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thewidowsghost · 3 years

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The War Gone Wrong (Obviously) - Stark! Reader x Steve Rogers

This is written for @rogersrogers334.

3rd Person POV

Tony and (Y/n) Stark, the father-daughter duo, stand in the shadows as a projection shows Maria, Howard, and a Younger Tony talking.

After the projected scene is over, both Tony and (Y/n) walk out, side by side, to the front of the stage.

"That's how I wished it happened," Tony says softly into the microphone. "Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing, or BARF."

"You really need a better acronym," (Y/n) teases which makes the crowd laugh for a minute or so before the attention turns to the two Avengers. "An extremely costly method of hijacking the hippocampus to . . . clear traumatic memories."

Tony blows out a candle, "Huh." The whole scene around Tony and (Y/n) dissolves. "It doesn't change the fact that my parents never made it to the airport . . . or all the things I did to avoid processing my grief, but . . ." Tony takes off his glasses. "Plus, six hundred eleven million dollars for my little therapeutic experiment? No one in their right mind would've ever funded it.

"Help me out, what's the MIT mission statement?" (Y/n)'s voice echoes through the hall now. "'To generate, disseminate, and preserve knowledge.' And work with others," she adds, "to bring it to bear on the world's great challenges."

"Well, you are the others," Tony picks up (Y/n)'s words - the two having rehearsed this. "And, quiet as it's kept . . . the challenges facing you are the greatest mankind's ever known."

"Plus," (Y/n) says, amusement lighting in her eyes, her voice taking on a teasing tone, "most of you are broke."

The crowd chuckles again and after a moment, Tony says, "Oh, I'm sorry. Rather, you were. As of this moment . . . every student has been made an equal recipient of the Inaugural September Foundation Grant. As in . . . all of your projects have just been approved and funded."

The crowd of college students breaks out in applause and cheers.

"No strings, no takes . . . just reframe the future!" (Y/n) says over the cheering. "Starting now!"

Above the audience, the teleprompter now reads: Tony: Now I would like to introduce the head of the Foundation, Pepper Potts

Tony stares at the words sadly and then says, "Go break some eggs."

The two exit the stage, side by side.

Ignoring one of the teaches and one of her father's assistants, (Y/n) walks over to the bathroom and changes into a pair of casual clothes for the mission she was supposed to be on.

Approaching her father, (Y/n) says a quick goodbye, and the twenty-four-year-old woman closes her eyes and disappears, arriving in Lagos, Nigeria.

(Y/n), like her mother, was a mutant. (Y/n) had the powers of teleportation, absorption, and the ability to control elements, as well as the ability to shape-shift.

Glancing around for a moment, (Y/n) pulls on a pair of sunglasses, places her COM set in her ear, and walks over to the Black Widow, who is sitting by herself with a tea in her hands.

"Morning, ma'am," (Y/n) greets Natasha Romanoff, "you mind if I sit here? There are no more open tables."

"Sure, go right ahead," Natasha says, hiding a smile at the sight of her best friend. Natasha and (Y/n) had been friends since Natasha had joined SHIELD, as (Y/n) and their partner, Clint, had recruited her.

A waitress walks over and (Y/n) orders a coffee, listening in on the conversation between Natasha, Wanda, Steve, and Sam going on.

"All right, what do you see?" Steve asks.

"Standard beat cops," Wanda murmurs around her cup of coffee in her hand. "Small station. Quiet street. It's a good target."

"There's an ATM in the south corner, which means . . ." Steve begins but Wanda cuts him off.

"Cameras," Wanda says.

"Nice Wanda," (Y/n) murmurs, and Wanda smiles softly at the approval in the older woman's voice.

"Both cross streets are one way," Steve says into the COMs.

"So, compromised escape routes," Wanda guesses.

"Means our guy doesn't care about being seen, he isn't afraid to make a mess on the way out," (Y/n) says softly.

"She's right," Steve says and (Y/n)'s cheeks dust a slightly darker color. "See that Range Rover halfway up the block?"

"Yeah, the red one?" Wanda asks. "It's cute."

"Looks like my first car," (Y/n) says with a soft laugh.

"Not the point," Natasha says and (Y/n) grins. "The point is, is that it's bulletproof, which means private security, which means more guys, which means more headaches for somebody."

"Probably us," (Y/n) adds. "I should have stayed with Dad.”

Wanda laughs but then says, her voice more serious, “You know I can move things with my mind, right?”

“You know I can set things on fire, or freeze them, or throw them at people?” (Y/n) says.

“Looking over your shoulder needs to become second nature,” Natasha and (Y/n) say in unison.

“Anybody ever told the two of you that you’re a little paranoid?” Sam asks.

“Not to my face,” Natasha scoffs, exchanging an amused glance with (Y/n) for a moment.

“Nor mine, probably cause my Dad could sue anyone for some odd reason, but, you know, whatever,” (Y/n) says. “Anyway, why?”

“Did you hear something?” Natasha asks.

“Anybody tell you that you two are perfect together?” Sam asks and (Y/n) holds back a fit of laughter and from the expression on Natasha’s face, she was doing the same.

“Eyes on the target, folks,” Steve says, keeping Sam from saying anything else. “This is the best lead we’ve had on Rumlow in six months. I don’t want to lose him.”

“Oh, that’s why we’re here,” (Y/n) says. “Watch me get deaded by Rumlow if he’s here.”

“Okay Crazy,” Wanda says, holding back a laugh as the sound of Natasha smacking (Y/n)’s arm sounds through the COMs.

Unknown to everyone but Steve, a garbage truck begins pushing its way through traffic, showing no regard to pedestrians or other vehicles.

“Sam, see that garbage truck?” Steve asks. “Tag it.”

There is a moment of silence before Sam speaks, “That truck is loaded for max weight. And the driver’s armed.”

“It’s a battering ram,” Natasha realizes and (Y/n) sets a twenty on the table and stands up, heading for the alleyway where she’d teleported from MIT.

(Y/n) teleports on top of the truck then just outside the Institute for Infectious Diseases Ward.

Soldiers in black armor emerge from two trucks that had driven through the entrance to the Institution.

“Go now!” Steve orders, readying his shield.

“What?” Wanda asks.

“He’s not hitting the police,” Steve says.

“Yeah, no kidding,” (Y/n) grumbles as one of the soldiers shoots where she’d been standing a few moments before, while some of the soldiers shoot gas bombs into the building above (Y/n).

Her fists lighting on fire, (Y/n) knocks out a few of the soldiers before Steve shows up.

“Nice of you to show up,” (Y/n) says with a warm smile towards the super-soldier.

Steve smiles and says into the COMs, “Body armor, AR-15s. We make seven hostiles.”

Sam flies in and up to a rooftop, spinning and using his wings to block the gunfire, taking out two soldiers in the process.

“I make that five,” Sam says.

Wanda arrives and flies over a rooftop into the courtyard, blocking bullets with her powers. She takes control of a soldier and lifts him upwards. “Sam,” she calls, and the Falcon flies down and catches the soldier with one of his wings.

“Four,” Sam says with a grin.

One of Sam’s drones flies by, scanning the inside of the building. “Rumlow’s on the third floor.”

“Aye Wanda,” (Y/n) says, running towards the girl. “Just like we practiced.”

“What about the gas?” comes Wanda’s questioning voice, her Sokovian accent thick at the moment.

“Get it out,” (Y/n) says.

Wanda uses her powers to lift (Y/n) up and through a window.

(Y/n) grabs one of the soldiers and pulls off their gas mask.

(Y/n) advances, taking out about five solders before making her way to the Bio-Hazard area.

“Rumlow has a biological weapon,” (Y/n) warns.

“I’m on it,” Natasha tells her, riding in on a motorcycle. She turns it on its side and skids it towards a soldier, taking out a few more in hand-to-hand combat. Rumlow comes up behind her, dragging her onto an armored vehicle. Natasha tries to electrocute Rumlow but it doesn’t work.

“I don’t work like that no more,” Rumlow taunts. He throws her through a roof hatch into an armored vehicle, drops in a grenade, and shuts the hatch. “Fire in the hole!”

“Get out of there Nat!” (Y/n) calls, moving to stand on a balcony.

Rumlow catches sight of her and sends a bomb her way and (Y/n) gets blasted back into a wall.

Scrambling her feet, (Y/n) presses a hand to her bleeding forehead and breaks into a run as another blast shakes the building behind her.

Another blast sends (Y/n) through a window and she falls over the side of the balcony, onto a metal container, and down onto the concrete below.

(Y/n) groans, rolling over and staggering to her feet, her arm pressed tightly to her ribs, guessing some had broken. “Oh man, those are broken,” (Y/n) grumbles and Wanda rushes over, throwing an arm around (Y/n)’s shoulders, taking some of her weight. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Wanda says.

Steve, Sam, and Natasha rush after Rumlow and the soldiers, Steve finally pinning Rumlow to the ground.

“Something’s about to happen,” (Y/n) says, her eyes widening, hearing the conversation between Steve and Rumlow over the COMs. Then she turns to Wanda, “You gotta trust me? All right?” Wanda nods and (Y/n) teleports them to where Steve and Rumlow are.

(Y/n) wraps her arms around Rumlow and nods to Wanda, who shoots the two into the air, not a moment too soon it seemed, because Rumlow explodes, (Y/n) screaming as she absorbs half the blast. The remaining energy hits the side of the building, shattering glass windows and setting the building on fire.

(Y/n) drops back towards the ground, her eyes blurring slightly and Wanda shoots her arms up, catching (Y/n) and lightly lowering her to the ground before the Scarlet Witch looks up at the building in flames and covers her mouth with her hand.

“Oh my . . .” Steve’s bright blue eyes, wide with shock, his mouth hanging open murmurs, “Sam . . . we need . . . Fire and Rescue . . . and a MedEvac team . . . on the south side of the building. We gotta get up there.”

Wanda glances down at (Y/n), whose forehead was bleeding, her right arm resting on her stomach, and the side of her face slightly burned, the woman’s (E/c) eyes fluttering shut.

Natasha and Sam show up a few moments later and Natasha stares wide-eyed at her best friend’s unconscious body resting in Wanda’s lap.

Natasha rushes over and helps some of the medical workers lift (Y/n)’s body onto a stretcher.

The next day finds Natasha and Steve fussing over (Y/n) as she sits up in the Med Bay in the Avengers’ Compound.

“I love all of you, but stop fussing over me,” (Y/n) says, getting to her feet and shrugging off Natasha’s hand on her shoulder. “I’m injured, not dead.”

Steve smiles at the thought, the same words as he had said to Natasha and (Y/n) a few years back when they were on the run from SHIELD, well, HYDRA.

“Steve,” (Y/n) stops the super-soldier as she, Steve, and Natasha walk out of the Med Bay together. “Would you check up on Wanda? She probably feels responsible for what happened.”

Natasha turns to (Y/n) as Steve walks away, towards Wanda’s room, (Y/n) guesses. “Don’t you ever do anything that stupid ever again,” Natasha scolds her friend. “You did it in DC and Sokovia before now. You’re going to kill yourself by the time you die.”

“That’s incredibly strange wording there Miss Romanoff,” (Y/n) says with a smile.

Natasha goes to say something but Sam walks up and leads Natasha down to the briefing room.

A few minutes later, after (Y/n) had changed into a pair of jeans and a loose t-shirt, she makes her way down to the briefing room, leaning on the doorway as she listens to Thunderbolt Ross, the Secretary of State, speak.

“Five years ago,” Ross begins. “I had a heart attack. I dropped right in the middle of my back-swing. Turned out it was the best round of my life, because after 13 hours of surgery and a triple bypass . . . I found something 40 years in the Army had never taught me: Perspective. The world owes the Avengers an un-payable debt. You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives . . . but while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some . . . who would prefer the word ‘vigilantes’.”

“And what word would you use, Mr. Secretary?” asks Natasha in a falsely respectful voice.

“How about "dangerous"? What would you call a group of US-based, enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their will wherever they choose and who, frankly, seem unconcerned about what they leave behind?“ Ross says and (Y/n) steps forward into the room from the shadows.

“You don’t think we’re unconcerned about what we leave behind, Secretary?” (Y/n) says in a soft voice, which still carries through the silent room. “I think the Avengers, above all others, know what it’s like to lose the ones they care about and the wreckage left behind.”

Steve and Natasha look over to see (Y/n) standing behind Sam’s chair at the back of the room.

“But,” (Y/n) smiles with a look of disgust in her eyes, “if you must, please, continue.”

“Thank you, Miss Stark,” Ross says, rolling his eyes and pressing a button on a remote in his hands.

News footage from past Avengers and SHIELD matters flash on the screen as he speaks, “New York.” A Chitauri leviathan. Terrified citizens. A soldier firing a gun. The Hulk smashing into buildings, sending dust clouds engulfing the camera.

Rhodey’s expression turns regretful and he glances over his shoulder at Natasha.

“Washington DC,” Ross continues. Three Insight helecarriers, firing on each other. The destroyed Triskelion. A helicarrier crashes into the Potomac throwing up a massive wave while in the background, (Y/n)’s body hits the river below.

Sam is the one who looks down this time, and Steve spares a glance at (Y/n), whose expression had hardened into one of carefully controlled anger.

“Sokovia,” Ross says, pressing yet another button on his controller. Terrified citizens running. The city rising. A building falling over. Wanda and Tony continue to look at the screen, Wanda swallowing thickly at the sight of her former home behind destroyed.

“Lagos,” The burning building. Paramedics moving bodies. A dead girl. An unconscious (Y/n) being lifted into an ambulance.

Wanda looks particularly affected by the footage from Lagos and (Y/n) steps forward to place a comforting hand on the young woman’s shoulder. Steve also sees how discomforted Wanda seems and intervenes.

“Okay, that’s enough.”

Ross nods to an aide and the images disappear.

“For the past four years, you’ve operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That’s an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate. But I think we have a solution.” Ross receives a thick book from one of his aides and slides it across the table to Wanda. She picks it up and then slides it to Rhodey.

“The Sokovia Accords,” Ross tells the Avengers. “Approved by a hundred and seventeen countries . . . it states that the Avengers should no longer be a private organization. Instead, they’ll operate under the supervision of a United Nations panel, only when and if that panel deems it necessary. You say that it's enough to be a man. But there are gods. And the rest of us, what are we? They’re giants, we’re what they step on.”

The conversation has (Y/n) remembering what Phil Coulson had told Mike Peterson before he had become DeathLok.

“The good ones, the real deal,” comes (Y/n)’s voice and everyone turns to look at her once again. “They’re, we’re, not heroes because of what we have that you don’t. It’s what we do with it that matters.”

Steve nods and sends (Y/n) an admiring glance. “The Avengers were formed to make the world a safer place. I feel we’ve done that,” Steve adds to (Y/n)’s words.

“Tell me, Captain, Miss Stark, do you two know where Thor and Banner are right now?” Ross asks, meeting Steve’s eyes.

“I have a guess,” (Y/n) says, meeting Natasha’s green gaze. “Asgard.”

Ross ignores (Y/n) and says, “If I misplaced a couple of 30 megaton nukes . . . you can bet there'd be consequences. Compromise. Reassurance. That's how the world works. Believe me, this is the middle ground.”

“So, there are contingencies,” Rhodey guesses.

“Three days from now, the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords.”

Steve glances at Tony as Ross heads for the door.

“Talk it over,” Ross finally says.

“And if we come to a decision you don’t like?” Natasha asks.

“Then you retire,” Ross says and Natasha stifles a smile.

A few minutes later, (Y/n) finds herself sitting at the counter in the briefing room, her fingers pressed to her temples as Sam and Rhodey argue behind her.

“I have an equation,” Vision interrupts.

“Oh, this will clear it up,” Sam says, turning to listen to Vision.

“In the eight years since Mr. Stark and Miss Stark announced themselves as IronMan and Phoenix respectively, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially.”

“Are you saying it’s our fault?” Steve asks his eyes remaining on (Y/n), whose fingers had begun tapping lightly on the countertop in front of her.

“I’m saying there may be a causality. Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict . . . breeds catastrophe. Oversight . . . oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand.”

“Boom,” Rhodey says.

(Y/n) glances over at her father, who was lying on one of the couches, one hand on his face.

When Natasha speaks, he removes his hand to look at her. “Tony,” Natasha prompts. “You are being uncharacteristically non-hyper-verbal.”

“It’s because he’s already made up his mind,” Steve guesses.

“Boy, you know me so well,” Tony gets up, wincing, rubbing the back of his head. “Actually, I’m nursing an electromagnetic headache.”

He walks over towards the kitchen and grabs a mug. “That’s what’s going on, Cap. It’s just pain. It’s discomfort. Who’s putting coffee grounds in the disposal” Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?”

Despite the negative thoughts running through her head, (Y/n) cracks a smile at her father’s question.

Tony sets his phone in a basket and taps it. The phone projects an image of a smiling young ham. Tony looks down, then back up, and pretends to notice the picture for the first time. “Oh, that's Charles Spencer, by the way. He's a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA. Had a floor level gig at Intel planned for the fall. But first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul, before he parked it behind a desk. See the world. Maybe be of service. Charlie didn't want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauderdale, which is what I would do. He didn't go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. Guess where Sokovia.”

(Y/n) swallows thickly and glancing at her teammates, she can tell that the others are also affected by this.

“He wanted to make a difference, I suppose,” Tony says softly. “I mean, we won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass.” Tony takes a pill with some coffee, then faces the others. “There's no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, if we're boundary-less, we're no better than the bad guys.”

“Well said,” comes (Y/n)’s quiet voice, though everyone in the room heard it.

“Tony, someone dies on your watch, you don’t give up,” Steve says.

“Who said we’re giving up?” Tony asks.

“We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blames.”

“I’m sorry,” (Y/n) says softly and the others turn to her once again. “Steve,” she pauses for a moment. “That’s dangerously arrogant,” there is an apologetic undertone to her words and now Rhodey speaks.

“This is the United Nations we’re talking about. It’s not the World Security Council, it’s not SHIELD, it’s not HYDRA.”

“No, but it’s run by people with agendas, and agendas change,” Steve argues.

“That’s good,” Tony presses. “That’s why I’m here. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I shut it down and stopped manufacturing.”

“Tony, you chose to do that. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go, and they don't let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own.”

“If we don’t do this now, it’s gonna be done to us later. That’s the fact. That won’t be pretty,” Tony says, shooting an apologetic glance towards his daughter.

“You’re saying they’ll come for me,” Wanda’s gaze flickers to the others.

“Us,” (Y/n) corrects, meeting Wanda’s fearful green gaze.

“We would protect you,” Vision says.

“Maybe Tony’s right,” Natasha says, shooting a glance at (Y/n), then Wanda.

Tony looks at the former assassin, surprised.

“If we have one had on the wheel, we can steer. If we take it off -” Sam interupts Natasha.

“Aren’t you the same woman who told the government to kick her ass a few years ago?” Sam asks as (Y/n) rises from her place slumped against the countertop and walks over to sit by her friend.

Natasha looks over at (Y/n) and sends her a comforting smile.

“I’m just . . .” Natasha begins but (Y/n) continues for her.

“She’s reading the terrain,” (Y/n) explains. “We have made . . . some -”

“Very public mistakes. We need to win everyone’s trust back,” Natasha finishes.

“Focus up,” Tony says, still staring at Natasha in disbelief. “I’m sorry, did I mishear you or did you agree with me?”

(Y/n) cracks another smile as Natasha replies, “Oh, I want to take it back now.”

“No, no, no,” Tony argues. “You can't retract it. Thank you. Unprecedented. Okay, case closed--I win.“

Steve’s phone buzzes and he pulls it out to check it. (Y/n) glances over at Steve, a question in her eyes.

(Y/n) knew that Steve had feelings for her - and (Y/n) did as well - and judging by the look on Steve’s face, she knew it had to be about Peggy. (Y/n) knew that, deep down, Steve still loved Peggy.

“I have to go,” Steve says abruptly, dropping the Accords onto the coffee table and going downstairs.

The others in the room glance at each other for a moment before Wanda stands up from her place next to Vision and (Y/n) stands up, following her.

(Y/n) jogs after Wanda, catching up with the young brunette. “Wanda,” (Y/n) places a hand on her shoulder, but the girl continues to walk. “Wanda, stop.”

“What?” Wanda snaps, turning on (Y/n).

“What are you going to do?” (Y/n) asks softly, her hand remaining on Wanda’s shoulder.

“What are you going to do?” Wanda asks in return.

“I’m going to sign,” (Y/n) says softly. “I think you should too. Like my dad said, if we don’t do this now, it’s going to happen later.”

(Y/n) gives Wanda’s shoulder a comforting squeeze before she turns, walking away.

A few days later, (Y/n) and Natasha walk into the cathedral where Steve had just been mourning the death of Peggy Carter.

(Y/n) smiles nervously at Steve as he speaks, “When I came out of the ice, I thought everyone I had known was gone. Then I found out that she was alive. I was just lucky to have her.”

“She had you back, too,” Natasha says, shooting (Y/n) - who was standing at her shoulder - a glance.

“Who else signed?” Steve asks.

“Tony. Rhodey. Vision.” (Y/n) answers.

“Clint?” Steve asks.

“Say’s he’s retired,” Natasha says, and (Y/n) and the redhead share an amused smile.

“Wanda?”

“TBD,” Natasha answers.

“We’re, well, off to Vienna for the signing of the Accords,” (Y/n) says. “There’s plenty of room on the jet,” she offers, hoping with all her heart that Steve would come.

Steve sighs and bows his head and (Y/n)’s composer seems to fall.

“Just because it’s the path of least resistance doesn’t mean it’s the wrong path. Staying together is more important than how we stay together,” Natasha tells Steve.

(Y/n) had the feeling that her best friend was trying to convince herself as well.

“What are we giving up to do it?” Steve asks, avoiding meeting (Y/n)’s eyes.

Natasha sighs and Steve shakes his head, unconvinced.

“I’m sorry, Nat, (Y/n),” Steve says softly. “I can’t sign it.”

“We know,” (Y/n) says softly.

"Then what are you doing here?" Steve asks.

