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just-a-creep-babe · 10 months

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A Demon’s Ache — Part 13

Eyeless Jack x Reader

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12

Commissioned by @cookiereblogss — thank youuuuu, I hope you're enjoying the way the story's progressing!! <333333

Requests are closed but commissions are open!

Masterlist: x

Blood runs down his fingers

He clenches his fist around the organ, hears it squelch in his grasp as more of the fluid drips down his forearm, and then he takes another bite

His teeth slice through the organ like butter

A burst of its juice fills his mouth, and he snarls into the meat

Eating has always helped calm him down

It satiates his bloodlust, if but for a moment, which clears his head and makes it easier to think straight

He’s almost ashamed he has to resort to this, but the alternatives are worse; he’s either tense and borderline feral until he tires himself out, or he actually ends up hurting someone because he can’t keep himself in check

And while he isn’t too upset at the prospect of hurting Hoodie right now, he knows he probably shouldn’t

He takes another bite, lets the heady taste fill his mouth, and then he swallows it in one easy motion, practically devouring it whole

He doesn’t know how the fuck he’s supposed to bring Hoodie’s favor up to you

The very next day you sleep with him, he has to arrange some perv-fest so that another guy can creep on you?

What if you’re revolted—what if you want nothing to do with him afterward?

He releases a frustrated sigh, takes the last bite of his food, and then he starts pacing back and forth in his room

It’s been a few hours since he's had that conversation with Hoodie, and the sun has since set, but no matter how many times he turns it over in his head, he can’t think of a way to get out of this

As far as he’s aware, he has no other option

He shouldn’t have taken that deal so lightly

He’s almost relieved when a knock at the door finally interrupts his pacing

Or, at least, he would be relieved if the knock wasn’t so familiar in its loud, urgent impatience

There’s none other than an uncharacteristically worried BEN on the other side of the door when he opens it

Scarlet irises wide with panic, he doesn’t wait for Jack to ask what’s wrong before he speaks

“It’s—it’s Jeff”

Being the mansion’s main doctor for as long as he has been, Jack’s come to understand the severity of an issue just by gauging the creeps’ reactions

Nat, for example, swears a lot when it isn’t serious, but she gets exceptionally quiet when it is serious

Masky gets annoyed when it’s just a flesh wound, and he hisses and grunts a lot when it's a deeper kind of pain

BEN, on the other hand, is hardly ever fazed by any of it

Being dead, he can’t get injured like the rest of them, and even when he does witness someone get hurt, it’s like he’s completely desensitized to it; he either just laughs it off or ignores it

Jack can’t remember ever seeing him this shaken

And when they make it to the infirmary, he can understand why he’s so affected

Jeff’s body is on one of the tables, unconscious, unresponsive

His clothes are ripped and soiled with blood and grime, his skin looks unnaturally pale and clammy—even for him—and although he is breathing, it looks like he’s just barely clinging on

“Christ, what happened to him?” Jack asks, wasting no time inspecting the most obvious wounds

“I-I don’t know,” BEN stutters, “I hadn’t heard from him in a couple of days, so I tried texting and calling, but he wouldn’t answer”

Jack presses his fingers to Jeff’s neck, feels his pulse—faint but present—and makes a quick mental list of the treatments he’ll have to administer

Judging by appearances alone, he realizes he has his work cut out for him for the night

Wasting no time on scissors, he rips Jeff’s clothes off with his hands, the fabric shredding like wet paper, and the full extent of his injuries are revealed

“Shit,” Jack mumbles under his breath at the sight

As if by muscle memory, he maneuvers through the clinic, grabbing all the necessary supplies, and then he quickly gets to work

“I tried checking through his phone, but I couldn’t access it,” BEN’s eyes follow Jack’s movements as he speaks, “so I-I did a scan of the areas I thought he might be in”

“Pass me one of the bags of clear liquid next to that jar of bandages,” he interrupts, holding his hand out, and BEN quickly obeys

There’s a tense, silent pause as Jack loads up a needle, then injects Jeff with whatever that liquid is

Once the contents of the syringe have fully been emptied, BEN resumes

“I found him passed out in an abandoned building, and no matter what I did, he wouldn’t wake up. I thought—I almost thought—“

Jack doesn’t say a word as he gets to the nitty gritty of fixing up Jeff’s broken body

“Is he… is he going to be ok?”

Jack huffs out a bitter, sarcastic laugh

“For better or for worse, he’ll live”

The process of stabilizing and patching Jeff up is slow and tedious work, but all things considered, Jack’s thankful for the distraction it provides

BEN helps however he can, mostly by handing him supplies, but he eventually leaves to check if Jeff left any online traces of his activities

And then the demon's inevitably left alone with his thoughts once more

He tries not to think back on his deal with Hoodie, and instead, he focuses on carefully extracting bullets from the various layers of skin they've penetrated through

The shells clang every time he drops them onto the metallic side table, and while he'd usually keep track of the number of bullets he pulls from someone's body, at this point, he's lost count

He's been shot too many times

Absent-minded, Jack wonders what kind of mess he had to get himself into for things to get this bad

Was he trying to get himself killed?

The last few shells finally come out, and with a sigh, Jack places the now-sticky forceps onto the blood-soaked towel accommodating the various bullets of various shapes and sizes

32, he counts

32 bullet wounds—and that's not even including the rest of his other injuries

If he didn't know any better, Jack would think it's a miracle he survived

But he does know better; he knows the killer's abilities, and he knows he'll be able to shrug this whole thing off with little to no problem and no permanent damages

He knows he won't learn his lesson

Steady hands begin working on the stitches, meticulously pulling needle through skin one thread at a time

He's around halfway through working on one of the larger gashes—going from his shoulder, across his collarbone, and down to his chest—when Jeff starts stirring awake

He shouldn't even be able to wake up with the severity of his bloodloss, but Jeff's body, like Jeff himself, is obnoxiously persistent

EJ considers giving him more sedatives, but he figures he might as well quickly finish these off first

Jamming too many sedatives into someone's system isn't good, and he's almost done with this part anyways

Thankfully, it's only once he's finished the last biggest stitches that Jeff seems to become more lucid

He snips the final remaining black thread, silently hoping Jeff won't tear through them as quickly as he usually does, and then he makes his way to the sink, turns the tap on, and lets the warm water rinse away the blood-soaked stains on his ash-grey hands

He feels Jeff's eyes on his back, but he pays him no mind as he begins cleaning and sanitizing his tools and equipment

Jeff mumbles something under his breath, groaning and cursing with a raspy, dry voice, and Jack sighs

He definitely needs more sedatives by now

He starts getting to work on filling another syringe, and as he presses the needle a few inches deep into Jeff's skin, the human hisses and weakly struggles against him

"Stop moving," Jack commands, his voice quiet and low, but firm and commanding

“You... you think you’re hot shit, don’t you?” Jeff retaliates, his words shaky and uneven as EJ empties out the entirety of the contents into his bloodstream

“You’ve suffered severe blood loss, minor head trauma, fractures to your ribs, collarbone and wrists—not to mention the varying degrees of injuries from multiple knife and bullet wounds," Jack states, "It’s in your best interest to rest right now”

He hopes it’ll be the end of it; Jeff will take the hint, close his crispy burnt eyelids and pass out, but of course, it’s never that simple with someone like Jeff

“You think… just cause she chose you over me… that you’re better than me—don’t you?”

Jack's ears perk up at the dazed accusation

So that's what started all of this

Suddenly intrigued, he looks down at him; damaged, mostly naked, vulnerable and drugged up to the second degree

When people are in this kind of state, Jack knows they tend to be open and honest to a fault, which usually grants him the perfect opportunity to pry whatever information he pleases out of them

“What happened between you and (y/n)?”

He decides it's the best question, the one he's the most curious about, and while he knows he could just ask you about it, he wants to hear what Jeff has to say

The man in question huffs, looking up, and Jack doesn’t fail to notice the unfocused look in his eyes

“I had her,” he mumbles, “I had her…”

His eyelids fall close, his brows furrowing, and Jack recognizes the look as someone struggling to stay awake despite their body shutting down

Jack watches him pass out, watches as his breathing grows deeper and his muscles slacken with sleep

And then, with a dismissive shake of his head, he turns and walks away, leaving him behind on the uncomfortably cold and hard operating table in the grungy clinic

Throughout the night, Jack intermittently returns to check up on him

He does so partially because he needs to refresh his bandages and check up on the fluids hooked up to him, but also because he's curious if he'll mention you again

He, however, doesn't wake back up, so Jack can't pry more information out of him

The next morning, after being in and out of the clinic, Jack prepares himself a dark brew of coffee, and sits down at the empty kitchen table

He hasn't slept much in the past few days, and he still feels fine, but he knows he should probably rest before leaving for that mission

He takes a sip of his drink, the bitter liquid stinging his tongue

Despite everything, it’s a peaceful morning

He’s enjoying his solitude in the empty kitchen when Hoodie suddenly walks in, pouring himself a drink from the still-warm pot, and Jack gets the feeling that his luxury of peace and quiet is just about to run out

“So?” Hoodie starts, taking a seat right next to him, “you ask her yet?”

Jack resists the urge to act on an unsavory impulse by taking a long, deep sip of his coffee

“...No. I haven’t,” he eventually answers

He wants to walk away, wants to avoid this conversation at all costs, but he knows how persistent Slender's proxies can get

Whatever he wants to say, Jack might as well let him say it and get it over with

Hoodie hums, bringing his own drink to his lips, and when he sets his mug back down, there’s a coy, self-satisfied smirk on his face that Jack wants to rip off

“Y’know, we have to leave for that mission soon”

“…”

Jack takes another sip to mask the way his body’s burning with that familiar demonic rage

“If you don’t ask her by the time we leave, I’m asking her first thing as soon as we're back”

Even despite being part demon, Jack doesn’t usually consider himself an angry person

He’s by far incapable of controlling his emotions, unlike Jeff or Masky, for example

But when it comes to you?

You're his weakness

And he swears he’s about to lose it when Nat suddenly walks in, spots the two of them, and grins deviously as she bounces over to them

Jack grits his teeth, trying not to let his anger show through in front of Nat

“Mornin’ chumps!” she exclaims loudly and excitedly, almost like she's actively refusing to read the tension in the room

“Mornin,’” Hoodie answers, reclining in his chair with that obnoxious smirk still plastered on his face

“What’re you two conspiring about? Something related to (y/n), I presume?”

She looks over at Jack, a wicked grin on her face, and he has to hold back a groan

He’d suddenly rather be anywhere but here right now

“I gotta keep an eye out for my homegirl,” she continues, “if I find out either of you are planning something, you’re fucking toast—I hope you realize that”

If Jack could roll his eyes right now, he would

Hoodie, on the other hand, chuckles

“Relax, Nat, we’re not planning anything bad,” he assures, drinking through his coffee

“Nothing bad, but you are planning something?” she quirks a brow at him

Hoodie’s about to open his mouth to speak, undoubtedly to give another non-answer, when Toby notices them from across the room, and also decides to join in

Jack resists the urge to smack his face into his palm

All he wanted was a bit of peace this morning

He swears the creeps have a herd mentality sometimes; despite being predatory creatures, they always gather up in packs like sheep

“Hey! What—what’s everyone t-talking about?”

Toby jerks his shoulder, popping it, and as he sits down, his Tourette’s nearly has him pushing over Jack’s mug, but Jack’s instincts are, thankfully, fast enough to catch it before anything spills over

“Crap, sorry,” he apologizes, “bu-but anyways—are you guys—are you guys talking about w-what happened with—fuck—with Jeff?”

Jack’s ears admittedly perk up at Toby’s question

Where’s this conversation about to go?

“Jeff?” Nat repeats, “What happened with Jeff?”

“B-BEN told me—t-told me that he—fuck—almost die-died or something. Said he had to—had to teleport him here, and Jack—Jack spent almost all—all—a-all night last night trying t-to fix him up”

Everyone’s eyes turn to Jack, who swallows down another mouthful of hot, bitter coffee, but doesn’t say anything

“That true?” Hoodie asks

“Mmh,” he answers

“B-BEN—BEN said it was pretty-pretty bad,” Toby continues, popping his jaw, “s-said he hadn’t seen—hadn’t seen it be that bad in a—in a while”

“Huh,” Nat says, “I wonder what’s been up with him. I guess it has been a while since I’ve seen him around. How long was he out for?”

Toby shrugs, his shoulder jerking again

“Beats me”

There’s a brief moment of quiet as the creeps sit around the table in silent contemplation

But then Nat breaks the silence with a scoff

“Well, whatever,” she shrugs, rolling her eye, “he’s always been a whiny bitch, he’ll get over it”

The topic of conversation shifts after that, and when they’re all enraptured in their discussion, Jack uses the opportunity to quietly slip away

He brings the rest of his coffee to the backyard garden, next to the roses and tulips, and he remembers this as the spot where you told him you wanted to stop seeing him

It feels like a lifetime ago by now, and it brings him a bittersweet kind of relief thinking about how things turned out between you

He wonders what made you change your mind—why, one moment, you didn’t want to sleep with him, and the next, you seemed perfectly content with your arrangement

Not that he’s complaining

He sits at one of the benches, enjoying his solitude once more as his head floods with the thought of you

The thought of you usually never fails to make him feel better

But now, he can't stop thinking about what Hoodie just said to him

Two days

He only has two days left to ask you before that fucker takes matters into his own hands

He runs his fingers through his hair, and then eventually, he realizes that, just like before, the more he waits, the more it'll stress him out

Maybe he should just rip the bandaid off in one fast motion

He takes the very last sip of his coffee, looks around the garden, and nods to himself, trying to hype himself up

He'll be upfront and honest about the whole thing, and he'll make it more than clear that you can refuse

Really, the chances of you agreeing are probably slim to none, anyways

And the sooner he can get this over with, the better

Tonight will be as good a time as any, he decides

He'll ask you tonight

#creepypasta #eyeless jack #eyeless jack x reader #creepypasta x reader #crp

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hearts4keene · 4 months

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why don't you bring your girlfriend? // robby keene

materlist!!

summary: robby keene had always been cobra kai's top fighter. when kyler decides to throw a party, kenny and the others all bombard robby on why he doesn't bring his girlfriend to the party.

pairings: you and robby!!

warnings: pet names (baby), you're literally such cutie, fem prns, probably cringe, takes place end season 3 (except it doesn't really make timeline sense but for the sake of the one-shot bear with me), hawk and devon being cobra kai, it didn't not come out the way i wanted to so i might make another robby one-shot idk 🤷‍♀️

w/c: 1100

robby had been punching the dummy for what felt like hours. his knuckles hurt and had blisters all over them. nothing cobra kai's top fighter couldn't deal with, however. next to the brunette was tory. she had just finished nis sparing with kyler when she sat down to take a drink.

seeing everyone grabbing water, robby followed. he twisted the cap off of a plastic water bottle, flicking it into a corner to never be found again. robby wasn't one to chat during practice. he found it disrupting and the last thing he would want to do is upset silver or kreese. truth be told, the boy was terrified of his senseis.

"party at mine tonight. be there by 7 or i'll open the kegs without you guys." robby didn't have to look up from staring at his bloody knuckles to know who's voice it was. kyler's voice annoyed robby to no end. robby listened to the people who said they'd be there. tory spoke up. "keene, you going?"

robby shook his head. "can't make it." kyler's face went from being full of pride to slightly offended. "why not? you too good for your friends now?" kyler rolled his eyes. robby cocked an eyebrow, standing up and walking over to the group. "sorry man i told my girlfriend i'd come over after practice." tory looked surprised.

kenny's eyes widened. "wait, robby, you have a girlfriend? since when?" this was news to everyone. even though robby and y/n had been dating since before he was on the run last year, the two never told anyone. partly because they were both very private people and partly because y/n was scared of samantha larusso. "uh about a year and a half now." robby looked around the room, realizing his mistake.

"why don't you bring your girlfriend?" tory interrogated. it was a pretty solid idea. robby just didn't know if y/n was all that of a party person. it couldn't hurt to ask he supposed. "i'll ask her. but no promises we'll show." and with that, robby left to head over to his girlfriends.

robby softly knocked on y/n's front door, knowing she was home alone and he didn't want to scare her. y/n quickly opened the door. her face lit up when she saw that it was robby. she threw her arms around his neck, giving him the biggest hug she could.

"hey, baby, i have a huge question to ask." robby started. the two had been laying in y/n's bed for quite some time now. it was around 6, an hour before the party started. y/n hummed in response. robby sat up, subconsciously scooting y/n up so she was still laying on his legs. robby took a deep breath. "kylershavingapartytonightandimayhaveaccidentallyletitslipthatwe'vebeendatingforayearandnowtheywantmetobringyousoyoucanmeetthem." (kylers having a party tonight and i kinda let it slip that we've been dating for a year and now they want me to bring you so you can meet them)

y/n was taken back by how quickly he attempted to get that out. "sure, seems fun." y/n patted robby's leg reassuringly. "wait really?" robby pushed his hair back, a sign of relief escaping his legs. "really. it's been a year and i think it's time for me to meet them." y/n sat up, shrugging. "you're actually the best." robby smiled, planting a soft kiss on her lips.

an hour later the two had arrived at kyler's house, already hearing the music blasting from a few houses down. there weren't many people there, just the cobras. tory described it as a "inner circle only" kind of thing. robby opened y/n's car door, offering his hand for her to grab. of course she couldn't pass on that offer. she took robby's hand. robby slammed the door shut with his free hand.

the two didn't know whether to knock or to just walk in. judging by how loud the music was, the two just walked in. the chatter stopped when the couple came into sight. "holy shit." kenny whispered to kyler, pointing at robby. "yo, keene, your girl was real?" kyler raised an eyebrow. y/n flipped him off. "this is y/n. y/n these guys are kyler, kenny, hawk, tory, devon, and....stingray?" robby pointed at each person, pausing at stingray.

y/n nodded towards everyone. her and robby went to go sit on the couch. "so, y/n, how did you and robby meet?" tory questioned, trying to help y/n ease into the group. (we love a polite queen) "oh.. uhh.. i think the first time we met he was working at larusso's car shop and i was picking up my car. right?" y/n held robby's hand a little tighter. she looked up at him for confirmation.

"pretty sure that's what happened." robby nodded. tory smiled at y/n. "c'mon, y/n. me, you, and devon can just talk while they do... whatever the fuck they're doing." tory had a weird tone in her voice when she said the last part. kyler had been trying to get stingray to chug a beer without spilling drop. "be back, baby." y/n kissed robby's cheek before taking tory's hand and running outside with her and devon.

devon took a breath of fresh air. "those people piss me off so much." devon laughed. tory nodded with her. the three girls sat in the grass, staring up at the stars. "you look good with robby. he's been a lot happier." tory reassured y/n. not like she needed the reassurance, but it was still nice to hear.

the girls talked about themselves, as well as cobra kai as a whole, for a good hour and a half before people started leaving the party. robby came outside, car keys in hand. "you ready?" he asked. y/n nodded, brushing the grass off her knees. she held her hands out for tory and devon to grab. she pulled them up within seconds. "it was so nice meeting you guys." y/n smiled at the two. the girls smiled back at her.

robby opened the car door for y/n, then closing it when she was fully in the car. he got into the driver's side, starting the car. "so, how'd you like them?" robby reached a hand over the gear stick to hold her hand. he rubbed his fingers over he knuckles. "it was good. they're sweet girls. especially tory." robby snickered.

y/n looker over at him confused. "it's nothing, baby. just never heard the words 'tory' and 'nice' in the same sentence."

#robby keene x reader #robby keene #cobra kai #miguel diaz #hawk moskowitz #samantha larusso #tory nichols #kyler park #kenny payne #stingray #karate kid #daniel larusso #johnny lawrence #demetri alexopoulos #anthony larusso

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makncheese12 · 11 months

Text

Top Shelf pt. 3

Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Masterlist

Summary: being the kid of a well-known book store owner was easy, so was running into famous people. But being book smart doesn’t make everyone people smart.

A/N: me and my friend were talking what to have happen next yesterday and we remembered how R is ‘book smart’ but not people smart and I kept coming up with ideas that made R look kind of stupid and she kept saying “yeah cause she’s book smart, don’t forget’ I would have posted it yesterday if we had gotten anywhere but we could stop laughing.

Warning: my attempt at being funny?, bad writing, angst at the end if you squint?

Word count - 3.3k

Credits: @novmoth (my friend from school who feeds into my delusions and gives me more ideas for this story🫶🏻)

Jenna Ortega x fem!reader

You didn’t text her.

You told yourself it was nerves that were getting to you, the way Lyle kept insisting you texted her before she changed her mind.

A week after the whole incident you decided it was too late and that he was right, maybe she would have forgotten about it.

You could always hide in the storage room if she ever came back and let Lyle take care of her while you drowned in your own self pity on the floor next to the masses of boxes.

But what if she hadn’t? What if she was waiting for your message the day she put her number in your phone and never got it or the entire week after?

What if you did text her and she texted you right back?

You had doubted it but there was still a string of hope left in you as you continued to contemplate it all.

Dru said you were stupid for not even texting a simple ‘hey’ just so the celebrity could at least have your number.

Mj, of course, has been referring to you as coward instead of your name since the day after you talked to Jenna which only made you feel worse.

Would they do it differently if they were in your position? Mj would, already having had texted her the minute she left. Dru would have deleted the number as soon as he got it, he only had eyes for Mj it seems these days, and Lyle he would have done the same as Mj but at least waited a few hours.

So, your situation was different from theirs you supposed.

“That’ll be thirteen fifty.” The man behind the counter states in a monotone voice as you pull your card out.

You decided to go to 7/11 to cheer yourself up a bit after being insulting by your group of friends the whole time while playing Apex, not caring that you were still in your pajamas.

The large slushie and snacks were certain to cheer you up and allow you to brag to the group about.

You grab your bag before quickly making your way out of the door and sliding your ear buds back in before your phone buzzes.

Lyle🗿:

My freezie senses are tingling.

You snort as you quickly begin typing.

You:

Stop stalking me on life 360 loser

Lyle🗿:

Did you get me one?🥺

Your smile grows at his disregard your statement completely and getting straight to the point.

You:

No, since I’m such a dingbat weirdo

Lyle🗿:

I take it back, please, I need a slushie🙏🏼I’ll even get on my knees and beg

You roll your eyes knowing he’d do it for free if you asked.

You:

The day DD chops off his musty hair is the day I’ll get you a slushie.

Another notification goes off and you click it.

Dru Danvers🤓☝🏼

Fuck you🖕🏼

You continue to smile and text, unbeknownst the the person who stops suddenly behind you and looks back.

Their eyes lingers on you for a moment before looking to the much larger man who lets out and sigh and nods begrudgingly, the person smiles before rushing after you.

Just before you could cross the street, they touch your shoulder making you stop and look back.

Your eyes are met with the brown ones you’ve been thinking about nonstop as a smile comes across both your faces.

You yank out your ear buds, something you seemed to do whenever it was her specifically when it came to Lyle or the others they would have to yank them out to get you to listen.

“Hey,” she says, her smile still on her face as she looks up to you. “Hey.” you reply before looking up to the man who stood a few feet behind her then back down to her.

“So I never got that text you promised me.” She says in a teasing tone and you tense, your mind racing through excuses to tell her.

You laugh awkwardly and guiltily before rubbing the back of your neck. “Yeah, sorry about that I’ve just been busy lately I never got the time.”

