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cartoonfangirl1218 · 7 months

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Legend of the Dragon S2 Watch and Rewrite

This season already shows how intense it will be through the updated intro. If I haven't mentioned before, the intro music is great, and the clips are just awesome. Yes, it shows a animation shift and Jeff "Swampy" is no longer assisted supervisor which is sad. But again, the intro so awesome, I'm already hyped and the pilot just ups the ante so let's get started.

Temple of the Shadow Dragon: Animation is much more crisp and fluid. At least when in close ups. In midrange, the faces aren’t always consistent. The flash animation is more obvious in the fight scenes though. And the CGI is wow. Very dated. But I guess it shows they got a bigger budget. Or smaller depending on how much flash animation costs. Also a side note, the animation made the color palette less vibrant and the characters more pale in general. And Ang/Ling have blue hair now instead of black with blue highlights. Kinda weird, I prefered season one palette.

Voice acting feels a little stiff during fight scenes even when the dialogue is in character, it feels like they’re trying to be overdramatic.

Don’t remember as much monkey hooting from Xuan Chi in previous fights as he does now. Same with Bengail’s grunts and yells.

Master Chin helpfully delivers exposition on the emperor combining his ancient magic with technology, hence CGI.

Sadly, slo-mo has returned in a particularly egregious scene where Xuan Chi takes the blast for Bengali in a scene. But it is surprising that it actually turned Xuan Chi into a monkey, demonstrating that guardians who have taken the position long enough, have their powers in twined in their essence and thus when in danger, Xuan Chi went primal. Or primate in this case.

Probably to give them a cute animal mascot and to make up for the fact that the VA was probably unavailable for the second season.

But it is a big blam episode where the Emperor destroys the dragon shrine and dojo so the twins cannot recharge their armbands and become golden dragons. (Also I know they have no budget for extras but what about the other students at the dojo? Jungi? Their mom?!? I guess they’re dead, it was nice knowing them for one episode)

Luckily, there’s a shadow temple for every yang temple. But Ling warns that isn’t the corruptive yin power what led to their emperor problem in the first place?

It’s a risk they have to take, the same with Zodiac Master begging the group to take him with them. Apparently, the Emperor is the worst boss ever. Too bad he got caught and the emperor takes him away for punishment.

However, they do have a jet to fight against the Emperor’s in a brightly colored CGI dog fight that honestly my eyes could have done without.

Apparently one of the new bonuses is that they can create random machinery from their phones. Random but okay, gotta get toy merch somehow.

Anyway, Master Chin takes the fortune cookie route by not telling them where the shadow temple is even though he clearly knows. I swear, some may say he’s letting them figure it out themselves, I say he’s screwing with their heads.

Point is, the shadow temple is in Alacatraz (where else can you find mass amounts of yin than in prison) and their new dojo is in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

Part 2 introduces a new villain. The ancient shadow rat guardian and the emperor’s sister, Yin We who has a slight British accent. I know it’s a british series but with the other characters have American or stereotypically Chinese accents (the emperor is the latter), it’s just weird that she’s British when she grew up in a time before British colonialism. Whatever, she sounds evil and loving it. Her moves are also very slithery and sinuous which is more snake like than rat like but whatever, she’s evil and loving it.

As for Zodiac Master, he’s clearly become the bottom bitch for lack of a better term that they’re only keeping around because he knows the modern era and newfangled technology. It’s a pathetic step down and he so deserves it.

As for the group back in the temple, Ling is wary of the shadow temple for good reason as she can already hear voices trying to corrupt her to fulfill her true destiny.

Long story short, they mercifully don’t put viewers through a repeat of the previous season and Ling is able to regain control of herself and have renewed confidence that she can fight her dark side.

I would improve this episode just a bit by giving Ang more of an arc to go through. This season he is a bit lacking in character growth. While I liked the idea of Ling being wary of her potential dark side, Ang can show that he's still getting over the events of the previous season by not being totally trustful of her. Yes, he says he trusts her but he is first to jump on her when she seems to be corrupted. It can lead to a real bonding moment of how they're both trying to act things are normal but they aren't and they need to rebuild trust.

Enter the Shadow Wolf: Apparently some days have passed and we’re jumping into the new plot that since the twins already know about the shadow dog temple and is checking up on the guardian to see if he'll join the emperor.

This case, they’re at the shadow dog’s temple or in this case, shadow wolf as fluffy and cute don’t scream yin as much as a giant man-wolf.

K-Ho is true neutral evil as he has no interest in “sides” but representing yin so the world may remain in balance. A concept that Ang can’t quite reconcile in his black and white thinking. He doesn’t trust the wolf unlike Ling who is absolutely charmed.

Ang’s negative impression is reinforced when Yin We comes out of the shadows to introduce herself and her alliegence to her brother. She also has shape shifting powers. Unlike the rat guardian, hers isn’t limited to just rats. She can turn into any person, making for some dynamic fighting your twin sequences.

Anyway, the episode is all about whether trusting K-Ho a good idea and after some shapeshifting misunderstandings, Ang reluctantly concedes that K-Ho can be trusted. Well, the others trust him, Ang is still watching him closely.

Yin We is a fun new character with her bratty sister dynamic as she says she’s more “with it” in understanding the modern era compared to her brother. But the Emperor asserts his dominance when he warns her against impersonating him again. Yeah, he’s “with it” too, he has eyes everywhere.

To continue with my giving Ang more character development idea, I would like this episode to also explore Ang adjusting to being co-dragon with Ling. He's used to being the leader with Xuan Chi and Bengail as support. Now he has to sometimes run his ideas by Ling and it just rankles him after being independent so long.

Cats and Dogs and Dragons: Turns out Master Chin had a life outside the temple. A potential love life at that as the teens learn he has an archeologist friend who needs their help.

So off they go to Egypt where the villains somehow already knew about Master Chin’s girl friend and have kidnapped her as bait to lure the dragons. Also to use as a bloodless offering to Bastet for anyone who brings Bastet back to life can ask the cat goddess for a favor. In this case, do their dirty work for them.

You can also see the siblings are getting on each other’s nerves as the Emperor remarks that it’s too bad Yin We is his sister because then he can't chop off her head for being a smartass.

Meanwhile, K-Ho is already at the temple as he literally sniffed out trouble which rankles Ang as he gets all territorial about the mission and not trusting him. Side note: I know there’s no budget for extra civilian designs but K-Ho looks prepared to explore the Artic rather than hot Egyptian pyramids.

Anyway, there’s some reluctant team work between the boys after Ling yells at them, they free Bastet from the Emperor’s command, they free archeologist lady and we learn that the goddess was the original tiger guardian too.

Which comes to what I’d rewrite in this episode which would be to give more focus on Bengail. As you'll see throughout this season is Bengail has been demoted from her badassery, often the first to be knocked out of battle. Same happens here even when Bastet has a real connection to the tiger guardian.

Bengail deserves some chracter growth too besides being mature supportive friend. So I would make this a Bengail episode, with her taking the lead on this mission, checking everyone for being unfocused with their crushes (Ling) and macho ego contest in K-Ho/Ang's case. I would highlight how Bengail has been working doubly hard, going back and forth between San Fran and Hong Kong to check her temple and help the twins and she wants some little acknowledgement for her hard work. Give her time to shine and save the time. Not just the golden dragons.

Shadow Tiger Take Two: The teens travel to a remote island to check on the shadow tiger temple where it turns out, Ang’s old superstar friend is making a new movie and he can be in it. (With only one camera man because budget problems. Hey, they can make meta)

Starstruck Ang immediately accepts as he can act opposite his celeb crush, Karen Kwan so Ling and Bengali go on a girls trip to the temple where the shadow tiger guardian, Sabre-claw lives up to his name by turning into a sabertooth-hybrid. The design is not unlike a low budget Sabretooth (hence name change). Bengail has a brief brush with corruption with how much she wants the shadow tiger band which I really wish they went through with. Show Bengail's dark side.

Meanwhile, Yin We has been impersonating Karen to get close to Ang’s armband but is foiled by Xuan Chi’s animal sense. Ang helps Ling and Bengail against Sabreclaw, they save Karen and the day is saved.

Pretty standard so to add some pathos, I would have Ang be attracted to it because he is starting to miss some normalcy. He's been all Golden Dragon 24/7, and this used to be one of his childhood dreams. Now Ling is his co-dragon, why can't he take a break? Yes, I mentioned that he should have an episode in season one over his normal life vs new responsibilities but he can backslide, and start an arc of Ang working on a dragon-life balance.

A Horse of a Different Color: K-Ho has been training the twins on how to access their power bands without having to go through the transformation sequence. A feat which they quickly turn into a competition cuz sibling rivalries never go away.

Anyway, before Ang gets turned into street pizza again, Master Chin’s Aesop gives him a brainstorm. All legends have a bit of truth in them so maybe they’ll find other shadow temples through the legends. Like England’s White Horse ruins sound perfect setting for the Shadow Horse temple. Ling’s Skeptical but Ang is quickly proven right when they find the temple and it’s defenses turn against them.

Quickly they find the Shadow Horse, I mean Shadow Stallion guardian who can turn into a centaur! So awesome! Anyway, Yin We tries to destroy the temple when the stallion refuses to join the emperor and the twins figure out how to use their power by working together.

It’s a simple episode so I would emphasize more of the competition part so their teamwork realization is more meaningful. In fact, I feel like the setting should just be changed to Scotland since they have so many loch ness jokes and a kelpie would be so much more of a yin legend-hello horse that drags unsuspecting mortals to their death just like the shadow horse draws people's destructiveness.

Rat Attack: Yin We has been breaking the teens’ defenses by attacking at all hours at random, making them lose sleep and leave no time to recharge. It’s a pretty wise strategy though I wish they did more with it as the episode goes beyond a few yawns here and there. To make it more urgent, just show the affects of sleep deprevetion on the teens, especially Ang.

But I found Bengail’s pep talk to Ang that it’s okay to take a break and he cannot be on guard all the time because he’s human to be sweet and just what he needed to hear. You can tell he puts a lot of responsibility on himself in being guardian all the time and needs to be pulled into focus as a season long arc.

So Yin We tries to pull a trap by kidnapping the rat guardian, Ming and impersonating her and the teens manage to pull off not one but two double crosses. The second one I didn’t even see coming. Plus Ming returns and the feisty girl never disappoints.

So it’s a good episode, it could have just done more with what they had.

Spellbound: Sabreclaw and Yin We are back and have dug up a mystical were-Jaguar jade to call in another god to double-cross. Apparently, Yin We has been itiching to prove that she can do a good plan without her brother's input.

Back in San Francisco, the show finally answers my internal question about the safety of the Tiger Temple with Bengail in San Francisco this whole time, apparently she travels back and forth. And she’s been gone for a long time, Ang and Ling are worried and they head there to find it totally ransacked.

Long story short, they follow the clues to Central America and Yin We adds conflict by shapeshifting to the jaguar god so the teens would think the jaguar god is behind all this and not Yin We.

It doesn't help that when they do see the real Jaguar God, he has hypnotized Bengail to be his future queen as he rebuilds his empire. Meanwhile, Yin We and Sabreclaw plan to ambush the god after he defeats the heroes so they can be double tigers.

Unfortunately, Bengail may be hypnotized but she's honest and tells the Jaguar god what backstabbing rats Yin We and Sabreclaw are, so he turns against Sabreclaw and Yin We and tries to sacrifice them in a pit.

While I enjoyed the change in location, the brief fighting the wrong enemy, and the return of feisty Bengail before and after she breaks out of her trance, her reasoning that she felt bad for him trying to rebuild his empire as some tragic bad guy didn’t work.

How did she know if she was hypnotized the whole time? I mean. the viewers knew but she didn't.

Also, I was waiting for some clear Ang not quite realizing why he’s so distressed about Bengail being taken. I’m not saying to put them together or he has some big hero moment, but like some more intense feelings on his side as Bengail has already shown for him.

So I would emphasize more of Ang's potential feelings for Bengail, and emphasize the god's tragic anti hero nature by having his empire be rebuilt after his tragic early death from conquistadors. Also give him a name, it will make him feel more human.

Friend or Foe: Since Yin We is weakened after their success in Rat Attack, the group takes advantage of Yin We’s state by setting up an irresistible trap-a seemingly abandoned temple. Yin We falls for it, and once they have her down, Sabreclaw nopes out of there like a coward. The Emperor watches this all from his all-seeing vision and while Zodiac Master suggests maybe it’s for the best, the Emperor turns on him for letting Yin We go without her band. Classic projection.

Now it’s a race against time for the group to get Yin We to the shadow rat temple and send her back to the spirit world while the Emperor sends obstacles to stop them.

And to make it a little more tricky for the heroes, without her band Yin We claims she’s good, no longer corrupted by the yin. That’s hard to believe and the whole group is skeptical of her innocent good girl act even as she begs them to let her help.

It all turns out to be a long con that Ang thankfully prepares for. I just wish it was a little more riveting and ambiguous.

But besides the Ang/Bengail ship tease, there’s also a thing going on between Ling and K-Ho. Like he makes a comment about how it’s always a wild adventure with them, and she just smiles like he called her pretty or some huge compliment. She’s got it bad.

While I think everyone could tell Yin We is faking, it could still add some conflicy by having Yin We observe the dynamics around her and pit the teens against each other like when she mentioned Ang and Bengail being together etc. It could also be another chance to have the twins discuss Ling's redemption.

They had a brief debate over whether Yin We could be held responsible if she was under the shadow rat power and if she is capable of change. Make it a real debate, and have the twins hash out why they (don't) believe in Yin We with Ling taking a more cynical stance to Ang's positive.

It could lead to a really dramatic climax when Ang asks Ling that if it was the smarter decision to not believe in redemption, than should he have not tried with her? And Ling says he shouldn't have. Reveal that past her nonchalant reaction to other's distrust, she still feels bad over what she did as the shadow dragon and feels she doesn't deserve redemption.

The Golden Babysitter Blues: After Yin We tries to steal the ox band from Robbie, he travels to San Francisco for refuge and Master Chin leaves the twins in charge of babysitting him while he gathers the other guardians to help.

This was pretty much a filler episode with some highlights Ang's indignation at Robbie calling him "his elder," he's not that old yet.and the little boy effortlessly taking out the teens with ease when they underestimate his martial arts skills.

But when they bump into the shadow-ox guardian in the park, it felt too convenient (he’s the town bully and can turn into a Minotaur) that Yin We could locate him and transport him so quickly just for Robbie to bump into him. Why not ambush?

And then the contrived "urgent" situation where Yin We kidnaps Master Chin so she could force a stalemate and get Robbie to give his band in exchange, you feel no satisfaction from Robbie's bait and switch since it was so predictable. They did it a lot better in Rat Attack.

To make it feel like a repeat of other episodes and maybe add some pathos have Ang and Ling really try to mentor Robbie as they were. Or even bring their mother in since she has more experience teaching kids only for her to be distracted in trying to bond with the twins and they're unsure of how to deal with having a parent in their life.

The twins could also have their own bonds with Robbie, reflecting in how they've learned and grown. Maybe ang realizes he wants to rebuild the temple and dojo. Maybe Ling even realizes she likes teaching kids and maybe Master Chin had a point that she has potential as a master like him.

Gone Shadow Ape: We return to the search for the monkey. Actually, it's the shadow monkey band. Master Chin and Ang head to Hong Kong at the behest of the previously helpful museum curator but Yin We and the Shadow Ape guardian get there first and turn into a beast worthy of King Kong (actually referenced within the show. Sadly, no tower homage)

Unfortunately, Xuan Chin gets wind of it back in San Francisco and steals the jet to fly to Hong Kong to retrieve it, ruining Ling's day off (Apparently, they've been there for almost half a year and they haven't ventured past their street like a permanent house arrest, what gives?)

Anyway, fights ensue, Xuan Chin gets sent to the pound for rabies, and it's really not a memorable episode. We spent most of the time watching the antics of a monkey trying to fly a plane and rescuing the monkey from the pound. The fight with the shadow ape took only 3 minutes and it was painful to see the twins get beaten down by generic throws.

Even the animation looked off in this episode, in character models and in matching audio with their mouths.

The only redeeming part is some of the snarky dialogue and yeah, that's it. It also ends the search for the monkey band on a cliffhanger!

To make this a more meaningful episode, I'd potential bring back Xuan Chin as a human again, give Ang and Xuan Chi a real bro trip episode after a whole season without their friendship. Oh, and finally give him his dang monkey band. We've already seen the shadow monkey band in the first season, just give Xuan Chi the powers he deserves.

As a B-plot, Ling can decide to work on easing her conscience and make amends to the other guardians she attacked in the previous year. This can turn comical to heartfelt and really show that Ling has grown for her selfish, entitled nature of before.

Lone Wolf: Ang and K-Ho get a bonding episode! Since K-Ho has a connection to all wolves, he immediately sets out to the cold north to save a wolf cub being terrorized by some hillbillies. Unfortunately, one of those hillbillies is Yin We and K-Ho gets injured in the resulting fight.

Now, it's up to Ang to care for a stubborn K-Ho and wolf cub in the midst of a blizzard while Yin We is waiting to attack them at their weakest. It made a great trapped among mountain lions scenario between Yin We and the blizzard and K-Ho rapidly decreasing energy. It was great to see Ang finally get the trust of the lone wolf and for K-Ho to finally admit he needs help and respect what Ang can offer in battle.

Meanwhile, Bengail and Ling have their own girls trip to fight at the Tiger Temple with Sabreclaw which they deduce as a distraction so the twins would be split up and easier to pick off. Nuh-uh, they're too smart for that and so the day is quickly wrapped up with a full team beatdown.

I don't have any changes or critiques to this episode even though it almost veers on a very special animal cruelty episode, I don't care. Animal terrorizers deserve to almost crash their helicopter.

Also Zodiac Master was here, utterly forgettable and useless. He was fine in the first three episodes but I don't see why they had him stick around. The Emperor should have turned him into stone if only to emphasize that he's a real threat and inject "Anyone can die" scenario.

Heart of the Black Dragon: Season finale time! With the help of the shadow snake guardian (who is promptly concussed cuz Yin We doesn’t share credit), the Emperor has the eye of the black dragon. A mcguffin never mentioned before because it in the time before guardians. Actually, it was why the guardians were created. To defeat the black dragon and then put the world in balance.

So we bring things back to Alcatraz since the guardians thought no one would go to the “new world” to find the black dragon’s heart. Too bad the Emperor figured it out.

So Master Chin ruins everyone’s day off (lowkey really nice to see them acting like normal teens, shopping, flirting etc. before it gets interrupted. Also Master Chin sarcasm is great) and they head to Alacatraz too late.

But if there’s a black dragon, there has to be a gold dragon and once again, Master Chin tells them they have to figure it out themselves even though he already knows everything!

I’ll admit the ending is cheesy as it’s inside themselves and after a brief moment of doubt, they turn into a double headed dragon. Something I’ve been waiting for and was disappointed at how cartoony it looked. Same with the final black vs gold dragon fight that was only 2 minutes long.

That’s the critique I’d give the episode as a whole. Great set up but the execution felt rushed and unearned and the fight choreography was a downgrade too. In season one you can see the martial arts moves that keep things dynamic and interesting, and the guardian powers had some relation to their animal. But here, it’s all kicks and colored blasts, it falls flat.

Even when it’s supposedly 10 terra cotta warriors against two, the urgency doesn’t feel real because the budget simplifies the action scenes. It makes them look lame honestly.

Give their unique powers and fight skills back like Bengail and her dart claws, I haven't seem them all season. Show the actual martial arts moves and inspiration.

Although, I did enjoy Bengail and K-Ho as the last ones standing and vowing to keep fighting like any last surviving soldier in the trenches. Even though they didn’t interact much in this season one on one, you can tell they have a completely platonic respect for each other as warriors. I like it and I wish the show did more to switch up the group pairings.

Final Thoughts: I really come to enjoy this show. The characters are what interesting and made me stay, the lore needs some work. As for the season, it started promising but showed cracks and budget issues in the end from color palette to fight chereography. It also got pretty formulaic by having the twins always being the one to save the day but the lessons felt too one-note. I wanted a season long arc as they did in the previous season.

Ang as I mentioned should get an arc on dealing with being a double golden dragon after being the lone dragon. Have him deal with sharing leadership, have him consumed with anxiety over his responsibilities, not giving himself time to rest. Learning to trust Ling again which is part of the reason he gives himself so much work because he doesn't believe Ling will care as much as he does.

Ling's arc would be complementary to his by having her take responsibility that she lacked. Yes, I want her to remain snarky but I also want her to be cautious of her own tendency towards selfishness and shortcuts. I want her to try to take accountability and make amends for the previous season instead of brushing off the other guardians' distrust of her (tho it is hilarious everytime. Guess there's no guardian newsletter update). Have her be a better sister by helping her brother acknowledge he is a good person but he needs to accept help and she wants to be someone he can lean on.

Master Chin shouldn't know everything. It makes him look like a jerk for not telling them basic information and warn them of potential dangers. Have him be just as unaware of the shadow temples since he's associated with only yang.