"I didn't want you to be alone," (Y/n) says, stepping forward to wrap the super soldier in a hug.

(Y/n) pulls back after a moment, holding back tears as she says, "Good luck, Steve."

Natasha puts a comforting hand on (Y/n)'s arm and the two walk out of the cathedral.

A few hours later, (Y/n) and Natasha are standing in the UN building signing papers for the Accords.

"Excuse me, Miss Romanoff, Miss Stark?" asks a UN staffer.

"Yes?" Natasha responds.

"We need your signatures," the staffer says. (Y/n) and Natasha sign the papers.

"I suppose neither of us are used to the spotlight," comes a voice and the two women turn to see Prince T'Challa standing in front of them. "Though, Miss Stark, it seems to follow you everywhere."

"Well, it's not always so flattering," Natasha answers with a smile.

"You seem to be going alright so far. Considering your last trip to Capitol Hill . . . I wouldn't think you would be particularly comfortable in this company."

"Well, I'm not," Natasha replies.

"That alone makes me glad you're here, Miss Romanoff," T'Challa continues.

"Why? You don't approve of all this?" (Y/n) asks.

"The Accords, yes," T'Challa answers. "The politics, not really. Two people in a room can get more done than a hundred."

"Unless you need to move a piano," comes King T'Chaka's voice.

"Father."

"Son. Miss Romanoff. Miss Stark," T'Chaka's says in return, nodding to his son.

"King T'Chaka," (Y/n) says, nodding respectfully to the king. "Please let us apologize for what happened in Nigeria."

"Thank you. Thank you for agreeing to all this. I'm sad to hear that Captain Rogers will not be joining us today."

(Y/n) and Natasha share a glance. "Us as well," (Y/n) answers.

"If it is okay, I would like to have a word with Miss Stark," T'Challa says and (Y/n) nods.

Smiling at Natasha, then nodding to the king, (Y/n) follows T'Challa to the window.

Before T'Challa can say anything, T'Chaka begins to speak. "When stolen Wakandan vibranium was used to make a terrible weapon, we in Wakanda were forced to question our legacy. Those men and women killed in Nigeria were part of a goodwill mission from a country too long in the shadows. We will not, however, let misfortune drive us back. We will fight to improve the world we wish to join. I am grateful to the Avengers for supporting this initiative." (Y/n) spots something outside and she nudges T'Challa, pointing to a news van outside where several officers were milling around the back. "Wakanda is proud to extend its hand in peace."

"Everybody get down!" (Y/n) and T'Challa yell, sprinting towards where the king was still standing, giving his speech.

An enormous explosion goes off between the two buildings sending (Y/n) and T'Challa flying back.

(Y/n) staggers to her feet, her hand wrapped around her bleeding forearm, and watches, horrified as T'Challa finds his father lying on the floor with his eyes closed. The Prince grabs his father's wrist and feels for a pulse, but King T'Chaka lies still. Devastated, T'Challa lies across his father, then lifting him and rocking him.

Natasha darts forward and pulls her friend down onto the floor and rips off part of her sleeve to wrap around (Y/n)'s arm, (Y/n)'s eyes wide with shock.

The survivors are evacuated from the buildings and fire crews begin to hose them down.

Natasha and (Y/n) sit on the bench beside T'Challa's.

"I'm very sorry," Natasha says softly.

T'Challa glances at the two, holding a silver ornate ring which he toys with between his fingers. "In my culture, death is not the end. It's more of a . . . stepping-off point. You reach out with both hands and Bast and Sekhmet, they lead you into the green veldt where . . . you can run forever."

"That sounds very peaceful," Natasha replies, her voice still soft.

"My father thought so," T'Challa answers, placing the ring on his finger. "But I am not my father."

"T'Challa. Task forces will decide who brings in Barnes."

T'Challa clenches his fists, "Don't bother, Miss Romanoff. I'll kill him myself."

3rd Person POV

Steve - in his uniform - strides through an underpass, then jogs onto a private runway, heading for a grounded chopper. An electro-disabler slams onto the chopper and Steve looks up.

Above him, Tony and Rhodey descend, landing on the ground.

"Wow, it's so weird how you run into people at the airport. Don't you think that's weird?" Tony asks, his helmet retracting.

"Definitely weird," Rhodey answers.

"Hear me out, Tony," Steve says. "That doctor, the psychiatrist, he's behind all of this."

T'Challa, clad in his Black Panther uniform, leaps over a truck. "Captain."

"Your highness."

"Anyway," Tony says, walking behind Rhodey. "Ross gave me thirty-six hours to bring you in. That was twenty-four hours ago. Can you help a brother out?"

"You're after the wrong guy," Steve answers calmly.

"Your judgment is askew," Tony replies, some of his anger showing now. "Your old war buddy killed innocent people yesterday.

"And there are five more soldiers just like him. I can't let the doctor find them first, Tony. I can't."

"Steve . . ." It was Natasha's voice now. ". . . you know what's about to happen. Do you want to punch your way out of this one?"

"All right I've run out of patience. Underoos!" Tony calls.

A figure in blue and red spandex shoots what looks like a web, stealing Steve's shield and binding his hands, landing on a car.

"Good job, kid," Tony praises.

"Thanks. Well, I could've stuck the landing a little better. It's just the new suit… Well, it's nothing, Mr. Stark. It's--it's perfect. Thank you," Peter stumbles over his words.

"Yeah, we don't really need to start a conversation."

"Okay. Cap . . . Captain. Big fan, I'm Spider-Man."

"Yeah, we'll talk about it later. Just . . ."

"Hey, everyone."

" . . . Good job."

"You've been busy," Steve interrupts.

"And you've been a complete idiot. Dragging in Clint. 'Rescuing' Wanda from a place she doesn't even want to leave, a safe place. I'm trying to keep . . . I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart," Tony finishes.

“You did that when you signed,” Steve answers calmly.

“Alright, We're done. You're gonna turn Barnes over, you're gonna come with us. NOW! Because it's us! Or a squad of J-SOC guys . . . with no compunction about being impolite,” Tony scowls at Steve.

Steve holds up his hands and Clint shoots the web off with an arrow. “Alright, Lang.”

“Hey, guys, something . . .” Peter says.

He gets kicked back and a full sized man is now standing beside Steve, holding out his shield.

“Oh great,” Tony says. “There’s two in the parking garage. One of them’s Maximoff I’m going to grab her.” Tony flies off in his suit. “Rhodey, you wanna take Cap?

“Got two in the terminal, Wilson and Barnes,” Rhodey answers.

“Barnes is mine!” T’Challa shouts.

“Hey, Mr. Stark. What should I do?” Peter asks.

“What we discussed. Keep your distance. Web ‘em up,” Tony answers.

“Okay, copy that!” Peter uses his webs to swing away.

Scott Lang - Ant Man - faces Natasha. “Look, I really don’t want to hurt you.”

“I wouldn’t stress about it,” Natasha replies. She kicks him in the groin and he miniaturizes, throwing her head over heels. She zaps him off her wrist and he slams into a nearby truck, leaving a small dent.

Tony is now hovering over Wanda and Clint. “Wanda, I think you hurt Visions’s feelings.”

“You locked me in my room,” Wanda retorts.

“Okay first, that’s an exaggeration. Second, (Y/n) wanted me to protect you. Hey, Clint.”

“Hey, man,” Clint answers, readying his bow.

“Clearly, retirement doesn’t suit you. You get tired of shooting golf?”

“Well, I played eightteen, I shot eightteen. Just can’t seem to miss,” Clint fires an arrow which Tony deflects.

“First time for everything,” Tony replies.

“Made you look,” Clint smirks.

“Suddenly a sar slams past Tony and he looks up as dozens more come crashing down. Wanda moves her glowing red hands until Tony is burried under a pile of cars.

Tony flies over to Natasha once he unburries himself and helps her up.

“Is this part of the plan?” the redhead asks.

“Well, my plan was to go easy on them. You wanna switch it up?” the billionare asks.

Clint spots the Quinjet. “There’s our ride.”

“Come on!” Steve calls.

Steve’s team runs towards the Quinjet but they are stopped by a fizzing stream of energy slicking across the runway and they stop. Looking up they see Vision hovering overhead.

“Captain Rogers,” Vision begins. “I know what you believe what your doing is right. But for the collective good you must surrender now.” As he speaks, the rest of Tony’s team arrives.

“What’d we do, Cap?” Sam asks.

“We fight,” Steve answers.

“This is gonna end well,” Natasha says.

The two teams stride towards each other with grim determination etched on their faces.

“They’re not stopping,” Peter says.

“Neither are we,” Tony replies grimly.

Steve blocks a punch with his shield from Tony as he lands. Clint fires an arrow at Vision as Rhodey flies after Sam and and Bucky, trading blows with T’Challa.

An explosive arrow hit Tony.

Natasha throws Scott as Peter wings through the air, struggling to evade flying vehicles.

Bucky lands punches on T’Challa.

Clint and Natasha battle with batons and eventually, Clint pins her down with his bow.

“We’re still friends, right?” Natasha asks.

“Depends on how hard you hit me,” Clint answers.

Natasha spins the archer with her legs and jumps to her feet. As she’s about to kick his head, her foot stops and glows bright red. With a wave of her hand, Wanda throws Natasha back. “You were pulling your punches.

As Natasha’s thrown back, someone catches her before she can hit the ground.

“Nice to see you,” the figure says with a ghost of a smile as she sets the redhead back on her feet.

“(Y/n)! What are you doing here?” the redhead asks.

“I’m making sure nobody dies today!” (Y/n) yells over her shoulder, running to where Steve was talking to Peter.

“Look kid,” Steve says as (Y/n) comes up behind him. “There’s a lot here that you don’t understand.

“Mr. Stark said you’d say that,” Peter replies. “Wow.” He fires webs which stick to Steve’s leg and shield. He pulls and Steve slides towards him. Peter kicks him backwards and then rolls clear. “He also said to go for you legs.” As Steve runs to get his shield, Peter webs his hands and pulls. Steve grits his teeth, spins and somersaults, propelling Peter through the air.

Steve catches one of Peter’s webs and tugs the boy near him, knocking him down with the shield. Peter recovers and pull himself on top of a gangway. “Stark tell you anything else?” Steve asks.

“How about don’t beat up kids?” (Y/n) asks teleporting in between the kid and Steve.

“Go,” (Y/n) tells the kid, then readies her fists at Steve.

Growling with frustration, Steve throws his shield at (Y/n) but (Y/n) stops it with a jet of water.

(Y/n) charges at Steve but is stopped by Bucky, who had launched himself at her and pinned her to the ground.

Bucky goes to punch his metal fist into her face but (Y/n) teleports away. “What the!” Bucky exclaims.

Vision had just shot a shining beam of energy at the control tower and it collapses towards the entrance of the hangar. Wanda holds other hands, keeping the tower from collapsing, letting Steve and Bucky run through it. Rhodey descends behind her and fires a sonic disruptor and Wanda holds her head and screams. The tower falls around Steve and Bucky but they make it into the hanger.

Natasha, who was in the hangar, catches sight of the tower falling on top of another figure. The two had made eye contact before the tower had collapsed on top of her, (E/c) on green.

“Tony!” Natasha yells, running past, completely ignoring Steve and Bucky, who run past her into the Quinjet. “We’ve got a big problem!”

“Romanoff, what is it?” Tony asks.

“(Y/n) . . .” the redhead trails off.

“What happened?” Tony asks frantically.

“The control tower, it collapsed on top of her,” Natasha breathes. “We need somebody who can lift heave things.”

Tony, Rhodey, Wanda, and Clint show up soon and the five dig through the rubble and Natasha heaves one chunk of rock, moving it.

(Y/n) raises up her arm, her hand trembling and everyone rushes over to move the rest of the rock. Her hand falls, palm facing up, and she exhales, her breath ragged.

“I hope one of y-you can c-carry me,” (Y/n) stammers. “Cause I think my leg’s b-broken.”

The last slab of rock is removed and everyone looks at each other. A sheet of metal was stuck in her abdomen, and blood was pooling under her.

“Y-you’re gonna have t-to c-carry me.”

Tony comes out of his suit and takes his daughter’s hand in his own. Natasha moves to take the other. (Y/n)’s eyes close in pain for a moment and then she opens them again.

“I-I think i-it’s bad,” (Y/n) voice trembles. “Cause I can’t feel it.”

Her eyes close once more and then she opens them again, looking at her father.

“D-dad? W-when di-id you get h-here?” (Y/n) stutters and Tony squeezes his dying daughter’s hand.

“Oh sweetheart, I’ll always be here.” Tony says, a tear falling from his eyes.

“T-that’s sweet,” (Y/n) slurs. Her head lolls to the side and she sees Natasha and Clint, the archer’s hand placed on his redheaded friend’s shoulder. “Nat. C-clint.” A tear streaks down Natasha’s face. “D-don’t c-cry. I-I’ll be o-okay.”

“Only you could comfort us like this,” Natasha says, tears falling onto her hands.

(Y/n) looks over at Rhodey, and his helmet retracts. “U-uncle R-rhodey?”

The man nods.

“W-watch m-my Dad,” she says. “H-he tends to be r-reckless sometimes.”

“I will,” Rhodey promises.

“Doll, that’s not every nice,” Tony scolds lightly and (Y/n) lets out a soft laugh.

“Wanda,” (Y/n) says, addressing the youngest.

Wanda looks up from her feet.

“Y-you’re so s-smart and t-talented,” (Y/n) tells the young girl. “And d-don’t le-et anyone tell y-you different.”

Wanda chokes down a sob as (Y/n) falls limp against the rocks under her.

Natasha runs her hands gently through her friend’s hair and (Y/n) jolts conscious once again.

“N-nat,” (Y/n) stammers.

“Breathe, just breathe (Y/n/n),” Natasha murmurs.

“N-nat, t-ell St-teve I’m sorry,” (Y/n) slurs.

Then she falls limp . . .

She breathes her last breath . . .

And falls silent, not moving again . . .

Well, this was, well, this made me cry writing it, so . . .

Word Count: 7,164 words

So yeah, I don’t know if this was what @rogersrogers334 was looking for, but here it is.

Anyway, Imma go cry in the safety of my bed now . . .

Love, Kaitlynn ❤️😍

#steve rogers #fem reader #natasha romanoff #steve roger x reader #dad tony stark #wanda maximoff #scott lang #peter parker #pepper potts #@rogersrogers334 #clint barton #best friend natasha romanoff #avengers x stark! reader

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imaginaryelle · 4 years

Note

I just re-watched THAT scene and a thought hit me: Lan Wangji just stands there watching Wei Wuxian fall from the cliff... Why doesn't he jump onto his sword and swoops down to at least try to save him? Or is he all out of spiritual power? Or does it simply take to long to start and rev the sword? Not saying it's a plothole, I was just wondering...

I mean, I think this is a fair question and I know I’ve seen it discussed elsewhere. I just can’t seem to find the post or remember if any conclusions were reached, so I’m excited to dive into this. As always if anyone has insights or headcanons they want to add on to this, please do.

Because I like pictures, here’s ep 33 Lan Wangji holding his sword and staring in horror as Wei Wuxian falls (what is Jiang Cheng thinking? Who knows.)

Why isn’t Lan Wangji doing anything? He just stands there for long enough that Jiang Cheng backs away and leaves him on the outcropping, all alone.

Poor guy.

Okay, moving on. I think there are at least two ways to approach this, and one is from the production perspective (since this cliff encounter is a thing that only happens in the drama) and the other is from the in-universe perspective (aka, Doyalist vs Watsonian), so I’m going to look at both.

For the production pov, there’s really only one scene (I think) where we see anyone actually riding a sword in the drama, and it’s when they’re confronting the water demon/abyss in Caiyi (ep 5). At that point there’s no prep time, everyone just jumps up and then steps onto their swords (which is actually even more ridiculous to me than the image had already been in the novel because I thought they were at least riding on the scabbard but no! Riding the bare blade like a skateboard. I love it.)

How majestic.

Lan Xichen is the only graceful and cool person here. The only other sword-riding shot in this scene that shows more of a person’s body than their head and shoulders is when Lan Wangji drags three people into the air at once and we get a brief glimpse of Su She’s feet kicking wildly.

So, based on this scene’s execution and the general scarcity of other sword-flying scenes (even with the Nightless City confrontation, Lan Wangji just flies in with his quqin, no sword under his feet), my out-of-universe theory would be a combination of budget and aesthetic at play. If the production can get by on wire work with super extra long jumps that don’t seem to require actually riding the sword, they will. It’s logistically simpler, and it frankly looks better on screen. It’s also a staple of the entire film genre, whereas this sword thing is not, so the crew and effects people would have more experience with it as well. (In-universe I have a lot of questions about Wei Wuxian’s retained ability to do those jumps. Do they not use spiritual energy? Does he still have spiritual energy, just not a golden core? Is he using resentful energy instead? How does this work?)

From a more story-side view on the production, they’re working against the fact that they changed the plot to add Lan Wangji’s presence at Wei Wuxian’s death and they want to capitalize on that relationship, so having Wei Wuxian knock himself over the edge as he destroys the seal (or something where he steps back as Jiang Cheng rushes him or any other number of possibilities) no longer fits with the emotional beats they’re trying to hit. Also they really need Wei Wuxian to die here for the plot to function. Having Lan Wangji mount a sword and swoop down to try and save him again just adds extra complications and delays the desired outcome of WWX = dead and LWJ = distraught. In that sense, it really does start to look like a plot hole, because it feels like they’re ignoring the capabilities of a character in order to get the result they need. I do think they try to address this, but since multiple people have this question and I personally had to watch the scene more than once while actively thinking about it to notice all the relevant details… the efficacy of those efforts is maybe questionable. (Also like.. why does Jiang Cheng wait three days to go look for Wei Wuxian’s remains? Why is anyone waiting at all? Why is anyone surprised they can’t find a corpse when the visual we get implies Wei Wuxian is falling into lava? There are many, many questions that can be asked here and for a lot of them the out-of-universe answer is probably going to resemble “because the plot/original source material demands it” without much helpful in-universe support.)

In-universe (and probably more pertinent to your question), yeah, Lan Wangji could be low on spiritual power (and upon rewatch, I think he genuinely is). He could be physically exhausted as well as injured, too. For someone who carried three people in two hands 2-3 years ago and canonically has only gotten stronger since, he sure is having trouble pulling one person up over the side of a cliff. And that exhaustion really isn’t outside the realm of possibility, no matter how strong and powerful he is. He just traveled pretty far! If the theories that he found A-Yuan before coming to Nightless City are true (since he’s not injured in those flashbacks), he likely spent a ton of spiritual power even before getting into this battle where he first confronted Wei Wuxian and then started fighting pretty much everyone on the field by himself. Then, in a moment of fear-induced distraction, he gets injured! He’s actively bleeding! So yeah. He could definitely just be physically exhausted.

All that blood loss is not a good sign, and it actually speeds up (visually) as he expends this effort. We can see his arm trembling all throughout this scene, and then his grip slips (thus the face). Even after that he slips again, not losing his grip, but losing the strength to hold himself up at all. In the end he’s literally just lying on the rock depending on gravity to keep him in place and putting everything else he has into holding on to Wei Wuxian. He can’t do more than glare in Jiang Cheng’s general direction and tell him to stop.

Bichen is right there. If he had spiritual power left, I think he’d probably be sending his sword out to block Jiang Cheng’s angle of attack. That, or he needs two hands to accomplish such an action (It doesn’t require hand motions later/in the future, but maybe he develops that skill precisely because of these events). So yes. He’s physically exhausted. He’s spiritually exhausted. But I think there’s more going on here, too: He’s also at the end of his rope emotionally, and that’s how he ends up standing there, horrified and unmoving.

He’s had a rough time recently: Everyone hates his best and only friend/love of his life, and he has to listen to them call for his death/judgement at fancy dinner party meetings on and off for over a year. No one will listen to him when he tries to present a different view. Even his own brother is (not unreasonably) much more concerned about Lan Wangji’s personal safety than what his silence on this issue is costing him emotionally, and his uncle is distinctly unsupportive of the friendship from the beginning.

I think Lan Wangji spends a lot of time questioning his upbringing in those months (we see him actually verbally do so when he’s punished after Wei Wuxian’s death, but I think it starts well before that). What is right and wrong? Who decides it, and how? When does justice and holding people responsible for their actions turn over into unjust persecution? What is true, and what is a lie, and how much does that matter when weighed against social/political/spiritual harmony? These are concepts that are buried pretty deeply in the Lan Sect’s teachings but the world is twisting all of them before his eyes, and I have to think that takes a toll on him. Additionally, just as things start looking up (they let him write the letter to invite Wei Wuxian to Jin Ling’s celebration! They listen to him, other people support his idea!), he has to deal with the facts that:

1) His best friend who he’s in love with just killed a bunch of people, including Jin ZiXuan and some of Lan Wangji’s own Sect brothers.

2) Wei Wuxian is clearly losing control of his resentment-based cultivation path, and is thus personally in danger on a spiritual level, and

3) Everyone now wants to kill Wei Wuxian again, possibly even more than they did before, and anyone who supports Wei Wuxian is an enemy of the entire cultivation world.

Later in the series, Lan Wangji says he regrets that he wasn’t at Wei Wuxian’s side at Nightless City. That he didn’t support him, despite what we see of him trying to help Wei Wuxian find Jiang Yanli and then, after she dies, stop him from killing himself. To me, this could very easily imply that Lan Wangji is still trying to walk a tightrope in those scenes, or perhaps trying to be a bridge. He’s deliberately not choosing a distinct side, because he refuses to hate and reject Wei Wuxian, but he’s also refusing to declare open support. He’s acting entirely on his own, in a balancing act between friendship and love vs his family, his entire life’s teachings, and all of his society. Certainly I find that sort of situation exhausting, and I’ve never had to do it for something so high-stakes or large-scale.

Then there’s the actual cliff scene itself, where he’s visibly desperate. How intense does an emotion have to be for Lan Wangji to so clearly show it?

