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#that moment when your attempt to free your people costs you your wife
linkedin-offficial · 4 months
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to forgive or forget
more lore for what ive got going on with carnival hero, for those who wanted to know why he doesnt particularly like kinger.
i like to think kinger was working on the code to remove the collars for a hefty amount of time. poor kinger tried so hard to perfect the code to release his people, but it was particularly hard for obvious reasons. he tried it so many times ; and when it finally worked, it was like a miracle. queenie, along with everyone else was overjoyed!
of course, it wasnt entirely perfect. sometimes, things go wrong when you take your excitement for granted. sacrifices get made, sometimes accidentally. the lovely king ends up forgetting about this sacrifice that was made, like he always does. the reason why shes gone fades in his mind like a bruise.
but others dont forget, nor forgive. hero never forgot this unnecessary sacrifice. he understood everything clearly after that. the collars are there for a reason. sometimes its better to be safe, to stay in ones own lane. to stay confined where you belong, where to remain unchanged is promised. for the greater good.
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black70lorentzen · 2 years
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realcube · 3 years
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msby boys finding out their s/o is pregnant
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navi | masterlist | taglist  
thank you to anon for this wholesome request 
content warning ♡ pregnant! reader, sexual references, swearing & fluff
characters ♡ sakusa, atsumu, bokuto & hinata
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kiyoomi sakusa 
♡ he faltered
♡ there was half a minute of silence between the two of you; him just staring at your stomach while you gazed into his eyes
♡ he was almost certain that he misheard you, so he felt inclined to inquire, ‘huh?’ as indifferently as he could, though he wasn’t doing a good job of concealing the shocked expression on his face 
♡ ‘i said i’m pregnant, sweetie.’ you giggled, admiring the emotions he displayed on his face as it wasn’t a sight you got to see often
♡ sakusa continued to stare at you, eyes wide 
♡ though he knew what you meant, apart of him insisted that he was mishearing you 
♡ his wide-eyes were fixated on you, his lips slightly agape as he tried to process what you just said and what this meant for the both of you 
♡ the only emotion you could read of his face was shock. at first, you were sure that he was happy but he was just taking a while to accept it, but now that a few minutes had passed and he was still yet to say anything or even smile, you were starting to second guess yourself
♡ despite the fact sakusa had already agreed that he was on board with the idea of having a child many times before - in fact, there were nights where he’d admit that he can’t wait to start a family with you - but you still worried that perhaps he has now that had a change of heart
♡ that was until you noticed his eyes become unusually glossy and red, along with his cheeks adapting a somewhat red tint, ‘if this is a joke, (y/n), it’s not funny.’ his ordinary, monotone voice was now slightly shaky and low 
♡ ‘it’s not a joke, ‘iyoomi.’ you laughed, feeling your own throat go dry and your cheek flare up upon seeing how emotional sakusa had become
♡ before the tears spilled from your eyes, you felt sakusa’s arms slowly snake around your waist, place an elongated kiss on your forehead then rest his chin on your shoulder 
♡ he held you close enough that you could feel his rapid heartbeat thud against your chest and his wobbly breath tickle the back of your neck
♡ he stayed like that, silent, for a good few minutes 
♡ when he finally pulled away to admire your stomach, you noticed how his damp cheeks glistened in the light and you couldn’t help but smile
♡ although he wasn’t very vocal about how happy he was, his actions spoke a thousand words
♡ he’d insist in home-cooking all your food now because he didn’t want to risk you getting food poisoning 
♡ when he’d come home from practise, absolutely exhausted, the first thing he’d do when he gets home is  wash his hands then cut you some fruit 
♡ when he has free-time, he used to just watch TV but now he’s picked up a few hobbies of reading childcare books, tending to your every need/want and researching good baby names
♡ also, he’s so gentle with you - like, he was gentle with you before but this is a new extreme
♡ excluding the time he almost tackled you to the ground when you suggested atsumu as a baby name
♡ like he baby-proofs the house like a month into your pregnancy lmao 
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kōtarō bokuto
♡ the corners of his lips slowly curl into a bright smile, ‘pregnant?’
♡ you cocked your head to the side slightly, then hummed, ‘yeah. pregnant.’
♡ ‘like..with a kid?’
♡ you snorted, playfully rolling your eyes, ‘i’d hope so.’
♡ ‘like..with my kid?’
♡ ‘our kid - but yes.’
♡ a while passed and he had yet to do anything besides stare at you in pure adoration so you prompted him by opening your arms 
♡ to which he immediately responded by throwing himself onto you, ‘I’m gonna be a dad?! like seriously?!’
♡ luckily you were sitting on your bed so you fell back onto that but you were still being smothered by his chest 
♡ ‘bo!’ you squealed and squirmed under his weight and tight grip, glad that he was as cheery as you had hoped but not appreciating being suffocated 
♡ he suddenly pulled away but kept his large hands glued to your shoulders, revealing the tears that were already streaming down his cheeks and dampened your shirt, ‘really?!’
♡ ‘yes, bokuto. i am 100% pregnant.’ you declared for the final time before bokuto cupped your face with his hands and pulled you in to a passionate kiss, not stopping until your lips were basically swollen
♡ he’s just so hyped during the first few days of your pregnancy and he’s just super duper ready to become a dad!
♡ like he’s already practising his dad jokes 
♡ but then you remind him that he’s gonna have to wait around 9 months before he can actually see his baby and his hair literally deflates 
♡ ugh how rude of you 
♡ can you not like...make it grow faster?? please??
♡ once you explain to him that’s not how babies work, he kinda accepts it and just focuses his attention on you
♡ he kinda does some research on babies/pregnancy but not prior, he just does a quick google search when he needs to 
♡ but the intention is definitely there bc he googles the most trivial of things like ‘what to make pregnegant ppl for breakfast?’
♡ ‘what do pragnant ppl need from the supermarket?’
♡ ‘can my pregenunt wife have peanut butter?’
♡ ‘how to spell preaignant’ 
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atsumu miya 
♡ DEEP denial
♡ he thinks you are playing a prank on him bc you don’t ‘look pregnant’
♡ even when you show him your positive pregnancy test he’s like ‘and how much did that cost?’
♡ he deadass acts as if he wasn’t the one who’s been trying to get you pregnant and raving on about how much he wants a family with you for the last few months 
♡ but he just doesn’t want to believe you bc he know he’ll get way too happy for his own good and he’s afraid to be let down
♡ plus, it was one of those ‘a blessing of this magnitude couldn’t have happened to me - of all people - so this is probably either a cruel joke or a hallucination.’ moments 
♡ he’s just so far gone that after your eleventh attempt at trying to convince him that you’re pregnant for real, you just give up
♡ so y’all just go around your business somewhat normally - except atsumu was more skittery - until your baby bump started to become more prominent
♡ one day, he came back from practise, noticed your bump and pulled you into the most passionate, heartfelt kiss before placing a gentle kiss upon your stomach, a buoyant grin gracing his features
♡ though he doesn’t say much since he is at a loss for words, he mutters a few sweet nothings into your ear as he carries you to the bedroom
♡ for a joke, he pretends to be gutted if you’re libido production decrease but really, he couldn’t care less
♡ but if it increases tho- 
♡ expect him to take full advantage of that 
♡ also, if he didn’t already treat you like his goddess, he does now 
♡ work has moved down his list of priorities and you + his baby are now at number one 
♡ usually he keeps his phone on silent/stuffs it into his bag while he is practising but now he insists on keeping it on full volume, out on the bench, just in case you call him for an emergency 
♡ same goes for texts; he will literally stop mid-set to rush over to his phone if he hears it vibrate 
♡ bokuto thinks it’s sweet but the rest of them get pretty annoyed of his antics quite quickly but whenever they try to call him out on it, he’s like ‘is your wife 6 months pregnant? no! i didn’t think so. i should be on paternity leave right now so be glad i’m blessing you with my presence.’
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shōyō hinata
♡ he cannot stop thanking you
♡ as if you’re doing him a favour, which - depending on how you view it - you are
♡ he’s literally on his knees with his hands clasped together, tears of joy streaming down his face as he looks up at you in pure adoration, ‘thank you, (y/n)!’
♡ you tilted your head to the side and stared at him with a perplexed expression, ‘you’re welcome?’
♡ it’s a while before he moves from that position but when he does, it’s only so he can press his ear against your stomach to see if he can hear the baby 
♡ ‘shō, i don’t think it’s body has even formed ye--’
♡ ‘shh! it’s speaking to me.’ he chuckled then proceeded to squeeze his eyes shut, intensely listening to whatever the baby had to say 
♡ you quirked a brow, waiting for him to finish and once he did, he sprung to his feet and threw his arms over your shoulders to pull you in for a hug - in which he had to stop himself from squeezing you too tightly in fear of hurting you, as if pregnancy meant that your bones were now made of glass
♡ he’s just so happy that you agreed to bear his children 🙏
♡ also, seeing how excited you were to tell him about your pregnancy really prompted him to step up his husband-game 
♡ from now on, he loads the dishwasher, does both of your laundry, cleans the house on his own and cooks most of the food 
♡ he acts as if being pregnant means you are no longer able to do basic tasks but his real motive behind doing these things was not only to take the pressure off of you but to also prepare himself for father life 👍
♡ also, to prepare him for shopping for his kids’ clothes, he goes out and buys you maternity wear 
♡ he does this like...3 weeks into your pregnancy though so the clothes just sit and catch dust until a few months later when you actually need them 
♡ and although he is a bit of a pain to go stroller/pram shopping with (he just says buy whichever one goes the fastest), you let him take the reins when it came to buying/preparing the baby’s room and it came out beautiful!
♡ like the cradle was good quality and firm, the rug wouldn’t irritate the baby’s skin, the walls were painted expertly and the plushies/toys he picked out - unbeknownst to you at the time - kept the baby entertained for ages
♡ oh and no matter what day/week/month you are in of pregnancy, he will always look at you and your bump with the same amazement and gratitude as he did the first time you told him
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wandsandwheezes · 3 years
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Cyber Sex | F.W
WARNINGS // 1.4k // SMUT 18+, Sexting, Dirty Talk, Praise Kink, Husband!Fred, Oral (female receiving), it’s lowkey breeding kink if you take it that way<3
Summary // Fred has his wife wait patiently for him at home while he sits in a meeting, she’s a little too desperate to wait for him.
A/N // another one for my softies, i love me domestic Fred rn so enjoy luvs xxxxxx
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The chime of his phone went off again, vibrating against the desk. He'd been in this conference call for an hour now and he was bored out of his skull as people continued to drone on about costings, graphs and figures. He only had maybe another 10 minutes to sit and listen to another investor talk about the future of products and what he wants out of the business before He and George had their presentation of the new line of products ready to go into testing. 
He picked up his phone, breath hitching in his throat at the stream of messages he read, all from his wife. 
>> tell me you'll be home soon Freddie x
>> I'm desperate for you
>> wearing your favourite colour, baby 
>> (1) Attachment
>> nothing feels as good as you do
>> my fingers don't stretch me out like your cock does 
>> (1) Attachment
>> I'm waiting for you, Freddie
>> so wet for you 
The man tried to stop himself from groaning before putting himself on mute on the call, quickly dialling your number. When you pick up on the other end, he's met with the faint hums of your sultry moans, making him twitch in his trousers at the thought of you spread open on your shared bed while you touched yourself. 
"Such a naughty girl, you are, Princess." He growled down the phone as he palmed himself under the table to the sounds of your broken whines and elongated moans. His thoughts were racing at the thought of you this morning, waking you with his tongue before he left for work. 
"Tongue not enough for my needy baby? Tell me what you want, use your words for me, my good girl." You whimper as you feel yourself clenching around your fingers to the sound of his voice alone, phone resting on your chest as you listen to him, already desperate to beg him for anything and everything. 
"I want you to come home and fill me up, baby, I wanna feel full with your cock." He tried not to show the exasperation on his face at the thought of his girl trying desperately to get his whole length sheathed inside of her tight cunt as well as the whimpering moans you made whenever he hit the back of you, sending you into a begging mess. 
"My tight little princess thinks she can take all of me tonight then, hm?" You moaned loudly as you hit your sensitive clit, imagining your husband pounding deep into you later, being able to feel him in your belly as he fucked you. You needed him home soon, home to fulfil all of your desperate, needy thoughts of filling you up completely. 
"I'll take that as a yes then, Love. That dirty little mouth of yours can't respond?" You whimpered as his tone grew darker, Fred liked to hear you using your words, he only ever wanted you to be silent when you couldn't possibly fathom any other sound but a moan, only then would he not make you use your words. 
"mm sorry Freddie, come home soon, please." you had flipped yourself over, hips rutting against a pillow in desperate need of some friction, mind wandering as you pretended it was your husband's hips or thigh your clit was brushing up against. 
"I'll be an hour, Princess, think you can hold on for me?" Your hips sped up their pace, the sound of the bed creaking rang through the phone, making Fred grow harder if that was even possible. His hand was attempting to relieve some tension, but every touch made him ache for you more. 
"I'm waiting, Freddie." you moaned as your breath hitched, heart beating faster as you imagined his hips coming up to meet yours in rhythmic thrusts, skin slapping echoing all round the room. 
"That's my Girl, you better still be wearing that red set when I get home." He groaned shifting in his seat as the tip of his cock pressed painfully against the restrictions of his trousers. 
Fred spent the next hour, pretending not to think of his wife splayed out desperately for him at home as he took the investors through their new line. He was lucky George had chosen to do most of the talking, especially when it came to figures and end results. The only image on his mind however, was the way your eyes rolled back and how your blissful fucked-out face made him hard as ever. 
The second he was through the door he was ready to devour you, exchanging no words before he was finding his place between your thighs, pulling your underwear to the side and lapping at your soaking cunt, humming against you in satisfaction. The moans you let out as he attached his lips to your sensitive clit, made him only up the pace more, sucking the bud between his lips, not stopping until you were practically pushing his face away from the intense sensations.
"Hi baby, is my princess nice and ready for me?" You were nodding so quickly, hands desperate to find his sides and pull him up to kiss your lips, not caring if you could taste yourself on his tongue. Fred however was in a more paced mood, treating every second as its own as his hands brushed up your thighs, over hour hips till they were resting on your waist, giving you a possessive squeeze. 
“All mine.” he mumbled slowly as he pressed kisses up your stomach to between the valley of your breasts, your hands found comfort in raking through his hair, massaging his scalp with your fingertips, your desperation for him unmoved as your deep breaths began to shallow when his eyes locked onto yours. 
“Please, Freddie” he smirked at the pleading tone that fell from your lips; he knew he had you putty in his hands. He took your hand in his, thumb brushing softly over your knuckles as he brought your hand up to press a kiss to your fingers, then your palm, your thumb and finally your wrist. His fingertips then ghosted slowly up your arm until it reached your shoulder, sending goose bumps all over your skin. His finger hooked underneath the strap of your bra before running it down to where the strap met the cup, gently feeling the lace material between his pointer finger and thumb.
“Patience, my love… I want to feel every part of you.” Fred’s favourite sound was the way you whimpered needily at his touch, he loved - craved even, the way you melted into him, letting him take you to heaven and back with every intimate moment. Even though he’d felt and devoured every inch of your body a hundred times before, nothing could make him grow tired of feeling your skin against his. 
You watched patiently as he stripped himself of his clothing letting his tie fall from his neck to a pile against your stomach as he worked on unbuckling his belt, finding relief as soon as his aching cock was finally set free from the confines of his trousers, using his hand to stroke himself as he lined himself up, ready to give in to your begging. 
Fred wasted no time in seething as much of himself inside you as you could take in this position, his hips moving in slow gentle thrusts. Your hand gripped onto his shoulder, begging him for more - he knew you could take all of him, but he wanted to be a tease much to your annoyance. You tried to buck your hips up at a pace to meet his, attempting to pull him in deeper. 
The way your eyes were squeezed together, moaning out his name like a perfect melody, gave him the push to hook your legs over his shoulders, thrusting his full length inside you until he had bottomed out. His hands reached up to lace between yours as you squealed at the sensation of him stretching you to your capacity as the head of his cock continued to hit your back wall. You swore you could feel him in your stomach as he fucked you with all the passion he could muster, groaning and growling so deeply that it pushed you over the edge, squeezing around him as you came. 
“Good girl, taking me so deep… so fucking tight when you cum.” His thumbs rubbed circles into your hips as your legs shook, continuing to thrust slowly through your orgasm, feeling himself grow close as you squeezed around him.
“Think you can handle another, my love? I’m not quite done with you yet.” You nodded eagerly, letting your legs slip off his shoulders so that you could finally lean up to kiss him, revelling in the sweetness of his kiss. 
TAGLIST // @starlightweasley​ @slytherinsunrise​  @gcdric​​ @theweasleysredhair​​ @whiz-bangs78​​ @vogueweasley​ @minty-malfoy​​ @vivianweasley​​​ @feetoffthetablee​​ @thisismynerdyself​​ @witch-and-a-half​ @loony-loopy-lupinn​ @rip-us​ @hopemalfoyweasley​ @pigwidgexn​  @pansydaisy​
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taggedmemes · 3 years
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SENTENCE MEME ⟶ REIGN / 1.01 always feel free to tweak the sentence to fit your muse.
“She’s coming.”
“You must leave immediately.”
“This was an assassination attempt.”
“You were nearly poisoned.”
“They’ll be found and dealt with.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready.”
“He will love you.”
“I’m not sure that matters.”
“It’s the perfect occasion to showcase the alliance.”
“Too many alliances make a king look weak.”
“You’ve chosen my wife –– have you set the date, too?”
“You don’t sound very enthusiastic.”