Give Bengail a focus episode as they did with K-Ho. K-Ho. . . K-Ho's cool. His VA reminds me of Greg Cipes the entire time which is so weird since its the same VA for Ang. I didn't mention before but the whole cast does double the amount of characters and its super impressive to me. They all did a great job!

The Emperor and Yin We were great as villains. I have no complaints, and Sabreclaw was nice attempt at giving Bengail a nemesis although it felt his indian accent got thicker in each episode he appeared.

As mentioned before, I would have just killed off Zodiac Master after the third episode. It would make the season darker and helps get rid of him since he was super unecessary and pathetic this season.

Upgrade everyone's powers. The only new thing the twins got was teleportation which eh. They can also "fly" but they did that in the previous season so I'm not sure why they were all surprised by that. It would be cool if the twin could breath fire though.

I would also up the ante with not just blowing up the dragon temple but forcing all the other guardian temples to move because they're not safe with Yin We and the Emperor on the loose. Displacement for all, and it can give the show a chance to show different Asian countries beyond Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Speaking of dark, I would have focused more lore on the shadow temples as mysterious as they are as not all of them are explored in the show. Just half. Make the teens face their darker natures or face the worst of humanity in a deadly sins-like way or yin-esque way. Put focus on the importance of balance and harmony and how they need to both exist in the world. Bring back some of the yang guardians since those cameos were fun like the Rooster guardian and Chow Chow and the twins' mom!

Really bring the zodiac into play by having the yang guardians show the animal's best traits and the yin show the worst and how destiny/the animal doesn't really control the person' fate but the person's actions do. Explore all the nuances of morality and redemption through the zodiac.

Overall, I would recommend the series for the characters alone and for its potential lore even if there are some big gaps. I really enjoyed it and will be in my mind for a long while.

#legend of the dragon #watch and rewrite #random musings #season two

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just-horrible-things · 2 years

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Timeline: early chewtoy, before Riven really starts torturing her on the regular AU: Chewtoy - Micromanagement, pt2 [Prev | Next]

“Bad news, magic scum.” It’s important to project confidence. If he is lying, he’ll be far more rattled by a confident assertion than a hesitant one. “We know you're lying." "No," he protests, "no no I-I'm not, but I'm not–!"

Chess helps Ari grab him. He fights, driven by desperation, and they lay into him until he stops kicking and starts just cowering.

Then they drag him to the interrogation room. Chess holds him down while Ari clips his wrists to the floor.

She doesn't bother with questions, she just grabs a whip off the wall. Riven doesn't care about getting any sense out of the unfortunate bastard, he wants to see blood.

Crows screams and swears and pulls against the cuffs, reluctant compliance shattered along with the promise that she made him.

She tried, Ariadne tells herself. She argued for him. It wasn't her choice to whip him.

It’s her he curses out, and her he begs for mercy.

She tips antiseptic over his back when she's done, and he screams again. He's trembling on the floor and looks pitiful enough, but she still grabs Chess's help to move him back to his cell. You never know for sure when they'll find a little bit more fight.

And then instead of going home, she has to report for punishment.

She's left herself enough time to wash up and grab a coffee. In the bathroom she runs her fingers through her hair in a futile effort to bully the unruly strands at the front into compliance, then reties it tightly.

Riven hasn't bothered to round up the others, which Ari supposes she is glad of. He doesn’t even bother to show up on time. At five sharp he’s still wringing screams from whichever lowlife he has in there.

Ari waits in the hall, simmering with frustration at him and at the tension in her own gut. There is absolutely no need to be afraid, it’s just a little bit of pain. She wouldn’t even be in this position if she had a hold of her own temper.

At eleven minutes past the hour, Riven finally emerges, wiping his hands on his pants to dry them from washing off the blood. “Milonas,” he acknowledges Ariadne. “Sir,” she answers tersely.

He nods her to the second interrogation room, and she follows in silence.

Of course he’s just leaving his interrogatee for someone else to clean up and drag back to their cell. Typical. Well, Ari thinks sourly, it’s not gonna be me. Not today.

"You know what this is about," Riven tells her – an off-hand stand-in for the formal reading of her misdemeanors that is supposed to precede corporal punishment. "Yes sir," Ariadne agrees, biting off each word like a meal she doesn’t want to swallow. However pissed she is, shoving him was across a line and she knows it. "Hands and knees."

She prefers being up against the wall, but she obeys, taking her belt off as she gets down on the floor. Her palms are damp with unwelcome sweat.

“Eyes down, and keep still,” Riven orders lazily. “I know the drill,” Ari snaps back, feeling her face heat up. “Good.”

She gets fifteen strokes with the knotted rope. Enough to bruise her from hips to shoulders. She bears it with gritted teeth and savage thoughts of the things she’d like to do to Riven in return.

“Did you get anything new out of 201?” He turns the rope over in his hands, playing with it casually. “No, sir.” Big fucking surprise. “Then you aren’t done with him yet, are you?” “No, sir.” “Did I say you could get up?” The sharp edge to his voice freezes Ari for a second, then she settles back onto her heels, glaring a challenge. He doesn’t call her on her compromise.

Instead his tone softens a fraction. “I know you’re just trying to do a good job. But this organization cannot function if the chain of command breaks down. I need to know that you are capable of putting my commands above your own notions of what's best. Yeah?"

Ariadne's cheeks warm. He makes it sound so reasonable and that's not what it's like and she isn't allowed to argue.

"Yes sir," she agrees reluctantly. "So swallow your pride and follow my plan, okay?" "Yes sir. Can I go now?" "Sure. You're dismissed."

He does actually go to the effort of drawing up a plan for poor Henry Crows. It’s… brutal. Ariadne finds herself double checking the warlock’s file, hoping to find something in it to justify this, something worse than getting caught stealing in the wrong neighbourhood.

Nothing but circumstantial suspicion.

Maybe Riven is right and she is wrong. Maybe Crows is a ganger and he's just a good liar. If he's not… well, a few innocent casualties are an unavoidable sacrifice for national security. She knew that when she took the job.

It still doesn’t sit right.

When she makes Riven's pay grade, she resolves, this won't happen on her watch. She'll run her section more cautiously and he'll see – she'll get results.

By the third day, Crows has almost stopped outright begging, though he still tries to bargain with her nearly all the time he isn’t screaming. “What do you want?” he cries over and over. “-- what – d’you want me to say?”

Ariadne takes pity on him and feeds him some leading questions. She tries not to be too obvious, and it takes several prompts for the warlock to take the hint. But he gets it eventually.

Ari disgusts herself. Actively encouraging a prisoner to lie, what is she thinking? It’s such a perversion of everything she’s supposed to be achieving.

But Riven wants the answers he wants, and Crows is going to figure that out eventually and start making things up whether she prompts him or not. The fault is Riven’s. Ariadne’s just… nudging things along to their inevitable conclusion.

She’ll do better when they give her enough authority to make her own decisions.

The way Crows looks up at her through tears as she unchains him is almost gratifying. There’s a slim ray of desperate hope breaking through the hate and despair. “Did I…?” he wavers, “Are you… done?”

It’s a moment that would feel good, if she’d done a good job. It doesn’t feel good.

“Yeah,” Ariadne sighs. “Done for today.” “For today?” he protests. “What else d’you fucking want I’m doing everything you say –” A sob escapes him, and hard on its heels another, and another. “With any luck, done for good,” Ari tells him. But the words are dry and bitter on her tongue. For all she knows, it’s another lie.

[Next]

#my writing #au: chewtoy #chewtoy!ariadne #riven #writing ari be like #inner monologue: this is fine #physical emotions: this is not fine

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beaversatemygrandma · 1 year

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So wow. This went from shooting a shot to talk to an old friend, to a weird sex dream about him, to talking further, realizing that there were unchecked feelings, to literally what would count as long distance 3rd base in like idk, two months. Holy shit. Why was i worried about this?

Like, this started as me saying “Yeah, I’ll give you a chance once I’m back in the hometown and such.” to me literally exchanging pics with him within weeks. There’s a certain way he responds to any of them and just has a such a way with damn words that it just feels like I cannot wait for this to actually happen. And now, this may be TMI, but with the first pic i got from him, I cannot fathom that this was his literal first time doing it. Something about the way he managed to take it was just at just the right angle that I automatically let my horny thoughts take control of that whole damn thing. I’m sorry, but literally no dick pic has ever done that for me. Like none. But that? Goddamn. Helps him out a lot that he’s got a very nice one there. Which again, caught me so fucking off guard. And there’s even me giving him the flat out warnings that i do not keep hair under control ever due to sensitive skin and i straight get told that it looks better there. Not even going to be one who’ll beat around the bush to say that i should trim or anything, no. He flat out likes me fully natural better. It’s been a while since a guy could literally get me like THIS. And even better have the emotional connection outside of this. He’s just checking off every single one of my boxes after I was just giving him the benefit of the doubt. Like no, that’s not the weird guy who’d cling to me in high school. No no. That one has matured into somebody who I literally find almost perfect. Literally fucking perfect. He’s matured in just the right way that there’s this nervous confidence and honestly, a figure that’s just hot as all hell. I can’t get him out of my head at this point. He’s attractive, he’s got the communication down, he’s emotionally and sexually fulfilling, he’s just perfect for this. Like what. I haven’t even gotten back to my hometown to meet up and I’m already feeling these things. And this time, it wasn’t him slipping up with the L-word. Hell, *I* almost said it last night.

And I’m just here wondering how the Fuck I’d be his first. Like, how the hell do I manage to pick up a 23yo virgin who isn’t an incel? Like. This is a respectful and attractive one. Entirely. That boy shouldn’t be a virgin still. Impossible. But hell, I can easily do something about that once I make that 8 hour drive lol

And it definitely doesn’t even feel like he’s only after sex. I know of So Many who are there for that and nothing else. Nope. This one is very much keeping everything even. I get the flirting at times, I get the straight up sexual desire at others, I also get the random times where he just lets me ramble on for an hour. Hell, we still play pokemon together and it ends up with us literally crying laughing because i managed to clip him entirely out of existence for the third time. Thank you Union Rooms in Scarlet for literally being the perfect way to hang out while on the phone.

Memories of him are being mean to me though. Like, i swear i remember enjoying him being around back then, but the skittish nervousness and annoying everything was definitely there. But now, I can listen to his voice forever even though i swear i remember not liking it. But then again, it’s been a long time and it’s deepened in just the right way. He’s still a bit nervous though, but it’s not even in a bad way. Honestly, more cute than anything else. Just not very bold, which doesn’t even hinder him at all.

Yeah. So, i said i was in too deep a couple weeks ago. Yeah, no, that has nothing on now. It’s not just wanting to cuddle him and show him the world, which is still absolutely the plan, but flat out making him the main one. That’s not going to be yet another random FWB or something, no, I want this to be a real relationship. He broke the damn barrier. The demiromanticism doesn’t matter anymore, because he has reached the demi qualification and even without being around me physically.

Looks like I’ve got a basically boyfriend now. This will be an interesting conversation to have with the ex and the one FWB. Like yeah, i just up an messaged an old friend i haven’t seen in years, reconnected, and now we’re dating, so. How’d it happen so suddenly? Well, it did. And I’m happy with this one. I haven’t felt this happy since i was first getting with my ex, we still talk, we’re still friends, but my god did everything just slowly die out. We had literally told each other than FWB would definitely be the option when in person again, but honestly, I may just leave him without benefits. He’s a good friend. The other one though. I hope this doesn’t mess up plans to become roommates. I mean, she’s got her whole polycule. She’ll be fine. Sure, i won’t be the main one like i was originally talking myself up to. Might not even be one. I was curious about polyamory, but honestly, i think i want this to be just me and him. At least for now. If it starts fading out like it did with my ex, then maybe I’ll bring it up. The fading out part hurts a little, but at least i don’t lose a person in my life with it.

And well, the best thing about all this happening, is that it’s the extra push to get my own shit done. I finally have appointments at the DMV made and shit getting done. I WANT To Be Back Home Already. Hell, this might be like April that I’ll be down there. I just want to be around my people again and there’s this fantastic bonus. And you know, having it be months before my original limit because of the money reasons. Hopefully this isn’t one that my mom looks at and just says the most off-handed thing about. Like with my ex, “I can’t believe you’re dating someone that... big.” Well, this is a skinny fucker who’s relatively attractive. And due to his odd allergies and such, I think she’ll approve of the random diet I’ll put myself on, which is just avoiding dairy like I should’ve done forever ago, but this time it’s because i want to make out with the guy and not fucking kill him. I have a feeling she’ll actually like this one for once. And that has literally never happened before. Not for the right reasons, given, but you know, that’s a guaranteed approval i think. Soft, kind, and polite, and the odd bonus of her not judging me for going for a big guy again (not to say it was a bad thing, I do have a weird preference here, but I’m going against it for this one. Too many things that I don’t want to look over. Either way, he’s perfectly fine.)

He needs to stop being so perfect so early. I hope this stays just as in my head once I’m around him. I hope this doesn’t fuck up because right about now, it’s sounding perfect. Who knew that buzzed me telling him on New Years’ that I’d totally kiss him at the ball dropping if i had been there would start this entire damn thing up. Took two weeks and I think the last two weeks i flat out admitted to myself that I’d very much date this one. Really did go from him being too flustered to fully respond, to flat out asking to go further. Literally too flustered from the mention of a simple kiss to THIS. I’ve seen his dick and i want it and more lmao

I hope this doesn’t fuck up, like really. I want him. I want his love and affection. I genuinely want this. HUGE 180 from what i used to think of him, that’s for sure.

Still wondering why the hell i looked him over in the past... Still wondering.

#void time #taks speaks #i cannot believe the development here #i really don't think I'm going to be single for much longer #a little tmi tbh

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merrinpippy · 2 years

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c!punz's motivators

c!punz is so fascinating to me bc he seems to have three general motivators that once picked up upon shine a really intersting light on what he and c!dream may have in store.

the first: when he's on the server and acting of his own volition he seems to be a staunch advocate for fairness. when a fight breaks out nearby with the intent to steal from the ambushed party, for example, he will join on the side of the victim. (swear to god i remember this happening but i cannot find a clip rip.) when c!tubbo mentions not having much stuff to his name c!punz immediately gives him iron blocks and netherite ingots completely for free. i also think it's worth noting that c!dream absolutely could have saved c!technoblade from execution on his own but presumably chooses c!punz to go in his stead to distance himself from acting against l'manberg in the public eye. this suggests that acting in c!technoblade's defense wouldn't be seen as out of character for c!punz in hindsight had c!quackity not spotted c!dream helping out, which contributes to my belief that c!punz is motivated by (and known for being motivated by) fairness on the server.

much later, when c!hannah, c!bad, and c!tina appropriate his tower he gets angry and evicts them immediately, but his problem with it seems to be a little more complicated than on first appearance. he doesn't have an issue with the people in an i-need-revenge kind of way that characterises a lot of conflicts on the server, but takes issue with them claiming to have made something that he made. he is amenable to trading with c!hannah to convince her to leave rather than fighting her, a fight which he would provably win, and lenient with the deadline by which she must move. violence for the sake of violence doesn't drive him to vengeance here, and personal loyalty neither saves c!hannah from his ire nor increases it towards c!tina who doesn't already have a good working relationship with him. despite being within his rights to react larger and louder, after his first outburst he seeks to resolve the situation in a way that is fair to all parties equally (even if it means demeaning himself to do so).

the second and third are more obvious: money and personal loyalty. before the disc finale, in the privacy of his own home c!punz admits that the money c!tommy offers him to betray c!dream is 'the biggest payment [he's] ever seen' and 'more than dream has ever given [him]'. he says he is 'torn' about the choice even though if going only by money siding with c!tommy is clearly the right choice, which illustrates his personal loyalty to c!dream. yet neither motivation seems to be one c!punz sticks to as an absolute rule, since if that was the case we'd see him easily switch sides for the money or stoutly refuse to betray his partner.

of course, as we see later, he does refuse to betray c!dream after all. c!tommy's offer to him wasn't part of their plan. before this c!punz thought he'd already done enough to distance himself from c!dream to sell the 'betrayal' and is surprised by c!tommy's message. so c!punz easily could have betrayed c!dream for real here in exchange for what c!tommy gives him, and maybe even more if he convinced the other members of the server they owe him for all the info he surely has on c!dream at this point. but he doesn't.

this demonstrates to me that c!punz has a code of fairness that he abides by, and though he is a mercenary his individual loyalty ultimately matters more to him than money. my question for c!punz then becomes: what is this plan c!dream has that not only passes his fairness rule but also motivates him more than the vast amounts of personal riches that gave him pause before the disc finale? what makes him more loyal to c!dream than literally the entire rest of the entire server? what, in c!punz's mind, is worth everything both of them are putting themselves through: lying to all his friends, being completely isolated from everyone else, acting as exaggerated villains and hurting people c!punz seems to genuinely care about to cover up what they're really doing (not to mention the torture and starvation in c!dream's case)... i just find it really fascinating all round. and i honestly cannot wait for the payoff!

/rp /dsmp

#long post #dream smp #dsmp #punz #dream #dreamwastaken #stagedduo #sorta question mark #mcyt #hannahxxrose #tommyinnit #shakes c!punz like a snowglobe to unearth more of his super interesting character #drunz #also sorta question mark

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drowningbydegrees · 4 years

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As it turns out, falling into bed with your very best friend who you are privately very much in love with isn't nearly so nerve wracking as waking up with them the morning after.

Read on AO3

He can’t remember the last time waking up was a remotely soothing experience. Geralt’s sleep muzzy mind has no other word for the body plastered against his front from shoulder to hip, the steady heartbeat against his palm where his hand is splayed out across someone’s chest. His nose is tucked against the nape of someone’s neck, and the scent is far too familiar to be jarring.

“Jaskier,” he rumbles quietly, his mouth miles ahead of the rest of him. The quiet, absent pleasure of waking up tangled with someone who smells sleepy and content and like they’re his leaves no room for reason. There’s no room for anything really, except to press a kiss to whatever patch of skin he can find, savoring the soft sigh it earns him.

Jaskier is… The night before rushes back to him, and Geralt almost jerks away, even though it would be entirely pointless to bother with that now. He cracks an eye open and is met with the disaster that Jaskier’s hair, mussed in the night by sleep, and by Geralt’s fingers buried in it before that. Even as worry begins to creep in, he sort of wants to do it again.

This isn’t the first time they’ve shared a bed. This probably isn’t even the hundredth time they’ve shared a bed. This is most definitely the first time they’ve done so with so little clothing between them, none to be exact. There’s only the blanket tucked around them both, warm and lovely and unexpectedly distressing.

Geralt isn’t sorry, per se. Jaskier’s chest rises and falls under Geralt’s palm in the slow rhythm of sleep. It’s the loveliest thing Geralt can remember waking up to, and therein lies the problem. An emotion fed only grows, and this unruly, sprawling affection is the worst offender. Stupidly, Geralt had thought getting this out of his system would quell it, but the longing reaches a fever pitch instead.

Jaskier is beautiful, all the more so for the way he shifts in his sleep, closing the gap Geralt has tried to put between them. Geralt could happily wake like this every day for the rest of his life, but it isn’t a fair thing to ask of someone who flits from one love to the next like a butterfly between flowers. He will not trap Jaskier in this just because he happens to be besotted. Somehow, the resolve not to try to keep this does nothing to ease the guilt welling up that he wants to in the first place.

Nothing Jaskier said the night before conveyed meaning beyond a playful desire to tumble into bed together. Moving the target now would only be cruel. He should be rolling out of bed, hastening them back to normal. He should be proving that this has done nothing to harm their friendship. It isn’t Jaskier’s fault, after all, the way Geralt wants to breathe him in and kiss him senseless and forget the rest of the world until the innkeeper boots them out.

“Geralt?” Jaskier startles the witcher from his worries, wriggling impossibly closer and laying a palm over his knuckles. “You okay?”

“Thinking,” Geralt replies vaguely.

“Well, don’t hurt yourself,” Jaskier teases, still warm and lethargic with sleep. Geralt almost manages to take advantage of the levity of the moment and extricate himself, but before he can, Jaskier rolls over so they’re nearly nose to nose. His fingers cradle Geralt’s cheek and any attempt to escape now would just be graceless. “What about?”

Geralt doesn’t know how to answer, so he only hums noncommittally and hopes Jaskier will let it lie. Of course, Jaskier being Jaskier, does no such thing. He takes advantage of the change in positions to tangle his legs up with Geralt. “I can’t tell you to knock it off if you don’t tell me what it is.”

“We should get going.” Geralt tries once more to escape, frowning when Jaskier shows no sign of releasing him. It’s silly of course. Jaskier couldn’t hope to hold him here if Geralt was set on leaving. He just can’t actually make himself do it.

“Was it that bad a night?” It’s an easy opening, an invitation to stray back to their usual banter, but Geralt gets no further than a raised eyebrow before Jaskier is clasping a hand over the witcher’s mouth. “Wait. Don’t answer that or I might have to smother you with a pillow and that’ll just be unfortunate for both of us.”

