A Game of Patience
Can be read as a standalone or a continuation of Our Little Games.
Found this on my external hard drive the other day and can only vaguely remember writing it. Must have been over a year ago xD
tw: touch starvation, kinda smutty?
Synopsis: you’re the protagonist, who fell into the antagonist's clutches. Now they'll be taking their sweet time toying with you.
They card their fingers lazily through your hair, gently scraping their nails along your scalp. Starting at your hairline, they slowly move to the back of your head, leaving a delightful tingle behind wherever their fingertips made contact.
You can’t help that soft sigh from escaping, or the way you lean into the touch, cursing just how much you crave it.
Goosebumps start to bloom on your shoulders and cascade down your arms as the feather-light caress travels over the back of your neck.
You expected them to stop there, but they don’t.
Shivers run down your spine even before their hand reaches the spot between your shoulder blades. The muscles in your legs begin to quiver.
Damn, they’ve really got you now. It’s nothing like your last encounter with them. This time, right from the very start, you’re under no illusions whatsoever as to who’s the one in control here.
You gasp, teeth catching at your bottom lip. You dare to glimpse at them from the corner of your eyes, whispering their name. And doesn’t your voice sound a little too urgent, a little too eager? Heat rushes to your cheeks.
Oh, the look in those eyes! They’re practically devouring you with that gaze and they seem in no hurry to stop toying with you, to finish what they started. And why should they be inclined to show you mercy? They’ve got you right where you assume they’ve always wanted you.
There’s no escape.
Something about that makes your stomach twist in a not so unpleasant way.
Fuck.
By the time their fingers arrive at the small of your back the breath leaves your trembling lips in shudders. The sensation of their fingertips still haunts your skin, even as you can already feel the fingers of their other hand settle on your hairline again, once more beginning that torturous descend.
Embarrassingly desperate, you press yourself against their body, shamelessly whining a plethora of pleas into their ear.
Their low chuckle and that smirk adorning their lovely mouth threaten to make your knees go weak. They lean in even closer, humming against the shell of your ear and, oh god, that sound settles on your mind like velvet.
“My poor, needy darling,” they purr, “I’m not done with you yet.”
———
For my other stories, visit my [MASTERLIST] ♥
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A DoomReed Recommended Reading List
posted for Jan. 2023 and not exhaustive!
full text list below the cut!
DOOMREED Recommended Reading List
Doctor Doom/Mister Fantastic, Victor von Doom/Reed Richards
by @doomrichards on tumblr, twitter, and archive of our own
Updated 01/2023, originally compiled by @foeyeahboi
1960s Stan Lee & Jack Kirby:
Fantastic Four #5, #10, Annual #2
1970s Marv Wolfman & Keith Pollard:
Fantastic Four #196-200
1980s John Byrne:
Fantastic Four #236, #260 & #288
1990s Walt Simonson:
Fantastic Four #350 & #352
Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan, et. al.:
Fantastic Four #381
& Fantastic Four Unlimited #12
& Fantastic Four Unplugged #2
Jim Lee, Heroes Reborn/Return Era:
Fantastic Four v2 (1997) #5-6
Captain America v2 (1997) #12
Chris Claremont, Larroca & Bogdanove:
Fantastic Four vs. the X-Men #1-4 (1987)
Fantastic Four v3 (1998) #25, #29-31
Mark Waid, Mike Wieringo, et. al.:
Fantastic Four v3 (1998) #70
& Fantastic Four #500, #503, #507
Dwayne McDuffie, Pelletier & Jones:
Fantastic Four #551-553
Fantastic Four Special, "My Dinner with Doom"
Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch:
Fantastic Four #558, #562
Jonathan Hickman Secret Wars Era
with Epting, Deodata, Ribic, et. al.:
Fantastic Four #581 - #582
FF (2010) #1-14 (omit 6, 7, 10, 11);
concluding in Fantastic Four #611
New Avengers v3 (2013) #6, #7, #14
Secret Wars (2015) #2-4, #9
& Marvel 2-In-One (2017) Annual #1 for conclusion
Post-Secret Wars Era:
Brian M. Bendis & Alex Maleev:
Infamous Iron Man (2016) #6, #8
Chip Zdarsky, Cheung, Schiti, Dodson, et. al.:
Marvel 2-In-One (2017) #4-6, Annual #1 & #11
X-Men/Fantastic Four (2020) #2-3
Dan Slott, R.B. Silva & Javier Rodriguez:
Fantastic Four (2018) #25,
#32 (B Story) "Duel Intentions" & #33
Christopher Cantwell & Salvador Larocca:
Doctor Doom (2019) #9-10
Ryan North & Iban Coello:
Fantastic Four (2022) #2
Origin Re-tellings & Variations:
Books of Doom #2
Before The Fantastic Four: Reed Richards #1-3
Fantastic Four #416 (B Story) "Roads Not Taken!"
