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clatoera · 2 months

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Picket Fence is Sharp as Knives Chapter 5: I once believed love would be black and white...but it's golden (like daylight).

Besties. I have said it many many times but I have once again achieved it when I say that this is the longest chapter I've ever written in my entire life clocking in at 10.5k+ words. And also... I know I've also said this before but this is my favorite chapter. Ever. I have been holding back the content of this chapter for about a year now. I knew it was going to happen. I've known about this chapter as long as i've known about the fic itself. It has been a long time coming.

The title itself is like..really fun to me. I think you will understand why it's called that once you read it, if not I spell it out on AO3 but don't want to do that here in case of spoilers. I chose the name literally a year ago, I have been workshopping it ever since, but that name has never changed. The title was not why I chose it..it just serendipitously worked that way. Title is of course Taylor Swift, being from the song Daylight.

AO3

Masterpost

I need to acknowledge all my friends of course, but @kentwells actually specifically is the one who gave me the idea on the timeline and some of the drama and ultimately this chapter is for you my friend. Also of course @bodyelectric77 absolutely came through with the Gloss/Enobaria/Cashmere help, and theres a line in here she created and So I'm crediting her with it (It's specifically when Gloss and Cashmere are arguing about who gets to see her first, so that "Gloss can be her favorite since he knew her longer." Especially the last few days you've been listening to me whine, and also, you have been helping me develop this for months at this point. This is for you, too. @ohhowwehavefallen my clato queen, I know this is not your cup of tea but alas. You've known just as long as I have (almost) about the girls so.

Also: Happy Late Valentines Day

I’ve been sleeping so long in a twenty-year dark night… but now I see daylight

The week of February fourteenth is consistently one of the worst weeks of the year for victors, or at least it was before the war. The weeks comprising the Games were most certainly the worst, but after six months would pass everyone started to get that itch for their favorites. To make things worse, the Capitol held on to some odd tradition of the past–Valentine’s day they called it– a day dedicated to, ironically, love. Part of the display of…love…involved many themed parties. Most of which involved their favorite victors barely clothed (or in lingerie) and being bought and sold as the ideal gift to their twisted loved ones.

Needless to say, it’s not a day that the victors think of particularly fondly, at this point. With less than two years having passed since the war that ultimately ended their abuse, most of them were just starting to redefine the moments and periods of time that hurt them so deeply.

Thus, why Cashmere woke up later than average that particular day. Well, that was not the reason she had woken up late, but rather the woman involved in such activities. Enobaria was always up before the sun, usually having gotten in an entire workout before Cashmere willed herself out of bed. Today was absolutely no exception, and as Cash extends her arms over her head and feels the slinky feeling of silk sheets against her skin she is reminded that they are in her home this time– Enobaria, oh she loved her more than anything, but the woman refused to update her own bed beyond a high thread count cotton, and even that had been a win in Cashmere’s book.

She reaches out, and as her hands brush an empty space rather than soft skin, she knows that as usual Enobaria has already started her day. The blonde gives a pleasant little hum, stretching the length of her body through the tips of her toes, before she slides her bare skin out from under the pale pink sheets and into the cool February air of her bedroom. She starts her day fresh, never daring to rewear something off the floor that had been discarded the night prior, and chooses a properly folded silk pajama set from the bedside table. She dresses in the shorts and cute little button up top, pausing to admire the little red hearts on the baby pink satin. Yes, maybe it’s the dead of a District One winter (which are somehow miraculously warmer than those of Enoabria’s home district), but she can still be festive.

Her routine every single morning is the same– pick something to get dressed in, check the status of her hair (still almost perfectly curled from the night before, thank you very much, save for the couple of knots where fingers had spent time twisting languidly in the afterglow of...activities), and then start the extensive skincare regimen she had been following for fifteen years.

Some habits die hard, and some will never die, such as proper moisturizing.

Cashmere is sitting in front of the lighted mirror, coating her face with a deep blue clay mask, when she hears the bedroom door creak open.A small smile spreads across her face as she awaits the return of her girl.

“Hiii baby,” She calls out to Enobaria before she even sees her, twisting in her seat to greet her face to face. When she notices the little smirk on her face as she holds something out in her hand, Cashmere’s smile falters just slightly, “what’s wrong?”

Enobaria holds out Cashmere’s phone to her, a bemused smile coming to her face. “You must be very popular. I could hear it in your coat pocket all morning…got someone else looking for you for Valentine’s day?” It’s so clearly teasing in her voice, both due to the sensitive nature of their past experiences, but also to ensure that she is merely teasing. It’s not even particularly uncommon– Gloss sometimes goes on those kicks, where he calls her twenty some times just to clarify some detail when he’s mid debate with Brutus or Finnick.

“Gloss probably didn’t sleep or something,” Cash reaches out her hand, but as soon as she sees the notifications on her home screen (overlying a picture of her and Enobaria at her sister’s wedding, notably) her heart sinks.

Seventeen missed calls. Forty-two texts. All of which being from her sister or Marvel, sent to her and Gloss both.

“Something wrong?” Enobaria’s voice calls, and when Cashmere feels the hand on top of hers she realizes she was holding her breath, her skin a sickly pale underneath the exfoliating mask. “Cash? Babe? Breathe.”

“I…” She can’t find words, as all the blood rushes from her face to the pit of her stomach. Cashmere can’t look away from the open phone in her hands, staring at the picture attached to the final text. There wasn’t an identifiable face, but that scarred arm, those pink pearlescent nails Cashmere had helped her sister choose the color of yesterday morning– that was most certainly Glimmer’s hand. It wasn’t even the hand or the arm that had her stomach sinking, no, it was the fact there was most definitely a little tiny head in that hand, there was absolutely a little hand wrapped around her sister’s perfectly manicured thumb. And though she could not see a face, and though there was no caption, there was absolutely no doubt what Glimmer was trying to tell her.

Sent 1:11 a.m. February Fourteenth.

“Oh my god..” Comes first as a whisper, and then a frantic, panicked “OH MY GOD,” She flips her phone towards Enobaria before she can ask, and immediately starts wiping the still setting mask off of her face. “I..my..she…glimmer.” Cash actually cries, fanning at her face to stop tears from falling from her eyes. “Enobaria look!”

Enobaria squints at the screen, tilting her head to try to discern exactly what angle she’s looking at. “Oh is that–”

“She had a baby! Without me!” Cashmere explains, and immediately picks up a makeup brush. “I need to go over there immediately.”

“It looks like she tried to tell you, Cash.” Enobaria hands her back her phone, a bemused smile as she watches her girlfriend continue about her typical morning routine. “Is her name Sunshine or Luxury?”

“She didn’t say her name, and it was between Sunshine and Golden– why are you giving me that look?” Cashmere continues to polish foundation across her clean face, albeit a bit faster than usual, an indignant pout peeking out from behind the makeup.

“Your little sister had a baby, you said you wanted to go immediately..then you went right back to putting on makeup. I promise, she won’t remember what you look like, she probably barely opens her eyes to see anyway–”

Cashmere gasps, lips falling open in shock. “First impressions are everything, Enobaria! She may not remember but I will! Besides…what if I want a picture with my niece. Oh my god. I have a niece. My sister had a baby. My sister had a baby.”

Enobaria sits herself on the edge of the bed with a soft smile, watching Cashmere silently speed through her makeup routine, every once in a while pausing to stare straight down so the tears can fall out of her eyes and onto the floor rather than down her face. Cashmere loves deeply, and Enobaria never can get past the fact she gets to experience being part of that.

Cashmere is shuffling through the closet, holding up various options for Enobaria to judge, when her phone lights up again.

“Look at that, looks like Gloss just woke up too. I’d pay to be a fly on the wall next door right now, I’m shocked we didn’t hear him scream through the walls.” Enobaria nods towards the lit-up screen, where Cashmere’s brother was already responding.

On my way right now.

Cashmere throws both outfits she holds in her hands down, and is frantically sliding her slippers on to run down stairs.

“Cash? Where are you-”

“Gloss cannot beat me to that baby.” She calls back up, before she opens the front door to that chilling February air in her seasonally inappropriate pajamas. “Bye Enobaria! Love you!”

Enobaria can barely slip out an “I love you too,” before the door slams behind Cashmere.

Cashmere full on runs across the street in her slippers and pajamas, careful not to slip on the icy street, nearly making it all the way to Glimmer’s front door when something absolutely collides into her from the side.

“What do you think you’re doing-” Gloss taunts, wrapping his arms around his sister’s waist to pull her back, and push her gently a few feet behind him. “I’m meeting her first,”

“Like hell you are-” Cashmere kicks her legs helplessly against his knees, and as soon as he puts her down she slides right between him and the door. “You aren’t claiming to know her longer, Gloss, I’m not stupid, you’ve done that with Glimmer for twenty four years.”

“Well I am her favorite, I did meet her first.” Gloss slides his arm right in front of Cash, wedging himself flush against Glimmer’s front double doors.

“Yeah by ten seconds!” Cashmere tries to slip in front of his legs, fully intending to trip him when the door opens to give herself a couple seconds of a head start. It does not feel like they are in their thirties, but rather the little six year olds excitedly sitting on the bottom of their staircase waiting for their mother to let them see their new little sister.

