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whatifxwereyou · 3 years

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The Oncoming Storm Part 21: Huangshan

Liu Kang x Reader and Kung Lao x Reader (gonna do both, two paths!)

Listen, I am giving myself whiplash with how much I keep wildly swinging between whether I prefer Liu or Lao LOL. Hope you guys are having just as much fun! I missed Liu. Lawd, did I miss him. Also I did not intend for it to take this long to get to the CHOICE. It's coming after the part with Liu and some plot stuff that has to happen to trigger it! Also, I miss Chen, so she'll be back after Huangshan. ALSO have you looked at pictures of this place?? SO PRETTY!! Much love, hope you are all well. <3 Thank you for the love as always. I appreciate you so much.

Next Update on Saturday. New story on Sunday!!

Part 20 Part 22 Chapter Index

Kung Lao was a bruised, bloodied, and pale mess the next morning and much of your spare moments were spent tending to wounds and trying to get him to sit for a damn minute. He fought you at every second, as if taking care of himself would somehow make it worse.

The morning dragged on, and you were grateful to check out and make your way to the roof. Kung Lao closed his eyes, praying, and lightning struck the roof for you to travel through. It was still weird and a little beyond belief, but you’d fought a monster last night, so you had to suspend your inner skeptic and go with the flow. You handed over the carefully wrapped bell which Raiden set behind him on a pedestal that had been added since you left.

He thanked you for your duty and you offered Kung Lao a hug and tried to convince him, again, to take care of himself. He insisted he was fine, of course, but also wished you good luck. You wasted no time. Raiden summoned his magic lightning again, offered you a neatly written note from Liu, and then you were alone.

The weather in Huangshan was gloomy, just the way you liked it. The sky was gray and rumbling with thunder, the slightest hint of sun peeking through to offer warmth between the gaps in the clouds. You unfolded the note as you walked along the tourist filled streets. He’d even started the note with niceties. Oh, Liu. He hoped you were well, he found you a place to stay and took some liberties that he hoped you were okay with. He also left you a time and place to meet him. It was the lobby of the hotel that he had booked for the occasion.

You were early and it felt nice to be alone. Your nerves were shot from the lack of sleep the night before and from Kung Lao’s… everything. A walk alone would do you some good. The small town halfway up the mountain was geared toward tourists. Hotels, boutiques, restaurants, and the like.

You’d missed China. Japan had been beautiful but this was home.

You stopped a man who looked confident in his way around town and asked him for directions to the hotel that Liu had written about. You bowed politely as he pointed you in the right direction. As you turned the corner, you heard a choir of angels in your head. Clothing stores. Real clothing stores. This was how you were going to blow the rest of your money.

You spent the rest of your alone time shopping and afterward you were proud to say you’d had enough clothing for an actual wardrobe. Different kinds of shoes, cute and practical, underthings, things to wear to bed, casual things, dressy things. Things you never would have allowed yourself to spend money on before. Money didn’t seem to matter as much as it had before all this. Then you’d bought a little bag to pack it all in and shoved it away. You’d got some other necessities too, things that had seemed everyday basics had become luxuries.

You’d changed after purchasing your clothing and jeans and a t-shirt had never felt so good. Even though you’d bought a bunch of new things you decided to keep the hanfu and gi that you had been gifted. You liked them well enough. It was the lack of choice that had bothered you.

The Huangshan Yeechoi hotel was more modern than the one in Japan had been and much tidier. You felt out of place, but no one gave you a second glance, so you were grateful. It wasn’t that it was fancy, just that it was different than you had expected. There had been no room number in the note Liu had left you, just instructions to meet him in the lobby.

Thankfully, Liu Kang came from the stairwell moments after you arrived. You’d been just about to ask the clerk behind the desk for his room number and so instead you dismissed the clerk and walked to join Liu. He’d gotten new clothes too! How nice. Not much different from what he usually wore but it was novel to see him in something other than the three gi that he rotated daily. It was mostly black, except for the red sash around the middle, a different shade of red than usual, and the sleeves looked like they had been torn off- as if he had been terribly angry that they existed. There was a subtle pattern stitched in white on the side of the gi. It looked to you like an abstract dragon, but you didn’t linger long on it. As always, his prayer beads were wrapped around his wrist.

He greeted you with a smile and stopped just before you with a respectful bow. “It’s good to see you, Y/N.” His smile faded quickly as he stood upright, and you averted your eyes immediately. Bruises. There were bruises and you knew he was going to hate it. You’d briefly forgotten about them with all the other craziness.

“Good to see you too, Liu!” You tried to save face, but it was too late.

“Japan must have been something.” He furrowed his brow with concern and tilted your chin up to get a better look at your neck. Your face was instantly red. “Are you okay?” That had been the worst of it, but you’d barely had time to think of it that morning because Kung Lao had been so much worse off than you were. You should have worn a scarf. Damnit. It looked bad when you thought about it. Like you were either being abused or had a very specific kink.

“It was an adventure but I’m fine. I promise. It’s obviously sore and bruised but I feel great otherwise.” You were tired, so that was an exaggeration, but it felt good to have accomplished something and to be out of the temple. He continued to examine the bruise as if he didn’t believe you, so you swiped his hand from your chin, gave it a squeeze and then set it down. His disbelief faded and his smile returned. Your nerves about your connection, your friendship, returned screaming into your brain.

“You brought a bag?” He gestured behind you. You realized that probably seemed funny since you had no intention of staying for too long.

“…yes.”

“Well, the woman at the front desk will make sure it gets to our room. We have plenty to do.” Liu rested his hand on the middle of your back and guided you to the front desk. You spoke to the clerk there. She was incredibly accommodating. Liu offered her your room information and you handed over the bag. Then you went on your way. He led you from the lobby of the hotel and walked slowly through the streets of the tourist town. “Tell me about Japan.”

Boy, there was a lot to say about Japan, but you figured he probably meant the artifact and how you’d fared.

“There was a monster which I didn’t think existed so, processing that.” You were surprised to hear Liu Kang laugh. You’d had a lot to process that had been otherwise beyond belief. “It was protecting a dotaku which I now know is a decorative bell used in rituals during ancient times. The monster was very grabby.” You gestured to your neck. At least it hadn’t left a bruise when it had backhanded you across the room. The last thing you needed was people looking at you like you were in an abusive relationship. At least the neck thing could be explained away for the most part.

