of Vancouver to get to her. It was probably dangerous, but it wasn’t like there were other cars on the road at 2:45 in the morning. “Talk to me Gracie. Talk to me,” he urged as he felt her tears against his skin.

“I’m so sorry,” she mumbled into the crook of his neck. “I’m so—Brock, I was so bad. So bad.”

“Shhhhh shhhh shhhh, don’t,” Brock cooed. “Just tell me what’s wrong. What’s going on in your head, Grace?”

“Brock…” she began, swallowing her tears before continuing. She pulled away slightly so she could look him in the eye, wiping her own red ones with the palms of her hands. She knew she looked awful, but she also knew Brock didn’t give a shit. “I just miss him so much.”

“Your dad.”

Grace nodded quickly. “Every part of me misses him. But then I started to think about how awful he and my mom were during the divorce,” she explained. And to Brock, that said everything. Grace told him about it ever since they met – the general, the specific, the nitty-gritty details – and it was awful. To have that whirling around in her mind would have definitely affected her. It all made sense to him now. It all made sense, knowing she never wanted to go back to that. “And I got scared…I got so scared. I just kept remembering how bad it was. So on the night of the gala when you said—”

“So it was something that I said—”

“Nonononononono,” she vehemently shook her head, bringing her finger up to his lips to silence him. “No no no no no. I—Brock—I love you with every part of me too. But…but what if we end up like my parents? What if we fall out of love? What if it—what if it ends badly? What if we ended up hating each other? They’d always say things like it was so hard to be with one another and—”

“Is it hard to be with me?” Brock asked, not wanting her to go any further and knowing that at this point, he needed to intervene.

“NO! Never!” she exclaimed. She never wanted Brock to think that ever. She cradled his face in her hands. “Being with you feels natural. It feels like it was always supposed to be this way. It’s so easy. It’s so peaceful.”

“Then that’s how it’ll always be, a peaceful easy feeling,” Brock whispered. “What’s there to be scared about, baby?”

Grace shook her head, tearing up again. “Nothing when I’m with you.”

“We won’t end up like your parents because we’re not your parents,” he said. His words were so simple but they hit Grace like a ton of bricks. “We’re different people. I love you more than anything, and the thought of hating you—Grace—I—it’s never, never crossed my mind. I never could. You give me everything. Do I give you everything?”

She nodded. “Everything.”

“Then I’m gonna keep giving you everything. And I’ll do it till the end of time, Gracie. Because I love you. I can’t picture myself with anyone else. I can’t…I can’t picture going through pain with anyone else besides you.”

Brock’s words were loaded – she knew that. “I can’t picture going through pain with anyone else besides you.” Grace nodded. The sentiment was so serious, but so right. When she really thought about it, would she have wanted to experience this pain with anyone else besides Brock? No. He meant the world to her. And that’s how it was always going to be. “I’m so dumb,” she shook her head at herself.

“You’re not dumb. For what you went through, it’s a legitimate worry,” he reassured her. “But I promise you, I promise you, I’ll love you with everything I have and you’ll love me with everything you have, and we won’t end up like your parents.”

Grace was overcome with emotion. “I love you so much, Brock.”

“I love you too,” he leaned in to kiss her, once, twice, then again and again. When they stopped, he wrapped his arms around her body and lay down on her couch, bringing her body down with him. He wiggled out of his hoodie. Then he pushed her body down slightly, and that’s when Grace knew exactly what he was doing. She lay her head on his bare chest, listening to his heartbeat.

“Can you feel it?” he asked softly.

Grace nodded.

176 notes · View notes

toomanyrobins · 3 years

Text

a little birdie told me pt. 11

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Parker!Reader

Content warning: physical abuse, miscarriage, cursing, mentions of forced marriage, sex, mentions of alcohol and inebriation

Word Count: 2.3k

Notes: Steve is a bit of stubborn idiot in this, but so is Birdie. Next part we will learn more about Steve and his past. Enjoy! 💛

Series masterlist // next part

Y/N stood outside the door of the round table room of the Ivory. Dread coursed through her as she waited to speak to Tony. Desperation was driving her and Y/N knew that if she stopped moving even for a moment, she would break. All she had to do was sign her name on the contract and then she could breakdown. Finally, the door opened and she was surprised to see that there was a group of people waiting for her inside. George sat at the head of the table with Tony and Pepper to his left, Barney on his right and Bucky and Steve filled out the remaining chairs. Everyone turned to look at her when she walked in. Y/N took a deep breath. This lie needed to be sold or she was in trouble, “I need to apologize for my behavior yesterday. The shock of it all hit and I didn’t handle it well. I took yesterday to calm down and think about it. I’ve decided that this union is a good idea. That is, if Steve is still willing.” She turned to Tony, “Dad, as much as it pains me to admit, you were right. He is a good man. I’ve been known as an irresponsible girl whose head is in the clouds. I need to prove that I’ve matured and this could be a step in the right direction.” No one spoke as Pepper scoffed and glared at Tony as she left the room, the door slamming on her way out.

Steve stood up and grabbed Y/N by the arm, she winced as he hit exactly where Brock had grabbed her the day before, “We need to talk.” He pulled her out of the room, “You’ve been avoiding me for three days. We slept together and the next morning you ran out of that hotel room without a word. Yesterday, you announced in front of multiple people that there was no chance in hell that you would ever marry me. What the hell is going on, Birdie?”

Her nails dug into her palm, “It’s like I said. I took the day and thought it over. I’m not leaving again, Steve… I can’t. This marriage has been in the works since I was 17 and it’s a way to show that I’m not little Birdie Stark anymore. I’m not the problem child that you got saddled with as punishment. Clearly, you want it or you wouldn’t have agreed the second time and I think I could be happier with you than anyway else I’ve ever met. So, please, don’t give up on me now… Please.”

Steve looked down at Y/N. He could see the mistiness in her eyes, but he could also see that she was being genuine. He just nodded and they went back into the office. No one spoke as they both signed the contract that had been drawn up. Before the ink had dried, Tony was pulling out a celebratory drink. When Steve turned to hand one to his new fiancee, he realized she had left the room. He put the glasses down and went to look for her. He found her outside talking to Pepper and decided not to intrude.

As soon as everyone’s attention was taken, Y/N had gone after Pepper. She found her outside the building and called to her. “Mom, I’m sorry.”

Pepper held up a hand to stop her, “Don’t you dare apologize. It’s your father that is to blame for this. None of this would have happened if he hadn’t interfered. You wouldn’t have left the first time and you wouldn’t feel the need to prove yourself by marrying someone you don’t want to.”

“Oh, Mom… you can’t just blame Dad for all of that. There were so many other reasons I left.” The image of Brock leaning against the car haunted her. “Yes, he was part of it, but not all of it. I’m not just marrying Steve to prove myself. I know you imagined us finding our soulmates like you did with Dad. But, I don’t believe in the One. I believe that Steve and I can make each other happy and I’ve been stuck in a rut for a really long time. He and Jamie make me happy in a way I haven’t been in years. It’s not a great love story, but it’s a good future. One that lets me keep all of you with me and that’s all I want.”

Pepper reached up to cup Y/N’s face, “I just don’t want you to sacrifice because you think you deserve less.”

“Mom, it’s too late for regrets and all I want is to know I have your support, because I can not plan a wedding.” Pepper laughed at that and Y/N knew she managed to distract her mother from her anger. “Don’t be mad at Dad for too long. For all of his stupid mistakes, he really is doing what he thinks is best.”

The weeks following the contract being signed was exhausting. They had immediately started plans. This wedding was happening quickly, before Becca and Sam’s wedding could even happen. Planning this wedding was a nightmare for Y/N. The planner was the most odious person she’d ever had the misfortune of meeting. The woman’s hand had stayed on Steve’s arm the entire first meeting and cemented her as persona non grata in Y/N’s mind.

Pepper had invited her for a meeting at the Ivory They sat at one of the tables in the solarium. “So color scheme for the wedding?”

“Lime green and orange.”

Y/N heard Pepper sigh next to her, “Jewel tones: burgundy, emerald, navy blue.”

“Lovely,” the wedding planner simpered, “Do you have a date in mind?”

“March is the hope, but we don’t have a specific date in mind.”

“Well we can look at a few locations and see if their availability will help narrow that down. Unless, you have a place in mind?”

“No, this wedding is a blank slate.”

Y/N was zoned out, as her mother planned the wedding. Finally, she couldn’t stand it any longer and pushed her chair back, “I forgot I told Steve that I would stop into his office. Mom, you know what I like.” She escaped from the table and hurried up to his office. She threw the doors open, “Can we elope?”

Steve’s eyes didn’t even leave the document he was reading. This was not the first time they’d had a similar discussion, “Sweetheart, I’ve told you before. No.”

“Please,” Y/N slinked over and perched herself on the corner of his desk, “The wedding planner is the worst!”

He sighed and put the papers he was reading down. He looked up her, amusement shining in his eyes, “Are you sure you’re not jealous?”

She gasped in outrage, “Jealous! Why would I be jealous?”

“Because she kept touching my arm when we first met her and I thought you were going to rip her hand off.” She hated that he had caught that moment of weakness. They had kissed a few times since signing the contract, but they hadn’t slept together since the party. He gave her a quick kiss, “I kind of liked that you were jealous.”

Y/N pouted, her bottom lip sticking out, “I want a divorce.”

“Need to be a good girl and marry me first.” She whimpered and finally Steve shoved aside his work, giving her his whole attention, “You know for someone who is as bad at following rules as you are, calling you a good girl really seems to do something to you.”

Y/N hopped off his desk trying to put some distance between them, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh really? So when I said that to you, I didn’t see you get all flustered? Just like you are right now?” Steve stood up and moved behind her. He wrapped one arm around her waist and kissed along her bare neck, watching as goosebumps blossomed. He smirked and leaned close to her ear and dropped his voice, so that it was thick like honey, “You don’t want to be a good girl for me, Birdie?”

