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mikasimaginairyworld · 1 year

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The Umbrella Academy: Firecracker - Right Back Where We Started (11/30)

Umbrella Academy Masterlist

warnings: blood, murder, strangulation, mention of strip club, women in bikinis

word count: 3451

On April 1st, 2019, the earth was destroyed on a cataclysmic event. Billions of people were wiped out in a matter of minutes. Ironically, the seven survivors of the apocalypse were the ever siblings who brought it on.

Dallas, February, 1960. A striking blue light appeared in the sky over a small alleyway. A person and a ghost fell out of it. Klaus got up groaning heavily.

"Five! Diego! Nailah! Allison! Luther!", Klaus kept shouting at the blue light. But the electrical buzzing disagreed and so did the light.

Klaus was stranded.

"Where is everybody? Oh, they're gone. Gone like a fart in the wind. Poof.", Klaus whimpered.

"Just you. and me again, great. Where the hell are we?", he sighed at Ben.

"You mean when the hell are we.", Ben corrected as they left the alleyway and saw a very vintage looking city.

"Klaus! Get over here!", Ben shouted pointing at a discarded magazine. "Look."

"Yeah, I mean he's pretty my type, but I'd have to see him from the shoulders down.", Klaus picked up the magazine.

"The date, you idiot.", Ben sighed.

"Oh yeah. 1960. Shit."

Dallas, June, 1960. A striking blue light appeared in the sky over a small alleyway. Nailah fell out of it and rolled a few times. Groaning she got up looking around.

Nailah heard loud footsteps and immediately pressed herself against the wall. Two men ran inside the alleyway not realising she was there. One of the men violently pushed the other against the wall and began beating him. Before Nailah could help he pulled out a gun and shot the man. His lifeless body fell onto the street. The shooter turned around and spotted Nailah. He slowly approached her with a vicious smile off his face.

"Well, well, well. A little Miss. Wrong place, wrong time, I'm afraid, love. Any last words?", the man asked pointing a gun at her.

Nailah crooked her head and smiled creepily: "Say hi to the devil for me, will ya?"

Nailah kicked the man in the back of his knee with one leg jumping up. Swiftly, she raised the other in the air. and hit the wrist which was holding the gun, making the weapon fly away. Without leaving the man any time to react she twirled around, hitting him in the face. The man stumbled backwards panting heavily. He raised his fists protectively in a boxing stance.

Nailah chuckled: "That's cute." She twirled again, this time bending down and. putting all of her weight on one arm. Using her speed she threw a leg upwards and kicked the man in the ribs sending him flying against a wall. The impact of her kick as well as the clash with the wall broke the ribs of the man. Sharp bone spikes were catapulted into the lungs and heart. The man cried out in pain. Nailah approached him, barely even tired. Before she could deliver the last blow the man let out his last breath.

Nailah hid the gun in her pants and walked out of the alleyway into the night. She didn't get far before she realised she was surrounded. A small, fat man emerged in front of her. He took a hit from his cigar: "Miss, I am afraid you have killed my best hitman."

"Bad for him.", Nailah said balling her fists and sucked the heat from the air, ready to burn everyone in her proximity if they so much as twitched the wrong way.

The fat man laughed:"I like you. Don't worry, Miss, I have come to offer you a job. After all, I need a replacement. What do you say?"

Nailah relaxed and let the heat escape back into the air. "I'm listening.", she said. and the man smiled widely at her.

Dallas, June, 1961. A striking blue light appeared in the sky over a small alleyway. Allison fell out of it hitting the ground hard. Panicking, she saw the light disappear. Looking for help, she walked into a diner.

Everyone inside fell silent when they saw her. The owner pointed at a plate hanging above the counter.

WHITES ONLY.

Dallas, August, 1962. A striking blue light appeared in the sky over a small alleyway. Luther fell from it crashing a trash bin. in the process. He immediately got up looking for Allison but to no use. He ban yelling out her name, even a homeless man joined but Allison as nowhere to be found.

Dallas, September, 1963. A striking blue light appeared in the sky over a small alleyway. Diego landed on his feet, used to finding his balance even in the weirdest situations.

Diego heard someone call for help and immediately rushed. to the rescue. It. turned out to be a. woman who was being mugged. As soon as the attacker spotted Diego he began running away but Diego quickly pinned him to a pole using his knifes. He returned the purse to the woman and right as he was about to ask what date it was he spotted a television broadcasting Kennedy's speeches.

Dallas, October, 1963. A striking blue light appeared in the sky over a small alleyway. Vanya fell from it. Scared and confused she began running, trying to. escape whatever had sent her there. As soon as she reached the street a car hit her. Vanya was unconscious once again.

Dallas, November 1963. A striking blue light appeared in the sky over a small alleyway. Five was spit out of it. Confused her began calling his siblings' names hoping they weren't far away. But instead he only heard shots.

Walking out of the alleyway, Five spotted panzers rolling towards a battlefield and soldiers waving a soviet flag. Five stumbled towards a newspaper a newspaper that way lying around.

"Soviets attack US?", he asked himself confused reading the headline. "No, this can't be right."

"What the hell did we do now?", Five asked himself looking at the slaughter in front of him.

Behind him the panzer shot a small missile. The force send Five flying back. From the distance he spotted no other than Vanya shatter the missile with the pure power of her mind.

Next to her, Klaus gave dead soldiers a second chance to realise their revenge. Zombie-like materialised ghosts attacked the terrified soviet soldiers.

Luther jumped from a building, shielding Klaus from an incoming shot. Luther's guerrilla skin didn't even show a scratch from the huge bullet. The men nodded to each other and threw themselves into battle.

On a rooftop, Ben let his beast out, killing multiple enemy soldiers at once.

"Hey!", Allison shouted looking at a small group of soldiers. With her beautiful voice back, she told them: "I heard a rumour, that I blew your minds."

The gaze of the soldiers turned a milky white and in that second their heads exploded.

Nailah walked past another group of soldiers. As soon as they opened fire towards her she nonchalantly build up a fiery shield in front of her melting the bullets before they could reach her. She wanted until the soldiers were out of ammunition and let the wall of fire rapidly approach them. They tried to run away but the fiery doom reached them before they made even three steps. Nailah chuckled at their burned bones.

On a broken police car Diego looked down at the group of soldiers surrounding him. As they opened fire, Diego just jumped in the air, twisting and elegantly avoiding the bullets while simultaneously sending knifes their way. As he landed, all the surrounding soldiers were dead.

"Five! You sick son of a bitch, where the hell have you been?", Diego shouted as soon as he spotted his brother.

Five wanted to help his siblings but was stopped by no other than Hazel: "If you wanna live, come with me."

"Hazel. What the hell's going on here?"

"There's no time to explain. Those are nukes, old-timer.", Hazel said pointing at the sky were indeed nuclear bombs appeared.

"What about my family?", Five asked confused.

"You can't save 'em if you're dead."

Five took Hazel's hand and together they blitzed away leaving Five's siblings looking at the sky in horror.

"Okay. What the hell was that?", Five asked Hazel as soon as they arrived in another time.

"The end of the world. November 25, 1963.", Hazel said.

"'63...You know Hazel, I'm no history buff, but I don't recall there being a nuclear holocaust.", Five said looking around the still peaceful looking Denver.

"No shit.", Hazel scoffed.

"What about my family?", Five asked.

"Dead. Like everyone else."

"And where am I now?"

"Dallas. Same street. Ten days earlier. Plenty of time to restore the timeline and save them."

"Okay. So where do we start?", Five whispered.

"We? You're on your own, pal."

"What about the commission?", Five asked.

"I quit those assholes, remember? I don't owe 'em the fuzz off my peaches."

Five spotted a set of suspicious looking triplets with white hair approaching them: "Then who the hell are those guys?"

Hazel cursed and handed Five the briefcase he had been holding. Five blitzed away behind a car while the triplets began shooting killing Hazel instantly.

Five looked at the holes in the briefcase and sighed: "How many times did I say 'bulletproof briefcases'?"

He heard the triplets come his way and blitzed on the roof, successfully hiding from them until they disappeared. Five went back to the alleyway and spotted an elaborate machinery on the roof of a building. Curious, he blitzed inside and knocked on the door of the apartment.

"What do you want?", the owner asked peeking outside the door.

Five put his best fake smile on: "Hi, I'm selling encyclopaedias for my youth group. I was curious if..." The owner smelled the door in Five's face.

Five sighed and blitzed inside. The owner shrieked in fear when he saw Five appear in front of him. "How'd you do that?", he asked holing up a fork in front of him.

"Don't really have time to explain.", Five shrugged.

"You from the pentagon?"

"Definitely not."

"CIA? FBI? KGB?"

"Is that fresh?", Five asked pouring himself a cup of coffee that was standing on the table.

The owner started to panic again not understanding how Five could have teleported again.

"Is this Colombian?", Five asked after taking a sip.

"It's my own blend.", the owner said in a still trembling voice.

Five eyes the room which was filled with tons of newspaper articles, pictures, photos and search posters hung on the wall and scattered all over the furniture.

"You ever heard of uh... Area 51?", Five asked.

The man scoffed: "Hot damn! See, I always knew we weren't the only ones. See, Eleanor thought my head was screwed on tight, but it's all true, yeah? UFOs, crop circles..."

"Well, the truth is out there."

"No, no, no, no, no. The truth, it's right here in front of us.", the man approached Five. "Tell me, why is it always an anal probe?"

"Any closer and I'll mettle your brain.", Five announced with a smile.

The man immediately scooted away: "You need a little space, got it. I'll be over here."

"All those contraptions on the roof, you built those, right?", Five asked.

"Yeah, sure did. I've been tracking anomalies in the atmosphere. Just waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

"For you. For all of you.", Five scrunched his eyebrows at that. The man told him how since 1960 a total of 7 anomalies had occurred in the alleyway behind his house.

"Same thing, every time.", the man assured. "A bright blue light, then someone appears."

"Did you get a good look on any of them?

"Yeah the sensitive one."

"Sensitive?"

"Yeah, cried a lot, kept coming back to the alley, crying a woman's name. Allison. Oh and before that a creepy young lady. Killed a man within minutes. Couldn't even keep watching."

"Did she have a lot of hair?"

"Yeah, it was like a cloud surrounding her head."

"Nailah."

"She and another one were the only ones that never came back again. The others were looking for a each other for a time but soon gave up."

Five cursed: "I think I've stranded them here. Now listen to me..."

"Elliott. My name is Elliott."

"Whatever, all right? I got ten days to find them and save the world. Now, I need your help to do that."

Elliott stuttered but pulled out a mugshot from a drawer: "You know, I've alway thought this mugshot. looked a lot like arrival Number Five."

"Diego." , Five whispered.

"That helpful?"

"You have no idea.", Five said and blitzed away.

Dallas, November 1963: Cooper farm. Vanya still couldn't remember anything besides her name. But it didn't matter. She had a home here with Sissi and Harlan. And Carl, of course.

Somewhere near Dallas, November 1963: a road bar. Klaus entered the bar full of badass Texas men and walked straight to the bar.

"Woo-hoo. Exusez-moi, garçon. Any idea when the next bus to Dallas is coming?", Klaus asked.

"3 o'clock, sharp. Tomorrow."

"Hey, pretty boy. You wanna play a little poker while you wait?", a man asked.

"You know what, I would be delighted."

During the game the man proposed to up the stakes. Klaus glanced towards Ben who told him that the man was bluffing. Klaus agreed and bet his prized necklace and the man's pickup truck.

Smiling widely, the man revealed a full house. Klaus threw Ben a gloomy look but the ghost only chuckled. Revenge for Klaus' selfishness tasted sweet.

Klaus promptly just stole the man's key and ran towards the parking lot where he stole the truck and drove away towards Dallas.

Dallas, November 1963: a mental hospital. Diego hated this place so much. And he hated Five for trapping him here. Especially in this tight panic room. But he was going to escape. Hopefully without that annoying Lila.

Dallas, November 1963: Kupcinet residence. Nailah knew her stealth was impeccable. No one would even know she was there. Besides, the security measures of the 60s were an absolute joke.

There she was. Karyn Kupcinet. Sleeping. Beautiful but the absolute opposite of innocent. Or not. Nailah didn't know exactly. All she knew was that according to B, her boss, Karyn deserved death. Not that Nailah cared. She was just there to do her job.

Sighing heavily she slowly wrapped her cord around Karyn's throat. She squeezed and felt the life leave the actress' body. Nailah sighed again.

She hated her job.

Dallas, November 1963: Chestnut household. Raymond Chestnut came home happy. He quoted happily the news. His wife came down the stairs looking beautiful as ever. Allison finished the quote, having read the exact same article at least as often as her husband.

She looked at her handsome husband. Allison could find happiness in any timeline. But somehow she still needed to look at the moon every night.

Dallas, November 1963: the secret fighting pit. Luther had won, again. Of course he had, how could not have. He was a beast in the pit, Jack's best fighter, his champion.

"Attaboy.", Jack approved of the victory, ordering Luther to bring the car around.

"Hi, Luther.", the nicest dancer at the strip club greeted the giant Number One.

"Hey, Autumn. How's business?", he greeted his friend back.

"Still waiting for the big tippers to show up."

"Who's the half-wit bothering Mr. Ruby?", Luther asked seeing the annoyed expression Jack had painted on his face,

"No idea, but he's been putting away vodka gimlets like they're gonna run out of limes.", Autumn shrugged, her sparkly dress rustling at the motion.

"Oh yeah? He give you any trouble?", Luther asked.

"Not yet. But he's getting there.", Autumn smiled. "I'm more worried about the kid."

"What kid?"

"By the stage. I mean, he doesn't look like a total kid but I doubt that he's old enough to be here. When I told him we don't allow minors he asked me when I'm getting off work.", Autumn chuckled amused.

Luther spotted a dark haired very young boy sitting directly in front of the stage where a pretty woman was dancing seductively with a fan. Luther sighed heavily, suspecting who it had to be.

"She's too young for you.", Luther said leaning down to Five's level.

Five chuckled: "It's nice to see you too, Luther."

"What do you want?", Luther asked.

"For you to stop hovering like an ambitious stripper and sit down with me."

Luther sighed annoyed but obeyed. "How long have you been here?", Five asked.

The music stopped and the woman bowed, savouring the applause from the men at the club.

"A year. Thanks to you.", Luther answered.

A new dancer walked to the end of the stage with a confidence rarely seen.

"I'm sorry, Luther. I know that couldn't have been easy.", Five apologised.

The dancer had an unusually dark skin for the club but paired with the tight green panties and top, she looked absolutely amazing. The tone of the music changed from funky jazz to a slow ballet-like tune.

"I thought everyone was dead.", Luther said angrily.

The dancer began a seductive, sensual choreography with an elegance, fluidity and skill very rare for anyone, especially men's club dancers. Five's eyes darted to the figure stretching her legs in an impressive split.

Luther sighed: "I gotta go."

"Luther wait.", Five grabbed his arm, preventing him from walking away. "Look, I get it, okay. I know what it's like to be stuck in time, thinking this is how you're gonna live out the rest of your life. On the run, and not knowing if you're ever gonna see the people you love again, and to be in an unfamiliar world. But Luther, you're not alone. We have to find the others because. the world ends again in ten days. I have no idea how to stop it.", he said looking at Luther expectantly.

"I don't give a shit.", Luther said.

Five sighed annoyed, his head darting towards the stage.

Right then, the lights hit the dancer's face in the right way and Five could see her features.

"Is that...?", he whispered surprised.

"Luther, look!", he waved his brother back.

"Five, I told you I don't care...", Luther tried to shake his arm off.

"No, look, you big ball of protein.", Five interrupted annoyed motioning towards the stage with his head.

"Nailah?", Luther asked confused recognizing his sister.

"So that is her. Huh. You knew she worked here?", Five asked leaning back, observing Nailah's gracious moves.

Even in the scarce clothing and sensual music Nailah managed to make the dance more about the skill then her exposed skin.

"No, I didn't. We need to talk to her. She shouldn't be doing that.", Luther said.

"Huh.", Five only huffed.

In that moment Nailah's eyes spotted Five in the audience. For a split second, her pirouette stammered but she caught herself elegantly. Her eyes searched for. Five in the crowd again and when she found him, she.wasn't sure what she felt.

Happiness? Relief? Anger? Shame? Annoyance?

Annoyance most, probably. But she had to focus. She had a job to do. Nailah kept dancing, trying her hardest to ignore her brother.

Brothers. She soon realised. Luther was standing there was well. What was going on? Were all her brothers such disgusting jerks? Nailah shuddered in disappointment and lifted her leg too perform another pirouette.

"Why are her bottoms this wide?", Five suddenly asked.

"Five, it's disturbing enough that we're watching our sister dance half naked, we don't have to think about her measurements as well.", Luther said in a pained expression.

"I'm not that creepy, Luther. Look. Her bottoms are wider and stiffer on one side. She has something in there. A knife or... a gun.", Five said bringing his hand to support his chin.

"What?", Luther asked confused.

"Luther, big boy. I don't think our dear sister is a dancer here. I think she's here to kill someone.", Five said chuckling in awe at the evil smile Nailah threw his way.

-> Umbrella Academy Masterlist

#the umbrella academy #tua netflix #tua #umbrella acedmy #vanya hargreeves #allison hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #ben hargreeves #luther hargreeves #five hargreeves #nailah hargreeves #diego hargreeves #series #fanfic

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mirkwoodshewolf · 3 years

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Panther Princess; T’Challa x child reader

*Author’s note*

Well this was a LONG time in the making, not only cause of motivation and time schedule wise but I wanted to make sure I GOT THIS FIC RIGHT since this is my first time writing for T'Challa since Chadwick's death last year (MAY HE RIP OUR KING!!!). Hope you guys enjoy this, and I’ve decided that after a few Wattpad requests I’ll open requests up here on Tumblr but there will be some MAJOR adjustments to what fandoms I’ll do. For now just be patient with me and eventually I will open requests here on Tumblr, I just don’t want to be overwhelmed.

Warnings: Malnourishment. abuse, terrorists involved (no action but just the word), some fluff.

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things

@waddles03

@psychosupernatural

@ixchel-9275

@soy-guey

@queen-paladin

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels

______________________________________________________________

It was in the dead of night when T’Challa received word about some smugglers were traveling with some stolen Vibranium, and word has it that they were working for Klaue. Even though he had been dead, Klaue’s business was still running and forging deals with terrorists groups and anti-government parties.

Him and Okoye were flying over towards the drop-off point where the dealers were gonna be exchanging their latest steal of Vibranium.

“The dealers that Klaus’ second Lt. Rosko Lannister is selling the Vibranium to come from an Iranian terrorist group.”

“As usual we will let them make their business transaction before taking any further action. After dealing with the terrorist group and Lannister is ours, he will be put under the same crimes as we would’ve given Klaue.” T’Challa told Okoye. She nodded as the jet continued to fly towards their destination.

It was just before sunset when at an old, abandoned warehouse Rosko Lannister and some of Klaue’s old men waited for their clients to arrive. Soon enough driving in the black SUV’s and Honda trucks, the Iranian terrorist group came out of their cars. Most of them were soldiers holding their AK-47’s close to their chest while out of the head van, 3 men dressed in full 3 piece suits exited the car.

They looked exactly alike for these three men were actually brothers. Two of them were twins and the other was a year younger than his older twin brothers. Hasim, Sami, and Achmed Israeli were the three leaders of the biggest terrorist group in the world. There was even record shown that they made deals with HYDRA back in the day. Mostly smuggled weapons and potential serums for super soldiers.

After the fall back in 2014 when both SHIELD and HYDRA were exposed, the brothers decided to go underground and disappear under the radar. The US and European governments have been trying to find them ever since but they are too clever and can easily cover their tracks both physically and wirelessly.

“The Israeli brothers. I can’t tell you how honored I am to be doing business with you.” Rosko praised.

“We didn’t come for praises. We came for the Vibranium. Do you have it?” the oldest twin brother Sami demanded.

“Getting down to business. That was one thing my former associate Klaue always appreciated. God rest his soul.” Rosko kissed his finger before raising them upward. “Nah I’m just kidding he was an arsehole, I’m actually glad he’s dead.” He changed his tune.

“The Vibranium. Do you have it or not!?” demanded the younger twin Hasim.

“Patience Hasim. Let the white man talk.” Sami eased his brother. Rosko turned to one of his guys and nodded. His left hand man let out a whistle and soon two men come carrying in a large box that was filled with the stolen Vibranium that Klaue had stowed away for himself.

The men set it down before the brothers and Achmed opened the case up to reveal the Vibranium they were looking for. A small smirk came across Sami’s face and he said.

“Excellent. The most powerful material in the universe.”

“It did come at personal cost from Klaue, better him than me. It’s worth billions. Hope you also kept your end of the deal. This transaction is only fair if both parties agree.” Hasim smirked cunningly and turned to his general.

He nodded and exclaimed in Muslim and before Rosko even knew it. Every single one of his men was shot dead by the Israeli brother’s soldiers, leaving only him alive.

Every gun was now turned on him and Rosko had no choice but to raise his hands slowly.

“True. But when dealing with terrorists you should’ve also realized that there is a price to pay. Especially if you’ve been followed.” Sami said. At this point Rosko was confused.

“What-what-what are you talking about?”

“I’ve been in this game for a long time Mr. Lannister, I’ve seen everything and heard it all. Superheroes, aliens, psychotic androids, even real life wizards. So don’t think for a second that your actions hasn’t risen suspicion to the one who rules the very place where you got this Vibranium from.” Sami closed the case and patted it before his brother Achmed took it and had it put in the truck.

“King T’Challa has no idea of this Vibranium that was stashed away. He’s recovered the traces of Vibranium that Klaue kept public. There’s no way he could know about this.”

“Clearly Klaue had a better game face than you Mr. Lannister. For he wouldn’t have revealed such an important fact to me.” At that moment Rosko knew he had been played by the brothers. Before he knew it, a bullet went straight into his head and he died right there.

“Surround the area. We don’t leave till the King is dead.” Ordered Achmed to his security team. The soldiers exclaimed Arabic commands as they surrounded the warehouse with their guns outward and ready to fire.

One guard in particular heard something move behind him and he quickly turned and fired three shots but didn’t hit anything but some old crates. His paranoia was getting the best of him and that’s what gave him away. He was suddenly grabbed by the back of his robes and lifted up and beaten till he collapsed to the floor unconscious.

2 more guards heard what was going on and went to check on their fallen soldier when a flash of a figure ran behind them. They quickly turned and fired their guns when suddenly T’Challa came down behind them, quickly disarmed them and knocked them unconscious.

As more of the brother’s security came in and they open fired on T’Challa, he merely walked towards the security before sprinting forward and disarming the rest of them. His claws tearing their guns apart, and using his quick ‘cat-like’ agility, he managed to take down the entire fleet.

“Israeli brothers!” he cried out. It was then Sami came out and T’Challa revealed his face to the eldest brother.

“King T’Challa. I must say it is an honor to be in your presence.” Sami mocked.

“Did you really believe we would be unaware of this trade?”

“On the contrary, I expected this all along. It was that witless white monkey Rosko who didn’t expect to see you. But never fear, he’s out of both of our hands.” Sami said nonchalantly as he looked down at his nails.

“If you surrender the stolen Vibranium to me, we can resolve this peacefully. But refuse, and you’ll face justice of Wakanda in Rosko Lannister’s stand. You and your brothers.”

“See my brothers and I made a pact. If we can’t escape the system, we’d be—how you say, judge jury and executioner to ourselves. And rather than rot in a cell separated, we shall join together in a blaze of glory. And we’re not afraid to take you with us, suffering the same fate as your own father did.” Sami raised his arms out like he was flying and waiting for a fiery explosion to happen.

But nothing came.

He opened his eyes to reveal that nothing had happened. It was then coming into the open space were Ayo and Okoye who had Sami’s younger brothers. Both men were bruised and battered up pretty badly. The two Dora Milaje members dropped his brothers down at his feet like trash and T’Challa said.

“I told you. This could’ve been resolved peacefully. But you forced our hand, especially when you had planned to blow up the place with all of us inside.” Sami growled but nonetheless raised his hands in surrender.

As the Dora Milaje were detaining the three brothers, T’Challa retrieved the stolen Vibranium when he heard something nearby. It sounded like chains, they had defeated all of the security, Rosko and his men were all shot by the Israeli brother’s defense, and the brothers were all detained so who else was here?

“My King?” Okoye asked.

“Stay here Okoye, I want to check something out.” He told his general of the Dora Milaje.

“My king, it could be another threat we do not yet know about. Let me come with you.”

“I’m not defenseless Okoye. Now you and Ayo just put the men on the ship and let me handle this. It could be some animal or the chains fell down off of something.” Okoye nodded to her king and soon T’Challa headed deeper into the warehouse.

As he explored every bit of it, he soon noticed that there appeared to be a hidden door within the walls that was very faintly cracked open. He opened the door and could hear the sound of the chains getting louder and louder.

It was almost like they were—pacing? They kept a constant rhythm as they would move about, in a circle pattern or something close to it. T’Challa slowly walked towards the direction of the chains and soon found what appeared to be a cage. A glass cage but it was inside that surprised the Wakandan King.

Inside the glass was a child. She appeared to be around the ages of 8-11 years old. Her hair was extremely long and madded like a lion’s mane. She looked malnourished so much so that you could almost see her bones. But for being malnourished, how could she have the energy to pace so frantically like she was now? He also noticed that there around her neck, wrists and ankles were chains keeping her inside.

T’Challa slowly walked out of the shadows and into the light where the child would be able to see him. She stopped her pacing and just stared at him curiously. T’Challa disengaged his full Black Panther suit so that he was in his normal clothes.

“I am not here to hurt you.” He gently told the child. The child slightly tilted their head like a lost puppy. “My name is T’Challa, what’s yours?” T’Challa slowly and slowly got closer and closer to her cage as he spoke in that soft voice of his. When she didn’t answer him he assured you, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I just want to be sure you’re okay.”

Suddenly in the blink of an eye, her (e/c) soon turned to a deep cat eye yellow. Her body shifted into a fairly young but still decent size panther and she lashed out at the cage, knocking T’Challa off his feet in slight fear. The child now standing before him as a full panther clawed and roared at the cage furiously.

“My King!” Ayo’s voice spoke in Xhosa and soon her and Okoye came in and when they saw the panther, they lifted up their spears in defense.

“Stand down!” T’Challa commanded them.

“But my king—this animal is feral. It was going to kill you.” Okoye reasoned with him but T’Challa told her.

“She is a human child. She shifted into this panther before my eyes. Look.” Soon enough the panther shrunk down and soon turned back into the young girl who was still pacing back and forth in her cage.

“What sorcery is this?” asked Ayo.

“Not magic. Science. Look closer at her arms.” T’Challa said. At the section of the arm on the other side of the elbow, they noticed dozens of needle injection scars.

“This child was experimented on.” Okoye said grimly with a horrified expression.

“What do we do my King?” asked Ayo. T’Challa looked at the child who was growling and trying to act scary even though she was no longer a panther anymore.

“We take her to Shuri. Maybe she can shed more light on the matter. Get her to the ship. But approach her cautiously. Don’t make any sudden movements.” Ayo and Okoye bowed their heads to their king and walked towards the cage.

