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boldlyvoid · 3 years

Text

Hypothetically | Chapter 25-27

summary: Reader and Spencer were friends in kindergarten, she watched him grow up and explore the world while she was still trying to catch up to him. now that they work together, they fall in love incredibly fast.

friends to lovers, case of the week style story

A/N: Set between seasons 4 and 6, not following canon. all original crimes based on real-life stories.

Warnings 18+: Murderers, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Blood, Guns, mentions of autopsy, Fluff, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, bed-sharing, Riding, Unprotected Sex, Virgin Reader, Case of the Week, original crimes, Food mention, Smut, Oral Sex, Light BDSM, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Talk, obgyn appointments and info, Home Invasion, Past Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Emotional Manipulation, Grooming, Pedophilia mention, non-con oral (male receiving), Pregnant Sex, Daddy Kink, Breeding Kink, Homophobia, conversion therapy

Word Count: 18k

chapter 25

“What do you mean we’re working a missing dog case?” Hotch questioned his whole entire life at that moment as Mindy and Garcia explained the case they think they found.

“Sir, I promise you’re going to want to listen to this,” Garcia said softly, her green dress and pink hair pom-poms really reassuring him that everything was fine.

Y/N watched him roll his eyes and wish he was somewhere else, he had been getting more and more fed up with work lately. Having a hard time with Strauss, his wife, and the job in general. After Hayley almost died last year and being stabbed, he had the worst luck on the team.

“It’s going to take a minute for you to see what we see,” Mindy matched Garcia’s aura perfectly, dressed in a cat sweater.

“All 5 of these families have reported dogs missing in the Sacramento area. You think that’s not that weird, they’re probably stealing dogs for fights and step one in the serial killer handbook. But you’d be wrong,” Garcia explained, flipping from photos of missing dog posters to murdered families.

“The dogs go missing right, the parents put all their information onto a flyer, the flyer gets plastered into the neighbourhood where everyone sees it. The unsub takes the flyer, and the dog and returns it to the family just to get inside of the house. He learns what their safety protocols are like and then he decides to break in and murder,” Mindy laid it all out easily for them to follow.

“Is there any evidence that the killer is the dognapper?” Prentiss asked, chewing on the end of her pencil as she tried to wrap her head around it all.

“No,” Garcia pressed her lips together quickly. “But! Family number 5, they were murdered on Friday. Their crime scene is the newest, it’s where we’ll get the best idea of what’s going on.”

“Sir,” Mindy added. “If I’m correct about this, another family is going to die in 2 days. There’s been another small dog reported missing in Sacramento, the same type of family and everything. It’s a signature if I’ve ever seen one.”

“Send us everything you have, wheels up in 20,” Hotch sighed, taking his things and leaving the room.

“Is he okay?” Y/N asked Rossi.

Dave and he were the closest, Hotch never told his secrets of personal gossip to anyone else. He knew Rossi understood family problems the best. Having been married and divorced 3 times each.

“Don’t repeat this, Garcia that means you,” he teased her quickly. “He asked Hayley if she wanted more kids, after seeing you and JJ expanding the BAU’s gifted children program. She said she’d only have another baby if he took a few years off.”

“Oh,” Y/N wasn’t surprised. If Spencer wasn’t in the BAU he probably wouldn’t get it either. “He’s young, he can come back at any time, as you did.”

“Which is what I said to him. He just doesn’t know how he’d fill all the time yet, he doesn’t have an interest in fishing or cigars like moi,” Rossi explained. Standing up and straightening out his suit, “not to mention the writing chops to keep your brain fresh.”

“Come on grandpa, it’s time to board the plane you can brag later,” Derek patted him on the back. “Some of us like to stay active and have fun on our time off.”

“I’ll have you know I’m very fun,” Rossi argues as they leave the room. They were like a bunch of teenagers sometimes.

“Well, I’ll see you in a few days, just be in Vegas by Sunday at 2 pm,” Y/N frowned at Spencer. “Call me when you’re free?”

Spencer leaned in and kissed her softly. Rubbing his hand over her belly as he did so, saying goodbye to the little dude in there. “Be good, take care of each other.”

She smiled, wishing he didn’t have to go again. “We always do, come home to me safely boy wonder.”

In Penelope’s office, Mindy had basically moved in. It was big enough for the two of them and they worked together anyway. Sharing all the computer space, rolling around each other like crazy people as they switched jobs. That meant that Mindy’s office became Y/N’s office when she stayed back on a case.