Y/N whimpered softly and a shiver ran down her spine as his voice rolled over her. She felt his lips brush along her neck and the ability to think was gone.

“I – I,” She dropped her head back, giving Steve unlimited access to her, “Oh, I can’t think when you do that.”

“Let’s make a deal, sweetheart. You give me some answers and I promise I’ll make it worth your while.

“Okay, but I can't guarantee you’ll like the answers I have to give.

He smirked at her defiance, “Were you jealous?”

“Yes.”

“Were you telling me the truth about that dinner I made two nights ago? Was it good?”

She snickered, “No, it was awful. I’ll cook from now on.”

Steve decided to try and see if he could get some answers to questions that plagued him. He switched his tune and spun her around so that she was standing between his thighs, “What happened to make you run from the hotel?”

Y/N played with the buttons on his shirt, avoiding his gaze, “Becca called me Jamie’s mom and it freaked me out. I don’t know if I can be a good parent and I don’t want to replace his mother. I know that she’s dead, but still.”

“First of all, you are an amazing mother to Jamie. Take it from someone who actually had no experience with kids, you are miles ahead of where I was. You love him and care for him and I trust you completely with him.” Y/N kissed Steve, her hand curling into his hair. They separated, but he kept on hand on her back, “One more question. Where were you for the last three years?”

She stiffened and he watched her mask fall into place, “I told you. I went to a lot of places.

“What happened to you? The full story.”

Y/N shrugged him off and stepped away from him, “Rogers, don’t do this.”

“You need to talk to someone.”

“I have, just not the people who continue to push me and piss me off.”

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “You deserve to be happy, Birdie.

“I am happy…Look, I can’t keep spending my life sad because some shit has happened in my past. I want to enjoy the life I have. Spend my days with my family, and be there for you and Jamie. I don’t want to be sad and broken.

You’re not sad or broken,” Steve tucked her hair behind her ear, “But there's a difference between moving on and avoiding.”

“I’m not avoiding shit. I’ve always told the truth about what’s happened to me.”

Steve stared at her incredulously, “The whole truth?” Y/N stiffened and nodded at him. If her eyes could kill, he would died a hundred times over. “The whole entire truth? You’re not hiding something deep down?”

“I’ve told everyone everything they need to know about where I’ve been and about my ex.

Steve chuckled humorlessly and started walking towards Y/N, “You’re so careful, you know?”

Her stomach was is knots, “Careful?”

“Yes. You never say his name. Only ‘my boyfriend’ or ‘my ex.’ This anticipation is killing me. Why are you protecting him even after all this time?”

“I’m not protecting him. Maybe I just don’t want all the possessive guys around me to get even worse. Maybe... just maybe, it’s not your business.”

Steve groaned at her stubbornness and kissed along her neck, turning her legs to jelly. “Come on, be a good girl. You’re going to be my wife. Just give me a name, Birdie.”

Y/N knew his game and it still took all of her strength to pull away, “Oh no. You’re not using that against me.”

“Sweetheart, I am trying to get you to open up to me. Getting you to share is like Bucky and Sam trying to have an intelligent conversation. You’ve got so many walls up and every time I think I’ve broken one down, two more are put up. I'm just trying to understand you.”

She shoved his chest, “If you want to understand, just be there. Make me believe you’re worth it. Don’t seduce me into getting your way. Help me understand that you won’t leave when it gets tough.

“What, like you did?” Y/N reeled back when Steve said that.

“I’m trying to make up for that.”

“Then tell me what is going on with you.”

She opened her mouth, but no words came out. Her mind was swirling, “No, Steve! No! You don’t get to guilt me into this. This is not fair to me. Will you do this every time I don’t act how you want? Is my leaving some ploy you’ll use to get what you want? That’s not the actions of someone I want to share with. I want to tell you everything because I trust you to understand and not because I think it’ll make you forgive me faster… I—I need to go.”

“Birdie…”

“I need space from all of this. Get my head on straight. I’ll see you later.” Y/N was out the door, before he could stop her.

Her phone was vibrating like crazy and she finally looked at it. Messages from an unknown number had filled the screen:

I meant what I said when you’re all mine.

You belong to me and to HYDRA.

Maybe the Families will get some anonymous intel on where you’ve been

Can Steve Rogers really give you all I did?

Do you cry his name out like you did mine?

What will Daddy Stark say about his little whore of a daughter?

Are you so stupid that you think marrying Rogers will protect you?

What Y/N didn’t know was that George was tracking her phone and was seeing every message she got. It didn’t take long for him to get the information he needed. Brock Rumlow: the reason Y/N Parker-Stark was broken. HYDRA had gotten closer and done more damage than anyone else knew.

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

@founding-fuck-bois

@animegirlgeeky

@inlovewiththefictionalcharacters

@directorsnarrative

@marvelofwitch

@hollandstanevans

@samwinter09

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rockyremington · 3 years

Text

THE BEAUTY QUEEN IN TEARS

who: rocky remington, @bbpuck and @zoepuckerman (ft. quinn puckerman and brock remington) where: puckerman residence when: november 1, 2040, early evening what: quinn and brock blindside their kids when they announce that they are going steady over dinner.

ROCKY: When Rocky’s dad informed him that they’d be going over to the Puckerman’s for dinner, he didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t out of the ordinary or him to be dragged to a dinner or a brunch or some other sort of event with a legendary Lima family. This was all part of the gig. Rod Remington cared a lot about appearances and therefore Brock did and therefore Rocky did…or at least pretended to. When they showed up to their house and were welcomed by Quinn Puckerman, Rocky plastered a smile on his face and greeted her politely by handing off the bottle of wine his dad had brought and taking a seat next to Baby and across from Zoe at the table. Dinner was fine for the most part…conversation was light and easy…until Quinn and his dad joined hands at the end of the table and made their announcement. The last thing Rocky expected when he was informed about this dinner was to be hit with the fact that his dad was now officially dating Quinn. Rocky alternated between staring at both of them in disbelief and then at the Puckerman girls he went to school with. This was not ideal. “Are you guys being serious?” was all Rocky said before his dad launched into a speech about how they met in the June at the Country Club, how it was love at first sight, and how they wanted all the kids to get used to being around each other…like a family. Rocky cleared his throat and put down his fork. No way was he taking the lead on this. He’d leave that to Zoe or Baby or literally anyone else.

BABY: Baby hadn’t been able to ease the weight that was heavy in her chest since stupid Rod and Rocky Remington had walked through the door, and when Quinn grabbed the man’s hand, without even a moment of hesitation in her action, the youngest Puckerman almost felt it smash through her. The back of her eyes burned almost immediately; her delicate hands sounded down against the table in her shock. Baby’s deprived lungs begging her to just breathe as Principal Remington’s voice buzzed through her ears like white noise. “What about Dad?” Baby’s voice cracked over the words; her gaze not even daring to look anywhere near the intruder sitting at their dining room table. She was too focused on Quinn from across the table; her mother’s hazel eyes resembling something almost like heartbreak - for Puck, or for her mourning daughter, Baby wasn’t sure - before hardening over again. Baby didn’t even give her a chance to respond, though, before she was pushing herself away from the table; her glass falling over onto the table in the process. “You know what? Do whatever the hell you want. It’s not like you’ve ever managed to care about what anyone else wants, anyway. Quinnie says it’s time for a new family, and I guess we all just fall in line, right? Whatever.” Baby didn’t stop when Quinn called out after her - completely unhesitating as she threw the front door open and slammed it behind her - she just wasn’t so sure where to go after that.

ZOE: The last thing Zoe expected when she'd been informed that the Remingtons were coming over for dinner was to be ambushed with the news that her mom was now 'seriously dating' her principal. She had known something was up with the way Quinn had been fluttering around the house all day, making sure it was spotless, but she chalked it up to nerves about having a well-established family over. While Zoe absolutely adored her mom, it wasn’t lost on her that Quinn (and honestly, even Zoe) took after her grandma in terms of always wanting to put their best foot forward. Dinner conversation was absolutely fine until it ultimately wasn’t. Zoe could have handled college talk all night, but one look at Quinn’s hand intertwined with Brock’s had her stomach doing somersaults. Despite Baby’s loud and sudden outburst, Zoe remained rooted in her chair, desperate to hear the thought process behind this new pairing. She, of course, wanted her mom happy, but Zoe couldn’t ignore the anger settling in her heart as she toyed with the question of why couldn’t Quinn have warned them of this before hand? It wasn’t until Quinn shot her a pleading look that she broke the silence in the room. “I’ll-” she started before throwing a pointed glance in Rocky’s direction. “We’ll go check on Baby.” If he was going to be a part of their family, he was going to have to get accustomed to Puckerman breakdowns ASAP.

ROCKY: The awkward silence that followed Baby’s question was heavy. Rocky had no idea what the protocol for a situation like this was, so he did nothing. He just sat there, essentially twiddling his thumbs, as Baby aggressively stood up and rattled the silverware and glassware on the table. When her cup knocked over, he quickly reached for it, but the damage was done. Her drink had spilled and now everything was out on the table. Rocky cleared his throat as he used his napkin to soak up her water, figuring this mess was a good distraction from the verbal one he was witnessing. Next thing he knew, Baby was pushing past the back of his seat and headed out the door. He’d save his shock over the relationship itself for later—there were clearly greater issues at hand. Once Rocky had mostly taken care of Baby’s spillage, he looked up in time to see Zoe and Quinn exchanging some sort of look he couldn’t read. When he felt the eldest Puckerman’s eyes on him, Rocky wasn’t sure what to expect. It definitely wasn’t for Zoe to summon him to go help with whatever meltdown her sister was having. He scoffed a little bit at her suggestion, but one look at his father made it clear that he was to follow suit. “Fine,” he sighed, clearing his throat and following Zoe out of the house. He shut the door behind him only to see Baby standing aimlessly in the driveway. “Are you sure you want me out here for this?” he asked, mostly to Zoe, “feels kind of like a private moment.”