The girl would hit her skeletal body up against the cage trying to rattle it and actually roared out a panther’s real roar, her teeth slowly growing into the large infamous canines of a real big cat. Okoye and Ayo then placed a hover bead on each end of the cage and soon the cage levitated just a few feet off the ground.

The little girl roared and began clawing at the glass but it hardly did anything as she was now being guided towards the ship.

When they reached Wakanda after dealing with the brothers, Shuri in her lab was going over the girl’s intel scan that she made of the girl from her cage with her kimoyo beads.

“So what is it you can find Shuri?” T’Challa said as he entered his sister’s lab.

“This may come as a surprise to you brother. But—she has no birth record at all. I’ve contacted some of my people in various places around the world to see if there has been any missing child and all of them have said no. My theory is that she may have been created from a test tube to look like this.”

“Any idea who could’ve made her?”

“The same organization that made the White Wolf into the Winter Soldier.”

“Hydra.” T’Challa said gravely. Shuri nodded.

“I hacked into their old files and it only confirms my theory. Seems like they wanted to create their own Cat-god or something.”

“Any records on what her powers are? She can shift into a panther but can she also shift into anything else?”

“I’m still digging through the files, there’s a lot of files that came to creating her. It’ll take time brother.” T’Challa nodded in understandment.

“Keep me updated.”

“Yes brother.” T’Challa walked away but he turned back towards the young girl and saw that she had briefly stopped her pacing to look at him once again.

A week later after finding the child, Shuri managed to dig up that HYDRA’s plan for the Child was for her to become their Agent Battle Cat. The ability to shift into a panther. She also has enhanced agility, speed, and strength.

However when HYDRA fell back in 2014, they were forced to abandon the project and she had been left alone in that warehouse ever since. Thinking about the enhancing experiments she must’ve been forced to endure or whatever genes they gave her, it allowed her to survive even being chained up in a cage for years on end until she felt like she needed to give up.

While being kept under his sister’s supervision, T’Challa also made it apparent to try and communicate with the Child, just to see if she could either understand or (in a rare case) speak in any language. The first time he had tried to talk to her well—let’s just say she ended up with broken nails and chipped teeth after trying to take a bite of T’Challa’s forearm when he activated his suit to protect his arm from her attack.

He had finally finished his royal civic duties for the day when he decided to try and talk to the Child again.

“You sure it’s a good idea brother? You did cause her to lose her nails and chipped some of her teeth.”

“I learned my lesson last time. But you weren’t there before that happened. She had actually dropped her guard and almost looked like she wanted to communicate with me. I think I’m getting through to her.”

“Okay brother. But if she attacks you again, I doubt that’ll sit well with Mother as well as Okoye and Ayo.”

“I will handle mama and the Dora Milaje. For now see to it that no one disturbs us.” Shuri nodded and told her workers to go home for now, leaving T’Challa and the Child alone.

T’Challa slowly approached her cage to see her lying down on her side licking her broken nails. Some of them had broken off by the top, while the rest had the entire nail broken leaving a bloody mess in it’s wake. She was currently licking her blood stained fingertips when she caught T’Challa’s scent.

She growled and hissed angrily at him, her canine fangs extended out and her eyes shifted into the cold, yellow panther eyes.

“Steady, steady. I’m not here to hurt you.” T’Challa sat down a few feet away from the cage and continued, “I am sorry for what happened to you. I was only protecting myself from getting hurt. It was my fault for overstepping my boundaries.” Her hissing ceased and she closed her mouth hiding her fangs but she would occasionally growl lowly, her tail coming out and twitching anxiously.

They sat there in silence for a couple of minutes when T’Challa said to her.

“You know, I’ve been thinking of a name for you. You know something to call you. I’m betting the men who created you never really gave you a real human name. What do you think about—Ariana?” the Child hissed. T’Challa chuckled, “Didn’t think so. Shuri said you might like it but now I can prove to her that I was right. Now for the real options, what about…….Nala?” the child tilted her head confused. “No? What about…..Diana?” she looked down and went back to licking her fingertips. “That won’t really help them heal. Sure it’ll clot the blood but it’s not that good for saliva to heal a wound like that.”

She looked up at T’Challa and growled lowly.

“I’m just trying to help. We have the medicine that’ll help you. I won’t lie it might sting for a brief second but it’ll help. Will you trust me with healing you, please?” the child looked between him and her fingers before slowly extending her arms out and she briefly nodded.

T’Challa then got some antiseptic and band-aids. He opened up a small section of the cage, just enough for her arms to come out.

“Thank you for your trust.” He then began to doctor her fingertips. She let out some painful roars on the stubbed fingertips that no longer had a nail anymore but at least this time she didn’t try to attack him like last time. He soothed her with calming phrases like ‘it’s okay. It’s won’t last long.’ And ‘Just relax, it’s almost over.’ After bandaging up her left pinkie finger he told her, “There, I’m done (Y/n).”

At hearing that name, she looked up at T’Challa curiously. Her tail perked up and the tip curled inward. T’Challa looked at her to see her tail fall limp to the cage floor. “(Y/n)?” her tail lifted up again and her head tilted curiously. “So you like that name eh?” She looked at T’Challa and her nose twitched as she was trying to sniff him through the glass.

Taking a risk, he slowly reached his hand into the cage once more like before. However this time he kept his hand in a downward position, so that his hand formed the shape of another cat’s nose. The Child slowly crept towards his hand and gave it a sniff, when she saw that he wasn’t moving his hand, she rubbed her head against his hand for a brief second before nuzzling underneath his palm so that it sat on top of her head.

He gently began scratching her scalp which caused her to let out soft comforting purrs. T’Challa smiled warmly and continued to gently give the child—well (Y/n) some more scritches and pets.

“Don’t you worry (Y/n). I promise I won’t allow anyone else to harm you in any shape or form.”

The next couple of months after getting her body weight back to normal and healing any other wounds she had maintained, T’Challa allowed (Y/n) to venture outside the palace with him. Thinking the city itself was too much for her right now, he decided to take her out to the Border tribe so that she could see the outside world for the first time in her life.

Needless to say she was overwhelmed but she was happy to feel the grass beneath her feet, see the beautiful landscape, and hear all the sounds of the outside world from the animal calls to some of the Border tribe members talking with each other.

“Seems she’s getting along well.” Okoye observed (Y/n) who was cautiously watching the rhinos from their pins.

“Slowly but surely she is. Walking on two feet is still a bit of a challenge but she’ll get there eventually.” T’Challa told her.

“At least she’s learned to not attack you.”

“It was one time Okoye, be nice.”

“As your General it is my duty—”

“I understand your duty General. But you must also know that there will be times you can’t protect me. And this attack was very minor compared to the fights I’ve been in before.” It was then T’Challa saw (Y/n) now focusing her attention on some birds that had just landed a few feet away from the rhino pins. Her panther instincts kicked in as she got into pouncing position, her pupils were fully blown and her shoulder blades flexed over one another as her butt raised higher and higher in the air.

Finally she raced forward and the birds immediately took off flying. She leaped well over 7ft in the air and managed to capture a bird in her claws and delivered a fatal bite. She then raced over to T’Challa and presented him the dead bird.

She placed it on the ground before his feet and backed away before tilting her head with a happy smile on her face.

“Seems she has a gift for you my King.” Okoye said. T’Challa grimaced at the gift but he quickly smiled down at her and knelt down in front of her.

“I appreciate the gift (Y/n). But—we cannot keep this bird kept within a cage. Like how I freed you, we must also allow this bird to move onto the next life.” He dug into the earth for a small shallow grave, just big enough for the bird and he placed the bird into the makeshift grave. He buried it under the earth and he sent a brief prayer to Bast in Wakandan. “Right, now let’s head back to the palace. I have a meeting with M’Baku about reforging our alliance and allowing the Jabari tribe into the council.”

Okoye and T’Challa walked ahead when they heard something behind them. At first they thought it was one of the goats but it sounded to hoarse to be one of them. They slowly turned around and saw (Y/n) with a hand over the grave of the bird and she was saying.

“Ba……Ba.”

“Is she……?” Okoye started.

“Ba.” (Y/n) was trying to talk! She was trying to say the Cat goddess Bast’s name. She managed to get out the first constant and vowel but she couldn’t figure out how to do her S and T.

“Her first time talking. She’s trying to say Bast’s name.” T’Challa knelt down and he asked her, “(Y/n), are you trying to give a prayer to Bast?”

“Ba!” she exclaimed again. T’Challa was overjoyed on the inside that the girl he had decided to take under his wing and raise was finally trying to talk. Many of the tutors he and Shuri had growing up had given up saying that she was incapable of speaking because all she did was just hiss and growl as well as throw things at them before laughing like a deranged hyena.

“Here I’ll help you say her name.” he adjusted himself so that he sat down and he placed his hand right next to hers and he said slowly so that she could see how his lips did it. “Say Bast.”

“Ba.”

“Bast.”

“Ba.” T’Challa shook his head.

“Watch me carefully. Bast.” He enunciated the t at the end. (Y/n) growled lowly before taking a deep inhale and finally exclaiming.

“BAST!”

“Yes. Yes that’s it! You did it (Y/n) great job!” at seeing T’Challa’s excitement, (Y/n) began to repeat Bast’s name gleefully as she pranced around.

“A little cocky there isn’t she?” Okoye muttered.

“Let her have this moment Okoye. Besides probably hunting and killing, this is her first real big achievement. A normal milestone.”

“I suppose so.” She agreed. Even though she might not have wanted to admit it, she thought it was adorable how little (Y/n) was finally able to speak a human language and become so happy with herself that she would prance around like a yearling antelope.

Over the next couple of years, (Y/n) continued to not only advance in her human speaking skills, but she now began to show signs of aging. She went from that small child to now almost a young adult woman in just 2 years since finding her. Seemed with the animal enhancement, it also increased her human aging with each time she grew stronger and tougher.

T’Challa continued to raise her as his own and pretty soon all of Wakanda looked at her as their young Princess. Shuri loved hanging out with (Y/n) and teaching her everything there was to know about science and technology. She even took her as an apprentice in her lab. Okoye eventually came around and soon saw (Y/n) as a member of the royal family and took it upon herself to train her like a Dora Milaje so that she could defend herself without the need of her animal powers.

For she was the Panther Princess.

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uvobreakmylegs · 3 years

Text

Right Place, Right Time

wanted to write something with a little more humor in it but there’s still dark shit because phantom troupe

Warnings: mentions of death

“There's trouble, boss.”

Phinks' voice cut through the chatter of the busy casino. Chrollo didn't look up at first, relaying a few more instructions to Shalnark via text. 'Trouble' wasn't unexpected; as much as Chrollo could plan ahead, human nature could be unpredictable and would usually cause a few bumps in the road when it came to their heists.

“What sort of trouble?” Chrollo asked as he pocketed the cellphone.

“A Zoldyck.”

Ah.... That was a bit more trouble than usual.

Chrollo's gaze followed that of Phinks and Shizuku. Looking down at them from a second balcony stood Illumi, his face devoid of emotion as the black void within his eyes took in the group.

The second Chrollo made eye contact with him, Illumi gestured to his left with a sharp jerk of his head before walking off in the same direction.

“Does he want to fight away from the guests?” Shizuku asked.

“Maybe,” said Chrollo. He began to walk in the direction Illumi had gone, signaling for Shizuku and Phinks to follow. The three of them walked up one of the staircases located to the side. Phinks pulled on the collar of his suit every so often, while Shizuku walked slightly slower due to the heels that she wasn't used to wearing. But Chrollo could sense that the two were anticipating a fight (Phinks likely ready to use it as an excuse to get out of the fancy suit he hated so much).

“But it may not come to a fight with him,” Chrollo told them.

“Don't the Zoldycks hate us?” Phinks asked.

“Silva hates me specifically,” Chrollo corrected, “but Illumi can be reasoned with.”

Phinks snorted a bit at that, but didn't say anything else. Shizuku then asked what Silva Zoldyck had done to the troupe, to which Phinks gave a brief summary of the incident that had happened years prior. A very brief summary, but he knew there was no point in getting into details since Shizuku would forget almost immediately; this wasn't even the first time she had asked.

Perhaps he should have expected that one of the Zoldycks would be present – it was the opening night for this particular high-end gambling hall. But with how stingy the owner had been rumored to be, he would have thought that the price of a Zoldyck assassin as a security guard would have been more than she was willing to spend.

If it was Zeno or Silva there would be no chance of ending things amicably: Zeno was dedicated to his work and wouldn't be moved by a bribe or any words that Chrollo could offer. And Chrollo and Silva shared a very mutual hatred of one another, so a fight would have been inevitable in that case.

But Illumi, while also just as dedicated to his family as his father and grandfather, could be convinced to stand down if Chrollo could name a good enough price and ensure that the Zoldyck name wouldn't be tarnished in any way. The Zoldycks successfully completed every job they took on, but they couldn't be held accountable if their client terminated the contract before they could complete it. It had happened once before, in an instance where a man had hired Illumi to assassinate Pakunoda. Illumi agreed to hold off on going through with the hit for a short while in exchange for twice the amount the man had paid him for and to allow the troupe the time needed to get to the client and release him from the contract.

Though it would be nicer to just get to Illumi's client and kill her off, there was no chance Illumi would allow them to do that while still under his contract. And Illumi would be happier if he was able to leave with twice the amount of jenny he had been promised.

Illumi was waiting at the end of a hall that had fewer people in it, pointedly looking at him before entering into what looked to be a darkened room. Chrollo pulled out his phone to text an order for the troupe to wait as he spoke to Phinks and Shizuku.

“You two wait out here,” he ordered.

Phinks looked as though he wanted to question him on that, but he held his tongue, crossing his arms as he gave a sharp nod in acknowledgment. If Shizuku felt that his actions were questionable, she didn't betray that fact to him.

Leaving the two of them behind, Chrollo made his way to the door Illumi had entered and pulled it open.

This room was darker than the rest of the casino, and without the electric lights that brightened the building and the bodies of the customers that increased the temperature with their own body heat, it was much cooler in the room as well.

It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the lack of light, but when they did, he saw that Illumi was leaning against a smaller circular table, toying with one of his needles as he watched Chrollo enter.

“I thought you didn't like the body-guarding jobs,” Chrollo said as the door behind him slowly swung shut.

“I owed my brother for his assistance on my last assignment,” Illumi explained, “so I'm filling in for him.”

Chrollo nodded, though he didn't particularly care all that much. Whatever the reason, the presence of a Zoldyck would hinder things. Best to get straight to the point.

“How much are you being paid for this job?” Chrollo asked.

Illumi's eyebrows raised slightly.

“You think you can pay me off?”

“It worked once before.”

“So it did,” Illumi conceded, “but it would start to look suspicious if I accepted your offer too many times, no? It would be a problem if people thought the Zoldycks could be bought out. Our reputation is everything.”

“Well, you can't help it if your client decides that your services aren't needed and lets you go, now can you?”

“Another inexplicable 'termination' with a job that involved the Phantom Troupe?” Illumi asked, “father was annoyed that I did that last time, though he was more annoyed that I took the job in the first place.”

Illumi sighed.

“But again, doing that too often would look strange, and I will not do anything to harm our business reputation.”

“Very few people knew about the previous hit on Pakunoda,” said Chrollo, “there would be few who would notice a particular pattern, and I think the two of us are both inclined to avoid an unnecessary fight if possible.”

“True. Killing you and the rest of your group would take some time. And it wouldn't be worth the amount that woman is offering. Really, she's low-balling us. I don't know what Milluki was thinking when he took this job. Didn't even make her pay upfront.”

“Then we can come to an agreement?” Chrollo asked.

Illumi closed his eyes in thought, his fingers still twirling around that needle. He was considering it.

Chrollo waited in silence. Trying to push Illumi to do one thing was unproductive and could possibly make him decide to fight after all, though he was certain that Illumi was already willing to take him up on the offer since the assassin hadn't sent his needles flying the second Chrollo walked in. Pulling out his phone, Chrollo checked the time: 8:54 PM. He had planned for this particular operation to begin at 9:15. The owner was part of a group that had begun to throttle the livelihood of Meteor City, and tonight she was the host of a party for that group that was taking place in the upper floors while celebrating the successful opening night of her casino. The main purpose was to send a message: kill the group and anyone else in the building so the rest of the world knew not to interfere with the business of his Meteor City. Whatever valuables they collected would just be bonuses for the troupe to divide amongst themselves.

Though Chrollo rarely went back to the city these days, it was beneficial for him if the city still existed. And though he would never admit it out loud, there was of that sentimental feeling of wanting to protect his old home, as harsh and cruel as it had been for him growing up.

Illumi opened his eyes and looked to Chrollo.

“3 billion and I'll leave.”

“That's quite a lot,” said Chrollo, “much more than I paid last time. Why such a steep increase?”

“So it's worth my while.”

Chrollo mulled it for a bit, checking his phone again: 8:57. He certainly had the funds to pay Illumi's price, but it did feel like he was being somewhat taken advantage of in this case. Still keeping an eye on Illumi, Chrollo couldn't help but notice that the assassin seemed to have something else on his mind that he was considering. Then, like he had come to a decision, he sat up a bit straighter as he addressed Chrollo again.

“There's one more thing,” Illumi said.

“Something more than 3 billion jenny, Illumi?”

“Just some time; give me four minutes before you start.”

Chrollo hummed. Illumi didn't need that much time to vacate a building like this. Was it an attempt to set some kind of trap? No, that was unlikely. It would be far too obvious and Illumi wouldn't go to such lengths unless he was being paid to do so. Still, he couldn't help but be a little curious as to what Illumi would need that time for.

“Why four minutes?”

“Personal reasons.”

Ah. He should have sensed something like that would be the answer.

“A lot can happen in even a single minute, Illumi. And you want four?”

“Four minutes is unreasonable?”

“Not enough to end this deal, but I may want you to lower your price a bit.”

“Are you trying to haggle with me?”

Illumi frowned a little when Chrollo smiled at him.

“Maybe just by 60 million or so,” Chrollo said.

“So you'd rather pay two billion, nine hundred and forty million?” Illumi asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It's still more than you'll get if you keep your current contract, correct?”

Chrollo saw the corners of Illumi's mouth turn upwards ever so slightly, a small smirk on his face as he closed his eyes again and considered the offer.

“That's true. Even taking that out I'd still be much better off.”

Chrollo checked the time and found it to be 9:01 PM. If Illumi came to a decision soon the troupe's operation could still go as planned.

“Very well,” Illumi said after a moment of thought, “transfer me the money first.”

With a nod, Chrollo accessed one of his bank accounts through his phone, bringing up the necessary amount and transferring it to the account number Illumi gave him. Within a few minutes, the transaction was completed. Illumi seemed rather pleased with himself, Chrollo noted.

“Perhaps you should stay in here for a moment,” Chrollo said, “Shalnark is upstairs. I can order him to take control of the owner and have her officially fire you. Then there won't be any issues with your family, correct?”

“That won't be necessary,” Illumi answered.

“Oh?”

“I got fired before you got here.”

“..... Excuse me?”

There was a flat tone to Chrollo's voice that made Illumi chuckle as the latter continued “that woman felt like she was wasting her money, but she was pressured to hire one of the Zoldycks at the behest of her guests. Seems to me like she was looking for an excuse to get out of paying the full fee. Apparently I was 'unprofessional'. But I'm glad I caught sight of you, otherwise this evening would have been more of a loss for me.”

Chrollo said nothing at first. Illumi had been careful with his wording, Chrollo realized, and it hadn't occurred to him to ask if Illumi was still under contract.

The funds weren't that important to Chrollo, but he couldn't help but feel rather miffed. Had he known that the assassin was currently out of a job, there wouldn't have been a reason to pay a higher price than normal; Illumi would have been left between going home empty-handed or with whatever Chrollo would have been willing to give him.

But then again, how could he have anticipated that a Zoldyck would have gotten fired?

Realizing that he had been played, Chrollo checked his phone again: 9:07. At least they'd still be able to start on time.

“Your four minutes start now,” he said.

Nodding, Illumi stood from where he'd been leaning against the table. He made his way through the room, past Chrollo and to the door that lead to the hall where Phinks and Shizuku waited.

“Perhaps you could humor me,” Chrollo said as he walked by, “it shouldn't take you four minutes to exit a place like this. What exactly are those personal reasons?”

Illumi chuckled a bit as he placed his hand on the knob.

“I suppose you can see for yourself if you decide to watch me leave.”

With that, Illumi left, the door swinging shut.

Standing alone in the dark room, Chrollo wasn't sure what to make of Illumi's behavior. He was used to the assassin being more straight-forward. He was secretive, yes, but there was something about the way he had acted just now that seemed a bit more.... Playful.

Illumi and Hisoka had known each other before Chrollo had met the long-haired man, and the two had seemed like they were in frequent contact. Perhaps, Chrollo mused, some of Hisoka's less-than-ideal qualities were rubbing off on Illumi.

Phinks and Shizuku approached him immediately after he also exited the room.

“It looked like he was leaving,” Shizuku said, “were you able to talk him down?”

“Yes. It was more expensive than it needed to be, but he'll be leaving shortly,” Chrollo answered as he nodded at her.

“He required four minutes before we began, so we'll be able to stay on schedule,” he continued as he looked at his phone again. 9:08.

The two spiders nodded (though Phinks seemed somewhat disappointed to not have a chance to fight Illumi) and Chrollo updated the rest of the troupe. The three of them slowly began to walk back to the main hall before coming to a stop at one of the balcony's. Below them the crowd had only managed to have grow larger as more people had entered to try their luck in the new gambling hall. For the majority of the crowd it seemed to be more of a pastime as they looked more well-to-do, but there were a few individuals who already appeared to be reaching a point of desperation, sweating nervously while they looked to the indifferent dealers.

A grand clock at the top of the hall showed the time to be nearing 9:10, and they had yet to see Illumi leave the building.

“Why did he want four minutes?” Shizuku asked.

“He wouldn't say,” Chrollo answered her.

“Hm. I wonder what it was,” Shizuku said.

“It seems he wanted to collect some woman before we got started,” Phinks suddenly said.

“Huh?”

Both Chrollo and Shizuku looked to where Phinks was looking. Within the crowd they saw Illumi walking through, accompanied by you. He held your hand as he lead you through the throng of guests, and you were giggling at something he had said while you intertwined your fingers with his. Illumi smiled back at you as he continued to pull you forward.

It was not a sight Chrollo had anticipated, nor was he expecting to see the darkened marks on your neck when he squinted. Marks that could've been made by Illumi's mouth.

Remembering that Illumi had said he'd been terminated for being unprofessional, and suddenly the reason for his firing became clear.

“That's just a civilian, right?” Phinks asked, “what does he want with her?”

“I guess he doesn't want to leave her here to die,” said Shizuku, “that's sweet.”

Chrollo continued to watch as the two of you made it to the other end of the hall. When you were finally out of the crowd, you went to wrap your arm around the one that had been leading you, smiling up at him as you two continued your way to the entrance. There weren't many who could touch one of the Zoldycks like that and live to tell the tale. Phinks was most likely right in his assessment; you weren't anything special. You probably had no idea who the person was that you were so happily walking off with or how dangerous he was.

Illumi said something and smiled at you before the two of you began walking again, but Chrollo didn't miss the little warning glance the assassin had sent in his direction.

As Shizuku and Phinks talked amongst themselves on what all that was about, Chrollo found himself unsure of what to think of this particular turn of events.

Evidently to Illumi, you were worth at least 60 million jenny.

You had come to this event on behalf of your friend Kiki, who had been invited by her cousin who had wanted to spend a milestone birthday at the casino. Places like this had never done much for you; the odds were always stacked in favor of the house and you didn't want to lose your hard-earned cash by gambling it away. You only came to do a favor for your friend, and yet about an hour into the evening, she had left you to chat up someone at the bar, leaving you with a group of people you only vaguely knew in an even bigger sea of strangers. Most ignored you, but there was the occasional middle-aged man who would eye you up and make you feel uncomfortable enough that you felt like you needed to leave the general area.

And then you ran into him.

The handsome man with long black hair and dark eyes who'd been walking about. He caught your attention like he'd caught the attention of most of the people around him, though they had seemed more content to watch him and gossip about him from afar. Maybe it was because no one else was going for it, maybe it was because you were slightly jealous that Kiki had managed to find an actual date for the night, or maybe you were just tired of the gross older men that kept ogling you and you wanted to be able to enjoy yourself with someone that you were actually in to. Regardless of whatever it was that made you do it, you approached the man and asked if he wanted to get a drink with you.

He hadn't wanted any drinks, but your boldness had impressed him enough that he wanted to talk with you. In private. Leading you away from the crowd and noise, he took you to a staff-only hallway where he introduced himself as Illumi. You introduced yourself to him, and the two of you managed to hit it off, having a lengthy conversation that ended when he kissed you suddenly. It seemed like something that had been spur-of-the-moment for him, and he pulled away from you to ask if you had liked it. Your answer was to pull him back onto your lips.

Your make-out session had culminated in him pushing you against the wall while he sucked hickeys into the skin of your neck.

And then you got caught.

You were expecting that you'd both get kicked out, but Illumi had been asked to accompany some of the casino staff while you were taken back to the main hall. Being that they were more concerned about Illumi, they left you there while you tried to hide the marks Illumi had left behind. You hadn't been sure if you would see him again; you didn't realize that he'd been working for the casino, and you were worried that you had cost him his job.

So it was unexpected when he appeared before you and asked you to leave with him.

But you said 'yes' without any hesitation.

You slid into the backseat of the car that had pulled up, Illumi coming in after you.

“The Palazzo,” Illumi instructed the driver.

Wait....

“Isn't that the really expensive hotel on the riverfront?” you asked Illumi.

“Yes. I've been staying there,” he answered.

You were amazed that he had the cash to be able to stay at a place like that. Then worry hit you.

“I got you fired, didn't I? Are you sure that isn't an issue?”

With that same small smile you had seen several times now since he'd opened up to you, Illumi smiled back at you.

“I got a better payout leaving like I did than if I had stayed. So don't worry, there's no issue.”

That eased your worries a bit, and you settled yourself into the seat as the car began to pull forward. You glanced back at the illuminated casino as you drove off, and another pang of guilt hit you.

“What's wrong?” Illumi asked.

“I left my friend without telling her anything,” you said as you pulled out your phone, “I should text her about where I'm going.”

“Mm. Yes, that would be a good idea.”

Illumi's tone was always rather flat, so you didn't notice that he seemed slightly displeased as you messaged Kiki to let her know you had left. It seemed like she'd found her own date, so hopefully she wouldn't be too mad at you. It wasn't like she'd been left alone.

The instant you hit 'send', you turned your attention back to Illumi.

“Think she'll get it in time? The reception was a little spotty in some places,” you said.

“It was fine, but don't worry about that.”

With that, Illumi pulled you into his lap while you yelped. You wanted to protest, seeing as you two were in a moving vehicle and the driver could tell what the two of you were doing. Illumi held you securely, however, and when you looked to the front of the car, you found that a sheet of tinted glass now separated the front from the back. The driver must have been able to read the mood.

“Don't worry about what's going on back there,” Illumi told you, “from this point on, all I want for you to focus on is me.”

His order made you blush, and you shyly answered with an “okay” before his lips were on you.

The casino and the people inside it were the last things on your mind that night.