“She had skinny legs, a missing front tooth, and strong opinions.”
“The opinions you can ignore.”
“I may not have been born with a crown, but this country relies on my money.”
“Let him talk like a king.”
“I want her to bear sons as soon as possible, or what is a wife’s value?”
“What do your visions say about his future?”
“Tell me, what have you seen?”
“Perhaps if you were more specific about your concerns.”
“How do I control a daughter-in-law who’s a queen in her own right?”
“Is that what bothers you, her power? Or the fact that she’s young and pretty?”
“I’ve just had a vision. I see you beheaded at my command.”
“Be patient. Answers will come.”
“Didn’t the nuns teach you anything?”
“I’m making up in volume for what I lack in station, I suppose.”
“Unlike her, you’ll have no trouble finding husbands here.”
“We’ll certainly enjoy the hunt.”
“Make no mistake.”
“Alliances can shift.”
“I hear the king favors him.”
“The castle seems bigger, is that possible?”
“I was always chasing after you when we were young.”
“She will cost them their life.”
“He has no teeth and speaks very quickly.”
“You know what I’d like to do? Explore.”
“There’s something I want to see.”
“I make knives and swords.”
“Is that a requirement for future kings now?”
“I can’t help thinking that every man, even a king, should have some kind of skill.”
“You’re going to be a great ruler someday.”
“I want a real skill, one I didn’t inherit, one that wasn’t given to me and can’t be taken away.”
“He wants to learn something, he does. He wants to go somewhere, he goes.”
“They don’t worry about him dying so much that they don’t let him live.”
“I can milk a goat.”
“I can cut peat for the fire.”
“I could always get by as a blacksmith.”
“That’s a very kind offer, but I hope I never have to take you up on it.”
“Did anyone see you come in here?”
“Nothing’s changed here, nothing has to.”
“I brought you something to decorate your swords with.”
“Now’s not a good time.”
“Kings do not answer to their wives.”
“You do not leave the castle alone.”
“Do not go into those woods, do you hear me?”
“What’s in the woods?”
“You’d rather be at the convent, eating porridge and trudging through mud.”
“I quite like the way mud feels underfoot.”
“Maybe you’ll be sent back to the nuns for misbehaving.”
“You should ask him why he’s such a moody, arrogant ass.”
“Nothing in common but our father, really.”
“I’ll mention your discontent to them.”
“I’ve been thinking of you since the moment you got on that boat.”
“I borrowed money and left the next day.”
“I want you to stay but we’ll be found out.”
“What a grand, romantic gesture.”
“What a rise your people have made.”
“I do love a success story.”
“He has a terrible reputation with women.”
“He knows no bounds.”
“I’ll tell the servants you’re ready to be bathed and dressed.”
“Taste of love and sorrow, but don’t drink the wine.”
“We’re very happy to be back at court.”
“Beautiful evening, is it not?”
“He’s just paying his respects.”
“We’re overrun by Scots.”
“It’s time for consummation, the ritual, the ceremony, the mystery.”
“Don’t you want to know what you’re in for someday?”
“We’re the only ones who matter here.”
“Go before anyone sees us.”
“I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”
“There’s something I need to say to you.”
“There were other ways of handling this.”
“You do realize we’re going to be married someday.”
“We’ve been engaged since we were six.”
“You’re beautiful and clever and unpredictable.”
“What matters is what’s right for my country.”
“I’m going to be king someday, responsible for my people.”
“You don’t want to marry me.”
“I know it’s not what you want to hear.”
“You won’t love me.”
“Love is irrelevant to people like us.”
“We who are so privileged in so many ways with that.”
“All I’m asking you to do is wait.”
“You aren’t the only one with a country to think of.”
“What possible defense could he have given you?”
“He said he was forced, he wouldn’t say by whom.”
“He said there are powerful people behind this.”
“He looked so surprised that I would fight back.”
“I thank you for your protection last night.”
“If there was any misunderstanding, if I sent the wrong message in my joy..”
“If anyone knew you were even asking this...”
“Gossip poisons, too.”
“You may have behaved foolishly, but you are not responsible for your countryman’s actions.”
“This was not an act of passion.”
“He was beheaded this morning.”
“I don’t know who to believe or to trust.”
“Anyone who’s close to you lives in constant danger.”
“We’re disposable, all of us.”
“We’re here in service to you, whatever the means, whatever the costs us.”
“You can’t even protect yourself.”
“You’re not alone.”
“Take care, or you will bleed for a girl who will never be yours.”
“You think I was with him to get back at you?”
“I think you’re impulsive and prideful.”
“Leave it be, I beg of you.”
“You can’t behave like this.”
“You have no intention of marrying me.”
“I was thinking about myself, my friends, my safety.”
“You could have ruined your reputation.”
“How would we want things to go?”
“If you weren’t the future king and I was just a girl, would you want this?”
“You said the potion would make her sleep like the dead.”
“One glass of wine and she’d wake with her virtue destroyed.”
“There was nothing wrong with my potion.”
“It was the delivery that failed.”
“He would have implicated me, and you.”
“Have your visions altered?”
“She will bring his death.”
“You must continue to sacrifice.”
“I don’t know who you are or why you hide, but your warning saved me.”
“Danger surrounds me here and I am in your debt.”
“Are you in danger, too?”
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smoothie-sailing · 3 years
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The freedom we give to ourselves
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How does one find freedom in a cruel and cynical world? What does freedom even mean? What would it feel like? How will we know when we see it? These have been recurring questions throughout this story. We seem to explore attempts at the answer to this question through the perspective of characters.
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Kenny Ackerman’s life in pursuit of power led him to realise a truth about himself and the people around him. this idea of being drunk on something. That People need something to believe in to keep them going, to keep them from being broken by life’s suffering. Something that they hope gives each of their lives meaning. Each character’s pursuit towards this idea is what they believe will give them freedom from suffering.
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Zeke was no exception to this, he sees the suffering he experienced as a suffering inherent in being an Eldian in this world. He was drunk on the idea that his and the collective suffering would stop if Eldians ceased to exist.
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Despite this proposition, Zeke was able to find true freedom not by pursuing his personal mission through to the end but by letting it go. This push to move forward: to explain himself, his life, his suffering. It has brought him only more dissatisfaction and pain. He kept moving forward and when Eren took power from Ymir he was just sitting inert in Paths. It is not until his conversation with Armin that he truly looks back and reflects. Armin talks about a time where he was just having an aimless moment shared between loved ones. Zeke looks within and finds himself playing catch with Xaver. It has no meaning but it is a moment in his life where he’s not suffering but nor is he striving to push forward with some grand purpose. He is simply… existing. Without complication. Without justification. He is just someone who exists in this world because he was born into it. A simple moment with a profound effect: that life has intrinsic value and purpose regardless of how cruel it may seem. Zeke has now found that peace he was looking for his entire life. That feeling stays with him right up to the moments of his death. He can’t take back all the blood he has shed but for a few moments to take in the clear sky of the day. He can just exist.
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There has been an exhaustive debate in and out of the story of who or what the true devil of humanity is supposed to be. The devil of all earth that plagues humanity. I don’t believe it is Eren but I do believe he is the person in the story most seduced by it. I put forward that the devil of humanity isn’t a person born once in a generation, it is not a creature or some sort of supernatural force. The devil of humanity is the cycle of violence itself. A tiny glimmer of light or fear of the dark that pushes us into war, into chaos, into hell.
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We may believe we see something beyond it. Something we can gain or something we fear will be taken from us if we don’t answer the call: “Do this and your dream will come true, you will be safe, you will be loved, the pain will stop” Just once. Then once again. Then once more. Before you know it, you are gripping the wheel of a sinking ship so heavy you have no hope of turning it on your own. But that may be the very thing that can stop it. Hope. The hope you give yourself in small acts of faith. Kindness. Compassion. Empathy. Seeing beyond the walls that trap your spirit. Not to seek out freedom taken from you but to reconnect with the freedom you always had that never left, your humanity.
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If this is Isayama’s message, that freedom is in finding one’s humanity. One finds freedom by reconnecting with their humanity. I put forward that the most free person in this story has been Mr Blouse, Sasha’s father.
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Mr Blouse is the person in the story most consistently connected to his own humanity and humanity as a collective whole. He makes it a principle to stay connected to it. So much so that when given a justifiable choice to take revenge on Gabi for killing his daughter. He instead chose to forgive her and console both her and Niccolo showing her the most humane act she had ever received. She did not have to justify her existence as a good Eldian in that moment, she was accepted as another person who deserved to exist even if she’d made mistakes.
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From Gabi’s experience and perspective, nothing made more sense than Mr Blouse killing her for what she did. What he decided to do was so simple yet its impact was profound. He reached Gabi because he saw something real beyond answering hate with hate. He sees a precious freedom beyond this cycle, and now thanks to what he did Gabi can see beyond it too and was able to find her humanity.
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How does this relate to the main character of the story, Eren. Eren’s case is a very tragic one. No one is more emotionally attached to the idea of freedom than Eren, it has a specific imprint within his psyche. However there also lies the imprint of the wall within his psyche and all the trauma associated with it. From an early age Eren, at his most traumatised, found a resolve to find freedom from this horrific nightmare by destroying those who took his freedom from him at any cost. But in finding this resolve and trusting it above anything else, he had unknowingly damned himself.
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The wall is so strongly associated with trauma in Eren’s mind, and now with the release of the wall titans, he is literally weaponizing his trauma and aiming it at the rest of the world. Yams is establishing that humanity is the only real freedom we have and Eren had always expected freedom to be beyond the walls. However, because of Eren’s compounded trauma, humanity is the ultimate enemy. In sacrificing his humanity and wiping all of it from the outside world, he is destroying the freedom he wanted for himself and for everyone in the world.
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This happens all in the basement of his old home in Shiganshina. Eren was on the cusp of moving beyond his trauma when suddenly all of that pain, all of those triggers were reformatted, given new context when he learned the truth of his world. Why all of this pain and suffering happened to him. Once he met the formative father of his new world rebirth – Eren Kruger.
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Eren has found stability in this turmoil by latching onto Kruger’s mindset, believing Kruger to embody what he needs to be to save those he cares about. In this new large and scary world, Eren sees Kruger as the person he will have to be to exist, to make a change. Eren has assimilated Kruger into his identity, evident from Eren taking Kruger’s name during his time spent in Marley. In how we are introduced to him post time skip, Eren is pursuing action using Kruger’s words to young Grisha about the Zeppelin.
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Freedom is hard fought and after fighting tooth and nail and suffering and pushing as hard as he can, he will have his freedom.
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Culminating in the Jaeger trio at the Reiss family cave, we finally see how far Eren’s resolve has pushed him. Eren is not the devil but he is the one most seduced by it (pushing forward the cycle of violence). He tells Grisha to do this to justify his own belief that this was necessary. To sacrifice his humanity, the humanity he managed to find in the walls after a life of pain and anger as soldier of revolutionary radicalism. For Eren, sacrificing one’s humanity is what is necessary. But Eren misunderstood what he was supposed to take away from Kruger’s life.
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There is an additional meaning behind Kruger’s final words to Grisha – in sacrificing his humanity to get to this point, he has lost everything precious to him. All that exists is the end goal, the zeppelin. Seeing the zeppelin is… all there is. It won’t give you back what you lost or what you have told yourself you need to take back: aka your humanity. Eren’s “sight” is the zeppelin and he believes seeing it will give him back the freedom taken from him. It’s no coincidence that Grisha looks like Eren when he reflects on the day that traumatised him the most.
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We see Kruger talking to Grisha further after he is given his mission. As Kruger prepares the serum for Grisha he mentions that he won’t know who will be watching this memory. If we take the ironic nature of this story into consideration, this can also mean that he doesn’t know if whomever is watching these memories will stop watching before he is about to say what he says. It takes place at the end of the chapter after we see Eren finding his new resolve and coming to grips with what he has learned and what he needs to do.  This may be implying that this further discussion between Kruger and Grisha is something that Eren didn’t actually see. Kruger’s final important message to Grisha is to love someone. Be it a wife, a friend, the people around you. In specific terms, treasure your humanity and preserve it no matter what happens. Like Mr. Blouse, treasure the humanity found in others, even in enemies who have wronged you or may wrong you. Because that is what it means to find life intrinsically valuable.  That is the only way to end this cycle of violence and ironically what Kruger has realised after losing so much of his own and now Eren in turn.
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So if the path to freedom is to find one’s humanity does this mean that the cycle of violence can be wiped out and the devil of humanity will stop plaguing the world? I don’t think that’s a question Yam’s is capable of answering nor does he intend to. 
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However, I think he may propose that if it is possible for the main character of the story, the one who has been the most seduced by the cycle of violence and spilled the most blood is able to give himself back his humanity after willingly sacrificing so much of it. Then there is hope for anyone of us to find true freedom. Not everyone, but anyone. Because not just knowing but realising that we are all human, and valuing that, is what makes us truly free.
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lightsonparkave · 3 years
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HAPPY TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO LIGHTS ON PARK AVE! 🎂🎉 In celebration of LoPA’s birthday (August 22, to be exact), all of the prompts from the previous year are up for grabs.
Round 24 will end on August 31, 11:59 PM ET (what time is that for me?).
As always, you’re free to jump in whenever you’d like during the round, a wide variety of work types is accepted, and there are no minimum work requirements. Unfinished works and works for other fandom events are allowed. You can find more information about Lights on Park Ave and the participation guidelines here.
