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#happy bluebird day
ostdrossel · 1 year
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Today was a good day!
The sun was shining this morning, and when I brought the cams out, I heard a familar song - a Bluebird! Later I also saw a couple checking out the nestbox. It’s been a while, they have not been visiting a lot during this mild and sunless winter, so I was very happy. I could not see any Starlings, so I quickly put some mealers in the bowls and hope for the best. And look at this beautiful BB man in the awkwardly bright winter sun. I have missed this sight. I have begun thinking about nestbox maintenance and will soon get to work to see what I can improve for this season.
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msclaritea · 1 month
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I remember Happy Days very clearly. It was a funny show. It was not epic cinema. Yet, Henry Winkler gets a regular round of random guest spots and interviews. Most people don't remember Happy Days. It's dated like a lot of stuff from that era. Articles state that actor, Benedict Cumberbatch was instructed to 'behave like Fonzie'. Why? That character is kept alive by Hollywood, not the general public. It makes no sense, how much time and energy they spend, doing it, unless there's another reason, because there's more news about a sixty year old show than there is the Oscars.
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gingerkingfisher · 1 year
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Mmm I want to see mountain bluebirds soooo bad
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No one else but you
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Pairing: Captain John Price x Reader
Summary: You and Price broke up months ago after a bad fight and you're still reeling from it. You're utterly heartbroken, but with the less that great wisdom of your friends, you decided to try and jump into another relationship to solve the hurt - one that was bad from the beginning. Will Price showing back up in your life get you out of it? Or will you be left with no one at all.
(No use of y/n or mention of gender/race)
Warning: Angst with a happy ending, fluff, cheating boyfriend (not price), Smut (no mention of reader genitals), soft dom!Price, nickname Daddy used, pinning down, dirty talk, praise
-💘-
Realistically you knew that you’d see John Price again one day, you just hated that it had to be that day. That day that you were on a date with your new boyfriend. The day after you’d just made things official. Pretty much right after you'd just gotten on at said boyfriend for distracting himself with his phone the whole time. Now you were the one that was distracted.
You and Reid hadn’t been dating long, just barely a month and half. You’d asked the night before about where he saw things going and then somewhere along the way in that conversation he asked if you brought it up because you wanted him to be your boyfriend. Then you supposed that’s why you did ask, and said yes, and he’d agreed to it. 
Of course you’d felt kind of happy about it at the time, but now - after locking eyes with your ex, who offered you a crinkly eyed smile before turning to the barista - you felt like there was a pit in your stomach. It was as if your belly was made of lead. Had you made the right decision?
“Hello, are you listening to me?” Reid laughed, waving his hand in front of your face. “Weekend plans. Next weekend. Selena’s cabin. Need a yes or a no. She’s messaging me about it and you were the one that just ranted to me about how I wasn’t paying attention to you.”
“Hmm? Sorry, what?” you asked, resuming eye contact with your boyfriend. “Where’s the cabin again? Who’s Selena?”
It was so unfair, you thought to yourself. Why was Price here now? You’d figured after being deployed he’d be away for a long time, but slowly you came to realise that it had been ages since you’d seen him. 3 months in fact. 
And now he was there in the cafe, standing in line for a tea you presumed, looking as handsome as ever. His beard had been allowed to grow, he’d probably not had time to trim it, it was longer and even in length. His eyes looked weary and his hair was messy, probably from running his hands through it too much, you thought, and you bit your lip as you noticed he was wearing that shirt you liked. The worn green linen button up, with a pristine white T-shirt underneath of course. 
“Do you know that man or something?”
You jumped when Reid pulled you out of your daze yet again, and suddenly all the bluebirds and butterflies were out of your field of vision. You’re opened up to the reality of the coffee shop, all the whirring and buzzing machines and emphatic chatter of all the tables around you. It was as if a spell had been broken. 
You gulped awkwardly and shrugged, rubbing the back of your neck.
“Sorry, yeah…that’s my ex,” you explain with a sigh.
Even then, even while you were with someone else, you still hurt over the way things had been left. That should’ve been a bad sign, one that meant you weren’t supposed to be moving on so soon, but whenever you talked to anyone about it they just said you needed to move on and ‘shag it out your system’ - whatever that meant. John didn’t feel like the kind of man that anyone could just forget about, even when it was you that broke things off in the first place.
“Wait, the soldier guy? The one that you said beat a guy up outside that bar?” Reid marvelled, fastening his eyes to Price’s place in the queue. 
“Yeah, him,” you murmured, forgetting that you’d told him about that. 
“He doesn’t look like I thought he would,” Reid snorted, watching him wait for his drink. “He’s like an old guy, looks pretty harmless to me.”
You held back the protest that had come to the tip of your tongue like a hot pepper. It wouldn’t do to tell your new man that he’d get flattened by the captain if he got on his bad side - that would be asking for an argument. Instead you bit your lip and watched as Price made his way toward you both, takeaway cup in hand. You were begging whatever deity might be watching over that he wouldn’t linger long. 
Though by the looks of things, he’d had a hard time trying to forget about you too. There was something in his eyes, something like relief, that made you feel he was glad to have bumped into you. 
He eventually came to a stop next to your table, standing close to your side. You could smell the piney aroma of his aftershave as it rolled off of him - sprayed on to help cover the lingering scent of cigar smoke. It combined with the smell of bitter coffee and sweet cakes and left you dazedly staring at him. 
“Hello, there,” he said simply
You gulped, instantly feeling your mouth go dry. What were you supposed to say back? Hello, how are you? No, you had so many other things rushing through your mind you didn’t think to respond with something normal. 
Did you think about me while you were away? Did you miss me? Did you finally realise you were wrong to hurt that man so badly just because he’d pushed up against me and called me names when he thought he was supposed to get served at the bar before me? Do you think things could’ve been different afterwards? Could we have talked more and worked it out? I missed you so much, please take me away from here. 
“Um…hi,” you said sheepishly, offering him a small smile. “How’ve you been? Did you just get back from deployment?”
“Yeah, just got back on wednesday there. You know how it is when I’m away. Spend the whole time worrying about everyone till we’re back home safe, don’t I?”
He’d tilted his head at you meaningfully, letting you know that he wasn’t just talking about his men. So, you thought, you struggled just as much as me.
“What about you, how’ve you been? And who’s your friend?” he asked, turning his attention toward Reid.
Price narrowed his gaze on your boyfriend and offered his hand, shoulders rolling as he did so. You didn’t miss the way he’d said friend. Apparently Reid didn’t either. Reid took Price’s hand all too willingly and firmly shook it, making eye contact so direct you wondered if he was trying to shoot lasers out of his eyes. 
“Yeah, good,” you responded, watching as their handshake carried on a little too long. “This is Reid.”
“The boyfriend,” Reid added, finally snatching his hand back.
Price raised his brows and glanced at you. You could swear that you’d noticed his jaw tick, but nevertheless he smiled and patted your shoulder, his hand warm on you, even through your thick jumper.
“John Price - the ex,” he said to Reid, before turning back to you.“Good to know you’ve had someone looking after ya.”
his lips were quirking as if he’d had to force the words out.
“He uh- has been yes,” you said appeasingly, side-eyeing Reid as he frowned at you. “Someone’s got to!”
You’d laughed awkwardly, tittering away while hoping the interaction would end. Though there was no chance of Price going that easy. He stayed and nodded his head slowly, his eyes narrowing on you as he seemed to lose himself in his thoughts. Was he thinking of all the times that he’d been the one to look after you? 
“Did you get yourself a tea then?” you asked, trying to end the awkward silence and - hopefully - send him on his way, you could ask him to go drink it in peace. 
He looked down at it as if he’d forgotten the scalding cup in his hand and back at you, raising the cup just slightly. 
“Know me well, love, don’t you?”
Your body all but seized as he resurrected one of his old pet names. You used to preen when he called you love. Now you were choking on your spit - actually genuinely choking.
You wheezed and gasped, quickly taking a drink of your latte to try and ease collapse of your windpipe. It might have settled if not for the fact that he started rubbing your back. That only made the problem worse. You struggled to take in the closeness of him, the warmth, how firm his hand was as he settled it over your spine. 
You brushed past him and got up, offering both him and Reid an apologetic smile. 
“Don’t know what’s…come over me,” you gasped, trying to find enough air to talk. “I’m just going to go to the toilet quickly!”
And before another word could be said, you rushed off to try and find some peace, desperately trying to avoid all the hustling bustling people around you. This was not good. 
-💘-
While you were away, Reid and Price both stared each other down. Left to their own devices they could both drop any pretence they’d kept up while you were around, not that Reid was making much of an effort to try and appear friendly. Though now he was openly glaring at Price, letting him know that he wasn’t welcome. Trying valiantly to scare him away. 
Price, meanwhile, was casting a wary eye over this new boyfriend, looking him up and down and not missing the woman’s name on his phone screen. He wasn’t the type of man to deny that men and women could be friends, but something about the way Reid had been messaging whoever it was so intently, rubbed him the wrong way. He looked from the screen and back to Reid, causing the other man to scowl. 
“What was that?” Reid all but growled. 
“What was what?” Price asked, raising a brow. 
“Calling them love and rubbing their back like that! You said it yourself - you’re the ex. Act like it and back off!”
“Ex or not, I want you to know something. I might not be in the picture right now, but I’ll tell you this - you hurt them…and I’ll fuckin’ kill you.”
Reid frowned, about to laugh off his threat when Price gave his rival the same look that he’d used in interrogations- the one that showed that he wasn’t above getting dirty if the situation called for it. It was then that Reid recalled what you’d told him about the fight, about how Price had almost permanently maimed the guy, he had remembered you saying that the man had had his jaw wired shut just to recover from what Price had done to him. 
Reid didn’t visibly back down, but he didn’t retort back either. He pursed his lips instead and watched as you bounced back to the table in the background, relieved that you’d recovered sooner rather than later.
-💘-
“Everything ok?” you chirped, sitting back down in your chair. 
“Yeah, course,” Price smiled, his eyes turning to those familiar crescent moons that you adored. “What about you? Survived, have you?”
You played with your hands and laughed awkwardly, remembering to swallow before you choked again. 
“Yeah, still kicking somehow.”
“Well that’s good to hear. Listen, its been lovely to see you, but I’ll let you two get back to it, I wouldn’t want to overstay my welcome. Just so you know though, if you ever need anything,” Price said, his blue eyes melting into honey, “just give me a ring.”
With that, he winked at you and left, not waiting for your response.
You huffed out a breath, only just realising that it had felt like your lungs had been fit to burst pretty much that entire time and looked over at Reid. He looked like he was going to combust. All the light that had been on his face earlier in the day had died and he looked sulkily down at his phone, angrily tapping a message into it. 
“Oh my god, Reid, I’m so sorry about that,” you sighed, closing your eyes as you finally realised what had just happened. “He can be really intense, and I didn’t realise he was going to come barging up to us like that! Anyway,why don’t we get things back on track, what were you saying about going away to a cabin?”
It was Reid’s turn again to blank you now. He continued to type a message to whoever he was talking to and left you in silence, listening to his thumb angrily jamming down on the glass. You tried again and he still didn’t respond, and soon it began to feel like every tap on the screen was a hammer in the nail of your coffin. 
-💘-
You had thought you’d resolved that argument that night. 
You had spent the whole rest of the outing shuttered out from any conversation with him, only to spend hours when you’d gotten home locked in a bitter fight. He’d said you could’ve backed him up a bit more and made him look less like a fool, and you’d agreed and tried to tell him that you were so overwhelmed you weren’t sure how to react, though you knew you could’ve tried to have handled it better. You just weren’t sure what you would’ve been able to do differently. 
There had been some back and fourth for a while, but eventually it was settled when you’d said you’d block him and delete him off of everything and that was the end of that. Or so you had so naively believed. 
You’d gone along to the cabin on the Friday of the following weekend and soon it was revealed to you that that hadn’t been the end of things at all. 
Everything had started off fine, it had been nice even. You’d all gotten camping chairs and had sat round a big fire drinking and getting to know all of Reid’s friends and were enjoying yourself immensely. However as the night wore on and Reid had gotten drunker and drunker - Price had eventually come up. That’s when everything did a complete 180. 
Someone, for some godforsaken reason, had brought up awkward ex stories and Reid jumped at the chance to tell everyone about the coffee shop encounter. He spared no detail in making Price sound like a disgusting lecherous old man, and laughed as he told everyone about how he’d been threatened. A detail he’d forgotten to tell you when you’d had your discussion.
“You didn’t tell me about that,” you’d protested weakly, putting your hand on his thigh. “You should’ve said something. That’s not right that he threatened you.”
He shook his leg from your grip and laughed bitterly, taking another swig of his vodka. Suddenly the taste of the spirit was acrid in your throat and the smoke from the fire was stifling you. The evening was going downhill fast.
You turned around and took a glance at his friends, they were all laughing about it, apparently finding it hilarious that an old man had threatened Reid. Everyone was in hysterics apart from one of the girls, the girl who’s cabin it was. She didn’t appear to be hearing any new information, she was just smiling like a cheshire cat and opening another cocktail can. 
“Didn’t take it seriously then, did I?” Reid shrugged, looking around at all the laughing faces with glee. “What’s he gonna do? Knock me over with his walking stick? That guy was like a hundred years old.”
You wanted to say that it was funny he didn’t say that to Price’s face, but immediately thought better of it. Instead you just tried to laugh it off and hope the subject changed, but ultimately it didn’t. Instead you became the group target when one of his friends had sniggered and asked if Reid wasn’t too young for you. Must be hard keeping up with someone your own age instead of someone that falls asleep when you get on top, and apparently it was the funniest jokes in the world to everyone but you. 
For the whole rest of the trip his friends had kept bringing up your supposed penchant for gross old men and had kept the joke going. They brought up pictures of old actors and asked if you’d ‘smash them’ and when one of the men from a neighbouring cabin had walked by, of course an older man walking his even older doddering greyhound, they’d told Reid to hold you back before you ran off with him.
It wasn’t fair, you’d thought. Price wasn’t actually that much older than you. Sure, there was a little bit of an age gap, the lines on his face were a little deeper than other people his age and there was a bit of grey creeping into his hair, but he spent most of his time fighting and commanding big groups of soldiers. It would age anyone quickly!
However, as if that wasn’t humiliating enough, Selena (Cabin owner and supposedly happily committed friend of Reid’s) had come up to Reid on the second night while you were supposed to go away to get something to drink. Somehow, between you going away and hastily coming back to ask what he wanted instead of the drink you were out of, she’d wandered onto his lap. You stood by the patio door, no longer noticing the chill in the air and instead honed in on the fact that she was stroking a hand through his hair and murmuring to him softly and sickly sweet. 
“I like your hair like this,” she’d said, her voice sultry and low. “Why’d you never style it like this when we were together.”
“Oh yeah?” Reid responded, gripping her hand in his. “I guess I hadn’t figured out how to do it yet.”
You bit your lip, not feeling like you could say anything yet, knowing that you’d only be made to look like a jealous hypocrite if you protested at an ex getting a little too close. They hadn’t actually done anything yet, you told yourself, they were just sitting together on the old deck chair. He looked like he was about to take her hand off of his head. She was barely even touching him to start with really!
Until she was.
She leaned in and sloppily kissed him, her drunken body swaying as she fought to keep her balance on top of his wobbly legs. Bile rose in your throat as you watched them together and suddenly the entire weight of the weekend was upon you. The jeering of his friends, Reid refusing to stop them making fun of you and telling you to grow up, and finally watching them both locked in a kiss that Reid was in no way trying to get away from. 
You blubbered out a pathetic cry and ran to your room, grabbing your things in a blind panic and barely checking that you had everything, only really worrying about your car keys. You ensured that you had them clasped tightly in your hands, stabbing yourself with the rigid metal, and rushed to your car. You hastily threw your bag into the back and slammed the door loudly. You’d gone to open the drivers door when Reid came bounding up behind you, shouting after you and having the audacity to look angry.
You watched him rush over in a panic, and leapt into the car seat, making extra sure to lock the door as you got in. You’d done it just in time too. Just as the click of the lock had sounded, Reid angrily pounded on the window and screamed at you, telling you not to overreact and get out the car. 
“I’m not overreacting, I’m going home!”
“You can’t drive, you’ve been drinking,” he growled.
“I’ve been drinking lime sodas,” you screamed back, turning the engine over as you angrily jerked the keys. “And I saw you kiss her back! If you think I’m gonna let that go then you’re dead wrong! This is over.”
“Oh, come on! I didn’t do that, you’re making things up. Just come out the car and talk to me for a minute!”
You glared at him and put your foot on the clutch, revving the car as you waited for him to get out of your way. He stood resolute and threw his arms in the sky, looking ready to rip you out of the car with his bare hands.
“If your stupid army man came over and did the same you’d probably kiss him back too!”
That did it. 
You reversed the car in a flash and turned round, uncaring if you bashed into anything. As long as you didn’t run over Reid (as much as you kind of wanted to), you were happy to do anything just to get out of the drive. You turned the car successfully, even managing to leave dent free and barrelled your way down the road. Wiping furiously at your tears so that you could see your way down the unlit country roads.
-💘-
When you finally got back to your town, you weren’t able to go home right away. You didn’t have the strength to drive on. You’d been hounded with text messages and calls and the sounds of vibrations and sight of angry words had put you too on edge. You couldn’t go on.
Instead, you’d stopped in the Tesco Extra car park and rammed on your break, sitting in a relatively abandoned section near the back. You hastily turned off your phone and threw it in the back seat before draping your arms over the steering wheel, then crying into them like something out of a cheesy movie. 
It wasn’t fair. 
You’d just wanted to have a nice weekend away and instead you’d spent the entire time being the butt of a dumb joke and had been cheated on to boot. It felt like nothing in your life could go right.
Every one of your friends had encouraged you to get with Reid, had told you things would be much better with someone that would actually be home and not off in some random country video calling you from miles away; and at that moment you wanted to facetime each and everyone one of them and show them exactly where that advice had gotten you.
Look at my big ugly crying face and feel awful, you stupid idiots!
Even when you were mid breakdown in your car you still knew that that wasn’t fair. It wasn’t their faults he was a cheat. Instead you just kept weeping quietly to yourself and letting the hot tears roll down your face like acid, stinging at your irritated skin. It felt good to get it all out and soon you were running out of anything to cry with anyway.Your big snuffly sobs were turning into quiet breaths and eventually no sound left you as you stared ahead into nothing, the neon shop lights blurring in the corners of your eyes.
Your calm didn’t last for long though. A knock came at your window and you jumped out of your skin, bolting upright and looking at the glass with panic. At first you thought Reid had somehow found a way to follow you home, but it turned out to be worse than you’d first assumed. It wasn’t your now ex, it was the ex before him - Price. 
You took a moment to catch your breath and furiously rubbed at your eyes, hoping that he hadn’t noticed what you’d been doing all hunched over in the dark. However, your motions had completely betrayed you and before you could think to roll down your window, he was coming over to the passenger side of the car and tapping on the glass again and motioning to the lock.
He wanted to get in. For crying out loud, what was this day?
You groaned, but knew there was no use denying him and weakly pulled up the lock, wincing as he wrenched open the old door and shut it with a bang. 
“What happened? Are you ok?” He asked, gripping your arm with a reassuring squeeze. “Are you hurt?”
He looked ready to follow through with his supposed murder threat when he’d asked the last question. You swallowed thickly and scanned his face, noticing that he looked less tired than when you’d last seen him, he was more focused as he glared.
He had shaved the mutton chops back into his beard, but he was still wearing the old green shirt that you loved, it looked like it had been washed many times since you’d seen it. It was fraying even more than it had been. 
“No, I’m ok,” you finally responded, your voice going croaky. “I just- I just had a bad weekend is all. I’d rather not talk about it. I’ll be fine once I get myself home and then I can sort myself out from there.”
“You’re in no state to get yourself home, not like this,” Price admonished, easily sliding his palm against your face. It felt cool to the touch, it soothed your burning cheek. “Did you come here to get something? Do you want me to go in for you while you wait here? Then we can figure out how to get you home.”
He made sure you were making eye contact, he was speaking in that low familiar tone he used to use with you. The one that used to send your heart sparkling like a firework fuse ready to blow. You could already feel the beginnings of a sparkler fire, there was something fizzling away and making your heartbeat flutter and skip. 
“No! No, I didn’t come to get anything, I just needed to stop for a minute. You don’t have to do any of that, honestly I’d feel awful for you if you had to go trailing after me,” you laughed, trying to brush off how heartbroken you were. “Please John, don’t put yourself out all for-”
“Nonsense. Wait here and I’ll be back in a second.”
“John!” you protested, watching as he slid out of the car.
“I mean it,” he said sternly, giving you a serious look. “You move from this spot and I’ll be cross, love. Sit tight.”
There was no arguing with him. It was as if he’d tapped into some deep seeded programming and reactivated it as if he’d never left. Ill be cross love. The last thing you wanted to do was disappoint him.
You relaxed back in your chair and watched curiously, still rubbing your eyes of the drying salt, tracking Price as he ran over a little ways to his car and brought a bag out of it. He surveyed the car park, visibility peering around, watching for any cars that might cross his path and came back to you before very long. Efficient as always.
He drew to a stop in front of the driver's side and opened the door, beckoning you out. You frowned and crossed your arms, ready to put up a fight at him wanting to drive your car. For one thing, he hated driving it and would always come off the clutch too hard - a problem you weren’t even sure why you were worrying about at a time like that - and for another you weren’t sure you were in the right state to let him be your caretaker at that moment. You were so vulnerable and you didn’t want to hurt yourself further by being around the one man that held the key to making or breaking you. 
“Are you really going to fight me on this?” He asked, tilting his head down at you.
His forehead creased and he stared at you intently, willing you out with whatever mind powers he seemed to possess. That’s how it felt like with him sometimes. He had such a knack for getting what he wanted out of you, and to be truthful it was often better that way. He knew best. 
Apart from when he started that fight. 
You shivered and shook the thought from your mind, taking one last look at his unbudging frame. It was useless arguing with him. He was right anyway. You were in no state to get yourself home, you were bleary eyed and weak, you’d probably end up running a red light and ramming into another car knowing your luck. Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, you thought darkly, you could only take so much more. 
However, you soon gave in. You went to unbuckle your seatbelt and finally realised in all your upset you hadn’t even done it up in the first place, so you awkwardly drew your hand back, looking up to see Price’s ‘I told you you weren’t fit to drive’ look. Your face flushed then and it felt like you’d touched the sun. 
You recovered eventually, then sighed and stood out from the seat, winding your way round to the passenger side and settling in. He joined you in the car after that, sitting in your driver's seat and rattling the car with his extra weight. From there he settled his shopping bag on his lap and pulled out a can of coke from its box and handed it to you.
From the small peak you’d gotten he had clearly meant for the juice to be a mixer for whatever crappy whiskey he’d gotten for himself, but there was little chance of him giving you any of that while you were in the state you were in. He had a rule about you drinking when you were upset. He was already shoving the bag in the back of the car by the time you’d even amusedly thought about asking about it. 
“There. You sit there a moment and drink that and I’ll get you home.”
“You don’t have to give me your shopping, John. You’re going out of your way enough as it is. You’re already leaving your car behind!” You said, motioning to his old Honda. “How will you get home after? You’re putting yourself out too much!”
“It’s just a can of juice, love. I reckon I’ll be good for it,” he snorted, finally starting up the car again. “And don’t you worry about me. Just focus on calming down and feeling better.”
It was comical watching him get used to your car again, almost enough to make you forget about the hell you’d driven away from. Price swore under his breath and grumbled as he worked his foot against the ‘stupid overly high clutch’ and ‘stiff bloody gearshift’, but he managed to get it out of the car park. Soon you were leaving the blurry red and blue lights of the shop in the distance. 
You said nothing for the duration of the drive. Instead you sat obediently and drank your coke, barely thinking of anything at all as the familiar sights of the city passed you by. The McDonald’s drive through, the old ratty furniture and charity shops that littered the streets before your own, and of course the pet store you always liked to visit. The one that Price always used to suck a breath in at (he always worried you’d come home with something one day). 
Meanwhile the coke bubbles fizzed and washed over your tongue, tickling at your dry throat. Admittedly it did help you to feel a little better as time went on. That with the added distraction of watching Price focusing intently on not stalling your car almost let you forget all about the shitty couple of days you’d just endured. 
Finally you rolled to a stop in a parking spot just a few steps away from your doorway and the rumbling growls of your car died. The fuzz of the silence burned at your ears and eventually it was too much, you clicked your tongue and turned to Price awkwardly offering him a half smile. You were about to brush him off with a thank you, but you were beaten to breaking the quiet streak before you could even open your mouth. 
“Are you going to tell me what he did?” He asked, glancing at you from the corner of his eye. 
You pursed your lips and played with the empty can in your hands, causing the aluminium to squeal as you squeezed it. You didn’t want to get into it all with him. You weren’t convinced you could make it through the story without crying again, and the last thing you needed was to go blubbering into his arms when you were trying to maintain some distance. Afterall, you reasoned that it was hardly his job to pick you up from an Ill advised rebound relationship. Plus he was the very reason you’d jumped into it in the first place. 
“Who said Reid did anything?” You murmured, digging your nails into the white logo of the can. 
“Captain’s intuition,” Price murmured, turning fully to you now. “You can tell me, You know. I don’t want you holding yourself up in that flat and crying alone for the rest of the night. It’d play on mind and neither of us would get any rest.”
“Don’t do that,” you moaned.
“Don’t do what?”
“Make me feel guilty for wanting to sort myself out.”
“I’m not trying to make you feel guilty, I want you to feel better. And I know you won’t help yourself if I leave you alone right now.”
“I’m not a child,” you huffed, feeling your heart beginning to ache all over. “I can look after myself.”
Your chest was feeling heavy and all of a sudden you were overcome by dread. It felt like he was trying to reprise his old role again, but that’s not something he could just step right into. He couldn’t just pick up where he’d left off, you reasoned, there was hurt there and so many things left unsaid. If things went wrong he could leave you even more broken than you’d ever been before. You pictured yourself shattered like a china cup that had been dropped too many times. 
“You can look after yourself, can you?” Price asked, raising his brows. “Tell me right now that you’ll go and get yourself to bed and not end up worrying all night and having a panic attack at work tomorrow, and I’ll go. Tell me how you’re going to look after yourself and I’ll leave you to it, go on.” 
You withered under his gaze and folded your arms in on yourself, trying to apply pressure over your shaking torso. He was right of course. You’d envisioned in your head even before the car had stopped, shutting the door, shutting out the world and feeling the weight of it all avalanche over you. He knew you too well to think you’d take any other course of action, right down to the fact that you weren’t going to take any time off work. Which would ultimately lead to you crying in the bathroom like a schoolgirl. 
“John,” you whispered, “you can’t- we can’t-“
“This isn’t about us. It’s about you, and you needing someone to be there for you. Plain and simple. I’m not trying to invade my way into your life, I just don’t want you to spend all night torturing yourself over whatever happened…just let me help you. That’s all I’m asking… It’s all I want.”