BABY: “She’s finally losing it, right? I mean, this has to be the big breakdown Nana kept telling us to watch out for." Baby didn’t even turn around before her voice began echoing off of the empty street around them, but she wasn’t exactly itching to turn and confirm her suspicions that Rocky had followed right along with Zoe. She didn’t want him to see her melt down - she didn’t want him to see the tears that were finding their way down Baby’s flushed cheeks. The youngest Puckerman wasn’t left with much of a choice, though, as the urge to turn toward her sister nearly buckled her knees out from beneath her. Confusion, and exhaustion written over every ounce of her features as she tried her hardest to search Zoe’s eyes for answers - and thoroughly tried to ignore the boy standing next to her. “I didn’t even know she was dating again, and now we’re expected to call this idiot our brother? Tell me I’m freakin’ dreaming, or something, Zo’, because I -” Baby had to pause as she ran out of breath, as a wave of anxiety hit her like a ton of bricks; her blue eyes squeezing shut. For a moment, all she seemed to be able to hear was the sound of her father’s voice in her head. Unintelligible, and muffled, but it was enough to have Baby letting out something like a growl as she reached down toward one of Quinn’s lawn ornaments and tossed it across the expanse of green, toward The McCarthy's home. A tense beat passing between the three of them before the young blonde finally turned her attention on Rocky, “You -” Baby furrowed her eyebrows, stepping toward him like she was on a mission, “Did you know about this? Did either of you know about this? Tell me I’m not the only one.”

ZOE: Zoe watched as Baby flung the lawn ornament, taking a mental note on the location it landed. She’d circle back later that night to return it to it’s rightful place, an effort to avoid a small battle in what would likely be a long, drawn out war between Baby and Quinn. “B..” She sighed, taking a step to close any distance between her and her younger sister. Zoe’s arms wrapped around Baby’s small frame, and she squeezed tight. In a world where Baby was emotional and open with her thoughts/opinions, Zoe had grown to be guarded and somewhat calm in these situations. Her sister’s keeper, in a way. “The signs were all there,” she admitted, as she recalled all the times Quinn claimed she was going to play racquet ball at the country club with girlfriends, the hushed phone calls late at night, and the small spring in Quinn’s step. If she had really been paying attention, Zoe might have put two and two together and figured it out sooner. Just as she was pulling back to better assess her sister’s emotional state, Baby began inching towards Rocky. Zoe’s hand shot out to grab onto her shoulder, keeping her at bay. “It’s not his fault,” she chided. “Let’s just chill for a second. Is this the worst thing in the world?” She shot a look in Rocky’s direction, hoping he’d at least have some sense to realize that Baby needed to be calmed down.

ROCKY: Rocky felt like a fly on the wall of what was surely meant to be a private moment exchanged between sisters. His presence clearly wasn’t helping the situation, but rather aggravating Baby more. “I don’t know about brother,” he chimed in with a shrug as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and cleared his throat, “I mean they’re just dating and shit, right? It’s not like…wedding bells.” He was being dangerously optimistic. Based on how seriously his dad and Quinn took their announcement, it was obvious that this relationship wasn’t nothing. But maybe it wouldn’t be the end all be all…not that Rocky really cared either way. He stared down at his feet while Zoe and Baby hugged, not wanting to intrude. It wasn’t until he heard an accusatory you that he looked up and saw Baby stalking towards him, ready to jab her finger into his chest. “I didn’t know shit,” he spat, a little annoyed at how quick she was to make him a villain. Luckily Zoe stepped in with a surprisingly level head. Rocky considered her question. Is this the worst thing in the world? He met Zoe’s pointed stare and rolled his eyes slightly as he let out a huge, exasperated sigh. “Fuck,” he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose with another shrug, “I don’t know. No?” What the fuck was he supposed to say? “It just is what it is, I guess. I knew my dad was seeing someone, but I didn’t know it was your mom.”

BABY: “Your Dad basically just told us he wants us to be the modern day Brady Bunch, and you think this doesn’t mean wedding bells?” Baby wanted to tell Rocky to ‘use his head,’ or to ‘stop being such a fucking idiot,’ but Zoe’s hand on her shoulder held her back, minding her like a toddler on a leash. She bit her tongue, hard enough to draw blood; reveled in the coppery burst of it’s touch exploding over her taste buds. Baby believed that Rocky didn’t know anything. She wished Zoe would have bothered to share a single one of those ‘signs’ -- but it didn’t seem to matter much. There was already a certain brand of Puckerman lividity stirring within her, too much to simply put back where it came from. It was enough to make her pull away as her nerves got wholly in the way of fire rising through her. Baby’s blue gaze, although not usually soft, growing harder than they had been in days longer than any of the Puckerman and Fabray’s alike could count. “No, it’s not the worst thing in the world. How could it be? The worst thing in the world has come, and gone, and I’m not sure anything else could top it. But this? This is probably as close of a second as it gets.” Stray tears streamed down her cheeks once again - her voice broke, and cracked, and shattered all around them, just like her heart seemed to be doing in her chest. Baby’s eyes, though, couldn’t seem to break through the icy, far-off gaze that had overcome her. Her limbs seemed to move on autopilot as she shrugged her shoulders, not daring to meet Zoe’s - and especially not Rocky’s - gaze as she moved like a zombie down the driveway. “I’ll text you later,” Baby’s words were noncommittal, but she didn’t bother putting any more effort into them than that. “I just… I can’t be here. Not with her.”

AND SCENE.

#para #discord para #p: zoe #p: baby #zoe #baby #the beauty queen in tears

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blankdblank · 3 years

Text

Brother Dearest Pt 45

Nausea came in hard and fast and a try to make tea for Norma had her slumped back in her chair at the table waiting to the sound of the water boiling. Something was wrong and the new phone line in the house came in handy as a way to get the Doc on notice of what was going on. “Almost done Jeanie.” You said readying the mug and bag of tea that you poured the warm water over so she wouldn’t scald herself. Some honey was added in a hope to calm her stomach and over to her. The smell however had her stomach lurch and you turned with hand extended to the trash bin that zapped over to float in front of her to catch the little she could get up. Over her back your hand smoothed and you said, “Just breathe, it’s okay. Just breathe.”

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled accepting the towel you zapped over to wipe her own mouth and catch your eye to the lower of the can. “You made me tea,” with shaking hands she accepted the mug and forced down a few sips.

Beside her you sat with eyes fixed on her in each of her calming breaths to the mental count back to when they guys would be coming home. Dawn was with her family and had taken the kids with her that just left the dogs and even Mr Whiskers who were showing hints that they were catching signals the birth would be coming soon. All attentive and crowded around while she finished her tea and you sent the mug to the sink and rose to help her to her feet. “Let’s get you to bed and off your feet.”

A splash around her feet once up had your eyes drop and in a sway from her your hands steadied her in her groan at the sway of the room. “I’m not doing this on purpose.”

That had you giggle and reply, “Jeanie, I would never peg you for a purposeful splasher in my lifetime. Just mean’s baby is getting ready to come, Ambrose spent about an hour mid labor with her head in the bin. Let’s get you to bed sweetheart.” Against you she leaned as her nerves amped up and right to her bed you went to lay over the rubber sheet she laid over the bed each day in hopes of meeting her child. Carefully you helped to ease off her stockings she refused to stop wearing and her garter belt after she had slipped out of her now wet shoes. As easily as possible you helped to change her into a more comfortable dress she’d picked for the birth for her to lay back in and focus on her breathing between sips of water you ensured she took to stay hydrated.

Sight of the Doc’s car in the driveway however had the brothers’ hearts racing and once the truck was parked they both shot out of it not even closing the doors to the truck on their race inside. “Nora?!” Victor called out once through the front door you knew to warn the Doctor to leave propped open.

You came into the doorway with a sigh right into their wide eyed view and calmed them in saying, “Bout five centimeters. Just had to call the Doc she was nauseous for the past few hours, but he gave her something to help.”

Victor nodded and looked to the door that he passed by you hearing, “In bed, Vicy. I feel better now.” Right up against her side he curled with eyes on the Doctor who was explaining the simple powder he’d given her to drink in water you got her. His nerves eased with his hand smoothing over her stiffening belly that was shifting lower revealing signs that the baby was coming soon. Right off he could sense the only issue was the period of nausea that she’d scooted past. Though through the doorway however he caught your pause to rest your head against James’ chest for a melt into the hug he offered with hushed murmurs that he would take you to get something to eat to calm your own tilt to the room at the ordeal that had put off your lunch after a sliver of breakfast due to an accidental knock of your plate by Teddy off the table while Dawn was readying him to go that morning.

Gently he pressed his lips to your temple and with an arm across your back he led you from the door, “Let’s see what we have in the fridge hmm?”

The last of the fish was fixed up with some veggies for a meal you felt a bit guilty size wise that he fixed up to his setting it in front of you with a smile, “Eat up Darling. Been a hard morning. We’re off the rest of the week easy so Teddy can’t steal your meals from you.”

You sighed and said, “I don’t know why I’m so light weight these days.”

Down into the seat beside you he sat with hands on your leg and hand closest to him with eyes fixed on yours, “You are in no way a light weight. You need to eat and you need to sleep. Now eat up and get your strength up before Doc has to come and check on you when you pass out.”

A check of the progress had Victor sent out and had him curiously in search of you and on the empty seat beside you and asked, “Hard morning Pipsqueak?”

While your mouth was full James said, “Teddy knocked her breakfast off the table and lunch was put off.”

Victor softly murmured, “Pipsqueak,” still knowing about the lingering effects any amount of hunger had on your body only compounded by stress, of which you had plenty at the moment that had explained why the doors and drawers in the bathroom and kitchen he noticed had been open upon their return.

“I’m ok,” you said after swallowing. “I am.”

