#destined for their paths to cross in every universe | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ahoycaptainautumn · 7 months

Text

Fated Mates Part 10 Final

Synopsis: you, a vengeful vampire slayer, cross paths with the devious and handsome Astarion. Instead of a stake through the heart, Astarion finds something he thought impossible for vampire spawn. A mate.

The finale. The meeting that has been destined in the stars. Shall you both agree to the mating bond, or go separate ways?

Words seep into your brain and wash it in all this new information. You read and reread the passage on Vampiric Mates as if it could give you anything new. It feels like your brain is processing and then restarting at the last moment. This couldn’t be right, right? If it is, if you two are mates, then Astarion knew. He knew and he didn’t tell you. He didn’t tell you when you met, didn't tell you when you had kissed him. Hells he didn’t even tell you when you fucked in that abandoned temple. You had gone through every step of the mating process without a single inkling of understanding. You wanted to be angry. You wanted to feed this into your earlier rage at Astarion’s dismissal of you. But it honestly just made it make sense. Mates didn’t get to choose whom their mate was destined to be. He didn’t have a choice. He never once had a choice in 200 years and once again the universe did not give him a chance. The moment he tastes freedom, feels the sun on his skin again, he lays eyes on his mate. Not just any average person, a vampire hunter with a thirst for blood. Who damn near kills him in his tent. Were you still upset at being duped? Upset he ran instead of talked to you? Of course, you still wanted to punch him in his stupid perfect elf face. But more so you wanted to talk to him. To know what he felt, if this meant anything to him. If you meant anything to him. At the thought of you not, it made your stomach lurch. You recognize the feeling for what it is. That tightening rope feeling. A bond tie. A tethering to him that sung each time you thought of him or were near him. You had thought yourself just a silly schoolgirl for feeling such a strong emotion with his presence. Now it finally made sense. This whole adventure so far made so much more sense. You stood quickly and took a deep inhale. You needed to make this right. You needed to find him. You needed to find your mate.

Astarion tears through his chest once more as he paws his belongings again and again. Everything was here but that damned book. Worse yet, your scent lingered around the chest as if mocking him. He wants to believe it will magically appear under some shirt and silly old Astarion simply missed it. But the back of his mind knew better. He saw the hurt and rage in your eyes last time you saw one another. In that dim tavern stockroom. You had ran from him so fast he had barely a moment to think. By the time he got to camp he could smell you had been there, the one trait he is thankful for with this bond. Your scent trailed from his tent to yours. He hadn’t even thought of why you had been near his tent. Without a second thought he had paced near yours. It wasn’t until he gave up and went to his own tent that he thought more about it. Especially with your scent wrapped inside. That’s how he came to be here, rifling through his own things. Desperately hoping you didn’t see the one thing that carried his secret. Well, both of yours secret. His hand rakes back his perfectly sculpted hair as he tries to catch his breath. He had two options. Find and confront you, which seemed horrible. Or pack a bag and run for the high hills and never look back. As much as that option entices him he realizes he couldn’t even if he wanted to. One being that the tadpole would still be a problem and not one he believes he could fix on his own. Secondly it would mean leaving his mate. A dark gnarled pain twists through his spine at the thought. Even just imagining leaving you, never seeing you again woke some ancient horrible feeling that burrowed deep. Well, that left option one. Astarion stood, he tried and failed to calm his nerves. He was just about to open his tent flap when your hand poked through the opening. You lean into the tent and make eye contact with Astarion. The connection bursts through a feeling of utter euphoria. Both of your bodies flamed with the feeling of the entwined bond. Your skin tingles as if it begs to touch his. He feels the same as his teeth aching to plunge into your delectable neck and claim you as his own. To bite every surface you have exposed. As much as he wants to throw himself at you. To forget words and let his body do the talking, he resists. He was tired of that being his form of communication. Of sex and touch being the way people got to him. Of how they perceived him. He wanted.. more. He had not a single clue what “more” included. But he wanted to try. No matter how much it made his fight or flight trigger deep in his belly. His feet ready to take option two and start running. But instead he clears his throat. You reach behind you and hand the mating book to Astarion.

“I believe this belongs to you.” You start, timidly. Your eyes say it all. Your (e/c) eyes swimming with apprehension. You’re so visibly nervous it reminds Astarion of a tender little lamb. Frightful but curious. Anticipating with anxiety. He, the lion, wanting to gobble the lamb whole.

“I guess that means we need to talk.” He replies, not sure how to start this conversation. You just nod your head, Astarion opens his mouth ready to let whatever words spew from his mouth but you hold a finger up.

“Not here… maybe somewhere private?” You ask. He only nods, ready to follow you anywhere you take him. You hold out a hand to him and await his. He looks down at your open palm. How warm and inviting it is. The thought of even just holding your hand sparking hope in his chest. He knew better than to think this was anything but you letting him down. Of denying wanting to intermingle with someone with as much baggage as him. Someone as damaged as him. He wouldn’t blame you one bit. Really he would think it for the best. For you to break this bond and not go near him; or Cazador for that matter. But then you give him a small smile and usher with your hand once again. He tentatively puts his hand in yours. But maybe he could have just a little hope.

You lead him past your fellow companions' tents holding his hand. A few eyes watch you as you make your way towards the forest. Karlach meets your eyes and gives two big thumbs up which nearly makes you snort if it wasn’t for the anxiety bubbling in your chest. You lead Astarion to a clearing near the flowing river a bit aways from camp. You had grabbed a large plush blanket with throw pillows and laid them out before you had gotten Astarion. For once you wanted something to go right. For a special moment to be curated and simple. Not during a battle or on accident. Not in an abandoned temple or a psychics tent. But an evening of just you and him. Of twinkling stars and the silence of a night-lit blooming forest. However this is to go, whatever his decision may be, it would be between the two of you in a neutral setting. Somewhere you could lay your hearts open to one another. You sit down on the blanket and pat the spot next to him. Astarion sits next to you, craning his neck up to watch the stars alongside you. You both sit in silence for just a few minutes. Enjoying watching the stars in each others company. You wish this is all it could be. But you knew it had to be discussed.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” You ask, shifting your gaze from the sky to Astarion. He meets your gaze and you see the flash of anxiety come and go from his eyes. You keep your face neutral as best you can.

“In the spirit of honesty, I don’t really know. I didn’t know what to think or what to do.” He replies with a sigh. He throws his arms behind him and leans back into them. He stares down at the ground as if far away in thought.

“As far as I knew mates were only for true vampires. A rarity for them, not many of them able trust one another to ever find their mate. So naturally being a spawn I thought I couldn’t have one. It simply wasn’t something I ever gave much thought to.”

“And now that you have one?” You prod further. You ache desperately to put a reassuring hand to him. To tell and show how much you support him at this moment. But you didn’t want to persuade him one way or another. Especially not guilt him by any means. He takes a long drag of a breath and continues on.

“I should be asking you this.” You scrunch your eyebrows in confusion. He steals a look over to see your confused face.

“Is this, all of this, what you want?” He ushers between the both of you. You can’t help the little grin that reaches your face.

“Am I not obvious enough?” You tease. He grunts in response.

“I don’t just mean the ungodly good sex darling. I understand I come with my…. Complications. Complications that have been quite a thorn in your side.” He dances around the word vampire. Almost fearful to bring up something he knew was his largest flaw. What good does a vampire spawn do as a partner? He was your antithesis. The opposite of your life’s mission. Plus he would go on to live unless someone got fidgety with a stake. You, however, only had so much time. He highly doubted you would join in his immortality. You look lost in thought, tongue stuck out in thought.

“You’re not wrong. I hated all vampires. I didn’t discriminate between them, all of them monsters to me. My father had foolishly thought to gamble with one, to generate more wealth than we would ever need with a debt owed to Cazador. I never found out what he owed him, all I know is that it was grand enough for Cazador to personally come and slaughter my whole family. Besides me. He had said I wasn’t worth his efforts. So when I met you I naturally hated you.” Before Astarion could make a snarky comment you continued.

“But then I got to know you. To see you for more than what you are. That just because you are a vampire doesn’t mean you’re my enemy. If anything you have been quite the opposite.” You finish. You can tell a bit of tension eases from Astarions shoulders.

“So where do we go from here? 200 years and I’ve never known what more was. That there was a “more”. Forgive me if I am a bit out of touch.” Astarion replies. You nudge your shoulder with his.

“That’s fine old man, we can take it slow.” You tease. He frowns at your jest before a soft smile breaks across his pale face. The moonlight illuminates him giving him an ethereal glow.

“We. Us. I like the sound of that.” He replies.

“And no more running away when we need to talk! I might still stake you, you know.” You playfully slap his arm. He fakes being wounded giving you a pout.

“I make no promises, little killer.” He grins. It would be hard for him to break the habit. Preferring running and hiding. But he could try, for you. “Now may I suggest we consummate this mating?” He leans over towards you, hands resting on either side of your hips. His face just a breathe away from you. A slight chuckle falls from your lips.

“I believe we already have.” You tease. He gives you an award winning smile as he leans in closer. His lips brushing ever so slightly against yours.

“Couldn’t hurt to once more, or maybe a few more times.” His eyes dance from yours down to your lips and back up to you. You lick your dry lips as you watch him drink you in.

“Only a few?” You whisper your head barely beginning to turn into his. Half lidded eyes drawn to him.

“Maybe more than that.” His voice is barely there, red eyes blown wide with lust.

“I sincerely hope even more than that.” He grins as you say that.

“Now that, my dear, is something I can promise.” He says as he seals his lips over your own. You greet his lips in earnest. The kiss is sweet. Perfect. Enveloping the longing, the caring that flowed between your bond. Astarion walks his hands forward, pushing your body back onto the blanket. You follow his steps as you tangle your fingers in his hair. He hovers over you, losing himself in the kiss. Astarion had had many lovers but kisses with you were like no other. As if fireworks set off inside of him. Sparks of pure adoration going off within him. He nudged his way between your legs and you gladly let him. His leg swings upwards, pushing your other leg farther away. His groin comes in contact with your clothed center. Chest to chest, you groan into the kiss. One of his hands comes to glide down to your waist and grip your hip. The other holding himself up by the forearm. You trace down his neck before slipping your hands to his front. You trace his body slowly till you meet the hem of his shirt. You glide your hands under and place your hands flat against his abdomen. Though he feels always a bit cool you feel nothing but flames. You trace random patterns along his front. He deepens the kiss, exploring your mouth. His grip on his hip massaging the tender flesh there. Your hands go higher, nudging him to remove his shirt. He grins into your kiss as he leans back. He grabs his shirt and all but rips it off his body.

You stare awe-struck at him. The way his body is so beautifully sculpted as if he was a statue in a museum. Chiseled to perfection by the universe's best artist. His curly white hair disheveled, flowing with the slight breeze. His eyes hungry and trained on you, gauging your constant reaction. His hands find the ends of your shirt and he teasingly strokes it upwards in slow motions. You lean up and watch him take your shirt completely off. His hand reaches to your jaw as he leans in for another kiss. All the while you begin to loosen his trousers.

“So needy.” He teases into your lips between kisses. You smile and break the kiss. You lean up to and press your lips near his pointed ear.

“I can’t help that I want my mate.” You whisper to him. He shudders at your words. Mate. Gods the title sounded so good coming from you. He nibbles down your neck in earnest. Leaving love bites and hickeys in his trail. He ruts his hips into yours. His hands go all over. Touching every inch of exposed skin he can access. Kneading and caressing every part of you. Your hands wander his body as if touching it for the first time. Mapping out as if you could forget it. His kisses travel across your collarbone and to your sternum. One of his hands comes up to softly play with your breast. His hand kneading the soft skin. Occasionally his fingers come up to twist your nipple in a delcious rhythm. You grind against him in desperation for more touch. For more of him. Your fingers undo his pants and begin to tug as much as you can in your position. Astarions lips come up to your perked nipple and begin to suck. His eyes trained on yours to gauge your reaction. You throw your head back in ecstasy as a rough moan escapes your mouth. You make no show of covering any sounds, letting Astarion hear how good he makes you feel. His hand plays with your opposite breast as he sucks and bites at your sensitive bud. You writhe, desperation growing in you. The fire he builds inside you is quickly building to an inferno.

“Please Astarion.” You whine. He comes off of you with a wet pop before he stands. He makes quick work of his pants and immediately kneels and sweeps yours off just as fast. You lay bare to one another. Basking in the moonlit glow of each others naked bodies. Astarions eyes drink you in. A soft look on his face, adoration evident.

“You’re beautiful.” He tells you. You give a wide grin before you open your arms and usher him closer. He immediately follows and finds himself between your legs again. Though he brings himself much lower than before. His face resting just above your heat. You watch his actions and you can feel your breath catch. His eyes stare hard into yours as he brings his tongue out and licks. The flat of his tongue going from the bottom to the top of your slit. Your nails dig into the blanket as you arch your back. Astarion devours you like a man starved. Spreading your folds with his fingers to delve deeper. His tongue caresses your insides sending shivers up your spine. You cry out his name like a prayer.

“Ah- A- astarion!” You cry over and over again. It only spurs him on, chasing your ecstasy to get you to your high. His fingers join in his ministrations as he plunges two fingers into your wet opening. He curls ever so slightly as he motions a come hither inside of you. All the while his tongue laps and sucks at your clit. The stimulation is all too much, your whole body buzzing.

“Astarion- ahh- I’m gonna-“ you can barely moan out, your whole body too consumed in rapture.

“Cum my love, show me how good I make you feel.” He purrs against your skin. You reach your climax, cumming on his fingers. He works you through it, slowing his fingers' pace. He looks up at you to see your lust filled face. He leans upwards to catch you in a searing kiss. You can taste yourself on his lips. It sends a thrill through you.

“Astarion please- I need you.” You cry, arms grabbing at him senselessly. It’s as if you forgot all sense, Astarion the only thing that mattered. The only thing that exists.

“Oh with pleasure, my mate.” He gives you a devilish grin. You clench at his words. Mate. God you could listen to him call you that a thousand times and not get sick of it. He lines himself up with your entrance, using your slick to lube himself properly. He enters you slowly as you both moan wantonly in union. You wrap your hands around his neck to hold onto something. His arms hold himself up by the back of his forearms on either side of your head. Your bodies touch as he rocks into you. It’s intimate. Something very foreign for Astarion. Everything he had done was quickies. Hard and fast to reach a climax to be finished with. But you. Oh you he wanted to take his time with. To ruin you, completely and wholeheartedly. To mark you as his in every crevice and nook of your body. That his signature would be branded so deeply into your skin no other man would even think to come near you. You are his entirely. His hips speed up in rhythm. Skin slapping onto skin echoing with your shared moans.

“Say it again.” Astarion grunts out. His eyes find yours, begging. You swallow dryly. The bond is so strong in this position, in this eye contact. As if your body thrums with it. You would give him the world and stars if he asked for it at this moment. But you already knew what he wanted.

“Astarion, my mate.” You reply. He groans, biting his lower lip. His hips speed up, becoming sloppy. Your body is wrecked in pleasure.

“Again.” He growls.

“My mate. Mine.” You say once again. At that Astarions fangs plunge into your soft neck. Stars line your vision. You feel out of body. Lost in a sea of utter pleasure. You reach your finish together, Astarion spilling his seed inside of you. The bond ties tightly between you both. Unbreakable. You hug his body close as you come down from your high. He releases from your neck and moves to lay next to you. Your hands intertwine as you look up at the stars together. Both attempting to catch your breath.

“Well, what now darling?” He asks you between puffs of air. He looks over at you. Those crimson eyes full of adoration.

“Well. I guess we save the world.” You reply with a chuckle. He squeezes your hand.

“I think we are going to have a lot of fun together.”

Part 9 here

———-

I really hope you guys enjoyed the series! I will be focusing on one shots and requests from here on out! Also if you got the Twilight reference give me a holla!

#smut #reader insert #astarion #astarion x mc #astarion x reader #astarion x tav #astarion x you #bd3 #mates #balders gate 3 #bg3 astarion #baldurs gate astarion #baldurs gate tav #baldurs gate iii

441 notes · View notes

luxaofhesperides · 28 days

Note

Please continue ghostlights multiverse constant au with Earth 0 having a happy ending together cuz halfa Danny is impossible to really kill anymore pleaseeeeeee 😭

(part one)

Danny is destined to die once he meets Duke. He knows this; he’s seen how their friendship leads to Danny’s death is so many different lives. There’s no doubt in his mind that the only way to ensure Danny lives a long life is to stay away from him.

Which is why the universe decides to make Danny pop up constantly. It’s clearly trying to get him killed, and Duke refuses to let that happen!

It starts innocently enough. They cross paths briefly at a bus stop, bumping into each other as Duke gets off the bus and Danny moves to go on it. He recognizes Danny immediately, feels a little spark go through him when their shoulders brush against each other. Something in him says I know you. I miss you.

He pulls back a step and offers a quick apology. Danny waves it off and looks at him as through searching for something. He opens his mouth to say something, but Duke can feel the threads of fate tighten around their throats and hurries away.

He waits until he hears the bus pull away, then glances behind him to watch it go before he slows down to a normal walking pace and heads for the mall where he planned to meet his friends.

Duke’s heart pounds in his chest. He can’t get Danny’s eyes out of his head; so painfully blue, so nostalgic, so doomed.

This is for the best, he reminds himself. This is so Danny can live. That’s all that matters.

The moment’s passed, anyways. They’re still strangers, and they’ll stay that way.

He takes another minute to collect himself, then plasters on a smile and heads into the mall to find his friends.

