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#how he had been dealing with that specific strain for what. around 6 months?
echidnana · 2 years
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piers’ decision to infect himself carries huge weight- it’s shown that survivors of outbreaks/others who work in the field are terrified of what they’ve seen, of turning into a monster and hurting people. jill’s nightmare in the opening of re3make puts a lot of that into perspective. she thought she was turning, and she would rather put a bullet in her head than turn.
anyone working in that field knows personally what these virus do to people. piers knows exactly how things will end if he infects himself- as soon as he made the decision to take the c-virus, he knew he wouldn’t make it out of the underwater lab- he wouldn’t want to. he was dead the moment he chose the c-virus.
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1kook · 4 years
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youtube & use lube
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part 7 of my netflix and chill collection!
summary: You can’t believe this is Jungkook’s preferred sick day treatment; YouTube, cuddles, and an ugly amount of lube.  warnings: smut in the forms of nipple play, handjobs, spit kink, face riding, unprotected, flavored warming lube, riding, praise kink, soft femdom, missionary bc his eyes are pretty, tit sucking, more jk has an impreg kink, oh and this is all subby kook rating: mature (18+) miscellaneous: domesticity baby!! fluff, soft scenes /.\, jk is sick:((, doyeon is A Doctor, yn sees an opportunity and she grabs it, surprise ending <3  word count: 8.7k  
notes: finally…. 7 parts later and we get ~✨💓sub kook💓✨~ this was honestly my fave to write I think because I was obSESSEDDD with his softness and yn leading hehe /.\ also yeah we time jumped 6 months bc uhmmm 😎 story progression also here’s [ THE KOOK U SHOULD IMAGINE FOR THIS 😡 ] also if see a typo ummm no u didn't .
let me know what u think! a simple ask goes a long way <3
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Despite what past experiences may dictate, Jungkook’s body is actually quite resilient. It’s due in part to his obnoxiously healthy lifestyle; avocado breakfasts, gym rat tendencies, and a normal person’s circadian rhythm (you could never relate). He lives the life health professionals can only dream of writing down in their notes, so careful of his well-being that it’s almost annoying. Of all the habits you help him break, the rituals he sometimes forgets, his health is never one and it’s actually one he ropes you into quite often. The ladder accident last summer had truly been an odd occurrence, and for a while after, you doubt anything else will ever happen to him. 
And then winter comes. 
Now, Jungkook, with all his superior bodily systems and strict lifestyle, is still not immune to the common cold. So when he comes down with a stuffy nose, a saggy frame, you’re not too surprised. It’s right after New Year’s, which you had spent it at one of Taehyung’s classic overcrowded parties this year, shivering on a rooftop as he kissed you silly under the fireworks, so one of you was bound to get sick. And you were sick for Halloween, so it’s only the universe’s way of leveling the playing field when he gets sick after New Years. 
What does surprise you is when he doesn’t bounce back right away. Usually, Jungkook’s high caliber immune system has him in tip top shape about two days later. But this time around, it takes a while. In fact, it takes longer than usual, and you don’t realize until you’re coming over on a Friday night, met with an unusual silence at the Jeon household. 
As you slowly grew accustomed to your life out of school, you and Jungkook accepted that you didn’t really have time to be glued to each other’s hips at all hours of the day. It was only natural that sometimes you had too much work, were too tired, or were just not in the mood to visit each other. That was fine, and you’ve come to quite appreciate this new routine, because it only made your heart flutter faster than before when you did see him next. You don’t have to see each other everyday, and that was fine; it was part of growing up together (and growing old together, your sappy heart says).
But today, this separation ends up being your downfall. Jungkook first showed signs of a cold on Monday, and now it was Friday and you hadn’t heard from him in two days. You’re beginning to suspect he’s come down with something severe— maybe that strain of the flu that he forgot to get vaccinated for this year —or even worse, dead.
Luckily, Jungkook isn’t dead, just sadly slumped across the end of his bed, nose a bright red and hair a tangled mess. “Oh no,” you frown, but there’s not an ounce of distress in your voice, because boy, was he cute. 
He groans at the sight of you. “Don’t look at me,” he whimpers, hands fisting the sheets. “I’m ugly.”
You bite down on a smile, hang your bag on the hook behind his bedroom door. He’s barely making an effort to stay on the bed, clinging to the side with such powerless hands. “Absolutely hideous,” you play along, arms wrapping around his middle. Registering your touch, your support, he immediately releases what little grip he had and almost sends the two of you tumbling to the ground. “My poor baby,” you croon, manhandling him back into the comfort of his sheets. 
Perhaps the reason you believed Jungkook was so immune was because, well, he never let you see him sick. 
He was picky about his presentation to the world, always wanting to show his best side. And well, you were in that world. Hell, you were probably the main person he wanted to show off for (not to toot your own horn), so he avidly avoided showing you his unpleasant sides. Even in college, when you had been practically stuck to his side, he had always made a big deal of pushing you away when he was sick, calling off dates and hiding away at his house. 
You sort of knew why. Namjoon had told you once that Jungkook when drunk was the equivalent of a needy, whiny baby. You could attest to that because wine drunk Jungkook and vodka drunk Jungkook were quite the experiences to haul home. And apparently Jungkook when sick was more or less the same. He was all doe eyes and pouty lips, magnified by his weakened appearance. He was adorable. 
He’s wearing a lot of layers, but it’s still winter so you don’t think too much of it. Dark long sleeve sweatshirt, the front tucked into some cute brown and black checkered pants. You see it as just some casual at home attire until you reach for his covers, hand brushing his hair from his face, only to find it ice cold. 
“Oh, you’re freezing, honey,” you frown, for real this time. Jungkook whimpers, snuggles into the sheets you pull up to his chin. He dozes off soon after, pouty lips chapped to hell and back. You reach for your chapstick, deciding to get one good use of it on your own lips before contaminating it with Jungkook’s sick germs. Even in his sleep he’s a good boy, rolling his lips together after you’ve applied it on him. 
With Jungkook knocked out, you pad back downstairs and into his kitchen. You can more or less infer that he’s come down with something a little more intense than a cold. His skin was cold, and his nose was runny, but, oddly enough, he wasn’t sweating. You decide to consult a professional. 
“The little gremlin is sick?” Doyeon repeats, a comforting buzz in your ear as you get to work making Jungkook your famous Get Better Soon Soup, idly waiting for the water to boil over. You confirm. Doyeon, legend that she was, accidentally sat an entire physiology class one semester (and passed), so this is the closest you’ll get to a doctor friend. “Hm,” she says, “what’re his symptoms?”
You press your phone between your ear and shoulder, clattering around Jungkook’s kitchen for ingredients. “Runny nose and colder than your ass that one time you passed out in the snow,” you supply. “Oh, but not sweating.”
Doyeon hums over the line, tells you to give her a second, and disappears. “WebMD is saying fever, but you said he’s not sweating?” You confirm again. “Throw him in front of the heater and make him sweat then. He has to burn it out somehow.”
“I can’t do that,” you sigh, pausing when you hear some vague sound from around the house. It’s not Jungkook, so you return to your call. Anyway, Jungkook’s house is, like, perfect. Always warm when need be and always cold as well. You don’t even think he knows what a space heater is. “He’s sick sick. Like, can barely hold himself up sick.” 
She scoffs. “And I care why?” You huff, go to scold her for their weird rivalry, but then she’s moving on. “Babe, just give him some pain relief and call it a day.”
“Fine,” you mumble. “Wait, can you look something else up for me?”
Anyway, Jungkook probably has a fever, except it’s weird because he’s not sweating it out. He wakes up about an hour later, but this time he’s more self aware. He eats his soup and takes the medicine you offer him. Afterwards, he can’t go back to sleep so he huffily asks for his iPad and begins watching some weirdly specific YouTube videos you don’t think you’ve ever seen him watch before. 
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You have absolutely no idea what he’s watching, some niche videos of guys in Singapore turning random forest areas into underwater pools? You don’t know. Jungkook seems interested, though, for all of ten minutes until he falls asleep again. 
He’s still cold, poor baby, nose like an ice cube that just won’t melt. You find a heating pad you left over in his closet and place it on his chest. Your thought process is that if his heart, the source of all energy, was warm, then certainly the rest of him will warm up soon enough. Yeah, you missed the last three seasons of Grey’s Anatomy; you were a little rusty. 
So with Jungkook fast asleep and nothing else to do, you assume the age-old, patriarchal task of cleaning around the house. 
His house was usually neat and tidy, mostly as a result of Jungkook’s virgo manifestations, but even those varied. His living room tended to be spotless, but his personal office was a different story. But with him having been out of it this past week, the entire house is littered in tiny garbage that would make Normal Jungkook burst a blood vessel.
There’s a pile of Reese’s wrappers in the downstairs bathroom, on the sink next to his toothbrush. The sight makes you sad, because your poor boy must have been struggling if he was eating candy in the bathroom, where he… uses the bathroom. And then that thought makes you even sadder, thinking back to all the times he was sick and alone, fending for himself out of his weird embarrassment of showing normal body functions. 
You had thought he was cute when you first arrived— he still was —but he was also so weak and frail, bulky muscles rendered useless by whatever bacteria was attacking his body, making him sleepy and in pain for god knows how long. With a resolute nod, you sweep all the wrappers into the trash and decide to do your very best at helping Jungkook get through this sickness and bounce back better than ever. 
Before leaving his bathroom, you ransack his cabinets, deciding he probably keeps most of his antibiotics here. It’s a spot you never really snoop around, because Jungkook always keeps a fully stocked basket in his closet filled with your typical necessities— from conditioner to pads to nail polish remover, he kept it all. And furthermore, you always tended to use his upstairs bathroom anyway, so that’s where your toothbrush and the like were kept. There was really no need for you to ever look through the downstairs bathroom’s cabinet. So the downstairs bathroom cabinet is practically the other side of the world to you, a culture shock so strong it has you plopping down in front of it to thoroughly sift through. 
He’s got a disgusting amount of hair products, none of which you actually think you’ve ever seen him use, and a maniacal amount of tooth stuff. Now, you were quite possibly the biggest proponent for dental care, but this was ridiculous. Four packs of floss on reserve, and about three cases of those dental picks. A whole family pack of toothbrushes and one of those cute little cases for his retainer you’ve seen a few times. 
So overwhelmed with his ungodly stash of dental hygiene utilities, you almost miss the pretty pink tube hidden in the very back corner. 
You’re thinking it’s some makeup primer you left before that he mistook for moisturizer, probably dumped it with all his other things, only to find out you are very, very wrong. 
Sensation Warming Lubricant: NOW! in strawberry flavor 
You blink. 
Lubricant? Jungkook was using lubricant? Strawberry, sensation warming lubricant?!
Somewhere in your mind you had convinced yourself that Jungkook was a simple man, a lotion at his bedside drawer type of man. He had you for the last one and half year, and you two fucked like rabbits, so you hardly doubt he was jacking it alone these days. And even if he was, why on earth was he so specific about the type of lube he uses?
You turn the bottle around, eyes scanning for an expiration date or something of the like, only to find that the copyright symbol was under this current year. The year that had just started, like, two weeks ago. 
Oh, so this was new. 
You turn it over, eyes scanning over the warnings like it’ll tell you something about your boyfriend you don’t know yet, some other hidden secret that he’s maybe held from you. Granted, owning lube isn’t really a big deal, but the fact he’s got it so hidden away (not really, it was casually sitting beside his sunscreen) was definitely something to zero in on. 
Strawberry flavored, you read again, warming, stimulating, edible? Forget his weirdly extensive floss collection, you had stumbled upon something amazing in here, the goddamn Hope Diamond among snooping girlfriend finds. You’ll confront him about this later, you decide, when he’s back to normal and not whiningly calling your name from upstairs. You pocket it for now, tucking it into your cardigan pockets for said later interrogation, and bound up the stairs to him again. 
He’s sitting up in bed like a very angry and confused toddler, brows furrowed sharply like he’s mad. Actually, he just can’t see, the light from the hallway blinding him, so you shut the door and flick on his bedside lamp for him instead. “Hi, honey,” you coo, sitting down on the edge beside him. He’s still waking up, leaning a little too heavily into your palm when you cup his face. “How’re you feeling?”
“Terrible,” he rasps out, but he’s definitely looking better than before. You don’t know if you imagine it, but there’s this slowly accumulating sweat that forms along the base of his neck. “Please don’t leave again,” he says softly, droopy eyes glassy. 
Something shoots straight to your heart— an arrow from Cupid himself! —that makes you stroke his cheek tenderly until his eyelids are fluttering shut again. “I won’t,” you promise, feeling around for his iPad. He doesn’t seem like he’ll fall back asleep, sitting up with more strength than he had that morning. 
You end up climbing behind him, let him be the little spoon you know he secretly craves to be, as he watches his weird YouTube videos again. His body is so warm against yours, but his skin is still so cold. If what Doyeon had said was true, it’s no wonder he’s kept the same sickness all week. The rhythmic sound of machetes hacking at the earth and water trickling through bamboo pipes grows on you, makes you fall into a sense of comfort behind him, arms tracing circles over his chest. 
It’s a mindless habit, one you actually do a lot. Most of the time, it’s when he’s at his desk and stressed out, your masseuse hands making an appearance to soothe the muscles in his neck and chest from being hunched over for so long. Even now, your fingers unconsciously press into the fabric over his pecks, tickle up his sternum until he’s melting against you. 
It takes one quiet whimper from him to let you know exactly how he’s feeling. “Everything alright?” you inquire, halting your movements over his chest. Jungkook nods shakily, head lolling forward. The nape of his neck calls to you, whispers for a kiss that you tenderly bestow upon it. It makes Jungkook jolt, another pretty sound leaving his lips at the press of your warm lips against his sensitive neck. 
“No more,” he mumbles, rolls his head around until it’s resting against your shoulder, giving you a clear view down his chest. You slide your hands back up from where they’d gone stiff just around his ribs, let them palm over his pecs. Jungkook’s hips buck, a minuscule movement you almost miss. 
His heart thunders like the inside of a horse race track beneath your palm, breath picking up just from the simple motion of your hands on his chest. It’s on the fourth circle around his pecs that you feel your pinky briefly catch on something. “Poor thing,” you sigh, running the pad of your pointer finger over the hardened nipple that peaks beneath his sweatshirt. “Is this what was bothering you?” 
A shaky exhale in response, hands tightly clutching at his iPad and beloved YouTube video genre. “N-No,” he denies, but you chance a peak at his face, where his lips are bitten a rosy pink color, its slightly muted sister rushing down his cheeks, over his neck. 
You press the lightest of kisses to the side of his neck, and he shivers. “Need me to take care of you?” you purr, trail your hands down his chest towards where the hem of his sweater sits. You run your finger over it twice, before moving to slip your hand beneath. Your fingers brush along his abs, contracted tightly at your touch, and slowly make their way back up his chest. 
Fingers find his pebbled nipples, a gasp escaping his lips. “Does this feel good?” you ask softly, pinching the swollen nubs between your fingers. Jungkook groans, body arching just the slightest as you rub his nipples, tug and twist them until he’s a whining mess. “Need you to tell me, honey,” you encourage, lips ghosting over his neck. 
The second kiss has him flinching as well, head rapidly turning the other way as you slowly kiss over his neck. “___, please,” he pants, knuckles pale on the sides of the iPad. You're afraid it’ll snap, if not from his grip then from the way he pushes at it, like he’s breaking a wooden board over his knee. It’s still on YouTube, playing another video from the same collection, volume competing with Jungkook’s tiny sounds. 
Pressing your lips to his neck, you kiss along it slowly, reveling in the lovely noises that Jungkook produces the more you rub his nipples, lower body squirming animatedly before you. Your kisses grow wet for a short period, suck purple blossoms across his skin until Jungkook is quivering like a leaf. “E-Enough,” he begs, voice a wobbly mess that is so light and airy. 
You grin, giving his rockhard nipples one last flick before sliding your hands down his chest, over his stomach to toy with the elastic of his pants. He inhales sharply, iPad nearly snapped in half mid video. Ready to play with him some more (and slightly afraid for the future of his tablet), you reach out a hand to move it away, set it off to the side. 
But Jungkook doesn’t release it. In fact, he clings to the damn piece of tech tighter than before. “Hmm?” you murmur, bottom lip brushing against his neck once more. “Not letting go, sweetheart?” 
He shakes his head, soft crown of curls bouncing from the movement. “Can’t, can’t,” he shivers. His knees shift back and forth, move between being casually spread and flush together. Like he’s hiding something, using the iPad and the videos on screen as cover. You tug at his wrist and Jungkook shakes his head again. 
You change tactics, hand sliding around his wrist instead. The other travels up, up, up, comes curling around the base of his neck. Jungkook whimpers, tilts his head back for you cutely at the first brush of your fingers against his Adam’s apple. “Thought you were my good boy?” you ask, eyes zeroed in on the tremble of his lower lip. 
Jungkook exhales shakily, a rather torn expression crossing his features. “I am,” he insists, fingers still tight “I am your good boy.”
You smile, stroking the front of his neck softly as you lean down to press a kiss against his cheek. “You are, aren’t you?” He whimpers. “Then let go, honey,” you murmur, hand on his wrist giving another experimental tug. Still, his grip remains solid. “Jungkook,” you snap, “let go.”
“Y-You’ll laugh,” he cries, yet his grip slowly weakens. It’s with a swift tug that the iPad tumbles to his side, presses against his hip, and shows you the raging hard-on that stirs beneath the front of his cotton pants. Pressed nearly beside your ear, Jungkook shivers. 
Ever so slowly, your hands return to their place around his waist. “Why would I laugh, sweetheart?” you mumble, marveling at the way his cock twitches and jumps beneath his pants before you can even touch it. His shirt is hiked up just above his abs, your hands tenderly stroking over the skin beneath his navel, but it’s got Jungkook writhing. “Hips up for me,” you instruct. 
He shakes even when he pushes himself up, knees wobbling as you slip your hands beneath his waistband and tug them down his thighs. Afterwards, his legs flop forward flatly, spread out with his beautiful swollen cock on display against his hip. 
You trap it at the base and Jungkook mewls, hands fisting the sheets now that his beloved iPad has been snatched away. It’s still playing his videos, interrupting his saccharine moans with corny ads every few minutes. A hand snaps up to join, opposite of yours, until your fingers are entwined around his dick. How romantic, you think, discreetly rolling your hips back against the mattress. “Gonna help me make you cum?” you ask instead, give him a light squeeze that makes him jolt. 
“Uh huh,” he responds, feathery. 
You reward him with a kiss to his cheek, reaching up to brush away the hair that’s begun sticking to his forehead. In the very back of your head you recognize this as being good for his fever, but the rest of you is more concerned with the pretty pout on his lips. “Hold tight for me,” you smile, releasing his cock to press your finger against the very tip of his cock where a pearly drop of precum has begun forming. “So pretty, Jungkookie,” you praise, teasing the length of your finger over the slit on his head. It has that juicy droplet coating your finger, gliding seamlessly over and over again. 
The simple touch makes him buck, has him blindly wrapping an arm around your bent knee that was pressed to his side this whole time. He squeezes around you rather weakly, the majority of his strength going to holding his cock tightly like you’d instructed. He’s such a good boy for you, trying his absolute best, even when you’re very obviously overwhelming him. 
You roll the flat side of your finger over him, his mushroom tip slowly growing more and more slick as he produces more precum. It’s shiny, fits perfectly between your clasped fingers when you squeeze around his head. Jungkook’s breath turns labored. 
He’s always so well kept down there, skin so smooth and free of hairs, and you know he does it because he wants to impress you. “So pretty, baby,” you hum, acknowledging his efforts. Your praise makes Jungkook moan, suddenly fucking up into his hand. It’s accidental, because he hisses at the drag of his dry palm around his relatively dry dick immediately. 
“Hurts, hurts,” he whimpers prettily, lower lip caught between his teeth. 
You frown, slide your wet fingers down the base of his cock until they’re wrapping around his and Jungkook’s little gasps even out. “I’m sorry, baby, you gotta be patie—“
Something presses against your hip, something distinctly hard that you had hastily picked up from his bathroom cabinet earlier, and a whole new door opens before your eyes. “Hold still for me,” you tell him quickly as you release your grip around his cock. Jungkook wails at the separation, but you’re more concerned with wrestling the tube out of your pocket with one hand. It’s heavy in your palm, turning over until that big fat label on front comes into view again. 
Jungkook explodes at the sight. “Wh— Where did you find that?” he stammers, cheeks ablaze. “I-I don’t know where that came fro—“
You ignore him, hold the bottle of lubricant over his stomach as you uncap it, a gooey pink substance spilling over into your hands the moment the lid pops off. Jungkook is still rambling away about the origins of the bottle, as if you care. You set the bottle on his tummy, the cold plastic makes him shiver. But you know what’s not cold? The warming lube in your hands that only takes three rubs of your palms to activate. 
You latch down like a crazed animal around his cock. With both your hands fighting to grip at his cock, you’re pressed closer against Jungkook, lips against the shell of his ear. 
The initial touch makes him sob, back arching and legs kicking at the sheets piled at the foot of the bed as your slick hands track the lube over his dick. “No!” he cries, hands wildly reaching out to grab whatever he can as you slowly get to work pulling him off. “I-I can’t, __, I can’t.”
“You can,” you coo, watching the translucent pink substance coat his cock, join his sticky precum. 
Maybe you get overexcited in your efforts, forget Jungkook is the way he is right now because he was still a little weak from his fever, but you go crazy on stroking his cock. One hand lingers around the base, squeezing and rolling over his balls, palm pressing against the hardened sac and squeezing there too. The other focuses at the tip, does most of the actual stroking over his cock. His head is leaking precum now, every stroke and squeeze making him shudder and push out another drop, until it’s mixing with the lube to form a sticky sweet substance that you wanna lick at so bad. 
So you do. 
You release one hand to curiously bring it up to your face, turning it over and around as you examine the stickiness on your fingers, the fat drop that unintentionally drips onto the front of Jungkook’s sweatshirt. He sobs at the sight of your lips around your fingers, squirms and bucks into the hand still on his cock until he’s embarrassingly coming. “I’m sorry,” he wails, hands fisting the sheets, fucking into your hand like a virgin. “I didn’t— I didn’t mean to.” 
You draw your hand away, watching in slow motion the cum that just spurted from his cock come dribbling down the slowly softening length now. “Oh, sweetheart,” you croon, hands on his tummy. The bottle of lube slips to the side, meets the still playing iPad at his hip. It’s sticky and gross to touch him like this, especially when you know Jungkook hates being unnecessarily dirty, but you can’t stop yourself from softly caressing him, soothe him after such a hard-hitting orgasm. 
Honestly you had thought he would hold up a little more, let you get in a few more strokes, but he must’ve been more sensitive than you thought. “I’m sorry,” he cries again, head lolling to the side to meet your gaze with watery eyes. 
