#this is definitely not being dramatic shhhhhh | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

eskalations · 3 years

Text

"I've always known that I was a big target for them - almost as big as Erwin himself - but I never thought they would go after my own daughter." Levi released a dark chuckle at this, closing his eyes in disbelief. 'I can't believe my stupidity. The Titans have cut down families before, I don't know what made me think that mine would be any different."

(Rivetra AU where Petra is a pediatric nurse and Levi is a single father)

Hello! Wow oh wow! I haven't written since August and this oneshot definitely made it more obvious. Originally it was only supposed to be about 5,000 words but it soon grew into the monster that it is now. Will it stay a oneshot forever? I don't know...but for now, it is what it is! Editing this was a nightmare, so I apologize for any missed mistakes, as well as my poor writing skills that have been underutilized for quite some time.

I hope regardless of that, you will still enjoy this! I just finished AOT and this couple's story absolutely gripped my heart. Here you go, Rivetra fandom!

As always, reviews are MUCH appreciated. So please be sure to tell me what you think!

Petra Ral was NOT having a good day.

While she had been a night nurse for several years now, her penchant for making rookie mistakes was almost as bad as it had been when she started. Upon crashing into bed at seven this morning, she had completely forgotten to set her alarm for later in the day. Hence, why she was running through the streets of Paradis like a madwoman.

Her co-workers were less than impressed with her dramatic entry onto the ward. Nanaba was glaring at her over the top of the counter, while Nifa bristled from beside the employee water tower.

"Really, Petra?" The spunky redhead commented in a low, disapproving tone - watching as the other ginger woman threw her bag down onto the floor beneath the desk and hurriedly began to punch in her time. "This oversleeping thing is getting pretty old, considering it's six in the afternoon, not six in the morning."

Petra held back a growl as she fumbled with her card, sticking it into the machine but not getting any response due to the shakiness of insertion. Finally, she heard a click and withdrew the parchment. With her heart still racing like mad after her dash up the stairs, she dropped in exhaustion into a vacant chair.

“You say that - “ Petra spoke for the first time since entering Paradis Hospital, her usual chipper voice hoarse from her ragged breathing. “ - but you’re not the one who worked a 12-hour shift yesterday. You were too busy working on that boyfriend of yours to even - "

“Shhhhhh!” Nifa’s face glowed scarlet as she shushed the young woman, her pale skin heating at the vulgar comment. Nanaba just laughed quietly at her friend’s embarrassment, turning her attention back to the file in front of her. All the nurses and doctors bustling about around the counter paid the girls no mind, used to the familiar banter between the three.

"Say what you want about Nifa's love life," Nanaba bristled, pulling out another form from the file in front of her for closer observation. The blonde's eyes cut towards Petra, disapproval evident in her tone. "But your the one who's late today. We had a pretty intense case come into the ward too from emergency."

“What?!” Petra yelped, her nurse’s instincts kicking in instantly at Nananba’s words. Despite her still heaving chest, the young woman sat up straighter to observe the report that was being handed over to her. “Is the child okay?”

"She's stable." Nanaba offered, turning back to the folder on her desk to grab a few more forms. "However, she's going to need to be watched closely throughout the night. The poor thing was stabbed and the blade had poison on it."

Petra wished she could act shocked, but she wasn’t. Paradis Hospital received several stab cases a day due to the gang violence in the area. The Titans certainly weren’t pulling any of their punches when it came to looting. Regardless of whether their victim was eight or eighty, they would steal from anyone with a bit of coin in their pocket.

Stabbings weren't super common on the pediatric ward, but common enough that all the staff who bustled about barely batted an eye at the thought of such an injury being treated on the floor.

"She's already been stitched up and the antidote for the poison has been administered - but, the emergency department sent her up here for monitoring, just in case she relapses," Nifa explained, now leaning over the counter to read the forms Nanaba still held in her hands. The blonde threw her an exasperated look.

“She’s not your patient, so stop being so damn nosy.”

"Well, I've never - " Nifa scoffed at the blonde's scathing tone, though Petra could hear the amusement behind it. "Sorry, for wanting to dedicate my life for the next 12-hours to a hot man with a nice - oh, I mean to a sweet little girl with a -"

"Nifa!" Petra exclaimed, catching on to what the young woman was implying. "Don't tell me you're trying to hit on a little girl's father while she's bedridden in the hospital! Have you no shame?"

“Not really!”

Even Nanaba laughed at Nifa's answer.

"Well, too bad for you, since you have a boyfriend." The blonde reminded her, to which the red-headed nurse simply stuck out her tongue. " - and Petra has been assigned to be her nurse."

“Me?” Petra had the gall to act surprised, but her friends simply rolled their eyes at her modest response.

“Oh please!" Nifa sighed, crossing her arms over the counter to once again lean closer to the girls on the other side. One of the older doctors, a man with grey hair and spectacles, eyed her disapprovingly as he passed. Nifa didn't even spare him a glance. "While you may be a notorious flake when it comes to arriving on time, it's no secret that they entrust you with the higher priority cases on the ward."

Nifa was right - it wasn't a secret. Since graduating at the top of her class in nursing school, she had always been highly respected for not only her knowledge but bedside manner, as well. Just last year, she had received an award for having the highest satisfaction rate on her floor. Now, if only she could show up to work on time…

“- he’s really short, but his eyes - wow!" Petra was brought back from her thoughts by Nifa's words. Nanaba was shaking her head as she wrote a note down in one of her patient files, trying to tune out the girl's excessive praise. "He's got that rough around the edges look, yet is put together and clean and - "

"I hate to cut you off in the middle of your fantasy - " Petra commented before standing and collecting the patient papers from the desk. "- but I have patients to take care of."

Nifa's mouth popped open in shock, her expression quickly turning to one of disbelief at the sight of Petra's teasing look.

“Says the girl who was LATE!”

Petra chuckled, shrugging her shoulders as she rushed off to her first patient's room, ready to begin her shift with newfound energy. Despite her exhaustion from the night before and the soreness in her limbs, she couldn't approach the job she loved with anything less than excitement and positivity.

Maybe it would be a good day after all.

Upon entering Heidi Ackerman's room twenty minutes later though, Petra was once again lamenting the horrible luck that seemed to be plaguing her during the past twenty-four hours.

It wasn't the child who was causing her such discomfort, but her father.

After having checked on and familiarizing herself with the low-risk patients she had been assigned, Petra finally decided to introduce herself to the latest Titan's stab victim that was residing on her ward. Checking the young girl's forms before entering the room, the nurse noticed that the child was due for a round of medication soon anyways.

‘Perfect,' Petra thought to herself while turning the knob of the door. 'If I take care of her medications now, I won’t have to return for another hour and then I can go check on - ‘

Petra's thoughts were interrupted by the sight that met her upon entry to the room.

Nifa wasn’t kidding - the guy was short. Like, really short.

Petra rarely met a male anywhere close to her height - so, the short stature of the figure that stood by the lone window of the room, instantly caught her attention.

The second thing that caught her attention? His looks.

While the man was certainly not attractive by societal standards, his piercing gaze was enough to stop any woman in her path. His eyes were grey and heavily hooded by pale white lids and beneath his stare, lay two dark bags that spoke of a restless nature. Despite the blatant signs of exhaustion, his dark hair lay near perfect across his forehead, the shaved lower half of it buzzed in an undercut fashion.

He was captivating and terrifying all at once.

“Oi, are you just going to stand there?”

His gravelly, low voice broke her from her analysis, jolting her back to reality as he shifted his posture to a more casual stance. Whereas he once stood rigid, he now placed a hand on his hip and schooled his features to resemble something more akin to indifference.

Realizing she had never responded, Petra suddenly jumped into action.

"Oh!" She smiled awkwardly, not quite feeling like her usual self. Typically, talking to patients and their families wasn't so difficult for her, but this guy was unlike her usual clientele. He practically exuded indifference and didn't look very interested in receiving an answer to what she had to assume was a rhetorical question - but Petra did not care. "Hello, my name's Petra Ral, I'll be the night nurse for Miss Heidi."

As if saying her name had reminded her of exactly why she was standing there in the first place, Petra turned her smiling face towards the bed, trying not to show her concern as her gaze fell on the small child.

Heidi Ackerman at five years old had experienced more pain in the past several hours than some adults would face in their entire lifetime. While the child's sweet features could still be seen over the top of the crisp white blankets, the pained lines of her forehead spoke of a quiet distress that had taken a hold of her and refused to let go.

Petra ached to go towards her - however, a snide remark from the man on the other side of the room had her pausing.

“You’re going to attend my child looking like that?” Disgust was evident in the man’s tone as he gave her a once over from top to bottom. “Ever heard of an iron?”

The young woman could feel her face go red at his comment, her eyes glancing down at the outfit she typically wore during her shift - a white nurses uniform, tights, and white slip-ons. The front of her outfit was pristine white - however, the bottom of her skirt had a set of small wrinkles. Petra went redder as she realized that in her confusion to get dressed after having slept in, she had picked up her uniform from the previous night that had been lying atop of the hamper.

Most people wouldn't even have noticed her slightly used uniform, but somehow this man had called her out on it, despite it only having had a few wrinkles of use embedded in the fabric.

Petra was furious. Of course, she wasn't going to show it, since she was a professional - but she couldn’t help but bite back, even if it was just a little.

“Yeah - well you aren’t looking too good either, so I guess we're even.”

The man cocked an eyebrow at her comment, before looking down at himself to see what she was talking about.

In Petra's defense, she hadn't actually looked at the man's clothes. When she had entered the room, she had been so distracted by his face, that she hadn't even gotten the opportunity. But, as he looked down at himself in search of the reason for her comment, Petra was able to give him a once over too. After examining his outfit of choice, Petra had to bite back a groan from the error of her comment.

He was dressed immaculately, wearing a dark brown leather jacket with a white shirt underneath and a pair of slender black jeans on the bottom. On his feet, were a pair of shiny, black combat boots that looked as though they had been polished that very morning.

However, the state of his clothes was not the reason Petra wanted the Earth to swallow her whole. It was the substance on the front of his shirt.

Blood.

“Tch," The man clicked his tongue, having caught sight of the dried, red blood covering his otherwise pristine white shirt. "I guess my child's blood isn't the best accessory to wear, huh?"

Fully embarrassed by her comment, Petra immediately stuck out her hands in defense, forms and all.

“Sir, I’m sorry. I truly didn’t mean - “

“I’m sure.” The words were said with such a quiet finality, that the woman felt her tongue grow heavy in her mouth. Not knowing what else to say, the room fell into an awkward silence that even Petra’s vivacious personality couldn’t conquer.

Perhaps, she had officially met her match.

The man continued to stare at her with his slate-gray eyes as the silence drug on - however, they were both interrupted from their thoughts by a quiet cough coming from the bed.

‘That’s right!’ Petra thought, a newfound energy taking hold of her as she returned her attention to the small patient residing in the bed. ‘She’s the reason I’m here.’

"Sorry, Miss Heidi!" Petra adopted her usual, chipper tone as she approached the child, already glancing at the chart that had been left on the wall at her side. While the form should have match the one she had been given, she wasn't one to cut corners, so she began to read over it to check for any additional information that could have been missed. "Your father and I are rudely neglecting you. Are you in any pain at the moment?"

While most children instantly brightened at the ginger's easygoing bedside manner - Heidi, much like her father, was not acting like a typical patient. Instead of answering, the small, dark-haired girl remained silent, glancing over at the woman with the same hooded gray eyes as her father.

Petra found the whole thing incredibly unnerving. To keep herself busy, she began to check the young girl's vitals. As she glanced over the numbers, she snuck a peek at her charge who still lay silent in the hospital bed.

Despite her lack of response to Petra's earlier question, the woman could see from the lines of distress on the girl's forehead that something was bothering her. She knew from the child's file that she had been slashed with a knife across the stomach and had been on the receiving end of an incredibly deadly poison. There probably wasn't much on her body that didn't hurt at this point.

Although she knew that the young girl must be in pain, the silence continued to grow as the two females in the room kept their gazes locked on the other.

Finally, Heidi turned to her father, who had been watching the scene unfold from his designated spot by the window. The girl's eyes shone with nothing short of fear as she appeared to silently communicate with her father. While the look on the poor child's features caused Petra's heart to clench, the man by the window merely bristled at his daughter's behavior.

"Stop trying to be tough, brat." His voice was rough, the edge in his tone similar to what it had been a minute ago. However, Petra was relieved to note a slight gentleness to his words that hadn't been present in their earlier conversation. "There's no reason to hide your pain if you're feeling any."

While the young nurse imagined any normal child would flinch at such words being thrown at them after having experienced such trauma - Heidi just blinked at her father's comment, almost as if pondering the meaning behind it.

Petra was about to jump in, having seen quite enough of the man's crass attitude towards his daughter, when the little girl finally spoke. Feebly, but with conviction.

“My stomach burns.”

Unlike her father's voice, Heidi had a sweet, slightly high-pitched voice, that would have had Petra cooing, had it not been for the current predicament the child was in.

“That’s to be expected.” The ginger responded understandingly, wanting the girl to know that she was someone she could trust over the next twelve hours. “What if I told you that I have some medicine that could make it feel better? Would you like that, Miss Heidi?”

Heidi hesitated for a moment, pulling the crisp white blanket up to her chin, almost acting like she was ashamed for having to take medicine. However, only a few beats passed before she nodded in response to the young woman's question.

"Perfect!" Petra's smile grew, the genuine kindness that typically radiated from her, shining from the depths of her chestnut eyes. "You're going to need a drink to help you wash down your pills - and I know they may taste a little nasty - so, how about I get you a juice to make it just a little bit better?"

As though a switch had been flipped, Heidi’s pale hands dropped the sheet covering the lower half of her face, revealing a tiny, rosebud mouth opened in shock. The dull gray of her eyes that had been so flat just a few moments ago, sparkled at the prospect of such a treat.

It made Petra’s heart clench once again.

The nurse was about to ask what flavor the girl wanted when her attention was drawn back to the man standing on the other side of the room. He had made a disapproving noise with his tongue as his daughter's face lit up at the thought of the sweet drink.

"Now you've done it." The man chuckled, though there was no real humor behind it. "This girl's favorite thing in the world is sweets. Now she's going to say she's in pain, just so she can get some juice."

“Sir,” Petra responded firmly, her once shining brown eyes hardening at such a careless statement. “I’m sorry, but after what she’s been through today, I think the least we could do is allow her to have some juice.”

The man shrugged his shoulders, raising his brows as though to tell her ‘do what you want’.

Which she would - gladly, in fact.

Turning back towards Heidi, who was now watching her father with a concerned expression, Petra attempted to redirect the girl’s attention.

"What flavor do you want?" That got Heidi's head swiveling back towards her. "I have cherry, grape, apple, orange, or watermelon."

“Uhhhh - “ Heidi pondered over her choices, looking up at the ceiling as though the answer would be there. After a few moments of thinking it over, the girl finally glanced back at the nurse waiting anxiously by her bedside. “I guess...cherry?”

“Excellent choice!” Petra agreed, readying herself to leave the room, but stopping dead in her tracks when hearing Heidi’s little voice again.

“Is that okay, Daddy?”

Petra watched as the little girl turned to her father, gauging his reaction for some kind of approval. The nurse waited with bated breath as the man simply stared back at the child, giving no indication of his approval either way.

Just when he was opening his mouth to give Heidi an answer - Petra jumped in, tired of witnessing the power dynamic in front of her.

“Your Daddy’s not the one drinking the juice, Heidi - so, I’m sure your choice is of no real consequence to him. Isn’t that right, Mr. Ackerman?”

There was a challenge in her tone, the words laced with borderline rudeness as she stared down the man across the room from her. Never in her life had she been so sharp with a patient nor a patient's family - however, she guessed there was no day like today. If she was going to get fired due to bad conduct, at least let it be because she stood up for a child who seemed to be in want of an advocate.

What reaction she was expecting to get from the man, she did not know - but it certainly wasn't a smirk.

He was smirking at her.

The silence stretched on for a few more seconds, the man's thin lips holding that frustrating smirk in place. He watched her as though waiting for what she was going to do next, but instead of shrinking under his gaze, she simply crossed her arms over her chest, ready to stand her ground.

Once the older Ackerman noticed Heidi’s head swiveling from side to side, watching their reactions, he released another tired, breathy chuckle.

“That’s right, Miss Ral.”

Petra hated to admit it - but, even after exiting the room, her legs continued to shake as she made her way down the hall. The trembles soon transferred into her hands as she poured the little girl a glass of cherry juice.

Upon re-entering the room, the first thing Petra noticed was that Mr. Ackerman had moved from what she thought was going to be his permanent spot in the room. He now stood by his daughter where she lay in her hospital bed, speaking quietly to her about something that the nurse couldn’t hear.

The second he saw her walk through the door, he quickly quieted - his lips returning to the thin line of indifference that she had become acquainted with, not too long ago. Choosing to ignore the strange atmosphere that settled over the room at such a blatant display of secrecy, Petra smiled brightly towards the child lying in the bed.

She was her priority.

“Alright, Miss Heidi!” Petra chirped happily, trying her best to return to the usual persona that she emulated while within the walls of the hospital. “Time for your medicine! If you could just sit up for me - “

The girl began to shift higher up in the bed, struggling to prop herself up against the pillows that lay behind her. Petra rushed to find somewhere to set the glass of juice down so that she could help her patient - however, she was beaten to it.

The girl's father placed his hands underneath her armpits, slowly pulling her back towards the head of the bed. After she was situated a little bit higher, he released his grip on her before tugging at the pillows to arrange them in a fashion that was more comfortable for her. Though he moved with purpose, his actions held a tenderness that Petra was surprised to see. If this was an unusual occurrence for Heidi, she certainly didn't show it on her tired, yet grateful features.

“Thank you, Daddy.”

The man grunted in response, patting his hand on the pillow behind her head one more time before moving his hands back to his pockets.

Petra’s brow rose in response to the uncharacteristic helpfulness she had just witnessed, but she tried to school her features in a way that didn’t show her surprise.

“Well - “ The woman cleared her throat, before handing the glass of juice over to the girl, to give herself time to retrieve the pills she had placed in the pocket at the front of her dress. “Hopefully, your pain will lessen after you take these.”

Heidi gave a shy nod at the woman’s words, looking warily at the pills. Noticing the child’s hesitance, the older Ackerman reached for the cup of juice in her shaking hands. With the movement of his arm, Petra watched as the cuff of his jacket slid up and over the skin of his wrist.

She couldn’t hide her surprise at what she saw branded there.

It was a ‘Wings of Freedom’ tattoo.

This man was a part of the Survey Corps.

It wasn’t that Petra had never interacted with an SC member before, it was just that they normally didn’t frequent this side of the hospital. Most of them didn’t have children and, even if they did, most of them wouldn’t have the opportunity to care for them properly.

It was no secret that of all the cities in Marley, Paradis was the one that had the biggest gang violence problem. Paradis was deemed as the headquarters for the infamous Titans gang, a group of thugs who were well-versed in politics and typically well-educated. One could never know that someone was a Titan, since they blended in so well to society.

There were rumors floating around that several larger corporations had Titans at the helm, working their way through the ranks in an attempt to have a better chance at being elected into political office. Their end goal was unclear - however, their violent acts and shady business dealings had escalated over the recent years.

Suddenly, businessmen who were in perfectly good health one day were turning up dead in a river the next. The same went for major political figures. Several big-name military men had been cut down in the streets and in their homes, to the point where the implications couldn't be ignored.

This was an all-out war.

Though Petra had been busy in nursing school at the time, she still vividly remembered Commander Erwin Smith’s case - since it had eventually led to the creation of the Survey Corps.

Erwin Smith had walked into his home one day after a long day of work, only to be attacked by a group of four masked Titans brandishing knives. While the Commander had lost an arm as a result of the poison on the blades that had come in contact with his arm, he was able to fight off all four assailants and come through the accident with a clear vision of what needed to be done.

This incident prompted the formation of the Survey Corps.

The Survey Corps was a group of former criminals who would have otherwise faced jail time or execution if they chose not to serve their government. The Commander's idea was that when it came to the Titans - one had to fight fire with fire. For him, the Survey Corps was his fire.

The men would be given a meager compensation in exchange for their loyalty, as well as a full pardon for the crimes they had committed in the past. All they had to do was promise their hearts to the cause.

Petra had always thought the venture sounded like a risky one. How could someone trust a criminal? If someone was willing to commit a crime once, wouldn’t they be willing to do it again? From what she had seen of the SC members who had been wheeled into the Emergency Room over the past few years, they looked more like thugs than the actual Titans themselves.

However, it appeared that that was the whole point.

The Survey Corps were used to obtain information about the Titans from the inside. To learn about the Titans, it seemed you had to act like one. Once inside, their goal was to negotiate deals with the underlings, who would then pass on the information to the SC in exchange for compensation. No surprise, though - these exchanges could turn deadly pretty quickly.

The young nurse couldn’t imagine how anyone could trust a criminal to infiltrate the enemy without the fear of them turning themselves - but from what she had heard, Commander Erwin Smith was a very good leader who kept a tight hold on all the men who worked under him.

Petra guessed as much since a good majority of them had small government-issued tracking devices located somewhere on their person - somewhere that they were unaware of, of course.

The woman had only ever seen an actual 'Wings of Freedom' tattoo once, and it was on the wrist of a body that was being rolled to the morgue past her in the hallway one day. The symbol was a sign of rank. Much like how the military operated, the Survey Corps themselves had a set of ranks that signaled a separation of powers within the group.

Only captains and the Commander himself were given the ‘honor’ of bearing the SC tattoo. The placement was purposeful, too - right on the wrist, where an opponent’s eyes would be drawn as they wielded their signature blades.

Suddenly, the behavior of the man made a lot more sense. He was a former thug - now, turned Captain of the Survey Corps.

The nature of Heidi’s injury also made a lot more sense now. She wasn’t victim to a few Titan pick-pockets on the street of Paradis. She was a victim to her father’s line of work.

She had been caught up in the crossfire.

"Miss Ral?" At the sound of the man's deep, gravelly voice, Petra looked up only to be met by a steely gray gaze. He had noticed where her eyes had fallen and had also deduced where her train of thought was drifting. "Are you ready to hand over the medicine?"

His tone was polite enough, not to alert Heidi to the mounting tension that seemed to build with every interaction the two adults had - but there was certainly an edge to it. He was pretty much daring her to ask questions.

Petra certainly was not taking the bait.

“Yes,” The woman responded, slowly. The smile that had fallen from her face at the sight of the man’s tattoo, returned as she warmly regarded her waiting patient. “Let’s get this over with!”

Neither father nor daughter caught the double meaning behind her words.

This shift could not go by fast enough.

After what she could only describe as ‘the longest 12-hour shift ever,’ Petra was ready to hit the sack and enjoy the next two days off.

It seemed like fate, though - had other plans.

"What?" The woman groaned as she pulled her time card out of the slot, her whine catching the attention of a few doctors passing by. Petra couldn't care less what they thought of her right now, she was exhausted - and the news Nanaba had given her was definitely less than welcome "There expediting Krista's maternity leave? Isn't she still like - I don't know - four months away from giving birth?!"

Nifa shook her head from her usual spot by the water tower, looking just about ready to fall over herself.

“Two months,” She reminded the frazzled ginger, chuckling at the groan her answer received. “It was bound to happen sooner or later with how faint she’s been - it just so happens that they made the call during a hospital-wide nursing shortage.”

Petra didn’t want to seem inconsiderate, but this news had really put a wrench in her plans - plans which had included nothing but cleaning and sleeping - but plans nonetheless! There were about a million other things she'd rather do than continue to cross paths with her patient's reticent father.

She had really thought that as the hours passed, his mood would perhaps lift and become a bit more pleasant - but no, things had only seemed to get worse.