He spoke so calmly and so softly you couldn't help but melt against his will. He was making too much sense. You didn’t really have the energy to argue either, so you just nodded and got out of the car, trying desperately not to start crying again. The thought of Price still caring so much about you was pulling you under into another tidal wave of upset, and you were fighting against the rough surf just to try and make it to your door.
Price led the way, bulleting up the steps just the way he always used to. He still had your keys,so he unlocked the door and held it open while he put his hand on the small of your back, gently ushering you through. You could feel the thin glue that was holding you together being peeled away. His reassuring smile and his steady presence were making it harder and harder to hold your face as it was. 
You could feel your lips go wobbly and your eyes welling up again and before you knew it you were throwing yourself into his arms and sobbing into them, rattling against him with your accompanying shaky hiccups. You weren’t even sure what you were crying about now. 
Sure, you were still upset about the weekend you’d just endured, but now you were also thinking about Price and all that you’d lost when you told him you didn’t want to see him anymore. You’d told him that that fight had ruined what you’d built, and had destroyed your trust and now more than ever you knew that that wasn’t true. 
It felt like John was the only person you could trust. He knew exactly what you needed and seemed to be there for you at all the right times, he looked after you and loved you and would do anything just to make you happy. He had been adamant at the time that he was justified for that fight, had worried you that it would happen again and you’d be put through the terrifying ordeal once more, but now you wondered if that had changed. If he’d realised what he’d done wrong, just as you had. 
You shouldn’t have walked away. He shouldn’t have stood his ground. 
You sniffled and tightened your grip on him, threading your fingers through his shirt and nuzzled into his neck. His scratchy beard tickled at your scalp, and his arms wound themselves securely around you and held you firmly against his warm body. Even through your stuffy nose, the intermingling scent of pine and cigars and cheap laundry detergent smelled like heaven in that moment and it calmed you. You’d been able to stop crying for a moment, and found yourself wiping your hands over your eyes and face yet again.
“There you go, love,” he murmured. “That’s better, isn’t it? You don’t have to fight your problems alone, you know. I’ve always said that to you, haven’t I? You don’t have to try to be so strong all the time.”
You scoffed at that, swallowing a thick lump in your throat. 
“Don’t feel very strong right now,” you sniffed.
“Not strong? Course you are. You always try to push through everything till I come along and stop you, eh? C’mon, why don’t we get you sitting down and get you a glass of water.”
You smiled at his comment and nodded, drifting into the comfort of being looked after by someone that knew you so well. 
Price took you over to the Sofa and fluffed up one of the pillows for you to sit against, not forgetting to unfold your favourite fluffy blanket in the process. He even wrapped it around you like a soft cloud, insulating you from the world. 
He then disappeared into your kitchen for a moment, rummaging around and running the tap in a couple of short bursts before returning with a full glass of water and another glass with what you presumed was jack daniels and coke. That one wasn’t going to be for you, but distantly you did wish that it was. Drinking your problems away and escaping reality sounded like a rather pleasant prospect. 
“Any chance you’d like to have the water?” you asked, smiling behind the blanket. 
He chuckled and set the water down on the coffee table next to you, keeping the jack and coke on hand for himself while he sat down across from you. Even though he was only on the opposite end of the couch he felt too far away.  
“Can’t have that. You’re not allowed to drink when you’re upset,” he said with a wink. “Against the rules.”
“Didn’t realise I still had to abide by those rules,” you retorted.
His eyes twitched a little, you could see something in his face change when you said that. You regretted it instantly. 
“No ones holding you to em’, but they’re still what’s best for you, are they not?” he shrugged, looking at you expectantly. 
Price had always been very good to you, and part of that was ensuring that you looked after yourself. So somewhere along the way in your relationship, when you’d been exploring each other’s kinkier sides, Price had set you some rules. Rules you had to follow on pain of a spanking. Sometimes it was a bother, but you’d come to realise that you’d never been healthier than when you’d been with him. You’d drank lots of water and made sure to go outside and go on walks when you could, and had refrained from falling back on alcohol when something was amiss. Just to think of a few rules.
He was correct in saying that they were what’s best. It was just difficult when he wasn’t around to enforce them. 
“You’re usually right,” you said with an appeasing smile. “Doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t love to forget this whole weekend over a bottle of wine and a big box of cake though.”
He laughed at that, all traces of consternation wiped from his face as he must have pictured you with your go to coping mechanisms before you met him. You laughed too when you remembered the night he’d barged in on you eating and drinking your sorrows after a rough day at work. He’d had the joy of hauling you to bed afterward while you babbled on about how people had been so mean to you and how you wanted to set fire to the whole place and never go back there again. 
“Well in lieu of wine and cake, you have water or I can go make you a tea. Would you like that?”
“No, its fine, the water’s good,” you said dismissively, finally picking up the cool glass with your dewy palms. “I just wish I could forget this whole weekend. It’s been a disaster.”
“Oh yeah? You ready to talk about it?”
You breathed in a sharp breath and tilted your head to the side.
Fuck it, you thought. 
“Reid aired our dirty laundry in front of all of his friends and then proceeded to cheat on me,” you said, raising your water glass in toast before taking a swig. “That was after everyone made fun of me the whole time too.”
Price let out a short little laugh. He was incredulous. 
“Cheated on you?”
“His ex kissed him and he uh- didn’t exactly try to get away from her,” you shrugged, voice breaking 
“What a fuckin’ fool,” He growled. “He kissed his ex right in front of you?”
“He didn’t know I was there, I don’t think so anyway. I was supposed to be away getting drinks, but I came back to ask him what he wanted because they were out of beer and- well…yeah.”
“Doesn’t make it any better. What kind of an idiot would cheat on you?”
You felt your cheeks warm and shrugged again. Price had his faults, but he’d never hurt you like that. He was too old fashioned. A one person at a time kind of man. 
“I guess it wasn’t really an amazing relationship to begin with anyway,” you sighed, reflecting over the month you’d had. 
“No?”
“When I asked him where he saw things going, he said ‘I dunno. You want me to be your boyfriend or something?’ and then that was how we made things official,” you recounted, finally realising that maybe what had happened was for the best. 
Price groaned and put a hand over his face. It reminded you of the time that you’d announced to him that you were going to buy a flying squirrel after you’d seen a cute video of one - something you often took to claiming with an array of different animals - and he’d worried you might be serious. He’d taken his hand off his face at the time and said ‘darlin with the amount of stuff I’ve had flying at me over the years, I’m not sure my heart could take being assaulted by an airborne rodent in the night.’
“You must be drawn to muppets or something,” Price mused. “You deserve a lot better than that.”
“I was with you last, wasn’t I?”
“Exactly,” He smirked. “Point proven.”
You smiled back at him and shook your head - Price and Reid weren’t comparable. Price cared for you too much, that’s why he ended up in that fight in the first place and that’s why he couldn’t comprehend that he was wrong for escalating things after you’d been shoved. Reid didn’t really care for you that much at all. It wasn’t like you’d made a massive effort for Reid either, but at the very least you hadn’t gone and let Price lick half your face off. 
“You let me down at the end there, I’ll give you that…but before all that, you were the best thing that I’ve ever had in my life…Even when I wasn’t with you and you were in all those far off countries, and I used to whine and moan about you being away a lot, it was better than when I was actually alone, better than anything with anyone else too.”
“Love,” Price breathed, not knowing what to say.
You stared at him then and felt your heart burst. The floodwaters opened then, you coudln’t help yourself as you saw the sad sheen of his glistening eyes. 
“These past few months I think I’ve really come to see what a stupid mistake I made. I shouldn’t have told you things were over before you left. I should’ve just stuck it out till you got back and we could’ve talked about it all properly. I was just scared and angry and I didn’t know what else to do. Now I know though…now I know what I should’ve done. Just tragically too late, huh?”
You whispered your confession, too afraid to look at him anymore as you said it, instead casting your eyes down to your blanket while you played with the soft material between your fingers. You huffed out a breath afterwards and looked up at Price, noticing the way his jaw clenched and his hand tightened on his glass. His knuckles were almost bone white.
Had you said too much? Were you going to chase him away? Who knows if he’d moved on and was really just trying to be there and be a friend for you. 
For a split second you worried that you’d gone too far with your venting, but Price didn’t leave you hanging for long. He leaned forward and put a hand on your thigh just as you were about to apologise and held eye contact with you, keeping a firm hold of you and your attention. 
“Darlin’...do you really mean all that?”
Your eyes would’ve welled up again if you had anything left to cry. 
“Yes,” you breathed. “I’m sorry, but yes. It’s been all that I’ve thought about since I saw you last week.”
“Sorry? What’re you sorry for?” he said, laughing gently, searching your face.
“It’s not fair to tell you something like that. I’m basically ambushing you with all my feelings right now and you’ve been nice enough to drive me home and look after me, when all you were trying to do was get some shopping in and now you’re here listening to me blubber about my stupid feelings, when I haven’t asked you how you feel and how you’ve been doing and you probably don’t even want me by this point, because look at me and big tear streaked face, and-”
Price cut you off mid ramble, moving in closer to you and taking your face in his hands. They were rough and familiar and they were warm, and they held you steady just as you felt like you were going to come apart again. You breathed, but it didn’t feel like your lungs were able to hold onto the air. They were fighting for space with your booming heartbeat. 
“Angel…you really- do you think,” he had to pause for a moment, his voice crackling. “Do you think maybe it’s not too late to talk more about it? Not now, course, but… you think you’d want to give us another chance?”
You pursed your lips and looked down. Angel. His favourite nickname for you, the special one he reserved only for you. You looked back up to his wide blue eyes and nodded. It seemed like you were glittering in the reflection of them.
“Yes…One day,” you smiled. 
Price smiled back, his moustache turning up with his lips. 
“One day,” he repeated, voice full of wonder. 
Neither of you said anything for a second. You both just stared, tension mounting as the air felt so thick that you could craft shapes with it. It felt like neither or you was sure of your next move, but suddenly you got a burst of courage and you decided to take a leap of faith.
You kissed him. You leaned forward just slightly and took his mouth in yours, pecking at first until he kissed back and eventually your world was bursts of stars and hints of jack and coke. The taste of him landed deliciously on your tongue. Your heart pounded harder than ever at that point, but it was ok, because you could feel his beating erratically just the same.  
You moaned.
“Please, daddy...”
You let the words loose before you could even think about it. What is it they say about old habits…?
“Shit, hold on, I-” you sputtered, breaking away from Price completely. 
“Language!” he chuckled, his laugh low and earthy.
You paused and looked at him measuredly, trying to parse out what had just happened. In the wake of all the familiarity, you’d resorted to your old name for him. Apparently he wasn’t against its resurrection, he’d found it amusing in fact. You pressed your tongue to the roof of your mouth, searching for the right words, but you weren’t entirely decided between apologising or asking if he liked it.
“Don’t look so worried, Angel,” he soothed, rubbing his thumb over your cheek. “You can still call me that if you like. Or are you apologising for kissing me?”
“But…well…isn’t it a bit unfair for you..y’know, since we haven’t really completely resolved things yet? I can’t just go around kissing you out of the blue and calling you daddy and we haven’t even talked about-”
“Would you stop rambling on about what’s fair and right,” Price admonished, rolling his eyes, “I don’t care about what you’ve been doing all these months, I don’t care about doing things by whatever rules people normally go by. All this time, all I���ve wanted is you, and now you’re here in front of me telling me you want to give things another go…I’ll take as much as you’ll give me. So tell me…do you want to kiss me? Will that make you happy? It would make me happy.”
You took a breath and nodded.
“Words, Angel,” he admonished. 
“Y-yes,” you stuttered, feeling like your head had been sparked with a jump lead. 
“Very good,” he praised, whispering lowly into your ear. 
You shivered as you felt the words zip down your spine. You hummed with the praise and felt your body warm up considerably, feeling entirely too hot all of a sudden.
Price soon gathered you in his arms like clay and moulded you into his lap, untangling you from your blanket nest and switching places so that he was propped against the arm and you were leaning snugly against him. With you both comfortably in place, he put one hand on your hip while he held the back of your neck with the other, and gently placed a couple of kisses on your neck, sending your spine alight with tingles. 
“And would you like to call me daddy again?” he asked again, still murmuring deep and low. 
You swore then that he’d disturbed a horde of butterflies that you didn’t know had been dormant all that time inside your tummy. Your heart was fluttering along with them.
“Um, yeah, I mean- yes. Yes.”
“Yes, what?” he urged, kissing your neck. “You know how to answer properly. I know you do.”
Were you in a fantasy of your own making? Had you died and gone to heaven?
“Y-yes, daddy,” you whimpered, nuzzling your head into his chest. 
“Oh…” he breathed, voice all growly and needy. “That’s my sweet Angel. So good for me.”
You could’ve died then and there. You couldn’t imagine ever feeling happier. You didn’t care if it was a fever dream, coma hallucination or a psychedelic induced fugue state. All you wanted was to be with Price again, and with him reassuring you and praising you and holding you in his arms like that, why would you try to fight it? 
You unburrowed yourself from his chest and scanned over his face, admiring his crinkly eyed smile and scruffy face for a moment before kissing him again, wrapping your arms around him snug just in case it really was all a dream. You wouldn’t let it fade away. You were going to hold on tightly. You’d continue to kiss his fluffy bearded face and welcome every sensation as it rooted you in your dreamlike reality.
You intertwined yourself with him and moaned, returning his kisses with fervent need and roamed your hands around his back, eventually bringing a hand up so that you could thread your fingers through his wiry dark hair. The bristle of it jolted through you and you smiled against his lips.
“That feel good, hm?” he growled, “I can feel you bucking your hips against me, love.”
You felt your cheeks burn like hot coals and refused to meet his eyes, instead settling your chin on his shoulder. You hadn’t realised you’d been doing it, but now that he’d mentioned it you finally registered the sway of your body gliding over his and noticed the growing hardness underneath you. 
Fuck.
“That does feel good,” you whimpered, not embarrassed enough to stop yourself. “Feels so good, daddy.”
“Mhmm? Feels good for me too. I love feeling your body on mine,” he hummed, kissing the side of your neck. “You’re so gorgeous, you know that? So so perfect.”
You whined and nuzzled against his neck, drawing out a low groan from him as your nose connected with his tender flesh. You slowly returned the favour, kissing him just as he’d been kissing you and showing him exactly how it felt to have your body set alight with prickling heat. You smiled as he continued to moan with you, but it didn’t last long.
He snatched the upper hand back, and propelled you both forward, forcing you to lie back on the couch, on top of your blanket, while he took his place on top of you. He ground his hips into yours and had you eking out the most salacious moans, filling the room with the sound of your pleasure. 
“I love it when you moan for me like that, I’ve missed that sound so much,” Price rumbled, “do you want more? Would you like that?”
“Mm, yes,” you keened. “More, daddy. I want to feel you.”
“Wanna feel me, hm? Ok, Angel. Lets get these clothes off shall we?”
You moaned just at the suggestion and eagerly complied, sitting up a little and helping him to remove your top and trousers until you were naked below him. You were about to ensure that he matched you in kind, but the only thing he’d allowed you to remove was his shirt, hastily popping the buttons off like you were unwrapping a present. He’d put his hand over yours at his trousers and given you a wicked grin, a glint appearing in his azure eyes. 
“Uh uh, don’t you worry about that,” he smiled, bringing your hand up to his lips so that he could kiss it. “We’re focusing on you right now.”
“But I wanna make you feel good too,” you whined, tilting your head.
“I know you do,” he laughed, gently pushing you back down so that you were flush to the couch. “Just trust me, this will make me feel very good. Just let me treat you like you deserve.”
He didn’t allow you any more time for backchat. You whimpered as he fastened his mouth around one of your nipples and you writhed at the sensation, moaning low in your throat when he trailed his hand down your body, past the swell of your belly and drifted down below. You were bucking your hips against him slowly again, creating friction between you and his hand. 
He alternated between nipples for a moment, swirling and flicking his tongue while he lazily rubbed his palm against you, not in a rush to try and urge you to a finish. He savoured you and sent your body sparking and prickling like a freshly lit firecracker. Your breathing was getting heavier and your stomach was tightening and coiling and it only grew more and more erratic as he started to move down your body, kissing his way down to the opening between your thighs. 
“So good for me lying there. So obedient. You always do what daddy tells you, don’t you?” he growled, planting a kiss just below your belly. 
“Mm, yes,” you breathed, struggling to think of any words
“Yes what?” Price asked, nipping the meat of your thigh and drawing out a yelp.
“Yes, daddy!” 
He was using his tongue on you now, swirling it around and tasting you, savouring your pleasure. You swallowed the lump in your throat and clutched at the couch cushion next to you, scrunching the thick material in your hand, clutching it for support. It didn’t take long until he fell into a steady rhythm, using his mouth and hands on you and sending you into a spiral.
Your mind was barely present anymore, you were only good to use a couple words and no more. Everything else was just moans while your head felt like it was turning to mush. You breathed deeply and heavily and thrust your hips against Price, feeling the coil in your belly tighten all the more, feeling the stars in your eyes turn from constellations and into tiny galaxies and universes. 
“I- um- Daddy, I-”
“Are you gonna cum for me, love?” Price rasped.
“Yes!”
“Go on then. Cum for me. Show me how good I make you feel, Angel.”
You groaned and the swelling feeling in your head boiled to breaking point. You shuttered your eyes closed tightly and squeezed the couch cushion tightly, moaning out as your orgasm washed over you. The wave of pleasure rushed over your body and after a big rush of pleasure, it lapped slowly over you, gently receding until you were left a shaking twitching mess underneath your lovers body. 
“Oh my god,” you breathed, blinking away the fuzziness form your eyes. “Holy…Moly.”
Price looked up at you from between your thighs and barked out a laugh, clutching his head in his hand while the other gripped your shaking thigh. Once he recovered from your outburst, he shook his head and clambered up your body, coming to a rest against next to you, and drawing you into his arms. 
He was rock hard against you, but there was very little you could do about it in the state you were in. You just bustled yourself into him and lay your head against the warm expanse of his chest and sighed happily, basking in the aftershocks of your happy ending he rubbed your arms. 
“You’re not gonna let me return the favour, are you?” You’d mumbled eventually, rutting up against him for emphasis. 
“Got plenty time for that, Angel,” he said gently redirecting you off of his throbbing centre. “Just wanted to make you feel good. You’ve had such a rough day, you deserved something to take your mind off it all.”
He placed a kiss on top of your head then and drew you closer, wrapping his arm tighter around you. You sighed and ran your fingers along it, feeling the little dark hairs tickle at your finger tips. You came to a stop at his palm and lightly traced over his lifeline, it was illuminated by the soft glow of your lamp. 
“How come you were out shopping so late?” You asked sleepily, letting your hand drop and rest at Price’s side. 
He shrugged at first, rocking your body with the movement.
“Sat around feelin’ a bit useless today,” he said eventually, sighing deeply. “Didn’t have anything lined up for myself, so eventually I decided to go for a walk to clear my head. I went all the way out to the hills and was out for hours, didn’t get back until after dark and then i realised I didn’t have anything to eat. How come?”
“I dunno…i guess its just a little funny that you ended up in that car park just when I needed you to be there. Like fate or something,” you murmured. 
He chuckled at that and kissed your head again. The sound washed over you like spring rain.
“You know I don’t normally subscribe to rubbish like that, but on this occasion…it feels like there’s something to that theory.”
“Yeah? Feel’s like a good thing to be saddled with me again, does it?” you smirked, trying to cover up how worried you were about being a burden.
No matter how good he’d made you feel only moments before you couldn’t help the rush of paranoia from kicking in. The feeling that Price was going to realise that you were too much to be with, that you needed him more than he needed you. It had begun to feel like the past few months were a great demonstration of that. He’d survived a warzone and gotten through deployment while you holed yourself up for over a month from grief and then jumped into a failed relationship in the making just to try and get over him. 
“Listen to me, love, before you get any big ideas about this being some kind of hardship for me again…This past week that I’ve been back has been miserable. Deployment was bad, but I had a bit of distraction over there at least. When I got back here, and realised what life was really like without you? That was hell. You give me purpose, Angel. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now, than cuddled up with you on the couch. There’s no one else I’d rather be with, no one in the whole world.”
He swallowed harshly and continued on. 
“When I thought I’d lost you forever I was so angry with myself, I realised right away when I got on that plane that I should’ve just admitted that you were right. You were right, and I shouldn’t of hurt that man like that. I lost control of myself and I was too stubborn to hear that he wasn’t really a threat. I wanted to call you and tell you that, but I figured you’d been hurt enough and the last thing you needed was me playing with your feelings and trying to work things out while I was away. I reckoned that if I came back and you were open to give things a go again I’d make sure to fix things, but if you wanted to keep me out your life then…well I’d have wished you the best. Whatever happens between us, now or in the future, I want you know that I only ever want what’s best for you, because I…”
He trailed off, peering toward the lamp and letting his eyes blur into its amber glow. You stared up at him from your place on his chest and smiled, watching the way his lips tried to form to finish his sentence. He was pensive, he wasn’t sure whether to say them or not. 
“Because you love me?” you smiled, swivelling so that you faced him fully. 
You finally had a little strength flood back into your body, so you hoisted yourself up and lay on your tummy, folding your arms over his chest and resting your chin on top of them. He tilted his head at you and smiled, affirming your words with a tight nod.
“I’ll always love you,” he sighed, “No matter what. Just wasn’t sure if it was entirely appropriate to say that to you just yet.”
“John, you just threw me around and made me cum while I called you daddy - appropriate ran out the door and flew to the moon like a half hour ago,” you giggled. 
He laughed with you and shook his head, clearly in as much disbelief as you were that this was really happening. You were back in each others arms, just where you were always meant to be. You sighed and he ran his hand over your head, stroking his fingers through your hair and sending your head into a fuzzy daze with the feeling of his gentle touch. 
“You make a good point,” he agreed. “Always have struggled with moving at a normal pace, haven’t we?”
“Yeah, I think that was pretty apparent from the moment we met,” you agreed.
“I’ll never forget the look on Gaz’s face that night he opened that door,” he mused, getting that stupid smile on his face that he always got at the memory of the time you’d met - and immediately fucked. 
“I hate when you bring that up,” you groaned, giving his arm a playful slap. “He was so pleased he’d introduced us before he walked in on us!”
“Well, serves him right for not knocking,” he winked, “it's rude to barge in on a superior officer.”
“Ugh! You’re lucky I love you too, or I’d be getting up and locking that bedroom door,” you groaned. “I hate the superior officer line!”
He smiled at that, his face brightening instantly. You’d said it back. His eyes were perfect crescents. You loved when they did that, sparkling outwardly to you through shuttered lids. He was like a cuddly koala bear. 
“You know what?” he said suddenly, his voice low and soft.
“What?” you asked, frowning as his tone shifted.
“You’re going to let me take you for dinner tomorrow,” he announced.
“I am?” you smirked, relaxing instantly. 
“Yes you are. We’re going to go to dinner and talk everything through and we’re going to set everything right again. Then after that we’re going to put all this nonsense behind us, yeah?”
You giggled lightly at his commanding tone, but you didn’t disagree, you nodded. You fastened your arms around him and cuddled into him close, listening to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat as you settled into his perfectly warm body. Your eyes started to flutter as you did, growing heavy as you became more and more aware of how drained you actually were.
“I think I like the sound of that,” you sighed, closing your eyes completely.
Price squeezed your shoulder and gathered you close, rubbing his cheek against the top of your head. His beard scratched at your scalp again. 
“Good,” he yawned. “That sounds good to me too…”
-💘-
1 week later
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You were sorting out some grand emergency at work and Price was in your flat alone. He’d had a shower and gotten himself half dressed, too eager to get something to eat to put a shirt on. So he stood in your little kitchen in front of the window, bathing in the spring sunlight, eating a bowl of cereal to himself as his damp hair dried from his strategic position. 
Just like he’d said, you had fixed things at dinner the night after you’d reconciled - and from there on it was almost like things had completely gone back to normal. Almost. When you’d turned your phone on the next day, you were greeted with a torrid of horrible messages and some hundred missed calls from Reid. However, with Price there, you didn’t really let any of it bother you. 
Not much anyway.
He held you through your upset and after a quiet minute of figuring out what to do, you messaged Reid a short, matter of fact text. You told him that you were in fact serious about your decision, you reminded him that - no - you weren’t drunk when you’d left, you weren’t ‘being crazy’ and would even be generous enough to put his things he’d left at yours into a box for him to collect, should he decide to be grown up enough to come over and get them.
You’d gotten a million more missed calls after that and a flurry of messages, but after hearing Price’s words of encouragement, you ignored them all. After a few days they stopped coming, and a few days after that you assumed that that was it. That he was out of your life for good. Thank god.
However, Reid had decided he wasn’t going to go completely quietly. Well, he was forced into not going quietly. After being egged on by his friends, he was put in a tricky position and realised that he wasn’t going to be able to back down. At their insistence he was going to turn up to your place unannounced and confront you when you were least expecting it - give you a piece of his mind while you were unprepared and unable to defend your ‘completely mental overreaction’.
At least that was how it was supposed to go.
Though, when he’d pounded on the door and had someone other than you answer, his smile dropped. His face was practically tripping him when he realised who it was that answered.
“Can I help you?” Price asked, crunching on a spoonful of cereal, completely unbothered. 
“Can you…help me?” Reid repeated, incredulous.
“Certainly can,” Price grinned, leaning against the doorframe. “That’s why I offered.”
“What the fuck are you doing here? Where’s that hypocrite that’s clearly cheated on me?”
Reid was furious. He couldn’t believe that he was made to feel like such an asshole for kissing someone else when you’d been with the geriatric behind his back the whole time. He was fuming
“Hypocrite? I believe you two were broken up after that little stunt you pulled, mate,” Price corrected, putting his cereal bowl down on the entry table. “Why don’t you just settle down and stay here while I get your little box of shit. Then you can be on your way.”
“You think I’m just going to go while you’re making me look like a mug? You went and swooped in on someone that’s taken and think you can just walk around naked like you own the place now because they slutted themselves out to you?”
“Careful, son,” Price growled. “Better choose your words more carefully.”
“Or what? You’re gonna kill me?” Reid laughed. “You don’t intimidate me, old man. You’d lose your job over something like that. Guy like you would go to prison for a long time.”
Price chuckled to himself and nodded his head, quirking his lips into an upside down smile. It didn’t meet his eyes though. They didn’t turn to crescents, they just stayed slitted ever so slightly, glaring at the absolute maggot before him. 
Price would’ve loved to have taught that shit eating little cunt a lesson. Though he knew already that any kind of physical violence would have you both on the rocks again, and after he’d just gotten you back he wasn’t ready to jeopardise things. However that wasn’t to say that he wasn’t prepared for Reid’s visit, oh no. He had more weapons at his disposal than the average man - he knew plenty of people in lots of places, both high and low, powerful and shady. 
“Little old fella like me couldn’t do damage like that,” Price sighed, putting his hand over his heart like he was weary. “I have other things I can do though. Don’t even need to bother laying a hand on a little weasel like you.”