You tilt his head to the side, angle him just right for you to bestow your first kiss of the night against his little pout. Jungkook hiccups, melts against you as you slowly guide him through the kiss. He’s sloppy and shy, moves nothing like your normal Jungkook, and that fact alone has you slipping your tongue past his lips. He doesn’t fight back, just lets you play with him and sighs all delicately against your mouth. 
There’s something about this, his soft and submissive attitude, that has you pulling away to look at him. Big brown eyes, glassed over with unshed tears, and plush lips that call your name. And yet. 
“Open,” you murmur, hypnotized by the way that tiny mouth moves. 
“Huh?” Jungkook flushes, but he’s so good, he’s your good boy, and does so anyway. Lower lip quivers as he parts his lips, stuttering exhales creeping through as you purse your lips, let the saliva collect on your mouth, before rudely spitting into his. He flinches, whimpers softly, and swallows. He looks at you with these expectant eyes, like he wants to hear how much of a good boy he is, so you do exactly that. 
You brush his bangs away lovingly. “Aren’t you just so good for me,” you purr, revel in the way his eyes flutter shut at your touch, like you could never hurt him, and you won’t. 
As sweet as the moment is, there’s a raging fire in your core begging to be stroked, and your hyperfixation on Jungkook’s mouth lets you know there’s only one way to chase the feeling. “Up,” you tell Jungkook, who whimpers sadly when you finally escape from behind him. 
But you don’t get too far, settling beside him on the bed until you’re looking at the damage you’ve caused from the front. His skin is sticky in some places, pink sheen of the lube decorating him from your incessant touching. Pants around his thighs, shirt against his chest. His face is flushed, all the way down to his chest and up to his ears, so rosy and pink all for you. He shies away under your gaze, drops his head to his chin bashfully. 
You grin, shuffle forward to turn those pretty eyes back towards you. “Messy little thing,” you tease, slotting your mouths together again. Jungkook moans this time, lazily kissing you back. His lips move in slow motion, trembling hands reaching for your face to cup, your name falling from his lips when you pull away slightly. “Need you to help me out now,” you murmur, hand on his jaw. “Can you do that, honey?” Jungkook nods hurriedly, eyes foggy and on your mouth. “Lay back.”
He does so, rushes to lay against the pillows until he’s flat on his back. You get to work on your clothes, shed your cardigan and languidly tug your top over your head in the way you know makes your breasts bounce. Beneath you, Jungkook whines at the sight. “You too,” you remind him, wiggling out of your jeans. At your instruction, he begins fumbling with his clothes, pants and underwear haphazardly thrown over the edge of the bed. 
By the time you’re naked, you’re met with a rather amusing sight. 
In his haste to take his clothing off, Jungkook seems to have gotten himself tangled in his long sleeves, shirt awkwardly bunched up around his wrists and twisted over some. You chuckle. “Help please,” he asks so politely, shaking his arms back and forth above his head. But you’re genuinely confused as to what he did, because one of the sleeves wraps around the other, pins the bulk of the fabric to his skin, and then the other wraps around that. A mess you don’t bother dissecting, simply climbing over him. He complains, of course, soft huffs you wave off. 
“Don’t need them anyway,” you shrug, can’t help the lovesick look you send him when you brush his hair away for the umpteenth time. Jungkook leans into the touch sweetly, rosy cheek pressed against your palm. “Lemme see your pretty little tongue,” you order, pussy clenching when he does as told and rolls his tongue out for you, tip pressed against his bottom lip. “Good boy.”
A soft whimper, and then you’re shuffling over him, pretty doe eyes watching with amazement when you finally hover over his face. “For me?” he asks so softly, so sweetly. 
It’s a question you’ve heard him utter countless times before in similar settings, always with a cocky grin and mean eyes, ready to send you to hell and back with his tongue or his cock. But it’s different now, big shiny eyes looking at you like you’re the greatest thing to ever happen in his life, so pliant and demure beneath your touch like he lived to serve you. 
“All for you,” you assure him, get comfortable, and slowly lower your pussy over his face. His eyes flutter shut immediately, pink tongue ready for you by the time your dripping cunt nears his face. 
You can’t help the moan that tears itself from your throat, a soft cry as he begins lapping against your folds. He’s so tender, so careful. It drives you crazy. Hands above his head squirming as you slowly grind your pussy over his face, more mindful than usual because he was so delicate tonight, like a baby bird that shivers with the simplest touch. 
His tongue is smooth, circles around your clit. He nudges your bundle of nerves back and forth a few times, sends an initial wave of tingles down your spine, before taking it between puckered lips. His slurps it into his mouth, where it’s so hot and wet, it makes your grind stutter. “Oh,” you pant, reaching down to tangle your fingers in his hair. “P-Perfect,” you mumble. 
The praise makes his features twist up cutely, mouth desperate to get more out of you. “You like that?” you gasp, holding his head still as he runs his tongue along your folds. Jungkook nods, eyes glazed over as he messily begins eating you out. “Like when I tell you you’re a good boy, Jungkookie?” 
He lets out a broken whine, the vibrations shooting up your spine and making you shiver. Tongue pressed in at your entrance, prods gently like it’s his first time (it’s not) and he’s gauging your reactions. “Oh baby,” you shudder, fingers tightening in his curls. 
He looks like an angel beneath you like this, halo of curls artfully splayed across the sheets, arms knotted above his head. Big pretty eyes that make you want to lay down and be his bitch instead, their power just so strong even when he’s whining and whimpering against your pussy like this. His tongue dips into your cunt, makes you buck against him by accident. “I’m sorry, angel,” you breathe, so caught up in your thoughts that the name just slips. It makes Jungkook’s cheeks flush a pretty pink, arms tug at their makeshift restraints. But his brain is scattered, torn between releasing himself, eating you out, and being shy. 
He settles soon enough, ends up just sticking his tongue out flat for you to grind against, using the grip in his curls to drag your pussy over his face. His scalp feels warm, sweat clinging to his hairline. He sighs endearingly against you, and it’s that final puff of warm air against your folds that has you coming, cum dripping over his lips and chin sinfully. 
When you finish, you quickly get off of him, lay down beside him. Jungkook is panting softly, tongue peeking out to taste the cum that splattered against the corner of his lips. “You were so good for me,” you praise, idly dragging your finger across his skin, collecting your cum on the tip. 
Jungkook looks at you with a heavy gaze, knotted wrists slowly returning to rest over his abdomen. “Can you… Can you call me that again?” he asks hesitantly, so shy and polite. 
“Hm?” you ask. “Angel?” His lips part, an awfully aroused look crossing his features. You smile, press your cum loaded finger against his lips and he opens, sucks around your finger and moans. “My pretty little angel,” you purr, slowly thrusting your finger in and out of his mouth. Before you can stop yourself, you’re leaning over to kiss him again, swallowing his cries in your desperate need to taste yourself on his tongue. Jungkook is more active this time around, daringly challenging your tongue with his before ultimately giving up, languidly following the pace you set for the kiss. You pull off with a pop, leave him dazed and trailing after your mouth cutely. 
You pat his cheek once, offer him a tender smile, before moving to get up and clean up. Jungkook whines at your departure, and it’s only once you’ve sat up that you realize why. 
Half hard cock at his hip, fattening slowly but surely. Instantly, it’s like the post-orgasm fatigue is yanked away, pussy throbbing at the sight of your angel and his cock, swelling from eating you out and kissing. He was too good to be true. 
“Oh, you poor thing,” you sigh dramatically, shifting onto your knees at his hip to look at him. Something pokes your leg; it’s the stupid iPad playing his dorky YouTube videos that you click off and chuck to the other side of the bed. You had had enough of that by now. 
He’s not at full mast yet, and he’s not getting there quick enough for your liking. So you take matters into your own hands. (Besides, what was stopping you tonight? Certainly not this soft, pliant Jungkook.)
Kneeling between his legs, you reach for the forgotten bottle of lube, squirt a fat glob into your hands, then decide that isn’t enough and squirt it directly onto your chest. Jungkook watches with wide eyes, lower lip caught between his teeth. “What— What’re you doing?” he stammers, can’t even sit up with his hands held together. “__, y-you don’t have—“
Squeezing your breasts together, you slip his cock between the crevice, watch as his angry head comes out on the other side so easily, so slippery. Oh, this was gonna be post-work, shower-time, spank bank material for months. 
Jungkook sobs, loud and unfiltered at the sight, expression torn as he watches you slowly work your tightened breasts down his quickly hardening member. “T-Too much, too much,” he cries, squirming and bucking beneath you. “I-I’ll come—” 
“Don’t,” you snap, stilling your moments to flick your eyes back to him. His head is rolled back, jaw strained, but when he manages to lift it up and look down at you, there’s tears that streak his cute face, trails that glisten when the lowlight of the lamp hits him just right. “Don’t fucking come yet, Jungkook.”
He sniffles weakly, more tears spilling from his eyes. “But I— it feels,” he blubbers, knotted hands reaching down for the base of his cock. You slap it away. “___, please,” he wails, face flushed from all his conflicting emotions. 
Ignoring his cries, you get back to work, moving your upper body to and fro to simulate the thrusting motion he is too weak to do himself. He whimpers pitifully, more tears leaving his eyes when you lean down and spit on the head of his cock when it emerges next, make it join the rest of the ungodly fluids painting your chest. Honestly, you’re certain it’s that damned strawberry flavored, sensation warming, edible lube that makes this experience so enjoyable, so mind-blowing. 
Jungkook seems to agree, stuttering out a messy whine. “Feels weird,” he snivels, only to be cut off when you release him from in between your tits. Immediately, he begins lamenting the loss. 
Slowly, you ease him back in. You’re beginning to understand the intensity of that damned warming lube, because with each glide of his cock between your breasts, it’s like a tingle of nerves sparks within you, insides folding in on themselves as they channel all their energy to that one area of hastily spread lube. It feels so good and wet and messy, Jungkook’s whiny sniffles only fueling the experience. His cock twitches dangerously, and you flash him a glare. “Jungkook,” you warn. 
“I’m sorry,” he weeps, thrashing back and forth as if that makes it any easier. “I just— I want,” he chokes, hips bucking into the suction you’ve created between your boobs. Tentatively, you stick your tongue out, let his tip brush against it on the next thrust. Jungkook curses, a feral groan escaping his lips. “Wanna fuck,” he seethes, “now.”
It’s but a slight peek into his regular personality, his normal mannerisms. But something about it now annoys you. In fact, it pisses you off, seeing him be so complacent and sweet just to try and overthrow you at the last second. And it’s with this same train of thought that you release him, climb over him like a crazed sex demon, and press your hand to his throat. 
“You're supposed to be good,” you spit, scowl turned on him and it immediately has Jungkook drawing back with his tail tucked, falling into line as he should. “You’re supposed to be my angel tonight, remember?”
Jungkook nods, big round eyes looking at you like you’re insane, but the cock that presses against your ass tells you that he likes it. “I-I’m sorry,” he stutters, shrinking back into the mattress. Sticky hands around his throat, probably make him warm and tingly, but all you can think about is those pretty eyes. Sensing your wavering emotions, he takes advantage by tilting his chin forward for you cutely, pink lips trembling as he silently asks for a kiss. 
You release him.
“Stupid angel,” you huff, mouth against his. “Gonna make me mad if you don’t act right,” you remind him, pushing his sweaty curls away from his face. He whimpers against your mouth, let’s you play with his hair as you calm down. He’s a blushing mess beneath you, every inch of him flushed and warm and sweaty. 
You shift back and are met with his still rock hard member against your ass. You touch him appreciatively, reaching back to stroke him with a half-assed grip. It makes him moan nonetheless, pulling away from your lips to mewl against your shoulder. “Wanna fuck?” you hum, curling your hand over the tip like he likes, watching his head roll back against his pillow at the sensation. Jungkook groans, doesn’t seem to hear you now. You try again. “Wanna fuck my pussy, baby?”
“Yes,” he gasps this time, jolts when you press the tip of your finger against the slit on his head, plug his cock from releasing any more precum. “Please, please,” he begs, the hands on his chest straining against the shirt he still hasn’t managed to shake off. 
One last kiss is delivered to him, a chaste one against his pout that makes him whine. “Whatever you want,” you purr, line him up. 
Your hands are still sticky with the lube and so is his cock. Everything is sticky; his cock, you folds, your tits, his neck. It’s a big sticky, slippery mess, but you can’t even be annoyed because everything feels so good. Your tits tingle from whatever they put in that damn lube, nipples rock hard and extra swollen today, like if you don’t touch them you’ll die. You sink back into Jungkook’s throbbing cock, and the second his cock spreads the lube along your walls, you’re jolting because it just feels so damn good. 
You can’t believe this is Jungkook’s preferred sick day treatment; YouTube, cuddles, and an ugly amount of lube. 
His cock pushes past your folds, fits snugly inside of you just like it belongs. It still feels like the first time, feels like your first day where he was so perfect and sweet. Part of you wonders what would have become of you two if he had reacted like this that day, soft and whiny, when you first prepositioned him. Maybe the sexual aspect of your relationship would be entirely different today, maybe you’d be one the always leading. 
But… you’re not sure if you’d want that. Leading is fun— hell, you’re certain this moment will be what you get engraved on your tombstone —but you were a pillow princess at heart with occasional dominant tendencies. You drool over this moment now, but if he asks for this again tomorrow you might actually bend over and die. It was a lot of work, keeping the energy going, and you find yourself having this newfound sense of respect for Jungkook as his cock slips past your folds. 
Anyway, when you sit on his cock, fingers teasingly tightening around his throat, Jungkook’s eyes are weirdly focused on your tits. He’s been doing that a lot lately, losing his mind by just staring at your tits. On some occasions he puts them in his mouth, gets possessed by some titty loving monster and sucks on them until you’re trembling. It’s fine because it’s quite frankly a huge ego boost, but something him now makes you want to pick at him for it. 
“They’re yours to taste, angel,” you hum, slowly rolling your hips over his fat cock. Jungkook whimpers, softly ruts up into your heat the next time you press down. “Tell me what you want,” you exhale, a breathy moan. 
He doesn’t say anything, just drops his mouth open for you with a trembling lower lip. Tongue peeks out, eyes glazed over in his lust, looking every bit like those hentai ads he hates so much. But you fulfill his wishes, help him sit up until he’s flush against your chest. His awkwardly bound hands get squished in the middle, and he says, “m-my hands...” 
“I’ve got you,” you soothe, undo his self-made restraints and toss them to the side. Immediately, he’s wrapping his arms around you, pulling you flush against him to latch his lips around your breasts. “S-Slow down,” you whine, hands on his biceps as he sucks your tit into his mouth, twirls his tongue around your nipple. He’s good with his tongue even when he’s sick. 
He pulls off with a pop, ragged breathing only making you more sensitive as it fans over the thin layer of saliva he leaves on your tits. “Tastes like strawberries,” he groans wondrously, head against your chest. You use the lull to get back to fucking yourself on him, but Jungkook’s got other plans. He rolls the two of you over, pins you beneath him with his hot and sweaty body. “I’m sorry,” he moans as he begins jackhammering his thrusts into you. 
Your back arches, legs thrown around his waist as the sudden change of events. “Fffuck,” you heave, “harder, angel— gotta fuck like you mean it.”
Jungkook shudders, hands looped around the small of your back. His cock rams into you over and over, each glide of it against the walls of your pussy making you unravel in his arms. His lips latch around your other boob, suck and suck like he’s expecting something to come out.
That’s when it hits you. 
“N-Nothing there,” you tell him, arms wrapped around his shoulders. His lashes are wet, eyes pinching tighter at your reminder. He pulls away almost to protest, but then you’re guiding him up to your face, hot breath mingling with yours. “Nothing there because you haven’t given me a baby yet,” you murmur darkly, watch the emotions flood his features as you tap into that taboo kink of his. 
He chokes, grinds his cock into you and holds it there. “I-I didn’t,” he sniffs, “we never— you never said,” he whines, “...you wanted one.”
You cup his face in his hands, feel slightly mean for the pride you get from his tear stricken appearance. “I do,” you purr, lazily kissing him. “Want one if it’s from you. Don’t you?” He nods like an antsy puppy, quivering against you as he slowly and shallowly ruts into you. “Don’t you wanna see me like that, angel?” you egg on, hands looping behind his neck, idly playing with stray waves and curls. “Tummy so big and swollen because you did something bad, because you couldn’t pull out.” 
Jungkook sobs, pulls you impossibly closer until the head of his cock is missing your cervix repeatedly. One of your legs is pressed nearly to your chest, hip tight from the force in which he holds you. “I-I want,” he agrees, more tears spilling down his cheeks. 
You smirk evilly, kissing the corner of his mouth gently as he slowly picks up the pace of his thrusts. “Then fuck me hard, Jungkookie,” you demand, “fuck me full of your cum.”
Jungkook nods with a sniffle against your shoulder, fingers tightening against your skin as he slowly but surely begins nailing you into the mattress. He’s a good boy, always, because he does exactly what you tell him to. Uses those bulky muscles to hold you down, makes it impossible for you to move as he pistons his hips, cock sheathing itself inside your cunt. 
Every drag makes you unconsciously clench, the raw feeling consuming your thoughts. His cock is so big and wet today, certainly due to that stupid lube from beneath his cabinet. Your entire pussy feels like it’s on ecstasy, stupidly geeked up by that lube, and you’re sure Jungkook’s cock feels the same. It makes the glide so much better, so much easier, each ram of his cock feeling so easy. “Oh, fuck,” you whimper, nails digging down his spine. Jungkook is a sobbing, sniffling mess against the crook of your neck, absolute gibberish falling from his lips. 
But you’re no better, tongue seemingly set on a chaotic rampage to validate every single one of his fantasies. “Gonna fuck me while I’m pregnant?” you pant against his ear, fingers tugging at his hair. He doesn’t offer more than a strained cry, thrusts momentarily falling out of rhythm. “You would like that, huh? Fucking me when you’re not supposed to. You’re so bad, Kook-ah,”  you gasp, eyes rolling to the back of your head. “Only pretend to be an angel but really you’re just a dirty, little pervert.” 
He wails loudly, slams his hips so hard into you that it makes you sob as well. “N-No,” he blubbers, tears against your skin. “I’m good— I’m a good boy,” he stresses, fingers bruising their prints into your skin. 
He presses so close, cock practically making your stomach bulge, but neither of you see. “Dirty angel,” you spit, yank his hair back roughly until he’s forced to look at you with that watery gaze. “So horny you’re willing to get me pregnant.”
Jungkook cries out, snaps his cock into you like he’s trying to break you in half. “No,” he heaves, tears dripping down his cheeks and onto yours. “I-I-I’d do it right,” he defends weakly, hips losing their demonic pace as his orgasm sneaks up on him. “Ma— Marry first… then, b— ba— bab—“
You swallow his words with your lips, kiss him like you’re on the verge of death in a desperate attempt to hide your tears from him. They paint your cheeks in stark strokes, trail down your skin and make everything blurry, but so does your orgasm. 
You come first, heart and body trembling at his unexpectedly sweet words, as you become a whimpering, teary mess beneath him. Jungkook follows, cries out your name one last time as he busts inside of you. 
Sticky and gross, he falls onto the pillow beside you. Poor baby is so tired, curls covering half of his face, but lips cutely puckered against the pillow. He’s sweaty as hell though, which you now vaguely remember was your original goal with all of this so you count this as a success. 
You think he’s fallen asleep, sitting up slowly and reaching for that t-shirt that bound him together earlier to clean up. He shudders when you run it against his skin, obviously still overwhelmed. You shift around the bed in search of today’s MVP. “Where’s the lube?” you mutter to yourself. 
Jungkook groans. “YouTube?” he asks, voice dry as all hell. 
“No, honey, the lube we used,” you respond, running your hands over the sheets for any signs of the pink bottle. 
“Want YouTube,” he mumbles, lets you swaddle him up in the blanket again. You roll your eyes and reach for the forgotten iPad that had long since tumbled to the floor. When it turns on, that same video from before is on pause so you don’t bother changing it as you hand it back to Jungkook. “Nice,” he murmurs, “underground water slide.”
You snort. “Weirdo.” He glares cutely, eyes barely open at this point. “Watch your YouTube.”
“Use your lube,” he sasses back softly, nonsensically, and then rather anticlimactically passes out. 
There’s something soft in your chest, something so big and overwhelming, that has you bending over his sleeping figure, mouth brushing against his. “Hurry and get better, angel,” you whisper, wish on it with all your heart. 
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 To no one’s surprise, you get sick two days later. Doyeon laughs and laughs for hours about it, tells you that’s what you get for using sex as medicine. But Jungkook’s back to normal, which means he stays over and coddles you to death. 
“Hurry and get better,” he says, spoon feeding you your famous Get Better Soon Soup that you passed on to him. “I have a question to ask you.”
There’s a little black box in his downstairs bathroom cabinet that you swear you’ve never seen, but Jungkook knows you’re lying. 
It fits perfectly. 
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epilogue
She scoffs. “And I care why?” You huff, go to scold her for their weird rivalry, but then she’s moving on. “Babe, just give him some pain relief and call it a day.”
“Fine,” you mumble. “Wait, can you look something else up for me?”
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The Beach - a The Rookie/Chenford Fanfic
“7-Adam-11, show us responding,” Jackson said over the radio as Lucy leaned back against her headrest defeatedly.
“I didn’t think I’d ever say this but I really don’t want to go to the beach.” “Like ever again,” she added even as she took the first turn towards their destination. 
LA was 4 days into a record heat wave and over that time Lucy had learnt a few important things 1) Unsurprisingly, extreme heat causes everyone to flock to the ocean. 2) It also makes people extremely irritable. 3) Lots of irritable people packed together in large groups leads to chaos and 4) wool uniforms are not ideal attire for patrolling beaches in temperatures around 100. 
So after 4 days she was over it. She had spent Monday with Jackson getting sworn at, honked at and nearly run over as they directed traffic at the busiest beaches in the city. She spent Tuesday with Tim breaking up beach brawls, confiscating contributing alcohol and watching bikini clad woman flirt with Tim. At least 8 different woman had asked him to rub sunscreen on them or suggested he take off his shirt to cool down. She had rolled her eyes so much she had given herself a headache. Although it may have been the sun. Yesterday, her and Nolan and responded to a report of a missing child who was feared drowned or kidnapped but turned out had followed the music of an ice cream truck four blocks and was found, about 30 minutes after the officers arrived, happily eating a fudgiscle. However, they were kept at the beach for the remainder of their shift by various citizens with complaints ranging from seagulls, wasps and possible sharks to thieves, streakers and possible melanoma. 
Now her and Jackson were headed back to a beach where the adjacent shrubbery was currently being consumed by a blazing bush fire, which was in all likelihood human caused and spreading fast. Therefore all hands were on deck as the LAPD worked with the LAFD to keep civilians safe, extinguish the fire and investigate its cause.
