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#gotta finish the one for today now....(it has nightmare changing)
multifandomfanficss · 10 months
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You Really Gotta Get Better At Lying
Adrian Chase/Vigilante x Reader
Featuring platonic!Peacemaker, Goff, and the rest of the 11th Street Kids
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Adrian Chase Masterlist
Prompt: You’re a civilian with a superhero boyfriend. It was working out pretty well for you both until one day when you’re hanging out in his best friend’s trailer and you get stuck in the crossfire. This is based on episode 6.
Warnings: Mentions of guns, Cannon compliment jokes, language, and violence, joking references to m-preg and daddy kinks (this is Adrian and Chris we’re talking about and it’s based on the butterfly interrogation scene lol), Angst with a happy ending
A/N: Hey Guys! Cannot believe this is my first full fic I’ve been able to finish since last August…11 months! This year has been pretty nuts for me, but I miss my man :)))) ❤️🧜‍♂️❤️ (Also the part in italics is a flashback if that’s not clear.)
“Come in Adrian!” You heard a voice coming from the trailer as your boyfriend knocked.
“How did you know it was me?” Adrian asked.
“You knock in a very annoying way. Hi, (Y/N).” Chris said as you walked into his place.
“I’m sorry.” You placed a hand on Adrian’s shoulder.
“Well I think it it’s cute.” You smiled at him. He smiled down at you, breaking into an infectious smile. Your own smile only grew. “Hi, Chris.” You said turning to look at Peacemaker. Today was your day off and Adrian wanted to get wasted at the trailer. Despite not always getting along, you were pretty good friends with Chris so you loved going to his place with Adrian to hang out. When you got there he was in his super suit. This was no surprise to you. Adrian had brought his as well. Usually a day at Chris’ meant at least an hour would be spent doing target practice or what you liked to call watching your two favorite idiots fuck around.
You had learned about Vigilante not too long into dating Adrian. It wasn’t hard to figure out. You loved him, but he was an awful liar. One slip up lead to another and suddenly it was 3am and Vigilante was knocking on your door. You’d had a nightmare and called Adrian because you knew he was a night owl. You woke up hyperventilating and sweating, too scared to go back to sleep. You just wanted to hear his voice, but you weren’t gonna complain when he said he couldn’t sleep either and was on a late night walk by your apartment. You didn’t question how weird that sounded, you just wanted to be with him so you said he could come over. What you didn’t know was that he was actually on patrol on your side of town. He meant to change, before reaching your door, but somehow he was in such a hurry to get to you he just forgot. He didn’t realize when you screamed upon opening the door, already shaken up from your nightmare and now confused as to why the news’ least favorite costumed crime fighter was at your apartment. He screamed back at you.
“What are you screaming about?!” Vigilante asked.
“What am I screaming about?! What are you screaming about?!”
“Okay! Stop screaming! I am really confused right now!”
The more you thought about it the more you realized you knew that voice.
“…Adrian…”
“Of course it’s me! I know it’s late and it’s dark, but is it that hard to recognize me? I think you might need to check your eyes again, Bug-a-boo.”
One of those silly nicknames you loved. It was Adrian.
“…mask…”
You saw his eyes go wide behind the tinted red visor. His gloved hands went up to touch his face. He’d forgotten.
“Oh shit…” He said under his breath. “I- I don’t know who Adrian is…who’s that? I’m sorry I scared you, innocent civilian. I was just out doing my patrol duties and I-“
“Adrian…” You started to tear up.
“I told you I’m not Adrian. I’m Vigilante. Common mistake. Both names sound like super similar actually-“
“Adrian…” You cut him off again, bursting into tears, hugging him. He sighs.
“You’re okay, (Y/N). I’m here. Everything’s okay.”
You stared at a jar on Chris’ table. It had some sort of bug in it. It was a species you’d never seen before.
“What’s that?” You asked.
“You kept Goff?” Adrian questioned.
“Is that like the name of the bug or did you guys name it?” You keep staring, confused. It almost seems to stare back at you.
“That’s his name. We found him in a shitty politician.” Adrian answered. In him…? You didn’t want to know so you decided not to press as the boys continued to argue about keeping Goff as a dangerous pet.
“Why is he dangerous? Is he invasive?” You questioned.
“You could say that!” Adrian joked.
“Where is it from?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think they came from our solar system. I feel like NASA would have figured that out by now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were fucking lying to us.” Chris said on the verge of telling another conspiracy theory.
“What…?” You finally broke your gaze from Goff.
“Don’t even fucking get me started on the moon landing and-“
“No, I mean this- this is an alien?” You cut off Chris. You turn to Adrian. “You’re fighting aliens?!”
“Yeah! How cool is that?!” His face lit up.
“So fucking cool!” You started nerding out with your boyfriend until your attention was drawn to Goff who was drawing a peace sign on the jar in some sort of weird goo. The three of you, after taking about a minute to freak out, sat on the couch to investigate. You sat in between Chris and Adrian. You were hoping this would keep them from arguing, but it did nothing of the sort. Before you knew it your head was resting on the back of the couch as the two guys argued above you. “Will you guys just kiss and make up already?! Jesus! Get a room! Chris you gotta have more patients and at least try to see his point of view. Adrian, baby, we have to ask yes or no questions because Goff can’t speak to us verbally and we don’t have an alphabet for him to spell things out with.”
“What if we got like an ouija board and just let him move the little triangle thing around?” Adrian wondered.
“I think that’s a great idea, but we don’t have one right now, so just while we’re limited on time we gotta keep it to yes or no questions, alright? Think of it like that pendulum thing I showed you. It can only swing so many ways like how Goff can only tap so many times.” Adrian finally seemed to understand. One of your favorite things to do together was info dump about your interests. Not too long ago you’d had a really big hyperfixation on ghosts, which is probably where he’d gotten the idea for the ouija board in the first place. It wasn’t that he was stupid, he was often just running a marathon in his head to find different solutions to the problems everyone else had already given up on. While he was trying to figure out a solution, everybody thought he was an idiot for even trying. That was one of the many reasons you and Adrian worked so well together. You both understood how the other person’s brain worked.
“Okay. Goff, are you here to put babies in us like in alien?”
Two taps: No.
Adrian sighs.
“Dude, you’re upset about that?” Chris asks.
“Well how else am I gonna experience motherhood?” Your boyfriend asked sadly. You rested your hand on his knee.
“I’m sorry, baby. But you know what? Maybe one day you can be a really incredible dad to our kids.” You blushed.
“You think I’d be an incredible dad?” He asked in awe.
“I think you’d be the most incredible dad.” You kiss him as Chris gags.
“Now it’s my turn to say get a room and not one in my trailer. I don’t want you guys fucking roleplaying your daddy m-preg shit in my bathroom.” Chris rolled his eyes.
“Oh my god that is not what I meant! Please can we just get back to the alien bug sitting on your coffee table?!” You exclaimed.
One tap: Yes.
“See! Even Goff agrees you’re being ridiculous!” You tell him.
“I am not!” Chris started to argue like a toddler.
Two taps: No.
“You’re acting like a toddler.”
One tap: Yes.
“Woah! It’s like Goff’s on (Y/N)’s side.” You smiled at Adrian’s amusement.
One Tap: Yes.
“You are not helping me here.” Chris whispered in a harsh tone to the jar.
One Tap: Yes.
You laughed. “Goff, do you wanna be friends?”
One Tap: Yes.
As you and Adrian continued to argue with Chris, much to Goff’s amusement, Adrian’s phone started to ring.
“Who is this…Vigilante? I- I don’t know that person. That’s um- is that even a name? I’m- sounds Italian and I’m- I’m- I’m American, so I can’t even-“ Chris ripped the phone from his hand and you gave him a sympathetic look.
“Babe, you really gotta get better at lying.”
“I’m great at lying!” You gave him a smile.
“Okay, honey.”
“I am!”
“A month after we started dating you showed up at my door fully suited up, completely forgetting to change after patrol.”
“That’s because I wanted to. It was my way of telling you.” He was obviously lying again
“Okay, honey.” You smiled as Chris shushed you. He was panicked, far more panicked than usual.
“What’s happening?” You questioned, starting to get nervous.
“The entire police force of Evergreen is outside right now. This place is fucking crawling with cops.” Chris whispered, opening his sunroof.
“Are we gonna fucking crawl up there?!” You whisper yelled, trying to keep your voice down. You were a civilian and despite hanging around superheroes you had never been in on the action yourself.
Adrian grabbed your hand. “It’s gonna be okay.” He tried to give you reassurance, despite not quite knowing what they were up against. “I need you to promise me you’ll stick by me, okay?” You stared at the roof in fear. “(Y/N), I need you to promise me.” Adrian looked at you desperately searching for an agreement.
“O-okay” You stuttered, your mind barley able to process what was happening. Chris climbs through helping pull you up as Adrian lifts you through the hole. You were so scared you didn’t even really notice Adrian had Goff tied to him with duct tape. Chris started climbing in a nearby tree. Adrian pushed you towards it. You shook your head at him, giving him a face that said ‘There is no way in hell I’m doing this’.
“I’m not gonna let you fall.” He promised. So much for that. Not long into climbing Adrian himself fell out of the tree. Usually you would find his clumsiness cute, but now was not the time. Chris put his free hand over your mouth to stop you from screaming.
“Oh fuck…I’m okay…” He said, a little out of it, just having at the wind knocked out of him. Of fuck. Goff. This is when you fully process the glass jar taped to Adrian’s back…the broken glass jar. Chris quickly helps you get down. You run to Adrian.
“Are you okay?!”
“I’m okay, I promise.” Adrian reassures you.
“DON’T MOVE!” The police detective yelled, pointing her gun at you. Adrian rested one hand on his hip, close to his knife and the other on your back so he could push you underneath him in a second if bullets started flying. You were terrified. You didn’t even notice Goff flying towards the woman until he started to fly into her mouth. Now you knew what Adrian meant by in the senator. Blood started pouring out of her mouth.
“What the fuck?!” You yelled in shock as Chris and Adrian started pulling you up from the ground. Everything was happening too fast. Suddenly you were running through the woods. Bullets were flying. Knives were being thrown.
“At worst, he’s paralyzed!” Adrian’s voice barley broke through to your clouded mind. You could see a clearing up ahead. Just get to the clearing. You can do it. Just get to the clearing. You saw Chris stop in front of you. He had a gun pointed directly at him. Then another. You and Adrian stop behind Chris. You’re surrounded. Adrian keeps you close. Then one of them falls to the ground. You grab onto Adrian’s back, not wanting to limit the movement of his arms. He reaches behind himself to put a hand on you. You turned to see another policeman had shot the guy who was pointing a gun at you.
“What the fuck?!” You yelled, trying to keep your panic down.
“Do you wanna ask stupid questions or do you wanna live?” He asked you as you hid behind Adrian again.
Chris and Adrian pulled you away from the scene as the man shot the defenseless low level cops on the ground. He mocked their cries as he shot them. Chris and Adrian brought you to a car the man had told you about. A getaway car that was waiting for you just down the road at the edge of the woods. Adrian shoved you into the car. You sat in the back seat with him as he continued to argue with Chris, even throwing his phone out the window at one point. He kept an arm around your shaking body. Eagly was squawking in the passenger seat. It was all too much.
“SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU PLEASE.” You started to cry. “I LOVE YOU BOTH, BUT PLEASE! FUCK!”
Adrian placed a kiss to your forehead gently starting to rub your arm. “I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s not you. Usually I wouldn’t care, but what the fuck is happening?! Is the detective fucking dead?! Like is that what they do?! Just like fucking drill into your skull through your mouth and play Ratatouille?!”
“They can go through your butt too…” Adrian said quietly.
“Oh great! So glad! That must be so much more pleasant!” Adrian went to open his mouth, but you knew what he was gonna say. “Yes, I’m being sarcastic!”
“Okay. Thank you for specifying. Let’s just breathe. Can you do that? Can you breathe with me?” Adrian asks, starting to exaggerate his breathing for you to follow. He knew you were starting to get worked up. You always got upset when you were confused, but this was an entirely new level with an added sense of extreme terror and danger. You try to follow his breathing. “In and out. Good job.”
“Forget about the aliens I wanna know what the fuck was up with that one cop!” Chris questions from the driver’s seat, now done using Adrian’s phone to call headquarters.
“You mean you didn’t fucking know that guy?!” You question.
“No! Why would I just know a crazy fucker at the police station?!” Chris yells.
“I don’t know! Maybe the fact that he gave you a car?! You know some pretty weird fucking people! I’ve never met King Shark!” You scream, letting out a sigh, leaning further into Adrian’s touch as he kisses your forehead again, still trying to calm you.
The rest of your short drive to headquarters was mostly spent in silence. You had never been there, but you knew where it was. You were the only person Adrian told everything to. You walked into headquarters quickly, not wanting to be seen stashing the getaway car.
“What the fuck just happened?!” Chris yelled bursting into headaquarters.
“Who’s the civilian? I don’t think I have to remind you of the privacy of this mission.” A man who seemed to be in charge asked as you tried to make yourself small feeling scared and embarrassed. You think you remember Adrian saying his name was Murn.
“They’re my partner.” Adrian told the team.
“You have a partner?” The man who was absolutely John Economos asked. He was even taller than you imagined.
“I told you I had a partner. You knew about them.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think they were real.” John laughed at his own joke.
“Um…hi. Sorry. Very real partner over here, what the fuck is happening?!” You interrupted. They all exchanged a series of looks you couldn’t read before one of them spoke up.
“Hi my name’s Leota. Why don’t we go talk in the other room for a bit?” You didn’t answer her, you just squeezed Adrian’s hand, not wanting to be separated from him.
“It’s okay. You can go. I’ll just be a few minutes. I promise you can trust her. Eagly does!” Adrian smiled at you.
“I guess he’s pretty good judge of character.” You joked, giving Adrian a smile.
“It’s okay. We’re safe here. Here, take this.” He reached for the back of his chair and grabbed a sweater he’d accidentally left there. He wrapped it around you. He knew how much you loved to wear his clothes. You were happy to be surrounded by his smell. You sighed, calming a little bit. “I won’t be long and I’m not gonna leave the building. I promise.” You nodded, reluctantly following Leota.
“Harcourt you handle this. Peacemaker, Economos in my office now.” You heard as you walked up the stairs. As Leota was answering some of your questions Harcourt and Adrian were downstairs having a very difficult conversation.
“You don’t look so happy. I thought you loved violence. I thought you said it was awesome.” Harcourt started, her voice thick with sarcasm. Adrian missed it yet again.
“Not when they’re involved.”
“Well maybe you shouldn’t have involved them then.”
“I didn’t mean to! I’m not normal. I know and usually I don’t care, but they are the only thing in my life that makes me feel normal- the only part of my life that feels normal. Even…even when I’m just Adrian Chase, the busboy at fennel fields, everybody acts like I’m a fucking freak or some big burden. But not them. They let me be myself. They like me! They’re separate from all of this. I should be allowed to have this one thing.”
Harcourt’s face softened. “You should be and I’m sorry…but that’s not how this life works. I know you want to keep them safe. It’s only gonna get more dangerous from here. You know what you have to do, right?”
“I’m not doing it.”
“Look…” Harcourt paused taking a deep breath. “Adrian…I’m sorry. Doing what we do- it isn’t easy.” She used his real name. He thinks this might even been the first time she’s really called him anything other than Vigilante, psycho, or dumb shit.
While they were talking downstairs you were upstairs asking all sorts of questions to Leota about the butterflies. She was answering as much as she could until Adrian knocked on the door. “Can I have a minute alone with (Y/N)?” He asked.
“Of course. Let me know if either of you need anything.” She smiled at you on the way out.
“She’s nice. I’m sorry I freaked out earlier. I think I finally have a handle on everything now.” You smiled at him, but he wasn’t looking at you. His eyes were glued to the ground. “Ade, what’s wrong?” You asked.
���I’m breaking up with you…”
“Yeah haha very funny. Now, what actually happened downstairs?” He stayed silent. “You’re serious? Adrian, you’re not breaking up with me.”
“Yeah I am actually.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to date you anymore.”
“That’s not true. You’re an awful fucking liar, so look at me and tell me why you’re breaking up with me.”
“I already told you why.” He was starting to get choked up.
“Adrian, I love you.”
“I love you too-“
“Then don’t break up with me!” You cut him off.
“I have to!”
“Why?!”
“I need to keep you safe!” He raised his voice at you. He’d never raised his voice at you like that before. You started crying.
“Why don’t I get a choice?! What about what I want?! Shouldn’t it be my choice?! Adrian, I don’t give a fuck if it’s dangerous! Before I met you my life was awful! I was a freak! You are the only person who makes me feel like I can be my fucking self! You are the only person I don’t feel like a fucking inconvince around! The only one who understands me! Why can’t we just have this one fucking thing?!” You yelled.
He laughs through the few tears that had just started falling down his cheeks. “That’s what I said.” He sighs, sitting on the couch, wrapping you in his arms. “I’m sorry.“
“Please don’t leave me. You’re my entire world.”
“I may be your world, but you’re my sun, I live for you- because of you. There would be nothing without you. Nothing.” He kisses you on the forehead.
“So, don’t break up with me.” You were pleading quietly through your tears at this point.
“I’m sorry. I don’t wanna say I was eavesdropping, but I was totally eavesdropping. If you’re worried about them being safe I think I can help.” Leota entered the doorway again.
“How?” Adrian asked.
“Well, I have my wife set up in a safe house right now while things are a little extra sticky. Sometimes things get lonely. I bet she’d love a new roommate.”
“Adebayo, are you serious right now?”
“Very serious, Adrian.” She smiled.
“Oh my god I could kiss you.”
She laughs at his comment. “Don’t kiss me. I’m married. Go kiss your partner who you’re not breaking up with and don’t tell Harcourt about this.”
“I won’t.” He smiles.
“Okay, now I think you should really take her advice and kiss me.” You smile up at him, kissing him.
“Okay, lovebirds. I’m gonna go distract buzzkill 1 and buzzkill 2 downstairs. I’ll let you know if you’re needed.” She smiles, leaving you to alone.
“I can’t believe you almost broke up with me.”
“Yeah that would have been stupid.”
“Really stupid.” You added, both laughing. “I love you more than anything.”
“I love you too more than anything.” He said. You both smiled, kissing. You snuggled deeper into him and started a discussion about the logistics of how you would navigate this new adventure.
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purpleillusn · 1 year
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Echoes of the Stars - Danny Phantom x Warframe crossover
Also posted to AO3 here.  
Summary: Looking to the void and seeing what has been lost, hand in hand with those who remember.
Word count: 1183
Phantom zipped through the battlefield, propelled forward by his itzal archwing, narrowly dodging a chunk of rock as he swooped in on the final enemy fighter in the sector: an unfortunate flak craft. Its pilot barely had time to see him coming before his kaszas scythe tore through their frail ship, leaving them to bleed into the void of space. Cephalon Cy chimed in on his comms, confirming that that had been the last of them. Phantom gazed out into his surroundings, the open space and let out a deep breath, or as close as one could get to such a human action when the Warframe vessel it's performed through is so horribly mutated that it only bares passing similarity to its previous form. It didn't matter how many times he saw it, the expanse of space still sparked at the fire in his heart, drawing him in with its siren song of beautiful emptiness of glittering galaxies. It felt like a lifetime ago that he'd dreamt of space as a goal to reach, rather than a reality of his daily life, and in many ways it was - an entirely different era to that that he remembered prior to the dream, and yet, seeming so close in his past, haunting his nightmares. Activating his omni, he warped back to the railjack in a blinding flash of light, which faded to reveal the sleek lines of its interior. With one last wistful look out the large, curved window of the cabin, Phantom punched in the directions for the ship to return to the dry dock, the void soon engulfing the railjack and whizzing past in a blur. "That's all for today. Rest up everyone!" Danny called out to his crew, made up of two members of the Steel Meridian faction, and another allied with Cephalon Suda. Taking the helm, Danny hit the void warp with a practised ease, non-colours whipping past in a storm that faded to reveal the dry dock.
No sooner had his warframe touched down on the hard ground of the dock, Ordis popped up in the side of his HUD. “Operator, your sister wanted me to remind you to meet her at the Strata relay. Let’s get it over with- I have the landing craft ready to go whenever you wish to leave.” “Thanks, Ordis,” nodded Danny. “Just gotta catch my breath a moment.” Tapping on the panel by the railjack, Danny parsed through the menus to his spoils from the excursion, cataloguing a few sections of armor plating and firearms to give to Steel Meridian for use on their own crafts, before calling into Ordis to pick him up on the comms.
The relay was pleasantly calm in the dim light of earth’s shadow, few tenno and syndicate members loitering around the place as Danny took a left at the towering Ember statue rimmed with an orange glow (making it look frighteningly close to the real warframe) and into the Steel Meridian HQ. Syndicate members stood around, chatting and working with little concern for the warframe passing through, his grey cloth trailing behind him as an ephemeral tail. He entered deeper into the Steel Meridian HQ, neon green lights of the Phantom warframe clashing with the orange lighting surrounding him. “Hey, Jazz,” Danny called out. Jazz glanced up from her workstation, red hair tied up in a loose ponytail and soldering iron in her gloved hand, soft smile spreading across her face. “Hi, little bro. Just give me a moment to finish this connection.” Danny transferred out of his warframe in a flash of light, momentarily disoriented by the sudden change in height as he adjusted to his significantly shorter frame than that of his warframe, now standing by his side as a still figure, strings cut. “What’re you working on?” Danny questioned, seating himself opposite Jazz at the small table where she hunched, a slight hissing emitting from the iron. Jazz hummed and placed the iron in its stand, then gestured to the glove on her desk, exposed wiring showing through a gap in its lining. “It’s meant to help with hand movement after nerve damage, using supports and motors to assist with fine motor skills.” Her eyes flicked down to Danny’s hand, placed on the desk, covered by his right, and he shifted awkwardly. “You don’t have to do that for me, it’s not that bad,” Danny said cautiously. Jazz gave him a sympathetic, but sharp, look. “You’re not the only person I’m making it for - a lot of Grineer end up with nerve damage, especially with their deterioration. Although I will admit that you gave me the initial idea.” Danny hummed in thought. “Is there anything I can do to help?” “I could use somatic fibres, but other than that, not really,” replied Jazz. “That’s no problem, I can get those easy.” Danny flexed his fingers, the muscle memory of tearing the fibres from the corpses of demolishers coming to the forefront. “That reminds me, have you heard anything about finding Mom and Dad’s work on Lua?” Jazz somberly shook her head. “Sorry, little brother. I know you miss them, but it might not even be there anymore.” “We don’t know that,” Danny cut her off. Jazz just gave him a pitiful look and shuffled her chair in, sitting up straight. Danny just scoffed. “I don’t need therapist Jazz right now.” Jazz slumped slightly, the glow in her turquoise eyes softening. “I understand.” The two of them sat in an empty silence, aside from the constant background noise of the passing syndicate members going to and fro through the cluttered space. “I think they’d want us to move on, but…knowing how close they were to a breakthrough, it’s tempting.” Jazz’s voice was uncharacteristically quiet for her typically bubbly exterior. “But we know it’s just echoes now. You know that, right, Danny?” “I know.” Danny sighed, rubbing his thumb in circles on his left palm. “But don’t you ever want to see the echoes, at least to know if they’re still here in some form.” A pleading could be heard beneath his words. “If the Holdfasts are here-” “And if they’re angels?” Jazz countered before Danny could even finish speaking. “Then we can at least let them die.” Danny muttered, hands scrunching into fists, his left looser than his right, the gloves narrating the pressure with the sound of their thick fabric crunching. Jazz opened and closed her mouth a few times like a fish out of water, trying to think of what to say. “Yeah…” she trailed off, swallowing thickly. “It’d be closure.” “I just, I thought they were gone for good, you know? But then the Zariman came back and it’s all a void-damned mess.” Tears finally broke free from Danny’s eyes, dripping down his face onto the warm cloak wrapped around his shoulders. Jazz reached over and drew him into a hug, practically lifting him out of his seat. Danny responded in kind, fingers gripping the back of her work vest. “I’m glad you’re here,” he murmured. “Me too, little brother, me too.”
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belethlegwen · 2 years
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On The Shelf
I completely forgot I hadn't posted this yet. I can't remember why I was saving it, but I've had a bit of Chill-Enhancement tonight and my brain has decided: Now is the time.
This event gets referenced (much) later in The Stranding as having happened during the events of The Rescue, but I'm unsure yet if it'll actually make it into the main body. Thought I'd post it here as a little bonus. [Edit - I have had TOO MUCH Chill-Enhancement and forgot that I did post this as part of an ask, but here it is again anyway so I can link it as part of a Masterlist.]
----------------------------- The car had barely had time to turn on before her phone started ringing, the bluetooth connection taking a second to finalize with the stereo as she tried to fumble for the buzzing, singing block in her pocket. She adjusted the volume via the steering wheel's controls as Dyna's voice came to life all around her in the blue sedan.
"Hello?" Melanie asked, unsure if the bluetooth had fully connected or not.
"Hey gorgeous, bad news," Dyna's voice returned loudly as she lowered the volume further. "Mark just called, not sure if it's a burst pipe or someone fucked up one of our toilets at the gym, but women's washroom is a pool and I gotta go deal with that. Need a rain check on the lunch date."
"Oh shit," the short-haired woman groaned. She let herself fall heavily back against the driver's seat, 'so much for a Big Day'. "That's fair, girl, you do what you gotta do. We can reschedule for another time."
"I hope this doesn't wrench your plans for the day or anything! You should still head out and do some things for yourself, I know you were looking forward to it."
"Thanks Dee, I appreciate it, but I think I'm gonna head back in and take a nap," she said defeatedly. "Was feeling a bit off today anyway, I'm alright to postpone. Catching up on sleep would probably be a smart idea anyway."
"That sounds good, girl. Tell the Big Guy I said hi," Dee replied with a laugh.
"He hates when you call him that," Melanie stressed, shaking her head. "But I'll let him know. Good luck and god speed with the shit swamp."
"Thanks babe, and tell him if he didn't hate it so much I wouldn't bother saying it!"
The call disconnected and Melanie reached forward to remove the key, sighing as she rested in the quiet. It wasn't Dyna or the gym bathroom's fault that her plans were askew. She had been hoping to have a day to go be Big and loud and clumsy outside of the house for over a week, but nightmares and indigestion had had her tossing and turning most of the night. She had felt even since this morning that today was likely to be a wash.
She picked up her purse from the passenger seat and slung it back over her shoulder, exiting the car to head back to the house. Sleeping off the disappointment was probably the best plan, and it still gave Henry a chance to be- at least mostly- alone for a few hours.
"Change of plans," she called in her regular speaking voice as she re-entered the house, kicking off her shoes in the small entry hall and heading toward the door to his room, tapping on the door frame. "Dyna's got an emergency at the gym, so we're rescheduling. I was gonna take a nap for a few hours and see how I'm feeling after that, if that works for you?"
There was a suspicious level of silence that returned to her, and Melanie's brow furrowed as she waited. She checked the time on her phone again; she'd been out of the house less than 15 minutes, and last she had spoken to him he was on the way back to his room to hit the head and work on some journaling for the early afternoon. That was maybe a half hour ago, before she finished getting ready.
"Henry?" Her voice called as she stepped away from his room slowly, her eyes scanning the floor for the 7-inch tall man, her eyes moving up the stairs as she waited to hear the call of his mariner's whistle. The longer the silence went on, the more suspicious she became.