While Heidi had slept most of the night, it was almost as if the dark-haired man was reluctant to close his eyes. No matter how many times Petra had walked in there over the past twelve hours, he never moved from his spot near the window. Even when Petra offered to help move the chair over closer to the wall so that he could see, he had glared at her as though she had outright insulted him.

Never had Petra felt so uncomfortable while tending to a patient and she had been doing this for years!

The worst instance of this was when she had gone to change Heidi's bandages over where her injury was. While she had tended to many injured patients before, she could feel a cold sweat breaking out along her hairline as she gently removed the bandages from the young girl's pale skin.

Every movement she made was subject to his intimidating glare - almost as though he was waiting to snap at her the second she made a wrong move. Though he was trying to hide it behind a wall of indifference, Petra could tell that he was on edge as she began to work on Heidi’s wound.

If one thing could be said, it was that Petra had never met a five-year-old quite like Heidi before. Though she remained silent for most of the night, the young woman could tell that she was highly intelligent and aware. Never before had she had a patient who was able to grit their teeth and fight their pain so well. Not even when her bandage got stuck on a small area of irritated skin did Heidi release a whimper.

Petra knew the whole process must have caused her a great deal of pain - however, like her father said, she was hellbent on acting tough.

It wasn’t until she got to the part of the cut that appeared to be the most severe that the child even happened to make a sound.

“Is that tender?” She had asked, but it was more of a formality. The lines of distress on the girl’s forehead told her all she needed to know. “I’ll try to make it quick.”

Heidi said nothing in response, but at her obvious signs of discomfort, her father shifted forward - hands still in his pockets, but his rigid posture showing that he wasn't nearly as indifferent as he tried to act.

Petra was suddenly aware of the man's eyes following the movements of her hands and - though she had done this in front of an audience many times - his attention made her more nervous than she had ever been before. Not only were his eyes watching her like a hawk's - but his body was also tilting forward , closer to her, to see exactly what she was doing.

Under such pressure, she panicked - something that was highly unlike her on a normal day.

With the man's eyes boring holes into her hands, her sweaty palms lost their grip on the bandage she had been trying to pull gently from the skin. Heidi's reaction was instantaneous.

While she had made little more than a whimper up to that point, when the bandage slipped from Petra's hand and the skin of her palm made contact with the stitches that lay over the girl's abdomen - a short, little whelp escaped from her lips at the pain.

If that didn’t have the nurse feeling bad enough, Heidi’s dad’s reaction almost had her crying.

While most parents would be understanding of such a small mistake - many not even realizing she had made one - because he had been watching her so closely, he had borne witness to her error. The shock on his face, expressed only by the raise of his brows and the slight opening of his mouth, soon morphed into something much more threatening - anger.

"Don't you know how to do your job?" The man seethed, glaring at her with the same eyes that had been watching her so closely moments before. While his voice was not loud, the quiet tone almost made it that much scarier. "Can't you see that your mistake has caused her pain?"

Petra didn’t know what else to do besides look at him like a gaping fish.

"Well - are you competent enough to continue your work, or should I request another nurse?"

“No sir,” The woman answered, quietly - in a sort of daze from the man’s unusual reaction. Though she thought he was going to argue some more with her - he instead leaned back against the wall next to Heidi’s bed and continued to watch her in silence, as though he hadn’t questioned her skill at all.

Petra rolled her shoulders back, steeling herself to do the same thing she had done a million times. She would not let this man get to her twice.

After apologizing to the small girl, who merely gave a meek nod in response, Petra finished removing the old bandage from her cut. Once the wound had been cleaned and rebandaged - the nurse hurriedly made herself scarce, barely giving the girl's father a second glance.

When she had left the room, her face had been flushed and she had felt as though she was going to cry - but after hearing the taunts from her friends at the desk, thinking she had had some kind of flirtation with her patient's father, she instead turned to the next room and prepared herself to tend to her other patients.

“Earth to Petra?” Nifa’s voice brought her back to the present, something she was grateful for. Though it had been a long shift, at least it was finally over. “So, are you going to cover Krista for the rest of the week?”

Petra groaned once again. She had forgotten why she had spaced out for so long in the first place - they wanted her to take on the night shift for an additional two days.

"Hey!" Nifa chirped, crossing the small distance that separated her from Petra, throwing an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. "The good thing is you'll get almost a full week off if you finish all your hours now!"

"Yeah - " Petra agreed reluctantly, though her voice held little excitement. "But what good are hours off if I'm too exhausted to enjoy them?"

"All you do is clean, you neat freak! Don't act like it's going to spoil a hot date or something!"

Nanaba chuckled at Nifa's words, also reaching to pick up her card and clock out. "You know, she's not wrong."

Petra blushed at their goading. “How would you know?”

Both girls looked at her dubiously, their reaction causing Petra to blush an even deeper shade of red. Nifa shook her head, clucking her tongue in disappointment.

“I rest my case.”

“Oh, shove it!” Petra grabbed her bag from the floor, ready to leave the past 12-hour shift behind. “I’ll cover Krista’s damn shifts if it means I’ll get some time away from you weirdos next week.”

Nanaba rolled her eyes at Petra's dramatics, while Nifa simply laughed in response, also retrieving her bag from under the counter. Though both busied themselves by getting their stuff together to take home, neither missed the shameless smirk Petra sent over her shoulder.

“I guess this is the price one has to pay when they’ve been named the most satisfactory nurse on the ward.”

Now, this comment had both Nifa and Nanaba groaning, the girls rushing to catch up with Petra as she made her way to the stairwell.

The second day Petra was assigned to the Ackerman’s was just as strange as the first.

After getting a good 8-hour rest, the nurse entered the hospital with a renewed bounce in her step. The reason? She had pressed her uniform to perfection and had even pushed back her shoulder-length hair with a headband with not a hair out of place.

‘Let’s see what that man can find wrong with me now,’ Petra thought to herself as she clocked in for the day, only to be shocked by what she saw going on at Room 325 - Heidi Ackerman's room.

She could recognize the dark blue suits of the Military Police from a mile away.

Two men, one with long blonde hair and the other with a dark, crew cut, stood outside the girl's room, talking with Heidi's father. The men were speaking quietly to each other, the blonde one jotting down some notes onto a form he held in his hand.

It looked like a statement.

Not wanting to intrude, Petra double-checked Heidi's folder to make sure that she wasn't due for another dose of medication for another half an hour still. The day nurse had left several notes for the night nurse, describing the girl's progress. While she was still in a considerable amount of pain, her vitals had remained stable throughout the day. Now, the only thing they needed to worry about was the possibility of infection setting in at the sight of her would.

Petra made a mental note to remain extremely vigilant when it came to caring for the girl’s wound. The faster she healed, the faster she would be out of the ward.

'...and the faster her father could get the hell off of my floor.' Petra thought to herself, jotting down a few quick notes of her own, before closing the file and picking up the next.

By the time Petra arrived at Heidi's room, the MP's were long gone and the girl was sleeping peacefully in bed.

Upon entering the room with a glass of cherry juice already in hand, Petra braced herself for a rude comment or a deadly stare - but was surprised when she found that she was not on the receiving end of one.

Mr. Ackerman was still dressed in the same clothes he had worn the day before, his hair styled still to perfection, yet a bit greasier from the lack of a good washing. While his gaze was cold as ever as it moved from his daughter's slumbering form to the nurse as she entered the room, it wasn't nearly as intimidating as it had been before.

The man just looked tired.

Still, he stood by the lone window in the room, leaning against the ledge as if it was the only thing keeping him on his feet. Petra spared a glance towards the only chair in the room by Heidi's bedside and noticed that the pillow and blanket that she had left for him last night were still neatly folded and waiting to be used.

He had never slept. He had never even sat.

Petra's mouth popped open in surprise as she stood in the doorway, glass in hand. She wanted to say something but found that every time she tried to get the words out, they got stuck in her throat.

"Don't wake her up." It was the first words she had heard out of his mouth since entering, his tone as deep as it had been the day before, but weaker from lack of rest. He almost didn't look so much annoyed, as he did exasperated. "She's had a long few hours and was just now able to fall asleep."

At his request, Petra felt conflicted.

"It's time for her medicine." The woman insisted, talking quietly as she approached the girl's bedside, placing the glass of cherry red liquid onto the side table. "I'm worried that if she doesn't take it soon, she may wake up in pain."

The man considered her words, staring at her for a few moments before letting his gaze drop to the sleeping five-year-old in the hospital bed. The fact that he was even chewing over her statement had Petra reeling. While the day before, he had been questioning her methods - now he was actually taking her seriously.

The man sighed, pushing himself off from the wall he was leaning against.

“Could you wait twenty minutes?”

The words were spoken quietly, yet for the first time, they held no underlying rudeness. He seemed genuine in his request, his gray eyes boring into her's as he waited for an answer.

Petra was beginning to feel as though she was experiencing whiplash on the receiving end of his mood swings.

It was only in that moment, when he was making such direct eye contact with her, that she began to notice the slight shake of his stature, almost as though a short burst of chills were beginning to overcome his body. The sight was so strange, that Petra felt herself nodding at the man's request before she had even had a chance to think it over.

"Uh - " The young woman stuttered, trying desperately to find her voice. "I guess that would be alright?"

The man gave her a short nod of appreciation, his lips pressed in a thin line as he seemed to consider whether to say something else. Instead of asking any more questions though, he breezed past the young nurse and began to make his way to the door - something that caught Petra's attention, considering he had not left his daughter's room the entire time during her shift before.

"Wait!" She called out in surprise, though the volume of her voice surprised her. The man gave her a sharp look as he glanced over at the still slumbering child. After watching the rise and fall of her chest for a few long moments - he switched his gaze back to her, annoyance evident in the twist of his features.

And just like that, the same man from the day before was back.

"What?" He asked, as though it wasn't unusual for him to leave his daughter's room. In most cases, it wouldn't be strange for her patient's parents to leave their child unattended while they went to find some food or refreshments in the hospital, but this man had never done that before.

‘Maybe that’s why he wants her to stay asleep…’ Petra thought to herself, as she tried to think of what else she could say without sounding too nosy.

“Where are you going?”

Nice one, Ral.

The man scoffed, as though he believed her question didn't deserve an answer. Without responding, he turned back to the door and placed his shaking hand on the knob.

But Petra was surprised when, before leaving the room, he quietly called back over his shoulder.

“Would you mind keeping an eye on her for me, real quick? There’s something I need to do.”

Not waiting for her answer, the man was out the door before Petra's brain could even catch up to what he had been asking. However, when she realized what he had done, she found herself seething.

What did she look like - a babysitter?! She had other patients to be taking care of!

Though she knew that she had no real obligation to stay in Heidi’s room, there was something that had her sitting in the chair beside the bed, scooting the pillow and blankets out of the way to make herself more comfortable. She didn’t know what it was that kept her rooted in that spot, but she truly felt like she couldn’t leave the little girl.

A vision of the MP's quickly flashed through her mind.

It was that feeling of guilt that had her planted in the chair for the next twenty minutes - even though she had other patients to check on.

‘Oh well,’ Petra picked a piece of lint off the top sheet of the bed, watching the steady rise and fall of Heidi’s small chest. ‘What are they gonna do? Fire me?’

Just as Petra was fantasizing about all the things she could do if her boss truly did fire her - Mr. Ackerman returned to the room.

The first thing the young ginger noticed about the man was that he held a large white bag in his hand - one that seemed to be from the hospital's gift shop. The second thing she noticed was that he held a mug of what looked like some kind of tea in his other hand.

The third thing she noticed was that he reeked of smoke. With this knowledge, Petra could feel her face heat up in annoyance.

Now the shaking of his body and hands made sense - he had been going through withdrawals.

“You left me in here to tend to your daughter while you went and had a smoke?” The nurse stood from her spot in the chair, quietly chastising the man as he walked through the door. “Don’t you know those things can kill you?”

After having gotten his fix of nicotine, the man was back to his usual pleasant self. Before Petra could even think of what else to say, his eyes flashed towards her in contempt.

"Don't you know how to mind your own business?"

At such a rude response, Petra threw caution to the wind, sick of the man's attitude. Not caring whether Heidi woke up at this point or not, she stormed over to the dark-haired man, pointing a single finger into his chest. At least the man had the nerve to look surprised.

“Listen here - “ Petra dug her finger further into his hard chest, the fabric of his white shirt wrinkling as she tapped him once more for good measure. “Your daughter is currently my patient, Mr. Ackerman. So yes, your health is a part of my business now. What I’d like to know is how you think you're going to take care of your child on nothing but cigarettes and tea? Did you even eat while you were gone?”

The man raised a brow at her tirade, still shocked at the fact that the small redhead had had the nerve to speak to him like that. He definitely wasn’t used to it.

"Well, did you?" She asked again, demanding an answer, sticking him in the chest with a finely manicured finger once more.

What the man did next, nearly floored the poor girl for what felt like the millionth time in the past twenty-four hours. He smirked.

That damn infuriating smirk again!

Before she could repeat her question, the Survey Corps member grabbed the finger that was currently poking his chest, pushing her hand down while the infuriating smirk on his face only grew bigger.

"No," He said simply, as though he had not a care in the world. Petra could tell by the challenge in his eyes that he was eagerly waiting to see how she would respond.

Almost as though it was a game to him. Well, Petra was perfectly ready to play.

Pulling her hand out of his hold, the woman crossed her arms over her chest, looking up at him as he continued to smirk down at her. While he had shaken her the day before, she had become familiar enough with him to know that he only seemed to respond positively to her when she was actively challenging him.

What was he - a masochist?

“Lucky for you I have a wide array of crackers to offer you.” Petra smiled sweetly, watching as the man’s brows rose at the sound of her tone. “What would your flavor of choice be - cheese or peanut butter?”

“Neither, I - ,”

“Oh!” She cut him off, tapping him once again on the chest, knowing that this seemed to annoy him greatly just a few moments ago. “I’m sorry but ‘neither’ doesn’t seem to be a flavor - try again!”

The man's brows rose even higher at her continued teasing. "What if I'm allergic to peanut butter and cheese?"

Petra was anticipating such an answer, her arms once again crossing over her chest as she puffed it out with pride, knowing that this was an argument she had already won. "Then I guess I get to pick your poison."

They stared at each other in silence, neither intending to back down. Finally, the older Ackerman broke.

The man chuckled. Not a pity chuckle, either - but a real, amused chuckle. Though it may have been quiet, Petra couldn't conceal the pride that swelled up in her chest at having broken through at least one of the man's self-made barriers.

They didn't call her the best nurse for nothing!

"Alright, alright…" He finally conceded, no longer chuckling - but still keeping that mysterious smirk on his face. "I'll eat something, but no crackers."

Petra’s brow rose at this. “Why not? Isn’t that the most universal snack there is?”

“They’re too messy.”

The woman had to stop herself from giggling at the look of annoyance that passed over the man’s face. It seemed they at least had one thing in common - Petra absolutely hated a mess.

“An apple?”

The man shrugged noncommittally. Petra took this as confirmation that the fruit would do.

“Daddy?”

The feeble call from the bed had both of the adults turning, their eyes falling on the once slumbering girl who still lay propped up against the pillows. Though she had only said one word, Petra could tell from the look on her face that she had been woken from her sleep by some kind of pain.

The girl’s father hummed in response, acknowledging that he had heard her. Not wasting a moment and with a new pep in his step from his smoke break, the Survey Corps member approached his daughter’s bedside, placing his tea down by the glass of juice that still lay on the bedside table.

It was when the girl glanced over at the juice and then at the door, that she noticed the short nurse who was also now standing in her room. Petra liked to imagine that the girl’s face had lit up a bit at the sight of her, but she wasn’t foolish enough to think that it was anything other than the prospect of juice that had her glowing.

Heidi, much like her father though, surprised her.

"Hi, Miss Petra," The girl said in that sweet tone of her, her words still shy, but definitely more confident than from the night before. "Is it time for my medicine?"

Petra smiled in encouragement, joining the girl’s father at the side of her bed. “Yes, it is. Are you in any pain?”

Once again, the child looked up at her father - but, instead of waiting for some kind of input from him, she turned back to the nurse and answered for herself.

“Just a little.”

While her answer was not nearly as descriptive as Petra would have liked, the woman knew that this was probably the best she was going to get out of the child. With a tough-as-nails father by her side, the little girl was never going to give a true indication of how she was truly feeling. To do so would be to admit defeat in her eyes.

It was sad to an extent, but having grown up with a single dad herself - something she was assuming based on the fact that Petra had yet to see a mother stop by for a visit to Heidi's room - she knew how important it was to show them that their little girls were strong enough to handle themselves.

Petra’s respect for the precocious five-year-old just continued to grow as she spent more time with her.

After the nurse had given the girl her pills and had made sure that they went down easily, she reviewed Heidi’s vitals one more time before promising to return in the next hour.

Before she could make it out the door though, she turned to face the girl’s father one last time.

“I’ll be bringing you an apple, Mr. Ackerman,” She called back to him, watching as his gaze drifted upwards to meet her’s. “- and I’ll be expecting you to eat it.”

“Levi.”

The response was so quick and unexpected that it had Petra quieting immediately. Seeing the look of confusion written across her face, one side of the man's mouth quirked up in a half-smile. He sighed, shaking his head before closing his eyes in exasperation.

When he opened them again, there was a softer look there than there had been before.

“My name’s Levi. Stop it with that Mr. Ackerman stuff.”

Even Heidi chuckled from her place in the bed at the sound of such a formal name for her father. Once Petra had collected her wits, she gave a short nod in response.

"Levi, then."

Without wasting another second, the woman turned from the room - shutting the door close with more force than what she had intended to.

Her face was burning as she walked away from the room - and for the first time since she had been assigned to the patient in Room 325 - it wasn't from shame.

It was nearly an hour and a half later that she was finally able to return to Heidi’s room to check on the girl. With an apple in hand, the woman pushed open the door quietly, just in case the little girl had happened to fall back asleep.

The scene that lay before her, had her pausing in the open doorway in wonder.

Levi Ackerman was sitting. Not only was he sitting, but he was reading - and from a children’s book, nonetheless!

The white bag from earlier lay at his feet, the contents of it having been removed. While it had been puffed up quite large only an hour before, it now sat deflated on the cold tile of the hospital floor. Petra couldn't imagine that a few children's books from the gift shop would make a bag look that full, and she was right to assume that.

The reason the bag had looked so full was currently resting in the happy little hands of one Miss Heidi Ackerman in the form of a very large, stuffed teddy bear.

"Then Mr. Owl asked Mr. Bear if he could borrow a few - ," Petra listened to the smooth voice of the man who had nearly made her cry the day before, no rudeness left in his tone as he read to a very captive audience.

"Daddy, why would he ask to borrow something that he could never give back?' Heidi asked from her hospital bed, fully engaged in the story. Whether it was consciously or not, she hugged her bear a little tighter to herself as she turned onto her side to regard her father.

The man gave her a small, patient smile. "It's an expression, Heidi. Mr. Owl is going to eat the carrots, of course - so I'm sure hoping he's not planning on regurgitating them and giving them back to Mr. Bear. Mr. Bear is letting Mr. Owl have something without the guarantee of ever receiving it back or something in return."

“Then it’s not borrowing.”

Her father shrugged, his eyes turning back to the page in front of him. "Not really, I guess."

Before the man could pick up where he'd left off - Heidi cut him off once more.

“Daddy, I don’t think owls actually eat carrots.”

“Are you going to let me finish the story, brat?” The man gazed at her over the top of the book, annoyance creeping into his tone after having been interrupted for the second time. “Or do I need to read from the dictionary in order to please you?”

While Petra had been shocked when he had referred to his daughter as "brat" the night before, she would have to be deaf to not hear the endearment that lay hidden in his tone. He said it so gently - as though it was meant as an affectionate tease more than an insult.

Heidi certainly wasn’t offended by it if her sweet little laugh was any indication of how she was feeling.

“Daddy!” She whined, hugging her bear even tighter. “No dictionary! I want animal stories!”

“Then sit back and enjoy the damn book, instead of overanalyzing everything.”

Heidi’s eyes widened in shock, her small mouth forming an ‘o’ at her father’s choice of words. “Daddy, you swore.”

The man twisted his lips, trying his best to hide his face behind the children's book that he held in his hands.

“I heard you! You’re going to have to put change in the swear jar at home!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Heidi smiled brightly at her father. "Nuh-uh, it's a deal! I'm going to be rich!"

“Heidi,” Levi raised one dark brow towards the girl, his tone darkening with warning as she continued to get louder. “You need to be quiet.”

At her father’s admonishment, the child’s face fell, her bright smile falling swiftly off her features. Petra made a movement to jump in - anything to bring that sweet expression back to the darling girl’s face - but was stopped by the man’s voice chiming in once again.

“ - and besides, you only have two dollars. That’s barely enough to call yourself rich.”

While most children would have balked at Levi's use of blunt humor, Heidi - who must have been used to it by now - began to giggle once more, the bright smile from just moments before, returning to her face. Petra was even surprised to find that the man was wearing one of his own now.

"It's almost enough to buy a chocolate bar." Heidi insisted as if the candy was the most precious thing in the world.

Petra had to clamp her mouth shut to keep from laughing out loud. From her spot in the doorway, the nurse's shoulders trembled in quiet amusement. This little girl was something else - and, from what she had seen over the past few minutes, so was her father.

"Now you see, Miss Ral?" The question had her pausing mid-shake, her amusement slowly fading now that she had been caught. "I told you sweets would be her downfall."

Petra could feel her cheeks heating up. She had just been caught eavesdropping - how unprofessional could she be?

Opening the door all the way, the woman stepped fully into the room, apple still in hand. While Heidi certainly seemed to quiet as the woman entered the room, the smile on her face did not fade.

While she had thought the older Ackerman would look at her in contempt for having the gall to eavesdrop on him, during what she would call a very intimate family moment, he instead looked over at her with a slight quirk in his brow.

“ - and eavesdropping will be yours.”

Without saying another word, the man placed the children’s book on top of the bedside table, where Petra could now see an entire stack had been laid. Next to it, a small cat plush sat, almost as though watching over the mountain of books that now stood beside it. Before the nurse could make any comments in regards to his gift shop purchases, the man stuck out his hand.

Petra just stared at him in confusion.

Levi gave her a less than impressed look. “My apple, Miss Ral?”

If Petra had thought her face had been burning before, it was nothing compared to now.

A few hours passed uneventfully in the pediatric ward. That was one thing Petra had always enjoyed about the night shift - there was a certain calm in the air that seemed to hang over the 3rd floor of the hospital. A child would cry out in pain, only to be shushed a few moments later by comfort or medicine - or a buzzer would go off, signaling that someone needed assistance.

Other than that, the ward pretty much always stayed quiet in the late night to early morning hours of the day and Room 325 was no exception to this.

Heidi was snoozing peacefully as Petra made her rounds once again to check on the girl. After having received her last dose of medication until morning, the girl had lost her battle against sleep. She had fought valiantly - wanting to stay up and continue listening to the stories being told by her father - but after several hours and retellings of the same stories over and over, she was finally out for the night.

While Petra hated to disturb the girl's sleep, it was pertinent that she clean her wound every few hours to keep the infection from setting in. Though the girl was already taking oral antibiotics, the nurse knew that it was better to be safe than sorry when it came to wounds.

In an attempt to be as stealthy as possible, Petra quietly entered the dimly lit room of Heidi Ackerman, careful not to make any noise as she closed the door behind her.

Giving her eyes time to adjust to the lack of lighting in the room, Petra squinted while looking over at the chair.

There sat Levi, bloody clothes and all, by his daughter's bed and still wide awake despite his obvious exhaustion. Petra had given up hours ago on telling him to get some sleep, learning quickly that even without an injured child the man was a terrible insomniac.

However, she couldn't help but be concerned when it came to the man's state of mind. How on earth was he supposed to tend to his child when he wasn't willing to rest himself?

"Oi, stop lurking in the doorway." A ragged voice called from the chair, his eyes never drifting from Heidi's face. Even without looking, he seemed to just know she was there. it must have been a Survey Corps thing. “She’s out for the night, so there’s no need to sneak around as if the smallest noise is going to wake her up.”