The next six times, Duke has to save Danny as the Signal, appearing just in time to stop a mugging, an armed store robbery, a car trying to run Danny over, and fighting off Man-Bat who, for some reason, took one look at Danny and went fuck this guy, actually.

Duke is stressed. He’s Stressed™ and if anyone tries to take out Danny again he’s just going to start screaming.

For whatever reason, the universe is just out to get Danny now that they’ve run into each other once. Duke’s life is a cosmic joke, and he’s stuck in the center of it all waiting for the moment comedy turns into tragedy.

It’s gotten to the point that Duke expects to find Danny in some sort of dangerous situation as soon as he starts patrol. He’s starting to dread going out, but he needs to; Gotham needs the Signal to keep the streets safe during the day, and Danny needs Duke to save his incredibly unlucky ass nearly every single day.

The first two hours go fine. He stops an armed robbery and a car jacking, chases away some creeps from the working girls, and gets a blueberry muffin from the bakery that’s been around forever, on account of the old woman running it thinking he’s a good lad who needs to eat more.

Duke begins to hope that he’ll have a quiet patrol. He begins to hope that Danny is safe and not in mortal danger for once.

His hopes are immediately dashed when he spots Danny on a rooftop, standing way too close to the edge.

Heart in his throat, Duke crosses the space between them in an instant, slingshotting himself forward through shadows.

He intends to pull Danny back, to say something, to try and shake some common sense into him so he actually has a chance at living a long life. Duke doesn’t get to do any of that; as soon as he steps out of the shadows, Danny turns to face him with a tired smile.

“There you are,” he says. “I knew you’d find me.”

“What? I—listen, can you step back from the ledge for me?”

Danny steps back, keeping his eyes on Duke. He doesn’t seem to mind that the Signal is so hesitant in this moment, keeping his distance.

“I wasn’t sure at first,” he says, as if he never stopped talking, “But I had a feeling. You’ve probably had it too, right? It’s why we keep being pushed together, and why my luck has been so awful ever since I came to Gotham.”

He knows, is the first thing Duke things. But how can that be? If Danny knows about all those other universes where they had each other, then he knows how it ends. If he knows, then he should be trying to keep his distance from both Duke and the Signal before he gets killed.

“It’s you under that mask, isn’t it? Duke.”

The way Danny says his name brings him back to all those other lives where they had each other from the start. He sounds so sure of himself, as if he’s always known Duke.

It’s only when Duke says, “How?” that Danny falters, fear briefly crossing his expression before it settles into something more neutral. His fingers begin to pull at the cuffs of his jacket sleeves, confidence melting away.

“Do you… not know me?”

The quietness of his voice, the fragility of it, breaks Duke’s heart. He doesn’t stop to think before he answers, “I know you. Of course I know you, Danny.” Then he blinks, shakes his head, and says, “Wait. No. I know of you. We haven’t really met this life.”

“It’s the dreams, right? They make things so confusing.”

“You’ve been getting them too?”

“I may be the cause of them,” Danny says with a wince. “Due to some, uh… ghostly magic shenanigans. It wasn’t on purpose! But it is kinda my fault.”

Ghostly magic? Okay, sure, why not. Who is Duke to judge the bizarre things that exist in their world. He has superpowers and his biological father is an evil immortal. He has absolutely no leg to stand on when it cames to the weird and the unexpected. Might as well roll with it, since this is his life now.

Besides, there’s more important things to focus on, such as: “Okay, so, just to be on the same page, you’ve been getting the same dreams as me, yeah? The ones where you always die? Those dreams?”

And Danny, very casually, answers, “Yeah.”

“Dude,” Duke says, pained, “If you know that meeting me leads to your death, then why are you seeking me out?!”

“What?”

“Have you not seen how you die young in every single universe? Because I have! And it’s messing me up!”

Danny blinks at him, then looks guilty, hunching in on himself. “Oh, yeah. That. Uh, yeah, so…” he trails off and bites his lip, gaze kept downwards so he doesn’t have to meet Duke’s eyes. “I do die young always, yeah, but it’s totally not your fault! I just do that!”

“You just do that,” Duke repeats, pained.

“Yeah. I just die young.”

“Is this somehow not a problem for you.”

To his immense displeasure, Danny has the nerve to shrug and say, “Eh, not really.”

“Danny.”

“It’s okay! Really!” Danny says, a little frantically, “And also it has nothing to do with you! None of my deaths have been your fault, it’s just a thing that happens to me!” And then, in a quiet, rushed mumble, “Also I already died in this universe so it’s fine.”

A strangled sound bursts out of Duke’s throat as he tries very hard not to start yelling. He puts his head in his hands and holds back a heavy sigh because the boy of his literal dreams is stressing him out so much he’s about to dissolve into ashes and ascend to a higher realm where he has no worries.

Unfortunately, he’s not quite there yet, so Duke has to deal with living in the reality where Danny admits he already died because that’s just what he does: die young.

Which is, apparently, not Duke’s fault at all. Cool.

Cool cool cool. He’s definitely not going to have a breakdown about this.

A hand gently tugs on his wrist, making him lift his head to meet Danny’s worried gaze. “Hey, you alright? Do you wanna sit down for a minute?”

And you know what? Duke does want to sit down for a minute. He’s earned it.

He nods, and Danny carefully guides him back to where the roof access door is, so they can sit with their backs against something and be away from the edge where curious eyes might spot them. It feels easy, practiced, as if they’ve done this a thousand times before instead of just now having their first conversation. Their lives have been linked and twisted together, though only for a short time before death takes Danny away.

He knows Danny, despite how illogical it is, and that’s what makes him take off his helmet and exposure his face to the world.

Danny knows him too, after all.

There is no hiding from someone who is meant to be in his life.

Danny’s smiling softly when he turns to look at him. “Hey, Duke. It’s good to see you properly. Is it weird to say that I’ve missed you even though we’ve technically never met in this life?”

“Nah,” he replies, “I missed you too. Please stop scaring me like that.”

“I make no promises. Expect for this: dying won’t take me away from you in this life. I’ve got it handled.”

“I don’t… I don’t think that’s someone anyone can have handled.”

“I’ve got it handled,” Danny repeats firmly.

Duke shakes his head with a small laugh. He got so caught up in the guilt of leading to Danny’s death, of being unable to save him, of losing him in every universe, that he forgot how stubborn Danny is.

It is a weight off his chest, though. To know that it wasn’t his fault. To know that the worst has already come to pass long before they met in this universe, so they don’t have to fear the future together.

“So,” he says, “Tell me more about these magical ghostly shenanigans?”

“At least wait until the second date for personal questions,” Danny jokes.

“Okay. Wanna grab dinner tonight?”

It’s nice to see that Danny blushes easily in this universe too. “Isn’t that moving a little fast?”

“We’ve been dreaming about a bunch of other universes where we’re together. We know each other even though we don’t know each other. We’re well past moving fast, dude.”

“Yeah, that’s fair,” Danny nods. “Alright. Dinner tonight, then. Take me to the best place for breakfast foods in Gotham. I’ve been craving pancakes all week.”

“Sure, I can do that. Mind giving me your number so I can figure out where to pick you up from?”

Danny nods and begins patting his pockets in search of… something. Duke means to grab his phone and hand it to Danny to get his number, but he’s quickly distracted as Danny gives up on his pockets and shoves a hand directly into his own chest.

Ghostly magic shenanigans. This is probably part of it? Danny doesn’t look alarmed by this at all, so Duke rolls with it and shoves away his shock at the sight.

“Aha!” Danny holds up a sharpie in triumph. He sure did pull that straight out of his ribcage. Duke is so chill with it.

He lets Danny take hold of his arm, removing a wrist gauntlet so he can write on the skin. The cool ink of the sharpie makes him shiver, but otherwise, he stays still. Danny writes carefully, in smooth movements. It doesn’t take more than a few seconds, then he pulls the sharpie away and blows a surprisingly cold breath against Duke’s wrist to help the ink dry faster.

“There we go,” he says with a smile. “Let me know when you wanna have our date, okay? I’m free whenever, so don’t worry about accommodating me or anything.

“I’ll text you once I’m ready,” Duke agrees. He stands up, looking over the numbers written on his wrist. He memorizes them, then puts his wrist gauntlet back on. It’s about time for him to get back to being the Signal, as much as he hates to leave Danny here when they’ve finally been able to have a quiet moment to themselves.

“I’ll see you later, then.” Danny hesitates, then leans forward and presses a quick, chaste kiss against Duke’s cheek. Duke blinks at him, stunned, his heart skipping a beat.

He doesn’t get the chance to return the gesture; Danny flushes red, backs up a few steps with a shy grin, and says, “Okay, bye Duke! Stay safe out there!” And then he’s gone, blinking out of sight, and it’s only his meta powers that let him see a faint wispy outline where Danny was.

It moves, floating up in the air, then flies away like smoke in the breeze.

Ah, Duke thinks, Ghostly. He’s a ghost. I’ll worry about that later.

His fingers brush against the spot where Danny kissed him. Then he puts his helmet back on and focuses on swinging through the streets of Gotham, ready for anything.

The sooner he gets done with patrol, the better, after all. He needs all his focus to do that so he can start getting ready for his date with Danny, the literal boy of his dreams.

This time, this life, this universe, they’re gonna do it right. They’ll make up for all the time their other selves lost. They’ll cherish every minute together, one pancake date at a time.

And to think, it only took a couple dozen different lives to get here.

#ghostlights #dc x dp #dp x dc #dcxdp #dpxdc #prompt fill #my writing #the dreams were bc danny messed w magic stuff he found in the ghost zone #and since duke is so heavily involved in all the other lives he got involved in this one too #basically the magic being like oh u want ur boy? here he is!#dannys bad luck has nothing to do w magic tho he just lives like that lmao #thanks for the prompt!

161 notes · View notes

betterthanburrow · 10 months

Text

All Of The Girls You Loved Before - Joe Burrow

Summary: With the two of you having different careers while working for the National Football League, it was destined that your paths would cross again… But, there wasn’t enough time in the world that could prepare you to see your childhood best friend for the first time in 8 years.

Genre: Fluff and Angst (Childhood Friends To Strangers To Lovers AU)

“Your Mother Brought You Up Loyal And Kind, Teenage Love Taught You There's Good In Goodbye, Every Woman That You Knew Brought You Here… I Wanna Teach You How Forever Feels” Taylor Swift; All Of The Girls You Loved Before.

Since your career as a journalist for the National Football League started in 2020, you’ve had the honor of being able to travel all across the United States and been apart of the broadcast team for some of the most memorable football games in the past few year.

Throughout your NFL journalist career; you’ve watched from the sideline as the journalists who have years of experience compared to you do their job of sitting down with football players from the 32 NFL teams throughout the season and ask them questions that football fans want to know about their NFL careers.

As the AFC Championship football game was happening this weekend; the NFL decided to give you the opportunity to interview one of the football players that will be playing in the AFC Championship.

When you were asked to do the interview, you were so excited for the opportunity that was given to you… but when the NFL gave you more information about which football player you would be interviewing before AFC Championship game, your heart sank to your stomach.

It wasn’t a surprise to you that the NFL wanted you to interview one of the most popular football players that would be playing in the AFC Championship… but out of all the popular football players the NFL could’ve chosen for your to interview, the NFL decided that they wanted you to interview the Quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, Joe Burrow.

The issue with you doing an interview with Joe Burrow isn’t because he has some sort of bad reputation with journalists, because he doesn’t have a bad reputation with journalists. All of your co-workers that have worked with Joe Burrow in some kind of way has only had good things to say about him… The issue with you doing an interview with Joe Burrow is because the two of you have a lot of history together.

Before the world knew Joe Burrow as the Quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, you knew Joe Burrow as your childhood best friend… The two of you grew up in Ohio together and attended elementary school, middle school, and high school together. It would be hard for you to deny that you had a crush on Joe during your childhood and teenage-hood, but the crush didn’t turn into any more as you made the decision to leave Ohio to attend a college out of the state while Joe had decided to attend Ohio State University alongside many other high school friend and classmates.

The two of you tried to keep in touch as best as you could but; as the two of you were experiencing life beyond the limitations of adolescence’s restrictions, the two of you grew apart… All of a sudden, there were no more texts and calls between the two of you and when you would go to visit in Ohio, you never stopped by The Burrow’s House and the sense of being home was gone when you would drive past their house.

Joe and you had chosen two different career paths that ultimately ended up leading the two of you back to each other… When you decided to take the job opportunity from the NFL to become apart of their journalism team, you knew that one day you would be face to face with the man that you knew once as your childhood best friends but was now a stranger to you, but the honest truth is that you didn’t wish that you would have to be face to face with him so soon.

There wasn’t enough time in that world that could prepare you for this interview, as you’re sitting in the room where the interview will be taking place… Your mind is racing through so many different thoughts as your leg is bouncing up and down because of nerves. As you look around the room to see the only people in here are the camera crew, you hope that they aren’t suspicious of your body behavior.

It was hard for you to not wonder if when Joe would arrive into the room where the interview would take place if he would recognize you… It has been almost 10 years since you’ve seen him in person and while your parents say that you look the same from when you were younger, you knew that you’ve grown up a lot these past few years into the young adult that you are.

“Y/N!” someone says, getting your attention. When you turn your head, you see that it’s the Director of the NFL’s Journalism Board, Irene, who called your name. “Joe Burrow should be here any minute… Do you have all your questions ready?!”

“Yes I do!” you exclaim as you showed her your Index Cards that have all the questions that you need to ask.

“That’s good to see!” Irene says. “All we have to do when Joe arrives is to get his lapel microphone on his shirt and then the interview can get started!”

Another few minutes went by, and before the Director of the NFL’s Journalism Board could start panicking about the NFL Quarterback being behind on schedule… There was a loud knock on the door and then suddenly, the door opened to reveal Joe Burrow and his team were here for the interview.

When the two of you make eye contact, his eyes widen due to the surprise of seeing his old childhood best friend for the first time since High School Graduation… As the two of you continued to stare at each other, not wanting to be the one to break eye contact, Joe’s team and the NFL crew starting having their own discussion.

For the entire day, Joe had been so nervous for the interview and he couldn’t figure out why because most of the time; he was never nervous about doing interviews even though he didn’t like doing interview… Joe knew that you started working for the NFL around the same time that he was drafted to the NFL, but he never thought that the two of you would cross paths.

Joe always felt like it was his fault for the reason why the communication between the two of you stopped, he was always busy with football practices classes, and being a young adult in college… Even though you were busy with your college life too you always tried to communicate with him but, Joe would never answer and then one day you stopped trying to communicate.

It was in that moment when Joe felt like he was once again a teenage boy that had the biggest crush on his childhood best friend… When he would watch you on TV during the broadcast segments alongside other NFL journalists; he could see your beauty just from the TV screen, but it has been years since he’s seen you right in front of him and it wasn’t hard for him to deny that you are more gorgeous than ever before.

Joe knew that he wouldn’t be able to do the interview with you unless the two of you were able to talk… but he knew that the chances of the two of you being able to talk were small because his team and the NFL crew needed to get this interview done as soon as possible, but Joe will take that small chance to talk to you.

As Joe’s teams and the NFL crew that were in charge of working behind the scenes are having a discussion about the interview; the two of you kept eye contact as Joe walked over to where you are sitting at with the index cards in your lap, because he felt like he needed to talk to you before the interview started.

“Hi…” Joe says nervously with his hands in his pockets.

“Hey…” you mumbled. “It’s been a long time hasn’t it.”

“Yeah it has…” Joe admits, “Listen I-“

“if you’re about to apologize for not keeping in contact with me, this isn’t the right time to do it.” you say, interrupting him. “Let’s focus on your interview.”

Joe nods his head and opens his mouth to speak again, but before he could say anything… One of the NFL crew members is calling his name so that they can out his lapel microphone on his shirt, so that the interview can get started as soon as possible.

The short conversation that Joe wanted to have with you didn’t go to plan… As he watched you speak to your manager and some of the members on his team about the interview, he realized that this wasn’t the right time to have any sort of discussion with you that wasn’t about the interview that will be happening soon.

It was clear that you didn’t want the NFL crew to know about the history between the two of you… There are stories about how NFL journalists that have a close connection with a football player could get into serious trouble. Joe knows how hard of a worker you are so he wouldn’t want to risk your career as a NFL journalist because you are one of the best in the business.

As everything for the interview was finally set up and ready to go, there was no more time to wait. It was time for the interview with Joe Burrow right before the AFC Championship football game against the Kanas City Chiefs, which is considered to be biggest football game of his career so far.

When the interview started, after introducing yourself and Joe, there was tension as this was the first conversation that the two of you had in many years… but you remained professional as you asked all of the questions that you had written down on your index cards that were about Joe’s career in the NFL since being drafted in April 2020 and then listened to all of answers that Joe had to your questions.

The two of you sat across from each other and overtime as the interview continues… the tension slowly started to go away as the two of you became more comfortable speaking and listening to each other talk while still remaining professional for the cameras.

The interview was going better than you expected it to go, it was heartwarming to her your childhood best friend speak about his childhood dreams becoming a reality… It was hard for you to not get emotional while hearing about all of the struggles Joe had to go through to get to where he is in his football career in the NFL without you by his side to support him.

There were so many questions that you were asking Joe about the journey of his football career and you were award how overwhelming it could be for him to answer all of these questions… Even though Joe has never been a big fan of doing interviews, the interview that he is doing with you is his favorite interview that he will ever do during his football career.