#yandere x reader #illumi zoldyck #illumi x reader #yandere #yandere hxh #yandere illumi #chrollo lucilfer #reader insert #yandere hunter x hunter #chrollo gets scammed #hope its not too dumb

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may-fanfic · 3 years

Text

After You’ve Gone pt 2

summary: Natasha is broken up, after her decision to cheat on you splits the two of you apart, unbeknownst to her, Wanda is there to comfort you

warnings; cheating

word count: 3,492

masterlist

pt 1

a/n: was honestly so conflicted on how i should end this story but i hope you guys enjoy 💕

((feel free to send in any request you may have))

taglist: @madamevirgo

Natasha moved through the compound, ignoring her teammates' calls as she tugged her earphones over her ears to block out any more noise. When she made it to the training room, she was relieved to see that it was empty. Natasha honestly couldn't be bothered right now. All she wanted to do was beat the living shit out of the punching bag, anything to get you out of her head. It seemed to be a constant in her mind, the way things ended so terribly, all because of her. Even in her dreams, she sees it. She hadn't heard from you since despite how many times she tried to reach you.

She knew for your sake; she needed to leave you alone. You were going through it as much and, if not, more than her, but Natasha wanted you, no, she needed you back. Her life felt empty without you. Her days felt all mushed together into a jumble of nothingness. For the past couple of days, it's been hitting her hard. The reality of it finally settling in ultimately. For the first couple of weeks, she convinced herself that she'd be at the compound for training, but as time went on, it was apparent that this was the place she'd have to call home once again.

It was the week of your honeymoon; she was a wreck, spending most of her days cooped up in her room or training. She should've been with you having the time of your lives, but instead, she was bounded to her bed, her phone in hand as she prayed you'd call. You never did.

----- A soft knock sounded at your door, you let out a gentle whine. You didn't want to see anyone. You just wanted to sit here and hope that eventually, you'd feel better. All you could do was watch sad romantic movies and cry. It wasn't healthy, you knew that much, but you were healing. You knew it'd take time before you felt like yourself again. You just wished you could fast forward to that.

Another much harder knock sounded, causing you to groan, forcing yourself up from your couch. When you pulled the door open, you were met with Wanda's kind features. She wore a smile, but it fell because of the frown and puffiness of your eyes. You were in worse condition than the last time she saw you. You hated that you were the cause of the pout that played on her lips, so you tried to force a smile. "hey, maxi!" you tried to sound cheerful, but your voice was hoarse from crying.

"Hey, babes." you were glad that she didn't question you. You just wanted to enjoy her presence without the reminder of Nat. you let out a gentle sigh when she tugged you into a tight hug, nuzzling your face into the nape of her neck. If you were honest, you were glad that Wanda was here. If she weren't, you'd probably be watching some sad movie, devouring another carton of ice cream.

After she settled into your home, she offered to make you some dinner, you accepted eagerly. You couldn't remember the last time you had a good homecooked meal. "um..." you began as you watched the woman stir at the pot. she looked over her shoulder at you briefly, taking in your features. She knew you well, so she expected the words to spill past your lips even before they did. "how's nat?" you questioned, leaning against your head.

Wanda hated that you were asking about her after everything, but she also couldn't help but swoon at how caring and thoughtful you always were; that was one thing she loved about you.

"she's-" she paused for a moment, shrugging casually as Wanda looked back down at the pot. "not good." she chose to be truthful, telling you carefully how Natasha is barely even seen around the compound. You frowned lightly. You hoped that she was doing even slightly better than you. "oh..." you frowned, observing as Wanda moved with ease as if she was made to become a chef. She was such a natural. You wondered if, in some other life, that's what she'd do.

"How are you, though, baby?" you hummed lightly, sipping at your water for a moment so when you talked, it didn't come out too scratchy. "I miss her," you confessed, causing wanda's heart to pound. She knew you were compelled to miss her, but she just wished you could forget about her entirely. Wanda spun away from the stovetop, wiping her hands on a rag before she moved over to you. "I know you do, but you deserve better." she frowned when you shrugged.

"what was that?" she questioned, waving her finger around you, causing you to look up at her shyly. "what?"

"that shrug!" you let your shoulders drop in defeat as the woman leaned over the kitchen island to reach out for your hand. There was no reason for wanda to be holding your hand right now, but she'd find any excuse to touch you. "You don't think you deserve better, hun?" her voice was so soft, the gentleness of it could make you cry.

"I don't know if anyone is better than her," you confessed. Wanda's chest tightened; she could be better. How didn't you see that? It pained Wanda in all honesty, she spent most of your friendship trying her hardest to win you over, and all you ever saw was Natasha.

"You deserve someone who won't cheat on you before your wedding." Jealousy was laced in her harsh tone, which made you look up at her, but she looked down at your intertwined hands. Her manner was always so gentle and soft when she spoke to you, and now all you could feel was anger radiate from her. she squeezed your hand gently, her thumb caressing your knuckles which let you know that she wasn't upset at you for your foolish thoughts.

"I just want you to be happy," she admitted, her voice soft as her eyes fluttered up to meet yours. "Anyone who could hurt you like that isn't worthy of your love." she was right, wanda was always right, and as much as it pained you to admit even if you ended up back with Natasha, you knew you'd never love her the same.

-------

Natasha laid in silence, her eyes trained on the ceiling. She tried her hardest to think about anything else other than you. Anything would be better than the wicked thoughts that taunted her. She knew she deserved it. She was a horrible person that deserved to be tormented for her actions. Her eyes burned with tears as she thought about you; the simple thought of your smile made her stomach hurt because now all she could imagine was the fact that she'd never be the reason for it again.

You were truthfully the best person she'd ever met, and because of her stupid decision, you were out of her life for good. She hated that she was too stupid to see how much she wanted to commit to you. Her chest burned; she wanted nothing more than to go back in time to change everything.

She knew she'd stay home with you and spend the night showering you with nothing but love; that's all she wanted to do right now. She wanted to rush into your home and tell you a billion times that she was sorry, but she knew deep down that it wouldn't be enough, and she was emotionally ready to be turned away. She just wanted to ask to start over with you; she'd hope you'd say yes. "Nat!" Clint's voice boomed before her door swung open; she sat up in her bed, wiping frantically at her watery eyes.

"Listen, Nat! You fucked up, okay? But you can't just lay here forever." his voice was harsh, and it made a knot form in her throat. His tough love always worked before, but as she met his eyes, her lips quivered; it was clear that it wouldn't work this time, so he let out a soft sigh.

"Natty, I know you love her-" he paused to move beside her on her bed, his hand finding a place on her shoulder. She let out a soft sob, her hand coming to fly over her mouth while the other rested against her chest. He reeled her into his chest, holding her close against him. She wasn't a terrible person, she made a mistake, and Natasha needed to own it.

"You hurt her, Natasha... but you're not horrible..." he whispered, caressing her arm as she cried. She felt horrible; she felt like a monster. Her body ached as she cried, gripping onto the man's shirt in agony. Everything was so perfect between you and Natasha; there was never a reason for her to do what she had done. She wished she just spoke to you; you could make all her worries melt away.

Clint hated seeing Natasha in so much pain, he pitted her, but he couldn't help but be mad at her. He set you two up after months of Natasha pining over you; why would she ever want to mess that up? He could see how insanely flawless the relationship was; he could never justify her actions even if he tried.

"I just want to talk to her." she cried out, causing the man to sigh; he was her friend before anyone else's, so with that thought, he pulled his phone if his pocket and dialed your number. It perked her curiosity as the phone rang, and when it connected, she could hear your soft voice echo through the phone; it eased her completely.

"hey, kid," he spoke softly, causing you to hum lightly, greeting the man. You knew why he called; you didn't have the strength to hang up; you wanted to hear her. "is Natasha there?" you asked softly, your eyes fluttered closed, your heart pounded as you waited for his response.

"yeah..." he answered after some time, his gaze snapping down to the girl with tearful eyes. "she wanted to talk to you," he whispered, causing you to rub gently at the bridge of your nose. You shouldn't, you really shouldn't, but you wanted to. It scared you how much you actually wanted to speak to her; you hardly went that long without her, and now it had been nearly a month of no contact. You missed her; it was a haste decision when you uttered out, "put her on."

Natasha loved Clint at the moment; with shaky hands, she took the phone, watching as he got up and left. "hey baby," she rasped out, her eyes already watering up. "have you been crying?" you asked softly, rubbing your sweaty hand over your sweatpants. She cleared her throat, leaning back onto her bed to try and ease her nerves.

"Are you okay?" you questioned when you got no response. Natasha expected you to yell at her, tell her that she had no right to be so sad when all this mess was her fault but instead, you were the same usual soft, compassionate person that she fell in love with.

"I just miss you." her voice shook as her eyes began to flow freely once again; if she closed her eyes, she could see you, your bright smile that always managed to make her heart race. "I miss you too." it gave her hope that she shouldn't have. she tightened her hand over the phone, holding it so close to her ear so she couldn't miss out on anything you had to say.

"I know why you did it, Nat... I was scared too," you stated, your eyes clouded with tears, and your throat burned. "but I loved you, Natasha, and I was just so ready to be with you forever." That hurt her; hearing your voice break physically pained her more than anything ever could.

"I wish I could take it back. I only want you." this was a moment of weakness, you knew that, but Natasha's voice was so genuine and soft.

"Natty, as much as I want to tell you to come over, I can't, baby." The usual pet name rolled over your tongue too quickly; you hardly caught it until it sounded into the phone. "I know," she whispered, tugging her blanket over her body to form some comfort. "I'm sorry."

"I forgive you."

------

"I spoke to her," you whispered to your friend as she lounged in your bed, helping you find an outfit for Tony's wedding. She sat up swiftly, her eyes trained on you. "why?" she tried her best to keep her emotions at bay, but it was hard as she gazed at you.

"Clint called." you shrugged, moving to the mirror to look over the tight dress you pulled on. You could still see wanda in the mirror, roll her eyes. Your eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"you aren't thinking about getting back with her, are you?" she questioned, her heart cracking when you shrugged. "I don't know, wanda, maybe." You ran a hand through your hair when she huffed out.

"That's the dumbest shit-"

"I thought you wanted me to be happy!" you suddenly turned, inching your way over to wanda, anger dripping from your words. Why couldn't she be a good friend and tell you that getting back with her isn't that terrible. she shot up from the bed, nearing you, causing your breathing to hitch as you looked up at her. "not with her." you huffed lightly, moving to turn away from her but she caught your wrist.

"Why do you care so much, wanda? It's my life!"

"Because I love you! I can't stand to see you get hurt again," she yelled out; she never raised her voice at you before, but tensions were so high, she couldn't control it. "I've watched you fall in love with her time after time. I can't do this anymore!" with that, the witch left you there, your breathing uneven. Your thoughts were scattered as you tried to understand it all; Wanda loved you.

How couldn't you see it before? Now that you thought about it, it was painfully obvious. The girl had been practically throwing herself at you for years; you always just figured it was friendly and innocent. You knew everything was different now, though.

You moved quickly through your home, eager to find the woman who just confessed her love for you. You managed to run down the stairs just in time for Wanda to be opening up your front door. "Wanda!" you sounded desperate as you called out for her. she let out a soft sigh, turning her head to glance over at you.

Wanda softened when she noticed the faint tears that clouded your eyes. "Don't go." you pleaded; her lips parted when you choked out a sob.

"Don't leave me, Wanda," you begged, and in an instant, she shut the door before making her way over to you with open arms. You cried out when she embraced you tightly, pressing a gentle kiss to your hairline. You wrapped your arms around her shoulders, nuzzling your face into her neck.

Wanda knew this would take some work, but she was willing to try if you were.

----- When Natasha first saw you, she was starstruck. Natasha felt the same way she did the first night she met you, like a high schooler with a crush, but then she noticed how your fingers laced with Wanda's. It was a couple of months since the breakup, she still felt broken up about it, but you looked like you were happy. The way you grinned when you embraced Pepper and congratulated her made Natasha's heart pound.

It should've been the two of you who were celebrating your marriage but instead, she was staring at you from across the bar, not daring to make a move to talk to you. She didn't want to ruin your night. She'd do anything to ensure that smile stayed on your lips. You were all that Natasha wanted; she was sure you'd be the one she let getaway.

When the music slowed, you didn't hesitate to urge Wanda to dance with you, and she agreed quickly. Her hands rested gently across your waist as she stared down at you with pure adoration. "You know..." you started, your hand coming up to rest gently against her cheek. She leaned into your palm, beaming at you.

"I want this if you can give me the time." wanda leaned forward to press a gentle kiss to your forehead; wanda could wait forever just an ounce of your love. She has waited this long; if you needed time to heal, she could give you that.

"Take your time, baby." her voice came out so soft, and you couldn't help the smile that formed on your lips. You wanted to thank her, but you knew words wouldn't be enough; wanda had been there whenever you needed her; you felt like there was only one way you could really repay her, so you leaned forward and caught her lips in a gentle kiss. It was quick, but it proved that you were serious.

Honestly, you always had a slight crush on Wanda way before Natasha; you swept it under the rug when you met the spy, but now as you stared up at her, your heart swooned. It scared you, but you knew better than to imagine Wanda ever hurting you.

"Don't hurt me," you whispered out, leaning your head against her shoulder; she let out a gentle sigh. She knew you'd have so many underline trust issues because of Natasha, but Wanda could never imagine herself ever doing something like that. You were so sweet and precious; all Wanda wanted to do was protect and care for you.

"Never," she promised, her arms growing tight around you, as much as it frightened you, you trusted her.

------

As much as you wanted to pretend that Natasha didn't exist that night, you knew you couldn't do that. The only way you could do that was if you had closure. With a shaky breath, you followed the woman out to the balcony, noticing the way she hugged herself for warmth. "Hey," you called out, your voice wary when she turned.

She knew she lost you when you looked at her with a gentle smile, you extending your hand offering the drink you had brought for her, she took it, thanking you lightly. "so wanda?" she questioned softly, you couldn't help the smile that formed on your lips at the thought of the girl.

"yeah..." you uttered out, wrapping your arms around yourself when the breeze blew. "I always had that feeling," Natasha confessed, offering you a tiny, almost knowing smile. You wondered if that's why she grew so hesitant.

"what do you mean?" you raised your eyebrow, looking out into the view. It was calming to be so high up, looking over the city. "You never looked at me the way you did her." she shrugged; her eyes lingered on you as you stood next to her. "I did love you," you whispered, snapping your gaze over to her; she nodded. "I love you," she expressed, her smile turning sad. "but I'm happy for you." you sigh, leaping forward to embrace the woman.

She needed that; she honestly did. She felt eased as she held onto you, not quite ready to let you go, and she was glad that you hadn't moved. "we'll be okay." Natasha muttered, causing you to nod, nuzzling your face into her neck. You knew that you and Natasha could be friends; everything would work out the way it supposed to, and that thought left you content.

"you ready to go, baby?" her voice boomed, causing you to break apart from the hug, looking over at the woman in the doorway who held her jacket open for you. You smiled lightly, moving away from Natasha to greet Wanda, slipping yourself into the coat when she held it up for you.

"I'll see you later, Nat." she nodded, looking over at the both of you as wanda's hand slipped into your own. "See you." she smiled weakly at you, and then you turned with wanda and left her there. As much as her body ached, she was glad you were okay. She understood that she fucked it up; she'd have to live with that for the rest of her life.

If she was honest, she still felt a thread of hope, even if it was absurd to think. Crazier things have happened in her life; maybe she was just in denial, or perhaps she was right. After all, you always ended up back with her.

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justcourttee · 3 years

Note

Adrien asks mari out and she says i would of been so happy in the past but now its too little to late. She's engaged to Damian but they haven't announced it yet

Bittersweet

It had been a while since Adrien had found himself in Gotham City. Too many years to count on his hand. Yet when he received an invite from Marinette he didn’t hesitate to hop on the next flight to attend her gala.

He had no idea that she had created a partnership with Wayne Enterprises, in fact, he had no idea they were interested in the fashion world at all. Then again, why should he be surprised? When Marinette put her mind to something, nothing would get in her way.

Ever since he had taken over his father’s company, Adrien hadn’t had much time to keep up with his old school friends but it hadn’t stopped them from trying to keep him in the loop. From what he could gather, Alya and Nino would also be attending, Rose and Juleka too. It would be nice to see them all again, especially Marinette.

Stepping out from the warmth of his hotel room and into the cool streets, Adrien couldn’t help but let his mind drift to thoughts of her.

It took Marinette moving to the States for him to realize how much he was in love with her. It was something he never wanted to admit seeing how much he adored Ladybug, but as she disappeared from his grasps, he was left to face his true feelings.

Glancing at his phone, Adrien confirmed that he was mere minutes away from the address she had listed. The gala was still a few days away, but Marinette asked if he had wanted to meet up for a late-night coffee, a Gotham specialty. Even her scarf that she had gifted him ages ago couldn’t hide the red on his cheeks as he imagined the perfect date with the girl of his dreams.

He paused, reaching the door of Deja Brew, his heart beating a million miles a minute. Somewhere in this late-night shop was his best friend. How would she react to seeing him again? Would she be as excited as he was? Would she feel the same way as she did?

Taking a deep breath, he pushed through the door, his eyes glancing through the scattered exhausted customers until they landed on her. She still hadn’t noticed his presence, her nose buried into her sketchbook, her coffee still steaming beside her seemingly untouched.

She was early.

The thought almost drew a laugh as he approached the counter to place his order. Of course she would have finally picked up some time management skills by now. Marinette was 27 and slowly making a name for herself as the future of the fashion industry. That wasn’t something accomplished by constant tardiness.

He picked up his cup, placing a ten into the tip jar, the hostess’ raised eyebrows making him smile. He could already hear his father scolding him. After all, that wasn’t the way to becoming a billionaire. You only make money by holding onto it.

Honestly, Adrien didn’t understand why he had to be a billionaire. His father said it would raise the bar for their line, but it just wasn’t in Adrien’s heart to hoard all of the money unnecessarily. Maybe the Waynes offered Marinette the same advice. Maybe they had something they could relate to together.

“Excuse me ma’am, is this seat taken?”

His heart had finally slowed down but as her eyes slowly peeked up at him under her lashes, it immediately began somersaulting once more.

“Oh Gods, Adrien!” She was out of her seat before he even had the chance to set down his coffee, her arms flung around his neck. He hoped and prayed she couldn’t feel his chest threatening to explode. “You should have said something! I’ve gotten into the bad habit of zoning out in public places.”

Her smile was blinding as she unwound herself, slipping back into her seat, motioning for him to sit as well.

“How was the flight? Did you fly private or first class?”

Adrien gasped, his hand covering his chest as if she had shot him.

“I only flew business thank you very much.” Marinette’s look of mock disbelief earned a small chuckle.

“That must have been so hard for you. I really am sorry you went through so much trouble for my sake.”

“You know, I would go through so much more for you Marinette.”

Her smile faltered for a moment, so quick that if he hadn’t been staring so hard at her, he might have missed it. Did his statement make her uncomfortable? He had only meant it jokingly with the truth laced in, but he was sure his eyes gave him away. They always softened when it came to her.

Marinette cleared her voice, her true smile shining once more as if the falter never happened in the first place.

“You’ve missed so much, I don’t even know where to start.”

“How about from the beginning?” She nodded as she dove into her move to the States and how she began as an intern for the CEO, Tim Drake, years ago and slowly worked her way up to personal assistant.

She recounted how Tim found her sketchbook at work one day and showed it to his father. Together they agreed that she was their way into the fashion industry, an investment that could open the door to many more jobs for the Gotham citizens.

It took two years, but she finally had a full line that was presented at Bruce’s first fashion show.

“So many big names were there Adrien! I really thought I was gonna faint!”

His smile became softer and softer as she recounted meeting the rest of the Waynes and finally after six long years, she had made enough of a name for herself to be holding her own official Gala, the Wayne’s simply a sponsor.

“That’s amazing Marinette, you’re amazing.”

She beamed proudly, her smile pulling at his heart.

“I couldn’t have done it without them. They are genuine and kind people and they are pretty much family.” Something glistened in her eyes as she spoke of them. It could have been obvious to anyone, Marinette cared so deeply for these people.

It was Adrien’s turn to falter as an ugly thought passed.

She’s so comfortable here, she would never want to come back to Paris with me.

He was shocked with himself. This was no time for jealousy. His best friend, the love of his life, was excitedly telling him about a future she had built for herself and the only thing he could think was that it was an obstacle keeping her from him?

Adrien desperately wanted to smack his own forehead, but for Marinette’s sake he straightened out his smile instead.

“I’m so sorry. I’ve only been talking about myself! What’s new with you? How’s your dad’s business? Do you have anyone you’re seeing?”

His eyebrow raised at the last question. She asked the question he so desperately wanted to ask her. And she did it so casually, equating it to his work and social life. Did that mean she was also fishing for his response?

“Nothing much. Dad wants to move from a multi-million dollar business to a multi-billion dollar business so he’s been pretty aggressive about money lately. He didn’t even want me flying over here for the gala.”

Marinette snorted much to his amusement. She knew how his dad was and how petty he could be as well.

“And as for your last question,” he paused watching her face carefully. “No, I am not seeing anyone.”

He waited for the reaction, any reaction really. But none came. Instead, she simply nodded as if she expected as much. Maybe he had read into it too much. She really could’ve just been asking for the sake of catching up. Should he ask too? Was that what she was leading up to?

Adrien cleared his throat before taking a long draw from his cup. This was so nerve wracking. She looked so content, so grown. This was a Marinette who had grown leaps and bounds while he was still stuck in this high school romance that was quite possibly one-sided.

“Well, I hate to cut it short but it’s going to be a long day tomorrow and Damian will be here any moment to pick me up.”

She slid out of her seat so effortlessly, her sketch book snapping shut before it disappeared into a bag that he hadn’t even noticed. Her smile was just as warm as he remembered, but something was missing from the girl he loved.

“Your eyes.” The words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop himself. Marinette’s smile faltered as she tentatively reached up to touch her eyelid, confusion etching it’s way into her face.

“Is there something near my eyes Adrien?”

“No, no, I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant. I just-” Adrien bit his lip, trying to string his thoughts together before he sounded even more like an idiot. “You used to stare at me with such soft look. I’m sorry I never noticed, but once I did, it was all I could see. Yet now-”

He trailed off as her lips drew into an o, her hand moving slowly from her eye to her lips, trying to hide her shock.

“-now, I can still feel the love in them, love directed at me, but it’s not the same love is it?”

She looked like she wanted to say something, but she couldn't find the right words. He knew she was trying to explain that he was wrong, but couldn’t bring herself to lie. It was the only confirmation he needed.

He slid out of the booth, his hand grasping the scarf slipping from his neck.

“Marinette, I was so excited when you invited me out tonight. In fact, I thought of it as a date.” She tried to reach out, but Adrien took a step back, tears brimming in his eyes. “I don’t blame you at all, please don’t think I’m saying all this to make you feel guilty. I just had to get it off my chest.”

Adrien blinked hard, trying to spill the tears clouding his vision. This was harder to say than he thought. Her eyes were so distracting, the sympathy oozing toward him in waves.

“I love you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I know you’ve made your life here and I would never dream of taking that from you. Hell, if you asked me to, I would drop everything to be at your side in an instance. Is there any chance at all that after the gala ends, we could give this a shot? Just one real date. Not some deluded fantasy I created in my head, but something we both consent to.”

He flinched when her hand finally made contact with his upper arm.

“Adrien, I love you. I really do. But you were right when you said my eyes had changed. That soft look is meant for someone else now. He and I had tried to keep our relationship quiet, but tomorrow at the gala, I was going to announce my engagement to Damian.”

Adrien couldn’t help the small sob that left his mouth. He was painfully aware of the few scattered glances all directed toward him, but he couldn’t help it. He felt Marinette pulling his head down until it laid resting on her shoulder, her small arms wrapping around his figure. It was embarrassing how hard he cried, unable to hold back his sobs any longer.

“I’m so sorry Adrien, I had no idea your feelings had changed. You were always chasing after a dream when we were younger and when I left Paris, I had finally decided that there wasn’t a chance after all between us.”

He knew she meant her words as a comfort, a promise that at one point, she would have gladly accepted his offer. Why couldn’t he have seen it earlier? Why was he so blinded by a partner who never even revealed herself right to the end? He had someone who trusted and loved him with all of their being and he ignored their feelings for a what if.

Adrien slowly pulled himself from her grasp, his smile shaky. He took a moment to use the end of his scarf to dry his soaked face.

“I’m glad you told me that Marinette. I really am. And I hope you and Damian have a long and prosperous life together.”

Her eyes widened, her mouth forming the wait, but he was already out of the door, running. It was a cowards move, one he would mull over all night. But it was too painful to look into the eyes of one you love and only find pity reflecting in them.

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

“So you came?”

Adrien turned, his smile bittersweet as he embraced Alya, his fist connecting with Nino’s outstretched hand.

“How could I not support her? She’s worked so hard to make this a reality. My feelings can take a backburner for one night.”Their eyes all trailed to the center of the room where she stood, her arm threaded through with the man he assumed to be Damian Wayne. “Besides, you can tell. She loves that man beside her more than anything in this world.”

The glint of the ring on her finger caused an aching in his heart. Despite it all, he really did wish the Wayne boy no ill will. If he was who Marinette chose to spend the rest of her life with, then Adrien trusted her decision.

“I’ve never seen her smile so bright. And to think, I used to believe her smile was at its maximum blindlingness.” Nino’s chuckle earned a small chuckle from Adrien as well.

There was no denying it.

Marinette was where she belonged. The only thing left was for him to support her in any way that he could. And that was exactly what he planned to do.

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@ash-amg @rebecarojas07 @heaven428 @long-lost-peace @thequeenofpotatoeunicornss @moongoddesskiana @nach0ava @iamablinkmarvelarmy @seraphkitty @clumsy-owl-4178 @pawsitivelymiraculous @mialuvscats @leagrey @smolplantmum @animegirlweeb @glitterflowercat @ladybug-182 @maskedpainter @remy-289 @redbullgivescaswings @icerosecrystal @animegirlweeb @jayjayspixiepop @certainmuffinbagelcalzone @kking13 @toodaloo-kangaroo @crazylittlemunchkin @thesunniestdays @user00000003 @vixen-uchiha @prettylittlebutterflie @queen-of-rants

#daminette #maribat #miraculous ladybug

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bumblesimagines · 3 years

Text

Green Thumb

Part 22

Request: Yes or No

The outro for Endgame was real nice especially with all the Avenger actors at the end.

"We could always go back to Wakanda. Get a nice farm." Bucky said, shrugging lightly. You smiled softly.

"You haven't even taken me out yet." You crossed your arms, looking at him. Bucky grinned, metal hand going to your waist.

"Alright.. We're should I take you? A nice restaurant?"

"Surprise me, Ocean Eyes." You answered, grin widening. Buckys' brows raised slightly at the nickname, humming softly.

"Would it be too soon to..?" Bucky trailed off, head tilting with a playful expression. You placed a hand on the back of his head, pulling him close and kissing him. Buckys' froze, skin flushing. You giggled, pulling back and seeing his red cheeks. Bucky cleared his throat, shaking his head.

"What? Surprised?" You tilted your head. Bucky leaned forward, pressing his lips against yours and pulling you close. You heard whistles and chuckles, turning your head to look at Sam and Steve. Steve gave you a smile and a nod. You glanced down at the flowers that had bloomed at your feet, a small giggle leaving you.