She walked to the landing between the stairs to the main floor and the stairs to the basement, calling the small sailor's name one last time at the center of the split-level home. There was no way she wouldn't hear the whistle from there.
A sigh erupted from her, and she carefully pulled the purse from her shoulder to the front of her, moving to unzip the top.
---------
Henry grimaced as the roof of his hiding place opened, light spilling into the space he occupied in the black-fabric lining. His eyes shot up to see hers, the massive hazel irises darting until her pupils landed on him. "To be fair," he called defensively, guilt already creeping up on him as her eyes moved up and away to the ceiling, a breathy swear leaving her giant form, "I was expecting you to put the purse down once you were back inside."
"Henry," she groaned, holding the purse open with one hand while the other slipped in, his hands guiding it to him carefully. Her thumb and fingers slid around him gently, his arms pressing down over the tops of them as he patted the back of her hand in signal that he was ready for the lift. “How?” She asked quietly and unamused as she pulled him out of the purse, letting the bag swing back under her arm as she let it go.
“Which part?” He asked after an uncomfortable hesitation, waiting for her other hand to come help support him as his feet dangled in the open air, his arms tensing. She tipped her hand back slightly, letting him push and move himself into a seated position in her palm, her other hand resting on her hip as she refused to help him.
“I made sure the purse was closed so this wouldn’t happen again,” she explained with a sigh, watching him adjust himself awkwardly until his legs were dangling over the heel of her palm. Color came to his cheeks as he guiltily locked eyes with her, his mouth opening and closing a few times as he battled with himself over whether he should give away his secret. “Henry,” she prompted tiredly.
He was busted, he knew it. If she had gone to lunch and other things, he probably would’ve been safe to escape and move to her coat like he had initially planned, or she would’ve gone through her usual routine of putting her purse down on the basement couch before going to the washroom when she returned, giving him time to get out and move to somewhere less conspicuous.
“You leave the front pocket open for your keys,” he admitted quietly, his eyes breaking from hers and glancing around the room, “and the tear I made the first time was never repaired, so I slipped in through there.” His arm flew out to grab her thumb quickly as her hand swung to the side, her free hand coming up to rub her forehead. “I’m sorry,” he said, squirming as he watched the upset look come over her face.
“You know why I don’t like this happening without my consent,” she said, her eyes opening again to look at him disappointedly. “It’s dangerous if I don’t know you’re in there.”
“I know,” he admitted defensively, his eyes moving again to meet hers, “but! I trusted that you would take your purse along like you normally would, and I know that you usually stop back at the house between lunch and any other plans for the day.”
Her eyebrows raised over a sharp expression; his calm explanation of how he had determined how safe this particular venture was going to be seemed to obviously not have the effect he wanted it to have on her. Air rushed into her as she took a long, steadying breath, her hand moving from her forehead slowly. He pointed to it with a timid expression, trying to wave it closer to him. For one, he could use a bit of extra support this high off of the ground, and for two, he knew if he could touch her a bit more, he could soothe her temper a bit. “The idea that you planned this really isn’t making me feel better about any of it,” she leveled.
“I know,” he said again, still trying to gently coax her hovering hand toward him, “but--”
“No,” she said firmly, sighing again, “there’s no ‘buts’ here. Sometimes I want time to myself, the same as you do, so I don’t have to worry about things like if I’m going to accidentally hurt you somehow or that I’m being too loud, or just…”
“Melanie,” his voice called soothingly to her as her eyes dropped to the floor, her shoulders sagging. “I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to upset you.” Henry’s hand gripped at her thumb lightly, trying to rub it comfortingly while maintaining as much support from it as he could. Her eyes moved back up to him over a glum expression; she was disappointed, more than mad, and it stung him. “Can I have your other hand, please?” He asked meekly.
The ‘please’ did its magic and she caved almost instantly, her other hand sweeping toward him gently as he guided her thumb to his chest, her fingers wrapping around her others behind him and closing around him gently. She softened but still didn’t smile as his arms moved to coil around her thumb tightly, hugging it to himself. “If the only way you were going to avoid upsetting me was by not being caught, I don’t think that counts as not meaning to,” she leveled quietly again.
He sighed, fidgeting under her words and tone. “You’re right,” he admitted, “I should’ve given you your space for the day.”
“Thank you,” she breathed, her tone still unhappy but her mood lightening just a little. He shifted his legs, pushing her thumb up his body a bit more so he could lean forward and rest his face along the side of it. His eyes turned up to try and work their charm.
“Do you think I could be forgiven, this time?” He asked teasingly as he saw the color come to her face, grinning as her thumb wiggled against his beard and cheek, his arms squeezing it tighter. Her breath gently washed over him as she sighed again, lifting him up closer to her eye level.
“You’re too much trouble, you know that?” She asked, smirking.
“I wouldn’t say I’m too much trouble,” he drawled, his eyes arching away as he feigned innocence. She scoffed, making him laugh while she slipped her thumb out from his grasp, her hands moving position to help him stand in her palm.
“I would,” she retorted, her eyes looking around the room and landing on the bookshelf next to them, walking in front of it once he was stable. Her eyes scanned the top shelf, idly. “I could probably find a way to keep you out of trouble, though.”
He smirked at her, turning around to follow her gaze. “Can you even see what’s up there?” He asked her, teasingly, and she crooked a finger to wiggle against his side playfully.
“Don’t make fun,” she quipped as he giggled from the tickle. Whenever he could, he tried to make fun of her height. “I can’t see the titles of the books up there, no,” she admitted after trying to get on her tiptoes.
“I can check them,” he offered with a laugh, “I’m taller than you, after all. It’s the least I can do.”
She spread a sly grin behind him as he looked at the top shelf. “Alright, if you say so,” she said, stepping toward the shelf and raising her hands over her head carefully, Henry reaching out to grab the ledge and letting Melanie push his feet and legs up level with the shelf, walking over toward the books as she stepped back to watch him.
“Are you sure one of these is going to be useful?” He called tauntingly from the shelf as he walked from end to end, checking the titles. “I don’t see how any of them would be helpful in keeping me out of trouble.”
“They’re all doing a good job right now,” her voice called back mischievously. Henry’s brow furrowed as he turned to look down at her, watching her cross her arms under a smug expression.
“What do you--?” He started to ask as she turned and started heading for the stairs, his mouth falling open as he staggered to try and follow her.
“I’m heading to nap,” she called softly. “You’re in time-out until then.”
“That’s not funny,” he shouted, panic slightly setting in as he looked at the immense distance back to the ground, stepping back further from the ledge instinctively.
“Neither was you stowing away again,” her voice came back, her footsteps reverberating as she took the highest set of stairs to the top floor. “See you later.” “Melanie?” He called as he heard her footsteps walking farther away from above him. “Melanie!” He shouted as he heard her bedroom door close. Henry looked around the long shelf, taking in the books, the dust, and the odd artistic sculptures on either end with a long sigh. “…Well, I suppose I deserve this.”
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these are pretty blurry but its my phone... so these arent done yet but enjoy them for now 
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m4tthewmurd0ck · 2 years
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𝐄𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 ~ 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭 𝐌𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐱 (𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞) 𝐀𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫! 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫
Thank you so much to @fairydxll for allowing me to participate in your 2k writing event! Congratulations on 2,000 followers, your writing is phenomenal and you deserve every bit of success :) I’ve got 2 prompts, “you are enough. a thousand times enough.” + “and where do you think you’re going?”
Context: ~ I am but a hoe for Avenger! Reader so, are we really that surprised?
~ Your powers are basically Wanda’s powers, plus presence concealment (aka invisibility). I don’t touch on it toooo much since this is mostly focusing on Matt + You, but I do reference a bit :) Also you wear a mask, only the team + Matt know who you are.
Word count: 10.3k (oops?! sorry in advance if you hate long one-shots. I genuinely have no idea how this got so fucking long hasdfkasdghasdg I just kept writing and writing and when I was finished it was basically like oh shit… but I couldn’t bring myself to remove anything.)
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“—but isn’t Stephen a sorcerer?”
“EXACTLY!” Bucky slaps Sam on the back of the head, taking his usual seat next to you. For the past few missions, you’ve switched partners with Sam, he’s now with Steve while you’ve worked with Bucky.
Sam groans, leaning forward for just a few seconds to put his head in his hands. When he sits back up, he simply looks at the two of you, shaking his head. “The big three— it’s a thing. It’s a thing.”
“No…”
“Is it though…”
“It is. But I’ll let you two be wrong, for now. We’re almost there children, so come on, let’s try to focus on the mission.”
You and Bucky glance at each other, before turning to Sam and rolling your eyes.
“You need to stop that, that right there was creepy. You’re like twins or something… and it needs to stop.”
Steve breaks up your little bickering, coming over to fill Sam in on a slight change. You and Bucky already have your parts covered, so you take the time to pull a little slip of paper out of one of your pockets. While you do, you make a mental note to thank Yelena, the vest has added a nice touch to your suit.
As you read today’s poem, you try, and fail miserably, to conceal your smile.
You flood my thoughts / and wide awake dreams / I adore you to depths / beyond the eye can see. / ~ perry
Before you and Matt started dating, you mentioned how much you loved poetry. And when you two officially got together, Matt took it upon himself to type out poems and fold them up, leaving them in random places for you to eventually find.
The first time he hid one in your uniform, you mentioned afterwards that you found it on the quinjet while you guys were heading home. It had been a particularly rough mission, and reading those few lines was what helped you calm down. 
After that, Matt made it a point to make sure there was always a poem in one of your pockets. In fact, he was afraid that one day he’d be so caught up with work that he wouldn’t have time to print one out, so in one of the corners of his closet, underneath a pile of clothes was a small box that contained ones that he’d already printed. 
Despite the chaos you know is coming soon, you lean back in your seat and find yourself remembering when Matt found out you really loved poetry.
You were woken up by movement to your left. When you slowly opened your eyes and sat up, you quickly realized that Matt was having some sort of bad dream. As gentle as you can, you put your hand on his shoulder and give him a little shake.
“Matty,” you whisper. “Hey, you gotta wake up okay?”
He jolted up, sounding like he was nearly out of breath. He reached to his right, and when his hand made contact with yours, you could see him visibly relax. Without a word, you pulled him close, sitting up so that he could lay his head on your lap.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” You ran your hands through his hair, trying to bring comfort in any way that you could.
“I— tomorrow. Right now I just… I can’t.” He was terrified to tell you that his nightmare was about losing you. After meeting you, his bad dreams consisted of him losing you in some way. And tonight was worse than any other one before. “Sorry, I haven’t had a nightmare in a while.”
You’d been together for a few months now, and had just recently started occasionally spending the night at his place. He’d had a nightmare with you there once before, but quickly brushed it off saying that he simply had trouble sleeping. But with how open he was right now, you knew tonight must have been especially bad.
“You have nothing to apologize for my love, just remember that I’m here whenever you want to talk, okay?”
He nodded, and hummed with content at the feeling of your hands playing with his hair. After nearly 10 minutes of this, and you both enjoying the silence in each other’s company, it becomes clear that Matt won’t be falling asleep anytime soon. Glancing to the small table on your side of the bed, you spot the book you were attempting to read earlier. The sound of Matt’s key turning in the lock pulled you from the pages, and all thoughts of the book were quickly forgotten.
“Want me to read to you?” You ask softly, wondering if he’ll think that’s weird.
“Hmm?” He moves so that his head is still on your lap, but he’s facing up towards you, and you can’t help but smile as you look at the man you know and quickly came to love.
“Remember after our first date, you took me to a used bookstore because I said those were my favorite places to roam, but I had yet to find a good one in Hell’s Kitchen?” When he nods, you continue, “I said I would be quick because I didn’t want you to get bored following me around, but you told me to take my time because—”
“I’d follow you anywhere for as long as you’ll have me,” Matt smiles.
You continue, “you also distracted me quite a bit Mr. Murdock, stealing kisses every time we walked down a new aisle. And you asked who my favorite author was. I couldn’t tell you because choosing that would be like asking me to pick just one thing that I loved about you. There were too many to choose from.”
Matt sits up, this time pulling you into his arms. As he plants a soft kiss on your forehead, he remembers that day. “Then I asked what your favorite type of book was, and you were a lot faster in saying poetry books.”
“I was worried you might think I was lame. But when I saw your smile, I had a feeling you liked poetry too.”
“When we were walking home and you said you’d love to read me some of your favorite poems someday, I didn’t say it back then because I thought I might scare you off, but I knew I’d love that because my favorite sound was already your voice.”
How did you get so lucky, that the man holding you loves you more than life itself? He’s everything you could’ve ever asked for, and then some.
“So,” Matt pulls you from your little daydream, “will you read to me?”
He leans down slightly so that your foreheads are touching, and you give him a kiss, nodding. You move away from him for a few seconds, just long enough to grab the book.
“Okay, pick a number between one and—” you quickly flip to the end to see how many pages there are, “seventy-five”.
“Hmm… seventy-four.”
You flip through the pages, and smile when you see which one it landed on. After clearing your throat, you begin reading the poem, holding the book with one hand and still playing with his hair with the other. Matt wishes he could live in this exact moment forever.
(((this is a real poem, by clementine von radics. it’s actually the one i’m basing my peter parker x reader off of hehehe)))
“I am not the first person you loved. You are not the first person I looked at with a mouthful of forevers. We have both known loss like the sharp edges of a knife. We have both lived with lips more scar tissue than skin. Our love came unannounced in the middle of the night. Our love came when we’d given up on asking love to come. I think that has to be part of its miracle. That is how we heal. I will kiss you like forgiveness. You will hold me like I’m hope. Our arms will bandage and we will press promises between us like flowers in a book. I will write sonnets to the salt of sweat on your skin. I will write novels to the scar of your nose. I will write a dictionary of all the words I have used trying to describe the way it felt to have finally, finally found you. And I will not be afraid of your scars. I know sometimes it’s hard to let me see you in all your cracked perfection, but please know; whether it’s the days you burn more brilliant than the sun or the nights you collapse into my lap, your body broken into a thousand questions, you are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I will love you when you are still a day. I will love you when you are a hurricane.”
Your trip down memory lane is abruptly stopped the moment the quinjet touches the ground. You stretch as you stand up, pushing aside all thoughts that don’t have to deal with the mission. Every one that you all go on is dangerous to some extent, but this, a little more than usual. 
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A couple of hours later, you’re all back in your seats heading home. It was a success, but none of you escaped completely unharmed. You got the worst of it though, and are dealing with bruised ribs, cuts on your forehead and cheek, and a possible concussion.
The four of you had managed to take down all but three guys. And you were so close to walking away without a scratch. Your telekinesis allowed you to attack from a distance, so you were able to defend yourself and occasionally help the others.
You’d made yourself invisible and were sneaking up on one of the bad guys, when you stupidly tripped over a body, breaking your concentration and revealing yourself. The guy you were trying to sneak up on immediately locked eyes with you. An evil grin appeared on his face as he picked up a spear, preparing to throw it right at you. Thankfully, Steve had just taken someone down and he looked up at the right moment. Just as the spear had been thrown, Steve acted quickly and threw his shield past you. It flew into the wall, and the spear that was meant to kill you instead bounced off the shield, landing on the floor.
Steve, being the mother hen that he is, checks on you so often that eventually Bucky gives up his seat so that he doesn’t get up and pace back and forth every ten minutes.
“Steven, I’m fine,” you laugh, gently pushing his hand away as he inspects a cut on your cheek.
“Ooooh the government first naaaame…” Sam whispers, covering his mouth and pretending he’s shocked.
Truthfully, all 3 men on the quinjet are worried about you. Of course everyone on the team is extremely close (except for Loki, but you were constantly pestering to join them to watch movies and bake cookies for special holidays, and you knew you were wearing him down), but since it was often you 4 on missions, they’d grown especially protective of you.
“I think we could use a distraction!” You clap your hands, drawing the attention of everyone. “James,” you put a hand on his shoulder, “can you re-tell my favorite story?” There was a twinkle in your eye, and he burst out laughing, knowing exactly what you were talking about.
“Wow now you’re both in troubleeeee…”
“Samuel.”
Hearing his first name, Sam dramatically unbuckles his seatbelt and falls to the floor. Bucky rolls his eyes, but begins telling the story.
“Okay so it was July of 1936. And I was taking this punk out to celebrate his eighteenth birthday,” Bucky motions to the man sitting across from him, whose face was already growing red just from those 2 sentences.
“We really don’t have to hear this—”
“Yes we do!” You and Bucky both exclaim.
This causes Sam to groan again as he finally sits back down, complaining about “when did the Tweedledee and Tweedledum join the Avengers?”
When Bucky finishes telling the story, you’re all in much better spirits. As you all sit back in your seats, enjoying the last leg of the flight before you’re all back at the compound, you’re grateful for the 3 of them. And the rest of the team, too. Sure, everyone bickers here and there, but apart from Matt, they’re all you have.
Speak of the devil (hehe), everything seems to remind you of Matt. The fourth time Steve checks on you, which is when Bucky was really thankful that he switched seats, you remember the first time you came home from a mission after you started dating. You were pretty injured, and Matt freaked out.
It was the first time that you’d be going on a 2 person mission. Previously, there were always at least 4 of you. You were partnered up with Steve, and it was supposed to be a quick mission that wouldn’t take more than 24 hours. You were going after a new underground weapons dealer. He was clever, in that he stuck to selling within small random towns that nobody would think twice about. Intel showed that he didn’t have a partner, so you both figured this would be easy.
But you severely underestimated the man. Steve quickly stepped in front of you once you entered the abandoned apartment building that you’d been told housed all of his weapons. Bullets started flying as soon as you entered through, and Steve held his shield up to protect you both. You used your powers to make you both invisible, and this allowed you enough time to walk around and get behind him as he frantically searched for wherever the hell you 2 went.
For the second time, you realized just how much this man was underestimated. Sure, intel reported that he didn’t have a partner. But he didn’t need one because he was enhanced. As he raised his arms with a gun in each hand, 4 more floated up and took aim at both of you. You backed up far enough that you now stood outside, and acted quick, you flung your arms out and managed to send 3 of the 6 guns flying across the room.
Unfortunately, a bullet still managed to graze your arm. You were on the second floor, and the surprise of being hit was enough to knock you right over the balcony. Luckily, you healed quickly since you were enhanced. You ended up walking away with, besides the bullet wound, bruised ribs, a small gash on your cheek, and a few cuts on your leg.
Steve had it worse than you, but still worried about you. And of course he blamed himself for letting you get hurt, even though you told him multiple times during the ride home that it wasn’t his fault at all, and you were glad you took some of the hits instead of him.
You sent Matt a quick text letting him know you’d be landing back in New York in a few hours, and you just had to give a quick rundown of what happened before you’d be heading to his apartment. You failed to mention just how injured you were, not really thinking anything of it because as far as getting hurt went, this was actually pretty tame.
After getting the green light from Dr. Cho (only after you promised to take it easy for at least the next 48 hours, because “you’re enhanced, not immortal”), you rushed to Matt’s place.
He was actually working, and nowhere near done with the paperwork for the day. But it was the first mission you’d gone on since you started dating, so when he mentioned that you were heading to his apartment soon, Foggy insisted that he take care of Matt’s paperwork so that he could go home and see you.
When you walked through the door, Matt pulled you in for a hug, but immediately let go when you winced and he could smell the blood. He began to panic, asking if he needed to take you to the hospital or at least call Claire.
It took a good 10 minutes for you to fully calm Matt down. Once he was no longer pacing back and forth worried about your injures, you took a quick shower, and afterwards let him feel your face to ensure there wasn’t anything Dr. Cho missed.
He spent the rest of the evening worrying, constantly zoning in on the sound of your heartbeat so that he could detect any change. That night as Matt held you in his arms and you were fast asleep, he wished that he could protect you from every bad thing.
The memory once again vanished when the quinjet touched the ground and Tony stepped into view, there to greet you all when you landed. He quickly ushers you inside to see Dr. Cho, who he called when he was notified that you all had taken off and were heading back. 
She examines you and concludes that your self diagnoses was correct. The concussion is minor, and she says that you won’t have to stay and be monitored. She applies a little bit of medicine to the cuts on your face, giving you extra in a small container and telling you that they’ll heal a lot faster if you apply it twice a day. 
You jokingly point out your enhanced healing, but she insists anyway. As for your bruised ribs, those just need time to heal. Hearing this, Tony benches you for the next three days, saying that he doesn’t want to see you so much as step foot inside the compound. 
You start to argue, but decide against it. Tony knows just as well as anyone that you can’t stand not being able to do anything, so he fills you in on the next mission, taking place four days from now.
After a short conversation with Dr. Cho and Tony, you promise to do as little as possible for the next week. Happy offers to drive you home, and you gratefully accept but ask if he’ll drop you off somewhere else instead.
Sam enters the room just then, a smirk on his face. “She’s not going home, she’s gonna go see her lover boy.”
Bucky, who was walking by and overheard him, steps into the room and punches Sam, pretending to gag.
You roll your eyes at both of them. “…yeah, please don’t call him that ever again.” 
After a few minutes of the 3 of you arguing over who the most annoying one is (you and Bucky ganging up on Sam and immediately saying that it’s him), Sam all but pushes you out the door and tells you to “just go make out with your lawyer boyfriend or whatever you do when you’re not here.”
Memories seem to be flooding your mind that day. Right before you leave, Dr. Cho asks you to wait a few more minutes while she quickly documents everything, just incase she has any additional questions to ask you. When she goes over to the computer by her desk, you think about the conversation you just had with Sam and Bucky. You loved that you guys could joke about each other’s personal lives. As you lean back in the hospital bed that Tony insisted you lay down on, you’re reminded of the first time you met Matt, told the team that you had a boyfriend, and the first time they met him.
Being that you were one of the youngest, only older than Peter, it was understandable that the whole team was fiercely protective of you. Once, you let it slip that the date you’d gone on a few days before just didn’t end up working out. The guy was too pushy, kept asking for a second date when that one had barely begun, and when you pulled away when he tried to kiss you at the end of the night, he leaned in again as if maybe you’d made a mistake.
Bucky immediately asked what the guys name was. You refused to say it, of course, knowing damn well why he was asking.
On a rare day off, you ventured to Hell’s Kitchen. Growing up, you were a Queens girl through and through, but had spent quite a bit of time in the area, as a few childhood friends used to live here. It was getting to be late evening, so you sent a quick text to Tony letting him know you’d be making one more stop and that you’d be back in time for dinner.
You stumbled upon a place called Josie’s, and decided what the hell, you’d have a beer before you went home. Alcohol had the same effect on you as it did on Bucky and Steve. That is to say, it had no effect at all. But you still enjoyed beer and liquor every now and then.
When you walked in, you briefly looked around before deciding to just take a seat at the bar. Unbeknownst to you, a pair of eyes followed you from the door to the stool.
“Dude I know you can’t see it, but you have to trust me. The hottest woman I’ve ever seen just walked in,” Foggy whispered, elbowing Matt.
You had to hide your laughter, you were far away enough that a normal person wouldn’t have been able to hear them.
“I— I’ll take your word for it,” Matt chuckled. He was suddenly glad that this was another evening where he decided to stay sober.
You ordered whatever was on tap, and briefly scrolled through your phone while you waited. Well aware that people were often judged for doing anything in public by themselves, you tried to seem occupied. After you finished your beer, you paid and gathered your bag and phone before exiting Josie’s.
When you took a couple of steps outside, Matt heard something fall out of your bag. He guessed it was your wallet, judging by the weight. He immediately got up, telling Foggy he’d be right back. As he bent down, he realized he was right, it was your wallet. He stood absolutely still for a few seconds, before being able to determine that you turned left once you were outside. As he walked quickly to catch up with you, he tried to come up with an excuse. The average person wouldn’t have been able to hear a small wallet hitting the ground from behind a closed door.
Deciding he’d say he was on his way out when he heard it fall, he called out to you. “Excuse me, miss? I think you dropped this.” When he heard you turn around, he held it out.
“What the—” you looked in your bag, then back at the wallet in Matt’s hand. “Thank you so much, I wouldn’t have realized I was missing it until I got all the way home.” You accept it gratefully, then sneak another look at the man who handed it to you. Wow, he’s handsome, was your first thought.
“Are you from around here?” It was partly a trick question. Matt was almost positive that you weren’t, because he would’ve remembered your voice. But Josie’s was usually only filled with regulars, people who lived around the area.
“Not too far away, I just had a day off so I wandered over.” You almost blurted it out, unsure of why you were so quick to trust this stranger. You were an Avenger, yes, but you wore a mask, so you couldn’t exactly go telling Matt that you lived at the Avengers compound. “I like Josie’s though, the last couple of bars I’ve gone too, it’s been a while but they were so loud I couldn’t even hear myself think.”
Matt nodded in understanding, knowing exactly what you meant.
“Dude!” Foggy stepped out of the bar, grinning ear to ear when he saw that Matt was talking to you. “Bring your new girlfriend inside man, they’re playing my favorite song!”
Turning red with embarrassment, Matt sheepishly turned back to you. “Sorry, that’s Foggy. He, umm—”
“Wants you to get back inside to hear his favorite song?” You smiled, stealing another glance at him.
“I think that includes you too though, you know being my new girlfriend and all.”
You laughed, and Matt found himself already falling in love with that sound. “Well in that case we should get back inside. I was just going to walk around a little bit more before heading home anyway. Can I buy you a beer, to thank you for returning my wallet to me?”
Matt held his arm out and you linked yours through. Now that you were closer to him, you mentally noted that you liked the smell of whatever cologne he was wearing. It wasn’t overpowering, it was mild, but it smelled nice.
As you walked back inside, Matt hoped that this wouldn’t be the last time he’d be seeing you. You ended up sending another text to Tony a little while after, letting him know you wouldn’t be back in time for dinner.
Foggy and Matt ended up being joined by a woman named Karen, who at one point whispered to Foggy that she had never seen Matt act this… happy, around someone he just met. She liked you for him already. When you got back to the compound, it was almost 9pm. As you took the elevator up to the 3rd floor, AKA your floor, you were surprised when you were greeted by the sight of Bucky, Sam, and Loki lounging on the couch in the living room.
“Nope. Not happening,” you ignored all 3 and headed straight for your room.
“Who is he?”
“What’s his first and last name?”
“Does he know we’ll kill him if he hurts you?”
You turned around, throwing your hands up before putting them on your hips. “Are we really doing this right now?”
“I want to meet him!”
“How did you meet him?”
“Yeah, bring him to the compound!”
That last statement caused you to burst out laughing. “I think the fuck not. You just asked me at LEAST ten questions in about fifteen seconds. No chance in hell I’m bringing him here anytime soon. Goodniiiiight,” with that, you quickly walked to your room, ignoring their protests (and more questions).
Of course they eventually all met Matt. After that first evening at Josie’s, before you left Matt worked up the courage to get your number. For the next week, you text pretty much all day and talked on the phone at least once a day, usually at night before bed. He ended the call on night 7 asking if he could take you out on a date. That was the start of the best thing that ever happened to you.
Once you’d been dating (but not officially labeling yourselves as a couple) for a month, you finally told him about you. Who you were when you put that black and red suit. You were surprised at how well he took it (though of course later you’d understand why). He was curious, but not in the way most people were where they asked questions like how many people you’ve killed or could they get Steve’s number from you. He heard on the news, and from Foggy, the kinds of missions the Avengers went on. You were touched at how much he genuinely cared.
After he officially asked you to be his girlfriend, when you came home from your 3rd date (as boyfriend and girlfriend), you were cornered in the living room on your floor.
