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fics-n-stuff · 10 months

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And They Were Roommates

Pairing: Steve × Eddie

Summary: After moving in together, Steve and Eddie start to realise that they might like each other a little more than they had thought until one night, with the help of just a little weed, it all comes to a head.

Word Count: 3.8k

Warnings: Drug use (just weed)

A/N: I've had writers block for literally two years at this point it's so hard to just finish a fic. I have so many WIPS staring back at me every time I open google docs. If you like this fic I'm begging please let me know because I'm starting to doubt my writing ability 😭

Eddie was starting to regret moving in with Steve. He felt guilty about the fact, because Steve was the perfect housemate - he was clean and caring, respectful of boundaries and good company - but Eddie was struggling. Not because of anything that Steve had done wrong, honestly Eddie was unsure if Steve was capable of doing anything wrong, but because he did too many things right. Steve cooked dinner for them both when Eddie was too busy or too tired, he baked as a hobby so Eddie always had fresh treats to pack into his lunch, he always put Eddie's laundry in when he was doing a wash and sometimes even specifically did laundry because Eddie had let it pile up. He reminded Eddie to take his meds every day, used his employee discount to rent movies on the weekends, and never complained when Eddie spent hours playing his guitar.

Eddie was falling for Steve. He was falling hard.

They were coming up on six months of living together in their cozy little house when Eddie thought he might reach his breaking point. He had slept through his alarm and panicked, thinking that he was going to be late for work. He threw on his clothes, brushed his teeth and threw his hair up into the messiest bun he'd ever done, and was ready to race out the door.

"Don't forget your lunch!" Steve called from the kitchen, stopping Eddie on his way to the front door.

"Steve, I don't have time. I-" he cut himself off as he turned to see Steve appearing in the doorway of the kitchen, Eddie's old metal lunchbox in one hand and his thermos in the other. The thermos itself had been a gift from Steve after Eddie had complained one too many times about not having enough time to drink a proper amount of coffee in the morning (and refusing to wake up any earlier).

"I gathered." Steve smiled, and lifted his arms to hold Eddie's stuff out to him. "Don't worry, I got you."

"Uh, okay. Thanks, Stevie." Eddie said, awkwardly lurching forward to grab the stuff from his hands.

"Did you take your meds?"

"Yeah, yes, I did. I'll, uh, see you tonight."

"See you tonight. Have a good day at work." Steve replied, before promptly disappearing back into the kitchen. Eddie took half a second to regather his thoughts, looking down at the lunchbox and thermos in his hands in mild disbelief, before quickly getting back on track and leaving for work.

When he sat down for his lunch break that day, coveralls pulled down and secured with the sleeves tied around his waist in an attempt to combat the heat in the shop, he found a post-it note stuck to the inside of the lid of his lunchbox. With an eyebrow quirked in curiosity, he plucked the note from the box and held it up to read.

Six months and this is the first time you've slept through your alarm. I'm shocked, Eds. Hope I packed you a decent lunch :)

Eddie smiled, his chest warm as he folded the note and tucked it back into the lunchbox. Steve had packed him a ham and cheese sandwich, an apple, some carrot and celery sticks with hummus, and one of his homemade blueberry muffins. It was more thought than Eddie put into his own lunch most days, he usually just grabbed the first thing he saw in the fridge.

Eddie was falling for Steve because Steve took care of him. Eddie wasn't used to being taken care of like this. Eddie wasn't sure that he wanted to be taken care of if it meant feeling whatever it was that he was feeling for Steve. It didn't seem fair that he could fall so utterly head over heels without Steve even trying.

And Steve hadn't been trying. Not really. He took care of Eddie because he liked to, but also because it just made things easy. He did the laundry because he liked things to be clean, he reminded Eddie to take his meds because treating his ADHD made him less of a hurricane, he cooked and baked and rented movies because it was fun. Steve was good at taking care of people, he had a knack for it. All the things you had to do to take care of people came naturally to him.

Steve wasn't sure he'd made a better decision in his life than moving in with Eddie. He had stayed living at his parents' house for far too long and finally getting out of there gave him space to breathe.

Nancy had helped him find the house. Hawkins wasn't a town that exactly had apartment buildings; there were big houses, small houses and trailers. Nancy was the one who found it, a two bed one bath in a quiet part of town with decently low rent.

Steve had been the one to propose the idea to Eddie. Eddie, who was fine living with his uncle but was ready to be independent, and had recently secured a decent paying job at the auto shop in the next town over, had gone for the idea. And then they moved in together. And it was great. And Eddie was great. Suddenly, Steve realised that Eddie was so great. He was passionate and emotive and energetic, Steve loved to listen to him talk and loved to listen to him play guitar.

Every morning Steve got up and waited for Eddie to come crashing out of his bedroom. Every night he sat on the couch and waited for Eddie to burst through the front door. Every weekend he rented a movie or two so that he'd have an excuse to spend time with Eddie. And it was tough sharing a space with a person that he had become so enamoured with. But he wouldn't want it any other way. He liked reminding him to take his meds every day, and he liked gently nagging him to keep the place clean, and he liked the way he always smiled so wide when Steve cooked dinner or baked a fresh batch of sweet treats. Living with Eddie was perfect.

Steve was working the Friday night closing shift, so it was one of those days that Eddie actually got home first. He was hanging upside down off the couch watching TV when Steve kicked the front door shut and pulled off his jacket.

"Hey! Good day?" Steve called. Eddie hummed noncommittally in reply, haphazardly reaching into a bowl of chips that was sat on the floor and stuffing his mouth with some.

"You rent a movie?" He asked.

"Yeah, three of em." Steve nodded, kicking off his shoes in the entrance way before stepping into the living room. "You wanna watch one tonight?"

"Nah, let's save em for the weekend."

"Okay. You eaten yet?"

"Nah." Eddie said, and paused slightly before continuing, "Wanna get high?"

"Sure, why not." Steve shrugged after a moment. "I'm not working tomorrow." Eddie flashed him a grin before turning himself right side up and making room for Steve on the couch. "You wanna order a pizza? I didn't prep anything and I don't wanna start cooking now."

"I'm always up for pizza, Harrington."

"Awesome. I'll order the food, you roll the joint."

"Perfect."

They both got up from the couch in unison, Steve heading to the draw by the phone where they kept all the takeout menus and Eddie heading to his room to retrieve his stash. They reunited by the back door five minutes later, pizza ordered and joint in hand.

"Two whole hours." Steve complained as Eddie lit up. "I will never get over it. I hate Friday and Saturday closing shifts, why the hell do we have to be open an extra two hours?"

"Because Friday and Saturday nights are when people wanna go get their movies." Eddie replied, smoke rising from his lips as he passed the joint to Steve.

"Yeah, well, I hate it."

"Yeah, I know." Eddie chuckled, used to hearing a version of this rant every time Steve worked a Friday or Saturday closing shift. "Hey, uh, thanks for packing my lunch today. But I think you might have done too good a job at it."

"Huh? What does that mean?" Steve questioned.

"The new guy at work, Freddie, he asked if my wife packed my lunch for me."

Steve choked halfway through an inhale, quickly passing the joint back to Eddie before he doubled over with his coughs.

"Shit, sorry." He managed after a few seconds of coughing. "I, um… what did you say? Yaknow, when he said that."

"Uh, I laughed and then I told him the truth. I overslept and my housemate packed it, coz he's nice like that." Eddie smiled. He watched Steve to make sure that he was okay after his coughing fit and took an extra long pull of the joint. "He gave me a funny look, but he said it was sweet."

"What kind of funny look? Like a surprised funny look or a disgusted funny look?"

"I don't know. We were cool the rest of the day though."

"Hm."

They smoked the rest of the joint in silence, finishing up just a little before the pizza arrived. Steve answered the door, paid the delivery boy and brought it back to the couch where Eddie had already melted into the cushions.

"You sure you don't want to watch one of the movies tonight? I rented Eraserhead just for you." Steve said. Eddie made a shocked wailing sound around the slice of pizza in his mouth and spun to face Steve.

"You rented a freaky scifi horror for me? And you plan on watching it with me?" He exclaimed.

"Well, we did also just get in our first copies of Top Gun and I was planning on making you watch that with me tomorrow so… it's more of a compensation." Steve replied with an amused smile.

"Deal." Eddie nodded enthusiastically, holding his hand out to Steve, who laughed as he shook it. "You wanna smoke another one? I'm thinking I could do with a bit more of a buzz."

"Not if you wanna watch Eraserhead tonight."

"Well, what's the third movie you got?"

"Airplane."

"Oh, we can definitely watch that stoned." Eddie grinned. "Come on, Stevie! Smoke another joint with me. I'll have most of it, promise!"

"Okay, fine!" Steve relented with a light laugh. "Go open the window and put on the movie."

"Yay!" Eddie cheered like a child, springing up from the sofa. He scurried to open up both of the nearby windows, retrieved the tape from Steve's bag that he'd left by the door and popping it into the VCR, and came back to the couch producing his little tin from his pocket.

"You know, you could just smoke on your own." Steve said.

"I could, but social smoking is better." Eddie argued, flipping his lighter in his hand and smiling around the joint between his lips. "And it's a good way to get you to chill out, you collect a lot of stress through the week." To punctuate his point, he plucked the joint from his mouth and held it to Steve's. Steve, whose hands were occupied with tearing apart two partly cut slices of pizza, parted his lips to accept the joint.

"I'm not that bad." He protested. "Go get your ashtray, we're not gonna be able to eat the pizza if we can't put down the joint."

"Yessir." Eddie chimed, rolling over the back of the couch like a chaos gremlin to go get the ashtray from his bedroom.

They ate their pizza and watched the movie, laughing a bit louder and a bit longer than was really necessary. Eddie rambled as they played rock paper scissors after the film ended, telling Steve about his day very overdramatically and not noticing how closely Steve was watching his every move. Steve was always quiet when he got high, which was the complete opposite of Eddie who somehow managed to talk even more when under the influence, so Eddie wasn't too off put by his lack of responses.

"I've got the munchies, what's in the kitchen?" Eddie asked, grabbing Steve's hand as he wrapped paper around rock.

"Hmm, not much." Steve mumbled in reply. "We've got some pretzels. There's the muffins, and the sugar cookies from last weekend." Eddie puffed his cheeks out and rocked backwards before leaning forward into Steve's space.

"I love living with a baker." He smiled dopily before quickly getting to his feet, reaching down to Steve with grabby hands to pull him up as well. "Come on Stevie, to the kitchen we go."

Steve took the hands offered to him and let himself be pulled up off the floor, let himself be led by the hand into the kitchen, let his arms be wrapped around Eddie's shoulders like a scarf as the other opens the cabinet where they keep the snacks.

"You want some pretzels?" Eddie questioned as he pulled down the bag, his other hand still holding Steve's where he'd placed it hanging at his chest. Steve replied with a hum that meant no, resting his head on Eddie's shoulder. "We have half a bag of chips left, you want that?" Another hummed no. "Okay, more for me." Eddie shrugged, grabbing the chips and closing the cabinet. He shuffled them over slightly to grab a plate before opening up the tins on the counter and filling the plate with muffins and sugar cookies. Then, he unwrapped Steve's arms from his shoulders and turned to face him, a sudden air of seriousness about him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, of course." Steve nodded.

"You sure? 'Cause you seem… thoughtful."

"I'm high."

"Yeah but it's a different kind of quiet than usual."

Trust Eddie to pick up on the most minute inconsistency in Steve's demeanor.

"Just…" Steve started thoughtfully, trying to arrange his words in his swirling mind. "Did you ever think you'd be so… domestic?" Eddie blinked.

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean." He replied with a chuckle.

"Like… when I was a teenager I just kind of thought that I would inevitably end up like my dad. And then I was with Nancy and I started thinking maybe I could have something a little different; a marriage that wasn't loveless, a family I actually care about. But when all the Upside Down stuff happened, and it just kept coming back, it started to feel like I could never have a normal life. But now here we are, living in a normal house, going to work every day and just… living." Steve explained. "I didn't think I would ever get here, and I have no idea where I go from here."

"Well, wherever you want to go, Stevie." Eddie said with such a sweet authenticity that it made Steve feel emotional. He leaned forward to rest his head on Eddie's shoulder with a sigh, and Eddie wrapped his arms around Steve to pull him close. "It's not easy. I mean, Nancy's had her whole future planned out for years and even she got shaken by the Upside Down shit. I never second guessed persuing my music before but months in the hospital got me out of habit with it and I doubted that I could. You know that, you were the one who convinced me not to quit the band. We figured it out, you will too. We'll figure it out together." He moved one hand up to Steve's hair, twisting his fingers through the thick strands and stroking his scalp with his fingertips. Steve sighed and leaned into the touch.

"Okay." He breathed.

Eddie took a deep, hopefully discreet, breath. It wasn't often that Steve showed this vulnerable side of himself, and Eddie was proud that he showed it to him. For all that Steve did to take care of other people, Eddie especially, he didn't often let people take care of him. Eddie learned how to do it in small ways, making sure to regularly ask him how he was feeling and helping him unwind at the end of the work week, not to mention telling the kids to leave him alone for a bit if he was seeming overwhelmed or in need of a break. But this, holding Steve in his arms and giving him advice about something serious, was something he didn't get to do often. And he already loved Steve when he was coasting along nonchalantly downplaying his negative feelings for the benefit of the people around him, but when he opened up and let someone else see what he was really feeling? Eddie could feel his heart melting.

"You're doing a good job just as you are right now, Stevie. You know that right?"

Now it was Steve's turn to feel his heart melt. Or maybe that was the weed. Either way, he didn't know when he started leaning on Eddie like this but now it was like Eddie had a magic effect on him. His voice, his touch, just being in the same room with him, it always made Steve feel more at ease. He let himself enjoy the feeling of Eddie's fingers in his hair for a few moments longer before pulling back from his hold and standing up straight.

Maybe it was the weed, maybe it was Eddie's big brown eyes, maybe it was the way that Eddie's hands lingered on his waist, but Steve was blurting out the words before his mind could tell his lips to stop.

"Eddie, I love you." He heard his own voice before he realised he was speaking. Then he panicked, and he couldn't stop himself from continuing. "I- I mean, I think I might be falling in love with you. And I- I didn't mean to, I didn't want to, but you're just so great. And we're really good friends and I don't wanna ruin that, and if you don't feel the same - I mean, you probably don't feel the same - you can just tell me and I'll never bring it up again."

Eddie was stunned. He stood completely still, staring at Steve as he continued to ramble, cheeks turning red as he blushed more with every word he spoke. If he wasn't high maybe he would be quicker to respond, but it was like Eddie's brain was ticking so slowly he could barely keep up with the words coming out Steve's mouth. Steve's mouth that he found himself staring at.

Steve was still rambling when Eddie grabbed his face in both hands and cut him off by pressing their lips together. Steve let out a surprised yelp as he was cut off mid word, his hands instinctively going to grab Eddie's hips as he returned the kiss.

This was the moment.

When Eddie pulled back he was grinning ear to ear, hands cupping Steve's face so gently.

"I love you too, Stevie. I love you so much, you have no idea how long I've wanted to do that." He said softly. Steve smiled, letting out a relieved sigh, before pulling Eddie closer and kissing him again.

He pushed Eddie back so that he was leaning against the counter, crowding him in as he deepened the kiss. One of Eddie's hands found its way to take hold of the hair at the nape of Steve's neck while the other fisted in Steve's shirt at his shoulder.

Steve's fingers had just slipped under the fabric of Eddie's t-shirt when the phone started ringing, and they both pulled back with disappointed groans. Steve begrudgingly went to answer it.

"Hello, this is Steve." He answered the phone. A moment later he was pinching the bridge of his nose as the corner of his mouth pulled into an involuntary smile. "Hey Robbie, what's up? No, I'm not stoned… It was just a little, I'm not stoned. What do you want?" Eddie couldn't help his fond grin as he watched Steve on the phone with Robin, free hand moved to sit on his hip in the classic Mama Steve pose as he listened to his best friend. "Well, how am I supposed to know what girls in California are like…? Robin, you go to Stanford so I know you're not that stupid… I can help how!? I didn't even get into community college, you are talking about a league of people that I am not a part of!"

This was going to last a while. Eddie breathed an endeared laugh, picking up his pile of snacks and heading back to the living room, winking at Steve as he passed him.

He lounged on the sofa shoveling chips into his mouth, tuning in and out of Steve's side of the phone call and chuckling at his exasperation with whatever problem Robin had called him to discuss. He hummed under his breath, a melody that he had written and had been workshopping the lyrics for, as he finished the chips and scooped up a muffin.

"Robin, I can't plan dates for you." Steve pressed his forehead against the wall in exasperation. As much as he loved Robin, she really did have a way of finding a problem in practically everything and then also making that Steve's problem. "For starters, I don't know what your neighbourhood is like. And also, I don't know what this girl is like other than what you've rambled at me… Robs- Robin- Rob- Robin! I think you've forgotten that time zones exist, because it's past midnight here and you're keeping me up with your lesbianism." Eddie snorted a laugh at that, shoving half a cookie into his mouth. "Yeah, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Eds, yell hi."

"Hi Rob! Bye Rob!" Eddie yelled with an amused smile on his face.

"Yeah, no, he is stoned." Steve chuckled into the receiver. "Alright, bye Robbie. Love you."

"I'm not stoned." Eddie pouted. Steve pushed his legs off of the sofa so that he could sit down.

"More stoned than me." He rebutted, gesturing to the half eaten pile of food scattered across the coffee table.

"That's 'cause you're a pussy." Eddie grinned teasingly. "Is Robin having a wild series of dalliances with cool California girls?"

"No, and I also don't care about that right now. I'll deal with her tomorrow, but for the meantime I think we were in the middle of something." Steve replied with a smirk. Eddie shot upright, his charm only slightly hindered by being under the influence as he leaned into Steve's space with an eyebrow raised flirtatiously.

"Were we?" He purred.

"Well, unless you don't want to be." Steve teased. Eddie quickly placed his hands on either side of Steve's face, getting up onto his knees as he pressed their lips together to swiftly dismiss that notion. A laugh reverberated in Steve's throat as he kissed him back. He pulled back with a smile and brushed a stray curl off of Eddie's face. "Your bedroom or mine?"

#stranger things #stranger things 4 #stranger things season four #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie fic #steddie fanfiction #steddie fluff #steve x eddie #stranger things fic #stranger things fanfiction #robin buckley #roommates steddie #domestic steddie

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sickandtwisted01 · 5 months

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DATE PREP P. 2A

Simon ‘Ghost Riley’ getting ready for his date with the help of Johnny ‘Soap’ Mactavish (I literally had to do this, this is so FUCKING CUTE.)

no warnings or anything, it’s really just more fluff

_________________________________

Simon stood in the mirror, dark eyes staring intently at the tie around his neck. He’d already showered, put on deodorant and cologne. He picked up flowers from the local shop– the kind you mentioned you’d liked a few weeks ago in a passing conversation about how you’d used to go flower picking with your sister when you were young. Dark eyes started intently at the thin fabric around the man’s neck, thick fingers working impossibly to try and maneuver the material into whatever stupid fucking shape it needed to go– was it always this hard to tie a stupid fucking tie? His brows furrowed as he toyed with the fabric, grunting gently as he became annoyed.

“‘Ang on, I’ll help ‘ya out.” Johnny called from behind the man, making his way over as he examined the man before him. He pursed his lips, taking in the outfit his close friend was wearing. The outfit wasn’t bad– dark gray slacks, sort of dressier shoes, a button up, a blazer, a single black leather cord bracelet. “Do ‘ya really think the tie is necessary?”

Simon’s eyes shifted, a hint of worry falling over his face. There were two instances that made Simon regret mentioning the date to Johnny at all– not that he really expected the other to show up on his doorstep six hours before the date to help him ‘prepare’, the first was the cologne incident. The second was the hair incident, and now this. Simon breathed in sharply, shrugging a shoulder loosely, “‘Dunno, wanted to look nice. I told you, pretty thing, this one. Wanna make sure it’s all… perfect” He huffed, turning away from the other with a heavy sigh as he brushed his hands through his hair.

Johnny’s lips pursed, nodding as he took in the state of Simon– he wasn’t used to the usually sure and confident man being so… anxious, and even more, about a date? Simon was the type to go home with women at the bar after missions on a semi-frequent basis but the more Johnny thought about it, he’d guessed that an actual date was… different. His head turned a bit, smirking towards the man, “Been a while since a proper date, huh, LT?” He questioned, sliding past Simon and towards the man's room. “Lucky ya’ve got me, then.”