"Hands to yourself, Barnes!" Sam called, arms crossing as he and Steve approached you and Bucky. Steve gave him a smile.

"Don't do anything stupid till I get back."

"How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you." Bucky replied, smiling. He gave his best friend a hug, patting his shoulder.

"Keep an eye on him, will ya?" Steve shot you a wink. You chuckled, nodding.

"No worries. I'll keep them both out of trouble until you get back. I promise." You smiled softly. You glanced at Bucky, noticing the sad look in his eyes. You looked back at Steve as he climbed on the platform.

"Bucky, is he..?" You looked at Bucky with furrowed brows. Bucky stayed silent, nodding. Your lips parted, placing a hand on his arm.

"Oh." You made eye contact with Steve before he disappeared. Bruce looked over the controls when Steve didn't return.

"Where is he?" Sam asked, glancing at Bruce.

"I don't know. He blew right by his time stamp." Bruce told him. Bucky let out a soft sigh, giving you a forced smile.

"Come on." You turned around with him, noticing a man sitting on a bench. Bucky noticed him too, squinting slightly as Sam and Bruce bickered.

"Sam." Bucky called, getting his attention. Sam looked over, approaching you and Bucky. His gaze landed on the man. You walked forward with the two, stopping some feet away.

"Go ahead." Bucky said softly, looking at Sam. It seemed like he had already made his peace with it. You gently rested your head against his shoulder as Sam walked forward. Sam and Steve quietly chatted before Steve handed the shield over to him. A smile spread across your face. Sam looked back at Bucky and got a nod in return. Sam picked it up, sliding it on his arm.

"He deserves it." You said quietly, watching them with a soft gaze. You looked at your phone, licking your lips.

"I actually have to go. Wanda wants me to go with her somewhere." You told Bucky, leaning up and kissing his cheek.

"Let me know about that date." You patted his shoulder. Bucky smiled, nodding.

"Will do, tiger." You chuckled at the nickname, walking away. You headed towards the facility, seeing Wanda waiting in a car. You went into a job, approaching the car and getting in.

"Hey." You breathed out, reaching over and hugging her. Wanda returned it, sighing. The hug lasted for a while before Wanda pulled back, sniffling.

"Sorry, I'm.." She shook her head, wiping away her tears with the sleeve of her cardigan.

"It's okay, Wanda. I cried like a baby for 5 years and sometimes I still cry." You told her with a small smile. Wanda let out a soft chuckle.

"When does it get better?" She asked quietly, looking at you with watery eyes. You hummed, putting on your seatbelt.

"I'll let you know when it does." You replied. Truth be told, you expected the emptiness to go away once everyone had returned but it lingered, always weighting down on your chest. Wanda put the car on drive and drove away from the facility. You listened to the soft song playing on the radio.

"So.. Where exactly are we going?" You asked, turning your head to look at her. Wanda bit her bottom lip, staring forward.

"To get Visions body." She glanced at you. Your brows furrowed, head tilting.

"I thought Tony had him retrieved from Wakanda." You said, straightening up. Wandas' jaw clenched, head shaking.

"No, well, I don't know. I want him to have a proper funeral. Like Stark did. Natasha deserves one too, even if the casket is empty." Wanda said. You nodded, staring at the road ahead. All Natasha had gotten were some tears and a bench thrown into the sky.

"Yeah, I agree." You mumbled, sighing.

"Wanda, I'm.. I'm sorry. I should've made sure that his body-"

"I don't blame you. You lost me, Sam, Bucky, and your family all at once. I wouldn't have been able to handle it like you." Wanda said, glancing at you with a small smile. You gently reached out, touching her cheek. Wanda let out a shakey sigh, leaning into your touch.

"The organization is called S.W.O.R.D. I don't know what they want with him but whatever it is.. They don't need him. He needs to be put to rest." Wanda said softly.

"I know, Wanda. We'll find a way to do it." You gave her a reassuring smile. Wanda returned it with a weak smile of her own. You looked down at the root bracelets, sighing softly.

"You don't have to put on an act for me." Wanda said softly. "I've known you long enough to know when you force smiles and try to be.. Happy. Sam notices it too."

"Maybe the fake happiness will morph into real happiness." You mumbled.

"What is grief, if not love persevering? Vis said that to me once while I.. While I was still dealing with Pietro passing." Wanda told you gently. You smiled softly.

"I miss him." You whispered, sighing. You noticed a building up ahead, straightening up. Wanda parked and got out of the war, the saddness replaced with determination. You followed her, entering the building. Your gaze flickered up to the videos of families being reunited after the blip.

"Wanda, slow down." You quickly sped up, matching her pace. Wanda approached the front desk.

"I need Visions body."

"I'm sorry, ma'am, I can't allow you to-"

"Please, I need his body." Wanda stared at the man in desperation. You placed a gentle hand on her back.

"I'm sorry-"

"When I came back.. He was gone. His body.. And I know he's here. He deserves a funeral, at the very least. I deserve it." You could feel Wanda tense under your hand. The man sighed before answering a call. Your gaze trailed upward, noticing a security camera. You gently drummed your fingers, getting Wandas' attention. She stared straight at the camera with a deathly glare.

"Alright.." The man put the phone down, looking at you and the redhead.

"Through the doors, down the hall, two lefts and a right." The man said. Wanda nodded, walking towards the doors.

"One minute, sir, you can't go in with her. Ma'am let me buzz you in-"

"He comes with me." Wanda called back, opening the doors with her powers. You gave the man a small shrug, following your friend. You ignored the glances from the workers, mumbling the directions under your breath. Wanda stopped infront of a door. You heard it beep, watching Wanda throw it open.

"Wanda Maximoff, (Y/N) Barton.. It's an honour to meet you." A man stood up, walking around the table.

"I'm Director Hayward." Hayward introduced himself. You were wiring, brows furrowing as you turned your head towards the glass. Hayward noticed, clearing his throat and walking towards a glass door. He opened it, letting you and Wanda through. Your gaze flickered to what was below. At first, you were confused at the mess of wires until it clicked. Your brows relaxed, a breath leaving you.

"Oh." You whispered, earning a confused look from Wanda. She took a closer look, realization slowly washing over her. A soft grunt left you, staring at Visions' head. The person you onced called a friend was laying below you, dismembered and being torn apart.

"Stop.. Stop.." Wanda whispered, hands pressing against the glass. She whipped around to look at Hayward.

"Why are you doing this to him?"

"We're dismantling a weapon."

"Visions not a weapon. He couldn't hurt a fly." You muttered, looking at Hayward with a glare.

"You can't do this to him!" Wanda said with teary eyes.

"We're in our legal and ethical obligation-"

"I just want to bury him." Wanda breathed out. "That's it."

"Are you sure?"

"Excuse me?" You and Wanda said simultaneously. Hayward cleared his throat.

"Not everyone has the power that could bring her soulmate back online." Hayward explained. "Forgive me.. Back to life." He corrected himself.

"I can't do that." Wanda stared at him. "It's not why I'm here."

"Okay, but I can't let you take 3 billion dollars worth of vibranium just to put it in the ground."

"Vision's not an 'it', asshole." You huffed, eyeing him.

"Sorry.. The best I can let you do is say goodbye to him here." Hayward said.

"He isn't yours, Wanda." Wanda stayed silent, jaw clenching. Her fingers touched the glass, staring down at Vision before making the glass explode. Hayward ducked, covering his face from the glass. Wanda lowered herself down into the room as guards entered. You turned your head to look at Hayward.

"You'd make Stark disappointed." You mumbled, looking back down. You used the air in the room to safely drop down into the room as Hayward called off his men. Wanda slowly approached Visions' body, looking him over. She hovered her hand over his head, a soft whimper leaving her.

"I can't feel you.." She whispered, a tear sliding down her cheek. She placed her hand on his head, sighing softly. She turned towards you, sniffling. You wrapped an arm around her, walking towards the exit.

"I couldn't.. He wasn't there." She choked out, sobbing softly. You rubbed her arm, gently taking the car keys from her. Wanda sniffled as you walked towards the car. She went around towards the passenger seat, getting in. She stared up at the car roof, brows furrowing when she noticed a paper sticking. She pulled down the sun blocker, opening up the paper.

"What is it?" You asked softly, turning the car on and reversing out of the parking spot.

"A plan.. Vision wanted us to move and start over." Wanda said softly. You frowned, gaze softening.

"You can stop by the facility. I have somewhere else to go." Wanda said, glancing at you.

"Are you sure you want to be alone, Wanda?" You asked gently. Wanda nodded, letting out a dry chuckle.

"Wouldn't be anything new." You sighed softly. The drive back was silent but you didn't mind. Wanda needed space and time to deal with everything. You parked the car and got out, looking at her.

"I'll be in touch. We don't have to talk just.. Let me know you're okay and I'll leave it." You told her. Wanda nodded, arms gently wrapping around you. You hugged her back, sighing softly.

"Stay safe." You whispered.

"You too." Wanda pulled back, giving you a small smile before getting in the car. You watched her drive away, sighing softly.

"You alright?" You turned your head, seeing Sam. You smiled softly, nodding.

"Why wouldn't I be?" You stared at Sam. His features soften, brows raising in question. You could feel your eyes begin to water.

"He didn't look like Vision." You whispered, voice threatening to crack as you sniffled. Sam frowned, arms gently wrapping around you.

"Vision was nothing but a sweetheart. He didn't deserve it."

"I know, I know.." Sam gently stroked your hair, letting you cry into his chest.

"I'm sorry you've had to go through these past few years alone. I owe you one for taking care of Sarah and the boys." Sam said softly. You leaned back slightly, looking up at him.

"I couldn't leave her in the dark."

"Which is why I'm thankful." Sam gave you a gentle smile, thumb gently wiping away a tear.

"I missed you, Sam." You whispered, head resting on his shoulder. Sam rubbed your back, letting out a heavy sigh.

"I'm here now and I'm not going away. No matter how much Bucky complains. I have no issue thirdwheeling to annoy the fuck out of him." Sam said, grinning. You smiled, chuckling softly as you stepped back.

"Do.. Do you really like him?" Sam asked softly.

"I want to get to know him. He has a past and.. So do I. I don't know everything about myself so.. Our relationship will always be a work in progress while we heal and learn." You told him.

"You could always be with someone who doesn't have that much baggage."

