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#gore x vigilant
bees-tes-blog · 4 months
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annetiltheend · 8 months
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Non-Spoiler TLDR: I think Vigilant is a great mod, one of the best quest mods I’ve tried to date. It has a shit ton of new content, good execution and great atmosphere but it definitely isn’t for everyone, like I wanted to quit several times. The Gore + Vigilant patch was my saving grace and I loved his integration into the quests. For me, he added so much more to the mod and made it feel more personal that I ended up being more invested in Gore than in Vigilant itself. Would def recommend doing a Vigilant playthrough with him!
A Long Rant of how i became a tad bit too invested in a follower mod (SPOILERS AHEAD):
Vigilant is an amazing mod—the size alone is impressive, the shit ton of quests, new maps, content, and even the design of how it’s meant to unsettle the players at some parts is so freaking good, but I don’t think Vigilant by itself is for me and I def would have just dropped the thing by act 2 if it wasn’t for Gore.
I’m kind of a coward, I hate anything horror related or any unsettling shit. I didn’t like act 2’s dungeon crawl because the way the area and the enemies became more and more freaky felt like a descent into madness. Or hell. Gore was a comforting presence through it all and I loved his integration in the final fight and scenes of act 2. And man, if I thought act 2 was bad. Act 3 was a fucking nightmare for me lol. The only thing that pushed me to go through act 3 was the fact that I had to go find Gore.
Then we have act 4, finally reunited. Hell yeah right? Hell nah. Like you have this guy and he was with me on the journey to defeat Alduin the World fucking Eater. He was with me when I accepted the offer to be a Vigilant of Stendar. He was there when we first entered Molag Bal’s altar under the Stendar Beacon, who pretty much begged me to not make him go and I convinced him to come with me still. He fought ugly ass vampires with me under Windhelm. And then he fucking disappeared when we went in a haunted mansion and I pushed myself through dark rusty hallways and bloody headless figures because “shit I need to go find Gore, I need to find my friend”.
And now, fucking finally he’s here… but he’s not ALL there. He doesn’t know where he is. He’s not remembering things clearly. He pleads with me and asks that I don’t leave him alone. and jesus. fucking. christ. It felt like I was losing him in this wasteland and I can’t help but feel that it’s all my fault. I dragged him into this, I did this and I sure as hell ain’t losing him. The entire quest of act 4 kind of just turned into this giant side quest where the main quest is to find Gore’s memories lol. I had this passing thought when Gore degraded mentally and physically for the first time, like “man what if i don’t find his memories fast enough and he just… completely degrades, like mentally gone, physically crumbles to dust and Gore just ceases to exist” and that just, terrified the shit outta me. God this whole experience really had me care for and emotionally invest in a fucking skyrim follower mod.
Getting his final memory and the reunion made me so happy. I love that after finishing Vigilant you get to have a conversation with him afterwards. Big thank you to Gore’s creator, this is some really good shit.
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totally-not-deacon · 9 months
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Finally coming up for air for a few minutes after absolutely burying myself in the Vigilant x Gore mod/patch all day and...
Oh.
My.
GOD.
I'm not spoiling a THING, but you mfers NEED to play this. I am floored at how awesome this is.
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azures-grace · 8 months
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Tis the season of I post the angsty things I drew.
This one has some Gore x Vigilant spoilers, so it's under the cut.
His line "don't leave me" hit me like a bus.
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That, coupled with the fast aging where HE is the one leaving???
Spectacular writing, I was in tears.
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squid-ichorous · 6 months
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i'm getting the skyrim itch but i don't want to start at square one with modding and i forgot to make myself a collection before purging the last LO :((((
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Hunger Games OCs + Ships
Amor x Cinna || Elissa x Finnick
Hollis x Finnick || Lacey x Finnick
Lux x Finnick || Lysa x Gale
Waverly x Finnick x Katniss || Willow x Gale
Tag List: want to be added?
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jointherebellion215 · 2 months
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His Kiss, The Riot
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Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen x female!reader
Summary: When you and your secret lover make plain to Feyd-Rautha your wishes for a life together, despite the proposed arranged marriage, he surprisingly acquiesces. But he can't let you go so easily, can he? Loosely based on the song from Hadestown.
Word Count: 1.6k
TW: manipulation, Dark!Feyd-Rautha, arranged marriage, NONCON elements, gore, violence, she/her pronouns, female!reader, tragedy, star-crossed lovers, songfic, not quite a happy ending (oops), dark dark dark interpretations of Hadestown and the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who read If It's True and liked, reblogged, or commented. I appreciate every single one of you. As always, I would love some feedback, likes, comments, and reblogs if you can :)
This is Part Two to my Feydestown trilogy (I'm so sorry for the pun). You can read Part One here.
AO3
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Dune properties, characters, or storylines-- nor do I own anything related to Hadestown. The images used in this are not my own, and any similarities to stories or events other than what are directly referenced are strictly coincidence.
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The devil takes this Orpheus
And his belladonna kiss
“So you wanna get married? Take away the woman I just offered my hand to, to whom I all but have legal claim?”
Your beloved’s replied words of affirmation to his words hold the slightest tremor, but like a dog to fresh meat, Feyd-Rautha sniffs this out immediately. Another smile graces his face. Feyd speaks to the crowd now, “Yes, I was promised the Lady’s hand in marriage. But! I am a benevolent figure, so I guess I’ll let the lovebirds go.”
The crowd starts to give polite applause, while your knees grow weak at the news. You can go? Has love really prevailed on this day?
“However,” and with that, your heart drops “I have some conditions for these… nuptials.”
You could sense the air growing thick with tension as the reality of the na-Baron’s ruling twists out of your favor.
“Conditions?” You whispered.
“Of course, my darling! I can’t make this too easy on you, now can I?” Feyd paces back and forth on the steps from which he speaks, making your eyes dart back and forth with each step he takes. Vigilance overtakes your body in case of any rash decisions.
“You two can leave the city, but it won’t be hand in hand. This pair will have to walk in single file, with the boy in the front and my darling Lady at least thirty paces behind. No ships, no speeders, no running. Walking.”
The energy of the room starts to grow more electric as the points of this term seem to set in.
“The Lady cannot speak out or make any indication of her following behind. You’ll be faced forward the whole journey. Once you reach the edge of the city and passed the threshold, you can be together for eternity.”
Your breath hitched. Seems easy enough, right?
“But, if the boy so much as turns his head to check and see if the Lady is following, the deal is off. She’ll return to me, and we will be married.”
Nothing makes a man so bold
As a woman’s smile and a hand to hold
“Is this a trick?” Your beloved asks plainly.
Feyd tilts his head, pacing down the steps to ground level. “Now, what makes you say that? I’m being generous. I’ve set my terms.” He is now nose-to-nose with the man attached to you. 
“Now meet them or face the consequences.”
The hand holding yours is now pooled with sweat. You quickly and subtly jerk the arm of your beloved when he starts to protest, not recognizing a gift when he sees one. You bow, the picture of poise and grace that you were raised to be. There is still time to leave with all of your limbs intact, you could not afford to slip up now.
“We offer our most sincere gratitude, my Lord na-Baron. Thank you for this most auspicious opportunity. We will not squander it.” 
Your beloved gives a clumsy bow to match yours. Feyd’s manic smile grows as he clasps his hands together. The sound echoes through the hall.
“So it shall begin!” 
But all alone his blood runs thin
And doubt—doubt comes in
The pair of you hold hands, side-by-side, at the entrance of the palace gates. A crowd has followed you to the edge, with onlookers from the outside spectating the unexpected appearance of a noble. Occurrences like this did not happen often, if ever.
“You heard the terms. The Lady must walk thirty steps behind. She must not speak to you.” Your hands reluctantly separate, following the orders you were given. You can feel your heart pounding with each step that you take away from each other.
“Some of my guard will accompany you, to ensure that you comply to the letter.” Four Harkonnen warriors step forward and encase you in a square formation, leaving the love of your life alone and vulnerable. He looks back towards you, fear and doubt creeping into his eyes. You nodded at him, believing that you could succeed in your task. That you would prevail.
“You may begin.” Feyd voices, and with that—you start your journey. Step by step, you walk further through the foliage that immediately surrounds the castle gates and into the city square.
Once you and your beloved reach the horizon, Feyd turns to walk past the crowd and back into the corridor.
Your father, the Duke, bows quickly and offers his gratitude, but is ignored as the younger Harkonnen goes to gather his blade and shield. With a yell, he summons his guards to formation. As Feyd checks the integrity of his weapon, one of the Baron’s advisors tentatively steps towards him.
“My Lord, perhaps you should consider letting them go—” In the blink of an eye, the man is silenced with a swift slash to the throat. Blood spills through the advisor’s hands as he struggles to put pressure on the opening. His body flops to the floor and Feyd carelessly steps over the writhing body to march forward.
“Let’s go fetch my bride.”
Dangerous this jack of hearts
It had been almost an hour of walking by this point. There had been almost a dozen times where you wanted to give any audible indication to your lover that you were here. A whisper, a whistle, a stomp of your foot. Anything. But now you could see the edge of the city, you could almost taste it. 
A life with your love was within reach. 
The guards accompanying you shifted inward, almost boxing you in. You were hopeful, but nerves were creeping in.
This was going well. Too well.
The grand arch signifying the edge of the city was above your lover now. The field that you used to meet at in secret lay just beyond it. You’re almost there. Just twenty more steps and you could be together, forever. 
He steps over the threshold, you see his shoulders lift and fall in an exhale. Then, the man you had fallen in love with— who you wholly believe in— slowly turns his head to lock eyes with you. A pale figure steps out from behind a pillar accompanying the arch.
The growing smile on your face immediately falls. You call out his name.
Oh no. 
The na-Baron tsked and shook his head, as if scolding a child. Harkonnen troops flanked the area, giving Feyd-Rautha enough berth to have his fun. The three of you were surrounded, but only one really had the advantage.
“You were so close!”
Your beloved held out a hand, “Wait, wait! I made it over!” He started to back away in fear, unarmed and exhausted from the long walk. Colorful, ripe foliage brushed his legs as he back into your field.
“Ah, but she didn’t. So, face the consequences.”
Then his blade pierced the man you love. 
Your ears started to ring, throat working itself raw as you wailed. Tears blurred your vision, you could hear the gurgles of the blood leaving your fiancé’s mouth and the slosh of his newly disemboweled entrails hitting the lush field before you.