Shame Itself (B story) (satire)
Ultimates (Earth-1610) AU:
Ultimate Fantastic Four #2, #7, #9-12, & #31-32
AU Versions / Other:
Warlock (1972) #6-7
What If? (1977) #6, "What if the F.F. had different Super-Powers?"
What If? (1977) #22, "What if Dr. Doom had become a Hero?"
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #42
100th Anniversary Special: Fantastic Four
GeNext United #2
Marc Spector: Moon Knight (1989) #39-40
Spider-Man & The Secret Wars #2, #4
Doctor Doom and the Masters of Evil #4
Marvel 1602 #4
Big Town #2
Earth X #2 & Universe X Special: 4 #1
Exiles (2001) #95-98
Fantastic Four: 1 2 3 4 #4
Fantastic Four: The Movie (2005) (comic adaptation)
Fantastic Five (2007) #1-5
Fantastic Four 2099 (1996) #6-8
DOOM 2099 (2019)
Timeless #1 (2021)
Multimedia:
Fantastic Four (1994) (film)
Doomgate by Jeffrey Lang (novel)
Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes ep. 1, 4, 17, 25
Marvel’s Wastelanders: Doom by Mark Waid et. al. (podcast)
& Marvel’s Wastelanders Marvels Chapter 4 (podcast)
Avengers Ultimate Alliance (video game)
Marvel Superheroes Official Game Adventure:
Gates of What If? by Roger Moore (RPG manual)
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Time After Time: [hero version]
This is one of two new versions of the snippet formerly known as #4. The original contained head-hopping and I wasn't satisfied with the narration distance either, so I wrote an improved version of this scene from both characters' pov respectively.
For the villain's pov, check out the [villain version].
Synopsis: they are not friends anymore, and yet, when the hero is mourning their father’s death, the villain can’t bear to stand idly by.
“Who died?”
The hero flinched, ripped out of the thoughts swirling around their foggy mind. The familiar voice tore at their insides like they’d swallowed a handful of broken glass, churning in their gut like needles and fire, as they whirled around a tad too fast and almost lost their balance.
Why did it have to be the villain? Why here of all places? And why did it have to be today? Wasn’t that just cruel? – As if they hadn’t suffered enough.
They swallowed the lump in their throat and clenched their fists in preparation for a fight they couldn’t see themself winning. Not today. Not here. Not when they hadn’t slept, hadn’t eaten, hadn’t even noticed the villain approach. And perhaps the most damning of it all: despite everything, they hadn’t even considered the possibility the villain might seize the opportunity.
Oh, but if this day was to end in blood, they wouldn’t be the only one to bleed.
The villain, however, raised their hands in a placating gesture and nothing in their stance spoke of threats and hostility. “Easy! I didn’t come to pick a fight with you,” the villain said, and looked like they meant it. “Not on a graveyard. I can see absolutely no merit in disrespecting the dead. Seems distasteful, no?”
Still wary, but somewhat pacified, the hero allowed their shoulders to relax. “Ah, right,” they mumbled and lowered their eyes.
Was it wrong to feel relieved?
Yes, it was.
It was wrong, cataclysmically, when their relief revolved less around avoiding a physical confrontation and more around not having misjudged the villain’s integrity. Because the mere idea the villain might stoop this low had felt too crushing an act of treason when there shouldn’t have been any trust left between them to betray.
“Who died?” the villain repeated, hauntingly tender, in the voice of a friend the hero still occasionally met in their dreams even after all those years.
Their gaze shifted to the fresh grave a few metres behind them, covered with a number of decorative floral arrangements left by the people who’d attended the funeral earlier.
Was it bizarre or fitting to gift beauty so fleeting as that of flowers in the face of a horror as irrevocable and eternal as death? They couldn’t imagine dead people would care for flowers. Their father had certainly never cared for flowers in his lifetime, and even death wouldn’t change a man that set in his ways.
They’d always joked he’d survive them – too stubborn to die. They’d been wrong.
“My dad,” the hero murmured. “He had a heart attack last week.” They almost choked on the words and had to fight back new tears.
It was a losing battle.
How a few more tears now could feel that shameful a defeat, they couldn’t fathom. It seemed odd, considering the many other times the villain had seen them during their most vulnerable moments. On countless occasions, their former friend had comforted them when they’d been bawling their eyes out over some idiotic little things that now seemed so trivial.
There probably wasn’t a single person they had cried in front of more often.
Somehow that made it so much worse.
“I’m sorry to hear it,” the villain said politely, a sad little frown on their face, “you have my condolences.”
Well, if that didn’t sound petty and hollow…. Just a few more empty phrases to be added to all those they’d already heard today.
They snorted mirthlessly and grasped for that tiny spark of anger underneath all the hurt. Because anything would be better than even more tears. “You are kidding, right? We both know you never liked my father.”
The villain grimaced. “True, I can’t say I did. But, in my defence, he wasn’t exactly a fan of mine either.”