Petra blushed at the call-out, stepping fully into the dim light of the room, her expression apologetic. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to change her bandages."

The man grunted in acknowledgment, shrugging his shoulders. "It can't be helped. Several more hours of reading from 'Mr. Owl's Adventures' sounds like a decent penance to me."

Though Petra found herself chuckling at the man's dry wit, she couldn't help but notice the strain in his voice that spoke of some underlying guilt she was not privy to. Trying to lighten the mood, she moved closer to Heidi's bedside, bandages already in hand and a soft smile on her features.

"Count yourself lucky," The woman bristled, reaching into her pocket for a disinfectant wipe. "You could be changing dirty bandages and bedpans for the rest of the night. I think I would choose Mr. Owl over that, any day."

While she hadn't expected the man to laugh at her remark, she wasn't expecting him to sober so quickly either.

He watched as she placed the packet of disinfectant wipes down on the table, her hands moving to the bandages to ready them for placement. The night before, she had found his gaze unnerving - now, however, he seemed to be pondering her actions more than looking for something that she was doing wrong.

“Could you show me how to change her bandages?”

Petra couldn't hide the shock that flooded her features at the quiet request. The words were spoken so softly that she questioned whether she had even heard them.

“Huh?” She heard herself ask, pausing mid-action.

Levi's face held its usual passive expression - but, when Petra looked closely, she could see the skin of his neck turning red underneath the hairs of his undercut.

The man was blushing.

Petra had little time to be amazed before he was speaking again.

"I tried watching you last night and when the nurse did it this morning," The man confessed, his voice tight as though he felt ashamed for admitting it. "But I want to make sure I know how to do it right since I'm the one who's going to be doing it at home."

Suddenly, his attentiveness to her actions during her prior shift made a lot more sense.

While she had thought he had been watching her closely to see if she made any mistakes while changing Heidi's bandages, he was really just trying to learn how to do it himself. So the reason he must have been so grouchy when she had made that one mistake, was because he was frustrated not only with her but with himself for having to seek out someone's help.

Man, she had misjudged him terribly in that moment.

Knowing that it was hard for the man to admit he needed guidance - Petra gave him a small but encouraging smile.

"I can show you," The woman gestured for him to come closer to the bed so that he could see better. "This is the perfect time, actually since I'm going to be doing it really slow, so that we don't wake her."

Petra tried to calm the furious beating of her heart as the man rose from his chair and made his way over to her side. This was the closest she had ever been to him, even closer than when she had gotten up in his face earlier. From this vantage point, she could see the dark stubble that now lined his cheeks and the puffy bags that seemed to permanently reside under his eyes.

The man was starting to look a bit ragged. However, no amount of exhaustion could dull the look of determination in his eyes.

Petra took her time, carefully peeling back the bandages that sat across Heidi's abdomen. Levi watched closely as she worked her finger under the sticky material at a particularly irritated patch of skin. While Heidi mumbled a few incoherent words in her sleep and turned her head to the side in agitation, she remained unconscious as Petra continued to work on her wound.

The nurse quietly explained proper wound care, as she cleaned around the stitches that lay on the girl's stomach. Levi nodded in acknowledgment to each of her points, his steely gaze never leaving her hands.

The whole process took about ten minutes, much longer than usual, but Petra felt like it had taken a hundred years.

The man was just so close and it was distracting.

Despite being flustered by his proximity and rapt attention, Petra was able to successfully clean and re-bandage the wound.

She ripped the end of the last piece of tape needed for the girl's skin, gently patting it down with soft pressing motions. "So, that's all there is to it."

Levi nodded, the wheels in his head turning as he tried to internalize everything he had just seen.

It struck Petra as odd that he needed such guidance from her when his line of work surely included some bumps and nicks over time. Almost as if he could guess her train of thought, the man answered her unspoken question.

"I've had to treat my own wounds before," He admitted quietly, eyes glued to the area of Heidi's stomach where her injury lay. " - but I've never had to treat a child's. I just want to make sure I do it right."

Petra gave him a sympathetic smile, placing the roll of tape back on the table. "It really isn't that much different from dressing your own wounds."

Levi's eyes darkened at her words, his tone shifting. "It is different."

The young woman watched as the man's eyes drifted back up to Heidi's peaceful face, her small pink lips opened in an 'o' as little breaths escaped between them. From a hardened gaze, the Survey Corps member's eyes softened at the sight of his slumbering daughter.

“What happened?”

Petra didn't know what had come over her, but at the man's words and expression, she couldn't help but speak out of curiosity. While the girl's file had said she had been cut by a blade that had been laced with poison, it hadn't said any more than that. She figured that Heidi had been caught up in a crossfire, but she couldn't be too sure.

She wanted to know what had caused her patient so much pain - and she also wanted to know what it was that was causing the girl's father so much guilt.

Petra had not expected much in ways of a response, figuring that the man would tell her to mind her own business. She was surprised when, instead of snapping at her in anger, Levi sighed and crossed his arms over his chest in defeat. She could see his reluctance to share in the rigid way he stood, but could also see in the way he rolled his lips inwards, that there was a part of him that wanted to tell someone what happened.

"They broke into my home when it wasn't there." The man admitted quietly, a quick rush of breath leaving him as he resigned himself to share with Petra the details behind the incident. "Heidi knows not to open the door to strangers, so when they came knocking, she hid - but they knew she was there. They had been watching."

"The Titans?" Petra asked in a whisper. Levi nodded.

The man sighed, his eyes cutting back to his daughter’s face. “One of my men had heard through our line of communication that The Titans were planning on laying siege to my house - however, it had been kept under wraps for as long as possible to keep the plan from getting back to me.”

Levi's face darkened, his thin lips pressing together as his eyes took on a faraway look - like he was being transported back in time.

"Unlucky for them," The man continued, his tone growing terser as time went on. "I found out and was able to intercept the attack."

Petra watched as the man’s focus drew back to the present, his steely gaze never leaving his daughter. “But not before Heidi could get hurt.”

Levi ran a single hand through his hair, the action causing the arm of his jacket to rise and the ‘Wings of Freedom’ tattoo to be exposed.

"There were six of them at the house," Levi admitted, not even pausing when this information called forth a gasp from Petra. "I cut down every single one of them."

At the dark look on his face, the nurse could feel herself gulp in fear. The same intimidating man whom she had encountered the night before during her first shift was suddenly making an appearance once again. His behavior - however, made more sense now. He had been reticent and ready to snap, not just because his daughter had been injured, but because he had just murdered six men.

Petra also realized that the blood that lay splattered across the man’s white shirt was, more than likely, not just Heidi's. While the news had Petra suppressing a shiver, she didn't interrupt him as he continued with his story.

"When I realized the blade had been laced with poison, I rushed Heidi here." He glanced over at her now, his gaze watching her carefully as he analyzed her reaction. "Then a few hours later, we met you."

Petra didn't know what to say - half of her had expected the story to be something like that, but also half of her wishing it hadn't. She was outright conflicted.

"She had been alone?" She heard herself ask through the whooshing in her ears. Her head was spinning from all the new information.

Levi nodded. "I can't afford to send her anywhere. She's always alone."

Though Petra tried to hide her surprise, she couldn't conceal it quick enough for his all-seeing eyes.

"She has no mother." Levi admitted though Petra had deduced as much. "The woman dropped her off on my doorstep years ago without so much as a word - so I'm all she has."

"That's horrible." While it was an understatement, to be sure, it was all Petra could think of in response. At least it was able to draw a dry chuckle from the man.

“I guess you could say that.”

Not knowing how to dispel the tension that currently lay in the air, Petra turned to continue cleaning up the used bandages from the side table, disposing of them in the trash while she continued to think of what to say.

Noticing her unease, Levi sighed. "I didn't tell you all of this to make you feel awkward. You did ask, you know?"

"I don't feel awkward!" Petra insisted although she knew it was a fib. She rolled up the gauze that she had neglected to use while trying to choose her words carefully. "I'm just not sure what to say."

"You don't have to say anything," The man said, walking back around to the other side of the bed. His eyes drifted to the children's books that lay stacked on the side of the bed. "It's the ways things are and the way they will always be. All I can do is ensure that none of my decisions from here on out will infringe on her safety.'

Petra nodded. “I guess you're right.”

The room was quiet as Petra continued to bustle about. She fluffed Heidi's pillows a few more times, before reviewing the young girl's vitals. She didn't know what it was, but despite the tense atmosphere that lay heavy over the room, she really didn't want to leave.

No matter what she wanted though, she knew she had other patients to see.

Before she left, a thought came to her as she reached for the handle on the door. She remembered at the start of her shift that Levi had only taken leave of his daughter's room when Petra was guaranteed to be there and keep watch. The circumstance had Petra pausing.

Was that why he hadn’t bothered to go home and change yet?

Petra could see that the man needed a good shower and a fresh pair of clothes - but, after hearing about what happened, she highly doubted he was willing to leave the hospital while his daughter was still in such a vulnerable state.

She didn’t know what came over her, but suddenly she was speaking.

“I get off in a few hours. Do you want me to sit with Heidi while you go home and change?”

Her offer caused the man to turn his head, his eyes gazing at her warily. “I couldn’t ask you to do that. I know you probably need your rest.”

Petra shook her head. “I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t willing.”

"I couldn't -,"

"No offense," Petra finally said, her arms crossing over her chest in an act of defiance. " - but you are starting to look rough.”

This caused one side of the man’s mouth to quirk up. “I’m just now starting to? I thought surely when I walked in covered in blood yesterday that I looked about as rough as I could.”

“Well, then I guess you’ve been proven wrong.”

Levi shook his head. “I’m not leaving. Besides, I have nowhere to go. My home is a crime scene, remember?”

"You can use my apartment." The words had left Petra's mouth before she even had time to think. At the suggestion, she could feel her face heating up, but she continued speaking anyway. "Go at least take a shower - please."

This had the man's brows raising to his hairline.

"You would let a man who just murdered six people take a shower in your home?"

Petra shrugged. “Yeah, I mean as long as you promise not to mess with anything.”

“You’re damned crazy.”

"Yeah, maybe," Petra conceded, but her arms still crossed tightly over her chest. "But it's better than being stinky. I'm going to get a shirt from the lost and found for you to take. My shift is over in three hours, so try to at least get some rest before it's my turn to watch Heidi."

Without waiting for a response, Petra exited the room in a flurry of white fabric and frazzled nerves, missing the smirk that followed her actions as she hurriedly exited through the door.

- True to her word, Petra had returned to Heidi's room after clocking out. The woman handed the older Ackerman a piece of paper with her address, a key, and a plain white t-shirt - before practically pushing him out of the room.

Not allowing any chance of negotiation, Petra slammed the door behind him, fighting the urge to actually lock it.

Now fully awake, Heidi giggled at the sight of the young woman bossing her otherwise intimidating father around. The sound had Petra smiling, too. Though she was tired, she was looking forward to spending a bit of downtime with the girl.

During the hour and a half that Levi was gone, Petra learned many things about Miss Heidi Ackerman.

She was born in late September and couldn't wait for the Summer to be over so that she could finally be six. Her favorite thing to learn about was animals - hence, why her father always bought her stories with animal characters rather than humans. She had named the big teddy bear her father had gotten her, Felix, after a cat character with the same name that existed in one of the storybooks her dad had once read to her.

While it wasn’t new information, Petra was struck once again by how intelligent the little girl was.

Heidi shared with her the process of her daily routine - how she woke up in the morning to find a bowl of cereal already sitting ready for her at the table. Though her father was usually gone by this time, he always left a note telling her what time he would be home and reminded her to never open the door to strangers. After reading the note, she would do a few chores around the house - she loved sweeping - and even had her own little broom that matched her father's so that on the weekends they could clean the floors together.

While Petra imagined such an existence would be a sad one - being all alone in a house all day, especially, at such a young age - Heidi didn't seem particularly bothered by it.

"When Daddy gets home in the afternoon, he always cooks me something yummy for dinner," Heidi's voice held all the wonderment of a child, who was properly spoiled by her father. "Uncle Erwin even sometimes comes over and eats with us. He can toss me up in the air really high! Higher than Daddy!"

Petra found herself chuckling at this. “Oh, really?”

Heidi nodded excitedly, her cheeks flushed from the conversation and probably what was still a bit of residual pain. Despite this, she continued chatting as though she couldn't be bothered.

Petra felt her heart warm as the girl slowly began to open up more and more to her - remembering how quiet she had been during the first time she had attended to her.

It was as though the child that sat before her now was a completely different person from the one before. While she could probably blame some of that on the young girl's injury - a bigger portion of it was just that it probably took the girl time to warm up to people.

‘Much like her father,’ Petra supposed.

By the time Levi returned, both his daughter and the nurse were sat up in the hospital bed, the scene causing him to pause in the doorway.

Petra had sat herself behind Heidi, allowing the girl to lean back on her legs and chest in a reclining position. The nurse’s hands were working through the girl’s hair, her deft fingers twirling the long dark strands into a simple braid.

“I’ve always wanted a braid!” Heidi shared, squeezing her bear close to her chest. “I’m so excited! I hope it looks pretty.”

“Oh, it looks very pretty," Petra insisted, her light, chestnut eyes finally drifting towards the man that stood in the door. Her lips quirked up in a small smirk. "Doesn't it, Mr. Levi?"

Fighting the urge to groan at the use of mister before his name, the man closed the door to the hallway behind him before stepping fully into the room. "Oh yes - very pretty."

At his insistence, Heidi giggled - her little cheeks flushed now from the compliments.

Once the girl was situated back on her pillows - chatting with her bear about all the hairstyles she'd like to try to learn to do in the future - Petra turned to Heidi's dad, giving him a smile of appreciation.

Instead of wearing the t-shirt she had retrieved from him, he was wearing a dark blue one with the hospital logo that they sold in the gift shop. The woman had to smirk when she saw that.

"What are you - a germaphobe?" She couldn't help but ask, remembering the wary look he had had on his face when she had handed the used t-shirt over. Though she couldn't blame him, being very particular about things like that herself, she couldn't hold back a laugh.

Levi shrugged. “Sure, let’s go with that.”

They stood there for a few silent beats, the only sound between them being that of Heidi's quiet voice as she chatted to Felix, the teddy bear. Finally, Levi pulled his hand out of his pocket, her key shining in his hand.

Petra held out her hand to receive it.

"Thank you for your hospitality." The man drawled, placing the object in the middle of her palm, a smirk teasing the corner of his lips. "Your lodgings were adequate enough, I guess."

After having heard from Heidi herself in the past hour of how her dad was a self-proclaimed 'clean freak' - the woman was not surprised at such a comment. In fact, knowing what she did now, it made her quietly chuckle.

“I’m glad.”

Petra called over her shoulder to Heidi that she would be back on the night shift in just a few hours, the girl happily waved at her as the woman made her way to the door. Knowing that she only had one more 12-hour shift for the week, the young nurse moved with a slight bounce in her step.

The realization that she probably only had one more night to spend with Heidi and her father had her pausing though.

Shaking her head, she attempted to rid her mind of the thought. She wasn't one to get attached to her patients and she definitely wouldn't start now.

Still, there was something in her heart that tugged every time she thought of Heidi’s sweet little face. Not only that, but the tug worsened every time she thought of Levi’s.

‘I need some sleep,’ She lamented to herself as she continued her way down the stairs.

Yes, sleep was all she needed.

Upon arriving on the 3rd floor for her fourth shift of the week, but third with Heidi, Petra was surprised to see the one and only, Erwin Smith exiting the room of her favorite patient.

She guessed she shouldn't be surprised by the appearance of the blonde man - given how much Heidi talked about him - however, what did surprise her was the grave expression present on his features. While not one to fear the worst, the furrow between his brows and the thin line of his lips had her heart sinking, just a bit.

After confirming with the day nurse that nothing had changed in Heidi's condition, Petra was able to breathe easier. Apparently, in the last hour, Dr. Shadis had even cleared the girl to return home whenever she pleased - however, both the Commander and Levi had convinced the doctor to extend her hospital stay by one day.

The day nurse said she had no idea what the reasoning was behind it but Petra had a good idea.

‘My home is a crime scene.’ Levi had said earlier in response to her pressures for him to go home and shower. The truth of the matter was, Petra feared that neither Levi nor Heidi had anywhere to go.

With that in mind, she entered the girl's room for her first round of medication with a slight hesitance in her gait.

Whatever nerves she had been feeling though dissipated at the sight of Heidi's joyful face.

"Miss Petra!" The girl exclaimed from her place in bed, arms wrapped around her teddy bear and now a large monkey plushie too. "Look what Uncle Erwin brought me!"

The woman was about to respond when a sort of grumbling coming from the direction of the chair caught her attention. Levi had his chin in his hand, his eyes glaring at the plush kitty that still sat on the bedside table untouched. Petra could see a hint of jealousy in his actions.

Dare she call it - adorable?

Though his mutterings weren't all that caught the woman's attention. The man had a whole new change of clothes on, the hospital t-shirt now stuffed away in the white bag that lay by his feet.

The commander must have brought him an extra pair of clothes.

Realizing that she hadn't ever answered Heidi's cheer, Petra smiled at the child who lay in the hospital bed. "Well isn't that a lovely surprise?"

Heidi nodded excitedly, hugging her plushies closer to her. “I think I’m going to name him Beast.”

"That's a lovely name," The nurse agreed, laughing quietly as she watched the girl's father roll his eyes. Despite the current levity in the atmosphere, the woman knew she wasn't going to be able to keep her mouth shut much longer.

Placing the cup of juice she had brought with her down on the bedside table, she busied herself preparing Heidi’s medication as she thought of how to brooch the topic.

“So, I heard Heidi’s been cleared to return home?”

Levi was silent for a moment, but she soon heard a grunt behind her. “It would appear that way.”

“I heard Dr. Shadis approved her for one more night in our care?”

Levi hummed in response, not saying anything more as the woman continued to arrange the pills. Her hands paused as she got to Heidi’s sleep medication.

“Will you be staying with Commander Erwin?”

At her question, the man remained silent - watching as Petra assisted Heidi with taking her pills. Always a brave patient, the girl barely grimaced as the nasty medication tumbled down her throat. When it was all over, the five-year-old simply laid back on her pillows, picking up right where she left off with her two stuffed animals.

It took Levi so long to respond that Petra figured he wouldn't say anything more on the subject - however, his quiet answer came soon enough, a sort of bitterness in his tone.

"No, we can't," He spat out, a rare show of his old reticence shining through. Petra could tell that it wasn't directed at her, though - it was more so in response to the situation. "Erwin thinks it's a bad idea for us to stay with anyone who's a part of the Survey Corps. If they had my address, who's to say they don't have any others?"

Petra had guessed this was the case by the way Commander Erwin had looked upon leaving the room. It was the look of a man who was used to solving problems, who just couldn't seem to solve this one.

Levi continued, missing the pensive look that settled across Petra's features. "He's trying to find somewhere cheap that we could stay, but at the end of the day, the Corps don't receive much funding. I barely make enough to pay for the place we have now and I'm still going to have to pay for it until my lease is up."

“You don’t think you’ll be able to go back after everything is cleaned up?” Petra asked, the wheels still turning in her head. Levi released a dry chuckle at the suggestion.

"I'm not going to make the brat stay in a home where she was almost killed. I may be a monster, but even I have more compassion than that." He spoke quietly, aware that Heidi was still very much awake and able to hear their conversation.

"There's no one you could reach out to and stay with?"

Levi laughed bitterly, once again. "The only people I know are either a part of the Survey Corps or thugs themselves, my options are pretty slim."

Petra nodded, quietly mulling over his words.

After a few moments, she made the offer she had entered the room willing to make.

“Why don’t you stay with me?”

Levi's brows rose, a look of mild shock commanding his features. Feeling uneasy from his reaction, Petra began to ramble in order to fill the awkward silence.

“I mean -,” She cleared her throat, hating how the words had come out as a mere squeak. “You said my lodgings were adequate, right?”

"Well, yes. But -,"

"I certainly wouldn't mind it - and you wouldn't have to pay me rent or anything! All I would need is maybe a little bit of money for groceries since I barely have any - and - uh - and I'm barely home anyway since I work so much, so it would probably be just like living alone!" The words left Petra in a rush, her brain working faster than her mouth as she tried to convince him that this option wouldn't be so bad. "I'm a pretty clean person, so you wouldn't have to worry about -,"

“Could you shut your damn mouth for a second?!”

The low growl of his voice had Petra pausing mid-ramble, her mouth hanging open as the man in the chair cleared his throat, in an attempt to get emotions back under control.

When he spoke again, his tone was even, incredulity evident in his words. "You really expect me to accept such charity?"

Petra closed her mouth, shrugging meekly. “I mean, do you have any other options?”

"Yeah, the street." The nurse found herself rolling her eyes at his words.

"What happened to not allowing any danger to fall upon your daughter again?" Petra asked, remembering their conversation from before. While the man's eyes flashed in anger at her implication, the woman didn't stop there. "Do you really think the safest place for your daughter currently is on the streets?”

The man was silent again.

“I can’t pay you.”

“I’m not asking you to.”

“I hate charity.”

"This isn't charity." Petra insisted, meeting his steely gaze with one of her own. "I'm honestly being selfish. I don't think I could sleep at night knowing that the two of you ended up on the streets when I could have helped.'

“Why would you do that for people you barely know?”

"I don't know," Petra answered, honestly - her eyes drifting to where Heidi lay still unaware of the serious conversation taking place next to her. "But something inside of me is telling me that it's the right thing to do."

Levi stared at her, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"So you would offer up your home to two strangers just because your heart is telling you to?”

While his comment was snide, Petra refused to back down. "And you would offer up your life to a cause that will most likely get you killed in the end? It seems like neither of us is very responsible when it comes to where our hearts lie."

The man couldn’t argue with that.

The room descended into a suffocating silence for a few moments, before Levi spoke again.

"What about Heidi?" He asked. "She stays home alone all day. Are you okay with a child residing by themselves in your apartment?"

"Not really," Petra admitted, though she had already thought about this. "But my friend who lives down the hall runs a daycare out of her home. I'm sure if I explained the circumstances, she would be willing to make an exception and let Heidi stay with her when you or I can't be at home."

Levi sighed, realizing she had thought this out a lot more than he had expected. “You’re not going to take no for an answer, are you?”

“Nope.” Petra smiled brightly, knowing that he was close to admitting defeat.

The man looked once more towards his daughter, who was now rubbing her tired eyes as she tried to win the battle against sleep.

“Fine.” He begrudgingly agreed, refusing to make eye contact with the now ecstatic ginger.

"Perfect!" The woman nearly exclaimed with glee - however, she kept her reaction quiet, aware of the presence of Heidi who was almost in the throes of sleep. "Leave all the planning to me. Heidi was cleared to stay one more night - so, once I finish my shift, I'll go home and get everything prepared for her discharge tomorrow afternoon."

Levi nodded, still not exactly happy about the situation.

"Don't think you're going to be able to stand around and mope, either," Petra warned, pulling the blanket up higher on Heidi's chest, the girl finally losing the battle against her eyelids. "I'm doing this because I want to, so I won't have you feeling guilty.

Levi shook his head, a smirk appearing on his features. "You're crazy."

"Maybe," Petra shrugged.

After picking up the empty glass of juice from the girl's bedside, Petra decided to take her leave, ready to attend to her other patients.

Before leaving the room, she turned back towards Levi, still sat in the chair with his arms crossed over his chest.

"We're going to figure this out," Petra assured him as she exited the room, smiling as he turned his face towards her - a look of apprehension on his features. "You, me, and Heidi - it'll work, I promise."

Though his answering smirk was tired, Petra could see that maybe - just maybe - he was starting to believe her.

