#like i can actively feel the messages and shit whooshing over my head | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

macabr3-barbi3 · 1 month

Text

CTRL ALT DELETE- Task Manager (Vox/Reader)

Something's up with Vox and you offer to help troubleshoot- it both does and does not go how you're expecting it to.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/54688282

The least serious thing I've ever written: inspired by the time i started a timer in class one day to see how long my teacher talked about her son instead of teaching us; i ended up realizing 4 months later that i never stopped the timer and it was just running in the background and making my shit slow that entire time lmao there's a screenshot in the ao3 notes

Tags: Stress Relief, Sexual Tension, Chair Sex, Vaginal Fingering, Begging, Computers. Dirty Talk, very basic knowledge of computers

<3<3<3<3<3<3

Your new boss seemed stressed.

Not in the usual way that he was stressed, either- the note from the assistant you had replaced was that usually when Vox was having an off day he would call for Valentino or have you pull a list of low earners for the month, banishing you from the room in either case. But he hadn’t spent any time with Val in months, basically the entire time that you’d been working with him as a personal assistant after getting promoted from a stage grunt for the news channel.

You had thought for a bit that he might make a move- that maybe that was why he promoted you, that he was charmed enough by you to end the on/off thing he had going on with Val, which made sense based on the timing. But when you tested that theory recently- made double entendres, brushed your hands against his arms or leg or back, blatantly invited him out for dinner and drinks- he didn’t seem interested. He declined your invite, allowed you to touch him without being overcome with lust, and the sex jokes just seemed to go whoosh.

Right over his head.

He was on edge and twitchy. He took longer to respond to things than he normally did, his processors slow, occasionally getting a ‘buffering’ message that flashed across his screen when someone asked a question. His hypnotic eye seemed to be suffering as well, the swirls having slowed down now to the point that they were no more mesmerizing than watching paint dry. It was frustrating and enraging him, and in turn frustrating you- he was fucking hot when he was angry, which didn’t help your attraction to him that he was ignoring.

He was sitting at his desk in the control room when you entered, head in his hands as he stared at a piece of paper on his desk. The monitors were all lit behind him, showing recorded footage of the Tower throughout the day- you spotted a short recording of yourself talking to some of the marketing team a few hours ago. Like a Valentino caricature he read the paper, blinked his eyes a couple times, read it again. Picked it up and pulled it closer to his face like that would help, and his screen scrolled the words along the bottom like his internal system was trying to transcribe it so something he could understand. He finally dropped the paper with a groan, letting it flutter to the floor where it slipped under his chair and stopped just before you.

“Are you okay, sir?” The question is out before you can stop it, and as was the normal recently it took a few minutes for him to answer.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he muttered, swiveling around to look at you. He clutched the sides of his screen, eyes narrowed and mouth delayed in its movements as he spoke. “I feel like I can’t focus on anything. I can’t process anything. My- just, fucking everything is slow and useless in my head right now! How am I supposed to be a master media manipulator when I can’t fucking concentrate for more than two minutes at a time?”

“You have seemed more… stressed than usual,” you agree. “Are none of your usual relaxing activities helping? Or have you done any troubleshooting?”

He raises an eyebrow. “Pardon?”

“Troubleshooting,” you say again, and at his blank stare you chuckle a little. “You know, doing a couple ‘quick fix’ things to see if that’s what’s causing the problem. Do you have like, a cache or something that you have to clear? An archive dump to get rid of old files?” You let your eyes track his body from top to bottom. “I’m not super familiar with how your… anatomy works?”

God, but you wanted to be.

He blinks a couple times. “I think I used to have someone that did that for me,” he says. “Years ago. I fired them because it didn’t seem necessary, I was running perfectly fine.”

“Yeah, well, that might be what the problem is.” You offer him a soft smile. “Sometimes stuff will work in sub-optimal conditions for a while before it starts causing issues. I used to do programming customer support when I was alive- it’s been a while but I could take a look if you want?”

His mouth twists in a frown. “I guess so,” he agrees. “I’m desperate enough to try anything. I need to be able to fucking concentrate if the Vees are gonna stay on top, everyone fucking knows that Val is hopeless with the business aspect of everything.” He gets the buffering symbol on his screen for a few seconds, groaning and shaking his head as he clears. “What do you need access to?”

“Do you have a way to access your… system? Externally,” you clarify. “I’m not a surgeon- I don’t plan on cutting into you to get to anything.”

Vox gestures behind him. “I can hook up to the monitors,” he says, “but we’ll have to be pretty close, doll. I have to be sitting here to be hooked up, and since this is the only chair, looks like this will have to be your seat.” He pats a hand on his thighs, not so much an invitation as a statement.

You fucking wished. You know this isn’t him trying to initiate anything though- you’d been trying for long enough that you’re ready to give it up and just accept that your hot, overlord boss didn’t want to fuck you. Helping him out felt more important than that anyway, so you would do your best.

“You got it,” you say, and cross the remaining space to perch yourself gracefully on his lap. You push the inappropriate thoughts about how firm his muscles are underneath you- how exactly did this man’s body work? Was it really just his head that was not organic matter?- and let him rotate the chair back to face the monitors.

The sight is intimidating, as is the position- you’re surrounded by reflections of yourself from every angle, Vox’s lithe frame seated behind you. This is where he does most of his business, the background site of everything that VoxTec handles. And he’s trusting you to help him fix whatever is wrong with him so he can get back to handling all of that, free of distraction.

You watch as thick wires come up from the floor to plug into the back of his head, the sharp hiss making you wonder if it was painful or intrusive. You won’t ask though, not when you’re getting ready to try to restore him to his usual ruthless self; he might consider that to be prying.

He pulls something up on the main monitor, the one that sits directly across from you, and waves a hand to it. A little keyboard and mouse emerge from the desk as the monitor powers on, and when you glance back you can see the same thing reflected on his face. “Have at it,” you hear him say, even though you can’t see his mouth moving.

Ignoring his open programs for the time being in case he needs any of them, the first thing you do is go in and clear his archived files. He’s got entire terabytes of useless information; employee records for people that have been dead or fired for decades; funny videos that he saved; resources for old news stories that are no longer relevant. Some of it you help him upload to a cloud server- after explaining to him what a cloud server is- and create files to designate for actual important shit.

You find the internal browser that he uses to pull information on the fly and help him clear the cache and cookies.

You help him sort security footage from Vee Tower and get rid of stuff that wasn’t actually necessary, like the short bits of static and dead air that happened whenever he used the cameras to teleport around the building. Everything that he has saved about mentions of that fucking radio demon also goes into the garbage. There are some files you can’t access, things like his memories and day to day recordings of conversations and things that he personally is part of.

You delete what you can and empty the recycling bin.

As the process has gone on, Vox has relaxed more and more behind you. “I still don’t feel completely back to normal,” he murmurs, “but this is already loads better. It’s like a massage directly on my brain. You know, if I still physically had one.”

You hit the keys to open his task manager- CTRL ALT DELETE. “Unholy fuck- Jesus, sir, if you thought that was good this is gonna feel orgasmic,” you say absently, scrolling through the opens apps and programs that he has running. Has this man ever closed anything? You hadn’t realized a person or device could even have so many things going at once. “Do you just leave everything open in the background?”

He peers around your shoulder, bracing his hands on your hips as he sits up a little straighter. The movement causes your stomach to drop, arousal threatening to make itself known, but you push the notion down as he sets his hands back on the arms of the chair. “I guess so?” He watches you scroll through the extensive list. “I guess it just never occurred to me to close them. Opening the programs to use is just like my stream of consciousness I suppose.”

“Kay, well, that’s stopping now.” You click on the first item on the list- VoxtaGram. “I recommend closing non-essential stuff out at least once a month. More, if you have the time to go through everything. For now, just in case, there is something important we’re gonna go through some of the more recently opened things, set them up to open automatically when you start up, before we reboot your system- wait, can we reboot your system entirely without killing you?”

“No worries there, dear. I can, I just haven’t done it in years because it can take a while to start back up afterwards.” He sneers at the social media page. “You can close that shit. Any of Velvette’s crap she can handle on her own. Same with any of the fucking games that Val loads up when he’s bored- can I delete those entirely? Or block them? Fucking moth and his blue-light addiction…”

You get through a lot of the list, Vox kind of dozing off and only passively participating in the process. You’ve got the gist of it; things like his news sources, contacts list and phone, and the notes app are staying open and set to automatically launch when he does reboot and start back up. Pretty much everything else is closed out, things he pulled up for two seconds weeks ago to check on something or another before abandoning it. You’re making excellent progress when the next thing on the list gives you pause.

“Vox? Why is this- oh my god.” You can’t help it- you start laughing, throwing your head back to rest on his shoulder as you look at what’s now displayed on the screen.

A stopwatch had apparently been started and never stopped. The elapsed time was over three thousand hours, which came out to something like four months if your mental math was correct. He had had this running constantly in the background since you had started working for him, possibly even before. “I think I found the problem,” you chuckled, and his eyes were narrowed as he looked at the timer continuing to tick. “What is this?”

“What the actual fuck?” He buffers for a second- and you’re pleased to note that it’s already much faster than it has been lately- before you hear a dinging sound coming from him. ‘Fucking Hell, I should have known this was all Valentino’s fault.” He drags a clawed hand down his screen in an imitation of a facepalm. “I was timing him. He was fucking ranting about Angel Dust again while we were in a strategy meeting with Velvette- I had the stopwatch going to see how much of the hour session he wasted talking about that whore. I must have forgotten to turn it off.” He barks out a laugh, throwing his head back with the force of it while you look at him with amusement. “I’m gonna owe you big time for this, doll, you’re a lifesaver.”

You close the app out with a smile. “Just trying to help,” you say. “I think that was probably the worst of it- do you want to just try rebooting now?”

He lets out a groan when the app closes, and the sound shoots through your body straight to your core. “Go for it, hun,” he says, eyes closed as he leans back against the chair. “I think I’m good to go now, but it can’t hurt. You were right, sorting this shit out feeling fucking good.”

You’re suddenly very aware of the dampness of your panties as you bypass ‘kinda horny’ straight to ‘fuck me on this desk.’ You scold yourself mentally: Don’t jump your boss. He’s trusting you to help him right now- do not take advantage of that. Do not ride his leg like you very clearly want to because his voice is fucking hot. Fucking focus.

You clear your throat, closing out the task manager and hitting the button to restart him. “See you in a bit, sir.”

You stay seated on his lap just in case- he might still have something he wants you to do when he comes back online, some settings you could apply to close out things that are used for more than a week or so. It’s definitely not because you like the feeling of his strong thigh underneath you, tantalizingly close to your cunt if you, by chance, decided to tilt your hips forward and start grinding down on him.

After just a few minutes get a message on the main monitor telling you to wait a moment- things start popping up on the other screens surrounding the central one, and it takes you a moment to recognize the pattern.

Its all videos of you- shot from Vox’s perspective, and a mortifying blush takes over your face. They’re all the moments that you had tried coming onto him. The innuendos and subtle entendres, the times that you touched him, pressed yourself against him in a tight space despite having another way to get to the copy machine, when you had invited him out for dinner. There’s also videos where he had just been watching you, apparently, taken from a distance as you spoke with Velvette or passed instructions along to a member of the team or discreetly tried to hide behind a vending machine when you noticed Val coming into a room.