Right there, with Jaskier smiling at him, Geralt can almost believe they’re going to survive this. Almost, but almost still leaves a distance he cannot cross. As soon as Jaskier pulls his hand back from Geralt’s mouth, the witcher opens it. “They’re not going to let us sleep in forever.”

“They might if I convince them to let me play again this evening. We could move on tomorrow,” Jaskier ventures, but something in Geralt’s face must give him pause. “Oh do not look at me like that. The world isn’t going to end just because you stop to take a breath once in a while, Geralt.”

“That’s not…” Geralt starts, but he doesn’t know how to finish. There are no words that convey the razor wire sensation of facing down the impermanence of Jaskier’s affections, of realizing how deeply his own feelings run far too late.

“Shh.” Geralt knew what to do with impulse, with Jaskier’s mouth crashing into his, with Jaskier’s hands scrabbling at him to shed his clothes. He doesn’t know what to do with the tender, intentional way Jaskier regards him this morning, lips pressing to the witcher’s brow and lingering afterwards. Does it mean something, or does Jaskier grant all his lovers this subdued, aimless devotion? Lust was so much simpler than this aching sort of affection that puts down roots even as Geralt tries to burn it away.

Geralt doesn’t precisely surrender, but he resigns himself to the lazy attention Jaskier is so determined to lavish on him. If he lets Jaskier turn him away later instead of now, there will be at least this one pleasant thing to remember. So he doesn’t complain at Jaskier’s fingers combing through his hair, or the bard’s body pressed warmly to his. If every touch feels like a harbinger of their demise, it’s still hard to let go of.

He almost passes things off as okay, he thinks, until Jaskier kisses him. It’s a brief thing, immediately withdrawn. “Geralt?”

If realizing the hopeless situation he’s stumbled into was uncomfortable, the idea of talking about it is nothing short of torture.

“Well, you haven’t shoved me out of bed yet, so you’re not mad. Talk to me,” Jaskier coaxes, his expression so openly concerned and affectionate, Geralt could scream.

“It’s no-” Geralt starts, but Jaskier shut him up with a theatrically sour look.

“I swear if you say nothing,” Jaskier threatens aimlessly, an easy smile on his lips, but underneath, Geralt can hear the way his anxious heart threatens to vibrate right out of his chest.

“I don’t know what this is,” Geralt admits because that, at least, is safe. It’s nothing about how he feels in relation to anything. It’s nothing about the want that simmers under the surface despite his guilt.

Jaskier’s brows scrunch in a way that would be endearing if the entire ordeal didn’t feel so fraught already. “I don’t think I follow. I mean, I know having a conversation isn’t your usual wheelhouse, but it’s not exactly a foreign concept.”

“Not. That.” Geralt bites the words out, tight and clipped while he gathers his frayed nerves enough to explain. “You’re not in the habit of keeping people. I don’t know what you want.”

For just a second, Jaskier looks like he’s been struck and Geralt wants desperately to take the whole thing back. But the bard’s expression smooths out and then twists up in a wry smile. “Of course I don’t. What would I even do? Drag someone else along on our travels?”

There’s a point Jaskier is making. It’s right there. He knows it is, but it eludes Geralt anyway. “You could have stayed somewhere if there was someone you wanted to stick around for.”

Jaskier laughs, just a giggle at first, and then so hard that even his efforts to bury his face against Geralt’s shoulder do nothing to stifle it. “You are absolutely right. I could fall completely and utterly in love with someone and choose to stick around.”

“I don’t see how that’s funny,” Geralt says flatly, staring at the far wall of their room. The urge to curl around Jaskier and forget the whole stupid conversation in strong, and maybe he’d have been better off doing that in the first place, but he doesn’t surrender to it.

“Well, you’re one of the smartest people I know, so these moments where you decide to be an absolute idiot happen to be hilarious,” Jaskier teases. The bard must take pity, because his palm slides to cradle Geralt’s jaw, and Jaskier puts himself right at eye level where the witcher can’t look away. “Don’t you realize? I fell in love with someone, and I chose to stick around. It happened ages ago.”

Geralt has long since given up on trying to anticipate what Jaskier will say to any given prompt, but that is… somehow not even on the same continent as anything he might have expected. “What?”

“You really are determined to make this as difficult and stressful for me as possible, aren’t you?” Jaskier asks. There’s a tightness around his eyes when he looks at Geralt, leaving the witcher with the awful realization that Jaskier must be flying as blind as he is. He’s probably as unsure of Geralt’s intent as Geralt is of his. And yet… “I chose you, you ridiculous man. I always choose you.”

That… that explains a lot, actually. Geralt swallows thickly as Jaskier’s nose bumps against his. “Why didn’t you ever say?”

“Ah yes. ‘Hello my very dear emotionally… hampered witcher who will sometimes, on a very good day, admit that we are friends. Would it it complicate things overly much if I also happened to be completely, utterly in love with you?’” Jaskier huffs out a helpless, almost panicky sort of laugh. “Tell me Geralt, is there any time in the last few years where that would have gone well?”

Years? Now, confronted with the full force of it, Geralt isn’t sure how he even missed it last night, let alone for so long. Now that he knows it’s always been a bit painfully obvious. And much as he’d like to, he can’t really argue against Jaskier’s point that it probably wouldn’t have gone well to say so. “What changed?”

Jaskier sighs in that dramatic, overdone way he tends to when he’s being asked what he thinks is an exceedingly silly question. “You did.”

“Hmm.” Geralt doesn’t comment and Jaskier doesn’t press for further conversation. It’s peaceful, this thing blossoming between them, now that his most immediate concerns have been silenced.

That Jaskier laid his heart on the line and asked for nothing back isn’t lost on Geralt though. The words catch and stick on his throat, so Geralt writes them into the tender way he traces the curve of Jaskier’s spine with his fingertips. He presses them against Jaskier’s lips, jaw, throat with lazy, lingering kisses.

“So tell me-” Jaskier starts, the words interrupted by a soft sigh as Geralt’s thumb skims the divot of his hip. It’s an unmistakably promising sound all by itself, even ignoring that delightful way Jaskier presses into the touch. He finishes his thought, but it’s unmistakably breathless. “What are you thinking now?”

The recognition that this isn’t some fluke settles warmly around him. This could be always. There are so few things a witcher really keeps, but for now he’s willing to entertain the notion that this might be one of them.

“I’m thinking…” Geralt mumbles against the side of Jaskier’s neck, delighting in the way the bard’s fingers tangle in his hair and tug. “That maybe we’ll leave tomorrow.”

#geralt of rivia #Jaskier #geralt x jaskier #geraskier #gerlion #the witcher #my fic #They're both dumb and I love them #They may not have been remotely related to what I meant to write this month #But hey I posted stuff three days in a row and it's not even Nano month yet

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iliveiloveiwrite · 3 years

Text

travel books and romance novels // Colin Bridgerton

Summary: Colin visits the library for research into his next trip; he didn’t expect to find you.

A/N: Colin’s desire to travel honestly reflects my own. For purposes of the fic, I have aged Colin up - it’s more to fit the plot line of Book Four which is his book anyway. I’m not sure how to feel about this fic, I'm happy with it but I’m not at the same time. I’m not being too harsh on myself however, this is my first time writing for Colin and I haven't got to grips with his character yet. I hope you all like!! <3

Pairing: Colin Bridgerton x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Colin is very cute, pining, mutual pining, strangers to friends to lovers, female reader, she/her pronouns, marriage proposal, happy ending.

Word count: 4k

Colin Bridgerton had spent over two decades of his life on this planet and had yet to find something or someone he loves more than travelling. The bug first bit him in his early twenties; desperate to experience a Grand Tour – a tradition of which that had strongly died out in the past century. He had read about it so often; dreamed of it nearly every day that eventually he put the idea forward to Anthony and his mother, Violet.

Though Violet was apprehensive at first, she warmed up to the idea once Colin gave her permission to choose some of the countries he would visit. Anthony held no qualms; having travelled to France and Spain before tragedy forced the family title upon his shoulders. Being able to travel would forge Colin into the man he should be; it would give him experience, and plenty of stories to tell his children and then eventually, their children.

Upon arriving back in London after his second trip away, Colin found himself glad to be home. He had sorely missed the sounds and smells that accompany London; the clipping of horses hooves and the constant chit-chat of men and women. It was home; it would always be home.

However, as he stepped off the boat or the train, Colin always wondered the same thing. How long would it be until he craved adventure once more?

------------

A month.

Colin lasted a month in the company of his beloved family before he was desperate to head off on his next adventure. However, he had no clear destination in mind. He had visited Europe, toured the Mediterranean and had hopes of crossing the Atlantic one day soon, but for now - to save his mother’s poor nerves - was content to remain closer to home.

He wasn’t one to visit libraries himself, usually sending a list of books with a servant whenever they visited the place, but this time he fancied the walk to stretch his legs. He had decided that research was the best way forward into finding his next destination, his next adventure. The library could offer such a thing.

It truly was a thing of wonder; so many books and serial publications at home in one place. The library at Bridgerton House was well stocked and Colin knew he could walk in freely and take whatever he would need, but there was something attractive about going out to find exactly what you need. There was also the added bonus of a lack of interrogation from his much-loved mother.

A huff leaves his body as Colin is pitched forward; barely catching himself before knocking into one of the shelves. Turning, Colin readies the words he wants to fling at the person who had yet they die in his throat when he finds you standing behind him with an apologetic look on your face, close to tears.

“Mr. Bridgerton!” You gasp, bowing your head politely and in apology, “I hadn’t meant to walk into you.”

Colin smiles, brushing down his suit jacket, “It’s no worry, Miss (Y/L/N). No harm done.”

“I hope not,” You reply, biting your lip.

His smile grows wider at the note of concern in your voice. “Truly, Miss (Y/L/N), no harm done.”

“Nevertheless, I apologise.”

“What are you reading?” He asks, nodding at the two books in your hand, changing the subject.

“They’re romances,” You admit shyly, “I read to my aunt twice a week. She rather enjoys them.”

“And you? Do you enjoy them?”

“There are some that I enjoy, yes, but I prefer books with adventures if I’m being honest.”

“Adventures?”

You nod, “I like them very much. What do you read?”

Colin frowns; confused at the question. You gesture to the shelves of books surrounding you, “What do you like to read, Mr. Bridgerton? We are in a library after all.”

“Non-fiction,” He replies, nodding his head to the stack dedicated to true life accounts of travellers. “I’m here doing research.”

“Research?”

“For where I want to travel to next,” Colin clarifies; walking towards the stack, all the while knowing you’re following.

“Have you an idea?”

He shakes his head; disappointed at the admission. For his last two trips abroad, he had known exactly where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do and see. Now, however, he was struggling for ideas.

You nod your head; seemingly understanding the predicament Colin has found himself in. Holding close the hardcover editions of the romances your aunt loved so much, you take a step back from the third eldest Bridgerton.

“I hope you find your location soon, Mr. Bridgerton,” You murmur in farewell, turning away from the tall brunette.

“I hope you enjoy your romances,” Colin replies, watching you walk away. Fleetingly, he wonders if he will see you again.

------------

The library remains just as silent as the last time Colin visited. The books he had borrowed heavy in his hands as he returns them to the attendant who nods in thanks. Distantly, he wonder whether he will run into you again. Since meeting you last, he hadn’t stopped thinking about you.

Colin barely knew you or your family; didn’t know much about your lineage or even whether you knew of his, yet he had not stopped thinking about you and the way you held your books so close to your chest, as if protective of them and what they held even if you didn’t own them. He couldn’t explain the urge he had to get to know you. Colin felt certain that if he wasn’t to see you in the next day or so he was to go mad from the unknown.

Luckily for his sanity, he spies a familiar head of hair amongst the shelves, and he cannot help the surge of happiness that runs through him when he recognises you reading the spines of the books. “Miss (Y/L/N)!” Colin calls out in greeting; rushing over to you.

“Mr. Bridgerton,” You smile, “How have you been? Have you decided on your next destination?”

“I have not though I’ll think of something soon.”

“I look forward to finding out. I’m sure Lady Whistledown will report on it.”

“I’m sure she will,” He drawls; his contempt for the author of the gossip sheet well known amongst family and friends. “How did the romances go down with your aunt? Did she enjoy them?”

Nodding your head, you explain, “Very much so. She usually stays awake for a chapter or two before falling asleep, but this time she stayed awake for close to five. I’m here looking for more books by the same author.”

“Would you like some help?”

“Only if you aren’t too busy. I wouldn’t want to pull you away from something more important.”

Colin shakes his head. “I would be happy to help.”

It takes the better part of an hour. Colin proving to be a distraction to your thoughts as you trawl through the shelves in the library. His very presence throws your mind into overdrive; overthinking his intentions for helping you, but also noticing just how handsome he truly is.

“I think we have enough for now,” You eventually comment, finding it hard to keep the sadness out of your voice as you realise that your time with the Bridgerton is up.

“Are three books enough?” Colin asks warily, as if he doesn’t want the time spent together to end either.

Sighing, you nod, “It’s enough to keep her occupied for a while. It takes us a few weeks to get through one book with me visiting her only twice a week.”

Colin nods understandingly, “Then the other romance novels must be for you.”

You raise an eyebrow, “I much prefer adventure novels though I did tell you that the first time we had met. Though I suppose I didn’t make that much of an impression.”

“I can assure you; you did. I just couldn’t help but notice that you must read far quicker than your aunt so surely you must read the other books you have borrowed.”

Caught out, you avert your gaze back to the books in your hand. Colin tries not to smile in triumph but fails miserably. “How often do you come here?” Colin asks, “Do you borrow books for your aunt alone, or do you read to another relative?”

Pursing your lips, you think over your answer. “I only read to my aunt and I suppose I come here at least once a week, usually on a Wednesday.”

Colin nods, “I shall see you next Wednesday then.”

Watching the Bridgerton walk away from you, you cannot help but wonder what exactly you had gotten yourself into.

-------------

The friendship that develops with Colin Bridgerton felt entirely natural; as if at some point in your lives your paths were always meant to cross, and a friendship was to begin. Colin finds you in and amongst the stacks of books the following week; a triumphant grin on his lips and his eyes bright with happiness when he finds you once again in the romance aisle.

He starts to offer you suggestions of books to read, meeting you at the library week after week; all the whole continuing his research into where he wants to travel next. He hasn’t settled on a destination, yet he comes to realise that this is the longest he has remained in London in years. Usually, Colin would return home, manage a month with his family before taking off again. A routine his mother has come to despise despite offering her blessing for every trip.

Weeks continue to pass and whilst his family know that Colin has become infatuated with someone, he isn’t ready to share you with them yet. He isn’t ready for the inspecting glances and interrogations from his mother, brothers, and sisters. For now, Colin was more than content to share you with the romance books you swear you don’t love as much as you truly do.

------------

The café is busy and getting busier from a lunch rush when Colin sits down across from you. His hair remains a mess despite how often he runs his hands through it in an attempt to flatten it; his eyes are bright as he smiles widely at you.

“I thought you were going to be late,” You admonish, but there’s no heat behind it.

Colin takes a sip of his tea, “I could never be late, not for you.”

“You’re a flatterer.”

“And you’re a romance fan, no matter how many times you try to deny it. Tell me, what are you reading right now?”

You purse your lips, deciding whether to relay the information to him, but the longer you wait, the larger his smile gets. “Definitely not those novels,” You comment, “There is romance in my latest book, but I am reading it for the adventure. It has pirates if you must know, very adventurous.”

Colin laughs, reaching for one of the small cakes on the stand.

“I don’t know how I stand your company,” You complain, trying your best to calm your stomach long enough for you to enjoy the food on your plate. The butterflies raging there were making it rather hard.

“You like me, that’s why.”

“I suppose that is more judgement on me than it is you.”

Colin’s only answer is to wink before returning his attention to the food on his plate. For a while, it is silent between the two of you. happy smiles are exchanged between you both and quiet laughter when you both reach for the same cake; Colin, ever so gracious, lets you have the cake. Instead, he tops up his tea and then yours from the teapot.

“I would like to visit Russia next; I think – St. Petersburg,” Colin declares, breaking the silence once and for all.

“Truly? You would travel so far?” You ask, eyes wandering to the globe on the table in the corner of the room, a display item. Centred on England, Russia could not be seen for the distance between them.

“I’d travel to all four corners of the earth if I could,” Colin admits, voice honest.

You sit back in your chair, eyes wide with wonder at the prospect of travelling even outside the county without a chaperone. “I’d love to travel.”

“It is a marvel,” Colin smiles, thinking back to his trips through Europe and the Mediterranean.

“The only chance I’ll get to travel is on my honeymoon which will be a marvel in itself,” You reply, picking at an invisible thread on your skirts.

“Why?”

You sigh, “Mother doesn’t hold much hope for my marrying. She believes that I have been out for too many seasons and have nothing left to offer that could possibly entice a man into courting me, never mind proposing.”

Colin finds himself gripping the arm of his chair in an attempt to keep his anger at bay. Such words leaving your mouth should be a crime. You have plenty to offer. However, at the sight of your slumped shoulders and sad eyes, Colin realises that you believe the words of your mother; that you truly have nothing left to offer.

On a whim, Colin asks, “Are you attending the Duchess of Hasting’s ball tonight?”

Shaking your head, you explain, “Mother isn’t one for huge events no matter the title of its holder.”

Colin surges forward, grasping your gloved hand, “Come, please. My sister won’t mind. I’ll have her add you to the guest list and send a carriage for you.”

You remain silent as you think over his proposition, ready to turn him down and return to your life of safety but the determination in his eyes and the joy in his smile leaves you nodding your head instead.

“Alright,” You agree, “I shall wait for you carriage.”

------------

The London home of the Duke and Duchess of Hastings could only be described as grand. Candles line the way to courtyard in which the ball would be held; they provide a romantic atmosphere, providing many a dark corner where young couples could sneak away from their chaperones.

Upon your announcement, you find yourself walking through the large crowd of people, unwittingly searching for the familiar head of brown hair. He finds you first, however, smiling widely as he notices you in the crowd.

Colin excuses himself from his conversation; making his way over to you as fast as he can without bringing too much attention to himself.

“You came,” Colin breathes as if in disbelief that you stand before him. His eyes run over you; taking it all in as his heart races. He hasn’t felt like this before; he hasn’t ever known anyone to make him feel like this. Colin feels as if he wants to show you everything, introduce you to everyone, but also keep you for himself should anyone want to steal you away.

“I said I would,” You smile, heated from his attention.

“You look beautiful,” Colin states truthfully.

“Thank you,” You answer, “You look very handsome too.”

“Would you care to dance?” Colin asks, a hand outstretched and waiting.

Smiling, you nod your acceptance. You take his offered hand, letting him leads you to the dancefloor where many other couples are readying themselves for the opening notes of the dance. Out of the corner of your eye, you spy Anthony’s eldest brother getting ready to dance with his wife, Kate. He offers Colin a smile and a nod to which Colin’s shoulders relax somewhat. You raise an eyebrow at the brunette only for Colin to shake his head; nothing you need to worry about.

Colin’s hands find themselves in the correct position son your body as you reach for his free hand, resting your hand on his shoulder. The music soon starts up and Colin begins to lead you round the dancefloor in a flurry of spins that leaves you giggling. His face lights up at the sound of your laughter, soon finding himself joining in.

“Stay for one more dance?” He asks as the music dies and you pull away, desperate not to let go of you just yet, happy enough right now to feel your hand in his and your body pressed so close.

“I’d love to,” You answer honestly, letting yourself be pulled back to the dancefloor where Colins hands soon start to feel like home on your body.

By the end of the second dance, you begin to feel dizzy from the spinning. Smiling gratefully at Colin, you apologise for having to bow out. He dismisses your apology with a wave of his hand, “Shall we get a drink? I’m sure I saw some lemonade not too long ago.”

“Lemonade sounds perfect. I seem to have worked up quite a thirst.”

“Then by all means,” Colin declares, bowing dramatically at the waist, “We must get the lady a drink.”

Laughing softly, you follow Colin to the drinks table where he hands you a small glass of the cold drink. He goes to take a drink from his own glass but is distracted by his mother calling his name. Colin apologises before leaving you in the company of his sisters, Eloise and Hyacinth.

“Good evening, mother,” Colin greets, dropping his head to kiss her on her cheek.

“Two dances in a row?” She asks as greeting, curious to know just who has distracted her son in this manner.

Colin ducks his head; not ashamed to have been caught out in his feelings, but ashamed that he hasn’t introduced you to his family as of yet. Across the room, despite the music, he hears your laughter. His attention rests on you as he watches you laugh at something said by either Eloise or Hyacinth. Your smile is wide as you try to cover it with your hand; trying to be polite but neither sister care that much as they continue to make you laugh.