Y/N would be 33 weeks pregnant as of Thursday, and officially Mrs. Dr. Reid by Sunday.

If everything went according to plan. This case seemed simple enough to get them home in time. If not, the flight from LA to Vegas wasn’t even that long. Y/N and Will had a plan if this was to happen, JJ and Spencer would head right to Vegas while Will and Henry flew in with Y/N. All she really needed was her wedding dress and hospital go-bag, and Spencer.

She wasn’t going to go into labour any time soon, Matty was still way too high and she was barely even having Braxton hicks contractions yet. If her body wasn’t practicing, surely it wouldn’t just start. She was a planner, she planned everything and this pregnancy didn’t seem to listen. All she wanted was for him to be born on or after June 10th, healthy and happy, that’s her only wish.

She hated cases like these, ones that made her sit behind a desk and just look at everything till it made sense. But it never did, not in her brain. Thinking like an unsub was the only time it made sense, but she never understood it. Kidnapping a dog just to kill a family was never going to be something one could just understand.

The only idea she had was to get someone inside the newest victims’ house and just wait for the unsub to return the dog. It would be the easiest way to bring him in for questioning. So she called Hotch.

“Hotchner,” he answered shortly.

“Hey, I was just wondering if you had a plan yet? If not, I’ve been thinking.”

“We’re trying to find a way to get eyes and ears inside the vics home,” Hotch explained, it sounded like he was driving and yelling over the speaker.

“I was thinking you could send in Reid or Morgan posing as a tutor or coach of some kind, then you can hide the equipment in the bag they bring in, it would be the least suspicious,” she ran her thoughts through to him.

“That would work, I’ll have the team see what we can do from our end,” Hotch ended the call abruptly. Still in the bad mood from when he left.

She couldn’t blame him, it’s a hard spot raising kids and having this job. Y/N and Spencer were still trying to figure out how they were going to pull it off. She couldn’t imagine what it was like for Haley, always being alone with Jack and half the time her life was in danger. The risk that came with the job almost didn’t feel worth it, especially when it meant losing your family on top of everything else.

They sent Derek in, with Penelope in his ear, as he set up the cameras and microphones. Setting up 24/7 patrol across the street in a model home. Meaning that Y/N’s job was basically over and all she had to do was kick her feet up and eat snacks until she could go home.

—

Spencer crawled into bed 2 days later around 4 in the morning, cuddling into her without even taking off his work clothes. She barely slept when Spencer wasn’t home, she opened her eyes when she noticed he was there, as if she hadn’t even slept yet.

He smelled like hotel soap and stale airplane air. “Hi,” he whispered as he tried to cuddle in close to her, being held back by her belly.

“Home just in time to have to fly out again,” she smiled at him softly.

“I know,” he sighed. “I doubt the bureau would like us if we used the jet to travel to a wedding. It’s bad enough we have one and no other unit does.”

“Are you excited or nervous?”

“Both.”

“Mmm,” she hummed along. “I’m nervous.”

“Why?”

“I still haven’t written my vows and,” she stopped herself, frowning a little as Spencer laid a hand on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s all happening so fast. I feel like I haven’t had a chance to enjoy any of it and I’m worried if this is how fast the lead-up is, then how fast will the night be over?”

“Oh bunny,” he cooed. “I’ll make sure we get a moment alone, how about we sneak off during the party and go to the swing and just spend time together? Really make the most of our day.”

“Okay,” she smiled again. “A part of me wishes it was just us.”

“How about this,” Spencer said as he sat up, turning on the bedside lamp before getting out of bed. He looked through his underwear drawer and pulled out the box the rings were in. “Marry me, right now?”

“What?” She laughed.

“Just me and you, marry me?”

“It won’t count this way?” She rebutted, sitting up as well as she squinted in the light. Trying to wake up more.

“you’re not religious and you hate the government even though you work for them,” he reminded her. “Having a sheet of paper and dedicating my life to you are two completely different things.”

“I told you I don’t have my vows ready!”

Spencer sat on the bed, sitting directly across from her as he placed the rings on the bed. Taking both her hands in his as he looked into her eyes. “Just make it up?”

“You’re insufferable,” she teased him.

“And you love me,” he teased right back.

“Fine, Spencer Reid, you big fuckin’ dork,” she couldn’t stop herself from laughing. “My whole life I’ve just wanted to love you. I don’t know how I managed to pull it off, but here I am."

