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cindersandroses · 4 years

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Digital Get Down, Chapter 5

AUTHORS: cindersandroses ( losille2000 and cinderella1181)

CHAPTERS: 5/?

PAIRING: Actor!Henry Cavill/ Plus-Size OFC

GENRE: Romance/Fluff/HUMOR

FIC SUMMARY: When SuperHank met OrcPrincessPeach on the World of Warcraft message boards, it was love at first raid. Now, almost a year later, they’re ready to take the next step and meet in person. Half a world away from each other, both decide to meet in Atlanta for DragonCon, since she was already going to be there for her work as a game designer at Blizzard… never mind that she is a devout nerd. They both have to face the fact that reality is very different from a digital world.

RATING: Mature

WARNING: Mentions of assault.

AUTHORS NOTES: Love you all!

Also on AO3!

Chapter 5

Opal turned to the side as she looked at herself in the full length mirror on the back of the closet door. She smoothed the front of her dress over her rounded belly and picked at the slight ruching that was meant to help hide her imperfections along with the black color of the dress, but it did neither. There’d be no hiding anything. This was about as bodycon as one could get, and indeed she bought it a long time ago because she thought she looked hot in the form fitting silk. As soon as she got it home, though, and really looked at herself wearing it in the harsh light of day, she put it away, in the back of her closet with the other beautiful clothes she’d bought but never found the courage to wear.

That was changing. Now. Today. Okay, not today. But as soon as she walked back into her house. She planned to go straight to her closet and pull them all out and wear each of them as soon as she had the right opportunity or occasion. Considering that most of them were on the fancier side of things, meant for dates, she figured she’d have more chances to wear them now, anyway.

Even though she and Henry would literally be halfway across the globe from each other after this weekend. She couldn’t dwell on that fact, though. If she did, then the sadness set in. She refused to let that particular emotion claw its way back. They’d make it work if it was going to work. It wasn’t like she couldn’t just take her computer places and work there.

If she could convince her boss to allow frequent trips.

And it wasn’t like he didn’t also spend part of his time in Los Angeles.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

Henry walked by behind her, drawing her attention away from those troubling thoughts. He fumbled with the cufflink on his left shirt cuff. She was going to make a quip about it, but the words died on her lips when she noticed he looked at her like a fat kid looked at cake. He licked his lips, smiled, and walked into the bathroom.

She couldn’t help but blush. She never would’ve believed he was truly stealing glances at her, but that notion had been squashed earlier at the spa. In fact, now she was hyper aware of his long, molten stares.

And it was all because of the wonderful esthetician who completed her facial after their massage. What had started out as a traumatic experience ended up making her feel the most confident she’d ever felt in her own skin, thanks in part to Jessa the esthetician’s enlightening conversation.

“He’s looking at you like you are the purest water and he’s just had some hot sauce.”

Opal giggled, and blushed, looking at the woman. “I just keep thinking he’s going to be like, ‘Ugh, not my type’ and leave, Jessa.”

“Girl, please. You got one of those peach bottoms that men love to get a handful of. You already got him eating out of your hand, he’s not stopped glancing over here this whole time,” Jessa said, putting her hand on her hip. “And if he does do that, I got a handful of fine brothers who would eat that peach bottom up. So you just let Jessa know and I’ll hook you up.”

The comment made Opal laugh loudly, disturbing the serenity of the spa and resulted in a few perturbed glares from other clients. Henry had glanced up, one eyebrow raised in interest. She smiled at him sweetly and he went back to his shave. Opal smiled. “Thank you, Jessa. I’ll keep you updated.”

Opal had made sure to slip Jessa an extra tip, even though she was sure Henry had tipped everyone well. Stingy wasn’t really a word she would use to describe this man, not materially or emotionally.

Or physically.

Definitely not physically. He liked touching. Being affectionate.

She did not; or, more aptly, she was not used to it in the romantic sense. But she wasn’t even that affectionate with her family. There were a few hugs here and there as a child, but they weren’t overly huggy. And then there was the other thing he didn’t know about, because she never talked about it, that prevented her from initially enjoying his touches.

It was getting easier, though, the more he touched her. She found, with some relief, that she actually quite liked being close to him in that way. Perhaps there was hope for her, after all.

Opal moved away from the mirror and followed his trail to the bathroom. She rested a hip on the door jamb and watched him finish his grooming. He saw her in the mirror and smiled.

“Like what you see?” he asked, that insidious brow raised.

“Nah,” she said with a grin. “I was just thinking about how you use twice the product I do.”

Henry rubbed his hands on a hand towel to remove the remnants of whatever moisturizer he’d used on his freshly shaved jaw. “That’s because it takes a lot to make me look this good. You’re already bloody gorgeous, so you don’t need it.”

Her cheeks heated and she shifted her weight awkwardly on her bare feet. Why were compliments so difficult to take?

“And as an answer to your question, I do like what I see,” she replied. “I appreciate your efforts. But I also love getting to just observe each other. That’s what we were missing over the last year.”

Henry stopped and smiled at her. “I watched you getting ready, and that’s why I’m so behind. I couldn’t stop watching you. You are enchanting,” he whispered.

The air caught in her lungs upon hearing the deep gravelliness of his sentiment. He closed the distance between them. The hunger, the lust, the pain, the joy, the need, all passed across his face. He leaned down and brushed his lips across her temple. “We’re going to make a hell of a couple tonight, Princess.”

“Yes, we are,” she replied breathlessly.

“Let me finish getting ready. You are distracting.”

Opal giggled. “Pot, kettle.”

She moved away from the door and went back to the bed to struggle into the sky high heels she had thought would be great to wear, but now she regretted the decision to pack them. Her feet were going to ache by the end of the night. But--the minx inside her reminded--that could possibly lead to another massage. This time, just with Henry.

As she finished up the last buckle on the strappy things and stretched her legs out to check how they looked, she noticed Henry watching from across the room with a glazed look in his eyes. She laughed at him, because it was the exact same look she’d had as he secured the waistcoat around his trim torso. “This… me putting on shoes shut you down?”

Henry reanimated with a shrug. “I have a thing for really high strappy, almost slutty, heels. Nothing like…” He stopped and blushed slightly. “Uh, never mind.”

Opal stood up and went over to him, just barely shorter than him now, and grinned. “I will have to remember that for later,” she replied.

“Oh, god, please do. Bonus points for silk stockings and the whole belt contraption,” he murmured.

She giggled. “You know, men and women are so different. You want the littlest piece of clothing on me, but I’d rather see you in a three piece suit.”

“I can fuck in a three piece suit just as well as I can without,” he teased.

His comment, and the harsh word, caught her off guard. Taking the opportunity, he went over to grab his cell phone. He beckoned her with a crooked finger. “Come here.”

She didn’t ask for clarification or even think about it; her feet in their dangerous footwear moved of their volition. When she reached him, he wrapped his arm around her and kissed her head, all while snapping a quick picture. He looked at it, smiled, and turned it around for her to view.

Her cheeks were high with color. Her skin glowed; her eyes sparkled. Her smile showed almost every one of her teeth. Everything about it made her seem so vital, so alive, so… beautiful. She had never seen herself so happy. Simply being near him made her want to beam from ear to ear.

He smiled softly. “Now you see what I see when I look at you.”

“I don’t always look like this,” she protested.

“You do,” he replied. “Let me send this to you so you can send it to Amber.”

Opal shifted uncomfortably. She’d completely forgotten about sending Amber a picture. What kind of friend was she, anyway?

“We can’t bring our phones tonight,” he explained. “Something about making sure nothing unflattering gets out.”

Opal looked up at him and nodded. “Okay. Let me just send Amber a text telling her I’m going out for the night.”

She saved the picture to her phone and opened up the text stream with her friend. She took the picture, sent it, and wrote, “I don’t think I ever expected my Hank to be this real. Going out for the night. Talk to you in the morning.”