“Tell me about the monster.”

“Monster is maybe not the right word for it uh… okay, never mind, it’s the only word for it. It was made from tar and stunk to high heaven, and it was huge.” You jumped so you could reach the height of the monster, which was higher than your jump, but Liu would get the point. He was an excellent listener.

“How did Kung Lao handle that?”

“Oh, you know, like Kung Lao does.”

“Chaotically?” Liu chuckled.

“I’ve never seen one man thrown through so many doors.” You drifted off and he laughed again. The sound of his laughter was sweet, not as hearty as Lao’s but more under his breath and twisting his face into the cutest smile. You’d made Kung Lao out of ink to protect you. That seemed important but you hadn’t processed it yet, really. Your brain was buffering.

“Really though, is he okay?”

“Much worse off than I was because of all the doors and walls but I took care of him the best he would allow. I’m hoping he’ll actually keep his promise to go to the infirmary.”

“Raiden will make sure he does.” Liu reassured you. “Trust me, this won’t be the first time he has to be dragged there. Or likely the last.” He stopped, looked you over and then continued, purposely avoiding eye contact. “Was he on his best behavior?”

“Is he so often in trouble that I should have been that worried?”

“Kung Lao doesn’t like to listen to directions, and he was with you and I know how he is so…” He glanced at you curiously again and you laughed in disbelief. Liu Kang was fishing for information! Interesting. Now that you knew they gossiped about you, you wondered what exactly the gossip consisted of. They were up to something, and you were going to get to the bottom of it. Maybe you had spent too much time with Kung Lao. Liu Kang had always been honest with you, you thought, and now you were suspicious of every word. “He has a track record for trouble, that’s all. I just wanted to make sure he didn’t give you a hard time.”

“If you have something to ask me, Liu, then you should just ask me instead of this little word dance you’re doing. Are you feeling me out for information and what about?”

“I say what I mean, Y/N.” Liu knit his brow in confusion but still smiled at you. You sighed because that didn’t seem right. Something was off. He could be frustrating too sometimes, you supposed. He had a way of saying things without saying what he meant to say and leaving you guessing at what he had meant. You’d had so many close calls between you now romantically. At least four that you could think of offhand that had nearly killed you. But then it was like nothing had happened. You didn’t talk about it. There was no follow through. If he said what he meant to say, then what did saying nothing mean?

That hurt.

And they’d gossiped about you. Kung Lao and Liu Kang had in some way gossiped about you. You clenched your jaw in frustration. You didn’t have time for this. You had work to do.

“We can talk about it later.” You decided. “Have you figured out anything about where we should go?” That had been the reason he’d gone early you’d been told but you had no idea what was true and what wasn’t anymore. Your head was mixed up and your brain was buzzing.

“Yes. One of the areas from your vision is called the Seas of Cloud. Raiden mentioned that you saw images of deceased emperors, so I was looking into that too.”

“It was in quick flashes. I didn’t understand what they were at first.”

“There are tales about this place and the yellow emperor after which it is named. He used the waters of the springs here to gain eternal life in these stories.”

“Is that your way of saying that you think the springs might be related?”

“Anything is possible, but I figured it was worth looking into. There were springs in your vision too if I recall.”

“Yeah. I saw a bunch of dead emperors and a spring, but it wasn’t… it was different than I expect the ones here to be? It was in a cavern. It felt secret.” You admired the gray sky but still felt tense all over. You had to breathe and let it go but the more you tried the more frustrated you became. “So, we’re narrowing it down to the springs and the Cloud Sea?”

“Yes. We aren’t too far from either of them but it’s still an endeavor to explore. Yet, it is less than the whole of Huangshan.”

“Probably somewhere between if I had to guess. I followed him in my vision through the mountains up to the clouds and into this cavern that had a spring inside it. Oh! Do they have maps of the mountain? Sometimes with places like this they will list caves on the little brochure to explore.”

“I thought of that. Regrettably, the caves are not mapped out and most are off limits without a tour guide.”

“What if we told them that we lived in a cave. Do you think that would help or cast aspersions?” You considered. There you were, trying to defer your frustration and inner struggle with sarcasm again. Liu chuckled.

“Probably the latter. We know what we’re looking for at least and it shouldn’t take terribly long to hike the area. If we don’t find it then we can start to worry.”

“I have a feeling that it’s secret. I don’t think it’s going to be easy to find. Maybe we should try to feel around for information instead of wandering blind?” You stopped walking, trying to take things more seriously. That was hard.

“I suppose that we can play tourist. We’ll stop at the springs and ask an attendant if they know anything about a secret or hidden spring in the caves.” Liu suggested. At least it was a better lie than fake date.

“Fine.” You said flatly and were annoyed with yourself almost immediately. This would be so much easier if your visions weren’t all over the place and fuzzy.

“You seem irritated.”

“Oh?” You bounced on your heels and shook it off. You were sulking. You had to cut it out. “No. I’m sorry, Liu. I didn’t mean to come off that way.”

“Are you sure, Y/N? Because you seem… annoyed and that’s not like you. If I’ve done something to offend you then we should discuss it.”

Oh no. He was good at confrontation. Damnit. “No, you didn’t do anything like that, Liu.” He had but not on purpose, you were sure. You were just touchy after the day before and overthinking. You had to stomp out that inner voice, but it was so loud. Your anxiety hadn’t been this bad since you were a kid. “I’m annoyed with myself. I’m sorry it’s coming out at you. It’s not intentional.”

“Y/N, you…”

“Don’t tell me not to be annoyed with myself, please. If I could navigate these visions in a way that made sense, then we wouldn’t be so lost on where to look and having to spin ridiculous tales and theories of where to go and what we might find. I could just lead us there and that would be that. And if my brain would just calm down, I wouldn’t be so annoyed. It’s a perpetual cycle.”

“You’re being too hard on yourself. Besides, I don’t mind spending a day or two in Huangshan with you, Y/N. It’s a nice change of pace from Raiden’s Temple.” He smiled sympathetically.

“It’s just like you to put a positive spin on everything.” You scoffed.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing!”

“No!” You huffed defensively and then pouted. “I’m coming off grumpy, aren’t I?”