She looks at you for a moment, clearly seeing through the lie and you wondered if she actually could with the way she was looking at you.

“Or..” she says as she begins walking past you. “You just didn’t want to text me.” She says sending you a playful glare but there was also something else.

As she turns around to continue walking, both you and the man on her heels, a deep frown forms on her face.

She had hoped she was wrong.

“What? No,” you reply quickly catching up too and walking beside her. It was quite the opposite, actually.

“I really was just..” you reply before stopping yourself. It felt like you were lying to the girl but you weren’t, you were just trying to save yourself the embarrassment of the truth.

But then again that was lying, about how you felt.

She looked toward you, the look of hope in her eyes seemed to crack you and you let out a sigh of defeat. “I really was just letting my nerves get to me.”

Her eyebrow raised slightly and you let out a huff, not liking the way this girl just made you want to spill every truth.

“I guess I was nervous to text you. I only really text my friends so I didn’t really know what to say.” You mumble, thinking about what Mj would say to this.

She can’t even see you, just text something it’s not that hard

She let out a hum, satisfied with your new answer while also satisfied hers was wrong.

“A simple ‘hey’ isn’t that hard.” She says, amused by your embarrassment and you huff out once again. The statement proving Dru right, not that you’d ever tell him that.

“It’s not everyday I get asked for my number,” you mumble and Jenna feels a smirk creep onto her face.

Good; she thought to herself as her smirk only grows on her face at the thought she was probably one of the first. Or at least she thought she was with how you described it.

“How else was I meant to react?” You ask.

She lets out a snort. “You didn’t, your friend did actually.” You roll your eyes and chuckle.

Your eyes travel to across the street to see some people hiding and taking pictures while others do the same not so subtly.

You grimace slightly before turning your attention back to the girl, deciding to ignore the group.

You smile before pulling out your phone and typing quickly and a ding comes from her pocket as you put yours back.

She takes her phone and opens the text to see the unknown number and the simple ‘hey’ added to it which makes her scoff lightly. You feel your smile grow bigger at her reaction, finding yourself very amusing.

“Very funny.” She rolls her eyes before sending a text herself and pushing it back down into her pocket.

“Thank you, I try very hard.” You say, looking forward to see the snow begin to fall again. Your smile grows knowing it’ll be a good day tomorrow at the shop.

Your eyes travel to the moon before letting out a hum at the lack of stars in the sky.

“Why are you out so late?” You ask and she shrugs. “I just like to walk, you?” She asks turning slightly toward you.

“Would you believe me if I told you I’m a very active person?” You ask, of course you weren’t but who wouldn’t want to make themselves seem impressive.

She looks you up and down slowly before a smirk forms on her lips. You look down to see your black and white plaid pajamas with you zip up sweat shirt, the snacks and slurpee in your hand only proving you wrong further.

You looked more like you were late to school and didn’t want to get dressed than out for a late night run.

“Touché.” You mumble nodding before looking up to see her smiling. “Did you just get out of bed?” She asks and you nod.

“Yes, actually.” You reply.

“Oh, makes sense.” she mumbles with a small smile before it falls. You quickly notice her eyes traveling to the people taking pictures making the both of you frown.

How someone could get used to cameras always in their faces was unknown to the both of you.

The non stop flashing or the loud yelling from a director seemed overwhelming to you and it was for Jenna.

“So,” you say before beginning to walk again. “Wednesday Addams?” You ask and she sighs before nodding.

“I thought you’d figure it out sooner or later.” She groaned softly making you chuckle.

“I kind of already knew, just needed to be reminded.” You admitted making her stare up at you in wonder.

“You knew me but didn’t know me?” She asks, too seriously for your liking. “I mean, yeah I used to watch you when you were younger with my friends. Stuck in the middle I think they said?”

She groans louder this time, clearly embarrassed by the thought of the show she starred the main character of.

“But other than that no.” You finished laughing as she rubs her hands down her face.

“There are literally so many others and you just had to have seen only that one, great.” She mumbles and shakes her head.

Too say she was embarrassed was an understatement, she has so many shows and movies she’s been in recently that she completely forgot about the ones of her younger self.

Her acting was good but not as good as it was now so it wasn’t really great to hear you say what you said.

“You’ve had to have watched something else?” She’s pleading now, her hand resting on your forearm as you look down at her. You shake your head and laugh as she groans once again.

“I don’t watch much TV.” You admit once again making her sigh. “At least watch Scream or Wednesday,” she says, huffing slightly.

“Just so you see how much I’ve improved?” She asks looking up to you and you nod, deciding not to tell her you don’t really remember much of the older show.

“Sure, if it’ll make you feel better.” She let’s out a sigh of relief. “Thank you, oh my god that’s so embarrassing.” She says looking around and shaking her head.

You smile down at the girl who continues to look around New York, mesmerized by all the sights as you both continue to ignore the paparazzi flashes and cameras.

You thought she looked stunning as snow fell on her head and eyes shining with wonder, the street lights only helping her look better if she could.

Suddenly the man steps up and taps Jenna’s shoulder making you both look back to him.

He points to her watch and Jenna’s face falls as she nods to the man who takes another step back, waiting for her patiently.

She looks up to you and gives you a sort of sad smile. “Sorry, I have to go.” She says gesturing to the man who sent you both a glance before looking back to the paparazzi who kept their distance for some reason.

“It was fun talking to you though.” She says and you nod. “Totally.” you say, voice cracking lightly making her smile grow.

You stare at her for a moment to take in how stunning she was from the front angel instead of the side now.

Her freckles seemed to be much more noticeable up close, eyes darker without the light and a smile that makes your heart skip a beat.

“Text me, I mean it this time.” She raises her eyebrow and unfortunately walks toward the man while leaving a cold spot from your side which makes you realize how close she actually was walking.

You clear your throat this time and nod, “I will and you too, now that you have it.” You say watching her look over her shoulder as the man leads her away.

You smile as you watch her walk away, eyes linger on the last place you saw her before you turn around and begin walking in the direction of your apartment.

Once you do get back, you’re greeted with your cat rubbing against your leg making you place down your bag and drink before walking toward his food bowl and feed him.

Once that’s done you looked back to your half melted slushie that had sacrificed itself so you could talk to Jenna making you let out a happy sigh as you put it in your freezer.

A buzz is heard from your phone making you reach back and pull it out of your pocket, a smile immediately forming on your face at the sight.

xxx-xxx-xxxx

So, you were gonna make text first?

————

You hear you alarm go off making you groan as you pull the covers from off your head. You hadn’t realized how late it was while texting Jenna that you had just fallen asleep on your own and you were starting to regret it.

You grab the alarm clock before pressing off and looking at the time.

9:23.

Your eyes shoot open, suddenly wide awake as you practically shoot yourself out of bed, your cat jumping off with you as he runs away.

That’s twice in one month had you scared him like that.

You realize you don’t have time to shower as you pull clothes on and grab your keys before rushing out of the door and running as fast as you could down the stairs — ignoring your neighbors scolding— and onto the street.

You continue to run before yanking the glass door open to see your mom who sends you a unamused look and your father who looks disappointed.

“You’re late.” She states matter-of-factly as you pull your t-shirt of, now only in your sports bra as you grab the shirt. “And now your indecent!” She says, rushing over and pulling your sweat shirt down for you.

“Animal!” She says, hitting you with her rolled up magazine she grabbed from the shelf.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t see what time it was last night before going to bed!” You say, trying to block her hits.

“Playing your game all night again I assume.” she states instead of asks making you nod your head. A little white lie won’t hurt.

“You’re an adult in college, Y/N.” Your father sighs and stands up from sitting in his chair. “You shouldn’t still be going to so late because of a silly game.”

His scoldings were much gentler than your mothers which makes you smile lightly. “I know, I’m sorry.” You mumble and he only nods before going back to work.

You looked to your mother who raises her eyebrow at you as she walks passed you. “You have a lot to do today as a consequence now, so I suggest you get to work.” She says, tossing you the clip board of work you need to do which is much longer than normal.

You huff out quietly while reading over it, knowing this is what you get for being late.

————

The day was quiet and you had a few more customers than usual so it was sort of busy as you rush around helping people while doing your work as the sun began to slowly set.

It was easier than expected but definitely a little stressful.

You were glad your parents were making you do this now though. Getting used to it all before taking over after they retire.

You were in the middle of helping a customer when you see Lyle practically sprinting down the street and toward the shop making you knit your eye brows together.

“You’ll find it in the romance section, just over there by the bean bags.” You say with a smile and the boy nods and leaves you to go find her book.

You look back over to seem him yank open the door, eyes scanning over the library before they land on you.

He moves as quickly as he can without being loud in the quiet library to get to you.

“There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you! You weren’t answering your phone and you weren’t at your apartment.” He says in a whisper yell as he pulls you down a aisle.

You knit your eye brows further as he pulls out your phone from his back pocket. “I got it for you when I went to see where you were,” he says shoving it in your hands. “Open it!” He ushers you while you just stare at him.

“What?” You ask, looking down at the device in your hand making him groan out in anger.

“Check your damn Insta!” He demands making you further confused but begrudgingly open the app making your eyes go wide.

You first thing you see is the 99+ symbol on your notifications tab and over two thousand messages next to it.

You click your profile not to see you one hundred and thirty followers but seventy thousand.

You click on the photo of you and Lyle, he was pushing you in a shopping cart down the road along with the other pictures you all had taken while high that night. It had over ninty thousand likes.

“What?” You mutter and Lyle nods. Before pulling up his twitter on his phone. “It gets better!” He says a little too loudly making the person in the aisle glance over in annoyance.

You give him an apologetic smile before look to see the link he put to your face.

Celebrity Jenna Ortega seen with lovestruck mystery woman in New York City. Could this be the start of a sprouting love story? Click here to read more..

Under it showed a picture of you and Jenna on the street last night with her staring toward the city and you staring at her.

Your eyes go wide as you take his phone and continue to scroll seeing the many pictures the paparazzi took last night along with the picture you recognized to be on Lyles Instagram.

“And let’s not forget the picture I took of you while we were playing chess.” He says, snatching his phone and opening his own Instagram before showing you the picture he took now had one hundred fifty thousand likes.

“You’re like, known world-wide as Jenna’s girl or something.” He says, smile on his face as he scrolls through his twitter looking at all the stuff they had to say about you and Jenna.

“Woah,” you say, zoning out slightly as you take a seat on the little stool nearby made for children. “This is…”

“Sick? I know, right? You just became famous over night.” Lyle says as he too takes a seat next to you.

You were gonna say unsettling or strange but that works to you. You hadn’t expected it but you now realize you should have.

With the paparazzi last night and you being with Jenna it was expected.

But it hasn’t even been a fully twenty four hours yet? How exactly had it happened so quickly? Was she really this popular

So many questions swirled in your head as something suddenly comes to your realization.

The real question was how people found you so quickly on Insta? That was probably the unsettling part, it felt like you were part of a man hunt but instead of joining it like you preferred you were what they were hunting for.

You think about texting Jenna but she quickly beats you to it as if she had telepathic abilities.

You wouldn’t have been surprised if she told you she did though with the way her eyes seemed to capture you in some form of trap.

You knit your eyebrows together as you read the message and your stomach drops slightly.

Read next part here!

A/N: idk if this is angsty thinking about it now🥲

I’m also begging like Lyle on my knees that you guys send me request🧎🏽‍♀️my pea brain can only think but so much

#jenna ortega imagine #jenna ortega x reader #top shelf #jenna ortega #scream 6 #scream #tara carpenter #vada cavell #wednesday addams #Lorraine day #scream 5 #Jenna Ortega x you

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ramblingoak · 10 months

Text

The Cardinal's Bride, Chapter 7: The Ministry

Previous Chapters: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 ~~ Pinterest Board ~~ Spotify Playlist

Thank you to @tasty-ribz for the wanted poster! Lots of other amazing people have done fanart of Cowboy Copia so please go check it out: @meowsaidmissy (1 / 2), @snail-shell2335 here, @vahvco here, @ghulehgwen here, @rabidghoul here, @nocterish here, @enjoy-my-swearing here, @blacktie-whitenoise (1 /2), z-xmyers (1/2/3), _simpera_ on instagram and valkyrieinpink on twitter. Also a huge thank you to @kissingghouls for aggressively holding my hand and letting me scream at her about cowboys.

~ Cardinal Copia x Female Reader: western au, slow burn, romance, NSFW, 18+ only MDNI, 7,100 words ~

(This chapter includes the interlude that was posted previously, but please read through again so you don't miss sheriff Terzo)

“Copia did what?”

Secondo watched as Alpha nervously shifted from foot to foot. The Ghoul cleared their throat before continuing.

“He, uh, kidnapped Saltarian’s fiancé. Sir.”

Of all the fucking stupid things his brother could have done. He clenched his fists on top of his desk and resisted the urge to flip the damn thing over. When would Copia learn to let shit go?

“How did you find this out?”

“There was a courier that rode through about an hour ago. Dropped off some updated fugitive info and some new wanted posters from around the area.” Alpha pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and nervously set it in front of him. “This was in there too.”

Secondo unfolded it and groaned. There was the familiar picture of Copia that was posted everywhere with a damned window but next to it was a picture of a young woman. He got progressively angrier as he skimmed over the text. The Cardinal and his Ghouls kidnapped the generous Mr. Saltarian’s fiance. The poor woman was being held for ransom less than a month away from her wedding. It ended with a quote from the banking magnate that a generous award would be given to anyone with info on the whereabouts of the devil worshiping outlaws.

Unholy fuck.

“Should I wake up the sheriff?”

“What do you think?” He crumbled up the paper and set it on his plate from dinner. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a cigar and his matches. “Wake Omega up instead. I need to know where the fuck mio fratellino is.”

“On it. I’ll have him come here right away.”

Secondo ran a gloved hand through his hair and took a few puffs on the cigar to get it going. After it was lit he flicked the match onto his plate, watching as the paper turned black. His eyes flicked back to Alpha and he called out to him before he left his office.

“Deputy…don’t tell anyone about this, do you understand?”

“Got it, Papa.”

Secondo nodded towards the door but it burst open before Alpha had even turned around.

“What now?”

Mist narrowed her eyes at Secondo’s tone as she shoved past Alpha.

“Got a problem on the floor. Some asshole thinks Cirrus is cheating him at poker.”

He pushed his chair away from his desk and ripped open a drawer. His gun belt rested inside, something he rarely wore anymore. Mostly because he’d be too tempted to shoot anyone that pissed him off.

“She’s supposed to be playing the piano.” Secondo settled the belt around his hips and then grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair. “Who the fuck is on stage right now?”

“Cowbell.”

Fucking Cowbell. He straightened his jacket and stalked around his desk, glaring at Alpha when the deputy still hadn’t left.

“Shouldn’t you be doing something?”

Secondo narrowed his eyes when Alpha hesitated.

“Uh, are you going to shoot someone? I could stick aro—“

“You’ll do what I fucking tell you.”

Alpha held his hands up and quickly turned, heading out of Secondo’s office. He could hear the Ghoul’s boots thunking down the hall as he went.

“You ready? Cirrus might’ve killed him by now.”

“I’m not that lucky.”

Mist snorted and turned on her heel, Secondo trailing behind her as she headed out and down to the casino floor. Secondo used the walk to check things over. He could hear the piano playing and Cumulus’s voice accompanying it. The sounds of glasses clinking and dice hitting tables got louder as the pair started down the stairs. The place wasn’t particularly busy tonight, but there was still a low hum of chatter from the patrons. Secondo easily picked up the sound of an angry customer as they started weaving through the tables.

“I know you fucking cheated so just admit it!”

“You can say it as many times as you want, asshole. It ain’t gonna make it true.”

“I know what I saw, you had cards up your sleeve! I didn’t come to this shithole to be cheated on.” The man took a step towards where Cirrus was still seated and spit at her feet. “Especially not by a woman.”

“I don’t know sweetheart, you look like the kind of guy that gets cheated on by women a lot.”

“You fuc—“

Secondo had reached them right as the man advanced on the Ghoulette. He reached a hand out and stopped the man’s progress, splaying his fingers wide on his chest and shoving him back away from the table.

“What’s the problem here?”

“The problem is this stupid bitch has been cheating and costing me money!”

Cirrus slammed her fist into the table and jumped to her feet.

“If you say I cheated one more fucking time I’m going to slice your damn throat.”

“You’re a fucking che—“

“That’s enough.” Secondo once again had his hand on the man’s chest but this time he grabbed his shirt in his fist. He yanked him closer, blowing smoke down into his face. “My games are fair. My employees don’t cheat. I think you’re just having a bad night friend.”

“I ain’t your friend.” He shoved away from Secondo, stumbling back and falling onto his ass. “Should’ve known a bunch of Satan worshippers would cheat.”

Secondo narrowed his eyes and took a step toward him. He pushed the right side of his jacket back and tucked his thumb into his belt so his palm was close to the handle of his revolver.

“Care to repeat that?”

“You heard me. Everyone knows about you guys. Fucking sacrificing people and animals and shit.”

“Well if you believe the rumors why did you come here? For someone with such a strong moral code you seem willing to revel in sin.” Secondo smirked when Mist stepped close and lifted up on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. “You even spent the night with one of my fallen angels.”

“That’s a lie.”

“Liars. Devil worshippers. Cheaters.” He shook his head as he stared the man down. “Serious accusations from a drunk that can’t back them up.”

Secondo smirked when the man growled and clumsily got to his feet. He was itching for the man to try something. Despite how pissed off he was at Copia, he wasn’t planning on shooting him.

Maybe he’d get to shoot this stronzo instead.

“Oh I can back them up.” The man clumsily got to his feet and reached for his belt. “But first I’m gonna shoot you in your smug fucking face.”

“Are you?” Secondo clicked his tongue and let his palm rest on the handle of his revolver. “What a pity. I had plans for later.”

“Yeah well fuck your pl—“

The man had finally gotten a grip on his gun and pulled on it. He barely had it out of the holster before a gunshot rang out and echoed through the now quiet casino. Secondo watched as his body jerked and collapsed in on itself. The bullet had lodged between his eyes, blood quickly pouring from the wound and dripping onto the floor. Secondo grimaced for a moment before he turned to look at Mist.

“Take care of this please.”

“Yes, Papa.”

Mist pointed at some nearby Ghouls and snapped her fingers. While Earth and Water lifted the body up Secondo uncocked his gun and spun it back into its holster. He turned and took a few steps towards the bar before glancing back at the Ghoulette that was still sitting calmly at the table.

“Cirrus, a moment por favore.”

As he walked towards the bar he shot a look towards Cowbell. The Ghoul took the hint and started playing again, Cumulus’s voice joining not long after. At the bar he leaned against the front of it and nodded towards Air who quickly poured him a whisky. The liquid burned down his throat, but he held it out for a refill. Before he could tip that back Cirrus stepped up to his side and slipped the glass out of his hand, coughing after she tipped the contents into her mouth.

“Lucifer, how do you drink this?”

“You get used to it.” Secondo held his hand out for his glass and nodded towards Air again. As the Ghoul filled it once more he met the Ghoulette’s eyes. “Are you that bored?”

“Can you blame me? There’s nothing to do.”

He raised an eyebrow at her statement, downing his drink in one gulp. When Air filled it once more he handed it to Cirrus.

“Let me guess, you’d rather be riding around with my brother.”

“Well yeah, those shitheads need my help.”

“Do they?” Secondo watched her throat move as she gulped the drink down. “Help with what exactly?”

The only answer he got was Cirrus coughing as the liquid burned her throat again. The fact that she wouldn’t meet his eyes was answer enough though. Copia’s Ghouls were loyal to a fault. When she finally spoke, Secondo froze.

“Don’t you want revenge? For what Saltarian did to your family?”

“What I want is to live my life without looking over my back waiting for the next Saltarian.” He also wanted more whiskey and another cigar. Cirrus sighed and set the glass down at the bar before turning to head back to the poker tables. Secondo shot a hand out and grabbed her wrist tugging it towards him. “I also would like you to take over for Cowbell please.”

Cirrus nodded her head, but when Secondo didn’t let go she turned back to him. He brought his other hand around and slipped his fingers into the sleeves of her top. When he dragged out the two aces he smirked at her and flicked them behind the bar.

“Oh no, how did those get there!”

Secondo snorted and let go of her before pointing towards the stage.

“Piano, please.” He winced as Cowbell hit a few wrong notes. “Before I shoot him too.”

He watched as she made her way to the stage and unceremoniously shoved Cowbell off the piano bench. When Cowbell looked his way he jerked his head towards the bar. Secondo sighed as he watched Cowbell wander over, reaching out for his glass that Air had thankfully refilled again. Before his fingers could close around it another hand intercepted it and Secondo gritted his teeth when he turned to look at the hand’s owner.

He really hated his little brothers.

“Was that a gunshot I heard? In my good Christian town?” Terzo drank the whiskey and then slid the glass back across the bar towards his older brother. Secondo glanced up towards the door when it banged open, an out of breath Alpha stumbling in. He froze when he caught Secondo’s glare, his eyes glancing towards Terzo before he quickly turned on his heel and left. “Oh don’t be mad at Alpha fratello.”

“I needed Omega, not you.”

Terzo smirked and lazily leaned back against the bar.

“Well, I was in Omega’s bed so…” His smirk grew at the look of annoyance on Secondo’s face. “You have become surprisingly uptight for someone in your line of work.”

“I just wish you’d stop sleeping with your deputies.”

“You know me fratello,” Terzo grabbed Secondo’s glass again and held it out for Cowbell who had settled behind the bar. “I sleep with everybody. Right, Cowbell?”

Secondo turned his glare to Cowbell when the Ghoul fumbled the bottle of whiskey in his hands, thankfully catching it before it hit the floor. He turned back to his brother and leaned in to stare him down.

“Did you know what Copia was up to?”

“You mean did I know our little brother planned on kidnapping Mr. Saltarian’s fiancé and ransoming her for a shit ton of money?”

“Si.”

“I did, actually. Thought it sounded like a good time.” Terzo ignored Secondo’s clenched fist slamming onto the top of the bar and turned his eyes toward the casino floor. “Didn’t know he planned on attacking the wedding though.”

“The what?!” He ignored the glances their way and grabbed onto Terzo’s ridiculous velvet vest. “He’s going to do what?”

Terzo’s demeanor changed immediately, his hand shooting up and gripping Secondo’s wrist.

“You’re not as observant as you think you are, fratello. If you were, you would have noticed that Copia has been planning this for a long time.” He dug his fingers into Secondo’s flesh causing the older man to wince and let go. “You also would’ve noticed that you had some of Saltarian’s men here.”

Secondo yanked his arm away and looked out over the crowd. Most had gone back to whatever card or dice games they had been playing. The only face he saw looking his way was Mist’s. She was leaning against a pillar by the roulette table, her steely gaze watching the brothers with interest. He took a deep breath and looked back at Terzo. The shorter man was smoothing his hands down his vest and straightening the sheriff star pinned there.

“I take it Copia is heading back here?”

Terzo snorted and shook his head before looking back at his brother.

“Where else would he go? Should be back tomorrow if everything went well.”

Secondo pinched the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut at the impending headache. That fucking idiot, of course he would come back here. Copia wouldn’t give a second thought to dragging that girl to The Ministry. Probably where he expected to exchange her for the ransom money as well. Willing to endanger everything in order to get his revenge.

“That selfish prick, when is he going to move the fuck on from this?”