The rest of her shift passed in a blur as they interviewed witnesses, cordoned off the area, issued evacuation orders, ensured those who needed it got medical attention, joined a production line passing large buckets of water from the ocean to where the fire was burning and debriefed with their team which included Nolan and Tim, and Lopez and Harper. Luckily in the end, the fire was successfully extinguished, those living nearby were safe and happily back in their homes and the perpetrator, a cigarette butt flicker, was caught. But not until nearly 11pm by which time the entire team was exhausted, scorching and covered in soot and ash. With their job done the team of 6 headed away from the scene back along the beach to where they had parked their shops. They were right on the sand where they left them to create a barrier preventing people from wandering toward the fire and the beach around them was abandoned. Likely due to a combination of the late hour, the fire itself and the fact that the stretch of beach they were on was only accessible by walking about a mile from one of the main beaches on either side or by scrambling down the steep cliff behind them.
“Anybody want a cold one,” Nolan asked when they reached the vehicles, “well a hot one I guess” he amended as he pulled out a six pack he had confiscated earlier in the day from the trunk of his shop. Everybody made a face at the offer of hot beer but since the only light around came from the shops headlights shining in the opposite direction Nolan didn’t see them.
“Screw it, I’ll take one,” Angela said.
“Wesley and Patrice took the baby to meet the extended Evers clan so I have nowhere to be and now that I’m no longer breastfeeding I can have whatever I want. Even if that’s gross beer that’s been sitting in a hot car all day,” she explained.
“If we dig a hole near the water line it will fill with cold seawater and we can make a makeshift beer fridge,” Jackson suggested but Angela had already opened her can and was sipping away.
“I’ll help dig the hole,” Nyla offered. “I’d rather hangout here then go back to the station to do paperwork and Lila’s with her dad so I also have no where I have to be.”
“I’ll call Grey and tell him we’re clocking out and will do the paperwork in the morning,” Tim offered.
“Your staying?” Lucy asked a little too excitedly, “what about Kojo?” she quickly added.
“Tamara called several hours ago and offered to give him dinner, take him for a walk and put him to bed.”“She saw the fire on the news and rightly assumed we’d have our hands full,” he finished.
30 minutes later they all sat in the sand around their makeshift beer fridge. Shoes, socks and button up shirts discarded and pants pulled up to their knees. 3 flashlights were in the middle of the group, pointing skyward, their handles buried in the sand. They laughed as they went around and told stories.
“How is it still this hot?” Lucy asked a while later.  It was after midnight and the temperature had yet to even consider dropping below 90. 
She pulled her white t-shirt away from her skin fanning, herself. 
“I’m going swimming,” she declared ready to stand up.
“Your going swimming? Right Now? In that?” Tim asked gesturing to her cotton tee and woolen pants.
Lucy shook her head. “I was just going to go in my underwear but now that I think about it I don’t really want to have to drive back to the station in soaking wet underwear.”
Tim nodded as if this is what he expected but Lucy didn’t see him and continued.
“I guess I’ll just skinny dip,” she concluded.
Tim managed to both spit out and choke on the sip of beer he had just taken.
Everybody else’s faces were turned towards Tim and wearing amused expressions but they were saved his annoyance due to the limited light and the fact that his attention was still fully on Lucy.
“What?” She asked Tim, “It’s not a big deal. It’s dark. Plus everybody here has already seen me naked.” 
“Well except you,” she added, which earned another spit take from Tim.
Lucy rolled her eyes but couldn’t suppress a smile. She loved seeing Tim flustered, especially when it was her doing.
“What?” He finally managed to ask in a strained voice after a few harsh coughs to clear his throat.
“Everybody here’s seen Lucy naked but you,” Lopez offered, “although that was bound to change sometime soon,” she added.
Lucy and Tim both turned to look at her wide eyed. Nolan and Nyla were both hiding smirks and Jackson wore an expression of mainly panic as he spoke.
“She’s drunk. She has no idea what she’s saying,” Jackson offered before turning to look daggers at Angela and whisper something in her ear.
Lucy thought she heard the words bet, interference and disqualified but she couldn’t be sure.
When he finished Angela addressed them again. “Sorry, apparently my tolerance took a nose dive since pre-pregnancy. I didn’t mean anything by that I got you mixed up with Smitty and what’s her face,” she finished waving her hand disparagingly.
“Hmm,” Lucy said clearly not buying her lame excuse but Tim still had his mind on other things.
“Why has everybody else here seen you naked?” he asked, his tone almost suspicious.
Lucy laughed. “Are you jealous?”
He fixed her with his best TO look. “No.”
Lucy suppressed the urge to roll her eyes yet again and answered.
“Communal showers at work,” she began gesturing to Nyla and Angela. “Best friends and roommates” she added pointing to Jackson. “Life gets crazy. Sometimes closing doors or throwing on clothes just isn’t a priority,” she explained seeing Tim’s confused expression. “Also we had to help each other into and out of the bath after we were injured.” She didn’t have to specify her kidnapping or the beating Jackson took to take down Doug Stanton. This group knew. “It’s kind of ironic that when everything hurts all you want is a warm bath but when everything hurts it’s nearly impossible to get yourself into and out of a bathtub,” she finishes. “Oh and Nolan and I used to date.” She says it as almost an afterthought, super casual. But all the former TOs still look at her with shock.
“You and Nolan?” Nyla asks with a laugh. “Really?” “No offense,” she adds addressing Nolan.
“Ah, none taken?” Nolan replies, clearly confused by her reaction.
“When?” Lopez asks looking between the two P2s.
“For a couple months while we were in the academy. We called it off shortly after we started at Mid-Wilshire,” Nolan supplied.
“Wow, I just can’t picture it,” Angela continued shaking her head.
“Why would you want to picture it?” Tim spat. Then seemed to catch himself and schooled his scowl back into a blank expression.
“Why’d you call it off, anyway?” Angela asked. Half actually curious. Half just trying to do her friend a solid and take the attention off him.
“Bishop warned me that dating a fellow cop would brand me and could ruin my career,” Lucy answered and thought she saw Tim flinch. It was impossible to tell for sure with just the flashlights, nevertheless she added, “Somethings matter more-“ she was staring right at Tim now “-are worth the gossip, the assumptions, the risk.” As she said it she saw his expression change but she couldn’t read it. “But our relationship wasn’t one of those things. We’re better as friends, anyway,” she finished addressing the whole group but looking at Nolan specifically for confirmation.
“Agreed,” Nolan nodded holding up his beer.
“To friends,” Jackson said clicking his to Nolan’s.
“To friends,” everybody joined in clinking their cans together.
“So who’s coming skinny dipping with me?” Lucy asked as she started to make her way back to the vehicles where she could leave her clothes in a place where they’d stay sand free.
“I will,” said Angela, “pregnancy and caring for a baby really makes modesty go out the window. The two beers I’ve had don’t hurt either.” She began to follow Lucy to the cars.
“I’m in,” Jackson offered, “with you two practically glowing in the dark nobody will even notice me.” He teased as he got up to join them, earning a playful shove from Lucy.
“Nobody’s here to see anything anyway.” She retorted.
“Go ahead. I might join you later.” Nolan said and Nyla and Tim nodded in agreement.
10 minutes later. Lucy, Angela and Jackson’s clothes were inside Jackson and Lucy’s shop and they were out in the ocean. It dropped off quickly so they weren’t that far away from the beach even though the water came to just below Lucy’s shoulders. After four days of blazing heat and the fire on top today, the cool water felt like heaven to her. She dipped and dove through the water, relishing the cool and wiped at her face and hands to remove the soot that had coated them earlier. Beside her Angela was trying to show Jackson what her son does when they put him in the water. This led to reminiscing about childhood summers spent at the beach or in backyard and community pools. And before they knew it they were playing old games from those days. John and Nyla had joined them by this time. Claiming some combination of escaping the heat, joining the fun and more beer as the motivation. They were currently having breath holding contests.
“I win!” Jackson exclaimed as he came up for air to find everyone else already up.
“You cheated,” Lucy argued, “I saw you come up while I was still under. I had my eyes open.”
“I did not. Plus it’s pitch black under there you couldn’t possibly have seen anything.”
“Did Jackson come up?” Lucy yelled at Tim who was still sitting on the shore.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t watching,” he replied casually with a slight shrug.
“Yes you were,” Angela argued, “you haven’t taken your eyes off Lucy since she got in here,” then realizing what she said she quickly ducked back under the water. 
Everybody still above the surface froze.
Then after a beat. “So did he come up or not. I need to know if I won,” Nyla asked, all business.
“He floated to the surface but didn’t lift his head up. He won,” Tim offered defeatedly.
“Told you!” Jackson bragged.
“Rematch. 3,2,1 go,” shouted Nyla as everybody ducked back under the water. Lucy a split second behind everybody else as her attention was still on Tim. 
She came up about 30 seconds later just as a wave was passing by her and managed to swallow a good serving of water. She coughed and sputtered but before she knew it Jackson and Nolan were beside her and she was assuring them she was Ok just needed a bit of time to catch her breath. As she swam towards the shore to rest in the shallows she noticed Tim was just sitting back down and his pants were wet to just above the knee. But she didn’t let herself focus on it.
She swam to just in front of where he sat laying on her stomach on the ocean floor, head just above the water.
“You OK?” He asked shifting his eyes to her for the first time since she swam up.
“Ya fine, just swallowed a little water,” she assured him.
“Looks like you guys are having fun out there,” he nodded indicating the group still farther out.
“Ya the water feels amazing. You can’t honestly tell me that you aren’t hot.” She had meant it literally. He was sitting in above 90 degree weather with wool pants on. But then she realized he had taken off his white shirt and his muscled chest and stomach were currently on full display and the word took on an entirely different meaning. She was thankful for the darkness as it hid her blush but even that couldn’t hide the fact that she was definitely staring. 
“The ladies on the beach the other day will be so disappointed they’re missing this,” she teased gesturing to his bare upper half, hoping to give a probable explanation for the staring.
He gave a short laugh. “Not as disappointed as the meat bags who were wolf whistling at you will be that they’re missing that.” As he gestured at her he finally let himself actually take her in. Her hair was still up in its low work bun leaving her entire back exposed. The upper half of which was completely taken up by a tattoo, he had never seen before, although the light was too limited for him to make out the design. The rest of her body was hidden in shadows except her face which was now free of soot and make-up making her look young and vulnerable. Freckles brought out by the last few days of blazing sun were speckled across the bridge of her nose. Her mouth was twisted in thought and her eyes sparkled in the light of the flashlights. She really was beautiful.
While those thoughts flew through Tim’s mind Lucy was thinking about his comment about the wolf whistlers. That had happened at the very start of their shift and lasted no more than two seconds. Lucy wasn’t even sure they had been whistling at her and she had completely forgotten about it until Tim brought it up just now. Funny that he would remember. 
 They were both pulled out of their thoughts by a sudden commotion further out in the water:
“DID YOU NOT THERE IS NO PIE!”
“DO NOT THERE IS NO DIE!”
“DO OR DO NOT THERE IS NO TRY!”
Were being yelled over each other.
“What are they doing?” Tim asked looking at the group out in the water.
They were in a circle. Jackson had just given Nolan a high five then they were under again.
“I think they are playing the guess what I said under the water game,” Lucy chuckled.
Tim was about to reply but he was cut off by “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood” being shouted in unison followed by bickering about who said it first.
“I’m going back out to join them. You going to come?” Lucy asked turning her attention from the group back to Tim.
“I don’t need to be a part of that.”
“Come on Tim. You’re hot and dirty.” She still meant it literally. Really. He was covered in soot. Stupid double entendres.
He raised is eyebrows.
“Just get in the water,” Lucy said splashing water at him to vent her frustration with how flustered she was getting.
He wiped the water from his face and a small smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. “Fine.”
Lucy beamed back at him as he stood up and walked back to the shop to discard his remaining clothes then turned her attention back to her friends.
“It’s not Angeles Direct, you’ve already guessed that three times,” Nyla was saying to Jackson
“That’s what it sounds like,” he argued “and it’s definitely closer to that than ‘embroidery period.’”
“That was my first guess. I heard wrong,” Nyla shot back.
“Oh ya cuz ‘and was dressed’ and ‘indoors divest’ were so much closer.”
Any further argument was cut-off by Nolan. “I’ve got it: Angela’s the best,” he said confidently.
“Yes and yes,” Angela confirmed.
“Your turn Nyla.” 
There was a brief silence as they all went back under the water followed by a flurry of screamed “this is stupid.”
“Happy now?” Came a quieter voice beside her and Lucy nearly jumped out of the water. She had been so wrapped up watching her friends she hadn’t even noticed that Tim had made his way back down the beach and was now sitting beside her in the water.
She smiled and nodded. “Aren’t you?”
He gave a non-committal shrug. “We’ll see after I get roped into whatever’s going on out there,” he offered but there was no bite to it. He was even smiling, although mostly with his eyes, as he looked at their friends.
“Well let’s go find out,” Lucy replied as she led the way into the deeper water.
As they approached the group they watched them go up and down and listened to their guesses.
“And further than game”
“Comforters at game”
“Temperatures endgame”
“Stanford is endgame”
“Checkers is a game.” “At least that’s a real sentence”
“Bradford has game?” “That can’t be right he most definitely doesn’t”
Then just as Tim and Lucy joined the group “Chenford is endgame!” Shouted by Angela who upon realizing Tim and Lucy had joined them turned to Jackson.
“This ones not on me it was your sentence.”
Jackson stood stunned for a second looking desperately between Tim, Lucy and Angela then swiftly closed his eyes and yelled “MARCO.”
There was a brief silence then Nolan yelled “POLO” and everyone was swimming away from Jackson at top speed. Everyone except Tim who was giving Lucy a look that said. “See what you got me into? I told you so.” 
But she was busy swimming off with the others, grateful for the distraction. So he rolled his eyes and joined the game. The water did feel amazing although he wasn’t about to admit that to her.
Calls of MARCO POLO and laughter filled the air as everybody took their turn being it: Jackson tagged Nolan who tagged Lucy who tagged Nyla who tagged Jackson who tagged Tim who tagged Nolan who tagged Angela who tagged Jackson who tagged Tim who tagged Lucy. Well he meant to tag Lucy. He reached his arm out and jumped towards her “POLO” but she was closer than he thought and instead of the tips of his finger tagging her shoulder he jumped right into her. He hit her hard and she responded to being knocked off her feet and down into the water instinctively by reaching for the nearest thing to prevent drowning, which happened to be him. So when he opened his eyes her arms were around his neck and her legs around his hips and her face was only about an inch from his own as she coughed up water for the second time that day.
“Are you ok?” He asked moving a piece of hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear.
She nodded but continued to cough as he absentmindedly stroked her back.
 “You caught me by surprise,” she breathed “I didn’t know we were playing full contact Marco Polo.”
He let out a relieved laugh, “I’m sorry.”
“A real Tim Bradford apology I never thought I’d see it in person,” Lucy teased earning an eye roll from Tim. This close Lucy could see all the different shades of blue in his eyes even in the dark. 
“It was an accident.”
“So it wasn’t some sort of Tim Test to see how I would handle a fight in the water?”
“No. You got your last Tim test a year ago when you stopped being my rookie.”
“I can’t believe it’s been a year already,” she said. “Then again we’ve been through enough for an entire career,” she added as her hand reflexively moved from his neck where it was playing with his hair to the tattoo on her her ribs.
That’s when it dawned on her just how close her and Tim were, pressed together without a shred of clothing between them. She had felt so comfortable and content she hadn’t realized the gravity of the situation and what it could lead to. She was about to put some space between them when his hand covered hers over the tattoo marking her supposed day of death. The day he saved her from being buried alive. Although he would say it marked the first day of the rest of her life. The day she saved herself. 
And the desire to move away died in an instant. 
“I kept it,” she said quietly, “because of what you said.” “Because it’s a reminder that I’m a survivor. And that my team will always have my back.”
Tim was looking at her with an expression more open than she’d ever seen. “I have one of those,” he replied softly lifting her hand up and moving it to rest on his lower left abdomen. She was confused at first but as she felt the skin beneath her finger tips she realized it was scarred. The scar from when he was shot on her second day and she pulled him out of the line of gunfire.
She smiled and looked directly into his eyes. 
“It’s a good thing we have each other in our lives,”
“Sure is,”
She was just about to lean in and close the distance between them when a voice interrupted.
“Hey you two. Keep it PG or get a room. This is a family outing.” It was Nyla.
Lucy laughed as she untangled her self from Tim and in that moment she realized two things. 1) this was most definitely her family and 2) she would very happily come back to the beach. Maybe next time she’d just bring Tim, maybe even as her boyfriend.
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keilemlucent · 4 years
Text
lavender latte: iv
(T (for now!))
hawks | takami keigo x reader
ao3
chapter 1   ||   chapter 2  ||  chapter 3  ||  chapter 5  ||
word count: 7.7k
sucks when things go south, huh. 
warnings: description of bodily injury, blood, mild? gore (it’s just describing injury), description of overstimulation, capital h and c hurt/comfort
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chapter 4 :’^) thank u for all of the love so far. i appreciate. every. single. one of. u. bottom of my lil rat heart.
this chapter was nearly split, but giving y’all a cliffhanger seemed mean  
this the turning point and set up for the rest of the story so buckle up and enjoy ;^)
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Things between you and Hawks didn’t change too much, not externally anyways. Both of you still continued to indulge your feelings, even if you desperately tried to ignore them. 
You continued to honestly spoil Hawks in lavish drinks of many sensations. Truthfully, you loved nothing more than seeing his face as he sipped at your new creations, watching the curiosity and pleasure spread over his features made your heart soar in your chest.
And Keigo continued to bask in your company. The drinks were always amazing, but the chatter and discourse between the two of you was what he loved most. Or, maybe it was his learning of you through watching your small gestures and cues. His analytical, interpersonal skills were, for once, being put to a use that didn’t involve espionage or deception.
It felt cleansing.
Despite these quietly greedy interactions, there was a great deal of repression between the two of you. Aimless flirting aside, squishing any growing feelings caused you both a great deal of strain. It worked, avoidance, for a while anyway. It wasn’t without consequences, but they wouldn’t get nasty until later.
 One of the most apparent tolls was Keigo’s physical state. Having to actively ignore and quash his feelings for you caused such a deep amount of emotional turmoil. It made him ache all over. This was in addition to an asinine amount of extra hours he was spending staking out the villain syndicate that was indeed in the neighborhood of the tea shop. 
(He wouldn’t admit it, but he was being overly diligent in scouting out the organization's doings. They were very close to you and your home, and the thought of you getting caught up in anything to do with his profession fucked him up on-premise alone.) 
The combination of both physical and mental exertion made him messier than ever. It physically clouded him a lot of the time. Exhaustion had well and truly seized nipping at his ankles and proceeded to fully rip a chunk from his skull.
Keigo had yet another long day, dawn until at least midnight, no matter his aching body.
He’d be listening in on out some sort of meeting between the villain syndicate and one of its allies, some more reclusive group of villains from the far-off mountains. Neither organization was particularly noteworthy, but they did have some nasty criminal connection that needed to be monitored. That meant a late night for Keigo and an even greater need for caffeine. 
He paid you a visit in the early morning. 
 The moment Hawks came through the door, you lit up, beaming from behind the counter.  
The shop was empty, just having opened a few minutes before he appeared. The only sounds were the hum coffee machines, quiet music, and the tapping of your own tinkerings. Normally, there’d be more bustle, but you were alone in the din of the shop. 
“Hey, angel,” He flashed you a winning smile, sliding down into his usual stool and propping his elbows on the counter. “Where’s the calvary?”
“Oh, the other openers?” You jerked your thumb to the door. “Running late. They all stayed up late working on a project for school, so I took one for the team and am manning the ship alone for this first bit.”
You sighed, looking quite tired yourself.
There was mutual recognition of your twin state, though it wasn’t verbally regarded in any way. 
Hawks was far better at hiding his poor health from you, but that didn’t stop you from seeing the pinholes in his facade. You’d gotten better at it with time. 
“What can I get you today, Hawks? Inspire me.” You set the glass on the counter between the two of you, gesturing to the expanse of the coffeeshop. “It’s just you and me today, so I can go all out.”
“You don’t already?” Hawks chuckled, running a hand through his hair with a sigh.
“I try,” You shrugged. “I really do my best work for you, whether you’re a glorified guinea pig or not. Gotta serve up the best for my best customer.”
On any normal, Hawks would’ve bantered right back at you, keeping you on your toes with quick words and wit.
That day?
He just laughed, something weirdly neutral, almost off-putting because you knew it was manufactured. 
You opened your mouth, brows furrowing. You wanted nothing more than to ask ‘hey, are you alright?’. 
But, that would’ve broken some of your own, mentally-imposed boundaries. It hurt, to just laugh with him, but it was all you would let yourself do. 
“So,” You broke the air with words as opposed to giggles. “What would you like?”
Hawks hummed, “Surprise me.”
“... Like, fully?”
Hawks nodded, slowly. 
 Keigo, in a movement of full vulnerability, (he told himself it would just be for a few minutes), laid his head on his folded arms, “Go wild, angel. I trust you. Make me anything you’re feeling. Wing it, no pun intended.”
 You blinked at him, nodding. His sudden, almost submissive action surprised you. Something in you ached, seeing him so worn down.
You channeled this feeling into a desire to make him top-tier drink. 
Reaching into your apron, you fished out your idea notebook. Many had been crossed off over the many weeks (months now?) that Hawks had been visiting the tea shop. You fairly consistently wrote down new ones, so there were always options, but on that day, none appealed to you.
Your gaze flickered back to Hawks, watching the soft movements of his breath through the tight fabric of the back of his shirt. 
You needed to make it extra good, help shake Hawks from his stupor. 
 You’re gonna wing it.
You’ll make a feel-good drink.
 It was your only self-imposed criteria. 
 You hadn’t ever made Hawks a drink without a concept and feeling beforehand, so the concept of not having one seemed novel.
You activated your quirk and began.
“How’s your day been?” Hawks called from behind you, words muffled.
 Keigo still didn’t look at you; resting on his arms allowed him a little bit of a reprieve before his grueling day. He’d take it. Hearing your voice would make it that much better.
 You described your day with a decent amount of detail for how much it hadn’t gotten started yet. Hamming up the detail meant more time for you to craft the drink. Your mind spun, grasping onto pre-existing, mental abstracts in your oddly calm headspace to create something tangible. 
Though your quirk was activated, you weren’t really identifying a feeling specifically, rather just letting your quirk draw from whatever material you had laying around in your brainscape at 6 AM on a weekday morning.
You pulled as many espresso shots as Hawks usually liked (maximum, five, you refused to give him more than that in a single drink), pouring them into some steamed oatmilk and several other ingredients you had mixed into a cup. You tapped some cinnamon on top of the foam, polishing everything off with a dash of sweet cream.
Carefully, you set it between the two of you. Hawks hadn’t spoken since you had begun to make the drink, so oddly silent. 