With his kiss, the riot starts
His body made a sick thud on the floor, and your body jumped along with it. 
You ran towards your dead lover, cradling his face and sobbing for the soul that was just ripped away from you. He didn’t deserve such a violent end. His only crime was loving you and being loved in return.
A chuckle sounded from above you, and you turned your tear-stained face to the brutal Harkonnen. He was covered in the blood of your lover, his spoils of war staining his pale skin. Black teeth on full display, his shoulders gave a slight shake as he expressed his humor. His laughter sparked a rage in you like you’d never seen before. It didn’t matter what bonds you may or may not have formed over the conversations you had the last week. He’s a monster. He needs to pay for what he’s done. 
Red flooded your vision.
With a roar, you lunged for the man. His laugh grew more manic as you smacked, punched, kicked, and hit every visible part of him that you could identify. In your grief, every ounce of training that you received flew out the window. He took every blow with a smile, as if he enjoyed the punishment you were attempting to bestow on him.
“There we go, my darling. Show me your pain. Your rage!”
Your mind started to clear with the more hits you landed. With a quick swipe, you had the weapon that killed your beloved against the naBaron’s neck. The Harkonnen soldiers immediately stepped forward, but Feyd stopped them with a wave of his arm.
“Ah ah ah! Leave her be.” His grin almost split his face in half, specks of dried blood making a painting of his face. 
“Do it. Go ahead, come on.”
He pressed his neck forward, purposefully putting pressure on his own blade. Fresh blood started to trickle down his neck, adding to the gallons already spread all over his uniform. 
The shock of his willingness to put his life on the line made you hesitate, which made him cackle in your face. Your anger made you draw the blade back and slice it across his chest. A groan left Feyd’s mouth, 
“Good girl.”
An unexpected thunk to the head made your vision start to spin. Feyd’s arms braced around you, slowly lowering you to your knees and down to a lying position. He cradled your head as if you were a precious commodity, when he leaned forward and captured your limp lips with his. 
As black started swallowing your vision, you heard him say,
“Don’t worry, my darling bride. It’ll all be alright. You won’t feel a thing.”
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ataraxiaspainting · 4 months
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Presentiment of Massacre.
Yan Geto x F Reader.
Synopsis: Of all the people in your village, why were you the only one spared?
Warnings: Yandere themes, kidnapping, manipulation, major spoilers for the start of JJK S2, some not SFW implications, and violence/slight gore.
Word Count: 900.
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“You can see them, can’t you?”
The man is tall, so much taller, so much taller than you who is curled up into a ball in the corner of your home, to hide, an intention that was more or less popped like a balloon. He is so much taller than the corpses littering the floor with their blood, their vomit, their tears. Gazing at the disarray with a mix of revulsion and frustration, he found himself devoid of any trace of it on his person, his exasperation evident as he muttered the word monkeys repeatedly along with quick, muffled talks of cleaning and baths and stains.
“Miss. You can see them, can’t you? The beings around us.”
As he receives no response once more, he pivots. A terrifying grin adorns his face, an unsettling visage that seems to transcend the boundaries of humanity. It appears as if it is a mere appendage, capable of detachment at whim, akin to a magnet or a metallic fragment. This facade, a deceptive guise, conceals the malevolent demon lurking beneath its surface.
“...I… Please… Please just ge-”
“Answer my question.” Interrupting, he maintains a sickeningly warm smile and tone, though his words possess an entirely different temperature. They are demanding. Frigid. For nothing burns quite like the icy cold. “I know you can, from the way you are looking around the room and hiding. Stop pretending you can’t.”
Even when his gaze was averted, his vigilance never wavered, always deciphering the motives behind your awkward, apprehensive behavior. He possesses an uncanny ability to interrogate as if presiding over a courtroom, posing probing inquiries that unveil the heart of the matter. Every response you offer seems to hold the power to determine your verdict: a life of freedom, confinement, or even death.
Opting for honesty may prove beneficial. It could potentially strengthen your position, although there are no guarantees. Contemplating the act of praying, you ponder its efficacy, hoping for assistance from any divine entity that may exist. You certainly wouldn't want to become another disfigured body within the grasp of the beast behind the man's monstrous jaws.
So, after weighing all of this out, your lips part instinctively.
“Ah, I knew it. Unlike these monkeys, you are worthy.” As a reaction to those two sentences, about a million thoughts and questions sprout in your mind. “You will be spared if you join us. You do not want to be rotting on top of these filthy monkey corpses, do you?”
In an instant, you vigorously shake your head, causing a fleeting sense of dizziness, as you promptly respond to his inquiry this time.
“I’ll… I’ll… do it.” As anticipated, the act of surrendering proved to be a complex experience, simultaneously challenging and effortless. This situation resembles a collision of opposing forces, resulting in a powerful and explosive event. However, due to an innate instinct and the familiarity acquired from past encounters with your inebriated father, you find yourself succumbing once again. “Anything.” You don’t think of saying that word specifically, and you regret it later than sooner. “Just… Just please. I want to live.”
A gentle pull brings you to your feet as his hand reaches out to grasp yours.
“I am glad you accepted my conditions. Very glad.” The man brushes his side bang out of his face, his grip becoming slightly looser. “I am Suguru, Suguru Geto. Now, what is your name, my new recruit?”
“...[First].” You whisper your name so softly, questioning whether Geto caught it. “Do I… Do I have to use that too? Because…”
“No, you don’t. Though if you want you can be taught to wield something, something weaker than this.”
He responded to your question as if you were a young child inquiring about the purchasing of infants from a retail establishment. “...But do I have to?”
Geto shook his head and called the beast with two waving fingers. It is a dragon, you think, from how long it is and how it has large white scales, even whiter teeth, and long golden hair partially stained red, and how its large blue eyes stared into your soul.
“That depends on the future.” He says, his grip dwindling even further. The monster disappears with another wave of his hand. He chuckles. “Depends mainly on what you do, and why you do it.”
“…What do you think I would do?”
“You’re not good at hiding your emotions, you know.” Something creeps up your thigh, and before you have the chance to scream he puts his hand on your mouth and his other hand grabs one of your arms. “That gives way to not being able to hide your plans very well. You’re planning on running the first chance you get, aren’t you? Before you do such a silly little thing, I must tell you that I can give you protection, and luxuries beyond your imagination… everyone and everything will bow down to you.”
He looks down at the slimy red thing with at least six eyes, the build and size similar to that of a basketball. Its lips were sucking on your flesh with words like love leaving them in between moments. That was the answer to your unspoken question.
“All you have to do is follow me, okay? No matter where I go, follow me. Do that, and your life will be so much better.”
From the look in his eyes, you already know he had already made the decision for you.
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mockerycrow · 8 months
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You’re Alive (Gaz x GN!Reader)
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gaz masterlist - gazfest 2023 @glitterypirateduck
PROMPTS: “One-shot” + “Safe House” + “Let Me See You”
SUMMARY: After receiving a facial scar, you have been jumpy—Kyle is here to show you that’s it’s all okay.
A/N: Honestly, I’m not the happiest with this but I decided to stop being picky with it!! So I hope my contribution to gazfest is satisfactory <3
[WARNINGS: Angst, hurt/comfort, fluff, moderate descriptions of gore, allusion to PTSD.]
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Your leg kept bouncing like whatever gnawing feeling in your gut wasn’t going to stop unless your leg was going a million miles per minute. The clock on the wall ticked every second oh so quietly, and it was overall silent aside from the ticking and your body squeaking. You felt like a live wire attached to a brick of dynamite, ready to explode at any given time—ready to kill whoever holds the brick. Despite it being an hour or two since you and Kyle arrived at the safehouse, you remain at the only window in the entire building. In your arms rests your rifle with your safety switched to “semi” for semi-automatic, like you’re expecting someone to come barreling in through the door, or come through the tree line.
Kyle doesn’t blame you for the way you have been acting, honestly. He knows you’ve been different since you got your facial scar a few months back—you were required to go through a psychological evaluation to be deemed fit for duty, and it’s moments like this where Kyle—guiltily—wonders how you passed “with flying colors”, so the doctor said. He doesn’t understand how the Captain hasn’t see your behavior either, or if he has, he hasn’t done anything about it. Kyle means well about all of this, too. He’s worried about you. He’s seen the way your eyes scan every room, the way you’re too ready to raise your weapon to kill, the way you snarl at anyone who is casually holding a knife outside of combat.. There’s so many signs pointing to something, a deeper problem, that he is wondering how the psychologist still has a job.
You’ve begun to wear a mask that obscures your face from your nose down.
You offered to take first watch—he notes that you’re like Ghost in that regard, you can’t calm down after a highly intense situation, so you gotta do what you gotta do, right? But the way you’re so.. jumpy, you keep jolting and looking at Kyle every time he shifts, making a slight noise?—that’s concerning. He’s used to Ghost’s incredible alertness, the way he doesn’t like his back faced to the door of the rooms he enters, Kyle is used to when Ghost sits in the far corner so he can see every inch of the room—but he was terrified when you began to do it, too. You’ve always been vigilant, sure, but you’re.. Something is very wrong.
Kyle watches from his spot on the ragged, torn couch that had to be taken from the curb in a nearby neighborhood. His own rifle is propped up against the couch, his pistol resting on the coffee table in front of himself. He watches the way your eyes flicker across the skyline, the puffy eyebags you have almost seem like they’re worsening by the moment. Kyle is also exhausted—you two have been traveling from safehouse to safehouse for about a week, trying to meet up with the rest of the task force.. With no support, of course.
He calls your name, and he makes a mental note of how your finger twitches closer to the trigger than before. “You need to rest.” He grunts out, pushing himself off of the couch. Kyle turns and grabs his rifle, holding the hefty weapon to his chest as he naturally copies your perfectly practiced pose. He looks up and looks at you—and you haven’t moved a muscle. “Hey, y’hear me?” Kyle voice is laced with concern as he takes his steps towards you, and he makes the mistake of tapping your shoulder—because suddenly he’s facing the silencer of your semi-automatic rifle. Cold panic shoots through his veins and his gut, his muscles going rigid as if he’s a deer in headlights. His eyes search for yours, locking eyes; and you’re out of it. He knew something was wrong.