After 10 minutes of the two of you going back in forth in conversation with you asking questions and Joe giving you the answers that you wanted… The interview was coming to an end, and it’s safe to say that the NFL crew and Joe’s team were very impressed with how the interview went.

“Good job Y/N and Joe! That was an excellent interview!” Irene said. “The interview should be available on YouTube and the NFL website the day before the AFC Championship football game, hopefully it doesn’t take long to edit the interview.”

“That’s good to hear!” Joe’s manager says clapping their hands in excitement. “I have to say… I’m really happy that Y/N was chosen to interview Joe because the chemistry the two of you have with each other made it seemed like I was watching two old friends catch up rather than watching an interviewer and a football player have a conversation.”

Joe looked down to the ground with a small blush on his face as you tried your best to not show a reaction to the statement that Joe’s manager said… You couldn’t hope but wonder if Joe had told his manager about the history between the two of you before the interview.

As the NFL crew starts packing all the equipment after unclipping the lapel microphones off of your shirt and Joe’s shirt… You decided that now was the best time to leave the interview room to go to your office to start working on some articles that needed to be published before the AFC Championship.

It was easy to sneak past everyone as the NFL crew was occupied with packing the equipment while the Director of the NFL’s Journalism Board and Joe’s team were having a conversation… but it didn’t take long for Joe to notice that you were no longer in the room, and he decided that this was another chance for the two of you to talk if he was able to find out where you went.

“Hey Irene… Where is the restroom?!” Joe asked, interrupting the conversation between the Director of the NFL’s Journalism Board and his manager.

“It’s right down the hallway to the right!” Irene replies.

“Thank you… I’ll be right back!” Joe says before standing up out of his chair and walking out the room.

Joe started to walk down the hallway of the NFL Headquarters trying to figure out where you could be… He examined all of the signs that were displayed on the closed doors, Joe figured that if he couldn’t find a door that could lead him to you then the next option would be for him to check the lobby of the NFL Headquarters.

It didn’t take long for Joe to find a door that had a sign with your name on it, he assumed that his was your office and it made sense that this is where you would be after doing your job of interviewing him… Joe said a silent prayer that this is where you are and then he knocked on your office door.

He thought that he would’ve heard your voice to invite him inside your office, but instead he heard footsteps coming closer to the door as his heart started to race… When the door opened to reveal that it was you behind the door, he was so happy that he found you.

Meanwhile, you were surprised to see Joe right in front of you. When you took the opportunity to sneak out of the interview room, you weren’t expected Joe to follow you to your office… But something that you knew is that if Joe had followed you to your office it meant that he thought this would be the right time to talk to you, and you still don’t think now is the right time to talk.

“Joe?!” you exclaimed after opening your office door. “What are you doing here, I thought you and your team would’ve left the building by now?!”

“I couldn’t leave without getting a chance to talk to you.” Joe confessed.

“Joe… there’s nothing for us to talk about?!” you said.

“What do you mean…” Joe asks as a confused look appears on his face, “There is so much we could talk about… It’s been 8 years since we’ve talked, it’s clear that a lot of things have happened in the past 8 years!”

you sighed… “Joe… now it’s not the best time.”

Joe was about to defend the decision that now was the right now, when he heard his name being called from a distance… The two of you turned your heads to see his manager walking down the hallway and before Joe could try to speak up again, you interrupted him.

“I think you should go…” you insisted. “Good luck on the AFC Championship game this Sunday! I’ll be rooting for the Bengals to win!”

It broke Joe’s heart as you close the door in his face. He really thought that this was the right opportunity for the two of you to talk, but it’s clear to him now that you wanted to remain professional with him even though the interview between the two of you is done.

Joe was still standing in front of your closed office door when his manger walked up to him… His manager didn’t hear the short conversation between the two of you, but was curious about what Joe was doing outside of your office door since it had been almost 10 minutes since he left the interview room.

“What are you doing?!” his manager asked.

“I was just thanking Y/N for the good interview since she had left the room before i got the chance to thank her.” Joe lied as he started walking away from your office down to go back to the interview room.

“Thanks very nice of you.” his manager says smiling as she started to walk down the hallway beside Joe, “Like I said earlier… I’m glad that Y/N was chosen to interview you, I’ve been very impressed with her work for a long time and knew that she would be the perfect interviewer for you before the AFC Championship.”

“Wait… You were the one of set up the interview between Y/N and I?!” Joe asked as he stopped walking, causing his manger to stop walking.

“In a way, yes I was.” His manager answered. “The NFL reached out to me to set up the interview but I made a special request for Y/N to be the journalist to interview you. After you left the interview room, Irene and I were talking about Y/N’s work ethics and how the NFL journalists board are planning on promoting her soon.”

“That’s good to hear!” Joe said as the two of them starting walking back to the interview room. When they got back to the room, Joe noticed that most of the camera equipment was no longer set up and that most of the NFL crew who were in the room before he left to find Y/N were no longer in the room and he took that as a sign that it was time to go back to the hotel.

Joe and his team took their time to say their goodbyes to Irene and the rest of the people in the interview room before gathering their belongings and exiting the room to leave the NFL Headquarters because they had a plane flight to catch soon as Joe needed to get back home to Cincinnati to start practicing with the football team to prepare for the AFC Championship.

It’s been over a week since the interview with Joe Burroe happened, and let’s just say that a lot of things have happened throughout the past few days…

The interview between you and Joe was published the day before the AFC Championship football game and it’s safe to say that football fans really enjoyed the interview. Within the first 24 hours, there were multiple viral tweets and viral tiktoks of clips from the interview.

While the NFL journalism board was very impressed by the success of the interview, it was very overwhelming for you to experience because all of a sudden there were thousands of people following and stalking your social media accounts to see if they can find anything to bring attention too... It didn’t take long for football fans to find something to bring attention to; they were able to figure out that you and Joe had known each other from high school due to old photos that were posted onto your Instagram that you didn’t delete, but thankfully football fans didn’t go stalking your Facebook account or they would’ve figured out that you and Joe had known each other since childhood.

Luckily, no one from the NFL journalism board has brought it to your attention that they know that you and Joe have some history together… You hope that if it is brought up in an future meeting; you’ll be able to convince everyone that you and Joe were just high school classmates and not childhood best friends, because you couldn’t risk the position of your career.

The other good news is that the Cincinnati Bengals won against the Kanas City Chiefs and are the AFC Champions for the 2021-2022 NFL season and are going against the Los Angeles Rams at the Super Bowl in less than two weeks… You have watched many football games throughout your life, but you don’t think you had ever been so nervous watching football so it was a relief when the game was finally over.

You were so proud of the Cincinnati Bengals football team, but you were even more prouder for Joe… It made you emotional as you watched him speak at the media press conference about how much winning the AFC Championship meant to him and how proud he is of the football team for making it all the way to the Super Bowl after a long football season.

What made the AFC Championship victory even more special is that you go to celebrate the victory in your childhood home in Ohio with your mom, who has been a longtime fan of the Cincinnati Bengals football team since she was a little girl.

The city of Cincinnati was alive as the people were celebrating the AFC Championship victory for days… Everyone in the city was wearing their Bengals merchandise and making it known that they were proud of the football team that represents the city.

The AFC Championship victory allowed people to talk with each other no matter where they were… They could be at the park, in line at the grocery store, at the bank, or any other place in Cincinnati and the conversation was about the AFC Championship.

It’s been few days since the AFC Championship football game and there was only a few days left of your visit in Ohio before you had to leave to catch a flight to Los Angeles to prepare for the Super Bowl… Due to the success of the interview with Joe Burrow, the NFL wants you to be apart of one of the pre-show broadcasts alongside other NFL journalists which was an opportunity you had never had before.

You were at the kitchen table, proofreading one of your articles on your laptop when you heard the keys unlocking the front door… When your mom asked you what you wanted for lunch, you begged her to order your favorite food from the local Mexican Restaurant that you have eaten at in many years and after a while, your mom finally agreed to order and pick the food up at the restaurant.

The front door is unlocked and you hear your mom’s footsteps as she walked to the kitchen after closing the front door… You can tell by the expression on her face that she is in a very good mood, which wasn’t strange to you but it still made you curious as to what is making her so happy on a Thursday afternoon.

“You will never guess who I ran into at the Mexican Restaurant!” your mom exclaims as she’s putting the bags of food on the kitchen counter.

“No… Hi, Hey or Hello. We’re just going straight to the point?! you ask as you start to open the bags of food to search for your plate-lunch.

“Just make a guess.” your mom says, but before you could think of a guess of who your mom met that has her so happy, she decides to give you the answer.

“I ran into Robin!” your mom exclaims, as your heard the name you stopped everything that you were doing to look at your mom with a shocked look on your face.

Since the AFC Championship was bringing the citizens of Cincinnati together in union; it’s no surprise that after 8 years, two mothers who are very supportive of their child’s careers in the NFL were reunited again.

Robin and your mother, Matilda, became close friends when the friendship between you and Joe started and tried to remain close friends even when the two of you grew apart… But overtime, it became harder for the two women to remain close friends and grew apart.

“I couldn’t believe who it was when I saw her, but then she sat next to me while I was waiting for the food and she recognized me.” your mom explains. “It has been so long since I’ve seen her, I think the last time was at your College going away party… It was just by pure coincidence that Joe begged to have food from the Mexican Restaurant just like you did.”

“Oh… well that’s good to hear!” you say, as you grab your plate lunch and walk back to your seat at the kitchen table.

“She also talked about how much she loved the interview that you and Joe did and that she was so happy that the two of you are friends again!” your mom says as she is sitting down next to you at the kitchen table with her plate lunch.

“Mom… I don’t think Joe and I are friends again, all we did was work together for one thing. I haven’t talked to him since the day of the interview.” you explain.

“According to Robin, Joe is happy that you’re in his life again.” your mom says.

“I wouldn’t say I’m in his life again… It’s more like I showed up in his life again after 8 years.” you say. “I’m not saying we can’t be friends again, it’s more like we haven’t had the chance the talk about why we stopped being friends… And I don’t think we’ll have to time to talk before I have to leave Ohio.”

“Well… maybe you’ll have time to talk to him tonight.” you mom suggests.

“What do you mean?!” you ask.

“Robin invited us over to their house to celebrate the success of the interview between you and Joe and to celebrate the AFC Championship victory for the Bengals!” your mom exclaims and once again, you stopped everything that you were doing to look at your mom with a shocked look on your face.

“Wait a minute… We’re going to The Burrow’s House tonight?!” you asked.

“Yes! It’s been so long since we’ve been at their house, I remember when we used to go over there almost every weekend… “Now you have the time to talk to Joe before you leave Ohio maybe you could finally tell him about the crush!” you mom teased.

“Mom!” you exclaim.

“What?! Do you really think that I didn’t know about the crush that you had on him ?!” your mom asked. “I always thought that the two of you would’ve gotten together by the end of high school… I guess life took the two of you on different patches but, now your paths are crossed again and this could be the opportunity for you to confess your feelings.”

“Mom… I stopped having a crush on Joe years ago when we were in high school.” you admit. “I stopped liking him in that kind of way when I realized that he would never like me in that way.”

Your mom reach for your hand to give a squeeze of comfort before letting go and then she responds “Darling, I watched the two of you grow up from being young kids to young adults. I promise that even if he didn’t like you a romantic way, he likes you in a special way… And I watched the interview, I could see his eyes light up when talking to you just like his eyes lit up when he was younger. I don’t think 8 years apart changed anything for the two of you; I think you just have to be smart on how you want to handle the universe giving the two of you a second chance.”

You sat in silence to take a moment to think about what your mom just said as she stand up to bring both of your plate-lunches to the kitchen counter since the two of you were finished eating lunch… When she walks back to the kitchen table, she gives you a back hug and a kiss on the forehead and you smile at her.

“In a few hours we’ll leave to go to The Burrow’s Head, Robin gave me her new phone number so I’ll text her to see if she needs us to pick up something from the store after we leave our house.” your mom says.

“Alright! That’s sounds like a good plan!” you exclaim, then your mom walks out of the kitchen to go into the living room as you grabbed your laptop to start working on proofreading your articles before you have to start getting ready to go to The Burrow’s House.

The hours of the afternoon went by fast and a wave of nostalgia hits you harder than you could expect as you and your mom are walking up the pavement towards the front door of The Burrow House… It has been years since you’ve walked along the pavement, but you still feel like the little girl who is on her way to The Burrow House for a play date with her best friend.

When the two of you walk up the patio steps to reach the front door of The Burrow House, before your mom could knock, the front door is already started to open…“Matilda! Y/N!” Robin exclaimed after she opened the door and moving to her left side to let the two of you in the house “It is so good to see the two of you again!”

“It feels like it’s been forever since we’ve been here!” your mom exclaims, pulling Robin into a hug.

When the hug between then is over, Robin looks over to you and smiles with tears forming in her eyes.

“Y/N! It’s been way to long since I’ve seen you!” Robin exclaims, pulling you into a tight hug. “It’s so good to see you, I missed you so much!”

“I missed you too.” you say, as you start to get emotional as well. It’s been so long since you’ve seen Robin and you’ve always considered her to be another guardian in your life that you could trust.

“When Joe told me that you were the one to be interviewing him before the AFC Championship, I didn’t believe him!” Robin exclaims as the two of you are pulling away from the hug. “And then I watched the interview and still couldn’t believe it, I was just so happy to see the two of you together again!”

As the three of you walk out of the front door hallway, you’re looking around the house to try and see if there are any differences. While there are a few differences that are easier to recognize such as some new furniture and decor items, new photos in the picture frames, and the new wooden floors… There is still the sense of familiarity that causes a heavy feeling in your chest.

“Is that Matilda and Y/N I see?!” a recognizable voice loudly asks that causes you to jump and turn around.

“Jimmy!” your mom exclaims as the two of them walk towards each other to hug. “It’s so good to see you!”

“I didn’t believe Robin when she told me that she saw you earlier today!” Jimmy says. “I can’t believe you’re here again in our house after all of these years!”

Since your dad had passed away when you were a toddler, Jimmy was someone that you always considered to be a father figure in your life. Whether you were having car troubles or had a clogged drain, Jimmy was always there to help you and your mom out whenever it was needed.

When your mom and Jimmy pulled away from the hug, Jimmy immediately pulls you into a hug and you couldn’t help but get emotional once again of being reunited with people you love in The Burrow House.

“It’s so good to see you again!” Jimmy exclaimed, as the two of you pulled away from the hug. “Look at you! Look how much you’ve grown, I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve seen you!”

“It’s good to see you too Jimmy!” you say.

You continue to look around the house as the three of you make your way into the living room, you noticed that there was no sight of Joe yet which made you wonder if he was home… It was hard for you to not start overthinking that Joe left the house because he didn’t want to see you again after the way you acted on the day of the interview. You hope Joe was smart to realize that you did want to talk to him, you just didn’t want to have the conversation at your work place.

“Where is Joe?!” your mom asked as the two of you sit in the coach. “I assumed he would be here because after all… this is a dinner to celebrate the success of the interview and the AFC Championship victory!”

“Joe is stopping at the store to buy the ingredients for salad that I forgot before coming over to the house… I was so focus on getting the ingredients for my lasagna that I forgot the salad!” Robin exclaimed. “He should here soon because he texted me that he left his house almost 15 minutes ago, I know he’s excited to see Y/N.”

Your cheeks turned red as you blushed and looked down at your hands to fidget with your rings. You couldn’t help but feel like a little girl with the biggest crush on Joe again… You didn’t know if loved or hated how Joe is able to have so much control over how you feel like he did when the two of you were growing up.

While your mom, Robin, and Jimmy were engaging in conversation; you sat and listened as you look at the collage of framed photos that were nailed wall … There were a few new framed photos like from Joe’s college graduations and NFL football games, but the majority of the pictures on the wall you recognized.

A few minutes later, all three of you looked towards the hallway after hearing the front door was being unlocked which meant that Joe was home… Your fingers started to fidget with your rings as you began to feel so nervous to the point where you think you are more nervous to see Joe in his childhood home then when you found out that you had to interview Joe.

It didn’t take long for Joe to walk into the living room with grocery bags hanging from his arm as he goes to say a quick hello and giving a hug to his parents before walking over to the couch. “Hello Miss Matilda!” Joe exclaims as your mom stands up from her spot on the couch to give him a hug.

“Hello Joe!” your mom says, as the two of them are hugging. “It’s so good to see you after so many years! Look how handsome you’ve grown up to be!”

“Thank you.” Joe said, as they pulled away from the hug. “It’s good to see you too!”

When Joe looks over at you and smiles as you stand up to hug him, you can feel your heart beating fast… The high didn’t last long since you didn’t want to make things awkward in front of your mom and his parents.

“It’s good to see you again Y/N.” Joe says as the two of you sit next to each other on the couch with some space in between the two of you.

“It’s good to see you again too.” you reply, as cross one leg over the other to get comfortable on the couch.

“Joe… I think you should bring the grocery bags to the kitchen.” your mom says, as she points to the grocery bag that was still hanging from Joe’s arm.

“Oh! I forgot that was there…” Joe exclaims. “I’ll be right back-“

Before Joe could stand up to walk the kitchen, Robin stops his actions. “Just hand me the bags, I was about to walk to the kitchen to check on the lasagna… How about you and Y/N go to your childhood bedroom to catch up while the three adults talk?!”

“Mom… Y/N and I are adults.” Joe says as he hands his mom the grocery bags before she walks out of the living room and into the kitchen.

“Joe… You know that the two of you will always be a kids in your mother’s eyes.” Jimmy states.