There’s a satisfied grumble behind you, and before you can turn to look at him Vox has settled his claws onto either side of your waist and shifted you over a bit, to rest directly on the erection straining his pants.

Which is a surprise, albeit a pleasant one.

“Thanks for the reset, doll,” he says, and his voice is a quiet growl as he lets his hands wander from your waist to your hips and back again, claw tipped fingers catching on the fabric. “I got a chance to look at some files while I was under and found quite the treat in your logs.”

This could either be very bad or very, very good. “Sir-”

“You know, I’m usually pretty good at picking up what a woman is putting down. Imagine my surprise when I realize you’ve been coming onto me for weeks and my shit was so fucked up and bogged down that I didn’t even notice. Like that?” He uses one hand to point to a screen in the far left of the central monitor, while he snaked his other hand down to rest on your thigh, his hand large enough to encompass the muscle at the edge of your skirt. On the screen, you had come to his office to drop off meeting notes for something you attended on his behalf. You had dropped the stack as you came around his side of the desk, and got down fully on your knees to pick them up, glancing up at him through your lashes. You blush watching it now- it had seemed obvious to you even then, but watching it now, the way that Vox had seen it? When he didn’t say anything about you being face level with his prick you had used a hand on his thigh to brace yourself to stand up, letting your fingers run along the inner seam of his trousers when you rose back to standing. Still no reaction, and you had left his office equal parts turned on and irritated with yourself. Him not having acted on it had been the final nail in the coffin cementing the fact that he was not interested in the slightest.

You let out a weak exhale as the Vox sitting under you gets his other hand in the same position as the first, using his grip to ever so slightly spread your legs on his lap. He lets his fingers skim your inner thighs and you shake with the effort of not begging him to just touch you. This was delicious, agonizing torture.

“Had I been in my right mind for that display, baby, I would have fucking ṛ̣̬̫̍͌ͩ͟ụ̴̴̾̀͟͡i̧̻̻͉̜͑ͪ̾͟n̫̫̘̗͕̲̲̎ͥḛ̡̰̳͓̥ͬ͋ͪͧd̶̵̯̯̼̘ͨ̓ y͙͙̪̰ͫ͌́o͙͙̙̘̙ͤͫ͞ụ̴̴̾̀͟͡.” His voice crackles and glitches on the last words, and the sound of it forces a moan from your throat as you let your head fall back. You clutch your hands to the arms of the chair as his tongue- and who even really knew he had a tongue, what the fuck?- licks down the side of your jaw and at your exposed neck. “I would have had you choking on my cock before getting a taste of that sweet cunt and fucking you into the desk for hours.”

One hand finally slips under the edge of your skirt and you shiver when his fingers make contact with your soaked core. “Is that what you want now, babygirl? You want me to give you my cock as thanks for helping to set me straight? To make up for lost time?” He slides a finger under the thin material of your panties, groaning in your ear at how slick he finds you. “That’s what I want, doll. I want you to ride me so hard you go stupid with the feeling, and you never feel whole without some part of me in your cunt for the rest of for-fucking- ḛ̡̰̳͓̥ͬ͋ͪͧv̹̹̘̼̞̻͆ͩ̓ͪ͢ḛ̡̰̳͓̥ͬ͋ͪͧṛ̣̬̫̍͌ͩ͟.”

“Fuck, please,” you gasp out, the word devolving into a cry as Vox finally slides a finger into you, mindful of the claws as he pushes in and quickly follows the first with a second. He uses his free hand to hold your hips still as you try to grind into his digits, keeps you held firmly against his erection as you squirm in pleasure.

His sharp fingertips angle to prod gently at a spot inside of you that has you seeing stars; your eyes are clenched shut as you ride the feeling, so close to the edge you feel like you’re going to implode with the force of it when you finally tip over. “Fuck, sir, please, so c-close,” you mumble, and his tongue is back to licking at whatever parts of your skin it can reach.

“You wanna come like this, sweetheart?” The main monitor in front of you glitches out, and when it comes back into focus you see yourself on the screen- like a mirror, you’re reflected, and you can see Vox’s grinning face behind you. Your skin is flushed, sweat dripping down your face, the hint of tears along your lashline as your mouth drops open when he adds a third finger. “Look fuckin’ beautiful, baby, you were made for this- maybe we give Valentino a call, he could-”

“No!” You release the arms of the chair to grab onto his wrists where his hands meet your body. “No one- no one but you, sir. Vox, please, l- let me come. Please?” You let a little whine into your voice, and you can see the way his mouth goes lax and his eyes laser-focus on where you’re grabbing at his hands.

“I didn’t mean to join us, dollface, just to record- but you’re right, you’re right.” He pulls his fingers from your pussy, slicing the center of your panties in the process before he brings his digits to his mouth- you watch on the screen as he curls his tongue around each one, licks the flavor of you from his skin and glitches out at the taste. “How could I possibly share such a fucking vision with anyone else?

He shifts you to one side so he can get his dick out, and the sight of it in the monitor, his own arousal beading at the top and rock hard, has you whimpering before it’s even inside of you. He carried himself like a man with a big cock, but Christ.

“Hope you like what you see, hun, cause it’s all yours.” He scoots forward in the seat, tilts his hips forward for the right angle, and moves you back into your previous position with ease- this time, the tip of him is pushing inside you, and you watch in the monitor as you sink inch by glorious inch onto him.

Once you’re fully seated, Vox seems to lose capability for rational thought. “Fuck me, you’re perfect,” he moans, bracing his feet more firmly on the ground to thrust up into you, getting a firm grasp on your hips to pull you down into it. The result is a beautiful stab at that sweet spot inside of you that makes you clench and cry out, watching Vox’s hypnotic eye start spiraling at its normal speed on the screen, and you can see backwards scrolling text of his stream of thoughts- a bunch of nonsensical letters and cuss words interspersed with your name. “I want to fucking- chain you to my desk so I can have this perfect pussy whenever I want it. Fuck, I can’t believe we- we could have been doing this for weeks.” He punctuates his sentence with a hard thrust.

“A-all the more reason to regularly clear your task manager, sir,” you say, so caught up in the feeling of him railing you from below that you can hardly believe you formed a coherent thought. He feels so fucking good and you’re a hair trigger away from collapsing and wringing him for all he’s got.

With one quick movement he’s shifted, and there’s a hand on your throat arching you backwards at the same time that he gets a couple clawed fingers rubbing at your clit. The shock of the combination makes you flutter around his length, a choked noise escaping your throat before he tightens his grip- not enough to really cut off your air supply, but enough that your brain starts going soft and mushy and the vice grip your cunt has on his cock gets impossibly tighter. You can see the shine of your slick arousal coating him every time he pulls out to rut back into you, and the sights and sounds are threatening to rip you into the chasm of ecstasy that you’re flirting with.

“Vox,” you whine, “please, I’m so fucking- please please please-“

“Christ, babygirl, whatever you fucking want.” His eyes are wide and frantic as they watch the place you’re joined, his mouth set in a snarl as he fucks into your pliant body. The cry you release is nothing short of agonized- it’s so fucking close you can taste it, nearly overwhelmed with the tension.

“You wanna fucking cum on my cock? Do it, angel, let me see it- come on, baby, cum for me-“

Your walls clench down hard as you reach your orgasm, Vox’s grip on your throat making your vision and mind go fuzzy with the force of it as you choke on a moan that tries to escape your tensed muscles. You’re distantly aware of Vox thrusting hard into you, more praise and curses falling from his lips as he hits his peak as well, pressing his screen to the side of your face when he relinquishes his handle on your throat to clutch at your hips and grind into your cunt as he spills inside of you. The aftershocks of your release leave you twitching, milking his cock of everything he has to offer before he collapses into the chair behind you, a boneless pile of a man now simply running his hands over any bit of skin he could reach.

It’s truly a testament to how helpful the reset and reboot had been that Vox’s system doesn’t simply crash. “Fucking Hell, I haven’t felt this good in decades,” he mutters in your ear, and you shiver at the feeling of his tongue brushing the sensitive skin.

“Ha, you think that’s the reboot or the mind-melting orgasms?”

He hums contentedly. “Jury’s out on that, doll. Guess we’ll have to do a re-run on both and see how it stacks up to this one.”

“I’ll make sure to schedule some time out for it,” you chuckle before fixing him with a stern glare through the monitor. “I’m serious about clearing your apps and shit more frequently though. Christ, you had decades of backed up shit open-“

“Don’t berate me while my dick is still inside you, fuck.” He leans you forward far enough to pull out, and you grimace at the feeling of his cum starting to spill back out of you. He notices the expression though- “Whoops, sorry,” he says, and after a quick second during which he tucks his softening prick away he scoops you into his arms, standing from the chair and stepping away from the desk. “Let’s get you cleaned up at the penthouse, angel, what do you say?”

“If you’re carrying me then lead the way.” You gesture towards the door out of the control room. “Just don’t start any timers to see how long it takes to get there or anything and we should be good.”

The glare he fixes you with shouldn’t be hot, but it fucking is. “Hardy har,” he deadpans, and rolls his eyes while he stalks towards the elevator, control room door closing behind you; but there’s a small smile on his screen despite his ire and he’s functioning normally, and when you see the little stopwatch icon pop up in the bottom right corner of his face and start counting, you can’t help but laugh.

#vox x reader #vox smut #hazbin vox #ao3 writer #ao3 fanfic #hazbin hotel #x reader #my stuff <3

685 notes · View notes

sandpumpkin · 4 years

Text

Pumpkin Power

Got a little carried away! Little bit of metalpumpkin.

almost 2k..Pumpkin will fight.

@one-piece-dumpster-fire

It had been a long day, Hana had been out of town for a few days for a tea party and to deliver some handmade bonnets there too. Delay after delay she was finally back in town, the sun long set. Sighing as she made her way home with her suitcase, she would drop her things off and call Kid, he had been strangely silent for the time she was away, he just stopped replying. She assumed maybe he was just busy. He got like that sometimes.

Shuddering from the cold wind, she picked up her pace and held onto her bonnet just in case it blew off. Once she was safely home, she headed to the kitchen to put the kettle on. Pulling her phone from her pocket she rang Kid but the call was cut off before she could even get to her ear. Her heart sank. I wonder if something happened? She decided to call Killer.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Killer..sorry to bother you so late but..is Kid okay?” she asked nervously, what if Kid was just in the middle of something and she was being paranoid. There was a long pause on the other line “Killer?...Kid is alright isn’t he?” her voice started to crack “Killer?”

“He didn’t tell you then…” Killer finally said, Hana quickly reached to switch the kettle off “Kid was in an accident..well sort of..He was jumped by another gang when he was alone.” Hana felt sick to her stomach.

He was hurt…

“Can I come see him?” she questioned, trying to calm her racing heart. How badly was he hurt? Why didn’t he tell her?

There was another long pause “sure..but he might not be in the mood for visitors-”

“I’m on my way.” Hana announced, hanging up and grabbing her shoulder bag, throwing it over her bonnet and headed out the door at lighting speed, not bothering to change. Please be okay Kid.

She didn’t stop running until she almost collided with the front door to Kid’s place. The door opened promptly and Killer was there to greet her. She was quite the sight in her black floral lolita dress, striped socks, rocking horse shoes and a bonnet, panting and trying to steady her breathing “Sorry-” Killer ushered her in and closed the door behind you.