“Oi,” Kyle speaks with the softest tone he can manage with a gun nearly pressing into the bridge of his nose. “Oi, it’s me. Gaz, mate. It’s Kyle.” Your eyes search his face desperately, and he’s silently begging for you to speak. The tension in his stomach is twisting and turning, threatening to snap—you show no signs of any recognization of him, someone who you have trusted for years by this point, someone who was the one to get your guts inside of your abdomen after an ambush, the one who held your face together after the attack—
Kyle does things before he thinks about it sometimes, and it seems to happen a lot more often with you than anyone else, so he’s silently cursing himself out when he slowly raises a hand to your cheek—his heart pounding against his rib cage, like it’s screeching to escape and run away. He has a rifle pressing against his nose, nearly right between his eyes, and what does he do? Kyle holds your covered cheek, his gloved hand cradling it just like how he did when he found you. Your eyebrow muscles punch inwards for a moment, your eyelids fluttering from the touch.
He watches the way your eyes scan his face, the way you’re trying to decipher whether he’s friend or foe—and he sees it when you know it’s him. Your eyes widen every so slightly and your rifle trembles in your grasp, lowering it and you flip the safety back on. “Gaz, I..” You croak for a moment, taking a small step back. Kyle let’s out a breath he didn’t he was holding, along with all of that tension holding up in body. He reaches for you again as you pinch the bridge of your nose, one of his hands swiftly taking the rifle from you, the other gently cradling your cheek again. “Shh, it’s alright,” He murmurs, his stomach tightening with anxiety. Your eyes fall closed for a moment as Kyle lets your rifle drop to the ground next to where both of you stand.
“It’s alright.” Kyle repeats, his other hand coming up to cradle your other cheek. You ever so slightly flinch in his touch, but you don’t pull away. Your hands come up to cover his own, a choked noise leaving your throat. “Breathe, sweetheart. Breathe.” His lips are next to your ear now, voice dripping like honey into your eardrums, trickling down your spine with a warmth only he’s been able to provide for you. You can borderline feel his heat from beneath his gloves, seeping into your skin from on top of your mask, too. It grounds you enough for you to take a wonderfully oxygen filled breath.
“There y’go, yeah..” Kyle praises you softly, the air from between his lips brushing against your ear and causing you get goosebumps. You inhale once again, slower and deeper—and you get the comforting scent of Kyle, mixed in with the sweat and dirt. Nonetheless, it’s something you find extreme comfort in. As Kyle brings you down from your panicked feelings, he’s swaying you ever so slightly. After you let out a soft shuddering breath, he pulls away from your ear. “Let me see you,” He whispers, causing your eyes to shoot open, scanning his face with panic. You begin to shake your head but his hands remain in place. Kyle’s hands don’t move to remove your mask, as he’s always been good with your boundaries—but his eyes are pleading you.
“Please.” You lock eye contact with him as you debate this; you haven’t showed your face willingly since you were in the hospital, right? You began to cover your face as soon as you could without medical repercussions. You keep scanning his eyes, his muscles in his face, and then it hits you—Kyle doesn’t beg you of anything—the last time he saw your face, was when it was split in two, when he was holding your face in place. You know the attack fucked with him, too. Your barracks were next to his, and after the attack, you were hyper-vigilant. You woke up from every noise, and every night—you heard him stumble out of his room, always at night. Panicked.
You take a slow, deep breath—and you nod. You close your eyes, trying to give yourself some comfort. You feel his fingers hook into the soft material of your mask, and he pulls it down to under your chin. You don’t open your eyes just yet, but you can’t help the small flinch when you feel his gloved thumb trace part of your pink scar that’s deep in your lip. Your heart is hammering in your throat as his finger continues to slowly follow the scar’s path, from your bottom lip trailing to your nose, rearing a gory right, a deeper part of the scar scaling through your right cheek, and taking a harsh upwards turn, just narrowly missing your eye, but cutting deep into your eyebrow.
“There you are.” He whispers, his voice barely steady. Your eyes flutter open and you look at Kyle, and your eyebrows raise ever so slightly at the sight of tears brimming in his own eyes, pure relief all over his expression. “Thought I lost you forever, huh?” Kyle tries to laugh, but his voice cracks, causing a rare laugh to be pulled out of your chest. You reach up and your breath hitches as you wipe away a tear that had begun to slide down his cheek. “I’m.. I’m okay, Kyle.” You respond and he shakes his head, sniffling for a moment, his eyes tracing every part of your face, like you’ll disappear again. “You aren’t,” He confirms. “And that’s alright. You’re alive, and here with me, that’s enough for now.”
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storiesbyrhi · 5 months
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Witch!Reader x Bat/Vampire!Eddie Munson Series Masterlist The Grimoire The Timeline
Warnings: canon typical violence, horror genre typical violence/some infrequent gore, swearing, animal death, no beta, death in childbirth (mentioned, not described), abusive parents, suicide, spiders/bugs, grief/mourning; warnings updated each chapter.
Synopsis: No witch has stepped foot in Hawkins since 1845, but when Vecna opens the ground and poisons the town, a voice begins to call to you. Have you been brought back to this cursed place to heal the townspeople’s wounds, to save a hexed bat that always finds its way to you, or to redefine your history with a reunion 150 years in the making?
Chapter Summary: It's time to wake up. 2292 words.
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1986
Eddie remained still as he watched over your spell-induced sleep. Your eyes were darting back and forth behind your eyelids and your lips parted to allow fast shallow breaths to pull in and out. After twenty minutes, Eddie moved from under you so he could scoop you up and take you to the bed. He laid you upon it like a knight with a princess, then crawled in next to you.
He remained vigilant. Vigilant and hopeful.
Precisely one hour after you drank the rosemary potion, your eyes fluttered open. He didn’t know what he had expected exactly, but it was not nothing. You said nothing. Did nothing. Just stared up at the peeling paint of the trailer’s ceiling. 
As softly as he could, Eddie said your name but gained no response. A second attempt, cooing, “My little witch? Are you there?”
You blinked hard a few times. Slowly you pushed yourself into a sitting position, the movements so heavy it looked like it hurt. With some hesitation, your gaze settled on Eddie.
He took one of your hands in his and while it was grounding, it wasn’t enough. He watched as you crumpled, face twisting with sadness and body curling in on itself. You sobbed so hard your body shook as if it was the epicenter of an earthquake.
Between the cries and the hyperventilating, you couldn’t catch your breath. You pushed away from Eddie and tried to stand, but fell to the floor. Eddie was immediately at your side, but you forced him away again and stayed where you were on all fours.
Body convulsing, brain short-circuiting, you were a mess quickly deteriorating into something worse. Once well-trodden neural pathways that had been gated away were suddenly walked. Old emotions were raw and new. Knowledge that felt dangerous when only a hypothesis was now proven and true, and it was like poison in your veins.
You threw up on the carpet, then backed away, scurrying into a corner and hugging your legs to your chest. As you began a self-soothing rock, everything got louder and louder until you could no longer process any of it. The cup was running over. The volume could not be turned higher. There were too many colours and now all you could see and feel was white hot white.
When you went still in the corner, Eddie was relieved for only a moment before the fear set in that you’d not recover from this. He stood and got to work cleaning the puke from the floor as a distraction. You didn’t watch him, your eyes glazed over and unfocused. Dead, almost.
The glass of water Eddie brought to you did nothing to stir you. When he took your hand, trying to get you to at least hold the thing, he found your body was limp and pliable, like a sad ragdoll.
With one of your mixtapes on, Eddie sat by your side and held your hand. A human would have given up earlier, not out of a lack of will, but by the demand of their body. Sitting still for hours on end was not natural. Eddie, though, could play statue well.
The day had been long – grieving teens in the morning and spellcasting in the afternoon. Now, a little before midnight, Eddie was swallowing the feeling of panic. You’d been catatonic for a little over five hours.
With no words spilling from your mouth to tell him how you felt, Eddie had to make do with other hints. He could hear your heartbeat. It was steady, calm. At least you were not in the fits of a panic. However, the rhythmic pulse was an uneasy thing – too normal in an entirely abnormal situation.
Your skin did not feel any hotter than usual. No fever setting in. Similarly, you weren’t shaking anymore. No trembling hands.
It was your scent that told him the most. Almost overpowering your baseline of sweetpea and black birch was the smell of fear. It was a sad kind of fear. Nectar from a melancholy flower. Then, the sharp smell of urine. Any power you had over your own body was gone.
Eddie clenched his jaw and swallowed a whining sound of misery. “I’ll run you a bath, my love,” he whispered to you before leaving you alone.
Out in the night, Eddie picked wildflowers and collected leaves from a sassafras tree. He returned in minutes, filling the tub with hot water for you as you once had for him. He brewed a bath of petals and Epsom salt.
Although it came as no surprise, it still hurt to find you exactly how he’d left you. There was no resistance as he began to undress you, but Eddie still asked for permission and told you what was happening. He didn’t know if you were conscious, if you were there behind those unfocused eyes. So, he narrated it all.
“I’m sorry. We are almost done,” he said. “I’m going to take these off then we’ll put you in the bath. Does that sound good?”
Eddie peeled your underwear off with a clinical sort of tenderness. He picked you up like a bride and brought you to the bath. Before lowering you into the water, he checked the temperature again. If it was too hot, you would probably boil before crying out.
He watched your face for micro expressions and checked your skin for heat. When he was sure you were okay, Eddie began to talk.
“I believe you would be proud of me,” he started. “Salt and yarrow to help you heal. You had those stocked in your little apothecary. The flowers are all fresh. Both the woundwort and vervain are healers too. You once told me that plants have many names, but often their use finds its way into the names too. Heal-all is another name for woundwort, and vervain is the holy herb. Lastly, the leaves. I forget the name of the tree, the one that smells nice. You said it was good that it grows easily, for its usefulness is endless.”
Eddie was struck by his ability to remember these details. He felt as though he could hear your voice, your lessons, come through his own as he recalled knowledge of the natural world.
“I left them whole,” he said, picking up one of the sassafras leaves and twirling it by its stem. “They’re a nice shape. And, if they do nothing to help, at the very least they have provided some coverage.” Eddie glanced down at the water where your body was mostly hidden beneath the green.
After some time in silence, Eddie carefully pulled your body back up from where you had slipped into the water a little too much. The water was lukewarm, and he considered what he would do next.
“I wish I was powerful like you. I wish I could recite a spell and bring you back.”
