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secretwriterpp · 1 year

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Angel voice

Summary: Pedro Pascal x Reader. Karaoke night with friends.

***this is officially my first fic! I had this story in my mind for so long, I had to write it. I’m not even a good writer and English is my second language, so I’m sorry if it’s a tough read. No beta , I don’t know anyone who could help me with this , any volunteers ? ***

Warnings: RPF. Just friendships. A little flirting. I guess … two idiots falling in love.

For the last few months , you always walked hand in hand with your new bestie Sarah. The friendship was new, but it was intense. You met her on the set of an amazing indie film. She was the main character and you were the supporting one. It was a movie about a love story between two inspiring women. Loving Sarah on screen and in real life was easy, it felt like you knew her your whole life.

Tonight was no different, your hand into hers , you walked on the sidewalk together with some of her closest friends. Oscar and Elvira were walking behind you whispering sweet nothings to each other while Pedro was the leader of the pack , goofing around , pretending to be in an action movie , hiding from imaginary bad guys. The little group of friends kindly accepted you as the new member of their pack as soon as Sarah introduced you to them. Since you just recently moved to NYC, it was great to have people you could count on.

You were lost in your thoughts , feeling the warmth of the summer breeze on your face and bare shoulders. Only hearing the buzzing sounds of the city. You were having a hard time realizing how lucky you were to have them, to be exactly where you wanted to be with your acting career, you felt really emotional at that moment. Maybe it was the fatigue from the long days on set or maybe it was the effect of Sarah’s earlier questionable concoctions she called her special drinks , but you could cry. You were so lost in your own head that you jumped when you heard Elvira joyous exclamation.

- YEEEES! Come on guys! It’s been a hot minute since we humiliated ourselves properly!

You heard Pedro hum a barely perceptible « oh nooooo » while he formed a fake gun with his hand and pretended to shoot himself. You snapped out of your thoughts and looked at what Elvira was so excited about. You were pleased to see that is was a karaoke bar.

Only Sarah knew that you were a good singer. She called you her soft angel when you sang for her on set. Your favorite Pink Floyd songs were the soundtrack of your blooming friendship. Truth is , you tried to succeed as a singer/songwriter a few years ago, but it just didn’t happen. It was for the best though, now you knew it. After realizing you would probably never be a recording artist , you decided to focus on your acting career and it paid off.

When you entered the bar , it was very noisy, a mix of people singing and other simply screeching , people cheering and others having animated conversations. Elvira was fast to find you guys a place to sit. She knew she had to move fast so Pedro wouldn’t have a good reason to convince them to leave and escape his worst nightmare. It wasn’t a secret that he didn’t like Karaoke, he didn’t want to sing and he didn’t want other people to butchered all of his favorite songs . He mimicked his best suffering expression when the girl on stage started to sing sweet home Alabama with her shrieking voice.

You guys were seated in a big white U shaped bench wrapped around an oval table , perfect to accommodate your little group. You were squished between Sarah and Pedro who were having a deep conversation about the last movie they saw together. You were not complaining , being with them was so much fun and you had to admit that being so close to Pedro was not bad either. Since you met him, you had a little crush on him. Nothing serious, nothing you would tell him about , it was just a fun little game to flirt with him. And oh boy was he a flirt. The little smiles he did when you spoke about your recent projects, the way his eyes just lingered on your mouth, his hands touching your skin every chance he get, followed with a cute wink when your eyes would meet his. It was nothing your brain said , but the butterflies in your stomach made you wonder which body part of yours was right.

Nobody really paid attention to the people who were on stage , a few times, when the performer was not as bad , the girls and you would cheer and sing along. You don’t know how many drinks you guys were in when Elvira came around the table to talked to Pedro.

- So , what are you going to sing tonight Pedrito? Pedro lost his smile and rolled his eyes.

Sarah laughed : I really don’t know if Elvira really loves karaoke or if she just like seeing Pedro suffer!

Pedro: She hates me! She hates that her husband calls me his girlfriend , she’s jealous and that’s her way to get her revenge.

Elvira: Oh please P , not everything is about you!

Pedro did his most exaggerated shocked face: Excuse me! ?

Elvira : All I want to do is sing a sexy duet with MY husband. (Emphasis on the MY) She winked at Pedro

Oscar was already putting their name on the list , there was still a few people before it would be their turn. On his way back he grabbed a few shots for all of you.

Pedro turned to help Oscar with the shooter glasses: -Your wife sings like an half dead cat , I will need multiples of these.

Elvira punched Pedro on the arm while you and Sarah giggled at their imaginary love triangle.

Sarah: y/n should sing! She will change your mind about karaoke Pedro. She sings like an angel!

You blushed.

Oscar teased his friend : you should sing his favorite song!

Pedro immediately interrupted him, making no signs with his head and both his arms : oh no! No, no, no, no, no. Do not touch Prince. NO!

Sarah: I know! You should sing Dreams! You have the perfect voice for that song. Anyway, you can’t sing any Pink Floyd songs , those are just for me , plus this bar is not the vibe for that.

- Wow Sarah , are you flirting with me ? I have the voice to cover Stevie ? Please , no.

Even if you wanted to protest the song choice , it was too late. Elvira literally jumped out of her seat and was already adding your name to the list. It’s not that you didn’t want to sing , you loved it , but now the pressure was on. What if they didn’t like how you sing it ? What if Pedro didn’t like it ? The moment you met him, you needed him to like you. Was that how you felt with all your past “little crush”? Once again, you were lost in your spinning mind.

Sarah brought you back to earth : - don’t worry , your voice is magical. She thought you were worried about your skills.

For the next hour, you mostly had to listen to bad singers , it was almost torture sometimes. Fortunately, the alcool was smoothly flowing , making it all more bearable. Even Pedro looked like he was having fun. Every time he laughed he immediately clung to the person who made the joke. Resting his head on their shoulder, reaching out to hold their arm or squeeze their tight just above the knee. You couldn’t help and match his energy, every single thing he said that made you laugh you touched his skin. His wrist, his bicep, his neck. You were too far into your gin tonic consumption to care what people would think of it, what he would think of it.

It was finally Oscar and Elvira’s turn to sing. They chose to sing the Dirty Dancing hit “time of my life”

Pedro was exasperated : damn they are so annoyingly cheesy.

That they were , but it was so adorable at the same time. Their love was radiating on stage. Elvira was indeed a bad singer , half dead cat would not be your choice of words, you were too polite for that. Oscar could hold a note , but he kept messing the lyrics of the song, they both laughed in their microphones when they missed a word. You and Sarah cheered for them like it was the most crucial sport event.

———-–—————————————————

Pedro was genuinely having fun. The running gag was that he hated karaoke, he did , but seeing his friends having fun was way more important to him than his hatred of bad singing. Elvira and Oscar were doing their thing on stage and he was impressed by their lack of self awareness. They massacred that poor song. He cheered for them anyways. They ended their performance by doing a little spinning dance move , it was disgusting how much they loved each other.

Pedro could hear you ask Sarah: Seriously Sarah , this kind of love really exists ? Or is it just for them?

Pedro felt a sting in his heart. He wondered why you didn’t believe it could exist? Wondered if someone hurt you in the past. He wasn’t really a big believer in love with a capital L himself , he didn’t really do relationships, but it wasn’t okay with him that you would have this kind of thoughts, that you would feel that way too. It felt unfair. Since he met you, he felt very protective of you. You were so sweet and kind.

Sarah : I think it exists , but theirs is definitely one of a kind.

Elvira was skipping her way to your table , still on her adrenaline high.

-We slayed it!!! Didn’t we ?

-Pedro pointed his right ear : Sorry , I can’t hear you , my ears are bleeding.

Elvira raised her two middle fingers at him and mouthed a very felt “fuck you P”.

Oscar came to his wife defense: you were perfect my love , I’m the one who forgot entire parts of the song. Pedro is just jealous that I didn’t slow dance with him on stage.

Pedro touched your shoulder : hey y/n ! I think it’s your turn. He watched you get up of your seat and walk towards the stage. You looked relaxed and confident. Maybe she really is a good singer he thought or maybe she’s just too tipsy to be bothered by any of this.

He followed your every step. He didn’t realize before that moment how little you were wearing tonight. Just a tiny lilac summer dress. Your legs, shoulders , cleavage , all exposed under the intense stage lights. Your dress was way too short for you to stand close to the edge of the stage. You were not that drunk, he saw you take a few steps back when you realized some creeps in the front were more than happy to look up your dress. You nodded to the host and the song began to play in the loud room.

Dreams was one of his favorite songs. He was a huge Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks fan. Normally, he would dread the moment you would open your mouth to sign his favorite lyrics , but right now he was just curious. He was hypnotized by the way you swayed your hips to the beat. Those few seconds at the beginning of the song felt like minutes to him. Right before you parted your lips to sing your first note you looked at him and winked. He felt everything squeeze inside of him, like his heart stopped. He held his breath , hoping he wouldn’t have to lie to you later and pretend he liked your voice. He felt the urge to cover his ears to avoid to deal with that possibility. But then he heard you.

🎶 Now here you go again, you say you want your freedom

His body instinctively relaxed , but he had to listen more , just to be sure.

🎶 Well, who am I to keep you down?

The noise in the bar significantly went down.

🎶 It’s only right that you should play the way you feel it. But listen carefully to the sound of your loneliness.

- No fucking way ! That’s all Oscar could say looking at Sarah with a surprised expression in his face. Elvira was already clapping hard for you.

- Told you guys , an angel.

🎶 Like a heartbeat, drives you mad

That was his favorite lyric in the song , his jaw dropped slightly. Your voice was soft and smooth. It was definitely different from the original singer but it was beautiful. By the time your were at the chorus he was completely lost in your voice. Feeling the beat passing through the speakers and vibrating straight into his chest. The bar was quiet, everyone dropped their beer to drink at your words instead.

~Maybe he likes karaoke he thought , nooooooo, maybe he likes you. ~

It felt like he was gone for so long when you sang the last words.

🎶 Oh oh oh , you’ll know ….

The crowd went crazy when you finished. And then suddenly his feeling flipped and it felt like he didn’t really have time to enjoy your performance , it went by too fast.

——————————————————-

You smiled at your audience and did a little bow before exiting the stage. You were overwhelmed by the crowd’s reaction. You focused on your group of friends , walking back towards them with the biggest smile on your face. You did it , they liked it.

Elvira was the first one jumping in your arms , she was so excited.

-OMG Baby, you should sing for a living , that was amazing . I feel like I should pay you right now.

You laughed, she was exaggerating , but you were grateful for the compliment. Oscar was next, bowing before you.

- I surrender at your talent , queen of karaoke. El and I will give you our crowns.

Sarah sang proud and loud : I TOLD YOU GUYS!!!

Pedro looked at you with his big brown eyes and his bright smile and pulled you close to hug you. He whispered in your ear

- you almost made me cry.

You stayed in his arms for a while, he held you tight, his chin on your head.

The night slowly came to an end, the conversations began to be more sparse and you all agreed that it it was time to go back to your respective apartment. You went to bed feeling proud and feeling loved. You fell asleep trying to remember how it felt to have his arms wrapped around you.

———————————————————

Pedro was lying in his bed , thinking about the night , about how he felt. What he felt wasn’t new to him, but it was something he didn’t feel for a long time. He didn’t let himself feel that way, he never let himself be in situation that could lead him to feeling that way. When did he let his guard down? That squishing feeling inside his stomach, he could not shake it off. He could not be in love ? It was just silly… He could not be in love just because you had the sweetest singing voice he ever heard ? That’s just stupid. He knew it wasn’t just that. Your hips, your lips, your skin, your eyes , your laugh, your smile.

- Fuck.

#pedro pascal #jose pedro balmaceda pascal #pedro pascal rpf #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal imagine #fluff

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supercap2319 · 1 year

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World’s Finest

Barry Allen x Male Reader (Gender bent Powerpuff Girl)

Y/N floated above the Central City Picture News as he sighed and smiled softly. Nine months ago, he was the only person on the planet who had powers. Now, it seems like everyone and their mother had them. While it was bad, it was also good because there were people out there who were just like him, fighting the good fight.

Speaking of said people, Y/N could feel a slight wind at his back as he heard a whoosh behind him. He smirked and turned around to see a man about 6 foot 2, dressed in a red leather suit with a yellow lightning bolt symbol on his chest.

“So the rumors are true. You are real.”

“I’m feeling pretty real.” The guy in red pats his body down to check if he’s real. It’s cute and dorky and it lets Y/N know that this guy, whoever he is underneath the mask, is a total nerd.

Y/N chuckles lightly as the guy looks up at him and frowns. “That’s… an interesting… fashion choice?” It’s more of a question than a statement as he gestured towards Y/N’s getup. He wore fingerless hot pink gloves with heart-shaped outlines over the outside palms of his hands. Had a purple shirt underneath a green leather jacket and light blue spandex pants with black boots.

The flying man smiles at him. “Says the man who’s dressed all in red leather. You’d fit right in at a leather bar and club.” The man in red looked down and even though Y/N couldn’t see he was blushing, he could hear his heartbeat beat faster at that statement.

“So, you’re like me then? The impossible?” The man asks Y/N. “Because I just witnessed a guy who had control over the weather, and now I see you flying in the air like its nothing.”

“Sorta,” Y/N said. “It’s true that I am artificially made superhuman, but I didn’t get my powers in the particle accelerator explosion like the Meta-humans running around Central City.”

The man looks shocked. “You know about their name? Their nicknames?”

“Wasn’t that hard to name them. My father was a scientist, so I know a thing or two.”

The red man nods. “Who are you and why haven’t I ever seen you in Central City before until just right now?”

Y/N sighed as he floated down to the building the man was standing on. “I moved here about nine months ago, the same time the accelerator exploded. Before that, I didn't think I needed to show the world my powers. I didn't want to scare anyone, so I hid them. Now that other people have powers as well, I've come out of the closet, so to speak, to stop them.”

He nods again. “So, what do I call you? Rainbow man? Sugar, spice, and everything nice?”

Y/N chuckles. That was more appropriate than he knew. “You can call me, Major Man.”

“Major Man?” The man in red raised his eyebrows. “Somebody has a high opinion of himself.”

Major Man shrugged his shoulders. “When you can fly and are nigh invulnerable with super speed, laser-eye beams, supersonic screams, and ice breath, what else are people supposed to call you? Seems like a major list of abilities, don't you think?”

“Okay, fair point,” the man in red said. “That's certainly a lot of powers you have there. And you said you were artificially created?”

Y/N nods. “My father wanted to create the perfect little boy and accidentally created me in his lab.”

“So, you're not the perfect boy?”

“Oh, I am. Just with a super-powered kick.”

They both chuckle. “So, what do I call you, Speedy Gonzales? The Whoosh? The Red Streak? The Blur? Or the Scarlet Speedster?”

The guy chuckles again. “What about the Flash? I'm just saying that I think that’s a pretty cool superhero name, right?”

Y/N thinks about it. “Nah, I still prefer the Blur, Scarlet.” He smiles as the Flash smiles as well.

“Well, this has been fun, but I really should get going. I have work in the morning.”

The Flash looks surprised. “You have a job?”

“Of course, I have a job. Why wouldn't I have a job?”

“I thought this.” Flash motioned towards YN. “Was your job?”

“No, no, I do this because it's the right thing to do, but it doesn't pay my bills.”

“I feel that.”

“I'll be seeing you, Scarlet.” Y/N winked as he flew into the air. “I have a code name, you know?” the Flash told him. Major Man turned and gave him one last smile. “Don't care. Scarlet suits you.” Then he was gone, a bright energy trail of pink, green, and blue behind him as he flew out of the Flash’s line of sight.

The Flash grinned. “Cool…”

In his coms, he could hear Cisco laughing at him. “Ooh, someone has a gay crush.”

The Flash blushed as red as his suit. “Shut up, Cisco.” He speeds off the roof.

#x male reader #male reader insert #male x male #the flash #cw the flash #barry allen #barry allen x reader #barry allen x you #barry allen x male reader #grant gustin #Grant gustin x male reader #powerpuff girls

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tarisilmarwen · 8 months

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Rebels Rewatch: "A Fool's Hope"/"Family Reunion And Farewell"

*singing*

~I'm glad that you were here with me/Here at the end of all things.~

Live reaction version.

Yeah be prepared for a lot of Lord of the Rings quotes and song lyrics in this one, lol.

Hey, don't blame me, the writers were the ones who made it clear they were hopeless Tolkien nerds.

And yes I am packaging both (all three?) episodes together. This is how it was aired, this is how it was experienced, you're gonna get the full treatment.

This does mean though that I will be very stingy with the pictures. Apologies. Blame Tumblr, not me.

Anyway, we start off the finale by gathering all the disparate parties that we completed the Friendship Fetch Quests for. Rex, Kallus, Gregor, Wolffe, Hondo, Melch, and Ketsu are all Back For The Finale. Which is a trope that I absolutely love in all shapes and forms, and it's even more appropriate for this show given that Ezra's main character "superpower" is literally making friends.

The connections and bridges he built all come back to aide him, not for any selfish motives of their own or because "the enemy of my enemy", but simply because Ezra has asked them to come.

"It's for Ezra," is all Hera has to say, and Hondo is immediately, genuinely pledging, "For that boy, there is nothing I would not do."

It is... incredibly heartwarming.