It almost made your skin itch, his lack of response. You reminded yourself with quick glances that Hawks was very obviously out of it and exhausted. You were sure that without the concealer he wore under his eyes (a secret he revealed to only you), he’d have purple circles punched from how overworked he was.
You hoped your drink would be enough to brighten up his day. 
You bit your lip as Hawks raised his head, blonde waves more unruly than normal. A small, lopsided smile stretched across his face as he sat up, grabbing the drink and bringing it closer. He had learned long ago to allow them to cool. 
 “Sorry for not being as peppy as I normally am!” It was almost imperceptible, the off-kilter tone in his voice. 
You caught it but said nothing. 
He sheepishly rubbed at the back of his head. “Been running on empty it seems, angel.”
“Then take some fuel, bird boy.” You nodded to the foamy drink. “When are you supposed to be done today?”
“Late, like late. Early morning, probably.” Hawks sighed, taking a sip.
...
As the liquid coated his mouth, Keigo’s mind seized.
 What.
What the fuck.
 Any and all thoughts he had disappeared. They were incinerated from his mind by the drink’s heat. 
A sun-scorching sensation like he’d never even known tore through his body. 
It was so different from the other ‘warm’-toned drinks you’d made him in the past. The flavor and feeling filling him up was nothing like the hearth-like drinks you had made prior. You had treated him to plenty of beverages that felt akin to open flame, warm blankets, a cat purring over your chest, a candle on a cold night—
But, nothing even close to this.
This was such a strong feeling that if he was a less trained man, his eyes would’ve rolled back in his head. If he’d been standing, he was sure his legs would’ve been visibly shaking, probably given out.
Sure, the feeling was abstract, not as concrete as your other drinks but it was ineffably strong. 
 It felt like the flutter you caused in his stomach, but somehow all over and inside of him.
It was the heat in his cheeks when he saw you, but reaching from his toes to the skin of his scalp. 
It was the shock in his throat when you smiled so honestly at him, now forcing his hands to twitch around the cup. 
The consuming sensation was all of that goodness and more, magnified and exponentially deeper and marvelously burning.
It was hot, fiery as it ripped through him, completely unignorable. But, it was also soft, colored with the earnestness that he admired about you so much—
Oh.
 It clicked as the sensation stirred in his stomach, fluttering to a point of near nausea. 
It was you. 
 The moment he realized it, that all of that sensation was you feeling, as you had made the drink, something began to broil in the apex of his chest, rolling and all-consuming.
His mind stalled as he took it all in, taking another sip. 
The feeling washed over him again, equally as wonderfully crushing.
“Soooo,” You drawled, setting a jar next to you on the counter, beaming him a smile. “What do you think? Gimme your judgment, bird boy.”
Keigo struggled to keep his face neutral as he quickly searched yours. 
Even in his state, it was clear that there was no deception or riddle laced into the creaminess of the drink. The expectancy in your face was derived from admiration, not waiting for the punchline of an unfinished joke.
 “It’s warm! Like, in your stomach.” Hawks looked down before taking another sip, the even smile on his face not wavering for even a moment. “What is it?”
“It’s a miel,” You tapped the jar next to you, pointing at the amber goo inside. “This is some wildflower honey from the owner’s sister’s farm, right outside the city. We have a bunch of extra stuff, so there’s no better time to make a honey-based drink.” 
Hawks eyed the steam, “What goes into a ‘miel’?”
Watching Hawks’ shoulder go slack with the next chug he took, you hummed, “It’s a latte, so espresso and milk, then it has the honey in it which is what makes it a ‘miel’. Topped it with some special sweet cream, a bit of cinnamon. My extra touches in it as well, just based on my quirk.”
Hawks met your gaze, his eyes softening with what you could’ve sworn was desperation, but was quickly swallowed up but stoicism, “And what was this drink’s inspiration?” 
You laughed, shoving your hands in your apron from the typical anxiety, though the feeling itself was somewhat normal and thereby dulled, “It didn’t have one! I just winged it, like you said. My quirk was activated though, so it was just sort of the concept of what I was perceiving and feeling, I suppose.” 
There was a pause as you waited for Hawks to speak. 
He didn’t.
 Keigo stared down at the drink, then you. 
Holy fuck.
This was ambient? 
The sensation that made his toes curl and every part of him yearn to reach out to touch you and give all of himself to you—
It was unintentional?
The feeling was familiar, one that he had organically all the time when thinking of you, being with you at the teashop. It was the one that he shoved down over and over again around you, yet craved more than anything.
And here you were, unknowingly returning it to him.
You hadn’t intended it to be shared and you had no idea you even did.
Keigo was one of the most perceptive people on the planet— he knew that many of the feelings between the two of you were mutual. As much flirting as there was, a lot of it was real from both of you. 
He just didn't think it ran this far deep.
(Mutually.)
 “What... What do you think it tastes like?” You asked, that nasty rot in your gut rearing itself as Hawk’s lack of response ate at you. You turned fully to him, actually taking him in.
 Keigo did what he was so skilled at doing—
Lying.
 Hawks waved his hands in front of him like he was trying to put out small flames, “Nothing bad! Promise, it’s really good! It tastes like how the coffee shop feels. Warm, comfortable. It makes sense that your quirk would reflect that.”
You breathed a sigh of relief, “Oh, good. I’m glad it's good.”
“Very good. I might have to put miels on my list of favorite drinks you’ve made me,” Hawks gave you a relaxed grin, standing and passing a wad of cash to you.
You didn’t expect him to be leaving so quickly, but he did say he was busy.
“Oh, hey, Hawks?” He perked up when you said his name, blinking at you. “I’ve got a project I’m working that I’m doing for the owner, so I’ll be here late. If you’re around, you’re welcome to come by after close if you want another drink? For your long night.”
Hawks softened for you like he so often had come to do. He fluffed up the collar of his jacket, wings ruffling up behind him, “I think I’ll take you up on that. I’ll have some ideas for you then too, how about that?”
 “Sounds lovely,” Your voice was like the honey of the drink, warm, sweet, and vibrant. “I’ll see you then, Hawks.”
“See you then, angel,” Hawks practically glowed as he walked from the door, the chime of the bell sounding with his exit. “I’ll text you when I’m close!”
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 Over the course of the day, an odd feeling grew in the pitch of your stomach. You did your best to ignore it. 
You alternated between serving customers and working on the ‘project’ the owner had saddled you with. Making centerpieces for his sister’s bridal shower was not something you should’ve been doing on company time, but they were giving you a handsome sum of cash under the table for it. 
You couldn’t complain too much, other than that it was laborious. Masons jars stuffed with wired lights and frosted glasses, tied with twine and ribbons were all to be prettily arranged by your hand. 
 During the middle of the day, you went back home, spending your time between shifts catching up on sleep and making some decent food.
The odd gnawing only grew in your stomach. 
 Keigo’s long day was wearing on, though somewhat uneventfully. Most of his patrolling time was the effortless thwarting of petty crime and easy rescuing. 
He even had the time to go back to his agency and snoop.
Because, for how lame his day was, the drink you made him (which he had greedily chugged all of shortly upon leaving the tea shop) caused him to think particularly hard about your quirk.
(As opposed to the asphyxiating awareness of your shared feelings.)
 He didn’t get it.
You’d managed to perfectly create a drink that communicated complex feelings. You’d told him in the past that it could be used for any sort of feeling as well, but you were so vague beyond that. You were abstract in the same way you quirk was.
So, he decided to abuse his power a little.
He decided to actually take a lunch at the agency, munching on takeout while clicking through the HPSC’s databases.
Civilian quirks, especially those that had never attempted to pursue any sort of career with them, weren’t documented incredibly well. Maybe a few details that were used in public research projects, but not much beyond that. He had hoped he could dig and find something that would assuage his curiosity and confusion.
He tapped your name into the HPSC’s hero-accessible database, scrolling and pulling up your file.
There was a picture of you, one from an ID that must’ve been a few years old. There were personal details Keigo wasn’t all that interested in, though it was neat to finally know your birthday. 
He clicked on the tab for your quirk.
  Quirk: Synesthetic Manifestation 
Description: Allows the user to materially manifest abstract, synesthetically-created feelings into reality. 
This quirk does not allow the user to alter reality, only tangibly create abstracts through the means at their disposal.  
Drawback: This quirk causes severe synesthetic overstimulation and appears to be activated unintentionally in instances that expose them to high amounts of stimuli. 
Quirk potential: 
 Keigo knew the concept of ‘quirk potential’ well. Most of the time, this portion on files was only filled out if the individual had ever trained to use their quirk in a profession.
Oddly, your’s contained a few details.
 The user showed high potential in initial assessments, but due to the nature of the quirk, its drawbacks, and its recorded usage, this user’s quirk is now classified as lowest potential.
 Keigo frowned.
All this just made him more confused. 
The file didn’t get into much more detail than you did. The only thing that was new information to him was that at some point you had tried to use your quirk in a training setting and that somehow got you demoted from high potential to lowest potential.
Keigo’s own quirk in the database was regarded as highest potential; you, at some point, were only a step down from him. Something knocked you down from pursuing quirk-based work, and based on your current employment at the tea shop, you never got up. Keigo figured it was the intricacies of your quirk that he didn’t fully understand.
He’d have to be a bit more careful getting any more information out of you, considering how much you disliked talking about it. 
Keigo continued to stew, finishing off his lunch while thoughts of you and your feelings danced across his mind. 
Though it was clear his adoration was obviously returned, it was much easier for him to muse over the nature of your quirk than the way he wanted to pull you over the teashop’s counter and kiss you breathless.
 You went back to work, a few chalky tablets of stomachache medicine in your tummy. They were all you could do to try and quell the twisting in your gut. 
 By the time you arrived back to start your ‘night shift’, it was late evening, the sun already having fallen into the horizon. 
Most of your time prior to closing was spent in the front, helping make drinks and clean up as you could. Part of you was actually excited to throw on some good music and grind after the tea shop was shut down for the night.
Also, seeing Hawks twice in the same day? Absolutely fantastic.
You wanted to try and make him a knockout drink, to make up for the lackluster one you’d prepared him earlier. Seeing his eyes get all gooey with happiness would more than push you through your night of work.
Your phone chimed a bit before close.
 [birdboy]: hey ;^) mind if I come by in like a half an hour?
[you]: yeah!! just call me and i’ll unlock the door for you
 Your closing coworkers giggled at you. They all knew that that big smile stretched across your face meant you were texting Hawks. You used to get a bit shy about it, but now you just gave them shit. He was your friend, right?
 [birdboy]: what if i like, hit the glass, like fly into it like birds do into windows
[you]: okay one- no, that would definitely shatter the windows and idk if i wanna deal with that AND you tonight ;^)
[you]: and TWO- are you speaking. from experience. about hitting windows.
[birdboy]: please dont @ me like this 
 You snorted. 
 [birdboy]: i had to pay off a tabloid who got it on camera bc it would ruin my brand
[you]: do u still have those photos
[birdboy]: ... maybe
[you]: hawks
[you]: gimme
[birdboy]: idk if i can my publicist will kill me
[you]: u hear what i hear?? a coward
[you]: how does ‘your brand’ feel about that
[birdboy]: ...
[birdboy]: gimme one of those honey sticks u have at the register and the pics are yours once i get there ;^)))
[you]: DEAL!!!
 You pocketed your phone in your apron, unable to stop the almost ridiculous smile that you wore.
Hawks made you uncomfortably happy. You knew that he didn’t feel the same, but he was still there. Even if you were just entertainment to him, you were happy to perform on any stage he was watching. 
As closing crept up, you shooed your other coworkers off. Most of the closing tasks were done, they could leave a few minutes early. 
As they began to pack up, chatting about some party that night, your insides twisted.
You squeezed the counter, rubbing your forehead while wishing your coworkers a good evening.
Weird.
 It was about then that things went to shit for both you and Hawks. 
 Keigo’s was supposed to be in for a hellishly long shift of surveillance based on the intel he’d received about the syndicate and its impending meeting. 
Apparently, that meeting was happening earlier, rather than later. 
The chaos started quickly, the meetup going from a strategic talk to an all-out fight between two groups. 
It spilled into the nearby streets, both sides unabashed in their destruction. 
 Perhaps, if Keigo had been faster (what a tall order, for the fastest man in all of Japan), things wouldn't have gotten so out of hand. 
But quickly, things erupted and the streets dissolved in mayhem as he dove and sent feathers flying.
 You stood by the front entrance, waiting for Hawks, idly sweeping. The cleaning tasks were almost done, the world outside was dark with the late evening.
You froze when the ground beneath your feet rumbled with revving engines, the air splitting with the sound of car horns and alarms. 
Everything that happened next moved so quickly, it was difficult to follow.
Windows began to shatter all across the street, near and far.
They cracked, spraying glass as a figure cloaked in black flew down the asphalt outside. A red barrage followed after it, nearly subduing it as it raced past the tea shop.
The massive glass panels at the front of the tea shop filled with frosty lines, just feet in front of you. 
It clicked for you a few moments too late.
Adrenaline shot through you, but it wasn’t enough. 
...
You weren’t Hawks, you weren’t fast enough to outrun much of anything, let alone quirk-shattered glass. 
You were just barely able to turn around before the spray of shards reached you. 
You would later be incredibly thankful that you wore denim jeans and a wool sweater that day. Without the thick fabrics, you were sure that you would’ve been shredded. The problem was your low-top shoes and thin socks.
Just as you turned, searing pain shot from the back of your left ankle. You urged yourself to forget the specifics, flesh-tearing, mind beginning to buzz. 
You just had to keep moving. 
Except, you couldn’t. Your left leg gave out with your next step.
You shrieked as you fell to the floor, barely catching yourself. Your palms smacked against the ground, pieces of sharpened glass driving into the flesh. 
You couldn’t help screaming, your voice mingling with the sound of alarms, cries for help, and the war cries of a nearby fight.
Oh.
You were in the middle of a fairly nasty villain attack.
...
So much for giving Hawks a better drink.
The mental joke seemed macabre, especially in your state.
 You willed with all of your might, for your quirk to not activate. Overstimulation was just inches away from your current state, the sounds outside the teashop boring through your skull like diamond drill bits. 
The pain that was radiating from your left leg was nearly unbearable, but you knew that getting out of the front room was imperative. 
How you managed to keep your injured leg straight, you’ll never know. 
You locked your jaw and pulled yourself along the floor, hoping that Hawks had this all under control. More people were bound to be hurt by the same sort of attack you got caught in, right? How many more folks had been sliced up like you? Worse than you?
 Keigo wasn’t having much trouble subduing the villains. They, of course, had no idea that he had been watching the syndicate for three-odd months. He knew their quirks, their tactics, their escape routes, everything. What he didn’t know as well was the other group’s specifics. 
From what he had understood before the fight, the two had somewhat friendly relations. Still, Keigo mentally kicked himself for not being more diligent in his gathering of intel. 
His mistakes aside, the much more pressing issue was the two-kilometer stretch of shops that were now collateral damage in what was essentially a mobile mob war. 
This damage included the tea shop.
When he’d flown past the shop, he’d only caught a glimpse of your face through the glass before it shattered.
You’d looked terrified.
Every part of him wanted to stop, dead in the air, rush in, and make sure you were okay, but he had to at least get things under control until more heroes showed up. Then, he’d be able to get to you. 
By the time Keigo subdued several villains of either group, more Pros had arrived on the scene. He sped off to the teashop far too quickly when he saw others gathering. It was an ill-advised move, but he was clouded by a different set of instincts than those cultivated in his hero training. 
The flight did allow him to fully take in the damage of the district, though.  
It was about as bad as it could be.
Whatever the villain’s quirk was must’ve shattered glass within a certain radius from his body, Keigo observed.
Thankfully, the villain’s quirk didn’t appear to affect anything past two stories of height, sparing all above it. Those panes and pieces that did shatter had sprayed businesses, restaurants, shops, and the street with shards of glass. Not to mention that they flew at the speed of projectiles.
(At the full-minded revelation that there was no way you weren’t hurt, Keigo felt his stomach flip and eyes burn.)
Keigo shuddered to think how bad the damage would’ve been if the encounter happened during broad daylight. 
 Keigo curled in his wings, dropping onto the floor at the front of the teashop through the broken window. 
He kept his expression somewhat neutral, though the scene before him tore at his heart in a way he wasn’t expecting.
The tea shop was destroyed.
The pretty, warm lighting fixtures had shattered, fine filaments exposed, and a few sparking. The glass jars on your wall of tea blends were broken, spilling leaves and dried herbs across the back counter. That wasn’t even to mention the layer of shards from all of the glassware stored around the coffee machines.
Seeing the destruction of one of the only places he had ever found real comfort in was awful, and it tore something hidden and vulnerable in his heart.
But far, far worse was the absolute horror that bloomed in his chest when he saw the sizeable spot of blood in the middle of the floor, smearing to the back doorway. 
“(Y/N)!” Keigo shouted, ignoring any stealthy elements and hurriedly following the trail.
“B-back here,” Oh, your voice was so weak. 
Keigo couldn’t make himself move fast enough.
 You’d managed to get yourself to the back, biting your lip so hard you were scared you’d break the skin. Part of you was lucid enough to know that making too much noise could be bad. Then again, the shop was supposed to be closed. Did anyone even know that you were there?
Hawks did.
You gripped at one of the edges of the stainless steel countertops, using all the strength you could muster to pull yourself upright. As careful as you were not to jostle your injured leg (that you still hadn’t looked at properly because you were terrified), the moment you bent it, you had to suppress a scream, turning it into a slow, nasty exhale. You let yourself sink to the floor again. 
Something was seriously fucked up.
 Then Hawks called your name. 
You were sprawled out on the floor, injured leg awkwardly turned and extended to prevent the pain from being made worse. 
The moment he saw you from the doorway, the remnants of his wings flapped, practically throwing him to the ground next to you.
The moment you saw him enter the back room, any and all fronts you had put on for yourself fell apart.
“H-Hawks,” You hated how small your voice sounded as you pushed yourself closer to him.
The details of him, how ruffled his remaining feathers were, how wide and scared his eyes were, how different he looked from the times you’d seen him on the news confidently saving the day, were lost on you. 
 Though, Keigo noticed your poor state easily. It was more obvious. 
He scanned your form with the trained precision he was known for. He took in the shattered piece of glass sticking from your leg, bleeding lightly. Your palms weren’t bloody, but they were dotted with shards of glass. 
He also noticed your panicked shaking and your unnaturally dilated pupils, beyond anything he’d seen while you’d made drinks for him. 
“Is your quirk active?” Keigo asked, pulling off his gloves and grabbing one of your wrists. He turned your palm, using two of his smallest feathers like tweezers to pick at the shards pieces of glass. 
“Y-yeah,” You replied, using the back of your other hand to wipe at your eyes. “It does this when I’m under extreme stress. I can’t turn it off.”
Keigo managed to laugh, relieved that the cuts in your hands weren’t that severe, “You just focus on me, okay, angel? That’s all you gotta do.”
 You nod, trying to hold your overstimulated mind back. It’s fruitless, truly, because the moment Hawks reminds you that he is, in fact, there, and that you are safe, you quirk-addled mind spasms. 
The awful mix of sensations whirled in your skull as you leaned forward, pressing your forehead into Hawks’ shoulder. In other circumstances, it would be a romantic gesture. But, the only purpose you had in the contact was hoping, praying, that the heat of his body would distract you from the swirling of sensations you couldn’t stop. 
In that mental soup, within the fear, intense pain, and loss, oddly enough, was the unignorable, pleasant feeling of being so close to him. It made your heart squeeze. But, it was a single spice of sensation in a foul-tasting stew though, and it was hard to isolate the good in the muck of your mind. 
You shook against him as sounds and pain blended inside your skull, thoughts becoming murkier and harder to understand.
 Keigo finished tweezing your other hand, that one worse off, and wrapping it in some gauze he had stuffed in his jacket.
His mind screamed for him to wrap you in his arms, to pull you close and keep you safe. It was all he could fathom doing, just nearly moving to do so—
That was until the popping rumble of a nearby explosion interrupted his thoughts.
You jumped against him, muffling a scream in his shoulder.
His heart ached.
 “(Y/N), I know this is all scary,” Hawks’s voice came through your sensational slurry. “But, I need to be back out there right now.”
“No.” Your mouth spewed with no discernable thoughts behind it. “Don’t leave. Please, don’t. Please.”
You caught Hawks’ wince, but barely. 
He was already repositioning you, scooting you under one of the countertops, “Angel, I’m sorry. I need to go, but I’ll be back. I promise.”
Your eyes screwed shut, vibrating in your skull as pulling your uninjured leg to your chest. 
Hawks looked equally as torn up about having to leave, brows creased with his lip worried between his teeth.  
Despite how messy your brain felt, you knew that you were beyond defenseless. Even if your mind could easily conjure up an infinite number of ways to bring a person non-lethal (and lethal) pain, you were turning to mush mentally and you had glass sticking out of your leg. You had no fucking way to create it with your body. 
Your back hit the wall under the counter and you managed to wrench your eyes open, taking in Hawks and his visage while you spun.
He looked so sad.
The feeling of mourning and fear spat so hotly in your mind, it was like you’d been intangibly burned by his expression. 
You choked on your own stored tears, reaching out for him.
He caught one of your hands, the wrapped one, and squeezed it lightly. 
Even with so few feathers left, Hawks plucked one, about the size of your forearm. He replaced his hand with the plumage. 
“(Y/N), I will be back. I promise,” Hawks (so weakly) smiled, trying to reassure you. “You snap that feather if anything changes, okay? If anyone comes into the shop who isn’t another pro, or if you start to feel faint. Do you understand?”
“Yeah.” You gritted out, somehow laughing. Your vocal cords rubbing together sends a wave of agony up the back of your neck, burying behind your eyes. You press your forehead in your bent knee. 
 With one last, fleeting look, eyeing your wound and remembering slate-colored eyes, Keigo took flight into the fray once more. 
Keigo hated leaving you. He hated it so fucking much. It burned him, felt wrong in every way. You were so vulnerable in your state. Both of you knew that without him there, you were entirely exposed and fairly defenseless.  
It perked up that protective instinct he’d repeatedly had towards you for months. It was probably something related to his avian mutation, but it was just blood-boiling need to keep you safe.
Yet, he just left you, wounded and mentally spiraling, in the middle of a destroyed building.
If he wasn’t trained so well, he would have acted differently. But, it had been burned into him time and time again what his needs were in disaster situations.
Neutralize, stabilize, clear out. 
Through his exhaustion, he fought and soared with all he had, fatigue forgotten and replaced by hot cortisol. He forced himself faster, zipping down alleyways and across rooftops at some of his top speeds. 
While Keigo tracked down all of the villains (he managed to miss the first time), he trusted that the other Pros could deal with the heavy collateral damage. He was number two, he could catch some organized criminals. 
Beyond his training, Keigo had an even bigger motivation. 
He could feel you.