She plugged her phone in, stood up, and took Henry’s hand. “Okay. Let’s go.”

~~~

Opal stood in the atrium of the Georgia Aquarium and sighed. She was enchanted. She’d been here a ton of times before at previous cons, but never on a night specifically designed to be an intimate cocktail party with all of the con’s celebrity guests.

What actually was her life right now?

Henry talked to Dany and Dwayne, and she couldn’t get over the fact that she was standing next to The Rock. How many times had she sat next to her brothers while they watched this giant man wrestle? If someone had told her this was going to be her life when she left Los Angeles the night before, she’d have told them they were lying. It was all a little surreal.

Dany smiled at her, obviously picking up on the fact that she had zoned out and had literal stars in her eyes. “So, Opal, what do you do?”

Opal hummed and blinked at her. “Yeah, sorry. I’m a designer and programmer for Blizzard. I have been there, oh gosh, almost ten years now. Best job I have ever had.”

“And you live with?” Dany inquired.

Opal understood Dany’s reticence to accept her into the group. Dany didn’t want anything to harm the business, and even though she seemed tough, she clearly cared deeply for both men as friends. Still, though, Opal didn’t think she gave off a crazy fan vibe.

“My best friend, from like middle school,” Opal said, moving to stand closer to Dany. She leaned in to speak quietly. “I know you’re worried about me using him, I get that, trust me. If I was in your position I would, too. But honestly, Dany, I didn’t even know he was him… until this morning when I arrived. I just thought he was a dorky British guy named Hank. That was it. In the months leading up to this I just got to know his heart and who he is, not Henry Cavill, God’s gift to women. I knew SuperHank, the cleric who runs around healing people, because he is that guy. I got to know the Hank who was shy and loved to cook and gets excited about Warhammer and new fantasy novels. Who tells me constantly that I am worthy and beautiful.”

Dany beamed at her. “That’s just what I wanted to hear.”

“And frankly, you scare me a little bit, so I won’t do anything untoward,” Opal said.

Dany laughed and flexed a bicep. “Don’t you forget it.”

“I won’t.”

“But seriously, Opal,” she said and grabbed Opal’s hand. “He needs someone he can love with his whole being, and I’ve never seen him happier than when he has spoken to me about you.” She squeezed her hand. “It’s not going to be easy, but I promise to make sure you’re okay and safe, and that you can be with him.”

Opal grinned. “He is pretty special.” She looked beside her, expecting to find him there. “And... gone, apparently.”

Lauren smiled at her. “He and Dwayne went to get some drinks.”

Opal felt her stomach clench. She tried to smile, but before she could muster one, Henry was back by her side. He handed her a flute of champagne. “Here, Princess.”

Opal took the glass from him and didn’t say a word. Her jaw clenched and it took everything in her to stop her hand from shaking.

Henry frowned. “Is that okay? Do you want something else?”

“Huh? Oh, no, it’s fine,” she replied and tried to smile again. Even though she couldn’t see it, she knew it came off as more of a grimace because of the expression Henry returned. He knew something was wrong, but the words to explain it to him failed to form on her tongue.

Not that she really had the chance to say anything, anyway. A loud, booming voice rang out across the atrium, “LITTLE BRUDDA!!!”

Opal spun around and watched in abject horror as two grown men raced towards each other and chest bumped each other like drunken frat boys.

Dwayne shook his head. “Seriously, you two? We’re in public.”

Henry came back and smiled. “Jason, my man, this… is Opal.”

Jason looked at her, his eyebrow raised. “Well, hello there, beautiful. I’m Jason…” He took her free hand and kissed the back of it. “If he gives you any trouble, let me know.”

Opal blushed. “Thank you. I will.”

Dazzled once more by the Man Also Known As Khal Drogo, Henry startled her with a hand on the small of her back. She looked up at him, still holding the flute from which she had not yet had a drop of champagne.

Henry leaned down into her ear. “Do you want me to get something else for you?”

She shook her head. “No, I just, uh… I’m going to get my own drink.”

She excused herself and headed over to the bar, trying to convince herself that she wasn’t running away from him and running away from the conversation she should have already had with him, even before they both decided to meet here in Atlanta.

She wasn’t in line long when she felt his presence behind her.

“Are you okay?” he asked again, concern written all over his face.

“I am, honestly. I just… well… it’s stupid. I don’t drink anything that I don’t see poured myself, and I very rarely drink alcohol in public. I should have told you. It’s just my hang up and, gah... I’m sorry I freaked out a little bit.”

Henry’s eyebrows knit together. He nodded, but he clearly wanted more.

“Let me get my drink and we’ll take a walk and talk, okay?” she asked, hoping to smooth things over.

He nodded and stood quietly with her. Even though he was clearly confused and maybe a little angry, his presence was still one that calmed her and she found herself resting against his sturdy bulk as they waited. Opal ordered her cranberry juice in a martini glass. To anyone other than herself and Henry, it looked like a Cosmo. It was her fallback when she wanted to hang out with the cool kids but didn’t want to do what the cool kids were doing. Because that one time she did what the cool kids were doing? She lived to regret it.

She took his hand and started to walk through the first exhibit. Opal paused at a tube enclosure in the middle of the room full of jellies. A black light shone down into the water, illuminating the sea creatures as they performed a graceful, haunting dance around their tank. She stood quietly, Henry standing next to her, silent, thinking.

Finally, she cleared her throat from the heavy emotion making it difficult to breathe. “I was drugged.”

Henry’s fingers curled into her back. Though he tried to mask the sharp intake of air, his gasp was still audible. “Opal, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because,” she said, just barely above a whisper. “It wasn’t just that. Amber and I were freshmen in college and I wanted to fit in. We went to a frat party. A guy we had art history with invited us.”

His anger was palpable; it wasn’t anger directed at her, though. Somehow, she knew that, as she stared at the gelatinous orbs bobbing through the water. She took a sip of the cranberry juice before moving on.

“I woke up the next morning, head fuzzy, in a room I had never seen before, and my panties around my ankles.” She braved a look up at Henry, to gauge his reaction. The sharp line of his jaw was set, his rage evident.

For some reason, it was cathartic to share this secret with another human. Amber knew, of course. Amber had nursed her back from the brink after they got home from the hospital.

“It’s the reason I pull away sometimes when you touch me, and the reason I am so unsure of myself. I’m sorry I never told you before, but you have a right to know.”

Henry didn’t speak; he looked at a point beyond her, staring in stony silence for the longest time. He finally tore his focus away from that point and gazed down at her. His face spoke volumes, even before his words did. He rested his chin on her head and wrapped her in his arms. “You know I would never, ever do that.”

“Oh, no, I do! I just… I want so badly for you to touch me, to be yours, I just need… time,” she said. “I don’t even know if I’m actually a virgin or not. I don’t know what they did to me. The next morning, Amber took me to the ER and a rape kit was done, but it was inconclusive. I’m sorry if this changes the way you feel about being with me.”

Henry pulled away from her and put his drink on the floor. He took her face gently in his hands. “I never, ever would feel any different about you. I just… I understand now.” He kissed her forehead, but didn’t move his lips from the spot they’d touched. His next words were muffled, but the meaning behind them was everything. “My promise to you is that I will not hurt you, and it’s all going to be at your pace.”

She smiled and pushed his hands away from her face. With her free hand, she reached up and let her hand rest on the nape of his neck. “Well, then, we can do this, cause I’m very ready for it.”

With little strength, she pulled him down to her and kissed him. It wasn’t passionate or chaste; it was somewhere in the middle. A reassurance. A promise. Her promise to be as open with him as possible. His cue that she was okay with him pushing her boundaries. And she loved him for it.

#Henry cavill #henry cavill fanfiction #henry cavill fanfic #henry cavill fan fiction #henry cavill fan fic #dgd #digital get down #tw:mentions of assault

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subtlereferencetomyinterests · 4 years

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Master Post

My Master Post for Sanders Sides fanfiction! These are arranged chronologically from newest to oldest, measured by the date they were completed and uploaded in full, so that will reflect the quality here. (there’s a ton more under the cut btw).

Fast Friends - ao3... (15k Remus-centric intruality, lopsided enemies to friends to lovers, humor and a bit of angst with a happy ending. tw; emetophobes beware!) Patton doesn't like Remus, until one day, he does! Well, Remus isn't buying it. So Remus is not about to be friends with him just because he wants to (no matter how much it maybe, kind of wouldn't mind that).

I’m Not Sorry - ao3... (6k remus-centric intrulogical. continuation of Did You Miss Me. Dead Dove: Do Not Eat.) Remus just wanted to get home safe to his wonderful, loving boyfriend. If some greaseball guy thinks he can screw that up, then Remus is perfectly willing to let the night take a turn for the vengeful.

Redamancy - ao3... (5k romantic prinxiety, fluffy friends to lovers with a smidgen of misunderstanding.) Virgil is undoubtedly excited about Nico. The thing is, that’s not the only person he’s excited about.

Did You Miss Me? - ao3... (13k romantic intrulogical, unhealthy relationship and mutual stalking treated light-heartedly. Dead Dove: Do Not Eat). Logan and Remus haven’t spoken in years. But that doesn’t stop them from keeping up with each other, through... various means.

The Down (and up)-side of Individual Expression - ao3... (8k romantic logince, angst w/ a happy ending, prosey and dealing w/ some kinda touchy subject matter vis a vis body image). As the sides have taken on vastly differing appearances over the years, Roman and Logan find themselves incredibly attracted in body and mind to each other. The issue is, Logan still has some trouble believing it.

Tree Bark and Fresh Fruit - ao3... (Fusion AU part six! romantic royality fusion returns for some prose and a lil bit of h/c). Patron doesn't come around often, getting lost in the excitement of Patton and Roman's new romantic relationship- so when she gets a shot to exist again, he's determined to make the most of it by figuring out just what the heck he's supposed to be.

Bitter Licorice and Bright-Blue Bubblegum - ao3... (Fusion AU part five! analogical fusion is back!) Logan and Virgil end up fusing much more regularly, much to Livril's satisfaction at getting to exist, and virtually every other side's chagrin at having to put up with them. Everyone, it seems, but Patton.

Scary Monsters and Family Bonds - ao3... (Fusion AU part four! Platonic anxceitmus with romantic dukeceit, short and mostly meaningless.) Rennet, freshly born like five seconds ago, is desperate to find some people to bother and/or amaze. But instead, Rennet finds an attachment that nobody quite expected to be so intense, but hey, it's not complaining, and neither is Virgil.

Acceptable Behavior - ao3... Remus is surprisingly concerned about his boyfriend's boundaries. (short & sweet intruality drabble. p/ much just cuddling)

On Truth and Untruth - ao3... Janus is allowed to participate in the group, and that is more than enough for them. Not too bad of a change up, really, and they aren't going to complain about it any time soon. Patton, however, insists on throwing a wrench into their system- their perfectly functioning, if maybe hypothetically a bit lonely, system. (28k word janus-centric romantic moceit and platonic dlampr, lots of angst and lots of yearning, with a happy ending. something of a character study.)

I Taste Honey but I Haven’t Seen the Hive - Chap.1, Chap.2, Chap.3, Chap.4, Chap.5, Chap.6, Chap.7, Chap.8, Chap.9 - ao3... (Finished!) Patton doesn't think of himself as misunderstood. More accurately, he's not very good at explaining himself. Remus explains himself perfectly well, succinct, confident. People are just bad at listening. Patton is lonely. He'd never say it out loud. No one knows. Remus is lonely. He says it in everything he does. No one knows. They're similar. They're different as can be. Contradictory, maybe; complimentary, definitely. They could be good for each other- they just need to explain it right. (hurt/comfort, eventual queer-platonic intruality, a healthy amount of angst).

Sharp Spikes and Glamour - ao3... (part three of my Fusion AU! a little angstier and racier than the others, but that’s thanks to the dukeceit dynamic, and its nothing too bad). Now, just a month ago, Remus could very confidently say that his and Janus’ relationship was perfect. And it still was, really, but that was before Roman and Patton had pulled some cartoon fusion bullshit that exactly no one had known was possible. There was no question. Remus was going to learn to do that.

Squishy, Precious Lil’ Baby! - ao3... Very short, platonic intruality fluff. Remus turns into a rat for a scare, but Patton is very unafraid of him in the new form.

Black Cloth and Star Systems - ao3... (Almost 4k fluff, part two of my Fusion AU! Very heavy on the descriptions, and also the Love that these two Have.) After Patton and Roman fuse, Logan can't help but feel desperately curious about this new discovery, and the possibilities of fusion between sides. But, his interest is a little more personal than he could stand to admit... Because what if- what if he could try it, too?

more under the cut

Flare Up - ao3... Human au drabble. Romantic sleepxiety. They are soft and in the rain.

Soft Walls and Roses - ao3... (Part one of my Fusion AU! Fluffy, sweet, and prose-y. Abt 3k.) On a nice, cheery day, Roman and Patton get a little lost in a dance <3.

Communication Issues (Alternative Title: Three Touch-Starved, Insecure, Metaphysical Beings Constantly Misinterpreting Each Other and Yet Somehow Falling in Love)- Chap.1, Chap.2, Chap.3, Chap.4 + Epilogue - ao3... (Finished!) What do you do when you find someone crying, and it’s all your fault? What do you say when you hear the muffled sobs and frantic words behind the blood-red door? When you know that, no matter how much you never wanted to hurt him- never wanted to hurt anyone- you still did. Is there anything you can do to fix it, when you’ve spent so long pretending that nothing was broken? When you’ve spent so long pretending that you didn’t care if things were broken or not? (Second Person, Present Tense. H/C slowburn. romantic analogince. Note: this is not an ‘x reader’ fic, it’s just 2nd person pov.)

A Study in the Pains of Romance as a Genre - ao3... Logan wasn’t 'insecure', by most measures. Sure, he wasn't exactly in love with himself, but he knew the harm that came of self-deprecation, and was careful to avoid it. At the worst of times, he could solidly be called 'self-neutral'. Therefore, it followed that Logan was being entirely objective when he said that he would not be a good enough romantic partner for Roman. (Friends to Lovers, abt 4k, romantic logince).

I Like You, Say It Back. - ao3... Short, sweet, slightly angsty first ‘I Love You’ between Virgil and Remus. romantic dukexiety.

A Misplaced Imbalance of Fear - ao3... almost 7k friends to lovers fastburn, in that this happens in a day. Set during/right after Putting Others First, a little peak into what Virgil and Remus were doing. Hint; being a little sad and very gay. romantic dukexiety.

The Ballroom - ao3... Every side has a room, but they also come with a special domain, completely individualized to each one. Of these Extensions, the only room that no side (other than its owner) has ever seen is Janus’. At least, until he falls head-over-heels for Roman and finally lets him in. (romantic roceit).

Hypothetically, - ao3... Nearly 7k friends to lovers, with a hearty helping of platonic logince. Logan likes to use the Imagination for experiments, but he can’t manage to use it on his own. The solution is obvious. (romantic intrulogical).

No Other Version of Me - ao3... Patton isn’t very happy about his new froggy features, but Janus finds him gorgeous all the same. Hurt/comfort! romantic moceit.

Complexities Unknowable- Chap.1, chap.2, chap.3, chap.4, chap.5, chap.6, chap.7 - ao3... (Finished!) Slowburn with pre-established Dukeceit, rivals to friends to lovers, with Background Analogince (plus some platonic anxceit and Creativitwins thrown in for funsies). romantic deintruality.

I’d Like To Stand By Him - ao3... Roman and Virgil listen to each other’s playlists. romantic prinxiety.

An Open and Honest Conversation About Our Feelings - ao3... hurt/comfort, shamelessly self-indulgent. Patton doesn’t come out of his room all day, so Virgil goes to check up on him. romantic moxiety.

Something to Uplift Us - ao3... Roman-centric (and Remus-centric) DLAMPR (platonic Creativitwins!). Quarantine shenanigans; the boys put on a show for their boyfriends!

Thursday Nights - ao3... Short fluff where Remus and Patton watch a horror flick together and cuddle. romantic intruality.

5 Times Logan Helped His Partners Get Their Shit Together +1 Time They Returned The Favor - ao3... Summary’s in the title on this one, Bud. Logan-centric romantic DLAMPR (platonic p & r), very hurt/comfort.

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rwbyremnants · 3 years

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CHAPTER WARNINGS: Hard convos and fluff (and awkward almost-incesty feelings)

Getting pretty close to the end! Also I started writing a new project - I know I know, I'm not even done posting this and Princess And The Dragons! Believe me there's just a ton of fics I could keep posting for all eternity, but they're all a complete mess (except the 2 I'm working on posting now). I might hit the fuck it point and post a few of them without doing any editing or rereading to make sure they make any sense. Yay for all that information nobody asked for!

=Chapter 10

A few months passed. Ruby had no further contact with Winter after she drove away from her, apart from one message she asked Penny to send, establishing that she no longer wanted to continue their arrangement. No more sessions, no more visits to the club, nothing. Even the casual texts had stopped, or the occasional silly snaps back and forth of each other's day; it was like they had never met. Strangers.

Then came an occasion she was dreading. There were other family gatherings she had managed to bow out of – anything to avoid awkward contact again out of fear of embarrassing herself; but this wasn't one she could squirm her way out of so easily. Weiss's birthday. She would never want to avoid her idol's celebration, especially not when she was specially invited! Dodging that one would also raise suspicion, and make it far more obvious that she was avoiding something to the other guests.

Plus, she didn't want to hurt her any more than she already had. Her guilt was too heavy. Time to bite the bullet and say hello.

All she could do was mentally prepare while she was out shopping with Yang, looking for an ideal present with her wife. She had promised that she would look after whatever she bought so Weiss didn't find it; at least that was a promise she could keep without anyone getting hurt.

"Hey, how about a cute little pony?"

When Ruby looked over, she saw Yang was holding up some kind of rainbow-painted porcelain horse tchotchke. She practically welcomed the distraction, no matter how mundane. Raising an eyebrow, she laughed, "Oh God, are you gonna turn her into one of those kooky nerds who has a billion of those?"

"Well… no…" Putting it back, Yang sighed and looked around. "But I'm totally drawing a blank this year. You know she's the one who's good at picking out gifts, and I just… suck ass."

Still trying to distract herself, Ruby smirked back toward her, walking a couple of steps backward to keep their pace in the store. "She told me enough times she liked what you got her last year. You know… the 'banana'?" If she wasn't going to be able to distract herself with small goods, she could by embarrassing her favourite sister. "She tells me everything when she gets drunk, unfortunately."

Ducking her blonde head, her big sister groaned and muttered, "God, Weiss… why can't you handle your booze?" She cleared her throat and spoke up to say, "But I don't wanna get her another 'toy' this time. I want it to be something sweet. Y'know, romantic and shit."

"Oooh…" That didn't give Ruby all too much to work with. While Yang and Weiss were definitely happy together, even she knew romance wasn't Yang's strong point. Aside from throwing herself in the path of an explosion that time a few years ago, the closest she had gotten was buying flowers on one occasion; only to get rid of them when they discovered Weiss was allergic. That was a story she wouldn't let her live down.

"Well, what kinds of things has she been into lately? Anything she mentions in passing or something?"

"Um… music? Frilly dresses and expensive perfume? Marrying the worst girlfriend in the world?" Sighing, she leaned back against a shelving unit full of lawn gnomes and hung her head. "I'll just get her another Victoria's Secret gift card."

"Doesn't that kinda count as a present for yourself? Just saying…" But Yang's phrasing didn't sit well in Ruby's own mind. Sure, she didn't know what sorts of presents were romantic and usually ended up with a cop-out gift, but at least she wasn't hurting anyone in the process of that. The worst girlfriend award for sure went to Ruby Rose. "And we both know she has the better of the Xiao Long-Rose sisters, so don't say you're the worst, dork."

"Does not! You're the real prize, and Penny is so lucky! Geeze, if you weren't with her, I'd be beating guys and girls off you with a stick!"

Even if it was meant positively, Ruby wasn't particularly in the mood to play along. Instead, she shrugged her shoulders reluctantly as she wandered out of the store, walking aimlessly in the direction of a jeweller’s. "Nah, I'm lucky to even have Penny. Don't even know how she puts up with me sometimes."

After a moment, Yang followed. She took so long to respond that by then, Ruby assumed she had forgotten the topic. Then…

"Okay, spill. What's been up with you the past couple months?"

"H-huh?" Even if it was a question she should have expected, she was taken aback, instantly finding herself on the defensive. "N-nothing! I was just saying that Penny's good for putting up with me, that's all!"

"Yeah, but you and Penny never fight. She hasn't seemed unhappy being with you or anything like that, at all." Folding her arms over her ample chest, she demanded, "So what's up, Rubes? Spill – unless you want me to tickle it out of you."

No getting out of that not-so-idle threat, no matter how much she tried. And even if Yang didn’t tickle her, she would be like a dog with a bone. Sighing, she looked downward sadly, still idly pacing around in the hope either of them would see something of interest for Weiss.

"It's not Penny and me that have had issues. We're fine. Our relationship's been pretty solid for a while…" When she stopped in front of the bracelets, she debated where to begin, whether or not to tell the story. In the end… "But… I’m, uh…"

Sensing this was big, Yang slid an arm around Ruby's shoulders. "You can tell me anything. If you could handle me coming out and transitioning, I can handle whatever's bugging you."

In the end, that tilted the scales. Yang deserved to know, since she had always been so open with her. At the same time, she didn't need to know who it was. The thought of that conversation coming to light certainly wasn't a good one given Yang's past with Winter.

"You know Penny and I don't… y'know, that often. So, um, Penny let me go out and see someone else, purely for sex. It worked out so great at first, me and this other girl had an amazing connection… but I had to go and ruin it."

For a moment, all Yang could do was blink in surprise. "Whoa, really? Never thought of you as a 'side chick' kinda girl." She hastily added, "But that's cool! I mean, if you have needs and Penny's okay with it, why the hell not?"

"Yeah, heh… I guess." Scratching the back of her head nervously, she couldn't look Yang in the eye anymore. The situation was too sensitive. "But it got deeper than that. Penny and I talked about it as well, and… and we realised that I was falling for this other girl the same way as Penny. Which she felt, too. But then… then I said some really stupid stuff and made a huge mess."

"Falling for both of them?" But of course, Yang had mostly been saying that to confirm it to herself. Blinking a few more times, she then asked, "What kinda stuff? Like, maybe it wasn't as bad as you thought."

"L-like…" There was the awkward part; she didn't know how to word what was happening without possibly outing either Winter or Qrow. Sighing in frustration, she looked back up. "Okay imagine if, I mean just imagine here – you're about to confess your feelings to Weiss for the first time, but then when you're just about to, you find out she's been sleeping with… with Dad or someone as close as that. Y-you'd be shocked, right? Shocked enough to really hurt her feelings on accident?"

For a long moment, Yang just tried to process the very idea being put across to her. Then she burst out, "Dad's been banging your side-chick?!"

"No!!!" Quickly slapping a hand to her forehead, she groaned out in frustration; one that had a couple of people turning to look at them. "I said 'someone as close as', not Dad himself! But that's not the point, anyway!" Looking around some more of the various watches and charm bracelets, Ruby sighed again. "I was yelling at her how if she cared she would have told me, because that was happening before I started hooking up with her, and during. And like, she knew this person was close to me! And I ended up… ended up learning I'd hurt her on other occasions without meaning to. Bad."

This time, Yang took even longer to respond. They both went back to looking over the things in the displays, picking them up and putting them down. Neither really paying much attention to what they were seeing.

"This, um…" Yang held up a tennis bracelet with a musical note dangling from it. "Is this dumb? I… think she could like it, but I, um…"

Again, Ruby welcomed the distraction. As much as she needed advice for what to do next, she much preferred to ignore the subject and keep burying her head in the sand. "That is super cute, actually. Maybe you can get another little snowflake charm for it too?"

"Ooh, that's a good idea… let me know if you find anything like that. Or maybe a star, because…" Her voice got quieter as she added, "She's my star."

Despite Yang having meant it genuinely, Ruby only saw her usual attitude of pun making and groaned again. "That was sooooo bad, international superstar. But stars and snowflakes, got it."

"Y-yeah," Yang replied with a feigned laugh. Clearly she had thought that was really romantic and it fell flat.

They both dug through the display for a little while longer, and Yang did eventually find a snowflake. Ruby was still hunting for a star when she walked back over. Clearly her mind was preoccupied.

"Um… hey Ruby?"

"Hmm?" Noticing that Yang had found what she wanted, she turned back to the display a moment to look longer. "Still can't find a star… Do you mind if it's a typical one? Or do you want a more… what? Something wrong?"

"The typical one is fine, we dug through most of 'em." Then she cleared her throat and tried to sound unconcerned as she asked, "So, were you, uh, maybe, kinda… sleeping with Blake?"

That'd made Ruby drop the small charm she had picked up, which bounced and rolled under one of the displays before she could catch it. At least it was one of the cheapest ones. "Oh, shoot! Noooo!"

“Those things are dime a dozen. C’mon, I asked you a serious question.”

She looked back around to her sister reluctantly. "No, not Blake. I mean, she said she thinks I'm cute before, but also said she would never want to because of your past. Kinda... crossing the streams, or whatever."

"Okay," she sighed in relief. "Whew! Just… you know, I noticed you guys were kinda hanging out sometimes, and… like, I never for sure thought you were, but that’s the only obvious guess I have."

Breathing with relief, Ruby laughed nervously with her. "T-that's fine! Nah, she and Sun seem to be exclusive to each other, from what I know, at least."

Under her breath, Yang muttered, "She's said that one before…" Then she cleared her throat and said, "Okay, Ruby. Whatever went on between you and whoever… it sounds like you were going past just bumping uglies and into really caring about each other. Weren't you?"

"H-hey, it wasn't like-!" But as much as she wanted to deny it, Yang was right; that was the simplest way to put it. Looking downward, she mumbled, "Yeah… we were."

"But… she's also doing stuff with someone really close to you, and it kinda gives you the 'this room is too crowded' vibe?" When Ruby didn't answer, she sighed and ran a hand through her bangs. "Whoo. That's rough."

"She’s also roommates with this person," Ruby added. It seemed like a major detail to leave in given the situation. Pacing to the other displays, she explained in more detail. "I'm not really mad about that anymore, I guess… I'm more mad that I hurt her. Not just by yelling at her about that, but that I left before talking it though. And that I hurt her before all this ugliness and didn't even know I did."

"God… and you were just gonna walk around with all this weighing you down?" Reaching over, she tousled Ruby's hair until it was a messy brown-and-red mop. It was one of the few things she had done when she was Ying that still lingered, even with how much she had changed before Ruby's eyes as they both grew up.

"Sis, I can only work with the facts I got. From where I'm standing… it sounds like this, um, person is worth it to you to go out on a limb for. I’ve been watching you moping around the past few months, and it's like… like something's missing inside you. And maybe your hookup isn't what you need, or maybe she- they are, and… I think you owe it to both of you to try. Just… I don't know, talk to ‘em again. Be chill and see where it goes."

"How?" she asked desperately with a little shrug. "How can I be 'chill' about it when I more or less said 'fuck you and what you've been through' to her face? Like… okay, it wasn't those exact words, sure; but the message was the same."

Though Yang did wince at the implication of saying something like that to someone, she gripped Ruby's shoulder. Unfortunately, due to her ignorance of the topic, her phrasing was less than ideal. "Hey, so you messed up in a… not small way. Sometimes to get what you want, you gotta eat a little crow."

Which was rather noticeable, given that she immediately shut her eyes tightly at the remark. "GOD I'd rather not hear 'Crow' and 'Eat' in the same sentence, you have no idea…"

But whether Ruby liked it or not, her sister was completely right. The problem wasn't going to be solved by hiding from each other; they needed to talk. To apologise, say their piece, and learn. Even if they ended up still avoiding each other after, the least they could do was try.

Apparently, Yang had been trying to talk to her all along, because she finally said, "Yooo, you in there, little Ruby? Big sis calling!" Then a fist was knocking on the top of her head, albeit lightly.

"GAH!" Flinching as soon as her head was touched, she nearly managed to knock the bracelet from Yang's hand! But right away she composed herself again, scratching her head. "S-sorry… I spaced. What were you saying?"

"I was saying that we should probably check out," Yang laughed easily, beaming her usual confident smile down at Ruby. "This bracelet's kinda lame, but it's literally the only idea I've had all day that doesn't make me wanna hurl myself into a volcano."

Ruby could only smile back, handing over the small star charm she had unearthed. "I actually think it's really cute, she'll love it."

But just after they'd finished checking out and re-entered the mall complex, Ruby was attempting to get some information of her own. She had been wanting to for a while, but didn't know how without raising suspicion. As naturally she could, she asked, "So… who's coming to the party? Me, Penny… who else?"

"Oh, well you know. Family people. Plus FNKI is supposed to be there, and Blake and Sun." Pointing, she asked, "Smoothies? My treat, for helping me out with this."

"Yeah, I guess smoothies wouldn’t break the bank," Ruby laughed, following her big sis. "Family people… so Dad, Jacques… Winter…?"

With a slow drawl, Yang answered, "Riiiight. That's who family is. Oh, I don't know if Uncle Qrow RSVP'd yet or not; he was invited. But Dad's gonna be there for sure." Then she looked suspiciously at Ruby. "Unless there's a problem with Dad being there…?"

"Why would I have a problem with Da-" But given the rather serious look, Ruby rolled her eyes. "Look, Dad was an example. This friend isn't actually sleeping with Dad. If she was, he would be living in the house with them, cause they are roommates with the person, remember? And no, it’s not Penny, and it’s really not me."

"Well yeah, I guess. Just double-checking, okay?" When Ruby still seemed irritated, she sighed and said, "Okay, I won't ask who's who again. I get it, this is sensitive. But… I do hope you get whatever's going on squared away. And promise me you won't sit on it until too much time went by, and now you feel like you can't speak up. Please?"

Eyebrows furrowing, Ruby looked up to her sister anxiously. She was genuinely worried about her… and had good reason to be, given what she had to deal with a few years ago; of course now that a somewhat similar situation presented itself, even if only affecting her sister, she would be on edge. But not wanting to let on how truly she was bothered by this, Ruby instead looked at the smoothie menu.

"Get me a banana and blueberry smoothie and it's a deal."

But all Yang groaned in response was, "Do you have to pick 'banana'? I'm already embarrassed enough about that as it is!"

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

"…but she’s been saying she wants to eat more organic, so I figured, buying some vegetable plant seeds could be an idea; something to do with little Fèn once she gets older, also. Not such a boring present, is it?"

Winter’s father had offered to drive her to her sister’s birthday party to both spare her sobriety and cab fare. He insisted strongly, despite her reluctance to be in his company. In recent days, that seemed to be worryingly common; for her to be alone or seem a little more uptight and serious than usual. Even if he had never mentioned it, her father certainly noticed.

And when noticing she still wasn't particularly listening on this occasion, he cleared his throat. "S-so… Amber couldn't come. She had something with her own family she couldn't miss, so you and Weiss will have to meet her properly another time."

"Hmm? Oh, yes… that's wonderful, Father." It was a stock answer. Winter would normally have offered up something a lot more in-depth and pointed, but it seemed she still wasn't up to the task.

In fact, she had spent most of the past months avoiding any time alone with her father. Not that he would know why. Not that they never talked, but their discussions had been fewer and further between ever since he told her about Amber. Poor Jacques. The only cause he could think of was the possibility that Winter didn't like his flowering relationship. And no wonder; no one would like to hear their parent had moved on, much less such details.

While they were at a red light, he looked around to her, asking, "You… aren't mad at me for dating again, are you?"

"What?" she asked, roused from her reverie. "No, not at all… oh, Father, I'm sorry. My mind is just elsewhere." Frowning over at him, she told him as earnestly as she could, "I didn't mean to make you think I disapprove of Amber."

There was a wave of relief, and right away he swept the sweat from his brow. "Phew! You had me worried there! Last thing I wanted to do was make you or Weiss feel uncomfortable." As the light turned green, his attention returned to the road, but he didn't drop the subject. "Then what is wrong, dear? You've seemed off for a long time now."

"Have I?" she asked, trying to sound as convincing as she could. She shifted in her seat, trying to find a more comfortable position. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to worry you."

"Well, you have been a little," he admitted. "So, if it's not Amber… what is it? Is there something I should be concerned about? Have I done anything to upset you?"

"No, nothing," she answered immediately. There was no way she could ever tell him why she was so uncomfortable in his presence now - especially since it was getting easier to manage a little at a time. So she had to distract him, and she could only find one topic that would adequately excuse her standoffishness without making her poor father feel worse. "Just… I was beginning to think I might have found an 'Amber' of my own. But the relationship fell through before I could figure that part out."

"Oooohh… so, it's relationship trouble." While it was a better assumption than the whole truth, it was still awkward for old Jacques Schnee. He wasn't used to talking to his daughters in such circumstances until a couple of years ago, so the advice was always rusty. Still, he tried. "There's always more fish in the sea, even if you have to swim a little further out, I suppose. I know you get out more than I do, I'm sure you'll find a nice… girl, to settle down with someday."

Laughing weakly, Winter crossed her legs in the opposite direction, hoping against hope that it would abate her discomfort. No such luck. "Doubtful. I just don't feel that kind of connection with people. Not until…" Did she dare confirm? "Until she came along."

"I see… the one that got away, hmm?" Given the silence, that was also confirmed. While it wasn't as easy for him as it would be talking to a son about this sort of thing, he tried his best to treat her in the same way he would a son, and cleared his throat. "Girls are very mysterious. One minute you think you have them figured out, the next, you're back to square one. Or in your case, square zero. Of course, you know that, being a woman yourself." Scratching his head nervously, he tried to continue, "But what I'm saying is, don't bet all your money on one horse. If it's not meant to be, it won't happen. If it is, things will… well, they'll find a way to work."

"But I wasn't putting money on any horse," she sighed. "My feelings came as a complete surprise to me; I wasn't even looking! And then…" There had to be a way to discuss this without going into specifics. "We had an argument. About our relationship, and how we hadn't been entirely honest about our situations. It should have been something we could work through, but…"

"Ah, of course. Nobody likes complications." They weren't too far from the house, but rather than pull right up to the drive, he pulled the car over onto the shoulder a moment. "Listen, I'm not very good at this, you can tell; but it sounds like you both left everything up in the air rather than talking through the issue properly."

Winter could feel her anxiety rising. They were so close! She hadn't been mentally prepared to be alone with him for any longer than the drive there. But she also didn't want to squander this chance to have a non-superficial conversation with her father; they were so rare, and if she avoided this one she might not get another for a while. Or might even lead him to believe she hated him. That wouldn’t do.

"I wanted to try again. But she let me know we were done. That… she didn't want to see me anymore. She was so upset, I… how can I approach her if she hates me?"

Leaning back in his seat, Jacques sighed deeply, drumming his fingers against the top of the steering wheel as some form of distraction. "How indeed. Then again, your mother and I used to have our fair share of arguments before we got serious; sometimes, shit happens." It was unusual for her father to swear, even more so when he was calm. Still, it meant they were possibly getting somewhere. "Perhaps arrange to meet under more neutral circumstances?"

"Perhaps so." Her eyes flicked toward her sister’s house and the promise of safety, and she sighed. "We'll see. It feels so hopeless, but… I should at least apologise for my part of our misunderstanding. Then it would be up to her, right?"

"Exactly." He smiled toward her. "The ball will be in her court, as it were. If she wants to play, she will. If not… well, you can say you did everything you possibly could. It's disappointing if it does come to that, but in the end, it's far more satisfying to say you tried than to give up without trying."

Nodding glumly, she tried to let herself believe him. It was so hard! But she knew it was the truth; yes, Ruby was well within her right to end their arrangement, even without what went on with Qrow. Even so, that didn't mean she and her sister-in-law couldn't patch up their friendship, and discuss what went wrong like mature adults.

"You're right, of course. It's… I'll think about it. Thank you."

Nodding happily, he put his hands back on the wheel again to drive the last few seconds of the journey. Already, there were a few cars and bikes on the drive from the various guests. One of which included the small red car that Winter recognised so much: Ruby's.

Oblivious to that, Jacques was already taking off his seatbelt and opening the door. "In the meantime, just enjoy the party today. I'm sure Weiss will let you hold Fèn for longer than a couple of minutes this time!"

"Don't count on it," she laughed as they exited the car and began walking up towards the lakehouse. Despite their difficulties and Winter's private discomfort, she really did appreciate the talk more than she could say.

Once they got inside, they could see most of the guests had arrived. Yang and a few members of FNKI were loitering in the spacious entryway. One or two other children from Fenléng's daycare were toddling back and forth in the living room, their mothers likely nearby. Winter thought it was nice that she had a few little friends to play with.

"I'll be back in a bit, guys," Yang reassured both Flynt and Inu upon noticing the new guests. Suspecting they hadn't seen Weiss yet, she thought it best to greet the newcomers herself, managing to scoot past them to welcome her inlaws with open arms. "There you two are! Figured you got lost, again."

