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calummss · 3 years

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Failed Mission | Kylo Ren

masterlist

summary: you failed a mission and have to deal with snoke’s consequences until kylo steps in

requested by: anon

words: 1.8K

Your black combat boots hit the hallways of the Finalizer leaving behind an echo. Your feet moved at a very fast pace trying to keep up with Kylo. With Kylo Ren by your side you strut through the main part of the ship trying to get to the conference room in time. Several people would be joining you today, to invade Jakku in aid of finding the two droids that had stolen a pod and escaped the ship all by themselves. Even when you had to explain to Supreme Leader Snoke what had happened you were embarrassed to say the least. How could two dumb droids escape the most guarded ship in the galaxy?

Making your way through the empty hallways you started to approach the conference room door that was guarded by two stormtroopers. The door slid up and the table was almost filled.

‘Kylo R-‘

‘Sit down, General Engell.’

‘Yes, Sir.’ she sat down and placed her arms on the table.

You followed Kylo to the head of the table and took your seat next to him, opening the files that would be needed for today's meeting. The seats were filled with Generals who were sceptical about the plans Kylo made.

‘We’ve all heard those two droids that escaped the Finalizer.’ Kylo started to pace around the room, trying to keep his anger under control. ‘They escaped using one of our pods located in the lower base of the ship. They were unsupervised. Someone let them out of their sight.’

You glanced at Kylo. He was wearing his helmet but you could tell that he was biting his lip in frustration. He always did. Ever since you met him, he’s bitten his lip on any occasion something didn’t go his way. You knew how important it was for him to get those droids back, to show them how great and powerful Kylo Ren is, to show Snoke that he is the chosen one. Looking around the room you saw General Pryde and Quinn take notes whilst General Armitage Hux kept a close eye on Kylo’s frame that was pacing around the room.

‘One of the droids is from the R2-series astromech droid, which was manufactured by Industrial Automaton. He’s blue and white in colour but does not look brand new. He was built in 32BBY or prior.’

Everyone was taking notes again to give the descriptions to stormtroopers that would set foot on Jakku. No one but a few selective people had seen the droids.

‘The other droid is a 3PO-series protocol droid that was also built prior to 32BBY. He’s completely gold and stupid.’ Kylo huffed with a hint of annoyance. ‘Make sure that every corner is checked, every stone is turnt over and every street is cleared. I want those droids back!’

Kylo finally sat down. The rest of the Generals were looking at him waiting for something else.

‘Y/N will take care of the rest. Leave.’

And with that they stood up, bowed and left the room so you two could continue talking about the plan and how you could get the droids back.

‘Do you think we’ll be able to find them?’ you stared at his face, hoping he wouldn’t be too harsh on himself.

‘Of course I will. I have to. We’re the First Order we always get what we want.’ he turned his head to you.

‘I’ll get started then okay?’ you gave him a reassuring smile and stood up.

Before you could walk off he grabbed your hand and placed a soft kiss on the back on your fingers. ‘Be safe.’

‘I will.’

You grabbed your files and headed out of the door like the rest of the Generals before you. You made your way back through all the hallways the Finalizer had. Heels clicking you made your way to the bottom section of the ship and opened the door to reveal the landing site. You walked past spaceships, shipments, other workers and containers to reach the large group of stormtroopers waiting for you. 200 of them stood in a block arrangement waiting for orders.

‘I’ll be sending you to Jakku on the orders of Kylo Ren. Two droids were reported missing a few hours ago when they stole a pod and stranded on the planet. Find the droids and bring them back alive! I will be joining you.’ you ended your quick speech earning a salute from the troopers before you. They cleared out and made their way to the First Order Transporter.

10 minutes later you landed on Jakku. It was warm, humid, dull and beige. You saw the village in the distance and motioned the troops towards the east of your current standpoint. Swinging your arm over your forehead you tried to keep the whirling sand out of your face. You walked through the desert to arrive at the main part of the village soon after. You sent the troops away and walked to a cantina to freshen up. You ordered something from the menu and took your time to relax. You couldn’t fail this mission. You couldn’t fail Kylo, you couldn’t fail Supreme Leader Snoke.

It has been six hours since you landed on the planet located on the outer rim of the galaxy and no stormtrooper came back to report the founding of the droids. Growing impatient you swung back the last shot of whatever liquid the bartender gave you and marched outside getting blinded by the sun. You walked up to a group of stormtroopers that were standing at the side of the building letting passengers go through.

‘Mission report.’

‘We have not yet found them, Miss.’

‘First of all it’s General Y/L/N to you and what do you mean you haven’t found them yet?’ you scanned the group in front of you trying to find a hint of sarcasm.

‘General Y/L/N, we have not found them. They seem to have disappeared with a girl and a boy.’

‘A girl and a boy?’

‘Yes, they were sighted two hours ago but no one has seen them since.’

You rolled your eyes. It was already getting dark and you’d have to call off the mission. You wouldn’t be able to find them in this condition. You gathered the troops and wandered back to your shuttle. You left the planet empty handed. You had failed.

You turned one of your monitors sideways and dialed Kylo Ren’s number, hoping he’d pick up and understand your attempts to find them.

‘Kylo?’ you questioned not knowing if he was there.

‘Yes. Did you find the droids?’

You took a big breath before letting the words slip off your tongue. ‘No, I haven’t.’

‘What do you mean ‘no’?’ he said a whisk of frustration in his tone.

‘I said no, Kylo. I don’t have the droids. We’re coming back as I speak. It’s getting dark and that would just put everything on hold regardless.’

Kylo stayed silent. The kind of silence that filled the void and made things awkward. He was angry, you could tell. He had every right to be but not at you.

‘Kylo, are you still there?’

‘Come back to the ship.’ and with that he hung up.

You were navigating the ship to the landing site when you saw General Hux and Kylo Ren waiting for you to dock your ship. You walked down the extended ramp and greeted the two with the bad news.

‘General Hux, Kylo Ren, I’m sorry to inform you on the failed mission for the search of the droids. They were last seen with a girl and boy and haven’t been spotted since. It was getting dark and I decided to take the soldiers back to the Finalizer as it wouldn’t have made a difference.’

‘Don’t apologise to me, General. You can save it for Supreme Leader Snoke. He wants to see you right this second.’ General Hux informed you.

You look up at Kylo to see him not paying attention to a single word that was just spoken. You started to make your way towards Supreme Leader Snoke, stormtroopers and other working people stepping out of your way in fear. Everyone heard about the failed mission and the fact that Snoke requested an audience with her.

‘Are you mad at me?’ you spoke ahead, concentrating on your footsteps.

‘No. I’m mad that the mission failed.’

You pressed your lips together. ‘Okay.’

When you arrived at the doors, they were opened and you saw that Snoke was already waiting for you. His body projected onto the large seat in front of you.

‘Leave.’ Snoke looked down on Hux. He left the room within seconds and it was just you, Kylo and Snoke trying to bear the tension between you.

‘You failed.’ his harsh tone penetrated your ears. Yet you stood tall and didn’t dare to let him intimidate you. ‘You continue to let me down General Y/L/N, I can’t continue to condone this kind of failure under my order!’

Suddenly you felt an invisible grip around your throat. Snoke was using the force to choke you. You airways closed in every on going second and you head started to feel lightweight. Your legs were kicking the air as you tried to get out of his grasp but it was useless.

‘Stupid girl.’

‘Let her go, Master.’ you heard Kylo demand.

‘What did you say to me?’ Snoke’s grip on you tightened.

‘I said let her go.’

‘You don’t tell me what to do, boy.’ Snoke gritted. ‘You’re nothing.’

Suddenly it felt like someone had turned on the activation button on life support. Your lungs were filled with air as you gasped out for more. Your hands lightly wrapped themselves around your throat, trying to stabilize yourself. From the corner of your eye you saw Kylo approach Snoke with his ignited lightsaber. Kylo had caught Snoke off guard when he pierced through his body—impossible.

Still trying to accustom to the air you heart Kylo yell.

‘You don’t fool me, I knew you were sitting there this whole time, using the projector as a cover up. Pathetic.’

You saw Snoke fall to his knees taking his final breath before his body slammed to the floor. Kylo came running towards you, picking you up.

‘Hey, hey, are you alright.’

‘Yes, I’m fine.’ you croaked out.

‘Come on. Let’s get out of here.’

And that was the day Kylo Ren saved you from the man he feared the most, to become the man the galaxy would fear even more. Supreme Leader Kylo Ren.

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gingeralepdf · 4 years

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Walk On By - Part 2

A/N: yay!!!!!! another installment in the shroomrry cinematic universe is here!! i want to say a huge thank you to el ( @harrytheehottie ) and brailey ( @daydreamsofh ) for being excellent beta readers and supporters. <3 <3

and thank you to everyone who has shown my writing love. i truly appreciate it so much. i hope you like this part just as much as the first one. :-)

if you haven’t read part 1, catch up here!!

🍄✨🌈✨🍄✨🌈✨🍄✨🌈✨🍄

****CONTENT WARNING**** alcohol consumption, mentions of drug use

You’re simply buying magic mushrooms from Harry. However, if you keep running into each other, is it going to stay that simple?

word count: just under 5k

**September 15th, 1977, Los Angeles, California**

The brakes on your car squeal as you pull into the last empty spot along the curb and shift into park. The music from your radio comes to an abrupt stop when you turn the key back to shut the engine off. Your head hits the headrest behind you before you empty your lungs into the silence.

Cars drive past on the street to your left. It’s just past five thirty, so all of the after work traffic is in full swing.

You’ve been avoiding this errand for two weeks now. There’s a record that you’ve been wanting to get your hands on ever since one of your coworkers played it at a work function. After looking through shelf after shelf in all of your favorite shops in L.A., and even making some calls to shops in surrounding areas, they’ve all come up short.

This seems to be your very last resort. Right across the street, sandwiched between a donut shop and a hair salon, is Jupiter House Records. From what you remember, this shop has a really good selection and variety, but the handful of unpleasant interactions you’ve had with the owner have been enough to make you look somewhere else. You’ve been stubbornly avoiding this place for years. Now you have a whole other reason for not wanting to spend hours in this store digging through to find your favorites or discover new ones.

Harry works here.

You haven’t seen him since he showed up on your doorstep to return your address book. The conversation you had with Jenny when she came home from work that evening plays through your mind again.

Both of you plop down on opposite sides of the couch in your living room. You sigh and take a big sip from your glass of wine before explaining the whole interaction to her, starting from the moment you opened the door to the moment you saw him drive away in his car.

Jenny grins. The only sound in the room comes from the ticking of the clock on the wall as you wait for her response. “I think he likes you.”

You squint. “That’s what you’re taking away from all of that?”

Her eyes widen and she springs forward, almost sloshing the wine out of her glass when she sets it on the coffee table. “Oh, so you’re telling me he saw the ‘If lost please return to..’ in your address book and decided to make a trip to our house to return it to you in person, when he could have just sent it in the mail?”

You can feel a crease forming between your eyebrows and you take in a sharp breath, fully prepared to counter her point, but she barrels through.

“And he wanted to ‘make sure you were okay’. Out of all the dealers that we’ve met, how many have just shown up at our houses to check up on us? Zero.”

You press your lips together. You can’t argue the fact that this alone sets Harry apart. However, this doesn’t mean he likes you. Maybe it just means that he’s the kind of person that goes the extra mile for the people he does business with. He could have easily left you and Jen sitting on the sidewalk after the concert, but he decided to help, to do what any other good-natured person would do.

“And let’s not forget how he threw the paper on the doorstep so you wouldn’t have to walk all the way down the driveway.” Jenny clutches her chest and swoons.

Scoffing at the way she’s adding dramatics, you challenge, “How do you know he didn’t show up here to see you?”

“He didn’t ask about me, did he?”

“No,” you begrudgingly mumble into your glass.

She grabs her glass from the coffee table and gives you a knowing look. She’s made her point, and the more it lingers like the aftertaste of wine, the more conflicted you become.

You’ve spent more idle moments than you’d like to admit since then thinking about the night you were sitting outside of the Forum. Thinking about what possessed you to lean in and study his face so closely. Was it solely the effects of the drugs? If that’s the case, then why do you want to go back to that moment so badly? And why didn’t Harry pull away? Did he really blush when you were staring at him? Was his heart really racing when you gave him a hug, or was that just your wild imagination?

The honking of a car brings you out of your thoughts. You take a deep breath and trill your lips. There’s a slight break in traffic. If you don’t get out of your car and cross the street now, you fear you’ll stay here stuck in your thoughts all evening.

With a huff, you rip your keys from the ignition and push your door open. You cross the street, walking with a purpose, and make it to the sidewalk.

The full strength of your nerves doesn’t hit you until you’re just in front of the store and the glass door swings out with a simultaneous chime of a bell. Your heart drops from your chest to your stomach and you freeze on the sidewalk to avoid colliding with the man exiting the shop.

When he stops to hold the door open for you, it takes you a moment to gather yourself. You mutter a ‘thank you’ as your hand firmly grips the cool metal of the door handle. Almost like you’re using it as a crutch to get you through the threshold.

Your shoes meet the shaggy mustard yellow carpet, matted down by years of customer traffic.

A woman that looks about your age greets you from behind a counter to your right. You return her half smile and she goes back to flipping through the magazine on the counter in front of her. The nametag on her floral shirt reads ‘Nora’. Behind her is a door with a red ‘EMPLOYEES ONLY’ sign taped to it.

Underneath the counter that she’s leaning on is a glass case holding records and cassette tapes, all marked ‘deluxe’ or ‘limited edition’. Spread out next to them are a few t-shirts, buttons, and stickers with the store logo printed on them.

You weren’t expecting it to be so quiet. Right now it seems like you and Nora are the only people in the store. The coast is clear. You can relax a bit. The adrenaline rush you were feeling on the other side of the door has now been replaced by the whirring of the air vents and David Bowie’s “Queen Bitch” playing over the speakers.

You turn to your left to take in the rest of the store, meandering into the first row of record shelves.

The large window taking up the entire front wall lets in plenty of evening sun that warms your skin through your shirt. More shelves, each one three tiers deep, line the rest of the walls and create aisles in the middle of the room.

Signs hanging from the ceiling above each section indicate the genre. The one you’re standing next to is labeled ‘new releases’ with a smaller font that reads ‘alpha by artist’. Other sections are labeled country, rock, disco, classical. Your eyes land on the back corner of the store where the funk, soul, and jazz sections are.

You make your way over while pulling your sleeves up to your elbows.

Unsure of which specific section the record you’re looking for will be in, you decide to start on one end of the corner and search all the way through to the other in hopes of finding it.

You fall into a familiar routine of searching through the first tier, then the second, leaning over to search through the top tier, and then taking a step over to start the whole process again.

Once you’re about halfway through the soul section, the bell on the door chimes again. You can’t be bothered to look, not wanting to lose your place.

“Hey, sorry I’m late.”

Goddamnit. Your hands freeze their movements and your heart begins to race all over again. You know exactly who just walked through that door.

“Harry,” Nora admonishes, “I finally have a date after two months and you’re gonna make me late.”

Harry’s mumbled response is drowned out by the loud creak of the door behind the counter, but judging by Nora’s gasp and the unmistakable thwack of a magazine, maybe it’s better left between the two of them.

You begin to slowly file through records again, this time not paying much attention to what you’re doing. More-so to give your hands something to do and appear busy while trying to hear the rest of their conversation.

Nora sighs, “It’s been really slow today. Hopefully it’s a slow night for you.” All you hear is some shuffling before she adds, “Oh, boss wanted me to remind you not to play the music too loud.”

“Did he? Dunno what he’s talking about,” Harry says, feigning innocence.

Nora laughs, “Whatever.”

The next thing you hear is the jingling of keys and footsteps across the carpet.

Harry raises his voice from the back room, “Are you gonna punch out?”

“Will you do it for me? I’ve gotta go.”

“Sure.”

The bell on the door rings and Nora yells from the doorway, “I left three boxes in the back for you to restock!”

“Oh thanks,” Harry yells back with sarcastic enthusiasm.

“Bye,” she sings as she walks out.

The door slams behind her. The bell’s high pitched ringing seems to hang in the air.

Silence falls on the room when the song playing over the speakers stops suddenly, making the room quiet enough to hear the traffic outside. You hear a needle drop and after a few seconds, the opening guitar notes of “Can You Get to That” by Funkadelic begin to play. The corners of your mouth turn down to fight a smile when the volume is promptly turned up much louder than what it was when you walked in.

You take a sharp breath in, realizing that you’re going to have to turn around at some point. Surely you can’t just stay in this corner and keep your back turned to him until the place closes. You don’t know what you’re going to say to him. Will he even recognize you after not seeing you for weeks?

There’s not much time to decide what to do when the sound of footsteps approaching on the carpet is getting closer to you.

Your heart leaps into your throat when you hear his voice.

“Finding everything alright?”

You turn your head to the left.

Harry is standing a few shelves apart from you with a box propped between the shelf and his hip. The sunlight from the window shines through the ends of his hair and the sleeves of his white t-shirt when he grabs a record from the box and reaches out to carefully wedge it back into the right place. You scan down to where his shirt is tucked into a pair of dark brown corduroy pants, and further down to see a pair of dirty white sneakers peeking out from the ends of the flares. When he turns his head to the box again, you notice that his mustache is significantly thinner from the last time you saw each other.

Heat rushes up your neck and onto your face when he glances up at you.

His hand pauses in the air and his eyebrows raise slightly before the corners of his mouth do the same, revealing just a hint of his dimples. His head tilts back and he blinks in surprise. “Oh… hi.”

You let out a breath that you didn’t know you were holding when he addresses you by name. Mirroring his smile and turning your shoulders to face him, you reply, “Hi. I… didn’t know you worked here.”

A flat out lie, but thankfully he doesn’t seem too suspect about it.

He frowns and looks down at his shirt, pulling it out in front of him to reveal his nametag. “Hm. M’ afraid I do,” he says flatly.

A breathy chuckle leaves you, amused at the way he’s effortlessly making sarcastic remarks like this with you and his coworker. Quite different from the stiffly awkward interactions you’ve had with him. It’s like you’re seeing him in his natural environment. Him being at ease is having the same effect on you.

“Do you need help finding anything?” he asks, continuing his previous actions, this time with a soft smile.

“Actually, yes,” you clear your throat, “I’m looking for this specific record. I’ve looked all over for it by now. I’m pretty sure it should be in one of these sections if you have it, but...” you trail off as you cast a glance over your shoulder to the shelves you have yet to go through.

“I can take a look in our inventory. Save you some time?”

Of course. Why didn’t you just ask about that when you first walked in? “Sure. That would be great.”

Harry hoists the box into the crook of his arm with a faint grunt and you follow him over to the counter. After setting the box at the end of the countertop, he walks to the other end and reaches underneath the register, pulling out a large beat up binder with ‘inventory’ written on the spine.

It lands on the counter with a plop, probably due to the huge stack of paper inside, separated by multicolored tabs.

“What’s the artist’s name?” he asks after opening the binder to the first page.

“The Equatics.”

He pulls on the ‘A’ tab and folds it over.

“Oh, sorry, it’s Equatics with an ‘E’.”

He tuts and shakes his head before tracing his finger down and pulling on the ‘E’ tab. “Equatics with an ‘E’,” he mumbles.

You fold your lips between your teeth.

Now you’re thankful for the loud music filling the room as you’re standing wordlessly in front of the counter watching him flip through the pages of the inventory binder. Hair hangs in front of his face as his head is tilted down to scan over the pages, all filled with scribbles, arrows, and notes in the margins written in blue, black, and red ink. It all means nothing to you, especially looking at it upside down. You can only imagine how tedious it must be to keep up with.

With his left hand pressed flat against the counter, the expanse of his arm is right in front of you. Hopefully he can’t feel your eyes surveying his tattoos, at least the ones you can see from this angle. A small cross on his hand, an anchor on his wrist, the tail of a mermaid, a delicate rose near his elbow, a heart just beneath the hem of his t-shirt.

He inhales sharply and clears his throat into his fist, “Looks like we do have it. It’s actually in our as-is section.” As he’s speaking, he spins the binder in your direction and slides his finger almost to the bottom of the page to point out where it lists the artist, album title, and the section it’s in.

Despite the relief that comes with finally finding something you’ve been searching for, your face falls a bit. You know that ‘as-is’ is often just a nice way of saying that something is heavily used. “Does that mean it’s… damaged?”

Harry hums and tilts his head to the side, not meeting your eyes until he responds.

“Not always. Honestly we’re pretty much required to put stuff in that section even if it’s just the sleeve that’s messed up. Sometimes the record itself is still in great condition. You can still find some good stuff in there.”

“Okay. Where’s the as-is section?” You don’t remember seeing a sign for it when you walked in, unless you just overlooked it.

“Right. It's, uh, down this hallway here. Kind of hidden.”

Harry rounds the end of the counter and you follow him over to a doorway covered with a ruby red beaded curtain. Harry pulls it to the side and steps through first, pausing to hold the curtain back for you. You mutter a ‘thanks’ and step into a long hallway that extends to your right.

He releases the curtain, letting the beads crash together, before starting down the hallway.

Both walls are lined with floor to ceiling shelves full of cassette tapes, with each row of shelving just tall enough to fit their size. There’s so much packed in this long stretch of narrow space, like a condensed, fluorescent-lit cornucopia.

“I had no idea all of this was back here,” you comment, slightly dumbfounded that you probably would have overlooked this hallway entirely if it hadn’t been pointed out to you.

“Yeah, lots of people think it’s off limits because of the curtain. I need to put some signs up or something.”

As you’re walking behind Harry, you realize you were too distracted before to see print on the back of his shirt, let alone make out what it said. Bold purple font reads ‘MY MIND IS UP ON THE MOUNTAINS’ with a smaller font at the bottom that reads ‘(and i didn’t even have to climb)’. The words are surrounded by a sun, a few flowers, a picture of a mountain, and two mushrooms on the bottom.

A smirk creeps onto the corner of your mouth at how incredibly on the nose it seems for him. It makes you wonder if anyone here knows about his other job, or if he’s hiding in plain sight.

Once you’re both about a third of the way down the hallway, there’s a gap in the shelves on the right filled by a nondescript doorway.

“Here we are.” Harry stops and reaches on the other side of the doorway to flip the light switch before stepping back and gesturing for you to walk in first.

You step into a small room. It only contains two long folding tables pushed against opposite walls. Rather than fancy, neat shelves, the records here are stored in milk crates and cardboard boxes lined up on the tops of the tables. It almost looks like you’ve come across a garage sale.

You furrow your eyebrows and purse your lips to the side as you walk up to the first box at the end of the table closest to the door. When you reach in, Harry speaks up.

“I could help you look for a bit, if you want.”

Harry’s now leaning against the doorframe, running a hand against his jaw. Do you see a slight tinge of pink creeping onto his cheeks as well?

“I don’t really have anything better to do. Plus this section... isn’t really organized,” he continues.

You bring your attention back to the box in front of you, a sharp breath escaping your nose when you turn the Johnny Cash record back to reveal a Mozart one behind it. “I can see that.”

“But if you want to look around by yourself I understand, I can leave you to it,” he says, already slightly backing up into the hallway.

“No, I wouldn’t mind the company. You could take that table and I’ll take this one?” Your own words surprise you as you’re speaking them. Moments ago you had been dreading crossing paths with him again, but now that you’re having a moment that feels comfortable, you find yourself wanting him to stick around longer.

A curiosity is growing in your mind, wondering if Harry is feeling the same way, if that’s why he offered to help, if that’s why he slowly joins you in the room and mirrors your position at the table behind you so you’re not standing back to back.

You both search through the crates without a word, only the faint sound of the music from the front room coming down the hallway. Meanwhile, your thoughts are going back and forth between Jenny insisting that this man likes you and talking yourself out of that idea, insisting that he’s simply being nice, doing his job.

“How have you been?”

The question catches you off guard, taking a moment to realize that he’s actually said it out loud. “Um. I’ve been good. Nothing exciting going on, just working a lot. You?”

“I’m alright, thanks. I’ve been working a lot too. Where do you work? Don’t think I’ve asked you.”

“Do you ever listen to KIIS-FM?”

“Yes?” He responds, possibly thinking that you’re trying to shift the subject.

You smile to yourself, “You’re welcome. I’m a sound engineer there.”

“Oh shit,” he says enthusiastically. “That’s really cool. Do you like it?”

Briefly turning to look at him, your smile grows wider when you read the interest and excitement on his face. An expression you’re seeing for the first time in him, and it's because of something about you. Your heart flutters and you turn back to your table.

“Most days, I do. It can be a real dick fest sometimes though. Not in a good way.”

Despite mumbling the last sentence, Harry seems to still pick it up.

He barks out a laugh. You turn, eyes wide, to see his shoulders shaking and him covering his mouth with his hand.

When he turns back to you, clearly making a lot of effort to compose himself, he places his hand over his heart. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Oh yeah, the way you laughed really convinced me,” you lightheartedly roll your eyes.

“No it’s just… the way you said it was really funny,” he says, chuckling through his words. He continues, “So you studied engineering at UCLA then?”

Your eyebrows crease as his words hang in the air. You guess it’s not wild to assume that people who live in L.A. have attended UCLA. However, since you’ve never mentioned any kind of schooling to Harry, you can only gather that he’s making that assumption from the UCLA t-shirt you were wearing when he showed up at your house.

“I thought I remembered Jenny mentioning that you both went there.” His tone is cautious now, hesitant even. Like he’s picked up on his own blunder.

You decide to brush over it and simply nod, “Yeah, that’s how we met, actually.”

You return to looking through the crate in front of you. You gasp when you see the familiar red cover of the album you’re looking for.

You feel Harry turn around behind you. “Find it?”

You pull it from the crate. The bold red cover with a blue-grey circle in the middle, running your finger over the lines and arrows creating rings around it with a few stars placed here and there. You turn to smile at Harry, holding up the record in place of an answer, too excited to form words. The paper dust liner crinkles as you slide the plastic disc from the sleeve. Holding it by the edges, you tilt it to the left, to the right, and hold it up closer to the light to inspect it. Your shoulders visibly fall when you spot a long scratch running from the middle to the edge.

“Oh no,” you whisper, bringing the record closer to your face. You lightly run your finger over the scratch. It doesn’t feel rough, you actually can’t feel it at all. A fraction of hope is restored knowing that the scratch isn’t too deep into the grooves. However, there’s no way to know if it’s unplayable unless you actually try to play it.

Harry seems to read your mind. “You could test it out on the player up front if you want.”

“Really?” You spin around, seeming to shock him judging by the way his upper body slightly jerks back. “I mean-- I would appreciate that. If it’s not too much--”

He shakes his head, “It’s not a problem.” He walks toward the door where he waits for you to gather everything up.

The front of the store quiet once you both emerge from the other side of the curtain.

“I liked your choice of work music, by the way,” you say once you’ve both made it back to the counter, hugging your record to your chest.

“Oh yeah, Maggot Brain. S’ a fun album.”

You lean forward to rest your forearms against the smooth wood of the counter, waiting while he takes the record off the player to make room for yours. “Do you listen to a lot of funk music?”

“I do. I’ve never really understood why some people aren’t into it. What’s not to love, right?”

“Exactly! My coworker showed me this album and I think it’s one of my favorites now. It was recorded by this group of high school students in seventy two. They won some studio time in a contest or something and they really made the most of it.”

“Hm. M’ excited to listen to it now.” He stretches his hand out, “I’ll take that.”

You hand over the album. “Could you start it on track two? I think that’s my favorite one.”

“Sure.” He places the record on the player and carefully moves the needle in place.