#levi ackerman #petra ral #rivetra #attack on titan #aot #shingeki no kyojin #snk #fanfiction #my fanfiction #rivetra au

32 notes · View notes

ink-system · 3 years

Text

Tickletober Day 9:Ganged Up On

ok so here is the extremely late tktober fic. Sorry it’s so late school and writer’s block happened but it’s here now and I hope you guys enjoy it a bit

TW: safe word mention, calling of safe word, intense tickles, Deceit, Remus

Word Count: 5813

Virgil was running. Where he didn’t know, all he knew was he needed to get out of there and he needed to get out of there fast. He was being chased by vicious, merciless monsters.

“Oh Viiirgey where are youuuuuu?~”

“We just wanna play with you!~”

“We aren’t gonna hurt you!”

“We would just like to show you how adorable you are.”

“It’s going to be so much fun once we catch you”

The teasing words echoed throughout the mind palace, drilling into Virgil’s head. He would never admit it, but the teases were slowing him down. The taunts were getting to him and the monsters were quickly gaining on him.

The purple side looked behind him, only for a second, and what he saw sent shivers down his spine…

All 5 sides right behind him, ready to attack. 5 sides who wanted to wreck him. 5 sides who were in ler moods. 5 sides who knew he was in a lee mood. 5 sides who were ABOUT TO TACKLE HIM HOLY SHIT HE’S GONNA DIE-

With Virgil looking behind him he got even more distracted and slowed down, which gave Roman just enough time to sprint the last few feet separating him from Virgil to tackle him. The fanciful side leaped forward with his arms reaching out for the side on the run.

“Aaaaaand GOTCHA!”

“NONONONO LEMME GO!”

Once Virgil was in the red side’s arms there was no escaping them. He was trapped. Done for. Stuck. He was gonna be tickled to tears by 5 lers and there was nothing he could do about it (not that he wanted to but that’s beside the point-).

“You put up a nice fight Virgey but it was pointless. You knew you were gonna get caught and that once you did you were making it worse for yourself by running away from your big, bad, personal tickle monsters. But you probably wanted that didn’t you, you big ass lee,” Roman teased to the squirming purple side in his arms.

As Roman was speaking he carried the struggling side to the coach and laid him down before straddling him as Janus used two of his six arms to pin the ex-dark side’s arms above his head.

“OH SHUT FUCKING FUCK YOU ASSHAT,” said purple side yelled, flustered out of his mind from the fanciful sides truths lies.

“Virgil, language!” the father figure exclaimed in both real and fake horror at the language his son used. “You should know better than to use those words, kiddo! I think you need to be punished for your potty mouth.” the dad of the group scolded. Patton’s teasing was fatherly and he almost always scolded the lee for something they did. It was… very flustering in its own way.

“Precisely what I was thinking, Patton. Such language is extremely uncalled for and calls for punishment” Logan, slightly cold yet teasingly stated. Logan’s teasing was very scientific and calculated. It was surprisingly flustering, him seeming almost indifferent to his actions and how they affected the lee.

“Yes, it does seem like he definitely knows how awful that language is. He doesn’t need to be taught a lesson,” the deceitful side said casually. Janus’ teasing was just stating the obvious but backwards, and it unfairly flustering, especially for something so simple. It killed everyone, especially poor Virgil.

“Such profanity is inexcusable! I say we show little Virgey here what happens to lees who say such horrible words!~” the sash wearing side exclaimed, far too dramatic than what was necessary. Roman’s teasing was just like him, overdramatic and far too extra. Yet there was something… flustering about it? He is creativity so it would follow that he would be able to tease quite well.

“Yeah having a ‘potty mouth’ is my thing! You’re stealing my thing Virgey! That’s even more punishable!” the duke yelled while reaching his hands out towards Virgil’s stomach, but he was stopped by Logan grabbing his collar. “Ahhhhh c’mon dork I just wanna wreck Tickle Me Emo’s little tummy for stealing my shit.” Remus’ teasing was… well. It was Remus teasing you. It was oftentimes very suggestive (even though he tried to not make suggestive with Virgil, Patton, and Roman), and its own way it was… kind of flustering.

“No, you need to be patient and wait for the rest of us” the tie-wearing side stated calmly.

“But you dorks are so slow and I wanna wreck him now. I’m sure he would prefer to get wrecked sooner than later. Isn’t that right, tickle toy”

Hearing them talk about him like he wasn’t there was driving Virgil crazy. Hearing the shit Remus was saying was even worse because it was true wrong and blatant lies and not true at all. Virgil couldn’t do a thing about it either. His face could’ve been mistaken for a fucking tomato at that point and the knowledge that the impulsive side was right made his blush spread from his face to his ears and neck. It sent tingles down his spine, and he hated how much teases got to him. Logan said it had something to do with him being the embodiment of anxiety and fight or flight and tickling being a way to train children to defend themselves and it is a panic defense. All he knew was it was making his already awful lee mood even worse.

“NONONO NOT RIGHT AT ALL” Virgil shrieked “I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN! FUCKING LET ME GO YOU ASSHOLES.”

Virgil knew what he was doing, he knew he was making it worse for himself and that he was going to get wrecked even more than he was before. But he may or may not have wanted that (okay he definitely wanted that but shhhhhh), and wasn’t regretting a thing.

“Such foul language! You must really want to be wrecked! I mean I knew you were in a lee mood but not one this big! I mean c’mon- 5 lers and you’re still having an attitude and cursing at us.” the good half of creativity remarked teasingly, not missing how red the lee’s face went at his words.

“Oh yes, it would seem that poor little ticklish Virgil here has amassed quite the lee mood and he is resorting to being bratty to get more tickles,” Logan stated slightly cold as if he were reading a lab report out loud rather than teasing the living daylights out of the lee that is Virgil ‘Anxiety’ Sanders.

“Yes, he’s been having quite the attitude with us thus far. Quite the bratty lee if I say so myself,~” the serpent side teased to the blushing, red, lee mess that was the embodiment of anxiety. “And we all know that bratty lees don’t want to be wrecked with tickles until they can’t even fight it anymore and they definitely don’t want punishment tickles so they misbehave to get them.”

And then Virgil heard the worst thing he has ever heard in his life.

“I say we make him ask for the tickles like a good little lee because bratty lees don’t get what they want”

No. No no no no no no. This couldn’t be happening right now. Not to him. Not in this big of a lee mood. Not with this many lers around to hear it and see how red his face is. Not him having to actually say the dreaded t-word. Not with five fucking lers to wreck him after he asks, holy shit he fucked up-

But there’s no way it could get worse. I mean only Janus said that the other sides probably won’t even agree with him! They’ll have mercy on him and not make him ask- right?

“Oh what a wonderful idea Dr. Trickyll and Mr. Lie!”

“What a good idea! Oh, you’re so smart Janny!”

“Yes, it would be beneficial to teaching Virgil a lesson to make him ask for what he wants.”

“Oh come on! Now I have to wait even longer to wreck him, cause we all know that Virgey here can’t say tickle!”

Aaaaaaand it got worse.

Not only did (mostly) all of them agree with the scaled side, but the only one who didn’t was Remus, and that was only because he wanted to wreck him sooner. Great.

So it was settled. He was going to die today. And it was all his Janus’ fault. I mean- how could he be so mean? Making him admit to being in a lee mood? The rudest thing he’s ever heard, how dare they make him admit to wanting to be wrecked with t- you know what.

And Virgil, the side who is definitely not a lee, eloquently said, “I- I- NONONONO- THAT ISN’T FAIR YOU ASSHOLES.”

“Now you are just proving our suspicions. You are in a leviathan of a lee mood and are being a bratty lee and defying us to get the desired amount of tickles. We are not going to give in to your brattiness and do as you wish until you ask nicely.”

Virgil wanted to crawl into a hole and stay there forever. They were seriously going to make him ask? Now? In this economy? But more importantly right now-

Was he going to ask?

Was he going to embarrass himself to all of the other sides? Was he going to let them know, once and for all, that he was in a big ass lee mood? Was he going to tell them that he wanted 50 fingers wiggling and scribbling all across his body, forcing them to make him laugh? Or was he going to die from lee suffering and not ask?

Yeah, he was gonna die from lee suffering.

There was no way that he would, or could, ask for something so childish and happy when he was anxiety. He was supposed to be the protector of the group, not the guy who gets giant lee moods and shows weakness and is soft, no matter how much he may have wanted to do so.

“Come on kiddo, you can do it! I believe in you!” the fatherly side encouraged.

Or maybe he could… maybe.

“But it’s so… ” the emo side trailed off, face somehow flushing even redder, “embarrassing,” he finished quietly.

“Oh c’mon Emo Nightmare, it’s fine to let loose every once in a while! There’s no shame in wanting tickles, in fact, it’s quite adorable!” the fanciful side dramatically exclaimed, aiming to make the anxious side feel a bit better, noticing the aura of shame surrounding him.

“Yes it is, in fact, beneficial to one’s mental health to laugh, and tickling, as I’m sure you know, is a way to produce laughter. Therefore, it would aid your, and most likely Thomas’, mental health to be tickled if you so desire. There is no shame in it Virgil.” Logan stated the oddly calming words in an almost motherly tone to the patchwork hoodie-clad side.

“Yes, it isn’t adorable how easily you’re flustered and how much you want to be wrecked by us. And even if it was adorable, which it definitely is not, we all know you love being tickled. So that makes us wrecking you until you cry is a form of self-care! And there are so many things wrong with practicing self-care, especially as the literal embodiment of anxiety.” the deceitful side said, trying his best to comfort his old friend in his own way.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah Virgey just c’mon and say it. I wanna wreck your little belly button now so if you could hurry it up with the asking thing that’d be better than a butthole!” Remus said while looking ready to pounce on Virgil as soon as he asked for it, if not sooner.

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay he could do this. All he had to do was say three words! Three words aren’t that many!-

Please. Tickle. Me.

He couldn’t do this.

Those three words were the bane of existence. Those 3 words were going to be the death of him. Those 3 words made his face look like a fucking tomato even just thinking them, let alone saying them. Those three words… that he was going to say.

He took a breath, and ever so calmly said “PLEASE TICKLE ME!”

“Awww I knew you could do it kiddo!”

“There we go, you adorable emo!”

“I’m glad you felt comfortable enough to tell us what you wanted, and that you were polite about it.”

“See that wasn’t too hard now was it, my little spider”

“FINALLY!”

The emo side’s face somehow went even redder at his fellow side’s words of excitement at finally getting to wreck him.

Whether Virgil was going to die of embarrassment or lee first was anyone’s guess, but all he knew was he was going to die of something that day. His face was so red it could be mistaken for a tomato, and it spread to his neck and ears at this point. The emo side’s lee mood had grown so big that it was becoming more all-consuming than a lee mood already was normally. So maybe he might die of both at the same time if the other sides didn’t hurry the fuck up and wreck him.-

“So… pick a spot Emo Nightmare,” the good creativity said calmly after a few seconds of silent anticipation of what was to come (well the anticipation was mainly on Virgil’s end but shhh)

“WHAT?! NONONONO I JUST ASKED YOU FUCKING ASS!” the anxious side exclaimed in disbelief before slamming his head down on the ground in exasperation.

Did Roman just live to embarrass him? He made him ask and now he’s making him pick a spot. He’s basically making him tell where he wants to be wrecked the most and that’s completely illegal.

“Well now you’re being bratty again, should we make you ask again?” the logical side asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.

“…don’t make me say those fucking words again,” Virgil said, face somehow flushing even redder at the idea of being made to ask again, avoiding eye contact with the other sides. He was beyond mortified at this point, all the other sides had heard him ask to be wrecked, were going to make him pick a spot, and now they heard him admit to not wanting to say that fucking word again. He wanted to crawl inside a hole and stay there for the next 4,000 years.

“C’mon kiddo, just say any spot! You’re so ticklish that any spot will be great!” the paternal side said, accidentally teasing his son.

“Patton whyyyyyyyyy” Virgil whined while trying to hide his face in his shoulder as best he could, embarrassed at the moral side’s words.

“What?! It’s true kiddo!”

“No, it’s not”

Virgil wasn’t pouting. Nope. Nuh-uh. Not at all. He was big, bad anxiety who didn’t pout, no matter how much he may have thought it was unfair that they were being so mean to him.-

“Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” the emo side groaned in frustration and embarrassment, from the other sides still not wrecking him and the father figure words, before whispering, “…sides.”

As soon as the word left his mouth Remus pounced on him, literally. The impulsive side tackled his twin brother of the emo and replaced him by straddling his waist and squeezing Virgil’s sides.

The emo bit his lip to try and keep his laughter in, but it was no use; he was already too keyed up from anticipation for him to not laugh.

“Wahaihihit noho!”

“Oh, but we’re just getting started, Virgil,” the logical side said, smirking as he saw the emo’s eyes widen in panic when he saw the logical side calmly walking towards him.

“Just remember, you asked for this kiddo,” Patton said before walking towards his son with an innocent yet slightly sinister grin on his face. He was so excited to finally get to wreck his son to pieces! Virgil often came to him when he was in lee moods and it was so adorable! Now he got to share that adorableness with the rest of the sides!

Janus was already behind him and was spreading four out of his six arms to wreck the ex-dark side. He wiggled all of his available fingers where Virgil could see them. He relished in the way his face flushed an even darker red before he closed his eyes to avoid seeing the teasing, wiggling fingers.

The good half of creativity had since recovered from getting shoved off the lee and had climbed next to Virgil’s legs and had a hold of his ankle to keep him from kicking. As he did that, he stretched his leg out slightly in order to gain access to the backs of his knees.

“Wahihit Rohomahan nohoho!” the current lee cried out in panic at the knowledge that the fanciful side was going to tickle his knees.

“Why did I choose today to wear shorts?” Virgil thought to himself in regret before he remembered, “Oh yeah, I wanted to get wrecked. Well… fuck my life I guess”

Roman started scribbling his fingers on the backs of the emo’s side’s knees, listening to his,ironically, bright and cheerful laugh as he did so.

The tie wearing side finally walked all the way over to Virgil and kneeled next to him on the coach. He began scanning the darker side for a spot to tickle that wasn’t already being wrecked by the other sides. His eyes landed on his ribs, which were known to be a pretty bad spot on their own for the purple side, so tickling them combined with the other spots covered by the other sides were likely to make him go even further into hysterics.

“Virgil, how does it feel to know that you’re going to be tickled without mercy until you cry by 5 lers? Is it terrifying? Exciting? Exhilarating?” he said while summoning a notebook to write his answers down, eager to have more research.

The emo’s side flushed the reddest it’s ever been at Logan’s words and at seeing the notebook. He knew whatever he did was going to be observed and recorded for the logical side to look back on when he was collecting more data on the side’s reactions to certain aspects in tickling.

“Lohohogahan, nohoho!” he laughed harder, becoming more giddy by the second, feeling the logical side’s eyes drifting up and down his body. Virgil knew the tie wearing side was going to try and collect data from him, but he didn’t expect him to ask questions.

“Logan, yes!,” the dark blue side exclaimed, uncharacteristically excited and child-like at the opportunity to collect more data.

“You know Virgil, you still haven’t responded to my question, would you mind doing so now?”, the left brain side questioned. He finally kneeled down next to Virgil and began to squeeze his ribs while observing the emo’s reactions to him doing so.

“Yehehes Ihihi wohouhuhuld mihihind! Shuhut uhuhup!”

“Oh kiddo, well now that’s just flat out rude! You should know better than to be such a meanie!”, the paternal side scolded. “I think you need to be taught another lesson, it’s the only way you’re gonna learn after all!”

“Yes, it would be a good incentive to answer my question, seeing as how he doesn’t seem to want to be cooperative. It would also be beneficial to my research to see how he would react to your ‘punishment’.”

“Wahahaihit nohoHOHOHO!” Virgil tried to say before he was thrown into even deeper hysterics from the father figure had started scribbling his fingers on his stomach.

All of the other sides all mentally, and some verbally, awwed at the normally dark and pessimistic side’s bright and happy laughter.

With Janus scribbling Virgil’s armpits with 5 arms, Roman tracing his knees, Patton scratching at his tummy, Logan squeezing his ribs, and Remus digging into his sides, Virgil was, well… losing his fucking mind.

“GUHUHUYS! HAHAHAHA!”

“Uh, guys- I think we should give him a break. His face is as red as my sash and he’s kind of wheezing.-” the fanciful said, sounding very concerned at his friend’s current state.

“Oh kiddo, are you okay?”, Patton questioned as he pulled his hands back from their place on his stomach. He knew the darker side could take a lot but he didn’t know if he could take that many tickles, especially with so many lers.

All the other sides slowly began to move their hands away when the rest of them noticed that the fanciful was right. They each looked at him as they all backed away, concern visible in their eyes.

“Virgil, would you like a glass of water?”, the logical side asked, voice surprisingly soft and almost motherly.

The emo side nodded his head, still too lost in residue giggles to respond verbally. Virgil’s brain was practically melted from all the ghost sensations still tingling all over his body.

“We didn’t go too far did we, my little shadowling?” the deceitful side asked, being genuine for once. Him and the emo side may not have been that close anymore, but Janus still deeply cared for him and wanted to make sure he was okay.

“Yehehes, ohoho gohohod,” the purple side giggles out, still a bit loopy on endorphins from laughing so much.

If the emo side was being completely honest, his lee mood still wasn’t gone. He still wanted more tickles. He wanted to be wrecked more than he already had been, and more than he ever had been before.

As all the sides stepped back a bit to give him some room to breathe the emo side managed to say through his giggles, “Noho dohont gohoho,wahant mohohore tihicklehes!”

The other 5 sides felt their jaws drop at his words. He wanted… more tickles? Man he really was in a giant lee mood. After they all got over the shock of his words, the five sides grinned wider than the cheshire cat.

“More? You want more tickly tickly tickles, Virgey?”, the green side said, as he slowly walked towards the lee again with wiggling fingers.

“Yehehes!”, the emo side exclaimed, still clearly loopy from the endorphins.

The five lers all awwed at endorphin high Virgil and him being so open about wanting more tickles. Just when the rest of them thought that the emo side couldn’t be even cuter, he did this. Even Logan had to admit that the sight was adorable.

“Okay kiddo, how about this? We’ll give you alllllll the tickles you could ever want after you calm down a bit more. How does that sound?!”

“Gohohod!”, the emo side giggled out, as excited as they’ve ever seen him before. He started taking deeper breaths to try and calm down quicker so he could get his second round of tickles even sooner.

As soon as he came down from his endorphins rush the purple side’s face flushed red as he remembered what he said stuttering out embarrassed excuses. “I didn’t mean that!-” and “I was lying!-” were the most common excuses he made.

None of the other sides believed him.

As they shouldn’t have, as Virgil still had a wide, wobbly smile on his face from the anticipation of knowing he was going to be wrecked again.

“You see, Virgil, you still haven’t answered my previous question. Why don’t you answer it now?”the dark blue side asked teasingly. Logan smirked as he saw the way that the emo side’s face flushed an even darker red, traveling all the way to his neck and ears. He knew the emo couldn’t handle answering his questions for his research, and he used this fact quite frequently. Teasing always made it worse for the purple side, it was almost too much for him to handle. It was almost mean to tease the embodiment of anxiety, especially when he was this worked up and flustered in the first place.

“Uh, how about I don’t do that?-”, the anxious said quickly, not wanting to have to tell Logan how excited he was to have five lers to wreck and tease him until he was a red, flustered, hysterical mess.

“So Panic! at the Everywhere, you say you want more tickles, then you deny wanting said tickles. What’s wrong, a little flustered? Are we teasing you too much? Can big, bad anxiety not handle a few simple teases or questions from his own personal tickle monsters? Oh, what a pity, and were going to have so much fun with you too! We were going to scribble our fingers on your tummy, lightly scratch our fingers on your toes, squeeze your thighs, poke your sides, skitter our fingers on the backs of your knees! Now we won’t get to do any of that, and that’s such a pity for all of us!”, the fanciful side teased, glancing at Virgil every so often to see how red his face would go at his words.

Roman certainly wasn’t disappointed with the emo side’s reaction. He started kicking again, face flushing red and it spreading to his neck and ears, giggles spilled out of his mouth against his will from anticipation, shaking his head, and tugging on his arms while half heartedly begging to be let go.

“Nohoho, Prihihincehey stahap beheihing mehean!”, the patchwork clad hoodie side pleaded, giggling from anticipation and Roman’s mean teasing. It just wasn’t fair- I mean c’mon, Virgil was anxiety, you’re really going to make him wait? How mean could someone possibly be?

“Kiddo, do you want more tickles?”, the paternal side asked tenderly, not intending to tease his son, just merely wanting to make sure he actually wanted them before five lers were wrecking him again.

The emo side shyly nodded his head before turning to hide his very red face in his shoulder. He couldn’t handle the others seeing him so flustered, despite the others having seen him just as flustered before. The only difference was they were all together this time. They all were seeing him, face the most red it had probably ever been, at the same time. It was almost too much embarrassment for Virgil to handle.

“Awwww! Gerard Gay really is adorable, isn’t he?!“, the fanciful side exclaimed excitedly before looking at the other four lers, bouncing on his heels a little from the adorable sight. He was just so excited cause he got to wreck the normally stoic and edgy emo more because said emo asked him too!

“You dorks need to shut the fuck up and help me wreck Tickle-Me-Emo,” the green side said before walking over to Virgil.

As Remus walked over to him, Virgil shook his head wildly, eyes wide open, legs kicking, and tugging on his arms. The purple side knew that the intrusive side was one the most merciless lers in the mind and he didn’t stop unless you were crying from laughter or begging for mercy. And he was walking right towards him again while Virgil was pinned down and couldn’t fight back like he normally could.

“I for one am curious as to why the little spiderling wants more tickles. Would you mind telling us, my little shadowling?”, the deceitful side questioned affectionately. He always loved to make Virgil say his fantasies as he knew how much it flustered him.

“Yehes Ihi wohouhuld mihihind”

“Too bad, you’re telling us Robert Downey Jr.”

Virgil whined, knowing he wasn’t getting out of this as easily, and that the other sides wouldn’t be satisfied with his answer unless he gave specific details. All he wanted was to be wrecked again, was that too much to ask?

Apparently it was.

The emo side groaned, far too gone in his lee mood to not get more tickles. He took a deep breath, trying to gather up the courage and willpower to speak again. He was gonna die from embarrassment, he just knew it.

Virgil took a breath and replied, “Uhuhum, Ihi lihike beheihing toho weheak toho fihighihit bahack ahand beheihing fohorcehed toho lahauhugh.” His face flushed to the same shade as Roman’s sash as he said this, knowing that they were never going to let him live this down. He glanced up to see the logical side writing his words down. The emo side could feel all of their eyes on him, looking him up and down, their eyes drilling into his worst spots, just begging to be able to wreck him for a second time and make his lee fantasy come true.

Remus shockingly wasn’t the first side to move towards the blushy side, it was Logan. The logical side was normally the last one to move towards the lee he was wrecking, often too busy observing the lee to actually wreck them until they were begging for him to do anything.

Logan was excited to wreck Virgil again, and he was showing it in his own way by rushing over to him. The logical side kneeled down next to the emo side’s stomach and rolled his shirt up to his ribs. He was looking at the spot, appearing almost rabid with need. The tie-clad side’s ler mood had gotten even stronger at the lee’s words, and Logan needed to wreck him now. The more he waited the worse the more his ler mood grew.

Janus pinned the emo side’s arms above his head once again with two of his arms, the other four resting above his ribs and armpits. Patton kneeled next to his ‘son’s’ knees as he hovered his hands over the spot. Roman straddled the purple side’s thighs again, pinning his legs down with his weight as he looked down at the current lee’s stomach. Remus was moving towards Virgil’s feet, sitting on his calves so he couldn’t pull his feet back, nor kick his legs at all, he pulled his toes back with one hand and rested the other on his foot.

The anticipation was going to kill the anxious side. As each of the sides walked to get in their positions Virgil’s face steadily got redder and his smile became more difficult to fight off. He was so close to getting what wanted again, yet the other sides were stopping as soon as they got into their positions.