“You are.” He smiled, but amusement danced in his eyes. He thought that your frustration was either funny or cute. You supposed you were grateful for that.

“I don’t mean to. I’ve got a lot on my mind. I’m surprisingly sore from the whole monster thing too so there’s that.” You rubbed nervously at your neck.

“That is a pretty bad bruise, Y/N.” He tilted your chin up again and you grabbed his hand and pushed it away.

“I really should have worn a scarf so you wouldn’t keep pointing it out.”

He laughed and led you through town and along the path that went to the springs. Liu had picked the perfect location for you to begin your search. It was a short walk from your hotel. There were buses that offered transport, but it seemed such a short walk that it was likely for those who were elderly or drunk.

“This is a popular tourist spot. It was difficult to get a room. I don’t usually stay in places like that, but it was the only vacancy that would accommodate us both and be close enough to where we needed to look. I figured that we didn’t know how long it would take us so the luxury would be a nice break.”

“Makes sense.” Why was he trying to justify his selection to you? You liked the hotel. It was nice.

“Grumpy,” he whispered, leaning close on one foot with his hands clasped behind his back.

“I’m trying so hard, Liu.”

You reached the gate to the springs. You couldn’t see the water beyond it, but you could hear people within, and you could feel the steam and heat even from outside. There was a large building with two doors separated by male and female for changing. In front of that was a booth where a young man sat reading a magazine and looking extremely bored.

“Should I meet you inside? We can see if anyone knows anything?”

“Or we could try the attendant first.”

“Him? He’s a distracted kid who has no interest in our questions, Liu. Look at him.” You nodded discreetly toward the young man. He was likely in his early twenties and doing this just for a paycheck by the look of him.

“Yes, but you’re well… you.” He gestured to you, and you looked down at yourself, brow furrowed in confusion.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” You laughed in disbelief.

“You know what it means.” He turned his gaze away from you, hiding his smile but you saw his cheeks turn pink just enough. As quickly as you had noticed it, it had passed. “Now, go be charming and ask that kid about a private spring in a cavern closer to the Seas of Cloud.” He grasped your shoulders gently and turned you toward the booth then gave you a gentle nudge forward. You stuttered on your words and stared forward in complete awe. What the fuck?

Fine. You’d try but he was biased, at the very least. You weren’t built for this kind of thing. You’d always been awkward and terrible at flirting. Gah, you were blushing now too. This was the worst. Okay, deep breaths. You could do this. You didn’t have to be flirty or cute. You could just ask the question. Liu waited behind you, but you didn’t think he was far enough away to be as subtle as he thought he was being.

“Excuse me,” you began politely.

“Just you? Or your friend too?” The attendant didn’t bother looking up at you from the magazine that he was reading.

“I have a question for you, actually.”

“I’ll try to help if I can. Go ahead.” He closed his magazine and finally looked up at you, looked you over, and then was still clearly disinterested. He was working. You knew he would be!

“I heard some stories that there’s a spring in a cavern offsite. Further up the mountain and closer to the Seas of Cloud. I think that it’s considered private. Maybe even off-limits. I was curious if you knew anything about it.” You did your best to sound curious and charming, but you had no idea how it actually came off since you’d been so damn grumpy. The attendant looked from you and then peered around you to Liu. He closed his magazine, folded his hands, sighed heavily, and gave you a knowing look. Oh no, he’d immediately misinterpreted your intentions.

“Look, I’m going to be honest with you.”

That was a bad start.

“Oh, I think you maybe…”

“I’m just filling in for my sister today. I needed the extra cash, and she has a date this afternoon.”

You laughed nervously and looked back to Liu since that was where the attendant kept looking suspiciously. “I think that you misinterpreted my intentions. This doesn’t have anything to do with him. I just had heard a story and was curious. A private spring sounds really beautiful.” You were the world’s worst liar. You couldn’t even come up with an excuse other than you thought it might be pretty.

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Do you not know then?” You were grumpy again. Damn.

“I’m sorry ma’am, but I can’t help you.”

You were flustered beyond recovery now. He had misinterpreted your desire to see a secret spring and the only thing you could think to do was stutter that he had done so. Then Liu was standing behind you, one hand on your back, the other on the counter.

“Is there a problem?” Liu sounded curious and offered a smile, but the attendant rolled his head back and groaned.

“I am not making enough money today to deal with this.”

Liu straightened his posture in surprise and looked to you for further explanation. At least you weren’t the only one flustered. That made you feel a bit better. You turned toward him and he placed his hand on your arm gently. That was probably not helping your case, but it felt nice. “I asked him about an off-limits spring closer to the Seas of Cloud and now he seems to have confused my desire to see this beautiful spring with something…” You stuttered in a frustrated whisper and couldn’t seem to find the word, the obvious word. Instead, you smooshed your hands together in front of you.

“Oh?” Liu tried to interpret your hand motion and then laughed in realization. “Oh. Intimate.”

“That’s it.” You pointed at him. “That’s the word.”

Liu let go of your arm and leaned against the counter with a sigh. “How much would it take for you to give us an answer?” You snapped your head back to Liu so fast you nearly gave yourself whiplash.

“Look, dude, I don’t even work here usually and…”

Liu Kang placed some yuan on the counter and you stared at it in horror, mouth hanging open. Then you had to close your mouth tight to keep from bursting into hysterics. Your eyes were burning, trying not to cry with tears of laughter. Liu Kang was bribing a stranger to give you directions to a romantic hot spring instead of just explaining himself. Of all the possible outcomes you had expected this was the funniest one.

“Whoa, man… look I…” The attendant stared at the money on the counter and Liu tapped the bills before sliding them toward him. You were dying. This was where you died. RIP. Tears. You blinked them away. Your cheeks hurt from keeping it together. This was amazing. “If you take the main path up it branches about an hour in. Take the left fork and then walk for a bit. As you get close to the Seas of Cloud there’s a few caves. One of them has a spring in it but it’s hard to find with all the trees and not exactly safe. Gives me the creeps. That’s all I got.” He scooped up the bills. “Have fun man and if you get caught it wasn’t me who told you.”

“Thank you.” Liu bowed his head politely and then, hand on your back, led you away from the booth. You started up the hiking trail that had been pointed out to you and then you burst into hysterical laughter, practically hyperventilating from having held it in for so long. Liu pulled his hand back and stared at you with some concern as if he didn’t understand why this was hilarious.

