Tumgik
glossytearsposts · 10 days
Text
I love this ♡
Amaranth
Dark!fem vampire x fem reader
synopsis: you're unaware of how obsessed Alvara is with you until it's far too late...
word count: 15.1k
content warnings: dark ish content, yandere, unhealthy relationship, brief violence
Tumblr media
LIFE HADN’T ALWAYS been this way. You hadn’t always been running from Alvara, the wretched woman who had been pursuing you for centuries. You were a normal girl once but that was hundreds and hundreds of years ago and life had drastically changed since then becoming something that was nothing like the life you’d lived before. Life was so much easier back then, joyful even, it felt like you had a purpose, it used to be about living but now it was just surviving, and you weren’t sure how much more of this could you take. You got up from her chair and trudged towards your window sitting upon the ledge staring at the moon and the sparkles in the sky wishing you were amongst them because maybe, just maybe, you wouldn't be so lonely. You began to think about how simple life used to be and how on earth did you get into this mess in the first place.
❥ ❥ ❥
In a time long ago, you were a simple middle class woman working at a flower shop arranging and caring for flowers, you enjoyed your job and all the beautiful flowers you were able to care for and make into arrangements daily besides, it did help that you had some lovely loyal customers. Over the years, you had become quite popular within not only your area, but also further field due to the exposure from the royal family who often commissioned you for flowers with every event they held, big or small. But that might've been due to your friendship with the First Prince, Leonidas. A friendship like this was fairly uncommon as people of your social status and his own didn’t tend to mix. You had both become friends a few years ago when Leonidas had been running away from his duties and, as any upstanding citizen would, you hid him in your shop whilst everything blew over, treating him like a normal human being rather than someone to be worshipped. Since then, your friendship had blossomed and bloomed with the prince coming to your humble little shop at least once a week under the guise of buying flowers.
Humming mindlessly, you arranged and prepared flowers and bouquets for customers in a monotonous fashion, completely lost in the abyss of your mind, as you were making up the bouquet, you wondered what your beloved customer would prefer, “Miss Belmont, do you want the pink roses or the pink camellias with your bouquet?”
The older women didn't even get the chance to reply as a powerful honeyed voice interrupted, announcing herself, “Good morning, I want a bouquet of wolf’s bane flowers with whatever else you believe fits.”
You jumped slightly from her position, not expecting the interruption, you twisted around to look at the woman who had just entered your shop, you blinked owlishly before reminding yourself to smile. The woman herself was rather tall and stood proudly, her lips were plush, and pink formed in a stiff polite smile that felt odd and honestly quite disturbing. You swore her eyes were staring into your soul and you couldn’t help but stare back, her eyes were just... mesmerizing. They were such an icy blue that they reminded you of pure molten silver contrasting against darkness of the outer rings of her pupils. Her gaze was sharp and intimidating and you found yourself thinking that you never wanted to look away. Although this woman was absolutely stunning, breathtakingly so, you wondered if she ever caught the sun considering how pale her skin was, it was almost as if she’d never seen a lick of sunlight in her entire life. The only colour in her face where her lips and the pink colour decorating her eyelids, the darker colours contrasting against her pale skin tone making all of her features that much more pronounced.
The woman’s perfectly shaped eyebrow arched upwards as if asking why you hadn’t answered her yet, your shook your head slightly before plastering a blinding smile on your face.
“I am terribly sorry, my lady, I apologize for staring, I will get to you in a minute but as you can see, I am currently serving another customer so if you could give me a few minutes, I will get right to you.” She apologized trying to be as respectful as possible, she hoped this woman would be understanding enough and not like some of the other stuck-up nobles she had to deal with on a daily basis.
The tall woman chuckled coldly before looking down at you with a carefully restrained smile that screamed impatience and slight annoyance, “I do not think you understand who I am, I expect you to serve me right now, it is quite clear that I am much more important than this woman.” She sneered gesturing rudely to the poor old woman standing next to her.
“Excuse me, my lady, but I do not appreciate you using that tone whilst talking about my customers, this is my shop and so we will follow my rules. I will decide who I serve when I serve, so I suggest you either wait a few minutes or you find a new place to buy some flowers.” Although you were thoroughly intimidated by this clearly powerful woman, you kept your voice firm and steady, you'd learnt years ago that being a pushover never got you anywhere. Respect is everything. Besides, you weren't all that worried about this woman trying to sabotage your career, after all you had the royal family on your side.
The woman tilted her head slightly in surprise her lips pursed in an ‘O’ shape and her icy eyes showed amusement, it was quite clear that she was taken aback by your statement, she’d probably never really had someone below her in the social chain stand up to her before. But there was a first time for everything you supposed suppressing your proud smile.
“As I was saying Miss Belmont, would you rather the pink roses or the pink camellias?” The older woman smiled gratefully and told you her preference thanking you for your kindness.
“It is no problem at all, you are a loyal customer after all.” You replied with a sweet smile saved only for your favourite customers.
With that, you turned around and walked into the back room to retrieve the flowers before arranging them and cutting the stems until everything fit together perfectly. You wrapped up the flowers with brown paper, as requested, and tied it up with Miss Belmont’s preferred colour of ribbon which you had, of course, memorized more than a few bouquets ago. You handed the flowers to the older woman with a bright smile after receiving the cash and a hefty tip.
“I hope they are up to your standards; I will see you next week!” You waved after Miss Belmont; she was one of your favourite customers after all. You then turned to the pale woman who had indeed decided to wait those few minutes. “Now, my lady, you said you wanted wolf’s bane, right?”
“Yes, I did, I expect you to also choose some others to go along with it.” She replied stiffly, her arms crossed against her chest defensively unconsciously pushing her chest up making you look away awkwardly; you hadn’t meant to look but it’s kind of hard when they’re right in your direct line of sight.
Humming your favourite tune, you made your way into the backroom where you kept a wide array of flowers, you picked up flowers as you walked past them knowing they go well with wolf’s bane. Thinking as you went along you began to reflect on many of you noble customers and how they believed that money solves all problems in such a stuck-up manner. But you knew not everyone was like that Leonidas was a prime example of a good person who had a fair amount of wealth. It was hard to come across those kinds of people, all you wanted was basic respect from people that’s all, it shouldn’t matter your place in society. You huffed as you made your way back into the front room where the woman was standing who was now staring at you again with that deep, intense stare. The stupid stare that felt like she was looking deep into your soul. It made you uncomfortable and if you were honest with yourself, you really didn’t like it even if this woman was one of the most beautiful people you had ever had the pleasure of laying your eyes on. You hoped this would be a onetime thing and that this woman wouldn’t come back again because not only was she unnerving but she was also extremely rude.
As you were arranging wrapping up the flowers, you decided to make this encounter a lot less awkward, “did you know that that wolf’s bane is scientifically known as Aconite, quite different isn’t it?” You didn’t even look up to observe the woman’s facial expression in favour of avoiding the icy stare she held.
“I did not know that, but I suppose you learn new things every day. What is your name, woman?” She asked, her voice almost emotionless but within your line of work you had become pretty good at sensing others’ emotions and could tell that she was amused by your attempt of conversation.
“I am Name.” You replied shortly not all that interested in this woman’s name especially as she has rudely referred to you as woman.
The woman continued to stare at you as if she were expecting the question back, “you know, Name, it is common courtesy to ask someone their name after they so kindly asked for yours first. My name is Alvara if you were wondering, Lady Alvara of the house Fox.”
“My apologies, Lady Fox, I simply forgot to ask you back, I hope you can forgive me.” However, despite your apology you were not sorry, you just wanted to be over with this transaction and say what you knew the woman wanted to hear. “I hope you like your bouquet, wolf's bane is fairly odd choice, but it is a rather beautiful flower. I must advise you to be careful with it though, if you come across any dogs or wolves as it can be extremely poisonous to them, and I really do not wish for any of them to die.”
“I know they are poisonous, but I must admit you have done a good job arranging them they look beautiful, thank you.” Her tone was rather blunt, but you appreciated the compliment none the less.
“Thank you, I am glad you like them!” Although you weren't overly fond of the woman, you didn’t think there was any harm in being nice to her, especially as it looked like Alvara planned on coming back, something you weren't particularly pleased with but maybe she would warm up to you the more you interacted…? Well, you sure hoped you would.
Alvara placed the money on the counter with a smile that seemed less forced, “Expect to see me back, Name.”
And with that she was gone.
❥ ❥ ❥
AFTER THAT DAY Alvara had stayed true to her words coming into your humble shop a couple of times a week, a lot of more often than you were expecting to be honest. Alvara had become a lot more comfortable with you, her stiffness disappearing and icy look her eyes melting to a look of joy and amusement when she came to get flowers. Although your first impressions of the tall women were not very pleasant, you found that you could tolerate and be kind to her and despite Alvara’s cold exterior she warmed up to you fairly quickly often entering your flower shop with a flourish and a genuine smile.
Brushing the hair from your eyes you began to sweep the leaves and flower stems to the side of your shop planning to pick it all up at the end of the day and with a reputation like your own, you had to keep the place looking at least half decent. People expected it of you considering the royal family often bought arrangements from you for their balls and important events, courtesy of Leonidas.
You walked back behind the counter cleaning up your workspace putting the ribbons back where they belonged and tidying up the brown paper you often used to wrap the bouquets up in. It began to creep closer to the end of day when you would finally close your shop and get some much needed rest. You stretched hearing your body crack in ways it probably shouldn’t, but you were broken from your momentary worry when the telltale sound of a bell resounded.
“Hello my dear Florist!” It was Alvara. You should’ve known, the pale almost sickly looking woman liked coming in at times when she knew you were quiet because she was impatient and didn’t like sharing you attention.
“Good evening Lady Fox, what are you here for today?” You replied without the usual pep in your tone trying to not let your fatigue show, you really didn’t want to deal with Alvara’s flirting tonight, actually you just didn’t want to deal with Alvara. Despite the fact that you had kind of gotten used to her, her presence was draining and there was still that lingering feeling of discomfort when you were around her.
Alvara frowned softly noticing the change in her favourite florist’s behaviour, “are you okay, Name? You better not have been working yourself too hard, you silly girl, I told you to take care of yourself.”
“Of course, I am okay, seriously my lady, I am fine. So please, do not worry about me.” You sighed forcing a sweet smile. “Now, what do you want?”
Nothing was said between them for a while with Alvara staring at you intently her frown deepening, she was not pleased by your response she could tell something was up and although she knew she should respect your boundaries she couldn’t find it within herself to care, the tall woman knew that she knew better, she’d been alive longer than her for starters. Alvara felt an intense need to protect you and she wanted to help you with your ailment, no matter how big or small, she didn’t even care if you wanted her help or not because she would find out either way. Alvara didn’t mind using force to get her way, she was a forceful woman after all, you had to be to get into the position she was in without any man by her side and still having all of the respect from the men around her. She was a powerful woman, and she knew it.
“I do not believe you, Name, you better tell me right now, or I will make you.” Her friendly disposition from earlier disappearing to reveal a hard unwavering stubborn expression, you sighed you knew Alvara wasn’t going to budge on her stance.
“Do you really want to know?” You did not want to talk to the noble woman about your true feelings but if it meant she would leave you alone then you supposed you could tell her.
She nodded staring at you with those firm icy eyes, you felt a shiver go down your spine not being able to bear looking into her uncomfortable gaze for another second.
“Please do not be angry with me for I am simply being honest with you." You took a deep breath preparing yourself for the worst, "I am confused by you, you are so hot and cold, one moment I cannot look you in the eyes because it feels as if you are looking straight through me with such a cold stare that I physically feel shivers run down my spine. Then the next moment you are sweet and, dare I say, happy and I am somewhat free to keep eye contact with you. You are so kind with me but with everyone else you treat them as if they are dirt below your shoes!” You exclaimed eyebrows furrowed and your face pinched in an expression of distress and confusion.
“I do not understand why you have decided to treat me any different. You have changed so drastically since that first day we met, you were so cold then, rude even! I just don’t understand the sudden attitude change.” You were quieter now no longer throwing your hands around violently to get your point across. You stared at your hands fiddling with the rings adorning them, you couldn't bare to look Alvara in the face after spilling all of your feelings to her.
Alvara continued to stare at the smaller woman before her running a hand through her long hair, “I see, you are confused by me, correct?”
You looked up with a bashful expression nodding softly, an expression that made Alvara’s heart do somersaults, she knew that if her heart could still beat it would be threatening to jump out of her chest.
“Well let me clear things up for you then, I like you a lot, Name, more than I should and I think you are an incredibly interesting and beautiful person, you have interested me, and my interest is no easy feat. My respect and kindness are not something I give out freely, you have to earn it and random people I come across do not deserve it simply because they have not proven to me that they do. I would also like to apologize for my stare I do not mean to be so cold, it must be a habit, I have to keep my reputation after all and as a woman as powerful as myself being kind doesn’t always help gain you respect from men. I like to scare them into submission.” She giggled explaining the reason for her cold stare, trying to lighten the rather gloomy mood.
You laughed hesitantly, “thank you for clearing that up for me, my lady.”
“I wish you would lighten up Name, I want for us to be friends, maybe even more in the future.” She smirked moving closer towards you , eyes flicking down to your lips.
Your face began to grow hot as your eyes widened, you were not expecting such a confession from Alvara, “Anyway! What kind of flowers do you want? That is the reason you are here, right?”
“Indeed, it is, dear, you can choose whatever you want, something that is easy for you to arrange.” She requested resting her cheek on her hand staring at you with eyes dripping in adoration.
You smiled turning around to the back room shutting the door behind you and pushing your back against the closed door, what the hell had just happened in there? You decided to take a breather closing your eyes for a few seconds before pushing yourself off of the door and towards were you kept your hyacinths, deciding on gathering a bunch of the purple ones, you loved hyacinths they were such beautiful flowers and looked just as pretty by themselves as they did with other flowers.
You had just about fit the bunch of flowers under one arm as you opened the door to the front room taking a deep breath and making your way over to the wrapping paper where you arranged them and tried to ignore Alvara’s piercing gaze blazing holes into your busied form. You hummed lightly trying to distract yourself as you wrapped up the flowers.
“Here you go, Lady Fox, I hope you like them, they are hyacinths in case you did not know.” You smiled softly hoping to shoo the woman out of your shop and get some much needed rest away from everyone.
“I love it Name, especially since you arranged it for me, they are beautiful.” She stated staring straight at you, it almost felt as if Alvara was complimenting you instead of the flowers she held in her arms.
You rounded the front desk until you were standing next to the pale woman, “I am glad, now I need to close up shop, so I will see you next time you come in to get some flowers.” Speaking to Alvara made you realize how short you were compared to the taller woman, your cheeks flushed again, goddamn your stupid brain, even though you found her unnerving you couldn’t look past how attracted to her you were. It was undeniable that Alvara was beautiful it was just a shame that she made you feel so uncomfortable, the kind of uncomfortable where you felt like Alvara was watching your every move. Like a predator stalking prey, it put you on edge.
You smiled at her trying shoo the woman towards the exit but Alvara was having none of simply standing in the doorway before looking down at you, her little florist, “I hope you know that I was completely honest with you earlier, I like you a lot, more than I should. I would also like you to know that I intend for us to become friends, you do not mind that, do you?”
The way Alvara spoke to you sent a shiver down your spine, the tone of voice she used was sickly sweet and even the way she asked to be friends with you felt predatory, it felt wrong and your gut instinct told you to shove her out of your shop and never speak to her again. Your brain screamed, RUN, RUN, RUN. But you couldn’t find it in yourself to do anything but nod and agree, it felt as if something awful would happen if you didn’t just go along with it and if you were honest, the fatigue was really getting to you and you just wanted to be rid of Alvara’s heavy presence.
“Good, I am glad we are on the same page. I will see you soon, Name. Make sure you take care of yourself.” She rested her hand on your cheek in an affectionate way that you had not really experienced before, it was when you started leaning into the touch that you realised how touch starved you must be to be comforted by the touch of someone who did the complete opposite.
You pulled away ushering her towards the outside world, “have a good evening, my lady.”
“You too, Name, call me by name next time, alright?” Alvara looked over shoulder and made her way out of your humble shop not even giving you a chance to reply.
Pushing down the urge to slam to door in relief, you took a deep breath to collect yourself before sweeping things up quickly and half arseing your usual cleaning routine.
By the time you got home you were practically dragging yourself to bed resisting the tantalizing temptation of sleeping on the floor, eventually you made your way to bed where you fell in a heap.
Finally, peace.
❥ ❥ ❥
ALTHOUGH YOU HAD to wake up early pretty much every morning, you would never get used to the blinding sun from your windows waking you up; it was something that you truly hated, often times wishing you could stay in bed but alas your shop couldn’t open itself. Pulling yourself from bed you began to get ready for the day, you slid on her dress and stretched yawning as you did so feeling the bones in her back crack as it always did, you mulled over the strange sounds your back made until there was a loud rap at the door of your cottage. You rushed over and opened your door with a sweet smile that you usually only pulled out at work.
“Hello Ma'am, I have an important announcement from the Royal Family regarding the Spring Equinox, would you like me to read it out to you?” He asked politely standing stiffly, he seemed slightly awkward as if it was his first time bringing letters to people especially ones from the Royal Family.
“No, it is quite alright, I can read it myself, thank you though!” You smiled softly bringing your hand out to retrieve the letter, he handed it to you with a smile clearly comforted by your simple kindness.
Closing your door you opened the letter carefully sliding out the fancy parchment paper reading the beautiful cursive writing:
To Name Lastname,
The Royal Family requests that you make the flower arrangements for the upcoming ball…
You skimmed over the rest of the letter, reading the requirements of what you were expected to prepare, thinking of the number of flowers you would need to order if you were to do this on time, placing the letter in your leather satchel you made quick work of your journey to your shop.
After opening up shop you busied yourself with orders and customers, wrapping up bouquets and arrangements until the door slammed open rather aggressively and there stood Leonidas in all his glory. He grinned at you with his signature smile looking as jovial as ever taking long strides towards where you were currently putting out pre-arranged flowers.   
“Good morning my dear Name!” He greeted, you always wondered how he was always such a pleasant person with a personality like sunshine incarnate and whilst you knew him as being an extremely bubbly and excitable man others knew him as the picture perfect prince of the Iridesiah. He was loved by everyone, nobles and working class people alike, he treated everyone with the same level of respect and that in return earned them his respect.
“Good morning to you too Leonidas, anything you were looking for in particular?” You asked politely continuing with putting out the pre-arranged bouquets.
“Oh, nothing much really,” he replied nonchalantly, “do you want some help with that?” Although he’d asked Leonidas had already started picking up the arrangements casually walking over to the right places.
You sighed shaking your head, “you really should not be helping, you are a prince you should not be doing work like this.”
The dark haired prince laughed looking back at you, “this is not even hard labour, it is literally nothing and besides it is not like you are forcing me to do anything, I enjoy helping you out.” The bright coloured bouquets were put onto display carefully as to not mess up the arrangement, you were quite the perfectionist after all.
Leonidas stared at you for a moment as you were focused on making everything perfect, he knew how hard you had worked to keep the reputation of the shop as high as it was and by just looking at your concentrated face, he remembered what he came to tell you.
“Name, I remembered what I wanted to tell you.” He blurted out, cursing himself for it he was a prince for Christ’s sake he should be used to talking by now.
Looking over at him with a relaxed expression, you smiled as if asking him to continue what he was going to say, it was a soft smile that seemed so genuine and free quite unlike the fake smiles he was surrounded with on a day to day basis. It was a nice change, a welcomed change.
“Ah yes well, you probably received the letter this morning if I am correct, but I wanted to personally invite you to the Equinox Ball. I just feel that since you are making the arrangements you should come and you are my friend after all, so I would very much appreciate it if you were there.” He rambled, words just kept tumbling from his tongue and he wasn’t quite sure why, maybe he was nervous? That’s what he assumed it was, but he found it rather strange that a human was making him feel this way, but he brushed it off simply choosing to smile bashfully at you instead.
Your mouth fell open into a soft ‘o’ shape, you would’ve dropped the flowers if it weren’t for Leonidas who caught them quickly before they hit the ground, you took a second to compose yourself blinking blankly for a few seconds.
“Oh dear! I am ever so sorry about this!” You exclaimed, a flustered look on your face avoiding eye contact with the prince in front you, “I was just very shocked that you invited me, I did not realize commoners were allowed to attend.”
He chuckled at your flustered countenance, “well there is an exception for you.”
“Me?” He laughed at your response and the incredulous expression that indicated how very confused by his actions you were, which greatly amused the young prince.
“Yes, you, and before you start worrying about what you are going to wear and such, I have already arranged it for you, I want you to enjoy yourself whilst you are there and not worry what you look like.” He reassured sending you that famous smile that brought men and women alike to their knees.
“You may even find a partner.” He teased subtly his smile changing to a stupid goofy grin, one that never failed to make you laugh. You tilted your head at him trying to scold him quietly with an unimpressed expression but failed miserably after falling into a fit of giggles.
Still laughing you grinned at him with an equally goofy smile, “you know I’m not interested in finding a partner just yet, my shop is my priority.”
His smile grew softer, he knew that your answer to the question of finding a partner has always been that your shop was your priority but at least he knew you would be attending the ball. Leonidas was just glad you had agreed and whilst you may not believe it, he treasured your friendship greatly.
“It seems my time is up Name, if I do not go back soon, they will send a search party out for me and I am not sure if I want to deal with that today. I also wanted to mention that when you bring the flowers to the place on the morning of the Equinox, I will meet you at the front and personally take you to the room you will be staying in. So, make sure to pack a bag of things you think you will need, is that okay?” He asked, he knew you would panic if he didn’t tell you what was going to happen, you liked being able to plan.
You nodded excitedly a huge grin stuck to your pretty face, “thank you so much! I cannot wait!”
With that he gave a parting smile and made his way out of your shop with a ding.
❥ ❥ ❥
IT WAS FINALLY the day; the day of the Spring Equinox Ball and you weren't quite sure if you were terrified or excited perhaps it was a bit of both. You had packaged up all of the arrangements the day before ready to be loaded onto a cart you’d borrowed from your kind neighbour; you liked to be prepared in situations like this so you'd already sent some of the larger pieces off since they were a bit trickier to transport.
As you readied to leave you picked up your trust leather satchel filled with everything you might possibly need. You began to think of what kind of dress Leonidas had decided on and yet you weren't worried, you knew you would love it especially because he’d picked it out. He had pretty good style he was a prince after all, so she trusted him on that front especially considering the fact she knew that he often helped his sister pick dresses for ball's quite like this. You had learned a lot about him that day, you smiled thinking back on it seeing how far your friendship had come since the day you first met when you hid him in your shop away from prying eyes.
It didn’t take long for you to reach your shop where your neighbour was already waiting outside sitting atop his cart accompanied by his two horses, “Good morning, young lady!”
“Good morning Henry! Thank you for agreeing to help me transport this all to the palace, I know it is quite a big job, so I apologize in advance.” You said bashfully turning towards the shop where you unlocked the multiple locks on the door.
“It is no problem at all! In fact, I would say it is an honour, it is not every day a man gets to say he went to the royal palace!” He exclaimed ruffling his hair as if it were nervous reaction before putting his cap back on.
You smiled in response as he jumped off the cart seat and walked towards you as you both began loading the boxes carefully onto the back of the cart until there was nothing left, securing the cart safely as you did so. Before you departed you made sure to add a quick sign to the window stating that the shop would not be open for the next two days, you hopped back onto the cart and went on your merry way through town chatting pleasantly with Henry.
It was safe to say that the palace was a particularly splendid sight one that never failed to amaze you no matter how many times you saw it, you especially liked the woods that surrounded it, to you, it only added to its mystical charm.
Once you had arrived the footmen began unloading the boxes, “please be careful with them, they are rather fragile!” You warned.
They simply smiled at you, “we know, my lady.”
You felt yourself stiffen in embarrassment, you weren't used to being referred as ‘my lady’, you could hear Leonidas laughing at. He walked down the stairs with the air of elegance and regality, “thank you, Henry for helping Name get here, it is greatly appreciated.”
Henry blushed a bright red and avoided the gaze of the prince, “why thank you, your highness! I- I will be on my way!” He spluttered, still reeling from shock at the fact that the Prince of Iridesiah knew his name.
Leonidas turned his gaze back to you, throwing a teasing smile your way, “you are early, my lady.”
You glared at your friend trying to mask the fact that you were embarrassed and yet failing miserably, “a lady must always be prepared.” You countered with a sarcastic smile.
He laughed jovially at your quick quip, “come on now I am sure you are wondering where your room is and what you will be wearing, I can assure you that you will be the bell of the ball. My younger sister even helped me pick out your dress, I believe she has come by your shop a few times in disguise, she’s dramatic like that.”
“She has come to my shop before??” You asked in disbelief, how had you not recognized her, one of the most beautiful and intelligent women in all of Iridesiah.
“How on earth did I not notice?”
Leonidas turned to you with an amused smile, “did you forget, my sister is as smart as she is beautiful.”