Jacques chuckled to himself, accepting a quick hug from her with a pat on the back. "That was just one time. Where is my other pride and joy, anyway?"

"Out in the garden with Ruby! I think they wanted to catch up a little bit before we gave Weiss her presents and stuff. You can head through, if you want?"

Raising a small bag and the box from Jacques, Winter said, "Where shall I put these?"

"Oh, I'll take 'em while we go through, it's on the way. Weiss's been waiting for you guys to turn up!"

With a brief wave goodbye to the two guests, Yang journeyed through the living room with both of Weiss’s relations following behind. She detoured to the kitchen with the two gifts, adding them to the pile, then leading Winter and Jacques to the rear conservatory doors. And there in plain sight were Ruby and Weiss, sat together on the bench.

The circumstances couldn't be any worse. Both Jacques and Weiss were completely unaware of the tension between Winter and Ruby. It gave no time for either of them to prepare mentally, especially not when Jacques was already walking outside toward them both, calling out to get their attention. "There she is! Twenty-two years young."

Turning, Weiss smirked at him as she said, "You got it right this year, Father. I'm impressed." Then her smile widened and she said, "Hey, sister of mine!"

"Happy birthday," Winter said, smiling gently. For the moment, she could forget about the girl sitting next to her sister. Ruby was definitely very important to her, but this wasn't her day, and it wasn't Winter's. "How does it feel to be another year wiser?"

"About the same," she laughed back with a little shrug. "Yang and I were just talking about that this morning; every year is just an encore, isn't it?"

"Once you're past twenty-one, it is pretty much the same,” Jacques chuckled. “Still, gives us an excuse to have a drink or two."

While he was making small talk with his daughter, Ruby continued to sit still with a drink in hand, staring toward the ground nervously. She knew Winter was there, but was far too scared to even make eye contact with her. Clearly, she had been just as cut up as Winter was in the first place. At least that was one small good sign; the pseudo-breakup wasn’t already an irrelevant event for the girl.

"So, how many others are on their way?" Winter asked, hands in the small of her back.

"Well, there's Blake and Sun," Weiss began to list off as she embraced sister. "Taiyang is on his way with Qrow. That might be everyone, right, honey?"

"Blake just messaged and said she's on the way," spoke up Yang from behind them, who had just finished putting the gifts away and was now coming to a stop by her wife’s side. "Aaaand Dad's on the way but a little held up because he went to get Penny from the airport. That’ll be a while, so… should we do presents?"

"You guys go ahead," Ruby said from her seat. At least now she raised her head a little, and looked outward to the large lake rather than at the floor like she was before. "I'm just gonna… chill here for a minute. Crazy week."

"Sorry to hear that," Winter said almost automatically. Then she cleared her throat and hastily turned to Weiss. "Are you ready for presents, or would you rather wait for Blake and Sun?"

"We can wait. In fact, now that I've stopped breastfeeding, I'm ready to have a drink. Can I get you something?"

Smiling demurely, she responded, "Oh, come on; this is your day. I can make drinks for both of us. What will everyone have?"

"Maybe Weiss already has the drinks I…" Though before she could finish that quip, Yang realised just who was in their company. They might well be on good terms, but an adult breastfeeding joke might be a bit too much for the subject’s father and sister to take. Winding back, she cleared her throat again. "Yeah, but I'll get them though, seriously. I know Weiss wants a strawberry daiquiri, and I’m still on the dry list. You two…?"

"I'm driving, so just sparkling water for me. What about you, Winter?" Jacques asked, although he was about ready to head inside.

Her eyes flicked to Yang, but then she said, "Martini, dry, single olive. That is, if it's no trouble."

"Nope, not at all!."

Weiss and Jacques headed inside first, with him asking about how she was and how Fènleng had been. It was always the subject whenever he came over now. But before Winter could step inside, Yang's hand landed on her shoulder, pulling her slightly around.

"Hey… you got a minute?"

That was quite startling for the elder of the Schnee sisters. Glancing both between the door inside and Ruby on the bench, she asked, "Of course, what's up?"

Glancing back at her little sister for a quick moment herself, she leant in closer toward Winter, talking in a hushed tone. "Okay, this is gonna be a weird request, but could you talk to her? This past few months she's had a bad case of the blues about, um, this situation she’s in. I know it's weird asking since she barely knows you, but… I'm kinda at a roadblock."

"Me?" Gulping, she glanced back at Ruby, then again at Yang. The woman she had treated so badly once upon a time. "I… don't have the greatest track record with helping people. Mentally. I'm honestly very surprised you'd ask me."

"Well, I'm stuck… Weiss is stuck, Penny's stuck… we're out of options. Not that you're a bad option, that's not what I'm saying at all! I mean, I know it's not gonna be the same as when you talked me into leaving and-" Sensing she was rambling, however, she looked down when the quizzical gaze of Winter met her own. "Bad start… bad start. But, yeah… if it's okay with you, could you? She may open up more if it's with somebody who doesn’t know her as well as us."

"Yang… you have me all wrong. I'm honoured you trust me to help her, and I'll definitely do my very best. Just… surprised." Swallowing hard, she whispered, "I've been hoping to… make things up to you; I know I can't, but anything I can do to try…"

"Oh pssshhh, I wasn't even thinking about that!" Yang quickly assured her, even laughing a little just to prove it. But in a short moment she squeezed her shoulder, just enough to convey she was serious. "I'm asking as a sister-in-law. Not as a 'you owe me'. Please?"

That prompted Winter to sigh in mild relief as she patted the hand on her shoulder. "That means the world to me. And yes, of course; I just apologise in advance if the talk doesn't do as much good as we both hope."

"Least we can say we tried. I'll have your drink ready in a second."

Finally releasing the shoulder, she headed back in the house behind Weiss and Jacques, leaving the two girls outside alone. Ruby, who was still trying to look to one side with her beverage to do anything to avoid looking her way; and Winter, who was awkward enough thinking about what needed to be done. It was pretty obvious Ruby wouldn't be the one starting.

There was so much she wanted to say, but in the end all she did was pace up behind the bench, come to a stop, and ask, "So… how have you been?"

Nervously shrugging her shoulders, Ruby kept watching the lake while she took a sip of her drink. Damn Yang… she didn't know anything about the situation, yet had somehow managed to convince Winter to do the very thing they needed to - despite her wanting to run a mile from it!

"G-good," she murmured after the sip, resting the hand back on her knee again. "J-just, um, doing so-so. And you?"

"I've been better… but I've been worse. So… I guess the same as you." She looked down towards her hands, white-knuckling on the back of the bench, and tried to relax. It wasn't working. "How are… you and Penny?"

Yet again, she shrugged her shoulders. However this time she at least made some form of effort to acknowledge her needs, by scooting to one side of the bench. "Not too bad, I guess. She has a new job, but she's been kinda stressed because I've been super tired a lot of the time."

Realising it would look strange if she kept standing there when there was an empty seat, she rounded it, sitting down as far away as she could from Ruby. Hopefully, she wouldn't feel crowded. "Why so tired? If it's not too much to ask about. Feel free to tell me it's none of my business, I…" But she didn't finish her thought.

"O-oh, it's nothing. J-just… uh…" Seemed it was more than nothing, especially when it came to the person she was admitting this to. But trying her best, she eventually shrugged her shoulders after another drink. "Just… felt a little off, that's all. I-it's like that sometimes."

"You should talk to your sister about that. She would know more about that, since she's… already on medication. No thanks to me," she added in a bitter undertone.

Closing her eyes, Ruby sighed deeply as she placed her glass on the ground and out the way. "That wasn't your fault entirely, you know. There were a lot of issues at the time with her, hiding under the surface. And besides, I'm pretty sure it’s not genetic; my parents weren’t diagnosed with stuff like that. So if it’s anybody, it’s Yang’s mom, I guess."

"Still, you… should work on what's troubling you." This was getting harder to dance around, and when she thought about doing so, she found she was unable to. "Because despite… how things played out, I still want what's best for you, Ruby. There's just no sense in you suffering if you can talk to someone, sort things out. Medication or no medication."

"I'm not depressed," she corrected. Although from the way she kept staring toward the ground, she wasn't exactly doing anything to prove that comment wrong. In the end, she placed her hands on the bottom of her small skirt, grasping the hem anxiously. But in the end, she thought to herself; what good would it do to keep distracting and leaving things unsaid? "I've just… been upset. Not Depression, not anything else; I'm just sad, okay? It… it was my own stupid fault in the first place."

"What was?" When Ruby didn't answer immediately, she followed up with, "I don't want to assume anything. That isn't my right. But maybe whatever has upset you wasn't your fault alone, and… and then you wouldn't have to punish yourself so harshly. Right?"

For a long while, there was silence between them. Ruby continued to look downward, still unable to yet look up at someone she once couldn't get enough of. It was almost tragic how far they had drifted thanks to a single argument. But the silence was lifted by a small, but rather desperate whisper.

"I miss you."

Winter's head raised, eyes wide. Her mouth worked as if she would respond right away, but she forced herself to stop, to consider her words more carefully. Then she stated, "And I have missed you. So much."

Tucking a stray strand of hair out of her own face, she eventually settled to holding her hands together on her lap, idly crossing her legs to appear casual. Just on the off-chance anyone inside was looking. But already, she could feel everything she had bottled up coming loose, feel her heart thudding with fear, eyes welling up.

"I just got so mad," she began to confess. “S-so mad and so jealous… and I had n-no right to be. That wasn't fair. Not when I-I'd done things just as bad to you."

"You didn't realize what you had done was so…" Winter paused, having to breathe deeply. This wasn't something she made a habit of discussing, so even now, months later, it was difficult. "We both crossed a line that we didn't think as important to the other person as it turned out to be. Is… that fair to say?"

It was accurate. All Ruby had wanted to do was show Winter that she was brave enough to do more daring things, while Winter simply wanted to keep the two most important people in her life happy without awkward encounters. It was certainly a fair assessment. Nodding in agreement, she stared out toward the lake again in a somewhat more contented silence.

"…How's Qrow?"

"Oh, he's been alright. They promoted him to assistant manager of the bar; said he was doing a great job with the work but was a little rude to the customers, so he was better placed being rude to the bartenders."

"So he gets to sit at a desk behind the bar and drink? Sounds like an ideal job for him."

Winter smiled down at the hands in her lap. "You… probably don't want to know any more details than that, do you?"

Though that last comment didn't make Ruby laugh. Unfortunately, she was still rather awkward about that situation. "N-no… not really. I wanna hear if he's okay but not like, those details."

"Of course, of course," she replied hastily. "I have no problem with that. As long as you agree not to tease me about… about the other thing. We can bring it up from time to time, but don't tease. It just…" She looked away, biting her lip to keep from showing a reaction too severe.

"I know… I stepped over the line." Nervously she shuffled in her seat again, looking downward toward the floor. A look of pure shame. "The truth is… I just thought that maybe… if I used my intuition and showed that I could be daring enough to try something big like that, you'd be pleased with my progress. But now I know, t-that was completely wrong. That you can't ‘guess’ with this stuff."

The corner of her mouth ticked up as she conceded, "Well, to be fair, you were right with everything except the third person who happened to be in the room. But your performance was… I still have to fan myself thinking about how good you were."

"It… was pretty hot." Unsure if that was crossing the line or not, she shrugged her shoulders nervously. "That doesn't count as teasing, right? To admit that it was really… really thrilling?"

"No, not at all. I… could tell you how I really felt about it, if you promise not to pass judgment. A-and if you promise not to think it means I dislike you; just because I was angry and upset didn't mean I wanted you out of my life! I regret so much that I made it seem that way…"

"I wouldn't blame you if you did… I crossed the line," she admitted again. She knew she deserved more than that. She expected fury, rage even, but Winter had something else to say. "…g-go on?"

"What I said during play… that it really turned me on… I wasn't lying. It did. But admitting that means admitting that…" Winter's cheeks were pink already due to how long they had been talking about their last session, but she bravely forged ahead.

"On the car ride up here, I spent the entire time trying to ignore how wet I was getting. Because I was in the same car as my father. You were so good, and gave me such a powerful climax, that now… now I associate that with speaking to him, being in the same place as him. Which I'm so ashamed of; it's… not as if he had anything to do with it directly, or as if I want to sleep with him! GOD, no! But the two things are connected in my brain pretty strongly now." Now that the older woman had said her peace, she closed her eyes and waited for the reaction. However bad it might turn out to be.

"Ohhh…" Surprisingly, it was far easier for Ruby to take in than expected. While it was good to learn that she had given Winter an extremely powerful orgasm, and Winter was proud of her as a sub… learning that Winter now associated her own father with their escapades wasn't so good. In fact, when she thought about it…

It was the same association she now had with Qrow once learning who he was. Finding out that Qrow was another of Winter’s partners made such thoughts hard to totally block out. A sexual context for her own uncle. They were both dealing with those awful tricks of their minds. Only difference was, Ruby knew she would never accidentally be picturing her uncle during the act the same way Winter might with her father.

"Shit… I really screwed up…"

"Not so badly. I mean, it's almost fun, when I'm not disgusted with myself." A few seconds later, she added in a weak murmur, "That was supposed to be humourous, but after saying it, I realized it didn't come out that way…"

Still blinking, she finally looked more in Winter's direction than the floor at last. Not eye contact yet, but it was better than what it was. "Geeze, I just wanted to do something… adventurous. To be bold or whatever. I didn't want to ruin an entire person for you, let alone your own father!"

With another gentle, nervous smile, she turned back to face forward. "You don't have that much power, Ruby. He's not ruined, exactly… just… this is something I'll have to work through. But it does help to have a specific cause; you fucking me under the desk, instead of just 'Surprise, you're turned on in your father's presence'. Keeps me from thinking I'm even more of a deviant than I already am."

There was a small chuckle coming from her. "That would be the worst version of the Daddy kink."

"Ugh," Winter groaned, ducking her head. "Do you know how long I mentally dissected me moaning 'Daddy' when I’m being fucked?! I haven't called him that in over a decade, and I still had to worry about it!"

"Oh my god, I was kidding - I didn't know you had one!" The laugh was beginning to increase in volume. In fact, it would be the loudest anyone would have heard her laugh in weeks, even if it was a slight form of teasing. Their talk was working.

So Winter kept it going. Yes, she was uncomfortable with the subject matter, but it was also a relief to be able to get it out and discuss it instead of bottling everything up. "Well, I do, but it never had anything to do with my actual daddy until that night. Not as far as I knew, anyway." Shifting in her seat, she muttered, "You know what they say about all little girls wanting to marry their fathers…"

"Not me; never ever been interested in men. Even me being kinda weird about sex aside…" Finally, she felt her muscles relaxing as she grew more at ease; even began to smile. Maybe things were going to work out for them still being friends, after all. In the end, that's what they wanted, to be in one another's lives, regardless of feelings.

But Ruby didn't want to leave it there. Talking about where things went wrong with their arrangement was one thing, but with their feelings was another. They had come too far, said too much to leave it there without talking it through fully. If only she could take that first step.

Though Winter beat her to it. "If you're sure you want to keep these secrets, and aren't already disgusted by me…" Her eyes flicked up to Ruby's face, then away again, waiting. Bursting to speak, but afraid that she had already gone too far.

"I could never be disgusted with you." At long last, she looked up, and right at Winter's face. It was like she was seeing her for the first time all over again. She could already feel the bottled up feelings reemerging, the compulsive need to grab Winter and kiss her as hard as she could. But they had to talk it out first. "Even after all my thinking, all this time with these dumb thoughts… I can't be disgusted with you. I can't even dislike you. And I don't want to. Because all this time has passed and I… I-I… still…"

Almost as if to head her off, Winter went on, "G-good. Because it's been getting worse, even if I've been getting better at processing it; understanding it's a kink, and it doesn't make me bad for having a kink if I don't indulge it. That's not as bad, right?" Her eyes held Ruby's for just a moment, hopeful, drinking in the desire she saw reflected there, before she turned away.

"As you heard, my father has begun dating this Amber woman. I've seen her, and she really is attractive." More fidgeting from the elder Schnee sister. "S-so… I may have had a stray fantasy about walking in on them…"

"Well… I-I guess… um…" Truly speechless after that confession of hers, Ruby looked to one side wide eyed, scratching the back of her head nervously. Managing to force a chuckle of her own, she admitted, "I guess these things don't hurt. Fantasies and all that, different strokes for different folks."

"You know, I could tell he was flustered by that sketch of yours - which I framed, by the way, I hope I can show you how it looks framed. That… is part of what made it harder to forget this whole thing. He didn't know it, but he was finding me attractive." Then she cleared her throat, waving that away as best she could. "Which only makes sense; he's always told me I'm a lot like Mother was. Weiss is the one who looks so distinctly different, even though there's a family resemblance, of course."

"Weirdly? She looks like your dad, if he was a girl… if that makes sense?" She could only hope that would be enough to make her chuckle along with her. The strange thing was, at the start of this arrangement, she was so obsessed with Winter's likeness to Weiss. Now, she could completely separate them. When with Winter, it was like Weiss was never even a factor.

"She does!" Winter admitted with a giggle of her own, raising a hand to her mouth to hide it. Then she sighed and said, "Anyway, enough about my budding Electra complex before I develop a thing for Weiss, too." Turning more fully, she looked straight at Ruby with a sober gaze. "I'm so happy that we can talk again. It might not be easy, but I can't tell you how much I've missed this!"

Laughing right back with her, Ruby picked her drink back up from the ground. The smile on her face evolved into a grin. "Me too! This was one of the things I missed. I mean, Weiss and Blake are great to talk to, but you sorta get fed up with them bringing up their other halves like, all the time."

Nodding, Winter crossed her legs in a lot less discomfited gesture - though she still shivered slightly at the action. "Indeed, they do go on about each other. But it's a positive thing, that they're in such stable relationships." Glancing over at Ruby, she asked in a careful tone, "You and Blake didn't ever…?"

Drinking the final swig of her drink, Ruby shook her head lightly, drawing the glass away. "Nah. We agreed that'd be too weird with how she was with Yang and all. Plus, as much as she knows she's bisexual…" Shuffling up closer to Winter a moment, she quickly checked the area to make sure no one was in sight. Thankfully, they were all too distracted by the presents to even notice those two outside. Finally, she leaned into her ear, whispering, "She is definitely all about dicks."

Giggling, Winter whispered back, "I know. I offered to Dom her a few times, or to let her Dom me, and she said she 'wouldn't mind' but didn't seem all that excited about getting around to it. I saw that as the gentle kiss-off that it was, and never pushed for an answer."

"Yeah… She won't admit it, but she is a cockslut," Ruby whispered back. And yet even when she was done whispering, she didn't move away. Not yet. She had become content with sitting right at Winter's side, even leaning in slightly toward her. So close… even after months, it was becoming like those few romantic sessions all over again. Except there were no characters, no practice. This was Winter Schnee and Ruby Rose.

"Do you still…" But as soon as the words began to form, she held a hand up, shaking her head. "Nah, forget it, I'm being dumb."

"I still miss more than just our sessions," Winter told her firmly, offering it when Ruby hadn't finished her question. "I miss YOU, all of you."

Ruby found no more words to say. Usually a chatterbox who let her mouth run, and she was completely speechless. All she could do was keep their close proximity, feel her cheeks beginning to heat up once more as Winter stared back at her. She always managed to make her blush… and this was no exception. After a brief check to make sure no one was around, she found her eyes wandering elsewhere. To Winter's eyes, her lips…

"Kiss me."

"Are you sure?" she breathed gently, allowing her index finger to brush down along Ruby's arm. "Someone might see. Or do you want them to see?" Quirking her lips, she whispered as she drifted closer, "Not that I would fault you if that was secretly what you wanted."

"I-I want…" She wanted everything to go the way it was meant to go when she first confessed her feelings for Winter. She wanted for them to be more, so much more. "I want you… I want to feel how you feel about me. Even after this long. I-if you still do."

At the more insistent wording, the lessening of ambiguity, Winter's eyes began to shimmer. Her throat tightened, and she leaned in yet closer. With only another second of hesitation, her lips took the younger woman's, hungrily and with great relish.

And she poured every last ounce of desire into her mouth as she kissed her back, as her hand slid up to rest upon her neck. For the first time, one of their kisses wasn't merely full of confidence, sensuality, desire. This time, there was so much affection - on a level closer to Penny's, though different in its own right. Open and earnest.

In the same way, Ruby felt her eyes closing in bliss. Her hand crept up and into Winter's hair, bringing her in closer. Her other hand was holding her glass as best she could, but even that was a struggle. In the movement and effort Winter displayed when she opened her lips slightly further, when she eased her tongue forward to brush against her own, she could feel it. This kiss was so completely different to what she had felt from her before, yet entirely familiar. Winter Schnee loved her, and she could tell from that single, honest kiss between them. And already she could feel tears welling up in her eyes all over again.

Though Winter continued to pour more and more of her affection into the contact, eventually it grew to be too powerful. She had to break away to whisper, "I thought I lost you forever!" before she threw her arms around Ruby, pushing her face into her neck and trembling all over as she tried not to break down entirely.

Although hesitant at first, Ruby eventually found the strength to hug right back, pulling her in tightly as she grasped the cardigan she was wearing. Everything was back, her scent, her touch; her. And she wouldn't have it any other way. What a fool she was to let it all go, to let such a thing slip away because of a pathetic argume-

"Guys, we're starting to open the presents!"

Yang happened to call as she stood by the conservatory door. Why did that have to happen now?! Thankfully, there was no awkwardness about the embrace; it simply looked like what Yang had intended for them, for Winter to have helped Ruby with her sadness. And that brought a smile to her face. "Awww, come on you nerds, get in here!"

Pulling back with a sniffle, she was sure not to do what she would have done - kiss Ruby again - and instead turned immediately to call, "Coming!" When addressing Ruby again, she whispered, "Are you going to be alright? I mean, I think I can dry it up, but we can linger a moment if you need to."

Moving the hand from the back of her head to her shoulder instead, she nodded. She desperately wanted to do the same, quickly lunge forward and kiss Winter. But that would have to wait until another time. "Y-yeah, we'd better. Yang's been worried about me."

"Yeah, she said. Your sister really cares for you; I'm glad you're so close." Biting her lip as she stroked Ruby's arm, down out of sight due to the bench, she whispered, "Maybe… she can be one of the first ones we tell, when we're ready. She and Weiss. I think they're the ones who might feel the most strange about us being anything other than sisters-in-law."

"Yeah… Yeah that's true. It would be a good idea." But it seemed at first, Ruby hadn't quite realised what that implied. Until she started to really think about it. And her eyes widened once she began to think on it more and more, before finally gasping, "You… want that with me? Like, to be completely out in the open? Really?"

"Possibly," she answered with a shy smile as she finally began to stand up, pulling Ruby to her feet alongside. "Depending on other factors. Mainly, you and Penny; if we did that, she would be part of a polyamorous relationship, even if she has no feelings for me. I don't want to put her in that position if she's not comfortable with it. And then we'll have to decide how we feel about each of the other people in our lives knowing about it in turn."

"Yeah, of course. If we don't handle this right, people would accuse me of being a cheater. And I don't want that – she doesn’t deserve to have people thinking that, either. Don't worry, I'll be talking to her about it soon."

Winter nodded, then couldn’t help grinning down at the little puppy. Now all hers – or at least, more hers than she had been expecting. "I can’t wait."

#Lady Stardust #rwby fanfiction #ruby x winter #rwbyremnants #INCEST TW #(even tho it's not really)

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theladylovingcrow · 4 years

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New Places, Friendly Faces Part 3 (Sanny)

https://theladylovingcrow.tumblr.com/post/189298208331/new-places-friendly-faces-part-2-sanny

Author (As known on Various sites): Lady Lover- Rockfic, Luluthechoosingcrow - AO3, theladylovingcrow - Deviantart and Wattpad, @sammy_bluebells - Instagram, @imacrowcawcaw - main Tumblr, @theladylovingcrow - writing/art Tumblr, @insannywestan - Sanny shipping Tumblr

Fandom: Greta Van Fleet

Pairing: Sam Kiszka/Danny Wagner (Sanny), lil bit of Danny/Ronnie but he's quickly swept away with Sam

Length: about 2.3k

Warnings/Tags: Alternate Universe, Diner AU, No band AU, fluff, some angst, awkwardness, first dates, you know the ones where person A's date is failing and person B comes and sits with them, sorry i forgot what its called but that, hand holding, flirting, Sanny

Summary: Danny was nervous; he had been building up the courage for *weeks* to arrange a date, and now.... He wasn't quite sure what to think of the situation he found himself in. The night certainly wasn't going as he had expected it to - and his emotions had never ridden a roller coaster this fast. Hell, the beautiful angel holding his hand wasn't even the one he had arranged to meet 2 hours ago.

Author's Notes: Yep! I've officially adopted an every Monday post schedule for this, so that's cool! Just an fyi about the ending of this chapter, I'm so sorry to disappoint of you're hoping for a magical portal but that's not it (that wpuld have been cool but this is a mundane story)

https://theladylovingcrow.tumblr.com/post/189298208331/new-places-friendly-faces-part-2-sanny

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"Right... well, I'm officially off duty once I ring you up, so why don't you two get out of here and have some fun."

Danny fished into his pocket one handed, finding his wallet. He tried to open it and get a ten out while still holding on to Sam, but it was pretty difficult so he was forced to let go in order to pay. He thought it was a little overly dramatic of his heart, but it literally stopped beating out of disappointment for a second. God. He was already completely whipped.

Sam stood up and grabbed the keys, going back to his other table to put on his coat while Danny got his change back from Ronnie. She, now sitting at the table with her other brothers, waved them goodbye as they exited the cozy diner, stepping out into the frigid snow.

Sam immediately grabbed Danny's hand back, putting both of them in his pocket as he started to walk around the back of the building to the employee's section of the parking lot.

Sam suddenly stopped, turning to look at Danny. "Shit, wait, how did you come here? Do you have a car?"

"Uhh, my mom dropped me off."

Sam nodded and kept walking. Danny, for some reason, didn't want to leave it at that - Sam didn't seem overly judgemental, but he wanted to show that he wasn't a completely helpless dork.

"Usually I get her car on the weekends," he continued, "but she had some thing to attend over in North Star and she couldn't get a ride. She brought me here and gave me money for the bus to take home."

"Hey, well, now you don't have to take the bus!"

Sam grinned at him, unlocking the door to his sister's car and opening it for Danny. He smiled to himself and ducked his head, getting in. Fuck whatever societal expectations - not like they really applied to gay couples anyways - he loved to be treated sweetly, too.

Starting the ignition and carefully backing out of the parking space, Sam laughed, loud and happy. Danny looked at him curiously.

"Oh my god, I just picked up a total hottie and we're going on a rendezvous in my sister's car! This is crazy!"

Danny laughed, too, amazed at the situation. Like, holy shit, he was in this guy's (sister's) car that he had met less than an hour ago and they were on their way to who knew where. And he didn't even care! Never in his life had Danny been less concerned about the future; his music, his golfing, school, the world at large, none of it mattered when Sam was sitting next to him, singing along to Jimi Hendrix and looking absolutely stunning in the passing lamplight.

They drove for a time, speeding past cozy houses and dense acres of trees that outlined the starlit sky. Sam didn't seem to have a destination in mind any time soon, and Danny didn't really care if the car never stopped driving. The radio started to fuzz out as the got further into the woods, and nothing but an old talk show was coming in, so Sam had Danny put in his Clapton CD he'd left in Ronnie's car.

"I was looking for that! Figured I'd left it in here, but I don't get the car as often now that she's working more."

Danny nodded, enjoying hearing these little bits about Sam's siblings. It always interested him - learning small facts about people and getting glimpses into their lives, even more so when he was very interested in that person themselves, too.

"So, Ronnie is older than you, right?"

"Yeah, yeah she's a year older than me, she just started taking some classes at the adult school in Saginaw. She's been working at Gerald's for awhile, but she gets adult hours, now, which is good because we like to stay out late and go see her," Sam laughed.

"Oh, that's cool. What about your brothers, the twins? Are they your only other siblings?"

"Yes, fortunately. I don't know how Mom and Dad handled us, we're all within three years of each other. What about you, are you an only child?"

Danny had been right, they were all close in age. Four kids, two of them twins! He still couldn't wrap his head around how that could possibly work out for the parents, but they all seemed to be nice people and clearly got along well. It was pretty nice, actually, having a (potential) boyfriend with a good relationship with his family - Danny knew that it might of been a slightly unfair dating requirement, but he wanted someone who loved their family as much as he did.

"I have a younger sister, she's a freshman at Frankenmuth High. I'm a senior, by the way."

"Wait, what? Me too! I wonder why I've never seen you if we go to the same school. How have I never noticed you before?" Sam exclaimed, making a sharp turn and pulling off of the paved road onto a dirt track.

Danny contemplated that, too. How one Earth had he never seen Sam if they went to the same fucking school? Sam was, like, *magnetic* or something, it didn't make any sense.

Sam interrupted him, not meaning to, as he was about to speak. "Alright, we're here. Sorry, continue," he grinned at Danny, looking sheepish at cutting him off. Danny smiled in return, telling him it was alright.

They got out of the car, shutting the doors gently so as not to disturb the peaceful nighttime forest, and also not to dent Ronnie's car.

Danny resumed what he was saying as Sam led him around to the trunk and started rooting around. "About not seeing me at school, well, you didn't have a reason to until now. I mean, it's not like a lot of people know me, I don't have many friends and I kinda tend to stay to the side."

"I can't imagine how you don't have tons of people hanging off of you," Sam said, looking up at Danny with his foxy eyes glinting in the moonlight. (That was cheesy, Danny knew - but his eyes were beautiful) "Like, the only explanation I can come up with as to why you don't have half of the school constantly begging you to notice *them* is because everyone is crazy."

He blushed and grinned, enjoying the feeling of being the one flirted with for once. It was beyond comprehensible for Danny as to why Sam seemed so taken by *him*, but it wasn't something he wanted to give up anytime soon if he could help it, confusion or not.

"Wow, you are a smooth talker, aren't you?"

Sam snorted. "Hardly. I'm telling you what I honestly think, and it's this: I've known you for maybe two hours, and you are the kindest, sweetest, smartest, most beautiful person I've ever met. Past maybe my mother, but that's different. You deserve all the friends in the world, and you could have any boy or girl you choose, I'm sure."

"Well, I'm choosing you," Danny said, blushing and grabbing Sam's hand. He didn't know what it was, but he was being particularly mushy today. Luckily, Sam seemed to really like it.

Sam led him away from the car after locking it up, one arm carrying a briefcase looking container, and the other's hand holding Danny's. They walked through the light snowfall and under heavy bows of trees, going along a path Danny couldn't see but that, apparently, Sam knew well.

Danny had the quick thought that Sam was going to murder him, and maybe he shouldn't ignore his survival instincts, but he decided that Sam would *never* kill him. He also asked, though, just to be sure.

"Are you planning on killing me out here?"

Sam laughed his donkey bray, swinging their hands and taking another slight turn around a large tree. "No, I don't think I'd be able to physically overpower you, you're probably way stronger than I am."

"Oh, yeah? But what about a gun? What's in the box, Sammy?"

Danny was grinning inside, though externally he blocked it so that his facade wouldn't slip. Sam stopped and stood in front of him.

"I'll show you what's in the box!" Sam said, holding it up in front of his crotch like that SNL sketch.

"Ooh, my favorite!" Danny wiggled his brows, staring at the box where, right behind it, was Sam's dick. They both laughed, faces rosy and eyes crinkled.

Danny was glad that he had chosen Sam over Ronnie, not only for the fact that Sam actually liked him back, but that he got along so well with him. Even if the romance was a bust, he could tell that they would be very good friends, the connection was that immediate. And, he liked the idea of being best friends with a guy and then also getting to fuck his brains out at the end of the day.

'I'm getting ahead of myself, he said he has standards.'

'*No*, he said that he won't fuck you in his sister's car, but he wants to.'

"Sam, dude, where are we going? What are we doing out here, like, really?" He choked out, dying to know and also hoping that the plans included at least a kiss.

Danny hadn't been this desperate to kiss someone in- possibly forever, really. He didn't know why he was so intent on getting Sam's lips on him (though, he supposed he did: like, *look* at Sam's mouth). It wasn't like himself to be this out of control - albeit on his own head - but Sam had this effect on him.

Logically, Danny knew that if Sam wanted to go slower he would totally respect that choice and not even be put out about it, he liked just being with Sam that much. But, a kiss.... He wanted just a taste, in case this was the only date he got to have with Sam.

"We're almost there, and then I'll show you," Sam said quietly.

They continued walking, going up a gentle slope and then around a giant boulder. When they came around the other side, Danny saw that the rock had been obscuring a pristinely white, snow covered clearing. All around them, flakes fell softly from the sky, some decorating the trees, and others landing on their heads.

Sam turned to look at him, grinning. "Isn't it pretty? I feel like, whenever I come here, I've entered another dimension or something."

Danny nodded, his breath nearly taken away by the delicate magic of the moment. Well, it wasn't completely perfect - his nose was running, his gloveless hands were both freezing and clammy in Sam's, and he had no fucking clue where he was - but Sam was so, so beautiful in this place he had brought them to.

They stood and stared at the scene, taking in everything, from the stars peaking out from in between the clouds to the feel of their thumbs rubbing back and forth over each other's knuckles.

After a few minutes of silence, Sam broke it, speaking softly, "This is one of my favorite places on Earth to be. We come here during all seasons, but there's just something more.... *special*, I guess, when everything is pure and damp and quiet."

"It's really nice, I can see why you like to bring people here."

"Actually," Sam paused, looking shyly at Danny, "I've never taken anyone else. As far as I can tell, my family are the only people who know about it."

"Really? I- thank you so much for bringing me to such a special spot for you," he gasped, grinning back at Sam's little smile.

Danny was floored, absolutely amazed with this moment in his life. Sam had, for reasons he couldn't understand but figured he'd better stop worrying about, taken him to a place that no one else had been to. It was an intimate, deeply trusting gesture that he'd made, and Danny received it full-heartedly. The scenery felt sacred, now, in a way that he couldn't quite describe but that filled him with content.

"This really does mean a lot, that you're letting me view your spot. I don't know how to say thank you enough for trusting me with this- can I, maybe, take you somewhere special to me next time?"

He was shooting his shot, and praying to whatever deity felt nearest in this winter forest that it would hit it's mark. Sam had decided to take him here right after meeting him, so it *would* work, right? Danny really fucking hoped that it did, and that he hadn't ruined the relationship they were building. It was newly born and a little confusing, but in a good way; they were already fused together somehow, a connection running through them to make it seem like they'd known each other for years instead if hours.

"I'll go anywhere you wanna take me," Sam answered. He looked aware of how cliche what hed said was, but he also didnt seem to care. Damny was internally screaming with joy. "I wasn't sure where I was driving, at first, but I ended up on the path here, and it felt right. You being here feels nice and right."

Danny was smiling openly, happiness on display. He swung their hands and looked up at the sky, where the snow clouds where starting to clear, the last of the flakes finishing their journey to the ground. Sam leaned into him slightly, a pleasurable warmth permeating into Danny's body through the many layers of their clothing.

"This is perfect! I was hoping the clouds would clear up, cause this wouldnt really be much fun without it. Now, c'mon, let me show you the inside."

Danny was completely confused, again. "The inside?"

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@satans-helper @okietrish @karrotkate @lazingonsunday @lantern-inthenight @ryetheruler @oblvions @bigthighsandstupidguys @mountainofthesunn

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talltalesandbedtimestories · 4 years

Text

A View To A Winchester (Part 13)

Series Page

Summary: Julie’s starting a new life after divorce in a home with a very nice view.

A Dean X OFC story. I got this idea staring out the view of my home office window and thinking how nice it would be to have Dean Winchester to ogle.

Section Word Count: 5,200

Section Content: fluff, flirting,angst, R-rated language