And I told y'all Hondo was a romantic at heart, and genuinely misses the days when the Jedi were around. And also that in the Rebellion Era, the Jedi still represent the nobility and goodness of the past.

After the titlecard, which still has no fanfare, we get this scene:

Come, you all knew I was going to cap it. Sabine's concern is so soft, the hand she places on Ezra's shoulder and the way she asks if he's okay so gentle.

The visual similarity in this scene and two scenes prior to this are interesting. This scene is firstly visually reminiscent of the Kanan-Hera scene in the beginning of "Kindred" (inviting comparison to the main canon ship of the show), and also the Kanan-Ezra scene at the beginning of "Jedi Night" (which emphasizes again that Kanan and Sabine are the two Most Important People in Ezra's life).

Ezra sits in the exact same pose, in the exact same place, that we saw Kanan meditating at, suggesting that he is also hearing the echoes of things to come, having similar visions of the future. This is certainly supported by his dialogue, where he mentions, "Something's changed... Something's happening." and that he's had a vision of Palpatine sending Thrawn back to Lothal.

Honestly I'm surprised it took Palpatine so long, lol. Thrawn: Treason supposedly takes place over the course of... a week? And the events of "Rebel Assault" to "A World Between Worlds" can't have been more than three or four days.

(This is why I reject the official canon timeline for Rebels, Season Four's events are crammed into the space of a month or two AT BEST.)

But anyway, Palpatine is pretty pissed off about the whole Temple thing so yeah, he's sending Thrawn back to retrieve Ezra personally. This seems to be a big ol' sticking point for our favorite blue bastard because he is NOT HAPPY when he turns back up.

You can't blame him really. He'd barely left Lothal and his TIE Defender project got literally blown up, so he had to spend the budget meeting arguing for what was essentially a smoking crater, and the wager he made with Krennic et. all. ultimately went nowhere because he lost on a technicality, and then the Emperor starts questioning his loyalty because his old Ascendancy friends showed up during the shenanigans, and then Palpatine dismissed him to go clean up the mess on Lothal and fetch him back a teenager for Sith sorcery bullshit.

...He'd had a very bad week, is what I'm saying.

I got off topic there, where was I?

Oh yes, Ezra's risky gamble. Fun fact, that was the original title of the episode, "Ezra's Gamble". I assume they axed it because it would give too much away. And like I've said before, if they could have avoided showing Ryder in footage taking the Dome for the finale previews, they could have really sold his false betrayal.

Pryce does not look like she's having a good week either lol.

Ezra continues to be cryptic about things, yet another hint to us that he's gotten "insider information" from the Force, as it were, and has made plans according to multiple possible outcomes. This is just one of the reasons why he outmaneuvered Thrawn, the other major one being that there was no possible way for Thrawn to predict Ezra throwing space whales at him lol.

This interference by the Force could have been a bit of a Deus Ex Machina but I think it's pretty clear that the Force only shared what might happen and left Ezra to figure out a solution on his own.

And his solution was space whales. XD

That comes later though, after this very risky gambit with letting Ryder broadcast their location to Pryce. A lot of things could have gone wrong. Hera might not have made it back in time. Ryder could have decided to genuinely betray them. Rukh could have gotten in a lucky strike and incapacitated him.

We are apparently putting a LOT of trust in the Force today.

This action setpiece is a great one so I'll just cover a few of my favorite highlights:

All the shots that track Sabine as she jetpacks around the battlefield.

Ezra versus Rukh.

Zeb going full feral with the minigun.

And of course on the other side of things Hondo trying to count the number of times he'd been collided with pulling off this exact maneuver they're using lol. The blockade seems to have thinned from "Rebel Assault", not as many capital ships?, so maybe I was right in that Thrawn called for reinforcements to repel the attack. Still gives Ezra the highest kill count by proxy at the end of things.

Oh and once again there's a moment where someone threatens Sabine in order to force Ezra to surrender. <3 Love that.

Pryce is awfully smug until the Ghost shows up, lol. (To heroic Main Theme fanfare into the Rebel Alliance theme of course.) Someone on the writing team understood the power of a good Eucatastophe. (Tolkien term, it means "the sudden happy turn to good".)

The clones also get a leitmotif fanfare as they debark the Ghost.

And we get a lovely Force Theme as Ezra gets his most badass shot.

Hell yeah.

The wolves sequence is amazing. The dramatic chorus, the chaos, the wolves skirting the veeeeeeeeeeery boundary of what's allowed on a Y7 show lol.

You know some of the troopers got ate.

One last shoutout to Hera using the Ghost to straight up smack a gunship out of the air and now we've come to the end of the setpiece. It can be hard sometimes to fill a full episode with one action sequence but this episode pulls if off perfectly. It never feels stale or boring, there are multiple bits and moments that just work. (I've always loved the moment where Ezra lunges for Ruhk's energy staff and uses the momentum of Rukh lunging for the same to straight up yeet him off the platform.)

Ezra's completely nonphased at Hondo's slung arm shoulder hug now aww.

Moving right along into the next segment...

This soft intro with Ezra talking to his parents' picture, telling them they are the inspiration behind his actions, how he wishes they could meet his new family, how he knows what he needs to do, but he's afraid. T_T Hgn he's precious and so mature and I love him so so much.

He knows what he might have to do, guys. He knows he might never actually see Lothal again and he's still prepared to make that sacrifice if he has to.

He's SUCH a good Jedi you guys I can't.

Kallus gets a token line here about his defection which is... okay. But again, really needed more from this arc for it to have a full impact.

"We come to it at last; the great battle of our time."

One casual wolf threat later, Pryce has agreed to transmit the victory codes and our heros fly off to the capitol to pull off their boldest venture yet.

I will never ever get over this moment. Sabine so attuned to Ezra even without the Force that she can tell just by looking at him how distracted and sad and scared he is.

How Ezra so clearly wants to tell her but holds back, and substitutes instead a declaration of absolute faith and trust.

And how she sees right through that and knows Something Weird Be Up With The Boy, Yo.

But like so many other conversations between the two, things are left unfinished, the mission and circumstances taking precedence.

Love the two quipping back to Pryce tho. <3

Still a crapton of air pollution over the city. This would clear up dramatically in the climax, for a bit of a symbolic moment.

There are SO many callbacks to previous moments in the show in this sequence, I noted a couple of them in my original liveblog but I'm certain there's a few I missed.

The music cue is great too, as is the effective silence once they've taken the bridge. A little bit of musical breathing space before things get hairy again, courtesy of Rukh ambushing the others back at base and stealing a gunship.

You know? I'm not quite sure what the plan was for if they managed to destroy the Dome before Thrawn got back. Seems a little shortsighted to blow up all the fighters and equipment and your city shields. A single Star Destroyer is more than capable of leveling cities and there are several in orbit around Lothal.

This honestly lends even more credence to the idea that, Force visions aside, Ezra was largely making this up as he went and had NO idea what he was doing lol.

Indy Ploy versus Xanatos Gambit. Indy Ploy wins by virtue of there was no way the Xanatos Gambit could predict the level of crazy Ezra's ideas were.

Amazing how empty the streets are when they've been emptied of Imperials.

Thrawn arrives, per schedule, and parks right over the Dome so that can't launch, lest they create catastrophic collateral damage. Important to note, for the people who want to nitpick No Endor Holocaust scenarios, the show specifically details that the city shields put out by the Dome deflected the Star Destroyer wreckage when the purrgil came, and that the Rebels directed the Dome to explode over the bay, not the city. The Cadet Academy is also a completely different building.

I mean, sure the debris from the Dome probably isn't great for the bay's ecosystem but honestly the water was probably already super polluted from the factories, they had to clean it up anyway.

Where was I? Right, Thrawn getting to be really awesomely creepy. The placid, "Are you quite finished?" gives me chills every time. Once again let me praise the expression work on this show because Ezra's soft Oh Crap look is amazing.

The dawning horror on Sabine's face too.

And then this music cue! The tension is drawn out just long enough for us to fully appreciate the horror.

:((((((

They even give us a nice wide-shot to appreciate just how much damage just those few seconds of bombardment did.

I had a rant here originally about the dumbass headcanon that Thrawn targeted empty buildings in this sequence (that may or may not have originated from Timothy Zahn himself) but if you've been following me you already know how I feel about it. It's asinine and I won't entertain it. Moving on.

Backed into a corner, Ezra knows he has no choice but to give himself up to Thrawn. This track in the score, "Sabine Sees Ezra" perfectly captures the sorrow and drama. It starts with a strained version of Ezra's theme, that doesn't resolve, fading instead into mournful original strings. Hera's entreaties for him to stay are painful, we can't help but think of what must be in her head--she just lost Kanan, she's afraid to lose him too. But Ezra is a Jedi. He is the guardian of Lothal. So he must make the sacrifice no one else can. He can't choose to be selfish.

So while Hera and the others try to figure out a way around the problem of Thawn, Ezra goes to confront it head on, secretly signaling to Chopper, who has been entrusted with so much of this plan.

And Sabine sees him.

It's a consistent theme throughout their relationship. She sees him. She notices him. She's attuned to when he's upset. She perceives him in a way that's unique from everyone else.

And he trusts her so implicitly that he silently asks for her help here, and after a moment of agony she does it, because she trusts him too.

These two just break my heart. :(

Sabine keeps looking back at the empty spot where he had been. T_T

There's a theme here about attachment and loss again, and it comes from Sabine. Like a Jedi, she's able to let go of her fear of loss and trust Ezra, whatever happens, and is able to encourage Hera to do the same. Her theme plays out here, strongly, before giving way to an excerpt of the Main Titles theme, uniting the Rebels in their heroism.

Ezra's theme playing again here, skittish and frightened. Once again the expression work is heartbreaking. Ezra looks like he's steeling himself, holding back his fear. He's resigned to his purpose, but that doesn't mean he's enjoying it.

AND NOW WE GET MY FAVORITE HANNIBAL LECTURE/SHUT UP HANNIBAL EXCHANGE! :D

The dialogue between Thrawn and Ezra here is so good.

"You could have chosen to let your people die. However... you chose to be a Jedi." Jedi cannot help what they are, the Jedi Code is like an itch he cannot help it *sobs in Kenobi feelings*.

Thrawn pontificating about how petty things like ethics get in the way of being efficient. He picks at Ezra from several different angles in this conversation, first by deriding the moral code of the Jedi, then by pointing out that their righteousness did not save the Jedi in the end, all that's left are frightened poorly trained children--a clear dig at Ezra himself. He laments what a shame it is that the Jedi didn't apply their powers in a way he deems would have been effective, implicitly suggesting that the Jedi should have used their power to dominate and conquer--Might Makes Right, after all, if you have the means to achieve a certain end you should use it.

Ezra tanks that calmly, pointing out that the Force isn't a weapon.

So Thrawn switches tactics, now lamenting that he must destroy Lothal (no you don't you asshole you can literally just disobey orders and defect, the total genocide of Lothal is entirely within your power to prevent) and oh, isn't it such a shame about Sabine.

And that hits Ezra's berserk trigger lol.

He snaps back at Thrawn. You're a tyrant, a bully, you didn't make or earn any of this, you just took it because you could, because you think your strength makes you right.

Thrawn essentially confirms that, "Yeah, having power does make me right." before leading him down to where the Temple doors have been set up for his meeting with the Emperor. Which kind of makes me think Thrawn wanted the opportunity to dress Ezra down and soften him up for Palpatine's manipulations because he could have just had the troopers shove him into the hanger first thing.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The way Ezra keeps looking around in astonishment, wide-eyed, at the sight of the Temple doors.

Palpatine cloaks himself in white like an angel of light for this final temptation, wearing the guise of a friend or kindly old grandpa. It's every bit as unsettling as it seems.

Meanwhile with the B-Squad, Mart reveals that--like Chopper--he has also been entrusted with a crucial part of Ezra's "Just in case" plan. (Theirs is an underrated friendship, fanficcers you have let me down, again, why do I have to write all the things I wanna see more of?)

That shot of the wolves running alongside and under the Ghost. *chef kiss*

I have no idea when Ezra found time to figure out a signal the purrgil would respond to but I very much want to see that scene.

Sabine: "He [Ezra] knows what he's doing." Lol are you sure about that, 'bine? I think he had no clue the whole purrgil thing would work.

Palpatine is so slimy here, ugh. Acting like he did Ezra a favor by desecrating the Jedi Temple. Ezra's all ready to fling back anything ol Sheev throws at him here until Palpatine takes aim right at the heart of his greatest weakness.

Because after all this time, Ezra has never quite fully gotten over and accepted the loss of his parents. He's still at heart a lost little boy who misses his mom and dad.

The score goes almost Stravinsky-esque here, suggesting the Faustian nature of the deal Sidious is offering.

Meanwhile down in the gullet of the Dome, the Rebels are working feverishly to regain control of the the shield generator. There's some great coordination here between the teams and the control, Sabine really shines as a leader.

Word of God behind the scenes confirms Ezra is seeing THE day his parents were taken, his seventh birthday, when he could hear his mom and dad calling for him but didn't come because he was goofing off.

Hey uh, can this boy's life stop being ENDLESSLY SAD please? That'd be nice.

Love how Gregor calls for "something drastic" and Zeb immediately thinks, "Right, yeeting myself at the enemy." lol.

Gotta respect a man whose strategy is to fling himself full force at the enemy.

And the obligatory Make TCW Fans Cry Moment with Gregor here.

Palpatine keeps digging. This is your heart's desire isn't it? Don't you deserve this? All you have to do is open this one little door. He tries to keep Ezra's attention and focus on himself, even when Ezra asks what will happen to his friends if he makes this choice.

You can undo their deaths, Palpatine promises, about Ezra's parents. You can save them. I can help. It's the exact temptation he offered Anakin all those years ago.

"I have the power to give you what you want. You won't have to face this loss."

Like a devil, what he offers is a two-edged sword. What he is offering can't actually exist. Because if Ezra goes to be with his parents on the day they were arrested, how will he be able to make it here to open the door for Palpatine? Will Palpatine have to trap him in a closed loop, retrieve him from wherever he will end up in the alternate timeline, to ensure he can't fix this one fatal mistake?

See Palpatine doesn't care about breaking the timeline, he will gladly do it and rule over the ruins. But if Ezra reaches for this vision, he dooms his friends. He allows Palpatine to gain power beyond his wildest imaginings, turn himself into lord and master of time itself, a physical god.

So Ezra must deny himself, accept the loss, and let go.

And he does.

The Emperor's hologlamour flickering and failing as his rage ascends is really effectively creepy. Also HOW ABOUT THEM RETURN OF THE JEDI PARALLELS?

Years down the line, yet another pure-hearted Jedi boy will stand before the Emperor, throw his offer in his face, and tell him where to shove it. Even the dialogue mirrors Luke's.

"You're wrong. I have a family. I don't need anything from you."/"Never. I'll never turn to the Dark Side. You've failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me."

"Unfortunate. Destroy him!"/"So be it, Jedi. If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed!"

Poetry. Pure poetry. <3

Ezra gets a nice little face off against the Royal Guards, with some lovely whump in the form of whatever those pikes are doing to him, but manages to weasel himself out of the situation. And then somehow fights his way all the way up to the bridge. So proud of him.

The Rebels get the shield up just in time to prevent Thrawn's full scale bombardment, Rukh frying rather dramatically in the process. Lol and ouch with how irreverent Zeb is over the comm.

So now all that's left to do is break the stalemate and remove Thrawn from the chessboard.

HELL YES.

Oh hoooo man this twist isn't even really a twist it just makes too much sense for Ezra, for his character, for the themes of the show, for how to take Thrawn out as a threat while respecting his acumen as a strategist. (Gotta throw something at him he would never suspect lol.)

The musical build-up is amazing. Dooming low bass notes, drolling percussion. The strings build up, crescendo-ing.

AND THEN THE "WRATH OF NATURE" CUE FROM "THE CALL" COMES IN WITH GLORIOUS FULL ORCHESTRA.

The Hyperspace theme comes in as well, and the purrgil proceed to utterly decimate Thrawn's fleet. By proxy this gives Ezra probably the highest kill count on the show, as the purrgil must have taken out the orbital construction stations, a good chunk of the Star Destroyers up there, and all three of the ones above the city. (Somehow Palleon survives to join the Council of Evil in Mando Season 3 lol.)

Sabine looks SO confused, ha ha.

What a great shot.

Thrawn tries to get in a final, Taking You With me speech only for Ezra to be like, "Joke's on you that was the plan all along. You're not taking me with you, I'm taking you with me."

I do love Thrawn's increasingly panicky WTF expressions as things progress.

THIS ADORABLE #MARRIED BANTER BETWEEN EZRA AND SABINE AND THEN HOW THEIR THEMES ARE TONALLY INTERMINGLED IN THIS CUE.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The way Ezra's left arm hangs limp after Thrawn shoots his shoulder and the pained grimace he gives when he turns around to seal the door behind them.

He looks exhausted.

Pained grimace number two as Ezra raises his injured arm to wind up IN AN EXACT TABLEAU OF THE POSE KANAN HAD AT HIS OWN HEROIC SACRIFICE.

HELLO YES, ALSO ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOMENTS BETWEEN EZRA AND SABINE AS SHE BEGS HIM TO GET OFF THE CHIMAERA.