“Ten seconds is still ten seconds more than you’ve known her-”

Gloss is interrupted when the doors swing open, and Cashmere does succeed in tripping him– directly on top of her.

“Good morning!” Marvel greets as he swings open the door, and instinctively steps out of the way just in time for Gloss to come down on top of his sister to avoid being brought into the pile himself. “Lots of patience this morning I see..”

“You landed on my nose, Gloss.” Cashmere whines, pushing the body of her brother off of her, before rolling out from under him. “My knees are going to bruise– Marvel! Where is my sister!”

“Nice to see you too, Cash.” He jokes lightheartedly, a tired but teasing smile unable to be wiped from his face. Any real malice between them had been wiped away when he married their sister late last summer, as soon as they could possibly do so while having the wedding Glimmer wanted. Now, it was just the teasing air of near siblings between him and the twins, a welcome energy for the now orphaned boy who grew up with no siblings of his own anyway. “She’s right in there–”

He does not get to finish his directions before Cashmere gracefully jumps over her brother’s body and nearly runs into the living room just beyond the entrance way.

Cashmere feels like her legs are going to give out from under her when she sees her little sister.

Glimmer is curled up in the middle of the couch, legs crossed under her, looking not too different from Cashmere. From what Cash can see from under the fuzzy blanket on her lap, she’s even got on the same pajamas–not surprising considering who they were. When she flashes her older sister a tired smile she somehow looks both more exhausted and yet happier than Cashmere has ever seen her.

The most notable difference, of course, is the little tiny baby in Glimmer’s left arm.

“Hi, Cashy.” Glimmer whispers softly, looking up at her older sister before down at the baby in her arm..at her baby in her arms. “Come over here,”

“Hi Glimmy…” Cashmere whispers just as softly, a full 180 from the loud, aggressive way she pushed past her brother literal moments prior. “You had the baby!” Awe fills her voice as she approaches her sister, lowering herself to the space directly next to her sister so close that their legs pressed together.

“I had a baby.” Glimmer agrees, leaning her head on her sister’s shoulder and letting out a heavy sigh, clearly exhausted more than she wanted to let on. “I had a baby.”

Glimmer props the baby in the bend of her elbow up into her hand so Cashmere can get a good look at her. She was little, absolutely swimming in the little red outfit Glimmer had her dressed in. Looking closer Cashmere realized what she thought were pink polka dots were individually embroidered hearts all over her, without a doubt the work of her sister. In the exact same shade of pink as the hearts was a little bow on her head, that somehow looked massive compared to the impossibly little size of this baby. Despite even the bow Cashmere could see this baby had a lot of blonde hair on her itty bitty head.

“She’s so tiny!” Cashmere reaches her hand out to run her finger over the little round cheek of her niece– god she had a niece, her sister had a real, live baby– and her fingertips grazed the tips of blonde hair. “When I saw you yesterday I didn’t think you were going to have a baby.”

“She definitely did not feel tiny at the end there, but yeah..she is. She’s not even five entire pounds, she’s so much smaller than I thought she would be!” Glimmer smiles as her new baby scrunches her nose at the sound of a new voice, but doesn’t quite feel drawn to open her eyes to take in the faces associated with it yet. “I…had a feeling she was coming today. But you were talking about your plans with Enobaria and you were so excited! I figured they wouldn’t get here until tonight and I could call you this afternoon..she had her own plans I guess. She’s just dramatic.”

“Glimmer! You could have told me you were having a baby, Enobaria would have understood.” Cashmere tsks in disbelief, but doesn’t look away from the baby for even a minute.

“Well you’re here now. And she’s only like…ten hours old. So you didn’t miss much. And she is soooo much cuter now, she was all squished when she came out I was worried she wasn’t going to be cute–” Glimmer stops herself, instead grounding herself in the way her sister so reverently touched her daughter. “...do you want to hold her, Cash?”

“Do I?! Of course–” Cashmere doesn’t even get the chance to finish before Glimmer is oh so gently transferring the baby to her awaiting arms. “Oh..” It feels like her heart is in her throat as she feels the weight of this tiny little girl in her arms, and she feels those tears rushing to her eyes faster than she can stop them. “I’m going to cry my makeup right off onto her!”

“She’ll still think you’re beautiful, I promise.” Glimmer muses, a content smile a permanent fixture on her face as she rests her chin on Cashmere’s shoulder. “I’m obsessed with her.”

“She looks just like you.” The older blonde admits with nothing short of reverence for the little person her sister made. “You looked just like this.”

“Hey. This isn’t fair!” Comes the teasing voice of Gloss at the same time he sits himself firmly on the other side of Glimmer. “How come she got to hold her first?”

“You held Glimmer first, it’s only fair.” Cash teases, but doesn’t even look over at her brother, not daring to look away from the little baby who somehow slept so peacefully despite all the noise.

“What’s her name?” Gloss reaches across his sisters to touch his niece’s little onesie covered foot, causing her to retract it up towards her chest.

“Well… we spent a lot of time thinking about it.” Glimmer begins, glancing up and giving an almost imperceivable nod to Marvel that is missed by her siblings who were too enamored with her daughter to notice. “Obviously she doesn’t have our last name but..everyone knows how good Belcourt gold is.” Neither of her siblings look at her, both absolutely wonderstruck by the person she created. “We wanted something that was pretty but not too District One. I’ve been called Glitter and Shimmer more times than I can count and Marvel..he’s called Marble half the time.”

Glimmer glances up when she sees Marvel in the corner of the room, and gives a sly smile neither of her siblings see as she watches him lean down to scoop something pink into his arms.

“Her name’s Aurelia. It means Golden. Gold. Something like that. We thought it was pretty. It meant what we wanted.” Glimmer reaches out and puts her hand on top of her sister’s. “Aurelia Cashmere. Because we couldn’t entirely abandon a District One name.”

Cashmere’s head shoots up, and she can barely see her sister through the tears that are completely obscuring her vision. “Really? You…really?”

“I would not have survived without you. I wouldn’t be here.” Glimmer admits with her own tears brimming at her eyes, and with the hand not co-holding her daughter she wipes them away.

Marvel goes mostly unnoticed by Cashmere and Gloss, until he is standing directly in front of them and his voice breaks through the Belcourt siling reverie. “...and this is her sister.”

Glimmer is glad she has a hold on her baby when both of her siblings’ whip their heads up to face her husband, and she can’t help the genuine laugh that escapes her at the gasp they let out in unison.

“What- huh- where- what!” Gloss whips his head between Marvel and Glimmer, his mouth actually hanging agape. “Where did you get that one?”

“From me.” Glimmer feels a smirk coming to her face as she sits up straight between them, feeling confident in Cashmere’s grasp on Aurelia before she faces her brother. “We didn’t steal a second one.”

“Fun fact. The type of twin that the girls are is completely unrelated to the type of twin you two are. We thought that was what happened but…nope! I’m just lucky! Buy one get one free babies!” Marvel sits on the wooden coffee table in front of them, his other daughter sleeping peacefully in his right arm. Much like Glimmer he has a seemingly permanent smile etched on to his face, which somehow gets even wider when he looks down at the slightly bigger baby in his arms. She’s dressed opposite of her sister, in a little pink onesie with the same hand embroidered hearts (only in red) and the corresponding red bow.

“Do you want to hold her?” Glimmer addresses her brother, nodding towards the baby Marvel holds. “There’s one for each of you.”

“Absolutely I do, what kind of question is that?” Gloss takes his other niece from his brother-in-law, and somehow despite being the bigger baby she looks even smaller in his massive arms. “Where the hell were you hiding a second one in there Glimmer, you were tiny.”

“Your guess is as good as mine. She’s the bigger one, though. She’s just over five pounds, but even together, that's less than ten pounds of baby.” Glimmer reaches out to adjust the red bow on the other baby’s tiny blonde head. “They’re identical, and they’re kinda early so…that probably helped.” She leans back on the couch, letting her twin siblings hold her twin daughters, and sighs in contentment that they finally knew the secret she’s held for nearly nine months.

“...you knew they’d come today because you knew they’d be early because there were two.” Cashmere mumbles in understanding, leaning over to look at her other niece, absolutely identical to the one she holds in her arms. “Why didn’t you tell us! I have to go home and order another one of everything I’ve bought for her…them…whichever! I need to go order double now!”

“Well…” Glimmer lifts her eyes to meet Marvel’s, and gives him a tired, but delighted grin. “After…everything…when I found out I was pregnant-”

“And everyone we know knew before me-” Marvel interrupts playfully, getting a teasing kick on the ankle from Glimmer.

“....and everyone but Marvel knew… We just wanted to keep it a secret. Just for us.” Glimmer admits, leaning back forward to appreciate the awestruck look of her siblings as they looked back and forth between her daughters.

“...I told you, Cash.” Gloss teases, looking between their nieces. “I had that feeling there were two.”

“...why did you think that?” Glimmer raises a suspicious eyebrow, trying to understand the hidden communication between her siblings. In that moment she realizes she will have to try to understand this twin telepathy between her own daughters one day as well, before she is brought back to the question at hand.

“He didn’t think it! He made a joke one time that it would be your luck. Don’t believe him..” Cashmere narrows her blue eyes, before choosing to focus instead on Aurelia in her arms.