A warm feeling washes over you when you hear the familiar soft guitar and drum beat at the beginning of the song. You both stand in place as the bass line comes in and all of the instruments’ parts crescendo.

Once the beat drops and the main guitar comes in, Harry turns to you with raised eyebrows and an impressed smile.

“Amazing, right?” you ask through a chuckle.

“It’s really good.”

“I know! And I don’t notice the scratch at all. It sounds perfect.”

“S’ exciting. I’m glad you found it.”

He walks over to where you are and starts to inspect the sleeve, turning it over to read the back. He adopts a similar position as you, forearms resting on the counter as he taps his fingers on his bicep to the beat of the song.

“That guitar part is amazing.”

He’s leaning close enough now that you can see a hint of stubble along his jawline and his upper lip. His cologne, a swirl of vanilla and something else you can’t quite put your finger on. He looks up when you don’t respond and you avert your eyes immediately.

“I think so too,” you mumble.

“I find it crazy how something really amazing can be right in front of you for so long and you never notice it or you just keep missing it.” A pause. “This has been in the back room for… I don’t even know how long, and I probably never would have listened to it if you hadn’t been looking for it.” Another brief pause as he scratches at his chin, seeming to be in deep thought. He shakes his head, “I don’t know. Maybe that’s weird, but I think about that kind of thing a lot.”

“I don’t think it’s weird. That can happen with… so many things, too.”

“Like people.”

His eyes quickly dance over your face. You swear they linger on your lips for a second before returning to meet your eyes.

“Like people,” you repeat. “And I think it is good to think about that stuff from time to time but… it can get overwhelming. Sometimes it could even distract you from the things you’re enjoying now.”

Your eyes do the same motions, glancing all over his face, lingering on his lips, and then back to his eyes. This feels extremely reminiscent of the night you were sitting outside of the Forum, when you were practically nose to nose after you had taken a whiff of his hair. You had been telling yourself that the gravitational pull you felt that night was solely induced by the shrooms. However, you seem to be feeling it again now as your eyes trace over the plane of his cheek, the tip of his nose, the arch of his lip.

A slight crease between his eyebrows slightly contradicts the almost tender look in his eyes. He opens his mouth like he’s about to speak.

Unfortunately he’s interrupted by the shrill ringing of the phone on the wall behind him.

You flinch at the sudden noise and Harry huffs in annoyance before clearing his throat into his fist.

He walks over to the player to turn the music down before answering the phone with a simple, clipped “Jupiter House.”

He covers the receiver with his hand and mouths ‘sorry’ to you before holding up a finger and going into the back room, closing the door until it's just cracked behind him.

You release a heavy sigh and rub your temples.

After a short conversation, Harry comes back and hangs up the phone.

“Sorry about that,” he mumbles, untangling the cord from his fingers. “Are you happy with this, then?” He asks, pointing to the record player.

“Uh- yes. Yes. I am.”

You go through the transaction in silence, watching the way Harry slides your record into a brown paper bag and the way he makes your change. At this moment, you’re wishing Harry came with a cartoon thought bubble over his head so you could know what he’s thinking right now. What exactly did he mean when he said ‘like people’? What was he about to say before he was interrupted?

He carefully folds and creases the paper, but instead of handing it over, he pauses, hands poised on the top of the bag.

“Sorry, I forgot something.” He opens the bag again and crouches down behind the counter.

“What--”

Before you can get your question out, his hand reaches into the glass case between you, hovering over the merchandise that you noticed when you first walked in. He picks out a button and a sticker. You hear them drop into the bag before he pops up from behind the counter.

“You didn’t have to--”

“I know.”

His smile and his voice are reassuring, absolving your confusion in a matter of seconds.

“Thanks for your help. It was nice running into you,” you smile, taking the bag and holding the record to your chest once again.

“Take care. I’ll see you around.” He smiles.

You back away from the counter and push open the door. The bell rings in your ears one last time.

*********************************************

thank you so much for reading!!

if you enjoyed part 2, please remember that reblogs and/or nice messages mean the world to fic writers. <3

you can find my masterlist here and my inbox here

-> STAY TUNED FOR PART 3 <-

#shroomrry #my writing #harry styles #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles x you #harry styles reader insert #harry styles x reader #harry styles fic #drugs tw #alcohol tw

290 notes · View notes

whumpasaurus101 · 3 years

Text

Five Past Three

Oki ik i said i was on a writing break but uhmmmmm feck that :) here is some Pheonix content BC THE POOR BEBE HAS BEEN NEGLECTED OMG!!! SO here is some backstory shenanigans that are sorta important to know heheh 👀

CW: drug use (not in too much detail but oc is high.) / i cant think of anything else BUT if i missed anything plz plz plzzzz lmk!!!!!

masterlist

Pheonix collapsed to the ground with a grunt. His whole body was tingling, almost numb. He felt as if everyone in the world was watching him. He lifted his head, no one.

The wind blew more, making Pheonix shiver.

He could still feel the pounding of the nightclub’s music in his head. Not the one he worked at, oh no no, he wouldn't get high at the place he worked at.

He scrambled in his pocket with numb fingers, trying his best to take out his phone. He tried to put in his passcode, 1-7-8-5, try again, 1-4-5-6, try again “FUCK!” Pheonix yelled, throwing his phone across the car park, hearing it crack against the concrete.

“Who’s there?” Came a voice. Pheonix curled up more in on himself. “Son, are you alright?” Phoenix's head snapped up to see an old man standing in front of him. His vision was shaking as he tried to focus in on the man. He could hear him talking but he couldn't understand! He sounded so far away, yet, he was just about a meter away.

“Hey -ah! Ya reak, boy! What did you take?!”

“Wh-what time is it?” Pheonix’s shaky voice asked. “It's five past three in the mornin’, lad. Now, are ya gonna answer my question?” Pheonix shook his head. No. To be fully honest, Pheonix didn’t know himself. He shouldn't have been so reckless! How did he even get in the carpark? He didn't remember walking here.

“This is dangerous! Someone coulda just picked you from the streets and- well, God knows what would happen! You're lucky I saw ya, lad.” His phone! That's what he was doing! “C-could you pass me my phone please, it-it's over there.” The man looked at him, confused at first before he saw the phone lying there. He strolled over and picked it up, studying the cracked screen.

The lock screen came on and the man could see some notifications. Ten missed calls from Sammy, a bunch of text messages from Sammy too and then just some regular notifications. “Well, it seems as if someone is worried about you, ya better call them back before they go absolutely mad lookin’ for ya, ay?”

Pheonix just held out his hand for the phone before asking again, “What time is it?” The man huffed, “Lad, you just asked, it's still five past three.” Pheonix’s eyebrows furrowed, “N-no, you told me that ages ago, th-the- I-”

“Shhh, it's alright, relax yourself.” He passed Pheonix’s phone over and pointed at the time, “See?” He asked in a gentle voice. Pheonix nodded as he saw the numbers through tear-filled eyes.

“I-I- yes, I’m sorry-” “Hey, no need. Now, how about you ring your friend there and we can sort out how we can get ya home. How does that sound?” Pheonix nodded as he tried to put in his passcode once more. His hands were shaking violently as his numb fingers attempted to key in the numbers. Please try again.

“Here, how about I’ll put it in for you and you can do the talking, aye?” Pheonix nodded, “The uh, the passcode is 1-4-5-2. The man put in the code and Pheonix’s phone unlocked. The man opened the phone app and pressed the contact ‘Sammy’. It only took one ring until Sammy’s desperate voice was heard, “Pheonix?!? Pheonix are you okay?! God I'm gonna kill you if I haven't already died from a heart attack!" Pheonix chuckled slowly, " ‘m okay Sammy. Well, kinda. Theres a uh,, a man with me.”

“WHAT?! PHEONIX PUT ME ON SPEAKER RIGHT NOW!”

“Ay, it's okay, he’s makin’ it sound a lot worse than it is,” The man chuckled. Pheonix laughed, almost falling from his sitting position. “It's alright, my name is Hudson Wheeler, I’ll share the location where we are now. I was walkin’ back to my car when I saw your friend here, someone must have roofied him.. Unless he took the drugs himself. Although, I haven't gotten much chat from him.”

Sammy’s breathing was heavy on the other line as he tried to decide whether to believe it. “Alright, alright, stay on the call and send me your location right now.” Hudson went into messages and selected the button to share the location, he waited for a moment before asking, “Have you got it?”

“Yeah, yeah. Jesus Christ, Pheonix. Alright, how long can you stay with him for, Hudson?”

“As long as you need. You know, I can bring him anywhere if you need me to?”

“No, no, sorry, but no. I- I’ll collect him but it might take me a little while.”

“That's alright. No worries, I have all the time in the world.” Sammy let out a sigh of relief, “Uhm, thank you. Thanks for helping him and I’m sorry I was salty at the start. He’s just, well we've had some bad experiences when it comes to this stuff in the past.”

“Hey, it's all good! You're a great friend.”

“See you sooooon Ssssssammmmyyyyy,” Pheonix laughed.

“Mhm… see you soon.”

Sammy hung up and Hudson looked at Pheonix, shaking his head and chuckled.

Sammy rushed out to the driveway of their house and quickly hopped into his car, keys, wallet, water, phone. That's everything, they thought. They quickly turned on the engine and reversed out of the driveway. They pulled up a map on their phone and followed the directions that came up on the screen.

They put the volume of the radio on full volume and drove. He knew he was driving over the speed limit but he had to get to his friend. They had to. Their foot pressed down on the excelerator more than intended but they didn't notice.

They didn't notice until police sirens started to blare. “No! SHIT!” They slammed the steering wheel with all his force, making their palms turn red. They thought about just speeding and avoiding the police, but he had enough things that they could get caught for than that.

They growled and pulled over, running a hand through their hair. A policeman came over and tapped on the window. Sammy blew out a huff of air and pulled down the window, “Hey officer.”

The officer shone a flashlight into the car, making Sammy wince and cover their eyes. “HEY! Hands up slowly, no sudden movements.” “I'm s-sorry officer!”

“It's alright, now, do you know why I pulled you over?” The officer’s thick Southern accent spoke. “I'm sorry, I was going way above the speed limit, I just- I wasn't thinking, I just-” “Hey, hey, hey, no need to get wound up now alright?” Sammy nodded. “Alright, and where are you going to?”

Sammy thought for a moment, they couldn't give away too much. Pheonix had taken drugs. The last thing Sammy would want is their friend to get arrested!! “I uhm, I'm just going to pick up my friend.” “Mhmm, alright. Listen, you seem like a good person, although I am quite curious why you're out this late, but listen. Drive slower and focus, got it?” Sammy nodded quickly, “Y-yes officer, thank you so much officer, I promise it won’t happen again.” The police officer chuckled slightly, “It's alright, safe drive.” “You too.”

The officer patted the window and smiled and Sammy drove off. Slow, slow, easy, calm, relax. They looked to the map, fifteen minutes.

Hudson looked over to Pheonix who was now lying on the ground, eyes wide as he looked up at night sky. Tears streamed down his face. “Hey now, why are you crying?” Pheonix licked his dry lips and shrugged. He could see streaks of pink and green in the sky, he guessed Hudson couldn't see them.

Hudson dug into his backpack, “Ah, I knew I had it!” He took out a water bottle, “Here, sit up.” He supported Pheonix’s back and helped him sit up. He brought the water bottle to Pheonix’s lips and gently tipped the water.

Pheonix was fully leaning against Hudson for support. He gulped the water quickly and whined as Hudson took the bottle away. “Hey, I cant have ya gettin sick alright?” Pheonix whined but nodded. He then turned his body with a groan and cuddled into Hudson as he shivered.

Hudson sighed as he looked at Pheonix, “What are ya doin’ to yourself, lad?” He shielded his eyes as bright lights suddenly shone. “Looks like your friend is here. Hey, wake up.” Hudson slowly stood up, carrying Pheonix by the shoulders with him.

Sammy rushed out of their car and dashed over to Pheonix, “Oh my god, Pheonix, you idiot! Here, can you help me get him into the car please?” “Of course.”

The pair guided Pheonix to the backseat and laid him across the back. Sammy closed the door and sighed. Hudson gave him a sympathetic smile. “Thank you, thank you so much.”

“Of course, my pleasure. I would tell you ways to help him sober up, but I'm guessing this isn't your first rodeo,” He chuckled slightly.

Sammy huffed, “No, can't say it is. But seriously, thank you. Listen, this is all I got but please take it,” Sammy handed a fifty dollar bill to Hudson. “No, hey, that's not necessary at all!”

“No, no, please take it.”

Hudson sighed and took it, “Thank you.”

“Can I give you a lift back home at all?” Hudson smiled, “Oh that's so kind, my car is actually only five minutes away but thank you.”

“Of course -no of course.”

“Well, you better get that laddo home, hm?” “Yes, yes. Thank you.”

Sammy got back into the driver’s seat and turned on the engine. They looked in the mirror and saw Pheonix asleep. They smiled and closed his eyes for a moment. No, no, get home and then sleep. They widened his eyes and put their hands back on the steering wheel.

The drive home was fine. Sammy didn't play the radio to ensure Pheonix could rest. They kept at the right speed too, they couldn't get pulled over again. They yawned and blinked hard for a few moments.

Once the car pulled into the driveway, Sammy helped Pheonix into their house. Pheonix groaned but Sammy ignored him, “Hey, none of that now. Cmon, let's get you to your room.”

They tucked Pheonix into the guest room’s bed and left a basin on the ground just incase. “Rest up,” they whispered. “G’niiiiiiiiiight,” Pheonix chuckled.

---

taglist: @as-a-matter-of-whump @jordanstrophe @milk-carton-whump @yesthisiswhump @kixngiggles @just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi @happy-whumper @thelazywitchphotographer

#Pheonix #Hudson #Sammy #tw: drugs #two caretakers #writing #my writing #whump writing #(not really whumpy though jkhfjkf)#backstory #also im really sorry if there are typosssssss

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nightlovechild · 4 years

Text

Mr. Rich-Man - Loceit

Warnings: Sugar Daddy/ Sugar Baby dynamics, Cat-fishing, seeking prostitution, talk of sex workers, alcohol use, rough handling/ rough play, semi-public sex, anal fingering, anal sex, hand job, spanking, breath play, payback, Human AU!

Summary: Being someone of Logan’s position in the world, he should be able to get what he wants, when he wants it. But when his long distance sugar baby once again breaks his heart in a million pieces, he learns that maybe what he needs, isn’t always what he was looking for. Lucky for him, Janus knows exactly how to help.

Notes: Huge Thank You to @crankywhenprovoked. She helped me rescue the beginning of this story from the utter chaos it was in. This story wouldn't exist if she hadn't been as awesome as she always is. Thank you my love!~

'Baby boy would come this time. He had to.’ Logan thought, shifting on his feet again, watching the walkway that was connected to the plane he was supposed to be on.

Logan’s long distance crush turned sugar baby had promised that if Logan fulfilled each item on his fantasy list, then he would be free to fulfill every one of his Sugar Daddy’s fantasies.

So Logan booked him a flight on the first available flight that he could, making sure that he had luggage and a ride to the airport. But as he watched the passengers come out and walk through the long tube to the terminal, he had slowly lost hope. When his watch had said 45 minutes had passed since the last person came through, his heart had shattered completely.

“Mr. Croft, will we be waiting much longer? If so, I’m going to need to extend the charges.”

Logan spared a side glance at the hired limo driver, before turning back to the plane on the tarmac. The person’s uniform made him look like a professional, but the tattoo’s peeking out from his collar and the multiple ear piercings said otherwise. Logan bet that this hoodlum was only using the limo driving as a cover for more seedy night practices.

Letting out a sigh as the flight crew was now exiting the plane, Logan nodded to himself, finally having to give up.

“Moving on to the next point on my itinerary, then.” Logan said, turning towards the limo, cocking his eyebrow after a second.

“Sorry, let me get that.” The driver hustled around the vehicle.

When the driver opened the limo door Logan climbed in without a thank you. Letting out a disgruntled huff as the door closed making the back of the limousine feel too big and too empty. Grabbing a small bottle from the mini bar Logan downed it without a care for the price.

Opening his eyes as the burning in his throat faded, Logan spotted the driver staring at him. He could see the pity there. He put the divider up as soon as the driver started to speak. That crooked smile told Logan everything. That the younger man knew exactly why a C.E.O of 500 fortune company had been waiting for two hours outside a private airstrip and it wasn't for a business deal.

As the limo flew through the city, the lights blurred the faces outside of Logan's expensive bubble. With every red light stop, Logan spotted couples making out or groping each other, people holding hands, or sharing dinner on restaurant patios. The quiet of the limo was pressing upon his awareness again, making his heart ache in his chest. He didn't want to face the night by himself again, he just couldn’t.

The driver smirked as the divider slowly lowered again, the older male's crestfallen face was replaced with something different. He was stoic, resolute, and seemingly completely fucking fine. Jay would bet a hundred dollars that the next sentence out this guy's mouth was going to be about finding a hooker.

"Driver, you know the inhabitants of this city pretty well, right?" Logan asked.

Ding ding we have a winner.

"Janus."

"Excuse me?"

"My name's Janus. And yes I know this city like the back of my hand. What do you need Mr. Rich-man?"

"I am not Mr. Richman, Janus. My name is Logan Croft. You have used it already. Don't you recall?"

The confusion on the older man's face was both slightly amusing, and quite adorable, making Jay fight not to smile. "My mistake, Mr. Croft. What would you like? The city is an open playground to someone of your caliber."

~☆~☆~☆~☆~

Jay burned through another contact and another corner as Mr. Croft rejected another line of sex workers. It was creeping past two in the morning when Logan dismissed the last possible escort. Ordering Janus to drive off after adjusting his glasses.

"One would presume in a city with such a wide array of individuals, I could locate at least one decent…"

"Look-a-like? One person with his face, his body shape, one man that if you squinted just right, you could hide how broken you feel that he didn't show up?" Jay ground his teeth after he finally let slip what had been building up for the past six hours.

"You are being compensated for your time. More than most would consider adequate in your field. You could even consider retiring early from your life of crime if you learn to bite your tongue." Logan bit back, leaning forward in his plush leather seat.

Janus turned down a side street, parking in the shadow of a building.

"You know what? That's it. I'm solving both of our problems." Janus growled, getting out of the driver's seat. The limo rocked when Jay slammed the door shut. It rocked again as he threw open the trunk lid.

Logan snapped up another bottle from the mini bar and pounded it. He could hear the driver cursing and moving behind the limo. Turning his head Logan scrutinized what the delinquent was doing. Logan couldn't see much through the tinted windows and raised trunk lid. So he slid over and opened the door. Only for the door to be yanked out of his hand. He couldn't stop from moaning out loud at the suddenly drastic change in the driver's look. Thin yellow tank top, plaid kilt cut above his knees, and more tattoos then he knew one person could have.

"I'll be with you in a moment, Mr. Croft. You stay in there and be good for once in your fucking life." Janus glared at Logan until the CEO retreated back then flung the door shut, stalking back to the trunk.

With all of his piercings back in and throwing his patched denim vest on Janus closed the lid with new vigor. Janus felt a million times more confident in his own clothing instead of that monkey suit. Recalling the look on Logan's face changing was going to benefit them both greatly. Opening the back door, Janus climbed in with practiced ease. Leaving his 'the customer is always right' mentality on the pavement.

Logan fumbled and stuttered while trying to aid this crazy man's mission to mount his lap. More tattoos caught Logan's eyes as Janus' kilt rode high as he got comfortable.

"Instead of searching the city for a copy that will leave you hallowed out, you need a complete opposite of your type. Which from all the college twinks I saw you selecting and dismissing, I'm as far from your normal as it gets, aren’t I?" Janus said. Pinning Logan in place by grasping the leather seat-back on either side of his head. With his jaw set, Janus waited for an answer.

"I think...I mean..umm." Logan was at a loss for words as he took in all the changes that brought him to this place. His hands didn't know where to be, what he could touch so his hands were ghosting over the warm thighs that were pressing him into his seat.

"Unlike your no-show you can fondle me all you like."

Logan's hands connected with the plaid and patched fabric. The electricity they generated made Logan finally give up his posturing. Pulling Janus closer, their lips connecting. The slight metal taste from Janus' lip rings gave life to thoughts about bad boys and how you shouldn't trust them. But as the other man's tongue pushed past his lips, Logan let his own body guide his actions.

Deepening the kiss, Janus loosen Logan's tie, working the button down open in record time and speed. Grunting as he pulled and tugged Logan's shirt tails free. Hands splaying cross freshly exposed flesh.

"Your heart's pounding. When was the last time Mr. No-show made you feel this? Or even this?" Janus sighed, pressing his forehead to Logan's as he ground his ass down on Logan's crotch.

"N-nnever. Only acquired broken promises. Never can have what I truly want."

"What do you want then? In your dark little heart, huh? Do you want to fuck my tight punk ass while I ride you and come on your chest or do you want me to throw you to the floor of this expensive limo and defile you until your shaking and coming all over yourself?"

Logan nodded quickly wanting it all, both, anything that kept all of this attention, he has been deprived of for so long, coming his way. The only certain thing was Logan's core ached with need.

"Need your words Mr. Rich-man. Consent makes me hard. Don't you want me rock solid hard too? Just like I'm making you?" Janus' hands shifted to Logan's throat and up into his hair. Rings clinking together when his grip tightened. Forcing Logan to lock eyes as he swiveled his hips as he ground down on Logan's lap.

"Make me forget his existence."

"Floor it is."

Janus flipped their positioning with a martial artist's dexterity. It stole Logan's breath when his back hit the carpet, but Janus cradled Logan's head. Quick hands deposed of the Armani suit and the Gucci under things. Janus leaned back on his knees as he reached over and opened a compartment of the mini bar. Pulling out a condom, lube and a remote. Hitting a switch, music started flowing through hidden speakers. Lights shifting from the dome overheads to neon blue strips placed under the seats and in the ceiling.

"That was too smooth. Fuck all of your customers back here? Is that why you know so many prostitutes?" Logan asked, spreading his legs open. Resting his feet on each one of the bench seats. Shimmying his fully displayed body as his own hands caressed over his stomach and down to his hard cock.

"The only smoothness I'm worried about is this." Janus smirked as he placed two lubricated finger tips against Logan's hole. Leaning forward, Janus placed his hand next to Logan's head, whispering into Logan's other ear as he worked Logan open. "Bet you're going to be the softest thing once I get you properly fucked. Mhmm. Going to want me to cuddle up to you even."

Logan whimpered at the hidden truth. His day to day life never let him relax, so his neediness surfaced the most when he was vulnerable. Logan didn't want to fight or be tough as a warm slick finger worked its way into his body.

"Hit a nerve of truth? Not going to fess up? Don't lie. I always know when someone is lying to me. Especially, when I'm knuckles deep in their tight sweet… still no? Well, I could stop and leave you like this."

Logan's sounds expressed no as his head unconsciously nodded. Logan always had a hard time advocating for his own pleasure.

"Don't worry, I don't leave my customers unsatisfied." Janus locked their lips with that promise.

Grinding together, trading biting kisses as Logan took one finger then two and finally three. He was panting and whining as he thrusted himself down on Janus' fingers.

"I'm good. So ready, need your cock. Please, just fucking need to be spread wide. Need the real thing." Logan begged.

Sitting up Janus tugged off his vest and tank top, wiping his hand clean on the yellow fabric before he undid the buttons at his waist and tugged the kilt over his head.

"Keep talking. Love hearing those dirty words come out of the mouth of such a prestigious man." Janus growled as he opened the condom, placing a drop of lube into the tip as he rolled it down and into place.

Logan couldn't stop staring at the tattooed god above him, stroking his wrapped cock with extra lube. The feeling that Janus drew out of him made Logan think of one thing.

"Punish me. Punish me for wasting our time together. Idiotically looking for other whores. When I know now I wanted to be the whore. Should have let you bend me right over the trunk lid on the tarmac. Fucking my tight ass with your huge cock. Holding my head down against the shiny metal as you choked me into coming across the license plate."

"Fuck yes." Janus growled as he lined up and pushed deep. A chill ran up his spine as Logan's ass squeezed around him. Pulling out to just the tip and pushing back in again trying to get the best angle. Finding it when Logan yelped and jerked on his cock. Batting his hands away, Janus tugged Logan's legs together placing them over his shoulder. The highlight of this position was Logan's poor cock was strategically trapped in between his own thighs. Janus smirked, locking in his hold. Fucking and thrusting into Logan at an ever increasing pace. Janus let each sound out, vocally teasing Logan.

Unable to stroke himself into climaxing immediately, Logan pressed his hands into the base of the seats. Trying to stay in position and avoid slipping away from this toe curling feeling.

Janus let his free hand switch in between spanking Logan's ass to gently rubbing over the top of Logan's trapped cock. Enjoying each moan and whimper he could draw out of this needy man.

Feeling the familiar building pressure as his balls were drawing up. Janus opened Logan's legs, grasping Logan's throbbing cock and began stroking it as he leaned forward.

"Can't choke you into coming like you want. But, I want you to hold your breath for me. Do you want to do that?"

Logan took the biggest breath of his life and bit his lips as he closed his eyes. Heart pounding in his still chest as Janus continued fucking him so good.

"Don't you breathe. Don't think of the burning in your chest as I pound your ass. Most perfect ass. Are you going to pass out or are you going to come like you're dying? Like it's the last load you'll ever shoot from your beautiful cock. Not one breath."

Logan couldn't take anymore as his orgasm hit him full force. Screaming out after he pulled in precious oxygen. Shooting arc after arc as Janus fell over the edge at the sight.

Shakily Janus rolled his hips to ride out his total pleasure, only pulling out when Logan's hands pushed against his stomach with little pleas of too much.

Needing to properly sit down Janus got up into the seat that not too long ago the professional was occupying. But now, stripped of his pricey threads and thoroughly fucked out, he was an exquisite plaything shaking and covered in his own desire.

"See, no customer left unsatisfied."

"Daddy."

"What?" Janus was confused at the use of the title.

"Not your customer anymore, sugar baby. You call me Daddy, or Lo or anything you want. I'm stating I'm not disposable like a customer is." Logan said as he sat up, reaching out for the other.

Awkwardly, they got Logan off the floor and into Janus' lap. Janus wiping Logan clean with the reverse side of his tank top as he was at loss for words.

"That is if you want. Nothing is verbally binding." Logan started to slip off of the other man's lap. Realizing his words were rash and uncalled for. Janus' arms wrapped around Logan's bare stomach.

"Don't leave yet. Want you close… But It's a bit too much of a commitment after a single fucking, yet I don't hate the idea either. How about we talk about it?"

"Over a very late dinner and a nice glass of wine?" Logan smiled, correcting his glasses.

"I would love to but I think every place is closed."

"Not when you own the restaurant and know the cook gets up super early anyway." Logan admitted as he grabbed his shirt, putting it on with a hopeful look.

"As long as we aren't going to be imposing like some entitled pricks on this cook."

"Jay, if I may, you have to start getting used to the finer things in life."

~☆~☆~☆~☆~

One month later Janus was drying off with a hundred percent Egyptian cotton towel in a penthouse loft. The steam rolled out around him as he stepped back into the bedroom. Janus grabbed his phone out of habit trying to set alarms for jobs that he didn't have. Well, not since his Sugar Daddy gave him an allowance that was more than his two regular jobs and his handful of under the table jobs could ever pay him.

Looking over, Janus felt grateful for the sleeping man and all he happily shared with him. Stepping over to Lo's side of the bed he grabbed Logan's phone to disable any alarms so they could both sleep in on Logan's day off.

When the iPhone screen lit up, Janus saw the unread message from 'Baby Boy'. Clicking on it, Janus' lip raised in disgust.

