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nothingeverlost · 4 years

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Fic: Company for Dinner (Little Miss verse)

The day before her birthday Belle invites Ariel, Eric and Neal to dinner. her father invites Gus Aston. Nothing turns out as expected.

He spent the evening polishing the silver. It was a job he should have assigned to one of the maids, but he needed something to do with his hands that didn’t take any focus. He couldn’t stop his mind from wandering.

Belle was back. The two weeks she’d been gone had been a reprieve, the first time he’d actually been glad of her absence from the house. And yet he walked around every corner half expecting to see her. Half wanting to see her. Belle’s absence meant two weeks without Mr. Aston and Gold felt no confusion about that subject. If he never saw the man again it would be too soon. It was unfortunate that he was at the same house party as his young miss. Damn the man. And damn Maurice French while he was at it. Belle deserved so much more than being pushed into a marriage with a lout of a man that didn’t understand the point of a book unless it had pictures, a man that enjoyed killing animals for sport, a man who had no appreciation for her interests, intelligence, or imagination. She deserved so much better.

Perhaps she had found it. There was a new gentleman upstairs for dinner. Belle had glowed when she’d spoken of meeting Mr. Cassidy at the party. She spoke of books they had both read and places they both wanted to travel. He was good friends with a prince, certainly an important man in his own right. Gold hoped he was kinder than Mr. Aston. Hoped he was more worthy. Wished he was on the bottom of the ocean. Belle was a day away from her 20th birthday, she didn’t need to marry. There was still time.

“Damn it.” He’d been working on the same spoon for more than five minutes. The only one around was the scullery maid, at least, who was doing her best to avoid pulling his attention towards her. He’d been more short-tempered than usual in the last few weeks, and the staff were all doing their best to avoid his notice.

Caught up in his brooding he almost missed the sound of steps on the stairs. The maids should be upstairs getting the rooms ready for the evening. No one else had a reason to come down to the kitchen. He heard someone talking to themselves in a whisper, and closed his eyes for a moment to fortify himself.

“Miss Belle?” He could see her shadow, long and thin on the stone floor.

“I just needed a moment.” She came down the last few steps but hesitated at the doorway. “I didn’t mean to bother anyone.”

“You’re never a bother, miss.” Her father was trying to push her out of her home; he was not going to make her feel any less welcome. Since she’d returned she only wound up downstairs when she was upset.

“You might be the only person that feels that way.” She wore a dress of emerald green, the beads catching all the light in the room and making her sparkles as if nothing else had any color. The shoes were too tall, catching on the uneven patches on the floor. It was concern for her, and nothing else, that had his staring at her legs. They were bare from the knee down.

“You can take a break, Cindy. Please find someplace else to be right now.” Rum dismissed the maid, who seemed more than happy to find something that didn’t involve scalding water and soiled pots. For the minute it took her to leave he was silent. “Anyone that finds you to be a bother isn’t worth your time.”

“I suppose it’s less about finding me bothersome and more about seeing me as odd. Papa would rather I was more like other girls. And Gus too.” She wrapped her arms around herself, hands clamping around her bare arms. It was warm enough in the kitchen that he knew it wasn’t about warmth.

“What of your guests? I hear we’re entertaining royalty this evening.” The household had been in a flutter for days, knowing a prince was coming. Gold hadn’t given him a thought. It was the other guest that had occupied his mind.

“Eric is besotted with Ariel, and Neal doesn’t mind my peculiarities. He knows so many of the same stories we do, Rum. The Odyssey, Peter Pan, so many of our favorite adventures.” For the first time since coming below stairs she looked something other than miserable. She liked the young man. “Gus wishes to speak with me. My father ushered everyone else to the drawing room so we could be alone. I thought I had more time, Rum.”

She dropped her gaze, trying without success to hide the tears that gathered in the corners of her eyes. He had a clean handkerchief and for just a moment thought about drying her eyes himself. A foolish thought that he rejected when he handed her the cloth. “He’s not worth your tears.”

“It’s the first birthday I’ve had at home in three years. He’ll want to make an announcement and then it won’t be about my birthday anymore, it will be about the future Belle Aston. I’m losing myself already.” She held the handkerchief but didn’t use it, a single tear falling down her cheek. He’d seen her cry before but not since she’d returned home. The tears of a child had made him want to comfort her. The tears of a woman, the woman he loved with all of his heart, made him want to thump someone with his cane and then comfort her in ways that were completely inappropriate. “I thought I’d come up with a way to at least slow this all down but my father ambushed me with this tonight. He’s so eager to finally get the son he’s always wanted.”

“If he’s so eager for Mr. Aston to join the family it’s not too late for adoption,” Gold huffed. It earned at least a small smile from Belle.

“It would be a better addition than that horrid Mrs. Mills he’s had over lately.” She made a face he understood completely. For a man that spent most of his time working and was still, after a decade, trying to prove his value it wasn’t hard to see why Maurice French was taken in by a woman like Regina Mills. As for Regina, her interest had nothing to do with the man and everything to do with his bank account. He’d heard whispers about her, two mysterious deaths, and a fortune that was being spent far too quickly to last.

“Some people have standards.” Rum limped over to the sink and filled a teakettle and a glass of water, leaving the kettle on the stove and bringing the cup back to the table. “Drink up. We’ll have tea shortly but the cool water will soothe your throat.”

“I can’t stay down here.” She looked over at the stairs that led to the upper hall and wherever Mr. Aston was waiting. Gold wished he could set that room, whichever it was, on fire.

“You can stay for a little while.” It wasn’t much of a reprieve, what he could offer. A cup of tea and a few minutes of safety. At best Aston would be annoyed enough to leave but he’d be back tomorrow. He couldn’t just let her leave, though. “No one would think to look for you here.”

“It’s not too late to run away and become pirates,” she said, slightly in jest but mostly with wistfulness. “I could though, couldn’t I? Not the pirate part, but I could leave. Run off somewhere. My father isn’t going to just accept me refusing Gus.”

His heart all but stopped at the idea of her leaving. Being alone in the world with no one to look after her. A lifetime of not knowing where she was, if she was safe, if she was happy. “I don’t...”

“Belle?” Despite his assurance someone, apparently, had thought to look for her below stairs. Not Maurice; the voice wasn’t deep enough and the steps were too light. It was a man, though, and not Aston which left one of the evening’s other guests. Gold’s hand tightened on the handle of his cane.

“I can make them leave,” he offered, looking at the still visible tear stain on Belle’s cheek.

“It’s alright.” Belle shook her head.

A moment later a young man came down the last few steps. He was, perhaps, a few years older than Belle, his skin tanned and healthy looking, his body whole. He smiled when he saw Belle. “Ariel said she thought she say you come this way.”

“I just needed…” She frowned a little, probably at a loss to explain why she was in the kitchen, speaking with the butler. She picked up her glass of water, taking a sip. “Were you sent to find me?”

“No, I was worried. I made an excuse to your father and doubled back to the dining room but you weren’t there. That Aston cad was pacing, doesn’t seem to be a patient sort. I don’t trust him, Belle.” He wasn’t predisposed to like the young man speaking so informally to his Belle, but at least they shared the same opinion of Aston. That was a point in the boy’s favor.

“My father expects us to announce an engagement tomorrow.” A pained expression flickered across her face. Gold’s hand fluttered at his side. He wanted to touch her but even without the stranger it would be a bad idea.

“Then we beat him to it. I’ll tell everyone tomorrow we’re engaged.” The stranger spoke so glibly, so easily about an engagement. He’d never even heard of the lad until a few days ago and he thought he was worth Miss Belle’s hand?

“Engaged?” He spoke louder than he should. He shouldn’t have spoken at all, not in front of the other man. He was the butler, a servant. He didn’t care. “Belle?”

“Neal’s helping me,” she tried to explain, turning towards him and pressing a hand to his elbow. Her touch was warm, almost uncomfortably so. It was rare that anyone touched him, other than her, and it had been weeks since she’d had a reason to do so. “It’s not real, but he’s my friend and we thought...”

“Papa?” He’d all but forgotten the man in the room, his focus on Belle and her hand on his elbow. The news that she was engaged, and the explanation that she wasn’t made him dizzy and for a moment he didn’t understand the word. Not until the sound of the voice penetrated his heart. The voice was deeper, the accent all wrong, but in that moment he could hear an echo of that same word. It had been twenty years but it was still the most precious sound he’d ever heard. He turned to the stranger, hair less curly, but almost the same shade, taller, a man grown. The eyes were the same. How had he missed that?

“Bae?” He stumbled a little, catching himself on Belle’s shoulder without thinking about right or wrong or formality. He barely thought about anything but the fact that he couldn’t stand on his own and she was the only person he could trust to be at his side. He wasn’t aware of how tight his fingers dug into her muscles or the marks he was leaving on her skin.

“Rum?” He could feel Belle looking at him even though he couldn’t pull his gaze away from the man apparently going by Neal now. The man with an easy smile and a straight back, looking healthy and whole.

“My boy.” He couldn’t stop staring at him, just a few steps away. A minute ago his stomach had tightened in pain when the stranger had entered the kitchen and spoken of an engagement to Belle. A stranger who he had no reason to accept as any more worthy than Mr. Aston. Now his stomach was just as tense but for a whole other reason. His son. Twenty years of grieving, of fear, of not even knowing if his Bae was still alive and through some miracle they stood in the same room.

“How is this possible?” Bae - Neal - took a step forward, eyes squinting in the low light of the kitchen as if he couldn’t trust his senses. “You were in Scotland.”

“I couldn’t bare to stay there after, not without you.” They had been gone. He’d sent Bae off to school one day, Milah still abed When he’d returned from work the cottage had been dark. Milah’s things had been gone and most of Bae’s clothes, though most of his toys had remained. He still had them, the ball and the stuffed rabbit, the blanket that was almost worn from so many washings. For twenty years they’d been all he had of his boy.

“He’s been here since I was ten.” Belle spoke for him, her voice seeming farther away than was possible considering he still used her shoulder rather than his forgotten cane for support. It wasn’t fair of him. He tried to move away but she leaned closer, their sides almost touching. It seemed like the only warmth he felt was from her closeness.

“Milah said you didn’t want us.” He didn’t miss that his son called his mother by her name. Didn’t miss the sound of pain in his voice either.

“I always wanted you, Bae. Always.” He almost couldn’t breathe to imagine his boy thinking that he was unwanted. He would rather his son hated him than thought himself abandoned. “I looked for you. I paid a detective but after a year there were no leads and my money was running out.”

“She said it was an adventure. We went to Germany, Spain, France, Greece. Lived on a ship for a while and an island. She married a man named Cassidy, and changed our names. It wasn’t the last time she married but I stopped changing my name.” Neal spoke without emotion for a minute, a recitation of facts no different than giving a report in front of a class. Afterwards he seemed to find the floor very interesting. He didn’t look up before asking, “You really searched for me?”

“I did, Bae. I swear I did.” He took two steps closer to his boy, letting go of Belle for the first time, his steps uneven. It was all he needed, Neal meeting him more than halfway. His boy didn’t vanish like smoke this time when he reached to touch him, not like he had a thousand times in dreams. Instead warm arms wrapped around him. His son was taller than he was.

He didn’t realize Belle had moved until he heard her steps on the stairs. He had a thousand questions to ask his boy and a desire to just stare. Belle mattered just as much, though, and she was trying to face the lions alone. “Belle you can’t.”

“You need time alone, just the two of you.” Tears brimmed in her eyes. “It’s amazing, Rum. Your son.”

“It’s a miracle, and it’s because of you. Stay, have some tea.” He was scared to watch her leave, knowing what waited above stairs for her. He was scared, too, to be alone with his boy. What if he was a complete disappointment and his boy left? What if he said the wrong thing and lost him all over again? “Please?”

“I’ll come see you before I retire for the evening, Rum.” When she touched his hand she was trembling. Or maybe it was him.

“Belle?” His boy was only a step behind him.

“I’ll see you at the ball tomorrow, Neal. For my birthday.” She smiled at him, genuine but not happy. “I’m so glad for you both.”

And then she was gone, up the stairs with barely a sound.

“She won’t really marry him, will she?” Even though he couldn’t see Belle Gold found it hard to look away. It was only the fact that it was his son asking that he finally turned.

“I don’t know.” The teakettle was boiling, and had been for the last few minutes. He limped over to the stove and took it off the heat. “She doesn’t like to disappoint her father.”

“What kind of father is he?” Bae sounded angry. Gold was too tired for anger tonight.

“Very opinionated and full of bluster when he’s around. An absentee father, much of the time.” Gold winced, remembering how much he had to miss of his son’s life even before he’d lost him. It had taken long hours of work to keep a roof over their head and food on the table. “Never the father she deserved.”

“You love her.” His boy stared at him as he mechanically made two cups of tea. The honey pot slipped from his grasp when Bae spoke, smashing to the ground in a sticky mess. No one knew how he felt, not even Belle. No one could know.

“She was a wee lass when we met, not much older than you were before I lost you. Of course I care about her.” It wasn’t wrong to admit to that much.

“Papa, I saw the way you looked at her.” His son’s hand was strong, when it wrapped around his wrist, keeping him from bending down to clean up the mess he’d made. “Let me clean this up.”

“She won’t be happy with him.” He took the tea to the table, hoping that sugar was an acceptable sweetener. His boy had loved honey as a child, but he didn’t have any more. “She deserves to be happy.”

“We’ll figure something out.” His boy sounded certain when he came to the table, sitting across from him. He wished he had half as much faith.

Gold’s smile was unconvincing, but he didn’t argue. “Tell me about you, Bae. Tell me everything.”

“Everything? It’s been twenty years, papa.” His boy’s grin was achingly familiar.