And with that the Prince turned on his heel beckoning you to follow him up the grand marble staircase of the palace, you’d never actually been this far inside of the palace, and you found yourself awestruck at the beauty and artistry of its architecture. The paintings depicting scenes from famous battles and monumental moments in history, it was stunning, and knowing you had the luxury to be in the vicinity of artwork that would surely be known throughout history was truly a delight. It shocked you how stunning the artwork was on the ceiling, on the ceiling of all places! You supposed it was to showcase their riches being able to put something in such a place as the ceiling, a strange thing to do you thought. The candelabras holding the soft yellowy light only helped add to the mystical, expensive atmosphere, you didn't think you would ever get used to being in such an expensive place.
“Are you coming, Name? we don’t have all day.” You were broken form your stupor by the unmistaken teasing voice of Leonidas.
“Ah, terribly sorry!” You apologized picking up your skirt and running up the stairs to catch up to your friend.
The two of you walked side by side down the hallways with the soft light of the candelabras to guide the way until you finally made it to your destination.
Leonidas opened the door and gestured for you to walk in, “so this is room where you will be staying the night and this lovely lady right here is Tiana, she will be helping with your hair and makeup to get ready for the ball. One of the footmen who you have met before, his name is Tom if I remember correctly, will be escorting you and showing you the way to the ball. I look forward to seeing you in that dress, try to enjoy yourself tonight.”
“Thank you, Leo, I really appreciate you doing this for me.” You thanked sending him a sincere smile.
With his hand on the door, he turned to look at your smaller form, “you need not thank me, it is what friends are for, is it not?” You did not even get the chance to reply for he had already left the room and disappeared into the confusing corridors.
With a huff you turned to Tiana with a smile, “I suppose we should get to know each other, I am Name, but you probably already knew that.” You ended with a light frown realizing your mistake in introducing yourself.
Tiana chuckled lightly, “yes, I did already know that my lady, but it is nice for you to introduce yourself regardless. Anyway, it is probably smart if we start getting you ready, I have prepared you a bath. Do you need any assistance?”
“No thank you, it is quite alright, I will be quick!” You smiled before being ushered into the bathroom where you closed the door and began to strip off your garments and dipped into the warm water of the bath letting out a sigh as you felt your tense muscles relax. Although the feeling of the warm water cascading down your back and hair was soothing, you knew you couldn’t enjoy it for any longer than necessary; you had to get ready after all and lord knows how long that would take.
You wrapped yourself in a fluffy towel and started to rummage around in your bag to find your undergarments before making your way out of the large bathroom and into the main room to find Tiana setting up hair products and makeup on the vanity.
The small woman’s head popped up as she heard the door open with a smile, “perfect, you came out just in time! Take a seat, let us get started on your hair, is there anything you want in particular?”
“No, do whatever you want, I am sure it will look amazing.” A huge smile grew on Tiana’s face as she clapped her hands excitedly and went to find the products, she needed to make this transformation possible. She began by adding many different products to her hair that you had never even head of and styled and dried your hair into a style she thought appropriate.
Tiana smiled as she looked at her handywork before starting on your makeup, she gathered her brushes as she brushed some kind of skin coloured liquid underneath your eyes and atop other imperfections you may or may not have had, blending it in until it looked like flawless skin. She picked up various other tools ranging in sizes colours and shape and began to paint with you as her blank canvas. Tiana added the finished touches and took a step back to admire her hard work.
“You look absolutely stunning my lady, you actually look like a fairy with this ethereal look you have going on.” She praised holding her cheeks as she stared at her handywork.
You stared at the person staring back at you in the mirror, gingerly touching your face noticing your skin glowing and eyelashes longer and darker, your eyebrows more tamed and shaped, and the glossy colour on your lips.
“Thank you so much Tiana! I look like a new woman, a beautiful one at that!” You exclaimed, smiling brightly at the blushing maid.
“Oh, I haven’t done much my lady, I just enhanced the beauty that was already there.” She stated smiling back, staring into the captivating eyes of the woman before her, Tiana quickly turned on her feet to open the closet door across the room. “Ah let us not dilly dally any longer and get you into this beautiful dress, I am sure you are just itching to see it!”
The closet doors swung open to reveal a gorgeous flowy peach coloured dress, Tiana gathered the fabric in her arms as she made her way over the vanity where you stood, “shall we get you into this dress then? I must admit I cannot wait to see you in it.”
You looked away in embarrassment at such an honest compliment and allowed her to help you put on the garment. When you were all fitted into the dress you looked into the mirror in awe as you saw how the fabric draped and fell perfectly over your body, it was elegant and beautiful something fit for a princess or at least someone with too much money to spare. It fit like a glove, and you weren't sure if you’d ever felt so beautiful in your entire life. You looked like an ethereal being with the way the tulle like fabric fell from the bodice and sleeves of her arms to meet at her wrists. Her hands smoothed over the bodice enjoying the feeling of the fabric beneath her fingertips and the texture of the flower embroidery spanning the bodice.
The two of you stood in awe until Tiana broke the silence, “oh my goodness me! You look absolutely stunning; dare I say like a goddess! You are surely going to steal the show tonight, my lady, there is no doubt you will be the bell of the ball. The royal siblings did a great job in picking out this dress.”
There was a pause before Tiana realised that she had been rambling as a blush rose to her cheeks, “a-anyway! We have to add the finishing touches before Tom gets here, you cannot be late!”
She hurried around the room picking up miscellaneous items and presenting them to you and asking you whether you liked them or not until you ended up deciding on a simple pearl choker necklace with matching earrings and some simple heeled shoes.
There was a knock at the door to reveal the tall footman, Tom, “good evening my lady, my name is Tom, and I am to be escorting you to the ball.”
Just as you were about to leave Tiana shouted at you to stop as she ran over to you with a beautiful flower crown with soft coloured carnations and hydrangeas to match the dress and a ribbon keeping it all attached.
“This will look beautiful on you my lady, may I put it on for you?” She asked with a sheepish smile.
“Of course, Tiana, I just wanted to say thank you for making me look so beautiful I really appreciate it.” You thanked with grateful smile to which the smaller woman placed the crown atop your head, careful not mess up her previous handy work before standing back with a pleased smile.
“Perfect! Listen to the Prince's words, try to enjoy yourself.” You thanked Tiana again as you turned away to follow her escort.
He offered his arm and off they went down the corridor towards the music and loud chatter, you just hoped you were prepared enough for the onslaught of rich nobles and royal families.
❥ ❥ ❥
YOU HAD NEVER been this nervous in your life, you felt like a baby deer on ice trying not to lose your footing not to mention the fact that you weren't used to walking in shoes like the ones you had been given. Your fists clenched into the fabric of Tom’s jacket in a way of grounding yourself; you’d never been to any ball as extravagant as this one, it was expensive, it was fancy, and it was full of important people. Important people that could ruin your life if you even so much as spoke to them wrong. You had no idea how you were supposed to act, you'd never had any sort of etiquette lessons, and you’d never needed them either! All you had going for you was that you might look the part and that hopefully you could just get away with just standing in a corner by yourself, preferably a corner where the food was, without having to interact with anyone whom you might offend.
“My Lady, are you feeling alright? You look quite nervous, is there anything I can do to help?” Came the comforting voice of the man accompanying you.
“Ah, thank you for asking but I am just nervous, I worry about offending people and not being fancy enough for everyone around here, they all have so much money and I am just a florist. I do not know how I am supposed to act, and it just makes me a bit nervous is all, I am not even quite sure why I agreed to come here anyway, it is not really my kind of thing. But I am here, and I might as well get on with it.” She rambled clenching and unclenching her fist in Tom’s jacket, gesturing wildly with her free arm ending with a sigh.
He stopped in front of the massive door leading to the ballroom and turned you to face him, “I understand you are nervous, my lady but, you must not worry so much, not all of the nobles and the rich who are attending this ball are crazy and obsessed with etiquette, some of them are rather humble people. You should just be yourself; you are a beautiful woman with an excellent personality to match, they will like you I can assure you of that, just flash them that smile of yours and you should be fine.”
You looked up at him with a big smile, his impromptu speech had comforted you immensely, you threw your arms around him and hugged him, “thank you so much Tom! You are ever so kind, thank you again for making me feel better I really do appreciate it, hopefully after tonight I will see you some time soon. You could come to my flower shop, bouquets and plants would be on the house.”
He laughed at your sudden change of energy, “I will take you up on your offer, my lady, now let us get going as I am sure you do not want to be late.”
With that the massive mahogany doors were pushed open to reveal the ballroom packed with people wither dancing or chattering away. Name was blown away everyone looked amazing, the women wearing dresses of beautiful bright colours and that fit them in a way that showed of all of their assets; the men looking smart and sophisticated in their suits and formal wear. Everyone was dressed differently, and they all looked absolutely stunning, Name couldn’t help but feel slightly self-conscious but reminded herself, fake it till you make it.
Tom’s breath was warm on your ear as he whispered his parting words, “this is where we part ways, my lady, I will around if you need me. Enjoy yourself.”
It wasn’t long before you were alone again, trying not to look too out of place as you stood rather awkwardly in the corner of the room, so much for being sociable. You leaned against the wall and observed everyone around her, they were all clearly having fun and wore expensive clothes but what did you expect they were all nobles. You shook your head, you needed to stop being so judgmental, besides you were also wearing expensive clothes, you might even be able to fit in considering the garment you were wearing. However, there was one thing you noticed, nobody was really wearing any light pale colours like yourself, the room was filled with brightly coloured fabrics and fabrics so dark they rivalled even the darkest of nights. Nothing like anything you were wearing, you cursed Leonidas for making you stand out, you supposed it must be so he could easily spot you.
At that point you were in a world of her own and although you were looking at your surroundings, you weren't at all focused on it until you were broken from your panicked thoughts by a honeyed voice you knew all too well, Alvara.
“What a surprise seeing you here my dear, I did not realise they invited people who are not of noble stature.” You did not mean to stare but in that moment Alvara radiated power and beauty in fact she was the epitome of it, and you were completely and utterly mesmerised. Her dress was jet black and contrasted against her pale almost white looking skin, the dress was floor length and fit her body like a glove, the deep V of the dress was bold maybe even scandalous, but she was Alvara Fox, and she could do whatever she wanted. Decorating her neck was an intricate gold choker with smaller chains attached to it falling from her neck and across her shoulder and collarbone to attach to the gold shoulder pads giving her a more structed look. She looked powerful, strong, confident and although you hated to admit it, you found her extremely attractive in that moment.
“What is with all of this staring my love? Do you like what you see?” She teased hoping to see that face you always made when you got flustered.
“I- uh, I deeply apologise my lady! I did not mean to star you just look... really nice tonight.” You hoped you did not sound as bashful as you felt and avoided eye contact with the stunning woman stood before you.
Alvara let out a loud laugh, a brilliant smile gracing her perfect face, “you are simply adorable! I am glad you think I look nice; I happen to think you look ravishing.”
You felt your face grow hot as you tried not to let your flustered expression show, “uh, I think I just heard somebody say my name, I will- I will speak to you later.”
You quickly turned on your heel and sped away trying to avoid any more conversations with your beautiful but pesky customer, all you wanted to do was eat and be ignored the entire time, but Alvara had different plans as she gripped your wrist in a tight grip pulling you back, so you fell into her cold embrace.  
“Whoever is calling your name can wait. I am much more important than they are besides, I thought I told you to refer to me as Alvara, especially if we are to be lovers one day.” At this declaration your mouth fell open into an ‘o’ shape not expecting such a bold statement even if you probably should have seen it coming considering the last conversation you had with the infamous Alvara Fox.
“Lovers? “You spluttered, “but I have never agreed to such a thing-!”
A slender finger was placed upon your lips silencing her, “you do not have to agree to anything, my love, we will be lovers one day. Mark my words. Why should we wait, I am a rather impatient woman and you of all people should know, be mine?”
You looked up at the taller woman and saw the twisted adoration in her eyes, those beautiful soulless eyes holding only an iciness that sent shivers down your spine, everything was telling you to say no, to reject this woman. Despite the love, or some sick version of it, that her eyes displayed you knew something was not right, something was very inhuman about Alvara and quite frankly, it scared you. You had come to the conclusion that realised that although you found her attractive you knew a relationship with her would never work because you would always feel like the prey and her the predator.  
Name diverted her eyes hating the eye contact she had just been subjected to before taking a deep breath and pushing herself out of the strangely cold woman’s embrace, “I am terribly sorry My Lady, but I cannot except your offer. I am not looking for any sort of relationship in that sense, I want to focus on my shop and my career, hopefully you will understand.” As she turned away from Alvara she grabbed her wrist once again eyes swirling with determination and annoyance holding an expression which struck fear into Name’s heart.
“I thought I told you to call me Alvara.”
“I apologise, but no I will not. You are my customer, and we will have a professional relationship, now if you don’t mind, I’m going to eat some cake.” You smiled politely shaking your wrist out of Alvara’s firm grasp and walking away confidently feeling very proud for finally standing up for yourself.
Holding a fancy plate of cake and a fork in your other hand, you escaped to the massive windows overlooking a beautiful landscape that you knew was there but couldn’t see because of the darkness that had prevailed. Yet despite not being able to see much you continued to stare out the window eating your cake imagining what could be there completely lost in thought, you placed the now empty plate on a nearby table and went back to your previous station situated at the windows. You were playing with the sleeve of your dress staring out into the dark abyss when a horrible feeling washed over you, like something absolutely awful was going to happen, you suddenly regretted eating all that cake as found yourself unable to pull yourself away from the window until you saw something, something awfully similar to a pair of red eyes…
And, in that moment, all chaos broke loose.
A piercing scream escaped your throat as the massive windows shattered by the brute force of something crashing through it, the glass left cuts all over your exposed skin as you lay in a heap.
People were screaming, shouting, doing anything they could to get out of the room safely. You lay there in a daze as you wondered if those really were red eyes you saw until you felt a crushing weight atop of you, your eyes lazily blinked open to see a man… or what you thought was a man grinning down at her with a sleazy look on his face.
“You smell reaaaal nice, I could just eat you up!” You stared at him in horror as he laughed like he’d made a hilarious joke, and it was in that moment that you realised his eyes were red and not a figment of her imagination.
“What- what are you?”
“Your worst nightmare, sweetheart.” He continued to laugh as you began to struggle in his unmoving grip, panic tightening like a noose around your throat, “no use in struggling, you are going to die anyway, angelface.” He continued to laugh maniacally as he leaned down to nose around your neck as if he were looking for something.
Tears began to fill your eyes as you continued to fruitlessly struggle until there was a blinding pain in your neck, you screamed once again this time filled with pure agonising pain. It felt like he was tearing at your neck and draining all the blood and energy from your body. You writhed in pain it was the kind of pain that was searing hot and although it was in one spot, you could feel it in your entire body, it was unbearable. You screamed as much as your voice would allow, fighting back as much as you could, trying to rid the burning sensation, scratching and clawing at anything you could. You could feel yourself growing weak, and you knew you didn’t have much time left. But if one thing was for sure, it was that you were not a quitter, and you weren't going to go down without a fight.
Just when you thought your time had come the crushing weight of the man on top of you was lifted off. You cracked open your eyes to see Alvara, she looked positively feral snarling at the man.
Everything was fuzzy and you couldn’t comprehend what was happening with everything sounding like it was underwater, the pain in your neck had become a dull ache at this point. You were trying so hard to keep your eyes open, but everything hurt, everything was just too much.
“Name!” a familiar voice shouted, “Name do not dare close your eyes, okay? Eyes on me.” He sounded desperate and you opened your eyes again to see Leonidas to which you smiled to the best of your abilities, but it probably looked more like a grimace.
You moved a shaky hand to touch the wound at your neck but was stopped by your friend, “don’t touch it, you’ll make it worse.” You knew he said something afterwards, but you couldn’t hear it. Your eyes began to close as the cold grasping at your mind whispered for you to welcome the darkness as you heard distant shouts for you to open your eyes.
Leonidas swore as he saw the damage done to you, blood was everywhere, it still wet all over your neck and shoulders. It took all of his strength to not to lap up the blood on your neck, but he has self-control unlike those other vampires who didn’t even deserve the title of vampire. He breathed in heavily trying to keep his composure as he gathered your limp body in his strong arms not even bothering to check on anyone else as he ran out of the room taking you to safety, he just hoped he had gotten there in time.
Meanwhile, Alvara was torturing the man who had dared lay a finger on her future wife, she was straddling the man punching at his face again and again blood painting her fist a beautiful shade of red, leaving the man a bloody mess and yet he continued to laugh.
“You sure are a feral one.” He continued to laugh coughing up blood as he did so.
“If you think this is feral you haven’t seen anything yet, you may think I am going to kill you but no, I will keep you alive and bring to you to the cusp of death just to do it all over again." she laughed humorously not breaking eye contact with the man below her.
"I am going to remove your teeth one by one, cut every inch of body. I'm going to burn your fucking flesh off I might even cut your tongue off. And that is not even beginning to scrape the surface of what I am going to do you.” She snarled; her eyes wild showing the true meaning of feral. He stared at her his laughter stopping as he truly understood what kind of situation he was in, he messed with the wrong vampire, and he would pay for it with his life.
❥ ❥ ❥
PAIN. BLINDING PAIN. Why did everything hurt so much, why was everything so overwhelming? Opening your eyes hurt, everything was so bright, it was as if your eyesight had miraculously improved to a scary degree. There was a strong flowery scent wafting through the air, it made you cough and your eyes water, why was it so strong and why was it affecting you so much? Something was very, very wrong and you could hardly remember what had happened the previous night not to mention the fact that you were in a bed that you had never seen before.
What the hell happened last night?
With all these questions and the fogginess in your brain, you pushed your weak body up into a sitting position instantly feeling a pain in your shoulder and neck. You hadn’t realised how weak you felt until your hand was shakily reaching for the junction between your shoulder and neck, there was a thick gauzy bandage over the area and just ghosting your fingers over it hurt like hell.
“Name?”
Your head shot up at the sound of your name, it was Leonidas, you instantly relaxed and a soft smile found its way to your face.
The prince rushed towards you checking over your entire body in a frantic frenzy, “you should not be sitting up, Name, you lost a lot of blood last night.” He pushed you back gently, so she rested against the mass of pillows behind her, a soft frown marring his usual smiley exterior.
“Yes… what happened last night Leon? I can hardly remember a thing; my brain is just so foggy.” You rubbed at your head hoping it would help you remember something, anything, but all it did was trigger a shock of pain through your shoulder.
He looked sad, terribly, terribly sad.
“I am not sure if you are ready to hear it.” He said solemnly.
“I want to know, Leon, please just tell me. I will only worry more if I have no idea what happened to me.”
He avoided eye contact looking at everything in the room but you as if he was mentally preparing himself for what he was about to explain, it made you worry even more seeing your usually composed friend look so anxious making your mind wander to the worst possible case scenario.
Leonidas took a deep breath and finally looked at you, “Okay, what I am about to tell you is going to sound absolutely insane, but you have to hear me out, do you understand?” You looked at him intently and nodded.
“Well starting off with what happened last night, you were attacked which I am sure is quite obvious, but you were attacked by a group of individuals who…” he paused for a moment as if trying to think of what to say next, “disagree with the crown and my family. Which I suppose does not explain much but I promise I will get there.”
He adjusted himself and sat closer to you and it was in that moment that you knew he was going to get to the crazy part of the situation in which he feared the kind of reaction you might have.
“I am sure you have heard of vampires before and how they are nothing but stories to keep children from going out late at night. But to put it bluntly, vampires are not just a myth or a story, they are real beings that live among us in society.”
“Are you serious? You have got to be joking, how would I not know about this if it is even true that is, I mean surely you are just messing with me, right… right?” Your words coming out of your mouth in a rapid pace, voice trembling as you looked at your friend with wide eyes full of even more questions at this massive revelation that you didn’t even entirely believe.
Leonidas took a deep breath looking at you with pity for he knew this was hard to believe,
“Sadly, I am not joking, I wish I was but, Vampires have been around for a very long time well before you and me. They helped create the system we live in today and to keep the humans who live in and around the towns safe from other creatures that wish them harm. The Royal family are the oldest vampire family in all of Iridesiah and we were tasked with taking care of our fellow vampire and human counterparts thousands and thousands of years ago. What I am saying is that I am a vampire, my entire family are, as well as pretty much the entire court. Which I know must sound crazy and a lot to take in and I sincerely apologize that this has happened to you Name, all I wanted was for you to live your life in peace without knowing.”
You gaped at your friend processing all of the information you had just been given, it was almost too much for your scrambled brain, “so you are a vampire? What- what about the people that attacked me, are they humans, vampires or whatever else they possibly could be?”
“Yes, I am a vampire and the man from that group who attacked you was also a vampire, we call his specific type a rogue as they don’t believe in protecting humans and think that the monarchy should be abolished so they can take over in our place.” He explained.
“I was bitten by that- that rogue...? Does that- does that mean I am going to become a vampire?” Tears welled up in your eyes threatening to fall down your face, what did this mean for you and your flower shop?
Leonidas put his hand atop your own and directed a soft look your way, “you were bitten by the rogue, yes, but we are not sure whether you will turn yet or not, your case is different to anything we have ever seen before and even our best doctors are not quite sure what is happening. I know must be horrible to hear but you are in good hands I can assure you and I will be here every step of the way; I promise.”
At his words the dam holding your tears back finally broke as your body shook with soul wrenching sobs, to which Leonidas immediately got up from his position beside your bed and pulled you into his embrace letting you cry it out.
❥ ❥ ❥
THEY STILL DIDN’T know what actually happened to you, just that you weren’t a vampire, but that you weren’t a human either. They ended up deciding that you were a hybrid of vampire and human where whilst you did need blood to survive, you didn’t have to rely on it and could eat normal food and gain nutrients from it unlike actual vampires.
Lost in your own thoughts arranging flowers and unpacking supplies you hadn’t even noticed a new presence in the shop.
“Hello there, darling Name.”
You nearly jumped out of your skin at the sensual voice you knew all too well, “Alvara! Oh, my goodness, you scared the life out of me.” You placed your hand on your chest hoping to calm your racing heart, you huffed trying to fix your frazzled composure.
“So, what exactly brings you here? Flowers or just companionship?” You teased, hand on hip as you sent a smile Alvara’s way.
She looked a bit thrown by the teasing of your usually flustered self, but she quickly caught her composure and smirked back, “since when did you get so flirtatious, my darling? I like it.” The sensual tone and intense gaze made you immediately melt, you turned away quickly pressing your cool hands against your face hoping to cool it down.
Alvara let out a melodious giggle at her darling’s reaction, “but to answer your previous question, I am here for a bit of both, I require some colourful flowers, I trust you to pick out something nice. Besides I have missed our little conversations and more importantly, I have missed you.”
“Oh, that is rather sweet of you to say, uh yes…” You lost your train of thought as you got lost in Alvara’s icy blue eyes and although they unnerved you to an alarming extent, you couldn’t deny how beautiful they were or how there was such an intense pull to her like a moth to a flame.
You snapped back into your thoughts with a shake of your head “anyway! I suppose I should get those flowers for you then.”
Although you tried not to act awkward and flustered Alvara just seemed bring it out of you whenever she opened her pretty pink lips. Why did this woman have such a hold over you, but why did she also scare you? You wondered what it was about Alvara that made you feel this way. You took a deep breath and tried to focus on choosing the perfect set of flowers humming as you walked about the back of the store picking and choosing things as you did, creating an image of how you were going to arrange them in your head.
You came back into the front room trying to avoid eye contact with Alvara for the time being, giving yourself a mental pep talk as you arranged and tied them all up. You huffed proudly looking at your handywork before picking it up and finally looking up to see the amused smirk of Alvara.
“I hope it’s colourful enough for you, I added all of my favourites, so I do hope you like it.” You rambled out with a bashful smile painted across your face.
Alvara leaned forward, so that her hands were pressed up upon the bench that separated them not breaking eye contact for a second. “You really are the cutest little thing I have ever had the pleasure of setting eyes on, my dear Name.” You stood there stiffly, not being able to break your gaze from that intense stare of the vampire in front of you, trying to stutter out a curt and hopefully not awkward thank you.
Alvara finally broke the eye contact with an amused shake of her head, stepping away from the counter and finally allowing you to breathe again.
“I have a proposal; one I have made before but that is beside the point. I do hope that you agree to it, for your sake and mine.” The underlying threat sent a shiver down your spine the kind of shiver that reminded you of the time you first met, goosebumps rose upon your skin as Alvara made slow purposeful steps towards you. “I am sure that you have noticed my fondness for you, my darling, I believe I have made it quite obvious and although I do realize that you have rejected me before I am not the kind of woman who takes no for an answer especially when it concerns something that I want. So, I would like to propose the idea of you being mine. Which I know is quite blunt, but you see, I have been alone for a very long time, most of my existence in fact and whilst I have chosen the life of solitude I long for a partner whom I can spend the rest of my life with.”
You wanted to move, to get away, but your limbs would not comply, it was as if Alvara’s icy cold stare had you frozen, the anticipation of the woman approaching you had the hair on the back of your neck rising. It wasn’t long before you were face to face, closer than you would’ve liked. Alvara smiled as she laid her cold hand atop your face stroking it in such a loving way it startled you.