“Guhuys pleheahase! Juhust doho ihit ahalreheady!”, the emo side begged, giggling from anticipation.

“I mean… he did say please,” the fatherly side stated. As much as Patton loved teasing his son, he wanted to actually wreck him now. He wanted to give his son what he wanted, so he was going to.

“Padre’s right. He’s been so polite recently and he answered Calculator Watch’s question, we should reward him for being such a good lee.”

The other 3 sides nodded in agreement as they exchanged glances with each other, shit eating grins on all their faces. As they looked at each other they nodded, communicating without speaking.

“Three…”

“Two…”

“ONE!”

As soon as they yelled out the last number they all pounced on the emo side. Janus scratching at his ribs and armpits, switching between lighter and rougher tickles. Roman fluttering his fingers on his stomach, keeping all his touches feather light. Remus scritching at his toes, never giving the emo side a break from the tickly sensations and keeping him on his toes, literally. Patton alternated between squeezing each of his knees, not letting his son get used to the sensations. Logan alternated between squeezing his sides and helping the fanciful wreck the anxious side’s stomach.

Virgil arched his back as he screamed in laughter. He had never experienced such intense ticklish sensations, especially not all at once. He couldn’t even process all the sensations coursing through his body and he swore he was going to explode from them.

“N-NAHAHA! GUHUHAHAHA!”, the emo side screeched desperately, not even able to form words anymore. All he could do is throw his head back in laughter and take it. His body wouldn’t let him squirm, far too overwhelmed by all the sensations being forced upon it.

He loved it.

The emo side hadn’t felt that care free in a long time. It was… nice to be able to let go and laugh and not have to worry about anything else then the tickly sensations attacking your body and having laughter forced out. It was something that the normally grumpy and edgy side truly needed.

“IHI- IHI CAHAHA! HAHAHA!”

The five lers looked at each other, slightly concerned. They knew the patchwork hoodie-clad side had asked for this, but wasn’t he reaching his limit? This was a lot for anyone, especially for the embodiment of anxiety who wasn’t used to physical touch.

“Kiddo, are you okay? Do you need a break?”

“IHIM F-FIHAHAHA!”, his words once again got lost in the midst of his hysterical laughter. Even though he couldn’t finish his sentence he was telling the truth, he was fine. Actually he was better than fine. He was amazing. This was exactly what he wanted, to be tickled to his limits, to not be able to fight back. Some people might say it was extreme but his lee mood was too bad to really care about that. Not that he could actually think, his mind was too busy trying to process what he was feeling to think many coherent thoughts.

At his words the other sides continued to wreck him for a few more minutes until the emo side cried out “S-SAHAND- SAHANDEHER-.”

They all pulled back immediately as they heard the safeword. All five lers looked at the emo side to see if he needed anything at that moment before he could speak coherently again. The fanciful side got off of his hips and the deceitful side let go of his arms and slowly worked the lee’s arms down from their position.

As soon as Virgil was free to move again he curled into a ball to protect his spots, still feeling ghost sensations all over his body. He was still giggling from ghost sensations on his stomach, knees, feet, armpits, and ribs.

“Ohoho gohod, thahat wahas amahazihinig! Thahank yohouhu guhuys!”

The other sides awwed at him again. He was just too cute for the others to handle sometimes. The normally stoic and edgy side was giggling and thanking them for tickles, it was just adorable and the paternal side wished he could take a picture of the sight of a flustered, giggling Virgil.

“Would you like anything? Water? Snacks?”, the logical side questioned, immediately slipping back into his almost motherly role with Virgil.

The wrecked side shook his head and just giggled as he said “Cuhuhddlehes?!”

There he was again, being adorable. The other sides awwwed again as they walked back over to the emo side to give him what they wanted cause…

How could they say no to that?

#my shitty writing #lee!virgil #ler!patton #ler!logan #ler!janus #ler!remus #ler!roman #sanders sides fic #sanders sides tickling

82 notes · View notes

wren-fell · 3 years

Text

Stuck in Borderland

Chapter 4: The Days In between

Thank you to everyone who’s read this so far! I appreciate all the support.

Madoka and Sayaka are my characters all the rest belong to Haro Aso.

Warnings: Language, talk of death, weapons

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

* Day 1 (Morning)*

“Ughhhhhhhh…” Sayaka groaned as her head rested on the dining room table.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have had that extra two drinks after you ran after Chishiya,” Madoka commented as she sat at the table.

“Shhhhhh… you were the one who suggested we go back to the bar,” Sayaka hissed raising her head to look at her, but winced at the sunlight that came through the window and put her head back down.

“Didn’t mean you had to agree,” Madoka mumbled around a bite of toast, “you should eat you’ll feel better.”

“No if I eat I’ll vomit…”

“Weird. Eating makes me feel better after a night of drinking,” Madoka commented.

Sayaka raised her head to glare at her, “it’s because you’re 21 Madoka. When you hit 25, you’ll get it, until then fuck off,” Sayaka hissed.

“Yea… Well enjoy the youth right,” Madoka mumbled her mouth full.

Sayaka sighed and rested her forehead back against the cool table. The Beach was relatively quiet in the morning. Everyone was so drunk from the night before things didn’t pick back up until noon when people started waking up, so for now at least the music wasn’t pounding in their ears. Sayaka would’ve loved to sleep in more, but force of habit from swim practice had her up and at em at 8am.

“Here this will help with the hangover,” someone said and the sound of a full glass hitting the table made Sayaka raise her head. A tall girl with braids, a blue flowered bikini, and a cigarette hanging out of her mouth gave her a smile.

Sayaka squinted as her memory started to jog, “why?”

“What?” The tall girl asked putting her head to the side.

Sayaka glared at her, “why would you give me this? You’re the chick that’s always hanging around with Chishiya. So what? Is this some murder cocktail from him?” Sayaka nodded toward the tall glass filled with thick looking red liquid.

The girl blinked at her in surprise before bursting out laughing, “no, no. This is a hangover remedy a friend of mine taught me back in the real world. Chishiya had nothing to do with it,” she paused to look at Sayaka who still looked suspicious, “he isn’t exactly in the business of caring about people.”

Sayaka pouted as she watched the tall girl. “Just shut up and drink it Sayaka. Kuina is harmless,” Madoka said.

Sayaka eyed the glass before sighing and pushing herself up into a sitting position with her elbows, “fine…” She picked up the glass and sniffed it cautiously and gagged.

“Yea, don’t smell it just chug it,” Kuina advised.

Sayaka glanced at her hesitantly, but drew in a deep breath and threw the glass back chugging it as fast as she could. She slammed the glass back on the table and stuck out her tongue with a shiver, “oh god that’s nasty.”

“Yea, but it’ll help.”

Sayaka sighed leaning back against her chair and pulling her bangs away from her face, “thanks Kuina,” she glanced up and offered a smile, “do you want to sit with us? I’m Sayaka by the way.”

Kuina smiled, “sure.”

There was a long silence as they all sat and ate.

“So Kuina, did Chishiya say anything about Sayaka’s embarrassing confrontation?” Madoka asked.

“Madoka!”

“Hm? No I don’t think so, but I haven’t talked to him today,” she said thoughtfully a hand on her chin.

Sayaka turned to look at her, “you haven’t you two are always together. What are you dating or something?”

Kuina leaned back laughing loudly, “oh god no! Chishiya is definitely not my type!”

Sayaka gave her an unconvinced look.

“Besides I don’t think he’s the romantic type,” Kuina added.

Sayaka nodded slowly, “I can understand that he isn’t your type.”

“Yea, that’s good. Cuz he’s totally Sayaka’s type,” Madoka piped up.

“MADOKA!”

Kuina was laughing again, “what seriously?”

“No, not seriously! I’ve talked to him once, and if I had the chance I would deck him in the face!” Sayaka snapped. Kuina kept laughing.

“And what’s his fucking problem anyway?” Sayaka demanded leaning over the table.

“What do you mean?”

“Like what do you two want from me?” Sayaka hissed.

“Nothing that I know of. Chishiya just takes an interest in certain people,” Kuina shrugged, “he doesn’t usually tell me what his ideas are though.”

“Great. So I’m still just a bug under a microscope to him,” Sayaka mumbled snatching a piece of bacon off Madoka’s plate.

“Hey!”

“Stupid blonde haired stalker,” she grumbled.

“Honestly, if you confronted him like Madoka says he’ll probably lose interest,” Kuina added.

Sayaka rested her cheek on her fist, “can only hope. I don’t need a stalker when someone is already trying to kill me…”

There was a long pause, “what’s up with the cigarette Kuina?”

Kuina blinked glancing at Sayaka, “oh, I used to smoke, but I figured best to be in good health for these games. I have to get back home to my mom she’s bedridden, and she needs me,” Kuina replied.

Sayaka nodded, “makes sense,” she sighed, “I need to get back to my little sister… she’s all I have left, I can’t leave her alone.”

“I need to get back to my family… My mom and dad just got divorced, and mom wasn’t taking it well…” Madoka mumbled.

There was a collective silence between the three of them, before Madoka sighed and gave Sayaka a hard shove, “way to bring down the mood!”

“I didn’t mean to!”

“Haven’t you heard the Beach motto? This is a Utopia no sad faces here,” Kuina teased, and they all laughed.

“To fucking Utopia,” Sayaka raised her glass of water, and they all clinked their cups together.

“Cheers,” Sayaka mumbled drinking.

* Day 2 (night)*

Sayaka hummed to the tune of the music kicking her feet as she laid back in the beach chair.

“How can you hum to this? There’s not even any words!” Madoka asked gesturing towards the speakers with a drink in her hand.

Sayaka shrugged.

“They should play better music,” Kuina said, “if we’re going to die. I don’t want the last thing I hear to be stupid techno music.”

“So true,” Madoka mumbled looking around the pool.

“Chishiya has headphones and music, but I’m not sure what he listens to,” Kuina pointed out.

“Probably something weird, like death metal,” Madoka muttered.

“Or Katy Perry,” Sayaka suggested with a snicker.

“Ha! Yea I can just picture him rocking out to ‘E.T’,” Kuina joked.

“Oh please ‘hot & cold’ would be his jam,” Sayaka snorted.

“What about ‘I kissed a girl’?” Madoka suggested.

“No way, he’s totally virgin lips,” Sayaka laughed.

“I bet you could fix that, Sayaka,” Madoka smirked.

“Would need a lot of drinks,” Sayaka sighed settling back into her chair again sipping on her drink.

“We’ll see,” Madoka cooed.

“You could be the one to break into that icy heart!” Kuina brought her hands to her chest dramatically.

“Yes! And then survive the borderland together!” Madoka leaned into Kuina as they both giggled.

Sayaka glanced at the two of them out of the corner of her eye and smirked, “wouldn’t hold you breath on that one.”

“I still think they’ll end up together,” Madoka pointed out, “I have faith.”

“In your dreams—“ Sayaka, Madoka, and Kuina all jumped as a loud shot rang out, and the pool went silent, except the music still beating in the background.

Sayaka sat bolt upright and scanned the pool. Standing at the far right corner was Niragi and a boy in board shorts cowering on the ground. Niragi was pointing his gun at the boy, and there was a noticeable bullet hole in the pool deck in between his legs.

“You really think you can just talk to whoever you want?” Niragi leant forward pushing the barrel into the guy’s forehead, “that girl is mine. Do you get it?”

“Yes, yes I’m sorry!” He replied frantically.

Sayaka slid to the edge of her seat tensing all her muscles getting ready to run, when a hand rested on her arm. Her head snapped to Madoka who gave her a slight headshake, “if you run. He’ll shoot you.” Sayaka felt her blood go cold, and she dragged her eyes back to the scene.

“I’m sorry!” The boy screamed again.

“And you think that will save you? I think I need to teach you a fucking lesson,” Niragi kicked him hard in the chin sending him backwards and his head cracked into the concrete.

“Not so talkative now, are you?” Niragi leaned forward over the boy’s unconscious body, and spit in his face. He turned around sharply throwing an arm around a girl with long curled black hair who looked horrified, and they began to walk away.

Sayaka felt like she was frozen solid, like her muscles would never move again; even as everyone started to talk and dance like nothing had happened. Very slowly she dragged her eyes over to Madoka and Kuina who were watching the boy be carted away with a solemn expression.

“Hell of a paradise isn’t it?” Kuina mumbled.

“What the hell? He’ll just go around shooting people?” Sayaka asked shakily.

Madoka gave a sigh and nodded, “there’s nothing we can do. If anyone stood up to him they’d be shot.”

“If you stay quiet and hide in the crowd you’ll be safe,” Kuina breathed.

Sayaka drew in a deep breath, and looked back to the pool. This place was like a game arena in itself, but at least in the games nobody was kidding themselves about this being a Utopia.

Sayaka let out a loud groan as she tossed and turned in bed. She still had a lump sitting in her stomach, since Niragi’s outburst at the pool. Every little sound from the hallway made her jump, and it certainly didn’t help that they weren’t able to lock their doors.

She sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed wiping her face, and looked at the clock, 3:00am. With a groan she stood up and walked to the bathroom. She splashed water on her face, and leaned against the counter. Running water was nice, but not having to feel like she’d die any second would be much better. A loud slam of a nearby door made her jolt, and she groaned.

“Fuck.”

Staring at her reflection in the mirror she let out a sigh, “maybe a walk will tire me out enough to sleep.” She slipped on her flip-flops and opened the door to the hallway. Cautiously she peeked her head out, making sure that none of the militants were roaming around before slipping out.

Sayaka wandered around the hotel letting her feet guide her, and making sure to change directions when she saw any of the militants. Whooping and hollering sounded from the end of the hallway, and Sayaka made a sharp turn into the stairwell. Quietly she leaned against the cement wall listening to the laughs as they got closer. She chewed on her lip and looked at the wall across from her where a simple sign with an arrow pointing up read, “roof access”. Casting a glance over her shoulder towards the door Sayaka ran up the staircase hoping to avoid the incoming hyenas.

The stairwell was quiet and there was no sound but the slap of her flip-flops echoing against the stairs. Not even the music made it’s way into the dark concrete walls. She had to admit as spooky as the stairwell was the quiet was welcomed. Sayaka reached the top of the stairwell, and gave the heavy door a shove. Quietly she peeked her head through the door to look around the roof. It was fairly quiet. From the 7th floor the music at the pool was just a distant drumming. Sayaka slipped out onto the roof sweeping her gaze around. There was nothing up here except the air conditioning fans, the utility shed, and… Chishiya. The white hooded boy was standing over by the edge of the roof facing the darkened city of Tokyo.

Sayaka stared at him wide-eyed as he turned around, smirked, and waved. She fidgeted with the hem of her board shorts, “sorry. I didn’t know anyone was up here.”

“Who’s the stalker now?” he quipped turning back to the view. Sayaka drew her lips into a tight line, and stiffened her shoulders drawing in a deep breath.

Slowly she walked to the edge of the roof to stand beside him. She had to admit, the lights not being on in Tokyo made all the buildings look like giant shadow monsters coming up out of the ground, but the lack of light pollution made it so you could see all the stars in the sky. She couldn’t help, but laugh. Chishiya glanced at her.

“Sorry, I just find it ironic,” she said looking up at him, “it took being in this hellscape to be able to see the stars. It’s actually beautiful…” she turned her head back to the city.

There was a long silence between the two of them, and Sayaka had to admit for once maybe she was enjoying Chishiya’s presence.

“You were a chemist?” he asked.

Sayaka glanced up at him, “uh… yea. Well,” she rolled her head on her shoulders, “kinda. I was finishing up my senior year of my PhD in Chemistry. I was an intern at a pharmaceutical company.”

He nodded slowly, “so you lied.”

Sayaka stared at him wide-eyed, “I… I guess? I mean my title was still chemist, and I was given the same tasks as the other chemists. So, call it what you will I suppose,” she mumbled.

“You lied.” Sayaka closed her eyes tightly. She thought she was actually okay with having Chishiya around, but then he opened his stupid mouth.

“Fine, whatever you want to call it. Are you going to go tattle to Hatter, Mr. Executive?” she grumbled rolling her eyes.

“No.”

She looked up at him surprised, “really? Why?” But of course he didn’t answer just smirked at her, and looked back at the skyline. Sayaka sighed.

“So, you lied about the chemicals as well?”

She felt a shiver pass through her, “I…” she hesitated, “I… I’m pretty sure they would be unusable,” she whispered.

“Pretty sure?” he quirked an eyebrow.

“Yes, majority of the chemicals need to be kept in a humidity and temperature-controlled environment. With the power out, and based on how dilapidated the city is they would be long decayed.”

Chishiya watched her.

“You don’t agree?” she asked looking up at him.

He thought about it, “I suppose it’s a reasonable explanation.”

“Yes thank you,” she nodded.

“That’s not what Hatter wanted to hear.”

“I noticed.”

“You should’ve just told him there was a possibility. He doesn’t take kindly to affirmative negatives.”

“Why are you going to tell him?”

“No, him throwing a fit doesn’t interest me.”

Sayaka looked up at him. Pieces of his white-blonde hair whipped in the wind, and she frowned, “what does interest you?”

His eyes shifted to look at her. Sayaka felt her cheeks starting to heat up as he stared into her eyes. She felt small, and not just because she was actually shorter than him. His gaze was scrutinizing like he was picking her apart bit by bit from the inside out.

“Why are you up here so late?”

Sayaka blinked snapping herself out of her thoughts, “uh… I just couldn’t sleep. After Niragi’s outburst at the pool…” she muttered looking away from him.

“You have to get used to that. It happens often,” he replied.

Sayaka knit her eyebrows together and wrapped her arms around herself, “how can Hatter claim this is a Utopia?”

“These idiots will believe anything even if it doesn’t exist.”

Sayaka frowned, “I hate it here,” she whispered.

Chishiya glanced at her, “don’t let Hatter hear you say that. You’ll be marked a traitor.”

Sayaka grimaced, “and the Utopia just gets better and better.”

“And yet you chose to join.”

Sayaka looked up at him, “I was more or less kidnapped.”

“Lucky you didn’t meet with the militants, you would’ve actually been kidnapped,” he pointed out.

“Technically still was just in a less hostile way,” she added.

“Judging by how calm you were, that wasn’t your first game. Where were your cards?” He asked.

Sayaka raised her eyebrows, “oh… honestly, I didn’t think about it. I was so focused on the fact that I was still alive I just left the game arenas. The cards seemed insignificant at the time. They still do honestly,” she added under her breath.

“You don’t believe Hatter’s plan?” Chishiya raised his eyebrows.

“Do you?” Sayaka asked, turning to look at him.

He paused considering her words, “I can’t say I think it’s the exact solution. But, we don’t have a lot to go on right now. Obviously the cards have some sort of significance,” he looked back at the cityscape, “it was dumb of you to leave them behind.”

Sayaka frowned and glared at him, “does every word out of your mouth have to be an insult?”

He glanced at her with a smirk, “don’t do so many stupid things.”

Sayaka huffed, “always so pleasant talking to you Chishiya.”

“Nobody asked you to come up here.”

Sayaka balled her hands into fists, “fine then I’m going to bed. At least talking to you was exhausting enough that I think I can sleep now,” she turned on her heel and headed to the door, “goodnight Chishiya.”

He held his hand up as she walked away, but didn’t speak. Sayaka walked down the stairs lost in thought. Just when she thought maybe he wasn’t so bad Chishiya proves her wrong and continues to be an asshole. She covered her mouth as she yawned, well, at least I wasn’t lying when I said he was exhausting to talk to.

* Day 4 (Night) *

“So wait you two actually talked? For an extended period of time? And neither of you have a black eye or are dead?” Madoka asked leaning over the bar.

“Yep,” Sayaka replied sipping on her drink.

“I’m surprised you didn’t push him off the roof,” Kuina added.

“Trust me I thought about it,” Sayaka muttered.

“What did you two even talk about?” Madoka questioned, “like what do you two have in common?”

“Oh this coming from the one that desperately wants us to date?” Sayaka teased.

“Well yea, but I seriously doubt Chishiya is the small talk get to know you type of guy,” Madoka snorted.

Kuina laughed leaning over the bar, “yea definitely not. He’ll only ask questions if they’re about something that’ll benefit him.”

Sayaka snorted, “yea like getting me kicked out of the Beach,” she muttered swirling her glass before bringing it to her lips. Sayaka noticed two guys were snickering on the other side of Kuina, and leaned back to look at them. One leaned towards her and pulled at the strings on her bikini bottom. Sayaka opened her mouth to yell at them, but Kuina whipped around and grabbed the guy’s wrist. He stared at her wide-eyed as she bent his wrist backwards and he yelped dropping to his knees.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She demanded.

“Ow! Ow! Nothing! Nothing!” He screamed.

“Then what are your hands doing on my bikini?” She bent his wrist back farther.

“Ow! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” He yelped.

“Good. Don’t be doing shit like that to other girls. Give them respect!” Kuina snapped and thrust him forward so he landed on his back. He scrambled to his feet and ran out of the bar, but his friend wasn’t so intelligent.

“You bitch!” He snapped and lunged for her. Kuina didn’t even bat an eye. She stuck out her leg putting him off balance, and brought her elbow hard into his chest. Much like his friend this guy ended up flat on his ass.

“You were saying?” Kuina said with an eyebrow raised. The man scrambled to his feet muttering under his breath, and ran out of the bar.

Sayaka and Madoka both stared at her wide eyed with mouths agape.

“Holy shit,” Madoka mumbled

“You can fucking fight?” Sayaka snapped.

Kuina tossed her ponytail over her shoulder and replaced the gummy cigarette in her mouth, “yea my family owned a dojo. My dad taught me to fight,” she replied with a shrug.

“That’s super cool must come in handy—“

“Teach me!” Sayaka said slamming her hands on the bar and leaning towards Kuina.

Kuina blinked, “uh, yea sure.”

“Yes!” Sayaka pumped her fist.

“How much have you had to drink already?” Madoka mumbled.

“Shut up. If I can do cool shit like that I’ll be unstoppable!” Sayaka laughed.

“I’m just going to take this away from you,” Madoka slowly scooted Sayaka’s glass down the bar.

“Don’t touch my drink,” Sayaka glared at her as she slid it back towards herself.

“That’s right don’t want to get bitten,” Kuina chuckled.

“Shut up.”

* Day 5 *

Sayaka bent over with her hands on her knees breathing heavily, “jeez I didn’t think this would be so hard.”

“Well what did you expect?” Kuina asked putting a hand on her hip.

“I don’t know, to be badass like you?” Sayaka breathed waving at her.

“Aw, so sweet,” Kuina cooed leaning back with a hand to her chest, “but get up we have 3 more sets to get through,” she gestured for Sayaka to stand up straight.

“Ughhhhh,” Sayaka lumbered over to Kuina and brought her fists up to her face. She drew in a deep breath and punched Kuina’s raised hands.

Punch 1, 2, 3, “duck!”

“Wha—“ Sayaka didn’t have time to finish as Kuina’s fist slammed into her cheek and she fell backwards. Sayaka laid on the ground stunned staring at the blue sky.

“I said duck,” Kuina put a hand on her hip.

Sayaka’s eyes darted to her and she raised her arms, “what the hell Kuina! That fucking hurt!”

“You want to learn to fight? You need to be ready for the unexpected,” Kuina replied giving her a hard look, “especially out here.”

Sayaka sat up rubbing her cheek with a pout, “yea, yea, yea. You have a point,” she muttered.

Madoka fell backwards onto the roof laughing hysterically, “oh god Sayaka you should’ve seen the look on her face,” she snorted.

“Shut up Madoka, you’re not even trying to learn,” Sayaka snapped her head around to glare at her.

“That’s because I’m not learning,” Madoka replied pulling her sunglasses back over her face, “I’m sunbathing. Gotta rest up for my game tonight, right?”

Sayaka watched her with a pout, that’s right her visa expires tonight.