“Tell me anything you want.” It was the only good thing he had right now, his boy sitting across from him, speaking to him. He wanted two things in the world, and by some miracle he had one of them.

“Remember how I used to dream of being a pirate? I was as sick as a dog my first week at sea, when Eric taught me how to sail.” His Bae began his story and Gold did his best to focus completely, and not think about what was happening above stairs.

#verse: little miss #fic: little miss #rumbelle fic #belle french #neal cassidy #belle french & Neal cassidy #mr. Gold #my fic #thestraggletag

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raleigh-ocean · 4 years

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the originals & valentine’s day | headcanons

Dara Ann Lynch

Billie couldn’t get her eyes off Dara, not today at least, but she had the feeling that she wouldn’t be able even if she was forced to. Her lover was searching for something in the wardrobe, clad in that flowery silk robe she had always owned and only that; her tattoos on display, thighs as well and even her scar was nothing compared to the beauty of the rest of her body; sporting again her hair short, disheveled from spending a day in bed with Billie; and then she singsang happily a ‘gotcha!’ and turned around with a tiny envelop in her hands.

“Close your eyes, honey,” and Billie looked at her like ‘do I really have to’ while sitting up in bed, which gained her a smirk and then the cutest pout ever, making her comply but open her arms so Dara could get in them, sitting in her lap. Which it was what the woman did automatically, having Billie’s arms circling her. “Was it that difficult, mhm? Okay, in the count of three. Three, two, one...”

When Billie opened her eyes, chin resting in Dara’s shoulder and caressing with her thumbs her belly over the robe, the tiny envelop was in reality a tiny velvet box. Open now, there was a metal pendant with a black stone - a black tourmaline - in between strings to hold it in place in the middle of it. “I know you don’t do the ‘stupid crystal stuff’ but...I have a friend that do handmade things with them, pulling a favor they owed me I got them to teach me and tada!” Billie lifted her hand so she could take it from the box by the silver chain attached to it. “Do you like it...?”

And Billie can only kiss Dara because she doesn’t even have words to say how much she likes it, loves it; she doesn’t know what to do to surpass this gift and, on top of all, she doesn’t want her lover to see how she actually teared up. Her chest is roaring, so loud that her heart hurts a bit, and when they finally broke the kiss the only thing Billie did was to press her forehead softly against’s Dara’s.

“Will you help me with the clasp, my Valentine?” she whisper softly, afraid to give away she’s really moved with the gesture.

She doesn’t need to say another word, because as soon Dara’s done, she can catch how full of love her lover’s eyes are filled with. And maybe Billie’s mind made up and making love to her once more was the best option, that sweet ol’ good love making.

At least it would give her time to rethink what to get her, because her now ‘lame’ plan of buying her a rose and inviting her for dinner sounded too little, too little for someone that deserved all the red roses Billie could buy in California and all the stars in the universe.

She was very much afraid of saying those three words Dara wanted to hear but let her take her time with, eight years already since they were together, but upon seeing how Dara’s eyes lit up in that way that made her younger later in the night when she gave her a whole bucket of roses...maybe, maybe, it made her feel that oh so awaited day was about to arrive.

Adriana Girardi

Sally has a hard time around these dates, who could blame her? But what she did not expect was for someone to get it worse than her.

When she had come downstairs, she couldn’t find an explanation of why Elizabeth had come down from her own room to the bar. But then she looked a bit better just to see how Adriana was all dressed up, days without actually doing so and just wearing sweatpants, with what it looked some really fancy clothes out of the 30s, her hair styled the same way and making Sally to picture her right there.

She was drinking from a tall champagne glass, as did Elizabeth, and then is when Sally managed to see that Adri was holding a dark blue velvet box in her free hand, dancing softly to the rhythm of the jukebox she managed to save in an auction.

“Every twenty years, she does that,” Elizabeth spoke up, hearing the silent question of her fellow ghost. “It’s a tradition already. She gets drunk on champagne and dance on her own for as long as she’s standing up, holding to the box she never gave her,” and her voice is not full of snark, there’s only a softness Sally’s sure she never heard in her. “My girl got it bad, Valentine makes her miserable...yet she manage to hold up to see another twenty years.”

Sally knew mere bits of Adriana’s life, but through the years together in the Cortez, she managed to catch as much as knowing her friend had lost someone so important that totally wrecked her. They stood there until Elizabeth had to pull her friend to sit in a couch nearby and Sally decided to sit by her side, full knowing Adriana wasn’t remotely sober enough to talk probably. But she stick to her, letting Elizabeth know she got her even when she was watching over from a corner of the bar. Adriana didn’t even muttered a word, she just sat there in silence and moving her arm just to keep the champagne getting in her system.

Worrisome? Of course, but rare? Not at all. She had watched the afflicted drink two whole bottles of vodka without blinking an eye, so this wasn’t weird at all. However, Sally was sad and needy and the question popped out of her when she saw how Adri managed to focus her eyes in something else that wasn’t her glass.

“Do you think someone will gift you something again?” it was a rude mumble, but it got the reaction of having her blink and look at her. “Today, I mean...I don’t think I’ll ever will anymore.”

And Adriana seemed to restart her whole being, like she really saw how from behind the drunk haze, something moved. And then her voice came out as steady as you can be after like ten champagne glasses.

“You wait here, okay? Don’t move, don’t you even dare, I’ll know,” her voice was so fucked up, but Sally stayed where she was. “Promise? Pinky promise.”

The only thing for Sally to do to let Adriana go was to accept her pinky. Then she set off somewhere, making Elizabeth to get in panic because she couldn’t be able to follow her, taking in count Adri was pretty much alive and could leave the Hotel as she pleased...which was what she always did, getting everyone worried.

However when she came back, a big box in her arms and a paper pocking out of her back pocket, Sally was too focused in her phone to notice her. Elizabeth’s features relaxed visibly but also she lifted an eyebrow in confusion. Under the surprised gaze of Elizabeth and Liz, Adri managed to stand up on a chair behind Sally and then...

...she started to shake the now open box to make a petal shower start to fall lightly over Sally. The woman looked up to her, between the tears and the petals, to see the dorkiest smirk in the other woman’s lips and when she ran out of petals, she jumped off the chair to look directly at her before handing Sally the paper.

“What’s this...?” Sally mumbled, finding out it was a card. In the front there was something very bad drawn, maybe could be a cat or a skateboard or a tree or maybe a Picasso, who knows, but when Sally opened the card...well, she couldn’t help but laugh out loud, more tears running down her cheeks. “You’re such a dork, smarty pants.”

“If someone deserves to have a good Valentine is you,” Adriana put her hands in her own hips. “So I’m genie for you, girl, what do we do today?”

Sally couldn’t help but stand up and hug tightly her best friend. From that year onwards, every Valentine’s Day Adri would gift her a card with the corniest pick up line, styled with Adriana’s illegally beautiful handwriting inside and illegally awful draw on the front, but Sally would always put the one she gifted her that year (the one with ‘Well, here I am. What are your other two wishes?’) as her favourite of them all.

Adriana could hate Valentine’s Day with her all, think that she didn’t deserve anything, but seeing Sally enjoying...maybe that was enough for her. And Sally didn’t waste her last wish, because deep in her she knew one day she will need it to save her best friend...save her from herself.

Raleigh Ocean

“Did you really used our son as your Cupid?”

Wilhemina tapped the floor softly with her cane, drawing Raleigh’s attention from her laptop. Her wife was all cuddled in bed, glasses perched in her nose, and tired expression in her features. For sure that year didn’t start well, Raleigh still recovering from her breakdown in early January, but that day proved that there was a minimal chance that she was getting better. Raleigh quirked her lips ever so briefly, putting a hand to her lips and faking feeling offended.

“What are you implying, miss Venable? I would totally never do something so atrocious,” her voice was a bit monotonous, as usual these days, but Wilhemina heard the joking tint laced. “What’s a God to a non believer? If Cupid wanted to show up and do their thing, I have nothing to do with it.”

She closed the door behind her softly, shaking her head a bit. Eric, their nine years old son, had spent the day delivering tiny boxes with chocolates to those who were his family. Queenie, Zoe and Mallory, Madison, an scandalized Coco, Rhiannon and Victoria, and a delighted Misty (even a confused Kyle) had received the tiny gifts from the kid gladly. But when he had showed up to Cordelia and Wilhemina’s office, delivering the final part to both women, she had known her wife was behind everything.

Who used chili powder with homemade chocolate if it wasn’t Raleigh?

Cordelia, the old sap, had hugged Eric and thanked him right away, Wilhemina was sure she even teared up because she was like that. But she had seen how her kid didn’t get close to her afterwards, indulging in how his godmother was loving him, and she could see how he was hiding something in his hoodie. Oh how surprised Eric was when Mina asked him with a soft smirk if he was sent by his mother, which made Cordelia to look scandalized for a second but then Eric had put that lost puppy face that gave every lie away and she just knows. Eric quickly makes his way to her, kissing her cheek before she can catch him, and leaving her chocolates and something that looked very much like a book.

“Also that would mean you are Venus and I Mars,” Wilhemina reach for the bed and seats on the edge of it close to her wife. “Or maybe the other way around? Oh, that would be so romantic of you, but you forget that I’m a simple mortal upon your magnificence and not a God, as much as you repeat every so often.”

“Nerd,” it’s the only thing she can say before leaning to capture Ray’s lips with her own, getting a big kiss in return and a delighted hum.

“Not as big as you, mi reina,” and Ray looks at her directly in the eyes after pushing her glasses up in her head to rest, her tone ever so soft overwhelming the automatic one she has these days. “Did you liked your gift?”

And Mina couldn’t help but chuckle, looking at the copy of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ that she has in her lap right now. Pocking from the pages there’s a bookmark and she takes it so they both can look at it. Written in Raleigh’s hurried handwriting, there’s a date and a ‘would you like to take a walk with me?’, and before taking the bookmark out it was marking a bit of the sixth scene in the second act. Wilhemina memorized it, taking to her heart all that.

‘Beshrew me but I love her heartily, For she is wise, if I can judge of her, And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true, And true she is, as she hath proved herself. And therefore, like herself, wise, fair, and true, Shall she be placèd in my constant soul.’

“I hope this means we are taking a walk to the French quarter,” and Ray placed her laptop in the free side of the bed to be more comfortable, sitting with her back to the headboard and lacing her fingers with Mina’s. “And not actually flying to Italy.”

“If that’s what I wanted to mean, don’t you think I would have gifted you ‘All's Well That Ends Well’ or ‘King Lear’?” they both end up chuckling to that, because every surprise with Raleigh has a meaning in her perfect way. “I thought we deserved this, only us...but mostly you.”

“Little Cupid isn’t coming?” there’s a hint of worry in Mina’s voice but she’s now climbing to the bed, hearing the door getting magically locked.

“I got an A plus babysitter for that,” Raleigh was welcoming her wife with open arms, holding her close to her body and kissing slowly from her shoulder through her neck and her lips again. “This means we have a date?”

“Let me give you an answer later, I’m not really sure about it yet,” and the teasing tone in Wilhemina’s already means a big yes, but they know how to drag everything just for the sake of it.

“Oh, definitely you are Venus, how whipped you have Mars.”

That’s the last thing Raleigh says, because now both are too busy to think or say anything more. Having a bit of intimacy after weeks feels great, the thought of spending time away from their daily lives even better, but what makes Wilhemina feel that everything is finally moving forward again.

And overall, that her wife still had that soul that drew her in eigthteen years ago in a pub in Los Angeles, strong enough to make her move across the country barely a few days after they said ‘hello’.

Karina Sväre

Lana felt herself wanting to laugh, because this was truly something else. Well, she actually didn’t expect anything to begin with, but she couldn’t really picture Karina to do that.

Again, they’ve been off for a few years, but a couple months ago Lana had broken up with the girl she had been seeing for a couple years. It didn’t pain her that much, not this time at least, but after a few days of recovery she had showed up in Karina’s doorsteps with an invitation to get coffee and a couple new books she was sure her dearest friend didn’t have in her bookshelves.

Karina had welcomed her to her new home...and also her work space. She couldn’t say she was surprised when she had told Lana about what she wanted to do, to help all those girls and kids in need of a home, but what surprised her was that today the living room of Karina’s home had been decorated with some stuff to make it look thematic.

“Sorry,” a little voice came from behind her and when Lana turned around, a girl barely twelve was waiting with a cat in her arms to walk in the living room. “Aunt is in the kitchen, if you are looking for her.”

“Oh, thank you very much,” she didn’t even took off her coat, just walking towards where Karina was, in words of that little girl.

And when she arrived there, Karina was hand in hand with an older girl mixing something in a big bowl. Something twitched in her brain for a second, taking a better look to her lover and then...

“I can’t believe you cut your hair...that short, oh my.”

Karina turned her face enough to catch the surprise in Lana’s face, feeling how her ears were getting red and warm really fast. She was sporting an garçon haircut, her ever so black hair barely having white hairs here and there, which was a truly surprise because she had spent ten years growing her hair along the hippie movement. Lana couldn’t say she wasn’t a bit sad, mostly because she loved brushing with her fingers Karina’s hair, enjoying how soft was...but this new change suited her.

“Oh shut it,” was the first response she got from the woman, who was now gesturing the girl to leave it to her. The girl chuckled but complied, closing the door after her and leaving the two women alone. “Are you gonna give me a hand or should I kneel and ask, princess?”

That earned her a soft push to her shoulder before Lana took off her coat, leaving it in a chair from the tiny kitchen along her bag. And when Lana took the spoon from her hand, Karina kissed her shoulder with love.