Victor, “Doc said her nausea was extreme and you got her through that, you kept her drinking and sucking on spoonfuls of honey and ice cubes. Thank you, now look at the kitchen.” Your head turned and your lips parted eyeing the open drawers and cabinets you eased shut again mentally then looked to him again, “You needed a break. Relax, Dawn’s off till tonight, Eddie too so I’m going to be in that room with you and Jimmy. Take a breather, pace on the patio, we got some time.”

The Doc however called him back and proved otherwise, merely enough to rinse off your dishes and take a moment in the sunlit patio where Mr Whiskers was stretched out in the warmth.

“Hey, what did I say about the face?” You asked the infant lying halfway underneath your propped up shoulders and face that was curling it’s legs and hands to bump into your nose after another waking stretch. Twelve pushes in an awkward array of positions for little Leanora Iris Creed to be born was endured and now Norma and Victor slept after a long night up staring at their daughter who once she had her first meal slept soundly. Two parents so worried about her safety had worried themselves to needing to sleep. The bald little girl with almost shimmering hazel eyes stared up at you with grunts and coos galore in a try to say something to you. Lowly however a chuckle from the returned James with tray of food in hand he had gone to fetch came to take over staring duty for the girl soon to be cradled to his chest lovingly so he could cuddle closer to you. “Come here Petal. Just wait and when you’re grown your auntie Bunny will teach you some serious tips on dishing out bruises.”

“Petal?” You asked with a wide smile at the now smiling man who inched even closer to your side with hands fixed to cradle his niece.

“Vic always wanted a Petal. We’re slipping it in, Shh.” Softly you giggled and turned your focus back to the food as he began to speak to you about any and everything to keep his mind off your own babies you’d have one day he pondered the faces and adorably perfect hands and feet he’d never let go of once here.

Arguments of course ensued with the tiny girl caught in the battle of nicknames, Sunshine vs Petal. Compromise was found by the common renditions of ‘You Are My Sunshine’ to the girl who would have to grow up with two nicknames from her parents related to her first two names. Help was given by means of your dad’s nickname for you contrasting your mother’s. And the early summer found Victor off work to stay with Norma and Leanora while you were granted shifts at the diner again and private drives with your loving husband who on the way back used the privacy to his benefit and took the long way home more than once to always steal just one more kiss.

Post signing sales however brought business back to your mind between trips to the comic book studio to Freckled Moose’s headquarters where they shared that availability was being expanded to England and America. Negatives were shipped back and forth again to ready the shipments and restock the shelves to fulfill back orders that by the end of June had your muffled squeak behind your hand to the number on the check sent to you for your cut of the first round of sales on the initial supply printed and bound. James handled the bank trip for you with a massive proud grin at the amount that was agreed to help pay off any tuition for yourself when the amount your father had saved for you was depleted. With the remainder to be added to the funds to come from the rest of the sales of this book and any others to go towards school funds for Erik and your future babies.

There was no way that would ever be a hard sell. Erik wasn’t that much younger than you and needed help to reach his goals and James wanted his daughters especially to be well educated and his sons to be able to have a good footing for their own futures and families they may have. Years ahead you had planned and even with a spreadsheet on a legal pad you had found a huge gap of funds that would be left over you couldn’t comprehend ever having earned that now spoke to how vastly your circumstances had changed from Steve’s watch to being under the protection of the Howlett brothers and Eddie.

Even had you not met James or Victor your future would have been far cushier compared to the nothing that had been willed down to you. All you truly had was that school fund and even on that you would have struck on your own to make a life for yourself under the legal watch of the Brocks until you could be claimed by someone else. Still, for the price near to an ironing board and far less useful in day to day life hundreds of thousands of copies of what you had snapped with an inherited camera for class was now a joining factor in countless lives and stirred conversations once impossible between strangers until that book had been released. Manhattan and Washington however would come calling soon enough as you were guaranteed two dates there as well.

“So what do you have planned for school?” You asked Erik in his path past yours in the diner where he’d been back to helping out since the baby had been born once his spare summer month long course had helped to catch him up to the final credits he’d need to graduate on time after being so behind.

Food was settled out for the table of truckers and his empty table had been cleared and wiped down for your paths to meet again behind the counter where you collected the next trays worth of plates and utensils. “Um,” he muttered on your way around the counter again almost reluctant to say his aspirations after his recount of his collected tips so far.

Back again at his side in the break where all the tables had been seen to between the both of you he stood lost with a drifted look on his face after having counted his cut of the tips from his cleared tables. “Erik?”

His eyes snapped up and he grabbed the coins and slid them into the slot of his tip box built into the counter and forced out a grin. “I might just work here a few more years first.”

That had you lean in and place a hand on his arm in the turn of the cook back to his grill after having taken notice of his expression in handing off Dot her lunch she was taking after her cousin had gotten off hers. His eyes widened a tad and you could see the deeply held fight not to cry in them and you said, “If it’s about the money for school I have money left over from the book after the rest of what I have mapped out to spend for mine that I was considering putting in an account for you.”

Instantly his arms shot around you and a smile eased across your lips to his right hug you returned gladly as he mumbled into the top of your head, “I can’t thank you enough I won’t let you down.”

“Oh I never doubted that Erik.”

In his draw back he looked you over ensuring he hadn’t messed up your uniform and said, “I have almost a thousand saved up already so it’d just be whatever’s left over after that. Will that be much?”

“Depends on how far you want to go,” you said with a smirk to his creeping grin.

“Far as I can. I wanna try for Columbia, like you.”

Softly you giggled and turned your head to a throat clearing at he counter to signal politely a need for a refill for a driver needing to go soon but wanted a top up first. In a turning reach for the coffee pot you answered, “Then we can see about the Brocks hiring you at the bar on weekends if you like.”

One more year was all that was left and the seventeen year old couldn’t be more excited to be able to head to Brooklyn with you, hopeful that he could get good enough grades to get into the fantastic school to be closer to his cousin and learn in one of the top schools in this side of the world.

Nose deep in the lake you tread water with watch of Eddie on his day off and Teddy in hand letting the boy get his first swim lesson. Victor on the deck sat with hold of his girl to Norma’s bashful drop of the towel around her. Dawn was off at work while James was helping a neighbor with something. Timidly Norma crouched to ease into the water from the deck eager to hide her belly you had been joining her a few times a week for some laps back and forth across the lake. “Norma it’s the water weight, no need to be bashful,” Eddie said luring a smile across her face.

“I just have to be camera ready before the premier in October,” she replied.

“Norma you’d have folks lined up even with Leanora still in your belly.” You said in her dunk neck deep into the water to Victor’s lift of his daughter’s body to kiss her forehead in her grunt at a passing dragon fly. Chatter continued in the cool off break between each lap you ticked off the weekly roster before you went inside to get out of the heat.

Irritating twinges in your belly now had you inside your tub while the hand scrubbed swim suit you’d left to hang on the sink to get the telling blood stain out from the unnoticed streak down your leg Eddie had warned you of on the way back from under the bottom of your towel. There was a promise to wait on babies but still another cycle had come and now you were nose deep in the tub after having scrubbed up and wound your washed hair on top of your head to simply seep in all the warmth of the water while it lasted joined by stray tears. Footsteps from the bedroom had you wipe warm water over your face and stopped in a knock on the door.

Victor through it asked, “Hungry Pipsqueak?” He had questions he wanted to ask but held back to wait for James to get home so he could pamper you back out of this troubling week that even the girls could tell wore heavily on you. Even Norma had suggested her own tips to the guys surrounding her own monthly troubles and painful cycles that had her wondering if you faced the same condition she had been enduring.

“Little bit,” you did reply and leaned back with eyes closing to the stretch of your legs irritating your cramped hips and lower back.

“I’ve got stew on the stove for you when you’re ready.” He paused a moment and asked, “You need anything else?”

Over your eyes your hand laid and you answered, “I am okay, just feels like I’m being stabbed from the inside out.”

You could hear his forehead press to the door in a sigh from a trapped sense of helplessness against this physical pain you faced. “Nothing?”

To give him something to help with you asked, “Do we still have some of those warm honey buns?”

“Honey buns, on it.” Back he stepped and to the tug on the drain chain you heard him sharing with Eddie once downstairs, who let Venom take over and get him into town to the bakery in his own urge to help.

Dried and changed into some comfy shorts and a blouse to join the others in the living room where Erik joined you also smoothing his fingers through his hair while you did the same to yours. Five minutes after Eddie’s return James had returned home with Dawn and your husband caught onto the tell tale signs and adoringly swept away right into extra cuddles and massages between spare snacks he could add to your afternoons and evenings.

August was the month to ready and September had the house boarded up for the lengthy drive back to Brooklyn. A couple days were used to freshen up the nurseries as you and James traveled for the two book signings. Washington came first and upon arrival you were taken straight to the Blair House, a guest home to dignitaries and others visiting the President, where you were gifted a lovely room that seemed a bit over the top for this simple stay. You had arrived in late and it wouldn’t be until the next day that Truman could meet with you in the planned dinner after your morning and afternoon for the signing.

A school nearby was used for this backdrop with the auditorium for the questioning afterwards. Far beyond what you had expected collectively over all the eight dollar paperweight now spreading through this country as well as England to those who had expressed some sort of demand had grown to be the unthinkable. True you were about fifty miles below Rembrandt or other staple artists in any country but still it was a bit flattering to say the least that this book and not just your comic books had been picked off the shelves by thousands of strangers.

Even here more children had brought their favorite issues for picture worthy moments to be flooded through papers, including a boy who hijacked his mother’s question time to ask about his favorite now signed comic book. A separate picture however even on your own picture was taken with the President and other members of the White House staff who had their own copies. All of which you signed before and after the planned supper with the First Family who were glad to hear all the details of your travels and possibly catch hints of what your next book might be covering.