ALSO IT BEARS EMPHASIS BUT LOOK HOW THE GLASS SHARDS STILL WHEN EZRA RAISES HIS OTHER ARM.

EZRA IS LITERALLY HOLDING THE OXYGEN INSIDE THE BRIDGE WITH THE FORCE, WHILE HOLDING THRAWN AND THE DOOR IN PLACE, WITH AN INJURED ARM.

Ezra Bridger is the greatest shut up.

The purrgil charge up. Everything goes white. His theme bellows at full heroic volume and then...

Quiet.

Utter awed quiet.

Right, so you wanna know the other of the two times I cried at this show? Ezra's sacrifice right here. Waterworks.

"We set out to save the Shire, and it has been saved. But not for me. I have been too badly hurt. The last pages are for you, Sam."

Sabine is handed Ezra's lightsaber by Chopper, and takes up his mantle, finishing his mission and leading all the rest of them to safety as the launch the Dome and blow it. (Her journey to becoming co-protagonist is complete.)

Chopper gives us a final goodbye message from Ezra (that makes me sad again), and they soar over a triumphant freed populace.

Fade out and then...

*SOBS ABOUT THE BOOKENDS FOREVER*

Shot for shot. Shot. For. Shot. And I am UNDONE.

Lothal is free. The Empire never had a chance to retake it. Likely couldn't spare the manpower from the rest of the galaxy, first off, also replacing all those ships they had in orbit has gotta be expensive, and I suspect Palpatine just put glassing Lothal on hold until the Death Star was completed. And well... we know how that turned out lol.

The Fellowship broke, but they seem to all keep in touch, if Sabine's voiceover is any indication. Kanan's legacy lives on. Our crew found peace.

And last...

A sworn promise to find a precious friend and bring him back home.

The finale of Rebels is near perfection. With a very few quibbles here and there (the purrgil could have been just a smidgen more set up, Kallus's arc still needs to have some decent onscreen content for his redemption happy ending to be earned) it is the best Rebels has to offer.

The callbacks and bookends undo me. The music is full of wonderful dramatic cues. The animation is gorgeous. Everything comes to full completion and it is a very satisfying end.

Overall Season Thoughts:

Season Four is almost a bit nostalgic, returning to the tightly written narrative of the first season, but even more tightly tied together. None of the episodes feel wasted or superfluous. The major character death midway through is given plenty of narrative weight and time for the characters to adjust and grieve. Objectively it's probably the best season overall, none of the episodes are misses.

Even with the unanswered mysteries, the season feels solid, and a fitting conclusion to the overall Rebels saga.

---

And that was Star Wars: Rebels, the little show about a Found Family that could. It is my favorite new Star Wars content and what actually dragged me back into fandom after years away. It is heartwarming and exciting, poignant and hopeful and I'm so so glad I was taken on this journey.

Here's hoping the lost son of Lothal can make his way home soon.

#star wars #star wars rebels #ezra bridger #grand admiral thrawn #sabezra #rebels rewatch #liveblog #dunking on the blue bastard

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hotforharrysheart · 10 months

Text

Be My Policeman

You scoot into the back seat of the luxury sedan in your champagne colored evening gown. Thankfully it had two thigh high slits making the “scoot” a little easier because God knows the dress was tight enough to make it hard to make the move without them. Harry follows in his emerald green jacket looking fashionably dapper as usual. You look forward and see Cal’s familiar eyes in the rear-view mirror.

“Hey Cal, thanks for keeping the car warm, I’m freezing,” you say with a shiver.

Never one to mince words, Cal gives a nod and a quick wink.

“Brrr…Emma must be like ice! God, they looked breathtaking, though,” you say rubbing your hands on your arms.

Harry gestures for you to lean forward wrapping you in his strong arms and pulling you against his warm chest. “Kep’ acciden’ally steppin’ on tha floofy thin’ they had wrapped ‘round ‘em, decided ta jus’ carry it s’ didn’ acciden’ally rip it off ‘em,” he comments close to your ear.

“I saw that, that was sweet and cute of you to do so, all up until you kicked it out of the way at the podium…Jeffrey and I snorted at how typically boy of you that was…’if it’s in the way and all else fails, kick it’,” you giggle turning your head into his lips, “I looked at him and said, ‘Hello international film world let me introduce you to my friend Harry, he’s almost housebroken’.”

“It wasn’ tha’ bad! ‘Sides it was in the way…Err, did it really look tha’ bad?” He asks with a smidge of insecurity.

You quickly kiss him, “Nah, it was very ‘Harry’ and very cute,” you whisper with a shiver and snuggle in closer to him. “You looked amazing in your lilies tonight,” you say fingering the lily corsage on his jacket.

“Lambert though’ ya migh’ like tha’. ‘sides God knows I love lilies. Are ya named after the flower?” He asks kissing your temple.

“My Auntie said that my mum always loved both the flower and the name so she had always said she ‘claimed’ the name Lily if she had a little girl. She said she found it quite ironic when she met my father with the last name ‘Rose’. So when I was born ‘Lily Elizabeth Rose’ it was.”

“Always loved those really cool star-shaped lilies wi’ tha red middles…what are they called…,” he says thoughtfully.

“Star-gazers…Star-gazer lilies. Yeah, they’re really stunning,” you say pulling one side of your dress that had slipped off back over your leg, much to his dismay.

“Hey, was enjoyin’ tha’ view, thank ya very much.”

“Yeah, well, I’m cold…”

“Getcha warmed up in a minute, babe. I promise.” He says kissing the shell of your ear.

Cal pulls into the parking garage quickly and circles close to the elevator to drop you off. Nerves immediately start to settle in because you have plans for tonight. Big plans and you just hope he’ll be on board. Although it’s been months since you and Harry first screened ‘My Policeman’, you hadn’t been able to shake the way it had affected you. Not only had he given an incredible performance tackling a tough subject, he’d looked absolutely stunning in the film. He looked as if he were born in the era and, let’s be honest, a naked Harry would forever satisfy you. It had brought out a curiosity in you that you hadn’t known existed.

On the elevator ride, you nod as he talks about…well, to be honest you aren’t really sure because you’re focused on his moving lips and not the words coming out of them. God, he’s so beautiful. The love scenes in the film rushing back into your front consciousness.

“….then when the alligator chomped down on ma leg, I said ‘would ya like salt wi’ tha’?’” He says teasingly.

You shake your head…”Wait, what…salt?... What?” You say confused.

He chuckles, “Wasn’ sure if ya were even lis’enin’ ta a word I was sayin’ so I though’ I’d check..”

“Sorry, babe, I’m a little distracted,” you say sheepishly with a blush.

“Wanna talk abou’ it?”

“Ummm…well, I plan to…” you say with a shy smile.

He knits his brows and grabs your hand, “Sounds serious, should I be worried?”

“No, not at all…everything’s fine, I just…just…have somethin’ I wanna give you up in our room.”

He smirks smugly, “Tha’s funny ‘cause I ‘ave somethin’ righ’ here tha’ I wanna give ya up in our room.”

“I like the way you think, Mr. Styles, international film star.”

The elevator dings and the doors open just outside your room door. He leads you out with a gentle touch to your bare lower back. His hands are warm and your body is on fire with a mixture of nerves and arousal. He opens the door to the room and you step in only to have him swing you around and pin you to the door.

“Been distrac’ed since we go’ outta the car, Jezebel. Wanna ‘no wha’s on ya mind,” he says breath hot on your face, eyes filled with intensity and concern.

You close your eyes, heart rate picking up and you gulp. Your eyes open to meet his green ones. “Remember…remember when we first watched My Policeman months ago?”

“Yeah, course I do,” he rasps, eyes boring into yours, fingers trailing lightly down your neck.

“That scene of you and David on the couch…I-I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.”

He presses his forehead to yours. “There’s a fantasy in here,” he says, tapping your head, “I wanna ‘no wha’ ya’ve been thinkin’ ‘bout Jezebel.”

“Yes, I…god…I don’t even know how to say this, but…” you say, looking down.

“Look at me, Jezebel. Tell me,” he licks his lips, “tell me wha’s been on ya mind.”

You meet his eyes. “You always make me feel so good and I-I want to make you feel as good as you make me feel and…and…” you puff out a breath, “I want you to re-create that scene with me. I bought a toy…I’ve read up on it and I want you to…to…be my policeman?” You say in a rush.

He doesn’t say anything, he just stares at you. It’s disconcerting but you can tell he needs time to process your request. He can feel his pulse spike at the thought of it…he’s always wanted to experiment with this but it just never came up…the couch scene in the movie was the closest he’s ever come to it and now you’re standing in front of him asking him for it. A soft smile curves the corners of his mouth tilt up and his hand moves to your cheek. “‘M yours, ma Jezebel ta do wi’ as ya please.”

You bite your bottom lip. “Really?

“Yeah. Wanna do this fo’ ya bu’ can’ say I haven’t thought abou’ it befo’,” he says smiling his most beautiful smile.

You blow out a breath. “Ok, give me a few minutes to get ready.”

He smirks at you. “No’ befo’ I get a kiss, ma love.”

You press your thumb to his bottom lip, slightly pull it down and watch closely as it pops back into place as he leans in. Just before his lips reach yours he whispers, “Jesus, Jezebel…love ya s’much it hurts.”

“Harry…” is all you can manage breathily as you cup his cheek.

He tilts his head and opens his mouth tongue meeting yours before your lips even get a moment to touch. He devours you with a growl. “Tas’e like champagne, swee’eart,” he mumbles as he kisses to your ear. “Need help gettin’ outta this dress?”

Choking back a swallow of arousal, you say, “H-have you s-ssseen the back on this thing, hhh…,” you stutter as his teeth find your earlobe, “h-had a hard time keeping it on all night, c-comes off easy.”

“Goddamn…so sexy. Go’ me fit ta be tied, Jezebel,” he whispers against your neck trying to pull the strap off one shoulder.

You push slightly against his shoulder, “No way, mister…I’m gonna go get ready…alone,” you say pressing your finger to his lips as he opens his mouth, no doubt to volunteer to help. He closes his eyes and groans while pressing his hand to his tented pants. “S’hard…,” he says under his breath.

You saunter over to the dresser, open the top drawer and pull out a medium size black velvet bag. You open it and pull out the leather and lace thong harness and leave the slender silicone attachable dildo and warming water-based lube inside. Tossing the bag on the bed, you loop a leg of the thong over your finger and hold it up letting it drape and sway from your finger just out of his reach. “Be right back, baby.”

He smirks as he feels a surge of blood rush to his already hard cock. Damn, this woman will be the death of me he thinks as he begins to tear off his clothes. Oh, what a way to go!

In the bathroom you make quick work of undressing and pulling on the leather harness. It’s black with the circular opening in the front for the attachment of the dildo and a thong back with lace ruffles around the edges. For what it is, you’re astounded at how beautiful it is and how sexy you feel in it. You turn to take a look at your bum and smile. It looks really pretty with the black lace ruffles framing your cheeks. He’s gonna love this look. Your smile turns to a smug smirk very similar to something you’ve seen on Harry’s face on more than one occasion…several times in just the last hour, for that matter. When you open the door to the en-suite bathroom you’re greeted with soft light…the only light from a lamp on a table next to the burgundy couch across from the bed. You take a few steps to find him naked, lying on the bed resting on his elbows. Before he can even focus, you turn to show him the back of the harness and toss a very saucy look from under your lashes as you look over your shoulder.

“Christ…Lily….”

“You like?”

He simply nods his head and says, “Christ…Lily…,” again. He’s hard and leaking; he’s aching so much.

You crook your finger in a come hither gesture and move toward the couch.

He scrambles up and begins to drift toward you.

“Bring the velvet bag with you, Harry,” you say with a flutter of your eyelashes.

You grab the throw blanket you bring with you everywhere and drape it on the couch and turn to sit down catching him staring at your bum and licking his lips. He’s enjoying this immensely you think to yourself. It boosts your confidence in spades. You rest your head back on the couch so you can look up at him, moving to position himself over you placing a knee on either side of your hips and bracing himself with a hand on the back of the couch by your head.

He looks from side to side, smiles softly at you and rasps, “This ok?”

“Oh yeah….it’s perfect,” you say leaning your head to one side and running your hands up his chest. You stop with your middle fingers over his nipples and circle them. “Thank you for this. You nervous?”

“Fuck yeah….bu’ ‘m so hard fo’ you…,” he smirks, “curious….”

You lean forward to kiss his chest and he leans over to kiss the top of your head, hands on either side of your neck.

“Harry…” you breathe out. “Thank you…oh my god, thank you. Couldn’t stop thinking about this…” you tell him kissing his wrist, your hands covering his.

“Baby, try everythin’ once, twice ‘f we like it.”

“Wanna check one thin’ first,” he says slipping his hands down to the circular opening on the strap on harness. He slides his middle and ring finger inside to find your sopping hole. “Mmmm….wet…,” he rasps pushing them in, pulling them out and then bringing them to your lips. “All the honey…” He says before leaning down for a deep kiss.

“Help me put this together?” You say breathlessly.

“Only thin’ ‘m worried abou’ are ma balls…ya so small, baby, ‘fraid I might rack ‘em. Hate tha’,” he says with a chuckle

You smile a smirky smile, “I would hate that too, kinda fond of those myself. I’ll take very very good care of your balls.” You smile fingertips grazing down them. “Gonna take such good care of all of you, H. Wanna make you feel as good as you make me feel,” you say leaning up to kiss him.

He opens his mouth wide to devour your desperate tongue and breathless longing. It’s like the very breath in your lungs he desires in his own. His tongue reaches deep, tasting your passion, seeking your pleasure and to be pleasing.

When he pulls away you’re both breathless. “Harry, I don’t know what I’m doing…I’m all flustered.”

“Baby, we’ll figure it out tagether, yeah? We’ll go slow. Jus’ wan’ ya…ya wan’ me?” He asks searching your eyes.

“So much…,” you say feeling your nerves relax.

“Now, how does this thin’ work,” he says running a finger along the waistband of the leather harness. He pulls out the narrow silicone cock and together you work to attach the little silver bullet that will rest over your clit when it’s in place in the harness. It’s a fumble of smiles and stolen kisses, caresses and touches, but you manage to get it situated in the harness snug against your body.

He looks down at you in the harness with the silicone cock and he tucks his lips in his mouth.

“Jesus Jezebel. God, this is s’fucking sexy…”

“It kinda feels sexy,” you say wrapping your hand around the shaft and pulling up. “This how you do it?”

He groans, licking his lips.

“Yeah…god…doesn’t look like tha’ though.” His eyes flick back up to yours. “Never thought I’d see ya jacking’ off Jezebel.”

“I can feel the bullet an it’s not even on yet, it’s cold as ice,” you say shivering.

“Lemme turn it on,” he says running his finger down your tummy. He presses the little rubber stopper and it delightfully comes to life with a low vibration. it’s your turn to groan and lick your lips.

“Good?”

“mmm—hm,” you moan out quickly, eyes rolling back in your head.

He leans down to nose your nose and whispers, “look down.”

You look down to see the dildo slightly vibrating against his dick and his hand holding them together. “Can feel it on ya clit at tha same time ‘s on ma cock. This wha’ a vibrator feels like ta ya?

You nod and he gasps.

“Fucks sake, baby” he says as your hips roll with the vibrations, the dildo hitting his cock on each pass.

You lick your lips, your hand grabbing for his. “I’m so sensitive….ungh! Fuck…gonna cum!”

You throw your head back as you cum for him.

“Good girl…good girl…,” he coos and praises. “Fuckin’ amazing when ya cum fo’ me, nothin’ in this world like it…beautiful.” He licks his lips. “Jus’ realized ‘m gonna feel tha’ thing vibrate inside me,” he says against your lips.

Still panting you question, “Do you want me to turn it off?”

“No, no’ at all, wan’ the whole experience,” he says smiling and kissing your forehead. He’s panting in anticipation. “Ya got another orgasm in there fo’ me? Need ya to cum again fo’ me.”

You lean your head back and close your eyes for a moment. “Harry, my body has endless amounts of orgasms for you….you have no idea,” you say finally meeting his love drunk stare.

“Fuck Jezebel.”

This time he takes the dildo shaft and begins to stroke and shift it, sending the vibrations in all different directions over your already swollen hard pearl of a clit. Your body covers in goosebumps and a full body shiver takes over.

“Yeah, wan’ tha’ body orgasm of yours, wanna feel ya spasm all over “

“Mmmm…gonna give it to you…gonna cu-uhhh-mmm!”

He pulls his hand away and you cry out. “No’ jus’ yet, Jezebel. No’ until ya inside me.”

You gasp at his words. You inside of him…fuck.

It brings your whole fantasy back to you.

You fumble around shaking hands looking for the little velvet bag. “I-I got this warming lu…,” you start with a stammer as your shaking hands begin to open the bag.

“Breathe babe, give me the bag,” he says calmly taking it from you. He pulls out the bottle and looks at the label for just a second, out of curiosity you suppose. Then he looks at your expression and smiles. You’re blowing out small streams of air trying to calm your wound up body. Then he catches you eye him chest to shaft…before your reach for his hardness and begin to slowly stroking him. You want him to be as hard as ever before you enter him.

Your hand slips down to cup his balls

“Don’! I’ll cum!”

“But I wanna touch you here,” you say, running your middle finger around his tight freshly showered bum. “Does that feel good, H?”