'Hi, Daddy. Sorry I missed the flight, my sister got into a car accident. It's really bad. The hospital needs a down payment before they can start her surgery. Can you wire me $15,000 dollars. I know it's a lot, but you love me right?'

Janus clicked the camera on, selecting the low light setting to avoid the bright light, and hit record. Slowly panning up Logan's sleeping body then kept the camera on Lo's handsome face as he climbed into bed. Maneuvering Logan's arm over his chest made Logan cuddle up against him, then Janus let his face show. Smiling wide he started to talk, but Logan's sleepy voice stopped him.

"Love you Jay."

"Love you too, Daddy. Go back to sleep okay."

Logan mumbled something as he tucked his face against the side of Janus' arm, going back to sleep.

Janus looked back at the camera, still running, stuck his tongue out and flipped the bird then hit send. Waiting for the little dots to start bouncing Janus blocked the number, deleted the messages and changed the name. Forever burying it in Logan's vast business contacts.

Janus stuck the phone under Logan's pillow since he couldn't get out of bed and snuggled up tight. Vowing to forever protect his Daddy from assholes that only saw him as a rich man.

#not safe for sanders #loceit

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tehyunqs · 4 years

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𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

LATE NIGHT CONFESSIONS a lonely teenage girl, who’s in search of comfort and closure, confesses her troubles to the guy who just broke into her house.

a min yoongi oneshot.

"oh my god, yes!" you cheered at your television, jumping up slightly from your comfortable position on your bed. "olivia benson, you've done it again! i love you!" you couldn't help the huge grin that plastered itself onto your face when the detective uncovered the 20-year-old unsolved murder case, and rushed to arrest the culprit before he could escape to jamaica.

this was how you usually spent your summer vacation. you sleep at the time you usually wake up for school, which is around 6 am, watching and re-watching episodes of law and order: svu, and wake up at the time you arrive home from school.

you followed the same routine everyday. wake up at 2 p.m., clean the house, eat, and go to sleep at 6 a.m.

you would be lying if you said you weren't desperate to run out into the woods behind tour house in search of an adventure. anything that didn't force you to clean this darn house everyday, putting up with your mother's constant screams and insults.

you picked up your remote control and clicked a few buttons to select a new episode, reaching into your bag of chips only to find it empty.

realizing you'd have to abandon the comforts of your bed to get more food from downstairs, you groaned in frustration, and put on your slippers before heading towards the kitchen.

you rummaged through the cabinets in search of something that would satisfy your needs, finally deciding on a pack of cookies and the box of your favorite cap'n crunch cereal.

when you finally settled on the kitchen table, you held up the spoonful of cereal up to your mouth, but before you could take a bite, a strange shuffling that came from the living room caught your attention. you froze in your spot, blood running cold at the noises, afraid you were just moments away from encountering the dead woman your mother and relatives had warned you about.

your mind began to look for other possibilities in order to keep your composure, but when it couldn't, you thought about what you had done recently to deserve her haunting.

of course you had talked back to your parents, insulted your siblings, and lied about who had eaten the last forbidden brownie that was supposed to be for your father, blaming it in your little sister when it had actually been you, but you kept telling yourself you were innocent. as if the freaky woman could read your mind or better yet; believe you.

the sudden noise of heavy footsteps then filled your ears, and you were about to make a run for the backyard door to receive your dog's protection when whoever or whatever it was giving you goosebumps suddenly came into your view. and it was definitely not a creepy woman dressed in white with long black hair covering half of her face.

with the spoonful of cereal still near you mouth, you stared wide eyed at the stranger, who looked no older than 20, before you, mouth hanging open at the surprising reveal. he appeared to be just as shocked as you when he stopped dead in his tracks obviously not expecting anybody to be awake at three-in-the-morning, and certainly not eating in the kitchen.

you both stared at each other for a good two minutes before you decided to break the uneasy tension. "uh. . . . what are you doing in my house?" your arm was beginning to sting from prolonged period of time it was spending in the air, but you could barely feel the forming pain.

he stayed silent for a couple of minutes, trying to think of any other reason than for the one he was actually here for, but obviously came up with nothing convincing. "um. . . . robbing your house. . . ?"

his awkward and nervous tone gave away the fact that this was definitely his first rodeo. his stance and innocent face wasn't threatening to you, so instead of running for help, you kept your curious gaze on him while slowly inching the spoon closer to your mouth, chewing on the soggy cereal that had been patiently waiting to be devoured for a good ten minutes.

your mind was blank of any sarcastic responses, so you did what you did best; stood silent while making your opponent uncomfortable under your burning stare. this was a superpower your mother kindly passed on to you, but you had to admit hers was much more deadlier than yours.

when he nervously reached into his waistband and pulled out a gun, you instantly knew your superpower had once again succeeded. your hands immediately flew into the air in surrender, eyes wide when you realized someone was literally pointing a gun at you.

"woah, dude, hold on." you began. "i'm sixteen-years-old, literally half your size! what am i gonna do? jump on your leg and bite it?"

yoongi, the unknown man to you, realized you were right. but instead of surrendering, he ordered you to shut up and sit on the kitchen floor right by the sink. "alright, do whatever you want with me, just don't hurt my family."

"i'm not gonna do anything to you or hurt your family." he grimaced, feeling slightly offended you suggested he'd be capable of harming a teenage girl and her family.

you raised your brows at him and nodded slightly, watching as he placed his only weapon on the kitchen island, at your arms reach by the way, and began to rudely rummage through your living room. you guessed he was looking for valuable things to resell or pawn. your eyes would glance at the gun every so often and you contemplated on whether or not to pull it on hum, but he was honestly too cute, so you didn't.

"hey, what's your name?"

you expected him to completely ignore you, but was proven wrong when you heard his deep voice. "yoongi."

"cool, i'm (y/n)."

"don't care."

"nice."

a few minutes that consisted of you drumming your fingers against the floor tiles, your occasional humming or whistling, and yoongi shushing you went by, and you honestly had never been so bored in your entire sixteen years of existence. and you once had to sit through mrs. smith's 3-hour-long algebra two lecture.

"you're not a professional robber, are you?" you questioned the man, who was currently occupied with your father's macbook.

"of course i am." he spat back, which made you tilt your head in confusion.

"really?" you pursed your plump lips. "because you're not even wearing a mask or gloves. which would be at the top of my list if i were to plan out a robbery."

he ripped his gaze from the laptop to glare at you. "shut up."

"i'm just sayin'." you raised your arms up in defense. you almost laughed when you saw his reaction, but managed to keep your composure. "i'd probably be a better robber than you."

fed up with your constant talking, he slammed the laptop shut and picked it up before walking over to you. "oh, yeah? how?" he challenged.

"well, for starters, i'd wear a mask and gloves, so if you were to get caught, they wouldn't be able to identify you. and you wouldn't leave any evidence at the crime scene." you held up your hands so that your palms were facing him. "like your fingerprints."

when he didn't respond, you glanced at his naked hand resting against your kitchen counter and nodded towards it. he followed your gaze and quickly removed it, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"i also wouldn't leave your only weapon right next to your hostage, who's, by the way, untied!" your hands formed two fists as you held them up sarcastically in the air, his eyes slowly narrowing at your annoying. but good explanation.

"oh, and last but not least, i wouldn't stand in full view of a security camera." you couldn't help but burst out laughing when his eyes widened and he quickly ducked as if he would no longer be recorded.

"pfft, i'm kidding. there is no security camera." you chuckled when he glared at you.

"no, wait, i'm not kidding, it's right there." you pointed towards the top of your fridge as his eyes followed your finger. "i don't think it works though. it's been like two years since i saw the alarm guys come up here."

yoongi sighed and stood up from his hiding spot. "you're a real piece of work, kid, you know that?" you hummed in response while shrugging your shoulders.

"i try." you weakly responded back.

you slightly tensed when he sat down next to you, but quickly relaxed.

"truth is," he began with a sigh. "this is my first time doing something like this. i've never even stolen as much as a candy bar from the store."

"and what made you take this drastic step?"

"desperation, i guess." he raised a hand in the air to run it through his mint colored hair before letting it fall down to his lap. "my sister is sick and i can't afford half her medications. i've looked endlessly for jobs, but it's always a dead end."

your eyes widened at his words, wondering if he actually meant to share this with you.

"well, i know that it's hard, but you need to keep trying." you glanced over at the vulnerable boy. "get out there and keep looking for a job so that you earn your money honorably. because although i don't know you at all, i do know that you'll regret it if you go through with this, and earn your money this way."

yoongi turned to look over at you and was about to ope his mouth when the sound of someone coming down the stairs interrupted him. you shot up and grabbed him by the air, quickly shoving him inside of the downstairs bathroom despite his protests. "shut up! do you wanna go to jail?" you angrily whispered, slamming the door close before he could respond.

you walked towards the table and sat down, acting as if you hadn't just formed a weird bond with the guy who had just broken into your house, and shoved him into the downstairs bathroom. you stared at your melted cereal, anxiously waiting for your mom to appear. you had learned to distinct your mother's footsteps from your father's. they sounded the same to everyone else, but you were the only one who could tell the slight difference.

"(y/n), what are you doing?" you looked up at the sound of your mother's voice and smiled slightly at her.

"eating."

"of course." she shook her head, reaching into the fridge for a water bottle. "keep sneaking into the kitchen at four a.m, and you'll end up rolling across the street like your cousin johanna. you're almost there." normally you would be unaffected by her words, but the fact that yoongi could hear her made you cringe.

"love you too, mom." you responded sarcastically. you wanted to let her know you could give a rat's ass about the way she talked to you, but it completely slipped through her mind.

she ignored you, choosing to take a sip from her bottle before placing it on the kitchen counter. the same spot that yoongi had left his fingerprints on.

"i have to go to the bathroom." she announced.

"no!" you immediately shot up from your seat, causing her to stop and turn to look at you. "um, it's clogged. sorry, i went in there."

your mother sighed and placed her middle and pointer fingers on either side of her temples. "god, (y/n), you can't even go to the bathroom without messing something up."

you pursed your lips at her, slightly raising your arms up in defense. "couldn't help myself."

"just go to sleep, okay? i have to leave earlier than expected tomorrow--today, and i want this house clean before i come back."

you slowly nodded at her. you could feel your palms begin to sweat anxiously, afraid yoongi might make a noise, and force your mother to investigate, which would then result in him sitting in the back of a flashing car, and you grounded for the rest of your life.

"your father is not going to be happy about that clogged toilet."

you tilted your head to the side, smiling at her. "i'll send him my regards."

your mother rolled her eyes at you before finally leaving. you waited until you heard her door slam shut to shove yoongi out of the bathroom.

"does she always talk to you like that?"

you waved a hand in front of him dismissively. "yeah, but it's whatever. i'm used to it."

"it's not whatever." yoongi pushed, much to your dismay. "you might be her kid, but she needs to respect you."

you both walked back to the kitchen, sitting down near the kitchen seat where you once were. you sighed, turning so that your whole body was facing him.

"there's no way that's gonna get through her thick skull. her's or my dad's! it's just—" you sighed, taking a break before continuing. "i don't understand! you have no idea how hard i tried my best to please them. i—i tried doing everything like they wanted. but no matter how hard i tried, it was never enough."

"so you just gave up." yoongi finished for you. you nodded your head, looking down at the ground when you felt tears beginning to build up in your eyes, but you did your best to contain them.

"yeah, 'cause what's the point? they tell me that i'm never gonna go anything or anyone in life, and i—" you quickly stopped yourself once you processed the words that were about to come out of your mouth, finally realizing what's been holding you back these past couple of years.

"you what?"

"i guess i believed them."

you and yoongi talked for hours in the comforts of each other's presence. it wasn't until you saw the daylight beginning to peak in through the blinds that you knew this comforting conversation would need to come to a stop.

"my mom's about to get up. you need to go."

yoongi nodded, heading towards the front door, but you stopped him, alerting him about the alarm system that goes off every time someone opens the door. you pointed towards the window he had originally broken into, causing him to blush a crimson red in apology.

"wait, aren't you gonna take anything?" you questioned in confusion.

he shook his head, smiling down at you. "nah, you're too nice."

before he could finally climb out through the window, he turned back to look at you. "are you gonna call the cops on me?"

you tilted your head to the side and placed a finger against yourself chin, pretending to think before dropping the act. "nah, you're too nice."

"but, hey! if i see your face on the news, i won't hesitate to visit you in prison, and beat you up!"

yoongi chuckled and shook his head. "don't worry about it, kid. this is the last time i pull something like this."

with that, he sent you one last smile before finally heading down the road, in search of a new more honorable path.

for years, you hadn't heard from yoongi again, and you'd be lying if you said you never thought of him again, wondering if he had managed to keep his promise.

but one night as you relaxed on your day off from constantly saving lives at your local hospital, you bumped into a familiar man, who just couldn't wait to tell you about the successful business he started one week after he broke into your house all those years ago.

masterlist

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bleachanimefan1 · 3 years

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Turtles Forever Part 68

Mission Of Gravity

A helicopter flew into a base. Hun, Stockman, Karai, and Saki stepped out of the copter and Dr. Chaplin walked over to them.

"Dr. Chaplin," Saki spoke. "I trust what you have to show me will justify the excursion from the city?"

"Believe me, Master," Chaplin answered. "You're gonna to dig it big time." They entered the base, walking inside of it. Inside, was a giant blimp.

"You brought us all the way out here for a blimp? What pea-brained half-wit authorized this project?" Stockman asked, in disbelief.

"I did," Saki answered, narrowing his eyes. Stockman turns to him, nervously.

"Oh! Well, I'm sure you have your reasons, oh wise and revered master," he replied.

"Indeed," Saki answered. He turned to Chaplin. "Excellent work, Dr. Chaplin."

"I installed that Triceraton force field override mechanism that you recovered, just as you requested, sir," Dr. Chaplin said as they began to walk. "This baby will breach the atmospheric shield around Beijing and retrieve desired cargo, no problem!"

"And just what does this boy genius thinks he's retrieving?" Stockman questioned.

"A Triceraton anti-gravity generator," Saki answered, smirking.

"But Master," Stockman pointed out. "removing an antigrav generator from a city floating 20 miles above the Earth's surface is a virtual suicide mission!"

"Yes, that is why I have selected you for this operation," Saki answered.

"Me?" Stockman answered, nervously. Karai walked up to her father.

"But, master, what if the millions of innocents that will perish when Beijing comes crashing to Earth?" She questioned, wondering.

"They are of no concern to me," he said her.

"How dare you question the master?" Hun scolded Karai. "I am behind this plan 100 percent."

"Good," Sami replied. "You will have the honor of accompanying Dr. Stockman on this extremely dangerous mission."

Hun's mouth dropped in shock. Karai stared at the group, silence. She was internally debating herself on what to do. If she let her father's plan proceed, innocents will suffer. But, she couldn't go against her father's wishes. However, maybe there was several people who can...

The three brothers and four girls follow Raph as they jumped across the rooftops. Through the night vision goggles, that they were wearing, everyone saw some Foot collecting more alien tech.

"Here it is, just like told ya," Raph said. "another one of the Shredder's alien tech garbage picking goon squad."

"I wonder what he's collecting all this stuff for," Donnie murmured.

"Intergalactic hard sale?"Mikey joked. Raph smacked him on the back of the head with his hand. "Ow!"

Leo looked again with his night vision goggles. "Hm, no police security around this time around. Just be something really important buried down there if the Shredder doesn't want the authorities to knowing about it."

Suddenly, Donnie's shell cell ringed again. He answered it using his headset. "Hello?" Donnie groaned as he only heard static again.

"Oh, not that stupid fax call again," Raph groaned.

"Only this time, I came prepared with my palmtop to trace the signal," Donnie explained, pulling out his palmtop. As he did, a download message appeared on the screen. "Download in progress?" He asked, confused. "Impossible."

"Don, figure it out later," Leo told him. "we've got something much bigger moved here." Everyone looked and saw a giant Triceraton ship being lifted under the bridge.

"Whoa, a Triceraton supply ship?" Donnie asked.

"Let's take a closer look." Leo said.

Hun and Stockman were standing in the blimp's control room, complaining.

"All of our loyal service and this is the thanks we get?" Hun spats. "Pushed aside by the new blood."

"Perhaps, it's time we started pushing back," Stockman suggested. The two looked at the double doors as Chaplin came in.

"Hey, I just wanted to say, no matter how bad the Shredder treats you, I'm still honored to be working with the legendary Baxter Stockman...even if you are a freakish brain in a jar of your former self," He praised. Stockman frowned. "The truth is, I can't seeing someone I admired reduced to such a pathetic existence. So I've decided to put an end to your suffering," Chaplin begins to inch towards Stockman, who backs away in shock. Chaplin picks up Stockman's jar.

"Wait, what are you-no! W-What are you doing?!" He pressed on button and the hologram shuts off. Hun watched as Chaplin took Stockman away.

Everyone hid behind a tractor, looking around for scouts or any Foot ninjas. But, they saw that there weren't any around.

"Hey, no foot goons," Mikey pointed out.

"Where did they all go?" Donnie asked.

"I don't like it," Leo said. "Keep your eyes open."

They stopped in front of a ship. "You think they're in the ship?" Raph questioned.

"Only one way to find out," Leo said as they all walked in. They were carrying flashlights to help see.

"Nothing in here of any value to the Shredder," Donnie replied. Suddenly, the doors closed behind them. Everyone ran to the doors and started pounding on it, except Mikey.

"Nothing except us turtles and girls!" he exclaimed, nervously.

They tried to get the door to open, but it was closed shut. Then the lights suddenly turned on, a dark figure emerged from the shadows.

"Karai?" Leo questioned, taking off his goggles.

"We need to talk," She tells them.

"Talk to the sais, cause the ears ain't listening," Raph retorted, pulling out his sais.

"Raph, wait," Leo stops him. "Let's hear her out. She helped us last time remember?"

"And she tried to kill you the time before that, remember?" Yuuki reminded Leo.

"I apologize for the elaborate set up, but I knew of no other way to contact you," Karai explained. "I need your help."

Back on the blimp, Chaplin was still carrying Stockman as he walked up to a large robot body that was standing next to the elevator. Hun crossed his arms as he watched Chaplin took Stockman's brain from the jar, placing it into the robot. The hologram of Stockman turns back on.

"Release me at once, you-!" He paused, looking at his new body. "What the?"

"What do you think of your new bod?" Chaplin asked.

"I have limbs," Stockman laughed. "powerful limbs!"

"I figure you'll need them to survive the big mission," Chaplin said, proudly.

"Ah, yes, the mission," Stockman turned to the young scientist. "Pity that you'll be miss out on the maiden voyage of this incredible vessel of this ship that you designed and built with your own two hands. Not to mention witness firsthand as an entire city crashes down from the stratosphere!" He slammed his hands on the panel.

"Man, that'd be so cool," Chaplin said in awe.

"Yes," Stockman smirked, evilly. "Of course, you could decide to go behind the Shredder's back and join us, but that would be wrong, wouldn't it?"

"Hey,...what the boss doesn't know won't hurt him, right?" The young scientist asked, hesitantly. Hun rubs his chin in thought.

"True, and naturally, I would assume full responsibility for your well-being throughout the entire mission. After all, we wouldn't want you to call victim to some...unfortunate accident." Stockman said to him.

"And so if they remove the antigrav generator, they will be sending millions to their doom. I need you to prevent this from happening," Karai said as she finished explaining.

"So does this finally mean that you come to your senses and turn your back on the Shredder?" Leo questioned.

"I am duty-bound to serve the Shredder, as always," Karai told him. "I just...do not wish to see millions suffer."

"Even if we agree to help you, what's to stop the Shredder from coming back for the antigrav generator the next time? It's not we can shut it down," Donnie pointed out.

"Actually, I might be able to provide some assistance regarding that particular technical conundrum," a familiar voice answered, from Donnie's bag.

"Whoa, am I hear things?" Mikey said. "That sounded like Professor Honeycutt!"

Donnie opened his bag and pulled out his palmtop, revealing the professor on the screen. "Hello?"

"It IS Professor Honeycutt!" Donnie exclaimed as everyone leaned in.

"Professor, you're alive! No way!" Raph exclaimed in shock.

"It can't be," Leo shook his head in surprise. "We saw you sacrifice yourself." He took the palmtop. "You saved the world."

"Oh dear, I'm a afraid I don't remember that," the Fugitoid replied. "Thing last thing I was that I was on the rooftop with Donatello, broadcast a signal to make me invisible to the Triceratons. What I didn't tell you was that I also uploaded a back-up of my memory code into the satellite communications network, set to contact you in the event of my destruction. Which I'm assuming must have happened."

"So you were the one making those calls to my shell cell," Donnie concluded. "And the download, that was you sending your memory core into my palmtop."

"Well, most of it," the Fugitoid answered. "your hard drive was lacking capacity, so I had to forego some non-essential information."

Mikey the palmtop from Donnie's hand. "Who cares, professor? I'm just so happy to see you!"

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" the Fugitoid questioned, confused.

"Michelangelo," the palmtop beeps. "Mikey," the orange masked turtle received no response. "The Mikester," He still received no response. "Wait, so I'm non-essential information?"

"Anyway, I couldn't help overhearing you dilemma, Miss?" Mikey turned the professor to Karai.

"Karai," she bowed to him.

"With my knowledge of Triceraton technology, I should be able to assume control of the antigrav generator gently lowering the city of Beijing back to Earth," the Fugitoid explained. "In theory."

"Saving millions of lives in the process!" Leo exclaimed, taking the palmtop from Mikey. "That's brilliant, professor!"

"So are we to assume we have a deal?" Karai pondered.

"Deal," Leo answered. "Okay, now how do we get into Beijing?"

"Leave that to me."

As everyone began to leave, Yuuki turned back, looking at Karai. Leo noticed.

"You coming?" He asked.

"I will in a minute," Yuuki answered. "I need to have a little chat with our companion."Leo stared for a moment then followed after his brothers. Yuuki approached Karai as she was making a phone call.

"You got a minute?" She asked. Karai glanced over at her then hanged up.

"Yes, sure. What is it?" Karai asked.

"I just wanted to say one thing: If you put one foot out of line, do anything, and I mean anything, to hurt Leo or my family then you will have to answer to me," Yuuki threatened as she glared darkly. "It will be the last mistake that you will ever make, permanently." Karai stared at her in shock as she stepped back.

Yuuki silently walked away leaving the stunned woman in standing where she was.

The blimp was preparing to leave as cargo was being carried inside by a forklift. Karai stopped the driver as she instructed them to lower a large crate.

"What's in the crate, Karai?" Hun asked, curious. "And why are you suddenly joining this mission?"

"That is none of your concern," Karai told him. Hun growled as she walked away.

Chaplin and Stockman watched as several strange machines was being loaded onto the blimp. "What exactly is all of this?" Stockman demanded.

"Uh, uh, uh, that'd spoil the surprise," Chaplin answered, placing his hands on one of the strange cargo. The sun was starting to rise as the blimp took off.

"Hey, attention all hands, welcome to China," Chaplin announced on the speaker. "The floating city of Beijing is dead ahead. Pretty cool, huh?"

Karai sneaked quietly to the Cargo Bay, looking around until she saw the same box that she was keeping a close eye on. She tapped on it. "Stand by, we are approaching Beijing," she whispered. The four brothers and girls were inside, with hang gliders strapped to their backs.

"About time," Mikey said. "I really gotta go to the little turtle's room."

As the blimp advanced closer towards Beijing, Chaplin was steering it towards the sheild. "Activating force field override," He pressed a button and the blimp went right through the shield. Back in the Cargo Back, Hun had stalked Karai, realizing that she was up to something and saw her next to the box, talking to it.

"I knew you were up to something," He backs away and pressed a button on the wall with his elbow. "Oops. Happy landing, Karai." The floor suddenly opens underneath of Karai, along with the box, falling towards Beijing.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted Karai!" Raph shouted.

"We can argue later!" Leo said. "Everybody brace!" Leo kicked the crate open and everyone fell out. They pulled the lever on their hang gliders opening them. Donnie looks down and saw that Leo hadn't opened his glider yet.

"Leo!" Donnie called out. "What are you waiting for? Deploy!"

Leo catches Karai before she hit the ground. "Gotcha!" He opens his glider right before the two was about to hit the top of a building.

"We made it," Leo said in relief.

"Of course," Karai replied. "Now land, Leonardo. We have much work to do."

"Just about to touch Tiananmen Square," Chaplin reported. "Where's Karai?"

"She got bumped from the mission," Hun explained as he walked into the control room. "apparently, she had a little falling out with the organization."

An old man was driving a bike, that was attached to a wagon. He runs away as he sees Leo, along with the others as they land behind him.

"Hey, what was with the instant skydiving lesson?" Mikey demanded.

"It was an unforeseen event," Karai said, flipping her hair. "But, I have my suspicion as to who is responsible."

"You know what your problem is, lady?" Raph growled. "You can't decided whether you want to help us or kill us. Make up your mind already!" He pulls out his sais.

"Ditto!" Yuuki agreed, pulling out her fan. Leo stops them.

"Not now, guys. We're miles off target and we need to get to Tiananmen Square!" He tells them.

"Hey guys," Donnie called out, climbing into the wagon. "How about this? Low tech, but effective."

"Hop on, Karai," Leo suggested, only to find that she had vanished. "Karai?"

In Tiananmen square, there were Beijing soldiers guarding the antigrav generator. They spotted the blimp above them.

"Great, nobody warned us we'd be having an welcoming committee to contend with," Stockman commented.

"No sweat, doc," Chaplin said. "Time to unleash my surprise." He pressed a button and the strange cargo began to fall into the city of Beijing. The troops ran away as the strange contraptions began to open up revealing to be mousers, only bigger and more upgraded.

"Mousers version 2.0," Chaplin explained. One of the guards fired a laser, however, the mouser was not affected by it. "I took your basic concept and gave them a little upgrade. Cool, huh?"

Stockman scoffed. "Upgrade? More like a side grade,"

One of the mousers destroyed a search light. Another guard gasped and ran away as another search light was destroyed. Eventually, the mousers overran the guards sending them running. The robots chewed through the fence and the blimp stopped right above the generator. The crane locks on, with Chaplin on it. He jumps down and climbed down the ladder.

Mikey wheezed as he peddled the bike. "Integra...generator dead ahead,"

"Ready to work your magic, professor?" Donnie asked from his palmtop. Stockman sees the group from the blimp.

"What! How on Earth did those meddlesome freaks get here?!" he demanded.

"I got this one, Doctor Stockman," Chaplin offered. He turns on the voice control. "Mousers, attack!"

"Funny, Karai never mentioned anything about overgrown mousers!" Mikey exclaimed. Everyone jumped down from the wagon, bracing themselves.

"Nothing fancy, guys," Leo called out. "Just clear a path for Don and the professor!"

Leo jumps up, landing on a mouser's head before cutting it off. Donnie leaps and smacks a mouser with his staff. The mousers soon began to surround everyone. Chaplin looks down at them from above and starts to head back to the control panel. "Commencing shut down sequence. Get ready to haul me up when this baby rips free from the pavement."

Donnie jumps onto a mouser and managed to leap towards the generator. Chaplin chuckles at him. "You're too late, green guy," The generator starts to shake, to his surprise, then a blue light begins to emit from it.

"What the shell?!" Raph asked.

"That's not supposed to happen!" Chaplin panicked. The city was dropping at an fast rate, plummeting towards the Earth. Everyone screamed as they were lifted up, as well as the citizens, due to the gravity. The blimp shakes as Chaplin managed to get to the rope.

"Pull me up. We're gonna have to ditch it!"