“The September Foundation is having a gala next week,” Tony started out, “invite Matthew.”
You nearly choked on the glass of water that you’d just started to drink. “How the fu— does the whole team know his name??”
Tony shook his head, taking a seat at one of the tall chairs at the kitchen counter, motioning for you to sit next to him. “No, kiddo. You know I love you, and you’re like a daughter to me. In fact, I’d say you are my daughter. If you would like to be formally adopted and have Stark as your last name, just let me know. But when it was obvious you were spending so much time with someone who wasn’t one of us, I just wanted to make sure you were safe. Don’t worry I didn’t deep dive into his life, just wanted to make sure he didn’t have a long criminal record or anything like that.”
After a pretty lengthy conversation, you hugged Tony goodnight before heading off to take a shower. You couldn’t be mad at him, and you thought of him as a dad so you got where he was coming from.
The next day, you nervously asked Matt if he’d like to come with you to the gala. You mentioned that the whole team would be there, and you were secretly terrified that knowing that would scare him off and he’d make up some excuse about why he couldn’t go. But he surprised you by pulling you in for a kiss, and asking you what he should wear.
You knew how he got with large crowds sometimes, and you asked if he was sure he’d come with you. His response was one that made you swoon, if you wanted him to go, he’d be there. He shrugged, like it was the most simple answer in the world.
That night ended up being one of the best nights of your life. Everyone loved Matt, like you knew they would. You caught Bucky glaring at him a few times, but after you told him to fix his staring problem or you’d steal his metal arm because Okoye taught you how to remove it, he quickly stopped. Rocket walked by, and having overheard you, he said to name your price for teaching him how to steal that arm.
Bucky was mostly just keeping an eye on you though, only staring to try and work out if Matt could be trusted with you. By the end of the night, it was clear that he could be.
The next day, Bucky and Sam even admit to you that they’re really happy for you, and that Matt is a great guy.
“But please don’t kiss him in front of me again, not in front of my salad,” Sam shakes his head, pretending to shield his lunch from you.
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As you’re walking towards the door to Matt’s apartment, you pull the spare key out of your bag. You slowly open the door, knowing that it’s pretty late and that Matt may be out as Daredevil, but he might also be asleep. Hearing a loud sigh of relief and being pulled into his arms the moment you shut the door behind you, you quickly realize that he’s waited up for you. 
“Thank God,” he whispers.
For a few minutes, you two simply stand there in each other’s embrace. You had called him before leaving the compound, but he hadn’t answered his phone so you just left a message.
“I’m okay, I promise,” you finally break the silence.
“But your ribs and your concussion, and your forehead is still bleeding—”
You step forward, putting your hands on either side of Matt’s face. “I’ll be back to normal within a few days, you don’t have to worry about me.”
When you run your hands through his hair, Matt sighs, having missed your touch even though you were only gone overnight. The night before a mission, you always slept at the compound since everyone usually liked to leave before the sun was up.
“Sweetheart, I’ll always worry about you,” Matt puts a hand under your chin, forcing you to look up at him. He leans in for a kiss, and you’re more than happy to oblige. “It’s pretty much part of my job as your boyfriend. Can I help you?” He gently caresses your cheek, careful not to touch the side with the small cuts.
When you nod, he gently grabs your hand and leads you to his bedroom. As you sit on the bed and remove your vest, he quickly goes to the bathroom and grabs his first-aid kit. You put a hand up to your forehead and when you look down at your fingers, there’s a little bit of blood. You hadn’t even felt it, but remembered that Matt could smell it which was how he knew you were bleeding.
Matt sits beside you, letting you guide his hand to where the cuts are. He’s extremely gentle as he’s wiping the blood off, and you’re once again reminded of how lucky you are.
“Thank you,” you say once he’s finished.
“You don’t have to thank me,” he kisses your uninjured cheek and goes to put the kit back under the bathroom sink.
You hear him turn the water on in the shower, and a minute later he comes back, saying he left a towel and clothes for you to change into. 
Fifteen minutes later, you exit the bathroom, already feeling a lot better. Your body still aches, but the hot water did wonders. Matt carefully applies the medicine to your face, and a few minutes later you’re both laying in bed, your head resting on Matt’s chest.
“Night Matt, I love you,” you say, and Matt smiles, loving how you sound when you’re half asleep.
“Night sweetheart, I love you more,” he leans down and kisses the top of your head. You’re so sleepy, that you mentally decide that he can win tonight.
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When you wake up the next morning, you hear Matt in the kitchen cooking. Glancing at the clock, you’re surprised to see that it’s almost 11am. You genuinely can’t remember the last time you slept that late. You slowly raise your arms above your head to stretch, and are pleased that the ache in your ribs is almost completely gone. 
You head to the bathroom, smiling again when you look at your face in the mirror and see that the cuts are nearly gone too. You’re about to change into your outfit for the day, when you look at yourself in the mirror and decide you’d rather continue lounging around in Matt’s shirt.
As Matt stands in front of the stove, moving the freshly scrambled eggs from the hot pan to a plate just off to the side, you walk up behind him and wrap your arms around him, resting your head on his back. He puts the pan and spatula down and turns around, pulling you in to his embrace.
Once you’ve eaten, he works up the courage to ask you how the mission went. You give him the long-story-short version of events, skipping the parts where you received your injuries. Matt knew you got them, but you knew he’d only get angry if he learned how. You mentioned that at one point you were almost hit from behind, but Steve was quick to throw his shield, and as it flew by you it took the hit of the massive spear that had been headed your way.
Hearing how well you all work as a team, seeming to just know when someone else needs help even though they haven’t said anything, he’s glad you have them. In the beginning he had been a little wary, especially when missions mostly consisted of you, Bucky, Sam, and Steve. But you managed to drag him to the compound one evening when Tony was throwing yet another party, and he was quickly put at ease. Everyone was so nice to him, and you weren’t at all surprised when he and Yelena hit it off, they both had a pretty similar sense of humor.
Unbeknownst to you, Matt’s thinking of what you’ve just told him. While you’re filled with happiness and warmth, he’s filled with happiness and… a bit of anxiety? It comes as a surprise to him.
“Matt?” You pull him from his thoughts, noticing his facial expression.
“Yes? Sorry, just daydreaming I guess.”
You get up and clear the table, quickly washing the dishes. When you’re finished, Matt’s still sitting at the table, seemingly deep in thought. You quickly grow worried, not able to remember the last time you’ve seen him like this.
“Hey, talk to me,” you say softly. Holding one of his hands, you lead him over to the couch. When he sits down, he immediately pulls you close, as if needing to reassure himself that you’re there, that you’re alive and you made it home to him.
He’s almost afraid to ask, but he has to know. “When do you have to go in?”
“Well Tony benched me for three days, so the next mission isn’t until four days from now. I was going to wait to tell you later today. It’s an undercover assignment but a lot of that time is surveillance and then the team is joining us for the actual takedown, so it shouldn’t take more than a week.”
Hearing this, Matt is instantly filled with dread. “D-do you think that’s the best idea?”
“What?”
“Going on a big assignment the day after you’re cleared?”
He usually doesn’t question things like this and normally always tells you that he trusts your judgement, so you have no idea where this is coming from.
“I mean… it’s not that big of an assignment—”
“Where?”
You think for a moment, trying to remember the location that Tony mentioned. “Marseille, France.”
“Who’s the target?”
“A pretty big weapons dealer. I’m just posing as a new neighbor, my only job is to stay home and keep an eye on things, reporting on when anyone comes or goes from the house next door. That’s why it’ll take a week, I need a little time to establish if there’s a pattern or a schedule.”
“Can’t someone else go?”
Now you’re really confused. “While it’s just surveillance Bucky will be there too, Nat and Sam are both gonna drop by at different times, posing as friends coming to see our new place. Steve’s posing as a neighbor at the end of the street. I won’t be alone if that’s what you’re worried about. And once the week is up, Tony and Bruce are joining us to—”
“That’s— that’s not what I’m worried about,” Matt sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “I…”
“What, I can’t help you if you won’t tell me what’s really going on. You’ve never questioned me before a mission.”
He stands up and begins pacing back and forth.
“Matt—”
“You almost died today!” He finally stops and faces you.
You stand up and approach him, feeling hurt when he pulls his hand out of your grasp and takes a step back.
“This isn’t the first time. You know what I do, and what about when you go out at night—”
Matt shakes his head. “This isn’t about me. You talk about how you guys are a team, and look out for each other. There were three other people there with you. And only one caught the fact that you were about to get hit. What if Steve hadn’t been there? You wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
“Woah. Back up. Are you blaming Bucky and Sam right now?”
“No. I’m not. I just,” he sighs, trying to contain his feelings. “From what you’ve told me about this mission, and the ones before it, you’ve never come this close to death. You’ve been able to defend yourself, and you always see it coming. What if Steve had thrown his shield just half a second later? Or what if he’d been using it to fight of someone and no one was able to get to you in time?”
“I don’t understand what you want me to do right now,” you stand up, throwing your hands up. “You don’t think I know that I almost died? That I didn’t think about it most of the ride home? And how do you get to stand there and lecture me and talk about me putting myself in danger when you do the same thing every fucking night?”
Matt hears it in your voice, you’re on the verge of tears. He wants nothing more than to pull you into his arms, comfort you, and tell you it’ll be okay. But he can’t shake the thought that you almost didn’t come home to him today, that your life was only spared because Steve happened to notice and throw his shield at the exact right moment.
“Let me ask you this,” you continue. “And please do not bullshit me. If the Avengers hadn’t gotten word of the guys we just took down, if they were located in Hell’s Kitchen instead of somewhere on the West coast, would you have tried to take them down by yourself?”
“I—”
Now you’re getting heated. “Would you have told me, would you have asked for help and let me bring the team in for assistance? Or would you have waited until I fell asleep one night and then you’d sneak off to deal with them yourself?”
Just from the change in your tone, Matt knows he’s in deep shit. And he hadn’t even considered how you felt when he went out at night.
Not bothering to wait for a response, you walk over to the kitchen counter and grab your wallet, phone and keys. “I don’t know where you expect this conversation to end up, but I’m gonna go.”
Before you pull the door open, Matt reaches out, grabbing your wrist. “And where do you think you’re going?”
You resist the urge to roll your eyes. He’s acting like this, and has the nerve to seem surprised that you’re leaving?
“To the compound. I was looking forward to a nice night at home with you, but maybe it’s better if I just go. I’ll come back tomorrow if you’ll actually sit down and talk with me.” You take your phone out of your pocket, preparing to call an Uber and text Tony to let him know you’ll be coming by. You know he wasn’t serious about you staying away from the compound anyway.
You were one of the only ones that didn’t live there despite having your own floor, and frequently stopped by during time off. Tony even paid the rent for your apartment, at his insistence because you’d gotten a 2 bedroom place and every once in a while you’d have a guest if someone needed a little space from the craziness.
Suddenly, Matt’s scared. He needs you to understand why he’s acting like this, and he’s terrified to let you walk out that door not knowing. “Wait, please. I— I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted like that.”
Matt senses your hesitation, your internal debate of do you ignore him and leave or stay and hear him out. And you’re also remembering the promise you made to each other. So he grabs your hand, gently coaxing you to turn around. When you do, he pulls you close, and you’re surprised to see tears in his eyes. During the years you’ve known Matt, you can count the amount of times you’ve seen him cry on one hand.
The first time was when he told you he was Daredevil. The fact that you almost immediately pulled him in to your embrace and said you loved him made him break down. He was so sure you’d get up and leave.
“You’ve known that I’m an Avenger for months now, and apparently you only just now decided I could be trusted,” you sunk down onto the floor, trying to process your boyfriends confession.
“No no sweetheart that’s not it I swear. Of course I trust you, I trust you with my life.”
“You distrust me enough to hide such a big part of your life,” you mumbled.
He tries to hide the nerves when he speaks again. “I was scared. I thought you’d hate me. You’re a hero, everyone loves you. I… I do things my own way, not always operating within the law.”
“And you thought I’d leave you over this?”
When he doesn’t respond, you looked up, realizing that Matt had taken a seat on the floor across from you, and that he’d removed his glasses and was trying not to cry.
“Oh Matty,” you go over to him, putting your hands on either side of his face, “you’re it for me. I don’t want anyone else. I’m upset that you kept this from me for so long, but that doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere. You’re stuck with me. I love you.”
The second time was when he came home one night, not quite on the brink of death but still severely injured. You guys had a minor argument earlier that morning and he ended up storming out of his apartment. You had waited as long as you could but eventually you had to leave or you would’ve been late for the mission. It was a quick one and you were back before midnight. You had debated going back to your apartment, but something was telling you to still go to his place. When you did, you nearly burst into tears at the sight of him getting up from the couch. He had changed back into normal clothes, but there was still blood on his face. As soon as he heard you unlock the door, he was up and nearly crushing you in a hug.
It was such a stupid argument, you genuinely didn’t even remember what it was about by the time you got back to Matt’s apartment. You almost thought about asking Nat to cover for you on the mission, but knew that would be pointless. She’d do it in a heartbeat, but then you’d just end up sitting alone in the apartment all day, waiting for your boyfriend to come home.
The mission was a relatively easy success. You, Yelena, and Peter had been sent to take out some low level weapons dealers, these guys thankfully not being enhanced like the one you encountered with Steve. You and Yelena were older than Peter, but because you looked so young, it was the perfect cover. You posed as some rich kids wanting to get their hands on some guns.
The disguises worked just well enough to get you through the door, but then one of the guys thought he recognized Yelena, so he pulled her hat and sunglasses off. You and Peter’s stood far enough behind her in the shadows that nobody even got a glimpse of you. Within seconds, you both slipped your masks on and joined Yelena in taking down the 6 men. Tony had been completely against sending you all, what with you being his honorary children and whatnot, but Fury overrode his decision, saying he needed to have a little more faith in you.
This time, you walked away with only a small cut just above your right eyebrow. Your ribs hurt a little, but the kick you received was so weak (thanks to Yelena who yanked the man back by his jacket), that you didn’t even think they were bruised.
On the ride home, things were silent. But you were all smiling. It was the first time the 3 of you had been sent on a mission together without anyone else to help, and you were proud that it was a success. Peter especially, because you were the first one after Tony to really get to know him, and he quickly came to view you as an older sister. He wanted to impress you, and knowing he did that was better than the feeling of Tony removing the training wheels protocol on his suit all those years ago.
Just before the quinjet landed, you debated on what to do. Everyone was always asking you to come to the compound for a sleepover. They knew you had your own floor, of course, but you were an amazing cook and they all knew that whatever kitchen you were in, that was where the leftovers got stored. Bucky, offered to kick Sam out so that you could take his place. Pietro offered to kick Wanda off of their floor so that you could take her place too.
As tempting as it was to spend the night with your team, which you did genuinely love to do, deep down there was only one place you wanted to be, and it wasn’t your apartment, either.
After quickly showering and changing because you needed a moment to decompress before going home to see Matt, you said your goodbyes to everyone and headed out the door. You often lost track of time, right now being one of those instances. It wasn’t until you slid the spare key he gave you into the lock, that you glanced at your watch and realized it was midnight.
Matt had gotten home at about 4pm. It was a long day at work, but he quickly rushed home to wait for you. He wanted to call and text you, but knew you were currently on a mission and he would’ve never been able to forgive himself if the sound of your phone going off with a notification from him, was enough to distract you and you got hurt. So he basically twiddled his thumbs and cleaned his already clean apartment for a couple of hours, hoping it would make time go faster.
As soon as the sun went down and it was dark, he put on that red suit and decided at the last minute to go out. You’d told him that the mission was all the way on the West Coast, so you’d probably be a while anyway.
He soon realized going out was a mistake. Although he managed to save a couple of people, he also took quite a beating. He was off his game, only able to think of you and how the last thing he did with you was argue. After standing on a random rooftop for nearly 10 minutes and not hearing anybody in need of help, he headed home. As he undressed and changed back into regular clothes, you crossed his mind yet again.
It terrified him. That if something had happened to him tonight, arguing would be the last memory that you had.
When you finally walked through the door at 12:01am, he didn’t think he had ever felt such sweet relief.
When you laid eyes on him, you wanted to cry. Although he was just in sweatpants and a plain t-shirt, he hadn’t yet wiped the blood off of his face. As he struggled to get up from the couch, you rushed over to him, dropping your bag by the door. When you touched his face, he immediately leaned into your hand, finally allowing himself to cry.
As you asked what was wrong, all he could do was stand up and pull you into his arms. He never wanted to let you go again.
“I’m sorry sweetheart, I’m so sorry,” he mumbled, feeling a sense of peace now that you were there with him.
“I’m sorry too Matt, I shouldn’t have—”
Matt shook his head, effectively silencing you with a kiss. “You have nothing to apologize for. I shouldn’t have stormed out like that. The whole day, all I could think about was you. And I don’t ever want to leave if either of us is angry again. God, if something had happened to you I… I don’t know what I would’ve done.”
You dried his tears, placing a soft kiss each time you wiped his face. “I’m okay, I promise I’ll always do whatever it takes to come home to you. No more leaving upset. Now come on, let’s get you cleaned up, hmm?”
And it really did change. If things were tense, or you were in even a small disagreement about something, you sat and talked it out. Neither of you ever left the other angry again. Even on occasions where you argued when you were apart, every phone call or video chat still ended with I love you.
The most recent time he cried was when you’d convinced him to take a day off from work, after triple checking with Foggy that he and Karen could run things on their own for a day. You smiled fondly as you remembered that whole day.
If Matt was asked, he’d immediately say that it was one of the best days he has ever had. Not quite the best day, he was saving that title for when he got to marry you.
It took lots of convincing arguments and pleading, but he had finally agreed to take a random day off. You called Foggy the night before, and as soon as you told him what you had planned, he told you that if Matt so much as stepped foot into the office the next day, he’d take you to court.
With every little thing and activity you did, Matt was reminded of how lucky he was.
You started out by bringing him breakfast in bed, which he said you’d better be careful because he could very quickly get used to this kind of treatment. Afterwards as you were doing the dishes, Matt stole you away from the kitchen for a few minutes when he put a record on and led you to dance in the living room.
He got butterflies when he laid on the couch with his head in your lap, and you read to him from your favorite book. Yup, he thought to himself, if I die right now, I will die a very happy man.
The entire day was perfect, both of you secretly surprised that not a single thing went wrong.
You had him wait on the couch, saying you had a few more surprises in store. After a few minutes, you returned and led him to the bathroom. As he undressed you turned the water on in the tub, then discarded your clothes and joined him in the shower while you waited for the water to fill the tub. It was so intimate, but not in the sexual way that you blushed just thinking about. As you ran your fingers through his hair, helping him wash and then condition it, he sucked in a breath. You were so fucking good to him.
While rinsing off, you lightly traced the scars on his face and chest, kissing each one and whispering things like how you loved him, you were proud of him, and you wished you could take his pain away. He nearly broke down right then and there, but managed to hold it in.
But after when you both had dried off and you surprised him with delivery from his favorite takeout place, followed by laying in bed while he was the little spoon this time, and you ran your hands through his hair while he listened to your heartbeat, his head resting on your chest. You softly spoke about all of your favorite memories, and all the things you loved about him. It had been years since he’d felt this kind of love and eventually he gave in and let himself cry. You were worried you upset him, but he told you it was the opposite. He couldn’t believe how lucky he was, you loved him no matter what, and you cared for him in a way no one else did.
That was on your mind right now. You wanted to leave and maybe decompress separately before things got too heated and you broke out into a full blown argument. But you remembered the promise you made to each other, and Matt was terrified. That if you walked out that door, something would happen. Now he’s determined to do whatever it takes to talk this out with you.
“Please,” he’s nearly on the verge of tears right now, prepared to get on his knees and beg you to stay and talk to him, if that’s what it’ll take.
“Matty,” you say sadly, “I don’t want to leave. But you’re not making any sense right now, and I don’t want to stay if this is going to turn into some huge fight. I love you, and I don’t want to fight with you.”
That last sentence does him in, he falls to his knees, wiping the few tears that managed to escape.
“Matt,” you try again. Joining him on the floor, you kneel in front of him as he moves himself to a sitting position, clearly trying to hold back more tears. “What is it?”
“I just… I can’t stop thinking about how I almost lost you. And I know, I go out at night and do what I do, and that’s not the worst fight you’ve been in. But that’s exactly what terrifies me. I know when you get hurt you can go to the compound and Dr. Cho helps you, and you heal faster than the average person, but I, I feel so helpless. What if I’m not enough to take care of you, and I’m so scared that one day something will happen, and it’ll be my fault. What if one day it’s just you and I, and something happens and I can’t protect you? You are without a doubt the best thing that has ever happened to me. I can’t lose you.”
Finally, you understand. It’s about so much more than you putting yourself in harms way, and more than the people you work with. He’s doubting himself, too.
“Hey,” you pull him to a standing position, and take his hand, leading him to the bedroom. Without a word, he gets in on his side of the bed and holds his arms open, waiting for you. You climb in and get under the covers, and he immediately pulls you close. “Remember that promise you made me? And I made it right back? I will always do whatever it takes to come home to you. And I know you don’t know everyone else that well, but I trust them with my life, just like I trust you. They would never send me anywhere if they thought I’d be killed. We only go in solo or in pairs if we know we have the upper hand, or it’s just surveillance and intel. If we don’t, it’s all hands on deck and nobody ever fights alone.”
You feel him relax a little, comforted by your words. “And, my love, I promise that you are enough. A thousand times enough. I love you more than anyone else in the world, you’ve been it for me since the moment we met. No one loves me or cares for me the way that you do. I know you doubt yourself, but I promise you have no reason to. You are the best man I know, and I’m so lucky that I have you in my life, and even luckier that you love me too. I’m so sorry that you’re feeling this way, and I wish I could take all of those bad thoughts away from you. I wish that you knew yourself like I do. I know that you often think about your mistakes, or things that you should’ve done, but when I look at you, all I see is the man I love. The man that puts everyone before himself, and fails to realize how amazing he is.”
“Sweetheart,” Matt tries to find the words, “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I just need you to know that I am so thankful for you, every day. Even if we’re mad at each other, or something else, I’m grateful for you always. You’re so good to me,” he puts his hand under your chin, tilting your head up and causing you to look at him.
“I loved you from the moment we met, even if I didn’t know it was love back then. But do you know the exact moment I realized I was in love with you?” You can’t remember if you ever told him this.
He’s curious. “When was it?”
You smile, looking back on that evening. “We’d been together about two weeks, you invited me over one night for dinner. I was a little late because we’d just gotten back from a mission, but I hadn’t had a chance to tell you I was going to be late. I rushed straight from the compound, not even bothering to change because I was so excited to see you. And when you opened the door you immediately sensed something was wrong. I thought I could get away with the cut on my cheek because you wouldn’t be able to see it. But that was before, you know, before I knew.”
“And before I knew you were an Avenger,” Matt plants a soft kiss on your forehead.
“Yeah, now you’re one of the lucky few. I just remember you being so worried, it struck me as odd how calm you were but again, I didn’t know that other part of you yet. You were so gentle, making absolute sure I was okay before finally leading me to the dining table. And even though I know you weren’t actually looking at me, after when you held me close and you leaned down and put your forehead against mine, it was like there was this moment where I knew I was in love with you.”
“I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I love you so fucking much.”
“I love you more,” you whisper, moving to a sitting position. You lean down and Matt is quick to pull you in for a kiss.
“Not possible,” he smiles. “That’s one argument I’m never going to let you win.”
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fuckingthefictional · 3 years
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Hi! I would like a request about Derek from teen wolf, please. The reader is trying to approach him, taking care of him "because Derek is too busy taking care of the others", BUT IT'S BEING SO HARD because of all of his past. Derek and the reader argue one night because of the overprotective nature of the reader about him, and when she tries to leave the loft, completely upset with Derek, he tries to fix things between them. Could you do this with a lot of angst and, then, tons of fluff? Thanks!
Ignored
Pairing: Derek Hale x Reader
Warnings: Angst bbyyyy, and some fluffy goodness at the end, not checked over (so probably a crap ton of spelling errors)
A/N: hello hope you enjoy, sorry it took forever! I’m so busy with work, college and personal issues that writing has been put on the back-burner.
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When the name Derek Hale was mentioned- one immediately thought of the broody, salty, sarcastic young man who lived by himself after the tragic Hale house fire.
Nobody would ever associate the name Derek Hale and caring. It just wasn’t in his nature. Because under no circumstances could Derek be remotely kind, caring or soft in any way possible.
That’s what people thought of Derek. But not you- or the majority of the pack for that matter.
Yes, you saw where others came from with their ideas and judgement (Derek’s lack of colour in his wardrobe obviously didn’t help either).
But to you when you heard the name Derek Hale, you immediately thought of the kind hearted man who would give up anything for the safety of his friends and family (as much as he claimed otherwise).
You knew him differently, you knew him like the back of your hand. You knew that his favourite food was Spagetti Carbonara without the mushrooms, that he didn’t like Coca Cola, that he secretly loved watching trashy tv shows like keeping up with the kardashians, and most importantly that he was running himself ragged.
He had bitten off more than he could chew when it came to helping everyone out. He was the one giving lifts and helping with homework and hosting pack nights, and handling Isaac’s nightmares, all of this happening at the same time as some supposed lizard creature being on the loose.
You had been ignored by Derek Hale for approximately 72 hours. Now this wouldn’t be bad if it weren’t for two things.
1. He wasn’t aware that he was actively ignoring you.
2. The idiot wasn’t your husband of 2 years.
Over 68 hours ago you hadn’t minded, you had even brushed the silence and distance off- knowing that Derek liked to have a little time to himself.
But when it hit the 5 hour mark of the 4th day, frustration and disappointment had begun to set in.
There was one more thing that made the whole situation worse. He was blatantly ignoring you- and only you.
It hurt. You could admit that to yourself easily without any qualms at all. It hurt.
Whether that was to do with the whole ‘mate’ side of things you didn’t know- all that you did know was that Derek Hale was drowning and he wasn’t going to swim until everyone else was okay.
-
Thud, thud, thud, creaak
“Der please sit down”
“I can’t. I gotta figure this shit out before the school finishes for the day.” Derek grunted from his spot in the middle of the room. His head firmly stuck in the thick, dusty book that he had been pouring through for the majority of the afternoon.
“Der please, take a break.” You pleaded with him, begging him to just stop for a second and relax.
“I can’t,” Derek murmured again, before he pivoted in his heel and walked away up the staircase.
His heavy footfalls retreated upstairs, the musty book still clutched in his grasp.
Swallowing the lump in your throat, you willed the tears in your eyes to stay put and to not roll down your cheeks in fat drops.
Why couldn’t you be enough for him?
-
The next plea came around 2 hours later, when you brought a bowl of homemade pasta and garlic bread up to Derek. Hoping that just maybe it would strike up a conversation, that maybe he would utter more than two short sentences to you.
“Babe- I made you lunch.” You elbowed your way into the room, balancing the bowl and plate in your hands.
“Just leave it on the desk.” He motioned to an empty slot on the overcrowded surface.
“I just thought that maybe we could have lunch together, have some time with each-other.”
“Y/N/N’s I would- but I have so much to do. Stiles and Scott are already on my ass about the damn lizard freak in town.”
“Der, you need to take a break.” You placed your hands on his shoulders. Instead of feeling them relax you could feel his muscles tense up.
Shrugging your hands off, he pushed the fresh plate of food away, “I can’t.” He spoke simply.
“But-“ you tried to object in protest, trying to plead with the broad shouldered man in front of you- hoping that maybe, just maybe he would come to his senses.