"Like you?"

~~~~~~

Tags: @geek-and-proud @wolfelocksley @babyvisionisamenace @jjk-is-my-shit

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ryuu-to-sobakasu-hime · 3 years

Text

Ryuu to Sobakasu no Hime (Belle) Novel | English Translation | Chapter 1

**This is a machine translation. I put it together by extracting text page-by-page from a .pdf version of the Japanese novel, and running it through Google translate. I have only minorly edited some of the more confusing lines to make it more read-able. It is still a very rough translation, but it’s good enough to understand what’s going on. If there is anyone out there who wants to properly translate the novel, I am more than happy to edit it, if you’ll contact me.**

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

Ryuu to Sobakasu Hime (The Dragon and the Freckled Princess)

In the world of U, Belle met a dragon with a wound on his back.

“Who are you?”

Chapter 1: Invitation

A white line emerges in the darkness.

It slowly approaches. What is this line?

It gradually becomes clear. It's a series of units with intricate details. They are lined up regularly and repeatedly, like cells seen under a microscope.

Cells?

No, it's a "city".

This is a mysterious megacity called "U".

Created by the five wise men, the "Voices" who control the intellect of this world,

U is the ultimate virtual world.

The largest Internet space in history, which has surpassed 5 billion accounts worldwide and continues to expand.

You haven't played "U" yet.

It is displayed opposite to the shaped figure.

"We are investigating various shapes of U particles to embody this ethos, similar to the differences and peculiarities of each person in the world."

“Much like the difference and particularity that makes each individual in the world unique, this explores a variety of different shaped U particles to embody this ethos......"

One of the innumerable U particles is determined.

Authentication is complete.

"Welcome to the world of 'U'.”

U particles pop out from a myriad of smartphone-shaped windows.

Welcome to the world of U.

It's you, authenticated.

The U particle instantly turned into a pretty rabbit-shaped girl.

The announcement echoes.

"'U' uses the latest body-sharing technology so that everyone can relax, gather and enjoy."

Here, the avatar is referred to as "Az" (Az = Autonomous self).

Autonomous self. Az is your alter ego in "U".

The best AI that "U" is proud of is your Az.

Perform automatic generation.

U particles that also logged in are generated one after another in Az and fly from the window.

You can see it popping out.

Your Az - that is, a lovely girl with white, fluffy ears popping out of her sleek hat, descends like skydiving with your first friends.

The sea of clouds, which had filled the field of vision, suddenly opened.

The brilliance of the skyscraper town reflected by the light of the twilight.

You will instinctively yell out in admiration.

The elaborately constructed geometric skyscrapers have no top and bottom, no left and right, and are layered on top of each other, creating an overwhelming evening view that has never been seen before.

A gorgeous shopping mall. Release that left the company while it was still bright in the evening

In the feeling, wander around Fifth Avenue, Champs Elysees, or Ginza.

It's such fun. Az dressed in colorful costumes are like a Venetian costume ball, and it's fun just to look at them. Graphical pieces of florets are spinning and floating like confetti. When you pick up one of them and smell the scent, a refreshing young scent lurks in the gorgeous and sensual. Perfect for the view of this city. You suddenly look up at the heavens while swimming like a bird on the rippling boulevard. Even in places that should be empty, upside-down skyscrapers are so crowded that they look like they are about to fall. There is a huge park that looks like a hollowed-out skyscraper town, and you can look down on the Az who play with it.

Is there a city that makes you feel so free?

You realize without a doubt, this is the center of the world.

The moon can be seen in the gaps between skyscrapers.

The announcement echoes.

<< "U" is another reality >>

《Az is another you》

<< Here is everything >>

The crescent moon that draws an arc below seems to be in the shape of a "U".

<< Reality cannot be redone. But if it's "U", you can start over. >>

<< Now, let's live another you. >>

《Now, let ’s start a new life》

"Now, let's change the world."

Suddenly, the noise of the city was cut off.

It's a song.

Someone is singing.

Where do you hear it? Many Az try to find the voice of the singer.

I'm turning. You, too, listen.

The song is magnificent and delicate. Intimate and powerful.

I'm drawn in unintentionally.

"Over there!"

Someone shouted. The line of sight of many Az gathers at one point.

A whale.

A huge whale dressed up with countless speakers is swimming leisurely between the upside-down buildings. At the tip of his nose, a small figure in a crimson dress can be seen. The song seems to come from there. The whale makes a roaring sound from the countless speakers it wears. She stands on the tip of the whale's nose and sings with an overwhelming voice that is comparable to the sound pressure of the whale’s roaring. What looked like a crimson dress was a flower dress made up of various types of red, such as dahlia, gerbera, and echinacea. She has unrealistically long pink hair. Blue eyes as deep as the sea. A beautiful woman.

And on her cheeks, there are freckles that look like they are engraved.

"Belle!" "Belle!"

The Az looked up at her and called her name from their mouths.

Her name is "Belle."

Lalalai Lalalai Running through a nameless time Unbeknown to anybody To reach that crescent moon Lalalai Lalalai Want to get to know you No matter how many times I awake Feeling like I can't even make a sound

"Belle!" "Belle!" "Belle!"

You are among the wide variety of Az who call her name. I knew it. Unknowingly singing Belle's song. She turns her face and smiles in response to the cheers. For a moment you feel like her eyes meet you and your chest squeezes. Once you see her, you'll be attracted to her and you can't take your eyes off her anymore. You're already captivated by her, even though you've just met her.

"Belle!" "Belle!" "Belle!" "Belle!"

Belle crossed her hand in front of her chest and spread it all at once.

At the same time, graphical flowers were emitted all at once from her body.

The flowers spread all over the city from the top of the whale that swims leisurely. Belle sings loudly, as if to bless every person, every event, every life. Who the hell is Belle?

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

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dcx2NedPVBEdbfQaU-WC0pJMRmn20ASn7HSC0KY9R7E/edit?usp=sharing ~ Google Doc of the English-translated novel.

ryuutosobakasuhime.wordpress.com ~ English fan-site for Ryuu to Sobakasu no Hime where translations, scans, and other content is posted.

#belle #ryuu to sobakasu no hime #ryu to sobakasu no hime #studio chizu #ryuu #ryu #sobakasu #hime #mamoru hosoda #belle movie #belle 2021 #竜とそばかすの姫

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thelastandonlyunicorn · 3 years

Text

Supercorp phone call episode 11: “Myx in the Middle“

The off screen phone call Lena had with Kara after finding some answers in Newfoundland Ireland.

“Hello?” Kara's sounds tired and Lena wonders if she calculated the time difference wrong. It should only be half past 8 in National City.

“Hi,” Lena breathes. “How are you?”

“Lena!” All the exhaustion leaves Kara’s voice. She sounds happy to hear from her. “Good. I'm good. How are you? How is your search going?”

Lena smiles slightly, glad she called Kara after this eventful day. Andrea's support had helped her through it but now that she had her answers, she needed Kara’s help to understand what they meant for her.

“I'm okay,” Lena answers. “I found some answers.”

“That’s good,” Kara smiles. “Does that mean you'll be back soon?”

Lena starts playing with her braid. “I think so,” she answers. “I miss everyone.”

“We miss you too,” Kara replies immediately. “We could really use your help against Nyxly.”

“Nyxly?” Lena wonders, not having heard the name before.

“She was with me in the…“ Kara stops and Lena hears the sharp intake of breath before the blonde practically spits out, “Phantom Zone.”

“What happened? I haven’t watched the news yet,” Lena asks, worried.

“It’s okay. We’re okay,” Kara deflects. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Are you sure? I can get on a plane right away, if you need me,” Lena offers. If Kara wanted her there, she would leave immediately. She could come back here anytime.

“No, we’ve got it,” her friend assures her and Lena believes her. Kara first and foremost is a hero. If she needed Lena to save the city, Kara would already be standing here in front of her and pick her up to fly her back herself. Lena almost wishes she would. If just so that Kara can giver her a hug beforehand. “What about you? What did you learn about your mother?”

Lena starts fidgeting with the hem of her shirt but answers anyway. There are no more secrets between them. “Everybody hates her. She murdered someone.”

She hears Kara loud gasps over the line. “Lena, I’m sorry!”

Lena chuckles drily, “Don’t be. It’s only fitting. Other family’s have royals in their blood line and mine has murderers.”

“Lena…” her friend protests but Lena is already speaking again, “You know, I always wanted to be good. I wanted my dead mother to be proud of me and I wanted to prove that I was nothing like the Luthors. And now I learn that she is just like them,” Lena's voice breaks. “Where does that leave me?”

Lena knows she’s unfair towards her mother since she had only tried to help, but the anger and sadness eating her up make it hard to be rational. She had idolized her mother, had spent her life blaming herself for her death and trying to live in the image of her, trying to be good. She had never felt worthy of her love.

And now with the truth out in the open she realizes she is exactly like her, maybe even worse. She had also killed someone to protect another. Yes, Lex had almost killed half the population of the earth but in the moment Lena had pulled the trigger she hadn’t thought of that but of the people she wanted to protect. Kara. Supergirl.

“It leaves you as Lena Luthor, my best friend who has a heart bigger than anyone else. As Lena Luthor, a hero who saved the earth countless times and the lives of billions of people with it. As Lena Luthor, your own person, not defined by blood or family history but your own words and actions.” Kara’s voice is quiet and sincere and Lena can’t stop the tears from falling now. “And those are good, Lena. You are good. That fact doesn’t change anything about you.“

Lena presses a hand to her mouth to muffle her sobs but she is sure Kara can hear them anyway. She doesn’t tell Kara the other fact she has learned about her mother today; that she had allegedly been a witch and Lena has inherited “the spark”. Foremost because she doesn’t believe in it but also because she is sure Kara would.

Lena has seen countless supernatural things, starting with the alien that is her best friend and can fly and shoot lasers out of her eyes. Followed by the kryptonian worldkillers, one of which had resided inside her other friend’s body, a body that could change its whole genome whenever the worldkiller decided to come out. And lastly, to top it all, a whole new universe created by a wish (as Kara has told her) after the multiverse had collapsed.

There were some scientific explanations for parts of this. For example, Kara's alien DNA and the way the yellow sun granted her powers was something Lena could work with. However, larger parts she couldn’t quite explain. Yet, Lena used to emphasize. Things that seemed impossible 30 years ago are now used on a daily basis and phenomena that are unexplainable today will be understandable in the future, Lena is sure of that. Magic is just a term for science that isn’t comprehensible yet.

But then again, aliens with supernatural powers are a thing, why not humans?

Lena shakes her head at herself, wiping away the tears that wet her cheeks. If magic is real, she possesses it and all she has ever accomplished can be traced back to it, then who even is she?

“Where are you right now?” Kara asks into the silence. “I can fly over.”

“No,” Lena clears her throat. “I’ll be okay. National City needs you.”

And she means it. She will get to the bottom of this and she has to do it alone. This is her demon to face. Kara already has enough on her plate.

Her friend sighs quietly, accepting her choice, “Okay. But I’m here if you wanna talk. Anytime.”

“That goes for you too, Kara,” Lena reminds her, not able to keep the hint of worry out of her voice. Kara is used to playing strong and giving her all, but after everything she's been through, Lena hopes she'll finally allow herself to share her burdens, to take a step back and let the others help her. “I know I left right after you came back from… there. But I’m always here for you if you need me.”

“I know,” Kara breathes. A beat goes by until she adds, “I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” Lena replies quietly. “Say hello to the others for me.”

“I will,” Kara agrees. Her voice is hopeful when she asks, “I'll seen you soon?”

“Soon,” Lena promises.

#supergirl #lena luthor #kara danvers #supercorp #i needed this #mxy in the middle

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pinky-the-elephant-room · 4 years

Text

SapioSexual

★☆ AN: So, this prompt is dedicated to anyone attracted to nerds and science. Look I’m terrible at chemistry so I made Kuroo a jack of all trades while still being ace at chemistry. Also, thanks to @succulent-momma and @drabbles-blurbs-words for editing this for me.

★☆ Summary: It’s not Kuroo’s fault, not really. It’s not his fault that every time he opened his mouth to talk like that you just wanted to throw yourself at him.

★☆ Warning: Explicit sex, Size Kink, and Rough sex. Read at your own discretion. Kuroo x Fem Reader.

★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

Kuroo considered himself fairly handsome and was well-liked by most people. Except by his teammates who nicknamed him "demon captain". And of course, Kenma who would frequently throw some jabs his way. But he was nice to girls. In fact, he was a gentleman to every girl he met, only accompanied by mild playful teasing when the moment required it. Most girls, in his humble opinion, wanted his attention and frankly desired to date him. Except for Y/N.

He would never forget that particular day in 2nd year when she turned him down in front of his team. Kuroo and Kenma were heading home after volleyball practice accompanied by Yaku and Yamamoto, who were heading out as well.

Kuroo, noticing Y/N, called out, "Y/N-chan!"

Y/N turned around to see Kuroo waving at her, to which she only frowned in return.

"So, Y/N-chan, when are you going to take up on my offer of going on a date soon?"

"Over my dead body," she murmured before flouncing away.

Yaku had burst out laughing, enjoying Kuroo's embarrassment. Yamamoto tried to spare his senpai's feelings knowing the pain of being rejected all too well. But it was just too satisfying to watch smug Kuroo get turned down. Yamamoto collapsed in howling fits. Kuroo could even see Kenma hiding a smirk underneath his long bangs while trying and failing to look absorbed in his PSP.

She perplexed the hell out of him. He didn't understand where he went wrong with Y/N. In fact, she only displayed uninterest most of the time he attempted to talk to her.

★☆ ★☆

However, he finally started making headway in his third year. Y/N, lo and behold, was in his class. Making it easier for him to talk to her. She was resistant to his efforts at first, but one particular day she let her guard down.

"Y/N-chan, how did you do on your chemistry test?" he inquired, looking at his 98.

He could feel her glare, and so Kuroo looked up to shoot a smirk at her.

"An 85. Probably better than your score," she huffed.

"Not today, sweetheart. Looks like I win." He sat back in his chair and radiated smugness.

Y/N leaned over from her chair to look at his score, and he could see her eyes widen in shock.

"How? You had two practice matches this week against rival schools back to back! When did you get the time to study?" Y/N blurted out.

"I'm flattered you know so much about my schedule."

She avoided eye contact and cleared her throat. "Don't get it twisted. It's hard not to know when that's all you've talked about for two weeks."

Kuroo's smirk just got bigger. "And here I thought you don't listen to poor old me. I'm smarter than you think I am. I don't need to study a lot to get adequate grades."

Y/N seemed a bit incredulous.

"Then why isn't your rank higher?" she challenged.

"Well, we can't all be ranked second like you. But you're right. My rank could be better if I tried more. But I don't need to because my grades just have to be good enough to play volleyball and get into a decent university. It's not like I'm going to be a doctor."

Y/N stared at him for a moment before requesting if she could look at his test to see what she did wrong. Kuroo shrugged and gave it to her.

He could feel Y/N's inquisitive gaze on him the rest of the day. But every time he turned to see, her long dark hair hid her face. It was puzzling, to say the least.

As the bell rang and he was about to leave for volleyball practice, Y/N stopped him.

"Kuroo, next time there's a chemistry test can we study together?" she asked him almost shyly.

A bit dazed by her request, he only nodded, to which she responded with, "great! See you tomorrow."

★☆ ★☆

Days began to fly by with Y/N still somehow talking to him, their topics ranging from academic to inane intellectual discussions.

"Ne Kuroo, do you think there's any truth to Jurassic Park? Like theoretically, can we bring back dinosaurs?" she asked him one morning after biology.

He blinked at the question and put his mechanical pencil down. Y/N reminded him too much of a particular beanpole dinosaur enthusiast in that moment.

"Not really. Because think about it, not only would we need to have a perfect DNA replica to duplicate, meaning the bullshit explanation from the movie of filling the missing DNA structures with DNA from modern species wouldn't work. But we would also need to recreate the environment these creatures thrived in. The current Earth right now is colder than they're used to. Then we would also have to recreate the same food sources. These dinosaurs didn't evolve to eat grass or cows. Plain and simple, they wouldn't survive."

Y/N's face brightened. "Exactly! Oh, and did you see the new dinosaur they discovered in Hokkaido? It's called Kamuysaurus. It's a different species of Hadrosaurid." She continued enthusiastically explaining to him what made the Kamuysaurus different from other Hadrosaurid species. It was kind of boring, to be honest; he wasn't much of a dinosaur fan, but he listened intently, feeling satisfied knowing that Y/N's attention was solely on him.

★☆ ★☆

The next week as Kuroo was walking home with Kenma, he noticed Y/N going inside a bookstore.

"Kenma, I'm going to go ahead, alright?" Kuroo said as he watched Y/N curiously.

Kenma looked up to see Kuroo staring at Y/N. "She's just going to yell at you again."

"Don't worry; I got it handled. See you tomorrow." Without waiting to hear his childhood friend's response, Kuroo ran to catch up to her before she left the store.

The store's bell jingled, and an employee welcomed him inside. He walked around for a bit before finally finding Y/N in the back, intensely reading a book. He walked up behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

Y/N jumped and let out a squeak. She relaxed, seeing his smirking face "Kami-sama! Kuroo, don't do that! You scared the crap out of me!"

He chuckled at her reaction and stepped closer into her personal space. Looking over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of what she was reading.

"Stars and constellations? Since when are you into astronomy?" he asked.

"Well, it's a fairly new hobby. Chichiue and I are planning a trip to the mountains to chart stars. I thought it would help me to know what we are looking at."

She tried to move away to put some space between them, but he just grabbed her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder.

"Hmm, need some help?"

She turned around and cocked her eyebrow at him. "Let me guess you know some things about astronomy too?"

He just ignored the sarcasm in her voice before going on a tangent. "Well, did you know at the center of every galaxy is a gigantic black hole that is gradually sucking everything inside? That's how we got the image of a swirling galaxy that we know today. Just in the Milky Way alone, there's about ten million to a billion other smaller black holes."

Kuroo stopped to glance at Y/N, who was looking back at him keenly, before continuing.

"And the name of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy is-"

"Sagittarius A," Y/N finished almost breathlessly.

Kuroo joked, "guess you also know some things about astron-"

He failed to complete his sentence when Y/N yanked him down by his school uniform and captured his lips. Her kiss was harsh and greedy as she tried to swallow him whole. He reached over and lifted Y/N to steady her against the bookshelf. He separated for a moment to observe her, captivated as her ample chest heaved up and down.

"Kuroo," she whimpered out while clutching his school uniform.

Y/N grabbed his red tie and tugged him closer. Unable to deny her, he slanted his lips over hers.

Kuroo was honestly so confused; why was she kissing him in a bookstore of all places? Did she have feelings for him? He supposed she had to have felt some attraction. Otherwise, she wouldn't have jumped him in the middle of a conversation. But if she did, when did it began and how? Because as far as he knew, nothing about himself had changed except they were talking more than usual. Their previous conversations included him being flirty and Y/N doing her best to walk away. But now they could spend hours arguing over their shared answers on their organic chemistry homework.

Still, all those questions disappeared when he felt her tongue intertwine with his and suck. Letting out a groan, he pressed her harder against the shelves and bucked. Y/N gasped and grinded back against his clothed cock. Kuroo could feel his member stirring at the soft sounds she was letting out despite gnawing on her lips. She was impatiently trying to rub against him, unable to get a satisfying rhythm.

"Here…here," he urged, grabbing her legs and tugging them around his waist.

She complied and clutched him closer before reigniting their kiss. Y/N was just so impatient and greedy, she coaxed him to get rougher by nibbling on his lower lip.

"Fuck, sweetheart. Do you always get so needy?" he panted.

He needed a minute. Just a minute to get himself together. Because if he made contact with her hot cunt one more time, Kuroo was going to lose it. He was going pull her panties to the side before plunging his hard cock inside of her. And he didn't think getting disciplined for obscenity in a public place was something either of them could afford right now.

SLAM!

The two of them startled and pulled apart to hear a customer apologizing to the bookstore's employee. A book was dropped on the floor.

He reluctantly lowered Y/N back on the floor and let her go. Y/N was looking anywhere but at him, as she tried to fix her appearance and make herself look presentable again.

Kuroo stepped forward. "Let me."

Y/N just nodded as she looked at the floor. He raised her chin to gaze into her eyes as he fixed her long-ruffled strands of hair.

"There. Perfect." His words meaning more than what he implied.

Kuroo waited for her as she paid for her astronomy book and followed her outside.

"Kuroo, it's still early. Do you wanna grab something to eat?" she asked once both had stepped out.

He blinked at her question, wondering if this was a date but decided to not let the chance slip by.

"Sure, I know the perfect place." He grabbed her hand and ignored her flustered pleas to let her hand go.

By the time they arrived at their destination, Kuroo had noticed Y/N had stopped all her protests. Finally, feeling relaxed and secure in his presence.

★☆ ★☆

Several months and dates later, Kuroo and Y/N found themselves at his house while studying for an upcoming chemistry exam.

"So, almost all stoichiometry problems can be solved in four simple steps. First, you balance the equation. Convert the units of the given substance to moles. Then calculate the moles of substance yielded by the reaction. Finally, convert the moles of the substance to the desired units. Sounds easy enough, right?" Kuroo asked, looking up from his notes to see Y/N eyeing her worksheet nervously.

"I-I'm going to be honest with you. I have no idea what any of that means," she grumbled.

He grabbed Y/N and pulled her close to him on the bed they were both occupying.

"Here. Watch me do it, and then if you have any questions, let me know."

Kuroo went through the process slowly. When he finished, he looked up to see Y/N gazing at him earnestly with a prominent flush on her face.

He stared back curiously, not understanding why Y/N was peering at him like that. Usually, she gave him those looks when she watched him play volleyball or if he acted particularly sweet that day. He shouldn't have been that surprised when she shoved her worksheet aside and pounced on him.

Y/N desperately clung and kissed him thoroughly.

"W-wait Y/N. We still have work to do," he gasped while turning his face away.

She didn't seem too perturbed and instead started nibbling his slender neck instead.

Hang on, why was he hesitating if there was a willing and rutting girl on top of him?

Kuroo tried to grasp her waist tightly and switch their position. But Y/N was having none of it and pushed his grabby hands away. She swung her leg over his waist and pushed him down. With her position, her skirt had ridden up and showed off her legs. He couldn't help it as he caressed her silky-smooth skin and started making his way up her skirt. But before he could touch her lacey panties, she once again shoved his hand away. Y/N carefully steadied herself and started rocking against his jeans.

It didn't take long before his dick started stirring with Y/N grinding on top of him. Trying not to upset Y/N's pace, he carefully unbuttoned her lacey blouse to expose her black bra. Kuroo shoved off the garment off her shoulders so he could knead her breasts through the cotton bra. Perhaps she got impatient from the lack of friction because soon enough, Y/N was unzipping his jeans and pulling out his dick. She pumped it a few times and asked Kuroo to help. While she was getting his dick hard, Kuroo pulled down her panties. She lined up him up quite nicely.

Y/N quickly rammed his cock inside of her, so fast that Kuroo almost missed the pained whimper from her mouth.

"Oy, slow down," he groaned while feeling her walls constrict around him. Kuroo tried to remove himself from her embrace, but she held onto his hips tightly. She started pushing herself up and down on top of him, letting out whimpers at the feeling of being so full.

He could feel her slick building up from the added ministrations and coating his length, making it easier for her to descend on him. Still, it was a tight fit. Bordering on pain and pleasure. He could see the tears in her eyes, so Kuroo once again tried to get her to slow down.

"Sweetheart, we got all the time in the world."

"Tetsu, I.. I need you so badly," she moaned while simultaneously shoving the rest of him inside her.

"Fuck!" he let out after seeing her be filled to the brim and her mound connecting with his pubic.

Y/N was a panting and crying mess, trying to accommodate a cock that was clearly too big for her.

He felt a little ashamed and guilty for liking the way she looked on top of him. But sex with Y/N was always so nasty and filthy. He remembered vividly how desperately she begged for him to take her virginity after school one day. So, Kuroo cut his practice short (the one rare time he did) and took her to the nearest love hotel where he proceeded to fuck her senseless for an hour straight. Still, he remembered feeling despaired afterward because he had wanted to make love after a romantic date for her first time.

His musing got cut short when Y/N started bouncing on his cock mercilessly. She let out choked sobs each time she slammed back down. The bedsprings began squeaking, and the frame of the bed banged against the wall. So much so he would no doubt have to explain about the dent later to his parents.

Soon enough, he could see Y/N becoming tired, her breathing becoming more and more labored.

She begged, "Tetsu, help me."

"I don't know, Y/N. You got yourself in this mess-" Kuroo let out a loud groan when he felt Y/N purposely squeezing his cock.

Kuroo pulled the cups of her bra down to reveal her heaving chest. He sat up on his forearms to thoroughly suck the peaked breasts while keeping one hand on her hips to control the thrusts. The wild bouncing was now replaced with rhythmic rocking. He knew from experience that she liked to stimulate her clit along with penetration. So, each time he entered her, Kuroo held her hips still so he could grind against her more. It worked, her body started shaking and becoming restless from the extra stimulation.

"Tetsu, I-I'm…" she didn't finish her sentence.

"Fuck, I can feel you milking me. Shit, that n-never gets old," he replied, feeling helpless as her orgasm spiraled out of control.

Feeling that the opportunity now was perfect, he quickly reversed their position. Kuroo rammed his cock back inside of her and made sure to rest her ankles on his shoulders. He had to bend a little to make sure his taller height was able to accommodate her. But the position was perfect for deeper penetration, especially when he pressed his chest against the back of her thighs. Y/N was still sensitive from her previous orgasm, so she only got louder and louder from the new angle. He covered her mouth with his hand; however, her muffled sobs were only subdued to a point. Her keening was still audible to anyone who might pass by his room. He let out a grunt when their bodies connected, creating a loud wet slap that only served to turn him on further. No longer able to hold back, Kuroo didn't stop himself from the telltale signs of his own impending pleasure. The base of his cock tightened, and he came inside of her.

He moaned and let Y/N go, settling his face nicely on top of her sweaty and warm chest. Kuroo thanked whatever deity out there that Y/N had been on birth control since their first time. He had the privilege of hitting it raw and hopefully would continue to do so until she said otherwise.

The two laid side by side for a couple of minutes, trying to catch their breaths before he turned on his side and clutched her closer.

Kuroo grabbed Y/N's face and started peppering it with quick kisses, "I love you. I love you so much. You did so good, baby."

Y/N was too tired to participate, so she returned the kisses halfheartedly.

"Not that I mind, babe. But what was that about? I thought we were supposed to be studying," he teased with a smirk.

Y/N shrugged and replied, "I think intelligence is sexy and a turn on."

The smirk on his face crumbled, and he facepalmed.

Y/N frowned at him. "What's wrong?"

"You shouldn't have told me that. Now we will never get any studying done," he replied with a groan.

#kuroo x reader #haikyuu!!#haikyū!!#hq kuroo #hq headcanons #hq fic rec #hq fanfic #kuroo tetsurō #kuroo tetsuro scenarios #kuroo headcanons #kuroo tetsuro x reader #kuroo smut #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu fanfic rec #nekoma #haikyuu nekoma #kuroo x female reader #kuroo x you #kuroo x y/n

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timmytimwriter · 3 years

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Once Upon A Time...

A/N: Hi! I know I haven’t uploaded anything in a long while, BUT I’ve kept myself busy with writing. I know I had requests I haven’t uploaded yet, and that’s because I’m working on it. Recently, I started watching the Fantastic Beast film series and fell head over heels in love with Theseus Scamander. So, here’s a little mini-series.

As usual, all my Y/N’s are black. Period. If you want a white Y/N, refer to the other gazillion fanfics that fail to be inclusive to black women :) with that out the way, enjoy!

Word Count: 1.5k

Warnings: None, just heartbreak :(

Once upon a time, it was Y/N Y/L/N and Theseus Scamander against the world. Having spent nearly their entire life together, nearly everyone expected them to end up together. Hell, even they expected to end up together. And, they almost did. Y/N loved him more than she loved life itself. Theseus did not.

Once upon a time, Y/N was prepared to spend the rest of her life with Theseus. But their fairytale romance didn’t end in a happily ever after.

The small gang had run out of places to hide. Wherever they want, Grindelwald’s supporters seemed to find – and try to kill – them. They had exhausted every hiding spot in the entire continent of Europe, it seemed.

“We can’t just keep running.” Tina fumed after nearly escaping yet another attack. They trudged through the alleys of London. Try as they might, it was hard to stay inconspicuous with such a large group. If it were just Newt, Tina, and Jacob running it’d be easier – but, their ranks had been joined by Yusuf Kama, Nagini, and Theseus Scamander.

“We have to leave Europe. We can’t keep hiding out like animals.” Yusuf said.

“We could always go back to New York?” Jacob halfheartedly suggested. After losing Queenie, everything Jacob did was halfhearted. It was as if Queenie took his very essence with her when she left.

“No, New York would be too obvious. They know who we are, so they must know where we live.” Tina interjected, just as halfheartedly. She had lost her sister to an evil she couldn’t find. All she could do was run; run away from her sister.

Newt noticed her sadness and took her hand in his, offering her a small smile. Theseus watched his little brother and Tina hold hands, which only reminded him of what he had lost: Leta Lestrange.

Theseus’ bitter thoughts were interrupted by his brother. “New York may be too obvious but going to America isn’t such a bad idea…” Newt’s voice trailed off and he tentatively glanced at his older brother, who was lost in his own world.

“Theseus…” Newt softly said. He let go of Tina’s petite hand and walked over to his brother, putting a soft hand on his broad shoulders.

“What?” Theseus saw everyone now looking at him, and he wondered if he missed something important when he was lost in his own head. “Did I miss something?”

Newt took a deep breath. He knew this wasn’t going to end well. “I know a place we can hideout. In America. But you’re not going to like it…”

The day was September 18th, 1927.

The crisp autumn brisk bristled past Y/N as she swiftly walked through a nearly empty park. It was nearly 8AM and, though nearly everyone else in Washington DC was asleep, Y/N Y/L/N had made a point of waking up at 5 in the morning for the sole purpose of getting fresh baked goods from Maryland.

See, her favorite bakery was nearly an hour-long drive from her home and the goods always ran out fast. It had taken her weeks to devise a working and precise plan, but she had finally done it. Now, it was just this eerie park that separated where she parked her car and her apartment that delayed her breakfast.

“If the bread gets cold… after all my hard work… so help me Merlin…” she huffed, hastening her paste. Finally, she found herself in front of her apartment – a stout yet charming brown shoe-box shaped building that was snuggled between what seemed like a billion other buildings that fit the same description. Lucky for her, Y/N lived on the ground floor and only had to climb the front steps and insert her key.

“Home sweet home.” She thought to herself, setting the bag of baked goods on a nearby table. She shrugged off her light coat, lamenting if the food was worth not sleeping in. Lord knows when she may get another opportunity; with the rise of Grindelwald, her work at the ministry had nearly quadrupled.

But it kept her busy. It distracted her from everything ailing her life; how war was imminent, worrying for her family’s safety, worrying for her own safety, worrying for…him.

As much as it pained her, she kept close tabs on him. Whenever a European Auror turned up dead because of Grindelwald or one of his followers, she prayed it wasn’t him. Y/N had never been a religious person; she believed in magic, but that was it. To this day, it still puzzled her how the man who had completely crushed her heart made her believe in the unbelievable.

She shook her head. “Stop thinking about him.” She muttered to herself, taking a deep breath. “Lord knows he’s not thinking about you. Lord knows he was never thinking about you…” She tossed her coat onto the couch, making a mental note to put it away later.

For now, she needed the only thing that would drive him out of her mind: food. Through her heartbreak and depression, there was only one constant in her mind. The one thing that drove her out of bed nearly every day. The one thing that didn’t attempt to get her to “talk about it” or “put herself out there.” The one thing that she loved more than…

“Theseus!”