"Oh, that's not all we're going to ditch, my boy," Stockman answered. He released the rope from the blimp and Chaplin fell back onto the tower. Stockman took the blimp, driving it away from the city. Everyone tried to steady themselves, with difficulty.

"Way too much free fall for one day," Mikey commented. Donnie hanged onto the generator opening his bag.

"Showtime, professor," the palmtop drifted up towards him. Donnie catches it and aims the palmtop at the control panel.

"Now, carefully regulated circuitry of the gravity flux capacitor should gradually decrease the decent at a rate of 12.6 phraxos per trigon," the city begins to float safely down and everybody lands on the ground.

"Yes!" Mikey cheered as he kisses the ground. "Back on solid ground."

"Unfortunately, so are they!" Raph exclaimed, pointing at the mousers as they land. Everyone began to fight with them as Chaplin lands safely in front of the tower.

"I'm alive!" he cheered. "I'm alive!" A mouser hits him on the back of the head and he falls to the ground, unconscious, groaning.

"How are we holding up?" Donnie asked.

"I'm afraid I'll have to divert power from the atmospheric shield," the Fugitoid explained. "Although, the wind resistance may work in our favor."

The wind starts to pick up as the turtles and girls fight the mousers. "As if we don't have enough problems," Leo groaned, as the mousers started to advance towards them. Suddenly, Karai flips, landing in front of them, fighting off two mousers.

"About time you showed up," Raph commented.

"I could not afford to be seen coming to your aid earlier," Karai started as she kicked a mouser. "If the Shredder were to find out..."

"Enough talk!" Leo shouted. "Let's do it!"

He jumps up and faced against to mousers. Mikey jumps up and climbs on one. "Yeeha!" he shouted. "Get along, little mousers!" he uses his nunchucks to steer the robot. A mouser was climbing up towards Donnie. He turns around getting ready to attack, but, Venus jumps up onto the generator and kicks the mouser off.

"Hurry up!" She called out. Donnie turned back to the control panel.

"The city's almost back on Terra firma," he said. Mikey looses control of the mouser he was riding and it throws him off into the fence. Two mousers began to advance towards him. Alopex notices and jumps in between them trying to fend the robots off, struggling. Two mousers, Leo was fighting against, slammed into him with their heads, knocking him to the ground. Raph tackles one and another robot grabs him and throws Raph to the ground. Mona and Yuuki both get knocked down as the robots pinned them down. Karai gets tackled by one as it pinned her to the ground.

"I hope you know what you're doing, professor!" Donnie exclaimed. The antigrav generator turns back on, frying the mousers. The city of Beijing began to slowly drift back down into place.

"That electromagnetic pulse should have burned out this device, while simultaneously nullifying those awful metal ruffians," the Fugitoid explained. Leo looked around, seeing the destroyed mousers.

"Then it is over," Karai said, starting to leave.

"Not until you walk away from the Shredder, Karai," Leo called out.

"You know I cannot do that," she told him. Leo places a hand on her shoulder turning her around.

"This is the perfect opportunity. They think you are dead. You can disappear. We can help you start a new life," Leo explained. Karai looks away, pondering for a minute before looking back at Leo.

"Could you so easily turn your back on your father?" she responded. "Even if you knew the things he did were wrong?" Leo frowned, looking at his brothers. Donnie had a strange look on his face, like something was bothering him.

"Is something wrong?" Venus asked.

"What are you looking at?" Raph questioned.

"Isn't the Forbidden City supposed to be north of here?" Donnie asked.

"And isn't the sun supposed to rise in the East?" Mikey pondered, as the sun began to rise on the left of the generator.

"Oh dear," the Fugitoid said. "Did I set the city down facing in the wrong direction?"

In the Shredder's lair, Hun and Stockman were walking onto the base then into the elevator, heading towards the lab.

"The master will be disappointed that we came back empty handed," Hun pointed.

"Not to mention, the unfortunate demise of Karai and young doctor Chaplin," Stockman answered as the doors open, entering the room. "We'll blame it all on them, just follow my lead." They stop in front of Saki, who was looking at them, with a dark look in his eyes.

"Master, we have unfortunate news," Stockman started. "Karai and Doctor Chaplin are-"

"Wait," Saki interrupted, walking over to a control panel. Hun and Stockman, looked in confusion. "Perhaps, you would like to share your news," He turns on the video cam, revealing Karai and Chaplin on the other end. "with Karai and Dr. Chaplin."

"Hi, Dr. Stockman!" Chaplin greeted. "Everything's okay, we made it!"

The two hesitantly glanced over at Saki, who crosses his arms, narrowing his eyes at them.

"B-B-But, sir, we can explain-" Stockman protested, nervously as the two backed away. Saki began to advance slowly towards them.

"Noo!" the two shouted as their screams echoed throughout the city.

#teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt #tmnt donatello #tmnt raphael #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt leonardo #tmnt 2003 #fanfiction

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dragonrajafanfiction · 4 years

Text

Vidya Gaems -- A One Shot

I put the headset on my head. “Hey, Mingfei, can you hear me?”

“Yeah I can hear you just fine.”

“Great!” Mingfei actually had a very nice voice over the headset. Of course, now he was in the comfort of his own dorm room about to do what he loved to do -- play video games -- with some someone he liked doing things with.

Me.

And he just got a new fighting game -- Deadly Force -- a hyper realistic, graphically violent and bloody fighting game that earned high marks for its creative brutality and earned 5 out of 5 pearl clutching parent marks for its siren-like pull on every young man in existence.

And me.

As soon as I saw it, I wanted to play, much to Mingfei’s shock. I’d never played games but I wanted to play this one. And he was more than happy to play with me.

The only other fighting game I’d ever played with him was a few rounds of Street Thug. And after that I much rather watch him beat other people up than experience it myself. But we were both unfamiliar with this game. So when I out of the blue told him that I would be happy to learn to play with him he was understandably confused.

“You would...?”

When I first booted up the game, I was watching the opening cinematic with all the excitement of a kid on her first carnival ride when I realized that Mingfei had already skipped all that and had gone straight to the character roster. Immediately, I was at a disadvantage for admiring all the good graphics and forgetting I was in a competition.

When I finally got to the character select, I heard his voice sounding like he was a mobster sitting in a plush chair with a glass of wine. “Nice of you to join me.”

Mingfei tried to explain the roster with the different character backgrounds and how a scantily clad fire goddess would ever get into a literal fist fight with a buff military dude but instead I asked. “Is that that guy from the Avatar movie?”

“...Yeah I think it is.”

“Okay I thought I recognized him.”

It started out really fun. Neither of us knew what we were doing. We were just mashing buttons and trying to figure out which was a punch and which was a taunt. I got plenty of hits in while Mingfei’s character kept doing handstands and wisecracking.

“Why does it keep doing that?!”

I was laughing uncontrollably. “Because you keep hitting the same button!”

“Except I’m not!” My laughter was infectious. He started to laugh too.

I smiled, smugly, slamming his character in the face over and over. “I don’t care, keep doing it.”

Unfortunately, like a lingua franca, certain button combinations were universal and Mingfei’s familiarity with video games, and fighting games in particular, soon widened the gap between us.

I was resorting to throwing random combinations against the wall of his character’s face and seeing what stuck. And occasionally, something stuck.

“Why are you kicking my butt all of a sudden?” He asked.

“I don’t know?” I slammed his character to the ground and then jumped and crushed him with a pointy spike on my character’s elbow which, I supposed, was expressly designed for that purpose.

“I can’t... fight this guy...” I watched his character approach, grapple mine and perform a similar combo while I giggled.

This was a very fun time for me when we were both figuring these things out. When neither of us knew what we were capable of.

That never happened again.

The next phase of our bonding over games was not a bonding at all. More of a lifting of the veil over my bestie’s pretty face and revealing the horror underneath.

Mingfei suddenly became the typical older brother and I was the sibling whose forehead he held his hand to while my arms pinwheeled fruitlessly through the air.

It was an endless montage of brutal cinematics while I watched my character get stabbed, impaled, dismembered, and riddled with bullets. Over... and over... again and again...

Or he would just sit there and spam the same punch button and I had to watch my health slowly disappear bit by bit while I tried to remember how to parry. “Stop! Mingfei! That’s so annoying!”

He was laughing in my ear.

“I can’t... I can’t do anything! I swear I’m going to come over and drop kick you in the face.”

He started laughing harder. All the while just hitting the same button.

“God I hate you...”

“I can do it over... and over... and over...”

“I’m not going to play if this is how it’s going to be!” I wailed.

He then proceeded to finish my off with a super move.

There was no way to really manage my growing frustration other than to start googling how to actually do stuff. “Hold on...”

“What are you doing.”

“I’m... trying to figure out how to play!”

“What?”

“Okay now we can start.” And then I ran into another problem.

Mingfei could parry and dodge. So even though now I was just figuring out how to hit, I couldn’t hit him. My character just chased him around the screen.

“Stop jumping!”

“Why!”

“So I can hit you!”

“I don’t want you to hit me.” He chuckled.

“I want to hit you!”

“I know! Okay, okay. I’ll stop.”

My character creeped up to him. “Okay... for real?”

“Yeah.”

After consulting the move list one more time, I hit the combination of buttons.

He dodged, wheezing with laughter.

“I’m going to kill you!”

Then Mingfei discovered stuns. He stunned my character and my character wobbled and swayed while Mingfei imitated me. “Hold on I have to look something up real quick. Let’s see... how do I want to win this time... hmmm...”

I had to press a quick-time event button to try to shake off the stun but Mingfei already had the timing just right and made sure to finish my character off just before I filled the meter.

The darkness in my soul was becoming a growing tide as he became more and more cruel and creative with beating me into the ground.

Until finally, I found a new character. It was like a blessing. The gods felt pity on me, a ranged archer woman named Athena. For some reason, Athena seemed built for me. Mingfei couldn’t stun, he couldn’t run, if he jumped I just unleashed a hailstorm of arrows.

“Why are you so good with this girl. You’ve never played before?”

“I like her!” I said, smugly. “We’re besties. She’s the best girl. She’s the best one.” I suddenly gasped and laughed.

I won. I won a round. For the past hour and a half, Mingfei had never lost a single round. I raised my arms in the air. “FEAR ME MINGFEI! I AM FIRE! I. AM. DEATH!” I crowed. “Hahahaha! Didn’t see THAT one coming did you?!”

“Wanna go round two Mingfei? Hahaha. If you lose, I’m going to tell everyone I beat you.” I giggled.

Round two.

And he went Godzilla on my character so hard I had to acknowledge the crushing reality that he had been going easy on me this entire time.

The announcer stuck the nail in the coffin when it announced. “FLAWLESS VICTORY”.

I hadn’t hit him. I hadn’t hit him once.

I hung my head.

“You were saying?” He said.

It wasn’t the fact that he beat me. It was the false hope. All the fun we’d been having and he’d just been playing around, rolling over, pretending not to know. Just to wait until I actually thought I could win, only to remind me that I was dealing with a frickin’ god.

It wasn’t the blood and gore that was the problem... it was the disrespect.

“You’re so lucky I’m not sitting next to you.”

“Are we still friends?”

“Buy me ice cream.”

“I can buy you ice cream.”

#Lu Mingfei #Dragon Raja #Fanfiction #Writing

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ineffably-good · 5 years

Text

Flufftober #19: Cooking (Good Omens)

Summary: Crowley is acting suspicious. Aziraphale channels his inner James Bond.

Crowley was up to something, Aziraphale knew it. The demon was suddenly acting shifty and jumpy, snatching his phone up whenever the latest message notification arrived and quickly scanning it while keeping the screen tilted and out of view.

Aziraphale was, in a word, disturbed. He was even more disturbed when the demon started disappearing somewhere every Wednesday evening, without reasonable explanation. He'd mumble something about checking with his contacts, demon work to do, checking the warding on the neighborhood. He never accepted offers of company, and he was always gone exactly two and a half hours. When he came back, he smelled like food and waved off all inquiries with garbled comments that weren't quite lies but added no light to the situation. It was decidedly odd.

On the third such week, Aziraphale waved goodbye with a sick feeling in his stomach and spent that evening worrying and fretting and trying to decide what to do. He thought back over the last few months and tried to decide if he’d done something to push Crowley away; he couldn’t put his finger on any such incident. If anything, things seemed to have been going exceptionally well in the last six months; in fact, they’d been nearly inseparable since they had the big fight about Aziraphale’s lying and spent those tortuous ten days apart. Both of them seemed to hold onto the other with increased ferver for having faced and surmounted their first large problem, and Aziraphale had thought they were well and truly past it.

And now here they were, he thought sadly, with the demon hiding things from him. The irony did not escape him.

There must, Aziraphale thought, be someone else. The thought cracked something inside of him and he batted it away but it kept returning. Why else would Crowley keep claiming to be going off to run errands and then coming back smelling like he’d been in a restaurant?

He resolved to follow him the next time he went out. Time to face this head on.

Aziraphale immediately went into full on spy mode. Always one to start with wardrobe, he spent some time thinking of the best outfit in which to surveil his demon. Clearly his usual outfit was of no use – he’d stick out like a sore thumb in any dark shadows in his light colored clothing and his bright hair. He considered a cape, but reluctantly discarded it in the end for a soft gray suit he rarely wore, and experimented with his various shoes to see which might be the least likely to give him away.

Next, he scouted the nearby streets around the neighborhood and mentally bookmarked a number of good points for discretely watching the pavement and various intersections. He could never just trail along behind Crowley outright – the demon was much too cagey not to notice that. No, this was a game that required skill, and he was going to have to play it extremely well.

The following Wednesday, when Crowley left, he watched the direction he headed off in, then snapped his fingers to change himself instantly into what he now thought of as his spy suit. He then tucked a fedora down on his head to hide his shock of bright hair, and magicked himself to the first observation point he’d selected, about a block and half away in the right direction. He used a little extra grace to dampen the field of angelic energy associated with his reappearance, so that hopefully Crowley wouldn’t notice it.

Crowley passed by on the opposite side of the street, seemingly none the wiser, and turned left down the next corner without a look behind him. Aziraphale crept to the corner and watched to see if he continued down that road, then again used a muted miracle to ferret himself a bit ahead of Crowley where he could watch him undetected. This time he overshot the mark a bit – he watched behind him as Crowley approached and turned again rather than passing by. This put him a bit off the map of Aziraphale’s scouted locations, so the angel had to go off script and follow him on foot for a while. He did so as carefully as he could, lingering almost a block behind and on the other side of the street.

He managed to get away with it, mostly because Crowley arrived at his destination very shortly thereafter – a sushi restaurant Aziraphale had never been to. Crowley stopped at the door, straightened out his jacket and ran a hand through his hair, and then went inside. Aziraphale inched closer until he could see through the front windows as Crowley was greeted by the girl behind the bar with obvious affection, and then a tall, well-appointed, elegant Japanese man came out of the back room to kiss him on both cheeks and shepherded him out of sight into a private room.

Crowley looked, Aziraphale had to admit, delighted to see him.

Aziraphale didn’t stop to allow any emotion at the time; it was too dangerous with Crowley so attuned to his feelings to allow any response he might pick up on. Instead he paced, circling the block multiple times, knowing Crowley would be some time before he emerged. He poured energy into shielding the prickling rage he was feeling. He fidgeted. He dug his nails into his palms. He shifted his weight from foot to foot. And through it all, he stared through the window towards the door Crowley had disappeared through earlier.

After an interminably long time, Crowley appeared. The elegant, slender man he’d seen earlier came with him, carrying a small bag. He laid an affectionate hand on Crowley’s shoulder and handed the bag to him, wreathed in smiles. They both appeared to laugh.

Aziraphale lost his grip on his shielding as a spike of white-hot rage rose up in his chest. He couldn’t help it; he glowered ferociously at the pair.

In the bar, Crowley’s head swiveled fast towards the windows, his golden eyes wide with shock.

Aziraphale leapt back as if he’d been burned, but it was too late. He knew he’d been seen.

Aziraphale slammed himself back home and materialized in their bedroom, where he first paced in a circle, and then for lack of anything better to do, began balling up Crowley’s clean laundry which was laying in a nicely-folded pile. Messing with someone’s laundry was, in Aziraphale’s world, a declaration of war. Take that, he thought fiercely, dropping a button down shirt on the floor in a sloppy pile.

There was a whump of air and Crowley appeared five feet away from him.

“Angel, what the hell?” he asked, worriedly. “Was that you outside the restaurant?”

Aziraphale wadded up a shirt and threw it directly into Crowley’s face. “Why yes it was,” he snapped. “And the game is up, my dear. I saw you!”

Crowley pulled the shirt off of himself and looked confused. “You saw what, exactly?”

Aziraphale threw another balled up shirt at him, harder. It hit Crowley in the face with a slapping sound. “I saw you with your new friend,” he yelled, “being all… all… affectionate.”

Crowley pulled the shirt off with a little more force and tossed it at the bed. “Stop that,” he said, “and calm down! What are you talking about?”

“Oh don’t you play innocent with me,” Aziraphale said, tossing yet another shirt at him, hard enough to sting when it caught him in the cheek. “I saw him kiss you! And I know you’ve been lying to me and sneaking off for weeks!”

Crowley flipped the shirt to the floor and leapt forward, grasping Aziraphale by both wrists, hard. “Stop hitting me with things!” he snapped. “You’re being ridiculous! Whatever you thought you saw, you’re wrong!”

The angel struggled against him for a moment, and then he seemed to lose his fight all together and sat heavily down onto the bed behind him. Crowley sat down next to him but still didn’t release his arms.

“I understand,” Aziraphale said, forlornly. “He seems lovely. He’s certainly tall and handsome and – and slim!” His voice cracked a little on that word. “I can see why you might be interested in someone like that. I won’t stand in your way if it’s something you need to get out of your system — ”

“Aziraphale have you lost your –” the demon said quietly.

“ — and I hear this is a thing that happens after you’ve been together for a while,” Aziraphale continued, not even noticing the interruption. “And well, two years isn’t truly all that long, but then again it’s been six millennia if you look at it differently, and maybe you just need a little bit of a distraction and I can do it, I can learn to cope, as long as you come back to me after –”

“Aziraphale I’m not –” the demon said a little louder.

“—after you’re done,” he continued, beginning to bristle. “Because you have to. I refuse to let you go, no matter who this man is. I will be able to forgive you, eventually. I am an angel, after all -- ”

“AZIRAPHALE!” Crowley shouted, shocking the angel into silence. “I’m not having an affair.”

“You’ve been meeting this man in restaurants!” Aziraphale said, eyes narrowed. “He kissed you! They all knew you there!”

Crowley groaned. “I’m taking a cooking class, you absolute moron!”

Aziraphale stared at him disbelievingly and said nothing for several long moments.

“Wh-what?”

“Wednesday nights at seven. Sushi making. They hold it in the back, in the banquet room.” Crowley looked like he couldn’t decide whether to be cross or amused.

Aziraphale swallowed. “Why would you do that?”

“Because, you idiot,” Crowley said, “It was a surprise. For our anniversary next month. I was going to make you sushi at home.” The demon opened the bag he had dropped earlier and showed Aziraphale the bamboo sushi rolling pad and special rice vinegar he’d purchased.

Aziraphale felt the blood drain from his face as the anger was replaced with shock and then horror. He opened and closed his mouth several times, unable to decide on what to say, and finally just groaned hopelessly and flopped back onto the bed, crossing his arms over his eyes. He waited quietly for the earth to open and swallow him up. It failed to happen, but the room did seem to spin agreeably for a moment.

“I am such an arse,” he moaned.

“I didn’t know you had a jealous streak, angel,” Crowley said, settling on amused.

“Neither did I,” the angel moaned, still not uncovering his face.

“I’m somewhat touched,” Crowley said, “that you went to such lengths. Even changed your clothes, did you? You did a good job following me, I never felt you there until the very end.”

Aziraphale hurrumphed. “I do have some skills outside of book bindery, you know.”

Crowley laid down on his side next to the angel and laid a hand on his hair, stroking softly. “Angel, I would never cheat on you,” he said. “I’m a little insulted you would even consider it. How could you think I would ever look at anyone else when I have you?”

Aziraphale pulled one arm away from his face and looked at Crowley a little reproachfully. “Oh, I don’t know. Because you were being very suspicious? All secretive? Sneaking about?”

Crowley thought about it. “I suppose you have a point. I should’ve realized you’d notice something was up.”

“Of course I noticed,” Aziraphale said. “I notice everything about you.”

“Well,” Crowley said, “let’s call this one a draw. You overreacted, I underestimated, we both messed up. Okay?” He leaned in and gave the angel a soft kiss.

“Oh my dear,” the angel said, kissing him back on each eyelid. “I don’t deserve you.”

“You do,” Crowley said. “Can’t think of anyone more deserving, myself.”

Aziraphale stopped to consider the potential double meanings of that, and then gave up and wrapped his arm around the demon. He’d done enough thinking for one night.

#good omens oneshot #good omens one shot #aziraphale x crowley #ineffable husbands #jealous aziraphale #my fics #good omens fanfiction

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entering-mymind · 4 years

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Chapter 7 - The Reckoning

This is the seventh episode of the series where I have inserted my OC character (Mando’s daughter) into the Disneyplus television show. With her addition I believe this helps the viewers understand the choices Mando makes in the series. Would love to hear feedback! I do not own these characters and the story and dialogue goes to the respected credit of the screenwriters and creators of the show.

The Razor Crest flew through vacant space with no destination in mind. Mando piloted the ship maintaining at the wheel while pressing specific levers and controls in order to keep the ship at its finest. Mando was accompanied in the cockpit by his daughter, who sat in her usual co-pilot seat behind him, as the child’s pod was positioned in the seat opposite of her. The two Mandalorians were busy obtaining to the ship while the child slept soundly.

“Papi, a transmission was just received,” young Mando stated.

“Send it through,” Mando declared when she tapped a few buttons and a hologram of Greef Karga appeared.

“My friend, if you are receiving this transmission that means you both are alive. You might be surprised to hear this, but I am alive too. I guess we can call it even.”

“Did I miss something, did you shoot Karga?” young Mando asked but the transmission continued.

“A lot has happened since we last saw each other. The man who hired you is still here and his ranks of ex-Imperial guards have grown. They have imposed despotic rule over my city which has impeded the livelihood of the Guild. We consider him an enemy, but we cannot get close enough to take him out. If you would consider one last commission, I will very much make it worth your while.”

“You have been successful so far in staving off their hunters, but they will not stop until they have their prize. So, here is my proposition. Return to Nevarro. Bring the child as bait. I will arrange an exchange and provide loyal Guild members as protection. Once we get near the client, you kill him, and we both get what we want. If you succeed, you keep the child and I will have both you and your daughter’s name cleared with the Guild, for a man of honor should not be forced to live in exile. I await your arrival with optimism,” Karga ended his message as the two sat silent.

“You know it’s a trap,” young Mando blurted out.

“Yup,” was all Mando replied while entering specific navigational coordinates into the Crest.

“And we’re just going to walk right into it?”

“Yup.”

“Really?” this didn’t seem like her father and could tell he was formulating a plan, “Okay, bring it on,” young Mando began pumping herself up when she saw the location they were headed.

“But first we need a team of our own,” Mando clarified making the Crest adjust its position when it jumped to lightspeed.

* * *

The local tavern on Sorgan was wildly loud, a large group of spectators circled Cara Dune and her opponent – a Dathomirian – who were vigorously battling each other in a brawl. Both of them were connected to each another by an electric cord at the waist, making sure neither could escape the other until one was defeated.

Both opponents held up to each other’s kick and punches but once Cara received the upper hand she seized it. Cara pulled the Dathomirian to the ground and then put him in a headlock, once he was losing conscious she flipped on top of him and pulled him to his knees wrapping the electric wire – that conjoined them – around his neck.

Seeing no way out, the Dathomirian tapped out declaring Cara the winner, “Pay up, mudscuffers,” Cara pointed to specific spectators as they approached with her winnings, “Come on. That’s mine, thank you.”

Once everyone paid and cleared out Cara recognized the two individuals who lingered behind; Mando and his daughter.

“Looking for some work?” Mando asked while young Mando gave Cara a sly thumbs up, impressed with her street fighting skills. All Cara could do was chuckle more at young Mando and ignored her father’s question.

Cara sat at a table when the waitress poured her a cup of spotchka while Mando, his daughter, and the child accompanied her.

“It seems like a straightforward operation,” Mando began.

“Trap, is what he means,” young Mando slipped in but her statement went ignored.

“They’re providing the plan and firepower. I’m the snare.”

“You mean we’re the snare,” young Mando corrected, “Papi gets confused sometimes.”

“With the child,” Cara declared.

“That’s why I’m coming to you,” Mando said.

“I don’t know. I’ve been advised to lay low,” Cara reminded, “If anybody runs my chain code I’ll rot in a cell for the rest of my life.”

“I thought you were a veteran?” young Mando asked.

“I’ve been a lot of things since kiddo. Most of them carry a life sentence. If I so much as book passage on a ship registered to the New Republic, I’m…” Cara was cut off.

“I have a ship. I can bring you there and back with a handsome reward. You can live free of worry,” Mando hoped to persuade her.

“I’m already free of worry and I’m not in the mood to play soldier anymore. Especially fighting some local warlord.”

“Did I need to remind you that we will be walking into a trap,” young Mando whispered hoping to gain sympathy.

“He’s not a local warlord. He’s Imperial,” Mando clarified.

Suddenly as if the winds changed Cara’s face went from uninterested to disgust, “I’m in,” Cara raised her drink in salute to the mess she just entangled herself in.

* * *

“Does your contact need to vet me?” Cara questioned while Mando flew the Crest.

“Doesn’t know you’re coming,” he informed.

“Really? That could be a problem.”

“It wont, but if it is, that’s his problem,” Mando said rising from his seat and directing Cara to the lower deck.

“He alright up there alone,” she referred to the child who was left in the cockpit, “Where’s your daughter?” Cara searched.

“She needs some time for herself,” Mando said knowing it was prudent for his daughter to receive a breather from continuously watching the child.

Cara just nodded understanding a girl needed time away from the men in her life. On his gauntlet Mando pressed a button and opened a compartment revealing a plethora of weapons.

“Pick one,” he gave her free reign.

Gladly Cara went through the selection while still getting information about the mission, “You trust the contact?” she asked.

“Not particularly. He and I had a run-in last time I was there on some Guild business.”

“So then why are we going?”

“I don’t have a choice. You saw what happened on Sorgan. They’ll keep sending hunters. The kid will never be safe until the Imp is dead,” Mando stated while noticing a slight hiccup in the Crest’s trajectory.

“And you’re okay with bringing him back there?”

“Not really. That’s why I’m bringing you.”

Suddenly Mando and Cara were flung off their feet because the Crest began to go erratic. Instinctively Mando flew up to the cockpit while Cara followed behind, there they witnessed the child at the controls attempting to steer the ship. Quickly Mando removed the child and handed it to Cara to hold, he sat at the wheel, switching levers and pressing buttons to stabilize the Crest but nothing was working.

“What’s happening?” Cara questioned noticing the interior of the ship was beginning to crack from under pressure.

“No!” Mando realized the actual issue and flew back to the lower deck without explanation.

He made his way to his daughter’s workspace when he rounded the corner and found her on the floor huddled in a fetal position, shivering uncontrollably and moaning in pain. Mando dropped to his knees trying to assess how far she was in her episode. He slowly tried to unravel her but instead she swung herself over unintentionally and shoved Mando vigorously across the room with the assistance of an invisible force. He was slammed against a wall and became pinned as if someone was holding him there.

“Mi Pequeno, let me go,” he grunted through a tight chest, “Hear me, focus on my voice,” Mando tried but she couldn’t be reached, she had submerged within herself.