“Oh yeah like what?” Reid laughed, hoisting himself up to the last step and getting into Price’s face. “You gonna get some army buddy of yours to rough me up or something, pay me a visit and scare me? If that happens I’ll record the whole thing.I’ll get you done for it! All my friends know about you, they’d back me up that you were behind it all.”
Price shook his head and sent a quick message off on his phone, quickly taking it out of his pocket and burying it back in again in a flash. After that, he proceeded to pick his cereal back up and ate another spoonful, scrunching up his face when he realised it had mostly lost its crunch. Well, he made a face at that and the fact that Reid was still there and giving him that stupid challenging little look.
“Sounds like I’d get into a lot of bother for that,” Price agreed, swirling his spoon around his bowl. “I’d just hate for you to have recordings…mind you, I don’t think I’ll have to worry too much about those. You’ll be too busy trying to unfuck your life to bother about me.”
“What's that supposed to mean?” Reid frowned.
Reid threw him a gesture as if to ask what the hell, and Price shrugged, taking one last bite of his less than tasty cereal. He resolved to himself that he’d pour another bowl and get himself to the shops. He’d hate for you to be running low - it was important to him that you ate afterall. All a part of making sure you were looked after and cared for.
“I said - what’s that supposed to mean!” Reid gritted out, poking a finger into Price’s chest.
Price growled and shot him a warning glare, sending the younger man flying back with just the change in demeanour alone. Reid looked stupid then, holding his palm out like he was going to try and karate chop Price.
“Why don’t you run home and go check your credit score and bank accounts, hm?”
“What? What are you talking about?” Reid laughed, taking his phone out of his pocket. “Are you actually trying to pretend like you can do something like-”
Reid trailed off and frowned down at his device, hurriedly tapping the screen as his brows knitted tighter together.
“Ugh, what an absolute dinosaur I am,” Price grunted, shaking his head at himself. “You can check all these things on your phone nowadays. Plonker. Anyway, like I said - have fun trying to work all that out.”
Price went to shut the door, but grunted when Reid stuck his foot in it before he could close it fully. He glared when he almost spilled his cereal on himself, the milk had splashed up against the sides and a little had dribbled onto his foot. Other than that he was mostly uncovered. Reid was safe from having the rest splashed all over him.
“I’m going to the Police about this! You hear me? I’m going to report this and you’ll be in so much fucking trouble!” Reid vowed, wrenching the door back open. “Fix this right now! Fix it now, or I’ll do it. I’ll go to the police.”
“Go to the police then. But what’re you gonna tell them exactly? ‘Oh, my ex’s boyfriend has frozen all of my money and tanked my credit score! Do something, Mr. Officer!’ Sounds a bit fucking looney, doesn’t it?”
Reid looked at him with wide eyes, withdrawing his foot from the doorway as Price laughed at him, frowning as the realisation fully sunk in. He could report the crime, but he had no idea how Price had even managed to do it in the first place. Something like that would require the help of dodgy people, the likes of which Reid couldn’t even comprehend. 
And if he could do all that to Reid’s finances…after, presumably, sending a single text…then what else would Price be capable of?
Reid backed away fully and looked at Price and down at his phone, then back to Price and back down at his phone, locked in a state of disbelief. What the fuck had just happened. His heart dropped and his mouth got dry. It was like he’d forgotten how to breathe.
“Watch that last step, son. I’d hate for you to hurt yourself,” Price called, grabbing the door so that he could finally shut it. “If you know what’s good for you you should stay away from here and never send another pig headed message again. Never know - It might help your little money situation. Might not help, mind you, but it certainly couldn’t hurt, could it? Good bye, now.”
And with that Price closed the door and retreated back inside, leaving Reid to stand stupidly on the grass out front while he struggled to comprehend what had just happened. 
There, Price thought, things are just as they should be now. He smirked to himself as washed up his cereal bowl, replaying what had just happened in his head. Thank you Nik. Guess I owe you a beer, mate. 
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rekaning · 8 months
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Painful Silence | The Originals x Mute!Child!reader
CW: Canon-typical violence, implied/referenced abuse of a child
Summary: Takes place after the events of "Not A Peep". A bit of backstory of Mute!reader from an unexpected source.
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She had never been a vocal child.
Her Papa had voiced his concerns about that when Mama was still alive. Mama had merely smiled gently down at her three year old, quietly playing with a hummingbird figurine set.
"Nothing wrong with a little silence," Mama softly told her Papa, running a loving hand over her daughter's hair. "Her silence allows her to perceive the world so much more. She's an observant child. She listens, rather than just hears. And that is a precious gift for a bloodline like mine."
Her Papa still had his reservations, but he trusted his wife. Magic and witchcraft still confounded him but his lover's carefree attitude eased his worries for his daughter's lack of vocalization.
As the days went by, her Papa had felt more and more at ease, having heard several peels of laughter and grunts of frustration erupt from his daughter at times when he was at home. It was only a matter of time before she would begin to speak, he'd told himself.
Their household had been a happy one.
Until it wasn't.
It happened in the middle of the night. Papa had was at his usual night shift at work, with only her and Mama at home.
She had been woken from a rather lovely dream of talking pelicans and flying penguins.
Angry voices coming from the living room downstairs had her creeping slowly off her bed, making sure to grab her pastel green throw blanket with baby chicks printed in patterns, and tiptoed over to the second floor landing to find out what was going on.
When she peeked in between the banister, she could see her Mama with two other women in the living room.
"The laws of the coven no longer apply to me, sister. I renounced my position when I did." Mama said calmly.
One of the women, who had a very similar resemblance to her Mama, stepped forward, voice forceful, "The child is of our bloodline, tainted, though it may be, but ours nonetheless. She must be with her people."
Mama took a step forward, her face hardened, eyes alight with fury, "You will not touch a hair on her head. I left because I no longer believed in the covens ideals and practices. What makes you think I'd let you take my daughter to the very thing I cut ties from?"
The third woman, aged beyond the years of her Mama and the other woman, spoke, "The elders will not allow one of our kin to grow outside of the coven. She must come with us."
Her Mama looked at the older woman pleadingly, eyes stinging with unshed tears, "Mother, please, please, you can't take her from me. She is everything to me."
The old woman, the child's grandmother, held herself with poise and looked down her nose toward her pleading daughter, "I am sorry, child."
Her Mama's sorrowful face quickly morphed into rage and before the young girl could blink, her mother had let out a vicious cry, lifting her hand toward the woman that looked like her, Mama's sister.
The child felt the hairs on her body raise from the electricity in the air. The air seemed to vibrate and the girl stared in wonder as she saw lines of color and light dance around her mother.
An audible, sickening crack broke the girl out of her awestruck wonder and she gazed down at the still figure of her mother's sister, her auntie, on the floor. Her neck was at an odd angle, eyes open in shock, glazed over, seeing nothing.
"What have you done!" Came the shrill cry of her grandmother.
A rumble coursed through the foundation of the home in response.
Her Mama yelled back, "Leave! You are not welcome in this home!"
Her squeak of shock was her undoing. Both her mother and grandmother looked toward the banister and spotted the shaking form of the child.
Her mother's eyes went wide with fear, "My little Bluebird, please, go back to—MOTHER NO!"
The young girl felt the magic before she saw it. Flames erupted to the girl's left, barring escape from the stairs. The child squealed in terror as the fire nipped at her feet. It got close enough that her blanket, trailing limply at her feet, caught fire. The girl quickly let go of the cloth.
"Sweetheart, run!"
She obeyed her mother and stumbled shakily away from the growing flames. She didn't dare to look back, but she could hear the cries and yells coming from both her mother and grandmother in the living room, could feel the magic like static shocks to her skin.
She took refuge in her room, grabbed the penguin stuffy that she had and hid herself under her covers.
Blasts and yells could still be heard. Her room was getting hotter and hotter. A chocked sob erupted from her throat, and the only word that spilled from her lips was, "MAMA!"
The only thing she could hear was herself, her guttural screams for her mother, her pulsing heartbeat in her ears, her ragged coughs as she inhaled smoke.
The door to her room burst open after a few moments. The blankets were ripped from her, and she was brought into the familiar and warm embrace of her Mama.
"You're going to be alright, little Bluebird. Mama's here. She will always be here."
The child, exhausted from fear and panic, fainted in her mother's hold.
Her mother didn't have the sufficient power to calm the inferno raging in her home. Only enough to block it from spreading into the child's bedroom for now.
There was not much she could do. Her own mother and sister lay dead in the living room and she herself would not survive this night. The hex her mother placed on her before her death would complete its task within a few hours.
She looked down at her daughter's sleeping form. Tears welled in her eyes knowing this would be the last time she would see her. Her trembling lips gently kissed her forehead, "I love you, my little Bluebird. Mama loves you."
With the last reserve of power she held, she cast a protective spell over her little girl. Although her mother and sister were dead, the coven would not rest until they had her kid. The spell would deter any unwelcome eyes, keeping her girl safe for a few years at least.
As she lay at the foot of her daughter's bed, clutching the girl safely within her embrace, her last thoughts were of her baby and her husband. She hoped he would not resent her for this mess. He knew her coven was coming for their child. He never liked the whole witch aspect of her life and she could only pray that his hatred of it would not consume him after this.
Her gaze flitted down to her little Bluebird. Hearing her child cry out for her had filled her with so much joy and so much anguish. She had no idea how this night would affect her. She could only hope that her father would help her recover. As she closed her eyes for the last time, she could only hope.
Let my little one find happiness in this life.
***
The three Original's stared down at the child in the woman's lap.
The child's mother stroked her hair soothingly. The girl snuggled further into her mother's touch, a smile forming at the nostalgic ministrations.
Klaus turned his wary eyes to the woman.
Her presence in their home had been unexpected. He had found out that the Veil, which acted as a barrier between the physical world and the Other Side, had been brought down due to the goings-on in Mystic Falls. Because of this, supernatural entities that had previously died, could now interact with the physical realm.
The Mikaelson siblings had been skeptical of the woman's identity when she had appeared before them. All doubt about who she was had been dashed the moment their little Bird had caught sight of the mystery woman.
It had been a shock to the three ancient vampires when the girl, whom hadn't uttered a single sound since meeting, had let out a wail so primal, so heartachingly hurt. The three siblings could still hear the haunting cries in their ears.
The woman had scooped the little girl in her arms, rocking her soothingly and muttering sweet words into her ear, "I'm here my little Bluebird. Mama's here. You've been so strong, sweetheart."
Klaus was loathe to admit that he felt a pang of envy roll over him, seeing his Little Wing being soothed by another, but he had to reign in his ire, reminding himself that it was her mother and that ripping the two apart right now would not go over well. With his Little Wing, nor with his siblings.
"Thank you." The woman's voice broke through the Mikaelson's thoughts.
Each of their questioning looks at her gratitude caused her to smile as she explained, "For looking out for her." Her eyes strayed back to her daughter, "You have no idea how agonizing it was to see the aftermath of my death. To see her detach from what happened, see that she blamed herself for it, and even seeing my husband hurt her the way he did."
Her eyes shot back up to them, brimming with tears. "Thank you," she said again.
Rebekah huffed, irritated, "Your husband was a worthless, wretched wanker. Good riddance, I say. How could you even stand to stay with him?"
"I make no excuses for how he treated our daughter after my death, but he was never that way when I was alive. He worried for our little Bluebird. He knew about my being a witch and he knew that my coven would be coming for her." She gestured to the sleeping girl. "I truly loved him, but what he did...the neglect he subjected her to was..." She stared off into the distance her eyes glazed before she turned them to Klaus and Rebekah, silent fury burning bright in her gaze, "I do not condemn what you did to him. My only regret is that I could not partake in his judgment."
Her admittance eased Elijah's mind. He was pleased to know that their Baby Bird's mother had the proper motherly instinct to eliminate any threat or harm to their child, regardless of who the cause of it was.
Klaus grunted and crossed his arms, ire still simmering within his chest, "Your blessings regarding that brute's death aside, what else did you hope to accomplish with your limited time?"
Elijah rolled his eyes at his brother's rude attitude. He understood his irritation, he could see the jealousy festering in him, and he would be lying if he said that he didn't feel similar himself. The three of them had come to care for the child. At this point, she was a Mikaelson in all but blood.
Rebekah tsked at her brothers tone, "Honestly, Nik."
The witch, however, seemed to find the hybrids tone amusing as she chuckled softly, a knowing smile spreading on her lips, "Niklaus Mikaelson. I thank you for your concern for her, but there is nothing more that I want than to spend what little time I have left holding my daughter."
The hybrid narrowed his eyes at her, cold gaze studying her carefully, "I find that quite hard to believe. Any sane parent would fight tooth and nail to drag their child away from a monster like me."
The witch regarded him warmly, "Hm. It seems I have yet to witness this monster you speak of. The man I have seen with my daughter has been nothing but gentle and sweet; aquiescing to her needs when the situation called for it."
She turned her gaze to Elijah, "She has been under the protection of the one they call the Noble Brother. Who has treated her with equal care as you, Niklaus."
She finally turned to Rebekah, "Besides, this beautiful spitfire that is your sister has shown that she has the instincts of a mother bear when it comes to the protection of my child."
Her eyes went right back to Klaus, "Tell me. Why would I take her from a family that has prioritized her happiness and safety?"
The three Originals said nothing.
There was no sense in denying her observations, it was clear that she had been there for all their interactions with her child, invisible to the from her place on the Other Side.
The mother said nothing further, merely continuing the soft caresses on her little Bird's hair.
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dancy-nrew · 2 months
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Happy Secret Samol @humanmorph !!! Yo ho ho a pirates life for you!
Id in alt text and also below the cut for legibility
Image one: An Alise Breka book cover. The illustration (meant to resemble an oil painting) features Leap and Figure A back to back, Figure A closer to the camera and Leap behind them. Leap is in a tie dye hoodie, Figure A has a dramatic collar welded to their round torso. Each are holding a sword and fending off attacks on all sides. Laser beams zip across the screen. The title of the book is “High Seas and Distant Stars” and is written on a yellow band across the top of the page. There is a simplified drawing of palisade as a logo for Palisade Publishing. There is a barcode across the bottom left.
Image two and three: Mockup of the inside of the book. Text reads:
The pirate captain, devastatingly handsome — or devastating and handsome, if you put the question to the unlucky sailors across many planet’s seas — lounged about the deck of the ship. A foul wind had blown through the port in the night, and showed no signs of letting up anytime soon. Disadvantageous, and perhaps more terribly, incredibly dull. Exeter Leap had faced down gods and kings and only laughed in their faces; to be trapped here by a measly turn in the weather made his plating itch.
They’d been here a week already, despite no small effort to leave. Unloading, his first mate insisted, takes time if they want it done properly. Leap had insisted he’d never done anything properly in his life and didn’t plan on starting now, but Figure A had tilted their head in that way they had and explained that properly meant more money, which, he supposed, was hard to argue with. Especially considering their other delay. The Bluebird had taken substantial cannon fire in their last battle, and was desperately in need of repairs, as well as the more tedious maintenance work that went into keeping a ship of its size and purpose in fit fighting shape.
So the minutes ticked into hours ticked into days, and here they are, still.
“I’m not a man meant to stay still,” he complains, staring out over the roiling waves.
”Still: up to and including the present or the time mentioned, or still: not moving or making a sound?”
Leap jumps, but only slightly. A pirate can never be too surprised, but he hadn’t realized he had company, lost in thoughts as turbulent as the sea. The familiar red and gold form of his friend leaning next to him is a welcome sight. “Oh- Uh. Both. Either. Not still here, or still physically.”
Figure A nods in easy understanding. They’re better at patience, at being in one place, but Leap thinks they have something restless about them, too. They lean forward as if they have something more to say but then-! A shout! The familiar blistering heat of a laser beam sipping past inches from his face! A scorch mark across metal! Leaps springs into action as
FREE READING PREVIEW LIMIT REACHED
FULL BOOK DOWNLOAD: 45 GLINT
INSTALLMENT PAYMENTS AVAILABLE !
WHOLE BOOK IN 4 ACTS, EASY PAYMENTS OF 15 GLINT EACH!
EXTRAS AND BEHIND THE SCENES CONTENT (AN INTERVIEW WITH THE CAPTAIN HIMSELF!) 25 GLINT!
Image four: A series of sketches of Leap and Figure A.
First sketch; Leap has his arms crossed saying “Thats not how any of that happened!” as he looks over Figure A’s shoulder as they read the book. They laugh and say “I think it’s fun!
Second sketch; Figure A points at the cover and says “Look at my cool collar” as Leap leans forward to look at it and says “it is pretty sick…”
Third sketch: Leap welding a big metal pirate coat-like collar onto Figure A’s torso as they giggle
Fourth Sketch; Leap grins and asks “How’s that?” Figure A says “Thank yo-“ but bonks their face into the collar as they turn their head
Fifth sketch; very small at the bottom of the page. Leap has a hand over his mouth. Figure A’s head slumps forward as they sigh.
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bit-dodgy-innit · 2 years
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Sweet as Honey(moon)
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A/N: Okayyy let’s escape away to Greece for some sexin, shall we? Just as a reminder these are all part of my little SHAPE OF YOU AU
The Prompt: The Honeymoon 😈
Requested by: loveliest of lovelies @dawnsutopia
Pairing: Marc x afab!reader, Steven x afab!reader and Jake x afab!reader, Reader is married to the system
Word Count: 9.4k (back to my self-indulgent waysss)
Spice-o-meter: 🌶🌶🌶🌶, Rated Tre Explicit, Minors DNI
CW/TW: This is a...how you say...a fook-est? I mean our couple is on their honeymoon after all. We have fingering (f receiving), indecent things with Marc’s wedding bad, oral sex (f and m receiving), p in v sex, anal sex, pool sex, nipple play, lingerie, the boys being co-conscious during sex, dirty talk, spanking, nipple play, a brief mention of “dumbification” (which this fandom taught me about btw so 😳), light spanking, mucho aftercare, teasing, exhibitionism though it’s not specified if anyone sees or hears them, squirting, multiple orgasms, and fluff!
“On behalf of all of us, welcome to Mykonos,” the polite-to-a-fault receptionist said as he activated your keycards, “and congratulations on your nuptials, Mr. and Mrs. Spector.” 
You grinned so widely at the use of your new surname your face could split in half. Despite a turbulent four hour flight from London and being hungover as shit, you were deliriously happy, leaning into Marc’s side —your husband’s side— while you checked into the resort where you’d be spending the next ten days on your honeymoon. 
You two had kept the wedding on the smaller side. The ceremony itself had been incredibly private and intimate, just you, your boys, your parents and a trusted rabbi at a local synagogue. This was so that you could exchange vows with Marc, Steven and Jake each individually. Afterwards, you’d booked the Gallery Room at the ever-so-posh Bluebird in Chelsea to host a reception for forty friends and extended family. 
The more subdued – though still somehow overwhelming to plan – wedding meant that you and your husband could splash out on the honeymoon, which is exactly what you’d done with the resort you’d booked here in Greece. The stunning beauty of the island didn’t hit you until you were being escorted to your room and could take in the stark white walls, ancient stone, clear blue sky, and even clearer, bluer water for yourself. 
Your suite echoed the landscape, eschewing any color or even decor on the walls for crisp white plaster and massive windows that framed picturesque views of the ocean. Everything from the furniture to the linens were warm neutrals and earth hewn materials. The focal point of the space was no doubt the sliders flung wide open led to an ample balcony that boasted a plush daybed and a small private pool. It was a dream come to life as far as you were concerned. 
The bellboy unloaded your luggage and after he left with a tip, you and Marc launched yourself at each other. He tackled you back onto the large plush bed. 
“This is insane,” you managed to pant in between kisses, “it’s even more beautiful here than I thought it’d be.” 
“Good,” Marc grunted, stripping out of his t-shirt and swiftly moving to discard his joggers as well. He was getting right to it then. 
Last night seemed to whiz by in a blur of laughter, alcohol, dancing, and toasts to the happy couple. Unlike the romance novels you’d read as an adolescent, your wedding night was not the raucous night of passion that had graced the pages you’d secretly devoured. You and your husband were exhausted. Though between the three of them, Jake was able to get it up and indulge in some soft, sleepy, tipsy sex in missionary before the pair of you conked out. 
It felt as if you’d only closed your eyes for a few minutes when the car service woke you with their courtesy call to inform you that they were outside, and you both napped on the plane. Now however, it seemed that Marc was rearing to go. 
He rid you of the tacky, but incredibly comfy, bride-themed matching sweats your uni friends had gotten for your hen do as a gag gift and you couldn’t help but giggle while you rolled around together on top of the bed. 
“Mr. and Mrs. Spector,” you echoed breathily while Marc nibbled on your ear, grinding his already rock hard erection into your bare leg. 
“Has a nice to ring it,” he murmured. Layla hadn’t taken his name when they had wed. It didn’t bother Marc, more and more women were choosing not to, and she had her own reasons for keeping her maiden name. But the fact that you’d wanted to, that you were happy to become a Spector despite all the baggage that name held, made Marc’s heart soar.
“Mmmmhmm,” you agreed. “A good thing since we’ll be using it for quite a while.” 
“Forever,” your husband specified, parting your folds with his fingers. 
Your eyes were drawn to the platinum band that now encircled his left ring finger. “Forever.” 
Marc caught you watching him and a wicked idea formed in his mind. Steven raised the concern if it was sanitary, yet Jake quickly overruled him and told Marc to do it anyway. Those two truly felt like the trope of the devil and angel on his shoulder sometimes. 
Instead of easing his index or middle finger inside of you to begin prepping you for his dick, Marc penetrated you with his ring finger. You gasped at the audacious move, letting out a little yelp when you felt the precious metal of the ring breach your entrance, warm from Marc’s skin but still cooler than the heat of your cunt. 
Marc’s dark eyes gazed up at you from those ridiculously long eyelashes of his. “That feel good?”
“Yeah,” came your breathless reply. The both of you stared mesmerized as his finger plunged in and out of your pussy, enthralled with how Marc’s wedding band would disappear and re-emerge from your cunt. 
Soon your sounds indicated to Marc that you needed more, and he was all too happy to comply. His middle finger joined the other digit, making sure you were stretched enough to take his cock, which currently was so hard he likely could cut glass at this point. 
Your husband tugged on your hips, positioning your bum on the edge of bed to lock your legs around him. He took his cock in hand and entered you in a smooth shove of his pelvis. You both moaned at the feeling of becoming one, as if it had been weeks since you’d been together like this and not a matter of hours. 
Marc was eager, you could tell from the way he jackrabbited his hips into you. It was the kind of rough fucking that emptied your mind of everything but the stretch of your tight channel around his considerable girth. You were all too happy to succumb to it, you were in Greece, the wedding was over, and all of your responsibilities were thousands of miles away in London. 
His hand found your clit quickly and rubbed the bud with harsh strokes. You gasped and dug your heels into the bottom of his back to pull him closer. 
“Not going to last long,” Marc revealed while he hammered you, “wanted you since we woke up.”
“That’s okay honey,” you soothed him. After all, you’d gotten some last night. A little shiver ran through through you when you realized this was the first time you and Marc were having sex a married couple. Marc Spector, the man who was so convinced he was unworthy of happiness and did everything he could to push you away, was now making love to you on your honeymoon. 
He dropped down lower, his hands covering your breasts, which sent another, more prominent shiver through you as Marc chased his release. The movement of his hips switched, his thrusts became grinds, which allowed your clit to receive some stimulation too.
You studied Marc’s face fondly, enjoying the view of his Adam's apple as it bobbed, the short black hair that was beginning to curl from the sweat gathering at his hairline, and of course, that face, so handsome and contorted in pleasure, only made more beautiful when he spurted his hot seed inside of you. 
After he came down, Marc fell onto his forearms to nuzzle your face with his. 
“Hi,” he whispered, peppering your face with kisses. You giggled and squirmed at the attention. 
He gently took his cock from your pussy, then knelt before your slit at the side of the bed. 
“Hun…”
Marc knew that tone of voice of yours, it was the inflection you used when you told him “not to worry about it”. He cursed all the men that’d allowed you to think that your pleasure wasn’t as, if not more important, than his. Marc bit the inside of your thigh playfully to stop you. “Hey, I’m fulfilling my husbandly duties here, okay?”
You surrendered with a shy little grin. He knew tossing a reference to your newly minted marriage would end your protests. Marc got to work, licking a stripe up your folds to taste the two of you before sucking on your clit and inserted two fingers into you to stimulate your g-spot. Whines and shaking legs soon followed as you came on Marc’s thick digits. 
Before he could rise fully to grab a cloth for you, you grabbed his wrist and sucked his ring finger into your warm, wet mouth, fellating the band with your tongue. Its metallic taste was new to you and honestly, rather unpleasant, but the way Marc looked at you while you did it was well worth it. 
“Fuck baby,” he groaned once you released him. He stood up and ran a hand through his hair sheepishly, “I really pounced on you just now, didn’t I?”
You sat up too. “No complaints here.” 
Marc drew you up to standing to kiss you and the both of you tended to yourselves in the bathroom. You took turns relieving yourselves and Marc splashed water on his face. You emerged from the little stall for the toilet with a request. “We should cool off in the pool.”
Your husband cocked a brow. “Bathing suits optional, I’m assuming?” 
“What’s the point of having a private pool if you’re not going to skinny dip?” 
“And people think I only married you for your beauty,” he joked. 
This had to be heaven, you concluded. You and Marc floated in the pool together for a little while, both made speechless by the beauty of the Aegean before you, then toweled off and dozed in the shade together on the daybed. 
When you roused, you automatically pecked the dip that ran between your husband’s pecs, just under his chain with the star of David. When your eyes met, you could tell by the softness in them and the little quirk of his lips that it was Steven gazing back at you. 
“Well hello Mrs. Grant,” he murmured. Though technically on paper you’d taken the surname Spector, you planned to use Mrs. Grant and Mrs. Lockley respectively when the other boys fronted. 
“Hello yourself Doctor Grant,” you beamed back. “Happy honeymoon.”
“Happy honeymoon indeed,” he concurred, “This is the ideal way to wake up, I think…naked, you in my arms, and with ocean views.” 
“I can’t help but agree. Come back in the pool with me.” 
Steven followed you, both of you luxuriating in the cooling water. Even though it was pretty big for an in-room pool, you two refused to spread out. Steven held you into his arms once again, so close to one another you could distinguish each and every droplet of water that clung to his neck, collarbones, and face. 
Your lips drifted together in a liplock that quickly escalated and deepened. Steven’s large hands cupped your ass, giving it a squeeze, lifting you to walk to the edge of the pool. He parted your legs while you procured a towel to sit on. 
You continued to trade deep, passionate kisses while Steven stood still half-submerged in the water between your thighs, the sun warming your skin as you got lost in each other. His lips drifted down to your neck and clavicle, and his fingers found your core. He began with gentle touches and strokes between your folds, inserting a finger to feel your wetness and the remnants of his alter’s cum. 
“Baby,” you gasped when his thumb pressed into your clit. 
“What do you want, darling?” He rasped. 
“Your mouth,” you told him without hesitation, “then fuck me Steven.” 
He deferred, musing as he descended to your cunt, “We do have to consummate our marriage after all.”