“Look...before you see him,” Killer started, running a hand over his long blond hair “Kid’s temper is uncontrollable when he’s like this..so is he shouts at you, don’t take it to heart.” Hana nodded and looked up at the suddenly daunting staircase. Taking a deep breath she climbed the stairs and knocked softly on Kid’s door.

“F*@K off!” he shouted angrily from the otherside of the door. That’s what Killer meant.. Psyching herself up, Hana reached for the door handle and slowly pushed the door open. Poking her head in, before she quietly stepped in. Her heart broke into pieces. Kid was propped up in his bed looking angry and sorry for himself all at the same time, his good arm was in a cast and a sling tied around his neck, he was covered in so many bandages and various grazes and his favourite prosthetic arm was strewn on the floor in pieces.

“Kid..” she called out timidly, her whole body trembling, she wanted to run and hold him gently. His head snapped in her direction, he looked furious.

“Get out!” he snapped, “Leave! I don’t want to see you!” he barked. Hana felt her eyes welling up already but she tried her best to keep it together.

“S-sorry..” she mumbled and excited the room quickly, resting her back against the door, trying to calm her erratic emotions and the painful lump growing in her throat that made her want to hunker to her knees and cry. She pushed back all the tears before headed back downstairs to see the others waiting for her.

“No good then?” Wire asked, she shook her head.

“What happened?” she asked, her voice cracking giving away her emotional state. Heat patted her shoulder reassuringly.

“Apoo jumped him,” Killer started, leading her down to the garage, “we haven’t seen him around in a while and he apparently decided to try and start a fight. Kid was just unlucky.” Killer explained, walking over to a covered motorbike he pulled off the cover and Hana gasped loudly. Kid’s beloved bike was scratched and battered, it looked like it had been hit with a truck. “Though he’s lucky he got out with such mild injuries. I heard Apoo almost killed someone in another town.” Hana was speechless, she couldn’t take her eyes off Victoria. Her beautiful paintwork, chipped and dented. Killer’s heavy hand on her shoulder snapped her out of her daze “Kid will be fine, he just needs to calm down a bit.” Hana nodded slowly “Want me to drive you home?”

Hana shook her head “no..I think I need the walk home.” she smiled as best she could.

“If you’re sure..”

“It’s late. I’ll be fine. I’ll check in on Kid tomorrow.” she said again with another brighter smile. “Goodnight.” she left the house, feeling the cold night air nip at her nose. She got as far as the park, sitting on one of the empty wooden slate benches, Hana stared down at her hands. The more she sat in silence coupled with her own whirlpool of emotions, the more she trembled with anger. Fumbling for her phone, she dialed a different number.

“Kabochan!”

“Hi, Barto. Sorry to call so late..are you busy?” she asked, fiddling with the lace on her dress “I need a favour..”

“Are you okay?” Barto knew it must be serious, since she never asked for help.

“Yes..I just...need your help with something. Can you pick me up in the park? Oh..and can you bring that metal bat please?”

“I’ll be right there!” Barto hung up quickly and Hana waited patiently in the park until she heard the hum of Barto’s chopper pull up nearby. “Hi!!” he waved frantically. “So..is this about Apoo?” he asked quietly, looking around in case someone was listening in. She nodded. “..I asked Luffy-senpai to see if he could get any info for me and his grandpa willingly told him exactly where Apoo is right now.” Barto said, flashing his brightest smile coupled with a thumbs up.

“Good. I can’t let him get away with hurting Kid like that.” she stated, clenching her fists tightly “lead the way.” she said, climbing onto the back of Barto’s bike, holding onto her bonnet as they sped off into the night. Apoo was very easy to find. They were gathered at a bar just outside of town. At first the gang weren’t in sight, they must have been inside the bar. Apoo’s bike was easiest to pick out of the group. It had his name in lime green spray painted on the side in an old style graffiti. As she climbed off Bartolomeo’s bike, his friends pulled up beside them.

“They came as back up.” Barto explained with a nod, shaking the mohawk on his helmet “That grump wouldn’t forgive me if I got you hurt.” he grinned, handing her the well dented bat. Hana pulled on the straps to her bonnet and passed it to Barto

“Hold my bonnet.” She half ordered, taking the bat and walking over to the ugly spray painted bike “sorry bike but-” she took a swinging stance and swung so hard she took the wing mirror clean off in one swing. One of Barto’s group shouted ‘And it’s outta here!!! Home run!’ Hana didn’t stop there and swung repeatedly into the bike until the owner operated

“Oi! You bi-”

“YOU!” the bat made a loud whoosh sound as it was swung violently and pointed straight at Apoo “I’m about to rain hell down upon you!” Hana shouted, slammed the bat down onto the tarmac, the sound echoing across the carpark. What a sight, a small orange haired lolita armed with a bat, single handedly picking a fight with a man almost twice her height.

Kid laid in his bed grumbling under his breath. I fuckin’ shouted at her...shit..He growled as his phone rang again, struggling to pick it up he saw Bartolomeo had tagged him in something. “Fuckin rooster.” he sneered, dropping his phone onto the floor. It was almost ten minutes before Killer barreled through his door. “What do you want!?” he snarled, but that didn’t deter Killer who stumbled over his feet towards Kid.

“Did you get a message from Barto?” Killer asked quickly, gripping his own phone tightly.

“Yeah but I ignored it-” Killer grabbed Kid’s phone from the floor and shoved it into his face

“watch it…” Frowning, Kid snatched the phone from him and navigated to the tag, it was in a live feed. The first one was Bartolomeo grinning stupidly and sporting a black bonnet with bats and bows on.

“Don’t I look bonny?”

Kid grimaced, didn’t need to see that..wait..that looks familiar.

“What the hell-” and then in the next shot, he saw a familiar orange haired woman in the background armed with a bat and took a swing at a motorbike, the wing mirror was sent flying and there was much cheering as she then took to smashing up the motorbike.

“Is that...WHAT THE HELL IS SHE DOING?!” Kid shouted trying to move but his whole body jolted with pain.

“I’m about to rain hell down upon you!”

Kid was shocked to hear her shout, she never shouted. “You told her..”

“Of course. She was worried. Though I didn’t think she’d go personally pick a fight.” Killer said with a shrug of his shoulders. The sound of cheering from the video filled the room, Kid leant back into the pillows and smiled which slowly dissolved into laughter, which hurt so much but he couldn’t stop.

“What a woman..” Kid closed the app and dialed her. What if she doesn’t want to talk to me.. He jumped when the phone was answered quickly.

“Kid! How are you feeling?” she asked, her voice sounded so happy but he could hear the deep breaths form her rigorous activities,

“Fine..look... will you come back..”

“Of course! I’m on my way,” she answered happily, “I’ll see you soon. Love you.” she hung up quickly. Kid dropped his phone and looked at Killer who was chuckling silently

“shut up you.” Killer shrugged and left the room, leaving Kid to wait impatiently for Hana to return. He could just hear the hum of a motorbike pull up outside and the door opened and closed. His door opened slowly and her bright orange hair poked round the door.

“Kid..”

“Come here. Damn it.” he huffed, she closed the door behind her and hurried over to his bed. “I’m sorry alright..” he grumbled. The minute he said that, Hana had carefully slid her arms around his shoulders nuzzling her face against his hair.

“I was so worried.” she whispered.

“You’re crazy you know..” he mumbled into her chest, listening to rapid heartbeat “I saw..you pick a fight with Apoo. The hell were you thinking? What if you got hurt?!”

“I’m not going to forgive someone who jumped the love of my life and trashed his precious bike.” she kissed his forehead softly “you missed him shrieking like a banshee.” she mused, “he won’t bother you again.” she stated confidently. Kid laughed and nuzzled her chest contently.

“You really are crazy.”

“Crazy in love with you Kid.” she grinned “I’m going to stay a few days and make sure you rest properly.”

“Oh, my own private nurse? How lucky I am.” Kid purred. Kid couldn’t get over how much he loved this woman. Cute and she will fight.

#pumpkin writes #eustass kid x pumpkin #eustass kid #Selfship #metalpumpkin #Pumpkin will fight

29 notes · View notes

awesomelyanxiouspanda · 3 years

Text

Jealousy (Billy Loomis/Reader/Stu Macher)

Repost from my deleted Tumblr!

Some days you really regretted taking a position on the student council; today was one of those days. Being one of the more responsible members, Principal Himbry called on you quite often for help. In fact, you spent so much time at his beck and call that really made you question his motives for having you around sometimes. If it wasn’t the only extracurricular activity on your college applications, you’d just leave the council entirely and tell them to screw off.

You never knew what the principal would ask you to do from day to day. He had you help with planning for holidays and celebrations, tutoring other students, and showing around new transfer students. Today was tutoring.

It usually wasn’t the worst task in the world, especially with the nicer students, but Himbry had specifically requested you do it now- during lunch- instead of letting you do it tomorrow morning as it had been scheduled. Something about Andy now having football practice before the game. So not only did you have to miss lunch, you had to miss the only break during school that you got to spend with your boyfriends. Worse even, you hadn’t gotten to warn them ahead of time. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too upset. Billy and Stu wouldn’t be angry with you over the situation of course, they were too sweet to you for that, but their disappointment was worse than their anger.

“Hey, Y/N,” Andy called, snapping his fingers in front of your eyes.

“Eh? Wha- Oh sorry!” you quickly apologized, cheeks heating in embarrassment, “I must be more tired than I thought.”

He grinned brightly and waved off your apology with a chuckle.

“No big, dude. I get it. Sorry we had to change to today so suddenly. Coach is adamant that we get more practice in before the biggest game of the year,” Andy sighed.

Patting his hand easily, you gave him a warm smile. It wasn’t his fault you guys were stuck here in the library. Hell, he probably wanted to be out with his friends as much as you did.

“No need to apologize. That’s a lot of pressure. I’m sure you guys will do great though,” you assured him, “Let’s get through these last two problems and we’ll be golden. Might even have a few minutes left to snag some food.”

With a grateful smile, he nodded and hunched back over his paper.

“I dunno why I can’t get this shit when Mrs. Pembrook explains it,” he muttered.

“Sometimes you just need the one on one and silence to let things sink in,” you replied.

He really wasn’t dumb, as most people assumed. He was battling ADD and couldn’t focus unless there was someone to constantly redirect him; Not that you were much help in that today.

“So,” he paused with a big sigh then read off, “Carlos has taken an initial dose of a prescription medication. The relationship between the elapsed time in hours since he took his first dose and the amount of medication in milligrams in his blood stream is modeled by the following function”

You watched him closely work out the problem into steps, unable to help but feel a spark of pride and accomplishment as he slowly but surely made his way through the entire equation. When he jotted down the correct answer and looked up at you in questioning, you couldn’t stop a grin from crossing your face.

“Yes! Yes that’s it! You’ve so got this!” you cheered.

His cheeks darkened but there was an obvious glint of happiness in his eyes as he leaned back and pumped his fists.

“Only cause I’ve got the best tutor!” he replied.

“Okay, okay, one more. Let’s do this!” you encouraged him.

Once more he went through the word problem and sorted the equation out, step by step, until the right answer was written below.

“Mr. Andrew, I think my work here is done,” you giggled, reaching out for a well-placed high-five that made you palm ache.

“You’re the best, Y/N. Seriously, I can’t thank you enough. I feel like I might actually pass the final test,” he said sincerely.

You copied his earlier motion and waved off the thanks.