Simon’s head turned immediately, “What are you doing?” He snapped, following behind the man quickly. When he entered the doorway of his bedroom, Johnny had already opened the man’s wardrobe doors and was shuffling through. “Johnny, c’mon.” He grunted, walking in further.

“Trust me with yer life but not to pick an outfit for ya?” Johnny quipped with a grin as he held up a black knitted sweater. “Should wear this. S’cold outside, this’ll keep you warm but still give that ‘nice-looking’ thing yer going for with the slacks and the shoes. Do ya’ve a belt? Darker brown will look good with the outfit and maybe…” He turned back to the closet, “Do ya not own a single piece of jewelry other than that bracelet? A watch or something?”

Simon huffed gently, shaking his head as he shrugged off his jacket and placed it on his bed. “There’s a belt hanging on the front of the door. No watches or anything.” He spoke as he began unbuttoning his shirt, reaching out to grab the sweater, “If they think I look fucking stupid in this sweater, I’m gonna kill you, Johnny…”

Johnny’s lips pursed lightly as he tossed the belt over, nodding to the man “Wouldn’t expect anything less, LT.” He responded simply, unclipping his watch to hand it over to Simon, “It’ll be fine, ya’know. The whole date thing. Not as hard as ya think– not if they like ya, I mean.” The man smiled, patting against Simon’s shoulder as he watched the other put on the piece of jewelry, “It’ll go well.”

Simon nodded, “Mhm. It’ll go fine.” He responded simply, flicking his wrist once as it fell to his side to adjust the weight of the new piece on his wrist. His eyes shifted back to Johnny, “Lock the door when you leave, yeah?”

Johnny’s brows furrowed, “What?” He scoffed, an almost offended look on his features. “Nah, I’m sleeping on the couch. I wanna know how it goes!”

Simon shook his head, eyes rolling as he gathered his items. Keys. Phone. Wallet. Flowers. “I’ll call you in the morning. Do not be here when I get back home.” He pointed to the man, “Do not be here.” He spoke firmly, making direct eye contact with him as he closed his front door.

Johnny raised his hands in mock defense as Simon closed the door. “Fine! I won’t be here!” He spoke, humming as the door creaked fully closed and he heard Simon’s heavy footsteps departing, “…For much longer after you get home…” He spoke to himself, grinning as he made his way to Simon’s couch and plopped down.

#call of duty #cod modern warfare #cod mw22 #cod mwii #cod x reader #simon riley x you #Simon Riley being cute #john soap mactavish #Soap’s there too

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angeldrawsstuffs · 7 months

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They Say it Gets Better

Summary: Cooper’s always struggled to live up to his family’s expectations of him, especially with the bar set so high my his brothers. But, before he had the Dream World to retreat to, Cooper had a… different solution

Based on this post of mine.

“You never forget your first.”

Cooper’s heard that said about a lot of things.

First crush.

First kiss.

First goal.

First A+.

First award.

But for him…

It’s the first time he ran away. Or- tried to, at least. Evidently, that didn’t work out so well. Really, all that’d happened was he’d gotten into a fight with his family, nothing really out of the ordinary, families have their disagreements. But, Cooper’s little 5th grade mind just… took it too personally is all.

He didn’t go far! He just ran over to Mateo’s place and… cried a lot, begging José to let him live there forever. Just kid stuff, it wasn’t all that serious, he was just overreacting!

Just an overreaction…

Well, needless to say, his great plan didn’t work for long, since he was over there for all of ten minutes before his mom came knocking. Much to little Cooper (and Mateo and Izzie’s) dismay, he was forced to go back home and deal with his family. The tension was thick in the house, almost like you could cut it with a knife.

His parents didn’t really… punish him, but he got a long talking to about how dangerous what he did could’ve been. And he didn’t do it again!

…that year.

The second and third times he tried were in sixth grade, just a year before he became an aware dreamer.

He really could’ve used the Dream World back then, you know? Then he could’ve just messed around with quite literally the car of his dreams instead of-

Well- being manhandled by his brothers.

He knows it sounds bad, but it was only because he’d gone out at night and tried to hide in a dirty alleyway that was probably super dangerous!

Ok- maybe some context is needed there.

The second time he tried to run away… went about as well as the first attempt. He thought he was being slick when he asked Mateo to cover for him by holding onto one of his model cars for the day, thus tricking the adults into thinking he was with Mateo again when, really, he was trying to hide at school.

It… went about as well as you’d expect. Mr. Oz ended up catching him that time. Although, to his credit, he did seem impressed with how long Cooper got away with that one for (about six hours if he remembers correctly).

But, in the end, Cooper was returned home once more and got the… privilege of his mom and brothers checking in on him every hour and a half…

For the next week.

This deterred Cooper for a few months. That was, until, the big blowup.

He shouldn’t have yelled.

He shouldn’t have cried.

He knows he was ungrateful.

He knows he was wrong.

But everything, every bit of bubbling resentment, every drop of anger and jealousy came spilling out that night.

He regrets every word of what he said.

Especially his final words:

“I wish you just didn’t have me!”

Overreaction. He knows.

In the moment it felt like the right thing to say, but, in hindsight (and a trip to the school counselor), it was the worst thing to say. He hurt his mom, his brothers, everyone. Running out the door right after didn’t help the situation at all.

This time, Cooper didn’t even tell Mateo where he was going. Mostly because he himself didn’t even know. He just knew he had to get away. He couldn’t face his family! Not after- after that!

He didn’t want to even consider the consequences of a young kid on the streets of Brooklyn, cold and alone with no one knowing where he is. He honestly didn’t care at the time, all he cared about was finding some place to hide. Hide from his actions, hide from his words, hide from his family.

How could he have been so cruel to his family?

Eventually, he found an alleyway a few blocks away from his house. Cooper knows a dark, dirty alleyway should’ve been a deterrent to his plans, but he was just so exhausted. His legs felt like Jell-O, giving out from beneath him behind a dumpster.

He doesn’t remember when he passed out. He remembers crying… a lot, and everything just… going black.

He woke up to a sudden aching in his arm. His eyes flew open, taking a few seconds to reorient to the now early morning sky.

His brothers.

Cooper tried to fight back, he wiggled and squirmed, heart racing faster than one of his model car’s engines in his chest. He should’ve realized it was fruitless immediately, his brothers were all stronger, faster, better than him.

It was all a blur from there. He remembers yelling. A lot of it.

But he also remembers being hugged, told about how worried everyone was.

He remembers the sinking feeling in his heart as the weight of his actions finally occurred to him.

It was that moment he vowed to never run away again. Things can get better, especially if he doesn’t pull that stunt again. He just needs to work harder to meet expectations.

He just needs to try.

#dreamzzz #lego dreamzzz #cooper dreamzzz #dreamzzz cooper #snippet #oneshot

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theangstyboiblog · 1 year

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Regret Part 12 | Echo x Jedi!Fem!Reader