Your clever response was eclipsed by a whimper when Steven began to eat you out. Still sensitive from your lovemaking with Marc from earlier, each lick and swirl of Steven’s tongue had you feeling like a live wire. His mouth had you just on the other side of too much, your husband working his signature magic on your twitching cunt while you leant back on your hands. 
“You taste so good,” Steven panted as he briefly pulled away for air. “Could eat this pussy forever Mrs. Grant.” 
“Please do,” you exhaled, only half-joking. 
He chuckled lowly, returning to your core, his tongue dancing on your clit and pushing into your hole. His nose was pressed perfectly into clit while he tongue-fucked you, so perfectly that you found your orgasm blindsiding you, suddenly snapping in your groin and flooding you with bliss.
When your eyelids at last fluttered open, your climax subsided, Steven gazed at you with adoration. “You’re so bloody gorgeous.” 
There was nowhere to hide your blush given that you were stark naked sitting on the poolside tile. “You’re so bloody good at that. Let me take care of you, I bet that big dick is just aching for me, isn’t it?”  
Steven agreed by pulling you back in the water, hooking his elbows into the bends of your knees and pressing your back into the wall of the pool. You took a hold of his erection, velvet-covered steel in your hand, and guided your husband inside of you below the water’s surface. Steven groaned when he entered you, and scooted you up the length of the wall so your back arched against the side of the pool. Your head rested on the towel, the position exposing your breasts to the warm air, allowing Steven to tongue your nipples as he pushed inside of you. 
The way Steven made love to you couldn’t be more different than how Marc had. Steven was slow, languid, and worshipful feeding his member into your cunt. Even though he was splitting you apart on his fat cock and filled his mouth with your tits, it didn’t feel like you could get close enough. You dug your fingertips, still sporting your wedding manicure, into the tile on either side of your bodies in an attempt to anchor yourself. The universe shrank to just you and your husband, the feel of him — so hot and hard inside of you — and the small rectangle of water you were fucking in. 
Steven angled his hips so the head of cock could brush against your g-spot and rub his pelvis against your clit. The combination was devastating but he entreated you, “Go on, love, can you give me one more? Know you can do it….wanna see your pretty face while you come.” 
You’d had three orgasms in the last twenty-four hours, but Steven was ruthless in the most tender way possible, cooing into your ear and coaxing yet another release from your quaking, over-stimulated body. The spasming of your pussy around him resulted in his hips picking up pace and frantically suckling on a nipple while his climax crashed over him. 
“Wow,” he marveled after you separated. 
“That about sums it up,” you giggled, dunking under the water to re-wet your hair, “and to think we have ten days just for us.” 
***
The pair of you eventually did unpack and leave your room. You’d never had so much space in your suitcase before, since the majority of what you’d brought were swimsuits, skimpy lingerie and a few sundresses for meals and sightseeing. 
You put what you packed to use the next evening when you and your husband went to dinner in town. The night began in a breezy, white satin slip dress. Jake held your hand as you two strolled back to the resort, both of you giddy, inebriated from the wine at dinner and each other’s presence. 
Jake began humming some Spanish song you didn’t recognize, twirling you and pulling you under his arm as you navigated the uneven but mostly empty streets of the neighborhood. Marc and Steven were shy about it, but they had a great voice, and you soaked up every moment Jake would sing with unfettered delight. 
He ducked down to kiss you, whispering “Eres mi reina” when you broke apart. 
“Te amo,” you sighed back. 
Jake re-captured your lips, and next thing you knew, your back was against the side of a building as he attacked your mouth. It took a Herculean amount of self-control to withdraw your lips from his, but you had to or else you’d start fucking in the middle of the street. While you two shared a fondness for a bit of exhibitionism, that wasn’t exactly the vibe you were trying to achieve on your honeymoon. “Papi, let’s go inside.”
Your husband ignored you, his hands creeping down to your ass and kissing below your ear. 
“I’ll make it worth your while…”
That got his attention. Dark eyes glittered in the street lamplight as they searched yours.  “How?” 
“Guess you’ll just have to see,” you teased. 
From there on, Jake followed you back to your suite like a puppy. Once you’d returned to the privacy of your room, you pushed Jake back on the bed and ordered him to wait, then disappeared into the bathroom to change out of the dress and into a white bustier and panty set that managed to be lacy, sheer, strappy and somewhat tasteful all at once. 
You remerged and Jake instantly muttered a “Joder” at the sight of you. 
You did a little spin for him to get the full view. “Te gusta? Piensas que yo miro linda?”
“No, eres linda, pero ahora ves tan sexy,” he corrected you in a growl. “Ven aquí.”
“Come get me,” you challenged him. 
Jake leapt to his feet and chased you around the suite. You evaded him in a fit of giggles, but you were no match for your ex-military, ex-superhero husband. He circled his arms around your waist, lifted you from the ground, and tossed you onto the bed in one swift move. 
“Naughty,” he rumbled, caging you between his meaty thighs and while he rid himself of his shirt, then moved to unbutton and unzip his linen trousers to free his raging erection. Once he’d taken them off, plus palmed himself to take some of the edge off, he began exploring your body with his hands. 
“This is too pretty to rip off of you,” he mused, tracing the waistband of your tiny thong. But Marc’s voice had said it. 
“Oh, hi babe,” you greeted him, a little startled. 
He kissed you hello, grinding against your cloth-covered core, “Hi baby.” 
As much as you enjoyed the feel of his length against your soaked panties, you had to ask, “Everything ok with Jake?” 
“Yeah, we just thought we’d maybe try being co-conscious tonight, if that’s ok? Be a little more fast and loose with the switches?” 
Now there was an idea. In the past, one of the boys may have fronted momentarily while you were intimate with another, you’d never had sex with them fully co-conscious, to your knowledge at least.
“Okay,” you consented. “Just don’t get cross with me if I accidentally call someone by the wrong name.” 
Marc fixed you with a warm, lopsided smile, “We’ll take it easy on you…to start.” 
“Good,” you pulled him into another kiss. When you two broke apart, Steven was grinning down at you. 
“Now this is just darling,” he mused, tugging the cups of your bustier down to free your breasts. He wasted no time attaching his skilled mouth to your left nipple to lavish his attention on your sensitive peak.
You mewled, eyes screwed shut, and your hand shot down to Steven’s boxer-briefs to grope him through the fabric. 
Steven switched nipples with a rumble in his chest and once you were face to face again, Jake asked you “Will you suck Papi’s cock in your pretty outfit?” 
“Por supuesto Papi.”
You flipped over, reorienting yourselves so Jake was on his back and you were straddling his legs. You discarded his boxers and did your best to make a show of lapping at his tip, mouthing at the head and using your tongue to play with it. 
“Joder si, nena,” Jake heaved, trying to keep from bucking into your mouth without warning. “Just like that.” 
You worked your mouth down on his length, and you spotted who you thought was Steven craning his neck to watch you swallow his dick down your throat with your tits still out. “Bloody hell.”
You chuckled around his erection, the vibrations sending a shiver through Steven’s spine. Or wait, was that a Marc sound? 
“Don’t stop,” Jake urged you. You obeyed happily, licking the circumference of his cock to wet it, then wrapping your palm around the appendage to stroke what couldn’t fit in your mouth while you went to town on him. 
You could tell your boys were close by the way their right leg twitched, but before could take them into the home stretch, a hand pulled you off their cock by your hair. 
“Jake doesn’t get to come just like that,” Marc growled, wrapping his own hand around the base of his manhood to stave off his orgasm. 
“Fuck you,” Jake vollied quickly before Marc reclaimed the body and eased with you a kiss. “Hands and knees, baby.” 
You obeyed, wiggling your ass a bit for effect, and whimpered when you felt a palm slap across your right cheek. That was Jake for sure. The drenched crotch of your thong was pushed to the side, then you felt the head of your husband’s cock circle your soaking entrance a few times before it began to breach you, which was a Steven move. 
Your husband set a steady pace and confirmed your guess as to who was fronting when Steven raved, “Oh, I see why they like this position…such a lovely view.” 
“It’s good isn’t it?” Marc chimed in, increasing the pace of his thrusts some. “First time I fucked you we did it like this, remember baby?” 
“Ye-uh…uh-huh,” you could barely formulate words at this point. The idea of your husbands teaming up to fuck you in a slutty little matching lingerie set was melting your brain. 
“She takes it so well,” Jake added. His hand pressed in between your shoulder blades and you yielded so that your face and chest were resting on the bed, ass higher in the air. 
“Ugh that’s it,” Marc groaned, landing another slap across your rear. 
“Doing so well for us, love,” he praised. It was Steven obviously. “You alright?” 
You stuttered out a “yes” and began pushing your hips back against his groin as much as you could to drive your point home. 
When Jake said “Hmmm, si nena, let us feel that little cunt clench around our cock,” you couldn’t resist anymore, you had to touch yourself. 
Jake spotted it right away and spanked you again, “Did I say you could play yourself?”
“Por favor Papi,” you begged. You were beyond dignity at this point, all you could think about was coming. “I need it.”
“Let her Jake,” Steven argued, rubbing the imprint his alter’s hand left to soothe your skin, “she got all dressed up for us.” 
“Plus it’s hot as fuck to watch her work her little bud,” Marc pointed out. 
“Bien, bien,” Jake let it go. 
“Who do you want to make you come?” Steven asked, his hips never faltering as he continued to impale you with the fat member you craved.  
“I…um…uh…”
“Aw look Steven, we made her all cockdumb,” Marc cooed at you. 
Your current position prevented you from sending a dirty look at your husband. He wasn’t exactly wrong though.  
“I got her,” Jake volunteered. A moment later, a wet thumb circled your asshole and edged ever so slightly in. The extra stimulation, combined with your fingers frantically rubbing your clit, caused you to come with a high whine. You bore down on your husband’s big dick as the pleasure wracked you, so profound it was almost painful. 
Your husband held your hips steady as you drifted down from your orgasm and he sought his own release. You reflexively tightened around his spent cock when you felt the ribbons of his seed empty inside of you. 
You rolled over, lying on the bed sideways to look at them. Marc gazed back at you, examining your face with concern to make sure they hadn’t gone too hard on you, you presumed. Speech hadn’t returned to you just yet, so you sent him a toothy, satisfied smile instead. 
“You okay baby?” He asked. You nodded, allowing him to slide off your panties. 
Steven cut in quickly to follow up, “You need anything for your bum?” 
“I think I’m okay, hun, but thank you,” you assured him. He turned you around to take off your bustier for you as well. 
“‘Course,” he replied instantly, slowly standing to walk bow-legged to the bathroom and wipe his cum off of you. “They got a little carried away at the end there.” 
“Did not” you heard Jake snipe back.  
They reappeared with Marc’s stern expression on their features. “You sure you’re okay? Obviously we loved it, but….“
Jake butted in to finish his question, “Did you like it, nena?” 
“Yes,” your tone didn’t leave any room for doubt. Now a little more recovered from your orgasm, you could string together a sentence. “I loved it, it was just intense, and it was our first time being intimate like that.”
“We’re a bit full on, aren’t we?” Steven asked with wry self-deprecation, tossing the used flannel off to the side of the room and getting under the covers. 
“I love it,” you said once again, settling into his arms, “I married you after all.”
“Good,” Steven murmured. “You didn’t happen to bring more lingerie like that, did you?” 
***
Though the benefits to having a private pool were many…mainly that you and your husband could have pool sex whenever the mood struck, you did make it to the beach. It’d be a sin not to, and the image of Marc emerging form the ocean was one you’d lock in your mind until you died. 
He was dripping wet head to toe, dark hair slicked back with water, his trunks clinging to those muscular thighs that drove you wild, and his golden skin had darkened a shade from the sun. Though you knew your husband had once been entangled with an Egyptian deity, you couldn’t help but think that Marc would be quite at home in the Greek pantheon too, with a body and face like that. 
“Hey! You gotta get in,” he ran a hand through his hair, “It’s like bathwater.” 
“I think you’re the most handsome man I’ve ever seen,” you blurted out. 
Marc shot you a wide, unguarded grin. “I already married you, you don’t need to keep flattering me anymore.”
“Shut up,” you tossed at him fondly. 
Marc lowered his still dripping body on top of you. You tried to wiggle away from him but Marc locked you in his grasp and attacked you with kisses all over your face, “I think that I’ve never seen a more beautiful woman with a more generous heart. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“Marc,” your voice was thick with tears. It was one thing for Marc to be so playful with you, then add in such loving sentiments expressed to you so openly? You couldn’t help but get verklempt. Your husband had come such a long way - partly thanks to the work he did on his own, with his therapist, and of course you two refusing to give up on each other. 
“Baby, don’t cry!” He cajoled. 
“I’m not, I’m sweaty,” you joked. 
“Okay, then I was sweating at the temple,” Marc bantered back, referring to your wedding ceremony. “Will you please come swim with me? The most handsome man you’ve ever seen?” 
You shoved playfully Marc and got up to head to the water, “I give you one compliment…” 
***
Kate, one of your friends from work, had gifted you a couples massage at the resort for your wedding present. You weren’t sure how the boys decided which one would front for it, but when it was time to leave for the appointment, Jake was the one accompanying you. 
It was heavenly to have all of the wedding and travel stress massaged from your muscles, and no one was more deserving of rest & relaxation than your husband. Their body worked three jobs, plus there had been much strategizing and occasional hair-pulling for Marc and Jake about leaving things with their respective jobs in a place so that they wouldn’t come back from Greece to dumpster fires. Steven was mercifully on summer holiday, so his job was slow anyway. 
The pair of you left your joint session as pliable noodle-people. Jake took your hand as you ambled back to your suite. 
“I’m going to give Kate the biggest thank you,” you vowed. 
He seconded you with a content hum and opened the door to your room. 
“I’m going to take a shower, get all of this oil off of me,” you announced, padding into the bathroom, “honey, what did you do with my shampoo?” 
You routed around in his toiletries bag, thinking you’d found it, but what you produced was definitely not your stolen shampoo. 
Jake had followed you in and when he saw that you were holding the bottle of lube he brought, it was one of the very few times you’d ever seen him blush. You had no trouble getting wet, and you hadn’t brought any toys on vacation either, so what had he brought lube for…oh. 
All he’d wanted for the past few “special occasions” you two had shared (Hannukah, your anniversary, Daylights Savings Time) was anal sex. You weren’t opposed to the idea, but had required a gradual approach to it. To his credit, Jake had been wonderfully patient, and you’d become comfortable with a few of his thick fingers in your ass. 
Jake immediately began to backtrack, “I only brought it in case you wanted to—“
“It’s okay,” you assured him. “I mean I’m open to it, when in Greece on your honeymoon, right? 
Jake looked at you with barely contained eagerness. “Bueno, cuando quieres hacerlo?”
He knew that if he wanted a piece of your ass, he had to ask in advance. You were a lady and you had a certain mystique you had to maintain, not to mention preparation you needed to undergo. But, given that you were already pretty relaxed and going to shower anyway, now seemed as good a time as any. 
“No time like the present,” you suggested. 
“Wait, really?!” Jake reacted similarly to a little boy who’d been given his first bike. 
You couldn’t help but chuckle fondly at his response. “Yeah, I’m all loosened up after the massage and I’ll make this shower a thorough one. So while I do, vamos and make things extra romantic in the bedroom.” 
“Si Señora Lockley,” he basically road-runnered out of the bathroom. 
Jake took your task to heart – when you entered the bedroom, hair damp, lube in hand, towel wrapped around you — candles had been lit, music was playing softly, and he had even managed to get a bottle of champagne up to the room while you’d washed up. 
“Not bad Lockley,” you said after surveying the room. You tossed him the lube. “Not bad at all.”
He shot you a grin that was akin to a wolf who just caught sight of a rabbit. Jake gestured to the champagne, “Shall we? Loosen you up un poquito mas?” 
“Por favor,” you assented. You weren’t sure exactly what made the popping of a champagne bottle so sexual, but a little thrill zinged through you when your husband ejected the cork from its glass neck. 
“Cheers,” you thanked him when he handed you a flute, raising it to toast, “To…new beginnings.” 
Jake mimicked your movement, “A tí, mi amor.”
Your glasses clinked and the fizzy alcohol rushed down your throat. Jake's eyes never left your face. He watched you closely, anticipating the moment when he could finally touch you. 
You decided sooner was likely better than later, best get the show on the road before you could psych yourself out. Placing your flute down, you crossed to him, “Come here Papi.”
Jake flashed you another predatory grin and followed suit at once. “We don’t need this anymore.” His fingers tucked between the towel covering your skin and pulled it loose so the cloth fell around your feet. 
Jake was more intoxicated by the sight of your naked body than any amount of champagne in his system. He wrapped you into a kiss, plundering your mouth, his lips seeking to consume you. His hands, meanwhile, immediately dropped to your rear. 
Hoisting you up with a squeeze, he carried you over to the bed, depositing you on the mattress much more gently than a few nights ago. His mouth never left yours while he worked you to an orgasm on his fingers. 
Then, and only then, did Jake request you turn over, wedge a pillow under your hips, and leave a line of kisses down the length of your spine. 
You couldn’t help but squirm a little when he pulled your cheeks apart. You’d never felt more exposed in your life, but your husband was quick to quell any of your concerns when he asked in an awed whisper, “Nena, can I kiss you here?” 
“Mmm…oh-okay,” you consented and jerked again when you felt his hot breath on your most vulnerable spot, followed by a brush of his lips. 
Next came the snick of the cap of the bottle being opened, and moments later, Jake massaged lube around your wrinkled skin to coat it thoroughly. He may have been excited, but your husband knew he had to be gentle with you. 
Though Jake had gotten you accustomed to much more, you could never stifle the little “ah” you made when the pad of his finger breached your rim. He coaxed more of his digit inside of you, taking ample time to allow you to adjust. 
Jake checked in with you. “How does that feel?” 
“It’s okay,” you told him, “you can move.” 
He proceeded like that, constantly touching base with you as he fed two more fingers into your tight pucker. Your husband’s preparation was a steady stream of “are you okay nena?”, “you feel good? Papi wants you to feel good,” and other praise. 
So thorough was Jake in opening you up that he’d lost his erection by the time you’d given him the go-ahead to enter you. He wasn’t exactly miffed by this development, because he knew precisely how he wanted to get it back. 
Even more lube was drizzled onto your bum, then Jake slicked up his cock to wedge it between your plush cheeks and began to grind himself between them. There was no way to muffle the rumble in his chest at the feel of your ass smothering his cock, the lube providing the necessary slip, and he was damn near entranced by his cockhead reappearing each time from the cleft of your ass. 
You helped him, working your hips back to meet his while he humped you. It felt amazing, and your asshole clenched at the thought that he’d be inside you soon. Fucking your ass cheeks got Jake back to full mast in no time. You were beginning to lose yourself in the rhythmic sliding of your bodies when you husband draped himself over your back to ask in a murmur, “Can I put it in, nena?” 
“Uh huh,” you confirmed, “just go slow please.” 
“Claro que si,” Jake assured you, placing a kiss behind your ear before he straightened up. 
He applied even more lube to your now winking asshole and his dick before he notched the tip at your entrance. “Estas lista?” 
“Yes honey, please,” his cockhead at your pucker felt like a promise you were now desperate for him to make good on. 
Jake’s tip popped past the ring of muscle and you nearly bit down on the linens below you. It was intense, though not altogether painful like you’d feared. You focused on keeping your breathing even as your husband continued to sink inside of you, becoming lightheaded from the overwhelming feeling of fullness in your ass and the deep pulls of oxygen you were pumping into your lungs. 
“Bien?” Jake asked. The strain in his voice was evident. 
“Yeah,” was the most you could manage. 
“How do you feel?” 
“Like I want more,” you told him truthfully. The feeling of having your husband’s dick up your bum was dizzying, deliciously too much, like a scab you weirdly enjoyed picking. 
You experimentally fluttered your muscles around his length and even though Jake was a loving, patient man, even he could not resist the thrust and groan that the move prompted. “Feel good, Papi? Like everything you’ve wanted?”
Jake began moving his hips slowly, “And more.” 
While the view of the sea outside of your window was stunning, Jake didn’t think he’d ever seen a sight he’d enjoy more than his throbbing cock splitting your ass in half over and over again.  
“You…you feel so big like this,” you gasped. “So huge inside me.” 
“Joder, mami, you can’t just say things like that,” he cautioned you as he continued to plow you. 
“Buh-but I can’t help it,” you confessed, and your mind quickly supplied what to say next to drive him absolutely wild. “Fucking me so deep, Papi.”
“Nnnngnnn,” came Jake’s scintillating reply. By now, most of the burn had faded from your channel and you could focus on the delicious stretch in your rear from his cock.
You honestly couldn’t believe how good it felt. Fingers and fantasies were one thing, plus you were fully prepared to take one for the team, to be a good wife and try it even if you weren't keen on the idea. But now you were the slightest bit ashamed to admit that you kind of loved having a cock in your ass. Or maybe it was the fact it was your husband’s thick erection filling you. 
Jake’s brain did nearly explode when you began meeting his thrusts, rocking back on your knees so he could penetrate you deeper. Your ass was absolutely suffocating his cock with its heat and clench around him, he truly believed he could live inside of you forever if you’d let him. 
The two of you communicated exclusively in gasps in grunts, the slap of skin on skin reverberating throughout the suite while you drowned each other in pleasure. You knew when Jake picked up the rate of his thrusts and began growling that he was close and oh, it was different to have your ass filled with cum rather than your pussy. 
You’d barely recovered from Jake easing his cock out of you when you were flipped onto your back and your husband buried his face between your legs. A high-pitched moan tore out from you when his tongue probed your now slightly gaping asshole to collect his cum. 
Jake didn’t stop there, licking around your cleft and spearing his tongue to circle its tip around your sensitive rim. He only relented when you gently pushed his face away from overstimulation. Between your earlier orgasm and the passion of what you had just shared with Jake, you needed to rest.  
He rose back to be level with your face, whispering “thank you” non-stop as he collected you in his arms. “I guess I have to be extra good from now on.”
“Mmmm?” you sought clarification with a sleepy hum. 
“We need to do that again so I can’t piss you off anymore,” he explained. 
You chuckled. “Exactly right, esposo.” 
He inhaled deeply, taking a deep whiff of your hair to smell the faint citrusy scent of your shampoo before he left the bed. To his credit, Jake was excellent with the post-anal aftercare. He drew you a bath, ordered everything you wanted from (the heinously expensive in his opinion) room service, rubbed some petroleum jelly on your pucker to soothe it. He cuddled you in bed, long after the sun sank beyond the horizon, until you drifted off later that evening. 
***
“Good morning!” the concierge Helena greeted you as you approached her desk. 
“Hi there,” you chirped back. The boys slept in this morning, which gave you the opportunity to sneak down to the lobby and square away the details for today’s day trip that you and Steven planned on taking. “Could I please have a copy of the ferry schedule?”
“Of course, Mrs. Spector,” one week in and you still got a little flutter every time someone called you that, “where are you headed?” 
“Delos,” you told her. 
“A must when visiting Mykonos. We’d be happy to arrange a private tour of the island for you and your husband,” Helena offered, “We have relationships with a few exceptional guides on Delos and–”
“Oh that won’t be necessary,” you tried to turn her down gently. “But thanks for the offer.” 
“Are you sure?” she asked. “There’s so much history there.” 
“My husband’s a professor of ancient civilizations,” you explained as she passed you the little flyer with the ferry timetable, “he’s been researching Delos since we booked this trip months ago.” 
“Huh, I thought he said he was a consultant,” Helena’s colleague, a male concierge who’d welcomed you, chimed in. 
“He is,” you covered, thinking fast, “He teaches and consults with archaeologists on digs.” 
“You’ll be well set then” Helena concluded with a smile. 
“Yes,” you agreed, “I won’t be surprised if by the end of the day, I’ll be able to lead a tour of the island.” 
Your prediction was more or less correct. Steven’s eyes lit up as Delos came into view from the ferry’s bow. He’d already briefed you on the early history and beginnings of the island on the ride over. Anyone else, it would be pedantic and infuriating, but Steven was so genuinely invested that his urge to share about the island was endearing, his enthusiasm about its lore contagious. 
You two meandered through the breathtaking ruins hand-in-hand. Steven’s unofficial tour of the island was so engaging that you clocked a few American tourists loitering near you, eavesdropping to hear all of your husband’s in-depth knowledge of the different statues and remains of the site. 
Your husband remained blissfully oblivious, and you didn’t mind the audience. You’d gotten your picture at the Terrace of the Lions, and besides, Steven was at his best like this. You thought back to when you first met and started dating him: his hunched posture, general jumpiness, the way he’d hedge and second-guess himself. Those facets of him had already melted away to an extent now that all four of you had settled into a groove that worked for everyone, but when Steven had a chance to talk about the subjects he was passionate about, he was calm, confident, and charismatic. He shone brighter than the blazing Greek sun and it warmed your heart more than words could ever describe to see your darling husband so effortlessly in his element. 
So taken were you by his swagger that you interrupted his latest lecture about Cleopatra or something as you strolled to the Temple of The Delians, walking him back into one of the tall, ancient pillars to kiss him senseless. 
“Blimey,” he sighed when you broke apart, “what was that for?” 
You cocked your head playfully, “Do I need a reason to kiss my smart, sexy husband?” 
“No,” he conceded with a sheepish smile playing across his lips. 
You crowded closer to his body, his spine now pressed against the millennia-old, unyielding marble.
“These broad shoulders, all this golden skin…you look like a Greek god, you know,” you informed him while your hands traveled the cotton-covered expanse of his body. You pressed yourself impossibly closer to his body. 
“Careful,” he warned you,“because soon this column won’t be the only thing as hard as stone.” 
“Oh yeah?” Your tone was a playful challenge as you palmed his hardness through his shorts. 
He groaned, “Babe…”
You withdrew your hand from his crotch. “Wanna feel what you do to me? So we’re even?” 
He nodded feverishly to accept your offer and slipped his hand under the skirt of your sundress to dip his fingers inside of your lacy panties and feel you. 
“So wet,” he observed reverently, playing with your folds and bud, “All this for me?”
“It’s certainly not for the ruins,” you quipped. 
He slipped a finger inside you for your cheekiness, and you instantly tightened around him with a little whimper. 
“Only you could make me want to cut a trip to Delos short,” he mused, slowly withdrawing his finger from your cunt, wiping your wetness on your panties, so as not to draw any attention. 
“I’ll behave myself,” you promised, smoothing down your skirt. “Delos was your only honeymoon request.” 
Steven’s hand took yours once again. “This and more lingerie fashion shows.” 
You squeezed his hand, “Play your cards right and I'll give you a good one later.” 
***
You’d put on quite the naughty fashion show for Steven when you returned to the suite and between the vigorous fucking your little act had resulted in and a day of sightseeing in the sun, you two passed out cold post-coitus. 
Marc had woken up with you just as the sun disappeared below the horizon and suggested a dip to cool and rinse you off after your earlier lovemaking. You knew what “a dip in the pool” meant when your husband suggested it, but what you hadn’t expected was to be bent over your balcony in the Grecian twilight in the nude while your husband railed you from behind.
