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bvnnywrites · 7 months

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Still Waters Run Deep

Chapter 2: Überprüfen

PAIRING: Eldritch!König x Reader

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for the very long wait. My body gave out on stress and I passed out the side of the road this Monday on my way home. Also, I was manic and I had an episode yesterday so yayeet. Also, I read all your comments in the last chapter and asvbhbvdvdhdhfhv I LOVE ALL OF YOU GUYS. THANK YOU SO MUCH RAHHHHHH. Anyways, enjoy the chapter! UwU

WARNING: NON-CON/DUB-CON, DARK, SMUT, NSFW, Creampie, Breeding Kink, Fingering, Stomach Bulge, Age Gap, Unprotected Sex, Cockwarming, Implied Discharge, Power Imbalance, Abuse of Authority, No Beta Reader, Dom! König, Size Kink, Size Difference, Cannibalism, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Cannibalistic Thoughts, Older!König, Eldritch!König, Monster!König, Masturbation, Dark Romance, Blood and Gore, Violence, Monsterfucking

THE ONLY INTERESTING THING TO DO AT KORTAC, if he wasn’t out and about in the field, was apparently dwelling in the thought of committing fraternization – and König chided himself that he was better than this.

But there’s nothing to worry about. Of course, he isn’t losing sleep overthinking the eager look on your face to get in his good graces—his approval and validation. No. he isn’t staying up late, seeing your adorable pouty lips and sweet-looking eyes glancing up at him because you’re too small whether you stood or sat. Especially, the softness of your flesh when he held your chin to make you look at him, or the warmth of your body when he soothed you from seeing those disgusting pictures.

König definitely does not want to know every detail of your life—what your flesh taste like pressed against his tongue, what it feels like as the tentacles on his face roam your body and leaving slick in its trail, what you like or hate, what blood type you have, how soft your hair is when he’s gripping it in his fingers while he’s shoving his cock deep in your little cunt, what your favorite position in bed is, what it feels like to have your pussy milking him desperately as he breeds you again and again until you’re pregnant with his children.

No.

Who the hell was he kidding?

He’s is a fucking pervert—the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

What he’s doing is fucking disgusting and he can’t believe that he’s thinking this way about you. God, König knows he’s a thousand shades of fucked up, but he did not expect to be like this. The colonel never expected he’d go this fucking low. He doesn’t want to be like he’s father—a disgusting fucker who was selfish and sick in the head—but he can’t help but fall straight down the rabbit hole and into the maws of the abyss of his own wicked desires.

König is a fucking disgusting creep because you’re so sweet, calm and understanding when he threw the first few layers of ugliness from his soul, dumping it on your lap, and you so graciously comforted him. He is disgusting because you’re literally twenty-three years younger than him, old enough to be his daughter, and yet your eagerness to obtain his approval has him losing his shit. You have him losing his morals. The softness of your skin has him wanting more, his teeth clenched with poorly contained desire, and yet he demands more – to be closer, to reach into the depths of your soul and twist it until you’re as fucked up as he is—craving him the way he craves you. You have him understanding why his father did what he did because now he thinks that maybe the sick fuck couldn’t control himself in the presence of his ‘Aphrodite’.

And you… you were König’s ‘Aphrodite’—the embodiment of his desires, both good and bad.

He is a fucking pervert because you were eager to help him in this manhunt for the so-called beast. Eager and desperate to advance in the ranks of the military – that’s all you were probably hoping, but instead of following the logical side, König had let himself be swayed by the waves of his depravity.

König was always proud of his self-control – his more human nature that he had inherited from his beloved mother. He never thought the day would come where these sickening thoughts would run in his mind. He was a monster, yes, but nature does have a way of being more predominant than nurture. At least, in this case. It didn’t even matter that his mother – who despised and loved him at the same time – had engrained the Lord’s teachings into his head or the holy scriptures that she would beat into his flesh.

All those teachings went to waste because at the end of the day, he was his father’s son.

He could see the disappointing and disgusted look on his mother’s face right now.

But all that washes away when his mind comforts him with the thoughts of you. The way your pretty eyes look up at him through long lashes, the way your voice addresses him has desire pumping in König’s veins. Because somehow, when it comes to you, he feels calm as he feels the need to lash out. He feels the need to bite and claw at you, marking you as his own little wife to love and to fuck. He wants to rip off his mask in front of you and make you braid his hair and weave flowers into it because you called him ‘beautiful’, wants to let one of his tentacles slither around your neck while he bites you and marks you as his. His little and eager to please mate—his beloved wife-to-be.

He can still see your pouty face, as if you’re there right in front of him. Your pretty wide eyes looking up at him—looking at him as if he wasn’t a disgusting monster—like an actual breathing person. Your scent lingers in his nose for the past two days. You smelled delicious – divine, if he’s honest. You reeked of the shower gel that you use, and that suffocating perfume—or is it a cologne?—that you’re using to make yourself fresh. Several thoughts ran in his head, wanting nothing more than to smother you in his scent. Rubbing his smell all over you, until every single being—doesn’t matter if mortal or not—would know that you’re his.

The thought itself had his cock twitching more than it did before. It’s throbbing hard, leaking precum all over his hand as he pumps it with his fist while the other grips the sheets. Judging from your smaller form against his, you’d definitely be fucking tight, which was why he was gripping it mercilessly. The pictures of pin-up girls had long been discarded. He doesn’t need those when he has your pretty face, adorable ass, and alluring scent engraved in his mind. He’s a fucking perverted old dog… and it was all because of you.

König wants to have you on his knees before him. Relieving him of his stress by wrapping your adorable lips around the head of his dick, soft tongue lapping at the precum he’s making as if you’re a goddess and the gushing liquid was ambrosia—the very thing you needed to live.

He wants to take care of you, cradle you in his arms and pepper your face with kisses and show you how much he can just provide for you—KorTac isn’t cheap in their payments, and he is one of their best mercenaries they have, not counting the huge mess he has made that his superiors are ordering him to clean up. He was too valuable for them to lose, so they’re just asking him to wipe away the evidence and pin the blame on some poor soldier who was there at the wrong place at the right time.

König wants nothing more than to hold you close. He can’t even think about letting you fall in the grasp of another man—whether they be as old as him or young as your age, whichever you prefer—because you are fragile as you are gullible. He can tell by the way your eyes glimmer at him or the kindness that blossoms on your face whenever you cater to the soldiers under your command, acting as if you’re a mother to them. He wants you to be his. His little, beloved wife. Waiting for him in the house he’d buy for you in Hallstatt or maybe he’d catch you walking along the shoreline of the lake while you’re telling stories of yours and his love story to his unborn child that grows in your womb.

By God König wanted you more than anything.

He’s thinking of putting you on your knees, preferably on his bed so it wouldn’t make you uncomfortable in the long run, so you can be comfortable while he shoves his cock down your throat. Your pretty lips wrapped around his cock, little whines and moans vibrating from you and on to his length and muffled from how strong his thrusts are inside your tight, wet, and warm mouth.

Your face would be messy, mascara running down your cheeks, if you had any, and lip gloss smeared and staining his cock. And König would try to be gentle, so he wouldn’t end up breaking you, but it’d be impossible when you’re so eager to please him. You’d have trouble barking out orders and speaking normally, because he knows he’d wreck your throat by the time he’s done with you.

König is fantasizing about it—having you in such a state, making use of your delicate mouth and moving tongue.

But guilt flashes across his mind. No. No, he couldn’t do that to you. You’re a fragile little thing—not to mention a human. You’re like an adorable little mouse beneath him. Breaking you would break him too—hurting you would hurt him too.

He is a worthless monster, a disgusting being that should be shot dead for just thinking of you—his klein hase—like this. That woman who read his future was right. He was depraved. He’d ruin you…

But God have mercy on him because he couldn’t bring himself to care enough to back the fuck away from you.

Your name falling from his lips like a prayer, chanting your name as if you’d be able to save him from eternal damnation – and maybe you could, in your own human way. A primal and dark urge to have you in his full mercy, waiting for him to claim you. He… He just wants to be accepted by people, to be welcomed by his peers, but none of it matters now because he just wants to be accepted by you. He’s panting and groaning, pumping his dick several times, chasing that climax. He is shamelessly hard, cock angry as it's about to burst.

König feels dirty for this. He felt like a teenage boy who’s jerking off to his crush. And despite that, he’s imagining you sucking on his cock or having your forehead pressed against his, whispering how much you love him and how you can’t wait to be filled with his cock. He imagines your cum-drunk expression, eyes glazed as your head is muddled and filled with nothing but pleasure, and that makes him cum; thick ropes of white shooting out from the tip, while his cock pulsates as he pumps it continuously before gradually slowing to a halt.

He keeps cumming, more than he usually does. The white, thick liquid staining his abdomen, pants, and sheets. He moans, biting his lips in a poor attempt to conceal his pathetic whimpers. His release covering his hand—sticky and disgustingly warm. Bless KorTac for allowing him and other high-ranking superiors to have their own room, because he knows goddamn well that he won’t be able to commit such sinful acts in communal barracks.

Post-nut clarity hits him hard, almost the same way his mother would, and he’s shameful for what he had just done. The two of you barely know each other, only getting information about you out of your files, and yet he was infatuated with you the moment you arrived on KorTac that sunny day. And yet he fell in love completely in just a matter of two days after talking with you.

He wants to resent you for what you made him do. He wants to worship you and mark your body with his marks. He wants to be left alone—preferably in your arms while you stroke his hair and look at him lovingly because no one ever looked at him the same way you do.

“Mein Gott, Shatz. What are you doing to me, liebling?”

König pants, letting his head fall back into the pillow as he sighed. His muscles relaxed, so much that he feels like he’s going to be one with the mattress. He lays there for a bit in his own bodily fluids before he got up to clean himself and get changed, replacing the sheets with cleaner ones.

“Colonel, are you there?”

Your soft voice came to his ears, making him stop in his tracks. Was he delusional to the point that he’s imagining your voice? He’s losing it. He’s definitely losing it because no way in hell did you sought him out at—he glances at his clock and sees that it’s 24:58 on a Wednesday—this late in the night. König ignores the voice, opting to throw himself back into the bed, cuddling his pillows and imagining that it’s you.

“Colonel?” Your voice echoes, followed by a soft knock. “Sir? This is very important, I’m sorry.”

Oh. Oh. No, he’s not actually hearing things. You’re actually outside his door. König wore his mask, covering his ugliness because he didn’t want to scare a pretty little thing like you. It would be too soon for you to see his face. It’d be like putting a frog straight in boiling water instead of heating it up little by little.

He rushed to fix the cloth over his head, zipping and buttoning his pants. König almost tore the bolts of his door just to immediately see you, and when he swung the door open—almost ripping it off the hinges—he saw you standing there with several dossiers in your arms. Your pretty doe-like eyes, the ones he fantasized about as he came literally just seconds ago, looks up at him with a sheepish gaze. You smile apologetically up at him, neck craning to properly look at him. He sees the way your eyes glanced at his shirtless torso before flickering up to look at him.

Were you attracted to him the same way he is to you?

Did your cunt also drip at the thought of him, the same way his cock throbs at the mere thought of you? Did you also touch yourself when you were alone the past two days after you two spoke to one another? Did you also call out his name? Whimpering and panting as you flicked your clit and plunged your tiny fingers in your weeping pussy–

“Sorry to disturb you so late at night, I was ordered to give you these documents. Horangi said that I deliver these to you because it needs your immediate approval, sir.”

You say to him, spouting out your reasons and he can see that you’re doing so in hopes of not angering him because you think you’ve disturbed his sleep. How adorable. König keeps a note to himself to tell Horangi not to let you out this late at night; he doesn’t want you being suspected as the killer. Your cheeks are slightly red, and König finds red pretty on your face. So much so that he wants to just grab your squishy cheeks and pepper it with kisses. Maybe nibble on it affectionately.

“It’s alright. No worries. Come in, Schatz.”

He moves aside, letting you in. And, oh boy, you eagerly entered his chambers as you rushed to the desk in his room. You bend over to place the heavy papers on his table, and he has half a mind to bend you over the desk, tear off your clothes, and fuck you stupid until all you can do is mewl and whine on his cock. The fact that he was imagining you on your knees, choking on his cock or pumping it with your hands while you whispered sweet nothing to him five minutes ago didn’t help the colonel either.

“I’m really sorry. I know you’re probably sleeping–”

“I said it is fine, liebling. No need to lose your head over nothing, ja?”

He finds it endearing that he calms you, that his words weigh that much for you. Usually, he’s used to barking orders, establishing things with force. And yet, when he speaks to you softly, reassuring you, that it’s alright if you waltz into his room—into his heart, even—and take whatever you wanted is a nice change of pace. He’d give more to you on your way out, because he loves you. He wants to marry you. He wants to take you back with him to Austria. You’re beautiful in gear, but König knows you’d be more beautiful in maternity dresses.

But he is sane about you. Completely sane about you. Totally normal. Absolutely nothing wrong with his state of mind regarding you. Everyone loves strongly, ja?

“It’s late at night, and I don’t want you to end up as a corpse in the halls, liebling. Let me escort you to your quarters, ja?” He says softly, walking up to you as he effortlessly moves the paperwork that were practically heavy for you. “It would ease me to sleep, knowing you’re safe and sound in your bed.” König pats your head.

“I… um… are you sure, sir?” You look at him, confused as you tilt your head in confusion. “You must be tired for the day, and I’ve already taken up much of your time.”

He ignored your words of worry as he grabbed his hoodie and wore it, finally giving you an ounce of mercy because as much as he loves the way your eyes are drawn to his torso, he also doesn’t want to give you cardiac arrest just because he was being too much for you.

Now that you’re here in his room, alone with the colonel, your heart hums nervously. You pray that no soldier would see you walk out of his room at this hour. Because you don’t want to burden him with silly rumors when he’s drowning in paperwork, focusing on an investigation, and you don't want to add up to his plate.

“I want to protect you from harm, Schatz. With me around, I doubt the beast would hurt you.”

Lies. No, wait. It’s not all lies, so basically just half-truths. With König around, the thing that lurks in the halls of KorTac would never hurt you, if anything it would worship the ground you walk on. Ask him to give you a town for your dowry, and he would enslave every continent on Earth and lay it by your feet—because the thing in the dark is him, and he loves you, and he wants to give you the world.

“Okay. I mean… if that’s okay with you, sir.”

“König.”

“What?”

“Please, mein liebe. I would appreciate it if we drop the formalities. We are comrades, ja?”

“Alright… as I was saying, I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to burden you, König.”

“You’re not a burden. Not to me… not if it’s you, mein liebling.”

Your face scrunched up in confusion with the way he addressed you. It sounds like German, and the way he pronounces it makes you feel important. You don’t know German, and you kick yourself mentally because you wish you knew what he was calling you. For all you know, he’s calling you stupid affectionately. Because it took you weeks before you realize Izzy was calling you ‘stupid’ in the most affectionate way possible, so who’s to say the colonel is any different?

Before you can ask him what the words mean, he walks past you, opening the door for you. You walk out his room, thankful that no one’s there to see the two of you together.

You two walk down the halls, side by side. And poor little you.t you’re practically walking alongside the devil. The halls are empty, devoid of any soul. The trip to your room was quiet, no one is around, obviously. Soldiers were already asleep, and those who didn’t need to follow the curfew were chilling in their room or buried in neck-deep paperwork in their offices.

König wished he wasn’t the monster right now. He wished it was someone else, because he wants an opportunity for him to be a hero. To be a protector. To put up all of his pent-up aggression on someone else while you praise him for his strength and bravery. Maybe shower him with loving kisses, even. He wants something to try and kill him, just so he can show you that he can protect you from anything and anyone who would want to kill you, but then you stop in front of your room, making you turn and smile at him.

He loved your smile, the way your skin stretched and your adorable features twist just to give him a kind gesture

“Well. This is my stop.” You offer him a warm smile, unaware that it’s a currency that König could never afford yet you willingly give it to him for free. “Thank you… for looking out for me, König.”

“You’re a valuable soldier. It would be a shame if the thing lurking the base comes and kills you, Shatz—I want you safe.” He smiles at you beneath the mask, and the way his eyes crinkle is adorable and you know he’s smiling when they do that. “For as long as I’m able to, I’ll protect you, okay?”

His fingers gently held your chin, afraid that he’d break you at the slightest pressure. Your heart thumps in your chest. How could Roze or Izzy ever tell you to avoid him? He was practically a sweetheart. The colonel wanted you safe more than anything, isn’t that enough to warrant an inch of friendship from you?

Your eyes met his, those eyes that remind you of a storm at sea, are filled with nothing but warmth. It makes your breath hitch with how… oddly intimate it feels. You’re sure that if you weren’t a soldier, if the two of you met outside the forces, as civilians, without the medals and badges, you’re sure that he would’ve kissed you right then and there. It felt like your heart was about to explode – it’s too overwhelming.

So, you forced yourself to look away, stepping back and away from his grasps—from his touch. The absence of his touch makes your head clear without realizing it felt hazy in the first place. Such a strange effect that the colonel has on you.

König is displeased that you’ve put more distance between you two, but he doesn’t show it. He doesn’t want to make you worry, despite the adorable look on your face whenever you do look troubled. So, König opts to pat you on the head briefly.

“Sleep tight, Schatz. Don’t forget to lock your door, ja?”

“Alright, co–König. Good night.”

As you shut your doors, the monster outside stood there for a few more minutes before it walked away.

“Did something good happen today, colonel?”

“None of your concern, major.”

Horangi was as sharp as ever, deep voice rumbling in his chest which intimidated most people around him. He was also the only one in the ranks to be able to speak casually with his superior – even though all of KorTac members usually avoid the giant soldier since they don’t really want to risk being discharged because they can’t function properly anymore. Horangi was the closest thing König has to a friend – which is kind of sad since a former gambling addict was the only one who can tolerate his shit and can understand him, even with his hood permanently on.

But Horangi was right.

Something good did happened.

You happened.

“That new lieutenant.” König starts. “If you’re sending her out to deliver files, tell me so I can escort the klein hase to her destination,” the colonel orders him, “I do not wish for her to be hurt.”

He spent the night awake, drinking and shredding it in the gym, trying so hard to put your adorable face out of his mind. You were out of sight alright, he hasn’t seen you running around base for the day because he’s too busy cooped up in his office and signing off the papers that you’ve given him hours ago, but the way your facial features would get distorted into something more adorable every single time he closed his eyes was highly concerning.

And he calms himself down in those wee hours the same way he did moments before you knocked on his door—jerking himself off until he felt nothing but self-hatred and the yearning of having your soft body pressed up against his.

“She’s a lieutenant, König.” Horangi snort. “You know I don’t recruit the weak.”

“She’s a woman,” König responds, “I’m not saying she’s weak, but most soldiers in base are men… I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.”

“She can handle herself.”

“And what of the monster on the loose?”

“Why? Do you plan on eating her next?”

“… Perhaps.”

König thinks for a moment. It should be easier if he would have an official legal reason to keep you by his side. Have your desk literally in his office so he can always keep his eyes on you, make sure no one lays a finger on you. König chucks his delirious thoughts to the lack of sleep, his fingers held down the paper while he wrote with his pen, but he wished he was holding you down and fucking into your wet cunt instead. He had those things before – overthinking about the tiniest details in someone he never truly knew, but understood that he can’t be with them—it could be his childhood crushes that he could never had thanks to his hideous appearance… and anxiety. It could be fantasizing about a pretty woman that caught his attention one day—imagining a life with them, multiple kids, and maybe a dog or two. König is aware that he has a problem , but not like… this; never dangerous.

The problem was that he knows he can have you.

Perhaps not in a traditional way. No. He can’t court you, that’s against the rules, and König wished nothing more that you were a civilian instead of a soldier. Because of your badge, he couldn’t be with you. He has half a mind to snatch you away and leave you as his perfect little bedmate because he knows you would never marry a monster like him, so abducting you was… reasonable. He can shower you with gifts in your captivity, decorating you with all the gold and jewel in the world while he’s fucking his child into you. He can have his men kidnap you, and yes, it is inhumane but you would be happy with him as his wife than a woman playing as a lieutenant. He would soothe your worries, fuck you every single hour with no rest until his cock rearranges your insides and impregnate you until he can convince you that he was the perfect mate for you, and then boom – happily ever after.

He knows that he can have you.

And it drives him crazy because he has never felt a strong urge to want something so bad in his life. At this point, it’s not even a want. It’s a need. It’s hilarious how the two of you barely knew each other, but König was head over heels for you. He wants you by his side, whether you’re willing or not.

“Have you eaten?” Horangi asked.

“Not yet.” König answered.

That’s how he found himself sitting down at the mess hall, eating this food that was barely stimulating his senses. Horangi didn’t join him, said he had to attend a meeting with his soldiers since a complaint was given to him. It was good, actually. There was rice, three hamburger steak, gravy and mashed potatoes. They gave him a bigger serving simply because he was a giant man, it only made sense to give him enough sustenance to function. The food was delicious, but König didn’t really pay attention much to it.

Now that he has had a taste of you—you giving him kind words and smiling at him—König couldn’t get enough. You were like a drug. He want to pin you down, ravage you in bed, feel your walls clamp and spasm around his cock over and over again while you’re reduced to nothing but mewls with a cum-drunk expression the same way a drug addict heats heroin over a spoon before injecting it into their systems.

He needs you under him, panting and blushing, lips puffy from kisses, skin glazed with sweat and marked with his lips and teeth.

He needs you under him, creaming on his cock while he stretches out your cunt deliciously – taking him to the hilt like a good girl, cock forming a bulge on your abdomen. Juices dripping on to the sheets while he suckles on your nipple, his other hand groping your other tit.

He needs you under him–

“Colonel?”

König’s eyes snapped up and locked on to yours, and the concern scribbled on to them has his heart swooning over you once more. Your brows are turned upward with worry and you standing in front of the table he was sitting at, calling out to him has him wanting to put you on his lap and nuzzle against the crook of your neck. He smiles underneath the mask, seeing you again, blessing his eyes with your beauty.

“Ah, liebling. What brings you my way?”

“Roze is on a mission and Izzy is currently in a meeting, and every seat is taken. So, I was wondering if I can sit with you.”