The feather he left with you must’ve been pressed right up to your chest, maybe under your neck with the way Keigo could so intensely feel your breath and heartbeat. He could sense it gradually speeding up to the point of what had to be panic. If Keigo focused, he could make out your terror-stricken babbling.
“It’s okay.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“This is fine.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“Hawks is okay.”
“He’ll come back.”
“He won’t leave.”
...
“Everything's gonna be okay.”
With that last one, your words gave out and it turned in gasping breaths. 
Keigo worked himself harder, striking down the last of villains with absolute precision, all distractions forgotten in the most pivotal moments of combat. 
The instant the villains were in custody, restrained, he was flying back towards the tea shop.
 You don’t remember any of this well. Your mind was liquified, your body throbbing in pain. 
It had been an incredibly long time, years since you’d been in any situation resembling a villain attack. There was no way to stop the synesthetic storm that was choking your mind. Every sensation was magnified, mixed with another, and shoved down your throat without any ability to change it.
A few minutes after Hawks left, giving you time to stew and roll, you spiraled more harshly.
When you realized how pitifully helpless you were, you fell away, pressing your wet face into the Hawks’s feather. Your vision muddled between black and red. 
You felt the cold of the blood wetting your pant leg.
Your wound is bad.
You hadn’t fully looked at it in awhile. 
Opening your eyes, you suppressed a wave of nausea at the small puddle of blood growing under the bottom half of your useless leg. 
The way the denim of your jeans stuck to your skin mixed with the smell heady smell of blood made you gag. 
You couldn’t keep it up anymore.
Letting your eyes shut, you sank down to the floor, cheek pressed into the dirty cement. 
You don’t know how long you idled, drowning in your mind’s colors and vibrantly violent sensations. 
You were only half-conscious when the feather pressed to your neck twitches.
 “(Y/N)!” Keigo shouted as he landed in the teashop, flying straight to the backroom, bypassing the mess of broken glass. 
His breath caught, seeing you slumped over.
“Fuck,” Keigo couldn’t stop the tremble in his voice as he noticed how much blood had pooled beneath your injured ankle. “Hey, hey, (Y/N)—”
He sure fucking sucked at admitting his faults, and recognizing the severity of wounds was indeed one of them. He didn’t usually stick around long enough to deal with casualties so closely. 
Keigo threw off his gloves, tossing them behind him without looking. 
“‘M fine,” You started to push yourself up, hissing at the pain that surged from cuts in your hands. “Brain’s mushy.”
“That all?” Thank god Hawks still managed to joke. The humor dashed across your vision like little sparks. You stifle a weak snort. 
 “There’s my angel.” Keigo was so relieved to see you conscious that he didn’t notice his own possessive slipup. “Are you lightheaded?”
Gingerly, he helped stabilize your body upright as you wrenched your eyes open.
“A little, it’s okay, this is what happens,” Your voice was so loud in your own skull, it hurt. Though, the pain of your words was only a prick in the wet dough of your overworked mind. Sensation was pain, rolling over you and making it harder and harder to stay lucid. 
 Keigo swallowed thickly at the sight of your fully-blackened irises. 
He needed to get you out as fast as possible, but that required assessing the gash in your leg. 
His gaze flickered to your ankle, “Can you move your toes?”
“I don’t want to.”
Keigo frowned, weakly, pushing you as upright as possible as you began to slip to the side. 
“Please, you have to try, okay?” Keigo begged, not noticing his own voice wobble. 
You shook your head, grabbing it in within its own motion. The dizziness made your insides knot and stick together. 
“(Y/N), please.”
You shifted your gaze to him, vision tilting as you did. 
The frown on your face split as you just barely moved your toes within your blood-soaked shoe.
The fresh pain, vibrant and boiling, cut through the fog like a heat-blackened knife. 
Your own fist flew into your mouth to mouth to suppress the cry that bubbled from your throat. You half-recognized it was the one holding Hawks’s feather. 
You couldn’t see the way Keigo flinched at the sound, immediatly trying to soothe the two of you. 
 “Alright, good, okay, you can still feel them,” Hawks managed to laugh, cutting into the miasma of your psyche. It was something light and airy, tasting like packet sugar on the sides of your tongue. 
Chasing the goodness of Hawks’s voice, you mustered up as much clarity as you could grasp, willing yourself into full sentences, “Hawks. I swear to fucking God, if you do not get me out of here right now, I will never make you a drink ever again.”
 Keigo blinked at you, nodding, watching your attempt to focus on him, though the fully inked irises seemed to refuse to stay put.
 So, this is what the file meant about the cost of your quirk. 
 “Don’t have to tell me twice, dove.” Hawks scooped you up before you could manage to put more thoughts together. A few of his feathers flew to stabilize your injured leg. 
His touch felt good, like incredibly good. Even as the crunch of his boots on the broken glass of the tea shop scratched at your inner ears and burned your sinuses, the heat and texture of his jacket caressed over your cheeks. His warmth tasted like honey and cream. 
Your head lolled onto his chest, idly playing with the filaments of his feathers that you refused to let go of. 
 (Keigo didn’t want you to, anyway.)
He couldn’t fly well, not in his mostly-featherless state, so he took to walking instead. He sidestepped as much glass he could, mostly watching your half-lidded eyes fixate on the feather you had pressed up to your face.
It was a weird circle, Keigo feeling your heat and breath so close, both on his body and on the sensitive plumage. Technically, he was doing his job, so he let himself indulge just the smallest bit in being so close to you. When Keigo squeezed you, nearly at the medic’s area, you tucked your face into his collarbones, breaths slowing from panic. You were even slack in his grip.
A paramedic rushed up to the two of you, guiding you to a setup stretcher and a waiting line of ambulances.
 “We can take it from here, Hawks, no need to stick around,” The paramedic’s voice cut through the air, dripping bitterness on your tonsils and iron nails in your lungs. 
Hawks set you half-down onto the lip of the vehicle, “Nah, it’s okay, I’ll hang out with them for a sec. They’re a friend of mine.”
He’d never said it before. That you were friends. 
Heat rushed up to your fingertips, sweetness washing over your wounded leg, topped off silken air settling around your ears. 
You’d drown in the sensation, a million times over.
 The paramedic ran off quickly, a man with a nasty head wound taking precedence over your leg (which seemed to have clotted somewhat with your somewhat more relaxed state). 
Hawks still didn’t leave.
Rather, he moved closer.
So did you.
 From your spot sitting on the edge of the ambulance, your injured leg was twisted and propped up while the other dangled off the edge of the vehicle.
Keigo was right up against the metal, allowing you to lean on his side.
“You good?” You asked him, bumping your leg into his lower back.
Keigo couldn’t help jumping. You’d never casually touched him. 
(He really liked it.)
Though the setting and circumstances were fucked, he figured it was okay. 
You were friends, right?
 Hawks wrapped an arm around your shoulders, pressing you into his side.
You took it a step further, wanting to simply soak in the amber, milky feeling of his touch. 
You squish your cheek low against his collarbone, drinking in the smell of his sweat, stale, spiced cologne, and rich, expensive smelling hair oil. 
The scents washed over your skin, rolling over your burning wounds like aloe and clean water.  
“Thank you.” Your voice is small and soft, kept gentle by your last sparks of lucidity. 
You heard Hawks chuckle, your vision swimming in honey and yellow with the sound, “Just doing my job, you know.”
“I mean, yeah,” You laughed too, pressing your nose harder into him. “But, it’s you, and I’m just glad you’re here.”
“You better stop being so sweet,” The hand around your shoulder rubbed slowly, up and down your spine, sweet spices and sugars dancing on the roof of your mouth. “Gonna give me ideas.”
The touch, something you craved and denied yourself, pushed you over the edge as his touch dissolved across your overstimulated mind in cresting waves of rushing, blessed heat. 
Finally succumbing to the flood of your quirk, drowning your mind in both agony and absolute calm, you muttered out the last clear thing you said that evening, “We always give each other ideas, silly.”
God, the many meanings behind your words spun and stuck in Keigo’s mind like the taste of the miel he drank that morning. They relentlessly clung to his psyche, wanting to know more. 
He stayed close while you were assessed and strapped into the ambulance. He sent a few of his last feathers to retrieve your jacket and purse from the wrecked shop.
All the while you clutched his bare hand, irises black while the whites turned bloodshot. 
As the ambulance drove off towards that public hospital, he could feel the steady beat of your heart through the crimson feather he made sure was tucked in your hand the moment he had to let it go.
He felt you squeeze it, and he wanted nothing more than to return the gesture a thousand times over.  
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theshedding · 3 years
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Lil Nas X: Country Music, Christianity & Reclaiming HELL
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I don’t typically bother myself to follow what Lil Nas X is doing from day to day, or even month to month but I do know that his “Old Town Road” hit became one of the biggest selling/streamed records in Country Music Business history (by a Black Country & Queer artist). “Black” is key because for 75+ years Country music has unsuspiciously evolved into a solidly White-identified genre (despite mixed and Indian & Black roots). Regrettably, Country music is also widely known for anti-black, misogynoir, reliably homophobic (Trans isn’t really a conversation yet), Christian and Hard Right sentiments on the political spectrum. Some other day I will venture into more; there is a whole analysis dying to be done on this exclusive practice in the music industry with its implications on ‘access’ to equity and opportunity for both Black/POC’s and Whites artists/songwriters alike. More commentary on this rigid homogeneous field is needed and how it prohibits certain talent(s) for the sake of perpetuating homogeneity (e.g. “social determinants” of diversity & viable artistic careers). I’ll refrain from discussing that fully here, though suffice it to say that for those reasons X’s “Old Town Road” was monumental and vindicating. 
As for Lil Nas X, I’m not particularly a big fan of his music; but I see him, what he’s doing, his impact on music + culture and I celebrate him using these moments to affirm his Black, Queer self, and lifting up others. Believe it or not, even in the 2020′s, being “out” in the music business is still a costly choice. As an artist it remains much easier to just “play straight”. And despite appearances, the business (particularly Country) has been dragged kicking and screaming into developing, promoting and advancing openly-affirming LGBTQ 🏳️‍🌈 artists in the board room or on-stage. Though things are ‘better’ we have not yet arrived at a place of equity or opportunity for queer artists; for the road of music biz history is littered with stunted careers, bodies and limitations on artists who had no option but to follow conventional ways, fail or never be heard of in the first place. With few exceptions, record labels, radio and press/media have successfully used fear, intimidation, innuendo and coercion to dilute, downplay or erase any hint of queer identity from its performers. This was true even for obvious talents like Little Richard.
(Note: I’m particularly speaking of artists in this regard, not so much the hairstylists, make-up artists, PA’s, etc.)
_____
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Which is why...in regard to Lil Nas X, whether you like, hate or love his music, the young brother is a trailblazer. His very existence protests (at least) decades of inequity, oppression and erasure. X aptly critiques a Neo-Christian Fascist Heteropatriarchy; not just in American society but throughout the Music Business and with Black people. That is no small deal. His unapologetic outness holds a mirror up to Christianity at-large, as an institution, theology and practice. The problem is they just don’t like what they see in that mirror.
In actuality, “Call Me By Your Name”, Lil Nas X’s new video, is a twist on classic mythology and religious memes that are less reprehensible or vulgar than the Biblical narratives most of us grew up on vís-a-vís indoctrinating smiles of Sunday school teachers and family prior to the “age of reason”. Think about the narratives blithely describing Satan’s friendly wager with God regarding Job (42:1-6); the horrific “prophecies” in St. John’s Book of Revelation (i.e. skies will rain fire, angels will spit swords, mankind will be forced to retreat into caves for shelter, and we will be harassed by at least three terrifying dragons and beasts. Angels will sound seven trumpets of warning, and later on, seven plagues will be dumped on the world), or Jesus’s own clarifying words of violent intent in Matthew (re: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” 10:34). Whether literal or metaphor, these age old stories pale in comparison to a three minute allegorical rap video. Conservatives: say what you will, I’m pretty confident X doesn’t take himself as seriously as “The true and living God” from the book of Job.
A little known fact as it is, people have debunked the story and evolution of Satan and already offered compelling research showing [he] is more of a literary device than an actual entity or “spirit” (Spoiler: In the Bible, Satan does not take shape as an actual “bad” person until the New Testament). In fact, modern Christianity’s impression of the “Devil” is shaped by conflating Hellenized mythology with a literary tradition rooted in Dante’s Inferno and accompanying spooks and superstitions going back thousands of years. Whether Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, Scientologist, Atheist or Agnostic, we’ve spent a lifetime with these predominant icons and clichés. (Resource: Prof. Bart D. Erhman, “Heaven & Hell”).
So Here’s THE PROBLEM: The current level of fear and outrage is: 
(1) Unjust, imposing and irrational. 
(2) Disproportionate when taken into account a lifetime of harmful Christian propaganda, anti-gay preaching and political advocacy.
(3) Historically inaccurate concerning the existence of “Hell” and who should be scared of going there. 
Think I’m overreacting? 
Examples: 
Institutionalized Homophobia (rhetoric + policy)
Anti-Gay Ministers In Life And Death: Bishop Eddie Long And Rev. Bernice King
Black, gay and Christian, Marylanders struggle with Conflicts
Harlem pastor: 'Obama has released the homo demons on the black man'
Joel Olsteen: Homosexuality is “Not God’s Best”
Bishop Brandon Porter: Gays “Perverted & Lost...The Church of God in Christ Convocation appears like a ‘coming out party’ for members of the gay community.”
Kim Burrell: “That perverted homosexual spirit is a spirit of delusion & confusion and has deceived many men & women, and it has caused a strain on the body of Christ”
Falwell Suggests Gays to Blame for 9-11 Attacks
Pope Francis Blames The Devil For Sexual Abuse By Catholic Church
Pope Francis: Gay People Not Welcome in Clergy
Pope Francis Blames The Devil For Sexual Abuse By Catholic Church
The Pope and Gay People: Nothing’s Changed
The Catholic church silently lobbied against a suicide prevention hotline in the US because it included LGBT resources
Mormon church prohibits Children of LGBT parents to be baptized
Catholic Charity Ends Adoptions Rather Than Place Kid With Same-Sex Couple
I Was a Religious Zealot That Hurt People-Coming Out as Gay: A Former Conversion Therapy Leader Is Apologizing to the LGBTQ Community
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The above short list chronicles a consistent, literal, demonization of LGBTQ people, contempt for their gender presentation, objectification of their bodies/sexuality and a coordinated pollution of media and culture over the last 50+ years by clergy since integration and Civil Rights legislation. Basically terrorism. Popes, Bishops, Pastors, Evangelists, Politicians, Television hosts, US Presidents, Camp Leaders, Teachers, Singers & Entertainers, Coaches, Athletes and Christians of all types all around the world have confused and confounded these issues, suppressed dissent, and confidently lied about LGBT people-including fellow Queer Christians with impunity for generations (i.e. “thou shall not bear false witness against they neighbor” Ex. 23:1-3). Christian majority viewpoints about “laws” and “nature” have run the table in discussions about LGBTQ people in society-so much that we collectively must first consider their religious views in all discussions and the specter of Christian approval -at best or Christian condescension -at worst. That is Christian (and straight) privilege. People are tired of this undue deference to religious opinions. 
That is what is so deliciously bothersome about Lil Nas X being loud, proud and “in your face” about his sexuality. If for just a moment, he not only disrupts the American hetero-patriarchy but specifically the Black hetero-patriarchy, the so-called “Black Church Industrial Complex”, Neo-Christian Fascism and a mostly uneducated (and/or miseducated) public concerning Ancient Near East and European history, superstitions-and (by extension) White Supremacy. To round up: people are losing their minds because the victim decided to speak out against his victimizer. 
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Additionally, on some level I believe people are mad at him being just twenty years old, out and FREE as a self-assured, affirming & affirmed QUEER Black male entertainer with money and fame in the PRIME of his life. We’ve never, or rarely, seen that before in a Black man in the music business and popular culture. But that’s just too bad for them. With my own eyes I’ve watched straight people, friends, Christians, enjoy their sexuality from their elementary youth to adolescence, up and through college and later marriages, often times independently of their spouses (repeatedly). Meanwhile Queer/Gay/SGL/LGBTQ people are expected to put their lives on hold while the ‘blessed’ straight people run around exploring premarital/post-marital/extra-marital sex, love and affection, unbound & un-convicted by their “sin” or God...only to proudly rebrand themselves later in life as a good, moral “wholesome Christian” via the ‘sacred’ institution of marriage with no questions asked. 
Inequality defined.
For Lil Nas X, everything about the society we've created for him in the last 100+ years (re: links above) has explicitly been designed for his life not to be his own. According to these and other Christians (see above), his identity is essentially supposed to be an endless rat fuck of internal confusion, suicide-ideation, depression, long-suffering, faux masculinity, heterosexism, groveling towards heaven, respectability politics, failed prayer and supplication to a heteronormative earthly and celestial hierarchy unbothered in affording LGBT people like him a healthy, sane human development. It’s almost as if the Conservative establishment (Black included) needs Lil Nas X to be like others before him: “private”, mysteriously single, suicidal, suspiciously straight or worse, dead of HIV/AIDS ...anything but driving down the street enjoying his youth as a Black Queer artist and man. So they mad about that?
Well those days are over.  
-Rogiérs is a writer, international recording artist, performer and indie label manager with 25+ years in the music industry. He also directs Black Nonbelievers of DC, a non-profit org affiliated with the AHA supporting Black skeptics, Atheists, Agnostics & Humanists. He holds a B.A. in Music Business & Mgmt and a M.A. in Global Entertainment & Music Business from Berklee College of Music and Berklee Valencia, Spain. www.FibbyMusic.net Twitter/IG: @Rogiers1
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untaemedqueen · 4 years
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The Lions Den
Mafia!Jimin x Wife!Reader
Genre: Mafia!AU, Smut, Fluff, Angst
Chapter 6.
Warnings: Smut, Blood, Guns, Knives, Excessive Cursing, Excessive Alcohol Intake, Smoking (Cigarettes and Cigars), Mental Health Issues
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Sequel to The Bird Cage
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"No?! What do you mean you can't fucking find him?" Jimin yells into the phone as he paces the bedroom. Three knocks come at the door and you call for them to enter as you watch your husband pour a large glass of whisky.
Mirae enters, a small nervous smile plays on her lips as she hands you a cup of tea. "Thanks." You whisper before Hawon runs into the room.
"YOU FIND HIM! YOU MAKE SURE HE'S FUCK-" Jimin looks over at his daughter before putting his hand to his forehead. "Follow the trail of blood to wherever you can."
He throws the phone onto the gold caddy before sighing gently. "Hi baby girl." He says to Hawon as she runs over to him. She hugs his leg tightly and he takes a deep calming breath through his nose before picking her up. He presses her to his chest before closing his eyes.
"I came to see mommy and baby." Hawon murmurs into his bare shoulder. Mirae shuts the door behind her as she leaves and Jimin hugs Hawon tightly to his body before kissing her temple. 
You know he's absolutely terrified. Terrified to think of the consequences of Jeongguk's poor choices. He was worried for his family, worried for his crew. He doesn't want a retelling of the whole Kim Shin business. Your life was threatened, so was his daughters but now, his crew and his family would be in danger. The Ims are many and yet, they are one. You know this well from the stories you've heard while out with Ryu and Haeun. 
Their mafia was like yours, you hurt one you hurt them all. And, Jimin can't let his family get hurt. "You want to see the baby?" He asks gently to his daughter before looking over at you.
She nods into his shoulder and he walks over to the bed before setting her down carefully. She jumps at you, hands wrapping around your waist before burying her face into your stomach. You giggle gently before running your fingers through her hair. Jimin stares at the both of you, eyes flitting from your daughter to your face before putting his hands over his face. "When is the baby coming?" Hawon's voice is muffled as she talks into your stomach.
"In a few months, baby." Your eyes flicker to Jimin as his shoulders shake gently. He grunts loudly before shaking out his hands and looking up at the canopy of the bed.
"The baby is going to be strong like daddy. Because daddy is strong. Isn't he?" You ask your daughter. His eyes snap to yours, rims turning pink as he lets out a breath. 
"Yeah! Daddy is really strong!" His plush bottom lip gets tucked between his teeth before nodding. 
"Daddy is going to protect us because he's the strongest man alive. Isn't that right, Daddy?" Jimin stands up before kissing you gently. "Yes. He is." He mumbles before walking out of the bedroom.
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Stepping out of the car, you can hear Yoongi behind you mumbling about how wrong this is. You roll your eyes before turning to him. "Speak louder if you want me to respond." Your manicured finger pushes into his taught chest as he lights a cigarette. 
"Jimin specifically told you and all of us that you're not allowed to come to the casino." He mumbles before pointing his finger and pushing it into your shoulder.
You scowl at the tall man before folding your arms. "I have to tell Rina to take over The Bird Cage." 
"You could have called." He quips as you turn on your heel. "Shut up!" You mutter before entering your casino.
Walking through the hallway, staff members bow and you find yourself feeling comforted by the familiar surroundings you've worked so hard to put in place. This was your baby, you worked hard to get it up and running and you take pride in it being the best casino in Seoul. That being said, you know you'll never hear the end of it if you don't listen to your husband. Some things really aren't worth a fight and this is one of them.
Rina is more than capable. You searched and searched for her after Two died wanting to give the family money. But, she didn't want the money, she wanted a job. She was just like Two you came to realize. She was loyal, trustworthy, so sweet and she looked so much like Two you had an overwhelming sense of maternal care for her. It was mostly irrational, built out of guilt from the loss of your maid but as you worked you kept her close. 
You enter the casino floor, weaving through bodies of patrons before noticing Kirsoon as he blocks off the steps up to the office. Yoongi walks past you, placing his hand on your shoulder to stop you as he begins to converse with Kirsoon. Your eyes flicker across the floor before you’re narrowing your eyes at a man at the poker table. His form looks oddly familiar even in his oversized Balenciaga hoodie and black pierced cap. “Yoongi?” You call to him before folding your arms and raising your eyebrow. 
He looks over at you before following your gaze. “Do you want him kicked out or something?” He asks, putting his hand on your back. 
You strain your eyes before pointing at the figure, “Isn’t that...Namjoon?”
“Namjoon? What? No. He’s at…Oh my God. That’s Namjoon.” He mutters before lighting his cigarette. You giggle gently before looking up at your office. “Why is Kirsoon guarding the staircase?”
“Hyunwoo is counting the money he gathered last night.” Kirsoon says to you, hands behind his back as he nods up the stairs. You hum gently before looking back at the figure. “Let’s have some fun.” You tell Yoongi, making him raise his eyebrows.
The walk to the poker table was very quick and you wish it would have taken longer to think of a witty remark to give your crew member. You take the empty seat behind him before looking at Jenny as she looks up from the other side of the table. You put your finger to your lips before winking at her. The corners of her lips turn up into a smirk before looking at Namjoon.