~~~~~

The first time he had caught Julie staring into his backyard, almost three months ago, Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” blared in his head. He watched her from his kitchen window, careful to lean out of view so she wouldn’t see him. She was pretty, highlighted in the morning sunshine. Not very tall or short, average height in a pair of flats. He spotted the curves, hiding under dress pants and a cardigan, begging to be seen.

And after a couple weeks of the spying by the hot little librarian, well that was enough to get him to do some digging. Through his research, he found a textbook case of an American female born in the late twentieth century. Giulia Louisa Cuore. Julie to everyone else besides her mom and dad. Born in December of 1981 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to parents who emigrated from Italy.

The little family moved to Wilmington, Delaware when she was a baby. A brother tagged along for the ride four years later. She went to a Catholic elementary school and an all-girls Catholic high school. Dean choked on the beer he was gulping when he’d read that. She was a chubby, awkward kid and teenager, complete with glasses and braces. But damn if she didn’t get better with age as Dean poured through the Internet trail. College followed, nothing spectacular to note, but solid grades. No sports or extracurricular activities to speak of. She got a stable job and then, some years later, she got a ring on it. She became Julie Felton and was married for ten years. The only anomaly, before the divorce, was the lack of kids.

Her life sounded so easy, simple, normal on paper. He knew, of course, nothing was that easy, simple, or normal. But, Julie’s story might have been catalogued in the Women’s Fiction or Romance section of a bookstore. The series Chuck had penned about Dean and Sam’s life was cross-catalogued in Mythology, Horror, Sci-Fi, and Theology.

So, he had decided early on he was going to close the book on Julie Felton. Enjoy her from afar on occasion when he could. Peek at a few pages. Let her slowly put her life back together again and see the story play out from the view of his own backyard. He didn’t know how long she’d stay anyway. The quick separation he’d read about from Steve Felton, a Communications Director at the biggest hospital in upstate Delaware, and her even quicker house purchase during it all, could mean anything. Maybe she was rash, quick to act, like him. Maybe she’d be married in six months, moved out, and he’d never see that pretty face again.

But something told him, from all that he’d learned, that she was methodical and thought long and hard about the consequences her actions created. When she made a decision, he felt she’d follow it through. Another reason he didn’t introduce himself. He knew, could tell, she wanted to meet him. And the more he saw of her, the more he wanted to meet her. Maybe see what normal was like again. But, he was all kinds of trouble. What did Bobby used to say? Ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag.

And, then, when he knew the grass couldn’t wait to get mowed any longer, as Spring pushed the growth of his lawn into high gear, he strolled out to inspect it one morning and got ambushed by a sweet little Italian mother.

Now, not even two months later, after agreeing to mow a neighbor’s lawn, he was back at it. Staring at Julie and she was still none the wiser of his presence. The hospital machines beeped around her bed in the ICU room she’d been wheeled into a half hour ago. A nurse checked and noted the information on the screens.

Now who’s playing hide and seek, Jules?

“Giulia!” Brigida’s tiny frame stood in the doorway.

Another nurse appeared, flustered, behind her. “Ma’am, I’m sorry, we can only have one visitor in this room at a time.”

Dean stood up and walked over to Brigida. She snatched one of his large hands, her hazel eyes wide at the blood all over his shirt. “It’s okay.” He nodded at Brigida and then looked over to the nurse. “I’ll be outside.”

Dean could hear Julie’s mom call out to her again from where he stood in the hallway. From his vantage he saw Samuel and Wes standing in the waiting room at the far end of the corridor. He waved and trudged over to give them what little news he could. Their eyes bugged out even larger than Brigida’s at his appearance.

He knew exactly what was going on with Julie but couldn’t let on a damn thing. The only one who got an earful of the Jinn mythos, Clif notes version style, was Marty. Dean explained everything that had gone down in that afternoon. They used rope to create a tourniquet around Julie’s thigh to slow down the blood loss. Two squad cars and an ambulance showed up not long after. Dean watched the paramedics inspect Julie and move her onto a gurney. They loaded her with care into the back of the emergency vehicle. Marty made sure Dean went along for the ride. Red and blue lights flashed over the warehouse exterior wall and nearby field. They crossed paths with another ambulance on the way to the crime scene. That one would’ve been for Ina’s dead body.

“Are you alright, Dean?” Samuel asked, motioning to Dean’s shirt, after listening to the kidnapping tale.

“Oh, yeah. Not my blood. Or, Julie’s.” He wasn’t going to mention how much blood Julie had been drained of; Wes already looked queasy enough. “Thanks for bringing Brigida.”

“Of course.” Samuel stated. “So, she’s stable?”

“As stable as one can be when they’re unconscious.” Dean shrugged. He clocked a state trooper staring at him in the waiting room. The man in the head to toe khaki ensemble marched toward him in his brown boots. Marty told me I’d need to be prepared to go in for questioning as soon as things calmed down. “Listen, I’m probably going to have to head to the police station soon. Will you be able to stay?”

They nodded in unison. Dean turned at the tap on his shoulder. The trooper’s bushy mustache twitched as he spoke. “Dean Winchester?”

“That’d be me.”

“Officer Murray. Detective Martin Tullman wants me to escort you to the station for some routine questioning.”

There’s absolutely nothing routine about any of this. “Sure. But, I need to be able to get back here as soon as possible. Oh, and just one question for you.”

The officer tipped his hat and waited.

“Who’s driving me back to get my car?”

~~~~~

After the station and the ride back to get Baby, he had checked in with Wes and Samuel. They were still at the hospital with Brigida at almost midnight. There was no new news to report. Dean took the opportunity to race home and shower off the Jinn bits. He beat his record for the quickest clean and clothe and headed back.

When Dean arrived, he ordered Wes and Samuel to get themselves home. Brigida insisted that she would stay at the hospital all night, sleep in the waiting room, and that Dean should go home as well.

“There’s no way you’re staying here by yourself.” Dean shook his head. “Julie will kill me when she wakes up.”

Brigida offered a weary smile. They sat in the waiting room, now a lot less populated since visiting hours were over. A few other people and groups milled about like Brigida and Dean, hoping for some good news.

“Want me to get you something from the vending machine? I’m sure you haven’t eaten. Julie… she mentioned you’re on a lot of medication. The last thing she’d want is for you to get sick because you aren’t taking care of yourself with all this worry.”

“I took them. I can’t eat all that junk.” A wave of her hand dismissed the offer. “My sugar will go up. It’s already too high. I feel it.”

Dean frowned.

“You can take me back to Julie’s in a little while.” She clutched her purse to her chest. “I’ll get myself home in the morning for all my medicine and other things. Then, I’ll come back here.”

“Okay.” He knew better than to push any further. He clapped a hand on her forearm. “You just let me know when you’re ready to leave. And, I’ll take you back here in the morning.”

She tapped his hand on her arm. “I knew you were a good man.”

A tall, skinny man in grey jogging pants and a blue hoodie rushed up to Brigida. “How’s Julie?”

It took Dean a second to place him. He’d seen that face when he was snooping into Julie. But the pictures he’d seen of this man had a lot less wrinkles and a lot more hair.

“Steve?” Brigida’s face turned stern. “What are you doing here?”

“I got a call from the hospital a few hours ago, but I missed it. I’m still listed as an emergency contact.” Steve looked to Dean and then to his hand consoling Brigida. “How’s Julie?” he repeated.

Brigida choked back a ton of emotions, her face reddening.

Dean cleared his throat and spoke. “She’s unconscious. Doctor’s aren’t sure what’s wrong yet. They’ve run a bunch of tests. No brain trauma they can see.”

Steve scrunched his face up and snapped his head back. He looked like a disgruntled turtle. “Who are you?”

“Dean Winchester. I’m a neighbor of Julie’s.” He didn’t bother to offer his hand to shake.

“What happened?” Steve stared at Brigida again.

Dean rose and stepped in between Brigida and Steve. A small part of him took pride in the fact that he was taller than Julie’s ex. “Look, Steve. Brigida doesn’t have a whole lot in terms of details.” He lowered his voice. “I was the one that found Julie.”

Steve straightened his posture but still couldn’t make up much of the height difference. “What do you mean found her? Where?”

“You should probably reach out to a Detective Martin Tullman for the details. State Police. Troop 6. He may not be able to give them to you, though, being that you aren’t married to Julie anymore.”

The blue irises hid behind narrowing lids. “Who’d you say you were again?”

“Dean Winchester.”

Steve nodded his head. “Well, being that I’m the Communications Director at this hospital, I’m sure I can get all the information that I need.” He turned and headed for the nurses’ station.

“Just make sure it’s legal and you follow all that HIPPA crap,” Dean added, loud and clear, so everyone could hear. “Lawsuits are a bitch.”

Steve stopped his advance, cocked his head to Dean and Brigida, and faked a painful smile. “I’d appreciate it if you’d keep me apprised of Julie’s condition, Mom.” He stormed off.

Brigida scoffed and sniffled back some tears. “Mom. He hardly ever called me that when they were married.” She groaned at the sound of her knees creaking when she got up. “I’m going to go say good night to Giulia.”

“Brigida, I don’t think they’ll…”

Another hand wave. “Let them try and stop me. Coming?”

“I-I don’t…”

A hand wrapped in the crook of his elbow. “Then, just come along and get me down this hallway.” The tired nurse at the station acknowledged and watched them pass by with a smile. “Remind me to bring that one some food. She needs to eat more.” Brigida whispered to Dean. He chuckled.

Julie’s room was dark. A shaft of hallway light spilled onto the speckled tile floor. Their shadows broke into the room before they stepped inside. A painful ache stabbed Dean in the chest. Julie was awash in artificial blue light radiating from the machines monitoring her condition. A bunch of wires and tubes were strapped to her lifeless frame, including one intubating her.

Brigida leaned over the edge of her daughter’s hospital bed. Her hand stretched to reach Julie’s forehead. She closed her hands and started reciting something in Italian. Her fingers made small gestures of the cross over and over the skin while she continued the incantation. She rubbed the forehead gently when she was done. Something on Dean’s face must have required an explanation, because she stated, “In case she was cursed with Malocchio.”

“Cursed with what?”

“Evil eye. That was a prayer I learned when I was little to help get rid of it.”

Dean walked over to the other side of the bed. “You believe in curses, Brigida?”

Brigida nodded. “There’s a lot I believe in that Giulia thinks is crazy. Curses, ghosts, possession. I saw many things growing up in Italy that no one could explain.” She kissed her own fingers and then placed them on Julie’s forehead. “I just don’t want her in more pain than she already is. Can’t hurt.”

Dean smiled. “No. Can’t hurt.”

“I’m gonna go find out what kind of pasta that nurse likes and make sure she’ll be here tomorrow.” Brigida headed toward the exit. “Say goodnight.” She smiled and left Dean alone in the room with Julie.

Dean sighed and stared at Julie. “Don’t believe in the supernatural, huh? Gonna make for quite an awkward explanation about the family business.” He bent down, grabbed her hand, and whispered. “If you can hear me, Julie, I need you to listen. You’re dreaming right now. However great it is, it’s just a dream. And, you need to wake up. So, I’m going to do what I can on this side in the land of the living. But you can end it, too.” He swallowed. “If you kill yourself in the dream, you’ll wake up. But even more important… if you die any other way, not by your own hands… you won’t wake up. Ever again.” Dean pursed his lips together for a brief moment. “So, you need to be careful, okay? Until I can fix it or you beat me to it.”

He leaned in and brushed his lips against her forehead. Then, he said a silent prayer and kissed her forehead one more time. “Can’t hurt.”

~~~~~

“What are you up to, Winchester?” Julie called across the yard, over to Dean, her hands clutching the top of the chain link fence. The property divider prevented her from sprinting through the grass and into those arms of his.

He dropped a bucket by one of Baby’s dirty rims and headed to the shed. “What’s it look like I’m doing?” He smirked in her direction.

She squinted and identified some cleaning products peeking out of the top of the bucket. She was too damn far away from the man. It wasn’t fair. It’s not like she could hop a fence as easy as he could.

He emerged from the shed with a water hose wrapped in a neat bundle and draped over a shoulder. “Wanna help?”

Her internal temperature rose about ten degrees. The bright blue sunny day with not a cloud in the sky had little to do with it. That thin white, v-neck t-shirt clinging to Dean accounted for three degrees. The curve of his ass, filling out his faded jeans as he bent down to connect the house to the spigot ticked up another two degrees. But, it was the full-watt smile that he beamed up at her when he rose, along with a wipe of his wet hand along one denim clad ass cheek that made up the other five.

He rubbed his hands together and strolled over to meet her on the fence line. His cool to the touch, damp palm rested on her fingers. He kissed her lips, not caring who was looking, out in the open. But Julie felt like it was only him and her in the whole entire world, right then and there. He licked his lips when he was done. “She’s gotten all kinds of filthy.”

She grinned. “Still talking about the car?”

He nipped at her top lip. “Come on, babe.” He smirked. “I wanna get you all wet.”

“I don’t know.” She sighed, her inner walls clenching at Dean’s naughty gaze and innuendo. “Washing Baby? That’s quite a big step in our relationship. What if I scratch her?”

“I won’t let you handle any tools that can do any damage. Just a sudsy wet sponge.” He kissed her forehead. “Can’t hurt.”

“Alright.”

He walked backwards and swung out an arm. “Get on over here, then.”

Julie frowned and searched her yard. She lifted a finger, an idea forming. One wicker chair was pulled to the fence. She stepped onto it, chair legs shaking on the uneven ground, and took a deep breath. The top of the fence pressed into her torso. “I have no athletic coordination, you know.”

“Give yourself a good hop up and over. Let your feet hit the ground first and not your face.” He chuckled. His hands were on his hips, bow legs flared out, as he watched and waited in a superhero stance. All he needed was a cape.

“Okay. Here goes nothing.” Julie jumped.

~~~~~

Dean twirled her around from the stove and the pot of boiling pasta that garnered her attention. He held her in a tight vice grip and stared into her eyes. She held onto the wet, wooden spoon wedged between their bodies. His eyes shifted to a mossy green shade. “Gotcha.” He whispered.

“Never have truer words been spoken.” Julie smiled. She shimmied her hands up and out to rest her forearms atop broad shoulders. The spoon swayed behind his back. “How do you like your spaghetti? Al dente or mushy?”

“Whatever gives me more time to do this.” He bent down and opened her lips with a parting of his own. His tongue delved inside, tasting her, making her moan at the strength and thoroughness of that particular muscle. Hands splayed over her back, pushing her close.

She was panting and out of breath when he finally pulled his mouth away. His eyes widened at the scene behind her. “Shit!”

The overflow of bubbling water seared and sizzled against the side of the pot and into the burner’s flames. “Shit!” She repeated and rotated in his arms to turn off the gas. “You made me lose all track of time.” An attempt to calm the roaring water with a swish of the spoon did little. When the boil subsided, she fished out a long strand and bit into it. “Well, at least they’re not ruined.”

Dean’s hands rested on her hips, leaning into her backside. He contorted his tall frame and rested his chin on her right shoulder. “I’ll be the judge.” His jaw moved and pressed into her skin, unhinged, open, and waiting. She pulled out another bit of pasta and dangled it over his lips. He captured and slurped the entire length in a second. Droplets of pasta water hit her cheeks. “Yep, it’s good.”

A quick pull of potholders over her hands readied for dumping pasta into the colander. “You are not allowed in the kitchen when I’m cooking. Too much of a distraction.” She bumped her ass into his thighs. “Move.” She giggled.

He sighed and leaned back, stepping toward the counter. “Fine.” Water poured into the sink and drowned out his other comment.

“What?” she turned and asked.

“I said I couldn’t help it. I’m hungry.” He raised an eyebrow.

She shook her head and felt the pasta steam redden her face. “You’re always hungry.”

He shrugged, not putting up an argument. “You done?”

Julie’s mouth opened. She placed the empty pot back on the stove. Her potholder clad hands fisted and rested on her hips. “I’m sorry, am I not moving fast enough for you?”

“Nope.” He bent down and rushed her frame. Before she could react, he’d lifted her up and draped her over his shoulder.

She gasped, tossed the potholders and tried to hold onto his back. “Dean!”

He smacked her ass and chuckled. His arms wrapped over her legs. One hand wedged between her thighs and slipped up along the heat of her pulsing mound. He carried her out of the kitchen and headed for the living room. An unceremonious dump onto the couch cushions had her staring up at him. His eyes lit up and he smirked. “I said I was hungry.”

~~~~~

Dean chomped into the massive takeout burger. Leaning over his coffee table, he devoured his late lunch. Sam grimaced at him from the laptop screen sharing space on the table.

“That stuff is going to kill you, Dean.”

“We’ve been through this, Sammy. If bacon’s what kills me, I win.” A dribble of secret sauce trickled down his chin and onto the food wrappers protecting the tabletop. He spoke through the chews. “So, back to the antidote…”

Sam shook his head. “Yeah. I speedy shipped the stuff to you. According to my tracking number, you should get it tonight. Just mix it according to the directions I’ll email over. Right. Now.”

Dean’s computer dinged. He slurped his soda. “Injection through the heart? Really has to be through the heart?”

“It’s like a shot of adrenaline.”

Dean frowned after another mouthful of beef and bacon.

“Julie’s still the same?”

He sighed. A couple crumbs hit the screen.

“Did you really just spit your food at me?”

Dean swallowed and used his sleeve to wipe the laptop clean. “Shut up. Yes, she’s still the same. I left Brigida at the hospital about an hour ago. No improvement, but nothing worse either. The doctor says her heartbeat gets a bit high every once in a while and there’s some spike in brain activity. She’s responding to some sort of stimulation.” He remembered the wistful smile on Julie’s face that day.

“That’s good.” Sam chuckled. “Well, maybe when she wakes up, she’ll reevaluate what she finds attractive about you in the first place and come to her senses.” Sam cleared his throat. “It was a joke, Dean.”

“Not that far off, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“Winchester curse.”

“Geez, not that again.”

“You think it’s a coincidence that this poor woman, with no previous supernatural experiences or run-ins, happens to get kidnapped by a Jinn just a couple months after meeting me?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Activity has been sporadic at best.” Dean shook his head. “I put her in danger by breathing in her general direction.”

“Did you ever think that maybe she’s lucky?”

“Lucky?” Dean scoffed, mindful to direct his response away from Sam this time.

“She was lucky that you were around when this happened. You saved her, dude. No matter what, there was nothing intentional on your part to put her in danger.” Sam picked up his phone, blasting an alarm. “Look, I’ve got to get ready to head to class. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get the work done when the supplies make it to you. Call me if you need help with the instructions. I know reading’s not your specialty.”

“Alright, alright.” Dean threw him a sarcastic smile.

“Later.”

~~~~~

Baby’s passenger side door squeaked. Julie’s sandals met the gravel and the cool summer air tickled over her exposed arms. Her neck craned upward, staring into the midnight blue sky lit up like a Christmas tree.

Dean shut the driver’s side door in unison with Julie on the other end. She looked over and saw him gazing up as well. “Nice.” He commented.

“See? I wasn’t kidding about the view.”

“Well, it’s not quite as great as Kansas at night.” Even in the dark the night sky illuminated the lookout point, one of many along Skyline Drive. Their road trip originated in Delaware late that morning and was now winding through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Dean wandered around Baby’s hood to stand in front of Julie. Arms wrapped around her waist.

“East coast girl, east coast views.” She looked around the field. “Weird, though. I’ve never been to this spot at night and had it all to ourselves. Not another car or person checking out the sky.”

Dean nodded. “I reserved it just for us. I know a guy.”

Julie smirked and stared at his sassy grin, inches from his delicious lips. “You didn’t even know where we were going.”

He shrugged, leaning closer. “So, family trips here every summer, huh?”

“From when I was about eight up until 15. Joey and I arguing in the back seat of Dad’s Mustang. Mom in the passenger seat, yelling at Dad every time he whacked Joey in the back of the head for being a pain in the ass. Getting a bucket of crispy, fried chicken right before we started up Skyline.”

Dean kissed her. She tasted the salt and spices. “I like that tradition.” He mumbled and smiled. “We get to make a new one.”

Julie was about to ask what he meant when he hoisted her up by her waist and sat her ass on Baby’s hood. “Whoa. Isn’t this sacrilegious?”

“Nah.” He jogged back over to the other side and hopped up, joining her. “I did this alot, on the road.” She laid back and tried to get her footing on the slippery steel, bending her knees. Baby was still nice and warm from the drive. He laid down and pulled her toward him with an arm over her shoulders, letting her lean into his side for support. She was getting used to thinking of him as her rock. “Now,” he nodded up, “That’s a view.”

She kept staring at him. “Yes, it is.”

He rubbed her shoulder and kissed her forehead. His voice turned serious. “You’ve got to come back to us, now, Jules.”

“What?”

“It’s time.” His eyes gazed into hers. “This is probably going to hurt like hell for a few seconds.” She closed her eyes, enjoying the tips of his fingers gliding along her cheek.

“Dean, I don’t under…”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’ve got to.”

Something stabbed her in the heart and made her entire body seize for a second. Like a jackhammer, the pain vibrated everywhere and she ricocheted upright into a sitting position.

Her eyes jolted open and she gasped for air. Panic accompanied the pain and fear at whatever this thing was in her throat blocking her ability to breathe. Her fingers shot to her neck, coming into contact with a large tube instead of the expected skin. Investigating with touch, she realized it led up to her mouth. It was the thing lodged in her throat, along with smaller tubes in her nose. She tried to make sense of the white walls with the green horizontal stripe, the beeping, the monitors all around. And, then, she saw Dean.

Dean sprinted past the edge of her bed - the bed with rails like a crib and wires connected to various parts of her body - heading for the open doorway. “We need some help here! Now!” He bellowed.

Another rush of heat and pain knocked her onto her back. Blood pulsed wild and loud in her brain. Her eyes closed. She drifted away. Dean’s hand covered her forehead. “Hold on, sweetheart.”

~~~~~

“Kidnapped?” The question scraped out of Julie’s throat.

Dean watched her mind attempt to process the information. Tired and spent from the rude awakening hours earlier, Julie now sat upright in the hospital bed. The antidote had worked exactly as Sam said it would. Adrenaline straight to the heart. Brigida dashing out of the room with a weak bladder became Dean’s opportunity to administer his own version of health care.

He’d whispered and explained what he was about to do to an unconscious Julie. He apologized right before plunging the syringe into her chest cavity. The evidence got tossed into the hazardous waste receptacle as Julie sat straight up in bed, gasping and clawing at the intubation.

The three of them, Julie, Brigida, and Dean, now experienced a lull of medical activity and attention. Julie had gone through some more tests after waking and been wheeled away for an hour. The intubation had been removed. She had been rewired and looked less like a science experiment.

Brigida sat on Julie’s right. “No more talk about what happened. You need to try to eat something.”

Julie’s fingers ran over the bed sheets. Her brain is somewhere else.

Dean swayed from heel to toe, hands in his pockets, standing at the foot of the bed. “Want me to see if they can get you some more ice chips for that throat?”

Julie gazed up at Dean. But something was too far away and distant in her eyes for his liking. She shrugged.

“I’ll go and ask Natalie.” It was no surprise to Dean that Brigida was on a first name basis with the nurses on the floor after only a few days. She stood up and left the room, patting Dean on his elbow when she strolled past.

“Where did you find me?” Julie shifted in the bed and spoke again when they were alone. She winced and rested a hand on her chest. Right where I basically stabbed her.

“Brigida’s right, Julie. You probably don’t need to know all the details right…”

“Where?” She squeaked out the one word.

He sighed. “Abandoned warehouse.”

Her fingers pulled at the band at the base of her hairline and tugged the ponytail free. She scratched her scalp and fussed with her waves. “I was going to go to the gym for a quick workout that morning.” The slumped posture stiffened with a groan. An attempt was made to fix her hair, combing it back with shaking fingers. She relented and leaned back. Her eyes dropped to her lap as she continued. “I-I had talked to mom… before I left the house, I saw her at the edge of the driveway, walking up. I shouldn’t have offered to drive her to the shopping center. But, I was already going there, going to the gym...”

“Hey.” Dean hurried to her side. Hands gripped the bed rails. “Don’t go blaming yourself for anything that happened.” He bent down, tried to get his face in her line of sight. A shy flutter of lids hesitated, but her eyes eventually stared back. “None of this is your fault, Jules.”

Glazed eyes blinked away tears forming as Julie spoke. “Thank you…” her breath hitched, “for finding me.”

Dean’s hardened heart cracked at the lost and vulnerable quality in Julie’s voice. He offered an upturned palm. Her cold fingers crept into its hold. He squeezed, intent on warming her. “Kind of selfish on my part. We still have to finish that date, remember?”

The first smile he’d seen on her face in what felt like forever lined her lips. “Right now?”

He laughed. “I’ll give you some time to get right.”

“What’s wrong with how I look?” She rasped out a laugh. “How could you not want this?”

“Who says I don’t?” He shook his head in appreciation. “And, that six pack of cigs a day voice is hella sexy.” Dean turned serious. “When I mean get right…”

She nodded. “I know.”

“However long it takes.” He swallowed. “Can’t get rid of me that easy.”

Her lip twitched. “Promise?”

He smiled and squeezed her hand a little harder. “Promise.”

Part 14

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moved-to-anthotnio · 5 years

Text

enamorado de ti

Commission for @yesmooshoe | Pepper/Tony | 2.4k words | fluff, romance, falling in love, love confessions, hurt/comfort, pepper needs a hug, tony is a very soft man, latine tony

•••

They're in the workshop when it happens the first time. It's been a fairly long day, with Pepper helping him figure everything out now that the weapons division in Stark Industries has been declared closed by Tony's word on live television only a couple days before. The SI Board isn't happy at all, to say the least, so Tony has to go through a lot of paperwork to ease their minds for a bit as he tries to clear his head enough to determine how to proceed with his decision.

And Pepper, God bless her soul, is still here with him. Even after all this years as his personal assistant, even after deciding to become Iron Man, after literally putting her hand inside his chest and sending him into cardiac arrest for like five seconds, she's still here. Sitting in front of him with her brows furrowed, one hand on her chin as she reads the papers in front of her, her red rimmed eyes more focused than ever even though they've been here for almost two days surrounded by empty coffee mugs piled one on top of the other and different stacks of paper that Tony wants to set on fire - because, oh my God, why couldn't they send this through e-mail or something similar? This is literal torture. Oh. Well. That explains it. -, and the sun rising just behind her back.

So really, no one can blame him. He literally can’t help it, he just can't. It hits him like a ton of bricks, the epiphany making the world shift around him with a new, wonderful perspective. And just that realization has eased all his worries, because suddenly nothing but Pepper’s existence matters. So he really, can't help it, it just slips past his lips and there's no way to stop the words.

“Estoy enamorado de ti.”

I'm in love with you. And he is. He is utterly and irrevocably in love with Virginia Potts.

She looks at him, confusion showing on her face, her beautiful blue eyes set on him with a warm exasperated affection that only she can convey, and says, “You know I can't understand Spanish, right?”

Tony grins, “Well, yeah, that’s kind of the point.”

She smiles and it’s a precious little thing that makes warmth blossom in Tony’s chest. She stands up, almost throwing the papers in her hands, and and flexes her arms over her head, stretching the cramps she must be having away. She sighs deeply before asking, “Want some café? I feel like hell and I need some right now or I’ll just drop dead right here.”