“Y/N, are you okay?” He gently brushed his hand over your shoulder.

“What the hell was that?”

“Oh. I guess it was funny. He was going to think whatever he was going to think, Y/N. Sometimes we have to use other resources to get what we need.”

“Oh my god, does that mean you bribe people often? I didn’t expect this. I’m sorry. I wasn’t emotionally prepared for how funny that would be.”

“Only when they’re more convinced by money than words, Y/N.”

You took deep breaths to get yourself together and cleared your throat.

“How very Zen of you.”

“Come on, now.” He chuckled and placed his hand again at your back to lead you along the path that would start your hike. “We have private springs to find.”

“This day keeps getting weirder by the second.” You blinked away the remaining tears from your fit of laughter.

“Was it really that funny?”

“Liu. My stomach hurts from laughing.”

He shook his head with a smile as you continued on your way.

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wolfpawn · 4 years

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Life is a Game of Risks, Chapter 57

Chapter Summary - Alexianna has to think about her predicament and what she will do regarding it, including if she will tell Tom but she is terrified of his reaction.

WARNING - CONTAINS REFERENCES TO PAST POST-NATAL DEPRESSION

TRIGGERS - Past domestic abuse, Past emotional abuse, Past sexual abuse.

Previous Chapter

Tags: @damalseer @hiddlesbitch1 @winterisakiller @theoneanna

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NOTES - So, yeah, with unplanned pregnancies, I have yet to meet a woman that does not have a huge panic attack at the situation and many are not immediately sure of what is the right thing *for them* I have to put that here, because everyone is different and everyone's reasons for their choice are theirs alone and damn it, I won't apologise for having Alexianna and Tom react as they do in this entirely made up scenario.

Alexianna simply stared at the test. This wasn’t supposed to happen. They were careful, they always used two forms of protection in case one failed. She made sure that she was safe. Jonathan had refused to wear condoms on the grounds they “didn’t feel good” but Tom was the first to agree that he had a role in preventative matters also. Her eyes widened. Tom would surely have a reaction close to her own, she had ruined everything. They were happy, he had his space and his freedom but they also had each other, and now she had ruined that. A baby, another….she shook her head slightly, she couldn’t, not again. Before she had Daniel, now he had his life and she knew that he wanted that life and she could not take it from him. Tom would not want to be tied down, not like this. How could he? He was famous, children, biological children were not the same as assisting with his girlfriend’s daughter when he was available. He had been as stern as her regarding contraception, she knew kids were not something he planned on any time soon. She put the little device in some toilet paper and into her pocket to dispose of in the wheelie bin outside so it would not be found by anyone before going back into the bedroom and taking out her phone, Googling the nearest clinics before pausing.

It was Christmas eve, no doubt most of them were closed until after New Years, also, how could she ask Tom to take her to a particular centre passed several other medical centres in the area, he was by no means stupid, so instead, she Googled ones in London, she could sort it when they returned after the holidays. All she had to do was at naturally for the few days and she would be able to fix everything when they returned to London without anyone knowing anything.

The issue became that she did not act naturally when she returned downstairs. Immediately, Tom, Diana and Lily all seemed to realise something was not alright with her. It was clear to see that she was thinking of something that was stealing her attention.

“Darling? Lexi?”

She jumped slightly as Tom spoke to her. “Hmm, what, sorry?”

“Are you alright, Sweetheart? You seem completely out of sorts?”

“Yeah, just...not feeling the best.” She dismissed, which, considering the shock she had just gotten, was no lie.

“Do you need to lie down for a while? Mum has lunch on but if you’re not feeling the best, you should have a small rest.”

“I’m fine. I’m just thinking over a few things.”

“Is it the interviews? Lexi, you will do amazingly. You have a perfect record with work as it is and your college scores, as you predicted, are on track for a 1:1 with this work...Lexi?”

Alexianna’s face blanched as she thought of her degree. In her worries about her relationship, she had forgotten the job interviews and more importantly, her degree. She could not possibly have had this happen at a worse time. “Oh, God.”

“What, what is it? Did you forget something? Something to do with college?” Tom asked, terrified by her terror.

Alexianna forced herself out of her head. She was dealing with it, she had her plan so she needed to cease her madness and get on with the day at hand. “I thought I forgot something, but it’s fine. I am just a little messed up.” It wasn’t a lie, she was feeling incredibly messed up but there was nothing she could do about it at that moment.

“Well, I am glad it’s not the terrifying thing you were worried about, but please, Darling, if you are so out of sorts, go lie down.”

“Lily…”

“Would rather her Mum be more able for Santa and associated madness in the morning, I would imagine.” Tom gently took her hand and guided her to the stairs. “Her grandmother and Daddy can look after her for a while. You have been so busy with work and college, you need a rest. You looked like if you slept twenty-four hours, you could still sleep twenty-four more.”

Alexianna gave a small smile. It had been the same with Lily, her biggest issue for the majority of her pregnancy was tiredness. Before she ever realised she was pregnant, she felt tired, she hadn’t realised that it was happening again. She had put it down to study, exams and work, as well as juggling her home life, she didn’t realise her body was warning her of the hormone production required to create another child. “I probably could.”

They walked into the bedroom and Tom let go of her hand as she removed her jumper. When she took it off and folded it over the back of the chair, then turned to face him again, her heart felt like it had stopped.

Tom was holding the instructions to the pregnancy test in his hand. For a moment, he was reading it before he looked at her. “Lexi?” She swallowed. “Why…?”

“I’m sorry.” She felt the tears fall.

“Sorry?”

“I didn’t mean to. I don’t know how it happened, I swear.”

“You’re…” Tom realised at that moment why she was so out of sorts since the Co-Op. “You’re pregnant?”

“I’m sorry.” She apologised again. “I never meant for it to happen. I’ll deal with it when we get back.”

Tom looked at her in shock. “Deal with it? You mean…” He realised what she was referencing. “Were you going to tell me?”

“I…I didn’t want to ruin us.”

“And you thought that keeping this,” he shook the piece of paper. “A secret wouldn’t ruin us? Secrets? Secrets are what ruin people. Ruin relationships.”