“Never, you know this fratello. Copia isn’t going to be happy until Saltarian is dead.”

“Yes well, more then Saltarian is going to die if he continues this idiotic plan of his.” Secondo nodded towards Mist and watched as she slowly made her way over. “I need to buy some time before he gets back here.”

“To do what?”

“To let Saltarian know we aren’t involved in Copia’s bullshit.”

“Who gives a fuck what Saltarian thinks?”

Secondo resisted the urge to grab Terzo again, his wrist still aching from the man’s grip.

“I do and if you could bring yourself to give a shit about anything but getting your dick wet you should too.” He waited for Mist to get to his side before speaking again, “We need to keep Copia away a little longer. Do you know where he is?”

“Somewhere west of the Missouri River.”

Lucifer, please save him from these two. Secondo looked out towards his customers when the majority of them started whistling and clapping. Cirrus and Cumulus were bowing and waving at the crowd before they started another song. His eyes lingered on Cirrus for a moment, an idea forming in his head. She of all people would know where Copia might be. He could send her out to stop him and keep him away while he tried to sort this mess out.

“Cowbell, go switch with Cirrus.”

“But I ju–”

“Now.”

Secondo turned back to his brother and placed a hand on Mist’s shoulder. He could feel how tense she was and knew she had picked up on the seriousness of what was happening.

“Fratello, what are you going to do?”

He ignored his brother and looked back out at the crowd. Secondo could see them now, a few men scattered about that were paying more attention to him and his brother than the games they were supposedly playing. Too involved in whatever game Saltarian and Copia were playing with each other. A game that could easily destroy everything Secondo had worked to build after they settled here all those years ago. He couldn’t let that happen again.

He wouldn’t let that happen again.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Ethel had to come back and get you both.

With Copia’s lips on yours it felt like you were the only two people in the world. You really had no idea that kissing could be so…involved. There had been a few quick pecks from would-be suitors back home. “City boys” that kissed like it was expected and something to get out of the way rather than something to enjoy. Both kept their hands to themselves and stayed a respectable distance away from you as they leaned in for a brief pressing of their lips against yours.

Kissing The Cardinal was a completely different experience.

Copia kissed with his whole body. As it continued he had kept one hand tangled in your hair and his other arm curved around your back. He didn’t seem to want any space between you, something that you had zero complaints about. Your own hands wandered wherever you could reach and you kept track of where he seemed to enjoy being touched the most. So far he had reacted the strongest to your nails running across his scalp, a deep rumble vibrated in his chest whenever you did it.

Even in the midst of your wildest fantasies you had never felt like this before. It felt so good to kiss him, to feel his hands on you. You whimpered into his mouth when his arm moved from behind your back, but he quickly placed his hand on your waist before sliding it down your leg to your knee. He squeezed there and your leg jumped causing him to pull his mouth away and laugh a bit. Copia leaned his forehead against yours, both of you looking into each other’s eyes and panting trying to catch your breath.

“Principessa…” His fingers started to move against your knee and you waited for him to squeeze it again, but instead you felt the cool air of the room hit the skin of your leg. Copia was slowly pulling the hem of the nightgown up. Your skin began to break out in goosebumps all the way from your ankle to your thigh. Copia let his other hand leave your hair and he cupped your cheek instead, his eyes not leaving yours. “Is this alright?”

You had been trying to get the word ‘yes’ out of your mouth, but the sudden feeling of his bare hand on your knee turned the word into a gasp. He had your nightgown bunched up and his thumb began to trace circles against your skin. Your legs had begun to tremble in anticipation and maybe in another life you would feel embarrassed for being so needy, but all you felt right now was want and what you wanted was Copia. He was right here, right in front of you and he wanted you too.

Unfortunately that was the moment Ethel decided she had waited long enough and after a series of sharp knocks she had told Copia to leave you alone so you could get dressed. He had called out an apology and then pressed a kiss to your forehead before dropping the hem of your nightgown and letting it settle back at your ankles.

“We’ll pick this up later, eh Principessa?”

He grabbed his clothes from yesterday and then he had turned and left the room with a smirk, telling Ethel good morning again before going to track down Harold and the Ghouls. Ethel had turned her own smirk on you and you could only imagine what you looked like right now. Hair messed up from Copia’s fingers, your lips swollen, not to mention how your cheeks were burning from the scrape of his beard. At least he had fixed your nightgown before he had left.

“Let’s take a look at those clothes, alright dear?”

The rest of the morning was spent with Ethel as she sorted through piles of clothes to find a few things for you to take. You had tried to convince her there really wasn’t room to pack anything extra, but she had her mind made on setting you up with some more practical traveling clothes. Hopefully Copia would be ok with it because it would be nice to have some things that fit you better than someone’s spare pants. At the very least Copia would probably be happy you wouldn’t be wearing Swiss’s shirt anymore.

Ethel spent the time talking about random subjects. You learned about where she grew up and what originally brought her across the country. She shared a few funny stories about her two boys, both of which she and Harold had adopted rather than have any of their own. Ethel’s life had been so different from yours and it was amazing to hear her talk about it all. She had lived a full life even before she met her husband.

“How did you and Harold meet?” When Ethel didn’t say anything at first you thought maybe it was a story she didn’t want to tell. However when you looked at her face the older woman had a small smile and her cheeks had pinked up a bit. “If you don’t want to share that’s ok.”

“Oh, no dear. I don’t mind sharing.” Her smile grew a bit and she held up a blouse before continuing. “I stole his horse.”

“You stole…are you serious?”

“I was a handful when I was younger, driving my father crazy with all the things I’d get up to. But my mother had passed away many years before and he was mostly focused on the general store he ran. I was angry over losing my mother and angry over him ignoring me to work there so I caused a bit of trouble around town.”

You had a feeling that when she said ‘a bit’ she meant a lot.

“Did Harold live there too?”

“No, he was just traveling through one day looking for work. I was minding the store while my father ran an errand and Harold refused to talk to me, saying he would only talk to the owner.” Ethel sniffed and shook her head. You could tell the memory of that still irritated her. “So as soon as my father got back I stormed out of there, jumped on his horse and rode the hell out of town.”

She was quiet for a moment, lost in her thoughts before she continued.

“Well, long story short, the sheriff caught me not long after. He tried to get my father to bail me out of jail but that old bastard refused! Said I should finally face the consequences of my behavior.” Ethel turned and smiled at you, bumping her shoulder against yours. “So Harold bailed me out.”

“Really?”

“He did, he bailed me out and I haven’t been able to get rid of him ever since.” You laughed with her, imagining a young Ethel moving around town with a lovesick Harold on her heels. She quieted down, still smiling at you as she reached over and tucked some of your hair back behind your ear. “Now, how about you tell me how you and Mr. Emeritus met.”

You couldn’t help but freeze for a brief moment. This wasn’t something you and Copia had talked about. You weren’t sure what he would want you to say. Obviously not the truth, you were sure Ethel wouldn’t take kindly to finding out that Copia and the Ghouls had kidnapped you, despite how much the…situation had evolved since then. You would need to get creative, come up with something that would be easy to believe. Your lips began to pull up in a smirk when you thought of how worried Copia was for you to be able to think on your feet.

Time to show him what a city girl could do.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

After spinning what you felt was a grandiose, but still believable tale of how you and Copia met and fell in love you helped Ethel wash some sheets and blankets. She had looked at you like you had two heads when you told her you had never washed anything before. Thankfully her look of disbelief was quickly replaced with the familiar kind look she had been giving you. Once again you felt an ache in your chest, wondering how different your life might have been with someone like Ethel as a mother.

It wasn’t that you didn’t love your own, but it was more just a feeling of indifference. The home you grew up in was cold and empty despite the numerous fireplaces and furniture. You had always felt alone there. The maids and cooks were instructed to converse with your family as little as possible. There had been a few people you had befriended when you were younger, but it always seemed like as soon as you got close to someone they’d be replaced. Your parents were so strict when it came to you, so cruel. You had always known it wasn’t fair or even normal, but the more time you spent away from them, from that environment, the more you realized how wrong it had all been.

The farmhouse just felt so right.

Ethel had given you a basket of things to hang outside while she took some lunch out to everyone else. She had a few rope lines hanging behind the house and walking out to them gave you a chance to see the farm in daylight. It was so beautiful you kept finding yourself stopping to take everything in. The house itself had a large porch in the front with a few benches and seats scattered about. There was even a swing and you were tempted to take a moment to sit down and enjoy the scenery, but you didn’t want to be caught not working.

As you walked around the front of the house you took in the large pasture that stretched out from the porch up a hill in the distance. There was the barn not too far away, with a few other smaller buildings nearby. You thought you heard shouting and laughing so that had to be where they were doing the repairs from the storm. The house and barn definitely looked like some work could be done, but nothing that really stuck out to you as dangerous.

Behind the house was where more fields stretched out. It looked like at some point there might have been crops there, but at the moment everything looked like random plants and weeds had taken over. Large patches of dandelions had cropped up and you took a moment when you set your basket down by the laundry lines to pick one. The bright yellow flowers were always your favorite, despite many thinking of them as weeds. Your father would always make someone go out and pick them from the yard around your home, but you tried to sneak a few into your room whenever you could.

You twirled the dandelion stem between your fingers as you watched the grasses and tree limbs move in the breeze. It seemed silly but you let yourself have a moment imagining what it would be like to live here. Maybe you could start growing crops again, harvesting things to take to a market somewhere. Growing things to use for your own cooking. Your eyes fell closed as you let your mind wander even further…thinking of who you wanted to share this dream with. The question you were afraid to ask yourself was at the edge of your thoughts, ready to ruin your daydream any moment.

Would a man like Copia be happy in a place like this? With you?

You tucked the flower into one of the button holes of your blouse and then threw a blanket over the line, smoothing it out before a growing noise behind you made you pause. Hoofbeats were getting closer and you quickly turned your head, the momentary fear instantly leaving when you saw Copia approaching on Brizio. He had an easy smile on his face, looking more relaxed than you had ever seen him. His black hat was perched on his head like always, but otherwise he was only in pants and his red button up. The shirt was barely done up, probably unbuttoned as the air got warmer. Your eyes couldn’t help but drift to the exposed portion of his chest, lingering there too long and risking him noticing. When you quickly looked up to his face you sighed at the smug grin on his face.

Of course he noticed.

He chuckled when you turned and started clipping the blanket in place. You knew ignoring him wouldn’t actually work but at least you could hide your own smile. Fueling his ego would just make him even more insufferable, not that it bothered you so much anymore. Especially when it made you feel butterflies in your stomach or when it led to him being close to you. Brizio stepped close enough you could feel his snout bump against your shoulder so you spun around again to glare up at his master.

“Copia I’m busy.”

“Looked like you were daydreaming to me.”

When Brizio started snuffling into your hair you pulled away, reaching down to grab another blanket.

“Well what are you doing?” You glanced back at him with a raised eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you be helping Harold?”

“I was, but his beautiful wife brought us lunch so I decided to come see my beautiful wife.”

To hide your red cheeks you ducked around to the other side of the blanket as you clipped it to the line. You saw his and Brizio’s shadow grow as they moved closer to the blanket, the sun bright on their back. The blanket moved when Brizio pressed his muzzle into it and you pulled it away from him.

“Copia! These are clean sheets keep him away.”

“Ai, Brizio is clean.”

You rolled your eyes when he gave the horse a pat on his neck.

“Yes I’m sure he’s just as clean as his master.”

“Principessa, I can’t believe you. Here I am wanting to spend time with my wife and she chooses to mock me.”

When you walked back around the sheet he moved to block your way, smirking when you huffed and crossed your arms.

“Copia I have work to do.”

“It can wait, come on a ride with me.”

“A ride? Where?”

He shrugged and looked around, much like you had done earlier.

“Eh Harold has been talking about the farm all morning. I just want to take a little tour.” He turned and smiled down at you. “Come with me.”

You hesitated a moment, biting your lip as you peered up at him. Going on a tour was something you wanted to do, but after this morning you were a little nervous being so close to Copia again. You wondered if he would kiss you again, you hoped he would kiss you again. But you weren’t sure if you’d be able to make the first move. Even for something you desperately wanted.

“Will we be gone long?”

“Not long at all and I promise the laundry will still be sitting here safely when we return.” You took a few steps closer and reached out to rub Brizio’s neck, looking up at him when he clicked his tongue. “What if I promise to keep my hands to myself?”

You gave him a smirk of your own as you studied his face.

“What if I don’t want you to?”

Copia gaped at you a moment, but before he could speak you both turned toward the house when you heard Ethel’s voice.

“Mr. Emeritus!”

“Quickly now, Principessa.” He laid the reins on Brizio’s neck and held his hands out for yours. “Come on, before she catches us.”

Ethel shouted for him again so you quickly made up your mind and placed your hands in his. A little squeak escaped you when he started lifting you up. You placed your right foot on top of his and pushed off the ground, laughing when he spun you around so you were sitting in front of him. He kept an arm around your waist as you settled against him and adjusted your skirt. It was a large billowy thing Ethel had given you this morning, perfect for horse riding.

Copia grabbed the reins with his other hand and turned Brizio away from the laundry line to face the house. You snorted when he waved at Ethel, the woman clearly not amused at Copia’s antics. Her hands were on her hips as she stared him down.

“Don’t worry signora!” He pressed his heels into Brizio’s sides and said something in Italian to the horse. Brizio immediately took off in a trot away from the house. Copia turned in the saddle to face Ethel again before you got too far away. “I promise to bring her back!”

He wrapped his arm more firmly around you and dropped his head into the crook of your neck. You shivered when you felt his stubble tickle the sensitive skin there. His warm lips pressing kiss after kiss onto your skin. After a few moments he brought his lips to your ear, his mustache scratching along the edge. You took in a quick breath when he nibbled on your earlobe. At the same time his hand started to wander along your waist, moving up higher and higher until it was resting right below your breasts.

“Copia!”

He shushed you, leaning down to press a few more kisses on your neck before he straightened up again to whisper into your ear.

“Are you ready for a ride?”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

It was dark before you made it back to the farmhouse. Copia stopped at the barn first, leaving Brizio in Aether’s care before he took your hand and led you back to the house. You were both quiet as you walked. Copia kept looking out over the fields and you found yourself stealing glances at him.

The tour had turned into more of what had occurred between you both that morning. His hand on your chest had continued to wander, his lips on your neck making you shiver. It wasn’t long before you were squirming against him, quiet whimpers leaving you. Eventually he stopped Brizio under the cover of some trees and turned you so you were sitting sideways across his lap.

“Principessa?”

You were startled out of your thoughts by his voice and you looked over at him. He had paused at the bottom of the porch steps, pulling you against him as soon as your eyes met. Your eyes fluttered shut when he pressed a gentle kiss into your forehead. When he pulled away he tucked your hair back behind your ears and gave you a small smile.

“What?”

Copia shook his head at your question and just continued to smile at you. He glanced down at your chest and gently pulled the dandelion you had tucked into it away. You were surprised it had survived his wandering hands while you had been on the ride. He twirled the stem between his fingers much like you had done before lifting it up and slipping the stem behind your ear.

“Let’s get inside before Ethel comes looking for us.”

Thankfully Ethel didn’t seem too upset by your absence for most of the afternoon. She came over and squeezed your shoulders before shooting a quick glare at Copia. You expected him to make some sort of smart comment but instead he broke out into a wide yawn. Amongst the lamps and candles lit inside the house you noticed how tired he looked. There were bags under his eyes that were normally hidden by his dark makeup. Ethel took a few steps towards him and gave him a quick pat on his shoulder.

“How about you go clean up and your wife can help me set dinner out.”

All she got was a quiet nod before he took his boots off and wandered down the hall. You followed Ethel into the kitchen and helped her put the finishing touches on dinner, stealing bites as you worked. Harold packed a few baskets and left to take the food out to the Ghouls while Ethel sent you down the hall to collect Copia. As you approached the door you didn’t hear any noises so you quietly opened it to peek inside. The only light illuminating the room was from the moon shining in from the window, but you could just make out Copia’s form on the bed.

“Copia?”

You took a few steps into the room, about to call out his name again before you noticed how still he was on top of the covers. There was a pile of clothes on the floor by the foot of the bed and you carefully stepped over them as you crept closer. He had changed into a clean shirt and pants at least before laying down. You studied his face and could see that the dirt and grime of the day had been removed. A few wet strands of hair had fallen across his forehead as well.

The urge to brush the hair away was strong, but you didn’t want to risk waking him. Copia looked so peaceful, it almost felt like a spell had been cast upon the room. You found yourself holding your breath and you had to be careful letting it out slowly to not make too much noise. The floorboards creaked when you took a few hesitant steps back and you winced. After waiting for a few moments and not seeing him stir you turned and carefully crept back out of the room.

Ethel wasn’t upset about dinner changing, she just gave you that familiar soft smile and told you to take care of him. You and Copia could join her and Harold for breakfast in the morning instead. When you got back to the room Copia had turned on his side to face the wall. You quickly removed your clothes from the day and grabbed the nightgown, pulling it over your head and immediately glancing back over to the bed to see if he had been watching. The brief pang of disappointment you felt when he continued to sleep made you nearly roll your eyes.

The cowboy was getting to you.

There wasn’t an easy or quiet way to get into the bed and under the covers, but you crawled up from the foot of the bed as carefully as you could. The only light in the room was from the moon shining through the window, just enough to illuminate the side of his face not smooshed into the pillow. He looked so peaceful, his breath quiet and his body still. More hair was hanging down and you couldn't help but hesitantly reach out to brush it back just like he did to your own hair.

“Go to sleep, Principessa.”

You jumped at the sound of his voice, jerking your arm back and shoving it under the covers. He peeked his green eye open and it sparkled when the moonlight hit it. When you saw his mouth slowly pull up in a smirk you huffed and turned so that you faced the wall. The bastard had probably been awake the whole time. A few moments passed in silence so you settled further into the bedding. It wasn’t until you felt his arm slip around and pull you closer to him that you let your eyes close to drift off to sleep.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Secondo hadn’t felt this tired in a long time.

Not since the first few years after the attack, when he still expected Saltarian to show up with more men. To see another home burned to nothing, to see more people he loved killed. It wasn’t even just the fear of Saltarian though. It was also the constant fear of if they would make it or not. If they’d be able to keep everyone safe and fed. He and his brothers had worked tirelessly to rebuild things. A new home and a new way of life for the members of the Church of Emeritus.

After those first few years things had seemingly relaxed. There had been no word or sign from Saltarian or any of his associates. The Ministry, his casino and his home, had steadily grown since then. It wasn’t just his home now, so many of the Ghouls and Ghoulettes called it home as well. Most of them worked there or around the town in some capacity, Impera was what they ended up calling it in the end. Secondo and his brothers had settled somewhat comfortably in their own roles there, with Primo eventually moving a few days ride away for some peace and quiet. Everyone seemed, if not happy, at least content with their new life.

Everyone except for Copia.

A knock on his door interrupted his brooding, but it opened before he could tell the person to go away. Terzo waltzed in, looking rumpled and like he’d spent the last hour at the bar. Not the best look for the town’s sheriff, but everyone was so used to it that if he didn’t look this way that’s when people would be concerned. Either way Secondo didn’t have the patience to deal with him at the moment.

“What do you want, Terzo?”

“Ah, I see you’re in an excellent mood like usual.” Terzo flopped down into one of the chairs across his desk with a heavy sigh. “What happened? Did you have to shoot someone today?”

“Not yet.” He glared at Terzo when he brought his legs up and set his feet on the edge of his desk. “Don’t you have someone’s bed you could be warming?”

“Always.”

“Then what the fuck do you want?” His brother’s face sobered a bit and Secondo felt a quick pang of regret for snapping at him. Terzo was getting dragged into this nonsense of Copia’s as well. He was at risk of losing his family and home too. Secondo took a calming breath before continuing. “Has there been any word from Cirrus?”

“That’s what I came to ask you.”

Secondo shook his head and turned to look out the balcony windows behind him. Cirrus would hopefully be back tonight or tomorrow morning. It was a long trip for what would hopefully just be a quick conversation with Copia. His brother might be pissed at Secondo for interfering, but he would at least listen to Cirrus. The extra time would make sure his letter had gotten to Saltarian. A letter Secondo had written in a hurry before sending Alpha and Earth off with it. Hopefully it would be enough to keep the man at bay.

“Fratello?” Secondo turned back to Terzo and his face softened a bit at the look on his younger brother’s face. He raised an eyebrow, waiting for Terzo to continue. “What do you think Saltarian will do?”

Before he could answer the door to his office burst open, Mist quickly striding in. The look on her face was one Secondo hadn’t seen for nearly 10 years.

“What is it?” He got up and moved around his desk, reaching out to place a comforting hand on the Ghoulette's shoulder. “Is Cirrus back?”

Mist shook her head and took a steadying breath before she shared her news.

“Saltarian is here.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Chapter 8: Playing House

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#my fics #my writing #the cardinal's bride #cowboy copia #the band ghost fanfiction #cardinal copia x female reader #copia x female reader #cardinal copia fanfiction #copia fanfiction #western au #secondo fanfiction #papa emeritus ii fanfiction

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boldlyvoid · 6 months

Text

What To Expect | Part Eight: Homecoming

Summary: one by one, each baby comes home to their forever family

Warnings: lots of postpartum medical talk, post-C-Section care, NICU talk, surgery recovery, Postpartum depression mentioned, hard time dealing with separation while babies in NICU. lots of crying, happy ending

A/N: after over a year i'm finially finishing this fic!! hope you all like it

Word Count: 3.7k

Masterlist

It’s weird being sad on Christmas, but she was.

Then she was sad on New Year's Eve, wishing she was kissing each baby's head as the clock struck 12… but visiting hours ended at 10 so the parents could try to get some sleep before the next visit at 8am. And she didn’t even sleep! She pumped and cried on and off until she passed out for a few hours, only to wake up and be allowed back in the hospital to do it all over again. And again. And again.

It’s been 6 weeks now. 42 days. It felt never-ending.

Her mom was still visiting and was supposed to be sleeping in the guest room, but her mom could hear Y/N sniffle through the wall while she cried in the baby room. She thought she would let Spencer get some sleep for once and went to their kid's room to fold clothes and organize for the next few days. She brings a change of clothes for the bigger two, Wren is still too small to fit in anything, and she loves dressing them because it’s another thing she can do. That makes 4 things. She feeds them, she changes them and she dresses them, she holds them. Everything else was done by nurses and tubes and machines…

Until today. In just a few hours, god willing, Axel would complete his 24 hours of bottle feeds and he’d be able to come home. Esmay is just a few days away from attempting the same challenge and then Wren… she was going to need at least another 3 weeks. She just started to gain weight, and she’s still not taking the bottle or the nipple when Y/N attempts it.

It's breaking her heart to separate them, as much as she loves the idea of having Axel home… They slept better when they were close, they held hands when she held them at the same time, they stopped crying when the other was close… they had a bond she would never understand and now she had to separate them. It’s so sad to think about that she can’t stop crying as she searches the drawers for something cute for tomorrow.

Her mom walked into the room quietly with a soft smile plastered on her face, she didn’t know what she was walking into, “Hey, sweet pea.”

“Hey,” she whispers, looking up at her mom with tear-stained cheeks and a onesie held to her chest. “I’m figuring out what to bring Axel home in tomorrow.”

“Is he coming home tomorrow?”