When the water lost its heat, Eddie took you back to the bedroom. He gently dried you with the softest towel he could find, then dressed you in what he had observed you wearing to bed. Under the covers, Eddie pulled you close to him, holding your back to his chest and keeping you safe.
At 3:00 am, the witching hour, your eyes closed and you fell into an exhausted sleep.
The light was blinding. You instinctively closed your eyes, raising a hand to shield yourself from the brightness. Someone said your name, but it sounded like all the names you’d ever had. From the first – to Amabel – to the one you wore now. Then, the light was blocked by a figure standing before you.
When you dropped your hand and looked at them, they looked like every witch that had met a fate riding a white horse. The Witches Who Came Before. All of them, all at once.
“You cannot stay here,” they said. It was strange to hear their voice. Voices. A chorus of women singing a singular note.
“It hurts,” you told them.
“Of course it hurts. Still, you cannot stay here.”
You looked around. Where was here? You could focus on any one thing, your gaze fuzzy and the light obscuring your view of your surroundings.
“This changes everything,” you tried to explain. “I didn’t know there could be this kind of… betrayal.” If a witch did something bad it was usually brutal but simple. Black magic. Conspiring. It changed the fabric of your understanding of the world to know a witch could do to their sister what had happened to you.
“Are you to abstain yourself from guilt and agency?”
“I… I never meant…” but your argument trailed off. No, you had not intended to hurt anyone by spending time with Eddie in 1836. Yet, had you been wrong about him, your coven and the humans would have been put at an even greater risk than they were already at. Regardless of your intentions, you did lie to your coven.
“And they only meant to protect, as is a witch’s calling,”
“If I had gone to them from the beginning. If I had told them there was a vampire who was not like the others. That he could love and be loved. That, in the war, he could be an ally… Do you think they would have listened?”
“We are not to know what may have come to pass. It is done. History will not-”
“Repeat itself. I know. You’ve said,” you interrupted them. “And lore will be rewritten,”
“And so, you must leave. You cannot stay here.”
For a moment, you gazed in awe at the ever-changing face. Monstrous and magnificent. Then, it slowed and stilled to a recognisable image. “Penelope?”
“Amabel.”
You genuinely didn’t know what you wanted to do more – throw a punch or a hug.
Like she could see the internal fight written all over you, she smiled and said, “I know, child. We are not to know what may have come to pass. But in our duty to learn from history, we concede error. The Witches were not consulted in 1836. This was an error.”
Before you could say anything, Penelope was just another face in the mix. You figured that was as close to an apology as you were ever going to get.
“I miss you,” you told her. “I miss you all so, so much,”
“You cannot stay here,” they said again. “There are loose ends to thread.”
In a split second, the bright had gone dark and you were left in the cold.
The first thing you sensed was a heaviness holding you in place. Eddie. You were in a vampire cage, enclosed in his arms as he held onto you for dear life. Then, the bedroom, as you had left it. Everything seemed normal. As if you had simply woken up on a normal morning with your normal boyfriend in a normal life.
You took a sharp breath in, deliberate and controlled. It propelled Eddie to action. He said your name once, twice, then a third time as he let you go and flipped you to face him. His eyes darted across your features, searching for signs of recognition.
It was an uncanny feeling, laced with malaise. There was a part of you that naturally went to react as you would have before you recovered your memories. You were just a witch who came to Hawkins to help. He was just a lost vampire you saved. The other part of you though, the one who could feel herself becoming whole again, she wanted to react very differently.
You didn’t act on either impulse though. Instead, you let Eddie hold your face and pat your hair and make that big wet eyed look at you. He said your name for the fourth time.
“Are you there?” he asked. “Are you with me?”
You nodded.
His worried expression broke out into a grin then he kissed your forehead. “Yes? Yes. I… You…” He didn’t know where to start. Couldn’t work out what was vital information. What were the easy questions?
Your throat was scratchy, your mouth dry. Although you felt a small headache coming on and some achy muscles, a calmness washed over you.
Finally. Finally, you were where you ought to be.
“My sweet, lonely vampire.”
Eddie whimpered and pulled you into another tight embrace. “Little witch? My little witch? Are you-”
“I’m here,”
“You’re here?”
“I’m here.”
It happened so differently from how you would have guessed. How you would have written it, if your life had been a story in a book about witches and vampires. There would have been a deep and passionate kiss. You would find yourself in the taste of Eddie’s lips. Maybe, he’d bite down and speak the binding words, blood of my blood, into your red mouth. And, if the story was for adults rather than children, which you certainly hoped it would be, you would curl naked limbs around each other. You would find equilibrium in the space between fucking and making love.
But it wasn’t like that.
With your foreheads pressed together, you both closed your eyes. Eddie had one arm wrapped under you. His free hand found yours, threaded fingers together, and held them between the two of you. That’s how you stayed for a long time, nuzzling against each other, quiet and happy.
There would be time for words and sex and action. Supernaturally sweeping lifespans and eons to spend together. In the wake of the newly understood 1836, all you wanted to do was simply exist with him. With Eddie, your uncursed creature of the night. Your soulful vampire. Your star-crossed lover. Your blood. Your heart. Your home.
End Note: Thank you to @jo-harrington and @munson-blurbs for helping with this chapter. So.... THOUGHTS? FEELINGS? What do you think she wants to say to her coven now? What would you want to do, if you were in her position?
Fic Taglist:  @paranoidmunson  @idkidknemore @paprikaquinn @stardustworlds @loz-brooke @wyverntatty @vintagehellfire @dark-academia-slut @scarletwitchwhore @becks1002 @mrsdollardog @heyndrix @luceneraium @rosaline-black @devilinthepalemoonlite @goldencherriess @iamwhisperingstars @wiltedwonderland @blueywrites @breezybeesposts @jadehowlettthewolf @spikesvamp79 @foreveranexpatsposts @tortoiseshellspells @wingedpeachjudgegiant @stardustmunson @live-love-be-unique @fangirling-4-ever @reanimated-alice @b-irock @gh0stlybunnie @myown-worstenemy-2003 @woozzz @cyberxlust @hiscrimsonangel @buckysbarne @m00nlight101 @word-wytch @spicysix @briasnow-blog @goth-cowgirl-03
All Eddie Taglist: @solomons-finest-rum @ruinedbythehobbit @sweetpeapod @thorfemmes  @corrodedhawkins @grungegrrrl @lilzabob  @averagemisfit03 @ches-86 @ilovecupcakesandtea @onehotgreasymechanic @hazydespair @mel-the-fangirl @eddies-hid3out @siren-lungs @aheadfullofsteverogers @hiscrimsonangel @dashingdeb16
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bees-tes-blog · 5 months
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my dealer: got some straight gas 🔥😛 this strain is called “the return of molag bal” 😳 you’ll be zonked out of your gourd 💯
me: yeah whatever. I don’t feel shit.
5 minutes later: dude I swear I just saw some daedra under stendarr’s beacon
my buddy gore pacing: altano is lying to us
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f1nalboys · 11 months
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Wall Of Photos - Bo Sinclair
Bo Sinclair x Fem!Reader
started as a sick little smut and then ended up all sick no smut so. sorry? anyways enjoy Bo making you pick a photo from the wall to recreate <3
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WORD COUNT: 1165
WARNINGS: dark, death mention, blood and slight gore/viscera mentions?, bo's polaroid wall is the main focal point, photos of past victims described (not-correct shibari and chair being used, photos taken of creampies, etc), mention of past victims. reader has such intense stockholm syndrome and they just dont know it, bo gets off on the photos, weird metaphorical nonsense and just nonsense in general? real freak behavior from me, dark, alludes to past abuse from bo, reader sorta kinda helps (or ignores) the killings and is jealous of people that get bo's attention, alludes to reader death and them being perfectly content with it, polaroid wall is a vigil of sorts so religious stuff? the town and bo are one fr. proofread but i am dumb so....pls let me know if i forgot to tag something!!! it was kind of hard figuring out what needed a warning and what didn't
He steadies you, arms around your waist, his front pressed against your back. He smells like Marlboro Reds, cheap beer, cologne, and blood. It’s more comforting now that it was in the beginning. His smell had long faded from the stench of death that seemed to cling to him; you realized it was this town that the smell clung to, not him, sinking its claws into every crack of the road and every crevice in the maggot-filled buildings. 
“So,” he purrs into your ear, breath hot against your skin. He was always so warm, whether that be his breath or his skin or his words, red hot, hot enough to scald you if you weren’t careful. You were far from careful now, your mind still in the chair a few feet behind you. It hadn’t left even when he had let you out of it months ago. You couldn’t feel your feet but you could feel his arms around you, his fingerprints embedding themselves into your skin like his knife used to. “Which do you like?”
You blink, trying to focus your vision. “Which… do I like?” You repeat and he hums. He’s swaying behind you, with you, like you’re dancing to some tune only he can hear in his head. Maybe the wedding march, maybe something from his youth, maybe his mothers voice. It’s all the same to him. He has you in front of the polaroid wall. “These are…” You don’t finish your sentence, swallowing thickly. Your mouth is dry. 
You can feel the smile on his cracked lips.
Dozens of people, all dead now, all exposed on his wall. He’s in some of them, sometimes his hand, other times his cock, a few of his face, but most of them the person is alone. They’re tied up, either strapped to the chair with duct tape or suspended from the ceiling in a mock shibari style. They’re on their knees, tear streaks and blood covering their faces. Most aren’t looking at the camera, but some are. You try to imagine what they had done to deserve that, to deserve Bo’s voice telling them to smile real pretty for the camera. 
You ignore the jealousy.
“Pick. Whichever one you like, we’ll do.” A choice. He’s giving you a choice, something that had been stripped from you the moment you got to town, maybe long before that. Maybe you never had a choice to begin with. All roads lead to Ambrose. He reaches past you and taps a dirt-covered finger against a photo of a woman on her back, her legs spread, her face tilted to the side in embarrassment. The flash is bright but her cunt is the focal point, not her. She wasn’t what he was looking at, he was looking at what he had done to her, what was leaking from her. Him. The photo was of him. “This one’s my favorite. Ain’t that a pretty sight…”
Bo sighs as he relieves the memory then and there behind you. You feel his hips jut forward ever so slightly, grinding against your back. He was getting hard. “What was her name?” You ask and Bo scoffs, his movements stalling. 
“Fuck if I remember. Why? You jealous of her or something, darlin’?”