“I’m sorry.” She cried more, feeling even more guilty at what he had said.

Tom stopped himself from getting angry. He wanted to be angry at her for not confiding her fear with him. He wanted to be angry she had not said anything about doing a test or indeed making a decision on it, but it was clear she was terrified. She was sobbing as though someone had struck her with the worst possible words. He inhaled deeply and reminded himself that she had been trained to think this was the end of the world. Jonathan did his most damage and controlling of her while she was pregnant with Lily, of course, to Alexianna, pregnancy was world ending, it was what she was taught, even as a youth by her mother, the warning was “Don’t ever darken my door if you get pregnant”. As much as Diana feared her daughters getting pregnant too young, or her son getting a girl pregnant, she also instilled in them a rational approach to the topic, that altered the manner in which they saw the issue. “Lexi…” She looked at him, only for a moment. “Darling, please, try to calm yourself.” He walked forward slowly. “This is clearly a shock, I take it you only did this after our trip to the shop?” She nodded. “So you had no inkling before?”

She shook her head. “We were so careful.”

Tom had to admit, it was true. He always made sure not to tear the condom, he always made sure to hold it when they had finished their intimacy and discard it carefully. He knew she took her pills religiously. “Sometimes, these things just happen. We were not careless, so I know it makes it more of a shock, but Lexi, it’s alright.”

“How do you not hate me?”

Tom felt terrible, he leant forward, brought her to him and kissed her head. “I could never hate you for this, Lexi. You didn’t mean for it to happen and you cannot be to blame for it. I was there too. I very much had an active role in this. I am as much at fault.” He kissed her head again. “How long?”

“Nearly three weeks, according to the test.”

Tom remained quiet for a moment as he tried to calculate when they had been intimate over the month of December. “So...when…?”

“The night at yours alone, I think. That’s the safest bet as to when.”

Tom recalled the night and gave a slight huff of a laugh, causing Alexianna to look at him with confused and tear-reddened eyes. “Well, then I am the majority person to blame. It was my idea, I very much was the one to initiate things and I very much am the one that did the majority of the actions that put us in this position.” He chuckled. “So blame me, not you.”

“But I…”

“No, Lexi. You are not to blame for your body having the criteria to make a baby being reached. We are both adults, we both partook in consensual sex and we both took responsibility for prevention, somewhere, something did not go as it was supposed to and that happens, you alone are not to blame.” He made sure to look at her as he spoke. “I think you and I need to have this discussion away from the house. We don’t need anyone hearing this.”

Nodding slightly, Alexianna got her jumper and put it back on before following him out the door of the bedroom and back downstairs.

“Mum?” Diana came into the hallway at Tom calling her. “Mum, Lexi and I need to step out for a while, could you look after Lily?”

“Can I come?” Lily looked hopefully at Tom.

Tom knelt down so he was looking her in the face. “Not this time, Princess, Mum and I have something very important to talk about that is boring and grown up so it is best if you stay here for now. I promise, we will bring you on a spin soon, not today, maybe not tomorrow, but we will go on a spin soon the three of us, alright?”

Alexianna said nothing as she watched Tom interact with Lily. She looked at Diana who was studying both her and Tom, worried by the peculiar atmosphere that was in the air. “What about lunch?” She asked her son.

“We won’t be too long, we just need to sort something. Keep it warm.” He explained before grabbing their coats and his car keys and gently ushering Alexianna towards the door.

“Mommy, are you alright?” Lily focused on her mother’s silence.

“Yeah, I am just not feeling well, Sweetheart. Daddy is just getting me out for a while to see if that can help me in any bit.” She smiled. “I don’t want to be sick for when Santa comes tonight.”

Hearing her mother reference what Lily believed to be the greatest human being in existence, albeit a magical one, she nodded and jumped up and down. “No one wants to be sick for Santa.”

“Absolutely not, so you help Nana, and we will see you soon, Princess.” Tom smiled, kissing her head and leading them out the door.

They said nothing as they got into the car and drove off. Neither of them spoke the entire of the journey. When Tom pulled in at an all but abandoned car park facing the water, he turned off the engine and for several more moments, they remained silent.

“We need to actually talk about this, Lexi.” He began. “I want us to discuss this, so we can do what is right and not have regrets. If you want to go ahead as you plan when you get back to London, I want to be beside you, supporting you, no matter what. I cannot make this decision for us but I want to be part of it, please.”

“I can’t do this, not right now.” she looked at her hands as she spoke.

“I respect that if that is how you feel, I will not rubbish that, you are the one with the final decision here, I would never force you to do anything but can we talk through it?”

“I can’t do it again.”

“Do what?”

“Have another baby. Try and juggle it all again, this time with no Daniel.”

“Daniel isn’t here, he’s in Scotland, yes, but he would still be part of everything, you know that. And this time, if you had it, you would have me here, I would be here.” She looked at him worriedly. “You think I’d leave?” She said nothing. “Do you really think I am like him?”

“He didn’t…” She stopped when she realised how much her comparing Tom to her ex-husband hurt him. “I barely got by last time...if...I couldn’t do it again, not with two, alone.”

Tom stopped himself from speaking for a moment, he chose his words carefully so as not to upset her more, seeing she was close to tears again. “We’ll talk through the two options. If you really think it is for the best, we will go to the clinic together, a good private one where you will have the privacy to do what you wish to do and I will be there with you, a hundred per cent, but let’s talk through this. We can’t change anything today, it’s too late, everywhere is closed, if anything, this gives us time to process everything and be happy with our decision.”

“You really want to be part of this?”

Tom nodded. “I am very much part of this. As I said, I am technically the one to cause this. It was my idea, my initiating, I literally am a considerable part of this and I will play my part in owning up to the responsibility of it.” He took her hand in his. “I want to see it as you do. So, please tell me, why do you think it is the best option?”

“Everything.”

“No, come on, you can expand on it. You are the most intelligent and eloquent woman, do better than that.”

“I have not finished college yet.”

“No, you have not,a valid point,” Tom acknowledged. “You are due to finish in May. Say for a minute you went through with it, when would it be born?”

“About September? I think. I didn’t do the calculations.”

“Okay, so taking into account that, you have a few months of a window. though the morning sickness and studying for exams sound shit.” He noted. “But you are finishing your degree in May, so you don’t have any more classes after that.”