Wei Ying, he says, come back. He knows Wei Wuxian is breaking down. He at the very least guesses that he’s going to do something wild like step off that outcropping, which is why he follows him in the first place. But he has no idea what to do, so he tries the same thing he’s been trying for years: Come with me. Let me help you. This is a bridge, and he’s offering to help Wei Wuxian cross it. But just like every other time he’s tried it since the Sunshot Campaign ended, it doesn’t work.

Note that Lan Wangji actually is flying here, without the sword, so if he doesn’t have any spiritual power when Jiang Cheng shows up, this is probably a last, desperate burst to go with this last, desperate act.

I don’t think he really has a plan here. Not a new one, anyway. This is a still a plea of Let me help you. And, notably, Wei Wuxian doesn’t accept his help.

Not once during this whole scene does Wei Wuxian reach up with his free hand or try to help Lan Wangji help him in any way. He smiles, and he says: Lan Zhan, let me go. Because he doesn’t want a bridge. He doesn’t want to go back. Honestly it’s a pretty explicit and heartbreaking message: Lan Wangji’s offer of help is not enough to make Wei Wuxian want to stay alive. Not right now. He needs more than that. He’s lost too much to believe, right now, that anyone is going to choose him and his side, or that he’s worth that effort. And to be clear, Lan Wangji isn’t even offering that in this situation. Wei Wuxian is one slippery handgrip away from death, and Lan Wangji is still not saying “You, I choose you.” From anything Wei Wuxian can be expected to infer, his offer here is no different than it’s ever been: let me show you the way back to the right path. Let me help you fit back into the world the way you used to. And Wei Wuxian can’t do that; he has no golden core, it’s literally impossible even if the rest of the world would let him try. But at this point he doesn’t want to go back either. He doesn’t even want to try. That world hates him, and willfully misunderstands him, and has taken too many people from him now for it to be worth staying in. He wants to die.

And then Jiang Cheng arrives.

Wei Wuxian’s reaction to his brother’s presence is to smile, say his name, and just–accept his hatred. He closes his eyes and waits for the sword to fall even as Lan Wangji calls for Jiang Cheng to stop. The only time he shows distress between stepping back off the cliff and his actual death is when Jiang Cheng twists his sword and compromises the stability of the outcropping so that Lan Wangji is also in danger.

I think it’s possible that if Jiang Cheng had also reached for him and tried to pull him back up, things might have gone differently. Maybe that would have been enough to alter Wei Wuxian’s thinking. But as it is, when Wei Wuxian falls, he falls with his limbs relaxed and a smile on his face. There’s no flailing and screaming like when he was thrown into the Burial Mounds (in ep 33. There’s some arm-waving in ep 1). And I think that moment of him pushing Lan Wangji back and then letting go, more than anything, is what stops Lan Wangji in his tracks, because Wei Wuxian could have saved himself. He had strength and energy left. Enough to push Lan Wangji up and back and nearly to a standing position. He could have accepted Lan Wangji’s help, easily. But he didn’t, because he wanted to die, despite all the effort and inner turmoil Lan Wangji has gone through on his behalf (most of which Wei Wuxian doesn’t know about but, still).

That’s a pretty serious emotional kick in the head. Lan Wangji cannot ignore, at this point, that even if he did have any physical or spiritual energy left, Wei Wuxian doesn’t want to be saved. And that’s when we get this face (actually from ep 1):

He has nothing left. He has at this point spent over a year, maybe two, trying to save someone who, when it came down to the final moment, didn’t want to be saved. There’s nothing more he can do, in this state of exhaustion and despair, and it wouldn’t matter if he tried.

Personally, I think he looks like he’s about to be sick, and I don’t think it’s just the image of Wei Wuxian falling and dying that’s working on him here. It’s also the knowledge that he fucked up. He didn’t do enough, or more accurately, didn’t do the right things, in order to encourage Wei Wuxian to keep fighting for himself or anyone else (I’m not saying this is a healthy or reasonable thought, I just think it’s a thought he’s having). And I think this realization plays directly into how he treats Wei Wuxian when he comes back sixteen years later. He knows that questioning Wei Wuxian on his path of cultivation doesn’t go where he wants it to, so he doesn’t do it. This time is going to be different. He’ll break rules. He’ll drink alcohol. He doesn’t scold Wei Wuxian for making dumb, selfless decisions like transferring the curse mark from Jin Ling’s leg to his own, he just accepts it and expresses concern over Wei Wuxian’s well being. He stops asking if he can help and starts just doing it: Wei Wuxian can’t walk so he’ll carry him. Wei Wuxian needs someone to speak for him, so Lan Wangji will do that, with his brother and with the whole cultivation world. And then we come to this:

This is exactly the same move. Wei Wuxian will protect Lan Wangji, but not himself.

But.

Lan Wangji is no longer trying to be a bridge. He’s not going to hold out his hand for Wei Wuxian to accept or disregard. He’s crossed over to be on Wei Wuxian’s side. And that’s what makes the difference.

#lakritzwolf #cql meta #the untamed #chen qing ling #wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #possibly i got a bit carried away #but this was fun #tw: blood #tw: suicide #in the novel lwj makes that change before wwx dies #and is thwarted by a combination #of wwx's breakdown and his own clan #but the drama cut that scene #so it had to happen after #long post #so long #seriously

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mc-i-r · 3 years

Text

Thrill of the kill

Prologue

Masterpost

Ship: intrulogical

Pov: Remus

Tw: blood, gore, death, torture, cursing, kissing

Let me know if I missed anything!

Word count: 1,024

I tied the knot, securing this asshole in place. He had passed out sometime between the car ride here and our arrival so me, being the fabulous person I am, carried him inside. This one got pretty lucky; the other chair was too dirty to put someone in so this creaky old chair will do. I made sure he was properly tied up and grabbed the bucket of water from beside my tool table. I poured the bucket on him and he gasped for air. There he is! Silly me thought he was dead. Luckily he's not, now I can have my fun.

The mans’ gasp was muffled, probably because of the giant di- I mean gag in his mouth. Wait for it, wait for it… three…

...two…

...one…

There it is.

This dumbass started struggling, thinking that by wiggling a little that he could get out of the ropes. Ha, fat chance. I just laughed at his attempt at freedom. I mean, who does this guy think he is?

“You’re so silly,” I said in a fake flirtatious tone.

I went over to my tool table and grabbed a pair of common black gloves while looking over the assortment of weapons, choosing a small knife to start with. The reasons for the common gloves are simple; no fingerprints and no specific location of purchase. I don’t want to get caught before I’ve had my fun now do I? I was just about to start my work when I felt two slim arms wrap around my middle, hugging me from behind. I immediately started smiling and leaned into the touch.

“Thought you forgot about me,” I said in a sweet tone.

“My dear, I could never forget about you. Not when we have...guests,” my pookie said. God I love him. I looked over to the poor soul tied to the chair, him looking at us through wide eyes. Its honestly like he hasn’t seen a gay serial killer couple before.

“I was just about to get started. Want to join me?” I asked the man still hugging my waist. He sighed.

“I’m a little worn out after yesterday so, if you don’t mind, I’d like to watch you work,” he said. I just smiled like a maniac, or well, like me.

“Anything you say, Lo,” I said. I looked up at him since he was a couple inches taller than me. He kissed my nose and I smiled back at him. God, he’s adorable. Then I heard muffled screaming. Seriously? Now? I was having a moment. I rolled my eyes and let out a dramatic sigh.

“Okay, shithead, since you want attention I’ll gladly oblige,” I growled out. The man responded by screaming even more. Can this guy just shut up? Oh wait. I smiled again as an idea came into my head. Perfect.

I wiggled out of Lo’s grasp to walk forward to the man, holding the knife out. I heard Lo grab a chair and pull it up to watch.

“So, should I start here,” I pointed to his left arm. “Here,” I pointed to his chest. “Here,” I pointed to his leg. “Or here?” I finally pointed to his throat, pressing the edge of the blade into the skin to break the first couple of layers, drawing little blood. He started squirming, making the blade draw more blood. This guy really is an idiot, isn’t he?

“Fine, if you want to be that way. Logie bear? Where should I start?” I asked. I heard him hum in thought.

“I believe that you should aim for the arms first but avoid the main veins to prevent bleeding out. Then, I’d go for the chest. Do your specialty on the legs, I know it makes you happy. Lastly, I'd kill with the throat and go back to the veins in his wrist,” Logan said. Damn he's cute when he’s thinking. Okay, not the time.

“Sounds like a plan, Love,” I said, turning back to the man whose face was almost paler than me.

I followed Logan’s plan, making large gashes down his arm and across his chest. As for his legs, I simply performed my specialty. When we decide to use knives, I use my only signature; cutting the Achilles tendon. For all of you uneducated delinquents out there, the Achilles tendon is the rubber band thingy on the back of your ankle that connects your calf muscles to your ankle and it's so fun to cut. It severs the connection of your foot and the rest of your body and the screams it makes are just...ugh they’re so good. It’s my favorite part of using the knives but we rarely use it to avoid too much suspicion. We can’t have the authorities thinking that there's two serial killers out there, are you crazy? I am, that's for sure.

After I was done having my fun, I slit the man's throat who, by that time, was completely exhausted and had stopped screaming after the tendon cutting. I cut so deep that I severed the trachea and esophagus, the spinal cord barely visible. The nearly headless man slumped over as he choked on his own blood. I half smiled and grunted turning around to face Logan. He stood up from his chair and started clapping as if I had just performed; which, in a way, was true. I smiled upon seeing him and he walked over to me as I put my knife down. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer. I wrapped my arms around his neck and stood slightly on my toes to kiss him. He returned it, sighing in content as our lips met. Kissing him always felt right, even after three years of being together. I pull away and we both have a dazed look in our eyes, still hungover by our kiss.

“You were amazing today, Re,” he said. I smiled and leaned my head on his chest, snuggling closer to him.

“I love you, Lo,” I said. I felt him tighten his grip around me for a moment.

“I love you too, Remus.”

taglist:

@braingoburr @falsemood (if you wanna be removed I can take you off I just didn't know who would want to be added for sure)

Let me know if you want to be added to the taglist!

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skullhaver · 3 years

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It's 2021, and I'm watching Buffy for the first time.

The Virgil on my Buffy journey is my long-distance girlfriend, who has loved the show for years. We just finished season 4, and I wanted to write about my favorite episodes so far. I suspect some of my faves are beloved by most fans, but others are weird, personal picks. Buffy fandom, please don't come for me.

I thought this post would be short but I was wrong.

Hono(u)rable Mentions: "Band Candy" S3E6 and "Halloween" S2E6

Both these episodes have fun premises where the Scoobies run around Sunnydale after it was upended by zany, chaotic dark forces. "Band Candy" is fun for devil-may-care teen Giles. "Halloween" is fun for 18th-century-ditz Buffy. These are both very good, and are the sorts of episode I can imagine happily rewatching in the future. I just have more to pontificate upon for the other episodes on this list.

10. "Ted" S2E11

I can’t say I enjoyed this episode, but it did take me for a wild ride. Probably nobody else has strong feelings about this weird story where Buffy's mom dates a stereotypical cheesy family man, who turns out to be a controlling abuser, who turns out to be a robot. I remember shouting at the screen, "Did Buffy just kill a human man?? Is it okay in the moral logic of this show for Buffy to kill a human if he's a direct physical threat to her??" I knew Buffy would have deeper stories than the monster of the week formula we'd seen so far, but this early in season 2, I had no idea when or how that would happen. This was the episode that finally taught me that Buffy is largely not interested in moral ambiguity, or in exploring what it means to be good or bad. Except for season-defining exceptions like Faith and Angel, evil characters are simplistically, essentially evil. But it was wild to believe for a moment that Buffy murdered her mom's abusive boyfriend and would have to live with the consequences.

9. "Helpless" S3E12

When Buffy tries to be genuinely scary, it succeeds with aplomb. The premise of this episode is dumb and contrived ("Giles has to remove Buffy's powers without her knowledge for a seeeecret test by the Watcher's Council") but the chase and fight in this episode are some of the most tense and spooky scenes of the whole series so far. Buffy's vulnerability makes the stakes feel real in a way few other episodes manage. And Buffy's victory is all the more satisfying because she can't punch her way out of this problem, she has to be smart and creative. The fridge horror, of course, is that Giles would endanger her like this in the first place, but that gets sorted out over the emotional arc of the next few episodes.

8. "I Only Have Eyes For You." S2E19

Another spooky episode, this one a classic ghost story of forbidden love ending in murder - but with the twist that the ghosts possess people's bodies to have them reenact their final moments. I love stories about breaking a doomed-to-repeat cycle. I love weird shit like the snakes manifesting in the cafeteria. And I really loved the choice to have Buffy and Angel come to understand their feelings about their own relationship by embodying these ghosts - especially how they embodied different genders than their own to better fit the "roles" of the haunting story, thus subverting the expected pattern. I found this episode clever, poignant, and effective.

7. "Who Are You?" S4E16

"Faith and Buffy switch bodies" is a wild premise, but the real joy of "Who Are You?" is watching Sarah Michelle Geller being an extremely talented actress for 45 minutes, portraying a totally different character. Watching Faith confronted by kindness and love from Buffy's mom, Riley, and her friends, then getting launched into an existential crisis over it is so great. Also, I just dig a good church fight.

6. "Hush" S4E10

As stated above, love an episode that reminds me that these people are talented actors! Featuring demons that render all of Sunnydale unable to talk, we get to watch great physical comedy right next to tense, silent fight scenes. The visual creepiness of the Gentleman and their straight-jacketed weird little helpers is hard to beat. "Hush" is such a clever episode that it ascends monster of the week status to become almost Twilight Zone-esque. Also, for the first time, Buffy sees Riley doing his Initiative thing, and Riley sees Buffy being the Slayer, but they can't talk about it?? That's good shit.

5. "The Wish" S3E9

Both "Something Blue" and "The Wish" feel like the writers decided to use fanfic premises on their own show... so obviously I like them a lot. But getting to watch a dark timeline AU with interesting world-building and attention to detail, a hilarious and horrifying Cordelia POV, AND a smirking kinky vampire Willow? Hello?? And the fact that the Wishverse comes up again in "Doppelgänger" (another truly fun episode) only improves my opinion. I imagine this is the kind of episode fans simply love coming back to.

4. "Restless" S4E22

This David Lynch-ass dream sequence was a weird choice for a season finale, but an extremely ambitious and cool episode. I should say up front that I love David Lynch-ass dream shit. There were creative and well-executed scene transitions as characters moved seamlessly from one dream room into another. Several memorably neat shots - Willow running between endless curtains as she tries to get onstage, Buffy alone in a vast desert with a weirdly high camera angle. And I got myself all excited thinking that the First Slayer would maybe become a different kind of antagonist - maybe not even fully revealed in this episode, or maybe an Id-like aspect of Buffy herself. But I forgot Whedon gonna Whedon, so the First Slayer had to be someone Buffy could punch in the end. And the First Slayer is sadly yet another primitive-themed, emotionally-stunted character of color for this show. Most of her lines in this episode are literally voiced by a white woman speaking for her, and of all the dumb quips to make, Buffy had a line about her hair being unprofessional? Also, I'm a lesbian, so the fact that the most explicit act of intimacy between Willow and Tara this show has allowed us to see occurs in Xander's horny dream sequence... it’s unforgivable, Joss. This episode was one of my favorites ever, deeply marred by some bad writing choices.

3. "Lovers Walk" S3E8

Spike, perhaps the best non-Willow character in this show, is back in Sunnydale, a hilariously heartbroken mess of a man, hell-bent on getting his former girlfriend Drusilla back. (Drusilla left him for a fungus demon.) So Spike breaks into a magic shop to get ingredients for a love spell, where he runs into Willow, who is getting ingredients for a de-lusting spell, because she is worried she and Xander will be too thirsty to behave appropriately in public with their actual partners, Oz and Cordelia. This is a hilarious moment just to exist. This is all the episode needed to do to satisfy me. But the fact that Spike then kidnaps Willow, and it ends with tragic stakes of everyone's relationships coming apart, not to mention me genuinely thinking Cordelia was dead for a minute there - wow. Chef’s kiss. The episode is balanced shockingly well between Spike being an ominous villain, and being the sort of lovable semi-evil (more gremlin-like) side character he'll become in season 4. What a wild ride.

2. "Graduation Day" S3E21-22

I'm counting this two part season finale as one because it's my list and I'll do what I want. "Graduation Day" feels like a quintessential Buffy episode executed to perfection. It has Buffy reaffirming her position as a moral heroine, sacrificing her own blood to save Angel's life even when she thought she had to kill Faith to save him. It has Buffy and Faith (or Buffy/Faith, as I prefer to think of them) getting to square off in a dramatic, tough fight. It has a lot of Mayor Wilkins, a character I truly adore for some reason. Nothing like a public administrator who plays mini golf in his office, wants you to chew with your mouth closed, and will kill a graduating class of high schoolers to gain immortality. The catharsis of the whole school getting to fight back against evil, instead of just Buffy against the world - a real joy. This episode misses the top spot for two reasons. "A special vampire poison and the only cure is the blood of a Slayer" is too contrived for me to let slide, and also I had to see Cordelia and Wesley kiss.

1. "Becoming" S2E21-22

Buffy’s season finales really do have good stories and satisfying payoff. First off, Buffy starts this episode by punching a cop and fleeing from the law. Later, Spike also punches a cop. A.k.a., Buffy said blue lives don't matter. Second - I haven't gotten a chance to comment on this yet, but all throughout season 2, evil Angel is such a joy to watch. As regular Angel, David Boreanaz makes exactly one face ("I am a kicked, angsty puppy") and bless his heart, it gets so tiresome. As evil Angel, he is so expressive, dynamic and terrifyingly creative in his badness. And I love his weird threesome energy with Spike and Drusilla. But also, it's so hard to watch Buffy suffer as she deals with her evil boyfriend doing evil things. Her ultimate choice in this episode, to kill Angel even as Willow's spell restores his soul, gave me some real big feels! Also, this episode marks the first moment of Willow doing big, plot-shifting magic on her own, solidifying her transformation from computer nerd to witch!

Also, shout-out to the many good smaller moments in this episode: Spike making awkward small talk with Buffy's mom, Buffy constantly dunking on Principle Snyder, and Giles being tortured by visions of Miss Calendar (RIP Miss Calendar, I was your biggest fan.)

"Becoming" is an excellent season finale and the kind of Buffy episode I imagine I will want to re-watch in the future just for nostalgia's sake.

#buffy the vampire slayer #guess i will tag this and just engage in pvp if it happens #buffy fandom in 2021 i don't know you but please be nice #this was fun to write #i guess i do like this show!

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victimhood · 4 years

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My TOG cast and crew movie reviews

Ok so watching TOG revived the part of me that LOVES indie-ish/European Arthouse films and I blitzed through a bunch with more to come! Idk who this review serves but I just had to explode in writing or...the feelings would go nowhere.

Love and Basketball

My movie rating: 4 / 5

Favourite parts: the conflict between a tomboy sports loving protagonist and a conventional homemaking mother. To sound cliched, this is the sort of thing only a woman filmmaker can bring out in her films. There’s so much nuance and tension expressed in all the individual women in the film and where that lies in the enforced dichotomy of woman/not a woman--thereby highlighting that IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN A DICHOTOMY all of these are in the broad spectrum of womanly behaviors bc they come from women!!! The ending where a husband supports his wife in HER basketball game? LOVE THAT. Music choices are also A++ in this film.

The film also provides some insight into respectability politics--here we have an NBA player who wants his son to do something more conventionally “respectable”. I am not American nor am I Black so someone with more insight would be able to speak to this better, but even so as an audience I could feel it!

TOG cast rating: none, bc it’s the director!! This is Gina Prince-Bythewood’s breakout film but you can palpably feel that she poured her heart and perhaps some of her life experiences in this film!

Martin Eden

My movie rating: 3.5 / 5

Don’t understand the movie, slightly put off by the Nietzschean individualist philosophy. Doubly so after I read that the author of the book (Jack London) is a socialist?? (FTR so am I so like...I’ve had enough of white male indivudalism!!) Stuff like that always reminds me of (500) Days of Summer which is anti-manic pixie dream girl and yet is beloved by aspiring MPDG-philes. Here is a quote from the author himself: London wrote, "One of my motifs, in this book, was an attack on individualism (in the person of the hero). I must have bungled it, for not a single reviewer has discovered it."

Though I have not read the book, I hope the movie is a little more pronounced, in the unraveling of the eponymous protagonist. Luca gives an impressive show of his Acting Range as the protagonist moves through life and goes through a whole bunch of political beliefs in reaction to the situation around him.

I love movies that show the impoverished side of Europe though. The movie does a good job of showing the class conflict within society--at the end of the day, the Martin Eden that has risen through the social ladder is a self-despising man. The bread mopping scene is great, and truly, there is no love for Luca Martinelli like the camera’s love for Luca Martinelli. I love Luca’s bad teeth in this too. Dental health is possibly one of the most obvious, yet most unremarked markers of social class. Nice detail.

TOG cast rating: 5/5 Luca really carries this film on his broaaaaad shoulders. Thank you Luca. Thank you Pietro, for making a movie that lingers so lovingly on Luca’s face, inspiring many a writer to pen horny paeans to the Roman nose and the Byzantine eyes. I even saw one about the lop of hair over the eyes. Yes….watching Luca is a very physiological experience.

They Call Me Jeeg (Lo Chiamavano Jeeg Robot)

My movie rating: 4 / 5

Ok this movie is quite male-gazey in the conventional action movie way. Moments where the damsel is in distress are filmed in a somewhat titillating manner. That aside, the damsel in distress does get a moment of glory, though it shortly precedes her death. The hero of the film I also found not too groundbreaking. He starts out as a thief but is given superpowers, and he’s mostly a sad loser who watches too much porn in his free time, though the damsel’s belief in him helps turn him around to the greater good. The story moves at a quick pace and with twists and turns at each corner which help the enjoyability rating.