Cashmere gives Gloss a look, and gestures her head down to the baby in her arms. For a second Glimmer thinks they’re going to trade, but when Gloss hands over the baby he held Cashmere maintains her grip on them both. If she were sobbing before she is completely inconsolable now as she holds both of her sister’s little girls in her arms.

Gloss takes the moment to wrap an arm around Glimmer’s shoulders and kiss the crown of her head. “We’re proud of you. Even if you are our favorite little unwed mother with her bastard children–”

“Hey! We got married as soon as we could!” Marvel defends, but doesn’t press on the issue when he realizes that Glimmer is narrowing her eyes playfully before rolling them at her brother’s antics.

“But I will always be able to do the math of which came first. And I know which came first. Don’t forget that.” He warns Marvel, and there is an edge to his voice that just might not be entirely joking. “Give me the other baby, Cash.”

He gives her no time to argue and simply slips his arms underneath Aurelia, pulling the tiniest girl right into his arms. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say her name is unfortunately, not girl glossy, as I seem to remember you liking when you were little.”

Glimmer lets the baby Cash remains holding wrap her little hand around her finger, and gives Gloss an appreciative, yet sleepy, smile. “Unfortunately, no. We did say that if one had been a boy, his middle name would have been Gloss and if I have a boy in the future, that will be his middle name. But they’re both my girls…and we’ve known they were both girls for a while now.”

“I seem to remember a little four year old girl who insisted girl Glossy and Cashy were the only acceptable names for her dolls, because the only names twins could have were Cashmere and Gloss.” Gloss taunts, but flashes her a reassuring smile to assure her there’s no real offense taken. The longer he looks at her the more he can see the four year old little girl she once was, with those two little blonde baby dolls she carried everywhere with her, that somehow became a twenty four year old girl with another set of two blonde little babies.

Glimmer leans back against the back of the couch, and tucks herself more firmly under the plush white blanket. She looks from her siblings holding her children, to the man who can’t take his eyes off of her. As she twists her wedding rings around her finger, Glimmer feels the happiest she has ever been in her entire life.

“Yeah, well, fortunately for my daughters, that little girl grew up.” She teases, before revealing the name of their other daughter.

—————————————————————————————————

“Alright, Cato. Final guess. Baby or trying to guilt us into doing something for them?” Clove crosses her arms over her chest as they continue to wait on the front porch of Glimmer and Marvel’s house.

“It’s got to be they want us to do something. Marvel would have sent some grossly sappy text if she had the baby. They’re definitely going to guilt you into making them dinner again. Or Marvel has something else he needs help building.” Cato leans against the frame of the porch, crossing his ankle over the opposite one impatiently. “I hope it isn’t a baby. Isn’t she supposed to come in March or something?”

“I dunno, they called us twenty-two times. That feels bigger than shrimp scampi.” Clove slides her fingers under the hem of Cato’s shirt, warming her freezing hands against the heat of his skin. “Marvel’s still got splinters from the swing-set, anyway.”

“At least his wrist healed and he can hold the baby if that's what it is. He’s the only person I know who could win an entire Hunger Games but somehow break his wrist by building a kid’s toy.” Cato wraps both arms around her shoulders, pulling her close enough that the heat that rolled off of him could directly warm her in the brisk winter weather. “I just really hope her name isn’t actually sunlight or whatever, I don’t think I can seriously call a child that without laughing at her every single time. Enobaria’s bet is on the other one.. Gold or something else ridiculous.”

“You know we are right on the other side of the door, right?” Marvel swings the front door open, glaring at his two friends. “And it wasn’t Sunlight. It was Sunshine.”

Clove buries her face in Cato’s chest to stifle a laugh, before letting herself into the house right past Marvel without the invitation to do so. They had spent plenty of time together to be beyond formalities at this point. “At least it isn’t Astonishment or Amazing, right Marvelous?” Clove taunts, kicking off her shoes as soon as she’s in the door. “Let me guess… you want me to teach you how to make tomato soup to go with that grilled cheese now, right?”

Marvel doesn’t even get a chance to answer as Cato and Clove simply let themselves into the house, heading right to the living room as if they live there (and to be fair, they once did).

“What the Fuck.” Slips oh so eloquently out of Clove’s mouth the moment she sees Glimmer on the recliner, curled up with something very very very clearly laying in her arms.

Once the twins had left a couple of hours ago, Glimmer found that the recliner was significantly more comfortable to hold and feed both girls at the same time in, and as such had taken a permanent place in for the time being.

“Nice to see you too, Clove.” Glimmer teases, rubbing tiny circles on her baby’s back, the tiny girl feeling even smaller as she swims in the too-big pink onesie. “What a great first thing to say to my baby!” Unlike when Cashmere and Gloss had come hours ago, the baby was far more awake now, little green eyes looking around hazily at the world around her but never seeing much beyond her mother who held her.

“She better get used to it eventually,” Clove says, though there is a softness in her voice that is so beyond anything Glimmer has ever heard from her, as she quickly closes the space between them. Clove sits on the arm of the chair, looking down at the little girl in Glimmer’s arm. “Oh my god you two are wearing matching clothes. Of course you are.”

Unlike Cashmere, Clove does not dare to touch her. She knows there are tiny little feet hidden in the bottom of that heart covered onesie, but all she can picture is the way her skin crawled when Glimmer tried to get her to feel those same feet through her skin only a week or two ago.

“How old is she?” Cato comes to the other side of Glimmer, also glancing down at the little baby she cradled so close to her. Unlike his wife he does not have any fear of the baby, and reaches down to touch her tiny hand that is smaller than his fingertip. “She’s tiny.”

“She was born just after midnight.” Marvel answers, this time joining the three of them. He didn’t need to give Glimmer a moment alone like he had with her siblings– it was different, with the four of them. “She’s just over five pounds.”

“...you had a baby fifteen hours ago?” Clove raises her head after she calculates quickly. “And you’re home? Just..hanging out?”

“I have a lot of bad memories in like..medical settings. I wanted out as soon as I could. And they said we were all okay so..we got to come home this morning.” Glimmer smiles down at her daughter, glancing up at Clove. “And she’s gotten much cuter in the last fifteen hours! When she came out she was all squishy and I was crying…only slightly because I thought she was going to be ugly. I didn’t know how we made an ugly baby I mean look at us but–”

“She was not ugly Glim,” Marvel lectures gently, but rubs a tired hand down the side of his face. “She was just..she wasn’t ugly. She was never going to ever possibly be ugly, look at you.”

“Anyway! She’s gotten much cuter!” Glimmer explains with a warm, truly joyful smile as she brings the baby down to rest on her propped up knees, fitting perfectly in the crease between her thighs where both Cato and Clove could look at her more completely.

“You look so so happy.” Clove admits, slightly in awe. Despite the fact that her braids were a little frizzy and she did look somewhat tired…Glimmer was nothing short of truly glowing. She had never seen her so genuinely happy in all the time she had known her.

“I have never been happier in my entire life, Clove. I’m tired, and I’m not feeling great physically but, god Clove. I have never been happier.” Glimmer looks down at her daughter, who’s already fallen back completely asleep with her face on the silk of her mother’s pajamas. “Clove..do you want to hold her?”

“Huh? Um..you know what, I don’t think that’s a great idea, I haven’t practiced and she’s really important and I don’t know if I want to risk it-” Clove almost rambles, and takes just a slight step back away from Glimmer and the baby in her arms.

“She was scared of my sister, too, back when she was a baby.” Cato teases, an amused smirk on his face as he watches the way his tough, scary wife seems almost afraid of this little baby.

“I’m not scared of her, I don’t want to hurt her, she’s little and I've never done it and–” Clove insists, taking half a step back before Glimmer reaches out and gently grabs her at her wrist.

“Clove. Ask me her name.” Glimmer directs, gently pulling her friend’s hand and giving Clove no choice but to touch her little foot hat she was so scared of weeks ago. “Ask me what I named my daughter.”

Clove stares with wide, fear filled green eyes as Glimmer gives her no choice but to touch the tiny features of this child. She feels a tightness in her throat as Glimmer brings her hand just high enough that the baby can wrap the entirety of her hand around just one of Clove’s lithe fingers. “....what’s her name?’”

“Her name is Stella.” Glimmer begins, pulling her hand up to rest on top of Clove’s, so she can not shrink away from the baby’s grasp suddenly.

“Oh thank god it isn’t actually sunshine,” Cato audibly sighs in relief, and Marvel has to physically pull him away before Glimmer would get a chance to get any injury on him.

“Stella means sunlight, actually. Sunshine..sunlight..sun..something. It means what we wanted it to. She’s our little sunshine.” Marvel explains, gently running the back of his hand over Glimmer’s knee absently.

“In District One there’s sort of traditions when it comes to names. I know you think we have ridiculous names, and maybe we do. But when it comes to middle names, it’s sort of a tradition to name them after someone you would trust with them. Or that you want them to be like. Or who means a lot to you. We kind of did all of the above.” Glimmer starts, glancing up at Clove to see if she could understand where she was heading with her explanation, but the way she is frozen with her eyes on the baby tells Glimmer that no, she’s not quite grasping it yet. “My middle name comes from my mom’s best friend. So does hers..”