“I know that you are aware of my power within the kingdom and that I am a ruthless woman but do not let that scare you, my darling, because I can assure you that I would be the most generous lover, a lover who would protect and treasure you, treat you exactly how deserve to be treated. So, I ask you again, be mine?” Her voice held such a sense of power and conviction that it made you want to agree, but you were hesitant, something was telling you that something was not quite right here, as it always had. There was a danger, a warning, in her words. It was possessive and quite frankly terrifying, a feeling that you often felt around the ice-cold woman, nothing of a warmth and security that you associated with love.
The fear snapped you out of your frozen stupor as you pulled Alvara’s hand off of your cheek and took a step back, creating a much-needed distance between them. “I am terribly sorry, Alvara, but I just cannot accept your invitation. You are a lovely woman, and anyone would be lucky to have you as a partner, but I am not your person, I am not your future lover. I have told you before that I am not interested and, sadly, that has not changed. I am simply just not interested in any kind of relationship; my flower shop means too much to me and I would much rather focus on that. I hope you understand, but I think you need to leave now.”
A dark shadow fell across the woman’s face, your blood went cold as you saw the change of expression and suddenly you felt that you were in great danger.
“You really are a funny one, Name, you really think that you can say no to me, I told you I do not take no for an answer. You will accept me because if I can’t have you no one can.” Her voice was level and calm, but it did not hide the cold anger it held as she closed the distance between you.  “That little speech of yours will not deter me, my love, I always get what I want.” Alvara tugged you closer to her as a strong arm curled around your waist and a hand gripping the back of your neck as she pulled her darling into an aggressive yet passionate kiss. You tried in vain to pull away from the bruising kiss, but Alvara would not budge instead deepening the kiss much to your dismay biting the lips of your aggressor in hopes of pulling the leech off of you.
Alvara pulled away, blood smeared on her bottom lip as she laughed cruelly, “you really are full of surprises, oh god I love it when you squirm in my arms.” She giggled intensely as she licked away the blood on her lips keeping that dreaded eye contact with the object of her twisted affections.
“Get out of my fucking shop.” You heaved, huffing with unrestrained anger.
She put her hands up in mock surrender, “now, now, darling, I think you should take a deep breath.”
“Shut up, just shut up.”
“Mm, I like this feisty side of you, Name.” She purred, starting to take a step closer to but you decided enough was enough and armed yourself with a sturdy wooden bat.
“I will not say it again, get out of my fucking shop.” Your voice was hard and red hot with anger.
Alvara hung her head and chuckled quietly, “I will leave but only because you asked me so nicely.”
You did not reply instead choosing to stare the vampire down, not putting your weapon down until Alvara had left and that you were sure you were safe. The wooden bat fell to the ground with loud clutter as the dams broke and loud sobs fell from your lips, you covered your mouth and cried and cried. Emotions of anger, fear and disgust clouding your mind. You found yourself curled on the floor hugging your body close in a way to comfort your broken psyche, you really should’ve listened to yourself when you thought that Alvara was bad news, but it was too late now.
❥ ❥ ❥
THAT DAY WAS only the start of your personal hell. After what felt like years of torment from a particularly icy woman you had decided to move away from Iridesiah and although Leonidas had told you he could protect you, you both knew that Alvara was a powerful woman, she had said so herself, and that she would not go down so easily.
You had taken to moving around every 10 years or so which in grand scheme of how long a vampire lives for, is a very short of time. All you wanted was a simple peaceful life where you could have a flower shop quite like the one, you had before all of this madness, and so the cycle of running and hiding began.
It was starting to become tiring this whole running thing, you had no place to call home, no constant in your life because of that god forsaken woman. Yet despite this you always managed to get away, again and again, you slipped through the cracks. Although you were constantly being hunted, long ago you had decided that you wouldn’t let that stop you from doing what you wanted and going where you wanted. You were your own person, and you wouldn’t let Alvara dictate her life, not now and hopefully not ever.
Looking out the window, you observed the miles and miles of lush green that surrounded your temporary abode, it was most certainly your favourite place you’d ever lived, surrounded by nature and flowers was where you belonged. Sure, you missed the company of others, but you couldn’t have any sort of partner, platonic or not, for you did not want to subject them to this life, a life where their every waking moment could be their last. You’d learnt that the hard way, when Alvara said if she couldn’t have you no one could, she sure as hell meant it.
You sipped from your mug of piping hot tea curling up into a ball as you thought about the past, about the woman who claimed to love you.
It had been a long time since you’d been around so many people, it was a slightly odd feeling but one that you found that you’d missed. The loud chatter of people all around you was comforting, you were truly enjoying yourself, listening to the street music and dancing around with the locals, it had been a long time since you’d felt peace like this. If only every day you could be surrounded by people who held such warmth and kindness to them, the rich scent of food only added to your sense of peace and comfort.
Walking around the market stalls and trying new food, talking to new people, and looking at all they had to offer felt like a dream, it was truly the best day you’d had in a long time, if only it could last forever. But alas, that was not the way things were planned, they never stayed peaceful for long, not when a certain someone was watching your every move.  
“That necklace would look so pretty around your throat, my dear.”
Your whole body went stiff. Every fibre of your being screamed for help, screamed for you to run, for you to get away from the very person whose body was wrapped around your own, pulling you away from the crowd and into an isolated alleyway.
Alvara placed a kissed upon your neck hugging your smaller body to her own, “you have no idea how much I’ve missed you, your body, your scent, everything about you.” Her face was buried into your neck, placing kisses all upon your neck and shoulder, laving her tongue over the supple skin.
That very action caused you to break out of her terrified stupor, you jerked your elbow back into Alvara, catching her off guard so that her tight grip around your waist loosened, and you were free to escape.
You gasped for air as you felt life being breathed back into your veins, you felt the need to run, to escape, it was the only thing on your mind, a one-track thought.
You raced through the streets, stumbling, and pushing past people left, right and centre, you didn’t have time to feel sorry for the people you were pushing past, for you could not be caught by Alvara. A woman so determined, so ruthless, that if you were ever truly caught, you would never have the chance to escape again. You knew Alvara was hot on your tail, she was a general for a reason.
You came to set of stone steps, you didn’t know where they led but you didn't have the luxury of time to think or plan or anything for that matter all you could do was run and hope for an escape route to appear. The adrenaline was starting to wear off and you didn’t know how much longer you could run for, you hoped that these stairs would lead to an escape one where Alvara could not follow.
Vines and trees pulled at your clothes tearing your skirt and shirt in the process, drawing your precious blood, you heard a snarl behind you that was unmistakably Alvara’s, you forced your tired limbs to move faster with the mantra of don’t look back, don’t look back, running through your head. Escape was the only option, you could do it, you’d done it before, this time wasn’t any different. Yet the cold grip of fear had set it’s sights on you and you couldn’t help but wonder if this time would be different, what if Alvara managed to catch you this time because surely she wouldn’t let you go, she’d been chasing you for this long why would she stop now.
You tried not to let these thoughts take control you had to focus on getting away, on getting home, or rather the place you’d fortified to keep yourself safe from Alvara. Until you came to a stumbling holt, beholding the cliff face with such a drop you felt her stomach churning at the sight alone. A dead end, the only way you could get away would be to jump, a terrifying feat but one you would make to escape the woman coming up behind you.
“There’s nowhere left to go Name. Give up won’t you, I’m beginning to tire of our little game.” Her voice was raised and slightly breathless from the earlier pursuit.
You laughed but there was nothing humourless about this situation, “you think this is a game, this is my life, Alvara, and you won’t let me live it because of your sick fucking fantasies. Accept that I will never be yours, just accept it.” Your voice trembling with barely restrained anger, tears began to well up in your eyes, emotions you didn’t like to feel taking over your body.
“Just- just let me go, Alvara, for the love of God please. Just let me have peace.” Tears fell from your eyes, you were just so tired, voice wobbling with defeat.
“You know I can’t do that Name, dear, you were mine the moment I set eyes on you and my belongings, my possessions, I never let them go. I would never let you go; you mean so much to me-” She moved closer, hoping to catch you off guard.
“That’s fucking bullshit! You don’t love me, you don’t care about me, you just want to own me, and I won’t let you.” You let herself fall backwards, down the side of the cliff and into the deep blue abyss.  
You heard Alvara scream your Name but all you could do was smile, you were successful, you were free, but there was that lingering thought at the back of your mind asking yourself how long you had left? How long could you really keep running?
Today would be a risky day, that much was clear, but you hadn’t seen Leonidas in hundreds of years, and you missed your friend dearly, it had been hard to see each other due to Leonidas’ kingship and your own predicament with Alvara.
You hummed a tune as you dolled yourself up for the event ahead, you arranged your hair and such, pulling on a beautiful silky dress to match. You smoothed the beautiful fabric enjoying the feeling beneath your fingertips, you didn’t know what would happen tonight but all you could hope for was peace, it was the only thing you had ever wanted. You slipped some shoes on and grabbed your bag before making your way out of your beloved home and into the unknown.
❥ ❥ ❥
YOU GRINNED, ENJOYING the company of the people around, enjoying the company of others, a feat you didn’t have the opportunity to enjoy often. The music, the chatter, the noise, it was beautiful, and you felt herself bask in it, you had missed this.
“Name!”
You turned at the warm voice, a voice you had dearly missed, “Leo!” You threw yourself into his welcoming embrace not caring about others who would surely judge you for such a careless action especially one regarding the King of Iridesiah.
“Name, I have truly missed your company, it's wonderful to see you again. How has life been treating you?” He asked pulling away from their tight embrace, hands resting on your arms.
You smiled softly, yet despite its softness it held an overwhelming sadness to it, “you know it’s the same old, same old, running and hiding. But don’t worry about me I can handle it; I’ve handled it for the last few hundred years.”   
His eyes mirrored the sadness in her smile, “I wish I could do more for you Name, I really do, but it really isn’t so simple. If I were to try and protect you, she would overthrow me and that would have disastrous consequences.”
“Oh Leo, of course, I know this, I know you cannot do anything to help. I’m sorry for bringing it up, we should be happy, we should treasure our limited time together.” You wiped the brewing tears from your eyes not letting a single drop fall, this was supposed to be a happy reunion, you should be enjoying yourself.
Leonidas smiled at you placing a comforting hand on your cheek, allowing you to nuzzle into his palm enjoying the moment of affection. “I know something that will cheer you up, how about we get you some cake?” You smiled a beaming smile at the offer, as the two of you talked for hours over cake and other delicacies that were on offer, but soon he would have to leave your side and be the King again, he promised to return later on the evening and left you with a parting hug.
You ended up venturing on towards the ballroom deciding on dancing to the beautiful jazz being played, moving your body to the rhythm letting it take over, relinquishing control to the beautiful symphony.
That was until your peace, your enjoyment was cut short. You felt the cold presence of a woman you knew all too well, her muscled arms snaked their way around your waist, constricting your movement.
“Fancy seeing you here, my dear. Rather bold of you to turn up to an event like this, knowing that I would be here.” She giggled, tracing soft circles onto your exposed flesh, the very flesh she dreamed of biting into.
“I didn’t come here for you, Alvara.” Your voice barely above a whisper.
Alvara spun her darling around, keeping her arm firmly wrapped around your waist, faces mere millimetres from each other, “god I love the way you say my name.” Her voice was desperate and breathy, it was so strange to hear her sound so vulnerable.
She moved her lips towards to your ear, “I would give anything to hear you moan it.”
Your eyes widened by the bold statement, ears burning with embarrassment, you were used to Alvara’s cold nature not this desire-stricken woman before her. It almost seemed as if a dam had broken, as if Alvara had finally had enough, enough of their so-called game.
“Let me go Alvara.” You felt so defeated, so useless, so hopeless. You didn’t know how much longer you could handle these feelings.
She placed her hand upon your face, “you know I cannot do that my darling; you are mine; you will always be mine. I have loved you for hundreds of years and that love has never wavered, in fact, how does the saying go? Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
Tears dripped down your face, revealing a scared darling doe behind, “you don’t love me, you wouldn’t be hurting me if you truly loved me.”
Alvara gripped your face harshly bringing your faces closer together with a snarl, “don’t you dare question my love for you.” Your eyes locked eyes for a few intense seconds before she loosened her grip and wiped the fallen tears away from your face.
“Aren’t you tired? Why must you keep running my dear, when you can just give in. I can give you the love that you desire, I can show you the world's greatest pleasures, I am a generous lover my darling Name. You would want for nothing under my care, you would have a home, a lover, a partner. You would no longer be alone. You don’t have to run anymore, Name. Please, be mine?” She caressed her darling’s face trying to convince you to finally give up and fall into her awaiting grasp.
“Just say yes, that’s all you have to do, Name.”
You stared up into her eyes, lips trembling as you fought to keep your composure. It had been so long since you went on the run, what even was the reason why she couldn’t even learn to love Alvara? You could hardly even put your finger on the exact reason, did you even have a reason? Was it even worth all this pain fighting against a woman who would never quit, a woman who would never stop chasing you even if it was to the ends of the earth? Would it be so bad to give into Alvara? Would it really be that bad? You would finally have peace, a home, a constant in your life.
“Okay.” Your voice was soft, defeated and broken down.
A huge grin grew upon Alvara’s face, “Oh Name, I’m so glad you’ve finally come around. I have been waiting for this moment for too long, you have made the right choice that I can assure you. Let’s go home, I shall take great care of you, I promise.”
With her arm still around your waist she guided you toward the exit, you looked back hesitating for a moment as your met eyes with Leonidas, his own eyes widened filled with shock, fear, worry, but he could do nothing. Even though he was the king, holding all that power still wasn't enough, he couldn’t even save his best friend from the greatest monster of all.
“Come, my dear, we must make up for lost time.”
And with that your fate was sealed, you just hoped it would be peaceful.
38 notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 1 month
Text
tw - dub/con, afab!reader, cockwarming, medical malpractice, nonconsensual drug use, manipulation, unbalanced power dynamics, and obsessive behavior.
[commissioned piece. donate to palestinians in gaza here.]
Tumblr media
“It really is a shame to lose such a lovely patient.
His hand drifted from your thigh to your hip, rocking you back as you tried to squirm away from him. He was too deep, too big, and you’d been sitting on his cock for too long. Whenever you tried to shift your weight, though, the arm wrapped around your waist would tighten its hold and drag you back into place, leaving your ass slotted against his hips and your cunt struggling to clench around his base. You didn’t know how long he’d kept you like this, but it must’ve been longer than an hour, if not two, three, four. Despite your foggy senses, you could feel slick dripping down your thighs, an empty void in the pit of your stomach where pleasure should’ve been. You could remember hearing that Harper was a good doctor, but that couldn’t be right. Doctors weren’t supposed to make you feel so bad.
“I mean, I know it should be a doctor’s goal to see their patients off as happy and as healthy as can be, but—” He paused, sighed, and you could picture him rolling his eyes, feigning wistfulness as he let out an airy chuckle. “Good, obedient patients can be so rare, especially in a town like this. I’m allowed to mourn the loss of my best charge yet, aren’t I?”
You felt him twitch inside of you, and in search of a distraction, your gaze fell to the collection of papers fanned out over the desk in front of you. You knew you were supposed to be reading them, but the text seemed so impossibly small, and your last round of medication was still clouding your senses, making it hard to focus on much of anything beyond the throbbing in your core, the feeling of his cock stretching you open despite your body’s best attempts to force him out. You could recognize the phrases, signal out words like ‘unfit’ and ‘dependent’ mixed in with the rest of the benign text, but when you tried to put it all together, none of it made sense. It was all you could do to check the boxes Harper pointed to, sign your name on any dotted lines that hadn’t already been filled by his. You could only hope that, when you finished, he’d let you stand up, get off of him, go back to your cozy room with its nice, soft padded walls. You couldn’t imagine having to sleep in his office, again.
“And you’ve been so cooperative, too,” he went on, his chin coming to rest on your shoulder. You felt his lips against the shell of your ear, then your cheek. “Always taking your medication, always following your treatment plans, always coming to our little sessions with an open-mind – the pinnacle of an ideal patient. Honestly, sometimes I think I could tell you to stick your hand in a vat of boiling water, and you’d do it with a smile on your face. All for the sake of your recovery, of course.”
It was him moving, this time – shifting forward until your stomach was pressed against the blunt edge of his desk and he was all-but draped over you, his body pressed flush against yours. You let out a pitchy whine by way of protest, but Harper didn’t seem to notice, only humming as his hand found yours. “Almost done, little mouse. Just one more page.” He was practically cooing as he took you by the wrist, guiding your hand to the bottom of the final page. Two thick, cutting lines occupied most of the available space, his neat signature taking up the first. He brought you to the second, almost daunting in its vacancy, his index finger tapping against the back of your hand. “You remember your name, right? Can you write it for me?”
It was so hard to think, to stay awake, to try and remember a time where he hadn’t been planted so deeply inside of you. “If…” you started, only to trail off. You blinked once, then twice, and did your best to force your tongue to move. “If I do, can I go home?”
Usually, Harper hated it when you talked about the orphanage, about school, about home. You hadn’t meant to, you just wanted to go back to your room, and you moved to correct yourself, to promise that you didn’t want to be anywhere but this hospital, his hospital before he frowned and prescribed you another electrotherapy session, another dose of the small, white pills that left your thoughts blurred and your body hot. But, anything you might’ve been able to spit out died with a breathy laugh, a peck to the corner of your jaw. “Of course,” he purred, rocking his hips gently against yours. “Sign, and I’ll take you home tonight.”
For the first time in weeks, you felt yourself start to smile. Hastily, smudging the ink more than once, you scrawled your name across the brutal line, dropping the pen and going slack against Harper as soon as you were finished. There was another open-mouthed kiss to your throat, then the dip of your shoulder, and he dragged you back onto his lap with a playful squeeze to your thigh, a grin pressed into the crook of your neck. You squirmed unabashedly, now, your hands  graspingly weakly at the arms of his chair in hopes of pulling yourself to your feet, but Harper held you tight. “Where do you think you’re going, little mouse?”
“I need to— You said I could go—”
“Just give me another minute, darling.”
His cock pulsed against the walls of your cunt, and you felt something break open inside of you.
“I want to appreciate this moment before we get you to proper, brand-new home.”
2K notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 1 month
Note
Anything with Praeripio or continuing the previous story, I loved the vibe in the story
YES, it's actually one of my favorites that I have written so far!!
I did a follow up recently here and I want to flesh out Amoura’s character a little more.
I’m not quite sure the direction I want to take ngl. I am stuck between having a formal plot or just loosely tied stories. We will see ig
12 notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 2 months
Note
if you could do a fem!yandere whos possessive but gentle and is trying to force feed the fem!reader, bonus points if the fem!yan is keeping the reader at her home!!
Coactu
Female Yandere X Fem Reader
Warnings: Talk of previous drugging, Talk of previous kidnapping, talk of force feeding, tied up, pet names (Sweetie, Good girl, Baby, Dear)
A/N It has been over a year since I added to Amoura's story T_T for those of you asking, don't worry I have a few things lined up for her. University is kicking my ass so I have had to lock in and study for a while.
Tumblr media
“Come on, it’s been two days since you last ate”
You grimaced and turned your head away from her, causing Amoura to sigh.
It had been two days since she pulled you from your bed and took you to her home. Two days since she ripped your life away from you all the while saying it’ll be good for you, better for you to be hidden away from the world.
Your first day was spent being nauseous and out of it from the sedative. Almost wishing to be knocked out again if it meant avoiding the sedative’s hangover. Now, she had you cuffed to a chair with a couple of dishes in front of you. Knowing her, there was a good chance that the food was drugged. If it was not your food, then it would be your drink. you couldn't trust her after she kidnapped you, and rightfully so. No sane person would just blindly trust whatever their kidnapper gave them, regardless of how hungry they were.
Your stomach grumbled loudly, snapping you out of your thoughts. Amoura giggled, a prideful look on her face.
“I know you’re hungry, dear.” She waves a slice of buttered bread in front of you. “Be a good girl for me, you need to eat.”
Much to your stomach’s dismay, you still refuse. Amoura frowns and lets out a tired sigh.
“I really didn’t want to force you, sweetie, but you’re not giving me a choice here.” She steps towards you, causing you to pull against your binds. "Either you eat the food or I'll make you eat it, and we both know you don't want that. It's much better to eat it on your own isn't it?"
She has a point, but really there were no good options.
"I'm not eating that." You glared at her, "You probably drugged it, or worse."
Amoura shot you an offended look before taking a deep breath and exhaling through her nose.
"I did NOT drug it, but I might have to since you keep refusing to eat." She smiles, and you shrink a little into your chair. "you certainly can't fight if you're all drugged up, huh?"
She places the bread down and gets up, going towards the door, laughing a little as she hears you begin to struggle and call out for her.
"oh so now you want to eat, huh?" Amoura turns in the doorway, considering your pleas, "How do I know you won't just spit it out on me. I saw that look earlier."
"I won't, please just...don't drug me, I can--I will eat, please don't drug me again."
She takes a second to consider, but seems to decide to trust you, and you're glad for it. It may be drugged, but at least she won't be injecting you with whatever she used when she kidnapped you. You didn't want to feel that sick again.
Smiling, Amoura picks up the bread and slides onto your lap, straddling your legs, before holding the slice of bread up.
"Open wide, baby."
Tumblr media
233 notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 3 months
Note
I'm pretty obsessed with idea of Chrollo watching his darling putting on lipstick
chrollo absolutely lives for it. it's a visual delight — observing how you pucker your lips, blending pigment like an artist. especially since he's the one who picked out every last cosmetic item in your possession. he did take your preferences into account, but his were given the highest priority. bold, matte reds are what he adores on you most. there's something about that classic look that gets him going. especially if you're drinking from a crystal glass... the lipstick stain left on the rim puts high art to shame. no he's not normal in the slightest.
then there's that cute look of concentration on your countenance. your eyebrows scrunching together, breath held in anticipation as you try to apply it just so. he'll maintain immaculate control over his aura, obscuring his presence to you.
while chrollo does favor a matte finish for lipstick, the man gives lip gloss its due respect. should you pay close attention, you'll note that he kisses you on the lips less if you wear the former. instead, he lavishes your neck and the inner pulse of your wrist his his ardent affections. who is he to smear such a masterpiece? such an act is sacrilege.
when your lips have that light sheen to them, however... the temptation outweighs his self-control. it's like your inviting him to do as he pleases. expect for this unintended invitation to be greedily accepted.
660 notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 4 months
Text
A Diplomatic Error
cw: enemies to lovers, kidnapping, being tied up, manhandling, size difference, non-human genitalia, oral sex, vaginal sex, unprotected sex
male orc x fem reader
Word count: 9k
You were headed to another counsel meeting. You never really stopped attending them, despite the fact that they never listened to a word you had to say. 
Your father said it was good for morale. You didn’t understand how watching someone sit around and not help was good for anyone’s morale, but you knew better than to question him. 
The halls of the palace were quieter than you were used to. Almost everyone had been called to the front lines, even your closest guards had gone. You weren’t used to walking alone, nor were you accustomed to the typically lively castle looking like a ghost town. 
So now you walked through the castle halls, more alone than you’d ever been before, no one there to wait on you, to protect you, to watch over you. Something in you said it should have felt freeing. 
It didn’t. It just felt lonely. 
As you walked, moving slowly as you wallowed in self-indulgent pity between war meetings, a pair of hands reached out of nowhere, one snaking around your waist to pull you back into the shadows while the other clamped firmly over your mouth. 
When the guards had been sent away, you’d been assured that you’d be safe. It wouldn’t exactly be easy for a hulking orc to sneak in undetected. At least that's what you'd been told. With a massive hand that dwarfed your face locked over your mouth, suddenly the idea didn’t seem so ridiculous.
You thrashed under the figure's unwavering grip to no avail. He easily held you in place, barely needing to put any effort in to stop your desperate bid for an escape. 
You weren’t one for swooning but suddenly a faintness came over you. You reached up to grab at the only stable thing in reach, hands wrapping around the figure’s arm, trying to keep yourself upright. 
Your knees began to buckle and only then, mind slowed by whatever he’d dosed you with, did you begin to suspect foul play. Maybe something on his skin that humans were weak to, maybe something in the air. Was he holding a cloth? You didn’t think so. But then again, he seemed so far away not, even pressed up against you as he was.
You blinked your heavy eyes and when you opened them, you were thrown over a large shoulder. You watched the road behind you as the creature holding you strode along, still blind to what was ahead. His hand was wrapped around your waist, keeping you firmly in place, jostling you only slightly with each step. 
It took you a second to gather your bearings enough to start struggling. Once you did, you started pounding on his back. It was a futile gesture but you were nothing if not persistent. At the very least, he knew you were awake now. 
His shoulder shook under you as he chuckled. “Good morning, princess,” he said, his gravelly voice carrying across the road.
“Put me down, you brute!” you shouted, trying your best to kick your feet under heavy skirts. If you'd known you'd be getting kidnapped today, you'd have worn something lighter. 
He paused and for a moment you thought maybe he'd listen to you. But you knew better than that, knew you'd have no say in any of this.
“As you wish.”