“Oh, that’s quite an understatement, don’t you think?” Calling it an understatement was in itself an understatement. “My dad absolutely hated you.”
Quite unexpectedly, their childhood friend chuckled. The familiar sound made their heart lurch and it took them a breathless moment to reign in their emotions and clear their head.
This person in front of them wasn’t their friend.
Not anymore.
And yet the villain still possessed that mellow smile and those cute dimples they used to find so adorable.
“Yeah, he did despise me, didn’t he?” The villain rolled their eyes dramatically and that wry smirk spreading on their face was another heavy dose of nostalgia. “Remember that one time, when we tried to ‘borrow’ one of his chickens?”
As if they would ever be able to forget that…
Bringing it up now really wasn’t fair.
A sentimental smile appeared on their face. “We stole the key to the hen cope. Everything went perfectly according to plan, and then Dad spotted us from the balcony. Just as we were about to abscond with the bird.” They shook their head and huffed, not quite a laugh but dangerously close. “God, Dad was totally furious.”
The villain snorted. “Yeah, at me! First, he only yelled, telling me how I was such a bad influence on you” – their childhood friend shot them a mock exasperated look, a bit overdone with that hand-on-heart gesture – “and then he tried to murder me!”
“No, he didn’t! He merely—” They bit down hard on their lip, trying to stifle the laugh threatening to spill. This wasn’t funny, or at least it shouldn’t be. They shouldn’t even have a conversation like this, let alone enjoy the villain’s weird antics.
“You’re grossly exaggerating!” they protested, and it wasn’t so much a question of honest opinion as the pressing and perhaps silly urge to banter with the villain. “He only threw a couple shoes at you.”
“One of his damn boots hit the back of my head! You have no idea how much that hurt!” the villain complained indignantly, crossing their arms in front of their chest. “Plus, stealing the stupid chicken wasn’t even my idea. That was all on you!”
Now, that point they couldn’t argue. It had indeed been their idea. Just like pretty much all of the other terrible ideas that had ever landed the two of them in trouble.
Okay, they had to admit this was funny. A little bit.
And was it so wrong to not feel like crying for a few minutes? Was it so wrong to enjoy themself? Even if it was with the villain. Even if this was nothing more than pity. Wasn’t it okay to be selfish, just this once?
They did allow themself to laugh then, and it warmed their chest like a sip of their favourite tea while they let it slowly turn into a chuckle, then a hum. “That day, we were in such a hurry to get away, we forgot to close the door to the hen cope. Do you remember that? Those damn birds were suddenly all over the yard. It was quite a mess.”
“Yeah, of course I do!” The villain smiled. “Wasn’t it such a pain to catch them afterwards?”
Not nearly as much of a pain as getting their friend to stop whining about their headache…
“It was kind of fun actually, don’t you think?” Grinning, they turned, just in time to see something raw and desperate flit across the villain’s face.
“I miss you!” the villain blurted and instantly went pale.
They watched a myriad of emotions wash across their former friend’s panicked face.
For what it was worth, considering the audacity of turning up and pretending everything was fine between them, emotional manipulation had never been the villain’s modus operandi. Their former friend clearly hadn’t meant to go this far; they looked more shook than the hero felt.
Which meant it was true.
The villain averted their gaze and took a tentative step back. “Please, forget I said that.”
As if that was an option. As if it didn’t already rip them to pieces. As if they could pretend today hadn’t existed when next they met; as if they could both just go back to fists and insults right after establishing they hadn’t in fact irreparably moved on yet from kisses and cuddles.
They stared in disbelieve as their perhaps-not-quite former friend mumbled an apology and made to flee.
And yeah, there was absolutely no way they were letting this go! As if they’d allow the villain to casually drop by, make them laugh, and remind them of why and just how much they’d adored their best friend – only for the villain to run off afterwards like the easily-spooked little scaredy-cat they apparently still were, if deep down.
“Wait!”
They gripped the villain by the shoulder and pulled them back, wrapped their arms around the villain’s torso, and buried their face in the crook of the villain’s neck – and met next to no resistance.
“Hero, I should go.” Gentle fingers pushed meekly against their arms.
“Villain, please.” Their voice was barely more than a whisper; they shifted just enough to make eye contact. “I miss you too.”
Don’t you dare leave me again!
Warm breath fanned against their cheek. A small smile curved their lips when the villain went still again in their arms. They tightened the embrace and could feel a heart beating, quick and excited, against their chest; whose they weren’t sure.
“You’re not thinking straight,” their friend implored, caring and kind. Ever so considerate of the hero’s feeling. “You’ll regret this.”
Maybe they would, but that didn’t matter. Because the villain was still the same – still theirs.
Soft-hearted and tender.
So easy to take advantage of.
“I don’t care,” they promised and stole what would be the first of many kisses.
———
For my other stories, visit my [MASTERLIST] ♥
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