Cato must catch on, because he lets out a soft “oh,” before his hand comes up to squeeze Glimmer’s shoulder gently in recognition and appreciation.

“....her name is Stella Clove.” Glimmer spells out, squeezing Clove’s hand where she is holding it to the baby.

The news is enough to pull Cato and Clove’s attention both enough to Glimmer that Marvel is able to slip to the other side of the room again, just as he had done when Glimmer’s siblings came to meet their children.

Clove is able to direct her eyes first to Cato, then finally is able to meet Glimmer’s eyes as she holds her hand even tighter. “You..thats-that's my name.”

“Because we love you, Clove. We have gone through hell together, all of us, Clove.” Marvel chimes in from across the room, but none of them look over at him. Clove is locked in on Glimmer and the baby, and Cato is watching Clove.

“You were quite literally tortured with Marvel. Cato and I only survived in Thirteen with the thought of you two. And then you single handedly helped me get better. You fed me, and made me feel safe, and gave me something to do in planning your wedding…you taught Marvel to cook, you fed me for the last two years. I got better enough to have her because of you. And besides, Clove. You’re my best friend. I trust you with her.”

“...and we’d trust you with her sister, too.” Marvel calls out from directly in front of Cato and Clove, little miss Aurelia now sleeping in his arms, and once again he gets the reaction that he waited nine entire months for.

Clove gasps in newfound fear, “Oh my god..what the-did you know there were going to be two or was that a surprise, please tell me you knew there was going to be two–”

“Holy shit you had a whole litter Glimmer!” Cato’s jaw drops in disbelief, but instead of the genuine fear in Clove’s eyes at the thought of a second surprise child Glimmer didn’t know of, he’s beyond thrilled at this grand reveal. “Oh this is so cool! Is there a third somewhere too?”

“Excuse me, I did not have a litter, Cato. There were two. That’s a normal amount of babies.” Glimmer sits forward indignantly, holding out her empty arm to take her second daughter into her arms. “And yes, Clove, I knew there were two. Don’t worry, you aren’t going to have a surprise twins one day, I promise.”

“How long have you known there were two?” Cato grins even wider somehow, looking at the two girls in their coordinating outfits snuggled into Glimmer’s arms.

“We’ve known…hmm at least a month or so before the wedding, right?” Glimmer confirms with Marvel, glancing down at both her babies, who fit so perfectly in her arms it’s as if they were made to be there (and they were). “And we’ve known they were both girls for about that long, too.”

“We didn’t tell anyone since everyone knew about them before me.” Marvel reminds them with a playful little smile, reaching over to let Stella hold his finger, now. “I’ve been waiting nine months to see people’s reaction and no one has disappointed yet.”

Cato cocks his head to the side, looking at the size of the two babies as if he is imagining them smushed together in a small space. “I can’t figure out how two fit.”

Clove has settled herself on the floor next to the rest of them, leaning forward to rest her head in her hands so she can settle her breathing and calm her mind from the way it spins a million miles a minute. “...I’ve been calculating how much you need to eat based on one baby, have we been starving the other?! Is that why they’re so small?”

“Trust me, Clove, I ate plenty. They’re very healthy girls. They’re just small because there were two of them sharing me.” Glimmer assured her, before drawing her attention back to her identical girls in her arms.

“How can you tell them apart? Are you going to color code them?” Cato lowers himself next to Clove, bringing his hand up to rub circles on her back, trying to comfort her as she tries her best to ground herself back in reality. “What's the other one’s name?”

“No, we aren’t going to color code them, Cato. We’ll figure it out. We’re their parents.” Marvel shakes his head with a silly smile, before taking the same twin from earlier from his wife. “Stella is in the pink. The one in the red, this is Aurelia.”

“Those are such normal names! Good job.” Cato leans over to get a good look at the other baby, and sure enough, she was absolutely identical to the first. “What’s that one mean?”

“Aurelia means Gold, and my family was in gold distribution before the war.” Glimmer explains, before she brings the baby up to her shoulder where she curls up almost immediately against her mother’s chest. She absently kisses the top of her little blonde hair, closing her eyes for just a moment to soak in the fresh, new baby smell of her.

“....you mean you really did name them golden and sunshine? I thought that was a joke when Finnick told me you liked Sunshine and Enobaria mentioned Golden. I thought this was all fake.” Cato raises a blonde eyebrow, glancing between the two of them. “That’s unbelievable.”

“I thought it was funny to tell people different names, when they were technically the right names. It’s been fun to watch the infighting. Gloss was so convinced he was given the right name he started having things embroidered with her initials.” Marvel explains, bringing Aurelia’s little fist up to his mouth so he can kiss her hand gently. “Fortunately we told him sunshine so fortunately Stella has the same initials.”

“You had twins fifteen hours ago and are already home?” Clove reiterates her awe from earlier, finally looking up at her friend in absolute utter disbelief. “Where did you hide the second one? You’re so tiny. I can’t believe this. These babies were literally inside of you like..yesterday.”

“They were both in there, I promise, Clove.” Glimmer assures her yet again, nothing but amusement on her pretty face, resting her cheek on top of her girl’s soft little head. “We didn’t steal one.”

“...which one is the runt of the litter?” Cato pipes up, looking between Glimmer and Marvel both, sizing up the babies they respectively held. He points at the one Marvel holds, judging that to be the littler one. “That one. Can I hold her? I want to be her favorite.”

“For fucks sake they aren’t a litter, they’re twins, and yes Aurelia is smaller. Yes, you can hold her, if you stop calling her the runt.” Glimmer warns playfully as Marvel shifts the smaller of the babies to Cato’s arms.

As Marvel oh so gently places Aurelia in his arms, Cato glances up at his friend. “What’s it like?”

“The best thing that I've ever experienced in my entire life.” Marvel admits with the most genuine, happy smile Cato had ever actually seen from him. After all those days he had watched him yearn after Glimmer… he’d most certainly earned it.

If she looked small before, she looks absolutely unreal compared to the sheer size of Cato’s arms.

“That baby is the size of your hand.” Clove murmurs in literal awe, moving closer to Cato so she can get a better look at the way his arm wraps around such a small human. She reaches out and grabs the hand that is not holding the baby, and holds it directly next to her entire body. “Literally, Cato. She is the size of your hand.”

“She’s actually smaller than my hand when she’s all curled up like this.” Cato points out, but he can’t help but absolutely light up as the baby squirms to get comfortable in his arms.“Is she smaller because you made us tighten your dress so much at your wedding?”

“Make it tighter.” Glimmer leans forward, hands bracing on the wall in front of her to push her shoulders closer together to give them more room to tighten the corset back of her dress. It was the one and only tight part of the entire dress, the bodice of which she had painstakingly hand beaded for weeks, before the dress ballooned out over her hips into a full ivory silk skirt. This was the one and only part she needed tightened, and by god she was going to have it done.

“Glimmer, we have it as tight as we can…” Cashmere assures, tugging the very top of the dress tighter so Clove could get any extra tension on the silky laces, which fails. “It looks great-”

“It can get tighter. Listen to me, I absolutely refuse to look pregnant in these pictures, you are going to get this tight enough.” Glimmer snaps over her shoulder, linking eyes with her sister-in-law of sorts from across the room. “Enobaria get over here and fix it.”

“Glimmer, you are pregnant though, and literally every one of us here knows that.” Enobaria tries, but the desperate look in Cashmere’s big eyes staring at her has her coming over to help anyway. She gently pushes Clove to the side, and twists the laces in her hands before giving a firm tug that does not budge the dress even an inch. “This isn’t coming any tighter.”

“Like hell it isn’t. I made this dress, I know how tight it can go.” Glimmer warns, ignoring the fact she had made it five pounds ago. She grabs Clove by the upper arm before directing her, “go get Finnick, Cato, and Gloss.”

“Glimmer you’re not even that pregnant, you don’t look it at all. What are you like..three months? You look great!” Cashmere tries, but the look of rage in Glimmer’s eyes is not one to be messed with, and she quickly agrees with a frantic nod “...yeah Clove, go get Cato, Gloss, and Finnick.”

“All three?” Clove raises an eyebrow in disbelief, resting her hands on her hips hesitantly. “I feel like that's extreme. Who’s going to keep Marvel from having too many mimosas, you know that man loves a mimosa, if no one's there to babysit-”

“Get them. Now.”

Clove’s hands come up in defeat as she slips out the bedroom door to track down the boys, and she says a silent prayer that at least one of them is coherent enough to actually help.

She returned a few moments later, with all three of the requested men in her presence, and fortunately mostly coherent.

“Don’t you look cute in your little pink dress.” Cato teases his wife on the walk by, leaning in to kiss the shoulder the one is not covered by the mauve pink satin, pinching where the fabric gathers at her waist on his walk by. “Is the glitter supposed to be there or is that from Glimmer?”

“Aww, Glimmy you look so pretty in your shotgun wedding dress.” Gloss grins, nudging Cashmere out of the way to take her place holding the top of the dress shut. “You can’t even tell you’re pregnant, you did a good job on this!”