“God you sound like me,” Tony replies, nodding eagerly. Coffee sounds great about now. He definitely needs more, nevermind the mugs laying empty around them. God, what would he do without this woman in his life? “Wait, didn’t we run out of coffee beans this morning?”

“Yeah we did. But I have an idea.”

“Great. You always have the best ideas, Pep.”

She just rolls her eyes and goes over to the coffeemaker, taking a couple of mugs from the pile and rinsing them out before pouring cold coffee in them and putting them in the microwave because that’ll have to do for now.

Then Tony catches up and smirks, “Finally learning some Spanish are we?”

She comes back with the mugs and hands him his with a mischievous smile playing at her lips, “Well, Mr. Stark, having to listen to your nonsense after all these years in English and Spanish has to pay off for something, doesn’t it?”

“But Miss Potts, I thought my money and charming personality were enough,” he replies, looking at her with feigned offence with one hand splayed over his chest, as her laughter fills the air.

“Nice try Tony, now let’s get back to work.”

Yeah, he’s absolutely in love with her.

•••

The second time it happens, they’re snuggled together on the living room couch. Pepper is sick, the exhaustion after working so hard for the past few weeks finally catching up to her. Getting sick due to exhaustion happens often enough to both of them after particularly long work binges that they already have a schedule figured out: sleep, have breakfast, take meds, snuggle through a movie, eat lunch, take meds, and so on. Might seem a bit boring and monotonous, but it works wonders for them. Plus, they get their much needed rest, and are there for each other through it.

So yeah. Pepper is sick and currently lying on the couch with her head on Tony’s lap, as he passes his fingers through her long strawberry blonde hair. Her forehead is hot, and Tony wonders if maybe she should take a lukewarm shower to lower her temperature, but her eyes are focused on the movie and she seems really into it.

By the time the movie is ending, the sun is setting behind New York City’s skyline. The dying rays lighting up the living room with warm, soft yellow light. Tony asks JARVIS to turn the TV off as soon as the credits starts rolling, and pats Pepper softly on the head to wake her up. She turns around with a soft, tired smile on her lips and takes his hand, placing a small kiss on his knuckles.

“Come on honey, let's give you a bath,” he says softly. “Your temperature is too high. We need to lower it a bit.”

She frowns at him, and rolls back again, pressing her head into Tony's thigh, “‘m not hot, just need to sleep.”

“Miss Potts,” comes JARVIS’ voice softly, “I never thought I'd ever say this, but Mr. Stark is right.”

“Hey!” Tony exclaims with indignation.

Pepper laughs softly, the sound muffled by Tony's thigh where she presses her head into his thigh as a makeshift pillow. And even though she's giggling at his expense thanks to JARVIS - damn traitor -, the sound is like music to Tony's ears.

“The bath is ready, Sir.”

“Thanks, J,” he says, and then turns to Pepper.

“Come with me darling,” he murmurs, pulling her up from the couch as she wraps and arm around his neck. “The bath will do you good.”

Pepper just hums as Tony takes her to their bathroom, one hand on one for her hips and the other holding her hand, after she refused to be carried. She's so sleepy she looks like she might just stumble and fall, but Tony is determined to not let that happen, so he hovers close to her. He lowers her to perch on the lip of the tub and helps her strip off her sweaty clothes. She carefully pulls off her shirt off while Tony tugs off her pants and socks. She stands to lift her feet, and Tony slides the rest of them off, along with her underwear.

After they finish, she turns to the foggy mirror, standing there fully naked. She scans her body up and down with her eyes and grimaces at her reflection, “God I look like shit.”

Tony rolls his eyes, and places a light kiss on her freckled shoulder, placing his hands on her hips, still holding her up gently. “Impossible,” he whispers softly against her ear. “You ever looking like shit is unrealistic. You're always gorgeous.”

She raises her eyebrows at him through the mirror, “Oh really? Way to sugarcoat that I do look like shit while sick.”

“No sugarcoating,” he promises, turning her around so they're face to face. “You're beautiful in every way, mi amor. You're sick, and do kinda look like a mess, so what? That doesn't strip you of your beauty, which goes further than your physical appearance. You are beautiful, mi corazón.”

Pepper blushes, the redness of her cheeks coming from Tony's statement hiding among the redness caused by the fever she's suffering, but Tony doesn't miss it, and kisses her cheeks softly.

Once inside the bathtub, she relaxes, her whole body going limp in the water, the accumulated tension leaving her body slowly. She's nodding off as Tony takes it upon himself to clean her body and wash her hair, but Tony makes sure that her head stays above the water.

Later, after she puts on a clean set of pajamas, and they both curl up together in the large bed. Tony says it again, softly, as she falls asleep between his arms.

“Estoy enamorado de ti.”

He hopes that one day he can actually tell her.

•••

The third time it happens, they're on a vacation in México for their six-month anniversary of dating. Tony wanted to show her one of the places he used to visit a lot during his childhood, especially this one, since it's one of the only places in México he ever got to see with his mamá.

The beach is deserted when they arrive. Miles and miles of golden sand stretching along the bay, and nothing but the sound of the seagulls flying above them, and the soft, soothing lap of the waves rolling onto the shore, the warm water licking his feet and ankles. The sun hasn't risen yet, hidden behind the horizon, but the first rays of sunshine are showing already, lighting up the scenery in a mix of orange and pink light.

Pepper sits on the sand, so close to the shore that the waves reach her legs. The hem of her summer dress gets wet when one particular wave rolls higher than the others, sand staying on her skin after the water retreats. She looks beautiful, and her quiet presence makes the scene look as if it were out of a wonderful dream.

Tony sits beside her and hands her her mug of coffee, as they quietly watch the sun begin to rise above the skyline, “Here’s your coffee, honey.”

“Gracias, Tony.” She takes a sip from the mug, and hums with delight. “Hmm, oh my god what did you put in this?”

“A little bit of leche condensada,” He says smiling. “I couldn’t find any milk, so I used a little of the condensed milk we bought to make my mamá’s mango ice cream.”

“This is good, thank you darling.”

“No problem, querida.” Tony takes a big sip from his mug, and stares at the water swaying in front of them.

He tells her stories of his childhood, spending the summer here with his mamá, chasing the water and picking up seashells along with his mamá. Here he learned to make homemade ice cream, learned how to swim, and how to appreciate the little moments with his mamá. Now, as he recalls all the stories he has to tell, everything feels like a lifetime ago.

An idea pops in his mind, and he turns to Pepper, barely hiding his grin. “Hey, are you ready to try again?”

Pepper looks at him, a little confused. But then what he’s asking seems to click in her brain, and he can see the excitement already shining brightly in her eyes, “When am I not ready?”

Tony laughs, and puts his mug of coffee down beside him before taking her hands between his, “Okay, so. Let’s see if you remember the words I taught you on the way here. First, arena?”

“Sand,” Pepper says with confidence, and he knows the game is on.

“Mar?”

“Hmm, sea.”

“Amanecer?”

“Sunrise.”

He eyes her with suspicion, “You're sure?”

“I'm… sure.” Pepper raises her eyebrows at him, amusement clear on her face, making her cheeks shine a soft red color, her freckles standing out. “You’re tricking me aren’t you? Asking me just to confuse me.”

“Got me there,” Tony smirks. “But hey, three out of three, you did alright.”

She nods, grinning at him. He leans in and presses his lips to her in a chaste kiss. He can still feel her grin through the kiss, the soft touch of her lips intoxicating as she whispers against his mouth, “Teach me a little more…”

“God, you’re insatiable.”

She shrugs, all smug, “What can I say? I’m a fast learner.”

Tony rolls his eyes, and thinks of the words he’s gonna say next. “Calor?”

“Heat.”

“Anoche?”

“Last night.”

“Azul?”

“Blue.”

“Ámame?” Tony asks, with a little more feeling that he intended.

Peppers face softens, her lips curving in a beautiful smile that lights up her face, “Love me.”

Tony smiles back, the pressure in his chest growing, the words screaming to get out. “Perhaps I do.”

Her expression shifts, surprise and amusement shining on her face. She smirks, “Well then, how do you say kiss me?”

“Bésame.”

And she does just that. She leans in, her lips on Tony's as she climbs onto his lap. Her hands find their way around his neck, her fingers tangled in the soft curls at the nape of Tony's neck. She breaks the kiss, and leaves butterfly kisses along his jaw and neck, smiling softly against his sun kissed skin. “How do you say hold me?”

Tony pulls her close to him, his arms around her waist. “Abrázame.”

She leans close to his ear, and her voice is barely a whisper. He's not even sure if he was meant to hear the words or not, but he answers anyway.

How do you say I'm in love with you?

“Estoy enamorado de ti.”

She leans back so fast that she almost falls backwards, and Tony watches her face shift with the realization. Tony knows Pepper has heard this words before, has memorized them and has asked him about them several times. Yet she never built up the courage to look them up on her own, or ask anyone else, because she knew they were special and for her ears only.

And now she knows, and her eyes are shining brightly. She leans back in and kisses him with a feeling that words can't convey. But he understands, he knows what she means, just like she knows what he means, and it feels like the world shifts and rights itself again, all the pieces finally falling back into place, just like when Tony realized he was in love with her.

Tony knows now, his world is moved by Pepper Potts. And now? Now she knows too.

#dante: writes #r: peppertony #pepperony #pepper potts #tony stark #iron man #rescue #latine tony #latine tony stark

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corelliaxdreaming · 6 years

Text

Swrarepairs Exchange Letter

First of all, writer friend, I have to thank you for writing for me! I'm absolutely 100% sure I'm going to love whatever you come up with. I'm pretty easy: anything with one of these pairings I'm going to enjoy, even if you completely ignore everything else in this post (which is totally cool for you to do!). I'm not super picky it comes to fic: I'll enjoy anything from the most tooth-rotting fluff to the most soul-rending angst, any rating at all.

Pretty much anything goes; I have no triggers or DNWs to speak of. I'd prefer not to see any noncon/cheating/violence/etc between the actual pairing, but if you want to include them elsewhere, that's fine.

As for what I do like, my very favorite thing in the world is hurt/comfort, particularly of the emotional variety. Being an anxiety sufferer myself, I also have a soft spot for seeing characters dealing with mental illness stuff, anxiety and depression particularly, especially if their partner/partners are there being super supportive and helping them through it. Any kind of porn with feelings also never goes amiss.

Most of the things I talk about here are with an eye toward Legends, but it's always interesting to see where things can go when they're imported into Disney canon, so I'm cool with either. I'm currently reading X-wing: Starfighters of Adumar, so if possible I'd prefer something without (or with very light) spoilers past the end of that book. (But I have read this one before, so SOA-related stuff would be fine.) Seems like a thing to do to link the old AO3 page, so here's that for further info, if you like.

If you're looking for something a little more specific, here's some thoughts on the pairings I requested:

Tycho Celchu/Corran Horn

At some point along the way, I just got really invested in these two being friends, and I'm interested in that becoming into romance as well. I especially love the idea of them really bonding after Corran's return from Lusankya, with having that shared trauma between them. Corran leaning on Tycho to help him though it, Tycho finally having someone to talk to who really gets what he went through. Or maybe it's before that, Corran trying to deal with being attracted to Tycho while also not trusting him? Or even something later on, once all of that is done with and they trust each other and are flying together. Tycho is pretty eager to jump to help Corran during I, Jedi.

Wedge Antilles/Broak Vessery

The always-wonderful Rogue Podron podcast put me onto this one with how they talked up Vessery and his interactions with Wedge. I like what similar characters these two guys are: both skilled pilots, super dedicated to the people flying with them. Not exactly allies, but not exactly enemies, being forced to work together for a greater goal. Maybe something happened between them while they were training on Isard's base, or maybe Vessery and his squadrons turn up later having disappeared and they get reacquainted. Or maybe an AU where they are on the same side, whichever that may be?

Garik "Face" Loran/Ton Phanan

What to say about these two besides *crying forever*? I know they're are the snarky, funny ones, but I gotta admit how much I love their angsty side. I want to see them slowly coming together romantically, Ton dealing with his self-worth issues, maybe having trouble accepting how much Face cares for him, Face trying to help him with those things. Maybe a Ton lives AU? Or, sticking with canon, I'm fond of the idea that one of the reasons Face got with Dia so quickly after Ton's death was an attempt to get over him (though he does truly care for her as well), if you wanted to play with that.

Wedge Antilles/Derek "Hobbie" Klivian

Though the rest of these pairings are Legendsverse, this one I like in Disney canon, since Rebels has them together long before the rest of the Fab Four. Maybe them meeting and how they got together at Skystrike? Clinging to each other as they try to find their way among the Rebels? Random adventures with Phoenix Squadron? Something dealing with Hobbie's death on Hoth?

Wedge Antilles/Qwi Xux

I knew these two were going to break up long before I ever read them together, but they still somehow got under my skin. They're just so adorable; I love them together. I'd love really anything of them being cute together. Their vacation after the end of Champions of the Force? How they spend their downtime? Their first real date? Maybe an AU where they never broke up? Or, if you like something angstier, I always wonder about how Wedge reconciled his attraction to Qwi with the knowledge that she created the Death Star, the source of arguably his greatest trauma. Did they ever talk about that? Or, another angsty idea (I do like my angst) – we don't get much of the scene where Wedge finds Qwi after her memory was wiped. What was that like? When did they start to come back together again?

Wedge Antilles/Tycho Celchu

*yelling* My #1 OTP! 10/10 will adore anything where they're together. Something set during that first six months after Tycho's defection where Wedge was afraid to get close to him and wouldn't even call him by his first name? Yep. Any type of Lusankya-related angst? Yep. Trial-related angst? Yep. Tycho comforting Wedge when the burdens of command are too much? Yep. Wedge comforting Tycho when the burdens of command are too much? Yep. Literally anything? Yeeeep. (I also wrote myself into some pretty powerful anxious!Tycho feelings in Some Ghosts are Never Gone, so y’know, if you automatically wanted my undying love.)

Wedge Antilles/Tycho Celchu/Wes Janson/Derek "Hobbie" Klivian

Fab Four, the best OT4. Again, I'd love anything with them, set at any point in the timeline. How did they get together? How did they deal with the various times they thought one or more of them were dead? How do they deal with having to spend so much of their time apart? How do they celebrate and spend their time when all four of them are together?

Wes Janson/Derek "Hobbie" Klivian

These two are great. Give me Wes dragging Hobbie along on shenanigans, Hobbie being the equivalent of “I would follow you to the ends of the earth with only mild complaining.” Them being ridiculously sweet with each other. Maybe a Hobbie whose glumness comes from actual depression, and Wes helping him through. Wes telling Hobbie about killing Kissek Doran some other horrible memory and being reassured by Hobbie. Or just fluff: how they got together, cuddlepiles on Hoth, the things they got up to while dealing with their training squadrons, etc etc. Or maybe pop over to canonverse and tell me what they're doing there, since we have practically no Wes at all to speak of in that regard.

#I don't know why I feel so weird about writing/posting this #is it weird and too specific?#*frets*#swrarepairs #I am So Excited for this exchange tho!!

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parkeur-blog1 · 7 years

Text

daydream, night watch

⇢ summary: peter parker was never good with words nor actions, but when he first sees you he knows—deep inside his heart—that he just can’t let you go.

⇢ pairing: peter parker / fem!reader

⇢ genre: romance, fluff, slightly florist!reader

⇢ w.c.: 2.7k

⇢ warnings: mild language (but not so much, just lil bit) and maybe minor embarrassment

a/n: hello there fellas! this is my first post ever here on this blog so i really hope you who’re reading this piece of work enjoy my story :) requests are welcomed too!!

First encounters are not always very magical, neither are they like we dreamt.

When Peter Parker first landed his eyes on the hysterical form of you, there were paper sheets flying over the wind and a very frustrated body running from one side to other of the street, gauchely trying to gather as much documents as your hands could hold—and to be at least honest, you could not pick even three of them. You wheezed, annoyed by the fact that your chemistry essay was vanishing from your vision and traveling to a place very far away from where you were.

That, you thought, was my only salvation. Without that piece of work you would probably fail the subject—considering that the essay was a component for the last test you’d to take (to be exact: 40% of your mark depended on that stupid assignment). You sighed; you’d have to manage the entire night for that, making the whole thing again.

Peter shifted the weight of his body and gulped—Ned rolled his eyes, completely aware of his friend’s new-born platonic love—he peeks a paper close to where he was standing, and with all courage he had ever had inside his physique Peter took his way to you. To Ned’s eyes his actions were clumsy and his words sounded like whisper and made no sense at all. He remembered how Peter had been when Liz was still around and how he had heart eyes over her—it was annoying.

Ned called Peter once, warning him to just let the thing go, after all they still had to go to class, but the brunette boy simply ignored his friend’s cries.

Peter touched your shoulder. “Hum, excuse me.”

You turned your body to face him. “Ah, yes?”

“I guess,” he said, stuttering “I guess this belongs to you” Peter handed you the paper.

“Thank you” you gave him the sweetest smile you could.

You didn’t know, but Peter Parker melted under you gaze, completely amused by the beautiful sight of you and your smile. He had never seen you before that day, but he’s utterly sure you were the most gorgeous girl in the universe; not only because your eyes were almost closed when you smiled, neither because your perfume was a mixture of lilies and mint—which made Peter feel a little dizzy due to the dulcet scent—but yet because you showed him the purest reaction he had ever expected.

It didn’t take much, though, for you to perceive some hesitancy coming from him. The boy in front of you had locked his eyes with yours for a moment, and then the silent had paired. After that, he’d coughed and gulped repeatedly; he’d rubbed his hands and slid them inside his pockets, then had taken them out and massaged the back of his neck. He’s so embarrassed, you noticed, but there was no reason to be. Now, with the funny scene before you, the only thing you could possibly do was chuckle.

The brunette widened his eyes and watched you laughing at his posture. He turned his head to his friend, who was starting to giggle too.

You took a deep breath. “What’s your name?”

He blinked once and then twice, not believing you really asked that question.

The boy cleared his throat. “It’s Parker,” he coughed “I mean, Peter Parker.”

“Well Peter Parker,” you winked “nice to meet you.”

Peter nervously grinned; his words were stuck on his gullet, willing to slip out of his mouth and yell to the world that love at first sight was indeed real, but all he did was keep his lips glued. To your eyes, he was completely uncomfortable with the entire situation—maybe he just wasn’t very good with conversations, or when it comes to girls he was always unprepared—so you slightly shrugged your shoulders and

“So,” you said “I better get going.”

He really wanted to hold your wrist and stop you from leaving, but all he did was follow you with his eyes, watching you go away and then vanish in the crowd of people. He foolishly smiled, already memorizing all your features and your delicate gestures. Ned stepped closer and called Peter’s name, finally bringing him back to reality.

“She was pretty,” he said.

“I know right” Peter agreed.

“Yeah,” Ned touched his friend’s shoulder and “but you didn’t ask for her name, dumbass.”

“Oh, man”

And that was enough to darken Peter’s entire day. He kept running the previous encounter inside his mind, trying the best he could to remember every single thing from the place where he met you—the coffee shop, the floristry, all the buildings and some houses. Ned told him to stop because it’d be so much in vain doing all that effort to find just a girl, but Peter ignored his friend once again.

It’s not just a girl; it was a girl who made his heart almost burst out of his chest.

He sat down on his chair inside the classroom—the next subject was physics so he was pretty comfortable with just driving his attention to anything else but the teacher. Peter rested his head in one of his hands and tapped his fingers on top of the desk; the noise following the pace of his thoughts.

It was so odd. He had never felt that way before; so desperate. He swallowed his saliva like it was poison, the liquid burning his throat all the way down—Peter Parker felt impotent. Not even his powers would bring you back to his vision; not even his powers would make you appear in front of him again. From once he wished he could go back in time and just make a question as simple as ‘what’s your name’, and then maybe he would not be feeling so regretful.

Truth to be said, he should not feel regretful at all. You did not know him, he did not know you.

Regardless, he still felt the necessity of having you around.

Ned tried his best to light Peter’s mood up, saying all sort of nonsenses to make his friend chuckle or at least smile; though it was in vain, he kept doing whatever he could to transform the disappointed expression on Peter’s face into something more…joyful.

Worthless.

The school day became a burden (it’s already, but especially that day it felt like ton on Peter’s shoulders), and when the bell finally rang Peter sensed the easiness filling his chest. He lazily walked home, not as excited to reach his room as he’d always be. All the way he had his earphones immersed in his ears, fulfilling his audition with his favorite songs and beats; he tapped his hands on his thighs following the music’s rhythm. He didn’t even bothered throwing web on the buildings and flying back home—no, he was too exhausted for that—but for once, he forgot how stupid he had been earlier on that day.

However, when he finally laid down on his bed all he could think about was you.

“Peter,” Ned whispered “I said I’d be your guy in the chair, not your guy who spends the night awake watching an empty street”

Peter sighed. “I know, Ned,” he said; the blame completely visible in his voice tone “I know.”

“Look,” Ned wheezed “we’d never seen that girl before, I am pretty sure it’s pure coincidence. There’s no need for us to be here the entire night—like we were psychos—guarding this dark and terrifying street.”

“Ned, I—”

“Peter, shouldn’t you be, like, webbing people or something?” Ned asked and it’s pretty much clear that he was already annoyed. “I mean, did you forget you’re Spider-Man?”

“Shit, Ned, no!” Peter shouts “I mean,” now he whispers “can you be louder? It’s just—”

“Shush” Ned said “I’m starting an idiot jar. Any time you do or say anything idiotic, you have to put at least a dollar in it—more depending on how stupid the thing that you said or did was. Because” he wheezed “you must be really really idiot to fall in love so easily.”

“You have no words,” Ned sighed, shook his head and continued “I am doing this for once because I know how bothered you’ve been. But after this you should give up, it’s not like she’s the only girl in the world.”

Peter knew; he was fully conscious of that assumption. You were not the only girl in the world—but still, he couldn’t take you out of his mind not even for a second. He yawned and blinked his eyes for ninth times; he and Ned had been there since the beginning of the evening, the sleepiness reaching out for him like a positive polo of a magnet reaches out for the negative one. The worst part of it all: he knew he wouldn’t endure much longer.

The best part: Ned would probably wake him up. Or he thought so.

They both rested their bodies on a bench; Ned’s head leaning on Peter’s shoulders, and Peter’s head leaning on Ned’s. The cold air was freezing and it could snow in any moment, but Peter found it very refreshing—a new different feeling.

He’d been searching for you for dear life; jumping from building to building peeking girls with the same body shape, same hair color and same anything he could find. Similarities could bring you back to his sight, he’d say, so Peter kept his hopes high bringing his stamina to nearly 0% every single day. And a week passed by, then two weeks passed by—and soon a month since he had met you and Peter had nothing but your image in his mind. He hissed and hissed about it, not believing you could simply disappear.

So the last drop of belief he had was patrol the night. Exactly where you met him. Exactly in front of the flower shop.

Ned endlessly protested about it—and he would forever do it—because he was sure Peter would forget you soon, but for his despair it hadn’t happened. In the end, reluctantly, Ned stood by his friend’s side, immersing his hands inside his warm pockets and shrinking his neck as much as he could, causing it to be completely englobed by his scarf. He felt his eyelids heavy and before he could blink, Ned was already in deep sleep.

Peter only knew his friend had fallen asleep when the boy snored. He had never paid much attention on it, but now the sound of Ned’s growls caused him to giggle—and then the giggle became another yawn, and then Peter knew he was reaching his limit.

And, for his happiness, it’s already Sunday—and that meant I don’t need to worry with neither waking up early nor school. With the last drop of energy left, Peter straightened up his body, giving Ned as much comfort as he could, and then he fell asleep himself.

You, on the other hand, were completely worried with time. Sundays were not the correct synonym for resting and at 6AM you had your sneakers on and a very comfy hoodie covering up your torso. Slowly, you stepped out of home and walked your way to the floristry where you worked—you had this part-time job there, and once in a while they asked you to work on Sundays too—listening to your favorite playlist. You’d dance a bit following the song’s rhythm, but soon stop because it’s too weird to be so happy in a Sunday morning.

When you reached your workplace your pace slowed down and you held the front door’s key in your hand; you were excited—and that was so uncommon—that you didn’t even notice two sleepy bodies on a bench just feet away from the flower shop.

It’s around eleven o’clock in the morning when your boss touched your shoulder and gave you an odd look.

“What?” You tilted your head.

“Those two,” he pointed a finger to two boys, outside the floristry, sleeping “they’ve been here since—I don’t know since when to be exact.”

“Do you want me to call the police?”

“No,” your boss violently shook his head “maybe they’re homeless, they must eat.”

“So,” you began “you want me to buy them something to eat?”

“Yes, yes. Here, take this,” he handed you some money “and buy them whatever they like.”

You took the money, not so uncomfortable with the idea as much as you thought you’d be. With fast steps, you walked all the way to the two tired forms on the bench and cleared your throat, aiming to wake them up with a sound. None of them moved an inch; you sighed and prepared yourself to yell a ‘hey, sup? Wanna eat something?’ but you stopped right after you recognized a face. Peter

“Parker?” You said; your voice sounding much louder than you wanted it to be.

“No, Mr. Stark, please don’t leave me without my sui—” Peter shouted, but shut his mouth when his eyes met yours “Oh, hey! Hi! Hey, hum, hi” he stuttered.

It’s cute, you admitted to yourself, when he stutters while talking to you; his nervousness showing.

“Hey, Peter.” You smiled—and once again, the brunette boy felt the adrenalin being lunched on his veins and increasing his heartbeat. “So, did you two sleep here?”

Peter looked down, only now noticing that Ned had fallen down and his head was resting on the bench’s cold material. He took off his own scarf and put under Ned’s head, transforming it into a pillow.

“Ah, no, no” he denied, vigorously shaking his head—and not convincing you at all “we were just walking and we were so so tired because ya know we’ve been exercising every morning and then Ned is not completely on shape so we just decided we should rest and we fell asleep and—”

You cut him off. “Peter, please talk slowly.”

He nervously laughed. “Ah, sorry.”

“Anyway,” you looked down to Ned and then moved your gaze to Peter, “are you hungry? My boss gave me money because he thought you guys were homeless and asked me to buy you something.”

“No, no!” Peter stood up abruptly. “No, no.”

“Well, if you don’t want to grab a meal with me is completely fine, don’t overreact.”

He widened his eyes. “No! I really really want to grab a meal with you. I mean I’ve been looking for you since that day you were trying to gather your—” he stopped as soon as he realized he was talking too much “I mean, it’s not that. I just don’t want your boss to buy us anything.”

You giggled. “You’re very cute, Peter Parker.”

He gulped, completely amused by your words. Peter thought it was a dream, so he roughly rubbed his eyelids and shook his head once and twice. He didn’t believe you were actually in front of him, smiling and calling him cute; Peter had a smile drawn on his face from cheek to cheek—and it looked so charming to you that you couldn’t hold the small laugh leaving your mouth.

Peter gathered as much air as his lungs could and said: “You know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

You shifted the weight on your body from foot to foot. “Oh, that’s correct Peter Parker.”

“So,” he began “what’s your name?”

“I’ll tell you, someday,” you said smirking at him “maybe after you ask me out.”