“No.”
“No? You suddenly feel bad for ‘em all, is that it?” His voice is sweet like the honey you had watched him slather onto your toast this morning. The sharpness doesn’t evade you and you think of the knife he had used. Steel and honey, honey and steel. One and the same when it came to him. “Didn’t feel all that bad when we had that other girl come into town, now did you?” His hand breaches your shirt, sliding up your stomach to your tits. 
Bo grabs at you roughly, keeping his voice level even when you squeak, struggling against him slightly. Not enough for him to worry; you knew better than that. “No.” It’s true. When she had rolled into town, you hadn’t tried to warn her. You hadn’t done anything, in fact. Just watched while she endured what you did. She wasn’t special. Not like you, not like how Bo treated you. A play thing was just that; a thing. You were something to Bo, and that was enough. 
“Now pick or I’m pickin’ for ya.” 
Blindly, you reach forwards and tap one of the photos. It’s an older photo, long before you, and the girl was smiling. She was on her back in Bo’s bedroom, you knew from the sheets, legs spread with him slotted in between. “This one.” You wonder if this was the first. If this is the girl he’s been chasing all these years, if this is who had started it all. Your stomach twists at the thought of Bo loving someone other than you.
“Good choice, sweetheart.” He drawls, placing a soft kiss to your neck. Your body relaxes at the feeling, at the rare praise, and he knows your putty in his hand. How could you not be? His hand falls out from under your shirt. “We’re gonna head on up there, alright? Let me grab the camera.”
You turn around when he takes a step back from you but you don’t dare move forwards. He grabs the polaroid off of the shelf, checking for film. In another world, the sight would give you butterflies. You can feel them stirring in your gut regardless. “Why do you keep the wall?” You blurt out before you can stop yourself and Bo looks up at you, eyebrow raised. “You never look at it. What is it for?” 
He bares his teeth into a grin. They’re white but they should be red, covered in red, blood from the sheep you are, the poor animal caught in the trap of his smile. “It’s a vigil. You think I just take, right? That I don’t give? I mourn them,” he steps forward slowly so as not to startle you. You wouldn’t move even if you could. The girl in his bed was you now and you were going to be added to the wall, another ghost in the town, another warning no one would be able to heed. Had she thought of Bo the way you did? Had she looked at him and felt a twisted love, a sick and festering commitment to the very end? “I’ll mourn you, when it’s time.”
You nod, letting him place his hands on your cheeks. You’re not crying. He didn’t expect you to. “And I’ll mourn you, Bo.”
“I’m sure you will.” He kisses you and you can taste the blood in his mouth. It’s yours, it's the people behind you stuck in a photograph, it's his mother and father and brothers. It’s his. It’s the town, filled with blood and bile and sickness and rot. He pulls away. “Let’s go on up to the house.” He grabs a wrench on his way out, your hand in his.
You follow.
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totally-not-deacon · 9 months
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Just finished Gore x Vigilant and...
I need a minute. Holy FUCK.
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blurredcolour · 5 months
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You Arms Pull Me In Like The Tide Pulls Me Under | Part One
Your Arms Pull Me In Like The Tide Pulls Me Under Masterlist
Dick Winters x Female SOE Agent!Reader
The 101st Airborne's jump into Normandy is filled with unexpected surprises for all parties involved.
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Warnings: Canon Typical Violence, Weapons, Death, Blood, Gore, Injuries, Inevitable Historical and Military Inaccuracies, Language, Mature/Explicit Themes - 18+ ONLY.
Note: This is a work of fiction based off the portrayal of Dick Winters by Damian Lewis. I hold nothing but respect for the real life individuals referenced within. Shout out to my bilingual friend who double checked my French lines for me. Non-English is denoted in italics.
Word Count: 4809
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Paris – December 10, 1944
The sea of humanity in Gare du Nord was overwhelming as Dick Winters stepped off the train from Mourmelon-le-Grand. Though it was mid-morning on a Sunday, it seemed like everyone was on the move. His height had him standing head and shoulders above most of the crowd as he made his way down the platform toward the exit, nearly bumping into a woman dressed in an olive drab uniform.
“Sorry –” He reflexively apologized in English before correcting it to the local French, though his pronunciation left a lot to be desired. “Excusez-moi.”
You turned back to him, eyes widening with recognition as they flicked over his face. “A captain now.” You smiled as your gaze eventually settled onto the two bars shining on the garrison cap of his Class-A uniform.
“A Canadian now.” He replied as his own eyes settled on the patch embroidered on your shoulder. The hip length jacket, A-line skirt, and peaked cap of the uniform suited you. “Or were you always, Charlotte?” The hint of a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips as his green eyes met yours.
He did not miss your visible swallow before you recovered with an even warmer smile than before. “I’m sorry you’ve got me confused with my good friend Charlotte Roussel. She’s told me all about you.” You offered your gloved hand to shake as you introduced yourself properly, though he wondered if it was just another cover identity.
Taking your hand in his, he shook it firmly with a bemused expression playing on his face. “Dick Winters. A pleasure to meet you.”
“Likewise, Captain. If you are in need of a place to stay, I happen to have a recently vacated room in my apartment I would be happy to loan to you, free of charge. The hotels in Paris would love nothing more than to liberate you of your American dollars.”
Dick eyed you curiously, still as full of questions as the last time he had seen you in early June, yet you continued to obfuscate. “I wouldn’t want to impose…” He replied in the time-honored tradition of the polite refusal that preceded acceptance.
“Not at all. Besides, Charlotte would not forgive me if I did not repay you for saving her life.” You insisted with a nod, and he swallowed, noticing the way you now wore your hair to carefully cover your forehead beneath your uniform cap.
“If I remember it correctly, she saved mine first.”
------------
Normandy – June 6, 1944
After the rattling and jostling of the plane as it flew through clouds and flak, the drop onto French soil had felt peaceful in comparison. Granted of course, there was the constant awareness that enemy fire could find him on his way to the ground, but by some miracle he made it in one piece. The same could not be said of his leg bag.
After linking up with Hall from Able company, the pair had set off into the woods with only one M1 Garand between them. Dick had done his best to remain calm and reassuring despite how poorly the night seemed to be unfolding already. Small touches of humor appeared to calm the young man’s nerves but they both remained hyper vigilant to all sounds around them. Roughly ten minutes from their rendezvous they heard a noise to their right and Dick signalled for them both to halt and get low, but before Hall could level his weapon, they were face-to-face with the muzzle of German K-98 rifle.
Preparing to lunge at the soldier’s legs, Dick was brought up short when a figure in dark clothing jumped onto the man’s back, clamping a gloved hand over his mouth before burying a knife into the side of his neck. The unexpected weight thankfully pulled the weapon toward the sky before the soldier squeezed off a few rounds in the struggle, but the brutally efficient downward stroke of their blade had the soldier quickly collapsing to the ground, neutralized. Left standing was a woman clad in what first looked like a skirt but was in fact very wide-legged slacks and a wool sweater with a cap over her hair and a scarf covering her neck and face up to her eyes.
“Parlez-vous Francais?” You asked in an elevated whisper as you crouched down to wipe the blade of your knife clean on a corner of the dead man’s uniform jacket.
Dick and Hall both shook their heads in silence, dumbfounded.
“Welcome to France.” You smiled a little as you pulled down your scarf to reveal the rest of your face.
Dick was struck by many things in that moment, first and foremost being how beautiful you were, which he quickly compartmentalized as he’d been well trained to do. The second was the lack of a French accent, of any accent to your English. You almost sounded American and yet…
The stirring of brush to the left had them tensing once more before a young man of no more than sixteen, tall but obviously underfed and in clothes that had fit him several inches ago, emerged to pick up the German rifle from the forest floor. The function returned to Dick’s brain all at once and he looked back to you quickly.
“Resistance?”
You nodded in confirmation, glancing between the pair of them before turning to the young man. “Emile, donne le fusil au lieutenant.”
“Mais Charlotte…” He protested, gesturing at the older rifle slung over his shoulder.
“Maitenant, Ils auront une nuit pire que la notre.” You replied in a firm tone that brooked no argument and he handed it over to Dick who thanked him with a nod.
Hall immediately began to dig through the fallen soldier’s pockets to find him some more ammo.
“You’re a lot further inland than we were expecting you.” Your comment brought Dick’s attention back to you and he did his best not to let his annoyance at the situation show.
“Any idea where we’ve ended up?” He asked as he took what Hall was able to scrounge with a nod of thanks, tucking it into the pocket of his ODs.
“Half a kilometre outside St. Mere Eglise. You have a map?” You asked with a tilt of your head, and he hesitated a moment, knowing that while he did, it was covered in confidential material. He watched as a knowing smirk stretched your lips. “I have one without your top-secret information, one moment.”
You raised up on your knees to tuck your knife into the sheath at your hip before reaching up the back of your sweater, the motion inadvertently pulling the fabric higher to reveal the skin of your midriff. He quickly averted his eyes to the tree canopy above, wondering when the training on attractive female Resistance fighters was supposed to have been delivered.
The sound of rustling paper had him glancing carefully toward the ground and he relaxed to see you unfolding a map across the leaves and pine needles that carpeted the forest floor. The four of you gathered around as you took out a lighter, using the weak light from the flame to point out your rough position.
“Easiest way to the coast is the railroad tracks – keep off the roads. There is a squad of about ten Nazis with two officers on a horse-drawn wagon. They are making their way to their favourite spot here.” You tapped the map further into the woods.
“Favorite spot?” He prompted quietly.
“To make members of the Resistance disappear.” You replied grimly, glancing at the simple watch on your wrist. “We set explosives here,” you tapped a spot along the rail line further inland, “to detonate about now. That should help you find your way?” You looked up to him just as the explosion sounded in the distance, a column of orange lighting the sky.
“Bravo, Charlotte. À l’heure juste.” Emile beamed at you, and you nodded in reply with a grin of satisfaction.
“Merci. Any questions, gentlemen?” You asked turning back to the two Americans.
“None. Thank you, Charlotte. Be careful out here.” Dick replied earnestly, hoping you were not headed to the German’s so-called favorite spot, but he held his suspicions.
“Same to you.” You nodded firmly folding up the map as he tapped Hall on the shoulder and the pair began to make their way towards the rail line.