He did not.
“I said no Y/N.” Derek ground out, “I’m busy. Please for the love of God stop bothering me.”
The words stung you, causing you to stumble back in shock. Derek had a hard exterior, everybody knew that. But he had never spoken like that to you.
He had promised on your wedding day that he would always be kind, that he would be your biggest supporter and largest source of love.
But all those words felt like lies now. You felt alone, like an empty shell of yourself. Why couldn’t you just be enough?
-
Hours flew by, the watch on Derek’s wrist occasionally beeping to signify the new hour. If he were being honest- he had lost track of what the time was.
The only signifier was that Stiles, Scott and the others were in his presence- meaning it was at least 4pm
And judging by the sky outside of his office window, it was late evening, as the sky itself had melted from cool blues into a fantastic array of oranges and purples.
But besides the low chatters and bickering coming from Isaac and Stiles, the house felt almost too quiet.
There was no tv hum coming from the living room, no occasional flush or running of water from the restroom, no sizzle from food coming on the oventop, no sound of a page in a book turning. Nothing. Just silence.
“Hey Derek,” He looked up to see Scott staring at him, “Where’s Y/N?”
“Well-“
“Yeah, I haven’t seen her yet today.” Isaac chimed in.
“I’m not actually too sure.”
Derek was met with a sea of blank stares.
“I’m sorry- there’s a kanima out there roaming Beacon Hills, the very same kanima that is killing more people by the day. And you don’t know where your wife is?” Stiles asked incredulously, “Are you kidding me.”
“Well I’ve been so caught up on this research that I haven’t been spending as much time with her.” Derek attempted to defend himself.
“Derek, please tell me that you haven’t been ignoring your wife.”
Everybody had there eyes on him again.
“Well-“
There was an uproar of protests, all of which were yelling at Derek for ignoring and deserting his wife.
“You better find her Derek, before something happens and you regret it for the rest of your life.”
-
You really didn’t know how long you had been out here for. All you knew was that the night was closing in and the chill was setting in your bones.
But you didn’t want to go back to the loft, you honestly didn’t think you could handle seeing Derek after his outburst earlier.
The cold, damp ground soaked into your body- sucking all the warmth out of your body at a creeping pace.
The spot you sat in, hadn’t changed much since your first date with Derek. It was still isolated and it gave off the best views in Beacon Hills. Nobody knew about it but you and Derek.
Sighing deeply, you looked out over the viewing point- watching the tiny specks of light flicker in the distance. Every single light showed a different life that was being lived, each one with their own struggles. Beacon Hills was something else to say the least.
“I knew I could find you here.” A familiar voice broke your train of thought.
You kept silent, staring straight ahead, willing that your bottom lip wouldn’t start trembling and the flood gate wouldn’t open in your eyes.
“Look I’m sorry.”
You sniffed, still unable to look your husband in the eyes, “Are you though?” You briefly shut your eyes to stop any tears from breaking through, “or are you just saying that to get on my good side.”
You could feel Derek’s presence settle down besides your own. His breath creating little puffs of mist under the dark sky.
“I didn’t realise you were trying to help me, until it was too late and you’d left the apartment” He muttered, “It’s my fault, I should’ve taken your advice, I should’ve listened to you.”
You listened intently, knowing his words were sincere and heartfelt, “Why didn’t you listen to me then Der?” You responded bitterly.
“Because accepting help means showing weakness, and showing weakness is something I haven’t done since before the fire.” Derek’s voice was small now, “Before I met you, accepting help was off the table- I was a lone wolf, with no pack or family. And now I’ve found you and I’m desperate to not lose that again, I can’t lose you to this new threat in town- I can’t be alone again.”
Silence hung heavy in the air as your husband’s words set in. It made sense to you; why he was studying non-stop, why he had barely slept or ate.
It was apparent that while he was trying to protect his loved ones, he was also pushing them away in the process. That needed to change.
“You won’t be alone Der,” You lay your head down on his shoulder, “I promise that much- it’s you and me forever.”
“Through every supernatural event that happens in this town?”
You giggled softly, “Yes, and every single thing in between.”
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giorno-plays-piano · 3 years
Text
Vicious
Part VI
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Pairing: Steve x reader, Bucky x reader, Thor x reader, Loki x reader, Peter x reader
Warnings: yandere, obsession, stalking, possessiveness, theft, mention of blackmail, all characters are adults.
Words: 1567.
Summary: Transferring to Stark Academy that has only allowed to take in female students last semester, you realize you are just one of three young women among hundreds of students. Your things are constantly being stolen, and soon you begin fearing for your safety.
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
________
You spent the rest of your evening like a somnambulist, barely able to concentrate on your projects before you went to bed, barely finishing half of the things you planned for today. Even the change of locks didn't make you as happy as you thought it would. It felt like something between a dream and a nightmare.
Lying in the dark, you stared at the ceiling, thinking of what happened just a couple of hours ago. Why did he do it? Was it just out of habit and didn’t mean anything? Naturally, with his appearance and easy-going attitude, he probably dated many girls and didn’t think much before kissing someone he liked.
Remembering the way he talked to you in the morning, you thought he must have pretended to be shy around you. Thor certainly wasn’t sheepish.
Was it all a sham? Was Loki right about all of them, playing their roles to get close to you? You couldn’t forget the way Thor looked the moment he told you about being smart. It was like something switched inside him, and for a second you saw the real Thor who was far from being your simple, good-natured athlete.
Why did you keep thinking about that stupid kiss even after seeing the man could be dangerous?
Aroused and angry, you tossed and turned until you fell asleep.
____________
Waking up was especially tough, despite the fact you didn't really do much yesterday, meaning you were going to spend your weekend studying. Shoot, and that's when you planned to visit that new chocolate boutique in the city. Maybe you could still make it if you spent more time studying today?
But then again, going to the city alone might be a bad idea. Even if the guys who stole your things were beaten, it didn't mean it had always been the same people following you. The school was full of weirdos, in the end. What if somebody went after you? Steve would definitely say you had to bring one of your guards with you.
Damn. It was better staying in the dorm then.
"Good morning! Are you ready?" Peter's voice broke through the silence, and you flinched, hurriedly applying some lipstick because you didn't have enough time to put your makeup properly.
Well, at least you were fully dressed.
"Just give me a second!" Picking up your bag, you put your shoes on and opened the door, looking at a young guy who's face was lit up like a Christmas tree. "Hi!"
He definitely liked what he saw, and you felt your cheeks growing hot from embarrassment. From the very start of the semester Peter acted very sweet around you, and you thought you could be friends with him. He wouldn't do something as ugly as blackmailing, would he? Thor said it too. Clearly, Steve was exaggerating.
"Did you sleep well? I've heard you changed your lock, so now it'll be better."
"Ugh, I hope so. But I still sleep with my dresser blocking the door." Sighing, started walking, afraid to look in the faces of other students, hurrying off to school.
They must have been disgusted, watching you being friendly with one guy after being all lovey-dovey with the other just yesterday. Although you didn't see anyone in particular, you were sure somebody saw Thor kissing you. And now you were walking the corridors with Peter.
"By the way, what's your Insta?"
What? Your Instagram? Whatever for? Although you had no idea why he needed it, you let him add you, by the time leaving the dorm and walking towards the main building.
Suddenly, Peter got pretty close, his arm on your waist as he lifted up his phone and hummed, "Look here and smile!"
Before you realized what he was doing, the boy kissed your temple, and you heard the sound of a photo being taken by his front-facing camera. What the Hell?!
"Peter!" Pissed at him, you quickly break free and stepped back, but he was already looking at his phone, editing the photo and posting it almost immediately.
You heard your phone buzz when he marked you on the photo.
"That's a good one. You look very cute here."
"What are you doing?!"
"Making a proof we're dating, of course?"
You were taken aback by the sincerity in his voice, and Peter smiled from ear to ear like an excited teenager, showing you the picture: it wasn't that bad, and you looked as if you were slightly embarrassed by Peter's closeness. Oh, of course. He had to convince his friends he was dating you, but he didn't kiss you on the lips that could make other people too suspicious. Instead, friends of Barnes or, say, Thor, would still think it was all for show, and it was their friend who dated you for real.
Shit, Steve's plan was incredibly complicated, and you didn't like it at all.
"Oh, alright." You mumbled, lowering your eyes to the ground, and Peter laughed.
"We'll make a TikTok dance later. If you wanna make people talk, just use your social media." He winked at you and put the phone in the pocket of his pants, resuming walking, and you moved along, your face still hot.
God, what did these guys got you into? You felt like you were lost in the middle of a play, not even having a script to read what was your role in all this.
Before you parted your ways, going to a different classrooms, Peter talked about videogames, the upcoming Resident Evil - apparently, his favorite franchise - and some Dota tournament, but you didn't know much about it, and Peter offered to show you his favorite games "because you can't spend all your time studying!"
He was as careless and sweet as always, but you couldn't get Steve's words out of your mind. Damn, if only you could know for sure that Peter didn't blackmail anyone. Who could you talk to about it? Obviously, not Peter himself, but every time he spoke you had that nagging feeling you needed to talk to him. You barely kept your mouth shut before he went to a different room.
Ugh, why didn't you transfer anywhere else when you still had a chance? Obviously, now you could only drop out of school, and it definitely wasn't something you were going to do.
Luckily, the next couple of hours you were busy with your classes, trying your best to prepare for the upcoming exams. The academy held high standards, and even though you were a good student, it still took lots of efforts to keep up the good work. How Thor even managed to get enrolled, judging by the fact he hated studying and often skipped classes?
Ah yes, he mentioned something about getting a scholarship from the academy for his success in the sport.
By the lunch time you were drained, listening to Peter chatting with an absent-mindedly epxression on your face. Funny enough, Peter's grades were better than yours, even though he spent much less time studying. What, was he some genius like Loki? You felt a little envy.
"I gotta go take my tracksuit, I have PE next," the boy said, and you nodded, throwing away the leftovers of your lunch.
As you stood close while he grabbed his sportclothes, you heard two guys talking behind the lockers to your right.
"Have you seen her today? She's with Parker!"
You tensed immediately. Of course, they were talking about you.
"Yeah, so what?"
"She was with Thor yesterday!"
Watching you froze on the spot, Peter stilled too, listening carefully. Oh shit, you hoped no one cared about who you went with - why should they, in the end - but, apparently, you were drawing too much attention simply because you were a girl among hundreds of male students.
"So what?" The other guy asked impatiently, growing tired of this conversation.
"Are you stupid? She's going out with them! I bet she's looking for a guy." The first student said with excitement, and you cringed. No, you weren't going out with anyone, you wanted to stop the weirdos from following you and steeling your things. Was it too much to ask?
"Yeah, who cares?"
"We have three fucking girls in the whole school, and you don't care if one of them could be going out with you? Besides, this one's pretty. I'd fuck her!"
You felt like you were going to puke any moment. Why on Earth did you decide to transfer to an all-boys school? It was like the whole school were a men’s room filled with stupid-ass guys, and you were locked inside, forced to listen them talk junk.
"You'd fuck a sheep, weirdo. Go get yourself a girlfriend if you can’t stop thinking with your dick.”
Laughing, the guy left, and his friend followed him, shouting something stupid while you breathed out a sigh of relief. Of course, you knew there would be some talk, but you didn’t expect it to be so... gross. Were you really gonna spend the two remaining years here?
Watching you getting frustrated, Peter gently touched you by the arm and said softly, “Don’t worry. They won’t talk rubbish about you.”
“What do you mean?” Suddenly thinking of Steve’s words, you blurted out exactly what you were thinking of the whole day, “Are you going to blackmail them with something?”
“I... what?”
Part VII
__________
Tags: @finleyjayne @alexakeyloveloki   ​@helenaeisenhower @villanellevi @hurricanerin ​@inlovewiththefictionalcharacters @chris-evans-indian-fanfic @navegandoaciegas @rosalynshields @brattycherub @sllooney @angrythingstarlight @lookiamtrying @buckysbunny @stargazingfangirl18 @dillybuggg @literate-lamb @cosicas-cuquis @sarge-barnes-sir @buckybarnesplumwhore @jaysayey @megzdoodle @gotnofucks @lux-ravenwolf @ximebebx @jeremyrennerfanxxxx123 @sourpatchspinster @biiskuitx @stupendouslovegardener @iheartsebandchris @lovelydarkdaydream @soleil-dor @illyrianprincess @vampirestrawberries @goodgodimaweirdperson @frontmanash @freya-heya @yandematic @mariatietacapitu @d3monslust @maybesandohnos @ibeatuptwinks @mangobangi
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bumblesimagines · 3 years
Text
Forgotten Fairytale
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Part 3
Request: Yes or No
~
“We have two announcements today. First, we have a new student, (Y/N). As some of you may know, (Y/N) is a dragon-vampire hybrid and I expect each and everyone of you to treat him with respect. To whom it may concern, he is not our next monster. We’ve recently encountered a Night Hag.” Alaric announced to the remaining student body that had chosen not to leave. You kept your arms crossed, making eye contact with Hope. You gave her a triumphant smirk and got an eye roll in return.
“A Night Hag is a malevolent spirit trapped on the astral plane that can only interact with us through dreams. In this case, nightmares.” Alaric explained, murmurs spreading through the students. 
“So, like, Freddy Kruger?” 
“Well, in the sense that what happens to you in your dreams seems to happen to you in real life, yes. But, the good news is we’re safe, so long as we stay awake.” Alaric explained, nodding to the questions. He noticed tension rise and cleared his throat. 
“We’ve lined up more evacuation shuttles. They should be running all afternoon, so please, for those who don’t want to stay and fight, take advantage of them.” Alaric licked his lips. You gave a small snort, biting your bottom lip. Ryan had mentioned a possible run in with monsters but he seemed confident in your abilities to protect yourself. Once you had your father back, you’d make sure he faced some monsters of his own. You stood once Alaric dismissed everyone, noticing him motion for you to come over. With a deep sigh, you walked towards the stage he was on. 
“I’ve got your classes sorted out. You’ll be taking typical high school courses, plus some of the supernatural courses we typically give to everyone. You’ll have some vampire classes and finally, a one-on-one with Dorian to talk about dragons. Dorian insisted on it. I would like you to speak with Emma, she’s one of our teachers and also the counselor for those who need one.” Alaric explained, handing you a paper. You gave it a once over before looking up at him.
“And why would I need to speak with a counselor? I’m perfectly fine.” 
“Considering you walked out on Dorian after a mention of your father, I don’t think you’re fine.” Alaric gave a tight lipped smile, patting your arm as he walked by. You blew a raspberry, looking back down at the paper. 
“Oh, and by the way, these uniforms are horrendous.” You called to him, stepping off the stage and making brief eye contact with Hope as she spoke to Landon. 
“I have to agree with you on the uniforms being horrendous. We look like preppy golf kids.” You looked at the guy walking beside you. 
“All we’re missing are the pants and the golf course.” You grinned, chuckling as the guy nodded and laughed along. 
“I’m Kaleb, by the way. I’m a vampire, so I guess that means I’ll be seeing you around.” Kaleb gave a grin. You hummed, looking forward.
“Man, you and those other dudes got lucky. You don’t have to take these exams.”
“But, we do have to deal with the bullshit this school brings.” You stopped by a water fountain, leaning down and drinking from it. Kaleb leaned against the wall, arms crossing.
“Actually, I think that Landon guy was the one who brought the monsters with him. Things went to shit when he got here and-”
“It’s not Landons fault. The knife had been at this school for god knows how long.” You leaned up, wiping your mouth as your gaze fell on Rafael. 
“Well, like I said, we gotta deal with the bullshit the school brings.”
“And to do that, we have to be a team. We can’t insult or push each other away.” Rafael said, glancing between you and Kaleb. You let out a small snort, grinning as you shook your head. 
“Doesn’t that go against your nature? That’s all mutts know how to do. That and throw temper tantrums.” Kaleb snickered at your words. Rafael sighed, eyes shutting briefly in an attempt to stay calm and relaxed.
“You don’t have to worry about me, puppy. I can be a good teammate as long as you stay out of my way. Same goes for you.” You glanced at Kaleb before turning around and walking away. You walked to your first class, stepping inside and getting ready for a boring day of school.
~~~~~~~~~~
You ran your fingers over the books on the shelves, grabbing one and pulling it out of the shelf. You stepped out of the library and found a nice cushion seat, opening the book and flipping through the pages. You stopped on the one you had been looking for. 
Klaus Mikaelson: The Great Evil
Your eyes swept over the writing, searching for any mention of Hope. She was powerful but she hadn’t become a full tribrid yet. You paused, hearing footsteps coming from the hallway along with someone humming softly.
“Dr. Saltzman!”
“”Dr. Saltzman, I have changed my mind. I’ve decided to take you up on your offer and get the hell out with every other sane person here.””
“No, actually, I took your advice and I stayed busy, and I think I found something.” You lifted your head at Landon’s words, hearing their footsteps head back down the hall. You stood up from your seat, turning your head and watching them turn a corner. You looked down at the book in your hands, gently biting your bottom lip. 
“I definitely didn’t sign up for this… but I might as well enjoy the ride.” You looked back up, heading down the hall and entering the small library where Landon, Hope, and Alaric were at. You leaned against the railing, watching them speak.
“Why would a monster need to disguise itself as another monster? The Oneiroi sounds freaky enough.” Hope said, glancing between Landon and Alaric.
“Because if we knew what it actually was..”
“We’d know how to stop it.” Alaric finished for him, nodding. 
“Hope, kiss him for me.” Alaric said, turning and heading towards the stairs. He looked up, noticing you. He slowed down, head tilting.
“Need something, (Y/N)?” Alaric asked, heading up the stairs. You shook your head, fingers drumming against the book.
“Just eavesdropping.” You shrugged. Alaric let out a small laugh, nodding as he walked by.
“Don’t think you’re off my radar, (Y/N).” Hope called, arms crossing as she cocked a brow at you. 
“I’m honored you care so much about me, Red. It’s real sweet, though I think you should be more invested in your boytoy. Keep your eye on this one, Discount Jughead. She seems to have… a wandering eye. You shouldn’t forget who her mother was in love with.” You gave them a wink, turning around. You stepped towards a bookshelf, sliding the book into the shelf. 
“What about your family? What were they like?” Hope asked, approaching the stairs. You turned to look at her. 
“My mother gave my father a gift and then she left. At least she didn’t die because of me.” You leaned forward slightly as she got closer. Hope stopped a few feet from you, jaw clenching. 
“You know nothing about me.”
“I could say the same, Red. I might’ve been a dick when I was younger but atleast I never tried to kill someone who loves me and raised me. You had a mother who was invested in you and loved you. It would’ve never crossed my mind to hurt my father, no matter how pissed I was.” You sneered, watching her facade begin to crumble. Hope remained silent for a few passing minutes. 
“We should probably tell the others about our new discovery.” Landon piped up softly. Hope turned her head towards him, nodding.
“Yeah, I.. I have a plan.” Hope breathed out, looking back at you.
“Making enemies on your first day is the stupidest idea you’ve probably come up with.” Hope said, brushing past you. Landon slowly walked up the stairs, awkwardly approaching you.
“Hope is a.. She’s a good person-”
“You don’t have to defend her when she’s not around, My Chemical Romance.” You stared at him, giving a small eye roll. 
“Why are you such a dick?”
“Well, my dad told me my mom was a bit of a bitch. I probably got it from her.” You shrugged, turning around and leaving the library. You heard Landon catch up with you.
“I was in the foster system for most of my life. I can understand some of your feelings regarding not knowing your mom and-”
“Listen, Gerard Way, I’m not interested in being your friend. I’ve been taught and shown that humans are the least trustworthy creatures on this planet. It’s better to be alone than to trust a human. They’re like chihuahuas. They think they’re at the top when they’re actually at the bottom and I’d rather not have my life in the hands of one.” You looked at him.
“Fair comparison.” Landon mumbled. “But, some humans are good and they mean well-”
“We can have this conversation after I take a nap.” You entered the lounge area where Hope had gathered the rest of the boys. Hope explained that the Night Hag was actually an Oneiroi. 
“I know it sounds bad, but now that we know what the creature is, we can fight it.”
“How the hell are we supposed to kill a dream demon?”
“Leave that to me. But since I can’t fall asleep without compromising the location of the urn, I need someone else to pull it out of the dream plane and into our waking reality.” Hope explained, looking over everyone. 
“So, Freddy Krueger, like I said.” Another vampire, MG, pointed out.
“And how the hell are we supposed to do that?” Rafael asked, looking back at Hope.
“By entering the dream plane, getting a hold of it, and waking yourself up.” You answered, shrugging lightly.
“Just like in the movies.” MG nodded in agreement to your response. Kaleb hummed, nodding. 
“Is it too late to get on the evacuation bus?” Kaleb asked, tilting his head as you snorted. Hope gave a sympathetic look.
“No. I mean, I’m not gonna ask all of you to stay for this, it has to be your choice.” Hope said, silence following. Landon quickly stood up.
“I’m not leaving unless Hope does.” Landon said. Hope didn’t seem exactly thrilled as she gave a small hum. She looked at Rafael, brows raised in question.
“I’m not leaving Landon behind.” 
“You two are very codependent.” You mumbled, hearing Kaleb snicker and nod. 
“I’m a founding member of the Super Squad-”
“The fuck is a ‘Super Squad’?”
“-So I can’t bail.” MG stood up from his seat with a supporting smile. The four of them turned towards you and Kaleb.
“Y’all are gonna get yourselves killed.” Kaleb said, looking at Hope. 
“But if MG stays, I stay.” He added with a sigh, looking at you. 
“This reeks of drama and chaos so, I’m definitely staying and watching this go down.” You grinned, shrugging lightly. “But I’m not gonna be a member of this.. ‘Super Squad’ shit you have going on.” 
“In that case, it’s naptime.” Hope said, giving a small nod. 
“I’ll go speak with Dr. Saltzman. Get set up in the gym. Bring blankets, pillows, and anything else that might help you fall asleep.” Hope walked past them and Landon quickly followed. 
“Codependency is a big problem here, huh?” You shook your head, glancing at Kaleb. You grabbed one of the pillows off the couch and turned, heading towards the gym. You watched the others bring the necessary stuff, Hope and Landon entering while deep in what seemed like an argument. 
“You are gonna sleep with us, right?” Kaleb asked, noticing you hadn't made a small bed like they had.
“No.” You shook your head, arms crossing.
“What do you mean, no?” Landon frowned, brows furrowing.
“You don’t want to see me wake up from a nightmare. Accidental shifting and accidental arson isn’t pretty.” You shrugged lightly. Hope hummed.
“We don’t need a confused dragon causing an accident.” Hope looked at the rest of the guys. They lied down in a circle, slowly falling asleep one by one. Hope stepped towards you, closely watching each of them. 
“It was a shit move to bring up your mom. I’ve been on edge since dad disappeared.” You said quietly, ignoring the surprised look Hope gave you. 
“Sorry for that.” You walked away from her, careful to be quiet so as to not wake them up. You noticed each of the boys becoming more twitchy, faces contorted in confusion or fear as the hours began to pass. 
“How come you aren’t tired?” Hope asked softly. 
“You think I could sleep with my only family gone?” You looked at her with raised brows. Hope nodded, looking down to see that Rafael, MG, and Kaleb had stopped twitching as much.
“It’s almost time.” Hope turned, quickly leaving the gym. You gently toyed with your necklace, licking your lips and turning to face the boys when they all suddenly awoke. They stood and began talking all at once, making you huff in annoyance.
“Calm down, Hope’s handling it.” 
“What? What the hell-” Landon was cut off by Oneiroi and Hope crashing through one of the doors. Hope quickly got up, blowing some hair out of her face.
“Stay back, I got this.” She called, running forward and tackling the demon before promptly getting choked. 
“Yeah, she’s totally got this.” You mumbled, picking up two wooden pieces that had belonged to the now broken doors. You approached her, stabbing the pieces through the demons’ eyes. Hope let out a gasp for breath as the demon disappeared into a cloud.
“Thank you.” She coughed, rubbing her throat. 
“Next time, be prepared.” You stood, letting Landon help her up as Alaric rushed in with his crossbow. You tossed the wood aside, turning and walking past Alaric. You thought back on the urn and Hope mentioning she knew where it was. Befriending her to find it would be a problem in itself.
“(Y/N)!” Alaric called after you, quickly jogging after you. You turned to face him, raising a brow.
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for helping Hope. How’d you know how to kill it?” Alaric asked.
“Like I said, dragons don’t just horde inanimate objects. I like to read as a pastime and most of the time, the books have to do with the supernatural.” You answered, shrugging lightly. Alaric nodded, reaching out and gently touching your arm.
“Thank you.. I’m sure Hope appreciates it.” Alaric gave a small smile. You nodded, licking your lips as Alaric turned and went to check on everyone. He passed by Hope who gave him a small smile and nod. She turned her head to look at you, arms gently wrapping around herself. She slowly approached you, gaze on the ground. 
“I know you could’ve just let me get hurt but.. Thank you for helping me. I know we got off on a terrible foot so, I hope we can be a bit more civil with each other.” 
“We’ll see.”
227 notes · View notes
calpalirwin · 3 years
Text
Mosaic Broken Hearts
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Summary: More secrets spill out the more your relationship with Bucky grows
Word Count: 4.4k
And away, and away we go!
__
Bright flashes of light, explosions, blood spattered everywhere, pain, indescribable pain. You screamed for it to stop.
“Hey,” a voice was calling out, a hand nudging at you. “Hey! Y/N! C’mon!”
You screamed louder as your eyes snapped open, scrambling to get out of bed, and promptly face planting on the floor in the process. “You have exactly five seconds to explain who the hell you are, and what the fuck you’re doing in my room before I kill you. One!” You made your voice as threatening impossible, as you pushed yourself up into a sitting position. Where the fuck was a prosthetic when you needed it? Could you kill this guy from the floor? Well… It’d be messy, but you sure as hell would try.
With your mind racing, it took a minute to register that your intruder was laughing. Why the fuck were they laughing?
“Two!”
“It’s me! It’s Bucky. You had a nightmare.”
Different flashes went through your head. Screaming in the lab for a knife. Bucky offering to carry you to your room. You asking him to stay. “Oh…”
“C’mon,” he said softly as he appeared in front of you. One of his arms went around your back, the other hooking under your left knee as he picked you up and set you back in bed. “Do you wanna talk about it, or just leave it?”
“I- Gimme a minute,” you told him, taking a series of long, slow deep breaths as the adrenaline pounding through your veins slowed. “Fuck… You’re just seeing every ounce of vulnerability I have, aren’t you?”
“Could have just as easily been me having the nightmare.”
“Only you wouldn’t have face-planted out of bed in the process. Or at least you would have been able to get up by yourself if you had,” you replied bitterly.
“Can you not play that tough guy role who has it all together all the time?”
“I dunno, let’s ask my pride.”
“I’m not going to judge you, if that’s what you’re worried about. Or think less of you, or whatever else your head is telling you I’m gonna do. You can’t scare me off, Y/N. The only thing you’re fighting here is your own pride.”
“Yes, I’m well aw-” you started, then sighed. “Thank you. I’m, uh… not used to this. So I’m probably gonna be bad at it for a while. But thank you. For staying and stuff. Now… if you wanna go ahead and be the vulnerable one for a bit, that would be fantastic.”
Bucky chuckled, his arm snaking across your shoulders to hold you loosely at his side. “I’m sure it’ll happen eventually. I’m pretty broken myself. And rumor has it you have a soft spot for broken things.”