The train back scattered across the hours had random people that had seen you who milled through the train to pass by and ‘casually’ work their way back to your spot to ask if you would sign something of theirs. After a stop at the house for the night up to Manhattan you went to be on time for the next signing. Familiar faces from random years through the state had come to pop up again with proud grins at their silent ties to the famous face so many had come to greet and hear from. Absolute love however came from your own town and block that by household took turns delivering their books to you if they wanted it signed between others who just wanted to ask about some of their favorite images.

The back of the line however from a fancy car Howard Stark joined the line a few people behind where Albert Einstein stood. The former lingered to the side while you greeted the others between him and the final book clutching guest, Howard. “Refrigerator magnet science, you really put that as how you managed the floating objects?”

With a smirk you accepted the book he held out for you and replied, “Well, I would give you the technical answer but that would be what it would be simplified to anyways. How is the floating car coming?”

Howard sighed, “Not well, been scrapped to help on some tech to help search for Commies.” His hand outstretched to accept the book back again he eased the cover back to smirk at the comment written there with well wishes for his flying car you wanted dibs on the first model up for grabs. “So you’ll have to wait on dibs for the first car.”

“Pity.”

Einstein, “Truly the pity that now battlefields turn to hidden spies on home soil. Can only turn the world darker, brother un-trusting brother.”

James sighed and took your hand in the reminder that the questions were to start after your lunch the duo now tagged along to a nearby eatery with a reserved table set for you. Howard had his hand fixed around a not so shocking shot glass and said to break the silence, “Saw the wedding. Paid a whole ten cents for the ticket to catch that reel before some absurd little ditty filled nonsense I didn’t stick around for.”

That had you smirk and say, “I feel like I should say I’m flattered.”

Howard, “Oh don’t be. I don’t know how you managed it.” He looked to James, “Forty five minutes, I timed it. How did you manage that without screaming?”

James grinned replying in almost a hum, “Almost did, but we waited five years and I’d have waited hours through any ceremony to be hers. The length of the ceremony is irrelevant, I know the traditional ceremony would have made her parents proud while mine would have wished it to be longer, amusingly enough.”

Einstein chuckled and stated, “My wife loved the ceremony. Very beautiful dress, quite close to hers though hers was, silk? I believe, something shiny.”

You smiled and said, “Thank you. I’m just glad we are married now and nobody can add anything else on the ceremony to what they wanted.”

“Ah,” Howard said with a smirk, “And there you are. Didn’t take you as the Princess the film reel made you seem to be acting up to from our meeting. How’d you talk them into filming it?”

James, “King George offered, well, he didn’t really offer, just said the cameras were coming. Even brought their Royal Photographers that handle their own ceremonies, also insisted on noting the title I inherited for the papers from my grandfather.”

Einstein, “Obviously had you chosen the titles yourselves you would have insisted to be named as a Baron upon our first meeting.”

James, “Just a another word.”

Howard scoffed, “No it’s not. If I was a Baron I certainly wouldn’t be out living in a forest. I would be living it up.”

James smirked, “Forest helped to bring me Bunny. Had hundreds of chances to walk away but never could seem to let go of the land something said to stay put. Enjoy the silence and space and just wait.”

Einstein nodded, “Land is always a welcome home to return to. For its small size New Jersey had quite the offer of actual patches of land around houses we chose between.”

“Bet it’s beautiful, we have a tiny patch out back of our place. Thirty by thirty, if that. But the dogs do appreciate it.”

Howard, “You don’t like the yard?” He asked with a smirk.

After a pause that had his head shift to look you head on you said, “I grew up in that building, there’s more than a few of my old neighbors who tend to pass through time to time.”

Howard, “You need a good fence and a new gate.”

Einstein looked to him after taking notice of the food approaching, “She means their souls Howard.” Parting his lips in a glance between you.

The food was settled on the table to ample thanks and he asked, “Your house is haunted? Like murderous ghouls and screaming cabinets and all that.”

“Just a few pass through the yard, mainly on anniversaries. The only screamer we had was when the guys moved the furnace and fuse box.”

James chortled, “Ya, found a buried box Jaqi knew whose son should have gotten after he died, but he was deployed and got evicted when Hildi’s uncle who owned the place stopped renting and boarded it up. Left after that.”

“Ya, he never really got along with his neighbors but he was a good challenger in checkers. Liked to have another Polish speaker close by to ramble off at on occasion.”

Howard, “I don’t get you.” You smirked and he said, “No, every time I talk to you or see you it’s another crazy pony in the derby to crazy town. You don’t match up, I’m a scientist, everything has a pattern and you’re just dots all over the damn page. You were a kid, sent to a war, somehow built this unmatched weapon you won’t share with anyone else that can tear planes out of the sky and tanks apart. Now you have a book on photography of all things, are in school for who knows what and now you live in a haunted house when not living in the middle of nowhere Canada.”

“Well you’re not wrong there, not likely to make sense to many.” You said taking a slice off of your food to the twitch of his eyebrow.

Einstein chuckled saying, “As it should be, if everyone knew all the secrets to the stars no one would look up towards the light in the dark. Mystery is key.”

Howard looked to him and said in his own bite of food, “You are not helping,” making the physicist chuckle around his mouthful.

James said, “Can’t imagine what you would be expecting to find.”

Howard said to him after a glance at you, “No one is that good.”

Smirking to yourself slicing off another bite you said, “Good thing you never met my brother Steve, according to him and his friend I was born a monster.”

Howard scoffed finally lifting his utensils, “You’re no monster. No fairy princess either but not a monster.”

“Trust me if I had magic things would be completely different.” You said easing the fork between your lips while he chewed.

Enrollment came around again and your class list had you back in line again wading through the sea of open books you signed and answered a few questions on each. English, English Composition, two Advanced Mathematics courses, Chemistry, Astronomy, Psychology, Literature, Sociology and Rhetoric were your chosen courses; the first two English courses being the only ones alongside Literature actually on Barnard campus. Though each woman married or otherwise took time to bring up the wedding and questioned the honeymoon afterwards and summer that everyone seemed to just love a romantic break away from the city with your adoring husband. And tucked between every few women was the hand off of hushed tips shared on how to have babies to get started on your own little family with the man who clearly loved your nephew and nieces beyond words.

In passing your Advanced Mathematics Professor ensured he had a moment at your side with pipe lowered to ask, “Did I hear this correctly, you have a young cousin near to college years?”

Subtly the end of your brow ticked up under the edge of your bangs and you replied, “Yes, my cousin Erik, he’s got his final year in school starting in a week.”

The smoke from his next listening puff on his pipe billowed between you as he said, “Where is he looking for his studies after he’s graduated?”

“Well, here, actually.”

A smirk eased across his lips and he said, “Well I can’t wait to see what sort of student he is compared to his cousin and uncle. Even Elliot is anxious on the wait. All of us on the admissions essay pool judges are going to keep our eyes peeled for his application. What’s his last name?”

“Lehnsherr, Dad changed his to Rogers when he moved to Brooklyn.”

After a glance at someone calling his name he let out another puff of smoke and nudged his pipe at you briefly to say, “I will remember that name and keep an eye out for it.”

“He’ll be glad to hear it,” you said in his nodding step away that had you glance up at James in his smirking reach for another book from the stack that the freshmen that rushed back with to complete the required textbooks you’d need. “Sounds like fun times are coming. Might as well pick a room I guess for Erik.”

James chuckled and said, “Me and Vic have been sprucing up some of our ground floor rooms he could pick from so he won’t have to be surrounded by babies the whole time.” When he took another book and you gave a soft sigh just making him chuckle again and claim the final book so you had hands free to get your paperwork and sign the paperwork to get the tuition paid for in advance again for the fall and spring semesters.

Dawn and the three babies were waiting for you at home and she relaxed while you and James got lunch ready then took charge of Teddy as the younger girls were down for their naps.

Monday this year was the day this semester began on. English on the Barnard campus was how the day began. Ready in a peach dress and cardigan from James tied seamlessly to your figure by a sash you settled into your seat trying to ignore the title of the article that had been apparently counting down on your baby clock since the big ‘I Do Day’. Even now the public’s image that you were a real life Cinderella who had come from the very bottom as a penniless orphan who had nabbed yourself a Baron and had changed your life now simply requiring a baby to make it all picture perfect. You hoped the pressure would die down but where the Congressman’s comments on your roots had high hopes on conceiving fairly early like most Irish women were perceived to be able to simply fall pregnant with ease and would remain pregnant for a good chunk of their lives afterwards until too old to get pregnant anymore.

Mama Brock however recalling the same weight had encouraged her girls to not put any pressure on that movement and to try and spread through town as best they could that the hope would be for you to get your degree first. Halfway almost to getting the first of them most women did accept that a couple years wouldn’t a spinster make as you were still just 22 and had years ahead.

Relief however came in your second class with the same Advanced Mathematics Professor for Trigonometry who welcomed you and the other females up to his course for this and the next three courses on the Columbia Campus until your final class. Minimal female interaction between classes aided in that the men were less likely to enforce that public biological clock countdown. The air seemed different in this upper level course with male students who already knew how talented you are and that you had well earned your seat in their courses and could head up against any guy who tried to test you academically.

A second Mathematics Professor for Calculus came next just a few doors down. Across the campus to another wing you had to weave your way to your Chemistry course that would come up after your lunch break. Portia animatedly upon meeting in her car spilled her exciting new course list and her plans for this year she had used to double up more of her own courses for her own degree.

From desks to stools at stations around the room in groups of three you settled in timidly formed groups. Yourself with two of the left over guys who you’d known loosely in their tries to get to know Portia and your lunch group the hour prior as the other females had grouped up leaving just you and the rest of the male classmates. At least for them they hoped to possibly at the least have some good word shared about them to their hopeful future dates. And around you they took up the stools so you wouldn’t have to be near the gas burner or the sink on the ends and settled in for the first class that would have your first group assignment to warm you all up to the process of each in class experiment and assignment afterwards.