Peter nearly chocked with his own saliva, totally flustered by your words. Before he could say anything else you added

“Now you know, Peter Parker” your voice sounded like melody to his ears “I work at the flower shop, every day from 3pm to 7pm. Just pick the date and time.”

You turned on your hills and took your way in the floristry. Because you had your back to Peter, you didn’t see how he celebrated this event—neither did you see when Ned woke up startled by Peter’s loud whispers and when both of them said low ‘yeses’ throughout the air, truly happy because now Peter Parker had a chance with you.

#peter parker #perter parker x reader #tom holland #tom holland imagine #spider man: homecoming #spider man x reader #peter parker imagine #spider-man imagine #spider man imagine #spiderman imagine #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #peter parker scenario #tom holland scenarios #spider man homecoming #spider-man homecoming #tom holland fanfiction

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homeiswherethestuckis · 7 years

Text

Filet Mignon

@notedchampagne man, I hope there’s enough fluff in this to make up for the lame title.

You and Karkat have plans to watch every single fucking movie he has downloaded on his husktop before you head off the meteor. If you’d known how many he had at the time (a literal metric fuck ton) you wouldn’t have agreed to this so easily. It’s too late to back out of that agreement now, you’ve already clocked so many that to give up now would mean that you’d essentially wasted hours of your valuable time sitting on this couch watching the two blatantly obvious love interests go through some usually not that difficult but extremely convoluted situations in order to finally be together in the end. Besides, after watching so many of them you realized you really don’t mind them as much as when you thought you would. You definitely like them more than when you first got here. You’re kinda getting the appeal to all the romance and a happy ending that’s practically ensured the moment the protagonists make eye contact.

The only problem is that they can get so repetitive. If you’ve watched one, you’ve watched them all, and you’ve watched way more than one god damn romcom. You might not hate them, but watching so many in succession is making you bit sick of them. It really makes you question how Karkat can do this all the time and still like them. You know he’s marathoned all these flicks more than once. Fuck, some of them he must have seen at least ten times by now.

Once this movie ends, you think you’ll see if he wants to take a break and do something else. Go see what the Mayor’s up to, grab some food, whatever. You think after a breather you’ll be more willing to pick this back up again and watch Dane Cook act like a bumblingly charming idiot for a cute girl real soon. Right now though, you’re not interested in his shit. You are physically incapable of caring and less about the dumb situation the characters have gotten themselves into than you do at this moment in time.

This is the fifth romcom you’ve watched today, and you are so. fucking. bored.

You slump against the couch’s armrest and prepare for an hour and a half of zoning out. The beginning credits aren’t even over yet when Karkat slides his hand into yours and squeezes, drawing your attention back out of your head and over to him. His face is bathed in the light from his husktop, made garishly bright by the rest of the room being shrouded in total darkness. He’s not looking at you, his eyes are fixed unblinkingly on the screen.

Karkat’s grip on your hand tightens. “This one’s my favorite.”

“Oh.” You push yourself up off the armrest and force yourself to pay attention. “Shit, guess I better pay extra careful attention to this one so I can make fun of you for your awful taste in movies some more.”

Karkat rolls his eyes. “You say that, but I don’t see you complaining about them when we’re actually watching these. In fact, you only gripe endlessly about me “forcing” you to watch one of my pieces of “shit-tacular cinematic drivel” when one of the girls is within earshot. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you like romcoms, Dave.”

“It’s a good thing you know better, then.” You reply. Karkat’s hand is warm and making yours sweaty. You want to wipe it off, but that would require letting go. “Maybe you’re not as stupid as you look, after all.”

“That’s rich, coming from the guy who looks like a garbage monster and a douchebag hipster had a grub, slathered it in chunky mucus, chewed it up, regurgitated it and gave it a pair of lady shades too big for its fucking gross face.”

“Said the piece of literal talking shit.”

“Wow. Such an excellent and witty comeback about the state of my character. That’s so amazing for a creature that doesn’t even have two pan cells to rub together.”

“It’s funny that you mention that, because I actually am rubbing those two brain cells together in my fingers as we speak in order to play the saddest song ever composed. Just for you. Do you wanna know what the song’s called, Karkat?”

He tears his gaze away from the movie and squints. “I don’t know, Dave, do I?”

“Probably not, but I’m going to tell you anyway.” You hold up your free hand and start rubbing your fingers together. “It’s called Ode to a Dumb Cranky Stink Crab.”

“I’m not hearing anything. This only proves my point that your dumb ass doesn’t have any pan cells to speak of.”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong. You probably aren’t aware of this on Alternia since I doubt your culture made room for even the basic concept of music while you were busy making puns and conquering planets or whatever the fuck it was that you did, but performing a piece a la brain cell was a highly controversial topic back on Earth. The thing with playing a song on the brain cell is that it has such a high frequency that only those with functioning brain cells could actually fucking hear it. In other words, pretty much no one.”

“I can’t believe you just pulled all of that shit straight out of your ass just so you could say I’m stupid again.” He snorts. “Well played, shit stain. Though I’d like to point out, you never did respond to my first inquiry.”

“And what was that again? We do this insult thing so often I forgot what we were initially insulting each other over.”

“What I was saying before you turned this into a battle of which of us is the dominant walking bomb of dumbstink, I was saying that despite your endless string of complaints about them in front of everybody else, you actually really like romcoms. Admit it, Dave, you like them. Why the fuck else would you spend so much time sitting here watching them with me if you didn’t like them at least a little?”

“Gee, I don’t know, dude, fuck, I guess you got me. Clearly there’s no other explanation for why I would sit here and watch these.” You reply sarcastically. “But now that I think about it, another more definitely right reason springs to mind. Hey, maybe I’m sitting here watching all of this shit because, and I’m just spitballing here, I like you?”

“Oh.” He turns back to the screen, but you can tell he’s not really focused on what’s going on. You think his face might be a darker shade of gray than it was before, but it’s hard to tell without more lights on. “That’s-”

“Shocking, I know.” You squeeze his hand again. You’re no longer sweating, thank fuck, but you can’t imagine how gross the feeling of another person’s cold and drying sweat on your hand must feel like to Karkat, so you still want to wipe it off. “Your boyfriend likes you. What a twist.”

“So you’re only watching these because you like me and wanted to spend more time with me?” From his tone he sounds less happy about this than you expected.

You shrug. “Yeah. At least the first few times it was that, coupled with poking fun at you about them later. I’ll be honest, after awhile they kinda grew on me.” Which isn’t too surprising, since Karkat also grew on you. “They’re not my favorite movies, but I don’t mind them.”

“Dave, this is the fifth one I’ve put on today, how the hell can you not mind that?" Karkat brings his hand to his forehead and drags it down his face in what has to be the most exaggerated facepalm you’ve ever borne witness to. His other hand twitches in yours, and there’s not a doubt in your mind that if you’d let go this would have become a double facepalm. “Fuck, I thought you looked bored earlier, but I didn’t do anything because I figured you would have said something about it.”

“Now that you mention it, I was going to suggest we do something else for awhile after this one.” You admit.

“But you said you’re mostly tolerating these because of me. Aren’t you bored by now?” He asks, his eyebrows knitting together into a worried line. “I can turn it off and we can go fuck around in Can Town or something.”

“Okay one, I never said I was just tolerating them, don’t twist my words into a pretzel and put them in my mouth, that shit’s not cool. Two, you said this one’s your favorite, like fuck I’m gonna make you turn it off that would just be a dick move. Three, yeah, I’m a little bored,” more than a little. Before you started talking you weren’t sure if you were even going to make it through this movie, “but that’s my own damn fault, I can deal with that. And my fourth and final point, how the hell do you expect me to cuddle up to you during a movie if there’s no god damn movie to cuddle up during?” You poke him in the forehead with your free hand. “Come on, Karkat, you gotta consider this shit before you do it.”

He rubs at the spot you poked and smiles, your hand gets squeezed again. “Fine, I’ll leave the movie on. Only if you make do on that cuddling you just promised me.”

“Believe me, I had no intention of jipping you out of any of this prime cuddle time. Mark my words, babe, I’m gonna wrap around you like bacon on a filet mignon.”

“I don’t know what the fuck that is.”

“Doesn’t matter, all you need to know is that it’s the fucking best and we’re going to be it.” You collapse against him without another word and the sudden addition of your weight against him sends him sprawling onto his back. You faceplant right into his chest, and you take this opportunity to bury your face in his shirt. It’s really soft.

“So, are we doing it?” Karkat laughs. “Are we filet mignon now? Is that happening, is that what this is?”

“Fuck yeah, bitch we are the filet mignon!” You hold out a fist expectantly.

Karkat has to wiggle his arm free from where it’s pinned under you so he can bump your fist. “Hell yeah!”

He frees his other arm and wraps both of them around you. You’re so glad your face is hidden because there’s no way your face isn’t red as a god damn tomato at this point. You swear you can even feel your ears burning.

“I can feel your heartbeat on my face.” You mumble, uncertain if you’re speaking loud enough for Karkat to hear. His heart’s beating so fast it feels like someone trapped a hummingbird inside a drum. You burrow deeper into his chest.

“Hm." One of Karkat’s fingers is tapping against your back. You don’t know if he’s doing it on purpose or not, but it feels nice and you hope he doesn’t stop. “Aren’t you uncomfortable like that with your shades on?”

You shrug, but right when he says it you start to feel the metal pieces pressing hard into your skin and you can’t stay in this position for another second. You turn your head to the side so you’re facing the husktop and take off your shades. You fold the arms and carefully stick them into your collar for safe keeping. After some careful consideration, you decide to stay in this position.

You’re really trying to watch the movie, but you can’t seem to follow much of what’s going on at this point and end up focusing right back in on Karkat. He’s still hugging you, practically squishing you to him in this really warm, affectionate embrace that you have no idea how to reciprocate. You don’t think you’ve ever received this much physical affection before in your entire life.

You have no idea what to do with your own hands, right now one of them is just hanging off the couch like a limp noodle and the other one’s at your side. You take your hand that’s not busy being a noodle and start running it through Karkat’s hair. It’s thick and softer than what you’d expected, but it’s clear that he’s never met a hairbrush in his life. That would explain all the weird angles it’s always standing up in.

“Dave, what are you doing?”

“Playing with your hair, what the fuck do you think I’m doing?” You start combing it through your fingers slowly. Your fingers keep getting caught in the tangles. “Do they have brushes on Alternia or are you just so fucking lazy you never bothered to learn basic hygiene?” “Shut up, Dave.” He doesn’t confirm nor deny your suspicion, and instead leans his head closer to your hand as you continue.

Karkat relaxes under your touch, and you can literally hear his heart slow into a more comfortable, natural rhythm. You pull yourself up a couple inches and nuzzle into his neck. You can’t help but smile when you feel his face grow warm. He hugs you a little tighter, and it’s the best thing ever.

The movie ends sooner than you expected, mostly because you had no fucking idea what was going on during any part of it whatsoever. Literally none. If you were asked to give a report about what that movie was in four hundred words, you would be unable to because you have no clue. Still, you’re disappointed that it’s over.

Karkat starts to sit up, and you move so you’re no longer laying with all of your weight on him. You end up sitting on his lap instead, which for some reason feels more awkward than when you were completely on top of him a moment ago.

He removes one arm from around you and turns off the movie on his husktop. The other arm stays at your hip. “So, what do you want to do now?”

Karkat regards you curiously, waiting for your response. He’d probably agree to doing anything you want to right now. Shit, he’d probably do a dramatic one man reenactment of one of your comics if you asked right now.

One of your hands is still in his hair, and you use it to gently guide him over to you. You cup his face in both your hands and kiss his nose. You were really fucking tempted to go for the lips, but you don’t think either of you are ready for that just yet. Especially not when you’re both embarrassingly red in the face from that tiny peck just now. “Why don’t you put on another one?”

Karkat looks surprised by your suggestion but then smiles and wrinkles his nose at you. “Okay, if that’s really what you want.”

“Oh, it is.”

He puts on another romcom, and you both slump back into the couch and resume cuddling positions. Karkat buries his face in your hair, and this time you’re the one doing the affectionate squeeze hugs. At one point you start holding hands again, it’s at an awkward angle for both of you but neither of you let go.

You don’t watch the movie.

#dave strider #karkat vantas #davekat #Fanfic Request #longpost #meteorstuck #thank you so much for the request I haven't written in forever I seriously hope you like this Sam #I feel like I forgot how to write fluff so I hope this is okay #there's some handholding #and cuddling #and mild insults because it's them #early relationship shenanigans #this took me four whole times to try and post and yet I still couldn't come up with a better title #anyway I hope you like it #yo it's a fic and I wrote it

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fanfoolishness · 7 years

Text

Asystole (Vetra x Ryder)

Spoilers for Mass Effect: Andromeda up unto the Archon’s ship. 5,200 words. Angst, fluff, romance - the holy trifecta. Zelda Ryder has a difficult time coping after a harrowing experience. Vetra Nyx is there to lend a shoulder. Or an ear. Or whatever.

Zelda Ryder leaned back against her seat in the shuttle, closing her eyes, the breath burning in her chest. Dammit, she was tired. Unconsciously she rubbed at her chestpiece with a trembling hand, trying to massage away the burn.

She’d died. Again.

Two Pathfinders had met their death on that ship. How come she was the one walking away?

Liam made a joke, something with a thin veneer of normalcy that rang in her ears. She could tell he felt lost underneath the glibness; so did she. Jaal’s cool huff of acknowledgement weighed the joke down, killing it quickly.

She didn’t blame him. She didn’t feel much like laughing either.

***

Lexi’s face was a study. If Ryder hadn’t been so tired she almost might have found it funny.

“SAM killed you,” she spat, her normally composed features a mess of horror and dismay. Her hands were cool against Ryder’s cheeks, as she checked the whites of her eyes, the lymph nodes along her jawline. Her omnitool flashed, recording her findings.

Ryder had thought about being a doctor, once; it had been that or xenoarchaeology, and she’d taken the initial courses for both. She’d been in her first year of medical school when she heard the Alliance was establishing archeology units, and she’d never looked back. But every once in a while things would trickle in, bits of memory that reminded her of the fresh-faced biology nerd she’d been at nineteen. Lymph nodes. She remembered humans had tons of the things.

Lexi’s stern look of disapproval snapped her out of her wandering thoughts. She felt oddly defensive. “He brought me back,” Ryder pointed out “And he asked first.”

“Pathfinder Ryder is correct,” SAM concurred, using their public channel. “It was the only way to disable the Archon’s biological shackles. We both agreed.”

“That is entirely too much power to hand over to an AI,” said Lexi, eyes narrowed. Ryder had never seen her so angry, her mouth a thin tight line. “And look at the state of you!”

“I’m fine,” said Ryder, even though she felt she’d been hit with a krogan war hammer. She tried to muster up a winning smile. It came out something like a grimace.

“You’re experiencing profound adrenal fatigue,” said Lexi. “It’s a miracle your cardiac rhythms reestablished as well as they did. Even with SAM’s adjustments of your system -- which admittedly have left you in a far better state than anyone who has experienced a natural heart attack -- you’re still quite fragile right now. You were utterly without oxygen for more than sixty seconds, and it’s showing. I want you to rest up strictly for the next three days, and we can reassess then. We can discuss SAM then, too.”

She sat down next to Ryder, and put a hand on her shoulder. The worried wrinkles in her forehead shifted subtly into sadness. “You scared me, Ryder.”

“Yeah,” said Ryder after a moment. “Scared me too.”

***

Ryder stared at her bed. It looked stark, somehow. Usually she charged into her room and flopped down, grateful to have somewhere soft to sleep that wasn’t a cryo pod. Tonight the bed seemed somehow ominous.

I could go to sleep, and not wake up.

The realization made her heart stutter, and she hissed out a breath, willing herself to settle down. She’d tried to take Lexi’s advice to take it easy. There was so much more she wanted, needed to do, but she’d restrained herself to a few conversations. She’d done the minimum in communicating with Drack and the Nexus about his scouts. She’d taken Kallo aside and told him, hollow-voiced, that she was sorry about Raeka. She’d eaten a dinner of protein pastes mechanically, sticking to something easy to digest.

But her heart still felt like a stranger in her own body, and she sat down on the edge of the bed, staring balefully at the pillows.

“SAM,” Ryder said, subvocalizing; SAM could pick up the half-words she could form under her breath. It felt strange to talk to him more loudly when it was only the two of them. “Is there anything… am I okay?”

Zelda, I understand you must be concerned, said SAM, as soothingly as he could. I remember how I became disoriented when I encountered that virus in SAM node. I felt as if I could not trust my own code. It took some time to reassure myself that I was, in fact, myself. Is that an adequate analogy?

“It’s something like that,” said Ryder. “My heart… you’re sure it’s all right?” She bit her lip. “Argh, I feel stupid even asking. Even worrying about it.”

Between my own readings, and Dr. T’Perro’s, I judge you have suffered no permanent injury. However, I agree with her assessment that rest would be ideal.

“I’ll try, SAM.” She tried to believe his assessment, telling herself it would make her feel better.

But it wasn’t easy to believe when she remembered that pressure, crushing, all-consuming, all-encompassing, bearing on her chest; nor the way black particles danced in at the edges of her vision; nor the sudden air hunger that had roared, if only for a few seconds, in every cell of her body.

She thought of being a little kid, up on the top bunk back when she and Scotty had still shared a room. They’d been tiny then, five or six, and usually she’d tried to lord it over him as the oldest, pretending nothing ever scared her. But when it had, there was nothing better than crawling down into the lower bunk and hiding under the covers with him. He’d try to make fun of her about it sometimes, but sometimes he crawled up to the top bunk with her, too; fair was only fair.

Tears pricked her eyes. Scotty was still in the cryo-bay, no more responsive than the bed he lay on. She hadn’t even had the courage to tell him about Dad yet, even though he couldn’t hear her. She didn’t know which of them could use the biggest hug.

Great. Now she was thinking about Dad again, too. She pressed the heels of her hands against her closed eyes, and hoped that she could rest.

***

She gave sleep a chance, she really did.

She tried a number of positions. On her side, the classic fetal position. Normally a beloved go-to. Failed after thirty minutes of wondering if she might choke on her own saliva laying like that.

Lying on her back wasn’t any better. She remembered that old movie, one her mom had liked. The Elephant Man. The man had choked to death because of his profound deformities and suffocated in his sleep. It was enough to make her roll over to her stomach, but then she wondered if she would have trouble expanding her lungs while laying on her chest, and she was back at square one.

She wondered about asking Lexi for something to help her sleep. Yet what if a sedative suppressed her respiratory reflex to a point it was dangerous -- no, she figured, she’d better not.

Someone telling her she was fine sounded nice in theory, but was not working in practice. SAM had tried, but SAM had also made her not-fine, and while she trusted him, cared for him, it was still more complicated than she liked. Lexi had tried too, but Lexi was probably sleeping comfortably by now, and Ryder didn’t want to wake her when part of her knew she was simply being anxious.

What she wanted was for someone to stay with her and really make sure she would be fine.

She sat up in bed, resting her arms on her knees and her chin on her forearms. After a few minutes she rolled out from the covers and pulled on her pants and sweatshirt, working her toes into the comfy shoes she wore around the ship. Maybe a walk would help.

She thought vaguely of the bio lab. Plants, Andromedan, Terran, heck, there was even a spindly little metallic succulent from Palaven. The air did feel fresher there, despite the fact it was recycled throughout the ship, and maybe the greenery would help anchor her in a way the stars did not tonight.

Deep in thought she scarcely noticed Vetra coming around the bend, and ran straight into her, bouncing off the light armor Vetra wore on the ship. “Shit!” Ryder spat, rubbing her aching nose. She didn’t usually mind having a larger than average nose, but hitting it on a turian breastplate was simply embarrassing. Especially this turian’s. Her cheeks felt hot.

“Uh, hey, Ryder,” said Vetra, clearly trying not to laugh. Ryder supposed she ought to be grateful for that, at least.

“What are you still doing up?” she asked, letting her hand drop back to her side. Her nose didn’t seem to be broken, at least.

“Winding down for the night,” said Vetra. “Had a few calls to take. Trying to get things sorted for Drack’s scouts; I told him I’d pull some favors. Some of them are going back to the Nexus, but a few want to get to Kadara, or Elaaden.” She tilted her head to one side, studying Ryder’s face. “Look. About what happened back there… you made a hard choice.”

Ryder swallowed past the lump in her throat. “I couldn’t…” She tried to sort out the words in her head, figure out how to say it. “-- the idea of exaltation -- I didn’t want them to go through that.” She twisted her hands together. “I knew I was going to lose Raeka, too. There wasn’t enough time.”

“Hey,” said Vetra. She reached out, touching Ryder’s shoulder for a moment. Her hand was solid there, even though the shape was different, new. Ryder wished she could lean into it, could take that hand in her own, but she tried to shake the feeling away.

“You did the best you could,” said Vetra. “I know you’re gonna blame yourself. I would too. But that doesn’t change that you had a hard choice, and you did what you could with it.” She folded her arms against her chest. “Is that why you’re still up?”

“Partly,” admitted Ryder. Vetra’s words settled on her, a bit of balm against her anxious, jittering mind. She tried to fix them in memory. She suspected she might need to hear them again in the coming days.

“You look worried,” said Vetra. “I can tell.” A faint smile stole over her face, but it was kind. That was one thing Ryder liked so much about her. She talked straight, and she didn’t pull punches. A human might have been tempted not to say anything at all. Vetra said it plainly, and she meant it, every time.

“So,” she said. “You’re an expert on humans now?” She’d been… noticing Vetra for some time now. She’d made some comments, here and there, and Vetra hadn’t refuted them. But she was still unsure of where she stood.

“Didn’t say I was,” said Vetra smoothly. “But I like to think I’ve gotten to know you pretty well.”

If Ryder hadn’t been blushing earlier from the nose debacle, she was now. “Yeah, I guess you have.” She rubbed at the back of her neck, suddenly self-conscious. “You promise you won’t think I’m overreacting?”

“I don’t know. Depends on what you tell me,” Vetra answered, leaning against the wall as if settling in.

Ryder hesitated. It was going to sound so damn childish out loud. But it was the middle of the night, and nobody else was around, and she trusted Vetra.

“I’m scared,” she said simply. Her hand clutched at the front of her shirt, over her chest. “There’s a part of me that worries if I go to sleep tonight, I won’t wake up.”

Vetra was quiet for a moment. “Shit, Ryder.”

“I know. It’s stupid --”

“No, it isn’t.” She stepped forward, the distance between them narrowing. This close Ryder could see the fine texture of her skin on her throat, like supple leather; she wondered what it would feel like beneath her fingertips. Her eyes behind her ever-present visor were keen, and Ryder gazed into them, unable to look away.

“You died? That’s what it sounded like over the comms,” said Vetra quietly. “And Jaal and Liam said that’s what happened. But I didn’t want to believe it.”

Ryder nodded. “SAM stopped my heart. It was the only way. I’m not upset with him. SAM did what he had to, and it worked, but I’m scared it could happen on its own. I’ve already died twice now in Andromeda. I’m scared the third time will be the charm.” She shivered. “I know I”m worrying over nothing --”

“You aren’t.” Her voice was rich, subharmonics thrumming beneath her words. “I won’t tell you not to worry. That never worked for me. I still worry way too damn much no matter how much I tell myself it doesn’t help. But I didn’t have any other plans tonight besides sleeping, so if talking might help… well… I’m here.” Vetra spread her hands in front of her, the three fingers on each long palm splayed wide. “If you need a shoulder. Or an ear. Or whatever.”

“I’d like that.” She grinned suddenly. Flirting… now, there was a distraction she could work with. “If I could even reach your shoulder, that is.”

Vetra let out a sharp peal of laughter. “Hey, it’s not my fault you’re so short. It’s kind of cute, though.”

Ryder’s smile hitched to one side, and she swallowed. Oh, what the hell. “So you think I’m cute?”

Vetra’s mandibles flared outward, as if she was lost for words. Her eyes widened slightly. “I -- uh -- sure.”

“That’s it? Sure?” She hoped desperately that SAM was sitting back, twiddling his virtual thumbs and whistling to himself instead of hearing her strike out so miserably.

Vetra, normally so unflappable, so calm, so her-shit-together, shifted uneasily from side to side, averting her gaze. “What do you want me to say?”

You’ve already died today, you aren’t allowed to die of embarrassment now. “I was hoping that you might be interested,” said Ryder, steeling herself. “Because I sure as hell am.” She shrugged helplessly, fully aware that her cheeks blazed a radioactive red. “I like you, Vetra, and I care about you, more than a friend or a crewmate. If you still want to lend me a spiky shoulder to lean on, I’d really like that.” She faltered. “But if you aren’t interested in that --”

“No -- I mean, yes. I am.” Were Vetra’s cheeks darker than before? They held a pretty bluish hue that Ryder couldn’t remember seeing on her in the past. “I have been for… a while. I just didn’t want to be wrong.”

Ryder closed the distance between them. She could feel the heat of the other woman against her bare arms. She tilted her head back. “Um. Could you bend down a little?”

Vetra laughed. “For you, yes.” Her breath was soft on Ryder’s cheeks, and before Ryder could worry about how exactly one was supposed to kiss a turian, Vetra’s mouth was on hers, firm smooth edges surprisingly muscular and dynamic against Ryder’s lips. Ah. This was different: Vetra’s tongue rougher and shorter than she’d expected, the way the flexible plates of her cheeks and nose and forehead pressed against Ryder’s face.

Vetra pulled back, nearly as violet as the tattoos on her cheeks. “Was that okay? I’ve never tried kissing a human before.” She looked sheepish, somehow, but pleased. “I liked it.”

Ryder ran a trembling hand through her hair. “That was awesome.” She sank against Vetra, giggling madly. “Vetra, this has been one hell of a day.”

Vetra squeezed her shoulder. “My original offer still stands, you know. This wasn’t a ploy to seduce you.”

“Not even a little?”

“That would be wrong,” said Vetra, quite nobly.

Ryder sighed, slipping her arms around the turian’s narrow waist. “All right. If it still stands, I would owe you one heck of a favor if you kept me company for a little bit. At least until my head’s back on straight again. We could chat in my quarters?”

“Of course. And it’d probably be best to keep it to chatting instead of… other activities. I think I overheard Lexi telling you you needed to take it easy the next few days.”

“As intriguing as other activities sound, I think I’d pass out in the middle from sheer exhaustion,” said Ryder, letting her arms fall from Vetra’s waist as they walked towards her quarters. “But let’s keep that in mind for another day, yeah?”

“We’ll see how it goes, then,” said Vetra. Ryder had never realized before a turian could look so sly.

Vetra whistled when Ryder opened the door into her quarters. She’d not had occasion to invite anyone in before, usually preferring to find her crewmates in the common areas to talk. “I saw these quarters back when the Tempest was drydocked, but it looks a hell of a lot better with the view.”