“Oh shut up.” Glimmer scowls at her brother, getting beyond annoyed at the sound of all of them even breathing at this point until her dress was fixed. “Cato. You’re the one who will be least afraid to hurt me, You need to make this tighter.”

“Tighter where? I could literally wrap both my hands around your waist, Glimmer.” Finnick teases, coming around to stand in front of Glimmer so he can force the fabric shut from another angle. It is clear from the way he so effortlessly slides into position that he already knows how to do this from many days and nights together in the Capitol as teenagers.

“I don’t want to crush your kid. What if it comes out all fucked up? You’ll blame me.” Cato hesitates, unwilling to take the strings from Enobaria’s waiting hands. Clove stifles a laugh behind his broad shoulders, where Glimmer could not see, and gently nudges him forward.

“Will you just fucking do what I ask? For once you can stop running your mouth and just do it?” Glimmer hisses at him, bracing her arms on Finnck’s shoulders.

“Well if you’re going to be bitchy.” Cato grabs the lacing from Enobaria’s hand and twists it firmly around his two middle fingers. “Hold it tight.” He directs Finnick and Gloss both, before he gives a firm tug with his hands, somehow managing to pull the dress at least an inch tighter by sheer force, before he transfers the taut strings to Clove’s dexterous hands for her to tie it off far more prettily than he would have. “Don’t bitch at me when you can’t breathe.”

And when, after the pictures are over, and Glimmer needs to literally be cut out of the corset by Clove so that she can take a deep breath, she does not dare complain.

At least her pictures look good.

“..no, Cato, you did not make my baby small by tightening my wedding dress. You did not crush her.”

Glimmer once again gathers Clove’s attention, gently tapping her knee with her foot. “You will not hurt her, Clove. It would mean a lot to me if you would hold her. I trust you. You won’t hurt her. Please?”

Clove braces herself, and gives such a small nod of assent. Cato makes it look so easy, and there is something about the boyish smile on his face that makes her wonder if there is some magic to be unlocked in holding one of them. Besides, she can’t hurt Glimmer’s feelings, not over something as important as this.

Glimmer gives a relieved smile and oh so gently places her daughter in the arms of her best friend. Despite the fact Clove feels paralyzed by fear of hurting her or dropping her or somehow harming her she can’t help but smile at the tiny girl in her arms. She feels like she’s warming up a little, when the little girl settles contently against her. “Oh...she’s so little Glimmer…and she looks like you!”

“Thank god for that.” Cato mumbles in agreement, as Marvel feigns offense in the background, but does voice his own agreement that yes, thank god these little girls look like their mother.

Glimmer relaxes against Marvel’s arms as he wraps them around her shoulders, kissing the top of her head as he does so. They watch as Cato and Clove sit side by side on the living room floor, each with a different variation of their best friends’ daughters in their arms.

Clove finds her eyes lingering a little too long, not on the little girl she holds, but on the size of Cato’s arms compared to the baby in his. She trails her eyes from his arms to his face, and there’s something in the way he looks at the little girl that she cannot exactly name, but the twisted feeling it creates in her stomach makes her think maybe she wants to see that look again. She doesn’t quite understand what that feeling she gets watching him with the baby is, but has a feeling that she may want to understand it. It feels like something has grabbed her heart and is pulling it directly through her throat when she catches the way he just smiles at the tiny little baby in his arms. At some point, the frozen look of fear melts into a smile of her own.

There’s a wriggling in her arms that redirects her attention to the baby she herself holds, and when that same baby wraps the entirety of her hand around Clove’s little finger, and beyond any reason she understands, she want to hold her closer. Maybe it is because this is first baby she’s every held, or maybe it’s because she is the baby of her best friend.

Cato looks up just in time to miss Clove looking at him, and maybe it’s a blessing, because he gets to spend just a few seconds watching her smile at the little blonde baby in her arms.

——————————————————————————————————

“That was the best shower I have ever taken in my entire life.” Glimmer announces proudly from the adjoining bathroom that connects to the bedroom where she knows Marvel waits. She tightens the soft pink bathrobe at her waist, before leaning forward and letting the towel in her hair fall to the floor. “I could see my feet again.” She muses, grabbing a brush and starting to brush out the tangles of wet waves that soak her shoulders. “And make the water as hot as I wanted….and be in my own body alone.”

(Not that she minded sharing of course.)

Glimmer sets down the brush as she looks around absently for her own pajamas that she had set out- something she could finally wear again now that she had (what she felt, at least) significantly decreased in size in the past twenty four hours. She settled on something both comfortable and convenient for the fact she had two needy little babies, and as comfortable as she had grown in Marvel’s sweaters, that would certainly come back to bite her in the middle of the night.

She’s looking at herself in the mirror, doing her absolute best not to poke at her face or spend too long looking at body. It had given her not one but two little girls; two little girls she had dreamed of her entire life. How could she betray her body by hating it now?

“Babe?” Glimmer calls out again, when she realizes he has yet to get a response from her husband. She goes to peak out into the bedroom, which at least has the lights still on, when she asks again, “Are you sleeping?”

She feels her heart flutter when she actually sees him, most certainly awake, but leaning against the headboard with a baby in each of his arms. He isn’t looking up at her, instead absolutely absorbing every little detail of the babies who were less than an entire day old still.

He half whispers, still not looking away from their newborn daughters he holds in his arms, “I don’t want to wake them up.”

“I love you.” Rolls off of her tongue so easily she couldn’t stop it if she tried– and god she doesn’t want to.

As Glimmer slowly closes the gap, crawling into bed beside him and laying her head on his shoulder so she can look at their daughters with him. She can’t help but feel a little guilty. There was a time when she was so willing to rob them all of this. Not only herself and Marvel, but even robbing her daughters of a father who looked at them like that.

Glimmer pulls herself out of her own mind and her hand reaches up to find his face, turning his chin to face her so she can kiss him with as much love and adoration as her exhausted body can muster. The events of the last 24 hours are starting to catch up with her, but she is not letting this moment and this memory slip away from her. She pulls away and rest her forehead against his, their noses just grazing across each others. “I love you so so much.”

“I love you too.” He promises, and the smile on his face assures her that he absolutely means it. “I don’t have a free hand to hold you right now. But I would if I could.”

“I see that.” Glimmer giggles, pulling her head back down to rest on his shoulder, stifling a yawn into his skin. “We have two babies.”

“One for each arm!” Marvel jokes lightly, looking at the two absolutely identical girls in each of his arms. Now in their little matching pink pajamas they were actually identical..they’d be so easy to mix up.

Not to their parents of course, who insisted they could feel a difference in their weight. Marvel insisted one had eyes just slightly a different shade than Glimmer’s, and Glimmer insisted she could just tell because she knew which one was on which side and she just knew their personalities.

They had swore they weren’t just going to name them based on birth order, and they absolutely weren’t telling anyone which one was older. She listened to enough arguments of Gloss holding being the older twin over Cashmere that she would lose her mind hearing the same in her own home.

Glimmer insisted she’d know which one should be which, and sure enough she insisted Stella was Stella and Aurelia was Aurelia. Who was Marvel to argue?

“Really one for each of us,” Glimmer teases, reaching down to scoop miss Stella into her arms. She tucks her directly on her skin under the buttons of her shirt, letting the baby snuggle her face right under her collarbones.

“This is the coolest thing i’ve ever done. Literally the best day of my entire life. And I didn’t even do anything!” Marvel insists, shifting Aurelia forward so her body was held in his hands rather than his arm.

“Well. Technically you did something just..nine months ago. But! You handled the blood so well.” Glimmer assures him, rubnning her fingers over Stella’s head full of hair. “They have your curly hair, did you notice that?” She points out with a soft smile, looking over at the hint of curls on her other baby’s head too.

“I did my best.” He laughs softly, before brushing his fingers over his twin’s head. “Thank god they really do look like you though. Just like you.” He brings one hand up to hold her face as he kisses her cheek, before he motions to get out of bed. “ Take her, too. I have to go get something.”

“Mmkay.” Glimmer slips Aurelia onto her skin just like her sister, melting at the way they seemed to gravitate towards each other naturally. Of course they did– they never knew life apart from each other or from Glimmer, for that matter.

“Hello my little loves.” She whispers to them both, and though they both are fully asleep, she continues to talk to them anyway. “I know you don’t know me yet, but i’m your mama.” She feels her voice crack before she hears it. It’s words she never thought she’d say, something she relinquished nine years ago out of love.

Looking at them now, she knows it was the right decision. She’d never survive knowing her daughters would share the same fate as her. She wouldn’t survive their victory nor their deaths. No matter the outcome, the devastation would have killed her. They can probably feel the way her heart pounds in her chest at even the thought, which is somehow infinitely more horrific now that those little girls she dreamed of have faces and names. “I’m your mother.”

She thought there would be nothing better in the world than holding her daughters. She had dreamed of it for twenty years, and even once she had long given up on the blonde, green eyed little girls in her dreams she never stopped imagining how it would feel. Somehow, someway, it is the best thing she has ever felt.

It feels even better knowing that unlike her, unlike their father, unlike Cashmere, unlike Gloss, Finnick, Johanna, unlike even Cato and Clove they would be safe. They’re safe.

“Are you okay?” Startles her back into reality, and though she can’t wipe away the tears that now freely flow down her face, Marvel reaches down and does. “What’s wrong?”