Much needed Fluff! ... before the bad stuff happens

~~~~~~~

A year and a half of pining. A recent heartbreaking confession. Echo loves you – as more than friends, if that needs any clarification. It’s what you wanted for so long and now it’s real. So, now that you’re both on the same page, what’s the first thing you do?

You stay as fucking far away from him as you possibly can.

It’s barely been 12 hours since the batch finished up their last chip removal and you’ve avoided Echo ever since. Is it silly? Yes. Immature? Definitely. But there’s this stupid heat that burns your skin when you’re near him. Not that you’d never felt that before, but you could hide it. As a Jedi, you had to. When he’d rejected you, you had to.

Now, he knows. You know. At this point you’re pretty sure everyone knows if the looks Wrecker and Hunter and even Tech have given you. Which if you’re being honest, is really not helping things.

Force forbid you happen to be anywhere near him and he looks at you. You’d been helping Tech reset some breakers when you’d caught sight of Echo pausing in the doorway. Two seconds. That’s how long it took you to turn away in terror. Your chest felt like it would burst, your hands went all sweaty. You nearly dropped Tech’s data pad. Luckily you’d caught it before he noticed. You started to turn to shoot Echo a “Go away – no, wait, don’t leave,” look, but to your relief (and disappointment) he was gone.

“Ok, almost got it,” you mutter as you hang upside down, over a broken deck’s flooring.

Your legs lay against the cold tile as you let the rest of your body drop down into a gaping cut in the floor. It’s as if someone took a massive knife and cut through the ship from hull to center. There’s only a few feet between one sheered side and the other, but of course, it’s the last step to restoring power to bridge, which Tech tells you is, ‘of the utmost importance.’

You’ve worked your way through a mess of wires, torn metal and plastene. Finally, with all the debris out of the way you find what you’re looking for. Tech’s voice guides you impatiently through the work.

“The power converter should be connected to a blue wire—”

“I know what a power converter looks like, Tech,” you bite out. If you were upright, you wouldn’t be that annoyed, but there’s something digging into your shoulder blade and you don’t have time to listen to him explain the intricacies of electrical circuitry. Not today.

Reaching blindly, you wave your hand. “Welding spanner,” you call up, as your other hand deftly begins to work over the encapsulated box of circuits. Something heavy and round finds its way into your palm, followed by footsteps walking away. It takes a moment before your arm finds a way to bend without breaking.

You work quick and quiet. It’s an awkward position, but your hands seem to be moving in their own automatic dance. For the first time this morning, you’re delighted to have something new but still familiar to focus on. Mechanical, electrical puzzles. It’s a moment of reprieve. You’re not even listening to the goings on up above as you work to reconnect the junctions.

Then that moment of peace is broken.

“Y/N?” a voice calls from above and you immediately lurch. The only problem is, there’s not enough room.

“Echo -- ow!” you whisper-shout his name, but its interrupted by a thud that rings out as you bang your head. “Son of a –” you reach up blindly, trying to grab the broken panels and pull yourself up, but instead you end up flailing your arms. “Help,” you whine as your arms fall still.

“I got you,” Echo says and you can only listen as his footsteps grow closer. Your face burns as you realize you are literally ass up, and stuck with your head in the floor like some flightless bird on Kuak. A warm hand takes hold of your wrist and pulls. You rise up until you finally find purchase and grip the floor with your free hand.

“Thanks,” you say, shaking your arm out of his hold as you leave the hole in the floor. Your eyes focus on your shoes as you sit on your haunches, fixing your shirt and blindly combing your fingers through your hair. “Where’s Tech?” you mutter, when a glance around the room finds that the clone in question is nowhere to be found.

“Tech wandered off,” Echo tells you with a shrug.

“Of course, he did,” you mutter as you look down at your knees. Finally, you glance up as Echo kneels down and peers down at your handiwork. You look away when those brown eyes turn towards you. “I reconnected the junction here. I just need to reroute power through this panel system and we’ll be able to reconnect to the bridge systems.” Taking a deep breath, you glance at the console on the wall behind you.

“And here I thought you were avoiding me,” Echo murmurs. You turn back around, eyes wide. You expect a look of annoyance. But there isn’t any, and there’s no sadness in his aura. Instead, you zero in on that damn smirk that pulls at the corner of his mouth.

“I am not,” you mutter back before twisting around onto your hands and knees, pushing yourself up to stand.

You glance back at Echo as you fiddle with the hem of your shirt, hands dusting themselves off on your pants. He rises up, crossing his arms. You mirror his stance as the two of you enter a standoff. It goes on for nearly a minute before you finally tear your eyes away from his.

“I don’t like this,” you whisper before you glance at him, and find that his eyes are wide and his jaw slack. You gulp as he shifts from one foot to the other.

He speaks lowly. “I didn’t mean to make you upset, I just… After last night… If this isn’t – if I’m making you uncomfortable—"

“No,” you cut him off, shaking your head as you look up at him. “That’s not what I mean. Not even close.” Closing your eyes, you look down and sigh. “We’ve only been… us for what? Twelve hours?” Reaching up you pinch the bridge of your nose before you start to ramble. “And I-I just feel like all my brain wants to think about is you and I don’t know what to do with that because it’s out there now and I know we have bigger things to worry about but I’m honestly fighting to not follow you around like some lost loth cat begging for attention.”

“Heh,” a short and sweet laugh cascades off the hard metal floors and you open your eyes. A grin sits firmly on Echo’s face.

“Don’t laugh at me,” you tell him with a frown and that seems to only spur him on, as his shoulders begin to shake. Setting a hand on his hip, Echo bows his head and lets out another spurt of laughter before finally straightening up. That damn smile is still there. “It sounds ridiculous but it doesn’t feel funny to me,” you whisper.

The smile disappears.

“I’m sorry,” he says almost immediately, “I-I’m not laughing at you, well, not just you. I’m laughing at the both of us.”

“This is all new to me too, Y/N. You’re the first woman I’ve felt this way about – first love, first kiss, first everything,” he adds that last part slyly, almost under his breath as if he’s embarrassed to say it out loud. “All that means is we get to learn how this – how we work together.” Leaning forward he presses his lips to the side of your head. “And if you want to follow me around, I won’t complain. Kriff, I felt like I was following you – been trying to keep you within sight all day, but you kept running off the second we ever clapped eyes on each other.”

“I was embarrassed,” you admit after a moment of processing everything he’s just said. “I hid these feelings for so long and now they’re out in the open. It scares me.”

Echo’s lips pull up into a soft, lop-sided smile. “All that time pushing each other away – I think we’ve both got it bad.” Reaching up, he crooks his fingers so they nudge just under the edge of your chin. You’re reluctant but you look up at him. “It’s a big change, putting our feelings out in the open. Life changing if you think about it. But all I regret is the fact it took so long. All that time we were so scared to tell each other the truth. I don’t want to be scared of the fact that you know how I feel now – much less waste time terrified because we’re standing in the same room together.”

Heaving a sigh, you lean forward until your brow rests against his shoulder. “Do other people feel like this when they’re in love?” you murmur as Echo’s hand gently rubs up and down your spine. His chin rests on the crown of your head and you can hear him breathing as he thinks for a moment.

“I don’t know,” he answers honestly. “If they do, I don’t see how they get anything done cause I’m content to stay like this for the rest of the day if you’ll let me.”

It’s at that moment that a playful yell echoes down the hall and you lean back, hands rising up over the cool plastene of his breastplate. You both glance at the door and when he turns back to you, you raise an eyebrow.

“But will your brothers let us stay like this?” you ask, already knowing the answer. Before Echo can reply, a shadow steps up to the threshold. Omega looks up at the two of you with those big eyes of hers, a curious look on her face as Echo keeps his hand on your waist, despite the both of you turning to face her. It’s like he’s not ready to let you go yet.

“Did you need something?” Echo asks her lightly and Omega blinks.

Then she shrugs her shoulders and juts her thumb behind her. “Wrecker told me to tell you that he’s ready to go on that patrol and if you don’t hurry up we’re going to leave you behind,” she says in a rush, a bounce in her step as she starts to back out of the room. “He’s going to teach me how to disarm a bomb,” she says with an innocent smile. You and Echo share a look.

His hand starts to leave its spot on your waist. “I’ll –”

“We’ll be there in a minute,” you say, correcting him with a smirk as he stares at you. You look back at Omega as she hurries out of the room. “He’s not going to teach her with a real bomb, right?” you ask, turning back to Echo.

He’s staring at you. And you get to watch that little headshake he does when he’s pulled away from a thought. The softest smile blooms on his lips as he moves just a bit closer, arm snaking around your back again.

“It’ll be fine. Probably a smoke bomb or something. He’s not crazy. Not that much at least.” You wet your lips as you look up at him, a smile clear on your face. He narrows his eyes at you. “What are you thinking?” he asks, voice low.

“Will you kiss me?” you shoot back quickly, loving how it catches him by surprise. His eyebrows rise up, his eyes widen. His jaw goes slack.

Then he seems to gather himself up again. He feigns the hardest look he can manage. “First, you want to go on patrol with me. Now you want a kiss. Ma’am, I think you’re in love with me.”

You shrug your shoulders and let out a laugh. “Echo, if you don’t want to kiss me, you should probably get your hand off my ass.” You smile through pursed lips as he tilts his head and the heat of his palm moves lower behind you, pulling you closer. Then he leans forward, frowns and acts as though he’s peering over your shoulder.

“Is that where my hand went?” he says in your ear. Your laughter cascades off the metal panels along the walls for a single moment, before he turns and presses his lips to yours.

A/N

Did I say 2 more chapters? I meant a whole plotline.

@jordyn2424 (I don't know why this one isn't tagging sorry, I tried!)

@jediknightjana

#tbb fanfiction #tbb #tbb echo #tbb echo x reader #the bad batch #the bad batch echo #echo x reader

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perdidosbucky-yyo · 2 years

Text

Coming in Hot

Drabble

Pairing: Johnny Storm x Fem!Reader (no mention of body type and/or ethnicity)

Summary: You got stood up... But coming in hot The Human Torch saves the day.

Warnings: reader is mean to herself :( but other than that I think that's it, please let me know if I missed something :3

Wc: 1.4k

a/n: it was the beautiful @forever-aria 's birthday a few days ago and we both agreed that the perfect first date would be at an amusement park/state fair so this is for you bby Ari 🔥❤️

The men on this planet were testing your patience. You chastised yourself for having the slightest hope that he still might show up, you desperately wanted to smack a perfect stranger's face for ruining your day.

A thin veil of clouds covered the sky but the day was still bright, the air was cool but not cold enough to regret wearing your red shorts and white tank top.

Despite the perfect weather all you could think about was the embarrassment some guy on Tinder was putting you through. You felt like everyone was staring, like they all knew you got stood up and they pitied you for being a fool.

He seemed way too perfect to exist in real life, but he was charming even through text and your romantic heart just couldn't resist. When he suggested to take you to the state fair you were thrilled, you adored mechanical rides and rollercoasters and it was THE perfect first date, easy way to break through the awkward stage and just have fun.

One hour 50 minutes and counting later you were swallowing down tears that he definitely didn't deserve.

Pulling you away from your thoughts, like a shining star your gaze widened as you saw literal fucking fire coming towards you, panic setting deep in your gut.

Before you could even let out a sound of distress, he landed on the ground in front of you in all his glory. 5'9, fire covering his perfectly defined body slowly fading, revealing his confident smirk, probably trying not laugh at your scared expression.

Not wasting a second you gently push him by the chest as you rolled your eyes 'you scared me asshole!", you'd seen him before in the blue suit but you would never get used to it, he looked hot (no pun intended).

Widening his beautiful smile it's as if he willed his bright blue eyes to shine to make you waver, -damn him-, "came as soon as I got your text, he's a jerk Y/N, and an idiot, doesn't know what he's missing out on".

Trying to ignore his comment you raised your eyebrow "I texted you like 50 minutes ago... I thought you stood me up too" you pouted, letting out a huff of frustration.

"C'mon! Cut me some slack I was putting away bad guys in Spain, perdóname chiquita" he said in a not so terrible Spanish accent as his arm wrapped around your shoulder, trying not to shiver in return.

It was hard not to react to his touch, he was always warm and he seemed to always touch you with care, but you were - just friends- you had to keep reminding yourself. He flirted with you constantly but that's how he's with everyone, he's Johnny God damn Storm! superhero/playboy, and you looked nothing like the supermodels he usually went out with.

You met him six months ago, fresh out of college, you were celebrating with beer pong when he came in with that million dollar smile, took your red cup drank the rest of your drink and in one try threw the little white ball on the cup (which caught on fire). Laughing and joking around the two of you just clicked, the chemistry was evident, but he neither of you ever did anything about it, and six months later here you were.

Realizing you were staring at him without saying a word you felt the heat of embarrassment creep on your face, "C'mon weirdo, since we're already here let's enjoy the rest of the day", he barely places his hand on your lower back and leads you to the park entrance, leaving no room for argument.

"Are you seriously not gonna change?"

For the next 6 hours you went through a plethora of emotions, good and not so good, and each one only reassured your feelings towards Johnny.

Walking closer than you'd ever been you were trying to decide which ride you were gonna get on first and like a sign from the universe the biggest and scariest ride of all stood before you 'SPEEDXXL'. Jumping up and down with the biggest smile on your face you turned to Johnny who was already looking at you with a knowing smirk "let's ride this bad boy".

After 10 minutes of standing in line you're finally strapped to the chair and it's only a matter of seconds before the ride starts, you're both laughing nervously and you're so excited your heart is about to beat out of your chest. "You're not scared are ya?" he teased, the anticipation only growing thicker, swinging your leg to try and kick his leg you scoff at the insinuation "I'm the queen of mechanical rides Storm, if anything I think you're getting a little antsy" you say as you bite down a giggle "can even see a dark spot on your pants there on your pants Johnny" you laugh which made his smile drop and quickly look down at his pants "made you look" you laugh, but before he could react you felt gravity lift you backwards "I'm so getting you back for this!!" he shouted into the air, you couldn't be more excited.

After eating the last of the popcorn your next stop was the Haunted House which Johnny insisted on, you loved the scary rides but scary ghosts? Not so much.

Worry set on your stomach, you didn't want to make a fool of yourself infront of the human torch but not going in would make you look even more stupid. Noticing your hesitant steps Johnny walks up to you, big hands craddling your worried face (which he found insanely cute) "My god you smell amazing" he whispers mostly to himself, which makes you bite down a smile and roll your eyes at him as you slap away his hands, to which he chuckles "I got you sweetheart" he smiles, his comforting presence enveloping you, you were safe... In more ways than one, you knew that now. "Let's go shit our pants" he grabbed your hand to hold tight and lead you to the Haunted House.

"About the elephant in the room..." Johnny whispers as you exit the house of mirrors, turning to him with wide eyes you're speechless -fuck fuck am I being that obvious? - stuttering your next words before you could say anything he grabs your hand "I think we should eat something before we go on another ride" he says as he looks for food trucks.

Completely dumbstruck you just shove down any surfacing feelings and laugh "Yeah yeah, I'm actually craving some cotton candy", "perfect" he grins as you arrive to 'BIG DADDY'S CANDY MONSTER'.

You got a bag full of sweets and cotton candy for yourself and a caramelled apple for Johnny, taking a big bite of your fluff of sugar you moan "this is fucking delicious, it's a cloud of perfection", in over a second, he's on you, hands barely on your waist as he took a bite of the cotton candy... "it is good" he whispers, sucking the sugar off his fingers, eyes never leaving yours, making your breath falter (he noticed).

After what seemed like an hour of intense eye contact you decide that this means nothing, he's just flirting like always, which is kind of frustrating since you do like him for real, letting out a sigh and looking down he tilts up your chin "you really are a candy monster aren't you?" he smirks, thumb gently caressing your chin, gulping you silently nod, understanding the hidden meaning, -yes daddy-, for a second you think he's leaning in but he just winks and wraps his arm around your waist, leaving you another kind of frustrated.

You swear he was right behind you just a second ago, you had just won him a stuffed Charizard (he begged for a Pikachu but you wanted something on the nose to annoy him), at the water gun stand, you were gonna head to the carousel but he was nowhere to be seen.

Walking by the photo booth you felt someone pull you in, you started punching and slapping before you heard "Hey- I- ow!! H- IT'S ME" Johnny cracked up, rubbing his sore 'wounds', letting out a sigh of relief you smack his head "you NEVER do that to a woman in public you meat-head", sheepishly smiling he signals you to sit, "Johnny... We've been to like 10 rides already my hair's a mess" You whine as you reluctantly sit, trying to fix your hair "C'mon! You look fucking hot" he licked his lips as he stared you down, making you nervous.

While the look on his face was hungry there was something else, like he couldn't believe you were real, taking a deep breath you let yourself feel it all... He really came all the way from Spain to cheer you up, and he kept looking at you like this, maybe there was more underneath the reckless playboy facade, maybe he did want to be more than friends.

Pulling you out of your thoughts was the sound of a photo being taken which made you both turn towards the camera and smile, then funny faces and then... He took you by the sides of your face and kissed you, not even giving you a chance to breathe he deepened the kiss which made you hold onto his neck.

Tasting his soft lips made you go just a little bit feral and the thought of letting him have his way with you right in this photo booth was appealing but then your brain knocked some sense into you. Gently pushing him away you both took in some air, which made you laugh, you couldn't help but want to feel those lips again and before you knew it your hand was on his cheek, thumb caressing his swollen lip, you truly were in awe of this man, you couldn't understand how a human being could be so imperfectly perfect.

The sound of photos being printed made you both pull away, there was silence but it wasn't awkward, but you both knew things just changed.

The last couple of hours were weird, you didn't laugh or talk as much. There was a moment where he got so excited that he won you a neon tiara it looked like he wanted to pick you up and hug you but instead ruffled up your hair...

You still had fun tho, you even enjoyed the wheel of fortune up until Johnny tried to speak but instead stuttered an apology and remained quiet the rest of the ride.

Food trucks were being closed, lights shutting off, people leaving to go home and the two of you were standing on the side-walk in horrifying silence. You wanted him to break the silence, in your mind you begged him to tell you he liked the kiss or that he regretted it or that you actually mean something to him and you aren't just another conquest.

The silence only allowed your insecurities and anxiety to spread like wildfire, manifesting in the physical form of biting your nails.

-I'm so fucking naive, once again you believed someone could ever fucking like you- you chastised yourself over and over, you were about to break the silence, the noise in your head making it impossible for you to stay quiet but as you turned to him he was already looking at you, in a way that you'd never seen him look at you.

"I was gonna do this whole aloof/cool guy act but that's what I always do to get girls but fuck it you're different" he rants, almost out of breath, he looked really nervous, his fingers on fire on and off, "I've really really liked you these past six months and I think you like me too... Or maybe I'm way off and you're just really nice I-" before he could continue you stepped in and nudged his nose with your own, looking into his beautiful blue eyes, you could see the flames behind them that reflected his adoration and passion; bringing you a sense of calm you hadn't experienced before. "I really really like you too" you smirk, loving the way his cheeks redened.

Teasing his lips with yours he chuckled until he had enough and held your face in place to taste you again, he craved and if he was being honest he doesn't know if he's ever gonna be able to live without those lips of yours.

You cradled his head, enjoying the softness of his golden brown buzz cut and your grew ten times bigger as he whispered sweet filthy nothings in your ear.

Perdóname chiquita = forgive me little girl/I'm sorry baby

Photos by: @funkgodartist

Deviders by: @firefly-graphics

#Johny Storm fanfiction #carrot's harvest #Johny Storm #Fantastic 4 #Johny Storm x Reader #Chris Evans

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nefskullcritique · 1 year

Note

ayyeeeee fucking YIKES at how people are treating you over this. I've had my nose in the Reb/Volt shit since I was literally 13 or so (And I'm like 20 now) and despite never hearing of this blog, I know DAMN well most of the people involved in this were minors and no one deserves harassment. I watched the vid (all four hours) and I feel really bad about how you got portrayed. i hope the second part is a bit easier on you and honestly... godspeed bud, I wouldn't blame you if you locked the blog again. my ass would have dipped the second the video went live lmfao. it's like people forget you guys are human too

I feel like if this was six months ago, I'd be more anxious about the video. I had my little freak out at the time of finding out about the video, but now I'm fine.

I don't really feel anything? It's weird. I don't really care about it anymore I guess. Getting older does that, I guess. I've been through a lot.

I do wish people took a moment to realize that we are all just humans who make mistakes. None of us are saints, and we're defined by how we handle our mistakes. I've made a lot of mistakes I regret, but I can't dwindle on them and feel sorry for myself. I can only move forward.

#mod ven

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mt-musings · 1 year

Text

Bluebell

Chapter 38

After being abruptly transferred to the BAU at what she suspects was Gideon's request, Cassie Boann struggles to find her footing. Shy and solitary by nature, the transition is made all the more difficult when Dr. Spencer Reid seems to take an almost immediate dislike to her. Unfortunately for them both, their respective areas of expertise leave them paired off more often than not. But when Cassie's past literally starts hunting her, Spencer is forced to consider that he might, in fact, not hate her at all.

Quite the opposite, actually.

Spencer Reid x OC

Warnings: Canon typical violence, kidnapping, stalking, drug use, blood, injury, death, PTSD, eventual smut, more tags to be added

Series Masterlist

Read on AO3

38. Linger

Cassie awoke blearily, head pounding. It was a moment before she realized where she was, that she was still in Spencer’s bed, though he wasn’t in it with her.

That was unusual enough to cause a moment of panic—she was always the one to rise, always the one to make sure Spencer was still safe and warm under the blankets before starting the day. She rolled over, squinting at the alarm clock which took longer to come into focus than it should.

10:43am.

She shot up in bed.

She never remembered sleeping so late in her life, never remembered sleeping past eight if she was feeing particularly lazy on a day off and had stayed up the night before. Six hours of sleep was a luxury rarely obtained.

She’d slept for nearly fourteen.

She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes to rub away the sleep but instantly regretted it as she pressed, too hard, into a line of stitches.

Oh.

She’d forgotten about the day before, about turning the corner in the warehouse only to be struck, hard, in the side of her face with a revolver, the stunned feeling as she fell and struck her head on the concrete floor.

She remembered the sound of gunshots, remembered seeing Spencer through doubled vision, gun drawn, remembered reaching instinctually for her own S&W under her right arm, aiming for the middle of her doubled view of the unsub and hoping she hit him.

The rest was a blur. She remembered Morgan’s voice, remembered the familiar clunking of an MRI, remembered lying in Spencer’s arms as he read to her, but it was all muddy. She got out of bed, pausing as a wave of nausea hit her.

Two concussions in less than a year was certainly not a good idea.

She waited for the wave to pass before crossing to the living room, squinting at the sunlight streaming through the windows. Spencer sat up on the couch, setting a thick book aside, hair still wild from sleep. He’d pulled on a cable-knit sweater and wore an unfamiliar pair of sweatpants, horn-rimmed glasses balanced on his nose, rather than his usual contacts.

“Hey, sleepyhead. How are you feeling?”

“Kak ya syuda popal? My byli v—fuck. My head hurts. We were—we were in Ohio.”

Spencer stood and rounded the couch, peering into her eyes as he cupped the uninjured side of her face. “We flew home yesterday, after you got out of the hospital. The doctor gave you some pain meds for the bone bruise and the concussion. You were pretty out of it, but the doctor said the MRI and the CT scan looked okay.”

“Can I—?”