“And in my eyes as well…” your mom says. “I just can’t believe the two of you have grown up so quickly. I remember when the two of you were just little kids playing on the elementary school’s playground.”

“Don’t start bringing up their childhood memories or else I’m going to start getting emotional.” Robin yells from the kitchen as she can overhear the conversation.

“It’s more like she’s going to start getting emotional again.” Jimmy whispers, “I had to stop her from going her from going through all of the photo albums.”

“I do plan on going through those photos albums tonight with all of us here.” Robin yells from the kitchen, making it known to everyone that she overheard what her husband. “And by the way… The lasagna should be ready in 30 minutes.”

As your mom decided to go into the kitchen to see if Robin needed help and to continue their conversations from earlier that day… Joe instructs you to follow him as the two of you stood up from the coach to walk upstairs to Joe’s childhood bedroom.

When Joe opens his bedroom door, allowing you to walk inside the bedroom first… You noticed that nothing has changed since high school; the furniture is the room were the same and all of his posters of Star Wars and his favorite NFL Teams were still on the wall.

“I’m surprised to see nothing has changed at all.” you say as you sit on the bed while still looking around the bedroom, trying to find something that’s changed.

“Well… I moved out after high school and we already have a guest room in the house, so there was really no point of changing anything.” Joe answers, while sitting next to you. “It’s weird walking into this room because I feel like I time-traveled back to my childhood.”

“There definitely was this weird feeling of nostalgia that hit me when I walked into the room.” you said.

The two of you sat in silence for a few minutes, with Joe looking at the floor while fidgeting with the bracelets on his wrists while you are still looking around the room… It’s been 8 years since you’ve been in this bedroom and everything felt so familiar.

When you look at the framed photos that are on Joe’s dresser, one of the framed photos caught your eyes which causes you to stand up from your spot on the bed to get a better look of the photo… Joe watched as you pick up the framed photo and smile.

“I didn’t know you framed this photo of us!” you ask, as you hold up the framed photo for him to see.

“Yeah… It’s one of my favorite photos of us.” Joe answers. “I just didn’t know it would be our last photo.”

You frowned as you look down at the framed photo. The photo in the frame was of the two of you at your high school graduation, neither of you knew at the same time that it would be your last photo together.

Your heart sank to your stomach, you didn’t mean for your friendship to end the way it did… The two of you just didn’t know how to communicate with each other due to the long distance of him in Ohio while you were in another state because of college.

“I’m sorry Joe.” you say, putting the picture frame back onto his dresser and then walking to the bed, sitting back down in your spot. “I’m sorry for a lot of things…”

“There’s nothing you need to apologize for…” Joe said.

“Yes there is!” you exclaimed. “Our friendship ended because we were terrible at communicating with each other because of long distance and then when you try to talk to me, I told you that there was nothing for us to talk about when there is so much I have to say to you!”

“You don’t need to apology for anything.” Joe says. “If anything I should apologize… You always tried to reach out to me to talk to me when I was at Ohio State and I never responded because I was busy doing nothing important. I’m the reason our friendship ended.”

“I’m not going to let you blame yourself.” you say as you scooched over to where Joe was sitting while placing your hand on top of his hand and giving you a smile…. Joe gave you a smile right back which causes your heart to start beating fast in your chest again and when you take your hand off of Joe’s hand, you swear you saw the smile on his face disappear for a second.

“And don’t say that our friendship ended… I don’t like the sound of that, it’s makes it sound like there was a big fight or a betrayal.” you say. “Let’s just say that our friendship took a break.”

“A break in our friendship does sound better than saying our friendship ended… because we’re friends again right?!” Joe asked.

“Yeah…” you sighed. “Just friends.”

There was a confused look on Joe’s face because of the way you responded. “Is there something wrong with us being friends?!” he asked. “You’re not going to risk your job because of our friendship right… I wouldn’t want to put you in that position.”

“No… No!” you say defensively. “There’s nothing wrong with us being friends.”

“You’re fidgeting with your rings Y/N.” Joe says. “You always fidget with your jewelry when you’re nervous.”

You didn’t realize what you were doing until you looked down at your hands to see that you are fidgeting with your rings... The fact Joe knows your cues for when you’re nervous just proves that he knows you so well after all of these years even when you’ve been apart.

“What are you nervous about?!” Joe asked. “Are you nervous about us being friends again because I promise that we won’t have another break in our friendship ever again.”

“I’m not worried about us being friends again for the reasons you think.” you reply. “I just don’t know if I can handle us just being friends again.”

“What do you mean?!” Joe asked, because he is so confused on why you are nervous to be friends again.

“I had a crush on you during our years in elementary school and middle school.” you confessed.

“Wait a minute… You had a crush on me when we were kids?!” Joe asked. You slowly nodded your head.

“Wow… I never realized it.” Joe surprisingly exclaimed.

“Wait… You never knew?!” you asked.

“No… I swear. I never knew about the crush that you had on me.” Joe said in disbelief.

“I thought it was obvious that I had a crush on you because everyone pointed it out to me.” you said.

“So… You only had a crush on me when we were in elementary school and middle school. Did the crush go away when we got to high school.” Joe asked.

“All those years I thought it was a silly little crush but then we got to high school… you started flirting and dating around with other girls and that’s when I thought that I’ll never have any chance of romance with you so I did everything that I could do to get rid of the feelings I had for you. It took a long time but by the end of high school, I didn’t have any romantic feeling towards you.” you confessed.

“Oh…” Joe sighed. “Because when we got to high school, that’s when I started to have a crush on you.”

The expression on your face was an expression that Joe couldn’t understand… He didn’t know if you were confused or surprised at his confession.

“You had a crush on me in high school?!” you asked.

Joe nodded his head and the expression on your face showed him that you were even more confused and surprised than before… “Wait… but you were always flirting with other girls and going on dates, why were you doing all of that when you had a crush on me?!”

“When I realized that I had a crush on you, I didn’t think that you and a crush on me… So I tried hanging out with other girls and flirting with them to try and distract myself from the crush I had on you so that I wouldn’t ruin our friendship.” Joe admitted.

“Oh…” you said.

“But then during our senior year… I realized that I couldn’t keep it a secret because it was tearing me apart on the inside. So I had made the decision to confess my crush on you after our high school graduation.” Joe confessed. “But then after our high school graduation, you told me that you would be going to a college out of state and I didn’t want to confess my crush to you incase it would change your mind about going to a college out of state because I didn’t want you to stay in Ohio just for me.”

You turned to look at the framed photo of the two of you at your high school graduation that was on Joe’s dresser and your heart sank to your stomach… When you turn around to look at Joe, you see the sorrow expression on his face.

“I wish you would’ve told me.” you say.

“Why?!” Joe bitterly asked. “So that you would tell me that you didn’t have a crush on me or that you would give up your dreams of going to a college out of the state to stay with me in Ohio!”

“Joe… we could’ve worked something out.” you say.

“Y/N… It was so hard for me to communicate with you after you left Ohio. I still had a crush on you when we got to college, it was getting harder and harder to live my life without you in it while having this big secret to myself. So I stopped our communication and I regretted it every single day for 8 years so that’s why I blame myself for our friendship ending.” Joe said.

“I told you not to blame yourself and I told you not to say that our friendship ended.” you muttered.

There was a few minutes of silence between the two of you. Joe didn’t know what to say next, he confessed his truth just like you confessed your truth… Just a few minutes ago; the two of you were on the same page of being friends again but now, the two of you didn’t know if there could be a chance of a friendship.

As the two of you sit in silence, you could hear your parents voices downstairs in the kitchen as their laughing about something that was said in their conversation… You thought about what your mom said in her kitchen when you were nervous about talking to Joe about the history between the two of you.

“I don’t think 8 years apart changed anything for the two of you; I think you just have to be smart on how you want to handle the universe giving the two of you a second chance.”

This moment was the universe giving you and Joe another chance; not another chance to be friends, but another chance for the two of you to be together… You had your first chance when the two of you were in high school, and now 8 years later you have another chance to make sure that your paths are crossed forever.

“I thought that those feelings went away forever, but then when I saw you for the first time in 8 years… I realized that those romantic feelings never really went away.” you confessed. “That’s why I’m nervous to be friends again, because I can’t handle us just being friends because I want you in my life as mine.”

Joe didn’t know what to say as he blinked a few times and pinched himself on the wrist to make sure that he was dreaming… Because how was he w supposed to believe that after 8 years, the girl of his dreams was right in front of him confessing that her feelings for him never went away after all of this time apart.

Since he didn’t know what to say, Joe decided to let his actions speak lounder than words as he reach over to place the palms of his hands on your cheeks as he pulled you close to him, kissed you and hummed in glee when you kissed him back with no hesitation.

As the two of you were kissing, your hands were wondering from his shoulder to gripping the material of his shirt… While his hands were moving from your cheeks to your arms and waist to pull you into his lap as your arms were wrapped around his neck.

Things turned from an innocent kiss to a make-our session, the grip Joe’s hand had on your waist as he started to slowly rock your hips back and forth causing him to groaned from the pleasurable pressure.

The two of you were in your own world and forgot that the both of you are currently making out in Joe’s childhood bedroom while your parents are downstairs… In the moment, the two of you felt like teenagers who are sneaking around and hiding your relationship; When in reality the two of you are adults that had been hiding your true feelings for each other for over 10 years and are making up for lost time.

As the make out session was getting more heated, with your lips now kissing his neck as he groaned whispered sweet nothings under his breathe while sitting controlling the rhythm of your hips on his lap… The only thoughts on your mind right now were thinking about how you could pleasure him in other ways.

“Joe! Y/N! Dinner is ready!” Robin exclaims.

His mother’s voice causes the two of you to snap back into reality as the two of you freeze in the moment and realize where you are… You pull back from your spot to see his face again, with his hands still gripping your waist. When you look at his neck, you spot a few small bruises that were barely noticeable right now.

“We’ll be downstairs in a minute!” Joe yells.

“I guess we have one minute to look like we haven’t been making out for almost 10 minutes.” you whisper. “We better hurry up and fix ourselves up before one of our moms comes to see what’s taking us so long.”

The two of you quickly start fixing yourselves up, as you had to fix your lipstick and blouse while Joe had to fix his pants to try and hide his boner… When the two of check the mirror and see that you both look out together, it was time to go to the kitchen for dinner.

As the two of you exist his room and start to walk down the hallway to the stairs, Joe stop in front of you… “I want to say, before we go downstairs… I don’t want what just happened to be a one time thing… I want us to make this relationship work.” he stated. “We can talk more about it later but I just wanted you to know this before you start overthinking everything.”

“Okay… I understand.” you answer. “We’ll talk about things later and work it out between us.”

“That’s good to hear.” Joe says. “I can’t lose you again for another 8 years because of lost communication.”

You gave Joe a small frown as you lean up to give him a quick kiss. “We’re never going to lose each other again.” you promised.

Joe nodded his head and then the two of you continued to walk downstairs to make your way into the kitchen where you say your mom and his parents preparing their dinner plates.

“I was just about to go upstairs to tell the both of you that it’s dinner time!” Robin exclaims, “I guess nothing really has changed between the two of you in 8 years.”

Joe and you looked at each other and smiled, knowing that while Robin is right about how nothing has changed between the two of you in 8 years, there are some things that have changed between the two of you… but the things that have changed are changing between the two of you for better not for worse.

The five of you sat down at the dining room table and ate the lovely dinner of salad and lasagna that Robin has spent hours cooking as you all chatted amongst yourselves about the your careers, the interview, the AFC Championship victory, and the future of what are the plans after football season ends.

Robin stuck to her word because after everyone was finished eating dinner and the kitchen was cleaned with the plates and utensils were in the dishwasher… Everyone was gathered in the living room with photo albums in their hands, looking at all the photo memories throughout your childhoods.

You and Joe were sat close to each other on the couch as the two of you were looking at a photo album with photos on every page throughout your elementary school years… As Joe was flipping through the pages, one of the photo caught your eye which causes you to grab Joe’s hand to stop him from flipping the pages.

“I forgot about this photo… This was always my favorite photo of us!” you exclaim, pointing to the photo. It was a photo from a Halloween Party that happened when the two of you were in 2nd grade, Joe was dressed up as a NFL football player and you were dressed up as Princess Belle as the two of you were smiling big while holding up a book and a football.

“Which photo are you talking about?” your mom asks and Joe holds up the photo album to show her as you point to the picture since she is sitting in the recliner across from the two of you in the living room.

“That is such a cute photo of the two of you!” Robin exclaims. “That is one my favorite photos as well!”

“I definitely will be framing the photo.” Joe whispers to you as he puts the photo album down in his lap and started flipping through the pages again.

As everyone looked through the photo albums and talked about the memories. You couldn’t help but look around the room and smile because for the first time in 8 years, two families were reunited as one family.

If there is one thing that you’ve learned; is that when the universe gives you another chance, you take that chance… The two paths you and Joe had taken since high school graduation have lead you back to each other. Now you want to know what forever feels like with Joe as your two paths cross over and become one path that the two of you will walk on together.

Author’s Note:

a few months ago; i got a request message in my Inbox from @minidinkoidd to write a story inspired by All Of The Girls You Loved Before… and i’m so happy that i was able to write this fanfiction!

thank you all for the love and support! 🤍

#Joe Burrow #NFL #CFB #LSU Tigers #Cincinnati Bengals #Joe Burrow Fanfiction #Joe Burrow Fanfic #Joe Burrow Fic #Joe Burrow x Reader #Joe Burrow x OC #Joe Burrow x Y/N #Joe Burrow Imagine #Joe Burrow OneShot #NFL Fanfiction

468 notes · View notes

yougavemeyourheartyouknow · 4 months

Text

Within cells, interlinked (Miguel O’Hara x Ai/Hologram! Fem! reader) Part 1

Hiii! Very excited about this bad boy, this is inspired by K and Joi’s relationship in bladerunner 2049, and this panel from 90’s run of the Spider-Man 2099 comics. Also there is some heavily implied (at the very least one sided) holofang (Miguel x Lyla) at the beginning, if that isn’t your cup of tea, then I’m sorry but that’s how I wrote it. Not proofread, enjoy!

(Y/N)-Your name.

Implied (one sided???) holofang, Lyla is like basically dead, mentions of sex work, cursing, Miguel being a sad lonely lonely man, ansty (if you squint), Miguel being a little mad scientist like at the end. Tbh idk really know what to tag these as.

Word count: 3k

Part 2

Masterlist

Playlist I listened to while writing

—

Neuva York 2099.

A dystopian wasteland that was once a pristine and other worldly city. But, like every other beautiful thing, it would be destined to fall, thanks to Kingpin, who now had the city under his thumb. Straile white buildings that once stood tall, crumpled and decayed, being replaced slowly but surely with dark titanium steel. Holographic projections filled the sides of ugly skyscrapers, advertising anything and everything, ranging from restaurants and video games to Ai women and cyborg upgrades.

Miguel’s original Ai assignment was unfortunately no longer functional, her software having been corrupted due to a virus that was released onto Miguel’s suit during a fight with Doc ock, Miguel having no other choice but to terminate her software, putting her out of her misery. It not only set Miguel back from his usual tasks as Spider-Man and his work at Alchemax, but the whole spider society, Lyla being the one who controlled the whole mainstream to the entire operation, along with help from Spider-Byte, but she couldn’t run the whole society technology wise, she had a life outside of her role there.

If Miguel had the time, he would have done what he had done the first time, and redesign her from scratch, raising her from her nonexistent grave. However, he knew he didn’t have the time. He had spent months programming her, not to mention the years it took for him to upgrade her into what she had become. It’s only been a week, and he could already see the cracks that were forming without her to hold it all together. His universe was already in disarray, he didn’t need another thing to crumble into dust in his hands.

The walk from the Alchemax back to his apartment was meant to help him clear his head, but it only dampened his mood more, bitter cold air and large dark clouds rolling in slowly, threatening to pour down on the decile city. Keeping his head held high and eyes forward despite his desire to go deep into a dark alleyway and swing the rest of the way home, keeping the tension in his temples build up with every sleazy salesperson attempting to sell him a sketchily low price for random gadgets that he was certain was stolen, or sex workers attempting to coax him into a small brothel. All kinds of lives walked past him as he ventured home, humans, cyborgs, full robots and AI holographic companions, a million life stories that could be told.

Less and less began to cross his path as he neared his apartment building, eye bags dark and sunken in as he turned his head to the left, he was now alone on the sidewalk, stopping as he put his hand on the railing that lined the evaluated walkway, he remembered not even 10 years ago, that very spot would look out to a beautiful pond, small ducks that pattered around, families gathering around to have little outings, ones that Miguel only ever really dreamed of. Now, all that was a ginormous digital billboard that would switch advertisers every week or so. Although he never really expected they’d project the one that was on display now. He had to squint a bit so that the now dripping rain didn’t get into his eyes as he watched the projection.

“The perfect companion, the perfect coworker, the perfect partner. Joi, your personal Ai. Everything you want to hear, everything you want to see.” The sentences rotated between each other over and over, Miguel stayed silent as he stared mindless at the naked back of the large Ai hologram, their skin admitting a light glow as she sensually ran her hands through her hair. Despite the words “companion” and “coworker” showing up on the ad, it was painfully obvious what the holographic woman was really meant for.

Still, he caught himself unable to look away, despite seeing the ads hundreds of times prior to this moment. He didn’t even register when the Ai had turned around and squatted in front him, making it so the two were at eye level.