“Can’t wait to hear how you rocked it,” you replied.

“Alright, grub time!”

The two of you started cleaning up the papers and books and were almost finished when a call of your name caught your attention. Your head snapped up and you were greeted to the sight of your boyfriends marching to the table.

“Stu, Billy!”

Without much thought, you launched at them happily, grinning as Stu caught you a few inches from the floor.

“Hey babe,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to your cheek as you wrapped him up in a tight hug.

“What are you two doing in here?” Billy asked coolly.

Looking over, you found his arms crossed and a blank expression across his face. You let out a sigh and wiggled from Stu’s arms to tug Billy into a chaste kiss. Even that couldn’t make his obvious irritation go away.

“Oh hey Loomis, Macher,” Andy commented as he joined your trio before turning to you, “Thanks again, Y/N. See you at the game tomorrow?”

“You know it,” you replied, offering him a fist bump, “Kick some ass in the test tomorrow.”

Before he could touch his hand to yours, you were drawn back into the protective arms of your boys. For a moment you couldn’t figure out why until you felt the tenseness in their bodies. They were… jealous?

“Uh, yeah, anyway,” Andy muttered, “Catch you later, Y/N.”

The awkwardness was thick in the air as Stu sharply added, “Yeah, WE’LL see ya later dude.”

Yup. There was no denying that obvious message. Andy made a silent retreat quickly and you couldn’t blame him. You let out a little sigh and slumped against Billy, grinning despite the situation.

“What the fuck were you doing here with him? We’ve been looking everywhere for you. Thought maybe you were hurt or sick,” Billy grunted as he promptly turned to face you.

Stu mimicked his motions and both stood before you with stern expressions. Ugh, there came the ache of unnecessary guilt.

“I’m sorry. Himbry told me that I had to do our last tutoring session during lunch instead of tomorrow. I got called out of my last class so I didn’t have a chance to see you and tell you,” you explained.

Pouting slightly, you reached up and cupped a jaw in each hand, having to rise on tiptoes slightly to reach Stu.

“There’s no reason to be jealous, you know? He’s a nice guy but he’s got nothing on either of you,” you added, hoping to get through to them.

Finally Stu wilted, a whoosh of air escaping his mouth before he leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of your head.

“It’s not like we don’t trust you, babe. It’s the jerkwads we’re worried about,” he muttered.

“He didn’t try anything, did he?” Billy asked shortly.

“What? No, of course n-”

Your remaining words were muffled by his heated kiss. A wave of bliss ran down your being as you leaned into him, soaking up the passionate embrace.

Not to be outdone, Stu swept you hair aside and started kissing along you neck. His teeth found purchase hard in the bare flesh of your exposed shoulder. For a moment, you were panicked the librarian would catch you until you remembered she was out for lunch like the rest of the student body; upon the realization, you let out a soft moan and let the tension out of your body,

“Ah! Oh f-”

Your curse was cut off by a whimper as Billy copied a stinging bite on the other side. Everything seemed to float away, aside from pleasure and pain, as you melted between them. The burning grew almost unbearable and you knees weakened, urging you to give in and pat at them frantically.

With a pop, Stu pulled back first, and then Billy. Breathless and burning up, you swayed on your feet between them. Your shorter lover simply grinned at the faux glare you sent his way.

“What the hell was that for?” you demanded, albeit sounding more dazed than angry.

“Just wanted to remind others to stay away from our girl,” he replied.

He extended his hand and brushed a thumb softly along the freshly bitten flesh and you nearly dropped. Stu thankfully caught you. His giggle made butterflies storm your belly as you relaxed against him.

“I’m gonna get in trouble for these if they bruise,” you commented dryly.

“If anyone here says anything, you tell me and I’ll handle it,” Billy retorted seriously.

Swallowing thickly, you nodded in agreement and stood up to finally regain your footing. You were about to joke about needing a bandage for the wounds when the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. There was a heavy, collective sigh between the three of you immediately.

“Come on, we’ll help you carry your stuff back to your locker,” Stu said, leaving your side to scoop up your books from the table.

“I can easily carry those. You’re just looking for an excuse to be your paranoid, protective selves,” you teased.

“Damn right we are.”

#Billy LoomisXReaderXStu Macher #Jealousy #fluff #kissing #protective boys

10 notes · View notes

i-was-bored-so-this-happened · 4 years

Text

The Companion: Ascension Ascension Of The Cybermen

Whoops, it’s been a while since I updated...but hey! This is the penultimate episode!

Sam Tate is my OC! If you’d like to know more about them or the Companion, shoot me an ask or a message

@theaussietimelord

*********************************

Sam

“Question. Would you like some help?” As the Doctor asks the question, the woman in front of us whips out a blaster. Just as quickly, my own is trained on her.

“Don’t try it.” I tell her, shifting the canon that’s resting on my other shoulder.

“You don’t need to use that against us.” the Doctor tells her.

“Who are you?” the man of the group asks. There’s three of them, man, woman and child. I’m not sure if they’re a family or not. “Where’d you come from?”

“Doctor, Graham, Ryan, Yaz and Sam. Don’t worry about where we’re from, concentrate on how we can help.” the Doctor tells him. In response, the woman wavers, but then she looks at me and her aim steadies.

“After you.” I nod. She hesitates before putting her blaster down. The second she has, the Doctor turns to the fam,

“Right. Set this all up like I showed you.” she tells them. I stay put, holstering my blaster and swapping it for the canon on my shoulder. With any luck, it should get through any shields the Cybermen have around them. The fam all split up in different directions except for Ryan, who I know is somewhere behind me. I can hear the Doctor talking to the man that seems to have proclaimed himself leader, but neither of them are loud enough for me to hear anything they’re saying. This is all that’s left of humanity. Six or seven people in the whole world. All killed, deleted by Cybermen. There’s going to be an attack here, and we’re going to try and stop it.

A finger jabs into my arm and a pained noise slips out of my mouth, the canon swinging wildly as I try to balance it again.

“The hell are you doing?” I ask, and I don’t make an effort to disguise my anger.

“What ‘appened to you then?” the man who’d poked me asks. He pokes my bandaged arm again, and I hit him.

“Stop it! I burnt myself, alright? Bugger off if all you’re going to do is prod me.” I tell him. The burn’s a couple of weeks old now, but it still hurts like hell.

“Yedlarmi.” is all he says in response, holding out his hand for me to shake. I have to put the canon down to do this. “Wassat?” he asks, pointing at the canon.

“It’s a really big gun.” I tell him impatiently. There’s a loud bang somewhere in the distance, and I can hear the Doctor yelling,

“Activation time, fam!”

“Get your people and hide. Hide, okay? Don’t run.” I tell him. He hesitates, and I shove him towards half of a building. “Yedlarmi. Go!” when he starts running, grabbing another man and pulling him with him, I lug the canon back up onto my shoulder. There’s a different noise then. A kind of…whooshing. The Doctor sees them first.

“Cyberdrones!”

Cyberman heads, flying in formation towards us. Bullets of lasers causing a small explosion where the Doctor had set up her own instruments.

“Fam, get down! They’re targeting the defences!” the Doctor yells, just before Ryan’s machines go up in flames.

“Graham!” I hear his name before I realise it’s coming from me. I take a shot at one of the drones before they can take a shot at him. Two of them go down in the blast. The downside is that now…well, now they’re aiming at me. “Shit, shit, shit.” the canon is too heavy to throw, so I just drop it and run. Well, I try to run. I hear the lasers, hear the boom. I can feel myself being thrown back by the explosion, feel my head as it cracks onto the ground, and then I can’t really feel anything.

***

Ringing. All Sam can hear is ringing, and then a voice. Saying their name. Their name, over and over again. And then a different word, a word that makes their eyes snap open. Cybermen.

“Sam. Sam! Sam, please, the Cybermen are comin’ and Yaz an’ Graham are gone. Sam!” Ryan. It’s Ryan. Sam sits up quicker than they should, pain rocketing through their head. “Sam!”

“Ryan. Ryan, what did you say about-” Sam cuts themselves off. They can hear them. Cybermen. Three sets of footsteps. They can’t see the Cyberman. Sam isn’t sure if they’d landed behind this wall or if Ryan had dragged them over here. Sam’s hands have pulled out their blaster and readied it before they can think, an automatic response to the sound of the Cybermen. There’s a voice there, in the back of their head, a memory screaming a name they feel like they should know.

“Where are Graham and Yaz?”

“I don’t know, we got separated. What do we do?” Ryan asks as the heavy, robotic steps of the Cybermen fade.

“You let me go first.” Sam tells him, pushing up onto their feet, but wobbling when they get there. “Woah. Oh, that felt weird.”

“Are you hurt?”

“A bit.” Sam mumbles. The tip of their tongue pokes out of their mouth as they deliberate. Sam would be fine on their own, but they have to protect Ryan, and to do that, “The Doctor. We find her. And you let me go first, okay?”

“You’ve met the Cybermen before, haven’t you?”

“Oh, just one of the few hundred alien life forms that have been hunting me down for the last few centuries. None of them have killed me yet. Worst case scenario, I’ll be a good distraction. They get me, you keep running, okay?”

“Are you sure you can run?” Ryan asks. Sam reaches up to their head. Both of them wince at the same time as Sam touches their head. Their hand comes away smeared with blood, which they then wipe onto their trousers before reaching into their jacket to fish out the beanie that’s stuffed into the pocket and pull it onto their head.

“Nothing that won’t heal.” Sam tells Ryan, picking up their blaster again and ramping it up a couple levels. Sam walks a few steps, pauses for a moment with their hand on the wall, and the pushes off and walks out into the open as they say, in an almost sing-song voice, “If you see a Cyberman, don’t forget to scream.”

Sam wobbles a little as they walk, but less and less as they progress, Ryan close behind. Every so often he reaches out to touch Sam’s shoulder. Both of them turn at the same time to the sound of an explosion and a loud bang followed closely by a yell.

“Graham.” Ryan says quietly, and there’s fright there.

“This way.” Sam tells him, moving towards the old broken building the sounds had come from. There’s an opening to go through, and there’s someone talking. The voice…it’s not fully Cyberman, but there’s a definite robotic edge to it. Shelley. The incomplete Cyberman Graham had told Sam about. Sam stops suddenly, and Ryan bumps into them. The leader, the man who had spoken with the Doctor. Feekat. Lifeless on the floor next to an exploded wall.

“What is it?” Ryan asks, trying to whisper.

“Feekat. He’s dead.” Sam tells him. “The boy…the boy, the Cyberman’s talking to him.”

“-Spread my message. Tell them, ‘Be afraid. All humanity have been erased. All life will fall. And the Cybermen will rise again.’”

“Oh, I don’t think so, sunshine.” Sam calls out, moving forward, blaster aimed at Shelley. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced. I’m the spanner in the works.” they can see the Doctor behind the Cyberman, can tell that Ryan’s seen her too as he moves closer to Sam. She’s holding what looks like a Plan B Bomb. “The Cybermen aren’t going anywhere.”

“Not if I have anything to do with it.” the Doctor says, pulling Shelley’s attention away from Sam, Ryan and the boy and towards the Doctor instead. The red thing in her hand starts beeping.

“Ryan, go.” Sam says, and he darts past the Cyberman without question. Sam steps towards the boy, “You go too. There’s nothing you can do for Feekat now.” after a second’s hesitation, in which the Doctor throws the bomb, Sam grabs him and pulls him along with them. As the Cyberman goes boom behind them, all four of them rush out of the building.