“Of course, mein liebe. Your company is always welcome.”

You can sit on his lap.

You can sit on his face, ride him while he eats you out. Tongue lapping at your sweet juices as you cum on his face. God, he wants to spoil you. Cover you with kisses and embrace you because he loves you.

To König, you’re adorable when you eat. Your cheeks puffing a little like a chipmunk as you chew your food, before gulping some of your water. There’s a bit of mashed potato smeared by the side of your lips, and you don’t seem to notice. Before he can stop himself, his fingers had made contact with your skin, wiping away the stain. He sees you visibly froze, eyes widening so adorably.

“You had mashed potato on your face.” König chuckled, wiping the food off of his gloves with a tissue.

“O-oh…” You stutter, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry. I was hungry… I missed breakfast.”

Your cheeks turned red, flustered at his gentle gesture, and König eats that shit up. His mind keeping the moment in his head. His desires spilling over it like ink; tainting a shared innocent memory between you two. He stares at you for a solid minute, engraining your features into his memory—as if he hasn’t memorized your face at this point—and smiles softly beneath the mask. There are scars all over his body, including his face, and the tentacles on his face struggles not to reach out to you and feel your skin against it.

He wants you to know that he would do anything for you. How he’s willing to lay down his life for you. How he’s willing to protect you from anything because you’re all he ever wanted in his whole life. You would appreciate a man with scars, right? After all, it’s a sign of bravery.

König took part in many battles, too many to count with his tentacles and fingers and toes combined; spent his youth training to be the best killer possible. He took part in many conflicts and killed hundreds, maybe thousands even, while feeling nothing but recoil. He isn’t afraid of anything – maybe, except for talking to people sometimes. It’s not like he’s terrified of them, but rather afraid of making a fool of himself. König always hated talking to people, but being colonel meant he had to communicate to soldiers under his command and his superiors.

He isn’t afraid of anything. But… he is afraid of you finally seeing underneath the mask and thinking that you, in fact, find him revolting to look at.

The colonel takes one look good at you, and figures that maybe it’s worth the internal turmoil if it meant that he would have you by his side. He would agree to get as many ranks as possible if that meant he could provide for you and have you quit your job as a soldier. If that would allow him to come home to every day and night instead of sleeping alone in his room.

“I suppose you enjoy your breakfast, liebling?” König chuckled, and your face just goes even more red.

“It’s delicious,” You answered, smiling sheepishly.

He loves it when you smile. Obsessed with it—the way your eyes twinkle with delight whenever you cast your gaze at him without a hint of disgust.

“Would you like to get coffee someday?” König offered. “I know a café that has really good coffee or if you prefer non-caffeinated drinks, they also have milkshakes and their desserts are pretty good.”

And you with those pretty doe-eyes of yours say, “Sure! Set the time and date, colonel.”

Other soldiers are looking. They’re glancing at you and him, but you don’t seem to notice the stares or the fact that it had gone slightly quiet. He is a creep, weirdo and all the words in a song that he’s been blasting in his tiny headphones these past few days because he can smell the sweetness of your perfume and the way you are smiling at him with such unbridled admiration was driving him mad.

“How about this Thursday, ja?” König inquired, wanting to hear your opinion on the matter.

You think for a moment, brows furrowed and König finds it really endearing. Izzy said she’d take you to a café but she wasn’t really sure yet since she says it might be the day Horangi and her go on missions. Roze wouldn’t be back until Sunday, and you’re left alone with nothing on base.

Well… there is König.

“Sure! I’m free this Thursday.” You say to the colonel, brimming with excitement at your newfound friendship.

The monster is pleased. It seems you’ve checked out all the boxes he’s looking for in a mate.

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P.S. Idk how to tag or if I did it right^^

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naomihatake · 7 months

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In search of freedom (Ch. 1)

1. They're bad news

Chapter 1 ; Chapter 2

⠀⠀⠀⠀She's been searching for freedom her entire life and everytime she thought it was laying right in front of her eyes, she was mistaken. She was running around the East Blue, seeking herself and her dreams, meeting people she never forgot. No matter how much she traveled, she could only catch a glimpse of peace before realizing everything would crumble at her feet.

⠀⠀⠀⠀Maybe it was destiny that brought her on that ship with three strangers — foolishly, that's what she tried to believe when the moon shined beautifully and hope settled in her chest, squeezed by the same ribcage where feelings were blooming.

Pairing: female!reader x OPLA Zoro Roronoa. This chapter follows the events of the first episode.

Warnings for this chapter: physical violence (fights), mentions of deaths, fluff, some cursing, mentions of tarot and palm readings

Word count: 3,6k

Theme song: “Loreley” by Blackmore's Night (click on the link)

A/N: This is the first part of a fanfiction I was thinking of since first watching One Piece Live Action. I started the anime too and I'm around episode 64 already. I'm using the OPLA course of action for now and I have no idea for an ending, but enough scenarios to write and share. I don't know how far this will go, but I'll have fun writing it and considering how much I like Zoro (born anime and LA), I'm using both of them as inspiration. Sorry for the lack of interaction between reader and Zoro, but I promise things will change.

The reader will be referred to as "Witch" especially in the next chapter, because I have no intentions of using "Y/N". There will be more information revealed about her past and abilities in the next chapter.

I'm open for comments and opinions <3

"Excuse me," she smiled sweetly while swaying away from someone who was standing right in front of her and a table she had to serve for. "Here," she carefully let the plates down.

She received a large smile coming from the young man with dark curls and a straw hat hanging around his neck. His pink haired companion seemed very shy, barely glancing at her before looking back at his plate, thanking in a small voice.

The tavern buzzed with a peaceful energy in the late hours of morning, the big windows letting the warm rays of sun in, lighting up the place. There were men sitting at a few tables, no sign of any other woman except for her and the very owner of that place, who just finished cooking something — were those cookies? It smelled divine.

Her dress fluttered around her knees as she moved away from their table to take other orders, a strand of her hair falling against her cheek after running around for so long. When she finally stopped in her tracks by the bar, intense eyes searched for anyone else who might've needed something. Lucky for her, she could finally breathe for a few seconds, resting her hips against the bar.

However, her eyes fell on the tall figure who just chugged down his throat a shot of alcohol. His green hair made her frown to herself, looking away before she could get caught ogling some stranger. After a few seconds, she looked at him again, this time at the three swords resting against his hip.

Three swords? What can someone do with three swords?

Everyone probably had the same question whenever they saw him for the first time. However, he felt somehow familiar, as if she's heard of someone like that before. A pirate? No, wait, a pirate hunter? The owner told her of so many things and so many people it was impossible to remember each one of them, but she was pretty sure she mentioned some pirate hunter only a few days ago.

Her thought process was interrupted when a man with blonde hair and suit walked by in front of her. Considering the men dressed in white uniforms who entered with him, they must be marines and he was probably their superior — he was walking like he owned the entire port.

She held back from rolling her eyes in annoyance. Her thoughts ran back to what her friend said about pirates last time, the way they argued back and forth about how pirates aren't good. However, she had her own reasons for claiming that not all pirates were ruthless monsters, without elaborating.

She flinched lightly when she heard the thud of a metal plate falling on the floor, snapping her head towards a little girl who was stuttering apologies to the blonde man. Her eyebrows were pulled together at his angry and loud voice mocking the child who had tears in her eyes, fear seeping through her very bones at the exaggerated reaction.

Apparently, they knocked into each other. Oh, there were two cookies on the floor. One of them got crushed under the man's foot.

She smoothly made her way by the side of the little girl, smiling at her as she crouched down to her level.

"Is everything alright, little one? Did you apologize?" the woman's hand squeezed the girl's shoulder warmly.

Rika's only response was a nod.

"Good job. It's alright, I'll help you clean up. Why don't you bring me a broom, hm?" she coaxed the girl with a gentle voice.

Once the girl walked away, she stood up straight again, arching her eyebrow questionably at the arrogant man by her side.

"Is there anything else I could help you with?"

"What, are you working here? If the answer's positive, then you better teach those stupid kids some manners," he huffed.

"You should teach yourself how to behave," she commented right back, her sharp gaze sizing him up and down.

"Take that back. Next time I won't be so nice," the blonde marine grinned.

Oh, and what an ugly grin it was on that fucker's face.

"You dropped my food," a low voice from behind interrupted.

The young woman turned her head towards the voice, confusion written on her face as she made a few steps back, out of his way. It was the green haired man she noticed earlier, now sitting on one of his knees on the cold floor.

Rika came back with a broom almost twice her size, the object quickly taken from her hold by the woman who smiled at her again. While they exchanged glances, the pirate hunter let himself down on one of his knees, taking some of the crushed cookie into his palm.

A sly smile tugged at the woman's lips. A pirate hunter or not, he had more dignity than a marine even in that kneeling position. She was more satisfied to see the little one smiling.

"Your turn," the green-haired man lowered his voice, a dark glare thrown at the astonished marine.

The pirate hunter raised back up and placed the metal plate on the bat, his intimidating height against the arrogant blonde monkey in front of him telling enough.

"Apologize to the girl," he demanded in a relaxed tone.

"Me? It was her fault for bumping into me. The lady should apologize for disrespecting me."

Apologize, my ass, she thought to herself, one step away from bursting out laughing. What did he take her for?

"Do you want a fight or what?" he drew his sword out, a knowing grin curled on his face. "I don't need three swords to fight."

The woman looked down at the little girl who was still by her side, ruffling her hair.

"Why don't you go to your mother, hm? And stay there until I call you back."

Her stern voice didn't give space for arguing; Rika complied, going to the kitchen.

She heard some muttering and next thing she knew, both of the men in front of her had drawn their swords out. Apparently, the green-haired one decided to advance closer to the marine, in an attempt to keep the fight away from the lady.

Hmph. Swordsmen and their unusual gentlemanly behavior.

Squeezing the broom in between her fingers, she moved away, furrowing her eyebrows in a scowl.

"No fights in here, you jerks!" she scoffed.

Expertly, while the other marines attacked one man — how unethical of them — and swords clashed against each other after sharp whistling noises, the woman swept away the cookies on the floor. She faked doing her own duties, like the good employee that she was, throwing careful glances at the fight happening right next to her. If she wasn't careful enough, she could get sliced in two.

"I advise you to get out of the way," she heard the swordsman's voice growling right after he threw a chair into three men, making them fall to the floor.

"You'll destroy the entire place if I do."

Right after saying those words, without anyone noticing in that damned agitation, with a quick movement of the broom, she made one of the marines trip.

Just like the idiots that they were.

"Oh my god, you should be more careful!" she placed a hand over her lips, fake surprise and fear coloring her features.

Who would believe such an innocent being was capable of such malicious actions?

With a strong creak followed by a thud, one marine was thrown into a table that turned the both of them upside down, groans filled with pain vibrating through the tavern.

She was right about them destroying the place.

However, the commotion didn't cause too much distress to the woman still moving the broom around, acting as if she had business with that newly found weapon. It might not be lethal, but she couldn't be spotted while she was intentionally making the marines' jobs harder. In the month she's been working there, she saw more than just one fight and used everything that she saw fit to stop it — be it a broom or a kitchen knife.

Now that she analyzed the fight better, it seemed like the pirate hunter barely even had to draw his sword out of its scabbard, at some point knocking someone's head into the bar. He used his raw strength and the objects surrounding him, thankfully without destroying any of them. The can he threw into another man's stomach seemed so effortless.

That must've hurt, though.

The blonde marine was quickly pulled by the back of his collar, back colliding with the bar, and an angry swordsman towering over him. She didn't hear anything nor paid attention anymore, eyes focused on the tavern that was ruined only half way through.

She sighed after watching both of the men walking out of there, biting her lower lip to hold back a fit of laughter at the marine who stumbled while being dragged by the bounty hunter.

"Why do men always fight in this tavern?" she talked to herself, raising one of the chairs and putting it back in place. "One day of peace is all I want in this port, only one day, and I can't get even that."

She sighed again, only for that long exhale to get stuck in her throat once her eyes fell on the table that was almost sitting in the opposite way rather than how it should be. Once she approached it, stepping by the marine who was trying to get up.

She would never help someone who had less dignity than a dog following some orders from a brainless monkey. Heck, even those animals were smarter.

Instead, she tried to move the table back in its place. Her fingers were so close to gripping at one side of the table before someone appeared at the opposite side. The young man with a straw hat and a square smile she served only a few minutes ago raised the table by himself, carefully arranging it until he was satisfied with its position.

"Thank you so much for the help," she smiled at him. "Be careful where you step, I think a glass also broke."

There were some shreds on the floor somewhere close to the table the young man sat at earlier.

"Thank you for your concern," he smiled just like the first time.

Gosh, has she ever seen such a beautiful soul? His eyes sparkled and the happiness suited him like it did to a little child who has no clue of the harsh world. However, he didn't seem phased or scared by what happened earlier — his hands weren't shaking at all and there was no fear lingering in his stare.

She turned to take the broom and came closer to his companion, who was sitting under the table. She bent her torso to give him a hand, helping him get back to his feet.

"Careful with the glass, check your hands," she warned again.

"I saw what you did there."

She turned towards the straw hat guy, blinking owlishly at him.

"I don't really get what you mean."

She started sweeping the shred of broken glass, not paying attention to the curious and insistent gaze she was receiving.

"You surely do. I'm Monkey D. Luffy and I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!"

Her eyes widened at the second part of his speech, snapping her head back at him. Without even realizing, her fingers were squeezing the broom quite harshly, fingertips going white.

"That's—" she started in a small voice, blinking like an idiot and staring at him.

She's heard that before. She's heard the same dream before and it brought so much suffering.

"That's dangerous," she finally got the courage to continue, still hesitant.

"You're brave for interfering with their fight."

Luffy looked into her eyes as if he could guess the thoughts running through her head, as if he could read her very soul, drinking in her features and reaction.

"You must've seen wrong," she let out a light chuckle, getting a grip on herself. "I'm just clumsy sometimes."

She was thankful she stopped herself from cussing out the Marines, because in less than a second after she finished her sentence, a few other men dressed in white uniforms appeared to help their comrades back to the base. She casted a skeptical eye at each one of them, like silent warnings.

They were pathetic, some of them still stumbling while trying to get up, their swords thrown around carelessly. After they all disappeared from her sight, her shoulders obviously relaxed again.

"I have to admit I hated each second of staying so much with these idiots around," she huffed quietly. "That spoiled child who takes advantage of his father's status was getting on my nerves."

"That's why you helped that swordsman, right?"

Luffy continued with his supposition, not letting go of what he thought he saw — it was the truth, but it would be dangerous to admit.

"I didn't help anyone, really. That was unintentional."

"Don't press it too much, Luffy," his companion's voice trembled.

"Koby, I know what I saw," Luffy pulled his lips into a straight line.

She resumed what she was doing, sweeping at the pieces of glass, seeing almost each one of them in the light seeping through the window.

"If you want to become King of the Pirates, I suppose you also want to get the One Piece, right?"

She was foolish. She was stupid for asking, for getting herself in such business that somehow always ended with too many deaths, with broken dreams. However, something was nagging in her gut. Deep down, it felt so right to ask.

"Yes! I need the Grand Line map for that and I intend on getting from the Marine Base here."

"You're insane, kid," her shoulders shook with her light laughter.

It was a sour sound.

She stopped, leaning her weight into the broom, looking down at the glass in front of her. She shouldn't help them. She should stay in her place if she wanted those young men to survive. What they were trying to do was basically suicide, they just didn't know. Koby seemed to be more fearful, hesitant and so, so shy. Luffy didn't say "us"; he said "I" — the pink-haired guy was not really part of the plan.

Against better judgment, she raised her head at him, promises sparkling in her eyes just like the shreds of glass.

"You can't just ask for that map and I hope you know that. What you want to get yourself into isn't just dangerous, it's like jumping into a suicide mission," her voice strained, pouring all of her hope in her next words: "However, I can help you get inside. Be careful, you have to make sure no one catches you."

"So I was right about you!" Luffy beamed.

"Right about what?"

"That you're brave."

Her lips opened, but no sound came from between them. It was pointless to deny it when he seemed so stubborn about what he saw and believed.

"I think this is a lot to say about someone who's helping you steal secret maps," the side of her mouth curled upwards.

Koby was left astonished. Stealing from the Marines was suicide.

"Listen here, kid," she lowered her voice, stepping closer to whisper. She set her gaze on Luffy's. "You have to get out of there alive, no matter what. Lie if you have to, but I have a feeling you're very bad at that, so be careful. That isn't a place to fool around in. You could get yourself killed in a blink. The Marines are very sneaky."

"There are good Marines and bad Marines," he shrugged. "Maybe I'll meet someone who's willing to help."

"I like your enthusiasm, but that unit base doesn't fit," she shook her head. "Both Captain Morgan and his son aren't the good kind of people."

She squeezed the broom in between her fingers again, an ugly feeling clawing at her throat. She didn't want a kid to die for following his dreams, but freedom was something she always craved.

"I'll tell you a way to get inside the base from underneath. You have to keep your lips sealed — I don't worry about myself, but about the owner and her daughter. I don't want word spreading around."

"You can count on me!" he placed his hand on his heart, as if he sealed the promise there. "Who are you? I want to know who's helping me."

Damned be his sincerity.

"I'll give you my name after you get out of there alive."

She smiled, eyes sparkling with delicious mischief.

"That is a promise. I'll be around the Marine Base and I'll tell you my name after I see you get out of there alive."

That seemed to stir something in Luffy's soul, inhaling with pride. A man of his word, indeed, just like she thought.

"Deal.

•┈┈┈•┈┈┈•┈┈┈

Her name left the lips of a scolding mother, even if it wasn't her mom.

"I saw you." The second time she heard tthat same phrase in one day.

Annie patted the tip of her shoe against the floor repeatedly.

"I was just lucky enough not to get myself in trouble," she shrugged.

However, her eyes fell on the floor, guilty about getting caught like a deer in the light.

"You could've gotten yourself in big trouble!" the owner of the tavern raised her voice.

Rika pouted up at her mother, trying to sweeten her reaction.

"She just wanted to help, just like—"

"Rika," this time, the scolded one firmly spoke her name. "Don't take me as an idol. It's true that something could have happened."

The little girl shouldn't worry about such a bloody world just yet and she wanted to help it for as long as possible. Being stubborn was a death sentence, even if she would always get herself into trouble if it meant to stick to her principles.

She'd rather die on her feet than live on her knees.

"Just because this time everything was fine, it doesn't mean next time will be the same," Annie exhaled loudly, frowning.

"There won't be a next time," the young woman sank her chin in her chest. "I should leave these days. Soon enough, word will spread out about my tarot and palm readings. I don't want to cause you any more trouble."

"You little witch," the usual scolding was replaced with a warm nickname.

She raised her head again, struggling to smile. Leaving after she got attached always hurt.

"That man was Roronoa Zoro, wasn't it?" Annie asked, her body suddenly tensing.

"Most probably," she shrugged. "Three swords, three earrings. He put on quite a show, to be honest," the words were followed by a chuckle.

"I see the way your eyes are sparkling. Don't even think about getting into some conversation with such a troublesome person."

"What could do some adventure to a poor soul like me?" she teased.

"It could bring you six feet under."

•┈┈┈•┈┈┈•┈┈┈

"I'm no witch, you idiots!" she struggled against the harsh grip the two men had on her arms.

She hissed when one of them sank his fingertips in her upper arms, glaring at him.

Shithead marines.

She continued writhing and struggling, stomping her feet into the ground in an awful attempt to stop them. She intended on keeping her promise after she helped the straw hat sneak into their base. She waited for as long as it was necessary after she gathered her things in a bag that hung around her shoulders. She was supposed to leave that place after she made sure the kid was alright and alive.

"God dammit!" she shouted. "How many times do I have to explain I'm not doing anything wrong?!"

"You're lying to people and receiving money, filthy witch. You're a thief," one of the men commented as they continued walking her away from the port.

"I didn't steal shit!" she snapped.

"Watch out!" she heard a familiar voice.

Instantly, she bent her torso down. The man on her right was punched in the face with so much force he released her grip on her and stumbled into the marine on her left, both of them now on the ground.

She didn't even get enough time to process what was happening, something curling around her waist carefully, but so fast. A yelp left her lips when she realized she was being lifted off the ground, turning her head towards the source.

It was the straw hat's arm. He ate a devil fruit, didn't he?

He was on a boat that was sailing a few meters away in the sea and she was being pulled towards him. She also recognized the pirate hunter from earlier and a woman with orange hair, both of them far too relaxed for what was happening.

That guy was made of rubber!

She recognized Koby who just got to his feet after she got past him, her feet finally touching something solid again. She blinked confused at the straw hat.

"You can't bring everyone that you like on this ship," the swordsman let out a hopeless sigh.

She busted out laughing like a maniac, the colorful and rich sound filling the air. Her shoulders shook and she had to place her hand over her stomach, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. Obviously, her reaction was met with an especially questionable look coming from the swordsman, who most probably thought he got on a ship with another insane human.

"You're insane, kid," she wiped the tears in her eyes with her fingers, still smiling widely.

She hasn't felt such relief in years.

"I guess I gotta fulfill a promise, right?"

•┈┈┈•┈┈┈•┈┈┈

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stareaterau · 8 months

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Chapter 1 episode 2

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---

Let me introduce you to our cowboy, as he takes a trip

CW: injury and description of broken bones

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A lonely cowboy trudges through the desert, bleary-eyed and hatless. His name is Jimmy.

He woke up not too long ago, face down in the sand and alone. The grains refuse to budge from their places buried between the colourful feathers on his face. With a sigh, he stops trying to scratch at the feathers to dislodge them, resigning himself to the permanent itch. It wouldn’t have helped for long anyways, the wind would soon blow more sand back into the gaps in his feathers, along with just about every other part of his lanky body. Jimmy coughs, dust coating the back of his throat. He pulls up his red bandana, from where it rests around his neck, to protect the lower half of his face. He’s not a stranger to waking up in the desert, it’s always been tempting for him to nap between the dunes, shielded from the winds and the distractions of Tumble Town. These are not those dunes. The land is flat, aside from a cracked layer of earth. The sun beats down on every surface, with next to no trees or bushes to offer much needed shade. Jimmy frowns, trying to recall the events that led him here. He must’ve fallen asleep on his horse and fallen off. He had been riding for a while… and it wouldn’t be the first time. Although, how he didn’t wake up when he fell is still a mystery to him. Maybe he fell head first. The horse must’ve wandered off while he was out… with all his belongings attached to their saddle.