“Well… you want to come check it out sometimes, all you have to do is ask.” The doors slid closed behind them and Ryder kicked her boots off. “Do you want to make yourself, er, comfortable? Come to think of it, I’ve never seen you in civilian clothes, just your armor.” She clapped a hand over her mouth. “Wait, are you wearing anything under there?”

Vetra laughed. “Are you crazy? Turians aren’t nearly as squishy as you humans, but we still wear underclothes under our armor. We aren’t barbarians, Ryder.”

“It was an honest question,” she protested.

Vetra grinned. “Don’t worry, I know.” She stretched, raising her arms above her, extending her already considerable height until her knuckles brushed the ceiling. “Actually, it’s been a long day. Maybe I’ll take you up on that offer. I am decent under here.” She reached up and dismantled part of her armor around her neck, unclicking it. A few more quick, efficient movements and she was pulling off her arm pieces, laying them in a neat stack by the door. Her chestplate and boots followed. Underneath the armor she indeed wore a thin cloth garment with long sleeves, similar to what Sid always wore but plainer. The skin of her cowl peeked out around the edge of her overshirt, with a faint silvery sheen beneath the overhead lights.

She padded over to the couch on long, slightly curved toes and narrow feet, then plopped down as if she was perfectly comfortable. “That does feel better.”

Ryder pulled off her sweatshirt, exposing the thin camisole she wore underneath. She took the other end of the couch, sitting curled up with her feet on the cushions. “It’s like a slumber party.”

“Is that what I think it is?” Vetra asked with a tilted head and a grin.

Ryder chuckled. “Well, it can be. But it’s also something we used to do as kids. Scotty and I didn’t have a lot of friends on the Citadel, since we traveled a lot, but we still sometimes had friends spend the night. I always hated it when it was his turn to have friends over. The boys would always try to play tricks on me… at least until I punched one of them in the nose. After that they thought I could do no wrong.”

Vetra looked skeptical. “That’s a thing? Kids staying at each other’s houses? Did they have parents?”

“Of course. Usually the parents would be glad to get the kids out of their hair. Figuratively speaking, I guess. I had a few asari friends. Scott was friends with a salarian boy for a while. Not a lot of hair going on there.”

“It is strange how you humans have so much of it. And all of you do something different with it,” said Vetra. “Always thought that was kind of weird.” She gave Ryder a long, appraising look. “I like yours. It’s shiny, and it always looks soft, even when you’ve stuffed it into a helmet. It’s kind of impressive.”

“Helmet hair is no laughing matter,” said Ryder, pleased at the compliment. “But I do miss having slumber parties sometimes; they really were fun. The conversations were the best.”

“In my experience, kids aren’t the best conversationalists. With Sid it was a lot of asking for food, throwing tantrums, making butt jokes...”

“Good to know those are universal,” Ryder giggled. “Well, I was a kid too at the time.” She ruffled her hair with one hand. She supposed it was soft. “But you’ve had that feeling before, right? Night does funny things to most people. You get sillier. You talk about scarier stuff. You share things.” Ryder leaned back, tilting her head back so she could see the stars swirling past the window. “I always loved that.”

Vetra stretched out her long legs, curling and uncurling her toes in the thin rug under the couch. “There’s a little truth in that, I think.” She reached out, taking Ryder’s hand, and sighed. It took them a second to figure out the best configuration of three and five. “Feels good. I’ve wondered what that would feel like for a while now.”

“Likewise,” Ryder said, squeezing her hand. She edged closer to Vetra on the couch until her toes nudged Vetra’s thigh. “Something about you being impossibly tall and willowy and asskicking appealed to me right from the start.”

“Willowy?” Vetra snorted. “Isn’t that a tree?”

“Well, yes. It’s a compliment. And you are super tall, if you haven’t noticed. Which I like.”

“I’m not tall,” said Vetra dismissively. “Everyone else is ridiculously short. Anyway, I think the first time you flirted with me I thought you were joking. And the second. And the third.”

“Oh god.” Ryder hung her head. “That is embarrassing. For both of us.” They laughed, and for a moment, she let herself luxuriate in butterflies and silliness, in that heady feeling of electricity in their grip. Maybe there was a lot of scary shit out there, but here, with Vetra, she felt a little safer.

She squeezed Vetra’s hand. “Glad you’re here, Vetra. Heleus is a crazy place, but you help me make sense out of it.”

“I just show up and shoot things,” said Vetra mildly. But she squeezed back, and impulsively leaned forward, brushing a kiss against Ryder’s cheek. “Glad you’re here, too.” She settled herself back against the couch. “Especially on days like today. When the weight of everything that’s out there makes itself known again.”

“I keep wondering,” Ryder said slowly.

“Keep wondering what?”

“Why the kett want what they want. Why they’re so convinced of their superiority. Trying to exalt krogan… I thought learning about the angara was bad. But the krogan… the salarians… those were our people they were experimenting on.” Ryder felt ill, remembering the bodies, the tanks.

“It’s bullshit. I can’t imagine what they’d do with a turian. If a kett ever even so much as looked at Sid….” Her grip on Ryder’s hand tightened.

“I’m not gonna let that happen. I’m not.” She leaned her head back against the couch, closing her eyes. “But I don’t know everything, either. Maybe there was another way I could’ve helped Raeka. And the Archon had us, Vetra. Until SAM --” Her other hand scrabbled, reflexively, against the front of her shirt.

“Hey, hey.” Vetra’s voice was a soft, layered murmur. “Lexi said you were okay.”

Zelda, said SAM into her private channel. Your heartbeat is still regular. I detect no arrhythmias or lasting damage from my actions. I apologize for the distress you now feel.

“SAM says I’m okay, too,” Ryder said, her eyes still closed. She slowly lowered her hand from her chest. “But it’s disquieting. To remember, again, that I could be only a minute away from death.”

“I only heard rumors about before,” said Vetra, looking concerned. “Habitat seven. That was where they lost the human Pa-- your dad, right?”

“It was him or me,” she said simply. “I’d damaged my helmet too badly in a fall. Atmo was toxic. Dad gave me his helmet instead, and told SAM to start the upload. He picked me.” Her mouth twisted.

“You never talk about him.”

“He was a hard man to get along with,” said Ryder. “A hard man in general. He didn’t really have a grip on the whole emotions thing. He didn’t understand why I’d get so upset about things. Being a teenager with him around was fun.” She laughed, but it wasn’t really funny.

“Why did you come to Andromeda? You ask everyone else, but you keep your own reasons close to the chest. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”

“You notice a lot of things, Vetra.”

“I’m sneaky like that.”

“He wanted to explore, I knew that much. And there was a lot that went wrong in the Milky Way. His work on SAM got him blacklisted from everything humanity was doing in Citadel space, and some of that backlash hit Scotty and me, too.” The way her fieldwork dried up; the transfers; the steady, persistent, faceless pressure brought on her to move on. Scotty had dealt with the same. “And after Mom died, there was something powerful about looking forward to getting away, as far as we possibly could. It didn’t feel like we could move forward back home,” she said, faltering.

“I didn’t know about your mom,” said Vetra. “You look sad, talking about her. You were close, weren’t you?”

“Much more than with Dad. But she got sick a few years ago.” Ryder let out a long breath. “She would have liked a lot of this place. She would have loved meeting the angara. She was passionate, like Jaal.”

“I’m always impressed by people who were close with their mothers,” said Vetra quietly “I know ours didn’t want us. She put up with us for a while, but even so, I barely remember her.”

“You want to know something funny?”

“Shoot.”

“Every now and then, I catch myself thinking, Dad would love this,” said Ryder. Her face scrunched, nose wrinkling. “And then it catches up to me. I realize, I don’t really know what he would have liked. You know?” She shrugged, inching closer to Vetra. “I can guess. Part of me can extrapolate the things he would probably like from the things I know he cared about. Exploration. SAM. Family. In that order.” She sighed. “But when I think of what he would like, I realize I’m thinking of my projection of him; the man I used to wish he would be, the man nostalgia makes him out to be. It’s like that with everyone we’ve lost, isn’t it? The best parts of them -- or the worst -- they’re all our biology lets us remember eventually, and we build up these visions of them as a way to comfort ourselves. It’s like we still have a relationship with them, just a little, if we can imagine who they’d be now and what they’d do. Love, but at a remove.”

“I think I know what you mean,” said Vetra after a moment. “I never wasted time worrying about my mother, after she left. But I like to tell myself my dad died a hero, a good man, back in the Milky Way. That he would have come back for Sid and me if he could have.” Her mandibles flared open in a long, trembling pause before folding against her cheeks again.

“Do you think that really happened?” Ryder asked quietly. “A hero’s death?”

“No,” Vetra said flatly. “I think --” She bowed her head. “I think he was good enough that he might have wanted to come back to us. But I don’t think he was good enough to do it, in the end.”

“I think Dad would have wanted to love Andromeda,” said Ryder. “And yet, each new outpost, each new secret… it’d never be enough. He could never be happy with what he had. He was only ever happy in the striving for it, I think.”

A wise, if painful, observation, said SAM into her private channel. His voice was especially reserved. I miss your father. My experience of him was different than your own, but you did understand him, Zelda.

“Thank you, SAM,” she subvocalized. She leaned back against the pillows, digging her shoulders into them, her heart steady in her chest. Not dead yet. Not again.

“Do we ever leave the old shit behind?” mused Vetra. She gazed up at the stars drifting on the other side of the window, gold and silver pinpricks against the black. “Or does it always come back like this to punch you in the gut?”

“Sometimes it hits hard, like it all happened yesterday. Sometimes I almost forget for a day or two that Dad died. I can never tell which it’s going to be until it comes. That’s life all over, isn’t it? You can guess and worry and wonder all you want about it, but it still does what it’s going to do, and you can’t always change that.” The stars blurred.

“We can change some things,” said Vetra. She reached out, pulling Ryder against her, draping an arm around her shoulders. “The two of us against the world? I don’t know. I kinda like those odds, personally.”

Ryder curled up beside her, laying her head against Vetra’s chest. She could hear a steady beat, a slightly different rhythm than she was used to, but familiar all the same. She listened to the sound, closing her eyes. Funny, but it made her think of a safe port in the storm. An anchor.

“You do know how to play the odds,” she laughed. She could feel Vetra’s chuckle through her chest, and that was an anchor too.

***

“Morning, you,” said Vetra, and Ryder yawned.

The first thing she noticed was how stiff she was. The second thing she noticed was that she was sprawled on the couch, her head and shoulders in Vetra’s lap.

“Morning,” she said, acutely aware that Vetra’s lap was surprisingly comfortable. “How long was I asleep?”

“Long enough,” said Vetra, leaning down to meet her in a kiss. It was an extraordinarily better way to wake up than the alarm tone SAM usually played. “You made it through the night, you know.”

Ryder sat up, stretching, and let out a shaky laugh. “You’re right.” She nudged Vetra hard in the shoulder. “Thanks to you.”

“Nah,” said Vetra. “You had it under control.” But something in her face softened. “Glad you’re feeling better.”

Ryder pulled her into a clumsy hug, showering her in a flurry of kisses. When she pulled back Vetra looked flabbergasted. She also looked intensely pleased.

“So it wasn’t bad for our first slumber party?” Ryder asked.

“Well,” Vetra said, regaining her ability to speak, “I can’t really compare it to any others. So we’ll obviously have to do this again.”

Ryder laughed. It might have been a hell of a day yesterday. But there was another one today, and hopefully another tomorrow, and one after that. Moving forward was all any of them could do. Moving forward with Vetra was even better.

Good morning, Zelda. Your heart rate and rhythm remain normal.

“Thanks, SAM.” A deep breath. “I know.”

#ryder x vetra #f!ryder x vetra #vetra nyx #mass effect: andromeda #me:a #me:a spoilers #spoilers #mass effect spoilers #zelda ryder #SAM

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frostedkookie · 7 years

Text

limerence | pt. 1

(n.) the state of being infatuated with another person

pt.1 | pt.2

Words: 4,124

Genre: G-Dragon x OC, Friends With Benefits AU, smut, some fluff/romance

Summary: “One more drink won’t kill you... I promise I’ll take care of you.”

A/N: I started this last year, and decided to finish since GD has been hitting me right in the feels lately

“Would you hold still, please Chen, for the love of all that is good in the world? I am trying to finish this last bit of eyeliner,” Noelle hissed, waving her hands around in frustration as Chen narrowed his eyes.

“It’s not like it’s going to look good anyway,” he replied tartly.

“I swear, boy. One of these days I am going to take this eyeliner pencil and jab it so far into your eye that-“

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s really going to happen.” Chen cut Noelle off. After a moment of the two staring harshly at each other, Chen finally sat back in his seat, arms crossed, and held still so Noelle could finish his eyeliner.

“Those two can be so annoying sometimes,” Chanyeol laughed from the seat below me, where I had my hands tousled in his silver-colored hair. Chen and Chanyeol were the last two members of EXO Noelle and I had to make over before we accompanied the band to the Mnet Asian Music Awards that very night. However, Chen was not making the completion of Noelle’s task any easier.

Noelle and I had moved to Seoul six months prior, and shortly after, we’d gotten jobs with one of the largest music companies in South Korea, SM Entertainment. We’d been lucky enough to have been paired together as a make-up and hair team for the same band: EXO.

“I still have to get ready myself, Chen. So please, try to cooperate,” Noelle pleaded, mixing together a palette of eyeshadows.

“Who’s the star, though? Me or you?” Chen smirked, making Noelle’s knuckles turn white against the make-up brush in her hand.

“I give up,” Noelle groaned, causing Chanyeol to snicker in his seat. I gave his hair a few more tugs, and then finished it off with a little mousse.

“Thanks, MaKenna. See you at the show,” Chanyeol said, giving me a quick one-armed hug and walking out of EXO’s main hair and make-up room.

I gave Noelle one last wave, although she barely glanced up from her near death match with Chen. I wondered towards the dorm room Noelle and I shared, where I would spend the last hour of my time getting myself ready for the awards show. I quickly slipped out of the gym shorts and t-shirt I’d been wearing while I’d styled each member of EXO’s hair, and in to a one-shoulder deep green dress covered in sequins. The dress ended towards the middle of my thighs, and was the color of a lush forest after the rain.

I briefly saw Noelle enter the room in a flurry of red hair and purple dress while I was styling my hair, and when my whole look was finally complete, she met me in the corridor that lead towards the parked cars EXO would take to the awards show.

“So, I’ll take M tonight, and you get K? Although, I don’t know if I’ll be able to ride in the same car as Chen, even if the venue is just a short drive away,” Noelle grumbled, more to herself than me. I smirked, knowing that the reason Noelle would be up with a ride with Chen came in the form of EXO-M’s leader, Kris.

“Well, I guess I’m alright with riding with K tonight,” I faked a heavy sigh, speaking in English as I climbed in the car to await the arrival of the band members. Noelle and I, painstakingly, had learned Korean in just a few short months before moving to Seoul, and although our language skills were fairly adequate, we still frequently spoke to each other in English.

“Aren’t you just a doll?” Noelle smirked, closing the door of the car. I watched her strut away in her long purple dress and short pumps until she’d ducked into EXO-M’s car and disappeared behind the closed door.

I sighed, straightened out my dress, and laid my head back against the car seat, anticipating our arrival at the awards show.

“Ladies and gentlemen, give it up one last time for our final act of the night, EXO!” The crowd went absolutely wild as the first few beats to their song started, and the dim lights suddenly outlined the faint figures of the twelve EXO members.

“They’re such talented guys.” I glanced over towards my left, where the leader of BigBang, G-Dragon, was sitting beside me. For the most part, he’d kept to himself that night.

“Yeah, they’re really something,” I smiled, nodding at him. He smiled back, his bright orange bangs falling down in his eyes.

“Do you work for SM?” he asked after a few minutes, interrupting my concentration on Kai’s hair, which I was praying would stay perfectly styled throughout his whole choreography.

“Oh, yes. I’m EXO’s hair stylist,” I replied, not taking my eyes away from the lanky dancer as he swung his way around the stage. His hair didn’t move an inch, much to my amazement. After a few minutes, G-Dragon spoke to me again.

“Your Korean is very good.”

“I’ve only been speaking the language for a year, maybe a little longer,” I said. “So, I don’t think it’s very good at all.”

“It’s good, I promise,” he said, flashing me a genuine smile that made me stop and stare a little longer than appropriate. The only times I’d seen BigBang’s leader, he’d seemed extremely standoffish. However, sitting beside him, I was able to see a small part of the humorous guy that everyone talked about. G-Dragon was all the rave between Korean music businesses, but talking to him, even for just a few moments, made me see a piece of the celebrity that no fans got to see.

It was one of my favorite parts about working with celebrities. Not being able to brag about the fact that I hung out with some of the most famous people in Asia, or even that I got to be around people with a ton of money. My favorite part was that I was able to see the true parts of these celebrities, even if I was only able to see that part for a few moments at an awards show. I was still able to converse with a person who would otherwise have been untouchable to me before I’d gotten my job.

EXO’s performance ended, and Kai’s hair stayed perfect throughout the whole thing. I stood up, straightening out my dress as I prepared myself to leave.

“MaKenna, I’m going to go meet the M boys around back, so we can try and leave first, alright? I’ll see you back at the complex.” Noelle grabbed my arm from the side. I waved to her, and watched her once again disappear into the crowd. I turned back to where BigBang was sitting, waving at the members and turning to leave.

“Wait,” a hand snaked around my wrist, causing me to stop. Exiting bodies weaved and pressed in around me, and for a moment, with a hand clamped around my wrist and the sound of a thousand conversations roaring in my ears, I felt trapped in the giant arena. I whirled around, coming face to face with G-Dragon.

I snatched my hand away from his grasp. Apparently, a little too forcefully, since he glanced down at his now empty hand with the smallest fraction of shock on his face. He wasn’t much bigger than me, and the heels I wore put me just a few inches above him. His deep, tanned skin and chocolate eyes contrasted intensely with his bright orange hair and white teeth, which were showing immensely now that he was smiling at me.

“Come have a drink with me,” he said, full of confidence. I raised my eyebrow, questioning this man whom I’d just met.

“I have somewhere to be. My boys are waiting for me,” I said briskly, turning to go. I actually needed to find Chanyeol and Kai, who were supposed to wait for me before we headed back to the SM complex.

“I think the EXO boys will be able to handle themselves just fine without you for an hour or two. Come on, my group just won one of the biggest music awards given. I need a beautiful girl to celebrate with.” He was still smirking, and I was finding it very hard to resist the way his bangs flopped down perfectly into his eyes, making him look younger then what he actually was.

“No,” I replied.

“Please,” he kept begging. I crossed my arms, giving him a look that dared him to keep begging me to go along. “My band has already left me to celebrate on their own. I’m all alone, unless you come out with me. I know a great private bar we can go to.”

“You’re charming, you know that? I’m tempted to actually accept your invitation,” I said, glancing at my phone. I panicked a little when I saw that I had four missed calls and three text messages from Kai alone, and Chanyeol’s count was double that.

“I think you should accept my invitation. What do you have to lose?” G-Dragon asked, raising his eyebrow and running his tongue along his teeth.

I thought about it for a few seconds, leaving his unanswered question hanging between us. The arena was slowly clearing out, leaving just the two of us near our section.

“One drink, that’s it,” I said, finally.

“You’re not going to regret it,” he said, grabbing my hand. I was nervous about going out alone with BigBang’s leader, but I’d also heard nothing but great things about the group. Not to mention I was a bit of a fan of them, and I was even a little exhilarated to be going out the infamous leader.

“So, have I got to call you G-Dragon throughout my drink?” I asked as we made our way towards the exit. I sent a quick text to Chanyeol, telling them not to wait and that I would be back later than expected.

“Of course. That is my name, after all,” he laughed at my confused look and shook his head. “I’m just kidding. My name is Kwon Jiyong.”

“I’m MaKenna,” I replied.

“It’s very nice to meet you.” Jiyong laughed, bowing playfully towards me as we made it outside of the arena and into a parked cab. He gave the driver the address, and leaned back into his seat. Our drive was silent, consisting of me staring out the window of the cab as Seoul passed by. I was a little in love with the city, and any chance to get out of SM’s complex was a thrilling experience for me.

“We’re here,” Jiyong said, jumping out of the cab after handing the driver the won we owed. He held the door open for me as I slid towards his side and stepped out of the cab onto the curb. We walked quickly inside the glassed in bar, keeping our heads down. This form of disguise wasn’t even technically necessary, but it had become instinct for me any time I went out with EXO, and obviously it’d become that way for Jiyong as well.

“What’s your poison?” The bartender asked as we got settled into the stools. The whole place was washed in blue light and glass, giving it an ice-like appearance. The ambiance was appealing, and even though there were other people in the place, it was clear that the high end bar was only for the highest paying consumers.

“Tequila and tonic, please,” I said. The bartender took Jiyong’s order before disappearing to fix our drinks.

“So, tell me about the musical genius that I’ve heard so much about,” I said, placing my chin in my hand and glancing over at him. He smirked kindheartedly before shaking his head.

“I’m not a musical genius, no matter what the magazines say. I’m merely doing what I love, and sometimes I’m halfway decent at it.” The bartender placed our drinks before us, and I took a large swig before replying.

“Seriously? That’s what you’re going for? No offense, but you’re a genius. The boys talk about you all the time. They love you.”

“Oh, really? I’m quite the fan of EXO myself,” he laughed.

“I’m serious. I basically know all of your songs and everything about you just because of them.”

“You know everything about me?” He asked with a smirk, raising his eyebrows suggestively. I took another large swig of alcohol, letting the burn in my throat overshadow Jiyong’s irresistible smirk.

“Something like that,” I said, not managing to look back at him. I could hear him chuckling and taking a sip of his own drink.

“Another, miss?” The bartender asked, motioning towards the glass I had clutched in both my hands. I glanced down, realizing the cup was absent of all the amber colored liquid I’d ordered. I sighed, shaking my head.

“I really should be going.” Jiyong placed his hand on my arm, preventing me, gently, from getting up.

“You’re really going to leave me here to drink alone?” he asked, his chocolate eyes searching my face. I sighed again, placing my hand over his.

“I’m not the best drinker, and you don’t want to have to deal with a drunkard,” I said, realizing I didn’t actually want to leave Jiyong at all, much less so I could make the journey back home alone. It was a sudden feeling, most likely brought on by the alcohol I’d consumed.

“I’ll take care of you,” he smirked, and I found my heart fluttering in my chest, much to my disgust. Jiyong motioned for the bartender to bring me another. “Also, one more drink won’t kill you.”

I sighed and settled back in to my seat, the promise of more alcohol dulling my need to go home. "I guess it won’t hurt me that much.”

Three more drinks later, I was very tipsy, and in need of a bathroom. Jiyong led me towards the ladies room, making sure I didn’t topple over in my heels. The tequila made my head feel fuzzy, like everything was coated in a layer of felt. I was hyperaware of Jiyong’s arm wrapped around my waist, and my body pressed closely into his.

“I had five tequilas,” I giggled, covering my mouth with my hand. “What’s wrong with me?”

“Nothing’s wrong with you,” Jiyong said, opening the ladies room door for me. I ventured in alone, relieving myself and washing my hands in what seemed to take hour.

“I think you’re really cute,” I slurred, taking Jiyong’s hand in mine. He chuckled, leading me towards the exit. “Like, I think you’re really cute.”

“Can you not speak Korean when you’re drunk?” Jiyong asked, his own English heavily accented. Before that moment, I hadn’t even realized I’d switched my languages.

“English is so much easier when everything is so fuzzy,” I groaned, grabbing my head as Jiyong hailed a cab. “I could speak Spanish for you, but that ability went away two drinks ago.”

When the cab finally pulled up to the curb, Jiyong helped me in and gave the driver a new address. "Where are you taking me now?”

“Back to my place,” he replied.

I narrowed my eyes, reaching instinctively towards the door handle. “I knew this was your plan. I need to get out of here right now!”

“Hey, I’m not going to try anything, I promise. I’ll take the couch, and let you lock yourself in my bedroom for the rest of the night. I just wouldn’t feel right taking you back to SM in your state. Hell, I don’t feel comfortable sending you there sober, but much less drunk.” Jiyong said, pulling my wrist gently away from the door.

“Ughhh, talk in English. You’re hurting my head,” I complained, grabbing my ears, where his Korean words were bashing inside.

“My English isn’t very good,” he said back, but he spoke my language anyway. We made it to his apartment without any problems, and he immediately showed me into his bedroom, which was huge, spacious, and full of vibrant colors. Exactly what you’d expect from someone as vibrant as Jiyong.

“Here’s advil, water, and some hot tea for you. Hopefully you’ll sober up a little soon, and won’t have such a terrible hangover in the morning.” Jiyong brought a tray in to the room and set it on the side table. He pulled a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt out of his dresser, laying it on the bed beside where I was sat. “Those are for you to sleep in, you just have to lock the door once I leave.”

“Thank you,” I said, pulling the clothes from their folded position and heading towards the bathroom to change. I heard him leave the room, and once I’d pulled on his clothes, I made my way towards the side table to swallow the advil and hot tea he’d provided. I could already feel the hot liquid settling in my stomach, and just a little bit of the dizziness had subsided. I was a little bit more aware of how awkward and astonishing my situation was by the minute.

I settled in to Jiyong’s large bed, suddenly engulfed by the scent of him, which hadn’t hit me fully until that moment, dressed in his clothing and cocooned in his sheets. It was a spicy scent, and sent my head into more dizziness.

As I listened more closely, I could hear him rummaging around in his living room. I tossed and flopped onto my side, but it was clear I was nowhere near sleepy. My mind was racing, trying to wrap itself around the fact that I was actually here, laying in the G-Dragon’s bed. But more prominently, my mind keep replaying the feeling of his hand wrapping itself around my waist; the way his smirk tugged up one corner of his mouth and made his eyes twinkle.

Before I even realized what I was doing, I’d made my way to his bedroom door and entered the living room, where Jiyong was settled on the couch, wearing nothing but a pair of sweat pants. My breath hitched just a fraction in my throat, taking in the sight of his tanned skin detailed in the slightest bit of muscles and tattoos.

“Are you okay?” His brow creased in concern. I quickly made my way over to where he sat, leaning over him.

“I couldn’t sleep,” I mumbled, glancing down at him.

“Do you need me to… uh… get anything for you?” he asked, staring up in to my eyes. He was still speaking English for me, and his mumbling made his accent even thicker.

I stared at his face, my gaze travelling away from his deep chocolate eyes to his mouth. I spoke in Korean, my voice heavy from the atmosphere in the room. “Kiss me.”

Jiyong hesitated, his own gaze lingering on my lips. I could still feel traces of tequila pulsing through my veins, making me a lot braver than I would usually have been. I slowly poked the tip of my tongue through my mouth, running it along my bottom lip slowly.

Jiyong groaned, suddenly grabbing my face in his hands and crushing his lips on mine. His overwhelming scent surrounded me, even stronger than when I was in his bed. His lips molded in to mine, making my heart thump noisily in my chest.

I was aware of nothing but Jiyong’s lips pressed deliciously against mine, his hand threading its way in my hair. He stood up suddenly, never breaking our kiss. At this height, he was taller than I, and his mouth pressed aggressively down on mine as his other hand gripped my cheek.