You’re beautiful, he realises. He’s known it all along, of course, but with that smile on your face, Colin cannot help but desire to be the one who brings such a smile to life. He wants to be the cause of your smiles and your laughter; the reasons why your eyes crinkle in the corner. He wants it all; he wants it with you.

“I think you know why you haven’t set off on another adventure,” Violet states pointedly; eyes dancing between her son and where you stand, talking to Eloise and Hyacinth. A mother always knows.

Colin’s eyes don’t need to follow his mother’s; they had been on you since you excused yourself from him. He’s finally ready to confront what he had known along. “I think I know too. Do you approve?” He asks; realising he sounds like a child desperate for his mother’s attention.

Violet Bridgerton smiles, brushing Colin’s cheek softly with a gloved hand. “I think you suit each other perfectly.”

The smile that breaks over Colin’s face could only be described as blinding as he takes his mother’s hand from his face, kissing the back of it before leaning in to kiss her cheek. Against her cheek, he whispers, “Thank you, mother.”

Violet nods, eyes lined with tears as she watches her third eldest son walk away from her. She would be the first to admit how well suited you both are; the need for adventure alive in the both of you. She shakes her head fondly as she watches her son make his way over to you; holding out his hand, asking you to dance to which you graciously accept.

Violet begins to walk the outskirts of the ballroom; feeling nothing but pride and happiness for each one of her children and elated in the knowledge that there was soon to be another marriage in the Bridgerton household.

-----------

The morning after the ball is a pleasant one. The weather wonderfully warm as the sun shines through the windows; heating the drawing room pleasantly. Turning your face, you take in the rays, careful not to risk too much exposure.

Your latest read remains open on your lap as you continue to bask in the warmth of the sun. So far, the book has captured your attention and has failed to let it go. The heroine of the novel too relatable personality wise for you to take a break long enough. At this point in the novel, she had offered an ultimatum to her suitor – he can join her on her next escapade, or he can find another woman to marry. You could only hope he would join her in her next adventure; their comradery was too perfect to end so suddenly.

However, after the events of last night, you found it hard to focus on the book long enough to turn the page. Instead, you found yourself reading the same line over and over again, desperately trying to lose yourself in the witty prose of the author.

But your mind focused on last night: the music, the dancing, the company. It had been a dream; it felt like a dream – only your mind could cook something up so perfect, yet deep down you knew you had experienced every second. You were certain you were still dizzy from the spins you had taken when dancing with Colin.

Biting your lip, you think back to the three dances you had shared with the third eldest Bridgerton. Three dances – could it be true? Shaking your head, you answer your own question. It was true; you remember every moment with crystal clarity. Three dances with Colin had to mean something; it had to mean he felt something for you. Your heart begins to race as you think of the possibilities

“Miss,” Your Butler states, interrupting your daydreaming, “A Mr. Colin Bridgerton is here to call on you.”

“Show him in,” You answer, standing from your window seat, brushing down the skirts of you dress. Biting your lip, you could only hope that you looked presentable.

“(Y/N),” Colin greets as he enters the room, a large smile on his face. A bouquet of red roses and lady’s breath in his hand that he offers to you.

“They’re beautiful, Colin. Thank you,” You whisper, eyes darting around the room for a vase. They would be put in there after Colin had left.

“I’m glad you think so.”

“What did I do to deserve flowers though?” You ask, a teasing note in your voice.

Colin smiles, “I know where I want to travel to next. I came to tell you.”

A pang of disappointment rushes through your body soon followed by upset. Placing the flowers on the nearest table, you do what you can to avoid his gaze as you ask, “When do you leave?”

“That’s the thing,” He starts, shifting nervously, “I have something to ask of you before.”

“What?”

“Travel with me. Come with me,” He all but pleads, reaching for your hand, “As my wife.”

Your eyes widen as Colin’s grip on your hand tightens. “What?” You question, breath coming in a hurry. “What are you asking me, Colin?”

“I’m asking you to marry me so we can travel together. I’ve seen the world once; I want to see it again with you.”

“I have to admit this isn’t what I expected today,” You ramble, trying your best to not look into his eyes. The moment you do, you’re done for.

“(Y/N)…” Colin interrupts, cutting off your nervous rambling. “I need to know an answer, love.”

It’s only then that you let yourself look into his blue eyes; reading the emotions written over his face. He was promising you adventure; the likes of which you had only read in books. Colin was promising you a future full of love and laughter; a dream you had hoped for since you were a young child.

Suddenly, as you look into his blue, blue eyes, it’s all clear.

“Yes,” You whisper, somewhat breathless but entirely ready to begin your future with the man in front of you, “Let’s see the world together.”

********

Bridgerton Taglist: @heloisedaphnebrightmore @dreaming-about-fanfictions @now-its-time-for-a-breakdown @janelongxox @aspiringsloth20 @wallwriterstuff

#colin bridgerton x reader #colin x reader #bridgerton fanfiction #bridgerton #colin bridgerton #colin bridgerton imagines #colin bridgerton imagine

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darthwheezely · 3 years

Text

sunlight and storms - g.w.

summary: fred’s wife y/n writes a letter to her brother in law, george (inspired by the song of the same name from the musical starry! check it out it’s so goooooood)

pairing: brother-in-law!george x sister-in-law!reader (platonic), fred weasley x reader (post-war!)

a/n: i love this song but i’ve never done a platonic piece before??? or just a piece like this at all??? hope it goes well! also pls listen to this song it is beautiful i am BEGGING-

Dear George,

He leaned back in his seat, and began to read...

this time the query is directly from me, now that we’re sister and brother

Hi Georgie. I know you haven’t seen any of us in a while, and probably haven’t gotten my past letters,

He had gotten your past letters.

but that’s fine, because I’ll never stop writing to you about Fred and I’s life and updating you about literally everything because you know what? You need it. Anyways...

theo has said so much about you, he rarely will talk of another

Fred cannot ever stop talking about you around here. I mean when has he really ever been able to not talk about you, but lately it has definitely increased. I’m sure you’re happy to know that he almost destroys my kitchen in your name once a week (sigh).

George chuckled to himself and rubbed his jaw at the thought of the older twin being, well...himself. He leaned back in his chair and kicked his feet up on the desk.

married three weeks already, my god, it feels like we’ve always been

Georgie, this is so dumb and cheesy but I really don’t know how it’s already been almost a month? It doesn’t feel real, honestly...it’s wild to think that we got from Hogwarts to here and I just - I’m so grateful? That it’s where we ended up? It probably doesn’t make sense and I know I’m being cliche I just...it’s so hard to think about a time before it all.

He swallowed, faintly aware of his face paling at the thought of the war. So many lives were lost, he knew that much, but the idea of anything not turning out the way it did for him, for Fred, for you gave him the chills just in consideration.

nothing is strange, nothing is boring, he’s my husband, and my friend

I swear you two can never fail to keep everything exciting. I mean, remember back at school? Of course you do, you both still act like you’re schoolboys anyway...but Fred just. He makes me feel like we’re really young again? I never knew I could be in love with my best friend and make that something new - but he was always an innovator, wasn’t he?

“That is definitely one way to put it,” he shook his head and smiled softly, taking a sip of water before releasing a delightful hiss at the cool taste.

together we’ll see both sunlight and storms, both equally sacred to us

Things have been hard, I’m not going to lie to you, Georgie. With you gone from the shop none of his mad scientist plans feel okay anymore. Sometimes he’ll sit in his office and just have his little rageful episodes where he’ll take all his idea sheets and throw them at the wall and maybe if he’s upset he’ll cry and I’ll cry and...regardless, sometimes it’s hard. But you Weasleys always have a way of picking up the pieces when things get tough. And Fred has always been able to pick himself up, and in those moments, I truly am so proud of him. He’s got new deals for expansion in Hong Kong and Rome, can you believe it? Your brother a local diplomat? I just...I’m so proud of him.

“So am I,” he swallowed.

“Never been...prouder.”

so trust in our house, that you have a home, against the noise and rush

You know, the room by ours is a master guest. You’d be able to stay here whenever you wanted, if ever you feel comfortable, Georgie.

He just I just. We both miss you so much. We just want you to know if you ever feel ready you can always come home, yeah?

i confess i’m a mess more often than not, burnt the rice maybe twice from not stirring the pot

I know that I’m not the best wife. I know I still have so much to learn and do but I’m trying to keep our relationship afloat and make sure Fred is okay and make sure you are okay.

George, I’m so worried about you, you have to understand that, and I’ll never actively try to push you to come home, I promise, mate I just. I just want you to know how much we love you.

George wasn’t aware of the tears hitting the parchment until it was too late, his hands furiously gathering themselves to push his feelings and sadness away as soon as he let them to the surface.

no, we don’t always know the right way, but we’re doing our best, and our best is okay

I love him so much, Georgie. I’d do anything for him, and for you, and knowing my lover is happy just seeing me write to you is enough to satisfy my heart and soul for ages. He truly just lights up like a whizbang anytime he sees your name at the top of parchment, silly old boy he is.

“I get that too,” he murmured to no one in particular. He turned around to the side to see his wall, covered in news clippings of you and your husband, success dripping on every smile of your face. He was so in love with both of you, his brother, truly happy and doing something he loved, and the way he looked at you and how you looked at him. Fred was finally finding something to love that didn’t explode for others, he found something that made him explode with light and joy and passion again.

but we’re happy, rather, we’re happy and that’s enough...

We love you, Georgie. So much more than you know.

Sincerely,

Y/N.

P. S. This is a key to our home. Use it once in a while yeah? Also, Fred insisted on putting chocolate in the envelope so if this is messy, it isn’t my fault.

George set the letter back on the desk, running his hand over his jaw once again. He inhaled and decided.

It was time.

A fresh set of tears ripped down his cheeks and he reluctantly pushed his chair to reach his parchment and a pen, unfathomable amounts of fear draining his system of vitality, but a newfound sense of energy working his mind like new gears in harmony.

Dear Y/N,

Hi sweetheart, how’s my best friend? Miss me?

Because I missed you.

•••

taglist! @whizboyhalo @harrysweasleys @wandsandwheezes @valwritesx @lumosandnoxwriting @amxrtentias @mothermantids @cyliamarti @shakinganxiety @godricsswords @rosietoesy @jorduhnn @sinfulweasley @wand3ringr0s3 @jaywritesstuff0 @anchoeritic @amourtentiaa @miraclesoflove @lilypad-55449 @miarivi @loony-loopy-lupinn

#George weasley #George weasley x reader #Fred weasley x reader #Fred and George #fred weasley #George weasley imagine #Fred weasley imagine #George weasley fic #Fred weasley fic #Harry Potter #Harry Potter fic #Harry Potter imagine #George weasley fluff #Fred weasley fluff #george weasley angst #fred weasley angst

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littlemisspascal · 3 years

Text

Death and an Angel part 13

Death!Din x Cupid F!Reader

Summary: Ahsoka takes Din on a journey through the past.

“You should know though, you might not like what you see.”

Din shakes his head, dismissing the warning. “What’s one more nightmare?”

Rating: T

Word Count: 5,958

Warnings: angst, swearing, character death (canonical, but with my own twist), made up planet name that is ridiculous, dialogue heavy, plot plot plot, backstory

Author Note: Good lord this is soooo late coming out. To anyone who sent me an encouraging message I am beyond grateful because I really needed the encouragement to finish this segment. I hope more than anything this segment gives more answers than it raises questions (although reading your theories is both awesome and entertaining so keep them coming too!)

Links to Part 1 and Part 12 and Part 14

Cross-posted on AO3.

Photo Inspiration:

“Who the fuck is Moff Gideon?”

Ahsoka looks at Din, her brow furrowed deeply. He’s seen the expression on her face enough times to recognize its meaning: this is the face she makes when she is about to reveal a message directly from the universe itself. As an Oracle, she is the only immortal who can glimpse details of the past, present, and future. She has a soft spot for mortals, sharing the few precious snippets the universe allows her to with them in the forms of riddles and vague prophecies that never fail to give Din a migraine with their crypticness when he hears them.

“Moff Gideon is a Seraph who grew discontent with his position amongst immortals,” she says at last.

“Is he the one responsible for keeping my soulmate from me?” he asks, voice as harsh and unforgiving as the environment surrounding them.

“He is responsible for many sins.”

“I don’t have time for your vague answers,” he growls, hands twisting into fists. “You tell me not to kill this Seraph, then in the next breath claim he’s a threat. I am not a mortal who will be entertained by riddles, Ahsoka. You summoned me here to talk, so start talking. Tell me what you know.”

The Oracle’s mouth purses into a thin line. Nearly a full minute passes before she speaks again. When she does, the calmness is no longer natural, but forced. “Telling you what I know would be impossible.”

“Ahsoka—”

“But,” she pitches her voice higher than his protest while narrowing her eyes disapprovingly, “I am capable of showing you. You should know though, you might not like what you see.”

Din shakes his head, dismissing the warning. “What’s one more nightmare?”

She reaches forward, pressing her index and middle fingers to the center of his visor. If not for his helmet, she’d be touching the space directly between his eyes and instinct tells him the positioning isn’t random.

“We’ll start at the beginning,” she says, but her voice has changed from its usual cadence. It is ancient and youthful, a harsh scream and a hushed whisper all at once.

Din has only the slightest of seconds to process this in addition to the way her facial markings start to glow and her eyes flash white before he finds himself standing in the midst of a crisis.

There is mass hysteria every direction he turns. People screaming in terror, pushing each other and tripping over those who have fallen in their haste to flee an unseen threat; whole buildings are crumbling, sending flaming debris and shards of glass raining down upon the streets as smoke billows into the sky. The edges of his field of view are blurred, like he’s looking at everything through someone’s glasses, and it creates an ache behind his eyeballs. Fuck, is this what it’s like for Ahsoka when she experiences visions?

‘You remember the Fall of Mandalore, don’t you, Death?’ Ahsoka’s voice resonates from deep inside his brain, as if she’s fused her consciousness with his.

His jaw tightens when he says, “Of course.”

‘Oh, look. There you are.’

Sure enough, when Din looks forward he sees himself moving swiftly through the crowd, unaffected by the chaos as he stoops to reap the soul of a woman who’s had her skull caved in by the stampede of frantic civilians. He wonders how many others can say they’ve had an out-of-body-experience such as what he’s dealing with right now: reliving a traumatic event all over again while observing himself the same way a stranger would from a distance.

“Why are you showing me this?”

‘Because it’s important,’ Ahsoka answers, and the image of her frowning face enters his mind unbiddenly. ‘The universe has a plethora of endings imagined for every civilization, but it is the individual choices of the community that act as stepping stones bringing them closer to a specific fate.’

“Mandalore was always meant to fall apart. It was just a matter of how, not when,” he surmises, voice devoid of emotion. His words are punctuated by another fiery blast from a nearby complex, followed by an ear-piercing wall of a terrified child.

‘Precisely. But the same cannot be said for an individual’s lifespan. There are consequences if someone perishes before their time has come. You should know that better than anyone.’ There is a hint of accusation thinly veiled in her tone that has his body tensing reflexively.

His location shifts, shapes and colors mixing together without warning before another scene gradually comes into focus. It’s a large chamber with sparse furnishings, but its beauty is tarnished by the copious amounts of glass littering the room as every single one of the ornately designed windows have been shattered from the force of the explosions outside. Din knows before he even lays eyes on the throne he’s inside the royal palace because he first sees the familiar face of his most trusted reaper standing next to a blond-haired woman. Both women have such strikingly similar facial features nobody who sees them side by side can have any doubt they are related.

Whereas Bo-Katan dons gray-and-blue armor with a jetpack strapped to her back and two blaster pistols holstered at her sides, her sister, Satine, wears a garnet colored dress with a gold belt wrapped around her slender waist. In this moment, the sisters differ from each other as much as night and day; one a military leader, the other a pacifistic duchess.

“You need someone here to protect you. We don’t know who or what we’re dealing with and it isn’t safe for you to be alone,” Bo-Katan argues, crossing her arms over her chest as if to intimidate her sister into submitting.

“Our people are scared and defenseless, Bo. They need your protection during this crisis more than I currently do,” Satine says, voice soft but firm in a way only those deeply involved in politics can master.

Bo-Katan glances out the broken windows at the burning city, stubborn loyalty to protect her sister warring with her duty to protect her people. “Then at least send a message to Obi-Wan to come here.”

Satine shakes her head. “Bo—”

“I know things are strained between you two right now—”

“That’s a glaring understatement.”

“—but he’s one of our best and most loyal guards. He’s proven more than a dozen times he’ll fight anyone who’s a threat to you.”

“I don’t need the reminder of what he’s done for me.”

Bo-Katan places a hand on the blonde’s shoulder and squeezes it when she says, “He’s the only one other than myself I trust to protect you if you were to encounter danger.”

“Just because I’m committed to peace does not mean I am incapable of looking after myself.” Satine reaches behind herself to detach a weapon that had been clipped to the back of her belt. She clicks a button on its hilt, emitting a white blade shining brightly like a beacon amongst the dark clouds of smoke tainting the air.

Din’s breath catches in his throat. “Is that…?”

‘The Lightsaber of Mandalore,’ Ahsoka confirms. ‘Made by the Armorer herself.’

The Armorer is deeply respected by both mortals and immortals alike. As the goddess of metalworking and blacksmiths, there is nothing she cannot forge and infuse with grand powers. However, she is exceedingly cautious about choosing who is a recipient of her creations.

Din is one such recipient, having been given his armor of pure beskar when the Armorer realized how dangerous his touch was to mortals. He remains eternally grateful for the gift not only because it prohibits unwanted physical contact, but also because it is invulnerable to damage or rust like other types of armor. Ahsoka’s dual sabers were also made in the Armorer’s forge, specifically designed for the Oracle’s grip alone and meant to protect her during her journeys throughout the galaxy, but in contrast to the white blade of the Lightsaber, the blades of Ahsoka’s weapons matched the same blue coloring as the stripes on her lekku and montrals.

According to the legends Din’s heard, the Armorer created the Lightsaber for the first ruler of Mandalore because she was impressed with their culture and strong military, and it was passed on to each new heir to the throne over the centuries. When wielded in battle, the Lightsaber made the user invincible against enemy attacks as it siphoned off energy from the souls of those it sliced through.

Throughout the long history of Mandalore, Satine was distinguished as the only ruler to avoid warfare as she sincerely believed negotiations and treaties could solve any problem quicker than bloodshed.

As such, Din isn’t surprised when Bo-Katan raises a judgmental eyebrow. “Did you forget who you’re talking to? I know you wouldn’t use the Lightsaber even to cut a piece of fruit.”

Satine sighs through her nose, sheathing the weapon once more. “Fine. I’ll contact Obi the second you’re gone.”

“You better.” Bo-Katan leans forward, pressing her forehead against her sister’s. A gesture of affection within their culture. “I’ll see you soon.”

And then she’s gone, flying out the nearby window and diving straight into the fray. As a mortal and as a reaper, the redhead is fearless in the face of danger. Some might consider the behavior reckless, but Din’s always been impressed by her dogged tenacity to achieve victory no matter the difficulty of her mission.

Din looks back at Satine. Now that she is alone in the room, she is able to freely express her distress at the unfolding situation, looking as if she’s aged ten years within the blink of an eye. She fiddles with the comlink around her wrist, seeming hesitant to call this Obi-Wan fellow like she agreed to.

‘They haven’t realized it, but they’re soulmates, ’ Ahsoka murmurs, low and melancholic. Hearing it makes Din’s chest constrict with unease. ‘They fought recently and parted ways upset with each other. Unfortunately, she dies before they can resolve their miscommunication.’

The next sequence of events play out startlingly quick, as if Ahsoka has chosen to suddenly jump forward in time. His eyes struggle to absorb the fleeting details—the doors to the throne room being blown open; a Seraph in black armor emerging from the smoke; his voice is unique, velvety and thorny at the same time, as he addresses the duchess by her full name Satine Kryze; Satine attempting to stall as she subtly taps at her comlink, only for the tactic to fail as the foe teleports closer, eliminating the space between them.

“You have something I want,” he tells her, seizing hold of her throat. “You may think you have some idea of what you have in your possession, but you do not.”

One of Satine’s hands claws at his face, attempting to gouge out his eyeballs with her nails, while the other reaches for the Lightsaber. Her fingertips brush against its metal hilt just as he throws her to the floor. The impact knocks the breath out of her lungs, eliciting a strangled gasp, and shards of glass dig into her exposed skin, dotting the pale flesh with beads of blood.

Gideon—Din doesn’t need Ahsoka’s input to know this, for who else could the Seraph be but him?—places the heel of his boot over Satine’s neck. He doesn’t apply pressure yet, but the action in itself has the duchess squirming with panic, hitting at his leg futilely. There is a red light on the comlink flashing insistently, indicating someone on the other end is speaking but they’ve been muted.

“Give me the asset I seek.”

Through clenched teeth, Satine wheezes, “It belongs to Mandalore.”

“I thought you might say that,” Gideon replies, feigning disappointment. “However, in case you haven’t noticed Duchess,” he gestures towards the windows, “Mandalore is dead. My accomplices have made sure of that.”