You had been right, the explosion made an excellent beacon. The situation continued to improve when he reconnected with Lipton, Guarnere, Malarkey, Wynn, Toye, and two boys from the 82nd. When he heard the whinny of a horse, he realized you had also given him an accurate warning about the group of Germans.  While Dick presumed it was usually preferable for Resistance to avoid confrontation, with the numbers he had gathered, he preferred to eliminate the threat and arranged an ambush. Mercifully Guarnere’s premature action did not result in the failure of their attack and the men went about cleaning up the mess while Dick took a moment to reprimand him.
They were about to depart down the road when a rustling in the trees caught the hot-headed Sergeant’s ear. “Flash!” He barked out the password challenge in his brash Philly accent, sending everyone’s eyes towards the edge of the road where you stood, flanked by Emile and two other men Dick didn’t recognize.
“Thunder.” He rapidly replied on your behalf. “Don’t shoot, they’re Resistance.” He elaborated, coming to stand beside Guarnere.
“Merci, Lieutenant.” You exhaled. Your reply was muffled behind your scarf, but the relief was still audible.
“Jesus Christ, you’re a dame!” Guarnere hissed, pouring his excess adrenaline into his outburst.
Your barely smothered laugh reached Dick’s ears, making him swallow reflexively as the group watched you make your way to the back of the wagon. One of the older men, his clothes gone baggy under German occupation, carrying a weapon from the last war, grasped a corner of the tarp laying across some hidden cargo. Together you pulled it back to reveal the bodies of two more of your comrades.
“Merde.” Emile choked out and turned to take out his frustrations by kicking one of the fallen Germans at his feet.
Dick could not help the frown as he walked to the back of the wagon, his eyes falling on the form of a young boy no older than twelve.
“Goddamn he’s just a kid…” Malarkey uttered in dismay.
“They’ve got women and kids fighting out here for fuck’s sake.” Toye growled, slamming his helmet onto his head as he wrenched his eyes away from the scene, moving to take watch to the head of the wagon, obviously impatient to get moving.
“I’m sorry it’s not the outcome you were hoping for.” He looked to your eyes, wishing that scarf wasn’t hiding your face.
“But not unexpected.” You muttered back, straightening your sweater before leaning forward over the boy’s body.
“What will you do?” Dick asked as you grasped the boy’s lifeless arm and slung his torso across your shoulders, hugging his legs close to your body beneath your other arm.
“The only thing we can do - take him home to his mother, so she can bury him.” You replied as the fourth man with you, mid-forties with a build not unlike Randleman’s though still wasted away some, stepped forward to gather the remains of the twenty-something still on the wagon. “Thank you, Lieutenant. Good luck.” You met his eyes briefly, revealing your own glistening with unshed tears, before disappearing through the trees the way you had come.
The next twenty hours passed in a blur – finally reaching the assembly point, destroying the 105mm guns at Brécourt, losing Hall. Would that he could return the boy to his mother as you had been able to do with your fallen. As Dick watched Nixon open the can of food he’d been struggling with, he sighed deeply.
“Met a Resistance fighter in the woods after I landed – she spoke perfect English, Nix. No trace of any accent, at all. The men were all looking to her for direction.”
Nixon raised his eyes to meet his meaningfully. “No shit…” He blinked and handed him the successfully opened food. “Sounds to me like you met a genuine SOE agent assigned to ‘set Europe ablaze.’” His tone was dripping with envy. “Division wasn’t entirely convinced by Churchill’s boasts. She must be one tough broad.”
“She seemed pretty proficient, Lew.” Dick replied with poorly concealed admiration, eyeing the contents of the can reluctantly.
“We ought to send Churchill a thank you card, then.” He smirked knowingly.
Dick let out a half-hearted laugh before his face fell serious once more. He looked to his boots before confessing to the loss of Hall, which Nixon tried to make up for by reassuring him the map he’d retrieved would be useful. Surrendering the food with the excuse of lack of appetite, Dick wandered off lost in thought.
Honestly never expecting to lay eyes upon you again, he was stunned to see you in a hamlet somewhere between Culoville and Vierville the next day. It was no more than a tiny cluster of buildings on both sides of the road, too small to earn a name on the map. The road was clogged with refugees, fleeing the conflict, slowing the progress of the armored division they were meant to be traveling with.
Dick had diverted Easy across a nearby field behind the hedgerow, bringing them to a halt to plan their final approach, his officers naturally gathering around him.
“Christ there’s civilians everywhere.” Welsh hissed under his breath as they peered through the foliage.
“So, who’s going to knock on the door?” Compton grinned, his bulk barely concealed by the late spring greenery.
Dick paused, squinting through his binoculars as he watched you carefully set your wagon, filled with suitcases and other belongings like any other refugee, beneath the window of a café. Your gaze was fixed on the boulangerie across the lane, seeming of a mind to purchase some food for your travels. His eyes followed as you wended your way through the dwindling stream of people, clad in a spring jacket with a worn brown dress beneath, a pair of dusty boots on your feet. You stood out to no one but him.
“Dick?” Nixon prompted in a hushed whisper.
“Hold. The Resistance is here. Which means we most likely have Germans lurking nearby.”
“Resistance?” Nixon’s eyes widened as he fumbled with his jacket to retrieve his own binoculars. “You mean she’s here?!” He whirled to face the road, his movements made less than graceful by his excitement, and Dick barely contained his amused grin as you had already vanished inside the bakery.
His amusement did not last long, unfortunately, as a red-faced German solider came charging out of the café.
“Bingo.” Nixon breathed quietly.
Dick’s lips pressed into a grimace as the man re-emerged shortly thereafter dragging you by a fistful of your hair, shouting and pointing at your wagon. Any remaining civilians on the road quickly scattered into the other buildings or the fields beyond.
“He’s upset about the wagon.”
“You don’t say, Nixon” Compton replied sarcastically, a furrow forming between his brows.
Your voice carried to them, the pleading tone laced with fear making Dick tighten his grip on his binoculars. He could tell you were speaking a mixture of French and German, but not much more than that. “Lew?”
“Please in German…Please in French. I was just getting food. I’m sorry in German. I’m trying to get away from the Americans in French. The death in German. Please.”
Dick could hear the men shifting restlessly around him and lifted his head. “Tell them to hold, not yet. That café has got to be full of Germans. Plan on snipers in the fourth and fifth buildings as well.” He described the assault plan for each of the squads as your pleas continued to ring out parried by barked commands from the increasingly perturbed soldier. “But wait for my signal.” He nodded firmly to dismiss them, and they hurried off to their respective platoons.
Dick wanted to trust that you had the situation in hand, but this surely could not be unfolding according to your plan. He raised his binoculars once more to see you desperately plant your hands on the soldier’s chest, several men drawing a collective breath. Dick narrowed his eyes as your gaze shifted to the left, toward the face of your watch glinting in the afternoon sunlight. He tensed noting your proximity to that wagon, convinced now more than ever that it was filled with explosives.
The sharp ‘smack’ of the German’s glove impacting your cheek had your head snapping to the side in a way that had Dick seeing red.
“I’m going to kill him myself.” Nixon hissed under his breath, but Dick didn’t have time to respond as, surging forward, you slammed your forehead into the soldier’s nose, a bloom of red flooding down his face and yours.
He held his breath as you seemed to stumble back, a bit dazed as a commotion sounded from within the café, but he was able to exhale as you regained your feet and used your ankle to sweep the man’s jackboots right out from beneath him. Dick glanced to the wagon once more with apprehension as you yourself dove to the ground before grabbing the back of the dazed soldier’s coat and hauled his body over yours. He had barely shifted his gaze to the collection of five Germans in the doorway when the wagon exploded violently.
“Right on time…” He muttered to himself, tucking his binoculars away and preparing to advance.
Nixon turned to stare at him, speechless.
“Don’t.” He replied warningly, still unsure if you had survived the blast, giving the debris a moment to settle before he gave the signal, heading straight up the road to you.
Much to everyone’s annoyance, the telltale sound of Shermans approached from further up the road – just in time to get all the glory without really having to do any of the work. As planned, the men peeled off to clear each of the buildings as Dick rolled the dead German off your body. He watched with bated breath as Roe appeared at his side to check your pulse, nodding up to him.
“She’s alive, sir.”
The road was filled with broken glass from the explosion, and fearing for the bare skin of your legs, Dick had Roe help carry you into the bakery as Malarkey reported it clear, the medic sliding his arms beneath your shoulders. Dick did his best to ignore how soft the backs of your knees felt against his fingertips as he managed your legs. They laid you down on the floor in the back room amongst abandoned baking supplies and he swallowed as your eyes fluttered open.
“Charlotte, you’re alright, Doc’s just going to look you over, ok?”
You furrowed your brows and glanced down at Roe as he undid your coat, looking you over for injuries aside from the obvious scrapes as Dick quickly pressed a bandage to the split in your forehead from where you had broken the German’s nose.
“You’re in good hands, I need to go back out there alright?”
You sighed heavily and he looked to your eyes quickly.
“I’m sure you’re speaking in that fucking wonderful American accent of yours, Lieutenant but I cannot hear a fucking thing. I’m sorry.” You spoke, seemingly unaware that your voice was obnoxiously loud.
Dick grimaced at your language as Roe barely contained his scoff of laughter before Dick nodded to you to show that he understood. Eyes pinning yours, he pointed at you firmly before forcefully pointing at the floor.
“Stay here. Understood.” You replied with a nod, a loud groan quickly overtaking your voice.
Dick hesitated a moment, but Roe was already looking over your face and into your eyes. There was really nothing for him to do here and his men needed him outside. Securing his helmet on his head, he dashed back out into the afternoon sunshine. Aside from one sniper’s nest three buildings down the road, which was easily managed with the help of the armored division, the hamlet was secured with only one minor incident involving Muck and some broken glass.
At Nixon’s urging, which Dick allowed to play out much longer than was needed to convince him, he ordered two stretcher bearers to accompany him back to the bakery to fetch you. He was encouraged to find you sitting with your back propped up against the wall, looking more alert with your knife grasped with one hand, though you had not seemed to have had the wherewithal to unsheathe it. He crouched down in front of you carefully, sliding his helmet from his head.
“I’m just going to take that from you, there Charlotte.” He wasn’t sure why he was speaking, fully aware that you could not hear him, but your grip loosened on the weapon as he reached for it.
“Alright.” You murmured softly in response and his eyes snapped to yours.