Really, the standout of this movie is the villain. Fabio (Lo Zingaro) is fantastically deranged, in a style that surpasses the Joker. The only thing I truly have to say about this movie is that the moment where Lo Zingaro barges in on the hero and the camera POV switches from third person to first person and the hero is on the verge of fainting but all he sees is Lo Zingaro saying “Ciao”.........reader, I am speaking from the afterlife. Again, truly, there is no love for Luca Marinelli like the camera’s love for Luca Marinelli. My heart stopped when I saw Fabio’s face in such a tender, loving proximity...and yet...he is deranged...he wants to kill you….TAKE ME NOW FABIO I AM YOURS *lovelorn Victorian sigh*

Perhaps I might issue a CW that there is a trans character in the film. The character doesn’t appear for too long, and I think the portrayal is mostly neutral to borderline negative for playing to stereotypes. The damsel in distress’s story carries a huge TW for sexual abuse and incest.

TOG cast rating: 5/5 just for that 1st person POV scene alone--that was life changing. I did not expect to be greeted so intimately by a completely deranged motherfucker. I want it as my phone wallpaper.

A Bigger Splash

My movie rating: 4.5 / 5

I loooooooved Bigger Splash so much?? But this is because I love Tilda Swinton and I love Ralph Fiennes. While watching this, I don’t know why, but I just kept thinking, aaaaand this guy is also Voldemort (Fiennes). I love the implausibility and yet here we are.

Matthias is so boyfriend-shaped in this movie, I wanted to snuggle up against him and have him care for me. He’s a wonderful boyfriend, and Ralph Fiennes’s character truly, is the Most Annoying Mansplainer type ever, like, you’ve probably met that type, who thinks he’s slick and loves the sound of his own voice and I 100% related when Matthias’s character just...has had enough of Ralph Fiennes’s character. But oopsie, the rest is a spoiler.

THE SOUNDTRACK IS AWESOME also it’s got St Vincent covering the Rolling Stones and St Vincent is the lesbian guitar hero of your dreams, please give St Vincent more love.

TOG cast rating: 5 / 5 Matthias is butt naked in the opening scenes of the movie, and then he appears full frontal nude later on. But mostly he just looks so snuggly like a big boyfriend hoodie.

Rabat

My movie rating: 4 / 5

Wow ok I LOVED THIS ONE A LOT. Idk what I was expecting, but it was a beautiful, beautiful ride. It’s a perfect expression of the “roadtrip story” form. It’s got the adventure, the hijinks, the conflict and the “transformative growth” that comes out of the conflict. It’s about the MENA immigrant experience in Europe, and though from a different community as someone who’s had the immigrant experience myself I loved the part where they talk about people back home thinking they’re rich for having moved abroad. Yet--in many white-dominated countries, non-white immigrants live under an incredibly bulletproof glass ceiling and moving “upward” in society is a pipe dream. I loved when the main character Nadir mentions his dad’s taxi being a reliable source of income for the past 15 years. I think it’s such a warm and human film played by very warm and human characters, and [mild spoiler] I CACKLED SO MUCH at how Nadir “resolves” the question of marriage--I can’t go into too much detail bc the movie builds up to this but I LAUGHED SO MUCH. It’s the blend of total inappropriateness delivered in the most sincere package played to perfection.

TOG cast rating: 3/5 criminally underused Marwan bc he is not the main character. Marwan is a womanizing, alcohol-loving Tunisian friend in this story who buys a...bootleg? Hugo Boss suit for 200 Euros and then rips it up to form shorts bc the weather is too hot. The story implies he has a more complex backstory re: his relationship to his father as well as having impregnated a girl and escaping paternal responsibility for that but doesn’t give us much more. At one point, one character remarks that he would do “horrible” things (implying sexual interest) to Marwan’s character and ALAS I MUST AGREE.

...AAAAAND we’ll have more to come!! I promised a friend to watch Beale Street together so it’s gonna take a while for that to happen thx covid.

#the old guard #the old guard cast #tog cast #Gina Prince-Bythewood #luca marinelli #matthias schoenaerts #marwan kenzari #love and basketball #martin eden #a bigger splash #lo chiamavano jeeg robot #they call me jeeg #rabat

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suchdan-veryphil · 4 years

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I’ll Be In Touch- A Dad!Ben Solo Imagine

Request:

Anonymous said: hi idk if ur taking requests atm but i absolutely loved ur dad ben solo fic i always re read it. Could u do another dad!ben solo where he’s like a single dad and the reader is his child’s teacher and he gets all flustered at a parent teacher conference cos he’s like woah?? thank uu

Word Count: 1,976

Trigger Warnings: I don’t even think there’s swearing here. Pure floof.

A/N: I LOVE DAD!BEN SOLO !!!!!!!!! THANK YOU FOR THIS REQUEST! Also I’m trying my best to make some of these more gender-inclusive. If there is anything that I can do better, please let me know!

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Ben’s POV:

If it were up to me, I’d get a long note in the mail about how Maya is doing in class. But, here I was waiting on the world’s smallest chair to meet with her teacher. I looked around and down the hallway, the walls covered with drawings and pieces of art by the children. Curious, I stood up and walked across the hall to look at the hand turkeys on the wall.

I looked closer at all of them, looking for Maya’s name on one. When my eyes landed on it, I knew it was hers. The black scribbles covered the page and she decorated it in blue and purple stars. My lips curled into a smile as I compared it to the other kids’ pieces that were splashed in neat bright colors. I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped me.

Definitely my kid.

I was brought back to where my feet were by the sound of a couple being escorted out by Maya’s teacher.

“Thank you, guys! I’ll see you at the family game night!” their voice was soft and gentle, but also full of excitement, catching my attention. I turned to face them, knowing my time-slot was next.

I looked down expecting to see a 72-year-old grandmother hunched over a cane, wearing some reading glasses. I was pleasantly surprised as my eyes were met with a young adult, shorter than me, with a smile that blinded me. I felt a pull at my chest that I hadn’t felt since I met Maya’s mother 8 years ago. I stayed quiet as I walked closer, unsure of what I would even say. I forced a smile that I’m sure came out as more of a grimace, and I instantly regretted it. Rarely did I leave my house except to go to work and go shopping with my spunky 5-year-old so human interaction was not my specialty.

“Mr. Solo? Maya’s dad, right? Come on in!” They turned to walk into the classroom and sit behind their desk. I looked around at the walls and tiny tables, all decorated in bright colors, broken crayons, and welcoming feelings.

“Take a seat! Make yourself comfortable,”

I sat in the only other adult-sized chair in the room across from the person who hung out with my kid 5 days a week.

“Mr. Solo-”

“Ben, you can call me Ben,” I cleared my throat as I crossed my ankle over my knee and made my best effort to make eye contact with them. They smiled at me and nodded.

“Ben, thank you. You can call me Y/N, then. Thank you for being on time, a lot of parents are rolling in here five or ten minutes late,” they smiled at me and pulled a folder off of the top of a pile.

“Oh, yea- well I usually try to be a few minutes early to everything to avoid … being la- being late...” I mentally slapped myself as I cleared my throat.

Idiot... Just focus on Maya.

I watched as they smiled and nodded at my comment. “That’s a sturdy plan, Ben. So, I guess I’ll start with Maya’s strengths in the classroom and then we can move into some challenges and any questions that I have or that you have, okay?”

I nodded and leaned in as they opened the folder and took out a few worksheets. “So, in kindergarten reading levels is really what we focus on and Maya is a very strong reader. I can see her moving into the first grade level before the year is over!” They took out two pieces of paper from the folder and placed them in front of me.

“She loves reading non-fiction, and she will memorize a book before she puts it down,” Y/N said as they chuckled a little. I smiled and nodded, knowing exactly what they meant.

“Yea, well, I blame myself for that. I did the same thing when I was little. I still do it sometimes, it’s weird. But, there are lots of useless facts up here, thanks to that weird …. thing …” I stopped myself and laughed a little as I read over Maya’s reading scores. I couldn’t prevent the smile of pride that spread across my face as I read the comments on her persistence and positivity.

“Well, I personally don’t believe in useless facts, Mr. So-Ben,”

I looked up and smiled at them before I put the paper back on the desk.

“Her math is a little bit more of a challenge for her, I’ve noticed. She wants to know, and she wants to learn but I find that when she doesn’t understand after a few tries, she gets frustrated and needs to take a break, which is completely encouraged except she doesn’t want to return to the task at hand.”

I nodded my head and shifted in my seat a little bit.

Stop fidgeting, they’re gonna think you’re weird.

Focusing back on Y/N, I looked at the papers they were showing me. They continued to go into detail about how Maya is a great student and that she just needs help with being persistent. Although, I would be a hypocrite if I said that I didn’t also have a short fuse at times. I was fully aware of how similar my daughter and I were, from our temper to our preferred activities but I was proud of myself and of her.

“How is she doing socially?” I asked and sat back.

“She is thriving socially, Ben. Your daughter is the cutest little munchkin in the mornings. She stands right where you’re sitting and she’ll greet every single one of her classmates by name. She’s quite the charmer.”

“Really? That’s too funny. She talks about her two best friends, Jordan and Tia. She told me how she likes to sit with Tia on her right and Jordan on her left because the two of them like to talk to each other and she doesn’t want to be distracted, so she separates them,” I chuckled at the thought of my 5 year old plopping herself between two other tiny humans to prevent them from distracting her from the coursework.

“Oh Tia and Jordan. The three of them are something else. I had to separate those two one time and Maya has taken it upon herself to be the peacekeeper ever since. It’s very sweet. It seems like you’ve got quite the leader on your hands,” Y/N smiled as the words flowed.

It was refreshing to talk to someone who wasn’t my mom about Maya. I truly had a lot of pride in the way I’ve been raising her despite my struggles. To hear that she was doing well and was a pleasure to have in class took a weight, that I wasn’t even aware I was carrying, off of my shoulders.

“That’s Maya...” I trailed off and bit my lip as I thought about it.

“Did you have any questions for me, Ben?” They asked as they began to pile the papers back into the folder.

“Um...” suddenly every question that I had for Y/N was gone. I sighed and shook my head. ‘They’ve all left me,”

They chuckled and nodded their head. “That’s okay. Do you want to take down my cell number? Some parents use it for really urgent questions or updates on their kiddos during a hard day,”

For some reason, I could feel myself get giddy over the fact that they were offering me their personal number.

Don’t freak out, they just said that other parents have it, too. Get it together, Ben.

“Sure, that would be very helpful. You don’t mind if I text you if I remember those questions?”

“Not at all, that’s what I’m here for,”

It took me a second, but I finally went fumbling for my phone to take the number down. I handed it over so that they could just plug it in and I could save it. When I got it back, I noticed that they had texted themselves a quick message saying, “Ben Solo’s number”. I slid the phone back into my pocket, trying to hold back the smile that was beginning to pull at my face.

“Perfect, so uh... did you have any questions for me?” I asked, unsure of what to say now.

“I don’t at the moment but if I think of anything, I’ll shoot you a text,” They seemed so confident when they spoke, which was not helping my growing-by-the-second crush on them.

“Perfect, so then I’ll be in touch. Thank you, Y/N,”

“Of course, any time Ben.” With that, they handed me the folder with Maya’s work in it and smiled as they stood with me to escort me out.

“Talk to you soon,” I mentally slapped myself again. I really couldn’t just shut up for an entire thirty seconds.

“I sure hope so. Have a good night and tell Maya I said hi,” they stopped at the doorway and bit their lip gently as I turned to face them. I wasn’t sure if I was being flirted with so I just smiled and waved.

The entire ride home, all I could think about was how absolutely ridiculous I must have sounded during that entire twenty minute meeting. I also questioned whether or not we were flirting or if they were just the nicest person on the planet.

I parked in the driveway and as I turned off the engine, I could see Maya run out to the front yard.

“Daddy! You’re home!”

I smiled wide and climbed out of the vehicle to meet her. She continued to run towards me and I picked her up as soon as she got close enough.

“I miss’t you daddy,” she said as she wrapped her arms around my neck.

“I missed you, too, ewok,” I squeezed her a little to let her know that I meant it before looking over to see my mom standing with her hands on her hips.

“She is exactly like you were as a child, stubborn and charming.”

I smiled and nodded my head as I walked towards her, Maya still snugly hanging onto my body.

“I know, but where do you think that I got it from?”

“Your father,” Mom didn’t miss a beat, and I didn’t argue with her. “How was your meeting?”

I suddenly felt awkward again as I recalled my interaction with Y/N. “Fine.”

“How’s our little one doing in school?”

“Nana I am doin’ amazing, I read and I write,”

“And she needs help in math, isn’t that right kid?” I looked at her with a small smile before I kissed her cheek and started walking into the home.

“Well that’s good. I’m sure she’ll be fine.” My mom held the door for me and Maya before making her way to the kitchen. “I was just finishing up dinner,”

I sat on the couch with my little rebel and rubbed her back as she sat contently with me. My phone chirped in my pocket and I reached in to grab it before it went off a second time. Confused, I took a hard stare at it.

Y/N: I have a question. -5:23PM

Y/N: Are you free next weekend? -5:23PM

I didn’t even realize what my face was doing until Maya poked my cheek. “Daddy, you’re happy! Who is that?”

I locked my screen and put my phone down calmly before I shook my head. “A friend, sweetie, that’s all.”

“Do they want to eat dinner with us?”

I laughed a little and shrugged. “I don’t think Nana made enough for that many people, maybe another time.” I chuckled and rested my cheek on top of her head, just thinking about Y/N and asking myself how in the galaxy did they not find me absolutely weird.

But, I wasn’t complaining.

#ben solo #ben solo imagine #kylo x reader #kylo ren #kylo ren imagines #kylo ren x reader #kylo ren fluff #ben solo x reader #ben solo one shot #ben solo deserved better #star wars imagine #star wars #Star Wars Fic #kylo ren one shot #ben solo fluff #dad!ben solo #dad!kylo ren

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turtle-paced · 4 years

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GoT Re-Watch: Fine-Toothed Comb Edition

This post is also availablle on my wordpress.

Hello and welcome to forsaken lands. The episodes of GoT that broke fans. And considering that GoT fans made it past in-universe heartbreaks like Ned Stark’s death and the Red Wedding, and major disappointments in the writers such as ‘Breaker of Chains’ and ‘Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken’, that is saying a lot.

It’s kinda fitting that the home stretch starts with a funeral, really. Good way to farewell our hopes. We’re not getting closure anywhere else in this series.

8.04 – The Last of the Starks

(2:15) When the credits said “with Iain Glen,” this is what they meant. With Iain Glen lying on a pile of sticks for two minutes.

(2:46) We do not get to hear what Dany whispers into Jorah’s dead ears, but I’m pretty certain the implication is that Dany, in her grief, is thinking on the lines of “BURN THEM ALL!”

(3:00) Because Sansa weeping over Theon’s body is…somehow less worrying? Somehow shot without the implied promises of fiery vengeance? What we’re looking at right now I think is far more ableist than sexist. The difference between Dany’s grief being portrayed as worrying and Sansa’s grief being portrayed as, you know, grief, is Dany’s family history of mental illness. Don’t get me wrong, there’ll be a heaping helping of sexism in here too, a lot of it in how Dany’s status as a female leader is linked narratively to her emotional state (“hysterical women” and all that) and written into the plot in the first damn place, but right now what attracts ominously unspoken whispering on Dany’s part and “purer” emotion on Sansa’s is connected to the parties we knowhave family members who have suffered from mental illness.

Man, imagine if they’d actually adapted the books, where Sansa’s father suffers what looks an awful lot like PTSD. Which doesn’t stop with just end-of-episode flashbacks, but affects his ongoing decision-making processes.

(3:36) Meanwhile, over in the toxic masculinity department, note who isn’t being so disgracefully emotional! The men, and the women who “aren’t like other girls.”

The show had good material to work with here. They could have shown men breaking down, portrayed as a completely reasonable reaction to the incredibly traumatic events of the previous episode. They could also have shown men struggling with the stoic performance that toxic masculinity requires, only to break down later, or question their own lack of response. You know, like several characters do in the books.

(4:31) Incidentally, it amuses me that though the words of Jon’s speech are addressing the survivors, he’s delivering the speech to the dead (and also the camera).

(6:50) Uh-oh. Dany couldn’t contain her tears as she lit a friend’s funeral pyre. Bad signs! Red flags! Red like fire.

I’m just going to dig out a relevant passage from The Curse of Chalion (spoilers for that book follow). For context, the crown princess Iselle (daughter of a woman widely regarded as mad, for further comparison’s sake) and the chancellor, Dy Jironal, are locked in a struggle over who gets power when the king dies. Iselle’s BFF recounts a relevant public event:

“Iselle is Ista’s daughter. She cannot speak of [the titular curse], lest men say she is mad, too. And use it as an excuse to seize…everything. Dy Jironal thought of it. At [the late crown prince’s] interment, he never missed a chance to pass some little comment on Iselle to any lord or provincar in earshot. If she wept, wasn’t it too extravagant; if she laughed, how odd that she should do so at her brother’s funeral; if she spoke, he whispered that she was frenetic, if she fell silent, wasn’t she grown strangely gloomy? And you could just watch men began to see what he told them they were seeing, whether it was there or not. Toward the end of his visit there, he even said such things in her hearing, to see if he could frighten and enrage her, and then accuse her of becoming an unbalanced virago.”

If Dany cries she’s unbalanced. If she hides her emotion she’s unempathetic. If she gets angry, she’s insane. The difference isn’t in the reaction (as already noted, we’ve got other characters openly grieving and other characters hiding their emotions), but in how, whether, and when the reaction is portrayed to the audience. In The Curse of Chalion there is a named antagonist doing that spin; here, the camera, the viewer’s PoV access to the story, is pulling exactly the same trick as it checks in with Dany’s emotional state to highlight the “out-of-place” emotions. Even the frequency of these check-ins affects the portrayal – as the viewer is treated to each and every fluctuation in Dany’s mood, her emotional state appears less constant than those of characters where we don’t get a reaction shot every time a traumatic thought crosses her mind/she schools her reaction/something mildly irritates her.

This phenomenon is not isolated to this scene. It’s been happening all season. It’s going to keep happening.

(7:50) I do not get the mood of this scene. Tonally, it feels more awkward/ordinary than full of grief, with none of the wild “glad to be alive” mood until a named character prompts it later on. The background characters often do not appear to exist independently of the main characters. It’s just these little things that chip away at suspension of disbelief. In this case, a general feeling like this fictional world is populated by named characters and department store mannequins only, not people.

(9:24) “So who’s lord of Storm’s End now?” Funny question. Strange that nobody’s asked that in the last few seasons. While we’re at it, who’s the Lady of Casterly Rock?

(10:42) Nor do I get Tyrion’s tone as he observes that Gendry’s going to be loyal to Dany due to this appointment. I mean…yes? That was the point? As Cersei shows us in AFFC, appointments for surface level loyalty don’t cut the mustard, but at the same time, Tyrion’s not being cynical and sardonic about Gendry’s competence.

(11:29) Davos here has a heart-to-heart about his complicated feelings towards a woman who engineered the death of a child he loved very much. To Tyrion. Who engineered the death of a child Davos also presumably loved very much. Davos’ interactions with Tyrion regularly go beyond a man who’s bottling up the death of his child for the sake of a political goal he genuinely believes will better the lives of more than just him, and into the realms of real emotional intimacy and friendship. I swear the writers forgot about this.

(13:12) Just from a writing standpoint, that line, “I don’t really want anymore,” really gets my goat. Oh, Bran just doesn’t have any motivations anymore, no biggie. Now the only thing that I the viewer want for this character is for him to start wanting things again.

(13:24) “Mostly I live in the past.” Yes truly this is an excellent trait for a temporal ruler.

(14:31) Here we have the unintentional call-back to season one, wherein information that the characters in-universe find distressing is revealed via the now-rather-clumsy mechanism of a drinking game. Book!Brienne’s status as an only child is a little sensitive for her.

(15:07) Tormund’s praise of Jon here is also pretty clumsy writing. It’s hard to praise Jon’s actions in that climactic battle because, well, he rode on a dragon and fried wights for about thirty seconds, and that’s it.

It’s also hard to see praise for Jon without corresponding praise for Dany as anything but sexism, because Dany was also riding on a dragon and frying lots of wights, and they’re her dragons. Played as in-universe sexism, this could have been a good source of material too, highlighting how Jon’s gender results in him getting more praise for equal (or lesser) work. Left unexamined it becomes part of a sexist narrative, an example of how Jon’s gender results in him getting more praise for equal (or lesser) work.

(15:21) No, don’t mention that Jon got killed and brought back! Don’t! It just raises the question of why!

(15:40) Notice how we keep getting the Dany reaction shot? Yeah. Isn’t the fact that Dany has emotional reactions weird?

The dialogue makes this worse. “What kind of person rides on a fucking dragon? A madman or a king!” Did…did they not realise the depths to this comment? The context? I mean, clearly, this is another hint that Dany’s going ~crazy~. On account of how she cannot be a king. The context of Dany’s gender. The gendered language used here. The minimisation of Dany’s accomplishments. How did the writers think this would come across, if not some fairly blatant sexism?

(16:04) This is the third Dany check-in regarding her unhappiness at a fairly miserable party. This one is extra special because the very observant and knowledgeable Varys is apparently thinking, “hang on, she’s not happy, and it’s a party! This couldn’t possibly have anything to do with listening to her boyfriend praised to the skies for things she did first and/or in parallel, immediately after losing a close friend and fighting in a very scary battle. She must be going crazy.”

Also there is spooky music and the shot choice emphasises that Dany isn’t hanging out with anyone at this party. This is far more worrying than Bran not emotionally engaging with anyone at this party thus far or Sansa not hanging out with anyone at this party thus far or Varys not hanging out with anyone at this party thus far, or Sandor drinking heavily at this party while snapping at people who come near him thus far or Arya not even attending this party. Double standard? What double standard?

(16:51) Tyrion’s marriage prior to Sansa is here brought up as a joke. There’s a joke in here all right. I call it ‘continuity’.

(17:14) Oh, my, how shocking, Brienne’s a virgin. In this world where noblewomen having premarital sex is frowned upon, Brienne not having premarital sex is unthinkable and something that the rules of drinking games say she should be embarrassed by. Wtf?

(18:36) I’m as sick of the “Pod has a magic cock” joke as the next person but frankly, they didn’t beat us over the head with detailed stories or lurid jokes about Pod’s sexual prowess, and someone should have a nice time here in season eight.