“Adding on.” She says before pulling a stack of chips from underneath the table and putting them in front of you. Yoongi holds up two fingers before sitting down at the table. “Adding on two.” She whispers quietly in response.
Namjoon flicks the corner of his cards before pulling from his cigarette. He hands the two cards back to Jenny before picking his head up. “You coming over tonight?” He asks her and your eyes widen before looking over at Yoongi. His lips press into a straight line before his nostrils flare. 
“Dealing.” Jenny whispers as her cheeks tinge pink. Namjoon furrows his eyebrows as Jenny throws two cards in front of you three. “Baby girl?” Namjoon asks before taking off his hood. 
“Yes, Sir?” She clears her throat before putting three cards face up on the green felt. “Are you coming over?”
Oh this is good. Better than good in fact. This is prime real estate for embarrassment. “I didn’t know staff members of the Bird Cage were invited into the Den?” You say before picking up your two cards. Namjoon chokes on the smoke from his cigarette before coughing loudly putting his forehead to the wooden lip of the table. Yoongi slaps his back hard before laughing loudly. 
You peek at your cards before placing them back down on the table and throwing two chips into the middle of the table. “Aren’t you supposed to be looking for an Im?” You ask the brainiac before leaning back comfortably in your chair. 
He pulls from his cigarette before closing one eye at the rising smoke and shaking his head. “Hoseok is out looking for them. I have the afternoon off. To spend time with this one.” Namjoon mumbles before pointing at Jenny. She clears her throat before narrowing her eyes far across the casino floor. 
“I-I think Yukwon needs some help over there...Weird. I’ll just-” She mutters exasperated before stepping down off the step behind the table. You shake your index finger slowly at her before pointing it at the ground. She lets out a shaky breath before Namjoon clears his throat awkwardly. 
“Hey, Y/N. Listen, what me and Jenny have is just-” You put your hand over Namjoon’s mouth before smiling at Jenny. “Are you guys dating?” You wrinkle your nose at her and she fixes her ponytail before looking at the green felt of the table.
“Why don’t we mind our business?” Yoongi whispers over Namjoon’s back. You scoff before picking up a poker chip. Your fingers flip the chip before raising an eyebrow at Jenny. 
“Just tell me if you both are dating. You do sneak into my house at all hours of the night, I see.” Namjoon mumbles against your palm and you snort gently before crossing your legs. Jenny smacks her lips together before rubbing her hands over the stack of cards in her hand.
“I mean we aren’t like- dating, dating. We’re just…” She tapers off before narrowing her eyes at the end of the room once more. You hired Jenny personally, she was a really sweet girl that came over from America with very little. She wanted to start a new life here and you gave her the opportunity to prove herself. She’s done very well and she’s very beautiful, clearly, which is why she’s been sneaking into the house with Namjoon. 
Namjoon grabs your wrist delicately before prying your hand off of his face. “We’re dating.” He clarifies for you and you squeal happily, stomping your feet on the metal foot rest of the chair. 
“Excuse her, she’s pregnant and hormonal.” Yoongi says to Jenny before standing. You roll your eyes before patting Namjoon on the back, “Very nice job. Jenny, I hope to see you around the house.” 
You hop off of the chair before turning around to her as she whispers fiercely to Namjoon, “During the day, Jenny. I hope.” She bows her head to you before giving you a shy smile. Yoongi pulls your arm towards the staircase as you watch the two lovers interact. 
“They’re cute!” You whine happily as you ascend the staircase, “Cute until you find out what they do behind closed doors.” He mutters out as he lets go of your arm.
“What do they do behind closed doors?” You whisper surprised as he opens the door to your office. “Think collars, pets, master.” He rattles off counting on his fingers. 
You widen your eyes before looking down at them over the second floor railing. “She likes that stuff?”
“Not everyone is a pillow princess, Y/N.” Yoongi mumbles before entering the office without you. “Hello?! What are you insinuating?!” You yell as you follow after him. 
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Rina stares at you before looking at Kirsoon, her mouth hangs open out of surprise and you can't help but giggle at her expression. "You-I-What?!" Rina says before shaking her hands confused.
“You’re going to have to take over The Bird Cage for a few months, until I’m three or four months pregnant.” You tell her calmly as her eyes widen. “I mean first of all, congratulations, but Y/N listen, I’m not a boss, okay? I don’t know how to direct people or make people listen to me! I’m Rina, just Rina!” 
You watch as she brings her hand up to bite her nails and you frown as you watch her grow anxious in front of your eyes. “Kirsoon, get Rina a glass of whisky, please.” He nods gently before walking over to the gold caddy and pouring her a glass. His eyes delicately watch as she bites the skin around her nails almost to the point of bleeding. 
“You’re very smart, Rina. You graduated with honors at Korea University. You just need to gain some confidence. I believe in you, most of the staff here listens to what you say even if you’re just speaking freely. Like when you commented that the most expensive alcohols should go on the top shelf of the back bar not the bottom.” She hums with uncertainty before grabbing the glass of whisky from Kirsoon and thanking him gratefully. 
“Y/N, I don’t know. I just- what about Kirsoon! He can run it!” She suggests, eyes lighting up with positivity before looking over at the tall, stocky man. “He owes me three million and nine hundred thousand dollars.” You whisper to her and she immediately shrinks in size before clearing her throat awkwardly. 
“He will be here with you to help you, of course. He’s not just a moron, he’s useful.” Rina pouts before chugging the whisky and putting the back of her hand to her lips delicately. “I just… I have to do it don’t I?” She asks in a whisper.
You fold your hands together before sighing gently and nodding, “You do. I trust you to do a good job and I know for a fact you wouldn’t let me down, hmm?” She shifts in her seat before closing her eyes. “I’ll work hard to make you proud.”
You can see her avidly trying to will herself into this. She’s one hundred percent capable and you know she’s going to do just fine. “I’m always available to talk to you, I trust you one hundred percent, and I know you care about this place.” You tell her before she’s opening her eyes. Her light brown irises meet yours before nodding.
“I’ll make you proud.” You begin to smile before Yoongi enters the office with his phone pressed to his ear and Namjoon by his side. 
“Hoseok found the Im.” He says quickly before pocketing his phone. You stand up before looking at Rina, “The office is yours, Rina. Take good care of it.” 
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drops-of-moonlights · 4 years
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WINX REDUX AU SUMMARIZED: SEASON 6 (The Prison Book and the Lost Friend)
Or, in which I give the basics of what I’ve changed about the story for the AU. It was originally way more descriptive but if I kept it in that style I would have finished in 2039 and I ain’t got time for that. Let’s cover Season 6 THIS TOOK SO FUCKING LONG OH MY GOD.
WINX REDUX AU SUMMARIZED: SEASON 6 (The Prison Book and the Lost Friend)
After a few weeks of the event in Infimare, everyone comes back to Alfea, Daphne now the assistant teacher of Magic History.
On Cloud Tower, the Trix earn Energix after manipulating the stones they had that were still linked to the Throne of the Ocean, and take over the school.
They fight the teachers and a couple seniors (Mirta and Lucy amongst them), but when the fight goes south as the Trix turn Griffin into a crow, most of the teachers and seniors attempt to cast a massive evacuation spell, getting themselves and most of the students out but sadly not getting everyone.
Selina, with a magic tome and left behind, dons a mask of arrogance and offers her help to the Trix, showing off the Legendarium. (Info on the book here!)
While the Trix see potential, they do make her prove herself first, and with pretenses of the book being able to “bring forgotten or mythical creatures to the world”, she summons constructs to attack Pixie Village.
The Pixies of course notify the Winx, and after a fight with the constructs they suddenly disappear, alongside the entirety of the Village, Pixies included.
Confused, they go back to Alfea, finding the crow that was previously Griffin and bringing it back as well, finding her injured.
They find the CT staff and students then, and after leaving Griffin in their care, the Winx are called to Lynphea College.
Under the guise of attending a seminar, they all talk about how the Trix have taken over CT and are looking to attack other schools.
Flora takes the chance to see Miele, but as they catch up, the Trix attack, Selina summoning Treants. Everyone transforms.
With Flora spending the entire fight trying to protect Miele at all costs, the Winx realize that CT is right there beyond the clouds, and decide to go check it out. Flora is unsure, but after a callout by her sister, she agrees, Miele earning her Glamourix in the process.
Once in CT, the Winx and the Trix fight, and in a panic, Selina casts 3 random spells from the index of the Legendarium, wanting to not be discovered as her relationship with the Winx would make her lose her place.
Casted out of the flying building, all the Winx detransform, and are saved by the Specialists.
Back on the ground, they realize a strong curse has been placed on them sealing their powers, only Bloom managing to at least use Glamourix. Their Auras are bound, and while the spell can fade on its own, it might take up to 7 months even with help.
Bloom, not thinking as usual, decides to undo her ability to transform and grants each of the Winx part of her aura using a ritual, which should help speed up the process.
Faragonda and Daphne explain that earning a transformation might undo the curse completely, and given the Winx’s track record, that might not be much of an issue.
In that same week, Flora, Stella and Tecna earn Valiantix fighting the Treants and later the Basilisks summoned by Selina, Flora via saving her sister and Stella and Tecna with a mix of luck, aim, quick thinking and a general lack of self-preservation.
The Trix leave defeated (but with having managed to steal some artifacts), and while they celebrate, Bloom feels a sharp pain in her back, though it goes away pretty quickly.
A week later, during a visit to the Golden Auditorium Academy on Melodeus (under the same pretense of a seminar), Musa and Aisha earn their Valiantix via protecting each other while fighting the “Pandemonium Sprites” Selina summoned. Bloom starts to get more random pains, but ignores them, thinking they’ll pass soon enough and are just a side effect of her ritual.
Turns out she’s right, as a few days later, while on Domino helping prepare Daphne’s birthday ball, she collapses while at the party, having missed a step in the ritual and drained more magic than necessary, and despite this she still forced herself to fight and help the rest.
At the same time, Selina summons “Fire Eaters” to the party, Icy wanting to crash it simply to spite her parents. Everyone transforms to fight, but Diaspro and Daphne decide to bring Bloom to the Vortex of Flames, an ancient chamber in the palace that would help Bloom recover.
Once they arrive however they are cornered by the Fire Eaters, and with Daphne and Diaspro focused on protecting Bloom. Diaspro is briefly knocked out with a Fire Eater throwing Bloom into the vortex itself, and knowing her girlfriend can’t transform so she might die of the impact, she dives as well, trying her hardest to save Bloom.
She catches her, and with Bloom slowly recovering thanks to the Vortex she leaps out of Dia’s arms to protect her from a Fire Eater that had snuck behind them.
Once they get to the bottom, Dia’s magic being strained at that point, they both earn Valiantix, fully recovered.
They join everyone else and without much issue they manage to defeat the Eaters, Daphne’s party proceeding as normal.
A few weeks later, in which the Trix stealthily managed to attack and steal more artifacts from other schools, Selina comes to Alfea, pretending to have escaped Cloud Tower somehow and wanting to help the Winx and the rest.
At the same time, Griffin is restored back to normal thanks to Roxy, Krystal, Mirta and the teachers, and everyone gets together to catch up and consider what’s going on.
This is when Griffin and Faragonda realize there’s a strong ancient energy coming from Selina, and when they ask her what’s going on she panics, summoning an onslaught of fungi monsters.
She dips, Bloom following her, everyone else transforming to deal with the creatures. Cornered, Selina lies and tells her she’s being mind-controlled by Darcy and to look for Eldora, before teleporting back to CT.
This makes sense to Bloom, not wanting to suspect her best friend again, but can’t shake the feeling that she was lying.
After dealing with the fungi and catching up again, the Winx and Roxy go to Earth to see Eldora, everyone else staying to keep an eye on the Trix as well to help Griffin readapt to being bipedal.
Back on CT, and hidden from the Trix, Selina realizes her mistake in telling the Winx to meet Eldora, and so she decides to summon a group of vampires to Gardenia.
However, the vampires relish in being freed and manage to permanently sever their connection with the Legendarium, roaming and causing chaos in Gardenia.
The Winx and Roxy deal with them on their way, ending with Stella having to kill them to save her friends. They reach Eldora the next day, and she explains what’s up.
She elaborates on what went down, and how Selina stole the Legendarium before classes started back up, shocking Bloom. She then elaborates on what the book is and that there’s an ancient sorcerer called Acheron trapped in it, the creator. (More on him here!)
Eldora is afraid he managed to manipulate her into helping him escape, and then decides that if she’s actively using the book, they only have one choice.
A few hours later, they all arrive in Tir Nan Og, which is in the process of becoming a school to house and train new magi, the connections between Earth and the Naerys System still kinda flimsy. Deep in the castle, in the same room the White Circle fell, Eldora reveals 7 colorful keys.
She explains they are the keys for the Legendarium itself, saying that there were originally 9, but Acheron was trapped with one and Selina stole the other from her.
The Winx start to consider how to use them when the Trix attack, Selina and Bloom ending fighting one on one.
Bloom confronts her in how she lied, and feeling the resentment from last year rising, she calls Bloom out on how she kept her own secrets, how Eldora kept refusing to teach her anything substantial even after getting Glamourix, and how the only one that was there for her, truly for her, these past few months was Acheron.
The fight goes on but Bloom manages to overpower her easily after a while, and Selina plus the Trix retreat. The keys seemed to have reacted to the Legendarium’s presence, and burst out of their chest, each flying to a different Winx plus Roxy.
Eldora then elaborates that those were specifically the Pleiadix keys, named after the Pleiades themselves (Info on this here!). She then tells them that they must find the last key inside the Legendarium, as there’s a chance Acheron himself lost it when being trapped.
As such, the girls link their magic to the keys, turning them into scepters, earning Pleiadix.
A few days later, Eldora finds a diary where she had documented most of the odd things about the Legendarium when searching for ways to safely free everyone from it, and points the Winx plus Roxy to a link in Calavera Island on Earth.
Once there she explains that around the world are small “link” portals between the Legendarium and the world, and that each of those places might be where Acheron and the last key reside.
Everyone uses Pleiadix for the same time, and as they try to adjust to their sudden Source swap, they’re attacked by the Pirates of Calavera.
On CT, Selina, in order to regain a bit of trust from the Trix (who partially heard her battle with Bloom and are suspicious), gives them the key she stole plus two magical copies, so they can also enter the Legendarium and delay the Winx.
They do so, and after a short battle realizing the key was not there everyone leaves.
Shortly after, Selina then unleashes the same pirates to delay them further, while she tries to establish contact with Acheron again, him suddenly going dead silent.
Eldora then points them to the town of Fearwood in Canada, run by a community of werewolves descended from one of the first ones that managed to escape the Legendarium. (more info on Werewolves and such in the AU here!)
Inside the link they find themselves in a place covered in ice, and end up fighting Icy, who in a fit of arrogance flaunts the key Selina gave her.
The fight goes on, and after a close call, Flora ends up fighting Icy one on one. At first she almost loses, but Icy’s taunts fuel her anger, she manages to defeat her quickly, taking her key.
Selina immediately pulls Icy out of the book, and genuinely angry berates her for losing so fast to Flora. Icy immediately threatens her, but Darcy reminds her Selina is still useful so she holds back.
Selina then says that as long as the Winx don’t get the other two copies nothing bad will happen, but that they have to be more careful.
More and more attempts to break into CT are being made by the Winx, Specialist teams as well as the Paladin Order, and to remain hidden, the Trix plus Selina and some of the witches following them cast a massive spell, masking the building completely.
At this, the Winx then start looking for rituals to undo said spell, and given it’s probably a light or dark spell they go to Solaria to check on its royal library.
The Trix interrupt the search, however, and after a short fight they manage to separate Stella, she and Darcy fighting inside the Legendarium after a bit.
In the middle of an ancient temple-like building, and while dealing with a minotaur, Stella manages to beat Darcy and get her key, both of them leaving at once.
Selina gets more desperate, but at least now Acheron answered back, saying that if worse comes to worse, he’ll lend her his own key.
The Winx then move on to Zenith, having found a useful spell and wanting to amplify it with help from Tecna’s parents' inventions. Tecna takes the chance to also formally introduce Timmy to them.
Stormy, wanting to be done with all of this already, decides to launch an attack all by herself on the Winx, and ends up fighting Tecna in the Legendarium, under a weird forest.
The battle is hard, as Tecna’s not as familiar with her new power source in Pleiadix, but she manages to defeat Stormy and take her part of the key, both being forced out of the book.
With the threats gone, the Winx unite all three parts of Selina’s key, and having gotten the tech from Tecna’s parents, return to Alfea.
With all but one of the keys in the Winx’s possession, and the Trix running out of ideas, they decide to launch a full attack on Alfea, using the same spell on themselves and the remaining loyal students.
Musa and Roxy, alongside Mirta, Lucy and a couple more students of both schools, have been slowly managing a sound spell to amplify the effects of Alfea’s barrier and power up the Winx as they use the spell to undo the Trix’s magic.
As they start playing, however, Selina unleashes three White Circle Fairies to act as distraction, so lost in their madness that they attack without orders, as she challenges Bloom one on one.
As everyone fights, Bloom tries to get at Selina once more that she’s being manipulated, but to no avail, and after a moment of weakness, Selina manages to drain part of her Aura for herself.
As this goes on, Aisha and the Pixies realize that Pixie Village was probably trapped inside the Legendarium, and taking an opening, she goes into the book to retrieve them, and is successful.
Now with the help of all the Pixies, and without their spell, all of the Witches leave the Trix, who are forced to retreat.
Back on CT, and while confronted by the Trix, Selina manages to free Acheron thanks to Bloom’s Aura, and after thanking her for her help, immediately tries to trap all of them in the Legendarium.
Everyone manages to defend themselves fairly well, but while Selina decides to get Bloom for help, the Trix disappear.
Selina arrives at Alfea and while apologizing, explains what happened. Bloom believes her immediately, but everyone else is still suspicious of the girl.
at the same time, Acheron arrives and starts to unleash “servants” to attack the place, seeking revenge on those that ended the White Circle and wanting to crown himself leader of the New Order he wants to bring.
Everyone transforms and fights, and while after a while Tecna and Selina manage to get the book away from Acheron, he still flaunts that he has the last key.
The fight goes on, and after a while more and more people join, even Eldora arriving just in time, hatred burning in her eyes.
Eldora then brings a blank book, and with a spell manages to absorb Acheron into it, but he takes Roxy and Bloom with him, intending to trap them there with him as well.
Using Pleiadix, they keep fighting him, and while he scores good hits, at the end Bloom and Roxy manage to knock him out with a convergence, and take the last key.
They immediately leave this new book with help from Eldora, and without any real connection to it, Acheron is trapped.
Outside, everyone reunites and then contemplates what to do with everyone trapped inside the book, as they didn’t have anything to do with it.
Eldora concludes that, as bad as it is, they’re all too warped to truly be saved. Everyone agrees, even if they don’t like the outcome, and re-seal the Legendarium, this time for good.
After this, they decide to burn the book they trapped Acheron in, and with a final spell from Bloom, the book is set ablaze, a bloodcurdling scream escaping it as it’s slowly consumed by the fire, turning into ashes.
After a few days, the court has decided that Selina must spend a year in prison for what she did the past 4 months, but her sentence is alleviated thanks to her being a key part of Acheron’s defeat. She accepts the sentence, knowing full well what she did, and after a chat with Bloom, she leaves. Bloom feels something be severed inside her, and realizes that even if they manage to reunite once she leaves, they will never be best friends again.
Dia and the Winx try to comfort her, and do manage to bring a smile to her face, but know Bloom will hurt for a long time still. Everyone leaves back to Alfea, as they still have school for another month.
A few weeks later, with everything behind and Cloud Tower working again, the Winx receive a message from the Order of Mana, to go to their headquarters the following week...
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horrorkingdom · 3 years
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Blindness
It’s true what they say – that when a person goes blind their other senses heighten in order to compensate. Knowing that, and thinking back on everything that happened to me, I still can’t come to a rational conclusion of how these events unfolded around me without my knowledge. Granted, I couldn’t actually see any of it happening, but I never suspected anything of this magnitude when judging solely on the minor oddities that I had experienced.
Sure, every once in a while I would hear noises, but my house was old and seemed to have a mind of its own. All of its pops and creaks had become just as familiar to me as navigating its interior without the benefit of sight. Even when things began to turn more bizarre, I always found a way to rationalize them away. Looking back, I ask myself, “How could I have been so…well, for lack of a better word, blind?”
My mother had tried to convince me not to move into the house alone. “Sarah, a young blind woman shouldn’t be living all by herself,” she’d said. But I wanted to – needed to. I needed to prove to myself that I was strong enough to do it. Besides that, as a twenty four year old, I didn’t want to live with my parents forever. And I sure didn’t want to wait around for a nice man to marry and move in with. That may never happen.
Having lost my sight at an early age due to a freak accident with industrial strength cleaning chemicals, I knew all too well the nuances of learning to create a mental map of my surroundings.
When I first moved into the old house I used my cane exclusively. I waved it back and forth in front of me with every step I took. I knew roughly where all of the furniture was since I was the one that directed the movers on where to put everything. I employed the cane for nearly a week, using its tip to develop a mental image of the layout. The learning process was slow and clumsy at first, but I eventually got to the point that I was able to shed my cane after several days and began walking cautiously with my arms extended. I progressed further and became familiar enough with the territory that by the end of the first month I was able to walk freely without the use of my cane, or arms or any other aid.
I became quite adept at moving throughout the house freely. Not only that, but the house was located in a somewhat urban area which made it convenient to walk to any place I had the need. The grocery was only three blocks away. There was a department store across the street from that, and a bank and coffee shop just a bit further on. I got used to listening to the flow of traffic and timing the lights in my head so I would know when the “Walk” and “Don’t Walk” signals were lit. Occasionally a kind stranger would offer to take my hand and lead me across. I would thank them and we would part ways once we were safely on the next sidewalk.
In those days I was working from home making phone calls to patients that had recently been discharged from the hospital. In essence, I was being paid by the hospital to administer surveys that were then used to improve their services. The hospital was kind enough to provide me with a laptop computer that contained several different voice-command software applications. I spent my days transcribing the recorded phone calls by speaking the customers’ answers into a microphone, and having the data fields automatically populate accordingly in the program.
The first odd event that I remember was on one particular day when I got up from my work desk for a lunch break. As I was headed into the kitchen, I kicked an object in the middle of the living room floor. I heard it slide a short distance on the carpet. I knew that I hadn’t left anything in the way of my path as I had just been through there not even an hour ago, and there was nothing on the floor.
I knelt down and patted around until I located the object. A book. By feeling its Braille title I recognized it as a book on national parks that I kept on my coffee table, some five feet away. I didn’t remember knocking the book off of the table. I stood there perplexed. The longer I thought about it though, the less frightening it became to me. I convinced myself that I must have simply forgotten about knocking the book to the floor, and I must have stepped over it or next to it during my other passes through the room. I returned the book to its place on the table and went about making my lunch.