“Come on Sayaka 3 more sets,” Kuina waved at her again.

“Yea, I’m getting up,” Sayaka said pushing herself up from the ground, and bringing her fists back up, “so am I allowed to sucker punch you now?” She raised an eyebrow at Kuina.

“Ha! If you can hit me I’m all yours,” Kuina smirked.

Sayaka leaned against the balcony railing as she watched Hatter address the Beach members below. She let out a long sigh and rested her head on her arms. Scanning the crowd her eyes settled on Madoka in her purple one piece. She was towards the front of the crowd rubbing her arms with a nervous look on her face. Sayaka sighed, I hope she comes back.

“Not enjoying the show?”

Sayaka’s stood up straight and snapped her head around to see Chishiya, “well, I think his speech is bullshit. But, I’m just worried about Madoka.”

He gave a curt nod, and slid up to the banister beside her. Sayaka stiffened and watched him out of the corner of her eye.

“Now let the games begin!!” Hatter’s speech conclusion made her gaze snap back to Madoka as she approached the assignment table. Sayaka frowned watching as she joined her group consisting of three militants.

“You shouldn’t be so concerned about other people,” Chishiya said.

Sayaka turned to look up at him, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’ll die if you keep being concerned for other’s wellbeing.”

Sayaka glared at him, “it isn’t a bad thing to want her to be okay.”

“It’s an unnecessary distraction.”

“So what? Betrayal and being a dick is the only way to be here?” she demanded putting her hands on her hips.

Chishiya glanced over at her, “you haven’t played a hearts game have you?”

Sayaka watched him, “just one,” she whispered.

“That’s the whole point of this place, self preservation. If you don’t put yourself above others you won’t make it.”

Sayaka stared at him. His brown eyes were cold and calculating. She didn’t have to ask whether or not he had let people die, whether or not he had saved himself above others, she could already see the answer.

“I think you’re a shitty person,” she hissed.

He smirked at her and chuckled, “not the first time I’ve heard that.”

Sayaka sighed and turned back to the now empty lobby, “she reminds me of my little sister,” she admitted. Chishiya watched her, but didn’t say anything.

She turned to face him with a hard look, “that’s why I’m concerned for her. Trust me if it comes down to you and me. I’ll kill you in a second,” she snarled and stomped away.

#This one is really long #gotta flesh out relationships ya know??#love that roof scene though #alice in borderland #Alice in borderland oc #stuck in borderland #my writing

7 notes · View notes

fuwafuwamedb · 4 years

Text

The Inverted Planet (Hakuno, Gilgamesh)

Gilgamesh had decided to get out first.

It was a new planet. They needed to get some things repaired and they needed food and drink. She’d been injured during their last visit and the king was beside himself with reprimanding her. Honestly? She hadn’t minded the fact that he had stormed off Vimana and declared that if she moved, he’d kill her.

That was fine.

Totally fine.

As far as she was concerned, she was going to lay on the golden expanse that was the top of Vimana and she was going to just pass out. The man had been noisy, rambunctious, and he had been driving her to the brink of death through this migraine alone. A few minutes without him sounded marvelous.

“BYE GIL!”

The man waved as he went away, climbing onto the mainland and heading into the red brush.

The planet they were on looked… strange. They all did. Whether it was the land where all the trees grew with large lumps like someone had sat on them all to make them grow in strange bends and twists, the planet where water drifted upwards, evaporating into the hemisphere only to downpour madly on the other side of the planet due to a strange magnetism… or if it was a land like this. Every color that one would expect here, was the exact opposite on a color wheel. Golds were purple. Greenery was now all red. Oranges were blues and blues were orange.

Again, Hakuno closed her eyes and focused on what was truly important: Gilgamesh had wandered off. She had peace. Quiet. Stillness.

Her stomach could heave onto the Vimana and no one yelled at her.

She could bleed out a little in peace, without someone nearby declaring that her death was going to be by his hand alone.

Dying felt good right now and her head was about a minute from being pounded into the spaceship.

“He’d probably bring me back to life, don’t kid yourself,” Hakuno murmured, pressing her cheek against the golden ship more.

A small nap, that’s what she would take.

If he came back, she could plead that her head hurt. She could appeal to her king with a less pounding headache.

It felt so good in this silent place.

It felt so damn good to rest.

The ache in her skull dulled down. She could feel the bandages and the ointment that Gil had used on her going into effect. Things were diminishing in terms of agony throughout her person.

Who knew how long she lay there in that state of being? Who cared?

Hakuno just found herself opening her eyes after a while and looking up at the orange colored skies, sighing happily at the feeling of things being better.

“Hakuno.”

She blinked as she heard his voice, Gilgamesh had made it back.

“Did I miss anything on the planet?” she asked.

“The natives seem peaceful enough. You’re invited to one of the houses.”

They were?

She moved to sit up, noting that the king was brushing back his hair and glancing at the ship. His eyes seem to fall onto the vomit nearby.

“I um… I didn’t feel good… Earlier.” She smiled a little, keeping her gaze averted. “Hopefully, you can find it in yourself as my great and noble king to forgive me and allow me to clean it up until the ship gleams like new.”

“I’m not worried about it.”

He wasn’t?

Hakuno looked up at him as he moved forward. The man was closing his eyes, leaning in to lift her up and hold her to him. It was hard to see his face from this angle, but…

This was definitely her servant. He looked no different than before.

Gilgamesh didn’t care that she’d trashed Vimana though?

“How are your wounds?”

Hakuno shifted, glancing at the back of his head.

She didn’t see any bumps or balding on the back of his head. There was no blood coming down. She didn’t see bitemarks from some kind of strange native monster on him either. Nothing said that he’d been possessed or eaten… He felt similar…

“I… I’m doing better. Thanks to you.”

His hand pressed to the center of her back. His thumb stroked her, keeping her close to his person.

“What are the natives like?”

“They’ve modeled themselves to look like me. I think it is customary or something.”

“So they make themselves look like whomever they’re talking to?”

They had done that tango with her having three selves. She really didn’t want to do that again. Opening her mouth to say that, she found the king shaking his head, continuing that calm and quiet tone.

“It’s nothing like that,” he replied. “They just felt I suited their appearance.”

Of course, they did.

Of course, they would do that kind of thing.

It was no doubt something that Gilgamesh felt very proud of as well. The great alien race, taking after them and wanting to be as great as the great king himself. She’d be hearing about this for eons. Probably through at least a good half dozen galaxies.

“Hakuno.”

“What is it?” She glanced over at his head again, wishing he would just let her walk already.

“You’re very important… I can’t let you get that close to death again.”

“I am staying at your side. We’re sticking together, remember?”

His head bobbed a bit. “I remember… What if we stayed here?”

Stayed… Stayed here?

One glance around had her once more feeling disoriented. The planet felt so off, like someone placed everything one centimeter to the left, but they’d just changed the world’s color scheme. It wasn’t the most comfortable of places, but in comparison to some other places they’d been…

“We could stay.”

For now.

The man waved, gaining a handful of looks.

“It seems my queen wishes to remain!”

Queen?

Hakuno paused at that.

What the hell was he on about? Had the color scheme gotten to him or just some kind of hallucinogen? The others were cheering, but the eyes. All of their eyes were a strange blazing blue color, almost green as she looked their way.

They hadn’t managed to copy him fully.

It must be due to their perception of colors here.

Gilgamesh set her in the center of the courtyard between the houses they were approaching. He turned to the others, continuing this strange talk.

“Hakuno will do well as our queen!”

Why?

“She is strong enough to get through any situation. Determined enough to power through any struggle! No matter flesh eating or magic ridden- she can survive all matter of beasts!”

“Gil,” Hakuno began.

It wasn’t that simple.

Hell, the man saw him through most those things himself. It wasn’t like she was truly powerful on her own. Then there had been her other friends like Gawain, Nameless, Cu Chulainn, Lu Bo…

The others were cheering.

Everything was wrong. So terribly, terribly wrong.

Hakuno went to argue again when the king glanced her way. The same strange blue-green eyes looked over at her, the smirk as devilish as ever.

“She did agree to remain with me…”

Where the hell was Gilgamesh?

Hakuno looked around, glancing from one building to the next and the next. The places looked like they were all open, doors hanging with small Gils running in and out or women who were strangely similar to Gilgamesh leaning out the windows to speak to other false Gilgameshes.

All the buildings were open… except one.

She watched the king that had brought her here giving his speech, cheering everyone into a flurry of running and preparing. A fire was being built. She could hear talk of pleasure-

No, she climbed to her feet as best as she could and hobbled with her bad ribs and swollen ankle to the door, falling into the room rather than walking in. She kicked it closed a moment before a blond looked up from the wall.

Plastered there in a series of chains and strange, red goo, stood her king.

“…You fool!”

“SHHHHHH!” Hakuno held a finger to her lips, listening to the applause outside. The man was going to get them caught.

“You were supposed to remain on Vimana,” he hissed, lowering his voice. “You couldn’t do that though, could you? You just had to investigate. If your ribs ache even the slightest when I get out of this, I’m going to-“

There was her king.

“I got it,” Hakuno replied, keeping her voice low and grabbing a sharp swordlike object from near the door. “I’ve got it… Why do those-“

“They drank from me.”

Oh.

“I don’t know how much they know, but they knew things after they drank…”

She was getting really tired of these damn places.

So damn tired.

“The next human-like planet we find, we’re staying for at least a month.”

“So long as they’re entertaining,” he countered.

“I’ll find a mage or something. There has to be one alive somewhere.”

The man shrugged off her comment, falling forward as the goo was sliced open. The poor king lay on the floor now, his face contorted in a mixture of disgust and something like looked a lot like horror.

“I will,” she promised.

“Can you run?”

“No.”

“Then you’re pretty much useless right now, aren’t you?” He scoffed at her, hoisting her up by the thigh and waist roughly.

That was Gilgamesh.

He had his softer moments, but he wasn’t quiet or gentle. He was a complainer. He was a disgusted individual who held little time for cheap tactics like the ones these aliens had used.

And, as she noted, he had a flair for the dramatic.

“THE MAGE IS MINE!” He roared, busting the door open with her under his arm like a sack of potatoes and his gates bursting open around the fake Gilgameshes.

Roars of terror filled the air.

The king unleashed hellfire and steel upon the aliens of this planet, sending them running into their homes. Others, attempting to open the gates, found their attempts in vain.

No one could copy the king.

“GRAB YOUR WEAPONS,” the Gil that had carried her here declared, still slightly more Gil-like than the others. “GET MY WOMAN!”

His woman.

Hakuno remained in place, doing her best to pour more power into her Gilgamesh.

The false King grinned.

“I feel some of that power. Hakuno is truly one worthy of standing at my side! A fitting queen!”

“How dare you,�� Gilgamesh growled.

“Gil-“

The man lunged forward, pulling out Ea from his gates and beginning to power up his Noble Phantasm. She could feel the winds churning, the air thinning.

“GIL!”

She didn’t have that king of power left! She was healing!

Gilgamesh threw Ea at the last minute, slamming the weapon into the man’s arm and severing it as they ran passed. Into the trees, through the thickets; Hakuno could feel the twigs and branches cutting at her skin, but she didn’t dare tell the man to stop.

They launched themselves onto the ship, turning Vimana towards the heavenes and casting off.

Higher and higher they went, with Gilgamesh laughing all the while.

The laughter continued, echoing in her mind and around her in the vacuum of space that the ship made so habitable for them.

The king, once more, was on his throne.

As his laughter died, he leaned back, strumming his fingers along the arms of his seat.

“So… No strange inverted planets.”

She had to say something.

The man was sitting there looking about ready to sulk for eternity.

“They glanced into my mind, Hakuno.”

Had they?

Hakuno laughed a little.

“I don’t think you’re that interested in keeping me like that. They were making it sound like they wanted to take my innocence and marry me or something.”

The silence ensued.

Hakuno stared at him for a full minute before turning away.

Did… Did he like her? Truly like her, not tolerate her as his master and the one who had stood at his side throughout the Moon Cell battles. If he did, then was his attitude how he thought women liked to be treated?

She couldn’t be a wife. She was barely able to be a proper mage!

“Hakuno…”

His voice was getting too soft. It lacked the same bite it’d had before. Worse, it was different from those aliens. The strange little flutter in her chest was making her face warm and her body want to curl up.

“Hakuno,” he purred again.

Her hand went to her face. She had to cover the blush from his eyes.

She had to not reveal what she was thinking… or feeling.

“Yes, Gil?”

“Is that your bodily fluids on my priceless Vimana’s gold surface?

She paled.

“Hakuno,” he cooed so softly, his eyes hardening to garnets in this dark void of space. “Did you happen to vomit upon my Vimana?”

She should have stayed with the sex desiring fake Gilgameshes.

(This isn’t the end of their encountering these aliens. Enjoy the “Gilg-aliens” return here. )

#drabble #drabbles #ari wanted to know why the Gilgamesh lookalike aliens wanted Hakuno so here ya go

15 notes · View notes

nadias-harem · 4 years

Photo

“Aurdis you didn’t have to protect me, what if it killed you!” Elena was angry, surprisingly biting.

“It doesn’t make sense for you to be injured when I’m more than accustomed to healing light wounds.” Aurdis had to grit out her words while she kept a hand against her stomach, the glow of her magic seeped through to knit the torn muscles. There was so much blood it tainted the ombre colours of her powers into a maroon.

“You’re pale as the moon!” Elena ripped the ends of her blouse to dab at the sweat that was rolling down Aurdis’ forehead and neck.

“I couldn’t allow you to come to harm,” Aurdis gave a tight smile and used her free hand to grasp at Elena’s wrist. “Would you help me?”

“Of course!”

“Kiss me.”

“What?!”

“It takes a lot of magic to suture a goring wound such as this, you may be untrained, but your magical stores can save me a lot of pain.” Aurdis blinked tiredly, the fatigue of healing draining her more than she was making light of. “Kalani? If Elena won’t I would appreciate it if you could?”

Kalani shoved her spear deeper into the space between the animal’s forelimb and neck. The monstrous creature snarled and grunted its last breath, before easing flat against the forest floor. Its pelt was going to be useless at this point, numerous slices from the guard’s swords had scoured along it’s muscled back, but Kalani had finished it. “I… I… I’ve killed the boar.”

Aurdis leaned her head back against the tree trunk as she took a slow breath. “I’m going to need to siphon some magic or I can’t ensure I won’t be internally bleeding and in pain, and I definitely won’t be able to make the trip down without being carried.”

“My lady, if you require magic may I be of assistance?” One of the masked knights knelt forward, half their face was covered in blood gushing from a wound above their eyebrow. “It would be my duty and pleasure.”

“How sweet of you,” Aurdis brought a hand up to hold against the guard’s face, pulling them sleepily towards herself, “a golden eyed knight.”

“Stop!” Elena grabbed the guard’s shoulder, tugging them away. “It’s my fault, I’ll do it!”

Aurdis laughed despite herself. “I didn’t intend to be such a chore, sister, please don’t burden yourself into doing something you detest.”

“For Arcana’s sake, you’re bleeding out!” Elena huffed and glared sternly at the guard until they backed even further away. “I don’t know what I’m doing… so just take whatever you need.”

Aurdis was barely conscious at this point, she dipped her head slightly in agreement and sighed when Elena finally kissed her. She was so disoriented she only returned Elena’s careful kiss, completely forgetting her goal.

“Don’t fall asleep!” Kalani rushed over and shook the other woman, making her groan in pain, but also waking her from a stupor.

This time round it's clear that magic was being drawn from Elena; it’s a soul deep pull that makes the shorter woman fall onto her knees, leaning into Aurdis’ body as the very essence of her is taken. When Aurdis finally encouraged Elena to break their kiss, it was the youngest that looked ready to faint. Her face was blushed and her breath came in uneven and rushed. Aurdis ran her unbloodied hand soothingly up and down Elena’s back. “Deep breaths now, in through your nose.”

Elena followed the instructions, nearly asleep at this point.

“Out through your mouth, nice and slow, that’s it.” Aurdis tugged the other woman into her arms so Elena sat straddled on her lap. “You did really well, thank you, I’m okay now.”

“You’re…” Elena hiccuped, her earlier anger having dissipated along with her drained magical stores. "You’re not going to die?!”

“Shhhhhh, I’m not going anywhere.” Aurdis pressed a kiss to the side of Elena’s temple, holding there for a moment as Elena’s breathing evened out as she drifted to sleep.

“Is she okay?” Kalani knelt down and stared worriedly at Elena then back to Aurdis.

“Oh,” Aurdis smirked, her exhaustion having abated a tad, “I’m glad you’re concerned for at least one of us.”

“I would’ve kissed you if I knew it would help!”

Aurdis squinted her eyes at her companion. “Why else would I request a kiss?”

“I don’t know!” Kalani’s hands tangled up in her hair in frustration. “I… You were bleeding out and asking to be kissed, I thought you were delirious.”

“Like I was tragically saying farewell?"

Kalani pressed her lips together, refusing to say more.

"Do you know nothing of your heritage?” Aurdis reached out and touched her bloodied fingertips to Kalani’s collarbone before drifting to land over the other woman’s heart. “We breath and live by air and magic, it’s easiest to siphon life through our lips, I couldn’t manage anything more complicated earlier.”

“I… I never… Magic isn’t common place for me…” Kalani covered her face with her hands, pressing the heel of her palms against he eyes to stall the tears that were burning to fall. “I… I wasn’t… I didn’t understand and I almost cost you your life.”

“Hush, please, there’s no need to be dramatic, I was holding my wound close, it wasn’t as if my intestines were about to fall-”

Kalani groaned, completely anguished over what has happened, she had jeopardize everyone and-

Aurdis roughly shook Kalani in much the same manner as the other woman had done to her earlier. “Stop, you’ll wake Elena, she needs to rest.”

“We can head down right now for medical aid,” the golden eyed knight offered, “I’ll rally the guards.”

“There’s no need for the rush, she’s only physically wrung out and needs sleep. Why don’t you prepare the boar carcass, we’ll rest here.”

#harem!au #The Arcana Game #nadia the arcana #Countess Nadia #empress nadia #fan apprentice #the arcana fan apprentice #apprentice Kalani #nadia x apprentice #apprentice elena #the arcana apprentice #apprentice aurdis

41 notes · View notes

noplanlife · 5 years

Text

Gratitude

Summary: You make Karamatsu a promise.

This is the final chapter of a multichapter fic! Please find the rest here!

After being fed a great deal of food, Karamatsu’s family had at last saw fit to release you from their custody so that you could make your way back to the surface. Of course, Karamatsu had insisted on escorting you back, not that you would have really been able to navigate your way back without him. Had you attempted to go back by yourself, you were pretty sure you might have ended up off the coast of Antarctica, or somewhere equally off course. While you had nothing against penguins, you had a nice, warm bed waiting back home for you that you were very much missing at this point.

While Karamatsu definitely tends to talk more out of the two of you, even you are aware of the fact that you’ve remained noticeably silent throughout most of the trip. No matter what colorful tangent Karamatsu wandered off on, or how dramatic a pose he had struck, you had responded only with mute nodding. Just as you begin to recognize some of your surroundings as the two of you come close to the coast, Karamatsu gently wraps his fingers around your wrist to hold you back.

“You’re so quiet! Are you missing me already, my heart? Fear not! No matter the distance that separates us, I will always find a way back to you! Be it that we find ourselves separated by entire galaxies, I will commandeer the shooting star within my soul to spirit me back to your side!”

“That’s not...no,” you start, shaking your head. With obvious hesitation, you add, “It’s my fault. I’m sorry.”

Karamatsu’s lips are still pulled back into his usual, smug smirk, and his arm remains extended over his head from when he’d made a sweeping arc towards the surface. Your despondent response, however, seems to discourage him from continuing on his show. Very abruptly, the persona he puts forth melts away into obvious, frantic concern. He rushes to your side, hands hovering awkwardly at your shoulders, as if he isn’t sure whether or not he’s allowed to touch you. It’s an odd change considering his usual willingness to take hold of you whenever he deemed it necessary to enhance the supposedly romantic atmosphere of the moment.

“No, no, no, you didn’t do anything wrong!” Karamatsu tries to assure you. The usual, deep tone in his voice is gone as well, replaced by the slightly higher pitch you hear from him only when he’s caught off guard. He keeps glancing from your face to just about anywhere else, almost as if he’s looking for an escape from your emotional turmoil. Fortunately, you don’t think he’ll leave you, no matter how flustered he is.

“No, I did do something wrong. I thought I was better than you,” you admit to him, your voice wobbling with unspent emotion. Your words obviously catch Karamatsu off guard. He opens his mouth as if to say something, and his brows furrow with consternation while he tries to comprehend just what it is you are trying to convey to him. Finally, once he’s managed to regain his confidence, he smiles. Shaking his head, he tries to assure you,

“Of course you are, my honey! You are you! I am but a humble planet revolving around your dazzling star! I am the helpless tide, pulled in by the irresistible force of your moon!”

You frown, frustration welling in your chest, and snap,

“No I’m not! I thought I was better than you because I thought you were desperate and cheesy, and that wasn’t fair of me! At the end of the day, I’m just me. Me, pulled into all of this…” you let your hands gesture aimlessly, helplessly, out to the wide span of the blue ocean all around you. You’re crying now, formless tears lost in all the water of the sea. This tight, burning anguish sitting stubbornly in your chest is humiliating to recognize. How had it come to a point that you’d let yourself cry in front of Karamatsu? When had you become willing to show him such a vulnerable side of your character?

Karamatsu clicks his tongue, and reaches up to smooth away your invisible tears. The feel of his thumbs caressing your cheeks forces your attention back his way.

“There are no ‘just yous’, where you are involved. You are the person who brought me back to the ocean when I went astray,” he informs you, persistent and patient even as you scrunch your nose at him in obvious dissatisfaction.

“You got beached,” you remind him.

“Still, you came back, despite the uncertainty of our circumstances, even when I gave my gift to you and scared you like I did.”

“You shoved your tongue down my throat, Karamatsu. Of course I freaked out,” you tell him, sniffling and rubbing the back of your hand across your nose. Karamatsu smiles at you, lopsided and sincere, and pulls you in close until your foreheads are touching.

“You made me a promise. Do you recall what that promise was?”

The answer Karamatsu is seeking escapes you. After a moment of thought, you answer him back unsurely,

“A pleather jacket?”

Karamatsu opens his mouth. He closes his mouth. Finally, he settles on nodding at you as he replies,

“Yes. But, also, my honey! You promised me you!”

Without any warning, you begin crying again. Karamatsu lets out a surprised yelp, and begins again with his awkward, hovering hands before he finally just takes you into his arms and tugs you into his embrace. You let out a muffled grunt as he squeezes you and rubs his cheek against the top of your head. The gesture is almost comforting until he reassures you,

“Shhhhhh, it’s all right! We can work on the vows later!”

With a heave, you push him away from you so that you can shout at him,

“I can’t give you vows! I can’t promise you anything! I don’t know how to give you my soul!” Jerking up your chin, you point fervently at the ring of blue scales around your neck. Once you’re sure Karamatsu knows of what you speak, you lower your head and demand of him, “What if I never learn how to give you my soul? What if, at the end of it all, you just end up with nothing? What’s there to promise in that?!”

The look Karamatsu gives you is equal parts impossibly fond and impossibly frustrating to be the recipient of. With a voice like warm honey, he chides you,

“Such a silly thing to say. I have you. I have your smile to brighten my days and your voice to sing glorious harmony with my soul. I have your hands to hold, your lips to kiss, and you to cherish as long as you’ll allow me that privilege. That isn’t nothing.”

Like every other incredibly cheesy and romantic thing Karamatsu has ever said to you, his words, at first, make you want to roll your eyes and throw your hands to the skies in exasperation. However, unlike every other wanton sentiment he’s sent your way, your heart responds by drumming a heavy, uneven beat in your chest. You can feel the blood rushing to your cheeks and the warmth tingling through you from head to toe, despite the fact that your mind is screaming at you to let these words pass through you as all of his others have before this.