She shrugs, “he’s so close to coming home. Every day he gets so close and then it's like he takes a random step back? He went on a food strike the other night, so we had to restart his bottle feeding test again… if I call at 7 and he’s completed his 24 hours then all he has left is the car seat test.”

“Where he has to sit, safely for an hour without a problem?” Her mom remembers when Spencer explained it all the first time Axel failed his bottle test.

She nods, “I think he can do it this time. He’s over 6 pounds now, he’s stronger than ever, he’s coming home soon.”

Her mom takes a seat beside her on the carpeted floor and looks at the outfit choices. “It’s still super cold out, but he’ll need to be safe in the car seat so no coat… this is cute?” It’s a green onesie with pink butterflies, and it made her smile.

It included his sister's colours and symbolized how he was growing, he wasn’t just her wiggly worm anymore, he was a full-grown butterfly ready to fly home. She started crying again just thinking about it…

“I mean this in the nicest way possible, but I think you need to talk to your doctor,” her mom whispered. “Grieving the newborn stage and not getting time with your own babies was bound to be hard, but you’re suffering, honey. You need some help. You need to sleep, you’re not eating, you’re barely producing milk anymore… you’re suffering. I can’t tip-toe around it anymore, Spencer was supposed to talk to you about it but he’s scared. We’re all so scared, honey. You need some help.”

She lets her mom hold her like she did when she was a little girl, she cries so hard barely any noise comes out. Her mom just rubs her back and lets her get to where she needs to be in her grief. She needs this. “I-It just feels like it’ll never end… this has been the worst 6 weeks of my life.”

“Did I ever tell you about your colic?” She whispers, petting her head now, soothing her by rocking gently back and forth on the carpet. “You cried for 4 months straight. I couldn’t soothe you, nothing helped, you were just sad… sadder than this, and I just listened and cried with you.”

“I would lose my mind,” she laughs and wipes her tears. “I’m sorry for that, mom.”

She chuckles, “It was awful. I didn’t know how long it would last or if it would ever stop, and it also felt never-ending… but then one day you giggled. You were quiet for once and I cried with tears of joy and snorted on my own mucus and then you laughed at me. With the same lungs that cried for 4 months, you released this deep belly laugh for the first time ever and finally, the worst part of our life together was over.”

“Just like that?” She sniffled, getting the point she was making.

“Just like that. It’s crazy how fast time flies by, but the good thing is that very soon this sadness will be a memory, one you’ll look back on and say ‘I can’t believe I did that?’ Because it’ll feel like such a faraway memory.”

“Thank you,” she hugs her mother tightly. “I’m so glad to have you here for this.”

“I wouldn’t wanna be anywhere else, honey.”

—

He passes the car seat test, they load him up and they take him home. They spend 3 hours with him, she feeds him she changes him and then he has a nap just in time for her to head back to the hospital to watch the other two nap. They kept him on the same schedule as his sisters at the hospital and they’ll do the same when the girls come home. It’ll be easier this way.

He lets Y/N take mostly all of the hospital shifts, the only time he goes in is first thing in the morning. Y/N’s mom watches the baby, Y/N sleeps a little longer and Spencer gets his alone time with the girls. It’s lovely. He enjoys reading to the girls in their beds until they fall asleep and then he heads home to his son just in time for his next feed.

He finds them in the bedroom when he gets home. She’s holding Axel and he can tell she felt bad for being just as happy as Spencer was. He could see the way it was eating away at her every time she held Axel, every time she looks at him her smile slowly turns to sadness when she realized the other two weren’t home.

She doesn’t even notice he’s home until he’s sitting down on the bed beside her.

“Can I have him?” Spencer asks, extending his arms, she nods and slowly hands over the swaddled-up little baby. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay,” she presses her lips together in a tight-lipped smile. “Um, are you still okay to stay home with him for the rest of the day while I’m at the hospital?”

He nods, “your mom is just down the hall,” he reminds her with a smile. “I’m sure someone will want to come over and hold him at some point.”

“Colin wants to come over soon,” she reminds him. “I think him and Penelope should come together cause then they’ll do all the cooking and we can just chill with the babies.”

“You think Esmay’s coming home next?”

She shrugs, “She’s still not eating from the bottle. Wren might even be home before her.”

“She has her ultrasound on Friday, can you double-check that we can bring Axel with us so we can both go? I forgot to ask,” Spencer shakes his head, he can't believe he’s forgetting things now, but the sleep deprivation was catching up to him.

She nods, “of course, I think the nurses would like to see him again, anyway.”

“It must be weird for them, getting to love and support so many little babies every day and then never really seeing them again once they’re cleared to go home?” He ponders.

“I would have a hard time with that, it’s different when you get to hold the people you’re taking care of, unlike just talking to them on the phone like I do,” Y/N explains. “Like that case, we did together still haunts me, I hugged them all, and I will think about them till the day I stop existing.”

“It’s really hard,” he agrees. “Saving someone and having them run into your arms just to never know how they end up is weird… some send us letters and updates over the years, but others act like it never happened and move on entirely.”

“I kinda want to do that when they’re all home,” she admits, tears welling in her eyes, “I don’t want to talk about it or think about it… I’m just going to pretend I had all 3 of them here with me the whole time.”

“I want you to talk to a therapist,” he whispers, cradling Axel a little closer. “You need someone to tell your struggles to, I get not wanting to relive it here, but you have to get it out, baby.”

“I know,” she cries, covering her face as she starts to sob. “It’s so unfair, I hate feeling like this, Spence. I can’t do it anymore, I want them home, I want to just stay here all day and never leave again. I can’t keep going there and coming home alone every single day.”

He knew she didn’t mean alone as in she came home to no one, she had him, her mom, his mom, and all their friends and now, they had 1 baby home. He was safe, healthy, beautiful and 100% theirs. She just meant leaving them there while she drove home alone, that was what hurt.

“I know, love, it’s okay.”

“What if you asked the nurses if you could do some more breastfeedings with Esmay? She might feed more if it’s from you and then if she does well, ask to stay the full 24 hours to help her pass the test,” Spencer planned rather quickly. “They want her to come home just as bad as you do.”

She nods, wiping her tears with the sleeve of her shirt, “that’s a good idea. You’d be okay with that?”

He nods, “We have your milk in the fridge here, I know how to do this, we can have some father-son bonding time.”

“You’re so cute with him,” she swoons and takes out her cellphone to take a few photos for memory's sake, “you’re the best dad.”

“And you’re the best mom,” he reminds her after a few photos, looking into her eyes with all the truth in the world. “Our girls will be home soon, and when they’re all here it’ll be okay. They’re going to grow up knowing you love them more than anything in the world and you were willing to go through hell and back for them. Suffering like this for them, it’s what makes you the best mom. You’re a fucking warrior.”

“Hey,” she reaches over and covers Axel’s ears. “Thank you, but he doesn’t need to hear that.”

Spencer smiles, leaning in he presses his lips to hers for a quick kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you, more.”

—

She left shortly after that, in their new minivan Spencer bought 3 days after she was out of the hospital. It was fully equipped to take his family on safe trips, two of the car seats were buckled into the back, ready for whenever their girls were able to come home too. The third was in the front hall, waiting for Axel's next trip outside.

Spencer sat in bed with Axel resting on the nursing pillow in front of him, an empty bottle discarded beside them, along with some dirty burp cloths. His eyes slowly started to close, he was so relaxed and full, Spencer kept rubbing his little tummy and whispering sweet nothings to him, helping him drift off to sleep.

“There you go buddy, you must be so full now… you can have the best nap with your full tummy and when you wake up we’ll snuggle and have some more food…” Spencer whispers, smiling away, he’s so happy.

This is everything he ever wanted.

His phone lights up on the bed beside him, displaying a message over the most beautiful wallpaper he’s ever had. He just admires the photo, the love of his life holding their three kids on her chest at the same time, he loved them all so much.

Y/N: we’ve just finished bottle number six with Esmay, she’s officially taken 90% of her feeds today!! 3 with me!!!! The feeding tube comes out tonight at midnight, before her last 2 feeds and if she eats them all then she can come home… I did not see this coming today. Also: Axel can come with us to her appointment on Friday, and by the looks of things, Esmay can come too!!

Spencer: that’s amazing baby!! I just finished a bottle with Axel, he’s having a nap right now, I can’t wait to see you later <3 give the girls a kiss for me? I love you.

Y/N: and Dr. Wade said that Wren is doing great, if her chest ultrasound goes well she might be able to start the process come home by Monday. This is wild Spence!

He wipes a stray tear from his cheek after reading that one. He was so proud of his little family, this was such a big moment. All 3 of them would be home before they even reached her original due date. Just like he assumed. After almost 7 weeks in the NICU, they’d all be home soon.

That was a lot to think about.

Because once they were all home, he was asking their mom to marry him.

It’s earlier than he wanted to do it, originally… but he needed to do it. He needs her to know how much he loves her and how badly he wants to love her for the rest of his life.

—

They don’t sleep the first night that Esmay is home, too.

Two of their three newborn cots were occupied, both babies were sleeping soundly, all swaddled and content while their parents couldn’t stop staring at them. It was surreal. They were both over 5 pounds now, much, much bigger than when they were born but still tiny. Axel was 6 pounds when he left the hospital and since then he’s gone down a few ounces which is normal cause he’s on regular breast milk all day and only has a bottle mixed with formula twice a day for extra calories.

He doesn’t look like either of them yet, neither does Esmay. They’re still too skinny and tiny but that’ll change. In a few months they’ll each have different features and little personalities…

“I can’t believe it,” she whispers.

“I know,” he shakes his head, staring at their babies. “We’re going to be so tired tomorrow…”

She laughs, “Yeah, but it’ll be fine. Maybe mom can drive us.”

“Yeah,” he likes the sound of that plan. Wren has her ultrasound tomorrow. She’s the middle child and yet she’ll be the last one home. “they’re all going to be home soon.”

She laughs again, tired as hell and so, so happy. “We're really not going to sleep then.”

“It’ll get better,” he assures. “Once we get the schedule down and they switch from 3-hour intervals to 5, it’ll be better.”

She leans over and rests her head on his shoulder and wraps her arm around his back, “it’ll be amazing to get to watch them all sleep here, together.”

“To watch them do everything here, together,” he corrects. “First laughs, first words, first steps. To teach them how to ride bikes and maybe we’ll do swim lessons over at Dave’s cause we already know they like the pool—

“Not funny,” she shoves him.

“They were supposed to be Aquarius’s so them loving water makes sense,” he teases again.

“Unfortunately they’re Sagittarius’s like your boss,” she reminds him. “Maybe they’ll be stoic and handsome.”

“Funny,” he shakes his head. “They might also be adventurous, risk-takers or incredibly emotionally intelligent.”

“They’ll be one of each,” she says with a sigh. “Axel is the risk-taker, Esmay will be adventurous and Wren, given the trauma, she’ll probably end up the emotionally intelligent one.”

“She’s also the oldest girl,” he reminds her. “She’ll be like us.”

“We won’t put that kind of pressure on her,” Y/N says, looking at him with the most serious look on her face. “She’s going to be free and innocent and happy as long as humanly possible. They all will.”

He nods, “And with me leaving the bureau—

“You’re leaving?” She can’t believe it.

“For the time being…”

“Why?”

“You’ll want to go back to work at some point, I don’t want to get hurt and leave you with them or bring work home and lose one of you… so I’m going to stay home. I’m going to raise my babies and make sure they have a dad for their whole lives. I love them too much to leave again, even just for work,” he explains.

She cups his face and brings him in for a kiss, a deep one at that. “I love you,” she whispers. “That’s all i’ve ever wanted for my kids.”

“Me too,” he smiles back at her. “Me too.”

—

Wrens ultrasound goes remarkably well. The nurses love seeing the other two babies once again. They all get a little check-up while they’re there and everyone is doing perfect. Wren especially. She’s getting so strong, she’s making so much progress but she doesn’t like taking the bottle yet. Just like the other two, having a feeding tube gets convenient and nursing is hard when they’re not used to that kind of movement yet. She also might have a tongue-tie.

The best part of the appointment, however, is putting Axel and Esmay in her incubator beside her and watching them all snuggle and coo. They’re content, happy to be back together the way they were for 32 short weeks. It’s the cutest thing to see.

And Dr. Wade loves to see it too. “In a week, I think they’ll all be home.”

“Really?” She lights right up.

He nods, “your kids are quick learners. We just have to get her used to the bottle or breastfeeding. Her weights good, she’s breathing perfectly and her incision is all healed up. She’s doing great.”

“They get that from their dad,” she compliments, tearing up a bit. Spencer steps in closer to her, hand on her shoulder.

“And their resiliency from their mom,” he compliments right back.

“You two are so cute,” the nurse in the corner compliments. “It’s hard to believe you’re not married.”

“Soon,” Spencer assures. “You’re all welcome to come to the wedding.”

—

Dr. Wade was right. It only takes Wren a week to pass her 24-hour bottle test and she’s such a champ with the car seat test. And by 8 weeks postpartum, all their babies are home.

But as soon as they’re all home, Mom has to go to the doctor.

But that’s okay cause Y/N’s 8-week post-op appointment is also the perfect time for Spencer to slip the kids into their special onesies for popping the big question.

He waited until their nap time, he carefully put Axel into a shirt that say “you” Esmay has the word “marry” and Wren has “daddy?” Leaving him with the first word, “Will” and Y/N clocks it the moment she walks through the front door.

“Why are you wearing a shirt that says ‘Will’ on it? Did you loose a bet to him or something?”

“Nope, you’ll find out in a minute,” he smirks, letting her inside and closing the door behind her.

“Okay… you’re being so weird. Weirder than normal,” she teases.

He takes her purse and helps her out of her shoes and coat, still treating her like she was recovering from the C-section when really, he just loved to take care of her.

“Where are the kids?”

“Asleep. Come with me,” he takes her hand, she’s shocked they’re asleep all at the same time and in the same room, but she follows him anyway.

Up the stairs and into their bedroom, she hovers over their cribs and smiles and then she sees it. Each baby has something written on their onesies too. Spencer stands beside Axel’s crib, showing her that he’s the first word in the sentence.

Her jaw drops and she stills, holding in the scream she wants to let out, she can’t believe it’s finally happening. She covers her mouth and turns to Spencer, who’s already down on one knee holding a small felt box in his hand. “So… What do you say?”

“Yes!” She whispers when really she wants to scream. She tugs him up to his feet and wraps her arms around him. “Oh my god,” she starts to cry. “Yes, holy shit, yes, Spence!”

He hugs her back, crying into her shoulder, “I love you so much.”

“I love you,” she says as she pulls back to look down at the ring. “This is real?”

“This is all real,” he assures. “We have 3 babies, a beautiful house, and now each other.”

He takes the ring from the box and slips it onto her ring finger. “Everything we’ve ever wanted…”

“and then some,” he smirks. “Forever.”

She nods, so in love with him. “Forever.”

@goldensonlyangel @doctorspenceryeet @samuel-de-champagne-problems @reiding-recs @shemarmooresfedora @reidsfish @manuosorioh @mochionly @jswessie187 @k-k0129 @blanchardsbk @measure-in-pain @dreams-in-blxck @doc-padfoot @nomajdetective @xoxospencerreid @mggswhorificlover @dinonuggets1967 @meganskane @kya-li

@reidsbookclub @muffin-cup @one-sweet-gubler @shirleyrose @reidsacademia @this-is-doctor-and-its-calm @spooky-goob @strawberryspence @thatsonezesty13 @lonewolf471 @a-mended-pact @ssa-uglywhore27 @hotchandspencearedilfs @venomsvl

@fightingdragonswithwho @mortallythoughtfulgurl @bohemianrhapsody86 @allybatch @crypticcorvidinacottage @reidslibrarybook @lovejules888 @malindacath @simplyparker @gspenc @spenciesprincess @mrskatpotter @starrylang

@1mechanicalalligator @lokiswh0reeee

@hotched @mrs-dr-reid @wander-lustbabe @scargarcia-magshotchner @reidselle @probablycryingg @stillsleepynat @ncsls0515 @stitchwrites

#Spencer reid #Spencer reid smut #Spencer reid fanfiction #Spencer reid fanfic #Spencer reid imagine #Spencer reid x reader #Spencer reid x y/n #Spencer reid x you #Spencer reid self insert #Spencer reid request #criminal minds smut #criminal minds imagine

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callmemaeverick · 1 year

Text

The Inked Knight - The Spy Next Door Part IV

AN: Woot, Part 4. I swear I am going somehwere with this. This is my favourite one to write, cuz ever since I saw that scene in Casino Royale, I wanted to write it. Anywhoo.. here’s the next installment of our favourite gentleman Spy Next Door. Part I, Part II, Part III

Fights in your area are nothing new.

Living close to an overpass meant that you share an area with a group of homeless people and while most of them were harmless, there were a few that tend to get rowdy.

It was supposed to be a quiet night.

Your shift for the day ended by 7 pm and you were grateful for the extra few hours to wind down before you went to sleep. Curled up in your favorite spot on your couch, you were engrossed in your most recent book when you heard the shouting.

There was a group of people gathered at the entrance of the building and from your vantage point, you could make out the figures of some of your elderly neighbors and some strangers you didn’t recognize. You frowned, wondering what Mr. Jameson was doing up so late.

But then, you saw some movements and then came the startled screams. The next thing you knew, Mr. Jameson was on the ground.

You were out the door and down the stairs in an instant and when you got there, people were shouting, grabbing and pulling each other’s collars. It was total chaos and not for the first time, you were certain someone was going to get truly hurt.

So you acted. Without thinking.

“Call 911,” You whispered to Mrs. Rodriguez closest to you and jumped into the commotion. “Hey! Hey-hey-hey,” You exclaimed, putting yourself in between the squabbling group of men. “Whatever’s going on here, I’m pretty sure we can talk it out!”

A man from the gang, stepped forward, his eyes alight but hazy under the streetlight. “Why don’t you mind your own business, bitch?” His voice rang loud over the sizable group that had begun to gather. “This is between me and the old man.” From the looks of him, he was waiting for any chance of an easy fight.

You glanced at Mr Jameson behind you, still glaring daggers at the other man. The old man was none too different.

“Sir, there’s no need to talk to me like that.” You put on your best customer service voice. “Please calm down.”

The man took another step and invaded your personal space. Instantly, you could smell the liquor on his person. His eyes traveled up your body. “And what’re you gonna do if I don’t, Sweetheart?” He asked and behind him, some of his friends snickered.

Chills racked down your spine at the way he was leering and your voice wavered but you held firm. “Sir, please step back.”

The man did not move. Only inching closer.

"Sir, please,"

“She said step back!” Mr Jameson, having found his feet, shoved at the man’s shoulders and that’s when all hell broke loose. Before you knew it, both men grabbed each other once more and you found yourself sandwiched between the two.

You didn’t know how long you were stuck between them, trying to get them to stop. The others around you were grappling too. The loud noices, coupled with the overwhelming sense of being trapped sent warning signals to your claustrophobic brain. Panic seized your body and you gasped for air.

And then, like thunder, a voice boomed over the noise.

“Hey, FBI! Everybody step back!”

Just like that, the bodies parted and you felt Peter’s familiar presence right next to you. You thought he was working that night, but you were infinitely glad you were wrong.

“What’s going on here?” He asked, his voice different than normal. His stance was rigid and his gaze was hard, waiting for answers. He looked between Mr Jameson and the other man, but but not before you caught his eyes scanning you for injuries.

The air was tense as the three men stood off but thankfully, instead of escalating the situation further, the leader of group took one look at your neighbor's 6” figure and the badge on his hip, and decided most likely it was not worth it.

“Nothing, sir.” The man muttered. “Nothing at all.”

And that was it. The cops then arrived a few minutes too late and Peter stayed back to explain everything to them. Thankfully, everyone was let off with a stern warning and went on their separate ways.

The next few minutes were a blur as you hurriedly returned to your apartment, desperate for your safe haven. Curled up against the tiles, with the steady fall of water around you, you let it drown out all sensations.

That was how Peter found you, 10 minutes later, fully clothed and hunched over your knees.

"I can still smell the beer." The drunken man reeked of it.

There was a soft sigh and a rustle of fabric and then, the press of his right arm alongside your ribs. The warmth of his skin, different from the water sent goosebump up your own arms. He had shed his coat, but other than that he was fully clothed as well.

It had became a thing between the two of you, just sitting together in silence, skin touching, just breathing. Living alone in a different city was not always easy and while you would never admit it to anyone, you were starting to feel lonely. But that was before Peter arrived.

He moved, reaching up over his head to the ledge where you stored your soaps and shampoo. "Here," He handed you your body wash.

A flash of black caught your eyes and you stared as you took the bottle from him. You had seen them before, but mostly slivers whenever his sleeve was lifted whenever he moved or stretched. But this was the first time his tattoo was on full display to you.

"What?" Peter asked when he noticed your reaction.

“You uhh-..." Something foreign licked your insides when he moved and you saw the painted muscles of his forearms contract and release. How did you get that close? "I just… didn’t peg you for a sleeve ink kinda guy.”

They were beautiful. A series of geometric triangles running up his arm, giving an illusion of hard scales merging into some intricate design of a flower or a pointed star, blooming from the joint of his elbow.

You were mesmerized.

"I've always wanted them," He told you, turning his arms so you could see more. There were some more wrapping his bicep, still hidden by his shirt sleeves, and you found yourself more than a little curious to see them. "Started doodling in college and got them just before Quantico. Thought they'd look cool."

"They do," You blurted too quickly and blushed when Peter chuckled.

Silence blanketed you for a few beats, the only sound was the water drizzling over you both.

"You did good." Peter told you. "Tonight."

"I froze, Pete. It got intense and I froze. And to think I have years of experience handling people."

"Hey, it's one thing to handle a crisis on the phone. It's another to face it head on." He moved to capture hand. "Trust me. You did good."

You didn't really believe him, but you nodded nonetheless.

"C'mon. Let's get out of here."

You let him pull you up and turn off the shower. You stood quietly as he rummaged your cupboard and pulled out two clean and fluffy towels.

"Would you come back? After?" You asked as you took a towel from him. "I- I don't think I'll be sleeping anytime soon. We could watch a movie or something."

Peter smiled at you. "Yeah. Yeah, of course."

TBC Tagging: @strnqer @thefictionalgemini @bcon24 @medievalfangirl @coldheartedmar @iamzuul @iamasimpingh0e

#peter sutherland #peter sutherland x reader #gabriel basso #the night agent #netflix the night agent #the night agent netflix #the spy next door series #mav's posts

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amica-aenigmata-naboo · 6 months

Text

COLLISION

Astarion x Y/N - Chapter 2 - 2.5K WC

Masterlist

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 (you are here!)

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5 NSFW 18+

Chapter 6 NSFW 18+

Chapter 7 NSFW 18+

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

Magic was tougher than it looked. It felt like the most grueling full body workout. “Well, you’ve got enough to get you through a very short… heavily aided battle.” Shadowheart said, it sounded like the best backhanded compliment.

“Can we be done for the day?” You asked, cracking your neck and stretching your back. “Please?”

Gale smiled and waved you off, “Just for today, we’ll need you in battle soon enough. Best you have a few tricks up your sleeve to survive… A word of advice, seek out Lae’zel, have her show you combat training. The Githyanke are -”

“Excellent warriors, I know.” you stated without thinking.

Gale’s face faltered for a moment before relaxing “Precisely, she’s the best to learn from.” he clapped his hand on your shoulder before walking back to his tent.