Here are all 149 prompts. Go crazy and have fun! 🎈
ROUND 13: TIME
A quote about being infinite in the present moment from The Perks of Being a Wallflower
“Vellichor,” the the strange wistfulness of used bookstores
“How long is forever?” dialogue from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
“Time” - Hans Zimmer (Inception OST)
A quote and gifset from Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (2016) about the nonlinear structure of time
Agnès Varda’s portraits when she was 20, 36, and 80 years old
A John Irving quote about what time does to the people who matter to us
Ten traveling back to see Rose on New Year’s Day in 2005 before he dies and reincarnates in Doctor Who
Future inventions in 2015 as seen in Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future Part II (1989)
A quote about what time does for wounds
ROUND 14: LIMINALITY
A photoset of various liminal spaces
Illustration of a black cat in front of a red-lit house with the caption, “They say no one is living here—but the lights come on, once every year”
A photoset of Victorian-era spirit photography, an art form that attempted to capture the ghost of a deceased loved one
Information on the famous Mojave phone booth, a lone telephone booth in the middle of the desert that received calls from all over the world
Rosemary Ellen Guiley’s The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits Third Edition’s definition of “witching hour”
Illustration of a ghost train on an abandoned trestle bridge in the Pacific Northwest
A quote by Isabel Allende about spirits coming out at night in the library
Gifset of the spirit world in Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001)
Illustration of a neon roadside sign of a motel that only appears at night by a long-forgotten highway
“Pacific Coast Highway” - Kavinsky
A gifset quote from The Twilight Zone (1959)
Scenery from Twin Peaks season 1 (1990)
A quote about something shifting into a strange, new place inside of a person from Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
ROUND 15: LOSS
A quote about being lost and found by someone special by Sue Zhao
A photo of the Mildred, wrecked off Gurnard’s Head, Cornwall in 1912
A quote about ephemerality and the beauty of it from Troy (2004)
Two paintings of people visiting ruins by Caspar David Friedrich
A quote about desire and loss by Lara Mimosa Montes
A photo of an overgrown, abandoned conservatory
A passage about what disappears and what remains in ruins from Suicide by Édouard Levé
Dialogue about gratitude for people who aren’t meant to stay in your life but shape who you are from BoJack Horseman
A scene from Fleabag where the Priest chooses God over Fleabag and gently tells Fleabag that her love for him will pass before they part ways
A prayer to St. Anthony, patron saint of lost things, people, and souls
Oscar Wilde’s tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, covered in lipstick kisses from admirers
Photos of a cemetery statue in Austria, wrapped in branches and dead leaves, holding a single flower
ROUND 16: DEVOTION/SERVICE
A gifset of Kevin on the phone, telling Chiron he’ll cook food for him from Barry Jenkin’s Moonlight (2016)
Buttercup’s monologue to Westley about how she would do anything for him from The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Gifs of Merlin saying that he was born to serve Arthur from BBC’s Merlin
An excerpt about giving all of oneself to someone despite what it costs from House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
A gifset of various times Jaime and Brienne demonstrate their loyalty to and love for each other in Game of Thrones
A gifset of all the different ways Cliff is there for Rick in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
A gifset of Nadia deciding to be by Alan’s side no matter what in Russian Doll
“Devotion” - Ocean Vuong
A gifset of Bond comforting a traumatized Vesper in the shower in Casino Royale (2006)
A gifset of Sookhee refusing to leave Hideko, saying her job is to look after her in Park Chanwook’s The Handmaiden (2016)
ROUND 17: DREAMS
A dreamscape gifset and quote about repressed thoughts in dreams and the Internet from Satoshi Kon’s Paprika (2006)
A gifset of Mitsuha and Taki finally meeting in their own bodies in a dream from Shinkai Makoto’s Kimi no Na wa (Your Name) (2016)
A quote by Tinker Bell telling Peter Pan where he can find her and where she’ll always love him in Steven Spielberg’s Hook (1991)
The scene where Keating tells his students that poetry, beauty, romance, and love give life meaning in Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society (1989)
An animated illustration of a storefront called “Hauntings” with a flickering “99¢ dreams” neon sign
Various dreamscape scenes and a quote about ideas being the most resilient parasite from Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010)
A quote about how all living beings must dream to survive reality from The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
A comic about people we love taking turns to visit us in dreams every night
Lovers and Sleeping Couple, two drawings by Egon Schiele
A quote about belief in a better world by Robert Frobisher to his lover, Rufus Sixsmith, in Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
A quote about the feeling of falling in love lingering when you wake up from a dream in Alexis Dos Santos’s Unmade Beds (2009)
A photo of subway graffiti by an unknown author insisting that they’ll never give up making the world a better place to live in
ROUND 18: PHYSICAL TOUCH
A scene about how to return a stolen kiss from Daniel Ribeiro’s The Way He Looks (2014)
A line about kissing someone the way a flower opens from “I Know Someone” by Mary Oliver
A gifset focusing on showing affection and care through hands from Park Chanwook’s The Handmaiden (2016)
A passage about two people leaving invisible marks on each other through the accumulation of touches over the years from A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
Two conversations about never being touched before and only being touched by one person from Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight (2016)
Going from yearning to touch someone but stopping oneself to being allowed to touch them from Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy
Moving art of two bodies made of stars and the cosmos embracing
A quote about maintaining sanity by touching someone but being separated despite proximity from The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
A line about proving that one still exists and is real through touch from On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Different touches between Villanelle and Eve expressing violence, threat, sexual tension, comfort, and companionship in Killing Eve
A juxtaposition of two scenes from Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000) of Su Li-zhen rejecting and accepting Chow Mo-wan’s hand
A compilation of marble sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Syd (Chris Evans) trailing kisses down London’s back in London (2005)
ROUND 19: IMMORTALITY
James Baldwin talking about how art helps you discover that people before you have experienced the same thing as you and you are not alone
Dr. Brand saying that love transcends time and space in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014)
Nadia and Alan meeting for the first time as they’re about to die and relive the same day again in Russian Doll
The loneliness of losing everyone by having a long life as expressed by Ten in Doctor Who
The doomed eternal time loop romance of Simon and Alisha from Misfits
A quote by Edvard Munch about becoming eternal through the flowers that grow from his body after death
Nagai Kei recalling the traffic accident that killed him and triggered his immortality, making him one of the rare persecuted humans to possess the power, in Ajin
A collection of moments from Jay Russell’s Tuck Everlasting (2002)
A quote by Mary Wollstonecraft hoping for something that lasts inside the heart
Various scenes with Jack Harkness from Doctor Who
Aya telling Asou-kun to live on and live forever as she nears the end of her life in 1 Litre of Tears
An excerpt about the immortalization of the self through love from “Love of the Wolf” in Hélène Cixous’s Stigmata
A collection of scenes from the Black Mirror episode “San Junipero”
Naoko telling Toru to always remember her and remember that she existed in Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Dom explaining to Ariadne that he uses the PASIV to dream as it’s the only way that he can be with his wife and children in Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010)
ROUND 20: POETRY
“I’m Going Back to Minnesota Where Sadness Makes Sense” - Danez Smith
A line about wanting to forget how much you loved someone and then actually forgetting from Bluets by Maggie Nelson
“Perhaps the World Ends Here” - Joy Harjo
“In Time” - W. S. Merwin
“By Small and Small: Midnight to Four A.M.” - Jack Gilbert
“Magdalene: The Addict” - Marie Howe
“Wild Geese” - Mary Oliver
“Morphology 2″ - CJ Scruton
“20″ from Moscow in the Plague Year by Marina Tsvetaeva
“To Hold” - Li-Young Lee
ROUND 21: LONGING
“I Loved You Before I Was Born” - Li-Young Lee
A poem about longing for someone through worlds by Izumi Shikibu
A gifset of Marianne and Héloïse falling in love from Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
“Make Me Feel” - Janelle Monáe
A quote about living in longing being better than realizing that longing from 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
“I Want You” - Mitski
Orpheus and Eurydice in Hades - Friedrich Heinrich Füger
Long definition of the word “saudade”
Definition of the word “hiraeth”
“Something About Us” - Daft Punk
Two lines about burning quietly from the poem “The Pillowcase” by Annelyse Gelman
A conversation about wanting each other after decades of separation from Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory (2019)
A Hanahaki disease mood board
“Shrike” - Hozier
Two lines about wanting someone to return from Herakles by Euripides
“Love of My Life” - Queen
“Eyes, Nose, Lips” - Taeyang
A screenshot of Kathy and Tommy holding onto each other desperately from Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go (2010) and a quote from Kazuo Ishiguro’s eponymous novel
ROUND 22: YOUTH
“Perfect Places” - Lorde
A piece about realizing you’ll never be this young again, but it’s the first time you’re this old by Kalyn Roseanne Livernois
A conversation between Neil and Mr. Keating about Neil feeling trapped and unable to live the life he wants because of his father from Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society (1989)
An excerpt about being too young to know how to love properly from Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” - Arctic Monkeys
Elio’s father telling Elio not to try to rid himself of his sorrow and pain—and with that joy—which he feels so strongly because he’s so young from Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman
A quote about how everything feels final to young people because they’re experiencing it for the first time from Middlemarch by George Eliot
Lara Jean telling Peter that she had to make it seem like she liked him to deal with her love letter fiasco in Susan Johnson’s To All the Boys I Loved Before (2018)
Rue and Jules dancing together and partying it up in Euphoria
“Le Plongeoir” by Laurent Roch
A quote about being pushed into adulthood and not being ready from Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
A photo of a roller rink illuminated by pink and purple lights
Pastel photo series of Coney Island by Mijoo Kim and Minjin Kang
“Hips Don’t Lie” - Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean
“Young Dumb & Broke” - Khalid
Different moments accompanied by the letter to Mr. Vernon at the end of detention from John Hughes’s The Breakfast Club (1985)
Various scenes and a quote about growing up and realizing life isn’t like a fairy tale from Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
Stills of the young lesbian couple in love from the music video of “You Know” - Jaurim
Lines by Effy about her emotional and mental struggles from Skins
Nathan chiding the group for not taking advantage of their superpowers as young offenders from Misfits
ROUND 23: HEDONISM
A passage about giving into passion and losing control from The Secret History by Donna Tartt
“Thot Shit” - Megan Thee Stallion
An aesthetic photoset of the Greek god Dionysus
A quote about living for ecstasy rather than balance from From a Journal of Love by Anaïs Nin
A photo of an anonymous person in nothing but a silk robe and lingerie
A photo of Donatella Versace lounging in a chair, surrounded by shirtless, muscular men sunbathing around her in Capri, Italy in 1994
An aesthetic photoset based on The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The music video for “Heartless” by The Weeknd
A plea for summer to never end from Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman
“Plastic Love” - Mariya Takeuchi
A gifset from the music video of “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, a continuation of the “Heartless” music video
“XS” - Rina Sawayama
A gifset from the music video of “Body” by Mino
Photos of people dancing at the legendary Studio 54
Photos and a description of the party scene at Studio 54
Chris Evans and Evan Rachel Wood hooking up in a car in the “Gucci Guilty Black” commercial
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ignitedbynatsu · 3 years
Text
A Little More Faith
A/N: None of you would be able to read my works if it wasn’t for Grammarly 🤐 Anywayyy @exhaustedpotat0 I hope you like it ❤ Thank you again for the request and the support it really means a lot to me. My blog is blowing up recently and I can’t express how much everyone’s support means to me. 
Warnings: mention of injury, fighting with parents
Genre: Angst to fluff
⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍⚡🤍
"I don't like this" Laxus grumbled as he watched his daughter laughing over something Natsu had said.
"It's just a job" Mira-Jane reassured him as a feeling of pride washed over her while looking at the girl in question. She was finally going to go on her first mission.
"I already don't like the idea of her leaving for a mission" he repeated "but for that mission to be with Natsu of all people? I don't stand behind this"
"Is dad being grumpy again?" A chuckled vibrated from (Y/N)'s chest as she gave her mother a kiss on the cheek as a way to say goodbye.
"I don't condone this" Laxus voiced his thoughts as the girl kissed him on the cheek as well.
"Well, that sounds like a you problem" she shrugged before rushing off, knowing he'd scold her for talking back if she didn't get out there quick "Bye mom and dad, I'll be back soon! Love you!"
Team Natsu followed soon behind, Natsu and Gray laughing at the pissed of Laxus while Erza reassured the couple she'll scold her in their place.
The younger girl was beaming with excitement as she finally left for her first-ever job. Even though Laxus was still mostly against it, Mira-Jane somehow managed to persuade him to let her go on her first mission at the age of 14.
That same excitement soon vanished as her hamstrings were slashed, making her unable to walk and crumble in pain to the floor, a blood-curdling scream leaving her lips soon after.
"(Y/N)!" Natsu was quick to jump in front of the younger mage, Gray following not even a second later. They shared an understanding nod to push their differences aside and protect the girl at all costs. "Lucy! Get her out of here!"
Lucy obeyed, summing Loke to grab her whilst fighting the enemies with Taurus. "Loke! Bring her to Wendy and protect her"
The celestial being understood the graveness of the situation and decided to bite his tongue instead of making his usual flirty remark towards his owner. "Let's go little one" he carefully picked her up while his eyes darted around, desperate to catch a glimpse of the dragon slayer. The moment he saw a hint of blue hair, he didn't hesitate for a second and ran over to her, all while carrying (Y/N) in his arms that was still crying out in pain.
"Wendy!" Loke called out to the said mage. With only a mere glance she understood what was going on. She finished off the opponent she was fighting with and ran towards the wounded girl.
She exclaimed the cut, a troubled expression clearly evident upon her features "there's not much I can do right here. I can stop the bleeding and relieve some pain, but her hamstrings are torn. I need my equipment at the guild to see how grave the injury is"
A new determination filled everyone as Wendy's words rang in their ears. They needed to handle this quickly. Every second could be one too many. In record time, they managed to fend off the last enemies.
Natsu took over from Loke, as Lucy had little to no energy left to keep the celestial being in this world. They got the first train home, not even sparing the price-money a single thought. The younger girl was their top priority right now. No money in the world could top that.
Laxus's eyes fell on the lifeless girl in Natsu's arms as soon as they set foot back into the guild. Freed and Bickslow quickly got up to stand in front of him as they saw the change in his demeanour. Their friend was completely engulfed in rage that was directed towards one man in particular and that was the man that was holding his gravely injured daughter. "Natsu" electricity was crackling over his body as he got closer and closer to the said mage.
"Laxus!" Mira-Jane narrowed her eyes at him as she stepped between the two dragon slayers "this is not the time. Wendy, please, heal her"
Wendy motioned Natsu, to follow her to the medical room, leaving the enraged Laxus and a worried Mira-Jane
There was a heavy, uncomfortable silence placed across the guild. Nobody dared to make a sound, afraid to tick the couple off as they waited in anticipation for Wendy to finish the surgery.
Laxus mind was swarmed with worst-case scenarios as his eyes were fixated on the door of the medical room. He was experiencing so much stress and frustration that he felt like punching a wall, no, he wanted to punch Natsu, but Mira-Jane was right. This was not the time, not right now.
Mira-Jane was busying herself downstairs with the dishes. Even though she had complete faith in Wendy, she also knew that if she were to be left alone with her thoughts for even a minute, she wouldn't be able to break free from them.
Minutes felt like hours and hours felt like years. But after nearly two hours, Wendy came out with a content smile plastered upon her face "she'll be fine. She just needs to wake up from her anaesthesia, but after that, she'll be back to normal."
It was like everyone could breathe again once those words filled their ears. She was okay. (Y/N) would be just fine.
After a couple more hours, the anaesthesia had completely worn off and (Y/N) was sitting up straight while Mira-Jane and Laxus stood on either side of her bed.
"I'm so glad you're okay" the eldest Strauss sibling mumbled as she kissed her daughter's head, a couple of tears fell from her eyes in relief.
"That's it. No more jobs for you" (Y/N) eyes shot up as she heard the stern words from her father "What? No! You can't do that"
"I can and I will. Don't you realize that you might have never been able to walk again?" He argued, but his daughter wasn't having it, both sharing the same short temper "It was just a scratch stop making a big deal out of it"
"I'm not having it. You're not allowed on jobs anymore and that's final" Laxus crossed his arms in front of him to show that he was done with the conversation.
(Y/N)'s eyes were swimming with rage at her father's stubbornness "stop treating me like a child!" "Then stop acting like one!"
"It's because you push me in that role!" She was certain that everyone downstairs in the guild could hear her, but she didn't care. If anything, she wanted them to hear how unreasonable her father was "I am the daughter of two of the strongest mages in Fairy Tail. You've been training me from the moment I could walk. Why can't you trust me?"
"Because you're clearly not ready for it" the blonde scoffed. He knew this discussion was long overdue, but that didn't mean he was going to back down easily. Not when his daughter was nearly disabled for life.
"It was an accident! Mom, please say something" she desperately pleaded for her mother to side with her and talk some sense into her father but when she didn't budge, the younger girl scoffed "you're both being hypocrites. How many times have you been laying on death's doorstep when you were around my age? I want you to leave. Now."
It was like the temperature changed along with the cold words that left her mouth. The toxic words left a bitter taste in everyone's mouth.
Laxus wanted to say something but stopped himself when Mira-Jane placed a hand on his bicep and shook her head softly no. She knew that their daughter was right. They were being a hypocrite, but how could they not when they saw their little girl in so much pain only a couple of hours ago?
"She's right you know" Erza confronted the parents once they softly closed the door behind them "It's definitely not fun, but it's part of the job. She's 14, you can't shield her away from the world forever. Sure, this wouldn't have happened if we all had been a little more on edge, but it happened. Mistakes are bound to be made, but we learn from them, and so will she"
"But she's our little girl" Mira-Jane sighed as her eyes lingered on the door where Wendy had just walked through again to check up on their daughter.
"I know, and I can't start to imagine how you two must've felt when you saw her like that, but she's also part of Fairy Tail. If you didn't trust her skills, you wouldn't have let her join" Erza pointed out. Both parents were quite as they took in every word the mage in front of them said "you both need to put a little more faith in her. If you don't, she'll start doing stuff behind your back, and you will drift apart."
The last words struck a nerve with Laxus. He knew how painful it was to lose his family. He vowed to never let that happen, to never make the mistake his father did. And yet he unconsciously was pushing her further away from him.
The white-haired mage took notice of the realization that dawned upon her husband "I think we need to apologize"
Laxus blindly followed his wife as they re-entered the room their daughter was laying in "I thought I told you to get out"
"Actually, we're here to apologize" Mira-Jane's signature kind smile was placed upon her lips.
Laxus sighed deeply as the eyes of the two women he loved most were staring at him in anticipation "we- no, I am really sorry for smothering you. I wanted to keep you close in an attempt to not go down the same path my father did, but by doing, so I realize I'm also pushing you further away from me, from us. I am really sorry. I never meant for that to happen"
"You're not pushing me away, nor do you need to compare yourself to that man. You're the best father I could've ever wished for and yeah sure you can be suffocating sometimes, but I know it's because you care about me" (Y/N) eyes softened at the revelation of her father's insecurities.
"You're allowed to go on missions from now on. Just promise us you'll be more careful next time" Mira-Jane pleaded to which their daughter placed a hand over her heart "I promise, now come here"
The three shared a hug, mending the cracks that had slowly started to form as if they were never there.
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soggy-platee · 3 years
Text
What Do We Do Now?- Chp. 1
Rating: E for now, explicit in later chapters
Pairing: Din x fem!Reader
Summary: A certain Mandalorian picks up your bounty.
Read on ao3 here!
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You were really regretting your decision to not cut your hair this morning, as it was the sole reason you were currently face down in some dusty cantina with both of your wrists in a bruising grip behind your back.
In the spare moment you have in the time it takes for the Mandalorian to slap a pair of cuffs onto your wrists, you think back to the events earlier that day.
Tatooine was hot, and you hated it. You had been hiding on the dusty little planet for a little over 3 months. With a bounty looming over your head, you knew you needed to find a planet where the Guild no longer operated. Tatooine wasn’t the best option, still filled to the brim with Outer Rim scum, but it would work.
At least, you thought it would.
You stared at yourself in the small mirror, in the small refresher, within the even smaller flat you managed to rent out with your limited supply of credits. Tired eyes stared back at you, this whole “fugitive of the law” was getting to you. You took to the role pretty well, however. You knew you weren’t notable, and that’s the way you liked it. Average height, average build, average everything. You knew standing out would get you into trouble, so you did your best to avoid it at all costs. The only reprieve from this normality you allowed yourself was your hair. It was exceptionally long for a blazing planet like the one you currently resided on. When braided, how you normally wore it, in one long rope down your back, it easily reached the curve of your ass.
Today, like every day, you thought about cutting it off at the nape of your neck. You knew it would be better for you in the long run.
It would at least cool me off, you thought sourly.
Despite the logic in it, you could never bring yourself to do it. Maybe it had to do with your mother and the often horrific haircuts she managed to give you consistently as a child. You shivered at the thought of your mother finding out about the bounty on your head. She would kill you herself.
You didn’t mean to end up like this. Parents dead, no family left, and most importantly, no credits had left you in a tight spot as a young woman in the Outer Rim. You knew there were only two options for someone in your position, and you certainly were not pretty enough to make money off the most common option, so you became a thief. Petty at first, only stealing from those you deemed deserving. As you grew older, however, so did your crimes. Larger values, higher-profile targets, until you stole from the wrong person. Well, not stole per se. More like freed. Some high-profile dignitary from the Empire who still had influence. You had only planned to take the typical valuables, credits, and such. It was only by coincidence that you happened to free what you assumed was a typical house slave.
She had found you mid-job, begged you to get her out. She had looked so broken. So innocent. You cursed to yourself and hauled her out of the mansion with you.