“Doctor!” Ryan shouts as they run, “We’ve got to find Yaz and Graham!”

“I saw them get on the Gravraft. They’re gone.” the boy tells him, and both he and Ryan stop.

“What?”

“Concentrate, Ryan,” the Doctor tells him, “we have to get out of here. We can’t make it to the TARDIS-”

“Wait!” Sam tells the Doctor, lifting their wrist. They can teleport everyone to the TARDIS. “Ah beans. My teleport’s broken.” the screen of it is covered in cracks, and there’s a button or two missing. A copper wire pokes out of the side, the coating ripped off.

“-no teleport, no escape ship, a relentless Cyberman and very limited options. Well. One option. How fast are you feeling?”

“Uh, Doc, I don’t think-” Sam starts, but the Doctor’s already taken off.

“Alright?” Ryan asks.

“I think I have to be. Let’s go.” Sam tells him, darting after the Doctor even as it feels like their head is going to rock right off their shoulders. The Doctor’s running all the way to where the Cyberships landed.

“Are we going to steal their ship?” Ryan asks, shouting as he runs.

“Yes we are!” the Doctor answers.

***

Sam hisses at their teleport.

“This would be so much easier if I had anything other than Cyber tech.”

“Will Cyber tech not work?” Ryan asks.

“Well, it would, but it would then try and take over the entire system. That’s what the Cybermen do, they latch onto something, anything, and upgrade it.”

“Upgrade?”

“That’s what they call it.” Sam says, leaning further down over their teleport, which sparks again. “When they delete your free will, your emotions, turn you into one of them.” Sam pauses for a moment, “I didn’t want to be the one to give you this talk, mate, but once you’ve crossed that line of deletion, there’s no going back. You have no control over yourself anymore. Your only function is to delete humanity and build the Cyberman army.” Sam looks up at Ryan, “If they’ve gotten Graham or Yaz and they’ve gone too far, we can’t get them back.”

“But-”

“You can’t, Ryan. I knew someone who thought they could reverse the process. Use the technology to save life rather than delete it, but they couldn’t. Had to kill someone they loved.” Sam tells him. They know the story, but for the life of them can’t remember who that person was. “I need you to understand.”

“I do.” Ryan says quietly, not very surely, “I…I do.”

“I’m sorry.” Sam adds, as an afterthought. They are sorry, but they’re not going to sugar-coat the situation. They won’t give him false hope. Not like the Doctor would.

“We’re here!” almost as if on cue, the Doctor’s voice rings through the ship. Ryan turns and leaves instantly, not stopping to wait for Sam as they use the wall beside them to get to their feet. They move down the corridor back to where the Doctor and the boy are, “Shuttle calling Ko Sharmus. Anyone hear me? Anyone there on Ko Sharmus, talk to me. Please? What I’d give for a friendly voice right now. Go on. Please? Shuttle calling Ko Sharmus.” the Doctor says. Sam has just stepped into the cockpit when they hear,

Ko Sharmus responding. Hello?

“We’ve made it!” the boy cries excitedly. Sam still doesn’t know his name yet.

“This is the Doctor, who’s that?” the Doctor asks.

I’ve told you, this is Ko Sharmus.

“Ko Sharmus? You’re a person, not a planet?”

Who are you? What do you want?

“We’re human.” the boy tells him, “We’ve come to cross the Boundary.”

No, I don’t think so.

“What do you mean?” the Doctor asks.

There are no more humans.

“We’re right here.” Sam says, voice hushed. “We’re human. We’ve hijacked a Cybership, but there are no Cybermen. Just us. And there are more humans out there, coming here.”

“Very looking forward to meeting you.” the Doctor adds.

***

Ko Sharmus, as it turns out, is an old man. An old, old man with white hair and beard, dressed in reddish-earth tones. He’s got a stick almost as tall as he is.

“I don’t believe it.” Sam hears him say as the group reaches him, “There’s me having lost all hope.”

“Consider us your hope restored.” the Doctor tells him, “I’m the Doctor. This is Ryan, Sam and Ethan.” each of them nod as the Doctor says their name. “Do you mind if I have a shufty around? How are your defences here?” the Doctor doesn’t wait for an answer, gesturing for her companions to follow her, “Come on.” Sam hesitates. This whole place is hilly grassland, where they’re standing the top of a cliff. It’s incredible. Untouched apart from the small network of tents not far off that the Doctor is headed towards.

“Did this settlement start with you?” the Doctor asks when all of them are inside. It’s incredible here too, massive pipes serving as tunnels, the roofs and walls all made up of swathes of fabric or netting.

“Yes.” Ko Sharmus answers, “Myself and a handful of others fleeing from the Cybercamps.”

“So you fought in the war?” the boy, Ethan, asks.

“Yes. For a long time. Then I was captured and held in a human interment camp for processing, sent for an upgrade. I was one of the lucky ones who got away. We’d heard tell of this place. We didn’t really believe it, but we managed to get here. The war hadn’t made it this far, so we built shelter and, over time, others came. The word spread.” Ko Sharmus answers as he guides the group. He reaches what seems to be the centre of the whole place, and Sam and the Doctor’s head tip back to look at the ceiling of it, higher than the rest of the shelter.

“So where’s everyone else?” Ethan asks.

“There’s only me.” Ko Sharmus tells him, “I helped everyone else through the Boundary. And then, cause I’m an idiot,” he pauses momentarily, “felt like it was my duty to wait in case others came. But it’s been a long time.”

“You sacrificed your own life on the chance others were still out there.” the Doctor says.

“You make it sound more noble than it is.”

“It is noble.” Sam tells him, “You were right. We’re here.”

“So it’s true? The Boundary, it’s real?” Ethan asks.

“Of course it’s real.” Ko Sharmus tells him, almost sounding amused by Ethan’s question.

“Will you show us?” the Doctor asks.

***

Sam is still staring at the impossible Boundary. Oddly purple, stretching all the way up to the sky. Sam isn’t sure how wide it is. If they stepped through, would it be just one step? Or would they have to walk for a certain amount of time before reaching the other side? Where does it lead to? Ko Sharmus had said it led to another galaxy. What if it was one Sam had been to before? Or not? How had the Boundary been created? Was it natural? So many questions about this impossible thing.

-All frequencies. A voice is crackling through Ko Sharmus’ communication setup. Yaz looking for the Doctor.

“Yaz, we can hear you, can you hear me?” the Doctor asks. There’s a pause, long enough for Sam to re-join the group and stand near Ryan. A pause that goes on for almost too long.

Doctor!

Sam’s hand goes to Ryan’s shoulder.

“Hey, they’re okay! Cybermen didn’t get ‘em!” they tell him as he starts to smile.

“Where are you?” the Doctor asks, and Ryan’s smile fades as Yaz answers,

We’re on a Cyber battle cruiser with that Cyber guy and a lot of Cyber troops that are waking up.

“Oh. Not so okay.” Sam says, their hand falling from Ryan’s shoulder.

“Yaz, get off that ship now.” the Doctor orders.

We can’t! We’re trapped and they’re about to break in.

“Yaz. Yaz!” the Doctor calls, but before Yaz can answer there’s a cracking noise like lightning, loud and close. The Boundary. Something’s happened to it. It’s like…it’s like it’s clearing, the other side now visible. This Boundary is more impossible than ever.

“What is that?” Ethan asks.

“That’s not possible.” the Doctor answers.

“I’ve never seen it look like that before.” Ko Sharmus says.

“That’s my home planet.” the Doctor says, “That’s Gallifrey.”

The image of Gallifrey had faded somewhat from Sam’s memory since they’d last seen it. They’ve seen it ravaged by the Time War, of course, but this is different. Burned to the ground for no reason they or the Doctor knows. All that’s left of the citadel is metal Sam doubts scavengers would want. They’d always hoped that one day, they might see Gallifrey. Truly see it, in all its glory. Not burned or bombed or the inside of a prison cell. They’d imaged walking through the streets, telling stories of their travels to little children. But there are no children left.

The Boundary seems to ripple, pulling Sam back to reality a split second before someone jumps through, landing on the beach in front of them.

“Wow! Oh!” the exclamations followed by some kind of squeaking noise, “That’s a good entrance, right?” The Master. Grinning like the madman he is. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen, not in Sam’s mind. His eyes land on Sam and they could swear he winks at them, “Told you I’d come pick you up.” the smile drops a second later as he turns his eyes to the Doctor, “Be afraid, Doctor. Because everything is about to change. Forever.”

#mywriting #The Companion: Ascension #sam tate #thirteenth doctor #ryan sinclair #yasmin khan #graham o'brien #dhawan!master

7 notes · View notes

joeybelle · 7 years

Text

Starlight - Chapter 10

Relationships: Cassian Andor x Original Female Character

Rating: Mature

Tags: Pre-Rogue One, Slow Burn, Romance, Foul language, Canon-typical Violence,

Cora was awoken by loud banging on her door. Her initial reaction was to jump out of bed and get to safety, but then she realized it was just someone knocking. It took her a minute to make out the time on her alarm clock and she let out a disgruntled groan when she saw that she had only gotten about four hours of sleep that night. It was way too early to have someone hysterically knocking, unless something really bad had happened, and she was completely unprepared to deal with that.

She groggily got up and hurried to the door, nearly tripping in the process, the sense of urgency making her completely forget that she was only dressed in skimpy sleepwear. The automatic door opened in a fluid motion to reveal Captain Cassian Andor who was looking a lot more alert than anyone should have been at that ungodly hour. Her heart started beating a little faster, and not from the adrenaline. Unfortunately for her, the butterflies seemed to be more active during the night.

“Yeah?” she croaked, her voice hoarse and shaky.

He only looked her over for half a second, his eyes eventually settling on her face. Cora knew she was way too livid from suddenly getting up to be able to physically blush, but the feeling was there as she crossed her arms over her chest for a little more coverage.

“There’s been an emergency and I need your help. Here’s your combat uniform,” he said as he pushed a stack of clothes into her arms. “Get dressed, I’ll explain on the way.”

Cora reluctantly took the clothes and threw him a quizzical look. “What kind of emergency and why do I need a combat uniform?” she asked studying them, completely ignoring the “I’ll explain on the way” part.

“Because we are going off-world.” He said patiently, probably understanding that her brain wasn’t functioning at full capacity. “Now please hurry.”

Her mind kept screaming “why?” in a high pitched tone, but Cora silenced it as the Direct Action training started to kick in. Act first, ask questions later. Or better, don’t ask them at all, just do what you’re told. She didn’t miss DA at all.

“Ok, you come in and explain to me while I get dressed,” she compromised, turning her back to him and heading towards the bathroom. The sooner she understood why she had been awoken so brutally, the sooner she’ll be able to fully concentrate on the task, she told herself, even though the only thing she wanted to do was go back to bed.

“No, I’d rather…”

“I thought we were in a hurry? It will take me about five minutes to get dressed, you really want to waste that?” she yelled loud enough that he could hear her from the corridor. She listened for any indication that he had stepped inside, but the door closed with a whoosh and she sighed. It was probably harder than that to get him into her bedroom, she thought and mentally slapped herself for letting her mind wander in that direction instead of concentrating on what she was doing.