I fisted a handful of his orange hair, tugging on the roots gently. Jiyong groaned lowly into my mouth, pushing his tongue past my lips to entwine with mine. I ran my other hand down the length of his chest, brushing past the ink that was permanently embedded there; feeling the faint outlines of his abdominal muscles etched into his chest.

“We should stop,” he said huskily, his mouth still pressed into mine. I shook my head, pulling his head closer to mine.

“Please don’t,” I begged, tugging on his bottom lip with my teeth. He moaned, clearly battling ideas inside his head. The battle only lasted a second, before he lifted me up by the waist. I wrapped my legs around him, clinging to him closely as he continued to kiss me.

I wasn’t aware that he’d brought me into his bedroom until I felt the silkiness of his sheets beneath me. Jiyong hovered over me, moving his mouth from my lips down to my jawline. He continued to my neck, nipping at the tendon that stuck out as I turned my head.

Suddenly, I was extremely, uncomfortably hot. I panted, pushing Jiyong away just a tiny bit; enough to rip away the t-shirt he’d only just given me to put on. He sucked in a sharp breath, staring down at my exposed chest. Just as quickly, I unhooked my bra and threw it to the side.

Jiyong roughly grabbed me, running his hands up and down my sides before finally finding a permeant stopping point. Suddenly, without thinking, I twisted my legs around until I’d managed to quickly flip him over on to his back. I straddled his waist, proud of the smirk I’d caused to grace his lips.

I kissed down his chest, paying special attention to the large words written down his right side, and the two ‘X’s etched above his navel. He groaned loudly as my mouth travelled the length of his body, running his hands once again through my hair. I smiled smugly against his skin, outlining the waistband of his sweats with the tip of my finger.

Eventually, Jiyong managed to flip me back over under him, while simultaneously managing to remove both of our remaining clothing pieces. I was so hot and cold all over, my body against his felt as though I was drowning in a lake of fire and ice. Everywhere his fingers were placed, my skin responded by bursting in a ripple of chills and excitement.

Jiyong took his time, nipping and sucking at my flesh, driving me absolutely wild. Nothing about us was hurried, and yet everything seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye. I stared into his beautiful, striking eyes as he brought me closer and closer to him, feeling as though there would never be any other people in the world besides us.

Jiyong entered me swiftly, pushing inside and letting me adjust for only a brief moment. I relished in the way he felt, the pressure he provided so deliciously, as he stayed still inside of me. I heard small curses, some English and some Korean, spill from his plump lips as he began to drag himself out, to the tip, and then crash back inside of me. I was too focused on staring into his eyes to bother emitting anything more than a small whimper.

His body moved in sync to mine, bringing me up and then back down. He snaked his arms around me, switching our position so that I was sitting in his lap. He arms moved up and down my back, pulling me closer than possible while I cradled his cheeks in my hands, steadily placing unaimed kisses on his exposed flesh.

I was on fire, everywhere. Every nerve ending felt as though my nerves were trying to burst from my skin. I felt weightless, and yet heavy at the same time. I was soaring, flying closely to the sun, growing hotter and hotter. I barely felt Jiyong’s skin against my own as I burned and burned, finally bursting into full flames. My nerves seemed to sever their connection to every inch of my body, and suddenly, there was nothing. No sun, no bedroom, no Jiyong. I was simply floating in a sea of bliss and happiness, icy blood rushing to every crevice in my body in an attempt to cool me down. His release was fiery against my cool skin, he’s moans and curses into my neck like music.

Jiyong swiped a few beads of sweat from my upper lip, cradling me closely into his chest as he fitted the sheets around us. The clock read only an hour ahead, but I felt as if Jiyong and I had escaped Earth for years, only to find ourselves back on the planet in a bed of silk. My body felt so heavy, and I drew myself closer towards Jiyong’s chest as I let the heaviness, finally, take me under.

#g-dragon #g-dragon scenario #kwon jiyong #kwon jiyong scenario #jiyong #jiyong scenario #big bang #big bang scenarios #g-dragon x oc

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clevernewdimension · 7 years

Text

Inhumans Part Three

Parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five

Genre: A/U, Angst, Violence, Fluff, Romance, more in the future. Blood and torture warning.

Pairing: Yixing x Reader

Word Count: 4.7k

Summary: Inhumans are people born with powers, feared by most all over the world. Inhumans are often killed before the age of three or kept locked up and tested on. EXO is a rogue group of Inhumans who broke free and are now looking to free fellow Inhumans as well as get justice for their kind. However, with their powers come limitations. With these limitations, they sometimes need a helping hand.

The next two weeks were pretty bland. Yixing was avoiding me at all costs, I assumed it was because of guilt. The only time I saw him was when I took his stitches out, but he wouldn’t even look at me. Before I could try to talk to him, he was pulled away by Jongdae for something important. ‘Planning about the next move’, whatever that meant. Jongdae seemed to sense that I wasn’t happy, since he did pat my shoulder and told me ‘he’ll get out of his own head eventually’. I got the feeling that he does this often. Everyone got so busy that the only times I saw them were at breakfast and dinner, which were pleasant. The only two people who kept by me consistently were Baekhyun and Jongin.

In the day when everyone was busy, I walked around the place. Few rooms filled with weapons, a basement that was locked, few other rooms that were like living rooms, with a tv and things like that. One particularly adventurous day, I climbed up the stairs in the clock tower, only to be met with a locked door.

From my adventuring, I noticed that the reason they didn’t eat meals in the huge student dining room was because it was made into a training area. Jongin told me it was because the gym of the school was a building over and the roof was unstable. So they took all they wanted out of it and put it there. Baekhyun insisted that it was rather comical since the exact moment they finished, the roof finally caved in.

I found myself there some days, in workout clothes running on one of the five treadmills that were there. I didn’t necessarily like running, but since I wasn’t allowed to leave, this was the only way I’d get my body moving. The room had stereotypical gym items. Weights, work out machines, punching bags. The other half, however, looked like cross between a parkour dream and a gymnast's fantasy. Tons of stuff to jump on, climb and swing from. It went from the floor all the way to the ceiling. There were balance beams, a huge trampoline that looks like the kind they have at the Olympics. In the center of the room there was a wrestling mat, separating the two sides.

A wrestling mat that was currently being used.

“What’s the point,” Sehun pouts, looking up at Minseok who had, for the seventh time in a row, forced him to the ground.

The older man laughs, “Sehunnie, you’re getting better. I used to be able to throw you around like you were a noodle. Now you’re actually a bit of a challenge... like an uncooked noodle now.”

Sehun sits up, giving his hyung a playful glare, “Besides Kyungsoo and his super strength, you’re the strongest member, so I hardly see why you make me embarrass myself my wrestling.”

Laughter fills the air, “Well, to be far, I’m fairly certain that Baekhyun is the weakest member now.”

Sehun crosses his arms, “Hyung, that’s not really a compliment, since Baekhyun hyung probably couldn’t even rip wet paper.”

I stop the treadmill as they both are laughing from what Sehun said. I try to leave the room quietly, attempting not to disturb them any longer. As I got to the door, a gust of wind rushes past me and shuts it. Turning back, I see Sehun with a smirk.

“Did you really think you’re walking out of here that easily,” He says, his arms crossed.

I sigh, walking back towards them, sitting on the edge of the mat. “What is it that you want?”

“Nothing really,” He says, standing up.

Minseok hits him on the arms, “Sehun. Be kind.”

Sehun pouts, “I’m just treating her like I treat all of you.”

Minseok ignores him, “Do you know how to fight, y/n?”

“Well,” I say, “I know weak spots on the body. Actually hitting them effectively is a different story altogether.”

Sehun smirks, “So what you’re saying is that there are now two people here I could beat at wrestling?”

“Sehun, don’t be proud of that, she has literally no fighting experience. If you didn’t win that would be an embarrassment!” Minseok gives him a glare. He looks at me, with a smile, “You’re probably like your Mom then. More of a lover than a fighter.”

“Well,” I say, opening my water, “That’s why we both went into medicine in the first place.” I take a sip of my water, wiping the sweat from my forehead.

“So all I’m hearing is that it’s Kyungsoo hyung, Minseok hyung, then either Junmyeon Hyung or Yixing Hyung, Which who knows since they’ve always been back and forth. Then Chanyeol hyung, Jongin hyung or Jongdae hyung, Me, Baekhyun hyung, and them Y/n,” He says, before running a hand through his hair. He puts a hand on his chin, “Actually you’d probably be able to beat Baekhyun hyung…”

“What are you talking about,” I ask.

“How strong everyone is,” Minseok explains, “Baekhyun isn’t a fighter, so if you two fought, who knows what would happen-”

“They’d probably stop and have tea or something in the middle of the match,” Sehun mutters.

Minseok shakes his head at Sehun, “It’s a bit of a matter of pride around here for those of us who are not Kyungsoo. I’ve been helping Sehun, and he’s getting better. I think he could beat maybe Chanyeol, but we’d have to have another wrestling tournament to find out.”

“Hyung,” Sehun says, “Um… we should probably teach her how to fight. Since we dragged her into all of this, if something happens, she should probably know how to defend herself…”

“That’s true,” Minseok agrees, “We’ll have to talk about it. I’ll bring it up at dinner tonight.”

Sehun smirks, turning to me, “Go on. Hit me.”

“What? Why,” I ask, shaking my head. “Why would I hit you? I don’t want to hurt you!”

“Please don’t take this the wrong way,” Minseok says, before he shrugs. “Well… you don’t look like you could hurt anyone. Even Baek.”

I pout, glaring at Sehun. “Where?”

He turns, pointing at his left arm, “Have a go, and at least try to make it hurt. Don’t curl-”

“My fingers around my thumb, I know,” I said, getting up. Standing to his side, put my fists up, “I’m a doctor, I’ve treated idiots who’ve fought before.” I let out a deep breath, twisting my body. I swing my fist with momentum and it hits his upper arm. My fingers hurt, as I pull my hand away after Sehun barely even moved. “Ow!”

“So, how was it,” Minseok questions, looking over at Sehun’s arm, “Looks like there could be a bruise there soon. A little one, though.”

“Little because her fists are so tiny, like her,” Sehun counters, smiling playfully.

“Hey,” I mutter, “Really? Height jokes? Ugh.”

“Honestly,” Sehun begins, ignoring what I said. “That stung quite a bit. Better than I expected. Be a lot better if your stance wasn’t all fucked up, but you’ve got potential.” He crosses his arms and smirks, “Though, I’d suggest that if you want to be at least a little intimidating, try not to say ‘ow’ after punching someone.”

“Maybe this’ll help,” Minseok says, placing his hand where I hit Sehun.

“Hyung no,” Sehun whines, “Stop, you’re so cold!”

In a puff of smoke, Jongin appears, looking around. He was in all black, from his jacket to his shoes. They normally wear all black if they were out raising some chaos, as it’s easier to hide in the middle of the night. His hair was all in his face and drenched, dripping. His eyes land on me, “Y/N, we need your help!”

“What happened,” I panic, “Is Yixing hurt again?”

“No, oh no, not that” He replied, seeming a bit apprehensive. “Um… you’re needed for your power, actually.”

“No,” Sehun says, the playful smile fallen off his face almost instantly. “Are you talking about the man in the basement that we’ve brought in yesterday? Don’t drag her into that!” He walks over, putting himself between be and Jongin. His back taking up all of my view.

“We need to know if what he’s saying is real or not,” Jongin argues back, “I know… I know it’s bad but if we’re going to risk our necks on this then we need to make sure it’s the truth.” He looks over to Minseok as he walks over, “Hyung, please.”

“I agree with Sehun,” He states, his voice colder than before. “Once she sees THAT, she’ll never be able to unsee it. She’ll hate it, you know that.”

“You don’t know that hyung,” Jongin argues back. “She isn’t weak like some of you all think!”

I roll my eyes, “SHE can also speak for herself!”

“You see,” Jongin says, pointing. “Besides, it’s someone who is connected to her mother’s killer.”

Everything else falls away as the three men before me continue to argue. I tighten my hands into fists, feeling tears form in my eyes. I get tunnel vision as memories of my mother and I flash in my mind. If it’ll help them, I’d want to do it. If it help find my mother’s killer, then I’d absolutely want to help. “Take me,” I say, my voice void of all emotion.

Minseok looks at me, “Y/N, are you sure? Because this will change you forever if you see this and It’s not a decision that should be taken ligh-”

Before he finishes, I was teleported away. The room was dingy and some of the lights flickered. The walls were unpainted cement blocks, completely bare with some missing bits and pieces. To the left was a table with items and weapons, some of them completely drenched in blood. I move my eyes and see a man tied to a chair, bruised and bloodied with his hands bound behind his back. His hair was red, as red as the blood coming from his lip and other cuts from the body. There was a drain under him, and a steady stream of blood and water fell, screaming this echoing sound that filled the air. There was a portable blow torch to the side, and a man with his back facing me, who held a metal rod to the flames. It was glowing a bright orange color. He was wearing dark jeans, running shoes and a white tank top, all of which was completely covered in blood.

“Please stop,” the man in the chair begs, his voice hoarse from screaming. “I have a family, would you really take a father away from their kids?!”

“Why should I care, you helped to take a mother away from her daughter,” the man with his back to me responds, running his hand through his black hair. A chill runs up my spin, recognizing the voice, but not the anger and hatred that came from it.

I found my voice, it was very tiny in comparison to the rest of the noise in this room. “He’s lying.”

The man in the chair looks over at me. Bile rushes up, but I manage to hold it off for now. He glares at me, “No I’m not, you cunt! You couldn’t pos-” He stopped talking and started screaming as the bright metal was placed in the middle of his chest. The man in the chair screamed in agony and when the metal was removed, some cooked skin came with it. The smell was absolutely vile and his screams pierced my ears.

I, once again, fought off the urge to vomit that burned the back of my throat. Blood and gore, I was use to. I wasn’t use to torture and seeing someone I know as a kind individual doing the torturing.

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Yixing threatens, a glare on his face so dark and dangerous, it even scared me a bit. There was specks of blood on his face, dried and fresh. He looked like a completely different person. He turns, look at Jongin with that same glare. His voice was dark and deep, “I told you not-”

“You were getting nowhere,” Jongin explains, before disappearing in a puff of smoke once more.

Yixing shakes his head, turning to look at the man, not even daring to look at me. He places his hand on the man's arm, and I watch as all his wounds heal as if time is sped up. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was perfectly healthy once more.

It made sense, now that I think about it, to have Yixing torturing someone. If someone didn’t want the person they were trying to get information out of to die, they would have to stop after a while and go easy on them. If you could just heal them instantly, the torturing never has to stop.

The man glares at Yixing, “I told you, I have no more information to give you.”

The warm cloud hit me once more. My mind feeling like someone placed a blanket over it. “He’s lying.”

The man glares at me, his eyes wide with hate... it’s unsettling.

“I knew it,” Yixing says, placing the metal in the torch's flame once more, setting it down, taking off the glove we wore to protect himself from the residual heat. Yixing purposely moved slowly, showing that he could do this all day and patiently wait as he kept searching for answers. He picks up a knife from the table, crouching down to look up at the man. “Tell me. Who hired your men to kill Nayeon,” His words dripping with so much hatred it was unsettling. All traces of the kind man I know weren’t there. Just coldblooded disgust.

“Why does it matter,” He says, “He said he just wanted her gone to see if we can get the fucking job done like he wanted. It was a practice run to see if he wanted to use us again for the future. He said he just picked someone at random from the street.”

I closed my eyes, trying to block out the smell and what was happening before me. My stomach was rolling, it was hard to keep everything in my stomach down as I spoke, so I only said a word. “Lying.”

A scream echos in the room, piercing my mind. Taking a deep breath, opening my eyes. I see that Yixing stabbed him in the thigh, his knife resting there.

“What are you,” The man screams at me, “Some Inhuman freak just like these guys?!”

A fist slams into his face, snapping his head to the side. “You’re talking to me,” Yixing growls, “And I said NOT to talk to her like that.” He twists the knife, making the man scream out once more.

“Who cares,” He bellows, “She was nobody! No one even knows she was killed because we covered it up so well! Hell, no one even noticed she was missing for days! All the while screaming for help from you all and someone named ‘Y/N’! Apparently you freaks and Y/N didn’t care enough to go looking for-”

My feet moved on my own. I was a few feet away, then I was standing in front of him, my left fist aching as he yelled out in shock. Before I could hit him again, clouded over in rage, I feel a hand grab the fist I was about to swing at him.I turn, seeing soft brown eyes looking into mine.

Yixing shook his head, and, for the first time since I entered this room, his eyes were the soft caring ones I knew. “Stop,” He murmured, “I can’t let you… you can’t become that. Please.”

I lowered my fist, gulping as my throat was suddenly dry. I look at the man in the eye, “Who. Did. It.”

“You know what,” He says, “Fuck it. He has his own force of Inhumans protecting him. You’ll never touch him. Kim Hyunshik.”

I knew the name. He is a wealthy businessman who makes money off his Inhuman testing facilities. Hypocrite at it’s finest.

Yixing looks at me as if none of this is happening, like he’s waiting to hear what’s been decided for dinner. Full of worry.

“Truth.”

He nods, “Finally.” He turns, walking to the table, looking for something. Probably something to finish the job with. He knows where this is, so they can’t just let him go, after all “You should leave,” Yixing says, “You shouldn’t have to see this part.”

I turned, looking at him, before I sigh. I knew he’d say this, and truthfully I’m thankful. I don’t think I could stomach watching anyone die… or watching him kill. I hear movement behind me, and before I could turn, I feel an arm pull me close against a hard chest and a knife at my neck. I gasp, “Yixing!”

He turns, his eye widen. He takes another bladed weapon off the table. A look of pure loathing on his face, “Let. Her. Go.”

The man behind me laughs, “Do you really thing I’m so fucking stupid? We did recon, you know. We know that this,” He says, dragging the blade against my skin to form a thin cut, “Is her daughter, Y/N. We also know she is Inhuman. I also know I won’t make it out of here alive unless I do something drastic. Now, you let me go, or she will die. Be a shame, since she’s pretty, in a freakish kind of way.”

“Do you really think you’d get that far,” Yixing questions, glaring at him. His whole body tense, completely rigid but ready to move in a moments notice. He takes a step closer to us, “One of my brothers could be outside right now.”

“Stay away,” The man screams, pulling me closer. “We’re going to the door. If you move one inch, I’ll kill her. Throw your weapon to the ground.”

I close my eyes, trying to remain calm, “It’s… he’s not lying.”

That only made Yixing even angrier at the man. He complies instantly, dropping the knife and kicking it far away, a bitter look on his face. “Just don’t do anything you’ll regret. Don’t hurt her.”

The man and I inch closer to the door, this room was larger than I saw initially as now there was a good 10 meters between Yixing and the two of us, as we now reach the door. He opens it, I feel him chuckle. He looks back at Yixing, but leans down and whispers in my ear, “Look at that fool, how much he cares for you. He’s a fucking idiot, thinking that there was an outcome of this that would actually let you live.”

I didn’t feel any pain at first, because of the adrenaline and shock. I felt a pinching from just under right ear to the middle of my neck. He cut the carotid artery, as I see blood just shoot from me. My chest was warm, as the next second I watch him throw the knife at Yixing. He lets go of me and I fall to my knees, my hand reaching up to my throat, trying to stop it as I fall onto my side. My eyes fill with tears as the pain finally sets in. If I could have screamed, I would. The cut was so deep I feel my blood go down my own throat.

The next few seconds feel like decades. The man runs out the room, and I think I remember hearing Yixing yelling out. I turn onto my back, my eyes having trouble staying open.

I blink, and I see Yixing look at me. He looked at me with fear, his eyes tearing up. He then places his hand on my throat and the cool comfortable feeling washes over me. I reach up, touching his face, leaving a smear of blood from it’s path. I can breathe again, finally, though my breaths were quick and full of panic. “Yixing,” I cry out, before coughing up blood. The taste of copper in my mouth was strong. Tears falling from my eyes as he shakes his head. I wanted to tell him it’s ok, that I’m fine.

“Y/N,” He wailed, pulling me up and wrapping his arms around me, not caring that my blood was currently soaking the both of us. “Y/N, I’m so sorry,” He says, just holding me close. His arms tight around me, and I cried, terror still with it’s firm grip on me.

A few moments and I hear footsteps coming down the stairs beyond the door. “Yixing,” Minseok quaked, looking in. His eyes were wide with worry as he scans the room. He looks at us, the puddle of blood under me and all over the room, “What the fuck happened?”

Before either of us could answer, more people show up. “The man has been dealt with,” Sehun says before turning the corner. He looks down, and not a second later does Jongin and Baekhyun come too.

Yixing suddenly stands, pulling me up with him. “Are you ok? Can you stand?” I nod, tears still streaming from my eyes. Before I could thank him, he turns and glares at Jongin. He lets go of me, and in two short steps, the space between Yixing and Jongin is gone. In a flash, Jongin was sent back by the force of the punch that hit his face. His back meets against the hallway wall.

“What the fuck,” Jongin fumed, wiping blood from his bleeding nose.

“He got loose,” Yixing growls darkly, grabbing Jongin’s shirt and shoving him back against the wall, closing the space between them once more. “Because she was there, she was almost killed. All because you couldn’t have more fucking patience! What if I wasn’t there? What then? SHE WOULD HAVE DIED! HE SLIT HER FUCKING THROAT!”

“I’m sorry,” Jongin apologises, “Ok, I’m sorry! I didn’t know! This has never happened before, the people who go there usually stay there until you’re done with them! How did he get free?”

“I don’t care,” Yixing snarled at him. Slamming him back against the wall.

Jongin glared at the older man, “It’s not my fault YOU failed to keep her safe!”

I break myself out of the trance I was in, walking forward. I can’t let this happen any longer. I can’t let it escalate any further.

“Y/N” Sehun says, about to try to stop me, but Minseok grabs his arm, making him stay still. The older man gives the maknae a look, making the youngest stay put.

I place my hand on Yixing’s arm. They both looked at me, their gazes softening at me. “I forgive him.”

“What?”

I looked at Yixing, “I said, I forgive Jongin. So stop. Now. I made the decision to come here. I made the decision to get closer to him. I made the decision to STAY after I was teleported there.” I cross my arms trying to desperately keep my voice still and even, failing miserably. “So, if you want to blame anyone, you can either blame me or the man who did it.”

“Well, Minseok hyung froze him as he was going down the stairs,” Sehun says, “So, well, let’s just say all three of you can each have a piece of him to blame.”

The air was still tense as Baekhyun puts an arm around my shoulder to comfort me. Everyone was looking between me and Yixing.

Jongin smiles at me, “Um, I think it’s best if Yixing and I talk this out… alone.”

“Wait,” I start, but then they both vanish in thin air.

Baekhyun sighs, “Well, let’s get you cleaned up, Noona.”

Baekhyun, Sehun and Minseok all stayed close to me as get myself sorted. They waited in the bathroom as I showered and changed, telling stories about one another, trying to give me a sense of normalcy. I held myself together, barely, as they attempted to be a distraction for me for the next few hours.

At dinner, Minseok informed everyone what happened.

“So that’s why Jongin and Yixing are missing,” Junmyeon mutters, rubbing his temples. He glances over at me, “I’m glad you’re ok, though. Is the man gone?”

“After Minseok hyung froze him, I had to carry the pieces out,” Kyungsoo explains. He smiles, looking at the eldest, “You did a real number on him.”

“What we were working on didn’t go too well either,” Chanyeol complains loudly, “Today has been pretty shit all around!”

Minseok shrugs, “I suppose you could say today really fell apart.”

Junmyeon laughed, making everyone else groan out. Jongdae claps Minseok’s shoulder, “Hyung, I love you like a brother but these lame jokes need to stop.”

After a few minutes, I manage to slip out of the room relatively unnoticed. Walking away from the dinning room, I pretty much bump into Jongin, who’s sporting a black eyes and a split lip.

“Jongin,” I say, looking at his face, “Did he-”

“That was from what you saw in the hall, he didn’t hit me anymore after,” He explains, holding his hands up in defence. “Though he did refuse to heal my face, which sucks, but I suppose that’s what I deserve.”

“Jongin, I’m so sorry,” I explain, looking down to the ground.

He shakes his head, “Don’t be. Yixing was right, I should have waited. He’s always gotten the information we needed from people. I just should have trusted him.”

“Good,” I said, “Because now I can do this.” I swing my arm back and hit him like I did Sehun, putting my full power behind it.

“Ow,” He exclaims, “What was that for?”

“Stop acting, I know I didn’t hurt you,” I yell. “I can’t believe you’d say that to Yixing!”

He shakes his head at me, “What exactly are you angry at me for?”

“About him failing to protect me,” I yell, shoving him. “He already feels so guilty about my mother and then you go and say that shit! I’m only alive BECAUSE of him! He’s been avoiding me for two weeks because of that, and now he probably won’t ever speak to me again!”

“I’m sorry,” He sighs, running a hand through his messy hair. “Yixing doesn’t get angry a lot, so when he does… you know you’ve screwed up. This all could have been avoided if I waited, and I’m sorry. I’m sorry that happened to you.” He looks up at me, a small grin on his face, “You could go talk to him. He’s expecting me to bring him some food since I said I would, so he’ll open his door.”

I nod, “But… um… where is his room?”

A few moments later after ending the discussion with Jongin, telling him I meant what I said when I told him I forgave him, I find myself staring at a metal door. The air was colder in the clock tower as I try to settle my nerves. Finally building up the courage, I knock on the door. I lace my hands together, behind my back, playing with my fingers as I hear footsteps from the other side.

“Jongin,” He asks, “I thought you’d be lazy and just teleport here.” The handle of the door shifts as it begins to open. “You hate climbing all these st…”

I look up at his surprised face, seeing him completely clean with wet hair. I quickly step into the room so he couldn’t shut me out. “So… uh, this is what’s up here.”

He didn’t say anything, so I turned to look back at him. He was wearing black sweatpants and a grey tank, looking like he was going to rest or sleep soon. He was tense the moment he saw me, trying not to look in my eyes. I felt awkward, like I’m invading his personal space, but I knew if I didn’t do this now, he’d make it very difficult to do this later.

He finally looks at me, but not directly “Y/N, I don’t thi-”

“No,” I say, my voice as hard as stone. “You’re not going to try to convince me not to talk to you, you’re going to listen to me and not push me away,” I demanded, trying to look confident. “You’ve avoided me for weeks, you’re not doing that this time!”

“I didn’t try to avoid you,” He mutters, looking towards the ground like a dejected puppy.

The second I feel the warm feeling in my head, I throw my hands in the air, furious. “You’re lying. Don’t lie to me, Yixing. Just talk to me. Please!”

A few moments of silence. It was uncomfortable and somehow deafening, as I stared at him and he looked to the floor. He sighs, shutting the door, before going over and sitting on his bed. He looks down at his hands, before looking up to me and finally meeting my eyes. His whole demeanor just screams broken.

“Alright,” He says calmly, “Let’s talk.”

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