“So this is what are we doing this year?” Lana smiled at the gesture, starting to mix the chocolate batter. “Spending Valentine’s at home instead of going to our favourite restaurant?”

“I thought it would help Carla and Vivien to adjust, being together with people,” Karina whispered, rubbing her ear a bit and getting the freckled skin there red. “I don’t know, maybe with this we make Georgie to come out of her room...” Karina sighed and looked at Lana with the shadow of a smile in her lips. “And I’m baking your favourite chocolate cake, so don’t complain.”

Oh, Lana won’t ever do that, as much as she liked to tease her lover here and there. Honestly, she kinda loved staying at home for once, being able to spend time in a space where they were safe. And, well, she had to admit that ever since Karina started her home for youth, it was more difficult to see where to make time to spend it together idly. That and Lana’s show getting that famous.

“Aw, you only bake my favourite cake when you...” then she realized that Karina was looking away, her hand in her pocket. “When you want me to stay for more than one night.”

“I’ve been having nightmares again and I thought...that maybe you could stay for a few days, if it’s okay with-”

And Lana didn’t let her finish the sentence, because she would say ‘yes’ a thousand times and more, without a doubt. She leant to capture Karina’s lips with her own, having missed her all that time they were apart, and then pressed her forehead to Karina’s so she could look at her eyes better. It always amazed Lana how green could be her eyes, but at the same time have gold and hazel around to bring it out.

“Of course it is, but you’ll have to lend me some clothes for the day, Nina,” was the only thing she said before going back to the task Karina asigned her.

“Yeah...” Karina was now beet red, fumbling with whatever she had in her pocket, and then her hand was in front of Lana’s view. “I got you this, by the way...I know it’s not much, but, well...”

When Lana opened her eyes, with the sweet memory fading as the make-up girl finished the last touches for the interview, her eyes went first to Marion and then to the ring in her left middle finger, an old golden band with a tiny green agate in the middle.

How could nothing meant so much?

That’s what she thought, taking in count the tiny chaos that was her old mind in that moment. A new Valentine and she was going to spend it giving an interview,..the interview in which she would tell the whole truth finally. How much she wished to not even be there, but the only thing she promised herself was to get through it and maybe, after dinner, she would indulge in calling Karina.

Telling her what she did during the day and maybe remind her about that Valentine’s day around mid eighties in which Karina almost made her stay forever by her side.

Danna Bishop

“And now, we will need a volunteer for the next trick, would someone in the crowd give us a hand?”

Ally couldn’t help but laugh at her fianceé’s antics, watching Danna faking to doubt who to pick out of none int the living room. Ozzy was with her, clad in a tuxedo almost identic as Danna’s, doing the same crowd searching until Ally raised her hand innocently. They both faked a surprised gasp and then Danna offered Ally her hand.

“The pretty lady in the front, please, come here,” Danna winked at Ally, making her giggle once again and they laced fingers almost immediately, matching rings meeting with a soft clink. “Now! I need my assistant to bring the deck, because we’ll get this lovely woman’s card!”

When Oz was off the retrieve the deck, somewhere in the kitchen, Danna took advantage to kiss the ‘volunteer’ all big and eager.

This was the first time in three weeks they had been able to relax, taking in count Ally’s new campaign was starting, so at least having a moment to breath was good. But Danna had differently ideas of what a ‘moment to breath’ meant, which went along the line of what they were doing now instead of the old ‘let’s have wine after dinner and maybe we can cuddle and then not cuddle?’. She always thought of the bigger picture, the bigger and unexpected picture that kept Ally’s life to get a boring turn.

And she loved that...and the way the tuxedo fit her in the right places, but that was another story.

When Ozzy finally made his way back, Roberto was following him with a tiny bow tie in his collar. The too tiny and maybe a bit ugly old chihuahua quickly made his way towards his humans, making Ally pick him up as soon as he was by her side and kiss his head lovingly. Danna smiled widely when Ozzy went to her with this big card deck, too big even for doing tricks, and Ally looked at them with somewhat of curiosity peaking out from her eyes.

“I’ll need you to pull a card and I’ll try to guess it,” she offered the deck and as soon as Ally touched one card, she knew it was handmade because of the paper. “C’mon hurry, hurry, magic waits for none.”

“Okay, love, just,” she laughed, supporting Roberto in her shoulder a bit while flipping the card to read whatever was there or see whatever drawing it had. But what she encountered wasn’t hearts, clovers, spades or diamonds; it was something completely different. “Wait, what’s this?”

“I don’t know, what is it?” oh, when Danna played dumb she got this softer look in her eyes and the goofiest grin on ever.

The ‘card’ displayed a few plant details here and there and in the middle, with elegant font, there was a tiny message. An invitation, well, it looked more like a reservation for a few days in a spa...in Los Angeles. It started to raise too many doubts in Ally the second she read it all, but then Danna put her hands in her face to make her look directly at her eyes.

“Danielle’s gonna watch over Oz so we can have some time alone, and she even agreed to take in Bobito too,” Danna smiled at Roberto, which had his tiny head all cuddled in Ally’s neck. “I got the flights, have the money aside for it, schedules, everything so you don’t have to worry about anything but enjoy.”

“But what about...”

“Mom, let mama take you in vacation, it’s a surprise! You always wanted to do that!” Ozzy took Roberto from Ally’s arms easily before stepping back a bit so he could watch them with a huge grin on. “And Damien told me they will show me a really cool comic store, so please let’s go!”

And when Ally only nodded with the softest ‘okay, we’ll go’, words stuck in her throat, Ozzy cheered and ran to his room leaving both Ally and Danna in the living room, speechless. Every second in silence passed with a heaviness and then a sob broke it. Ally got startled because it didn’t come from her, which was a surprise, and her eyes went to Danna. She was trying to press the heels of her hands in her eyes, trying to stop the fat tears running down her cheeks somehow.

“Ally, he called me mama,” something inside Ally vibrated with new strenght, enough to feel like she was able to fly in that moment, when Danna managed to say something without looking at her. “Fuck, he called me...fuck...”

It was supposed to be Valentine’s day, but right after Ozzy did that, that day was one of the most important for both Ally and Danna and not because of something any of them did for each other. They would go to the spa, for sure, they would have a blast there and Ozzy would enjoy his stay with Danielle, Damien and Audrey as much as if he was with them...

...but for the day, Ally was trying to not cry herself to death because her son gifted them two the prove that this was working out really well.

Dahlia Deen

Her body felt like she was going to break in a million pieces.

Dahlia had a while without feeling like that, but it was a good feeling this time. Well, good feeling, more like this time she was grateful of feeling like that instead of wanting to pull her hair out in a maniac tired rage. She barely managed to fall backwards in the bed, letting go a ‘ufhg’ when her column relocated after the whole day.

She wasn’t the best at building furniture, okay? Indeed, she had to check too many times the manuals to build it correctly, but she managed to do it with patience and a phone call to her dad when Shelby had went out to buy some sandwiches. But there was some kind of relief knowing that she managed to do something like that, taking in count they didn’t have much time before they arrived.

“You should take a shower, Li,” Dahlia had her eyes closed and hummed in response upon hearing Shelby’s voice. “You’ll feel better.”

“I don’t think I can get there By,” a soft laugh got out of her chest more than her throat, making her feel her joints hurt with the slight movement. “Do I even have bones and muscles?”

“Of course you do! Turn around and take off your shirt,” and Dahlia complied, because Shelby could tell her she wanted her to jump in the ocean and she would do right away. She didn’t mind at all, she indeed loved that part of them as a couple because Dahlia trusted in her wife with all she got.

Dahlia couldn’t see Shelby because her face was pressed to their pillow, not caring a single bit about her glasses getting a bit smashed by doing that, but she did feel her climbing in the bed and then straddling her like that. Groaning softly because of that, loving how Shelby’s weight pressed her body against the bed, and then giggled when the wet ends of her hair dropped some water droplets in her bare back. Shelby’s hands, sweetly cold, started to work and her fingers pressed in those spots her wife always had trouble with, doing wonders.

“The fact that you have healing hands is distracting me of the fact you are just in bathrobe sitting on my ass, you know?” Dahlia mumbled, turning her head enough to rest better in the pillow and Shelby laughed, leaning to press soft kisses down her spine. “Miss Deen, you’re such a tease.”

“Ah, am I, miss Deen?” they both laughed at that and Shelby pressed her fingers right in the base of Dahlia’s head to ease the knot there, earning a soft moan. “And having you strip like the easiest thing what makes you?”

A fool in love with an angel. Dahlia thought, keeping it for herself and just chuckling as a response. Things like this reminded her why they were together, why they decided to fight for each other and keep going, now with new rules, new feelings and new old heart.

Shelby kept massaging Dahlia with care, touching here and there as she knew. It was the least she could do, after being all day working around the house. It was easy to love Dahlia, she was caring and soft and too good for anyone in this world. Sometimes she wondered how Dahlia kept on loving her, many of them she wanted to ask her, but she knew it was something that her wife kept close to her heart. Focused on the task, Shelby barelly noticed how Dahlia had relaxed enough to start breathing deep and slow, falling asleep deeply.

“Happy Valentine’s day, dearie,” Shelby always felt calm when they were together, Dahlia always making her feel at ease and not on the verge of a violent outburst of unspoken feelings. She leant with care, leaving a kiss in the back of her head and then behind her ear, whispering her next words while taking off her glasses. “I love you more than words can say.”

At that, however, something unexpected happened. Shelby didn’t have time to climb down from the bed nor from her wife, because Dahlia turned around to place herself between her legs and over her, making her circle her waist with them thanks to that. Then she took advantage of the new position to kiss her fully on the lips, deep and calm as the ocean Dahlia was so afraid of.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get you anything, or cook you something nice for dinner,” Dahlia managed to sound small and shy in such position, kissing Shelby’s neck slowly in between words. “It’s no excuse, I know, but...”

“It’s okay Li, I prefer you loving me all year long than showing me one only day that,” Shelby chuckled breathlessly at that, getting turned on as the seconds and kisses went by, her hands finding their right places at Dahlia’s nape while her wife loosened her bathrobe. “Also, you already gave me the greatest gift...”

And when Dahlia looked up at Shelby, which was a bit blurry because without glasses she was blind as a mole, she could discern the soft redness in her blue eyes. Something in her chest swelled up, all warm, sweet and maybe a bit scary...but the good one of scary, that type which made you be more excited and make your tummy churn for it.

That’s why they’ve spent the day reforming their shared office, building bunk beds and accomodating everything so the new lives they were gonna receive would be comfortable. It took a lot of hard work, a lot of thinking, a lot of everything so they finally were ready to be foster parents.

If there was one thing Shelby still wanted was to be a mom, but the only thought of getting pregnant again scared her to death and Dahlia didn’t want her to go through that again, and also she wasn’t sure she was ready to give birth now...or never. So adoption was the next thing they thought and then, well, there they were.

“You’re gonna be an amazing mother, By,” it was time for Dahlia to be breathless, pressing a new kiss to Shelby’s forehead. “I saw you with my nephews and nieces, you truly...glow. Even with the oldest, and you know how is Eva with her things.”

Shelby wanted to say something else, but she was moved by Dahlia’s words. It was going to be hard, that for sure, but she believed they were meant for this. They had overcome too many bumps in the road, they were in a place where they had been able to heal...and it was about time to take a new step in their lives.

Leah and Johnny were in their way, and Dahlia and Shelby were going to give them the home they deserved.

But for now, still childless, Shelby let herself drown in Dahlia’s presence and warm arms. She would have to shower again, that was for sure, but as soon as her wife had her hands on her, fingers caressing in the right places...well, let’s say Shelby knew her ocean arrived to swallow her whole.

Gabrielle Summers

Winter looked up to the doorframe once again, encountering another little bundle of mistletoe of all things tied up there. Annoyingly, she looked around to see if her girlfriend was somewhere to be seen and then jumped to take it off, not wanting the glue to ruin the wood and having their landlord make them pay for reparation.

Seriously, it was the seventh mistletoe she took off around the apartment and the place wasn’t that big! They weren’t even in Christmas, why was there mistletoe to begin with!?

And when she got to the kitchen, there were fake spiders with candies attached from Halloween here and there, making Winter to rub her forehead and sigh deeply before going to get all those things off...and maybe eat the candies while she was at it.

At times Winter didn’t know why Gabrielle was that way, but as she was cleaning the corridor from more spiders, mistletoe and...were those petals? she thanked to be with her in that tiny apartment in Queens. Indeed, she was very thankful of having such lovely idiot loving her every day, without a fail, because at the end of the day Gabrielle was her idiotic heroine, and that wouldn’t change for the rest of their lives.

Getting used to live without fear was...an experience, to be completely honest. But Winter still got nervous when things around her started to happen all of a sudden, per example, how their stupid apartment was decorated in all those things from different festivities.

However, when she opened the bathroom door, she felt herself loosen the grip she had over all the things she had been picking up to drop it in the tile floor. Feeling how her mouth opened a bit, speechless, Winter tried to wrap her head around the fact that her too tall girlfriend was barely fitting in the small bathtub they had, legs handling from one edge and over the other near the wall. There were more petals here and there and Gabrielle smiled widely at her, as if she wasn’t being so effortlessly sexy doing such stupid thing.

For some reason, Winter loved every weird stupid thing Gabrielle did.

“About time, Winnie,” she laughed, hazel eyes shining with happiness. “Wanna join me in this so special Valentine’s day?” Gabrielle was...charming to say the least, black short wet hair all back and strong arms waiting to hold her. “Oh, you found all the clues to find me, did you like them? I couldn’t buy like...dozens and dozens of petals, we don’t make that much money, so I had to get creative.”

Sexy, charming and all...but she was just the dorkiest of them all...and all hers.