“I thought you could get ready in less than three minutes,” she heard him say so she poked her head through the open door enough to see him curiously looking at the improvised wiring coming out of Ben’s tank. She smiled and went back to getting dressed. She hoped she hadn’t left her bra hanging around in the open, but after a brief moment of thinking she realized she didn’t give two shits about it. He wasn’t a virgin, he knew what a bra looked like.

“New equipment. It takes a while getting used to.” She was lucky the bathroom was designed with more people in mind so she could also use it as a makeshift dressing room. If you were lucky enough to get your own bathroom on one of the star destroyers it would be one of those one by one modules, where you could shower while sitting on the toilet with the sink only a few centimeters away. “So what’s the emergency?”

“One of our surveillance teams got ambushed while on a mission,” he started explaining. “Pirates probably. The ship is pretty damaged, but they managed to lose them and go into hiding. We have to go pick them up as quickly as possible.”

“Wounded?” she asked.

“Yes. The distress message said that two of them have sustained serious injuries and require urgent medical attention.”

Aha. Now she understood why he needed her on this mission. All the other combat medics were probably unavailable. “I see,” she said buttoning up her shirt.

The combat uniform felt strange. It looked nothing like the imperial one she used to wear, which was basically a rather uncomfortable armour, but neither did it look like the one she currently wore in the infirmary. It was a mix of grays and tan, much like the ones she saw the other soldiers wearing, the only difference being the medkit and the insignia on her shoulder signalling that she was medical personnel. Also, the complete lack of any sort of weapon besides maybe the laser scalpel in her kit. The material was rough and the design quite ugly.

Before she left the bathroom she studied herself in the mirror for a second. She looked pretty awake now that she had had some time to adjust to being awake. Over the years her body had adapted to the erratic sleeping pattern and you couldn’t really tell that she hadn’t gotten enough sleep, apart from the faint shadows under her eyes.

She was surprised to notice the two pips on her rank badge. They had given her the same rank she had in the imperial army: captain. Her status as a prisoner didn’t come with a demotion it seemed. It was a pleasant surprise, even though she doubted she had any real authority. Nonetheless, she was happy Cassian didn’t outrank her. Not that it would make him any less bossy...

“We can go,” she said, exiting the bathroom feeling ready to face whatever was awaiting her.

Cassian nodded and headed towards the door. “What’s that?” he asked before leaving the room, pointing to the lichen in the tank.

“A lichen,” she explained. “He’s called Ben and he’s my former cellmate.” Cassian raised an eyebrow and Cora wondered if he really thought she was a little crazy.

“Who built the tank?”

“I did.”

“Where did you get the materials from?”

“Storage.”

“You asked and they just gave it to you?” he asked, eyeing her suspiciously. He was using the same tone he used in the interrogations: monotone and devoid of any emotion. She had hoped they were past all that, but apparently not.

“Well, I did ask nicely,” she lied. The truth was that she had traded in a few favours. By working in the med bay she often encountered people who wanted certain “conditions” to be kept off record or they’d get in trouble. Cora helped them whenever she could, and they were more than happy to help her in return. But this wasn’t something the righteous captain should hear about. “Besides, it’s only scrap, not something that was useful to anyone.”

“I think General Draven was right, you may sabotage us with only your pinky.”

Cora laughed, but a cold shiver ran down her spine at the thought that she had done something that wasn’t permitted and they’ll put her back in the cell. “My abilities in this field are rather limited,” she admitted.

“I didn’t even know you knew engineering. It’s quite impressive.”

It was a compliment. An honest, impossible to misinterpret, compliment. She could go back to her cell now, her life was complete. “The tank’s just child’s play,” she said, trying hard to not seem smug. “The needs of a lichen aren’t that complex really so building something to keep it alive is very easy. You only need to control the humidity and temperature, the light and the flow of nutrients.” She was rambling, but stopped herself before she bored him to death with all the little details of growing lichen in controlled environment.

“You didn’t strike me as the engineering type,” he said, smiling at her.

“What does an engineer even look like?” she asked, feigning indignation. “You shouldn’t make assumptions about me so easily. I’m full of surprises, Captain.”

“Really?”

“You should see me build a bacta tank.” It felt like flirting. For some reason, talking about engineering felt a hell of a lot like flirting.

“A bacta tank?” he laughed, a disbelieving look in his eyes.

“Well, if you had continued with the interrogations you would have found out eventually that I specialized in life support technologies during med school. It’s half medicine, half engineering, really. Pays a lot if you can get into a research facility. So yeah, if you give me the right materials and a generous amount of time, I can build you a bacta tank.” This was outright bragging. Not that it wasn’t true, she’d done it a few times in class, but she made it all sound a lot more impressive than it actually was. Most of it was just assembling parts and heavy cursing.

“Maybe I should go back to interrogating you.” There was a thoughtful note in his voice but also a tiny smile on his face, so Cora couldn’t figure out if he was serious about it or not.

“Then you should know that I’m a lot more talkative over coffee,” she said on a whim.

Her own brain started screaming at her. Did she really just hint that he should take her out for coffee? Was it the early hour and the lack of sleep that was making her bolder than usual? Was she aware of the consequences of that proposition?

He laughed and avoided her gaze for a moment. “I’ll keep that in mind.” Yeah, he got the hint.

“And speaking of interrogations, how am I allowed to go off-world, Captain?” she said, bringing the topic to a more familiar territory. “Thought if I left the perimeter I’d get zapped.”

“You got special permission just this time,” he said, his face serious again, every hint of awkwardness gone. “You’re the only doctor with combat experience that’s still on base, except for Doctor Crane. They agreed to let you come with me on this mission given that you don’t try to run away. The parameters of your bracelets have already been modified.”

“So if I wander away from you I’ll be zapped?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ll shoot you.”

“Alright! Glad we got that out of the way.”

The hangar was quieter than usual, but even so it was pretty lively. The ships looked like sinister dark shapes looming in the distance, but to Cora their outline was a familiar sight. She glanced towards the ER. It was brightly lit, but no doctor could be seen through the glass doors or lounging on the crates in front of the med bay with a hot cup of coffee in hands like they did when they had some free time.

They were headed towards a U-Wing that Cora recognized as being the captain’s ship of choice. It looked slightly battered, like pretty much all the ships that the Rebellion used. It was a pleasant change from the pristine condition in which they kept them on the star destroyer. The scratches and dents gave them some personality.

K-2SO was waiting for them in front of the ship, looking just as black and expressionless as always, towering over Cora when they approached.

“I want to let you know that I think this is a bad idea,” he said as Cora followed Cassian inside the ship.

“And why do you think that?” Cora couldn’t help but ask, taken aback by his frankness.

“There is a high possibility that you will attack us trying to take control of the ship and escape,” he said monotonously, like he was talking about the weather and not accusing her of possible treason in the near future.

“With my bare hands?” she asked, showing him that she was unarmed. “I mean I could tickle you to death, but I can’t tickle two people at the same time and by the...”

“I am not ticklish,” the droid stopped her rant.

Cassian snorted. “Hurry up already, I’m closing the door.”

Cora noticed that he had already taken the pilot seat and was getting the ship ready for takeoff, so she put down the medkit and strapped herself securely in one of the crew chairs. K-2SO, still mumbling about something, took the co-pilot seat, and Cora had to admit she was feeling a little jealous. She missed being able to fly a ship. She hadn’t done it in years, but she remembered the thrill like it was yesterday.

The ship started to vibrate as they took off and Cora felt a pleasant rush of endorphins. She was finally leaving the moon, going into space again, even if it was for a short time. She could see the stars again. She could breathe.

The ship was just as shabby on the inside as it was on the outside. It wasn’t nearly as clean as she expected someone’s ship to be and was already showing signs of wear. It wasn’t such an old model, but it looked like it had been extensively used. The back had been modified, probably to make room for some sort of living space, and there were a lot of little things that she didn’t remember to be part of the original design.

She found herself wishing this was her ship so she could clean it properly and fix it and polish it and make it look and work as it should. She decided that if they ever set her free she’d buy a ship and start a career as a smuggler. She knew jack shit about smuggling, but she was sure she’d do great. At least she’d live a short, but adventurous life.

A sudden shift in acceleration signalled that they had left the gravitation field of the moon, so Cora unclasped her safety belt and moved towards the cockpit. It would probably be a short trip so she wanted to make the most of it. She wouldn’t have time to admire the view on their way back, since she’d most certainly be busy with the injured.

“What are you doing here?” Cassian looked at her over his shoulder, an irritated look on his face. “Get back to your seat.”

“No.”

“It’s for your own safety,” he tried convincing her.

“I’ll hold on tightly.” Cassian raised an eyebrow. “Come on, it’s boring sitting alone in the back.” He shook his head and switched his attention back to the controls.

“The probability of you falling over and seriously injuring yourself when we enter hyperspace is 64%” said the droid, moving his head to look at her.

“It’s not that high, I’ll take my chances,” she said, earning another sideways glance from Cassian. “If anything happens, I know you’ll patch me up. But for my sake, I seriously hope you are better at piloting than you are at emergency medical care,” she mumbled.

“Suit yourself,” he gave up with a frustrated sigh. “But if we fail the mission because you’re unconscious on the floor, I’ll let you personally explain that to General Draven.”

“Ok.” Hopefully she’d hit her head and die so she didn’t have to explain anything to anyone, especially not to General Frown. But she was still standing, so no need to panic just yet. “Where are we going?” Cassian frowned but said nothing. “I get it, need to know basis, just make it vague. I should at least know what to expect.”

“They got ambushed near a gas giant,” he explained. “Luckily, it has a belt of moons and moonlets of different sizes, so they managed to evade them in the maze, but they’ve taken heavy fire and can’t return home.”

“So we’ll have to fight pirates in a maze of space bodies haphazardly floating around?” Cora wasn’t so thrilled about leaving the base anymore.

“Hopefully not,” Cassian said, pushing a few buttons. “I’m hoping they just got bored and left.”

“What are the odds of them giving up that easily?” K-2SO raised a finger, probably getting ready to state the exact numbers, but a short glare from Cassian made him shut up and go back to what he was doing.

“If they’re pirates, high I’d say. It’s just a small ship, it shouldn’t pose any interest to them,” he explained. “They usually go for the big cargo shuttles, quick kill, big payoff. They’re more interested in the cargo than the ship itself, so there’s no reason they’d waste too much fuel chasing it.” He shrugged. “But if they’re not pirates or they have a personal beef with us...” Then we’re fucked, Cora thought.

“It’s good to know we have a lot of friends out there…” Cora said, earning a chuckle from Cassian.

“My calculations are ready, we can enter hyperspace,” the droid announced, solemnly.

Cassian turned his head towards her. “Can you please go sit down for a minute, until we make this jump?” There was a silent plea in his eyes and Cora felt compelled to listen to him. Just this time. She wasn’t unreasonable in her stubbornness, at least not when he looked at her with those beautiful brown eyes.

“Ok,” she said and moved back to her seat, strapping in just in time to feel the sudden pull when the hyperdrive engines fired up. The stars turned into long thin lines on the dark sky before disappearing completely in the whirlwind of colours. The jump only took a few minutes and when she got up again, she could see the huge planet through the central viewport.

The beauty of space never ceased to amaze her. No matter how much she travelled there was always something new and amazing just around the corner. The gas giant was a beautiful combination of yellows and browns, with the occasional red mixed in and it almost looked like it sparkled in the sun. The rings that went around its equator were interrupted from place to place by what she figured were its many moons.