Psychology came next, the most interesting of your classes you had read ahead on in the textbook that could have a great impact at least on some of your own internal struggles and those that your family might have faced. The lengthy class opened with just full speeches and presentations you took notes through to the end when you would have to get up and head across to Barnard for your Literature class you had with Portia. After which the first meeting with the paper came with the proud group who got started in the opening meeting with a list compiled of topics to ready for the paper to be put out in a couple days. Five sketch topics were given to you for various sections of the paper that you had a basic draft of each they commented notes for you to add to each of them through the rest of the days until they were due.

“I’m so glad we’re back in school.” Portia said with a smile you shared on the stroll to the front entrance of the school where James and her driver were waiting. “Been such a long summer apart.” In a glance your way she asked, “James still being as romantic as ever? A couple of my cousins said their hubby’s seemed to switch once they traded rings.”

Softly you chuckled and said, “Surprisingly more romantic than ever.” Widening her smile even more, “He’s excited for me to have another year of schooling under my belt too.”

“Maybe I should take more trips up to Canada for a fella like him.” She teased with a giggle matched by yours.

“I’ll keep my ears open, and two of the fellas from lunch happen to be my lab partners in Chemistry if they tickle your fancy.”

“Oh it’ll take more than small talk over chicken cold cut sandwiches to win my heart in just a year with kind words and flattery. Any man wants to come courting has to step up and set a meeting with my daddy first or they’re all just howling at the moon.”

“Fair tip, send them up to Big Sir for him to bite them into shape.”

She smiled saying, “Exactly.”

Pt 46

#James Howlett x Reader OC #Victor Creed x Norma Jeane #Petal is here #Eddie Brock x OC #baby countdown #Peer Pressure #Book Signing #Howard Stark #Einstein #Back to Barnard

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artificialqueens · 4 years

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Hot as Hell and No A/C, Chapter 5 (Branjie) - Blackhighheels

(Read at AO3)

Five

Jose tilts his head back and lets the warm water wash over his face and hair, rinsing the shampoo off. For the last six days his showers have become progressively longer, but they help him relax. He gets in, lets the warm water fall down on him as he jerks off, then washes his body and his hair. He stays in the shower until the water turns cold. It’s not a morning ritual he had before, but definitely one he started after spending the night sleeping with Brock in his arms. Waiting until night falls to give into his fantasies isn’t enough anymore.

When Brock had rested his head on his shoulder, already half-asleep, Jose thought he’d have a heart attack. Never had anything felt as right as this move and he hadn’t been able to stop himself from pulling Brock closer.

Brock was exhausted, that much had been clear from the first moment he saw him and during their talks he had admitted that he rarely slept through the night.

But Brock had slept through the night, right there in his arms.

It had given Jose the opportunity to run his hands over his back and through his hair. Whenever Brock had started to fidget, he pulled him closer or placed a soft kiss on his forehead. Jose had been able to shower him with tenderness that night, all the hugs and touches and kisses that Brock would never accept if he was awake.

It wasn’t even sexual, Jose hadn’t molested him or anything. It was only now, later, when Brock was long gone and Jose was left with the memories of how his body had felt under his fingers, how his weight had pressed him into the cushions and how he had been able to get lost in the scent of him the whole night, that he got aroused by the memories.

They’ve hung out since and still stack the shelves together every night, but Brock hasn’t come over since. Jose knows something must have happened when he came home, but Brock doesn’t say and he doesn’t want to ask.

Just a couple of hours, sometimes even just minutes with Brock is better than nothing at all and Jose reminds himself again to treasure the time they have. Because there’s only two more days and then Jose is going back to Los Angeles.

Jose always falls fast and hard, but he’s never fallen as fast or as hard for anyone as he has for Brock. If things were different, if they’d only stood a little chance, he’d gladly spend the rest of his days travelling out to this hell hole every chance he got to see his man and be with him. If he could be with Brock, he’d be willing to pretend, to hide and go back in the closet as long as he was in town. Brock is worth everything.

It’s madness to think it or say it after six weeks of platonic friendship, but Jose knows he is in love with him.

Just… there is no chance for them, no loophole or way. It isn’t only that Brock’s family and this shitty town could never accept that Brock is gay. Brock also isn’t really accepting the fact and still feels shame and the wrath of some scary god. That’s not something Jose can change. If he talks him into anything, Brock will reject him for it one day.

Jose loves him, but it means letting him go and letting him make his own decisions. If Brock ever comes out and if he ever wants to live his truth, Jose will make sure before he leaves that Brock knows where to find him.

Until then he can fight his longing by jerking off to phantasies, grasp at every second of friendship he can get and prepare himself for the inevitable goodbye.

Jose hopes that things will get easier once he’s gone from this god forsaken town and this fucking heat.

***

”Hey, stop it, idiot!” Brock laughs and pushes the package of beef jerky back onto the shelf. Each time they have to re-stock the beef-jerky, Jose takes the whole packages and throws them in the bin, a mischievous grin on his face the whole time. Brock knows already how this argument will go, they’ve been around that tree a couple of times.

”This is disgusting! It should be forbidden! Banned! Outlawed! This is against the PETA- constitution of rights!” Jose declares and grasps for the package again.

”You don’t have to eat it. But not everyone is a vegetarian,” Brock points out.

”Pescatarian, bitch!” The sassy looks Jose gives him over his shoulder gives Brock time to push the package back onto the shelf.

”Sit! Behave!” he tells him and knows that’s just what Jose has been waiting for. He grabs a can of soda and sits down on the chair, watching as Brock puts the last two boxes on the shelf. When he’s done, Jose has a cold drink ready for him too. ”So, did Thackery finally tell you where he put your earring?”

”Yes, the little fucker did! I found it in his bed under his pillow.”

”He has a bed? And a pillow?” Brock chuckles.

”Of course! A little kitty bed and a little kitty pillow. He naps on it during the day and then shares my bed at night. He loves to cuddle.”

”You let the cat sleep in your bed?”

”Hey, don’t tell me you don’t do it! The way you talking about that kitten of yours, I’m sure he’s no stranger to your bed either.”

”Only when it was too cold for him to sleep outside in the barn,” Brock admits reluctantly and also lies a bit.

”Haha! I knew it! Sucker!” Jose guffaws and slaps Brock’s thigh. Brock laughs with him.

”Uncle Brock! Uncle Brock!” Rachel suddenly bursts into the store through the back entrance and Brock jumps up in blind panic. This is it. He’s been caught.

”Rachel what is it?” Jose speaks up when Brock can’t find his voice to ask and just opens and closes his mouth like a fish.

”Momma is having the baby and she needs you to drive her to the hospital. Like now!” Rachel yells excitedly.

”My car’s still broken,” is all Brock can come up with.

”That’s why momma says to ask Vanjie if he’ll drive us, dummy,” Rachel rolls her eyes like it’s the most obvious thing.

”Sure, come on,” Jose gets up and quickly gathers his things. It gives Brock a moment to collect himself, while Rachel has run off as soon as Jose agreed.

”You’re here because you needed cat food, right?” Brock whispers as he locks the store.

”Yes. It’s a real great ass alibi. Don’t worry.” He reassures him. Ada and Rachel are already waiting by the car and the girl helps her mother in when Jose unlocks it.

”Who’s gonna watch the other kiddos?” Jose asks Brock.

”Rachel. She’s gonna stay here.”

”But she’s just a baby herself.”

”She’s used to it and I guess they’re all asleep. Dance is really the only time she gets for herself. Ada needs her help. There’s just too many of them.” Brock climbs into the passenger’s side. ”Hey, sis. Ready to become a mommy?” he asks her.

”Again,” she smiles a pained smile.

”Again. It’s still a bit early huh?”

”Just two weeks. I’m glad once it’s over. Bedrest isn’t for me.” She says as Jose slowly pulls out onto the street. ”Thank you for driving us, Jose. I wanted Brock to call you, but Rachel said you’re parked outside anyway.”

”Yeah, I needed some cat food for my little man Thackery. I’m still not used to shops not being open 24/7, ya know?” Jose is perfectly innocent and Brock relaxes a bit when he sees the performance.

”Thank god, for your cat. I think this will be a quick one.” Ada groans a moment later and Jose glances at Brock with panic in his eyes.

”Mami, you better not have that kiddo in my car. Porsche doesn’t have the same ring to it as Ferrari or Bentley for a name,” Jose says and manages to make even the woman in labor laugh.

***

The birth isn’t as quick as Ada hoped. Shortly before noon Vanjie decides to drive home to get some fresh clothes and shower, but also to get some food for Brock and himself. Ada asks him to check if the kids are at school.

Brock knows that Jose would never say no to the requests, but also reminds him before he leaves, that he shouldn’t feel obligated.

For the next coupe of hours Brock stays with his sister and keeps her husband up to date on the progress.

”Hey there Miss Ada,” Jose is back around three in the afternoon and leans against the doorway with a sheepish smile.

”Hey,” Ada smiles weakly. She’s exhausted and barely got any sleep since last night. ”Come in.”

”Ya sure? Don’t wanna see no parts your husband will beat me up for,” Jose jokes but slowly walks in.

”All covered,” she reassures him. ”Everything alright at home?”

”Yeah, Rachel got them all to school and I talked to the neighbor like you said and she keeps them fed and watered until you’re back.”

”Thank you so much,” Ada smiles and takes Jose’s hand. ”Why don’t ya take my little brother here for a walk and get something to eat? They gonna check on me in a couple of minutes anyway.”

Jose looks questioningly at Brock. ”Let’s go Uncle B?”

”Yeah, let’s go,” Brock realises how long he sat in that chair when he gets up and has to stretch to make his arms and legs function again. ”You call me when you need me, ok?” he tells his sister and follows Jose outside.

”Brought you some food, but I didn’t wanna bring it into the room. Wasn’t sure if she’s allowed to eat.” Jose picks up a large paper back that smells suspiciously like Asian food.

”Thank you.” He simply tells him once more. They find a spot at a table outside and Jose finds the stir fried rice and duck Jose has brought for him.