And then there’s the beeping. It started off infrequently, only sounding every couple minutes. Jimmy thought he’d imagined it at first, that maybe he got heat stroke from sleeping under the sun for so long, but he reasoned that it’s far too consistent to be a hallucination. He’s not sure if that even makes sense, but it’s clearly speeding up and slowing down depending on the direction that he’s walking, so he’s sure that it’s leading him somewhere.

His running theory is that, somehow, the beeping is leading him to his horse, who, hopefully, has not managed to lose his stuff in the middle of this vast desert. Or, if not his horse, then whoever has found his belongings. If that’s the case, he hopes they’re friendly— he’s been robbed a few times and he’s not all that excited to add another experience to the list. Jimmy’s second, and just as unlikely, theory is that he’s being led towards water. That somehow he picked up some kind of water detector and managed to forget about it. He thinks this one might just be wishful thinking… or both of them may be.

There’s only one way to find out, and he’s familiar enough with this type of environment to know that meaningless wandering isn’t going to help him.

The beeping increases steadily the further he treks across the sands, dragging his sore, bird-like feet. The makeshift shoes he cut from an old pair of boots, so that they could fit, do a poor job of protecting him from the scorching earth. The more wiry trees and bushes cross his path, the more certain he becomes that he’s in a completely different desert than the one he calls home. He’s never been much of an expert in flora, but he knows he’s never seen these plants before. Their branches are thorny and muddy red, unlike the ones he’s used to. Hell, he doesn’t think he’s seen a single cactus. He probably would have tried to cut it down to see if it was edible if he had.

Despite the beeping leading Jimmy in a straight direction, he has to carefully wind his way through the desert, walking around the trenches that split the ground for miles. He almost broke his ankle in one of the shallower cracks earlier when he misjudged its depth. He pays more attention to them now, observing as they slowly grow deeper and wider, creating the chasms that lead on and on until into the dust clouds and heat waves.

Jimmy misses his hat. He will never again take its wide brim for granted, and how it blocked the harsh sun. His eyes hurt. He thought he’d have more time before the sun reached its peak, but the star moved much faster than expected. Jimmy is tempted to reason that the difference is because he’s on an entirely different planet, rather than just an unfamiliar part of the desert. A planet that rotates significantly faster than the one he calls home. But he’s not thinking that, because how could that even happen? How would he get back home? No, he lost track of time. He’s just been walking for longer than he thought. Jimmy has been living in the desert for years now, and has grown used to the heat— the feeling of feathers damp with sweat and covered in sand is a familiar sensation— but the temperature is starting to get to him. The lack of shade and water make it impossible to find a moment of relief.

The beeping grows faster, and he searches for a change in the landscape around him. The ground remains an empty plane, with nothing but the deep, wide fissures marking its surface. He’s starting to hope the beeping might be leading him to a settlement, rather than his horse. At least then he'll be able to get out of the sun.

Zoning back into the beeping, Jimmy realizes it’s slowed, a notable gap forming between each sound. Whatever he’s been walking towards must’ve changed directions, or maybe he just walked past it somehow. Looking around, nothing has changed. He hasn’t even seen animals skittering across the sand, no lizards— or alien lizard equivalents— basking under the hot sun. Trying to reorientate himself, Jimmy begins to test the beeps, listening for which directions make it speed up. But it keeps shifting. The beeping then speeds up to its fastest speed yet, the separate beeps bleeding into one sound before stopping completely, only for it to start up again a moment later. Maybe it’s leading him somewhere vertically? He looks up.

He starts walking, keeping his eyes on the sky, hoping it might reveal something new to him, but he foolishly loses track of the topography. Before he knows it, one foot sinks into unsteady ground, then the other finds nothing but air, and he’s falling.

Reflexively, he holds his arms in front of him, hoping helplessly that it will slow his plunge into the cavernous ravine.

An old reflex cries out. One long forgotten and useless. He tries to listen.

First there’s the hiss of sand, pattering over the surface below. Then a sickening crack as Jimmy lands on his outstretched arm. Pain shoots through his side.

He opens his mouth to yell, but he’s interrupted by another scream, next to him.

Scrambling to the wall and clutching his injured arm, Jimmy’s mind works on pure adrenaline as he tries to push through the pain, and wills his vision clear enough for him to see his new company.

The figure curled on the floor mirrors him, clutching their own arm to their chest.

Their body is covered in a light yellow fur, which darkens to a reddish brown at the tips of their limbs. Their fiery hair and tail flicker wildly with distress— a blazeborn. They’re wearing a torn sleeveless shirt, with a thick, dark coat tied around their waist. Why anyone would carry a coat like that out here, Jimmy cannot understand.

Their bright yellow eyes are wide like suns, shining right at Jimmy. They let out a quavery wheeze.

Jimmy shakes his head, fending off the delirium.

He coughs a pained, bitter laugh. His ribs ache. “...Hello?”

“Are you okay?” They manage back, looking and sounding like they’re in just as much pain as he is.

“Are you okay?” Jimmy nods pointedly to their broken arm. He can see its misshapen form from here. He doesn’t want to imagine what his own arm looks like.

The blazeborn shuffles tentatively towards him, making sure to not move their arm.

“I don't know- I don't know how it happened. You just fell and then I felt-”

Jimmy's eyes snap open with the realization. “Did I fall on you?! I’M SO SORRY!!”

“No no, you fell nowhere near me-” they shake their head, whining slightly, just as Jimmy feels a pulse of pain and bites back a wince himself.

With that, the look on their face morphs from concern to confusion. They shift closer to him, close enough that Jimmy can see the slight blue wisps in their warm flames. This might be the first time he’s been this close to a blazeborn. He always thought they’d give off more heat than this.

They don’t meet his gaze though, their attention directed elsewhere.

Gently, they pull their good arm from where it rests on their chest. Before Jimmy can question them, they tap his injured arm. A bolt of pain shoots through his body— he pulls back violently.

“OW!! THAT HURTS!” he yells, but his anger dissipates once he spots the blazeborn grimacing from their own pain. They blink rapidly, fighting through the daze. When it passes, they focus on Jimmy with an apologetic expression.

“This sounds crazy, but I think we're- connected.”

“What?! What are you on about?” Jimmy barks, confusion and pain leading easily into anger.

“Look, if I-”

Jimmy catches them by the wrist as they make another move to prod him.

“If you poke me one more time I swear-” Jimmy threatens in his best attempt at an authoritative tone, tightening his grip on their arm, challenging them.

They pause, considering him for a moment. Their eyes, without a trace of fear, flick down to Jimmy’s arm before returning to meet his gaze. They seem to be more intrigued than anything.

“Okay, okay, how about you poke me, then.” They direct his hand over to their injured arm.

"W-why?" Jimmy squawks, resisting.

“You'll feel the same thing. If my guess is right, at least.”

The way they laugh afterwards doesn't exactly fill Jimmy with much confidence. It reminds him of a mad scientist excited to test their hypothesis regardless of their questionable, painful methods. The logic makes his head spin; the stranger’s certainty is a jarring contrast. He feels like he’s out of the loop about something.

”....Okay. Are you sure?”

They grin wildly at him, their sharp teeth on full display.

“Go ahead, I'm giving you permission.”

“HM.” Jimmy hums with audible suspicion, baffled as to why someone would willingly feel that kind of pain. Stumped, he grants them their wish. As gently as he can, he pokes them.

His own arm blooms with pain. The same white hot pain. He pulls back, gasping, faint from the unexpected sting.

“What- WHAT THE HECK-'' Jimmy cries, hugging his arm closer to his chest. Nothing touched him, but that’s not how it felt. His poor arm pulses with pain, and he stares at the blazeborn.

They huff out a couple unsteady breaths, clearing their head before meeting Jimmy’s stricken look with another weak grin. How someone can smile in this situation is beyond Jimmy, and how this stranger’s grin grows wider with each passing second is completely unfathomable. Finally, they explode with laughter.

“AHAH- Welp, this is definitely a weird situation!”

“How-” Jimmy falters, his worry deepening. “Who are you?”

The blazeborn casually pushes themself up against the wall, sitting down next to him. They wipe the sand off their hand onto their coat.

“No idea, and the name’s Tango.”

He smiles up at Jimmy, more genuinely.

“…Jimmy.” He replies, finding the time to properly take in Tango’s appearance beyond the minimum.

Jimmy’s eyes flicker to something tied at the blazeborn’s waist. It was a pair of big, bulky boots. He watches Tango kick at the dust with his bare feet. No wonder he isn't wearing them. They look more suited to insulating the cold and snow, rather than the scorching heat of a desert.

An awkward silence falls over the two, both of them trying to process their situation, and grimacing internally from their pain. Jimmy rests his tail over his own feet, fanning the end towards him to battle the heat. He's not particularly sure what to say, especially to a stranger who is, by some unexplainable magic, connected to him. Fortunately for him, he doesn't have to go first.

“So, Jimmy… What got you here?” Tango breaks the silence.

“I fell.” He replies dumbly, not registering the question completely.

Tango spits out a laugh. “No, I mean- in this desert.”

Jimmy shrugs, recalling all he can. “I don't know… I don't remember.”

He’s beginning to accept that maybe his horse and all his belongings aren’t on this planet at all.

He yawns, “I was just following the beeps-”

His head slips against the wall behind him, neck lolling as a wave of exhaustion hits him.

“Hey, hey, buddy- stay awake for me.” Tango reaches over, snapping his good hand in front of Jimmy and chuckling nervously.

“Mmm… sorry.” Jimmy rubs his eyes, blinking blearily at the blazeborn. “What about you?”

“Pretty much the same.” Tango affirms. “I was following the beeps through the caves and ravines, and then I stumbled upon you- or more like, you stumbled and-” Tango gestures to the top of the ravine, reenacting Jimmy's fall with his hand, complete with cartoonish sound effects.

Jimmy, too worn down to feel insulted, just laughs.

“You think the beeping was leading us to the same thing?” He enquires.

“Probably- or probably to each other, actually. ‘cuz we're linked somehow!” Tango decides, seeming far more alert than Jimmy.

“Who… would do that? …why?” Jimmy asks hazily, stifling another yawn.

Tango lowers his gaze, brow furrowing. He doesn’t reply. Instead, he sinks deeper in thought, mumbling like he’s debating something in his mind.

Jimmy frowns as the moment stretches on, and opens his mouth to ask what's wrong, but Tango interrupts him.

“I think I might have an idea why I'm here.”

“Oh?” Jimmy tilts his head.

“You work with dodgy people, you get into dodgy situations.” He states bluntly, like it’s a matter of fact.

“You- you’re not a robber, are you? Or a murderer?!” Jimmy tenses, not-so-subtly shuffling away.

“Oh, no no- nothing scary,” Tango snorts, offering Jimmy a disarming wink.

Jimmy’s not convinced. He studies Tango wearily.

“I mean-” Tango elaborates, “I'm actually just an architect of sorts. That's not scary.”

“Could be!” Jimmy argues, “You could be making dungeons and torture chambers!”

Tango snaps his mouth shut with a squeak, a chuckle stuttering through his teeth.

"…yeeaah. Nothing like that." He assures vaguely, trying to emphasize his words carefully.

Jimmy squints at him, humming in agreement despite his suspicion. He goes to move so that he can face Tango straight on, but in the process, bumps his elbow into the stone wall.

Both Tango and Jimmy immediately curl into themselves. “Ah- ow ow ow ow.” They murmur in sync.

"Oh, yeah,” Tango wheezes breathlessly, “We should probably do something about these.”

Jimmy makes a small, sad noise to himself. He’s gone a long time without having to deal with a broken bone, and he had been hoping to keep it that way. He looks helplessly at his arm, and Tango follows his gaze.

“Can I see?” Tango asks, in the calmest voice he can muster, though the tension around his eyes betrays his own unease.

Jimmy just nods and moves closer, more carefully this time.

Tango leans over as Jimmy lifts his arm delicately.

“Hmm.” He ponders over the mangled limb. “Haha.” He concludes flatly, “It looks like we might have to set them.”

Jimmy pulls his arm back. “I don't want to do that. You know what, I always wanted a wonky arm, actually.”

“If it's any comfort, you won't be alone in the pain.” Tango tries with a weak smile.

Jimmy pouts. Conceding slightly, he asks “Are we going to do our arms at the same time?”

“Void, no.” Tango laughs dismissively. “That sounds like a horrible idea. The universe might just implode.”

“What?” Jimmy snaps, shooting Tango a concerned stare. Tango rolls his eyes.

“We'd most likely both feel twice as much pain, buddy. That's what I mean.”

Jimmy’s face tightens with anxiety, and he makes another move to scoot away.

“Hey, hey, wait.” Tango placates, looking around helplessly. Rummaging in his pocket, he pulls out two torn pieces of fabric. They look like they used to be the sleeves from his t-shirt.

Tango hands one to Jimmy. “Bite down on this?” He offers.

“Don't happen to have any form of painkillers, then?” Jimmy pipes uselessly.

Tango notices the way Jimmy eyes the dirty fabric. He shrugs apologetically.

“That's all I got, sorry.”

Jimmy sighs, willing himself to accept his fate, and clumsily folds the fabric with one hand. He tentatively places it in his mouth.

“So… who first?” He mumbles defeatedly through the fabric.

“Hmmm… you!”

Before Jimmy can process what’s happening, Tango snaps his arm back into place.

#stareater au #life series au #jimmy solidarity #tangotek #ranchers duo #cw injury #cw broken bones #team rancher #trafficblr

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thetriumphantpanda · 4 months

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Delicate - Chapter Two: Maroon

3.7k / pairing: joel miller x f!reader

Series Masterlist | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

summary: despite some last minute reservations about meeting Joel, you throw yourself into the date, but it doesn't go according to plan.

A/N: Ahhhhh oh my God - @hellishjoel and I are so excited to bring you the second chapter of Delicate! We're having the best time with this little pairing already and we hope they manage to worm their way into your hearts just like they have with us! We're taking turns in posting the chapters of this - so please make sure you're following both of us to keep up to date!

warnings: mentions of being a single parents, rom-com vibes, foul language, a bestie who is nothing but trouble, Joel being terrible at dating in general, a lil smattering of angst, mentions of food & alcohol consumption.

There’s a flow of peace that settles across you when the door to Noah’s room clicks shut. You love him, he’s the best thing that ever happened to you, and he keeps you afloat every day, but these moments, when he’s finally asleep and you can stop thinking for a minute, are the moments you crave each day.

You settle down on the couch, mug of tea in hand, with the TV playing quietly, just for background noise more than anything, as you pick up your phone for the first time that evening. There’s a few emails, mainly about shopping sales and holidays that you think you should book but never do - those are quickly deleted to stop any temptation of spending money on something that isn’t essential. There are a few messages from your mom, just confirming that she’ll pick Noah up from school tomorrow, what she’s planned for them to do and what she’ll feed him. You shoot a message off in reply that it all sounds good and that he’s excited for some quality time with his grandparents, because it’s true, and then you set your phone down on the coffee table and try to ignore it for a while.

You finish your tea and queue up a few episodes of a show you’ve been meaning to catch up on - something mindless that people at work always seem to talk about. So mindless that it actually sends you to sleep. You wake with a jolt a few hours later. The house is still quiet, which means Noah hasn’t decided he’s still got too much energy and needs to burn it off by jumping on the bed or pulling some of his toys out. You sigh, checking the time to see it’s almost midnight.

You gather your stuff, put the mug in the sink to deal with in the morning before trudging up to bed. There’s a moment at the top of the stairs, where you think it would be so easy to flop down on the bed and forgo the rest of your responsibilities, but you’ve got your mother’s voice in the back of your mind, something about wrinkles and pores and how bad it is to sleep in your makeup, so you turn left into the bathroom, cover your skin in serums and creams and then finally, just after midnight, you fall into bed.

Knowing it’s bad to look at your phone this late at night, once you’ve set your alarm, you click open the godforsaken Hinge app that Dixie had insisted on setting you up on. So far, after six months, you’d been on a fair few first dates, three second dates and had a God awful one night stand, but nothing had been sticking, no-one seemed to be exactly what you were looking for. You’d promised her that you’d try though, so as had become a nightly ritual for you, you set about giving away your daily likes, not really paying a huge amount of attention until he pops up for you. Joel. 45. From his first profile picture, the exact kind of man you’d been searching for. Rugged, handsome,

Of the few photos he had on his profile, he was often donning a flannel or a simple short-sleeved shirt that curved around his biceps and broad shoulders. He always wore the same tilted smile, with dazzling eyes and dark hair with licks of silver. He was a handsome lumberjack of sorts.

He looked to be an outdoorsman, at least two of Joel’s pictures were of him hiking a trail accompanied by a young girl, surrounded by greenery and tall rocks with the sunshine peeking through the branches. His face was glowing and tan from the light, his handsomeness so natural. Beautiful, even.

Joel’s “Typical Sunday” consisted of a black coffee in the morning, followed by making burgers on the grill for him and his family before settling down to watch a Dallas Cowboys football game. That was a typical Sunday for a man, but it showed how he liked to unwind and that he was a family man.

First, the mention of a family, plus that beautiful young woman in almost all of Joel’s pictures - a daughter, perhaps? Older than your own boy by quite a few years. He must have been on the younger side of having children if any of these assumptions were even correct. But there was something about knowing he also had a baby to be thinking of felt familiar, comforting, as they would always come first.

And it turns out that talking to him is pretty easy too. He’s charming, a slight insomniac like you, and from what you can tell from the slight back and forth you managed to have before you go to sleep, able to flirt a little with you too. It’s why when he asks to take you out you say yes without hesitation, it could be fun, he could be the one, who knows?

Mornings are always chaos. Half-eaten bowls of cereal on the table, a mug of coffee made with the best of intentions but sat to go cold, a rush of getting Noah dressed and in the car with everything he needed for school and then the annoyance of getting stuck in traffic on the way to drop him off, all coalesce to make you stressed as you help Noah out of the backseat.

“Remember granny is picking you up this afternoon okay?” You ask, bending down to kiss his cheek as he fiddles with the straps of his backpack.

“I know, mom.” He groans, using the back of his hand to wipe the kiss off his cheek.

You smile, ruffle his hair a bit, because no matter how much he might protest, he will always be your baby, “Behave for her, okay?” You warn lightly with a smile, “She’ll bring you back home tomorrow.”

Noah spots some of his friends across the playground and steps around you to make his way into school. You turn, hold your hand up in a wave and shout at him to have a good day. Noah turns, walking backwards to look at you, waving right back.

“Have a good day, mom!”

Underneath the way he’s growing up, he’s still the sweet little boy you knew you could raise on your own. You sit back in your car, picking your phone up to make sure you’ve got enough time to go to the store and stock up on some groceries, when you notice a notification from Hinge. It’s Joel.

Just checking you’re still okay for tonight?

For some reason, you sit and stare at it for a few minutes, fingers itching to type something, to confirm, but there’s that usual seed of doubt that appears after all this time that makes you want to tell him something’s come up, you’ll have to reschedule. After months and months of trying to find someone, to failed first date after failed first date, you wonder if it really is worth it, no matter how good of a match Joel Miller seems on paper. Is he really going to be worth getting dressed up for? You sigh, type out your usual message of I’m sorry, I think I might have to reschedule, when the screen is filled with the face of your best friend, trying to call you.

“Hello?”

“Hello sexy mama!” Dixie’s voice immediately soothes you, “How are you this fine morning?”

“I’m okay,” You speak softly, plugging the phone into the car so you can speak to her as you drive, “Just dropped Noah off at school.”

“How is my favourite man?” She asks.

“Yeah, he’s good, he’s staying with my mom tonight so I think he’s just pleased to be away from me for a while.”

“It’s like the universe read my mind!” Dixie exclaims on the other end of the phone, “Do you want to go out and get wine drunk tonight?”

You stutter for a second, because you could, you could cancel with Joel, go out and drink cheap wine and dance with your friend, but before you can say anything, Dixie picks up on your hesitation.

“OH MY GOD!” She all but screeches, “Do you have a hot date tonight?!”

You grumble a little, because how is she always so attuned to you like this?

“Yeah, although I don’t know if I’m gonna go.”

“Why not?”

You sigh again, “I don’t know if it’s worth it anymore?” You offer.

“Girl, get outta here with that attitude!” She chastises, “Is he hot?”

You grumble a little again, but you can’t deny it, Joel is hot, “Yes.”

“Well then,” You can hear her clap her hands in the background, clearly having you on speaker so she can go about her business, “If he’s hot, then there’s no harm in it, forget me and my wine, go out, drink wine with your hot mystery stranger and get fucked, girl!”

“Dixie!” You screech, “I’m not fucking him.”

“Whatever you say, girl!” She shouts down the phone, “If you cancel, I’m kicking your ass, okay?” You sigh, once again, something you’re getting more and more used to these days, “Have fun and be safe!”

And then all you can hear is the dial tone from where she’s hung up on you. You think about it all the way around the grocery store, she wouldn’t know if you did cancel, would she? But you’ve known her long enough to know she’d sniff a lie out of you in seconds. So, when you settle down at your desk, you pull out your phone and send Joel a reply to confirm the plans you made last night, and then spend the rest of the work day trying not to work yourself up about the whole thing.

You don’t think that the anxiety of waiting for a date to show up will ever get easier. Stood just inside the doorway of the restaurant Joel had chosen, you’re chewing at the skin around your thumbnail. Did you dress right? Do you look okay? When he turns up will he look like his pictures or not? Will he lean in for a kiss on the cheek? Do you give him a hug? You’d like to think of yourself as a seasoned pro at this now, but those first few awkward moments always made you anxious - there was no second chance at first impressions.

You needn’t have worried about Joel though. When the door opens and he stands in front of you, he is exactly the man you’d studied on that app. Taller than you, broad and big. Scruff, peppered with gray across his face, though it’s neatly kept, just like this hair, although more unruly, it’s still peppered with grays and it suits him. He’s wearing dark jeans, and a flannel that you think must be saved for best. You step closer, open your arms. Joel leans down, and does indeed press a kiss to your cheek, one of his wide palms pressed lightly on your lower back as he hugs you back a little.