His eyes flutter closed.

“Gotta…fuck, gotta ge’ me ready.”

You pull your hand back, “put some lube on my fingers, baby,” you say softly while looking up at him from under your lashes. “I wanna touch you like you touch me.”

He flips the cap and pours a generous amount on your fingers.

Your fingers circle his hole and his eyes flutter closed again.

It feels just as good as he remembers from the plug. His nostrils flare as he attempts to regain some control as your fingers slip inside, slowly opening him up for you. You scissor your fingers and he falls forward, chin on your head, “fuck, fuck, fuck” leaving his mouth.

You kiss his throat, “ok?”

“Mmm, fuck!” He says gripping the back of the couch with one hand and holding the side of your face with the other. “Yeah, I’m good,” he eases back far enough to look down into your upturned face.

You’re pink cheeked, slack-jawed and have a deliriously drunk look on your face. You breathe out a hot exhale and swivel your hips. Your inhale includes a soft squeal of joy.

“Baby, ya all fucked out by this, hmm?” He says biting his bottom lip and involuntarily flexing his glutes.

“I’m so turned on, H….”

He feels you squeeze his cock tight between his legs.

“My fantasy….mmmm…my fantasy….be my policeman…”

“Fuck, Jezebel, be wha’ evah ya wan’ me ta be.”

“I wanna fuck you,” you say easing your fingers from his body. You regain focus enough to add lube to the dildo and feel it warming the slender silicone. Just like he would you, you guide him closer to your body with your hand on his lower back and feel his full body shiver.

“God, Jezebel…never knew ya takin’ control would be s’sexy.”

“Ride me, Harry.”

You say as you hold “your shaft” stiff and vertical between you. “I’m hard for you, baby, put me inside you, sink down slowly,” you say feeling confident, sexy and sassier, not to mention extremely turned on.

He blows out a breath and moves forward to line himself up. You keep your eyes on his knowing how important it is for your sense of touch and communication to make this as easy as possible. “Tell me when it’s in the right spot…” you whisper maintaining eye contact. He simply blinks his eyes in agreement.

Once the tip of the dildo is in place, he begins to slowly push downward.

“Breathe for me, H.”

“Fuck…tha’s wha’ I say ta ya, Lily,” he says breathing deeply.

He watches as you gasp as he fully seats himself on the dildo as it presses the vibrator against your clit. “There’s my gasp,” he says smirking.

“You feel so good on me, can feel you pushing on my clit”, you say then glance down at his cock. “My god Harry, so so hard. How does it feel?”

“Dunno…,” he says then raises up slightly. He stops immediately and growls deeply in his chest and a bit of ejaculate spurts out, and he falls forward hands hard against the couch. “Jesus! Fucking! Christ!” He says panting heavily. You know from your research that the pressure on his prostate is at a height. Your hands go to his face. “You should see yourself, baby. Riding me…does it feel good?”

The growl he lets out is gutteral.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” you say smugly. “Keep moving, baby. Cum for me…because of me…”

He moves on the dildo and every movement pushes the vibrator against your clit. His hands move to your breasts, fingers pulling your nipples. “God, ya tits are amazin’. No’ gonna last much longer. Ya gotta cum fo’ me.”

You bite your bottom lip. You can feel your orgasm coiling with every movement forward. He swivels his hips on the next downward movement and you both cry out. He does it again and your head snaps back on your shoulders and your body shakes as you cum.

“Ahhhh…ahhhh…ahhhh! Oh fuck!” You cry out, cumming hard. He’s panting above you, barely hanging on but waiting for you to come back to him. You meet his eyes and gasp. They’re nearly black with desire and arousal.

He begins to slowly slide up and down the dildo his knuckles while on the back of the couch on either side of your head. His stare is so deep, so intense you don't dare look away. The strength in his jaw and the flex of his neck, shoulders, biceps and arms tell you volumes about how he’s reacting to the stimulation. "Keep going, H...Oh God...thought of this, dreamt of it, fucked myself thinking about making you cum this way, please keep going."

“Wait, ya fucked yaself thinkin' abou' this?" he says through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, deep with my fingers...once with that dildo that’s inside you right now...fucked myself with that dildo before it ever touched you." you sob out in a stumble of admission. “Told you I wanted this...after that first screening of My Policemen, I just couldn't get this out of my mind. Keep going, handsome...I want your cum on me," you smooth your hands up his thighs to his hips. You run your thumb over his bee tat with your initials. “Gimme your honey, H."

“Fuck, Jezebel..... cumming, cumming, cumming, cumming.... goddamn, goddamn fuck, fuck, fuuuucckkk...!" he curses violently before an animalistic growl leaves his chest sounding like it originated in his very soul.

Your hands move up and down his dick and you gasp as his cum spurts out over your breasts, both of you breathing hard. The dildo slips out as he pants above you and then you’re both working furiously to get the harness off of you. It’s finally done and he tosses it to the floor and turns around collapsing against you, your arms wrapping around his shoulders.

You run one hand up and down over his chest and pecs, the other hand placed over his forehead pulling his head to the side ever so slightly so you can place kisses on his temple and ear. "Shhh...shhh...breathe for me, H... was so intense," you soothe feeling his chest heave up and down and his breath come in quick panting bursts.

“Nev-Never...ever...c-cum...so...h-hard," he stutters trying to catch his breath. He raises his head and looks down. "Yup still there...thought it might've blown off. God Lily...," he says, shivering. “Fuck, this tha way ya feel when ya flood, baby? 'Cause f-feels like 's too much almos'" he says, hiccuping and emotional.

You kiss the spot beside his ear. “Yes, it’s so intense…almost too much.” You hug him tighter. “Thank you for letting me have this. It was amazing to give this to you. Want you to feel as good you make me feel.”

You trail kisses down his neck, feeling his pulse jumping under your lips. “So beautiful baby. Did so good for me.”

He’s still breathing rapidly but not as heavily as before. You smooth your hand over his forehead and smile.

“Was it good for ya? Ya fantasy? Was it as good as ya hoped?”

You turn your head, lips against his temple and close your eyes. You sigh unable to speak for the moment.

“Babe?" He asks finding your hand on his chest and squeezing it.

"I'm just speechless, it was more than I ever imagined...it's like touching a part of your soul...," you say softly.

"Lily, never done anything like tha' wi' anyone else, ya 'no tha' righ'?" he says turning his head toward you.

"H, I don't care if you did...just wanna be the last one ya do that with." you say honestly as your lean around to kiss the corner of his mouth.

He pulls your left hand up to his lips and kisses your knuckles and pancakes it between his holding them up in prayer position. “Ma ring is in here, on tha finger of the one I love mo’ than anythin' in this entire world. Mo’ than friends, fans...mo’ than music..."

"Don’t say that, I’d never ask you to make that choice, but thank you for saying as much."

"'S true though, ya own me, Lily, all of me, no’ because ya gave me an orgasm ta die fo', bu’ because ya gave me the mos’ precious gift of ya love, ya trust, ya great big beau'iful brain an' I fuckin' love tha' sexy dirty mind..." he says making you giggle lightly and sway your body with him smiling with tears running down your face.

"Suppose I should get up ta clean us up?" he says pulling his head back farther in attempt to catch your eyes.

"Wait just a minute...holding you this way is part of it...," you say bottom lip pouting out. You squeeze him tighter to you and he laughs his breathy little laugh. “Wanna light up a cigarette and share it?”

You throw your head back and laugh.

“Not part of my fantasy, baby.”

He feels so good against you, so warm and hard. “I love you Harry. I love you so so much.”

“Love ya, darling. Than’ ya fo' makin' love ta me... fo' bein' inside me an' makin' me cum s'hard. ‘M sorry, made us a mess...grab a shower wi' me...then cuddles?" he says reaching back to thread his fingers in your hair and pull your lips closer to his.

“Mmmm...sounds divine," you mumble against his lips.

He sits up and looks down at the leather and lace harness and dildo and smirks. Reaching down to grab it, he unfastens the silicone from the strap and stands to take it with you to the shower for a nice cleaning. You smile a knowing smile and pucker up asking for a kiss to which he gladly complies. "Been in both of us," you say with a smirk as you turn to walk toward the en-suite.

He shakes his head as he starts to follow along. Goddamn he's got a minx on his hands and he wouldn't have it any other way.

The shower feels nice with warm water sluicing down your body. With very satisfied smiles you wash each other while exchanging intimate glances, stealing soft kisses and caressing touches along the way. His eyes are droopy and his body slack with a deep contented sleepiness. He’s moving slow and it’s making you giggle. It’s about time he knows what it’s like to be completely fucked out, especially since he’s done it to you so many times.

“Here, baby, give me the towel,” you say taking the towel from his lethargic hands, “I’ve got you.” You dry his body and tousle the towel through his curls attempting to dry it as much as possible. You drop the towel and finger comb his hair as he stands slumped over so you can reach his head. Grabbing his cheeks you kiss him soundly. “Honey, go lay down, I wanna dry my hair so it’s not a mess in the morning,” you turn his body and gently push him in the direction of the door to the bedroom. He smiles and places a sloppy kiss on your lips, “Thanks Jezebel, ‘m beat. Ya comin’ along soon fo’ cuddles?”

“Yeah, baby, I’ll be out soon.”

“Love ya s’much,” he slurs placing a last kiss to your lips and then your nose, “Don’ be long…”

“I love you too, I won’t…promise,” you say running your hand along his arse.

You watch his beautiful body as he walks away, then turn to take a look in the mirror. For whatever reason it feels like you look different. You run your hand down the side of your cheek and turn your face side to side to admire your pink cheeks and whisker burned chin. It feels like your skin is more vibrant, your nipples darker and more supple. Your breasts hang lower than they used to, but they’re soft and pillowy, tummy curved more than you like to think, hips full and sturdy. You’ve never had a particular fondness for your body, but are amazed at what it is able to do. You run your hand down your sternum to your tummy and realize this is the body Harry wants…and that’s so powerful. To be loved completely. You run a brush through your hair and flip to use the blow dryer. You finish with a dollop of lotion on your hands and head to the door rubbing your hands together. At the door you reach to switch the light off when the sight before you stops you in your tracks. He’s laid out flat, on his tummy, naked as the day he was born, fast asleep in the middle of the bed. You flip the switch and lean your hip against the door facing him still rubbing the lotion in on your arms. You can’t help the smug smile that slowly appears on your face. Just staring for a moment you pop your fingers in your mouth to nibble your nails and you can hear him scold you to stop biting your fingers, but you don’t pull them away. You are one lucky bitch, Lily you think to yourself. “Perfect match,” you mumble against your fingers. You’re a perfect match for each other…in every way. You walk over, flip off the lamp and crawl up beside him. Laying on your side, you spoon up next to him, kiss his shoulder and run your hand along the middle of his back. He moans softly, but doesn’t move a muscle. “Love you, H,” you say and close your eyes.

The call of nature draws you from your sleep and you lay in the same spooned position next to him. He hasn’t moved much other than his knee that’s drawn up slightly.

You get up quietly and go to the bathroom and slip back into the bed next to a still sleeping Harry. He’s still sleeping on his tummy, the muscles in his back prominent and so, so defined from hours in the gym. He takes immaculate care of his body and you never get tired of looking at him or feeling his skin move against yours. Your fingers move lightly and slowly down his back, circling his muscles, skin warm under your touch. You close your eyes as you remember the sex you had last night. The way he made your fantasy a reality, yes but also that you were finally able to give him a little bit of the overwhelming feeling that he gives you.

You sigh and press your lips to his skin. You should let him sleep…he’d had an intense experience last night and deserves his rest but your lips can’t stop kissing his warm skin. Your lips kiss the warm skin of his neck as your fingers tangle in his dark curls and before you can even process it, you sit up and straddle his back, lips moving over his skin again. You feel him stir and the sharp intake of breath as he wakes up.

He may be awake, but he isn’t moving or even bothering to open his eyes. You smile at his sweet lethargy. How special is it to wake up next to him, to feel him, his warmth. Needing more of his skin on yours, you slowly rest forward, first your tummy then your breasts against his back. Your lips gently rest on the base of his neck and you run your fingers along his outstretched arms, mimicking his position. The sight of your left hand on his, engagement ring circling your ring finger makes your heart skip just a little faster. Could love feel more complete…more satisfying and comfortable? Turning your nose back to his skin you breath in deeply. Closing your eyes you drift in the contentment, when you feel his fingers rise to thread with yours.

“Love you,” he murmurs against the mattress.

You smile. “I love you.” Burying your head in the curls at the back of his neck, you nose the skin there before smoothing your hands back up his arms and in to your body. Touching his shoulders, he pulls his hands in to his sides as well. The flex of his tricep and bicep making your mouth water. You rise up just enough to kiss those muscles.

“God these arms…” you moan aloud.

Lifing his head the muscles in his shoulders flex and bunch under the skin of your breasts. You rise up that much more so that your nipples drag along the lines and bulges of his back.

“You know the girls go nuts for you in a tank or shirtless…don’t blame them. But I know what they look like flexed above me. How this back moves when it’s pushing into me…,” you words draw out with your soft sway along his back…your nipples dragging back and forth. You feel his deep inhale and see the flex of his jaw. One of his hands slides down to grip your leg just above the ankle of your straddled leg. Your back arches at the feel of his fingers. “Leaves me breathless, Harry…,” you pant out.

He turns his head toward the mattress and flexes his shoulders arching slightly with his forehead on the bed. “Fuck…,” he groans from deep within his chest. Resting his head back on his side he rasps, “Tell me Lily, does it make ya wet?”

Your eyes flutter closed. “You know it does…” you breathe out, pulling his hand from your ankle and pulling it to your pussy. “Feel what you do to me…how wet you make me.”

He inhales deeply as his fingers press into your warmth causing you to gasp. He pulses his fingers and your back arches, head thrown back on your shoulders. Your hips move of their own accord silently encouraging him to move his fingers.

He smirks against the pillow at your neediness. It never fails to amaze him how your body reacts to him.

“I…I need you. Move please,” you breathe out as your hips move again.

“Hmmm…use ma fingers Jezebel. Take wha’ ya need bu’ don’ cum, hear me?”

You’re whimpering above him as you start to move your hips grinding down on him on each slide forward. You’re panting above him chasing your release and you start moving faster against his fingers.

“Don’ cum, Jezebel.”

“Harry please! I need to cum…’m so close…I-“

Then he pulls his fingers from you causing you to cry out. He lifts his fingers to his mouth and licks them of your honey. “Ya cummin’ when ‘m inside ya an’ no’ a mo’ sooner,” he says twisting his head to look in your eyes. “Lift up so I can turn over.”

You flex your hips, pull your body up and shimmy down slightly the best you can in this state. Your hands can’t leave his body…the need to keep in contact, to touch, imperative. He pushes up and is wriggling his body to roll over. His hands slide up your thighs to grip your hips to help you hold yourself up. His face is a picture of desire, his green eyes soft in their stare. “Hi, beautiful,” he says softly with a smile.

“Hey handsome,” you reply using your forefinger to draw the curl out of his eyes.

His hand reaches up to cup your cheek and pull you down, “C’mere, sweet girl,” he says as he draws you down to his open mouth, tongue waiting to devour yours. “Make ya mine all ov’r ‘gain” he slurs, accent thick against your open mouth.

Your hand on his cheek, you feel his lower jaw open and close as he sucks, licks and penetrates your mouth. His teeth clamp down softly on your bottom lip and pull as he ebbs and flows with your sway. “Wan’ ya so fuckin’ much…baby…stay righ’ ‘ere wi’ me, ‘kay?”

You nod against his lips, “’Kay.”

His eyes hold your stare and his hand runs down your back to your bum and down farther to grab his hard dick from just below you. It’s as if his eyes tell you what he needs you to do. You rise slightly, enough for him to position it at your entrance and he raises his eyebrows in question.

“There,” you answer swallowing as you feel the tip of him press against your wet hole. It’s not lost on you how you can both be so in tune with one another that it takes no words to communicate. “Do it,” you whisper. As he pushes in you, your eyes flutter…and he stops.

“Please lemme see ya eyes, love, ‘aven’ been inside ya fo’ days now, might’ve fucked las’ nigh’, bu’ this is differen’,” he pleads.

You open your eyes and breath in deeply. He pushes up and you push down, working together to get him inside you. You mouth is open in an O and your lips are wet with saliva. The sting of his size never fails to cause a shiver and gasp.

He smiles a breathless smile, “Beautiful,” he whispers softly almost as if the comment was for himself and it just slipped out. Once his hips meet yours, he pushes up just that much more for deepest measure. That motion causes you to involuntarily squeak and roll your eyes.

“Mmmmhmm…” you moan with a high-pitched note. Your brows are pinched in concentration and your hands fist the pillow in either side of his head.

“Good?” he says against your lips.

“Yeah,” you say breathily in reply. “You feel so good. You always feel so good,” you breathe out, hands moving to his chest, desperate to touch him as much as possible.

“Ya don’ even know how good ya feel, Jezebel. How I can’ ge’ enough of ya…’s been almos’ a year an’ I still can’ ge’ enough of ya. Wan’ ya all the time…fuck!” He says as you clench down on him and his hands slide down to your hips. “Ride me, Jezebel.”

You let out a shuddering breath and rock your hips back and forth on him.