She let out a long, shaky breath as she continued. "You complete me, I don’t feel right when you’re not around and I never want to lose you. Marrying you means more to me than just becoming your wife, I don’t care about the term or the tax benefits," she laughed as a tear fell down her cheek. he wiped it away quickly.

"I was perfectly content just being in your rotation. Being your partner for life is a blessing to me, I’m going to love you forever.” She picked up and ring and put it on his finger.

His eyes were glossy as he watched her shaking hand slip the ring over him. He loved her more than he even knew how to describe at the moment.

“Do you remember that one time you asked me to show you how a real man loves a woman?”

She laughed, looking down at her gigantic belly. “Kinda hard to forget when I’m carrying around this extra 30 pounds.”

“It reminded me of a quote I read on a swing one time,” he said softly, watching her eyes gleam as she knew where he was going.

“The unqualified truth is, that when I loved Y/N with the love of a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, that I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. Once for all; I love her nonetheless because I knew it, and it had no more influence in restraining me, than if I had devoutly believed her to be human perfection.”

“What’s that from?” Y/N couldn’t stop the tears from falling down her cheeks, she had never known what book he was reading. She always wondered what his thoughts were in that moment when their eyes locked in remembrance all those years ago.

“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens,” Spencer replied, starting to cry as well.

That’s when she remembered it, looking over at the book that had been sitting on his bedside table for months. It was the book he re-read the most, the book he was reading that first night in Wichita when she asked to crawl into his bed. The book he put down before they conceived Matthew. The whole time she was falling in love with him, the way she did as a child, he was reading the same book because it reminded him of her.

“I didn’t expect that book to hold such a place in my heart the first time I read it. I only brought it to the park with me that day because it was the closest book to me, and I was having a really hard day,” he stopped to wipe his tears softly. “Yet somehow, every single bad day in my life has been made better by you. You’re my greatest expectation, and the only one I’m trying the hardest to live up to.”

“I love you,” she replied to him softly. Holding his face in her hands now as she stared into his eyes, “you’re always going to be everything I’ve ever wanted and all I’ll ever need. You’ve met every expectation, and beyond.”

“I love you,” he smiled. He took her left hand off his cheek, sliding the silver band over her ring finger, pressing it snugly against her engagement ring. “forever.”

“And then some,” Y/N added before kissing him softly.

She smiled against his lips, sitting back and looking at him with complete wonder. “Dr. Y/L/N,” she teased him, pretending to tip her imaginary hat.

“Agent Reid,” he copied her causing them both to laugh again.

“So when is our real anniversary then?” Y/N asked softly, trying to remember what day of the month it was.

“It’s April 20th.”

“Our anniversary cannot be 4/20!” She panicked. “Oh. My god!”

Spencer laughed from down deep in his gut, laying down against the sheets as she smacked his arm lightly. “I’m serious, but that’s so funny though,” she laughed too.

She laid back against the sheets then, Spencer cuddled into her side. His face in the crook of her neck while laying a leg over hers. She held him as close as she could, Matthew really starting to get in the way of everything she did now.

She let out a deep breath as she settled with Spencer against her. “I love you so much, my husband.”

“I love you more, my wife,” he replied. The words sounding like heaven on his lips.

chapter 26

She let out a deep breath when the dress actually zipped up. She was so worried that in the last 2 weeks her body had completely changed. JJ finished with her zipper, fluffing her dress and making sure everything was in place.

Her mom was wiping her tears for the 4th time in the last hour, Y/N couldn’t stop laughing every time she heard her sniffle. It didn’t feel as life-changing as her mother made it seem, Spencer and Y/N were already married in her opinion, this was just a nice formality for their parents.

She could hear all the people talking in her parent’s yard, a few kids yelling as they ran around each other. People were already drinking, there was food and snacks all around. It was just a big party where they were going to tell everyone exactly how much they loved each other.

As much as she was ready mentally, her body was shot. The butterflies in her stomach wouldn’t leave, the baby was kicking from the anxiety in her body no matter how hard she tried to calm down. It was nerve-wracking to be so open in front of so many people.

It was even worse with the fact she hadn’t seen Spencer since yesterday. As much as he claimed he wasn’t superstitious, he really didn’t want to see her before the wedding. Claiming his mother was the worried one, Y/N let it slide no matter how much she hated sleeping in her childhood bed all by herself with a mini-gymnast in her stomach.