“Hello handsome.” His eyes finally drifted up to meet hers once she spoke, he wasn't very fond of the default version they often used on most of their ads, so seeing this version in front of him was a lot more of a nicer sight to see. “What a day hmm?” When he didn’t respond she just came closer, “you look lonely… I could fix that…” She whispered with a head tilt, “you look like a good Joi…” before getting back up and moving away from Miguel once more.

Maybe it was the stress, maybe it was his way of pretending he wasn’t mourning an algorithm, maybe it was just him being tired of carrying everything on his shoulders, still… his eyes slowly went down to his orange watch, moving it in front of the bare glowing figure, before his free hand slowly hovered over the watch, hesitating for a moment, before pressing purchase.

—

Once Miguel got home he spent the next hour or so reworking your programming, jailbreaking and removing restrictions, wanting to make sure you were prepared to handle the society’s system before he even turned you on to make sure you wouldn’t crash the second you were hooked up to it.

Eventually, once everything ran to meet his expectations, he stood back and waited for you to appear in front of him. Waiting impatiently as he watched the small loading circle chase itself until you appeared, although you weren’t fully “awake” still, eyes closed, head slumped forwards and arms hung limply to your sides. Still needing to be given a name, an outfit and if he desired to change anything from your physical appearance he could. He decided to keep your assets the same, and placed a simple outfit on you, deciding if you ever evolved enough to be sentient on the same level as Lyla was, that he’d give you free range to change it. For a name though, it was a bit harder of a choice.

Maybe it was him having his previous one for as long as he did, but he wanted you to be… different, then her, a name that wasn’t, well, Lyla. Something nice and pleasant to say, but not simple enough for him to forget in the midst of him in a fight. After some pondering, he finally typed in the name into his watch and pressed the “finalized model”. Releasing a breath he didn’t know he was holding when he saw your head slowly begin to lift and your eyes slowly fluttered open.

“Hello Miguel.” You said him a smile.

“Hello (Y/N).” His lips twitched upwards for half a second.

—

It took a while for your program to adjust and be accustomed to the database, he never realized how much strain he put on his older Ai until he watched you try and accommodate the same thing, yet then again, he built it all around her, instead of vise versa. It wasn’t just you who had needed some time to adjust though. The amount of times that spiders (including Jessica and Miguel) would call for Lyla still instead of you was starting to… annoy you for lack of a better term.

You had been patient at first, appearing despite the slip up, simply correcting the person who called for you and going on with the request, then it seems that the patience started to run thin. Rolling your eyes or letting out snarky little remarks, then eventually you just started to not respond unless they called you by your actual name, which only led you landing yourself in a lecture from Miguel, being threatened to reboot your system. Him ranting about how it could be dangerous or something, after the first few times, it stops being fear insulating, once you even let out a yawn at his usual lecture. A yawn. How close he was to throwing his desk across his office.

The longer you stuck around the more knowledge you gather, the more self-aware you become, mimicking human thoughts and emotions, reading anything you could get your digital little hands on. From the words of Ancient Greek philosophers to thousands of different articles on how the human brain works, what different areas controlled what. You found humans quite interesting, such complex yet flawed creatures, you can understand why so many filmmakers and authors who write science fiction have some odd variation of robots wanting to either become humans or destroy them.

It’s almost cliche, but you can’t help but develop the same fascination with Miguel. How could you not? You were quite literally around him 24/7, you could tell he wanted to be taken care of when he wasn’t taking care of everything himself, and who were you as his assistant to refuse?

—

“Welcome back Miguel.” You smiled as you appeared next to the door before he could even step foot through its threshold. Your eyes followed him as he took his shoes off and threw his keys on the coffee table in the middle of the living room, landing with a loud clunk.

“I just saw you back at HQ.” He chuckled, shaking his head as he closed the door behind him before he made his way to his kitchen, “It's been 20 minutes.” He added as he turned the corner, being met with you already there, leaning against the counter as his coffee machine was already pouring him a new cup in his favorite mug, with the stove being lit on for him to place his left overs onto to warm up.

“Being greeted when you arrive home helps boost your overall well-being.” You quipped, which only gained a small hum of acknowledgement as he placed a pot of bistec on top of the open flame, and a bowl of leftover white rice in the microwave.

“It could also help boost my overall well-being if you didn’t act like such a brat half the time.” He countered back as he stirred the streak and potatoes to make sure it didn’t burn before turning to face you, meeting you with that all too familiar smirk he always gave you. You were quick to mirror it. “You're supposed to make my life easier, ya know?” Despite it being a rhetorical question, your smirk only widely more.

A silence fell over the kitchen as he goes back to focusing on his food, you just stay there, watching as he made quick work fixing his plate, mumbled a small “sorry” to you everytime he would “bump into you” (as Miguel liked to call it) despite him only passing through your holographic body as he grabs the plate and cup of coffee and goes it set it down at the table, making sure to be fast as to not hold onto the gradually warming glass crockery long enough to burn his rough hands.

With a sigh, he sat down in front of his plate as he heard the faint noise of your projection deactivated from the kitchen, leaving him alone in the quiet home of his. He’s fork moving around the contains on his plate, piercing the potatoes and steak but never lifting it up to bite into the steaming meal. After a few more moments of playing with his food, he placed his fork back down, keeping his eyes down on his plate despite him lifting his head up.

“(Y/N).” He called out after cleaning his throat.

“Yes?” Your voice called back out, ringing through his apartment as he waited for you to reappear, only to let out a huff when you didn’t.

“…have dinner with me?” When he finally looked back up, he was met with you already in the chair across from him, a digital plate of food replicating his in front of you. His lips twitched up as he whispered a light thank you for entertaining his wish, even down to mimicking eating as you both sat there, his eyes never leaving yours.

After his appetite was satiated, and the dish were washed, he wander to his living room, being met with the sight of you already being sat down on one of the small leather accent chair that sat to the right of the coffee table, a small orange tablet-like screen being held in your hands as you tampered away on it, most likely readjusting tomorrow's schedule or researching more on some random topic you found interesting. Leaning against the doorway, he couldn't help but watch you, admire you. He found it humorous that you chose to physically sit down and read about topics even though you were built with the knowledge of practically everything. It made you feel more… real. It made him feel less insane when he found comfort in your company.

“Would you like me to leave you alone mig?” You asked after a second, eyes never leaving the screen in front of you. His heart stopped for half a second when you called him by the nickname as he shook his head.

“¿Qué estás haciendo?” He asked as he made his way towards you, stopping once he was close enough that if you had a physical being, his legs would have been touching your knees. (What are you doing?)

“Just going over your suit diagnostics, I’ve noticed that it’s been lagging a bit.” You hummed, not even fazed by the close proximity.

“…(Y/N).”

“Hmm?”

“Look at me.” He commanded, but his tone is still somewhat soft with the order, your screen evaporating from your hands as you went to meet his gaze. He hesitated for a moment, leaving his dry lips before finally continuing. “You know, I feel like I don’t appreciate you enough.”

“Miguel, I’m your Ai assistant, my whole purpose is to help make your life easier.” You couldn’t help the slight snark that came seeping through your sentence, causing him to let out a scoff and playful eye roll.

“That’s not what I mean, you know that.” He countered with a head tilt, his hands sliding over his thighs and finding their way into his front jean pockets.

“What do you mean then?”

“What do you think I meant?” Now it was you who let out an eye roll as you huffed.

“Miguel, you know I can’t ‘think’. I’m not human, I can simply process and collect information and recite it back. I speak only in facts and unbiased sources.”

He couldn’t help but hate it when you talked like that during casual conversation, despite the deadpan look in your eyes and the small sass in your infliction, it only reminded him that you weren’t real. The only difference from your body and air, was that you were a set of ones and zeros. He could swat a hand through your body and you would simply glitch around it as it interrupted your coding and it attempted to adjust around him, how for once, he wishes that when he would “bump into you” that he would be met with solid flesh, you stumbling back a bit while you scold him, his hand coming around to met the small of your back to help re-stabilize your footing as he lets out a small chuckle.

“Don’t be a smartass with me (Y/N). You know, most humans I know don’t have the ability to think either, and they for sure aren’t as nearly intelligent or knowledgeable as you are. If they can form an option then you can too.” He was met with your face contorting in confusion, a rare expression on your face, one he appreciated when he got the opportunity to witness it. “I want you to think, give me an original thought. Not a statistic, not a fact. Think for yourself (Y/N).” The was a pause before your lips parted.

“I… I think…”

“Thaaaat’s it…” He leaned forward, his face close to yours as he encouraged you to continue in a low whisper. “I think?”

“I think… that if I was a human, that… that I would be in love with you Miguel.”

Oh.

“(Y/N).”

“Yes Miguel?”

“Shut off.”

“Yes Miguel.”

Within a blink, you were gone. His hands came out from his pockets with a heavy sigh, before he rubbed his face and ran them through his hair, causing the semi-neatly slicked back hair to become desiveled. Glancing around the now empty living room, the small constant buzzing from your hologram now being replaced with the gentle tapping of the rain against his window.

Miguel O’Hara was truly a lonely man. A man with weaknesses and flaws despite himself, a man with feelings, and vulnerabilities and emotions. Miguel O’Hara was just a man, just a human. A human who wanted to be loved. To not be seen as some sort of emotionless being, the irony wasn’t lost on him that the only thing that seemed to really care for him, and see him in that way was something that wasn’t even programmed with actual emotions. Oh how he wished you were real, how you were human.

He couldn’t turn you into a human, but he could get close.

With a sigh he entered his home office, the only room he had restricted giving you access to appearing in. Closing the door behind him before leaning against the door, his eyes instantly finding themselves stuck on the limb on the table. An arm to be more specific, the synthetic flesh that matched your complexion wrapped around its exoskeleton. It took him almost a month to do just one arm, and although the time length of that he estimated for this project was a bit more lengthy then he’d like, if it meant getting every minuscule and minute detail perfected, he’ll take all the time in the world for it. He’d make sure it was perfect, that you’d be prefect.

—

Tags: @oscarissac2099

#miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o hara fanfic #miguel o'hara #miguel o’hara au #spiderman 2099 x reader #astv miguel #astv spiderman 2099 #Miguel ohara x Ai reader #miguel fanfic #Miguel O’Hara #miguel ohara #miguel spiderverse #miguel spiderman #spiderman 2099 fanfic #spiderman 2099

326 notes · View notes

eyesthatroll · 7 months

Text

STRAWBERRY VANILLA

SEPT. 2021

[ takes place in the bless the broken road universe ]

summary jack and (y/n) aka winnie meet for the first time

pairing jack hughes x fem!poc!reader

warning(s) none?

word count 1.2k

It's a late Sunday evening, and you find yourself knee-deep in baking preparations for the upcoming morning at the bakery. Normally, this task was reserved for early mornings, requiring you to rise at the ungodly hour of 4 am. However, the prospect of waking up so early had lost its appeal, so you had opted for a late-night baking session instead.

Despite the soft hum of background music, the relentless downpour outside remained unmistakable. The rain pounded against the windows, a symphony of nature's fury that was everyone's least favorite song. As you worked, you held onto the hope that it would subside before closing up. The thought of venturing out into the pouring rain wasn't appealing, and the idea of driving through the intense downpour filled you with a nervousness that you couldn't shake.

You're in the midst of placing some freshly baked, unadorned cakes into the refrigerator when the distinctive chime of the entrance door bell sounds, pausing you from your task. Your expression shifts from concentration to momentary confusion, as you're almost certain you'd locked that door. However, the distant murmur of a stranger's voice calling out confirms your earlier suspicion that you must have forgotten to secure it.

Hastily, you exit the kitchen, halting as you arrive at the front of the shop. Your gaze fixates on a tall figure, draped in clothes soaked by the non-stop rain. With practiced ease, he sheds his hoodie, revealing a sculpted physique beneath a clinging, rain-dampened white t-shirt that accentuates the contours of his well-defined torso.

"Sorry, we're closed." Your voice cuts through the air, drawing his attention like a magnet. He swivels his head towards you, his deep-blue eyes locking onto yours. An exasperated sigh escapes his lips, and he runs a hand through his tousled, chestnut hair, his fingers tugging lightly at the roots before releasing them.

He appears oddly familiar, and you tilt your head slightly, straining to recall the distant memory of where you might have crossed paths with him before.

"Can I ride out the storm here for a bit, just until the rain slows?"

His question hangs in the air, tinged with a hint of pleading in his tone. You find yourself intrigued, unable to ignore the curiosity about what drove him out into the storm. Though your initial instinct is to refuse and tell him to leave, you can't deny the surreal feeling of this encounter. It's not every day that an attractive stranger stumbles into your bakery, seeking shelter from the tempest outside. It's as if you've stepped into a scene from a novel, a meet-cute destined to unfold. Yet, you're acutely aware that once the storm passes, your paths will diverge, and this fleeting connection will fade into memory.

"You can stay until the rain stops, or until I leave." You agree.

A warm, appreciative smile graces his lips as he nods in gratitude. "Thank you so much."

"Sure." A subtle, awkward tension lingers in the air, leaving you feeling somewhat uneasy about resuming your work in the kitchen while leaving the stranger alone in the front of the bakery.

Instead, you opt for some light cleaning in the front. With deliberate motions, you wipe down the tables, sweep the floor, and diligently review and sign some pending invoices.

Despite your efforts to stay occupied, that lingering sense of awkward tension gradually returns to fill the room as there is nothing else up front for you to do.

"Did you want something to eat? I have cake, donuts, and some other stuff."

He shifts uneasily, his mouth opening and closing as if he's uncertain how to respond to your offer. You look at him expectantly, arms crossed over your chest, and a slight sway in your stance as you roll onto the balls of your feet.

His hesitation finally gives way, and he responds, his teeth grazing over his bottom lip. "What kinds of donuts do you have?"

A grin spreads across your face as you step over to the counter where he's standing. You reach behind the counter, retrieving a menu and flipping it over to reveal the section dedicated to mouthwatering donut options.

Shoulder to shoulder, you take a moment to walk him through each of the donut flavors. Some are classics, like the indulgent Boston creme, while others venture into the realm of culinary creativity, like the pineapple basil donut.

"How about..." He pauses briefly, contemplating his choice. "Strawberry Vanilla?"

You accept the menu from him with a nod, then pivot toward the kitchen. Swiftly, you retrieve two strawberry donuts from the fridge and arrange them on a spare plate you have lying around. With a deft hand, you pluck two napkins, ready to serve the treats.

Returning to the front, the handsome stranger remains in his original spot, engrossed in his cellphone. You clear your throat, gently guiding him to the side as you hoist yourself onto the counter. His gaze meets yours, uncertainty etched across his face. A reassuring smile graces your lips, and you pat the space next to you on the counter. He hesitates for a moment before mirroring your actions, and the two of you settle side by side on the countertop, indulging in your donuts together.

"Oh my god," he exclaims between bites, his enthusiasm palpable. You glance at him, a mixture of amusement and pride washing over you as his reaction to the donuts you made becomes increasingly evident. "This is insane," he declares, his words filled with genuine appreciation.

"Thank you." You thank him, laughing softly as you take a bite of your own donut.

A comfortable silence envelops both of you, with only the soft background music as your companion. Your eyes occasionally dart toward him, quick glances to avoid being caught staring. It's become clear, especially now, being so close to him, that he is undeniably beautiful.

Surely, he must have a girlfriend, right? There's no way he doesn't. You try to push aside the twinge of disappointment that accompanies that thought, but it lingers at the base of your chest.

He wipes his mouth with his napkin, then turns to you with a curious expression. "Crazy, I never noticed this place was here."

You immediately shake your head, eager to share a bit of your story. "Actually, I just bought this place a few months ago. I think it used to be a vegan place or something."

He appears genuinely surprised by your admission. "Wow, you own this place? You look pretty young."

A sheepish smile plays on your lips. "I'm 20."

His eyes light up with shared astonishment. "Me too!"

"And what do you do for work?"

Before he has the chance to answer, a sudden knock at the door jolts you back to reality. A taller boy, strikingly similar to the one sitting next to you, stands outside. It seems neither of you had even noticed that the rain had stopped, leaving the sky a light grey.

"That's my brother," he says, sliding off the counter. He retrieves his hoodie from the floor, draping it casually over his right shoulder.

"Thanks for the shelter." He says. "And the donut," he adds, flashing you a warm smile.

"Of course," you reply with a nod. "Drive safe."

"Yes ma'am." And just like that, the handsome stranger you'd shared laughter and conversation with for the better part of a half-hour is gone.

mari speaks! consider this a part one i suppose.

tag list! @tomhollandsbabymama

[ if you’d like to be added or removed from the taglist, please comment and let me know ]

#jack hughes #jack hughes imagine #jack hughes imagines #jack hughes fluff #jack hughes fanfiction #jack hughes fic #jack hughes x you #jack hughes x reader #jack hughes blurb

164 notes · View notes

nhularin · 10 months

Text

GET UP . . . p.sh (TEASER)

i don't wanna fight your shadow

A mage who struck himself and a heroine who couldn't defeat her inner monster.

PAIRING soulmate! Sunghoon x reader

GENRE heavy Angst, soulmate AU, sunghoon is a Delinquent, broken promises, love triangle, (curable hanahaki disease?), death, elements of greek mythology, written series (4-5 parts

ESTIMATED COMBINED WORD COUNT 30k

TAGLIST comment if you want to be added ^^

Have you ever felt a strong connection with someone, who you've never met?

Everyone in this universe has a purpose, to have a long and fulfilling life but most importantly to meet your own soulmate.