“You’re not supposed to look at screens for a few days. Just hang on a second,” he said, crossing back to the bedroom. She stood there, feeling like she was waiting for her brain to catch up with everything around her.

She started as Spencer handed her a water bottle, halfway through handing her a pair of little white pills.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Cass? Maybe we should get you checked out again. We can head down to Georgetown—“

“No I’m—“ she started, shaking her head. Everything was still a jumble in her head and English—English was hard. It wasn’t often that she was reminded it wasn’t her native language.

“I’m okay. I think I slept too long,” she said, staring at the little white pills Spencer placed in her palm, “I don’t remember what these are.”

“Pain and inflammation.”

“Which is which?”

“You should take both.”

“I already feel stupid. Pain medicine makes me feel stupid.”

“Pain also interferes with proper healing, and can lead to dropped tissue perfusion and oxygenation, not to mention impact the extent the wound can be cared for,” he said softly, brown eyes achingly sincere.

She stared at him for a long time before she swallowed the pills and took a sip from the water bottle to wash them down, even though everything in her was screaming not to, that it would make her vulnerable, put her at a severe disadvantage if anything were to happen. The worst part was she trusted Spencer, trusted him as much as she was capable.

I want to take care of you. She remembered that from last night even if it was as if from underwater. The words made her want to cry or run or put her hand through a wall.

How long had she waited for someone to want her, never mind what to care for her? How long had she lay awake in unfamiliar beds with scratchy sheets just waiting, praying that someone would want her again?

When had she turned on the concept with such venom, with such pathological avoidance? After all, no one could disappoint her, abandon her, if she never let them anywhere close.

She’d been good at it—gotten good at it—until Spencer. Until she’d run into him at that little coffee shop in Colombia Heights and she’d just talked to another person for the first time in maybe a decade. Just—talked about books and academic papers and documentaries and forgot to worry about talking too much, revealing too much, dumbing herself down to avoid anyone digging deeper, distilling herself into simply what she could do.

But when Spencer looked at her—she knew he saw her, whatever there was that remained behind all the walls she’d built. She wasn’t sure what he saw, or why he kept looking.

She thought back to her conversation with Morgan all those months back. Of how Nietzsche merely cautioned against staring into the abyss, didn’t ask why one would. Perhaps, if she asked, Spencer would have more of an answer than Morgan had.

Maybe that was why he kept looking at her.

Maybe she was selfish for letting him.

“Cass? Cassie?”

“What?” She asked, hating the way her voice sounded, startled and small.

“You’ve just been staring straight ahead for eight minutes and thirty-seven seconds. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Just—thinking.”

“About what?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too. I don’t—why do you look so serious? Your face is all pinched like when you’re worrying over a case.”

“You promised you wouldn’t profile me.”

“I’m not—I’m sorry. I’m just worried. You’ve been really quiet since everything.”

“I’m always quiet.”

“It’s a different quiet. Just—if you want to talk about what happened. I know—I know killing someone is never easy, even if they’re an unsub.”

She couldn’t help it. She laughed.

He stared at her with furrowed brows.

“I’m not—I’m not upset about killing him. I haven’t even thought about it him since. I just—He pointed his gun at you, he was going to shoot you. He was a bad person, I don’t feel bad about shooting him. It was better than he deserved.”

Spencer just kept staring, staring like she was a puzzle to figure out. She dropped her gaze and crossed to the couch. Spencer sat next to her, rubbing soft circles into her back. She moved almost without thinking, curling into his side, arms snaking around his waist. He smelled like old books and sandalwood shampoo and coffee—always coffee.

She could feel the meds starting to take effect, feel the heaviness in her limbs, the fog overtaking her brain. She sat up, looking around for her bag.

“What are you looking for?” Spencer asked, brows furrowed.

“My bag. I want my iPod.”

“Give me a second,” he said, getting to his feet and crossing to the entranceway. He returned a few moments later with her iPod, headphones wrapped neatly around it.

“Thanks,” she said as he passed it to her, plopping back down on the couch. She unwrapped the headphones and started clicking through playlists. The words we too small, and it hurt to look at them.

“Come on, lay down,” Spencer said, putting one of the soft throw pillows on his lap before pulling the blanket off the back of the couch. She did as he asked, letting him wrap her up while she used the opportunity to stare up at him.

He was so pretty.

He caught her staring and fought a smile, shaking his head.

“What?”

She handed him the iPod and one of the headphones instead of answering. “I can’t have screens. You have to DJ.”

“Oh? Any special requests?”

“Rasmus Orav playing Erik Satie or just Phillip Glass,” she said, closing her eyes as she slipped the headphone into her ear. He smiled at the request, remembering when Phillip Glass had been a point of irritation, if only for the volume she played it in the mornings before the team straggled in.

It took Spencer a moment to orient himself in the iPod before he found how to search by artist. He tried not to get distracted by the feeling of her hand at his hip, clutching his sweater as if she were afraid he might drift away otherwise. He scrolled through until he found Rasmus Orav and just shuffled the whole playlist.

He’d never heard of him before, but assumed he was some sort of classical artist, as seemed to be Cassie’s favorite. He took a moment before slipping the other headphone into his ear.

The recording was slightly crackly, like that from an old record, but the piano remained a bright point, even in the melancholy of the composition. He combed his fingers through her curls, watching as she unconsciously relaxed as the song went on. He picked back up his volume of Proust and balanced it on the arm of the sofa so that he would still have one hand to draw his fingers through her hair.

It wasn’t long before she fell asleep, breaths evening out as she curled closer, as if she couldn’t be close enough. He smiled to himself as he turned back to his Proust, talking longer than her usually would to finish the volume.

Of course, he hadn’t the foresight to grab another stack of books and place them in reach before Cassie had fallen asleep. He could try to slip away, he knew—with the Dilauded he doubted she’d wake—she’d slept like a rock the night before, so much so that he’d checked on her three times before she’d woken up to make sure her vitals were normal. He didn’t want to risk it, though, not when she looked so peaceful. Instead he turned to her iPod and decided to comb through her library.

A good chunk of it was classical in nature—something that didn’t surprise him in the least. It was all he’d ever heard her listen to on the jet or in the office and she and Gideon regularly had discussions on different composers and eras. But there were others he hadn’t expected—70s, 80s, and 90s alternative and punk, Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen and The Smiths and Bauhaus and Nirvana and Sonic Youth and Radiohead. Bands he recognized by name and reputation, but couldn’t name any of their songs.

He flipped back to the first artist he’d looked up, Rasmus Orav. He still found it odd that he had never heard of him, especially with such an extensive discography. Perhaps he was just a favored pianist—after all, any virtuoso could play the classics. But there were more than just renditions of Satie and Debussy and Chopin—there were original compositions, full albums devoted to sonatas he’d never heard of, most titled in Cyrillic. One of the few that was titled in English caught his attention. Whereas the others had long, poetic titles when he could decipher, this one was a single word. It was longer than the other albums too, by nearly three times, running four and a half hours in length.

He selected the first movement and was surprised to find it lacked the melancholy of the rest of the tracks. There was an air of quiet elation to it, and exuberant quality that was lacking in all the others. Each keystroke rang of pure adoration, of a worshipful level of devotion. He found himself lost in the music, in the swells and valleys of it, in the way it almost seemed to form a narrative just out of reach.

He glanced back down at the iPod, looking for any sort of clues to what it might be, but there was no album art, just the name: Bluebell.

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#spencer reid #spencer reid x oc #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds #multichapter #slow burn

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bacteriorage · 2 years

Text

An Exhaustive (And Exhausted) List of the Pros and Cons of Taking Four A-Levels

It’s been a hot second since I wrote a school advice post, mostly because I have been the one in need of school advice as of late. However, today I have been thinking back on my own life choices because I have 6 A-level exams this week and I’m not entirely sure I’m going to survive it’s nearing the end of my school career.

For context, I take chemistry, biology, maths and further maths, got all 9s at GCSE and have an offer from Oxford to study biology. Baller credentials if you ask me. So without further ado, here we go:

Pros:

You get to study more stuff you enjoy, which if you are indecisive or a nerd is a huge bonus. If you took further maths GCSE, for example, you’ll be super bored in year 1 maths A level, so having something more interesting to do in further maths was a great help.

You can afford to do badly in a subject. This is great because if you love a subject but can’t get good grades, you can still take it and not need to worry about how this affects your university entry. Bear in mind, however, that the extra time spent on a fourth subject will impact your other grades.

Having a broad range of knowledge is always helpful.

It’s worth trying out 4 A-levels, if only to check out which subjects you like or to see if you can handle the workload.

Cons:

I have so many exams. As mentioned earlier, I have six exams this week. Which might not seem a lot now, but trust me, it sucks. I’m pretty sure I just failed chem, but I have to get up and do maths paper 3 tomorrow.

Don’t expect to have much of a social life on top of the homework. Remember that A-levels are designed to be taken 3 at a time, so regardless of how easy you find it the workload and time you spend on it will pile up quickly. As a guide, I would generally have 1-2 hours a day to myself during weekdays, and I’d spend a few hours on the weekend catching up. If that doesn’t sound sustainable, this is not the path for you.

You will burn out. This is a fact of life. Doing this much work is actually really bad for your mental health! If you’re not in a good place right now, don’t bother. It literally isn’t worth it.

Speaking of it not being worth it, universities literally do not care if you’re doing 4 A-levels. Not even Oxbridge, not even secretly. Because it isn’t realistic to be able to do all that! Don’t put yourself through this just because you want a better chance at getting into uni. It won’t work.

So yeah, that’s my advice! In terms of me, I don’t regret doing 4. Well, I do, but I also wouldn’t choose any differently because I love further maths too much and chemistry gives me too much valuable background knowledge to drop either one. I really, really dislike chemistry though. Don’t do chemistry unless you absolutely have to.

#a level #a levels #bacterioraging

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seokjinsonlyone · 3 years

Text

this is how i think it’d go if you went to visit bts at work and gave them a little peck on the lips

namjoon:

you’d probably walk into his studio and he’d be at his desk headphones in playing back some beat or revising some lyrics

you’d come up behind him and wrap your arms around his neck effectively stealing his attention away from the track

and that’s when you’d place a nice little peck on his lips

but that wouldn’t be enough for him so before you could even fully break apart he’d already be chasing your lips

he’d roll his chair around to properly face you placing one hand at the back of your neck bringing you back to him immediately slipping his tongue in your mouth

what once was a cute little greeting turned into a sensual experience as he gently massaged your tongue with his

and when he felt like he had his fill of you for the time being he pulled back, smiling, dimples on full display and said “hey, baby.”

the depth of his voice would send shivers down your spine and you would settle into his lap wrapping your arms around his neck picking up where he left off just bc he was done didn’t mean you were

seokjin:

you’d probably end up at hybe headquarters after seokjin called you when he was done with his day to get dinner together

you’d call him to let him know you’re outside and within a minute he’d be in your car

you’d lean over the center console to give him a peck to which he’d immediately complain

“woooowww i’ve been at work all day and that’s all i get”

you’d swallow down the urge to tell him that he not the only one that work in favor of rolling your eyes and pressing your lips to his again for a little longer

that wouldn’t be enough for him though “just one more,” he’d request.

“one more.”

he knew that asking for a kiss from you was a dangerous game

could feel it in the way he melted against you

could tell by the way he seriously thought about giving you one of his rolex watches you jokingly said you’d steal and sell

or one of his cars you said you’d steal and sell

thought about giving you the world just for one more kiss

yoongi:

with yoongi you’d probably enter his studio (he’s always in the studio) with the code he gave you

which the fact that you were the only one other than himself that had the code did inexplicable things to your heart you couldn’t really delve into without feeling like you were gonna explode

anyway you’d walk in the room and he already knew it was you like you said you were the only other one who could freely enter and he’d be at his monitor doing whatever producers do

“hey just gimme one sec”

and you knew how that one went sometimes it was actually just a few seconds sometimes it was a few hours until you had his attention but you didn’t mind you ain’t have anything else to do just wanted some company

you didn’t wanna disturb him too much but you couldn’t help yourself so you walked to him turned his head to face you and quickly kissed him before recoiling to the couch a few feet away

10-15 minutes later he was summoning you over to him, pulling you into his lap, and using his thumb and index finger to trap your chin bringing your lips back to his for a proper kiss

you sighed contentedly afterwards laying your head on top of his as he wrapped his arms around your waist, showing you what he was working on

hoseok:

hobi was usually a super organized person liked for everything to have a place and everything to be in that place

but you were his little chaos and organization was definitely not his top priority when he was with you taking second place to soaking up every ounce of your presence in whichever way you would allow him

so really it was no surprise when he texted you asking if you’d seen his little notebook where he wrote his lyrics and whatever other ideas or thoughts popped into his head

it took a bit of searching to find but you had it and he was very fortunate you liked him it was the only reason you were willing to drop it off before work

you made sure to let him know he was the reason you looked ugly today the trip to his office severely cutting your usual routine and he made sure to let you know that a) you were beautiful no matter what and b) he would make it up to you

it was only your second time at the new building your first time was when he invited you along for their first look at the hybe insight museum so it was safe to say you had absolutely no idea where you were going despite the detailed instructions one of the staff gave you upon entry if you hadn’t run into taehyun you probably would’ve been running around that building for another hour

you were thoroughly unamused with the situation but hobi looked so cute and sheepish when you entered the practice room wrapping his arms around you immediately alternating between expressing his gratitude and regretfulness that you couldn’t help but press a small kiss to his mouth

an action you instantly regretted bc a) it caused him to start pressing kisses all over your face in return b) it caused an eruption of various forms of shouting from the six other boys you failed to notice upon entry

you pushed at his chest as heat flooded your body from embarrassment preparing to leave you were going to be late for work “be good” you told him personally before shouting “have fun!” at the other members

jimin:

your days off hardly coincided with jimin’s days off mostly bc he never really had days off always had to go in for one thing or another

but his days weren’t always jam packed some days like today he had a meeting in the morning and a meeting in the evening and not much else to do besides that

and he was the absolute worst at entertaining himself always needed to find someone else’s business to get into and as the object of his affection you were always his first choice

he tried not to bother you too much when you were busy though no matter how clingy he was and he was awfully clingy

if you two weren’t able to be joined at the hip in your free time you were definitely on the phone and if he wasn’t the object of your affection as well you would’ve started ignoring him a long time ago as it stands he was the best company

anyway he knew you were off today and had no plans other than finding a new anime to start so naturally when he found himself bored out of his mind he was in your ear purring down the line for you to come to him

it didn’t take too much convincing your attention span wasn’t on your side so you couldn’t really get into anything and even though you literally saw jimin yesterday you missed him :\

it’s why you didn’t hesitate to land a peck on his lips upon meeting him again and latching onto his arm firmly as he led you to one of the small practice rooms they had

“so tell me about your day”

you looked him over suspiciously he had that mischievous glint in his eye so you knew he was up to something

and you were right you weren’t more than two sentences in to your answer before he was pressing his lips to yours in a long lingering kiss

“i’m sorry continue”

“um...” your attention span really wasn’t with you and it was hard to retrace your train of thought with your lips tingling and the hairs on the back of your neck raised

you eventually found your mental footing and continued speaking about your day which had more or less turned into you ranting about haikyuu when again mid sentence he captured your lips between his own one hand tracing up and down your spine while the other held your head into place so he could lick into your mouth just the way he liked

“go on” he panted slightly breathless once you finally broke apart

“jimin...” you whined

he giggled at his own antics loved riling you up found it so cute how you couldn’t even try to keep the dreamy look off your face “you like me so much don’t you?” he asked with a self assured grin etched onto his face

you did

taehyung:

sometimes he felt so sorry to you hated cancelling on you because something came up or another thing ran over time

you were always cool with it tho never made a huge fuss of it which he was forever grateful for bc he really did love his job

but he really loved you too

he had to cancel three separate times just this week alone and he was missing you something bad

and even though he really wanted to take you out and do something nice for you like you deserved at this point he just wanted to see you

missed seeing you in person and having you in his arms

that’s how you found yourself on a bench tucked into a quiet corner of the upper garden at a table chairs side by side his hands toying with yours as you caught him up on your week so far

he was kinda obsessed with you and you loved it because having his undivided attention felt so so good

so you couldn’t help but close the gap, briefly pressing your lips to his

the slight blush that took over his cheeks had an insane amount of serotonin flooding your brain you loved him so much

even more so when he surpassed his bout of shyness and unabashedly brought you closer to him and attempted to make up for a week’s worth of lost kisses

jungkook:

sometimes life got busy for the both of you and even though you meant to meet up it just didn’t happen

but once you finished your work week you made it your mission to see him as soon as possible

you’d texted him when you got off and he told you he was finishing vocal practice then going to workout which left you with enough time to stop home and freshen up before he was done

as expected his trainer told you he was in the shower when you popped up so you decided to wait in the hallway for him to come out

“heeeeey what are you doing here”

you looked up from your phone to see your slightly damp very buff boyfriend grinning down at you

almost instantly you were hugging him arms wrapped around his waist before pulling back slightly pecking him on the lips

which set something off inside jungkook a shock ran down his body just from the feeling of your lips pressed against his

“let’s hang out” you agreed immediately “i just need to grab something from my studio first”

he laced your hands together dragging you alongside him and as soon as you entered the room he had you pinned against the door hands on your hips kissing you with far greater ferocity than you could have anticipated

and it’s like jungkook knew he missed you but he didn’t realize just how much until he had you in his arms your lips on his

kissing you felt like home and his introverted self never wanted to leave the house couldn’t even help the groan that escaped the back of his throat as you took control of the kiss and made a mental note to remember to never deprive himself of this pleasure again

one of his hands slid down your thigh lifting your leg until you got the hint to wrap both of them around his waist allowing him to show off his strength and grope you at the same time

“jk,” you said breathlessly, breaking the kiss

his lips were chasing yours the second you broke contact he didn’t care about breathing when a fire was spreading through his body

you indulged him for a few more seconds before breaking apart again

this time his lips traveled down your neck kissing and sucking until you were making the prettiest sounds for him

you felt like you were going to explode his hands were squeezing your butt and his lips were on your neck and you were going to explode

“jk...” you whined again tugging lightly at the hair on the nape of his neck

he made his way back up your neck pressing a hard kiss on your cheek before gently nudging your nose with his “hmmm?”

and suddenly you were staring directly into his eyes big and pretty and filled with stars shining just for you

you were going to explode “let’s get out of here”

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stilemawillow · 2 years

Text

Journey’s Parts [Levi | Reader | Reincarnation AU!]

[841]

[the beginning]

"Watch where you walk, cadet." The superior, who you later acknowledged as Lance Corporal Levi Ackerman, spat in your direction as you recollected yourself and glared at him defiantly, fingers clutching tighter the stack of papers you held close to your chest.

"I apologise, sir. I was told to give these papers to you." Your jaw clicked as you suppressed your distaste towards the individual before you, exactly three inches below your eye level, and called forth your supposed respect for his title whilst handing him the pages. He took them from your hold sharply, like he was afraid you'd infected them with something.

"By whom?" His grey hues scanned the lines of the document before pinning your orbs in place. Despite your hostility towards soldiers (what an irony that you would one day become a part of them) you considered the dark-haired superior in front of you ravishing in terms of facial features and body structure and, say he hadn't nearly cussed at you a second ago or wasn't currently scrutinizing every inch of your visage with his intimidating gaze, you'd even dare say he was handsome.

"Petra Ral." You stated shortly, attempting to ignore the way he briefly raised an eyebrow at the sound of your condescending tone. You'd accidentally let it slip, but it couldn't be helped since these were your first few days in the actual army.

Your tragic backstory included the fact your father used to be in the Survey Corps prior to his death six years ago - his squad let him be devoured during a mission and the Squad Leader did literally nothing to save him despite the fact they'd been close enough to do so. Cue your hatred for soldiers. The years without your father were hard and forced you to take on a job early, but the only thing suitable for a kid your age was training camp that would later become the profession you hated ever so much. Spoiler alert, as the only option in store, it was obviously the chosen one.

"And your name is?" Fast forward, after five years of training, you graduated and were currently in enemy territory, surrounded by people you disliked and thought unloyal lying bastards. You had to kiss up to superiors who'd most likely let you die on a mission and 'bond' with comrades who'd stand to the side unharmed and watch. You returned to reality and though your mind was clear of memories, your voice was still unfiltered in regards to odium and so were your eyes.

"(Y/N) (L/N), sir. Am I dismissed? I have other matters to attend to as well." Maybe if only that one sentence of yours had been different you wouldn't have spent the following two years in an unofficial war against the Lance Corporal. Your silent games, unbeknownst to both of you having started this very moment, were all wit and unfair punishments, mostly on his side as shown by his following words.

"I suggest you take your jacket off instead, (L/N). The weather outside is hot and you'll be spending the next hour running laps in it." The raven-haired male's eyes narrowed dangerously at you. Even if you hadn't actually talked back to him openly, he was surprised by the lack of respect in your speech and the substituting it distaste. In his opinion, there was little to understand as to acknowledge the reason for that distaste and the one thing he actually cared about at the moment was that he wasn't in the mood for a rude know-it-all brat with obvious issues that were none of his business. "Dismissed."

You walked away extremely frustrated with your fists clenched at your sides and your eyebrow twitching. As a clear statement of defiance (and stubbornness you almost regretted later) you kept your uniform jacket and started running laps in the heat. It took you twenty minutes to get tired, ten more for your mouth to dry to a dangerous degree and an additional fifteen till your muscles felt like they were melting under your sweaty skin. You could barely produce a coherent thought when your vision became blurry and your lungs stopped listening to your brain.