“Now this is a beautiful view,” he remarked as he pounded you. “I have the ocean and your ass jiggling without having to turn my head.” 
Words escaped you at the moment. You were bowed over the rail, indescribably full in this position, equal parts thrilled and terrified that people could see your husband using your pussy in the dwindling sun.
Marc pulled your ass cheeks apart to get a better look at his cock as it was sucked in by your cunt. He kept a hand holding you open while the other massaged the wrinkled skin of your pucker, causing you to convulse at the unexpected touch. 
“I get your ass next,” he declared, “It was so hot watching Jake take it…fuck, like a porno just for me and Steven. You were so beautiful.” 
You mewled. As dirty as Marc liked to be, he could never abandon his adoration of you. You belonged to one another, each of you placing your trust, respect, vulnerability in the other’s hands to have absolutely shameless sex like this. 
“Duh-duh-do…do you think anyone can see?” You wondered out loud. 
“Dunno,” Marc replied, still thumbing your asshole. “Probably not but I don’t care if they do, because you’re mine. Right, baby?” 
“Yeah,” you instantly concurred . “All yours daddy.” 
The use of the pet name spurred Marc to spin you around so that your back was up against the crossbeam that made up the railing. He hitched your leg around his thick hips and plunged back into your needy core swiftly. 
“So beautiful,” he repeated again now that you were facing each other. “So goddamn gorgeous.” 
“Such a slut for you Marc,” you rambled, your breath hitching when his hand dropped between you once more, this time to strum at your clit. 
“Fuck yeah,” he grunted. “My wife is a slut for me and only me, you’ve got everyone else fooled.” 
“It’s ‘cause you fuck me like this,” you provided, “‘s why I married you, no one else can make me come so hard.” 
Marc redoubled his efforts on your little nub, now fully peeking out from its hood. “That’s right, come for me baby.” 
Who were you to disobey? You had to bite your lip to muffle your mind as the fire of your orgasm licked through every corner of your body. Your hands gripped the wooden railing for dear life as it spread throughout your limbs. 
Marc followed shortly after you, burying his face into your shoulder as he released deep into your heat with a satisfied groan. He brought your lips together once he finished, capturing you in tender liplock, allowing his cock to soften inside you before extracting it. 
“Let’s never go back to London,” you proposed. 
You could feel Marc’s amused smile against your skin. “Deal.” 
Of course you had to, but it was nice to pretend as if you all didn’t have lives to go back to in two and a half days, even if only for a moment. 
***
The next morning, your last full day in Greece, you didn’t want to get out of bed. Your airtight, logical reasoning was if you didn’t wake up the day couldn’t start and pass you by. Plus, you were too comfortable to move. Your back and neck were supported by fluffy pillows, your legs were splayed open and damn, there was the most delightful sensation between them. 
It took embarrassingly long for your sleep and pleasure-addled brain to realize that your husband was feasting at you. You eyes blinked open to find the covers pushed back and his inky curls at the apex of your thighs. You moaned, and when he flicked his tongue in quick succession over your clit, you knew it was Steven. 
“Honey.” 
“Oh you’re awake,” he grinned, his chin wet from your slick when he briefly separated himself from your cunt to greet you. “Brilliant.” 
…And he went right back to eating you out like a starving man. You gasped, your fingers curled into his locks, and you jolted into a sitting position as Steven continued. Already the steady pulse of pleasure beat through you indicating that your climax was near. 
“How long have you been at this, baby?” 
“Dunno,” he murmured against your slit, “a while.” 
“Yeah?” Your voice was barely more than a rasp. “Woke up hungry for some pussy?” 
He moaned and nodded his head with his tongue firmly shoved against your bud and fuck, yep that did it. You came with a keen, your thighs trembling and your fingers clawing at the crisp white sheets.
Steven retreated some while your orgasm wracked your body, then dove right back in. You tried to twist away from him, still so sensitive, but Steven wrapped his muscled arms around your twitching legs to hold you still. 
“Baby,” you attempted to protest. 
“Need it,” he countered, his voice reedy. 
You pet his curls and tried to keep your legs steady as his morning scruff tickled your inner thighs. At least he eased back in to his assault on your cunt, dropping the lightest kisses on the crease where your thighs meet your groin before lapping at you once more.
He was trying to get as much of you wet as he could, it felt like, before he narrowed his target to just licking stripes from your asshole to your clit. Only once he had you dripping to his liking did he return to stick his tongue in your hole, gulping down your taste, moving to your clit shortly thereafter. 
By that point it didn’t take much for you to erupt on his tongue, awarding Steven another orgasm that you could feel from the top of your head to the tip of your toes. 
You were not proud to admit that you kind of zoned out at that point, Steven’s mouth enshrined you in a haze of pleasure so dense that you just kind of floated atop it. Your husband seemed to be having the time of his life down there, so you were more than content to submit his ministrations.
You couldn’t really remember your name anymore but did it matter? Did you actually need to know your name to receive all of this ecstasy? 
He pulled one - wait maybe it was two? - orgasms out of you - solely with his mouth before Steven’s fingers joined in. He performed a variation of your favorite move, sucking on your clit and instead of finger-fucking you, his digits pressed deep inside of your pussy. He stroked your walls,  fingertips searching for that special spot. He found it, then your sweet Steven proceeded  to abuse the ever-loving fuck out of it. 
You could feel the magnitude of the orgasm building rapidly, more rapidly than you were used to, yet nevertheless you canted your hips against Steven’s mouth and fingers as you hurdled toward your peak.  Your release arrived with a distinct feeling of letting go, an uncontrollable sensation, but Steven wouldn’t stop worshiping your pussy, which wrenched a pitiful, strained wail from your mouth as you peaked. 
It was as if you couldn’t stop coming. You'd never experienced anything like this before, and although it felt magnificent, it scared you some too. 
Steven’s voice brought you back. “Fuck, that was hot.”
Your vision returned and you peered down at him to ask, “Did I just squirt?” 
“Yeah,” he confirmed, his face a portrait of sheer wonder. “It was bloody amazing.” 
“Ohmygod” you reeled, words coming out on a rush. “I didn’t know I could do that.” 
A flash of movement caught your eye. Steven gripped his cock which looked painfully hard, the top purpled and leaking. 
“C’mere baby,” you cooed, motioning toward you. “Use my mouth.” You couldn’t do much currently, but you could do this. 
Steven didn’t need to be told twice, awkwardly walking on his knees so he was straddling your chest. You gave his erection a few swipes of your tongue before you looked up at your husband, your eyes beckoning him to fuck your mouth like he needed to after denying himself pleasure for so long. You gripped onto his muscled, pillowy ass cheeks while he feverishly pistoned his dick into the warm suction of your mouth, the loveliest little sounds and cries escaping him. 
Given the events of this morning, it wasn’t long before you were swallowing down Steven’s cum. The size of his load indicated how pent up he’d been, and you struggled to swallow all of his hot seed down in one gulp. Your husband swung his leg over your body and collapsed next to you, the two of you rendered silent after the intense lovemaking you’d just shared. 
“Blimey,” Steven remarked. “You alright, babe? Need anything?” 
You nuzzled into his chest. “I’m hungry.”  
“Yeah, we both worked up quite the appetite, didn’t we?” he chuckled. 
You joined in, amused. “If only we could subsist off each other’s bodily fluids.” 
“We definitely wouldn’t have left the room this week if that had been the case,” he pointed out. “I think the restaurant’s still serving breakfast if we hurry.”
“Can’t we get room service? I can’t move.” You pulled the covers over your head in protest. 
“But it’s so bloody expensive,” he bemoaned. 
You revealed your face to fire back, “Well, you should’ve thought of that before you made me squirt because you’ve rendered my legs useless.” 
Steven’s expression became tinged with concern. “You sure you’re alright?” 
“Yes,” you assuaged him once again, “but four orgasms tends to take it out of you. Plus, baby, it’s our last day here, we should treat ourselves.” 
Your husband relented, reaching for the in-room phone, “Want the bowl you had last time?”
You nodded, just absolutely beaming now that you’d gotten your way, and planted a wet kiss on Steven’s cheek as he placed your breakfast order. 
He pulled you close to him once more after he hung up, and you pondered as he held you, “I can’t believe I’ll be back at work in forty-eight hours. I’ll be meant to be catching up on emails and all I’ll be able to think about is how well you three fucked me.” 
Steven hummed in a mix of agreement and satisfaction. “We certainly made the most of it, didn’t we? It’ll be tough to go back to our usual routine and not shag at least two times a day.”
“How did we even do it?” you giggled. 
“No idea,” he played along, then tilted your chin up to kiss you gingerly, sincerely. “I think it’s safe to say our marriage has gotten off to a cracking start however.” 
You reconnected your lips, kissing him deeper. “Couldn’t agree more, my love.” 
A/N: hopefully this was worth the wait!! thank you again dawnsutopia for requesting and more fills to come soon! 
Taglist: @twwcs​, @rmoonstoner​, @hot-mess-express1​, @murdickdocked, @toracainz​, @saahmi​, @unspokenmoon​, @winterbiipp​, @avatarofseshat​ @ilikeoldermenhelp, @losers-club6​, @harrys-tittie​, @ninebluehearts​, @lucianadraven32​, @dawnsutopia​, @strawberry1042 @nikitawolfxo
Translations: 
Joder - Fuck 
Te gusta? Piensas que yo miro linda? - You like? Do you think I look cute? 
No, eres linda, pero ahora ves tan sexy - No, you’re cute but now you look so sexy 
Ven aquí - come here 
Por supuesto Papi - of course daddy
Joder si, nena - fuck yeah babe 
Bien, bien - okay, okay 
 Bueno, cuando quieres hacerlo? - good, when do you want to do it? 
Vamos - let’s go
Por favor - please 
Señora - Mrs. 
un poquito mas - a little more 
A tí, mi amor - to you, my love 
Claro que si - of course 
Estas lista - are you ready? 
esposo - husband 
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utdr-stimming · 1 month
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Kris Dreemurr x Berdly stim board for Valentine's day!!!
Yay!!! Wanted to do my absolute favourite ship for today since love is in the air. This is half directed towards my partner (I know you're reading this) who is the Kris to my Berdly <3 This is also half directed towards @the-spider-in-your-livingroom !!! I did the Kerdly board here you go!!! Also @maramarabum wanted this too hihi
Also please recognize that I didn't just add bluebirds because of Berdly, but because he calls him and Kris "fellow bluebirds" which makes me very happy
x x x
x :) x
x x x
103 notes · View notes
meimi-haneoka · 4 months
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Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Chapter 80 (FINAL): Comments + JP-ENG translation differences
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CCS Faaaans!!! Welcome to our last (?) monthly appointment with the analysis, commentary and list of translation differences for THE FINAL chapter of Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card!!! 🥹🥹🥹
Aaaaaah, I can't believe that after seven years and a half of serialization, we're finally here!!
I still remember the strong emotions I felt when I had seen the pages of Nakayoshi for chapter 1 in advance, back in June 2016....it seemed like a miracle, to me. Like a "mirage". And back then I still didn't know just HOW MUCH of a precious miracle this sequel would've become to me!
So it's with shaky hands and a trembling, emotional heart that I write this post to you...I hope you can excuse the length of it (maybe take a break in between?), I'll do my best to highlight the translation differences (unfortunately we definitely got some for this finale, one in particular made me quite mad) so you can spot them immediately among the sea of words and feels I will inevitably pour into my writing...
The "Beaver Moon" was big and shiny just a few days ago, and like all the full moons at the end of the month, it brought us a chapter, a very special finale for this series.
And as I usually do, I really cannot skip this silly moment that accompanied me for so many commentary posts, so here you go, my dear readers, the last Gif Of The Month!!!
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I had already decided that, no matter the content of the chapter, I would've used this, because it is my intention to give my congratulations to CLAMP for reaching the end of this wonderful story and also thank them for giving me a multitude of emotions over the years. I've been happy, angry, excited, teary-eyed, frustrated, confused, hopeful, in pain, in love. I'll always be grateful to them for changing their mind and deciding to give us a sequel of this beloved series, after so many years of dreaming of it, and for making me fall in love with the new characters, none excluded!
So, off we go, under the cut for this commentary of the finale!!
The Color Page
Oh my heart 😭😭😭 I really wondered if they would go for it, if they would shoot us with feels right from the first pages and they did, they paid homage to the color page of chapter 50 of the old manga!! ❤️ We can see the same bluebirds that were featured back then, still holding in their little beaks lots of ribbons coming from the pink roses bouquet that Sakura is preciously holding... And that also made me realize that these are the same birds that were featured last month for Akiho and Kaito's color page too!!! ✨ They definitely, definitely wanted us to get the message that all of them will be truly happy from now on. ❤️I actually appreciate even more that Mokona-sensei took care in including those birds for the color page of Akiho/Kaito too.
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Back in the old manga, CLAMP had given a comment for the illustration of chapter 50, saying that it was created that way to give a sense of looking forward to the future, and the absence of the Star Wand here was a precise request from Ohkawa to Mokona, because Sakura would've tried her best from now on, without necessarily relying on her magic.
Here, in chapter 80, we can somehow see the same theme but Sakura isn't proceeding "forward" towards a specific direction, it seems more like she's floating comfortably, assisted by her loyal Flight Card, embellished for the occasion (it makes it look kind of "upgraded", right?). I get a sense of Sakura feeling way more comfortable with her natural gift than she's ever been.
The blue sky, the ribbons, the bluebirds, the bouquet of pink flowers, the presence of a flying Card, Sakura's bare feet and her beautiful smile are definitely elements common to both illustrations.
Here Sakura wears a longer outfit, more elegant, which of course makes her look more grown up, as it should!
The editorial text on this last page doesn't carry words of thanks like in the color page of the final chapter of the old manga (those this time around were printed directly on the cover of Nakayoshi), but actually "My invincible spell is....'Everything is surely going to be alright' "! I think it was a very nice choice to feature the Invincible Spell in the front page of this final chapter. ✨
Between this and the absolutely divine Sakura on the cover of Nakayoshi, I can feel my heart softening and filling up with lots of hope and comfort, helping me to cope with the imminent "loss" that I'm going to experience.
BUT! It's not time to let us be caught by those mischievous feelings that want us to cry at all costs, and so we're gonna proceed for the actual chapter!!
The Books In Fujitaka's Library
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The final chapter starts with Sakura chatting with Eriol and Kaho in a videocall over the phone!! The thing that immediately stands out is that Sakura is still wearing the full-winter uniform, so it's apparent right from the first panel that rather than turning back, the events are proceeding forward from where we left them, exactly as Sakura wished.
It's still winter, spring is almost here and we're almost towards the end of the 1st year of middle school for Sakura & co.
Another thing that I, as a foreigner, couldn't help but doing is calculating what time should've been for Eriol and Kaho, since they live in Europe like me! 😂😂😂 Having followers and friends all over the world, it's just normal for me. Well, if this is early morning, it should be night for the Europeans, so maybe that background at the window should be black?? 😂😆 Who knows if sensei will fix it, in the tankobon?
But enough with the silly things, let's see what Sakura is discussing with these two.
The very first thing we hear is quite shocking: Sakura slept four entire days to recuperate from the insane fatigue after the last battle!!
When I've heard that, my immediate thought was going towards all kinds of realistic, very practical issues like "did they keep her hydrated, in these four days? What about the bladder? 😱" but come on, way crazier things happened in this finale and this is the last thing we should worry about 😂
Eriol sweetly says that everyone waited impatiently for Sakura to wake up (I can imagine that!! Syaoran and Akiho must have died of anxiety). In Japanese, his sentence is somehow left trailing off, it gives me the impression that he wanted her to know that she's cared for, but in a very polite manner and avoiding to make her feel guilty for it. Sakura, as the good girl she is, tries to apologize for making them worry, apologies that Eriol doesn't need, so she ends up thanking both him and Kaho for what they did for her (and we can see Kaho peeking in the videocall! I'm glad she recovered too! As usual she's wearing nice outfits, the transparent veil over the skirt is interesting!).
Kaho, with her usual "maternal" aura, says that seeing her in good shape and hearing her cheerful voice over the phone is more than enough to her, which makes Sakura happy.
Eriol then proceeds to ask a question about the books he saw flying away at full speed after Sakura removed all the spells and the graphics from the artifact (the huge book), which then transformed into said smaller books: he wants to know where they ended up to, and lo and behold, they're nowhere other than in Fujitaka's library, in the basement of Sakura's house! 😱
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So we can see a flashback depicting a scene right after Sakura woke up (she's still in her PJs), and her father shows her a pile of ancient-looking books sitting on his desk and on the floor.
Yes, those are all the magical books that Akiho had read and (unknowingly) engraved on herself, which were about to crush her soul. There's really a lot of them, so I don't have a hard time believing that she was really on the verge of losing her soul forever.
As Fujitaka tries to explain himself, it seems Sakura worked so hard and in the end those books ended up landing right at their house!
And then, in a very moving scene, we see Fujitaka being just so happy because finally, after so many years (since 4th grade) of just watching over his daughter going through several hurdles and not being able to be helpful in any concrete way (because he didn't have magical powers, and even when magic was passed onto him, he didn't know how to use it), NOW he can finally be of assistance to her.
He then tells her not to worry, because he already got several "weird" books in his collection (hell we knew, the Cthulhu books were surely a surprise 😂), and that anything goes where it's supposed to go, when its due time comes. He believes these books, too, will reach their new fated destination one day, so until then, he will take care of them. ✨
By the way, you all saw it, right?? YES, it's there again. Fay's tattoo on that book! 😂CLAMP REALLY wanted us to see it, didn't they?
Is this insistence in featuring elements coming from Tsubasa a sign of something in the future...? Or are they just messing with us....?
I bet even this book one day will find its way to Celes country, to have that tattoo used in the way we all know.
Anyway, I REALLY loved this scene because it just shows CLAMP's firm intention to involve *all* the main and side characters in this collective effort to help Sakura solving Akiho and Kaito's situation (Fujitaka was indeed the one missing from the support group!).
It's just so good to know that a tiny frustration that Fujitaka expressed in this arc (how he couldn't be of help to his own daughter) was finally put to rest too, with this new task he took upon himself.
I strongly believe that Sakura, once again guided by her infallible instinct and empathy, subconsciously wished those books into her father's library, because she just knew that her father would be the perfect person to guard them and keep them safe for the time due.
The Cards
Back to the present, Eriol comments that Sakura's father is really dependable, and she can only warmly agree!
But Sakura's got questions of her own, for Eriol. She asks what happened to the transparent cards (note: even this time, Sakura keeps calling them with the japanese term 透明, "transparent", and never calls those cards クリアカード, the English term that gives name to the arc).
Eriol gives his own explanation: the transparent Cards were probably bound into the book of the guardian Sakura met (and not "befriended" like the ENG wrote), and as such, they became magical power used to activate the "forbidden magic".
About the newly created Remind and Blank Cards, Eriol guesses that the last magic that Sakura summoned thanks to those two Cards was so "violent" (the term used 凄烈 means "violent, intense, fierce") that it ended up exhausting completely the Cards' magical power.
Sakura says "so...they're gone", confirming that yes, even those two disappeared after being used.
Eriol asks about the Cards Sakura had from before, our dear Sakura Cards, and she releases them in the room to show to Eriol their current appearance: it seems like they have taken up some elements from the transparent cards, mixing up their designs! They look really cool and empowered, like this! Eriol attempts to explain this occurence as an influence of the fact that Sakura used some of them with her new Dream Staff, hence why their new appearance!
It seems like she'll be able to use all of them with that staff from now on, so this is a first hint to something that will be referenced in a stronger way in a few pages.....
Kaho gets closer to Eriol's computer and says "Don't worry, I can see they still love you all the same, Sakura-chan, there's no problem about it!" and then she spots Flight among the deck. Sakura confirms happily that it's still here and Eriol says "it's a testament to its perseverance!".
And then, Sakura wants to talk to Eriol about Akiho and Kaito too......but we're not allowed to hear it yet, because we only see Sakura nodding and "uh-uh"-ing at the phone and then Kero warns her that she's going to be late for school, so our girl hurriedly hangs up with her friends abroad.
Her dear small glutton guardian tells her to not push herself since she barely woke up yesterday, and when Sakura goes to pick the pin she wants to use today in the jewelry box (it's the pin Yukito gave her as a present in chapter 1!), she picks up the Star Key. And here, unfortunately, I have to point out the first concrete translation difference of this chapter in a scene that many were waiting for:
ENG: "This key....I wonder if it'll leave someday, too. To go to where it should be, to the side of the person it chooses to be with"
JP: "This key, too...I wonder if one day it'll go...to the side of the person it should be with"
Now, what irritates me here is that in their usual need to embellish the translation, they added an unnecessary "the person it chooses to be with", which is something they made up because there's no mention of the verb "choosing" or anything like that in Japanese, and so it makes it seem like the key will one day just go away on its own, on its own volition.
Now, this is a VERY important scene because we all know what this is foreshadowing, the transition of the Star Wand from Sakura Kinomoto to the Reborn Sakura Clone in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle through a dream, that cameo that made us scream all over the world in 2009. That scene was accompanied by a very beautiful and mature speech by Sakura Kinomoto herself, a sign that this "handover" was totally a well pondered choice of Sakura herself, not the key's.
The translation of this scene here in Clear Card tampers with the understanding of the events we got from Tsubasa and it really makes me wonder if the translator knows of this reference at all.....
Continuing on, Sakura goes downstairs and meets Touya having breakfast (and omg Kero goes to him!!! I still can't get used to these two interacting in the open), as usual Touya teases her calling her "monster", to which Sakura stiffens, but she shakes it off to thank her brother, to which he answers "no snacks for four days"!
Sakura at that point gets angry asking why, but he diverts her attention pointing out that she's gonna be late, so the girl bolts out of the door......not hearing her brother saying "that's the amount of days you haven't woken up, you silly!" (and Kero goes along with it).
Now, the ENG translation here interpreted this as a "payback", like Touya isn't going to make her snacks for 4 more days as a "payback" for making him worry like that, and initially I interpreted it like that too. But as I checked the Spanish translation, they interpreted it differently, as if Touya wasn't talking about the snacks that he won't prepare for the next 4 days, but actually the ones Sakura didn't eat during the period in which she was sleeping, and I think they're right because Touya calls Sakura "dummy, silly" so he might be referencing the fact that she misunderstood, here! Anyway, it's not a serious difference but I wanted to report it here anyway.
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Sakura finds Syaoran out of her house waiting for her, and we see him all happy and embarrassed to go pick his girl up right outside her house to go to school together 🥰Syaoran got contacted yesterday from her (I don't know why in the ENG there's "last night", it's just "yesterday"), telling him that she was ok now, but of course that wasn't enough for our worrywart prince charming, so he's here this morning to escort her to school! Sakura can't avoid commenting "aw, you were worried about me!" and Syaoran honestly but embarassedly answers "that, and I wanted to see you as soon as possible". Omg these two...flirting like crazy in front of the audience even in the finale!! 😂(well of course!!). As one of my friends reminded me, this line was already said by Syaoran before, when he was revealing the whole truth about the Sakura Cards and was explaining to Sakura that he came back to Japan earlier than scheduled also because he wanted to see her sooner.
After a good dose of blushing which is always good for the health in the early morning, Sakura thanks Syaoran not only for walking her to school, but also for all the rest that he's done. She's clearly referencing the events of 4 days ago, and Syaoran answers that if he helped her even just a little, then he's happy. This vague reference to the events of 4 days ago seems lost in the ENG, as Syaoran casually answers that he's happy if he can help her sometimes (?). 少しでも means "even just a little", not "sometimes".
On the way to school, Sakura says that she already contacted everyone to say that she woke up and to thank them, but she seems to be wanting to go thanking Yukito directly at his house later, also because Nakuru and Suppi are there! As Syaoran adds, Sakura can see Tomoyo and Akiho later at school. Sakura says "...yes" with a slightly sad face because she already knows something about one of them.....
We switch to Yukito's house for the last look at our "snow bunny", still in Nakuru's company (when are they going back to England???) and wondering what kind of sweets should he offer to Sakura today, while Nakuru is hellbent on finally having Sakura call her "Nakuru-chan" today (I told you, she's like a 5 years old girl, she sees herself as a kid like Sakura 😂).
Then, turning suddenly serious, she says to Yukito: "Don't you dare doing anything else that requires a 'payment', understood?", which immediately made me realize that Nakuru remembers about Yukito's pact with the Tsukimine Shrine!! Then, they didn't just recover the memories strictly relating to Akiho!!!
Yukito, with a big smile, says "well...I can't promise you that" which understandably triggers in Nakuru a "Yukito, you're really stubborn!!" from the bottom of her heart! 😂
But there's a kitty sleeping on a cushion (or feigning to?), our dear Suppi who thinks to himself "All of you moon-aligned types are stubborn!!" and let me tell you, this arc showed us ALL the proofs of that! 😂(Yes, Kaito, we're looking at you! 😂😂😂).
Brand New World With You
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Homeroom is starting in Sakura's class and Tomoyo makes sure that Sakura will take it easy since this is her first day back at school.
The teacher comes in, and she's already got a news for everyone (and here my heart already knew what it was): Akiho Shinomoto will be transferring away in one month! (Yes! it's Shinomoto again!)
The class is shocked, as Tomoyo is, but Sakura smiles and doesn't look surprised at all...
At lunch, everyone is so sad about Akiho transferring and Chiharu expresses how much she'll miss her, but also Naoko who loses a precious advisor for her scripts and a great actress since she wanted to cast her for the next play, seeing how wonderful she was in "Alice in Clockland". Tomoyo says that the chorus club will miss her too, and Yamazaki comments that Akiho lived in Hong Kong before transferring to Japan, so he asks her if she's still going abroad, even this time around. Akiho confirms, and then remembers that she needs to go to the teacher's room. Sakura insists to accompany her even if Akiho knows the way by now (and here we have a sweet, nostalgic recall to the same scene of the first chapter Akiho appeared in, chapter 7! Even the lines are almost the same). Of course, Sakura insisted because she wants to have a private chat with her....on their way there, she says she heard from Eriol that morning that she would be transferring abroad, but she would like to ask the reason why to Akiho herself.
Akiho says that, after all that happened, that same night she talked to Eriol (she calls him "Hiiragizawa-san" ❤️) for the first time.
He told her that he would be supporting her in any choice or anything she'd want to do from now on (the "anything I would choose" is missing from the ENG translation), and support her even with Kaito's circumstances.
Akiho was told by Eriol that Kaito kept hurting himself the more he used time magic, and that he shouldn't have been in a good condition after messing even with the "forbidden magic"....but apparently, Sakura managed to work a little miracle when she used Rewind on him.
When Sakura brought Kaito back to his original appearance, the pocket watch she used was almost completely repaired and its time stopped, and thanks to that, Kaito's time is stopped too.
I had already noticed that Kaito's life seems to be strictly connected to that pocket watch, as the more damage he took on his body, the more the watch broke. Sooooo in this scene we have some important information:
1- Eriol mentions the time magic Kaito used, how he kept using it and also the effect it would have on him, so it's legit to think that even him recovered the memories of the unrewritten timeline, not only the stuff strictly concerning Akiho.