”How much longer do ya think it’ll take?” Jose asks him over a fork full of rice and prawns.

”I don’t know. One can’t really predict these things. She’s nearly fully dilated though, so it shouldn’t be much longer.”

”Child, I didn’t need that kinda picture in my head about ya sister’s private parts.” Jose actually shudders which makes Brock laugh. ”You ever watched it, ya know, when your little nieces and nephews were born?”

”I was in the delivery room with her twice so far, but I always kept my eyes above the shoulders, if that’s what you want to know.” Brock chuckles.

”Her husband still on the road?”

”Yeah, he’s on his way back now, but it’ll take him a couple of days.”

”That’s good. She needs some help with the kids and the store.”

”Hey, she seems to put you to work now too. Wait, you’ll be slaving away at the store in no time,” Brock laughs and tries to imagine Vanjie behind the counter of the store, dealing with the people of the town on the regular.

”I’d even volunteer, but, ya know, I’m leaving tomorrow in the early morning. Gotta go back to L.A.”

Brock feels like the ground has been ripped from underneath his feet. ”Tomorrow?” he croaks and the hand that hols his fork drops to the table.

”Yeah, my time’s up. Workshop is over.” Jose shrugs, but his eyes are sad.

”I didn’t think… I didn’t realise it’s already been this long.”

”I know, me neither,” Jose gives him a shaky smile. ”Ya now, you got my number. If you ever… wanna come and visit or talk or… please call.” Brock can only nod, because he’d burst into tears if he spoke. ”Imma miss you.” Jose adds and cover’s Brock’s hand with his. Brock nods again.

Their eyes meet and the looks between them say more than Brock ever could. There’s an understanding, an awareness of the situation, of the things said and the things unspoken.

Brock slowly pulls his hand away, scared that someone mights see. ”We should finish eating and then get back.” He’s not hungry anymore, but it gives him something to focus on, other than trying not to fall apart.

”That little sucker better hurry up, ‘cause I wanna meet them before I leave,” Jose tries to joke again, but it falls flat, neither laughs or even smiles.

***

When they get back, they are informed that things have progressed rather quickly and that even though they were just gone for an hour, the new addition to the family is already here.

”Go in, go meet them!” Jose is excited and pushes Brock towards the door.

”Hey Ada, can I come in?” he asks after knocking and finds his sister sitting in bed with her baby in her arms.

”Of course. Sorry, I didn’t call. Suddenly he couldn’t wait anymore. Where’s Vanjie?” she asks.

”Here,” Jose head pops up behind Brock, who is still standing in the open door.

”Come here. Meet Noah,” she smiles at Jose, who hurries past Brock to get a closer look at the baby.

”Aw, Brock! Look! Look! He’s so cute! And you named him Noah. That’s like the best name!” Jose gushes and wipes away a tear.

”You’re a fan of the ark story as well?” Ada smiles.

”More of the Notebook story,” Jose chuckles and Brock realises he must be talking about another movie.

”You wanna hold him?”

”Me?” Jose squeaks and makes them laugh. ”I can’t. Never held a baby in my life. I’d squish him.”

”You’re gonna be just fine,” Ada tells him and slowly places the baby in his arms. Jose holds little Noah like a bomb and Brock reaches over to quickly adjust his hold on him.

”You gotta pay attention to the head. They can’t hold it on their own yet,” He tells him and looks down at his newest nephew. ”He looks like Rachel when she was born.”

”Yeah he does,” Ada agrees with him.

Jose slowly relaxes and when he turns his head, looks over his shoulder up at Brock and their eyes meet, there’s a large smile on his face.

”I’m holding a baby!” he proclaims proudly and seems to grow a couple of inches right in front of Brock’s eyes. He’s so proud of his achievement and it’s the cutest thing Brock has ever seen, not even his new-born nephew comes close.

”I can see that,” Brock beams back at him. God, he loves him.

He loves him.

He’s in love with him, Brock realises as they smile at each other, Noah nestled safely in Jose’s arms.

”He must like you. He’s asleep,” Ada brings them back to reality, like Brock’s big epiphany didn’t just rock his word. He, Brock, is in love with Jose. This is not about attraction or a flirt. This is love.

”Then I better hand him back to ya before he gets too attached,” Jose smiles and gives the baby back to Ada. ”So, y’all… I gotta go. I still have to pack and clean and shit. Get some sleep. I’m leaving tonight or early morning.”

”Oh that’s too bad. You’re coming back next year?” Ada asks him.

”Nah, Jason’s back is better and he cashed his cheque with me. Who knows what Imma do next year this time.”

”Rachel will miss ya.”

”She’s got my number, she can call, you can all call and visit. Don’t forget me, Miss Ada,” Jose says and gives her a careful hug.

”How could we?” Ada replies.

”Brock you wanna ride back with me?”

Brock absolutely wants to, but after his big revelation it’s better if he’s not alone again with Jose. He doesn’t know what he would say or do and the fact still stands that Jose is leaving and not coming back.

”My parents are on their way here and I’ll ride back with them. Thanks for the offer though,” he declines, even though it’s killing him.

”Ok then,” Jose looks disappointed, but still smiles. ”Gimme a hug, big guy.”

When Brock does, he is aware that his sister is watching them. While Jose hold him tightly, he tries to keep some semblance of it being just a friendly hug goodbye. It doesn’t matter that he never wants to let him go. ”Take care of yourself, boo. Eat, sleep, don’t let them get to ya. You’re right the way god made you and don’t let anyone tell ya anything else,” Jose whispers in his ear.

”You too. Drive safely, Jose.” Jose’s lips brush softly and discreetly against Brock’s cheek as they break apart.

When Jose walks out of the room with one last small wave, Brock bites his lip and prays he can keep the tears at bay until he’s alone.

***

”Brock?” His sister snaps him out of his daze. He’s still staring at the closed door, unable to move. All he can focus on is breathing.

”Mmh?” he makes without turning around. How would he explain being this upset over Rachel’s dance teacher leaving? A man he pretends he barely knows.

”Come here,” Ada tells him quietly and holds out her hand, while she holds Noah with the other. ”What’s going on?” she asks him when he sits on the side of her bed, his eyes focussed on his nephew.

”What do you mean?”

”Brock, I know.”

He looks up at her face and has no idea what she is talking about. ”Know what?”

”I know,” she repeats and her eyes seem to bore into his. ”I know about the ice-cream and take away after dance class. And I know he helped you at the store every night. I know, Brock.”

”We’ve become friends, Ada. I know I’m not supposed to hang out with him, but… we’re friends.” It’s the truth, nothing has happened. Other than him falling in love with Jose, but Ada doesn’t need to know about that.

”But you’re in love with him.”

”How can you say that?Ada! That’s not right! I’d never…” he gets upset and little Noah starts stirring in his mother’s arms. Brock knows lying is a sin, but being gay is an even bigger one. They can’t know, no one can know!

”Brock, I’m your sister and I know you. I know you’re gay. I’ve suspected it for a while, but there was never a reason to say anything. I know you’re in love with Vanjie and if Rachel is right, like she usually is, then he likes you, too.”

”Rachel…” Pure panic spreads through him.

”Calm down. She’s only ten but she understands what’s at stake here. I talked to her and she won’t say anything to anyone.”

”But why?” Brock gasps. ”It’s wrong!”

”Love is never wrong, little brother. I believe in god and the lord and I pray. But my god and the one we get scared with by our parents and the idiot minister, are not the same. I might not have gone to college and I might never leave this town, but as soon as I had my first baby, I knew that there’s something wrong with what we’ve been told. You don’t raise your kids with fear and threats and punishment. You love them. No matter who they love. And the same goes for my brother.” They are both crying at this point and Brock hugs his sister tightly. It’s done, it’s out, and he won’t lose her because of his biggest secret.

”Thank you,” he sobs and tries to wipe away the tears when Noah starts protesting.

”So, what are you gonna do?” Ada asks him again, once she has dried her own face.

”There’s nothing I can do. We’re not… we’re really just friends. He’s leaving and there’s nothing for him here. Like, I can’t leave. And I can’t stop being me. I can’t disappoint everyone around me and lose my family. Mom and dad will never talk to me again and I’ll be all but dead to Dan and Lilly. I’ve gone so long living with this secret, that I just can’t…. It doesn’t feel right to me.”

”But you’ve always been so unhappy, Brock. I guess, I just wanna see you happy for once. And with him you were.”

”Sorry,” he shrugs and smiles a bit.

”You’re really gonna let him go like this? Why can’t you be selfish for once? Do what you want, what makes you happy?”

”You think being happy for one night is worth all that comes afterwards? The doubts and fear?”

”How’s that different from what you’re living now? You live your life for others, for all of us and you’re unhappy all the time. If you have a chance of happiness, even if it’s just for a short while, then take it! Maybe he won’t stay, you’re right, but you gonna miss him anyway. If you go to him and just… even if you’re just spending the night as friends together and nothing more happens, then at least you’ll have that one happy memory, that will make your burden a bit lighter.”

”When did you get so wise, sis’?” Brock asks and leans into her, seeks comfort in her embrace.

”I’m your big sister. I’ve always been wise, you just never listened,” she teases him. A moment later the door opens and their parents and Rachel walk in. The moment is over. But Brock has a lot to think about until they get home.

***

”Brock? What are you doing here?” Jose looks as surprised as he sounds when he opens the door. He has changed and is now wearing sweatpants and a tank-top.

”Hey, uhm, like, can I come in?” he mutters and points to a spot past Jose’s shoulder. Jose just steps aside, seems too stunned to say more and lets him into the apartment.

”You packed,” Brock points out when he looks around. Two large suitcases are standing by the bedroom door and the apartment has been cleaned from top to bottom. A backpack on top of the suitcases is open and some clothes lie neatly folded on the living room table.

”Yeah, like I said, I just wanna grab a bit of sleep and then go.” Jose rocks back and forth on his feet before he follows Brock further into the room. ”Everything ok with Ada and little Noah? You need me to drive you to the hospital again?”