“Are you ready?” JJ asked her softly.

She nodded, looking in the mirror at herself one last time. “Can I have a minute?”

“Sure,” JJ smiled, taking Debbie with her as they walked out of her room.

She stood in the window, opening the blinds and looking out towards the swings once again. Spencer was sitting there, swinging while staring at her window.

She smiled, feeling the butterflies leave her system in a beautiful flurry as their eyes locked. She was ready, she had always been ready to marry him.

She walked out of the room and down the stairs, holding the railing carefully. She was just wearing a pair of crocs under her dress, not trusting her big clumsy ass with heels.

She waited in the foyer as Emily walked across the street to gather everyone. She was officiating for them, Spencer wanted her to be the one to marry them, she was the closest thing to a sister he had.

Every single important person in their lives was in the crowd. Even Spencers father was there, in the back, quiet. Diana was happy to see him, Spencer felt indifferent. Gideon came too, which made it a little easier.

They all walked across the street then, gathering at the end of the makeshift aisle they laid out in the park. Penelope played a simple wedding march, starting the ceremony officially.

Everyone stood, turning towards them. Chloe went down first, dropping flower petals in big clumps here and there before running towards her mom. Then it was Y/N’s turn, opting out of the whole bridesmaid’s thing for the sake of not having to pick and choose between her co-workers and sisters-in-law.

Her dad extended an arm for her, she took it as she softly smiled at him. He looked like he was trying not to cry, “ready?”

“Let’s go,” she whispered.

Seeing Spencer at the end of the aisle was like a dream. She began to walk towards him, every step closer made her heartbeat louder and louder in her chest. Before she knew it she was standing in front of him, her dad giving her a soft kiss on the cheek before handing her over to Spencer.

The idea of giving her away was weird. He wasn’t giving her to him, he was simply helping her reach him. And he always had been.

Spencer’s hand was soft in hers and they stepped towards Emily together.

The music stopped then, causing them to turn to each other and smile. It was time.

It felt more like time stopped, however, getting a sort of tunnel vision for each other as the rest of the world faded away.

“Welcome everyone, you can take a seat,” Emily cut into the moment. “A few weeks ago Spencer asked me if I’d marry him off to his best friend, I of course said yes because who can say no to that face?”

Everyone laughed as Spencer blushed. “Spencer is the smartest man to work in the FBI, we’re not afraid to admit that. From the day I met him, he was nothing but informative and kind, as well as shy and personal. It took a while to learn anything about him, but once you get to know him he’s like an open book. And it’s a good story.”

“Like most good fairy tales, it’s a story told in two parts. Starting with a meet-cute of cosmic proportions, a plotline that would make any other ’right for each other at the wrong time,’ story run for the hills,” Emily exaggerated.

“And finally, a reunion,” her voice was soft then. “I’ll never forget the day Spencer held the door open for Y/N, she walked in with a smile on her face that was almost as big as Spencers. He introduced us to a childhood friend that day, not realizing she would become part of our family.”

Y/N felt herself getting a little choked up, seeing Penelope and JJ wiping their tears just off to the side.

“It’s a story best told in the first person,” Emily laughed at her own joke. “So, without further ado, ladies first,” she instructed, stepping away from the altar to keep the focus on them.

“Well?” Y/N shook her head at him, motioning with her hand for him to start speaking. Making everyone laugh once again. Spencer’s smile was adorable as he giggled.

“Would you say— hypothetically, of course, that soulmates are real, Doctor Reid?” She questioned him softly.

He nodded, “I would.”

“Good,” she smiled. “Because I think you’re mine. And I think I’ve known that for a very long time. There was something about you, that first day I saw you. You weren’t shoving dirt up your nose or pulling on my hair. You were reading a book, I believe it was Matilda, you were all by yourself and you looked sad.”

“Me, being me,” she laughed to herself, “I marched over to you and I asked if you wanted to play in the sandbox with me. One small gesture changed the entire course of my life, you became a friend and then a stranger again in the blink of an eye. I know what it’s like to know of you and not be in your presence and it’s the worst.”

She didn’t want to cry, but she knew she was about to. “I know you’re my soulmate because my soul physically aches when you’re not around. Like magnets, I’m pulled towards you and I’m willing to crush anything that gets in the way. You and I were once the same cosmic rock just floating through space, separated for millions of years until the time was right.”

“I found you right when I needed you,” she wiped a tear off her cheek quickly. “When we needed each other. And I’m never going to let you go.”