That night, while lying in bed, I heard a sound that came from the kitchen. It was almost entirely masked by the usual sounds of the pops and creaks from the house settling, but I definitely heard it – faint as it was. It was a very light humming noise. So light, in fact, that an average person without enhanced hearing may not have heard it at all from this distance. I slowly got out of bed, listening intently, the sound increasing as I made my way down the hallway and through the living room.
As soon as I passed through the threshold into the kitchen I knew what the sound was. It was the compressor motor on the refrigerator, and it was substantially louder than usual. I approached the appliance and found that its door was standing wide open. I eased it shut and the hum returned to a normal volume.
“What on earth? Did I leave this open?” I questioned myself in a whisper. Maybe it didn’t close all the way the last time I swung it shut, I thought. I returned to bed, but had trouble finding sleep. My mind wandered and questioned how I could have overlooked the fallen book and the open fridge door when they’d first happened.
The next morning, I decided to go have breakfast at Espresso Express, the little coffee shop up the road. They served excellent coffee, and you could also get a ham & cheese croissant melt that was to die for. That alone was worth the effort of showering, dressing, and leaving the safety of the house to be plunged into a buzz of whizzing traffic, honking horns, and people clamoring on the sidewalks.
On that morning a gentle stranger helped guide me across the intersection just ahead of the coffee shop. I said, “Thank you!” as they released my arm, but there was no response. He or she was lost in the shuffle of people on cell phones, their conversations momentarily audible to me as they passed in front of and behind me. The tinny sound of a bicycle bell alarmed me, and I felt the breeze left behind when the rider whipped past. I entered the coffee shop to a much more serene environment and enjoyed my favorite breakfast at a seat near the plate glass window, bathed in the sunlight that washed in on me.
That afternoon I took a break from making phone calls to use the bathroom. As I was seated on the toilet, I heard something next to me. It was as if something had brushed against the sink – an ever so subtle sound. My heart rate rose and my brow furrowed as I strained to listen closer. All I could hear was my pulse throbbing in my ears. Suddenly a wall clock in the living room chimed four ‘o clock, startling me to the point that I jumped slightly while still seated there. I regained my composure, washed up and returned to the computer to transcribe the data from my phone surveys.
I closed the laptop and went to make dinner at 6:30. Over the years, I had learned to be extra careful when dealing with the hot oven and burners. Once I had accidentally set a plastic plate directly onto a burner that was still hot, resulting in a cloud of noxious fumes that lasted for days – long after I’d finished cleaning up the mess. I was lucky that it had burned itself out and the damage wasn’t any worse. After that close call, I bought a small fire extinguisher to keep on the countertop next to the oven.
On this particular night, I made my dinner without any risk of fire. However, the undertaking wasn’t completely without incident. As I proceeded to make dinner I discovered that the canned goods I needed for the recipe were missing from the cupboard. I have always kept my canned goods in very specific places on the shelves so that I would always know what was what without the benefit of being able to see the labels. I don’t remember using up the items I needed that night, but apparently I already had. So, I opted to make a casserole instead.
I sat at the dinner table enjoying the simple meal I had made. The television was playing in the background, filling me in on all of the day’s news headlines. I finished the first portion on my plate and reached to dip into the casserole dish once more. I scraped the inside of the dish, the sounds of metal on ceramic echoing throughout the kitchen. It was empty.
“I can’t believe it! I couldn’t have already eaten it all!” I said incredulously. I had thought for sure that I’d prepared a bigger portion than that, and I didn’t remember emptying the dish fully onto my plate. Thoughts ran through my head in an attempt to reason out the matter: Had it baked up to be less than I’d anticipated? Had I spilled some on the table while dishing it onto my plate?
In search of the missing food, I placed the palm of my hand on the tabletop and moved it steadily over the area within my reach. As I was doing so there was a distinct movement in front of me. I gasped and my heart rate immediately quickened. I felt the blood pulsing through my neck. This sound was not as subtle as the others I’d been hearing. It was obvious – a sudden motion of something moving across from me. I continued listening, but all I could hear was the much-too-chipper weather man on TV giving the forecast.
Suddenly I was overwhelmed with a feeling that I was no longer alone at the kitchen table. “Is someone there?” I called out, hoping there was no reply.
Silence.
I felt a shift in the air pressure as if something moved behind me followed by the creak of a floorboard. I froze. Something brushed against the back of my hair, gentle as a feather. I recoiled and let out a squeal.
I shot up out of my chair, made my way to the corner of the kitchen and turned to face the interior of the room. “Who’s there?” I demanded. No answer. By this time I was breathing heavily, practically hyperventilating. My chest and throat radiated heat as my heart raced inside, giving me the sensation of acute indigestion. I thought I might vomit.
I slowly made my way to the doorway leading into the living room. I stood there for what seemed like an eternity listening for something, anything that would explain the circumstance. Eventually I moved on and worked my way into the hallway bathroom. I locked the door behind me.
It took over an hour and a half for me to calm down. While in the locked bathroom, I wrestled with my thoughts. I reasoned with myself. I didn’t want to admit that my mother was right, but maybe I shouldn’t be living alone. It appeared to be taking its toll on me. On the other hand, all of these things could be logically explained, I told myself. If I wasn’t blind, I’d have seen whatever it was that caused the noises and it would be so obvious. I’d laugh about how ridiculous it was to be scared of it, I’m sure. At least that’s what I tried to convince myself.
What finally brought me out of the bathroom was the ringing of the telephone. I admit it startled me at first, but only because it had been so quiet for the last two hours. I cautiously opened the door and entered the hallway. My phone was in the living room. I approached it quickly and answered.
“Hello?”
“Hey Sarah, it’s Jill.”
Thank God, it was just my friend Jill. “Hi Jill, how’s it going?”
“Oh, I’m doing good. I saw you at Espresso Express today,” she said in a playful tone, which I didn’t understand initially.
“You did?”
“Mmm hmm. I saw you in the window when I walked by on the sidewalk.” Still in a playful tone.
“Well, why didn’t you come in and say, ‘hi’?” I asked.
“I didn’t want to disturb you.”
“Disturb me? Why would you be disturbing me?”
“Because, silly, I assumed you were on a date. Who’s the lucky guy that was sitting with you?”
My mouth slacked open. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t form words.
“Sarah?” Jill asked, “Are you okay?”
I dropped the phone. I could still hear Jill’s muffled voice even though the speaker was face down on the carpet. I frantically made my way around the house, arms flailing in front of me.
“Who are you?” I yelled into the house. “What do you want?”
I was terrified, but also angry. I felt violated. I didn’t necessarily want to encounter whatever it was, but I couldn’t go on hiding in my own house any longer. I spent hours searching every square inch of the property and found nothing. I finally went to bed after I was able to calm down, but I did not fall asleep until the wee hours of the morning.
A light rustling sound woke me not long after I fell asleep, still in the dark hours of early morning. I wasn’t sure at first if it was real or if I had dreamed the noise. As I was about to get up, I noticed that the sheets next to me were pulled back. I stretched out my right arm into the empty space beside me. It felt warm as if someone had been lying there with me. The events of the previous day flooded back into my memory. My sightless eyes welled up with tears as I began to question my own sanity. Frustrated, I bolted up and out of the bed. I threw on some old clothes and headed toward the front door with the intention of fleeing the house, unsure exactly where I was going to go – maybe Jill’s place. She lived fairly close.
I wanted to take my cane with me as I always did whenever I went outdoors. I searched the house frantically, unable to remember where I’d left it. I almost always left it propped against the wall by the front door, but it wasn’t there. I made my way along all of the perimeter walls, feeling desperately for the cane.
When I neared the kitchen I still had not found my walking aid, but I made a discovery of a much more startling nature – a barely detectable vertical crevice in the wall I had not known about previously. I used all my fingers to follow the crease up the wall, across the top, and down the other side. It was a doorway designed to fit perfectly flush within the wall. I leaned my weight inward against the panel and felt a slight give on its right side. I worked my fingers into the crevice on that side the best I could, eventually prying the panel free. It swung open to the left. I gasped in shock and my pulse quickened. A hidden room right in the center of my house.
How I wish that I would have had sight at that moment. I faced a completely unexplored territory inside my own house with the possibility that someone else was in there with me.
I entered slowly, arms extended. “Is someone in here?” I whispered, afraid to ask the question. There was no response. I stepped forward. To my right I discovered a flat surface – a tabletop. I ran my hands along its surface. On top of the table I was able to make out several unopened cans of food. No doubt these were the missing canned goods I’d been looking for. The table also contained silverware and a can opener that disappeared weeks ago.
My heart rate increased even more and my palms began to sweat. I worked my way forward until I came to a wall that I knew bordered the living room. I found a hole the size of a quarter at eye level. Sweat began to form on my brow as well. I found another similar hole on the next adjacent wall. This wall bordered the bathroom. Tears started to well up in my eyes. I was able to find two more holes on the two remaining walls bordering the kitchen and the bedroom.
I dropped to my knees in absolute horror and disbelief. How long had this person been watching me? How could I have not known? My hands were on the floor in front of me and I felt something soft. I investigated further with my fingertips. It was some sort of comforter or sleeping bag. At one end was a fluffy pillow.
At this point not only was I terrified beyond description, I was also furious. How dare someone spy on me covertly from within my own walls! I knew I had to run out of the house and get to safety immediately, with or without my cane. I decided I would go to Jill’s house and we’d call the police from there.
I made my way to where I remembered the hidden door to be, my arms sweeping the area ahead of me in a panic. Instead of the open door, my hands found the warm torso of a human, a male, standing silently in the doorway. He grabbed both my arms and pulled me out of the hidden room and into the house.
We struggled in the kitchen. I kicked at him and screamed as loud as I could into his ears. I was able to get one arm free and I used it to grasp for the fire extinguisher that I knew would be by the oven. He attempted to pull me away, but my fingers reached its nozzle. I swung it at him, feeling the metal cylinder connect with the back of his skull. He released my other arm and I pulled the trigger in his direction, enveloping him in a cloud of white foam.
I ran into the utility room off of the kitchen where I knew my only advantage existed – the fuse box. I found the box and tripped every lever I could find, eliminating all power from the house. If this perverted psycho wanted to kill me, he’d have to do it on an equal playing field – in the dark.
The intruder had not followed me into the utility room. The fire extinguisher must have dazed him. I remembered the toolbox I kept in that room, and I quickly retrieved the longest screwdriver I could find. I stood in the corner and listened carefully. If he was still conscious, he would not be able to move around in the pitch darkness without creating a noise. I would surely detect his movements.
I held the screwdriver against my chest, gripping its handle tightly with both hands. I felt my wildly beating heart against the side of my fist. After an eternity, I moved forward a bit. I may have knocked him out, or even killed him. I had to make sure.
I left the utility room and entered the kitchen. There was still no sound from anywhere in the house. I passed into the living room and headed toward the front door. Halfway through the room I could feel his presence. Something in the air around me had shifted. Without warning there was breath on the back of my neck followed by a deep whisper directly in my ear, “The showers were my favorite.”
I screamed and swung around, stabbing the screwdriver into empty air. I ran for the door. It was merely a few feet away, but I couldn’t reach it due to the resistance I met when the voyeuristic brute’s arms wrapped around my waist. He wrestled me to the floor and straddled me. I tightened my grip on the tool and plunged it as hard as I could into his side.
I shudder to think about it when I recount the feeling of the steel shaft separating two of his ribs. It was horrid, and I was only able to stomach it knowing that if I hadn’t acted, my life would have ended then.
The man winced in pain and let out a deep, growling grunt. He fell backward and rolled off of me. I turned over onto my chest and pushed up off of the floor, then crawled over to the couch and used it to get back onto my feet. I still held the screwdriver, a warm trickle of blood seeping onto my knuckle.
I could tell that the intruder was writhing around on the floor near the doorway. I would have to exit through the back door. From the opposite end of the living room, I entered the sun room where the door was located. I wasn’t as familiar with this entry point, causing me to fumble around with the deadbolt and screen door locks for longer than I would have liked.
I knew there were concrete stairs there leading to a flat patio. How many steps? Four? Five? I couldn’t remember. I proceeded slowly. The last thing I needed was to fall and twist my ankle. After navigating the steps, I came to the end of the patio, which emptied into a narrow alleyway between the shotgun-style houses behind mine.
My steps were slow and cautious. My hands told me there was a brick wall to my right, and a brick wall about five feet to my left. The sides of the two houses. I was entering unfamiliar territory without the benefit of my cane. My breathing was frantic and the tears continued to fill my useless eyes. I kicked something and nearly fell over. It felt plastic – a child’s toy maybe. I was moving much too fast compared to my level of comfort with the surroundings. But I had no choice as footsteps were approaching behind me.
I picked up the pace, waving the screwdriver out in front to buffer my impending collision with any obstacles. Ten more feet of forward progress and the screwdriver alerted me, with metallic clanging, to the presence of a chain link fence connecting the two houses.
I stopped and cried out, my voice breaking up through my tears, “No.” I turned around, my back to the fence. I began swinging the screwdriver violently.
“Leave me alone!” I screamed.
More hyperventilating.
More tears.
The man approached slowly, and then stopped just a few feet away from me. I got the feeling he could see what he was doing. Either there was an electric light in this alley or the dawn had already crested enough that ample ambient light was available. I didn’t know which one was the case because I had no idea what time it was.
Knowing I was about to die, I just wanted answers. “How long?” I managed to ask. “How long have you been in there?” My voice was angrier than I’d expected.
“Since before you lived there,” he replied calmly, his voice deep. “I got lucky with you – a blind girl. With the others I couldn’t come out in the open when they were home. I couldn’t sit and eat their dinner with them. I couldn’t stand over them while they worked at their computers. I couldn’t go to the coffee shop with them.” There was a pause as he moved even closer. “I couldn’t stand next to them in the bathroom.”
I cried uncontrollably in a whirlwind of emotions. I had never before felt so violated, so angry, and so terrified all at the same time. There was sudden movement again in front of me.
“Don’t touch me!” I demanded as I held up the screwdriver. I don’t know exactly how it happened. I don’t know if he didn’t see the tool or just didn’t care, knowing that he was caught. But as he lunged forward, he managed to impale himself on the screwdriver and pin me up against the fence. My hands were still gripping the handle, but it was so deep inside him that his shirt was touching my fist.
His breathing became gurgled, and his last words to me were, “I couldn’t snuggle next to them in bed either.”
We collapsed together as one unit. The fence tore at my back as we slid down onto the ground. His dead weight nearly crushed me, but I managed to push him off and crawl away. I crawled all the way back to my house, in through the back door and into the living room to my phone. I sobbed hysterically as I keyed in the digits 9-1-1 and fell to the floor.
Credit: moonlit_cove
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ruddcatha · 4 years
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Final Frontier
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This story is purely the fault of my husband.  We are both very big geeks, and one day decided to start casting Inuyasha Characters as Star Fleet personnel.  This story was then born.  
on Ao3: Here
on FFN: Here
I do not own Inuyasha or Star Trek, and I know its an odd paring, but I hope you enjoy it.
Tags for those who have expressed an interest or helped me in writing this: @willowandfog​ @smmahamazing​ @disgruntledbeast​ @superpixie42​ @lemonlushff​ @fantastiqueparfait​ @clearwillow​ @underwater0phelia​
If you would like to be added to the tags please let me know.
CHAPTER 1: USS NOBUNAGA
A tall brown-haired woman stalked through the corridors of the ship, her dark brown eyes flashing. Ensigns and officers alike quickly moved aside, none wanting to further anger the First Officer or have her attention focused on them.  Sango noted the crew, but her focus was on reaching one place.
The door to the bridge slid open, and she quickly moved in front of the doors to the ready room. She pressed the intercom and straightened her uniform while she waited for the soft answer granting her entry.  She flicked a small white speck off the red shoulders of her command uniform and entered the Captain’s presence.
Sitting behind his desk looking out among the stars she saw her Captain, Sesshomaru.  His long silvery white hair was tied back in low ponytail, showing his pointed ears.  At first glance some would think he was Vulcan until they saw his dark amber eyes that shone almost like ice.
Sesshomaru turned in his chair to face the first officer.
“How can I help you Sango?” he asked coolly, raising a silver eyebrow at her.
Sango almost vibrated with annoyance, but she kept her voice even “Permission to speak freely, Sir.” She waited until she received his nod before continuing.
“Do you really think it is wise to have your brother serve here with you on the bridge crew?  There were other candidates with … better… service records who will feel slightly slighted by his assignment.”
Sesshomaru titled his head, his eyes flashing briefly.  “Your concerns are well founded, but do not worry.  He is more than qualified for the position.  As to the reasons I asked for him to be part of this crew, I am not prepared to discuss them at this time.”
Sango knew that it was the final say on the matter, but she wanted to make one point clear.  “Even though he is your brother, you know it will be my duty to treat him like any other member of this crew.”
Sesshomaru nodded at her “I would expect nothing less, he should not get any special treatment because of his relation to me.”
Sango slightly frowned, she hesitated to ask, but given the … reputation… of the new officer, she needed the clarification.
“And if he steps out of line, Sir?”
Sesshomaru gave a small smile before turning back to look at the stars around them.  “As I said, he gets no special treatment.”
_________________________________
On a Starfleet base several light years away, another silver-haired man paced impatiently.  His light golden eyes seemed to burn as he stopped to look at the time displayed on the wall before swearing under his breath and returning to pacing.  
‘I really hate stations’ he thought, growling as his ears were bombarded with sounds from thousands of people talking and moving about.  At the top of his head, two silver dog ears twitched, trying to ease the pain from the cacophony around him.
“Inuyasha, relax.” A dark-haired man leaned against the wall, drinking a cup of coffee.  The blue shoulders of his uniform almost matched his eyes as he watched his friend continue pacing.  “They are not scheduled to dock until 16:00, we still have 20 minutes before they will arrive.”
Inuyasha turned with a huff, his silver hair flowing causing more than one woman on the station to sigh. His ears caught the sound, and his mouth flattened, normally he wouldn’t mind the attention, but he was too worked up and annoyed at the moment.
“Who the hell does he think he is Miroku?” he snarled to his friend.
“I would say, he thinks he’s your brother AND your new Captain.” Came the tired reply.  Miroku had been forced to have this conversation with Inuyasha several times once they had received their transfer papers.  
It wasn’t that Inuyasha didn’t want to work abord the USS-Nobunaga, he did.  It was the last Excelsior Class built in the fleet, designed for exploration and recognizance.  As a lieutenant, he had been a key part of the security team on the USS Nautilus, a Miranda class starship, for 6 years and had been told he was in line for a promotion to chief of security.  Then he received notice that he had been promoted to Lt. Commander, which had stunned him, and that he was being promoted to Chief of Security and Tactical Officer on the USS-Nobunaga, with his friend Miroku coming on as the new Science Officer.  Anyone who wanted to get anywhere in Starfleet knew that this was a plum opportunity.  
Then the other shoe dropped.
Sesshomaru was the Captain.
His fucking brother. That was what irritated Inuyasha, he was once again in his brother’s shadow.  Growing up he had always been one step behind Sesshomaru, he was good, but not quite good enough.  He had learned to hate that phrase.  Even at the academy he had pushed himself to the best of his abilities, but as a half inu half human, he always had fallen short of his brother, a full blooded Inu, in abilities and rankings.  Their race gave them increased speed and strength, but no matter how hard he tried, he had never been able to match or surpass Sesshomaru.  Hell, his brother was Captain of a starship, while he was just getting his third hollow pip on his collar.    
Granted, Sesshomaru was 7 years older than Inuyasha, and had graduated before Inuyasha, but once again, Sesshomaru had excelled and flew up the ranks. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru were the only two Inu’s to date who had completed the Starfleet training. Unfortunately, Sesshomaru went first. Going through the Academy, Inuyasha had dealt with several professors expressing disappointment that he wasn’t as quick as Sesshomaru, or that his test scores were not as high as Sesshomaru.  The only thing that the instructors commented on for Inuyasha for was his ability to make friends with his classmates, Sesshomaru had been a bit of a loner, Inuyasha was the one everyone wanted to know.  He remembered getting lectured at that if he would just stop trying to be friends and going out, he could be as good in class as his brother.
He was so fucking tired of being second to everyone but his mother.  He knew his father loved him, but Sesshomaru was the prodigy, the heir. He was just the spare, and he knew it.
Despite the promotion, and the opportunity it provided, Inuyasha had felt the need to protest just because it was Sesshomaru.  He wanted to distinguish himself for who he was, his own abilities, and not because he was riding the coattails of his brother.  
And then he was told that Sesshomaru had specifically requested him for the position.  His prior Captain told him at a farewell gathering that she thought she could push him over with a feather with how stunned he looked.  It took Inuyasha a few moments to process what he had been told.  It was one thing for a Captain to request a specific officer for their ship, it was another for that Captain to not only request the officer, but to also request a relative variance for the bridge crew.  
Now Inuyasha wanted to know what Sesshomaru was thinking.  He didn’t do anything without there being a purpose.  Something about their mission had Sesshomaru thinking he would need Inuyasha, it sure as hell wasn’t because of a desire to see his brother succeed.  
They had always had a strained relationship, Inuyasha after all was the half-brother, the son of their father, Touga Taisho and a human settler, Izayoi.  Touga’s first wife and Sesshomaru’s mother, Inukimmi, had been ill after giving birth to Sesshomaru, Izayoi had been hired as her in home nurse. A year after Inukimmi had died, Touga and Izayoi were married, and nine months later Inuyasha was born. Sesshomaru had resented Izayoi, and because of that, Inuyasha.  He would not explain his reasoning, but Inuyasha suspected it was because it felt like betrayal.  Inu’s, by nature, were fiercely loyal, and took one mate for life.  It was unheard of for an Inu to take a second wife, yet their father had.  Many saw it as a shame upon the family, but their father had been powerful enough in the global government that the whispers were kept away from him, but Inuyasha had heard them all.  And Sesshomaru never missed an opportunity to remind him that he was an anomaly, something to be pitied.
That was why he was desperate to prove himself on his own, to show that he was a worthy son of Touga and Izayoi, so he could return home as a celebrated officer and finally feel that he had made his parents proud.  To feel like he wasn’t just a mistake.
It burned him that Sesshomaru could take that away.  Yet he knew he couldn’t reject the opportunity, or the position.  And so there he was, pacing impatiently, waiting for his new ship, his new crew, to dock.  He stalked over to Miroku, taking a spot along the wall next to his friend.
“Ok Miroku” Inuyasha sighed, needing a distraction.  “I know you have been doing research on this ship, who are we dealing with and what are we walking into?”
Miroku’s blue eyes sparkled with excitement as he pulled out his pad and opened his notes.
“Let me see… we are going to skip the Captain, I presume you don’t want information about your brother?” he teased, leaning over to nudge Inuyasha with his elbow.  A low growl was the response from the half-inu, which caused Miroku to chuckle.