Apparently, that “house slave” had really been “Mrs. Important Dignitary”, so essentially, you stole the guy’s wife. Great. If only you hadn’t been so soft. You knew it would get you in trouble. You knew-
You were shaken out of your thoughts by voices outside your window.
One soft, speaking so quickly they were almost tripping over their words. You creaked the door to the fresher and peaked your head out just enough to see though the small window in the side of your flat and into the alley beyond. You saw the quiet figure, but couldn’t exactly make out what they were saying. A young man you realized now was a local of the area, you had seen him around. But why did he look so scared? You craned your neck in an attempt to see who was frightening this man so, but you couldn’t do it without being directly in the mystery man’s eyeline. So you waited for a response as the other man trailed off. However, one never came. You simply saw a wild reflection of the light of the suns dance over the ally as you assumed the other person turned to walk away.
Armor, your stomach dropped as your mind supplied the explanation. Whether or not this person was here for you was still up for debate, but you knew they were dangerous. Only dangerous people still wore armor in the face of the blazing heat of Tatooine.
Once you were sure the armor-wearer had left, you snuck out of the fresher, grabbed your blaster, and vaulted quietly out the window to tail the other man. You fell into step behind him as he exited the ally and entered the busy street. You followed him through the crowd, staying enough paces behind him that he didn’t notice. You followed him for a good five minutes before he took an abrupt turn down another deserted alley. It was at this point he noticed you following him and tried to break into a sprint.
You were on him before he could even let the first beat land, pressing him up against a building lining the way with your arm at his sternum. He was taller than you, so you pointed your blaster up and dug it under his chin.
“Who the hell were you talking to?” you demanded, dropping your voice to the most intimidating octave you could muster.
The man in front of you sputtered, eyes wide with fear. You needed an answer.
You dug your blaster harder into the soft flesh under his jaw, presumably making it harder to breathe.
“Who?!” you practically growled at him, hoping it would do the trick
The man opened his mouth as if to answer you before the words died in his mouth. His eyes went even wider than before, if that was possible, and fixed on something above and behind your head. Your eyes remained on the man, but something behind him distracted you just as equally.
The same dancing lights you had just seen outside your flat made their way across the building behind the two of you. Your head whipped around to see a wall of armor standing at the mouth of the ally.
That bastard sent a Mandalorian? You were dead. That’s it, game over. Dead.
Even though your brain knew you were dead, your instincts still kicked in enough to release the man and shove him toward the entrance of the ally in one swift motion before taking off in the opposite direction. You fought the urge to turn back as you ran harder than you ever had in your life.
He knew I saw him question that man, he knew I would follow him to get answers.
At least you would get taken down by a clever bounty hunter.
More pressingly, you were coming to the end of the ally, closed off by a large gate. No way over it, you thought, too high. Sides? Pressed flush against the building, no getting through there. Bottom? Now there’s an option. The bottom was just high enough off the ground for you to shimmy through. Even though you only caught a glimpse of the Mandalorian, you knew he was too bulky to ever follow.
You might actually get away with this.
You dared yourself a glance back and the Mandalorian was nearly on you.
How is he so fast with all that shit on him?
You were only a few paces from the fence, it was now or never. You dove. Your upper body sparked in pain as you impacted the rough dirt. You slid smoothly until your ass hit the fence. Dammit. You desperately shimmied the rest of the way under the fence. You were almost there. You were going to make it.
Then you felt a grip on your boot, the only part of you not under the fence. You yelped loudly as you were ruthlessly pulled back, the majority of your calf returning to the other side. Your fingers clawed at the ground and your other leg kicked desperately at the gloved hand that held you.
Maker, he’s too strong
With another tug, you were almost up to your knees on the other side of the fence. While you were grunting and panting hard, the helmet behind you was absolutely silent, unnervingly so.
You knew you had to come up with something now. He still only managed to have you around your left ankle, so you brought your other foot up and pushed at the top of your left boot, hard. It slid free of your foot, and with one more push, your socked foot came out and pushed off the ground for leverage. He grabbed only a moment late as the last bits of you slipped under the fence. You kicked desperately at the ground and ran, only pausing when you were sure there was an absence of footsteps behind you.
You turned briefly and saw the Mandalorian standing there. A thrill ran through you.
What?
This man was trying to kill you, and yet the sight of him just standing there, glowering, still gripping your boot in his hand sent fire to the pit of your stomach. He was tall, taller than you first realized. Even in the alley far apart he seemed to crowd over you with his presence alone. You met where you assumed his eyes would be behind the t-shaped visor.
You could only imagine what he saw. Your eyes wide, mouth open, covered in dirt and wearing only one shoe.
This image of yourself roused you from your frankly insane thoughts, and you turned and ran.
After getting over what little pride you had garnered from managing to escape a Mandalorian, you realized how absolutely fucked you were.
Where were you supposed to go?
You couldn’t go back to your flat, that was out of the question. You couldn’t shack up with anyone you knew and liked in town, that would automatically put them in danger. You couldn’t shack up with anyone you knew and disliked because they would never let you in the front door, probably try to deliver you to the Mandalorian themselves.
So you end in the only place in which you knew you could get passage of the planet, the cantina. Thankfully it was busy tonight, so you could blend in well enough. You waited well late in the night, hiding close enough to see the entry and exit. No armor in sight. After your anxiety had built to a crescendo, you pushed yourself out of your hiding place and, on shaky legs, made your way to the front door. You entered with your hood pushed up over your head and your braid tucked into your cloak, trying to move as inconspicuously as possible. That was, until you heard your name shouted as loudly as possible.
You winced as your name echoed throughout the room and heads turned, yours slowly moving to face the voice that gave you away.
Ali. You love her to death, but she wasn’t the brightest one in the galaxy. She beamed at you from behind the bar, surrounded by patrons and their wandering eyes as usual. Ali was beautiful and she loved the attention, something you very much did not need right now.
You quickly made your way over to her at the bar, the serious look on your face made her cheerful expression drop at once.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” she questioned, still in a too-loud voice.
“I’m fine, just hiding” you gritted out from behind clenched teeth.
Ali seemed to get with the program then, lowering her voice and body to match your crunched position over the counter.
“Someone’s collecting on your bounty?” she whispered intently, with a trace of concern for you in her voice that softened your previous anger at her.
You had told her about your bounty about a month after being in town, you trusted her, she was good. That is why you very much did not want her caught up in this mess.
“Yes”, you replied, “A Mandalorian”
You saw the same realization hit her as had hit you.
“You’re dead” she said with wide eyes.
Great.
“I know, I’m trying to get off-planet. Are there any ships passing through tonight?”
“Not that I’ve heard, I’m sorry”
She really was.
You gave her a tight smile and turned to leave when you heard your name for a second time that day.
This time, it came from a gruff, older voice, and it came from a man pointing right at you from across the cantina.
The man was standing next to a solid wall of armor, with a familiar visor pointed straight at you.
Shit.
He made for you before you could make for the door, crossing the floor in seconds and grabbing your cloak. The same trick worked twice apparently, as you reached up and released the clasp around your throat and pushed yourself to a sprint toward the door.
You were going to make it, you were so close, you-
The next thing you knew, a blinding pain erupted from the back of your head and the world tilted around you until your shoulders smashed into the rough floor.
He grabbed your braid.
That was low.
One hand still wrapped tight around your hair, his other hand was used to flip you onto your stomach and wrench your wrists behind your back. Cuffs were slapped on and hummed to life as his knees caged your back. You bucked, trying to get him off you, or at least make him move, but he was solid.
The lost chance of cutting your hair this morning flashed in your mind, you grimaced with regret.
You kept thrashing, and in return, he wound your braid around his hand and yanked, earning a yelp from you as your head and chest were lifted from their place smashed into the ground and his helmet lowered so it was level with your face.
“I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold”
You stilled. It was the first time you heard his voice, and it sent a thrill through your spine. Maker, what was wrong with you.
The slight arousal was quickly tamped down and replaced with overwhelming fear as he wrenched you from your position on the ground and to your feet.
The entire cantina had gone quiet with your brawl, all eyes on you both. As he pulled you into a standing position, he cast a glance, or at least you thought he did, at the other patrons, who all quickly averted their eyes and continued their conversations in hushed whispers.
He began to pull you to the door and you made final, desperate eye contact with Ali who looked devastated. You gave her a small smile as a goodbye and the door to the cantina slammed shut behind the two of you.
...
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forever-rogue · 4 years
Note
Hey, i really love your writing :) hope you are doing good. I'm not sure if i can make a request, if not then i'm sorry:) but could you write something about Oberyn and ellaria ( or Just Oberyn is fine to) with the reader being pretty shy and not very talkative, but they have to go to a feast and get uncomfortable. I hope this is alright :)
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Thank you so much, kind friend! I went ahead and just used Oberyn for this, but in our hearts Ellaria will always be there! Enjoy 💕💕
So, this turned into something entirely of its own, and is pretty self indulgent, I will not lie. But it’s soft, and I am craving some soft hours 🥺
»»————- ♡ ————-««
You played with a loose thread on the edge of your gown, twisting to and fro, eventually creating a bigger and bigger strand until the hem was frayed. A nervous habit, you realized, a bad one, but you couldn’t help it right now. In the midst of this grand feast, you wished you were anywhere but here. You weren’t even sure why your mother and father had made you attend; you literally had just stayed tucked in the back avoiding any and all people as best as you could. There was only one person you desired to see but they were not in attendance.
Your presence really wasn’t needed; as the youngest daughter that seemed to never gain a betrothal or make much of an impact or impression on anyone, you really weren’t there for any reason. But your parents had refused to allow you to remain behind, dragging you along with all your siblings and their spouses. You loathed large, grand events such as this, preferring the quiet comfort of your chambers at home. You could have been reading, knitting, cooking, out exploring the evening wilderness, literally anything rather than this. This was the absolute worst, and you really didn’t even want to speak to anyone.
“Stop fidgeting,” your mother came over and gave your arm a light slap as she looked around to make sure no one was paying attention. Pulling out of her touch, you did your best not to roll your eyes at her, “go out and talk to people. Pretend to be enjoying yourself at least.”
“But I’m not,” you sighed at her, “I told you I wanted to stay at home. I hate parties, all these people I don’t care about that also don’t care about me. Why should I pretend to like them and have fun when it’s so far from the truth?”
“Because you are a member of this family,” she hissed at you, “and you will act accordingly. If you ever have any hopes of getting married, you’d best starting acting at least somewhat pleasant.”
“But what if I don’t want that-”
“It’s not an option,” she insisted, grabbing your arm and forcing you to stand up. You really didn’t want to do that...not with anyone of her choosing anyway, “now get out there, put on a smile, and mingle.”
Before you could argue and say anything in response, she raised a stern eyebrow at you and pushed you towards a large crowd that was standing around and talking. They were loud, boisterous, and clearly had a few too many drinks in them. Knowing that your mother’s eyes were still firmly planted on you, you walked over to them and grabbed a nearby goblet of wine, throwing it down quickly, before attempting to make your way into their conversation. You laughed at a joke that was funny in the slightest, throwing in a few comments here and there.
But as soon as you were sure the coast was clear and you’d given your mother enough of a performance, you chucked the goblet down and parted from the crowd. It wasn’t hard to slip through the large crowds unnoticed and you kept walking until you made your way out of the warm great hall and into the cool evening of the air. The gardens here were beautiful and you eagerly strolled into them, already feeling much better in the company of the flowers and plants versus people.
Spotting a nearby bench, you almost ran over to it before sitting and relaxing, a long sigh escaping your lips. You sat there in silence for a while, listening to the now distant rumble of people and music, intertwined with the sounds of insects and chirping of birds that were still. So much better, you thought to yourself, this is better than people any day.
You were so lost in your own thoughts that you didn’t notice the sudden appearance of the person next to you. Almost jumping out of your skin at the feel of the hand on your thigh, a small bit of giggles met your ears as you turned to find Oberyn Martell grinning at you.
“Oberyn,” you relaxed once you realized it was him, turning your body and practically crawling into his lap. He practically beamed at you as you grabbed his face, giving him a few soft kisses before resting your forehead against his, “my love. I thought you weren’t going to be coming tonight?”
“Let’s just say I can be very persuasive and that sometimes being a prince has its perks. I was able to clear up my schedule and come. Besides,” his large hands were gentle, so tender, as his traced his fingers over the contours of your face, “I couldn’t stay away knowing you would be here. You look beautiful, sweet girl.”
“I’m so glad you came,” you sighed contently, “this night as been awful, but it’s already much, much better. I’ve missed you so much. It’s been nearly a month, and I fear I cannot bear to be apart for so long again.”
“Then we can make it so we are never apart again,” he insisted as you stared at him with wide doe eyes. You’d been...seeing, for lack of a better word, Oberyn for some time, shrouded in secrecy as you tried to figure out how to make this work. He was your love, you knew that much, you’d known that for some time; it had come to you as a revelation shortly after meeting him. And he loved you too, fully completely. But you were from different worlds: you were of one of the great Northern Houses, young, beautiful, and a catch for any man that offered enough of dowry for you. Oberyn was older, already had children by multiple women, was considered wild and untamed, a prince of Dorne (an area that many people, including your family had a disdain for) and yet he was utterly devoted to you.
You’d met by chance almost two years ago, after you’d caught the prince’s eye and he managed to woo you. But it would never work, that was a conclusion you had reached early on, making sure your trysts would be keep a secret. It was since then that you’d made it a point to make yourself undesirable to any man that attempted to court you. It had worked up until this point, but you were sure that your mother and father were starting to catch on, and they’d figure your little plan. Your worst fear was that they would force you into a marriage, and that you’d end up miserable and unhappy for the rest of your life.
For some reason, smart as they were, they never seemed to catch onto the fact that a certain prince was coming up north more and more often, and you spent more and more time away from home at those corresponding times. It was risky, you both knew that from the start, but worth it; it was worth getting to be with the love of your life at any cost.
“Oberyn...” you asked softly, biting your lip as you looked at your lap, starting to fidget with your hands. He quickly grabbed your hands, holding them in his for a moment, before bringing them to his lips and pressing soft kisses to your knuckles, “w-what do you mean?”
“I mean we tell them,” he stated boldly, and you swear you stopped breathing for a moment, “we tell them that we are in love and that we want...we will be married.”
Immediately feeling tears pricking at the back of your eyes, you looked in those dark, honeyed eyes to find that he was speaking truthfully. You wanted nothing more in the world than to marry him and be swept off to Dorne, but still you worried. You shook your head lightly, a few tears cascading down your cheeks, “we can’t...they will be angry, everyone will-”
“It doesn’t matter,” he insisted, reaching up and wiping your tears away, “let them talk and be angry. They cannot stop us, sweet girl. I want nothing more than for you to be my wife, to share my name, my home, my family - everything. I’m tired of hiding, and pretending you do not exist. I am a man grown and you are a woman grown, we are free to make our own choices...”
“There will be consequences...” you trailed off, holding onto his hand for dear life. This was what you had wanted, what you had wanted from the beginning, but you were still worried about what could possibly happen, to him more than yourself. You would never forgive yourself if something happened to him.
“I do care about the consequences,” he promised, “if they want to start a war, let them. I will fight every last war and take down every man in my path if it meant I would be able to spend my life with you.”
“Oberyn,” you looked back at him, his face so unsure of your reaction, and that’s when your mind was made up. If you could not spend your life with him, then you did not want to spend it with anyone. It was him, it was always him. Nodding slowly, you grabbed his face again and kissed him with a searing intensity that was so strong, you’d never quite felt anything like it before. He held you tightly, hugging to his body, afraid that if he ever let go, you would disappear, “let us tell them. A life without you is a life I do not want. I want you and nothing else.”
“Then let us spend eternity together,” he grinned against your lips, feeling a lightness in his heart that he had never experienced before, “I want nothing if it is not with you.”
“I love you,” you whispered softly, nuzzling your nose against, “you and only you.”
“I love you, sweet girl,” he promised, “no matter what may come, I am with you, always.”
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echo-three-one · 3 years
Text
Chapter 44
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The Road so Far
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more...
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The TWO of us, together
Alex
Hotel Lustig, Prague, Czech Republic
"Thank you, Kid." Alex saw Jack's mouth move as their eyes met. His eyes which were once filled with determination and optimism were now screaming for help and desperation. He felt like Jack didn't have any other choice. He had to do what needed to be done.
"Nooo!" Alex forced himself to get up as his possible last words weren't the ones he wanted to hear. Not here. Not now. He wanted to see him carrying a possible child. He wanted to still be a part of his life.
Alex had been assigned under Jack's supervision since he was moved to the CIA. It was Jack's optimism and dedication to responsibility that made him who he was today. He was a great mentor and Alex almost considered him as a father figure.
Even in the most inhumane situations, Alex had thrived to succeed in his missions and he owes it all to Jack. The man was a treasure trove of skills and knowledge and Alex was one of the lucky few whom he had imparted it with. He remembered how Jack saved them both in Brazil, buying them more time evading capture.
But there was one thing that Jack would have regretted before going. It was to meet his son. He'd probably be 20 by now but he was afraid to ever show up out of the blue. His divorce with his ex-wife was quite tragic. Because he had to do it just to keep them safe. That's why Jack was always reluctant about him and Samantha. He would never want the same thing to happen to him.
So in the absence of a son, he channeled his fatherly attitude towards Alex, and Alex admittedly hated it when he's being called a kid despite his age. But as time went by and they kept on being assigned together, he had grown accustomed to it and it kinda grew on him.
In a split second, Alex remembered all the times they've been together. All the almost impossible missions they finished, all the times they thought they were goners but somehow they escaped it. All those things were soon to become memories to tell the people who will miss him.