He could see she was doing everything in her power not to release what was inside her because if she did they would all parish, but her undivided attention turned to anything and everything.

“Mi Pequeno, please release me,” finally her hand dropped when the invisible force let him go allowing Mando to slowly gain full mobility. Powerless, he watched items in the ship take life by either crushing into itself or being thrown across the room.

The Crest continued flying erratic as Cara carried the child looking for Mando or his daughter. She turned a corner witnessing almost exactly what she experienced at the battle of Sorgan. The ground quaked beneath them and items floated in the air by their own free will. Cara couldn’t fathom, for a second time, what was happening.

Grabbing hold of the walls while she walked, Cara noticed Mando sprawled on the opposite side of the room when young Mando arched her body in agony, trying to keep in the pulse that radiated around her structure.

“Mando, what’s…” but Cara was cut off.

“Watch out!” Mando warned, he sprung to his feet and tackled Cara and the child out of harms way.

The three fell to the floor luckily dodging a steel panel that could have crushed them.

“What… how…” Cara stuttered cradling the child who shivered in fear.

“Listen to me, she’s too far along, I’m going to have to sedate her,” Mando informed, he opened a hidden compartment on his gauntlet reveling two viles containing a clear liquid. Mando then pulled out a syringe from his belt inserting the vile and prepping it for injection.

“Then do it already,” Cara shouted.

“Please, I have to revel her arm,” Mando stated.

Cara understood what he was implying, Mandalorians couldn’t expose a single part of themselves to the outside world due to the threat of expulsion weighting heavily on them.

“I won’t look just do it,” Cara demanded and turned her head from view.

“DAD!” young Mando screamed through a banshee cry doing everything she could from releasing the blast that commanded to escape.

He knew his time was up, Mando had to act now, he crawled to his daughter and immediately removed her gauntlet and rolled up her sleeve. She withered in torment and groaned in horror, but he would put her at ease. The serum would take effect instantaneously once injected into her bloodstream, shutting down her abilities.

Mando wasted no effort and clutched onto the syringe with his whole hand, he struck downwards ready for the needle to pierce her skin, but something prevented the action. The invincible force was at work again, in mid-air Mando struggled, the needle was centimeters from entering her body. His hand withered and strained, he used all of his might but became powerless to do anything.

The Crest started to crack and enfold into itself, warning bells sounded throughout the interior, informing its passengers to abandon ship. Mando took his other hand and put it on top hoping for added strength, but he still wasn’t budging.

“Come on, Mi Pequeno, don’t do this, hear me,” but she couldn’t hear her father, the force had consumed her.

Young Mando let out a blood curling scream when her body arched violently upwards signaling the blast would follow. Mando mustered everything he had when he received some much needed assistance as Cara slammed her hands on top of Mando’s, overcoming the invisible barrier together.

The needle successfully entered young Mando’s skin and without thought, Mando immediately injected the serum into her body when everything seized. The Crest returned to a normal flight, all free floating objects fell to the ground, and young Mando went limp.

Cara and Mando both breathed heavily, acting like they had just fought off their greatest opponent. Mando ejected the empty vile and placed the syringe back in his belt for future use. He then, in anger, threw the vile upset by not being there for his daughter sooner.

Taken aback Cara didn’t know what to say or do, she watched him roll down her sleeve and strap her gauntlet back on her wrist. He then picked his daughter up and carried her out of the room. Cara looked to the child wondering if it had answers but it just glared in concern.

* * *

Knowing to tread lightly, Cara followed Mando seeing him place his unconscious daughter in her bed. He sat at her side practically slumped over appearing defeated, he placed a hand on where her cheek should be and caressed the spot with his thumb. He seemed to be in a deep thought when he heard Cara approach, not wanting to go into detail he shot up and headed towards the cockpit.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Cara followed, “I think I deserve an explanation.”

“There’s nothing to explain,” Mando sat down and began attending to the Crest, steading it and setting the ship back on course, but Cara was deciphering clues on her own.

“That was no phantom detonator back on Sorgan, that was your daughter,” Cara declared but Mando stayed silent, practically confirming her suspicion, “How can she do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know, or you won’t tell?”

“Both,” Mando turned and stood in Cara’s face, “Because the less someone knows about her the safer she remains.”

“How are you protecting her, she’s a danger to herself and to others, she almost killed us plus I saw in your gauntlet, you only have one vile left. What happens when you run out?”

Mando stayed silent.

“Who ever made them, can’t they make you more?”

“No, he’s dead because of us,” Mando said truthfully while returning to his seat and piloting the Crest, “Can you get the child, I can’t have him trying to awake her,” he informed.

“What happens when she does awake?” Cara said in a bit of a panic.

“Please don’t fear her, she doesn’t need that. Can you please get the child?”

Cara stayed silent, angry that Mando didn’t fully trust her even though he was already asking a lot of her with this mission.

“Fine, but we’re going to need someone to watch him and her,” Mando didn’t say anything but Cara continued, “You got anyone you can trust?”

“To watch the kid, yeah I’ve got someone in mind,” as Mando steered the Crest towards the planet of Arvala-7.

* * *

The Crest landed near the home of the Ugnaught who had helped Mando and his daughter find the child. Mando began powering the ship down when Cara made her way below in order to lower the platform, when suddenly she noticed Mando’s daughter shyly hiding around the corner.

“Geez,” Cara stepped back, hand to her chest.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you,” young Mando meant more than one way.

“It’s okay, just wasn’t sure how long you would be knocked out,” Cara stepped forward but young Mando kept her distance and head lowered in shame, “Listen, I’m not scared of you, I’m just curious. How are you able to do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“You sound like your father.”

“But we don’t, honestly,” young Mando stepped out of the shadows happy she was able to finally discuss her episodes with someone other than just her father, “When I was a child we looked for help, my dad tried, but anyone who found out about me wound up dead. So we went into hiding until the Creed discovered our whereabouts, I didn’t want to go but according to my dad it was safer being under the Mandalorians protection. We were still hidden but yet in plain sight, able to search for answers, but none were ever found.”

“And they know of your abilities?”

“Yes, but even the Creed couldn’t help me. I don’t know what’s inside of me, it appears to always be there, but it stays dormant and then suddenly awakens overtaking me. I try so hard to control it but I can’t seem to find a way. I’m running out of ideas and that terrifies me because it’s only getting stronger.”

Even though Cara couldn’t see young Mando’s face, Cara could hear the panic inflicted in her voice. She wanted to help the kiddo out, talk to her more but Mando came down with the child’s pod floating behind.

Quickly before Mando realized Cara was drilling his daughter for answers, Cara grabbed some gear and lowered the platform. Mando glanced to his side seeing his daughter keep her distance, he outstretched his hand for her to take but she refused.

“Hey, we have a trap to fall into, remember,” Mando said hoping to raise her spirits.

Luckily his choice of words did the trick because she couldn’t hold back a small giggle and took her father’s hand.

* * *

The sun was slowly setting on the desert planet, still giving the Ugnaught plenty of time to tidy up his homestead and rally up the Blurrgs when he noticed the Mandalorian’s ship land nearby. The Ugnaught stood at the entrance to his home while he watched the four individuals approach, he invited them in as everyone took a seat.

“It hasn’t grown much,” the Ugnaught said analyzing the child.

“I think it might be a Strand-Cast,” Mando suggested.

“I don’t think it was engineered. I’ve worked in the gene farms. This one looks evolved. Too ugly. This one, on the other hand, looks like she was farmed in the Cytocaves of Nora,” the Ugnaught pointed at Cara.

“This is Cara Dune. She was a shock trooper,” Mando informed.

“You were a dropper?” the Ugnaught looked at Cara’s tattoos.

“Did you serve?” she asked.

“On the other side, I’m afraid, but I’m proud to say that I paid out my clan’s debt and now I serve no one but myself. You are awfully quiet,” the Ugnaught addressed young Mando who kept her head down.

“She is a bit under the weather,” Mando tried to steer the Ugnaught’s attention away from his daughter, but that was achieved by IG-11 walking through the front door holding a tray of beverages.

Immediately all three stood, blasters drawn ready to destroy the machine when the IG-unit spoke, “I heard someone was sick, would they care for some tea?”

“Please lower your blasters. He will not harm you,” the Ugnaught put his hand up to signal that there was no danger.

“That thing is programmed to kill the baby,” Mando reminded.

“Not anymore,” the Ugnaught stated when he began telling the story of how he acquired the droid.

“It was left behind in the wake of your destruction. I found it laying where it fell. Devoid of all life. I recovered the flotsam and staked it as my own in accordance with the charter of the New Republic. Little remained of its neural harness. Reconstruction was quite difficult but not impossible. It had to learn everything from scratch. This is something that cannot be taught with the twist of a spanner. It requires patience and repetition. I spent day after day reinforcing its development with patience and affirmation. It developed a personality as its experiences grew.”

“Is it still a hunter?” Mando questioned.

“No. But it will protect,” the Ugnaught declared as everyone still remained skeptic.

* * *

The Ugnaught went to attain to his Blurrgs when Mando approached, “I’ve run into some problems.”

“I figured as much. Why else would you return?”

“I wanna hire your services.”

“I’m retired from service.”

“I can pay you handsomely, Ugnaught.”

“I have a name. It is Kuiil.”

“I need someone to protect the little one, Kuiil,” Mando said.

“I’m not suited for such work, besides why doesn’t your kin look after it?”

“I need her for the mission.”

“Well, I can reprogram IG-11 for nursing and protocol.”

“No, I don’t want that droid anywhere near him.”

“Why’re you so distrustful of droids?” Kuiil asked.

“It tried to kill him,” Mando clarified.

“It was programmed to do so. Droids are not good or bad. They are neutral reflections of those who imprint them. Do you trust me?”

“From what I can tell, yes.”

“Then you will trust my work. IG-11 will join me and we do it not for payment but to protect the child from Imperial slavery. None will be free until the old ways are gone forever,” Kuiil remembered those horrific memories of serving the Empire while Mando pondered over a similar memory, but had the ability to save that someone from the same fate.

“Okay,” Mando agreed with Kuiil.

“And the Blurrgs will join me as well.”

“The Blurrgs?”

“I have spoken.”

* * *

The Crest took flight making its way to Nevarro, Mando set the ship on autopilot where everyone took occupancy in the lower deck. Kuiil attended to his Blurrgs (which were penned up in the corner) while young Mando sat on the opposite side keeping to herself and sketched out a new piece, where Cara and Mando became involved in an arm wrestling match as the child watched from its pod.

“I got you, Mando,” Cara said through gritted teeth.

“Care to double the bet?” Mando grunted.

The two continued their match when the child looked on in sadness, wanting to do something, it raised its tiny three-fingered hand and squinted its eyes, concentrating. Suddenly Cara let go of Mando’s hand and began clutching at her throat, choking as if someone’s hands were around her neck.

Everyone in the room stared at Cara, who’s face was starting to turn red from lose of air, baffled by her actions. Mando quickly turned to his daughter who appeared to be in shock like everyone else, and realized she wasn’t having an episode because she was aware and coherent.

“It’s not me,” young Mando said when she pointed her father’s attention to the child.

“No, no, no, stop,” Mando picked up the child hoping this would free Cara, “We’re friends, we’re friends. Cara is my friend,” Mando clarified which did the trick, Cara was released but she spoke in a raid.

“First your daughter, now him, this is not okay,” Cara exasperated through a short breath.

“Hmmm…curious,” Kuiil said pondering over everything that had been said and performed.

“Curious? That’s the second time I was almost killed. Geez Mando what kind of kids are you raising?” Cara said out of anger when young Mando quickly rose from her seat and went into the adjacent room.

“Hey, none of this is their fault. I understand you’re upset Cara but please don’t voice your opinion on a matter you don’t understand,” Mando said heated.

“Like you understand it any better, you’re just as clueless about her abilities as his,” Cara stated truthfully.

“Her abilities?” Kuiil peered around for Mando’s daughter but she wasn’t in sight, “Everything seems a bit clearer now. The story you told me of the Mudhorn now makes more sense.”

“Do you know what the child is?” Mando asked possibly about to receive some answers.

“What it is? I don’t know, but what it does, this I’ve heard rumors of.”

“What? What do you know?” Mando couldn’t believe finally someone knew what this might be.

“Rumors, like when you worked for the Empire,” Cara spat.

“When I was sold to the Empire, in indentured servitude,” Kuiil spat back.

“Yet somehow, you walk free.”

“I bought my freedom through the skill of my hands and the labor of three of your human lifetimes. Do not cast doubt upon that of what I am nor whom I shall serve,” Kuiil’s voice rose when IG-11 walked into the room ready to protect its master.

Mando wanted all this animosity to end, even though he would be losing the chance to possibly learn what was causing his daughter’s episodes and the child’s abilities when Mando directed Kuiil’s attention to him.

“Tell you what. I could really use your craftwork right now,” Mando put the child in its pod, “Can you pad this container so the child can sleep better?”

“I shall fabricate a better one. Then perhaps this Dropper can see how one can win their freedom with the skill of one’s hands,” Kuiil stated when he left to craft a unique pod all on its own.

* * *

Mando let Kuiil be while Cara paced staying far away from the child. He felt the tension was low enough and went in search for his daughter. In her workspace she sat on the floor in the dark lazily making pencil marks on her canvas.

“Hey, I could really use some help in the cockpit,” Mando tried but she wasn’t buying it.

“Please Papi, I just want to be alone right now.”

Mando sighed in defeat and placed a caring hand on top of her helmet. He understood she was having a rough time with this last episode and hoped she would recover mentally soon. All he could do was support her and let her go through the emotions.

“You know none of this is your fault, you had no control,” Mando reassured.

“You’re right, I had no control, but that still doesn’t give me an excuse,” young Mando replied in a sad monotone.

* * *

Mando returned to the cockpit as Cara followed, she stayed silent unknowing if Mando or his daughter were upset with her previous comments.

“Hey, I just wanted to apologize about what I said earlier,” Cara said hesitantly.

“You don’t have to apologize to me, apologize to my daughter,” Mando said without looking at Cara.

“Noted,” Cara stated thinking on the best time to speak to her when Cara saw where Mando was taking the ship, “So, we’re going to Nevarro?”

“Have you ever been?”

“No. We lost a lot of our forces there. The city’s dug in pretty deep. No cover when you drop in. It stayed in Empire control until the end of the war.”

“The warlord we’re taking out was an Imperial officer,” Mando informed.

“What station?”

“Hard to tell. No insignia anymore. I took out his safe house when I snatched the kid. More Imps have reinforced since.”

“There’s something more going on, more than the trap your daughter predicts.”

“Maybe. We’ll find out more when we land.”

Their conversation was interrupted as the cockpits door opened revealing IG-11, “I have prepared second meal. Would you care to be served here or below?”

“I’m not hungry,” Mando said with distain while Cara didn’t respond when IG-11 left, “Under no circumstances does that thing leave the ship.”

“You got a real thing for droids, don’t you?” Cara said through a chuckle.

“I got a real thing for that droid.”

“The Ugnaught said he rewired it.”

“That droid was designed to kill things. I don’t care how much wiring he replaced. It goes against its nature,” Mando reminded.

“Well, it shouldn’t be a long job anyway. We take out the head Imp, the rest will run like rats,” Cara said in confidence.

* * *

Greef Karga waited on the outskirts of Nevarro’s wasteland with three other hunters standing at his side. Karga watched the Crest touch down and saw four Blurrgs step out with their riders. Mando, his daughter, Cara, and Kuiil lined up in front of him and his men while the child’s newly constructed pod floated near Mando.

“Sorry for the remote rendezvous, Mando, but things have gotten complicated since you and the kiddo were last here,” Karga and his hunters drew closer while Mando and his team stayed on alert, “It appears that introductions are in order. It seems we’ve both provided a security detail,” Karga stayed silent analyzing them, “But I suggest the kiddo stays back and guards the ship,” he pointed towards young Mando, “These lava fields are lousy with Jawas.”

“She’s safer with me due to the bounty you also placed on her head,” Mando spat.

“It was not by choice, trust me at least on that, but the town is now run by ex-Empire. I don’t think you want the kid mixed in with that kind of heat.”

“I can handle myself Karga,” young Mando jumped in.

“All right,” Karga put his hands up in defense but then placed his eyes on Cara, “And what of the Shock Trooper? If a Rebel Dropper is with us, they’ll all get their hackles up.”

“Everybody is coming,” Mando enforced.

“Fine, at least cover your tattoo. No need to flaunt it. Now, where is the little one?” Karga said with open arms.

Everyone turned to Mando when he pressed a few buttons on his gauntlet and the pod zoomed forward. It hovered in front of Karga and then opened revealing the child inside.

“So, this little bogwing is what all the fuss was about,” Karga picked up the child as everyone was put on edge, hands on weapons, “What a precious little creature. I can see why neither of you didn’t want to harm a hair on its wrinkled little head.”

Karga put the child back in its pod, settling everyone down, “Well, I’m glad this matter will be put to rest once and for all. The sun drops fast on Nevarro. We can walk for a spell, camp out at the riverbank then make our way into town at first light,” Karga ended when Mando closed the child’s pod reversing it so it was back hovering at his side.

* * *

Everyone got a move on, trekking over the black terrain and avoiding the small lava rivers that serpentine through the land. Night approached fast when they made camp with each party taking a side while keeping an eye on the other across the fire.

Majority ate the goat that was roasting over the fire when Cara took a seat next to young Mando with two plates in her hand. Cara slide one over to young Mando when she noticed small portions of meat were cut up.

“Thought those sizes would be easier for you to fit under your helmet without removal,” Cara stated.

“Thanks,” young Mando said in a dry gratitude, taking the tiny pieces and easily fitting them under the rim to pop in her mouth.

Young Mando seemed still a bit stand offish so Cara addressed what went unacknowledged, “You know I never got to answer your questions from when we first met,” Cara hoped this would make young Mando warm back up to her, “I really didn’t get to participate in the well known battles, I served just like everyone else and went where I was needed.”

Young Mando turned and gave Cara her full attention, “Technically the war was everywhere, and you couldn’t really escape it. In some form or another it would affect you from losing a comrade, a friend, or family member.”

Young Mando could see the hurt emitting from Cara’s eyes and the distant memories playing before them.

“And for your second question, no I did not see the Death Star blow up, neither actually, but I did see a lot of its scattered debris when I was on Endor. I guess I’m not as thrilling as I make myself out to be,” Cara stated.

“Oh no, you are still very compelling. When my dad and I spar I know his every move and I still can’t take him out, but when you fought him there was no competition. Don’t tell him I said that,” young Mando whispered her last part while putting up her hand to cover her invisible mouth.

This made Cara smile, adoring young Mando even more, “Hey, I’m sorry for what I said on the Crest. You’re a really good kid,” Cara stressed.

“No worries, really,” young Mando stated showcasing all was water under the bridge.

* * *

Kuiil sat next to the child feeding it the meat off his plate, it ate the tiny pieces with delight while Karga sat next to Mando pointing out the obvious.

“I guess the little bugger is a carnivore. Never seen anything like it. They were ready to pay a king’s ransom for that thing. Must be for some kind of highfalutin menagerie,” Karga informed.

“Let’s go over the plan again,” Mando interjected.

“We enter the common house. We show the client the bait. We join him at the table. And you kill him,” Karga vaguely laid out.

“Tell me about his reinforcements.”

“They’re all ex-Empire. As soon as they lose their paycheck, poof, they’ll all scatter.”

“And what if they don’t,” Mando pointed out.

“They will.”

“That’s not good enough.”

“If, for arguments sake, a few of them don’t realize that I’m their best path to alternative employment, and they elect to react impulsively, then these three fine Guild Hunters, along with that battle-hardened shock trooper will cut down anyone who bucks,” Karga informed.

“How many will there be?” Mando questioned.

“No more than four. He travels with, at most, a fire team. Trust me. Nothing can go wrong,” Karga rose from the ground and approached the fire.

He plucked a piece of meat from their roasting meal when out of the shadows a massive creature of flight scooped down to acquire the goat, scaring Karga backwards. Immediate panic erupted throughout the camp, everyone grabbed their weapons and started shooting upwards because more creatures rained down from the sky. Sensing the danger, Mando closed the child’s pod when young Mando went to her father’s side as the two went back to back firing from both angles.

The flying creatures attacked from all sides when one grabbed hold of a Blurrg and another took one of Karga’s men. Everyone continued their reign of fire, focusing all their firepower on one of the creatures that had a hold of their second Blurrg, but another creature made a surprise attack on Mando.

Its massive wings pushed young Mando out of the way and grabbed Mando in its claws. The creature drilled him into the ground when Cara turned her blaster on the thing, but Mando ignited it in flames sending it off into the night still on fire.

Young Mando ran towards her father making sure he wasn’t injured as everybody regrouped with their eyes and weapons still pointed to the sky. The danger appeared to be over with but groans from Karga could be heard. Mando quickly looked over his daughter and then checked on the child. No one else appeared to be injured when Kuiil went to Karga’s aid.

“He’s hurt badly,” Kuiil informed.

Three long gashes were visible on Karga’s arm and seemed to get worse by the second. He grunted through gritted teeth declaring he was fine when everyone encircled him in order to help.

“Hold still,” young Mando opened a pouch on her belt and injected Karga with an anti-bacterial serum, “It got you good.”

“How bad?” Mando asked.

“Bad, the poison’s spreading fast,” she informed.

“So this…this is how it happens,” Karga stated while young Mando received bandages from Cara who instructed for a medpac from the group but no one had one.

Young Mando sat in silence unable to register Karga’s outcome, sure he put a bounty on her head but his heart was always in the right place. Just like her father Karga would look out for her, make sure she wouldn’t be put in danger with the missions, but mostly he would encourage her with her art. Young Mando couldn’t accept his fate when the child approached and put its hand on young Mando.

“We need to get him to a medical team,” Cara said grabbing a device and scanning Karga’s arm seeing the venom spread further, “Get this thing outta here,” Cara said to young Mando but she wasn’t listening because it appeared as if she was in a trance.

The child and young Mando glared at one another like they were communicating mentally, their hands were stacked on top of one another when, without words, they placed their conjoined hands on Karga’s wound.

“Save me kiddo, it’s going to eat me,” Karga blurted out but a different scenario occurred.

Together the child and young Mando focused on Karga’s injury, they could see the venom spreading throughout his body but immediately put a stopper to it. Together they evaporated the poison from his bloodstream and infused their vitality into Karga in order to heal the three gashes. Both shook with concentration, using each other’s energy to achieve this feat, when Karga’s wounds healed before their eyes and were no more.

Once the task was a success the child and young Mando immediately collapsed from exhaustion. Karga glared up at Mando in utter shock but Mando rushed to his daughter and the child. He quickly checked on the obvious as the both of them were breathing normally, he then searched for any injuries but they appeared unharmed, just unconscious.

“Kuiil, please put the child in its pod,” Mando said picking it up in one hand while placing his daughter’s head in his lap, but everyone was still glaring in shock, “Kuiil!” Mando shouted extending the child for Kuiil to take.

“Yes, of course,” Kuiil responded carefully taking the sleeping kid and placing it in the pod.

Once the child was safe inside, Mando immediately closed the lid and sensed the impeding judgment from the group. Without hesitation Mando placed his body between the others and the pod while wrapping his arms around his daughter, blaster at the ready, because everyone stared at his children with either curiosity or a malicious intent.

* * *

Morning came and everyone regrouped silently where both parties kept close to their own. The child and young Mando appeared to be fine, the child cooed happily thinking nothing of the incident but young Mando could sense something else, a possible plot brewing among the hunters.

Kuiil mounted on the only Blurrg that had survived from the attack last night when Mando approached his daughter.

“I want you to ride with Kuiil,” Mando insisted.

“I’m fine,” young Mando replied.

“You don’t seem fine, you were stirring in your sleep, mumbling, you haven’t done that since…” but Mando was cut off.

“Since I was little, I know. Its just, the nightmare came back.”

“The one you sketch out?”

Young Mando nodded her head with confirmation, “The child triggered something when it touched me, its like we’re connected somehow. I could hear what it was thinking, he was directing me, channeling our abilities together in order to save Karga. I can’t explain it,” her voice went up an octave like she was afraid.

“You don’t have to.”

“What does this all mean?”

“We will figure it out, I promise you,” Mando assured her by placing his hand on the side of her helmet and then lifting her on the Blurrg situating her behind Kuiil.

Both parties moved out, Karga and his hunters lead while Mando, Cara, and the child’s pod followed as Kuiil and young Mando came up the rear. Karga and his men were quietly discussing certain matters among themselves, leaving Mando and Cara to do the same.

“You think they’re having second thoughts?” Cara questioned the obvious.

“Most likely. I need your eyes,” Mando said.

“I’m watching,” Cara confirmed making sure nothing malicious would manifest.

* * *

Karga took point, his hunters fell back behind Mando and Cara when Karga stopped and gazed out at the distance, “I guess this is it,” Karga stated knowing his two hunters drew their blasters and were ready to end Mando and Cara’s lives, but he made the first move blasting his own men.

Immediately Cara and Mando pulled their weapons and pointed them at Karga who held both of his guns towards the sky signaling his surrender.

“There’s something you should know,” Karga started when he kicked over his men making sure they were indeed dead.

Karga put his blasters away but Mando and Cara kept there’s on him when he continued, “A new plan was formulated from what they saw, it was to kill you and take the kids for profit. But after what happened last night, I couldn’t go through with it.”

Kuiil approached with young Mando but she stayed on the Blurrg when he dismounted. Mando and Cara didn’t move from their position ready to fire at any moment.

“Go on. You can gun me down here and now and it wouldn’t violate the Code,” Karga confirmed,” Sure the kiddo’s secret dies with me, but if you do, this child will never be safe,” pointing out that bounty hunters would never stop searching for it.

“We’ll take our chances,” Cara stated.

“The Imperial client is obsessed with obtaining this asset. You tried to run, but where did it get you?” Karga said.

“This is ridiculous,” Cara said.

“Perhaps you should let him speak,” Kuiil chimed in.

“Listen, we both need the client to be eliminated. Let me take the child to him and then you two,” but Karga was cut off.

“No,” Mando said.

“Let’s just kill him and get out of here,” Cara suggested.

“Papi,” was all young Mando had to say in order to get him to think things through.

“He’s right,” Mando declared putting away his blaster.

“What are you doing?” Cara questioned.

“As long as the Imp lives, he’ll send hunters after the child,” Mando stated.

“It’s a trap,” Cara confirmed.

“Bring me,” Mando said.

“Bring you?” Karga asked.

“Tell him you captured me. Get me close to him and I’ll kill him,” Mando stated.

“That’s a good idea and all but the bounty was placed for two Mandalorians,” Karga reveled in fear.

“She didn’t accompany me at the Imps safe house. He should have no idea of her existence,” Mando declared in anger, “I thought you just put a bounty on her head from within the Guild?”

“The kiddo was marked during our scuffle, that’s why my hands were tied and I had to place a bounty on both of you, so the Imp expects two Mandalorians,” Karga said as Mando drew near with his fist raised ready to make contact with Karga’s face.

“Stop it!” young Mando interjected putting herself between Karga and her father, “Of all people my father should have known the risks he was putting me in by enlisting me in the Guild.”

“You’re blaming me for this?” Mando questioned in horror.

“No, its just I’m ready to do my duty as a bounty hunter and Mandalorian. The Imp expects two prizes then he will get them. I’m coming with whether you like it or not Papi.”

Everyone could see there was no loophole for young Mando to not come but their concerns were about something else other than her presence.

“And yes I know what you are all thinking. Give me the vile and syringe,” young Mando’s hand extended towards her father, “If I sense anything I’ll take myself out, agreed?”