His hands slide up your body to your breasts and his fingers pull at your nipples. “Naughty girl wakin’ me up ta fuck ya, hmmm? Wan’ted ma dick tha’ bad then?”

You nod your head frantically. “Yes! You looked so good. Couldn’t…fuck…couldn’t help it,” you pant out.

“Greedy lit-tell pussy…can’ tell ya no tho s’ c’mon Jezebel, ya close? Gonna cum fo’ me?”

“MmHmm…just a little more, Hahh…Hahh…Mmmm…please cum too, fill me up, H,” you say panting while you move up and down his shaft stopping on the downward motion to grind him in deep.

“Take wha’ ya need, hav’ it all…all of me…cum wi’ ya, mmm…baby, clenchin’ good on me,” he says pulling one of your hands from his chest to run it down your tummy, “touch baby, feel it, feel me inside ya?”

You gulp back an animalistic groan, feeling the velvet hardness of his cock speared inside you as you move up and down on it. You face contorts into a sob, “Fuck, H, please, cum wi’ me! Begging!”

“Hold still, love, lemme ge’ us there,” he says as he grips your hips still, stiffens his legs and bucks his hips up into you over and over and over. The sound of his hips slapping your bum fills the room along with the sound of your moan that has turned into a single sound sung in different notes.

You feel the familiar burn, the way your body is getting wetter and opening even wider, preparing for release. “Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod…oh..oh..oh..oh,” this is the only communication you can manage before the intensity spills over.

He feels that tingle at his lower spine and the closer you get to orgasm the deeper the draw. “Cumwithme cumwithme, baby please!” He grunts and holds still deep with a shout. The force that you both feel as your body contracts over and over and his pulses and releases is palpable.

You fall forward onto his chest, breathing heavily. You can feel him turn his head and press a kiss to your forehead.

“Wanna fuck ya fo’ the rest of ma life, Lily.”

You smile and press a kiss to his neck, lifting your head to look into his eyes. “I want that too, Harry.”

#be my policeman #original content #harry smut #harry styles smut #harry styles fanfiction #friends to lovers

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ifishouldvanish · 4 months

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(sorry, one more bc it's been on my mind for a long time)

I worry though, about... the dynamic. Can someone really find and bond with another through their grief and loneliness, without this grim depression they share becoming *worse?*

For me, personally, whenever I think about them... I think there's going to be a level of catharsis. They have something that would be very hard to find in another living being, and a certain love for humanity and the past that would be difficult to find among vampires, and this shapes them into shattered pieces which fit together. But would they still be able to find happiness? It kind of feels like they're two damaged clocks that have coincidentally been stuck on the same minute and hour hand. Would they be able to heal and move time forward?

Okay so like!!!!

I see it less about bonding over the shared grief itself and more about what their responses to that grief have exposed in each of them. Like, in the beginning and on the surface level, yes. It is the grief and loss and loneliness that brings them together. But they are foils!!! I'm telling you!!! They can learn from each other!!!

I've mentioned probably all of this before in scattered pieces across all my posts at some point but!! I think the lowest common denominator, the core of their dynamic, lies in how they seem to have established their senses of self.

Alucard struggles with how not to define himself by his father, and then having to define himself in opposition to his father. "Slave to our families' wishes" etc. And when that chapter of his life closes he's like, "welp, guess I'll just entomb myself here 🤷" until Trevor and Sypha are like "what?? Dude no??" And he's like "oh haha I guess you're right, I can uphold the legacy of the best parts of both of my parents!!" And they're like "ya!!" But then a month goes by without anyone coming round to say "hey!!! Share that knowledge with me!! Fulfill the role you've given yourself" and he is just... so fucking bored and unfulfilled?

He needed they-who-shall-not-be-named to come along so he could fill that role, needed Greta to come along so he could fill that role. He tells Greta about how rescuing others sort of fills a void for him/gives him purpose, which is honorable, yes. But like... It's also so sad imo?? This comfort in denying his sense of self? "I don't know what to do with myself, just gimme a shout if the world ever needs saving again"?? Like Alucard, honey, babygirl, sweetheart... you need to learn to live for yourself 🥺

Olrox on the other hand is... not selfish exactly, but he knows what he's about and he refuses compromise himself. You killed the only man I ever loved? Okay, then I'm killing you, and no, I don't care if your nine year old son witnesses it. You want the juicy story of why that boy is terrified of the big bad vampire? Okay, but you will learn about my humanity first so you can sit with your cognitive dissonance about it later. You think I'm just going to throw myself at your feet because you promise us all eternal night? How about you kindly go fuck yourself? You happily stump for Erzsebet because she promised you that she'll create a world that will allow you to relive your glory days? Couldn't be me!

Like obviously we have a much more limited viewpoint for Olrox because we know so much less about him and his past, but this is not a guy who's waiting for someone to give him a purpose. He acts alone, he doesn't play nice with others, he has his own agenda, and is even a little bit of a hedonist: investigating the relationship between the abbot and Erzsebet? Might as well fuck a hot monk while I'm at it. I said eat the rich, but I might as well look good doing it. You hate/fear me cause I killed your mom? Get over it already. You think the opera singing night creature is annoying? Well, I'm familiar enough with opera music to know he's actually reading you all for filth, so I think it's great!

I think at the end of the day, Alucard is a character who defines himself by others, not understanding why he still feels so empty and alone. And Olrox is a character who defines himself by his own terms, but in being caught between both human and vampire worlds has learned to push people away because he thinks he is better off that way. But by the end of the season, his worst fear is realized: I cannot do this alone. I am at the mercy of someone else's help.

But Olrox isn't like anyone else Alucard has rescued before. He's a fellow vampire. He's a fellow immortal. He's going to be around for as long as he is. And maybe, in that time, a little bit of that ego can start to rub off on Alucard. Maybe he can learn to live for himself without apology, without feeling like he has to atone for the sins of his father. Maybe, just maybe, he can learn to exist outside of the role of the mythical savior.

Because Olrox doesn't want one of those—heaven's no. He can take care of himself, thank you very much. But what if he could learn he doesn't always have to? Who better to restore his faith in the world than the guy who has his mother's conviction that all of this mess is worth saving so deeply ingrained in him that it's been the primary source of his identity for centuries?

I'm starting to ramble here so I hope this is coherent, but in conclusion: they would be so restorative for each other and look so hot together and that is why I believe in Alurox supremacy 🙏

#castlevania nocturne #Olrox #Alucard #adrian tepes #Alucard x Olrox #alurox

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l1xvanter · 8 months

Text

Blueberries // Lee Felix x Reader

genre: distopian au

sypnosis: A meteor struck down on your country, completely destroying all sense of what you had previously known to be normal. Because of the effects, you are now forced to collect a substance called Ortaux to continue surviving. You're struggling to stay alive, and you nearly die, but someone saves you right before you do.

word count: 4.4k

contains: gn reader, angst, a bit of fluff, no happy ending (sorry), strangers to lovers(?), felix loves baking, reader is scared of lightning, lmk if I missed anything!

note: This is my first time uploading a story, and I'm kinda excited haha. This isn't proofread, and is really just an extreme edit to a school assignment I turned in last year lol. It's 2am and my mind is blurry, so let me know if there are any mistakes!

Your body felt numb, all You could feel was the pounding in your head, your mind was in a frenzy, and your vision had become nothing but muddy blobs of color. On the bench of what used to be a busy bus stop, you sat alone, experiencing what you thought would be your last moments alive. It had been 3 weeks since you had taken any Ortaux, and while desperately trying to find anything, anyone, to get some from, you could feel your body becoming more and more unstable every morning when you awoke. You could barely keep your eyes open, and thinking about trying to hunt any animals, or crawl your way to a store, made you feel even more hopeless. ‘Maybe this isn’t all that bad’, You thought. You had lost your family when the meteor had hit, and since then you’ve just barely managed to survive this long by scavenging for random items and exchanging them for some Ortaux. Everyone in your country has been experiencing this, dealing with it in their own ways. With no help from anyone else, may you add– they were scared that whatever modification had been made to our bodies by the meteor would spread to them if they ever let you out. It's been like this for the past 5 months. It felt like an eternity, and it’s exhausting. You could feel your body completely giving up, and you swear your heart stopped for a second before you felt something poke into your neck. Suddenly, the pain in your head was fading away, the blurs that made up your vision were readjusting themselves back into defined shapes, and your mind was no longer plagued with panic, but confusion. ‘Huh? What just happened? You could’ve sworn–’

“You okay?” A deep voice came from behind you. You turned your head to catch a glimpse of the body accompanying it, and You were met with the sight of a boy-- a man, actually. He looked around your age, maybe a bit older, his fair skin had been coated with smudges of dirt, his ashy blonde hair not in any better condition- it reached down to about his shoulders, and from what you could make out right now, it looked like a grown out mullet. He was wearing some very worn out clothes, his jeans were ripped all over, clearly not because of a fashion preference, and his thick black sweater fit loosely around his figure.

“Hello?” It took a second call from him for you to snap out of your little trance. You finally met his brown eyes, looking up at him with curiosity.

“Sorry, you just.. Scared me a bit.” You didn’t know how to respond to him. You were just dying about 30 seconds ago, your mind didn’t seem like it could really process anything at the moment. …Why weren't you dead? You looked around, when your eyes finally landed on a syringe in his gloved hand, drops of shining blue liquid still dripping from the tip. Then it hit you.

“Did you just inject that into me?” When he nodded in response You started to panic a bit, but was mostly in shock. What had you done for this miracle to come to you? “Oh my god, thank you so much! What can You do to make it up to you?” You said in disbelief.

He smiled at you, his eyes crinkling into little crescent shapes. “It's nothing, I have a lot at home, and I always bring some with me. Besides, you’re the one who always leaves the blueberries here, right? I’m the one who keeps coming back for them, they’re great for making muffins.” He explained, in a light tone “I came by to pick them up, but I found you here instead.”

Your eyes grew even wider than before, if that was even possible. ‘Oh yeah… You were supposed to go out for berries today.’ Truth be told, the first time you had left them here was because you had accidentally picked some while you were out on your weekly berry- collecting trip. It was a bit darker than normal, so it was harder to tell them apart from the others you would normally get. You're allergic to blueberries, and cursed yourself in the morning when you saw that you had accidentally picked so many. You didn’t want them to go to waste, and you highly doubt anyone would trade anything for some measly blueberries, so you left them on a bench at a bus stop the next morning on the way to go look for some Ortaux plants, ‘maybe someone will want them’, You thought. When you passed by the bench again on the way back home, you stopped for a second when you saw that they weren’t there anymore. As a little experiment, you picked some more again the next time you were out, left them on the bench again, and waited until the evening to check if someone had taken them again. A slight smile grew on your face when you saw that they were, once again, gone, leaving the bench empty. Since then, it was routine for you to spend a little extra time each week picking blueberries for this mystery person who seemed to enjoy them. Now, the said mystery person was kneeling in front of you, and just saved you from dying.

“Anyway, from the looks of it, You assume you’re out of Ortaux?” You could only nod your head hesitantly in response, “Well if you want, you could come to my place so I could lend you some.”

You were reluctant at first, who wouldn’t be? A guy you just met was not only inviting me over to his place, but was also offering me some Ortaux? Just him saving you was a miracle on its own, his offer seemed too good to be true. For god’s sake you don’t even–

‘oh my god.’

Sheepishly, You muttered, “You don’t even know your name.”

All he did was let out a breathy laugh before responding, “It’s Felix. I don’t think I know yours either, do I?”

“Hah.. my bad…” You replied to him shyly, telling him your name. He smiled at you, holding out his hand for you to shake, which You accepted.

“Nice to meet you.”

You nodded in response to him, and after thinking about his offer again, you concluded that the worst thing that could happen was that you die, and that didn’t seem like that much of an issue to me just a few moments ago, so you decided to go with him.

The walk there was, admittedly, a little awkward. It consisted of mostly silence, but there was a bit of small talk thrown in there too. With your mind no longer in shambles, You were able to get a better look at him. And he was way prettier now that you could see him clearly. He had a sharp side profile, and from the side you could see, he had multiple piercings on his ear. A silver chain hung from his earlobe, his other piercings decorated by matching silver studs. Even in the dark, you noticed that he had faint freckles adorning his cheeks.

‘Cute.’

The walk didn’t take long, it only took about 5 minutes to reach a small one-story house. When the two of you entered, a faint smell of Vanilla entered your nose. Although the cream colored walls and furniture were covered in a bit of rust and dirt, he sure did a decent job of keeping the place organized. There was warm light emitting from the fairy lights that had been hung up, the shelves in the kitchen were filled with jars with labels on them; mostly ingredients, you noticed. The wooden bookshelves in the small living room were filled with literature, You wondered if he’s actually read any of those. You were shocked at the quality of the place. There weren’t a lot of places that had working electricity, so he must’ve gotten really lucky finding a house like this. It seemed cozy-- comfortable. It was somewhere someone could actually consider to be a home in this area.

“Here, let me get the Ortaux, it’s in my room, I’ll be back.” He disappeared from your sight, and into the hallway.

You examined the area a bit more, looking through a window and seeing what seemed to be someone’s former backyard- the white picket fencing was still somewhat intact, along with the remains of some sort of garden. That’s when you noticed it had gotten a lot darker outside in the short time that you had spent here. Summer had just passed, so you were still adjusting to the shorter days, and sun setting earlier. Your eyebrows scrunched together, now a bit nervous about having to walk home while anything outside was barely visible.

“This should last you about another 2 months or so,” he informed, returning from his room.

You turned around to face him,“Thank you so much, this means a lot, really.” You said with a smile.

He walked you to the door, and as he was about to open it for you, you could feel your stomach start to churn. Walking in the dark was never ideal. Just looking out into the dark yard in front of his house gave you an unsettling feeling. You always made sure to get home quickly before the sun left the sky, but that clearly wasn’t how it worked out today.

Apparently he had sensed your uneasiness, and turned to look at you, “You know, if you don’t want to walk in the dark you could stay here for the night. Only if you’re comfortable, of course.”

You turned back to look at him, waving your arms in protest, “No way. You’ve already done a lot for me today, I don’t want to burden you too much.”

“It's fine, really. I wouldn’t be offering if it wasn’t,” he reassured. “The couch pulls out to be a bed, I’ll just go and get some spare blankets from the closet for you.” And before you could say any more, he was already walking into the hallway again. You sighed in defeat, making your way to the couch, moving the table in front of it before stretching it out into a bed. Not too long after, he came back with a blanket and a few pillows; even a cute little stuffed bunny.

Grabbing the items from him, You asked with a playful grin, “What’s its name?”

He chuckled lightly, a boyish smile on his face, “Bubbles.”

You thought it was a little silly, but kind of endearing in a way. You set Bubbles down against a pillow before thanking him once again.

“Take it as a thank you for all the blueberries these past few months,” He laughed, “Get some rest. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight Felix.” You greeted him back, pulling the blanket over yourself as he left the room. It didn’t take long for you to drift to sleep.

You woke up the next morning to the smell of something sweet, and the sound of someone in the kitchen. You sat up slowly, looking towards the source of the noise, just to see Felix at the stove cooking something- breakfast, maybe?

My thoughts were interrupted by his voice, “Good morning! I hope you like pancakes. If not, I guess you’ll just have to miss out on breakfast today.” He joked, turning back to look at me, the sun from outside illuminated his face as he flashed a small smile. He even had a cute flower apron over his pajamas.

“Good thing I love pancakes then.” You said, returning the smile. You sat there for a while in disbelief while he had his back turned to you. You had been struggling to find food and to just, survive, these past few months, and here he was; cooking breakfast like it’s some normal Saturday morning, as if a meteor didn’t crash and change everything around 5 months ago. You got up and sat at the dining room table, and you started chatting a bit more. Just casual conversation, which eventually led to him asking you why you always left the blueberries instead of eating them. You quickly explained that you were allergic, and he gave a tiny pout at the information.

“Guess I can’t make you any of my blueberry muffins then, huh?” He complained, scraping the warm pancake from the pan and onto your plate.

This guy really liked making sweets, didn’t he? “Guess not. A real shame.” You breathed out, frowning playfully while thanking him for the pancakes.

Breakfast was mostly quiet, but unlike last night, there wasn’t a screaming sense of awkwardness, it was calmer now. The pancakes, by the way, were delicious; that’s how they tasted to you, at least. You can’t remember the last time you had eaten, let alone eaten something that was actually prepared and wasn’t some scrap you found in an old grocery store. Felix had chuckled lightly at you when he saw how quick you had finished the sweet meal he had cooked for you.

“I was going to ask how the pancakes were, but I feel like I don’t need to.” He teased, taking a bite off his fork.

“Yeah, they were awful, actually.” You told him, matching his tone. He smiled at your response and continued to finish what was left on his plate.

After you guys were done, the two of you washed the dishes together and put away all the ingredients he had used back into their places on the kitchen shelves. While you went to the living room to put the couch back to how it was, you couldn’t help but feel relaxed at how normal it all felt-- how domestic the whole situation was. You wished that everyday could be as calm as it was right now.

Gathering all the Ortaux he had so graciously gifted you the night before, he gave you a bag to carry all of it in, and guided you to the door.

“Thank you for everything again, if you ever need anything at all, I don’t stay too far from the bus stop. It's a small blue shed that's about a 2 minute walk away, don’t hesitate to drop by if you need anything,” You expressed your gratitude, glancing at him, “Or if you just want to come visit, that’s fine too.”