You had no idea exactly when you passed out or how long you were out of it for, but you were woken up by a kick to the side and a small flask that was thrown at your abdomen right after. Your fingers clutched the cold metal as your eyes slowly opened up. Your tongue was dry and your throat was scratchy but you distinctly remembered the frowning corporal's grey hues staring down at you as his frame protected your eyes from the direct sunlight.

"Off to the shade. Wash your face and report to my office, you look filthy." The cold words were accompanied by another nudge of his leather boot to your ribcage. Taking his features in as if he were something like a mirage in the middle of a desert, you closed your eyes as your head fell back into the dirt in defeat. Your vocal cords were so strained you didn't even have it in you to groan in exasperation.

"... yes, sir." The mangled whisper left your lips weakly, but then the boot was gone from your side and so was the shadow from your face. You lay there for another minute, waiting to hear the slam of a door, before chugging down the water he'd brought you for unknown reasons. He couldn't have actually gotten worried about your well-being - it was too weird a notion taking into account how you'd met less than an hour ago and the first thing he did was punish you for speaking a tad bit too confidently.

You spent the next few minutes gathering the strength to get up and enter the building. Once inside, you followed the Corporal's orders and washed your face before gulping down as much water as you could take. Relief was coursing through your veins instead of blood and your mind was in a state of such euphoria that the kindly supplied flask full of fresh water brought to you by the raven-haired man was neither remembered nor questioned. As you made your way to the superior's office, there was little to no gratitude in you and a smidge too much discontent.

You knocked on the door, entered without waiting for approval and stiffly saluted the male sitting behind his desk. He offered you no seat though there was a chair less than a foot away from you and you took it as a direct insult, much like he had taken your annoying show of lack of proper mannerism seconds prior. There were no greetings nor any respectful nods of acknowledgement, there was only silence and glaring until the Corporal got to his point.

"Your excuse for fainting in the middle of a punishment?" The fact he wasn't even looking at you as he fired such a ridiculous question your way (how was one supposed to know they'd black out as to find themselves an excuse for it?) infuriated you so much you could walk out and not care about the follow-up punishment he'd give you. In fact, you couldn't care less about any punishment he'd give you if you earned it through honesty and some witty comebacks. That little moment of epiphany was maybe what added fuel to the fire of the war that could've been otherwise avoided.

"Middle? The hour had almost passed." You dropped your salute and openly mocked your superior with a glare, quickly finding out that he was not one to buckle under pressure and a bit of disrespect. Maybe it was what made your war so infuriating yet fun later on - the Corporal would always cock an eyebrow at you mockingly and give you a punishment right after, and even then you'd never stop thinking of how hot the gesture was.

"Almost." His bored voice underlined heavily as you received the honour of watching the first of many raised eyebrows on his forehead. At the current moment, in contrast to many future experiences to come, your knees didn't exactly buckle and your mind didn't immediately scramble not to think of how good it would feel to just wipe that haughty expression off his face using your fist... or your lips. "Your phrase just won you an additional one." It was a cold statement that knew just how much it weighed on a powerless little thing like you.

"Why do you not like me, sir?" You fired casually with a neutral expression instead of asserting your opinion on the topic of your new punishment. A punishment you greatly wished he would forget about by the end of this conversation. The male seemed, for the first time since you'd entered his office, to look up at you with a face you could almost read.

There was this little thing hiding in the furrow of his eyebrows that told you he was somehow testing you. And another little thing roaming his emotionless grey hues told you he was actually surprised to hear that question out of your mouth so soon. Maybe, his eyes spoke boldly, you'd say it in a month or two, or maybe even a year - just not now, they blinked at you wondrously. And you, baffled by your odd newfound skill of reading the expressionless corporal's thoughts, blinked right back at them, not knowing what else to do.

"Is that the impression I'm giving off?" Then his lips moved and you realised you could no longer hear what he was thinking. There was just a wall of grey and a pair of knitted eyebrows, and you suddenly reached the conclusion that what you'd seen was a simple delusion - you were dehydrated and dizzy, and you couldn't read the raven's thoughts. The mere idea sounded completely delirious.

"It is." You nodded in affirmation confidently, eyes trailing over the male's features in search of something legible. If you didn't find anything that would only verify your very sober theory that you'd been delusional up until now due to exhaustion and leftover giddiness. But then you saw the way his eyes flickered mockingly prior to fleeing from your gaze and you knew you were still quite delirious indeed.

"Good. Because I'm not the only one." The words out of his mouth seemed to faze you to the point you were almost rendered speechless. He'd just straight-out informed you that he was being a stubborn mule who only wished return the favour of disliking you for no actual reason whatsoever. His slender fingers grabbed the pen he'd obviously left upon your arrival and then came the cold verdict you wished would stay in your imagination only. "Two hours of laps outside instead of dinner tonight. Dismissed."

[844]

[the middle]

"I thought you liked the Corporal." Your head was tilted innocently to the side at your only female squadmate, Petra Ral, as she calmly ate opposite you at the table. She seemed to be briefly choking on her own spit prior to recollecting her composure. Your eyes followed the movement of her fingers as they let go of the spoon she'd been using seconds ago, only to wipe nervously at the corner of her mouth right after.

"It's not like that." She explained, strain added to her voice very subtly due to the avoided choking-fit. You nodded at her slowly and raised your hands in the air in defeat. Maybe she didn't want to talk about it - that you understood, but denying it was straight-up foolish of her, moreover when you knew for a fact she did like your raven-haired superior. The air around her when he was close oozed 'please give me some personal task'.

"I get it, sorry for being nosey." Your gaze went back to your food and you made a mental note not to pursue the topic of love interests ever again. It was strange how people avoided talking about that, no matter who they were talking to. As far as you knew, Petra was an outgoing girl but you were the only person who was remotely close to her as a friend and she still wouldn't feel comfortable enough as to share with you. It was ever so unbelievable that you would one day be so close to a soldier yet the experience itself was nowhere near the horrifyingly disgusting scenario you had in mind.

"No, I just---" The strawberry-blonde whisked her hands through the air in a panicked manner, cutting herself off in the middle of something that could've been a legitimate sentence. Your eyes went back to her face, only to see her features contort in tender bashfulness as her gaze fled to the wood beneath the food before her. "I don't like talking about it since the Corporal is the last person I should've fallen for. I doubt he'll ever notice me as anything besides an underling." A heavy sigh of hopelessness tore itself from her peachy lips as she tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear.

"An underling who's doing a brilliant job at surviving and helping him on a daily basis." You justified for the sake of making your closest thing to an actual friend feel a bit better. Petra looked up at you as you scowled in the general direction of the Corporal you were talking about. "He loses if he doesn't notice you." Maybe that exact phrase, out of your lips, was part of the reason Petra never gave up on your ebony-haired Corporal - even when he would already be taken, even when he would brush her off just as she had gathered the courage to confess, even when she would die and he wouldn't be there to save her.

"Problem is - he's giving me signals, I just can't read them." She gestured his way in a desperate manner, making you cock an eyebrow at her mockingly. Yeah, sure, the stone-cold Levi Ackerman was giving her signals. The only signals coming from him you'd ever recognise would be his usage of flare guns during a mission outside the walls. Or the straight-up statement of 'come to my room, I want to have sex with you', which, in actual fact, was nowhere near an actual signal.

"What signals? With flares? Those would surely be easier to understand." You joked with a smirk, making your squadmate chuckle as she dug into her soup once more, feeling a tad bit more comfortable talking to you about her love problems. Maybe, just maybe you actually managed to find yourself a friend in the squad you once hated ever so much.

Two and a half years later things (ever so unexpectedly for you) had changed drastically. The people you'd have never thought you'd come to believe in, now you trusted with your life. They also returned the favour of not doubting you. In the beginning, you might've thought that was a mistake on their side because it made them naive and too kind for their own good, but then you came to understand they were just good people who, despite their own hardships, had learned to trust others because there was no way for them to survive on their own and they'd come to realise it - maybe the hard way.

"True." Petra was smiling as she dropped her spoon in the empty bowl of soup, but then the look on her face contorted into a slight inner conflict and a bunch of confusion, like she was trying to untangle the big ball of yarn her love interest had tossed her way. Of course, things always got confusing when it came down to the Corporal's behaviour, furthermore when you were attempting to read into a bunch of alleged signals unrelated to flare guns. "I mean he's always looking this way. Be it during lunch, missions, cleaning duty or sparring. When we walk the hallways, too. He's just always looking."

"I hadn't noticed." Your voice was laced with innocent oblivion that could be regarded as straight-up stupidity and your eyebrows were raised in slight wonder. It was indeed something you'd missed - this staring of his, but you wouldn't have if that wasn't the initial idea in the first place. There was a small part of Petra's explanation that kept you on your toes during the rest of the conversation as your mind worked on the problem at hand. "Maybe he's keeping an eye on us in case we do some shit, we are his squad." The strawberry-blonde accepted it as a reasonable explanation and proceeded clearing the table of her used utensils. Before she left for the kitchen, a small 'thank you' alongside a genuine smile floated through the warm air in your direction.

That very same evening you made your way to your superior's office with a pair of crossed arms and a glare full of reprimand - your mind had arrived at a marvellous conclusion earlier this afternoon and you were quite eager to share it with your Corporal. You knocked on his door three times and made your way inside without even announcing your name, only to find the sole inhabitant of the candle-lit room glaring at you from behind his desk.

"You're being obvious." You stated coldly before he could open his mouth to scold you for your bold behaviour and question 'what if somebody else had been here with me?', to which you'd counter him with your all-time winner 'as long as that somebody isn't me it doesn't really matter, does it now?'. That conversation would not go down as usual. Actually, you'd even mark it deceased for the time being since you had way more urgent matters to discuss.

"Your implication being?" There was the usual cocked eyebrow but this time his gaze, contrary to most others, was devoid of any kind of mockery. There was just doubt and a smidge of annoyance, which annoyed you more than anything because he was feigning ignorance when you were sure he very well knew what your implication was. Moreover, he could read your expression with skill that almost equalled perfection since day one and now of all times there were he seemed to be pretending (very badly at that) that he'd lost said skill. Obviously alongside his vision as well, because your face showed brilliantly how you weren't in the mood for his crappy acting, not to mention his crap altogether.

"My statement being that Petra's noticed you stare at me, sir." The second emphasis fell on his title mockingly, making him understand you were set on degrading his authority and most likely making fun of the fact he was the one to establish a certain set of rules you two strictly had to follow and now he was the one going around breaking them. "She just hasn't figured out that it's me, not me and her." You put your hands on your hips and looked at him challengingly, as if telling him 'please go ahead and try to deny everything'. Unfortunately, mostly because you really weren't in the mood for his shit, he did just that.

"I'm just supervising my squad, cadet." He copied your former stance by leaning forward in his chair and crossing his arms, but you were left unfazed by his cold words. There was no way in hell he'd been supervising his squad if Petra's explanation dared include the word 'we' when the rest of your squad was absent at the table, leaving you and her exclusively. That meant your Corporal had looked at the two of you which eliminated the possibility of him babysitting the whole squad and having to look after all its members.

"Don't play dumb with me, Corporal." An unattractive kind of smirk appeared on your lips, but the male in front of you kept looking as indifferent as any other day. "It's not good for your worry wrinkles." You innocently tapped your cheek as he blinked at you, both of you being fully aware of the fact you'd just said exactly what he wished he'd never hear.

There was this little tradition of yours where you made fun of him for being old and he, in turn, blew you off with the nonchalance of royalty amongst peasants whilst becoming increasingly self-conscious about his looks which, as you would later assure him repeatedly, were as perfect as the first time you'd seen him. But for you to use this in the middle of an argument as a legitimate attack meant something entirely different - and maybe it hurt a small bit of his pride for real.

"I don't have those." Though his mouth formed defensive words, his eyebrows distinctly displayed the aforementioned wrinkles by knitting together fretfully in the face of your insult. "And this isn't a dumb act, I do keep an eye on you in case you decide to fuck up. Petra's just noticed it." His attempt at simulating composure and boredom was a rather useless exercise of his acting skills when you already knew everything about this story there was.

"And I haven't? It means I was never meant to in the first place." You stepped forward and leaned your forearms against the back of the chair in front of the raven-haired male's desk. Your (e/c) eyes glared into his as your brows furrowed darkly, distinctly displaying your own worry wrinkles. "When did you plan on telling me about this? And what would've happened if somebody like the Commander had noticed it a bit faster than Petra did?" Your questions came fast and harsh - slapping the pale superior's ego as well as his face. "You are putting us at risk." That little statement seemed to make him finally snap.

"And you aren't?" He stood up abruptly, chair screeching against the wooden floorboards as his hands slammed on the desk, making the stacks of paperwork on top of its surface wobble weakly while you attempted to fight the glare in his eyes. It was very obvious you'd pissed him off beyond repair. "Need I remind you of the way you almost called me by my name mere days ago, (L/N)? Or how you forgot to lock the door on your way in last week and shitty-glasses was seconds away from catching us making out on the desk?" He leaned forward threateningly, voice dropping in both volume and pitch, and you had to admit - you were intimidated enough to back off.

You stood back up, hands crossed in front of your chest as if it would protect you from him. You were still glaring but your face formed neither a scoff, nor a sneer. Your jaw clicked and your eyes were glazed with indecisiveness, but you still spoke, not wishing to seem weak and fragile in front of a man so stoic and strong.

"Then maybe we should break this off, sir. It was never safe to begin with." Your voice didn't waver, but you caught your eyebrow twitching in doubt. It was strange to hear yourself say that after approximately a year of considering yourselves a so supposed couple. It was odd hearing yourself call his title even though you were suggesting you stop visiting his office with a cup of tea as he did his paperwork, stop brushing his hair before his meetings in the morning, stop letting him caress your face as you prepared yourselves for the next expedition, stop staring at him as if he was the only thing that kept you alive, stop your heart from skipping a beat every time he'd take your hand. It was odd and strange, and it took you a lot not to react drastically to your own words.

"But it was my idea." You were scared of admitting you felt too much so you hastened to make it seem like you felt nothing at all, and when he spoke your eyes glanced at his form nervously. He looked like he'd just come back from a bad expedition and was sitting in his chair for the first time in days. "And I stand by my ideas." He added, eyes flickering upwards to meet yours. To your biggest surprise he wasn't glaring - and that, in addition to his words made your heart skip a beat, which resulted in your lips pursing in slight deprecation. Then his face hardened and he was back to being the stoic superior who punished you for every speck of dust you didn't manage to clean. "You'll be running a lot of laps if you try to break up with me again, cadet." It was a final warning and his voice hinted it would also be the very end of this topic.

"It was just a suggestion, sir." You justified stiffly, eyes meeting the floor bashfully as your hands fell to your sides in defeat. Your mind was filled with slight embarrassment, but there was also a great amount of alleviation you'd never allow yourself to express vocally. The fact you'd lost this argument was more than enough - the fact Levi had made the effort to win just this once was more than enough.

"Good." There was a hum at the back of his throat before he reclined in his chair and grabbed a pencil off the surface of his desk. "Now lock the door and come massage my shoulders." Was his next command as your shoulders sagged in relief and you made your way to the door as to obey his orders. With your back to him, you bit back a very obvious smile and spun the key in its hole until it clicked and you were forced to turn back around. When you did, the Lance Corporal wasn't looking at you anymore. His elbow was propped on the desk and his cheek was leaning on his fist as his other hand wrote something down on the papers before him.

"Only massage and nothing else?" The corner of your mouth formed a smirk and you heard the male huff before his lips parted so he could speak. As always, his phrase was nowhere near being romantic or loving, but it just went to show you he actually cared to some extent he wouldn't admit anytime soon.

Maybe the fact he wouldn't say it for three additional years made the moment all the more special that time he lay in the infirmary, having woken up from an unsteady slumber you feared would last forever. Maybe he was just high on painkillers and the smell of chemicals, or maybe it was the sight of you crying in relief by his bedside (where you'd spent the past half a week) that actually made him finally tell you he loved you. Of course, now you had no idea that would happen, and then you cared very little that it had. In comparison to him having woken up, a small 'I love you' meant close to nothing - or so you kept telling yourself for the entirety of a month after it occurred.

"We'll get to that later if you behave." He didn't look at you but you felt his shoulders sag in relief once your hands started massaging them. A smile crawled across your lips and unbeknownst to you, Levi was paying very little attention to the paperwork he was supposed to be doing - his mind was occupied by a bunch of erratic thoughts he had to sort and a small number of overwhelming emotions in need of some suppressing.

[852]

[the end]

"You ready for tomorrow?" As always, you had walked in without waiting for Levi to even register you'd knocked before that, but the difference this time was that you shared the room and you needed to check up on your raven-haired boyfriend urgently. You'd spent the last few hours thoroughly discussing plans with Hanji and helping Connie and Jean prepare the weapons for tomorrow's mission, so now you felt like the only thing you could do was sit still and fall asleep against a random wall.

"Think so." Levi's voice was nowhere near being as soft as yours, but it was too tired to produce its usual sharpness as well. You might've looked like you were capable of falling asleep against a wall, but Levi looked like he planned on dying before he even blinked. It was very unfortunate that you both resembled living corpses ever so closely since this whole carnival had begun, but there was nothing you could do about it - except, of course, end this thing before you died for real.

"Go to sleep. I'll keep watch." You took a seat next to the small fireplace in the room as the raven-haired male shook his head and stood up from the bed to further prove he needed no sleep whatsoever to function. As of lately, you'd started mocking this obstinate behaviour of his, but he never seemed to give it up - no matter how harsh or kind you appeared, and then you realised it wasn't up to you anymore.

"No need." He snatched the rifle lying next to him and started loading it, perhaps not yet aware of the fact it was your rifle and he didn't even have one of his own to maintain. You were speed and precision and he was strength and agility, but his mind's agility had come to sleep more than he did. Unfortunately, your squadmates had started noticing that, too. When the rifle in his hold was loaded, he started cleaning it with the handkerchief from his pocket and you could almost see the muscles on his legs twitch as he stopped himself from pacing.

"You haven't slept in three days. Hanji's worried." You argued as your hands pushed you off the cold floorboards and Levi glared into the perfectly polished rifle he was trying to clean. In actual fact, you hadn't counted with precision the restless nights he kept spending next to the smouldering fireplace as you lay in bed, trying to ignore it, but you did know for a fact they were more than three. As sharp as she was, Hanji hadn't noticed Levi's sleep deprivation up until two days ago, mostly because she had an awful lot to deal with at the moment.

"I'm also worried about her not bathing in the past week but it's a thing we'll both have to deal with. We're not in the HQ anymore, we can't do anything about anything." The raven kept furiously scrubbing at the spotless surface of the rifle, blinded by his annoyance and tiredness, stopping only when your hand grasped his wrist and let him see the reflection of the spiteful furrow of his eyebrows in the metal. He didn't face you, but you saw his expression relax the littlest of bits when you spoke.

"We can do a lot about this. We can win." There was this little thing in your voice (maybe insecurity) that told him you didn't feel as determined as you tried to make your words sound. Sure, you could do something about it, but it wasn't much and if you failed you faced certain death. The stakes were a bit too high and your performance was vital to the whole mission - you both knew that almost as well as you knew that no mistakes were allowed tomorrow. Another thing Hanji had made very clear during your personal meeting some time ago was that Levi's life was to be preserved to your best ability; generally, every person on the team was important because they were all to play an important part in the fight, but if anything happened to Levi prior to a victory of any kind then a lot more would be lost.

You swore not to tell him about it and tried not to think about the very small possibility of such a scenario eventuating, but the closer time pushed you to tomorrow, the more intrusive the thoughts became. They made you desperate and your small smile twitch in times you attempted to show it.

"We're facing an army." He countered stubbornly, frowning at the rifle his fingers kept clenching and not making an attempt to shake your hold off his wrist even though he could easily do it. There was something heavy on your shoulders and something way heavier in your chest, but you ignored it for the time being and kept fighting Levi's logic with what was left of your optimism. Sadly, it wasn't much.

"We're an army." You pressed with determination, showing yourself almost as stubborn as he was. You took the rifle from his hold and pulled him along in the direction of the bed that barely kept itself upright in the corner. His eyes met yours when you took a seat, beckoning him over as well. "Hey, give me some sweet talk, I don't want our possibly last conversation to be war-themed. This shit has taken up too much of our lives already, I don't want it occupying my last hours on this Earth too."

"Possibly last." There was reprimand in his voice and a cocked eyebrow on his forehead that made you bite the inside of your cheek. He resisted the urge to sit next to you and instead stood, relishing in the warmth of your hands holding his. Under normal circumstances, you'd laugh, but it was as he'd said awhile ago - you weren't in the HQ anymore and you felt like you couldn't allow yourself even something as small as laughter. In spite of that, you didn't grow pensive either, attempting to sustain a healthy amount of mockery in your eyes instead.

"Yeah, you're rusty." Your voice was pointed and your fingers lightly squeezed his palms as you looked up at him in the dim lighting, remembering your first punishment under his command and how his eyes had been ever so sharp yet beautiful. How funny had it been for him that your last punishment was an exact replica of the first? Despite the constancy of your character, quite a few things had changed in the span of time between those two punishments - none of which you came to regret.

"It's been weeks since the last time I made time to have sex with you and now you're asking for words?" He was glaring down at you half-heartedly, not annoyed just yet - only bugged by how time never ceased to flow and worried about the final outcome of his sleep deprivation and nerves colliding in tomorrow's fight. He was too tense to sleep yet too tired to do anything overly productive - if the clash of those two proved too overwhelming the following day and as a result weakened his performance he would have a hard time forgiving himself.

"That's just real bad, Levi." You laughed and suddenly he wasn't listening to his thoughts anymore. You let go of his hand so you could cover your mouth and muffle your cackle to some extent but it was in vain - you were so very amused at how unromantic he could be in situations that desperately required it, to the point tears brimmed your eyes.