Lo and behold, standing right there in her petite kitchen was Theseus Scamander. The man who had obliviated her heart.

She nearly fell back in shock, never expecting to see his face again. After all these years… he still looked the same. His eyes were still dark with slight speckles on gold. His auburn hair still had those unruly curls that he hated and often unsuccessfully tried to gel back, but Y/N always loved. Most of her favorite memories with him included him cuddling up to her while she played with his hair.

She narrowed her eyes and peered closer at him, taking in everything that had changed. Yes, he had certainly aged, but he looked thoroughly exhausted. He had bags under his eyes, and small vanishing wounds riddled his body. He looked tired. Defeated. She had never seen that look in him.

He looked like she did when he left her. Heartbroken.

“So sorry to intrude like this, Y/N” his brother, Newt, interjected. Y/N only then realized that there were other people present.

“What the hell is going on?”

Newt provided a quick summarization of what the group had gone through the past couple of days: the fight during Grindelwald’s assembly, Queenie’s betrayal, Credence switching sides, and Leta’s death. At that last comment, Y/N’s eyes instinctively darted to Theseus, who kept his trained on the ground. As a matter of what, he was trying desperately hard to avoid eye contact.

“We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t desperate, Y/N.” Newt said. The Scamander’s and Y/N had a long and complicated history, and Newt hated having to impose this on his old friend. He didn’t like the idea of involving her in an already volatile situation.

Y/N, on the other hand, wouldn’t hear a word otherwise. “Of course, you’re all welcome to stay. I wish you’d come earlier and save yourselves the trouble of running around London seeking refuge.”

Newt gratefully nodded, taking Tina’s hand in his. “Don’t worry, I still remember my way around your flat.” At that, he and his... girlfriend(?) apparated away – probably to another room to get some privacy.

Now Y/N was left alone with a group of people she didn’t know. Well, she knew Theseus – once upon a time – but not as well as she thought she did, obviously.

“Alright, then. Are any of you hurt? Hungry? I’ve got baked goods from the best place in the country.” Y/N pushed further into the kitchen, clutching her bag of baked goods with her. Brushing past Theseus, she caught a sniff of the most comforting and familiar smell she knew. In fact, it was the exact same smell of her Amortentia potion. “I’ve got about a dozen bagels and some doughnuts. Oh, and cookies too. You might be wondering why I have so much food, after all, I’m just one person. And that’s a very funny question…” Y/N blabbered away. As if talking would fill the awkward space.

Because if she fell silent, she’d have to become more aware of her surroundings. That would mean looking at Theseus. Maybe even talking to him. And it would, ultimately, lead to her reliving every wonderfully painful memory she ever shared with him.

“Y/N…? Now, where have I heard that name before?” Jacob asked.

“Maybe from Newt? We went to Hogwarts together for about three years, after all.”

“Only three? Isn’t wizarding school for seven years, or something like that?”

“Yes, but I started school at Uagadou. It’s the wizarding school in Africa – I’m from Senegal, by the way, don’t let the English accent fool you- but then I transferred to Hogwarts in my fourth year…” Y/N trailed off, not fully wanting to finish the story as it didn’t paint her in the best light.

“…After she transfigured into a panther and attacked a kid for teasing her brothers.” Theseus finished. Y/N’s head snapped up, sending her Y/H/C locks flying in disarray, and stared at him. He was still tentatively looking at the ground, but his face held a knowing smile. “And then just a year after starting at Hogwarts, she did the exact same thing to another student.” He slowly raised his head. With his eyes partially hidden behind his disheveled auburn curls, it seemed as if he was staring into her naked soul.

“Magnolia Harper,” Y/N recalled, “She bloody deserved it too.”

“And what exactly did the poor girl do to warrant an animal attack?” Nagini whispered, her head cocked to the side in curiosity.

Y/N could feel the temperature in her cheeks rising by the second. At that times like this, she was glad her melanin complexion made it difficult for anyone tell she was blushing. The entire story was bloody embarrassing, especially given the situation everything was in right now. She chewed on the bottom of her lip, trying to piece together exactly how to phrase her answer.

Luckily, Theseus came to the rescue. “There was a rumor that she was planning on asking me to the Yule Ball and Y/N got insanely jealous. Pounced on her during Dumbledore’s practice dueling sessions and nearly clawed her entire face off.”

“Oh, so you two were an item. How sweet, young love.” Nagini mulled, smiling at the two. Yusuf stood beside her, solemnly nodding his head.

The pair looked down, the nostalgic smiles slipping from their faces. All the dissipating anger Y/N harbored suddenly came bubbling to the surface, remembering Theseus’ betrayal like a fresh wound. Theseus, on the other hand, felt the guilt and grief wash over him like a Tsunami.

“Not exactly. It turns out I was worried about the wrong girl…”

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readyplayerhobi · 4 years

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Captain’s Log | 1

; Starfleet Captain!Jungkook x Ex-Borg!Reader

; Genre: Fluff, angst, future smut

; Word Count: 6.6k

; Synopsis: Freshly promoted Captain Jeon Jungkook is one of the youngest captain’s in Starfleet history. Sent on a mission to provide aid to a fellow starship, he grapples with multiple problems from a Q who seems to be trying to be human and calling himself Seokjin to having the only Romulan in Starfleet on board and the intricacies of dealing helping an ex-borg crew member readjust. Whether he’ll manage to succeed is another matter altogether, but he’ll try his hardest to prove the USS Yi Sun-Sin deserves a place amongst the most famous ships in Starfleet.

; A/N: So...I’ve just decided to split this. And by split it...I may or may not continue it. I’m not sure how this will be received or if people will even enjoy given it relies very heavily on the Star Trek world. If I can get my inspiration back then I will definitely write the second part which will probably be much longer!

Captain Jeon Jungkook stood in the small transport ship, staring out of the viewport with his breath caught in his throat. Before him, was the vast expanse of space. Thousands of tiny twinkling specks of light dotted the view, each one a star that was hundreds, thousands or even millions of light-years away.

There was every chance those stars could already be dead. The big ones would have swelled, more extensive and more substantial as they tried to survive by burning as many gasses as they could before finally going supernova and exploding. All that would remain is a neutron star, the compressed core of what had once been a magnificent sun or instead, a black hole that would eat at the very fabric of the universe.

Smaller stars would simply burn out, becoming white dwarves and cooling for millions of years as they became invisible. Forgotten. What Jungkook was looking at, was visual proof that those stars had existed.

But that wasn’t what interested him.

No, what interested him was the monumental structure that hung in the deadness of space, beyond the atmosphere of Earth. McKinley Station was massive on a scale he couldn’t comprehend. Giant in the kind of way that only space could provide. It was one of Starfleet’s pride and joy, a spacedock that birthed the spaceships that protected the hundreds of planets in the Federation.

Cradled gently in the spacedock’s arms, like a loving mother just waiting to let her child go, sat one of those spaceships. She was brand new, her paint glistening in the lights that shone around her. Like other ships of her class, Curiosity, she had the familiar saucer section that took up a large portion of her size while towards the back, her currently powered down warp nacelles flowed out in two straight lines.

A pale grey, the only notable thing on her was the lettering scrawled across the top of her saucer. It slowly came into view as the transport moved around, letting Jungkook get a good look.

The larger script read her registry number, NCC-75715. It was the clearest text, but he wasn’t interested in that. No, he was interested in what was written above that in a smaller font.

USS Yi Sun-Sin.

Her name. The name she would be known by across the stars. The reason he was interested in the magnificent ship, so new that she would probably have the delightful fresh smell when he got on board, was that she was his.

Captain Jeon Jungkook, one of the youngest captains in Starfleet history, was the captain of the brand new USS Yi Sun-Sin. This was the first time he’d ever laid eyes on her, but he could feel his heart swelling with pride already as he watched the ship get closer and closer. He would lead her crew through the galaxy, make the hard decisions, explore the unexplored and defend the defenceless.

It was still hard for him to realise that he’d made it. His years at Starfleet Academy had gone perfectly. Almost too perfectly. The highest grades, the best physical performance and graduated top of his class. He’d only been beaten in the mathematics and physics sections by a Vulcan, which was unsurprising.

After that, he’d run through the ranks of Starfleet at an exponential rate. As a result, he was only 31 and already a captain. His parents were beyond happy and bursting with pride that their little boy had made it to the honoured ranks of Starfleet. Just an ordinary guy from a small city called Busan.

Yet here he was. About to embark upon the greatest adventure.

One Year Later

“Engineering, what’s the status on the warp drive?” Jungkook asked, his finger pressed onto the screen embedded into the arm of his comfortable captain’s chair. The bridge stretched before him, a small space before reaching the helm and beyond that was the enormous viewscreen that let him see what lay beyond the Yi Sun-Sin.

A scientific anomaly in the nebula they’d been studying for the last week had caused the warp drive to unexpectedly power down. They’d been operating on thrusters since, managing to push the ship just far enough that they’d left the nebula. Engineering had been working on the drive ever since, frantically running through diagnostics and repairing blown conduits.

A starship without a warp drive wasn’t of much use to anyone. Jungkook was desperate to get it working again so he could get both his ship and crew away from any potential danger.

The last thing he needed right now was for a Borg cube to randomly fly by.

That thought ran through his head and he cringed at the thought, pushing it away quickly. He hoped that didn't happen. With the current roster, Jungkook didn't need his crew needing yet another reason to hate the Borg.

Not that he'd begrudge anyone for their negative feelings regarding the Borg. They were terrifying and Jungkook prayed to whatever god would hear him that he would never have to come across them.

Any alien species they found that they deemed to be a worthy addition to their gigantic Collective was swiftly captured and assimilated. Rarely did those people ever manage to return once taken.

But a few did.

When he’d been choosing the crew for his ship, Jungkook had had the pick of a wide range of capable candidates. He’d quickly earned himself the Captain of Lost Causes title amongst his peers when they saw who he’d chosen.

His crew was eclectic, to say the least.

And that included an ex-Borg. The only ex-Borg in Starfleet since the demise of Icheb, a capable officer who had unfortunately been killed to harvest his Borg parts. Jungkook, and everyone else in Starfleet, had found that a sad day. Even more so because it had been the infamous Seven of Nine who had delivered the parting blow, ending his suffering when she found him.

He couldn’t even begin to imagine how painful that had been for her. A lot of people were under the assumption that those who had once been Borg still retained their lack of humanity. Or whatever you called that in other species. They were wrong. People had it, they just didn’t know how to access it anymore.

Which was why he’d picked you to be his astrometrics officer. You had retained your knowledge from when you’d been in the Borg Collective, one drone amongst millions, even billions. That meant you had a formidable knowledge of space and how to traverse it, a mathematical mind that could only be met by an android and an innate understanding of science.

Needless to say, you were a brilliant Starfleet officer.

You didn’t quite make such a good human though. Along with struggling to find your place amongst free-minded individuals once more, your social skills found much to be desired as well. Everyone on board Yi Sun-Sin knew about you, and they all knew about the problems you had faced in Starfleet Academy when it came to others.

Jungkook had found you endlessly fascinating for the first few weeks. Your lack of awareness regarding certain social graces and your complete disregard for rules if you felt they were interfering with something worthwhile had both bemused and exasperated him.

When he’d been given this ship, the only thing he’d thought about had been how to ensure he was commanding a large number of Starfleet personnel efficiently and with care. He wanted to be the kind of captain whom people were confident about coming to with their problems while also inspiring strong loyalty to take them into dangerous situations.

He most certainly had not expected what had happened with you over the last year. Not that he particularly regretted any of it. Starfleet didn’t have any concrete regulations when it came to fraternizing. Jungkook knew because he’d frantically scanned them all when he’d realised how deep he was into his feelings. All he’d been able to do was maintain that his personal life remained personal and that when in command, he didn’t let anything interfere with his job.

Alongside you though, he’d also taken on Lieutenant Commander Jimin. The slight man was currently standing behind the communications console to the left of Jungkook at the back of the bridge. He was Jungkook’s second officer and a Romulan. The only Romulan in Starfleet. Just like you, it had made him a little bit of an outcast amongst his fellow officers and cadets at the Academy.

Romulans were not exactly renowned for being friends of Starfleet. But Jimin’s family had fled Romulus before he’d even been born, gaining asylum on Earth and becoming productive members of society. Jimin had never known what it was like to be amongst Romulans; he’d never even seen the homeworld of his species.

That didn’t stop people from distrusting him though. From viewing him through the lens of hostility and anger. Unsurprisingly, he’d somehow formed a friendship with you and it pleased Jungkook to see that you both at least had each other.

But that wasn’t what was important right now. The damn warp drive was.

“Engineering reporting,” The soft and feminine voice of his Chief Engineer, Siyeon, filtered through to the bridge. “We have almost managed to fix the drive, Captain. I estimate another hour and a second test run will be required before I can recommend restarting the warp drive safely.”

Her words were brisk and precise, the famous mark of the ever so logical Vulcans. Siyeon had been the Vulcan to beat him in the subjects he’d hadn’t come top in at the Academy, her analytical mind pursuing her to move through the engineering ranks. When he’d seen her name available for his crew he’d jumped to bring her aboard, promoting her to a senior rank.

She was exactly like she’d been at the Academy, almost unaged due to her extended Vulcan lifespan. Long black hair in an understated cut, eyebrows in a straight line that made it a little hard to understand what she was thinking sometimes and the familiar pointed ears of her race. Due to the same origins of their species, she looked remarkably similar to Jimin with his ruffled black hair, straight brows and pointed ears.

Jungkook was glad to have her on board though. He felt like she could see problems that he hadn’t even considered before and sometimes came up with solutions that seemed surprisingly creative for a Vulcan. Though her second was a human. Chaos incarnate.

“Great, let me know when it’s ready and we’ll give it a try.”

“Acknowledged.”

He has to purse his lips to stop himself from laughing at her brusque dismissal. It was still jarring to be dealt with in so quick of a manner but Jungkook knew that Siyeon didn’t mean to be rude. She just had more important things to worry about.

“Jimin,” Jungkook called out to the Romulan, looking back and taking in his immediately alert stance. “Are the sensors showing anything?”

His direct gaze leaves Jungkook’s to look down at his console once more, fingers flying as he taps in commands and looks over everything. The top part of Jimin’s uniform above his heart is solid gold in colour, signifying he’s part of the operations division. It makes his slim shoulders look slightly broader, but not by much.

“Nothing in front or to the side of us, sir. I can’t confirm behind us. We’re still too close to the nebula and our sensors can’t penetrate.” Jungkook always found it a little odd, even after six months, to be staring at someone who resembled a stoic Vulcan so strongly and yet was the complete opposite. Jimin spoke with urgency, a slight tinge of worry in his voice as he was unable to give Jungkook everything he wanted while his brows dipped towards each other as his face gave away even more.

Romulans had never embraced cold logic like their cousins. If anything, Jimin was prone to bouts of rage if he was pushed to his limit. Quick to take offence and even quicker to take action. An unfortunate Romulan trait.

“That’s fine Commander, don’t worry too much over it. We’re still moving away so keep checking. Sensors at max, I want to be aware of every tiny meteor flying even remotely near us in this sector. I do not want to be surprised.” A brusque nod accompanied Jimin’s acknowledgement and Jungkook turned his attention to the next thing on his list.

Looking over to the chair next to him, he raised a slight brow at the Bajoran male sitting there. For a few moments, Commander Yoongi Min didn’t seem to realise his captain wanted his attention. He was too busy scanning over a datapad that had been handed to him by an ensign.

“Min?” Jungkook prompted, causing Yoongi to look up abruptly. The familiar ridges on the upper bridge of his nose gave away his Bajoran heritage, alongside the traditional decorative earpiece that was connected with tiny chains to the shell of his ear, an important part of his culture.

Licking his lips, Yoongi coughed slightly before nodding as he collated the reports he’d been given while Jungkook’s had been busy.

“Sickbay reports ten injured when the conduits blew on deck 11, section B and C. No other casualties. Engineering teams have already repaired those conduits. Holodeck 1 is out for the moment due to a power surge caused. No ETA for the moment.” He carried on, the reports less important now he’d gotten the big ones out of the way but Jungkook still listened intently as his mind raced.

Once finished, he nodded his thanks to Yoongi before contacting sickbay for an update from his Chief Medical Officer, Dr Dahyun Troi.

“Dr Troi, how are the casualties? Are you okay down there? Do you need any extra help?” There was a brief pause but he didn’t push it. He may be the captain of this starship but the Chief Medical Officer was the only person who was allowed to give him orders if necessary. The last thing he wanted was to aggravate her.

“Captain, we’re looking good here. I’ve already treated and released four of the casualties. Another three are probably going to be able to go in half an hour once I’ve given them a final scan. The last three are going to be here a little longer, I’m afraid. Ensign Adewale has a crushed left leg that will require surgery to repair while Lieutenant Martinez has suffered head trauma. I can’t give a firm diagnosis on Lieutenant Kapoor, though I do have a feeling that we may have to divert to a Starbase for the medical facilities there to look after her. There may be amputation required.” Dahyun’s voice was calm and gentle despite what she was reporting.

It made her the perfect doctor in Jungkook’s opinion. Always reassuring and with a soft tone of tranquillity, she managed to keep her patients relaxed even under the most stressful and painful of times.

Which made sense. She was half-human and half-Betazoid, a telepathic race which allowed them to be empathic. The ship’s counsellor, Commander Taehyung Grax, was a full Betazoid. His stronger abilities made him a better option for sensitively dealing with the crew's psychological issues.

“Okay, keep me updated on whatever you need. We’ll plot a course to the nearest Starbase just in case.” Jungkook responds, ending the communication. Taking in a deep breath, he just lets himself have a moment to compile his thoughts and just...breathe. He hasn’t slept in almost twenty-four hours.

Logically, he knows that he could just leave the bridge and get some rest. Yoongi would keep track of everything for him and call him back if anything critical needed his attention.

The soft noise of the elevator doors opening caught his attention, looking over to see you walking out with your usual, self-assured strides. Your face was carefully blank, the Borg implant along your jawline matched with another at your temple. They’d been too interwoven with important nerves to be removed.

“Captain, the astrometrics lab is functioning as expected-” Anything else you were about to say is cut off by the sudden movement of Lieutenant Commander Jung Hoseok. The Chief Security Officer, normally so jovial and bright, moved at what seemed like warp speed to the main area of the bridge, his phaser pointed in front of him while he called for more security.

“Who are you. Identify yourself.” He said sternly, his elegant face like a stone as he watches the newcomer with wary eyes. Every tiny movement is tracked and before Jungkook even realises what he’s doing, he’s standing as well. Brow creasing, he looks over the man who has appeared in a flash of white light.

“I know who he is,” Ensign Namjoon Dax, the chief helmsman said softly. “He’s a Q.”

“Oh no, please no.” Yoongi moaned softly from Jungkook’s side, a hand coming to rub at his face. There was no need for Jungkook to question why he was reacting like that because even he knew what that meant. It had, unsurprisingly, become required reading to go over the reports from Captain Picard, Captain Janeway and Captain Sisko regarding their encounters with the being simply known as ‘Q’.

It was both his name and the name of his race. Extra-dimensional beings with immense power over time, space and plenty of other things that Jungkook desperately didn’t want to get involved with. Like the laws of physics, for starters.

Q was not something that any Starfleet officer wanted to get involved with. Because for as monumentally powerful as they are, as knowledge as they were, they were like petulant children. Constantly bored and wanting to play with the ants. Of which Starfleet ships often ended up being their playthings.

“You’re right, I’m a Q. How did you know? It’s my dashing good looks, isn’t it? Nothing in your universe could possibly compare to this exquisite facade. Handcrafted by the...well I don’t know but that’s not important.” Q said, his full lips spreading into a beautiful smile.

He wasn’t wrong. The alien man stood before Jungkook was good looking, to the point it almost looked unnatural. Tall and with broad shoulders, he had jet black hair that was swept off his forehead in an elegant style while his large eyes practically sparkled with mischief.

It made Jungkook feel ill.

“I know...because I’ve dealt with a Q before. The Q.” Namjoon is still sitting at this console, the red of his uniform denoting his command division and Jungkook feels a small swell of pride at how calm he’s being. Although, there’s no reason to get hysterical. From what he’d read, there was absolutely nothing he could do to make Q disappear until he got bored and left.

“Really? I don’t remember you,” Q said, puckering his lips into a pout while one dark brow rose as he scanned over the helmsman. “Handsome, tall, those familiar markings on your face...you’re a Trill. Do you have one of those creepy worm things in your stomach too?”

Gesturing towards Namjoon, Q’s nose scrunches up in disgust. Trill’s were a humanoid race and some of them were ‘joined’ with a symbiont. A worm-like creature that could only live in the body of a Trill, which was passed from host to host. As a result, Namjoon had the memories and knowledge of all the former hosts of his symbiont.

Including meeting Q, apparently.

“I have a symbiont, yes. And you won’t remember me. I’ve only been joined for a year. You might remember one of my previous hosts though? Jadzia Dax? From Deep Space 9?” There’s a brief moment of quiet as Q thinks before his mouth drops open and he points at Namjoon.

“Yes! You were very beautiful. Though you wore blue then, not red? And you were a woman. Is it strange, going from gender to gender?”

“No. It’s natural. I’m the Chief Helmsman of the Yi Sun-Sin whereas Jadzia was a science officer. You don’t look like that Q though.” Clearing his throat, Jungkook tries to turn the conversation to himself. He was the captain of this ship, after all, it felt odd to be so clearly excluded from the conversation.

“Oh well, that wasn’t me. That was my brother, Q. He shared his memory of you, that’s why I know. I’m Q. But I’ve been quite bored lately so I thought I’d try out this whole...living like one of you things. So, you can call me Captain Seokjin! Reporting for duty!” He says this brightly, grinning as he salutes. There’s another flash of light and suddenly, the plain white robes he’d been wearing are turned into a Starfleet uniform.

A command uniform...with the relevant pips of a Starfleet Captain on his collar.

Letting out a groan, Jungkook tries to control himself as he realises that he wasn’t going to be getting out of this easily. A Q who wanted to be human, or at least act like a Starfleet officer? At least cadets at the Academy were going to remember his name after being forced to read this report as well.

“You can’t just...turn up here and demand to be part of our crew,” Jungkook states, as calmly as he can with high blood pressure rising this much. “Can’t you...go to one of the inhabited planets if you want to live like us? Find a city and-”

“Pssht!” He’s interrupted by Q, or rather Seokjin, lifting a hand and making a gesture as if he was trying to blow away a bad odour. Baffled at being interrupted so blasé, Jungkook just stares at him for a moment with wide eyes before looking over at Yoongi. His second-in-command just gave him an unsure shrug, uncertainty written all over his face.

“I said I want to live like one of you. That means on one of your fancy starships, getting into danger and fighting bad guys. I wanna pew pew everyone!” Finger guns at the ready, Seokjin pretends to fire at Hoseok. When his Chief Security Officer just scowls at the intruder, Seokjin just grins and laughs.

Pressing at his temple, Jungkook reminded himself that headaches didn’t exist anymore. They’d been cured long ago. He was just feeling a phantom headache, that was all.

“You can’t just...waltz onto a starship and give yourself a command. For starters, there’s only one captain and that’s me. Another point is that you are most definitely not qualified to be on this ship. You haven’t passed Starfleet Academy, therefore you can’t be given a rank of any kind. And even if I did give you a field rank, it would be Ensign. Because I don’t know what you can do. If I’d even want to let someone as...chaotic as you even touch anything.” Maybe he went a little too far with that. Some of his words felt a little bit harsh and Jungkook had to work hard not to give away that he was uncomfortably aware that he might have pissed the omnipotent being off.

But all Seokjin does is sighs dramatically, rolling his eyes and flapping his arms around in a remarkably childlike tantrum.

Subtly raising one hand, Jungkook calls for the security team to stand down. They do so slowly, unhappiness at the order apparent but they can’t go against their captain’s order. Straightening, Hoseok keeps a firm hand on his phaser, the gold of his uniform clashing slightly with the red he’d decided to colour his hair with recently.

“Why not? I’m more powerful than you anyway. I could take you places you’ve never even heard of. How about the Kinmara system?” Clicking his fingers, there’s a flash of light and the view out of the large screen changes abruptly. Instead of the vast expanse of space, there’s a large planet creeping into view.

“What the...where are we?” Jungkook asks, looking over at Jimin with wide eyes. His operations officer is staring with equally wide eyes before scanning the information on his console, rapidly touching it as he changes what he sees.

“I...I don’t know. The star charts don’t match up with any of the stars out there and we don’t have this planet in the system. From what I can see...it’s an M-Class with a breathable atmosphere. Gravity slightly stronger than Earth but within acceptable parameters. Multiple life signs across the planet.” He stutters slightly, eyes flickering from the view to Seokjin before moving back to Jungkook.

An M-Class meant it was habitable to life forms like humans or Vulcans. The fact that it wasn’t charted, or explored, meant that Seokjin had no doubt used his immeasurable powers to transport the Yi Sun-Sin who knows how many lightyears away from their previous location.

“Yes, it’s called Kinmara. The system is named after it. It has two moons, one of which is also inhabited and is called Breehana. Lovely place, the weather is beautiful and the ocean is just right. Only the ocean is pink, as you can see. I love pink, it’s so pretty to look at, don’t you think? Anyway, the Mara’s, the name of the race down there, don’t get many visitors so you might find it interesting to visit.” Looking back over at the Q, Jungkook realises suddenly that he’s also materialised himself into a fancy chair.

It takes a lot of effort to bite his tongue and not snap at the powerful being. Jungkook needs to get back to where they were, and Seokjin is the only one who can do that. Especially when they didn’t even have warp drive yet.

“I’m sure it’s a lovely place to visit, but right now I would appreciate it if you would just transport us back to where we were? You see, we need to make some final repairs to our warp drive so we’re not interested in exploring Kinmara right now. But if you let us know where it is on a star chart then I’m sure someone at Starfleet will eventually get round to exploring it closer.” Giving a genial smile, Jungkook gives himself a mental pat on the back. He didn’t even sound remotely annoyed then, perfect.

Only he forgot that he’s not dealing with some rational lifeform. He’d read enough about the previous encounters with Q, and read the regulations on how to handle an encounter with one, plenty of times to know that there was no such thing as rational to them. They did what they wanted, when they wanted and how they wanted.

Unfortunately, this Q had chosen the Yi Sun-Sin to be his plaything for today. Which meant that headache that shouldn’t exist was beginning to very much feel like it existed.

“Oh, are we not exploring today? How about some action instead? I know the perfect place.” Another snap of his fingers and everything goes white once more. What takes a mere second feels like minutes, with Jungkook dreading what they’ll be faced with. Because if there’s one thing he’s certain of right now, it’s that it would not be where they’d started.

He’s greeted with a vista of space when he finally opens his eyes, the twinkling lights of far-off stars as familiar to him as the back of his hand. A welcoming sight.

What is not welcoming, however, is the immediate alarm that begins to blare through the bridge. Automatically, the lights dim and a familiar, if unwanted, red light begins to flash throughout the bridge while screens begin to show what the ship deems to be important information.

Red alert. The standard Starfleet setting for when enemy ships are detected or they go to battle stations. Automatically, the ship has put itself into red alert when something has triggered its sensors. Under normal circumstances, this would mean the Yi Sun-Sin would be primed and ready for battle with weapons ready.

With no warp drive though, it was just a foreboding sound that chilled Jungkook to his very bones. Because there was something out there. Something that his ship deemed a danger to itself and her crew. Something he couldn’t fight.

“Sensors?!” He barks, jerking into movement. Hoseok doesn’t even waste a breath, practically leaping behind the security console and tapping at the screen. There’s no need to ask what he’s doing, Jungkook already knows that he’s trying to see if there’s anything they could do to fight.

“One ship, sir. It’s spotted us, five-million kilometres out and closing. It’s…” Jimin trails off, his already pale face draining even more as his mind acknowledges what he’s reading. His reaction alone makes Jungkook feel sick. Romulans weren’t prone to fear when it came to fighting. They lived for this kind of stuff, beaten only perhaps by the Klingons.

“It’s a Borg sphere, Captain.” The soft words come from behind him and he spins around, eyes widening while the rest of his expression freezes in dual shock and dismay. Your face is carefully neutral, just like it always is and he watches as you work through the data on your astrometrics panel. The sensors for your area are far more sensitive than the general navigation, which makes it no surprise that you’d figured it out first.

“Borg?” He almost whispers. There’s no need to look at the rest of the crew. The subtle wave of fear at the incoming ship moves around the bridge like a harsh wind. But at the same time, he feels a thread of pride at the actions of his senior command. No one panics or starts shouting, instead there’s an odd silence that soon turns the fear into resolve.

There may not be a lot that they could do, but Jungkook would be damned if the Yi Sun-Sin didn’t go down fighting in some way. Even if he had to ram the sphere. Did it make him a bad captain if he’d much rather his crew die in a suicide mission than be assimilated into a lifeless collective?

Glancing back over at you, he sees what no one else does. The fear in your eyes. The pure terror at the knowledge that the Collective you had once been a part of was so close to taking you again. From many conversations with you over the months, both casual and a little more intimate just before sleeping, Jungkook knew that you would rather die than go back.

There was no individual in the Borg. No one person, no freedom of thought of free will. There was only the Collective. A central mind that connected to every single Borg throughout the galaxy, billions upon billions of minds all working as one with no thoughts of their own. You had immeasurable knowledge from all the information that the Borg had harvested from the races they had assimilated over time, but you were terrified of losing your individuality once more.

A Borg drone, which you had once been, was nothing. The Collective thought nothing of killing off drones they deemed defective or those that couldn’t be repaired. There was no compassion, no empathy. No love.

Yes. Jungkook would rather his crew die than put them through that. He didn’t think he’d have many complaints about it either.

Perhaps a little selfishly too, he couldn’t bear the thought of putting you through that once more. You’d finally learnt how to be an individual once more and were exploring your humanity. The thought of you lost forever once more was even more painful.

Looking over at Seokjin, Jungkook gritted his teeth and pointed at him with fury. If only the Q didn’t have the kind of power that Jungkook couldn’t even begin to imagine or understand. He would sincerely love to punch the smug, handsome asshole.

“Take. Us. Back. I told you, we have no warp drive! That means we have no weapons! You’re not going to get the battle you wanted. We can’t fight the Borg, not like this. Take us back! You can be on the ship, fine whatever! Just...don’t touch anything and let us just do our mission! Please.” He begged, about ready to get on his knees if necessary.

Maybe it wasn’t very becoming for a Starfleet captain, but he didn’t care right now. He had no idea where they were in the galaxy and if the Borg got them, then Starfleet would never know either. The Yi Sun-Sin would go down as missing in action, just another mystery that would never be solved.

But Seokjin’s attention has moved onto you, a curious expression taking over. Tilting his head slightly, he walks over to you with long, elegant strides that make it seem like he’s been on this bridge many times. It annoys Jungkook and he has to ball his hands into fists to stop himself from lashing out at the Q.