She went back to standing near the cockpit, leaning on the pilot’s chair. Cassian let the ship just hover there for a moment, giving her time to really take in the view before starting up the engines and getting close to the rings. She took this opportunity to look at him too, just out of the corner of her eye, so she wouldn’t get caught staring.

“What were they doing here anyway?” she asked when they entered one of the rings.

“We found a new safe hyperspace route in its vicinity,” he explained, expertly dodging some floating boulders. “Some moons have a somewhat breathable atmosphere and with a bit of work we could install a permanent outpost on one of them to try and keep this route safe. Unfortunately, it seems we’re not the only ones that know about it.”

Small rocks were bouncing off the fuselage as they advanced. Their speed was slow and steady, the ship diligently obeying Cassian’s commands. She remembered this scenario: having to get through an asteroid belt, she’d done it a few times in simulations during her stormtrooper training, but she had never done it in real life. She understood why the army was somewhat reluctant to give a ship to a rookie and sent them into an asteroid belt wishing them good luck. Not that they weren’t capable of doing that, it was simply too expensive.

“K, can you try to get ahold of them on the short range com?” Cassian said, getting a blank stare from the droid.

“Why can’t she do it? It’s not like she’s busy or anything.” Cora got the feeling that the droid didn’t like her very much. Or he was simply being annoyed by her intruding presence. As far as she could tell, it was usually just him and Cassian going on missions.

“She doesn’t know the frequencies.” He glared. “And it’s not her job, it’s yours.”

Cora could have sworn she heard the droid sigh as he got out of the seat and moved to a device that was mounted on one of the ship’s walls. She got out of his way, being certain he’d step on her and then pretend he didn’t even notice, but then quickly plopped herself down on the newly vacated co-pilot’s seat.

“You are not allowed to sit there!” K-2SO pointed an accusing finger at her and if it weren’t for Cassian throwing him an exasperated look, he probably would have just picked her up by the hair and thrown her in the back where she belonged.

“K, we’re in a hurry,” Cassian urged.

“I’m not trying to take your place, K2, I’m just warming up your seat until you come back,” she said, smiling sweetly. This reprogrammed droid had more personality than a lot of people she knew, and even though she was sure he disliked her, she was starting to get used to his snarky remarks. She could at least find a little comfort in the fact that he didn’t seem to like anyone besides Cassian.

“I don’t like a warm seat.”

Cora looked at him bewildered and opened her mouth to say something, but Cassian cut her off. “Could you both please stop acting like kids?” He probably had enough of the pointless bickering. Cora knew very well that they were on a mission and people’s lives depended on their efficiency, but she just couldn’t help it. It was the first time she was having fun in months, and she was determined to enjoy it. Still, she did her best not to hinder Cassian.

Feeling comfortable in the co-pilot seat, Cora admired the ease with which Cassian maneuvered the ship between the obstacles. She knew the model and the manufacturers certainly didn’t have swiftness and finesse on their minds when they designed it, but rather functionality and endurance. Under Cassian’s command, however, it danced between the large boulders, advancing into the hostile territory.

“You’re a really skilled pilot,” she said, pushing one of the buttons Cassian couldn’t reach, doing her job as a co-pilot.

“I’m not that good,” he dismissed the compliment, but Cora could see the corners of his mouth slightly going up.

“Trust me, I come from a family of pilots, I know what I’m saying,” she assured him.

“When did you learn how to fly a ship?” he asked, not taking his eyes from the viewport. Again, Cora was reminded of the interrogations but his tone of voice was different. Maybe he was just curious this time. She was aware that everything she was going to say was probably going to end up in her file anyway, but she didn’t give a fuck right now. She just hoped Draven hatefully touched himself whenever the file got updated.

“I don’t really remember,” she started, her voice nostalgic. “Just like you don’t remember your first steps or learning how to speak, that’s how I don’t remember my first flying lessons. My oldest memories are of me having to stand on my mother’s knees to be able to reach the controls.”

“How old were you even?”

“Around four, I think.” She laughed at the memory. “I was six, and I remember this clearly, when I tried to land the ship for the first time without my mother guiding my hands and I completely missed the landing pad crashing into a row of TIE fighters. My dad was fuming. He just yelled and yelled at both mom and I until he couldn’t speak anymore. But in the end no one got into any serious trouble. My mom was the star pilot and dad was the commander of the ship, so who was going to complain that they were teaching their kid how to fly on imperial property.” She remembered those moments fondly, even the times they were angry at her. They had so little time for her that every interaction was precious. Sometimes she tried to get into trouble just to get their attention. But even that didn’t earn her more than a few minutes of their time. “My landings never really improved,” she laughed, trying to shake off the sad feelings.

“That’s very young to start flying. You must be a great pilot.”

“No, I lack the practice. I may have the talent, but there have been years in which I didn’t even see the cockpit of a ship. Since my mom died no one really cared if I continued my training or not.” This was something that was really hard for her to admit. She had always worshipped her mother, the pilot. Whenever they tried to shut her up and make her behave during her school years she would always state: “I’m going to be the best damn pilot in the Galaxy!” like it was her shield, her purpose. She could become someone just like her mother one day, someone that mattered. She knew she had the talent, she just needed to work hard. But the years passed, and the only times she could practice was on the short vacations when her dad came to take her away. And that was not nearly enough. “And now I see these 18 year olds flying the ships like they were born in one and I can’t help but feel jealous as fuck.” She stopped, pulling herself together, stopping the bottled up feeling from pouring out. “How did you learn to fly?” she asked, trying to divert the attention from her and her outburst of pettiness.

Cassian looked at her for a few moments, his expression unreadable, before going back to paying attention to what was happening outside the viewport. “I had this mentor, back on Fest,” he said. “He used to let me co-pilot his ship whenever I went on missions with him. It was more of a learn on the job than him teaching me anything, but I am grateful anyway.”

Cora frowned. She had expected him to say that he learned in military school or something, maybe even that he was the son of a smuggler but the idea that he learned on the job while on “missions” was new. It sounded like he had always been an intelligence operative, even on his homeworld. Maybe he was. She had no idea how long ago the Alliance was founded, or when he left Fest. “How old were you?”

“Ten or eleven.”

“Ten?!” Her eyes widened. An intelligence operative at ten? That was ridiculous. “That’s too young. What kind of missions were you going on anyway?”

“Says someone who crash landed a ship at six,” he laughed and Cora shrugged. “It’s not too young to aim and shoot a blaster, especially when no one expects you to…” There was a sadness in his voice that made her want to get up and hug him. Curiously, she had the nagging feeling that she had heard it from him before, but she couldn’t remember when. They didn’t really have that many heartfelt conversations before, even if you counted the one about sex.

“And they said my parents were fucked up for letting me fly a ship,” she blurted out before realizing what she was saying.

“I didn’t really have any parents.”

She really felt for him in that moment. She always knew her life had been shit and not everyone could understand what if felt like to grow up almost abandoned by their parents, but she always knew that it could have been a lot worse. At least her dad had the money and enough affection for her to keep her safe and healthy. She realized not everyone was that lucky, and maybe Cassian was an example. No matter how much she hated her strict school that tried to forcefully mold her into a perfect lady she never had to shoot a blaster at ten.

“Not that I want to interrupt your moment of bonding, but I’ve managed to contact the crew.” K-2SO’s voice broke the silence.

“Put them through.”

“Andor! Is that you?” a male voice suddenly filled the cockpit.

“Yeah. We’re coming to get you, what’s your location?”

“We had to do an emergency landing on Marques III because our life support system got fucked up. We’ve survived it, but the sun is going down so I hope you’ll pick us up before we freeze to death. We’re sending you the coordinates.”

Once the data came through, Cassian carefully steered the ship and headed towards the crew's location.

“What’s the status the injured?” Cora asked, taking advantage of the the moment of silence. “Have you managed to stabilize them somehow?”

“Are you the new doctor?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, I could tell by your accent.” Cora raised an eyebrow. She didn’t know she had an accent. “Well, the only one of us that has any medical training is currently unconscious and not breathing very well, but the other one can still hold a blaster without us having to tape it to his hand…” It seemed like he wanted to add something else, but the transmission ended with a “Fuck” followed by the sound of an explosion and then finally static.

“Kappehl! Kappehl!” Cassian frantically tried to get the connection back on, but neither he nor the droid could do anything about it. “Something happened, we have to hurry! Cora, move!”

Cora jumped out of the seat, allowing K2 to go back to helping Cassian. She secured herself on one of the crew chairs and waited patiently to reach the destination. There was nothing she could help them with, but the least she could do was stay out of the way and not be a burden to anyone.

The ship was moving faster and the sudden turns meant the comfort of the passengers wasn’t Cassian’s priority. Nonetheless, they were never in any real danger of crashing into anything. Cora tried preparing herself mentally for whatever was to come. One unconscious and another one probably badly wounded as well. The wait and the lack of information was making her extremely anxious. She would have rather been caught in heavy fire than having to wait knowing that someone might be dying and there was nothing she could do about it. In any case, judging by how the transmission ended, they might have to go into battle anyway.

She was not prepared for that, no matter how many times she tried reminding herself that she had the training. She had no weapon and although she could do her job as a medic even if there was a fight going on around her, she would probably be forced to join in and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to stay focused and not panic. There were only two of them, three if she counted the droid, but she had no idea how equipped he was for battle, so they weren’t really what could be considered serious reinforcements. Their odds of winning against whoever was attacking the other crew were slim to say the least.

Through the viewport, she could see the moon getting bigger and bigger as they were closing in. It looked barren, dark grey rock formations protruding towards the sky. It was a lot smaller than Yavin IV, and it looked inhospitable, but since it had a breathable atmosphere it was still valuable.

Cassian must have gotten the exact coordinates of their location, because he didn’t waste any time searching for the crashed ship once they entered the atmosphere, but speeded in what Cora assumed was the right direction. She unstrapped herself and grabbed the medkit, getting ready to jump out of the spacecraft the moment it landed.

Loud cursing coming from Cassian made her realize that the situation wasn’t peachy at all. She got up and stood behind the pilot’s chair, holding on tightly. She could see the Rebellion ship in a deep valley, a column of dark smoke rising steadily towards the sky. A little further from it there was a much larger ship that certainly didn't belong to them, and probably a dozen men with blasters shooting at the spot where the rebels had taken cover.

“K!” Cassian yelled, before switching the the S-foils into combat position. Cora’s stomach contracted painfully. There was too little space for this ship model to be able to steer properly. Combat configuration was only meant for high altitudes or space.

They rapidly approached the enemy ship. They had the element of surprise coming from above at top speed and K-2SO’s reflexes were top-notch because he managed to shoot the laser cannons and destroy the enemy ship before Cassian had to steer and gain altitude again so they didn’t crash. Surveilling the area a few more times revealed that most of the pirates that had disembarked the ship had survived its explosion and were now shooting at them. The terrain was too rough and irregular, offering too many hiding spots, for K2 to be able to take them all out from above.

“Cora, can you fly this ship?” Cassian suddenly asked, making Cora’s heart jump.

“Y-yes? It’s pretty standard Incom design...” she babbled, not sure why that information was relevant.

“Good, you’re taking command,” he said, getting out of his seat and shoving Cora in his place.

“What?!” was the reaction of both the droid and herself. Instinctively she grabbed the controls, causing the ship to shake frantically before she managed to stabilize it.