"Efficient nevertheless." He spoke boredly, expression not changing as you wiped at the small clear drops before they had the chance to fall. He could feel his heartbeat, he could sense how strained his muscles were and he could hear exhaustion whisper in his ear annoyingly, but it all turned to white noise when you spoke. No matter how much he denied it, he needed this talk - this supposedly disgusting emotional conversation that proved to him all the more how much you seemed to care even after all these years.

"No." You grasped his hand again and snorted in his direction with what could be called the highest forms of hauteur. "I'm taking over. Warning for sappiness." Your hold turned into a weak vice grip and though he knew he wasn't going to pull back he made some effort to add atmosphere to the situation - act as himself in the face of something he couldn't fight, if you will.

"Spare me." There was a groan in the form of 'let me die first' at the back of his throat right before his bored voice left his lips. You chuckled and tugged on his fingers lightly, a scoff sitting on your face - you knew he wasn't serious just as much as you knew it would take you less than twenty seconds to annihilate all and every effort you'd put into easing him into some kind of calm state.

"Begging won't help, no matter how pained your voice sounds." You mocked pointedly before your shoulders sagged considerably and you looked down at your lap as if it would gift you the courage to keep talking as confidently. "I have a bad feeling and I don't want to say I'm always right when it comes down to it, but I am always right when it comes down to it. And I'm going to assume I'm the one who's going to die so this might as well be a farewell dialogue." You looked back up at him, but he was glaring and his mouth had twisted downwards like he'd bitten into something extremely sour. The worry wrinkles you loved so much were distinctly displayed on his forehead.

"You're not dying. I'll keep you safe." A normal person wouldn't consider themselves sane if they heard those words whilst observing that expression, but you weren't a normal person and you were already used to tying that face of his with him being angry at you for saying something ridiculously stupid. A smile made its way onto your lips but there wasn't nearly as much happiness in it as there was sympathy.

"As sweet and non-rusty as that sounds I doubt you can do that and take care of Zeke altogether." The thought of Levi going out of his way to keep you safe wasn't exactly what you wanted at the moment, no matter how sweet he'd let himself sound. You'd appreciate the firm resolve in his voice and the soft silver in his hues after the battle was done and you got to walk back here together. You'd think of how rare these moments were after you got to lay with your arms wrapped around him the following night. Just not now.

"I can. Humanity's Strongest and all that crap." Suddenly, his fingers gave yours a determined squeeze and you were smiling again - this time with a little bit of pity thrown into the mix. Even during your days as a cadet, you got to face his skill of brilliantly reading your expression and knowing what each line on your face meant. Back then you found it both annoying and weird - annoying because he knew what you felt without having you voice it out and weird because why could he even do that at all? Now you thought of it a bit differently. Now it was a useful skill of his during moments like these when words just didn't seem to be enough for you.

"You're a human now, Levi. You're sleep-deprived and hungry and worried all the time. We're both just people. None of us bear titles anymore." The only tension in the room was the one in his shoulders before they sagged and he snorted at you pointedly, not saying anything in return mostly because he knew you were right as could be. During the following silence, the ebony-haired male kneeled in front of you and wrapped his arms around your torso, laying his head on your lap right after.

There was an unsteady sense of tranquillity filled with numerous unspoken promises and speculations - things like 'I'll come back', 'be safe', 'what if something happens' and 'I don't want to lose you' weren't your style and they certainly weren't Levi's either; there were your fingers brushing through the raven's hair as he let out tired wishful sighs into the fabric of your uniform; there were his pale hands clinging to your waist like he couldn't allow himself to let you go; there was the soothing pattern of a heartbeat - two of those actually, and two pairs of closed eyes.

"How many brats do you want after we're done with this?" Levi questioned amidst the silence and though the question might've been abrupt you knew exactly what to say. The scenery was in front of you as your lips parted - a white house in the outskirts of a lively town, a lonely tree to the side, maybe a river on the other. There are a few other houses close by. The grass is green and there's a grumpy voice calling orders like a habit that stayed forever.

"Three." You could see yourself sitting on the porch of that same house, rocking a baby in your arms as two toddlers rolled around playing in the grass a few feet ahead. The sun is shining down on their messy hair and the wind is making their voices echo like the chime of a bell. The grumpy voice gets louder before its owner appears at the doorstep, worry wrinkles between a set of two thin eyebrows, and you shush him with a half-hearted glare because the baby is sleeping.

"That's too much." Levi argued lightly, hands wrapped around you protectively as you played with his hair. You imagined the worry wrinkles dispersing as he walks towards you, crouching and admiring the baby in your arms. Their hair is the same colour but the baby's currently closed eyes shine like yours do. Levi looks up at you and asks if you're still on for your walk in town and you inform him you've already called a babysitter. There's a kiss placed on your cheek.

"Two then." You corrected stiffly, not making an effort to open your eyes. Levi let out another sigh into your uniform before squeezing your waist and burrowing his nose deeper into your scent. You see his grey eyes shine brightly at you - two pools of silver you love too much to ever put into words. You admire the halo the sun creates around his ebony hair and then you smile - freedom is a nice feeling, but it's times better when he's there too.

"I was joking. Three doesn't sound bad. You already said you wanted a big house." Levi's voice was soft and husky. He was tired, but there was this feeling of not wanting to sleep just yet that kept him awake. He could easily drift off like this, but he wanted to stay awake some more - he wanted to listen to your voice and relish in the feeling of your fingers in his hair a bit longer. Just a few more minutes and he would probably go back to polishing weapons and nervously cleaning everything around him.

"That's because you need at least two closets for all your cleaning supplies." Your voice was soft and though the sentence it spoke was a joking phrase everything the ebony-haired male could hear in it was a kind of feeling that always made his throat tight with unspoken words he couldn't allow himself to say. He could see the house, too - two floors and a lot of bedrooms; two offices and two closets for his cleaning supplies; a big kitchen facing east so he could watch the sun reflect in your (e/c) eyes as you drank coffee in the mornings and a spacious porch facing west so you could sit there and watch the sunset in the evening.

"And because we'll need space for your office. I'll sign you up for type-writing classes." He said seriously, readjusting his position in your lap and keeping his eyes closed all the while. There was a time in his life when he thought he'd never get to experience this kind of attachment to another human being - it was painful and amazing at the same time. Maybe the best part was that he knew he belonged somewhere - not in all those dreams about a house and kids, not in this small room or on the battlefield, but next to you, wherever you went and whatever was to come.

"After we open the shop." Your fingers beckoned for him to look up, so he did. You stared down at him and took a small moment to scold yourself for falling in love before giving in and smiling. He seemed to notice you'd overcome some kind of inner conflict but there was no commentary on the topic whatsoever. There was him, looking into your eyes boredly, trying not to think too hard past the things you were discussing.

"Right. Where do we take the stock from, though?" His hands let go of your waist and you sat further back on the bed, giving him some room to climb on as well. He waited for an official invitation, mostly because he wanted to see what you'd do. You knew him a bit too well, so you waited exactly three seconds before reaching out and grasping his collar. He was pulled on the bed and you were shrugging nonchalantly at his question.

"I guess we steal it. Or we think it through after this." The little upturn of your lips was a thing Levi could probably stare at for hours. His eyes couldn't move away from yours and he gave a slight nod prior to grabbing your hand and detaching it from the collar of his uniform.

"Sounds good to me." There was a hum at the back of his throat as you brushed a strand of hair out of his face and tucked it behind his ear gingerly which reminded him of your promise to cut his hair after tomorrow's battle was over. He decided not to bring it up, but made a note to himself not to forget it either. He didn't believe your sixth sense - not when you were so close to victory and freedom, so close to all those images of a white house and three kids, so he wasn't going to rely on your bad feeling and put himself down additionally.

"Same here." You were smiling and a small comparison suddenly popped into his head - your smile hadn't changed one bit since the first time he got to see it. If he tried he could see the teenager who detested soldiers so much she earned herself a punishment in less than two minutes; the teenager who hated him for a solid two years; the teenager who deliberately chose to defy him when she knew it was a lost cause; the teenager who, despite saying she'd never be part of a team, helped her squadmates numerous times; the teenager with the most beautiful laugh; the teenager who, at one point, stopped screwing up his tea and started smiling more in his presence; the teenager who hated cleaning almost as much as she hated waiting for him to say 'come in' after knocking. "I love you, Levi." Now in front of him stood a tired but beautiful woman whose resemblance with the teenager seemed to disappear bit by bit each day, telling him something the teenager never did.

"I won't help you make this any more into a farewell than it already is, (Y/N)." Levi scoffed and a glare pierced your eyes but you were quick to soften it by putting a hand to his cheek affectionately. You were smiling and he knew there was very little he wouldn't do to protect that smile.

"Fine. You'll tell me afterwards then." It was already a promise, Levi decided, so he wouldn't argue with it. He leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to your lips, sealing the deal officially and making you grin at him.

"I will." There was a hum at the back of his throat as you pulled him into another kiss. This time you could feel a smile he hadn't let out in months pressed against your lips.

Unfortunately, there was no afterwards for you two. There was you, fighting exhaustion by feeding off of worn out adrenaline and survival instincts, and Levi managing not to miss the Jaw Titan attacking you from the back. There was a scream and blood all over your clothes, and your conscience blacked out so hard you could barely remember the massacre you caused afterwards. Later, when you managed to drag the casualties back to your hideout there was you hearing a small raspy 'I love you' as Levi's eyes closed and his chest went from heaving up and down erratically to not moving at all. You stood by his bed, overwhelmed by denial for the next twenty hours, waiting for his eyes to open again. Only they didn't.

[2019]

[the beginning]

"Watch where you walk, idiot." The male, who you were yet to look at, spat at you as you recollected yourself and went from glaring at the ground where your notebooks would've been sprawled had your grip been a tad bit weaker to glaring holes into the eyes of the person who dared insult you ever so quickly. You may have bumped into him but not giving you any room to apologise first surely didn't work in his favour either.

"I'm sorry, maybe I could run a few laps outside as an apology." You stated mockingly, huffing right before meeting the male's glare. Your heart started sounding like it was in the middle of a marathon and about to give out and your mind did a double-take on what it was seeing like, four times. It took you less than a second to recognise him, or, at least, who you thought was him, but there was no mistaking it - you'd dreamed of him a bit too much not to recognise him now. You just feared you were becoming delusional and he wasn't real at all, and you were currently still sleeping in your bed, late for your first day of college, or you'd blacked out on the bus because of a caffeine overdose, or even worse - you'd lived through all of this but you'd bumped into thin air instead.

"Take off your jacket beforehand." He warned half-heartedly, rolling his eyes at you boredly. He had to be real - your mind couldn't really project his words and behaviour that well, moreover when it only saw him in some old-timed version of a stupid apocalyptic reality. You tried to compose yourself to your best ability, but then you thought of the few times you'd dreamed of him dying - you remembered sitting upright in your bed in the middle of the night, sweaty and crying, sometimes even calling his name.

"Will do, thanks for the concern." Your eyes narrowed at him mockingly as you smirked, thoughts contrasting actions as always when it came down to you thinking of him. The ebony-haired male's glare hardened considerably at your words but there was something in his grey hues that prevented you from feeling too intimidated. Then you noticed you were only one inch taller than him. Now that was unfair.

"It wasn't concern." He argued stubbornly, making you whisk your free hand through the air dismissively. You tried to keep your eyes off the little creases that would soon begin to form his worry wrinkles - the ones you'd heard yourself make fun of so many times. Your feet were rooted to the ground and you had a comeback at the tip of your tongue, but the thought sitting closest to the surface of your mind voiced your curiosity on the matter of him choosing between continuing to waste his time bantering with a complete stranger or resuming what he was doing prior to the minor inconvenience that you seemed to be. You strongly wished for the former though you would never admit it openly.

"Sure sounded like it." The comeback came strong and confident, like it had during all those arguments you'd dreamed about. You wondered if he'd dreamed of them too. If he had maybe he'd recognised you as well. However, he would've shown it in some way by now. Right?

"Maybe because you only like to hear whatever you want." He crossed his arms, but you were too busy pursing your lips at the cocked eyebrow on his forehead to admire the gesture properly. You considered the male standing in front of you the most handsome person to walk this Earth and under different circumstances, say he hadn't played a big part in almost every dream you've ever had, you'd even probably dare try to ask him out.

"Maybe. So what's your name? Or should I try hearing it as you cuss at me?" The sass coming out of your mouth had cleverly hidden the true motive you had, which was learning his name. If it was the same as the guy in your dreams then you were either some kind of psychic or this whole situation was a big 'oops' in the form of a very twisted deja vu. Or maybe the dreams were memories from your past life - who knew? You were personally betting on the guy having a different name and you two never bumping into each other again. Sounded not only legit but good as well.

"Levi Ackerman." There was him being sceptical for the overall of a whole second before he came to crush all and every little hope you held of him having another fucking goddamn name. Then you panicked and, in spite of how loud you were screaming on the inside, there was this small flicker of determination in your eyes that proved very hard to put out.

"I'm (Y/N) (L/N). Free this Friday." There was no handshake and if you had to be completely honest you felt weird - it was like looking into his eyes made focusing on your breathing and sustaining your composure a bit harder than supposed to. They were a narrow wall of grey, surrounded by long curved lashes and supported by a pair of lilac crescents. Then there was a flicker of not only mockery but acknowledgement as well and you were officially classified as both blessed by the Gods above and cursed with some kind of delirium by mother nature herself.

"Good to know." There was the slightest of curls at the corner of his mouth before he left you there, completely and utterly dumbfounded, and about to be late to class. You snapped out of it in a few seconds before looking down at your hand, where Levi had placed the small slip of paper with his number on it seconds prior, and your head started spinning. You had to be delirious because you could've sworn you saw his eyes flicker like he already knew what you'd say. Now Friday seemed too long a wait and the conversation you would surely lead - all too curious a topic to ponder. But, you guessed, this was just the beginning.

#levi x reader #levi ackerman fanfiction #levi ackerman x reader #reader insert #reincarnation au #snk imagine #snk fanfiction #because i'm cool with reincarnation #and it makes things sappy #but is cool #levi is an asshole but also #husband material

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papercupids · 3 years

Text

past the happily ever after - wong kunhang

pairing - wong kunhang x reader

genre - post breakup!au; angst; music producer! hendery;

summary - bumping into your ex reopens some unhealed wounds.

word count - 2k

warnings - none that i could point out

as you waited for the employee to wash his hands and get back to you to take your order, you glance around the shop a little more, quaint little wooden tables are lined up messily and on top of them, matching brown stands which are home to almost 5 spoons, forks and knives respectively per table. The sunlight coming in abundance right in to illuminate every nook and cranny of the corner cafe.

It’s not too crowded here, maybe because 3:00 pm is not exactly the definition of a rush hour.

the bells of the coffee shop rang and scanning the whole room, just to feed your curiosity more, you turned back. And when you do, you really wish you hadn’t, because just in the span of a mere second, your heart is ripped out of the place its caged in between your lungs because all of the time you’ve spent thinking about this moment did not prepare you for when it’s really happening. You turn back quickly, after freezing in your place when you first see him, and you’re scared that anyone who looks at you right now, including him, can see right through you and feel the trembling in your knees. But more than fear and awkwardness it was a simple debate of feelings of love and hate both that made you freeze right now.

Countless accusations, numerous insults, you had so many questions for him, so many secrets to spill, it had come to an extent where you would imagine him sitting next to you jst to calm your overwhelmedness.

But you had later come to a conclusion. If your love meant nothing to him, neither will your hate.

And hendery was just as shook as he spotted you and your face registered itself into his brain.

the smell of pancakes, the small noise of it crackling on the pan, the sun pouring in just like in the cafe, but a little dimmer, the morning version of it. from the small windows of your apartment, soft music playing at a low volume and you’re humming along to it.

“y/n,” he calls out and that’s your cue to know he’s already up and you flip the pancake and walk over to him still lying in bed, adoring the rising sun from his position on the bed.

“Why did you wake up so early?” He mumbles groggily. “It’s your holiday today, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” you make your way back to the kitchen, “i just had a craving,” the pancake is perfectly golden when you take it out and place the batter for the next one.

A few moments later you hear the shuffling of feet before a pair of arms wrap around your waist and a face nuzzles itself in your neck.

“goodmorning, dery.”

“Mmh,” he inhales your scent as if it was the very oxygen he breathes, and when he does exhale it tingles on your neck.

Turning off the stove, you turn to him and catch his lips in a slow and chaste ‘good morning, honey’ and ‘i want this forever’ kiss.

“Hey, y/n,” hendery currently has his hands in his pockets and you can hear the awkwardness in his voice, someone who was ever so frank and comfortable with you. You can swear this guy grows more beautiful each time you see him. The last was almost a fat six months later after you broke up with him, on an instagram story of a mutual friend of you both. You muted his story after that and it took you two weeks to stop listening to taylor swift after that. And now, it’s two years later but you still love this man as much as you did the first time you ever said it to him.

“hendery, hey, didn’t expect to run into you,” you pray that he can’t feel the beating of your heart which in your opinion is vibrating enough for your body to shake visibly.

“Yeah, me neither, how are you though? Long time no see,”

“Yeeah, i’m fine, just a little over the place.”

“Oh, well.”

The employee behind you both could literally feel the tension between you both from where he was standing. Either way, he needed to get over both of your orders before any one of you messed it up and made the other leave. It could strongly affect the revenue of this small cafe.

“Miss, what would you like to order?” He calls out to you, causing you to turn.

“Oh, yeah. A caramel macchiato, please.”

“And, you, sir?”

“I’ll have an Americano, thanks.”

“So it’s a combined order?”

And the next few seconds is just you and hendery awkwardly communicating through your eyes asking if the other’s okay with having coffee together and strangely enough even against your best interests, you both are.

“Okay, i’ll have it on your table in a few,” and the man disappears behind the curtain, quite proud of himself. If this one couple made it together, if they were broken up right now, their kids would hear of this cafe. He giggled and went on with his work.

As for you, it was not at all like the time you had once imagined in the shower how meeting hendery would be like. There were no slaps, no “fuck you’s” and absolutely no drama unlike how you imagined it in the shower.

You sat opposite on one of the round tables, besides the glass panel.

“So how have you been?”

“Oh, good. Just finished an album I was working on, a week ago. And damn, I'm tired.”

“Oh,”

the music blasted through your ear and you hit the lower volume button as you rolled your eyes at hendery, if he continued to keep the volume this much, he’d end up losing his hearing, for sure. You try to tell him that, which comes across more as a shout than a normal tone to him because of your inability to listen to your own voice above the song. He nods carelessly, he’s just concentrated on your expressions as you listen to the track.

but it's just the way it was, life wasn’t always a happy ending, it was rough without any mercy. and you weren’t a fictional character, neither was this a fairytale.

You’re in his lab today, chocolate wrappers, guitar, papers here and there, the nightlife hours starting outside. And you are both sitting opposite each other, you’re sitting on hendery’s usual seat, a comfortable huge chair you loved to dominate whenever you’d drop by here and he’s sitting on a random stool that was lying outside, not complaining a bit.

“So, um,” you remove the headphones a few minutes later. And hendery listens in rapt attention, something you wished he did when you asked him to choose which dress he liked better on you,

“I hate to tell you this, hendery,” his expressions tighten as he tenses his jaw, “but, babe, you’ve nailed it this time around too!!!” You scream and envelope him in a hug.

And poor hendery is still shocked, but he hugs back as it soaks in his mind.

“This song is gonna be the shit people hear on loops, hendery, loops! This is a bop,” he pulls away.

“You really think so?” You nod your head.

He hugs you again, more tightly, “i love you,”

“So,” he drums his finger on the table after a long few minutes of awkward silence. The order still hasn't come. And you both have been looking at the other tables, there weren’t many people here.

“How’s life been for you, aside from your profession?” he asks.

“I don’t think I quite gave it much time, don’t regret it though, what about you?” your profession, for you, had been something of a coping mechanism in the past few years, it had been something you had given your everything to, and strangely enough it hadn’t packed up its bags one day and said, ‘we aren’t working anymore,’ and left.

“Oh yeah, no, i did try to make it work with someone, it’s going good for now.”

The last nail in your coffin. It takes up your entire energy to not flip the table over him and run away from not only the city, but the country and never leave a chance to ever bump into him again, because you see you did try to forget him.

But it never happened. It was just automatically that your hand reached over to the other pillow in your bed to ruffle hendery’s hair to wake him up to only be met with the cold side of the bed, and to take out two cups of ramen, only to quickly keep it back inside and to pretend it never happened.

“That’s nice,”

And thankfully, the cafe guy is coming over with your drinks.

And you sip on your macchiato as it gets awkward again. You can’t bear to look him in the eyes, no. It just cracks your very soul and you suddenly get annoyed with the fact that if he wanted he would have kept the girlfriend thing to himself, but he had to put it all in your face.

But your thoughts wander furthermore after this, does she get to listen to his songs firsthand? Does she get to eat the food he makes? gets to ruffle his hair first thing in the morning? gets to wrap her arms around him and feel his heartbeat?

hendery slammed his hands on the steering wheel. He had fucked up. Big time. Plus the traffic wasn’t budging. He rested his head in his hands. The cars honked occasionally and the city lights hurt his eyes, an upbeat song was playing over the radio in a low volume and the car was warmer than the outside.

This was the third time in a row he’s done this. And he could feel the guilt build up in him, he wasn’t worried about your reaction to this.

You’d kiss him, tell him to not worry about it and go to sleep as it was probably late and he would be tired.

He was scared that this was gonna keep happening and he’s gonna wake up without you instead of you sobbing softly out in the living room. He was afraid he had messed you up too much. And what for?

The traffic clears as he presses the accelerator and lets go as fast as he can.

And back home you’re not disappointed, you’re just tired. You weren’t upset that hendery hadn’t showed up, but he hadn’t even texted you, surely it would take just a second.

But it was okay, he had work. It was important. You sighed as you slipped into your pyjamas and moved to the sofa to watch something.

And you hear the key turning then, signalling hendery was home, you stand up to greet him and as soon as he’s visible, a sympathetic look is plastered on his face.

“I’m sorry….” you hug him before he can complete and he hugs back with equal force.