As soon as the clock hits 12'o clock on your 18th birthday, a light sense of deja vu is supposed to hit you with the image of your destined partner engraved in your mind. In soulmate mythology, two kindred souls share the same psyche and subconscious, embracing each other's emotions till they have found each other.

Some find their forever lover as soon as they turn of age, and some wait hopelessly till the end of time.

Some stories remain passed down for generations, despite the misfortune the characters went through and their happily ever after being universes out of reach. Such stories were meant to leave a mark, merely being a dark spot amongst the comforting tales out in the world.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, as they went about their lives, unaware of the profound connection that awaited them. Yet, fate would soon intervene. It was on a rain-soaked evening, when the sky wept tears of nostalgia, that their paths finally crossed.

As their love story unfolded, the mage and his siren realized that destiny had brought them together for a reason. Their souls had been intertwined long before they even knew of each other's existence. They embraced the nostalgia and déjà vu that accompanied their union, cherishing every moment of their journey.

Though stories are met with tragedies

This is a tale of two despaired hearts trapped in the love of war, aching for the familiarity they find comfort in, yet trapped in suffocating chambers of selfish actions and naivety.

He's the ruthless king, leading his troops through the gruesome battle, fighting through every obstacle that leads to his lost Queen.

She is his white rose, stained red with the blood of their tragic love.

he put new stars in the sky and redecorated with new colors, made himself at home along the giant nebulas and the infinite constellations of hope.

Days pass, seasons go and when spring and the sun reveal themselves once again, will she be there too?

NETWORKS @hyfenet @k-labels @kflixnet

206 notes · View notes

xoxomoonlightxoxo · 3 months

Text

Masterlist

✧✦ Hey, my name is Moonlight and I enjoy writing love stories, drawing inspiration from poetry, lyrics, and paintings. Would like to preface that I rarely write one-shots, so most of my work is structured as a series. Although I love to follow a concrete plan, I'm always open to suggestions and ideas, especially when my creative juices are taking their lunch break.

✧✦ If you landed on my blog, there's a high chance that Jungkook is your bias. No need to panic, there's no shame in admitting your weakness, especially when he is a 5'10", international playboy who was sculpted by Ancient Gods themselves and possesses a voice that could heal global warming. I don't make the rules! Please direct all questions and concerns to customer service at your earliest convenience.

✧ LONG SERIES ✦ a - angst / f - fluff / s - smut

Peaches & Cream (a, f, slight s)

Pairing: jungkook x female reader Synopsis: You're his Peaches and he is your Pretty boy. It's all very simple until the fear of commitment kicks in. How does one maintain a safe distance when it's Jungkook? The gestures might be sweet and naive but the heat between us is almost suffocating. W/c: 31.5k Status: Complete

Somewhere Between Hello and Goodbye (a, f)

Pairing: jungkook x female reader Synopsis: Losing his memory following a motorcycle accident, Jungkook learns to live life again, but this time, with no past recollection of everything you meant to him. Connecting the broken pieces, you meet again for the first time, as if strangers. Will his heart still beat the same way it did for you before the incident, or were your souls destined to merely meet but not to be? Current w/c: 12.3k Status: Ongoing

Heart Strings (a)

Pairing: villain jungkook x female reader Synopsis: They say that wounded hearts beat the loudest, but in a void of chaos and destruction Ian’s deafening cries for help seem to echo louder. Labelled as a villain, all the light in the world becomes his darkness, as he learns to despise the idea of a warm embrace. Running from her future, y/n meets Ian, whose entire life was spent running from his past and as their paths cross, peace is found in the present. In his eyes, she changes everything, uncovering the side of him the world once failed to see. Tethered together by the threads of her heartstrings, he falls in love. But, as they say, nothing lasts forever. Not even the beats of a reformed broken heart. What happens when the villain’s first love becomes everything the hero desires? Status: Upcoming

✧ SHORT SERIES ✦ a - angst / f - fluff / s - smut

Don't Get Attached (s)

Pairing: ex-boyfriend jungkook x y/n Synopsis: Entangled in Jungkook’s lies the so-called love you share is nothing but toxic. Every push is followed by a needy pull, but it’s not all his fault, is it? Naive to the signs, your desires fuel this cycle of destruction. What if the person you want the most is the one you’ll be better without? Baby, there’s no breaking up, he whispers in your ear, as his grip on your waist tightens. W/c: 6.8k (+ drabbles) Status: Complete

Vegas Baby (a, s)

Pairing: jungkook x y/n x taehyung Synopsis: While trying to recover from a heartbreak, rotting away in your closed four walls has become the norm, until your best friends, Jungkook and Tae suggest another way out. Vegas trip. A remedy that would soon unleash yet another series of unfortunate or maybe fortunate events. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right baby? Status: Upcoming

✧ ONE SHOTS ✦ a - angst / f - fluff / s - smut

Extra Credit (f, s)

Pairing: jock!jungkook x class president!y/n Synopsis: Mastering the art of an academic weapon you can practically smell the 4.0 GPA that will surely secure your spot in one of the most prestigious universities in the country. However, the only thing standing between you and the Dean’s List is the big, fat F smudged across your report card as you fail to pass Phys Ed for the second time. Being one of the courses needed to graduate, you’re left with no choice but to beg for redemption in the form of an extra credit. Fortunately, you aren't the only one in credit debt, as the star quarterback, Jungkook is one more detention away from an academic probation. I’ll let you pass Phys Ed if you help my quarterback get his grades up. Is that a deal, Miss President? Status: Upcoming

Latest: Somewhere Between Hello and Goodbye Ch. 4 l Don't Get Attached Drabble Series

Upcoming: Somewhere Between Hello and Goodbye Ch. 5

#bts #bangtan #bts masterlist #jungkook masterlist #jeon jungkook #jungkook #jungkook x reader #jungkook x you #jungkook x female reader #jungkook x yn #bts x yn #jungkook fanfic #jungkook imagine #jungkook fic #jungkook smut #jungkook angst #jungkook fluff

90 notes · View notes

stayinhellevator · 6 days

Text

Golden Ratio

Perfection In Imperfections

In a world where a mark decides everyone's destiny, oftentimes some wandering souls are left questioning their fate when things don't go according to the plan.

However, the only way to escape this loop is to give up your soul itself. The moment you reject your soulmate or betray them after accepting the bond, Fate punishes you by taking away your soul and all the feelings in it, leaving you cold and hollow.

Worse is the death of your bonded; not only does it leave you alone for the rest of your life, it also takes away your soul with it. A truly beautiful tragedy.

So was it truly romantic that you couldn't choose your own lover and spend your entire life, stuck in this never-ending golden ratio of the soul bond?

Or past the horrors of this hauntingly transfixing miracle, was it satisfactory enough that you've at least one person out there, meant solely for you, in every universe and every lifetime, in one way or another, no matter what?

This one person was your chosen or your destined, is for you to decide.

"Oh take me back to the start!"

Pairing: Svt x fem!Reader

Genre: Soulmate AU

Warnings: See in chapters

Word Count: to be added later

Playlist: The Scientist ~ Corrine Bailey Ray

Masterpost:

Introduction: The Golden Ratio is an irrational number with indefinite decimal points making it impossible for the point to ever exist in the same place, hence why the line ideally never connects.

Alternatively, woven in intricate threads on the verge of snapping but forever associated with each other, by virtue or memory, are the stories of souls that are entangled in this eternal loop.

THEORY 1: Two Divergent Lines meet once and then never cross paths again.

Alternatively, two souls have one chance to meet and then never again. The good thing is, they know.

THEORY 2: Two Parallel Lines never meet or cross each other.

Alternatively, it was a relief that even though they're never meant to be, at least they always walk together in the spectrum of life.

THEORY 3: Two asymptopes are always in proximity but never actually touch one another.

Alternatively, two unfortunate souls who are aware that they couldn't be together but find salvation in the company of one another.

THEORY 4: Two intersecting lines cross paths once and then continue without change.

A pity that the pair thought nothing could sever their safe haven and now they have to live on without each other.

THEORY 5: Two tangent lines touch one another at one point only.

Alternatively, two souls that were so close yet so far.

©stayinhellevator2024: Please don't repost, translate or copy my work on any platform.

35 notes · View notes

citrusses · 5 months

Text

January: 2023 Wrapped 🎁🍊

*some* of my favorite 2023 fics, by month they were published (or started to publish, or finished publishing, it's arbitrary bc i make the rules), plus some thoughts on what made these fics so special.

Chicken Shop Date by @sorrybutblog (T, 2K)

Draco and Harry sit down for an interview. Or is it a date?

This is such a fun premise and the Harry/Draco banter just sizzles. The atmosphere is so rich! 2K words of perfection that pack an outsized punch.

Close Behind by @oflights (M, 134K)

To rescue Draco from the Underworld, Harry has to look forward. Unfortunately, Draco has to look back.

A masterpiece that deconstructs every relationship in the HP universe and then rebuilds it, that does mind-boggling things with narrative structure, that stressed me out so badly I felt physically ill, that was so moving it left me bursting into tears for days after I read it, that had the funniest single line I've read in a fic maybe ever. So far reading this is the only time I've ever checked the tags on a fic for "happy ending" because I was so emotionally overwhelmed by it that I needed to know it would be ok in the end. I can't overstate how much I love this one.

For Lack of Wanting by @fluxweeed (E, 8K)

Over the last ten years, I’ve worked hard to become a better person. I hate being reminded of who I used to be. But Harry likes it when I’m mean.

A gorgeous, painful story that explores a kind of Harry/Draco dynamic that's not seen as often in fics (a SAD one), but is done exceptionally well here. It hurts so good!

Nights With You by @the-sinking-ship (E, 58K)

Draco is mortified when moments prior to departing for the most anticipated destination wedding of the year, he is cruelly dumped. But when he learns that Harry Potter has, at long last, split with his horrible boyfriend, Draco is certain his luck has changed. Never a man to squander an opportunity for revenge (and what would probably be a spectacular shag), Draco vows to make Potter his for the weekend. Now all Draco has to do is convince him.

@the-sinking-ship regularly writes: my favorite kind of Draco, my favorite kind of romance/getting together AND my favorite kind of smut. This fic is all of those things.

Polar Night/Midnight Sun by toomuchplor (E, 54K)

Harry travels to arctic Norway on the trail of dragon egg poachers, only to find he's been assigned to work alongside the only NorMagPol Auror north of sixty: one Draco Malfoy. It's been ten years since they crossed paths, and Malfoy isn't exactly what Harry expected or remembered. For one thing, he wears a lot more hand-knits? When a sudden winter storm strands the pair, unable to use magic to rescue themselves, they take shelter in a one-room Norwegian hytte.

The hottest fic in the coldest setting, this one made me absolutely FERAL. The most evocative scenery, incredible characterization, and the perfect pacing building to an explosively sexy and tender relationship. Also I would read like, 100K more words on just the mittens and jumpers and scarves of this fic, which are not items of clothing I have cared much about in the past. It's just that every detail, down to the smallest, is incredible!

When It Returns by @academicdisasterfic (M, 8K)

‘You’re late, layabout,’ Malfoy drawled, pushing the whiskey over to him. ‘I’ll have you know that I am very busy maintaining a whole house and garden by myself now.’ ‘Oooh, the dead husband card. Before any alcohol. Is that a record?’ Harry's husband is dead, and Malfoy is the only one who gets it. Or, the one where they drink at a straight man pub, renovate a house, and learn how to find joy again.

January was a good month for feeling bad. It's another angsty one! This one is full of beautiful healing in the face of a loss that feels very real, Draco annoying Harry out of his grief spiral (but in a loving way?) and Harry being on the right side of almost too stubborn for it to work. I have read and reread this many times already!

#citrus recs #2023 recs #drarry fic recs #I’m sure I’m going to miss TONS #so I’m sorry in advance #there are too many great fics in this fandom what a fantastic problem to have

64 notes · View notes

dracowars · 2 years

Note

hiii, do you take requests for luke skywalker? if you do, could i get a luke and reader fic where shes a jedi too and his close friend? she gets jealous and insecure when he starts to show interest in someone else (can be leia or someone else idm) and slowly starts distancing herself away and one day she gets hurt saving him and she thinks shes gna die so she confesses? when she wakes up she apologises and happy ending please??? Thanks!!

i'm not her | luke skywalker

pairing: luke x jedi!reader

word count: 2,1k

summary: where y/n thinks that luke is in love with someone else

a/n: i’m literally so clueless about legends, but i kind of know who mara jade is? i think? that’s why i thought it would be a nice idea to add her?? idk, don’t quote me on this lmao all i know is she has a cool purple lightsaber! thank you so much for this request, it's my first for luke <3

warnings: angst, violence, attempted murder, mentions of blood, mentions of injuries, mentions of death

universe: star wars

„You have been talking about her a lot lately, kid”, Han suddenly says out loud what everyone in the room was already thinking. A new day, a new plan to overthrow the Empire. You are in the process of developing a new tactic – in this case, you consists of General Organa, notorious pilot Han Solo and his faithful companion Chewbacca, as well as Luke Skywalker and yourself – when Luke cannot resist to bring Mara Jade into play again.

Mara Jade, the Emperor’s hand, who unscrupulously completes even the most brutal of orders from her master, is by no means to be underestimated and definitely has to be seen as a threat to the rebellion. However, she is not worth having a certain someone obsess over her that much. Ever since you have known of her existence, and by the way have crossed her path and fought her several times – Luke and you, side by side – he just cannot seem to stop mentioning her at every opportunity. He is almost enthusiastic about her and her abilities. That this unnatural obsession even catches Han’s attention has to mean something.

And the fact that Luke’s cheeks take on a light shade of red as he apparently feels caught by Han’s words only confirms all of this. The certainty you now have hurts.

The last few Jedi that still roam this galaxy are rarely encountered, and you still cannot quite understand how lucky you were to accidentally meet one of them, if not the best of them. There were times where you had to fend for yourself, you were not allowed to make any mistakes, or they would have caught on to you immediately. But suddenly you had a family, you were part of something much bigger.

Nobody can understand and relate to you better than Luke. Even though he did not know what he was destined to do from birth, you two have gone through similarly difficult times and it is nice to know that you no longer have to face the critical times ahead alone. The bond you built is based on mutual trust and respect. But the more you trained together, the more you got to know the many facets of the Force together, the more this bond of friendship became something else, something deeper.

Apparently, this feeling was only one-sided.

“I am just saying we need to keep an eye on her. She is a threat to-”

“So am I”, Han replies knowingly, arms crossed in front of his chest to underline his statement while starting a staring contest with Luke.

“Listen, we are doing it exactly the way we planned. If Jade crosses your path, well, it wouldn’t be the first time”, Leia intervenes softly, preventing the conversation from escalating any further. Neither Luke nor Han object to this suggestion, so Leia presents a short version of the plan as a wrap-up. The slight pain you feel in your heart is not noticed by anyone.

════════════

Actually, the plan was quite simple: get into the Imperial outpost unnoticed and get the information that a contact, a spy in the ranks of the Empire, hands you over. Unfortunately, the plan did not go as planned and you may not have gone quite as unnoticed as you would have liked. That violet lightsaber just appeared right in front of you, nobody could have really expected that.

Without hesitation, Luke and you draw your lightsabers, which flash green and blue in front of you as you position yourself in a suitable fighting stance, facing her. Your opponent nonchalantly twirls a strand of her red hair around her finger as she waits for the both of you to get ready. A satisfying grin curls her lips as her gaze shifts from you to Luke and lingers there.

“It has been a while”, Mara smiles, and if you did not know how ruthless this woman really is, you could almost have believed that she smiled genuinely friendly. But who are you trying to fool, this woman is the personified evil and finally must be defeated once and for all. Luke and you have already failed once, you are not going to let that happen a second time.

“It’s always nice to meet you”, Luke greets her, also giving her a smile, although you are pretty sure his is truly genuine. Another stab to your poor heart, but you try to focus on the battle ahead, tightening your grip on your lightsaber hilt which feels extremely heavy this time. She certainly will not win this time.

“I just wish our paths wouldn’t only cross when you’re about to rob the Empire”, Mara mentions amused, but at the same time her voice suddenly does not sound as friendly anymore as it did only mere seconds ago. However, the wink she gives Luke at the end of her sentence strongly suggests that she is actually flirting with him. Here. In the middle of an Imperial outpost. In front of you.

“When you two are done, I would really like to leave”, you interject now with a roll of your eyes, and even though you see Luke move his hand ever so slightly in the corner of your eye, holding it in front of you unnoticedly as if he wants to indicate that you should wait, you plainly ignore it. With quick steps you are right in front of Mara Jade and your lightsabers blaze with a bright white light as they meet. Luke, now forced to attack as well because of your attack, appears next to you and Mara uses the Force to knock you back a few meters through the air so that she only has to deal with Luke, at least for one moment.

“I should coach you soon, your tactics are ridiculous”, she mentions between movements, before you manage to get to your feet again and rejoin the fight. You are two against one and yet she has the audacity to make fun of your fighting style.

“No, but no thank you”, you answer promptly and although you are now fighting her at the same time, she does not seem to mind at all. The dark side of the Force that completely surrounds her seems to give her so much power that she can easily take on both of you. Every time you think you are about to wound her with your glowing blade, she finds another way to prevent you from actually doing so. Luke’s green lightsaber spins around and meets her purple blade at the same instant as yours. Together you try to bring her down, but she suddenly lets herself sink on one knee and pulls Luke’s legs away with her other leg, causing him to fall to the ground with a loud thud. With a quick flick of her wrist, her lightsaber is dangerously close to you all of a sudden, forcing you to take a few steps back.