“I have to get down there fast. Can you land it?” he asked, strapping her in, his face painfully close to her ear as he leaned on the side of the chair for balance.

“I am perfectly capable to land this ship, Cassian,” announced K2, seeming a little offended, and Cora could only agree.

“Yes, but you can’t shoot the cannon at the same time, so she’ll have to do it.” He turned to Cora. “You don’t even have to land it, just bring it close enough to the ground so that I can jump out of it and you can fly away. Fly in wide circles above us and K2 will take them out when he gets a clear shot,” he instructed. “Watch out for those narrow canyons. She can go fast but won’t take any sharp turns, so be careful.”

“You can’t go there alone, you’ll die!” Cora exclaimed, finally regaining her voice, but Cassian was already in the back putting a winter jacket on and readying his rifle.

“There’s a good spot to land behind our ship. It will give us some coverage,” he said, completely ignoring her remark, opening the main door and looking outside.

Cora felt like her head was spinning. Her brain still couldn’t process correctly the fact that she was now piloting the ship and it was acting on autopilot, but she made an effort to concentrate on the landing, otherwise she would be responsible for the captain’s death. It was a rather difficult manoeuvre, the space being very limited and her skills more than rusty, but she managed to get close enough to the ground so that Cassian could get off safely.

“I hope he doesn’t die,” she whispered, watching his departing figure as the ship door closed behind him.

“I hope we don’t die.” The droid’s mechanical voice got her out of her trance and she pulled the ship up, not very gracefully.

She followed Cassian’s advice, flying in circles over the battlefield, giving K-2SO as many opportunities as possible to shoot at the enemies. He was a very accurate shooter, but the ship was big and too visible to take anyone by surprise, so their efforts remained in vain. The only thing they could do was give Cassian some hints on where the enemies were hiding. Cassian, on the other hand was a lot more efficient than them. Under his command the remaining crew started advancing and gaining the upper hand in the battle. It seemed like they were winning, until the ship’s radar made a loud beeping sound.

“We’ve got company,” announced K2.

“Captain,” Cora called over the comlink, “we’ve got an unidentified ship approaching.”

“Try to distract them for a while and keep them from shooting at us,” he replied, then abruptly ended the call.

“Distract them?!” she yelled, taking a sharp turn towards the approaching ship. As they closed in and could see it through the viewport, she noticed it looked almost identical to the one they had wrecked a little while ago. Also they started shooting their blaster cannons almost immediately, so there was no doubt that they were hostile. “Distract them, he said!” she yelled again steering the ship away from the battlefield, the enemy ship following closely. “I have a fucking ship on my tail that’s shooting at us! It’s newer, better equipped, better suited for this type of terrain and I haven’t flown a ship in years, let alone race one! People’s lives are depending on me and I am not qualified for this!” she yelled at the droid.

“Welcome to the Rebellion!” he said matter of factly and Cora groaned.

She tried gaining altitude, but whenever they were in open sky the enemy ship was closing in dangerously fast and Cora wasn’t sure how much heavy fire their shields could take, so she had to stay low and zigzag between the rock formations. Whenever she got too close to one she prayed she won’t hit the wings and crash, but it seemed she was lucky.

“How much longer do you think we can keep doing this before we don’t have enough fuel to get back home?” she asked K2, her hands cold and clammy on the controls.

“Less than 10 minutes.”

“Can we send a distress message home?”

“Already sent an automated one.”

“You’re a treasure.”

There wasn’t enough time. They could waste all their fuel waiting for the base to sent someone to save them, but Cora was already getting tired and the other ship’s pilot was starting to learn her flying pattern. With each passing second the enemies were one step closer. She knew that she couldn’t dodge them forever so she had to do something fast, while she still had an advantage.

“Get ready to shoot when you get the chance,” she alerted the droid who turned around to look at her.

“I would have a lot more chances to shoot if the enemy ship was in front of my cannons, Doctor. Cannons that point forward.”

“Well, then hold on tight.”

“I am already strapped in, what are you…” but he didn’t have time to finish the sentence because Cora steered the ship straight up, making it screech and vibrate painfully.

She really prayed it would survive a loop. She had done the manoeuvre a few times with imperial military spacecraft, but she was sure this particular model wasn’t built with this in mind. She didn’t manage to make a complete loop, but she succeeded to point the cannons towards the enemy ship long enough for K2 to take a shot. It hit one of their S-Foils, sending them reeling into a rock. The explosion that followed made Cora lose even the precarious hold that she had on her ship, turning off the engines and making them spiral dangerously towards the ground.

This was how she was going to die, in a fucking U-wing, on a barren rock in the middle of nowhere, alongside a sarcastic reprogrammed imperial droid. Could have been worse. She only hoped that someone would come and save the others. She should have asked Cassian for a good luck kiss before he left.

She had no idea how she managed to start the engines again and stop the ship from falling. It happened much too fast for her to think it through. Somehow, her instincts took over when her brain refused to cooperate. She stabilized the spacecraft a few meters from the ground and let out a loud sigh.

“That,” said the droid turning his head to look at her, “was very stupid.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, still not believing that she wasn’t dead.

“I think we both agree that from now on it will be better if I take command…”

“I’m in the pilot’s seat,” she said stopping his speech, “I’m the pilot. Besides, I outrank you.” She tapped her rank badge.

“Rank has nothing to do with…”

“Are you guys ok?” came Cassian’s voice from the comlink, sounding at least a little worried.

“Peachy,” she replied taking a deep breath.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means we’re coming to get you,” she said, grabbing the controls again and steering the ship towards their location. “How’s your situation?”

“We’re all done here. We have three wounded that require your attention, Doctor, so be quick.”

“Alright,” The transmission ended with a buzz. “K, take command,” she said and the droid took hold of the controls. “Land it as close as possible.” The droid agreed and Cora got out of her seat, grabbing the medkit that now lay thrown in the back of the ship and a portable gurney. “And thank you. You were great.”

K2 landed the ship more gracefully than she would have been able to. Once the door opened she was suddenly hit by a wave of freezing cold air. Cassian was waiting for her at the bottom of the ramp, looking pretty alive and unharmed, if a little dusty. She made a mental note to strip him of his jacket to see what he was hiding underneath. Knowing him, he was hell-bent to not let anyone know that he was injured until he would collapse and she didn’t need another unconscious patient to take care of.

Cassian walked up towards her and grabbed her shoulders, studying her face. “Are you ok?” he asked, his voice heavy with concern.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Where are the injured?” She looked away and tried to move past him, but his hands held her in place.

“No, look at me,” he said gently, trying to get her attention. “Are you ok?” he asked slower this time.

“I’m ok,” she said, lifting her gaze to look at him. “I’m okay. A little shaken and high on adrenaline, but I’m ok.” She felt the urge to kiss him, she had the excuse that she had just survived being chased by angry pirates, but then remembered that she was still on the job and people were dying. It could wait. She’ll get the opportunity another time, hopefully.

He studied her a little while longer, but then released her from his grip and took the gurney from her hands. “Follow me,” he said, leading her towards the damaged rebellion ship.

The other ship’s crew didn’t look too good. They were all scratched and bruised, but they were alive. One of them, the crew’s medic, she noticed, was unconscious and pretty badly beaten. She rushed them to get back to the U-wing and take off, watching them carefully.

At a closer inspection, once they all got into the ship and she pulled out the portable scanner, she found out that the medic had a cracked skull and a collapsed lung, their pilot had an ugly blaster wound to the back, and another one’s leg was broken in three places.

“K,” she asked the droid, “call the base and tell them to prepare an OR for a patient with a fractured skull and pneumothorax that’s currently unconscious.” She gave instructions for the other two patients as she inserted a long needle between the medic’s ribs, sucking out the air to relieve the pressure on the lung. It was just a temporary measure, but it will help keep him alive for the time being. For his head, there was nothing she could do besides making sure that the injury didn’t worsen.

She didn’t have much time to spare. She finished administering painkillers and immobilizing limbs and sticking bacta patches on cuts and bruises, and when she finally looked up through the viewport they were already landing. Outside there was a small group of people, mainly doctors, already waiting for them.

“I’m glad to see you’ve gotten back safely,” Doctor Crane greeted her, taking over.

“Glad to be back,” she breathed in a sigh of relief, realizing she was finally safe. “Do you need help in the OR? I can take a quick shower and join you if…”

“No, no! I have Aidan helping me. You go get some rest!” he said, hurrying towards the building with the gurney, leaving Cora behind.

“Are you sure?” she asked, but no one heard her. She was left standing besides the ship, feeling a little lost, everyone else having headed inside. She wasn’t feeling tired, the adrenaline high hadn’t subsided yet, but she knew that soon enough she’ll crash.

A few moments later Cassian joined her. She didn’t notice he hadn’t left with everyone else, but she realized he still had the ship to take care of. A ship that she had nearly crashed less than an hour ago.

“Listen,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking sort of embarrassed. “I’m sorry for leaving you alone to take care of the enemy ship. Sometimes I forget that not everyone around me is is a fighter.” He looked remorseful, avoiding her gaze and staring into the distance. She understood why he would feel that way, but in the end it was her fault she wasn’t prepared for the job.

“I’m still military, you know,” she tried reassuring him. “This is what I’ve been training all those years for.”

“You’re a doctor.” He turned his head to look at her and Cora got another glimpse of that sadness that sometimes broke through his normally collected appearance.

“But I could have been a pilot. Or a stormtrooper. You don’t have to feel guilty for pushing me to overcome my fears. I’m happy I got to fly a ship once again,” she said, smiling at him. Truth was, she had been terrified and she never wanted to do that again, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. She would let him think she was braver than she actually was. It made her feel better about herself. “I’m sorry that I nearly crashed your ship, though. And that I’ve shaken your droid a little.”

He laughed and the butterflies stirred once again. “Don’t worry about it, she’s been through a lot worse. And K complains a lot, but he’s pretty resilient, too.” He looked his age when he smiled. The whole sense of danger that seemed to always follow him around melted away in one second, making him look surprisingly boyish. “You did a great job, thank you.”

“Heyyy!” They both turned their heads to see Lewella running towards them, looking a little dishevelled. “I got your distress message,” she said, panting, “but when we were about to jump into hyperspace to come and help you we got a message from base telling us you’d already left.” She started grinning. “You look not dead, which is always a good thing. How did you first mission off world go?”

“Well, I guess it could have gone worse…” Cora said, shrugging.

“It could have been much, much worse,” said Cassian, patting her shoulder. Cora was sure that at least one of the butterflies was trying to climb up her esophagus, so she just smiled and said nothing. “I’ll go sort things out with the superiors, you get some sleep,” he said before heading towards the building.

“It was still pretty bad,” K-2SO let her know when he came out of the ship a second later, before following Cassian.

“I see you guys are getting along pretty well,” Lewella smiled.

“Lew, I need a drink,” she said, wanting to both kill the butterflies and the part of her brain that had suddenly realized that she had been much too close to dying and was now screaming frantically.

Lewella didn’t ask any questions but pulled out a shiny flask from one of the pouches attached to her uniform and handed it to Cora. She took a big gulp of alcohol hoping that it was strong enough to numb her feelings, then took another one just to be sure.

She was fucked.

Previous chapter

Masterlist

#cassian andor #cassian andor x ofc #cassian andor x original female character #rogue one #starlight

6 notes · View notes