“Aw, he pays attention, how sweet,” you teased, squishing his cheeks in your hand.
He chuckled again, and you admired the throaty sound of it. “So, the nightmare?”
You let out a sigh. “It’s always the same one. Two car accidents. Two explosions. Lots of blood. Lots of screaming. Which is ridiculous to me because one of the car accidents I wasn’t even there for. It was my parents, and I was just told about it. But I still dream about it like I was there.”
Bucky stiffened, and you assumed it was in sympathy to having nightmares about memories that weren’t your own. “And then the other accident is yours and Tony’s?”
You nodded. “Yep. My family should just stay away from cars. We don’t exactly have the best track record with them.”
“How old were you when it happened?”
“When what happened? My parents, or my leg getting blown off?”
“Both? If you feel comfortable. It’s fine if you want me to shut up.”
“No, it’s fine. I was… Let’s see… I was 11 when my parents died. And I was 28 when I lost my leg.”
“You said after your parents died you went straight into the Army. How could you do that if you were 11?”
“Okay, so I left out some steps. My parents died. I finished school. Went to Westpoint, became an officer, then got shipped overseas. All the while Tony did whatever the hell it is Tony does.”
“And you were 28 when you had your accident, which means…”
“That I’m 36, yeah. Still younger than you, even though all that time spent frozen and whatever magic in that serum slows the aging process makes you look about 32.”
“I was going to say it means we were the same age when we had our incidents. But thanks for reminding me that I’m technically 99.”
You snorted. “God, my boyfriend’s old.”
“Boyfriend?”
“Shit… Jumped to conclusions… Fuck, sorry.”
“No, don’t be. I, uh, it’s fine. It’s more than fine.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes. I happen to like you quite a bit, Y/N. In case I haven’t made that obvious.”
“Good. Cuz I happen to like you quite a bit as well.”
~~~
Waking up in the morning with Bucky’s arm thrown around you was nice in a way you didn’t expect. While your friendship with him up until this point had already made you feel better than you had in longer than you could remember, the dating part was already adding to that feeling, even though it’d only been a handful of hours since you made the change from friends to boyfriends, most of which had been spent sleeping through the night. Bucky made you feel seen in a way you weren’t used to, and while it scared you, it also thrilled you. And it was more than just being able to see you. He understood you. He understood your pain. And it didn’t scare him. It was a relief to not feel so fucking alone, or have to put up a front.
Your problem now was not wanting to wake him up. He looked so peaceful, the long locks of brown hair acting as a curtain in front of his face. You knew if those fluttering eyelids flashed open, you’d find the most stunning pair of blue eyes, which was quite the statement considering you’ve known Steve for five years. Was it an unspoken requirement that you had to be god-level hot to be a super soldier? Or did the serum do that? Either way, it was grossly unfair.
You were awake, and your stomach was growling, and now you were in a predicament. One, despite your hunger, you didn’t want to leave your bed. There was a hot man in it with his arm flung around you. Two, getting out of bed when your prosthetic limb was still in the lab wasn’t going to be an easy task, unless you woke up said hot man sleeping in your bed. Which you didn’t want to do, because A.) he looked so peaceful and B.) you knew how hard peaceful sleep was to come by, so you didn’t want to be the one to ruin it for him. But god damn, you needed food. And to get to the lab to build a new leg.
It was fine. You could do this. You could get across the room to your closet where you had a pair of crutches without waking Bucky in the process. You were the king of stealth.
Through some small miracle, you managed to make it out of your room without waking Bucky, leaving behind a small note as to where he could find you.
As you made your way to the giant kitchen area, you remembered why you usually either hid in the lab until you made a new leg, or used an office chair to scoot about the place. These crutches were a pain in the ass, beads of sweat forming on your face by the time you got to the kitchen, where you came face to face with what could possibly be your worst fucking nightmare: the full team of half awake Avengers staring at you in shock.
“Morning,” you greeted, making it the rest of the way to a countertop, and leaning on it.
Mumbles of “hey”s and “morning”s chorused back at you, with the exception of Tony who went “Kid, get a chair. With wheels.”
Peter looked up from his bowl of cereal. “Got it, Mr. Stark,” he replied before dashing off.
“Tony, that’s not really necessary,” you started. “I’m just gonna grab something and head to the lab.”
“Don’t play the stubborn hero act. It’s annoying,” was all he replied with as Peter reappeared with an office chair. “Thanks, kid. Sit, Y/N. Toast?”
“Thanks, Peter,” you smiled gratefully, easing into the chair, leaving the crutches leaning against the counter. “And yeah, toast or whatever’s fine, Tony. Thank you.”
“So cordial, are you sure you’re a Stark?” Steve teased.
“Ha-ha,” you deadpanned, scooting your way over to the table.
“Your leg okay?” he followed up with genuine concern.
“Which one?” you asked sardonically.
“Yep, definitely a Stark.”
“So hanging around the Manchurian Candidate helping you embrace amputee life finally?” Tony asked, setting a plate of toast before you.
“Actually it was an explosion that made me embrace amputee life. You were there, remember?”
“My brother, the comedian,” he said with an eye roll. “You know what I meant.”
You shrugged your shoulders. “I mean I guess. It’s still not something I’m gonna go around mentioning for the hell of it. Kinda like how you don’t go around mentioning certain things.”
“Mentioning your business isn’t my business, Y/N, it’s yours.”
“I appreciate the discretion.”
“I’m sorry,” a man spoke up. “Is anyone else lost, or just me?”
“Scott, this is,” Tony started, but thought better of it. “Fuck it, it’s your business, you tell it.”
“Y/N Stark. Tony’s younger brother. Ex-military. Not an Avenger, I just live here,” you rattled off the basics. “Oh, and my right leg below the knee is fake thanks to yours truly,” you pointed at Tony. “Well, right now it’s non existent because I had to stab the prosthetic I did have. Different story, different time.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Tony interjected as people stared at him with their mouths open in shock. “I did not blow off your leg. Stark weapons did.”
“Same difference. And it wasn’t meant maliciously. Just a fact. Anyway, I’m pretty easy to find if you need me because I’m usually in the lab. Speaking of, do you need me today, Tony?”
“No, we’re fine.”
“Cool. Cuz I gotta make a new leg.”
“Aw,” Bucky’s voice pouted from behind you, “and I was starting to like carrying you around.” He pressed a quick kiss to your cheek. “You could’ve woken me up,” he murmured.
“Um… what is this?” Tony asked, waving a finger between you and Bucky.
“None of your concern,” you replied bluntly.
“Bullshit it’s not. Hanging out with him is one thing, Y/N. But whatever that is, shut it down, and shut it down now.”
“I’m going to say this as respectfully as possible 1.) because we’re family and 2.) because I don’t want my morning to become more of a spectacle than it already has been. But you don’t get a say in how I live my life. You had your chance to be involved after Mom and Dad died, and you ran away from that chance. And I try really hard not to hold a grudge against you for that. And I appreciate everything you’ve done for me since our accident. But I’m a grown ass man, Tony. Who I chose to involve myself with is none of your concern.”
“Oh, so you’re fine with your new boyfriend being a mass murderer?”
You laughed. You laughed so hard you doubled over in your chair, your sides aching and tears forming in your eyes. “That’s the best fuckin’ joke I’ve ever heard!” you kept howling with laughter. “Mass murderer boyfriend, do you hear this shit? Cuz the rest of us in this room are so innocent, right? Cuz our hands aren’t covered in the blood of someone else? Oh, God! Yeah, you’re gonna have to try a lot harder than that, Tony.” You snorted. “Mass murderer. Yep. That’s a good one.”
Your brother’s eyes flashed darkly. “So, you’re aware that part of his mass murder history includes our parents? Or did Sergeant Barnes conveniently leave that out?”
You stopped laughing as you glanced upwards at Bucky. His hands were gripped tightly on the back of your chair, the knuckles on his right hand white from the force of the grip. His body was rigid, eyes screwed shut. “What?” you croaked out in a barely audible whisper.
“Yeah. The reason you got robbed of a childhood with Mom?” Tony clicked his tongue, pointing at Bucky. “Right there.”
You continued to look up at Bucky who stayed in his frozen state. “Tell me he’s lying,” you pleaded quietly. When Bucky still didn’t move, you shoved a hand into his chest. “Tell me he’s lying, Bucky!”
Slowly Bucky opened his eyes, his face, his gorgeous face, a painting of pain and sorrow. “I’m sorry…”
You hated this. You hated Tony for blowing up your life a second time. You hated Bucky for not telling you this himself. And you hated yourself for daring to believe that for once you could be happy. But you’d be damned if you’d let them see you break. You took a slow breath, sealing yourself off, the walls building around you. “I have work to do,” you said, starting to push away in your chair, but Bucky’s grip still held you in place.
“Y/N,” he said in a cracked voice. “Y/N, please.”
“You have exactly five seconds to let go of my chair, Sergeant Barnes, before I break your hands. One,”
“Y/N.”
“Two.”
“Please, let me explain.”
“Three. I swear I’ll break those hands. Metal or not.”
“Love, please don’t do this…”
“Four,” you continued to count, feeling your voice start to shake at the way he called you “love.”
He let go, and you pushed yourself quickly out of the room, not daring to look back.
~~~
In the lab, you tried to distract your brain, but it still raced. There were so many swirling parts, and you were so angry that you couldn’t pinpoint what was actually making you angry.
Footsteps and a throat clearing had you snapping up your head, body tense, not ready to face either Bucky or Tony. So when you saw it was Steve, your defenses fell. “Hey, Steve,” you greeted half-heartedly.
“Hey. How you feeling?” he asked, testing the waters as he slowly made his way to you.
“I’m not gonna bite your head off if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Don’t think I could blame you if you did. What happened back there was… intense. Tony was out of line.”
“When isn’t Tony out of line?”
“Fair point. But hey, I’m here if you want someone to scream at. Someone to help answer any of the thousand of questions running through your head.”
“I don’t want to scream at anyone. Kill Tony, maybe. But I’m kinda used to that feeling. I just… Fuck, I dunno, Steve. I don’t know what to be mad at, or about. I just know that I’m mad. Hurt. I’m hurt.”
“So start at the beginning. Work through it.”
“It’s true, right? What Tony said about Bucky?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I’m sorry.”
“How long did everyone know?”
“It came out when we brought Bucky in. So a few months now. Obviously Bucky knew longer.”
“Obviously,” you snorted, then sighed. “Well, that explains Tony’s feelings towards Bucky.”
“But it’s still not an excuse for how it came out. There was a way to handle that situation and that wasn’t it. So if you want to be angry with Tony for that, you’re well within your right.”
“Oh, I’m livid. Like don’t trust myself alone in a room with him, livid. And I hate the position it puts me in. Being mad at him for telling me the truth. Sounding like an ungrateful, spoiled brat.”
“You can appreciate what Tony’s done for you while hating the circumstances that led to it. It doesn’t have to be black and white.”
“I deal in absolutes, Steve. It’s what makes the most sense to me. Facts. Fact: my parents died. Fact: Bucky caused their accident. Fact: their death shaped the way I lived my life, and the way Tony lived his. Fact: Tony’s actions ruined my life, not once, but twice now.”
“And where does that leave you with Bucky?”
You sighed. “That’s where things get convoluted. Fact: he was brainwashed as the Winter Soldier. So I can’t hold that against him. And I don’t. Me knowing Bucky caused their accident doesn’t make them less dead. So as stupid as it seems, I’m not mad about that. I’m mad he didn’t tell me himself. But even then? Part of me can still understand why he didn’t. I mean, there were things about my past I kept from him. And at what point do you drop a bomb like that?”
“So where does all of that leave you?”
“I don’t know. That’s the problem. Part of me wants to clock Tony for running his mouth. Part of me is screaming that this is exactly why I don’t let people in. And part of me is still stupidly head over heels in love with Bucky, even though I feel like my trust in him got betrayed.”
“In love with him? Does Bucky know?”
You shook your head. “We barely started dating. And I mean barely. Like it happened last night barely.”
“And now it’s already potentially over.”
“Yup…”
“Well. And you can do whatever you want with this advice. But, it sounds like the real issue is with Tony, not Bucky. So try not to confuse the two.”
“But how do I trust him, Steve? I laid everything out on the line, and he couldn’t do the same for me.”
“Sounds like you trust him just fine if you’re able to do all that. So is your real hurt, with Bucky at least, in the fact that you feel he doesn’t trust you back? I mean, and correct me if I’m wrong, but this is just my observations. You don’t let that vulnerable side of you show often, if ever. I mean, everyone back there expected you to rip Tony’s head from his shoulders and you barely raised your voice. You have a very tight control on your feelings. You have a very tight control on what you let others around you in on. So if you allowed yourself to be vulnerable to Bucky, I can understand how that powershift makes you feel out of control. I can see how any indication of him not trusting you back is a huge act of betrayal in your mind. It’s like you loaded the gun, and handed it to him yourself.”
“Have I ever told you how much you scare me with how observant you are?”
Steve chuckled. “I knew Bucky a long time before he was the Winter Soldier. He’s not gonna be the guy to let you down. But me telling you that, and you believing it are two totally different things.”
“So what do I do, Steve?”
“You gotta figure that out for yourself. But talking might be a good place to start.”
“Thanks. Seriously. This helped me a lot.”
“Anytime, Y/N.”
~~~
Your next visitor was Tony. “So…” he started, peering over your shoulder at the leg you were halfway finished with. “Break up with him yet?”
“So… find a new way to blow up my life yet?” you fired back.
His jaw clenched. “Blew up your life by telling you the truth?”
“Blew up my life by fucking ruining everything, actually. I was happy, Tony. Actually fucking happy. And you let me have that for all of what? 30 seconds?”
“So you’d rather your happiness be fake? Be a lie then?”
“It wasn’t fake, that’s the thing! Look, I get that you hate him. I get that you and Steve were at odds with each other because of Bucky. And I get that hearing the news that he’s the reason for our parents’ death doesn’t make you exactly keen on being his friend, or having him around here. But, God, Tony! There were a million different ways you, or Bucky could have clued me in on things. And of course, you went with the one that would hurt him the most, not even hesitating long enough to think about how it would hurt me in the process. I knew you were a spiteful bastard, but this is a new low, even for you. Whatever happened to ‘it’s not my business to tell’?”
“That’s why I’m here to apologize.”
“That was an apology?”
“It would be if you let me get there.”
“Well, go on then.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I let my issues with Dad get in the way of me being there for you after they died. Not that at the age I was in any way ready or capable of taking on the responsibility of looking after a kid. And I’m sorry that it led you down a path of eventually getting caught in the crossfire of my mistakes with the company. And I’m sorry for how I handled the news of you and Barnes and the subsequent fallout.”
“Wow,” was all you could come up with to say. Tony wasn’t exactly the apologetic or remorseful type. He was the “throw money at the situation in hopes it went away” type, a classic Howard Stark trait Tony had been unfortunate enough to inherit, alongside the arrogance. And yet, here he was, apologizing to you for everything. And all you could say was, “Wow.”
“Yeah, great talk. If you connect those two wires, you should be good,” he said, nodding his chin at your leg.
You looked at it, “Oh. Thanks.”
“Yep.”
“I mean it,” you said as he started to walk out. “The apology? Thanks.”
“Yeah, if we could not mention it, that’d be great.”
You let out a small laugh. “Works for me.”
~~~
Your final visitor was Bucky. “Been wondering when you’d show,” you said, as you walked around the lab, testing the newest prosthetic.
“Yeah, I, uh… would’ve been by sooner but I got caught up in a few things.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, I might have gone off on Tony after you left. And then Steve might have banned me from seeing you until I calmed down. And by the time I did that, he had already talked to you, and Tony was in here. So I talked to Steve. And… yeah.”
“You mean I missed out on another fight between you and Tony? Damn.”
“Heh, yeah… And look, I’m not here to act like an apology is going to magically make this all okay-”
“Good,” you cut him off. 
He sighed. “But I am sorry.”
“I don’t want your apology. I don’t need it.”
“Then… Could you yell at me, or something? This eerily calm thing is really freaking me out. Yell at me, Y/N. Tell me you hate me. Tell me I’m the reason you’re broken. Something. Anything.”
You paused in your small laps around the lab, looking at him in confusion. “Why would I do that? I’m not the starry-eyed prince who cries when his knight in shining armor isn’t real.”
“I- What?”
You winced at your words. “Bad analogy. I meant that I’m not the type who’s going to cry and scream every time my feelings get hurt. So if you’re waiting for that to happen, it’s not going to.”
“Y/N, please… I don’t know what to do here. I want to make this right. Tell me how.”
“There’s nothing to make right. I’m not mad at you, Bucky.”
“You’re not?”
“No! You were fucking mind-controlled for half of a god damn century. And Howard wasn’t exactly winning Dad of the Year Awards. Fuck, I can’t even find it in myself to be mad that you didn’t tell me. I’m hurt, Bucky, but I’m not mad.”
“I didn’t want to hurt you, that’s the thing. And I know. I know I had so many chances to tell you, and I didn’t. But how do you tell someone that without hurting them?”
“God damn it!” you snapped, your temper flashing before you could reel it back in. “That’s not why I’m hurt, Bucky. I’m hurt that I trust you, and you feel that you can’t trust me back. I’ve trusted you with parts of me I don't let anyone even get near. Hell, I’ve known the original crew of Avengers for five years, and today’s the first time they figured out I’m an amputee. That’s how hard it is for me to let my walls down. And I let you break them like they were nothing. And as great as it is to feel chosen for once, I cannot fuckin’ stand that it’s one-sided. Trust me back, Bucky. Let me choose you back!”
He took a step towards you. “Love, I-”
There it was again. “Love.” God, did he know what he was doing to you when he called you that? “Can’t do it? Think you’re too broken, and you’re gonna scare me off?” you asked.
“No, that’s not what I was going to say.”
“Then what were you going to say?”
“I...don’t know actually.” He took a few more steps until he was mere inches from you.
“Well, you know where to find me when you figure it out.”
You turned to leave, but his hand wrapped around your wrist, twisting you back around the strength and suddenness of the movement causing a splintering sound in your newest prosthetic while you collided into his chest, both of your eyes wide. “Shit!” Bucky swore. “Okay, that was not supposed to happen.”
“Bucky…” you growled, both in agitation that your new leg was already broken, and in slight desperation of if he didn’t hold you steady soon, you were going to face-plant into the floor.
Thankfully, he understood the hint, and more. His arms snaked around you, holding you upright while his head tilted down, his lips crushing into yours. “Please choose me back?” he whispered desperately against your mouth.
“Not choosing you back was never an option, Bucky,” you assured, your arms wrapping around his neck and deepening the kiss.
__
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neonacity · 3 years
Text
HYACINTHE | CHAPTER 4: JAEMIN X READER
SUMMARY: 
Na Jaemin is far from being your typical 20 year old. Instead of slaving through college, he wastes away his hours cracking safes. Weekends that should be spent partying with friends consist of illegal races on good days and small scale bombings on bad ones. 
Na Jaemin is far from being average, unless you consider being a member of Seoul’s top organized crime family normal. There is no such thing as a sense of normality and peace in his trainwreck of a life, so when he met a barista who was brave enough to call out his dangerous taste in coffee, he was like a moth to the flame. Everything about her is normal, which means she is forbidden to him, in all sense of the word. So why, then, does he always find himself at the front steps of her shop, breaking all his personal rules even if he wishes he could stay away?
A/N + Disclaimer: this is a side story to Black Daisies, my main mafia fic feat. 0T23. While the plot is based on the main story, this can also be read as a standalone fic. As usual, this is purely a work of fiction and in no way am I implying any member of NCT to behave the way I write them here. 
TW: crimes, heists, potential death, mentions of drugs and other illegal activities.
PAIRING: Jaemin x Reader 
CHAPTER 1 / CHAPTER 2 / CHAPTER 3 / 
FIC TRAILER
MASTERLIST
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"Hi. Can I have one iced americano, no sugar, with an espresso shot, please?" 
 My hands froze and hovered momentarily on the drink I was preparing as I heard a male voice say that from the counter. I didn't turn around to check who it was, but my boss—who is currently helping me man the cafe today—was quick enough to dash the pit-pattering of my chest. He hooked the order slip on the board in front of me and my eyes immediately raised to read the name there. 
"One to-go, americano for Youngho." 
I sighed internally. Whether it be from relief or disappointment though, I don't really know. A part of me wanted to be in denial of my emotions, but I realized you can only go so far if the person you are trying to fool is just yourself. 
It's been almost three months since that night that I last saw Jaemin. I wish I didn't know the exact number of days that passed since then, but I do and I couldn't help it. Every little detail of what happened was still marked fresh in my mind, especially the feeling of hollowness that exploded in my chest when I woke up that morning to see them gone.
If not for the chip on the edge of the table left by Jeno as he tried to hold a half delirious Haechan down that night, I could have easily brushed off everything as a fleeting dream. But it isn't. It is a nightmare, at least in my part. 
He really meant it when he said he would leave me alone. 
There were no calls, no messages, no visits, nothing. It was like he didn't exist at all, the past year spent with him nothing but an imagined illusion. 
We were back to being strangers again, exactly like how he wants to. If you think about it, it's selfless of him to do this, but I hate it. I hate it with everything I have. 
Why? Because now I have to live through the feeling that I'm the only one suffering from all of that has happened. I couldn't watch the news anymore without thinking about him. For heaven's sake, I couldn't even get an iced coffee order without freezing like a statue because I remember him. I hate it. I hate every single moment without him, as much as I didn't want to admit it.
I placed the plastic cover over the finished drink with a soft sigh before turning to hand it over to the customer. At least I can still manage to put out my well-practiced, service smile. 
"Iced Americano for Youngho," I called out into the receiving area as I slipped a straw on the cup sleeve. A tall man looked up and walked over to me to receive it. 
"Thank you for coming to Brick and Beans. I hope you visit us again soon," I said in autopilot, my words so well-rehearsed that I didn't even have to think through while delivering them. The customer smiled at me before giving me a wink.
"I sure will. Thanks for this, sweet cheeks." He turned and left the shop, leaving me slightly confused. 
My attention was then called by my boss who had just finished wiping down the counter. The man—who really has been more of a father figure than an employer for me—gave me a warm smile and motioned me over. 
"Can we talk? I have something to tell you." 
I briefly glanced at the clock. It isn't my break time yet, but the store is empty so I guess it will be fine. I shrugged. 
"Sure."
"Grab a cake for you and me while you're at it," he nodded towards the pastry fridge before walking towards the nearest empty table. I wordlessly took two slices of basque cheesecake, his favorite, before following him. The man has a mean sweet tooth and we both know it.
He was silent for a little bit as he took the fork to take a bite of his treat. I waited patiently for him to speak, hands politely folded over my lap.
"I'm going to sell the cafe." 
I blinked and stared. I wasn't expecting that at all. 
"You're… what?" 
He sighed and leaned back against his seat. He looked a little sad over what he just said but he managed to offer me a small smile.
"I'm getting older. You know how much I love this place because I started it with my late wife, but I really can't continue to manage it anymore. My children, unfortunately, do not have any plans of continuing the business. And they've been asking me to retire, too." 
I nodded slowly, taking the news bit by bit. 
"Do you already have a buyer, ahjussi?" 
"I do. It is kind of strange, actually. Someone offered to buy off the franchise at such a perfect time. And for a very good price, too." 
That made me smile. I've had this job ever since I started college so it makes me a little sad that it's going to have a new owner, but I really am happy for him. I just hope whoever buys it off takes care of it really well. The old man loves this place to bits. 
I felt him take a hold of my hands from across the table. I looked up and was met with a fatherly smile. 
"Don't worry. You won't lose your job. The new owners said that they aren't planning to change anything here and I told them that they had to take you with them." 
That made me almost want to burst into tears. I squeezed his hand back in return. 
"Ahjussi... You didn't have to do that. I can always look for another job." Who am I kidding? I know it will be hard for me to land another sideline especially with all the financial hiccups I am already dealing with so this is really sending me over to the edge of tears. 
"Nonsense. You are part of this business. You've done so much for this place so you deserve this. Don't worry, they said yes to my condition." 
I gave his hands another squeeze and he answered back with a fatherly pat. 
"Thank you…" 
"You're welcome. Just promise me, when you become a doctor, you'll give me free checkups, okay?" 
"No, I won't. Because you will always be healthy and won't need my help at all," I said with a wrinkle of my nose. 
That sent the two of us laughing. 
"When will the new owners take over?"
"By the end of the month," my eyes rounded with surprise and he nodded in understanding. "I know, I know. It really happened too fast. I can't turn down the offer though. To be honest it was way beyond what the business is worth." 
I sighed. "Well… as long as you are sure about them." 
"I am. For now, I'll be here for a bit with you. I just need to enjoy my last days here. So just don't mind your old man, okay?" 
I grinned. 
"Only if you promise to give me a free cake every day you are here." 
He reached out to ruffle my hair. 
"Deal."
----
It was a slow day at the cafe so my boss decided to turn down the jazz music that usually floats from the speakers in lieu of the television volume. It was an odd hour in the afternoon and I found myself smiling as I watched him flip the channels over to look for a good show to watch while I dried some mugs. Just then, the overhead bell on the door dinged, welcoming with it a pair of uni-looking kids. 
My boss looked over, but I was quick to jump to action instead. "I'll take care of it," I mouthed to him, to which he gave me a smile before turning his attention back to what he was doing.
"Hi. Welcome to Brick and Beans. What can I offer you today?"
"We'll have one dirty chai latte and one irish coffee over ice. Make it to go. " 
The couple offered their names and I nodded as I punched their orders on my POS. "Would you like some pastries to go with that?"
"No, that's all."
"Got it, you can wait over there to the side. I'll have your drinks with you shortly," I said with a smile. The girl pulled the boy over into the receiving area to continue their conversation. 
"So what I'm saying is, we gotta go. Tonight is going to be epic. The bets will be high for sure. We can get some mean cash if we put it in the right car." 
The other gave a soft snort and started drumming his fingers against the wood of the counter. I let their conversation act as white noise while I worked behind the bar.
"I don't know. You're not even sure who is going to be there." 
"Jeno is in the line-up. That at least is confirmed."
I dropped the metal scooper I was using on the floor with a resounding clang. 
The three others in the room looked over to me as I hurriedly picked it up with shaking hands. I gave all parties a sheepish look before turning on my back to continue what I was doing. 
This time, I was full-on listening. 
"If Jeno's going to be there, then it is a goner. There's no chance for others. It'll be full-on suicide," the boy said thoughtfully. The girl, however, shrugged in reply. 
"They said the others might come, too. You know, to make the run a little bit more balanced," she offered. 
"You mean the seven?"
"The Four, at least."
"Oh shit."
"Uh-huh. So I'm telling you, we gotta be there man. If we can't bet then fine, but we have to see it. It’s been ages since they actually went on lane." 
I didn't really know how I managed to finish what I was doing, not with how hard my heart was beating in my chest. I'm not sure how many Jeno's there are in this part of town, but I am sure as hell that there is only one who is a member of a seven-piece 'group.' 
"Here's your order," I said thinly as I pushed the finished drinks over to them by the counter. The boy offered his card and I took it quickly, all the while thinking of what I should do next. The few seconds of me typing away at the terminal was the longest quarter minute of my life.
"Here's your receipt. Thank you for coming and see us again," I said, my voice a little weaker than usual. The couple gave a quick bow before turning to leave, drinks in hand. 
There are two ways this could go. I could let them out of that door and have my only possible chance of getting in contact with any of the boys leave with them. Or I could call after them and…
I whipped around to call out to my boss, my figure already halfway out from the bar. 