“‘S alright, hendery, it’s fine.” And you rub his back.

And suddenly you hear a sobbing sound from him. A long and choked up noise and you pull away to get a good look on his face.

“dery?” You cup his face, “what’s wrong, honey?”

“Oh, babe, i’m not going anywhere.” You crawl close to him and wrap your arms around him. “I’m gonna be right here hendery, and things like these happen all the time, but that doesn’t change the fact that i love you, okay? I’m gonna stay. I’m gonna be with you as long as you want me to.”

“I messed up, I mess up all the time, why are you even here?” He’s sitting down now, crying in his hands.

He nods as his sniffles fade away slowly and you’re both just sitting on the floor, holding each other, knowing no one’s gonna go away.

“And, um, y/n, i have to tell you something.” He finally speaks up. His body language tells you it’s been what he’s wanting to tell you since you met at the counter and you nod at him to continue.

“I wanted to apologise.”

You almost spit your drink.

“Why?” Even though you know the answer, you want him to confess his sins. Confess the fact that he threw a forever away in a matter of a moment, that he didn’t listen to what you had to say.

“I’m sorry for what I did, I truly and genuinely loved you and I made a huge mistake. Everyday I think about what could’ve been if I didn’t do what I did.”

loved.

But that made the two of you if he thought about it. It was okay now, now that you met him, now that he apologised to you, know that you’ll say “it’s okay,” to him, piece by piece it’ll start to get better. You believed it.

You’ll still love wong kunhang, but a little less maybe.

the silence in your home is biting. You can hear the low whirring of the air conditioner and the tick tocking of the clock. The text bell breaks the silence though, for a second, but it does.

“Coming home, give me 5 minutes.”

hendery wasn’t late. He just hadn’t came home for the entirety of last week. He has to work on this new album, he’d said to you when you called him this morning. Normally he had told you not to call him when he was working since it broke his link of working but it was out of hand now.

And he told you he’d come home today and talk.

You sighed as the lock clicked, and he closed the door behind him.

He throws a small smile at you, “y/n,” and he knows this is going to be hard when you don’t return it.

He sits beside you as you try your best to not let the tears fall, “what?”

“I’m sorry but this isn’t the way i want to see you, i want you to be happy-“

“Well, then damn, dery, keep me happy!”

“Will you let me complete?” You glare at him as you blink more to keep the tears at bay.

“Look, I realised that i want to see you happy, but i’m just simply, i can’t. So,” he takes your hand and grazes it with his own.

“So, i’m letting you go, y/n,”

“What the actual fuck ‘letting me go’?” Now there's no meaning in trying to keep the tears hidden, they come as fast as you stop trying to hide them.

“The thing is hendery, if you would’ve been sorry right now, i would have honestly had no problems in being here again and to end up in this same situation, i would go through it all again, but the fact that you just want back away is so disgusting,”

“Sorry would have meant that i would no longer do it again, y/n, and you know my work, I can’t keep promises,”

“So that’s it? We’re finishing this conversation and you’re taking out all the shirts from our wardrobe?”

His silence is a reply enough, and you can’t do anything but sit there as quietly as you shushing yourself and hoping this was someone else in min hendery's body and that tomorrow you’d wake up to him apologising and explaining how his body got swapped with someone else.

But it never did happen

“It’s okay, hendery. You did what was best for both of us,” you take a sip from your drink. “I couldn’t see it then, but I do see it now,”

“You do?” He raises his eyebrows,

“Yes,” you nod gently.

And his phone rings. “Excuse me, i gotta take this,”

And he’s barely a few steps away from the table when he receives the call and says, “yes, babe, i’m coming i just met an old friend.”

And you smile. It was okay. You’ll probably cry yourself to sleep tonight but tomorrow will be better, and you will be better again.

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favoniuscodex · 3 years

Text

heavy-handed. [childe, kaeya]

prompt: an incredibly loud & painful high-five w/ childe and kaeya pairings: kaeya x gn!reader, childe x gn!reader warnings: not much aside from the prompt content! alcohol is mentioned in kaeya’s section! word count: ~1.2k songs that inspired this: jokingly, this one. a/n: why am i not surprised both kaeya and childe were requested for this one? hehe. friendly disclaimer to be nice to ur partners and don’t sic a really aggressive high-five on them unless if ur sure you’ll both find it funny. :D

childe fumbles with the unwieldy bow in his hands. rust was never a weapon you recommended to those just learning how to shoot for the first time, but the eleventh harbinger had insisted on it. despite his muscular physique, childe only grew increasingly irritated at the amount of effort required to lock and pull an arrow back with such a resistant bow.

“shoulders back,” you gently instruct to the slouched man, who stiffens into more formal posture at your words. his cocky words had long since faded and annoyance had etched itself into his eyebrows. what some would call perseverance is what you would call arrogance. anyone else would have long since given up, but now, you were stuck after hours at the tsaritsa’s training facility due to childe’s insistence that he just needed one more shot to get it right.

childe was lucky you liked him so much.

“this one’s for you,” he jokes, although exhaustion has begun to creep into his voice. he said that the last ten times he shot an arrow at the target in front of the two of you. of those shots, only three had actually landed.

“line the arrow up with your eye,” you instruct as childe pulls the bow back. you lean over and gently shift his hands into a better position, all while stifling a laugh at the way he faces the target, staring at you out of the corner of his eye. you take a few steps back and let out a soft huff of air.

“alright. shoot,” you instruct and childe lets the bow fly from his fingers. with a sharp thwip, the two of you are stunned into silence at the sight. a brand new sight sits before you: in the dead center of the target, an arrow sticks out. childe’s arrow.

slowly, childe lowers his bow before turning around to face you, a smug grin creeping onto his face. you walk over to him and hold up a congratulatory open-palmed hand in the air, countering his arrogant expression with a truly joyful one of your own. finally, you think. we can go home.

childe lifts his hand as well, pulling back and slamming it forward into yours with all of his strength. the harbinger is clearly on an adrenaline rush from the relief of finally achieving progress with his least favorite weapon, but the loud slap of the two of your hands immediately sends his expression into a face of regret. the gesture sends a rippling shock through your arm and you quickly retract your hand back to you.

it pulses with a dull pain and apologies immediately fly out of childe’s mouth, which you interrupt with a dismissive laugh.

“was that one for me too?” you jest, waving your hurting hand in his direction. childe’s face flushes with embarrassment before a smirk crosses his expression.

“y’know, i could kiss it better,” he says with a wiggle of his eyebrows, but you roll your eyes in response, letting out another giggle.

“let’s go home first, bullseye.”

kaeya isn’t one for competition. sure, he likes to see others squirm as he gets the upper hand in situations, but the cavalry captain much prefers to watch others bicker amongst themselves rather than getting involved. of course, all of that changes when the other knights challenge not only him but you as well to a game of ‘balance the shot glass of water on your head and walk across the bar’.

it’s not like he wanted to utterly destroy you in a friendly competition, but he knew you would be (lovingly) insufferable if he declined participation in the game. he could already hear the teasing cries of how how he was a ‘chicken’ bursting from your lips.

therefore, kaeya agreed to the game and channeled all of the effort he could into balancing the shotglass on his head. besides, even if he did lose, it’s not like there was liquor going to waste that he would have to pay for. originally there was, but after huffman spilled a shot of vodka all over himself, the competition was quickly altered.

“alright, kaeya,” you smile at him, mirth shining in your eyes as you lean in close to him, holding out your hands. “here is your shot. good luck.”

determination worms its way onto his expression and his signature flirty smile, the one he always sported around you due to the rare occasions it would fluster you, falls from his face as he focuses on the task at hand. as for the competition, you were currently leading the group of knights in farthest distance walked, having made it past four tables before the shot glass finally tumbled from your head.

kaeya would love you no matter what, but he was happy he wasn’t dating someone who would lose to the likes of huffman, lawrence, and literally any of the other knights that had accompanied the two of you to the tavern tonight. however, kaeya was determined to beat you.

as he took his final step, feeling the glass tumble from its temporary position of being nestled in his hair, kaeya snaps out of his focused stupor, only to be met with your arms around his waist and peals of your laughter.

“jeez, you really wanted to win! you made it past six tables!” you cried and kaeya lets out a nervous laugh. had he really made it that far? he asks himself, but pushes away such bashful thoughts and instead elects to kiss your cheek in response.

“sorry, babe, i had to beat you,” he insists, but your gleeful expression doesn’t falter. “friendly competition, right?”

“yeah!” you respond in a chipper tone, holding up a hand for a high-five. “totally friendly!”

kaeya returns the gesture, but before he can pull his hand back, you’re slapping his hand in a painfully loud high-five. it leaves his hand stinging and kaeya is stunned into silence as your eyes widen in return, mouth parting slightly as an expression of fear crosses your face.

“i didn’t mean to high-five you that hard!” you insist, but kaeya’s eyes only narrow at that statement and he gestures for you to hold out your hand. reluctantly, you do so, but as he slams his hand down towards yours, he pulls back at the last second and instead elects to lightly interlace your hands together before gently tugging you towards him. he snakes a hand around your waist and looks into your eyes, a grin returning to his face.

“ah, i know a way you can make it up to me,” he croons and you feel your face flush with heat as your lover closes the proximity between your faces in a searing kiss that ends far too quickly for your liking. kaeya takes a step back and sends you a wink before sauntering off to return to the table with the other knights.

jerk, you think, but the word echoes around your mind with pure affection as you chase after your boyfriend, following him back to the table.

#genshin impact x reader #kaeya x reader #kaeya #childe x reader #childe #tartaglia #//fic #//writing #//kaeya #//childe #//tartaglia

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allandoflimbo · 3 years

Text

Ashens (Part 21)

Summary: She falls in love with Bucky Barnes from the moment she sees him. Bucky, still in love with a woman from his past, hates Y/N and plans to make her life miserable. To both their dismay, they are assigned together to go undercover into The Capitol for six months. There, they develop a heartbreaking friend with benefits agreement. Dystopian.

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

Chapter Word Count: 4,800

Chapter Warning: Smut. Strong language. Non-consensual elements, but not non-con.

Rating: M for Mature, E for explicit. Enemies to lovers trope, sharing a bed trope, friends with benefits trope, temporarily unrequited love, heavy and angry sex, heavy on the angst, and very strong language.

Full Masterpage |

Too many things have been different lately.

Between the both of you, there had been too many silences just like this, but this time it was different.

It was different because you knew your kiss with Pietro had affected Bucky. This time the silence was because Bucky was upset.

Back at the anti-climatic ball, after your meltdown with Pietro, you both spoke for a few more minutes before you excused yourself. Pietro was disappointed at your sudden departure, but he nodded, not digging any further. Before you’d left he had given you had address and he told you you could stop by whenever you wanted. He reminded you to stay safe with a kiss on your forehead.

He didn’t pry and you appreciated that. You put your ear piece back in and Bucky had taken extra long seconds to reply. The rest of the night his responses were one worded.

You both ended up finding Silas and Ashen’s men by the corner of the bar. You had eavesdropped and was able to confirm that the delivery tonight was for a tested cure for the virus and it was going to be administered to Ashen’s son, Ashens.

It was going to arrive at the back alley way at nine, but it wouldn’t even be administered until tomorrow afternoon. Ashens would be transferred from the tower to his home.

“We’re done here.” Bucky’s voice had come from your ear piece.

“What? We’re barely done.” You responded.

“Tonight is just the delivery. What I’m interested in is tomorrow. I’ll have to stake. Let’s go home.”

“Buck-“

“Meet you back where we were.”

beep.

The short walk to your hotel had been silent. Awkward.

You knew he had heard you. You were glad he did.

He deserved to know you had a choice in this. He also deserved to know you deserved better.

But what bothered you was that you knew the kiss bothered him but he was too proud to admit it to you.

You needed him to tell you. Him glooming was not doing you well.

Bucky had been frozen to the spot as he overheard you on the other end. He could move or breathe as he heard Pietro kissing you, as he heard you moaning for another man.

He could feel the blood pumping in his head along with the sudden feeling of pure regret.

He felt regret at not taking the initiative that he should have. He knows he has no right to feel the way he does right now, but he does. He feels the heartbreak and the jealousy over you kissing someone that wasn’t him.

He had been wanting to the last two weeks. At first, he had held himself back, now allowing himself to go down that path of intimacy, but it had began to get harder.

Bucky was going crazier for you, bit by bit.

He knew what you two had was only physical, and he knows he has no right to feel the way he does especially with how he had pushed you away, but he regrets it all.

He regrets the way he handled it.

What killed him the most about Pietro kissing you though, was the fact that Pietro was clearly a better guy for you.

Something Bucky could never be.

Not that you even wanted him anymore.

It took him two months to finally want you for more than sex and you had moved on.

He couldn’t speak to you. Not when it hurt him so much. Not when you drove him crazy the way you did.

He could still feel his heart beating just as quickly as it had an hour ago. What he felt around you didn’t even compare to how he felt around Daisy.

His relationship with Daisy had been carefree and easy.

You were a hurricane.

He wishes he could tell you everything he’s feeling, but he knows it’s for the best that he doesn’t.

You both take the elevator up to your room, silently. His eyes stays on the floor, his hands in his pockets.

Look at me. You think to yourself. Tell me what you’re thinking.

After walking through the door to your room, you turn around to face him.

You couldn’t see his face. He had been quick to avoid you and he was already turning the other way, making his way towards the bed.

The bed where he took your heart many times and squeezed it his fingers.

Little did you know that you had been doing the same to his.

His silence was overbearing and your heart tore at his facial expression.

He didn’t hold that blank look he usually held when he didn’t want to show emotions.

This time he bared it all for you. His face was fallen and he was trying his best to keep it down.

You hated this silence. You hated the lack of communication that complicated this relationship.

You and Bucky no longer made any sense.

This wasn’t sex without feelings. This was far from it.

You had expected to gain so much more after your kiss from Pietro - freedom and strength. Instead, you felt confused.

He was still quiet and the tension in the loft was thick.

“What are we doing?” You asked breathlessly, breaking the ice and literally mentioning the elephant in the room.

What was this?

You watched as he loosened his black tie from around his neck, pulling it up over his sharp jaw and head.

“I don’t know.” He says quietly. His voice sounds broken, life he was on the brink of giving up.

He sits down gently, and the bed sinks down with him.

He reaches down and removes each of his dress shoes one by one. He does it slowly.

You walk up to him and stare down at him in a clouded daze of mixed emotions.

He’s stopped and reluctantly looked up at you, eyes pausing at your hands for just a moment first.

Your face showed him that you were begging him to communicate, begging him to get off his chest what he needed.

It hurt you that he couldn’t do it.

Again, he was unhappy about your kiss with Pietro and you needed him to tell you why.

Bucky’s eyes fell back to the floor and he blinked away whatever it was.

He pushed off his jacket started unbuttoning his white dress shirt.

“Go to bed, sweetheart.” He says with heavy emotion in his voice. It almost breaks off at the end with how much feeling he puts into the words.

His term of endearment shocks you to the core. Your heart swells deep within your chest. This is the first time since you’ve met him where he’s ever used this tone and addressed you this way before.

You’re gaping as you watch him continue to unbutton his shirt. His fingers were meticulously. Somehow in a dystopian and near apocalyptic word he still kept his nails trimmed and perfect.

Something so small that could go unnoticed but that said so much about his personality.

You find yourself moving closer until his knee is touching your left leg.

You feel the heat of his body radiating off yours. You reach down and touch his hand, stopping him from unbuttoning.

He stops and swallows hard.

He could feel the heat of your fingers on his own and it makes him ache inside.

What’s happening to me?

“You want to know why I kissed him?” Bucky’s gaze stays on the floor. He doesn’t respond. No I don’t, “I wanted my first kiss to be with someone who didn’t take it for granted. For the first time, I wanted to be the one who made the correct choice,” you let go of his hand, “but you already knew that, didn’t you?” Bucky inhales deeply and returns to undoing the last few buttons. Bucky shakes the shirt off his shoulders and then stands up to go hang it in the closet. He walks right past you, not saying a word. You close your eyes tightly together, “Talk to me.” You beg.

You turn around as he’s hanging the shirt on one of the hangers.

His jaw is tight. You can tell his teeth are clenched and he’s holding whatever he wants to say, in.

He moves onto his dress pants, removing them until he’s in his boxers, and then he pulls out a pair of grey sweats, slipping them on.

He grabs a black T-shirt and puts it on, too.

He walks past you, still not looking at you.

Without thinking, you reach your arm out to grab him, and he stumbles back like you’ve burned him. You’re shocked at his reaction and your eyes go from your hands to his own eyes. Your heart shatters immediately.

He gapes down at your hands and you can see the fear and intense sadness in his eyes.

You take a step closer to him and he gulps as you slowly bring your hand up to run over his hard torso and eventually up the side of his neck. He sucks his bottom lip into his mouth to keep it from trembling.

You look up into his eyes as you play with the short hair on the back of his neck.

“Please.” It’s the first time he’s also begged you in such a small voice. His eyes close halfway as he whispers, “Please, no.”

You feel the need to comfort him; to comfort this man who has done nothing but hurt you the way he’s hurting right now.

You grasp the back of his neck with your whole hand, shaking your head to yourself as you do so. His head hangs low, eyes still closed.

“I’m not doing anything,” you whisper, “what are you so afraid of?” He opens his eyes and looks away from you. He lifts his head and looks out towards the window behind you. He reaches behind his head and takes your hand, pulling it off his skin.

“Please, let’s go to sleep.” He says softly.

You watch in a daze as he spins around and walks down the hall and into the bathroom.

He needed a moment to breathe. He needed a moment to catch his breath and think.

After splashing his face with some cold water and brushing his teeth, he walks back into the room to see you already changed into a pearl colored silk camisole.

The edges graze your thighs as you crawl up the bed and towards your pillow.

The water did nothing to help him.

He still kept hearing the way you moaned as you gave away your first kiss.

All to get a reaction out of him.

Bucky flicks off the remaining light in the loft, his lamp, and crawls into bed next to you.

He pulls the comforter up until it’s halfway up his chest and he pulls at his hair, look up at ceiling and letting out a long breath.

If only you knew the affect you were having on him. If only you knew how much he cared about you.

Your mind was else where than his.

You felt a need for vengeance. You needed him to hurt. Just like you had told Pietro, you couldn’t let him do what he was doing to you anymore. He needed to respect you and if he wasn’t going to own up to his feelings and finally speak to you, you were going to move on.

You had Pietro now, anyway.

So you had a plan.

“I want you to fuck me.” You say quietly, looking out the window.

There’s a long pause before he replied.

“I’m not having sex with you tonight.” He tells you in a quiet voice.

You flip around until you’re staring at him. He’s on his back, looking up at the ceiling, a far away look in his eyes.

How dare he be the only one to make the choice?

You spread your legs a little wider and reached down between your legs. You reached under the band of your underwear and cupped yourself.

You kept staring at the side of his face, silently asking him to look your way. He didn’t budge but you could tell he knew what you were doing. If your soft moan and the shift of the bed was any conciliation.

He blinked and swallowed thickly.

This was all he was good for now. He lost his chance and your respect, and all he was now to you was a human dildo.

As much as he wanted to tell you how he changed his mind about giving it a try and as much as he wanted to tell you how he was starting to feel, part of him was still afraid. He was afraid of his emotions getting in the way and of him losing you.

Especially when you now had a chance to be happy with someone else; someone so much better than him.

As much as he wanted your touch and your caresses, he needed to push you away. Push you into the right direction.

You were hurting him and you didn’t even know it. Him pushing you away when he needed you, pained him.

You let out another moan. He closes his eyes, turning his face away from you.

You were hurting him.

“Please, y/n.” His voice came out in a whimper.

You removed your hand from yourself, half sat up, and looked down at him. He still had that same sad look in his eyes.

Two can play that game.

You sensually dragged your fingers that had just been on your core over his bottom lip. You watch him for a reaction.

His eyes flashed to yours, stunned at your move, and you stared at your fingers on his mouth just as shocked.

Was this what anger pushed you to do? Vengeance?

You found yourself panting as you continued to touch his lips.

Slowly, he grabbed your hand. You could see what was only the lingering of tears in his blues.

There it was.

“You fucked me nearly every day for the last two months. And the one time I want you to fuck me the most, the one time, you say no.” you say quietly. He swallows thickly, “you’ve used my body for two months,” your voice shakes and he blinks, his eyes burning, “I’m just asking you to do it again. As a friend. It’s not that hard, right?”

You could feel your own words hurt in your throat at your words.

You slowly lean down, laying half your body on top of his. He closes his eyes, sucking in a shaky deep breath. You lean down until your face in the crook of his neck, on his pillow.

Bucky gulped at the proximity, feeling his heart race like mad.

“If you can’t say what you want to say, if you’re too weak for that, you can at least show me using your body.”

You ran that same hand that was touching yourself down his neck and over his chest. You find the bottom of his shirt and you slide your hand underneath, feeling his hot skin.

“I don’t want to do this.” He whispers, pained.

He almost changes his mind when he feels your hand change direction, going under his sweats.

But you stop just below his navel.

As much as you wanted to convince him and push him off the edge, you also didn’t want to breach the line of consent.

Your touch was so gentle it burned through his skin and Bucky took it in. He closed his eyes tightly together, a soft cry leaving the break of his lips.

He was crying.

You lift your face from his pillow, looking down at him to watch.

He wasn’t sobbing but there was definitely tears leaking from his eyes. One drop runs down the far corner of his eye.

He lets out a long shakey breath, still looking up at he ceiling. You feel his left hand grab the back of your head and he rubs your head. You feel his legs widen slightly and you wonder if it’s an invitation for you to continue.

The proximity of your faces shocks you when he turns his head to the side to face you.

You can feel his breath hitting your face. And you lips are only inches apart. You watch him in awe as he continues to rub your head, his eyes searching yours as another tear leaks from his blue orbs.

He rubs his nose against yours, suddenly wanting to give you everything.

When you finally take him in your hand, Bucky’s eyes close together tightly. You give him two slow pumps before you maneuver yourself so you are laying on top of him.

He watches you in a daze like you’re a siren and he’s a pirate who’s been summoned.

You stretch your hands over next to his head, taking his in your own. Your camisole is pushed up to your waist and you sloppily kick off your underwear.

He leans his head up until it’s in the crook of your neck.

“Not like this.” He says quietly. You don’t know what’s he’s talking about. You continue pushing his bottoms down until the back band is under his ass and until you see his length slip out. The tip is already oozing pre cum, now dropping onto his black shirt.

You feel the need to pour all your emotions into this fuck.

You swirl your hips and rub down until your folds are sliding over his tip, the velvety skins touching each other like two pieces if expensive silk.

Bucky involuntarily bucks his hips at the feeling.

You let out a delicious moan.

“What are we without sex, Bucky?” You whisper, breathe hitting off his forehead, “This is all we’re good for, can’t you see that?” You grunt, sliding down until he’s half sheathed inside of you, “You’ve only treated me horribly, since the day I met you. You’ve never once gave me the chance to gain your honor, oh fuck, but this, this you always knew how to take from me, to give me—“

“Stop,” he begs, breathing harshly into your neck.