“They’re safe.” Glimmer explains, leaning her head back against the headboard so that the tears she cries do not land on her babies but rather run down her face. “We have two little girls and they’re going to be safe. We’re parents.”

“We’re parents.” He reiterates, and the awe in his voice is not any less than in her own. It’s just as unbelievable to him as it is to her, if not somehow more. “You made them, Glimmer. You. You made them and they’re going to be just fine.”

Glimmer nods, and looks down at his hands, a sentimental smile coming to her face as she sees the ivory cake in his hands. “You really did it.”

Glimmer let out a sigh of something between relief, contentment, and exhaustion as she threaded her arms around Marvel’s shoulders. When her hands joined around his neck, she found herself fiddling with the new band of diamonds that now accompanied the other ring on her finger. His arms threaded around her waist, and pulled her as flush against him as the second dress would allow. Much like the first, it was largely sparkling tulle, except instead of beading at the top it was composed of draping of the same white tulle as the bottom with off the shoulder sleeves that rested on the middle of her upper arm. Naturally she couldn’t settle on one dress.

Still, despite the incredible density of the tulle, with her this close against him he was sure he could feel the absolute slightest bit of roundness at the very bottom of her torso. She insisted it wasn’t there– he knew better.

“I can’t believe I actually got you to marry me. Everyone knows you’re soooo out of my league.” He teases, leaning down to kiss the top of her head, careful not to disturb the elaborate pins and twists.

“Who knew all it would take was an accidental baby.” Glimmer taunts in response, resting her head against his chest to stifle a little yawn, and takes a moment to watch their friends from their place against the wall. “Clove said she’s going to take half the cake and go have sex in a closet as payback. Cato’s absolutely drunk enough to actually do it.”

“To be fair it was two accidental babies. I am an overachiever like that.” Marvel ran his hands over the bare skin of her upper back, squeezing absently as he joined her in observing their friends. “Cato would do that stone cold sober. Besides if thats their payback? Fine. I think our girls could use a friend close in age, right?”

Glimmer hummed, giggling just slightly as she honed in on Clove and Cato, Clove fully in his lap, both of them long past hammered. “I can promise they did not mean that part. Looks like they might actually just do it in front of everyone. They’re worse than animals.” She slides her arms from around his neck down so she can wrap them both around his torso, pulling herself closer to him. “Our girls sounds so nice.”

As truly frightening that moment had been, to see not one but two little bean sized babies were inside of her, and all the fear that came along with that, it was worth it the second she saw the wide smile plastered across his face and the look in his eyes. It had been even more worth it, when a few days later, she found out they were both girls. Her girls.

“I can’t wait to have them.” She admitted, resting her chin on his chest as she looked up at him. “I also can’t wait for a piece of that cake.”

“Well we did try every bakery in District One before settling on that specific white cake with vanilla icing. As opposed to all the others. It’s an exciting moment.” Marvel agrees, squeezing her upper gently. “I think i’m going to save a piece of it for when the girls get here. It’ll be like their birthday cake.”

“As if you would leave it alone in the freezer that long.”

“Of course I did it. I keep my promises.” Marvel held up the single fork he brought up with him. “If you notice, it is also fully in tact as well. I didn’t even take a sample. We only have a few more hours to eat it, it’s still technically their birthday.”

He hands out a bite of it towards Glimmer, who leans forward as much as she can to get a taste of it. A little crumb falls on Aurelia’s little head, which has Glimmer stifling back a laugh that has her nearly waking the girls with the motion of her chest.

“They’ll get used to it.” Marvel waves off, before he takes some for himself. A few moments pass, as they savor the last piece of cake from their wedding some six months ago.

Once finished, Marvel carefully pulls Stella out of her mother’s arms and into his own arms. “I feel like we need to keep switching them. So they don’t feel like we have a favorite.”

“How long do you suggest we keep doing that?” She teases, before kissing his shoulder, and resting her head on it. There is a peace beyond anything she has ever experienced in her entire life, and she is not sure she will ever come close to the happiness she feels in this moment ever again.

“The rest of their lives, actually.” Marvel brushes off, bringing little Stella to his left arm so that she was still close to both her mother and her sister.

Glimmer notices the way his eyes are hovering over her and Aurelia, as well as Stella who he holds in the arm closest to her. She raises an eyebrow, a suspicious smile coming to her face. “What are you looking at me like that for?”

“I’m just looking at my girls.”

I once believed love would be black and white…but it’s Golden. Like daylight.

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andypantsx3 · 4 months

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READY OR KNOT | 1 | TODOROKI SHOUTO x READER

SUMMARY: Todoroki Shouto is so unsettlingly beautiful, you’re certain he has to be an omega. That is, until a chance encounter with a pushy alpha reveals you were incredibly mistaken—and the surprises don’t stop there. Shouto's suddenly mystifying behavior adds another layer of complexity to an already confusing inter-agency investigation. It would be so much easier to figure things out—and suppress your growing feelings—if only Shouto would stop being so strangely attentive to you... TAGS/WARNINGS: pro hero au, fem + afab reader, omegaverse, alpha shouto, beta reader, misunderstandings, courting behavior, slightly case fic-y, undertones of sexual violence (not between main pairing), aged-up characters, eventual smut, 18+ minors please dni! LENGTH: 4.6k, 1st of 7 chapters

Tetsutetsu’s apartment was exploding with people by the time you made it in from the cold.

Even from outside, you could hear the chatter of dozens of voices, the thumping bass of a distant party playlist. The front door was practically wedged shut by all the bodies blocking it, and you had to suck in a breath as you squeezed yourself through, slithering through what seemed to be every single employee of the Pink Riot agency—a plethora of bulky pro heroes stuffed in among lanky support techs and sleepy-eyed case analysts.

Inside, it stank of warm beer with a slightly sweeter, sharper liquor undertone. Your nose wrinkled. You could only imagine what the scent was like to your alpha and omega coworkers, grateful you had a beta’s dulled sense of smell, and no innate reaction to the physical proximity of other secondary genders. The space was already almost overwhelming as it was, the press of people nearly claustrophobic, although no one else looked like they minded much.

You shoved yourself through the crowd, squeezing through people, somewhat regretting how late you’d gotten here. You hoped there was still something good to drink.

In your defense, you’d gotten bogged down with a bombshell of a new case at the agency, something Mina had pulled you aside to talk about on your way out to the party. She’d meant for you to pick it up Monday, as you couldn’t take any action until a supervising hero had been assigned to you. But it was so unlike any other case you’d been handed in your years at Pink Riot that you’d immediately yanked your coat back off and holed yourself up at your desk, poring over the information in shock.

The case file told you that there was a rogue pro hero harassing and assaulting the omegas in Bunkyo ward—the very ward the Pink Riot agency operated in.

What was more, local authorities suspected someone from the agencies within Bunkyo itself, considering the attacks were exclusively confined to the ward and had so far never deviated. The police had been alerted to the fact that a hero might be involved when one of the omegas who had been attacked last night had escaped, shaken but untouched, and reported their aggressor attempting to strap quirk suppressors on them—tech that was almost exclusively a tool of the heroics trade.

And so all Bunkyo-based agencies had been asked to internally investigate their heroes, with mandatory out-of-agency supervising heroes to be assigned to the cases as well, to ensure everything was above board and no cover ups were being staged. And you, as Mina’s personal friend and therefore the case analyst she trusted most with a sensitive file like this, had been assigned the task.

And it was already almost too mind-boggling for you to bear.

You plowed your way towards the kitchen, eager to chase away the idea of any of your hero coworkers as the perpetrator. You liked and trusted all of the heroes Pink Riot had on call, and hoped so desperately that another agency was at fault here. You couldn’t imagine a single one of them being responsible for something like this. You couldn’t imagine the harasser themself attending this very party.

Once in the kitchen, you discovered that Tetsutetsu had invited more than just the Pink Riot agency itself—he had also apparently invited a plethora of heroes from his former UA days. Sero Hanta and Uraraka Ochako were propped up in the kitchen with Mina and Kirishima, smiling and chatting, while Iida Tenya stood next to them, looking, as usual, like he was on the verge of a hernia. Monoma Neita was skulking in a corner, along with a couple of lower-level heroes you recognized as Tetsu’s Class B friends.

Mina perked up immediately when she caught sight of you, hopping off the counter at Kirishima’s side, beckoning you closer with a hot pink nail.

“You have to taste this disgusting thing Tetsu made,” she told you gleefully, gesturing at something vaguely gelatinous on the stove. You recoiled reflexively, even as Mina ladled a generous portion into a plastic cup for you, passing it over.

You did not like the weight of it in your hand—and the smell of it, even to your duller senses, was not exactly appetizing, more nail polish remover in profile than anything.

“Wow, this looks almost as lovely as the new case file. How generous of you,” you intoned, taking a small, investigative sip. The taste zipped down your spine all the way to your toes, so alcoholic you could almost taste an emergency room visit.

But it figured. Pro heroes in general were a hard bunch to get drunk, their metabolisms fast and their bodies honed to withstand limits a normal person could never. You imagined this was Tetsu’s own invention based on years of personal research.