“What is she referring too?” Karga questioned in skeptic, “She can do more?”

“You have no idea,” Cara said in vague when Mando broke and gave her the vile and syringe.

“Okay now we got that out of the way, both of you give me your blasters,” Karga said.

“This is insane,” Cara pointed out.

“It’s the only way,” Mando realized.

“Well, I’m coming with,” Cara told rather than suggested.

“No, no, no. That would make them suspicious,” Karga said.

“I don’t care. I’m coming,” Cara snarled.

“Tell them she caught us,” Mando informed.

“Fine. Then she can bring the child,” Karga said.

“No. The kid goes back in the ship,” Mando declared.

“But without the child, none of this works!” Karga pointed out.

“I have a plan. Kuiil, ride back to the Razor Crest with the child and seal yourself in. When you’re inside, engage ground security protocols. Nothing on this planet will breach those doors,” Mando instructed.

“The code is 030830 in order to activate it,” young Mando informed as the numerical sequence had been permanently burned into her subconscious.

“Here’s a comlink,” Kuiil handed to Mando, “I will keep the child safe. Don’t forget to cover your stripes,” he reminded Cara, “And keep a clear mind young one,” Kuiil ended with young Mando.

“Let’s go,” Mando said handing two sets of binders to Karga as he placed the first set on Mando and then the second on his daughter. Karga checked every weapon on him, Cara wrapped fabric around her arm tattoo, when Kuiil took the child in his arms and headed to his Blurrg. The pod was sealed and followed the four individuals who made their way towards town.

* * *

The four approached the entrance to the city as two bored Scout troopers monitored the personnel of entering and exiting of the city. In the distance, Cara and Mando could make out several more Stormtroopers occupying the streets, way more than Karga implied.

Getting to his feet the Scout trooper looked over the individuals and then spoke to Karga, “Chain code?”

“I have a gift for the boss,” Karga said but the trooper wasn’t having it and repeated for the chain code.

Karga sighed in frustration when he handed the trooper the chit card, the trooper scanned it and then gave Karga a price, “I’ll give you forty credits for both the helmets.”

“Ha-ha! Not a chance. Those are going on my wall,” Karga emphasized but Mando glared at him in scorn.

“On your wall?” Mando whispered in a sneer.

“Go with it,” Karga said through pressed lips.

“Go ahead,” the trooper waved them through when they headed towards the Guild cantina.

As they made their way through the street Cara pointed out the obvious, the numerous amounts of Stormtroopers occupying the city, “You said four. There are more than four troopers.”

“Four guarding the client. Many more here in town. Things got really heated once Mando crashed the safe house,” Karga said.

“Slip them their blasters,” Cara commanded of Karga to arm both Mando and young Mando.

“Not yet,” Karga said, “Here we are,” Karga opened the door and as they walked in he addressed their concerns, “You see? Four.”

Karga escorted both Mando and his daughter towards the client who rose from his seat and approached them.

“Look what I brought you. As promised,” Karga showcased both Mandalorians.

“It appears there are more Mandalorians then expected, where I was informed this is your daughter. How extraordinary,” the client glared over young Mando amazed by her existence, “It appears the Beskar not went to waste,” the client went to touch young Mando’s armor when Mando jerked forward but Karga restrained him, “What exquisite craftsmanship,” the client briefly brushed the back of his hand on young Mando��s armor, “It is amazing how beautiful Beskar can be when forged by its ancestral artisans, and even more beautiful when you can share that with your offspring,” the client could read Mando was on high alert and moved the conversation to Karga, “Can I offer you a libation to celebrate the closing of our shared narrative?”

“I would be obliged,” Karga acknowledged.

“Please sit,” the client instructed, he pointed to the droid bartender for two drinks when Karga lowered Mando into the booth first as Karga slide next to him. The client sat on the opposite side while Cara stood behind young Mando acting as if she was obtaining her.

“It is a shame that your people suffered so,” the client continued when several more Stormtroopers began entering the room, “Just as in this situation, it was all avoidable. Why did Mandalore resist our expansion? The Empire improves every system it touches. Judge by any metric. Safety, prosperity, trade, opportunity, peace. Compare Imperial rule to what is happening now. Look outside, is the world more peaceful since the revolution? I see nothing but death and chaos. Is that what we want to leave for our future generations,” the client motioned towards young Mando but Mando stayed quiet, “I would like to see the baby,” the client instructed reaching for the pod.

“Uh, it is asleep,” Karga put his hand between the client and the concealed pod.

“We all will be quiet. Open the pram,” but a Stormtrooper came and whispered something in the client’s ear,” Don’t think me to be rude. I must take this call,” both Karga and the client rose when he left the table.

Young Mando unclasped her binders when Karga turned and snuck her blaster into her hands. Karga sat down and did the same with Mando as his binders were already off.

“You got one shot,” Karga said to Mando.

“This is bad. You said four,” Cara whispered though the side of her mouth.

“Well there are more. What can I tell you?” Karga said almost in defeat.

The client approached the bar when a trooper set up a transmission, once activated a man appeared in high ranking officer attire as the client addressed him as Moff Gideon.

“Have they brought the child?” Gideon questioned the client.

“Yes, they have. Currently, it is sleeping.”

“You may want to check again,” suddenly a rapid stream of blaster fire shot through the window killing the client instantly and all the troopers inside.

Karga, Cara, Mando, and his daughter took immediate cover, flipping over tables to hide from being hit. Finally the blaster fire seized when the four of them got into position in order to hold their ground.

Outside a line of Death Troopers stood fierce with their rifles held high, while a military transport landed with dozens of Stormtroopers filing out and getting into position.

“Four Stormtroopers?” Cara pointed out again but no one responded, “This is bad.”

“Kuiil? Are you back to the ship yet?” Mando radioed, “Are you there? Do you copy?” but Mando wasn’t the only one picking up on the conversation.

“Yes,” Kuiil responded.

“Are you back to the ship yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Get back to the ship and bail. Get the kid out of here. We’re pinned down!” Mando instructed.

Hearing his panic, Kuiil kicked his Blurrg to go faster but two Scout troopers were already in pursuit heading to Kuiil’s position.

* * *

The troopers outside the cantina waited patiently, weapons drawn, and ready to attack at a moment’s notice. All four waited in skeptic wondering what the trooper’s plan of attack would be when a TIE-fighter landed in the quarter.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” young Mando absentminded stated when Moff Gideon stepped out of the TIE-fighter and walked to the front of his troopers.

“You have something I want,” Gideon demanded.

“Who’s this guy?” Cara asked but Mando stayed silent.

“You may think you have some idea of what you are in possession of, but you do not,” Gideon informed.

“Kuiil, are you back to the ship yet?” They’re onto us!” Mando clarified.

“In a few moments, all will be mine,” Gideon declared.

“Kuiil do you copy?” Mando radioed in a panic.

“It means more to me than you will ever know.”

“Kuiil! Are you there? Kuiil, come in, Kuiil!” Mando shouted but with no response from the other end.

“No!” young Mando whispered to herself because she watched the event unfold in front of her eyes; the two Scout troopers had no mercy and blasted Kuiil off his Blurrg, leaving him for dead while they scooped up the child who was now in their possession.

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symphonic--chaos · 4 years

Text

Someday Stars

Chapter 1/? Malec (Shadowhunters AU) Summary: Alec Lightwood and Magnus Bane are both YouTube musicians who dream of making it big some day. When Simon Lewis and his band, Rock Solid Panda, go on tour and ask them to open for him, they both realize this could be their window to something greater.

Also here on AO3

Alec rushed around his apartment, creating a tornado's path with every step as his hands grabbed clothes as fast as they could. He knew he should have folded them after getting home from the laundromat last night. The email from Simon Lewis's management team still sat open on his laptop, which had been thrown unceremoniously to the end of his bed, the words still sitting on the screen: We will be back in New York City tonight and we would love to invite you to join our tour.If you will join us, you will be opening after Magnus Bane, and followed by Simon and the band. We will provide the bus, Simon does have room on his own. Please bring any merchandise you would like to sell. [Text from Izzy] OMG OMG OMG ARE YOU SERIOUS??????? YES, DO IT DO IT DO IT [Text from Izzy] while you're at it, get me some free tickets [Text from Mom] Oh, I'm so proud of you Alec! The book store and myself will be fine. Isabelle can help me. Go! I'm sure you'll make more money on the tour than here, anyway. We need to empty out your web store and send you with merch! [Text from Izzy] waIT I JUST SAW MAGNUS BANE IS THERE???!!!! TICKETS, BROTHER, YOU THREE ARE MY DREAM TOUR. [Text from Mom] Isabelle is screaming, I can hear her from downstairs. With each vibration Alec felt his anxiety grow, his hands shaking as he shoved the last thing he needed into the second suitcase. His eyes scanned over each text as he struggled to hold his phone, the smile growing on his face with each text they read. They lingered on the name Magnus Bane as he read Izzy's texts, he knew the name but he wasn't sure if he'd actually sat and listened to him. Both of them were musicians on YouTube aspiring to be as big as Simon had gotten, though according to Izzy, Magnus had just a slightly bigger following than Alec now because of the tour. Taking in a deep breath, Alec tilted his head back and closed his eyes, trying to focus himself on relaxing- he still had six hours until the tour reached New York City from their first shows in Boston and Hartford the previous nights.

"Alexa, start YouTube."

Alec said to the TV, releasing the button on the firestick as he moved into the kitchen. The cardboard of the pizza box he'd retrieved from within the fridge gave a dull thud as it was tossed onto the counter and a slice of cheese was taken out. "Magnus Bane," he said around a full mouth once he'd selected the search option, leaning against the counter as he watched the TV begin pulling up the search results. A few clicks had him on the fellow singers profile, his eyes scanning over the short bio on the About page. **NOW TOURING WITH ROCK SOLID PANDA** Singer/Pianist/Loverboy Web Shop Insta Twitter

Moving onto the main tab, Alec scrolled through, some of the highlighted ones being of Magnus sitting in a room decked out like a studio, or being in an actual studio. One or two was of him and a girl with a bright smile and dark eyes, her lips painted deep red and eyes with as much eyeliner as Magnus had. Alec noticed there was a trend of hearts on each video title with her in it, no doubt this was someone he liked or was dating and it came as no surprise, Alec thought as he took another bite of the pizza, Magnus was pretty attractive.

Scrolling to the top once more and finally selecting videos, he was surprised to see a video had been uploaded the day before, the preview screenshot much different than the bright, usually gold and purple themed photoshopped pictures he did in most of the videos Alec had scrolled past. This time is was Magnus illuminated on a stage by a single light from above, his head bowed as a grand piano sat at the mercy of his fingers. The picture was only titled HALLELUJAH, rather than the more descriptive titles on other videos.

Alec selected the video and moved to the couch to flop down with the pizza box. The camera shook a little, it was clear someone was holding it rather than it being on a tripod and self-shot. Alec wondered if it was someone from Simon's team or if Magnus had crew of his own- something Alec realized he didn't have any of which might create problems down the line. One of his dogs came over to the couch, a whine in her throat and vibrating against his knee as she rested her chin on him, looking longingly at the pizza in his hand as the piano started, soft and slow. Alec took a final bite before offering half of the crust to the dog, saving the other half for her brother.

Alec choked as he heard the voice come from his TV.

His whipped back to the screen as Magnus sang the first verse, his voice soft but firm like the notes being played on the piano. Despite the camera staying focused on Magnus and the piano as a whole, only moving as the person slowly circled the two, Alec couldn't stop staring at the look on Magnus's face. It didn't take a genius to know something was bothering him, that bright smile and lit up eyes from the video previews replaced by something dark, sad. His voice wasn't forced, but there was something in it that Alec knew all too well, he was singing this to someone- this upload was deliberate, a public liberation.

The camera came around to Magnus's side as he reached the second verse and once again his face was changing, sadness turning to anger and Alec could see the tears in Magnus's eyes. Alec's hand shifted on the remote, the volume on the screen going up as he leaned forward, not even noticing the other dog coming and slowly stealing the other crust half from his hand. “She tied you to her kitchen chair,” Alec could hear Magnus's voice getting louder, angrier, hearing the echo of both his singing and the piano echoing through the empty hall unveiled behind him as the person filming moved.

"And she broke your throne and she cut your hair," Magnus was hitting the keys harder. "And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah." Magnus's voice finally wavered, cracking as the pain seeped out in a moment of weakness, his fingers slammed down the final notes of the second verse before stilling. Alec's breath caught in his throat as he watched the singer take in a deep breath, the sound in the echoing silence monumental as the person filming paused, whether on purpose or a sudden feeling of remorse. "Hallelujah, hallelujah," It took a little under thirty seconds, but Magnus was playing again and this time, he was a broken man nearly whispering his lament. This was for the girl with the heart in her title. Alec finally found his breath as his lungs screamed for air, his heart pounding in his chest and, much to his surprise, his eyes stung with tears for the man on the screen. He didn't even know Magnus yet and already his heart was breaking with him as if he'd been through whatever relationship issues Magnus was having as well. Alec knew he put a lot of emotion in his music, thoughts and dreams into his lyrics, but here was someone who managed to bring him to a level he'd never reached before when listening to a performance. Whether it was the anger resurfacing or a sudden strength that Magnus had forgotten was in him, Alec came back to the moment when he heard Magnus singing the final verse of the song, his voice rising strong, normally low notes changed to high in such a beautiful time and contrast with the notes played on the piano, made his own and suddenly Alec could tell why Izzy was such a fan of the man on the screen. The final 'Hallelujah's' resonated through the hall, the camera recording him picking up each echo of the lyrics until the last note played and the echos faded away. Alec swallowed harshly, his tongue darting out over dry lips only to find everything was dry from his mouth being agape. Alec would be touring with the one who just poured his heart and soul out to not only the piano but his virtual audience. Magnus was a performer to a level that Alec wasn't sure he was ready to follow with his mellow tunes. Magnus was... amazing and Alec knew he needed to meet him. -- Simon waved Alec along behind him, his big goofy smile bright in the near darkness as the sun set behind the tall buildings in the horizon. Lights were just starting to come on and Alec had already been given a tour of Simon's bus, his bunk, and was alerted that all staff needs would be handled by Simon's staff due to the late notice in having him join the tour. It was a relief to say the least, since Alec wasn't used to any sort of tours, he was used to the safety of his recording room behind a microphone and camera with his guitar on his lap. "Come on, this is Magnus's bus. I'll introduce you to him." Simon said, not bothering to knock on the door and instead putting in the code on the door and letting himself in. It took only seconds after the door opened and they stepped up onto the stairs that a woman's harsh voice filled the bus. "You can't just tell me to leave! We've been together for years! YEARS, Magnus!" "Well maybe you should have thought of those years before you fucked two guys on the staff, Camille!" Magnus's voice snapped back, no hint of control there like he'd had in the video that was uploaded. Simon looked back at Alec, behind him on the stairs, like a deer caught in headlights. Neither wanted to move, neither wanted to say anything about them being there, purely out of fear of the repercussions. Alec shrugged and glanced behind him to see how they could back out slowly and quietly, only then noticing what looked like Magnus's staff out on the sidewalk behind them, seemingly waiting for the fight. Great of them to warn he and Simon. "It was a mistake! I had too much to drink, you know how things get!" Camille retorted, her voice going from harsh to pleading, Alec almost able to hear the tears in her voice. Cheap shot, he thought. It was Magnus's silence that had Alec peeking up slowly over the partition between the bus and the stairs, not daring to go up any higher like Simon was. Simon was actually impressed the two hadn't noticed them yet. Magnus looked done, his eyes tired and his lips void of the bright smile he had in every video; instead turned down in a deep frown. He looked thoughtfully at Camille and Alec almost wanted to tell him not to cave to guilt tactics, but this wasn't his place. He didn't know either of them, he didn't know the situation other than her cheating- he bit back the comment. "Camille, you need to leave. It's done. We're done." "Magnus, we--" "We went through this once before, two years ago, remember? You drank too much, you got loose with the wrong guy. I forgave you and said I would never do it again and now here we are, Camille. Back to this same old shit and I'm tired. I want to make something of my life and having to worry about keeping you close so you don't just fuck someone with a bottle of gin? That's not part of my life. Please get out." Magnus said finally and Alec watched him stare Camille in the eye, holding strong to his words. It was something Alec wasn't sure he could bring himself to do in a situation like this, but he felt an almost pride in Magnus for it. "No. No, Magnus, we can talk this o--" Camille started, though Simon clearing his throat caught her attention and she looked over at him, her pleading look turning into a sneer. "We're having a conversation here!" "One that it sounds like Magnus is done with. Look, this is between you two, but we have a show coming up tomorrow and I wanted to introduce Magnus to Alec..." Simon trailed off as he motioned behind him to Alec, who had ducked back down as if he wasn't there. Well, the jig was up. Alec straightened up, giving the two further in the bus a sheepish smile and a hesitant wave. "Uh, hey. I'm Alec Li--" "Lightwood." Magnus finished, sounding miserable still but Alec gave him a break on the smile he tried to force on his face. "I've seen and subscribe to you, you do great work." Alec felt a twinge of guilt that he hadn't heard of Magnus before, especially considering Magnus had at least a thousand more followers than he himself did. A hand rose to run through shaggy black hair in desperate need of a haircut, something he should of had done instead of spending hours watching Magnus's videos. Then again, he was sure Magnus probably followed a bunch of YouTube musicians, especially with a collab folder as large as he'd found under the video collections and the amount of 'Musician spotlight' shoutout videos that were also there. "It's nice to meet you, and ..." Alec looked to Camille, every bit of his willpower used to not make a face of displeasure. First impressions were important and the first of her was certainly something. "This is Camille, my ex-girlfriend. She was just leaving." The bag held towards Camille punctuated Magnus's words as he nodded towards the door. It didn't need to be said twice, Simon moved quickly out of the way and into the drivers seat area as Alec backed out of the bus to make room for her. It seemed like both men were eager to be rid of her, which Alec could only find himself mimicking to ease the moment. Camille looked between Magnus and Simon before she ripped the bag out of Magnus's hands, her eyes narrowing at him. "You'll regret this some day, Magnus. You don't know what you're losing." She spat out, her heels clicking harshly down the aisle of the bus and the stairs to follow. "You okay...?" Simon asked as he looked over to Magnus, moving further into the bus to pat his shoulder comfortingly. Alec was behind him though giving the two a bit of space, not wanting to intrude on the two friends that seemed to be having a moment. "I'm fine, thank you for stepping in. I didn't want to snap, I just..." Magnus sighed before glancing over Simon's shoulder and straightening his slumped back. "Mr. Lightwood, I'm glad you could join the tour. When Simon's manager mentioned wanting to reach out to you, I backed Simon and told her I highly recommended it. They were worried it was too last minute, but who gets a chance like this, right?" Alec found himself smiling at Magnus's smile, no matter how defeated it looked on the other man. "Yes, thank you, and thank you, Simon, for talking to her about me. Really, this is... I couldn't have even imagined I'd be here right now, much less going on a tour across the country performing for people, with other people." "Surreal, isn't it? This one is bigger than my last one, that was kind of just a small venue type thing where it was little crowds, but once we saw forums saying people were sad we were sold out, and when my manager saw people outside lined up around the block trying to get in still, they knew we had to go a little bigger this time. Really it was the last albums success, plus all the promotions and videos we threw up on YouTube that made it work for us. That last bit was at some persuasion of Magnus during one of the collabs we did of a Queen cover. Also we--" "Simon, you're rambling." Magnus chimed in, his fingers massaging his temple. Alec noticed the paint was slightly chipped, but he was sure there was more pressing things that Magnus had to worry about than that. "Oh! Oh, I am, yeah, sorry." Simon laughed and looked at the men he was basically sandwiched between. "Sooooo Alec, you should come see the venue and you can talk to my manager. Do you have a manager? They could talk about pay and stuff like that?" Simon's attention turned solely to Alec, who seemed nervous suddenly. "I... no. I mean, my mom handles a lot of my stuff like little shows around town and my sister handles my merch store but... I'm my own manager." "Nothing wrong with that, I'm my own currently as well. It's not so hard, I can show you the ropes." Magnus offered as he moved to the nearby fridge, pulling out a bottle of water and offering it out towards the two. Simon took it, Alec taking the next offered, and Magnus opened the third to take a long sip. "What order will we be doing this?" "I think you should go first to get the crowd riled up, then Alec, then me." Simon answered, his fingers fiddling with the cap of the water bottle. "Actually, I was thinking, if it's okay, if I go first and Magnus goes before you?" Alec said nervously, clearing his throat. He then looked to Magnus as he lifted a hand in defense, which had the other smirking. "Not that I want to displace you other anything, I just... you know, my stuff is kind of slower and I stand there and play my guitar. Magnus... is everywhere. I saw someone call him the next Freddie Mercury and I mean, I've been watching videos and--" "You've been watching me, Alexander?" Magnus mused, watching the faint trace of pink tint Alec's cheeks at both the comment and the name. "N-NO, I mean, yes, but-- look, what I mean is I think Magnus can get them more riled up and ready for you better than I can. He's got the energy like you, he's got an entire band to perform with, it's just me and--" "Are you torturing the new talent?" A woman's voice floated from the staircase, all three turning to look at the redhead watching them with amusement. "Ah! That's my manager. Alec, this is Jocelyn. Jocelyn, Alec. Her daughter, Clary, does the art for our flyers and shirts." Simon introduced, slipping past Alec to go over and greet the woman. "Should we show him the venue? Go over setlists?" "I think that would be the wisest decision, we don't have much time." Jocelyn nodded, smiling to Alec and Magnus before turning and moving back off the bus. "Alec, do you have a manager?" She asked as Alec came off the bus as well, followed by Magnus. "No, not yet. Just me. Magnus said he could help, though?" Jocelyn glanced past Alec to Magnus as he spoke, nodding in agreement. "I can help you out as well, we'll make you a natural. I've been teaching Simon along the way with the promise that he doesn't replace me." She winked to them and turned to lead them to the venue, the guard at the door opening it for them once he saw the badge around her neck. -- "This is..." Alec stood on the stage, looking over the rows of seating both on the floor and on the balcony above them. "Intimidating?" Simon asked. "Beautiful?" Magnus said at the same time, the two looking at each other with grins before they looked over at Alec. "Yeah," Alec answered with a breathless laugh, since both statements were pretty spot on. He'd played in coffee shops and small bookstores, but this was 10x's bigger than anything he'd been in before. It was surreal, almost so much so that he couldn't believe it was real. He was grateful for the opportunity and even more so of the moment that the two were giving him to soak it all in. Alec was sure they'd both had their own their first time, which Magnus had stated on their way in was the show they did in Boston. It apparently took him almost an hour to recover from it, and he only fully accepted it when they stepped into the Hartford venue. "You ready, big guy?" Jocelyn asked as she touched Alec's shoulder lightly, bringing him out of that moment and making him realize that Simon and Magnus had left his side and were now messing around with some of the equipment waiting for the show the next night. "Y-Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to get lost there." Alec could feel his face heating up, but Jocelyn looked plenty understanding and smiled at him, exuding the air of motherlike patience. "Hey, everyone goes there. Simon looked like a kid in a candy store his first big stage. Took me fifteen minutes to get him to stop running around with his arms up like some musical Rocky." She laughed and led him back to the others, putting a folder down on the table. "Alright guys, I think Alec was right in saying he should go first. No offense, Alec." "None taken." "Magnus you not only have energy, you're just infectious and now that ... she's gone, I think you're just free, kid. That Magnus you bottled up to keep an eye on her, let him go. Be the you we all saw on your channel, the one that we fell in love with when you came to the studio to do Killer Queen with them." Magnus's arms were crossed, his face neutral, but her pep talk seemed to bring a little bit of that light back and he couldn't stop the crook of his lips from forming a little smile. "You want me to..." "Break free." Jocelyn said with a playful wink, the two having found a bond over a shared love of Queen. "Are you guys flirting? This looks like flirting. I'm totally cool with it but like--" Simon's voice carried all the humor that Alec had expected from everything he'd seen on the RSP channel- he'd always seemed like the goofiest of the group. A shove from Magnus had Simon laughing and lifting his hands in a mock surrender. Jocelyn rolled her eyes though her smile was bright and she opened the folder, pulling out different papers and handing them to the men they belonged to respectively. "Alec, Clary and I went through your channel and we picked the videos with the most views, both covers and your originals, the same way we did with Magnus. What your homework is tonight is to go through this list and let me know if there's anything you want to add or remove. Remember that you have a 45 minute slot- so make sure the songs fit. It's okay if you go five minutes over, but we generally try to keep that to any crowd attention and loving you want to do after you perform. Magnus, you do the same, though I'm sure you want to keep your set, and Simon- anything you want to switch up?" Alec was completely baffled at the situation, he had always just assumed that artists picked out their own list of their most current music and then just random songs from different albums, but it made sense that they would go with the most popular since after all, that was what sold tickets. Simon was busy scribbling out one song and replacing it with another and Magnus---- Magnus was watching him. Alec froze, unable to tear his eyes away from the stare they'd become locked into, and it wasn't until Magnus gave a smile, a genuine one this time, that Alec was able to look away, instead focusing on the paperwork on the table. "This list is pretty good, I think I might replace two, but not too much more than that." Alec stuttered as he felt himself grow hot once more. What in the hell was going on with him? "Great, make sure you have it to me by 10 A.M tomorrow. The sound guys will need to go over everything with you and get pre-testing done, so we'll want to take care of that after to make soundcheck move smoothly tonight. Also, you're free to stay in your own place while we're in the city as long as you promise you'll be back on time, assuming you live in the city?" Jocelyn was excited herself to be near her own bed and it was very evident in her tone of voice. Looking around the table, Simon and especially Magnus looked just as relieved to be back home, even though they'd only been gone for less than a week. Alec could only imagine what it would be like in a couple weeks when they'd only be a month into the six month tour. "Yeah, I live about twenty minutes from here so I think that's great. My dogs will appreciate it." "Dogs? You have dogs? You should bring them!" Simon chirped, perking up at the mental image of having dogs with them all as stress relief. "Simon, no. There isn't enough room on the bus and we just started the tour. It's going to get crazy. Let's revisit that in a month, okay?" Jocelyn's words were only relenting at the end when Simon's smile dropped and she even noticed Magnus looked bummed. Alec smiled at the trio in front of him, feeling like they all were Jocelyn's new adopted kids. Admittedly it would be a little nice having a mom on the road, especially since this would be the first time Alec would be far from his own. There was no doubt he was a mama's boy, and there was nothing he would do to deny it if ever called out on it. As Jocelyn and Simon spoke about the setlist change once more, Alec's eyes caught Magnus's at the same time as Magnus had started looking at Alec, the two staring at each other subtly for a moment before Magnus was spoken to by Simon. This would definitely be an interesting start to a new beginning for Alec.

#someday stars #malec #au #youtube musicians #simon lewis #jocelyn fray #my fics

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rough-n-randy-rando · 5 years

Text

Edd and Flow, Day One

For a town that neither shrank nor grew noticeably, any business that had opened within the last five years was considered new. Java Hut was one of those businesses. About the size of two shipping containers stacked on top of each other and crammed between The Candy Store and Toomey's Tattoos, it was usually a busy place. The very first weekend of summer, with everyone having taken off like they were on the lam, it was almost completely empty.

There were only three people keeping the place warm: Eddward Vincent, known locally as Double-Dee; Barb; just Barb; and a trucker just passing through. Barb, Just Barb, 65-year-old owner of Toomey's, was taking her break and enjoying another romance novel she'd saved from the Goodwill. The Trucker was deeply contemplating the selection of doughnuts to pair with his pitch-black coffee. Eddward Vincent was behind the counter, offering helpful dietary and nutritional advice on each item in an attempt to help him make up his mind.