“What if I want to do a Masters?”

“You didn’t mention one before now, has that been something you have been thinking about of late?

“Not immediately.”

“Well then, that would be a bridge to think about too. If you were to do a Masters, what could we do about it? I suppose you would have to consider that. What else?”

“Work.”

“Right?”

“I want this new job, Tom. It’s better, it’s more my area of interest, I can’t apply, maybe get it then drop on them that I am pregnant.”

“They cannot discriminate against you if you are.”

Alexianna scoffed. “Not openly, Tom, but be reasonable, they can find other reasons to not choose me as an excuse.”

“Don’t tell them until after the interviews?” He suggested.

“That’s not particularly honest, is it?” Alexianna argued. “I cannot do both, a baby and a new job is not an option.”

Tom sighed. He didn’t want to shove her down a particular path she did not want. “Is that the only reason?”

“The cost.”

Tom scoffed. “I can afford that side of it, no matter what, I will pay for whatever you decide.”

“We are in two different houses. We are only together not long over a year.”

“We would obviously have to move in together so I could be there and make sure to help you with the baby and Lily. We also may only be together that long but we know each other since you were eight, Lexi. Eight years old. We know each other for almost a quarter of a century.”

“That’s the other thing, Lily.” She pointed out. Tom gave her one glance. “It is one thing saying she wants a sibling, it is not a teddy she can put in a corner. You can’t get rid of it because you regret your decision to have it.”

“Lily would love it, and you know it.”

“But what about Lily?”

“We just mentioned her.”

“No, but if...if we had a baby together, would you…?”

“Would I what?”

“Still love her?”

Tom didn’t even hesitate to answer. “Of course, she is my daughter. Lexi, I chose to be her father, I knew that come anything between us, I was choosing a role for life. She is my little girl and if we have this baby or if we choose never to have one, or have twenty, I will always love her as ferociously as I do now. She’s my little girl.” She swallowed. “I am not going to pretend that the idea of us creating this little human being that has my DNA isn’t one of the most incredible ideas in the world but even with her not sharing my DNA, nothing in this world will change how I see Lily.”

Alexianna stared at him. “You want it.” Tom frowned, his brow furrowing as he wondered what she was referencing. “You want me to have it.”

“I am not going to influence your decision.” He looked away from her.

“Tom, please.” He looked back at her again. “I am being honest with you, please be honest with me.”

Tom bit the inside of his cheeks for a moment. He needed to choose his words carefully and he knew it. His first instinct when she referenced getting a termination was the anger that she would have the baby of the man that abused her, emotionally and otherwise and terminate his child, the one they made, albeit accidentally, with a good, loving relationship. But he said nothing of that. He knew himself that he could not, it was manipulation and cruel to spit that at her. But she had explained her valid reasons why a baby was not something they were entirely ready for at that time, so he would be honest back. “I want it.” He stated. “I want our baby. Our...Even saying it, a baby, this little human being that we made. I want it.”

Alexianna swallowed. “But if I can’t…?”

Tom forced the smile he had at the idea to remain hidden. “Then, we can’t. It is that simple. You have to do the hard part, you are the one that has to try and juggle it, work and college. I can promise to do my share, and you know I will provide for it, you, our family, but you are the one that has to do more, so if you say no, then no it is. I will never hold that against you, Lexi. I promise. You have to do what is right for you, no excuses.”

Alexianna nodded slightly at his words. “Tom?”

“Yes, Darling?”

“Can I go for a walk by myself for a few minutes?”

“Of course.” He pulled the key out of the ignition which automatically unlocked the car. “I’ll stay here.”

“Don’t, I’ll get a cab back.”

“Not at this hour, most of them will be off early today. Take the time you need, I will wait here.” He insisted, terrified of her being out after dark by herself, unable to get back to the house.

“I might be a while.”

“Then I will wait a while.” He smiled. “Right here...or possibly as far as the bathrooms.”

Alexianna gave a small laugh at that before smiling. “Thank you, Tom.”

“What for?”

“Being you. Being this amazing man that is calm and rational. I would be so lost without you.”

“You’re one of the most rational women I know.” She gave him a quizzical look. “You’ve just been served a curveball, this doesn’t count.”

“Thank you.” She smiled again taking her coat out of the backseat and getting out of the car.

Tom watched as she walked along the seafront for a few minutes before she became a blur to him. He took out his phone and immediately started researching different things, processing what he was reading and his thoughts.

Alexianna thought over what Tom said. She thought over how she would get her exams done and though morning sickness was a nuisance, she could do it. She thought of how she would have to deal with the work issue, she wanted that other job so badly, if she could figure that out...She paused. In those few minutes, she realised that she was not as terrified as before. Tom’s support, his want to be there for her meant that she felt she could see more positives to her situation.

She wanted a child with Tom, down the road, if they were both willing. She was unsure if this was a good time but Tom did. She wondered if he knew what this would mean, the sacrifices they would both have to be willing to make. His life would not be easy either but she knew, come what may, he would not do as Jonathan did, she just knew it. He would be there, for Lily too. His immediate declaration that Lily would remain as she was to him instilled some hope in her also, but she was still scared, all she could do was think it over.

Alexianna realised she had left the seafront and was walking through the town. A few of the shops were already closed, a few more seemed to be closing. One, in particular, caught her interest. She walked in and grabbed two items and walked to the till.

Tom sat reading in his car. Alexianna had been gone for twenty minutes. He hoped she was thinking over her options in her head now that she had more information to allow her to make a more informed decision. He meant what he said, no matter what, he would support her. When he looked out, he recognised her warm red winter coat making its way up the seafront towards him again. He turned on the car and waited. He watched as she got in and sat beside him, a pharmacy bag in her hand. Nervously, he looked at it. “Is that it?”

Alexianna shook her head. “No, you have to go to clinics for those, they’re not available over the counter.” She explained before opening the bag. “I am still processing all of this, but…” She took out two boxes and a bottle of water. “There was folic acid in my other multivitamin, this has the recommended pregnancy amount and these are more tailored to what I need at the moment too.” She held up the two boxes and showed him, one was a folic acid supplement for pregnant women and the other was a pregnancy brand multivitamin. “I am not taking any risks.”