Mara uses this to her advantage, getting you into trouble when your back hits the wall behind you, disarming you with one deft move, your lightsaber falling to the ground, the blue light disappearing. Holding the violet blade directly in front of your face, you only now realize how difficult it is to breathe. However, you do not have much time to think about your rapid breathing when she raises her other arm, lifting Luke, who was just about to rush to your aid, off the ground. Groaning and gasping for air, his saber falls to the ground as well, and he instinctively grabs his throat with his hands, as if by doing so he could keep her from fully blocking his airpipe.

Watching Luke’s skin grow pale, your gaze wanders, frantically searching for a way out. With a deadly blade at your own throat, it is not easy to focus properly, but you understand that the only way out is to take risks. If you do not risk it, she will kill him for sure.

Without thinking about it another second, scared that you might regret your decision, you reach into the air and use the Force to pull Luke’s lightsaber towards you, immediately igniting it and catching Mara Jade off guard. In distress, she lets go of Luke to put her saber between you in the last moment, preventing you from piercing her with the green blade. Breathing heavily, you push against her strength while keeping an eye on Luke, who is desperately gasping for air on the floor. His miserable state gives you the power to disarm Mara Jade with one swift movement, her lightsaber rolling over the floor to Luke’s side.

However, when blaster shots suddenly echo around the walls the next moment, distracting your attention for the split of a second, and you see Han and Chewbacca escaping with the needed information, you only feel the excruciating pain as a vibroblade disappears into your abdomen. Immediately, you fall over, screaming in pain. Tears uncontrollably stream down your cheeks, and you put one trembling hand over your bleeding wound while you reach for the lightsaber with the other, but to no avail. You cannot reach the Force, it is as if nothing is left of it around you.

Looking up at Mara Jade, her evil glittering eyes are fixed on only you, a murderous lust in her eyes that makes you shudder.

Before she can severely hurt you even more, however, she is suddenly pushed away from you and against the wall, the impact jerking through her entire body. Trying to control your rapid breath, you watch as Luke approaches her with your blue lightsaber after she regained her balance, now clearly enraged. Luke, on the other hand, now has an aura around him that you cannot quite grasp and maybe you are just imagining it, the pain clouding your senses, but he suddenly seems different, more dangerous than ever. He dodges Mara’s attacks with ease and throws her through the air like she is nothing, the vein in his neck throbbing with anger.

The pain that keeps spreading from your wound through your whole body makes it extremely difficult for you to follow the fight as you try to somehow stop the excessive bleeding. That is why you do not understand why Luke suddenly bends over your trembling figure, carefully placing your head on his thigh.

“Luke, watch out, J-Jade-”, you stutter out, tears blocking your vision and pain clouding your mind.

“Sshh.. She can’t hurt you anymore”, Luke whispers to you, one of his hands on your cheek while the other lifts your own from your wound, before placing his own on top of it. He maintains eye contact with you and orders you to keep your eyes open, but he keeps looking down for a short amount of time, presumably assessing how bad your injury is. The pain you endure during this is unbearable and it feels like she severed your entire lower body. Your pupils no longer focus properly on your surroundings and all you feel is pain.

“I’ll pick you up carefully, alright? I’ll be very careful-”

“L-Luke, wait”, you stop him and grab his hand with your remaining strength so he cannot get on his feet to pick you up. If this is the end, then you cannot leave this galaxy until he knows how you truly feel. You would never forgive yourself. Just for once you want to know how it feels to say the words out loud.

“I love you”, you choke out, the words somehow rolling off your tongue, and for that brief moment when you look him straight in the eyes, you see clearly, and the pain goes away.

“You idiot! Stop saying stuff like that!? Save your strength and-”

“B-But-”

“I want you to tell me that again when you’re feeling well, are you listening?!”, Luke calls out to you from afar, his words ringing in your head as you feel a gentle shake on your body. “I love you too, Y/N. Promise me you’ll hold out long enough so I can tell you a lot more how much I actually love you.”

Closing your eyes with a soft smile on your lips, his words fade from your mind and the world around you darkens. The next time you open them, your head is pounding and the constant annoying beeping of one of the medical devices does not help at all. Just as you are about to get upset, you feel a weight on your right hand and your heart melts as you look over.

Luke’s head is on your hospital bed, his eyes closed, his breath low and his hair tousled in all directions, but his hand is inseparable intertwined with yours.

He has been here the whole time, waiting for the moment he can tell you how deeply he is in love with you, how he has always been and always will be.

540 notes · View notes

naisilla · 3 months

Text

The Emperor's New Muse Part .5

Odyssey Kayn x Reader

content: coming up with a 'how to save the universe' plan, some "bonding" time with the members, and finally a more definite backstory to our character.

A/N: Apologies for the delayed post this should've come out earlier but I've been struggling with a bit of writer's block because I am making this whole story up as I go gliding by the seat of my ass or however that saying goes. Anyway, I hope it's worth the wait! Knowing that at least a few of you are invested really helped me keep going so thank you all!!

And that's how you came to become the newest recruit member of the Morningstar, and also how you found out about the universe's impending doom.

You gave Sona a judgemental side eye, like... really? You plan on saving the universe with these people!? The Templar, however, ignored your stare and continued to look out the window with her back turned to you. Looking as mysterious as ever.

Currently, the Morningstar was blindly traveling through deep space. Destination: unknown, as long as it was as far away from Kayn and his locus armada. So far there was no sign of them on your tail, you could relax for now.

"So what's the plan? on saving the universe?" you ask looking towards the front of the ship where Jinx was goofing off in the pilot's seat doing anything but actually steering the ship, Yasuo was close by at the control center holo screen.

"We're currently in the drafting stage of our master universe-saving plan" Jinx says while tinkering away at something you assumed was highly hazardous.

"Seriously? you guys don't have a plan yet? What have you been doing this whole time?" It was hard to believe that no progress had been made within the last three months. Aka the time Kayn got his hands on Rhaast, the universe's greatest threat without fully understanding it.

"It's been hard to think straight, that insane ordinal is constantly chasing us down. Every planet we stop at to stock on supplies or rest from travel is crawling with the empire's military and Kayn is never far behind." Yasuo says with a frown on his face.

It was true, you had just witnessed just how quickly the Demaxian Empire was at tracking down wanted criminals. Only, the morning star crew weren't nearly as high priority as they were targeted to be. They were just a bunch of rag-tag space pirates.

It was clear that Kayn was obsessed with getting Sona back for his personal gains. Once fiercely loyal to his emperor Kayn has become obsessed with his personal hunt, he will not hesitate to kill any who cross his path. The ordinal was slowly corrupting into something dark and consuming.

That scythe was the catalyst for all of this. According to Sona, no one knew what Rhaast truly was, but it was undeniable that he or it wasn't the "sentience of ora".

Rhaast clearly wanted to open the ora gates, but for what purpose? Immediately you figured opening the ora gate was the last thing the universe wanted. Sona confirmed from her upbringing within the templar order she had heard of a time long ago when an ancient civilization, extinct for eons, once opened an ora gate. "Annnnd they're all dead now, so it must've gone well for them."

Sona doesn't know what's actually behind the gates but she has seen visions. Visions of which none of the Morningstar or you were aware of. She saw silence. She saw the vast well of time. She saw a moment stretched into an eternity. She saw lingering stillness and glacial quiet. She saw dark stars and black suns frozen in a void of endless shadow. She saw monstrous, silent deities lurking in a corrupted cosmos.

Yet she never spoke of them, Sona was a quiet and mysterious templar after all. The only reason you believed in this religious fanatic was because you could see it in her eyes, the horror. Behind a calm and neutral expression was a gaze that carried worry and fear. Whenever you would steal a glance with the templar it was like looking into a void, one that stared back into your deepest reaches. Sona knew many things, and yet she remained quiet about them, almost as if she was uncertain about whether or not she wanted to save the universe.

You had decided for yourself that you would take charge of planning the next course of action, borrowing a tablet from Yasuo you had snuck off by yourself to figure out what exactly one was supposed to do next.

Sitting down in the saloon of the ship, you began to develop a plan. From what you now know Kayn had to be stopped, the ordinal is so obsessed with his quest for power that he's becoming unstable.

He was being puppeted by that alien scythe whose intentions were far more dire than Kayn could realize. Rhaast wanted the ora gates to be open and it was clear that whatever lay beyond that gate was something never meant to be unlocked.

You needed to stop Kayn from opening the gate, the only reason he hasn't just gone straight to the gate immediately is because he needed Sona to unlock it. Only Sona knew how to do this which means she was a highly valuable asset, good thing she was on your side for now.

Was it possible to destroy the ora gate? If you could manage that then there would be no threat of anyone opening it ever. But it was unclear as to how these ora gates worked, no one truly understood them at all that the risk of something just as disastrous happening. How would one even go about destroying something so incomprehensible?

Ok so destroying the ora gate isn't a likely option, you delete that plan from the tablet.

Looking for the whereabouts of the ora gate would be a start, that way you'd know where to go and where Kayn would be headed at some point.

According to Yasuo, Sona had told him that there were in fact, multiple ora gates in the universe. All are located throughout the furthest reaches of the universe, far beyond the darkest corners. Knowing which one Kayn would go to would be impossible to predict.

Rubbing your temples, you grunt and delete that plan route.

Let's take a step back from the end game. The ordinal Kayn, instead of trying to intercept him at the gates or destroying one perhaps we needed to go straight to the source of the problem.

It wouldn't be hard to find Kayn. He would always come to you. If you had learned anything, it was that this insane and obsessed man was smart, and calculating and when you had something he wanted, it wouldn't be long before he pounced.

You type down "KAYN" in capitols. He was now the focus of your plan. There were a few options of how you could go about this. You could be a mediator and persuade Kayn to give up his pursuit for power, Or perhaps separate him from that damn scythe. Destroying Rhaast was also a good idea, oh wait an even better idea! We kill Kayn!

Just as you were typing out that last thought you feel the weight of someone leaning onto your shoulders, their shadow looming over your head as they nondiscreetly look at your plans.

"Whatcha doing?" Jinx asks with her eyes glued to your plan's title. She snatches your tablet from your hands and brings it close to her face as she intensely stares at it.

Sighing you grab the tablet back trying to focus on forming more ideas- "He's so cool~". You snap your head, pull a face, and look at Jinx as if she lost her min- yeh she probably has already.

"Jinx, please. Anyone but him. Kayn is evil and you're...chaotic neutral." You groan realizing there's no point in reasoning with the loose cannon.

With pacifist, petty, and genocide plans crafted, you went to showcase each of them to the Morningstar crew.

Sona true to her character wanted to take the peaceful route, but even she knew negotiating with such a cruel and ruthless person held little chance in successfully de-escalating the Ordinal.

Yasuo liked the idea of taking Rhaast from Kayn, the thought of taking away his power source was enticing to the captain of the crew. Although you weren't sure if you could trust Yasuo with the sentient scythe. Not that you were assuming the captain was immoral or corrupt but, nobody should've ever come into contact with whatever Rhaast is.

Jinx and Malphite unsurprisingly wanted to go the chaos route, already suggesting which weapons would best tear down the Locus Armada and the Fractal Sheer.

"I carry enough weapons to seize a medium battle fortress!" Jinx proudly exclaims standing before you. You simply nod and half smile "uhuh that's great jinx" your voice passive agressively giving off an annoyed tone.

She grins and dumps her current arsenal onto your lap, you jump in your seat. Did she seriously just throw live weapons at you?! "These are my best friends!" She says picking up the rocket launcher from your lap. "This is fishbones! I modeled him after Sharkpedos, He's always worried about me." You blink stunned.....he?

As she's showing him off she uses one hand to move the jaw of the rocket launcher up and down like a puppet. "I'm worried Jinx maybe we should try a less dangerous option, I like (Y/N)'s other plan to take the scythe instead." Jinx rolls her eyes at the rocket launcher she's ventriloquizing before throwing him to the side, followed by the sound of it crashing onto the ground.

"Yeh he can be a bit of a buzzkill, anyways this is Pow-pow!" Jinx says now picking up the mini-gun making your lap feel a ton lighter. She spins it around and you duck as the barrel comes towards you before shooting a desperate look to the others- oh, Sona and Malphite are gone and Yasuo is reading some book clearly unbothered. Great you're stuck with Jinx then.

"I love your plan to destroy the locus armada! let's shoot them up and watch their bodies fall together!" Jinx says playing on a raspier and higher-pitched voice for the minigun. Jinx then pulls out a lightning projector "This is Zappy she's my stun gun, she's more unstable than I am! Watch this!" Jinx then suddenly tosses the gun onto an empty couch like how one would casually throw their phone on a bed, only, when the gun softly bounces onto the lounge chair it explodes. And Jinx had thrown that on your lap just earlier...

Yasuo gives Jinx a glare flicking his eyes up from the novel he was currently reading, his nose still buried between the pages.

Not giving a single shit about Yasuo Jinx continues to introduce you to her "friends" such as the Flame Chompers, which are curiously sculpted in the likeness of Malphite's head; and the Super Mega Death Comet, an interstellar portal lifted from one of Jinx's old mining jobs.

"You should see the ship! I heavily modified the Morningstar with so many offensive weapons!" Jinx says happily grabbing you by the arm and dragging you on yet another tour of the Morningstar. And after an hour of being overstimulated with interacting with Jinx..... you were still unsure as to what half of Jinx's modifications do.

Finally, Jinx had gone off to wherever leaving you to mentally recover by yourself. So far regarding your "Plan" no one could agree on which one to go with, personally, you were leaning to the separate Kayn from Rhaast. You could kill Kayn if it comes to it. But between the two it was Rhaast that was the true danger.

That would not be an easy feat, Kayn alone was an intelligent and strong fighter. His eyepatch and left arm are clearly ora augmentations making him a superhuman. He now wields a sentient alien scythe and he has a whole personal army at his disposal.

There was no way the five of you could possibly win against him in a fight, it would take some grand scheme to outsmart the Ordinal and gain the upper hand.

Something crawls along your shoulder, and immediately your mind races to some giant ugly alien spider, you see how messy the interior of this ship is, clearly no one is cleaning the ship so of course it would be crawling with pests. You go back and forth on whether to scream for help or smack the bugger into smoosh.

To your relief, a familiar face peeps up at you. Warm round eyes that contrasted with its cool blue and green complexion and a goofy wide smile beamed up at you. "Hey little guy" you coo at the lizard. "How did you get here?"

The lizard chirps and clicks seemingly happy as you scratch its head like how one would pet a cat. "Let's return you to Yauso"

After walking through the layout of the ship you finally found Yasuo, sitting by a large window on a red carpet with incense and candles laid around him, his nose buried in a novel.

His eyes flick up from his book to look at you. "Ah I see Space Lizard has found you".

"Space Lizard? don't tell me that's what you actually call them."

Yasuo shrugs his shoulders. "We really couldn't decide a name for it, we'll probably never will. We plan to sell it for a profit"

"You're selling them!?"

Yasuo shrugs again. "That is why we stole it from a maximum-security nature reserve." Your jaw drops.

"You actually managed to pull that off?" Yasuo nods with a smug smirk on his lips. It was impressive but a part of you just felt for the innocent animal, he seemed happy and healthy here it felt wrong to give him away for money. Your thoughts get interrupted by bubbles floating towards your face and popping upon contact with your nose.

Surprised you turn your gaze and see that Space Lizard is blowing bubbles. You're unsure as to whether to be amazed or grossed out but by Yasuo's smile, you can tell that at least he secretly likes it.

"So you guys are really space pirates huh?" you ask as Space Lizard climbs down your arm and onto your outstretched hand.

Yasuo nods with a proud smile. "Yep, real space pirates". He turns a page in his novel. "It's a lot different from my old life, I would've still been living a life of luxury if it weren't for the framing of my brother's death."

Right, you remember Yasuo briefly mentioning that earlier. "I'm sorry for your loss" Yasuo merely shakes his head dismissively. Lowering his book.

"Don't worry about it, I'll get justice for my brother" he said quietly, his gaze turning downward. You couldn't help but feel drawn to his pain and frustration. Despite the cocky and careless personality he usually exhibits, he was clearly hurting.

Yasuo pauses and shifts in his seat "I should've been there, if I would've been there then-"

You nod your head not letting him finish but acknowledging the obvious truth, he'd been beating himself up for this incident for a long time, and from the way he spoke you could tell it was a huge weight on his shoulders.

"The empire screwed me over, they blamed me for something I didn't do. My brother had grown distant with me in recent years, He was off being a hero while I was spending my nights in a drunken daze, aimlessly wandering between high-end nightclubs. To him I was a disgrace, someone to be ashamed of, I wish I could prove him wrong. But now I'll never get the chance."

Space Lizzard had jumped down from your cradling hand and moved over to where Yasuo was sitting to perch himself on his shoulder, nuzzling its head against Yasuo's face as if to comfort him. A small smile returns to Yasuo's face.

"I know I'm not the only one who's on the run from the empire, You mentioned how you managed to escape punishment for sabotaging a locus armada ship back. But that's all we know about you, what made you turn against the empire?"

A sour snort escapes you, a bitter taste returning to your mouth. "I've hated the empire since the beginning" Yasuo looks at you confused.

"Why is that? What happened?"

You swallow down the rising pressure as the memories of your past rush back. "I used to live on one of the few planets that weren't claimed by the Demaxian empire. Of course that wouldn't last long. They always have to keep expanding, taking planet systems by force."