“Good to know, You’ll keep that in mind.” He spoke with a toothy smile. You grinned at his bright expression, deciding then that you wanted to make him smile like that again someday.

With that, You stepped out the door, offering him one last wave before strolling your way over to your place with a fond smile on your lips.

The next few months were…a bit different. You had gotten back into your normal routine, but this time instead of constantly being by yourself, you had Felix accompanying you. In the first few weeks after he had met you, he would come to visit a few times a week, and when he wasn’t visiting you, the two of you would sometimes run into each other at the bus stop. After a while, you had started to wonder if these were just coincidences anymore, it happened pretty often. On those days you would just take a break from everything to talk for a few minutes.. Or a few hours.

Because of how put together Felix has been compared to you, you didn’t have to go out and scavenge nearly as much as you used to, giving yourself a lot more free time. Guess where all that free time went. You almost spent no time in your tiny shed that you had previously found solace in, but now found yourself spending your days-- and nights-- at Felix’s cozy house. Sleepovers were a regular thing, spending nights together on his bed talking about everything and nothing, which would normally end in the two of you falling asleep next to each other. You won’t ever forget the first time you woke up in his bed.

Slowly opening your eyes, you felt a weight around you. You blinked the sleep away from your eyes, and when you finally came to your senses, you realized that Felix’s arms were wrapped around you, and his face was right in front of yours. Your breath got caught in your throat, but calmed down a bit when you fully processed that he was still asleep. You observed his features with a soft look; your eyes traveling all across his face. You scanned his long lashes, his soft lips that were slightly parted, releasing steady breaths, and the freckles scattered across his cheeks. Your eyes darted from one freckle to another, connecting them like stars. The sunlight leaking through the window behind him casted a warm glow on him, making his blonde hair glow. You smiled, thinking that you could get used to this view every morning.

It wasn’t until after you were finally done staring at him that you noticed the slight twitch of his lips. You sighed, slightly embarrassed.

“Please don’t tell me you’re awake.” He chuckled at you and finally opened his eyes, his lips curing up into a smile.

“You were staring at me, weren’t you?” He smiled, his voice slightly deeper than it normally was, since he had just woken up.

You buried your face down under his chin, into his chest, “I wasn’t.” You denied.

He brought a hand to the back of your head to run his fingers through your hair, laughing at your response.

“It’s okay, I think it’s cute.”

You learned a lot about him during the time that you had spent with him, and now your mind had a list of random things that you had remembered about him.

Apparently the house he was currently living in was actually his, and he lived there with his parents and two sisters before everything happened. Like you, he had lost them, and now you were the only other person who he had any interaction with. He had gotten his cooking skills from his older sister and mother, and he even taught you how to bake some of those sweet treats he loves so much; turns out he has a whole book filled with his mother’s handwritten recipes.

He actually had, in fact, read a lot of the books that sat on display in his living room, and he even lended you some of his favorites for you to read. You didn’t even like reading that much, but you still had ended up finishing a couple of them for whatever reason.

He had a bunch more stuffed animals in his room, scattered across his shelves and bed. He had names for all of them, and could tell you exactly where he had gotten each one, whether it had been a gift from someone, won at an arcade, purchased at a store, all of it. He had dyed his hair blonde when he was younger, and hasn’t gone back since, which you laughed at. He did complain, however, since considering your current situation, he hasn’t been able to dye it anymore; his roots growing out, revealing a decent amount of his brown hair.

“It looks awful.” He whined, his fingers reaching up to run along his scalp.

“Nonsense. It looks a little silly, but I don’t think it’s awful.” You teased him, laughing.

“You’re so mean to me!”

Felix had basically become part of your daily routine at this point.

The weather had been really bad these past few weeks, which made a few things significantly more difficult— actually everything had been more difficult. Hunting and collecting plants had been your guys' main source of Ortaux for the past 3 months or so, but the constant rain and heavy winds gave you quite a bit of the struggle. You were running low, and you hadn’t run into Felix for about 2 weeks, which had been really concerning you. Whenever you went to his house to check in on him, there was never an answer to your knocking. You told yourself that perhaps he was sleeping, or out collecting plants, anything. However, you knew something was wrong when the batch of blueberries you left for him the last time you visited was still outside his door the next time you found yourself back outside his house three days later.

That night, the rain was heavy and the thunder outside did nothing to calm your senses. Normally when the weather was this bad, you were at Felix’s house sleeping over, cuddled in his arms while he comforted you through the storm. It was dark and cold, and you were terrified out of your mind right now, your mind only taken up by the ruckus outside and the feeling gnawing at you regarding Felix. You tried to calm yourself down by breathing, and told yourself that you would go back to his place in the morning when the storm had hopefully calmed down by then; but that got changed when suddenly a bolt of lightning struck dangerously close to your tiny shed. You jumped up from your lying position on the cheap futon, and smelt something burning not too long after. Your eyes darted around, trying to find the source, only to see the left side of the ceiling burning. Feeling your heart begin to race, you quickly grabbed everything you could carry as fast as you could, and you started running towards Felix’s place. Rain was clouding your vision, or maybe they were tears, you didn’t know, you didn’t care. Your breath kept getting caught in your throat, your legs feeling like they could give out at any moment, and it was starting to get hard to breathe- You don’t think you’ve ever run this quick before in your life.

As you finally reached his porch, you started to bang on the door, no answer. You were cold, terrified, and him not answering his door did absolutely nothing to calm you down. With each knock he didn’t answer, You could feel your heart dropping deeper and deeper. ‘Is he asleep? No way, everything is way too loud for him to be asleep right now. Why isn’t he answering me? Is he okay?’ Your harsh breaths scratching your throat, and your hands trembling, you gave up on knocking, grabbed a spare bobby pin, and tried your best to pick the lock. The rain made it hard to control it in your shaking hands, but eventually-

Click

Your hands fumbled as you roughly reached to turn the doorknob and opened the door to his house, your presence being met with nothing. Absolutely nothing. Slamming the door behind you, you looked around in a panic, running around the house trying to find anything of him. The dishes in the sink were dirty, a mess had been scattered around his living room, clearly having not been cleaned in a while. You checked every single room, closet, bathroom, the backyard, but you were left empty handed.

Your sore feet brought you back to his room, and you practically collapsed on his bed, your legs giving out from exhaustion. You were so tired. The area used to bring you so much warmth and comfort, but right now it brought you nothing of the sort. You felt...hollow, You didn’t know what to do. Tears pricked in your eyes, and it only took about a second for you to completely break down into a sob. Your breathing uneven and tears clouding your vision as your shivering form laid on his cold bed. You didn’t know what exactly it was that you were crying about. Was it because Felix wasn’t here, leaving you with absolutely nothing? Not even a single note, a single sign to where he was, if he was okay or not. That you were worried about him? As far as you knew, he could be dead right now. You pushed that thought out of your mind before it ate you up any more.

After what felt like hours of just crying, you made yourself get up and find some dry clothes. You definitely needed rest, and if you laid here any longer you were sure you were about to pass out from exhaustion on his bed, still in your drenched clothing. You went through his closet, your tired eyes scanning through his clothes. Your hands found a random hoodie and some sweatpants, and changed into them with slow movements. They still smelled like him.

You grabbed Bubbles close to you as you laid in his bed, trying your best to fall asleep. My mind was clouded by your thoughts, and you finally realized something you had noticed while searching for him. All the Ortaux in the house was nowhere to be found when you checked earlier. ‘Did he take everything and leave to live somewhere else? Everything else of his was still here… did he..?’ You didn’t even notice the tears starting to fall from your eyes again until You felt something wet drip on the hand that was holding Bubbles. You shook your head, and tried to get comfortable in the bed you had only ever shared with Felix. You fell asleep after endless tossing and turning, tears staining your face, and thunder crashing outside.

Waking up the next morning, you had initially refused to believe that the previous night was real. You turned over to face the other side of the bed, where Felix should’ve been, but your heart ached when you found it to be empty. You don’t even remember anything you did that day, and the next few weeks felt like a complete blur to you.

Felix never came back, you don’t know what happened to him, and you probably never will. You started living in his house after that night. Really, it’s not like you had anywhere else to go anyway, your shed was long gone by now. Besides, Felix’s house was way more spacious, it was filled with ingredients, food, entertainment, a place to cook food– it had everything you needed. Except for a certain freckled boy with blonde hair. You tried convincing yourself that all the practical things were the only reason you stayed there, but deep down you know there’s a part of you that finds comfort in living here, and that same part of you is the same one that’s aimlessly hoping that he’ll return.

#felix x reader #felix fluff #felix angst #stray kids #skz x reader #skz #skz fluff #skz imagines #lee felix #lee yongbok #skz yongbok #kpop #stray kids au #felix lee #stray kids oneshot #stray kids imagines #felix scenarios #stray kids fluff #stray kids angst

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writer-room · 5 months

Text

When Dawn Comes

AO3

Chapters: TBA

Summary:

“Tomorrow is 𝘯𝘰𝘵 the first day of summer.” Eight months after one of the worst weeks in Nico and Will's lives, summer rolls back around. With it comes the sudden bursting of life throughout Camp Half-Blood, and a whole lot of people who were not informed that the two boys they left behind nearly died way too many times. Or got new sets of trauma. Or gained a small pack of cacodemons. The good news is that Nico and Will are not above using this new terrain to mess with people. The bad news is that it sometimes messes with them, too.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Tomorrow is not the first day of summer.”

“It is for us.” Was all Will said, haphazardly dropping arrows into their holsters. It looked good enough. “It’s nearly the end of May.”

“Which is not summer.”

“Since when were you the expert on seasons?” Will snorted, hand on his hip as he raised a brow, looking over his shoulder.

“It’s not summer until it’s suffocating to wear my jacket.” Nico puffed, crossing his arms, doing absolutely squat to tidy up the Apollo Cabin in any shape or form. “This is spring.”

“Well, some schools release in late spring, then.” Will rolled his eyes, striding past the holsters. “Surely you know this?”

“I was never released in the spring. Summer is June. Who the hell gets summer break in May?”

“End of May.”

“It’s the same thing.”

“It’s not.” Will didn’t fight very hard to hide the grin from his face, striding over to the cabin beds, checking under them in case any stray trash materialized underneath it. Or Cocoa Puffs.

“And you’re sure they’re coming tomorrow?” He could hear Nico scrunching up his face, and his smile widened as he crouched. Nothing but darkness and a stray Kit Kat wrapper. He had a sneaking suspicion Nico left that there.

“I’ve been as sure as the last time you asked. And the time before that. And the time before—”

“It could have changed!” Nico scoffed, Will leaning forward to scoop up the wrapper. “I haven’t ever exactly had to pay attention to these things before.”

“Well, now you get to be part of the welcoming committee.” Will rocked back up to his feet, swaying purposefully before turning and holding out the wrapper. “Forget this?”

“Never seen it before in my life.” Nico said, barely so much as glancing at it. “I imagine there would be much better welcoming committees than me.”

“You’re plenty welcoming.”

“I’m really not, you know I’m not.”

“You’re welcoming to me.” Will sighed dramatically, walking over in as casual of a way as he could muster.

“That’s because you’re you.” Nico sighed, as if he wasn’t smiling, and Will wasn’t grinning right back down at him as he stopped.

“And you likeeeee me.” Will teased, sticking out his tongue, which got a truly pungent scoff in response.

“What are you, eight?”

“Now, that’s just an insult to Harley.” Will chuckled, rocking on his heels, hands behind his back.

“Oh, yes, my mistake.” Nico drawled. “Seven years old, that was what I should’ve guessed.”

“Uh huh,” Will hummed, rocking forward instead, Nico raising a brow as Will snaked a hand around one shoulder, “doesn’t make me any less right.”

“Then I’d say your claim is an understatement.”

“Sweet-talker.” Will grinned, and proceeded to bap Nico’s cheek with the wrapper still in his hand. “You still need to throw this away.”

With that, he retracted his hand, and that wrapper fell from Nico’s cheek. He sputtered, fumbling more so on instinct to grab it. Will was already spinning right around, a safer few feet away, double-checking his cabin.

“Oh, come on, you don’t even know this was me—”

“It was you.” Will said, not even looking back.

“Says who?”

“Says me.” Will was still smiling, but refused to look back. “And the Cocoa Puffs.”

“They do not say that. They like me.”

“They like me.” Will did look back then, raising an amused brow. “Shall I count the ways I have been smothered in my sleep?”

“Maybe they’re just trying to get rid of you.” Nico puffed, crumpling up the wrapper and shoving it in his pocket. “Keep me all for themselves.”

“Nah, they’re you, and you like me.” Will teased, turning back around and waving a hand. “I think my cabin’s as good as it's ever gonna be.”

“I’ve been saying that for the last hour.” Nico groaned, more dramatically than what was really needed, tilting his head back to stare up at the ceiling as though it would listen to his woes. It would not. “And the Puffs can think on their own, thank you very much.”

“Mhmm,” Will hummed, shouldering open the ajar door and back out into the sunset spreading across camp, and to the rest of the staff puttering about. Most everything had been set for the new arrival of campers already, but last-minute adjustments could always be done, “where are they, anyway?”

“Somewhere.” Nico waved a hand vaguely around as he followed, which didn’t help in the slightest. “Hiding. Hell if I know where.”

“I think they’re just finding the deepest darkest crevices and making nests.” Will guessed, peering around as though he could spot one of the Puffs. “Or exploring, actually. If they wanted dark places, your cabin would be swarmed.”

“Hilarious,” Nico drawled, standing next to him, also watching the camp putter about. “They’ll pop up eventually. They’re just preparing for tomorrow.”

“They excited about scaring the daylights out of returning campers?” Will grinned, all teeth, looking down at Nico.

“Ecstatic.” Nico confirmed, grinning right back in that mischievous way of his. It was also kind of haunting, but all of Nico’s smiles were like that. It was adorable, honestly. “You said Austin and Kayla still don’t really get what they are?”

“Didn’t get the chance to really explain them, no.” Will confirmed. “And Piper?”

“No idea if she told anyone.” Nico shrugged. “I want to say word can’t have spread that fast, but she might’ve called Leo, and if she did, the whole plan is ruined.”

“That is, if Piper fully understood what kind of Puffs you were describing, and if Leo then understood it.” Will reminded.

“Oh, true,” Nico hummed, squinting off into the distance, “alright, we should be fine, then.”

“We?” Will snorted. “Is this a joint effort, now?”

“You’re not stopping it.” Nico said by way of answer, turning and beginning the trek further up the houses, Will following after.

“Well, it will be pretty hilarious.” Will admitted, knocking his arm with Nico’s, which had been meant as a friendly jest, but then Nico was knocking back, and his fingers kept trying to curl around Will’s hand, so he grasped them together. He certainly wasn’t complaining.

“Do you think Chiron would let me threaten the Hermes kids if they get any ideas about using them for pranks?” Nico wondered aloud.

“He’d probably ask you to be nicer about it.” Will hummed, leaning closer as they walked and nearly dropping half his weight on Nico, head thumping against the side of his and causing him to stumble at the surprise shift. “But I’ll threaten them for you when he’s not looking.”

“You’re so sweet.” Nico grunted, shouldering at Will until he snickered and stood on his own two feet. “Can’t you get in trouble for that, being a counselor and all?”

“You’re also technically a—”

“I do not count and you know it.”

“Chiron thinks better of me.” Will shrugged it off, his nonchalance easily being ruined by a sly little smirk forming. “It pays to have a golden reputation, lets you get away with a lot more.”

“You have to be more creative with those jokes.” Nico puffed, which was also ruined by him squeezing Will’s hand as he spoke.

“Get more creative with your insults, then.”

“I happen to think a skeletal radius shoved up the ass is a pretty creative insult.” Nico raised a brow.

“That’s not an insult,” WIll corrected, shifting into what he liked to call Counselor Mode, speaking in a purposefully mocking holier-than-thou tone, if only because it made Nico an adorable kind of puffy, “that’s a threat. Two very different things. Also,” He paused, “don’t try that threat with the Hermes kids.”

“What, will it give them ideas?” Nico squinted. “I don’t think they have access to bones.”

“No, but you’ll probably want to threaten with a leg bone going where it shouldn’t, nothing in the arm or hand.” Will commented, making a great effort to watch the harpies fly overhead with what looked like some old fairy lights. Had anyone been using those? “They’ll make comments, and you will not like them.”

“About arm bones?” Nico squinted further. “What would a Hermes kid have to say about—?”

“You know what, how about you just work on the insults?” Will suggested quickly, wondering if he yelled at himself in his head loud enough, a God might hear him. Probably. “Like, bone-insults. Are there bone insults?”

“I dunno,” Nico shrugged, thankfully moving onto the next subject, “I could…say someone looks like their skull would make a great bowling ball?”

“That’s kind of horrific, and also I think that doubles as a threat.”

“Threats work better than insults.” Nico decided, slowing down, and Will realized they were approaching the Hades cabin. “Shuts them up quicker.”

“Oh, well, can’t argue with that.” Will nodded sagely. “Threatening you with twenty-four-hour infirmary supervision? All that complaining about not being able to shadow-travel practically disappears.”

Nico elbowed Will in the side for that, to which he could only laugh. It was kinda hard, but not enough that it had Will doubling over like it did the first few times Nico tried. It was pretty easy to tell that Nico toned it back these days.