She turned towards Emily, grabbing a ring from her. “With this ring, you’re tied to me for eternity now, the way things always should have been.”

“I love you,” Spencer whispered, wiping his own tears before holding her hands again.

“Your turn, pretty boy,” she teased him one last time, laughing to try and stop the tears.

“Most of you know the story,” Spencer began his speech. Staring into Y/N’s eyes, trying to forget there was an audience.

“We met in kindergarten, she was wearing a sundress with green and pink flowers, much like today. You had bangs back then and a cute pink bow in your hair. And you were as stubborn then as you are now,” he smiled. “Mrs. Richardson had told me twice that we weren’t allowed to put water in the sandbox, no matter how important it was to the construction of my model pyramids. That’s why I was reading my book. You went to your backpack, grabbed a water bottle, and poured it right into the sand without thinking twice about the consequences.

“I didn’t really see you again until I was 13, I sat on that swing with my copy of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens while you sat in your window way up there.” He pointed at her house, past the swing set. “I’ll never know what you were reading or what you were thinking, but I have the exact moment I saw you ingrained in my memory,” Spencer’s words were soft as his thumbs ran over her hands.

“Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since – on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets.” Spencer recited from memory.

“You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or more impossible to displace with your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Y/N, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation I associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you,” Spencer’s voice trailed off to a whisper as he reached the end.

“I read that quote moments before seeing you again, and part of me knew the universe had greater plans for us. And I knew, Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces – and as it gets older and stronger, it will tear deeper – love her, love her, love her!”

“With this ring,” Spencer finally added. Lifting the last ring from Derek’s extended hand, placing it on Y/N’s ring finger where it belonged. “I vow to love you till my very last moments, and if heaven is real I’ll be waiting for your loving embrace.”

She wiped her tears quickly, looking up as she tried to stop her mascara from smudging. “You’re a dick sometimes,” she started to laugh before hearing the crowd do the same.

“You love me,” he teased her.

“I do,” she smiled, pulling him in and kissing him hard on the lips. Getting lost in his embrace as the world around them stopped.

—

Having every single person that she loved mingle around her parent’s backyard felt a little surreal. Her father and Rossi were smoking cigars together on the desk, Levi and Will were discussing training stories while Chloe and Henry chased each other around the yard.

Emily and Noelle were slowly dancing in their own little world to the music that played, not too far from Haley and Arron who had the same idea. Jack was talking to Derek, sharing stories about their favourite superhero.

Diana and Debbie were going around making sure everyone had a drink or a snack, discussing their children and showing off to everyone that was there. It was a lot to take in, but she wouldn’t change it for the world. This was the most perfect little wedding she could have ever asked for.

Spencer never left her side, holding her hand where ever she went for the majority of the night. Knowing she hated being the centre of anyone else attention, calming her down from all the eyes that were on her.

“Do you want to go to the swing?” He whispered in her ear when they were finally alone.

“Please,” she looked up at him with pleading eyes. Wanting to just be alone with him for a while.

She snuck out of the yard and across the street, Y/N sat down on the swing for the first time in years, her big belly thanking her for the relief. Spencer pushed her lightly on the swing, helping her swing in the late-night spring breeze in rural Nevada.

The light in her bedroom was still on, illuminating the empty room she called hers for the majority of her life. Still unable to process the fact that she did it, she married Spencer. She made a life in his orbit, she was happy and loved and making a family with the man of her dreams.

This was the best revenge she could have ever gotten on any childhood bully or predator in her life. Pure happiness, that no one could take from her. Knowing she did this on her own, meeting Spencer out of the blue and building a life of joy and peace was so unbelievably wonderful.

“Tell me what you’re thinking about,” Spencer asked softly as he continued to push her on the swing.

“I’m just amazed that I did it,” she said softly.

“Did what?”

“all this,” she waved her arm out in front of her. “I grew up, I made friends and a family and found the love of my life even after believing for so long that I never would.”

“the universe had better plans for you than you thought,” She could hear the smile on Spencer’s face as he spoke. “You’re so deserving of the world and then some, you’re worth the universe to me. Brighter than any star in the sky, more powerful than the big-bang.”

She dragged her feet along the sand, stopping the swing abruptly before turning around to see Spencer. His eyes glistened in the moonlight or the streetlight. Either way, his brown eyes were glowing as she looked up at him softly.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“For what?”