“You might be a great fuck and a good friend, but you’re not a good person.” You continue to fuck yourself on his rod, rubbing your nose against his as your harsh breaths mingle together, “but that’s okay,” you put your left hand on the side of his neck, rubbing him tenderly there, “you’re good for this.”

A struggled and very loud moan escapes Bucky’s throat and you feel his right hand go to your waist, stopping you.

You put you hand on his, releasing its grip, continuing to move over him.

You watch as more tears fall out of Bucky’s eyes, his eyes snapping to yours.

“You’ve gotta stop.” He whimpers.

You can’t tell if he’s talking about the things you are saying or the fucking, but he’s a super solider and you know that if he was talking about the sex, he would’ve had more than the strength to fully stop you by now.

You purr as you look down between your legs.

“Look how perfect your cock was made for me.” You say. Bucky moans, looking down with you, his own hips pushing up to meet your down stokes, “that’s it. You hate me, don’t you?” Bucky’s hips falter and his eyes snap to your face.

“Wha—“

“That’s right, you do. I deserve this. I deserve your anger, right? Never did anything bad to you a day in my life but I still deserve it.“

Bucky was close to edge seconds ago, but with each word you’re saying, he feels the need to correct you and he no longer want to cum anymore.

This was wrong. Everything about this was utterly wrong.

“You don’t, y/n—“ He tries to tell you before you cut him off again.

You’ve never felt anger like this. Never.

“Fucking fuck me, Bucky. For just one night pretend I’m her, fuck me like I’m her.” Bucky’s heart falls hard into his stomach and he sits up, stopping.

“Stop.”

“Please.” You beg through clenched teeth, “you’ve already made me suffer enough finish the damn job.”

“Stop!” He shouts, grabbing you by the waist and pushing your off of his body.

He looked shocked as he stared down at you, his still wet tears running down his face.

“Are you serious?” You say back to him as he stands up.

He’s running his hands through his hair, pulling on the strands as more tears fall out of his eyes.

His mouth opens and closes a few times as he stares down at you, still at lost for words.

“What the hell has gotten into you?” He shouts, stumbling back.

You take a note of how his cock is an angry red, bobbing up against his belly. Catch you, he pulls his boxers and pants up all the way.

“Did I say something that triggered you?” You ask through heavy pants. How does it feel to be on the other end? You want to add.

He’s breathing hard too as he watches you. His face was crest fallen and broken.

He looks you up and down, sniffing.

“You’ve gotta stop this,” he whispers harshly, his volume growing with each word, “whatever it is you’re trying to do.”

“What am I trying to do?”

His face crumbles.

“You’re purposely trying to hurt me!” His yell stuns you, “It’s hurting me!”

You’re both trying to catch your breath as you stare at each other. “All night that’s what you’ve been doing. You think I wanted to hear you kissing him? You think I want to fuck you like this? You think I wish it went down this way?” His voice becomes a whine. He closes his eyes and looks away from you running a hand down his face.

You tilt your head as his last question.

“What went down what way?” He lets out a pained chuckle, “What way, James?”

“Forget it Im sleeping on the couch tonight.”

“What went down what way?!” You shout, banging your fist down on the bed, “You tell me right now or I swear to fucking god, Bucky, I am walking out that door right now and never coming back. I’m giving you a chance right now. Im giving you a chance to make this right.”

Your mini lecture gives him enough time to catch his breath and compose himself. It finally dawns on him and a look of disgust fills his face. He tilts his head at you.

“So that’s what this was? So that’s why you fucked me just now? To persuade me into a fucking guilt trip? This borderline non consensual—”

“—Don’t be dramatic.”

“And then you talk about you feeling used. I’m just a guy, Y/N.”

You both stared each other down. You suck in a deep breath as you take the hair tie from around your wrist and begin to tie up your hair into a bun.

“I’m so fucking over you. I really am. I was lying about the using me for sex part. It’s obviously the only time we ever communicate anyway. I do get that out of it.”

“Yeah that makes me feel so much better,” he reaches down to grab the pillow and before he can take it, you grab it, “give me the damn pillow.”

“Stop closing up on me.”

“Give. Me. The. Pillow.” You don’t budge, “I don’t have the patience for this. Especially after you almost jeopardized our entire mission with your little stunt today. Which was reckless and completely irresponsible by the way.”

“Stunt?”

“Please, you put on a fucking show as you stuck your tongue down his throat just so I could hear and then you turned off your damn ear piece. This is why I’ve always said you’ve always been a girl who acts on emotion. Give. Me the pillow.”

“You’re lying.”

His eyes twitched.

“What?”

“That’s not the deal reason you’re upset. You’re upset because I hit a nerve.”

He seethes, looking you up and down again.

“Look. What you did here tonight was the lowest of the low.”

“You don’t communicate.” You say.

“What do you want me to say, sweetheart?”

“I want you to tell me why me kissing him bothered you so much you couldn’t say one damn word to me.”

“It doesn’t matter why it does or doesn’t bother me." “Of course it matters. It means something.” “It means shit. Just because it might bother me on some level it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop you from being happy, okay? You want to go ahead and kiss and sleep with other men, that’s you doing you. We were never exclusive.” “Sure so that’s why you overreacted so much —”

“—You didn’t even give me a heads up! We had sex just an hour before you told me you were going on a date with the guy, y/n.”

“And that’s what made you cry?” After that question it goes silent. He avoids your eye and attempts to take the pillow again, “Bucky. Please.”

He licks his lips and looks up at you.

“I can’t tell you what you want to hear because it doesn’t matter anymore.” He tries to take the pillow again and this time you let him. He hooks it under your arm.

“Are you going to sleep there because of what I did to you?” He looks up at you and then looks away. He reaches over you to take one of the throw blankets, “Bucky?”

You reach over to touch his face and he flinches at first. This makes you pull away first.

“I didn’t mean to scare you or make you feel like I was taking advantage of you.” You whisper.

He looks down at your lips.

“I might be a super soldier and an ex assassin but I’m still just a man.” He says quietly. You nod, reaching for the back of head, and pulling him into you for an embrace which he gladly accepts, "You can't do that again."

He leans his forehead on your shoulder, inhaling your sweet sent.

“Please stay here tonight.”

“Okay. I’ll stay.” He gives your shoulder a kiss, “I’ll stay. I’ll always stay.” He assures you as he feels you trembling beneath him.

He pulls away, cupping your face as he does so. He looks down at you and you share a silent conversation.

This was different.

This time, he’s the one who rolls your dress up until it’s bunched around your waist.

You’re both breathing quickly as you watch him push his sweats and boxers down.

You whimper at the sigh of him, and he guides you a little lower, but you’re still halfway sat up. He runs his right hand from your core up the inside of your left thigh, widening yourself for him.

He’s knelt down between you, his lips still lingering over your shoulder. He grabs your right thigh and pulls it up so it’s bent feet down on the bed. His left hand goes to your back, right over your bottom.

You whimper again when you feel him drag his cock over your clit over and over again, and then finally down your soaking slit. His nose hits the side of yours and you’re both staring deeply into each others eyes.

“I got you,” he tells you, “I got you.” He repeats, sliding into you. His thrusts are steady and hard. He watches your face as you gasp and moan, your right hand going into his hair and pulling on it. You’re both like that for about three minutes until he lays you fully back onto the bed.

He watches as you unravel below him and he can’t imagine not living like this anymore. He doesn’t remember what he even did before you entered the picture. He doesn’t want to.

He stretches his arms around on either side of your head, keeping his thrusts steady.

“Fuck.”

“I won’t stop.” He tells you breathlessly.

You clench around him and this makes him groan loudly.

He feels his end approaching embarrassingly fast and he reaches down to give your clit some flicks.

On the fifth flick you come undone and he follows you right behind, cumming inside of you. Your legs wrap around him like a vice and he falls on of you. Both your hands run through his hair as he breaths harshly into your neck.

He doesn’t pull out of you this time and you don’t let him.

This time he falls asleep in your arms.

For you, it’s the last time.

I won't hide the ways I've tried It's just not right, it's killing me tonight

@snakeeatery17 @utterlyhopeful-fics , @marvelfan1017, @iheartsebastianstan , @annathesillyfriend , @redhairedfeistynerd, @perksofbeingabookworm, @amyrose051, @meegggoooo, @morganclaire4 , @captainchrisstan, @bxndys , @shoesonpointe , @writerwrites, @rainbowkisses31, @lindatreb , @littlemissner98 , @dezzylou24, @ayeitslelee , @hardygal69 , @emmabarnes , @redbarn1995@thequeenreaders@ilovemysupersoldiers@maximumplaidzonknerd@ceapa-mica @s-trawberryv-eins@buckysknifecollections@sobangie@lindatreb@theseuscmander@nervous-plant @wildmoonflower @aya-fay@appreciating-fanfics@kaitlynisinfinite@justreadingfics@kaitieskidmore1 @mrsdancing @everythingiloveandcherish @shinykoalacat

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jammatown919 · 3 years

Text

Best Laid Plans

Several months ago, an anon asked me to write a piece in which the group tries to play matchmaker for Ruby and Penny. This is what that turned into.

Ruby liked Vacuo better than she'd thought she would. Sure, it was unbearably hot most days and a fair amount of the locals seemed rather disgruntled about having more refugees around, especially Atlesian ones, but she'd take this over Atlas any day.

She was especially relived that she and her group had been allowed to enroll as students at Shade Academy rather than having their Huntsmen licenses renewed. They hadn't been at all ready for the position when General Ironwood had offered it to them, and while there was still a lot to worry about, everyone was glad to have some of the pressure taken off of them. Unfortunately, however, the lowered stress and extra free time had given them an opportunity to concern themselves with things that absolutely did not require their attention, such as Ruby's love life.

Two weeks ago, Ruby had made the horrible mistake of confiding in Yang about her crush on Penny, which had resulted in most of the rest of their friends knowing about it too. Most of them were alright about it, but Yang and Nora were absolutely hellbent on playing matchmaker, and they weren't taking no for an answer.

Every single time one of them caught Ruby alone, they'd plead with her for permission to set up a date so everyone wouldn't have to watch her 'pining' anymore, and no matter how many times she said she didn't want to burden Penny with her feelings, they persisted. Eventually she'd started trying to avoid them altogether, which was a lot easier with Nora than it was with Yang, considering they shared a room.

On their second Friday living at Shade Academy, also the second Friday since Ruby had confided in her sister, Yang found Ruby alone in the dorm and made what felt like her millionth plea of the week.

"For the last time," Ruby snapped, flopping down on her bed. "I don't want you to set up a date! It'll just make everything awkward."

She was trying to keep her cool, but honestly, this was starting to piss her off. This was none of Yang's business, or Nora's for that matter. She didn't need their input.

"Oh, come on, Ruby!" Yang groaned, her voice laced with exasperation. "You have to know she's into you!"

"Give me one good reason to believe she actually likes me back." Ruby retorted, rolling her eyes as Yang let out a dry laugh.

"I'll give you ten reasons," she said confidently. "You two are basically attached at the hip, she gets that little pouty face every time she gets told she can't pair with you for combat training, you literally share a bed-"

"Only because there weren't enough beds when we moved in!" Ruby quickly sat up, warmth rushing to her face.

"Yeah, but when Blake and I starting sharing, I asked Penny if she wanted my old bed and she just about cried." Yang replied. "Unless you want to sit here and argue that all of that is platonic, you know she likes you back. So why won't you just talk to her about it?"

"Look," Ruby sighed. "Even if you're right, I just don't want to give her anything else to worry about. She just lost her home, she's still getting used to being the Winter Maiden, and now she has all this human stuff to deal with. She needs my support right now, and I don't want to accidentally push her away."

Yang's expression softened at that, and she slowly crossed the room to sit down beside Ruby.

"I get that," she said quietly, suddenly much more sympathetic than frustrated. "And I know I'm being kind of pushy, but I don't want you to miss out. This could be your only chance for a while to actually go on dates and have fun with her."

Ruby let out another, heavier sigh and leaned back onto her hands, tilting her face toward the ceiling.

Yang was right. They might have a respite now, but Salem could show up any day. This chance to be students again wasn't going to last forever. They were getting to be kids one last time, and that would be over the moment Salem made herself known again. Then there would be no dates or time to worry about feelings, probably just regrets if she didn't do this now.

"What do I even say to her?" she asked quietly. "I've never liked someone like this before. What if I screw something up?"

"Just be honest with her." Yang put an arm around Ruby's shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze. "Tell her how you feel, ask her if she wants to go out, and let Nora and I take care of the rest. We'll find a nice place for you to go, and I'll tell you everything I know about impressing girls."

She winked good-naturedly and released Ruby, who then took a deep breath and stood. She didn't feel even remotely prepared for this, but there was a decent chance it could be now or never.

"I'm gonna go see if I can find her." Ruby decided, steeling herself. She made her way toward the door, giving her sister a nervous grin over her shoulder as she left. "Wish me luck."

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

Ruby found Penny an hour later in Shade's library, sitting at one of the tables with a pile of books. From the looks of it, she'd been here a while, possibly making her way through a series.

"Hey," Ruby said quietly as she reached Penny's table. "What are you reading?"

Penny glanced up, looking mildly startled.

"Oh, it's just a fantasy story," she replied sheepishly, lowering the book in her hands. "It's a bit silly, but I've never had time to just sit and read before. I'm finding it quite enjoyable!"

"That's good." Ruby smiled and took a seat across from Penny, clasping her hands anxiously in her lap. "Sorry if I'm interrupting you or anything, I just wanted to ask you something."

"Of course." Penny put her book down and leaned forward attentively.

"I was just wondering if, um..." Ruby squeezed her fingers, trying to steady her voice long enough to get the question out. "If you wanted to... go out with me sometime? Like, on a date? I-If not, it's totally cool, I just... y'know..."

Penny blinked at her slowly, and Ruby shrank back as much as the chair would allow her to.

"A date?" Penny inquired.

"Yeah," Ruby replied, her face burning. Dear God please let her know what a date is, she thought frantically. "I really like you, like more than just a friend. I've been wanting to tell you for a while, but I was scared of making you uncomfortable, but then I realized that with everything going on I might not get another chance for a while, and- Penny?"

Caught up in her rant, it had taken Ruby far to long to realize that Penny wasn't listening to her. Instead, she was just staring blankly, her expression completely unreadable.

"Are you okay?" Ruby leaned across the table and waved her hand in front of Penny's face. "Are you bluescreening?"

Back when she'd had a mechanical body, Penny had occasionally 'bluescreened' when struggling to process some new piece of information. She usually snapped out of it within a few minutes, so Ruby wasn't particularly concerned, but she had to admit she was surprised that Penny was still doing it even in a human body.

"Yes." Penny said suddenly, shaking herself a bit.

"I- what?"

"Yes, I will go on a date with you." Penny clarified, her face turning slightly pink. "I like you too, quite a lot."

"Really?" Ruby's shoulders sagged with relief, and she couldn't help the grin spreading across her face.

"Of course." Penny said with a little smile. "I would have said something much sooner if I had thought you might feel the same way."

"How could I not?" Ruby asked softly. "You're so sweet and beautiful and kind. It was kind of impossible not to fall in love with you."

Penny's blush intensified, and she looked away bashfully.

"You are all of those things too." she replied, her voice quiet and shy.

Ruby chuckled softly, then straightened herself and cleared her throat before either them could get any more flustered.

"So," she went on. "I was thinking maybe we could do dinner tomorrow around six? Or, well, Yang was thinking that, but I have no idea how to plan dates so I'm just listening to what she says."

"That sounds perfect." Penny said enthusiastically.

"Great," Ruby smiled and rose from her seat. "I'll let you get back to your reading. See you tomorrow."

Ruby turned to leave, barely hearing Penny's quiet "Goodnight," as she rushed out of the library. The moment the doors slammed shut behind her, she let out a loud, shaky laugh. She'd done it. She'd actually done it. She'd managed to land herself a date, and now all she had to do was survive it.

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

Penny had to admit, she'd been surprised to hear that her best friend had a crush on her. Delighted, of course, but so very surprised. She'd been planning to keep her own feelings a secret forever, lest Ruby find them unusual or inappropriate, but that was no longer necessary. Ruby shared the same feelings, and apparently they were quite normal.

It was a relief to know that, but Penny couldn't say that all of her anxieties had been quelled. According to Ruby, the next step after confessing their feelings was going on a date together, a concept with which Penny was not particularly familiar. She had a basic idea of how it was supposed to work, but she wasn't sure of the correct way to behave or what she was supposed to say while they were out.

Penny had gone to Nora with these concerns, hoping for some friendly advice, and had been promptly and quite literally dragged into Team JNPR's dorm room for a pre-date pep talk.

"You really don't have all that much to worry about." Nora said as she worked on lacing up the back of Penny's dress. It was quite similar to one she'd worn to Beacon's dance; light green, knee-length, and very soft. She'd borrowed it from an upperclassman named Velvet, who she knew by association due to her team's friendship with Team RWBY.

"But what if I say something wrong?" Penny asked anxiously, running her fingers through her hair. She'd already brushed through it twice, but perhaps one more time couldn't hurt.

"What would you say wrong?" Nora inquired as she finished with the dress. "You two are already friends, so you don't have to deal with any of that 'getting to know each other' business. Just go and have fun. And make sure you laugh at all her jokes."

"All of them?" Penny echoed unenthusiastically. Her sense of humor was quite different from the majority of her friends, and she sometimes had trouble discerning whether something was a joke. How would she know what to laugh at?

"Unless they're offensive or something, but it's Ruby so I doubt that." Nora shrugged and grabbed a bit of Penny's hair, gently fluffing it out. "Think you're ready?"

"Maybe?" Penny replied. "Do I look presentable?"

"You're gorgeous, Pebbles." Nora turned Penny around so they were face to face, placing two firm, comforting hands on her friend's shoulders. "Everything's gonna be fine, okay? You've gone places with Ruby hundreds of times; just act how you normally would."

"Okay." Penny nodded. She could do that.

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

The restaurant Penny had been invited to was a small café hardly a stone's throw from Shade's campus. From what Penny could tell, it seemed to be primarily frequented by the school's students, as the majority of the people sitting in the outdoor area were wearing school uniforms.

Of the three that were not, one was Ruby, clad in a black top and bright red skirt that just barely reached her knees. She spotted Penny from her table near the café's front window and waved her over with a shy smile.

"Hey," she greeted softly as Penny approached. "You look really nice."

"As do you." Penny replied politely, sincerely hoping that the grin on her face didn't look too silly. She stood there awkwardly for a moment before taking a seat, leaning forward so their table's umbrella could better protect her fair skin from the sun.

For a good two minutes, they sat there in silence, Ruby seemingly avoiding eye contact and Penny quietly fidgeting while she tried to think of something to say.

"This place is pretty cool, right?" Ruby offered at last, glancing in Penny's direction.

"I think it's quite hot, actually." Penny replied. Ruby let out a soft chuckle, and she quickly realized her mistake. "Oh! You meant- yes, it's very cool."

Penny briefly averted her gaze as her face grew warm, but she was saved from any further embarrassment by the arrival of a tired-looking waitress.

"Have you two decided on anything?" she asked, placing two glasses of water down on the table. As she did so, she fixed Penny with the same vaguely suspicious look every Atlesian refugee had been receiving from the locals.

It wasn't entirely uncalled for, considering everything her nation had done to theirs, but it made her uncomfortable nonetheless.

"Um..." Penny glanced down at the menu, eager to get the waitress's eyes off of her. Impulsively, she ordered the first thing she saw. "The fried scorpion, please."

"I'll have the same." Ruby said immediately.

"Interesting choice." The waitress remarked as she took their menus. 'For a couple of outsiders' was implied.

Penny watched her walk away, mildly dreading the sight of what she would return with.

"What the hell did we just order?" Ruby mumbled, so softly that Penny couldn't be entirely certain the words were for her.

"It will likely be fine," she answered anyway. "Scorpion is a common dish here."

"Yeah, I guess." Ruby replied, once again avoiding eye contact. Penny's brow furrowed and she leaned a bit closer to her date over the table.

Ruby seemed remarkably uncomfortable, wringing her hands and glancing about as if searching for a way out of the situation. Did she not want to be here? Had Penny done something wrong?

If so, she hadn't the slightest clue what her mistake could have been, but relationships were so complicated that she wouldn't be surprised if she'd broken some unspoken rule. Perhaps she'd missed a joke she was supposed to laugh at, or-

"Penny?"

Penny was jolted out of her thoughts, only just realizing that Ruby was waving a hand in front of her face. She blinked hard, mildly startled.

"Are you okay?" Ruby asked gently.

"Yes," Penny said with a quick nod. "Yes, I'm fine."

"You've got to stop bluescreening on me." Ruby gave her a small, kind smile. "What were you trying to figure out?"

Penny hesitated briefly. She almost didn't want to say it for fear that she might be right. Yet again, if she had somehow messed up the date, she wanted to know what she'd done wrong.

"It's just..." she began eventually. "You seem as if you don't want to be here. I was wondering if maybe I did something wrong? Or if you regret asking me out?"

"Of course not!" Ruby's eyes widened in mild alarm. "What made you think that?"

"You just seem so uncomfortable." For emphasis, Penny mimicked the hand-wringing motion Ruby had been doing. "I was worried you thought this was a mistake."

"God, no," Ruby reached across the table and gently took Penny's hands in her own. "You didn't do anything wrong, Penny. Asking you out was not a mistake."

She brushed her thumbs along the backs of Penny's hands; an intimate gesture, if Penny remembered correctly.

"I think letting someone else plan this for us might have been a mistake, though." Ruby admitted. "I don't think I'm really a dinner date person."

"What do you mean?" Penny inquired.

"I mean this all feels a little... stuffy, I guess." Ruby shrugged. "I don't like sitting here in formalwear trying to make awkward conversation with a bunch of other people around. This doesn't feel like us, y'know?"

"I think I understand." Penny nodded slowly. She had to admit, this wouldn't have been her first choice of venue either. "What do you think would feel like us?"

"Do you remember that night with the fireflies?" Ruby asked. Penny nodded again, a small smile spreading across her face. "That felt like us. It was just you and me having fun, enjoying nature and stuff."

"That was a very special night," Penny agreed fondly. "But I do not believe we would be able to recreate it here. As far as I know, no species of a firefly is native to Vacuo."

"It doesn't have to be exactly the same." Ruby seemed thoughtful for a moment, quietly drumming her fingers on the table. "What if we went up on the roof of Shade's dorms? We could be alone and just enjoy each other's company."

"I like the sound of that." Penny almost stood up, but suddenly remembered that they'd already ordered. Would it be considered rude to leave?

"It's alright," Ruby seemed to read Penny's mind as she rose from her seat. "I don't think it counts as dining and dashing if we haven't gotten our food yet."

Penny supposed that made sense. She hesitated a moment longer before standing up, glad that she wouldn't have to see that waitress again. Ruby extended her arm, and Penny linked it with her own as they began walking away from the restaurant. As soon as they'd cleared the tables, Ruby visibly relaxed.

"This already feels better," she remarked.

"It does." Penny agreed. They walked together in silence for a few minutes, Penny's face growing warm as an unfamiliar sensation spread throughout her body.

Suddenly overtaken with boldness, Penny leaned over and pressed her lips to Ruby's cheek, holding them there for a moment before slowly pulling away. Ruby's eyes widened in surprise, but she didn't seem at all bothered.

"Was that... okay?"

"It was more than okay," Ruby replied, glancing over at Penny with a smile. "That was perfect."

"It seems our night has been salvaged." Penny smiled back at her, faltering briefly as Ruby rested her head on her shoulder.

"Yeah," she said, her warm breath tickling the skin of Penny's neck. "It has."

If you enjoyed this piece, please consider reblogging to share it with others and help the post gain a bit of traction! It would absolutely make my day and make the three months I spent trying to finish this feel worth it!

#rwby #penny polendina #ruby rose #nuts n dolts #nuts and dolts #catch me begging for reblogs at the end of every post lmao

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