"Ahjussi, I'll be back in five minutes, sorry. I promise I'll be quick!"
He had barely looked up when I started running out the door.
-----
"Excuse me!" 
The duo looked back at me, then at each other in confusion as I tried my best to hurry up to them without landing on my face. God, why do they walk so fast? They were just a few seconds ahead when they left the shop! Thankfully, they stopped at my call, giving me a chance to skid before them as I tried to catch my breath.
"Um… Is there a problem? We paid, right?" The boy asked me with an odd look. I waved my hand before finally trying to answer. 
"Yes. I uh—"
Well, I obviously didn't plan this out clearly. How do I say this now without sounding like a lunatic? 
"I heard your conversation earlier. You were talking about Jeno."
The pair exchanged glances again, this time tinged with suspicion. It was the girl who answered this time. 
"Yes, we were. What about it?" 
"I… I just want—to maybe know where he is? You were talking about tonight's—"
"The drag race?"
I stopped for half a heartbeat before nodding. 
"Yeah. The race. I wanted to come, too, but I don't really know the address." 
The boy cocked his brow at me in blatant suspicion. It took all of me to pull out all the basics I learned from drama class back in high school to remain calm before his withering glare. 
"You know Jeno but don't know the address? That doesn't make any sense," he said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "If you've been in one before you should have been included in the text blast."
Oh shit. 
I could feel my palms growing cold from nervousness. Still, I tried pushing on. 
"W-well, I was invited before by one of them. But then things fell apart and I started not getting any of the...texts anymore," I said, not having the slightest idea of what I am saying myself. What's ironic though was that what I just blurted out was sort of a half-truth, too.
Apparently—and miraculously—it also made sense by the look of understanding that dawned on their faces. 
"I see…" the girl trailed off. She cleared her throat and looked at her friend before glancing at me again. 
"Look, I can give you the address, but promise me that you never got it from me when someone asks, okay?" She asked. The boy looked at her incredulously.
"Are you crazy? She was already shadow banned!"
She shushed him and waved her hand off to shut him up. "Look, this is a girl thing. Don't mess with it. Just go ahead to the car, I'll take care of it." 
He scoffed but stalked off towards the direction of the parking lot. 
She turned towards me again and pulled her phone from the pocket of her leather jacket. I watched as she unlocked the screen before showing it to me. 
"Do you have your phone with ya? Here, take a photo of this address." 
I swear I could almost kiss her. I scrambled to get my phone from my back pocket and didn't waste another second to take a snap of her screen.
"Thank you so much." 
She nodded in understanding before locking her phone again and shoving it into her pocket. "Hey, a girl's gotta stand up for another. Who was it? Was it Haechan?" 
"Um…" 
She didn't wait for me to finish. 
"Really, whoever it is among them, I can't really blame you. They're all cute, but they do need to be taken down a notch when it comes to girls. Those boys," she tsked. "Dangerous." 
Oh…
Oh. She thought I was an ex-fling who wanted to teach one of them a lesson by crashing the race. I let that sink in before a frown settled on my features. 
Well, aren't you one? The devil on my shoulder cackled at me sardonically. 
"Glad to have helped though. But remember, you didn't get it from me, okay?"
With a wink, she strutted off, leaving me staring at her retreating form. 
----
I told myself I simply wanted to see him again. 
I reminded myself that for the hundredth time tonight as I parked my car on a free space by a gravel road, my eyes roaming the darkness beyond. The place looked deserted, and I had to do one last check if I really put in the right coordinates on my map before finally turning off my engine. The road beyond was wide but uncemented and to its left is a half unfinished building with metal banisters reaching out to the sky like skeletal arms. I swallowed. Every little thing about the space beyond screams danger.
Which probably means I am in the right place. 
I reached out to zip up my jacket and pulled the hoodie over my head before getting out of my car. My sneakers crunched on the gravel as I made my way towards a low wall circling the building beyond. 
Just try and take a look. You don't have to talk to him. You can keep your distance. 
I repeated that in my head again and again as I approached what I assume to be the entrance. A part of me still wants to berate myself for doing this but I am too far gone to try and play the denial game again. I want, no, I need to see Jaemin's world.
The moment I passed through a crack on the wall, it felt like I stepped into a different world. It opened up into an even wider area, the shadows of a multi-lane road behind the abandoned building beyond. Milling around is a throng of people, some smoking, others sipping on red cups on their hands. Some cars were parked against the wall I just passed, their headlights on with music booming out of their rolled down windows. 
I tried to swallow the lump on my throat as I looked around. Already, I felt out of place in the crowd, but I steeled myself to push on, my hands digging deeper into the pockets of my jacket.
"Hey." 
I looked up to see a boy around my age wave at me. He was also holding a red cup and what looked like a bundle of paper. My eyes widened as that came into focus when he got closer. 
Money. 
Wads and wads of cash. 
"You put your bets already?" He asked as he stuffed the bills into a small belt bag hidden beneath his oversized shirt. He pulled his phone out then, unlocked the screen, and looked at me, waiting for an answer. 
"Uh…" 
He gave me an odd look.
"Who are you betting on?" He asked again. 
I gave the first name I could only think of. 
"Ja-Jaemin," I stuttered.
That earned me a low whistle from him as he typed away at his phone, probably to record my choice of 'player.' "I don't know, man. Dude seems pretty out of it lately, but whatever floats your boat." He stuck out his hand to me then, and it took me a few seconds to realize what he was asking for. 
"Oh," I scrambled to grab my purse. I was in the middle of pulling my card from my wallet when I saw his face. Slowly, I put it back to reach out for bills instead. 
"Cash only." 
I sheepishly handed him the last few hundreds I have. He took them, expertly flipping through each bill to count them off. 
"First time, eh?" 
I nodded. 
I watched as he slipped the money into his already overflowing belt bag, thinking that he would leave after that. Instead he nudged his head towards the direction of the building and motioned me along. 
"Come on then. At least try and get a good look at your first race." 
I blinked in confusion but ran after him as he started walking away. 
We stopped at the front row of the half ring of people that had already gathered in front of the abandoned rafters. Just then, a huge spotlight shone over the road behind it, driving everyone to erupt in cheers. Parked in a single line at the foot of the road are five cars, headlights opening one by one.
"Jaemin's the yellow one," the boy nodded towards the one occupying the third lane. I stared. I know next to nothing about cars, but I know enough to be sure that none of the ones in front of me now are something you can buy from your run-of-the-mill auto dealer. Lowered, with shining reams, and a low motor hum that reverberated to where I was standing, I could only briefly compute in my head how much each of those customized rides must have cost. 
I heard the boy beside me snort amusedly. "Your first race and you get to see this. I'm telling you, this happens once in a blue moon," he said with a smirk. I didn't say anything, my gaze never leaving the yellow car. 
Slowly though, I noticed the crowd's noise die down dramatically the same time that a petite form walked out from the building. The woman stopped in the middle of the road and raised her hand into the night sky, a small pistol in her grasp.
Everyone has gone so quiet now that you could almost hear a needle dropping. Just then, the resounding bang of a gunshot pierced the air. Few other large spotlights turned on simultaneously, revealing the snaking road ahead that was disguised under the darkness earlier. I gasped. The roaring sound of engines blared beyond and with a new uproar from the crowd, the cars were speeding ahead, leaving trails of light in their wake. 
My heart was beating so hard against my chest as I tried my best to follow the speeding cars ahead. I was only able to comprehend the real expanse of the road the moment each ride took over its lanes—the place looked more like an abandoned air dock field more than anything else. I was barely aware of my nails digging on the palms of my hands as my eyes switched from Jaemin’s car and the others, particularly on the deep red one that he was currently toe in toe with. The space between the two were a hair’s breadth away and I could almost swear their sides would collide any second. 
That went on until a curve on the road appeared. It was the last turn before the finish line and the crowd turned wilder as the nose of each car tried its best to take the lead. I didn’t even realize that I was holding my breath until the last second when the yellow one took over the inner space of the road before swerving successfully ahead.
Everyone around me erupted in cheers. I gave my own gasp, hands covering my lips before joining the rest.
Jaemin’s yellow lambo parked on the finish line, the rest of the race participants trailing behind. I watched as his door opened, revealing his beautiful wide grin and tousled hair. He was glowing, cheeks flushed from the adrenaline. I was so caught up in the image that I barely noticed Jeno appearing from the red car, followed by Renjun, Mark, and Haechan from the other rides. 
I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I watched with a smile as they huddled over Jaemin, playfully pushing and cajoling him for his win. They looked happy, carefree.
But it seems like they aren’t the only ones who were out there in the road. My gaze moved back to Jaemin's car when I saw his passenger seat open. As if in slow motion, a girl got out of it, wearing the same wide smile the others have. The group hooted at her as she joined their huddle. 
That’s when I felt as if time has stopped.  
The smile on my face slowly faded as I watched Jaemin wrap his arms around her before pulling her into a tight hug. 
---
A/N: Hey guys! This is going to be the second to the last chapter of Jaemin’s side story! I originally wanted to finish it in one go, but I thought it would be nice to release the epilogue on Nana’s birthday! So yes, that’ll be out on the 13th, lol. Thank you so much to those who have continued reading this side fic! <3
Chapter 5 (END)
Taglist: @negincho​, @springdaybreaks​, 
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Text
Wanna Make A Bet?: A Mondo Owada smut request.
18+ ONLY. DO NOT READ IF UNDER 18!!!!!
NSFW: request and story under cut
TW:// exhibitionism, public pleasure, chastity belts, orgasm deprivation, cursing
Word Count:// 1,976
“a one-shot featuring mondo oowada practicing exhibitionism please? In the story, he'd go to town to do errands wearing a face mask. In truth, he'd have a vibrator on him with his cock in chastity and his mouth tape gagged under the mask. His objective is to finish his errands without anyone exposing him or him cumming in public. And I kinda imagine that he's doing this out of a dare between his gang members. To show he's a real man whose in control of himself. He would mainly be alone but his gang leaders would look from a distance to see if he hasn't lost yet.”
“Wait bro, you’re what?” One of the guys piped up quickly. Mondo just sighed heavily and look his friend / gang member in the eyes and repeated himself. “I’m an exhibitionist, man.”
“What the fuck is that??” Another gang member asked almost instantly.
“Jesus Christ- fuck all of you,” Mondo said getting pissed off at his friends. “I told you that sitting around like a bunch of little bitch ‘drinking and talking about our feelings‘ or whatever the fuck was fucking stupid.”
“No come on bro, none of us have literally ever even heard of that before”
“Fuck, it just means I like the idea of people seeing me get off, I guess?” Mondo said sharply looking at all his friends sitting around him. “like I get off on it I fucking guess.”
“So like, you want to jack off in public?” One of them asked.
“I’ll kick your fucking ass bro- that’s nasty dude. I’d never want anybody unsuspecting to fully see it dude, christ” Mondo stood up out of his chair and looked at them all. “You’re so fuckin dumb- all of ya! I don’t wanna be put on a damn sex offender list for touching myself in the goddamn park or something! I just… want to get off in front of people. It seems fucking hot,” he admitted while shrugging.
A few of the guys exchanged glances, and started to mumble to each other, just soft enough that Mondo couldn’t make out what was being said until they all looked back at him. “Wanna make a bet?” One of the guys asked as he stood up to be eye level with their gang’s leader.
“How much? And what kinda bet we talkin?” Mondo asked, admittedly intrigued.
“20,000¥. Meet us back here tomorrow at noon. Got it?”
Mondo just rolled his eyes. “Whatever, but I got some fuckin errands to run so you better make it quick, got it assholes?” He made eye contact with everyone else in the room, as they just snickered at him.
And that’s how he got here. In the bathroom of the garage the gang always meets at. Mondo sighs and looks in the duffel bag his friends tossed into his arms when he walked in, with no instructions further than “put it all on and get back out here.” ‘How did they even get all this stuff so last minute? Did they already have it?” Mondo thought to himself. So he did. He started by putting on, and locking, the chastity belt, which made him just a little too excited. Mondo hasn’t ever actually used a chastity before, he just knows they’re supposed to make him last way longer since he can’t touch himself, and he knows it’ll keep him nice and hard. Then he decided to use the duct tape, and gag himself with it, keeping his mouth shut. The next logical move for him was to put on the black face mask, so nobody could see the tape gag situation he had going on. All this for ¥20,000? ‘Fuck me’ was all he could think right now. Then the last step. Mondo held the little remote controlled vibrating butt plug in his hand and just stared at it for a few minutes before inserting it. He didn’t turn on it yet, and he was nervous as shit to do it too.
Mondo slowly and carefully walked out of the bathroom to the main room where everyone was waiting for him. He was already getting hard, and knew that whatever the fuck this was, was going to be a fucking nightmare. “Bro, everything… in place?” One of his gang members asked cautiously. The gagged Mondo just shook his head up and down quickly. “Perfect! So, you wanna get off in front of people without being put on a list?” His friend taunted. Mondo blushed, but luckily you couldn’t tell through the mask. “Well, I know you said you had some errands to run today, so why don’t we see if you can get through all those- but maybe without cumming,” he teazed. Mondo got wide eyed. So now, not only is he going to be horny as hell in public, but he’s not allowed to finish until the fucking errands are done? His face turned red and he tried to scream at his gang, forgetting about the gags, which just left him muffled and even more pissed off. Quickly Mondo got out a piece of paper and wrote:
“You’re fucking ON assholes.”
That’s exactly what they wanted to hear. “Perfect. Let’s get you on the back of a bike, because face it man, you can not drive with all that shit on ya,” the gang member chuckled. “I will be close behind watching though- so you better not cheat or try to lie, because trust me, I’ll fucking know. Oh and you’re giving me the key to that belt. It’s not coming off,”
With that, Mondo handed his gang member the key, then pulled himself onto the back of his bike, and the two of them rode off to the market place. As they pulled up to the big parking lot, the gang member cracked a small smirk, and got off the bike with Mondo. “All right, go do your shopping or whatever the fuck you gotta do man. I’ll keep my distance, but I’m watching you.” He said as he headed off into the crowd of people, leaving Mondo there alone. With a deep breathe in, and reaching into his coat pocket, he pressed the button to the remote control that little plug he had shoved up his ass. He set it to a low setting for now, and walked up to the first shop he had to go to. He took a deep breath and walked through the supermarket doors.
Mondo was walking through the fruits and vegetables section of the store, with his cock as hard as ever. Another man needed to grab something on the shelf right in front of Mondo, so he moved over to allow the man some space- and when he did his vibrator shifted just a little and he accidentally slipped. “Mmmh” he hummed lightly, quickly trying to turn it into a cough so the man next to him didn’t suspect anything. But Mondo loved the way he just felt. He reached his hand into his pocket and put the vibrator on a medium pulsating setting, that made him even hornier than before, if that’s even possible.
“Hnnnnnnngh” Mondo moaned lowly. He wanted to scream, his body felt amazing. He caught a woman shoot a side eye at him but she turned away and went about her business. Mondo tried his absolute best to compose himself, straightened up the best he could, and walked into the aisle he had come to the store for.
‘I just need 3- oh my fucking god” Mondo thought to himself. He quickly hunched over and grabbed onto the nearest shelf to catch his breath and control himself. He wanted to touch himself so badly, but with the belt that wasn’t even possible. “Hmm..” Mondo moaned out a few times. “hmmmf…” He already wants to turn the vibrator up to max speed, but he knows he’ll be a cryong mess if he does that. He only has one more thing to do once he’s done with the store, he can last till then, he thinks. He slowly makes his way through the aisle, grabs the three items he needed for his apartment, and tries to go pay. But god the line is long today. He has no choice but stand there and wait. Every time the line moved a little and he was forced to take a small step forward, his vibrator hit him in just the right spot to make him a god damn mess. ”nmmm… fuh..” he started to moan out in the still long line. He knew nobody could hear him, or cared but he was so embarrassed. The line moved once again, and this time his vibrator hit his prostrate in the exact right spot. A few tears formed at the corner of Mondo’s eye as he actively restrained himself from moaning out in pleasure.
Finally it’s his turn to check out and pay. He reaches into his jackets pocket to grab his wallet, but when he does, he bumps the button on the remote. “Haaaaahh…”Mondo hisses loudly as he arches his back a little. He took a few deep breaths, then pretended to finish a pretty unbelievable sneeze and proceeded to pay. The moment the cashier gave Mondo his change, he grabbed his stuff and ran to the nearest public restroom. He swiftly locked the door behind him and gripped onto the side of the sink and looked at himself in the mirror. He tried to palm himself through his pants, but the metal belt covering his fully erect dick gave him absolutely no direct contact with his throbbing cock. He starts whimpering loudly- but it’s not too loud thanks to his gag and mask. “Mmmmmh,” “hmmm hoh my god ffff-“ he barely muttered out. Mondo wanted to scream, or cry, or just touch himself once, so desperately. He felt like he was close to cumming from the vibrator alone. “Hnnnng” he cried out.
Mondo decides to try and stand up so he could leave the bathroom as quickly as he can, and find his way back to the bike. His gang member wasn’t too far behind him, so when they were both at the bike a few moments later, and Mondo hopped on without so much as saying a word, the gang member knew what was going on. He got in the front and took Mondo straight to the garage and tossed the key to him. “Ffnk you” Mondo muttered quickly as he ran to the bathroom he immediately ripped the mask and duct tape off of his mouth and moaned out loudly. “Holy fuccccckkkkk mmmmhhh…” He didn’t care that some of his friends were just a few rooms away and might be able to hear him. He just knew he felt so good and couldn’t help himself. Next was obviously the belt restricting him from touching himself. With a shaky hand, he unlocked it as fast as he was able too- which admittedly took about 3 minutes because of the constant pleasure he was feeling. Once the belt was off, Mondo immediately wrapped his hand around his now swollen, throbbing cock. “FUCK!” He shouted out in pure ecstasy and bliss. He was nothing but a mess of whimpers, cries, and moans in that moment. He knew he wasn’t going to last very long, so he quickly removed the vibrator, and fell to the floor. Mondo pumped his length a couple of times before he felt his orgasm quickly approaching. With one more stroke, he screamed out in pleasure “FUCK ME” and threw his head back as the white liquid oozed out of him, coating his hands, stomach, and thighs. He kept pumping himself slowly as more cum came out of him. “Mm…” he whimpered softly as the last of it came out. With shaky legs, Mondo pulled himself up off the floor, cleaned himself to the best of his ability, put all his clothes back on, and walked (even though it was more like a limp) back into the main area of the garage.
Without saying a word, or making eye contact with anybody, Mondo grabbed ¥20,000 and placed it in his buddy’s hand. He immediately walked out of the garage, barely got on his bike, and went home, thinking about not only just how fucked up his gang is, but how goddamn fun today was for him.
‘Maybe if I ever meet a chick we can do this shit together…’ Mondo thought to himself with a smirk.
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diofasolia · 3 years
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{Always}
{Shattered! Dream x Reader}
Shattered! Dream by @shattereddreamsau
Writings by me
Today (8/7) is Shattered! Dream's birthday and I decided to post a writing I did last year—which is also the reason why I eventually join in the tumblr
Because back when I wrote this story, I found Dark Cream comic, which made by amazing @zu-is-here
Her creations give me the inspiration for the writing
The story is long (it has like 2000 words in it) and may be a bit cheesy, but I'll be happy to know if you read the whole thing (◡ ω ◡)
******
Before the story start, I want to ask you a question.
   Do you believe that the worst person can change?
   Oh! How awkward, sorry, I ask the wrong question.
   What I meant to ask is—
   Do you believe that the best person, the kindest person in the world can change?
   Maybe…all it needs is a tiny push?
   The harsh whipping hits in my abdomen again. I kneel on the ground, thinking how deep the scar might be from that blow.
   "What're you doing!? Look at your king when I'm talking to you! Such a piece of useless trash!!"
   "I apologized, My Lord."
   Raising my bruised neck, I gaze at the former guardian of positivity. Those eyes that used to hold the tenderness, now only fill up with hatred.
   "Where're those fricking basters!? I told you to track down my brother and other Sanses!"
   "I'm sorry, My Lord. They escaped. I can't find where their location is–"
   Not even waiting for my sentence finished, another powerful punch land on my face. I watch as a tooth fall out of my mouth. Blood dripping down my chin.
   "Worthless! Can't even do a little task like that!"
   Multiple kicks and insults throw at me. The numb feeling slowly occurs in my torso as I curling up into a ball.
   Closing my eyes, the memories from the past arises in my mind, bringing me back to the day that I seal my fate.
   "Dream? Earth to Dream!"
   "(Y/N)? What's wrong, love?"
   "What's wrong? I've called your name for five times! But you didn't answer to me."
   Dream scratches the back of his skull, looking a bit embarrassed.
   "Is that so? I'm sorry, (Y/N)! It won't happen again, I swear!"
   I cuddle Dream close, letting out a giggle.
   "It's fine! I don't really mind it. But Dream, you tend to space out recently. Is there something on your mind? You can tell me everything, you know that, right?"
   Giving me a kiss on the cheek, Dream smiles gently. He assures me that there's nothing to worry about. It’s just the task of guardian makes him a little exhausted.
   "Well, if that's the case, go on and get some rest! I will inform you if something was up."
  ��"Okay! Thanks, (Y/N), I'm glad I have you by my side."
   "Me too, my dreams and hopes."
   It's been quiet in Dream's room. He must be very tired. I knock on his bedroom door, telling him to wake up.
   "Dream, I know you're tired. But you still need to eat."
   "Dream? Are you awake yet?"
   There's no answer.
   Guess I’ll have to get into his room.
   Yet no one is there, only an opening portal hanging in the air.
   A portal leads to Dream's corrupted universe.
   "I'll show you, brother. I know what you're feeling…I know what you're going through…"
   "No! Dream, stop!! You don't know what you're doing!!"
    Two vague voices shouting in the distance. I begin to run like my life is in danger.
    What the heck is going on here?
    What is this dreadful feeling?!
   I'm too slow.
    The half bitten black apple lay on the ground. I watch in horror as the small tendrils creeping out Dream's eye sockets. His painful screech rings in my ears.
   "Dream!!!"
    I reach out to him, hoping that I can comfort Dream in my arms. The positive energy…they gotta do something, right?
   "What…? Nightmare! Let go of me!! I need to…to get Dream!!"
   "No! You can't get near him now, (Y/N)! You'll…you'll get hurt!"
    I thrash in Nightmare's hold, screaming at the top of my lungs.
   "Dream!! No! Dream!!!"
   "What's wrong, love?"
   My teary eyes stare up, it's…Dream's voice.
   But it sends an unknown coldness down my spine.
   "Ahh, you're crying! Good, keep doing that."
   A sadistic grin spreads on Dream's face.
   "I love it."
   Nightmare is already sobbing, begging for his beloved brother to come back. I walk step by step to Dream, putting on the best smile I can muster.
   "My love…Dream…please, come back to me…! I love you. I know you're strong enough to resist those negative feelings…"
   Dream cackles loudly. The tentacles wrap tightly around my neck, pulling me closer to him.
   "Go back? To my weak self? (Y/N), when did you become stupid? Why would I do that?"
   "I've already past the point of no return."
   A bucket of freezing water splashes on me. I must have passed out during the abusing session.
   "Wake up."
   "Get clean up, we're leaving."
   I pick up my sore body, stumbling across the lonely hall that me and Dream live in. There's no one here except the two of us.
   "Make a choice, (Y/N). Will you join me? Or will you prefer to disobey me like my coward brother?"
   "I'll go with you."
   I want to weep, yet I can’t even shed a single tear. I shouldn't be upset. After all, it's me who decided to follow my corrupted lover.
   Filling up the bathtub, I submerge myself in the steamy water.
   "Why, (Y/N)!? Why are you side with him!? Open your eyes! Dream doesn't love you anymore. He's just using you!"
    "It doesn't matter, Nightmare."
   "Great job, (Y/N)! You make this AU full of despair and miseries! I always know you're my favorite soldier!"
   "It's my pleasure to serve you, my lord."
   I scrub my blood-stained skin, the wounds sting because of the soapy water. Some of the old gash reopened, making me yell in frustration.
   "We can save Dream! Don't lose any hope, (Y/N)!"
   "How? There are barely things we can do. It's over, Nightmare. Look at yourself! You transfer back because Dream shattered! How are you gonna turn him back? By let someone else eats a black apple again?!"
   The white dirty bandages wrap around my mess up torso. Why am I even bother treating my injures? They sure are going to reopen soon anyway.
   "No matter what you say to me, I won't change the path I've chosen, Nightmare."
   "I've already gone far enough."
   "I don't understand…he's hurting you, (Y/N). Are you still…in love with my brother?"
   I hate it so much.
   The smell won't disappear no matter how many times I wash it over and over.
   I hate it.
   My hair smells like those disgusting goop on Dream.
   Why can't I get rid of this sickening stink!?!
   Throwing the bottles at random direction, I tug my hair till I scream out.
   "What's with all that noises in there!? You better finish your business soon, I'm losing my patience!"
   I hate it.
   "I deeply apologize for making you wait for such a long time, my lord."
   I wish I can understand your pain sooner.
   "Whatever, time to leave."
   I'm sorry I couldn't save you.
   "My lord, where are we going, may I ask?"
   Dream's left eye glows in excitement.
   "I find out where those sneaky scums are hiding."
   With a wave of hand, Dream opens the portal leads to an unknown empty place.
   No one is left out.
   Nightmare, Ink, Blue, everyone's here.
   "And I'm going to give them a pleasant encounter."
   But today is a little different.
   Then all hell breaks out.
   Nightmare's starting to transform. The dark gooey substance covering up his body gradually.
   The same routine as usual. Nightmare pleads Dream to stop his actions while the former guardian of positivity just laugh it off, a bit talks here and there.
   "Miss me, dear brother?"
    The crazy laughter of Dream rings in the air.
   "Yes! Finally, things are getting interesting!"
   While Dream focusing on battling with Nightmare, I have to handle the two other skeletons.
   "I know deep down you don't want to fight us, (Y/N)! Let's just drop our weapons, okay?"
   Ink creates a bunch of arrows, ready to launch them at Dream. I block his charge immediately, slashing Ink's arm with my sword.
   My silence is always my only answer.
   "No one's going to get near Dream."
   I continue to attack Blue. We've already been through this conversation many times.
   "How…how's this possible?!"
   Dream can only defense himself from Nightmare as the latter one keeps on firing attacks. It looks like Nightmare gets more advantage of the battle.
   "Seems like you can't control your tentacles very well yet, little bro."
    Nightmare mocks, resulting Dream to lose his temper. He strikes at Nightmare blindly, only to receive a powerful blow in the guts.
   "Dream!!"
   I rush to Dream, who’s looking more exhausted than usual. From the way how he’s panting heavily, I know he's already losing too much strength to fight.
   "Get away from me! I don't need your help!!"
   The attack is sloppy but I didn't dodge it. Dream can beat me all he wants after I get him to safety.
   Even if it means I can possibly die.
   "My lord, I apologize, but we have to move to another universe again."
   Dream growls at me.
   "It's you who are dragging me down!!"
   They're still following us.
   I'm whacking to the ground in a flash. A heavy boot stamps on my ribs harshly.
   The nasty cracking sound and my piercing shirek fills in the air.
   "You're no longer useful to me."
    I watch as Dream disappears in a portal. He doesn't even spare a glance at me. Leaving me bleeding and slowly dying on the ground.
   "I've told you."
    Nightmare's lurking shadow towers above me.