She wrapped her arms around him as best as she could, pressing her cheek against his chest softly. “For showing me that love is real.”

“Being able to love you has been the best part of my life.”

She pulled him into another kiss, holding his face softly as she peppered kisses to his lips over and over. “You get me forever.”

“And then some.”

“Hypothetically,” she teased him lightly. “Anything is possible when the two of us get together.”

“I love you,” was all he could say before kissing her again.

They could hear the music travelling across the street for the yard, she wrapped her arms around him and swayed to the beat. Taking a moment completely alone with him to just appreciate him. To hold him close, hear his heartbeat through his suit jacket and just take it all in.

The rest of her life started at that moment, the birth of a new future. One with endless possibilities, endless happiness, and the most love in the whole world.

Soulmates, 500 years in the making.

Placing 500 more years of possibilities in the hands of Fate, who cradled them in her loving embrace. Making a future for them unlike any she’s made before.

Epilogue

2020

The birds chirping used to make her wake up with a smile, now it made her panic a little. She was so overly used to being woken up to a baby crying, a kid with a tummy ache, or the sound of fighting coming from the cribs in the twin’s room.

When it was quiet she worried, opening her eyes and looking around to see all 4 of her children cuddled up around her and Spencer. Completely asleep, and absolutely adorable.

Matthews’s face was beside hers on the pillow. His long hair falling over his face, just like his fathers used to all those years ago. She kissed her baby on the forehead, unable to fully understand that he was 10 now.

The twins were in the middle, Harper and Derek were attached at the hip all day long. Sleeping basically on top of each other, it was the only way they were peaceful. Since being squished together in the womb, they’ve become best friends and each other’s comfort person over the last 6 years.

Alice on the other hand was a daddy’s girl. Probably because she got the most time with him, 2 and a half years’ worth of all Spencer’s love and affection.

Spencer had quit the BAU when they got pregnant with their last baby, deciding he wanted to be with his kids full time. He wanted to be more present, to make more memories and just be a good dad.

Every morning Alice would find her way into the bed, she’d do whatever it took to get between Y/N and Spencer, cuddling into her father’s arms and going back to sleep. Almost every time, she would push her mom’s arms away, waking Y/N up in the process just to smirk at her as if to say; “haha my turn.”

She loved her little family. And they loved her too, she had been out of town for a week on a really bad case that required all hands on deck. They called her every day, begging her to come home soon, breaking her heart. So it wasn’t a surprise to see all of them snuggled in, taking in all the time with her that they could.

Matthews’s eyes fluttered as he woke up, his big beautiful brown eyes looking at her softly. “Mom,” he said softly with a smile before wrapping his arms around her neck and snuggling into her. “I missed you.”

“I missed you, Mr. Magoo,” she whispered into his hair, holding him close. He still smelled like her little baby, only bigger as he rested against her.

“Are we still going to Uncle Dave’s tonight?” He asked as he settled against her, wanting her to run her fingers through his hair. It calmed him as it did for Spencer, soothing his mind as it ran a million miles a minute.

“I think so,” she replied, picking him up softly and laying on her back more. “I think all your cousins are going to be there too.”

“Even Jack?” He asked, sitting up with wonder in his eyes. Jack was 15 now, and just the coolest dude in Matthews’s life. Much like how Spencer looked up to Hotch in the beginning.

“Even Jack!” She whispered with enthusiasm, trying to keep the others asleep but it was too late.

“Mommy!” Harper cried, pushing Derek away from her as she leaped into her mother’s arms.

“Hi sweetheart,” she couldn’t stop herself from laughing as she got smothered in hugs from the twins.

Spencer looked over at her then. Alice was snuggled into his neck, one hand on his shoulder, the other in his hair. She had always played with his hair every chance she could get. Especially whenever he held her or gave her a ride on his shoulders as they walked through the park.

“Hi,” Spencer smiled.

There he was, the love of her life. His smile made her feel at home, the love between them only growing every morning when they laid eyes on each other.

“Are you going to say hi to mommy?” Spencer asked Alice, rubbing her back softly.

She raised her hand to wave softly before dropping it back onto Spencer’s head with a smack, “ow?” He laughed lightly, making her bounce on his chest and laugh in response.

She was always quiet in the morning, leaving all the talking to her siblings. She was the calmest of them all, she was also the easiest of the 4 of them. She didn’t cry unless she was desperate for food or attention, she slept through the nights and was just all around not fussy at all. A literal blessing to their lives.