“Does this mean….?” Tom was scared to ask.

Alexianna bit her lips together for a moment. “If it’s a girl?”

Tom smiled. “Then I will never get a good night’s sleep again.” He laughed. “Two daughters….I am warning you now, no one will ever be good enough for my Princesses.”

#Life is a Game of Risks #tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston fic #chapter 57

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twopointthreeninetoone · 7 years

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The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (or, Yeah, This Sounds Light-Hearted)

So, A New Hope made a record-breaking amount of money, and George Lucas has been given a carte blanche to do whatever he wants for The Empire Strikes Back. Where does he have his movie begin? In Fargo, North Dakota, that’s where! Well, it looks like Fargo, anyway.It actually takes place on Hoth, an ice planet. We return to the characters of Luke, Han, and Leia (and the rest), who are working diligently in a Rebel fort. What is there to do in a Rebel fort on an ice planet, you ask? Well, nothing really, except wait for the Empire to track you down, and get frostbite. Which is exactly what happens. Luke is able to endanger himself in record time—stupidly deciding to go check out a meteor (Luke, Luke, Luke—surely your people have learned that going to investigate something is a sure sign of danger), which somehow leads him and his poor little tauntaun (a kind of llama-kangaroo-horse creature) to be struck down and carried off by a creature that looks strangely like the Yeti in the claymation version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. And let the mating begin…

But first, let’s look at these tauntauns, shall we? These have to be the most miserable creatures in the Star Wars galaxy (even more miserable than whoever was in A Star Wars Christmas). Firstly, they’re kind of cute—well, cute enough for me to want one when I was a kid. They’re nothing more than brainless animals surely—the only sound they seem capable of producing is something like “burgle burgle”; I imagine they’re indigenous to the planet Hamburgler—but they could have been treated much better. Luke’s tauntaun is ultimately eaten by the Yeti-but-not-a-Yeti creature, and Han’s…well, you’ll see what happens to Han’s in a second (“oh what a dark and dismal fate”). One wonders where the ASPCA was in all of this.

Back to our story though. While Luke is doing a fine job of getting himself killed, everyone’s standing around the Rebel base asking, “Where’s Luke?” and shrugging their shoulders.Finally Han, Man of Action that he is, decides to go out looking for him. Let me note that Han has a terrible habit of making a big point of saying, “I’m going now. I’m leaving. I have to go. I must go now,” and never doing it. This time he’s trying to get Jabba the Hut the money he owes him, but decides to go find Luke instead. So he takes a tauntaun and goes searching for him. Luke, meanwhile, has found himself trapped in the Yeti-thing’s lair, his feet frozen to the ceiling (I want to know how that Yeti-thing did that. Did he have a blowtorch in his possession?) and his tauntaun eaten. He’s smart enough to use the Force to get his lightsaber (which is just out of reach) and cut off the Yeti’s arm, but not smart enough to kill the beast entirely and stay in the cave (which, while cold, is still out of the elements, and hey, there’s probably leftover tauntaun meat to last a couple of days). Luke does a good job of falling down in the middle of nowhere, in the freezing cold, and losing consciousness, before the Real Hero (i.e. Han, Man of Action) finds him. But not before his tauntaun dies of exhaustion. Oh, and Obi-Wan visited Luke in a vision and told him to go see Yoda. Han decides that the most respectful thing to do is to slice open the tauntaun’s stomach and stick his friend inside. Because that’s just the kind of guy Han is, I guess. Smart, yes. Pleasant, no.And then they’re saved.

Luke is apparently dead. That’s the only reason I can think of for the medical staff to stick him in a diaper and put him in a vat of water while sticking little electronic doohickeys into him.Either he’s dead or he’s near dying of exposure. Or they hate the little sod and just want to humiliate him until he wakes up. And wake up he does, in a diaper, in a vat of water. Did I mention that Han and Leia hate each other even more than they originally did in A New Hope? Well they do. At least, Leia hates Han, and Han (dumber than a sack of hammers) mistakes her hostility towards him for flirting. He’s the kind of guy who’d say, “Aw, c’mon, you know you like it” just before a woman brings out the can of mace. Anyway, Han comes on to Leia more times than is humanly possible, and Leia shows her disgust for him by kissing Luke. Everyone laughs. Han’s pissed.

The Empire finally builds the courage to ask the Rebel base out—no, wait, the Empire finally gets the courage to attack the Rebel base, and does so with the least useful machines on the planet, AT-ATs, which are about twenty stories high and slower than molasses. The designers apparently believed that elephants were good models for war transport, and based their AT-ATs on them. Before going off to attack the Imperial forces, Luke’s copilot mentions that he feels like “I could take on the whole Empire myself”, thus insuring that he will be killed within the next ten minutes. While Luke and the Rebel fighters are able to knock down two—count them two—AT-ATs, Han is somehow able to lure Leia into the Millenium Falcon and thus save her from the Empire. She thanks him by bitching for the next thirty minutes. C-3PO comes along to make sure that the whining quotient in Han’s life does not lower to less than three hundred negative remarks per minute. R2D2 goes off with Luke, who makes off to visit Yoda, who’ll help him become a Jedi, or to knock some sense into him, or something. I’d like to note that, just before an AT-AT completely destroys the Rebel base, it makes a point of picking off one poor foot soldier running away. Spiteful bastards, those AT-ATs are.

Meanwhile, Darth Vader plays a game of Let’s See How Many Admirals I Can Choke to Death With My Mind—something that we’ve all done, I’m sure. He’s very good at it.

Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and C3PO hide on an asteroid. Leia continues her bitching until she realizes that Han Solo is being played by none other than Harrison Ford. They somehow manage to fight and realize their love for each other at the same time. Let me just say that, from now on, Han Solo isn’t nearly as bad-ass as he was when he was single. This generally happens in movies. While the others are sittin’ on asteroids and fallin’ in love, Luke makes his way to a swamp planet in the Dagoba system, where he quickly makes a point of crashing his ship into a swamp. So Luke is in top form then. He meets a cute li’l creature whom he demeans and patronizes, only to learn later that this creature is Yoda! Aren’t you surprised that such a small, seemingly defenseless creature who only speaks Pidgin English could turn out to be an incredibly wise and powerful Jedi? Yoda in turn demeans and physically abuses Luke for the next half hour, which is all that I’ve ever wanted. This doesn’t stop Luke from whining. In fact, it probably incites whining. He whines about basically anything and everything, while R2D2 putters around, nearly gets eaten by swamp monsters, probably trying to find a lightsaber or, hell, even a rock that he can off himself with.