“Nice to meet you, Joel.” You smile when he pulls away.

“You too, ma’am.” He smiles back at you, and you can tell he’s nervous.

“What have I told you about that?” You tease as you step towards the hostess, Joel giving her his name, you hope the slight teasing will put him at ease, you remember just what it was like when you started dating for the first time, and as much as you want to have a good time, you want to make sure Joel is having a good time too.

She picks up two menus, leads the two of you to a table at the edge of the restaurant. Joel pulls your chair out for you, pushing it gently under you as you sit down. The light is low, and there’s a thrum of chatter across the whole restaurant as you open the menu, glancing your eyes over the choices.

“Do you want to share a bottle of wine?” You ask, finger skimming the list of wines available.

Joel nods, “Sure thing, darlin’.”

You smile, looking down at the menu, deciding you much prefer darling to ma’am, especially in that sweet southern drawl of his. When the waitress returns, you both order food and a bottle of wine, which is quickly brought to the table, uncorked, with the dark red liquid poured into two glasses. The waitress leaves the bottle on the table as you raise your glass, Joel following suit, clinking them together before you take a sip.

You’re watching as he does the same, a smaller sip than you, and then watch as his nose crinkles and he coughs a little. It makes you laugh, putting your glass down to cover your mouth a little.

“Dunno why I said yes,” He shakes his head, “Fuckin’ hate wine.”

You can’t help but properly laugh now, hoping that it puts him a little at ease. You reach over the table, lay your hand on his wrist just a touch, “What would you prefer to drink?”

You don’t miss the way he subtly drags his wrist back from your touch, covering it by scratching at the skin on the side of his hand, but you don’t let it bother you. You’re a touchy person, it’s what makes you feel at ease mostly, but that doesn’t mean it works for Joel, so you fold your hands back in your lap.

“Usually beer,” He mumbles, flagging down the waitress as she walks past to ask for just that, “Or whiskey.”

“I don’t mind a beer,” You offer, trying to make light conversation, “But whiskey makes my throat burn.”

He doesn’t offer much of a reply apart from a short hum from his mouth, his attention moving from you to the room around you, letting the table fall into silence. You look down at your lap, trying to think of things to say whilst you wait for your food.

“So, Sarah, right?” You ask after his daughter, it’s something the two of you have in common at least, “You must be super proud of her, medical school is incredible.”

“Yeah,” He says simply, “She’s a very smart girl.”

You expect him to ask after Noah, ask him a little about what he’s like, maybe what his favourite subjects are at school or whether he’s in any sports clubs or anything, but he doesn’t offer anything else to you, doesn’t ask any questions.

There’s a lull in the conversation, saved by the waitress dropping your meals in front of you, fresh tomato pasta with chicken for you and steak and mashed potatoes with asparagus for Joel. You swirl your fork through the pasta, scooping some into your mouth as Joel cuts into his steak. Your eyes are trained on him, watching how he eats - it’s one of your big tests, table manners, and to be fair to him, he passes with flying colours - sure he eats a bit fast, but it’s nothing off-putting, and he seems to be able to use a knife and fork properly and chew with his mouth closed, which is a far cry from the last person you’d been out with.

“You look really good tonight,” You offer, setting your fork down for a moment, “The flannel is very Texas.”

You think in the dim light you can see him flush a little, and you’ve not said anything that isn’t true, he does look good. Fucking great actually. Joel finishes swallowing, takes a swig of his beer.

“Thank you,” He tips his head towards you, “You look nice too,” He brings his hand up to his face to motion, “Rosy cheeks.”

You try not to let your disappointment show, it is a compliment after all, so you put all your focus back down into your meal, the two of you finishing your food in a rather awkward silence - you willing Joel to ask you something, to start a conversation, anything really. You watch as Joel pushes the asparagus around his plate after eating two of the spears, finishing off his steak and potatoes but leaving the rest of the greens.

When the waitress comes back to clear your plates, she asks if you’d like the dessert menu. You look to Joel, who tips his head in a way to say it’s up to you, but this has quite possibly been the most excruciating few hours of your life, so you drain your glass of wine, tip the last of the bottle into the glass and sit to wait for the bill.

“Listen,” Joel starts, dragging your attention from the bottom of your glass to him, a look of slight regret on his face, “I ain’t too good at all this,” He tries to explain, “It’s been a long time and I’m a little rusty.”

You kind of want to wring his ass for it a little, but underneath his apparent disinterest, you can still see the nerves of the guy who first walked through the door, and you get it, you think you’d been similar when you first started dating again, but you don’t think you’d completely lost the ability to think of a single question.

Joel insists on paying the bill and you don’t fight him for the privilege of splitting it - you think it might upset some of that southern chivalry he has and for someone else they’ll love that. It’s a silent affair as you both stand up, gather your things.

“How are you getting home?” Joel asks, holding the front door open for you.

“I can just grab a cab,” You smile, “How about you?”

He points to a truck, “Only had one so I can drive home,” He explains, “Do you mind if I wait with you for your cab?” He asks, “I’d feel better knowing you get in one safe.”

“Of course,” You smile, “The hostess called one for me, so it shouldn’t be long.”

There’s another lull in conversation, thankfully your cab arrives quickly, saving the silence from falling into awkwardness again. Joel beats you to the door, opening it for you.

“I would say it’s been nice meeting you,” He speaks, “But I feel like I made this real difficult, and I’m sorry for that.”

Going to step into the cab, you stop, leaning down to put your bag in the back seat, pausing a little before you turn back around to him, meeting his eyes. They’re striking, dark brown and beautiful, and trying to tell you just how much he knows he’s messed up. It makes your heart sink because you feel that sadness too, knowing he had so much promise, that he understood you in a way you thought other people didn’t, without even needing to talk to you, he’s a single parent, he gets it, like other people don’t. It frustrates you, makes your breath catch in your throat and your eyes glass over.

You bring a comforting hand to his shoulder, “It’s okay,” You add a smile at the end, “It takes some time to get used to this all again, I was the same,” You look down at your shoes, “It’ll get easier each time you do it, I promise.”

His head dips, regret flashed across his face, like he wishes he could go back and do it all over but better this time.

“M’sorry, again,” His tone is low, morose even, then he dips, presses a soft kiss to your cheek, “Get home safe.”

You flop down on your bed, hand running over your face, wondering at what point it had gone wrong. He’d had so much potential, had seemed like he could be so right for you, so what went wrong?

No sooner have you sent the ‘home safe’ message to Dixie, do you feel the soft vibrating of your phone. You answer, put the phone on loudspeaker and set it by your head.

“So, how did it go?”

You groan, “He had so much potential Dix,” You let out a pained noise, “I don’t know where it went wrong?!”

“Oh honey,” She coos down the phone, aware more than anyone how much you wanted to be done with dating and finally have someone you could spend time with, “What happened?”

“I don’t even know!” You exclaim, “Like, I could tell he was nervous, and this was his first date in years, but it was like he’d never spoken to a woman in his life, it was so hard!”

You can hear her sucking on her teeth on the other end of the phone, “Are you being too hard on him?” She asks, “You always say the cocky men are no good because they’re rehearsed, maybe he just needs time to warm up?”

“Dixie, I’d need a flamethrower to warm him up!”

That gets a giggle out of her, “Mama, listen to me,” She goes into serious mode now, “Not everyone is as seasoned as you at this, and if this was his first date in years and he comes face to face with you? Of course he’s going to be nervous, you can’t write him off just for that honey.”

That’s when your truth really hits out, “But what if I spend all that time warming him up and it’s a waste of time? He could turn out to be no good for me and then I’ve wasted so much time instead of trying to find the right person.”

“Honey, respectfully, you’re forty, not at the end of your life, I promise that maybe spending some time trying to unravel someone a little instead of writing them off immediately might actually be worth it.”

“I don’t know, Dix…” You trail off.

“Just sleep on it, okay?” She offers, “See how you feel when you wake up before you send him the ‘thanks but no thanks’ message.”

“Okay, I promise.”

The two of your say goodbye to each other, you stay led on the bed for a while before you push yourself up, plug your phone into the charger, noticing the notification from Hinge when your screen lights up. You can see it’s Joel’s name that sits on the front screen. You sigh, sitting on the edge of the bed, weighing up whether to read it or not. Deciding that if you do read it, you’re likely to make a decision against what Dixie told you, so you leave the notification sitting there, get yourself ready for bed and then will yourself to sleep without going over every second of the date wondering what you could have done differently.

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thebestofoneshots · 6 months

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Gilded Constellations | wolfstar x reader

Series Masterlist | Previous episode

Pairing: Wolfstar x Reader Word Count: 11 K Warnings: None Prompt: Halloween has arrived, you see the boys in their costumes for the first time and they see you in yours. Things are perfect, just don't let your thoughts get to you before the euphoria does. This IS a wolfstar x reader fic, but it's incredibly slow burn. They won't start all dating each other until we're very deep into the story, but I promise the long wait will be worth it. This chapter may be read as a stand-alone / oneshot too.

Chapter 17: Tonight's What It Means To Be Young

When you entered your room, the only person there was Lily, you smiled when you saw her, she already had her stunning green dress on, and she did look like a total princess.

“You’re stunning,” you said honestly.

She turned to you with a little frown, “Not sure what to do with my hair.”

You smiled, “Come sit,” you told her, motioning to a chair, in front of your desk, you pulled a soft brush and started to lightly brush on her soft auburn hair. “Do you mind if I use one of the potions we made?”

“Not at all, do whatever you want, I trust it’ll look pretty.”

You smiled, and walked inside the bathroom, taking some of the enchanting hair serum, and letting a few drops fall over the brush, before going back and brushing her hair with it. It instantly looked a lot more vibrant and hydrated. After that you started pulling sections from the front, and making soft twists. You were far from an expert hair stylist, but this one, in particular, was simple enough for you, and it would look perfect with the mediaeval vibe of Lily’s dress. Once that was ready, you took some of the perfect curls potion and added it to her hair, but you defused it with the serum so that the curls were just soft waves. Once she was ready you handed her a mirror, and she smiled.

“You like it?”

“It’s perfect!” She added, standing up from the chair and turning to you with a hug. “But what about you? When are you getting ready?”

“Now, actually,” you said, rushing towards your wardrobe and grabbing the iridescent bustier you’d gotten for your costume. Lily leaned over next to you and looked at it, she hadn’t seen it up close, the pearls and chains that dripped from the side made it an absolute treat to observe, it was pretty much a piece of art. It was actually a family heirloom from your grandmother.

“It’s stunning,” she said as she looked at it, almost completely mesmerised. That was, in fact, one of the charms the item had, fairies enjoyed dragging mortals into their parties, having fun with them, and sometimes, at expense of them. Some fairies could be really wicked creatures, which is why wizards tended to stay away from them. Therefore, and to drag them in, they invented all sorts of magical items. If mermaids had their chants, fairies had their charms. Some as dangerous as being able to force people to do things with the mere command of their voices, known as glamours. Your mom still had the ability to do that. You didn’t, except sometimes you could be a little too convincing. It was the little bit of fairy bIood still cursing through your veins. You would have to tone down the charms of the bustier if you didn’t want everyone to react like Lily.

“It is,” you agreed, closing the box again. Lily blinked a couple of times before turning towards you, “Why don’t you walk downstairs and help Tom with the reception while I finish up getting ready?”

“Don’t you want me to help you?” She asked, looking like she wanted to open the box again.

You shook your head “It’s fine Lils, I can do this,” you reassured her. She nodded and waved at you as she approached the door. When she left the room, you used a simple spell to block the magic emanating from the bustier and walked inside the bathroom, finally taking the glow potion you had prepared earlier that week. In a matter of seconds, a soft glow started emanating from you. You giggled at your reflection, it made you look like Tinkerbell. You then grabbed some of the perfect curls potion and applied it over your hair along with the serum. You pulled your hair back a little and added some flowers you’d gathered from the greenhouses earlier that day. Letting some curls fall to the side of your face, on an organic but put-together look.

When you walked outside of the bathroom, Mary and Marlene were there already. Marlene had her Cher wig on and Mary had charmed her nose to look like a kitten’s, she had also added curl potions to her curls and was scrunching them around her face to look like a mane. Both girls turned to you when they heard the door “You’re glowing!” Mary said.

“The potion worked!” Added Marlene excitedly, she was now putting on her loose shirt.

“Yes it did,” you said with a smile, twirling around a little, “love what you did with the whiskers.” You told Mary, she then stood up, and you realised there was a tail wiggling behind her, you gasped, “That looks incredible!”

“It does, doesn’t it?” She said as she wiggled the tail a bit higher, playfully brushing it over your arm as you approached.

“All right, I’m ready.” Marlene said, as she finished applying her eyeliner, “Holden should be already waiting for me.”

“Me too, I’ll come down with you, unless you need help with anything luv?” She said, turning to you attentively.

“I’m good girls, I won’t take long anyway,” you said and waved them goodbye. As they left you walked towards your trunk and picked out the short skirt you’d be wearing along the top. It was a very flowy thing composed of a few layers of gathered fabric. Some longer than others. You put it on, and then pulled the cover of the box again, carefully grabbing the bustier and placing it over your chest. The sides of the piece extended, adjusting to your body, while the chains and pearls wrapped all over your back. It was almost like a fairy transformation scene, as the pearls and pieces continued to wrap around your body.

Once that was ready, you pulled a pair of flats, of the same iridescent tone as the rest of the outfit, and put them on. Small vines grew from the side, wrapping themselves all over your calves. You grabbed your wand and performed a short spell on yourself, your ears turning slightly pointier, like your mom’s.

Finally, you turned to look at yourself in the mirror, and you gasped, you looked every bit a fairy. You started doubting if it really was a good idea to dress as a fairy, when you were actually part one when you heard a knock on the door.

You walked towards it and opened it, finding Remus standing on the other side, your words nearly escaped you; if you thought he’d look handsome in the sexy pirate costume, you had vastly underestimated how captivating your friend was. He wore this white flowing shirt, paired with a snug burgundy vest. A vest that, incidentally, Sirius had borrowed. He had a pair of pants, subtly tighter than his usual go-to, and thick leather boots. All of that along with a belt, slightly tanned skin, and trinkets dangling loosely from his hips —including a holster with its accompanying gun— it all suited him like a dream. He had a few rings all over his fingers, some with burgundy gems that combined with his vest ––they had also been borrowed by Sirius, you could easily identify one or two–– and they made his long fingers look daring and mischievous. As you stared back at his face, you noticed a single earring adorning his left ear, a small icy blue gemstone droplet (like Sirius’ eyes), making him look even more like a pirate, like he’d just stepped out of a romance novel, or perhaps even a romance novel wouldn’t do him justice.

And Remus, from the other side of the door, was just as stunned as you were, first because of the glow emanating from your body, which had him squint just a little when he saw you; but then, when he looked at you, he realised how alluring you looked. It was not a particularly sexy Halloween costume like Sirius had proposed, but it was definitely something; enticing, borderline bewitching, and Remus knew about bewitching. So much so, he’d been bewitched with amorentia once. This felt like that, a sudden urge to hide you from all the eyes at the party overcame him, he somehow thought he wanted you all to himself. No, not just himself, Sirius had to see you. He had to see just how beautiful his girlfriend was. He cleared his throat, trying to snap himself from the trance, and pulling you from yours in the process “Eh… Tom was, Tom was looking for you downstairs.”

“Remus!” You said excitedly, finally getting yourself together, “You look fantastic! You really are getting all the bitches tonight, aren’t you?”

Remus blushed, from how honest and unabashed your compliment had been “Thank you, you look dazzling yourself. Sirius will go crazy for you, I’m sure.”

“He should already be,” you said playfully and walked towards him, now analysing his outfit “You’re missing something.”

“He is, trust me… What are you looking for?” He added as he saw you look around your trunk.

“This!” You said, pulling out a necklace. It was a simple pendant of a mermaid, thick but dainty, when you had it you walked over to him, he pulled back just a little. And you realised what happened, he may have thought it was silver. “My mom gave it to me a couple of birthdays ago, she said it was made of some special sea metal, that would warn against evil spirits, goes with the vibe, don’t you think?” you added casually, he relaxed visibly and allowed you to get close enough to place it around his neck. You had to stand on your toes to reach him better, but you were done rather quickly. You pulled back and looked at him again. “We should unbutton your shirt a little more, I think…” You said approaching him again, but stopped yourself before laying a hand on him “Do you mind?”

“No, it’s fine.” He responded with a small shrug, already missing how close you’d been to him earlier, and cursing himself for it. My friend’s girlfriend, My crush’s girlfriend, damn it!

You grabbed the box plate of the shirt then, and started to unbutton it, being as careful and gentle as you could. After the second button you spread the shirt open just a little, moving your hands upward to adjust the collar, raising it up slightly, for dramatic effect. When your hands brushed against his neck, he looked to the side and gulped, his heart was drumming against his ears and he wondered if you could hear it too. Eventually, you pulled back and smiled to yourself “There you go Rem, you look perfect.”

“Thank you,” he said, and motioned to walk to the door, but you stopped him, “No wait! Erm… would you mind helping me with this?” You asked, grabbing a shiny golden oval and showing it to him “I was gonna use the mirror to do it, but you’re much better with transfigurations than me, I’m sure it’ll be a piece of cake. That way we can just come down together.”

“What’s this?” He asked with a frown, taking the small item in between his hands.

“My wings,” you responded, “just put it in the middle of my back,” you said, turning your back to him, “and do this spell.” You handed him a small piece of paper.

He cleared his throat again “You want me to place it?” He asked, looking at your exposed back.

“Yeah, yeah, go ahead,” you nodded eagerly, oblivious to the way Remus was blushing from behind, but he complied, gently placing the little golden box, avoiding your skin as he did, a real gentleman, you thought.

“It’s– It’s not sticking.”

“Just press a little harder, it’ll stick.” He did, this time around he used his fists as leverage, you could feel his cold rings digging onto your skin a little, and he pressed again, with his thumbs this time, the box finally stuck. He then chanted the spell along with a little wave of his wand. The little metal box seemed to fade into your skin, and shortly after, a pair of wings started unfolding from the exact same place it’d been. Thin, translucent but shiny wings, came out. You adjusted your back, Remus couldn’t help but notice the way your shoulder plates moved, soft skin moving along with your muscles, he wondered what his hand would feel like pressed against it. Suddenly the wings started to bat, softly. You turned to him with a smile, the merriment in your face making you look impossibly divine, “They look incredible,” You said, the wings fluttering excitedly behind you.

“They do indeed, Breagha Nicnevin,” he said the last bit in a soft breath, almost unwittingly.

“What’s that?” You asked curiously.

“Nicnevin? It’s a Queen Fairy or Queen Witch from Scottish Folklore, my mom used to tell me the story when I was little. It’s a muggle tale, but it’s based on some truth, according to Bins.”

You listen to his explanation attentively “And the– the other word… Breha?”

He smiled, at the way you butchered Gaelic, but you weren’t far from the real word he’d said, and he wasn’t sure he’d want you to know the meaning either, so he changed it “Beag, stands for little. My mom used to call me Beag Boy too.”

“Little witch? You called me Little Witch!”

“Or fairy, yeah.”

“But I’m not little!” You argued.

He looked at you and tilted his head just a little, Remus was at least a head and a bit taller than you, and he used his hand to measure your height, it falling just below his collarbones “You sure?”

“Reeemus!” You whined playfully.

He just shrugged, an even more playful smile on his lips, “I’m just stating the facts.”

“Ugh, for a sexy pirate, you surely are exasperating.”

“’M taking that as a compliment,” he said, still smiling.

After the laughter between the two died, a moment of comfortable silence fell, you felt your wings flutter and you turned to look at them from behind, turning back to Remus with an earnest smile “Thank you!” You said, “I couldn’t have done it better.”

“I’m sure you could’ve.” He replied confidently, “But you’re welcome.”

Finally, you motioned at the door, “Shall we?”

Remus nodded and the two of you walked outside, you were still talking to each other when you started walking down the stairs. Sirius saw the two of you first, and he wasn’t sure where to look, he didn’t know Remus could look so handsome, the combination of the daring outfit and the tanner skin, made him look like a true pirate, but the kind of pirate that you would let kidnap you away on his boat. In fact, he was so enthralled by the way his friend looked that it took him a minute to distinguish the shiny figure beside him, oh, but when he did; Sirius Black was a goner. He just couldn’t stop looking at you, except for the moments in which Remus did something and he got completely lost on him. And then back at you, at the way your curls gently bounced with every step down you took, at the way, you laughed while talking to his friend, at your long legs, and the way pieces of shiny skin would appear when the folds of the skirt moved to the side, at the pearls and chains adorning the smooth skin of your arms, and he hadn’t even seen your exposed back, but he was already growing mad.

Remus was the first to notice Sirius’ staring, but he was too late, he didn’t notice the way he had looked at him, only how he had completely surrendered himself to you. And he couldn’t help but feel a mix of emotions, there was the pride, that his friend had finally found the one, that he knew Sirius would go crazy when he spotted you, and he had been right. But also a pang of sadness, one that he understood but felt even worse for having, he hated seeing Sirius looking at you like that, simply because his gaze was completely lost on you, and not on him. And he couldn’t even blame Sirius for it, you were definitely an absolute sight to behold. He noticed when he turned to you again, you still had a beaming smile on your face as you looked at him ––just as dashing and alluring as you had been in your room–– at least you were looking at him. Until you weren’t anymore.

Just as you finished telling the words of a joke, you turned your head to the front, to look at a funny step that was always tripping people, when you noticed Sirius hollymotherofmerlin Black. He was wearing a pristine white 3-piece suit, a tie ––the colour of bIood–– with a small trident pin just below the knot. The first hint of who he was dressed as tonight. On the pocket of the jacket that draped seamlessly over his broad shoulders ––giving a glimpse of the confident stance beneath–– there was a matching burgundy handkerchief. On the bottom, he wore a pair of tailored trousers, tapering down to polished white dress shoes.