   "Oh no, Ink! We must save (Y/N)! She's…!"
     Ink put a hand on Blue's shoulder, shaking his head solemnly.
   "We can't, Blue. Remember, our priority is to capture Dream."
   "Please, Night…"
     I find myself pleading to Nightmare.
   "Don't…kill Dream…"
   "You and I both know that's an empty promise, (Y/N)."
   Three skeletons begins to move towards the portal that opens by Ink. Before they leave, Nightmare whispers in a quiet voice but loud enough for me to catch.
   "…he's in Dreamtale."
   How much will you sacrifice for protecting your fallen love?
   "You really are dumb. You know that?"
   "Or you're just enjoy me breaking you apart bit by bit?"
   "Don't you scare of your own nightmares?"
   "I deserve it."
   "I'm already living with it."
   "You will always be my fading dreams."
   "It's my own redemption."
   "Surrender now, Dream. Then we can put an end to this whole mess."
   My time is running out.
    "Heh, I thought you know me well, dear brother. You should get the answer by yourself now."
   "…goodbye, my poor little brother.
   I pray to you, God. Let me see him one last time.
   I can't save him the last time.
    It's always a miracle how accurate the portal can lead to.
   "(Y…Y/N)?"
   This time, I'm going to save Dream.
   There's no pain anymore.
   "…at least…you……say my…name……one…last……time…"
   Crimson blood drips down my penetrated torso. I think I see Dream's crying. But that might be just my own tears.
   Forgive me, Dream.
   My collapsing body falls forward, landing on the soft grass surface before me.
(3rd pov)
   "Nightmare, I need your assistance."
   "I thought we're enemies now."
    "There's a method I want to try. It might succeed to bring Dream back."
   "Well, I'm here to listen."
   "She's just a tool."
   "Nothing else."
    "Because I know him well. The extreme emotion is the only possible way to get things right again."
   Dream mutters to himself like a broken recorder. Staring the wrecking body of yours, his non-existent heart begins to hurt.
    "I refuse! That's too dangerous! You surely will be dead in this terrible plan! Besides, how can you so sure he'll behave like you predict!?"
    "It's worth it. I'm doing this for the whole alternate universes, and him."
    "But…you…"
    "Wake up! I demand you to wake up now! (Y/N)!!"
    "It's not…worth for your own life."
    "Don't pity me. Pity for the one who can't help himself in his own nightmare."
    "Wake up."
   "Don't leave me…alone, (Y/N)…please…my love…"
   Ahh, it must be the time when he transfers into this horrible creature.
   Nightmare, who’s now in his uncorrupted form, widening his eyes.
   "…congratulations, (Y/N). Your suicidal plan…works."
   Dream doesn't recall when’s the last time he breaks down.
    No one dare to speak a word, except Dream drowning in his own pitiful cries.
     "Always."
     "I don't understand…he's hurting you, (Y/N). Are you still…in love with my brother?"
   You look at Nightmare with a smile, replying to him like it's the only correct answer in your mind.
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remsmoonlight · 3 years
Text
— title : just drive
— word count : 1.6k words
— pairing : rick grimes x reader
— summary : never had the inability to drive been a reason to divulge, nor had it been a problem. until a horde of walkers are trailing behind you, that is.
— warnings : swearing, implication of anxiety, mentions of death / potential car accidents, mentions of blood and gore
note: two imagines in two days i can’t believe my productivity, i thought it would be funny that being unable to drive in a zombie apocalypse would be funny because it would be such a useful ability to have ( ahem ahem my non driving ass ) this was meant to be like 500 words but it got away from me, anyways enjoy three hours of my nonsense!
                               ✧・゚: *✧・゚:*   requests are open ! *:・゚✧*:・゚✧
Burning. The sensation is fierce as you fight your own body to force more oxygen into your airways, to power you along to escape the deathly growls that follow behind you. Paranoia stokes its own fire, the feeling that walkers are much closer than they actually are push you to lighter steps in the barren dirt, the only tracks laid into its path are the ones you are currently forming with every inch you put between you.
Exactly how you’d gotten into this situation is not something you mind wants to visit currently, more concerned with your current predicament.
“ We’ll turn left up ahead, we passed a few cars a while back. “
“ That's as good a plan as any. “ You rush out in one breath, the words with a ghostly tone while you try to find your voice. Everything hurts, the idea of more running is not something you find appealing.
You wonder if the walkers are able to run, any thought to distract yourself from the aching your muscles feel at the physical exertion you’re being put through. For a fraction of a fleeting second, you turn your gaze backwards, your eyes running across the line of walkers that want to make the sky above you rain with your blood across the greenery as you flee. They do a very good job of speed walking, the amount of energy they have for being dead is something that unnerves you. Even after you have caffeine in your bloodstream, you have never had this much energy. What is their secret?
Tears blur your sight as you set your eyes on a graveyard of cars, dust that covers every inch of the metal machines show their age.
“ Rick! “ You exclaim, a new flower of hope blooming in your voice as your finger shakily raises to point in the direction of the car park. “ Over there! “
Both of you split instantly as you reach the space, your hands tugging at the handles of the vehicles, wishing with every fibre of your beings that one is unlocked — or at the very least, there is a key to unlock them nearby. Extremely nearby.
“ This one! “ Your voice carries over the distance resoundingly, the door opens with a click that blesses your hearing.
“ Yeah.. We’re lucky today. “ Rick mumbles to himself, flinging the bags that had been weighing on his shoulders into the back.
In the suddenness of the situation, your heart plummets below with a steep drop that you swore will not end. I can’t fucking drive. You gasp at the realisation of it, desperation twisting and contorting around the entirety of your body.
“ Rick.. “ Turning towards Rick swiftly, you pause in your confession. An uncomfortable heat warms your cheeks as you study him, unsure of how he would react during the worst possible moment for the disclosure. “ We need to switch places! “
“ What? “ His brows knit together as he asks you, confusing misting him completely. “ Why? Start the car! “
“ I do — I can’t drive! “
The confession leads Rick to momentarily splutter in response, his words cowering under the veil that is his tongue. Colour drains from his features, a continuous slap against the back of the car’s window from a lone walker ahead of the horde pushes him into a brisk movement. The action is awkward, the lack of space threatening to cause harm in the form of bruises from knocking limbs against various parts of its interior.
“ Just drive! “
With a haggard start, you examine the way your surroundings appear to move, realising that the vehicle is awake and increasing with speed as it puts space between you and the dead. You lean your head against the window, one of your hands moves towards the temple of your head to message some of the tension of almost being eaten away. That had been too close for comfort.
“ Uh, y’know I gotta ask — “
“ How I can’t drive, right? “ You finish, your eyes roll in response, you know he’s going to  find too much amusement in making fun of you.
“ And how you made it this far. “ He drawls, humour embedded in his response as his eyes continue to survey the road ahead.
Your teeth bite the side of your cheek, with strength that almost is able to draw the crimson liquid that lays beneath your flesh. Lips purse at the enjoyment you can feel radiating off of his body, as it wishes itself into existence.
“ I don’t know! “ You grumble loudly, your shoulders lift temporarily in response. “ I’m just always with someone who knows how to operate one of these things. “
“ You never learnt before? “
“ I mean.. I always had a fear of driving. No reason, just the thought that one wrong move and.. “ a shudder rips through your body with a blinding pace, your fingers lay tapping at your thigh. “ I could cause an accident, or even be in one would scare me to death! “
“ That’s understandable. “ Rick nods, glancing in your direction before breaking out in a grin. “ Kinda. “
A heavy groan vibrates inside of the car, you throw your hands up in the air as you realise he’s one of the worst people to divulge this information to. Your addition to the group hadn’t occurred as earlier as most of them, they’d been kind enough to accept you into their family after escaping Terminus. On a rare night, nightmares of that cursed location shatters the mirror of a dreamy slumber into a thousand shards that scar your mind for the nights that follow. Echoes of screams from those captured, treated no more than a prize cow that awaits its slaughter to service those with the butcher’s knife.
Truthfully, you’d gravitated towards the man. With the amount of trauma you’d been through, the way that when he speaks, you craved the comfort his words never lost. Certainty and confidence are still with him today, often leading you to believe everything will be alright. Even if the road between Georgia and Alexandria had been filled with gore and tears, everything has turned out fine. So far.
“ You are being so annoying right now. “ Cursing the man, you show him your middle finger.
Rick says nothing, he merely chuckles in response. You almost allow your mind to tread into the murky waters of the man you used to know and the transformation into the man he is now.
“ I just.. “ shaking his head, the cheeky glint in his eyes only sparkles more as it grows in size. “ How d’you not run into this problem earlier? “
“ I don’t know! “
“ It’s nothin’ short of amazin’. “ a gust of air is released from his lips, only now does he realise they’re dehydrating from the amount of running done that afternoon.
Trees and bushes blend into one another, creating a vivid merging of shades, providing a soothing palette to paint the most tranquil of artworks. You envy the way life has flourished under the lack of human traffic, trampling the environment without a care, you wish you could undergo the same change the way it has. The human mind has a way of making obstacles difficult for itself.
“ I just.. Can’t help but find it funny. Drivin’s.. It’s a way of survivin’ when you got more than one of them on your ass. “
“ Well I guess I am an outlier to that rule. “ your brows move with the motions your head makes as you try to muster an air of superiority over the notion.
You find yourself wishing you hadn’t succumbed to your fears, that you’d bit the bullet and studied and practiced as much as humanly possible. The fear of driving hadn’t been the only thing that stopped you from pursuing the ability, but the idea of having to take a written exam and an actual driving test? The two often colliding in an infinite clash of wills that left your insides in a constant, battered wreck every time you thought about the idea.
All you want is to be able to do that one thing, after all, so many had done so before. You’re sure that everyone, minus the children, are able to drive. Such a simple thing, you’d never thought would prove to be such a thorn in your side when you’d take the train to work. Life has a way of stitching together a set of circumstances only to treat them like dominos, destroying the work with little regard as it watches them fall one by one. The carefully nursed structure is a shell of what it used to be, the resting place of what could have been.
“ You didn’t give up, y’kept fightin’. I’ve seen people able to hotwire these things taken down. It ain’t the car that keeps a person alive, it’s them. “ He assures you warmly, as much as he wants to continue to find amusement in lacking what is now deemed as a life skill, it doesn’t take a genius to realise you’re becoming annoyed by the poking and the prodding his humour brings.
“ That’s oddly.. Uplifting. “
“ I do say these things from time to time, no need to sound so surprised. “
“ They’re so rare I forget. “ A smirk lifts the corner of your lips as you eye the man from the side. It is your turn to laugh now.
Light hearted chatter fills the limited space, conversation flowing just that little bit more freely now that danger no longer pursues you in earnest. You’re thankful for a drop of normalcy in a sea of skeletons that surround the world now, you can pretend that — even for a little, it’s a normal day.
“ What d’you say to havin’ some drivin’ lessons? “
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themaribatpit · 3 years
Text
Jasonette July Day 20: Then Perish
Written by: The Maribat Pit @jasonette-july-event​ Prompt: Then Perish (Part 1) Rating: M (violence, minor character deaths) A/N: We wanted to finish Jasonette July with a bang.  The second half will be posted tomorrow for the Saturday Challenge.  We’ve appreciated all your comments and kind words, we really do read every one. It genuinely means a lot to us and encourages us to continue writing together.  As a fandom you have been nothing but kind and supportive, and we enjoy bringing you fics great and small with a wide variety of genres, dynamics, and iterations.  Also blame DC fanboy for the memes in this fic. Marinette loved to travel, she had traveled all over the world from New York to Shanghai. Today, she traveled with her parents to Gotham City to visit her parents' friends, whom they had not seen in many years. Sabine was initially afraid to visit Gotham City, due to its crime rate and ever-growing list of criminals. Tom reassured his wife, saying that his big stature would scare any would-be criminal from harming them, that the trip would be short and they would visit Metropolis afterwards. Marinette wore the Ladybug Miraculous, just in case something were to happen. As the family got off the taxi at Park Row, everyone felt something was off. "Park Row really has...changed." Thomas muttered. Sabine held on to both her husband and her daughter, "I think we should leave." she said. Soon shadows began appearing around the corner, then came the yelling, and soon after came the gunshots. Thomas grabbed his wife and daughter and ran to find shelter from a hail of bullets. Marinette looked back to see many civilians, men, women and children caught in the middle of this gang war.  She needed to be a hero, her father could take care of her mother, she needed to save those in danger. She freed herself from her father's grasp and ran behind a corner, she whispered "spots on" and transformed into Ladybug. Diving and flipping across streaking bullets everywhere, she flung her yo-yo to drag any unfortunate bystanders into an abandoned building. While in a building with innocent civilians, she peeked her head out the window to see a monstrous man.  Wearing a blood red helmet and wielding two pistols, he systematically killed everyone before him. His flips and kicks were graceful yet brutal, the cries of pain and pleas for mercy made her shudder. She couldn't fight him, no, she was afraid to. It would be best to find her family, she did all she could and got bystanders to safety. She quietly transformed back into Marinette and went to look for her family. She ran back to where she last saw them, she scoured the streets shouting "Maman! Papa!" hoping that using her French would help her parents find and identify her. She soon ran into the Red Beast, as she began to turn and run back before she saw the two people at his feet. “<No, no no no, please god no.>” she whispered to herself, tears building in her eyes. There lay her parents, in a pool of their blood with bullet holes between their eyes. Marinette dropped to her knees, silently crying. The Red Hood either didn't see her, or chose to spare her and decided to walk away. Marinette ran to her parents, grabbing them both and shaking them. "<Don’t leave me, please don’t leave me>” she wept. Later, she was picked up by the GCPD. They escorted her on the flight back to Paris along with the remains of her parents. When she arrived, she was approached by the Aide Sociale à L'enfance (ASE).  They told her that she'll be staying at a nearby orphanage until after her parents' funeral. Then she would then be sent off to live with her only remaining relative, her Great-Uncle Wang in Shanghai. On the night before the funeral, Marinette was unable to sleep.  She curled her legs to her chest while she sat on the mattress.  She has spent the past few days researching the mysterious Red Hood, crime boss and self-proclaimed Prince of Gotham.  She read article after article of his meteoric rise to power, first conquering Black Mask, then The Penguin. Nightmares plagued her whenever she closed her eyes, she saw the Red Hood tower over her parent's lifeless bodies, covered in their blood. She was worried about being sent off to a foreign country tomorrow evening, while barely even speaking any Mandarin. All the while knowing that once she is on that flight to Shanghai, her parent's killer would without a doubt walk free. Morning comes, yet Marinette still thinks of what she should do. Could she really go to Shanghai to start her life anew, not knowing the language and allowing her parents’ killer to go on unpunished? At the funeral, while standing over her parents’ graves, she remained silent. The priest, ASE agents and her friends all came to pay their respects. Each of her friends approached her to give their sympathies, but she did not listen to a word they said. The Red Hood weighed heavily on her mind, and she made her fateful decision. To run, run and never look back. She had prepared a backpack containing the Miracle box with all the Miraculous, along with a few essential supplies and money. She turned into Multimouse to sneak on board a passenger aircraft to make her way to Gotham City.  Jason knew, better than Batman, that fighting crime sometimes meant getting your hands dirty.  What started as a petty squabble between two rival gangs grew into a bloodbath.  He missed Roy at times like these, Artemis and Bizarro were still missing, but he held out hope that they would one day return to this Earth. A teenage girl with an impressively sturdy yo-yo had burst onto the scene, trying to get civilians to safety.  He was a bit too preoccupied with the battle to get a good look at the girl.  Knowing Bruce, the next time he’d see her, she’d be under his wing.  Sadly, there were two civilians that neither of them could save, a large, burly looking man and a tiny woman.  The person who shot them with frightening accuracy had got away, moments later a teenage girl had arrived on the scene.  There was a brief flash of fear in her eyes when she saw him, and she would have just scurried away if only he hadn’t been at the very spot where her parents lay dead.  The girl was inconsolable as she fell to her knees and wept, pleading with them in French.  Red Hood walked away, thinking it would be best to leave her to grieve.  There wasn’t a whole lot he could say in English that would make her feel any better, never mind in French. He watched from a distance as the GCPD arrived to pick up the pieces, Red Hood watched from the shadows as police officers and an interpreter tried to get the girl’s side of the story.  From what he gathered, the girl’s name was Marinette Dupain-Cheng and her family owned a bakery in Paris.  Her next of kin was a relative in Shanghai, and it sounded like the best option for her would be to go and live there.   The plan was to ship her and her parents’ bodies back to Paris, and let child services take it from there.  He would have probably told her to get as far away from Gotham as possible, away from the clutches of a certain someone who was also orphaned in Crime Alley.  He saw her cradle what looked like a small pink doll to her face as she wept, before he turned and walked away. A week later, Jason had a break in the case.  This was all caused by some low-level members of the Falcone and Maroni families continuing their decades-old battle.  As far as everyone knew, the crime families swiftly executed the men responsible and went about their business.  Two crime families were unable to keep their lackeys in check, and now the people who weren’t lucky enough to be whisked away by Yo-Yo Girl, were now either dead or wishing they were.   He thought back to poor little Marinette, wondering where she was now. Bruce confronted him at the Iceberg lounge shortly after the incident, to which Jason explained that the perp had got away.   He had killed people before, and that wasn’t stopping anytime soon, after all it wasn’t that long ago that he tried to kill the Penguin.  “This may surprise you Bruce, but the Red Hood isn’t the only one who uses guns in Gotham '' he snapped.  There were some lines that even he did not cross, lines that he had drawn for himself. Judging by the accuracy of the gunshots, this was no accident.  Their daughter was probably starting a new life, probably on the other side of the world.  Still, he wished he could have said something to the girl, a simple “Hey, it’s gonna be all right” probably would have sufficed.  Little did he know that Marinette was making her return to Gotham City.  She would have her revenge on the Red Hood, and this time she had nothing to fear and nothing to lose. After her very uncomfortable 10 hour flight from Paris to Gotham City in the cargo hold, Multimouse quietly sneaked out of the crowded airport without alerting anyone. Marinette wandered around Chinatown, thinking of her next step. She was thinking about how she would have to go through the city with a fine tooth comb to search for a lead, likely starting small with his men in the streets.  Before she could put the earrings back in her backpack, Tikki begged her to reconsider what she was doing.  “Please Marinette, you need time to heal, to grieve,” she pleaded, but Marinette didn’t need the powers of healing, luck and creation. If and when she encountered the Red Hood, she wanted to bring him death, misfortune and destruction.  After all, that was exactly what he had brought her.  With a stroke of luck, she overheard someone getting a beatdown.  "You get your ass outta here, this is Red Hood's turf. If you wanna sell that shit, you gotta give the boss his cut."  Marinette whispered "Plagg, claws out" and transformed into Lady Noire, before sneaking up behind one of the Red Hood’s men. He released the person he was beating, and chased him out the alleyway.  She took this opportunity to swing her staff,  hitting the back of his neck and sending him face first into the ground. He immediately tried to stand up, as he stood on wobbly legs he took out his knife from his jacket. "Oh shit, Catwoman?!" he yelled. Lady Noire used her staff to sweep him off his feet and slammed her staff onto his face.  "Where is the Red Hood?" she growled.  "Screw you bitch!" the goon retorted. Lady Noire had a feeling that he wouldn’t tell her the location of the Red Hood, so she decided to try a different approach. "Fine then, why don't you give your boss this simple message…" Before she could finish her sentence, she heard the telltale click of a gun being loaded. She turned around and started spinning her staff, creating a grey shield to deflect the storm of bullets that were being fired at her.  She moved her hands at a rapid pace, and frantically pushed back against the hail of bullets.  As the bullet storm subsided she looked up and saw, up on the fire escape, was the Red Hood with an assault rifle. The Red Hood casually tossed his gun aside and asked "So, what's this message you have for me, Catwoman?" He gracefully did a forward flip and landed in a crouch.  "Wait a minute..." he said, the first thing he noticed was that this person was tiny, 4’11 or maybe 5’ on a good day. Her eyes were a bright acid green with dark slits like a real cat’s pupils.  "You're not Catwoman, you're too short to be her, for one thing.” he remarked “also she usually has a whip instead of a staff, who are you?" Lady Noire gritted her teeth, "You killed my family" she answered with a low growl. "Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down Kitten?" Red Hood's taunts made her snap.  She screamed "YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!" The Red Hood stared at her, as he crossed his arms.  "I don't even know who you are, what's your beef with me?" He asked, Lady Noire lunged at the Red Hood with her staff, she swung wildly to try and hit him.  He dodged most of her strikes with ease, “Is that the best you’ve got?  You’re gonna have to try harder than that.”  Where she might have lacked in skill, she made up for in determination.  She wasn’t pulling any punches, he had to give her that.  He caught the staff under his arm, and punched Lady Noire with his free arm.  As he went on the offensive, he slapped her staff aside, and came at her with a series of punches and kicks.   “So, what do you want Kitten? Money? Jewels? A very big ball of string?”  he joked.  “All I want is revenge,” she spluttered. “Get in line Kitten, you’re in the city that runs on vengeance” he retorted. Marinette was lucky that the suit gave her enhanced speed, strength and endurance. She always loved how the Lady Noire suit felt a lot lighter compared to the Ladybug suit. Though she shuddered to imagine what her opponent would do with this power.    He raised his leg to end his combination with a forceful downward kick, Lady Noire raised her staff up to a horizontal block to stop the kick. Upon contact with the kick, the staff split into two, and then Lady Noire launched into her counter attack. She was striking the Red Hood with a flurry of blows with both halves of her staff.  "Escrima sticks too? Looks like we have a Nightwing fan here” he smirked under the mask; this new girl was just full of surprises.  He brought his arms to the sides of his head in a defensive posture, blocking the onslaught of strikes from the escrima sticks.  Red Hood then grabbed Lady Noire by the back of her head, placing her in a Thai clinch. He launched a powerful knee to her face and sent her reeling back. He drew his pistols and fired a torrent of bullets at her. Lady Noire had to dodge, weave and use her staff to deflect incoming bullets. One bullet even grazed her cheek. She then pointed her staff at the Red Hood and extended it with so much force it slammed him against the wall of a nearby building. Without giving him any breathing room, she then retracted the staff. She launched herself towards him and then dropkicked his face straight into the wall. His helmet cracked against the tremendous pressure. "It's now or never” she thought, as she cast Cataclysm and swiped at one half of the Red Hood’s helmet. She saw the helmet dissolve and reveal the target beneath.  She noticed that underneath the helmet he wore a red domino mask, not unlike the one she usually wore.  She would have time to think about how overly dramatic that was later, as she used her other hand to pick up the knife on the ground that the other goon left behind.  She jumped on top of the Red Hood, “Now perish!” she cried out as she thrusted the blade towards the exposed part of his face. Red Hood recovered quickly and caught her hand holding the blade. As the two struggled for the knife, Lady Noire tried to swipe at him with Cataclysm again.  Suddenly, she felt the power of 50,000 volts coursing through her, as the Red Hood activated the taser hidden in his chest piece.  She powered through, running purely on anger, grief and adrenaline. She was only able to struggle for about a minute, before passing out from the pain.  Red Hood flipped Lady Noire’s unconscious body aside, before he took off his helmet to inspect the damage. "The hell?." he pondered, "So, indestructible staff that can do double duty as a shield, and the ability to disintegrate things with one touch. Let's find out who you really are."  He slowly stood up and looked down at her unconscious body. He tried to peel away her domino mask, yet it would not come off. He tugged on the mask, even to the point of lifting the unconscious girl off the ground. He released the mask, and let the body drop with a small thud.  The Red Hood began talking to himself "She either superglued the mask on or it’s something else. Considering all that she can do, I'd say 80% chance it's magic and 20% a lantern. Either way a 100% pain in my ass".  He heard a small beeping noise and gingerly lifted her hand up off the floor.  As it emitted black and green energy, he noticed that she had a ring on.  The beeping came from a small picture of a paw print, which was missing a few pads.  If she was a lantern, that ring was going to run out of charge any moment now.  He took out his phone and called the Iceberg Lounge. He requested that they send for a van to pick him up and his new guest.   He requested that the Su Sisters get her cleaned up and ready. He needed to find out who sent her and who she worked for. He took out the special handcuffs that Batman designed when dealing with metahumans. As he walked towards Lady Noire about to cuff her, he heard some more beeping, followed by a bright light surrounding her.  Her suit and mask disappeared, leaving behind a small girl in pastel pink clothes who was probably no older than 15 or 16.  Her long braid changed back into a couple of shoulder-length pigtails, and she had a pink backpack on her back.  Jason looked inside the bag, there were a few sets of clothes, a wallet and an antique Chinese jewelry box.  He wondered if that ring was just one of many tools in her arsenal.  Jason's eyes widened, he recognised her as the girl he saw a few weeks ago when the turf war in Crime Alley broke out.  "What’s she doing here?" he said to himself aloud, “ Idiot” he muttered. He remembered following the girl and her GCPD escort to make sure she boarded her flight back to Paris.  She was supposed to be with her remaining family. Yet she came back to, no, ran away to Gotham City.  All for revenge.  He checked her wallet and saw the name printed on it, he sighed, this just confirmed that she was the same girl. When she had her revenge, what would she do then?  He wasn’t the undisputed master of thinking things through, but even he thought she was a fool to come back here.  Gotham City didn’t have the best track record dealing with orphans.  He knew this from personal experience, but there was that time where many were rounded up and sent upstate to juvie, for the crime of trying to survive on the streets.  He would have been in the same position, had it not been for his own fateful encounter in Crime Alley. He shuddered to think what her other option would be in a place like Gotham City, becoming a Robin.  Part of the reason he wanted her out of Gotham was so that Bruce wouldn’t get any ideas about taking her in.  When the car arrived, he scooped up the girl in his arms and carried her towards it.  Marinette woke up with her heart beating frantically in her chest, the first thing she saw was a bright light.  She was dead, she had to be, the last thing she remembered was confronting the Red Hood and now he had killed her.  She slowly sat up, she looked down to find that someone had changed her clothes, she was wearing light blue pajamas.  She started to look around, to her left there was a large floor to ceiling window where she could see a city at night with bright twinkling lights.  On the table next to her was the Miracle box, she quickly grabbed the box and looked through it. She gave a sigh of relief when she saw that all the Miraculous she brought with her were still there.   Suddenly, Marinette heard someone clear their throat.  At the foot of the bed, stood a rather large woman who had a bundle of clothes in her hand.  Next to her was a blonde woman with pink highlights who had a tray of food. “Oh good, you’re finally awake” the large woman said gruffly, she set the clothes down on the edge of the bed.  The blonde girl set a tea tray down in front of her, along with a couple of pastries.  Marinette’s heart sank at the sight of the croissants, they reminded her of her parents and their bakery. “Eat up and get dressed, the boss wants to see you later” the blonde woman told her, before skipping to the larger woman’s side.  Just as the two were about to leave, Marinette piped up, “Um, where am I?” she asked, “Who is your boss?” “You’re in the Iceberg Lounge in Gotham City”, the large woman told her gruffly.  “The name’s Suzie, this is one of my sisters, Candy. Our boss is the owner.”  Marinette gave an awkward wave as they left, and Candy returned it with a more cheerful one.    She took a bite out of the croissant, it tasted cold and dry. However, if she was going to defeat the Red Hood, she’d need all her strength. She put Plagg’s ring back in the box and reached for Ladybug’s earrings; she needed a new tactic.  When Tikki appeared in front of her, she also quickly looked around the room before looking back at Marinette with a concerned look on her face. “I couldn’t do it,” Marinette explained “he managed to stop me and I ended up back here”. Tikki’s eyes were sympathetic as Marinette held her closer to her face, “Are you sure you still want to go through with this?” Tikki asked.  “For now, I have to get changed and go upstairs to meet the boss.  Maybe he’s the one who found me after the fight was over” Marinette theorized as she gave Tikki the cookie from the tray.  While Tikki quietly nibbled at it, Marinette stood up and walked over to the edge of the bed.  Inside the small bundle of clothes were a simple white blouse and black skirt. They were a little big, she would probably hem it if she had her sewing machine.    Moments later, a tall woman with dark hair led Marinette into the penthouse, a large room with a desk in the corner.   A tall man in a suit stood with his back towards the door, overlooking the sparkling city skyline.  She slowly stepped inside, looking around the room as she walked towards the man.  “Um hi, who are you?” Marinette asked as she apprehensively walked towards him.  She couldn’t help but feel small in that grand high-ceiling room. “I am the owner of the Iceberg Lounge,” he explained. “I guess the question I should be asking is…” he turned towards her and Marinette saw he had a domino mask over his eyes and a red half mask covering his nose and mouth, “who are you?” He threw something at her and she caught it.  She looked down and saw the Red Hood’s helmet, half of it looked as though someone tried to tear the metal open.  Then she remembered everything she had researched about the Red Hood, and the fight that took place not long after she arrived back in Gotham. “You…” she hissed. To be continued...