”No, I mean, yes, they’re ok,” Brock shakes his head and tries to gather the courage he needs. ”I’m here because… like… I…” Why is it so hard to find the words to say what he wants to say? Jose knows more about him than any other person, so why can’t he tell him what he wants now? Time is running out and he has to… Just…. Jose waits patiently and with a look between curiosity and fear.

Finally, Brock cups his face with his hand, sees Jose’s eyes widen even more, and then slowly leans in. He gives Jose time to pull away or stop him, but when he doesn’t, Brock kisses him.

Jose gasps softly and pulls him closer a moment later. With a moan Jose deepens the kiss and Brock’s eyes close. This is the kiss he dreamed of so many times when he lay awake at night or when he allowed himself to think of Jose during the day. Every time he was close to him, but he didn’t allow himself to have this. Brock feels heat curling in his gut when Jose opens his mouth and their tongues touch.

Jose fits so perfectly into his arms, and the way he kisses is like nothing Brock has ever experienced. He is amazing and Brock needs more, lets his hands wander underneath Jose’s wide shirt. His skin is warm, nearly feverishly hot and so soft.

Brock has no idea how long they just stand there kissing while he is running his hands over Jose’s back and chest. When he tries to pull the shirt up and over his head, Jose stops him and breaks the kiss.

”Babe, I can’t…” he is panting. ”I need to know what’s going on,” Jose requests breathlessly and gives him another quick kiss, before he takes Brock’s hand and leads him to the sofa.

Brock is turned on and slightly frustrated that they have to talk, now, and can’t just do what he knows they both want. Yet, he knows he owes Jose an explanation.

”I…I know you’re leaving and I’m not here to stop you, because you should get out of here and go back to your life in L.A. But like…I like you and I…. I just wanna know what it’s like to be with someone I…. I like care about… just once. And I hope you don’t mind or feel used or, you know. But, like, you kissed me first and… please, let me have this before I lose you tomorrow.”

He’s begging.

Jose listens and nods, holds his hand as Brock rambles. He looks down to their joined hands once Brock is done and watches as he plays with his finger. ”Is this your first time?” Jose asks when he looks back up.

”No. I’ve hooked up with random guys in gay bars and clubs before. But I’ve never… not with someone I know, or in a bed or….” He trails off.

Someone I love, he wants to say, but it would be too much. He isn’t here to talk Jose into staying or an impossible relationship, even though he wants to fall to his knees and beg him not to leave him.

He can’t do that to him. Jose deserves the world and there is nothing for him here.

”If we do this, saying goodbye will be so much harder,” Jose points out and Brock can see the tears in his eyes.

”I know,” he agrees and feels himself getting choked up as well. ”But…”

Before he can go on Jose has closed the gap between them and kisses him again. Brock can taste the salty tears on his lips and licks them away as Jose climbs into his lap and wraps both arms around his neck. Desire clouds Brock’s mind and he gets dizzy with want. His hands are back under Jose’s shirt and his time he gets to take it off. Jose groans in protest when he breaks the kiss, but then cocks his head to the side when Brock kisses down his neck and to his chest and as far down as he can reach with Jose still sitting on his lap. This is something Brock has never done, has never gotten the chance to: simply kiss someone’s skin, taste it, nibble on it. He has sucked dick, but there was never any tenderness in it, only the chase of making the other come as fast as possible.

”Let’s go to the bedroom,” Jose makes him look up by tugging gently on his curly hair. He gets up and holds out his hand to Brock. When he takes it, he leads them to the bedroom.

The bed is unmade on one side and Brock realises that Jose was already in bed when he got here.

”You were already asleep.”

”I was in bed, not asleep. And this is so much better,” Jose smirks and pulls Brock’s shirt over his head.

”Yeah?” Brock’s breath hitches when Jose touches his naked skin. Slowly and in random patterns Jose’s hands glide over his chest and stomach, tickling and arousing at the same time. Brock bites his lip as he watches him, scared he’ll make too much embarrassing noise otherwise.

”Yeah,” Jose finally replies and wraps his arms around Brock’s neck again. ”Listen… you gotta talk to me when you don’t like something or if you wanna stop, ok? I’ll do the same. Wasn’t expecting this, you, here, tonight, so I’m not ready. Are you prepped?”

Jose’s blunt question makes Brock blush. No one has ever talked to him about what they were going to do, other than asking him if he had a condom. ”No, I, uhm, I always topped, you know, like the few times I actually…”

Jose smiles and kisses him softly. ”That what you wanna do tonight? I’m usually a bottom, but if you feel like doing something new… I don’t mind.”

”No, no that’s not…” Brock’s voice is barely above a whisper. ”I just wanna know what it feels like to make love and not fuck.”

Again Jose kisses him deeply. ”Then lean back, relax and Imma be back in a couple of minutes ok?” He pushes him down onto the bed, before he disappears into the living room and then comes back with a cosmetics bag. ”Here, place’em somewhere we can find them quick,” Jose smirks as he throws something at Brock, before he disappears behind the bathroom door. When Brock looks down, he’s holding condoms and lube. It makes him laugh.

The next twenty minutes are both the longest and the shortest of Brock life. He’s impatiently waiting for Jose, still aroused and nearly out of his mind when he remembers their kisses. But he’s also nervous. He doesn’t want to fuck up and disappoint Jose. If this is the only chance he ever gets at being with the man he loves, Brock wants to cherish it and make it the best night it can be for both of them. So that maybe, sometimes, when Jose is back in L.A. and with other guys, he will remember their night as well.

Maybe he won’t forget him as quickly.

Thackery keeps Brock company as he waits for Jose. But when he comes out of the bathroom, the cat seems to sense he’s in the way and retreats back to the living room.

”You still sure?” Jose asks as he climbs back in Brock’s lap.

”Still sure,” he confirms before they kiss again, naked chest agains naked chest.

If Brock really thought Jose expects any kind of performance of him, he was wrong. Because Jose takes the lead right away. He’s not bossy in a bad way, but taking care of him with incredible tenderness. There’s no inch of skin Jose doesn’t kiss, no scar he doesn’t want the whispered short story about how it happened, before he soothes the long forgotten pain with his lips and tongue.

Jose keeps talking, whispering about how much he loves Brock’s body, how sexy he finds his abs, how much he’s wanted to play with his chest hair, how he dreamed about being wrapped in his arms, how soft the skin of his stomach is and how much he wants to suck his cock. He talks about his eyes, his mouth, his tongue and his ass. When he stops talking to finally taste him, Brock nearly comes.

To cool down, Brock#s allowed to explore Jose’s body and he does so with the same tenderness. He loves him, there is no question about it.

Brock has to remind himself to memorise every second, every gasp and every feeling, when he finally slides into Jose.

”Slow,” Jose instructs, wraps his legs around him and pulls him into another kiss. Brock moves – slowly – as they get lost in each other. Brock feels an emotion that he can’t identify. He’s never felt anything like this before. Bliss? Love?

Their movements get faster and the kisses sloppier as they get closer to the end. Jose groans and gasps as he digs his fingers into Brock’s shoulders and waist. He’s loud, gets louder when Brock wraps his hand around his cock to bring him over the edge. Jose explodes with loud moans and spills hot and wet over Brock’s fingers, his own stomach and chest.

”Brock, baby… yes…please,” Jose encourages him and with a couple more thrust Brock comes as well.

They pant into each others mouths, kiss and smile. Both of them are sticky with sweat and cum, but neither wants to move. Brock nuzzles his nose into Jose’s neck as he holds him, presses kisses to his hair and playfully bites his ear form time to time to make him laugh.

”So this is what it feels like.” Brock speaks quietly into Jose’s skin, still lying on top of him minutes later.

”Yeah, this is what it feels like.” The wonder in Jose’s voice surprises Brock, but he doesn’t comment on it. Instead he kisses the side of his neck.

They lie there, mostly in silence. Sometimes they kiss, sometimes they touch and sometimes they just enjoy the moment.

Until the alarm on Jose’s cellphone goes off.

Their dream is over, it’s back to reality.

They exchange one more longing kiss, before Brock gets up and takes care of the condom while Jose shuts off the alarm.

They get dressed.

They don’t shower.

They rip the sheets off the bed.

They don’t talk.

Jose packs the rest of his things and Brock keeps Thackery company.

There’s no more words needed. With each minute they get closer to goodbye, the more panicked Brock feels.

He helps Jose with his bags, puts Thackery in the car and closes the door on the passengers side.

”Give me another hug,” Jose asks, his voice is breaking and full of tears. Brock hugs him so tightly that he fears he might hurt him, but Jose hugs him back just as fiercely. ”Brock….” Jose sniffs.

”Go! Live your best life in L.A.” Brock interrupts him. ”Have fun, be happy. Thank you for everything. I can’t… I’ll never,” Brock’s own tears make it impossible to continue.

Jose pulls back first. He gives Brock’s arm a squeeze, waves at him with a sad smile from behind the wheel and then drives off, the tail lights of his fancy car the last thing Brock sees of him, while the sun slowly rises and lights the darkness of the night.

”Brock, come on, man, at least wait inside until ya get a grip. You can’t be seen like this in this fucking town,” Jason’s worried voice comes from behind, when Jose’s car can’t be seen anymore. He leads him into the dark dance studio, where the hot sticky air is no less suffocating than the pain that fills Brock’s chest. The A/C is still broken, not that anyone cares at the moment. Brock cries until he can’t anymore, then he wipes his face with the wet washcloth Jason hands him.

He leaves.

Goes back to his parent’s farm where his real life awaits him.

It’s over. Brock hates his fucked up life even more now.

Because Jose is gone.

TBC

#rpdr fanfiction #brooke lynn hytes #vanessa vanjie mateo #branjie #m/m au #slow burn #romance #angst #smut #hot as hell and no ac #blackhighheels #tw religion #tw internalized homophobia

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