“You’re a coward for hiding behind others. You don’t deserve the Lightsaber.”

There is a sudden change in the atmosphere, air turning impossibly frigid and crisp.

“I deserve it more than anyone,” Gideon says, angry enough he is trembling. The Seraph’s stance shifts, and although Din has witnessed every type of brutal death imaginable, he flinches at the sound of Satine’s neck snapping beneath his heel.

Gideon rolls her lifeless body over and rips the Lightsaber off her belt, a satisfied smirk on his face. He disappears as quickly as he arrived, reward in hand, and an eerie silence envelops the room. It’s almost as if the palace itself is stunned by the loss of its ruler, struggling to make sense of the merciless act of violence.

Time skips forward again, showing a young bearded-man dressed in military armor clutching at Satine’s body, pressing his forehead against hers as he weeps. Over and over he keeps murmuring apologies for not being quicker, for failing to be there when she needed him, for never saying he loved her.

“How do you know Satine and Obi-Wan are soulmates if they never matched?” Din asks, feeling like he’s intruding on a private moment despite not actually being there.

He thinks of a similarly phrased question he’d asked his angel on their way to Sorgan what feels like entire lifetimes ago: how will I know it’s my soulmate? Her eloquent response remains embedded deep in his memory, safely stored away along with every other moment they’ve spent together. Longing twists like a knife in his side as he allows himself a second of weakness to look at the soulmate marking on his palm.

‘I saw the life they were going to share,’ Ahsoka tells him. ‘Satine Kryze was not meant to die here. She and Obi-Wan should have both survived the Fall of Mandalore, settling down happily with each other elsewhere in the galaxy. Gideon’s greed altered their destinies.’

The palace fades away to reveal a much older Obi-Wan, gray-haired and wrinkled. He’s in Mos Eisley; Din recognizes the crowded spaceport instantly having taken his ship there for repairs numerous times over the years.

‘The universe puts a lot of effort into making sure soulmates match with each other at a very precise moment. Even if the match is rejected, the individuals still had an important impact on each other’s lives. Timing is the most important factor for a soulmate pairing, and if it’s off then the universe will attempt to fix it.’

Obi-Wan stops to help a woman who’s accidentally dropped her shopping bag, contents spilling out onto the sandy ground. She thanks him as he offers her a polite smile, both of their attentions on each other’s faces and not their hands. More specifically: their marked hands. There is the barest brush of their fingertips as they reach for the same item before an invisible blast of energy erupts from their touch, splitting them apart and sending every person and thing surrounding them flying in all directions.

The shock on Obi-Wan’s face matches Din’s own beneath his helmet. He remembers his angel telling him after the failed match with Omera what happened on Sorgan wasn’t the first time an event like that occurred, but she hadn’t been privy to the details. Her superior had told her she wasn’t high enough ranking which Din had thought sounded like a load of bantha shit at the time.

“Ahsoka, what is the meaning of this?” Din asks the questions quietly, but there’s an audible coating of frustration that he knows she won’t miss. “Satine’s dead.”

‘You didn’t reap her soul,’ Ahsoka says. It’s said as a gentle reminder, but it nevertheless has Din feeling like the ground has disappeared beneath his feet as realization dawns.

“I...didn’t.”

A quiet sigh echoes through his head. ‘I forgot how ignorant you can be. You can’t reap a mortal soul that transforms into a new entity.’

“She’s a Cupid,” Din murmurs. Either that or a reaper, but he knows each of his reapers like the back of his hand and Satine isn’t nor has she ever been one. He shakes his head, thinking of Obi-Wan finding Satine’s body in the throne room. “That doesn’t make any sense. Obi-Wan clearly loved her.”

‘Rejection can sometimes stem from a misunderstanding. Satine’s last living encounter with Obi-Wan was him saying so long as he was part of the royal guard they had no future together. She perceived this as him denying he cared about her, not knowing he had made plans to retire in order to ask for her hand.’

In front of Din, Obi-Wan rubs at his soulmate marking while staring at the mess around him, lines of unease and confusion creasing his forehead.

‘You asked, what is the meaning of this moment?’ Ahsoka continues. ‘It’s one of the universe’s attempts to reconnect Obi-Wan and Satine so they experience their matching as they were intended to.’

“But they’re of different statuses,” he points out needlessly. “She’ll outlive him.”

‘Yes, but the matching of soulmates not only influences the lives of the pair, but the lives of other people as well in ways both obvious and invisible. Think of it as a ripple effect.’

“Did the universe’s attempt work?” Din wonders. “Were they ever reunited?”

‘When Satine awoke as a Cupid, it was a surprise to both her and Gideon. Rather than kill her a second time, the Seraph chose to inflict a worse fate. She became the first of her kind to have her memories erased. However, he’d never previously used his ability on another immortal before, resulting in him nearly wiping her entire mind clean. The universe is capable of many miracles, big and small, but every attempt of reuniting the pair failed. It remains the universe’s most profound regret which is ultimately the reason why the universe brought you to Trinomliaxeros without your armor so that history wouldn’t repeat itself.’

There is a strange, heavy feeling that suddenly inflates within the confines of Din’s chest like a balloon. It’s different from the rampant anger he can still detect simmering beneath the skin of his human façade. He tries to shake it off, focusing on his breathing and the desert heat emanating from the twin suns overhead, only to slowly realize that what he’s feeling is fear.

Within his memory he can recall just one other distinct moment in his existence where he felt this spine-chilling emotion, and that moment was experienced on Trinomliaxeros.

“What did you just say?” His voice sounds shaky even to his own ears, but he can’t find any energy within himself to care.

A long stretch of silence fills his head; it’s the fragile kind, too, preventing him from snapping at Ahsoka to answer lest she become angry at him and yank him out the vision entirely.

‘Twice the timing of a soulmate match has been disturbed. The first pair affected was Obi-Wan and Satine. And the second pair was...’

“Ahsoka,” he says when she hesitates to continue, but any additional words he can think of saying catch in the back of his throat.

‘The second pair was you and your angel.’ Another pause of silence, shorter but no less meaningful. ‘Only fifty years ago, she wasn’t an angel.’

This is what Din remembers from Trinomliaxeros: feeling a pull so forceful, impatient and unanticipated it drags him across the galaxy in his civilian clothes, arriving to find the planet engulfed in smoke, unable to see his hand in front of his face, even without his gloves on. Finding skeletal remains burnt to blackened crisps with the souls inside shaking and traumatized, practically leaping into his outstretched hand, knowing either the afterlife or damnation would be better destinations than lingering there even a second longer. Explosions in the distance, bursts of flames as intense and hot as the sun, greedily consuming everything in their radius.

Out of the smoke and darkness, a survivor. A girl, covered in soot and sweat, colliding with his chest. The dead are calling out to him, pleading for him to reap them, to save them. Their voices swirl around his head, clawing at his brain and pounding against his skull. Shoving the girl aside, one foot in front of the other, letting his powers guide him to the next soul. Her voice cuts across the distance, a plasma bolt striking him in the back. We’re soulmates, she says.

His breath stills in his lungs. Fear spreads like a virus through his bloodstream, slipping beneath his defenses, turning him into a stranger within his own body. The declaration is a lie, an impossibility, a delusion. He has no match, hands unmarked, flesh poisonous and lethal. His words, too, are weapons themselves. Sharp, ruthless, desiring to wound her as she’s wounded him. You could never be my soulmate.

And then he’d left her.

This is what Din remembers. But, he thinks, squeezing his eyes shut so tightly it hurts, I’ve remembered everything all wrong.

Phantom hands gently press against the sides of his helmet, offering comfort without caring about the dried blood. He keeps his eyes shut, knowing it’s just a manifestation crafted by Ahsoka in his head. ‘Don’t blame yourself. This was the only viable outcome the universe could produce to ensure the bad timing would be remedied in the future,’ she says, but it does little to lessen the weight on his chest. ‘Your rejection saved her life. It granted you both a second chance of a first meeting.’

“How did—” Din struggles to string words together, to fucking breathe. “She—She knew. What we were. How…?”

The Oracle puts him out of his misery. ‘She found out the way all soulmates do: through touch.’

Din’s eyes fly open at that, and he has to blink a few times to bring everything into focus because there’s him and his angel right in front of him, frozen mid-collision. She’s grasping the sleeves of his coat to keep her balance, the palm of her marked hand touching his wrist. He stares at the point of contact for a moment, then barks out a laugh, hysterical and strangled sounding.

“That’s not possible.”

‘Soulmates can’t kill each other. She’s always been meant to withstand your touch.’

Din swallows thickly, staring at his angel’s face. He hates the question forming on his tongue, but it will haunt him the rest of his life if he doesn’t ask it. “In your visions, when I meet her at the right time, what happens?”

'You’re different by then, less broody and more accepting of the notion you could be loved. You have a soulmate marking,’ Ahsoka tells him. ‘You fall for her hard, even before your hands brush. You love her throughout the entirety of her lifetime.’

“And...when she dies?” The words taste like blood in his mouth.

‘Don’t torture yourself, Death. That timeline doesn’t exist anymore.’

For one brief, fleeting second Din is actually grateful Gideon altered their destinies. However, in the next, he’s trying not to let the fear gnawing at the back of his mind increase as it belatedly occurs to him that the universe is not as infallible as he’s always believed it was.

He wishes he could see Ahsoka, if only so he could glare at her directly. “Everything you’ve shown me has only further convinced me Gideon deserves death. Why have you asked me to promise not to kill him?”

'Do you remember what happens after this moment on Trinomliaxeros?’

Din frowns at the change of subject. “I continued to reap souls.”

'Yes. And then?’

He huffs a frustrated breath through his nose. This is Ahsoka, he thinks, at her most annoying. But, as much he loathes admitting it, this is also the most helpfully transparent she’s ever been. Today may be the only time she trusts him enough to share her visions. He owes it to her to be as open as she’s being with him.

That being said, he’s still wary of the memories he’s kept in the distant, shadowy corners of his mind being pulled into the spotlight. “Tell me we’re not gonna talk about the kid.”

‘We talked about the universe’s biggest regret. It’s only fair we talk about yours too.’ Ahsoka has found the crack in his armor he’s tried so long to conceal, peeling it open without remorse.

She doesn’t spare him time to argue. All he does is blink and he’s looking at his past self locked in a staring contest with a little green-skinned child who is propped up inside a floating, orb-shaped pram.

Of all the buildings and homes on the planet, only its temple had remained untouched by the destruction. Din didn’t know if it had been the structure’s own holy foundation keeping it standing or if it was the personal choice of the mastermind behind the attack, but he’d been drawn to it regardless, finding souls there to reap whose hosts had differed from other victims in that their throats had been slit. The walls of the temple were adorned with intricate murals depicting immortal figures and religious events of ancient history, but before he could observe the artwork closer, a quiet coo had stopped him in his tracks.

When he opened the pram, he hadn’t anticipated finding a baby of all creatures. When their eyes connected, every background noise abruptly ceased. Even the voices of the dead fell silent. Rather than rouse his suspicions, Din had felt only a sense of peace he usually only experienced in the midst of hyperspace travel where the stars were his voiceless companions.

An unspoken conversation transpired between the two of them, one Din still can’t translate into words all these years later, but it concluded with him knowing he would take the child with him.

Din had reached for him unthinkingly, the child lifting his arms up in eagerness to be held, but self-awareness kicked in right before contact and Din retracted his hands away so fast it startled the child into crying, brown eyes filling with tears. Panicked, he surveyed the room, looking for something to put an end to the wailing, before looking down at his own coat, experiencing a lightbulb moment.

“Alright, kid, it’s okay. You’re okay.” Watching his past self shrug off the coat, Din remembers it had been his favorite of his civilian clothes, well worth the cost for its soft fabric and length. He managed to successfully swaddle the child, ensuring his arms were safely tucked away to prevent him endangering his life, and Din exhaled a quiet breath of relief when the tears dried up almost immediately.

However, the ensuing silence wasn’t as peaceful as the previous one. Both past and present Din turn at the sound of distant shuffling echoing off the temple walls from another room.

“Ignore it,” Din tells his past self. “Just take the kid and leave.”

But his plea goes unheard and the past remains unchanged. Ahsoka is silent inside his head, either because she knows he won’t accept any more comforting words or because she thinks he’s undeserving of them for choosing to leave the child behind in his pram, closing it when he starts to whine again, so Din can go investigate the noise.

Din exhales a quiet breath, fingers twitching restlessly at his sides as he watches himself stalk through the temple halls, checking each room he comes across. It’s strange, seeing himself from this perspective. The distanced viewpoint allows Din to glimpse new details he hadn’t been capable of noticing back then.

Such as the reappearance of a familiar Seraph emerging from the shadows to stab him in the back.

Here’s one of the perks about being Death: he can’t be killed. That fact doesn’t mean there haven’t been attempts though. As Death, people sometimes look at his armor as a challenge. Like if they can fire a shot or throw a knife at just the right angle, it’ll wound him and allow them to live longer. Simply put, all those people are idiots.

When he looks like a regular, unintimidating civilian, he’s also been involved in violent predicaments where someone’s attempted to mug him or where he’s tried to save someone else from a similarly sticky situation.

Armor or no armor though, he’s always walked away from these encounters completely unscathed.

Well. With the sole exception of Trinomliaxeros where he was mostly unscathed.

It wasn’t the first time Din had been stabbed before. Usually knife wounds felt like a mild pinch. More irritating than painful, similar to a splinter stuck in one’s thumb. Once the weapon was removed, the damage healed within seconds, leaving behind no scar or proof he was ever attacked.

Usually, is the keyword to note here.

Ahsoka freezes time right when the blade of the Lightsaber is driven straight through the center of Din’s body, bone and flesh as easy to slice through as melted butter. His agonized expression—eyes screwed shut and lips open in a silent scream—would be comical if Din didn’t remember the exact emotions he was feeling in that moment.

Instead of a pinch, it’d felt as if thousands of invisible hands were pulling and scratching at him, attempting to strip apart his human exterior layer by layer—peeling off skin, scraping away muscle and bone marrow, seeking to reach the core of himself where his powers resided.

‘Looks like it hurts,’ Ahsoka says. The return of her naturally calm and neutral tone of voice seems almost cruel given the frozen, graphic display.

Din again wishes he could glare at her. “Is this funny to you?”

‘The transformation of the Lightsaber into the Darksaber is anything but funny.’

Lost in recollection, he failed to notice until now how the blade of the Lightsaber has changed in color from white to black. It’s the same inky hue that absorbs the brown in his eyes, that had dyed his veins during the execution of Hess.

‘The Armorer specifically instructed the Lightsaber only be used against enemies. As a neutral entity, you are, by definition, no one’s ally or adversary. By stabbing you, the saber became corrupted. It is a consequence Gideon still has yet to fully realize the monumental repercussions of.’

Time resumes, Din’s past self collapsing onto the floor, pressing a hand to the throbbing hole in his chest, attention too consumed by the franticness of his powers struggling to repair the trauma to notice Gideon lingering behind him. The Seraph’s stunned look of shock lasts barely ten seconds, morphing into one of deep contemplation as his gaze flicked between the weapon and Din, before he vanished.

When Din recovered enough to stand, he teleported back to the child’s location at once. He needs to get the little guy as far away from here as possible, somewhere peaceful and safe. His planning came to an abrupt halt upon finding the pram open and empty, his coat shredded and scattered about the floor in pieces.

“Gideon took him.” It isn’t a question.

‘Yes,’ she confirms. ‘The child was the intended target of this siege.’

“Why?”

‘He’s...very special.’ There is something about how her voice hitches when she says ‘special’ that has Din’s instincts prickling with alertness, but he holds his tongue. ‘Gideon considers him a tool he can take advantage of.’

The ugly, tight mass of anger swells inside of him and presses against his lungs, resulting in a low growl slipping out of his mouth. He curses his own ineptitude. If he’d paid more attention, hadn’t allowed himself to be wounded, he could have subdued Gideon and spared both his angel and the child from being captured.

“I warned you once upon a time, there would be consequences if you released your darkness,” Ahsoka says, her voice no longer emitting from inside his head. The vision fades back into reality the same sudden, jarring way one wakes up from dreaming. It takes all of Din’s self-restraint not to perform a full-body shake. “Your control is slipping as your rage increases. It’s making you not think clearly which is exactly what Gideon wants. That is the reason I am asking you to promise you will not kill him.”

Put like that, Din no longer thinks her request sounds quite so outlandish, even though he does still remain in the dark as to what consequences exactly will unfold. Ahsoka has remained stubbornly tight-lipped about the topic from their very first encounter, claiming the universe is adamant she can only share the details with one other person and it isn’t him.

“He deserves to die for all he’s done,” Din says quietly, but he’s self-aware to know his resistance is beginning to crumble.

“Between you and me, I think so, too,” she admits in the same low tone. Her ocean eyes are dark and stormy, reflecting her internal turmoil. “But rules are made for a reason and we would be fools to carelessly overlook the consequences of breaking them.”

The accusatory note from earlier has returned with a vengeance. He’s not surprised—of course the universe would utilize the Oracle to express its disapproval—but aggravation still thrums through his veins.

“Hess played a hand in my soulmate’s fate. He called her a whore.” Din’s upper lip twitches with the urge to snarl. “I don’t regret what I did to him.”

Ahsoka sighs. “I was afraid you’d say that. When you swore your creed, you promised the universe you’d only reap a soul when their host’s time has reached its destined end. By killing Hess, you not only broke a sacred rule, you also broke your creed.”

Din recoils, feeling like he’s been stabbed with the Lightsaber all over again.

“...What?” The anger is gone, extinguished by the weight of the revelation. Confusion and wariness are quick to fill the void. “What does that mean?”

She looks away then, but not quick enough to hide her troubled expression. “I...don’t know.”

He blinks, mind scrambling to understand the implications. “Isn’t that your purpose? To know everything?”

“For the very first time, the future’s unclear to me,” she murmurs, eyes briefly turning cloudy as if she’s trying to take a peek at the potential timelines right then and there. She shakes her head a beat later, frowning. “There are many choices left to be made, each one capable of influencing the fate of the galaxy. It is not possible at this time for me to predict our upcoming reality, let alone your consequences. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Din says, because it’s the truth and he doesn’t like seeing her crestfallen expression. Fuck, he might actually consider her a friend after all.

Whatever happens, he thinks to himself, it can’t be any worse to deal with than being separated from his soulmate. If he can survive this, he can survive anything.

“The last promise I made was broken.” He bites back a wince at the memory of his angel’s pinky promise. “But if making another one is the only way you’ll take me to my soulmate, then you have my word. I won’t kill him.”

A ghost of a smile pulls at her lips before she grabs hold of one of his vambraces. “Take me to your ship. I will guide you to her location.”

“You don’t trust me to go alone?” he asks, unsure whether to be amused or indignant.

“No,” Ahsoka replies bluntly.

Din huffs. “Fine.”

“I may not be able to see much at the moment, but I know it’s never wise to turn down support. You’re going to need us.”

“Us?”

“It’s Bo-Katan’s choice to make, but you and I both know she’s never been one to back down from a fight. Especially once she learns Gideon is her sister’s murderer.”

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blu-joons · 3 years

Text

When One Of The Members Reveals Your Relationship ~ Exo Reaction

Xiumin:

As soon as the interviewer mentioned relationships the whole group fell silent, expecting the usual questions that came. “Are any of you in love, or is there anyone who wants to spill a few beans for the fans today?”

“Minseok you-“Sehun began.

“No,” Kyungsoo quickly interrupted him, “none of us have anything that we’d like to share with you.”

“Are you sure? Because someone back there seemed like they wanted to say something,” the interviewer pushed, looking between Sehun and Minseok.”

Minseok frowned, shaking his head, “you guys don’t need to protect me, I might as well be honest seeing as Sehun’s thrown me under the bus anyway.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking,” he whispered across to the eldest, “is this live? Can we not just cut that bit out?”

Minseok’s head shook, “it’s live, there’s no cutting it now. It doesn’t matter now though. Yes, I’m in love, but that’s all I will share with you right now.”

“That’s more than we expected you all to share,” the interviewer smiled around the group, “you’ve done our viewership a huge favour today.”

“Yeah, but maybe not my relationship.”

Suho:

The boys watched the video closely that was being filmed to go up on their channel for the fans to watch. “What’s that?” Baekhyun questioned, pausing the clip that Kyungsoo had filmed for the video, pointing behind him.

“Is that Y/N?” Junmyeon questioned.

“No,” Kyungsoo quickly protested, but as he inspected further, it was obvious it was the two of you.

“It’s too late to film anything new now,” Junmyeon sighed, “how did no one in the editing department pick up on this, they can’t cut it for us now.”

Kyungsoo’s head sunk, “I’m so sorry, I should have been more careful of my surroundings. I didn’t realise that the two of you were stood behind me.”

“It’s our fault too, we shouldn’t have been like that at work,” Junmyeon comforted, smiling across at Kyungsoo.

The whole group didn’t know how to react. “Maybe we could speak to someone, it won’t take long to edit,” Minseok suggested, but Junmyeon declined.