2- Kaito's life is in a halted state (reminds you of someone?) and this means that his life is not flowing like other people's: he won't age, but his physical condition won't also get worse, as Sakura infers right after. The ENG translation suggests that Kaito won't be feeling any pain at all, but that's not the case: Sakura uses the words もっと辛かったり痛かったり, "more in pain and have a rough time (than this)", so he's still going to feel not so well from time to time, but at least his condition won't get worse than this.
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Akiho confirms, and explains that because of this, they're going to look for a magic that will be able to heal Kaito and, in addition to that, a magic that would be able to make his stopped time move forward again. This won't certainly take short time and it won't be easy....but Akiho smiles beautifully while saying that she's sure that there is a book that carries those spells she's looking for.
And then....with a sad smile, she says there's another reason.
And here my heart sinked because I wanted to see her so badly and I got the confirmation she wasn't with them.......😭
I'm talking about Momo, of course, and Akiho agrees with me because the other reason they'll travel around is that she wants to see her beloved Momo and even the "Alice in Clockland" book.
This indeed sounds a lot like the resolutions of the characters of Tsubasa in their own finale, but after all, we've been saying for long time that Kaito and Akiho had many situations paralleling those of the SyaoSaku in TRC.
Akiho, with the most radiant and beautiful smile she's ever had, says that she's sure she'll find so many other books she's never read, beside the ones she'll be looking for.
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"Because now I can go wherever I want, whenever I want, all by my own volition. Together with Kaito-san"
Sakura points out that books are, indeed, really special and important to her.
And really, Akiho's smile on this beatiful spread was enough to heal my heart from the disappointment of knowing that Momo wasn't with them, because Akiho really looks happy to start this journey with Kaito...she feels free for the first time ever.
No more clan dictating where she should go or what she should read, at her own expense at that, but also the situation between her and her beloved Kaito found its solution, with her stating loud and clear that even if he's her most important person and he did all of that for her, she's the only one who can decide her own happiness and change her own life. Akiho is finally free from all constraints, both from evil and from love, and honestly it's so comforting to see her so confident and happy.
My True Name Is....
And talking about Kaito, we switch to the Shinomoto mansion, where we see him in bed (he's still recovering - also we see his room for the first time!) and Akiho is telling him of how her friends took the news of her transferring abroad.
She was happy to hear that they're going to miss her, I bet this was the first time that people took any interest in her, so much to get to the point of saying "I'll miss you".....which totally explains why she's glad to hear that. She finally made true friends, here in Tomoeda.
Kaito is pleased to see her happy.
Akiho says that she's going to prepare dinner (my heart got warm thinking that now it's her the one cooking for him and he doesn't protest or anything) and she's going to make the no-fry croquettes that Sakura taught her (remember??? They had dedicated a chapter to that, and they were so important because Akiho learned them precisely for Kaito).
But Kaito kind of "interrupts" her, saying the thing WE ALL were waiting for him to say:
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Kaito, JP (lit.): "I'm sorry. For having thought (all that plan) on my own and decided things without your permission. Even though I know that you're someone perfectly capable of writing her own chosen future on her own blank book"
Oooooooh. The feeling of puzzle pieces going to their right place, the sense of accomplishment, the satisfaction in reading these words from him. HE FINALLY UNDERSTOOD. And it took almost k*lling himself and causing to the very person he was trying to make happy an indescribable grief, to come to this point.
What a lack of self-esteem and underlying depression can do.
But thankfully, they all managed to save things at last minute and now he's learned his lesson. So the first thing he does when he's able to, is apologizing to Akiho. But not only that.
Akiho says Kaito's name, probably wanting to answer something in return, but he interrupts her again, saying something I've been dying to hear him say (lately I expressed here and on Twitter my wish to see precisely this scene in the finale):
"That's my alias"
Akiho is shocked at hearing that, and he says, with a serious face, "Can I tell you my true name?"
At this point, I was hollering, I won't really hide it or anything.
If you're CLAMP fans, you probably know how IMPORTANT and VITAL is an information like one's true name, especially for a magician. Yuuko in Holic said that if you give someone your true name, they can take your soul.
And I'm 100% sure that even Akiho knows how important true names are in the magic world, this is something that Momo already mentioned in one of the Drama CDs but here she confirms it herself, saying hesitantly: "Are you sure I should be hearing something so important?"
With the next thing Kaito says, I was almost calling an ambulance.
Heh, I know, this is me, what can I do? Their story got me by the throat and coming to this point is such an achievement, for me. 😅
"I want you to know it"
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That あなた between brackets is so powerful. "You, above all".
In that "you" there's all the things he's not saying aloud, how unique and important she is to him. How much he trusts her with the most vulnerable part of himself. How much he's willing to give his entire soul, his everything to her, but this time in the correct way, without damaging anyone.
Akiho must be noticing all of this, because Mokona doesn't allow us to see her face, only her closed hand rising up, but from her ".....okay" I'm sure here she was quite touched.
So Kaito finally proceeds to reveal this secret that everyone was wondering about ever since chapter 51:
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"Cristaux. That's my true name".
Cristaux is written with the katakana クリスト (pronounced kurisuto) which has already been misunderstood by many for "Christ" 😂, but thankfully CLAMP have put in the furigana the correct spelling in romaji.
Cristaux is a french word used to indicate crystals. Yes, plural.
So our crazy magician was named after crystals at his birth.
Of course, of course. Isn't crystals the overwhelming theme of this arc, after all? CLAMP made sure to feature some in many many color illustration they've done.
Also, while talking to a friend, I realized that now we might understand a bit better why Kaito made a very pensive face, disguised as Syaoran, when Sakura pointed out in Clockland (ch. 66) that the castle of the Queen had foundations made of crystal........
As usual with CLAMP, we've had the solution to the mystery under our nose the whole time! 😂This feels like Tsubasa 2.0, for real! 😂
It is surely an inusual name, but I mean, it seems many of the names CLAMP choose for their characters aren't that common, after all.
With this reveal, Kaito decided to start anew with Akiho, this time around from a basis of honesty and trust. He's never going to put up masks with her ever again (and even though it's confirmed they still talk in keigo to one another -which is something I've always imagined-, we've seen him using his true pronoun "ore" with her in chapter 78). This is the perfect foundation for a relationship based on communication and trust. Bravo Kaito, you did your homeworks.
Akiho places a hand over her chest, as if the precious name entered her heart, and says something that made me completely melt:
"I've written it on the most important page of my book. So I can never forget it".
This line makes me particularly emotional not only because it sounds SO SWEET, on the verge of flirting, but also because it seems to me like a callback to something that was said in a sadder situation.
Back in chapter 35, when Sakura ended up trapped into Akiho's artifact, she experienced Akiho's past on her skin. The day of the magic ceremony that turned Akiho into an artifact, some people from the clan/Association said "let's engrave all the magical books we can find into this girl's body, so she can never forget them. Just like a blank book".
Back then, these horrible words were used to abuse a poor child, but that child today turned them into the power to choose for herself.
She appropriates the same "book" analogy to turn it into a way for her to choose on her own. Kaito's name is a precious information that she chooses to write on her heart so she can never forget it.
It is a way for her to cope and have a catharsis for her trauma.
I honestly keep getting such wonderful messages from the story of these two characters, and I'll never thank CLAMP enough for creating them.
Kaito smiles softly at Akiho's words.
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Then we go back to Sakura, Syaoran and Tomoyo, the "fab 3" who are going back home together, and we get some more information: it seems Eriol called Syaoran too (man, this guy called half the world to give explanations left and right 😂) and told him that he's going to buy Akiho and Kaito's house and look after it for them.
Sakura is really glad to hear that because it means that Akiho's huge collection of books will be safe and guarded in its library.
Tomoyo asks what they're going to do about Akiho's room at the Kinomoto house: in fact, if you look at the first panel of this chapter, you'll see that the additional portion that sprouted on Kinomoto house is still there: this means that Sakura gave everyone back their memories, but that magic didn't affect the discrepancies that arised from the rewriting of their world, hence why Akiho's room is still there.
Sakura talked about it with her dad and they decided they're gonna leave it untouched, as it is, so Akiho can always go back to it at any time. Did I cry at this? Yes, a little, because this is a sign that the Kinomotos will still keep considering her one of the family even if she'll be away, even if she'll have her life with Kaito, and I couldn't ask for anything better, for my sweet Akiho. It is so important for her to keep the bonds she created over time and know that now she's also got a network of people there for her. A second family where to turn to.
Sakura's having a real hard time accepting that Akiho will go away, and her smile becomes sad, before hugging Tomoyo and crying out "But I'll still miss her so much!!" 🥹poor Sakura 🥹I know, it's always so sad when someone that important to you leaves...
You'll Be Together Forever!!
One month passes by, and we can see some sakura flowers starting to bloom, this means we're at the end of March (and so we were in February before, just like I imagined). School year must be over pretty soon.
It's the big day, the day of departure for Akiho and Kaito, and Sakura+Syaoran went to see them off. Have you spotted it, on Sakura's scarf? Yes, that's the pin shaped like a teddy bear, the same Kaho gave her as a present and that she was wearing in the OG manga during the run at the bus stop to tell her feelings to Syaoran!
Akiho thanks Sakura for coming so early in the morning, and Sakura says she absolutely wanted to be there to see them off, actually she apologizes for making them delay their departure due to this meeting. Akiho is dressed with a cute outfit that is very remiscent of the one she's wearing in the color page of chapter 79.
A little separated from them to give their privacy, we see Kaito and his big suitcase, standing next to Syaoran. OMG it's so inusual to see them like that!!
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Then, Kaito says "Time magic....I can teach it to you, if you ever want to use it". Syaoran is very surprised to hear that, and Kaito says that when he was still in the dragon form, he heard him apologizing to Sakura for not being able to use that magic because he hadn't learned it yet, remember?? 🥹
And Kaito just offered himself as a teacher, surely as a way to thank him for everything he's done to save him and Akiho.
But not only that: in a very sweet panel, he says he knows Syaoran won't use it in an inappropriate way, and I can totally hear that implied "as opposed to me". Oh yes I hear it loud and clear by the way this is phrased in Japanese. 😁
Then, he happily takes out his phone and asks him to exchange contact numbers, because they can be convenient for any occurrence! I feel like that was a good idea because they're surrounded by magic matters so much, it's always good to be able to count on the experience and knowledge of other magicians.
We see Syaoran being a bit perplexed at the request, but then reluctanctly (?) takes out his phone 😂oh lord his reaction is so funny....and this is also another proof that the characters remember what happened before, because Syaoran could have this reaction only for that reason 😂😂😂
While looking at them interacting so funnily, Akiho takes the chance to get closer to Sakura and whisper a very important information to her (it came!!! it came for her too!! I KNEW IT!! It's not WHAT I imagined but I've been saying forever that this would come 😂):
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Akiho, JP & ENG: "My real name...is Cosmos"
What you guys can't see if you're reading the ENG version or any other language, is the duality of Akiho's true name here.
It's actually written in Japanese kanji, but the furigana that tells how to pronounce it are katakana for "Cosmos".
So it's like this:
Japanese name: 秋桜 (pronounced Akizakura, it's how Cosmos are called in Japanese)
Furigana (reading): コスモス (Cosmos)
It's not uncommon to find the Cosmos flowers being called directly with their katakana spelling, in Japanese.
All of this makes total sense for Akiho because her favorite flower is a specific type of Cosmos, the Chocolate Cosmos! They say they really smell like chocolate! So, just like Sakura, she's got the same name of her favorite flower.
But this duality of her name also allows Akiho to say what she's about to say:
Akiho, JP: "When we met for the first time, I was happy to learn I had one same character in my name as yours!"
I'm glad to see that more or less all the foreign translations did their best to explain the trick of the kanji, adding an explanation in the bubbles (they were big enough, thankfully). The ENG for example talked about "sharing a name" but Akiho here is meaning more "sharing a character" of the japanese name.
Sakura is of course really honored and happy to hear that, and thanks her for sharing such an important detail about herself.
And now, hahaha.....comes the part where I laughed SO, so much, because while to some it might sound strange for Akiho to do something like this, to me it isn't strange at all! Cause she's like that, her personality is far stronger than most think...
Our little mischievous Akiho here reveals to Sakura, still whispering, that she isn't going to share her real name with Kaito yet, because she's still a bit upset with him!! 😂😂😂
Oh lord, Akiho....oh dear....you have all the right to still be a bit upset, make him work hard to get such an important information from you!! 😂 I can't believe right now we have Kaito basically in Akiho's hands while Akiho, the one who seemed the most in love out of the two, is actually still withholding that from him! 😂😂😂 aaaaahhh trust CLAMP to always give you something interesting....this is totally in line with how I perceived her personality. 🤭I loved it!
Kaito needs to be really, really careful from now on! She's not gonna take any crap from him! 😂
And now I have to warn you because precisely as we reach the very last line Sakura will say in this arc, there is going to be another translation mistake, which I consider far worse than the other one I pointed out. I think getting it wrong precisely at the most important emotional point ruined a job that wasn't overall so bad, with this chapter (compared to others....).
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Sakura, smiling, supports Akiho's idea, saying "Sounds good!", and then, utters the very last line of the arc:
ENG: "After all, we have a long future together ahead of us!"
JP: "After all, you'll be together forever from now on!"
I think you can easily guess why this translation mistake irritated me so much. I've checked the other translations and the Spanish one, the one I trust the most, agrees with me, just like the French one.
This translation is a failure for two reasons:
it failed to convey the fact that Sakura here is using almost exactly the same words she used in the OG manga at the end of volume 12, when she ran into Syaoran's arms, saying that they would be together forever from that moment on. I think iconic lines like these should be translated in the way the readers know them from the previous work, otherwise it's useless. You don't get the reference. In Japanese, back in volume 12 of the OG manga, it was "kore kara wa zutto issho da yo!" while here it is "kore kara wa zutto issho nandakara". And there is a reason for that.
this translation inexplicably made it about all of them, when Sakura was talking specifically about Akiho and Kaito instead. That "nandakara" at the end suggests that this sentence is strictly related to the one that came right before, "sounds good", as an answer to Akiho's plan to withhold her true name from Kaito for a while. Sakura here is simply saying that Akiho's idea sounds ok to her because those two will be together forever from now on, so she'll have all the time of this world to tell him eventually her true name, when she feels ready. Also, in Sakura's words, there's a deeper meaning: it's the last wish of happiness for those two, which comes from her own lived experience. At the end of volume 12 we saw Sakura uttering those same words, in her happiest moment of reunion with Syaoran...Sakura knows that happiness, the happiness of reuniting and be able to stay all the time with the person you love the most. This is the same thing she's wishing for those two right now, with these words. To be together forever and savor that same happiness she's living herself everyday. But if the translation makes it about all four of them, or even just about Sakura and Akiho, this underlying message, this last parallel between the two pairs is completely gone. Also, what's the sense in saying "we have a long future together ahead" if Kaito and Akiho are leaving?? It doesn't make sense to me. They once again managed to remove any hint of Kaito and Akiho being destined to be together for life, and bent the phrase to include everyone, just because they could. I find that quite disrespectful in my opinion.
Anyway, if you made it this far in reading the post, you now know how that line should actually be. I feel so embittered and disappointed that this happened precisely at the end...
But this time, as opposed to the OG manga, there's one more page to bring this arc to a closure: we can see the back of the new empowered Sakura Card (on the Card there's a mix of both the Star circle and the Dream circle), and the text reads:
JP, lit.: "When all the Cards are gathered, that's the beginning that comes from an end. A beginning to move on"
You have surely recognized it , this is exactly the same page that appeared at the very beginning of this arc, it's just that back then we had a Sakura Card's back, a more unsettling background, and lots of blank cards floating. Right now we have the back of the empowered Sakura Cards, a more serene background and instead of the blank cards, we have cherry blossom petals! ❤️
But most importantly, the sentence slightly changed too, communicating to all the readers that from the end of all the tribulations that our characters went through in this Clear Card Arc, they finally managed to move onto a happier life.
I think it's very beautiful how CLAMP decided to conclude this story, with a message of hope that not all endings are necessarily something bad, but they can simply hide behind them the beginning of something new and more positive.
Lord knows how much I needed to be reminded of this, in this moment of my life.
And surely this is also true for the end of this beloved series for many people around the world: after 7 years and half it's so hard to say goodbye to such a beloved story, but CLAMP want to give us one last present before saying goodbye to it for an indefinite period!
On the right side of the Japanese last page (this was not translated in the ENG one) we find the announcement that the April issue of Nakayoshi on sale on March 1st 2024 will bring us a special chapter of Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card! Precisely one month before the release of volume 16! There's no info about how long it's gonna be, but anything is strongly welcome to say goodbye in a more gradual way...I wonder what it'll be about? This can be literally anything!! I would love for them to feature a situation in the future, rather than in the past....
Beware, because I've heard that Anime News Network translated this as a "special arc" in their news and that caused a ruckus...I've already tried to warn people on Twitter that's not correct, "tokubetsuhen" is the same term they used for the special short chapters they have published till now.
And so...it ends. We've reached the end!! Omg! I still can't register it fully....🙈
I will write some short additional comments about the chapter here but you'll have to wait for another, separate post to have my impressions and commentary on the entire Clear Card Arc.
I just want to say that this finale didn't feature everything I hoped/wanted to see, but other things were definitely granted.
It's just impossible to make everyone happy so I completely understand that.
And even though I'm truly disappointed about Momo and the choice to make her leave her two kids like that, I feel overall this disappointment doesn't stain my appreciation for this finale.
The things I wanted to see and got, the general happy and relaxed atmosphere, seeing all four of them so friendly with eachother, Sakura's final blessing with those words are enough to make me feel still quite satisfied with the finale.
Also, this feels so much more open than the OG manga. A lot more open. There are tons of elements one could grasp to in case they wanted to make a spin-off, or feature some of these plot threads as a cameo in another work. Akiho and Kaito's situation in particular, with their travels around the world, seems to be screaming "you'll see us again soon". I don't know if I'm just delusional but I've seen so many people saying the same.
And I have to say that despite my first choice was for Akiho and Kaito to stay in Tomoeda, they gave me enough good reasons to justify them departing again. I did, in fact, predict that an eventual resume of their travels could be plot related (if they had to continue escaping the Squids' radar or if they had to find a way to fix Kaito's situation).
Plus, Akiho seems so happy and free. How can I rebel against that, when they depict her so happy of her choice?
Also, nice of Eriol to step up and help those two. He's the other poweful and experienced magician who can put at their service all of his knowledge.
And then, Kaito's character development. Even here, I felt like I would've wanted him to say more, but then I remembered that Ohkawa in a Space long time ago had already said "I would want the readers, once it's over, to re-read this trying to understand 'why this character acted in this way?' " and it was clear that she was referring to Kaito. So, not exposing in detail Kaito's heart and the motivations that brought him to this point is totally intentional. She wants us to get there on our own. After all, she gave us another huge hint in this chapter, by making him reveal his true name to Akiho. I can only be grateful for that, especially for how he worded it.
Cristaux and Cosmos...while I'm really happy they have the same initials, I'm still trying to get used to those new names! 😂even though I know they'll keep using their aliases so it's not a big problem, we'll keep calling them Kaito and Akiho!
(And yes, I'm a bit disappointed that Akiho's true name isn't Alice! 😂)
It was nice to see SyaoSaku blushing and flirting in this finale, especially now that Touya gave his blessing to Syaoran, he can go pick her up for school when he wants!! 😂 I'm sure we'll get more SyaoSaku fluff in the special chapter, as this finale was mostly used to wrap up other stuff.
As I said, I adored the few panels of interaction between the two Moon Boys, Akiho's mischievous prank to Kaito....yes, I still have lots to be grateful for, in this finale.
I think this post just won the record for the longest one, so let me just take this space really quick before wrapping up to thank all of you who have read my posts, shared them, supported me, chatted with me about the story, and overall contributed with interesting discussions in this little personal corner. I would've never imagined, not even in my wildest dreams, that the existence and content of this blog one day would've reached even CLAMP, and this will stay as one of my biggest gratifications, especially cause they seemed to appreciate the effort. I just wish their story was treated better by some official translations.
I tried to do whatever I could to spread warnings about heavy translation mistakes, in addition to my interpretation of the story as I was reading it and analyzing it, since I've seen it helped many people understanding the story better and coming to terms with frustrations they had about it.
Clear Card Arc is undoubtedly more complex and requires a lot more of attention than the OG manga.
But I'm positive that re-reading everything in one go might help A LOT in that regard, maybe keeping my translation posts beside you....so I urge everyone to re-read the story when you have time, because it's worth it. Really.
That said, I'm not going anywhere for the foreseeable future: of course I'll comment the special chapter, but I also have in store the "Clear Card Trivia" series of posts, a post with the timeline of the events and a master post about my own review of the entire Clear Card Arc. And then, there's the season 2 of the anime too! You can bet I'll be here to comment on it every week!!
In the meantime, I want to thank all of you again for your patience, for reading me till now, and I also want to thank once again CLAMP-sensei for the wonderful sequel they brought to us in these past 7 years. ありがとうございます 🙏
See you soon!!
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redwrencreative · 10 months
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Happy day 6 of Pride Month! We’re celebrating it with a Mountain Bluebird and some Anemone Carmel White flowers to represent Transmasc Pride 🤍🩵💙🖤
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lady-clara · 9 months
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Did you meet Molly today at Cafe Bluebird, or Muffy back in the day at the Blue Bar? 🍻 🐦
Anyway happy release day, here's my costest ☺️🩷
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ostdrossel · 6 months
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Happy Friday, everyone! The "regular birds" calendars are now also available in my shop, and on sale for the coming days. There are several formats to choose from. (The 12 x 12 has a different Bluebird photo, the one from here did not work well.) Find the shop here: https://www.createphotocalendars.com/Shop/ostdrossel
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mygoldtears · 12 days
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🌕 Part 1 🌑
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(It’s here!)
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♫At the end of the rainbow, there's happiness♫
A soft voice can be heard. Her voice was full of pain and heartache.
A human silhouette of a human falling from the sky as a rainbow bursts upwards through the clouds.
♫And to find it, how often I've tried♫
A silhouette of a young princess is seen with two other silhouettes before her, one small one tall turning around as they disappear, another shadow towering over her, appearing again from earlier but it was the tall one with long horns, both pointing at something behind her.
♫But my life is a race, just a wild goose chase♫
Where the figures were pointing, which shows Hell being circled by Angels.
♫And my dreams have all been denied/Why have I always been a failure?♫
the shadow looms over the sad princess being disappointed in her as demonic arms and tentacles cover them.
♫What can the reason be?♫
♫I wonder if the world's to blame♫
As the Earth rotates many eyes begin to surround it.
♫I wonder if it could be me♫
Silhouettes of Angles are seen smiling deviously “X’ over their right eyes as they look down upon the souls they have exterminated. The one at the center of the bodies of demons their faces begins to flicker. appears the same devilish grin and “X” over her right eye.
As the world around them fade appears a new place with nothing but bloodshed all around, graffiti, and signs that say "Fuck You, Heaven", "Punishment" and "Your Days Are Numbered" can be seen throughout
This place is HELL.
♫I'm always chasing rainbows Watching clouds drifting by♫
On top of all this, we see a hotel, where we see the Princess of Hell Charlotte Morningstar, or Charlie as she likes to be called. to walk towards the balcony doors with a saddened look.
♫My schemes are just like all my dreams
Ending in the sky♫
Charlie heads towards the hotel's balcony as she releases fireworks that signal to the rest of Hell that the Extermination has ended.
♫ Some fellows look and find the sunshine. ♫
The remaining demons who survived the extermination are seen checking the area to see if the coast is clear.
♫ I always look and find the rain. ♫
a tall and slender, light gray-skinned demon. She sports white ankle-length hair with bangs and black streaks, usually formed in large horns by black thin ribbons. white ballerina shoes open the blinds to the room, revealing the fireworks display. She is now alone and we see three more demons, one of them being the King of Hell himself hiding in the shadows sitting on a chair, present in the same room with her.
♫ Some fellows make a winning sometime. ♫
We next see a Porn Studios with flashing lights, owned by the V’s. Velvette a trendsetter takes a selfie with Vox who is annoyed, and then Valentino a moth demon who smiles quickly leaves his face when he sees that he got a text from one of his employees.
♫ I never even make a gain. / Believe me. ♫ Charlie sings looking at her home.
Two girl demons are seen pulling out an angelic spear from a corpse and leaving as the cannibals waiting nearby pounce on her dead body. A woman is seen crossing out Franklin's name from the sign above their business with black paint, With a smile.
♫ I'm always chasing rainbows. ♫
A demon is seen cleaning up what's been left of the Extermination as other demons begin to walk freely about in the open as if nothing happened.
Charlie is in tears as her song comes to an end.
♫ Waiting to find a little bluebird... in vain. ♫
Charlie looks back at the Clock Tower with tears. as it resets the timer for the next yearly cleanse.
.🌒🌕🌘.
A new sinner is seen screaming, fallen into Hell, and transformed into a demon. He falls face-first onto the road, surprised and hand pats himself with all four of his arms. to see if he is still “alive”.
Four-armed Demon “I'm alive! I'm alive-“
He gets run over by a car driven at full speed and stops the front door open. A pink spider demon is seen getting out of the car fixing his clothes and hair.
The driver snickers “Heh. Thanks for the fun time, hot stuff!”
The spider demon pushes his hands through his hair “Yeah, yeah, listen. while” *Fixes his hair more* Keep this discreet, you hear me? I can't let it get out. I'm offering my services to randos on the street! It was a quick cash grab *he makes a cash-like gesture with his fingers and snaps his fingers at him, smiling*. Ya got it?”
“Pfft! Whatever you say, slut!” the demon laughed
The spider demon pretends to be offended “Ouch! Ooh!” turns back to face him with a smile “Such an insult! Let me know when you've come up with something creative to call me” looms over demon and points at him with all his index fingers, “you sack of poorly packaged horse shit!” He gets close to the demon's face who was a bit dumbfounded at the pornstar “Tell the missus I said "hi"” kisses him, and waving goodbye “Shnookums!”
The demon embarrassed and a bit grumpy mumbling under his breath “Pack a - puh…” angrily drives off, the spider demon is unamused before looking behind him to see a vending machine full of drugs instead of drunks.
He goes for the one called Angel Dust just as he is about to open it, a random feathered demon runs by snatching the drugs out of his hands..
“Hey!” Yelled the spider demon. “Up yours drag sh-“
Splat!
A boulder falls out of the sky, crushing the feathered demon instantly. the pink spider gasped.
“Oh, my GOD!”
He leans in to pick up his pack of drugs from the demon's hand as it twitches. with a devastated look on the pink spider's face “MY DRUGS!” he yelled before clenching the bag angrily “Damn it!”
He looks up to see where the boulder comes from. He found what looked like a warship passing by, destroying everything in its path.