(19:56) Oh boy. Reunion between Sansa and Sandor, when these two haven’t interacted for six seasons, and what interaction they had was seriously watered down. Thematically watered down, that is. In the books, Sansa did something Sandor believed was impossible – held on to her idealism and kindness throughout horrible experiences. He was the one who learned more from their interactions. Sandor was not serving as an author avatar, but rather being depicted as a man lashing out with cynicism and nihilism as a defence mechanism.

The show didn’t appreciate that back in season two and it’s sure not going to start now. We’re about to hear some real awful stuff.

(20:10) “Heard you were broken in. Heard you were broken in rough.” 1) Why should we like this character? He’s an asshole! Not just gruff, an asshole. 2) Why is everyone an asshole to Sansa about her rape? Of all the things to be an asshole about. We got it long ago. This world is dark and gritty.

(20:15) Note that Sansa executing someone by setting dogs on them is not depicted as a worrying sign of her mental stability or lack thereof, nor as a lack of empathy, but as justice.

(20:52) “Without Littlefinger and Ramsay and the rest, I would have stayed a little bird all my life.” Okay! Wow! What a line!

What the writers think they’re saying: Sansa has overcome adversity and become a stronger person for it.

What the context of the entire series adds to this message: Sansa needed to be raped in order to become stronger. “Becoming stronger” here meaning “someone who relishes retributive violence,” as if there is no other form of strength, and as if the capacity for retributive violence is necessarily a sign of strength. The person she was before, who comforted others in their time of need and stuck her neck out to help, was stupid, naive, and weak. There is something deeply wrong with retaining qualities such as idealism. Sansa had to shed those qualities. Rape was the way to do it.

So, in short, gross.

(21:30) This is…definitely some archery safety.

(21:42) We got that? Arya is celebrating by standing out in the cold, rejecting social activity, and continuing to practice with deadly weapons (nearly killing a friend as she does, good work!). But there’s nothing to worry about in terms of Arya’s psyche here. The difference is the family history of mental illness.

(22:54) Begin the ship-sinking! Anchors a-smash! This is one of two relationships this episode which work out well until nah. For reasons. Ultimately, I don’t think the writers had a clear vision of what Arya was and what Arya wanted, instead defining the character by what she was not. She’s not a lady. Okay. What does that mean? Does that observation bring us any closer to learning what Arya does want from her life?

Aside from Not Gendry, anyhow. Man. Hope nobody was invested in that ship, because that was quite the abrupt sinking.

(24:56) Now the show remembers that Jaime has trouble with things like laces when he’s only got one hand.

(26:07) Hope nobody’s invested in this ship either! More on Jaime/Brienne soon. Let’s just keep the pattern in mind for the moment. Long-teased relationship culminates only to fall apart almost immediately because reasons.

(27:22) While we’re on the general theme of romance. The deterioration of Jon and Dany’s relationship is dragged over a longer period than the other sunk ships this season, but the reasons for that relationship failure aren’t well explicated. In large part because Jon never has the opportunity to really go into the identity crisis that the parentage reveal resulted in (note that the info that he was seriously shaken about the idea that he was sleeping with his aunt came from the showrunners, not the text). Jon’s silence throughout episode two was a good idea, in the context of building up to an eventual resolution. Only the writers kinda forgot that such a huge reveal might need a resolution.

(28:24) Continuing the thread that what tips Dany over the edge is rejection. Yes! We are really doing this! She is a woman scorned! Goodbye seasons of discussion about whether the ends justify the means. Goodbye seasons of dealing with various setbacks, developing opinions of her own, and earning respect. We’re reducing it all down to “nobody likes Dany, she feels entitled to their love, and now she is angry.”

Incidentally, why haven’t people softened towards Dany? Who was, after all, riding on a dragon just like Jon, and saving a lot of lives? We’ll get to that in a few scenes.

(28:39) Again, the fact that Dany gets angry and emotional about the prospect of losing her claim in Westeros is part of the depiction of a general downward trend in sanity and upward tendency to assume her power as an inherent moral good.

The problem here is that a) Dany’s not wrong that Jon poses a political threat to her, whether either of them like it or not, and b) this character’s arc shows some good sound reasons for wanting power – to protect her own agency, at the very least, to say nothing of her broader politics. If Dany was forced to concede the throne, her ability to decide what she does with her own life is sharply reduced. Her ability to achieve what she wants to do in the world (things like ending slavery and oppression) is sharply reduced.

In short, this is a scene and a situation where getting angry and upset is an entirely reasonable reaction. At best, this doesn’t work to depict a character with declining mental stability. At worst (and I believe worst), the very fact that a woman has emotions is being turned into part of a narrative where her emotions render her unsuitable to do things such as provide a reliable perspective or wield any form of power.

(29:27) I’m actually sympathetic to Jon’s desire to be open about his parentage with his sisters. Again, there’s still good material here! Jon’s reasonable personal desire to not keep secrets relating to their family from his sisters vs Dany’s also reasonable political concern that the more people who know, the less controllable the information is, the more dangerous it is. That’s a real conflict! I’d like to watch more along those lines!

(30:15) The narrative of Dany’s “hysteria” is advanced by focusing disproportionately on her emotional reaction the dilemma, without an equal and counterbalancing focus on Jon’s side of the problem. Through this conversation, Jon’s offered simple rebuttals to more complex statements from Dany. I owe my siblings the truth. Sansa won’t plot against us. The truth will not destroy us. You are my queen and nothing will change that. What’s missing here is any sort of explanation as to why Jon believes these things. The lack of explanation leaves Jon’s character underdeveloped and shifts disproportionate focus to Dany’s reasoning and motivations.

(31:09) So just to put a percentage on it, in flying north to aid Jon and save the north, Dany sacrificed a full 50% of her troops. Half the northerners were killed too, but I don’t think it’s a very controversial argument that without Dany’s aid, 100% of the northerners would have been killed. Also 100% of the non-combatants.

(31:27) Meanwhile, it’s made clear that as a result of Dany’s assistance, she’s taken a serious hit to her ability to take the Iron Throne. Note the mention of the Greyjoy fleet.

(31:37) “When the people find out what we have done for them – “ “Cersei will make sure they don’t believe it.” So…working out a propaganda strategy isn’t worth it? The woman who catapulted barrels of broken chains into Meereen to prove to its slave population that she was the real deal, something she did not do in the books, is out of ideas to counter the narrative? Dany kinda forgot that she successfully conquered three cities already. Not for the first time.

This is a fault with the writing. The writers are jamming square character pegs into round plot holes. These scenes pay lip service to the problems the characters come across, and dismiss those problems either out of hand, or as completely insurmountable and not worth bothering with.

(31:56) “Thankfully, Cersei is losing allies by the day.” Footage not found. Footage to the contraryfound, as Varys plonks down quite a few more new tokens on Cersei’s side of the map table. There’s no good reason for it, but there we are.

(32:24) Give the smallfolk the opportunity, and they will cast Cersei aside? There are a few problems with this.

1. It’s exactly what Tyrion proposed last season. How’s the strategy working out? A reevaluation may be called for here.

2. As someone who lived through food riots in a city under siege, Tyrion should be well aware of the human costs of starvation in a medieval urban area. This is not the mythical “humane option.”

3. This still doesn’t address the fact that Cersei is demonstrably willing to blow up whoever’s in her way, and a slow siege gives her more opportunity and motivation to burn down her own holdings just to deny them to Dany.

4. Why the fuck haven’t the smallfolk rebelled already, given that Cersei blew up the Vatican? If they are not going to rebel over that, what are they going to rebel over?

(32:52) Speaking of lip service! Sansa’s concerns here that the armies are exhausted would (and should!) be a valid and important objection to the wisdom of Dany’s plans. But we never see any evidence later that the troops are over-tired. Or underfed. Sansa’s insights don’t mean anything. And this is poor writing for her.

(33:02) Sansa’s proposed solution is an indefinite break. She came to the meetings without the details about how long a break might be appropriate. Keep in mind who’s been the most vocal about saying ‘we don’t have enough food.’ I think on context it’s fairly reasonable for Dany to suspect this is Sansa trying to get out of assisting at King’s Landing (and we’ll see shortly afterwards that she really does want to get out of assisting at King’s Landing). Likewise, the rebuttal that regrouping gives time for Cersei to dig in is another fairly reasonable argument.

But from Sansa’s comments, apparently this is Dany not caring about the wellbeing of her own troops.

(34:59) Now we get into it! Why are the Stark sisters so dead set against Dany, despite the assistance she’s provided?

(35:34) And the answer is xenophobia! “She’s not one of us.” Arya and Sansa do not trust Dany because “she’s not one of us.” No amount of assistance or heroism can overcome this fundamental barrier. It is bigotry. Not to mention it’s also pretty much identical to the Lannister ethos of “fuck everyone who isn’t us.”

Again, how did the showrunners think this would come across, when the Starks proposed treating Dany with “screw you got mine”? How did they think it would look for the Starks to accept the benefits of Dany’s assistance only to try and back out and treat her with rudeness and hostility when she wanted their help in return? How did they think it would look to have the reason for this rudeness and hostility be “she’s not one of us”? The Starks here look like absolute assholes. Worse, this reaction can be extrapolated to the North at large.

(35:41) Complete with some poor adaptation of Arya, who doesn’t need allies and apparently doesn’t care for friends either.

(36:21) So Jon decides to reveal everything to his siblings. This devastating family secret which should have to force every Stark to reevaluate what they knew about Ned and what they thought about Ned’s treatment of their mother and brother. This is a doozy of a secret. Let’s see some reactions.

(37:15) – a cut? What the fuck? We cut away from that? Why! Why would you do this! Why would any writer in their right mind and possessed of their dramatic sensibilities cut away from the moment two of our major PoV characters discover their father’s greatest secret, in the context of renegotiating high level political relationships?

(38:09) Bronn’s presence here is insult to injury. Not only did we cut away from what by rights should have been one hell of a reveal, we cut to a scene with a character who’s just here for the fanservice. It has been a very long time since Bronn was plot-relevant or theme-relevant. His presence here, in fact, just highlights the plotholes of his involvement in previous seasons. I mean why, for the love of all that is well-written, would this character continue to play along with the jackasses who’ve promised huge payoffs and never delivered?

…aaaaaaaand now that I write it, I see it. We are all Bronn here. Right up until he gets his fucking payoff, and we the audience do not.

(40:40) Ah yes, more homophobia which is somehow not problematic when a funny character says it.

(41:26) So now that that scene is over, what did it do? The answer is “very little.” It provides an explanation of how Bronn’s Lord of Highgarden at the end of the series, when Highgarden’s resources are no longer relevant to the plot. It does not matter who’s running Highgarden. But if you cut Bronn’s subplot from this season altogether, it doesn’t actually affect shit. Hell, it opens up plotholes. Bronn’s going to vanish for the next few episodes. Cersei’s going to proceed as though she never hired anyone to off Jaime and Tyrion, and Jaime and Tyrion are going to proceed as though Cersei never hired anyone to kill them. Also as if they never decided to give away Highgarden, something I’m sure Dany would be thrillled about.

If any of the characters involved thought about the implications, that is, instead of barrelling along with the plot because Script Says So.

(42:21) So Sandor and Arya go on one last road trip for old times’ sake. Can’t have this story finish with anything but revenge.

(42:33) Now, okay, I might draw some conclusions about the quality of adaptation from the showrunners’ decision to make Arya effectively not Arya, but they can make that decision and within the show’s own canon we’ll have to live with it.

But Arya here walks out on her family, completely blank-faced, no goodbyes, no indication of any sort of grief (even a shot where Arya looks back longingly at Winterfell), on a suicide mission to take revenge on Cersei. It’s all very well to rely on Arya’s longstanding desire to kill Cersei. That’s fair. Now that desire should be competing with things like “longstanding desire to reunite with her family.” And the show skips out on depicting any internal conflict there. Instead, we approach Arya’s decision to leave through Sandor’s PoV, the reverse of the book’s choices. More about how the story weights the revenge narrative next episode.

Oh, and Sandor is also completely static as a character. Completely fucking static. Our time has been well spent watching this character not develop.

(43:37) “Why her?” Oh my god. Again? It really does seem like Sansa’s got nothing else going on in her characterisation this season but hating Dany. (This is not quite accurate. There are at least three scenes this season where Sansa is not directly or indirectly engaged in undermining or expressing her strong dislike of Daenerys.) I cannot stress enough, this is both poor depiction of Dany, and poor characterisation of Sansa!

Also, the choice to open the scene with Sansa staring at the dragons, followed by the line “why her?” frames Sansa’s subsequent choices in said scene as being motivated by her dislike of Dany. Think of that opening shot and opening line as a heading for the scene.

(44:55) We establish for sure here that Tyrion is afraid of Dany. The basis for this is Dany’s behaviour after the Loot Train Battle and Dany’s impatience to be getting on with taking King’s Landing. Note that Tyrion, while afraid of his abusive father, was not afraid of him because he pulled stunts like the Red Wedding. And while show!Tyrion hated Joffrey, unlike his book version he does not appear to have been afraid of Joffrey. So what makes Dany different?

If anyone can come up with a reason other than deeply ingrained narrative sexism…

(45:06) “The men in my family don’t do well in the capital,” Sansa says.

(45:58) It’s been [checks] eight minutes and forty-three seconds of screen time since Sansa learned the truth. A truth she swore not to reveal to anyone else. Here she makes the decision to tell someone else. Firstly, this plays real bad for Sansa herself, who broke a promise in a hot second in a scene that’s about How Much She Hates That Daenerys Woman. Secondly, this plays real bad for Jon, who trusted Sansa to do no such thing.

It’s been forty-two seconds since Sansa said she didn’t want Jon to go to King’s Landing, with the implication she believes he’ll be in danger if he does. This does not track with a motivation to protect him. It does, however, track with a motivation of wanting anyone but Dany in power.

I really don’t think the writers were trying to make the Starks look like assholes, which is why their success is so astounding.

Hey, you notice that they cut before we can see Tyrion’s reaction to this news, too?

(46:28) “I’m taking the Free Folk home. We’ve had enough of the south.” It sure is nice that this political faction doesn’t have to deal with things like the long-term material and cultural consequences of internal unification, being subject to essentially foreign authority of variable friendliness, mass migration, dispossession, things like that. Nope. Right back over the mostly-intact Wall. Nothing’s going to change for them. Just a warm southron vacay.

(46:57) Jon just fucking exiles his direwolf. Worst pet owner. Also themes, direwolves, etc.

(48:13) So Gilly’s pregnant. And Sam’s vows to take no wife and father no children have not been mentioned for an awfully long time. The showrunners masterfully resolved the central conflict of Sam’s season two, three, and four dilemmas in this relationship by ignoring it entirely.

(50:05) Here Tyrion tells Varys the big secret. In spite of the fact that he should bloody well realise that spreading the information about could destabilise Dany’s campaign for the throne and eventual rule. Good job, man. Good job. (There is also no reason to believe that Sansa knew that Tyrion would pass the information on to Varys.)

Plus additional depiction of Robert’s Rebellion as being because Robert couldn’t get over being rejected, rather than Aerys being a dangerous tyrant.

(50:41) “People are drawn to him,” Varys says of Jon, in a series where yes, we’ve seen people acclaiming Jon their leader, and precious little reason why they would do such a thing. ‘Failing upwards’ does seem to be the term. Note, however, that what Varys says equally applies to Daenerys. People drawn to her. War hero. But that doesn’t matter because Dany is a woman.

(51:08) Is marrying your aunt common in the North? Do we have time to go back to the history and lore material? And there is still no good reason this wasn’t brought up in season seven!

(51:23) Varys is very worried about Dany’s sanity. Based on…the fact she was impatient with Tyrion’s demonstrated-to-be-failing plan, the fact she didn’t enjoy the one party after one of her close friends died violently in her arms, and possibly secondhand reports of the Loot Train Battle.

This is incredibly hard to buy. I mean really. For seven seasons, Dany was a reasonable, rational individual whose cruelty was a) occasional, b) a reaction to the actions of others, and c) not out of line with what we saw from other characters, giving the impression that her behaviour as a ruler was not beyond her society’s tolerances. What made her stand out was the fact that she was freeing slaves and talking about “breaking the wheel.” That was outside her society’s tolerances. The instances of Dany’s cruelty, in the context of the series as a whole, do not appear enough to support a conclusion that mentally she’s on a downward slide.

Concern over how Dany’s handling her grief over Jorah might be more reasonable, but again, there’s no reason to think this is anything but grief and trauma. Which isn’t great, obviously, but nobody’s going “oh, she’s sad and going through a rough time,” they’re saying she’s going crazy. Just leapt right to the worst possible conclusion.

Meanwhile, on the meta level, let’s keep in mind that the narrative is using the fact that Dany wasaffected by grief and trauma as proof that she is demonstrably irrational and not fit to lead. This is textbook hysterical woman trope. Textbook.

(52:08) So for context, the dragons are approaching King’s Landing. From their height, they should have a good view of the bay.

(52:17) And yet Rhaegal gets sniped! Goodbye dragon #2! Well, given how he treated Ghost, perhaps it’s a good thing that Jon didn’t get another pet.

(52:42) Euron’s invisible fleet strikes again. Sure, we see them sailing out from behind a cliff, but the dragons had some serious height advantage, and there are a bunch of ships. Guess Dany kinda forgot about the Iron Fleet!

No, really. That’s the explanation the showrunners gave.

Even though in the moment it seems that Dany also forgot that she isn’t limited to seeing what the camera points at, and/or forgot to use her eyes. If the cliffs were high enough to hide the fleet, they should also have been too high for Euron to aim over. Not that his first two shots weren’t implausibly good either.

(53:18) And Dany does not fly around the fleet and flank them…why?

(54:02) So Euron’s invisible, memory-fogging fleet, which the showrunners have relied on way too heavily for diabolus ex machina, starts laying into Dany’s fleet. Because the showrunners seriously expected Dany to forget about the Iron Fleet. Dany has also forgotten she’s flying on a fire-breathing dragon. Don’t worry, she’ll remember when the plot says she’ll commit a bunch of war crimes.

(54:35) Again straining the limits of plausibility, Tyrion survives despite being knocked on the head by a falling mast. While in the water. In the middle of a battle. That’s one way to avoid depicting a battle that should not have happened.

(55:12) Missandei is established to be missing here.

(55:27) Cersei loses allies by the day. The smallfolk will surely turn on her. In this shot, people are pouring in through Cersei’s gates and seeking her protection. Not a riot in sight. Again, there’s no good reason why, but there we go!

(56:01) They’re not dropping Cersei’s pregnancy. This still raises questions as to how long it’s been, and she’s still not showing.

(56:30) “Keep the gates open. If she wants to take the castle, she’ll have to murder thousands of innocent people first.” That sounds to me like an argument for why Dany should be rather quick securing the capital – to prevent Cersei taking and using hostages! Note that this argument applies from season seven!

(56:44) It turns out that Missandei was captured. Yes. Euron not only managed to sneak invisibly up to Dany’s forces after they all forgot about his existence, kill a dragon with some seriously implausible sniping, escape unburned when Dany forgot to set Euron on fire, and trash her fleet utterly, he also bravely sailed in, discovered that Missandei was a hostage of significant emotional value to Dany, and captured her and her alone. What plot problems can Euron not solve.

More seriously, this is some shoddy treatment of one of the show’s only significant characters of colour. It’s going to get worse. Before we got to see Missandei’s face, we got a long shot of the chains she was put in (and a snide comment about it too).

(57:13) Varys says that storming the city is a mistake. I’m yet to hear workable alternatives. Dany’s advisors have been wrong about Cersei’s political and military strength every step of the way. Why should Dany listen to them, at this point?

However, Dany’s rejection of her advisors’ (proven-poor) advice is depicted as being born of emotion rather than reason. See above re: hysterical women. We’ve got this dichotomy between emotional women and reasonable men. This is all the more noticeable in the context of Cersei’s rule. We’ve got two queens fighting for a throne at the moment, and both are apparently willing to kill any number of people for it. Currently the narrative’s saying that our sympathies should be with the reasonable men trying to rein in these unreasonable women.

(58:34) Tyrion advocates talking to Cersei. Again. This is a bad rerun of 7.07, and 7.07 wasn’t much good to start with. What reason does Tyrion have to believe that anything Cersei says can be relied on? None. He has, instead, every reason to believe that Cersei will lie if she needs to and reject every effort for a peaceful solution. He has every reason to believe this because she already has. And also hired someone to kill him. Which he found out just a few scenes ago.

I realise that Dany’s the one on the Hitler end of the Nazi analogies in episode six, but watch out for Neville Chamberlain here. Peace in our fucking time.

(59:15) “I’ve served tyrants all my life. They all talked about destiny.” Really? Did they? I can’t recall either Tywin or Joffrey or Robert talking much about destiny. Weird throwback to book!Varys, there.

(59:44) We see here that Varys measures fitness to rule in how often the ruler agrees with him. As soon as Dany turns down his advice, even though it was of dubious merit, he starts looking for a replacement. This is, again, the sort of thing that makes Dany’s supposed paranoia not look very irrational.

(1:00:04) “Have you considered the best ruler might be someone who doesn’t want to rule?” Why, yes! That question was considered extensively in the novels, in the person of Robert Baratheon! Back in the day, Robert was a fantasy hero. He had almost everything going for him. Almost every personal quality you could want in a king. But he didn’t want the throne. And nobody could make him do the job once he was on the throne. His disinterest and inertia had profound consequences on both his personal health and the running of the country.

Robert Baratheon is GRRM’s argument against that line.

(1:00:21) While there is plenty of sexism in the narrative, I don’t think Varys is incorrect to observe that in the patriarchal setting depicted, Jon’s gender will make him a more appealing monarch candidate.

(1:00:46) Varys: Jon would make a good king of Westeros.

Also Varys: We can’t marry Jon to Dany, her personality would overwhelm his!

Tyrion’s solution addresses the problem of Jon’s claim. Varys rejects that solution because it doesn’t address the problem of Dany. He does not want Dany to be the driving force ruling the kingdom. Also, apparently marriages where the woman is a Type A personality and the man’s a Type B personality are bad. Presumably the reverse is not true.