Your feet were planted on the ground, although he still had a heavy arm on your shoulder, holding you in place. A silent promise: you weren't going anywhere. 
You whipped around, eager to see what was in front of you instead of the increasingly distant road you'd been traveling on. 
You got your first look at the front of your captor, no longer flung over his shoulder. 
Despite it being part of the little information you already knew about him, the first thing you noticed was that he was massive. He towered over you, with a broad frame to match. Tusks stuck out of his mouth as he sneered down at you, marring an almost handsome face. 
You’d never actually seen an orc in person and despite years of being at war with them, it struck you suddenly that they were real. They were real and in front of you, no longer threatening figures discussed in crowded rooms you weren’t supposed to speak in but instead a real man in front of you with his hand on your arm. It radiated warmth, applying a firm pressure that told you if he wanted to he could crush you underhand. 
In front of you, next to your very real captor, was a camp. The sort of camp you imagined soldiers slept in. You had no idea which side of the border you were on, disputed or otherwise. You hoped you were still in your own kingdom, but you had no way to know. It all looked the same from here. 
Amidst the massive canvas tents milled a dozen or so orcs. At your sudden appearance, they’d stopped what they were doing, all peering at their new guest. 
As they all stared at you, you panicked. Your feet started moving before your brain did. You managed to slip out from under your captor's grasp just in time to feel his hand dart forward, pushing you into the mud before you had a chance to get anywhere.
As you lay in the dirt, you heard something that sounded like orders being barked in a foreign tongue. 
And then you were being hauled to your feet. You didn’t have the presence of mind to be upset at the manhandling as you looked down at your body, the front of you almost completely covered in mud.  
You didn’t even have time to protest that before he cut you off. “Come on, m’lady. We have much to discuss.”
You crossed your arms, about to demand more respect from him before you were being lifted again and all you could manage was a surprised little squeak.
You watched helplessly as you were hauled into a nearby tent, all of the towering soldiers staring at you as you went. 
You were deposited less than graciously on the floor of the tent, left to flounder and find your bearing on your own as your captor moved to look at you. 
The tents were incredibly spacious, at least for someone of your size, the roof towering above you. 
He leaned down in front of you, tone condescending as he spoke. “Here’s what's going to happen. You’re a bargaining chip for us. We’ll get you home as soon as your father allows it, princess.” He said your title like an insult, spat it at you in a way that made you flinch. 
“And in the meantime?” you asked, trying your best not to look afraid. You'd make your way out of this with your pride intact. Well, as much of your pride as you could still manage to salvage as you stood there, covered in mud. 
You could barely see the deep red of your dress under the grime. You didn’t even know how much of it was from your fall and how much you’d picked up on the road. 
“In the meantime,” he said, “you will sit around until we need you.”
“Perfect.” You stood, futilely attempting to brush off your skirts as you did and taking a step towards the entrance of the tent. “Well, I should go find a place to rest until I am needed.” It was a long shot but you at least had to try.   
Your captor followed you as you backed slowly out of the tent. “I don’t think you understand what’s going on here.”
“What’s the harm in it? Where do you think I’m going to go?” you shouted, gesturing around you at the thick woods. “If I had a death wish, there are far better ways to satisfy it than getting lost in the forest. Attempting to kill you, perhaps.”
He nodded. “It would be more honorable, to die in combat against me.”
You groaned. “Yeah, sure, that’s what I meant. It’d be so honorable of me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go find somewhere to rest, maybe even clean myself.”
You managed to make it about two steps before his arm wrapped around your waist, lifting you as if you were a ragdoll.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
The words were hissed into your ear as he walked. You thrashed in his grip but it didn’t matter, he hauled you along just as easily. 
You were thrown into a new tent next to a massive wooden pole, staked into the ground in the center. 
He leaned down next to you, grabbing your arm, easily resisting your attempt to pull it away from him. As he easily held your wrists in one hand, the other reached back to pull out a length of rope. His hands were surprisingly nimble, threading rope around your wrists and securing you to the pole at the center of the tent with little difficulty. 
When he let his hands get a little too close to your face, you bit them as hard as you could, locking your jaw down on him. There wasn’t any strategy behind it, you couldn’t escape or go anywhere, but the way he hissed and yanked his arm back filled you with a little bit of self-satisfaction. That had to be worth something. 
He didn’t stick around long after. It seemed you had managed to piss him off at some stage in the kidnapping process. You couldn’t imagine when. 
Your first night in the orc camp was spent restlessly, pulling futilely at your bindings as you sat there on the floor. You tried not to wallow in your misery. This wouldn’t be forever. Your father would get you out of here, one way or another. Until then, you could put on a brave face. 
As the sun began to rise, the orcs’ curiosity in you seemed to reawaken. 
Occasionally a soldier would peek in the entrance of the tent, never for more than a few seconds, or you would see them silhouetted against the canvas, hovering nearby. When you got particularly frustrated you’d shout at them, the snorts of laughter your yelling drew from them only making you angrier. 
But anger was good. At least anger felt productive. 
You’d become accustomed enough to the curiosity of the soldiers that at first, when your captor returned, you didn’t notice it was him. It was only when he strode towards you and began to undo your bindings that you realized who he was. 
The second your bindings were undone, you made a break for it. You didn’t make it far. Your captor held you by your ankle, dangling you upside down, your various muddied skirt layers falling to cover your face as you struggled. 
“This will be easier for you if you behave,” he said, and you could hear a layer of irritation in his voice. 
You would've spat in his face if there weren't layers of fabric hanging in front of you. 
His attempts to right you were thwarted by your thrashing until you figured out what he was trying to do and attempted to still yourself as much as you could, if only to get your feet on the ground again. 
“We’re moving,” he said as you steadied yourself when returned back to solid ground. “I can carry you or you can walk.”
You opted to walk, both to preserve your dignity and to attempt to plan an escape. 
The soldiers were shockingly efficient, completely packing up the camp faster than you’d imagined possible. 
And then you were on the move. 
You had to move swiftly to keep up with them, none of the soldiers willing to slow for you. 
Your captor stayed diligently by your side, occasionally shooting you looks that seemed intended to tell you you had no chance of escape. You ignored him.
After about an hour of moving quietly, out of breath from all the walking, he was the one to break the silence. 
“You’re slow.”
“Your legs are longer than mine. Besides, it's hard to walk when you’re covered in filth” you said, struggling under stiff, heavy skirts. 
“And who is to blame for that?”
You gave him a pointed look. “In fact, I think you’ll find that you are.”
“You shouldn’t have run,” he said with a grunt. 
“You shouldn’t have pushed me!”
He rolled his eyes and then you were being hauled off the ground again. You yelped in protest but were quietly a little grateful as he sat you on his shoulder. If you had to keep moving at their pace all day, dressed as you were, you might’ve passed out. 
It wasn’t your fault you couldn’t keep up with a well-trained group of soliders. If anything, they should be impressed you managed to keep pace as long as you did. 
Your hand rested on his other shoulder as he moved, trying to keep yourself steady, but realistically, you knew he wouldn’t let you fall, his arm holding you easily in place. You were just glad you were being allowed to sit this time instead of being thrown around like a sack of potatoes. 
You spent the rest of the day like that, sitting on his shoulder as they traveled. As the sun began to set and the others began to set up camp, you expected to be set down. 
It seemed you were wrong. 
Instead of placing you on the ground or even tying you up again, he began to pace off in the opposite direction of the rest of the camp. 
Nerves began to take over you. He may have said nothing would happen to you, but you did not relish in the thought of being alone with him, let alone him intentionally dragging you away from the rest of his compatriots. 
You began to squirm again and his arm tightened, holding you in place. “Settle,” he said, his voice low and calm. 
You did not listen. 
Eventually, he did set you down, although you did not think your thrashing encouraged him to do so. 
As he did, you noticed the sound of a swift-moving river just behind you. 
He nudged you towards the river. “Clean. You’re too slow.”
“What?”
“You wanted to be clean,” he said, nudging you again. "You should clean”
“It’s a river.”
He looked at you like he was worried you’d hit your head. “It is.”
“And you expect me to wash in there? It’s full of dirt!”
He chuckled and you considered biting him again. “You’ll survive, princess.”
You groaned but decided that anything was better than the mud you were caked in. It was running water, at the very least. You weren’t certain why, but it did feel a little cleaner that way. 
You considered bathing fully clothed but you’d heard too many stories of women drowning, weighed down by layers of dresses. 
You began to pull at your dress, stripping off some of the upper layers, glaring at your captor as you did. It was too much to ask to be left alone, you knew that much, but it was still humiliating to get undressed in front of him like this. 
You only took off as many layers as you needed to ensure you wouldn’t drown. You were almost fully covered but still, you felt exposed. 
At the very least, he seemed largely disinterested in what you were doing, only sparing you the occasional glance. 
You covered your chest as you moved towards the water. He looked down at you as you did, head cocked to the side. “What are you doing?”
“The skirts are heavy, I can’t wear them in the water or I could drown.”
He scoffed. “Little weakling. That’s not what I asked though, why do you hide? You’re covered.”
“I’m being forced to strip to my underwear, of course I’m covering myself.”
He stared back, clearly still confused, and you realized as you looked at him that the idea of being properly dressed was probably not the same for him. He was covered, but largely in leathers and furs, with far more skin exposed than you would ever have, even now in your underskirts. 
“Listen,” you said, trying not to be too antagonistic, as it seemed he was truly trying to understand. “It’s different for us. Especially for me, I’m supposed to be covered perfectly at all times. Maybe you should give me new clothes.”
“Why would I do that?” he asked dismissively. 
Any patience you’d been trying to put on for him snapped. “Sorry, I forgot you’re a heartless brute, I don’t know why I asked.”
And with that, you stormed off into freezing cold water. 
The mud caking your skin began to wash off as soon as you touched the water and you let out a sigh of relief. The river looked to be snow runoff from a nearby mountain, it certainly felt cold enough for it, but for now all you wanted was to be clean. 
You looked down as you scrubbed at your skin and your skirts and as you did, you realized the whites of your underthings had become translucent in the freezing water. 
You turned and caught him staring, both looking away as soon as your eyes met. You turned your back to him immediately, feeling tears pricking at your eyes, trying to cover it up with the water that was rushing over you. It felt like you had nothing left, like this was the ultimate humiliation.
When you turned back to look at him once more, he was gone, not making so much as a sound as he left. 
You weren’t foolish enough to think he’d truly left you alone, but you appreciated having at least the pretense of privacy. It was shockingly… kind? 
No. You pushed the thought out of your mind as quickly as it occurred to you. You would not start thinking like that, not about the man who had kidnapped you. 
You finished bathing quickly, the chill starting to set into your bones. 
As you waded out of the river, he was still missing. It was evident where he’d been, massive orcs weren’t exactly built for stealth, but still he was nowhere to be found. 
In his stead, you found a pile of clothes lying on the bank of the river. As you lifted them, the first thing you noticed was while they were far too big for you, they were too big by human standards. It was an old shirt, well worn, and a pair of pants you’d have to find some way to tie to keep up properly. They were slightly torn and upon closer inspection, you found speckles of a dark rusty substance splattered across the shirt. 
Someone’s blood. From who’s side, you’d never know. 
You tried not to dwell on what had happened to the owner of these clothes to leave them in the orc’s possession. They were yours now. 
They were far more practical than your fine skirts had been, even if they didn’t quite fit properly. 
As you pulled them on, you hesitated, holding your skirts. You didn’t need them any longer, but it felt like a waste to just leave them here. 
But you had no time for sentimentality right now. You cast them aside, opting to forgo your shoes, despite the lack of new ones. Your shoes from the palace were not exactly built for forests and rough terrain. They’d only slow you down. 
As you finished dressing, situating yourself in the unfamiliar clothes as best you could, you looked around nervously. You could find no sign of your captor amidst the unfamiliar foliage, but you had more than enough reason to doubt yourself. You felt lost amidst the thick trees surrounding you, it was hard to tell where you stood. You didn’t know what to look for or how to orient yourself, trapped in a foreign landscape. 
You did what you could, checking for any onlookers, peeking through the trees, and once you’d made your decision, taking off. 
You had no idea where you were, or where you were running to, but anywhere was better than here. There were surely search parties looking for you and even if you were on the other side of the border, orc civilians or soldiers who were unfamiliar with your status were a better bet than your current captors. 
As your bare feet pounded down on a floor of sticks and rocks, you tried to ignore how cut up they were getting. 
You were faster this way. That was what counted. 
You focused on moving as fast as you could, the determination drowning out the pain until suddenly, the sharp rocks and twigs were underfoot no longer. Your brain took a second to catch up, feet still moving down to try and push off of a ground that was being pulled further and further away.
“Predictable little thing,” said a familiar voice beside you. “What happened to attempting to best me in combat? I didn’t take you for a coward, princess.”
A frustrated scream escaped you, cutting through the peaceful quiet of the forest. 
Despite your protests, he continued to haul you back towards the camp, tying you up as soon as you reached your tent, a practiced routine for the two of you by now. 
You had the night to sleep off your anger before morning came and you were on the move again. 
Your captor did not wait before lifting you onto his shoulder and this time, you did not fight him. It was preferable to running to keep up with them, especially on newly damaged feet. 
It felt strange to sit there, without struggling or screaming, just moving in silence. So instead, you spoke. 
“Do you have a name?”
“Drakar,” he said. His voice was low but with your position atop his shoulder, it was easy to hear him, even over the bustle of moving soldiers. 
“Thank you for the clothes,” you tried again, wanting to start up any sort of conversation to break the silence.
He didn’t even grace you with words this time, giving you a simple acknowledging grunt in return. 
His answers remained brief, with no apparent interest in engaging in conversation. Eventually, you stopped trying. 
When you came to a stop and the soldiers began to set up camp around you, you waited for your chance. 
The second Drakar turned his back to you, you were off. 
Another orc caught you in a heartbeat, hoisting you off the ground until Drakar could come fetch you. 
He dragged you off with a huff, scowling at you as he set you down. “Why do you continue to fight and run? I’ve told you of our plans to trade you, you’ll fare better with us than on your own in the wilds.”
“I have no desire to be a bargaining chip against my own people. Besides, I’m no fool. I know good things don’t often happen to soldier’s prisoners.”
He scoffed. “Your soldiers, maybe. We have honor, unlike them. And you call us the monsters.”
“Monsters? Maybe. Uncivilized at the very least.”
“I assure you, your soldiers in my country are living in no more luxury than we are here.”
So you were still in your country, not yet over the border. If you could just get away, your chances were good. “Well, then they’re uncivilized dogs just like you,” you spat. 
He never seemed to find your outbursts anything other than vaguely annoying or passively amusing. Right now, he seemed inclined towards amusement, despite your latest escape attempt. It was for the best, that tended to work out better for you. It was irritating nonetheless. “Perhaps.”
Your enlightening conversation was cut short as a horn sounded, a familiar announcing horn. The sound of one of your people. Drakar’s head perked up and before you understood what was happening, your legs were being bound together, untethered but severely limiting your movement. You might be able to move like this, but you couldn’t get far. 
He did not feel the need to explain this to you or threaten you with hunting you down, trusting you to come to your own conclusions as he strode off in the direction of the horn. 
You might not be able to run, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t do anything. The least you could do was try to gather information, so you could be useful when you were saved.
If you were saved.  
You managed to scoot your way towards the back of the tent Drakar had retreated to, out of sight of any of the soldiers, just close enough that you could peek under the thick fabric of the walls. 
Drakar’s back was to you. You could barely see the messenger from your spot on the floor, his body blocking your vision. You could just see the tip of a feather, presumably stuck in a hat, bobbing as the messenger spoke. 
As you got close enough to listen in, you caught Drakar mid-sentence. “- does your king think about our terms for his precious daughter?”
You held your breath, trying not to get your hopes up. This was a war. They couldn’t just be giving in to the first demands given. This could be a long, arduous process. You understood that, would never blame him for it. The country came first. 
“The king rejects your terms.” You tried not to let it get to you. You knew this would probably happen, could understand exactly where your father was coming from. The messenger continued on, unaware of your quiet heartbreak. “Furthermore, he would like to close negotiations on this matter.”
You could not hold in the gasp that came at his words. You saw Drakar stiffen and knew he’d heard you, knew he’d figured out exactly what you’d been doing. A moment passed and he untensed his shoulders and continued on. You silently thanked him. You were in no state to face anyone right now. 
“What do you mean close negotiations?” he asked, and you choked back tears. 
You cursed yourself for putting yourself in such a tight spot. You didn’t think you could manage a quiet escape, at least not without being noticed, not in your current state, so instead you sat, a captive audience to a discussion of why your family had given up on you. 
The messenger cleared his throat. “We do not negotiate with beasts.”
“So he chooses instead to abandon his daughter with them?”
The messenger disregarded his words entirely, his voice squeaking as he cried out, “You creatures will pay for the loss of his daughter.”
“She is not lost yet. He is choosing that fate for her, not I,” he hissed out.
“I have said all I was bidden to say. Do you have a message for the king?”
“Tell him if I see him or any of his scrawny little messengers again, I’ll rip them in two.”
With a little yelp, the messenger retreated. Drakar stood for a moment, the sound of his heavy breathing filling the tent. 
After a moment, the canvas of the tent was lifted and your hiding place was revealed. You sat, crumpled, on the ground, bile rising in your throat. 
That was it. There was no one coming. 
He hauled you to your feet, undoing your bindings. 
“What did you ask for me?” you asked as he undid the ropes, keeping you propped up on him as he worked. 
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does!” you snapped. You needed to know what was so much more important than you, what you’d been given up for. “You will tell me. I’ve earned that much.”
“A full retreat. It never would have been taken, it was just supposed to be a start to the negotiations.”
“Hmm.” It was a ridiculous ask, obviously so. But to dismiss you completely? To not even try?
Drakar pulled you out of your thoughts with a question. “Would you even want to go back now? If I let you go?”
Your brows furrowed. “You can’t let me go. It would show weakness, show you’ll roll over if your terms aren’t met.”
“I know, it was just a question. So what do I do with you now?”
You shrugged. “You could kill me.”
“No. We won’t be doing that. I should have killed him, though. The audacity of them sending a little snot-nosed fool to tell me negotiations were over. I should’ve gutted him.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He spared you a look that said more than you were sure he wanted it to, rage and concern both written across his face. “I had other things on my mind.”
He tried to speak to you again but you’d begun to shut down. It was all too much, you could do no more. 
It didn’t seem too unreasonable a reaction. Your life had just ended, severed by your father without even a real rescue attempt. 
But even if you’d shut down, the world had not. 
And so it continued. Drakar seemed to have decided you were still useful somehow because every day you were hauled along with his troops, and every day you were given your own little tent. 
He didn’t keep you tied up anymore. It wasn’t because you’d become docile, you’d attempted many escapes and he’d found you and brought you back every time. You weren’t entirely sure why you were no longer being tied up. Maybe it was because you weren’t valuable anymore. 
You didn’t fully understand why you hadn’t been killed yet. What more could you do for them? 
As days passed, the grief lessened to more practical thoughts, thoughts about your future. What was there for you now? Why were you still here? What else could they want from you?
You wanted answers. 
You stood and stormed off. Several of the soldiers around you went to grab you until they realized that you were not headed out, but instead towards Drakar’s tent, letting you continue on your warpath. 
You started to shout as soon as you entered the tent and he whipped around to face you. “You should kill me. Why won’t you kill me? What do you want from me? Whatever it is, I won’t give it. I have nothing to give. I don’t understand what’s wrong with you.”
He watched your outburst with a level of amusement on his face that made you want to attack him. “Are you done?”
You ran at him, trying to claw at him, bite him, anything. He restrained you easily, pinning you against him, but still, it fed something in you, trying to do something.
You felt him chuckle behind you and if you weren’t pinned down, you would have attacked him again. 
“See,” he asked, and you felt the rumble of his voice through his chest. “You’ll be fine. You’re a fighter.”
“I will not fight for you,” you spat.
“I don’t expect you to. But you will fight for you. Nothing is over.”
He released you from his grip and before you could decide what to do with your newfound freedom, someone came crashing into the tent, armor shining a bright silver. He stood, ready to attack, sword in hand, but the second he saw you he froze. “You’re dead,” he choked out, words muffled through the metal of the armor. 
You didn’t have a chance to respond before Drakar had thrown him halfway across the camp, orc soldiers rushing over to finish him off. He didn't stand a chance.  
You stared at the spot he had just been in, processing his words, before slowly turning to Drakar. 
“What was that?”
“An attacker. A foolish little man.”
You shook your head. “No not… why did he think I was dead?’
“Princess, the whole world thinks you’re dead.”
You head snapped up to look at him. “Why?”
“Because I told them.”
You reeled back. “Why would you do that? I didn’t ask you to say that.”
“Your people didn’t seem to care.”
“Oh, thank you so much then. As long as they didn’t care, then it’s fine. You speak of honor and then do this. Why? To torture me? Make sure I have nowhere to go and ensure that I know I am not loved?”
You’d had enough of this conversation, turning heel and storming off without another word, set on putting as much distance as possible between you and them. 
You vaguely heard orders being barked to follow you, but that didn't stop you from running. 
It didn’t change anything. No matter how far you ran, you had nowhere to go. 
Drakar didn’t follow you himself, instead sending someone else to do his dirty work. A few orcs stood behind you, easily able to keep track of you and match your pace. 
You weren’t even given a full hour of feigned freedom before one of them had picked you up and started pulling you back towards camp. You fought them the whole way. 
You were set down in front of him, the whole process embarrassing. You straightened your ill-fitted pants as you desperately tried to regain any ounce of dignity. 
Despite your appearance, he didn’t seem amused. “You shouldn’t run.”
“So you saw fit to have me kidnapped? Again?”
“I had to tell them you were dead,” he said, pushing past your outburst.
You scoffed. “You didn’t have to do anything.”
“I have orders to kill you. The negotiations failed, my people wanted you dead. It was the only way out of this for you.”
Oh. There was no reprieve for you on either side. You’d known your father had signed your death warrant with his refusal to negotiate but now the orders had been given. 
“Then why am I still here?” you asked, your voice smaller than you would’ve liked. 
“It is not just. I will not kill you.”
“So what now?”
“No one knows what you look like,” he said, his voice soft and low. “It doesn’t have to be over.”
It didn’t matter. Both sides had condemned you. You had your life, but nowhere you could live it. “I have nowhere to go,” you said, sounding braver than you felt.  
“You’ll find somewhere. Until then, there’s always room for you in my camp. I displaced you, the burden of this wrong falls to me.”
You rolled your eyes. “And none of your men will send word that you’ve kept me here?”
“As long as they get to keep staring at you, I can’t imagine they’d mind.”
Your nose wrinkled at his words. “These are your honorable men? Letting me stay for the right to keep ogling me?”
“It’s not so odd. They’re fascinated by you, such a strange little thing.”
You supposed you were strange and foreign to them, as they were to you. But surely you weren’t the first, not with the combat they must’ve seen. “You’ve seen humans before.”
“Some of them haven’t. At least, not living ones that aren’t trying to kill us.”
“Who said I’m not trying to kill you.”
He snorted. “Well, you’re doing a piss poor job of it.”
“And if I stay? I won’t fight my own people, even if I was trained in combat. You’ll just carry around dead weight?”
“You’re hardly dead weight. I don’t even notice you up on my shoulder half the time.”
“You know that’d not what I mean.”
“I do. There are towns over the border where you could stay.”
You looked up, curiosity gleaming in your eyes. “They’ll take me? A random human?”
He nodded solemnly. “They will, if you wish to depart. If not… I am the reason your people forsook you. I do not regret it, I did what needed to be done, but I regret what has come to pass to you because of it. You’ve faced this better than I ever thought a human would. They’re cowards to have cast you out, I will not follow in their steps. It may not be what you’re used to, I am no prince and we are no humans, but you’re welcome to stay at my home. You will never be a princess again, that was taken from you. I took that from you. It is only fair to give what I can in return. It is not much, but it is what I have.”
You smiled, swallowing down the lump in your throat and willing away the misty feeling in your eyes. “Thank you. I’d love to stay, if you’ll have me.”
It was no great concession from you, you weren’t exactly drowning in options, but it felt like choosing it all the same. It was no less of a choice than your last home had been, born into it and forbidden to ever really leave. 
This was being offered to you. You were being given the opportunity to say no. To run. 
As much as Drakar had angered and frustrated you in the past week or so, you weren’t sure you’d ever been given this much respect. Real respect, not the fake respect of being placed in war rooms and told to be silent. 
You gave him a final nod and a smile, adding a curtsy that you pulled yourself out of halfway through when you thought better of it, tripping over your feet a little as you did. 
His eyes crinkled as he smiled at you and you wondered how you’d never noticed it before. 
You went to bed that night feeling lighter, freer than you were used to. 
As you left your tent the next morning, you almost tripped over a deer carcass left in your doorway. 
You backed away slowly, rushing over to Drakar’s tent. 
He was barely dressed for the day, the sun having only half risen past the horizon, and gave you a smile and a nod as he saw you rush into his tent. “Good morning, princess.”
You barely let him finish his sentence before you blurted out, “Someone left a dead animal outside my tent.”