A tear fell on Alex's eyes as he forced himself to get up and catch up on the two as they dove down three flights, ignoring the searing pain from the helicopter blast. He grabbed on to the ledge as he saw Jack and Nero, huddled together, followed by a burst of light with a loud booming sound just before they hit the ground.
A black burnmark was the only thing left on the ground as the place was blotched with a mix of debris and blood. Pieces of both of their clothes were everywhere as the smoke from the explosion dissipated.
The war was over, with Nero gone, his troops will surely retreat. But it cost one important person. A soul for a soul.
Alex couldn't feel himself as his whole body froze while looking at the aftermath of the explosion. He was trained to withstand any feeling but this was too much for him. He hadn't realized how loss hurts until he was able to see for it himself. It was devastating.
"Didn't realize it'd end this way." Price said.
"We were too caught up with Nero, we didn't realize the possibility of him being alive." he added.
"No." Alex finally said, it was hard for him to say as he could feel his heart on his throat.
"His eyes. It looked hopeless. It was the only way…" He said to them, frowning.
"What do you mean?" Roach said, extending an arm on his back for emotional support.
"He's the hopeful type. If he sees a good way out, you could see it in his eyes. What he did was the only choice he could think of." Alex sighed as the resistance team started to signal their victory. The city was cleared from Nero.
"He sacrificed his life because he had no other choice." He breathed, standing up and looking at the sky.
"I'll never forget you, Jack. Thanks for everything." he whispered, honoring his mentor and father figure.
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The aftermath of Nero wasn't on the news. It was all just a story on how Prague was free from the militia groups that invaded their city as Alex turned it off and closed his eyes.
"How are you holding up?" Samantha plopped down beside him, leaning on his shoulders. Alex inhaled and looked for her hand, wrapping it against his and kissing it.
"Still devastated." He whispered as Samantha turned to him and looked at him straight in the eye.
"Jack wouldn't want to see you like that, you know." Her eyes were watery, but she was trying her best not to cry.
"You too…" he attempted to make her smile but they both ended up hugging each other for emotional support.
"Maybe he'll accept this every once in a while. The man would want to feel missed too." he whispered as they both curled up and let their emotions out.
The next day, it was back to usual at 141 except things were a little bit formal. With everyone in their black funeral attire, they gathered by the small park to honor a hero's sacrifice.
Alex stood by the podium and looked at the notable few people who attended. They were all familiar as Jack was always keen to introduce him to anyone he knows albeit professionally or casually.
"When I met Jack, my first impression of him was a stereotypical angry old man. Some of you may have thought of it like this toward Captain Price, no offense" he said as the crowd laughed a little, looking at the British captain.
"But once you get to know him, he's actually one of the best persons you'll ever meet. Every day felt like a school day. He might not point it out, but every move he made was a lesson in life. The man knew a lot of things that were vital for surviving this world. I once referred to him as a treasure trove of information." Everyone muttered their thoughts and nodded in agreement.
"He taught me how to stay positive even in the most trying times and how every decision is vital. He taught me how to think outside the box and utilize every resource you have, something that I admittedly didn't master but I'm always trying and he kept on telling me that there was no harm in trying. That's when I realized how lucky I was to be with him as my Commanding Officer."
"The man saved me multiple times and I owe him a lot for that. I'm actually blaming myself for his loss but the way he looked at me before he jumped was telling me that I shouldn't blame myself and neither should anyone. He told me once that when he goes, he doesn't want anyone to worry about him, as he'd probably be swimming in the clouds drinking unlimited liquor. And that's what he was looking forward to." Another chuckle from the crowd.
"So, for us who would not accept his death. He would want us to think that wherever he is right now, he's having a blast and we shouldn't be worrying about him." He smiled at the crowd as he stepped out of the podium and went back to the seat beside Samantha, hugging her before they both sat down. The ceremony continued with a few more words from Jack's closest friend.
Later that afternoon, Alex preferred to stay with Jack one last time before going home. He still had a few more moments to relive, and the rest of the squad, including the girls, were more than okay to join him.
"Hey guys. Thanks for waiting for me." Alex muttered as Samantha quickly joined him, locking her arm on his. It looked like everyone was also doing it with their partners.
"You guys should wear suits more often. But I'm not wishing for another funeral, okay?" Maxine said as the group chuckled.
"I used to wear these all the time. I look good at it, right France?" Soap nudged his girlfriend, making France blush uncontrollably.
"Yeah fine. You do." She replied nonchalantly. But everyone knows she's more than smitten.
"Now that this is over, what's next for us?" Roach asked the group, as they collectively shot an 'I don't know' look.
"Well. It's obviously an R and R for us." France said, proudly citing one of 141's rules.
"R and R?" Maxine asked.
"It means Rest and Recreation." Roach was quick to reply.
Alex looked at Samantha with a smile. R and R
sounded perfect.
"I'm actually finishing my psych exam tomorrow." France stated.
"I'll go with her for a check up as well. That nasty fall still bothered me." Soap added, holding on to France's waist and pulling it close to him.
"Well, looks like everyone's got plans." Roach grinned, looking at Maxine, suggesting that they had something for themselves as well.
Next Chapter : Epilogue - ONE's Sacrifice
Notification Squad my Beloved
@enderio @smokeywhalee @samatedeansbroccoli @ricinbach @bumblingbee1 @whimsywispsblog
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mca-attack21 · 4 years
Text
Words Unsaid
AN: This is loosely based off of The Final Problem and is Sherlock x Reader. There is violence and death, so consider yourself warned. I hope you enjoy and as always feedback is appreciated. 
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Emotional Context. Sherlock had once been able to deny its importance, instead, governing himself with logic and reasoning. However, his connections with his friends and the people who cared about him had started to change his mind on such matters. This came with both benefits and negatives as it had opened him up to new vulnerabilities and pain, especially now. As it was during this time that he discovered that his sister was more than just a suspicion. In fact, Eurus was a secret that scared his dear brother Mycroft more than anything else. 
Sherlock struggled to retrieve any memory of her. That was at least until the name “Redbeard” was brought up. He had loved Redbeard his faithful dog and childhood best friend. He couldn’t remember what had happened to him, at least not until Mycroft filled in the gaps. Since that discovery, he, his brother, and John had left to check in on Eurus’ security. Sherlock and John wanted to prove that she had left multiple times once impersonating as a girl that Sherlock met during a case, and once as John’s new therapist. Mycroft was insistent that this was impossible, so they went to settle the matter once and for all. What they were not expecting was for it all the be a trap.
They were soon captured and forced to complete trials that tested personal morality and will power all centered around Sherlock. It seems that Eurus was fascinated by her brother and wanted to better understand him. It didn’t help that she had previously formed an alliance with Moriarty and knew more about Sherlock than he did her. But that was all Mycroft’s fault now wasn’t it? The first challenge forced Sherlock to choose either John or Mycroft to shoot an innocent man in order to save his wife. Both inevitably refused and the man in a last-ditch effort took his own life in front of them. Eurus didn’t hesitate to kill the wife, questioning the three whether or not keeping their hands clean costing two lives was any better than taking one life and leaving one to survive. She then ordered Sherlock to collect the gun, which now only had one bullet, and continue.
The next trial was equally grim. Sherlock was forced to deduce which of three brothers was a murderer provided only the gun and three pictures. To add to the suspense, she presented the three brothers hanging over the ocean tied up with weights. If they dropped they would inescapably be drowned. Sherlock made the correct deduction much to everyone’s relief, but Eurus dropped all three explaining that the life of an innocent weighs no less than the life of the guilty.
The third trial was where it got personal. There was a small wooden coffin. It was nothing special about it. Sherlock quickly deduced that it was built for a woman, one with no close family, one who was sensible, one that- he was interrupted when Mycroft brought over the lid which had a mere two words on it, “Words unsaid”. 
“Whatever does that mean?” John asked.
But deep down Sherlock knew and he feared what was about to happen next.
“It’s Y/n,” he replied.
“Y/n? What does she have to do with this?”
“Why quite a lot Mr. Watson, and very good Sherlock. Now then, this ought to be fun. In a moment, I am going to give her a ring. She’s alone in her apartment which is hooked up with explosions. Now then brother, you will have two minutes to get her to say the magic words. The catch? You can’t say them yourself, you can’t give her any indication that you or she is in danger. Just play your mind games like you used to,” Eurus grinned.
“What are the magic words?” Mycroft asked.
Sherlock’s face fell into a pained expression as he considered the task at hand.
“He has to get her to tell him that she loves him,” John realized.
“Yay! Now that everyone is on the same page, let’s give her a ring.” Eurus cheered, “Oh and for added fun,” she clicked on the tv showing video of you in your flat.
Sherlock studied the video feed, you looked horrible, something had clearly upset you. He could tell that you had recently been crying. As the phone rang he prayed that you would answer it. The clock seemed to loom over him as it continued to click down. He watched as you slowly retrieved yours and glanced down at the name answering it almost immediately.
1:40
“Sherlock?”
“Ah, Y/n, I-” he started.
“I ought to kill you for giving me such a scare. Baker street exploded it’s all over the news and I’ve been trying to get ahold of you ever since. Are you okay? Is John okay? What happened?”
“We’re fine, just a little accident,” Sherlock replied calmly.
“I thought you were dead, the least you could have done was sent me a text” she whimpered.
“Oh come on now, you know I’m more clever than that, besides I’ve been busy, you know how it is” he mused.
1:20
“Y/n, do you remember the phone call we had just before Reichenbach, right as Moriarty had begun his master plan?” he asked feeling rushed.
“Of course I do, I still have nightmares from that call,”
“Well, I need you to tell me what you said that day,”
“There’s no way in hell,” you replied. Sherlock was able to see how much this upset you and clenched his eyes shut feeling the pressure.
“Please Y/n, I really need to hear it,” he begged softly.
0:60
“Sherlock, is everything alright?” you asked concerned at his unprecedented demeanor.
Eurus warned her brother to remember the rules. 
“Everything is fine, I just need to hear you say it,”
“Why? This better not be one of your experiments,”
“It’s not, I promise. I wouldn’t do that, not to you,”
“I don’t get the big deal,” 
“Please Y/n,” 
0:30
“I-I can’t”
“Why not?”
“Because you didn’t say it back,”
0:25
“If you meant it then, if there is any chance that you mean it now, please say it again,” he begged.
“Sherlock,” you pleaded
“Please Y/n, please tell me what you said that day on the phone, our last call together before the fall,” he said with such sincerity and emotion.
0:18
“You called me to tell me that everything had been a lie, that Moriarty was right. You told me that  you only had one choice left. I begged you to stop, to wait until I could get to you, that together the two of us would figure something out. But you said it was too late,” you recalled tears streaming down your face.
“And then…” he prompted.
0:12
“And then I pleaded with you not to do it,”
“Why? What was your reason?”
0:08
You hesitated for a moment, “ because I cared about you,”
“That’s not what you said Y/n, what exact words did you say?” His own eyes were betraying him at this point.
0:03
“I told you that I loved you, that fake or not, I would still love you” you cried, “And you didn’t say it back.”
Just then the phone clicked off as Eurus ended the call. 
Sherlock redirected his attention to Eurus’ screen, “Okay Eurus, I won. I made her say it. What now, what happens next?”
“Funny isn’t it? I don’t recall her actually saying the words ‘I love you’. She said ‘I loved you’ and ‘I would still love you’ and while close, I just don’t think that cuts it for me.” 
“Wait!” Sherlock screamed launching forward as Eurus hit a button and he was forced to watch your apartment explode. All that Mycroft could manage was staring in shock as the tv quickly cut to black. John went to his friend who had sunk to the ground staring vacantly.
“You didn’t tell her before Reichenbach and now you’ll never be able to, tell me Sherlock, are all those complicated little emotions worth it? Because to me it seems that the emotional context is what destroys you. Now pull yourself together as the next challenge is even more enduring.”
She paused for a moment before adding, “take your time,” and shutting off her screen. 
Sherlock rose to his feet and John and Mycroft hesitantly went towards the next door, turning back when they heard him whisper “no” before aggressively attacking the empty coffin taking out his rage and immediate grief. After annihilating it, he sat back against the wall. 
Regretting that he could not properly console his friend, John forced himself over to Sherlock handing him the gun saying, “I know this is beyond difficult and you are being tortured, but you have to keep it together, we have to keep moving”
“This isn’t torture, it’s vivisection, we are experience science from the perspective of lab rats,”
“Right now, we are soldiers who just need to survive, this is not the time nor place for mourning,” John said firmly.
“Alright,” Sherlock agreed and John helped him up.
The three men continued to the next room where Sherlock was tasked with choosing whether to kill John or Mycroft. He made his decision, Eurus’ game was over, and he pointed the gun under his own chin taking a calculated risk.
When he awoke, he was alone in a small cell plastered with pictures from his childhood. He quickly called out for John and Mycroft. John answered explaining that he was in a well, but otherwise seemingly fine. There was no response from Mycroft.
Sherlock quickly figured out that he was not actually in a cell but rather in a collapsable structure outside his childhood home. Eurus tasked him with discovering the location of Redbeard and upped the stakes as she started filling the well that John was chained to the bottom of. Sherlock racked his brain trying to solve the same problem who’s solution had evaded him as a child. That was at least until in an escape attempt, John solved an important piece of the puzzle.
Redbeard was never a dog.
Sherlock suddenly remembered his childhood best friend Victor Trevor who his brain had so cleverly disguised to help preserve his psyche. With this new information, Sherlock was able to figure out the Eurus’ song corresponded to the gravestones with the weird dates. He quickly deciphered the message and went to free John who was running out of time.
Outside of the well, he discovered his sister, “I’m so sorry Eurus,” he spoke sincerely.
“You needed me and I abandoned you, I could have saved you,” he added.
“I just wanted my brother,” she replied childishly.
“I’m here now, and we can fix this, just free John, don’t make the same mistake you made with Victor,” he pleaded.
“I don’t want to quit playing the game, I don’t want you to leave me again,”
“I’m not going to leave, I’m going to save you,”
Not knowing how to respond she simply stepped back and allowed Sherlock to save his friend. He dove into action turning the water off and then retrieving a key carefully tossing down to John so that he could free his ankles. He searched for a moment to find what Eurus had used to get John down there to begin with and found some rope that he leveraged against a tree and tossed down to his friend. 
It was as John was climbing over the side that the police cars and helicopters arrived. Mycroft’s people were there to collect Eurus, who went with them peacefully. Sherlock and John were both checked over by the EMT’s and given shock blankets. They were informed that Mycroft was safe and simply left back in Sherrinford. Once he regained consciousness, he his people and sent them in helicopters to take care of Eurus. But then? Who called the police?
“William Sherlock Holmes” you yelled slamming the door to Greg’s station car.
John and Sherlock had never turned around so fast in their lives. How were you here? Hadn’t they both watched your apartment go up in smoke? Or, was that merely another one of Eurus’ tricks?
“You’d better have a good explanation for-”
“I love you too,” he interrupted shocking both you and John.
“What?” you asked in disbelief.
“I said I love you too, I wanted to say it during that call two years ago, and I wanted to say it earlier today. I promise I will explain everything, and I understand if you no longer fill the same way, I’m sorry for not saying it before,” he confessed. 
You stared at him in awe, taking a step closer still staring at him. You closed the remaining gap between the two of you and smoothly connected your lips with his allowing them to communicate for you. After an instant of shock, Sherlock reciprocated allowing the blanket to fall off of his shoulders as he pulled you in closer. When he pulled away, both of you were slightly dazed and smiling. 
“You have a lot of explaining to do,” you whispered.
“That I do,” he answered.
From there, Greg dropped John and Sherlock off at John’s place where he happily greeted Molly and wasted no time collecting Rosie. The next day the three of you would meet up at 221B Baker Street and begin cleaning and repairing that flat as Sherlock did as promised and explained everything. After two weeks the renovations were complete and John and Rosie moved back in with Sherlock who had decided to utilize space in 221C for experiments to keep Rosie away from them both for her safety and his sanity.
You became more than a frequent visitor and eventually moved into one of the bedrooms of 221C however you spent far more time in Sherlock’s bed than in your own. You watched Rosie as the boys went out on cases and would occasionally tag in for John. Being in a relationship with Sherlock was interesting to say the least, but you wouldn’t trade a second of it. 
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EAT OR BE EATEN (A/U) 6 OF 6
~ Author’s Note ~ “Before the renaissance we had the Black Plague.” 
- @thekingoflegoland
Rated M
Part 1 > Part 2 > Part 3 > Part 4 > Part 5a > Part 5b > Part 6
Seattle, January 2021
Gabriella Torres stepped out of her rideshare and studied the house she stood in front of. A small shingled house, hunter green, the grass browned from the cool weather and the paint of the white front door chipped from years of neglect. She knocked.
A woman with a black lacquered cane opened the door with widened eyes, pale, as if she had just seen a ghost.
“Hi, I’m looking for Calliope Torres-”
“She doesn’t live here.“
“My name is Gabriella Torres. Aria Torres is my mother—was—my mother.”
The woman sighed and eyed the young woman. “You're a spitting image of your mother. Come in.”
The sunroom of the house was clean, sterilized. It still smelled of cleaning products and polish; it was well tended to, unlike the exterior of the house.
“Can I get you a coffee or a tea?” the woman asked.
“Water, please, if you wouldn’t mind,” Gabriella answered. She took the glass the woman offered her and took a generous sip.
“What did you say your name was again?” the woman asked, taking the seat in front of her guest and leaning her cane against the side table.
“Gabriella.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-two.”
The woman paused in thought.
“I’m sorry to come out of the blue, but I thought you would prefer meeting in person rather than starting a paper trail…  Aunt Calliope.”