“Everyone will know sooner or later, maybe this is the time that we just need to start being honest with the fans,” he stated.

“As long as you’re definitely sure.”

Lay:

Chanyeol’s head peered around when he saw that Yixing was alone in his room, stepping in and making himself comfortable. “There’s a lot of Y/N in this room these days, you can tell that she’s staying over a bit more.”

“I’m live,” Yixing mumbled.

“Are you?” Chanyeol chuckled, only to look across and see that Yixing was in fact live with the fans.

“You’ve dropped me in it now,” Yixing frowned, too afraid to look at all the comments. “What are you even doing in here anyway?”

Chanyeol smiled apologetically, “I was just coming to see if you wanted to go over those lyrics, I didn’t realise that you were busy on stream though.”

“How am I going to explain this to Y/N?” Yixing frowned, knowing how annoyed you’d be that you were revealed.

Chanyeol’s eyes rolled, “I think your biggest worry right now should be the thousands of fans who are demanding to know who Y/N is.”

“Don’t remind me,” Yixing whispered, “I’ll come and work on the lyrics once I’ve justified my secret relationship to the fans.”

“I honestly cannot apologise enough.”

Baekhyun:

The two of them were incredibly tipsy as they sat around the dorm with Kyuhyun and Eunhyuk to film for their show. “I heard a rumour that you had someone on the scene,” Kyuhyun smiled across at Baekhyun with intrigue.

“Have you not heard?” Minseok asked.

“Hyung,” Baekhyun snapped from beside him, jabbing into his waist. “Just let me do the talking.”

“Is there something going on?” Eunhyuk quizzed, leaning across the table. “I thought it was just someone trying to joke around with us that you were dating.”

Baekhyun’s head shook, “it’s early days, I didn’t want to tell anyone just yet in case it scared her. But Minseok’s ruined that.”

“They can edit this sort of stuff out,” Minseok tried to assure him, but Kyuhyun’s head shook immediately back at him.

He smiled across the table, “we’re leaving this gossip in, you can blame Minseok for not being able to keep his mouth shut.”

“Just pretend you’re drunk,” Eunhyuk suggested, “pretend that you have no idea who they’re talking abou tomorrow when you’re hungover.”

“That plan will definitely not work.”

Chen:

The cameras all came back on as the interviewer looked to the group of boys that were sat on the sofa altogether. “The fans have mentioned a lot about there being a rumour about a girl being around, is that true at all?”

“Well,” Junmyeon started, but quickly stopped.

“There is?” The interviewer quickly asked, noticing how quickly Junmyeon stopped himself.

“It’s not like that,” Junmyeon sighed, feeling Jongdae’s eyes stare across at him. “We’re young and we’ve dated at times, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Jongdae’s head shook from behind, “there’s no point trying to cover it all up, the fans know that someone has been around, and that’s thanks to me.”

“Can you share anymore details?” The interviewer asked him, desperate to try and push him for a little more information.

Jongdae’s head shook, “I want to be respectful of my relationship, but I also don’t want any rumours being spread about what’s going on.”

“I understand,” she smiled, “I’m sure your fans will be glad that any rumours about you have been cleared up now for them.”

“Me too, I want to be honest.”

Chanyeol:

Sehun switched on the camera to record the group as they run off the stage. “Did you guys see Y/N in the crowd?” Jongin asked straight away, unaware that Sehun was filming until he felt a nudge against his hip.

“Be quiet,” Chanyeol murmured.

“Look,” Sehun pointed out to Jongin that the camera was filming all of them. “Say hi to the fans.”

“Did you just switch that on?” Chanyeol frantically asked, grabbing Sehun’s shoulder, “please tell me that you switched that on after we all started talking.”

Sehun’s shoulders shrugged, “I’m not too sure to be honest, I might have just managed to miss the cut, but I’m really not sure right now.”

“I’m sure it missed it,” Jongin assured him, desperate to rectify his mistake. “They won’t have understood what I was talking about anyway.”

Chanyeol glared across at him, “you’re making it more and more obvious the more you mention her name, so let’s just drop it and hope.”

“We can watch it back later,” Sehun assured him, “I’m sure that if the fans did hear anything, they’d be respectful about it anyway.”

“I hope so, for Y/N’s sake.”

D.O:

Kyungsoo pushed the door open as he saw Baekhyun on his live, quickly mouthing across to him to mute it for a moment. Once he had, Kyungsoo spoke. “Did Y/N leave her phone charger in here from last night?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun smiled, pointing it out.

“Thank you,” Kyungsoo responded, walking around the back of his life to pick up your phone charger.

“I meant to bring it back to her this afternoon,” Baekhyun pointed out, encouraging Kyungsoo to come over and say hello to the live stream.

As he did, Kyungsoo’s attention was drawn to the comments. “I thought you said you muted it, why are the fans all asking about Y/N?”

“I did mute it,” Baekhyun assured him, until he noticed the button wasn’t clicked on. “I swear I muted it; I don’t understand what’s happened.”

Kyungsoo’s head shook, “I don’t know how I’m supposed to get the two of us out of this one, how did you manage not to mute it Baekhyun?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll fix it,” he quickly assured him, “I don’t know how yet, but I’ll find a way to solve this for you both.”

“Don’t worry too much, it’s alright.”

Kai:

Their eyes lit up when they noticed that Weki Meki were joining them for the interview on Music Bank, shuffling along to make some room for them. “Isn’t Y/N a big fan of these guys?” Jongdae asked from beside Jongin.

“Yeah,” Jongin responded.

“Guys,” Junmyeon mumbled in front of them, “the livestream is still rolling, keep your voices down.”

“No, it’s not, the green light isn’t on,” Jongdae quickly tried to point out, feeling Jongin’s eyes glare across at him. “It’s not live, is it?”

Chanyeol turned back too, “these cameras don’t have the lights on them. And you weren’t quiet earlier, the fans will definitely know about Y/N now.”

“Please tell me you’re joking,” Jongin vented, trying desperately to keep calm, “you’re just winding me up right now, aren’t you?”

Chanyeol’s head shook, “Jongdae wasn’t to know, and hopefully most of the fans weren’t even listening to your conversation just then.”

“I’m so sorry,” Jongdae whispered from beside him, “whatever I can do to make the problem better again I’ll do in a heartbeat.”

“We don’t know if they heard anything yet.”

Sehun:

His smile grew as Yixing peered around the door of his studio, scanning for something particular. “Can I help you with what you’re looking for?” Sehun questioned, turning his camera around so the fans could see Yixing.

“Is Y/N here?” He asked.

“Um,” Sehun stuttered, glancing at the screen to notice that the comments on the live blew up.

“You’re live?” Yixing questioned, suddenly realising what was going on. “She’s a member of staff,” he called out, desperately trying to make up for his mistake.

Sehun’s head shook, “the fans aren’t stupid, they know the staff don’t come by here. Don’t worry, but Y/N’s not here, she’s with Baekhyun working on some stuff.”

“I’m so sorry,” Yixing whispered, mouthing apologies across at Sehun again and again. “I really didn’t realise what was going on.”

Sehun smiled widely, “honestly, don’t worry. Although I think you’ve given me a bit more explaining to do about what’s been going on.”

“I’ll tell Y/N what’s happened when I see her,” Yixing told her, “she’s probably going to kill me once she finds about this.”

“She’ll be alright, don’t worry.”

---

Masterlist

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kuroos-moon · 3 years

Text

≪ the love that wrecks, and the one that mends ≫

pairing: atsumu x reader x suna

genre: sfw, angst

warning/s: toxic relationship, implied sex, minor swearing, prolly contains typos & grammatical errors (didn’t proofread)

wc: 2.3k

His breaths are ragged, thoughts a jumble. It couldn’t be true, lies spread far too easily and he knew that. But still, just to be sure—not that he believed a word at all—he’ll ask you. You, his haven and comfort, the thick blanket to his coldest days and the warm embrace piercing through his isolation.

You, who filled his thoughts every night. What if he did this the next day or what if he had done that before bidding you goodbye after he walked you home? You, who had been there by his side all this time, he need not look to know that you’re there; you always will be. Through hurricanes of uncertainties and tides of pain, where every memory was precedented and followed by another misery for you both, you and him will not change.

“This isn’t gonna be the last time we’ll cry because of each other, right?”

His lips twitch up into a small smile as he tilts his head to the side, looking at you as if you were the prettiest sight. “Most likely not. Tell me, do ‘ya want it any other way though?”

Eyes seeing through you, he already knows your answer. You only shake your head, chuckling, “as if there is another way with you.”

That’s right, you can’t expect to have Atsumu in your life if you’re not willing to wet your pillow with tears before slumber, to break the rules—to lose yourself—to get hurt, to bleed, to yearn for more but accept the least. You can’t have it all, they say. Well, you always thought they were wrong.

With Atsumu, you had it all. The thrill, the pleasure, the pain—him, your breathtaking Atsumu who would utter the most painful words and whisper the sweetest apologies. He knew it too, you were willing to go through hell and back. You befriend your demons and say goodbye to the light, you easily do so, without the faintest doubt—if it means a few seconds of intertwined fingers, a glimpse of his loving eyes, an echo of his laughter, you don’t care, it’s enough, it should be.

But where the hell are you? You’re not at home, apparently you’re over at a friend’s place. He takes a moment to catch his breath as he arrives at his own home, exhausted, depressed and anxious. He could feel himself lose control of his thoughts, though he was only thinking of you.

You, who would call him at the most random of times ‘just because’ and you, who had not talked to him properly ever since the last fight you had which was roughly three months ago. What the fight was about, he couldn’t even remember, what he does recall is how you uttered the words goodbye, Atsumu and not your usual see you, ‘tsum.

“I thought we were watching a movie,” there’s the subtlest smile on his lips, dark orbs finally trained on you after he had looked away from the screen. “What I’m looking at is so much better though,” you whisper, intoxicated by his scent and his embrace.

“Really?” He asks, nonchalant but his tone dishonest. If anything, he wishes more than anything else for you to mean those words, yet it felt like they weren’t for him to hear. “Really.”

You’re an angel, badly hurt and wings clipped.

And it’s all okay. He’ll mend you and patch you up with what he could offer, though deep down he knows you still preferred pain than his solace. He’ll make you fly again, overlooking his true wishes that even with flight—even if you’ve healed enough to let Atsumu destroy you once more—you’ll pick him. It’s fine, he keeps reminding himself, even if you dive straight down to that hell again and abandon him.

In a millisecond of staring back at your eyes, he had thought over a million ways for you to actually see through him. Words will not do justice for how deeply he had fallen for you, not by a long shot, so please, “y/n, see me,” he whispers into his dark and silent room while you lay facing each other.

“I am looking at you, Rin,” you assure him, appreciatively running your fingers through his hair. Thank god for him, he’s a work of art.

“Then, do you know how much I love you?” He whispers, the agony of being someone who could only relieve your pain and not truly make you happy had his voice breaking and he hid it so well, but you heard, a tear already rolling down his cheek.

Your heart falls, watching more tears fall from his beautiful, kind eyes. The very eyes that had seen you at your worst, the very ones that you catch already staring at you from across the room.

“Y/n you said you see me, right?” He says, silent sobs forcing its way out of his throat and you pull him to yourself, peppering feather-like kisses on his skin and the heaven knows how far and desperately he truly wished that those kisses were out of love and not of pity.

“I see you.”

You don’t, he thought. You see a friend, a potential lover, a satisfactory replacement, it will always be Atsumu who’s rooted in the depths of your heart he could only dream of reaching.

“I love you Rin, you have no clue, and I do know how much you love me.” Of course you know, how could you not know when he kisses your forehead before he heads off to practice? when he races to your side the first thing in the morning and wordlessly holds your hand, when he tells you he loves you every single day and night, whether it’s through the phone, or in person when he thought you were asleep.

“But you wish he loved you this much instead of me,” he says, and as he’s always done, he puts you first and neglects his hurt, comforting you as you cry silent tears, pushing away the pain in his chest that’s commanding him to just breathe and let go.

He’d rather suffer alone than have you shed tears with him though, regretting to let you see him cry. Like the miracle of peace amidst chaos, his lips find their way to yours, drowning your sobs as his thumb swipes across your cheeks to wipe your tears away.

Your hearts beat faster, and he was wrong to think he was insignificant to you, because if anything, he was your world, your lifeline. Not just because he kissed, hugged, and comforted all your pain away, but because Suna is the only person you’ll love and forever choose to love like this, like words couldn’t describe, and numbers could not measure.

If your relationship with Atsumu was hell, you couldn’t even say Suna was heaven, not even close, heaven’s too flawed and unworthy to be compared to your lover. He’s just him, your cherished Suna Rintarou. The brunette you don’t have to break the rules for or cry over every other night, the gentle Suna who will never utter words he knows would hurt you, the beautiful Suna who with just a glimpse of him, all your troubles fade and love fills you.

It was when you loved Suna Rintarou, that you truly knew what love was like or what love was supposed to be—for you, that is. After months together, you discovered that love for you was listening to your shared playlist as you walk home together with your hand in his inside his pocket, love for you was barging into his room while he was still asleep and waking him up with a kiss, love for you was not hurting yourself over and over, love for you was loving more and more each day, and after loving Suna, love for you is him and him alone.

“Y/n?” The surprise is evident in his voice when you had pulled away only to glue your lips back together as you shift and now lay on top of him. He guiltily cannot peel his eyes away from you when you rid yourself of his hoodie, he had always known you were beautiful, it was common sense, he’d make it a law if need be, but tonight, he’s looking at you where his eyes had never seen or adored you yet before.

“Do you see me, Rin?” You whisper, and he draws his hand to the side of your face, his love for you painfully too overwhelming brought by your small act of kissing the inside of his wrist. He’s drunk from your affection, addicted to it. “I love you, only you, and it will always be you, okay? I’m sorry it took me a while to get to where I belong, to be here with you.”

That night, tears were spilt as your lips met, confessions were whispered as love was made, again and again until early hours of dawn, until your head lays on his bare chest and his arm securely encloses you to him, a smile on his lips as he listens to your even breaths.

Meanwhile, Atsumu suffered a sleepless, restless wake of dawn. It wasn’t confirmed to be true yet, but maybe it was because of the way he knew deep down that it is probable, and it made sense. Your love was toxic—unofficial even—while he had always been yours, he knew that he gave you one too many reasons to no longer be his.

Yes, he was yours as you lay together on your bed that one night, endless conversations and sincere smiles. But no, he was no longer yours when he left your place and called one of his girls, apologizing for not showing up.

He was yours, when he got jealous and possessive, claiming you his and holding you tightly close to him. But the moment you started asking for more again—for a relationship more certain—in his irritated eyes and discomforted language, in his small sigh and aversion of the topic, you knew once more that he isn’t and might never be yours.

He’ll change from now on, he says to himself as he swallows his pride and picks up his phone, pressing your contact starred favorite, a red heart at the end of your name. In the first ring he wishes you’ll pick up on the next, on the second he hoped you were just asleep, and when you didn’t pick up, he looks at himself in the mirror and wondered why tears had already graced his cheeks.

He calls again, you pick up on the second ring.

“Atsumu.”

As if the coldest wind breezed through him, a shiver runs down his spine and he could feel his throat dry. He couldn’t speak, refusing to accept that the person who picked up your phone is the very person he begged the universe you weren’t with right now.

“What?”

“Where is she?”

“She’s asleep, why would you even call at this hour.”

There was silence on the line, and from the other end of the call, Suna was sitting up, gazing at your peaceful features as he covers your exposed arm with the blanket that had slightly gone astray. He caresses your cheek gently with the back of his hand, as if the reminder of Atsumu had him on guard with you, instincts kicking in as he wanted to make sure you feel loved and safe with him even though you were asleep.

“Then are ya really… Ya aren’t right? Y’know y/n’s mine.”

Just like that, Suna’s eyes drop cold, his hand leaving the side of your face. “We’re going out, I wouldn’t really consider the things we’ve done together platonic.”

Before he could respond he hears your voice, from the sound of it—after having heard it a thousand times when he used to stay over at yours—you just woke up, he bets you were barely even awake at all.

“Rin? C’mere,” you mumble.

The sound of the mattress shifting and the fluffing of pillows as you sit up and snuggle into Suna’s chest left him a lot to imagine. Despite the wreck it was all making inside his head, he couldn’t even bring himself to end the call.

Suna had already abandoned your phone, presuming it had already ended as he diverts his full attention to you, looking down affectionately with love behind his dark eyes.

“Did I wake you?” He says in a small voice, yet the kiss he planted atop your head was something Atsumu could still hear, fingers shaking as his grip tightens on his phone.

“’sokay, let me just sleep here,” you smile, kissing the crook of his neck as you close your eyes once more, already feeling yourself succumb to slumber. This was peaceful, your heart had never felt this in tuned with someone else’s, yet here in his dark room, under the warmth of his covers and the serenity of his bare body against yours, you knew you had finally wound up to where you belong.

“Rin?”

He hums in response, tracing his hand across your back as he too starts to fall asleep in your embrace.

“I love you.”

Those words meant the world to one and torment to the other.

“I love you, ‘Tsum! You fucking know that! And if you don’t want to let me go, why can’t you just love me too?”

“Are ya sayin I don’t love ya?”

“Then do you?”

Like every fight wherein you had him cornered, he left you unanswered that night. He bitterly smiles, regretful and anguished. With four last words before hanging up the phone, he welcomes the pain of his loss, the loss he knew was coming because he just couldn’t treat you right.

“I love you, y/n.”

#haikyuu!! x reader #suna x reader #atsumu x reader #haikyuu!! scenarios #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x you #haikyuu!! x you #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu scenarios #atsumu miya #Suna Rintarou #haikyuu imagine #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu!!#hq

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whatareyousearchingfordean · 4 years

Text

Happiness Continues

Part 1: The Conception

Summary: Y/n has been feeling stressed with moving and big things happening at work. After a stupid argument with her husband, they both find a way to help her blow off some steam.

Pairing: Jensen Ackles x Plus Size Reader

Word Count: 3.7K+

Warnings: Language, verbal argument, sexual tension and teasing, unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it)

Author’s Note: Now it’s time to officially dive back into the lives of my favorite idiots. Can’t wait to go on this journey with you guys again. Special shout out to my constant hype woman @waywardbeanie who willing squeals with me all the time and my beautiful beta @emoryhemsworth I couldn’t do it without all of you too, so please, let me know what you think. Feedback is golden! xoxo Alex

Catch up with the series masterlist and then check out Alexandra’s Library for more by yours truly!

The highway whizzed passed outside her window as she made her way home. Y/n had one hand on the steering wheel as the other rubbed small circles into her temple. It was a Sunday after all, and she had to go into the warehouse. Et Cetera was working on launching a new skincare line, and one of the new machines had caught fire. It was just the icing on top of her already tipping cake. It felt like the only thing she had been doing for the past few weeks was putting out fires, whether it was at work or at home.

The only thing getting her through the current shit storm that was today was the Memorial Day barbeque celebration at Jared and Gen’s later. Well, actually it was starting about now, but she needed to get home and grab her bathing suit before she could go anywhere. She was pissy that work was making her late, but she had to try and remember that it would all be worth it once the line launched.

As Y/n pulled into the driveway of her and Jensen’s home, she could see the garage door was open, his black Land Rover pulled out and ready to go. Y/n replaced its spot inside with her car, jumping from the cool cab into the sweltering heat of Texas.

Y/n went for the door leading to their mudroom before remembering that the hall was packed tight with boxes, ready for the movers to come and whisk them away. She made a detour back down the drive and into the house through the front door.

The television played softly somewhere in the background and Y/n assumed Jensen was on his ass in front of it, considering that was where she often found him nowadays. He was enjoying his time off a little too much, but after fifteen years, she couldn’t say he didn’t deserve to. She stopped to take off her heels before venturing further inside, carrying them and her purse in one hand.

“Jay?” She called out, hoping to find her husband ready to pack the car and go. But as she entered the kitchen, the cooler sat open on the floor, empty of anything, even ice. The woman bit her tongue before moving on towards their bedroom, the sound of the television growing as she neared.

Passing by his home office, she stopped short, peering through the cracked door. Inside, the room looked as it had been untouched. The books were still lining the large shelves and his desk was strewn with papers and various contracts.

The sight was all she needed to boil over. Granted, she didn’t have a far way to go considering having to go into work on Sunday had already riled her up. Y/n chewed on the inside of her cheek as she stormed into their room, finding Jensen perched on the edge of the bed. He had their beach bag seemingly packed already behind him, but it was no help to him now. His wife was already steaming.

“Hey honey,” he smiled, the grin fading as she stalked passed him without a word. Y/n tossed her heels into their nearly empty closet before continuing to their bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

Jensen cocked his head to the side as he stared after where she had disappeared. He knew when she left this morning she was in less than a stellar mood, but he was, unfortunately, completely clueless as to what had her in a mood now.

“Babe?” He shut off the television and went over to the door, rapping his knuckles against the wood lightly. “Are you okay?”