He froze, his shoulders tensing.
You watched, waiting for a response and getting none, before adding, “Should I be concerned? It felt like a threat. Maybe they don’t like that you lied for me, that you're protecting me. Maybe they don’t like me like you think they do.”
“It’s not a threat,” he said with a swift shake of his head. 
“How could you know?”
He explained it through barred teeth. “It’s an orchish courting gift. You’ve caught someone’s interest.”
Your breath caught in your chest. “Oh.”
“Oh indeed.” None of the tension had left him and he made no attempt to hide his irritation. “It’s odd, an orc taking an interest in such a frail little thing.”
You rolled your eyes. He was clearly upset that one of his soldiers had become distracted with you, maybe even disgusted at the prospect of one of them taking interest in a human of all things. Clearly your bonding the day before hadn’t taken you that far. 
“I don’t know, I’ve heard I can be quite charming.”
He ignored your statement completely, shifting closer to you as he spoke. “You should stay close to me until I can find out who left it and tell them off.” He was being strangely protective almost, the disgust you’d assumed would be there instead entirely absent. 
“Why would you tell off my suitor? Surely I should do that myself. Besides, why do you even ca-”
Oh. 
The reality of why someone courting you would make him protective set in and you looked up at him with wide eyes
You couldn’t help the shit-eating grin that plastered itself across your face. “Well, maybe I’ll accept it. I’ve got no future now, it couldn’t hurt to have a big, strong orc husband.” 
He stood a little straighter as he understood the implication. “You seek protection?”
“Hm, I do, thank goodness I’ve finally found a suitable option, I was really starting to worry.”
Frustration flashed through his eyes as he realized what you were doing. “Fine, we should go find this suitor so we can tell him how graciously you’re accepting this courtship. I, for one, will be glad to be rid of you. Now you’ll be someone else’s problem.” 
“We should. Unless there’s something you’d like to say?”
His nostrils flared as he glared down at you. “Nothing.”
“Are you sure? Nothing on your mind? Nothing like, I don’t know, having feelings for the, what is it you keep calling me? The weakling you kidnapped?”
He avoided meeting your eyes as he spoke. “Your force of will is admirable. The odds were against you but still you fought.”
You fought the urge to coo at him, at how flustered he looked and how it seemed like he was forcing out every word. You had no doubt he would rather have left you an animal carcass. You preferred it this way. 
“I’m going to need you to be more direct than that.” Your voice was patient and kind and you could tell it was making things a hundred times worse for him. 
“I had intentions to look into human courting, to find something familiar for you amidst so many new things you’ve been forced into. But given the situation, I suppose I can just tell you.”
“Tell me what?” you asked. You were going to make him say it, you didn’t care how long it took.
“About my intention to court you.” 
You giggled at his pained face and he relaxed a little, looking down at you with fondness in his eyes. You wondered when that had begun. You wished you’d been paying attention enough to notice. 
“What now?” he asked. “How do your human courtships go? I will do what I must.”
You thought about it, amusement flickering through you at the thought of Drakar trying to uphold the proper etiquette required while courting a princess. But the courting process was long and strained and if you were being honest, you preferred the brutal honesty you’d been given here at camp. “Frankly, I’ve had just about enough of how humans do it. What about you? We can skip the dead animal bit, but what comes next?”
He looked you up and down, some gears turning in his head that you were not privy to.
“I will have to be gentle,” he said, before hauling you over his shoulder and bringing you over to his bed of furs on the floor. 
Your eyes widened as the implication set in. You’d been far from the perfect princess, having your fair share of trysts with guards and servants over the years, but this was a different beast. 
And then he kissed you and you stopped thinking altogether. 
It was desperate and urgent, his lips figuring out how to move against your smaller ones and you reached up, pulling his face closer as he set you below him on his makeshift bed. 
He ground down on you, clothed hips moving to meet yours. Your disparate sizes meant to do so while kissing you he was contorted at a strange angle but he certainly wasn’t complaining. 
He stopped kissing you, rushing to pull off his off pants, and his cock slapped against your stomach, thick and hard and hot and you wanted him inside you now.
But when it fell against you, it hit just above your belly button and you thought that perhaps your eyes were a bit bigger than your stomach.
He seemed to realize the impracticality of it at the same time you did, a hearty laugh escaping him. “Don't worry, princess, I'll get you nice and stretched out.”
You chuckled nervously. “I don’t know if stretching will be enough.”
He slid down, hitching your shirt up and pressing a gentle kiss on your stomach. “I won’t hurt you. If you’re not ready, that’s fine. There are other things we can do.”
He shifted both of you with ease, pulling you to sit on his chest as he laid back on his bed. You looked down at him, brows furrowed. “What about your traditional orc courtship.”
That pulled another laugh from him. “What part of this do you think has been traditional? The closest we got to traditional was when you bit me.”
You flushed red, recontextualizing the memory and wondering how many of the things you’d been doing to anger him had also been part of traditional orc courtship. 
While you were busy blushing, he’d set to work on your pants, wrestling them off of you as he easily manhandled you. You barely helped, halfheartedly kicking them off. You remembered how much you hated being picked up by him when this had begun and how much that had changed. You were loathe to admit it but every time he lifted and moved you so easily, something stirred inside you. 
As soon as he got your pants off you were pulled roughly forward, his hands wrapping around your thighs as he pulled you onto his mouth. 
He ate you out with just as much urgency as he kissed you with, wasting no time before sliding his tongue through your folds. 
His grip was unforgiving, pulling you down so all of your weight was on him. 
His tusks dug into your inner thighs and he seemed to pull you impossibly closer as his tongue thrusted up inside of you. 
Even his tongue was almost too thick, you walls stretching to accommodate it. You hands grasped at his hair, needing something to hold onto. 
His mouth locked over your clit, sucking hard before moving back to thrust inside of you again, hands rising to play with your sensitive bud of nerves as he did. 
As you began to fall apart above him, writhing against the onslaught of sensation, he only doubled his efforts. 
You arched your back, your thighs clamping down on either side of his head, hips shifting with the waves of your orgasm that suddenly overcame you. He was content to let you ride it out, grip loosening to let you have your control as you moans filled the tent. 
You came down slowly and it took a few moments to realize you were still sitting on his face. 
You moved to sit beside him on the furs as soon as you did, your face warming. 
You shifted your head to rest against him, staring down at his cock as you did. It was impossibly hard and practically pulsing with need, and you made a decision you hoped you wouldn’t regret. 
“You know, it can’t hurt to try.”
He sat up immediately, eagerness evident in his face. “You’ll stop me if it’s too much.” It wasn’t a question but a statement. 
You gave him a knowing look. “Of course I will.”
He shifted you, lifting you over him and you were happy to give over control. You trusted him.
It felt even bigger pressed up against your entrance than it had on your stomach and you took a deep breath. You waited but as nothing happened, you realized that Drakar was waiting for your signal. 
No nodded and he began to lower you, incredibly slowly. As it pushed inside, you knew the girth was more than anything you’d taken before, but it was manageable. The stretch bordered on painful but it was slow and careful enough that you had time to adjust. 
And then, as it went further and further, it became too much, 
You winced long before he’d bottomed out, about half of it inside you. It was bordering on too painful and you pressed your hands against his chest, shaking your head. “No more,” you said quietly, already weak from your last orgasm. 
He didn’t seem to mind, holding you steady as he pressed you close to him, muttering quiet praises to you. 
You slowly adjusted, not ready to take more but more than happy with what was already inside of you. 
You shifted your hips a little, pushing it against a perfect spot inside of you, letting out a quiet moan as you did. 
He put a stop to it fairly quickly, holding you still. “I think I’ll just keep you there. You’re perfect, taking me so well.”
You writhed, trying to get the stimulation you were becoming desperate for but he held you steady easily. 
So you tried a new tactic. “Want more,” you said, voice soft and sweet. If that didn’t work you’d try yelling at him, see how that fared. 
“Careful, I promised I wouldn’t hurt you. You damn humans, so fragile.”
“I’m not fragile, you’re just too big.”
“Excuses, excuses.” Despite his words, he began to slowly move, shifting out of you before pushing in again, careful to not push past the point where you’d stopped him. 
He moved you up and down like it was nothing, careful even as he began to speed up, hips shifting a little to meet you, chasing after your warm cunt as he pulled you back up.
His breathing grew shaky as he did and despite feeling overwhelmed with sensation, you fought to keep your eyes open, to watch him come undone. 
As his grunts became more and more unruly, your walls clenched around him at the sight. 
He immediately pulled you up, leaving just the head of his cock inside of you as he filled you with thick ropes of come. 
His breathing was ragged and his grip on you tightened slightly, pulling you even closer to him. 
He looked down at you, eyes softer than you’d ever seen them, before pulling you off of him and settling back with you resting on his chest. 
You made an absolute mess of him as he did, with no chance of keeping the frankly absurd amount of come inside of you. 
He didn’t seem to care at all.
“We’re making a mess,” you said, despite suspecting the objection would fall on uncaring ears. 
“You said you wanted an orcish courting, the mess is traditional.”
You weren’t sure if you were cut out for a traditional orc courting, already squirming as your thighs were coated in his spend. 
But his chest was warm and his breathing steady and you couldn’t help but settle into the comfort of it. 
“I'm gonna fit all of it someday,” you said, meaning it fully.
He laughed. “Brave little thing, aren’t you? Dreaming big.”
You snorted. 
“What happens now?” you asked as you snuggled further into him. 
“You reject that fool's advances.”
You hummed happily. “I will. I guess I’m lucky I caught your eye, don’t know if I would've survived this if I hadn’t”
“I meant what I said. I wouldn’t have let them kill you. It wouldn't be right. And you would’ve managed even without me. You wouldn't be the first human to sneak away to our side.”
That surprised you. “I wouldn't?”
He chucked, hands running through your hair. “You wouldn't. We're a more accepting group, I've found. Although you are a weak little species, we don’t have much use for you. You’re lucky you're pretty or I don't know if we'd put up with you.”
You scrunched up your nose. “You didn’t decide to court me because you thought I was pretty though.”
“No,” he said, like you both already knew the answer. “I decided to court you because no matter how many times we stopped you, you never stopped trying to run, to fight.”
You sat up with a sudden urgency. “If I said I wanted to go home, to my father, would you let me?” 
You watched the panic flash across his face and some selfish part of you hoped it was panic over losing you and not panic over the consequences that could come if you showed up alive after his order to kill you.
He sat with it for a while and you let him, in no rush to pull an answer from him.
Finally, he seemed to find whatever he'd been searching for. “I would.”
“Good,” you said, a smug feeling welling up in your chest, right beside the warmth that had begun to fill you at his answer. “Then I'll stay.”
He tried and failed to hide his smile. “Good. Does that mean you’re done running from me?”
You grinned, knowing full well it didn’t. What would be the fun in that? “We’ll see.”
“I’m sure,” he said as he shifted the two of you, wrapping you up in furs to protect your modesty before picking you up once more, with one arm under your knees and the other below your back, keeping you close to his chest. “Now, let’s get you cleaned up, princess.”
5K notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 4 months
Text
Yandere!vampire x GN!Reader (HC’s)
Growing tired of a lonesome life he sets eyes on you but you can’t ever imagine yourself growing to love such a monster, he isn’t to worried believes you will come around at some point, he’s fine with waiting for a couple of centuries. For now he will just hang around and admire his first and only love; Possible Stockholm syndrome?
Tumblr media
No one, not even you, will ever know why you were taken from your house in a beautiful but sleepy European town during dusk; but people came up with theory’s. Most agreed upon was you had been taken by the monster who’d been terrorising the village people for years now, and there was nothing they could do about it. So the case was closed, your loss mourned, then life went on thinking you were dead amongst the other random victims of the beast.
But to him you were anything but random or a victim for him to slaughter, only he knows ‘why you’. No one made it to the manor house, he resided in, alive not even him being dead himself; no one until you.
He’d kidnapped you fairly fuss-free, the only consequence was the nasty bump on the back of your head rendering you unconscious but manageable. He laid you in silks and vintage furs on a capacious bed with gold a painted frame and placed ice on your head in an attempt to soothe the ache in your skull.
You were scared into submission by the creature for the first few days - you could have mistaken it for the devil himself with red eyes that bored into your soul and sharp threatening teeth. He responded in short sentences, usually stern and held a disinterested expression that made his eyes look more menacing than he truly was. It was confusing to decipher what he wanted from you, he didn’t seem to want blood but neither to happy about your unwilling company.
“I wanted you, so I took you. Lets not complicate it”
You’d come to learn that he wasn’t unhappy with you at all that was just the sort of face he has, being isolated for uncountable years meant his emotional awareness and expressions had grown rusty to say the least. You’d learn he just liked to be in the same room as you, he didn’t toy with you or worse, he came to sit in the corner of your bed room one in a while and read or write while you busied yourself with one of the many things he gifted you (found laying around in a draw unused for many years) or slept.
In fact he let you get away with a lot like how you’d try everything from retaliating verbally or physically but he’d only respond with a scowl of disapproval or a strong grip around your wrist briefly to remind you just who he was. He knows all about the grieving process having been through it and seen people go through it over and over, so he’d let you grieve over your lost life but doesn’t appreciate when you get really rowdy; bringing you back to earth with tough-love.
...
At some point during the first year of being kidnapped you’d given into harsh-reality, noticing there was no chance of escape as he hears your every foot step, and that even if you did there would be nowhere to go. Seeing you become more obedient encouraged him to soften a bit more, to meet you in the middle, and you let him grow closer after noticing his intentions couldn’t be that bad since he had yet to hurt you or bite you.
There are still arguments, nights where it would all become to much for you and you’d blow up in a emotional rage, demanding you go home or ‘what his intentions are’ and why did it have to be you specifically. So he’d let you hit and shout until you grow tired and your throat sore, wordlessly he’d pull you into his chest where you’d be forced to stay for the next hour. Doesn’t really take anything to heart during these arguments, he knows -at most- a centuries time you will be happy and love him maybe as half as much as he loves you.
Other nights his frustrations get the best of him and he shouts back, demanding ‘you get used to it’ that your friends and family stopped looking for you long ago and he’s all you have now etc. You’d storm away to your bed and he’d sit frustrated in his chair for a while before quietly entering your room and joining you in your bed to hold you and whisper apology’s, making sure you fall into a peaceful sleep before he leaves.
Forced bonding through board and card games!
Of course he sleeps in a coffin, a luxurious one in the room next door to yours, and he wants nothing more than for you to sleep in there with him but wouldn’t bring it up until your inevitable turning where he make you a vampire just like him. You didn’t think he would let you die and leave him to wallow in heart break for the rest of eternity did you?
This man has had so much time on his hands that he’s messed around with most every hobby, most recently (almost a century) he’s taking a liking to the violin. Sometimes he plays while you sleep and no longer around to entertain him (downstairs, as far from your room to not bother you) and sometimes the muted melody wakes you up for a moment or weasels it’s way into the dream you are in. It comforts you a bit, chasing away the eerie silence followed by creaks and scratching of the old manor house that would make sleep harder to come by and even harder to keep.
212 notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 5 months
Text
In The Shadows
Tumblr media
Purge Alternate Universe
Yandere - Gojo Satoru x Reader x Geto Suguru
A/N - Okayyyy I've been working on this for like a week and it's the longest I've ever written for one thing, I had a shoulder injury which is mostly healed up now during the week which hindered my progress a little because I originally really wanted this to get out nearer Halloween time, but oh well TT at least its here now right? Lmao, but I hope you guys enjoy it, I tried my best and lowkey kind of hate it, I wished I could've done more or something, but if you have any ideas around this for a possible part 2 let me knoww, although no promises ;) Consider this a massive thank you story, I now have over 100 followers and the likes and reblogs and comments, you guys, I'm crying, I love you all so much <333333 I love interacting with you guys and your comments on my stories or in my inbox <3333 you all make my day ilysm <3 :( AND IM SORRY I COULDNT HELP IT, they're kind of really mean so its more harsh yandere than the soft you all wanted :( I couldn't help myself its a purge AU TT, but I promise ill make something softer in the future <33 sorry this is so long omfg, but let me know your thoughts pretty please &lt;3 and if you actually read all of this ily
summary - Another purge night is here and you think your safe and sound, but let your guard down and you'll find yourself bound.
warnings - purge, mentions of 'off screen' murder, actual 'off screen' murder, kind of gore but reader doesn't see it, blood, rope, reader gets tied up, gags?, tape over readers mouth, they're actually kind of really mean lol, especially Geto, descriptions of panic, anxiety, overthinking, stalker situation kind of, swearing, crying, brief hair pulling, if there's any more let me know ml <3
genre - Oneshot
wc - 7.2k
~spelling and grammar fixed already~
Edit - the top photo 6/11/23
Tumblr media
The tip tapping of fingers on keys echoed around the silent room. The occasional footfalls of people around her walking up and down. Picking up books to further aid their studying would slip past the music playing in her ears when they were loud enough.
Every time she would hear someone being a little too loud for the library they were in she would glance up and shoot a half-hearted glare their way.
They’d never see her but it was the thought that counted. A barely audible sigh escapes her as she brings a hand up to massage her cold fingertips into the throbbing skin at her temple. 
Nervous nibbling was occupying her teeth and lips, chewing away the flesh and creating tender spots her tongue would soon soothe. 
She’d been staring at the same empty document for two hours now. No more than two sentences she was able to come up with before she’d erase them in a fit of frustration.
Abandoned textbooks lay closed behind her laptop, she’d deemed them no use around thirty minutes in, but she couldn't bring herself to get up and search for better ones. 
She was antsy, not able to focus on her assignment due in a week's time. Her brain was all fogged up, too many thoughts going through her mind and yet she's not able to focus on a single one.
The purge was tonight. March 21st. And it was currently 1pm. 
Why did she even bother to come to the library in the first place? Was she hoping to distract herself even just a little bit before she had to hunker herself down in her dorm for twelve hours? 
Maybe. Yes.
Was it working? Absolutely not.
She was too skittish. Overthinking everything that had the potential of happening later and things that have previously happened. 
‘Someone's not going to come and try to kill me just because I forgot to return their pen that one time, right?’ 
The amusing, albeit a little dark, thought did make the corner of her lips twitch just the smallest amount. 
Taking off her headphones after stopping her music, she closes down her laptop and starts to move it into her bag. 
She spares a quick glance around the few tables next to hers as she stands with the library's books in her arms. Her eyes locked with a man sitting roughly two tables down. Slumped back in his seat.
Gojo Satoru. Bright white and fluffy hair paired with a set of dazzling blue eyes. The ones currently peeking over the tops of his round shades that had slid down his nose as he tucked his head down slightly. 
Sitting in front of him and abstracting her view of Gojo only slightly is who she assumed was Geto Suguru. Two peas in a pod and never seen without the other. The long black and silky strands of hair tied up in a half up bun was a giveaway to who he was as well.
Both of them were originally from Tokyo, Japan. Coming over to America over five years ago. Or at least that's what she’s heard from around the place, not knowing them personally. They were the most popular boys in school when she had joined a little over a year ago and they still held the title strong.
She doesn’t think she's ever really interacted with them. At Least not on any kind of personal level. Sure, maybe from a few friends of friends or passing each other in the hallway and being polite to her upperclassmen, but nothing all that memorable. 
Which is why this prolonged eye contact is sending a very noticeable shiver down her spine. The smallest twitch of a smirk on his face and she was breaking eye contact, gulping down the pooled saliva in her mouth as she turned around and hastily made her way in between the towering bookshelves.
Leaving the library after stacking the books she’d previously taken back on the shelves, she hastily makes her way down the long corridors. Keeping her head down, her hands clutched tight on the strap of her bag. She passes very few people in the hallway.
Even after pushing through the doors and trekking her way to the dorms at the end of the path, there were very few people loitering around outside. Some of the people she passed looked like they could be stoned, not that she could really blame them. Some looked a little too relaxed and happy and some were just trying to get to their destination as quickly as possible. Like her.
As the doors came into view, and then the stairs, she slowly began to relax, her fast pace lessening up. Successfully getting to the safest place she could for when the purge would start. 
It was also a massive relief that her two good friends would be staying with her during the twelve hours of horror. Last time she was by herself there had been multiple scares throughout the night. Nothing too big but something she didn’t think she could handle alone again. 
Reaching her door on the third floor she fiddles with her keys for a few seconds before her door clicks open and she pushes her way inside. Closing the door and locking it again for good measure. 
It was 1:43 pm.
A few minutes after she had arrived back at her dorm did she realize she still needed to pick up some food items. Being a broke student meant she had essentially nothing in her cupboards or her fridge. And if she was ‘hosting for the purge’ this year, it meant she had to stock up at least a little bit. 
‘Imagine trying to hide from a killer and your stomach growls, I think I would just die on the spot.’ She thinks, the smallest smile gracing her face. Humour is usually her way to cope in situations like these. It’s either that or panicking and she’d rather try to save that for the main event.
With a heavy sigh and hesitation weighing her limbs down, she slowly puts her shoes and jacket back on. She can make this quick. In and out. Easy peasy. 
With a quick jump while shaking her limbs out to get rid of her last minute hesitation, she quickly opens her door and steps out before shutting it behind her. No going back now. Locking the door behind her, she starts making her way back down the stairs and out the doors, walking in the direction of the food store. 
Her nerves were still playing up though, eyes darting this way and that as if trying to find a reason for her to panic. ‘It’s okay, the purge hasn’t started yet, all those things are still illegal.’ Is what she keeps telling herself while taking a deep breath. But the fact they won’t be in a few hours was still cause for some panic. 
Arriving at the store, she wizzes around, collecting any good looking snack and throwing it in her basket before hastily paying and leaving. The heavy plastic carrier bag hanging from her fingers gave her reason to think she went a bit overboard. 
Her quickened steps and accelerated breathing were all she could hear for a while. Her walk back to her dorm was supposed to be a quiet one, less and less people were loitering around meaning less and less noises to distract her. 
Especially from the new set of footsteps that have appeared behind her.
As soon as her mind clocked the extra set of footsteps there, it went into overdrive. ‘Who is that? Are they following me? No, you're being delusional, they're just trying to get back home. But are they? They just appeared out of nowhere. Are they going to try and kidnap me? Rape me? Stuff me in a van? Drag me down a dark alleyway and murder me?’
Her mind was racing, steps quickening and breathing silenced under the new threat. ‘Oh god, what if they’re stalking me? Waiting until the purge starts to come and slaughter me? They’re going to kill me. They’re going to kill me. What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?’
And then they were gone. 
It barely registered in her mind that the fast paced footsteps from behind her had vanished. A sharp breath escaped her before her head whipped around on a desperate whim. No one. Not a soul on the path behind her. 
Her shoulders sank with relief and a watery laugh broke free from her trembling lips. ‘I’m losing my mind.’ She thought. Even though that feeling in her gut had faded, it never fully disappeared. Her racing heart never slowed and neither did her footsteps. 
Y/n hurried back to her dorm, almost running through the doors and up the stairs to fumble with her keys and quickly burst in. Double checking she locked the door behind her, and then checking every other lock on her third story apartment. Only when she had made sure they were all secure could she finally relax. 
Her body shivering and hands shaking from the after effects of adrenaline. Her breathing is still a little shaky as she pulls a bunch of pillows and blankets into her tiny living room. Pushing her chair and sofa away to make more space as she lays everything out as neat as she could, making the floor a comfy space for her and her two friends to crash for the purge. 
She empties the snacks from out of the plastic bag and piles them in a nice little corner near the TV. A small stack of movies there for when they’re all waiting for the purge to start. Some cards in a pack were also placed there. 
The three of them are wanting to be as quiet as possible while the purge is going on. Everything locked, curtains drawn, lights off, TV with no volume and only subtitles, quiet games to play in case they got bored, etc. 
They weren’t taking any chances. It was doubtful anything would happen, since nothing really ever did in the dorms. No student here would go as far as murdering somebody, everyone mostly stayed inside, not wanting to risk anything. She only knew of a few people that have snuck out before to rob a few stores, or do some petty revenge like smashing someone's car without getting into trouble.
But overall, it was best to remain quiet. They didn’t want to get murdered because the TV was turned up too loudly and attracted some wrong attention. 
It was 5:15 pm.
This is the time her friends arrived. Knocking some made up code on the slab of wood before messaging just for good measure that it was really them outside. 
After unlocking the door and letting her two good friends inside her dorm she swiftly closes and locks it again. Relieved greetings transpire as well as nervous whispers about the purge and some small gossip of who they think would actually go out this year and who are likely to stay inside. 
The three of them start to make their way around her dorm, closing all the curtains and double checking the locks on all the windows and doors. Especially the balcony and front door. 
After they’ve secured the apartment, they turn off all the necessary lights, flicking on a few electrical lanterns and setting them up around the living room, but away from the windows. They’ve left one lantern in the bathroom and one in her bedroom, both turned off, just in case of emergencies.  
The three of them settle in a spread out pile on the blankets she put down in the living room. Some snacks are passed around already and a movie is slotted into the TV, playing as background noise mostly while they talk.
Erica, a sassy but kind of dumb girl, with choppy shoulder length hair that had been bleached and dyed a light green. She's donned in a crop top and sweatpants, comfy.