Mina sloshed her own cup at you, bright-eyed as she normally was, but otherwise looking unruffled. “Tetsu and Eiji already have a bet going which of them can put back more of this, but my bet is on me,” she grinned. “They’re behind a cup already.”

You winced. “Such responsible agency heads I have.”

Mina practically cackled. “You love it.”

You couldn’t help the fond smile that pulled at your mouth, listening to her bright laughter. “I do.”

And it was true, after years at the Pink Riot agency you were spoiled for anywhere else.

Your caseload was broad and interesting, Mina and Kirishima the perfect amount of invested but trusting, always caring about the results you brought in for the safety they brought Bunkyo ward, but never micromanaging you or demanding the impossible. The agency was a little bit smaller than other agencies founded by members of their former class—a mid-sized, fairly-closely knit operation that prioritized action and minimized bureaucracy.

And it was a sort of family operation. Mina was an omega, small and bright and totally beautiful the way so many omegas were, the warmness of her personality like a magnet. And Kirishima was her bonded alpha—fairly friendly and easy-going for one, you thought—but strong, firm in his resolve, and deeply committed.

You liked them, liked their relationship, and liked how their traits translated to their management of their joint agency. You liked how the agency had basically sprung up around them, filled to the brim with good people. And so yeah, Mina was right. You did love it.

“Make sure you unwind,” Mina ordered you, flashing a pink nail in your face. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that it’s been like two hours since I saw you disappear with that case file.”

Your cheeks heated. “Did you know some agency heads like it when their employees do their jobs?”

Mina grinned wickedly, then made a sort of clucking noise. “Did you know that some agency heads are no funsies? I like when my employees do their jobs and still have time for a social life.”

A smile tugged at your mouth. Your social calendar had never been so full as when you started working at Pink Riot, their rosters absolutely packed with outgoing heroes. Someone or other was always throwing a party, organizing a celebratory dinner when an especially big case was closed, or dashing across the floor yelling “drinks on me!” after nailing a particularly notorious villain.

Between the agency and your own friends you thought you were kept rather busy. But the sudden, shifting look of undue interest on Mina’s face told you she thought otherwise.

“When was the last time you went on a date, hmm?” she asked, waggling her eyebrows. “I never catch you smelling like anyone. Looking for anyone here?”

“And who told you you could smell me?” you demanded.

Mina cackled. “It’s not like I can turn my nose off. Plus you smell nice and comforting. Very beta. I wouldn’t stop smelling you even if I could.”

Your ears went hot. Alphas and omegas were always so nosy and inquisitive, a byproduct of being able to smell way too much for your comfort, a fact you and your circle of beta friends never missed a chance to bemoan.

And this was not the first time you’d been told as much, most betas apparently smelling some level of chill and less intrusive than the insistent scents of alphas and omegas. You didn’t exactly understand how something could smell chill, but enough people had said it that you accepted it.

“Well then it’s good I’m not polluting that with other smells,” you said. “Now mind your business.”

Mina’s grin was sharp as she reached over to ladle more of Tetsu’s concoction into your cup, a small revenge. “Fine but keep your options open tonight! I know plenty of nice beta boys I can set you up with—there’s a couple of analysts from Ingenium’s crowd here tonight.”

You nodded, affecting sincerity, although you had absolutely no plan to follow through. You were going to find your agency friends, go ham on some apps, and then head back home just as soon as Mina and Kirishima ended the night the way they usually did—locked mouth to mouth after drinking a little too much, causing a scene.

You waved Mina away, poking your head back out the kitchen door and surveying the rest of the party. Over near the couch, you caught a flash of a couple of your fellow case analysts in conversation with Asui Tsuyu, a beta hero at your agency who you got on well with. Your people exactly.

However, no sooner had you started to push back into the crowd than something slammed into your shoulder, sending you stumbling back into the wall. Your drink splashed right up over your shoulder, cold and biting. You let out a strangled noise, turning your head on impulse and catching a mouthful of hair.

“Oh my god, I am sooo sorry,” a soft voice said. You realized you’d collided with an omega analyst from another Bunkyo agency—a girl you vaguely remembered from a joint case a few years ago. She was small, petite, and delicately pretty in the way of most omegas. And she had also managed to empty nearly the entirety of your cup onto you.

“Shit, shit—I got your shirt wet!” she said, yanking herself back from you. She looked a little glassy-eyed, but genuinely apologetic, and she wiped at your shoulder with her bare hand. Definitely a bit drunk.

“No—it’s fine,” you told her, attempting to duck her hand. “I also didn’t see you!”

The omega girl didn’t look reassured however. She frowned, pausing over you—then suddenly slithered right out of her cardigan, throwing it over your shoulders.

“We’ll hide it like that. Please take it,” she said, her delicate fingers flitting back and forth over your now-covered shoulder, like she still itched to fix something. The cardigan was soft and warm, and even you could tell it smelled good—a soft, powdery, classically omegan scent.

“It’s really fine—” you insisted, immediately shrugging the cardigan back off, though you appreciated the gesture. You glanced down at your shoulder, surveying the damp patch that was slowly soaking closer to your boob. “It’s clear—it will dry in a couple of minutes and no one will be any the wiser. It already stinks like alcohol in here anyway.”

The omega girl hesitated as you handed her sweater back to her. She leaned in to sniff you tentatively. “Are you sure? I really am so sorry. Your mate is going to be so mad, now you can’t really smell you over the vodka unless you get in close—”

You held up a hand, sending her a reassuring smile. “I don’t have a mate, so there’s no problem. I promise.”

You did not add that as a beta, your pool of potential mates was limited to other betas, and that no beta’s sense of smell was enough to get worked up over this. Alphas and omegas tended to forget that not everyone was as sensitive as they were.

She bit her lip, the gesture pretty, but looked somewhat mollified. “You’re sure?” she ventured one last time.

You nodded. “Totally sure. I appreciate the gesture though.”

She nodded, still looking hesitant, and you decided there was only one way to put an end to this.

“Nice to see you, though. Maybe I will catch you around later!” you said, waving her off firmly. You quickly abandoned your now empty cup on a nearby table and turned to head back into the living room. You spotted Tsuyu’s head of dark green hair through the crowd of shoulders, a homing beacon in the dim.

As you charted an unsteady path through the crush of people, you noted several more heroes and analysts from other agencies, including Kaminari Denki and a beaming Midoriya Izuku, crammed into a corner and chatting animatedly to—oh.

Your cheeks flushed. Pro hero Shouto was here.

The other hero stood tall and solemnly handsome across from Midoriya, just as maddeningly gorgeous as always. You, like every other person with working eyeballs, had long nursed a tiny bit of a celebrity crush on him, as he was literally the most beautiful person on earth—a fact evidenced by his now six-year running sweep of Tokyo Beat magazine’s cutest hero award.

In your time at Pink Riot, you’d worked a couple of joint cases with Shouto’s agency and met him a few times in passing. You’d always found him to be a little bit intense, but kind, thoughtful, straightforward, and diligent. He was every bit the reassuring hero the media made him out to be, and even more striking in person. He also always wore scent patches flush at the sides of his neck, concealing what his secondary gender was from prying noses, although you’d always sort of suspected he had to be an omega.

He was tall and solid and strong in the way of most pro heroes. But his features were so finely-wrought, so strangely graceful and elegant for a man, that you would have put significant amounts of money down on his omega status.

Not that it mattered. Betas really only dated betas, and alphas really only omegas, so Shouto’s status wasn’t much to you, regardless of what it was.

You slipped past, averting your eyes, wondering absently if an omega like Todoroki Shouto ever encountered harassment like the victims in your newest case file. Maybe his scent blockers were for this very purpose—hiding his omega status so he didn’t run the risk. You imagined with a face like his, he would be sure to garner migraine-inducing levels of undue interest.

This thought was suddenly arrested, however, when a hand pressed to your chest, shoving you back into the wall you were sidling past.

Your breath wooshed out of your lungs as a strangled “fwuuh” noise escaped you. Your gaze jerked up to find an alpha you somewhat recognized was holding you against the wall, grinning in an incredibly unsettling way.

Fuzzily, you matched his face to one of the techs from the support department, someone you occasionally saw at work functions but never worked directly with. Support interfaced mainly with the heroes, mending their tech, inventing new items, and—if Mina’s complaints were to be believed—running up quite the bill for the agency with their experimentation.

“Can I—help you?” you garbled out, staring the alpha down.

He leaned in, leery, slurring, “What’sa pretty li’l thing like you doin’ here, huh?”

He smelled strongly of Tetsutestu’s horrid concoction, like the alcohol was literally seeping from his pores. You frowned, shifting uncomfortably under his hand. It was large, and too-warm against your shoulder, and the desire to turn and bite it welled up in your mouth.

“Can you get off me?” you asked, grabbing the alpha by the wrist. A support tech though he was, his hold on you was firm, and your grip didn’t dislodge him. He clung to your sweater, his gaze glassy but intense.

He closed his eyes, nose twitching like he was-–ew—like he was scenting you. “Aww come on baby. A li’l omega like you? There’s no need to pr’tend you don’t want this.”

Your brows furrowed, confusion bubbling up inside you. A little omega like you? What the fuck was he talking about? Was he that blasted?