"I'm not a fancy guy, just something sweet, but not too sweet, gotta watch my weight." The trucker slapped his belly, which thumped like a drum, and laughed. "Ah, hell, gimme the Maple Bar, I'm treatin' myself."

"Excellent choice, sir, one moment." Double-Dee pressed a button and enjoyed the impressed look on the man's face as the doughnut was cycled on a conveyor belt and slid into a waiting paper bag, then lifted to the counter by a spatula/elevator device riveted to the display case.

"Now that's nifty, this from Japan or somethin'?"

"No Sir, it's a design of my own!"

"Well waddya know, we still make 'em smart here in the States after all." The man handed over a five and waved off the change. "Put it to college and remember me when ya win the Nobel or somethin'."

"Thank you, have a wonderful day."

After the trucker left, Barb whistled at Double-Dee and pointed to her lipstick-stained coffee mug. "Mind topping me off, Sugar, story's getting good and I'm remembering how old I am, need a jolt." As Double-Dee obliged her, she set her book down and looked him over. "You know, this town's dead as Tombstone and yet here you are slaving over an empty store." She took out a small compact and checked that her hair, grey with dyed black streaks, was still tied back and nothing was out of place. "Handsome, hardworking boy like you should be out making trouble, breaking girl's hearts; don't you have some doe-eyed cheerleader fawning after you somewhere?"

Double-Dee blushed and replaced the pot of coffee. "Yes, well, I'm set to graduate soon, and degrees sadly don't pay for themselves, Mrs. Sebastopol."

"Baby Doll, it's Barb, Just Barb."

"Mother told me to always refer to adults with respectful titles."

"Well I'm not your mother and I'm not royalty so just call me Barb."

Double-Dee sat at a stool near the end of the counter closest to Barb and smiled. "Alright, 'Barb'."

"See, wasn't so hard, not like your momma's gonna come through the door over there and start beating you with a wooden spoon or nothing."

"A very colorful scenario, 'Barb'."

Barbara pushed her winged-frame glasses up her nose, "You still didn't answer my question."

Again Double-Dee blushed and he gave a nervous laugh in response. "W-well, ah, I suppose I haven't… found the… right person."

"Gotta take time for romance, Darling. That's how I met my James." She leaned back in her chair and crossed her heavily tattooed arms. "Met him while he was on Liberty in San Francisco, Fleet Week, I was working at a diner called Pinecrest. He was with some of his buddies and at the border of drunk, saying he was the 'responsible one.' He was five-six, barely came to my chin, but he was all muscle, with hands like baseball mitts and a face like Gene Kelly. And that uniform, woof. Asked me out as he was carrying one of his buddies to the Cab."

The shop's door rung as it opened, ripping Double-Dee away from San Francisco, Pinecrest Diner, and the diminutive but immensely attractive Mr. Sebastopol. Kevin, dressed in a mechanic's coverall and his signature cap, halted a few steps in and seemed as though he suddenly wanted to leave. He'd come with the specific coal of 'casually' running into the dork, making as much small talk as possible with the dork, and being as close as possible to the dork. And now, he felt the urge to sprint home, and get as far away as possible from the dork.

"Oh hello, Kevin, forgive me I was hearing the most wonderful story."

Barb stood and drained her coffee in one big swig, inhaling sharply through her teeth afterwards, "Stuff's cold. My own damn fault." She pinched Double-Dee's cheek and gathered her things. "Should be getting back to work, stop bothering you with my memories." When she saw the disappointment on his face she checked her watch. "It's a slow day anyways, maybe I'll close up the shop and come bore you with the rest in an hour or so, how's that?"

"Please, 'Barb', I do not wish you to inconvenience yourself just for the sake of my curiosity."

"I own the damn place, nothing inconvenient about it." With that she took her leave, stopping at Kevin to give him a friendly punch in the arm. "And you, when are you coming back to finish up your work, eh?"

Kevin was glad it was the summer, that he was in a thick coverall, and that he'd just walked a half mile on a whim, because his new nervous sweat was easily masked by all the exertion. "Yeah, hah, great to see you too, Barb."

Barb gave him a quizzical look, then licked her thumb and wiped away a smudge of grease on his cheek. "Take a shower at some point today, Red."

And with that, Barb, Just Barb, made her exit, leaving the two with only open air and a cabinet full of doughnuts between them.

"Coffee!" Kevin blurted out, aware he sounded like he was trying to talk over someone. It was possibly his own thoughts both encouraging and dissuading him to do something, damnit.

Double-Dee jumped at the near-order and crossed to the machines, fretting and fumbling over the cups. "What size, wh-what kind?"

"Coffee?" His brain was screaming at him.

"Yes, Kevin, what kind, what size?"

"Hot… Hot Coffee. Sm... Medium."

Double-Dee calmed slightly, recovering from the surprise. "Is house blend fine?"

"House. Fine, finefinefine." His brain had stopped screaming because it was dead.

Double-Dee went about pouring a medium house coffee utilizing a set of hydraulic arms and claws that quickly, safely, and efficiently delivered the steaming-hot drink straight to Kevin, an accordion-style arm presenting it. "That'll be two dollars and fifty cents, please."

Kevin fumbled one-handed with his wallet and deftly dropped it to the floor as he pulled out a five. He stood there, coffee in one hand, bill in the other. Double-Dee cautiously walked around the counter and stooped to get Kevin's wallet. Kevin's body finally made some kind of connection to his mind and he stooped after as well, his chin meeting the back of the ravenette's head.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry, dude!"

Kevin instinctively brought his hands down to pull Double-Dee up, and accomplished slapping the other teen in the face with a five-dollar bill and spilling half of his piping-hot coffee on him as well. Double-Dee stood up abruptly and this time it was his head in the role of attacker, slamming Kevin's mouth shut with a loud CLACK as his teeth became reacquainted. Kevin was knocked off balance and fell backwards, causing him to grab at the air with his now empty hand, snagging Double-Dee's beanie. Double-Dee, with lightning reflexes, grabbed onto his hat and held for dear life, being pulled along, then down, with Kevin.

The two came to rest a coffee, grease and sweat-stained pile. Double-Dee's head was resting on Kevin's chest, and Kevin was holding onto the other boy like they'd just finished making love.

"You, uhm… you okay, Double Dweeb?" 'Yes, good, save face insult him AND ask after his well-being' his inner voice hissed.

"This has been a rather…" Double-Dee rose slightly and shifted into a sitting position, straddling Kevin, his hair disheveled and emerging from under his now wet hat, "… Interesting encounter."

Kevin felt blood rushing back to the brain in his head, as well as his other brain just below the waist. He heard the bell on the door ring and craned his head to see who had entered to witness his shame.

"You know it's against company policy to bang in the store on the clock, right?" Lee Kanker stepped over Kevin and made her way to the rear of the store, calling over her shoulder, "Double-Dee, clean that up will ya, I'm going to change."

Double-Dee looked at his watch, then at his coffee-stained clothes, and the coffee-stained floor, and the coffee-stained redhead he was mounted on. "Messy, messy, messy, these stains will be aggravating to remove." He stood and cautiously leaned over the counter to press a button, summoning a robot that looked like a filing cabinet crossed with a mop bucket that set about cleaning the ground, letting out an annoyed beep each time it found the way obstructed by a still prostrate Kevin. "Please get off the floor, Kevin, it's very dirty, then again I suppose you're rather messy yourself." He extended his hand.

Whatever mix of bravado, sheepishness, and utter stupidity had previously been rattling around inside him was gone, and now Kevin, neutral and defeated, took the offered hand and rose.

"Thanks for the Coffee." Kevin turned on his heel like the failed JROTC cadet he was and strode out, breaking into a dead sprint the minute his foot hit the sidewalk.

Lee came back and took a seat behind the counter, flipping through a Playgirl magazine and putting in headphones. "He had a hard-on."

Double-Dee spun around, his face turning crimson. "Excuse me!?"

Lee ripped out one of the pages and stuffed it in her bra, "Kevin, rock hard."

Double-Dee was speechless. He attempted some kind of response, smoothed out his soaked apron, tucked his loose, wet hair back under his hat, composed himself, and strode towards the rear of the store.

"Be proud, it's a compliment" she called after him, tearing another photo of a near-nude man out and putting him with his compatriot.

Meanwhile, Kevin, winded and his heart thudding in his ears, was about to turn back into the cul de sac when he tripped and gorilla-rolled across the sidewalk, coming to rest on his back. He laid there, staring up into the sun, wishing for it to burn him to a crisp, when a familiar face came into view.

"Kevin, why are you splayed like a fresh pelt on a tanning board, and why do you smell of a Peruvian/Chilean blend?"

"Rolf, bro, I couldn't tell you to save my life." He was pained at the truth in that. He was barely able to contemplate or come to terms with his own feelings, let alone begin to try and play out other people's reactions to them. "I just… I got it bad for someone."

"It? Bad? What, Worms? Rolf has cure for this pestilential malady! Come, we'll ferment some of Victor's milk and pickle a dozen of Gertrude's eggs, you'll be purged and fit enough to harvest an entire field in no time!" Rolf lifted Kevin up bodily and placed him on his feet. "You do not seem as though you are bothered by things which creep and crawl on your insides, tell Rolf your worry so that he may tailor a solution."

"I like someone, dude." It might have been the need to tell someone something, even if it wasn't everything; it might have been the dizziness from getting hit in and falling onto his head consecutively in the span of a few minutes; or it might have been the loneliness that went hand in hand with his recent thoughts, but he let fly. "I don't know why, or, I think I know why, but I don't know what to do, how to do it, you know what I mean?"

"No, Rolf does not understand this."

Kevin let out a sigh. "Forget it, man."

"Rolf does not understand this 'not knowing', this 'why.' If you feel the rustlings of the undergrowth of your heart you do not turn and run like some child without hair on their chest; you declare yourself to your desired, you build a home for them, and plant many a fertile seed so as to leave no doubt of your prowess and virility."

Kevin felt a second wind in him, his friend's words echoing in his head. "I don't know about the planting seeds and whatever but yeah, YEAH, that's what I'm gonna do."

"Ensuring a bountiful harvest is important to courtship, flat-end-of-bread Kevin, now you are saying things that Rolf cannot approve of."

Kevin embraced his friend and took off running back towards Java Hut.

"If you do have worms tell Rolf, he already has the milk and eggs!"

Back at the shop, Barb was engaged in commentary of the men in the magazine with Lee, Double-Dee emerging from the back clean and dry.

"There you are, I thought you'd changed your mind and taken off to avoid my story."

Double-Dee chuckled, feeling refreshed after he'd utilized his patented solo-shower kit. "I wouldn't miss the conclusion of your story for anything, 'Barb'"

"Oooh, juicy gossip?" Lee leaned towards Barb expectantly, Double-Dee sitting beside her at a respectful distance.

"Just talking about my James."

"I remember him, short guy, like my Eddy."

Barb sighed and nodded, reached into her purse and pulled out a much-loved photograph in a cloudy, plastic sleeve. She pulled the photo out and held it so they could see. Barb was young, thin, and naked, a yellow sundress thrown over her shoulder. Double-Dee blushed, Lee whistled. Besides her was a stocky, muscular man with his arms crossed and wearing only a smile, his impressive equipment on proud display. Double-Dee giggled nervously, and Lee nodded in approval. While Barb's skin was an empty canvas, James was a mosaic of Marine iconography, Catholic imagery and more than a couple Japanese geishas in demure and lewd poses.

"He gave me my first ink, our second date." She lifted her arm so they could see her armpit, a wide-hipped hula girl winking back at them. It had clearly gotten a few touch ups over the years, the most well-cared for tattoo out of her many. "The photo's from our first date, Baker Beach. He left for Vietnam a few days later and swore he'd kill anyone and anything to get back to me, even 'the poor bastard who makes the mistake of marrying you before me.' He was a romantic."

"Marriage, after a couple of dates?" Double-Dee was amazed.

"Did you not see what he was packing? I'd have married him on the spot." Lee let out a lecherous laugh and high-fived Barb.

Barb wiped away a tear, smiling at her photograph and other fond memories. "You just know. It's corny, it's old fashioned, but, we did, and so I think anyone can. Plus, he came back in one piece, so I knew he'd be tougher than anything that came our way."

"What happened to Mr. Sebasto… James?" Double-Dee winced as Lee smacked his shoulder.

"Cancer. Had to be something that mean to take my James down. The only thing he couldn't beat with his bare hands." Barb laughed and wiped her eyes again. "No I don't dwell on that. I had him, he was mine, not everyone gets that chance, that blessing."

The door to the shop didn't open so much as it exploded inward, the bell snapping loose as it rung. Kevin stumbled in, soaked to the waist in sweat, coffee stains still on him. Everyone in the shop stared at Kevin, but he only had eyes for, and on, Double-Dee.

"Kevin, you're in even shoddier a state than when you left, what happened!?" Double-Dee sprung from his seat and moved to Kevin, putting his hands on his shoulders and meeting his gaze, assessing him for heat injuries.

"Plant… fffffertile… seeeehhuuuuh." He didn't fall into Double-Dee's arms so much as collapsed into them, then onto him.

"Oh dear, not again." There was no helping it, the pair fell to the ground. "Some assistance, please?"

READ FULL STORY IN SEQUENCE HERE

#kevedd #fanfiction #slshfiction #ship #writting #prose

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hanniiesuckle17 · 5 years

Text

In The Sheets

A/n: not requested but I was watching House Md and thought I’d give this a try. Thinking of making it a series???

Member: Lee Jihoon (Woozi) ft. Seungcheol (S.Coups)

WARNINGS: Brief smut, mention of sex, swearing, mention of gore

Summary: Residency at one of the most prestigious teaching hospitals in Seoul doesn’t do much for one’s social life. Especially one’s sex life. Doctors resort to shagging in dark closets and on call rooms just to keep from killing each other. Y/n has a constant on going deal with one of the most famous attendings in the hospital. When feelings, jealousy, and a certain patient start to get involved, things fall apart.

Genre: smut? Not really, fluff, comedy?, intense, doctor!au, doctor!idol x doctor!reader, friends with benefits

The sounds of heavy breaths and strangled moans echoed in the small dark room. My body satisfied and tired, rolled off of the handsome doctor under me. Jihoon was quite the sight to see, but he always was after a round between the sheets.

There was no harm in what we were doing, because there was no emotion. Or so I thought. Lately these rendezvous with the dark, handsome, and calculating doctor had a knot growing in my stomach. The kind where when I saw him in the hall I couldn’t help but feel a little hurt when he didn’t at least smile at me.

I pushed the thought aside and decided to think about his chest rising and falling heavily beside me. “Top three.” He said with a tiny smile looking over at me. His dark hair fell in his eyes. “Top three times we’ve done it?” He shook his head and took a gasp of air before pushing himself up on his elbows. “Top three ever.” He leaned down and started attacking my collar bone with his swollen lips. Instinctively my fingers tangled in his messy black hair.

“Jihoon-” His slim form hovered over me and kissed every inch of skin he could find. Our attention was diverted at the sound of the door knob turning. Pulling the covers quickly over the both of us he hid me beneath the blanket and I pressed against his stomach, holding my breath.

“Dr. Lee?” I heard Jihoon shift and he did his best to make his voice sound drowsy. “Yes. What is it, Kim?” I tried to stifle a laugh as his cold and pissy personality started to come back and attack the poor intern or resident who ‘woke him up’. “Chief wants to see you in her office.” Jihoon muttered a cuss word under his breath before agreeing and shooing the doctor out of the room.

When the door fully closed, I pulled the covers away and got out of the bunk bed. I could feel Jihoon’s eyes on me as I grabbed my underwear and slipped them on. “Duty calls anyway, huh?” I was grateful I had kept my bra on and pulled on my pants before turning to Jihoon.

My eyes landed on the spectacles sitting on the desk and handed them to the man half sitting up in bed. Not only was Jihoon attractive, but he was incredibly smart. Definitely the best doctor in the hospital and leading Diagnostician in the city. It was a big turn on.

I checked my pager and saw a message. “Uh- I’ll be leaving first. I’ve got a surgery in an hour. I need to go prep.” I tossed on my shirt and threw on my doctor’s coat. “How come you’re the first to leave lately?” Turning I saw him out of bed and pulling up the pants of his scrubs. “I told you. I have a surgery.” If I spent much more time with him I’d be in more trouble than I already was in more ways than one.

Suddenly I was pressed against the wall, his bare chest pressed flush against mine. “You starting to get feelings? You know that’s against the rules.” Jihoon’s breath fanned across my cheek with a smirk. He loved the fact that I was shorter than him. I lied my ass off and hoped he didn’t notice. “Feelings for you? The calculating, emotionless, sociopath, genius doctor? Never.” He scoffed and looked me in the eye.

“I have emotions.”

“Yes, happy, mad, and horny. I’m familiar with all three of them.”

I gently pushed him off of me and fixed my hair in the mirror. “Are you on call tomorrow night?” He scratched the bridge of his nose and watched me through the reflective surface. I nodded and pulled my hair back with an old and stretched out rubber band. Jihoon’s eyes scanned my wrists and neck as my fingers tied back my messy hair.

“Bye.” With a quick smile I left the room and tried to calm my fast beating heart.

The sky was still dark out as I walked back to the hospital. Sleeping for three hours in my own bed was nice. My feet shuffled into the doctor’s locker room carrying my chai tea latte. Thank god for caffiene. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror. If I didn’t know myself I would have though I was a broke college student in a crop top and sweatpants rather than a doctor. As I placed my bag in my locker the door opened.

Jihoon walked in, his black hair disheveled and covered by the blue hoodie he wore. His round glasses were perched on the end of his nose as he looked up at me. I seemed to have forgotten the fact that the attendings’ locker room was under renovation. “Morning,” He said with a smile. His eyes quickly scanned the empty room.

Sending a small smile his way I turned back to what I was doing. More specifically trying to ignore how attractive he looked in sweats and a t-shirt. The touch of his slender fingers on my waist surprised me. “What? No, ‘Good morning, Doctor!’” The comment itself seemed harmless and normal coming from him. However the way he said it to me seemed more playful than his usual sarcasm.

I had to get these thoughts out of my head. “You giving me the silent treatment?” His grip became tighter pulling me so I was attached to his hip as his other hand moved in the locker next to me. I simply smirked and kept his stare.

“You never told me how hot you looked in sweats.” His fingers that drove my pulse through the roof found a patch of bare skin on my side. Jihoon’s eyes searched for any type of reaction. “Never seen you in anything, but scrubs.” His eyes crinkled with a smile. “Well, that’s not true.” He winked at me, inching the two of us closer.

“Fuuuuuucccckkk.” The door slammed open and I pushed Jihoon away and ripped my binder from my locker. I couldn’t help but smile at my colleague’s entrance. “Morning, Seungcheol.” The man smiled brightly at me and ran a hand through his shaggy blonde hair as he rounded the corner. “Hey beautif–Oh….Annyeonghaseo Doctor.” He bowed low obviously embarrassed of his previous action.

Seungcheol quickly shuffled over to his locker and he began changing. Slowly residents and attendings started trickling in. Some getting off a shift and some coming on. Changed into scrubs and my coat I walked over to Seungcheol who was looking at the bulletin board. “You know why we are reporting to the Diagnostician office this morning?” I shook my head and followed his line of sight to a new posting with three names and instructions.

Dr. Choi Seungcheol

Dr. Boo Seungkwan

Dr. L/n Y/n

“We all have different expertise. You do neurology, I am more of the surgical doctor, and Dr. Boo is am immunologist. Why do they need all of us?” Seungcheol nodded looking from me to the paper. “Yo Boo!” He called out into the room. When no one responded we both turned and found the brunette doctor passed out against the wall with a chart in one hand and a redbull in the other.

“Boo,” I kicked his shoe with no response. “Boo, we’re out of redbull.”

“You should probably drive.” He shot up the words drowsily falling from his lips. I laughed and helped Seungkwan up and told him we were were needed in Diagnostics. The three of us walked side by side down the hall down to the only diagnostics office. Entering I saw Jihoon with his feet propped up on the desk wearing a maroon button down with black jeans and his doctor’s coat.

“Well, took you three long enough. Welcome to Hell.” The Jihoon I knew was gone. In his place was the sarcastic and condescending Dr. Lee.

The three of us stood staring dumbfounded at the doctor. With an exasperated sigh he pulled a paper off his desk and read from it. “Congratulations….blah blah blah…..fancy words that are a waste of space….” He turned the page over as I looked to Seungcheol and Seungkwan for any type of clue as to what was going on. “Ah! Here we go. Welcome and congratulations. You three ‘doctors’; Dr. Blondie, Dr. Legs for Days, and Dr. Redbull have all been selected to be part of an elite Diagnostics Team for Mercy Seoul Hospital.”

He threw the paper flippantly back onto his rather cluttered desk. Jihoon stared at us expectantly. “Aren’t you supposed to be jumping for joy or some shit? This is a prestigious position. You get an amazing raise of four dollars an hour!” The sarcasm was dripping in his words as he sauntered to the front of his desk and leaned on it.

I wasn’t shocked at his words unlike my colleagues, however the question of why he chose me stood prominently in my mind. “Okay then. Love the enthusiasm.” He grabbed three files off his desk and tossed them to us. “First case.” I leaned against a bookshelf and scanned the file, listening intently as Seungkwan read the file aloud.

“Female, Seo Hyunri, 34 years old. She was admitted via the ER with symptoms of regular pneumonia with an abnormal fever.” My brain started working like putting faces to names, recalling disease after disease.

“Could be a clot in her brain. A clot in the right place could cause a fever.”

“Yes, the neurologist would think that.”

Jihoon looked at the three of us in frustration. At some point he had picked up the rubik’s cube on his desk and had started messing with it. “No. It wouldn’t cause one this high.” Seungkwan said flipping through the file. “Are we going to see the patient or…” Jihoon looked to Seungcheol. “What? No why would we need to?” Embarrassed by the question he shrugged and looked back at the file.

“Come on. Just say the first thing that comes to your mind.” Jihoon walked over to a whiteboard and in definitive messy handwriting wrote the symptoms in red marker. “Normal pneumonia?” Seungkwan asked. “Give her antibiotics or penicillin and she’ll be fine in a couple days.”

“While ER doctors aren’t the smartest, I doubt that they did not try antibiotics.”

“Late onset Tuberculosis.” The words fell out of my lips before I could think. Hesitantly I looked up to find Dr. Lee staring at me, his expression unreadable. “On the right track. What else?”

Scrambling I flipped through the file. “It says she works on a farm outside the city. If she’s not vaccinated, this time of year could make it easier for someone like her to catch it.”

“Still you would treat it with antibiotics.” Dr. Boo interjected. Jihoon nodded and stood up placing a complete rubiks cube on the desk. “Well then. Let’s take a field trip.”

The three of us stood staring at each other while he strode out the door.

“You’re supposed to follow me!” Scrambling the three of us rushed down the hallway to catch up with him. This was the opportunity of a lifetime to be taught and work with Dr. Lee. I wasn’t just going to let it slip away.

We entered a room with a middle aged woman lying on the bed. Jihoon confidently walked up to her and took her arm lifting it up. She was shocked, but stayed silent as he turned to us. “Abscesses. Something the ER quite clearly missed.” It clicked in my brain.

“Melioidosis…”

“Yes, good work L/N.”

“Blondie. Put her on ceftazidime. She should be better in a couple of days.”

With that he exited the room leaving the three of us standing awkwardly in our patients presence. Handing my file to Seungcheol with a coy smile I retorted, “You heard him, Blondie.” He sighed as Boo handed him his file as well. The two of us exited the room and parted ways.

On the way back to the lockers I was pulled into a patient room. The door closed and I looked to see Jihoon with a smirk. “You did good work today. I didn’t expect you to get it first.” I scoffed. That was the only kind of compliment he gave. Back handed.

“Why did you put me on the team? There are many other surgeons you could have chosen.”

“Yeah, but they’re not you.”

“Well I don’t want the reason I got this job to be because I’m screwing my boss behind closed doors.”

“Of course behind closed doors. People would see if they were open.” His arm came to rest on the wall beside my head, making the air very warm. “But that is the reason I was chosen.” He shook his head and looked down. “No. You were chosen because you are one of the smartest doctors in this hospital.” I raised my brow in disbelief, determined not to let him get to me.

“Okay, and you never agree with me. It helps to have a little push back sometimes.” I couldn’t help but let out a tiny laugh. His hand snaked its way up my hip and to the small of my back, drawing me closer. His lips touched the corner of my mouth and then traveled down to my jaw. It was then I noticed the beeping in the room.

“Jihoon, there’s a patient in here!”

“It’s okay. He’s in a coma we won’t bother him.”

He fervently pressed a heated kiss to my lips and I couldn’t help but melt. Every touch was like a lingering light that I could feel on my skin. Thankfully his pager brought me out of the trance.

“Fuck, Mingyu. Really? Now?” He turned it off and cupped my cheek kissing me again. It took all of my will power to push against his chest. “No… you should go. It could be important.” The words came out shaky and breath like. He scoffed and kissed me once more before exiting the room and closing the door.

My legs gave out and I sank to the floor letting out a heavy breath. “Holy shit…” What the hell am I doing?

All thoughts of Jihoon left my head when a 911 came through my pager and I sprinted out the door.

Masterlist

Requests are open my lovelies!!!

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krisseycrystal · 4 years

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rated: t

original work: Of Storm and Ash

prompt: “Communication Suddenly Cut Off” + Nerissa & Poseidon

requested by: @kohakhearts

so taylo req’d a while ago “communication suddenly cut off” with their OC’s, Nerissa and Poseidon, an absolutely DYNAMIC sibling duo both of whom I adore, and I was helpless to say no. both chars come from their upcoming novel, Of Storm and Ash, so if you like them, GO CHECK OUT TAYLO’S STUFF MAN it’s super good

also i got to toy with a sci-fi au i’ve been itching to do for a while so y’kno. win-win. enjoy!

- o - o - o -

Illimitable [Read on AO3]

- o - o - o -

Space is a vast blanket of multi-colored nebulas and galaxies swathed in an endless black embrace. Pockets of suns and stars glitter, rich and tempting in Nerissa’s eyes as she peers up at the expanse, cheek resting against her folded fingers. It seems as if in their tiny little scavenger ship, they, too, are enfolded in it: swallowed up by the greatness of infinity.

Nerissa’s kind of in love with that.

“Hey, Issa?”

With a soft exhale and a lazy, long stretch, Nerissa leans over and presses on the glowing comm button at her right. “How’s it goin’, squirt?”

“I told you not to call me that.”

“And I said I’ll stop calling you that the day you finally hit that growth spurt.” Nerissa grins. “So what, did you need something?”

“Just wondering if Ryes is back yet?”

Nerissa sighs. The button clicks again under her finger. “Negatory, squirt. Sorry.” Then, just as fast, an idea pops into her head. She straightens, slipping her crossed feet down from the wide dashboard. “What, are you getting tired? Wanna switch?”

“Get lost, Issa. I didn’t say that.”

Nerissa drops her fist against the dashboard’s rounded steel edge. “Damn it.”

Poseidon’s laugh on the other end of the comm earns her an extra eye roll. He’s holding open the comm so she can hear him on purpose.

“Who’s the one who drew the short straw, again?”

“I don’t care. I want to see the geodites!”

“There’s not really much to see out here, Issa. You’d be disappointed. I don’t even think I’m going to be able to bring back a full crate. All the geodites I can find aren’t worth very much. They’ve all got common cores.”