“Not now.” Her voice was soft from the other side, a slight echo to it as it reverberated in the empty bathroom.

“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.” He tried the handle of the door, surprisingly finding it locked. His brows knit together, as his wife never locked the door on him. “Y/n/n?”

“Don’t,” the door swung open then, revealing her now sans the suit she had gone into work in, and only in her panties. “I cannot talk to you right now.”

“What the hell did I do?” Jensen followed her as she pushed past him, pulling her bathing suit from its place in her drawers and exchanging her panties for the bikini.

“I have been asking you for a week, a week Jensen, to pack up your office, and this morning I have to go into work to deal with an emergency. I figured that'd be the perfect time for you to get it done, but no! You couldn’t even be bothered to fill the damn cooler for this party!”

Her husband backtracked, blinking at her sudden outburst. “It takes two seconds to fill the cooler, I was waiting until you got home, and my office will take no time at all.”

“Jensen, the movers will be here tomorrow. Tomorrow!” She repeated for emphasis as she pulled a tank and a pair of shorts over her swimsuit. “And we have a party to go to. Are you gonna get all of that done before ten in the morning?”

“I have time. They have plenty of other things to move first.”

Y/n clenched her fingers into a fist before relaxing them with a deep breath. “I don’t understand why you couldn’t have done it this morning or even yesterday. Why do you insist on making me more anxious than I already am?”

“Oh, come on. You know I don’t do that on purpose. I’m sorry that it’s not helping you, but it’s all going to be okay,” he tried, his apology only ticking her off more than she already was.

“Whatever, I’ll just get over it. Come on, we have a party to go to.” Her tone was clipped and Jensen knew he was still in the dog house. But he also knew his wife well enough to know now was not the time to push her. The two of them could talk about it later.

He left her to finish getting ready and went to pack the cooler with beer and water and loaded it in the car. Y/n followed him out of the house not even a minute later, their swim bag over her shoulder. The couple climbed into the car in silence, and that’s how they remained the whole drive to Jared’s.

All the other guests had arrived already when they pulled into the driveway. Jensen sighed as he watched his wife jump out of the car without a word. He hit the steering wheel with the heel of his hand, hoping that her nosy family didn’t pick up on the anger rolling off of her.

He unloaded the cooler and dragged it along behind him, though the garage and out to the poolside. Setting down under some shade, he wasted no time in reaching in and cracking open a bottle of craft beer.

“What did you do?” Jared’s voice had him nearly choking on the fizzy liquid as it went down his throat. He didn’t even hear his brother-in-law come up behind him.

“What makes you think I’ve done something?” Jensen knew he was being far too defensive, but fuck Jared and his perceptiveness. He had known this would happen.

“Uh, you two didn’t walk back here hand in hand forgetting there are other people in the world.” Jared had that inquisitorial look in his eye, the same one that nearly had Jensen shitting his pants when he and Y/n had been running around.

“Okay, first off, we don’t forget there are other people around. And secondly,” Jensen sighed before continuing, “she’s just stressed and taking it out on me.”

“Uh-huh, what did you do?”

“I didn’t pack up the office this morning when she had to run into work, so sue me.”

“Ah, dude, the movers are coming tomorrow.” Jared wrinkled his nose, but Jensen could see the glimmer of mischief in his eyes.

“I swear to god, you need to go somewhere else, away from me.” Jensen shoved his friend's shoulder, causing Jared to burst out laughing as he sauntered away. The actor shook his head as he reached for another beer to bring his wife.

As he made his way further into the backyard, he found Y/n sitting at the deck table, having already discarded her tank top. She was chatting with her sisters-in-law, a smile on her face until she noticed him walking her way. But she didn’t make a move to stop him as he neared, instead accepting the beer from him and leaning into his touch when he kissed the crown of her head. It was her way of telling him that she was okay, she only needed a little time, and he could accept that.

What he couldn’t accept was her blatant teasing throughout the day. Now, he knew she was pissed at him, but she was playing a very dangerous game right now. It started out innocent enough when she had asked him to rub sunblock on her back. She’d laid out along the lounger and Jensen had knelt beside her, rubbing the cream into her skin. It was the small moan she let out as his fingers dug into her muscles that had his breath hitching in his throat. She was careful to keep it low enough that only he would hear but loud enough to set him on edge.

Her next trick came in the form of flaunting herself in front of him, over and over again. Jumping into the water right in front of him and coming out to lean down for something, giving him the perfect view down her bathing suit. Jared knocked him upside the head one time when he caught Jensen staring and then adjusting himself, quirking an accusatory eyebrow up at his not so subtle action. Jensen supposed he deserved it, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. He finished God only knew what number beer as he glared at her retreating figure. It was clear to him that her actions were no accident now, she knew exactly what she was doing.

It wasn’t until the watermelon incident that he knew just how much she was riling herself up in all this too. Jensen was in the pool with the kids, having fun tossing the boys in the water between him and Jared. The girls were readying the food for dinner, and Y/n had decided to steal a piece of watermelon. His wife sat down in the chair, biting into the soft flesh of the melon. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as the juice dripped down her chin and landed on the swell of her breast. Y/n made eye contact, smiling at him as she wiped it away with her finger and placed the sweet liquid on her tongue, sucking her finger between her lips for a moment too long. He had to fight back an eye roll, instead deciding to narrow his eyes at her, his tongue licking along his lip and pulling it between his teeth. It seemed to do the trick as he noticed the subtle way she clenched her thighs before crossing her legs. Now he had her right where he wanted her, all primed for the perfect payback.

“What are you up to?” Gen appeared next to Y/n as she watched the interaction between the couple.

“I’m eating watermelon.”

“And making a mess.”

“That’s one of the joys of eating watermelon in your suit, you don’t have to worry about where the juice goes.” Y/n turned away from her husband’s heated stare to look at the small brunette next to her.

“Okay,” she raised her hands up, “I do not want to know.” Gen backed away from where her sister-in-law was laughing. No, she really did not want to know.

Her last harebrained scheme to get her husband going came as the night was coming to an end and she had more alcohol coursing through her veins than was necessary. The sun was disappearing behind the trees and the boys had lit a bonfire. Jensen found a spot on one of the loungers near the fire, his long legs crossed at the ankle in front of him. Y/n came out of the house behind him with his sweater hanging off her shoulders, that glint in her eye still present as she walked over to where he was.

“You have the bug spray?” She asked him politely.

“Maybe,” he tilted his head at her as she looked around him for it. Spotting it on the patio below, she reached over him, placing her hand for balance on his thigh. Jensen grunted as she stretched across him and snatched the spray bottle, watching her every move. As she moved to stand back up, a devilish smile crossed his features before he grabbed her wrist and caused her to stumble into his lap.

“Don’t use too much,” his voice was nearly a growl as it reverberated in his chest.

“Never, dear,” she replied, skimming her supporting hand across the bulge in his swim trunks as she went, feeling her husband up.

Y/n had to take a deep breath as she walked away from Jensen, the buzz from her many drinks was making her brain fuzzy and needy for her husband. Her plan hadn’t been to wind herself up along with him, but she should have known better, that two could play her little game.

After applying the spray, she sat down across the fire from her husband, Odette choosing her lap as her resting place as she made her rounds through the adults. Y/n helped her make a couple of s’mores on the fire before handing her off to her father as she headed inside for a mixed drink from Gen’s fridge.

The air conditioning caused pimples to rise on her heated skin as she entered the home and took off her sweater. Y/n stumbled slightly as she crossed the threshold inside, the numerous drinks of the day taking hold of her brain. The day wasn’t over yet, and she was determined to slip in at least one more.

By the time she reached the fridge, she heard the door behind her opening and closing again. She paid it no mind as she pulled the juice and soda from the fridge, turning on her heel and bumping the door closed with her hip.

“I know what you’re doing,” his growl had her nearly jumping out of her skin, the bottles in her arms tumbling ever so slightly before she clumsily regained her grip on them.

“Jesus.” Y/n set the bottle down on the island in the kitchen, her heart thumping wildly in her chest. Jensen stepped closer to her, invading her personal space, and squaring his shoulders to make himself even bigger than he already was. He knew just how much it made her weak in the knees when he displayed his size difference over her, and he was using that knowledge to his advantage.

“Come on babe, you can’t play me.” His voice was low, the sound of it reverberating deep in his chest, sending shivers down her spine. “I’ve been watching you clench your thighs all day.”

“I—” The syllable barely slipped from her lips before his hands were on her, dragging her down the back hall and into the dark laundry room. The soft glow of the moonlight and a far off street lamp illuminated the room just enough for them to see each other.

Jensen pushed her body against the dryer as he closed the door behind them both. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the low lighting, giving him enough time to lift her onto the machine and slot himself between her open thighs.

“I’m still pissed at you,” she murmured as he dove into her neck, placing soft open-mouthed kisses against her sensitive skin.

“So you’re torturing me then?”

“You tick me off, I tick you off. I think it’s only fair.” Her words were a whimper on her lips when Jensen nipped against her collar bone. Y/n ran her hands up his bare back, his skin still heated from the Texas sun. The woman could feel his muscles rippling under her fingertips as he ground his arousal into her core.

“Mmm, don’t think that’s how this works,” Jensen stepped back from her, her hands falling to her sides to catch herself from falling from the machine. Her chest rose and fell with a deep breath as she tried to calm her hammering heart. “See, I think now’s the time to show you who’s really in charge here.”

Y/n bit her lip as she looked at her husband up and down. Y/n loved this side of him, the small upturn in his lips sent heat pooling deep in her stomach. Without breaking eye contact, she reached behind her, untying her bathing suit top and dropping it on the washer next to her. She watched his Adam’s apple bob as he fought to keep his composure, but his wife knew him well enough to see the way his tongue peeked out to wet his lower lip. He was on the brink of breaking, and she had just the idea of how to push him over the edge.

“Then show me,” she purred, sucking two fingers between her lips before disappearing her hand into her bathing suit bottoms. Jensen moved like lightning, his fingers wrapping around her wrist and pulling her hand up near his face.

“No time for that, baby girl.” Jensen dropped his grip on her, moving to pull her bottoms from her body. Y/n lifted her hips to help him and Jensen placed the barely-there material with the other piece of her bikini. He took back his place in between her legs, attacking her mouth with fervor. Y/n could taste the beer he had been drinking all day on his lips, the taste all-consuming of every other flavor she so loved of her husband, but she didn’t care at this point. She’d been trying to rile him up all day, in turn doing the same thing to herself, and now she wanted the release she knew her husband could provide her.

He had one hand on her hip and the other was cradling the base of her skull, keeping her as close to his body as he could. The soft moans escaping her body only drove him crazier than he already was. Y/n ran her nails down his back, slipping her hands underneath the elastic of his bathing suit and squeezing the taut muscles of his ass.

“Fuck me, please,” she begged, far past caring for any decorum at that moment. He already had her naked and wet in her brother’s laundry room, her whole family just outside enjoying a bonfire as the night came to an end.

“God, anything for you, baby,” Jensen murmured against her lips as she moved her hands to pull his erection from its confines. Y/n guided him to her entrance, a collective sigh falling from their lips as he bottomed out inside her. He stilled as her body adjusted to him, his forehead dropping to her shoulder as he breathed deeply. A surprised gasp popped from her mouth as he pulled out and fucked into her in one swift movement before easily finding his rhythm.

The laundry room filled with the couple’s collective breaths and the soft creaking of the machine she was placed on. The air grew thick around them as they both frantically chased after their release that they had been building up all day. Y/n’s hands were roaming across the heated skin of Jensen’s back, looking for purchase anywhere she could.

Every muscle in her body was clenching as he drove himself home time and time again. “Jay, fuck—” She wasn’t sure what she was asking for from him, all she knew was that she was almost there.

“I know honey, I’ve got you.” His voice was low, rumbling deep in his chest as he licked over the shell of her ear. Everything about him was invading her senses, making her forget anything but her husband. Jensen adjusted his hold on his wife, giving himself access to rub tight quick circles to her clit. Before she could react to his touch, she felt her body falling, every muscle shaking around him. Her orgasm pulled him into his shortly afterward, his hot seed coating her walls as his cock twitched inside her. Jensen shuddered under her fingertips, his shaky breaths like music to her ears. Her husband fell into her chest, nuzzling his nose into her collar as he waiting for his breathing to even out.

“Someone’s gonna come looking for us,” Y/n chuckled as she combed her fingers through his hair. She could feel his smile against her skin before he huffed out a breath.

“Yeah, and I really don’t feel like being murdered by your brothers tonight.” Jensen placed a kiss to the underside of her jaw before standing up and separating himself from her. He adjusted himself quickly before grabbing her suit for her. Y/n struggled to get the wet garment back on, needing the help of her husband to straighten the material back out.

Jensen peeked out the door into the dark hallway to ensure the coast was clear before they exited the laundry room. He slipped his fingers between hers and pulled her along with him and back out to enjoy the fire.

“Well, well, well, look who is holding hands again.” Jeff piped up from the other side of the fire. He had his youngest dead asleep in his lap as he chuckled at his baby sister.

“Oh,” Y/n laughed as Jensen fell back into his original seat, pulling his wife down with him to sit across his lap. “Can’t stay mad at this face for too long.” Leaning down, she pinched his chin between two fingers and brought his lips to hers, the couple both smiling into the kiss.

Part 2: 5 Weeks Pregnant

Tags are open, send me an ask to be added to the list <3

Forevers: @polina-93 @22sarah08 @callmekda @hobby27 @dawnie1988 @awesome-badass-cafeteria-sauce @sleepylunarwolf @stiles-stilinski-24-dylan @akshi8278 @superfanficnatural @malfoysqueen14 @deanwanddamons @waywardbeanie @emoryhemsworth @talesmaniac89 @winchest09 @katehuntington @flamencodiva @janicho88 @anathewierdo @ellewritesfix05 @mrsjenniferwinchester @jensengirl83 @lyarr24 @smol-and-grumpy @supraveng @tranquility-or-chaos

Continues: @traceyaudette @death-unbecomes-you @rebelemilu @colbyskoalas @ashleyrose0117 @zpandaqueen @stoneyggirl @parinarain @onethirstyunicorn @smoothdogsgirl @harryhook-lover @spnfamily-j2 @deanmonandnegansbitch @lunarmoon8 @dvnmbabe

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damienthepious · 3 years

Text

this was ON ao3 before midnight my time so it still counts as a lizard kissin’ offering. Definitely.

Honey Soaked Light

[ao3]

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Relationship: Lord Arum/Sir Damien/Rilla, Lord Arum/Sir Damien

Characters: Lord Arum, Sir Damien

Additional Tags: Second Citadel, Lizard Kissin’ Tuesday, Established Relationship, Early Relationship, Apologies, Communication, (the boys are TALKING!!!!)

Summary: Damien said many, many things to Lord Arum, before they knew each other properly. Arum still remembers many of those things.

Notes: i have a headacheeeeeee and i'm a mess. <3 Title from the song Catch Me, by fcj.

Arum peels himself from the wide rock as soon as he sees Damien, his throat rattling as he slithers to stand. He rubs muzzily at his snout with one clawed hand, almost wincing, and Damien's mouth curls into a bemused smile.

"Did I… wake you?" he asks softly, stepping closer. "I'm terribly sorry, my lily, if I had known you were napping-"

The second wince is more pronounced, and Damien's hand pauses in the air between them as Arum stands straighter, stiff and uncomfortable with his eyes squinting hard against the sunlight and fixed on anything but Damien himself.

"I was not napping," he mutters, his tone on the last word dripping with disdain, and Damien buries a laugh. It must have shown on his face regardless, though, because Arum's own expression flattens further, his eyes flashing. "Move," he hisses.

Damien blinks, and then he sidesteps out of the doorway, ducking his head. "I'm sorry," he says again, "I swear that I was not laughing at you, my lily, I was only-" he hesitates as Arum brushes past him with a growl, retreating back into the Keep proper. "I was only- confused, as to why you would be embarrassed for me to find you resting-"

"I was not embarrassed," Arum growls over his shoulder, his steps clipped and quick, and Damien-

Damien is almost afraid to follow, but- but he doesn't even know what he's done wrong. His boots scuff against the rough bark of the floor as he turns in hesitant pursuit.

"Have I… have I said something- wrong? Have I-"

"I was finished out there regardless," the monster mutters, still not looking, and Damien's heart squeezes uncomfortably in his chest.

"I… Arum," Damien says weakly, and the monster does not stop or turn, but his stiff shoulders sink, just slightly. "I was coming to find you because I wished to- to spend time with you. I don't know what I've done, but- please. Just- look at me, please."

Arum's steps slow, and then he sighs as he loses his momentum entirely. "You- what makes you think you've done anything at all?" he mutters, tilting his head and not quite looking back enough that Damien can see his vivid, lovely eyes.

"The fact that you seem furious with me and- and apparently will not even look at me. Arum, I- I care about you rather a great deal, and if I've broken some unspoken agreement or broached some etiquette of which I'm not aware-"

"Monsters are not overly concerned with etiquette," Arum rumbles.

Damien blinks at the emphasis, and then he steps a little closer. "Then- what have I done? If the simple act of coming to speak with you when I was not expected is enough to make you unhappy with me- I- I simply do not wish to repeat such offense-"

Arum finally spins, frowning hard with his brow furrowed, but when he meets Damien's eyes the flash of- anger? Irritation? Fear? Whatever it is- it dissolves, and Arum looks only stiff and uncomfortable and embarrassed. He sighs, then looks away again.

"You've done nothing today to offend," he mutters. "Considering our… our respective positions, certainly you will forgive if I am… reluctant to show you the more inhuman of my proclivities."

Damien blinks, unable for a long moment to parse precisely what Arum is trying to say.

"Er… I don't see that there is anything particularly inhuman about-" he remembers Arum's insistence that he was not napping, and corrects slightly, "resting, Arum. And-" he bites his lip, rubbing a hand awkwardly down his own bicep. "And I thought… I had thought that we had… something of an understanding, my lily. If we are on the subject of your inhumanity, your monstrousness- well, I thought you knew that I am quite growing to l-" an inhale, sharp, and then he gives a stuttered laugh, "to like that about you."

"Perhaps I do not wish to remind you of my nature when it need not bear such scrutiny," Arum says, still not meeting his eyes.

Damien risks a step closer, then, and Arum's mouth curls into a deeper frown, though he does not pull away when Damien touches his wrist.

"My lily… no human could ever have eyes like yours, and yet your eyes were the first brilliant facet of yours to pierce my heart." Damien smiles when Arum flicks those eyes towards him finally, wary and sharp and always, always beautiful. "You do not need to shear away the traits you do not think I will approve of. You do not need to-"

"I- I don't care about your approval," Arum spits, leaning back as Damien lifts his hand, and at the flinch Damien pulls his hand away. "I don't-"

He cuts off, clenching his teeth and hissing through them, and Damien forces himself to keep his breathing slow, forces himself not to take Arum's rebuff to heart. The monster sighs, then drops his eyes to the floor.

"I… apologize. I- approval would imply- would imply an imbalance between us that I do not believe exists, you must understand. Obviously your… your- opinion of me is something that I wish to- your opinion of me- it matters," he says quietly. "More than I prefer to admit."

"So…" Damien says slowly, brushing his thumb along Arum's wrist since he still has not pulled out from Damien's light grasp, "is that… the concern? I cannot see what you could have been doing out there that would in any way lower my opinion of you, my lily."

"I was-" Arum hesitates, then rolls his eyes with an exaggerated huff. "Basking," he sneers, and Damien thinks that the clear derision on his face is- is directed at himself, and not at Damien.

Damien stares at the monster, waiting for him to continue, but after a moment it becomes clear that Arum thinks this explanation sufficient. Damien ducks his head slightly, raising an eyebrow in Arum's direction.

"Ah?"

Arum huffs again, wrinkling his snout. "So," he says, dry and sardonic, "yes, indeed, the lizard does, on occasion, devote a portion of his time to bask in the sun." His frill flares, a proud little flutter at his neck, and he sticks his nose in the air. "Though- though I have no eggs upon which to sit."

Damien stares for another moment, and then-

His own damnable words from their first duel come rushing back to him.

"Oh," he says, partway to a groan, and then he slaps his free hand over his face, cringing into his palm. "Oh Saints above strike me down- oh, Arum I-"

Arum twists his wrist in Damien's other hand, curling his claws around Damien's pulse.