“You have three seconds before I bite you,” you said, certain that would be clear enough, even if he was too drunk to tell you were a beta.

But his hand didn’t move. Instead he laughed, hot and humid and smelling strongly of liquor, and he fumbled with something at his belt.

A hot wave of fear suddenly washed over you, a stab of panic lancing your heart. He wasn’t going to expose himself right here, was he? You pushed back against the wall, feeling entrapped, yanking at his wrist harder to get him off of you.

“I’m not an omega,” you said loudly. “And I’m not interested, now get—”

The alpha’s hand was gone. You blinked, suddenly finding his face missing too, your vision gone entirely gray and strangely…knitted?

“Do not touch her,” a deep voice intoned, and you realized you were staring at a broad back, clad in a handsome gray sweater. You tipped your head back, your gaze fixing on a suspiciously familiar mop of scarlet and white hair.

Shouto. Pro hero Shouto had put himself in between you and the asshole alpha.

A thrill raced down your spine.

“The fuck I won’t,” a snort issued over one of Shouto’s strong shoulders.

There was a small, silent moment where you watched Shouto’s head tilt just the tiniest bit. He didn’t say anything in return—but a sudden, creeping unease slithered over your senses, raising the hair on the back of your neck. An audible hush fell over the people nearest you, though you couldn’t see what exactly was happening, caged between Shouto’s back and the wall.

You could just make out Shouto’s scent patches, perfectly even against his neck like always, and wondered whether they would help—-if the alpha couldn’t smell Shouto was an omega, maybe he thought he would respect his boundaries more?

“Dude—” someone hissed, from somewhere near the alpha, just as Shouto spoke once more.

“You will leave,” he intoned in that deep tone again. His voice was soft, placid—but the feeling of unease grew within you, a strange itch under your skin. You had the sudden urge to flee, but one of Shouto’s hands closed over your wrist, as a cerulean eye caught yours over his shoulder. “You…please stay.”

You could do nothing but nod, your feet practically freezing in place, the desire to obey subsuming your entire brain. What the hell was happening?

As Shouto turned back to face the alpha again, that hunted feeling grew stronger, like there was something in the apartment that you should be very, very wary of. Your throat started to close up, and your breath came a little short.

The room was so suddenly silent that you could hear the nervous shift of the people beyond Shouto, and you caught the sound of the alpha suddenly stumbling back.

“You’re—are you fucking Ordering me?” The alpha asked, but you could hear that he was still backing away.

The question crawled right under your skin along with the unsettled feeling.

An Order. As in, an Alpha Order. From Shouto? Pretty, kind, patient, careful Shouto? Classic omega material Shouto?

Was…using an Order on an alpha, and it was working?

Your head spun with the mismatch between Shouto’s face and the latent command in his tone. It was almost too strange to be contemplated, and yet here it was playing out in front of you.

Shouto, for his part, didn’t bother answering the question. “I believe I asked you to leave,” he said firmly. His voice carried an inflection that sliced through the air like a knife.

“Sorry, Todoroki, he’s super fucking drunk—I’ll get him out of here,” another voice said, one you recognized as a different support tech.

It sounded like he didn’t need to expend the effort, however, as the alpha’s footsteps were already beating a hasty retreat. The other support tech’s footsteps followed, his pace clipped on the hardwood.

As soon as they were out of view, the suffocating feeling all but evaporated. You could almost feel the sigh of relief around the room, and the line of Shouto’s shoulders untensed.

He turned to you slowly, drawing in a deep breath. His normally blank expression had been exchanged for something troubled, his perfect eyebrows knitted in concern, his full mouth pursed up like he’d just let it drop from a snarl.

He blinked down at you for a second, those distinct heterochromatic eyes flicking over you, before you found yourself suddenly crowded back into the corner, your back bumping the wall. Shouto leaned down and gave a delicate sniff at your temple, as if checking your condition.

“Are you alright?” he asked. His voice was still strange, rough with something you couldn’t name.

He was warm where he lingered over you, his shoulders broad enough that they blocked the light and cast falling shadows into the meager space between you. He was near enough that the dip of his sweater collar rasped over your shoulder, sending a swarm of tingles over your skin. You drew in a careful breath, trying to figure out just what the right answer was, coming up with nothing.

Shouto frowned over your lack of a response. His nose pressed right into your hair, and he crowded even closer, like he was trying to find the source of your discomfort—even though he’d just chased that source right through the front door.

“Your scent is difficult to find,” he murmured, his chest expanding and contracting. “It is covered by many things…” He trailed off as he seemed to find it—and then something strange happened—even stranger than the scene with the support tech alpha.

Shouto froze in place, going so unearthly still he might have been transmuted into marble. You heard his breath catch and hold in his lungs, and his fingers came up to grasp your sleeve, clutching you tightly.

You opened your mouth to ask what was wrong when a shudder swept down him, from head to toe. His grip on your wrist tightened for a moment, and a groan bubbled up from somewhere low in his throat.

“Your scent—” he rasped, then cut himself off.

He huffed out a harsh breath instead, stirring your hair, before his face dropped into the cradle of your shoulder. He breathed in, slow, measured, his mouth just barely touching the skin of your throat. You could feel his long, pretty eyelashes flutter against your skin, and the sensation sent shivers down your spine.

Something under your skin shifted in response, then.

To your utter shock, you could feel yourself tilting your head to the side, baring your neck. A strange feeling of malleability settled over you, like your bones had jellified and your muscles had atrophied.

“Shouto—?” you garbled out, unable to articulate any question beyond what the fuck was happening? You knew it had something to do with the way Shouto was most definitely not an omega after all. The thought made your brain fuzz with static.

Pretty, gentle, elegant Todoroki Shouto was an alpha. Kind, placid, beautiful Todoroki Shouto was even some kind of…distressingly strong alpha.

It crossed all the wires in your brain to think of that face possessing that kind of strength. But there was clearly something there. And you were being so weird and embarrassing about it, but you couldn’t have moved, even if you wanted to.

It felt like a short eternity, the time Shouto stood over you like that, his face pressed into your throat, your own throat bared to him. Your heartbeat pounded in your chest, simultaneously hammering a zillion miles a minute, and yet feeling slow, syrupy.

Distantly, you registered the hum of voices in the background, Tetsutetsu trying to rekindle the happy atmosphere. But Shouto was so warm over you, breathing slow and shallow, a tall, strong anchor weighing you against the wall.

It could have been minutes or hours before he finally stepped away. He looked calmer, but a little dazed. You felt the same way, mystified by what had just occurred between you.

His gaze picked over you in some kind of assessment. “You’re well?” he asked carefully. His voice was pitched low.

“Yeah,” you managed, your throat weirdly dry. “Yeah. I—thank you, Shouto.”

Shouto inclined his head in a nod. “You, as well. I don’t usually…I try not to rise to anger. But when alphas try to use their power to—” he cut himself off. His throat bobbed with some emotion you couldn’t name.

“Your scent is….calming to me.”

You nodded. The beta chill thing again, like Mina had said.

“Your friendly neighborhood beta, at your service,” you saluted him, trying to ignore the strange, lingering shiver in your limbs.

A tiny smile quirked the corner of Shouto’s mouth, but his gaze remained fixed on you, almost inhumanly intense.

“That is not quite what I mean,” he said, but did not elaborate. There was something in his voice, in the way he was looking at you that you didn’t understand, but you didn’t know him well enough to try to dig into it.

Instead you just gave him another smile, your face heating as you noticed several people around you were still watching you.

You figured it was probably time to make an escape after that little scene you had just caused, for Shouto’s reputation as well as yours. You didn’t need people thinking Shouto had been scenting you for any reason other than your apparent beta chill pill scent, especially now that people at the party would know he was an alpha.

God, he was an alpha, even with a face like that.

You waved at him, garbling out another, “Well, thanks for the save! I, um, have to be going, but I’ll see you around!” before throwing yourself back through the crowd, your head spinning.

Mina had come out of the kitchen and tried to flag you down as you passed. You waved back at her like you’d misunderstood, quickly fighting your way back to Tetsu’s front door. You felt the weight of dozens of eyes on your back, and the prick of two heterochromatic ones, somehow more certain and weightier than the others. But you didn’t turn around, eager to get out of the crowd, still reeling from what had happened.

You didn’t know how you had been mistaken for an omega by that drunk alpha, and understood even less what had possessed Shouto to sniff you all over like that, embarrassed by how much you had liked it. It most probably had something to do with how inherently non-aggressive beta scents were supposed to be, maybe helping Shouto down from how keyed up he’d been about that other alpha.

But it had still been so embarrassing and strange, the way your head had tipped right back for him, the way your limbs had gone to jelly in his hold. You hoped he’d had a little to drink too or he’d probably realize how weird you were, reacting like that.

Finally, you spilled out of Tetsu’s and into the night, the evening air cool on your heated skin. The phantom touch of Shouto’s mouth still lingered on your throat, warm and disconcerting.

You beelined for home, your head swimming. You wondered just how long it would take you to forget how very strange this evening had been.

#todoroki x reader #todoroki shoto x reader #shouto x reader #shouto todoroki x reader #todoroki shouto x reader #character: todoroki shouto #andie's writing #tw: a/b/o

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