Don, a friendly giant, very kind in nature but also a little muscly. He has short black hair and a sculpted jawline. He also came in sweatpants and a baggy white T-shirt, also comfy.
Her two very good, and only, friends here. They’re in a few of her classes and all regularly hang out together. 
“So,” Erica begins after her mouthful of powdered donut. “Who do you think is going to actually purge tonight? Like, actually actually. My moneys on them two hotties in my class.” She finishes, wiggling her eyebrows..
Don hums around his half empty soda can. “Yeah, honestly I wouldn't be surprised if they did.”
Y/n pipes up, “Wait who?” sitting up against the sofa behind her, getting comfy like she's about to hear the gossip of a lifetime.
“Oh, Em, G! You haven’t heard of it? You’ve seriously been, like, living under a rock or something.” Erica says jokingly. Picking apart pieces of her donut and eating them. 
Don perks up too. “Really? You haven't?” Y/n shakes her head in denial as Don shrugs. “I get it, it’s mostly stayed in our class, hasn’t spread much further than that.” He says before crawling forward and rummaging around for more snacks.
“So get a load of this right!” Erica sits up too after finishing her donut. Waving her hands excitedly as she tells her latest gossip. “You know them two really hot upperclassmen right?” She draws out her ‘really’ and waits patiently at the end of her sentence for the other girl's confirmation. 
When she nods in slight confusion, Erica continues, “There were some major rumours in class that the two of them were late this one day because they were beating someone up. And I don't mean like a few slaps or hair pulling, I mean punches. You know?”
Y/n nods again, this time with furrowed brows and Erica continues, “At first, I didn’t believe it, obviously. But then, the two of them came into class and I swear there were blood stains on their clothes. Blood stains! Not to mention all the plasters and bandages all over their hands! I just had to believe it then! Wouldn’t you?”
After the end of her long rant she slumps back against the front of the sofa and mumbles incoherently to herself shaking her head while pouting.
Don, who had been listening silently, pipes up, “It was true, I was actually there for once.”
Y/n’s eyebrows raise in disbelief at what she had just heard. Fighting, here? She couldn’t help but to doubt it, if only just a little. Stuff like that has never happened here. Or at least while she had been here. It was just unheard of.
And for an attack so vicious to result in blood being drawn, then there must have been somewhat of a good reason for it. That was the conclusion she came to.
“I mean, there had to have been a good reason for it.” Y/n says, “They’re pretty nice people aren't they? It is Gojo and Geto were talking about here, right? They’re really popular here too.” Her eyes darted between her two friends, looking for more answers on this unexpected juicy gossip.
Erica sighs wistfully, “No, it got shut down pretty quick, which I guess is why so little people have heard about it. God, would I pay to see them fight though. Their muscles must have looked amazing.” 
They stop talking about it after that, Don getting distracted by the snacks and whining about how she didn’t get his favourite. Erica smacking him with a few pillows and complaining how he’s getting in the way of her movie she was barely even watching. 
Their playful banter did little to distract from her inner turmoil. A small shiver went down her spine again. The memory from earlier in the library resurfacing in her mind. Gojo staring her down, the creepy walk back from the shops and now learning the two had at the very least helped in injuring someone.
It could just be because it was purge day, but everything was beginning to creep her out and she was overthinking again. ‘What if he wants to attack me next? What if all of those things were connected and someone really was following me home? What if he wants to kill me? What if both of them want to kill me? Have I ever done anything to offend them? I haven’t, have I?’ She knew these were far fetched and ridiculous, but she couldn’t help but think of them anyway.
Her spiralling thoughts were halted when a stray pillow smacked her in the face. “Oops, haha, sorry.” Erica sheepishly apologized, bringing her hand up to smooth down Y/n’s ruffled hair. Don was laughing in the background.  
Y/n was stunned for a few seconds before replying, “Oh, don’t worry. How about we put something else on? This movie is kind of boring.” crawling across the piles of pillows and blankets to reach the stack of movies.
This caught the other two’s attention, eagerly rushing to the stack as well to try and get first pick. Arguing for a few more minutes before settling on a movie they all loved. Snuggling back into their original positions.
This was how the next few hours went before the announcement appeared.
It was 6:59 pm.
At exactly 7 on the dot, the TV went black before turning blue, the government announcing the commencement of the purge. Big bold letters and ‘Emergency Broadcast System’ and ‘This is not a test’ were displayed on the screen.
They were all quiet as it played out. The mood quickly turned sombre.
“Weapons of class 4 and lower have been authorized for use during the Purge. All other weapons are restricted.”
Don gulped.
“Government officials of ranking 10 have been granted immunity from the Purge and shall not be harmed.”
Erica huffed.
“Commencing at the siren, any and all crime, including murder, will be legal for 12 continuous hours.” 
Y/n shivered.
“Police, fire, and emergency medical services will be unavailable until tomorrow morning at 7 am when The Purge concludes.”
She released a shaky breath. The announcement ends with “...A nation reborn.” before stopping. The screen turned black again.
No one moves or says anything. Each of them were frozen in an array of emotions. Fear being the most prominent. 
The silence stretched on for minutes. Eerie in its wake, not even being able to hear other people in their dorm rooms like she normally would.
Eventually, after releasing another shaky breath and rearranging herself with trembling limbs, they all snap back into the present. 
Don coughs and Erica shuffles awkwardly. 
“Cards, anyone?” Y/n meekly speaks up. The other two nod as they sit in a small circle. 
It was 7:36 pm.
This was when the first explosion of some kind was heard by them. Each of them froze in the middle of playing their mostly silent game of cards. The noise was distant, but the impact remained.
A scream from a few doors down echoed in the silent space.
They waited with baited breath for any follow up, but when nothing happened, they slowly relaxed. Each of them assumed it was the explosion that must have scared someone. Sometimes it’s better to think of the positive, rather than what that scream could have been for.
A few minutes later a siren bellows in the distance, a few car alarms wail.
Nothing too bad, but knowing that it could mean someone was being murdered out there didn’t give them any ease.
It was 8:02 pm. 
This is when the banging starts. Y/n thinks it could be a few doors down again. Erica thinks it’s below them and Don thinks it’s above them. 
Wherever it was, it was concerning. 
Erica releases a small nervous chuckle. “Maybe someone is just having a good time?” A fake smile plastered on her face to try and mask her worry. Even she didn’t believe her little theory. Not during a time like this, during The Purge.
It was a few minutes later, after they had quietly resumed their game, that footsteps were heard.
Clacking down the hallway. 
1, 2.
1, 2. 
1, 2. 
1, 2. 
They were walking at a leisurely pace. Taking their time. Strolling down the hallway and getting closer and closer.
All three of them looked towards the door, as if someone were to burst in at any moment.
The footsteps slow before coming to a stop. Right outside her door.
The three of them hold their breath, bodies flinching when a light knock rings out into the open space.
Complete silence.
Another knock.
None of them had even noticed the earlier noises had stopped, too focused on the potential threat now right outside the door. Seemingly wanting someone to open up.
Three pairs of eyes dart between each other. Silent questions trying to push their way out without being heard. A few panicked half shrugs and furrowed brows with downturned lips later, another knock rings out.
This time it was a little louder.
Barely audible whisperings of ‘you go’, ‘no you’, ‘fuck no’, ‘who even is it?’ cut through the silence. No one wanted to ask the question. To even speak a hint of it lest it result in it coming true.
Eventually after a solid minute of panicked, almost silent, squabbling later. A frustrated and frightened Erica pushed herself up. Taking a very obvious deep breath. Eyes closed and silently mumbling to herself before taking a few steps over to the front door.
She tried to be as quiet as she could but each step sounded like it weighed a ton. Every creek and every wobble made to sound the loudest. 
Very quietly bracing her hands upon the door, she leant up on her tiptoes. Peeking into the peephole positioned in the centre of the door.
The two left in the pile of blankets still. Not wanting to even breathe in fear of disturbing whatever was happening in front of them.
A sudden screech of pure panic and fear tore from Erica’s throat. Flailing before landing with a harsh thud on the floor beneath her. Scrambling backwards on her hands and feet, keeping her eyes on the door the entire time.
The two startle and immediately jump up, laboured breathing hindering their lungs from the sudden scare.
“What the fuck? Erica what happened? What was that?” Don frantically whispered. His eyes were also locked on the door. 
Y/n also whispered to her, “Who was that? Erica?” her eyes locked onto her friend, not able to bring herself to look at the door yet.
“It was.. Oh god.. The peep..” Erica wheezed out. The fright took too much out of her with her frantic gasps for air.
A sudden bang echoed into the room. A few more followed before they all realized it was coming from the front door. 
Erica screeched and threw herself back into a standing position, rushing for the kitchen and grabbing any sharp knife her eyes first laid on.
Don stood frozen in fear. Not able to move or barely breathe from the looks of it.
Y/n wasn’t any better herself. Downright terrified. This was her dorm. Her dorm. Which means whoever was outside, was looking for her.
The banging persisted, the person on the other side seemingly determined to get in. This proved correct when the handle started turning whichever way it could. 
She didn’t even realize, terror clouding her senses because when she looked back to her two friends, Don had collapsed into himself, wheezing with little air entering his lungs amidst his panic. Erica was cornered in the kitchen, sobbing, tears flooding her cheeks and ruining her mascara she had in place.
The persistent banging stopped for a second. The faint sound of another pair of footsteps approached from the hallway outside. Muffled talking pursued but it was hard to make anything out, between her pounding heart, Erica’s sobs and the slab of wood in the way, didn’t make for easy hearing.
For Y/n, it seemed there was one second of complete silence. No sobbing, no voices, no distant alarms or explosions, no racing heart, no wheezing lungs. Before chaos sprung onto them.
Suddenly the people outside, because there was another person now, resumed banging on the door. But it didn’t seem like they were ‘just knocking’ anymore. No.
They were trying to break the door down. 
She could see it from the way the door groaned and creaked under the relentless kicking. She couldn't quite tell if they were using their feet, or an object, or whatever. 
All that mattered was that they were trying to get in. And they were going to succeed.
“Move! Hide! We need to hide!” She whisper-yelled. Rushing to Don and tugging on his arm to try and get him to move. He stared at her for a few seconds before his brain caught up, registering what was happening around him. The real danger he was in right now.
“Hide.. Oh god..” He panted, sprinting for the bathroom, the first place his eyes had landed on.
With Don now searching for a place to hide, she ran her way to Erica. Still trying to be as quiet as she could, in the little hopes that they would think she wasn’t here.
“Erica, we need to hide! They’re getting in!” She frantically whispered to her hyperventilating friend. Trying to shake her shoulders, even resorting to lightly slapping her face to try and get her attention. She was desperate.
“Please!” The sound of splintering caught both of their attention. Heads whipping towards the door starting to cave. She wasn’t all that surprised, that slab of wood was a shitty excuse for a door anyway.
Erica suddenly sprung up and dove for the piles of blankets in the living room. Trying to bury herself amongst them, taking the knife with her.
And now that all her friends had been taken care of, she ran for her bedroom. Trying her best not to stumble and fall in the dark hallway. 
As soon as her door came into sight, she gently opened it, gunning for her wardrobe tucked into the corner of the room. Not even looking towards the turned off lantern, she didn’t need them knowing her hiding spot from something so obvious. 
It was already messy anyway, so in her frazzled brain she didn’t bother caring where she tossed piles of clothes and shoes in her room.. They’d hopefully think it was like that in the first place.
After quickly clearing a space big enough for her to curl into, she did just that. Situating herself just right, back pressed against the side of the wardrobe, knees tucked to her chest and pressed against the boxes in front of her. She was sitting on old shirts she hadn’t seen for months.
Hearing the door breaking even further, she grabbed any clothes within her reach and threw them over herself. Shutting the door when she was mostly covered, she could have sworn she could hear laughter coming from the hallway.
A loud crash and splintering tore through the air. She knew it was her front door. And now they were inside. 
Her hands slowly went up to cup around her mouth, trying to muffle her breathing as much as she could. Her body froze. Even when she already began to feel muscle cramps settling in, she dared not move. She forced herself to breathe slowly. Every inhale a struggle along with a reminder that she was still alive at this very moment. Even if she was convinced she wouldn’t be for much longer. 
The thought brought tears to her eyes. The original shock wears from her body and settles into something akin to despair. 
Her throat started clamping up, muscles seizing and throbbing with the need to cry. 
It was the thudding of footsteps that shook her out of it. Snapping her half way back into a nightmarish reality. 
She gulped. Closing her eyes and straining her ears for any information they were willing to receive.
Just as she thought. Two pairs of footsteps. 
With every thud of a shoe or a spike in their muffled talking, her body would tremble. 
It remained like this for a few more minutes. The footsteps or talking occasionally pausing. 
It was during one of these silences, where a different sound was heard. She couldn’t identify the exact sounds, just ones of commotion. They were still all muffled. And then she heard muffled yelling. 
It sounded so dulled, between the walls and layers of wood and clothes, she could barely make out anything, her ears straining for any hint as to what was happening. Being left in the dark like this, literally and figuratively, was terrifying her. 
And then this horrible, awful noise carried its way between the cracks in the wardrobe. Crunching. Cracking. Stomps. 
That muffled yelling from before kept getting cut off. Eventually dwindling down into a barely audible groan. Those thuds never seemed to stop either. Never ending, crunching, cracking, and now wet thuds. 
Her brain was trying its hardest to process, to catch up with the information that it has been provided with. 
More footsteps, only one pair, accompanied with muffled laughter. And a more distinct sound traveling through the air. 
A scream.
Even more laughter, hurried footsteps and pleas of ‘no’, ‘please’, ‘don’ts’. 
It was now, with the wet stomps still in the background, her screeching friend, that eager laugh, that her brain had finally caught up.
She was going to be sick.
They’re hurting them. Killing them.
Her friends.
Her body moved out of its own violation. Shaky hands and feet kicking and pushing their way out of the pile of clothes. Wardrobe door swinging open with a creak.
She collapsed out of it. Slumped on the floor, dry heaving. Her lungs not seeming to take enough air in but yet holding in too much. She couldn’t function. Fear overwhelmed every part of her. As well as grief. 
Her ears were ringing and she was left gasping, drool dripping onto the hard floor beneath her as a result of her attempted vomiting. Eyes wide open, blurry when she tapped back into her mind. 
Tears, clouding her vision and dripping audibly on the floorboards below her. 
In the distance she could hear muffled talking. Two men, she could make out more clearly. Not only that, but squelching, wet, gooey noises seemed to mingle in the air. Gurgling was the next before silence.
A minute passed, maybe two before the footsteps started up again. Those goddamn footsteps. 
1.. 2.
1.. 2.
1.. 2.
But they were slower than before. Steady. Taking their time. 
And getting closer.
Her instincts kick in, blinking profusely to try and clear her eyes from the tears, looking up and darting around before landing on the space under her bed.
She wouldn’t have enough time to fix her spot back in the wardrobe. She couldn’t run past them, not even in her best state which she certainly wasn’t in right now. She had considered her bedroom window as an option, but it was locked, which would take time to open. Not even mentioning the fact she was on the third floor, so jumping out would break at least something important. They would be quick to notice as well, and if they came for her, it was likely they would decide to chase her down.
Under her bed seemed to be her best option at the moment, and she was running out of time. Scrambling as quietly as she could, she slid herself directly under her bed, trying to center herself in the middle of it, tucking herself into a tight ball.
The footsteps stopped right outside her bedroom door, she had enough sense to shut it on her way in, thank god. But that clearly wouldn’t be enough to stop them. 
Almost as if the person was teasing her, they slowly clicked the door open. The distinct creak she had grown accustomed to over the months making itself known. 
Her muscles are tense, tightening in the presence of her predators. 
In the dark space from under her bed and in her room, it was obvious when the light from inside the hallway started spilling in the more the door got pushed open. In the vague depths of her mind it registered that they must’ve either turned the hall lights on, had taken one of her lanterns,  or were carrying one of their own.
Her lungs were burning with the effort to keep her body running with the little air she was allowing them to have, all for the sake of trying to keep quiet.
It was all too silent once again, only for a second or two before the second pair of footsteps came towards her. A lot more hasty compared to the other ones. 
Her breath silently hitched, the new person pushed their way into the room, stepping past their company before a thunk was heard. The sound forced her body to startle, jolting her muscles and kick starting her trembling again. An uncontrollable reaction to the fear she was under, the unrelenting motions causing a deep ache in her ribs.
The sound of rustling was now heard. It seemed they were looking for something. ‘They’re going to kill me. They’re digging around for a weapon to stab me with, to bash my head in, to murder me like they did my friends. I’m dead. I’m dead, I’mdeadI’mdeadI’mdead-’
Her racing thoughts consuming her fear riddled mind failed in picking up the sound of the other pair of footsteps slowly creeping round to the end of her bed. 
The person paused, silently crouching down low before a pair of hands reached under.
The sudden tight grip on her ankles followed up by the sudden pull had her screeching. Pure terror flooding her veins. She had been yanked out from under her bed, lying sprawled on the floor and gazing up at the towering man stationed above her. 
Her lungs burned, seizing up before a sickening scream escaped her. Fuelled by genuine, unrestrained horror. 
They had found her.
One of her lanterns they had brought in illuminated his face in a haunting light. The darkened shadows stretching and contorting behind him to create the most grim image for her mind to paint. Not that it was far off.
A foot standing on either side of her hips, straddling her if it wasn’t for his standing position. Hands nestled comfortably back in his trouser pockets now they had done the job of retrieving her. A comfortable looking long-sleeved shirt adorned his figure. Dark splatters starting from the bottom of his shoes and creeping their way up his legs, tapering off into a few spots that painted one of his cheeks.
An easy smile softly ingrained on his face, followed by gentle looking eyes peering down at her if it wasn’t for the malicious spiral she found herself paralyzed in. Dark locks of hair extended down his back, past where she could see from her position, with the top layers sectioned off and tied back into a bun.
His mouth opened and he spoke. “Well, well. Look what I’ve caught for us Satoru.”
Satoru. The other man must be Satoru Gojo, and this was Suguru. Suguru Geto. The most popular guys she knew, the supposedly kindest. And then staring in the library, the walk back from the shops, the gossip her most likely dead friend had told her.
Her body suddenly felt like it was pumped full of adrenaline. Pushing herself up as fast as she could, using the bed as support all the while stumbling over her numb riddled legs. She took off, running towards the open door she so desperately wanted to pass through. 
A sudden arm snatched her from around her waist and she screeched. Pure instinct driving her at this point as she scratched and kicked and flailed in his, Satoru Gojo’s, hold.
The sound of something dropping before his other arm came round, collecting both her wrists in one hand of his. His grip tightened the more she fought. Her body pressed tight against his, her back to his front. His head situated itself on her shoulder, tucking over and pressing his cheek to hers even while she cried and panted and kicked.
She could feel his grin pressing against the side of her face. “Such a pretty little thing we have here. Can’t let her get away so easily now, can we? Not after all the trouble we’ve gone through.” The last part practically whispered into her ear as she turned her face as far away as possible from him. 
A little laugh boasted out from Geto. “Of course not.” He strolled over to them, bending down to pick up what Gojo had dropped in order to restrain her.
Rope.
Fucking rope.
The moment her eyes zoned in and processed what Geto was unravelling in his hands she tried to fight back even harder. Eyes flooding with tears that spilled down her cheeks. Short mumblings of ‘no’ being repeated over and over while becoming louder until she was yelling. 
“Please don’t do this! Let me go! Please, please.. Stop!” She shrieked while sobbing, convinced they were going to kill her or torture her or something horrible like that.
Gojo walked the two of them to the edge of her bed before forcefully pushing her down, manhandling her onto her front and bending her arms to rest pressing against her back.  
She sobbed into her ruffled sheets as she felt Geto fastening the rope tight around her wrists, the rough material digging into and pinching the sensitive skin. Raw and red marks already forming amidst her struggle. 
Her legs still hung off the bed, trying their best to kick and hopefully injure one or both of them, but she knew it was a losing battle. None of her landing blows made them falter in any way.
When her wrists were successfully restrained Geto kept them pressed to the small of her back while Gojo let go and reached down to grab her ankles. Pulling them up and bending her legs at the knees while they both worked in finishing the task of tying her up.
When they finally stepped back to admire the work they’d successfully done, Y/n deflated. Tears soaking into her bed in which she rested on top of. Her lungs still burned, having never stopped. The hogtied position she had been forced into leaving her nothing to work with in terms of escaping. Not that she could think clearly anyway. The distress she was under proved too much.
“Oh, Shh Sh Sh… There, there, sweet thing. Settle down for us now. We aren’t going to kill you.” Cooed, who she could only guess right now was Gojo.
Geto reached forward from his position of kneeling on the bed, gentle soothing pets stroking her hair. Her sobbing tapering off into hiccupped breathing even while flinching with every touch. “There you go, good girl. See that wasn’t so hard now, was it?”
He pulled away from her, stepping down off the bed and heading towards the previously discarded bag on the floor Y/n hadn’t noticed before..
Y/n slowly turned her head round, no longer pressed into her sheets. Her eyes were red and bloodshot, swollen from all the crying she’d been doing. Little hiccups and groans left her while her lungs tried to recover. She’d given up struggling right now, it had done nothing but cause her pain as the rope dug and squeezed the skin of her wrists and ankles. 
Gojo piped up from behind her, only now feeling the heat from his legs pressing into hers causing her to flinch. “You know, this would’ve gone a whole lot easier if you had just let us in sweetheart.” She could practically hear the smug smile in his voice. “Look at where you are now, tied up all pretty for us. Ripe for the taking.” He pressed closer to her at that, voice practically dripping with need. 
She whined in fear and started squirming at his words. Panic flooding her senses again for just a second before a sharp tug to her hair had her yelping, halting her movements.
“I thought I told you to quit that.” Geto was back to kneeling on the bed in front of her, his hand gripping tight onto her hair, eyes narrowed. 
Her bottom lip trembled, breaths picking up with every second he glared down at her. 
“Don’t be so mean, Sugu.” Gojo said, a teasing lilt in his voice. 
Geto glanced back at him before humming and letting go of his harsh grip, her scalp burning in turn. “I suppose you’re right. She’ll have plenty of time to learn when we take her back home.”
Gojo hummed and she felt him leaning away from her, hearing him crouch down and fiddle with something from the bag as well. 
“Back home?..” She stuttered, voice hoarse and throat dry.
Geto looked back down at her, amusement painting his face. “Yes. Home.”
“Where..” She started, face formed in a twist of concern and confusion. “Please.. I.. Just let me go. I won’t- I won’t tell anyone, I’ll- I’ll leave you alone, I’ll do anything, please..” She gasped out, tears gathered freshly in her eyes again, voice cracking every few seconds. 
An amused eyebrow raised with the hint of a smirk at the corner of his mouth was all she got as a response. 
Gojo had come back, reaching round and fastening a strip of duct tape around her mouth in a sudden flurry of movement. Giving her no time to process what he had done until after he had done it. 
She cried out, the sound muffled thanks to the tape, worried eyes darting around in panic as she tried squirming again for the third time. 
Gojo pressed up behind her once again. “You’re not going anywhere, sweet pea! You’re ours now. We’ve had you picked out for a long time now.” The joy in his voice didn’t fail to put her on edge, his words doing their part in helping the tears gathered in her waterline to finally spill down her cheeks. Wetting the tape situated over her lips.
“He’s right.” Geto replied. Bringing one of his hands up to show what he had collected from the bag a few moments ago. The mobile phone in his hands glowed brightly in the dark room, the lamp from before having been moved, the light now dim.
“We’ll bring you back with us soon enough, but we still have a few more hours to kill before that. And why waste them.” Gojo said, the grin in his voice unsettling her, keeping her frozen in fear.
An easy smile pulled at Geto’s cheeks at that, head tilting to the side to gaze down at their pretty prey. 
“Well what are you waiting for then, Satoru?”
A pause. Smile pulling into a predatory grin.
“Have at it.”
Tumblr media
817 notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 5 months
Text
yanderes who insist on washing with you
nanami who after a long and tiring day just wants to ease himself into a warm bath, with you tucked against his chest. his large hands, usually used for destruction in his job, are now softly running scented products through your hair. after you’re both done, he’ll sit on the toilet, legs spread, and wrap a towel around you while you stand anxiously and naked in front of him. he finds it soothing to dry you off this way.
geto and gojo who’ll force you into a shower with them, gojo at your front and geto against your back. it’s the time they’re the most quiet, simply breathing out sighs and relaxing as the water turns warm. gojo is much more open in these moments, more prone to wrapping his arms around you and whispering soft things that unfortunately do more to scare you than soothe you. geto will be the one washing your hair as gojo clings to the both of you like you’re his only lifelines. sometimes they try and fit all of you into a bath, but it’s a struggle. gojo finds it pretty funny and likes to splash you with water, sometimes resulting in a fight you know you can’t win.
chrollo has a specific fantasy of sharing a bath with his darling, of having them both sit and hold each other in the most vulnerable of fashions. he enjoys the idea of you sitting between his legs in the bath while he reads a book aloud, and then carrying you out when you doze off against his chest.
uvogin also likes the idea of a bath with you, specifically thinking about you trying to wash him. he probably won’t fit in the bath all that well, but that makes the fantasy all the better in his eyes.
shigaraki sitting on the opposite end of the bath to you, too worried about scaring you off. he’s not the same monster he used to be when he first got you. in the past, he would’ve used this as an opportunity to commit less than savoury acts against you, to scare and terrify you as much as possible. now he just wants to be close to you, to soothe you, to see you happy. he’ll sit and watch you, voice soft and movements slow. maybe one day you’ll be alright with him helping you wash, but not this day and not for many after it.
choso clings to you from behind when you shower, head pressing to the crevice of your neck and muscular arms wrapping around your waist. have him lean down so you can wash his hair and he’ll be a little happier for the rest of the week. he especially likes going into bed with you, still naked after a shower, and just holding you, keeping you as close as humanly possible. he won’t let anyone harm you, not with him around.