Shadowheart was walking back to her tent but gave you a smile and mouthed “good luck” towards you.

You took a deep breath and walked to Lae’zel’s tent. Feet practically made of lead the way the anxiety made them drag. You stopped in front of her not looking up.

“Speak” was all she said.

“I’d like to spar with you… have you teach me how to fight… so I’m not just a useless cleric.” Your lip twitched up at the end of your sentence. Finally raising your gaze, Lae’zel looked at you and crossed her arms.

“Fine. I suppose you can use this.” She said handing you what you recognized as “The Cruel Sting” sword from the drider, Kar’niss.

You clutched the sword and followed Lae’zel to the center of the camp where she unceremoniously body checked you, knocking you onto your back with a groan.

“The Hell was that for?!” you yelled at her.

“Your enemy will not fight fair, you need to know brutality if you wish to fight.” she said as she unsheathed her sword.

You stood and held your sword. Nothing had ever felt more out of place. This wasn't a Renaissance Festival, this was real and you had to learn this to survive. You took a deep breath, closing your eyes and praying a collective prayer to any deity listening. You opened your eyes, the first strike of many clanged against your sword.

Shit.

________________________

Metal collides well past sundown. Lae’zel had run you ragged. You were currently trying to shove her back. She put her foot behind yours and shoved, sending you crashing onto your back.

“Have you learned nothing?!” she yelled so loudly everyone else in the camp was watching now. “Your enemy will not hesitate to kill you. You shall offer them no such mercy either!” she continued to yell.

That's it. That’s what broke the camel's back. Rage consumes you after being beaten down for hours. Your hand reached slowly for the small blade tucked into your breast pocket. Lae’zel put her sword to your neck to demand your surrender. You raised your hands. Lae’zel began putting her sword away and that's when you struck. You kicked her closest ankle and sent her falling. Dagger in your hand, you rolled on top of Lae’zel, straddling her hips and pressing the blade to her throat. She gawked at you, she was speechless.

“Never assume the war is over because the battle was lost.” you said with hate in your voice but a proud smile on your face.

Lae’zel gave the faintest smirk before taping the handle of the blade, signifying she surrendered. Both of you got up slowly. Lae’zel extended her arm. You stared at it in disbelief but your arm went to hers. Holding each other's forearms she shook it once firmly before saying, “Cleric, you may survive us yet.” she let go of your arm, walking to the bonfire as the meat roasting smelled as if it was almost done.

Karlach walked over to you, “That’s as close as you’ll ever get to her saying you’re friends now.” she laughed. “You’ve improved a lot in one day. It’s going to be nice having you around soldier.” she patted your back before she herself walked to the campfire.

You smiled watching her walk away. Glancing at Gale and Wyll they both gave you smiles, Gale giving a soft clap and Wyll a thumbs up. You walked back to your new tent that Karlach had set up for you while you were in the weave. It wrapped around the tree you slept on last night. A bedroll, some candles, and a small table with a lamp softly flickering. The flamed danced shadows across your tent, you laid on your bedroll momentarily, watching the shadows. Quickly, before you got too comfortable, you stood and began your walk to the stream. Your body ached but in a satisfactory way. Maybe you could be an adventurer. At least until you got back home. You shed your camp clothes at the shore, looking back and making sure everyone was at camp. You could hear them eating and telling stories around the fire. You waded into the stream until it reached your ribs. You sat against a boulder in the stream. The water rushing around you felt calming, as if the water was trying to massage the ache out of you. You brushed water over your face and hair before leaning your head back and closing your eyes. Trying to connect to the earth around you, searching for a blissful escape in the elements even if only for a moment.

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

Astarion watched you from behind a tree near the shore and his tent. He didn’t mean to spy on you. He honestly thought he saw a fae or siren wade into the water, your body enchanting him. He watched you wade to the boulder finding some sort of solace in it. You leaned there unmoving for what felt like hours.

Sad

That's what rang out in Astarion’s mind. The tadpole saying what your mind must have been screaming. He felt that unfamiliar pang in his chest again. He wanted to… comfort you? He didn’t even know what that would look like. Was it like seduction just… less? He both wanted to know and despised the thought of knowing.

Without realizing it, he had drifted off and he refocused on your form trudging back to the shore. He knew what he had to do to get rid of the pang in his chest. Crush it. Crush you. The very thought hurt him somehow but he knew it had to be done. He walked out from behind the tree heading towards the shore. Your back was facing him, your shirt and underwear on but nothing else. He adored the way the moonlight made your shirt cast a shadow of your body. He noticed every curve, dimple, freckle… he noticed them all.

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

“Oh! Astarion…” you jumped when you heard the rocks behind you shift. Your hands flew all over your body trying to cover up but not sure what exactly to cover. He grabbed your hip when you started to move backwards. You glanced at his hand before looking at his face, your eyebrows scrunched together. Astarion hadn’t exactly been the most welcoming in the camp so what was this? Hand still on your hip he possessively pulled you to his chest, his opposite hand tilting your chin up so your lips were a breath away from each other. Your whole body felt like cement and lava at the same time. Your eyes watched his every move.

“A bath with no invite? Darling, you wound me.” he whispered onto your lips. You sucked in an unintentionally sharp breath when he leaned forwards and smashed his lips to yours. He was rough despite his gentle grasp on your chin. He continued to kiss you, nipping at your lower lip.

“Ouch!” you yipped, pushing his chest away.

“Come now darling you cannot be so delicate…” he said seductively.

You backed up and held your arm out in front of you to put a physical barrier between you. “Astarion, stop.” You said as your finger smoothed over the nip on your lip that had drawn the smallest bit of blood.

Now it was his turn to freeze, “What? Why? Is something wrong?” He asked. He almost sounded… annoyed? Instead of concern which you would expect from a lover.

You knew enough about Astarion from your progress in Baldur's Gate III that he was trying to manipulate you by sleeping with you. It saddened you. He might not like you much in reality but you would still protect him like everyone else in your party. Your face gave a painful squeeze before you swallowed it all down. You put your arm down, picking up your pants, boots, and vest. “Astarion… you don’t truly want this. I’ll umm… I’ll see you at camp.” You whispered out.

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

The world seemed to be so still and quiet down by the stream. Astarion heard every syllable. He watched you leave quickly and did he detect… a quiver in your voice? Why would you be upset about him trying to fuck you? Why did you say “you don’t truly want this”? He didn’t want it, but how did you know that? He walked back to his tent glumly. After seeing you take down Lae’zel he thought you might not be so bad to have under his thumb. Why would you reject him? He saw himself for the first time in 200 years that morning so he knew for a fact he was still beautiful, fangs and all. He wracked his brain but couldn’t come up with an answer to why his plan didn’t work on you. It works on everyone else.

A bitter seed was planted inside him. He watched your form move around camp for the rest of the night. Eyes never meeting his. He watched you talk with the others. Sing with Wyll. attempt to dance with Karlach. Everyone wore soft smiles, even Lae’zel which was rare. A warmth was spread around the camp. As if the air was made of warm honey. Suffocating you in the best way possible. Rested and comfortable is what it was.

He wanted so desperately to be a part of it. And yet, that bitter seed took root and every thought of you suddenly felt like rot and decay. Finding the bad and none of the good. Making you the cause of such ire. He wanted to be rid of you. He thought of the item you had, the “mirror” he used. Had you told the others about that? What would they think of it? He could twist it to make you look like the villain, he was sure of it.

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

“”Y/N darling…”

Your head snapped to Astarion who had silently managed to sit across from you at the bonfire. Your head swirled a bit, whatever Karlach was drinking had some twang to it that's for sure. You were drunk and the warm glow of the fire made you feel like a cat in a sunbeam.

“Astarion darling…” you giggled back.

“Have you told our dear friends about your powerful little tool?” he batted his eyelashes at you but a devious smirk laid across his lips.

Everyone's eyes slowly drifted to you and lord did you feel them on you.

“I… I showed Gale.” you rushed out. You weren’t hiding it. Not truly. You just didn’t know how to tell them what a phone was without having to tell them about your… well… life? And how to you, they were a mere video game. That they didn’t actually exist. That's a little tough to deliver. Especially while drunk.

“Yes! She had me repower it.” Gale chimed in.

“Oh it needs magic to power itself? Sounds dangerous if you ask me…”

Now everyone's eyes were not only looking at you but focused on you, scanning you over for any potential danger. You slowly reached into your bedroll. Your phone lit up and everyone kept a strong hold on their weapons.

“I… it is a power source… but it only powers itself. It’s not dangerous I swear…. It’s used to communicate where I’m from.” you quickly defended yourself.

“And where is that exactly?” Astarion hummed.

Your skin was crawling, you felt how unsteady your stomach was, a cold sweat coating your back, your hands shaking, and dear god you were fighting the urge to spill tears. All out of sheer anxiety. You didn’t want to lie, but you didn’t know how to tell the truth either.

“I… I’m… not from here. Or Baldur’s Gate. Or Faerûn. I’m… I’m from somewhere far away. I’m not sure how to explain it.” you choked out. The tears slipped out but you quickly wiped them away and looked at your new friends, hoping they’d believe you but not push for more answers either.

“How mysterious.” Astarion jested. “Care to show up what it does so we know it isn’t dangerous?”

You looked down at the phone before looking at everyone around you. You had no idea if this would have some sort of butterfly effect or alter reality but you didn’t really care. These people were your best hope, you needed them and were in no position to test their patience. You looked down, defeated. You agreed, turning the phone on you opened the camera app.

“I can use it to see people… and take portraits of them instantly.” you softly explained before taking a picture of yourself and then showing them all the picture. They looked impressed, borderline shocked.

“Anything else?” Astarion asked, sounding unamused.

You opened your music app and clicked on classical music, thinking that would be somewhat close to the music they know. Playing strauss II - voices of spring you turned the volume up and watched them become entranced. Karlach started swaying and humming with the melody. Everyone’s tense appearance faded and they all seemed pleased with the music.

“Portrait machine and a music box, how delightful!” Gale spoke before drinking more wine.

“If you all don’t mind I will retire early this evening.” you spoke softly as you got up and walked away leaving your phone as it began the classical music playlist you had saved for when you would study. Some of the group gave you nods, some were too deep in drink or conversation to notice. But Astarion did.

He saw how tightly you clasped your hands as you walked away. How your eyes were so big and full of fright. How your heartbeat sounded. Terrified.

Shit.

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

He watched you from his tent as you threw rocks from the river bank into the riverbed. He could still hear your heartbeat. How strained it sounded. Like it was fighting itself. He felt wretched. He was doing what he needed to. Right? Then why did it hurt so damn bad? Why did the way the tears skimmed down your face feel like a wound to his heart? Why did he want nothing more than to go to you and whisper sweet apologies. He hates you. He has to because it is the only control he can feel at this moment. So why does the final sob he hears escaping you on the shore bring him right back to where he doesn’t want to be. He digs in his supply pack before pulling out the vile of angelic slumber. If he couldn’t meditate this away he was not above drugging himself to sleep for the night. Anything to not feel what he felt when it came to you.

Hello angels! You all were so sweet leaving me comments, likes, and reblogs. Thank you soooooo much! All that support went into overdrive so here is chapter 2! I'll be working on other chapters this week. Thank you again for all the love, I love interacting with ya'll! <3

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secretdiaryofcrowley · 29 days

Text

Things To Do Today

Drive.

Just drive

Nothing else.

Waking up this morning, I knew instantly that today is a driving day. I've sobered up to get rid of the hangover, but my headache's still there and it's persistent. Should've sobered up yesterday night, but I kinda like the fuzzy head. Keeps me from thinking.

If there's enough pain in my head, I suppose, I won't worry too much about the pain in my heart.

I don't want to go anywhere near the bookshop. I don't, but I need to return the CD to Muriel before it looses its song. Still, I drive around all day to work up the courage.

The song starts five or six times while I'm driving back to Soho. I try to listen, but in the end I always turn it off. My car turns it back on. I turn it back off.

At the horizon, far beyond the end of the road, the sun's going down in a blaze of red and orange. Like the whole world was about to end in fire.

The street lanterns at Whickber Street flicker on as I pass through. The stores are closed at this hour, but there's still light in most of the restaurants and, of course, the pub.

I could go there, have a whiskey. Or I could have a bottle of wine at Marguerite's or a bottle of Tsingtao at Mr & Mrs Chen's place.

No, I can't. It would never be just one glass or one bottle. Wasting yourself on your own is fine, but not in front of people you used know. Not front of people he used to know.

If I was human, I'd probably be dead in a ditch somewhere three times over. Being who I am, I know how far I can take this. This may be the worst time, but it is certainly not the first.

It's not even the first time I got my heart ripped out, but last time happened to be a bit more literal.

Do mine eyes deceive me? There's light in the bookshop. No, not in the shop itself, but up in the flat, in the very guest room that Gabriel used to live in when he was Jim.

For a brief moment I allow myself to imagine what it would be like if Aziraphale was still in there. He'd notice I was on my way and open the door for me. And then we'd sit inside and talk about something or other, have a drink or two, and maybe talk some more. He would have a snack and I would watch him eat. He would get excited about something and bounce around and I would listen to the ridiclous sounds coming out of his mouth.

And watch his smile. That beautiful beautiful smile. And everything would just be fine for a few hours.

A familiar silhouette at the window. Muriel is sitting there, probably on the inside sill, their head bent over a book they're holding. They're a fast reader, turning the pages at a quick and steady pace.

I wonder why Muriel didn't take Aziraphale's room. It's bigger than the guest room and it's not like he'll be back anytime soon.

Angels and their faith...

I drop the CD in the letterbox inside the door, trying to avoid any noises. Back on the road, I look up to the window again.

Muriel still seems busy with their book. I hope, they read all the brilliant ones first, then the good ones before moving on to the trash that they inevitably will find.

But then, these humans never can tell the difference. Goethe's Faust was a good book. Marie Corelli's Sorrows of Satan was a brilliant one.

I cross the road and signal for my car to come pick me up. Nina is still inside her closed-for-the-night-coffee shop sitting at a table across Maggie. They're talking to each other and they both look worried.

Time to get out of here. Just as the Bentley speeds around the corner, Maggie spots me and starts waving frantically. Nina looks up, too, her expression a mix and match between a sigh of relief and a death glare.

No. No talk. I don't want to talk to any of you. I did what I came for and now I'm leaving.

Just leave me alone, all of you!

~ * ~

More Diary Parts:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21

#crowley #good omens #aziracrow #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #crowley is a mess #aziraphale x crowley #crowley is lonely #crowley is heartbroken #crowley pushes everyone away #good omens fanfic

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thenextdawn-temporarilyclosed · 1 year

Text

One of Your Kind (CH. 4)

Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch. 5 | Ch. 6 | Ch. 7 | Ch. 8 | Ch. 9 | Ch. 10

Word count: 4.3 K

Summary: filming is going great so far, but after Jenna’s birthday you get a disturbing email that will cause issues on sets.

Warnings: hurt/comfort

Pairing: Jenna Ortega X Fem!Reader

———

September 2021

Filming for episode 1 would start soon and by far things were going smoothly. You and Tim had finished getting everything ready on the sets and luckily he trusted you enough to even realize how the scenes were gonna be shot. There would be quite a few stunts this first episode already, the fencing scene, the falling gargoyle scene, the climbing down from Kinbott’s office, the scene with the bullies and finally the scene where Rowan pushes Wednesday against the tree and by far everything was doing okay. Jenna wanted to do her stunts so she had a lot of training and she was putting a lot of pressure on herself, she wanted to interpret this role perfectly.

The scenes wouldn’t be shot in chronological order and since you started shooting at night, the Cello one was first. Jenna had been taking Cello lessons so she knew what to do. “Okay Jen this is how it is gonna go. While you play the cello and read the script the cameramen will be running recording around you, with drones as well to record scenes from above. We might need to make a few takes so hold on alright?” She nodded and smiled “I know how these scenes are shot (Y/N)” she said, maybe jokingly so. But even if you knew she was joking, you took it personally. You were too sensitive to critics now. “Right… ready to shoot?” She nodded and you went behind the scenes. “Action!” Tim yelled and Jenna started playing. For the piece to be made for two cellos, she was being really good at it. You and Tim watched it, and something didn’t sit right with both of you. So you shot it again and again, Jenna was getting nervous, comprehensive, she was tired.

However in the end it turned out alright, and everyone went to sleep for those two hours, while you went to set up for the next scene, the falling gargoyle scene. Everything was ready, this was probably the most dangerous stunt of the day, and Tim had pushed to have a stunt but Jenna didn’t want to. An actual stone gargoyle would be falling on her head and it was very, Very dangerous considering it would only be held up by a rope. The first shot was taken, the gargoyle held up mid air as Jenna stood under it while listening to Tim explain her the stunt. Just as you were waiting, you saw the rope starting to break from the weigh. That’s when you launched yourself at Jenna (basically doing the scene but off camera) and moved both of you away from the danger, as the gargoyle almost hit you while falling. You stood up and off of Jenna and speed-walked to the guy in charge of the falling gargoyle.

“I told you to use a more resistant rope! Now we don’t have another gargoyle, how are we gonna shoot this scene!?” You started angrily and the guy almost felt guilty, but everyone’s eyes were behind you. “(Y/N), a little help here?” You turned around to see Percy trying to pick up a passed out Jenna, probably from the impact when you tackled her. Now it was your turn to feel guilty. You helped him and brought her to the infirmary, where you held an ice pack on her head waiting for her to wake up, you seriously hoped you hadn’t hurt her, but you’d have the confirmation of that when she woke up. When she did, she sat up and you kept on holding the ice pack on the back of her head “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” You asked her hurriedly. “What happened?” She asked you “you know the scene where a gargoyle was supposed to drop on your head? Well, it actually dropped and was about to hit you, but I tackled you out of the way and you passed out, you hit your head and you have this huge bump… I’m sorry I hurt you” you sighed and Jenna took a hold of the ice pack, her hand brushing with yours as she held it on her head.

“Are you kidding me? You literally saved my life. Thank you” she said and smiled, making you smile as well, her smiles were literally the most genuine and cutest ones you had ever seen. “Woah, Wednesday smiling? I would have never thought I’d see her smile” she laughed and gently pushed you, you felt relieved now that she was alright and wasn’t hurt worst.

It was the next week when you realized: Jenna’s birthday would be tomorrow. Last year she had celebrated it on set and this year it would be the same, only one difference.. Last year you didn’t have to get her a present because you didn’t know her well yet, but this time you had to, and you were delirious… you didn’t know what to get her. Jewels? Hoodies? Headphones, maybe? Eventually you opted for a golden necklace from Tiffany&Co. you had seen her wear this brand before, and you hoped you didn’t get something she already has. She would be celebrating it at a bar and she invited you and the rest of the cast. As soon as you all arrived and were brought to a table you realized, they were gonna drink alcohol. You didn’t drink alcohol and most of the times you got pushed away for that, but you weren’t going to fall in that trap again, so you bought a beer, which you didn’t even like but tonight you had to, if you wanted to make some friends.

As you all sat down, you next to Jenna like always, she decided to open her presents before dinner and as she was opening packages, she decided to open yours in the end. She got casual things, hoodies being the main present. You knew she loved oversized hoodies, but you were glad you got her something different. As she took your gift she smiled brightly, seeing where it came from. “You didn’t…” she said, teeth showing with her smile as you shrugged and took in her appearance… she looked beautiful tonight. “Yes I did” you shrugged and she opened it, her jaw dropping as she saw the necklace. “I’ve been wanting to buy this necklace forever! Thank you so much” she said and hugged you tightly. You reciprocated the hug, smiling as you put your hand in the small of her back, keeping her close as you waited for her to move away because surely you weren’t going to let go first.

The night went on easily, as they all drank you kept taking small sips from your beer, not really enjoying it much but you didn’t want them to exclude you. “Okay guys, wanna play truth or dare?” It was Percy who asked, and watched as everyone agreed. They all had a pink shade on their cheeks, indicating that they were drunk. They were used to partying and having to go to work the next day but you weren’t, plus, you didn’t like alcohol. “Okay, Georgie you start,” Jenna said “truth or dare?” “Uhhnmmm… dare!” He said. “I dare you to…. Kiss Emma!” Wait, this is what they meant for truth or dare? Well in that case, you were going to pick truth. You didn’t really know anyone except for Jenna, and you didn’t want to kiss a stranger. You hadn’t even realized they kissed when you were snapped out of your thoughts. “(Y/N)! I dare you to kiss Jenna!” Wait, what? “But you didn’t even let me pick-“ he interrupted you “truths are boring anyway! Kiss Jenna!” He said and you sighed, face palming yourself.

“She’s drunk, I’m not gonna kiss someone who’s drunk” you didn’t even feel Jenna’s eyes on you as you were too busy trying to hide the blush that had crept up your face. “Boooo you’re boring.” It was Jenna who spoke this time, you turned to look at her only to notice she was pouting. “You’re drunk, Je-“ before you could finish she leaned up and gave you a small, quick kiss before sitting back at her place. The kiss was too quick to even think about how it felt, but You had frozen there, the blush in your face only increasing, you just had to hope that they were that drunk to not remember anything the following day- Jenna included. They went on with the game and only kept on drinking, and you tried telling them to drink less because they had to film the next day, but no one listened to you, of course.

As the night finally died down, you all were leaving the bar and Jenna was particularly drunk. “(Y/N)? Can you-“ she tried standing up but almost fell, she was lucky you were there to catch her and help her back to her feet “can you come to the bathroom with me?” You nodded “yeah sure. Guys can you wait for us?” You yelled at the others, but they as well were too drunk to even hear you. You sighed and helped her to the bathroom, staying outside of the cabin as you then called a cab, that would take the two of you back to the set and to your trailers. She was basically passed out as she held onto you and you carried her to bed, you heard her occasionally grunt from the headache, which would definitely be ten times worse the next morning. “I told you not to drink too much.. you sighed, and of course you got no reply.

As soon as you made it to her trailer, you sat her on her bed but she immediately fell backwards on the bed, fast asleep already but you managed to take off her jacket and shoes before you pulled the blankets on top of her. You decided it would be best to spend the night there and check on her so if she ever felt sick and had to throw up, you were there. You sleep on an armchair, you were sure to have a backache the next morning but you didn’t really care at the moment. Jenna did feel sick the next morning, and you woke up when you heard her run to the bathroom. You quickly rubbed your eyes and ran to the bathroom as well, going to hold her long, beautiful black hair back. You sighed as you did so “I told you to not get drunk…” you said and watched as she glared at you, which honestly, made you laugh.

———

October 2021

Halloween.

You always hated Halloween. In Italy it isn’t really celebrated like it is in the US, but still, you didn’t like it. Maybe it was because your parents never even let you carve a pumpkin or go trick or treating, and now you hated the whole concept of if. Luckily on set they weren’t really going to celebrate it, if not for the fact that the cast wanted to watch a horror movie and had invited you to watch it with them, and you had to agree. Unfortunately for you, they decided to watch Scream 5 (Jenna’s latest movie). You had watched the first movie and you were literally traumatized by ghostface, you knew it was all fake but still, you were scared of these things happening to you. As they all sat down (a few on the couch, some others on the floor) you sat down next to Jenna- hopefully so you could feel safe.