Winter laughed from the deepest part of her soul, using her feet to kick the stuff she dropped and soon she was out of her clothes, trying to fit with Gabrielle in such tiny space. It was difficult for sure, but they managed to make it, Winter basically sitting over Gabrielle and having half her body out of the water though.

“You’re unbelievable,” Winter traced with her fingers the curve of Gabrielle’s biceps, taking her time and making the other girl to close her eyes in pleasure. “I thought I was going crazy with all those mistletoes.”

“Why do you freak out with harmless plant but not with murderous spiders,” Gabrielle chuckled at that, taking in count she hated spiders so much.

“Because spiders doesn’t bite and if you get under the mistletoe...that’s what you get,” she replied, giving a knowing look to her girlfriend, who only laughed because last Christmas their making out went overboard. “They are quite nice.”

“You are quite nice,” Gabrielle’s hand moved to caress Winter’s belly, slow, tracing her thumb over the skin there and getting Winter to roll her eyes back and bite her lip. “I took the night off from work, so...we have all day for us, honeybun,” there was a soft tint of sweetness in Gabi’s voice and that only made Winter to move her hips. “So...what my queen wants to do? Aside of the obvious.”

How could Gabrielle be like that? That was a question Winter always asked herself since the day they met. But also...how Gabrielle could look at her in the eye, knowing all what she did. She never replied, because Winter was the one asking always everything and nothing, but sometimes she got the feeling that the only thing Gabrielle wanted was to rebuild and forget about Michigan.

And that was something Winter was wishing too, to forget all the pain, all the trauma, all the nightmares that plagued her every night since they left.

“Having pizza on bed and watching ‘Grey’s Anatomy’,” she mumbled in response, leaning in to kiss Gabrielle as her life depended on ti, making at the same time that the water threaten to overflow. “Buying that videogame in discount you liked and playing until I want to fuck you again, what does my knight in not that shiny armour thinks?”

They were weird, that’s for sure, but they loved each other very deeply and in a way they both feel like they belonged somewhere.

Joking between the walls of their tiny apartment in Queens, waking up every morning to go to uni hand in hand, eating lunch while talking about the day, bidding farewell when Gabrielle had to go to work and welcoming her home every night.

Gabrielle knew Winter hated many festivities, even Valentine’s day, but having her indulge was one of her biggest achievements. She knew her girlfriend indulged many times for her, but those times were she was just doing it because she actually wanted...well, those were trully a blessing.

“Knight in shiny armour is all in.”

Rowan Ramírez

Oh shit, his hands were sweating so bad.

Rowan was trying to calm himself down, rubbing the back of her neck and then trying to swipe his hands in the back of his thighs. In his head, all he could think about was all those tiny advices his sister gave him, going through them with the outmost care because he didn’t want to fuck this up.

After a while of trying to take a faith leap, Rowan finally did it after finding himself thinking all day and all night about Coco. He knew that it was going to be hard, taking in count they lived as far as each other in the other side of the country, but he wasn’t remotely scared of from trying to start the relationship. And that was almost more than a half year ago, time making him bolder and more like Raleigh than any of them expected...at least in the being stubborn and spontaneous in times of need.

However, he couldn’t figure out how all of that had brought him to New Orleans in secret just to surprise his girlfriend for Valentine’s day.

Maybe it was that he was head over heels in love with the blonde witch, that he wanted to make her as happy as he could, that he was trying to picture himself by her side as long as his mind could...and in between all of that, Rowan found himself finally knocking on the front door of the Academy.

Raleigh had let him in from the other house, so he didn’t have to go through the ‘the Academy’s barrier would want to eat you if you touch it’ part of the plan. After letting Sidonia know he wasn’t going to play fetch with her, kissing his baby nephew’s head and saying ‘hi’ to his sister-in-law, which was reading in the kitchen in that fine Sunday morning; he had armed himself with the bouquet of roses he bought in his way here and went to retrieve his girlfriend in the other house.

The waiting was so painful? He thought to himself, putting a lock of his hair behind his ear, trying to not go and start jumping to relieve some of his stress. But it was then when the front door opened, just to show Misty’s concerned face...that eased into a funny one as soon as Rowan came into view.

“Ahm...uhm, I-I’m here to...well, oh God,” fuck, fuck, fuck him and his shit ass nerves. Now words didn’t make sense in his head. But Misty took pity on him, putting a reassuring hand in his shoulder before throwing her head back enough to yell.

“Coco, there’s an Amazon guy in the door askin’ for you!!” and that only made Rowan to go beet red, because the white lie kept rolling in order to let him surprise his oblivious girlfriend. Girlfriend that was frying his phone, in her back pocket, with messages at that point of the day.

The new waiting time was even harder than before, but as soon as Rowan overheard the quick click click of Coco’s heels along feeling her magic approaching, he started to relax. He felt how her lips quirked in a goofy yet shy grin and when Coco realized it wasn’t an Amazon guy but Rowan who was waiting for her in the front door, her hands went directly to cover her mouth and her eyes visibly watered.

“Don’t cry pretty, please,” was the first thing Rowan said, because his inner panicker jumped in action. Then he handed the bouquet to her, still goofy grin on. “So...I hope you don’t have date for Valentine’s, because I’m asking you for one now,” he chuckled to let the last bits of nervousness go away and Coco hugged the bouquet to her chest with care before reaching for him. “Would you like to go on an ice cream hunt to the French quarter with this poor warlock in love?”

“Of course I do!” Coco let out the cutest yelp as response, Rowan finally taking her hand and pulling her close to lean and kiss her lips, a peck that started the biggest bonfire in his whole body. “Just let me take my purse and put the flowers...”

“No, no purses, I’m inviting you today,” Rowan knew Coco was happy to always pay for everything, but he had been working hard all year to earn money and spend it on his loved one for once. Maybe it was because of the way his mother raised him, that his aunt Abigail raised him, but he usually didn’t like to be treated to things (and Rowan only let his big sister to treat him because a) Raleigh was a bit scary; and b) ‘Twenty years apart gave me the right to treat you for another twenty, so shut up.’)

“And I’m taking the flowers, so!” Mallory appeared behind Coco, giving Rowan the biggest smile ever because of how happy it made her know her cousin was being happy and in love with her best friend. “Take her before she start her yearly rant about red velvet cake, Roro!”

Rowan complied, laughing at that because he knew how his girlfriend was with food. But having Coco by his side again, after months of chatting and videocalling through their phones and laptops...well, for him it didn’t matter if she went a bit overboard with her powers...and with her chatter, for that matter. He was always more like a listener than a ‘talker’, which was good for how many stuff Coco had to say, and Rowan tried to kiss Coco’s cheek from time to time to see her trail in whatever she was saying.

Overall seeing how happy was Coco, made all the sleepless night planning this trip worth it, but what made Rowan the happiest was that he was able to find someone who loved him for who he was.

Danielle Bishop

Audrey could tell Danielle was feeling on top of the world right now.

It obvious by the way she was talking more confident, her face glowing up without any trace of the usual tiredness she carried, and drinking red wine like it was water. Maybe that last bit was because she was a bit nervous, making Audrey to chuckle when a new anecdote fell from her lips because seeing her girlfriend nervous was truly a thing, taking in count it was more a thing of Danna than Danielle’s.

For Audrey, it was cute and heartwarming. Mostly because she didn’t expect to come home to having the kitchen all ready and set to have what it looked like a romantic dinner. Of course they’ve been exchanging messages, kisses and Audrey had woken Danielle up with a nice surprise just because. It was the third Valentine they spent together, being the first one and the second one spent having a little date to a coffee nearby to Danielle’s office because she was working on a case for several days and didn’t have much time, and Audrey was thankful that her girlfriend gave her such big private thing.

Damien wasn’t there, mostly because her father had come to visit her and he was spending as much time as he could with her, so they didn’t have to worry about her much aside of waiting for Dara’s call that she arrived to Billie and hers’ house safely since they wanted to have a bit of privacy for the day. The fact that Danielle’s ex husband was around, also, had them both worried and this was truly a shot of fresh air from thinking.

Cliché as it was, they shared their classic dinner in between laughs and kisses. As far as Audrey knew, Danna had helped Danielle to cook everything through videocall, which knowing both probably was full of yelling, reassuring words, two times almost giving up and Danna cheering the loudest when something turned out what it was supposed to be. But Audrey loved every bit of the cliché situation because her life wasn’t full of those at all, taking it with her whole heart because after moving in with Danielle, each day it passed it made her see that she was feeling at home finally.

It was a good sensation, it made her want to go back to Danielle’s arms all the time they were apart, to provide with the same love she was being pampered with. And after all those years, it was the only thing she wanted, being completely honest. Any doubt she had was reassured and kissed away, any problem that might rise was taken care diligently so it wasn’t a bigger problem...and having some control over the chaos that her life was, made Audrey to go and thank her partner endlessly...even more.

“Okay, are you ready for my amazing strawberry cake?” Dani announced, after downing her third glass of wine with, food finally gone and Audrey wanting to leave her seat and go reclaim her rightful spot in Danielle’s lap. “It’s ugly and maybe a bit too sugary? but I did it all by myself.”

“I’m sure it’s amazing, my darling,” Audrey was looking at Danielle dreamly, detailing how she chose the burgundy shirt Audrey loved and those dressing black pants that fit her too damn well, long black hair pulled back by her nervous hand and wide smile clinging to her lips and making her want to kiss it for the rest of the night. “You know I like sweet stuff.”

Audrey winked at that last thing, getting a big hearty laugh from Danielle and a kiss that knocked the air out of her lungs before she went to retrieve the cake from the fridge. She took advantage of that to check her phone, sending a picture to Billie of the whole table and brag about it, because why not? Audrey checked her texts while Billie replied and soon she got a picture of Dara, sleeping over Billie with the cutest pout in her lips and ‘I’ve tired out my Valentine :(’ under.

She giggled to that, typing a fast ‘you two are truly unbelievable’ before she overheard Danielle’s steps coming back. Putting down her phone, she waited for Danielle to put the cake in the middle of the table but her girlfriend had another plan it seemed. So she walked towards her, leaving the whole plate in front of her and then kissed her temple with love.

“Are you expecting me to eat all of this by mys-” Audrey started to say, but was cut mid sentence when Danielle didn’t go back to her seat, kneeling by her side so that way Audrey had to look down to make eye contact with her. “What are you doing there, silly?”

“Well, it’s kinda obvious...I think?” Danielle laughed softly at that, one of her hands resting in Audrey’s thigh while the other was out of view because she was getting something from inside her shirt. Like, Audrey saw her do that many times before, hiding stuff like money or her phone in her bra, so she was over that already...however she didn’t expect Danielle to pull out a tiny velvety box.

It was then when Audrey’s heart stop beating for a second.

“Look, all this time I tried to be sincere with you, and sometimes I wished to do things...in a better way, but it didn’t matter because we got through it and you never left me, even when I thought the worst of me, even when things weren’t as pretty as we both wanted,” Danielle was trying to keep looking at her and Audrey was feeling how her body re-started with the sudden speech. “I...well, after my divorce I didn’t think I would be able to love someone this...deep, but you didn’t give up on me, you showed me that not only me but both deserved another chance, and what the hell, we make a good Uno couple...and Damien loves you,” that drew a choked chuckle from Audrey, in the verge of the sob. Damien truly liked her, and that was one of the biggest goals she accomplished. “I thought we could step up our game...because you are the only one I see myself getting married with and I want to keep on make you happy till the end of our days and beyond. So, Audrey...would you marry me?”

And then Danielle opened the box with trembling fingers to show her girlfriend the gold ring with the tiny jewel in the middle of it.

Three years had passed and Audrey still couldn’t believe Danielle, of all people, had trouble to do long speeches taking in count her line of work. But she got why she couldn’t, because for years she didn’t show she had feelings at all and talking about something you so worked so hard to hide was difficult...and that’s when Audrey entered the picture, being emotional, being vocal about everything, showing her that it was okay to show what was inside without fear of judgement.

“Dani...” Audrey closed her eyes late, her tears spilling in a very dramatic turn of the events, but one that entered the million possibilities Danielle had planned in her head. “Of c-course I do, damn it, yes, yes and ten million times yes!”

it was time for Danielle to laugh, to let out the breathe she was holding in a ragged way because all the nervousness melted the moment she slipped the ring in Audrey’s finger. She didn’t take in count, however, that Audrey would take her to the ground, hugging her like no tomorrow and kissing her as if she needed her to keep being alive.

In between kisses, laughs and trying to make it to the couch, forgetting about the cake over the table, Audrey thought that Danielle, in the end, was what she was looking for all those years. She didn’t need someone that complied to everything she said, she only needed this someone to feel she was enough for her, that she was loved and cherished by her...

...and, as her fingers found every button from her favourite Danielle’s shirt, that someone finally had a face, and a body for that matter, to die for. Which wasn’t necessary but oh good Lord help her that it was a good plus.

Cold-hearted Severa

Mr. Mumbles cooed in her shoulder as they moved through the camp, feeling how a little happy tune was bubbling in her chest and getting through her as a little hum. Selene wasn’t much of a happy-go-lucky person, always worried about everything and nothing, but today she felt lucky enough to get things right through the day.

She was one of the few that were lucky enough not to get many looks when she went to town, so that morning she had rolled down along Jimmy to get some groceries there and also the bouquet of daisies and dandelions that she was now holding tightly in her grip. There was this giant field in the way from camp to town and she only trust in Jimmy to not spill the beans, so she had asked him to take her with him to pay a little visit.

Taking a few breathings to calm herself down, Selene used her nose to give a cuddle to her companion, her face taken hostage by the monkey like always. She chuckled and poked him in the belly, his weak spot, and then she was free to keep walking towards the siameses’ tent.