Sirius looked like an angel, more now than usual, but they do say the devil’s in the details for a reason, even if a halo floated above him, a red devil's tail emerged from the side seam of his trousers, waving casually behind him, like that of a lion, one that knows that he is the king of the jungle. And behind him, a pair of dark angel wings, that went from black to red as the light hit them, just like raven’s wings sometimes had a tint of blue to them. When you finally turned to his face again, you realised his icy grey eyes sparkled with mirth and allure, almost drawing you to him, hair pulled back behind his ears, perfectly arranged, making him look more polished than usual. Sirius wasn’t just wearing a costume tonight, he had in fact, embodied the devil himself, the charm and the sophistication in which he stood, the mischievous quality of his stare, hinting at secrets only known to him. No wonder some witches got burned at the stake for devil worship, if the devil looked half as good as Sirius did tonight, you’d worship him as well. If this was hell, then hell’s a wonderful place to be.

But then you realised, Sirius was looking at Remus, just before he turned to look at you, but his gaze, it didn’t change, the same hungry eyes, for both. It was barely a flicker, and the thought escaped your mind just seconds after. Remus didn’t notice either, he was still staring at you when Sirius turned his head to him. Finally, you reached the bottom of the stairs and walked towards the boy, Remus was just a couple of steps behind him.

“So your costume was a handsome devil, after all.” You told him with a smirk “Should’ve guessed.”

“Too bad you didn’t.” He replied, leaning down for a quick peck on your lips. Remus took a deep breath, a mix of feelings churning in his stomach.

You shrugged “Maybe too bad for you, I’m sure you’d have enjoyed my wish.”

“Would I? Why don’t you tell me about it?”

You pretended to think about it for a second before speaking again “Nope.”

“And you’re a fairy. Should’ve said I was close when I guessed mermaid.”

“That would’ve made it way too easy for you… You like it?” You asked with a little smile.

Sirius’s tail whipped a little from behind “Oh, “like” is an understatement Starshine.”

“Welp, that’s my cue to leave,” Remus said, nodding, but Sirius stopped him.

“What did you do to him? He looks different from when he stepped out of the room.”

“Me?” You asked innocently “Just spiced him up a bit, and got him a necklace.”

“Simple, but it works,” Sirius said. At this point, both you and your boyfriend were attentively looking at Remus, and he felt a little self-conscious, he wondered why on earth he wanted Sirius’ stare on him earlier when it could be so unnerving.

“Maybe we can raise the collar a bit more?” Sirius asked.

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.” You agreed, and the two of you approached Remus, adjusting the neck of his pirate shirt together.

Remus started to panic, having the two of you all over him made him feel things that he wasn’t sure he wanted to savour, he was sure he wouldn’t get enough of it if he did. And so, in his desperation, he snapped “All right, both of you, get off me. NOW!”

Both you and Sirius were startled and pulled back, Remus did not have a problem when you fixed his collar earlier, he also didn’t have a problem when Sirius was adjusting his belt and weapons back at their room, which had the two of you confused.

Remus took a deep breath, your faces almost broke him “It’s just…” he turned to look around “People are starting to stare.”

“I don’t mind.” Sirius said with a shrug “You?” He asked, looking at you, you shook your head.

“Well, I do.” Remus said, still a little snappy “I’m getting some punch.” He added before leaving the two of you.

“It’s not even that time of the month,” Sirius whispered as he saw Remus walk to the other side of the room.

You pretended not to hear, even if you finally understood what it meant. You wondered how many inside jokes you’d missed so far and then you turned back to your boyfriend. And ran a hand through his wings “They’re stunning.”

“And you say I’m the one into costumes.” He responded, what a tease.

Remus had already reached the sweets table and leaned his hands onto the edge of it as he tried to ground himself. Why the fuck did he have to go develop feelings for both his best friend and his best friend’s girlfriend. He should be sent to hell, he didn’t even know who he liked more, not that it mattered of course, he would never dare try to get in between the two, and he was sure as hell if the two of you broke it off yourselves, it’d break his heart too. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Maybe I do deserve to be locked up after all, forget about the monster, I’m worse as myself. He then proceeded to grab the ladle and pour a good deal of punch into his cup, downing it in one go before serving himself again, by the time he was moving away from the table, he already felt a little better, a little lighter in fact. Maybe it hadn’t been just “a tickle” of alcohol in there. All thought he doubted you would lie to him. He filled two more glasses and walked towards the two of you. When he reached up to where you were, you and Sirius were already laughing about something.

“Thanks, Rem,” you said with a smile as he handed you the cup, you took a small sip, before Tom showed up from behind.

“We need to talk.” He said in a serious tone. You frowned as you took another small sip. He tilted his head a little, pleading with his eyes “Come please?”

Sirius was staring daggers at the boy from behind. You didn’t notice, but Remus did, and he placed an arm over Sirius’ shoulders, to distract him from acting like an asshole. You turned to look at the boys and handed your glass to Sirius “Mind holding this for me for a second, Pups?”

Sirius nodded and grabbed the glass in between his hands. Remus’ hand still lazily draped over his shoulder as he took a sip with his other hand. You walked behind Tom for a couple of metres, just far enough away from where you stood –close to Lily and the girls– so no one would be able to hear, “We have an emergency.” You squint your eyes at him, nodding for him to elaborate “It’s the potion.”

“The potion” you said with a nod, as if you knew what he was talking about, and then asked “What potion?”

“(Y/N)! Stop thinking of your handsome as-hell boyfriend ––pun intended–– and focus. THE. POTION.”

You gasped when you realised what he was talking about, whisper-shouting now “That potion? The potion we don’t talk about— potion?”

“Brilliant, you’re back on this earth.” He said, “Yes that potion!”

“What happened with it?”

“Um… well, how do I put this?” he asked nervously, “It’s lost, yeah that’s it, it’s lost.”

“Lost how?”

“How do you lose something (Y/N)? Lost, lost.”

“You lost a very potent euphoric brew, in the middle of a party?”

“Shhhhhh… Will you? Yes, I don’t know where it is. It was in my bag, okay?! But then I threw all the contents of my bag onto the sweets table and when I went to check, it just wasn’t there either–.“

“-Tom.”

“And I don’t know what to do, because if anyone finds out, let alone accidentally drinks it, without being aware of the possible consequences I-“

“-TOM!” You shouted, shaking him as you did “Tom breathe, it’s just a potion, it’s not poison, if it’s lost it’s lost. And if someone drank it then they will have a very high time tonight, but that’s it. Besides, nobody except for us knows who brewed the potion, so even if it somehow got to teachers’ ears, it would be fine.”

He frowned “Why aren’t you worried?!” He asked.

“Just forget it Tom, have fun!” You told him with a soft pad on the shoulder before walking back to where you stood earlier, most students had already arrived at the party, and James was already walking downstairs, so you went straight to greet him “JAAAAMES!”

He smiled at you, and pulled a skull, similar to the ones you had hidden all over the common room earlier and set it right in front of his face “To be, or not to be?” He said dramatically as he stared into the distance, then turned to you with a small grin“How was it?”

“Perfect!” You told him with a bright smile, “We should find Lily, you should get pictures together.”

“You think?”

“For sure! Why put so much effort into your costume if not?” For a short second, you frowned yourself, wasn’t James right? Originally it hadn’t seemed like the best idea to have James dress as Hamlet and match with Lily when she had refused a couple’s costume initially, but now it seemed like a great one. You just felt so happy.

When you arrived at where the girls stood, they all had their own cups of punch in their hands. And you smiled brightly when you saw them, Lily was the first one to speak “OMG! You’re Hamlet!” She said with a gasp as soon as she saw James.

“What a coincidence, right?” You said dumbly.

Lily just blinked a few times but nodded “We should get pictures together!” She said and pulled James along with her onto another side of the room. When he was being pulled he turned to you, you winked, and then nodded in an encouraging manner, whatever had gotten onto Lily, he better use it in his favour, and if she wanted pictures, then he’d have to take as many as she pleased.

More and more people started to arrive then, you saw Neil, Alice and Marina and introduced them to Mary, who you’d been left talking to earlier, and they all seemed to bond really nicely. You’d originally wanted to introduce Neil to James since you thought they’d make great friends, but in the end, decided it would be best not to interrupt him. Especially since he looked really happy while Alex took fun pictures with him and Lily.

“And we were in this class, right? Suddenly people start standing up at their desks, and it’s just insane, Muggle studies is just brilliant sometimes,” you heard Neil talking, and then spotted Sybil on the door, walking alongside Tod. You smiled and went straight to greet them, Sybil was dressed as a muggle fortune teller, while Todd had worn white clothes and used magic to make himself look like a ghost.

“You made it?” you said with a huge smile when you saw them. Todd nodded shily while Sybil pulled you in for a hug.

“I absolutely love your costume,” she told you as she looked at it. Sybil had guessed you were part fairy weeks ago, and she understood more than most what your costume was really about. “You look stunning, Nina should’ve been here to see you.”

“Nina?” you asked with a bit of a frown, you didn’t quite understand what Sybil said but continued talking regardless “She’s not gonna make it, she’s on a date.”

Sybil arched an eyebrow at your answer. Is that what she told you? She wondered but decided to let the subject go. “How’ve you been?” she asked instead.

“Great, actually,” you responded honestly. “I mean, there’s the really annoying Slytherin group that has it against me for some reason, but other than that, I’ve been brilliant.”

“I heard about that,” she said with a bit of a frown.

“Just ignore them, they’ll forget about you eventually,” Todd added, you smiled, he was clearly opening up a little. Hanging out with Sybil would definitely do him good, she was so unapologetically herself, it was downright inspiring.

“And you? Have you come up with any prophecies yet?”

She shook her head “All pretty good vibes so far.”

“Let’s toast to that!” you said but then remembered you didn’t have your drink anymore “My cup?” You went through the things you’d done tonight “Puppy has it!” you said with a smile and then bit your lip “Do you guys mind if I leave you for now? There’s punch and sweets over there, and also some snacks over the coffee table. Peter got them from the kitchen elves, they’re delicious I’m sure. My common room’s your common room, feel at home, please.”

Sybil nodded and pulled Todd along with herself to the sweets table “Go ahead hun, we’ll be alright.”

“Yeah,” Todd agreed. “Go find your puppy or whatever.”

You frowned at his answer, staring at them as they left, and laughed when you realised Todd had no idea you meant Sirius. Then it made you wonder if Sybil knew about it, she seemed to know a lot of things, but you weren’t too sure. You were still thinking about it when you heard a scream from the side of the room, you turned around to find Steve –the skull– cackling as it clung to… was that Minho? You approached them and laughed merrily for a couple of seconds as you saw the boy struggle, deciding to help Minho when he was becoming too desperate. “I’m sorry, Steve can be a little intense sometimes,” you told him.

“Steve?” he asked with a horrified face.

“Yeah Steve,” You told him matter-of-factly, casually pointing at the skull before letting Steve walk back to his closet “Nice to see you here Minho,” you told him, he was wearing a Tutshill Tornadoes’ Quidditch uniform “That’s a brilliant costume!”

“Not nearly as brilliant as yours,” he said, motioning at you, and you remembered you’d literally drank a glow potion and laughed.

“I take Halloween pretty seriously.”

“Yeah, I can tell! You look beautiful.” He said with what looked like an honest smile, no wonder so many girls had fallen for him, Minho was indeed very attractive in his own way.

“I thought Comet would be coming with you.”

“She did.” He said pointing behind him, she was talking to Imogen, and had a shiny star filled dress that seemed to change and ripple as she moved.

“Woah, what a cool dress,” you said, Minho nodded in agreement, it was even cooler that she’d picked a star theme that went along with her name. Kind of like you, wearing a fairy costume.

It was then when you noticed Minho looking around rather suspiciously. You squinted your eyes at him, and he gave you a questioning look “What is it?” he asked.

“Nothing, have you seen Sirius? I was looking for my drink.”

Minho shook his head in response “I was looking for the boys too, I brought them something.”

“Something? What something?”

“Promise you won’t tell anyone?” You nodded fervently and he pulled his backpack to the front, opening it just a little for you to see what was inside.

You gasped “You’re their Firewhiskey dealer!”

He put his hands over your mouth “Shhhh…”

You nodded, and he finally took his hand away “Sorry,” you mumbled.

“Why do you think I’m one of the few Slytherins allowed at your parties?”

“Should’ve guessed,” you said with a smile “Let’s find them together, shall we?

He nodded, and the two of you started walking around the party together. You spotted Tom at some point, he was talking to Todd as the two of them drank some punch together, Tom looked a lot more relaxed now, and it made you smile satisfied. Minho was also looking at the two boys, but his expression was a bit sour instead. You turned to him and noticed, he was staring daggers at Tom as the boy in question moved closer to Todd. You turned to Minho, and then back at Tom, and then back at Minho again and it downed you. No wonder the most sought-after bachelor at Hogwarts had never gotten a girlfriend, he just didn’t like them.

“You should tell him,” you said softly.

“What?”

“You should tell him you like him,” you said then, for some reason you didn’t even consider that maybe Minho would be shocked by the fact that you noticed he liked Tom just like that. Had Sirius perhaps put more alcohol on the punch than you’d seen? But you’d only drank like 3 sips before you left your drink with the boys?

Minho looked at you with panic, he was pale, a lot more than he’d been when Steve was clinging onto him earlier “What did you… how do you know? Did Remus tell you?”

“Remus?” you asked confused “Why would Remus–– shut up,” you said shocked.

Minho realised too late what he’d done “You didn’t hear a thing.”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up,” you whispered as you tried to gather your thoughts, Remus knew as well, maybe it was because he was very observant, and open-minded, that or… How was it possible one boy had so many different secrets? You thought, and you still didn’t know half of it. “Remus and you…?”

“One time!” he said, to get you to stop thinking about it “Now forget that, how did you know?”

“I knew about Tom,” you said, quietly, still a little distracted. “He did warn me most people hid it really well, but Remus?” You asked as you remembered the way Tom had looked at the boy earlier.

“Please forget about that,” Minho said, now distressed “He will kill me if anyone finds out.”

“I wouldn’t say a thing,” you told him honestly, for Merlin’s sake you already knew a lot more secrets of the boy that you were gonna protect with your life if it were necessary.

“Was I that obvious?”

You shook your head “Not at all, I just… the way you stared at Tom, I recognized that stare, it was like looking in a mirror.”

“You like Tom?!?” He asked, confused.

“Godric heavens NO!!” You said with a frown “It’s… the same way I looked at Sirius before we started dating,” you explained.

“You’re dating Sirius?!” He asked, shocked.

“I really thought that was old news,” you said with a shrug “But I meant it earlier, you should just tell Tom.”

“But what if he doesn’t like me back?” He asked, finally accepting that you knew, and letting himself talk to someone about it. Minho had been hiding that for so long that none of his friends knew about it, let alone his family, who’d probably cut him off.

“Minho,” you almost deadpanned “have you ever looked at a mirror in your life? Besides, you’re really funny and nice, and attentive, Tom would love it.”

“You’re only saying that because we haven’t played Quidditch together, I’m not planning to make it easy for you on the field.”

“You better not!” you told him with a smile “And either way, that’s what Quidditch is about, even if you threw me off my broom, I wouldn’t change my mind about you.”

“Awwww…. that’s so cute,” he told you, “I think I’m gonna do it.”

“Will you? Then go ahead, it’s your turn!” You said as you saw Todd leave to talk to someone else.

“You still gonna look for the boys?” He asked, you nodded. “Do you mind giving this to them?” He said as he took off his bag and handed it over, you grabbed it with both arms, the bag was very heavy, and bottles clinked against each other with the movement.

“I’ll find them!” you told him with a smile before giving him one last encouraging nod.

Then you turned around and started to look for the boys. Sirius and Remus were still talking to each other near one of the faraway couches, James was still with Lily, and Peter was hanging out with a girl, who -because of the resemblance- you assumed was Annie Doxon, Beth’s cousin. You didn’t think twice and walked towards the couches. As you approached the boys, Remus was quick to notice you were having a hard time with the bag and quickly approached you to help.

“What’ve you got there, luv?”

“Little errand from Minho,” you told him with a complicated smile, he grabbed the bag from your hands and when he felt the weight and heard the sound, he instantly knew what it was.

“You’ve got the… Did Minho tell you what you were carrying around?” Remus asked, a little shocked as he closed the bag again and carefully placed it on the table.

“Oh, he showed me,” You told him with a confident smile, “Guess I’m just trustworthy like that.”

Sirius still had your cup in his hands, and he handed it over “Remus drank your punch earlier, but we refilled it, there’s almost nothing left there.”

“Did you pour more alcohol on it?” you asked as you took a sip.

“I would never,” Sirius said with a frown, offended, “I’d never pour anything on your drink without you asking for it.”

You stared at him confused, and let a soft breath out when you realised the confusion “Not my drink silly! I meant the punch. I know you’d never do something like that, I trust you.”

Remus shrugged “Maybe he poured Amorentia on one of your drinks and that’s why you’re so in love with him,” he joked.

You took the cup from your lips and pointed at Remus with it “Touché.”

Remus nodded, and raised his eyebrows with a playful smile before turning to Sirius, “But actually, I had the same question, Pads.”

“It was nothing, you saw how much it was,” Sirius said looking at you, and then frowned “But it does feel kinda strong, doesn’t it?”

“I mean it’s not like it tastes a lot of whiskey or vodka but…” you said.

“But it does leave you a little lightheaded, doesn’t it?” Remus added.

“Exactly!” You said, agreeing with him, and then turned to look at Lily still wiggling about the Common Room with James trailing behind her. She was actually pulling James along by the wrist, “Look at those two,” you told the boys “Lily’s been hyper for a while now, she was also drinking punch.”

“That’s odd, maybe the alcohol you had was heavy?” proposed Remus. Sirius took a small flask for his jacket and opened it, giving it a whiff.

“Smells normal,” he said.

You pulled the flask from his hands and brought it to your mouth, taking a sip, and playing with the liquid in your mouth for a second before swallowing “Tastes normal,” you said, as you winced “Like the one from Marlen’s party.”

“It is the one from Marlene’s party!” Sirius said.

“Maybe someone else added something to the punch,” Remus said with a shrug.

Someone else added something to the punch, you repeated in your head, someone else added something to the punch! you gasped “The potion!”

“What potion, love?”

“The potion we don’t talk about, that potion,” you responded. Sirius and Remus were visibly confused. “I should talk to Tom.”

Remus, who spotted Tom with Minho through the people thanks to his height, grabbed onto your arm softly, to stop you “He’s busy.”

You frowned at him and stood on tiptoes to try and see, and you saw Tom’s curly locks next to Minho’s perfect hair and you remembered. “Very busy, never mind,” you said before turning back to the boys with a smile. Sirius paid them only the shortest glance and assumed they must have been talking about something important, he didn’t know, but it was Tom so he was just happy you wouldn’t leave them to go see him again. “And I mean it’s not like there’s anything we can do at this point, the punch is almost empty anyway, right?” you reasoned.

“Yeah…?” Sirius responded a little confused still.

“Well then,” you said looking at the cup “Live for the moment, right?” You said with a smile before raising your cup for a toast “Bottoms up.”

Just before your cup touched your lips Remus turned to you “What was the potion?”

You smiled mischievously “Euphoric Brew,” you said before tilting the drink towards your mouth and downing it in a few gulps. Sirius smirked and followed suit. Remus stared at the two of you for a second, Sirius’ tail was wagging patiently behind him, making him look even more like a lion as he waited to see what Remus would do.

“You don’t have to drink it if you–“ you started, but Remus had already tipped the drink over his mouth. What was one more cup anyway? He’d already had like three.

“Do you feel anything?” Sirius asked.

“Nope.” You said as you shook your head, and then you laughed. Sirius laughed along with you.

“I’d never tried Euphoric Brew before, how did Tom get his hands on it?” Remus asked.

“He made it,” you told them “We got the ingredients from Slughorn’s stash, he let us use it when Lily asked, that’s how I managed to pull this off,” you said as you bit your lips and dramatically made a ta-da hand movement.

“The costume?” Asked Remus a little confused, his head getting fuzzier.

“The glow, dummie!” Sirius responded.

Then you heard a couple of chords from a song, “Merlin I love this song!” you said with a grin so big it reached all the way to your eyes “We should dance!”

“Dance?” Remus asked.

“Yeah dance!” you repeated, grabbing the two boys by the wrist and taking them to the place where some other guests were already dancing. You noticed Lily and James dancing together a little further away and you smiled and waved at them, before starting to dance yourself. Sirius looked at you diverted before joining, your wings were batting blithely as his tail wrapped around his leg as if not to be stepped on.

You had danced for at least a couple of minutes when you realised Remus wasn’t dancing, but just staring “Rem! Come dance with us!” You said with a pout.

“Yeah Moony! please,” Sirius joined you.

Remus was already going to start dancing –there was no way in hell he’d be able to say no to those puppy eyes you were giving him– when both you and Sirius approached him and placed your hands all over him, prompting him to move. You had one hand on his right shoulder and the other one on his chest, while Sirius had both of his hands on his left upper arm, both of you moving Remus along the rhythm.

You may have not been able to feel the potion, but the potion was definitely doing its job, both you and Sirius were throwing your manners to the wind –not that Sirius minded them that much anyway, especially with how whimsical he could be– completely invading Remus’ personal space. But Remus’s senses were cloudy already, with how much euphoric potion he’d gotten in his system, along with the few drinks of Sirius’ flask they’d shared earlier, that he wasn’t thinking properly, either that, or he just didn’t care to think.

He started dancing along the two of you, all bodies pressing and brushing into each other like you shared the same personal bubble between the three, and the three of you were having the time of your life. At some point, someone from behind pushed you accidentally and you ended up falling towards Remus, Sirius held you by the waist while Remus placed his hand on your shoulder, they both steadied you as you laughed and a minute later, you just kept dancing, a lot closer now that the dance floor was getting a little more crowded. Remus did not remove his hand, only let it travel a little closer to your neck, it sent shivers down your spine, his touch felt soft and intimate, but when you turned to him, he was busy laughing about something the other boy had whispered in his ear.

Sirius was definitely aware Remus had his hand all over you, but he didn’t even mind it. He was too happy, there was so much joy pilled in between the three of you that things felt electric. It was like everyone else didn’t exist, and it was just the three of you, paying no mind to your surroundings, while looking at each other. You wondered for a second if that was what humans felt when they went to fairy parties, if that's what it was to twirl and whirl until your shoes were danced to pieces and your feet bled. Because if dancing with Sirius and Remus could go on forever, you might just dance to dеath. You wouldn’t have the strength to stop.