Just from the beginning you were flinching and covering your face as everyone else around you, except for Jenna, laughed. Jenna tried to reassure you that you were safe “hey, it’s over. See? There’s no ghostface, he can’t even get to us! You’re safe alright?” That’s what she kept telling you whenever you flinched from the jump scares. She was so sweet you had to say, she did make you feel safe and for once you enjoyed an horror movie.

A few days later you got an email- well, hundreds of email, each of them containing an article online. “The New Netflix series “Wednesday” has (Y/N)(L/N) as a director. Will this series be as bad as her movie? We just have to wait and see” the article basically only criticized you, putting this show under a bad light. Luckily you were in your trailer when you broke down, and no one could see you. Everyone was so excited for this series and now it was all gonna be criticized because of your presence… your parents had told you that you were good at nothing, and they were right after all, you were good at nothing. The only movie you directed sucked, and now you were here being criticized, and scared as hell to do something wrong.

That’s why the next day you decided to go on an interview, it was the kind where you’ll only get criticized and insulted and you knew that, but you had to go, that’s why the next day you took the whole afternoon off, without saying why though as you went for said interview. Were you scared? Yes, shitless but you had to think about the show’s reputation first. As you arrived and made your way onto the stage, obviously you didn’t get the applauses. You had never seen these kind of interviews but you definitely knew that it wasn’t anything pleasant, it was hell, and you would have never figured out that you’d end up in this situation.

“Okay, first of all I would like to thank you for coming, I know this is not very pleasant” the interviewer said, to which you nodded giving a small, nervous smile. “You’re a really young movie director and there’s already lots of questions for you. Let’s go with the first one.” He said and watched how he read through his questions “so, what got you to make that first movie of yours?” You gulped and brought the microphone closer to your mouth. “Well the creators had a low budget and since I had no experience and no “fame” if you could say so, they picked me. I guess they had high expectations seeing how The Fallout turned out, the few scenes I directed were really nice” he said, and then went on with his questions “why did you write it that badly then?” The question was really direct and it caught you unprepared, you definitely took a while to reply “I didn’t write it badly. The plot itself was nice. But I was younger, I had less experiences and I was nervous. The staff followed my orders and it’s pretty clear that I ordered them wrongly.”

You could hear murmurs in the room get louder as the interviewer nodded at your reply and looked for another question. “Why did you chose those actors?” “I think that this is an obvious question. They definitely have talent, that’s indeed but I’m sorry that now they have their resume dirtied by that movie” the other question came pretty soon “then why did you decide to be a co director for the new Netflix series, Wednesday? Aren’t you scared you’re going to dirty these actors’s resume too?” You sighed and looked down, you were starting to get even more nervous and your legs started trembling with Anxiety. “Yes I am scared. But as you said, I’m a co-director, I’m not the only one working on this series, I’m with Tim Burton who you all know. He ASKED me to be his right shoulder and he’s a great teacher, I’m pretty sure that the work will turn out great” you said, but then a comment from the crowd echoed in the room. “Yeah, if your name’s not on it”

That was the last thing you needed to hear. Now you knew that you had ruined your career, you had ruined everything and now you name was ruined for one film. When the interview was over, you ran away as fast as you could, quickly getting in the car before you could get any hate from paparazzis. When you were on your own being driven back to the set, you broke down, tears rolling down your cheeks and sobs escaping your throat. You didn’t deserve all of this hate. Why you? Out of all the bad directors, out of all people, why you? You studied so hard to get this job only to be criticized for one bad movie… it isn’t fair.

When you got back on set, it was 6 in the evening and you knew everyone would be filming and you made your way to your trailer, knowing you wouldn’t meet anyone as they were all on set, but that’s where you were wrong. “There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” You turned around to see Jenna, still in her Wednesday attire. Crap, out of all people, her? You couldn’t hide anything from her, because she would read right through you. “Hi Jen. What do you need?” You asked, trying to flash her a small smile and she did the same, but you lightly turned around to look away from her, she didn’t notice your puffy eyes yet and you wanted it to stay like this “Okay, I wanted to ask you if yo- wait. Have you been crying?” Well, she noticed. She put her hand on your cheek to turn you around so she could look at you properly. You froze at her touch, her soft, small warm hand was comforting, yet foreign and you wanted nothing more than to lean in the touch, looking for some relief but you didn’t. Instead you closed your eyes and a few more tears escaped your eyes.

Jenna’s expression softened a bit but was slightly worried. “What’s wrong?” She asked and watched as your lower lip trembled, before you opened your eyes again. “I don’t… I don’t really want to talk about it..” you said and just then you noticed, her hand was still on your cheek. You slightly pulled back, and she removed her hand from your skin. “(Y/N), you know you can trust me, you can tell me anything” she looked at you with pleading eyes, she didn’t want you to just keep whatever it was inside. “I really can’t, Jen. I’m sorry” you said and got in your trailer, as you left Jenna standing there, watching you get in your trailer as she then sighed, going to her own.

It was a few days later when the interview was published online that you knew, you were in deep shit. You hadn’t expected it to be published as you actually never had an interview, but it was published and Tim was fuming. Both of your screams could be heard on the whole set. Tim usually wasn’t someone to get angry, he preferred dialogue, but what you did, it got you on his nerves. “Why didn’t you ask me permission to go do that interview!?” He yelled, you were currently on set, getting everything ready to shoot the first scene of the day. “Because it was something that concerned me, Tim. ME, not you. I’m not supposed to ask permission for things that only concern me!” You shouted back. “Well that’s the thing! It didn’t only concern you, but the show, too. Which means me, and the other actors! Why didn’t you even think of that!” Why couldn’t he see that you did it for the show too? “I did think of that Tim and that’s exactly why I did what I did! If I didn’t speak up, if I didn’t reply to that fucking disgusting article about me then your show would have been put under a bad light because of me”

He scoffed and smirked. “You’re right, we’re talking about my show. Now it’s gonna be dirtied anyway because you acted on your own” by now, a crowd had gathered around you, all the staff and the actors, Jenna too. Now she understood why you were crying that day, you were treated like shit in that interview. You slammed your hands on what was supposed to be Weems’s desk for the scene you were supposed to film “Great, then take my name off the scripts” you said and watched how he went quiet. “You always say you’re thankful to have me by your side, that you’re thankful for my help. Well now since the movie will be dirtied by my name then get me fired. Send me home, take my name off the scripts and whatever it is on I don’t care, I don’t want anything to do with this shit anymore” you turned around to leave and now noticed that everyone was staring at you. “What are you staring at? Get back to work, the show’s over” you stormed outside and you heard someone follow you, but you didn’t dare turn around. “(Y/N)-“ Jenna said grabbing your arm, which you immediately yanked away. “Leave me alone” you darted back, going towards your trailer.

You stayed in your trailer the whole day, not going to lunch, not going to dinner. You were also debating if you should pack your things, go back home but you didn’t, not yet. Maybe things would turn around, you hoped they would but as of now you needed some alone time, off set. Later that night you heard some knocks on your door but you didn’t reply. The knocks continued “(Y/N) I know you’re in there, the lights are on. Come on I just want to keep you some company” it was Jenna. Of course it was her, it was obvious that she would come after you basically walked away from her that afternoon and a few days earlier. You sighed and opened the door, and saw how she smiled. “I brought you something to eat, too… you weren’t at lunch nor at dinner…” you moved aside without saying a word, though implicitly inviting her in. “I wanted to say that I’m sorry for-“ you quickly interrupted her “can we not talk about that?” She quickly shut up, giving you a small smile as you took the bag of food she was holding.

“Why are you here?” You asked her while taking a mouthful of your food. “Because I… I miss you” you gave her a confused look, to which she replied by sitting at the table with you. “But I’m always here?” You said after swallowing the first bite od food. “I know. I meant that I miss spending nights talking with you like we did while filming the fallout. I just… I miss you. And you’ve been so distant lately, not just from me, from anyone, from anything. You seem changed and for some reasons I don’t like it” she said and looked down, her hair was still wavy from wearing the braids the whole day, and you could see that even if she kept it tied in a messy bun. She was wearing her pajamas, she always goes to dinner in her pajamas, you find it cute. “What do you mean I seem changed?” You asked curiously. “I don’t know. A year ago you were always wanting to hang out with me, Mia and Megan. But now, you’re always locked in your trailer, away from everyone and I want nothing more than to just spend time with you, but you make it impossible and I don’t know if it’s my fault…” she looked down.

“No no no Jen it’s not your fault” you said and kneeled down in front of her, your hands on her shoulders “look at me” she looked at you and you smiled slightly. “It’s been a rough year. The shitty movie, the press and the critics, I have not been good at all. After what happened with my ex I- I have been in a bad place mentally and physically, I lost a lot of weight and I just don’t trust people. That’s why I don’t hang out with you all, I’m scared of other people and their judgement. I know they’re all good people but just I can’t Jen, I hope you understand that. I want to spend time with you too, but I don’t want to take you away from your friends” you said and without saying anything she threw herself in your arms. You were surprised at first, it took you a while to realize what was happening but soon you wrapped your arms around her, she tightened the hug and you did too, hiding your face in her shoulder. You needed the hug, especially after this rough week. You didn’t just need a hug, you needed Jenna’s hug and you let out a sob unwillingly, she only tightened the hug more.

She knew you needed it and she let you stay in the hug for as long as you needed, as she gently began rubbing your back. “You will be okay” she whispered and you nodded, only tightening the hug more. At least 10 minutes passed before you pulled back, sniffling. “You need some rest” she said, her voice low and soothing as she accompanied you to your bed. “Stay” you said and she froze in her spot. “Sleep with me? The bed’s big enough… please” you pleaded, you really didn’t want to be alone. Jenna smiled slightly and crawled under the sheets next to you, you sighed contently. “Can… Can I hug you?” She asked, to which you replied with a sleepy “mhm” and soon enough she got closer to you, until she was spooning you, with an arm around you. “Good night (Y/N)” she whispered, you could feel her breath against your neck, which sent shivers down your spine.

“Good night Jen, thank you.”

A/n: hey there! I’m so sorry for making you wait so long for this chapter but my motivation was basically underground this last week. I didn’t really like how this chapter turned out but I can tell you that there will be more Jenna scenes from next chapter on, I hope you like this anyway

Tags: @idkjustliving2 @tundra1029 @engenelxver @rainbow-love4ever @gimaximoff @smromanoff

#jenna ortega #Jenna #Ortega #jenna ortega x r #jenna ortega x you #jenna ortega x y/n #jenna ortega x reader #jenna ortega x fem!reader #wednesday #wednesday x y/n #wednesday x you #wednesday x reader #wednesday adams #wednesday adams x reader #wednesday addams #wednesday addams x y/n #wednesday addams x you #wednesday addams x reader

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cafeinthemoon · 6 months

Text

Ruins - Part XIX

Chapter 19/?

Wordcount 4,2k

Title Part XIX

Fandom Shuumatsu no Valkyrie / Record of Ragnarok

Previous chapters 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 . 11 . 12 . 13 . 14 . 15 . 16 . 17 . 18

Symbols ⭕ . ➕ . 💛

Warnings: none

Tagging @holdyourwine @lilacshouko @shirayuki-ayumi @telvess (If you want to be tagged in any of my stories, just leave a comment on this chapter or send an ask or a message)

N. A.: Hello again :) I've been so anxious about how this chapter would be, if the descritions would be ok, if it would be too short, too long, boring, over detailed, but finally it's published! I'm so happy and relieved! I feel like I've been putting too much expectations on the Psique's Ritual and my biggest fear was to mess up with it, but I think it's good the way it ended up.

The party after the ceremony will have much more happening, so I knew this chapter wouldn't be enough to tell everything, so wait for the next part and, for now, have some minor, "solar" conflict ;)

The morning of the wedding came still and warm, the first one of the Spring that your life was about to become.

You left your bed with the thought of a sweet expectancy, and with the happy consciousness of having left the weights and fears behind.

It looks like any other day of Valhalla, and it could be. Except for me and my loved ones.

Days ago, you finally managed to talk to your parents about the separation that waited for you in the near future. It was a calm conversation, sad in some points, but surprisingly relieving in others, and those hours you’ve spoken with each other were something that you would never forget.

You’ve been carrying those fears for too long, but you were glad you took the chance to express them while your parents were still there. You confessed to them that you avoided talking about the dreams because you didn’t understand them, and you didn’t want to make them worried; you also supposed that they wouldn’t understand it as well. But to them, the real meaning of the dreams was as surprising as it was to you, and they weren’t less happy, as they soon made you know.

You told them you were scared with the idea of not having them forever by your side, and that you didn’t feel ready to be a Queen. And, about this, they were more prepared than you expected.

– No one feels ready for great roles in life, my dear – your mother explained – But admitting this to yourself is the first step to learn how to assume a responsibility.

– Besides, you won’t be alone in this – your father corroborated – Hades-sama is an experienced, wise god, as far as we could see. He will guide you in everything you need.

– And he seems willing to do that! – your mother said with a smile – Seeing my girls being loved and well treated is the dream of any mother, and you’re going to make it a reality!

– We’re proud of you, y/n-chan!

You felt your throat tightening with those words.

– But you’re not afraid of our separation? You’re not worried that our time together is almost over?

That time, their smiles faded a bit, but not their confidence.

– Even if you stayed human, our time together would come to an end – your father replied – Still, we wouldn’t think too much about this, right?

– We would just live and enjoy our days together, as any family in our world would do – your mother said – This isn’t different. We’re happy to be your parents, and we’re glad for the time you’ve stood with us.

You were no longer able to hold back your tears. You jumped into their arms, squeezing them tight.

– I love you so much…

– We love you too, dear.

– We will love you always.

You had that moment in mind for all the time you prepared yourself to the ceremony, content that you had no regrets.

***

Though you woke up early, the real preparations only started by afternoon, since the ceremony would take place by the evening. Still, you were surprised with the agitation at Valhalla during those few hours: many gods, goddesses and other people were invited, and Hermes and the elves were too busy receiving them. You had the chance to see and even talk to a few of them and, contrary to what you were expecting, they treated you with kindness, as if you were already one of them, though some had peculiar ways to show their surprise, so that you guessed that there were gods that never saw a human being from close before, and others haven’t seen one in centuries.

Hades, on his turn, has been in constant contact with his brothers and solving some practical matters concerning your imminent travel to the Underworld. According to him, Adamas, who was finishing some administrative tasks in Hellheim, was going to arrive at the afternoon, as well as Poseidon. Zeus, on the other hand, has been there for a few days now, and you’ve talked to him about the ambrosia and the procedures involving it.

You didn’t sleep in the same room as the other disciples: you were given a separated space to rest and take ceremonial baths, according to the Greek traditions taught to you by Hades. After being visited by two elvish women who brought you the garment and the accessories, you went to the room where your sisters were, and counted on them to do your hair and your makeup. You showed them the hairpin Hades gave to you and asked them to help you compose a hairstyle with it; the girls were fascinated by its beauty, and it was hard to keep Ellie’s little hands away from it.

After chatting and helping them with their own garments, you called an elf to take them ahead of you to the great hall.

You were there alone meditating when Hermes came to guide you to the great hall where the wedding was going to happen. There was a moment of silence, when you held your breath, but then you stood up and opened your best smile.

– I’m ready.

He offered his arm to you, and with one last look in the mirror to confirm everything was alright, you accepted the invitation to leave the room.

***

That corridor wasn’t different from the one where your room was, through which you’ve walked so many times, so you had a general idea of how long it was. Still, you had mixed sensations about crossing it: sometimes, it looked like you were almost reaching the great hall, and other times you thought you were too far from it.

In the meantime, Hermes and you had a brief conversation.

– I still find it hard to believe we’ve reached this stage, Hermes-sama – you were saying – There was fear, curiosity, warmth, desperation and, finally, happiness. It’s just too much when we remember it has only been a few months!

– You’re right – the god responded with a smile – And it was an interesting experience to observe all of this happening.

You felt your eyes getting filled with tears.

– And it was a privilege to have your company in all of these moments. You’ve been a great friend, Hermes-sama.

Hermes made you turn a corner and stopped, turning to you and kissing your forehead just like he did in the kitchen when you told him you were going to accept Hades’ proposal.

– And you’ve been, and will continue to be, a great little sister, y/n-chan.

The treatment, used by him for the first time, almost made you undo your makeup by crying, but with great effort you managed to control yourself. Hermes then guided you to the end of that new corridor, and pushed the doors that were in front of you by its end.

Soft lights invaded the corridor and touched your faces like the promise of a good dream, and you were presented to the great hall where your family, gods, Zeus-sama and the King of the Underworld were waiting for you.

***

In front of you, there was a long, narrow path covered with a light carpet and petals of yellow narcissus taken from the fields you once visited at the Gardens. You smiled to the vision.

– Can’t believe he remembered the day when we crossed the narcissus paths – you whispered to Hermes.

– Hades-sama has a privileged memory, y/n-chan – was his reply.

You looked around and saw many other details on the decoration that reminded you of the encounters you had: chords of flowers hanging from the ceiling, rounded recipients full of water that resembled the fountains at the Gardens and marble statues on the corners.

There were people on both sides of the path, and all of them stood up at your arrival: at the right, there were gods and goddesses from many pantheons, aside from the Greek gods you’ve already knew, and at the left, you saw the human girls with whom you’ve shared the lodge, demigods, nymphs and other spirits of nature, elves and minor deities. You felt so small when you noticed all those people who were there to celebrate the peculiar union, some of them clearly wanting to see a human for the first time, as well as to witness the rare Psique’s Ritual. For a moment, you considered asking Hermes if the goddess was present to see the ritual that carried her name, but you stood quiet. And, when you saw all those eyes turning to you, all you could think of was running away, and the only thing that stopped you from doing it was the approaching of someone you loved – your father, who came to replace Hermes by your side. He offered his arm and you accepted it, walking toward the altar.

Hades was there at the left side, waiting for you with his hands behind his back, while his brother was in the middle of it, in front of a golden table. The man you loved was as beautiful as you’ve always seen him, but something in the lights made you think his godly nature has never been so evident, and the majesty in his figure set him apart even from his fellow gods. His eyes – that is, his left eye and the right one covered with the eye patch – were glued on you, and as you approached the altar, you noticed the glow of tears over his visible eye: his happiness was there for anyone to see, and that only deepened your love and admiration for him.

You father stopped with you in front of the altar, and Hades walked down the three stairs that separated you to meet you two. Your father released your arm and kissed your head, murmuring encouraging words to you; he turned to the groom and, with a nod, he walked to your mother’s side, in the first row of the left wing, where she was holding Ellie while Luna and Helena were with her.

When your father left, Hades and you exchanged whispered, sweet words and giggling.

– You’re scary today, my Lord – you joked about the eye patch.

– Today I need to be scary, my girl – he replied – There’s too much people watching.

He took your hand and led you to the first stair, where Zeus was waiting for you. He opened a brief smile, then turned to the table and took something from it; when he turned again, you saw a silver goblet in his hands, filled with a liquid that reminded you of wine – ambrosia, about which you’ve talked in your conversations concerning the ceremony. You already knew you would have to drink it before the wedding itself, but never thought too much about this moment until it finally came, so when the Lord of Heaven offered the goblet to you, your hands hesitated for a second, but then you grabbed the object and held it tight in front of you.

Zeus changed his posture, raising his hands and speaking with a firm, louder voice, different from the one you’ve got used to hear from his mouth.

– Before the eyes of all the immortal and mortal ones who are here, I, Zeus, Lord of Heavens and Head of the Greek House, declare the beginning of the Ritual of Psique. And I call you, human Y/n of the Ys/n Family, from Midgard, to take your part on it by drinking the blessed liquid – and, looking into your eyes, – Take it, now, and change to join divinity.

A heavy silence spread all over the great hall as the echo of the god’s words reached its deepest parts and died, and you felt everyone’s eyes burning your back. With a deep breath, you glanced inside the goblet and closed your eyes as you approached its brim from your lips, emptying the cup in a few seconds.

You would never be able to remember the exact taste of the ambrosia: you only remembered the sensation of a cold liquid filling your mouth, and a warmth appearing as it was poured down your throat, but instead of the familiar feeling of a liquid reaching your stomach, the ambrosia simply disappeared inside your body, and no remaining taste was noticed in your mouth; it was like you never consumed anything.

However, it didn’t take long for the effects to start showing.

While a heat wave spread all over your limbs, a tingling sensation started on your fingertips, under your nails, and all over your scalp, increasing slowly as if something was bubbling, or growing out of these parts; the sensation, however, reverberated in your entire body. You raised your hands and looked at your nails, gasping when you saw them changing their color from the natural one, under the transparent polish nail you chose, to a purplish shade, soft and pleasing to the eye; besides, they were now longer, but still followed the almond shape you used to wear.

You looked at Hades and found him staring at you, ecstatic; at the moment when you were going to touch your hair, feeling something strange after the tingling started, he approached his hand and took off the hairpin from it, and that time you were the surprised one: untying and spreading by themselves, a mass of curls and waves fell on your back and reached your ankles’ height; you held some strands and laughed when you saw that their color was also changed, but to a darker version of the nails’ purple.

Hades approached for the second time and, passing his hands around your head, he grabbed a few strands and tied them with the hairpin. He took the chance to reveal a third change, this one invisible to you until you had the chance to look into a mirror.

– Your eyes are now lilac, little one.

You opened your mouth in surprise, and Zeus intervened:

– Since you are on the growing spectrum, more changes are expected in the next days – he explained, in a lower, assuring tone – But the first seeds of your new nature are alive and awake. Welcome to the world of the gods, Y/n.

Your emotions were roaring inside you, but you kept composed and nodded in respect.

– Thank you, Zeus-sama.

You raised the goblet and Zeus took it, returning it to its place on the table. He then showed the crowd a second object: a small, silver plate where you saw two pieces of what looked like sesame cakes.

Now, the way for the wedding was free, as the god’s next words indicated.

– For now we have both god and goddess before us, there are no impediments for the marital contract to be sealed – he put the plate between you – You both, take them.

Hades and you took the cakes at the same time. That was the moment of the ceremony you were the most anxious to take part in: the exchange of the ceremonial food. It as a simple part, but you were afraid you would start laughing of nervousness, but fortunately none of this happened. Obeying Zeus’ orientations, Hades gave you his cake and you gave yours to him.

Zeus put the plate back on the table and, for the third time, took something from it: a large stray with a golden ring and a delicate earring of the same color. Hades took the earring and, moving your hair away with a gentle gesture, he put the jewel on your left ear; you took the ring from the stray and put it on his left hand, on his ring finger.

Zeus held your hands together for a moment, then made the announcement.

– By the powers of Heaven, I declare you husband and wife.

Those words, the concretization of something you’ve been dreaming of for months, brought hot tears to your eyes. Hades – now, your husband – pulled you closer and kissed you twice, the first time on your forehead, the second on your lips.

You both turned to the crowd, and watched with silent happiness as they received with smiles and claps the new couple and the new goddess.

***

The festivity that happened right after the ceremony, in the same rooms where the ball in which you’ve solved Hades’ enigma took place, was organized to receive the new family of the Greek pantheon and it was a good counterpoint for the solemnity of both the wedding and the ritual. Despite continuing to be the focus of the attentions beside your husband, you were more at will now, for your family was close, you already talked to the friends you’ve made on the lodge and had the opportunity to meet many gods and goddesses you’ve only knew by name.

And, about each of them, you formed curious opinions.