It was her main goal and the reason she was taking this big ass step, all the courage she had tied in a knot so it didn’t fly away. She had fixed the handmade bouquet specially for Bette, but since they both would see it, Selene had fixed it with two different flowers so that way both had something pretty to look at for a while.

Her heart was hammering its way in her chest, reminding her sweetly that she was very much alive. She was taking advantge that she saw them in the main tent to do this, because she wasn’t as courageous to actually look them in the eye to give them the gift. Selene didn’t want to impose in them, she much preferred to look from the distance and watch them being happy, knowing she wasn’t enough for any.

Bette and Dot had made it very clear that their feelings weren’t the same, and Selene took that to her heart, her love for both still there but also growing when Bette confessed later that she was confused about what to feel. That was enough for her, to be honest, she thought while leaving the tiny bouquet over their desk and starting to run back to Eve’s ban.

It didn’t matter they didn’t love her, she was pretty much content with being their friend at least, and as a friend she had left those pretty flowers to make this Valentine’s day better for them.

When she arrived with Eve, she looked at her with a lifted perfect eyebrow, asking silently why such hurry...only to see that Selene was handing her something. She loved the twins, that for sure, but Selene wouldn’t forget about her best friend and how much she also loved her.

“Is that for me?” Eve blinked confused upon seeing the tiny present, the one that Selene spent her savings in, and took it in her hands with care before unwrapping it. “Oh dear, it wasn’t necessary.”

But Selene smiled widely, in silence like always, waiting for Eve to see what was inside. She had taken note of how pretty her friend found those earrings she was now pulling out of the box, once they went to take a walk in town and passed by a jewelry shop. Selene was always taken little notes about what other people needed, it was common for her at this point.

“I can’t believe you went back and bought them,” Eve shrieked in delight, standing up fast to wrap her best friend into a tight hug before planting the biggest kiss on her lips, like she always did. “You’re a blessing for sure, sweetheart, thank you very much.”

Maybe Bette and Dot didn’t love Selene back, but when Eve looked at her with that shine in her eyes, it made Selene think about the possibilities of staying with her best friend for the rest of their lives.

She didn’t know what the future would hold for them, but as long as she kept at least Eve by her side, she was quite content to keep living her life as it was. She could learn to love better, she could learn to be more brave, maybe a bit more unspoken at times? And maybe someday she would be able to feel at ease in a place.

Because, yeah, the show was all she got but she couldn’t call it a home.

And when Eve asked her to get dinner only the three of them, because she always included Mr. Mumbles, Selene thought that maybe one day her true home would become a place in which none felt left out.

#the originals #dara ann lynch #dahlia deen #danielle bishop #danna bishop #raleigh ocean #cold-hearted severa #adriana girardi #karina sväre #gabrielle summers #rowan ramírez

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almostrealdudes · 5 years

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Oof I watched sex education twice already, if you could do an otis x reader where maybe they go to the dance together and she confesses her feelings by saying, "I like me better when I'm with you" based on the song by Lauv. Or just anything otis tbh, work your magic 💖💖

first of all, what a great song! Second, I loved this request! I hope you enjoy it as much

warnings: none

word count: 2k (woah)

a/n: also FINE, i’ll start using Y/N in my writing because all this “avoiding the name” thing gets inconvenient, annoying, and gets in the way of the story. Still hate it thou lmao

Requests are open my dudes

Their relationship was complex. They were friends, best friends in fact. They felt nervous standing next to each other and sometimes when their hands touched by accident it would throw them off their rhythm. But they weren’t dating, no. Why would you think that? They’re friends. Best friends. Why would best friends date? It’s not like they have feelings for each other. No, they most certainly don’t. They’re friends.

Best friends.

“I hear you, Otis,” Y/N said suavely, rolling her eyes.

“Hear me or listen to me?” Otis specified, looking after her shoulder.

“Somewhere in between,” a smirk sneaked onto her face. She put her hands on the straps of her backpack for additional support.

“I’m just saying,” he gained a little speed and overtook her, “you should try for that college. We only live once and you most certainly have all the requirements.”

“And I’m just saying,” Y/N stopped in the hallway and turned on her heels to face Otis, “I don’t think I’m good enough to actually apply.”

“Hey dipshits,” a familiar voice rang out from across the whole, revealed to be Maeve who, along with Eric, was approaching the two of them. Otis gave Maeve and Eric a subtle wave in return as they came up. Maeve glanced the poster from across the room and wiggled her eyebrows.

“So?”

“What?” Y/N tilted her head in confusion.

“The dance!” Eric threw his hands up, putting a gestural emphasis on the word. “We’re going. Are you going?”

“To be miserable and alone? That would be an unnecessary thing to do,” Otis stated. Y/N shook her head submissively, agreeing with his point.

“Oh my god,” Eric opened his mouth and looked the pair up and down in utter shock. “They’re not serious,” his face slowly turned towards Maeve while his eyes rested on Otis and Y/N for the last moment before switching to Maeve completely. “Are they serious?”

“At this point, I’m not even surprised anymore,” Maeve crossed her hands, skeptically eyeing the pair in front of her.

“Guys,” Otis raised his hand in an attempt to draw attention, “are you interested in sharing, whatever it is that you’re discussing, with us?”

“Okay, let’s try this again. Hey, Otis, hey Y/N. So, dance, huh?” Eric gestured to them, inducing to give an answer.

“I am so confused right now,” Y/N said, furrowing her eyebrows and watching as Eric covered his face with his palm in disappointment.

“We have to do everything for you, don’t we? Hi Eric, hi Maeve, yeah, we sure are going to the dance thank you for asking!” Eric mimicked.

“Oh. Oh, no,” Otis shared an embarrassed startled look with Y/N and started viciously shaking his head in denial, ‘why—why would we go? We’re—we’re not to—together or anything.”

“Yeah,” Y/N picked up, feeling her cheeks getting flaming hot, “it’s not—it’s not like that.”

“Bloody hell,” Maeve interrupted, “I’ve got places to be. Go. To the dance.”

She huffed and walked straight in between Otis and Y/N, pushing them apart. Eric, nodding, with a what she said look on his face, fixed his backpack and repeated Maeve’s actions, disappearing into the hallway, leaving two his red-faced embarrassed friends all by themselves.

“I mean,” Y/N said quietly, refusing to look up, “it’s whatever, right? We could go. Just cause.”

“Y—yeah,” Otis shrugged his shoulders, desperately trying to act casual, “I mean, yeah. We could go. Like a—a power friend couple.”

“Like a power friend couple,” she echoed, raising her gaze to be met with Otis’s and to synchronously look away again, already got cheeks feeling even hotter.

***

“Like a power friend couple? Otis, what is wrong with you, mate?”

Eric was sitting on Otis’s bed as the latter walked in circles around his room, fiddling with his fingers. He did invite Y/N, yes. Although, he didn’t exactly do it with the right message attached.

“Hey, I had to say something, okay? I couldn’t just invite her to the dance out of the blue with no context. Besides, “Otis stopped and raised his hands, “she agreed with me!”

Eric rolled his eyes and let out a tired sigh.

“Otis, Y/N likes you so much she’ll say yes to literally every single thing you say.”

Otis’s face curled into a weird impression as he theatrically shook Eric off, his voice raising a few octaves.

“What? No, Y/N doesn’t like me.”

“Otis, I see you do your sex therapy thing, where you say things that no person your age should ever even be familiar with, and then you say things that make me think like you have an alter ego, and that every time a discussion like this happens, the smart Otis leaves your body for the stupid alter-ego Otis to take his place and say some bullshit like Y/N doesn’t like me.”

“Thank you for this unnecessary long hyperbolized remark,” Otis uttered.

He walked up to his bed and flopped onto it, covering his face in his hands. Of course he liked Y/N. So much. He couldn’t lie to himself no matter how hard he would’ve tried. One Y/N’s breath in his direction was enough to send him to the moon, his mind into a haze and his heart into a fit of insanity. Not mentioning what accident touches did to his crotch.

But they were friends, close friends, for a long time. They were there for each other during the toughest times. They supported each other. They shared secrets, fears, and hopes. They trusted each other. All of this could be easily ruined with one unfitting ‘I like you.’ And although people say that there is a chance for recovery after a phrase like this in case of a failure, they unlikely know what they are talking about. Because to speak to a person who you know likes you and to not like him in return or, what is worse, to speak to a person you like who you know doesn’t like you back – is a devastating feeling. And Otis wasn’t sure if he was capable of taking that risk.

“I just,” he mumbled into his hands, “I don’t want to mess it up.”

“To mess what up?” Eric sat closer to Otis, watching him rub his face in frustration.

“Everything! The relationship, our bond. The last thing I would want is to make it awkward between us.”

Otis sat up sharply, studying his knees. Numerous thoughts were flashing through his head: all the possible ways of him confessing or trying to confess his feelings to Y/N and all the possible terrible outcomes of it. Actually, he saw no positive outcomes whatsoever. They all were just a compilation of her looking at him awkwardly, not knowing what to say, and even thinking about it was turning Otis inside out.

“There is zero chance Y/N doesn’t like you back,” Eric said, looking at him reassuringly.

“It’s just all I see is her smiling apologetically at me while years of our friendship come crumbling down.”

“Listen,” Eric put a hand on Otis’s shoulder and looked him sincerely in the eyes, “it’s better to regret something you did than to regret something you didn’t do.”

Otis returned Eric’s look and rubbed his thighs anxiously. Eric was right. It was all or nothing.

***

The dancehall was filled talking and laughing teenagers. They wandered around, gathered in groups, waved at each other, screamed, squealed, jumped, and hugged. The room was charged with festive energy and adolescent mischief. It was a mix of glossed lips, gelled haircuts, perfumes, and ruffles.

Otis and Y/N stood aside, against the wall, holding cups of punch as the students danced to the light pop music tunes. Y/N was staring down into the insides of her cup, feeling the weight of anxiety pressing down on her. Otis’s lips were pressed into a thin line.

“I don’t recognize a third of all these people,” she said with a little smirk, wishing to lighten up to mood.

“Well, it’s a great party opportunity,” Otis chuckled.

“Right, you should know all about those, party animal, “Y/N jokingly pushed Otis’s shoulder. He smiled shyly, gradually relaxing to the conversation.

“Hey, what do you know? Maybe I live a second secret life of the party.”

She laughed out loud, causing Otis to laugh in return. Y/N shook her head in disbelief, while Otis nodded rapidly, disagreeing with her silently.

“Sure, I can totally see you,” Y/N pointed her finger at his chest, “with glow sticks and all that. Crazy.”

“Stop judging my wild lifestyle and drink your punch, smartass.”

“I actually don’t even know why I have it, I don’t drink,” she looked at her cup in confusion.

“Me neither.”

Sharing a glance, they both burst out laughing. The ice between them finally melted, letting them finally be themselves with each other.

“We’re terrible at this,” Y/N said resignedly.

“Yeah. But it’s the thought that counts, right?”

Before she could say anything, the music slowed down. People in the room started pairing up and spreading across the dance floor in embraces. The sight of it sent another wave of anxiety over Otis, reminding him of what he was planning to do tonight. He gulped, feeling his heart speeding up, his body heating up suddenly. He let out a shaky sigh, mentally urging himself to say something. Before he could, he felt Y/N’s eyes on him.

“Let’s dance,” she said with sudden determination.

“I—um,” Otis didn’t manage to say anything before Y/N set their cups aside and grabbed his hand.

“C’mon, life is too short. Might as well take risks and dance at a school party.”

Her hand was soft and warm. Otis cursed his nerves for causing his palms to sweat. This was not going according to plan at all. How could he ever be prepared for something like this? All it took was one light touch for him to completely forget all the phrases he was rehearsing at home. All the right words dissolved into nothing, leaving him speechless and breathless.

She was so beautiful. Her dress fit her perfectly. Hair framed her blushing cheeks. Her bright eyes, illuminated under the disco lights, watched him in shy excitement as she led him to the dance floor, cautiously moving back. As they reached the spot, she slowly slid her hands up his shoulders. Otis slowly put his hands on her waist, feeling his heart racing in his chest. With her so close to him, everything else faded away, leaving them the only ones dancing in the room. God, he loved her so much. It was no or never.

“Y/N—“

“Otis, I have to tell you something,” Y/N interrupted him out of nowhere, her fingers lightly squeezing his shoulders. “I rehearsed this a million times and almost chickened out, but I can’t keep it to myself anymore.”

She looked away, afraid to meet with Otis’s gaze.

“You’re my best friend, Otis. I care about you so so much, and the last thing I’d want is to lose you, but there’s something that I need you to know, and if I don’t say it, I will literally explode. Okay, I’m rambling now, sorry,” she took a shaky breath and continued, “I know I am not perfect. I have issues, I mess up constantly. But you still hang out with me, help me solve my problems, listen to me complain. Whenever I’m having a hard time, you’re always there to comfort me. Whenever I doubt myself, you’re always there to prove me wrong. You calm me down, you always support me, even if the entire world is against me. Okay, where am I going with this?” she looked at her feet, breathing fast. “What—what I’m trying to say is that—I am far away from perfect. But I like me better when I’m with you. I like you, Otis. More than a friend.”

Y/N finally raised her gaze and met with Otis’s shocked face, his eyes wide-open. Fear pierced her body, she started panicking, stepping away from him.

“There, that’s it. I just wanted to say it. You don’t have to say anything, especially if you don’t feel the same way. It doesn’t matter, nothing will change, I just wanted to let you know—“

Otis didn’t let her finish, rapidly pressing his lips to hers. His firmly grabbed her wrists, bringing her closer to him. Y/N squealed from surprise, but quickly kissed Otis back, grabbing him by his jacket. Magically, all the people around them seemed to disappear, even the music wasn’t playing anymore.