“Whatever, agree to disagree.” Nico gruffed, and Will kept it to himself that they were trying to not do that, but he didn’t really wanna ruin the joke with something heavy. “I can’t lure you to be a horrible counselor for tonight, right?”

“It’s not breaking a rule if the rule is about a boy and a girl being alone.” Will grinned, bringing Nico’s hand up and giving it a few squeezes with uneven pressure. Even when Tartarus was months behind them, his muscle strength still didn’t feel as great some days. “What, is the scary Nico di Angelo worried about when I won’t be able to sneak off and cuddle all night without getting caught?” He teased, keeping his voice down just in case any of the staff heard (though, really, he’s sure a good few already knew and had been nice enough to not tell Chiron) and leaning down.

“You did get caught.” Nico muttered, ducking his head with a flush, though he didn’t retreat when Will bonked his forehead on the crown of his head.

“Hardly my fault that the nymph was a fellow early-riser and saw me leave.” Will puffed, pulling an exaggerated frown. “I don’t think she said anything, anyway.” “She totally said something.” Nico snickered, still a bit red, but trying to gain that bit of an upper-hand back. “Did you somehow miss how many smug nymphs there were? They won some bets, I’m sure.”

“I would like to not think about the nymphs betting on us, thank you.” Will sighed, Nico’s giggling increasing as Will ducked further, at a rather uncomfortable angle to be nearly smooshed face-to-face. “Now do you want me to technically not break any rules or not?”

“I thought that offer died?” Nico blinked, suddenly much more alert.

“In what sentence did I say no?” Will raised a brow, and a hint of Nico’s flush returned.

“You didn’t say yes.” Nico shot back, though it came out more of a mutter.

“Yes, then, I think I’m free tonight.” Will grinned, closing that distance (which was barely any distance at all, really) for a quick kiss. “Because, I can promise you, my siblings will not let me sneak off. That’s a promise.”

“Austin and Kayla—”

“Are, unfortunately, only two siblings, and Apollo kids are kinda loud.” He reminded, leaning further back to stand at a normal angle, though he did untangle his hand from Nico’s to loop both arms around his neck. He was very smug to see Nico seemed very down with this arrangement. “Which is a sentence you should not repeat in front of the Hermes kids.” He added quickly, and immediately wished he didn’t. Good fucking Gods.

“Still don’t get it.” Nico said simply, hands flexing by his chest, a clear, silent worry at where to put them. “And hey, in a pinch, we can just say I had another bad nightmare. One that only my boyfriend can mend, as per usual.”

“Keep it for emergencies.” Will decided with a thoughtful nod. “Can’t use it too often or Chiron might get suspicious, you know.”

“Emergencies?” Nico snorted, hands still flexing. “What, emergency cuddling? In a time of crisis?”

“They’re of grave importance, you know.” Will linked his hands behind Nico’s head, moving just a bit closer. “You look like a pangolin.”

“I— what?” Nico balked, pausing.

“You know, the animals that kinda look like an armadillo and an aardvark had a kid.” Will said easily, smile lopsided. “Gracie loves ‘em, showed me a ton of pictures.” He purposefully angled his eyes down to Nico’s hands, head unmoving. “Look like they’re at their first prom and don’t know how to ask for a dance, the poor little guys.”

“Hey,” Nico puffed up, not unlike a cat (which Will would keep to himself, because he preferred to live), promptly grabbing at Will’s wrists, “I do not look like a pan…penguin?” He squinted.

“Pangolin.”

“I said that.”

“Sure you did. Do you even know what a prom is?”

“Do you think I came into the present last week?” Nico squinted as though he thought Will might genuinely be an idiot.

“You didn’t know that Nike was also a shoe brand.”

“How was I supposed to know that—”

“Holly almost killed me, but it was so worth telling you.” Will chuckled. “Then she almost killed you, which was more fun.”

“I think I’m retracting that offer.” Nico grumbled, glancing over at his door. The sun was nearly completely set now, and already, Will could feel that little internal clock telling him to hit the hay. “You can enjoy your empty cabin while it lasts.”

“Nah, it’s no fun when it's empty.” Will hummed, tapping his fingers along the back of Nico’s neck, making him prickle slightly with the sensation. “And it’s hardly fair to leave your cabin all empty now, is it?”

“I happen to like it some days.” Nico muttered, not protesting when Will straightened up and took a quick survey of their surroundings. “You don’t need to keep lookout, Will.”

“I would like to not have Chiron kick me out cause one of the harpies saw, thank you.” He huffed, slowly unwinding his arms, to which Nico seemed almost remorseful.

“I really don’t think that's going to happen—”

“It’s Chiron, I call it a miracle he specified that rule was only for—”

“Oi, boys,”

Will jumped, he’s not too proud to admit it. Hands braced halfway out at his sides in some stance that really wouldn’t have done much except smack anyone to his direct left or right.

Nico’s was subtler, a slight full-body jerk. His eyes moved before his head, wide and darting to the side, head following a few moments later.

The satyr, for his part, didn’t look too bothered either way, even with the massive box labeled SHARP ITEMS in messy sharpie scrawled over the side in his arms.

“Speaking of perfect timing,” the satyr continued, nodding his head forward, “Chiron wants you.”

Will looked over Nico's head, who fully turned. Sure enough, off on the hill, by the Big House, was Chiron, waving a hand in their direction.

He was silhouetted, the sun nearly completely down behind him. No clue as to what his expression looked like, which could be slightly dangerous.

“Uh, thanks.” Will mumbled, clearing his throat and ignoring Nico giving him a very unimpressed stare.

The satyr just nodded, and if it weren’t for his mouth twitching like he was trying not to smile as he was turning away, Will would’ve believed he couldn’t care less about the two of them.

He was beginning to suspect the staff at Camp Half-Blood thought mortal demigods were much more entertaining than was strictly necessary.

“Nice lookout duty, Solace.” Nico drawled, already making the trek up to meet Chiron.

“I wasn’t looking that far ahead!” Will protested, hurrying to fall into step, and maybe walk a little faster than needed.

“It truly is a miracle you’ve done anything subtly.”

“It’s not exactly a specialty of Apollo kids, y’know.” Will puffed, rolling his eyes and jogging the last few meters up the hill. Nico, pointedly, did not do that.

“How’s everything look down there, boys?” Chiron asked, smiling warmly down, even though Will could easily see the stress of nonstop work wrinkling at his eyes.

“Good enough,” Will shrugged, aware of Nico arriving only by a darkish mass sliding into his peripheral vision.

“Suppose that’s the best we can have.” Chiron sighed, weary, and Will tried not to snicker. “It’s truly astounding how much work there still needs to be done last-minute when we’ve had only two campers.”

“I tried to curb him.” Nico pointed a thumb in Will’s direction. “He’s just a mess, that one.”

Will rolled his eyes, shoving at Nico’s arm. Nico only snorted, lightly shoving him right back.

“Certainly,” Chiron hummed, amused. “If I am not interrupting anything, then, I would like to speak with you two before our campers arrive.”

“I’ve already recruited him to be part of the welcoming committee.” Will slung an arm around Nico’s shoulders, tugging him closer and causing him to stumble. “He’ll be the friendliest face for, oh, ten minutes? Best I can do is twelve.” He squinted off, as though lost in thought.

“A rib is about to get real friendly with your throat.” Nico muffled, partially smooshed against his chest, not even trying to push him off.

“Make that nine minutes.” Will corrected.

Chiron chuckled, but even Will could tell it was a tad…strained. Not quite the stress-kind of stained, which was already making him a bit worried. He thought he did a pretty good job of not showing it, loosening his grip on Nico so he could stand normally.

He was sure Nico noticed, if only from how rigid he became under his arm.

“Yes, well, I had meant to talk with you boys before we were so limited on time, but…” Chiron paused, here, and Will tried very hard to not grip onto Nico’s opposite sleeve before he continued, “have you two decided how you’ll handle your story?”

Will blinked. He glanced at Nico out of the corner of his eye, who looked equally confused.

“Our story?” Will tried hesitantly.

“Tartarus,” Chiron said gravely, and Will slumped his shoulders. Some of it was relief because, well, this he could handle.

“Well, that depends on how many people have already heard through the grapevine.” Will shrugged.

“I’m sure some have already caught wind,” Nico brushed it off, “Percy’s not known to keep his mouth shut, and Piper very easily could have told anyone else.”

“Except for Hazel, for some reason.” Will added. “You’re sure you haven’t gotten any angry letters or missed Iris messages?”

“If I did, she would’ve stormed over herself.” Nico glanced at him for barely a second. “If she knew, we would be well aware of it.”

“I only want to be on the same page as you both,” Chiron interrupted, “because I know very well campers will still have questions, and some might not have heard at all.”

“Then we tell them.” Nico shrugged, a casualness that was only moderately forced, Will knew. “We went to Tartarus, had an awful week, and got Bob back.”

“We’ve talked about it a few times.” Will assured. “I mean, I really don’t see us sharing every detail—”

“Gods no,” Nico huffed quietly.

“—but we don’t mind telling it.” He finished, giving a little squeeze to Nico’s shoulders. “The first few times, at least. After a while, they can just pick up the story from someone else.”

“This is how rumors start.” Nico sighed, tipping his head back slightly to stare up at the stars blinking into existence. “They might be amusing ones.”

“The Hermes kids will have a blast, I’m sure.” Will agreed with a chuckle.

“Very well, very well.” Chiron nodded slowly, seeming more at ease, muscles less tense. “Would you care for us to correct any confusion we may hear?”

“Eh, I mean, unless it’s harmful, I don’t really care?” Will said bluntly. “Nico?”

“So long as no one gets wrong ideas, they can think what they want.” Nico said simply. “We went to Tartarus, and if they can’t figure out any more details, they’ll fill in the blanks themselves.”

“If you’re both sure.” Chiron nodded, paused, then, “and the, um, cacodemons?”

“Cocoa Puffs.” Nico corrected, mostly on an impulse.

“Oh, don’t tell anyone about those.” Will talked over him, grinning. “Nico’s orders.”

“It’ll be the campers welcome-back gift.” Nico said with a mischievous smile, full of teeth. Will failed miserably to never be fascinated how those teeth were just a bit abnormally sharp. “A Cocoa Puff hiding under their bunk.”

“...I see.” Chiron said slowly, and Will thought he looked like he was considering all of his choices that led up to him standing here today. “And…if the campers retaliate on impulse to the sight of one of these demons…?”

“They always come back.” Nico said easily.

“As we have eventually learned.” Will added on. “Do you think they regenerate in Tartarus, or another one just kinda…peels out from the dark, blobby mold? I never actually got that clarified.”

“Don’t care enough to check.” Nico didn’t look at him, and Will just snickered.

“Right, then,” Chiron said, still slowly. “Well, if there is to be anything else you would like to establish…?”

“Give us a heads up if a furious Camp Jupiter kid comes storming over.” Will said, leaning a bit of his weight on Nico. “Nico can’t really be saved, but I’ll have a chance at a getaway.”

“I will drag you back by the ankles.” Nico warned, giving a glare that wasn’t at all genuine.

“You and what muscle?”

“Then I wish you boys a safe night.” Chiron talked over whatever rebuke Nico had. “It will likely be the quietest you’ll have for a long time.”

“Here’s to hoping.” Will gave a mock salute, already stepping back, to which Nico followed instead of letting his arm slip free. “See you at the welcoming party!” He called over his shoulder, turning right back around.

“Goodnight, Will. Nico.”

“Chiron.” Nico gave a half-hearted wave behind him, already making a beeline for his cabin faster than Will was walking, and his arm did fall from around his shoulders then.

“Have you prepared the Puffs for summer, actually?” Will wondered aloud, keeping his stroll casual as Nico kept pausing and looking back, very clearly silently urging Will to walk faster, please.

“They know new people will be arriving, and to not attack first. Unless it’ll be funny.” Nico’s mouth twitched at a smile for a moment. “I may have encouraged them to hide until a camper finds them.”

“You’re devious.” Will chuckled, casting his eyes up towards the night sky, to the moon rising in the far distance. He still got all shivery during the night, as though seeing a goddess staring back at him from her millions of stars.

But, if she was, Will found he didn’t care so much anymore. He’d damn well light-blast her again.

“I’m a son of Hades.” Nico said, shoving open his cabin door. “Move before I get some common sense back.”

“Oh, no, the horror,” Will drawled, leaning back to check the ridge where Chiron last was.

Nada, not hide nor hair that looked even remotely equine. Most of the staff was further off, or turning in for the night and deciding what they’d put together was good enough, but there were certainly witnesses.

Also, he hadn’t seen Mr. D since that morning with a concerning amount of soda. He was, apparently, mourning his last ‘semi-free’ day of work before summer kicked up.

“Will.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.” Will chuckled, giving one last glance before darting in through the door, moving to the side the second he was in. Just in case.

“And you call me paranoid.” Nico huffed, rolling his eyes and lazily pushing the door shut, plunging them both in darkness.

“I’d like to not get caught and kicked out of my boyfriend's cabin the day before campers show up, Gods forbid if any of them are my siblings.” Will said, shaking his hand out a bit and watching as he started glowing ever-so-faintly on instinct. Neither of them had really gotten used to total pitch-blackness again. Not that it was quite as dark as that, but a little glow wouldn’t hurt.

“The horror.” Nico repeated mockingly, and Will could see the faint outlines of his face under the warm glow (and he was never even close to poetic, his siblings had always been much better at it, but he really did think there were two sides to Nico when under a warm yellow or cold blue light. Like two sides of a coin, so clearly a different appearance, and impossible to choose which one could be best).

“Would you like to have that be the first thing Hazel hears about?” Will puffed, and Nico was already turning right around and off towards his bed.

“I’d survive.” Nico said uncaringly, pitching face-forward to fall across his bed.

“Right, of course, my mistake,” Will rolled his eyes, “when compared to Tartarus, sneaking around with a boyfriend is a walk in the park.”

“She likes you, anyway.” Nico muffled into the bed, which mostly came out as grunts, and Will had to translate what he thought he heard.

“Yeah, and my siblings like you.” Will reminded, moving over and sitting, like a normal person, at Nico’s side. “This still won’t stop them from never letting me hear the end of it.”

“Austin and Kayla like me.” Nico corrected, raising a hand as though making a valid point.

“The most, maybe,” Will shrugged, kicking off his shoes, “but if I have a sibling who just doesn’t like you, I’ve yet to hear about it.”

“You’re oblivious sometimes.” Nico hummed, turning his head to the side and looking up at him.

“They like you.” Will assured, turning to the side. “Now scootch. Unless you wanna be crushed.”

“You do that anyway.” Nico grumbled, though he did sit up so Will could fall across his bed the normal way, head just short of hitting one of the pillows.

“Yeah, but it’s not the fun kind of being crushed.” Will said simply. “We should really just get you a weighted blanket. I promise you, you’ll like one.”

“Don’t need it.” Nico grunted, shucking off his coat and debating for a moment before just tossing it over the headboard of his bed. “You work just fine.”

“That’s very sweet, and I’m very touched,” Will said, silently hoping Nico wouldn’t notice his glow kicking up a few notches at his words, “but you’re about to lose this living weighted blanket come tomorrow.”

“You’ll find a way.” Nico said simply, pitching forward over the bed again, twisting at the last minute and almost landing vertically over the bed. He still missed slightly, and sort of half-fell over Will’s stomach.

“Ow,” Will grumbled, only momentarily having the air punched out of him, automatically curling up and getting an armful of Nico.

“Sorry,” Nico puffed into his shoulder when he adjusted himself there.

“No, you’re not.” Will muttered, obediently shifting until his back was pressed against the wall, and Nico was trying to bury himself under the covers.

“Poor you,” Nico snarked, lightly swatting Will’s arm until he moved up so Nico could pull the blankets back and scurry under it. Will just pulled it over himself like, you know, a normal person.

“You might also want to invest in a night light.” Will looked around the room, and didn’t dare glance down at Nico popping his head back out of the blankets when he said; “that is not me.”

“You’re the best night light, though.” Nico teased, pulling at Will’s shirt like he was trying to claw it off him as he smooshed closer.

“Again, very sweet, but I can’t do this every night.” Will chuckled, turning on his side and partially raising an arm for Nico to crawl himself under, face pressed so firmly against Will’s neck he might as well have been trying to melt into it.

“Figure it out.” Nico puffed, and Will shivered a bit at how he could feel each little movement of Nico’s mouth and every breath of air. He wondered how likely he was to be kicked if he suggested Nico was just waiting for a chance to suck his blood.

“I’m getting you one of the twenty-pound blankets.” Will decided, waiting until Nico had tangled their legs together in what was decidedly the perfect amount, in Nico’s odd little brain. “And it’s gonna have skulls on it.”

“Creative,” Nico muttered, finally stilling.

“I could just find the brightest, sunniest one instead.” Will raised a brow, leaning slightly forward, so he was partially pressing his weight against Nico’s front. He really wasn’t sure how Nico breathed like that, but he liked this setup best. “Even easier to pretend it's me.”

“It wouldn’t be.” Nico said simply, even more muffled, tilting his head slightly so he was nearly speaking directly into Will’s ear, arm wrapped up and over his back. “Don’t care how heavy that thing is, I’m not gonna believe it’s a person.”