Karamatsu smiles at you, authentically and with no pretense. His sunglasses are sitting atop his head, so that you can see his eyes in full. He does not wear the smirk he usually forces in order to impress you. It is just him, and you, with the ocean at his back and the coast at yours.

Abandoning your doubts, you close the distance between the two of you and kiss him. It is a feat accomplished with little elegance--he not expecting your gesture in the least and your nervousness makes it so that your nose pushes awkwardly against his when your movements halt and stutter. Your eyes are pinched shut, your fingers tight across his shoulders, and for a brief, terrifying second, you think Karamatsu is going to pull away from you.

He doesn't. Perhaps he doesn’t because he is Karamatsu, and because he is, well, desperate for you in a way that is, admittedly, kind of endearing. You hear the choked noise he makes in the back of his throat when he finally seems to grasp the reality of the situation, and you feel the full body shudder he gives as if you’d given him an electric shock through your lips. He gasps against your mouth, and you smile when you pull away and he follows after you with a whine and fluttering eyelashes.

“I-you-we-” he starts, his voice high and cracking as he reaches a shaking hand out after you. His cheeks are flushed, and he’s panting like he’s swam for an Olympic gold despite the fact that your kiss could not have possibly lasted longer than a few seconds. Karamatsu wheezes.

“I kissed you,” you tell him. You feel...proud. Not only because of the effect that you have on him, but because this was your choice. You kissed him because what he said made you feel something--made you feel loved--and not because you have something you feel obligated to give him. When you give him a glance over, you do not notice any changes to his person, aside from the fact that he’s giving you possibly the most lovestruck look you’ve ever seen. And he’s looked at you very fondly quite a lot before now.

Karamatsu’s lips split into an impossibly wide grin, and you think that will be the happy resolution to all of this until he hums a low note in the back of his throat. He fixes you with a lidded gaze, the love in his eyes replaced by the twinkle of something impossibly smug, and an icy bolt goes down your spine.

You suddenly regret everything. Again.

“Hmmmmmmmmmm~?” Karamatsu hums at you, that low note going higher the longer he holds it. You make the mistake of blinking, and in that infinitesimal span of time, he manages to zip over to the space in front of you. One of his arms suddenly snags around your waist, and you find yourself flush against his front as he leans down to nuzzle his face against the descending line of your jaw.

“No. Whatever you’re going to say, don’t-” you start, in vain. Karamatsu pulls away from you with a twirl that ends with him snatching up one of your hands and bringing your knuckles to his lips. He gives you the look he thinks equates to some kind of smoulder as he tells you in husky tones,

“Now that I know the taste of your reciprocation, the force of my ardor cannot be stopped. I have tasted heaven. I have had the sweet ambrosia of paradise--of your feelings for me--on my tongue. Never again will I be able to live a day without it, for you’ve left me a man dying of thirst. Only you, my cruel, cruel angel can deliver unto me the salvation of your kiss!”

He lets go of your hand so that he can throw his arms wide and demand of you,

“Kiss your beloved Karamatsu, my darling! Have mercy on my sinful soul and provide me the euphoria of your lips on mine!”

You groan, and turn back towards the coast. Karamatsu is so caught up in making up more metaphors for kissing that he doesn’t even realize that you’ve made it above the surface. You are beginning to wring out the moisture from the hem of your shirt when you hear him finally breach the surface of the water and wail,

“Wait! Come back! Can’t I have a fond farewell!? Another kiss!?”

You let the moment sit, your toes curling into the wet sand, before you decide to turn around and trudge back to your beloved. Karamatsu is beaming at you, again, as you crouch down onto the beach and take his face in your hands. Even after he puckers his lips ridiculously, you still kiss him.

In the middle of said kiss, however, Karamatsu very suddenly shoves you away and falls back into the shallows with a shout. You let out a yelp of your own as you lose your balance and fall back onto your behind. There is a lot of flailing in the water where Karamatsu is, and, in your concern, you scramble towards him just in time to have his foot kick you in the face.

Wait.

Holding your nose, you let your eyes very slowly take in the sight before you. Karamatsu is splayed out in the surf, arms and legs sprawled out haphazardly while he blinks dazed eyes up at the sky. His chest is heaving as he raises his head, and you notice that the fins on the side of his face have been replaced with human looking ears. Karamatsu raises one leg into the air, and wiggles his toes. A thin ring of scales the color of your eyes glints back at you from around his ankle.

You open your mouth to say something, but the words die in your throat when Karamatsu stumbles to his feet to stand before you in all of his naked glory. Perhaps, unsurprisingly given everything you know about him, when he looks down at his new form, his focus immediately goes straight to his new crotch.

He looks rapidly between your gaping face and his new lower half before he lets out a loud gasp and gestures proudly with both hands down at the space between his legs.

“Honey, look! I have a-”

With a scream, and all of the force of a very flustered baseball pitcher, you pelt a bundle of wet kelp directly at his dick.

-The End

#osomatsu san #karamatsu #karamatsu x reader #garbage fic for garbage boys #it is...FINISHED!!!#thank you everyone for reading!!!!

18 notes · View notes

the-clear-northern-skies · 6 years

Text

What’s in a Home?

Merry Christmas everyone!!! This was requested months ago and I only just wrote it now, I’m so sorry. This was requested by @luzthenarnian

Much love,

-Lera

12/25/17

You sat silently on the cold bench, your feet kicking back and forth in a sorry attempt to calm your nerves. You were about to meet your foster family. After your parents burned in a kitchen fire that claimed your childhood home you were left with nowhere to go. There was a great aunt and uncle from America who were being contacted but you’d never met them. Your social worker wasn’t even sure if she could contact them since they were usually off traveling the world. You had been inexplicably been left completely on your own in the world at only 15. You had been spending the night at a friend’s house when yours caught fire, your remaining possessions being the change of clothes you’d brought and the stuffed bear that you brought everywhere. Both of these things were tucked neatly inside the suitcase your friend had given you when she heard the news. The suitcase sat next to you in the bench as you kept an arm around it at all times, unwilling to lose what you had left.

Suddenly your solitude was broken when your social worker came out of her office. She was a tall woman with neat black hair and a smile that gave you just a bit of hope for your future.

“Come with me Y/N, your foster familys arrived.” She reached to help you with your suitcase but you tightened your arm around it and took her hand instead. This wasn’t something that you wanted to face alone. Outside the building you saw a kind looking lady with short brown hair shushing three children. The oldest was a tall girl who very much resembled her mother, next was a boy with unruly black hair who looked to be around your age, the youngest was a girl with light brown hair and a big smile who looked to be around 12. She immediately waved to you when you made eye contact. You shyly waved back.

“Now Y/N these are the Pevensie’s, they’ll be caring for you until we find your relatives alright?” You nodded to her as Mrs. Pevensie approached you.

“Hello dear, my name’s Helen and these are my children Susan, Edmund and Lucy. My oldest is Peter but he’s away at university right now and will be home in a week for the holidays. We’re very happy to have you with us Y/N.” She smiled at you. “Oh Edmund dear, take her trunk will you?” You were ready to deny him but when you saw him smile shyly at you you changed your mind and carefully handed it to him.

“Thank you.” You told him

“No trouble at all.” He answered.

The car ride to their house was quick and uneventful. Susan chatted with her mother in the passenger seat about what ribbons she should wear with what dress to a school dance. Edmund gazed out the window at the gray city passing by and Lucy filled every minute with small talk for you. She was kind and bubbly and funny and you already knew the two of you would be fast friends.

The Pevensie’s lived in a quaint two story house in the suburbs of London. It had a small garden in the front and a lovely bay window. The family clamored through the door and Helen went to the kitchen, waving Susan over to help her with dinner.

“Oh Y/N you’ll be staying in Peter’s old room, Lucy could you show her around the house, make her feel at home? And Edmund take her trunk upstairs will you?” “Yes Mum.” They both answered simultaneously.

“Come on Y/N, I’ll show you all around!” Lucy said, taking your hand and leading you up the stairs, closely followed by her older brother. “This is my room.” She said opening the door to the right of the stairway. “You can hang out in here with me whenever you want, I’ve got lots of books if you like to read and if you want you can borrow some of my clothes, Susan’s too if you ask her nicely, her dresses are a lot fancier than mine.”

“Thank you!” You said to her, I do like to read a lot and I don’t have too many clothes right now either so might take you up on that offer!” You laughed. She ginned back at you.

“Well that’s wonderful!” She pointed to the room across the hall. “That’s Edmund’s room but I don’t know why you’d want to go in there it’s dark and smells like teenage boys!” She giggled.

“Does not!” He defended

“Does too Ed!” She stuck out her tongue at him. Edmund’s face was bright red until he saw you laughing and smiling at him. Seeing you look so happy made him forget that he was mad at his sister and he laughed along too. Lucy cleared her throat at him when she noticed the two of you grinning at each other. “Aaanyway, next to his room is Susan’s and next to mine is yours! She said leading you to it. She opened the door for you and led you inside. There was a simple wooden bedframe with a red comforter and a wooden desk with a few textbooks sitting on top. “We cleaned out most of Peter’s stuff for you, he’s gonna stay in Edmund’s room when he’s here anyway. Oh and here’s the closet.” She said opening a door next to the bed “You can hang up all your…” She trailed off looking at your tiny suitcase that Edmund was still holding. “Just a minute!” She said as she ran out of the room. You laughed as you watched her go.

“Is she always this energetic?” You asked as he set your suitcase on the bed.

“Usually.” He answered “Just make sure you’re not around when she eats sweets, then she really goes crazy!” He laughed. Just then Lucy came running back into the room, her arms full of dresses.

“These are some of Susan’s old dresses.” She said. “I was going to give you some of mine but they’d probably be too short on you.” You took them from her gingerly. For hand-me-downs they were in very good condition.

“Thank you so much Lucy! Are you sure Susan’s okay with me using them?” You asked her.

“Of course! She tossed these downstairs months ago saying they didn’t fit her quite right anymore.” “She was rather dramatic about it too!” Added Edmund “Oh I simply can’t wear these anymore!” He said in a poor imitation of a girls voice “They just aren’t the fashion now a days and I can’t be caught wearing a frock from last year!”

“Is that supposed to sound like me?” Asked Susan who had appeared in the doorway. “Ah, no?” Said Edmund who looked a bit sheepish.

“It was a terrible impression you know, that sounded nothing like me. Also I didn’t throw them out because they weren’t the fashion, I threw them out because they didn’t fit anymore. And Y/N of course you can wear them!” She smiled at you. “Also mum told me to tell you all that dinner’s ready.”

The next few weeks flew by like nothing. Peter had arrived home from university with plenty of stories to tell, Lucy had spent nearly every day with you, introducing her to her friends and making sure that you were happy with them. Susan even did your makeup a few times. But out of all the pevensies, Edmund intrigued you most of all. He took you around town, you would go to the pictures together, he leant you his favorite books, you were inseparable. To an outsider the two of you seemed like a high school couple stuck in the honeymoon phase. You had grown fond of him and often fantasized what it might be like if he felt the same about you. Outside of your knowledge his three siblings constantly pestered him about when he would tell you how he felt. Because Edmund had grown rather attached as well, although he wouldn’t admit it. Peter had just about convinced him to confess his feelings to you at their annual Christmas party the next day.

“Come on Ed, it’ll be perfect! The holiday season, you’ll be dressed nicely for a change-” Edmund rolled his eyes at his older brother. “I might even have some mistletoe to put up for the two of you.” At this comment Edmund’s face grew bright red.

“Peter, no! You can’t do that! She doesn’t even feel the same way! I can’t just kiss her!”

“Well of course not.” Said Peter “You have to tell her your feelings first.”

“Oh and she definitely likes you.” Said Lucy as she walked by the pair.

“She does?” Asked Edmund. “How do you know? Did she say something?” Lucy giggled at how flustered he was.

“She doesn’t need to! She always smiles when you’re around, fiddles with her dress and tucks her hair behind her ears. Those are telltale signs, she might as well be screaming that she likes you.”

“Really?” Asked Peter who looked confused.

“Yes boys pay attention. It’s easy to tell if a girl likes someone.” Edmund seemed shocked by the new development while Peter appeared to be tallying up every girl who’s ever tucked her hair behind her ears around him. “Well anyway, I’m going to bed. Don’t forget Mum wants you two to help set up tomorrow morning.”

The next morning Y/N was woken up by someone knocking loudly on her door.

“Come in.” You grumbled from under the covers. The door clicked open and you heard Lucy shout

“Y/N! Get up! It’s almost 10 and we have to get ready for the party!”

“The party?” You asked “Ohhh right, the party.”

“The party where you’re gonna tell Ed that you’re completely in love with-”

“Shhhhhh!” You cried out. “What if he hears you?” “He won’t!” She smiled “He’s outside with Peter setting up decorations.”

“But I did!” Sang Susan as she strolled by in a dressing gown with a face mask on. “And may I just say that I’m in complete favor of you dating my brother? You could really turn him into a gentleman instead of a recluse!” She laughed. “Well what are you sitting in bed for? Get up! We all have to get ready.” She said as she walked back into her room. Lucy followed her and gestured for you to do the same. Soon enough your hair was in big curlers and you were helping Lucy decide what dress to wear.

“You know Lu, I know it’s a Christmas party and yellow isn’t a very Christmassy color but I really think you look beautiful in the yellow gown.” You told her. “You think?” She asked as she held it up to the mirror. “Definitely.” Said Susan who was currently powdering her nose. “Yellow really compliments your skin tone, it gives you a bit of a glow. Not me though, I look like a traffic hazard in yellow.” You all laughed as you heard a knock on the door. Lucy went to open it to find Peter who looked dashing in his suit.

“Mum wanted me to tell you all that guests are arriving downstairs and that you need to be ready soon.” He said with a grin. “Of course if Susan has anything to do with it I’m sure we won’t be seeing you for at least another hour.”

“Oh leave us alone Peter!” Laughed Susan “We’d like to look presentable for this, no matter how long it takes us!”

It apparently only took about 20 more minutes to fix your hair, put on some lipstick and choose a dress before the three of you were finally downstairs and ready. You immediately tried to find Edmund and quickly discovered him loitering by the punch bowl.

“Not too big on parties?” You asked

“Not when my mum invites my freshman year history teacher.” He said gesturing to a surly looking woman holding a fruitcake in the living room.You laughed.

“What did she not like you or something?” He grinned back at you.

“She hated me because I never studied but always did well on her tests. She tried to prove I never actually did any of the work but could never figure out how. It about killed her to give me an A in that class. Of course she loved Peter and Susan though.” You tried to hide your laughter behind your hand. “What about you? You’ve joined the least social person in the room so you can’t like parties too much either.”

“I happen to love parties!” You told him. “And while he may be the least social he is my favorite person here.” He smiled at this.

“I can only assume you’re talking about me?”

“You? No, no I meant Peter.” You teased. He smiled back at you, but he suddenly looked as shy as the first time you met him. “Ed, are you ok? You know I’m just joking about Peter!” You giggled “You’re my favorite person you know.” “You’re my favorite too Y/N.” He smiled softly. “And I’ve been meaning to tell you that for a while.” You waited for him to continue but he didn’t.

“That I’m your favorite person? Well I’d hope so-”

“WhatImeantosayisthatIlikeyouasmorethanafriend.” He mumbled out quickly.

“What?” You asked while trying not to laugh “I couldn’t understand you!” He took a breath.

“What I mean to say is that I like you, as more than a friend.” He dropped his gaze from yours as your eyes widened.

“You do?” You asked.

“You don’t have to feel the same.” He said, stepping back. You took his hand quickly.

“I do feel the same.” He looked back up at you.

“You do?”

“Yeah I thought I was being kinda obvious honestl-” Edmund interrupted you as he leaned forward and captured your lips an a short and sweet kiss that left you both blushing.

“Finally!” Yelled Lucy, bringing the two of you to everyone’s attention. “I thought you’d never tell her!” Susan quickly shushed her as the rest of the party began to mingle again. You reached up and kissed his cheek.

“Well at least we won’t have to tell people now.” You chuckled.

“I’m gonna kill her.” He said as he wrapped his arm around your waist. But really he was grateful for his sister, for giving him the courage to do something he should have done a while ago.

118 notes · View notes

anotherriceball0326 · 4 years

Text

Stay updated on my fanfiction chapter releases here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26355238/chapters/64235383#workskin

Chapter 2: "Let's Watch a Movie!"

“Don't look so happy to see us, carrots.” Arisa teases.

“Where are you two off too this lovely evening?” Saki questioned.

Both girls knew for months that Kyou had it bad for Tohru. He was such a stubborn and ornery guy, but they couldn't help but notice how he melted whenever Tohru was around. In fact, they often took advantage of the fact that he could never say no to her. It was quite amusing.

“Kyou was just going to take me up to the roof for a nice chat.” Tohru said innocently.

“A chat, huh?” Arisa sounded annoyed “What's this all about you little punk?! You better not be trying to corrupt our sweet Tohru?!”

“How indecent.” Saki gasped.

“IT’S NOTHING LIKE THAT!” Kyou shouted “WHY THE HELL DID YOU TWO FREAKS COME HERE ANYWAY?!”

The girls chuckled. They knew how easy it was to get under his skin. They did it playfully of course. Deep down they liked Kyou, but they genuinely were worried for Tohru. As genuine as Kyou’s feelings appeared, they couldn't help but worry that he may break her heart And that is something that they couldn’t bear. That is something that would break her…. Despite being her usual cheery self, they knew that Tohru’s heart was fragile. They also knew that Tohru was carrying a heavy burden lately and they didn't know exactly why.

Tohru was much harder for them to read. They always assumed they knew everything about their good friend, but the fact that she hid living in a tent from them really slipped them up. They saw the way she looked at him and how she blushed whenever they teased her. They noticed how Kyou and Tohru acted as they walked home together, like they were already a couple.

That was the main goal of the night. To figure out what’s going on between these two. Arisa and Saki made a pact. They would do what they could to push these two and expose how they really felt about each other. Besides…Kyou was a good guy. Sure, he had his faults. He had a mouth on him and his manners were severely lacking in more ways than one….but…

They knew that he made Tohru happy, happier than they had ever seen her before. Definitely the happiest since her mother's accident.

And that's all that mattered right? That Tohru was happy. That's all they could ever ask for from someone like Kyou.

“Uo-chan, Hana-chan, it's sweet of you both to worry, but Kyou would never do anything indecent. He’s a perfect gentlemen" Tohru said as she grabbed Kyou’s arm.

The girls noticed Kyou immediately blush and look away, but he didn't back away from Tohru nor did he even attempt to release her arm.

He really is changing isn't he? Tohru does have that effect on people. She always has. I mean only sweet Tohru would see the good in a person, even someone as angry as Kyou.

But his anger is different somehow. He seems lighter, softer. It was as though Tohru was slowly peeling away his hard exterior and expressing his true nature to the world.

Both girls looked at each other and smiled. They knew that they were both thinking the same thing.

“Alright, well sorry to interrupt your night, but I guess you'll both have to settle with hanging out with all of us.” Arisa joked.

“Oh no! I'm so glad you all are here! This'll be a great night, right Kyou?” Tohru glanced at Kyou with pleading eyes.

“Yeah, whatever…”Kyou grumbled.

The girls and guys all started flooding into the house.

As they pushed past Kyou and Tohru, Kyou felt her grabbing onto his arm even tighter than she had before. “Thank you, Kyou.” Tohru whispered as she pulled him in close so he could hear her better. “I know you had other plans, but I promise to make this up to you.”

Promise to make this up to me? What does that mean? Kyo thought.

His heart began to race as he dissected those words carefully.

Okay…this is the opportunity to truly impress her. The chance for him to show how much he loved her and how great of a boyfriend he could be.

Boyfriend…

That word hit him harder than any word ever had before.

What did he know about being a boyfriend? How does a good boyfriend act?

Kyou’s nerves were starting to get the best of him.

He so badly wanted to respond to Tohru, but he was quickly interrupted by Momiji’s obnoxious whining.

“Tohru….let's watch a movie! Haru brought a good one! It's about a little girl whose family gets devoured by zombies and….”

“ZOMBIES?!?!” Tohru’s demeanor immediately changed. Her face lost all color and her knees began to quake.

“Yeah, it's a real tearjerker.” Haru said sarcastically.

Kyou had a flashback to when they went to the haunted house.

Stupid Momiji and Haru…. Had they not learned anything from the last experience they had with Tohru? They clearly don't know her at all!

Kyou placed his hand on the small of Tohru’s back. He lowered his voice in an attempt to avoid an audience.

“Tohru..” Kyo whispered.

Tohru’s body relaxed to his touch. His voice soothed and distracted her from her current fear. She looked into his soft Amber eyes and caught herself feeling lost in their glow.

“Yes!?” She asked nervously as she became aware of the audience that was surrounding her.

Despite Kyou being discreet, the other teenagers couldn't help but watch the show. It was like watching a live action romance novel unfolding in front of their very eyes.

“We really don't have to watch. We can always do something else.” Kyou comforted her.

Tohru thought for a second. She didn't want to disappoint anyone, especially Momiji. He looked so excited about the movie. And after all, she promised herself that would be more bold since she knew that one day she would be out on her own…. alone.

Completely alone.

A sudden image flashed into Tohru’s mind. It was the image of Kyou…locked up…. In a place that was foreign to her and she knew she'd never be allowed to visit.

Tears began to well up in her eyes.

“Tohru??” Kyou looked at her with worry.

Tohru snapped out of her despair and balled both of her fists in front of her.

“I can do this!” Tohru shouted eagerly

Kyou snickered. “Okay…okay, no need for the dramatics." Kyou said as he playfully bumped her head with his fist.

THAT’S NOT SOMETHING BOYFRIEND’S DO. IDIOT!

Kyou scolded himself.

“On one condition.” Tohru added. “Kyou-kun needs to sit next to me.”

Kyou was surprised by her demand. That was just it. She didn't ask, she demanded. Kyou was impressed. He always admired her humble nature, but felt she deserved to be more honest about what she wanted. She deserved to be selfish.

“Of course, dummy. “ Kyou blushed. “I need to make sure you don't pass out from fear.”

The group made their way into the dining room. They moved the furniture around to create a big open space and placed pillows and blankets everywhere they could.

Tohru found a spot in the back of the room. She figured it would be the best spot. It would make it harder to see the television and more difficult for everyone to see her silly reactions.

“Who wants popcorn?!” Momiji shouted!

Momiji passed out small bowls to each of the groups.

Yuki was sitting with Haru, Kagura and Momiji. Arisa and Saki were sitting side by side. Then of course there was Tohru and Kyou.

Kyou could feel Kagura staring at him and Tohru. Tohru didn't notice of course, but Kyou felt the rage that exuded from her. If looks could kill, Kyou would have been a dead man the second she set eyes on him that night.

Kyou knew it was going to be awkward between him and Kagura now. After their "date", Kyou expected Kagura to treat Tohru differently. He never directly said it to Kagura, but he could tell that Kagura knew his feelings for Tohru and that she was the reason why Kyou would never love her. He hoped that Kagurs would be mature about the situation, but her aura was concerning.

Oh well... he thought. Tonight is about me and Tohru.

Haru inserted the DVD and moved to his spot like a stealthy ninja. Arisa and Saki threw pillows at him after he pretending to trip and fall on top of them. Yuki shook his head at Haru’s immaturity, but found himself unable to hold back his laughter.

“SHHHHHH IT’S STARTING!” Momiji screamed. “Oh my gosh! A zombie!

“SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” The whole group shouted in unison.

Tohru chuckled. Kyou looked at her as she enjoyed the group’s shenanigans. He smiled warmly .

I'll never get tired of that laugh. He thought.

To be continued...