Being overwhelmed, they were out of breath quickly, breaking the kiss to catch some air. Their breath was unsteady and trembling, as they looked at each other, slowly catching up with the reality.

“I’m sorry, I—I should’ve been faster,” Otis whispered, “with the kiss.”

“That’s okay. Better later than never.” She whispered back. Otis examined Y/N’s face, unable to control the happiness that was streaming out of him.

“I like you too, Y/N. So much. You have no idea.”

“I think I get the concept,” she giggled, smiling warmly. Otis returned the look, squeezing her hands in his.

“Looks like this party just got a thousand times better.”

#sex education #otis milburn #otis milburn x reader #eric effiong #maeve wiley #jackson marchetti #adam groff #asa butterfield #sex education imagine

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greetingsfromeboncreek · 5 years

Text

BEHOLD the rest of the commentaries. They’re pretty short in comparison to the others, and I wrote them pretty stream of consciousness, so I can’t guarantee how much sense they make, but it’s done, dammit.

BTW, my overall favorite characters (in no particular order): Arthur, Charlie, Meredith, Alaster, Iggy, Bael, Mara, Junior, Solstice

My thoughts on 33 different characters below the cut:

The New Friends:

Kirk: Like Nick, probably could have been written out and not much would be changed. However, he gets a pass because he was never really meant to be in the main storyline to start with, being born of a short lived prompt based adventure on the MSPA forums, who got phased into the main storyline. However, unlike Nick he has a genuinely interesting motivation (evil goon gone good, determined to avenge his mistreated coworkers). I also love his overall cheery and easygoing personality, he seems like a very nice guy. Interesting backstory- he was apparently in the army reserves, but got hired by a private company, if I’m remembering correctly? That means that he might not have had any family in Ebon Creek- which means there may well be people still out there looking for him and worried about him, orrr they’ve just been told he’s dead, which is a sad thought. Also has an adorable dynamic with Morty- I could easily imagine him with that one gif along the lines of “I’ve only known Morty for 15 minutes, but if anything happened to him I would kill everyone in the room and then myself.” I also liked how he’s the only human member of the “good guys” to have any actual combat training- in an AU where nobody has demon powers or magic, he could probably wipe the floor with everyone else. Overall, very nice dude, love his abilities (cool weapons and shouting out power names is really fun), REALLY liked his aegis design, love his dynamic with Morty, grade A character.

Arrie- Another really cool lady! I really liked how she slowly went from confused but not incompetent, to really taking responsibility for the situation in Ebon Creek later in the storyline. It’s awesome to hear she’s going to get a more prominent role in the reboot, I ADORE her new design, and I’m quietly guessing her treasure chest motif pockets have bag of holding style portals in them. Would have loved to have seen her reunion with Azgrut, but ehn, we can’t have everything. Also love her clever use of portals- I think it works really well with her intelligent personality. I also really enjoyed her dynamic with Sally while they were teemed up- rough and tumble lady with a prim, proper and intelligent young woman, both happily beating up their opponents. Wonderful.

Victus- I’ve always had a soft spot for dry, logical characters, and Victus is no exception. I think as a fellow military dude, him and Kirk would have gotten along quite well if they had had more time to talk to each other. However, above all else I love his relationship with Bael- from how he initially turned Bael’s parasitism around on him, to how he, (in my opinion at least) ended up in a near-father figure position. It doesn’t matter how edgy Bael acts, Victus is there to pat him on the head in a patronizing fashion. Sure kid. You’re real cool. (While also taking into account his mental state and showing sympathy.) And frankly, if anyone needs that kind of support, it’s Bael.

Trevor- Always liked this guy! A very useful font of exposition, and a genuinely nice guy. I also really appreciate the fact that he’s not used to the chaos of Ebon Creek, and of horrible situations in general. His moments of vulnerability/near breakdowns (and Eric’s for that matter) remind the audience that everything that’s happening… isn’t normal. He’s the closest thing we have to an ‘audience insert’ in the Asylum arc. Loved his gadgetry based fighting style, would have been interesting to see what sort of demon powers he would have developed, but overall not too bummed about it. Really REALLY happy he got to rebuild his friendship with Azgrut, that was one of the things I was most pleased about with the ending.

Eric- Very similar to Trevor in terms of ‘audience insert’ and ‘nice guy’ and ‘hadn’t been completely traumatized by the start of the comic leading to mental breakdowns’, but rode along with the villains instead of the heroes. Poor thing ultimately ends up suffering more than Trevor though, for obvious reasons. It would have been cool to see someone actually learn how to be a zombie though; Sam and Jericho have been like that for years, and we missed Alaster’s adjustment period, but it would have been amusing to watch Eric slowly get used to it.

Also, he committed the biggest instance of ‘Nice job breaking it, hero’ in the whole comic. Way to revive King Law, Eric. Real smooth. Also very, very interesting in that he was one of the few that SIGVALDI found interesting. Eric’s likely up there on the list of cleverest characters, and I hope he’s doing ok after the end of Suppression.

Assorted Goons:

Grenner- I love this man. I draw him looking perpetually exhausted for a reason. He’s a very good man who blames himself for some very bad things, and while he outwardly holds himself together, is grasping at straws to figure out how to make things better. Is a man that’s plagued with guilt and also the actual plague, but has an INCREDIBLE mental fortitude- it’s been explained that perceiving one’s demonic infection as a separate entity is what kills you, but Dr.Grenner did that… and won. I also love his relationship with Iggy- once pretty good, now strained with Grenner trying very hard to put it back together. I’d really like to see them make up someday. (Iggy takes after his dad a lot tbh, loathe as he is to admit it.) ...Id also like to see Grenner show everyone Iggy’s baby pics. You know he’s got em somewhere.

Kolt- Noooooooo. Probably...my least favorite of the villains. Certainly the one I find the creepiest, for reasons I went over in my commentary with Sally, but also the one I found the least interesting in terms of characterization and backstory. Was really pleased to see his “death” and how he got repurposed into a different character, buuuut it’s less encouraging knowing he was going to come back. Please, you creepy bastard….just stay dead…..

Santris- Changing directions, one of my favorite villains. Unlike Nick, his small number of appearances works in his favor, considering he usually shows up during plot important moments, prodding things in one direction or another. This is a man who KNOWS things, and I love it. What is he up to? What’s his motivation? That’s all part of the intrigue. His power set links into this perfectly, which is to say he doesn’t really have one- he’s the only character that fights without magic or plague powers, leaving his real powers- if he has any- a mystery. There’s only one thing I feel fit to speculate on with this guy, and that’s the fact that he’s PROBABLY an elf, going by his eyes. Even that can’t be confirmed though, and makes things even more strange due to the fact that he seems to mostly work with humans, with little to no contact with Thal’nasia.

Azgrut- Another ‘not technically evil, just a victim of tragic circumstances’ character. Being murdered as a child, brought back as a zombie, and forced to build weapons or else be killed again doesn’t leave a guy with a lot of options. However, the weapons he’s building are his life’s work, and probably the only thing that brings him any real happiness or, failing that, satisfaction. It’s probably why he’s so protective of his work, and why he’s so pissy when anyone comes and bothers him. His magitech based fighting style is cool as heck to look at (And to compare/contrast with Trevor’s), and he has an EXCELLENT general aesthetic to him. Tron line zombie, hell yeah. Overall, his situation was even more miserable and ultimately hopeless than Sam’s, and I’m REALLY glad he got a happy ending. Though it’s a shame that because Arthur raised him, that means he’s still ultimately under control of the Wights, which was his whole goal with the phylactery thing. Wait. Azgrut’s still alive at the end. Which m…..FUCK. ARTHUR’S NOT DEAD, THE CAVE IN DIDN’T KILL HIM. I JUST FIGURED THAT OUT. FUCK

Maggie- Okokokok I’m cool, it’s cool. It’s cool. Arthur’s not dead, fine. I’ll just pretend he’s stuck under a rock somewhere, it’s fine. Ok, Maggie. She’s so. Fucking cool. So goddamn cool, I love her so much. I love her ease and sense of confidence, and the implication that she’s the one wearing the pants in her business relationship with Bartleby, even if the people they work with get the initial impression otherwise. She also probably wears the pants in their romantic relationship too. Which like, might not be a thing, not confirmed for canon, but it’s fun to think about. Also has a bitchin outfit, and the coolest ‘element’ out of everyone in the comic, I think. Gravity powers? There is so much room for shenanigans and cool fight scenes out of that. I’m really looking forward to seeing her in the new comic- judging from the number of stripes on her shoulder, she seems to be the boss in the reboot as well. Keep on rockin, girl.

Bartleby- Look. In almost every piece of media with a lot of villains, there’s always one brightly colored, egotistical and flamboyant one. I think for Suppression, Bartleby is that dude. I’m not even kidding- if you look at the big reference sheet of Suppression characters on Degulus’s Deviantart, there’s only 3 patches of bright color and those are Overload Charlie, Azgrut, and Bartleby. However, unlike other villains of that type, where their biggest flaw is their sense of pride, Bartleby’s motive is that Thal’nasia isn’t proud ENOUGH. He believes that elves are genuinely better than humans, but aren’t acting like it, and that needs to be fixed immediately, by way of violent take over of the government. That is a DELIGHTFUL motivation to have. I’m aware that a lot of Suppression’s villains match up with the seven deadly sins (though it’s not too strictly enforced), and envy is a hard one to pull off. However, Bartleby does it and does it well! (Side note: love this dude’s outfit, and double love the fact that he’s the only character who’s teeth you see on a regular basis… where those teeth aren’t sharp. That’s wonderfully unnerving. A+. )

Tyburn- This dude’s more of an honorable mention because he never actually shows up. You only hear about him in passing, so there’s not a LOT for me to say. It’s some hilarious irony that Azgrut doesn’t know what happened after he died (and neither does Iggy for that matter) so he just lists the completely wrong generals and Iggy just essentially nods and goes “Sounds legit.”. I feel like there’s a lot of mysteries around Tyburn though… like I said, we never see him, so who WAS this guy? Why did he defect? (Is he secretly still alive…?) However, the Blood Red Rebellion seems like it was pretty much a feature exclusive to the original comic, so we’re not likely to get anymore info. I’m fine with that tbh- not everything has to be explained to death. Sometimes a dude is just a dude.

Lexi- First of all. Love this girl’s aesthetic. The cropped haircut? The >:3c face? The goggles? The outfit? Yes, yes, and yes. She’s also the only character in the comic that has a very… ‘big sister’ sort of feel to her. Really she’s just an overworked babysitter who got handed a kid that she is in no way equipped to handle, but she’s doing her best to not mess him up too bad regardless. I get the feeling that she’s a dumb kid who was asked “Hey you wanna do some Villainy (™) “ and she was totally down for it before realizing much too late that. Villainy is not as fun as you’d think and ESPECIALLY not when you’re the replaceable mook.

Junior- Hhhh I love this boy. Look, I love art and drawing. I also love robots n stuff in media. I also have Aspergers, and so I have a tendencies towards anxiety, seeming ‘odd’ to other people, being baffled in situations that others would find normal, and obsessing over certain topics. As a result, those who have seen Junior can see why I love this child so so much. It can be kind of embarrassing to admit it, but I see a lot of myself in this character. I’m glad that he has someone that “gets” him and is looking out for his best interests (you rock, Alaster). We don’t really find out what happened to him, Lexi, Alaster and Maggie after the comic, but I like to think that they all got out ok and are just chilling out there somewhere.

Wight Family

Maxwell- Stern, serious, imposing heads of families are relatively common villains, and it’s pretty easy for it to become a boring, flat stereotype; for a character to become nothing more than, essentially, a villainous rock. Max is not this. Max is trying very hard to be this, but doesn’t always measure up, and that is infinitely more interesting than the evil boulder archetype. His character profile straight up says that he’s only trying to be cool and collected. In reality, he’s surrounded by (what he considers) idiots and is trying very hard to keep this show on the road, and his facade of dignity isn’t nearly as impregnable as he thinks. I love the idea of a cold, collected villain going from complex swordplay to an undignified bar brawl the moment he thinks no one’s looking. Just “Fuck it, fine, I’ll do this the easy way. This idiot doesn’t deserve me at my best anyway.” Unfortunately, while his character is very fun to read, the downfall of having a character that doesn’t go into villainous monologues...means that he never explains his evil plans. Which means I’m STILL not really sure… what it was he was trying to DO. Most of my ideas come from Degulus’s explanations in the comments, which is uhhh probably not the best way to communicate that to one’s audience. I’m pretty sure he was planning on altering the course of the leyline to change the laws of nature, and then controlling the world as an immortal zombie but… trusting Arthur to manage that? Yikes. Maybe not the best plan buddy, but you tried your best.

Arthur- Ohhh this bastard. Who is apparently still alive/undead. This bastard… is actually one of my most favorite characters. Like, irrevocably top 5 (I could never pick a #1, but he’s up there). He is an absolutely terrible person. Lazy and cowardly, but in a way that is loathable and malicious instead of sympathetic. Doesn’t seem to think highly of himself, but...doesn’t seem to have a high opinion of anyone else either. Killed his own kids. Killed his brother (s...sort of. It wasn’t very clear.). And today I figured out he didn’t even get comeuppance for it. (Unless, of course, he’s just trapped under a rock in a caved in cave for all eternity with his phylactery sitting on a desk somewhere. That’s kind of hilarious.) However… despite all that, he is an incredibly fun character to hate. His dialogue and reactions were always funny to read, and there’s something about his desire to just lie down and do nothing that appeals to everyone, I think. In a way, he’s similar to an audience insert or ‘straight man’- the one that says “You realize this plan is stupid and never going to work, right.” and is promptly ignored. In summary, terrible person, HORRENDOUS father, but a GREAT character.