Remus placed his other hand on Sirius’s shulder and pulled the two of you closer to him as he leaned his head “I’m so happy I get to be alive at the same time as you, wankers!” he screamed, both you and Sirius laughed merrily, Remus was so close to you, that you didn’t even think about it and gave him a soft peck on the cheek. Remus’s neck started to turn red from the bIood rushing to his cheeks, but Sirius was too busy looking at you, and the way you’d kissed his friend. But it wasn’t jealousy why he was so attentive, no, Sirius had an idea, and he smirked when it fully developed in his head. He leaned down, copying your actions earlier but instead of a soft kiss, he straight up licked Remus’ cheek.

“Ugh, that’s gross Pads!” Remus complained as he wiped his cheek with his sleeves.

“Shut up Moony, I know you love it,” Sirius joked. Remus felt a pang in his heart when his friend spoke because really, he did.

You laughed and hugged both boys, bringing them closer together, “I’m also really happy I got to live at the same time as you,” You said as you burrowed your head in between the two boys. Remus’ heart raced and he breathed in, trying to memorise the way both you and Sirius smelled, from your hair to the saltiness of your slightly sweaty bodies, both so close to him that a chill ran down his spine. He wanted to carve on his brain the way your soft skin brushed against his hand and the way Sirius’s muscles felt against his chest. It was chilling, it was exciting, It was pure bliss. Remus Lupin was in heaven, and he did not want to fall away from it.

But then it happened, a sheer moment of what he considered clarity crossed his mind, and he realised what exactly he was doing. This is wrong, he thought. He was, quite literally, getting in between the two of you, and it repulsed him. You’re being selfish, his mind said again. And poor Remus didn’t only feel selfish, but also greedy, loving two people at the same time? That was off. But loving two people that were already dating each other, that was straight-up heinous.

And the worst part was, that he’d gotten a taste of what it would be like to be with you both and he was sure the joy he had felt wasn’t just there because of the potion, it was there because he yearned for it. Remus was drowning in his feelings, a suffocating mix of desire, guilt, and longing that was quite literally dragging him down from heaven and he hated himself for it. For feeling things when you hugged him or when Sirius placed his arms around him, it was a constant reminder of what he wanted but couldn't fully have.

The tight knot in Remus's chest only tightened further when you pulled your head back up with a smile, looking at the two boys, so innocently, so oblivious of his loathsome thoughts. He felt like an invisible vice was gripping his heart, his head was torturing him, torturing because he couldn’t let himself feel bliss, not in between your arms, not in the heat of your bodies, not in a corner of your heart. He felt like a marionette caught between two puppeteers, each pulling him in opposite directions; the strings of desire and duty were tangling around him, threatening to tear him apart. This has to stop. It HAS to stop! His mind shouted at him, and he pushed the two of you off of him, a little too forcefully, and you stared at him a little shocked.

Did I somehow upset him? Your hurt expression, and the little frown of confusion that stared back at him almost smashed his heart. But he cleared his throat, “I’m just feeling a little dizzy, I’ll go sit down for a minute.”

Your frown deepened, still a little confused “We can hold you,” you offered.

Remus felt the temptation pulling onto him, your words so soft, but he shook his head, a forced smile paying on his lips “It’s fine, you guys have fun.”

You saw him walk towards one of the couches, not too far from where you were dancing, and sit down, you started to walk to get him, but Sirius placed a hand over your arm softly, stopping you. Remus had done the same thing to him before, he knew how to deal with it better “Let him cool off,” he said softly, gently pulling your chin so you’d focus on his grey eyes rather than on Remus “He does that sometimes, he’ll come back eventually,” Sirius explained softly, letting your eyes focus on his, he smiled mischievously “Dance with me?”

You smiled, a little giggle coming out, how easy was it to lose yourself on Sirius. You leaned into him and continued dancing. After a couple of minutes, you realised his tail was wagging in between the two of you, still away from the rest of the dancers but now swaying along with the music. Curiosity got the best of you and you reached to grab it, Sirius flinched at your touch, and the tail pulled away from your hands.

You turned to him with a surprised expression “You felt that?”

He gulped but nodded, “When I found the spell I didn’t expect it to be so… so sensitive.”

You raised an eyebrow at that “May I?” you asked, your eyes still fixated on looking at it. His tail lifted itself a bit higher again, closer to your hand, you slowly leaned your hand, and gently grazed your fingers over it. It was soft and sleek, very different from his skin, except it was just as warm as him. Sirius’ breath got caught in his throat as you continued to move your hand through it.

“All right Satarshine, that’s enough,” he said, voice rough and a little strained.

You turned to him, his pupils were blown out as he stared at you, and you gasped “Sirius Orion Black!” you reprimanded, he winced at his second name “What on earth were you thinking of?” you asked with a diverted smile, you almost wanted to laugh.

“I wasn’t!” he posited, “I told you it was sensitive. You still wanted to touch it.”

Your eyes opened wide in surprise. “You didn’t say… sensitive like that?”

“Thought it was obvious,” he retorted.

You just giggled “Poor Puppy, I was straight up torturing you and you just allowed it.”

Sirius nodded along with you, playing the victim “Why don’t you make up for it?” he asked, a smirk playing on his lips.

You raised your eyebrows, placing one of your hands on his shoulder, a little diverted at his ploy “How ever would I do that?”

He placed his hand on your waist and brought you closer to him, with a smile “How about you take a guess?”

The two of you were smiling like idiots at each other, dancing like there was no tomorrow, and Remus was sitting on one of the sofas, looking at the two of you every now and then, really trying not to look as miserable as he felt. Of course, you’d just completely forget about him the moment he left your sight, you were deeply in love with each other after all; meanwhile, he couldn’t get the smell of your hug out of his head, it was invading his mind, colonising his senses and he felt jealous, and he cursed himself for it.

He yearned for a distraction, and the universe delivered. Alice Becket, a tall Hufflepuff girl he’d seen in a couple of classes approached him with a smile and sat next to him on the couch. Very close to him. “Hey Remus,” she purred as she placed a hand on his leg, “why so lonely?”

He looked at her, Remus would surely run away from a situation like this on a normal day, not today though, he wanted to stop thinking about you and Sirius, he wanted to forget. Alice is pretty, he thought, not as pretty as you or Sirius, but she’s got a nice smile. Remus tilted his head a little, and shrugged “Maybe I was waiting for a pretty girl like you to approach me.”

Alice raised one of her eyebrows and looked at the boy with a smirk, thrilled her advances were being reciprocated. “What do you say we find a more quiet area?”

Remus looked at her, and then back at you and Sirius, you were both standing so close together, his stomach churned again, but he slowly turned his head back to Alice, she was wearing a short blue dress. Dressed as Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Remus concluded when she saw the blackhead band and the small apron, He’d seen the movie with his mom a couple of years ago; the dress was a lot shorter than the one in the movie though, barely reaching mid thigh. “How about we stay here instead? It’s comfortable.”

Alice arched her eyebrows, diverted, “Is it? I’d have to see.” She said before she lifted herself up and accommodated on Remus’ lap. She moved around just a bit and then nodded “Hm… I see, definitely comfortable.”

Remus smirked, impressed at her teasing “Told you so.”

Alice leaned in closer to the boy “Will you just stare?”

Remus let a soft laugh out before leaning in to kiss the girl. Her lips were soft, but not as soft as yours. Her kiss was kind, but not as kind as yours. The way she held him, wasn’t gentle nor caring, it was hungry, and it made him feel more like a toy for her than a boy, but it didn’t matter. Because a broken heart is blind, and the more he focused on the kiss, the easier it was to forget you and Sirius dancing together a couple of metres away. It wasn’t until Alice turned herself completely, one leg on each side of his waist, that he managed to lose himself. Alice was pretty much grinding onto him as they kissed, and it felt good, finally something felt good.

Sirius was the first to notice Remus on the couch, he had been lost on you until he saw Alice approach Remus. He had continued dancing with you but kept a close eye on the two of them as they talked. Something twisted in his stomach when Alice sat on Remus’ lap, and he frowned, Remus with a girl? he’d never seen something like that. Sirius still thought Remus didn’t have much experience in the realm of romance, and yet, he had a girl on his lap, and he was flirting. Sirius turned the thoughts to the back of his head and turned to you again, you were still glowing, he smiled, he really was the luckiest man on earth. But then his mind got distracted again, she’s kissing him! She’s kissing him, and he’s kissing her back!

A sudden urge to kiss you came over him, he smiled at you flirtatiously “Dancing’s good to make it up, yeah, but how about a kiss?”

“Just one?” you teased.

“Satshine, you can kiss me until my lungs run out of air and I faint. And even then you could continue kissing me.”

You blinked a couple of times at his words, sometimes Sirius could be so romantic it took your breath away. Eventually, you smiled and finally leaned in to kiss Sirius. His kiss was hungry, hungrier than normal. It must be the euphoric brew, you thought as you kissed back. Sirius’ hands had travelled to the small of your back, just below your wings, and his warmth made you shiver. Sirius kissed you like he was starving, opening his eyes just to check on Remus, he was still kissing the girl, and Sirius turned back to you, deepening the kiss.

Alice’s lips started to trace kisses down Remus’ jaw when he finally spotted Sirius, he was kissing you feverishly. Remus’ mouth was slightly agape and his sight a little unfocused as the girl continued to kiss his neck, but not so much that he didn’t notice Sirius’s gaze focused straight on him, there was something in his gaze he hadn’t seen before, and it pissed him off. How was it possible that he was kissing you, and focusing on anything other than your sweet lips? Remus stared at Sirius one last moment, before turning his head again, grabbing Alice’s face and bringing her back to his lip. He wasn’t there to think about Sirius.

As you kissed Sirius, you felt something wrap around the middle of your thigh. His tail, you realised, like a snake, it was clinging to you like its life depended on it, you smiled and continued to kiss him, for some reason you liked it when Sirius got clingy. But then you felt it tightening even further, enough for it to be uncomfortable rather than hot, so you broke the kiss off “Sirius what are you…?” You started and turned to him, but he wasn’t looking at you, he was looking at something else, you followed his gaze and it landed on Remus and Alice Becket?

Until literally that second, you’d assumed Remus was gay, because of the conversation you’d had with Minho earlier, but perhaps, he was more like Tom? “He really did get bitches after all,” you said surprised, the smallest bit of anguish slipping into your heart. It didn’t make any sense, but it was there regardless.

“Yeah…” Sirius said, letting a breath out “I’d never seen him like that before,” he admitted.

“Maybe it’s the euphoric brew?” You said with a shrug “has him doing things he’d usually do in the dark.”

“You think he’d do it in the dark?” He asked you with a frown.

“You don’t?” You asked matter-of-factly “Remus is pretty damn handsome! Especially with the sexy pirate costume.”

“I know.”

You tried to step out, to rest for a moment since you were a little tired already, but you couldn’t “Sirius your tail…”

“Sorry?”

“It’s um… kind of trapping me,” you said awkwardly.

“Oh, sorry.” He whispered and finally released your leg, blushing when he realised how high the tail end had gotten.

“‘Tis fine,” you said even as the marks of it had itched onto your skin.

“Let’s go sit somewhere,” he suggested, looking at the marks he’d left on your skin. A part of him felt bad for hurting you, but the other really wanted Tom to see them. You nodded and let Sirius guide you to the couches. You thought he’d take you near Remus, but he instead took you to the other side of the common room and sat with his back facing him. Sirius did not want to continue being a witness to Remus’ little show.

“He did not give me a 3-day notice,” he complained with a little pout as he sat down.

You raised an eyebrow, not quite believing Sirius would fuzz over that, but then again, you all were pretty drunk and under the influence of the potion. You saw some people enjoying a game of potion pong in the corner before you saw Remus and Alice were still glued to each other’s lips. You didn’t remember Remus being so fierce when he kissed you. Maybe it really had been a soft kiss because of the game, after all.

“I highly doubt he planned it.” You reassured Sirius as you sat down beside him “In fact, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t close to Alice before now.”

Finally, Sirius let go of the subject, almost forgetting about it as he looked at your leg, specifically at the marks he’d left. It was a little red, he frowned as he etched his hand closer, “‘m sorry.” He whispered, even if he still kinda liked that the marks would be there for a while.

“Oh, that?” You said looking at your leg as Sirius graced his fingers over the marks, it made a shiver run down your spine, and it wasn’t because it hurt, Sirius had never touched your bare thigh. “It’s nothing. I’ve had worse.”

“If I had known how whimsical the tail would be I would have chosen a different costume.”

You shook your head “I kind of like it, actually…”

Sirius raised his eyebrows “Oh, you do?”

Bad idea, bad idea, Sirius will never cease to tease me about this, “Looks hot on you, not everyone would be able to pull it off,” you said besides your own warnings.

An amused smile was playing on Sirius’ lips, “Ah… so you do think I’m hot. It’s not only sexy pirate Remus this, sexy pirate Remus that…”

You laughed at that and turned to him. You didn’t think it would be possible for Sirius Black to doubt his attractiveness, and there you were. A little idea came to your head, maybe you’d have to reassure Sirius yourself. So you crossed one leg over his lap and sat on top of him, just like Alice had done with Remus, if it works for them.

“Luv, what are you...?”

You leaned into him, hands over his shoulders, as your lips brushed against his ear “Do you really need me to tell you how bIoody hot you look tonight?” Sirius’ mind went completely blank the second he heard your voice purr out of your mouth. You pulled back with a smile, “Cat got your tongue?” you teased. He looked at you, chest falling and rising slowly, “I can tell you how much I liked the wings you chose, or the stupid little halo that still glows over your head, or I can tell you about how interesting your naughty little tail felt wrapped around my leg,” Sirius’ hand, that somehow had reached your thigh, squeezed it a little “Or aside from the costume, I could tell you how nice your hair looks,” you said as you brushed a strand behind his ear, “or how in love I am with your eyes.”

“Yes,” he choked out.

“Yes? Yes, what Puppy?”

“Tell me more.”

You smiled, “How about I tell you how I literally had to press my thighs together when you gave me that ravenous sight of yours as I was walking down the stairs…”

Sirius leaned in to kiss your neck when you felt someone plop in the couch beside the two of you. You both pulled away from each other, but the two were looking at none other than James Potter, smiling like an idiot beside you.

You sighed when you saw him, there was something about James, that even in that situation, you couldn’t be mad at him for interrupting. He just looked really, really freaking happy, it was contagious. And James hadn’t even taken a drop of punch that night. Sirius, on the other hand, was glaring at his friend, and he might have told him to piss off if it wasn’t because James spoke first.

“Guys you won’t believe this!”

“Really?!? James?!?” Sirius complained, nodding to the fact that you were quite literally straddling him still.

James’ head was too high up in the clouds for him to acknowledge Sirius’ sarcasm “Lily said she’d go on a date with me!”

You looked at the boy with a smile, crossing one of your legs over Sirius, so you wouldn’t be straddling him anymore, even if you were still sitting on his lap “Really?” You asked, now fully invested in the new subject. Sirius was still a little pissed, looking straight at the place in your neck he’d wanted to kiss earlier rather than at his friend.

“Yes, and I’m gonna make it the best date of her life!”

“How?” You asked with a frown.

“With your help of course!”

click to see the boys in their costumes

Series Masterlist | The Interlude | Next Chapter

TAGLIST: @rayrlupin @callmelovergirl @warcelia @ireneop @endversewinchester @moonyunebi @smuttysluttybitch @mazzymoons @drugs-for-memes @sofiacblair @vmpir3lvr @remuslupinisbae @rabluver @willgrahamisalesbi4n @thatobsessedreader @orkwardx0 @itskailey24 @hell0-kittie @belovedmoony @blacksgarden @loving-and-dreaming @cassie-love20 @starchaser-lily @zucchini-queenie @springflwer07 @sseleniaa @cometsghost @orkwardx0 @imdoingbetternow @sbrewer21 @remuslupinsbae @maxinehufflepuffprincess @wifiatthetrainstation @unstablereader @mablacklupin @oliversaurus @jaylienpotter @remussbitch @hermionelove

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A/N: BOOO! HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Can you tell I love halloween? Because I love Halloween! And we barely celebrate it where I live. Woaaaaah, I really did write this, what a freaking rollercoaster this chapter was, right? Still one of my favs but uff... so much excitement and then... Baby Remus I'm sorry, my editing literally had me squealing both in excitement and dread. Remus needs to get off his own head. But I did warn him at the beginning, didn’t I? ps. pls don't hate me you know I love you. I’m almost scared to ask this one but… thoughts?

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aziraphales-library · 3 months

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fics about Aziraphale seducing Crowley or just being especially bratty??? and thank you for your work, you're a blessing 💓💓

Here are some fics in which Aziraphale seduces Crowley and/or is a bit bossy and bratty...

More Than Enough Of A Bastard by orphan_account (M)

He used all his charm to assure those lovely ladies and gentlemen that he and Aziraphale were the most educated, sophisticated, well-read two men in the entire London. And it was working rather well, except for one thing. Aziraphale. Aziraphale himself and whatever the Hell he was doing with his hand underneath the table. At first, Crowley thought that he imagined the whole thing. It must have been his demonic lustful nature taking the best of him. It couldn’t – it just COULDN’T – be that Aziraphale would risk jeopardizing this meeting by being so frivolous with his hands. But after he threw a glance downwards, where his legs were, he realized it really WAS happening – Aziraphale was stroking a spot on Crowley’s inner thigh, all the while smiling charmingly and chatting with his new friends.

All things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light by IneffableDemon (E)

"Crowley, preparing his art tools, waited for the model to sit. He heard the soft brush of clothing and the stool creaking under someone’s weight. Finally. Crowley turned around and the art tools fell from his hands. There was an angel sitting in front of him. It was a very particular angel, one he had become far too familiar with for the past few thousand years. And he was naked."

Just A Little Taste by Yoite (E)

Even before the fateful non-arrival of the hellhound, Warlock's birthday party doesn't go exactly to plan.. My contribution to the White Suit Crowley Event. (Also, this covers my Good Omens Bingo squares "baking" and "flame".) This is a sex pollen story, so consent is mildly dubious (on both sides), but I intended this to be light and humorous. Conflict is kept to a minimum.

Who Tempts the Tempter by MelayneSeahawk (E)

Aziraphale Tempts Crowley to try to get them together after the Apocalypse; Crowley realizes he's doing it, and is so amused (and turned on) that they fall directly into bed

An Angel in the Bastille by The_Bentley (M)

Aziraphale didn't expect to get rescued from the Bastille by Crowley. He also didn't expect Crowley to get into a bloody brawl with revolutionaries while they had lunch. Nor did Crowley expect Aziraphale to get drunk and try to get into his breeches later that night while they drank on the roof of Notre Dame. A continuation of the Reign of Terror vignette seen in the third episode of the miniseries done in three chapters of 1000 words each. (Actually four in this case because of an alternate ending written for the friend who betaed this.)

A Wrapped Audience by OllieMaye (E)

Aziraphale enrolls in a yoga class and Crowley enjoys the fruits of his leggings labours.

- Mod D

#good omens #ineffable husbands #adult omens #seduction #mod d

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thechekhov · 3 months

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Since you've covered a pretty big bit of the manga so far, can I ask what are your opinions on it? Deeper than just the quick reactions you've shared with us so far.

What are your opinions about the manga's characters? Its pacing? The mystery element? The magic system? What areas do you think it succeeds, and what areas do you think could be better?

I understand if you're reversing judgment until you finish, but you've also read quite a bit of the story so far. Idk, I'm just curious!

Especially seeing as you're a writer yourself, so I imagine you have a different perspective on how the story functions as, well, a story!

Oh, hmmm... that's an interesting question.

As of right now I'm on chapter 35-36 so I'm about a third through the story. The first major arc (find dragon, yoink falin out of its body, etc) has kinda happened, and we're hitting some larger world arcs.

As you mentioned, I DO want to withold judgement but for now... But I will say what I think thus far, with full awareness that my mind might be changed later depending on circumstances.

Comment 1: The manga is finished! Actually, just knowing that makes me feel like it's a more cohesive storyline.

Maybe I'm boring, but I'm not a huge fan of neverending storylines in general. Naruto, Bleach, etc. They have their place in the forever-young-monster-of-the-week genre, and I know why so many manga just keep... on... publishing....... but I feel like there's a lot of merit to being able to just wrap up a story and say 'there, that's how it ends'.

Comment 2: Laios is very well developed, even at this point of the story. Senshi remains a mystery. Marcille... speedran her arc?

I think this is the closest thing I have to a criticism. While I think Laios' character is well-paced in its revelations throughout the series (the slow ramp-up from 'oh this guy is weird' to 'oh, this guy is a freak club card carrying member' to 'oh, this guy is the freak club president' was great!) Marcille is.... a little more of a mystery to me.

Now, perhaps my memory is bad. But I did find her turnaround at the end of the Red Dragon arc a bit... out of the blue?

Don't get me wrong. I think it's entirely believable. But I wish there had been more hints - or rather, more visible progress of her studies of ancient magic. I know it's been mentioned, and there WAS that chapter of her and Falin during their school years... but watching episode 2 of the show on netflix when she goes 'I feel useless, my magic doesn't help anyone :(' and then reading the manga and seeing her straight up go from 0 to 100 as she decides "we're gonna rearrange falin's bones and then I'mma raise her using this ancient technique I've been studying all along that I didn't tell you about because it was sus" is... a little bit of a turn?

Maybe it's on purpose! Maybe, when I read further about her personal journey, the pieces will fall into place more neatly. But compared to the rest of the characters, which seem relatively steady in their reveals (Laios, Chillchuck, Senshi) Marcille took a bit of a turn.

Which, again, isn't bad! It just seems contrasted to the rest of the team.

Comment 3: The magic system is more like a magic ecology.

Actually, in the beginning, I found the magic system Marcille used very vague. It was just a 'do what needs to be done' type of power with very few apparent limits or power balances aside from 'sometimes you run out of mana'. But I think at this point, I'm beginning to assume that the details of the magic are closer to the functions of an ecosystem or an organism, and therefore WHAT the magic does is kind of moot point. Marcille is just a little bacteria inside of the great intestine labyrinth of the dungeon, and she is using its energy to survive, like a sort of microfauna.