“You can hear again?” He asked as he tucked the knife into the pocket of his ODs.
You began to nod before halting the movement abruptly. “Mostly…”
“Good. That’s good.” He smiled briefly. “Do you have any other weapons on you?”
“No.” You replied after a thoughtful pause and patting of your coat pockets.
He nodded before standing, addressing the men lingering in the doorway. “Take her to the aid station, Lieutenant Nixon and I will be there as soon as we can.”
They responded with a chorus of ‘yes sirs!’ before he stepped back out to deliver orders for the company to take a rest while they awaited their next set of instructions. It was not long before they were told to proceed to Vierville where Colonel Sink had set up the battalion command post. It was also, conveniently, where the aid station was located. Once the men were situated for the night, Dick and Nixon quickly made their way to hotel that had been taken over as a medical facility.
They had barely walked in the door, the copper tang of blood just meeting their noses, before the battalion surgeon was calling out to him.
“Winters! Why in the hell did you send me a civilian?!”
“Strategic intelligence asset, sir.” Nixon replied smoothly, stepping in front of Dick to take the heat. “Where might we find her?”
“In one of the back offices. She cannot stay here. She needs to go a hospital whenever you’re done…whatever you’re doing.” He narrowed his eyes skeptically, hands on his hips as made his way over to them between the rows of cots set up in the lobby.
“She going to be alright, sir?” Dick asked, tone carefully neutral.
“Concussion, lacerations, bruising, three stitches to the forehead, hearing gradually returning. Overall malnourishment like all the French civilians. She’ll be fine after a week or two.” He muttered. “In a civilian hospital.”
“Yes sir.” Nixon replied quickly with a grin, grabbing Dick’s arm and pulling him towards the aforementioned office.
For all his bluster, the pair were amused to find the surgeon had set you up in a rather nice space, a blanket draped over your legs and a mug of hot coffee in your hands. Though judging by the grimace you made after taking a sip, it wasn’t to your taste. Your hair pins must have fallen out during the struggle and subsequent transport as the style you’d been wearing that afternoon was lost, and a few swathes of gauze now encircled your head to hold a bandage in place over your stitches.
He knocked on the door frame quietly and you looked up, smiling at little, your eyes shifting to look at Nixon.
“Charlotte, this is Lieutenant Nixon.” Dick introduced his friend who quickly stepped forward to offer his hand.
“Lewis, please.” You took it carefully, shaking it in return.
“Charlotte Roussel.” You replied.
“Would it be alright if we asked you some questions?” Dick tilted his head, and you raised an eyebrow.
“Of course.” You almost nodded again but caught yourself more quickly this time.
Dick stepped into the room, closing the door behind him and perching on the edge of the desk as Nixon took the only chair. He tried not to grin as you sipped the coffee and grimaced once more, obviously failing to conceal his reaction as you apologized.
“It’s very bitter, but very appreciated.”
“I won’t tell the surgeon.” He nodded with a conspiratorial look.
“So, Dick tells me you’re with the Resistance?” Nixon spoke after a moment of watching your exchange.
Your eyes slid over to Dick, and he tensed, briefly concerned you might be upset with him, before you looked back to Nixon. “Yes, that’s right.”
“Any information you might be able to share with us would be of great assistance.” Nixon nodded encouragingly.
“Well, all of my documents were quite recently destroyed but I’d be happy to share what I remember with you. Do you have a map?” Your question echoed one of the first you’d asked him and pulled a small smile from Dick’s lips.
He watched quietly as Nixon produced as clean map of the area and you easily provided all the information you had on which German troops were stationed where, between wincing sips of the hot drink cupped between your hands. The intelligence officer thrust out his palm about halfway through and Dick patted down his ODs until he produced a pencil for his friend, passing it to him so he might jot down the volume of information you were able to impart.
“And what about yourself, Miss Roussel?” Nixon looked up to you once he’d acquired all your knowledge of military use.
“Me?” You blinked innocently.
“Tell us about yourself.” Nixon nodded encouragingly, leaning back in his chair.
Dick noted the way your fingers tightened slightly on the mug, and he realized it bore the logo of the requisitioned hotel, but otherwise your demeanor remained calm and collected. “I was born just outside Paris in 1920. My aunt and uncle have a farm near St. Mere Eglise. They have no children of their own and when my Uncle Phillipe was killed during the invasion my Aunt Sophie asked if I could come help her. There is more to eat out here than Paris anyway, where you can grow it.”
“Why do you speak such good English?” Dick asked, unable to help himself.
Your eyes turned to meet his curiously. “I was a university student before the war, I had an excellent teacher from America. Ms. Jones. She was able to go home before the Nazis arrived.”
There was a touch of envy there, and though Dick was convinced you were selling them a very good story, the desire for ‘home’ struck him as true. He watched as you leaned back against the wall wearily, your eyelids growing heavier.
“You’ve never been to England?” Nixon prodded.
“No, Lieutenant Nixon. I’ve never left France.”
“Your experience with explosives? Who taught you that?”
“Antoine. He fought in the last war, he was a sapper. He was there after you took out the Germans who had captured our comrades.” You looked to Dick who nodded in reply, recalling the elderly man who easily could have fit that description.
He heard his friend sigh a little in frustration as you seemed to have a perfectly reasonable answer for everything – answers that were not what he was wanting to hear. A sharp knock on the door drew the attention of the group and Dick raised his head.
“Enter.”
A runner from Colonel Sink popped his head in the door and Dick sighed internally knowing they had run out of time. “Lieutenants, Colonel Sink has requested the pair of you at battalion CP immediately.”
“Right, thank you Sergeant. We’re on our way.” He looked to Nixon who sighed audibly in defeat before the pair looked to you.
You were barely keeping your eyes open, the mug in your hand tilting precariously. Dick carefully took it from your hold and set it on the desk.
“Thank you very much for your assistance, Miss Roussel. Do take care.” He stood, wishing there was something better to say, but there was too much to do. The landing had barely taken place and was by no means a sure success yet. The best thing he could do for you was to get out there and liberate France entirely.
“I’ll see to it that you’re transferred to a hospital as soon as we can.” Nixon added.
“You’re welcome, Lieutenants. And thank you.” You replied, Dick swallowing as he could feel your gaze following him out of the room.
-------------------------
Read Part Two
Your Arms Pull Me In Like The Tide Pulls Me Under Masterlist
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More 2B x Hank x Reader
I am hungry
Polyamory am i right lol
2B x Reader x Hank
CW: Gore, Hank gets fucked up (when don't they tho), mentions of medical bugs
Doc worried when he needed to send you and Hank out, terrified that the implants in your spine would read [TERMINATED] and he'd have to hurry to anchor your souls and forcefully pull you back to the world of the living.
Hank was a loose canon at the best of times, but adding their much smaller, adorable lover into the fray made them go into reckless overdrive. He would do anything, absolutely anything to shield your body from harm. They were used to it, pain was something they'd come to expect and deal with, but any harm to you would cut deeper than any physical wound would ever.
And that lead to your current situation, you posted up on a chair next to Hank's bed as they deliriously slurred their words, high as a kite on whatever Doc had pumped into his system to quell the pain while he was reattaching a severed arm with small, precise sutures.
You hadn't seen it coming, an attack from behind, yet Hank did. In a split second, he thrust his body in the way, assailant's sword cleaving through his arm instead of your spine. Your back still sustained damage, but nothing nearly as terrible as it could've been.
Hank's giant hand squeezed your tiny one, breaking your reflection on the mission, and despite the delirium, they offered a smile. "Tiny.... Hands."
"Screw the mission!" Sanford barked as he lunged into the driver's seat, you and Deimos helping support Hank's weight as you two climbed into the truck bed. "What little we got will have to do, I ain't riskin' an ass whoopin' from Doc 'cause we let you two get fucked up."
Medical stuff was more of San's field, but so was driving, and a quick get-away was needed right now, with two MAGs thundering out of the base towards the vehicle. Deimos took off one of Hank's many, many decorative belts, and used it as a makeshift tourniquet to try and stop them bleeding out all over the truck because he would have to clean it otherwise.
"I can take them-" Hank tried to sit up and throw his missing arm, but you pushed them back down and chastised them.
"Don't be so stupid Hank, the last thing I need is you getting more hurt." And that settled them down.
Sanford had seen to your back once the four of you arrived home, Doc preoccupied with Hank's more severe injury. "Don't think you'll even need stitches Lucky, just a bloody cut that'll need disinfecting and a bandage."
"Can you move your fingers?" Doc spoke up, and Hank raised their reattached arm, slowly wiggling the digits. "Good, keep it clean or you could get an infection, and I really don't want to have to bring out the medical maggots again."
Doc sighed and rested an arm around your shoulders after taking off his bloodied gloves, mindful of your aching back. "You two will be the death of me, I swear." He took off his mask and sighed again, he looked stressed and tired.
"Sorry sweetheart." You kissed his scarred cheek, and he offered a relaxed smile. "I know it's scary sending us out, but I promise Hank and I will keep each other safe, and be more vigilant."
Doc returned the kiss, taking your chin into his hand and meeting your softer lips with his rougher ones. Hank grunted when your kiss lingered too long. "What about MY kiss?" They grumbled while casting their gaze between you two, now sitting upright.
"Alright Hanky, don't get so butthurt." You giggled, both you and Doc going in to showering him with love too.
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shinynewboots · 1 month
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Staring at the Sun / Adam x Lute Chapter 3
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Summary: After the battle, Lute attempts to flee with Adam. They find themselves unable to return to Heaven and must adjust to life in Hell.
AN: Welcome to chapter 3! Def one of my favorite chapters so far. I loved writing the dialogue for this! I hope you all enjoy!
Warnings: Violence, gore, 18+ eventually, Adam-typical misogyny eventually
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
Hell Princess allowed Lute to stay with Adam for the following days (though Lute did not give her much of a choice). She sat vigil by his bed in a chair that the Princess had given her so that she would no longer have to sit on the floor. The Princess had even had a cot moved into the corner of the room so Lute could get some sleep.
Sleep very rarely came for Lute, though. 
Exhaustion did not exist in heaven. Winners slept mostly due to the routine and comfort sleeping gave them from their previous lives. Heavenborn slept less frequently as it was not necessarily needed, but it did offer a boost in power. Lute would always sleep for days post-extermination.