Calliope nodded in agreement and cleared her throat. “So how did you find me?”
“I just started grad school at the University of Washington, I’m doing my masters in library studies-”
“Impressive,” Callie nodded, glad and relieved to learn her niece was educated.
“Thank you. I was in foster care my whole life, you see, I knew nothing but my mother’s name. I swore to find her one day and I searched for her for years and years. Then, finally, I came across her obituary and I found out she lived in Miami… and, well, my research led me to you.”
“So you know who I am…” Callie cleared her throat and picked at the cotton of her pants.
“You’re Calliope Torres. You were the head of the Torres Crime family. You were responsible for the Miami Mob Massacre of 2013 when all of the heads of the city’s crime families were murdered.”
“Allegedly,” Callie corrected.
Gabriella nodded in agreement. “Early in 2014 the Feds gathered enough evidence to put you on trial-”
“Alex Karev and George O’Malley came forward and turned themselves in, in an attempt to put me away,” Callie informed. “Even after I paid them a very generous amount of money to leave town. It seemed that it wasn’t enough for two men who felt overpowered by a single woman.”
“You were on trial for 21 days,” Gabriella continued. “Until you were proven not guilty. After 21 days they were going to let you walk free, you were free—then you were showered with bullets on your way out of the Miami courthouse. A man named Robert Stark was arrested; he claimed you destroyed his life over unsettled debt.”
“And yet he’s still in jail and I am not,” Callie couldn’t help but smirk.
“My mother perished that day, and you were airlifted to Miami General with life-threatening injuries,” Gabriella added. “Some articles reported that you wouldn’t make it out alive, while others rumoured you would never fully recover. You were mentioned in the papers for months, until suddenly you weren’t. New leaders of the other crime families began to take their place, and new gang wars plagued Miami. By the time you walked out of the hospital a free woman, you were old news and the Torres empire had crumbled. You’ve been laying low ever since.”
Gabriella was nothing but correct in her explanation. The Torres empire crumbled, and it crumbled hard. In Callie’s absence, and Alex and George’s incarceration, other members of the corporation fought for themselves, fought amongst themselves, stole for themselves, until there was nothing left but a few skids of canned peaches scattered across the city. The Torres mansion was looted and then destroyed by opportunistic rival families. The Torres name became irrelevant. A name no longer feared. A name no longer remembered, despite the damage it did in the past decades. Bigger crimes flooded Miami, and though grudges still existed, seeking revenge against the Torres family was no longer a priority. 
Callie remained silent. It had been years since she lived that life, it was hard to believe its vibrant contrast to the life she lived now.
“Sorry,” Gabriella brushed. “I was just searching for my mother, I didn’t mean to uncover so much more about you.”
“You’ve done nothing wrong,” Callie reassured. “That was my past, and I will take what I did to my grave.”
Gabriella remained silent.
“So what do you want to know about your mother?” Callie asked.
Gabriella released a sigh with both grief and relief. Grief of the loss she had held in her heart for so long, and relief that she was finally going to get some answers.
“I want to know why my mother left me at the hospital that day, knowing she had the means to raise me.”
“I can’t answer for the dead,” Callie shook her head.
“I know that, but you at least knew her…”
“And I know giving you up was probably the best decision she could have made for you.”
“What?” Gabriella asked with furrowed brows. She spent her life in poverty. She was alone. She moved from foster home to foster home. The closest thing she has to a family is an old college roommate.
“My sister Aria was… impulsive. Especially when it came to money. She and my father would always clash on her irresponsible spendings. I believe she had you the year she just about had it with our father and so she disappeared for a year to travel across the country in a van with some friends. She was in no state to raise a child, even if we had the money.”
“But I grew up poor, without a family-” Gabriella began to argue.
“Do you think a crime family would have been any better?”
“Maybe,” Gabriella shrugged.
“It cost us your mothers life,” Callie reminded. “It nearly cost me mine.”
Gabriella remained silent.
“A life of riches is far from a fairytale when it’s funded with bloodmoney.”
Gabriella avoided her aunt’s eyes.
“So if it’s money you want from me I no longer have much of it,” Callie admitted.
“I don’t need money,” Gabriella promised. “I just wanted answers.”
“I’m afraid I can’t answer anymore than that,” Callie replied. “I didn’t even know my sister had you until this morning.”
“Would you have stepped in if you knew back then?” Gabriella asked.
Callie paused in thought. “Probably not,” she answered honestly. She believed the mob was no place for a child.
They sat in silence for a moment. Then Callie glanced at the clock.
“Then I won’t take up much more of your time,” Gabriella promised and stood from her seat. “Thank you for your time.”
Callie simply nodded.
“Can I ask how you found out where I live?” Callie asked before the younger woman could leave.
Gabriella signed. “Seattle Grace held a Gala last week. I was sorting the newspaper section of the library when I saw your face. Your hair is much shorter now but I had studied the family so much I recognized you right away… it wasn’t hard after I ran a search for you in Seattle.”
“What newspaper published that article?” Callie needed to know: if her niece could recognize her, how many more people could.
“Seattle Local. Don’t worry, I’ve already shredded as many copies of the paper as I could find,” Gabriella reassured.
“Thank you,” Callie sighed in relief.
“Can I ask you one last question before I go?” Gabriella asked.
“You just did.”
“Do you think there are people out there who still want you dead?” Gabriella proceeded to ask.
“I know there is,” Callie nodded. “Dozens of them.”
“How do you bear it? How do you live in fear?”
“I don’t,” Callie answered confidently. “Knowing my life could end at any moment is what makes every day so worth living.”
000
There was one part of Gabriella’s story that was missing; one part of the Calliope Torres story that was very private and protected from the public eye. Down a long hallway, two feet and a cane dully tread across grey terrazzo floors. The door at the end of the hall held a plaque, yielded the Seattle Grace Hospital logo and the title Chief of Surgery. She opened the door.
Large windows letting in lights from the Seattle Skyline also enclosed the spacious and personalized office. The walls were decorated with various frames, some with photos, others with accomplishments and awards. One of which was the 2014 Carter Madison Grant and a photo of a small clinic in Mawali. 
Arizona Robbins glanced up from her laptop and over reading glasses arched a single eyebrow.
“Sorry, I’m late,” Callie apologised.
Arizona smirked and motioned for her lover to come closer with finger.
Callie rounded the cherrywood desk and gave her wife a kiss.
“Hmm,” Arizona hummed with satisfaction.
“Missed you.” She said this every day.
“Missed you too,” Arizona replied with a smile. “How was your day?” she asked, pushing her chair back to make room for her wife.
“Well…” Callie leaned her cane against the desk and pushed the laptop back to sit on her wife’s desk, “I had a visitor at the house today.”
“A visitor?” Arizona repeated, intrigued. “We haven’t had a visitor in a very long time. Who was kind enough to send you a hitman this time?” she asked sarcastically. 
“Not an assassin,” Callie informed with a small smirk. A very small part of her missed when an assassin or two would shake up their home. It had been so quiet the past few years since they moved to Seattle, Callie could almost say she was starting to get bored. She and Arizona had become so good at silently putting hitmen away; they made great fertiliser for the flowers in the back garden. 
“Really?” 
“Yeah, it turns out I have a niece. It looks like Aria forgot to mention she had a kid twenty-two years ago.”
“No way…”
“She looks just like her, Arizona, if she’s a con artist she sold it really well.”
“How’d she find you?”
“She saw a photo of me in a local paper, from the Gala.”
“Oh, Calliope… I didn’t know you’d be photographed.”
“It’s fine,” Callie shrugged. “I’m sort of glad she found me. It was nice talking about Aria again.”
“Are you going to keep in touch?”
“I didn’t want her to feel obligated to keep in contact. She’s a smart girl, she’ll come back if she wants to.”
Arizona gave her wife a sympathetic smile.
“Anyways, tell me about your day…” Callie encouraged her wife.
“I think I’d rather save the talking for later,” Arizona said with a smirk.
“Oh…” Callie chuckled and moaned when her wife pressed their lips together. Arizona’s hands were on her waist and they slowly made their way up her shirt as they kissed.
“You called for me, Doctor Robbins?” Callie teased, between kisses.
“I did, and you’re late,” Arizona played along. She loved her wife for a hundred million reasons, and one of them included how ungodly good she was at getting her off.
“I’m awfully sorry,” Callie apologised in her bedroom voice.
“Y-you’d better be,” Arizona gasped when her wife’s mouth wrapped around the skin on her neck and began to suck. “D-don’t leave a mark…” she scolded, “again.”
Callie smirked and slipped her hand into the white lab coat and down the navy blue scrub top. She cupped her wife’s breast; soft, warm, and a bit more plump than she remembered.
Arizona felt wetness begin to grow between her legs. Slick. Heat. Then a gush of fluid like the breaking of a damn.
“Callie!” Arizona shrieked.
“Arizona...” Callie gasped when she felt the wetness run down her leg, “was that?”
“I think my water just broke,” Arizona said with widened eyes.
“It’s a good thing we’re already at a hospital,” Callie chuckled and took her wife by the hand before leading her towards the maternity ward to have their baby.
Callie and Arizona rushed down the aisle, hand-in-hand, away from the altar where Elvis stood to officiate. With no family left between the two of them, they spent their wedding night celebrating their rather spontaneous wedding with a rather expensive bottle of wine and room service.
Overlooking the city of Las Vegas, a city also once ruled by crime families such as the Torres’s, Callie held Arizona in her arms as they watched the night lights.
“I never pictured myself getting married,” Arizona admitted softly.
“You’re telling me this now?” Callie arched her eyebrow, taking hold of Arizona’s hand that was now weighed down by a wedding band. 
“No, Calliope, I mean… I never pictured myself getting married in the white dress and large crowd. But this… this was perfect.”
“Oh…” Callie smiled mischievously and planted a hot kiss on her wife’s neck.
“Callie!” Arizona squinted her eyes and stopped walking.
“Breathe…” Callie coached.
“I am breathing,” Arizona gritted through her teeth, freezing for a couple of minutes before gathering up the strength to walk again.
“We’re almost there,” Callie reassured.
Arizona puffed air out of her cheeks and followed her wife’s lead. Moments later, she found herself on a hospital bed, monitors attached to her belly and her wife by her side.
“Push,” Arizona encouraged.
Callie let out a long grunt as she pushed against the resistance band that Arizona was holding behind her. She took three bullets in her arm, two in the gut, and one in her femur which left her with a permanent limp. She had accepted her fate of the cane, but she had yet to give up on rehabilitating her dominant hand.
“Good,” the physiotherapist praised. “You’re really motivated today!”
“Motivated to use my good hand in bed again,” Callie pushed against the purple band again.
“Callie!” Arizona gasped, not impressed with her lover’s vulgarness in front of the physiotherapist.
The therapist couldn’t help but chuckle, “It’s good to have goals.”
“Let’s see how your baby is doing…” Doctor Carina DeLuca snapped on a clean glove and placed herself between the patient’s legs. “Oh…” 
“What?” Callie and Arizona said in unison.
“When did you say your contractions began?” Carina  asked.
“I guess, this morning…” Arizona thought out loud.
“This morning?” Callie repeated with disbelief. Her wife had been in labour all day and she didn’t receive a single text of mention.
“I thought it was just a stomach ache from all the poundcake I ate for breakfast.” Arizona admitted. 
“Did you eat the whole coffee cart too?” Callie teased.
“I only had three...” Arizona defended, “this time.”
“Move to Seattle with me,” Arizona said, her head nestled on her wife’s chest. Las Vegas streets were loud but she could still hear Callie’s pounding heartbeat.
“Seattle?”
“They’ve offered me a job as an attending… if I accept it, we can have our own life there. Just you and me, far away from the craziness in Miami. You don’t belong there anymore, we don’t belong there anymore. We both need a new start, somewhere we can raise a family.”
“You want kids?” Callie asked, surprised. With all the commotion, they forgot to talk about having children.
“I want a family, whatever that may look like. I’ve never had one and I want one with you.”
“You can start pushing on your next contraction,” Doctor DeLuca instructed.
“Callie, I’m scared,” Arizona told her wife.
“You’ve made it this far, Arizona, I believe in you.”
“What if we lose this baby too?”
“We can’t think like that right now, Arizona, you need to focus on having this baby, okay?”
Arizona nodded her head and grunted as she pushed as hard as she could.
The house was so quiet.
With Lucy’s passing, there was no longer pitter patter of paws against the hardwood as she played around the house. Now their house filled with the noise of Arizona turning the page of her newspaper, and Callie watching car review videos on her phone.
“You think it’s too soon to get another dog?” Arizona asked.
“I don’t know if I want another dog,” Callie admitted.
“Can I finally have my chicken coop, then?”
“No…” Callie slowly shook her head.
“Well, we’re certainly not getting a ferret, Calliope-”
“I’ve been thinking… it’s a good time to have a baby.”
Arizona’s face brightened into a smile. “A baby?” she breathed out.
Callie nodded, “A baby.”
“Your baby is almost here…” Carina announced.
“Really?” Arizona phanted.
“Do you want the mirror?”
“Oh god, no,” Arizona shook her head in denial.
Callie couldn’t help but laugh.
“Don’t you dare laugh,” Arizona scolded her wife. “You owe me a new vagina after this!”
“I’m sorry…” the doctor repeated herself. “Please stay and use the room for as long as you need to.”
“Thank you,” Arizona nodded at the doctor and continued to console her wife.
Callie watched the doctor leave with blank eyes. The news hurt her more than she thought it would. She didn’t even know she wanted kids until she married Arizona, and now that she found out she couldn’t, she was heartbroken. Her life of crime, the bullets of revenge, had already taken her sister from her; she was saddened to learn it also took away her chance of having children of her own.
“What do you need from me?” Arizona said softly.
“I don’t know,” Callie shook her head.
“I’ll have them, Calliope, I want to have them,” Arizona offered for the hundredth time.
“I…” Callie gulped to rid of the dryness in her throat, “I thought we could have some of yours and some of mine too.”
“Oh, Calliope…” Arizona sighed in defeat. “It would have been amazing to have a little you running around the house, but I promise you they will be our babies no matter what.”
“She’s here…” Carina announced.
“It’s a girl?” Callie asked with surprise, relief and excited butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
“It’s a girl,” Carina confirmed.
Callie and Arizona smiled at the crying infant. Carina placed the child on Arizona’s chest and Callie wrapped her arms around her family. She was so little yet so loud, and mighty. Her hands were bronze like a Torres and her eyes were blue like a Robbins. She was there and she was theirs.
“I love you…”
“What?” Callie said past dry lips. She thought she would never see Arizona Robbins again, let alone have her visit her hospital room every day for the past three months. 
“I love you,” Arizona nodded her head. She had known, deep down, for a long time. But she was at the airport, ready to leave for Africa, ready to truly move on from her tango with the mob and start a new life, a new clinic, for children in a new land, Malawi, when she saw the Torres heir fall to the ground in front of the courthouse. She hated that she had to see Calliope Torres get shot multiple times on television to realise it. She loved the notorious boss and she couldn’t leave Miami without her.
“Arizona, you can’t-”
“You’re not my boss, Calliope, you can’t tell me what I can and can’t do anymore-”
“No, Arizona, you need someone... normal,” Callie defended her stance. “Someone who can give you the easy life you deserve. Someone who doesn’t have a past-”
“I know your past, Calliope, and I know the kind of woman you are deep down. Do you think it was easy to let someone else run my clinic in Africa, to turn down a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so I can spend three months in this hospital with you? I know love isn’t easy, but I choose it because—because life without it is dull and cold.”
Callie eyed her lover.
“I know there are people who want you dead...” Arizona continued, “that danger will follow you, but—why live in fear when we can take our chances at being happy?”
“Jeez, okay, enough with the dramatics,” Callie teased.
Arizona gasped, offended, then laughed. Her speech was quite cheesy.
“I love you too. I’ve known for a while,” Callie admitted. “But I want what’s best for you. That’s why I let you go...” 
“And I know what I want,” Arizona countered. “That’s why I came back...”
Callie cradled baby Sofia as Arizona finally fell asleep in her hospital bed. Sofia had that intoxicating new baby smell and Callie soaked in every minute of it. Swaddled in her hospital blanket, Sofia was content and happy to be in her mother’s arms. 
Callie glanced at Arizona and watched her peacefully rest. She deserves it. Arizona let out a soft snore and it made Callie smile. Her mob career started in her father’s hospital room. Her love for Arizona blossomed in her hospital room. Now their middle family had grown by one in the hospital room.
Callie Torres was working in a cubicle, in an office, on a floor, in a building full of cubicles. She was the daughter of a notorious crime boss and she was in an office working a nine-to-five desk job. Despite her upbringing, she went to college. She attended Penn State, the first in her family to go to college. She told herself that she needed space from the mob, but deep down she knew she left home because she resented her father for not being a good husband to her mother. Over a decade later, she still blamed him for making Lucia Torres flee. So Callie moved away, to a city where nobody knew her name, and for four years she studied literature, made an honest living, and lived a modest lifestyle. She was set. She had financial independence from her father and no ties to the life he lived.
Until a single phone call changed her projection. She came back to Miami after years of avoiding the city and the chaos within it. Giovanni sent one of the drivers to pick her up at the airport and she felt helpless in the backseat of the Cadillac. She hated it: the feeling of being the young woman with no independence, thanks to the nature of the family business. There was a reason why she moved out: to be able to do things on her own.
The short car ride felt like hours, but soon she was at Miami General: pushing through a crowd of news reporters hoping to get information and FBI agents hoping to find dirt that will finally warrant the arrest of the biggest mob boss in the city. The FBI were always around—ever since Carlos himself was a child—but they could never find enough evidence to take the family court. Thus, they tried to get close whenever they could. It disgusted Callie. Her father was ill and all people cared about was exposing him. 