.🌒🌕🌘.
inside a warship, revealing a demon snake and his egg henchmen who are marked by numbers on their backs, running around while their boss is laughing maniacally.
operating the controls to the ship “Those other cowardly sinners dare not hinder my territorial take over! A wise decision! The power of my machines are unmatched!” pushing two levers, his hood(or hair?) flares open like a cobra. “No other demon can compare to the likes of I!”
Egg Boi #23: Gee! That was pretty swell, boss!
Egg Boi #666: Yeah!
Another chipped in “You showed them what for! I liked when you” the egg mimicked the action of a shooting ray gun with its finger and thumb “shot them with your ray gun!” Annoyed, the snake demon slapped the poor thing.
Egg Boi #23: I wish he'd shoot me with his ray gun...
Their boss rolled his eyes before continuing what he was doing and the hood flared open. “At this rate, I will seize control of the entire west side of The Pentagram by day's end” pushes a few buttons “And nothing!” he pulls down levers towards him “Not a single beast in this inferno of suffering will be able to take back this empire from” grabbing an Egg Boi with his tail squeeze them “my constrictive grasp!”
Suddenly an Egg Boi pops out of nowhere, pops open a bottle of whiskey onto Serpent's face who proceeds to swat said Egg Boi aside before throwing the squeezed Egg Boi aside as well.
Random Egg Boi: Oh, boy!
“Hell will be mine! And everybody will know the name of Sir Penti-“
“EDGELORD!”
Sir Pentious is interrupted by a scream. Sir Pent and Egg Boiz become surprised.
“Pardon!?” offended by this he looks around angrily before his gaze on the two Egg Boiz behind him “Who said that?! What did you just say to me, you fried chicken fetuses?! He said with a hiss “Speak up!”
The Two Egg Boiz petrified. “That wasn't us, Mr. Bossman.”
Something breaks through the glass of Sir Pent's ship. A small bomb with a print of a skull on it then lands right between Sir Pent and the two Egg Boiz. realizing what it was, The bomb proceeded to blow up, leaving red smoke behind.
Sir Pent coughs and hacks
The smoke begins to clear up, revealing a slender yet curvy-figured, tattooed sleeve, white-skinned cyclops-like demon as she prepares another bomb in hand to throw.
“You lookin' for a fight, old man?!”
She yelled as she began to juggle around her cherry bomb ”Why don't you get that tinker toy bullshit off my turf before smash it?!” throwing it up and catching the bomb.
A large pipe falls on top of an Egg Boi, crushing him as Sir Pent and Cherri momentarily look at the carnage. Before returning to their interaction the Cyclops demon grins sadistically and continues her sentence “More..”
“Oh!” the sir pent hood flares open as his smile comes back on his face. “You wanna go, missy?! Well, I'm happy to oblige! Ahahah!”
He is then backed up by his henchmen of Egg Boiz. with weapons in hand
.🌒🌕🌘.
The logo for 666 News is shown on a black background, which is followed by the day's newscast. Showing us two anchors, a male and a female, About to introduce themselves
“Good afternoon, I'm Katie Killjoy.”
She is a tall, slim, pale-skinned demon. She has short, light blonde hair that flares into an almost fan-like shape, swept to the side bangs. She has rose-red eyes with small, white pupils. Her neck is long, mirroring her thin torso. Wearing a concise red dress.
“And I'm Tom Trench”
Tom's head is composed of a gas mask, which is his entire face to his neck, and has a sweep of ashy blonde hair and is wearing a gray suit.
An image of the snake demon trying to look cool, followed by a drawing of the Cyclops demon who is flipping off the camera.
“Chaos out at Pentagram City today as a turf war is raging on the west side!”
Tom said before continuing.
“Between notable kingpin, Sir Pentious, and self-proclaimed spunky powerhouse, Cherri Bomb!”
Katie Killjoy backs him up “That's right, Tom! After the recent Extermination, many areas are now up for grabs!” making a grabbing hand motion.
A live clip of Cherri and Sir Pentious's clash is shown.
“Demons all over Hell are already duking it out to gain new territory!” she said
“Those two seem to be really going at it, huh?” said Tom
“Looks like they're fighting tooth and nail,” she said while fishing out a tooth and a nail respectively from her mug of coffee “For that hot spot!” she proceeded to swallow said tooth and nail.
Tom who is looking over at the live broadcast focusing more on Cherri “And I'd sure like to nail her hot spot!” wiggles his eyebrows “Hoohoo!”
Katie Killjoy laughs “You are a limp-dick jackass, Tom! Or should I say” pouring scalding hot coffee onto his crotch “No dick?”
Tom curls in pain saying not again.
The screen shows a picture of Charlie as Tom can still be heard whimpering in pain in the background. And Katie Killjoy smiling like nothing happened while continuing the new cast
“Coming up next, we have an exclusive interview with the daughter of Hell's head honcho who's here to discuss her brand new passion project! All that and more, after the break!” crushes her mug in her hand and turns to Tom who's still in pain, poor guy “ Suck it up, you little bi-!”
The newscast goes on a commercial break.
Out from a nearby screen, focusing on Charlie and her girlfriend as she fixes Charlie's bow. Her girlfriend exhaled “Okay! You remember what to say?” she said Charlie inhaled “Yes! Let's do this!
“Just, look at me and I'll mouth it to you.”
“Ugh! Come on, Vaggie!” Charlie bends backward “Know what to say! I just feel like we need to...I don't know,” grabs a donut before gasping “Make things sound more exciting! Hooo! What if I sin-”
“Sing a song about it?” Vaggie said cutting her girlfriend off. Charlie boops her nose “You knew I was gonna say that” Vaggie smiles fixing Charlie's bow again before saying “Because I know you, But please don't sing. This is serious”
“Well, you know, I'm better at expressing myself and my goals through song!” said Charlie as she stood on the table where Razzle and Dazzle were happily munching on doughnuts, watching her.
Vaggie places hands on hips “But, life isn't a musical, hon.”
Charlie sighs “Fine. But, I have these other ideas of what to say!” she starts bouncing a bit as she shows Vaggie a piece of paper “The highlighted bits are the best part!”
“Uh, it's all highlighted”. Vaggie squints realizing something “Is this a drawing?” looking back at Charlie.
“Yes! That's the happy ending, see?!” Charile begins to fantasize about it “Everyone smiling and happy in Heaven!”
Vaggie pinches the bridge of her nose “I don't think it's that simple. Just please follow the talking points we went over. And” she grabs Charlie by her cheeks to face her “Do not sing!”
Charlie sadly agrees “Okay, fine. I'll just have to resort to my impeccable improv skills! She said in a British voice before saluting at Vaggie as she walked over to Katie Killjoy.
Charlie nervously introduced herself “Hi! I'm Charlie.” with her hand out going for a handshake
Katie Killjoy unamused “Katie Killjoy.” she said exhaling the smoke of her cigarette before crushing it. “I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you, but that would be a lie.” she throws away her cigarette “You can put that away.” gestures to Charlie's hand “I don't touch the gays. I have standards!” she says with disgust.
“Yeah? How's uh... how's that working out for ya?” Charlie says turning to look around her nervously.
“Look, my time is money. So, I'll keep this short.” Katie says proceeds to poke Charlie “You're not here because we wanted you here. You're here because Jeffrey couldn't make it for his cannibal cooking segment.” A billboard of Jeffrey's cannibalism cooking show titled "It's Dahm Good!" can be seen behind Katie.
Katie Killjoy fluffs her hair “You might be some royal big shot, but that doesn't mean shit to me. I'm too rich and too influential” Tom can be seen shaking his head in disapproval as Katie boasts about her wealth and influence to Charlie “to give a flying fuck about some tux-wearing demon. "Princess" wants to advertise.” she does air quotes with her fingers
‘But, I-” Katie Killjoy get close to Charlie's face cutting her “So, don't get cute with me, honey, or I will fucking bury you!”
News Staff: And we're live!
in the blink of an eye, Katie Killjoy is back in her seat at the desk, holding papers while snapping her neck. “Welcome back! So, Charlotte!” Charlie smiles nervously as a spotlight flashes her way. “It's... Charlie.”
“Whatever. Tell us about this new passion project you've been insistently pestering our news station about!” she said as she tried to hold in her outburst by clenching her pen
Charlie looked around and saw Vaggie motion her to go on she cleared her throat “Well, as most of you know, I was born here in Hell, and growing up, I always tried to see the good in everyone around me.”
Killjoy was rolling her eyes in boredom before she spotted a slug and stabs it with her pen, the slug's blood bursts all over. Some got on Charlie. “Hell is my home and we just went through another Extermination.” Charlie then wipes off the blood on her cheek “You are my people.’
“We lost so many souls, and it breaks my heart to see my people being slaughtered every year. No one is even given a chance!” she slams her fist on the table, waking up Katie Killjoy mediately, and walks away from the desk “I can't stand by while the place I live is subjected to such violence!”So, I've been thinking”
putting her finger under her chin as she walks around the audience “Isn't there a more humane way to hinder overpopulation here in Hell?” looking at everyone in the room. “Perhaps we can create an alternative way to change souls through... redemption?” throws her arm around one of the News Cast's staff members with a smile forming on her face.” Well, I think yes! So, that's what this project aims to achieve!” walking back to the desk “Ladies and gentlemen, I'm opening the first of its kind! A hotel that rehabilitates sinners!”
Silence in the room you can hear a pin drop.
.🌒🌕🌘.
Outside of the broadcast, we see The Radio Shack, which many other demons are seen watching by the streets and everywhere else in Hell who don't look amused in the slightest
Charlie's confidence begins to fall slowly on TV “Y'know? 'Cause hotels are for people passin' through... temporarily…”
A Lizard Demon laughs at this “Is this girl for real?! She thinks-” he tries to hold in his laugh but fails “You hear what she thinks?! She thinks- HAHA! Ah, she's nuts,” he walks out of The Kaiju Klub with his friends while you can hear charlie speaking in the background “I think it'll serve a purpose... a place to work toward redemption... yay...!”
Back to the demons watching her broadcast from The Radio Shack. A mysterious red figure walks up to see her broadcast alongside a bunch of other demons watching.
.🌒🌕🌘.
Cameraman snickers at this calling Charlie a Stupid bitch. Vaggie who happens to be beside the Cameraman, punches the cameraman square in the face for calling her girlfriend that. Charlie looks around, saddened because no one seems interested in such a thing. “Look, every single one of you has something good, deep down inside. I know you do!” Charlie thinks for a moment before finally coming up with a solution “...Maybe I'm not getting through to you.” she said sitting on the table
Razzle and Dazzle alerted that Charlie was about to do
Vaggie facepalms
Charlie snaps her fingers as the room turns dark then a spotlight is shown over a piano out of nowhere that Charlie, Razzle, and Dazzle made appear
youtube
Top Hat Demon: Wow! ...That was shit!
Everyone in the audience including Killjoy and Trench begins to laugh at Charlie. Charlie looked crushed and devastated and slumped back down to her seat. There was a boo section in the news and the demons look uninterested
“Boo..”
Katie Killjoy began to speak while laughing. “What in the Nine Circles makes you think a single denizen of Hell would give two shits about becoming a better person?! You have no proof that this little experiment even works! Do you want people to be good?! Just... because?!” She burst out laughing.
Charlie glares at her, “Well, we have a patron already, who believes in our cause and he's shown incredible progress!”
Katie Killjoy in feigns shock glances at her “Oh? And who might that be?”
Charlie tries to look smug and confident while looking at her nails “Oh, just someone named... Angel Dust!”
This grabbed Tom Trench's attention “ The porn star?”
Katie Killjoy turns to him menacingly her nails scratching the table “You fucking would, Tom!” She turned back to Charlie “In any case, that's not even an accomplishment. I'm sure you could get that hooker to do anything with enough booger sugar and lube” she said, making motions of a handjob.
“Oh, I beg to differ! She gets close to Katie Killjoy's face “He's been behaved, clean, and out of trouble for two weeks now.”
News Staff offscreen: Breaking News!
Katie Killjoy grins and shoves Charlie off her desk. while smiling “We are receiving word that a new player has entered the ongoing turf war! Let's go to the live feed.
The live feed shows Angel Dust stepping on an Egg Boi and throwing a grenade over at Sir Pentious with visible laughter in the background as Charlie stares at the screen in shock.
“Oh…shit.”
Angel Dust is in the background saying “I'm a bad person!”
Katie Killjoy beings to smile even wider "Oh, shit" indeed! It looks like the one who just joined the battle is none other than” she feigns a gasp a hand in front of her mouth “porn actor, Angel Dust! What a juicy coincidence! You must feel really stupid, right now.” turns to Charlie as she shakes her fist, Killjoy and Trench proceed to laugh at Charlie.”Ratings!” They said in sync doing Jazz hands
Charlie stares at the live feed in distress and attempts to block it from the audience's view.“Don't look at this!”
Katie Killjoy looms over her Well, it sure looks like your little project is dead on arrival. Charlie slowly turns around “Tell us, how does it feel to be a total failure?” everyone except Vaggie starts bursting into laughter
Charlie tries to think of a comeback “Yeah, well…” looks around and spots a pen “How does it feel that I got your pen, huh?!” grabs Killjoy's ballpen “Bitch!”
Everybody instantly stops laughing while Katie Killjoy's death stare, Charlie realized she fucked up and nervously laughed “Oops” and puts the pen back down.
Tom Trench runs off-set.
Killjoy's demonic form reveals itself as she looms over Charlie, Growling.
.🌒🌕🌘.
Purplish red smoke transitions into Angel Dust and Cherri Bomb fighting Egg Boiz.
“Hey!, thanks for the backup, Angie!”
Angel Dust laughs, Cherri Bomb fires a rocket launcher.
“You kiddin'? This is the best action I've seen in ages!” puts his hands behind his head all the other extra limbs hold his gun.
Cherri launched another cherry bomb “Where've you been, anyway? I thought you up and died or some shit!”
Angel Dust lit a bomb and handed it to her rolling his eyes “Oh, I wish! I've been staying at this crappy hotel on the other side of town. Some broads are lettin' me stay rent-free if I play nice.”
They both cover their heads as the explosion sets off behind them, then grin at each other as they jump into the field. Angel Dust Continues to shoot down Egg Boiz with what seems to be a drum mag M1928 Thompson “Y'know, no fights, no pranks, no "problematic language"... Her words, not mine.”, launching an Egg Boi airborne and shooting him from behind a bit of yoke splattered on him, he sighs again “These crazy bitches are no fun! I've been clean for two weeks!”
Cherri Bomb was in disbelief “Holy shit”
Looks at the leftover smudge on his finger while giving a smug look “Well, sorta clean.” destroys an incoming Egg Boi “Just clean as you can get from a shitload of Bolivian marching powder!” Sir Pentious shows up behind Angle, throws the end of a chain, wraps around the angle swiftly, and gets thrown aside by Sir Pentious.
throws his head “Ohh~ Harder, daddy!”
Sir Pentious, taking it seriously, gasps. ”Son?!”
Angle raises a brow at this, and Cherri kicks Sir Pentious to the side. And lands beside Angle.
Sir Pentious annoyed and angry, his hood (hair?) flares open “You whores have no classes! In war, The side remembered is the side with the most style!” He hissed while adjusting his tie.
“Or the side that ain't dead” Cherri Bomb replied while decapitating an Egg Boi with her bare hands
Angel Dust stood up and removed the chains restricting him before saying “Speaking of style, is your hat like, alive or something?” Makes a magical gesture with his four limbs.
“Oh! Well, that's none of your GODDAMN BUSINESS! Now, is it?” Sir Pentious hissed.
“Hah!, would that make your hat the top and you the bottom?”
An Egg Boi: Oooooh!
gets a pebble thrown at him by Sir Pentious
Sir Pentious now enraged hissed. “I'm going to blow you to bits!”
Angel Dust eyes him up and down like what he heard “Hm, kinky”
Sir Pentious: Oh, not like that Pervert!” knocks over an Egg Boi, hood flares open again.
Angel notices an Egg Boi with a tentacle launcher which causes him to push Cherri to the side. While taking the hit and getting tangled up in all the tentacles.
“Not so cocky now, are we?!
unamused by this “Y'know, you really gotta watch what comes outta ya mouth. I've been making these sex jokes the whole” limbs get pulled on as Sir Pentious reveals a drill which jump starts “TIME!” reveals his third pair of arms carrying a gun “And it's obvious ya ain't catchin' on. I mean, it's just sad!” pulls out M1928 and shoots it at Sir Pentious*
Cherri Bomb appears at his side “So, think you're gonna get in a lotta trouble for this?” Angel Dust retracts his third set of arms “Eh, what's one little brawl gonna cause?”
.🌒🌕🌘.
We then see Charlie and Killjoy trying to duke it out on each other like it's some sort of WWE match while a fire alarm goes off in the background with Trench running around, engulfed in flames, yelling “ WHY WON'T ANYONE HELP ME?!”
Back at the turf war
Cherri Bomb slugs him on the arm “Glad you haven't changed!”
“You know you're my favorite guy to party with!”
Angel Dust grins “You know it, sugar tits!”
Cherri Bomb takes out one of her bombs facing him “You ready to finish this?”
Angel Dust grins while taking out his Thompson gun “Born ready, baby!”
Angel and Cherri pounce on Sir Pentious and his army as they prepare to clash, Charlie and Killjoy are still at each other's throats screaming, and Trench is still on fire, screaming in agony. The camera shows all the characters present, screaming as the scene turns silent.
.🌒🌕🌘.
The royal family limousine can be seen driving back to the hotel. Charlie is hugging her knees and looking out the window. Her jacket is ruined after Katie Killjoy and her fight, while Vaggie sits next to her, glaring furiously at Angel Dust. Who is at the end of the limo Charlie sighs and glances at her girlfriend Vaggie, whose eye twitches at Angel Dust, who can be seen amusing himself by playing with the car window roller repeatedly.
Vaggie scrunches up her face, Angel Dust stops what he is doing glancing up and making eye contact “What?”
Vaggie in disbelief at his response "What?, WHAT?!, What were you DOING?! rips off a fist full of her hair of
“I owed my girl buddy a solid! Isn't that a "redeeming quality? Helping friends with stuff?” he said, rolling his eyes.
“Not with turf wars that result in territorial genocide!”
Angel Dust shrugs “Eh, you win some, you lose a few hundred.” He laughs then proceeds to play with the car window button “It wasn't that bad, anyway.” Vaggie throws a knife at the window button missing his finger by a few inches, startling him.
“Aw, come on! I had to, My credibility was on the line! I mean, what kind of reputation would I have if people found out I was tryna go clean? It just throws out my entire persona!”
brushes his hair, and suggestively pushes up his chest floof.
Vaggie did not like his response “Your credibility? What about the hotel's?!” She made a gesture “Your little stunt made us look like a fucking joke!”
Angel Dust scoffs “No, no, no, babe. The jokes are funny! I made you look... uh, sad! He lays on his stomach while kicking his legs a bit. “And pathetic! Like an orphan... with no arms... or legs... Oh! With progeria”
Charlie covers herself with her long blonde hair as Angel tries to make this situation better but fails miserably “Great! Now I'm bummed thinkin' about it!” Throws his arms in the air before starting to look around the limousine “This thing has any liquor?”
“Can you please just try to take this seriously?” Vaggie said almost in a begging tone
Angel Dust is still trying to find liquor but only found a dust bunny. He flicks it off his finger “Fine, I'll try. Just don't get your taco in a twist, baby!” snaps his finger at her while smiling” Vaggie glares at him.
“Was that you trying to be sexist or racist?”
Angel Dust groans “Whatever pisses you off more. Is there seriously no liquor in here!”
Vaggie returns to sit next to Charlie, and crosses her arms her eyes never living Angel Dust “I'm gonna kill 'im”
“Too late, toots. Wait! Would that make me double-dead? Hah, and where exactly do I go? To Double Hell? Hahahahahahahaha! Sorry, you're stuck with me, bitch - get used to it” he folds all his arms confidently.
angrily Vaggie grits her teeth ``¡Con una mierda, malparido hijo de-!” (For fuck's sake, you bastard son of-!)
“Listen, who cares if some jack-offs got hurt? Most of 'em are ugly freaks. Look around!” He looks out the limousine window, smirking “You got a bunch a fuckin' Harlequin babies down here!” He laughed at his insult.
Vaggie mumbled under her breath “You're one to talk.”
Feeling attacked by that Angel Dust looks back at her. Making her smile smugly “Hey!” Angel Dust motions to his body “This body is flawless! Everyone wants summa me,” pushes up chest fluff and takes out a letter. “and I've got the creepy fan letters to prove it!”
Takes a letter from in between his floof and reveals it to Vaggie It features a small picture of a dirty naked old man, who ironically has a "No Angel Dust'' tattoo, smothering his mouth on an Angel Dust body pillow and a message at the bottom saying "Show me your feet!! -Brynin, #1 Fan/Critic".
Vaggie growls, Charlie being silent for a while decided to speak up about his behavior “That was uncool, y'know, Angel.”
Vaggie looks at her with a surprised expression "Uncool?!, After that train wreck, there is no way anyone is gonna wanna stay at the hotel!” looks toward Angel Dust and points at him “All thanks to you and your selfish bullshit!”
“Does that mean I don't have a free room anymore?” Vaggie motions to him What do you think?"
Angel Dust snaps his fingers “Ah...well, shucks”
” Hey, come on.” Charlie removes the ruined jacket “We don't know if things are over yet! Try to relax, Vaggie.” she puts a hand on Vaggie's left shoulder “I-it'll be okay!”
Vaggie smiled softly at Charlie; her words made her feel a bit better.
They finally arrive at the Happy Hotel, Charlie opens the hotel door, revealing a very old and dirty establishment. The first thing that Vaggie does, is throw herself on the couch, facing the wall “ Ugh, Angel Dust rummages through the fridge leaning by the wall and grabbing a box of Popsies that was the only thing in there, he grabs one and puts in his mouth, and closing the fridge. “Eh, it's probably a good idea to get some actual food in this place. Y'know, to feed all the wayward souls you got in here” he laughs a bit trying to lighten up the mood, but it doesn't work he tries to comfort Charlie reaching out his hand but decides to back off.
Charlie exits the hotel and tries to contact her mother. It goes to voice mail. “Hey, Mom. I know I keep calling and you must be busy... Busy... But, um, the interview didn't go well,” she shrinks to her knees, her back against the front door “and... I don't know if I'm ever going to make a difference” tearing up as she wipes it off her face. “I don't know what I'm doing. I could use some advice, Mom. I... I think Dad was right about me... Ahah, oof. Eh, anyway…” wipes her face once more “I'll stop talking before this gets long.” before standing back up “Love you, bye…”
Charlie walks back in and leans by the door in defeat as a sudden knock can be heard from the other side of the door, surprising Charlie, she turns around to face the double doors. she contemplates whether or not to open the door but decides to open it anyway. Behind the door was the mysterious figure watching her performance from before, standing before her, and Charlie, knowing who he was, reacted with extreme shock.
“Hel-”
gets the door slammed in front of him, Charlie looks to the side for a brief moment before opening the door again, making sure she was not imagining.
“-lo!”
She slams the door in front of his face once more calling out her girlfriend's name “Hey, Vaggie?”
Vaggie, tired and annoyed about today, replied “What?”
Charlie mimicked the Deer demon's smile “The Radio Demon is at the door!”
Vaggie sits up instantly, eyes wide immediately. “What?!”
Angel Dust, who heard the commotion takes out the popsicle from his mouth “Uh... who?”
“What should I do?!” said Charlie putting both hands on her face
“Uh, well- Don't let him in!”
Charlie decides for a moment on Vaggie's advice, she decides to once more and opens the door for The Radio Demon
“May I speak now?”
Charlie puts on a brave face “You may…”
The Radio Demon reaches his hand out “Alastor! A pleasure to be meeting you, sweetheart!” he exclaimed pulling Charlie towards him “Quite a pleasure!” lets himself in (wow ok) “Excuse my sudden visit, but I saw your fiasco on a picture show, and I just couldn't resist! What a performance! Why, I haven't been that entertained since the stock market crash of 1929! Hahahahaha,” plays with his mic staff and turns his dead to face charlie “ sooo many orphans”
Vaggie holds a harpoon towards his chest making him stop walking for a moment. “Stop right there, cabrón hijo de perra (bastard son of a bitch)! I know your game and I'm not gonna let you hurt anyone here-” Angel's head pops in, unamused “-you pompous cheesy talk show shitlord!”
Alastor not scared in the slightest moves the harpoon away “ Dear, if I wanted to hurt anyone here-” his pupils turned to dials and his smiled turned wicked “-I would've done so already.”
Charlie and Vaggie gaze at him a bit perturbed as the distortion ends.
“No! I'm here because I want to help!” Alastor said making Charlie and Vaggie raise a brow
“Say what, now?”
Alastor repeats himself “Help! Hahaha, hello? Is this thing on?” taps on his mic “Testing, testing!
Alastor's Mic opens its eye “Well, I heard you loud and clear!”
Charlie was slightly confused as to why he of all wanted to help “Um, you want to help? With...?” she trails off, Alastor teleports behind the two with his shadow “This ridiculous thing you're trying to do! This hotel! I want to help you run it.”
Charlie was confused and curious “But... why?” she questioned.
Alastor laughed, “Why does anyone do anything? Sheer, absolute boredom! I've lacked inspiration for decades. My work became mundane, lacking focus,” shoves Vaggie away from him “Aimless! I've come to crave a new form of entertainment! Hahaha!”
“Does getting into a fistfight with a reporter count as entertainment...?”
“Hahaha! It's the purest kind, my dear: Reality! True passion! After all, the world's a stage, and the stage is a world of entertainment.” he said tilting his head to the side while smiling. (creep)
“So, does this mean you think it's possible to rehabilitate a demon?” Charlie said, smiling a bit that maybe someone finally believed in her.
Alastor laughed while shaking his hand in front of her “ Of course not! That's wacky nonsense!” shakes head back and forth “-Redemption, oh the non-existent humanity! No, no, no, no. I don't think there's anything left that could save such loathsome sinners!” looks over to Vaggie who is offended and Angel who just shrugs “The chance given was the life they lived before, the punishment is this!” puts his arms out, gesturing the entirety of Hell “There is no undoing what is done!”
“So, then. Why do you wanna help me if you don't believe in my cause?” she asked
“Consider it an investment in ongoing entertainment for myself!” Alastor said, pulling Charlie close to him while twirling her “I want to watch the scum of the world struggle to climb up the hill of betterment only to repeatedly trip and tumble down to the fiery pit of failure!” His voice slowly gets darker as he describes, His way of entertainment.
“Right.” Charlie removes his hand from her back.
“Yes, indeedy!” grabs her by the waist and drags her “I see big things coming your way, and who better to help you than I?” he said while trailing off. Leaving behind two other demons who are still in the main room.
Angel Dust leans closer to Vaggie “Uh, so... uh, what's the deal with Smiles over there?” surprised by this Vaggie responds ’Wait, you've never heard of him before? You've been here longer than me!” She did gesturing him and her, he shrugs cluelessly.
“The Radio Demon. One of the most powerful beings Hell has ever seen?” she said seeing if that would make him remember.
Angel Dust shrugs a second time, crossing his arms “Eh, not big on politics.”