William- Ok technically not a person, but will still be giving commentary. A golem made of souls is an amazingly clever concept, though probably my most favorite part of William is getting to describe him as a “sack of angry ghosts” to my friends. It’s interesting how William appears to be at least partially sentient though- either that collection of souls does have some hivemind sort of consciousness, or that’s some faaaancy spell coding on Sigvaldi’s part. However, due to the fact that he’s a juggernaut superweapon of necromancy, he’s less a character and more a...almost environmental hazard that the characters have to work around. A unique and interesting superweapon that was a blast to read about how they worked around him, but… doesn’t leave me a lot to talk about in terms of character commentary.

Jericho- Ah, the poor narratively-proclaimed D-list villain. Nobody really likes him. Got waylaid by the events of the story, and as a result never did anything of much significance, but it was lampshaded and he later got a huge upgrade. I feel like that matches his personality quite well though. He takes after his dad a lot more than he’d like to admit; he has pride in being undead, and as a member of the Wight family, expects everyone to cower before him… and it’s really funny to watch how frustrated he gets when people don’t immediately do that. I think the combo with Kolt was a good idea; it gave him a much needed power boost and source of intrigue, being a possessed zombie. I was also really interested in seeing where his relationship with Iggy and Azgrut was gonna go! On an unrelated note though...I found out the other day that he’s only 2 years older than Samantha. However, Samantha’s backstory showed that she died as a little girl, and I thought it was implied by the “go get your brother” comment that Jericho died shortly after… but that would make Jericho have the body of a young teen/preteen at most. Sooo I guess that either wasn’t the day Jericho died and Arthur wanted him for something else, or acid zombies can age. Hmmm.

(PS. If Alastair calls Samantha Sam and Meredith Merry, does that mean he calls Jericho Jerry? Because if so, that’s hilarious.)

Samantha- The undying voice of nihilism, in a travel sized package. Sam didn’t get a huge role or a ton of appearances, but she’s one of the few who got what I considered a complete character arc. She had a problem, finally admitted that problem, got assistance with the problem and got her comeuppance. Her story was sad, but god if that didn’t make it all the more satisfying watching Arthur get thrown around like a toy by King Law. You could almost hear the squeaky toy sounds.

Alaster- I have a lot of respect for this guy. In the beginning of the story, he comes off as one of those mysterious, unhinged villains that gives a dramatic speech and then vanishes. However, the course of the story revealed layers of personality and backstory that made me genuinely feel for this guy. He’s proud to be a Wight, but somewhat paradoxically hates his family- this later turns out to be because his dad and uncle are terrible people, even to their own children, and he’s trying to actually create something resembling a “family” instead of...well, a soul-drowning pit of misery. He’s trying to make the Wight family a better place for the members of his generation. He’s trying to be a good brother, a good role model, and is friendly to Sam even though she doesn’t seem to want his kindness. He doesn’t mind though, he gets it. It’s so nice to see the younger members of “villain” half of the cast have someone in their corner willing to throw down for them no matter what. Alaster is an A+ older brother, A+ babysitter, and honestly probably would have made a good dad if he ever got the chance. Well, except for the ‘teaching kids how to murder’ part. But that’s just a traditional part of Wight education, I can give that the slip.

Meredith- My first thought upon seeing Meredith was “Oh my god she’s adorable.” Since then, my opinion has not changed in the slightest. She’s like Sabrina the Teenage Witch but evil. She wants to make a team of US presidents with chainsaw arms. I want to SEE her make a team of US presidents with chainsaw arms. Honestly, she’s a breath of fresh air in the Wight team. She’s good at her job, but young and enthusiastic. After so many dreary, depressed, gothass villains, it’s nice to see one that’s a straight up ray of bubbly sunshine who also wants to rip out your soul and use you as her cute lil familiar. I bet she can ride that scythe like a broomstick. She’s got the wind powers, it could work. The sad part is though is that...while the old Wights might have survived the cave in, and Arthur definitely survived, Meredith was the only one in the room who wasn’t undead or a lich which means she’s probably. Permadead by the end of the comi- AW FUCK THAT MEANS ALASTER’S DEAD TOO. AUUUGH. Oh fffuck I hope Alaster managed to get Junior back home before he just. Dropped dead next to him.

King Law- Unlike Max, this guy is a lot closer to the “villainous rock” stereotype; he even has an elemental affinity to Earth! While I find him a little more boring than Max though, I’m still drawn to him by his bitchin character design, and intriguing sense of ethics; he honestly has some good points on the nature of goodness and the fact that having a sense of right and wrong is worthless if “right” isn’t being defended. He seems to be the concept of “lawful evil” taken to a reasonable endpoint, whereas Sigvaldi would be the “chaotic” end of the scale.

Nora- Ohhh yes that’s the ticket. This is exactly what I wanted. It’s implied that...terrible things happened to the Wight kids’ mothers. (Ok they’re not really kids but you get what I mean.) However, that leaves a very obvious dearth of Wight ladies, leaving me with a hankering for more. Nora hits that spot so well. She’s elegant, refined, but also has a giant, badass fuckin’ sword (ok well she is the sword but still), and will happily kick the crap out of everyone that messes with her family, despite the drama. Is there a ton of depth and backstory? Nah, she was there for like...10 pages and died (thanks, Charlie), but her very existence is a much needed breath of fresh air. Also I need to draw her in a bunch of fancy outfits starting, like. Now.

Sigvaldi- So, I got one of my friends to read the reboot with me entirely on the off chance that Sigvaldi shows up in it based on the few snippets of the old comic that I showed him, so that certainly speaks wonders for Sigvaldi’s character. Granted, it’s mostly because he’s a lich and this friend loves those, but my point stands. Sigvaldi is great. I love characters with a unique worldview and sense of morality, and Sigvaldi is no exception. He is well aware that he creates monsters and commits sins against the laws of nature, and accepts this...what he truly loathes is those who do monstrous things and try to make it look like justice. Now THATS interesting. I also just generally enjoy his omniscient observer role in the story, popping up to give warnings and make predictions. I should also talk about the end of Suppression, while I’m talking about him, specifically those mysterious voices who’s ranks he joined at the end of the story… I’m not sure who they are, but I sure as hell cant wait to find out! I have a few guesses, but 0 evidence, so I’m gonna hold those cards close to my chest for now.

Other Characters

These guys diiiidn’t get a lot of screentime and also I’m feeling really crappy and sick right now so I might not have a lot to say, sorry.

Figaro- An elf with a BEARD. So good. I like how self aware he is about the nature of his job, and how light hearted he stays about it all. Sometimes, your coworkers are incredibly powerful mages that can control the very forces of nature themselves. And sometimes they’re idiots. And sometimes they’re both at the same time and you just kinda gotta roll with it.

Coin- Had pretty much just one conversation so I don’t have a lot to say about this guy. I like his near-naive dedication to heroics and justice though. That can be interesting in done right, especially if it’s from a character who isn’t actually naive and is instead willing to fight for that ideal. I actually find his family more interesting- he has a last name that’s been mentioned a couple times in different contexts. His family certainly gets around, huh?

Mara- Probably my favorite of the elves. I can understand both sides of peoples opinions of her. On one hand, she’s absolutely a child soldier. There’s definite negative effects to this that she straight up doesn’t have the experience or maturity to understand completely, and even though this frustrates her, the people claiming it are absolutely right. However, I can also understand her desire to be taken seriously as a person, the difficulty in repairing the good name of the Red part of the army, and the massive pressure on her as the last remaining heiress of the Kuin family. She’s got a lot of weight on her, and while I want to see her do well… I also wish she had the opportunity to. Well, be a dumb teenager. Very interesting character, but also very specific to the pre-reboot continuity, so I’m not sure what’s going to happen to her now.

Phylo- This is also a reaaaally good one. I love how much care was taken to write his disabilities- he’s competent and well respected, but his missing arm and blindness are taken into account and addressed reasonably. I especially loved how he has to take his arm off during the winter because of the chill that creeps up it- that shows a lot of thought put in, that not a lot of other comics would. A+ writing on that front. Normally I don’t think I’d like his grumpy, but still managing to brag sort of personality, but in this case I think it works because the other characters mentioned that he was the grumpy one; his behavior isn’t treated by the narrative as being a good thing.

Kevin- Admittedly not a huge fan of this guy. I mean he’s ok, I liked the kamen rider leystone power suit, that’s cool. And granted, we might not have gotten the best introduction to him, considering he was exhausted and it was the middle of the night when we met him. But overall, he seemed to me to be a guy where people kept saying that “he was a nice guy, really” despite being whiny and aggressive the whole time. He kept acting really distrustful, but none of his protestations really affected the plot, so I just spent most of the time waiting to move on from this guy. I get the feeling I also would like him more if I watched any episodes of Kamen Rider, as there’s supposed to be a lot of similarities buuuut I haven’t, so. Still, he’s supposed to be getting a lot of focus in the reboot, so hopefully he’ll be able to stand up on his own virtues.

Roni- Noooot a lot to say about this one. I’m interested in seeing what animal-based life magic looks like in practice though. Plant life magic is easy enough, it’s just plants, but is animal husbandry magic like...being able to control/talk to animals? Or is it kind of horrifying fleshcrafting. I also didn’t think she and Cerene were that similar, but I’m still looking forward to the sister relationship they’ll have! (I’ve also always wondered if that promised hang session with her and Cerene was going to lead up to a meeting and confrontation with Lexi… that would have been interesting.)

Torblad and Esra- Wasn’t a huge fan of these two either. I’m not sure if Torblad was just pretending to have gone crazy, or if he was supposed to actually have some sort of illness from his time travel shenanigans, but overall it just felt weird to me. The tone of his ‘prophecies’ was so different from the rest of the comic that I thought he was a one off joke character or a cameo of some other thing (like how Kirk was a character who was originally from a MSPA fanventure, I thought Torblad was a character from the original RP a lot of the elf characters came from that was going to be a tip of the hat one-off, tonally inconsistent cameo and then we’d more on.). Imagine my surprise when he ended up being responsible for the end of the comic! With Cerene’s help, of course. Overall, he just seems...out of place to me. With the rest of the cast being written well enough in terms of physical disabilities, the effects of trauma, and mental illness, Torblad’s sort of… lolrandom sort of craziness feels cut from a different cloth. I don’t even really have anything to say about Esra- she seems to be there pretty much entirely to interpret for Torblad, soooo I got nothing. Sorry, Esra.

Solstice- Aw yeah, there’s the good stuff. Take this with a grain of salt though; I’m not entirely sure if I’m interpreting her backstory correctly, as we only got bits and pieces of it. She was an excellent introduction to how much things were going to change for our “heroes” when they walked into Thal’nasia- instead of snarky comments and scuffles, they got someone that was spooked, shy, and wondering why the hell they were there in the middle of the night. She’s a bit awkward, but seems friendly and genuine; a much needed change of pace and a breath of fresh air. However, the story is quick to give her more depth than that. She used to be a lot sadder, a lot angrier, a lot more aggressive, and it’s taken time and effort to recover from that. She has a useful, unique worldview due to her golden aura color, but is estranged from society due to her differences and her odd personality as a result. And yet… she’s still become a kind person, with a helpful personality, and I have a lot of respect for that. It’s one thing to become a snarling badass in the face of adversity. That’s cool, and I like that too. Hell yeah, punch those who hurt you. But something we don’t get to see a lot is people recovering, getting better, realizing that while that aggression helped them at the time, it can become self destructive. It’s really nice to see a character that shows that stronger isn’t the be all, end all solution to one’s problems. (Though she could probably still kick your ass if she wanted to. Just sayin.)

#suppression #text post #commentary #oh god im so sick right now but at least it's done

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spiteandalice · 7 years

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Judas Touch pt. 1

So I lied about posting the other day, obviously. Please know that I’m a lying liar that lies.The second chapter to my Jai fic is almost done and if I don’t pass out in five minutes I’ll do my best to get it the fuck done. Let me start this by saying how I hate y’all even if you don’t know me. I’ve been lurking for a long while, reading all the Divergent and Boomer and whatnot fics quietly because I knew the moment I would set up a blog for this I’d fall into a deep, dark hole. NOW LOOK AT THIS SHIT.

Have an Eric oneshot because my brain hates me so, so much.

Contains smut, language and some violence.

In my few years on this planet I haven’t seen many winters that could compare to this one, the temperatures so low it feels like a punch to the chest every time you walk outside. Having all the moisture in your nose freeze up every time you breathe in is quite something to behold. It doesn’t stop me from hanging off the side of the first armored truck in our convoy, the one that found me on a routine patrol, peering through the blindingly white streets ahead at what I have called home all my life, even if it’s a miserable cavern full of loud idiots. My faction still houses the best kind of idiots because Dauntless are by far the most tolerable of the bunch. The snow actually helps to improve the city, it covers the ruins and manages to let even the usually depressing wastelands look almost pretty.

Not that I care.

There is a commotion up ahead, and I can’t help but smile at the warm welcome as a group of disheveled factionless come shambling out of a street in an attempt to attack us. I guess my reputation has suffered greatly in the past four months, but I guess being presumed dead does that to you.