"Honeysuckle-"

"I try not to even think of how wretchedly I-" Damien shakes his head, squeezing his eyes shut. "Every nasty, cruel thing I thought or said about you- of course you have every right, every right in the world to feel-"

"Go on and call me a hypocrite, honeysuckle," Arum says quickly, and Damien peeks through his fingers to see the monster scowling again. "Not a single word that I said in our duels- never once have you thrown my own callousness back in my face, and I- I certainly don't mean to- to do so now. It is only that …" he winces, ducks his head, and his next words come in a mutter. "I sometimes think that it is impossible to forget a single word you say, honeysuckle. Your voice- I cannot forget, and for the most part that is- it is not unpleasant, to remember the ways you have… spoken your heart to me. But-"

"But," Damien repeats, his heart sinking, "but my- my sharper words, of course-"

"You said it with such disdain," Arum murmurs, wincing. "I do not mean to remember, of course. And it does not matter, we were trying to kill each other at the time- why should it matter, what barbed words we spat when we knew each other not at all? It was not even cruel, it was-"

"An intentional and pointed contrast between your intellectual interests and any connection to inhumanity- an animal nature I assumed you to have," Damien says, tone flat with an edge of self-loathing. "It was cruel."

"We were trying to kill each other," Arum says again. "Sharp words pale beside sharper blades, honeysuckle."

"Regardless. If such sharp words have left a mark upon you, Arum-"

"I shouldn't have-" Arum shakes his head. "It was- foolish of me to allow those feelings to intrude on our current- our-"

"I'm sorry," Damien says, and when Arum's eyes flick towards him he tries a small sort of smile, and squeezes Arum's wrist. "I am. I know we have already forgiven each other, and for transgressions far more dire, but nevertheless. I'm sorry, to have implied such distaste. I had no idea of what I even spoke, and- and now I know better, and I know that the pieces of you and your life that I could not possibly have known or understood when first we met- those parts of you I have discovered to be the most beautiful, the most worthy of being treasured."

"I-" Arum's breath cuts off, and he laughs a little weakly, a little breathlessly. "Prattler- I do not know how you manage to speak so- so-"

"I am sorry," Damien repeats, even more gently, and he bites his lip before he looks up into Arum's eyes again. "Will you forgive me?"

Arum makes a choked little noise, almost a gasp, and then he growls as he leans down and presses his cheek against Damien's. "Of course, don't be ridiculous, honeysuckle, I- it was never a matter of- I only know that it is not easy for you to- to-"

Damien's heart pulses as he fills in the gaps in Arum's words. "L-lily," he whispers, and then he kisses Arum's neck. "My lily, it is easy to care for you, just as it is to care for Rilla. If it has escaped your notice, dear monster, I am terribly enamored with you both."

"I simply do not wish to- to give you reason to think about- further reason to-"

Damien lifts his face a little further, so that he may place his next kiss to Arum's frill, the delicate webbing of scales. "I am perfectly aware of your nature, my lily. You will not break my affection for you by allowing me to see you as you are. And especially-" he leans back, ensuring that Arum meets his eyes again before he continues, "especially, I might say, with an act so innocuous and, in fact, charming, as sunbathing."

Arum wrinkles his snout, just slightly. "Sunbathing," he repeats with a rumbling sort of laugh. "Hm."

"You look… always, my lily, you look so, so beautiful in the sunlight," Damien offers, and Arum's hand flexes in Damien's grip. "I cannot erase what unkind things I said in the past, but… but perhaps I can offer enough words now, enough affection to bury that small, stale voice still echoing away. I- I feel blessed, Arum, with every moment I may spend with you. Even the idea of laying beside you, resting tenderly together in radiance, sunlit and safe-"

"I- Damien," Arum rumbles, flustered as his frill rises again. "You- you don't need to- to exaggerate your-"

"I would never dream of it." Damien smiles, then lifts Arum's hand to his mouth to kiss his knuckles. "I should hope, by now, that you know me that well, at least. My heart sings at the idea, my lily. Perhaps… perhaps the next time you wish to soak in the sweetness of the day… perhaps you could be convinced to allow me to join you?"

Arum swallows, and then he flicks his tongue as he squeezes Damien's hand. "I… I cannot imagine that you should like to waste away such a portion of your day simply lazing around."

"Never in a thousand years would I consider such time as wasted, Arum. And-" he pauses, feeling his cheeks heat. "And I … I imagine that I would be rather productive, during such time, in fact. Even if I did not bring my parchment… bearing witness to your elegance in repose, I do not think I would be able to resist the inspiration."

Arum breathes a laugh, mutters prattler fondly under his breath again, and then- he glances over his shoulder.

The yellow gleam of the day outside still lights the far end of the hallway. It is not as if they have wandered far.

Arum glances back down to Damien, and Damien raises an eyebrow.

"You…" Arum trails off, then tilts his head. "Hm. I don't suppose that you would… that right now, you would care to…"

"I spoke truly when I said my purpose today was only to spend some time together, my lily," he says, struggling to keep way his heart leaps from overtaking his voice in trembling. "If you should like… I would love nothing more."

Arum works his jaw for a moment, his frill betraying his embarrassment with an anxious flutter, and then the monster huffs out a breath and in one smooth, shocking motion he releases Damien's hand to instead slip two around Damien's back and two beneath his legs, lifting him off of his feet and into Arum's arms. Damien laughs, delight and surprise pooling together within him, and he grips Arum's shoulder for support as he smiles.

"Arum-"

"I think you'll soon learn to regret this offer, little honeysuckle," Arum rumbles, smirking despite the warm affection in his eyes, and he turns to carry Damien back towards the sunlit balcony as he continues. "You are nearly as warm as the day itself, and I cannot say that even your own clever words will convince me to part with your glow, now that you've offered."

"I am sorry to contradict you, Lord Arum," Damien says, and then he pauses to laugh again as Arum's grip tightens, hugging him more snugly to the monster's scaled chest. "But I can assure you that if what you say is true, I will not regret a single word."

End Notes: (damien spends the entirety of this fic STRUGGLING not to accidentally call arum "love" because they haven't said it yet at this point. but ch'boy is FEELING IT today. i only point this out because i feel like it's probably OBVIOUS and also it was a frickin ENDEAVOR to keep me/him from writing "my love" intermingled with those "my lily"s, and there are a few... "care for you"s in there that are VERY obvious deflections, I feel. Ridiculous poet. ANYWAY. happy lkt ilu <3)

#elle's fanfic #the penumbra podcast #second citadel #rad bouquet #lizard kissin' tuesday #lord arum #sir damien #TuT

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aquarianlights · 3 years

Text

I am in a serious financial bind. 😥 If anyone is in a position to listen & help or signal boost, pls keep reading...

This is from my apartment complex. I am in low-income housing. I called them & sent them proof I could pay on the 23rd. I told them I could (just barely) put 100 down now & they said that was too little.

They said they would file for eviction on the 16th, which adds $150 to my rent. They will cancel the court date and eviction on the 23rd when I pay.

But that doesn't cancel the $150 filing fee.

Idk where that $150 would come from. Idky they think it's fair that someone who cannot pay should be forced to pay even more??? That makes no sense. I can only just barely afford my rent every month as is.

These are from my energy company. I apparently owe them over $600. I genuinely do not know how this happened. We were on the phone for a very long time trying to figure it out & I was in tears for the latter portion of it because I swear I paid.

I usually keep record of my payments via taking a picture of my receipt since they are electronic, but my dog chewed up my phone (which I have pics of if need be for evidence) and broke it, so I had to get a replacement phone sent to me from the insurance company & nothing transferred from the old phone, so all my pics were wiped.

I found no record in my emails, either.

The meds I am taking to try to go into remission and the autoimmune disease itself both cause brain fog and issues with time warping, so it is possible maybe I skipped a month or something, but I highly doubt I would have skipped up to 600+ dollars worth of payments.

I have tons of electronic and hard copy calendars & they are all synced and constantly updated so that I know when payments are due. I also have text and email reminders sent to me, but I could find no reminders in my email for MONTHS now until they were telling me they were going to shut my power off if I didn't pay this. Idk why I was not sent reminders for months???

In the end, I agreed to set up a payment plan. Paying, like... 50-60ish on top of whatever my electric bill is every month for 12 months. It was the lowest they could go.

I can barely afford my electric bill as it is, so idk how I will be able to do this? They did give me a list of charities in my area so I will be using what little energy I have to call around & see if any of them would be willing to help me pay this. Idk how those work (they're mostly churches???), so I'm just gonna try & see what happens. 🤔

On top of all that, I *think* this is telling me my Medicaid has been cancelled but I'm not 100% sure?????

I'm going through treatment for a very serious, disabling problem that should last ~1 year and rn Medicaid is picking up what my Medicare doesn't cover and some of my doctors/specialists and treatments are medicaid only.

If I lose this, I'm basically done.

I know they'll do backpay if I get it back, but Idk if I *will* get it back. I'll be trying to get it back, but in the meantime, I guess I'll just have to pay out of pocket, idk??? Which I do not have.

I have lost almost ALL autonomy due to this autoimmune disease, which (in a very simplified form) is basically my immune cells "eating" my muscle tissue. I can barely get out of bed. Treatment should put me in remission & give me my life back. I am seeing a rheumatologist, neurologist, dermatologist, PCP, physical therapist, psychiatrist, psychologist, and going to a holistic pain treatment center that does a different kind of physical therapy to bring down pain levels (which I was put into that program by my rheum). All of these are in relation to & necessary for my disease. I am going through TONS of testing almost weekly now & trying out treatments like IVIG and chemo where I am in the hospital hooked up to an IV for 4-6+ hrs of that day and the cost of those things without Medicaid picking up what Medicare doesn't cover is astronomical. I have to sign waivers every time I get my blood drawn (which is almost weekly now), do tests, and do treatments saying I will pay if Medicaid does not pick up the extra.

I already have crippling medical debt; I don't need more. I'm scared they won't let me do any more tests or treatments if they see I am just letting it all go to collections & am not paying.

This could mean the difference between having a life worth living (to me) where I am happy & thriving & autonomous or being bed-bound & living a life of just existing from day to day & miserable & in pain & suffering & unable to do anything for myself. This is literally life and death for me because I wouldn't be able to handle continuing to live in the latter scenario. I cannot handle living like I am now. Knowing my treatments are progressing is what keeps me going. Knowing I can go into remission is what keeps me going. Knowing my future is one completely different from now is what keeps me going. But if I cannot have that and am destined to live in this current state, it's just not worth it. I don't know a person alive who would want to live like this.

Finally, my anger noodle needs to get to the vet for MULTIPLE things. Nothing is, like... life threatening or super immediate like his cancer was last year, but they're things that need to be addressed in terms of preventative care & to make sure he isn't in pain.

He needs his trachea checked, possibly x-rays for that, maybe more...

He needs some medication updates, needs a physical, needs a full groom & nail clip under anesthesia (for those who are not familiar with Echo, he has extreme fear-based aggression & usually gets this done under anesthesia; since I worked with him so much, he had his first non-anesthesia nail clip at the beginning of quarantine, but he has gotten worse during quarantine & with my muscle eating disease, I can no longer restrain him & don't have the physical strength to run a brush through his thicker fur as his winter coat is in, so I can no longer groom certain areas of him at home, so his tummy & back legs are matted & I fear he may need to be shaved... which breaks my heart since you don't shave double coat dogs unless medically necessary.), he needs a full physical, & needs to be checked over for MCT's.

He may also need a fecal test or something else, as he has been having odd bowel movements. 😥 His tummy has been upset lately.

I have been crying myself to sleep every single night & often during the day because I cannot get him to the vet. No, it isn't urgent or life threatening. But he is reverse sneezing more than normal & I worry about tracheal collapse, which is a common small dog thing & even MORE common in pomeranians specifically. Every time he has a fit, I think "Oh god, this is it. This is the time I'm gonna have to rush him to the e-vet & get slammed with a huge bill & he is not gonna be okay..."

It breaks my heart to see his legs & belly matted. He is horrible about letting me groom him coz of his aggression so he only gets a full grooms at the vet, but I do short grooming sessions at home with him nightly. Takes about 2 hours just to do the majority of one side of him (not even all of it; just most) coz he needs breaks & lots of praise every few strokes or he will tear me to shreds & hurt himself snapping on the undercoat rake. 😥

But now that my autoimmune disease has atrophied my muscles to the point holding up my phone without something to prop it up feels like I am lifting weights & tires my arms out with a lactic acid burn & pain, I can no longer groom him with the patience he needs & can only groom in 20 minute intervals at the VERY longest. By the time I have gotten one leg done during the week, his entire other side is matted. 😞 Matting on dogs---especially double coat dogs---hurts them. It's like if someone were to wrap your hair around their fingers & then pull it taut. It's a constant pulling pressure on their skin... it's painful & irritates the epidermis. I feel miserable feeling the matting on his back legs & tummy & now feeling the mats beginning to form on the rest of him. He hates me working them out, even with the detangling spray. I know it must hurt so much...

So he may need to be shaved at this point & that will destroy me. I feel sick thinking about it. But anything to get him out of pain. Maybe it is what's best for him while I go through this year of treatment & get my muscles back. But in order to do that, I need to get him to the vet.

The stress of not being able to get him to a vet is tearing me apart & literally making me physically ill.

He is my world. My everything. My #1. My heart dog. My priority in life. My entire universe revolves around him. I would do anything for him. Not a single person, animal, thing, etc, comes before him. It is KILLING me that I cannot provide proper care for him right now. I always always always make sure to sacrifice for him if need be & his things ALWAYS come first, even if it means I'm not eating or not paying bills or whatever. As long as he is taken care of & his needs & wants are met, nothing else matters to me. And right now........ I feel he is suffering because of my finances & the fact my treatment with building my muscles up is not going fast enough.

I cannot control the latter one, but the first one is something I can at least ask for help for. So that is what I am doing.

If anyone is in a place to help, these are my venmo & cashapp codes. I also have paypal.

💙 Venmo: @kqroswell

💚 Cashapp: $kqroswell

💜 Paypal: @kqroswell or [email protected]

If there is another form of payment you're thinking of, lemme know. I also have fb pay activated if you have me on FB (Killian Q Roswell).

Thank you to everyone who read through this & anyone who can help or reblog this. 💖

Sincerely,

Your v scared, struggling transman who really wants his bills/rent paid & his dog to go to the vet,

Killian 💞

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lassieposting · 3 years

Note

Hey, I saw you did a hc thing for Scaracen/Dexter and I was wondering if you could do one for Ghastly/Skulduggery?? (I love the pairing but there is no content and it makes me sad) Hope you are having a good time :)

I genuinely thought I had done this for ghasdug but apparently not? I can't find it anyway

There is content in my ghasdug tag but tbh in my experience the ghasdug shippers are on discord mostly...hit me up

ANYWAY

So. Ghasdug. Ghastly wants skug from the start.

They're 16 when they meet. Ghastly gets a bit seasick and doesn't really want to go anywhere by ship, but his mama tells him he needs to, there's something important for him on that ship, that one right there, and he trusts her enough to know that she's clearly foreseen something and to just go with it.

By the time they get back to shore, he's already thinking, it's you. I was supposed to meet you.

They head back to Dublin together. Ghastly's mama takes one look at this awkward, skinny, skittish child and decides she's adopting him, and skug moves into their farmhouse and is subsequently freaked the fuck out by his very first experience of A Loving Family. Ghastly's mother like, hugs him and reminds him to wear a coat and clips his ear for swearing and makes sure he eats breakfast. He is semiferal and not used to any of this.

For a few months they settle into a comfortable routine:

- Ghastly's father spends the week making clothes, then does commission deliveries one day and takes hats and boots and suchlike to the market the next.

- Ghastly's mother has a job as a barmaid, where she gets to regularly crack some skulls and socialise, which is great for her because she is both a short-n-stocky powerhouse and a giant extrovert.

- The boys spend most of their time together, and they're supposed to do the bulk of the chores. It's not a large commercial farm - they have a vegetable garden, and some chickens, and an old carthorse, and maybe a couple of goats or a cow for milk and cheese. Ghastly and Skug are supposed to cut firewood and feed the animals and fetch groceries from the market and milk the milkable animal and fix this and repair that. All the things the parents dont have time for

Which. Is great in theory but skug has never had to do a hard day's work in his lazy aristocratic life, and develops a severe and immediate allergy to manual labour, so actually ghastly tends to do most of the chores while skug skives off and naps in the sun or chats up the girls who live on the neighbouring smallholding over the fence

And like, therein lies the problem, because they are both solidly in the grip of that cruel mistress called puberty and like. Skug was a fuckin weird-looking child. He had big ears and a sharp nose and a bunch of missing teeth and his limbs were all too long for him. But he's now rapidly growing into all the features that made him an unfortunate child, and it's already clear that he's going to be one of those people who will, inevitably, grow into handsome young men.

Which is like. Fine. Ghastly doesn't care. He's not jealous or anything. He doesn't feel a twinge when the neighbour girls only speak to him to ask about Skulduggery. Nobody here is bitter.

It's a good thing, he tells himself. Nobody will want to marry him anyway, so he's glad skug is around now so Mother can harass him to meet a nice girl and give her grandchildren. At least someone will probably want to have children with skug.

He has a dream about skug not long before his 17th. They share the attic room, and when he startles awake, skug is smirking at him from the opposite bed and asking "who is she?" and ghastly thinks oh no. He's painfully embarrassed and awkward about it, and skug rolls over and stretches and says, "relax, bespoke, your secret is safe with me" and all ghastly can focus on is that he's actually been putting some muscle on lately and when he stretches like that it does funny things to ghastly's insides.

- they start riding into town in the evenings to meet up with hopeless at the tavern, play cards and flirt with pretty girls. Or rather, skug flirts with pretty girls. He's all legs and freckles and elegant clothes, and they hang off his every word. Ghastly knows they will never look at him like that. He's Skulduggery's ugly friend. Girls only approach him to ask about skug

- and he gets it! Skug is unfairly attractive! And he's witty, and clever, and sometimes when ghastly wakes up first he stays very quiet so he can watch skug sleep, the way the dawn turns his hair to burnished copper, the way his curls fall across his forehead and the patterns his freckles make on his skin. Skug is an affectionate, tactile drunk, and hopeless looks at ghastly with something like pity whenever skug rests his chin on ghastly's shoulder or leans his head on ghastly's knee or wants a piggyback back to where they tied the horse, and ghastly takes what little he can get and says nothing.

- they're coming home drunk in the pouring rain one night, later than usual, riding doubled up on ghastly's carthorse. ghastly is behind, loosely holding on around skug's waist, and the whole way home all he can think about is how close they are and how much he wants to lean in and put his mouth on skug's neck, and by halfway home he's reduced to silently begging his semi not to pop a full on hard-on until they're home, when skug will crash like always and ghastly can take care of himself in private

- when they get home, they're locked out, which is what they get for coming home well after ghastly's parents are asleep, but this isn't a one off and ghastly's mother always leaves blankets for them to sleep in the barn. so they put the horse away and give her a rub-down/groom together and skug's shirt is practically see-through and his hair is plastered to his skull and ghastly can't take his eyes off the visible jut of collarbone where the neck of skug's shirt is undone and skug makes a couple jokes about it when their eyes meet, how ghastly has been brushing the same bit of horse for as long as it's taken skug to do half his side, but then the third time he laughs and teases, "if i didn't know better, bespoke, I'd say you wanted me" and ghastly will forever blame the alcohol but he doesn't even think about it? It comes out before he can stop himself, before he has time to remember what it could do to their friendship

- he says, "what if i did?"

- skug goes quiet for a minute, and it's a tense sort of quiet, not the thick, cloying tension that comes before a storm or an argument but the light, vibrating tension that comes with standing on a cliff's edge or drawing a bowstring, and then he ducks under the horse's head to come around to ghastly's side. He's still a little shorter than ghastly, still has to look up ever so slightly to meet his eyes.

- skug says, "do you?" like it's still half a joke, and there's a chance to back out right there, to laugh and deny it and let this become an amusing footnote at the bottom of their friendship, but ghastly ignores it. "yes."

- skug shrugs, his lip quirking, and says, "so have me."

- ghastly learns a lot that night. he also accidentally blurts "i love you" when he comes, but nobody's perfect and he's...relatively...sure skug was too distracted to have been paying attention, so he'll count that as a massive win

- morning finds them in the hayloft, tangled up in the blankets left out for them, regretting their choice of tavern beverages and, in ghastly's case, sporting a classic case of morning wood. He's kind of hoping he'll get lucky again with sleepy morning sex but skug is disgustingly hungover and just wants to burrow his head into ghastly's chest to block out the light and go back to sleep so like, out of luck.

- when skug has slept off the booze a bit more, Ghastly awkwardly broaches the question of "just how drunk were you" and they establish that they both remember fucking, neither of them regrets it, and the attraction is apparently mutual? Which is a mindfuck for self-conscious teenage ghastly, because, like, why tho

- they both get to do the walk of shame into the house when ghastly's parents wake up. Ghastly's shirt hides the nail marks skug left on his back nicely; sadly, the same cannot be said for the giant hickey he left on skug's throat, and he is eternally grateful to his parents for not bringing it up (he'll allow his mother her raised eyebrows. She did it quietly)

- they just sort of? happen, after that. There's no conversation about what they are to one another, so there are several crossed wires and feelings get hurt, but they always move past it. They both have phases of going off with someone else - but they keep ending up back together regardless of how much they argue.

#skulduggery pleasant #ghasdug #sp headcanons #nsft mention #the slightest sprinkling of smut #sp getting together meme

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