One of the first gods you met was from your own, new pantheon, and even when you’ve never saw him before, you’ve kind of guessed his identity once he appeared in front of you: a young man with pretty, delicate traits, dressed in extravagant, golden garment and with a long, pink hair falling on his back approached you two with the confidence of a king, bringing with him the heat you’d expect to feel outside your home in a Summer day.

As soon as he put his scrutinizing eyes on you, a feeling of being exposed to an intense light took over you, and you had to fight the impulse of hiding behind Hades.

I’m a goddess now. I can’t just shame myself this way.

The first words exchanged between you were said by the newcomer.

– If only I could tell you, big bro, how much I had to restrain myself from approaching the altar and examining her from close – the man stretched his hand and held your jawline, turning your face from one side to the other, as to not miss the smallest detail of your appearance – She’s such a beauty! – and, blinking an eye to your husband, – You’ve always had an eye for treasures, dear uncle.

You glanced at Hades and, to your surprise, his response to the god’s attitude was to smile.

– Your enthusiasm is laudable, but I’m afraid you’re scaring my wife, Apollo.

The other man, only then realizing the possibility of being intrusive, let go of your jawline and made a proper presentation.

– Forgive me for this indiscretion, little flower – he nodded – I am Apollo, God of the Sun. It is a pleasure to receive you in our family. From now on, consider me your elder brother.

You followed the etiquette and nodded to greet him.

– Thank you for celebrating with us and considering me part of your family, Apollo-sama.

– Ah, you don’t need to thank me, dear – Apollo caressed your chin – I’m too attached to my family, so of course I’d come. Besides, don’t you know that the ritual to transform a mortal being in a deity hasn’t been seen in ages? I couldn’t miss this opportunity. And, obviously, I was curious to know the woman who won my uncle’s cold heart, that is, what kind of beauty she carried in her.

You laughed at those words: despite his extravagance, Apollo was a good guy, with a pleasing sense of humor.

The conversation would have continued in this rhythm if it wasn’t for the arrival of another person, as interesting as him: a woman of Asian traits, with a young, majestic face covered in white makeup and red lips, contrasting with her black hair, tied up with luxurious hairpins; something in her way resembled Apollo, but in a quieter manner. The god of the Sun fell silent once he noticed her presence, and you sensed that he wasn’t exactly content with it.

The goddess’ voice sounded just like her figure suggested it would sound: soft, but firm, articulated, but sensitive.

– Hades-sama, Apollo-sama – she nodded to each of them as she spoke – It’s been a long time since our last reunion – and, turning to you, – But I’m content that the reason that reunited us today is a happy one.

Hades made the presentations.

– Y/n, this is Amaterasu, from the Japanese pantheon. She’s the Goddess of the Sun.

You greeted her with the same respect you treated her Greek counterpart. Amaterasu looked into your eyes for a moment, as if reading a secret in them, then spoke in a prophetic tone:

– There is a light inside you that has been there since you were born, young goddess – and, opening a hopeful smile, – The consumption of the ambrosia amplified and strengthened it, for your own good and for the ones you love.

You had no idea of what she was talking about, but you wouldn’t interrupt her. However, there was someone who wasn’t so composed in this sense.

– It is a pleasure for me to meet you again after so many centuries, Amaterasu – it was Apollo’s voice; he was really displeased for having his chatting with you interrupted by a member of a foreigner pantheon – But if you don’t mind, Y/n must receive blessings from her own pantheon first.

The Japanese goddess stared at him and, without arguing, smiled and raised her hands in a gesture of rendition.

– I just thought you already gave her your blessing, Apollo-sama. But if you didn’t, go ahead. I’m not stopping you.

Apollo, still with his hurt ego, didn’t mind replying to her, turning to you instead.

– Young Y/n, you’ve already proved your beauty by your hard work concerning the solution of your husband’s enigma, in which you showed your aspiration for a greater fate than your former nature could concede you.

You didn’t see yourself as this ambitious person, but you let him continue. And, as he spoke, you began to see his surroundings changing as a golden light involved his figure.

Is this an ability I gained as a goddess? I felt like I’m witnessing a glimpse of his true form.

– This is my gift to you, my dear – he took your hands and held them tight between you – May you continue what you started here in your new life as a Queen, and your soul grow in wisdom, kindness and strength of will, for all of this is beauty.

You gave his hands a soft squeeze in response.

– May everything happens exactly as you say, Apollo-sama – you whispered – Thank you for your blessing.

– Once again, no need to thank me, my flower, for prophecy isn’t but my job – untangling his hands from yours, he brushed your hair behind your ear; and, glancing at Hades, – Now, if you two excuse me, there are a group of anxious nymphs longing for company somewhere in this hall.

Without any other word or need for verbal responses from you or the other presents, Apollo turned his back on the group and walked away, as dramatic as a Summer sunset.

When he was out of sight, you heard a sweet giggle. You looked around and saw Amaterasu staring at the path taken by the other sun god.

– He never changes – she turned to you – But he’s a good man, despite what you just saw. Now, allow me to give you my blessing, Y/n – she repeated Apollo’s gesture, taking your hands in hers – The light you already bear in you, which has been brought to sight by the blessed drink, must never fade, and never fail you. The paths that wait for you, young goddess, are sinuous and dark, but may the lamps of consciousness be fed by this light, and fear never lead you stray.

Something similar to what happened during Apollo’s blessing happened now: you saw Amaterasu’s figure surround itself with a light that reminded you the first rays of a calm day, and as much as you felt encouraged and inspired by Apollo’s words, you felt comforted and determined with Amaterasu’s, and you thanked her with the same enthusiasm you showed to the Greek solar deity.

– I pray that everything happens as you determine, Amaterasu-sama. Thank you for your blessing.

The goddess inclined her head toward you, then did the same to Hades before leaving, with the same serenity in which she came.

You were still thinking of her words when you felt your hand being held by your husband. You turned to him to find a smile on his lips.

– Being blessed by solar deities is a great privilege for any person, god or mortal – he commented; and, with a playful tone, – But having two of them competing for attention is something you must never forget.

You laughed.

– I can see that. But it’s funny that, though I understand they must have reasons to not be so fond of each other, I don’t think they should feed conflicts between them so often.

Hades raised an eyebrow.

– How so?

– They might be the representations for the same concept in different pantheons, but each of them bring something unique to it – you explained – Apollo-sama, is like the imposing, powerful midday sun; Amaterasu-sama, on the other hand, is solemn, but welcoming as the morning sun. And I like both.

The King of Hellheim stared at you with kindness, as recognizing in your attitude one more reason to love you.

– Sustaining this view on such subjects is easier in theory, but I suppose it’s not going to be a problem for you to bring it to the practical field as a former human – he pondered.

– Do you think so?

He caressed your hair in response.

– I do. And I think we will have much fun learning with each other in this sense.

#snv x reader #ror x reader #shuumatsu no valkyrie hades #snv hades x reader #record of ragnarok hades #ror hades x reader

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iamacolor · 4 months

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2023 sewing projects - part 1 details at the end of the post (click here for part 2)

Note: I work for a fabric shop so I get most of my fabrics for free as well as some patterns as I have to be wearing our products at work (I definitely consider it a perk). Without this job I would not be sewing as much and I'd probably be buying most of my fabric second hand or on sale as I used to do before. I also sometimes sew during work hours so keep that in mind if you're also a sewist, go at your own rythm 💜 Although I have basic training in pattern drafting I prefer to sew from pre-existing patterns to save on time (as i have to regularly make myself some new clothes for work) and discover new techniques and styles - but I often change stuffs to adapt the designs to my style.

1 - first outfit for my friend's wedding (this one was for the henna night), it's made in a linen-viscose blend and it's very easy and quick to make + i can easily wear each piece separately!

2 - second outfit for my friend's wedding made out of 100% silk muslin (it was a big remnant i found on sale) - i ended up making made a lot of changes from the base pattern: i lenghtened the sleeves a lot, i changed the skirt piece as the og one was too short for me and also too wide for my narrow fabric so i just cut rectangles in the desired length and gathered everything at the waist - the skirt is fully lined both in silk and in lining fabric - I also took a lot in at the middle back and some on the sides (i would've have loved to make a toile but sadly a nasty tendinitis kept me away from sewing for a few months so i had to speed things up before the wedding)

3 - i made this bodysuit last week - it was my first time working on a knit fabric in a while and i should have lenghtened it a bit more than i already did as the shoulder seams are being slightly pulled back - in a viscose/polyester milano knit + modified pants from a magazine in a viscose , large pants in fluid fabrics like that are great for all seasons as i can easily put some tights on underneath when it's too cold. I'm so glad i found a knitted fabric to match the print on the pants!

4/5 - this dress and blouse have the same base pattern from the same book but i modified the end of the sleeves on both (they were supposed to be gathered on a wrist band and closed with buttons) to create a ruffle effect with an elastic - on the dress i took out the collar piece and slightly adjusted the side seams to make them more fitting + i traced another skirt piece based on the back of the skirt in pic1 and added a ruffle at the bottom - the dress is made in a viscose twill and the top in a coton double gauze

6/7 - both of these tops are made from the same pattern, i simply lenghtened the sleeves for the checkered version and on both i tightened the sleeve band - it's a very quick pattern to make. The dotted one is made from a very fine coton corduroy and the checkered one is in a coton double gauze. The pants are made in a thicker corduroy, I'm very much in between sizes when it comes to pants (depending on the brands I cover around 4 sizes between my waist and my thighs at their thickest) I ended up cutting the size for my thighs and simply deepening the folds and the darts to make it fit at the waist + I wanted a loser fit on the legs so i added 1cm on each side

8 - this shirt is made in a linen and viscose blend (same fabric as the pink matching set) except for the contrasting blue elements which are in linen-coton - i had fun playing with the classic shirt finishing and deciding what to do in blue (the buttonholes are threaded in blue!)

9/10 - this top is made from a simple coton gauze, the bodice is lined with the same fabric (super quick to make although the fact that the right and wrong side are the same means i've put in on wrong at least twice lmao) - the pants are made in coton gabardine (i've also had to trace between sizes here - this is a us sizes pattern and for this i'm in between 6 and 10 with a slight redrawing of the crotch and the side seams under the pockets) I love this pattern because it comes in a slim legs version, a straight one, a wide version (this one) and a short version. I've made another large version in orange and a slim version in white.

11 - these pants are made in a coton-linen twill - pretty straightforward in their making, as always I am in between sizes for pants so I cut a size 10 (can't remember if this was in us or uk sizes)and ended up having to do my usual changes for pants by deepening the front folds and the back darts (which I also had to make longer to accomodate not just for my waist circumference which is 2 sizes smaller than my thighs but also the arch of my back). Really like how large the belt is and how the fold is pressed all the way down the leg. I wore it with the green top, a red jacket and gold shoes for christmas eve!

#aleks if you're seeing this you're kind of an inspo for the last look it's just that I don't wear black #also if anyone wants more details on which patterns i used let me know!#vinformation #my sewing #i should start tagging that #i'll make another sewing post with the outfit i didn't take pics of yesterday #i either forgot about them or already liked the pics i had of them #sewing #crafts

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norakbubbles · 1 month

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I just finished the final episode of Game of Thrones about two hours ago and....*sighs*

I have many feelings and I'm going to list them:

1. Braime and Theonsa could have been endgame couples if the writers weren't COWARDS-

2. "Bran the Broken" makes me giggle bc they literally couldn't find any other nickname for him

3. I still low-key think Gendry should have been king in the end, given he technically was supposed to have the iron throne after Robert died in the first place

3. Yaayyy Jon, Tormund and Ghost are together again (if s8 ended with me not being able to see Tormund for one last time I would've thrown hands)

4. Literally poor tyrion being made another hand of someone he barely knows when he doesn't want to

5. Bronn wanting to prioritize rebuilding brothels over ships makes me laugh

6. Robin Arryn's glow-up shocked me bc he actually doesn't look like an iPad kid anymore 👏👏

7. Sandor being one of the casualties in the final fight saddened me more than Jaime I'm sorry but it did

8. Ngl I forgot who Edmure Tully was for a hot minute when he showed up

9. Dany's death did not make me upset but Drogon's reaction to her death did idk why

10. Did anyone else go "Now what?" during the last few minutes? Like Sansa being crowned queen of the North and Jon and Tormund going off with the wildlings and Ghost? Like what are they gonna do now? There really aren't any more threats. If anyone does know of any still existing threats by the end of the series let me know

Anyway, I'm pretty sure my mom is tired of hearing me yap about Braime all the time and my sis and I both agree that Theon should have been there with Sansa as she was crowned. I loved the series, and will most likely be moving on to HotD next bc I've heard it's good. Yes season 8 could have been better but in the end, we just have to accept that that's how the series ended and there's nothing we can do about it....

that's what fanfiction is for... 😗

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ramblingoak · 10 months

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The Cardinal's Bride, Interlude: Meanwhile Back at The Ministry

Previous Chapters: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 ~~ Pinterest Board ~~ Spotify Playlist

Something a little different while I finish up Chapter 7. I think it's time we met Secondo and get a taste of what life is like at his casino, The Ministry. Thank you to @tasty-ribz for the very very nice gambler/cowboy Secondo art. And thank you to @kissingghouls and @writingjourney for being thirsty for Secondo and cheering me (and him) on.

~ Secondo, Mist, Cirrus and Alpha (no pairings, alternate universe, gun violence, lots of swearing, nsfw 18+ only, mdni, 1,600 words) ~

“Copia did what?”

Secondo watched as Alpha nervously shifted from foot to foot. The Ghoul took their hat off and cleared their throat before continuing.

“He, uh, kidnapped Saltarian’s fiancé. Sir.”

Of all the fucking stupid things his brother could have done. He clenched his fists on top of his desk and resisted the urge to flip the damn thing over. When would Copia learn to let shit go?

“How did you find this out?”

“There was a courier that rode through about an hour ago. Dropped off the usual warrants and some new wanted posters from around the area.” Alpha pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and nervously set it in front of him. “This was in there too.”

Secondo unfolded it and gritted his teeth. There was the familiar picture of his little brother that was posted everywhere that had a damned window but next to it was a picture of a young woman. He got progressively angrier as he skimmed over the text. The Cardinal and his band of Ghouls kidnapped the generous Mr. Saltarian’s fiancé. The poor woman was being held for ransom less than a month away from her wedding. It ended with a quote from the banking magnate that a hefty award would be given to anyone with info on the whereabouts of the devil worshiping outlaws.

Unholy fuck.

“Should I wake up the sheriff?”

“On it. I’ll have him come here right away.”

Secondo ran a gloved hand through his hair and took a few puffs on the cigar to get it going. After it was lit he flicked the match onto his plate, watching as the paper began to burn. His eyes flicked back to Alpha and he called out to him before he left his office.

“Deputy…don’t tell anyone about this, do you understand?”

“Got it, Papa.”

He nodded towards the door but it burst open before Alpha had even turned around.

“What now?”

Mist narrowed her eyes at Secondo’s tone as she shoved past Alpha.

“Got a problem on the floor. Some asshole thinks Cirrus is cheating him at poker.”

Secondo pushed his chair away from his desk and ripped open a drawer. His gun belt rested inside, something he rarely wore anymore. Mostly because he was always too tempted to shoot anyone that pissed him off.

“She’s supposed to be playing the piano.” Secondo settled the belt around his hips and then grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair. “Who the fuck is on stage right now?”

“Cowbell.”

Fucking Cowbell. He straightened his jacket and stalked around his desk, glaring at Alpha when the deputy still hadn’t left.

“Shouldn’t you be doing something?”

Secondo narrowed his eyes when Alpha hesitated.

“Uh, are you going to shoot someone? I could stick aro—“

“You’ll do what I fucking tell you.”

Alpha held his hands up and quickly turned, heading out of the office. He could hear the Ghoul’s boots thunking down the hall as he went.

“You ready? Cirrus might’ve killed him by now.”

“I’m not that lucky.”

“I know you fucking cheated so just admit it!”

“You can say it as many times as you want, asshole. It ain’t gonna make it true.”

“I don’t know sweetheart, you look like the kind of guy that gets cheated on by women a lot.”

“You fuc—“

Secondo had reached them right as the man advanced on the Ghoulette. He held a hand out and stopped his progress, splaying his fingers wide on his chest and shoving him back away from the table.

“What’s the problem here?”

“The problem is this stupid bitch has been cheating and costing me money!”

Cirrus slammed her fist down onto the table and jumped to her feet.

“If you say I cheated one more fucking time I’m going to slice your damn throat.”

“You’re a fucking che—“

“I ain’t your friend.” He shoved away from Secondo, stumbling back and falling onto his ass. “Should’ve known a bunch of Satan worshippers would cheat.”

Secondo narrowed his eyes and took a step toward him. He pushed the right side of his jacket back and tucked his thumb into his belt so his palm was close to the handle of his revolver.

“Care to repeat that?”

“You heard me. Everyone knows about you guys. Fucking sacrificing people and animals and shit.”

“That’s a lie!”

“Liars. Devil worshippers. Cheaters.” He shook his head as he stared the man down. “Serious accusations from a drunk that can’t back them up.”

Secondo smirked when the man growled and clumsily got to his feet. He was itching for the man to try something, honestly for anyone to try something tonight. His anger over what Copia had done was simmering in his veins.

“Oh I can back them up.” The man straightened his clothes and then reached towards his belt. “But first I’m gonna shoot you in your smug fucking face.”

“Are you?” Secondo clicked his tongue and let his palm rest on the handle of his revolver. “What a pity. I had plans for later.”

“Yeah well fuck your pl—“

The man had finally gotten a grip on his gun and pulled on it, but he barely had it out of the holster before a gunshot rang out and echoed through the now quiet casino. Secondo watched as his body jerked and collapsed in on itself. The bullet had lodged between his eyes, blood quickly pouring from the wound and dripping onto the floor. Secondo grimaced for a moment before he turned to look at Mist.

“Take care of this please.”

“Yes, Papa.”

“Cirrus, a moment por favore.”

As he walked towards the bar he shot a look towards the quiet stage. Cowbell took the hint and started playing again, Cumulus’s voice joining not long after. At the bar he leaned against the front of it and nodded towards Air who quickly poured him a whisky. The liquid burned down his throat, but he held the glass out for a refill. Before he could tip that back Cirrus stepped up to his side and slipped the glass out of his hand, coughing after she swallowed the contents.

“Lucifer, how do you drink this?”

“You get used to it.” Secondo held his hand out for his glass and nodded towards Air again. As the Ghoul filled it once more he met the Ghoulette’s eyes. “Are you that bored?”

“Can you blame me? There’s nothing to do.”

He raised an eyebrow at her statement, downing his drink in one gulp. When Air filled it once more he handed it to Cirrus.

“Let me guess, you’d rather be riding around with my brother.”

“Well yeah, those shitheads need my help.”

“Do they?” Secondo watched her throat move as she gulped the drink down. “Help with what exactly?”

“Don’t you want revenge? For what Saltarian did?”

Secondo sighed and held his hand out for the glass, holding Cirrus's gaze when she handed it back.

“What I want is to live my life without looking over my back waiting for the next Saltarian.” He also wanted more whiskey and another cigar. Cirrus sighed and started to turn to head back to the poker tables, but Secondo shot a hand out and grabbed her wrist. “I also would like you to take over for Cowbell please.”

Cirrus nodded her head, but when Secondo didn’t let go she turned back to him. He brought his other hand around and slipped his fingers into her sleeve. When he pulled out the two aces she had stuffed up there he smirked at her and flicked them behind the bar.

“Oh no, how did those get there!”

Secondo snorted and let go of her before pointing towards the stage.

“Piano, please.” He winced as Cowbell hit a few wrong notes. “Before I shoot him too.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

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#my fics #my writing #the cardinal's bride #cowboy secondo #secondo fanfiction #papa emeritus ii fanfiction #the band ghost fanfiction #cirrus ghoulette fanfiction #cowboy copia #gambler secondo

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courtforshort15 · 1 year

Text

Chapter 3

Pairing: Matt Murdock x fem reader

Word Count: 6,200

Summary: It's a Wednesday when the sky quite literally opens up above you. The Battle of New York rages around you, and the only thing that gets you through is the stranger standing next to you. Matthew Murdock is more than he seems, keeping you safe in a city that is literally crumbling around you, and even once the dust settles, his hand is the only thing you don't want to let go of.

Trigger warning: none really, just some references to violence, some ableism

Chapter Index

When you were younger, you'd spend a few weeks at your grandparents house during every summer break.

It was something they always did, taking in all five grandkids for two weeks, letting them run wild and celebrate the end of a successful school year, releasing all the pent up energy that came from nine months of sitting at desks and memorizing various facts and figures and historical dates. It was a win-win-win for all parties involved, really. Parents got to have peace, quiet, and alone time with their spouses; grandparents got a few weeks of spoiling their grandkids rotten; and kids got to spend time with cousins at the lakehouse.

You'd loved it, and it was always extremely difficult to leave, trading open, non-fenced back yards for a cookie-cutter house in the suburbs.

You were an only child, and existed smack dab in the middle of the five cousins with two older and two younger. And before the two older kids had reached their teen years and suddenly thought they were too cool for the younger ones, the five of you would spend countless hours playing hide-n-go seek across the property.

Katie, the oldest, was extremely smart and observant, always seeming to know exactly where each kid had gone when it was her turn to seek, a master in knowing her cousins well and their favorite places for hiding. The game always went fast when it was her turn, quickly and ruthlessly hunting down the younger kids with no sweat.

You were no different than the other kids, usually sticking to the same sorts of places; the types of places you could get in and out of easily, places that were difficult to see into. Dirt crusted on your fingertips and shoved under your fingernails as you hid under the porch, trusting the shadow to keep you hidden. Splinters forcing themselves into the palms of your hands from wrenching open the shed and squeezing yourself against the wood paneling inside, kneeling behind various boxes and tools.

The shadow was home to you in these instances, trusting it to keep you hidden from your cousins, but your habit was well known to all, so it had never lasted long.

Today, darkness was once again keeping you hidden, keeping you away as much as possible from those that would do you harm. Gone were the days of games with your cousins, replaced gradually with the presence of adulthood, and now viciously tossed aside for something that quite literally could keep you out of reach from your family for good. This time, there would be no laughter as Katie or another cousin pulled you from your spot, no giggles to tell you that you lost and it was your turn to seek, no snicker as they remind you you're too predictable.

No. No, not this time.

This time, your reluctant exit will be met with a sight you'll have nightmares about for weeks, and without the childish laughter or your grandmother's voice calling you in for dinner. For once, you're trapped in a sense of darkness that is suffocating. The irony doesn't escape you, being afraid of the dark next to a man who has no choice but to live in it.

The bathroom is eerie with nothing more than a glowing exit sign and a sliver of daylight creeping in from underneath the door, offering a pathetic attempt to provide you with any light. It's not nearly enough to give you a solid visual of the counter and stalls, but you suppose you're not in here for the scenery. It seems odd to you that such a tiny bathroom would even need an exit sign, though you certainly aren’t going to complain. Odder still is the fact that it’s even working when flipping up the light switch had done absolutely nothing.

You suppose you don’t get to be the one to decide what things will work and what won’t work during an alien invasion. It’s beyond your pay grade, apparently.

Both beside you and pressed against you, Matt pants heavily, though it's less from exertion and more from the adrenaline of almost dying, you're sure. His arm is wrapped around your shoulders tightly, and you're incredibly grateful that his strength is holding you up because you're not sure if the muscles in your legs would be able to support you with the way they're trembling. He drops your hand to brace it against the wall behind you, and he shifts so that he leans against it slightly.