You could take care of yourself, he knew that. Jungkook had far more important things to stress over than Seokjin taking a sudden interest with you. So it’s with great pains that he turns away and begins to bark orders at his bridge crew, demanding the status of weapons before patching through to engineering and getting an update from them.

“What are you?” Seokjin asks you, eyes of a deep chocolate brown scanning your frame up and down repeatedly. Unlike anyone else on the bridge, the colour of the top portion of your uniform is blue. A signifier of the science division, it was rare for you to be on the bridge; Jungkook wished that you weren’t here right now given the way Seokjin was looking at you speculatively.

He shouldn’t have been concerned though because you handled the omnipotent being with the same, cool regard that you did everything else. It had been a little frustrating when he’d first taken command, even more so when he’d realised that he had a potential romantic interest but he loved it right now.

Because you just stared at Seokjin, your gaze not giving away a single hint of emotion or expression. A slight tilt of your head gives away that you’re considering him and Jungkook probably shouldn’t get as much satisfaction as he does by the way Seokjin shuffles, almost as if he’s awkward.

“You are a Q. The Borg have never met your species before. I have no frame of reference for how to engage with you except for the reports from Starfleet.” As usual, your words are straightforward and precise. No one ever has to worry about whether you hold hidden intentions, it’s simply not in your nature anymore to engage in subterfuge.

“The Borg,” Seokjin sounds surprised and he scans over you a few more times, brow rising. “You can’t be an actual Borg, they wouldn’t let you stay here. Not to mention you don’t have all that ugly machine stuff on you. Humanoid and in a Starfleet uniform. You were a Borg, but now you’re not with the Collective anymore. How fascinating.”

“Very. Captain, if you will excuse me then I have duties to attend to.” You’re looking at Jungkook now, lips pursed expectantly. Pausing in his questions to everyone else, Jungkook nods and permits you to leave the bridge. It’s not unnoticed by him the way Seokjin watches you in fascination as you leave. His stomach turns at the sight and worry fills him.

Not that there’s any point. You can take care of yourself and more importantly, none of them could stop whatever Seokjin wanted to do.

“How very interesting.” Jungkook can’t help but glare at the Q as he watches you leave, twisting his lips in a bizarrely human gesture. Finally, he reaches his boiling point and points in frustration out of the viewscreen.

“Borg. Danger. Leave. Now.” Part of him knows that he shouldn’t be as blunt and rude, not when the situation was this dangerous. But he didn’t care, he just wanted his crew and ship away from danger. Something that Jungkook couldn’t do himself. He’d begged, he’d argued and now he was being firm.

If Seokjin wanted to pretend to be part of his crew then he would have to learn to take orders from him. It was the only way this whole stupid thing was going to work without causing Jungkook some serious stress. The very fact that he was even considering this said volumes about the fear and pressure Jungkook was under right now.

Exhaling slowly, he pleaded with himself internally to keep himself calm. From what he’d read about the Q, and that was the race as a whole, it wouldn’t do to antagonise him. It’d do no one any good if he decided to just disappear, leaving the Yi Sun-Sin to its fate.

“Fine, fine. Urgh, you lower lifeforms have no sense of adventure. You’re all so boring.” A click of his fingers sends everything white once more. Once his vision clears, Jungkook immediately starts barking orders to his crew. He didn’t need to though, they were automatically moving like a well-oiled machine.

“We’re back where we started, captain,” Jimin confirms with a nod of his head, his gaze still focused on the readout from his console. He doesn’t say anything more, his fingers too busy darting across the screen as he takes in what he’s seeing.

“Well, this was a waste of my time. I’ll be back when the fun starts.” With that, Seokjin vanishes. The bridge is eerily silent for a few minutes after he’s gone, everyone looking at each other in confusion as the red alert status disappears now they’re safe again.

“Is he gone?” Yoongi asks, looking over at Hoseok. The security chief glances down to his console, lips pursing as he scans through the information before nodding his head slowly.

“No...Q life-signs detected on board. Or rather, only what we expect should be onboard. Looks like he’s really gone.” Something inside Jungkook relaxes and he suddenly feels so, unbelievably, tired. Groaning quietly, he flops back into the captain’s seat and rubs at his forehead. He should visit the medical bay, it’s not natural to have a headache.

“Okay. Okay, well. He’s going to come back, we know that. Just be prepared, warn everyone on board and I want to be informed the moment he turns out. Hoseok, you better make sure your security team is ready for anything he decides to do. I know you probably can’t do anything but it’ll sure as hell make me feel better. Yoongi, get onto engineering and see if they can speed this whole thing up. I want to be gone as soon as possible, is that understood?” Yoongi nods, automatically turning to the interface in his chair.

“Yes sir, I’ll collate reports from all departments and send them to your ready room.” Nodding to his second-in-command, Jungkook stands and stretches with a groan. He’d spent long enough on the bridge and he just wanted some time to relax. But he couldn’t do that, not yet.

“Great. I’m going to head to sickbay, check-in with Dr Troi as my head is killing after that incident. Then I’m gonna try and get some rest. You’ve got the bridge Yoongi, once the engines are fixed and working then get us going again. Warp 8, back on our path. And...send a report to Starfleet about what’s happened. Try and get some advice on what to do with all this. Everyone good with their orders?” Looking around, everyone on the bridge nodded in acknowledgement to him and a weight lifted off his shoulders.

He had a good bridge crew, and he knew that he could rely on them while he was gone. Heading over to the turbolift, entering the circular car and asking for the desk that medical bay was one. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he sighed as it began to move.

“Fuck.”

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yurtletheturtlehenderson · 3 years

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COSMIC - S3:E3; Chapter Three, The Case Of The Missing Lifeguard - [Pt. 4]

A Will Byers x Reader Series

𝘌𝘭 𝘨𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘉𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳. 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘥, 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘔𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘋&𝘋. 𝘋𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘙𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦.

⚠️: character death, gore, jazzercise, and small mentions of El having a panic attack [will include markers]

📝: the character death and gore is a flashback from last season cause apparently making us watch Bob die once wasn't enough 🥲 also sorry the code cracking scene was so bad, it was kinda hard to write

||𝟑𝐑𝐃 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐏𝐎𝐕||

It hadn't taken long to get El ready for her next trip to the void. El found a spot on the ground, dry enough to sit, and began constructing a familiar device with goggles and duct tape they had miraculously found laying around. El had been kicking herself for leaving her headband at home, she should have known she'd need it. But this would do. And it reminded her of her conversation with Joyce that night; the first time someone had helped her through her fears of the void. Y/n and Max got to work behind her, turning on each of the showers to create the white noise El needed.

When they had finished, they took a seat on either side of their friend who now sat before the photo. Drawing in a deep breath, she placed the goggles over her face and began her search.

It was cold and lonely like it always was. Again, she tried to remind herself her friends were with her but it did little to lull the growing fears of what she might find next.

A mailbox was her only clue this time. It wasn't too far away, but the way it stood alone in the distance, waiting for her, unsettled her somehow. Maybe that was just the void, but that felt like a lie she kept trying to tell herself to get through it all.

It bore the numbers 1438, and it was sprinkled in rain. When she finally reached it, she carefully reached out her hand. She could almost feel the tin under her fingertips when suddenly a crimson smoke manifested out of thin air just feet away. It didn't take long for the smoke to build and the picture to form.

"What do you see?" Max asked, after some time.

"A door," El answered, her voice obstructed from the goggles over her nose. "A red door,"

It sat there, waiting for her to move. El knew she had to, and when she did that awful feeling in her gut grew stronger. Her heart pounded against her ribcage as she reached for the handle, and it took all she had not to waver as it slowly swung open.

El's frown grew at the sight waiting for her on the other side. A ways away sat a bright white bathtub. She wasn't at all eager to find out what was inside, but when she did, she wished she could say she was surprised.

Ice. Just ice.

Just like with Billy, but the ice hadn't melted yet. The tub was almost overflowing with it and—

El jumped back when a girl shot up from within so suddenly. It was Heather. She was pink-faced and trembling, but something told El it wasn't from the cold. The droplets of water covering her face had easily disguised the tears slipping down her face, and the look in her glassy eyes was pleading up at her.

"Help me," she sobbed.

El didn't have time to react before Heather was pulled violently back under. El shrieked, immediately diving after her only to be met with the watery floor. She was panting for breath, trying so desperately to calm her racing heart but she realized she didn't have time to. Heather was still there, in need of her help and she was quickly disappearing under the water that separated them.

El cried out to her, desperate to reach her but something was stopping her. She could scream and claw at the surface of water separating them, but by the time she found a way to duck her head and arm in after her, it was too late. El watched helplessly in horror as Heather was pulled into the deep black abyss of her watery grave, crying out for help.

"NO!"

■■■■■■■■■■■■■

El threw the goggles off her head in an instant, her shoulders heaving as she gulped down breaths of air.

"What happened?" Max asks immediately, her hand flying to El's shoulder for comfort. "El!"

El didn't answer. With a haunted look in her eyes, she gaped between her friends. Worried, to say the least, Max and Y/n looked to one another afraid as she buries her head in her hands. El didn't say a word and instead collapsed into shaky sobs as she tried to come down.

Y/n recognized the panic attack, and in an instant she had thrown herself to the floor beside El, laying her hand on her back and began rubbing soothing circles.

"Hey, you're okay. You're okay. Take my hand," She whispers, carefully taking El's left hand in her own. She knew it was a good sign when El squeezed back, despite her heaving breaths. It was a sign she was responding. "We're here, it's okay. Just breath. Deep breaths, in and out,"

El's breathing barely slowed, but Y/n kept encouraging her. As they found themselves doing more and more, Max and Y/n lock eyes, their faces horror-stricken for their friend. El doesn't notice. She merely squeezed Y/n's hand tighter and allowed the sobs to come.

■■■■■■■■■■■■■

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

HAWKINS NATIONAL LABORATORY

Once a place thriving with life and secret agency was now a desolate wasteland; a grave for rot and chaos that lay untouched for months.

The sign once erected on the outer gates now lay dented and scuffed among the mud and rain, forgotten like the rest of the laboratory.

RESTRICTED AREA

NO TRESPASSING

U.S. GOVERNMENT

PROPERTY

Hoppers truck comes to a screeching halt outside the lab's doors. Grabbing their bolt cutters and flashlights, Joyce and Hopper make their way to the abandoned laboratory that had caused them so much pain.

Joyce couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong. She knew it was silly to be so worried about faulty magnets, but she didn't regret her actions. The last two times she had this unshakeable feeling in her core, she had been right to listen. The first being the moment she found Will's bed empty on the morning of November 7th, 1983. The second being Halloween night, the following year. And each time she felt it, untold horrors had followed.

And now? So far, those instincts hadn't failed her yet.

One visit to Scott Clarke about the town's sudden faulty magnets and her doubts were confirmed. And according to him, the only way an unstable electromagnetic field big enough to reach over all of Hawkins would have cost billions of dollars, and likely government-funded.

This had the lab written all over it. This had to do with the Upside Down and those monsters with it. It just had to. And she wasn't about to sit around and wait for it take her boy again. Or anybody else for that matter.

So here she was, nothing but a flashlight in hand and a fierce determination in her as she stormed the gates of Hawkins Lab, Hopper in toe.

The lab was just as they had left it that night. Glass was shattered among the floors from the busted windows, the chill seeping in from all sides; still as sharp as it was that night.

"Hello? Anybody home?"

The only answer the duo receives is the echo of Hopper's voice bouncing back to them as they step inside.

"We come in peace."

As she stood here now, Joyce realized everything was as she had last left it. That is... all but one thing.

One person.

Bob Newby. Superhero.

《•••》

He stood, the warmest of smiles gracing his face as he looked at the woman he loved. She was safe.

The next thing he felt was a harsh thud in his spine and skull as he was thrown to the floor.

All he knew was fear as he stared death in the face; its haunches in the air and its faceless head peeled away to reveal several rows of sharp thorny teeth as it pinned the man to the floors.

Joyce jumps back at the sight, her horrified screams blending with his own. The creature towers over Bob, and despite the man's best efforts he cannot quite match the beast's strength. It raises a single lean arm into the air, and in one swift motion its talons glide down to meet his left kidney. As its claws sink further into his sides, a cloud of deep crimson stains his scrubs, and a guttural cry of pain tears from deep within his chest.

"No!"

Joyce's cries of anguish alert the chief, who comes in all too late. He draws his rifle, now more in tune with the weapon without a still unconscious Will over his shoulder. But even then, it is far too late when the bullets hit the thing attacking Bob. Life has already begun to drain from the man, and in a matter of seconds, his chest had been torn to shreds.

"No!" She cries, fighting against Hopper's grip, unable to tear her teary eyes away from Bob.

"Go!"

As she is pulled around the corner, her one free arm stretches out after the man who had risked so much.

"Bob!"

The last thing she sees before the scene disappears from her view altogether is Bob's trembling and bloody hand reaching out for her in his remaining moments.

"No!"

《•••》

"Joyce,"

Her eyes are far away and haunted when she finally looks at Hopper. It looked to him as if she was pulling herself out of a memory, and he didn't have to wonder which. Hopper had a hunch this would happen, but he was in no place to blame her.

"You okay?" He asks.

But she was already burying it. Again, something he anticipated.

"I'm fine," she says quickly.

"You wanna wait in the car?"

Joyce all but scoffed and marched ahead.

"I said I'm fine."

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

Hours. They had been at this. For hours. At least... Well, that's what it felt like to Steve and Dustin as they continued their search.

Really it had only been a little over one.

Spycraft could be pretty boring, they quickly realized.

Their mission was beginning to feel a bit silly as the longer time wore on. After all, what were the odds they'd find an actual evil Russian waltzing around in broad daylight?

"Target acquired," Dustin gasped.

Okay, so maybe the odds were pretty decent.

"Where?"

"Ten o'clock. Sam Goody's,"

"Give me that," Steve says, taking hold of the binoculars.

Sure enough, just as Dustin had said, a towering man in shades, long blonde hair, was carrying a duffle bag as he strode through the crowd.

"Shit. Duffle bag,"

Lowering the binoculars, the duo look to one another with grave faces as it dawns on them.

-"Evil Russian"

He wasn't at all hard to spot in their sudden chase. His all-black jumpsuit stood out among the sea of neon around him as he ascended the escalator.

Despite his casted looks at his surroundings, the man didn't seem to notice the two boys close on his tail.

"Slow down," Dustin warned, as they squeezed through a group of girls.

"We're losin' him,"

"You're getting too close,"

Steve's shoulder suddenly collided with a guy not much older than him, who turned to scowl at him.

"Watch it, dickwad!"

The target slowed, peering curiously over his shoulder. Steve and Dustin fall back against the wall; Steve behind a plant that didn't exactly hide him or his bright blue uniform and Dustin ran for the payphone. He picked it up, immediately speaking into it in a monotone voice he would cringe at later.

"Hello. Yes. I am fine. How are you?"

But he didn't seem to notice, the target had already moved on. He seemed to be in a hurry.

When they were certain he had no reason to spot them, they fell back into a scurry on his tail which carried them all the way to...

Jazzercise?

Peering around the corner, Steve and Dustin watched bewildered as the man hurried to the front of the class.

"All right, everyone, listen up!" He yells.

Their minds raced as he threw the duffle bag onto the counter with an impressive thud before pulling back the zipper.

"I just have one question for you."

What evil did this man have in mind for this poor, unsuspecting group of women?

"Who..."

He rips his glasses off, and reaches into the duffle bag-

"is ready to sweat?"

-and pulls out a boombox.

Simultaneously, their faces fall into small 'o's as they gape at the unexpected turn of events.

The ladies clad in neon tights and leg warmers bounce happily on their mats, and a chorus of agreements ring out throughout the class.

"That's right!" Cheers the non-Russian. With a blindingly white smile, he presses play on the boombox and Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go begins to burst from the speakers. Stepping onto a mat of his own, he unzips his black jumpsuit — which they now realized was a tracksuit — to reveal an equally neon, dangerously thin, muscle tee. "Okay! Let's start nice and easy now."

A grimace falls over Steve and Dustin as they watch the sight unfold.

"Let's move our thighs. Yeah!"

The women cheer as he begins to grind the air.

"Yeah, ladies, warm it up."

They begin to copy his motions.

"Bring it down to your hips. Start feeling that burn, everywhere, down in the loins, right?"

Steve just blinks.

"Slow now. Just isolate."

The man begins thrusting his hips, and Dustin watches horrified.

Okay, so maybe this mission wouldn't be so easy.

But if they were going to find anything, he was sure it would be easier to handle than this.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"The week is long," Robin mutters. "The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly."

She takes a thoughtful sip of her soda, eyes raking over her notepad with the now fully translated message. Turns out, translation went a lot faster without those idiots trying to help. But something was still nagging at her.

"Tread lightly," she mumbles, discarding her drink and beginning to thumb through the translation book.

Had she gotten it wrong? She didn't think she had, but why else would it be bothering her?

She was pulled from her thoughts at the sudden sound of knocking on the back door. In a haste, she unhooks the headphones from her neck and squeezes through the partition window before yanking open the back door.

"Delivery for you,"

"Thank you," she says, grabbing for the package.

It was heavy, but that was to be expected. It must be the new shipment in from Michigan, she thought. With a huff, she drops it onto the break table before turning back to the waiting delivery man.

She scratched her signature in before handing the pen and clipboard back, and that's when her eyes linger on his uniform.

LYNX TRANSPORTATION

That nagging feeling was back, but more than anything it felt like an itch had finally been scratched.

It couldn't be, could it?

"Have a nice day,"

"Yeah, you too," she mumbles.

She could hear the wheels of his hand truck carrying down the hall and that's when Robin peered out after him.

A hint of a smirk grew on her face when she laid eyes on the insignia painted over the back of his uniform.

"Silver cat." She gasps. "Silver. Cat."

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

"Hey, Robin, you're not gonna believe who Dustin thought was a Russian," Steve grumbled as they strode back into Scoops Ahoy.

Dustin shoved his arm.

"You did too."

"No, I did not!"

"Yes, you did!"

"No, I did not."

But Robin wasn't listening. She had shoved herself right past them without so much as a glance in their direction.

Out of breath in exhilaration, Robin finds herself on the ledge of the topiary in the very heart of Starcourt. Her eyes scoured the shops and she can feel everything falling into place.

"A trip to China sounds nice," she mutters. "A trip to China... sounds... nice..."

If Lynx Transportation was the Silver Cat, something in this mall — a store in this mall — then that meant...

Imperial Panda.

Her grin returns.

"A trip to China sounds nice."

She checks her notes again.

'If you tread lightly'

It had to be something with shoes...

How about Kauffman shoes?

"If you tread lightly,"

Now blue and yellow... what could that be — where had she seen that?

"When blue meets yellow..."

Her eyes fly across the walls, and for a moment she wonders if it's somewhere deeper in the mall out of sight. But that didn't make sense. What did make sense were the two clock hands at the center of the mall she had glanced at almost every hour of every shift.

"in the west."

"Robin?"

Steve and Dustin reach her side, peering up at her with a questioning look.

"What are you doing?"

"I cracked it," is all she can say.

"Cracked what?"

No longer able to contain her excitement, she jumped down from the ledge and her lips split into a small, shaky smile.

"I cracked the code."

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

Stepping through the airlock doors that separated the world from the gate to the Upside Down was not as daunting as it once had been.

For one, the airlock obviously was no longer functioning, nor was anything else in the building and above all, it all felt... empty. It looked more like an abandoned hospital than a notoriously evil government lab dedicated to the study of alternate dimensions and psychic child weapons.

And what once had been a gaping hole that lowered into a stories-high rift to another dimension was now just a slab of fresh concrete. The gate, and any way of reaching it, had long since been sealed.

Hopper gives a definitive, hollow knock on the plaster when they reach the wall, and turns to Joyce, "Nobody's home," and paces away.

"All the cavities have been filled. I watched 'em do it, Joyce."

At the very least, it was hard to swallow. For so long the truth had always led back here. Everything led back here.

The mind flayer, the demodogs. Will himself.

How could this not be the lab? Or at the very least, the Upside Down?

"It's over," Hopper concludes, seemingly reading her thoughts. Sharing a collective sigh with Joyce, Hopper looks around at the remains as she takes a seat on a nearby lift. "It's over,"

"I feel like I'm looking my mind," she says.

"You're not losing your mind," Hopper assures, nervously beginning to pace. "Not any more than I am."

He nibbles on the inside of his cheek as he nervously kicks a loose piece of rubble.

"You know, the other day, I almost shot Betsy Payne's dog because it came rushing at me from behind this fence, and I... I swear to God I thought it was one of those things."

The look in Joyce's eyes was all too familiar. It was a look he knew he had been wearing as long as she had

"You know that I'm keeping a close eye on things, right?"

"Yeah,"

"Because it is important to me." Hopper all but chokes. "It is important to me that you feel safe. That you and your family feel safe. I want you to feel like this can still be your home."

Joyce winces.

"What?" He asks somberly, already knowing the answer. "You didn't think I'd find out about that? Gary called me. He's said he's fixing up your house to put on the market."

Joyce makes no effort to deny his claims and Hopper realizes he never really expected her to. He didn't know what he was expecting. But the Byers leaving Hawkins was something he considered unthinkable.

And knowing that family, he wasn't the only one who'd miss them.

"The kids know yet?"

Joyce doesn't say a word, but it's all the answer he needed. The look on her face says it all; she didn't want to. She was afraid to. But she was also afraid to be in Hawkins. Afraid for her boys being in Hawkins.

And Hopper knew that feeling all too well.

"After Sarah..." he sighs, taking a seat on the ground beside her. "I had to get away... I had to get the hell out of that place, you know? Outrun those, uh... those memories, I guess."

Hopper tries to summon the words but they were having a hard time through the lump in his throat. There wasn't a day that went by he didn't think about his little girl. About what life would have been like had she still been around, how she and El would get along... All of it. But that wasn't the truth, and he knew it.

"I mean, why do you think I ended up back in this shithole?"

Eyes brimming with tears, Hopper peers up at the woman who had wormed her way into his heart all those years ago. She let out a pathetic chuckle, as he did and all he can do is smile weakly up at her.

"But you have something that I never had. You have people that know what you've been through. You have people that care about you. Right here. In Hawkins."

"You mean," she begins, her voice soft and cracked. "You mean, people like Scott Clarke?"

There's a painful silence that Joyce finally puts out of its misery.

"That was a joke," she smiled.

Hopper releases a sharp breath, his eyes fluttering closed in relief and her smile widens just a little further.

"Mm," he groans softly, giving a small laugh.

Lost in the moment and each other's company, they had nearly forgotten where they were had it not been for the sudden clang echoing down the nearby halls.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

The Okra Project:

AAIP Mental Health Association

Black Trans Lives Matter Carrd

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

"The Okra Project is a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever we can reach them."

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moonah-rose · 3 years

Text

Little Blue Eyes

A brief follow-up to this. Eleanor visits Michael during his reforming.

She had to hand it to Jason. If anyone had told her that it was possible to break a Janet out of Hell and get her away from an army of demons using just a Molotov, a single demon exploder gun, and a bag of weed, she’d have been very sceptical. But somehow he managed to bring their not-a-girl home, riding back in that hand-cart, grinning away as if he’d gone to a Jaguars game with her.

That was one problem dealt with. Now only a billion others to sort out.

As overjoyed as she’d been to see Janet back, safe and sound, she hadn’t been looking forward to reliving the most awful night of the year by explaining to her why their tall, dandy dressed demon wasn’t at her side, or hadn’t gone to save her.

It was easier to hand her the note that Michael had wrote (or possibly snapped into being after she slammed the door as she was sure even he couldn’t write that fast) before he’d pulled the trigger on himself.

I’m sorry.

I don’t want you to be worrying about how I might betray you or let you down again. If I’m locked up, you’re just going to worry that I’ve escaped. Just leave me in a tank on the other side of the map, or in Janet’s void if you bring her back, or just leave me in the Bad Place. If anything I just wanna ask that you make sure I’m all in there as I’d rather not come back shorter. Also if you can make sure no dogs are around to lap me up, I’d appreciate it.

I only ever wanted to save you all. I’m sorry I did nothing but screw up. I understand if you don’t want me back in the group after I’m back to normal. Please just get Janet back safe, even if it does mean going to the Judge. And give my best to Chidi when he wakes up.

I wasn’t lying about one thing; I really do love you all so much. I’m sorry it could never be enough.

Michael.

Reading the goo-stained letter with shaking hands, she’d struggled not to burst into tears of anger or throw up. Standing in the middle of the empty room, her friend dripping all around her, she’d wanted to scream at him for this being his best attempt to make things up to her - to forking leave her! To take the cowards way out.

Being angry was so much easier than accepting the guilt of what she had said to him before that moment. Of questioning if she had gone too far...if she’d just taken a moment to listen to him...Usually the dude had trouble shutting the fork up but that night, all he’d done is stand there and take everything she threw at him...until there was nothing left standing. Literally.

If she’d had any idea he would do something so reckless and stupid then of course she would never have said...

But you did know. You knew exactly what he was prepared to do to help you, if it’s what you said you needed. What you wanted.

She never wanted this, she admits to herself, barely a couple months later.

Running this experiment basically single-handed was...not overly difficult. In fact, she was pretty confident in saying they were doing okay, considering the circumstances.

But it still sucked. She was alone. Again.

Obviously there was no way she was going to have Michael’s goo abandoned in some random, isolated location. She was mad at the guy but she wasn’t a monster...so she told herself. At the same time, she couldn’t give up the role he’d thrusted upon her by suddenly taking up the role of nurse-maid, as hot as she might have looked in the uniform. He’d chosen to do this so she could work without distractions. Without a liability.

“He sacrificed himself to save me. We’re on our own now. Let’s make it count.”

Just get the fork on with things, same as before. No point in looking back.

Tahani is the one who volunteers. She’s able to separate herself from the other humans without causing too much suspicion, claiming the need for a private getaway up in the hills, deep in the valley, a hidden fancy lodge by a stream, surrounded by peaceful deer and mountains. Definitely not Eleanor’s scene, anything involving the wilderness or even resembling camping.

By the time Eleanor sees her off on a private car Derek conjured up, Michael’s goo already reached its first form. The blind, helpless demon larva showed no signs of awareness of his surroundings, curling up as small as possible, malleable as Tahani swaddled him in her fluffiest blanket. Eleanor was almost impressed at how quickly the sexy giraffe had overcome being grossed out at the slimy, squidgy creature, able to look almost maternal as she carried him into the car. And she made sure to say as much.

Tahani’s heavy hearted response would stick with Eleanor for the next few weeks; “I didn’t reassure him when he asked us if we could ever be friends with a gross monster. Best I can do is show him how much we truly care.”

Ouch. Way to kick her in the girl-nads.

“You sure you’ll be okay?”

“I’ve helped out in multiple animal sanctuaries and used to fly out to work with deprived children with my dear friend Angelina...But this is definitely new territory for me.” She’d said as she looked over the larva demon, making the tiniest cooing noise in his sleep (or what they assumed was sleep). “I’ll try my best.”

That was all any of them could do. She’d contemplated attempting to speak to the larva Michael in her arms. What could she possibly say? Could he even understand her?

She was still angry. And yet it was difficult to connect the anger towards the one who abandoned her to the pathetic looking being in the blanket. Best to save all those harsh words on the tip of her tongue for when he was back to being tall and slappable.

Is he really the one you want to slap?

The question comes back to haunt her more frequently each night that follows, whenever she thinks back on that night, or wonders how the two of them are doing. She and Tahani send letters often via the birds who are happy to act as messengers. They just have to be careful none of the humans intercept them. She lets her gorgeous friend know how the experiment is going and Tahani offers her tips on how to improve John, in particular. Every time she goes to write ‘how is Michael?’ she erases it, chest tightening. Tahani tells her anything important.

The slug monster form that follows the larva is a lot more challenging, she reports. He’s now the size of a Tibetan huskie and just as hungry.

I just let him roam the fields and eat what he can find. Sometimes I have to pull him in on a leash if he doesn’t tire himself out, otherwise I worry he’ll slither off in the night. I try to talk to him but he just grunts or roars at me until I tell him off. I was a little worried he might try to eat me but I found playing music - 80′s classics, mostly - calms him down and makes him rather docile. I don’t think he knows quite who I am or remembers anything. Perhaps it’s like when Janet is rebooted? He may need time to restore his memories, as she did.

Oh, darn, I must finish - he’s in the rose bush again!

Sometimes the image of her prim socialite friend trying to restrain a two-hundred-pound slug monster is so hilarious she can’t help but laugh. Other times she feels more guilt tugging at her soul to go lend a hand.

Is Michael really little more than an animal, in his head, right now? She’s hardly proved herself the best at pet care, though it sounded like Michael overeating was the least of their worries. It pained her to imagine what his head must be going through right now. Is he scared? Confused? Lost? Does he have any emotions other than the instinct to feed?

Does he still blame himself? Does he miss her as much as she...?

The more she sits in that chair in the office, the smaller she feels. It doesn’t belong to her; she’s merely filling it in while he’s gone. She has lunch in silence, remembering the jokes they used to share, the games of trying to aim food in the others mouth across the desk. She remembers him snapping a margarita for her when he knew she needed it most. She remembers his hand on her shoulder. She remembers him finding her at her lowest point, when everyone else had doubted her, turned their backs.

She remembers him, always there. And now she’s lost him.

Was wanting him gone over a stupid lie really worth all of this?

When Jason returns with Janet, on the same day she’s hesitating whether to jump on the nearest unicorn and head towards the mountains, she takes it as a sign. She has no excuse to stay away now - not with Janet back to watch over things, though she’ll probably be paying Michael a visit soon too.

She rides up on the train Janet conjures for her, saving her from trying to figure out how to ride a unicorn without breaking her neck. Something tells her she might have more luck at taming a slug monster than her British friend, not that she has any experience, just a few encounters with the grosser men in Arizona. Besides, it was Michael, at the end of the day. Their Michael.

The same Michael willing to sacrifice himself to help a bunch of cockroaches.

It’s such an idyllic landscape she arrives at. A total holiday card photo, without the snow. Nothing but grass and trees for miles before a backdrop of purple mountains. She looks around, seeing the evidence of devoured flower gardens and broken fences. At least the solid, oak cabin by the stream stood in tact, smoke billowing from the chimney.

Eleanor is so focused on keeping her eyes peeled for a rampaging slug monster that she almost fails to spot the little person sat on the front step of the veranda.

She frowns. That has to be the whitest child she’s ever laid eyes on. Granted most kids growing up in Phoenix were smothered in fake tan before they were three by their moms, but this is something else. The kid has long white hair, half-plaited, down to the shoulders of the cream dress she’s wearing. Her skin is so pale it’s nearly translucent. Fork, is she looking at an actual ghost?