She ran to his bedside the moment she squeezed past the door and took his hand into her own.
“Calliope…” he coughed up.
“I’m here, papa.” Callie soothed, combing what was left of his hair with her fingers.
“You came home,” Carlos smiled.
“Of course I did. You take it easy, okay?”
Carlos closed his eyes and nodded his head. He was weak, and he drifted off to sleep shortly.
“Miss Torres?” a soft knock came from the door. “I’m Dr. Teddy Altman, your father’s surgeon.”
Callie turned around and stood to politely shake the woman’s hand. “Call me Callie,” she insisted. “Can you tell me what happened? ”
“Callie…” Teddy sighed, “From the looks of things, your father has had heart failure for years.”
“He’s never mentioned it...” Callie insecurely crossed her arms, “Is he going to make it?”
“He’s responding to the ‘tropes, the medications we’re giving him, but that’s all I can say for now.”
“Is he going to make it?” Callie repeated.
“It’s hard to say…” Teddy trailed off, “But I can tell you that we’re doing everything we can.”
“Is he going to be treated just like everyone else?” Callie asked. She knew the doctor wasn’t oblivious to who she was taking care of. A high-profile man like Carlos Torres drew attention wherever he went.
“We provide treatment solely based on the patient’s clinical needs...” Teddy promised, “without moral discrimination.”
She stayed by her father’s side—only going home to get cleaned up and sleep. When she wasn’t tending to him, she was making sure his casinos were running smoothly. She became a frequent customer at the cafeteria, and even the girl at the coffee cart knew how she took her coffee. She didn’t know if it was love or guilt that made her stay by her father’s side. She felt guilty that she had deserted the family, all those years ago. And if she didn’t keep her head down that day, she would have ran into the blonde-haired blue-eyed surgical resident that stood in front of her while she waited for her coffee.
“How are the casinos?” Carlos asked one day, when he had the strength.
“Don’t worry about them,” Callie insisted, “I’ve made sure Alex and George stay on track; you just work on getting better.”
“You’re getting involved with our operations?”
“Yes, it’s fine, everything is fine.”
“You know, I always thought it would be you that I’d leave the casinos to…”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t cut-out to be a boss,” Callie hung her head in shame.
“Don’t say that, mija, I’m so proud of you,” Carlos admitted.
“You are?” Callie questioned softly.
“Always,” Carlos promised. “My smart, beautiful, girl.”
Callie wiped the tears that trickled down her cheeks and held onto her father’s hand.
Later that evening, Callie was leaving her father’s room to go home when she realized the watchman that usually guarded the door was not at his post. She grabbed her phone to call Giovanni and sighed in relief when he told her that he would fire the man for leaving his post and send over another member of his security team immediately.
In the meantime, Callie waited by her father. It was highly unlikely that any harm would come, but she still had an unsettling feeling in her gut—which amplified when she heard the door open, and she turned her head in time to see a grey-haired man.
“You must be his little girl,” he chuckled.
“What do you want?” Callie asked harshly.
“Well…” he shrugged his shoulders, his hands in his pockets. “I’m here to take him out. I don’t want to hurt anyone else, but now that you’re here... I don’t have much of a choice.”
Callie stood from her seat and took a step back. She was scared—initially— then anger sparked within her. Suddenly, she wanted to get him before he could get her or her father. She quickly weighed out her options. She was unarmed, and had been for years. She knew he had a gun, she could see the outline in his pants. She glanced around the room and in a matter of seconds she had a plan.
She grabbed the flower vase from the nightstand behind her and threw it across the room. Distraction. He lifted his hands to block the glass from hitting his face, and she rammed her right shoulder into his sternum, pinning him against the wall. Attack. The impact caused a couple of his ribs to break, and the noise of the vase shattering onto the floor caused the nurses to start peering into the window. He was able to strike her cheek with the gun, causing the skin to break, but she didn’t feel the pain. Her adrenaline was pumping through her veins and she wanted nothing more than to see him dead.
“Bitch,” he spat, trying to point the gun at her head, but bone-breaking strength pinned his body against the wall. The Torres heir was stronger than he thought.
Callie groaned and struck her elbow against his windpipe. Once. Twice. Three times. The sound of his cartilage breaking from impact. At this point, he was still alive, but the injury to his neck narrowed his trachea and he struggled to take the faintest breath of air. So Callie stepped back, letting him fall to the floor, and she kicked the gun out of his hand. She glanced back, her father was still asleep. She looked forward, the nurses had called security and they were waiting outside the door. She opened it, stepped outside, and a nurse walked to her side.
“You want me to look at that, Miss Torres?” the nurse asked.
“Look at what?” Callie mindlessly asked, still in shock from the events that took place moments ago.
“Your cheek is bleeding…”
Callie took a seat on a nearby chair, exhausted. She couldn’t believe it. She won her first fight.
“What should we do with him?” one of the security guards asked, wanting to be of assistance but also not wanting to get too involved with the mob.
“Leave him. Someone will be here to clean up shortly,” Callie sighed. It was only now that the blood from her cheek trickled down her neck that she realized she was bleeding. “I’m sorry for the noise…” she told the hospital staff, and the few patients that watched the scene unfold, “But nobody saw anything, right?”
All watching eyes turned away and went about minding their own business. Except the nurse who had offered to help, she had gone to get a dressing kit and returned to tend to Callie’s injury.
When Carlos Torres came to consciousness and learned of his daughter’s doings, that Callie was managing the casinos quite well and taking care of business in his absence, he knew what to do before his inevitable death. With her father’s ring on her finger, Callie Torres took her place behind the desk in the office she was forbidden to be in at her childhood home.
“I can’t believe she’s home…”
“I can’t believe she’s ours…”
Callie and Arizona cooed at the sleeping infant in the crib.
“We should go to bed and get some sleep while we can,” Arizona suggested. “She’ll be up wanting a feeding before we know it.”
“You go to sleep before she needs you. I’ll stay up a little longer, just in case she needs anything else...” Callie volunteered.
“We’re across the hall, Calliope, she’ll be okay on her own for an hour or two,” Arizona promised. 
“I don’t mind,” Callie insisted.
“Come to bed with me, please?” Arizona pleaded.
“Arizona, I…”
“What is it, love?” Arizona asked, placing a soft hand on her wife’s arm.
“I think I’m scared…”
“She’s safe here,” Arizona promised.
“What if something bad were to happen to her, to us, to our family? I don’t want her out of my sight. I know you we’ve been safe here but you know my past-”
“I don’t think it has anything to do with your past, Calliope,” Arizona couldn’t help but smile. “That’s called being a mother. We’re going to worry about her for the next eighteen years, at least. We’ll have eighteen years to worry about her so please, can we go to bed for now?”
Callie sighed then nodded her head in agreement. Why live in fear when we can take a chance at being happy? She had chosen happiness these past few years, she took a vow to choose happiness with Arizona. Now she vowed this: if anyone laid a finger on her baby, she would hurt them before they could hurt Sofia.
FIN.
47 notes · View notes
muertawrites · 4 years
Text
Two Halves - Chapter Three (Zuko x Reader)
Part Two
Word Count: 2,450
Author’s Note: Something very important to note about this series is that in it Zuko has very long hair. I’m talking like feudal era Japan hair (use this post from @frogydraws​ for reference. It is *chef’s kiss* gorgeous). Also, I feel like I’m missing people who asked to be on the tag list - if you asked but don’t see your name, PLEASE direct message me so I can fix that! Other than that I don’t have much else to say about this chapter. It’s mostly exposition but who doesn’t love some good plot speculation?
~ Muerta
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Everyone gathers in a sitting room in Zuko’s personal wing of the palace, clustered in groups or pairs in an attempt to create some sense of comfort after the night’s discord. Katara, Aang, and Sokka gather in the center of the room - their typical formation, still very much a reflex due to years of working as a team. You sit with Iroh and Toph to one side of the room, Iroh sharing a chaise with you and Toph seated on the floor beside you, one hand laid protectively over the top of your foot. Zuko stands at the room’s fireplace, passing a ball of flame between his hands; you watch him closely, already innately drawn to him as your partner, noting that while the others (mainly Katara, Aang, and Sokka) discuss the evening’s events, attempting to formulate a plan for whatever should come next, he remains silent, secluded deep within his own thoughts. He looks every part the leader you’re now married to, in a way you hoped you’d only see much later in your relationship. 
“It had to be someone within the palace,” Sokka states. “The gates were too heavily guarded for anyone to get in from the outside.” 
“But how could they commit a murder without being seen?” Aang wonders. “There were too many people around for something like that to go unnoticed.” 
“That’s just the thing,” Katara counters. “There were enough people to create a big enough distraction that nobody saw until whoever did it wanted us to.” 
“And we’re absolutely positive it was that specific guy who was the target?” Sokka proposes. “It wasn’t just a random attack to make a statement against the whole government?” 
“No,” Zuko chimes in. “They meant to kill him. When I proposed making someone from outside the Fire Nation queen, he was the only one in favor of the idea. He convinced the rest of the board to support me.” 
“Do you think maybe they wanted to make a statement against just you, then?” Aang asks. 
“It wasn’t just a statement,” you tell him, speaking for the first time since entering the room. Everyone turns their heads towards you; the only one who doesn’t show any surprise is Zuko. “It was a threat, meant for both of us.” 
“And probably on behalf of Ozai or Azula,” Toph adds. 
“Do you think he’d really still have followers within the palace?” Katara questions. “Everyone who served him was imprisoned after the war.”
“It’s possible,” Zuko responds. “My father radicalized more people than we could possibly know of. I expected his resistance at some point.” 
“If Ozai intended to stage any resistance, he would have done it much more gruesomely,” Iroh interjects. “He wouldn’t have wasted time with threats. He would have killed one or both of you, if not everyone in attendance tonight.” 
“But who else could hold that much of a grudge against not only the Fire Nation, but the alliance with an outsider?” Sokka asks. 
“It could be someone from the Water Tribe,” you suggest. Your words are deadpanned and grim. “It’s very possible they see this as another form of colonization.”
“Nobody else from either tribe is here, though,” Katara says. “It’s just me and Sokka.”
“I don’t think they’d be here officially if they planned to kill someone,” Aang reasons. “If it was someone from the Water Tribe, they’re probably in disguise.” 
“They couldn’t have been,” Sokka replies. “They’d have to have been inside the palace, and nobody got in without official documentation.” 
“Our concern right now should not be the manhunt,” Iroh speaks up in his firm, tepid way. “It should be the safety of our loved ones; our lord and lady especially.” 
“He’s right,” Toph agrees. She stands, placing a hand on your shoulder. “I think she should stay with me tonight. I have the best chance of seeing someone and stopping them before they can do any harm.” 
“She’s staying with me,” Zuko quips. 
The entire room falls into a heavy silence, the air itself seeming to drop to the floor. Everyone stares at Zuko in shock, yourself included. 
“We’re married,” he explains. “It’s our responsibility to look after each other. She’ll stay with me in my chambers.” 
Five sets of eyes shift to focus on you. You meet Zuko’s gaze, the steely determination within them only serving to remind you of the bond you now share. You nod, keeping your eyes locked with his as you speak. 
“It’s okay,” you affirm. “I’ll stay with him.”
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After a few more minutes of deliberation, everyone parts ways for the night - Sokka is sent with Katara and Aang to provide them extra defense, and Toph goes with you and Zuko, moved to the guest chamber just outside his sleeping quarters so she can monitor any movement that happens during the night. 
You follow Zuko into his rooms, arms linked together in a mutual nervous embrace. His chambers are divided into three spaces; two rooms connected by a sitting room and a large, covered porch. Zuko leads you down a short hall off the right side of the sitting room, opening a set of doors to reveal an ornate bedroom - your things rest at the foot of the four poster bed, your sleeping clothes already laid out on the mattress. 
“This used to be a sunroom,” Zuko tells you. “But I had it converted into a bedroom. I figured it would be weird sleeping together, but also weird keeping you in your own wing across the palace, so… this seemed like a good way to be close to each other without making it too awkward.” 
You squeeze his arm in a gentle, appreciative hug, turning to look up at him. 
“Thank you,” you say. “I really appreciate all you’ve done for me.” 
Zuko nods, laying one of his hands over where yours rests on his bicep.
“Let’s get changed,” he murmurs. “I’ll call for some tea and we can try to have a normal night.” 
He leaves you, and you draw the curtains of the room’s sweeping windows so you can dress in peace; one side overlooks a garden courtyard, while the other gives a view of the ocean beyond the palace’s farthest wall. The sights are stunning, but the suspense you feel building in the pit of your stomach makes it hard to enjoy them in full. 
Your hands shake as you undress, letting the layers of your wedding robes drop to the floor and leave you naked at the foot of the bed. You stare down at your night dress, the pristine white fabric glaring virginally up at you. You warily slide yourself into it, then cross the room to the vanity that’s been set to the left of the bed. 
You can hardly control the shiver of your fingers as they work the beads out of your hair, taking the freed locks behind your head into the single braid you typically sleep in. You stare at yourself in the mirror, clutching the totems Katara gave you to your chest; your eyes are wide, your cheeks sunken, your knuckles white. A small voice, somewhere in the far reaches of your mind where the sound can hardly carry, tells you to have faith in your new husband; he’s treated you with nothing but kindness since even before the moment you set foot on his soil, and has showed nothing but the utmost respect for you - he wouldn’t be the man your family loved and trusted with your life if he shifted his behavior in such a sudden, drastic way by forcing you into his bed. 
Despite these cries of reason, all you can hear is the voice of the beautician who prepared you for tonight - she hovers behind you in the mirror, her face contorted into a heinous, scowling grin as she cackles with laughter. She reminds you of the children you’re meant to bear, her nails digging into your shoulders as she goes on to tell you that, as the Firelord’s wife, he’s entitled to all the pleasure your body can give him, and will take it at any cost. 
Your terror turns the man who’s been so endlessly sweet to you into a monster. 
Through the bedroom doors, you hear a servant enter with a tray of tea, followed by Zuko’s gentle voice thanking them. You swallow, taking the strands of beads in your hands and twining them together, forming a necklace which you place over your head and tuck into the front of your night dress. After a few deep, quivering breaths, you stand, making your way out to the shared sitting room. 
Zuko sits on the side of the room closest to his bedroom, head turned towards the now lit fireplace and eyes lost within its glow, his gaze distant and glazed with worry; he snaps back to the present when he notices you enter, giving you a faint, slightly defeated smile. His military uniform has been replaced with a simple set of pajamas and a robe, his long hair free from its knot, now hanging loosely about his shoulders and down his chest; he’s even more handsome this way, his features contoured by the darkness of the room and the light of the fire. You feel a rush of lightheadedness as you lower yourself across from him, nervously returning his smile. 
“Uncle took the liberty of preparing our tea,” Zuko greets you. His voice is soft and welcoming, tinged with a mirth that feels almost ironic given the circumstances. “He didn’t want to subject you to my awful cooking skills so early in the marriage.” 
You huff amusedly, sharing a genuine smile with him as he serves you. You sip the scalding liquid slowly, letting it ease down your throat and warm you from the inside out; it relaxes you, the shaking in your limbs disappearing. 
“I’m glad we have him,” you say. “I don’t think we’d know what to do with ourselves otherwise.” 
Zuko chuckles, his grin causing a manic tremble to erupt in your chest. 
“He’s definitely the romantic one in the family,” he agrees. “He hasn’t stopped talking about you since he met you. I think if he were forty years younger, he’d have married you before I could.” 
You giggle, a timid blush coloring your cheeks. 
“I never thought I’d be so popular among Fire Nation men,” you tease. 
Zuko smiles, wistfully and exhaustedly, letting out a soft breath of laughter; you can tell the nights events anchor his thoughts. 
“I’m sorry tonight ended the way it did,” he tells you. “I wanted your arrival to be a source of happiness for our people. Maybe I was too hopeful.” 
You sigh heavily, running a finger along the brim of your teacup as he meets your eyes; you can tell he blames himself for what happened. 
“A hundred years of hatred doesn’t end in a decade,” you console him. “It isn’t just here, either - many people in the Water Tribe feel just as divisive as people do here.” 
You cautiously reach forward and take his hand, letting your thumb stroke over his knuckles. His fingers tighten around your palm, and you can feel every callous and scar that marks his alabaster skin. 
“We have to stand together,” you say. “We have to show the world that we can overcome the past; that things are different now, for the better.” 
Zuko nods, raising the back of your hand to his lips and pressing a light, tender kiss to the knuckle of your forefinger. He smiles faintly, letting his mouth linger on the bone for a long moment before placing your hand back where it was on his knee, still twined with his. 
“I really did make the right choice in a queen,” he muses. Heat spreads across your skin, your lips curling up slightly at his endearing remark. 
“It’s late,” Zuko says after a beat, letting his fingers slip away from yours. “We should both get some rest.” 
He stands, leaning over you and placing a docile hand at the back of your head. Your heart leaps from your chest and into your throat, your fingers curling to grip the skirt of your night dress as anxiety rushes to your head. You deny every instinct you have that tells you to fend him off. If this is when he chooses to take you, you have no choice but to go willingly - you can’t form any rifts in a relationship that’s already somewhat fragile, especially when doing so would mean driving a wedge through the center of an already divided country. 
Zuko lowers himself and rests his lips to your forehead, etching the phantom of a kiss just below your hairline; he parts almost as soon as he arrives, leaving you dazed and flustered in his wake. 