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the-fourth-knower · 3 years
Text
Diary of a lost doe, part 1
A short fic where my character Annabelle writes in diaries
Fresh off losing her parents, Annabelle Flaches must contend with trying to fend for herself and her baby sister Angelica. And with Angelica talking to a mysterious green orb when she thinks Annabelle isn’t watching, things are only at the tip of the iceberg.
This is for me and Aquillis’s “half and half” AU, our ‘main’ AU. not to be confused with Aqui’s pack universe which is her underground re-write.
Due to the length I'm splitting this into two parts. This is part 1, part 2 is here!
Diary Enry 1, Day I dunno.
Okay here it is. First diary entry I guess. Gotta keep it brief, writing instruements are hard.
Been a few months since that day. We’re doing fine. Angie started another garden. Moved to a new spot.
Got some new things for the house. Old car door and a tire. Not sure what I’ll do with the tire gonna use the door as part of wall.
Finished roof this morning. Good thing 2, might rain.
Angie still sleps bad if not next to me. Writing while she’s curled up. Wasn’t for scars on ear and having to sleep in same clothes she’d look like we’re still home.
Gotta sleep now.
Diary Entry 2
Maybe got a job. Illegal probs but $ is $
Angelica talked more today. Good sign? Maybe she relapses back into not talking but progress.
I never thought i’d miss her annoying stupid “hey lets go explore a cave and not tell anyone bout what we’ll do” self. Never thought about losing mum and pa ei
Shit crying. Bye.
Diary entry 3
Diary didn’t get too wet yesterday.Don’t think bout mom and pa it ends badly.
I can’t afford to break down even if Angie’s sleeping
If I break down then Angie will get upset
I won’t put her through it
I won’t
Diary entry 54
Had to leave town but am 600 $ richer
Angie’s quiet again. But she didn’t complain bout us leavin
gonna go for a city maybe. more risk but more money and places to live.
Jadetown’s the city. Dunno too much bout it but mum liked it.
Should get there in maybe a cuple weeks or so
Angie’s sound asleep. No kicking or anything so that’s good
Hope the city’s okay. Angie hates crowds.
Need somewhere with not a lot of crowds to live at
Diary Entry 63
Been a hot second. Settling in Jadetown’s pretty hard.
Find a quiet spot in the slums. Pretty shitty now, but the two of us can make it work
Angie still isn’t talking, but she kept close to me while we made our way through the crowds. She seemed fine as long as she held my hand
Lost her a couple times, but not for long. She seemed upset bout it.
Sorry Angie.
I’ll do better. I promise.
...
Diary Entry 169 (it’s the morning but fuck it)
The nightmare happened again.
Angelica having her ear scared by those monsters. mum and pa being taken away in exchange for us being set loose
Only it loops around and around before it’s just cries and blood and knives and screams and crying and they’re all surrounding me judging me for just failing everyone because you’re a fucking failure
Haven’t had it a while. Don’t upset yourself, Angie needs you.
Diary entry 169? Night
Angelica almost killed some street thugs.
we caught some dumbass looking punks bullying some sort of chao. I think it’s a chao
I ran up to one like an idiot and gout in their face to know what they’re doin, and the things went dark. I got knocked out on my ass, apparenlty the big brute that led them butted me in the head. Asshole didn’t even let me get ready
I came to to Angie trying to shake me awake. When I looked around the punks were gone, there were plant vines all over, and the other kids that had gathered were a mix of crapped their pants and mouths on the floor
I asked angie bout it and she just said she took care of them and that the punks had run off
What the hell did she do? Usually I’m the one saving her? But she was having none of it today.
Oh the chao’s fine, weirdass chao though. Never seen chao that just cause flowers to grow around them or in their footsteps.
Made 30 $
Rib’s hurting and headache, Angie fast asleep. Time for bed.
Diary Entry 170
Chao’s bak.
Visited Angie’s garden for a while watchin me watchin it. It waved and left right around Angie gettin up.
Showed up again when we got back home. Angie hasn’t seen it yet. Good thing, she wanted to bring it with us. We can’t afford three mouths.
I don’t like it. We save its ass and now its stalking us.
Made nothin.
Ribs hurt less. Still a bitch.
Diary entry 171
Angie’s found the “chao”
She talked to it all morning when she thought i was napping. Couldn’t sleep, too afraid of bad dreams.
It doesn’t make chao sounds. Or it does but really weird ones.
Then it turned a green light ball for a bit and back into a chao
Angie liked that.
I don’t trust it. Even less.
Need to watch it.
Angie’s relaxed.
Made 5$.
Diary Entry 172 morn
Nightmare again
Diary Entry 172 night
Angie got excited, claimed that she “found Trevor”
he lived near us back in our old home
Had to tell her no, every red mouse we see is not Trevor.
She says that Trevor and his family were gonna move here, pretty inistent too.
Man she gets caught up on the smallest things
Made 20$
Diary Entry 173
Chao returned while i was working. Left Angie on her own
Shes seemed like she was having a fun time being able to talk with someone
She’s not made friends much. Maybe i’m being too hard on the ‘chao’
Still gotta watch it. It could be manipulating her
Haven’t told her I know bout the chao yet.
Should i?
Not now. Angelica is sleeping.
Made 5$
Diary Entry 174
‘Trevor’ spotting 2. Angie wanted to go bug the person. So we went and sure enough as we got closer Angie changed her mind. It was a rat, not a mouse she said.
How can she tell the difference?
No Angie and chao visit. Unless it was while i slept in. but why would she be secretive bout it?
Saw the punk bitch again today. Looked like he crapped his pants when he saw Angie and she glared at him. That’s my sister.
Made 60$
Diary Entry 364
Got a new diary. Last entry for this one. Things going well. Got a good thing going for myself.
Angie found a new plant today, and now she’s got it in her garden.
Loved the look on her face when I got it for her.
Made 50$
Angelica’s chatted with the Chao again. Sort of like, is her guardian I think. Or is that its name
Guess good bye diary 1. Really weird to do but it feels right.
Angie’s sleeping well enough on her own. She mumbles but that seems it.
Do I do a good job keeping her safe
Diary 2 Entry 1
Managed to find a new diary. Keeping the old one just cause, and because I have the storage. For a couple of street bum does, we’ve got a decent enough house going. Been able to put it together from bits and bobs lying around, Angie even threw in her hat and added her own touches.
Looks ugly as hell with the plants holding things together and it’s all a mish mash of junk and crap I found, but it’s our mishmash of junk and crap.
Also saved up enough and am making enough to afford more than one pen and even some pencils. So I can write more often. Just felt like writing
Angie’s started to get more vocal again. I think she’s catching onto the fact the way I’ve been making money is less than honest a lot of the time.
I’m not going to sell myself for it though. I’m not degrading myself with that and nayone who fucking tries is going to a hospital.
And if any of those freaks dare go near Angie there won’t be enough left for a morgue to pick up.
Oh, and the chao’s still around. I can feel it. Angelica loves it, I think. I don’t trust it entirely, yet. But, it hasn't been a danger for the past months. So I think it’s actually a good thing.. Angie calls it Guardian. Maybe it's our own Guardian Angel.
Made 65$ today.
Good journal entry me. You got talkative. Writative? Whatever.
...
Diary 2 Entry 23
Got into a fight today, that was fun. The punks from when I helped save Guardian decided to jump me when Angelica was at the house. Guess they figured they could jump me without little sis to back me up. Too bad for them, when I don’t get suckered I’m damn good at defending myself. Sent them packing. Got a bit bruised. Why is it always the ribs with those guys.
Admittedly. I didn’t have to beat the crap out of them. But talk shit get hit, I say. They shouldn’t have been trash talking me when I was walking by.
-
Angelica was upset when I got back. Should’ve expected that, really. Don’t know why I didn’t think she would notice me being hurt, she’s got a sixth sense for that sort of thing. Always has. Kinda weird.
But, she did try and heal me a bit. Somehow, she’s gotten better at it -Ever since she's met Guardian, she’s gotten more control over that healing ability she has. I just need to make sure she doesn’t overdo herself again.
I don’t know anything much bout healing magic or whatever it is, but I don’t think what Angie has is normal. I think she uses herself for it. Whatever healing she tries to do just eats away at her. And whatever it was was enough to frighten Pa to move us in the first place
-
I think part of me might blame ANgie for it. For getting us out of the safety of where we lived near Agateton and moving.
But if we didn’t move would we really have been safe still. And it wasn’t Angie’s fault she did what she did, it was Pa who pushed for it and Mum who went with it.
So do I blame them? I don’t want to. The monsters that took them and hurt Angie are the ones to blame.
But they wouldn’t have found us if we didn’t move near that forest. But Mum and Pa couldn’t have seen it coming.
Ugh. brain hurts. Fuck this mind screw bullshite
Spent 123.54$ today. Groceries and supplies. Tampons are stupid expensive but I want to have a decent supply for when we need them. Also some food.
Made 13$. Gonna need to work more to recoup.
No idea if Angie talked with Guardian. She still thinks I don’t know anythin bout it.
At least, I think she doesn’t. She gets defensive and acts like she doesn’t know what I’m talking about.
I wonder why she does that. Wonder if it’s tied with how I react to her saying she’s found Trevor for the umpteenth time.
Maybe I should press her bout it. But I don’t want to get her worked up over nothin.
Okay that’s enough, my mind’s getting wandering now and I stay up if I do that.
...
Diary 2 Entry 54
Someone showed up with a bunch of robots earlier. Cause quite the commotion, sent people running, the usual.
Apparently he set up shop in the rich quarter and is causing all sorts of troubles. People have been coming to and fro a lot the past few days.
Angie got worried over explosions. Had to calm her down, explain that whatever it was probably wasn’t coming here. She asked me bout the people there and if they needed help - told her that someone would take care of the rich fops. That’s what they do after all. Who gives a shit about two practically orphaned kids.
Not sure if she bought it. Gotta keep an eye on her. Might need to pull an all nighter.
And we don’t have any energy drinks or coffee. I could go grab one, no one is gonna give a shit if I do, not in this current environment.
Gotta stop for now. Gotta focus on Angie not some stupid book.
Entry 55
Angie’s missin
33 notes · View notes
lengthofropes · 3 years
Text
POVs series
Part 2: Sam
(Part 1: Cas is here)
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words: 3,3k | smr: Sam’s POV as Cas returned from the Empty | read on A03
rating: general | warnings: none I guess?
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I’ve never seen Cas drinking through a straw. I’ve never seen him having a milkshake either, but here he is. On the backseat of Impala, with Dean sitting next to him and laughing as hard as he possibly can. 
“What is so funny?” Cas frowns at him, sounding sincerely confused. Dean can’t answer cause he’s literally choking with snickering. To be honest, yeah, this is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in years.
“You’re… you’re just slurping so loud!” Dean finally manages, wiping a laugh tear from his eye. "Cas, you gotta…” and he can’t finish the sentence because he's breathless with laugh again. 
"I don't understand. Is this supposed to be a dessert?" Cas asks. 
“Yeah, we can’t make a decent milkshake at home, so I thought you should try it here” Dean’s still giggling, but slowly calms down. “I know you like peanut butter with strawberry jelly, so maybe you'd like a strawberry milkshake too” 
“Oh. This is too sweet” 
And I swear Dean is slightly blushing now, I swear! This is even funnier than Cas slurping, but I’m holding back a smile cause yeah, this is too sweet.
“Yeah, umm… No, I just… I though you’d like it…”
“I like it, but it’s too sweet.” Cas looks at him and adds “The milkshake”
“Oh!…”
This time I can’t hold it back and just burst out with laughter.
“What’s so funny again?” Castiel is confused even more, I can see in a back view mirror. 
“Nothing” - Dean to Cas.
“Shut up!” - Dean to me. But I just can’t stop.
“Gimme that!” - to Cas again, taking the milkshake from his hand and slurping even louder than Cas. "It's not too sweet it's just perfect!"
We haven't laughed like this for a long time, too long.
Through the months Castilel’s been absent, times were tough sometimes. Me and Dean, we had to sort out a lot of stuff, and believe me, it wasn’t that easy.  
We talked about a lot of things, then. We started with the simplest.  
What are we about to do now? Continue hunting? Get ourselves a decent jobs? Should we move somewhere else? 
Move, huh. We weren’t ready to, at that point, guess we’re not ready still, not sure if we actually want to. Not sure, we know where to, how to, even. So many things have changed, we needed at least something to stay the same, stay solid for us. So we kind of… continued our usual routine in the bunker, with an exclusion of hunting for a while. We needed a rest. Probably, sticking up with the domestic stuff helped. You wake, make yourself breakfast, you eat, you read or watch movies, you make some calls, you exercise, you shower, you sleep. You do groceries, laundry, cleaning. You, being normal. Functional, pretty much. Slowly accepting your new world and the life you're now living. Like, piece by piece, understanding and acceptance comes.
Bunker felt so... I don’t know, remarkably unoccupied those days? 
Weird, cause we used to live here on our own, sometimes for weeks. Sometimes even months. But now it was… I guess it’s just knowing, that this time someone won’t come back here, this knowing… it made it hard to walk those corridors. I missed Cas. I missed Jack, too. But… you know. 
First month we stayed at the Bunker on our own. I mean, of course I went to see Eileen, it’s the first thing I wanted to do after everyone returned. I don’t even know how I can describe the feeling when I've read the message from her. I… 
We were driving home. With Miracle, sleeping on the backseat. And Jack’s “I’m not coming home” still too loud in our ears. And my phone beeped. It was her. She was the first person we got a message from. 
“Hey, Sam” 
That’s it, “Hey, Sam” - and it’s easier to breathe. I remember, I couldn’t text her back, just kept looking and looking at my phone.
“Eileen?” Dean asked.
“Yeah… yeah. She’s… she texted” 
I literally could add nothing to that. Dean just smiled, but didn’t say anything.
Rest of the road we called and called everyone, checking, laughing on loudspeaker, explaining, repeating the story about Chuck all over again. It was good. Those were the moments worth fighting for - hearing the voices of your family again. We were so happy, so relieved. And free, at last.
Next day the first thing Dean said to me, was that I need to go to see Eileen. 
“Nope, now! Pack your shit and go! ‘Cmon, Sammy, do me a favor, huh?”
Not sure I need to explain the argument between us, cause I didn’t want to leave him alone. Or should I say, the argument inside my head between me and me, the one who cares about my brother, and the one who loves Eileen. But well, he insisted, he insisted hard. And I’d lie if I say, to see her alive and well, to finally hold her, wasn’t on top of my needs. 
So yeah, Dean understood me even better than I did myself. He assured me, that everything’s gonna be fine, and he has work to do - go to the vet with Miracle and buy all the things we need to make the bunker a home for her, too.
I came back home in two days. Eileen went for a long trip to meet up with all her friends, and she promised to come to the bunker in few weeks. And stay for a little longer. Dean was pretty excited, though, even asked why the hell I didn’t bring her back with me immediately. So yeah, visiting her friends was a nice excuse to… 
He needed time. 
I didn’t tell him how heartbroken she was, when I told her Cas was gone. 
He needed time. And I needed to stay close. Because even if I’ve lost my dearest friend, Dean have lost way more than that.
Dean seemed “normal”. Not sad, not unnaturally cheerful, not heartbroken, not… anything. And it was scary as hell. I didn’t try to talk to him. He didn’t try to talk to me. Geez, at that time, I didn’t even knew how exactly it all happened. How did Cas summoned the Empty? Why it took him? But I just waited. I just think it’s time, when…it’s time. Because one thing I knew for sure, something in Dean has changed. Changed very deep. And it wasn’t a grief, no, that was something else. 
One morning I saw him looking at himself in a bathroom mirror. I just stood at he door, not to interrupt, cause the look on his face was… like he was examining himself, actually seeing something for the first time. Figuring, if he likes it or not. 
So, I was there, and I was waiting for him to be ready to share. Giving him time and space. 
Dean quit drinking. 
He just stopped. I didn’t bring it to his attention, that I’ve noticed. It’s just one day I passed him a bottle of beer in the kitchen, and he mumbled something like “nah, I’m good”, and next day I saw him opening the fridge to pour himself some orange juice. And the next day, we were watching something, and I put a cold six pack on a table. He didn’t touch it. So I just quit offering. 
I didn’t ask.
 Now Dean is siting next to Cas on a backseat. Today, it’s been two weeks since Jack brought him back home, but Dean is still always around him, ready to catch him if he is dizzy again (yeah, it still happens sometimes), or he’s disoriented, or unexpectedly weak. Cas feels much better, though. But we constantly keep an eye on him. Well, I’d say I try to, but Dean doesn’t seem to let me, you know?  Actually, it’s the first time he left the bunker in these two weeks. He rarely even leaves Cas’ room, though, maybe only when he cooks for him or goes to the library to grab another book. When Cas falls asleep, he walks out, and we usually talk in the kitchen or wherever. 
 When we go to sleep to our rooms, Dean doesn’t stays in his for long. 
Two months ago he couldn’t sleep in his room, too, but the reasons were different. I remember constantly finding him in the morning, sleeping anywhere else but his bed. Face on the table in the kitchen, in the armchair in the library, on the couch in his cave. One time I’ve found him in the backseat of Impala in the garage. Dean used to drink himself to sleep, when times were tough. Now that he quit, he just stayed up until he passed out. No need to be genius, to figure he’s been having nightmares. No need to be genius, to figure what those nightmares were about. I still see the burning ceiling in my dreams, rarely, but yeah, I do.
And yeah, he told me he’s having nightmares. He told me not to worry about it, cause it’s a normal reaction, and it will pass. 
What he didn’t told me, Jack did.
That day, I woke up and went to the kitchen to fill my water bottle and go for a jog. Jack was there. Just standing next to the fridge, drinking milk.
To be honest, at first I thought I was still dreaming. But then he raised his hand “hi” and I… 
“Hi Sam!”
“Jack… is it really you? I mean… hey!” I’m not sure if I supposed to hug God but well, I did. And he hugged me back and for a moment it felt like everything is back as it used to be. As it used to be, yeah. Our kid drinking milk in our kitchen.
It was 6 in the morning, and I’ve had one of the most complicated conversations I’ve ever had in my life.
Jack told me everything. About the deal Cas made to save him. About the price of that deal. 
About Dean praying to him every single night for the past weeks. 
Jack was good, though, he coped very well with all his new responsibilities; hell is fine, Earth is fine, new Death is great, heaven is getting some renovations, and angels are finally calm and satisfied. The only problem is the Empty. Since he detonated himself in front of Cosmic Entity, he has no idea what was  happening there. If Chuck was able to bring angels and demons from there, it changed, apparently, after the explosion, because the structure of the void has been damaged.
“Every time I try to reach it, it’s like I’m walking in the dark, like I’ve lost the path and I have no idea where I should go. I tried to summon the Entity, tried to open the portal - nothing works.” Jack looked concerned and dreary. “I don’t know what is happening there. I can only guess, everyone’s awake there. And they all are supposed to rest, supposed to sleep. If I made them suffer…” He looked at me with remorse in his eyes. “Castiel is there too. Sam, what if he…”
I felt sick. What if Jack’s right? What if all the dead angels and demons are going crazy in there? What if Cas sacrificed himself again only to suffer for the eternity?
“They all deserve to rest, and I need to make sure they are. And I want him back, Sam. I want my father back”
“Yeah… yeah. We all do. We just didn’t think it is somehow possible again”
“I’ll make it possible, I promise. I’ll keep trying. But I don’t know if I should answer to Dean’s prayers. I cannot fill him with hope, I need to make sure…”
“Yeah, you’re right. I don’t think he’ll be able to handle it, if we end up failing…”
“He probably thinks I’m an asshole” Jack grinned bitterly. “Or that I’m too busy, or I forgot…”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I didn’t pray to Jack cause I missed him too bad, and I didn’t think I’ll ever see him again. And about Castiel, I just understood it’s impossible to bring him back, the second everyone else have returned. If that were possible, Jack would bring him back with everyone else, too. I didn’t realise there may be a different possibility.
“You really think you can do this? Bring him back?” I asked instead. 
“I have to. And I will” He looked at me, stubborn and determined. “I just need time”
I took a deep breath. That was heavy. Seeing Jack again, knowing the truth about Cas. Stay silent for Dean. This is not the first time I have been hiding something from my brother. But at least now it is more than justified.
Next week Eileen arrived, and things got a little better. Dean was very happy to see her, though, like, really glad. The three of us been spending a lot of time together, constantly chatting about everything, watching movies, cooking, even playing board games. What can I say? Eileen is a ball of sunshine, of course everything’s better in her presence. 
And I knew Dean felt better, too. Since there were no news from Jack in weeks, I decided it was a good tactic, to keep the bunker filled with people we love. So, I called everyone, and the next month was full with friendly visits. 
Kaia and Claire came first and stayed for few days, they were on a hunt in a town nearby. Then Jody and Alex joined us. They both took two weeks leave from work and decided to spend some of it with us. Gotta say, I was upset when they left. Not least because Dean stopped making delicious “special occasion” pancakes for breakfast.
Charlie and Stevie called. They were on a vacation too -  just left to travel around Europe for a month. Yeah, good for them. They promised to meet up with us as soon as they come back. 
Donna couldn't make it to us, cause she was too busy. Things were relatively quiet in Stillwater, but her deputy got sick, so she had to work a little harder those days. So me, Eileen and Dean went to visit her instead. Those were two good days, a lot of hugs and donuts and the latest police gossips. 
The next stop was Garth's house, and Eileen was extremely excited to meet the whole werewolf family. Little Cas and Sam grew bigger and Garth warned us to be careful now with their teeth. Good point. We didn't stay for long though, just for dinner, but Eileen is now Gertie's bestie, and Gertie calls her "giant's girlfriend".
Not long after we got back to bunker, Bobby stopped by for a beer. He was doing well, too, same as all the rest of the survived refugees from the Apocalypse world. They all quit hunting and settled in Lebanon, living their lives peacefully. It was good to see him, all clean and calm. He deserved his retirement.
That was, actually, the exact moment I realised I don’t want to hunt anymore. I’m done. No more blood on my hands. 
Yeah, there’s still a lot of things to hunt in this world. But I just don’t want to. But we’re still the last men of letters. Why not to become…a mentors? Turn bunker into headquarters again? We can’t just leave all the lore, all the knowledge here, untouched.
This thought has firmly settled in the backyard of my mind. Yes, we'll come back to this later, for sure. When we will figure out all the things. 
A nice month, yeah. Then Eileen went to help her friends with a little ghoul problem. I must say, I’m still overprotective, but at least I agreed to let her go by herself, since she gave me The Look. Okay, three of them will be there, one ghoul. They can handle it. Besides, “Girl needs to have fun sometimes, Sam!” and yes, she needed some space. And she promised to keep me updated. 
It was the evening I’ve received “All done! That was too easy, I’m disappointed. We’re driving to their place now, it’s couple of hours. Facetime you soon!” No, I wasn’t relieved, because I wasn’t worried, honestly! But still went to Dean’s cave, where he was watching something, to tell him the news.
“Hey, got a message from Eileen, she kicked that ghoul’s ass”
“Ha! I didn't doubt her!” Dean grinned at me, making a sound of the TV quieter.
“Yeah, she probably will be home in few days. Listen…”
I didn’t finish. Bright light filled the corridor.
“Sam. Now” I couldn’t even see his face, but Jack’s voice was loud and high with emotion. 
“What?? Jack??” I screamed back.
“What is happening?” Dean ran out the room, facing the light in the hallway. “Jack?? Sam, what’s going on?” 
“Sorry, I didn't have time to warn you. It happened all at once. Sam, I'm coming in, I found the entrance. I can do it, I know. Explain to him, tell him…” And he disappeared.
We were standing there, shaking in shock.
“What the hell is going on? Explain me what? Sam? The fuck is happening? Was that Jack?” 
I wasn’t ready for this, it happened not the way I imagined. I though I’ll have enough time for this conversation. What was I suppose to do? Explain? How?? 
Dean was looking at me, eyes wide with concern. Okay, okay… just gonna tell it the way it is, calm and slow.
“Yeah, it was Jack…” And my mouth turned dry.
“….and?” Dean kept looking at me “Explain what? Sam, cmon! He was worried, goddamit! What’s going on?”
“Okay, okay… He, umm. For the past months he’s been trying to get to The Empty” 
Dean was speechless. He turned pale.
“He couldn’t get there, he couldn’t even summon the Entity to talk. He thought it was because of the explosion. But he, umm, he kept on trying. He promised me he will keep trying.”
“He… promised you?” 
“Yeah… He appeared here, a little more then a month ago. He…” It was hard to look into my brother’s eyes, but somehow, I did it. “Dean, he was trying to bring Cas back. All this time”
His expression was unreadable. Something between anger, fear, disbelief and shock. 
“And you didn’t tell me…”
“Because he asked. Because he wasn’t sure how long will it take. He wanted to tell you, when he’s ready to do it. And I didn’t want to tell you too, because if we fail at this…”
“Okay, shut up” He leaned into the wall, all trembling, trying to calm his breath. “He said… he said “Now!” Does it mean… Sammy, what does it mean?” 
There was a plea in his eyes. So much fear. And a plea.
“Yes.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “You've heard him”
Dean grabbed my shoulder.
“Sammy…”
The bunker started to shake -  the walls, the floor, as like an earthquake. 
“Sammy… the dungeon”
And we ran, as fast as we could.
So yeah, today we finally went to buy Cas some closes, although he seems to like all those Dean’s hoodies, he looks like an E.T., when he wears them.
Nothing extraordinary, just basic stuff like jeans and shirts and sweaters. Though Dean bought him a cowboy hat, and I swear I could hear quiet “Not again..” from Cas. But he scored with picking one of the world’s ugliest sweaters that I’ve ever seen - blue, with a giant yellow bee on the front. Dean’s face was pure shock when he saw that one, and he immediately put it out of the shopping basket, shaking his head. But the second Cas got distracted with his shoelaces, Dean put that ugly piece back and quickly went to the checkout. 
Now he’s drinking strawberry milkshake in the backseat.
It’s a movie night tonight. Eileen makes popcorn.
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