Wait...She’s a ghost. That really shouldn’t freak her out.

There’s just something so eerie about the little girl, from her sickly appearance to how weirdly quiet she is for...However old she is. Six? Seven? Thirteen? Eleanor really knows nothing about kids, just that they’re usually much louder than this one, sat alone, playing with a set of shining...

Oh.

“Michael?”

The kid looks away from the chain of a paperclips they were linking, gazing up at Eleanor on the gravel path. As soon as she sees their eyes, she has her answer. Even without a pair of glasses, she’d recognise those sparkling blue eyes anywhere. It’s only then that she remembers the third form.

Spooky little girl.

Though far less spooky than she imagined. More...sad.

Despite her surprise, she tries to smile, not knowing how badly she needed to see those eyes look at her again after this past month.

“Hey, buddy. How’re you feeling?” She starts to approach.

The kid drops the paperclips and jumps up to their feet, beginning to tremble terribly, eyes wide as saucers.

Eleanor stops. Is he afraid? Of her?

“Michael? D’you remember me? It’s Eleanor, dude..”

“‘Hani!” The child cries turning and running inside the cabin. Fork, she knew was bad with kids, but shirt! Eleanor rushes in to follow, unable to hold back.

She enters the cosily furnished cabin to see the pale girl run up to the leg of the six foot beauty standing at the stove and cling to her skirt for dear life.

Tahani looks over from the pot of spaghetti, face fearful at first before lighting up when she spots her friend stood in the foyer.

“Eleanor! What a lovely surprise.” She beams, turning the stove off; “I’m so glad you decided to visit.”

“Wow...You’re kinda rocking the whole rustic single mom look here, babe.” Eleanor says, looking around the place, everything making her feel so warm and comforted from the open fireplace to the heavy air of recently baked bread.

Tahani looks down to her charge hanging onto her dress, reaching down to pick the little fingers off carefully.

“Well, it was rather nice to have a project to myself, and Derek was surprisingly helpful. Everything else I acquired myself, having learned to survive in the wild from a well known ‘Bear’ friend of mine.” She holds the kid’s hands and bends down to their eye level; “Michael, sweetheart, look who’s come to visit. Remember Eleanor?”

The demon child whimpers, throwing their arms around Tahani’s neck and hiding in her luscious dark hair.

Eleanor bites her lip; “He’s a lot more shy than the slug monster, I take it.”

“Oh, I don’t understand. They were fine with Jason this morning, they were playing video games for hours - he and Janet teleported over briefly to check in on us. So glad they got back safe.”

So Jason gets a teleport but she takes the train? The first time she’s not an immortal being’s favorite to spoil.

Eleanor shuffles her feet, trying not to feel wounded at how terrified her friend currently is of her, when apparently there was no issue with Jason. But then, Jason makes it difficult for anyone to dislike him. Eleanor makes it an open invitation.

The kid whispers something to Tahani that causes the woman to pick them up.

“Oh, darling, don’t be silly.” She responds, rubbing their back; “That was just a nightmare.”

“Nightmare?” Eleanor asks. Is she the stuff of nightmares?

Tahani eventually convinces the pale kid to go back outside to continue playing while she catches up with Eleanor.

Questions Tahani has about the experiment and the subjects get quickly brushed aside. Eleanor is unable to focus on anything but the image of Michael’s eyes looking at her with so much fear. When Tahani hands her a fresh cup of cofffee, she wants to stick her hand in it, just to scold herself for the sake of it.

“He’s having nightmares? I mean...she’s having...” Eleanor frowns.

“I find it easier to use ‘they/them’, which Michael seems to prefer as well, currently.” Tahani explains; “Most of the time, they’re a calm, affectionate child. Such a welcome change from the beast I was putting up with a fortnight ago, as much as they grew on me. It’s just at night, while their brain is still reforming and all these memories are flooding back...It can be rather distressing. Trust me, it’s heart-breaking just to see them crying and screaming...”

She can’t imagine that recalling centuries of brutally torturing innocents along with the knowledge of why that was wrong is easy for anyone, least of all in the form of a small girl, creepy or not.

“Honestly, the creepiest I’ve encountered so far is them levitating at the end of my bed - and that’s usually when they’re just looking for a cuddle.”

Eleanor smiles a little, Michael never was the best at being a truly ‘frightening’ demon.

“And I’m in these nightmares?”

Tahani sighs; “I suppose the memories of their last night are mixed up with everything else. They just...were worried you were here to say something mean or...you wanted them gone.”

Fork-sake.

“I never wanted this, Tahani. I never wanted him to...Shirt, I didn’t even think he could, but...” She struggles to hold back tears; “I shouldn’t have come. I’ve just made him...Them more upset. Fork knows what I’d be in for if I stayed for the Teenage Boy phase. He’d probably set my hair on fire as payback.”

Bratty Michael in his fully grown form had been enough to handle. A hormonal one with amnesia was a whole other level.

“Eleanor. Just go talk to them.” Tahani presses; “This whole distancing thing you two are doing to deal with your falling out is dangerous. You’re not going to fix anything by staying away from them. As I kept telling my good friend Courtney when she had a row with my other friends, Lisa and Jennifer - you just need to communicate!”

“Babe, they’re afraid to even be alone with me.” She’s the monster under the bed now. All because she took one sin he committed to heart and forgot about all the good he’d done for her that outweighed it.

“Then stay, there’s plenty of room. Even if it means we swap and you stay here and I return to help with the experiment. Either way, this needs to be sorted out. I don’t believe demons are supposed to be this upset during their growth...You could help with that.”

Can she? She’s not the nurturing type, like her hot friend. She melted her own doll in the microwave as a kid. And she unwittingly talked her own demon bestie into exploding himself.

Tahani’s hand squeezing her wrist gives her some strength.

“...Okay. I’ll try.” she meets her eyes; “Is Michael the only one allowed to snuggle in bed with you when they’re scared?”

Ten minutes later, she goes to find the creepy girl outside, this time sat among the flowers, being far more gentle with them than her previous slug form was.

Eleanor approaches slowly.

“Michael? Buddy?”

The kid gasps, standing up again and flinching back. Eleanor raises her palm.

“Please don’t run away. I promise I won’t hurt you...and I won’t be mad.” She says, soft as she can manage, getting down to the ground; “And I’m not gonna make you go away anywhere. I just wanna chat...That ok?”

Michael doesn’t look too convinced, glancing over at the cabin. Looking for the one constant they’ve had, who’s been here for them, caring for them. Where Eleanor should have been, at least sometimes.

Okay. Time for the trump card.

“I got you something. Tahani said you have trouble sleeping. I thought maybe this guy could help?” She produces the minion toy from behind her back.

Michael’s eyes sparkle and he instantly reaches out to take it.

“So ugly!” They cheer, hugging it to their front.

Eleanor chuckles. Still so easily impressed.

“Can’t argue there...Also, I picked up those paperclips of yours. Did you know you can do this with them?” She holds up the chain; “Gimmie your wrist a minute.”

Michael frowns, hiding behind the toy a little.

“I won’t bite, dude. Kids are way too gross to eat. You’re too stringy and bony.” She wrinkles her nose.

They blink at her before slowly holding out their wrist. Eleanor takes the paperclips and links them around Michael’s arm, forming a bracelet.

The child gasps, clearly thinking they’ve seen it for the first time; “Holy motherforking shirtballs.”

“Damn, you kiss Tahani with that mouth?” That must have been another residue memory tucked away.

Michael sneers; “Kissing is gross.”

“It’s pretty weird if you think about it, yeah.” She concedes, glad they’re at least talking, as much conversation as she can have with a billion year old immortal that’s lost their mind as they regrow in the body of a haunting little girl; “...What about hugs? You like them, right?”

The kid nods, eagerly.

“...Maybe I could have one, someday? If we can be friends? I’d like that...” More than they could know right now. More than anything else, even having Chidi remember her. This...This is just as painful, because she can’t be sure if this is fixable.

Eleanor crosses her legs as she sits, facing her friend.

“I’m so sorry, Michael. I know...you don’t understand that right now but...I’m sorry for why you’re scared of me...I wouldn’t ever wanna hurt you. Please believe me.”

Trust me? God, she’s such a hypocrite.

The kid eyes her, up and down, before turning to the flowers. They bend down, picking a few up into a small bouquet of daisies. Michael turns and hands it out to her.

“Oh...Uhh....Thanks...” Eleanor reaches for them.

Michael’s blue eyes flash red. The flowers burst into flames.

“Forking shirt!” Eleanor jumps.

And still the kid holds them out; “Pretty, right?”

A heartfelt laugh tumbles out of her; “...I can tell Jason’s been here.” Or maybe that was part of her friend’s demon nature. Either way, it was adorable. “Thank you, Michael.” she says, taking the flaming daisies. “You know...if you want, I could show you how to make chains out of these? We could make a crown for Tahani?”

“And ones for me and you?” Michael asks, hopeful.

Eleanor’s lip quivers, a sudden lump in her throat. She reaches out to run her palm over her friend’s white hair, soft as it’s always been; “Yeah...Me and you too, bud.”

#rose says she can't fix things #then immediately writes something to fix it #as weird as this is #like borderline crack fic #but still works within the canon #fluffy angst #hellstrop brotp fic #michael x tahani sistp #genderfluid michael #hints of future cottagecore teleanor? we'll see

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mystical-flute · 2 years

Text

Uncharted Waters 40: Entr'acte

AO3 || Ko-Fi

In the aftermath of Whitebeard’s death, Eturn had been thrown into a state of great unrest, the balance of the three major parties tilted. His territories, which had once been peaceful, were turning into warzones between the remaining three emperors, and the traitorous Blackbeared himself. The Revolutionary Army too, had begun to move, taking several islands for itself, right out from under the emperors’ noses.

And they hadn’t stopped with Whitebeard’s territory. More of its agents were becoming visible, securing bounties, and worse, encouraging citizens to begin uprisings against their rulers. The Marines weren’t sure where the power was coming from, but there had been skirmishes that had only just ended in a draw, with the Revolutionaries close to taking out a fleet or two of ships.

The remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates, under Ace and Marco, had gone on the defensive, desperately trying to protect their islands and Whitebeard’s legacy, going so far as to go to war against Blackbeard. The battle would come to be known as the Grudge War, ending in a tense stalemate (but, as far as the government was concerned, a Blackbeard victory). Many of Whitebeard’s commanders and their crew went silent after that, although there were always rumors flying about Ace being spotted on this island or that, but no leads had ever panned out.

Due to his surviving Marineford, Ace’s bounty had jumped to one billion beris, putting him in the range of the most feared commanders on the seas, and despite the best efforts of the government, he always managed to slip away without issue.

(The government didn’t know just what Ace had to protect. They didn’t know about the woman in the other world that had stolen his heart, who kept tabs on him to make sure he didn’t end up dead before he could meet up with his brothers again. Luffy’s two year message had been just as much for them as it had been for his crew.)

The Straw Hat pirates had yet to return to active pirate, having not been seen in months. Rumors of the deaths of the crew minus Luffy ran rampant, much of it whispered from the rookies at Marineford.

(They didn’t know one of his crewmates was training alongside them, listening to everything they said, and trying to take down the government they had sworn to protect)

Not even the Marines had been spared from the upheaval, despite claiming victory over Whitebeard. Monkey D. Garp, the hero of the Marines, had left active duty, effectively retired (though, if you asked the old women who liked to gossip, Garp had been all but forced into retirement by the higher ups, due to his being the father of the leader of the revolutionaries and the grandfather of a notorious pirate, and the protector of Roger’s child).

The other major retirement had been Sengoku, one of the most revered Fleet Admirals in history. Like with Garp, it appeared Sengoku hadn’t been able to completely retire, and the rumors said it was because he, like Garp, knew too much.

Too much about what was anyone’s guess.

With Sengoku gone, the need for a new Fleet Admiral arose.

Reika was hoping for Aokiji. Yes, she knew what he had done to Robin, and to Luffy, but she also knew he was a member of SWORD, and that would make everyone a little safer.

The government, though, wanted Akainu and his brand of Absolute Justice, which terrified her to no end. Akainu was a ruthless son of a bitch, who had led to more casualties than had been needed in the Marineford war. Many of the higher ups hadn’t been happy with the behavior, but some argued it was the only correct way.

Akainu and Aokiji had left Marineford days ago to go battle it out on some abandoned island, and no one had been able to focus on their duties.

“What do you think is going to happen?” Koby asked one day while they were on a training break. “It should be an easy fight, right? Akainu’s magma should melt Aokiji’s ice powers no problem, but Aokiji’s an awakened user.”

“So is Akainu,” Helmeppo added. “But neither of them will make the fight easy - if it were as simple as him just melting whatever Aokiji can throw at him, they’d have been back by now.”

“That’s the scary thing when you have two incredibly powerful forces fighting for what they want - both sides are going to give everything they have in order to win. No matter what, the Marines are never going to be the same.”

It had the I.D.R.A on edge.

“It’s like you have firsthand experience with this, Reika,” Koby said with a frown. “Do you?”

“What, with groups fighting for what they believe in? I’ve been on the front lines. Earth isn’t exactly a beacon of peace, and there was some weird shit happening there before I got sent here.”

“You mean with Dartz, right? That guy that kept stealing people’s souls?”

“Well yes, him, but there was a lot of other weird shit that I got thrown into dealing with.”

Koby’s eyes went wide, like a child’s. “Tell us!”

“Yeah, you can’t just say that and then not expand on what you meant,” Helmeppo agreed.

Reika chuckled and closed the lid to her water bottle, then set it on the ground next to her. “Maybe one day I’ll be able to. Until then… use it as fuel for what we’re fighting for.”

She wondered what that day might be like. People in Eturn would probably need to learn about Earth’s history, and Earth about Eturn’s. Not to mention, Eturn needed to figure out its own history.

Robin would be in heaven trying to put it all together. Thinking about the amount of archeologists Robin would be able to work with from Earth had the ghost of a smile forming on her face.

The dimensions finally together again…

Reika couldn’t wait for that to happen.

-----

Edward Newgate had been laid to rest on a quiet, tiny little island, and the Whitebeard Pirates were all but effectively disbanded, with private Den-Den Mushis to allow them to talk, but otherwise, none of them were trying to make waves in the world anymore.

Save for one.

Keeping Portgas D. Ace from being killed was one of the hardest things Aiko Hashimoto had ever had to do. Not only had she been a participant in the Grudge War, working to protect Whitebeard’s territories, she’d also had to stop Ace twice from running off to fight Blackbeard on his own.

How it hadn’t clicked with him that if they couldn’t stop Blackbeard with what was left of Whitebeard’s fleet, so Ace would never be able to do it alone, she didn’t know.

At least the organization seemed to be safe, even in the aftermath of the war and Blackbeard’s declaration that he was ready to take over the world. The Veil had remained secure, no more accidental openings pulling people into the wrong world, or magical bullshit from Earth trying to kill everyone.

The organization could actually do what it had been founded to do - research, and no new Fleet Admiral was going to stop them.

Even if - to her horror - that new Fleet Admiral was Akainu, the Red Dog. The very same man that had nearly killed Ace.

She glanced over at Ace and sighed softly. He’d been working himself too hard, she feared. Even though he was supposed to be training to get stronger, he’d been doing it from sunup to sundown, mostly alone, on the uninhabited island they’d found in a little corner of Paradise. Even Duce, the doctor of the Spade Pirates, had asked him to slow down, but Ace, as always, was too stubborn to listen.

He’d told her to leave many times, but her own stubborn nature was winning out, and she’d been sailing the seas with them for nearly a year (to her father’s chagrin).

“I wanna go t’the East Blue,” Ace mumbled against his pillow, face down on the bed. His large tattoo of Whitebeard’s Jolly Roger had almost completely disappeared thanks to Sakazuki, and it hadn’t been - and still wasn’t - safe to get it re-done. “And then I wanna take you to Wano.”

The East Blue she understood, since that was where he’d grown up, but Wano? Kaido’s territory?

“Ace, I don’t know. Wano’s been closed for centuries and it’s run by Kaido, of all pirates,” she said with a frown. “It’d be suicide if we attempted to go there.”

Ace groaned and lifted his head from the pillow, turning onto his side so he faced her. “I know, but that’s why I feel like we need to go. The people there are starving and dying because of Kaido! He needs to be stopped! I saw them with my own eyes, Aiko - the people don’t deserve what’s happening to them!”

“I know. I understand that, Ace, but there’s no way we can go into Yonko territory by ourselves and liberate a country. We would need an army, and even then, it’d be a long shot. You know what happened to pirates who tried to overthrow Whitebeard.”

“Yeah, he adopted us,” Ace snorted.

“And the ones he didn’t adopt? Like say, Crocodile?”

Ace was silent.

Aiko exhaled through her nose and took a seat next to him on the bed. “I know you want to help those people, Ace, and I really feel horrible for them, but we wouldn’t stand a chance against Kaido without some serious backup.”

He sighed heavily, and AIko could see the worry on his face. “I know. I just - the man who was Second Division Commander before me? He was from Wano. According to Izo, he was the heir to the throne there. And then something happened and Kaido took over. I want to help Wano and avenge what happened to them. I tried to bring it up to Pops after I joined his crew, but he wouldn’t hear it. Now that he’s gone… I want to keep my promise to Yamato and Tama.”

“And you will, but we need to be careful if we’re going to invade Yonko territory. I’ll call Reika, see if she can find anything out about Wano that might be able to help us.”

Ace frowned. “Reika? Why her?”

“I told you already, she’s undercover at Marineford. She has access to stuff we don’t.”

Ace scowled at the memory. “Oh that’s right. That’s when you told me you were a spy and that island I landed on when we first met wasn’t actually part of Paradise. And your dad is the leader of that spy group.”

“Yep, that’s right,” Aiko replied with a shrug, then pulled out her phone to dial Reika’s number.

Her father had hit the roof when she’d admitted the reason they’d desperately needed to go to Eturn and join the war wasn’t just because of Luffy, but because she’d fallen for Ace.

“Hello?” Reika rasped on the other end of the line.

“You sound like hell, Reika. What’s wrong?”

“I feel like my mom ran me over with a train, and you woke me up.”

Right, Aiko still hadn’t fully adjusted to the time zones in Eturn. “Sorry. I need a favor.”

“Does it require me to move?”

“Not until morning.”

“Then I’m all ears.”

“I need information about Wano.”

Reika’s end of the line was silent for so long, Aiko was afraid she’d fallen back to sleep.

“Wano? The country that’s been closed off since the Void Century and is now under the control of Kaido? That Wano?” she finally questioned.

“Yes, that Wano. One of Whitebeard’s first commanders was a samurai from Wano, and his sixteenth division commander was as well. I’m wondering if there are others that managed to escape, or any information that the Marines have that might help us if we, say, want to stage a coup.”

“Aiko, what the fuck are you planning?”

“Nothing, yet! Ace went there a few years ago and he’s worried about the people he met there, that’s all. I was hoping if you found any information about Wano it’d put his mind at ease, like if there’s an underground rebellion or something.”

“If there was, I doubt anyone would still be alive to execute it if word reached the Marines,” Reika sighed, then yawned. “But I’ll find what I can. Give me a few days.”

“Thanks Reika. I owe you one.”

“Oh believe me, I’ll collect on that when I’m ready, and trust me, Hashimoto, it’s going to be a lot more than a Burger World meal.”

Aiko could only throw her head back and laugh.

------

She hadn’t been able to find much on Wano, only a few pirates that had been on an old crew in Rogers’ time (“really annoying Devil Fruits,'' Garp had grunted when she’d asked him. “They must be dead by now though - they were ancient even when I fought them.”), and then Kozuki Oden, the original second division commander of the Whitebeard and Roger Pirates. A bounty of two billion beries had been placed on his head due to his power and the unknown threats that lurked in his mind.

He’d been murdered by Kaido himself, according to the rumors from Kaido’s own men who had been captured once.

And after that, no one really knew what happened within Wano’s borders. She’d given Aiko what she could, and, as each day passed and Aiko continued to contact her with no issue, Reika had slowly begun to believe that a coup in Wano wasn’t going to happen, and she continued her training with a renewed determination and a pep in her step. Her mother had been the hardest teacher Reika had ever worked with, but there was no one else she’d rather have for a teacher.

SWORD had gone further underground, so the whispers during breaks between she, Koby, and Helmeppo about Earth had stopped, and were instead contained inside her home, where they knew no enemy was lurking.

Her mother, to her surprise, had been promoted by the newly-crowned Fleet Admiral, to Rear Admiral. Akainu thought Miaka was perhaps one of the most loyal Marines, and was worthy of the promotion.

Worthy, yes, but loyal? Akainu would be in for a rude awakening when all was said and done.

“The gods are smiling on you, little sister,” Takeshi said with a grin, slapping a piece of paper down in front of her. “Mom and I just got a new set of orders.”

“Sabaody?” she replied with a grin. “You’re being sent to Sabaody?”

“And there just happens to be a concert on Sabaody, would you just happen to like to go?”

“Why, my dearest brother, I would love to.”

And that was how she found herself back at the Sabaody Archipelago, with her bag over her shoulder. There were some things she’d left at Marineford, unimportant decorations she’d bought to spruce up her bedroom there, and some clothes she wasn’t too fond of anymore, but otherwise, she was ready to go back to her other home.

“You’re sure about this?” her father whispered, as they watched people moving through the busy streets from the unassuming alleyway they’d found. “You’re absolutely sure?”

“I’m sure, Dad, Mom. I promise. I’ll be okay,” she replied, reaching to hug them tight. “I’ll send you a message as soon as we’ve set sail. I promise.”

And though she had, at least she thought, recovered from the anger that fueled her over their leaving, she couldn’t help the bitterness that was laced in her words.

Her mother’s brow was knit in worry. “Just be careful, little star.”

“I will be. Stay safe at Marineford,” she said, turning on her heels. WIth one mutter of shave and a flick of her wrist sliding the cloaking device into her hair, Reika Muto disappeared from Sabaody, leaving her parents in her wake.

“Well well! If it isn’t our suuuper spy herself!” Franky shouted from the deck of the Sunny when it finally came into view. “I’ll be honest, sister, I was wondering if you were even gonna show up.”

“I knew she would! She used our old secret signal in that article about her parents!” Chopper cried as Reika climbed to the deck, then jumped into her arms.

“Secret signal? What are you talkin’ about, Chopper?”

Reika laughed and tapped her wrist after Chopper climbed onto her back. “When we were in Alabasta, there was an enemy who had a Devil Fruit that he used to turn himself into other people. In order to stop ourselves from being fooled, we drew X’s on our wrists so we knew who was real.”

“Come to think of it, I don’t know if we ever told Franky and Brook about our adventures before Water 7,” Chopper said. “I know you didn’t tell me much about from before you got to Drum Island, Reika.”

Reika frowned, setting her bags down. “Huh. I suppose we didn’t. We’ll have to tell stories on our way to Fishman Island. Sanji can cook us up a feast and we’ll laugh until our sides hurt!”

Chopper’s eyes sparkled at the idea.

“Ahoy Straw Hats!” a familiar voice called a couple hours later.

Color drained from Robin’s face. “It can’t be -”

“Hey! Bon!” Usopp called.

Bon Clay was indeed rushing toward the ship with Luffy right behind, the last ones to make it back to the Sunny.

“Oh it’s so wonderful to see you all!” Bon cried, before pausing right as he reached the deck. “Ah! Miss All-Sunday! What a pleasure to be working alongside you again.”

Robin looked less than amused. “Mr. 2. It’s been a long time.”

“The hell did he just call her?” Franky muttered.

“I’ve no idea. It must be some sort of code name,” Brook replied.

Luffy was simply grinning as he joined them. “He helped us escape from Alabasta, and helped me escape Impel Down, so I thought I’d invite him to join the crew, since he’s a wanted outlaw too now.”

“Well, welcome aboard, Bon-bro!” Franky said with a grin.

“Guys? Let’s get ready to set sail, the Marines are on their way!” Nami called.

Reika glanced over and smirked a little at the officer leading the charge - her mother. She could see Takeo in step behind Miaka.

“Fire!” her mother shouted, and bullets and cannonballs were launched toward them, but despite it all, the Sunny was able to depart, sinking below the waves to Fishman Island, and Reika pretended not to notice the faint smile and proud twinkle in her mother’s eyes as she disappeared.

And the Sunny was filled with laughter and cheers as they spoke endlessly about their adventures over the past two years. Reika took photos and videos to send to her friends and family back in Domino.

Their adventure at Fishman Island meant causing chaos and pissing more than a few people off. In addition to defeating the New Fishman Pirates, who had been causing trouble, Luffy had decided to pick a fight with the Emperor Big Mom, over, of all things, sweets.

Because of course he did.

At least Luffy had been able to reunite with Jinbei and get him to agree to joining the crew… after he finished taking care of something.

The real fun in the New World began after they’d surfaced after leaving Fishman Island. Not only was the weather more insane than it was in Paradise, but the sea itself was splitting, caving in, and eventually pulled them through a whirlpool, spat out in a place Reika had a sinking feeling about.

“Luffy, there’s no way we can go to that island!” Nami screamed. “The sea is on fire!”

“Well yeah! That’s why we have to go!”

“Wait, Luffy! I think this might be Punk Hazard!” she finally called when realization hit. “This is the island Akainu and Aokiji fought on. It’s completely abandoned! That’s why they chose it! Not to mention the terrain has been completely changed because of their duel!”

Her warning, of course, did nothing to deter Luffy’s curiosity, which led to more of the crew fighting against his wishes, until their Den Den Mushi began to cry a distress call.

“Please! There’s a samurai attacking my men! I don’t know how much longer we have! We’re on the island of - of Punk Hazard!”

When the snail spat out blood and the call ended with an agonized groan, Reika’s heart sank even further.

Why the hell were there people on an island not even the government would dare set foot?

#uncharted waters #yugioh #one piece #crossover #fanfiction

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auriel187 · 3 years

Text

Falcon and The Winter Soldier (and The Tigress)

Word Count: 1467

Warnings: Language

Ships: Bucky Barnes x Black!Reader(eventually), Sam Wilson x Black!Reader (platonic)

A/N: If anyone doesn’t like the fact that the reader is black, go away.

"This depression," said Wanda, "it is as if there is a force pressing down on me. So, this music that goes with that flow, that surrenders to the pressure, that's just assisting the depression, not me. I need the artists who struggle against depression and discover ways to win, how to step out from under this invisible anvil and rediscover the forces that uplift the soul." Y/n reminisced of the red headed telepath’s word from the last time they spoke.

She had always loved the flowers and the birds, loved the sunlight and the clouds that drift by. She had always loved the way the leaves move in a breeze and that soft whispering sound they make, like nature loves to chatter too. Yet the tiredness that began a while ago remains like a veil over her skin, grey and cold. And as she watches the petals and the twigs that sway outside the window, there is only a creeping sorrow where there should be joy. It sits like November rain on her skin, enough to chill what was once warm inside. At any other time she would have called a friend, asked for the warmth she needed to ward it off, just a little is enough.

No longer. Now she just lets it come, drop by drop and she feels like it is an ocean falling upon me instead of rain - that the grief of years she carefully suspended has all condensed right above her head into a cloud large enough to block the sun. They say it can't rain forever, that there will come a time when it must cease, that the last drop will have fallen. Thing is, she just doesn't care. She will still be true to myself, still help others, but she planned to just stay here in the cold, comfortably numb.

“Steve represented the best in all of us. Courageous, righteous, hopeful. And he mastered posing stoically.” The audience let out a small chuckle as Sam spoke fondly about the man whose shield he was holding.

Y/n felt her stomach twist as she saw the senator nod his head at Sam’s words. She watched as the smile faded before he continued. The sounds of cameras shuttering filled the silence.

“The world has been forever changed,” Sam continued “a few months ago, billions of people reappeared after five years away, sending the world into turmoil. We need new heroes.” It made Y/n shudder. ‘New heroes’ like the old ones were replaceable. Heroes like Steve. Like Tony…

Like Nat.

Steve giving his shield to Sam was a message. ‘Sam, I trust you will do the right thing, ' was that statement. Sam giving his shield to the Steve Rogers exhibit is the right thing. At least in his eyes. He was right, the world needed new heroes.

“Ones suited for the times we’re in. Symbols… are nothing without the women and men that give them meaning.” Y/n grimaced, fiddling with the bracelet that clung to her wrist. Her painted black fingers ran over the word ‘котенок’ as she walked with burning tears that she blinked them away. “And this thing…” Sam chuckled, staring at the shield. I don’t know if there’s ever been a greater symbol, but it’s more about the man who propped it up, and he’s gone. So, today we honor Steve’s legacy. But also, we look to the future. So, thank you, Captain America, but this belongs to you.” The room burst into applause as he placed the shield in a cube shaped display case.

When Sam spotted Y/n in the crowd, he hopped off the stage and walked up to her. He had a small smile on his face as he pulled her into a tight hug. “I’m glad you made it.” He whispered into her dark curls.

“Of course I came, Sam. You know what you and Steve are to me.” She kept her voice steady and cold, not that Sam seemed to mind. He of all people knew what would happen if she got emotional. The label angry black woman wouldn’t even cover it, being what she was, she would be shot on sight without question.

“Are you doing alright? It’s been a while.” He pushed her shoulder lovingly as a small grin broke across her face. She tried to play it off like she was fine, but Sam knew better.

“I just miss them. I’ll get over it.” Y/n replied with a shrug, the pressed silk top hanging loosely off her starving frame.

Grief made people do crazy things. In Y/n’s case the loss of three of the four most important people in her life made eating relatively hard. Especially when the three she lost would still be here if they hadn’t gone back to save the one she lost. Her loss stared her in the face every time she saw her one, and now only, closest friend. “Y/n, I think we both know that’s not true, otherwise you’d be over it. I know it’s hard. I can’t imagine the pain you’re going through but you can always talk to me.” To which she nodded. “Look, I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you later.” He said quietly, backing away slowly, leaving Y/n alone. Y/n took a look around the room but found nothing left to keep her there, so she left, heading to the only place that felt like some semblance of home.

Standing in the building that reminded her of everyone she loved and lost, Tony Stark’s name, Steve’s punching bags, the room painted a deep scarlet with a mirrored wall. Y/n walked deeper into the room, peeling off her heels replacing them with ballet shoes before calling out, “Hey, F.R.I.D.A.Y, Can you play my ‘Family Playlist’ please?” She asked, beaming at no one in particular when ‘Back In Black’ began playing over the speakers. Her thoughts were running a mile a minute as she danced on par as the music changed from song, after song, after song.

You pay for everything one way or another. If you are lazy you will pay with the pain of failure. If you love to eat and indulge you will pay with the price of your health and self esteem. Yet if you love ballet, if you wish to fly as if God had remembered to sew on your angel wings, you will pay in the pain of training, in daily dedication, sweat and struggle. If you love someone, you have to sit and watch them in pain, suffer in ungodly ways…die. Those who try to save the world are always the ones that die to save it. In this life, what are you paying for and how? The cost-benefit see-saw is always there. Y/n learned from an early age that her emotions were a thing to suppress, and so when the ballet teacher asked for them they came forwards as an untapped fountain and took all by surprise. They called this her gift. She called it her release. The only thing that kept her from lashing out.

“You just keep dancing,” her teacher said, watching as she spun with excellent pursition. “You don’t stop until the burning in your body is too much.” Y/n was at that point but she pushed through it. She didn’t stop until the playlist ended and just as she made her way to the ‘Red Room’, her Red Room, she found her way home. Clicking the TV on to fill the silence her heart dropped when she heard it.

“-Unrest, in the wake of recent events, has left us vulnerable. Everyday Americans feel it. While we love heroes who put their lives on the line to defend Earth, we also need a hero to defend this country. We need a real person who embodies America’s greatest values. We need someone to inspire us again, someone who can be a symbol for all of us. So, on behalf of the Department of Defense and our Commander-in-Chief, it is with great honor that we announce here today that the United States of America has a new hero.”

She was physically quaking with unbottled rage. Her eyes were trained on the TV as a man, a white man, came into view on the screen waving it around like it was a fucking trophy to flaunt. She unconsciously walked up to her flatscreen and waited. She wanted to hear them say it. She wanted to see if they had the balls to say it.

“Join me in welcoming your new Captain America.” She punched the TV with the force that caused her knuckles to bleed. Right in the face of the man carrying Steve’s shield. Sam’s rightful shield!

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