Comment 4: Man, the worldbuilding is cool. It's so cool.

I don't think I've seen another story that goes so deeply into dungeon ecosystems before this one. Not only are the people who live there fleshed out in terms of individual cultures and traditions and norms, there are also monsters that serve as a natural fauna that inhabits the halls of what OUGHT to be a mindless 'turn left and fall into a trap' setting!

There's sticking monsters into your world, and then there's 'digging out a trench 1 meter deep, pre-soaking the soil, inserting monster's roots lovingly into the spot, and then covering it with fertilizer and spritzing the leaves'. I don't doubt that there ARE other works that go into this level of detail, but the dedication and the ideas Kui-san has for this very much makes the dungeon a living part of this entire tale. :)

I'll probably have more to say later but for now.. that's about it!

#chekhov answers #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #chekhov reads dungeon meshi

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secondhand-snow · 2 months

Text

a body of impulses

chapter 2: feeling like unraveling

lukas matsson x f!roy! reader (succession)

★ chapter 1 ★ | ★chapter 3★

wc: 9.0k+

warnings: super dysfunctional family, fluff first then angst, roman roy as his own warning, season 3 finale as its own warning, mentions of manipulation, drinking, smut, virgin!reader, inexperienced!reader, corruption kink (for real this time), dick pics, mention of phone sex, making out, dry humping/grinding, biting, pussyjobs, cum play/eating, unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it!), aftercare, no use of y/n

summary: Lukas is amazing. He's tender, he's deviant, he's everything for you. But you're still worried, your family has never seen a beautiful thing that they haven't wanted to break.

author's note: chapter 2 is here, thank you for all the love on chapter 1! i hope you love it as much as i loved writing it ♡ be warned that this is heavy on the plot of episodes 3.08 and 3.09, so if you haven't watched the full show you may get a bit lost. please consider liking, commenting, or reblogging if you enjoyed!

You have a tendency to get anxious when things are good for too long. A few weeks without a family fight, a month without a scandal, half a year without Kendall relapsing; nice things usually end in flames in your family. They make you superstitious, always looking around the corner for something to jump out and fuck everything up. So, when Lukas is good, you get scared. You expect some kind of backhand. A threat of blackmail, a tweet exposing your promiscuity, a package of anthrax at your door.

It never comes.

He calls you every night, your timezone, not his. Listens to you talk about your day and doesn’t press when you can’t give him details on the company. He loves to send you pictures, just of him doing the most mundane things. Lukas on a Zoom meeting, Lukas working out, Lukas eating dinner. Together, you fall into something almost domestic. It’s still a secret. You don’t open his messages in public, stay far away from any conversations about him at work that could lead a blush to your face. But when has anything in your life been completely honest?

He’s been begging for a while now to fly you out to Sweden. You know it’s a risk you shouldn’t take at the moment, but you entertain him anyway. When you ask why he wants to see you so badly, he says he misses you. Then he says he wants to fuck you on his desk.

That almost convinces you, and you’re about to start packing when a roadblock emerges. Your dad asks you to come with him and your siblings to Italy, for Caroline’s wedding. You hadn’t been planning on going, she wasn’t your mom and you didn’t have much of a relationship with her. In fact, you actually thought she secretly hated you, something to do with how quickly Logan married your mom after their divorce. Regardless, you didn’t want to go to the wedding. But when Logan Roy calls, you come. Always.

So the bags were repacked and you found yourself on a different private jet with your siblings, once again at the mercy of your family.

“She’s probably in sexual thrall to him. He’s driving her wild with his sugar dick.” Siobhan spoke matter of factly, completely oblivious to how absurd her words sounded. Still, it wasn’t the strangest conversation of hers you’d walked in on. “So there’s nothing we can do.”

Roman was perched across the aisle from Tom and Shiv, sitting oddly in his seat, running his hand through his hair while he spoke. “All right, fine. Let him kill her for her emeralds and… screw us out of the fucking firm. See if I care.”

“Mommy issues?” You spoke up, setting your bag down on a free seat before moving to lean over the back of Shiv’s chair, kneeling on the seat behind it.

“Always. I didn’t know you were coming?” Rome turns to address you, eyebrows coming together in question.

“Dad drafted me. I think he just wants to terrorize Caroline with my presence.”

“I think you torment her enough by just existing. She doesn’t get to be the perfect mother of Logan Roy’s prodigal children.” Shiv pitched in, finally acknowledging your presence with a little smile.

“I don’t think I’m even invited to all the events. He’s just gonna have me working on the GoJo deal the whole time.”

“Oh! About the deal, I was talking to Karl and Frank-” Tom is addressing Roman more than you, but still gives you the courtesy of eye contact before your brother cuts him off.

“Yeah, no, you’re not really a part of that. Either of you, actually.” Rome nods his head to the couple, a smirk on his face charged by his current power trip.

“Well, I am.” Shiv interjects, annoyed.

“Well, I can’t fire you yet Shiv, because I’m still a little bit scared of you. But, my thinking is, when I take over, I’m gonna put you in the office next to mine and you’re gonna be my sexy secretary.” You just shake your head at Roman’s comment while he turns to head back to his seat.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Siobhan is more irritated than really upset, going back to her phone as Roman leaves the conversation.

“I dunno. We’re working on it.” He taps the back on his legs in a rhythm before sitting down. “Ongoing process.”

You address Tom, seeing the confusion in his eyes that people tend to get when talking to your brother. “We’re just working on outlining terms. Honestly, Gerri would be better to ask for specifics. I don’t know how much Dad wants me to say.”

Tom just nods in thanks, which you return with a small smile before heading to your seat. You’re across the aisle from Roman, who’s already curled up and ready to nap on the flight. Taking out your phone, you see a new message from Lukas, covertly labeled in your phone with just an “L.” You turn the screen away from your company, making sure to not catch the reflection in the window as you open his text.

Stockholm is a 4 hour flight to Italy.

Is it? I’ll be in the air for at least 10 hours.

10 hours without talking to you?

I think you can manage it.

I don’t know about Italy. I can’t be held responsible for what I do when I’m in the same country as you.

It’s a risk.

Will there be a reward?

…I’ll text you when we land.

He sends a picture of himself doing a kissing face. You send a heart emoji in response, hiding your face with your hand to conceal your smile.

It turns out that you were invited to a few events of Lady Caroline’s wedding. Not the ceremony, of course, but at least you were allowed to attend the receptions leading up to it. You weren’t going to be cooped up in a hotel room all weekend, signing documents and having Facetime sex with your not-boyfriend. In fact, you ended up at one of these events just a little after your arrival, a garden party full of snobby aristocrats and expensive champagne. It’s too hot out for your liking, you're already sweating in your semi-formal sundress and downing your second glass of cold bubbly.

You end up with Shiv, partially blocked from the sun by the shadow of her hat, quietly snickering at her and Tom’s jokes about a clueless cousin Greg. It’s surprisingly calm for one of your family gatherings, no shouting or challenging or worse. The tranquility snaps like a twig with a ding on your phones.

“Uh- Matsson…” Shiv speaks first, the two of you pulling out your phones simultaneously, her angling her screen to share it with Tom. A message from Karolina leads you to Matsson’s twitter page, and his latest tweet. It’s a goofy gif of his face with a Snapchat filter on it, the text reading ‘Going to Macao, feeling lucky.” You’re half excited, half alarmed. You don’t really know if you should believe it at first but, against your better judgment, you hope it’s true. Hope he’s just an hour or two from you, the closest he’s been in weeks.

“What? Going to Macao? Feeling lucky?” Tom squints against the sun to see the Tweet before pulling out his own phone. “The fuck is that?”

“You get this thing from Karolina? It’s off the radar and now this? Is this- is it a move?” Gerri’s entrance is quick, followed closely behind by Roman. You open your mouth and close it again, not sure if your words will betray your duplicity.

“It, um, it could be…could be nothing, you know? Fucking social media fireworks!” Roman’s hand is threaded through his hair, the silver watch on his wrist glinting in the light.

“‘Going to Macao, feeling lucky.’” Gerri repeats the four words, she’s as flabbergasted as everyone in this little Waystar circle. Business has once again interfered with pleasure. “Is he trying to boost his price?”

“Is he just rocking the boat?” Shiv’s voice is unsure, wavering from her usual monotone state. “Or trying to blow up the deal? I mean, has he got good subscriber numbers coming in?”

“Maybe he’s just going to Macao and he’s feeling lucky.” Tom chimes in as Rome steps away from the group, phone pressed to his ear in a call you can’t fully hear.

“I mean, yeah… It’s not out of his archetype to post something like this.” You shrug, not sure what to contribute that hasn’t already been said.

Roman finishes his call, turning back to you to speak. “I don’t know, it’s like, his thing. He’s a- a trickster.”

“Okay. Well, sounds cool. Is he gonna, like, steal our watches and fucking saw the deal in half?” Shiv’s getting upset, you know she likes control and she’s too far removed from this deal to do anything about Matsson’s stunts.

“Maybe!”

“You’re supposed to be inside this Rome!”

“Hey, it’s gonna be fine. Mattson’s not stupid, he wouldn’t deliberty fuck this deal and announce it to the world on Twitter.” You’re trying to reason with your siblings, though it’s not really working. Roman mostly ignores you, Siobhan rolls her eyes. Atleast Gerri and Tom look somewhat appreciative for your input.

“I am inside, Leave it.”

You’re done with the dialogue, done with being the peacemaker and getting stepped over by your narcissistic siblings. You throw your hands up, phone held in one and the other in a flat palm to signify your retreat before you walk away from the cluster. You hear Greg say something behind you but don’t bother to answer him, instead moving to find a quiet place far away from your siblings.

You end up in a corner somewhere, mostly blocked by trees and bushes, a little cubby hole you hoped was private enough to not be listened in on. Your fingers nimbly click through the apps on your phone, pausing briefly before pressing the call button on Lukas’s contact. It rings once, twice. Then, an answer.

“When are you coming over? Should I send you a helicopter?”

“Macao?” Your voice is higher than normal, laced in shock and thrill.

“Closer than we’ve been in weeks.” The smile is apparent in his voice, he’s pleased with himself, you hate it. And love it.

“You’re fucking insane. I didn’t think you were serious!”

“Yeah, I am. I’ll send my jet over.”

“Oh my God, I still cannot believe you. I can’t- my family is on high alert after your little rogue Tweet.” You laugh, not really mad at him, just eager and amazed.

“Oh come on, that was nothing.”

“It was a play to keep them on guard and you know it.”

“Well, partially. It’s for the numbers too. And for your attention.”

“It’s so hard to be away from you when you do shit like this…”

“Oh yeah? You miss me?” It’s a taunt, he knows the truth even if you deny it. So, you’re honest.

“You know I do.”

“Mmm… I miss you too. Keep thinking about what I’ll do when I see you again.”

“Lukas… I’m in public…” You can’t help but glance around, be sure you’re alone when he starts talking like this. His plan is already so clear to you.

“So you don’t want me to tell you about all the ways I’ll fuck you?”

“... Don’t do this to me now.”

“It’ll be just us in this house. I’ll take you wherever I want to. You can scream as loud as you want, don’t have to be worried about someone hearing.” His voice drops, there’s a small rustling on the phone. His words shoot straight to your core, a sensation beginning to form there.

“I’m at a fucking wedding party and you’re getting me turned on. You’re evil.”

“You love it.” You pause a moment, taking a deep breath and steeling yourself before responding.

“I’ll call you tonight. Please be careful.”

He chuckles.“I will.”

When you hang up, your text thread with Lukas is immediately graced with a photo of his dick, hard and gripped tightly in his fist. It makes you inhale sharply, curse under your breath at the growing need between your thighs. You text him back, simply writing “Fuck you.” before clicking your phone off. It takes you a few minutes of breathing exercises, but you’re able to calm your desire and soothe the blush in your cheeks before returning to the party.

Nobody asks where you went, nobody even really cared that you were gone. You can blame it on Connor’s show of making a proposal, or Matsson’s antics occupying everyone’s minds, but this is how it always is with you. The good child. The innocent daughter. Forever right where she needs to be, never in anyone’s way, constantly willing to help. You disappear when you aren’t wanted, you emerge only when you’re useful. The perfect loyalist, somehow being turned to a deserter.

Lukas leaves Monaco before you can sneak away to see him. You know it’s for the better, but it’s still a disappointment. You resign to finish the family trip and visit Sweden as soon as you get home to New York, going along with the planned events, a false smile plastered on your face. It’s during Caroline’s bachelorette in Cortona when your plans change. You were nursing a glass of wine, silencing your discontent at the rooftop bar when Gerri approached you.

She dragged you around to speak with Roman, revealing that your Dad had once again put you on babysitting duty. Logan wanted Rome to go talk to Mattson at his house in Switzerland, and wanted you to keep him in line. He couldn’t trust Roman to not fuck the deal, but he didn’t want you to speak to Mattson alone. So, you were recruited to accompany Rome. Speak just enough to stop him from saying something stupid, but not enough to draw attention. It was a game you were good at, one you had been practicing since youth. You were loyal to a fault, and Logan always used it to his advantage.

Lukas is ecstatic when you tell him you’re coming. Less so when he learns Roman is accompanying you, but still thrilled. You ask him for discretion, first nicely and then sternly. You can’t afford to make your relationship, whatever it is, public. He knows this too, knows what your family would do if they found out, but can’t help teasing. It’s only a day after Logan’s request that you board a helicopter, headed to Lake Maggiore. Headed to Lukas.

Roman is oddly quiet on the flight, constantly on his phone or looking out the window, eyes blank. You know him well enough to see the anxiety clouding his mind, feel the nervous energy radiating off his body. You reach over to him and hold his hand. He looks annoyed. He doesn’t drop it. You squeeze his fingers gently, he returns the motion, lets you quietly comfort him until you land.

Lake Maggiore is beautiful, surrounded by the Alps and lush vegetation, villas and lake homes dotting the shores of the water. You move straight from the helicopter to a boat, which immediately takes off at high speeds, skating over the surface of the lake. The wind fucks up your hair, blows up the skirt of your sundress, almost makes you loose your sunglasses. When you finally dock, you quickly pull out your phone, using it as a mirror to fix your smudged makeup and windswept hair before your host arrives. Roman gives you a weird look, silently judging you for putting effort into your appearance. As if he doesn’t spend hours in front of the mirror every morning styling his hair to look perfectly imperfect.

When Lukas’s frame finally emerges from the hedges of his property, you have to bite your lower lip to hide your smile. He’s so himself, wearing sweatpants and a plain t-shirt, not bothering with real shoes, just a pair of casual slip-ons. It almost hurts to see him and not be able to immediately kiss him. Jesus, your inner monologue sounds like something from a cheesy rom-com. You feel so love-struck, it makes you crinkle your nose in embarrassment.

The boat is tied up to the dock now, Roman perched on the side trying to make it onto solid land. The waves rock the vehicle back and forth, knocking him off balance and ruining his attempt at disembarking.

“Do you want me to hold your hand?” Lukas has one hand in his pocket, the other reached out to Rome, close enough for him to grab. If he wanted to. “Come on, I’ll hold your hand.”

“Piss off.” Roman swats his hand away, finally moving off the boat with a small jump. You move, taking his place on the edge of the boat. It’s a bit unsteady, but you manage getting on to the dock in just a few seconds. You shoot a smug smile at Roman before following the two of them up some steps, away from the water and onto Lukas’s yard.

“It’s nice to see you again, man.” Roman speaks first, breaking the silence that had fallen over you three.

“Yeah, yeah. Long time.” Lukas has his usual posture, slightly hunched and lanky, with his hands in his pockets nonchalantly.

“This is an amazing place!” Rome looks around, you continue to follow him and Lukas through the lawn, letting them lead you as you observe.

“Yeah...”

“No?”

“I don’t know, it kind of freaks me out, to be honest.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“When I got it, I wanted everything to be perfect.” You climb a few steps, the group arriving at an outdoor pool area, lined with shrubs and facing the lake. “Now I’m sleeping on a camping mat until I get a deep dive on the best mattress in the world. It’s great- it’s great. I’m just not feeling great. I mean… I’m fine… Well, but, not really.”

You frown at his words. You want to reach out, hold his hand, touch his back, do something to comfort him. But it would be too obvious, too impulsive. Instead you nod sympathetically, catching his gaze for a moment.

“Maybe let’s leave the little feeley-feelings out of it. Cause I’m gonna give you nothing. Nothing!” Roman’s half joking. He hates emotions, tries to diffuse bad ones with humor, even if it feels inappropriate.

“Roman.” Your tone is a warning, pushing your sunglasses back on your head to give him a glare before turning to Lukas. “I get it. You want the best, but you don’t realize how boring perfection is when you always have it.”

“Yeah, yeah. Success.. It doesn’t interest me anymore. It’s too easy. It’s fucking… anyone can do it. Analysis plus capital plus execution. But failure… that’s a secret.” Lukas is looking at you like you’re the only person in the world when he speaks. Sometimes he thinks you can see into his soul, you somehow know him better than anyone. He takes his sunglasses off, using the collar of his shirt to hold them. His blue eyes look directly into yours.“What are you worst at?”

“Well… I… am never telling you any of my weaknesses. Ever. Never, ever, ever.” Roman breaks into the conversation again, disrupts the eye contact between you two. “And I won’t let her tell you any either. Stuff a sock in her mouth, a ball gag or something.”

“That’s smart.”

“I know, I am smart.”

“Cause I ream people. Juice em like oranges. I get way too into people, and they disappoint me.” He looks at Roman when he says that, but you can’t help but take his words as a warning. Things moved fast between you and Lukas, you’ve barely known him for a few weeks and were already opening your heart to him. Letting him into your mind, letting him rearrange the furniture there like he owns it. “Hey, I’m thinking of doing like a- quarterly up and outs at the company.”

“Oh, yeah. Firing people is like, 85% of why I get up in the morning.” Roman shrugs when he talks, moving to take his sunglasses off and hold them in his hand. “But, uh.. I do want to ask you about that tweet, if you don’t mind.”

“Oh the…” Lukas laughs, looks at you, back to Roman. He makes a face, sticking out his tongue to mimic the Snapchat filter on his tweet. “That one.”

“Yeah. Seriously, yes. You got like, big shit coming your way?” Rome uses his free hand to run his fingers through his hair.

“...Are you- are you asking me for material nonpublic information?” Lukas’s grin is lopsided, he’s testing the two of you, seeing how far you’re really going to go.

“Maybe. Were you trying to get your share price up by tweeting unverifiable information outside of normal disclosure channels?” You cut in, raising your eyebrows at him, tilting your head in a way a little too close to flirting. Roman smiles at that, watches you exercise your knowledge like a proud father.

Lukas’s voice is mocking, a fake sad cartoon tone coming over it. “No, you’re not allowed to do that.” He moves his hands to his eyes, pretending to wipe his tears. “So mean.”

“Do you want this deal? Are you into it… like, at all?” Roman asks next. You’ve moved a bit from your area at the pool, following Matsson as he slowly circles the water.

“Yeah, I am. I’m just a little Swedish, you know? I’m.. into equality.” He moves nonchalantly, like this deal isn’t as serious as it is. “I like getting into bed with people, but I also like to share it equally.”

“More of a merge than a takeover.” It isn’t a question, and it isn’t directed at Lukas. You turn to Roman as you say it, verbalizing what you both were thinking. Lukas just hums, doesn’t articulate a response. Even though you all know what it would be.

“Okay. We’re just… heading to Milan to lock things down with our Dad and the bankers. And the tweet- it just didn’t feel great. If you’re hoping to blow this whole thing up, just tell me, okay?” Roman’s anxiety is back, you can see it in the tense way he’s started to move, in the higher tone of his voice.

“I just want to get myself the best. Of everything.” Lukas looks at you when he says it, darts his tongue out to lick his bottom lip. Roman’s too lost in his own head to notice it, or notice the way your breath catches in your throat.

“Yeah, I fucking get that. Definlety.” Roman moves to pull out his phone, cursing under his breath when he reads a notification. “I uh- have to take a call really quickly. I’ll be in the boat, it shouldn’t take too long. Okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll give her a tour.” Lukas shrugs, sounding indifferent. Rome nods at him, then you, and quickly takes off towards the dock, already lifting the phone up to his ear as he walks.

You watch him leave, round the corner and leave your line of vision before turning to Lukas, face neutral save for a hint of a smile. He’s less composed than you, smiling broadly and staring into your eyes. He walks closer to you, wraps his arm around the small of your back.

“Wanna show me around?” You raise your eyebrows in question, slightly rocking back and forth on your feet. He sighs quietly, nods, and moves to extend an arm for you to hold.

“There’s really not much to see. Your average rich person house.” You hold his arm, walking with him into the villa as he speaks.

The interior is nice. Well, you’re sure it cost several million dollars to furnish, but that was the standard you were used to. It’s Italian inspired with a few modern elements. You take note of the high end appliances everywhere you go. A thousand dollar air purifier, a ten thousand dollar toilet, a hundred thousand dollar refrigerator. Lukas really did want the best for himself. The downstairs looks strangely perfect, like there wasn’t really anyone living there. Everything is clean and immaculate, no traces of human life. This trend continues into the upstairs, only stopping when he shows you the primary bedroom. His bedroom.

It’s simply decorated, a bed, desk, dresser. A large TV mounted on the wall across from his bed, nightstands, some artwork on the walls. There are a few large windows on the farthest side of the room, offering a view to the lake. Most things are black, or gray, with a few navy blue accents here and there. You had slipped off your shoes when walking around the house, now you let the fall to the floor from dangling on your finger. Stepping into the room, you walk until you round the bed, seeing a camping sleep matt rolled up and leaning on a wall. The sight brings a little smile to your face before you turn to Lukas’s desk, fingers grazing softly against the wood of it.

He has a Macbook laying on it, a pair of over-ear headphones sitting next to it. There’s a cup with a few pencils and pens, a box of tissues. It’s not much, but it’s something. Above his desk sit a few wall mounted bookshelves, made of the same wood. The books on them are mostly motivational, shit that he definitely hasn’t read. One thing does catch your eye though, an older coding textbook written in Swedish. It looks worn, the spine cracked and the pages wrinkled. Your fingers move to trace along the row of books, following them until the shelf ends and you meet the wall behind it.