But now? This overwhelming exhaustion was unlike anything she had experienced in her long life. She sat in the chair at Adam’s side and could feel her head droop and her eyes grow heavy. She fought against the grip of exhaustion only because if he woke up she wanted to be there at his side, giving all the support she could. 
The Princess would hand-deliver meals to Lute, with Vaggie always 2 steps behind. Lute normally did not eat the meals, but Charlie tried all the same. 
The day Charlie brought bandages to change out Adam’s dressing was a bad one. Lute had snatched the bandages from her hand.
“What the fuck,” Vaggie exclaimed, raising her spear. Lute sneered at the fallen angel and turned towards Adam. She could do this. She could change his bandages. She could keep him safe. 
“Lute,” Charlie said softly. “We can help.”
Lute didn’t turn but instead pulled down the blanket covering Adam and began to remove the soiled bandages. It was difficult to do with one arm and she wasn’t able to pull the bandages out from under his body. Her wounded arm strained up the pressure it was put under. Tears welled in her eyes but she would not dare turn to face them. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood and the taste of iron filled her mouth.
A hand gently touched her good shoulder. Lute flinched.
“Let me help,” Charlie pleaded softly. Lute did not meet her eyes but instead shoved the bandages back in Charlie’s hand and backed away from the bed, her gaze never leaving Adam. She could feel her wings furl around her body in an attempt at comfort. 
She felt useless, more so than she ever had in her long life. 
She heard Vaggie sigh behind her. “You need your bandages changed too.”
Lute turned to glare at Vaggie. “I’ll do it myself.”
She glanced down at her bandaged arm and took in the cloth soiled with dried blood. The arm ached and throbbed, but she would never tell Vaggie that. 
Vaggied scoffed and rolled her eye. “Fine, get an infection. See if I care.”
The pair turned their attention to Charlie who had begun to hum very loudly as she changed the bandages. Lute could have sworn she heard Charlie sing the words It starts with sorry…
Vaggie pinched the bridge of her nose and took in a deep breath. “Don’t be an idiot and just let me change your bandages and then I promise we will stay out of each other’s general vicinities for the next few days.”
“Fine,” Lute replied, unfurling her wings from around her body. She sat in the chair at the bedside as Vaggie cleaned the bandages. Lute bit her lip at every touch to keep from crying out in pain. When Vaggie took off the bandages, Lute was able to assess the true damage to her arm. It was not a clean amputation (which, why would it be when she pulled it out from under the rubble). It had crude stitches placed on it haphazardly. The stitch sites themselves were surprisingly clean with no sign of purulent drainage. 
Vaggie cleaned the wound with a look of intense concentration on her features. Lute was immediately taken back into a ghost of a memory of Vaggie decades prior with that same look on her face. She couldn’t remember the setting or the event but that look sent an awkwardly uncomfortable feeling down Lute’s spine. She couldn’t help but stare at the “x” where Vaggie’s eye used to be.
She looked away from Vaggie and turned her attention back towards Adam. In the past few days, his skin had regained some of its color but his face still had a deathlike pallor. His mouth was set in a slight grimace and his eyebrows scrunched. 
“Done!” Charlie exclaimed, gathering her materials. “Would you like to come down to dinner and meet everyone?”
Lute sent Charlie a cold look. “I can assure you Princess, no one wants to meet me.”
Charlie wrung her hands awkwardly. “Well I mean, um, it's not like anyone is opposed to meeting you uh, I mean um, you should come join us. Everyone is really excited to meet you!”
“I doubt that,” Lute deadpanned. She turned her attention back towards Adam.  Lute heard Charlie take in a deep breath to further try and convince her to join. She heard Vaggie softly mouth “Let’s go”. Lute breathed a sigh of relief when the couple left the room. 
She moved from the chair to the edge of the bed. She ran her hand through his hair softly. His facial features relaxed as she did so. “I’ll get us out of here. I promise.”
Lute had at some point during the night returned to her post (i.e. sitting in her chair) and dozed off. She had switched out her previous weapon of choice (the lamp) for a fork that she held clutched in her right hand as she slept. 
“Fuck,” She heard the pained whispers of her beloved leader. Her eyes shot open to see Adam thrashing on the bed. His work of breathing had increased and quick pants were escaping his mouth. His eyes were still closed, though this time scrunched together in pain. She jumped up from the chair and stood at his side. 
“Fu-ck,” He breathed out again.
“Sir.” Lute whispered in an attempt not to scare him. He began thrashing around even harder. Realizing he would open his stitches, she placed a hand on his shoulder. She could feel all of her core muscles engage as she balanced over him to not fall on his wounded torso. 
“Adam,” She said again, this time louder and more forceful. His golden eyes opened and Lute was immediately reminded of a wounded animal looking for a place to hide. He did not focus on her at first, his eyes instead darting around the room. 
“Adam,” She said again softly. He turned and looked up at her; his breath beginning to settle into a normal rhythm. His thrashing ceased, though she did not change the pressure she held on his shoulder. 
“Lute,” He breathed out. “Fuck. What—what?”
“You were stabbed and fell unconscious. I sent the rest of the exorcists back to heaven and tried to take you back there with me. The portal closed before I could make it and we fell. Hell Princess had Lucifer save us. I’m so sorry I couldn’t save us.” Lute said slowly, a gnawing feeling of anxiety and despair finding a home in her stomach.
“Fucking, shit, you tried to take me back?” He whispered (as quietly as Adam could whisper) and attempted to sit up. He groaned and grabbed for his wounded torso. His face contorted into pain. She pushed down on his shoulder harder.
“Don’t try to move. You’ll open the stitches.”
“Why would you try to save me?” He breathed out. Lute felt an odd flutter in her chest at the way he looked up at her. Her eyes softened. 
“I couldn’t leave you.” She answered, as though it were the simplest thing in the world. And to her, it was. 
“You crazy bitch,” He whispered, his tone holding more affection and awe than the words themselves. She smirked, never having been more happy to hear Adam’s crass language. He reached his hand towards her bad arm. She flinched away and released his shoulder from her grip.
“What happened to your fucking arm?” He asked, eyes wide. Was that concern she saw? Anger?
“I-uh, was trapped under some rubble. It was the only I could escape.” She admitted, her cheeks growing red at the revelation. She knew she was weak. A disgrace. Admitting so to him made it all the worse. 
“Lute, that’s so fucking badass!” He exclaimed, jerking his body closer to hers. Of course, this led him straight into a coughing fit due to the sudden movement. “Fuck that hurts.”
“I said don’t move, dumbass.” She said before she could help herself. “Sir,” She added for good measure. 
Adam grinned up at her, his boyish features finally revealing themselves out from under the pain.
 “You fucking saved me,” He said, more to himself than her, and shook his head. “Where the fuck are we anyway?”
“The Hell Spawn’s Hotel.”
Adam frowned. “You mean that lame-ass hotel?”
Lute pinched the bridge of her nose with her hand and sighed. “I didn’t have a say in where we ended up.”
“I know,” Adam said, his tone more understanding than she had ever heard. “We’ll just have to get out of here and head to the embassy.”
He moved as though trying to sit up but Lute stopped him with a firm hand on his chest. “You’re not well enough to go anywhere. I don’t like the idea of staying with these freaks either, but there’s no way we would make it to the embassy in our current states. I’m useless without my arm and you can’t even sit up without popping a stitch.”
“Hey, don’t ever fucking say you’re useless ever again.” He replied, his eyes darkening. Acknowledging defeat, he laid back down on the bed and sighed. 
That weird flutter in Lute’s chest grew and all she could do was nod at his words. She pulled her hand from his chest and sat back down in the chair. 
“I thought I heard talking!” A voice at the door exclaimed. Speak of the Hell Spawn and she will appear (with her pathetic girlfriend in tow). “I'm so glad you’re finally awake! And like not dead! You did kill one of my friends though. Sir Pentious, was on track to be one of our first redeemed souls. But oh my satan you’re not dead!”
Adam eyed the hell-spawn warily, his eyebrows scrunched. Lute had jumped from her chair and grabbed her fork weapon, standing at his bedside. 
“You have to get the rambling from your fucking dad because Lilith didn’t run her mouth like that.”
Charlie sent him a strained smile. “What a weird thing to say to someone unprompted.”
“Especially someone who saved your life,” Vaggie added, her tone biting. Lute and Vaggie glared at each other.
“No no, someone who tried to kill me, almost succeeded, and then decided to save my life. Let’s get that shit straight.”
“I really don’t think you want to have the conversation about who tried to kill who right now,” Vaggie sneered. Adam smirked but conceded. 
“Positive thoughts, positive energy!” Charlie exclaimed, clapping her hands to try and regain control of the situation. “How are you feeling?”
“Like someone stabbed me in the fucking back.”
“Well, I,—I guess that's an appropriate feeling,” Charlie replied, her cheery facade slipping with every second she stayed in the room. 
“Did you two want something,” Lute asked, her voice low as she stared at Vaggie’s spear. 
“Uh, just checking since we heard voices. Um, dinner? How about I bring dinner. I can bring dinner, I can bring you both a great dinner. Um, and, uh cards! I can bring you two some cards to play with since you’re still recovering.” Charlie tripped over her words, her face turning red as she turned towards Vaggie. “Why don’t we just go and get that?”
Vaggie nodded at her girlfriend, though her gaze never left the two angels. The pair left the room, even going so far as to close the door due to Charlie’s embarrassment. Lute could hear them whisper out the door: 
“They’re so unfriendly and I feel like I keep saying the wrong thing. Were you this unfriendly as an angel?”
“Charlie, I’m unfriendly now.”
“Fair point.”
The voices outside the door got too far away for Lute to hear. She turned to Adam and lowered the fork in her hand. “Nice weapon, Danger tits.”
“I’m always resourceful.”
“Hell Spawn is literally the most awkward person I’ve ever met. That conversation alone almost makes me wish they had killed me.”
Lute frowned. 
“Lighten up, bitch. I said ‘almost’.”
Lute sent him a wry smile. “You should get some rest.”
“You’re not my mom,” He said though before he could keep a yawn from escaping. Lute raised an eyebrow. “Okay yeah, fine maybe I should. But not because you said so.”
“Of course.”
He settled back into the bed and yawned again. He sent her an odd look, some unknown glint in his golden eyes. “Lute, I really appreciate you. No one has ever done anything like that for me before.” 
She smiled softly. “Of course. Adam.”
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