#fruits basket #fanfiction #kyou sohma #tohru honda #kyo soma #kyo and tohru #kyorhu

0 notes

hulksmashin-bannerpackin · 7 years

Text

Shut Up And Kiss Me

Pairing: Bruce Banner X Reader

Request Prompt:  Hi. I want to make prompt request too with 76: “ You’re one hell of a guy. ” & also 55: “ Shut up and kiss me already. ” for bruce banner x reader of course. thank you.

Thank you for the request beautiful Anon! I hope you like it!

“For the last time, I’m not doing any interviews.”

“Come on Brucie, it’ll be great! Think of it the Hulk finally gets a voice!”

“Yeah and he’ll probably say Hulk smash as the crowds run away screaming.”

“You’re going under the assumption you’ll have a freak out.”

“I’m not taking the risk.”

Y/N shifted awkwardly holding her Starkpad to her chest as she watched the two men fight. Her eyes flicked flicked between them and quickly averted to the ground each time she thought they had caught her gaze.

Y/N had the very important job of providing PR for the Avengers. She organised interviews, charities, fan events and just about everything. She also had to handle any negative press or websites so she was always busy on her heels. It was a tough job but the perks? She got to be close and personal with the Avengers! Ever since she was personally saved during the chitauri invasion she decided she’d do everything she could to protect them as best as she could.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts she hadn’t noticed Tony approach her until his hand had padded down onto her shoulder.

“Come on Bruce!” He announced and pushed her forward slightly. “You don’t want to make sweet innocent little Y/N’s job anymore difficult then it already is!”

“Uhhh, o-oh! No-no!!! You don’t make my job more difficult! I-I mean it’s you’re choice and-”

“Shhh no that’s not what you were suppose to say. What do I pay you for?”

Tony frowned and patted her back. Y/N had worked here long enough to know how to handle all of Tony’s… Quirks. Yeah that’s what she’d call it.

“I’m sorry but I’m not doing it. End of conversation.” Bruce reaffirmed this by turning in his chair, facing the screen in front of him and began typing.

“Its-its okay Mr Stark! Really!” Y/N stuttered out nervously. Bruce was so sweet and she didn’t want to bother him. It was safe to say Y/N had developed a bit of a crush on the pessimistic scientist. She’d been around him enough to get to know him on a friendly level as she was always down in the lab going over details while Tony barely listened to her and did whatever science he did.

Bruce was always so nice to her even if he was a little awkward but she was a little shy! Everyone had their flaws.

Tony looked at her with a frown. “But I want it.” He whined out, giving her puppy dog eyes.

“Sorry Mr Stark but if Doctor Banner doesn’t want too I respect his privacy!” She gave a firm nod and turned to leave the room, striding out to seem more confident. See Y/N was shy by nature, she wasn’t what you’d call confrontational but when it calm to this job you had to have an iron gut. She had bursts of confidence and when she needed to she learnt to be abrasive.

Tony raised his brow staring at her as she left, before turning to stalk over to Bruce. With a swipe of his hand he swished the holographic screen off and waited for Bruce to look at him.

“I think she likes you.”

Bruce sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “What are you on about now?”

“She definitely likes you.”

“She doesn’t.”

“No I think she does.”

“Why?”

Tony raised his hands. “Hear me out.” He paused for dramatic effect. “Sorry Mr Stark but if Doctor Banner doesn’t want too I respect his privacy~” He cooed out in a high pitched voice, batting his eyelashes as he imitated her voice.

“Or maybe she just has a decent respect for people’s privacy.”

“Nah can’t be it. She was relentless when it came to getting Steve interviews, you think he wanted that?”

“Steve doesn’t turn into a destructive force of nature when irritated.” Bruce frowned as he bought the holographic screen back up. “She wouldn’t like me.”

“I don’t know Brucie.” Tony drawled out the o in know but chose to drop the subject after hearing the hint of sadness in Bruce’s voice. Bruce wasn’t about to admit it but he MAY have just the smallest crush on her. They always got along so seamlessly and she seemed to be the only one of Tony’s many assistants that wasn’t afraid to talk to him like he was a real person.

——————–

The next time Y/N came down to the lab she did her usual greeting greeting, chirping good morning and asking each man how they were before she could down to business trying to make Tony pay attention to her schedule and list of things he needed to approve.

“And we need your signature for-”

“Hey Y/N!” Tony interrupted. “What do you think of Bruce?”

“O-oh! Of Doctor Banner?” She looked over at him, seeing his shoulders hunched and peering at a screen with probably no interest to this conversation.

“I think Doctor Banner is one hell of a guy!” Y/N beamed with a burst of excitement.

Tony smirked and plucked the stylus from her hand, scrolling down to the bottom of her list and signing his name on the Starkpad.

“Great! Here you do whatever you want, I trust you.” He said ushering her out of the room. “Also you’re invited to my party this Saturday!”

“What party?!”

“I don’t know, I just decided to have it! Write up some invites will you? Keep it close and personal okay?”

“M-mr Stark!?”

He finalised the conversation by pushing her out of the room and closing the door in her face.

Bruce tensed, he could FEEL Tony staring at him with that smirk he knew all to well. Still Bruce refused to acknowledge him, shuffling some paper to make himself look busy. He wasn’t about to let Tony know about the blush dusting his cheeks.

————————-

Bruce awkwardly shifted his way around the party goers, keeping his head down and avoiding as many people as he could. Tony’s definition of ‘close and personal’ was still to many people for his liking. He looked around for an easy exit knowing tony wouldn’t just let him walk out the main door when he saw Y/N standing outside on the balcony looking at the sky. Before his brain could come up with an excuse as to why it would be a bad idea to approach her his feet were already taking him there.

“Y/N?” Bruce said softly so he wouldn’t scare her.

“Oh! Doctor Banner! Hey!” She turned to look at him, standing aside so he could step out next to her.

“What are you doing out here?” Bruce frowned as he looked her up and down. She was wearing a simple (beautiful) dark blue dress that flowed down to her calves. “Aren’t you cold?”

She smiled and shook her head. “No I-l love the crisp night air. As for why I’m out here?” She turned back around, placing her hand on the rail. “Well it’s a lot nicer then being in there wouldn’t you agree?”

Bruce nodded and looked out to the city. “I’m not much of a party person.”

“I’m guessing Mr Stark roped you into coming then?”

He nodded, he seemed to be doing that a lot but it was easier then talking.

“Well I’m glad to have the company! I just wish I could see the stars.” She sighed as she looked up at the sky again. “I’d love to see stars without light pollution.”

“Maybe I could take you somewhere and show you.” Wait, did that just come out of Bruce’s mouth? Surely he didn’t say that? He felt his blood rush as his head buzzed nervously.

“Why Doctor Banner are you asking me out on a date?” Y/N teased, grinning as she hoped her confidence would somehow mask her blush.

“Uh, no, I mean yes, I mean maybe? If you want too?” Bruce couldn’t stop his mouth at this point, he knew he was making a fool out of himself but he couldn’t stop.

“Bruce.”

Hearing his first name snapped him out of his tangent, he had never heard her say it before. He liked the way it sounded on her lips.

“Shut up and kiss me already.” She stated simply as she took a shy step closer to him. She watched his face, waiting for him to make the first move.

For once in his life Bruce didn’t let logic dictate his life, for once he didn’t think, for once he did what he wanted to do so he placed his hands gingerly on her waist, pulled her in and kissed her softly.

—————–

“Tony what are you doing?” Steve asked as he walked up beside Tony, after seeing him peering outside while trying to make himself seem hidden by the corner.

“Shhhhhh I’m making magic happen.”

Steve raised a confused brow and looked in Tony’s direction, seeing Bruce and Y/N kissing on the balcony.

“You’re being creepy Tony.”

“Love maaaaster.” Tony whispered excitedly, thoroughly pleased with himself as Steve dragged him away.

#bruce banner x reader #bruce banner imagine #bruce banner #hulk #hulk imagine #incredible hulk #hulk x reader #marvel #avengers #tony stark #iron man #steve rogers #captain america

293 notes · View notes

ladyfogg · 7 years

Text

Sick Like Me - Part 2/20

Sick Like Me - Part 2

Fic Summary: With unfinished business hanging over your head, being locked up in Arkham is holding you back. However, you have your eye on a certain red-haired maniac, who may be just the person to help you escape and realize your true potential. Fic Song. Fic Playlist. Fic Masterpost.

Fic Rating: NC-17

Pairing: Jerome Valeska/Female Reader

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Explicit Sexual Content, for a complete list of warnings, visit AO3.

A/N: Due to some plans changing around, I was actually able to get this posted today. Enjoy!

The yard Arkham offers isn't much to boast about. It’s a flat, square bit of grass surrounded by high walls. There are a few dead trees here and there, and a rather sad looking garden in the corner that had been abandoned long ago. Since, by law, they need to give you some fresh air, it was their solution.

You’re actually enjoying it this time, having been off the permission list after a brief incident with a guard. Honestly, his eye was just fine. You don’t know what all the fuss was about.

It’s sunny, a rarity for Gotham. You mosey around the yard, your friend, Aaron, trailing behind. You wave him away and keep walking, pausing by a bench to kick your shoes off. The cool grass feeling amazing between your toes. As you walk by one of the trees, Jerome seems to materialize out from behind it. You wonder if he was watching you from behind there the whole time you were wandering, waiting for Aaron to leave your side.

“Morrringggg,” he sings, hurrying to cut you off. You keep moving forward however, forcing him to walk backwards.

“Morning, Jerome,” you smirk.

“Thought about you last night,” Jerome says proudly. He looks good today, his hair slicked back except for that one strand that doesn’t seem to want to do what its told. His face is bright and he’s absolutely giddy to see you.

“Of course you did,” you say. “A lot of people do.”

Jerome giggles and falls in step with you. “True,” he says.

“Was it good?”

“Oh, sooo goood,” Jerome assures you. “Toes curled and everything. Made quite a mess.”

“Hmm, well maybe next time I’ll be there to clean it up for you.”

Jerome makes a noise that’s between a grunt and a bark. “Now there’s a mental image I won’t be getting rid of any time soon,” he tells you. After a few seconds, he shakes his head as if to clear it. “Unfortunately, I'm here on business.”

“Shame.”

“Right?” he grins. “Do you know Richard Sionis? Big shot CEO. Killed—”

“Yeah, yeah, killed twenty-something people just for shits and giggles,” you say, dismissively. You've heard it a billion times. “What about him?”

“Well, he wants to be one of your friends,” Jerome says. “A fact I maaaay have forgotten to mention yesterday.”

“If I recall correctly, you offered yourself to me,” you remind him.

Jerome grins. “That I did, Queenie,” he says. The grin fades. “But I was supposed to offer him.” He leans in and puts his finger to his lips. “Shhhhhh, don’t tell him. It definitely won't go over well.”

“I know all about Sionis,” you say. “He’s rich, so he likes to buy people's loyalty. Which is actually a really effective way to get them on your side. Just doesn't really help him in this situation. He’s come after me before and it didn’t go well. Never does. Pass.”

You find a nice, mostly clean spot of grass and collapse onto the ground, laying on your back. The sun rays feel wonderful, though they get blocked out when Jerome leans over you, face eerily serious.

“He won’t like that,” he says.

Eyeing Jerome curiously, you ask, “Why are you following that imbecile’s orders? You're so much better than that.”

“Survival,” Jerome answers. “Everyone’s got friends but me. Like I told you yesterday, guards don’t care what happens to us. If you know Sionis, you know that he’s the shot caller around here. A lot of people seem to be in his pocket, so when he ordered me to try to get you in as well, my options were fairly limited.”

You allow yourself a luxurious stretch, relishing in the feeling of the soft grass. “And so you thought you’d try your luck with me why?”

Jerome laughs and holds up his hands, making a square with his fingers. He pretends to bring you into focus as he says, “I like the look of you, Queenie. You’ve got the potential to be a real star, kid!”

You laugh as well, rolling your eyes. “I’m pretty sure we’re close to the same age,” you say. Slowly you slide your foot up between his legs, stroking his inner thigh. “It’s not my pocket I want you in. I am way more fun than Sionis.”

The slow smile you’ve come to adore makes its way across his face. He looks off into the distance, contemplating your offer. “Hmm...okay!” he finally shouts, and falls to his knees. Crawling over your body, he presses his forehead and nose to yours and asks in a low voice, “That mean we’re friends now?”

Chuckling, you shove him off to the side. “Yes, it does,” you tell him. He falls next to you. “But, if you’re friends with me, you’re done with him. I’ve got plans and I won’t have him or anyone else interrupting me.”

“Done. You’re prettier anyways,” Jerome states. Rolling over onto his stomach, he folds his arms under his chin. “Alright, Queenie, what’s the plan then? Whatever it is, I want in.”

“Not here, too open,” you say. “Also, ‘Queenie’? That a new nickname?”

“Well, a certain someone is being all secretive with her real name,” he huffs. “Had to come up with something to call you when I came last night.”

Speaking of images being stuck in your brain. The thought of Jerome thinking about you with his hand around himself is almost too much for you to handle. Pants around his ankles, free hand fisting the bed sheets, hips jerking upward with each tug…

Focus.

Smiling, you tell him your actual name, but he just scrunches his nose and shakes his head. “Nah, I like ‘Queenie’ better.”

You kind of do too. Or at least, you like the way he says it.

“Queenie, let me ask you something. I know you’ve got friends that you whore yourself to and that’s all well and good, but how do you stop the guards from doing bad things to you?” Jerome speaks rapidly, almost as if his brain is on overdrive. “I’ve been here near a year now and I have seen and heard some awful, awful things. Truly. Terrible. Things. But I've never seen anything happen to you.” He pauses, and you can see he’s breathing heavily.

“Been watching that closely, huh?”

“I'm always watching you, Queenie. Always.”

You roll onto your stomach, bringing your faces close because you need to be in his space. It’s a compulsion you just can’t shake. Breathing the same air as him is becoming necessary when he’s this close. He smells like grass and a hint of soap, mixed with his natural musk. It draws you in, invading your senses.

“You know how Sionis is rich?” you question in a low voice.

Jerome nods slowly, grinning. “Yeaaaahhhhh.”

You nuzzles the side of his face, inhaling the scent of his skin. He’s practically panting as he does the same to you, and he’s so close you can feel his soft eyelashes brushing your cheek.

“I’m richer,” you whisper in his ear. “And I’ll have even more money when I kill my stepmom.”

Jerome is growling now, low in his throat, drawing back enough to touch his forehead to yours. “Money is a powerful motivator,” he says. He pulls away suddenly, sitting up and crossing his legs. “Doesn’t really do it for me. But if it works on these pathetic halfwits, than who am I to complain.” He extends his hand, that ever present grin plastered across his face. “Shake on our new friendship?”

You’re so turned on you can’t even stand it anymore. Taking his offered hand, you give it a firm shake, then let your smile drop. He’s watching you carefully, smirking, waiting to see what you’re going to do next. Using his hand for leverage, you pull yourself up and onto his lap, cupping his smooth face. His mouth is already open when you kiss him, diving your tongue in as far as it can go.

If he's surprised, you don't even notice. There's no hesitancy as his arm wraps around you immediately, while one hand buries itself into your tangled hair. You can feel his growl return, his teeth clacking against yours painfully.

It's like a strange tug of war. He kisses harder, tongue shoving past your lips, pushing you until you're nearly bent backwards. Grunting, you wrap your arms around his shoulders and resist, trying to push him back. After a few seconds, you succeed, rolling his bottom lip between your teeth. He tries to wrestle you for control of the kiss, but you’re not backing down. Neither is he.

No other kiss compares to kissing Jerome. He’s hungry, demanding, painful. Oh such sweet, wonderful pain. From the way his long fingers twist and pull your hair, to the way his teeth bite your bottom lip when he draws away. Both of you try to catch your breathe. He tastes like pure sin and you’re just about to dive in for more, when out of the corner of your eye you see something across the yard.

One of the inmates who had actually noticed the exchange suddenly looks fearful, and he turns around and runs into the building. Shit. It’s hard to see his face from his distance, but you know it can only be Sionis’s little snitch, Arnold.

Jerome sees he no longer has your attention and grows angry. “Hey, focus,” he snaps. Both hands fall to your ass and he thrusts up against you, grinding his growing erection into your thigh. “We’re in the middle of something here!”

“Sionis’s pet just ran into the building,” you tell him, getting off his lap. “Come on, I want to follow him ”

Jerome sighs dramatically and hauls himself to his feet, scrambling to keep up with you. The both of you hurry across the yard, only stopping so you can retrieve your shoes from where you left them earlier. Aaron gets to his feet to follow, but you motion for him to stay behind. This calls for stealth, something he doesn't understand.

Arnold is just turning a corner when you and Jerome get inside. You're quick to follow, making sure to stay a bit behind him so that he doesn't realize he's being followed. After a few minutes, Arnold slips down hall that leads to one of the abandoned wings that has yet to be redone.

“He's going to Sionis's office,” Jerome tells you.

You figured as much, you've been there before. But you don't tell him that. You just look around to make sure the guards are distracted, before slipping into the wing, Jerome right behind you.

By the time you get your eyes on Arnold again, he's knocking on the door to a room at the end of the hall. A few seconds later, the door opens and he disappears inside. You and Jerome silently creep towards the room, but you can't hear what they're saying inside. All you hear are muffled noises.

You motion to the door next to Sionis’s office. Jerome follows your lead and the two of you slip through it. It’s an old broom closet, with barely enough space for the both of you to move in. Once the door is closed, you drop to your knees.

“Mmm, what sort of plans you have for me in here, Queenie?” Jerome teases, but you pull him down with you so he can see the small hole in the wall, peering into the next room. The voices stop and you both hold your breath, hoping they didn’t hear Jerome.

After a few seconds, Arnold speaks. “Sorry, Richard. Sorry. But you said to come to you if I saw something.”

“What is it, Arnold?” Richard asks.

You chance a look through the hole, which is partially hidden by a desk. It makes it difficult to see much, but you’re able to make out Richard lounging on what was once a sofa. The bodies of other people are also around, but you can’t determine exactly who they are. However, it’s clear they’re fellow inmates.

“He was talking to her again,” Arnold says hurriedly. “They were talking together.”

“Arnold, we went over this,” Richard responds. “I told Jerome to talk to her.”

“But you didn’t tell him to kiisssss heeeerrrr.”

You lose sight of Richard as someone moves to block your view. Next to you, Jerome has buried his face in your hair and is currently smelling it, humming under his breath. It distracts you for the moment, your hand reaching up to cradle his cheek. You close your eyes and just savor the feeling of him being close. He kisses along your cheek to your lips, but Richard’s angry yelling brings you crashing back to your current situation.

“He is dead! That little shit is dead! You hear me?!” Richard explodes. “Him and the slut picked the wrong guy to mess with! And another thing—”

Jerome isn’t listening to the rant. He's clearly annoyed not to be the center of your attention and he gets to his feet. As you look up at him questioningly, he grabs your upper arm and pulls you stand with him, lining his body flush against yours. He’s kissing you now, pressing you to the wall. It's even more demanding than it was outside, and his body trapping you sends you into a fit of excitement.

The sounds of Richard screaming in the background is actually a major turn on. While he rants and raves about betrayal and other bullshit, you worm your fingers through Jerome’s hair, tugging. He moans, so you do it again, knee sliding up to press on the bulge jamming into your hip.

Every sensation sends a fresh wave of wetness between your legs. You claw at Jerome’s shirt, trying to bring him even closer, while his hands run along every part of your body he can reach. He’s giggling between kisses, the sound drowned out by Richard’s yelling. The way you're kissing...it's like you and Jerome are trying to devour each other.

You pull on Jerome’s hair harder than before, yanking his head back. He lets out an obscene sound as you run your tongue up his neck, sucking on the spot just below his ear. The bulge you're rubbing twitches as you press your teeth into that pale throat. Your face is seized in both his hands and he practically smashes his mouth to yours, stealing what little breath you have left.

And still Richard rants.

Jerome’s kisses are quickly becoming a drug. One that you are already hopelessly addicted to. His tongue is buried so far into your mouth you can’t even move your own tongue. Well that won’t do. You bite down, just enough to force him to withdraw. He doesn't at first, so you bite harder. He jerks away, breathing heavily and you taste copper in your mouth, the lingering reminder that you actually drew blood.

“Wouldn’t it be hilarious,” he giggles, “if I were to just fuck you right here against the wall while he swears vengeance on us?”

“Oh it would be,” you agree. But then you put your hand on his chest and push him back, breaking almost all contact. “Except for the fact that while I fool around with my friends, I don’t fuck them.”

Jerome’s arms drop to his sides and he fixes you with an incredulous look. “Are you shitting me?” he asks, chest heaving under your palm.

“Nope,” you smile. “Only special people get that privilege. Been a long time since I’ve granted it.” You bat your eyelashes at him, playing coy as you let your fingers trail down his chest. “How about it, sweets? Do you think you have what it takes to be my special person?”

“You don’t get more special than me, doll face,” he says, coming at you again. He just manages to get his arms around your waist when the door to the closet flies open.

Blinking in the sudden light, you can’t help but smile at Richard’s angry expression. “Hey there, Richie,” you mock. “Been a long time.”

His goons seize you and Jerome, yanking you out of the closet. You struggle of course, while Jerome lets them manhandle him.

“Fellas, fellas, easy,” he says. “Queenie will be absolutely heartbroken if you damage the goods before she has a chance to sample.”

Richard isn't amused. He steps right up to Jerome and punches him in the gut. You scream angrily, fighting against the two inmates who are holding you. Jerome wheezes and doubles over, laughing.

Richard doesn’t find it funny at all. He grabs Jerome’s face and pulls him up so he can peer into his eyes. “I wouldn’t be fucking laughing if I were you, asshole,” he snarls. “After everything I've done for you? This is how you repay me?!”

“You have to admit, it’s just so funny!” Jerome exclaims. At the lack of reaction from Richard, he laughs even harder. “Come on! Think about it! You send me to go talk to the girl you’ve been lusting over, and has rejected you over and over and over and over…” He coughs slightly as Richard tightens his grip. He’s still being held by the Arnold and another inmate, not bothering to try to break free. “Only to learn she likes me more than she likes you! For all your money and power, you lost out to a skinny, pale, guy with nothing to his name! It’s fucking hilarious!” Jerome laughs louder. “To be fair, I have a wonderful sense of humor!”

Richard punches him in the gut a second time and you see red. Self control snapping, you turn and sink your teeth into the arm of one of the men holding you, only to yank off a chunk of skin. As he screams in pain, you wrench your arm free and spit the skin at him, before turning and sinking your fist into the face of the other man.

“Woooo! Look at Queenie go!” Jerome exclaims excitedly through his laughter. He's looking at you like you're the most beautiful thing he's ever seen.

Richard, not expecting such a violent display is temporarily stunned. Arnold is sufficiently terrified and immediately lets go of Jerome, taking off down the hall. You wipe the blood from your face, smearing it across your mouth as you grin. His men take off running, leaving just you, Richard, and Jerome. Well, and the man with the missing chunk from his arm who is currently bleeding all over the floor.

“We talked about this last time you came after me,” you growl at Richard. “Do you really want to do this again?”

“You need to be shown your place!” Richard snaps, seemingly over his shock.

“My place is standing on your fucking grave, Sionis!”

From the other end of the hall, there’s suddenly yelling as guards finally come to investigate the noise.

Jerome grabs your hand and starts to pull you back the direction you came. Richard is also backing up in the opposite direction, so you allow Jerome to pull you away, not even bothering to spare your enemy a backwards glance. Jerome’s laughter is ringing in your ears, but that quickly stops as you both round a corner and smack into more guards.

They grab you and Jerome, trying to separate you from each other. Jerome fights hard, managing to reach out and seize the back of your head, yanking you into one more painful kiss. His eyes still shine with awe and you barely get a chance to grin at him before you’re both carried off to your cells.

#jerome valeska x reader #jerome valeska x you #jerome valeska fanfiction #ladyfoggdrabbles

110 notes · View notes