Vader wants Han and Leia in his possession, and decides to make a hunt of it by gathering up a bunch of bounty hunters (including the enigmatic Boba Fett) and telling them that he’ll pay good money for whoever captures them alive. Han & Co. fly off to Alderan, a mining city in the sky, which actually doesn’t make a lot of sense if you think about it. What do you mine in the sky? Carbon dioxide? Birds? Gases that form clouds? This is never explained. There they meet Han’s old frenemy Lando Calrissian, who (unfortunately for Leia) is the only other man in the universe smarmier than Han. It turns out that Lando was the original owner of the Millenium Falcon, but that he lost her to Han in a card game. Gee, this wouldn’t create some feeling of animosity by Lando, would it, Han? Oh, don’t worry your pretty little head about it, Han. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right? Right? Han doesn’t see the Writing on the Wall, even after C3PO is found dismembered in a trash heap. Luke does sense danger, however—turns out he can sense danger, but only danger happening millions of miles away, to people other than himself. He wants to save Han and Leia, but Yoda tells him that going to save them would only harm everyone in the long run. He goes on a spiel about destiny and the Force, but I think he just knows that Luke is an incompetent dipstick that can’t even save himself, let alone save others. To prove how incredibly inept Luke is, he tells him to pull his ship out of the swamp—with his mind. Luke can barely use a television remote, let alone use the Force to pick up a ship, and so he fails completely and goes off to pout. Yoda hands his ass to him by using the Force to lift the ship out of the muck. See, even though Yoda is small and seeming powerless, he can do things that big lugs like Luke can’t! Aren’t you surprised?

Han and Leia have a couple of hours to look around the Cloud City, visit the gift shop, etc. before discovering that Lando has actually made a deal with the Empire and Boba Fett. Han, Leia, and Chewie (poor C3PO is out of action until Chewie can repair him; naturally, as soon as Chewie gets C3PO’s mouth working, C3PO starts complaining) are imprisoned and tortured, for no reason other than the fact that Vader’s really Evil, and can torture whoever he wants without fear of reprisal. I’d like to note that the torture device used on Han looks eerily like a dentist’s chair, but with electric shocks and needles in it. This is why people are afraid of dentists. Thanks, George Lucas. Afterwards, Han notes that “They didn’t even ask me questions.” It’s because they’re all evil, Han! They have to keep their evil quota up somehow.

Lando breaks the news to them, that Darth Vader is going to carbon-freeze Luke Skywalker and bring him to the Emperor. But to make sure that you can actually freeze someone in carbonite without killing them, he’s going to try it out on Han beforehand. Han’s reply to this is a punch to Lando’s jaw. Chewbacca’s reply to this is, “Aaargh! Aaarghh Roooar!”

Luke, going against the advice of visions of just about every dead Jedi out there, goes off to save his friends, but vows to return to Yoda so he can finish his training. He doesn’t seem to notice Yoda and the ghost of Obi-Wan rolling on the ground laughing maniacally as he flies away (with R2D2, of course).

Now here, in my opinion, is the best scene in the trilogy. Most will tell you that the best scene is between Luke and Darth later on in the movie. But I think it’s this one. Han (in handcuffs) & Co. are led to the carbonization room by Darth, Lando, Boba Fett, and a bunch of Storm Troopers. Just before he goes into carbonite machine thingie he and Leia have some words (good words, not bad words), he kisses her, and while he’s kissing her he’s dragged away by guards. As he’s being dragged into the machine, Leia tells him, “I love you,” and his response is “I know.” And thus Han Solo’s emotional maturation is complete. So he’s being lowered into the machine, exchanging looks with Leia, and then there’s a cloud of smoke and he pulls his chin up and tada—he’s gone. They pull up the carbonite slab he’s become, and there’s an outline of poor Han’s sad little face. The other half of a million female audience members swoon. Best scene ever. It tugs at your heartstrings, it does. Fortunately however, he’s still alive, but in a state of hibernation, kind of. Boba Fett whisks the carbonite slab to Jabba the Hut’s. Lando seems to realize that this guy Vader is up to no good, starting to make trouble in his neighborhood, and runs off with Leia, Chewbacca, and C3PO to the Millenium Falcon.

Luke naturally gets there just in time to see Boba Fett and Han off, and for the next ten minutes fights with Darth Vader (R2D2, small, unintelligible, but apparently profoundly more intelligent than Luke, hooks up with Leia & Co. and gets on the Falcon). After exchanging witty barbs about destiny, evil, and the Force (and after Darth Vader cuts off Luke’s hand), they find themselves on a ledge about a million feet in the air. I imagine that Darth Vader’s mental process is as thus: “Hmm, I’ve killed his family and his mentor, I’ve harmed him and his friends dozens of times, I’m trying to destroy everything he stands for, and I just cut off his hand. Now would be a good time to tell him I’m his father.” And so he does and tells him that they can have some sort of father-son bonding experience by ruling the universe with their dark powers. Luke, naturally upset about this (and the whole cut-off-hand thing too, probably) decides that he really can’t make that sort of decision while suspended a million miles above the ground. And besides, his dad is really evil, and he’s already paid tuition to learn to become a Jedi. So he jumps (the drama here, kids, is that Luke would rather die than be evil like his dad; this, along with the bombshell that Darth just delivered, is why this scene is considered the best of the trilogy, and one of the best movie scenes of all time).

The lucky sod somehow ends up in garbage/laundry/air chute of some kind, and finds himself hanging onto an antenna beneath the cloud city (George Lucas wasn’t incredibly clear about this; it doesn’t matter in any case, because no one really believed he was going to die in the first place. Hey, there’s still a third movie to be made). He calls Leia—with his

mind

—and Leia, Lando, & Co. save him. The movie ends as Luke and Leia are in a Rebel ship, recuperating, while the audience wonders what the hell is going to happen to poor Han Solo. They’d have to wait three years to find out.

#Star Wars #The Empire Strikes Back #David Prowse #Irvin Kershner

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