“Sleep well,” he murmurs, offering his arm to help you to your feet. You accept it, feeling much smaller beside him than you did only hours before. “I’ll see you in the morning.” 
You each return to your respective bedrooms, your legs floating towards your bed of their own accord and dropping you backward onto the mattress. You stare up at the sheer, billowing canopy hung from the ceiling as the shivering in your limbs returns, your body completely unable to accommodate with what your mind can barely seem to process. 
He didn’t force himself onto you. He didn’t violate the comfort between you simply for the sake of tradition and lineage. The extreme relief you feel is overwhelming, so much so that you think you might throw up or faint. 
You fall asleep to the sound of the ocean beyond the palace walls, the danger that looms within them doing little to deter the peace that washes over you as you drift into a pleasant dream.
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lixiefe · 4 years
Text
Can’t Touch - k.sm
Chapter Seventeen: Can You Fix Yourself?
Words: 1.8k
Warning: angst, also even though it’s my sole reason for doing this, don’t hate yourself hAhA. 
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“You’re improving quite drastically. Your condition doesn’t seem to be severe at all anymore, it’s more like natural discomfort that timid people have. I think if you avoid any possible compulsions and go through the final appointments, you’ll be very much okay. Just so you know, that doesn’t mean you can go around touching everyone.”
“What do you mean?”
“People you don’t know or you aren’t comfortable with can trigger you a bit, but that’s as far as it’s gonna go. I assure you, you won’t be having compulsive symptoms anymore. But if you do, make sure to inform me. No one knows what can and what can’t happen. ”
“So, in other words, this remains incurable.”
“Of course not. You’re free to love your wife as much as you want because she’s someone you hold precious. You and I both know you have to go gradually. If that’s what you’re worried about. But,”
“But what,”
“Just try to avoid panic attacks this month. We don’t want that. Just to make you more comfortable with yourself. Alright?”
“I see...”
And that’s what has been circling around Seungmin’s head throughout the entirety of the day. He has been able to sidestep any elongated touches until now and it’d been going pretty smooth for him. Even though he feels as if holding your warm hands in his isn’t going to trigger any possible compulsions, he didn’t want to risk it. And so, he’s tried avoiding the lightest of touches.
The past two months had been a memorable, relishing experience for Seungmin. He’s remembered all the slight contacts, the brush of your fingers and the mellow warmth of your skin. And the amount of happiness that refused to fall from your face with every banter, every little conversations and every proliferating smiles . He remembered the snug kitchen mornings. When he’d have his face right beside yours and pretend to sniffle in the smell, when in reality he’s just wanted to get you flustered. Or when he let one of his hands fall to your waist, above the apron; although he doubted you noticed it. Or when his hands brushed yours in your playful jests of who will wash the dishes, he didn’t flinch away; again, he doubted you noticed it in the heat of the moment.
His secretive night kisses continued as if it’d become a habit. His nightly forehead pecks and admiring smiles were personal secrets he wanted to confine within himself, the mute gazing moon and the chirping crickets. It was rare for him to have direct contact with you, since your supposedly ‘accidental’ touches included a barrier of one or more fabrics. He was more than happy with it. He felt like he was finally conquering his mind, felt like it wasn’t his mind that controlled him.
He missed those moments more than anything and reminisced the little moments of bliss that’d entrapped him. Because of that, he ended up blurting all those things to his friend in 2x speed, who sometimes cringed and expressed his jealousy over being single. Which brought both of them to another revelation that the mighty Han Jisung had the fattest crush on one of the interns that successfully made it inside the company. The joy on the boy’s face was visible; and Seungmin simply laughed his way through the others misery. Because Jisung had never been so conflicted over winning a girl.
Jisung cheered for those rare times Seungmin patted him on the back and assured him he was handsome enough; even though crazily unique.
It was until yesterday, that Seungmin noticed something off in your behavior. His tendencies of getting overly worried worked their best and he was dead terrified.
On the other side,
You were going through a stressful phase. Even though you’d stayed away from potential pressure as to not get dragged into the facet of reasonless frustration, it was futile. However, you still stood to your opinion on being neutral and oppose against your own mind that you were ‘doing fine’, ‘there’s nothing wrong’. Your studies were getting to you as well. You kept getting side-tracked in the middle of the class, off to thinking about your husband and facing the casualties; which were the downfall of your grades.
You were utterly stressed. And all you wanted was to sit close to your husband, just to feel his presence and rant it all out. But Seungmin seemed to dislike spending longer time with you. Anytime you tried to get close, he’d get up to an important call and you’d be left with your pulsating head again. You hated this.
The thoughts that you were unwanted and unloved by him of all people was making you consider your mothers proposal of divorce. It was established before the marriage that if you solely couldn’t keep it going, you had free will to ask for a divorce. It was like a contract, a contract to justify their ‘promise’ as ‘okay, they have choices’. But you quickly shoved those notions away. You wanted to give him the space he needed to heal.
“Trust me, he’s doing his best.” 
These seemed like hollow, empty words. Because it was getting aggravating for you. And you were in no state of mind to be considerate or try to understand him with a rational thinking. Because, right now, your brain was a frenzy, in uncontrollable chaos that overpowered you. And it was close to impossible for one to realize that they’re being driven by their emotions, no matter how understanding they believed they were. And before they knew it, it was done and they’d screwed up.
It was the same for you too. So, the decisions of giving him his time shooed away into thin air.
Seungmin had come back home, immediately shooting you a bright smile, which you returned with a minimal stretch of your lips. He seemed rather worried as he took in your appearance, immediately noticing too much into the scrunch of your face than you’d wanted him to.
“Something’s up?” he asked gently as he came to sit beside you, with a noticeable huge gap in between. Looking at him, you sensed some of your agitations fade away. Maybe, he’s the same, maybe you’re reading too much into it. If you get close, he won’t scoot away. Maybe.
You decided to try one last time, one last time. It won’t cost anything, right?
“I am--” you started, sitting closer as you attempted to put a hand on his thigh, which you knew he usually didn’t mind, for the sake of those times. But as soon as your hand neared him, he backed away, distancing himself from you and- the hopes you’d had. He fumbled with his words, with eyes that couldn’t even look at you. 
You couldn’t help the hurt that displayed on your face.
“I-I will be right back. Just need to wash up.” He uttered, hastily getting up. You watched his figure as he walked away into the hallway, leaving you alone with your negative thoughts subjugating the hopes you’d had. You couldn’t endure it anymore. He was showing signs of getting better, but then, all of a sudden, its all back to square one. But why? Did you do anything wrong? Did you ever go overboard? Or did he realise it wasn’t working?
You needed a break and you needed to give him a break as well. To organize both your thoughts.
With your impetuosity working their best, you packed your little side-bag of necessities that included your mobile charger and a few other things that you’d need. With that, you went back to the living room, only to see your husband pacing around the carpets; chewing on his fingernails.
As soon as your footsteps were audible for him, he looked up almost instantly. His monolid eyes lighted up as he motioned you to sit, but you didn’t comply. You only stood there with best impassivity. His eyes trailed down to your hips, noticing the pouch of your side-bag immediately. Seungmin looked into your eyes as confusion vanquished the subtle curve of his brows. You knew his words from his eyes, from his quenched brows. There was so need of voicing out anything. “I want to leave.” You said, loud and clear, emotionless.
The first thing that came into Seungmin’s mind was that you wanted to break up- in your case, you were considering potential divorce. That probability gave chills to him. He was frozen. You looked hurt, it was believable for anyone if they saw you, to say that your leave sounded a lot like parting. But it was unbearable.
“But why?” he asked, voice slightly shaky.
“I just- I need a break.” -from you. You wanted to say. But that seemed cruel, brutish to say that to someone like him . You saw him take hasty steps towards you, eyes unsteady yet fixated on you. Seeing him, it only reminded you of all the times you wanted to forget, to overlook, to think it’s okay, he’s not like others. And you wanted to leave as soon as possible, without hurting neither of you.
“Did I do something wrong? I-”
“What if I say yes?” you snapped. Seungmin seemed to be taken aback, startled at your newfound honesty that seemed harsher because of your indeterminate expression. At that moment, Seungmin knew that his distance with you was not taken naturally. Only a few more days and he could become like any other normal and affectionate husband to you. Just a few more days and he’d have been just fine, acting like a newlywed lovesick couple with you. He couldn’t let you go. Not when he needed you the most.
“Tell me, I’ll fix it. I’ll fix it for you.” Your husband pleaded. If it was any other time, you’d have melted and deemed yourself selfish; so utterly self-centered. But it wasn’t really you right now. Your emotions had long taken over you and his false guarantee only infuriated you further. Your mind yelled at you to not believe him because he was lying- it can’t be the truth. It forced you to think of just anything to get out of here, get away from him, away from the hurt.
“Can you fix this? Can you fix yourself?” you yelled. Your insensitive retort rendered him totally speechless. He stuttered in his steps, shining eyes staring at you with such grief that it made your insides churn. His mouth wavered to find an answer but nothing came out, only hushed gasps that formulated through his jumbled thoughts.
You felt a sting of pain run through your chest. You finally did it. You did the last thing you ever wanted to do; you hurt him. It only made you feel worse about yourself. You felt like a cruel human being, so brutal, so crude. You couldn’t bear to be here anymore, you couldn’t bear to see him anymore. 
You stormed straightaway through the door, without looking back.
Seungmin stood still in the middle of his now deserted living room, trying to process what just happened. He stood there, unblinking, until his nerves reached his heart with a wrenching pain. It was all his fault. It was his fault that he failed to show you his improvement and only managed to instill that you weren’t worth fighting for. But god, only he knew how much he struggled for you. Only he knew the times he spent confronting himself. It was all for you.
But he was a failure. He lost you.
He was so eager on planning his first touch, his first hug, his first kiss. But what was the purpose anymore, when the woman he’d given his heart to was gone?
Without his permission, a shriek left his lips, wanting the loud overlapping thoughts to go away.
 To my moon, I fell for you to rise For you to shine in your dazzling light And I stared at your dark-side Wondering when I will meet you again. When I’ll give you your morning kiss In the horizon of sea and mountains And tell you I love you
But will I?
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masked-buffoon · 4 years
Text
Chapter 1: Preying in the dark (Part 1)
Warnings: mentions of murder, murder attempt, mentions of parricide, heavy language
Disclaimers : I do not own any of the BSD characters, only my OC and a few other ones created for the purpose of this story.
Author notes: finally, here is the first part of the first chapter, the very first introduction to my story! If you can’t wait, feel free to read it on AO3 ;)
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I was cold, I was hungry, I was tired, and I was purposelessly wandering in the streets of Yokohama, looking for some place to stay. Above me, the pale full moon shone darkly, making the night all the more sinister and the silence incredibly tended. There was a lingering feeling of danger in the air which made me shiver, but I could not pay too much attention to it. Whatever were to occur, there was no place I could run to, no refuge I could seek to hide, nowhere I could go to rest. I was alone, by myself, in thrall to the unknown and unsafe world without even a light to guide my steps. I was lost.
"You don't belong there, you scum. Get out of my house! Filthy garbage!"
The last words I had heard from the man whose blood ran into my vessels still echoed in my ears. They had been the very start of my demise, but also the beginning of my freedom. Although I was starving and exhausted by precariousness, I was free from that cage, from that place where I had spent my entire childhood. I had never known more than the four walls of my bedroom. My fifteen first years had been spent recluse, curled up under the blanket of a bed with a book on the pillow. Would it not have been for literature, I would have been completely oblivious to the world. I would have naively followed that older man, the other day, who had kindly offered to welcome me. I would have stupidly been caught stealing in a supermarket. I would have dumbly sold my body to a brothel in order to survive. Really, I was fortunate to have read this much. At the very least, I was aware of the ways of the world and knew that money ruled it, supreme, powerful, creating selfishness and making parents abandon their child out of greed. I sighed slightly and let myself slump down on the cold concrete ground. I had been walking around with an empty stomach for a week. Maybe was it time for me to give up and make my way to the slums. No one could make a living in the back alleys of Yokohama, unless one sold oneself or got involved in drugs.
Exactly seven days ago, I had been chased from my family. I had had a feeling, lately, that my time would come, that these people would throw me away at any time, and I had not been wrong. In broad daylight, at around ten in the morning, the doors of the mansion had closed forever behind my shaking back, and I had been abandoned like a dog its owners did not want anymore. Like any stray animal, I had first roamed around the house, hoping it was a bad joke, hoping perhaps they would not be as heartless as to ditch their older daughter with no further thoughts. I had prayed that there was still a trace of humanity left in those monsters playing my family, but unfortunately, it was in vain. They had sent the butler, who, because he was the only one to actually care about me, had scared me off with a firearm instead of shooting at me. Treated like a nuisance, I had had no choice but to run away and escape that madness. Why had it come to such extremities? I believed it was related to the fact I had hold a revolver toward the father, aiming at his chest, out of anger. In fact, this action had triggered these events, had unraveled the morbid plans the man had been plotting. What was one supposed to do upon hearing a man delightfully boasting about disinheriting his child and sending her in the streets to her death? It had gone on for ten whole minutes, during which he had explained his wife he simply could not kill me with his own hands because it would attract the police's attention and he did not want his reputation to be ruined. I had wondered if he had thought about ruining his reputation when he had called members of the Port Mafia to sign a contract, a month ago. I had kept listening to his disgusting words. His wife had never been the active one. She could never have stood against her husband, could never have done a thing for me and had only ever been good at wearing pretty kimonos and nodding at the man's gross statement. The younger me had believed she was simply scared and did not dare going against the fat man. The younger me had believed so strongly this mother loved me, and had been deceived. Had she loved me, she would have at least tried to see me in secret. There had been plenty of opportunities to sneak inside the room, to talk to me, to take me in her arms, to kiss me and comfort me, but I had never seen her. Never, ever. These gestures, she only gave to my younger, Ruriko-chan, whose smile had never failed to soothe my painful heart. I was not jealous, simply disappointed in the people who called themselves my family. As the man's loathsome laugh had echoed in the living room, I had calmly walked toward a drawer in the corridor and had grabbed a pocket revolver he had been hiding for years. Stating I had only known my room was, in fact, a false statement, for I had been allowed to come out a year ago, on my fourteenth birthday, when Ruriko-chan had pulled me out forcefully despite the parents' disapproval. How the matter had been solved, I was not sure about it. Maybe had she succeeded in convincing the mother. Since that day, I had explored the corridors of the mansion and had accidentally found the gun. With the weapon in my hand, I had made my way inside the living room, mind and eyes empty, and had mechanically pointed it toward the gruesome pig in front of me. Luckily for the panicking him, my aim had been poor and the bullet had barely missed his empty skull to land into the expensive vase behind him. I had been tempted to shoot another time, but the recoil provoked by my first try had propelled me on the floor and my arms had felt too tired to raise again.
"My vase!" He had yelled "You useless piece of sh*t!! Do you know how much that thing costs?!"
A sudden anger had overwhelmed me and I had leaned onto the nearest couch to stand up, before pointing the barrel toward my own head. I had wanted to know if I was more valuable than a furniture, which I thought was stupid as I recalled the scene. He had only huffed, waving his hand in a much disinterested manner, while his woman had jumped on me to take the weapon away from my hands.
"Yōko, you can't do that...!" She had seized the revolver "You can't do that, my daughter..."
"Don't call me that." I had slapped her hand away "Don't bother with your hypocrite words. I know what you were talking about a moment ago and, surely, I will not do you the pleasure of taking my own life. You disgust me, all of you."
Afterwards, I had locked myself in my room for three days. By the end of that short period of time, I had been abandoned, discarded in the streets. Which had brought me to the current situation.
Why did my parents loathe me so? It could seem out of the world to reject one's own offsprings. Even the most fierce animal would raise its kids. Then, why? The reason was the fact I was an ability user. Although many considered power to be a blessing, mine was a curse, which gnawed at my life, chewed on my health and weakened me by depriving me of sleep. My ability enabled me to read people's mind within a certain range. However, it was impossible for me to control it and thus restrain it, which was why I could constantly hear everyone's thoughts without being able to stop them. Because of that, the father, a businessman with many secrets, called me a freak, and the mother did nothing to arrange the situation, always darting her eyes away and avoiding troubles. How I had survived for fifteen years old with a constant headache and insomnia, which did not help my state, remained a mystery, mostly when the so-called parents, wealthy, so rich they threw money through the window by buying expensive antiques and trinkets, had refused to spend a yen in pain relievers or at least sleeping pills. It was a given that children were to respect their parents, who despite hardships, despite troubles of their own, had raised them. Mine had never even thought about feeding me, and had it not been for the butler, I would have starved, forgotten, aliterate and miserable in my room.
I had often thought, during the previous week, that if only I had successfully killed the man, I could have maybe improved my life. Once the selfish and greedy parasite would have been eliminated, perhaps the mother would have hugged me and cried how much she would have loved to do that sooner. Once the master of the house would have been dead, perhaps I would have been the happiest teenager in Yokohama, despite becoming a murderer. A murderer... It was nonsensical to me that people killing their fellows had to suffer greater punishment than those hurting others for years, just like what I had been through. Had I killed him, I would have been charged a criminal and would have ended up in prison for my entire life, for, underage, I could not receive death sentence. However, had his torture been discovered, he would have experimented a few years in jail before coming out freely as though nothing had never happened. That injustice, the unfair laws people had created, added to the torment my ability created and I found myself more restless than usual. Letting out a sigh, I stood up from the cold concrete I was sitting on and slowly dragged my feet toward the slums. I did not know what I was supposed to do at the moment, nor what I was able to accomplish in my state, but, surely, the shallows would provide a safer shelter than the cruel back alleys of the town.
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