You recall your old home planet "My homeland was beautiful, it was bountiful with nature and wildlife and we lived in harmony with the land, we were a lot more primitive with technology. We didn't have much need for it. I was just a little girl when they arrived...."

"The Demaxian Empire was brutal, they came in guns blazing, declaring our planet and its land as their own. They had no regard for the lives and cultures they were erasing. Our planet was the gateway to the Outer Rim, a new frontier that the Empire craved. To them, our way of life was primitive and unacceptable.

I still remember them bringing their warships into my planet's orbit, demanding we bend the knee to them. When we refused. They bombed our planet, destroying much of our infrastructure and reducing our population to just a fraction of the original number.”

The look in your eyes was one of a faraway expression, there was a slight tremble in your hands and your whole complexion had paled.

"When the smoke cleared there was nothing left. The land was leveled out, the villages were torn to the ground and all of the plant life, and the animals were gone. They came in and wiped out our entire people in the name of expansion and development. But left after draining everything of Ora. Apparently our planet wasn't good enough to colonize. All that slaughter and ruination for nothing!" you say clenching your teeth.

"The nightmare didn't end there however. With our home now uninhabitable we had to leave, some submitted themselves to the empire and lived lives of servitude and slavery. Others like myself fled to distant planets like Piltron and Zaun. Desperate to find stability in living." By now you had seated yourself next to Yasuo who surprisingly was listening to your rambling, his novel was closed and by his side, and Space Lizard while perched on his shoulders looked at you intentively.

"I had nothing to my name, no ID, no money, no family. I was used to living off the grid with no influence by technology and government systems. Without any ID it was an unimaginable pain in the ass to intergrade into society. No vital records office could obtain any identity due to my home planet never being a part of the Demaxian system. I couldn't get a stable job or any proper schooling, I was left to figure shit on my own because Demaxia doesn't have time for my kind.

I had to struggle with low-end jobs that paid under the table, there was no dignity in my line of work not when the turnover rate of a nuclear powerplant worker was so high, and more people were dying of negligence faster than new hires were acquired. I was fortunate, if you could call it that to be a mere janitor in Zaun's power plant system. But that didn't come without prejudice from the locals.

I didn't understand why, I still don't, we were all in the same boat and yet I was treated differently. Over time I learnt the ways of the streets and how to survive them. I kept my head down, I minded my own business. Despite being surrounded by thugs and gangs I managed to stay out of it by blending in. Of course, there were a few times I messed up" You say, pulling up your shirt, showing a couple of scars along your torso. Scar tissue in round formations pulled taught towards the center, the classic sign of a healed bullet wound. There were others too, a couple of singular lines dragging across your torso also, the result of getting shivved.

"I was never going to escape the pits of the lower class, no matter how many hours I worked, how many side jobs I had, despite living as frugally as one could survive on. I could never escape being a blue-collar in the slums. The empire's system is so rigged that if you want to live comfortably you have to be born into it. It's so unfair! So many people suffer in poverty and filth because the stupid king is more focused on colonizing more and more planets with stupid rich assholes who don't even spare a thought for the people who keep their obnoxiously pampered lifestyle afloat!!!" Yasuo jumps back a little at your heated outburst towards the end, his usual calm and suave demeanor now tense with a startled wide eyed stare.

It was clear he felt awkward about being called out for his old lifestyle. You sigh and shake your head.

"I'm sorry I don't mean to take it all out on you specifically, I've never really talked about any of this and I suppose all those years were bottled up for too long." Yasuo's gaze softens, his hand goes towards his belt and he passes you a flask, you raise a brow questioningly but take his offering and take a swig instantly feeling the distilled alcohol kick you in the throat with a powerful punch. You cough and sputter looking at him shocked.

"What the hell is this?"

"Pure distilled Polmos Spirytus Rektyfikowany Vodka"

"...." You stare at Yasuo silently before dowing another swig, then another. Letting out a gasp and wiping your lips with the back of your hand as the satisfying burn of the alcohol soaked itself into your system.

"Better?"

"Better."

You noticed the velocity of the ship shifting and turning into the landing procedures, curiously you looked to Yasuo.

"Whats happening?"

Yasuo shrugs "Looks like Jinx is taking us to a pit stop."

Part six: Here

A/N: So I've had this idea as headcannon for ages but never had the chance to implement it into the story so free lore content below!:

Piltron and Zaun is a rather unique planet in my Odyssey story. Piltron similar to its Runeterra counterpart (Piltover) is the higher class planet to Zaun. Piltron is a hollow planet that exists as an outer shell that hovers around its inner planet Zaun. To access Zaun you need to travel between the tectonic plates of Piltron via colossal industrial elevators. Piltover isn't a perfect shell that entirely encases the inner planet Zaun but is cracked into multiple districts that are tethered to its center Zaun via cybernetic tendrils to avoid floating out of Zaun's atmosphere. If you've seen Transformers: The Last Knight you'll know that I've taken inspiration from the scene of Cybertron being spacebridged into Earth's orbit (see image below).

Zaun Center, like the earth's core, is made of a uranium deposit that is harvested through fission (nuclear power plants) that power both Zaun and Piltron through the cybernetic tendrils that also hold the two planets together. Zaun is made up of the working class while Piltron homes the more upperclass citizens. Piltron and Zaun are allied with the Demaxian Empire and stand as the main manufacturing planet of the weapons and technology of the empire.

Despite being a part of Demaxia, Piltron, and Zaun have the least amount of empire enforcers due to the trust between them and the core worlds. Plus because of the unstable levels of radioactive activity in Zaun, most enforcers don't hover around for long. Sure in this age we have radioactive protection suits but Zaun is seen as dirty to rich snobs.

#kayn shieda #shieda kayn #kayn league of legends #kayn x reader #league of legends x reader #kayn league of legends x reader #odyssey kayn

34 notes · View notes

lanshappycorner · 3 months

Text

Me explaining to u guys why you should ship Byakusho

Do you like doomed yaoi? But you still want them to have a happy ending so you end up reading fanfics to cope?

Look no further, byakusho is for you. Doomed yaoi with an actual happy ending. Regardless of if you already like KHR and you don't particularly ship them, or you know absolutely nothing about this series, you should read it anyways. Also if you're wondering how they can be doomed yaoi and still have a happy ending, you should definitely read this

This segment is for people who do not know anything abt KHR so if you already know abt who Byakuran and Shoichi are, you can skip to the next bolded segment.

OKAY SO for those who do not know anything about Katekyo Hitman Reborn, it's basically like. About mafia and stuff. Also they all have different "dying will flame" types based on their personalities/affinities and stuff. Just think of them all as magical girls with guns okay don't worry too much about it they have magic and they're in the mafia

Let's go over their characters real quick.

Shoichi is first introduced in something similar to a filler episode, called "The Misfortune of Shoichi Irie" or something like that. Basically in the episode, he's delivered a package by the mafia for taking care of their kid, Lambo.

Lambo is another character (a kid from the mafia) Not under Shoichi's care, but they do meet briefly. Realizing that the package isn't supposed to go to him, he ventures to return it to Tsuna's (the main character of KHR) house, where he runs into a lot of odd and kind of gag-like funny typical shonen anime shenanigans. But this really freaks him out

He ultimately fails to return the package, and suffers from nightmares about the encounter.

Something to note though is that Lambo possesses a bazooka called the "10 yr bazooka" and if you shoot it at someone, it basically has the ability to switch you and your future self (10 years from now) for 5 minutes. This is extremely relevant.

The main characters of KHR are transported roughly 10 years into the future, and realize that they cannot return home even after 5 minutes. They then find out that there's this guy attempting world domination, and his name is Byakuran. Byakuran has access to knowledge of every parallel universe and timeline, allowing him to even consider world domination

Byakuran runs the Millefiore mafia family, and his right hand man is Shoichi. Long story short, they are introduced as the villain duo that the main characters must defeat

I'll go over some more stuff that ppl familiar with KHR probably already know, but it is necessary for my reasoning so please read through everything

First off, they are quite literally soulmates. Initially, Shoichi wanted to know what his future was like, hence he traveled back into the future twice after changing his actions. There, he meets Byakuran both times, accidentally causing Byakuran to realize his powers to gain access to knowledge from other worlds

However, because he runs into Byakuran in the future no matter where he travels or how he tries to change the future, it is basically implied that Byakuran and Shoichi are destined to meet in every timeline. Or in most at least

When Shoichi realizes this, he immediately devises a plan to take down Byakuran. His plan? Befriend Byakuran, gain his trust, and ruin all of his plans

Upon returning back to the past, he purposely erased his memories of the future, planning to have them return years later. You may be wondering how Shoichi is so confident that he could carry out the plan despite having no memory of Byakuran

Well this all really implies how confident he was that he and Byakuran’s fates were intertwined. Because how else could he be so sure that their paths would cross or Byakuran would show interest in him? Yeah. Anyways

They met in college and there is something you have to know here, and it's that they are so best friends to lovers guys they are in fact best friends

Shoichi, having no memories of Byakuran, somehow befriends him and becomes his best friend. Like, For Realsies...

When he regains his memories, he realizes much to his horror that his friend was about to game end the world, so he continues to persist with his plans despite now feeling completely awful about it

Fast forward, Shoichi is now Byakuran’s right hand man in the Millefiore family. It is important to note that Byakuran refers to Shoichi as "Sho-chan" and Shoichi refers to Byakuran as "Byakuran-san"

It may at first seem like Byakuran is being playful and Shoichi is polite, and while Shoichi does have a level of politeness, it's important to note that Shoichi and Byakuran use katakana to refer to each other when they use -chan and -san

This is in most cases actually considered rude when referring to one's superiors, and considering Byakuran is Shoichi's boss, it basically means he's okay with Shoichi referring to him rudely. Furthermore, the usage of katakana in this context just implies closeness

This information cannot be seen in the anime because you can't tell if someone is using katakana or hiragana just by listening to them speak, but it is very apparent in the manga that they are close. Also, all the other characters besides Shoichi refer to Byakuran as Byakuran-sama, so there's that too

Byakuran sent Shoichi a whole room's worth of white anemones, as most friends do

Shoichi finds this troublesome though because Byakuran is big on flower language and this means Byakuran has great expectations for him to succeed in his mission (of killing the main characters)

However it's later revealed that Shoichi had intended on betraying Byakuran, and Byakuran also reveals himself that he already knew about Shoichi's eventual betrayal, since Shoichi has always disapproved of his views

So if Byakuran already knew Shoichi was going to betray him, sending him a room of flowers meaning that he expects him to do well has no practical meaning to it besides from

1) he's just fucking with shoichi and 2) anemones explicitly mean love and passion so really he's just gay

No I'm so serious he's just gay. Like the Millefiore is made up of a bunch of squads right, and Byakuran is as mentioned above obsessed with flower language. Meaning he absolutely could not have not known what anemones generally mean outside of "anticipation/expectations"

But also each squad is named after a flower and Byakuran decided to explicitly assign Shoichi the rose squad. This man has done everything but kiss Shoichi on the lips like actually. All the fucking flowers in the world and you assign your best friend the rose ? And you send him a whole room full of flowers meaning love and passion? You gay bitch 😭😭

Anyways it has to be said that Byakuran besides being definitely not straight, is a really shit person. Like I have to say it he's awful, he's responsible for the death of thousands of people and he just casually destroyed a couple of worlds in search of more power. He views people like his toys and he admits to it

He is like a child in how everything is really just for his amusement, something for him to play with. He is even willing to sacrifice his closest allies for more power, he's just that type of guy </33 he just...does not have emotional attachments to other people

But with that said, he doesn't seem particularly hurt when it's revealed that Shoichi was not on his side anymore. However, when they play Choice, Shoichi is picked as a target and I refuse to believe that it is a coincidence and not Byakuran being petty because his best friend betrayed him💀

For those who do not know, Choice is a game that Byakuran and Shoichi made together in university, but now they're playing it irl. It's kind of like capture the flag, but the flag is one specific target, and in this case, the target for the main characters' team is Shoichi

Even when Shoichi was beaten and nearly died in Choice, Byakuran seemed unaffected by all of this and we are led to believe that he never really did care about Shoichi despite calling him his best friend

Shoichi, however, admits to the main characters that despite Byakuran being the way he was, back before he regained his memories of the future, the time he spent with Byakuran were "the best times of his life"

He genuinely enjoyed being around Byakuran and considered him his best friend despite knowing that Byakuran was going to do awful things, and he was determined to stop him. Despite it all

In Shoichi’s character song, we get a glimpse into his thoughts, and as it turns out, he really is in conflict with himself

Because in his heart, he wants to be with Byakuran, it's his place, but he chose to save the world instead, so that place is gone. He even says that he has to lie to his heart to do what he has to </33

In the song he also states that he doesn't want to break his memories and he wants to keep them safe, probably referring to the picture perfect time he spent with Byakuran before shit hit the fan. He continuously wills himself to not cry, to stop crying, because it's for the world

Girl I am crying for him. He cannot afford to act selfishly because choosing to be with Byakuran would make him the happiest and would simultaneously doom the world. But anyways

Clearly Shoichi holds Byakuran in high regard and loves him. Like not even just romantically, but in general he really does love Byakuran a lot

At the very end of the arc, the villain must be defeated though, and Byakuran is killed like straight up killed

Throughout the entire scene, Shoichi does not once show joy. He seems to accept the situation and is happy in a way that his plans have come to fruition, but his plans have always been "defeat Byakuran" rather than kill him. Shoichi had never planned to kill Byakuran, or at least explicitly said it, although I'm sure he knew that type of conclusion was inevitable

His reaction to Byakuran's death does stand out though, because every other character does seem to express joy at the victory, but Shoichi looks...blank. Perhaps shocked or in disbelief, but either ways his best friend was just killed right in front of him and he can't even be mad about it because this was the only way he could've been stopped

Shoichi is not aware of this, but before Byakuran dies, we finally get a glimpse into his thoughts as well

Byakuran admits in his last moments internally that although he did all of this because he wanted to create a perfect world, it wasn't as if he was completely dissatisfied with this one because there were also times where he felt "warm and fuzzy" as well. We then get a bunch of flashbacks in his dying moments of him and Shoichi together

BITCH???? AKDJAF 😭😭😭 only in his dying moments do we find out that Byakuran really did actually care about Shoichi and genuinely considered him his best friend because well. Context. It's his dying moments would he have dying moment flashbacks about someone he didn't care about

Like just moments of them chatting...Shoichi smiling at him... gay ass flashback if I've ever seen one 😭😭

Byakuran is someone who doesn't generally value people, he views them as toys and pawns. So the fact that he basically admitted that he did have a genuine connection with Shoichi is so :((((( this guy is just so out of tune with his emotions that he couldn't properly convey it in the end and Shoichi never actually knew about it

I say this but I feel like Shoichi did have a vague idea that Byakuran held him to some degree of high regard because. Well he was Byakuran's right hand man and they were friends for years prior to the whole mafia world domination thing

He's the only person that truly treats Byakuran like a human despite Byakuran trying to play god and everyone worshiping him. And despite being the only person that doesn't treat Byakuran like the god he wants to be, Byakuran still keeps him around

So clearly that means something but anyways that is the doomed yaoi. Byakuran is dead and Shoichi's plans succeed at the cost of his best friend's life, and he never found out in the end that his best friend probably did love him as much as he loved him. And that is where it ends

OR SO YOU THOUGHT HA

As mentioned this all takes place 10 years in the future

Meaning that the past version of Byakuran is still Alive. When the main characters return back to the past, there is a huge earthquake and everyone, including the past versions of Shoichi and Byakuran, are given memories of what they did in the future

Byakuran is taken to mafia prison bc sure it's 10 yrs in the past but like that guy is like a ticking time bomb 💀 doesn't matter though because somehow he's bailed out of jail.

Byakuran is a white boy btw :/ he lives in Italy and Shoichi is Japanese. Yes this is important because when they're in university, they meet abroad when Shoichi probably goes to Italy or something to study, but as it stands, currently Byakuran is in Italy and Shoichi is still in Japan

Byakuran is preparing to go to Japan with the people that helped to bail him out and the first thing he says is that he can't wait to meet his best friend Sho-chan😭😭😭

Thanks to the power of love and friendship, Byakuran is now no longer batshit insane and it's implied he now properly cares about his teammates btw. Anyways congrats to Byakuran for having human emotions I'm so happy for him

After returning to Japan, of course he goes to see Shoichi, and we don't know how it went exactly, but the next time Shoichi appears in the series, he tells the main character that Byakuran explained the situation to him and stuff, so it is implied that they are on good enough terms to speak abt stuff normally

Also Shoichi is kinda next to Byakuran the entire time 😔 and there is a segment where Shoichi literally shit talks Byakuran in his face which is so funny to me because it's BYAKURAN hes talking to and he just doesn't give a shit. But Byakuran pulls out the "best friend" card on him and throughout his entire speel, Shoichi never once denies that they're best friends ever

In the very last arc, Byakuran sustains extremely awful injuries and by extremely awful I mean intestines completely destroyed awful . Luckily somehow he gets around it (dont worry about it) and is chilling in the hospital and although it's a very small panel, you will see that Shoichi actually is there visiting him in the hospital

Remember how I said that everyone has magic powers and special dying will flames. Well Shoichi just happens to have the sun flame which makes him a healer so we can infer that he's also helping to heal Byakuran in the hospital along with visiting him

In this timeline they're able to retain their friendship and work towards a better future but anyways that's them my favorite doomed but not really doomed yaoi they are everything to me please ship them

#10051posting #they are so real to me #please read this

22 notes · View notes