“I don’t care.” Nerissa drops her head against the dashboard and groans. “It’d be better than being cooped up on this damn ship waiting for Ryes to get back from the nearest outpost.”

“Haha. That’s your--uh.”

Nerissa waits for a second, and then two, and then leans forward again. Click. “My what?”

Poseidon doesn’t answer.

Click. “You okay, squirt?” Nerissa presses.

“Y-yeah. I just thought I saw something.”

Nerissa’s eyes snap to the radars and the blip-less maps of the asteroid’s surface across the green screens on the left wall. There’s only one cool, blue dot that is Poseidon. “Saw what? There’s still no other signs of life here on our, uh…” She checks the note Ryes had scribbled in his excitement on finding an unclaimed asteroid. “X-11-07. So you’re good.” Safe, she means and knows Poseidon understands. “Gettin’ hungry? Wanna head back?”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

When he doesn’t say anything more, Nerissa gentles her tone. “It’s okay, squirt. When you get here, you can eat some of those nutrition bars you like so much, break a few teeth, and then get back to checkin’ out the geodite deposit. I promise I won’t steal your thunder by switchin’ out with you.”

“I like that they’re crunchy.”

“Those nutrition bars are fuckin’ rocks.” Nerissa tries not to smile.

“You just say that because your teeth are weak.” Poseidon rises to the bait like he always does. “Natural selection is coming for you, Issa.”

“Oh yeah? Consider me terrifi--”

Nerissa cuts herself off the instant Poseidon screams her name.

Her knee bangs against the underside of the dashboard on her way to her feet. The tall coffee mug she had been drinking lazily from bumps to the floor, spilling everywhere. Ryes’ note flutters slowly into the coffee, soaking from the center of itself and spreading outward.

“Poseidon?!” Nerissa’s fingers burn white, jammed as hard as they can be into the comm button. “Poseidon, answer me!”

“I--” Poseidon’s voice, panting and shaking, is still an immense relief to hear. “--Issa, I think the scanners are wrong. There’s definitely something--someone--out here!”

“What makes you say--” Nerissa doesn’t even let herself finish. She knows Ryes would have her head if she left the ship abandoned, but she can’t--she couldn’t--she can’t stand here if Poseidon’s in danger. Surely their mentor would understand that. “--no. Hold that thought. I’m on my way. How far away from the deposit are you?”

Nerissa runs to the side wall for her dangling suit.

“No! Just let me come back to the ship! I’m on my way!”

Of course. Of fucking course he’d say that. Nerissa runs a trembling hand through her hair, pulling it up and out from under the back before she taps the shoulder sensors and the suit squeezes tight to her form, vacuuming shut around her. “You’re out of your fucking mind if you think I’m just going to sit here while you’re out there with--” Nerissa’s eyes dart to the screens still blank and blipless safe for Posiedon’s figure, making a beeline for the ship. “--whatever the hell it is that our scanners aren’t picking up.”

“I think--” Poseidon’s breath fades in and out, heavy and cloudy over the line as he runs. Nerissa listens to it as she suits up. “--I think it’s a person. Human. Maybe otherwise; I don’t know. But…Issa…I get the feeling--”

Nerissa’s helmet clicks into place, locking onto the neck of her suit. There’s a sigh of decompressed air, and then a hub of information lights up around her vision. She hurries to the door. Her fist slams into the button to unlock the decontamination chamber as she switches her comm link to hands-free. “Get the feeling of what, squirt?” she urges the silence to speak, to answer her. “What’s going on? Poseidon!”

There’s a crackle on the other end. Static. Then, oddly distorted speech: “I think there’s more than one!”

When the ship door finally opens, the landing steps don’t even finish extending to the lifeless grey dirt before Nerissa jumps out over them.

Gravity is strange on X-11-07.

Nerissa swears at the slowness of it: the exact contrast to the fierce rabbit’s foot patter of her heart against her ribcage. When her boots hit the ground, she launches herself back up immediately with more force than she intended and flies. The ground passes quickly under her, dips and odd, holey stalactites poking up out of the earth, only to zip by harmlessly out of reach.

Damn. That’s actually kind of cool.

“Poseidon!” she calls; the shout of her own voice reverberates back at her inside the confines of her helmet. “I’m coming!”

The ground rushes up to meet her. Nerissa throws her feet out first and lands at an awkward angle. The grey asteroid rock crunches easily into dust, spraying up quickly and falling slowly. It obscures her vision for a second too long, a second Nerissa doesn’t have time to sit and wait through to see clearly. She jumps again.

“Poseidon!”

“Issa! Issa, get back to the ship!”

“What?!”

“Get back here! Now--”

There’s a harsh, buzzing click.

Then, nothing.

Nerissa lands hard. Dust clouds up, everywhere. Rising immediately. Falling slowly, drifting lazily. The substance is outside of her airtight suit; there are no cracks in her helmet for the asteroid dirt to seep into. And yet all the same, Nerissa does not think she can breathe.

“Poseidon?” she calls and she tries to open the comm link again. And again. And again. But there is nothing there. No buzz and quiet static like she should hear.

The line is dead.

“Poseidon!”

The sound starts behind her, back the way she had come from. It’s odd, traveling through an atmosphere that morphs and dulls sound to an odd, distant roar, but she recognizes the tremble in the ground underneath her boots and the quiet thrum of their scavenger ship’s engines and she turns around as a pulse of wind scatters the cloud of dust into nothing.

Nerissa recognizes, in the distance, so far back from where she has launched herself, the body of their scavenger ship--theirs--as it rises into the sky, thrusters aimed at the ground. It pushes itself up, and up, and up.

That’s what Poseidon was trying to say.

They have the ship.

They have him.

Nerissa pushes herself up again, launches herself. Something frantic makes her scream, gives voice to whatever is building inside her chest and needs to be set free. Needs to get to Poseidon, needs to not be stranded on an unclaimed asteroid in the middle of nowhere. No one knows X-11-07 even fucking exists yet.

When Ryes gets back--

--will he come here? And find Nerissa? Or will he follow the signature of their scavenger ship and find it hijacked and Poseidon--

--is Poseidon okay?

“STOP!” Nerissa screams at the top of her lungs as the ship, now at a safe altitude to turn and begin peeling away from the asteroid, slowly angles its nose towards the sky. The beautiful, kaleidoscopic spread of the universe is winged out above her, abyssal and amazing, and it betrays her.

The thrusters turn and push the ship up. With a bright flare and blast, the ship launches off.

And the void of space accepts it in its embrace.

Nerissa’s boots slowly hit the dirt. The burst of asteroid dust underneath her is smaller, gentler; it rises no further than her knees, juxtaposed entirely to the deep crater that has been punched into her chest.

- o - o - o -

The first few minutes in the following silence is filled with the same thoughts on repeat, over and over again, tumbling through Nerissa’s head in a tight and panicky mess: “What do I do now?” and “I’m all alone. Oh god; I’m all alone. I’m stranded on an asteroid no one even knows exists yet and I’m alone,” and “What if Ryes never comes back?” and “I shouldn’t have fucking left the ship! I’m such an idiot! If I hadn’t left the ship, I could have…”

An hour passes.

Nerissa curls, pressing her forehead into her knees and hoping that if she puts her hands on the back of her helmet, she can trap and bottle her panic and focus it into something helpful.

Like taking inventory, for starters.

All of the suits Ryes had equipped their ship with are built to power through six hours before needing a recharge. If she doesn’t manage to do anything else stupid for the next five, then Nerissa knows she should be able to continue having access to a stable air supply and technology.

But that’s all she has. What about after those five hours? She doesn’t have a ship, now. No Poseidon. No idea who the fuck even--

--no.

Nerissa’s head snaps up.

No.

That’s…not entirely true.

Slowly, Nerissa pushes herself to her feet as her mind scrabbles to replay her and Poseidon’s conversation those precious few moments before he was taken. She assumes he was taken, anyway; that those pursuers chased him. He had been panting over the comm, undoubtedly pushing himself as fast as the gravity of this asteroid would allow.

He had corrected himself, at one point. It wasn’t something chasing him; it was someone.

And if they were able to avoid our ship’s scanners, fooling us into thinking this asteroid was safe, and they know how to fly a scavenger ship, then that means they’re probably sentient. Familiar with technology to some level. But…they used our ship to get off this hunk of rock. And we didn’t see any buildings or structures on the surface of this asteroid before we landed. Ryes said it was unclaimed. Which means…

“Please tell me they have some sort of bunker they left behind,” Nerissa murmurs. That would, at the very least, grant her access to some sort of means of survival. If it was human-friendly. But more importantly, it might give her an idea who--or what--had taken Poseidon and their ship.

And if I can find them…

There’s fire in that thought. Power. It stirs Nerissa into motion, pushes her to move, shoving aside the idle helplessness and despair at her loneliness to find hope: for as big and expansive as it is, the infinite measure of space is not enough to keep her from her little brother.

#bad things happen bingo #bth bingo #bthb #osa #of shadow and ash #kohakhearts #communication suddenly cut off #sci-fi #danger #angst #protective siblings #all the good stuff #i would be lying if i said i wasn't motivated to do a whole Thing of this #buuut ye

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split-n-splice · 4 years

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in my heart this is the “dino nugget chapter” uwu

[Chapter Guide]

11. Distance – 4

It was a few days before she went back to the lair.

In the meantime, Shilo stayed busy familiarizing herself with the bus routes and the shortest path to Buckley’s Brew, which was just within walking distance as long as she told herself she needed the exercise. She bought a few things to spruce up the new digs with what cash she had left on hand, like blinds, bedding, and a VCR, along with some provisions for herself. She didn’t like the thought of settling in, or waking to an alarm clock even earlier than usual, but she had no one but herself to complain to.

The henchgirls-to-be she worked alongside in the mornings weren’t the nicest bunch, but she should have expected that much. Shilo had her suspicions the reason for the snub was because they knew she was Go City’s disgraced hero Shego, though it was never brought it up.

By Friday, she was glad to make it out of the shop without clashing with either of the girls.

Returning to her apartment didn’t appeal to her, no matter how badly she longed for a nap. There was no air-conditioning, for one, and autumn or not, it was still sweltering hot. It made her miss the ocean breeze and the beach and splashing in the waves to cool off when it got unbearable, but the closest thing in the Nevada oasis was a sorry river that crossed through town, which was shriveled up to little more than a trickle this time of year. She’d heard of a lake not far from town, but she wasn’t up to making that journey.

By the time she considered finding refuge in the library, she’d already caught a bus heading to the other end of town. Maybe next time, she told herself.

Luckily for her, she didn’t have to kick the gate or wait for an attendant, as she happened to catch a henchman marching by in his sweep of the perimeter. The new guy seemed unsure of her, as if she were just some civilian that had wandered in off the road and demanded entry. He reached for the radio on his belt, but thought twice about calling for instruction when Shego narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms impatiently. “I’ve got an appointment with the Doc,” she lied. The guarded man straightened up fast and fumbled with the key to grant her access before she could rip her way through the gate herself.

The new henchman said nothing. Shego didn’t thank him, but he earned a glare shot over her shoulder when he stepped toward her as if to escort her to the garage. It was enough to teach him his place, because he quickly turned to chain the gate shut again to keep out meddling kids, the likes of which he must have assumed she was. Shego relaxed when he resumed his patrol.

The lair was a cool respite from the scorching Nevada winds, although it was a little on the chilly side. She warmed her hands and rubbed her bare arms as she made her way deeper.

The lab was shut down, although the overhead fluorescents remained on. Dr. Drakken’s favorite worktable was buttoned up to hide his pet project, surgical light off, and the computer screen was dark, though some lights blinked across the mainframe that doubled as a desk. An arrangement of crates and boxes of supplies had been moved in for a new project, but Shego could only make out heaps of scrap metal. She didn’t bother to unroll the scrolls of blueprints.

She regretted not leaving a spare uniform behind, but popped into her room anyway for a sweater before peeking in the office. Her shoulders slumped and she hummed, noting it was especially dark inside with only the hall light and the ambience of the CCTV system. Even the oversized fireplace was put out, which explained why it was especially cold today in the subterranean lair.

A check over security feed gave away the positions of the henchmen only, the newest of which she already knew was still making his rounds outside. Two were in aprons and goggles and heavy-duty gloves, grinding metal and working some sort of press machine in a workshop in the deeper recesses of the lair, while the pudgy one was stuck with janitor duty mopping the hall somewhere between the henchmen’s dormitory and the cafeteria.

It wasn’t the first time Dr. Drakken had disappeared without a trace, but it was still unusual enough to make her quirk her mouth and huff. His van was still in the garage, and unless he’d gotten a new rig in the past few days, no vehicles were missing.

She decided he’d turn up eventually, and moseyed back upstairs. If she shut her eyes and concentrated, she thought she might have still smelled a faint trace of coconut in the stagnant air. A little part of her gave an ugly twinge at having run out unannounced as she had the other day, and she’d thought she’d gotten over it until now, but the guilt crept back to drag her down as she reached the door of his quarters.

Shego didn’t expect to spot him lounging on the couch. That alone seemed unusual for him, given the time of day.

She studied the back of his head as she shut the door silently behind her, which may have been a mistake. His hair was plastered flat as if he’d just gotten out of the shower and neglected to towel off. Given his bare shoulders, she was hesitant to approach in case he was au naturel. It was his living space after all, and she hadn’t exactly been invited. Maybe she should have knocked.

Unfortunately for Drakken, her interest was piqued by his indiscernible muttering before she could make her escape. Over the back of the couch, she saw him raise one of the dinosaur chicken nuggets she’d chastised him about earlier in the week, and he hummed a familiar tune in imitation of last summer’s box office hit.

As she neared, Shego was relieved to find he at least had sweats on. She didn’t need that much proof he was thoroughly blue from head to toe anyway.

Drakken interrupted the Jurassic ditty with a mock roar as he beat the brachiosaur nugget with a T-rex, dipped its head in ketchup from the plate on his stomach, and bit it off at the shoulder. The T-rex nugget got its share as Drakken supplied carnivorous sound effects around a mouthful, at least until he dunked it in ketchup too and popped it whole in his mouth.

It was then that Shego leaned over the spine of the couch to grab the plate from his stomach. “Oh yeah,” she chimed, selecting a misshapen nugget – she had to assume it was a pterodactyl – from his plate while he choked on his T-rex and just about fell off the couch in his surprise. “You are the embodiment of evil, Doc.”

He sat up, pounding a fist on his chest as he coughed into his other hand. Coughing and hacking wasn’t particularly charming, but she didn’t let it dissuade her from stealing another nugget off his plate. He’d certainly made enough he could spare a few.

“What—,” he paused to wheeze as he swung his legs around off the couch to put his back to her as he reached for his soda pop on the coffee table, guzzling it and gasping for air. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at Buckley’s?”

“It’s, like, three o’clock, Doc,” she noted around a stegosaur’s head end, and cast a glance back to the clock on the kitchen wall. “Three twenty. My weekend starts now.”

“That’s nice,” he said insincerely, and twisted around to grab the plate back. She held it out of reach and popped the rest of the stegosaur in her mouth as he grunted his complaint. “Get your own. That’s mine.”

“Fine. Here.” She forked over the plate, though she had half a mind to dump it in his lap, sauce and all. “They taste like cardboard anyway.”

She stood up and leaned back to sit on the back of the couch instead, ignoring the slight protest of the frame beneath the upholstery. “Did you always have the belly pooch, or have you just been in here snacking this whole time?” she wondered, casting a glance to the pile of dirty dishes in the sink, baking pans among the mess.

Drakken stood suddenly with an extra-annoyed grunt and adjusted the waist of his sweatpants. “You missed out on coconutties,” he said as if in explanation before shuffling off to abandon his plate on the counter.

She let herself fall back into the spot he’d occupied moments ago. It was warm, if not a little damp. She didn’t want to try identifying the lingering scent of his soap, and shoved the appreciation for this particular villain’s hygiene standards right out of her head.

“Are you here to work or for my cable?” Drakken called from the kitchen as she flipped on the TV.

“Depends,” she said with a shrug. “Did you save me any cookies?”

“No.”

“Jerk.”

She didn’t mean anything by the offhanded remark, but it clearly offended him because she heard him scoffing and sputtering disjointed syllables. She wasn’t about to apologize though – not for calling him a jerk, and not for bailing or tricking him either.

A cabinet slammed, and she didn’t think anything of it until a brown paper sack was dropped on her stomach to distract her from the TV. She stared at the bag dumbly for a moment, but as she turned her attention up to utter something in question, she just barely caught a peek of Drakken’s back disappearing into his room. He slammed his door with enough force that it bounced open, and she almost laughed in reflex at his added curse as he shut it again.

She was sitting up with the bag open and nibbling on her second coconutty cookie when Drakken came skulking back in. She’d had just enough time to feel bad again for ditching without warning the other day. Tricking him into baking had to be awfully degrading for an aspiring villain she was supposed to be abetting, but given the discovery of being labeled the boss’s girl, she was suspicious all over again of his motives and why she was here at all. She didn’t bring them into question, though.

Instead, “These are nice,” slipped out.

Now dressed at least semi-professionally with his black slacks and blue button-up, Drakken tugged at his cuffs and grunted as he approached. “They would have been better if you’d tried them fresh, but you looked like you had somewhere better to be.”

“Yeah. I did,” she muttered, drawing into herself a little without meaning to. Her hands felt warm. She really wished she had her suit, but consoled herself that she’d long since outgrown any combustion problems, at least while conscious. “So you got anything for me to do, or do I need to bend the rules again?”

“I’m afraid not today,” he announced as he passed by behind her. “But I’ll have something for you tomorrow, if you’d be so kind as to be here by nine.”

“I don’t like surprises, Doc,” she warned, tipping her head back to scowl at him upside down. “What’s the job?”

“You’ll have to be here at nine AM to find out.”

++X++

Just to spite him, she made up her mind to show up fashionably late.

Of course, it wasn’t like it was completely intentional. If she wanted to make it even close to nine o’clock, she couldn’t wait around to see if he’d send a ride for her, and it wasn’t like she could control how fast the bus driver drove without resorting to drastic measures.

She’d slept in a little anyway, after having spent the better half of the night awake in front of an oscillating fan, wondering what the surprise possibly was. She also waited to get sick from cookies she hadn’t tested on him first for poison, but the only queasiness she felt was over the fact she’d still brought the bag home with her at all and even nibbled on a couple more throughout the night.

On the drudging walk out of town, a sputtering rusty sedan pulled to a near-stop beside her. The occupants gave her deceitful smiles probably meant to seem friendly but instead invoked an urge to plasma blast them in their faces. She declined their offer for a ride, but they continued to creep along beside her as she made her way up the hill.

The car that came up behind honked their annoyance and sped past.

After the third rebuff and a middle finger, Shego hopped across the ditch to walk along the tree line instead, glad to have something between her and the car about to have its tires blown out. She had to squeeze her fists to restrain herself, finding it especially difficult to keep up the civilian act. She made a point to remember the men and the vehicle as it drove away. It was a small town, and she’d keep her identity a secret better if she avoided the hooligans.

Shego couldn’t help raising her brow when she saw two more cars wiz by. She was already long past the residences gathered around the foot of the mountain. Unless there was some party in the backwoods, she couldn’t think of any reason for the unusual traffic.

Half past nine, she found out what the hullabaloo was all about as she made it up Drakken’s driveway. The gate was open for arrivals, but one of the henchmen shut it behind her. All the vehicles that had passed her on the way up, plus a couple others, were parked out on the blacktop in front of the garage. The various strangers lumped together to socialize.

Flanked by two henchmen, Dr. Drakken was dressed up in navy-blue business attire, black gloves and oxfords to match his tie. He was looking particularly professional with a clipboard and shaking hands with the latest arrival.

“You’re late,” he called in displeasure as she cut through the crowd.

She ignored the remark. “So what’s the big surprise?” she asked, adjusting the shoulder strap of her go-bag holding her uniform. “Throwing a party?”

“Cute,” he snorted, and shook his head. “Tryouts. You’re going to help me assess these men.” He waved his pen like a pointer to them.

Shego eyed the lineup. “Wow, Doc. It’s only been, like, a week. How’d you rustle up ‘em up so fast? Mail order?”

He turned and all but stuck his nose in the air. “Connections, Shego,” he said, and gave a wave for the flock of henchmen to follow him.

“What’d you promise them?” she chuckled under her breath as they came around enter the garage through the side door. “A share in the spoils?”

“It worked on you.” He flicked a wily smirk down at her, and then quickly blinked and looked ahead again.

Shego dropped her voice further, shooting over, “Hey, I’m not here because I really think you can do it.” Which earned her a crestfallen gawp, and then he squared up again and glared at her and snorted and took two big strides ahead, as if trying to ignore her hot on his heels. “How do I tie into all this?”

“If you had been here earlier, I could have briefed you,” he noted.

He paused at the staircase in the foyer, instructing the senior henchmen at the head and caboose to take the candidates to the gym. He waved them off with his clipboard before turning to Shego, but held his tongue as the very last henchman, the early bird who’d arrived the other day, came jogging through the room to take his correct place in line.

Drakken waited for their footsteps to fade down the hall above before ascending the stairs himself. He cast Shego a sidelong glance along the way. “If you’re going to be picky about who I hire to work for me, then the least you can do is help evaluate them for me,” he said. “At least in terms of fight training. I’d like to know what I have to work with here, and you’ve handled enough henchmen to be a good judge of their capability, I presume.”

“Can I rough ‘em up?” she asked, just a little too eagerly. There were already two in mind she’d like to teach a valuable lesson to. Maybe three.

“I’d rather you showed some restraint,” sighed Drakken. “You can do that for me, can’t you?”

Sure she could. She’d had to subdue not-quite-villains more times than she could count without battering them, though she’d walked a fine line, and quite often that aspect was left to her big brother. “I can try,” she said reluctantly, giving her shoulder strap a squeeze. “No promises.”

She met Drakken in his office minutes later, suited up and ready to go. He almost said something about the gloves he’d specifically asked her not to wear, but he must have realized they were the old pair, as he shut his mouth again before he could whine about it. It would be too easy to forget about restraint anyway if she were brandishing concealed weapons at her fingertips. The old gloves felt wrong somehow though – unpleasant even.

She couldn’t wait to get this over with.

Drakken brought a stack of manila folders with them to the gym. Henchmen clad in secondhand jumpsuits filed in minutes later.

Shego would have expected the chief to make use of the time by interviewing while she performed her task of testing the men, but instead he sat on the bench along the wall with the goons, crossing his legs and folding his hands over a knee. Despite his stoic stare, something about it seemed a little too keen to watch the show. It made the hairs on the back of her neck rise, but whether it was over a suspicion she was being evaluated herself or just the fact she was being watched at all, she wasn’t sure.

Giving helpful pointers as she had before was different than actually putting the men to the test individually, but one by one, she sifted through them. Two didn’t know the right way to make a fist, while another was a bouncy boxing fanatic who horrendously overestimated himself and got a heel to the teeth. The remaining men were average, all except for one.

The last actually provided a challenge. Shego didn’t need to peek at his file to know he was a trained martial artist, likely with far more years experience under his belt than her, though he wasn’t a master by any stretch. The lithe man still managed to knock her down and pin her with a fist drawn back in a feigned punch, but the pause he gave to mark his assumed triumph was his error.

The second she was pinned, she saw Drakken in her peripheral rising from the bench, but then she was too preoccupied with kicking the candidate back with enough force to send him flying into the wall beside the benches. His head cracked on unforgiving stone and he collapsed momentarily. Two senior henchmen came to the aid of the limp heap as he groaned and came around.

Shego lay back on the mat for another moment to catch her own breath after having the wind nearly knocked out of her, and then swung her legs to hop up. She pulled her ponytail tighter and brushed stray hair back behind an ear as she came to take the man’s file from Drakken. A glance over his credentials and Drakken’s notes, and she nodded, sparing a breathy, “He’ll do.” What the man lacked in brawns, he made up for in skill and stealth, a good teammate if she ever needed one for infiltration and theft.

Drakken grunted and took the folder back. “Break time,” he loudly announced, already on his way back to the catwalk out of the gym.

As she followed him, Shego cast a glance back to the last contestant to be sure he was on his feet and not looking too resentful. It was reassuring the guy just smiled to the others and rubbed the welt on his head. He must not have taken offense to her getting the last strike in after the match was decidedly over.

Back upstairs in Drakken’s quarters, he threw the folders down on the coffee table, and Shego sank down on the couch to peruse them for herself finally. There was the shuffling of glass clanking in the fridge and cabinet doors, and before Shego could finish skimming over the first file, Drakken was beside her and all but shoving something in her face.

“Open this.”

Shego leaned back from the pickle jar with a scoff, and pushed it away. “Stick a spoon under the lid to pop it,” she suggested with a shake of her head.

“They’re all dirty.”

“Then wash your damn dishes!” she barked back. The grunt he gave her might as well have been a whine. “Fine. Just – give it here. Cripes.” She jerked the jar from him to give the snug lid a twist and pop the seal before shoving it back at him. She wished she hadn’t though, because he stepped around her to plop down a cushion away and crunch and slurp on what he considered a lunch. She made a mental note not to get into his contaminated stash as she tried to ignore him fishing around in the juice with his bare hand after the third pickle.

Focusing on reviewing the candidates’ files proved difficult, until she sat back with a sigh and warned him to take his snack elsewhere with a reminder not to wipe his hands on his clothes or the couch, because she was not going to put up with smelling pickles for the rest of her time here today. He glared, but complied.

He was leaning over the back of the couch a few minutes later. “Well?” he grunted. “What do you think? Are they up to snuff? Or are your standards set so high this was all a waste of time?”

Shego sighed and shoved each folder aside as she sorted them and gave her biased opinion. “Don’t like this guy. Really don’t like this guy. These guys just suck, this one’s worthless—”

“Must you be so picky?” Drakken interjected with a groan as he slumped over the back of the couch. He was leaning a little too close for comfort if she could feel his breath on the back of her neck and smell the vinegar on it.

“Why ask for my opinion if you’re not going to listen to it?”

“Oh, I’m listening to it,” he assured, and she shot a glare back at him as he picked an ear. “I’m just taking it with a grain of salt, that’s all.” She had half a mind to shove his face away with a plasma-coated hand, but instead she scooted aside. “Anyway, I need that last one. He stays.”

“Ew?” she couldn’t help scoffing. She grabbed the folder again to hold it up to him, to be sure Drakken was looking at the right name and mugshot. “Did you see that dude’s hands? He’s got missing fingers.”

Drakken snatched the folder from her to double check the file for himself. “Cut him some slack. He’s a metalworker. I need more of them down in the shop.”

“Must not be any good at it if he’s losing digits. Just saying. And he can’t fight worth a damn, so—”

“Henchfolk aren’t all one-trick ponies geared toward combat services, Shego,” said Drakken in a long-winded sigh. “Did you ever stop to consider that? They’re technicians, and tradesmen, and – where are you going?”

“If I’m done here, I’m out,” she declared as she made for the door.

“Oh,” Drakken uttered, and she didn’t want to look back at what she just knew was a deflated pout. “Alright. Well – be here tomorrow. On time, please, if you will. Nine o’clock sharp.”

“What for?” Shego scoffed from the doorway. She risked a glance back to him wringing his gloves.

If she had to guess, he was making up an excuse on the spot. “Ah, well, it would still do the lot of them good to have, ah…someone as skilled as you to give them some one-on-one—”

“Do I look like a personal trainer?”

“Well, you’re the closest to one I’ve got on hand, so you’ll have to do,” he retorted, scowling back at her.

“Fine. I’ll start with you. Tomorrow. Nine AM sharp. Be there or be square.”

#The Company You Keep fic #Drakgo #Drakken #Shego #fanfic

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