Veggie rolls her eye “Ugh!, Decades ago, Alastor manifested in Hell,” leans in on Angel Dust as she begins her story
a visual presentation of Vaggie's story regarding Alastor.
“seemingly overnight. He began to topple Overlords who have been dominant for centuries. That kind of raw power had never been harnessed by a mortal soul before. Then, he broadcast his carnage all throughout Hell just so everyone could witness his ability. Sinners started calling him "The Radio Demon" (as lazy as that is). Many have speculated what unimaginable force enabled him to rival our world's most ancient and destructive evils. But one thing's for sure: He's an unpredictable source of danger, a wicked spirit of mystery, and a violent monster of chaos, the likes of which we can't risk getting involved with unless we want to end up erased!”
Angel Dust interrupts her thinking “Ya done?-” Laughs dryly and points at the Radio Demon, “He looks like a strawberry pimp.” Alastor made his cane appear out of a small poof of his power. Vaggie crosses her arms “Well, I don't trust him!”
‘To be fair, do you trust any man? Any men? Men?” he asked her
Vaggie ignores that. She gets up from the couch, walks up to Charlie, and grabs her by the shoulders “Charlie, listen to me. You can't believe this creep! He isn't just a happy face! He's a deal-maker! Pure evil! He can't be redeemed! ...And is most likely looking for a way to destroy everything we're trying to do!” looks over Charlie's shoulder analyzing Alastor who is checking his nails(or claws?).
“ I... we don't know that! Look, I know he's bad,” she glares at Alastor who is inspecting the royal family portrait of Lilith, Lucifer, her between them “I know he probably doesn't wanna change, but the whole point of this is to give people a chance!”
“Looks back at her girlfriend “To have faith things will be better! How can I turn someone away? I can't. It goes against everything I'm trying to do. Everything I believe in.” She gently touches Vaggie's shoulders “Just... trust me. I can take care of myself!”
Vaggie looks at her with a worried expression “Charlie, whatever you do, do not make a deal with him!”
Alastor might have heard this makes a gesture with his hand, seemingly focusing on Vaggie.
Charlie reassures her “Don't worry, I picked up one thing from my dad!” Walking backward a bit "You don't take shit from other demons!" imitating her dad's voice walks off to where Alastor was standing.
She clears her throat “Okay, so, Al. You're sketchy as fuck and you clearly see what I'm trying to do here as a joke.” As Charlie turns away, glowing red symbols start to appear beside Alastor which quickly disappear after Charlie turns back to Alastor.
“But, I don't. I think everyone deserves a chance to prove they can be better. So, I'm taking your offer to help. On the condition that there be no…” makes gestures with hands “tricks or voodoo strings attached” Alastor rolls his eyes at that last statement. Twirling his staff
“So, it's a deal, then?”
presents his hand for a handshake as green energy bursts throughout the hotel.
Charlie stares at his hand for a moment refusing his handshake “Nope! No shaking! No deals! I... hmm... As princess of Hell and heir to the throne, I, uh, hereby order that you help with this hotel. For as long as you desire.”
A howling wolf can be heard in the background as Charlie looks over to Vaggie for approval.
‘Sound fair?” Alastor thinks for a moment, rubbing his chin “Hmm... Fair enough!” retracts his mic staff*
Charlie Sighs in relief giving him two thumbs up, “Cool beans.”
Alastor walks away from her and continues to hum while looking around as he stops, he glances at Vaggie who looks away from him. “Smile, my dear!” tickles the underside of her chin this makes her mad “You know you're never fully dressed without one!” Walks away as he continues humming “So where is your hotel staff?”
Charlie glances at Vaggie who is staring at Alastor dead in the eyes “Uh, well-”
Alastor adjusts monocle “Ohohoho, you're going to need more than that.” he walks towards Angel Dust fist who is sitting leaning “And what can you do, my effeminate fellow?”
Angel Dust looks at him up and down “I can suck your dick”
Mic feedback can be heard as Alastor tries to process what he was just offered. He laughed “HAH!, No.”
Angel shrugs “Your loss.”
“Well, this just won't do!” Alastor takes out his mic staff “I suppose I can cash in a few favors to liven things up.”
At the snap of his finger, a new fireplace has replaced the hotel's worn-down one he approaches it and picks up the mysterious figure covered in soot back of its neck, which then opens its eyes and stares at the trio in front of them.
Poof!
the soot came from her tiny figure.
“This little darling is Niffty!” Alastor introduce her
Niffty drops to the floor, unaffected “Hi, I'm Niffty! It's nice to meet you! It's been a while since “I've made new friends!
“Why're you all women, Are there any men here?!” she analyzed everyone in the room before lifting Charlie with no effort she put Charlie down, and looked around the room
“I'm sorry, that's rude, Oooh, man! This place is filthy! It really needs a lady's touch!” grabs a spider and crushes it. “Which is weird because you're all ladies, no offense.”
She stares offscreen as she takes out a feather duster “Oh, my gosh! This is awful!” She yelled in shock, she quickly cleans throughout the hotel like the flash “Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope!” spots a cockroach and stabs it with a sewing pin.
The four stare at Niffty as a voice coming from an unknown cat demon can be heard nearby.lays his cards down the table
“Hah! Read 'em and weep, boys! Full Ho- “ demonic illusions and voices distort the surroundings temporarily making the cat demon look at his new surroundings “-tel? What the fuck is this?” looks around and spots Alastor, eliciting an angry purr as he points at him “You!”
“Ah, Husker, my good friend! Glad you could make it!” Alastor says with enthusiasm
“Don't you "Husker" me, you son of a bitch! I was about to win the whole damn pot!” Husk gestured to the jackpot that was on the table, as it disappeared into nothingness.
Alastor ignored all that “Good to see you too!” Walks a bit closer to husk, who's facepalms “What the hell do you want with me this time...?” Questioned Husk who gives up at this point.
“My friend, I am doing some charity work so I took it upon myself to volunteer your services! I hope that's okay!” Wrapping his arm around husk
“Are you shittin' me?!”
Alastor thinks for a moment “Hmm... No, I don't think so!”
Husk shoves Alastor off “ You thought it'd be some kind of big fucking riot just to pull me out of nowhere?!” he points at Alastor who is dusting himself off, “ You think I'm some kind of fucking clown?!”
Alastor with a grin thinks for a second “Maybe!”
“I ain't doing no fucking charity job.” Husk said arms crossed glaring at him
Alastor teleports behind him through his shadow “Well, I figured you would be the perfect face to man the front desk of this fine establishment! With your charming smile” gestures towards the bar he made out of his magic, pulls Husks's lips into a forced grin “and welcoming energy, this job was made for you! Don't worry my friend,” walks over to the bar, revealing the soles of his shoes to have deer prints for a second “I can make this more welcoming! ...If you wish.” He makes a bottle of Cheap Booze appear on top of the bar table.
Husk stares at the booze for a second “What? You think you can buy me with a wink and some cheap booze?!” Gave a wink before grabbing the booze and looking at it “ ..Well, you can!” As he chugged down the booze
Vaggie did not like this idea “Hey, hey! Hey, hey, hey! No! No bar, no alcohol! This is supposed to be a place that discourages sin! Not some kind of mouth…brothel…man cave!”
Angel Dust Launches himself at Vaggie from somewhere “SHUT UP! SHUT! UP! We are keeping” This points to the bar with all his fingers. He walks up to the bar and begins to flirt at the poor cat man
“Hey~”
“ Go fuck yourself.” Said Husk Turning away from the pornstar, only for Angle Dust to cup his face.”Only if you watch me!”
Charlie rushed over there and got close to Husk's personal space “Oh, my gosh! Welcome to The Happy Hotel! You are going to love it here!” She tries to go for a handshake.
Husk reaches for his booze, ignoring her hand “I lost the ability to love years ago.” He said dryly and continued chugging down his booze.
“So, Whaddaya think?” Alastor said, Charlie replied “This is amazing!” she rubbed her cheeks excitedly.
Vaggie who is now standing up because of angle tackling her, stands their arms crossed “It's... okay.”
Alastor reels the two towards him. "Hahaha! This is going to be very entertaining!" Vaggie wiggles out of his grasp and Alastor fixes his monocle. A flame appears in his other hand and he throws it up, pushing Vaggie out of the way. His clothes changed and he bagan dancing with Charlie.
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♫ You have a dream! You wish to tell!
twirls Charlie and dresses her up turns to Vaggie who's now on the floor and look angry
♫And it's just laughable. But, hey, kid, what the hell? ♫
turns back to Charlie and tosses her mid-air. The background behind Charlie changes to neon-colored lights featuring two apples and a skull.
Alastor catches Charlie's hands and they both tap dance.
♫ 'Cause you're one-of-a-kind! A charming demon belle! ♫
The stairs flatten and they both slide down.
♫ Now, let's give these burning fools a place to dwell! ♫
dresses up the rest of the hotel staff with a snap of his fingers Shadow demons appear from the floorboards and begin playing their instruments as Vaggie tries to talk to Charlie who is having too much fun. Alastor pulls her in with him and the others as his shadow demons surround them.
Shadow Demons: Boo!
♫ Haha! Inside of every demon is a lost cause! ♫
puts a fedora on Angel's head as he snaps his fingers back at Alastor
♫ But we'll dress 'em up for now, with just a smile! ♫
He puts a hat and fur on Vaggie and slaps her butt. She throws the accessories to the floor, now enraged
Shadow Demons: ♫ With a smile! ♫
♫ And we'll chlorinate this cesspool with some old redemption flair! ♫
kicks off skull which Niffty rushes in and cleans off
♫ And show these simpletons some proper class and style! ♫
summons a shadow clone of himself
Shadow Demons: ♫ Class and style! ♫
Alastor snaps away his shadow twirls Charlie and pinches her cheeks
♫ Oh! Here below the ground, I'm sure your plan is sound! ♫
holds hands with Charlie as they both twirl, and he lets her go.
♫They'll spend a little time, down at this Hazbin Ho-♫
The hotel door explodes, ending the music and Niffty is instantly hit with it making everyone but alastor look. Charlie, Alastor, Angel Dust, and Vaggie look outside.
Sir Pentious' warship has made an appearance outside the hotel.
Sir Pentious' warship has made an appearance outside the hotel.
“Hah! Well, well, well. Look who it is harboring the striped freak! We meet yet again, Alastor!” He said looking down at the crew mostly Alastor
“Do I know you?” Replied Alastor With a Smile on his face rising a brow at this low snake demon talking to him.
Sir Pentious ego deflates at the Radio Demons reply “Oh, yes you do!, And this time, I have the element of-“ pulls a lever “SURPRISE! Ahaha! I'm so evil!”
With a snap of a finger, an otherworldly dimensional portal opens with tentacles and shadow demons emerging from it, destroying Sir Pentious' ship while he is inside. Alastor then finishes it off as he clenches his fist a few drops of blood dripping off his hand. grinning menacingly in satisfaction for a moment as the gang looked at him in shock and horror.
Alastor breaking the tension “...Well, I'm starved! Who wants some Jambalaya? My mother once showed me a wonderful recipe for Jambalaya. In fact, it nearly killed her! Hahaha! You could say the kick was right out of Hell! Ohoho, I'm on a roll! Yes, sir! This is the start of some real changes down here! The game is set! Now…”
Alastor uses his magic changing the sign atop the hotel from "Happy Hotel" to "Hazbin Hotel".
“...Stay tuned. Hahaha…” He said sinisterly
Sir Pentious is revealed to have surprisingly survived the beating served by the Radio Demon along with Egg Boi #23 (yay he's alive)
Egg Boi #23: Now will you shoot me with your ray gun?
Sir Pentious collapses from exhaustion.
.🌒🌕🌘.
Back at the hotel
Timeskip
Charlie had fallen asleep at her work desk, she was getting everything ready for tomorrow. She was excited but also nervous about the Radio Demon helping her and the hotel. But hey you gotta start somewhere, right?
She woke and looked And saw Keekee, her cat, and the key to the hotel in front of the door. “Hey Keekee,” she said while yawning.
“Meow”
Keekee walks toward Charlie and jumps on the table in front of her
Charlie pets her with a small smile “Did Vaggie send you here or did you want anything?” Keekee purrs when Charlie scratches her head.
Keekee then hops off the desk and walks towards the door and turns around to see if Charlie would follow her. Charlie gets up from her chair and follows her furry friend.
Straight
Left
Left again
Right
Left
“Where are you taking me, Keekee?” Charlie asked the cat, Keekee only meows in response they have been walking for a while now. Then Keekee stopped in front of a door that Charlie was for sure was never there before
It had a spade in the center and carvings of sorts
“Is this what you wanted to show me?” Charlie said looking back down at Keekee who nodded her head “I wonder what’s inside…” At first, Charlie hesitated. I mean should you open a door that appeared out of nowhere? but with a bit of determination, she reaches the door knob and opens the door.
A bright light shone through blinding Charlie, she put her hand in front of her eyes to shield them from the light. Just as it fades away she is somehow inside.
She looks at her surroundings and notices she is in a garden. But it doesn’t look like it’s from Hell it’s almost on the “Earth” She gasped in shock. She turns around and sees the door is no longer behind her “Ooh this can’t be good!” She said in full panic mode! And looks for Keekee who is no longer beside her.
“Keekee!, where are you!”
She takes off running through the garden and trying to find her beloved cat, Yelling out her name. Finally after who knows how long she was searching for KeeKee. She finally found her, Charlie sighed in relief before walking towards her, Keekee was sitting on a bench purring..
But she was not alone……
Charlie stops right behind a tree and realizes that she isn’t alone in the garden...
It was a woman sitting on the bench surrounded by purple and red rose bushes, petting KeeKee who happily purred at her delicate touch, “You are a very beautiful feline aren’t you?” Said the mysterious woman “It’s good to see you again KeeKee so much different than you were before.”
“E-excuse me, umm madam o-or ma’am..” Charlie stutters a bit trying to make herself known, she hopes to ask this lady to give her KeeKee back and see if she can help her find her way home.
“And you also brought a friend with you,” said the woman in a whisper, turning around to face Charlie “You are not from here are you, sweetheart.”
Charlie got a good look at her, she was pretty. pale skin, poofy teal hair, mauve eyes, and hibiscus red spade-shaped marks on her cheeks. She wears a long, dark purple Gothic-themed dress with a brown ring at the waist, a large black sun hat with gray and white feathers and a thorny branch, a white cravat with a light purple crescent moon on it, long mauve gloves, and black flats with pale purple socks, maroon-colored lipstick and black mascara and purple eyeshadow
“If you stare for long someone might get the wrong impression”. The lady teased Charlie, realizing her actions, and started repeatedly apologizing, historically making the women laugh “Oh, I’m just teasing you don’t take it seriously.”
“It has been trapped here for who knows how long,” she said, setting Keekee off lap, standing up and brushing off some cat fur off her dress and fixing it. “Since I met another who isn’t a statue.”
That caught Charlie off guard. “Trapped?”
“Oh!, Where are my manners, forgot to introduce myself” The lady reached out her gloved hand. “my name is Eclipsa” Charlie shook her hand “Charlie”
“Now then, now we know each other. mind telling me how you got in my mind…” she said looking at Charlie, her smile fading away from her face “because only I know and a few know about this spell, a spell that you can enter while that person is asleep or unconscious..”
Charlie doesn’t know what to say because she doesn’t know how she got here. “Well u-Um you see I don’t know how I just got here..” she said trying to answer Eclipsa's question as best as she could. This made Eclipsa look at with wide eyes her lips parted slightly. “I see…” clearing her throat “Well then that means you don’t know how to get out then..if I'm correct about this”. Putting one of her gloved hands on her chin thinking for a moment.
“Well then, we better make the most of it then it will take awhile for you to wake up” That caught Charlie’s attention in the last part. “Wake..up?” Looking around “You mean I’m stuck here..” she said in a slightly panicking tone Eclipsa noticed Charlie having a small panic attack. “Oh no!, if you said you “woke up” but you didn’t wake up you are dreaming,” Eclipsa said trying to calm down Charlie by holding her hand and making her sit at the bench she was sitting with KeeKee.
“Take a deep breath dear, can you do that for me ok?”
Charlie takes a deep breather in
“Now let it out and do it all over again, until you feel better.”
She exhales and smiles at her “thanks, I needed that.” That made Eclipsa smile.” You’re welcome. Now then how about you tell me a little bit about yourself and I will tell you a little bit about myself. To distract you from all this.”
This made Charlie feel warm inside someone who wanted to listen to her for once. She talked all about her Hotel and her friends, her amazing beautiful girlfriend, and how she wants to help her people from the extermination. And Eclipsa listens to her never once looking at her with a look of boredom or ignoring her, telling her that it’s all in her head and she needs to get her head out of the clouds. Instead, she smiles at her “Wow what an interesting idea, You will make a great ruler one day dear,” looking away for a moment before facing her “Don’t ever listen to those who bring you down, they will try to destroy what little hope you have left.”
Charlie felt something inside her, she felt appreciated. She almost cried but pushed it down as much as she could and looked at Eclipse with a look of determination.
“I promise.”
Ring
Ring
“Well it looks like our time with each other has come to an end”
“What?” replied Charlie
“You are about to wake up dear” Eclipse said pointing at Charlie's hands that were fading, and so was Keekee her tail was fading
“Wait! I am not ready to leave!. I have so much to talk about!” replied Chatiel trying to stop it from fading “Don't fight it dearly, but don't worry I'm not going anywhere. I don't have a choice in that matter,”
Eclipse replied petting KeeKee who was almost gone. “promise we will see each other again soon.” she hugged Charlie who hugged her back they both slowly sank to the ground, both sitting in comfortably while she hums before singing leaning her back against a tree.
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♫ Over, under, around, and through Grab the little Mewni rabbit and pull him through. ♫
eclipse plays with Charles's hair, KeeKee has finished fading leaving them both alone but sooner just one will remain. She cradles her like a mother comforting her child from a nightmare.
♫ Pinch it and fold it and tie it in a bow ♫
She grabs a few roses beside her, summoning a purple ribbon, and places them in Charlie’s hair making a bow with the ribbon.
♫ Like two little bunny ears made out of dough. ♫
Charlie glances up at her, she begins to sing with her. it was quite catchy and it kinda made her feel like a kid again when her parents were together and happy.
♫ Over and under, wherever you roam Sweet little Mewni rabbit, hop back home. ♫
Her eyes felt heavy and she began to drift away…
“See you soon, Morningstar…”
She watched as Charlie fades away all that was left was her presence. She blinks a few times wiping away tears.
“Lucifer you have a lovely daughter she is just like you and Lilith.”
She sighs softly, her eyes trailed off to a statue that was at the center of the garden of her prison.
“Please hold on a little longer. I will be with you both. My time here will end soon enough in this prison. Because
She looks up at the sky the sun begins to fall and the moons begins to rise.
“I have made a deal”
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“And it won’t be long before that deal comes to an end…”
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all the world seems to waken anew
Neige LeBlanche x Reader Drabble
Reader/Yuu is female
Masterlist
Neige LeBlanche never fails to bring you ataraxy, you’ve noticed. That’s something you’ve come to love about him.
After spending weeks dealing with the multitudes of encumbrances that were thrown at you in NRC, a week-long getaway at RSA was more than welcome. Neige acted just as enthusiastically as you did when Headmaster Ambrose had warmly invited you to the castle on the premise of ‘furthering your knowledge of this world’ but it was endearingly suspicious how this arrangement had been scheduled the day after you had mentioned to the ebony haired boy how tired and burned out you were.
And that’s how you found yourself here, having a picnic in a flower-filled meadow after a gooseberry picking adventure in RSA’s gardens - all nice and ripe and ready for the pie baking venture the two of you had planned for the afternoon. Or atleast, you were having a picnic before you were distracted by the floral blooms around you and the two of you began making daisy chains and flower garlands. Next thing you know, your little excursion gets interrupted by a chipmunk and then a few squirrels and bunnies and bluebirds and a fawn and all thoughts of finishing your home baked pastries flew out the window as the urge to dote on your new companions was simply undeniable.
Everything about right now was perfect: the bright sunny sky and wafting tufts of white that danced across the celeste expanse, your boyfriend’s beloved white mare was grazing nearby and the hygge you felt was unimaginable as you handfed a small fluffy rabbit a leaf of lettuce.
“What are you thinking about, Dove?” Neige asks brightly.
“Just about how happy I am,” you respond, “thank you
“It’s the least I can do,” he says, chestnut doe eyes incandescent, “you always know how to fill my world with sunshine. I just want to do the same for you.”
“And you have,” you sigh happily, leaning your head on his shoulder, getting lost in his warmth and apple blossom scent. His hand almost immediately starts running through your hair and looking up at him, you saw his cherubic features aglow with tender adoration. Among this picturesque landscape, he looked ethereal. You could faintly hear his mellifluous voice singing quietly.
“With a smile and a song
Life is just a bright sunny day”
And you closed your eyes and embraced this elysian bliss as softly cooing doves landed around you, letting your mind wander to thoughts of wishing wells and happily ever afters.
“Your cares fade away
And your heart is young”
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jungle-angel · 9 months
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To Build A Nest (Bob Floyd x Reader)
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Summary: In which the Daggers are working really hard on a project that you and Bob left unfinished
“Jake for the last fucking time! We are NOT painting that on the walls!” Natasha argued. 
“Oh c’mon, where’s your sense of humor?” Jake half whined. 
“Up your ass with the rest of you,” Natasha mumbled before her phone began to vibrate. 
Quick as she could, Natasha answered the FaceTime call from you and Bob, finally happy to see Baby Auggie’s tiny little form snuggled into Bob’s bare chest under the little blue Peter Rabbit blanket. 
“Oh look! Little Man’s out of his incubator!” Natasha exclaimed happily. 
“He’s coming out alot more often,” you told her. “Still having some trouble regulating his body temperature, but if we give it another two weeks, he should be able to come home.” 
“Oooh is that little man?” Mickey asked excitedly peering over Natasha’s shoulder. 
A loud noise snagged Mickey’s attention before he could get a closer look at Auggie, disappearing to go and break it up. 
“How’s the work coming?” you asked, a laughing grin threatening to crawl across your face. 
Natasha grimaced when a loud “MOTHERFUCKER!” flew from Jake’s mouth. “How do you think it’s going?”
You and Bob both laughed but when Natasha turned her phone camera to show you the half done mural on the wall, your jaws practically dropped to the floor. “Oh my God!” you quietly exclaimed. 
“It’s a work in progress but hopefully it’ll be done soon,” Natasha explained. “Hopefully these morons quit their bitching and keep working.” 
“No, no, you guys are doing an amazing job,” you assured her. “Shit, the nurse is on her way in. Can we call you back again tomorrow?” 
“No problem,” Natasha answered, before bidding you and Bob farewell for the evening. 
She dove right back into the work, rinsing the brushes in the paint spattered mason jars while Mickey turned the bluetooth speaker back on to keep playing their music. Of course there had been pinched fingers, paint splatters on clothing and faces and things that had gotten mucked up along the way, but in all it hadn’t been bad. 
Two weeks it had taken to get the whole thing complete. Two weeks of arguing, bickering and slugging through the work, night and day to get it done, but at last, the nursery was done. The paint had dried and soon, the Daggers were looking at the completed mural that had been absolute hell to paint....a Thomas Kinkade style painting of Disney’s Pinocchio. 
“We did it,” Natasha said to Mickey. “We fuckin did it.” 
“I still say we should’ve done Star Wars,” Mickey teased. 
“Hey this was Bob’s idea, not ours.” 
On the day that you and Bob finally arrived home with Auggie, the gang led you upstairs to the room, finally completed after having waited so long. It was beautiful, the mural catching your eyes immediately as well as the wood crib and the old rocker in the corner near the window. You and Bob were both nearly in tears when you saw the quilt hanging off the bed, embroidered with a large image of Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket and a little bluebird. 
“Oh my God, you guys are the best,” you said tearfully. “It’s absolutely beautiful.” 
“What can we say, we’re the best of the best,” Payback told you as he gave you the biggest hug you had in a long time.
“Oh but wait there’s more,” Jake informed you and Bob. 
Off of a shelf, Coyote pulled a little yellow box that had been painted once again with those familiar images in the nursery, this time one of Pinocchio and Geppetto. “Your dad and my dad got together and fixed this a few days ago,” Jake explained. “Your Meemaw said she and your grandfather had cleaned out the basement and she found it in a box that had your baby stuff in it.” 
“Is the box still here?” Bob asked. 
“In the closet.” 
Before Bob had a chance to look, he opened the little box in his hand, the little tines hidden within playing “When You Wish Upon A Star.” The whole room had gone silent when they heard it, Bob’s eyes soon filling with tears at the childhood memories that had come flooding back to him. 
You two couldn’t thank your friends enough for what they had done for you both. That night, everyone had stayed over to help, Bob’s parents informing him that they were coming out from Oklahoma to help as well. You two ate dinner with your close friends and when it grew dark, you finally put Auggie to bed, bringing him up to his new room. Bob sat in the rocker, the tiny little one snuggled deep into his bare chest as the music box played away, his sleepy little coos filling the room. 
And that night, the stars seemed to shine a little bit brighter over Fightertown.
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heartfullofleeches · 11 months
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Darling, Meet Darling - or Bluebird if you prefer.
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[Link]
Bluebird/Darling - Former Darling Yan
Age: Estimated to be early to mid twenties
Pronouns: They/them, Darling
Mentioned in this post officially, Darling has been a nobody their whole life. A teen runaway, stuck working at a gas station in the middle of nowhere to make ends meat. Confining themselves to a place too small for personal growth was all they had ever known, and so they adjusted to their new life well. Things weren't all bad there - they even made a friend. Bluebird is what they called them, for the specs of auburn in the sea of their blue eyes reminded the stranger of the birds that used to hang outside their window. It was nice to be noticed, to have someone that cared. If only Darling was ready to love someone at that time - and to fall for the wrong person.
-
As your admirer, Darling works hard to assure their saviors happiness. Whether you were the one who took their spouses life or one of the first responders on call when they're freed, you are their saving grace. They have nothing else to live for, but they could never bring themselves to do what that person did to them to you. They'd sooner end their own life than ever hear you scream as they once had. Darling will instead worm their day into your day to day life and us their codependency on you to keep you from leaving. They won't chain you to a bed and break your ankles like someone they knew - complaining of phantom pains and remind you of plans you forgot you had works better for their moral compass and keep them holy in your eyes. Unfortunately, they didn't have people they cared about for their ex to us against them - and they don't take kindly to those who would tear you apart.
A few quick facts:
Bluebird has central heterochromia, the outsider ring of their irises being blue bleeding into brown closer to the pupil.
The scar across their neck in the after is not from their Yan. No spoilers, but in an upcoming fic it is readers doing. They are specifically missing their right eye, ring finger, and have the letter "S" engraved over their heart
As I'm sure you can guess, either Bluebird nor Darling is their legal name. They shut down if it is ever discovered or mentioned
Bluebird is very fond of how long their hair grows out during the period of their recovery. It is shorter on one side because they cut off that portion and made a charm for you as a token of their loyalty to you
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