(1:03:44) Maybe three or four scenes this season where show!Sansa isn’t focused on hating Dany? Of course, my comments about Sansa being “toughened up” by having her come to enjoy violence against her enemies still apply.

(1:05:14) Now this reads like a fuck you to everyone who was at all invested in Jaime/Brienne as a ship. Brienne lays out the basic position – Jaime is a good man, he can’t save Cersei, and he doesn’t need to die with her. Sums up a good chunk of audience hopes, too. A lot of what drives the dramatic tension of Jaime’s scenes is the audience desire to see him actually follow through on his better impulses, including giving up on his toxic relationship with his sister. Not only is the audience not unreasonable for wanting this, the audience’s desire for this has been actively encouraged by the narrative for several seasons.

(1:05:39) In response, Jaime says, “nah, not a good man, just as bad as my sister, I’ll be leaving now, see ya!” As if scenes justifying Jaime’s actions-for-love never existed (just because I don’t think “I did it for love” is a good excuse doesn’t mean the show has thus far not treated it as a good excuse), Jaime lists a bunch of crimes, concludes he’s awful, and heads out. In hindsight, this is clearly Jaime rejecting any sort of different path. At the time there were theories going round that Jaime was heading off to the battle for some sort of personal resolution…but no.

So, you know, fuck the viewers for thinking someone could grow and change, I guess. A special fuck you to anyone who shipped Jaime/Brienne. They can go cry with the Arya/Gendry shippers. This is not just bad writing, it’s asshole writing. It gave the audience something to want, gave the audience what it wanted, yanked it away, and called the audience idiots for ever wanting it in the first place.

And it’s not even the worst example of asshole writing in the series. As we know.

(1:07:26) So here’s our setup. Dany, her advisors, a small group of Unsullied, and Drogon, are all hanging out on the clear stretch of ground in front of King’s Landing. Cersei’s up there and there are a whole bunch of ballistae pointed in their general direction, as well as a whole bunch of archers on the walls.

(1:09:13) Tyrion and Qyburn state the positions of their respective monarchs. (In the context of the series, especially with both Dany and Cersei being “mad” queens, it gives me the irrits that Dany and Cersei aren’t doing the talking – no, that’s for the men. See above regarding reasonable men reining in unreasonable women.) Note that these positions each demand the unconditional surrender of the other. I don’t think this is going to be resolved. I think this is well past the point where talking does much good.

This is one of the problems I have with the “reasonable” positions proposed by the men around Dany – they fail to recognise that they aren’t working against a reasonable opponent. These men aren’t reasonable in the sense that they considered the available evidence, alternative courses of action, and weighed up their options. The alternative proposed, and initially taken up by Dany, did not work. We saw it not work for most of season seven, and it continues to not work now. The “reasonable” option here doesn’t have anything to do with the situation established by the show. It’s “reasonable” in that it’s less outright violent in the short term, without accounting for long-term consequences or, you know, major strategic objectives. It treats negotiation and non-violence as inherently the most reasonable course of action, and therefore the best.

Again, this makes for a poor contrast with the books, where Dany’s storyline has talked about just these things. There are situations where people cannot solve their problems by talking. There are peaces that should not and cannot be made. Sometimes violence is necessary. The questions are when? and why?

(1:11:49) Note that when someone does actually bother speaking to one of the monarchs here directly, Tyrion doesn’t go for reason. He does not outline military consequences as he did for Qyburn. He goes for the emotional appeal.

It’s also worth noting: fucking again? This worked so well last time.

(1:12:07) Wait, so Jaime’s hateful for murdering his cousin and attempting to murder a child, but Cersei blows up the fucking Westerosi Vatican and she’s “not a monster”? Either the show’s being inconsistent here, or Tyrion is one of a) the greatest actors Westeros has ever seen or b) fooling himself. She hired someone to kill him out of personal spite! Tyrion found this out like half an hour of screen time ago!

I’m deeply suspicious of the show’s attempts to make Cersei somewhat sympathetic at this late stage. It looks a lot to me as if this is intended to make the demonisation of Dany easier. Cersei does not do much this season. She didn’t do much last season. Continuing on from what I just said about reasonable uses of violence, we’re not actually seeing much violence these past two seasons from Cersei which would make Dany’s own use of violence reasonable and appropriate. (No, they still can’t resolve their issues by talking, Cersei’s broken deals with them before.) Cersei’s tyranny is kept out of sight and out of mind for the audience, including most if not all references to that time she blew up the Sept of Baelor, so Dany appears inherently less justified in her actions.

The only thing Cersei does this season, which she’s about to do, is in direct service of “setting Dany off” mentally.

(1:12:57) Also, Cersei’s pregnancy being used to humanise her? Yikes. In context of ongoing comparison over “who’s the worst monster?” to Dany, who is infertile? Mega yikes. These characters should not be judged by what’s going on in their uteruses.

(1:13:45) Finally! A queen speaks! After six minutes of “negotiations”.

(1:14:14) “Dracarys”? Well, that’s ambiguous. Scans an awful lot like Missandei’s saying “yeah, burn the city!”

(1:14:44) So this is awful. The show has two recurring characters of colour. It just killed one. A freed slave, killed in chains, with nasty comments made about this fact, to motivate a white character whose arc has already had fair accusations of white savourism levelled against it. Not good. Not good at all.

(1:15:20) Incidentally, I can’t help but notice that Cersei stopped at killing Missandei. She’s kinda forgotten about her archers and ballistae and that she doesn’t care for norms such as truce.

(1:15:40) Dany walks away with an actual expression on her face. Her inability to school her features after witnessing the murder of a friend is how we know, for sure, that she’s losing it. If she’s calm, she’s emotionally dead. If she’s sad, she’s hysterical. If she’s angry, she’s about to kill hundreds of thousands of people…

#anti got #fine toothed comb edition #cw: violence #cw: rape mention #season eight #in which i call a lot of people assholes

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sombreboy · 4 years

Text

Love Maze »10

Previous » Next Series Masterlist ▎ 18+ ▎ pairing: Taehyung x Jungkook ▎ genre: School AU, crack humor, smut, angst, ETL, slow burn, fluff. ▎ word count: 9.9k ▎ ch.warnings: cursing, JK is an emotional baby, fluff, jealousy, censored slurs, smut, blowjob, fingering, anal(riding), Top!JK, Bottom!Tae (they switch it up a lot lmao)

Co-writer: @velvetwicebang ♡♡♡

A few minutes into the class, and the guilt was still very much present. Taehyung couldn’t seem to focus on anything.

His leg was bouncing up and down from under the table as he chewed on the inside of his lip, phone held tightly in his hands.

His thumbs hovered above the keyboard, thinking if he should send Jungkook a text along the lines of, ‘hey, sorry for acting like a dick this morning. it won’t happen again’.

But then again, his boyfriend was a horrible texter. If he barely texted before, what was going to make him text now?

“Fuck..” Tae ran a hand through his messy hair, frustrated as hell.

The heavy sigh caught the attention of Mila, who previously insisted on sitting next to him. Since she was a new student, the teacher let her have it.

“Are you okay?” She questioned, setting down her glittery pen on the table.

“What? Yeah, I’m fine.” Taehyung forced a smile, oblivious to the way Mila was staring at the screen of his phone. Jungkook’s photo was on the contact.

“Really? You’re a bad liar.”

It was then that she scooted her chair closer to Tae’s, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

Peers from around them seemed to take notice, and being the noisy students that they were, some began recording.

The foreign girl and Kim Taehyung? Now that was interesting..

The elder tried to make more room between them, but he couldn’t. Mila was really getting in there.

“I’m cool, really.” Taehyung smiled, awkwardly rubbing at his nape when he realized she wasn’t planning on backing down.

With a cheeky smile of her own, the woman waited until Tae turned his cheek to her so that she could press a loving peck on the tan skin, letting her lips linger for a second too long.

Tae was like a statue, visibly tense and unsure of what just happened.

As it all was ingrained into a digital memory, the video recording by one of the female students was posted on her snapchat story-- Of course, she was known on her social media. The video of The Kim Taehyung & the new, foreign girl within the next twenty minutes had spread like a social media wildfire among the students.

Everyone seemed to know. Well, everyone except Jungkook.

As Jungkook headed out from his own class, everyone was gossiping, phones glued to their faces as they giggled among each other. He shrugged, it was probably some new trend going on-- and he wasn't interested.

Kook made it to the cafeteria, his routine of grabbing a banana milk unbroken til this day. The weather was nice, however, so he decided to step outside to have a seat by the large steps in front of the school building.

''Did you hear about Taehyung and the new girl?''

The nameless students walked past him by the stairs, the way they said the elders name caught his attention, so he listened in as much as he could as they passed,

''Yeah, I can't believe she would do that!''

The girls left, and as he was furrowing his eyebrows in confusion, sipping his milk, another set of voices passed, this time a couple guys,

''First day and the foreign chick already wants the douchiest of them all. Why wouldn't she choose me?''

''Because it's Taehyung, all girls want him...''

''Even he seemed pretty stunned in the video.''

One again, the strangers passed, and Jungkook was left feeling extremely confused at this point. What were they talking about?

What video?

Jungkook pulled up his phone, noticing that the notifications on his snapchat were going off. Everyone was re-sharing the same thing, the same video.

Curiosity got the best of him, so he decided to click it, watching the small circle spin as it was buffering.

To Taehyung’s luck, class was dismissed.

Which meant one thing, he would no longer have to tolerate the uncomfortable, flirty comments from Mila. For the first time ever, Tae was heavily engrossed in doing his work. Maybe that way she’d get the hint that he wasn’t keen on talking..

Mila wasn’t Jungkook, and for that reason, he wasn’t interested.

The elder briskly roamed through the halls, eyes solely searching for one specific person.

His mind was set on trying to point out Kook from the crowd, not the way his peers stared holes onto his figure.

At this point, Taehyung was used to the attention.

“Kook!” Tae finally called out when he spotted Jungkook near the stairs, jogging up to him.

Fuck, where should he start?

With one look at their surroundings, Taehyung parted his lips.

“Baby— I’m sorry.” He blurted out, just throwing it out there for Jungkook to do as he pleased with his shitty apology, “It was rude of me to leave you in the cafeteria. I just walked her to class, I swear!”

Jungkook didn't respond right away when he heard his boyfriend attempt an apology behind him, his back slowly rising and falling as he was breathing deeply to collect himself.

He'd clicked the video, a view from a students POV of Mila sitting way too close to his boyfriend, whispering words and even kissing his cheek.

The worst part was, Taehyung didn't even pull away. No, he didn't even say anything to protest.

The video wasn't extremely clear, so he couldn't tell exactly what kind of expressions were on the elders face, but it didn't matter. She kissed him, and he let her.

Jungkook's hands were trembling, gripping his phone so hard it almost felt like it would burst between his fingers, "That's all that happened?" He finally broke his silence, voice laced with some unnamed emotion.

Taehyung furrowed his brows, confused as to why Jungkook would ask him that.

He saw what happened, what else was there to explain?

“Yeah? I mean.. she was being really clingy in class, but nothing happened.” Tae shrugged his shoulders, brows knitting closer together at the lack of emotion in Kook’s usually cheery voice.

“Hey, I’m sorry.” The elder apologized a second time, and he would do it a third, fourth, fifth— so on until Jungkook forgave him.

Jungkook turned his head over his shoulder to glance up at Taehyung. His eyebrows were just as drawn together as the elders, "Then what is this?" He held up his phone, once more clicking the school-viral video to play it for him.

Kook kept his eyes on Taehyung, observing his reaction,

"This counts as nothing?"

Oh yeah.. That.

“Jungkook, that meant nothing to me. She just— she kissed me on the cheek and I guess I just kinda froze.” Taehyung desperately tried to clear up the misconception, trying to keep his anxiety on the down low every time students passed by.

He didn’t want them to assume anything was going on.

“Kook, come on. Don’t be mad at me.” He sighed, feeling defeated by his boyfriend’s shortage of words.

Jungkook pressed his lips tight, an eyebrow crooked as he put the phone back down in his pocket, "What if she tries again?" He sighed, he wasn't really mad, just... hurt, because he started to feel like he was being hidden away like some dirty secret.

“I won’t let her.” Taehyung determinedly reassured, glad that Jungkook wasn’t too angry with him. He didn’t know what he would do if Kook stayed mad at him for long, the thought was enough to send a shiver of uneasiness down his spine.

“You saw how I was at the lunchroom.. I was uncomfortable.” Tae stepped down one more step, taking a seat next to his boyfriend, trying so hard to not let the stares affect him.

For all everyone knew, they were friends. Taehyung had to keep that in mind.

“I just..”

Should he say it?

Jungkook did want him to be more honest, and that’s what he would be doing by telling him.

“During practice, the reason I was so angry was because Kai called you a f*g.” Tae gulped, looking over at Jungkook to see his reaction.

“Something just came over me I guess. I really wanted to hit him, but then I remembered you saying you like my face so.. better not fuck it up even more.” A small chuckle slipped past his lips, but it went away as soon as it came, “The reason I did that in the lunchroom was ‘cause I’m a idiot. I was a coward. I guess I didn’t want them to find out— about us, I mean.” Taehyung was quick to add on, “I love being with you, Kook. Don’t get me wrong. I just don’t think I’m completely ready for putting us out there yet. Shit.. that makes me sound like the shittiest boyfriend in the world, huh?”

Jungkook's expression managed to change from frustrated, to surprised, to soft within the same moment of Taehyung explaining himself, quietly nodding as he listened. He took a second to process it all, eyes focused on his hands as he fiddled with them.

He took a deep, soft breath before turning his attention back to the elder, a soft smile pulling on his lips, ''You're not shitty, you're just... Kim Taehyung.'' His grin grew wider, ''Thank you for standing up for me, and for keeping your face intact.''

Jungkook's smile faded, he wished he could kiss Tae so badly, praise him more-- if he only knew how much of a personal growth he'd just done, one; being honest with kook, and two; stood up for him. One step at a time, he was improving himself, even if he didn't see it himself,

''You've grown a lot. One step at a time.''

Another moment of silence followed, Jungkook glanced at his surroundings before leaning in slightly to whisper, ''I really want to kiss you for it.''

Jungkook’s words hit him a lot harder than Taehyung would’ve ever imagined, feeling a faint smile of his own creep up onto his lips.

God, he really liked this boy.

Tae wondered if he ever showed that enough..

A tint of red washed over the apples of his cheeks, deeply affected by the idea of having his lips dance against Jungkook’s. Every time felt just like the first, and Taehyung couldn’t seem to get enough.

“Really?” The elder chuckled, eyes skimming around the place before grabbing Kook’s hand, dragging him along to the other side of the school. It was a place that was almost always unoccupied, and it was out of sight to the rest of the students.

With his hands on Jungkook’s waist, Tae slowly drove him back against the worn out wall, fresh breeze flowing through his hair as he leaned in, grinning mischievously before breaking the distance between their needy lips.

Taehyung’s thumbs rubbed circles from under the fabric of his boyfriend’s shirt, feeling the warm skin of Jungkook’s hips clash against his touch.

Jungkook smiled into the kiss, little sweet wrinkles appearing in the corners of his eyes. He genuinely felt happy in this moment, all his past worries once more washed away because of this boy. His lips chased after Taehyung's in between their sweet kisses, he could never get enough of this feeling, his own hands instinctively settling on the elders shoulders to keep himself steady along with pressing his back against the wall, small hums of satisfaction vibrating in his throat.

When the kiss broke apart for a moment, kook finally managed to reply,

''Yeah, really... Going this long without kissing you has been frustrating,'' he chuckled, squeezing Tae's shoulders playfully.

Taehyung threw his head back, laughing softly in amusement only to face Jungkook once again, head tilted to the side in the slightest bit, “Kook, it’s only been a couple hours.” He reminded, now tightly wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s waist, pulling him all the more near,

“Plus, we kissed in the shower. Or did we not..? I dunno.”

Taehyung disregarded his own question, leaning in to press a chaste peck on Jungkook’s neck.

After he pulled away, that’s when Tae unlatched his arms, resting one hand against the wall by Kook’s head, leaning his body weight on it, “Just to make sure.. you’re not mad at me? Or are you just saying that..”

Jungkook let his hands fall to his sides, leaning the back of his head against the wall as his eyes were transfixed on the almost worried look in Taehyung's eyes. It was rather cute that he seemed anxious about how Kook felt about him-- which made sense, but it was still surprising that he'd ask to make sure,

''I'm a little annoyed at the blondie,'' He smiles though, to reassure him, ''But no, I'm not mad at you. Promise.'' The smile turns wider, he raises his hand to softly smooth his fingers across Tae's jawline.

Oh, how Jungkook wishes to tell him how much he loves this guy.

Taehyung seemed a little less tense afterwards, shamelessly leaning into Kook’s touch on his face whilst he held eye contact with the younger, as if making double sure that there was no hidden message behind his words.

“Alright.” The elder exhaled after finding no sign of a lie, shoulders falling down to their natural position. He dug out his phone from his pocket, turning it on before taking a quick glance at the time. The bell was going to ring anytime soon, meaning their small break was almost over.

Sadly.

“Okay, well.. meet me in the common area after school, so I can give you a ride.” Tae smiled, feeling the need to constantly remind Jungkook that he was his ride, even though the younger probably knew that by now.

Sooner than he expected, the sound of the bell’s awful ringing could be heard from outside.

Tae didn’t want to leave, he finally felt calm. But, he’d see Jungkook after school, they’d still get to spend more time together.

Even better, away from people.

Jungkook lowered his hand back down, placing both hands the pockets of his pants as his smile remained intact, ''Okay, sounds good.'' He nods, content with how things were going and feeling between the two of them.

They walked back together, but as they had different classes, they had to separate on the way. Kook wishes once more that he could hold his hand freely, or give him a 'see you soon' kiss. But, he wanted to be- and was understanding of Taehyung's wish to keep it low key for now.

For how long, he didn't know…

''See you soon, then.'' Kook glanced over at the elder, a vague smile pulling on the corner of his lips before he gave a small wave as he turned to walk towards his classroom.

He missed him already. God, he was a lost cause for the man.

In a blink of an eye, Taehyung’s class was over. And so was the next, and the next one after that, until he had none left.

Like always, Tae rushed out of his chemistry classroom and strolled over to the common area to wait for Jungkook. And like always, he had no clue about what he’d just learned.

It was a repeating cycle..

What wasn’t common, however, was seeing Mila walking up to him.

Her hips swayed with every strut of her high-heels, a flirtatious grin glued onto her red tinted lips.

Fuck, not again.

“Taehyung, hey.” She waved at him, standing close to Tae’s side.

“Are you waiting for someone?”

“Yeah, Jungkook.” The elder answered more clearly, not wishing to give his boyfriend the wrong impression by continuing with the conversation.

He should’ve known better, though. Mila was not one to easily give up.

“Oh.. cool.” She hummed with a nod of her head, peeking outside at the cloudy sky. It was obvious it was going to rain “I wish I had a ride home.. I’d hate to walk home in the rain.” The girl shyly rubbed at her arm, gaze flickering back to Taehyung.

Jungkook kept his backpack tightly strapped on his shoulder as he headed towards the common area, brushing his dark fringe away from his eyes as his gaze searched for Taehyung. As he did, he started walking faster, a small smile growing on his face until he reaches him,

''Hey, I'm here-- uh..'' His steps came to a halt when he saw Mila standing next to Tae, as always, no consideration for his personal space,

''What's up?'' Is all he could say, eyes flickering between the two as his posture straightened, head tilted in slight annoyance.

Why was she here?

He'd been annoyed with this girl for a bit now, but after that video, he felt the swirling anger in his chest at the very sight of her, his brain replaying the way she kissed his boyfriend so casually.

Taehyung scratched at the back of his head, the awkward tension too thick to cut with a knife.

At this point, he’d need a chainsaw.

So, he hesitated whether or not to tell Jungkook so suddenly.. but, he’d find out soon anyways.

Tae just worried about his reaction, he knew Kook wasn’t too fond of Mila.

“Uh, she asked me for a ride, and I said it was okay.” Taehyung couldn’t bear to meet Jungkook’s doe eyes. God, why did he have to be kind during inappropriate situations?

The way Mila was staring at him.. if he was in her 10 inch heels, he’d want someone to help him out.

It was just a car ride, anyway.

“It’s gonna rain and, apparently, she lives close by anyways.”

Mila nodded, staring over at Jungkook, waiting for what he had to say.

Jungkook showed no sign of being upset, nor did he express that he was excited. He just... Seemed neutral. However, on the inside his jealousy was burning through his veins. Wow, he really didn't like Mila at all.

''Alright, whatever, let's.. go.'' His voice was low, nudging his chin in the direction towards the parking lot.

Jungkook supposed that, in the midst of his anger, he wanted to feel proud of Taehyung for being kind. For being considerate, as this was rarely a thing that'd happen normally, probably starting with him.

But, of course Jungkook was selfish in a way, wanting that kindness all to himself.

Whatever... It's just a car ride, right?

Nothing weird could happen during that short time.

Taehyung walked close to Jungkook, not too worried that Mila was left a few steps behind.

During the time that they were ‘alone’, Tae looked over at his boyfriend, flashing him an apologetic glance and mouthing a short, ‘I’m sorry’.

Once they finally got to his car, the elder unlocked the doors, expecting Jungkook to sit next to him. But, that didn’t happen. Mila slightly pushed the younger out of the way, plopping down on the passenger seat that would normally belong to Kook.

“Sorry..” Mila chuckled, noticing the way Taehyung’s expression shifted, “My heels were killing me. I needed to sit down.”

...Why couldn’t she sit down on the back? It was the same distance.

Tae snapped out of it, not bothered to question it any further.

Suddenly, he regretted giving Mila a drive.

Taehyung sat down on his seat, glancing up at Jungkook through his rear view mirror before driving out of the parking lot, trying to ignore the girl’s hand on his thigh.

The elder tried being subtle about it, scratching at his thigh and bouncing his foot. But Mila wouldn’t budge.