He could easily release his hold on you, easily move you so that you're balanced against the wall instead of on him, but he doesn't. Instead, he’s somewhat bracketed you in, large frame angling you so that his back is to the door. Without you noticing, he’s once again placed himself so that he’ll take the full force of whatever could come at the pair of you. And once you’re aware of what he’s done, you move to shift away, not liking the idea of him being the one to take the pain first, but his grip tightens just enough to make it difficult to move.

You don't fight him on it, your frame trembling too hard to have any chance against him.

Matt lets out a loud exhale and leans forward to lay his forehead against the wall, resting it there while his lungs struggle to calm down. You're not doing much better, one of your hands reaching up to cling to his suit jacket, and the shudder that wracks through his body is only mirrored by the one that seethes through yours.

“Are you okay?” You ask quietly once you’ve caught your breath, chest still tighter than you would like, but unable to relax enough to let your breathing settle completely.

“I’m fine,” he whispers, and his voice in your ear is almost as close as it had been when he’d placed himself on top of you when the window had shattered. “Just some cuts, I think. Nothing major. You?”

Your head is nodding before you answer. “Same. My hands and knees are nicked pretty good, but I think that’s the worst of it.” You’re trying to ignore the stinging, you really are, but even in your fear and heightened adrenaline, your palms and knees hurt.

Matt finally pulls himself away and off of the wall and drops his arm from your shoulders, apparently having regained some of his composure, but he doesn’t step away from you, nor does he move enough to keep you from being shielded from the door. He still stands in front of you, though he’s straightened his spine, and somehow he seems both taller and broader than you had originally thought.

“Give me your hand,” he orders suddenly, brow furrowed from what you can see in the low light.

You can't help the confusion that flits across your face, or the way it colors your immediate question. “Why?”

“Just–just give me your left hand,” Matt says again, and though the tone is almost urgent, it’s not necessarily impatient. You consider him for just a moment, curious about why he’s asking, but you ultimately decide you have nothing to lose by placing your hand once again in his. He wastes no time in cradling your hand in his own left hand, and you can’t help but look down as he tentatively brushes a finger across your palm, directly over one of the cuts you’d sustained while clamoring to your feet in a mad rush to get to the bathroom. With a hiss, you try to yank your hand back, but he doesn’t let you, other hand tightening around your wrist.

“This one is going to need stitches,” he says quietly, fingers still running lightly around the cut in question. “It’s pretty deep.”

“How do you even know that?” You ask, hand throbbing in his, palm trying to instinctively curl in and push his fingers away. Matt finally lets go, allowing your hand to slowly pull away from him, and you immediately find yourself cradling it against your chest. Multiple parts of your body sting, including your other hand, but how could he possibly know it’s worse than the other cuts?

Matt’s head tilts in a question you're unsure he even wants to ask, but he does so anyway. “You said you trusted me, right? Did you mean it? Will you…trust me to keep you safe?”

You can’t help but frown at him. There’s not a single inch of your body that doesn’t want to keep clinging to him, to beg him to see this through with you, no matter where the horror of this Wednesday leads you. But the more you think about it, the more you come to understand that it’s not fair to put that on one person, to make your life their responsibility.

“Matt,” you begin slowly, eyes searching his face as best as you can in the limited lighting, this beautiful stranger who had placed your hand in his on that door step before immediately taking control of the situation in an effort to save you both. “That–that’s a lot to put on you. I can’t ask that of you, it’s…it’s not right.”

He’s shaking his head before you finish. “That’s not what I asked. Will you trust me?”

“I–”

“It’s a yes or no question, do you trust–”

“Yes.”

The bathroom is quiet for a moment after you finally answer his question to his satisfaction, even while the sounds you’d rather not think about continue to rage outside. The tile of the bathroom carries the word for just a moment longer, as if the word yes needs to be heard more than once for it to really settle in. It had only been one word, one single syllable, but for some reason, you think the word has never been more heavy, more resolute than anything else you’ve ever said in your life.

You can’t help but think that it’s tied you to the man in front of you more concretely than a rod of steel that's been welded to another, and it’s a tie that will last long after the dust of New York City has settled.

Matt inhales sharply as your lips finish forming the word, and his reaction is immediate. His shoulders square and stiffen, and he takes a sudden step around you, feet carrying him to about a yard away towards the counter you can faintly make out. Confused, you turn your body so that it still angles his, and you see the vague outline of him reaching for something. It’s only a split second before the sound of water trickling out of a facet fills the air. With a small gasp, you take a step towards him, hip bumping into the counter, suddenly desperate for a sip. You move to cup your hands to form some sort of makeshift cup, but the sharp sting in your left palm flares back to life.

His body twists towards yours, and a hand settles on your wrist. “Let me wash my hands, and then I’ll help you clean that cut out.” You wince, but you can’t really argue the idea of trying to clean the cut, especially if it needs stitches like he says. Nodding and sighing hesitantly, you listen as he washes his hands. When he’s done, his hand gently grasps your wrist, and so you reluctantly let your hand be led under the cool water.

“I’ve got you,” he whispers quietly when you hiss and jerk your hand back instinctively, but he doesn’t let go, just helps you hold your hand in place while the water runs over it. The smell of soap hits your nose before he adds it to your hand, and you turn your head away with another wince. He helps you clean your other hand, rubbing soap into the other smaller cuts, before he turns off the water.

You bring your left hand up to you for inspection, sighing when you see in the low light that it’s still bleeding sluggishly. He’s right, you think. It will need stitches.

Nose scrunching up slightly, you glance up at him. “I think…I think I need to wrap it. Can you help me tear a strip off of my shirt?”

“You can use my tie,” he answers instead, quickly removing it from around his neck, the fabric smoothly sliding against the collar of his shirt. A single second later, he’s reaching for your hand again, and you're able to catch a quick glimpse of the tie, barely noticing the blue with flashes of black, as he wraps it around your hand quickly. The fabric is too thick for him to tear, so he tucks the end of the tie underneath the layers. It’s bulky and feels strange, it doesn’t allow you to fold your hand in much, but you’re hopeful it’ll keep things from aggravating it further.

“Thanks,” you whisper, the sound barely traveling.

“You’re welcome.” Matt’s head shifts slightly, the sounds of outside momentarily drawing his attention. The sound startles you, too, having been focused on the man who had been working on your hand so tenderly, and you can’t help the way your heart speeds back up as you're reminded of the death and destruction that's wreaking havoc on the other side of the building's walls. Jumping slightly, you glance up at the man, seeking the face that's managed to bring you comfort in moments of terror, and it just so happens that the light from the exit sign catches the skin of his forehead pretty clearly. Eyes wide, you notice for the first time the large cut just past his hairline, one that has caused a trail of blood to trickle down the side of his face.

“Matt,” you say in rapidly rising concern. “Your head, it–”

“I know,” is all he says, his shoulders vaguely shrugging. “We can take care of it later.”

You shake your head quickly in disagreement. “Uh, no. Let’s take care of it now.”

“It’s not necess–”

“If you’re honestly about to tell me it’s not necessary when you have a giant gash on your head, then you can just find a way to deal with me cleaning it anyway,” you tell him, already moving to turn the water back on. A wad of paper towels are in your hand a second later, and you wet them before he even responds. When you turn back around, Matt’s still directly behind you, hands on his hips.

“Tilt your head down.”

“It doesn’t matter, I’m fi–”

You can’t help but snort, despite the situation. “I told you to tilt your head down, Matthew. I let you clean up my hand, and now it’s my turn to clean up your head.”

Instead of tilting his head down, he lifts up his chin and tosses his head back in something resembling defiance, sighing loudly . His shoulders are still stiff, every inch of body seeming untouchable, unwilling to accept help. Normally, you might have kept your distance from a man like this, someone who would fight you every step of the way to have someone take care of them. You’ve dated enough men who were closed off, men who pushed you away when they were hurt or scared, desperate to save face, as if experiencing such emotions made them less.

But this isn’t a man who seems afraid to accept help, but rather one who perhaps believes his pain wasn’t worth the trouble. So, respectfully and as calmly as you can, you take a step further into his space, thread your fingers in his hair as best you are able to, and pull his face down to yours.

He makes a sound of surprise in the back of his throat, but keeps his mouth shut otherwise. Without a word from either one of you, you maneuver your fingers around his glasses and carefully wipe the blood from his face with the wet paper towels, grabbing new ones and wetting them as needed, until his face is as clean as it can be. His face is still hardly lit up in the dark of the bathroom, but you can't help but notice the small winces he makes every time you get closer to the cut, and the tongue that darts out to wet his lips.

Frowning, you grab one last set of paper towels and press it gently to the large cut that stretches an inch or so just past his hairline on the left side of his face, causing hair to be sticky and matted down slightly. He hisses, but unlike you, he stands still while you clean it, and it only lasts a few seconds before you are done.

Outside, the isle of Manhattan continues to collect a large number of gashes and bruises and fatal hits to its infrastructure and population, but nothing is more important in that moment than the man whose face is just a foot from yours.

Eventually, you sigh and take a step back, throwing the bloodied paper towels in the trash can, and Matt straightens, face clear of the blood that had been violently decorating his fair skin.

“Uh…thank you,” he tells you haltingly, shifting somewhat awkwardly. He steps around you, once more settling his body between yours and the door, as if attempting to act as some sort of shield should anything come barging in, before turning back to you.

You shrug lightly, almost helplessly, wishing you could convey the thought that his pain, his body mattered, even as he all but offers himself to go first in the battle that is raging outside. “You did the same for me.”

“Yeah, but—”

Matt doesn’t get to finish his sentence, not when the building suddenly rumbles and shakes, the walls creaking and groaning loudly. The sound is as terrifying as the actual vibrating and trembling of the building, and it causes your heart to drop to the floor.

Once upon a time, you’d lived on the other side of the country in San Francisco. The apartment you’d tried to make home was small and in a gross part of town, but you’d done your best to make it work in a city where the cost of living was almost as bad as New York. You hadn’t stayed long, only a year or so, having moved there for a man you thought was worth the abrupt change at the time. It hadn’t worked out, for multiple reasons, and though you’d learned many lessons about what you wanted and deserved in a relationship, in this moment, you can't help but think that the best lesson you ever learned was what to do in an earthquake.

The collection of sinks to your right sits on top of a counter, but from what you can see in the dim lighting, it's one that doesn’t have anything underneath it, just a few twisting pipes and a stack of unopened paper towels. It’s not a great solution, the pair of you will have to make yourselves as small as possible, but it’s better than nothing should things really start to fall.

Matt had grabbed you and done his best to shield you from the glass, but this was something you perhaps had the leg up on, so you waste no time in yanking him forward and pushing him underneath the counter, making sure his head doesn’t knock against the stone. You’re not standing for much longer, shoving yourself beside him, covering your head with your sliced up hands.

You’re not quite sure how long the building shakes and rumbles, but then again, the rest of the terror-filled moments had seemed to last forever, though in reality it had only been seconds. Matt’s breathing is loud and harsh in your ear, his head not too far from yours, one hand covering his face, the other forcing you further against the wall. You want to struggle against him, want to tell him that he needs to worry about protecting himself, too, but you can’t quite get the words out.

The building lets out a raging groan, shaking the walls loud enough that you can hear books outside crashing to the ground, rattling the glass that is already littered across the floor. With a groan of your own, this one filled with pure terror, you smash your face into your hands as roughly as you can, wishing for nothing more than your death to be a quick one, one that knocks you out hard enough that you just don’t ever resurface from the dark.

It’s incredible how quickly your life flashes behind your eyelids, and you want to laugh at how cliché the whole thing is. Your mind sifts through memory after memory, brief pictures of family members and old friends, thoughts of every heartache and accomplishment. A lifetime of moments all summed into a three second montage, and it leaves you feeling…unfinished.

No, you won’t die here. You’re not done, you can’t be done.

Eyes flashing open, you reach for Matt’s hand, pulling it away from where he’s attempting to cover you as best as he can at the awkward angle, and instead grasp it tightly in yours. His grip is bruising as it locks on, he’s only indication that he’s perhaps as terrified as you. But his fear doesn’t stop him from offering a level of steadiness you hadn’t thought possible in this moment. It’s almost as if he takes the small bit of comfort and determination you had been trying to convey, and somehow manages to return it tenfold.

Earlier, you’d told yourself that you’d met men like him. Men who hold things in for the sake of appearances, not wanting to appear weak, doing their best to come across as impassible and in control.

But you’d been wrong, as he had already shown you. There are no men like Matthew Murdock, and you have a feeling you’ve only scratched his surface.

The shaking suddenly comes to an abrupt end, and you’re left reeling at the sudden quiet that spreads throughout the bookstore. The calm only lasts for a second, though, before the sounds of sirens and explosions creep back in from underneath the door, your moment of peace vanishing as swiftly as a strike of lightning.

The tension seems to drain from your body, but it doesn’t completely disappear. Your head rests against the wall, and you take in deep, gasping breaths, lungs still on edge but slowly regaining their ability to fill up completely rather than being all but frozen in your chest.

“I think…I think it might be over,” Matt says softly after a moment. “Something–something large landed on the building, but I don’t hear anything else.”

Nodding slightly, you squeeze his hand, acknowledging the quick reciprocal action with a small smile you forget he can’t see. “Do you think it’s safe for us to get up?”

Matt’s close enough to you that you can see the way he licks his lips as he pauses, some action he must do when deep in thought. He nods, or tries to seeing as how his head is all but crunched up next to a pipe, but the motion is enough for you to understand what he’s saying. With a shaking breath, you let go of his hand so that you can push a lock of hair behind your ear so that you can see better, and then steel your spine and force yourself to move.

Because you’re the one who sits slightly in front of Matt, the one who had pushed him underneath before clamoring in next to him, you need to get up first before he can join you. You find a way to get on your knees so that you can crawl out, doing your best to avoid putting pressure on your left hand. When your head is clear and runs no risk of banging against the counter, you awkwardly pull yourself to your feet and step to the side so that Matt can come out as well.

His exit from beneath the counter is much smoother than yours, untucking his long legs and standing a split second later, broad frame solid and bold even in the dark. You roll your head back and around, trying to shake out the stiffness that had set in from sitting so awkwardly, even though you hadn’t been underneath the counter for long. Matt does the same, rolling his shoulders as well, grimacing as he does so.

“You alright?” You ask as you fiddle with the hem of your shirt. It had ridden up uncomfortably when you’d dove underneath the sinks, causing the skin to scratch on something.

“Yeah, I’m good,” he replies with a loud sigh. “Hit my head against the wall at some point.”

You can’t help but wince. “I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault,” he says easily, still sounding slightly out of breath. “Thanks for pushing me under there. I’ve never…I wouldn’t have known–”

The huff of laughter that comes out is less from humor and more from a sense of shock that hasn’t left your body since the second you looked up and saw the sky being slashed open. “I lived in California for a small period of time. Small earthquakes are just a part of life over there.”

From what you can make out in the dark, his face appears to be one of incredulity. “That felt small?”

This time the laugh that comes out is a little more genuine. “Well…no. But you get used to knowing what to do when one happens, even if it’s small. The shaking of the building just…triggered something, I guess.”

“Gotcha,” is all he says in response, placing his hands on his hips. He takes a few more large deep breaths as if trying to orient himself. You move to take a step back, trying to give him the space you think he might need, just in case he needs a moment to reset himself without someone being so close to him. But before you can shift completely away, his hand snatches out and wraps itself around your wrist, halting your movement.

“Trashcan,” he says quickly in explanation, dropping your arm. “Careful, there’s a trashcan right behind you.”

Flushing, you step to the right and then take a step back. “Thanks.”

Crossing your arms over your chest, you watch as he pulls himself together. He’s held it all in pretty well, this man who has somehow become your rock in this. But you see little nicks in his armor, little pieces of damaged steel decorating his form. You can only imagine what a man like him looks like when he falls apart, some sort of wilted frame that only sinks when no one else is looking. You can’t help but be immensely grateful for his strength, but there’s a part of you that wants to be around when he plummets, if for no other reason than to repay him in kind.

You find yourself leaning back against the tile next to the door in sheer exhaustion. “So…what next?”

Matt tilts his head. “As in, what should we do next?”

“I–yes,” you rely, hands twitching at your sides. You can only imagine what the rest of the bookstore looks like, can only imagine what the street directly outside looks like, and you can’t help but think that you’d happily wait inside the bathroom until emergency services came and got you.

But...what if they never did?

You try not to think about New York City being completely wiped out by whatever had come into the atmosphere from the gaping gash that had been ripped open over Stark’s tower. The whole time, you’ve been operating on the assumption that things would end, that Iron Man and god knows who else would be able to fix it. But what if they aren’t able to?

What if…this is just the beginning?

Matt exhales loudly and it pulls you out of your head. “Honestly?”

A garbled laugh gets caught in your throat. “No, I want you to lie to me.”

You’re still standing close enough to see the way his mouth twists into a slight smirk before it drops back into something more grave. “I think…I think we need to leave.”

You wish you could say you were surprised, but you’re really not. And while it certainly doesn’t mean you’re happy about it, you seek to understand his reasoning. "Why? Tell me why you think that. Why do you think we should–"

"I just don’t think it’s a good idea for us to stay here," he tells you, and his words are rushed and loud, as if trying to leave no room for argument. "I know what I said about us staying, but I really don’t think it's safe here. Not with the Hulk so nearby."

You can't help the way your eyes widen in alarm. The Hulk had been larger than life, bare feet digging into concrete and glass and God only knows what else on the street outside, muscles rippling in aggression, but he hadn't taken a single step towards you. "Matt, he was fighting them, he was on our side."

He runs an aggravated hand through his dark hair. His fingers catch on the tangled strands, which clearly makes him more irritated, and he drops his hand quickly. But you know that irritation is just a distant cousin of panic, and you can see it lurking on a face that is more expressive than he probably thinks. "Are you from New York?"

"No–"

"But did you hear about what happened in Harlem a few years ago?"

"I–yes."

"Then you know what he's like when he's out of control," he says, his voice suddenly taking on a tone that sounds a little breathless, as if trying to keep some sort of panic at bay. Matt begins pacing in the small bathroom, the dark form of him difficult to trace, though he manages his steps and turns expertly. "He wrecked entire city blocks. It doesn't matter who he was fighting, it was a disaster. Things are only bound to get worse here."

Shaking your head, you try to make sense of what he’s saying. You know what happened, know the destruction Hulk had left behind a few years ago, know the mess and disaster he’s likely causing right at this moment, even if it might not be intentional and might actually be in service to the people of New York. "He protected us. He made eye contact with me and didn't come towards us," you argued, unable to think of much else to say.

"It doesn't matter," he replies tensely as his hands settle on his hips, voice still sharp and pushing back against your objections as hard as he can. "Even if he’s going against them, trying to help people, he’s still in this part of town going after them. And if he’s in this part of town, it means we're still far too close to the action, and we need to leave before things get worse."

Your mind is taking too much time processing the words, and you struggle to breathe through the anxiety. Nails digging into the palm of your hands, or as best as they can with the tie wrapped around your left hand, you stand there quietly for a moment, brain sifting through the situation and doing your best to acknowledge the fear before forcing its way into some sort of clarity.

Yes. Yes…you did need to move.

Fuck.

The idea is terrifying, but so is staying here and doing nothing, just praying that the building won’t collapse on you from the weight of whatever has apparently landed on it.

"Okay," you say, finally relenting and taking a deep breath, nodding your head at the same time. "Yes, let's go. Where to?"

Matt stalls, and it's clear that he had been clearly expecting you to push back again, but the agreement causes him to pause briefly. He rubs at his temples in a sign of anxiety and frustration, though he stops his pacing altogether. You watch as he turns his attention to thinking about where to go, and you wrack your brain, too.

"North. Definitely north."

The words have no sooner left his mouth when your head snaps up, an idea occurring to you. "Do you know where the nearest subway station is? It might be a good place to get to. It might–it might offer some real shelter, something more solid than here. No glass like this."

Matt freezes, as if a light bulb goes off in his head. "That's uh…yes, that's a good idea. There's one on 50th. Just a few blocks north."

"Do you think we'll be sitting ducks down there?"

He seems to think about it, head tilting in consideration before he answers. "We're going to be sitting ducks anywhere. At least there we won't have to worry about anything collapsing or falling on us."

“Ok,” you say with a loud gulp. Your hands twitch at your sides, and your lungs inhale with a full, heavy breath, resigned to leaving the space that’s been a safe haven until now. “I think…I think that might be our best bet. What do you think?”

Matt’s nodding before you even finish speaking, his dark hair momentarily lighting up from the glow of the exit sign. “Yes, I think-I think that’s what we should do. It’s, what? Four blocks north. We should be…we should be able to make that.”

Your feet shuffle on the ground loudly, and you let out an equally loud groan as something else occurs to you, this one not as beneficial as having an idea of where to go. Instead, what’s occurred to you is quite detrimental, and your shoulders sag. His head tilts towards you in question as if he already knows you have something negative to say.

You blow out a loud breath. “Matt, I’m wearing heels.”

He gives a curt nod. “I know.”

How could he…? No matter. Not the time.

Your spine straightens even as you glance down at your feet, hating your shoe choice for the thousandth time that day. “I can’t–I can’t take them off because of glass and everything,” you say quietly. “But we need to move quickly and I don’t know if I’ll be able to in these fucking shoes.”

“But you were able to make it when you ran with me,” he tells you, sounding vaguely curious but mostly concerned. “And when you ran to the apartment stoop.”

“Yes,” you agree, because you had, and you even have the popped blisters and torn skin to prove it. “But that was only a block or so, and with you it was only across the street. But four blocks might be…difficult. It makes me nervous.”

“Ok,” he says with a sigh, lifting a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. His pause is extremely brief, his moment of quick contemplation over before you had realized it had even begun, and he suddenly steps into your space, raising his hands to rest on your shoulders. “We’re going to do the best we can. If you trip, or lose a shoe, we’ll figure it out.”

Your lips twist into a wry, self-deprecating grin. “I wouldn’t blame you if you left and saved yourself.”

The dark frames of his glasses seem to flash in the limited light of the bathroom, his face almost like stone in the way it leaves no room for argument. “You know I wouldn’t do that.”

Your eyes land over his shoulder in some sort of defiance, though you’re not exactly sure in defiance of what. Perhaps it's the idea that someone would find you worthy enough to save. “But still–”

“I’ve been with you and holding your hand since you walked up to me and grabbed it,” he says quietly, and despite the war raging outside, it’s all you can hear. “What makes you think I’d let go now?”

It's exactly what you need to hear, even though your heart can't help but ache again, realizing this man was willing to do whatever he could to help you, possibly to his own detriment. They…don't make men like this anymore.

You'd taken one look at him on that doorstep, eyeing the blind man with some sort of pity, thinking that his odds of survival would be smaller than everyone else's due to his lack of sight and lack of anyone offering to help. You'd dismissed him as a vulnerable person, labeled him as a liability even as you rushed towards him, certain that the right thing to do was help a man who seemed helpless.

But this man isn't a liability, he's your greatest strength, your greatest sense of safety on this random Wednesday, and nothing is going to keep you from linking your fate to his when he’s offering it.

Something settles across his face, some sort of understanding from your silence, and wordlessly he reaches for your hand, links his fingers in yours, and pulls you behind him as he opens up the door and steps into the light.

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