5K notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 5 months
Text
Yandere Vampire
Yandere Male! x AFAB! Reader
Trigger warning! Yandere behavior, obsessive behavior
A/N: Okay it’s been like…a couple of months since I last updated a fic (sorry about that) but I couldn’t help but write this idea down, it has been plaguing my mind ever since I had thought of it. (Which was literally a few hours ago…) anyways, no official title because I’m not sure if this will be a permanent character but please do enjoy the story. (If you can)
Tumblr media
Summary! You acted stupid and went into the only Forest you shouldn’t have gone into, to your luck (if we can even call it that) you ran into the Duke Osborne who has insisted you stay the night in his manner lest you be a pray to the creatures roaming in the forest. (He is the creature btw)
Side note — if you read the trigger warning and still were triggered by the content (or any that I’ve wrote) please message me ASAP and tell me about it. I DO NOT condone this behavior.
Duke Osborne sits in front of you,
You mentally curse yourself, you just had to have ignored your fathers wishes and ventured pass the safe grounds of your home. The breath you wish to let out protest against the folds of your lips. You expected some sort of activity to occur in the forest, but you hadn’t expected Lord Osborne to be there as well.
his hands lay comfortably on the table, you sat in apprehension.
“I hear you are the Barons offspring? Such a shame I hadn’t been blessed to see your visage sooner.”
“Duke Osborne—“
“Please, no need for civilities here. Address me casually, just Aloysius is fine.” He tosses a smile, the dazzle of his eyes gleaming down at you. It is peculiar, you don’t think he looks at you as if it were antagonistic, but you couldn’t help but feel cornered.
“Aloysius…you are very kind to allow me a room at your estate for the night, I appreciate it very much.”
“Do you now?”
You gulp.
“Y-yes, since I am the offspring of only a Baron and nothing else, I am not used to, nor think, that I am deserving of such catered treatment.”
The Duke frowns.
“Not deserving?” His query comes out like that of a saddened child, you fiddle with your fingers, unsure of how to answer such a tone.
“Well I…” you straighten your posture. “I don’t mean to speak negatively about myself, but it is common knowledge that the power a Baron or Baroness holds is not that of a Duke or Duchess. I know my station in society, and know of the role I must fit into to adequately play it. It is of no inconvenience to me, so really, a Duke such as yourself shouldn’t be worried with frivolous matters.” Aloysius twirls the spoon in his tea. He has a specific analytic gaze to him, one you feel positively scanned by.
“Is that all? Don’t you feel some sort of resentment for the way society looks down on you compared to other nobles?”
“I do not care for that lifestyle, if I can be happy in life, then that is all I need to be contented.”
“Even if you were as lowly as the offspring of a bastard.”
“Even then.”
He takes a minute to compile his thoughts, but as quick as one would imagine, he resumes his air of chivalry and charm.
You jolt, not expecting for the Duke to clasp his hands quite loudly that it echoed throughout the dining room of his estate.
“Very well then, you amuse me Y/N.” You look at him quizzically.
“Apologies, I don’t think I ever gave you my name.”
“You didn’t have to, I know the names of every resident in this estate.”
“Resident? Pardon me Aloysius, but I am merely a guest.”
“Of course.”
The Duke continues on with his meal, glancing at you a couple times to make sure you had your fill. You can’t say you quite enjoy the Dukes presence, but you do appreciate his effort in assuring your comfort.
This quiet would not last.
“I wonder, do you know of the tale spoken for the Forest of Naught?”
You chuckle uncomfortably, “how could I not?”
It was impossible, you thought, for a child of this kingdom to have not heard it. It’s rhymes are Ingrained to the child it passes over to, until it passes on to the next, and then to the next and on and on it goes.
You can recite it by heart.
In a forest called Naught, where darkness reigns,
Existing creatures man cannot rid nor tame.
A plague they are, with fangs as sharp as knives,
Skin pale as moonlight, eyes aflame with red.
Their feast, the tender essence of your blood,
Teeth sinking deep into sweet flesh so raw.
No care for you, they crave the crimson flood,
Their only longing, for your lifeblood's draw.
These creatures possess powers to deceive,
Morphing their form to appear just like us.
But in reflection, true nature they conceive,
A ghastly visage, causing hearts to fuss.
They shun the light, abhor the sun's bright beams,
Yet thrive by night, fulfilling their dark dreams.
In shadows deep, their wickedness takes flight,
Within the veil of night, their hunger stirs.
No mercy shown, no solace in their sight,
They prey upon the innocent, like curses.
“What is your opinion of it?”
“My opinion?” You take a while to form an answer you’d think he would respond best to. “Well, I think it is definitely something the children could be frightened by—“
You believe you are dreaming, the Duke, Aloysius Osborne, is laughing.
“The children? Truly, a forest as mysterious as this and you think of the children?” You do not think the Duke capable of shedding tears, but here’s he is now, wiping away the tears forming at the baseline of his eyelids.
“I stand by my statement.” Your arms press forth on the table. “Those creatures, whatever they may be called, it’d be horrible if they feast on innocent children.”
“I suppose so, but not every child is innocent.” Aloysius makes motion for a glass of wine to be brought, and it is like magic how a servant is already to his aid. You watch tenderly, eyes fixed at the action in hand. In your opinion, the wine looks a little distasteful. Too red, you thought, but you had not the reason to speak it aloud.
“I would offer you a glass but this wine isn’t any that you have tasted before, I can assure you this.”
“Really now?”
He inclines his head to a nod, “not as sweet as regular wine, tastes quite like iron to the normal civilian, but what can I say? I have an expensive taste.”
You shift in your seat “Well, Duke, my interest is piqued.”
“No civilities!” He whined, almost knocking the glass in the process. Having realized what he had done, he is quick to manage himself. “Apologies, I as an individual simply just abhor honorifics.”
Liar.
“Please just address me by my name, it’ll please me greatly.”
“Excuse my negligence, I’ll keep that in mind for the future.”
For the remainder of your meal, you dine uncertainly. The food you taste is exceptional in taste, but it almost feels bland. You can’t say you would feel any better with the Dukes gaze looming over you like a watchful hawk. Can’t to think of it, why did the Dukes eyes appear more red than his normal chestnut hue? You can’t point the science behind it. And perhaps it is just your wishful thinking, but you never noticed, or thought, the Dukes skin to be so naturally pale. Frankly, it’s color is akin to that of moonlight.
What an odd thing to note.
You say not a single word to him, growing apprehension if he’d take the word and turn it into a working conversation. Even though you are the child of a Baron, and have been educated, you still are not quite adept to socializing compared to your peers.
That is until you start to feel drowsy.
“Please excuse me, but I fear I am succumbing to sleep. Could you please walk me to the room I will be sleeping in for the night?” Without a word, Aloysius rises to his feet, discarding the remainder of his meal. It is odd, for such a lofty meal he managed to finish each glass of wine he obtained.
You wondered why he hadn’t touched the garlic at all…
“Of course, follow me.”
You stand, dusting off the dirt that remain on your clothes. You look at him, and take note of how precisely he is gazing at you.
You shake off the feeling.
You arrive at his side, and generously, he leads you without a word. But you must be honest with yourself, the whole time you ventured through his walls it had almost felt like the phantom touch of a hand was latching onto you.
He yawns, you believe sleep has anchored him too.
“It’s such a shame.” He whined. “I would have loved to dance with you in my ballroom.”
“Aloysius there is no need—“
“I protest. You know full well that my family, Osborne, has danced with the guest of their house before they leave for the night or leave for home. I’d be disrespecting tradition if I hadn’t had even one dance with you.”
Flattery will do you no good.
“I have never been instructed.”
“Pardon me?”
You hesitate, “dancing, it has never come naturally to me and my family hadn’t harbor the sufficient funds to acquire a teacher. But considering my prowess regarding the art, I don’t think I’d be of any good even with the paid help.”
“You can always learn.”
“And with what help, if I might ask?”
“With mine, naturally.”
Your cheeks dust red.
“I cannot trouble you like this.”
“It is of no trouble, please share just one dance.”
In high society, people would think you frivolous if you were to refuse the good natured will of a Duke, considering your title as the child of a Baron, you have no societal standing to reject him. In other words, you are completely and utterly trapped.
“I suppose one would do adequately.” The Duke smiles at you, and perhaps you hadn’t seen him enough in all the parties you were fortunate enough to attend, but he didn’t look as happy and content as he did now.
Oh.
You squint.
Why did the front of his teeth look more like protruding canines instead of regular molars?
Whatever, forget it.
He leads you to his ballroom, the scenery draped in blood red curtains and the floor a sinister black. The area exudes a treacherous aura but you’d be lying if you said you weren’t enticed.
It is practically instantaneous that music started to flow into the room. You can only guess that he intended for this to happen from the very beginning and had a servant stationed here for the time being.
“Do you mind if I call your name with a term of endearment?”
You’re startled.
“Your pardon?”
“You know, how wedded couples address each other. Love, darling, sweetie?”
Dread builds in the pits of your stomach.
“Please—I must protest! We have only been acquainted with each other for a few hours!” The Dukes lips purse into a frown.
“Is this your rejection to my proposal of us becoming friends?”
“My Lord—I mean, Aloysius, you must realize that friends don’t simply just refer to each other with such…compounded words!”
There seems to be a looks of realization smearing onto his face.
“Ah, so you mean to tell me that only wedded couples do so?” You exhale, relieved that he is starting to come to sense.
“Right then, apologies with my forwardness.” He hasn’t looked sympathetic at all.
“It’s quite alright.
Aloysius seizes the lead, you think it abnormal, how elegantly he moves through the dance. His long and graceful body forces you to admire it.
“I must confess I was lying.”
Your eyes widen.
“And what what would that be, exactly?”
“I lied to you when I eluded to the fact that I never got the pleasure to see your face. In actuality, I have seen it quite a few dozen times.” You try not to make the stilling of your body too noticeable. “My sister, Duchess Akosua, you may have heard of her, has helped me greatly in seeing you.”
You try to be careful and strategic with how you phrase you sentence.
“In what way, if I may ask?”
“You sleepwalk, Y/N. On many occasions you would wind up in the heart of The Forest of Naught.”
Now, you do not care if it is obvious of your body stilling.
“Of course, you must ask why I had been there too, especially since you sleepwalk quite often.”
You gulp. “H-how often?”
“Ah, I’d say three a four times a week.”
Impossible….
“Y-you were there? Every time?”
“Yes, yes I was.”
You start to hyperventilate.
“B-but why?”
Aloysius looks at you, and it is the kind of look most similar to that of admiration.
“You are just too adorable.” He adds, unable to contain his smile. “But if I were to answer your question…” He leans down, his head level to your ear, and his lips level to your neck. “It is because I am one of the creature of the forest.”
You cry in pain as he bites into you.
You wake in a soft bed, your neck throbbing and your body in only undergarments.
Your eyes widen.
By your side is Duke Aloysius Osborne, his eyes a chilling red and fangs protruding from his lips.
“Ah your awake, how splendid!” He speaks to you as if you are a revered treasure. “For a second I feared I drank too much blood from you, good to know that it was just enough.
“I…I…”
“You must be too frightened, considering your incapability to speak. Don’t be worried, I have decided that you are too precious to discard.”
You force yourself to answer.
“W-what—what do you mean?”
“I mean that I am taking you as my spouse.” He smiles kindly, lending a hand to caress your cheek.
You shiver.
“No need for embarrassment my darling rose, I intend for us to be deeply aquatinted with one another.”
A/N: okay, I hope this story was enough to suffice for the next couple of days before I release the next one. I do intend to come back and post more actively, sorry for the long hiatus. Also the poem from this story was generated from an ai (lmao) have a good day my loves.
365 notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 7 months
Text
Do I Meet Your Qualifications Now?
Summary: A promise made long ago resurfaces during a night of drinks with colleagues. 
Word Count: 8.2k (now this is the longest fic I’ve ever written)
Tags: Alhaitham x Fem!Reader, Smut, NSFW, Modern AU, Childhood Friends AU, Office au? kinda, Mutual Pinning, Fluff, slight dubcon, slight angst, mentions of office sexual harassment, creepy boss, mentions of marriage, slight yandere!alhaitham, slight mentions of breeding maybe? Jealously, possessive!alhaitham, you enjoy drinks at a tavern with the sumeru boys.  
Authors note: This is my first smut in a long long time, I just thought about how alhaitham’s bottled up emotions will one day bubble over, inspired by a small ramble of mine lol. Enjoy. 
side note: here is a small continuation after this story
Tumblr media
Keep reading
5K notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 7 months
Note
Yan naga neuvillette?
The species is near extinction so scientists want to do what they can to save them.
Neuvillette and Zhongli just fight in their enclosure, so neuvi gets tagged and returned to the wild in hopes he’ll reproduce but humans still check in regularly to see how he’s doing. Cue you, the intern/new person who never expected to see the naga in the wild. Zhongli is the same as ever in his enclosure with constant temperatures, but surprise! Neuvi is having his mating season.
tw - kidnapping, implied breeding, minor violence.
this ask is a little old but i've been thinking about it constantly,,, i love the idea of zhongli being raised in captivity and therefore much more docile and used to being spoiled, whereas neuvillette is just. pure aggression from the moment he's captured onward. he refuses to touch any potential mate his caretakers try to pair him with, constantly attacks maintenance crews and researchers, and more of the project's grant money goes to fixing the damage he's done to his enclosure than, y'know, the project. eventually, he's released back into the wild under supervision, and you (a local cryptid specialist who's had a few brief encounters with him in the past) get brought on to keep an eye on him.
he's been nothing but aggressive and avoidant around humans before, so imagine your surprise when you make your first visit and immediately get grabbed up by a half-feral naga, all fangs and thrashing tails and pulsing, erect twin cocks that he kept so well-hidden in his brief captivity, his caretakers had started to doubt their assumptions about his biological sex. you're stripped of your limited supplies, injected with his paralytic venom, and taken to a nest of furs and shells all while he mutters about how sorry he is for being taken away from you, how he hesitated to act before but now, he knows better than to shy away from his precious little mate. it's not the ideal ending to a research paper, but at least the project was a success, right?
neuvillette's certainly going to be breeding something by the end of the night. it just won't be another naga.
1K notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 7 months
Note
Omg I'm so lucky I made it in time for ur ask box...I think... Can you do a drabble for dabi using drugs to make his S/O more submissive ? Tysm!!!
This was probably supposed to be NSFW, but I didn’t spend 2 hours reading about hallucinogenic trips gone wrong to write smut about it.
The shot was neon blue, briefly on fire, and still fizzing when you finally downed it. It tasted bitter enough for you to consider spiting it out, but the sweet aftertaste almost made up for the excruciating burning sensation in the back of your throat. Someone had obviously tampered with it, but you didn’t have much of a choice. Dabi wouldn’t have let you leave without an empty glass, and you were already too tipsy to put up a proper fight.
And now, less than ten minutes later, a proper fight was far from your mind. You were laughing at nothing in particular, even as your back slammed against the alleyway’s brick wall. Everything was just so funny. The villain in front of you, the cats playing in the distance, the concerned bartender yelling your name, it was all unimaginably hilarious. The man’s chest pressed against yours, his teeth brushing against your neck, and your giggling died down into a soft purr. You switched to playing with his hair, murmuring useless, incoherent nothing under your breath.
“That’s better, isn’t it?” He whispered, hands drifting from your waist to your thighs, lifting you off of your feet. You barely objected, choosing to rest against him instead. He was so warm, how did you miss that before? “If you weren’t so stubborn, it could be like this all the time.”
“I’m not stubborn.” You tried to sound serious, but it was hard to focus. Words seemed distant, incomprehensible, impossible. Had you ever really spoken before? Did it always sound this garbled? Your thoughts swam, but you forced another fragment out. “I’m not stubborn, you’re scary.”
He chuckled, the sound reverberating into your skin. Your throat seemed to tighten, making it hard to breathe. Suddenly, you were very aware of the pressure on your chest, and the boy’s slow breaths. Dabi needed to give you space, you needed space. You opened your mouth to protest, but if speaking was hard before, it might as well be neuro-surgery now. Luckily, Dabi didn’t seem to have a problem. “I’m scary? I thought you liked me, love.”
You shook your head frantically, trying to make your discomfort known, but your movements were sluggish and hazy. You couldn’t hear the bar’s patrons anymore, but Dabi’s heartbeat was starting to overwhelm you. His breath fanned over your neck, and you closed your eyes, tightening your grip around him. He didn’t have to threaten you. Just him being so close was terrifying. “I like you, I’m just…” You trailed off, unsure of what to say. Should you tell him to back off? Was he too close? Everything around you was cold, what if you froze without him?
Dabi waited for a moment, letting out a sigh when he realized you couldn’t continue. His teeth sunk into your neck, not bothering with a warning nip. You stiffened quickly, pushing yourself further into him. It didn’t hurt, but the feeling of blood dripping onto your back rose some alarms, even in your dazed state. “You’re what?” Dabi growled, his voice still muffled by your skin.
“It’s so loud…” You couldn’t stop yourself from tearing up. There was no particular source for your distress, everything was just so much. Dabi’s voice, the brick wall, your ever growing need to sleep, the sound of blood rushing through your veins… all you wanted to do was curl up into a ball and die. You didn’t care about the ‘love-bite’, or Dabi’s criminal status. All you wanted to do was sleep. Clinging onto him desperately, you tried to muffle the sound of the outside world. “It’s too loud here… I want to go home.”
You felt Dabi pull away from the wall, a hand comfortingly placed on your back. You certainly didn’t feel safe, but it would be so much worse if you let go of him. Even the smallest shifts in position had you whimpering. “Don’t cry, I’m taking you somewhere safe.” His soothing tone helped you to relax, even if you were barely holding onto consciousness. “Just remember you asked for this, alright?”
You nodded weakly. In your current state, it would’ve been a miracle if you realized he didn’t know your address. 
692 notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 9 months
Text
Tumblr media
random yan chrollo blurb because i can't stop thinking about him even if i try . 🙏
Tumblr media
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“… Are you still sure?”
“I’m still sure.”
“Swear to me.” 
“I swear.”
“That wasn’t sincere enough… swear… swear on the Troupe. In the name of their, uh, honor, or whatever.”
“Honor?” The word sounds humorous coming from Chrollo’s lips. “Very well. I swear on the honor of the Phantom Troupe that I won’t go back on my word.” 
You sit across from a formidable opponent. Fate has decreed this your lot, so you’ve taken what has been forcibly thrust upon you and sworn to crush it. However, at this stage, you’ve modified your parameters to be more realistic. The new, somewhat more obtainable goal is to leave a dent. Or a scratch, perhaps. 
For this dream to be realized, risks must be taken. The risk in this case is a willingness to interact with a man named Chrollo Lucilfer. His is a species defined by its tenacity. Through trial and error, you’ve concluded that typical avenues of escape aren’t in the cards. Nothing concerning the life you lead now is ordinary, so creativity and a solid vision are paramount. 
Your adversary sits leaning forward, his elbow on the table, forearm extending upward, and palm open. He observes you with the degree of amusement he always does, content in waiting for you to make the first move. 
You take a deep breath. Oxygen floods your being and blood circulates in full force. Every system in your body is primed and ready, there’ll be no better window, so you take it, springing into action. 
Contact is made with his outstretched palm. You steady your footwork for better balance, then pull, demanding everything your muscles can deliver and then some. This immense exertion of force is the culmination of your efforts. Hours of scheming by the window, exercising self-control not to pour salt on his strawberries so he’d be more affable to your requests, running mental calculations and simulations… 
… Alas, it’s not enough. 
You pitched a pseudo arm wrestling competition where you could use any means necessary to make him budge. You didn’t dare stipulate that you successfully pull his arm down, your hubris doesn’t extend that far; but the slightest movement on his part would spell your victory. A victory that’d have him fulfill any request your overactive imagination could conjure up. These terms and conditions were smoothed out in a verbal binding contract. 
His countenance is the same as it would be if he were flipping through a book or pulling his phone from his pocket — entirely casual. He isn’t even straining himself to maintain this stalemate. It’s possible that his physical strength is simply beyond your understanding, as is that parapsychological phenomena he refers to as Nen. 
“What,” you heave, disbelief coloring your tone, “Is your body made out of?” 
“Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen—” 
“It was rhetorical, Mr. Alchemist,” you cut him off. 
He simply shrugs and smiles. Somehow, his arm still hasn’t moved an inch throughout that exchange. The thought of this metric gives you pause. An idea is sown and imbued with life in the span of a few seconds. 
“Ah, that’s the expression you get before you say something endearing,” he comments, almost dreamily. 
You ignore him and straighten up, ready to argue over technicalities like your life depends on it. Seeing that you’ve abandoned your previous scheme, he relaxes back into the chair. 
“I have a case. How do we know your arm didn’t move… an atom to the side?” 
Chrollo tilts his head. “An atom?” 
“Yes. If an inch is a unit of measurement, there has to be something smaller. So maybe your arm didn’t move an inch, but it moved the width of an atom. Are you following me?” 
“...” 
You barely comprehend it. 
One second, you’re standing, the next, you’re sitting, with arms and a familiar cologne engulfing you. You can feel the low rumbling of his chest. He chuckles into your ear and secures you tighter against him upon sensing your instinct to struggle. Scowling, you cross your arms while he regains his composure. 
“Don’t be cross with me, dear,” he smooths out your shirt, as if it’d exonerate him of his transgressions. “I’m not laughing at you. You’re just… everything. Everything I need. I’m sorry. Please finish your point.” 
“Court’s adjourned.” 
“That’s a shame. When might it reopen?”
“Never, you’re sentenced to death. No appeals.”  
“I thought you opposed capital punishment?” 
“Each second that has passed since this conversation began has regressed my views by a decade each.” 
"I'll just have to hold onto you for the time being then."
All you can muster the strength to do is sigh.
653 notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 9 months
Note
Fairy god mother T_T I'm starting college and am nervous. May I request a yandere guy to take me away from this?? I am just nervous to move and start school,,,,,,asdfghjkl if not thats alright. I just rlly like your writing
Concipilo
Male OC x GN Reader
A/N: LMFAO no I get it.
Warnings: Pet names: love, sweet one, insinuation of dubious activity, drugging, kidnapping, a little choking
Tumblr media
You are startled awake by a noise in your room. Upon opening your eyes you find a man looking down at you.
“Good morning, love. Sorry I woke you up.”
Wh-who are you?! You gasp.
“Calm down, love” he sits on the edge of your bed, “you can’t be too loud, we can’t have any witnesses can we? And to answer your question my name is kobi. You can call me that…or you can call me Lover, Boyfriend, Partner, Honey. Whatever you prefer.”
You want to scream, you really do but his threat keeps you silent, staring at him, almost frozen.
“I’ve been watching you for a while, love and I think we could be very happy together.” Kobi smiles, a faraway look clouding his eyes.
“Wh-What?” You said finding your voice. “You broke into my room. I don’t even know you.”
He huffs, seeming miffed and you’re pretty sure you see him roll his eyes.
“Love, if you’re going to nitpick, thats the most basic thing I have done here. And besides, you’ll have plenty of time to get to know me.”
What.
Your eyes widen and you pull away from him into the wall as far as you can. “What do you mean the most basic thing?”
It seems to dawn on him what that may have implied and he gasps. “Oh, no, Love. Nothing creepy like that. I could never…” he trails off, a soft smile quirking his lips upwards. “Besides I’d rather you be awake for that. No, Love, I’ve come here most nights for a while and made sure you are safe in your sleep. I’ve done my best to make sure that you are taken care of. Don’t you think it’s only fair I get the chance to call you mine?”
“You’re crazy.” you say, trying to even wrap your head around that logic. No way in hell do you even want this man—that you have never even met and insists that you call him your boyfriend—near you, especially if that consists of him breaking into your house and going through your stuff.
“I admit, it may sound a bit odd. However, you cannot argue with the love I possess for you. I am not delusional enough to think that you love me as much as I love you now, but I know you and I are meant to be together. All I ask is for you to give me a chance.”
“A chance?! After you broke into my room, admitted to going through my stuff, probably stalking me, and have most likely done other things I don’t even want to know about. You’re crazy. Delusional and crazy.”