Jungkook has his lips tightly pressed together as he sat down in the backseat without a word, his patience was being tested. His gaze darkened when it landed on milas extended arm, grasping at Taehyung's thigh.

In his mind, he wanted to grab the girl by the collar and throw her out the window.. but he kept it as it was, simply imagination.

He crossed his arms over his chest, his expression growing stern as he continuously prodded the inside of his cheek with his tongue, a common ritual of his when he was upset.

Things did get worse.

Just Jungkook's luck.

But why didn’t Taehyung protest? It was like stepping on kooks nerves, and if anger could form a cloud around his stature, it’d be fuming off of him. Taehyung was being too nice, the earlier attempt at a sorry slowly slipping through the cracks of the younger's mind.

The car ride was.. uncomfortable, to say the least.

But luckily, Mila’s fancy house was only a few streets down.

If they could make it without any problems, that’d be great.

Just a couple more seconds and they’d be free of her.

“Gosh, thank you Tae. I have to find a way to repay you!” Mila looked at him with a smile, turning her upper body around to finally acknowledge Jungkook’s presence, “Nice seeing you again.” This time, her smile wasn’t as genuine. She was still a bit confused about the boys’ relationship.

Namjoon said they fought a lot, but every time she’d look over at them, they were laughing and stealing secret glances.

They acted like a couple at times..

Just.. the way Taehyung looked at Jungkook— it was concerning.

Whatever, Mila knew that wasn’t the case. She was just being paranoid. After all, Kim Taehyung was not gay.

The moment Mila stepped out of his car, Tae sped the hell out of there, noticing how visibly upset Jungkook had become. He didn’t blame him, though. If it was uncomfortable for him, it was bound to be for his boyfriend.

A couple silent minutes later, Taehyung parked in front of Kook’s apartment building, shutting the door before following behind the younger, already familiar with the apartment number.

He was so worried about how Jungkook felt, that Tae didn’t notice the apartment next to his boyfriend’s was wide open, various things found scattered inside.

“Fuck. Remind me to not give her a ride again.” The elder plopped down on the couch with a sigh, running his hands down his face.

Jungkook had remained silent until they were inside, he'd kicked his shoes off and thrown his bag somewhere on the floor before striding over to stand in front of Taehyung's sitting frame, hands firmly placed on his hips. His eyes were sharp, burning down at the elder with an intensity that was intimidating, "You want a reminder?" He scoffed, "Okay. I'll give you a reminder.."

Jungkook had no hesitation in his bones, slowly pulling his shirt over his head to expose his firm torso, glancing down at himself before his gaze meets the elders again, "Take your shirt off, and sit still. You're really good at being still after all, aren't you?"

His voice had no humor nor weakness in it, no patience left to play games.

Taehyung was going to listen to him now.

Not to the guys. Not to Mila. To Jeon Jungkook.

Whatever reminder Jungkook had in mind, it wasn’t what Taehyung originally had in his.

“Kook.. what are you doing?”

The elder’s sharp eyes raked down his boyfriend’s toned torso, taking in the way the muscles in his arms flexed, making up for all of that time spent hidden away in the gym.

He was so fucking muscular..

Taehyung was a mixture of aroused and confused, and he didn’t know which was stronger.

“Jungkook—“ At the sudden command that slipped from the boy’s lips, Tae followed through with his orders, “Yes..”

God, the elder felt so pathetic.. the second he spoke to him in that tone, Taehyung knew his body was Jungkook’s playground.

“Baby, what’s going on..?” Tae sat his shirt down on his lap, trying to hide the evident bulge poking at his jeans.

Jungkook held a finger up, indicating for the elder to stop asking questions,

"A simple reminder, just like you asked for." He glanced down at the shirt in taes lap, crooking an eyebrow, "Looks like your body already knows before you do."

Kooks gaze travels back to meet the confused one of his boyfriend, using his hand to point down at taes pants, "Take it all off, no hiding."

A small sense of satisfaction settles in Jungkook's chest when he sees how easily subdued Taheyung can be, he must really like this side of the younger.

And that's great, because Kook really enjoyed the little good boy side of Tae as well, his own bulge becoming more and more prominent against the fabrics of his pants.

Tae followed through with Jungkook’s clear instructions, his hands seeming to have a mind of their own as they tugged at his jeans, pulling at the band of his boxers as well.

The elder felt extremely exposed sitting on Kook’s couch, butt naked with his dick standing as still as a pole.

Fuck.. Taehyung wanted to see all of his boyfriend, too. It wasn’t fair.

Tae man-spread even further, sinking into the couch with his hooded eyes lusting over the scenario they were in, one hand going down to tug at his cock, slowly spreading the pre-cum erupting from his slit to the rest of his shaft.

Shit.. was Jungkook going to ride his dick? He hoped so.

Either way, he couldn’t wait to see what the younger had in mind.

Jungkook rolled his tongue, prodding the inside of his cheek before 'tsk'ing,

"Did I say you could touch yourself?" His tone lowered another octave as he spoke, taking one step closer so that he was standing in between the elders legs, "And here I was planning to give you something even better.." he raised his eyebrows, the hint of playfulness sparking in his eyes, "You might still have a chance to redeem it, if you say please."

His lips were tugging unto a small grin, but this one wasn't playful. It was devilish. He was determined to get that one word out of him--the one word only Jungkook could have the Kim Taehyung to roll off his pretty, plushy lips.

Jungkook bent forward, his hands placed firmly on taes knees as he was gazing at taehyungs through his dark locks dangling over his eyes, "Say I'm sorry, please."

The elder’s wet hand dropped down to his side, slender fingers gripping at the cushion whilst he waited for the next command, staring up at Jungkook like a needy boy.

He’d already obeyed the younger by not continuing to touch himself, what else did Kook want?

The constant wondering kept Taehyung on the edge of his seat, toes curling in excitement.

Fuck.. he wanted to say so many things, but his lips stayed sealed.

That is, until they parted in shock from what Jungkook asked of him.

Was this his boyfriend? He couldn’t tell.

The bunny grin that he learned to love was now replaced by a rather wicked one, causing Tae’s breath to hitch in his throat.

“Kook, come on.. just give it to me.” His words came out in the form of a whine, tongue swiping over his lips at the close gap of their faces.

The elder’s veiny cock twitched from the lack of contact, his hands itched to push Jungkook down on his lap. But, he wouldn’t.

He’d be a good boy for him.

He wanted to be good..

After realizing that his boyfriend wasn’t going to budge, Taehyung finally whispered out those set of words, voice heavy and deep,

“I’m sorry, please..”

Jungkooks smile softened at the plea, leaning in further to press a chaste kiss on his nose before kook dropped down to his knees with a thud, his hands slowly roaming the skin of the elders thighs, Relishing in Tae’s responsiveness to his mere touch,

“You’re doing well. I like this.’”

He kept his eyes fixed on Tae’s, a hint of affection visible in his gaze, maintaining the eye contact while his hand slowly skimmed over his inner thigh until he was painfully close to the throbbing erection waiting for his attention.

A quick glance down, and Jungkook's own cock was aching beneath the fabrics, his mouth watering.

This morning he’d been dreaming about how his cock would taste.

How well he’d be able to take it.

What kind of new noises would Taehyung make?

He was ready to find it all out, but first— his hand found its way to Taehyung's shaft, wrapping his long fingers around the girth.

If there was one thing that Taehyung didn’t like about Jungkook, is that he was the biggest fucking tease.

From the way that the younger’s finger slowly rubbed against his prostate at the party, to now taking a hold of his erected cock when it was clear that Tae had horrible patience— It irked him, but not in the way that he thought.

Instead, the elder wanted to fuck into Jungkook’s mouth; make him gag.. show him who’s boss.

But at this very moment, he was his boyfriend’s bitch.

He was a puddle of goo under the younger’s sensual touch, dying to feel his pretty lips wrap around his shaft and slowly envelop him whole inch by inch..

“Baby, quit teasing..” Taehyung’s hips rocked into Jungkook’s hand, wanting to feel the friction he was so desperately craving.

"I've never had the chance to properly feel you like this..." Jungkook’s voice was low, and his breath was getting heavier as he felt the weight of Taes cock in his palm. Taking a moment to just... feel it in his hand, the velvety skin so delicate yet rough with the way the veins protruded.

Absolutely delicious looking, "And you're so cute when you get that wrinkle of frustration between your eyebrows." Kook winks at the elder before guiding the tip of Tae's cock to his mouth, without hesitation he wraps his plushy lips around it and gives it a tasteful suck, the small beads of precum staining the younger's lips.

He hums quietly, the vibrations of his throat reaches his mouth-- and he dares to slowly take his boyfriends cock a little deeper.

This was delicious, and with the way Taehyung is so responsive to him-- he could do this forever.

“Ah.. fuck..” Taehyung stared down at his boyfriend, hand reaching down to run through Jungkook’s hair, tugging at it for the hell of it.

The further the younger took him in, the further Tae verbalized how he felt, hips jittering slightly.

“So good, baby.. so good..” He bit down on his lip, still rocking his hips a little.

Taehyung didn’t know if this was Jungkook’s first time giving a blowjob— so he had to be considerate. Even so.. the thought of another guy’s dick in his boyfriend’s mouth was unsettling, it angered him. But the way Kook sucked him off so wonderfully was enough of a distraction.

Jungkook's eyes were glazed over with a layer of tears that refused to fall, glancing up at his boyfriend as he continued to go deeper, half way down he had to stop his movement to breathe through his nose. Taehyung's cock is thick, so it wasn't easy. But kook wanted to make the elder feel good, the praise and sounds echoing in his ears enough to spur him on to withdraw himself until just the tip was between his lips, just to sink back down, his tongue providing friction against the silky length in his mouth.

Jungkooks hands grasped the elders thighs, squeezing the flesh between his fingers-- he never knew he'd be into taes thighs so much... but then again, he's into everything that is Kim Taehyung.

A muffled moan vibrated in his mouth, drool starting to dribble down Tae’s cock and kooks chin glistening with spit.

Nothing beat seeing and hearing his boyfriend in this state-- the younger felt his cock starting to ache further, and this time he didn't want to deny himself. One hand travelled down to unzip, pulling his pants and boxers down just enough to pull his length out, stroking with the rhythm that he sucked off Tae with.

If Taehyung wasn’t over the moon before, he sure was now.

The way Jungkook’s tongue provided him with enough warmth, enough friction— he was in pure bliss. His rosy lips were parted and eyebrows furrowed with small beads of sweat at the corners, thighs slightly trembling from the strong grasp of his boyfriend’s fingers.

“Ahh, getting a little messy, hm?”

The sensation from Kook’s drool traveling down his cock only turned Taehyung on even more, feeling his cock harden up at the visual image of Jungkook’s chin glistening with spit, doe eyes watery..

“Fuck yeah..” Tae grabbed a handful of the younger’s hair, guiding his movements when a sudden, blaring noise was broadcasted through the thin walls.

He ignored it at first, continuing to grind into Jungkook’s mouth, his free hand roaming up and down the boy’s forearm.

Then, another piercing drag.

Taehyung finally opened his eyes, looking around for the source of the noise while his boyfriend was sucking him off, his curiosity getting the best of him.

Then, a loud bang against the wall was enough to make Tae jump in his spot, hearing some mumbled curses follow soon after.

“Wait, Kook..” Taehyung dreaded separating his cock from Jungkook’s mouth, but he had to see what was going on.

What if someone was trying to break in? He quickly put on his clothes, not bothering to zip up his fly before he unlocked the door, poking his head out to take a look at the commotion.

“Shit! Why won’t this go in..”

There stood a woman, seemingly around their age, trying to push a wooden desk into the apartment next to Jungkook’s. She was obviously struggling, and the babbling baby strapped to her chest surely didn’t make it any easier.

“Hey, you need some help..?”

Taehyung hesitantly offered, standing there awkwardly.

“Wha-? Oh, please! Here, it’ll only be a second.”

Tae was expecting to help her in terms of strength to push the big desk into the other side, but what he didn’t expect was to have a baby strapped to his chest.

“Thank you so much! This will hopefully make things easier.”

The boy was frozen, arms woodenly hanging at his sides, eyes staring right into the big ones of the little human in the baby carrier.

Did a random woman just give him her baby..?

“Uh..” He gulped, not knowing what to do when the small baby started moving her small limbs around, chubby hands reaching for Taehyung’s face, “S-stay put.”

For fucks sake, she wasn’t a dog.

Jungkook pulled a shirt over his head & zipped up his pants before heading over to the doorway, one hand combing through his hair,

"Tae, are you coming back... uh, what.." he stopped when he saw taehyung standing there, the most tense he's ever been in his entire existence--- wait, is that a baby?

Kook said nothing, walking up to stand next to his boyfriend, doe eyes staring down at the cute little human, peering closer as he shares a small smile, making the tiny girl giggle,

"Who's this?" He withdrew to glance over at Taehyung, who seemed anything but thrilled to have a baby on him. Kook was still confused, as he didnt see the source of the baby as of yet--- like, a parent!

“I don’t know.” Taehyung’s muscles were stiff, “But I’m.. scared.”

Before the elder could diminish into a pile of his own shit, the familiar girl reappeared from behind the door, wiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.

Taehyung didn’t know much about babies, but.. wasn’t, ‘Don’t leave your kid unattended with a stranger. They might kidnap them’, the first rule in some sort of parenting manual?

But, the hell does he know.

“Thank you so much for watching her!” She unclipped the baby carrier from Taehyung, who let out a breath of air he didn’t know he was holding until now.

His chest was free.

“Oh,” The girl’s eyes traveled over to the new face, “Hi! Sorry for bothering you guys.. This stupid desk just wouldn’t budge.”

The little girl began chewing on her small fist, slobbering all over it whilst she gawked at Jungkook, already growing fond of him.

Awkward silence filled the air, until it didn’t.

“I’m Jisoo! Apparently we’re neighbors..?”

Jungkook's eyes abruptly fell on the strange woman, he straightened his posture before giving her a bow when he did put two and two together-- She is indeed gonna be next door neighbours with him!

''Ah, really.. Yes, hello!'' He really was such an awkward boy,

''I'm Jeon Jungkook. Nice to meet you! Uh, welcome..'' He scrunched his nose as he smiled, eyes now trailing back to the cute baby, ''And who's this?''

Taehyung kept to himself, allowing Kook to take the lead in the introduction as his eyes raked over the woman’s face, and then to the blabbering baby attached to her chest.

She looked young, like she could be in High School. Surely she wasn’t the mother, perhaps the big sister.

Why was nobody else helping her move in?

“Oh, her?” Jisoo fondly smiled, taking a hold of her chubby hands before waving it in the air, as if the baby was the one greeting Jungkook, “Her name’s Min Yuna,” The girl seemed a bit hesitant to elaborate on it, but she did nonetheless. “My daughter.”

Whenever Jisoo broke the news to people, she was showered with dirty looks. Because god forbid someone her age was capable of raising a child.

“I’m not too young— well, I’m twenty-two so.. I guess that’s young?” She rambled, in her own little world as she tried to explain herself to the pair.

Jisoo was still sensitive to judgement.

“Uhm, anyway. It’s nice to meet you too, Jungkook. And..?”

The woman cocked a brow at Tae, chuckling a little.

“..man that watched my baby.”

“Taehyung.” A small smile pulled at the corners of the boy’s lips, who bowed out of respect.

“Taehyung! Got it.” Jisoo made herself a mental note of their names, having a feeling that they’d talk to each other more often than not.

Maybe to borrow some sugar, time will tell.

After Jisoo bid her goodbyes, Taehyung stepped back into Jungkook’s apartment, waiting for the younger to join him.

Jungkook waved goodbye before shutting the door tightly and heading back inside to join Taehyung. It was rather funny, how just ten minutes ago the younger was taking his boyfriend cock down his throat, and suddenly he'd been welcoming his new neighbour.. Well, neighbours, the small one counts.

''Well, that was.... bad timing.'' Jungkook jokes, stretching his arms up in the air as he walked closer to Taehyung, ''Never thought I'd see you with a baby. You looked incredibly comfortable,'' Another tease, a crooked eyebrow to make his point.

Taehyung pulled his shirt over his head, playfully aiming it at Jungkook’s face.

“Shut up..”

The elder boy kept his gaze trained on his boyfriend, leaning in closer to pull him down by the waist. They weren’t done yet, and Taehyung was going to make sure he was aware of that.

“Now that that’s over..” Tae bit down on his lip, hands sensually rubbing at the pair of thighs that were keeping him in place, looking up at Jungkook as the latter straddled his lap, “I wanna suck you off.”

Straight to the point. No hiding, no beating around the bush— Tae wanted to make Kook feel just as good.

Although he’d never actually sucked a guy off before, Taehyung was confident in his never before attempted skills from what he’s seen on the screen of his phone.

Ever since Jungkook and him started to date, Tae has binged a lot of gay porn. Admittedly, he wanted to make sure he was doing it right..

“So, that’s what I’m gonna do.”

With a smirk on his face, Taehyung flipped them over without any trouble, Kook now being the one with his butt on the couch. His hands fumbled with his boyfriend’s zipper, slipping off his pants and underwear in one go, desperate to get a feel.

The moment his eyes fell on Jungkook’s throbbing erection, Tae was practically foaming at the mouth.

He spread the precum from the pink, mushroom tip to the rest of the boy’s shaft. Taehyung kept his hooded gaze on Kook’s face, waiting for a reaction.

Jungkook couldn't even react properly to Tae's sudden words, a small yelp the only thing heard as he was flipped on his behind, eyes widening when he finally catches up with what is going to happen. His lips part with a soft sigh when his cock is finally freed from the uncomfortable strain of fabrics, however, his lips part even further when the elder touched him, his cock twitching within his boyfriends grasp,

''Shit...'' He had no words, and honestly-- he was excited... He's never actually had somebody suck him off before, and that in itself made him a little nervous.

Ironic since he's literally been fucked by the man below him. But this... It's new. Hands? Yes, he knows it.

Ass? Fucking amazing.

But Taehyung's mouth? A foreign concept, about to be explored, and Kook was about to give his boyfriend one of many firsts once again.

Taehyung seemed pleased with Kook’s reaction, slowly continuing to attend to the younger’s cock with his utmost attention.

He was doing the bare minimum, and he’d already managed to receive an airy curse from his boyfriend.

Fuck, he couldn’t wait to show Jungkook what he’s got.

Maybe Tae was being too cocky, maybe he was just being Taehyung. But what he knew for a fact was, he was going to make the other cum.

While his fingers tugged and played with Jungkook’s balls, the other set wrapped around the base of the boy’s cock. Wanting to be a tease, Tae pressed kitten licks on the tip, looking up at Kook through his dark eyelashes, wanting to see the frustration and arousal on his face.

Jungkooks gaze was fixated on Taehyung's ministrations, unable to rip his eyes off of the scene below him. Tae’s hands on him, the tasteful licks from the tongue that playfully poked through his boyfriends plush lips.

It was blissful, and frustrating. He wanted more.

“More...” he voiced out his needs, voice almost whiny as he kept his hands gripping onto his thighs, lips parting wider in breathy curses. His eyebrows were drawn together, hips automatically rutting for more friction.

Wanting it just as much, Taehyung gradually took more of Jungkook into his mouth, squeezing his eyes shut when he felt the tip of his boyfriend’s cock challenge his gag reflexes.

Reaching a comfortable length, Tae began to slowly bob his head, once in a while allowing his teeth to gently brush over the skin for the thrill of it.

His eyes were watery, but he pushed through.

He loved the way Jungkook tasted..

The hand that was wrapped around the base started to move, pumping the rest of what he couldn’t fit into his mouth.

Jungkook slouched down lower in his seat, one hand gently settling on top of taes head. He didnt guide the movements, he didn't force anything, just feeling Taehyung move his head on his own was incredibly hot.

"You're so good at this...." kook tilted his head down, dark locks dangling his eyes as a broken moan escapes his lips, his hips twitching. The urge to actually fuck his throat was strong, but... he knows itd hurt the elder.

"Harder...." kooks favorite word to utter during their moments, the younger was always greedy for more friction, more sensations. Harder, faster-- he relished and shuddered everytime Taehyung would tease with his teeth against the smooth skin of his length.

Tae heavily breathed through his nose, cheeks hallowed whilst he indulged himself in how it felt to be giving Jungkook a blowjob, adoring the way his boyfriend would plead for more.

It didn’t matter if he was straining his throat, Kook’s string of soft moans was his reason to keep going.

The elder listened, hand now moving at a faster speed, his head bobbing at a steady pace.

Lewd, wet noises of him sucking on Jungkook’s needy cock as if it were a lollipop arose to the ears, making Taehyung hum in approval, the vibrations hitting the other’s shaft.

He looked up at Kook, his innocent gaze so contradicting from his dirty, dirty actions.

Shit.. Tae felt his own erection scream for attention, for any kind of release— but he wouldn’t jerk himself off, he had other things in mind..

With one last bob of his head, Taehyung pulled away from the boy’s dick with a loud pop, staring down at the swollen tip that was drowning in his spit, a string of saliva still connecting them together.

Taehyung wiped at his swollen lips with the back of his hand, poking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth to retract some of Jungkook’s precum.

The elder worked on freeing himself from his pants, throwing the fabric to the side before straddling Kook’s lap, one hand on his shoulder while the other searched for the younger’s cock, guiding the tip to his hole.

“A-ahh..” Taehyung rubbed the tip against his entrance, rocking his hips.

Kook was confused about what Taehyung was doing, until he wasn't. His hands immediately grasped the elders ass to spread his cheeks further, needily rutting against his hole,

"Shit, you're really gonna ride me?" He breathed out in awe, the visuals before him of his boyfriends body on top of him was unmatchable, his thighs tightly pressing on each of kooks sides, his needy cock pathetically remaining untouched and hard.

Kook decided he wanted this faster, bringing his fingers to his lips to wet them before bringing them to taes hole, replacing his tip with his fingers pressing inside to stretch him,

"Just a little precaution..." he murmurs as he sits up straighter, placing kisses over his boyfriends torso as he keeps fingering him, stretching until he's able to scissor his fingers inside.

Taehyung’s body visibly trembled at the raw touch of his boyfriend’s active fingers, immediately clenching down on the pair as his initial response, biting down on his lip to prevent a strained cry of bliss from escaping.