“I didn’t think so, moving on then.   Commander Sango Tajiya, First Officer.  She is a 29-year-old human who excels in martial arts, battle tactics and one of the highest scores on her command test. She was Salutatorian of her graduating class and saw action in the Dominion War, in which she received her Starfleet Medal of Honor, she is also a recipient of the Preanteres Ribbon of Commendation.   She served for the last 4 years as Tactical on the USS-Hood where Sesshomaru was first officer, and he requested her as his first officer abord the USS-Nobunaga.  I do have to say, if our previous commanding officers had looked like her, I would have actually looked forward to being called to task and punished by her.  Sources tell me that she enjoys combat training sessions on the holodeck and has a pet neko that she has brought on all postings with her.  Her favorite color is pink, she’s around 5’6” with a very athletic build with legs for days.  She has waist length dark brown hair and what appear to be deep chocolate eyes.  She has a younger brother, who is NOT part of Starfleet, that she has weekly conversations with.”
Inuyasha grunted slightly, one ear flicking towards Miroku.
“Lt. Commander Kagome Higurashi, Operations Manager and third in the chain of command.  She is 27 years old, human.  She is seen as a prodigy in Engineering and Computer Science.  She was valedictorian of her class, recipient of the Cochrane Medal of Excellence for her theories of engineering which led to improvements of the warp drives. Note, do not mention this to her, she does not like being reminded that her engines are being tested, and per reports is embarrassed by the attention and press she received.  Miss Higurashi is on the smaller side, 5’2” according to official records, with long black hair and light brown eyes.  My sources have indicated that you and she have something in common, you both love ramen (lord only knows why), and she can often be found curled up in a library program in the Holodeck.  As far as my sources have been able to find, she has never been on a date or had any serious relationship, though many have tried.”
Inuyasha shook his head. “Are there any of the officers that you would like to tell me about that AREN’T pretty young women you want to talk into bearing your children?”
Miroku gave his friend a mock pout before continuing.  “Well, if your past history is any indication you will be spending quite a bit of time with her, we have Dr. Kaede Hiatsu, the Chief Medical Officer.  She has served on Starfleet for 45 years, and was a field doctor during the Dominion War, stationed near Deep Space Nine due to her ability to think on her feet, surgical skills, and calmness under pressure.”
Inuyasha growled “I wasn’t in that many fights Miroku… and I never started them, I just made sure to end them.”
“Yes, but Inuyasha, you won’t be able to punch first and ask questions later this time.  You will need to use that skill you keep forgetting to train, patience.”
“Feh.”
Miroku scrolled through his pad, looking for additional information to relay.
“Ahhh…. Navigation and Communication, Ensign Shippo Kit, a 22-year-old kitsune.  He has a talent for languages, during four years at the academy he taught himself… eight languages… holy hell.”
Inuyasha’s eyebrow lifted at that statement, his curiosity peaked.
“Let’s see, he can learn languages quickly, and thanks to his kitsune heritage he can change his appearance to blend with his background or the local residents, paired with his language skills this made him a highly sought after member of recognizance teams. His flight and navigations scores coming out of the Academy were high enough that he was immediately placed onto the USS-Nobunaga.  He is assigned to navigation, but also acts as a communications expert.”
Miroku scanned through his notes before his eyes lit up with a mischievous glint.
Inuyasha looked up at the time displayed on the wall.  There were still 10 minutes until the ship would dock.  If he knew Sesshomaru, he would be exactly on time, not late, not early.
It was going to be a long ten minutes.
_______________________
Sango watched the Starbase 423 come closer through the viewscreen on the bridge.  She nodded to Shippo, and the computer called the senior officers to the docking bay.  
“Ensign Kit, you are with me.” Sango said, motioning for his relief to assume the helm.  Shippo stood and followed her into the lift.
Sango’s eyes softened as she watched the man beside her.  He was tall with bright auburn hair pulled back and secured with a band, but his bright green eyes seemed nervous.  Shippo was new to the ship she knew, and she had not had much opportunity to get to know him.  Sango knew it was important to know all members of her bridge crew and to build the trust between the teams.  In the Dominion war, that trust had meant the difference between life and death.
“At ease Ensign, you don’t need to be nervous.” Sango kept her voice soft, hoping to help sooth Shippo’s nerves.  Shippo took a deep breath and nervously rubbed his hands down the sides of his uniform pants as he released it, then looked over to Sango.
“Sorry Commander.” He said quietly.  
“No need to apologize, you will get used to meeting new officers in time.”
“Oh no no no, it’s not that, its….” Shippo paused, not sure if he wanted to continue but knew that he needed to be honest with his commanding officer.  “In the Academy we heard so much about the Inu brothers. Everyone wanted to match Sesshomaru in skill, he became the ideal to strive to be, but Inuyasha was the one everyone had stories about, so he kinda became a legend if you know what I mean.”
Sango’s eyes went cold “Yes, I’ve heard of some of his… antics.”
Sango knew her Captain had his reasons for bringing his brother on board, she just had no idea what they were.  She was trying to get this crew into shape, the Dominion War may have ended, but that did not mean they could rest on their laurels and get out of practice, and then Sesshomaru decided to bring in Inuyasha.  
She had reviewed his service records carefully after she received the notice to analyze this new unknown entity on her ship.  She knew he was transferring in with their new science officer, but Inuyasha was the one that worried her.  He didn’t have a troubling record per se, but there were enough scuffles and incidents that were noted that didn’t quite meet the level of reprimand that had her concerned. His prior commanding officers described him as ruthlessly efficient with a gruff attitude… and almost no patience. He had shown to have an innate understanding of battle tactics during the Dominion War, the Captain of the Nautilus had brought him in for battle planning, and his plans and tactical maneuvers were a large part of why the Nautilus had succeeded and survived the Dominion War.
There was nothing she could really point to in his record to show why she was uneasy about him joining the ship.  He was reported to be an excellent officer if you did not set off his temper.  What bothered her the most though was it seemed he had his own personal code of right and wrong, just as she did. Inuyasha had been in a few fights with suspects and on away missions, and the reports carefully never mentioned who had started the fights, just who had ended them, which was not typically Starfleet protocol.  She would have to keep an eye on him, which is why she had needed to make it clear with her Captain what her boundaries were with their new Chief of Security and Tactical Officer.
The turbo lift opened, and Shippo and Sango made their way to the docking bay with the other senior officers.  Sango noticed that they had arrived before the Captain, and she quickly did a visual inspection of the team to ensure they all met regulation.  She chuckled to herself when she saw her friend and Operations Officer Kagome, whose long wavy black hair had partially escaped its confinement.  Sango caught Kagome’s attention and motioned to her hair, she saw her friend’s cheeks turn pink before Kagome quickly removed her hair tie and tried to tame her hair in a low ponytail.  Sango heard the swish of the doors and came to attention as Sesshomaru walked into the bay. At exactly 16:00, the Nobunaga docked with the Space Station, and Inuyasha and Miroku were officially ushered on board.  
Inuyasha entered first, his eyes scanning the room before landing on his brother.  Golden eyes met dark amber, and Inuyasha straightened his spine before marching to stand in front of Sesshomaru.  
“Lt. Commander Inuyasha Taisho, reporting for duty Sir.”
“Lt. Miroku Hoshi, reporting for duty Sir.”
Sesshomaru looked at the pair before him, his eyes lingering on his brother. “Welcome aboard.  I leave you in the competent hands of my First Officer.”  With a slight nod that could almost be a welcome, Sesshomaru turned and left the docking bay.
Inuyasha let out his breath, partially irked at the cold welcome, but also relieved that he had not had to endure one of Sesshomaru’s scathing welcomes that he had dealt with at home.  
“Puppy ears.  No one said anything about puppy ears.” He heard a woman whisper from the group standing beside him.  One ear turned towards the sound, and the speaker let out a soft “eep” as she realized that he had heard her.  
“KAGOME” he heard hissed back quietly.  Pulling up the information from Miroku about the Operations Officer, he turned to face the group.  He was able to identify most of the group from the descriptions (Miroku forgot to mention that Kaede only had one eye) and the red-haired young man had to be Shippo.
What he was not expecting was the punch in the gut when he saw Lt. Commander Higurashi for the first time. He had seen beautiful women before, hell he had been engaged to one at the end of his time at the Academy, but they had nothing on the petite beauty before him.  Her long black hair was barely tamed in a ponytail, and her brown eyes reminded him of melted chocolate.  He watched as her cheeks tinged pink and she shyly pulled her gaze away from him.  
The woman next to her walked forward towards them, the red shoulders of her uniform designating her in a Command position, the three full pips identifying her as the First Officer.
“Commander Tajiya, I look forward to working with you.” Inuyasha calmly stated, extending a hand to his new commanding officer.  
“Likewise, Lt. Commander Taisho.” Was the response.
Sango turned to her new science officer, who was staring at her with a dazed expression on his face.
“Lieutenant?” Sango questioned, catching his attention.
Without thinking, Miroku stared at her in awe “holy hell Yash” he whispered, “she’s gorgeous.”
Inuyasha elbowed his friend in the side, shaking him out of his daze.  Miroku’s face turned bright red as he realized what he had just said.
“umm, I apologize Commander, I… I uh…. Ilookforwardtoworkingwithoupleaseforgiveme.”
Sango eyed the two of them, she thought Inuyasha was the one she was going to have trouble with, but it seemed that her new Science Officer would be the bigger headache.  “Thank you both, and welcome to the Nobunaga.  We will meet in the briefing room at 16:20. Until then, dismissed.”
At Sango’s command, Shippo made a beeline for Inuyasha, peppering him with questions about stories from the Academy, wanting confirmation on which were true, and which were embellished, then asking about his experience in the Dominion war.  The Kitsune’s excitement was evident to everyone around him, he wasn’t giving Inuyasha the chance to answer a question before asking the next one.
Kagome found herself rooted in place watching Shippo and Inuyasha, thankful that Shippo was distracting Inuyasha.  She was slightly embarrassed that he had heard her before, but come on, he had puppy ears! Somehow that had been left out of his Starfleet records that she had gone over with Sango.  She had felt… not quite nerves… when their eyes had met briefly.  He was Hot.  Like seriously HOT.  It was strange, he looked so much like the Captain, yet she had never once (ok maybe once) thought that about the Captain, but there was something about Inuyasha that made him seem more approachable.  Kagome felt her cheeks heat up again, and she chastised herself for her thoughts. Even if he were approachable, she wouldn’t know how to go about it, she had few male friends (though Shippo was growing on her), and she had never had that reaction with any other man.  
She watched the two men locked in conversation (well, she wasn’t sure if it was conversation or interrogation as Shippo was still asking questions), admiring the picture they made, Inuyasha with his long silver hair in a low ponytail standing a few inches over Shippo with his unruly red hair tied back.  She felt herself shiver as Inuyasha’s eyes darted to her, she swore she saw his eyes go darker as he looked her over before one side of his mouth quirked up in a smirk, the tip of a fang peeking out. And then he…
Winked at her.
At her.  At Kagome Higurashi.  Her face turned bright red and she scurried out of the dock.  She knew she would need a few moments to compose herself, at least that’s what she had always heard other say.  Now for the first time she knew what they meant.  The bridge was about to get… interesting. She just wished she knew him or his profile well enough to know if he was just teasing her, if he was a womanizer (She had heard of officers with a girl at every planet and port), or if he thought she was cute.  Her brain short circuited at the last thought, and she shook her head to clear it, embarrassed about her thoughts.  He was a fellow officer.  That was it. She wouldn’t know how to handle any more than that.
Inuyasha watched her escape, half listening to the young ensign who had introduced himself as Shippo, while his senses followed Kagome out of the bay.  As she passed, he caught the scent of vanilla and roses, everyday scents in perfume worn on the starships, but for some reason it had hit his senses like ambrosia.  He realized that he was still being hit with a million questions from the very enthusiastic kitsune, and he shifted his full attention back.  The smirk that had not left his face grew into a grin as he saw the excited green eyes that watched him with an expression that bordered on hero worship.
“Look Shippo, right? I believe Commander Tajiya needs me in a few minutes, I promise to answer all your questions as we work together.  I’m going to need someone to help me get familiar with the ship, wanna help me?”
Shippo’s jaw nearly dropped, the legend, THE INUYASHA was asking for his help, HIS HELP.  It was the single best day of his life; even greater than the day he was assigned to the Nobunaga.  
“Absolutely Sir!” he excitedly chirped, almost dancing with excitement.
Inuyasha chuckled before calling Miroku over.
“Great!  Look, when we aren’t on duty you can just call me Yash. This is one of my closest friends from the Academy, Miroku, Miroku this is Shippo.”
“And by closest friend he means his handler.” Miroku teased, reaching out to shake Shippo’s hand.
Inuyasha snorted at that “Like I need a fucking handler.”
Miroku lifted an eyebrow and donned a serious expression. “Inuyasha, that was the bargain for my transferring with you, I was instructed to KEEP HIM IN LINE and to KEEP THAT INU OUT OF TROUBLE.”
Inuyasha flat out laughed, almost choking “Dude, you are usually the one who gets me into trouble.”
Miroku thought about that for a second. “Sadly, it is true.” He admitted.
Shippo watched the two senior officers, his eyes growing wider and wider.   He had heard some of the pranks that the duo had played in the Academy, and now they were here, in his ship, working with him for the foreseeable future.  He couldn’t believe how lucky he was, he would be the envy of his classmates.  He could not WAIT to tell Shiori about this, she would kill for this opportunity.  
“Let me show you the way to the bridge and to the briefing room.” Shippo hated interrupting the back and forth, but he didn’t want their first day to go off track.  “Sango is a stickler for being on time, and besides” he said slyly, looking at Miroku “I would think you would want all the brownie points you could to get back in her good graces.”
Inuyasha and Miroku went silent, both turning to face Shippo.  Shippo immediately panicked, he was afraid that he had overstepped his bounds, but he just wanted so much to feel included and then he goes and does….
His frantic thoughts eased as Inuyasha smiled and Miroku’s head fell with a groan.  
“Kid” Inuyasha smirked “we are going to get along just fine.”
__________________________________________
At exactly 16:20 Inuyasha and Miroku made sure they were both seated in the briefing room, heeding Shippo’s advice.  Miroku was already deeply in conversation with Kaede regarding different herbs and plants that had been found on a recent botany expedition that had been found to have latent healing properties.  Miroku had been one of the scientists working on perfecting the extraction method, and Kaede had been sent some of the prototype salves to determine its practical application in the field.  She had sent back comments and feedback, and Miroku had asked for some further clarification and expansion on some of the reports.
Inuyasha eyes were darting around the room, taking in the layout, where the computers were located, how the table and chairs were situated near the panes of glass.  He wanted to familiarize himself with every room, especially where the senior officers and Captain would spend time, to prepare for any potential security concern.  He already wanted to speak with Kagome about getting a secondary com system set up just for the security team.  It would serve two purposes, the first to develop a communication system that would be reliable if the computer was compromised in security crises,  and the second to give him a chance to get to know Kagome outside of the bridge.  Every time his eyes went her direction, she would flush an adorable shade of pink and make sure that she was looking anywhere BUT at him.  He looked forward to exploring that later.
With a soft sound the doors opened, and Sango strode into the room, taking her place at the head of the table.  
“Ok everyone, I hope you have had the opportunity to meet our new officers.  As soon as our Chief of Engineering returns to the ship we will be departing.  The supplies have all been brought on board, and Jaken should be here within the half hour. We have been asked to escort a supply ship through contested space, the last three ships were all destroyed.”
Inuyasha sat forward “Do we know what type of ships and what weapons were used?”
Sango looked over at her Inuyasha with a grudging respect.  Those were the questions she had asked as well, and she silently reassessed her opinion of her new tactical officer.  “From what limited information was relayed during the attacks, the supply vessels were destroyed by what seemed to be photon torpedoes.  Given the limited data we have not been able to identify any specific energy signature that would allow us to identify who we are dealing with.”
Inuyasha began going through the list in his mind of which races equipped photon torpedoes, cross referencing with his own knowledge of the races in that sector of space.  Each potential opponent required a different tactic, and he wanted to be prepared just in ca…
“Bridge to Commander Tajiya” Shippo’s voice was heard from Sango’s communicator.
“Go ahead Ensign.”
“We have received confirmation that Jaken is on board, we are cleared to disembark.”
“Acknowledged.”
Sango looked at her senior officers and gave a small smile.  “Everyone, please report to your duty stations.  Lt. Commander Taisho and Lt. Hoshi, time to get a feel for the Nobunaga.”
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mutilatd · 4 years
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intro: eryk “kaz” kaczynski
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NAME:  Eryk Casimir Kaczynski NICKNAME(S):  Kaz GENDER:  Cismale  ( he / him ) DATE OF BIRTH:  January 5th, 1988  ( Capricorn ) RELIGION:  raised Reformist Jew  ( doesn’t practice as often as he did when he was a kid, but still wears the Star of David around his neck, still painting him out to be more believer than nonbeliever ) SEXUALITY:  Panromantic Pansexual BIRTHTOWN:  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania RESIDENCE:  Red Ridge, Nevada AFFILIATION:  Law Enforcement OCCUPATION:  Federal Agent / FBI Profiler, consulting primarily mostly on Valencia’s behalf ALIGNMENT:  Chaotic Good VICES:  Prescription drugs DEBILITATIONS:  ( mental and physical )  PTSD, suicidal tendencies MBTI:  ISTJ - The Inspector
"He didn't know what he was getting himself into. It's hard to know whether he can tell now. Valencia, it's, uh -- another kind of breed."
BIO / RUNDOWN:  ( warning for mentions of death, suicidal intent, and drug abuse )
Kaz grew up a military brat, but in a house full of discipline, he was naturally bound to corrupt the order and rebel against his father's system. For that, he made some immature choices, slipped down a couple of wrong paths, but that didn't happen without him getting back up again. In his mind, to this day, it was petty kid shit, stuff that wasn't worthy of overreacting over, but his father did anyway. When he was 14 years old, he was sent to military school to "clean up his act," and ended up staying there for longer than expected, up until his graduation.
Besides being a man instead of a boy now, he came out more or less the same person, just with a sharper mind and better interests. Of course, he wasn't going to join the corps, just like Dad did, but he wasn't going to burden his life of any disappointments either. He decided to go to college, to take up criminal justice, figuring there's bigger and badder evils in the world that need to be taken down, ideally by a so-called nuisance like himself. Eventually, his Bachelor's Degree led him to the FBI Academy shortly after, where he would meet Camille Thomas ( @empiricst ), who he considered to be the girl of his dreams at the time.
When things took a ride uphill, they were soon destined to crash and burn in the end. After 6 years, Camille and Kaz ( or rather just Camille ) decided to call it quits -- for reasons that could be beyond his control. Off the edge of 29 years old, he was already a well-established agent, working for the FBI's investigative division at the time. Months later after their breakup, the makings of an ongoing RICO investigation would tumble his way, his superiors pitching that his whereabouts is needed right under their scope, undercover, and for how long, exactly? "Indefinitely," they said. "However long it takes." A miserable, heartbroken Kaz, feeling as if he didn't have much to lose anyway, decided against any apprehensions that could prevent him from hopping on board and setting his true identity aside.
This would lead him to a 2 year long stint, in which he would immerse himself into the role of a ruthless gang member. More importantly, a cold-blooded killer -- murdering people without question simply ended up being the way he had to prove himself after all. And while he already "fit the look," as his colleagues had once said, an innate instinct, hidden by the coddle in his self-righteous conscience, was the one thing that truly convinced everyone, including those very colleagues. He became a person he, amid it all, despised, a person his own mother would cower in fear from, that his father would be disappointed in. When the operation was finally coming to a close, he found it perplexing for everyone to just assume he could drop everything, to go back to the way things were, as if "Kaz" hadn't drifted away like a forgetful memory. His hands were already drenched in blood and, when it came time for the clothes to come off, it all stayed.
It was all he could think about it. Still is, to this day, all he can think about. But fresh on the first day officially back, he was quickly unraveling. Ultimately, he became suicidal, erratic, terribly unfit for a job that requires a weapon always at his side. He was a danger to himself first and foremost, but eventually, he became a danger to others too. With a psychologist ready at hand, drugs that were prescribed put him well-off until he slowly spiraled out of control.
By the time 6 months had passed, people feared him, ostracized him, didn't know what to make of him or call him besides the word, "crazy." And perhaps he was. Yet, his superiors, who faked ignorance for as long as they could, didn't cut in until things became absolutely obvious: Kaz was broken. But, weighing in on their options, they decided he was still a good cause -- smart, operative, yearning to adapt. They put him somewhere more modest, where he could do just that. The Behavioral Analysis Unit, where he could sit at a desk and think towards his qualms rather than act on them, away from the action. It almost felt like a punishment, but they reminded him that taking away his badge had been an option too, and for that, he proceeded to remain silent. Compliant instead of complicit.
With this, he calmed, stopped going to the psychologist, but didn't refrain from taking the pills. At this point, he was too reliant on them to keep him sane. And with signs of sanity, the FBI began to level with him once again. They assigned him to Red Ridge for his expertise, but more importantly, his past. Sent to consult the police on Valencia's behalf, the bureau figured he'd succeed in his help. Reasons? Specifically, he's technically "well-acquainted" with the kind of people they're forced to deal with.
FEW FACTS:
Kaz's body is littered with tattoos, some from his undercover days, others prior to that. Unfortunately, the ones that can be seen despite his everyday attire are some from undercover.
Sometime during the stint, he also developed a rapid blinking tick that came in immediately after a blank was shot three feet away from his face. His eyesight stayed for the most part, but tissue of the skin in that area is mostly what weakened. Staring at a computer screen for more than several minutes easily strains his eyes. Along with that, doing so little as looking at somebody can't be held without the habit. He'll lose in a staring contest every single time.
Before Kaz became a profiler, he was more brawn than brains, albeit not necessarily dumb. His specialities formerly consisted of weaponry and hand-to-hand combat, but his reassessment has led him to focus more on his investigative skills, making him smarter and less impulsive about his decisions.
Kaz is trilingual. Born 99% Polish, the language was instilled into him as a kid before he could even begin to learn English. He would later on take up Spanish when he was already in college, deciding he wanted to increase his opportunities as a future lawman. Between that and English, his mother tongue occasionally escapes him today. But he tries his best to maintain it for his mom's sake.
WANTED:
Someone from the PD he gets along with ( in a land full of people that most definitely hate the feds )
People from Valencia that make Kaz want to risk it all ( basically, meaning to go back to that lifestyle )
Anonymous Tip ( someone that feels like they can confide in him and use him as a messenger to the police )
Hook Ups / One Night Stands ( it's highly likely Kaz would accidentally sleep with a member of Valencia )
Drug Dealers / Plugs ( people that could relieve him of his pill popping addiction while he's here )
Enemies ( this man is going to boil some bad blood one way or the other, might as well )
PINTEREST BOARD / PLAYLIST
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