The twins were a lot, they knew they would be. She doesn’t miss the days and nights of them taking turns screaming. And she definitely doesn’t miss the ache of her body as two babies sucked her dry for almost 6 months. Breastfeeding kicked her ass the most, eventually making her lose too much weight and faint from low blood pressure, it sucked.

The outcome was beyond worth it. Derek and Harper were the craziest, funniest, loudest 6-year-olds in the whole world. If they weren’t writing a show, pretending to direct a spooky movie or pulling pranks on their father, they were planning to.

They had a specific dynamic, Harper was the planner and Derek was the do-er. Harper would come up with the sneakiest, worst ideas a child could have and somehow always managed to convince Derek to do it for her. A modern-day Jekyll and Hyde terrorized her home.

But Matthew, He was the sweetest. Being a single child till the age of 4 meant he was around Spencer and Y/N all the time, just the three of them. He’s shy but outgoing, he speaks his mind and he isn’t afraid to share his thoughts and feelings. He’s the best part of both of them but with all the confidence to follow his dreams. He was handsome and smart, he was sweet and kind, he was her baby. Forever and always, no matter how big he got.

He’s smart like Spencer, but not jumping through elementary school as fast. They agreed to let him decide when he turned 14. He deserved the chance to grow up with his own age group, to make friends and memories that were good and happy, to build the confidence to stand up for himself and others before he finished school. He didn’t mind it, he enjoyed helping other students when he finished his work early and asking for extra credit assignments.

And he liked being in class with Roz LaMontagne. They were smitten with each other from day one, always holding hands and playing nicely. JJ and Y/N always felt bad peeling them apart from each other at the end of a playdate, they were best friends.

It was like Roz had 2 older brothers with Henry and Matt, the 3 of them being so close in age they were often mistaken for triplets, with JJ and Y/N being their lesbian moms. It was a ruse that came in handy when they saw men checking them out, or when they wanted a family discount at the zoo.

Her life felt perfect, it was far from it in reality but she was happy with that. She worked long hours, her kids missed her every day, she didn’t see Spencer as often as she’d like and she was always tired. But that was what it took, she would work herself to the bone in an instant if it meant that she could come home and be snuggled like this every time.

“How was your week?” She asked Harper, brushing her strawberry blond hair behind her ear as she cuddled into her other side. Now having 3 children laying on top of her.

“Dad took us to the air and space museum,” Derek answered for her.

“No way!” Y/N enthused. “You need to tell me everything you learned!”

“The Museum is the largest of the Smithsonian's 19 museums and its Center for Earth and Planetary studies is one of the Institution's nine research centres. More than eight million people a year visit the Museum's two locations, making it one of the most visited museums in the country,” Matthew explained, remembering the sign at the entrance from memory.

“Wow, what was everyone’s favourite part? Maybe we can go again soon and you can all show me?” She suggested, riling them all up till they were bouncing on the mattress and screaming suggestions back and forth.

“Okay, okay,” Y/N settled them down. Watching them all sit-down and smile as they tried to stop laugh and listen. “Why don’t we go get breakfast and spend the morning together before we get ready to go to Aunt Penny’s party tonight okay?”

“I thought it was Uncle Dave's party?” Derek asked.

“It’s at his house but you know how aunt penny plans,” Y/N smiled at him. “How about you all go get dressed and pick something nice to wear while I talk to your dad for a bit?”

“Anything I want to wear?” Harper questioned her, very serious.

Y/N laughed, shaking her head, “something nice, but yes your choice.”

“Yes!” Harper screamed, hopping off the bed making the whole room shake as she ran down the hall. The sound of her bare feet slapping the hardwood carrying through the hallway in an echo.

“Matty, I’ll dress Alice, can you just watch her for a minute?” Spencer asked as he placed Alice in the middle of the bed.

“Sure,” Matthew smiled. “Come on Ali, I’ll read you a book?”

She put her arms out for her brother to carry her, and soon enough it was just Spencer and Y/N all alone again. Spencer and her both falling back against the pillows and sighing in the quiet.

Spencer pulled her into a hug, wrapping himself around her as he kissed her cheek, “I missed you so much, I hate when you’re gone.”

“That’s why I wanted to talk to you,” she said softly. “I got a job offer last night, and I think I’m going to take it.”

“What is it?”