Tae had yet to completely get used to the feeling, but if they kept this up, he’d get there in no time.

“Hmm.. Kook-ah.. t-that’s good.”

Both hands grasped onto the younger’s broad shoulders, staying somewhat still until he jolted in his spot, Kook’s fingers having poked against a certain area.

“Oh— yeah.. right there, baby.”

God, his boyfriend was the best. Just after fucking once, Jungkook knew where all of his weak spots hid.

Taehyung was impatiently dying to feel Kook’s dick inside of him once again, to re-experience that feeling of fullness. Thinking he knew best, the elder reached for the boy’s fingers, stubbornly pulling them out before carelessly plopping down on Jungkook’s cock, lips parting in a small gasp.

Fuck, that was a bad idea.

“Hngh.. shit.” Tae’s eyes watered, regretting his previous actions as he hid his face in the crook of his boyfriend’s neck, inhaling his scent whilst his legs shook at his sides.

Taehyung was stubbornly impatient, and for that he internally cursed himself out.

"Oh...!" Jungkook breathed out a surprised whimper, his cock suddenly being hugged by the warm tightness that is Taehyung's ass. It was so tight, it felt so good…

"Are you okay?" Kooks hands were back on the elders ass to spread him, keeping his hips still with his cock buried inside of the other male.

Just staying like this felt incredible. Kooks cock was throbbing,

"Move on me..." he wanted taehyung to decide when he was ready, scared to hurt him if he got too eager to begin with.

“Yeah..” Taehyung weakly breathed out into the other’s skin, arms loosely embracing Kook around his neck. The elder did as Jungkook told, beginning to gyrate his hips, squeaky moans muffled by their close contact.

Tae rocked on the younger’s cock back and forth, back and forth..

“Fucking love how you feel inside of me..”

He continued to rock them, fingers playing with the short strands of hair on the back of his boyfriend’s head, biting back his whines.

“You’re so strong.. and muscular— Ah..”

Back and forth..

Taehyung’s walls abruptly closed in on Jungkook’s cock, urging Tae to increase his speed.

So he did, hips rotating on the younger’s dick a little faster, pressing small kisses along his jawline.

'I fucking love you'... is what the younger wishes he would say--but instead chose to think it, moving his head to the side to grant taehyung better access to his neck,

"Yeah? You love my body?" Jungkook fished for praise, his strong hands squeezing at the flesh of the elders ass between his fingers as he started to buck his hips upwards to meet the movements of taes hips, his hands allowing him to start controlling the way Taehyung's ass smacked down on kooks cock, "And this fat cock? It's all yours, baby..."

Taehyung whined, throwing his head forward on Jungkook’s shoulder as he added a small hop to his movements, the sound of sticky skin against one another taking over.

“L-love is an understatement..”

He choked out, gyrating his hips faster than before, panting for breath.

“A-ahh! Ri-right there.. oh fuck, Kook that’s the spot.”

Tae clenched down on his boyfriend’s cock even harder, squeezing his eyes shut whilst he bit down on Kook’s shoulder, not wishing to scream out from pleasure.

Fuck, Taehyung was making the most beautiful noises, it was driving Jungkook mad, feeling every single hormone in his body awaken, burning in need to draw out more of these sinful sounds from the elder,

''Right there?'' Kook's voice was strained, breathy from fucking up into his boyfriend, putting an effort into using the muscles he's worked hard for. He's never been so grateful in his life for building his body, able to please Tae this way was everything, ''Fuck, Taehyung, you feel so good...'' He grunted lowly, digging his blunt nails into the flesh of Tae's ass, his thrusts becoming less and less merciful as his own greed for pleasure grew.

And as his desires for the man grew, he deemed this position now enough for him to fuck Taehyung the way he wanted, instead moving his hands to grasp the elders hips, flipping him over on his back against the couch, his own body towering over his lover.

''I can't get enough of you-- fuck..!'' Kook moaned out as he placed Tae's legs over his shoulders, leaning forward to push his cock as deep as physically possible inside of the man, this time able to fuck him to his own content. His core was strong, flexing as his movements were anything but gentle this time around.

The elder’s back hit the couch with a sharp cry of alarm, turned on by the way Jungkook manhandled his trembling body however he chose, knowing his only intention was to make them both lose their minds.

And fuck, was it working..

With every hard slap of his boyfriend’s balls against his skin, Tae’s legs slightly jolted from their place on Jungkook’s shoulders, toes stiffly curled inwards.

His head was turned to the side, outgrown fringe shielding his glassy eyes, fingers gripping at the other’s arms as they left behind faint dent marks from his nails.

Taehyung was still extremely sensitive to the feeling. After all, it was only the second time he’s gotten fucked in the ass.

“J-Jungkook..!”

A tear managed to roll down his rosy, sweat-glistened cheek, now facing Jungkook as he moaned out his name, craning his neck upwards so he could press a soft kiss to his boyfriend’s nose— his own way of letting him know that he was doing such a good job.

Tae felt a warmth bubble up within his lower stomach, building up with every second, every thrust of Jungkook’s cock into his gaping hole.

“I-I’m close.. real close!”

And just like that, Taehyung came, hard.

His body shook slightly, chest covered with a thick layer of sweat as he panted, feeling another tear stream down the side of his face, and finally onto the cushion of the couch where it joined the sweat shed by the both of them.

It hurt, but it was so, so good. It was the only pain Taehyung would go through again and again, until he was completely used to it.

“Fuck..”

As Taehyung came, his ass squeezed Kook's length so hard that it triggered his own orgasm, fucking into Taehyung with earnest until his hips stilled, leaning down closer as he cursed out a broken moan, his cock throbbing desperately as he filled Tae with every single drop of cum he possessed. He stayed still inside of him, drawing out the moment of letting his high last for as long as possible before it slowly faded down, exhaustion hitting him. He smiled weakly, beads of sweat trickling down his temples as he pressed soft kisses over Taehyung's cheeks.

Oh, how close he was to saying the forbidden words once more.

Should he? Why shouldn't he?

It could be so easy. A simple 'I love you'.. But, he was scared he wouldn't get the same words back.

''Hey... You're amazing.'' Is what he settled for, placing another kiss, this time on Tae's lips before he withdrew to sit on the couch, wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand-- Naked, sweaty and a cock coated with his cum, ''I'm gonna prepare a shower, then we can eat something?'' He glanced down at the exhausted male, ''Are you okay?''

A lazy, barely visible smile pulled at the corners of Taehyung’s lips, who laid on his back like a starfish— arms and legs outstretched to their full potential, one of each hanging off the couch.

“I’m great.” This time a worn out chuckle, finally allowing the light to reach his eyes as he sat up, or at least attempted to.

He was going to be extremely sore again, wasn’t he?

Taehyung pushed his fringe back, not worrying much about the fact.

“Hey..” The elder quietly called out, voice a little strained. “You’re kind of amazing, too.”

And with that being said, Tae’s face flushed even more, embarrassed.

His lips parted once more, about to add on to his words when a loud, piercing cry emitted from the other side of Jungkook’s wall.

Oh yeah, the new neighbor.

“The baby doesn’t seem too happy..” Taehyung tiredly breathed out, attempting to stand on his own, “What do you think of her, anyways.” He asked, knowing what he thought.

She was a little funky, talkative.

Definitely didn’t expect her to be a mother, but Taehyung isn’t one to judge. Sometimes.

Jungkook hums, a smile pulling on his lips,

"She seems nice." He didn't elaborate. She did seem nice, a little wonky maybe. Surprised that she had a baby at her age, honestly-- but jungkook was in no position to judge. Besides, from what he gathered, there was no boyfriend to help her, so he automatically deemed her as a strong person. Who the hell manages to move on their own, with a baby?

Kook smoothed his hand over Taehyung's thigh as he looked at his boyfriend, his nose scrunched in a grin, "How about that shower? Come on." He offered his hand to help the younger, pulling him up on wobbly legs before guiding him to the bathroom, turning on the water. While waiting for it to heat up, he glanced over at taehyung, pulling him in by the waist to nuzzle their noses together, completely unbothered by the cum staining taes stomach now pressing against the stomach of his own skin, "Maybe we should check if she needs help with anything else. You could show off your skills as a babysitter."

“Fuck off, Kook.” Despite his harsh words, Taehyung chuckled, playfully hitting Jungkook’s chest, “Babies scare the shit out of me.”

He mumbled as he carefully stepped into the bathtub, humming in content at the warm beads of water trickling down his skin.

Taehyung wanted to thank whoever invented showers.

After his boyfriend fucked his brains out, it helped ease his sore muscles.

‘’I could tell," Jungkook teased, getting into the shower behind his boyfriend, grabbing the rarely used loofah to soap it up, "I think shes cute," he started to gently massage the soap against Taehyung's back, down to the back of his thighs before snaking his hand around the elders torso to wash off the cum, "The baby, I mean. I think babies are cute."

Taehyung was relishing his moment of glory, content moans dripping from his lips at the care Jungkook was putting on cleaning him up.

He peeked over his shoulder at his boyfriend, grinning.

“Of course she’s cute.” The elder agreed, now turning around to repay him, taking the loofah from Kook’s hand, “She’s a little human. Little humans are cute.” He kept his eyes glued on to what he was doing, lathering Jungkook’s chest with soap, then trailing it down to his stomach.

“But they also cry a lot, and puke, and throw up— no.” The elder shook his head in accentuation, now scrubbing along the other’s arms, focusing on the task at hand.

Jungkook smiled widely, lifting his arms slightly to give the elder better access to wash his skin,

''Puke and throw up? I've taken care of adults doing the same thing. Much cuter when it's a baby,'' Kook snatched the loofah back from Taehyung when he was finished, hanging it on the small hook attached to the wall before wrapping his arms around his boyfriend, forcing them both to step underneath the shower to let the water do the job of washing the soap off,

''Anyways... I'm really hungry... But I don't think I have anything in my fridge, honestly.'' His smile faded, feeling guilty about the fact that he couldn't even feed Taehyung, knowing he's a big eater, ''We could uh.. order something?''

Kook furrowed his eyebrows, trying to remember how much he had left in his bank account. Which is, never enough.

“You know what I meant.” Taehyung sighed, trying to stifle a grin of his own because of his stupidity.

He really shouldn’t let himself ramble all that much, nothing ever made sense.

His mind traveled back to him laying on Namjoon’s couch, holding a bucket of his own puke as if it were his most prized possession, his caramel skin faded and lips no longer rosy.

Tae felt bad for putting the both of them through that— through him, just.. being him.

Although Jungkook was only joking, Taehyung felt bothersome, but he didn’t show it on his face.

“Hey, it’s okay.” He gently cupped his boyfriend’s jaw, not wanting him to go through all that trouble for him.

Taehyung knew money was tight, Kook didn’t need to order anything.

When he was done with High School— which was in a couple months— Tae promised himself to find a job to help Jungkook, financially. It was no doubt that the monthly rent was a big strain on the younger’s bank account, as well as the obvious need for food.

“We’ll figure something— who’s that?”

Taehyung’s head whipped to the sound of the knocks on Jungkook’s front door, pulling himself away from the latter before grabbing a towel, quickly drying himself and the other off before throwing on his spare clothes.

Who would it be?

#fic: Love maze #Taekook smut #Vkook smut #Taehyung x Jungkook #BTS smut #BTS series #Taekook series #Vkook series #BTS mxm #Top Jungkook #Bottom Taehyung #sombreboy

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kirenia15 · 3 years

Text

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Company *One-shot*

Summary: Gandalf brings an unexpected party to the Company of Thorin Oakenshield. A mage, a human, and a woman, a fact that not everyone in the company is glad about.

Warnings: none, I guess. Just some fluff.

Words: 2,170

Disclaimer: only my character is my own, credits to the amazing Tolkien and to the owner of the gif.

*A reminder that English is not my native language.*

[Kili x OC]

“Here, Mr. Gandalf, can't you do something about this deluge?” Dori asked, although he was barely audible through the cold storm they were riding in.

Every crack and crevice that exists was soaked to the bone. Droplets stick on her eyelashes and lips, dripping from her forehead and around the curves of her temple. Her hooded cloak helped for a while, until the rain started to come so heavily that nothing could stop it from reaching her skin.

Riding behind Dwalin and Gandalf, Kirenia has watched them become as soaked and as miserable as she was.

“It is raining, Master dwarf, and it will continue to rain until the rain is done. If you wish to change the weather of the world, you should find yourself another wizard.” Gandalf responded.

“Are there any?”

“What?”

“Other Wizards?” Bilbo questioned, a few meters behind her.

“There are five of us. The greatest of our order is Saruman the White. And then there are the two Blue Wizards... You know, I've quite forgotten their names.”

“And the fifth?”

“That would be Radagast the Brown.”

“Oh, I just recalled him! He is a genuinely nice fellow.” Kirenia intervened.

“Is he a great wizard, or is he more like you?”

Kirenia’s bottom jaw dropped open slightly, turning to stare wide-eyed at the hobbit. Gandalf gave Bilbo the side-eye, readjusting his seat and holding any commentary on the insult.

“I think he is a very great Wizard, in his own way”, he answered with candour. “He's a gentle soul who prefers the company of animals for others. He keeps a watchful eye over the vast forest lands to the East, and a good thing too.”

“What about Kirenia?”. This time Nori joined the conversation.

“What about myself? I am not a Wizard but a mage.”

“Well…what’s the difference, then?”

The mage and Gandalf shared a knowingly look, and she sighed before turning to face the curious dwarf.

“She has greater power than meets the eye… more than she even knows herself.” Gandalf interrupted. “And I fear the occasion for her to show us will present itself soon enough.”

Nori and Kirenia shared a look, the dwarf bearing an amazed expression. It seemed his curiosity was calmed for the time being. The mage, on the contrary, was beaming with pride at his dear friend’s words. But she also lacked confident in herself and was afraid to disappoint him terribly. In truth, not only Gandalf, but the whole company expected some worthy actions from her. After all, she had just tagged along, totally uninvited. She became silent until they all reached a place to spend the night, lost in her own thoughts.

Thankfully, the rain had stopped. The only annoyance now was the icy wind slapping her face. She brought her hands to her mouth trying to warm them in vain. Kirenia was shivering and the only thought that occupied her mind was to build the fire and seat as close to it as possible. Thorin started giving out orders and soon camp was set, and everyone had a task to complete. Kirenia went along with Bofur to collect more firewood, an impossibly difficult task, given that the forest around them was still humid and wet. A slight fog had descended upon them and the air became misty. She could feel the damp cold seeping through her cloak as they returned to camp.

“Are you alright?” Your nose is very red, and your lips are turning blue”. Fili asked her when she saw her seating beside the fire. She emitted a grunt in response and held a finger to touch his temple, whose contact made him jump back, startled.

“Mahal, you are freezing”.

“I will be fine”, she uttered.

Kili closed the gap between them and sat beside Kirenia, offering her his fur-lined coat, which she stubbornly refused.

“Will you just take it? You are shivering so hard it’s making my teeth rattle”.

He gently put his coat over Kirenia’s shoulders, making sure to tug her well in it. The inside still held Kili’s warmth and it was pleasantly dry. The mage nodded in acknowledgment and muttered a “thank you” to the inside of the coat. Only her face from the nose upwards was visible now. It would be a comical sight if it weren’t for the poor state she was in, sniffling from time to time and still shaking. The brothers stared at her, a worried expression crossing their faces.

When Bombur had finished preparing the night’s dinner, Kili sauntered over her with a steamy bowl in each hand. She eyed the content with little appetite and only took the bowl to warm her hands. The princes, sitting on each side of her, did not cease in their intents to make her eat. Finally, Fili took the untouched bowl off her hands, frowning as he deposited it next to Bombur. When he came back, he started chiding the woman about keeping her strength and it being a waste, but Kirenia barely heard any words. Her lips and throat were dry, her sight out of focus and she was still shivering, even though her skin burnt. Fili reached a hand to touch her forehead.

“She is burning up”, he exclaimed in Oin’s direction. Kili, as well as all the others, fixed their gaze on the mage, who was pale and sneezing repeatedly.

“Kirenia, why didn’t you speak up before?”. Fili chided.

“We need to stop her fever”. Oin sat in front of her, his medical supplies in hand. “Kili, be a good lad and fetch me some cool water”.

The prince nearly stumbled in his effort to do as he was told as quickly as possible, a worried look not leaving his face.

“Strip her”. Thorin’s voice boomed over to the small group gathered around the woman.

“Uncle!”

“Her clothes must be damp; she needs to dry first. That’s probably the reason she came down with the fever”.

“Yes, b-but…” Fili trailed off, gazing at the figure huddled in his arms.

“Do you want her to improve or not? Use your coats to cover her up”. Thorin snapped.

“He is right, lad.” Oin gave him a knowingly look.

[OC’s POV]

Several hours have passed since the dreadful rain stopped. The company had found a relatively dry flatland to set up camp for the night and you had done your best to keep up and complete your tasks. But by the time dinner was ready, you were huddled up in Kili’s large coat beside the fire, just shivering and feeling worse at each passing minute. You felt your nose running, your feet were still damp and cold, as was your hair and every inch of your skin. When the brunette prince offered you a bowl to fill your belly you almost refused it right away, but then you thought it would at least warm your hands. However, you couldn’t force yourself to eat, having lost all appetite and your only wish being to lay down and forget all about this awful day.

You heard voices around you but couldn’t make out the meaning of the words. You felt light-headed and a tiredness overcame you without you realizing it. Only when some hands started touching your body, taking off your boots and unlacing your leather corset you snapped out of your dizzy state.

You focused your sight and saw Fili and Oin looming over you, the first with an embarrassed expression you had never seen before, the latter with a stoic look and confident movements setting a blanket over the bottom part of your body.

“Wait…” you mumbled. Fili’s hands stopped right where they were, around the collar of your blouse. “I can do it myself.”

He cleared his throat, and a relieved sigh escaped his lips.

“Y-Yes, sure, I will cover you up with my coat, lass.”

After a tortuous while when you felt like every muscle in your body complaint, you laid down on the bedroll that someone had gently extended by the fire and buried yourself in a pile of blankets and coats with nothing on but your undergarments. At least they would dry quick enough so you wouldn’t have to take them off too. The whole situation was embarrassing enough as it was. Kili, perched by your side, spent his watch delicately rubbing a wet cloth over your sweating face whilst you drifted off into a restless slumber.

[Third person’s POV]

Kili and Bofur were both on watch duty during the first couple of hours, but the brunette prince didn’t mind it one bit. Not this time. He didn’t leave Kirenia’s side the whole time, gently stroking her hair and just looking at her evenly breath. It pained him to see her frown burrowed even though she was finally asleep, knowing that the mage would spend a rough night. Kili took one of her tiny hands in his callous ones, feeling her temperature was returning to normal and her fever coming down. He felt a hole in the back of his head as Bofur’s gaze was fixed in him but didn’t mind the teasing he would have to endure from his companions. His mind was occupied with only one thought: Kirenia was sick and he was there to comfort her.

The young woman stirred in her sleep, emitting a soft moan. Kili dropped her hand abruptly, not wanting to wake her. His coat slid off one of her shoulders, leaving her bare skin in plain sight. By the firelight, it glowed and looked more beautiful than ever despite her scars, he thought to himself. But as much as he wanted to caress her skin, he forced himself to re-adjust the numerous coats and blankets covering her, tucking Kirenia in again.

[OC’s POV]

Morning came along with the cheery chirping of birds and a nice, blue sky above their heads. Kirenia stirred in her bedroll and turned to see a certain raven-haired sleeping prince facing her. She felt a sudden urge to reach a hand and brush his fringe off his eyes but couldn’t bring herself to move. She just stared at the prince, feeling grateful to have met him and his brother. Sometimes she thought that they were the only ones in the company who actually tolerated her (apart from Gandalf, that is). A deep sigh escaped her lips and her head turned in the opposite direction when the sound of rustling and thumps reached her ears. Thorin was approaching, a stern look on his face. He was the only one awake at the moment and the woman debated between facing him now or pretend to sleep. Either way, she would have to face the king’s chiding and anger sooner or later.

Kirenia sat up straight in her bedroll, catching Thorin’s eye. She tried to keep covered with his nephew’s coat, realizing her state of undress. The dwarf king retraced his steps and sauntered over the mage, his serious gesture not letting away any emotions.

“Good morning, Thorin”

“How are you feeling?”, the dwarf cur her off.

“I am much better, thank you.” She bowed her head sightly, feeling nervous. She didn’t know what to expect from him. Surely, he would be fuming because she had made a nuisance of herself. The very same thing she promised wouldn’t happen, yet she’s been the first to fall sick during the journey.

“Is your fever gone?”

“Yes, I believe it is.”. She rested her hand on her forehead for a moment, assessing her state of health. Luckily, all she felt now was hunger.

“Good. Get dressed and eat something, we will leave soon.”

She stared at the king, who strode off to the other side of camp to waken Dwalin and Balin, then the other members of the company.

Through the camp groans and yawns could be heard and everyone started to rouse. Kili’s eyes fluttered open and saw Kirenia already awake, her cheeks rose and her eyes limpid. He let go a sigh of relief and patted her arm gently.

“How is our sleeping beauty feeling today?”

She turned to him, a serious look on her face.

“Kili, I… I just want to say I am sorry for the trouble I caused last night.” She looked at him with an apologetic smile planted in her lips and brows furrowed.

“What are you talking about? Do not be silly.”

“And thank you for lending me your coat.” She rose up, still enveloped in the large coat, and gathered her own clothes that were laid down beside the now extinguished fire. “I am just going to get dressed and give it back to you.”

“You know, I am rather cold.” Kili pretended to shiver and glanced at Kirenia coyly. “You should give it to me now.”

She stared at him for a moment, then started to take it off very slowly.

“Very well.”

The prince blushed, not catching her playful tone and bluff. The mage just laughed at his stunned expression and turned on her heels, marching towards a more private space behind the bushes.

#the hobbit #kili the dwarf #kili x oc #kili durin #fili durin #Thorin's Company #Thorin Oakenshield #fanfic #fluff #oneshot

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