“Love, all I did was enter your room to make sure you were safe,” Kobi says, starting to sound exasperated. “Do not look at me as an invader, rather think of me as a guardian of sorts.”
“Now, I insist,” he reaches out, gently grabbing your chin and guiding your gaze to his, “give me a chance, love. I cannot accept your denial. You will come to love me.”
His loving tone and soft voice do nothing to distract you from the fact that he is very much still a stranger who broke in and is sitting on your bed in the middle of the night. You try and pull your face from his grasp, but his grip tightens.
“Let go of me.” You gasp. A little louder than you meant to say it as you begin to struggle.
He smirks, you really are a fighter.
Do not struggle, sweet one. Though very cute, your resistance is only a waste of time. You will love me eventually.
He pulls a syringe from his back pocket and uncaps the needle. You see this and start to struggle harder, attempting to scream before the hand that is holding your chin quickly grabs your throat, cutting off your scream to a choked noise as he pushes you back to lay on your bed. You cough as he releases some pressure on your windpipe, keeping enough pressure to stop your struggling.
“Now, are you going to behave? I’d hate to have to bruise your pretty skin more than necessary.”
You let out a strangled noise as your hands attempt to move his hand from your throat.
He sighs and removes his hand, grabbing one of your arms and injecting the drug as you gasp in shock and for air.
“W…wha-t did y-ou do?!” You croak out, coughing afterwards.
“Just a little drug to help you see things my way.” He smiles, watching as you shakily rub your hand on your throat. That’s going to bruise for sure.
“N-no this… you can’t, I…” you trail off as your thoughts become fuzzy.
“Good, love. Just go to sleep.” Kobi smiles as you fall unconscious. He caps the syringe and places it back into his pocket before picking you up and carrying you in his arms like a princess.
“Now that you have finally calmed down, we can start our story. I’m so excited for you to come home, you know. You'll love it there, I know it!"
Kobi exits your room with you in his arms, sneaking out, sure to not alert anyone. Gently, he places you in his trunk, surrounded by a pile of pillows and blankets and smiles at your sleeping face.
"Good night, love." he leans down, kissing your forehead before shutting the trunk.
"see you when we get there."
67 notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 11 months
Text
𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨, 𝐒𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦
Tumblr media Tumblr media
𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭: chrollo + prompt 28 "feels good, doesn't it? isn't it so much better when you listen?"
𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬: you've resentfully avoided chrollo's attempts at affection ever since he took you away. chrollo doesn't seem to think that you have any valid reason to act this way and devises a plan to show you why.
𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬: nsfw, coercion, non-con touching, mentions of past kidnapping, lots o manipulation. all sexual nsfw will be below the cut.
Chrollo’s constant attempts at sharing affection with you were becoming infuriating, to say the absolute least. For such an intelligent man, you were shocked that he didn’t seem to have enough intuition to notice that what he was doing bothered you, or to see how his thought process was highly incorrect when he assumed that everything was normal between you two following your kidnapping. It was as if you were the one who was crazy, so mad for thinking that a dent had been put in your relationship by him taking you away. The look of mild confusion he would give when you ducked out of a hug or turned your head when he would try to kiss you; his lips pressing into your cheek instead. These happenings were indeed maddening, but for the right reason. Your bitterness alone towards Chrollo was enough to keep you grounded, not to let yourself be manipulated into thinking that you were the one who was acting out of line. 
The progression of your indignation reaching its boiling point was slow, initially by your choice, though eventually, your efforts would prove futile the longer that you tried. Chrollo was, above all else, as calm and collected as they came. The times when you would react more explosively than usual, in ways like slamming your bedroom door or pushing him away with more force than what could be deemed acceptable by any regular relationship’s standard, he would barely respond. His expression would be as meek as ever despite the obvious, unspoken assertion that he had over you; like he was just letting you get your tantrum out of your system so things could go back to normal sooner rather than later. Nothing can be normal ever again, you would always think to yourself.
His utter repose in these situations was the most discouraging part of it all. If you were showing him your worst, throwing fits when he would try doing something as harmless as brushing his knuckles across your cheek, and he would not spare you a second glance when you denied him in such a childish way… were you doomed? His being so unbothered should have been impossible, and if anything, it bothered you. How could such behaviour not displease him so much that he would be driven to let you go just so you would be out of his hair? 
Your resentment boiled over on one particular day, which ended regretfully. 
All you could hear him say this morning in your immediate post-sleep fog was that he would be out for most of the day, and would be coming home much later than usual. His typical day already had him arriving home rather late into the night, so the thought of him coming back so much later to the point of you possibly being asleep made you nervous for some reason–an odd gut feeling, like you shouldn’t leave yourself so vulnerable while alone in the den of a predator; however, it had been a while since you had experienced the peace of being home alone. You were still incredibly anxious about when his inevitable return would be, but you put forth your best effort to push that aside and enjoy your temporary solitude while it lasted.
Your morning started with reluctantly hauling yourself out of bed and putting on your robe after holding it open in front of the heater–the air had such a cold bite to it today. Tucking your frigid fingertips into your pockets, your body shivered as it adjusted to the newfound warmth, your cold feet carrying you downstairs to start brewing a hot drink. As you poured the water, setting it to boil and watching in wait, you began to zone out. 
Being able to stand here right now could be considered a minor miracle, as your first month in Chrollo’s clutches kept you confined to the bedroom and attached bathroom. He assured you that he trusted you, but he wanted to introduce you to your new home slowly and would have to wait and dictate when a good time for that could be. Considering your frequent fits, you aren’t exactly sure what you had done differently on the day that he decided it was a good time, but it was the one thing that you were grateful to him for. Bitterness always crept back in when you wondered why he restricted your access to the home in the first place if he claimed to trust you, but if it was because he suspected that you would try to escape, he was absolutely right. 
There was one day during this time when you were sitting under a blanket on the couch, watching Chrollo adjust his coat as he informed you that he would be leaving you alone for a couple of hours, before rushing out to whatever job his absence required. After you heard him lock the front door, you immediately hopped up and ran to one of the windows in the living room to see if you could get it open. You were unsurprised to find that it wouldn’t budge, not even when you used the force of your entire body weight to try prying it out of its frame. The situation was the same for every window on the ground floor, and it wasn’t until you stood in front of the front door itself that you heard a sudden voice from behind you, coming from inside the house.
“This has certainly disrupted your progress quite a bit. How disappointing, I thought you were moving along rather well.” 
You whipped around to see Chrollo standing a few feet away, his expression almost heartbroken at the sight of your hand reaching towards the doorknob. When did he come back inside?! You heard nothing aside from the sounds of your shuffling around the house. It hadn’t even been that long either, perhaps fifteen minutes? Had he left at all? Regardless, he was not lying when he said this disrupted your progress. You were condemned back to your bedroom for another week, as a punishment. Your dread of being sent back to that essential jail cell had you apologizing profusely, the biggest change in your behaviour since this all had happened. The sympathy in his eyes came across as so false while he told you that he was sorry to have to do this, but you brought it upon yourself.
The bubbly, popping sound of the water reaching its boil brought you back from your stupor, quickly shutting off the burner and pouring yourself a mug. As you plodded over to the couch, you began to wonder about what you could do today. From the way Chrollo made it sound, the house was yours all day long. You already knew that spending time trying to escape would not work, your last punishment not only taught you your lesson but also that he would never let any exits be accessible to you under any circumstance. No matter, you could just use your time today to sit and contemplate other ways to act out against Chrollo that would get him fed up with you, maybe to the point where he would drag you to the door and just kick you out. That fantasy made you chuckle; how hopeful you were. If my temper has proven useless this far in, what more can I do?
As you sipped on your drink, content with the heat of it pleasantly tickling your insides and warming out the rest of your body, you found yourself feeling comfortably drowsy. You recalled it being quite early when Chrollo left, and your excitement to enjoy your seclusion had you departing from your bed much earlier than normal, to make use of the day you were given. That previous thought of anxiety about falling asleep without Chrollo being here reinstated itself in your mind, but it was still early after all. A nap couldn’t hurt. You slouched down into the couch, taking one more sip of your beverage before placing it aside and curling in on yourself, resting your weary eyes for what would hopefully not be too long; just enough to feel relaxed for your special, lonely day. 
It was a sensation that woke you up, and given how strained your eyes still felt when you tried squinting them open, you could not have been asleep for very long at all. Your eyes fell back shut as you went to raise your fingertips and massage your lids, but when you wanted to move your hands from where they had been tucked into your chest, you couldn’t; they were restrained. Not by something as gruff as handcuffs, or implicative as some tie or silk ribbon, but by another pair of hands, a pair which you recognized much too soon. 
“I came back to get something that I forgot to bring with me. You looked so endearing sleeping here, I couldn’t stop myself by the time I was already at your side.” 
His voice came from over your shoulder, and you registered a moment too late that Chrollo was back home, cuddling you from behind with your hands intertwined. 
You hadn’t been this close to him since before your captivity, and it seemed to you then that this entire day was a setup to make this happen. He was just waiting for the perfect time to take advantage of you, of your comfort, to pounce. He must have been fed up with your resistance by now, especially since you tried moving your hands again but he wasn’t allowing that to happen, his grip iron. The idea of him going out of his way to do all of this was so upsetting to you, you truly felt excited to live today differently than every other mundane one you had here. The thought of it being a trap brought tears to your eyes, a reaction you had no control over once the first tear fell into your hair.
“Why would you do this?” your voice was whiny, words thick as you swallowed down the sudden lump in your throat. With your hands restricted, you opted to rub your cheek dry against the accent pillow you had been resting on. You didn’t receive a reply at first, you could only feel Chrollo shifting around before he appeared in your peripheral, hovering over your side.   
“Why are you crying?” he sounded genuinely curious, his knuckles so soft as they brushed away your tears. You were too exhausted at this point to resist his touch; your will crumbled once you discerned that you wandered right into his scheme, so naively. 
Chrollo watched you with solace-filled eyes and carried the utmost patience as he caressed you, but you couldn’t respond yet, any attempt at speech only turning into a broken whimper as you internally scolded yourself. He frowned at the small sounds you made, moving to cup your cheeks so you’d only be able to look at him. His thumbs swiped over your cheekbones, and he looked like he was about to say something more, but you cut him off.
“I can’t believe you would trick me again.” A harsher sob wracked your body as your emotions came crashing down, overtaking your actions. Your hands found his, latching onto his wrists with an abrasive dig of your nails as if to pry him off. “Why can’t you just leave me be, just leave me alone for one day?!”
You squeezed him harder, fingernails almost puncturing his skin, but no difference was made. He didn’t even flinch, his sorrowful gaze was unwavering as you broke down. Your eyes blinked shut, batting away the never-ending stream of tears that flowed out of them. 
What an opportune thief Chrollo was. Amid your emotional haze, you barely registered the newfound warmth on your lips; that being his own. The first time he was able to kiss you, without you having enough clarity to move away. 
Everything was calculated.
With being so flustered and exasperated by everything, you found yourself melting into the intimacy. Your grip on him relented, letting gravity control your hands as they fell to rest beside your head. Chrollo’s head tilted to deepen the kiss, sinking you further into the couch as his fingers slid to your jaw to keep you in place. The way his body caged you down in this suffocation almost felt like a representation of how caged off he kept you from the rest of the world. Over a month of captivity, with no rescuers in sight. You couldn’t know if anyone had even tried, Chrollo made past implications about “taking care of” anyone who would try to come between you two, so you would not dare to ask to spare yourself the potentially gruesome details. Understanding his line of work, you knew better. 
Even if you could find some form of escape despite the lack of active search-and-rescuers, running away by your merit, where would you go? You could not go back to your own home, nor could you endanger the lives of anyone close to you. To keep living, you would be left with no choice but to run right back into Chrollo’s arms. Those same arms that began to wander now, slithering off of your face and to the south of your body, his hands finding your breasts first and giving them an ample squeeze. 
The premonition of further invasion brought some brief lucidity to your mind in the form of a reactive fright, breath hitching and muscles tensing as you squirmed around in an attempt to drive him off of you. You gave this your best effort considering your compromised position, though it didn’t make much of a difference at all. That didn’t mean it went unnoticed, it worked to some extent when Chrollo broke the kiss, but his hands remained in their place.
“No more of that, Y/N. You’ve moved past this behaviour, moving so well. Don’t revert that progress again, now.” 
As if it should’ve just been that simple for you to agree with, his lips resumed their actions on you with an attachment to your neck, his tongue darting out after he kissed the centre, before sliding the tip of it down to your clavicle. His fingers crept up to the collar of your shirt, tugging it down as he nipped at your bone. When your head reeled back in an attempt to distance yourself, you were sure that from Chrollo’s perspective, it looked like a pleasurable reaction that only encouraged him further. You guessed right, as he moved to start unbuttoning your nightgown. Your response came too late when you tried to pull his hands away, he was moving too fast. 
You heard a tear as he yanked the material down, ripping it open. You frowned at the possibility of one of your favourite pyjamas being ruined, that frown deepening even further when you recalled your lack of a bra and what Chrollo could see right now. This brought you to panic and you tried to move away, but his body shifted further down so he could wrap his mouth around the tip of your breast, preventing your movement and making your chest churn. He looked into your eyes as his tongue flattened against your nipple, though when he saw that you were looking away he pointed his tongue and pushed the end of it right onto your bud, swirling over the tip and sending a sensitive tremor throughout your body. A helpless hum escaped you at the feeling, a mistake that Chrollo immediately planned to exploit. His lips sucked your nipple into his mouth, before letting it pop out as he lifted his head off of you. The cold air blowing over your newly bedewed skin made you shiver (or it could have been induced by your dread. With the whirlwind of emotions you were experiencing, how were you to tell?). A light, knowing smirk played on his lips.
“Feels good, doesn’t it? Isn’t it so much better when you listen?” 
As one of his hands traced down your side, moving under your gown and stopping his palm over your panties, his fingertips landed above your clit and pressed in. You writhed, trying to shake your head in defiance to what he had just boldly asked you, but when he circled his fingers you were rendered immobile. His hand remained in its place, the extra friction created by your underwear pleasing you deliciously. Holding back any sound almost became painful, it was hard to resist pleasure when you had been denying him for such a long time, your body being neglected for so many weeks. Your reaction was out of your control, yet you didn’t wish for him to stop. 
He could tell you were settling into the feeling, your hips twisting and turning to follow his movements and meet the pace and pressure that he set, your chest rising and falling as your throat ached from forcing your moans back down. 
It wasn’t until you felt Chrollo’s tongue dampen your panties as it replaced his fingers that a keening sound was forced out of you; the change in touch felt so different now, so good. The increased wetness of his saliva and your growing arousal let him stroke along your clit as if there were no barrier at all, making your legs tremble. Before you could even try to stop it, one of your hands plunged down to grab at his hair, pulling on his roots which simultaneously pulled a groan from his throat. That vibration had your back arching, you were barely coherent now as you could focus on nothing aside from enticing the orgasm that began to stir within you, being further encouraged when Chrollo finally tugged your panties aside and splayed his tongue over your clit again, bare.
You let out a lewd gasp, your eyes watering for a second time today but now for such a better reason. That immediate skin-to-skin contact was divine, causing the buildup of your peak to be strengthened and amplified immensely, especially after being untouched for so much time. Untouched by this same man, who learned about all of your weak spots the very first time you slept together, and knew exactly how to touch them again later to get you melted and desperate beneath him. 
With that in mind, you always knew this would happen again. He never made any second attempts to touch you when you would push him away before, an obvious ploy to lull you into a false idea of his “respect” for your boundaries. Chrollo was, above all else, as calm and collected as they came. He had to remain composed to maintain his patience and seek out the right time to strike, after all. 
He nibbled your clit suddenly, and that was your end. Your thighs clenched around his head, his name husky on your lips and releasing in a higher pitch as you came hard, fingers wrenching against his scalp. Your body shook, breaths heavy and interrupted by mewls as Chrollo continued swirling his tongue, one of his hands sneaking down to prod his fingertips into your pussy, riding your orgasm out even better with the added touch. 
Once your pleasure crests to its fullest, the fall back down to reality hits you hard. Chrollo’s movements had slowed but not completely stopped, and when the delectation steadily turned into overstimulation, you remembered the vile course of actions that he took to get you here. You bleated in protest, unable to form the words that could demand him to stop as your hands braced the couch, helping you tug yourself away from him. His arms quickly hooked around your thighs to keep you right where he wanted you, hauling you back down. He gave a final sloppy kiss to your pussy, his lips glimmering wet as he looked up at you. The sight of him so dreamy between your thighs sent something down your core that you hated. 
“I don’t like having to repeat myself with you, Y/N. You know better now, I shouldn’t have to repeat myself with a jewel so bright. Lay back down, let me please you.” His hands were firm and kept your hips flat, leaving you stationary. 
“I know you weren’t ready until today, but allow me to make up for all of the lost time.” He kissed your clit again, stunning you further as the pain of overstimulation had long since faded, your body welcoming pleasure again, craving it. You would have never been ready, not until today or any other day. But you knew it would happen, Chrollo always got his way. A thief so unforgiving would stop at nothing. “As long as you continue to listen, I will give you everything you desire.” 
© meyousing 2023. do not share/export my work on to any other platforms. do not translate my work. 
2K notes · View notes
glossytearsposts · 11 months
Text
Title: Flu Season.
Pairing: Yandere!Chrollo x Reader (HxH).
Word Count: 1.6k.
TW: Kidnapping, Mentions of Guns, and Imprisonment.
[I have a fever. Excuse the self-indulgence.]
Tumblr media
It should’ve been enough that you’d just been kidnapped.
Dragged into the storage closet of an art gallery you could barely afford to visit, bound and gagged and blindfolded, the barrel of a gun shoved into the notch underneath your diaphragm as a man with slicked-back hair and a woman in a wine-red suit walked you out of an obscured backdoor and into a windowless van, already stocked with haphazardly packaged paintings and sculptures. It was just business as usual, the woman had explained, as if that would make you feel any better. They’d keep you as a hostage until attention died down, sell off the stolen artwork, and drop you off on the outskirts of the nearest city, alive and unharmed. As long as you didn’t put up a fight or get on anyone’s nerves, you’d walk away just fine.
Or, mostly fine, at least. Really, you had to be the unluckiest person in the world.
It wasn’t enough that you’d just been kidnapped by some shady, hyper-violent gang of thieves.
You had to get kidnapped, then come down with a cold.
Or the flu. It might’ve been the flu. You definitely had a fever. You couldn’t take your temperature, but you could feel those tell-tale chills, the splitting headaches, the constant pull of an exhaustion no amount of sleep would’ve been able to sedate. Your throat was raw from coughing, your head pounding and your tongue permanently dry, but you’d resigned yourself to nursing the lukewarm glass of stale water you’d gathered the strength to get for yourself more than a few hours ago. You barely had the energy to stand, but it wasn’t as if you could ask your kidnappers to wait on you. They seemed begrudgingly tolerant of your presence – vaguely amused at best, mildly annoyed at worst. It was safer not to draw any attention to yourself, even if that meant suffering alone for another few days.
Another sudden chill, another knot of ache in the back of your skull. You shuddered, pulling the small pile of blankets and quilts you’d amassed that much closer. The abandoned mansion they’d chosen as their temporary lair was an awful, drafty structure – all rotting wood and dirt-caked windows and thin walls that did nothing to keep out the winter air. You’d holed yourself up in one of the countless decaying bedrooms, but even the surprisingly clean king-sized mattress offered little consolation. That, paired with the holes in the walls, the layer of dust coated over every surface, didn’t make you feel very—
Your bleary thoughts were cut off by the sound of your bedroom door creaking open, of quiet footsteps approaching the spot where you laid. You shot up on reflex, but that immediately proved to be a mistake – a jolt of pure agony racing from the nape of your neck to your temples and settling in the space just behind your eyes. Cursing under your breath, you buried your face in your hands, doing your best to block out the light and soothe the sudden pain, but you didn’t have much time to console yourself. The intruder had already reached your bedside, the plush mattress dipping under their weight as they settled into your space. You spared them a withering glance, but once again, that only seemed to make things worse.
For whatever reason, the thieves’ leader himself – Chrollo, if memory served – had seen fit to pay you a visit.
And just when you thought your day couldn’t get any worse.
You stiffened, pressed your back into the dilapidated headboard, did what you could to make yourself look small and unremarkable without giving him the impression that you were meek enough to go down without a fight (despite the fact that, if worst came to worst, you probably would). For what it was worth, he didn’t seem hostile. If anything, the expression written across his face was one of pleasant neutrality – a slight smirk paired with a distant look in his eyes, like he had a million things to do and whatever he’d come to you for barely ranked on his list of concerns. When he noticed you were looking at him, he didn’t move, didn’t say anything. Rather, he only lifted the hand furthest from you, bringing a nondescript plastic bag into your line of sight and placing it in front of you gingerly, as if he was leaving a hunk of raw meat in front of some exotic beast.
It was only when you failed to react that he started to explain himself. “I heard you were sick.”
Fuck. And you thought you’d managed to fly under his radar.
“I… I think it’s just a cold.” Because colds were safer than flus, easier to recover from and only half as contagious. Because they were less likely to decide you weren’t worth the effort it’d take to keep you around if you just had a cold. “I should be alright in a couple of days, but if you think we’ll need to move before that—”
“Oh, no, it’ll be another week or so before we move on. You'll have plenty of time to recover.” He spoke casually, as if they weren’t wanted fugitives. As if you weren’t a bargaining chip for them to flaunt in front of the police if things went south. He gestured towards the bag, his grin growing just a little wider. “Let me know if I missed something. I tried for variety, but I can make a second trip if you find that your needs haven’t been met.”
Hesitantly, you took up the bag, dragging it into your lap and pulling it open. The contents consisted of what a friend might’ve brought over after you’d missed a morning lecture to a particularly bad hangover. Mineral water, tissues, brand-name painkillers and generic cough medicine. There were a few sporadic add-ons, too – chocolate bars, two bracelets with matching broken clasps and a silver wedding band, a miniature teddy bear that’d clearly been plucked off of a Valentine’s Day clearance rack, but you choose not to linger on those any longer than you had to. Honestly, you were just glad not to find any bullet casings or disembodied extremities. “One of nen’s many silver linings. Once your body surpasses a certain point, illness tends to be more of a peripheral hazard than a daily inconvenience,” he went on, as you rummaged through the bag. “I’m a little out of practice, but hopefully, this will suffice.”
You weren’t exactly sure what he was talking about, but you did your best to nod along, only letting a small portion of your confusion shine through. None of this made sense, none of this was anything you’d ever thought to prepare yourself for, but when he finished, you scrambled to respond, as eager to please as he seemed to be to soak in your praise. “Thank you. It’s perfect, I—” The air hitched in your throat, and anything you might’ve said broke down into a violent coughing fit, only somewhat stifled by the back of your hand. He was still staring at you, when you found the strength to look toward him again, still wearing that fucking smile. Something quirked inside of your chest, and you turned away from him sharply. “I appreciate it, I really do, b-but I’m not sure what’s going on, and I don’t want to disrespect the— your—”
“The Phantom Troupe,” he finished. “My Spiders.”
“Right. That. I don't know how to deal with that.” You shook your head, letting out a slight sigh. “I’m sorry, I don’t really keep up with the world of high-class art theft.”
“Oh, we steal all sorts of things. Art, antiques, the occasional organ.” He paused, then seemed to brighten, his tone taking on a kind of childlike eagerness. “A few years ago, a buyer I’m closely acquainted with was interested in amassing a collection of teeth from notable living figures. It was a dull job, but it paid well enough, and my group made the most of it. We're very versatile.”
There was another chill, this time with a source other than your smoldering fever. You wrapped your arms over your chest, shrinking into yourself, but if Chrollo cared about how reflexively you pulled away from him, he didn’t seem to think of it as a mistake that couldn’t be corrected with a breath of a laugh, a slight tap to his knee. “Come here.”
It wasn’t a question, a request, but you considered refusing for one brief, delusional second before ignoring your better judgment and moving towards him – gradually, at first, as slowly as you were able to, until you’d gotten just a little too close and he was able to lash out, to snake an arm around your waist and pull you against his chest. There was a low chuckle, a hand brought to your cheek before it was used to brush the hair away from your face. He held you like that for a long moment – tucked against him, fingers tangled in your hair, his lips ghosting over your forehead – before his grip slackened and his hand fell back to your waist, his face soon buried in the crook of your neck. “Poor thing,” he muttered, his voice muffled by your skin. “You’re burning up.”
He let you go as quickly as he’d taken you up, unraveling himself from you and rising to his feet. There was a click of his tongue, a new lilt to his smile, and when he spoke, he did so with a certain lightness – as if he was playing a role he’d spent just a little too long preparing for. “I’ll make tea. Try to get some rest while I’m gone.”
At least things couldn’t get any worse, right?
You waited for him to leave, but he didn’t move, didn't look away from you. With no small amount of trepidation, you turned your back to him, lying on your side and drawing the tussled blankets over yourself.  That earned a hum of approval, but you didn’t let yourself so much as breath until you heard his light footsteps, until the bedroom door groaned closed and you were left alone with only the impending knowledge that you wouldn’t be, for very long.
2K notes · View notes