They are mostly unarmed, a few are swinging pipes and other blunt objects in our direction, meaning to look threatening I guess, and I descend from my spot by the driver’s door, smiling. I take a few steps towards them, still smiling. My height alone is supposedly enough to impress, even if they don’t recognize me. 5′11 is mighty tall for a woman, and everything about my clothes is meant to accentuate that, not that I could really conceal it somehow. My black coat reaches down to my ankles and would be restricting if it wasn’t for the four slits on the sides, front and back, allowing me enough leg room to climb, run and kick. Or slowly stride towards a bunch of bumbling idiots who dare to delay my glorious return to the living. Clearly confused some of them back away, until I’m close enough to make out some of their grubby faces. One in the front bears a tattoo on his head that looks vaguely familiar, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. He stares at my bruised face for a moment before his brain can process whatever info it provides to him.

“Oh shit. It’s her! It’s Mina!”

Ah, a former dauntless. It warms the spot where my heart is supposed to be that he recognizes and instantly fears me. Clever boy.

For a moment they are all silent, some exchange looks, then they start to run. I laugh, wholeheartedly enjoying their reaction, while I pull two guns from their holsters slung across my shoulders and start firing at them. Out of the fifteen only seven make it back to their rat hole. I’m obviously very rusty.

Banging my fist on the hood of the truck is the driver’s signal to continue on, we are moments away from the compound and I would like to get back inside, have a shower and reconnect with old friends.

All three of them.

There is a lot of bustling as we approach, looks like a delivery from Amity is unloaded right now and it has transformed the place into an anthill that I’m usually tempted to light on fire with a huge looking glass, but not today. I’m feeling very generous. A lot of black figures are running around carrying things, only one is standing in the middle, almost motionless. His head is turned towards us but there is not even the slightest sign of any kind of emotion visible in his rigid stance, hands folded behind his back, ever the leader. I smirk and jump off, slowly making my way towards him, limping slightly because my ankle is sprainex. When I am not more than ten feet away he barks at someone to his left, without so much as turning his head that way, and the hapless guy who dared to slow down hastily runs towards the truck to grab another crate.

“Still getting off on intimidating peasants, I see.”

“Still loving a grand entrance, I see.”

We stare at each other for a moment and if I had a heart it would possibly beat faster now and I would experience some form of joy because I am actually home. Alas, a smirk and a raised eyebrow will have to do, and it is returned in kind by my favorite dauntless. Which I would never tell him, his ego is inflated enough already.

“Looks like you just won me a lot of points, Mina.”

For Eric he sounds almost gentle, with only a minimum of sarcasm and a dash of amusement in his voice. I briefly wonder if he was affected by the news of my death at all, but I know him too well. It was probably extra terrible to land on his shit list for a couple of weeks, by breathing wrong or walking by too close.

“I leave you alone for a couple of weeks and you turn into a gambling man? What has this place come to! Are we doing group hug sessions now every Friday?”

For a moment we both go quiet and I am sure that we are supposed to hug now, or smile or break out into a little dance number. But we just stare, I for my part even enjoying it because there aren’t many people who would even dare to hold his gaze, and the same thing can be said about me. Finally he takes a few steps forward, closing the distance between us and leaning his forehead against mine for just a moment. We are both not feeling the need for any form of PDA and anything else along those lines, that is for the mushy idiots, the pussies and emotional people, which is all the same anyway. Mutual respect is the highest form of affection we are capable of and comfortable with, and that is all I need to know.

“I am looking forward to a hot shower, some food and a few hours of sparring. Not necessarily in that order.”

He lifts an eyebrow at me and smirks. I’m still looking better put together than the majority here and I spent weeks in captivity, fighting my way through a horde of idiots and then crawling across the city before a patrol found me. There is dust in my hair, the left side of my head needs shaving and I would kill for clean underwear. Not that I normally wouldn’t.

“Code’s still the same. You might want to check in and tell everyone else you’re alive.”

With a huff of indignation I step back and glare at him, he has to ruin all my fun. I was planning on roaming the halls for a few weeks, thoroughly scaring the shit out of everyone that knows me, especially those that never liked me. Which, admittedly, are quite a few. Not as many as Eric can boast about, I have never been in a position to be able to make quite as many enemies, but I am close. Was. Am. I am back, I should remember that.

Stifling a grin he pats my shoulder and turns me toward the door behind him. As I turn a guy behind me catches a glimpse at my face, drops something and curses. I turn and start running at him with a loud wail and he, completely shocked and confused, starts running. The look of pure amusement on Eric’s face is almost worth behaving like an idiot and I allow myself a half smile before straightening my coat and heading back towards the door.

“I think I almost missed having you around.”

With a snort I walk past him, clipping him in the shoulder on the way. The only things he missed were my body and the fact that he had someone on his level around that would get his moods and his thought processes, that is all.

“Your dick missed me, I’m sure.”

He doesn’t respond to that, and as I walk through the narrow and dark corridor I can hear him barking orders at the poor saps outside and it just might be one of the sweetest things I have ever heard.

Later that night, after a very exhausting meeting with the leaders and a long and entirely unnecessary retelling of my adventures, I find myself keying in the familiar code to Eric’s place. There is a spot for me in one of the guest rooms because I have never been around for too long, but it is a long standing tradition that I spend most of my nights here. The lights are out and everything is quiet, so I make my way to the bathroom after taking off my boots and coat and placing them by the door, neatly because anything else would make it impossible for me to relax. Always be ready to leave, always have a strategy. The fact that I am willing to even take off my knives and guns around here says a lot about Eric, if there is anyone in this world that I would trust to an extent it would be him.

This is why I decide to not only take a shower, generously applying his soap twice, but also draw a hot bath afterwards because after being dead for four months I am pretty sure I’m entitled to a little smidge of luxury, and it’s his place so I’m not worried about wasting his resources, he can afford it. While the tub slowly fills I make my way around, grateful for the fact that he is such a neat person, because I could find my way to his liquor stash blindfolded. With a bottle of very good whiskey and his backup pack of cigarettes I make my way back to the bathroom, picking up a lighter and an ashtray on my way. I am naked and my hair is leaving a fine trail of water droplets all over his floors, which I’m sure will irritate him to no end. I grin and leave the door open before I submerge myself in what feels like boiling hot water, not even thinking about leaving before I have smoked half of the pack and drank at least a quarter of the bottle.

When the door opens I tense, but I know full well that the number of people who can even access his place is extremely low, yet I only relax after I heard his low grumble that is telling me he is annoyed but also vaguely amused. He must have seen the water trail I left him while he took off his boots. Like the trail of breadcrumbs in that old story, just a lot better.

“One could think you owned this place.”

There he is, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed. I can’t say I’m not enjoying the sight, a few months among factionless and corpses does things to a woman’s standards, but there has only ever been one who came close to not boring me and mostly pissing me off in the good kind of way. He is currently raking his gaze up and down my body, and I’m not sure what he is thinking because I must look terrible. Battered and bruised, what I lost in weight I gained in scars. Not pretty, but we are soldiers, we are not supposed to be beautiful. Supposed to I say, because this little shit had to go against the grain.

“If I owned this place it wouldn’t be such a mess.”

The smile I bestow on him almost reaches my eyes, I can feel it, but it is also meant to provoke him. I need to test the waters, to see how, or if at all, things have changed in these few months. Maybe he found himself a nice little wife he keeps in a different apartment because being around others constantly is too much, or maybe he and Four finally acted on all that pent up tension. My smile turns into a smirk and he raises an eyebrow, his gaze still cold. Our greeting was downright emotional, but now we’re back at the beginning, cautiously staring at each other, neither of us willing to take the first step because that means exposing yourself and could be considered a weakness.

Finally I sigh and get up, letting the water cascade off my body for a moment before reaching for a black towel I put out, carefully stepping over the edge of the tub and beginning to dry myself thoroughly, right in front of him. Cold fingers suddenly dig into my hips, pulling me backwards and against him. We don’t say a single word, don’t even make a sound, but I turn around and launch myself at him so hard that he stumbles backwards and into the wall. His hands are all over my back, my hair, my ass, while I wrap my legs around him like a vise and take great pleasure in destroying his carefully made up hair. I was the first one to openly laugh at him and survive and it was this haircut that caused my outburst. I like it, sort of, even though I don’t and it’s none of my business anyway.

We don’t kiss, we never have, it is a ferocious attack of lips and tongues and teeth, biting and sucking and licking. Even this turns into a competition, to see who could win the upper hand. Ever since we met, while he was an initiate and I had to wait another damn year, we have been at each other’s throats both literally and figuratively speaking. No matter what competition we ended up in, it was always just too close to call unless one of us decided to play dirty and distract the other in every way possible, which is always. The first time we fucked - and there is no other word to accurately describe it - we were sparring, he had me pinned, I managed to headbutt him, he tried to choke me and I kicked him in the balls - this is our kind of foreplay.

Nobody said any of this is “healthy”.

There is blood on my lips and I’m not sure if it’s his or mine, and it’s really not important either way. We will both be walking around covered in scratches and bruises tomorrow, slightly smug and knowing full well that everyone can see, everyone knows and yet nobody dares to say a thing because we are both known to be very calm and reasonable humans.

That thought makes me chuckle against his throat and he growls, the first noises we made so far.

“Something funny there?”

“Yeah, your face.”

His hand tangles in my black hair and pulls my head back, he is not in the mood for some banter on the intellectual level of five year olds, and that’s okay. This is something that developed over time, we blow off some steam, destroy a piece of furniture or two, then comes the playful part. One time he chased me around the training room for half an hour, a fact that got him into a fight with Four the next day when he was complaining about having to watch that on the surveillance footage. It wasn’t so much the fact that we were naked and clearly having a lot of sex that bothered Eric, but the fact that Four saw him laughing and tickle me into submission. It was a one time lapse of judgement on our parts that never happened again after and we keep that private.

Eric wraps a thick strand of my hair around his hand and pulls, hard, making my scalp burn. With a growl I lash out and manage to leave three welts on his cheek, right under his eye.

"I thought you were fucking dead, Mina.“

That growl nearly drives me insane. It’s always a back and forth, a struggle for dominance we both know we won’t win, and I for my part have no interest in that happening in the first place. I’d be bored within minutes. I’m not one of those in our faction that go around screwing everyone in sight, and neither is he, as far as I know. There is no need to be physically close to anyone, just a search for release every now and then. He understands that and that’s what makes this work. That and the fact that he knows where my buttons are, and I know his.

“Excuse me for getting jumped by ten people while your precious soldiers ran away like little babies,” I snarl, biting down on his neck, hard. He has the advantage right now because I was in the tub, he is wearing an obscene amount of fabric that is in my way. With some acrobatics I lean back to reach under me and open his belt with one hand, he does absolutely nothing to help me but watches closely, smirking. I’ll get to wiping that off his face in just a moment. The very practical standard issue tactical pants are open and pushed down within moments and I tug down the elastic of his boxer briefs just enough to free his cock, not willing to waste any more time.

Using my legs I push myself up against his body and let gravity do the rest, dropping down again and slamming down onto him. It brings him back to the living and his smirk turns into a snarl, his fingers digging into my hips again. Eric pushes himself off the wall and starts to walk out of the bathroom while I dig my nails into his shoulders, pushing myself up and letting myself fall, at a slow and intense pace.

When I look at his face I can tell that something is off, that this doesn’t work for him as it usually does. It takes a few moments to sink in, but we’re so much alike that it’s sometimes hard to remember that we don’t share all the same thoughts and whatever little emotions we allow to seep through. Eric needs to be in control at all times, he hates feeling helpless as much as I do. And I, even though I can hardly be blamed for this, made him feel exactly that. I got myself captured and killed, that’s what everyone assumed, and there was nothing he could do. Eric might not care for me in a traditional way, but we have been doing this since my initiation four years ago. In some capacity I became a part of his life and I had the audacity to take that away from him. There will be hell to pay for the factionless, but if I want this to survive he needs to feel like he put things right. So I struggle to free myself from the confinement of his arms and am rewarded with a frown. If he thinks even for a moment that I’m giving him the upper hand he won’t like it. Letting myself fall backwards with my full body weight I loosen his grip and he snarls, trying to grab my wrist but I twist my arm away from him. In a flash I’m on my feet and pretending to walk away from him, but he wraps his arm around my waist and slams me into the sink. The vanity mirror gives me a great view of him and I meet his scowl with a wicked grin. “You fucking crazy bitch.” It takes about two seconds for him to force my legs apart and slam into me, making my hips collide with the cold porcelain. Eric pounds me relentlessly and I moan, even louder when he pulls my hair, twisting my head to the side. His eyes never leave mine in the mirror, his teeth are bared and he is spitting out curses with every thrust, insulting me and cursing my entire damn existence through his teeth. My body is covered in bruises from my restraints, my captors and my escape and Eric is adding more with each snap of his hip, each hard grip. But these new ones I won’t mind. The hand gripping my hip vanishes and comes down on my ass, hard, and my hiss elicits a chuckle. It’s a menacing sound, cold and cruel, but it goes straight to my core and makes my muscles tighten. I look at my own face in the mirror, flushed and blissful under scratches and bruises, and when I look at him again I feel my walls clench down tight. One last smirk from him and I unravel with a high pitched keen that is far beyond any words. Eric stares at me, watches me coming undone before he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Pushing deep into me he stills and I feel him come inside me with a low growl. His eyes fly open and the intensity makes my knees buckle. Panting I try to pull myself up but my muscles seem to fail me after the hot bath and exercise. Eric watches me for a moment, then he picks me up and carries me to his bedroom. “Maybe I missed you a little after all.” The murderous glare he shoots my way hasn’t worked a single time in all these years, but I appreciate the effort. “Shut up and sleep, Mina.” He positively throws me onto the mattress and stalks out of the room, by the time he returns with the first aid kit everyone here has at home I’m almost asleep and pretend not to notice how he starts to treat my wounds in a way that could almost be described as gentle.

PART TWO

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