“I like it. Very you.” You move your gaze back to Lukas, who’s been leaning in the doorway, watching you explore.

“Very me?”

“It’s exactly what I pictured.” You walk up to him as he steps inside, right at the foot of the bed, just a few inches apart. “Have you really been sleeping on a mat on the floor?”

“Yeah…” You wrap your hands around the back of his neck as his sentence trails off and he moves to grab your hips, closing the distance between you.

“Lukas, just sleep on the mattress. Your back is gonna get all fucked up.”

“Probably. I just- I don’t trust it. I want something I know is good, you know?” His reasoning makes you roll your eyes.

“It’s better than a camping mat.”

“Hey- that’s the best camping mat money can buy.”

Your hand moves to cup his face, bringing him to you and planting a light kiss on his mouth. He tries to deepen it, follows your face when you pull away, looks like a sad puppy when you deny him.

“So you haven’t used the mattress at all…?” You smirk, quirking your eyebrows teasingly.

“Not yet…” Lukas grins, his eyes traveling from yours to your lips. “Why? Do you wanna help me break it in?”

You don’t answer, just smile, roll your eyes playfully, and move away from him. You turn so your back is facing the bed, and with all the drama you can muster, flop down onto the mattress. It cushions your fall nicely, though you do get left a bit breathless and giggly. Your knees dangle off the side of the bed, feet almost grazing the ground as you kick your legs.

“It’s really not bad.” You don’t bother raising your head, just direct your words to him knowing he’ll hear. “Not the best, but definitely ‘trustworthy.’” Laughing when he sighs in response, you throw your arms up and stretch theatrically.

You feel a hand on your knee, spreading your thighs wider apart. He slots himself between your legs, moves his hand to your waist, and pulls you quickly to him. The bed is high enough that your hips meet each other roughly, a gasp escaping your mouth at the sudden pressure on your vulva. Lukas is already half hard, and making the most subtle movements to grind you perfectly against his cock.

“Lukas… Roman is just outside…” You’re already a bit breathless, still allowing him to rub against you as you speak. He leans close to you, tall frame bending at the waist to brush his lips against your ear, still keeping his hips flush to your as he moves.

“I guess we’ll have to be quick then.” He places a kiss to your jawline, starting a messy trail down your neck. Lukas pauses to nip the slope of your shoulder. “And you’ll have to be quiet.”

He lifts his head, eyes staring straight into yours, and waits for your response. Your lips are already parted, breath coming quick and cheeks flushed with desire. The lust clouds your judgment, as it always seems to do with Lukas. Impulse takes over and, with a hand threaded into his hair, you pull his mouth to yours roughly.

It’s rushed and powerful. All teeth and tongue, no time for being gentle, no time for romantics. You bite his lip, he groans into your open mouth. Your legs move around his hips, keeping his body close as he ruts against your clothed core. His movements started soft and teasing, but now he’s fully thrusting against you, rough and wanting. It feels hard and hot, has your eyes shutting and your mouth whimpering. You love being close to him like this, hearing his panting in your ear, his lips on your throat, his chest pressed to yours. But it’s not quite enough.

“Fuck Lukas, I need more.” He pulls his head from his attack on your throat, looks at you with a grin on his face.

“You need more?” You nod, a little frantically with a small hum. “Look at you, asking for things. Tell me what you want.”

You’re a bit hesitant, cheeks still red from the vulgarity of your situation. Your mouth opens and then closes again, biting your lower lip as you try to find the right words. His hand comes to your chin, fingers pressing into your cheeks as he forces your eye contact with him.

“Tell me what you want.”

“I just want to feel you- really feel you.” Honestly, you don’t know exactly what you want. You’re so needy, you can feel how uncomfortably wet you’ve gotten and just need some kind of satisfaction. “You can fuck me.”

He shakes his head, still smiling. “No, not yet. I have plans for that, it’ll be special.” His words are a little shocking, but turn you on even more.

“Please Lukas. I need you.” Your voice is barely a whisper, laced with want. The motion of his hips has stopped and you feel yourself desperately grind yourself against him for some relief. His hands move to your hips to hold you in place, releasing the grip on your chin.

“I’m not taking your virginity in a quickie where I can’t even get you naked. And you need to be able to walk after this.” He moves and pushes your dress up, exposing the lower half of your body. “Here you’ll like this.”

Your panties are soaked. His gaze moves down and he notices, gives a small chuckle, runs a finger up your clothed slit. It makes you shudder and whine deeply in your throat as a response. Hooking a finger around both sides of your panties, he pulls the fabric off with one quick motion, dropping them to the floor when he’s finished. He moves from between your thighs briefly, causing you to instinctively shut your legs. Lukas pulls down his pants then, just enough to expose his cock, hard and leaking already.

He moves back, uses a hand to gently spread your legs as the other grips the base of his cock. He’s so close, his dick hovering just above your cunt. Your eyes go wide with anticipation, a light gasp escapes from your lips. Then, Lukas moves. His hips angle downwards and, using his hand to guide his cock, he gently rubs his length over your slit. The feeling is immediately intense. It’s wet and strong and burning, and when his tip touches your clit you swear your vision goes white. You really can’t help the moan that escapes you, it’s Lukas that caused it.

“Shhh… I know, I know. But you don’t want someone to hear.” He leans over you, presses a light kiss to your mouth and grabs one of your hands. Moving your hand over your mouth, he helps you press your palm to your lips, muffling the noises coming from your lips. You nod in response, keeping your hand there when he moves his away, gripping back on to your hips to hold you in place. “Don’t want everyone to know how I’m corrupting you.”

Another moan leaves your mouth at that, luckily much quieter due to your palm. Your free hand flys down, grips over his on your hip. He keeps moving, parting your lips and spreading wetness across your pussy, hitting your clit perfectly with each thrust. A curse leaves his throat when your back begins to arch, the white hot feeling in your cunt growing fast. You can almost feel the restraint leaving his body, feel the roll of his hips getting heavier, harsher. A tear rolls down your cheek, your eyes wet with the sheer strength of this new pleasure you’re experiencing.

“Fuck, you’re doing so good, so quiet for me.” Lukas’s accent is thicker now, his head tipping back in pleasure as he ruts against you with abandon, chasing his climax. “So fucking beautiful like this.”

That’s all it really takes for you to fall apart, cumming on his cock. Your orgasm hits in a wave, making your thighs shake and eyes squeeze shut in ecstasy. You’re incredibly glad for the hand on your mouth as it muffles the high moan that leaves your lips. You don’t see him with your eyes shut, but the groans you hear let you know that Lukas is not far behind you. A few mascara stained tears run from your eyes when you open them again, your gaze being met with Lukas’s head tilted toward the ceiling, his mouth open in pleasure.

His cock moves from your cunt, positioning over your lower stomach. His hand moves, jerking himself roughly as he looks down to meet your eyes. Your hand moves from your mouth, and you sit up a bit as you reach for him, fingers coming to rest on his hip to keep him close to you. Another low curse falls from his mouth, and with a gravely groan he cums. White ropes shoot across your stomach, resting on your skin warmly. You whimper in sympathy, watching as he twitches and bucks against his hand recklessly.

Lukas’s chest rises and falls quickly, breath coming fast and deep as his orgasm washes over him. When his eyes reopen, he’s quick to pull you up to meet his mouth with a burning kiss. The kiss isn’t long, but when you pull away he rests his forehead against yours, eyes shut and breathing slowly returning to normal. You stay that way for a while, just close and quiet. A few moments pass, and when he moves to stand back up you take the time to dart your hand down and gather up some of the cum on your pelvis, licking it off your finger as you raise it to your mouth.

He quietly laughs, blissed out and smiley. “You love that, don’t you?”

“Mhm. I don’t know- ‘just makes me feel close to you.” He kisses you again, softly this time, almost proud.

“I’m making a monster. First you ask me to fuck you and now you’re swallowing my cum.” He moves to his dresser, retrieving a hand towel as you sit on the bed, careful to not let any of his spend drip onto the sheets.

“Why didn’t you fuck me?” Your head tilts as you ask. He moves to kneel in front of you, gently wiping the cum from your skin as he answers.

“I told you, I’m gonna make it special for your first time.”

“Bold of you to assume I’ll even let you be my first time, now that you’ve rejected me.” It’s playful and he knows it, grinning up at you as he moves to wipe the wetness from the inside of your thighs.

“It wasn’t a rejection, it was a postponing.” Lukas stands, quickly cleaning off before tucking himself away and turning to look for your panties. “And who else would it be? Are you cheating on me?”

“No, but I can’t cheat on you if weren’t not together.” He pauses at that, head cocking as he makes eye contact with you.

“We aren’t together?”

“You haven’t asked me!”

“I thought it was self-evident. You don’t need to ask if it’s already obvious.” Lukas stoops to grab your panties from the floor, moving to hand them to you.

You accept the fabric in an outstretched hand, setting it on the bed next to you. “Well, I would like you to ask. Make it official.”

He gives a dramatic sigh, reaches out and grabs your hands to pull you to standing. Lukas holds your hands, smiles and looks into your eyes. “Will you date me?”

You think about teasing him, making him wait, but your excitement gets the best of you and you release your answer quickly. “Yes, I will date you, Lukas Matsson.”

Your kiss is domestic and cheesy, after you separate he pulls you back into his body, rests his chin on your head for a while while he holds you close. You end up leaving your panties with him, they're still too wet to wear comfortably. Lukas helps you fix your makeup and hair, and you check to make sure your lip gloss isn’t all over his mouth (it was). He fastens your shoes back on for you, kneeling in front of you so you don’t have to bend over with your still shaky legs. He holds your hand until you reach outside and you put some space between yourselves as you enter public once more.

Roman is just finishing his call when you get back to the boat, waving at you as he quickly hangs up. You give Lukas a handshake, Rome just shouts his goodbye from a distance, and you quickly speed off again across the lake as soon as you enter the boat. Once again separated, you swear you immediately feel heavier without Lukas’s presence.

Your brother thinks the deal is fucked, he makes that clear when you’re alone again. He half blames you, half blames himself. Either way, he’s scared shitless to tell your dad about Matsson’s merge idea. So it’s a major shock when you arrive in Milan and Logan is receptive to the proposal. He praises Roman openly for once, and even commends you on your role in negotiating the deal.

But good things don’t tend to stay good for long in your family. You know something’s wrong when Logan calls you and Shiv into his office abruptly, right before your meeting with the bankers is supposed to begin. It honestly doesn’t surprise you as much as some would think to learn Roman had been sexting Gerri. You try to defend him against Shiv’s attacks, but it doesn’t do much good, not when the evidence is sitting in front of you. At the very least, you make some kind of progress covering for Gerri, reminding your dad of her loyalty.

Things are weird and fucked the next day. The night before Comfrey had texted you to let you know that Kendall was in the hospital. She wouldn’t say what happened, just that they were keeping him overnight and he was okay. You texted your siblings but everyone was skirting around the answer with you. They knew you cared about Kendall, maybe too much, and that telling you he had nearly drowned (possibly by his own doing) would set you off like a firework.

You wanted to go visit Kendall the next day, or be there when he arrived at the villa, or just do something to help him out. But he didn’t answer your calls and all the information you were given was extremely vague. You weren’t invited to Caroline’s wedding ceremony, so you planned on staying in bed and Facetiming with Lukas all day, waiting for a response from your brother. Your day starts off that way, sleeping in and chatting with your boyfriend into the late morning, but then Lukas tells you about Gojo’s market cap. You knew he was good, you knew he was doing all he could to get the market in Gojo’s favor, but you never expected it’s worth would surpass Waystar’s.

It’s no surprise that your dad ends up calling you, recruiting you to join him on a trip to Matsson’s. When he tells you he’s considering not inviting Roman, you manage to convince him to bring him too, citing his friendship with Matsson as a cause. So you head to Lake Maggiore, again, and arrive at Lukas Matsson’s villa, again. The excitement you feel when seeing him is shrouded in the anxiety of the sudden meeting.

You feel like every glance between the two of you is obvious. The way he parts his lips, the way your eyes drift across his frame, it’s all unmistakable of two lovers.

Lukas leads the three of you to an outdoor area on his grounds and when the conversation starts, his intent is clear. He didn’t tell you he wanted to buy Waystar, well he may have hinted at it, but it still feels like a bit of a betrayal. Like a shock. Even worse of a shock, Logan doesn’t immediately hate it, not in his usual way.

“Yeah. This is not happening.” The rage isn’t there behind Logan’s words. His gaze drifts to Roman, then back to Matsson. Lukas raises his eyebrows.

“Okay, I see that. Understood. But, you want to stick around? See if the old deal still has shape? Side snacks?” Logan smiles, he actually smiles, at Matsson’s offer. “You have that Israeli AI operation I might like. Maybe an asset swap sort of thing?”

“Why not.” The eye contact between Lukas and your dad is never ending. The tension in the air could be cut with a knife. “Rome, you should head back. For your mom, and everything.”

“Yeah, sure thing.” Roman looks to you, motions with his thumb in the general direction of the dock. “Do you wanna…?”

“I’m not going to the wedding. Not invited.” You offer a small smile, look to Logan for reassurance.

“We’ll catch up with you later, Romulus.”

Roman is dejected. An intruder, again. An outsider in the deal he’s worked so hard on, the deal he partially started. “Alright. Hate to miss the big nuptials! So… yeah. I’ll just go do that then…” He’s hesitant to go, pats you on the leg as he leaves, Dad on the shoulder.

They wait to start speaking again until well after he’s left, and when they do it’s straight to business. Your dad wants to sell. Lukas wants to buy. You’re the reluctant bridge between. Things move inside, to a formal dining room, and the real discussion begins. Numbers start to fly, calls get made, lawyers begin flying out. You end up doing more work than you meant to, arguing for both GoJo and Waystar. Trying desperately to keep all the men in your life happy. At the same time, you’re conflicted. You know your siblings will hate this deal, you know how badly they want to inherit the company, how hard they’ve worked for one of them to eventually be CEO.

But the thing is, you don’t hate the deal. You were never going to lead Waystar, never going to be more than the founder’s child. You’re the youngest Roy sibling, a woman, and from a different marriage than the others. There was no chance of you ever being number one, and you knew that from the day you were born. So why not sell the company? You don’t want to dedicate your entire life to this soul crushing work. At the same time, you care so much for your family, more than you do for yourself. This would wreck your siblings, they wanted Waystar more than they wanted life itself. Even if being family owned fucks you, it means the world to them.

When you finally leave Lukas’s, it’s well past the wedding ceremony, and it’s clear Dad doesn’t intend on joining the afterparty. The operation moves to Logan’s villa. The cavalry marches in, dressed in designer suits and holding briefcases stuffed with Macbooks. There’s dozens of people you’ve never even met swarming around a huge table. It doesn’t even feel real, like you’re watching a dream, or a nightmare, play out in front of you. You retire to your dads private office, curl up on a leather upholstered couch and just think. You know you should tell your siblings. Siobhan and Roman have been blowing up your phone for hours, you haven’t had the heart to answer. Your dad would kill you if you reached out. Ostracize you like Roman, or disown you like Kendall. Your brain feels like a whirlpool, your thoughts flying around enough to give you a headache. You turn to the only person you can think of.

“Hi.”

“...”

“Are you okay?” Lukas’s voice is genuinely worried, silence isn’t normal in the conversations between you two. You hear a rustling on the other line like he’s stood up.

“I don’t really know. I wish you were here.”

“What’s wrong? Talk to me.”

“I feel like a traitor.”

“Why?”

“My siblings… you know they will hate this deal.” You stress the word hate, voice a little bit breathless with anxiety.

“I do.” His voice is quiet, almost whispering as he speaks to you.

“They would rather die than sell Waystar. But I-” You sigh, swallow thickly. “I almost agree with Dad. I think this is a good move for us. Not just because I’m fucking the guy who’s buying the company.”

“Well then, why do you agree?”

“If we don’t sell, we’re gonna get swallowed whole. All we have is the content, not the platform to back it up, not new technology to keep us relevant.”

“That’s all true.” Lukas’s voice gets a little louder, his sentences trailing off a bit as he prompts you to keep talking.

“But even if we had that, even if we were doing better, we were more stable…”

“You still would want to sell?” He already knows what’s on your mind. Of course he does.

“I think so… I mean, I will never be CEO. Not if we’re family owned, not if we’re owned by GoJo, never. And I don’t want to spend my life in this company, especially if I’m not running it.” Your head tips back against the wall you’re leaning on. You’re hiding away in a bathroom, your voice echoing a bit as it bounces off the marble walls. “This work… it fucking destroys people.”

“It sounds like you already know what you think.”

“But Shiv and Roman and Kendall… They want the company so badly. They’ve been prepped to run it since they were kids. Even if they kill each other for CEO, at least one of them would get what they wanted.” You’re louder now, voice still stressed but frustration peaking through.

“You need to stop wasting your life making other people happy. You would do anything for your family, and they wouldn’t do shit for you.” Lukas’s tone isn’t angry or yelling, it’s stating a fact.

“That’s not true-”

“Is it? I see you go above and beyond for them every single day, and they never spare you a second glance.” Lukas’s voice is almost pleading when he speaks next. “Think about yourself, for once. Please.”

“Thank you.” Your eyes are brimmed with tears, your fingers coming up to brush them away quickly. “I will.”

There’s a small pause before he talks again. “Are you mad I didn’t tell you about buying Waystar?” You laugh, breathlessly, at the simpleness of his question after all you’ve just talked about.

“No, I’m not mad. I was shocked…but I think it’s worn off. You’re just doing what’s best for you.”

“Yeah, yeah I am.”

“I think you’re really smart actually. If I was in your position I’d do the same thing.” You move from your stance against the wall to look in the mirror, checking to fix any smudged mascara.

“That’s what I thought. I asked myself what you would do.”

“No, you did not.”

“No, I did not. I did think about how it would affect you though.”

“Thank you for that.” It’s half sarcastic, but you know he really does care for you.

“You’re welcome.”

“I’ll talk to you later today.”

“Okay. Come visit soon.” Lukas ends like he always does, asking for your presence.

“I’ll try.”

It takes you a minute to compose yourself. Fix your hair, wipe off some of your fucked up concealer, blow your nose. You exit the bathroom, walk down the hall and down some stairs, finally arriving in front of the massive wooden doors leading to your dad’s office. Your brain is finally quieter now, thoughts forming clearer and headache fading quickly. You slip a small smile to the bodyguard, Colin, who opens the door for you to enter.

Your three siblings are there, backs facing the door as they stare down Logan, who’s just moved to press a button on the phone resting against his desk. Their heads snap to you. The door shuts behind you. Siobhan opens her mouth, but you speak before she does.

“What’s going on? When did you get here?”

“What’s going on? You know what’s going on, Dad is selling and fucking our entire lives up.” Shiv faces you, her eyes are daggers and her body is a rocket about to explode. “And you didn’t tell us.”

“No, he’s not fucking your lives up. It’s not the end of the world, Shiv.” You approach them, eyes wide and pleading.

“So you do know. You knew he was selling the company and you didn’t think ‘Hmm maybe I should tell my siblings this, you know, since they’ve spent their entire lives thinking they were going to run Waystar!’” Roman throws his hands up, his jaw is clenched and his eyes are watering.

“Do you think it would’ve made a difference?” Your voice drops, both in tone and volume. “Do you really think I have any sort of control? Any say in what happens?”

Everyone is quiet for a moment, Kendall won’t make eye contact with you. Logan is watching you intently before gazing at his other children’s faces.

“I have never, and will never, be number one. I will never have control over the company, I will never even have control over one branch of the company. I will never be CEO, I won’t even make it to CFO, because I will always be lower than you. And I will always be there for you to yell at and use and manipulate. You already fucking do!” You’re more angry than sad now, maybe it’s misdirected, but you’re too wound up to care. “For once in my life, I’m thinking about myself. And I will not let this shit, this work, destroy me like it has destroyed you.”

A few tears spill from your eyes, you don’t bother to wipe them up, just continue your eye contact with your siblings. You’re right and everyone knows it, from Gerri and Karl sitting on the couch to Logan in front of you. Shiv can’t hold your gaze anymore, she drops her eyes to the ground. Roman turns to your Dad, his eyes are wide and desperate.

“Please?” His voice is meek, barely a whisper.

“‘Please?’ You bust in here with guns, but now that you find they’ve turned to fucking sausages, you want to say ‘please?’” Logan moves from where he was half-sitting on the arm of a couch to stand in front of your siblings. “You should have trusted me.”

“Dad, why?”

“Oh you need me to tell you why? Like your sister didn’t already? But your too fucking ashamed to admit she’s right.” He begins walking to the door, past your siblings, pausing at you to put a hand on your shoulder. “Because it works. I fucking win. Now go on, go on, fuck off you nosey fucking pedestrians.”

The doors open, Logan is immediately tasked with papers to sign and business to attend to. Roman moves to Jerri, asks her something you don’t quite hear from the blood rushing in your ears, before moving back to the crowd of your siblings. Roman crumples to the floor, Kendall with his hands on his shoulders, Shiv next to them. You turn to see Tom entering, him offering you a weak smile as he passes.

“I’m glad you’re okay, Kendall.” Your voice is monotone. Ken looks up at you, opens his mouth to say something, then decides against it. Tom starts speaking to Shiv, but you don’t hear what he says, already turning to walk out the doors, to head back to your hotel suite, to head away from your family.

You stay on the phone with Lukas the rest of that night. You can’t sleep but you don’t want to be awake. He eases the pain. He says he’s proud of you. He cares more than anyone you’ve known.

When you finally fall asleep in the early morning hours, you dream of space. You’re a cosmonaut, dancing on Saturn’s rings, playing baseball with meteors. The darkness is liminal, and pure, and calm. And the constellations are breathing around you, lighting your lawless orbit. You break the trail of a comet, its fire dotting the sky like a stitch on black cloth. Venus is a stray dog, following you wherever you lead it, spinning for attention and praise. Stars flicker like faces, you can’t recognize who they are anymore.

When you touch the Earth, everything sings.