“Well,” Will drawled, “there’s these life-sized dolls, but they’re kind of meant for another pur—”

He got a kick to the shin for that. Er, an attempt at one. Nico had tangled their legs so tightly together that it really just jostled them all around.

“I could also choke you with skeletons,” Nico offered semi-sleepily, “there’s always that.”

“You’re very picky, do you know this?” Will teased, resting his chin on Nico’s head, the arm pinned under their bodies eventually making it up to tangle in hair at the nape of his neck. “You’re spoiled, that’s what you are. You’re barely gonna last the week.”

“Says you,” Nico muttered.

“Well, I am a healer.” Will grinned. “And relapses aren’t very fun—”

“Just shut up and be dead weight.”

“That’s more you, Nico.” Will tried very hard not to glow brighter when he could feel Nico’s small smile against his neck.

“Hush.”

“I am, I am.” Will hummed, relenting and settling down, snuggling closer, if that was really possible.

He dimmed his glow, to a degree it was nearly gone entirely. It was usually fine when he let his glowing drop, he usually fell asleep before Nico, anyway, but he didn’t mind keeping it up until he was forced to let it go.

It was always deathly silent in the Hades cabin, joke intended. Even when it was only Will in the Apollo cabin, it was quiet, not silent. There was something outside, or the shifting of old wood together, or some creature skittering across the roof.

But the Hades cabin? Noise left it, but it hardly ever came in unless someone was screaming rather dramatically. He thought the place was soundproofed to the outside for a long while.

It was nice, though. Meant there was only his and Nico’s breathing, and that was lulling in its own sense.

“I’m not sure…” Came a quiet murmur, and Will was forced to blink his eyes back open, staring at the opposite wall.

He didn’t make a sound, knowing by now it might result in Nico instinctively not finishing his thought. Sometimes it didn’t happen anyway, either because he knew Will was still awake, or he couldn’t even say it out loud to someone fully unconscious. This, he learned, wasn’t quite Nico closing himself up like a clam, but more so unsure if it was words he meant, or how he wanted to say them. Most of the time.

As it turns out, learning to open up was still an effort, as much as he knew Nico kept trying.

“If…” Nico started again, after what felt like a long few minutes of silence, “I’ll know…how to live in a camp full of people again.”

“You’ve done it before.” Will murmured, so sleepy it came out more like a jumble of words overlapping each other, but he hoped Nico understood the sentiment regardless.

“It’s been a while.” Nico mumbled, turning his head to the side, head pressed right up under Will’s chin. “I’m not…I’ve never…” A puff of breath, “been in a full camp when…I’m trying to be different.” He finished, sounding like he was struggling to find the right words. “I haven’t—”

“Been like this before?” Will finished with a guess.

“Yeah,” Nico clung tighter, “dunno how the whole changed thing is gonna… work.”

Because it was less familiar. A Nico who held everything close to his chest knew how to navigate camp, and quickly fell apart if that expectation wasn’t met. A Nico with a fresh scar, a boyfriend who was struggling alongside him, and a bunch of trauma cacodemons running around was very, very different.

“We’ll figure it out.” Will promised, echoing Nico’s taunts earlier, curling his fingers in Nico’s hair and tilting his head slightly to press his lips against the crown of it. “I’ll be here, and we’ll learn together.”

He expected Nico to snort that he was being all sappy again. Say anything else, really, even if it wasn’t his usual joking.

No sound came from either of them for the rest of the night. Will’s only condolence was that Nico kept breathing, and he didn’t curl any closer, nor push away.

Which wasn’t really that much of a condolence. Will wasn’t exactly sure what to think when given no reaction, but…for tonight, he could leave it be.

They had a long summer to rest up for.

#pjo #percy jackson #the sun and the star #tsats #solangelo #will solace #nico di angelo #pjo chiron #camp half blood #writing #fanfic #summer #healing #innuedno #but just a lil bit #dorks

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thereareeyesinsidethetrees · 10 months

Note

If Ford thought about it for long enough after the fact, he supposes that should have seen it coming from a mile away.

Gravity Falls was always a quiet town on the surface. You'd never think something was amiss, with the way (most of) its citizens acted cheerful and welcoming. Folding their laundry, grabbing drinks, running their errands, you'd never assume each and everyone of them lived through hell a year ago. They were good actors that way. It could almost be seen as... safe.

But as Stanford has learned over the years, a lack of excitement did not mean he was in the clear.

A normal day this noon was going to be, and Ford was set on this notion. He had been sent into town to purchase groceries, but alone at the display of Stanley's plain laziness. While he was lounging in his personal armchair and watching old black-and-white reruns, Ford was encouraged to visit civilization alone. He only agreed due to his budgeting freedom, because Stan seemed to have forgotten Ford needed restraint when it came to those places. All those years with nothing, now with everything. (A foolish mistake, Stan would learn.)

Gravity Falls Grocery Store is even quieter than the street it was on. Large and untouched, one could roll their shopping cart through the colorful aisles with eyes closed, and would bump into no one. Ford doesn't roll, of course, but he does walk fast. The sooner he leaves, the sooner he can head to Greasy's Diner, to pick up a sweet pie for their dinner tonight. Ford fills up his shopping cart nicely, so no one else will need to head to this place for a good month or so. The freshest of fruit, the crispest of boxes, he can't help but pick those. He had an eye for those things.

As Ford almost rounds off his trip by scanning the candy aisle for a nice pack of jelly beans, his day takes a slight turn. This neon aisle is nestled in the middle of the rest, right by the eight cash registers. Only two of them are on duty during noon—a pair of elderly teenagers, with matching green uniforms and teenage atmospheres. The left is a tall blond boy who looks to be more than interested with his co-worker, while the right is a shorter girl with all of the heat in her face.

"Yep, just moved to town," the cashier on the right, brushing her blue-streaked brown hair aside, says. "My mom really wanted the 'chill vibes' of towns stuck in the middle of nowhere."

The cashier on the left chuckles, casually leaning forward over his station's conveyor belt. His voice is somewhat familiar to Ford, but it's what he's saying is the thing that gets him to pause. "Yeah, this place is anything but chill. Like, have you seen the place? One time, some really huge guy named Pubetor broke into our school and wanted to fight the principal. It was wild. And don't even get me started on last summer, because that? Could've been the best summer ever, if it weren't for the end."

Ford's hand rests lightly on the largest pack of The Fish's Fish-Shaped Jelly Beans he found in his area. He isn't sure why he's so hesitant to leave—Weirdmageddon was an understandable event to warn a newcomer about. Maybe it was how the subject had been worded. The apocalypse was not to be taken lightly, but teenagers took many things that shouldn't be light as light. It can be ignored.

Ford shoves the jelly beans into his cart and stands just far enough to be hidden from the pair. "Like, it was bad," Blond Boy is saying. "The sky exploded, my friends got turned to stone, I turned to stone, the whole town got turned to stone—it was a lotta stone. We're not even supposed to talk about it."

"Yikes," Blue Streak winces. "Now I get why my mom wanted to be here so bad. So you're just supposed to… keep living? Pretend it never happened?"

"Yep," Blond Boy confirms, nestling back into his stiff chair once more. "Except for the dudes who saved us and stuff, we just think it never happened. Don't tell anyone I told you, though. It's stupid law or something."

"Got it," Blue Streak says, also turning back to her post. Neither of them say any more.

He isn't panicking. Of course he isn't. This is stupid. Under a quarter of his age, making him question his entire sense of self. This is stupid. Ignore it, Stanford.

As silently as he can, Ford leaves the aisle. Looking straight down into his filled cart, as if revising everything he has in store. He glances up so he doesn't crash—Blond Boy's eyes flicker in recognition, and Blue Streak keeps her attention on an open magazine. As Ford looks closer at Blond Boy's name tag, it reads the name Lee.

"Mr. Pines!" Lee says a little too loudly, startling his co-worker off her seat. "We were definitely not breaking the law just now. How's things been with the brain, dude?"

Ford tries not to flinch in confusion at the sad cover-up. He always forgets that everyone in town knew about Stan's sacrifice, but not about who made it happen. "Stanley is doing well. I'm assuming you've mixed us up again?"

Lee begins to scan the items placed on the conveyor belt as he continues talking. "Riiiiiight. Sorry… Doctor? That's you."

"Yes," Ford replies rather stiffly. "I'm the other twin."

"Dang. Sorry about that, doctor dude." Though the teens are separated by both two conveyor belts and Ford's cart, Lee whispers to Blue Streak conspiratorially. "This's one of the dudes who saved us and stuff I talked about."

The girl nods in little awe. Ford pretends not to hear that.

The process is rather quick, but only because of Ford's mind thinking back to two minutes ago. Law? It sounded like the town had a mutual agreement to just… pretend last summer never occurred. But that was absurd! Ford must not have heard all of the context. Maybe the boy meant another law, one obscure and only mentioned to impress the dyed haired girl. It had to be, because if they all really did agree to…

"93.78," Lee says with slightly gritted teeth, like he's had to repeat it multiple times.

Ford almost forgets to mutter a thank you before walking away. He shakes his head of the alarming thoughts, swiftly taking the three bags to hook upon his arms. He doesn't see Lee or the dyed hair girl waving him goodbye, or what they start to whisper excitedly when he leaves through the automatic doors. The sheer concern of it all has clouded his mind completely.

Ford could not be crazy. He didn't spend forty-two years with that eye lurking over his shoulder for his home to dismiss it like a sham.

heheheh. I know exactly where it's gonna go too lol. if you wanna add anything/have criticism/anything of comment I'd like to hear it. this is the Very First Draft. :}

Gotta say, you really know how to build anticipation!

I like that Ford sort of spaces out. Not entirely sure why- just a little thing I like seeing, I suppose. Of course, there’s a lot here that I like, but I’m not great with words. I think it’s pretty good so far!

Also, question: did everyone decide not to tell specifically Stan and Ford about the law? Because- wow, Mayor Tyler really is the worst at decision making isn’t he

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maybeitsalivescribbles · 18 days

Text

TTD - True Evil 3/4

part1 part2 part3 part 4

(tw: death, car crash, implied emotional abuse.)

(at least twenty years ago)

Baby Superhero wanted to race.

He liked running! It was one of the few games where he could have fun. He learned to use just the tiniest amount of his powers to win without getting caught. He’d promised to be a very good boy though, and good boys put themselves last. There was a new kid standing apart from his group of friends, seeming really lost. That was the first time he saw them in this park. They looked like a baby, at least one whole year younger than him. He had to be nice with little babies. If he was lucky, Mom would make him a strawberry pie, and that was just the best. So, he joined Baby Villain and asked:

“What do you want to play?”

The new kid looked at their shoes, avoiding his gaze, clasping their hands behind their back, dancing on their heels. After a while, they whispered:

“I dunno…maybe…maybe hide and seek?”

Baby Superhero internally sighed. Hide and seek was for kids. He hunched his shoulders a little, but grinned:

“Sure! That sounds great!”

He had to behave. He had to make them feel welcome. In his opinion, that was pie-worthy behavior. Still, he wanted to race, but he tried to ignore the lump in his throat. He had to be very careful when he was upset, because that could trigger his powers, and that was not allowed. It was hard to refrain himself, but he wanted to be a Good Boy. Good boys obey to their parents.

“I can, uh, blindfold people,” offered the newcomer.

Baby Superhero crooked one finger at his chin in confusion:

“What do you mean?”

Baby Villain opened their hand. Inside their palm, there was a tiny ball of darkness that shaped itself into two little people that danced on their fingers. Baby Superhero gulped.

“Oh, you mean…you have powers.”

They shrugged. He leaned forwards:

“That’s very brave to tell me that. But you know you should hide them, right?”

“Why?”

That question left him gaping.

“Because they’re dangerous! You could hurt someone!”

Being good, he’d learned, mostly meant holding back. When you want to say your neighbor is a doo-doo head for yelling at you, you smile and agree instead. When you want to scream in frustration because the dinner takes too long, you smile, and you go crying in the bathroom to avoid upsetting anyone. When you want to use your powers so bad it itches everywhere inside of you, you agree to take a bath, and you let the water go icy to calm you down. Of course that was hard, but he could take it. After all, he was special. He’d been a little dejected the day he’d learned that other kids had powers, but he’d realized that most of them only had one. No one was like him. He was by far the strongest, so he took upon himself to advise them from time to time.

That was a little upsetting that the newcomer didn’t seem to realize how good and right he was, and didn’t even look impressed. They cocked an eyebrow:

“It’s just the shadow of my hand. It can’t hurt anyone.”

“You can’t be too careful!”

The new kid rolled their eyes and he wanted to slap them very hard because they were very mean, but he bit his lip and asked:

“How old are you?”

“I’m five and nearly two months.”

“Well, I’m seven”, said the elder with the solemnity reserved to grand age. “I know these things. Where are your parents?”

“I don’t have any. I have lots of teachers that put me to bed too early, before the interesting movies begin on TV.”

Baby Superhero nodded. He knew the problem.

“I’ll present you to my friends, but you have to promise to be reasonable, okay?”

There was a glint in the Baby Villain’s eye that he didn’t like, but they said yes. After a hesitation, he decided to trust them. After all, they were just one baby, and he had plenty of friends. The children tended to gravitate around him. He was like the chief of their super team! Like a Very Good Boy! After assembling all of them, he showed off his new finding, who was looking at their shoes, throwing from time to time a terrified glance to the group. He asked:

“Are you sure you want to play hide and seek ?”

He hoped that now that their distasteful choice was questioned in public, they would renounce that bad idea. It didn’t work at all. A nasty smile at the corner of their lips, they announced proudly:

“Yes, because I have powers !”

He looked with a gaped jaw in abject disbelief while this – this meanie was now puffing their chest and proudly showed to the world what they could do! This was bad! This was very bad! They were a Naughty Kid! If they were a bad example for his friends, he was the one going to be blamed! His parents were busy doing Adult Stuff right now, but there were plenty of grown-ups watching them play around the park. He was always afraid that if he slipped up, they'd point to him and say what a bad kid he was. Or maybe they’d run to his house to tell his parents what happened. That was not fair. He wanted that strawberry pie. The corners of his eyes began to itch. He wanted to cry, but only weaklings cry. With clenched fists, he looked as the other kids stood closer to the traitor to watch their stupid shadow that wasn’t even interesting. The new kid gave him a little smug smile. He hated them very much. That was the worst day ever. He wanted to go home and play with his action figures. He didn’t like his friends anymore at all. In fact, he wouldn’t like anything anymore ever.

He kicked a rock, but stayed to watch. The one who was picked to seek the others was – had been – a good friend. From time to time he invited her to play pretend in his garden with his super gun. She threw a glance at him, but he jutted his chin out and looked the other way. She still stepped towards him:

“You don’t want to play? It’ll be fun!”

He shook his head frenetically. She waved at him before joining the others, and he waved back, but resentfully. That was obviously a serious betrayal, but he stayed in the park, woefully sitting on a bench. He still had to ask her if she wanted to play this weekend at his home. Traitor or no, she had the best squirt gun.

He frowned when he saw her with the stupid shadow covering her eyes like a blindfold. While the other kids were running away, he stuck out his tongue at her. Of course, she didn’t notice and ran merrily along. That was dangerous, but he was sulking too hard to care. If she fell and hurt her knee, that would teach her! Maybe she'd cry and he'd come to her rescue with a bandage and they'd both talk about what a dumb and evil kid the newcomer was. That idea cheered him up, so he waited for his moment to come.

The moment was taking its time, though. Baby Superhero stayed on the bench for a while until he couldn’t take it anymore. Not only hide and seek was boring, but it was long. He jumped on his feet. On the other side of the park, there was the road with lots of cars. Cars weren’t really his thing, but it was better than nothing to pass the time. He could watch them without crossing the road, because crossing the road alone was very dan-

An awful noise coming from the direction he was heading hurt his ears. He stopped all of a sudden. Cars had stopped moving. He heard doors banging and screams. For a moment, he couldn’t move, but he wasn’t scared, not at all, he was very very brave, and he ran towards the commotion.

On a street, surrounded by adults, there was a tiny silhouette on the ground. He didn’t want to get closer, but he did, and he kept approaching until he saw the livid face of his friend. The shadow was still on her eyes.

She had blood on her head. Some old instinct told him that she would never get up again. Her position was too weird. She wouldn't play with her squirt gun this weekend or play any other day, ever. He turned away, got out of the street and fell down to his knees. Before he had the time to realize it, he was throwing up. At first, he was sure he wouldn't stop, but he did eventually. Panting, he wiped his mouth, trying to catch his breath. Desperate to look at something that wasn’t a corpse, he raised his head.

And then, then, he saw Baby Villain, curled up on the top of a chestnut. They were just near the accident, with a view on the road. They could have screamed to warn the cars. They could have made the blindfold disappear.

They hadn’t moved an inch.

The two children looked at each other. The wave of power that engulfed his body at this moment was so powerful he curled up on the ground, unable to endure the pain like a big boy. He barely could prevent himself from crying. Above the hurt, he vaguely heard the other mumbling:

“I-”

If they talk, I’m going to kill them. The thought that intruded in his mind was as brutal as the power swarming in his veins, urging him to do something, anything. He focused all his rage – no, not his rage, his determination – into one single sentence:

“When I grow up, I’ll destroy monsters like you.”

Next part and end here

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