“VICAP and the BAU are merging, even more, I’ve been asked to be the Chief of VICAP to personally overview the program and pass the information along to Prentiss,” She explained. “It would be a 9-5 thing, 5 days a week. I’d be home for dinner and all weekend long. We could have another baby or go on vacation? You know the possibilities are endless.”

Spencer kissed her again, “you’d be able to help people and be home all the time.”

“Exactly,” she smiled into his embrace. “I told them I’d let them know later today, they want me to start next month.”

“Follow your gut,” Spencer whispered, happy at the decision she was making either way.

“My gut is currently saying ‘feeeeed meeee’, so let’s get going!” She cheered as she tried to escape from his embrace.

He just held on tighter, tickling her stomach and kissing her neck, “help!” She cried, joking obviously and the kids knew that. Sure enough, 4 pairs of feet came running back into their room, dog piling them.

“I said help! Not suffocate me?!” She teased them as Spencer let her go, each taking a child and tickling them instead. Everyone was screaming again, giggling from deep in their stomach, feeling sick from how happy they were.

She loved every moment of it.

—

After 10 years, the BAU had gone through a lot of changes. Everyone seemed to come and go at least once, some leaving for good when their families started. But there were a lot of new faces now, once someone was on the team they were family.

It was a rare occasion for everyone to get together, especially now that almost everyone had kids. Spencer and Y/N went from being the 2nd set of parents to aunty and uncle to 8 kids in 10 years.

That meant that there were currently 12 screaming kids terrorizing Rossi’s beautiful backyard as the adults sat around the fire. “Please tell me no one here has a baby announcement to make, I don’t think I can handle a thirteenth,” Rossi complained, grey hair making him look more like papa Rossi than uncle Dave now.

“No,” everyone said in unison, laughing at the abundantly clear meaning. They were all too tired to do it all again.

“Like Spencer’s mom said, why have another when you can stop at perfection?” Emily joked as she leaned into Noelle’s embrace. “PJ is the best little guy in the world.”

“Spencer makes some great kids,” Y/N laughed. Remembering that time Emily nervously asked them if Spencer would be the donor for her child. Wanting her kid to be born with the best DNA she could think of.

“That he does,” Noelle smiled, looking into the yard to see PJ, Michael and Hank roughhousing like they always were.

They all had kids fairly close together, always making sure each new member of the BAU's gifted children program had friends who were more like family in their lives. Their small chosen family expanded not only in size but with the amount of love they shared for each other.

Henry was 12 now, Jack 15. They had always gotten along well together, being a little more on the nerdy side. They welcomed Matthew into their little group with open arms, as well as Roz.

Hotch ended up becoming Section Chief, taking a desk job so that he could spend more time with his family. They welcomed Jessie 6 years ago, right around the time Y/N had the twins. She was a spitting image of Haley with all the stern seriousness of Hotch. Seeing her and Harper try and work together was always funny. Harper and Derek were always trying to start shit somewhere, while Jessie ran to Y/N to tattle on them. It was the funniest dynamic out of all the age groups, and it was only going to get worse as they grew up.

“I don’t know,” Y/N sighed, looking at her kids as they all smiled and laughed. The joy they brought her was unimaginable, “I think 5 would be interesting.”

“You’re a psycho, and I should know, I’m an expert,” JJ just shook her head, blinking at the craziness. “I can barely handle 3.”

“Alice was so easy though,” she whined. “All of them were good, I miss having a baby who wanted to cuddle with me. It’s not fair Spencer gets all the attention now.”

“You could always quit, they’d love that,” he teased her softly, not wanting to wake Alice as she slept on him, tired from playing with everyone during the afternoon.

“My new position is going to be better for us,” she smirked.

“What position?” Penelope yelled at her.

“I’m going to be the VICAP unit chief,” she smiled, watching them all light up as they congratulated her. Starling the sleeping Alice on Spencer’s chest.

“I think I’ve done enough fieldwork, I’d like to cook more dinners and read more bedtime stories now,” she smiled. “I never thought I’d say that.”

“I don’t think any of us did,” Haley added. “I never expected Aaron to slow down, but when he did I think it was the best thing he chose to do. Jack and Jessie love having him around all the time.”

“To 10 plus years on the job, 10 years of friendship and the 12 new lives we brought into this world,” Y/N said as she lifted her can of ginger-ale, everyone following with their own drinks.

“To family,” Prentiss added.

“To family,” they all repeated.

Taking a sip before smiling at each other, everything ended up okay. It was more than they ever expected, and everything they hoped for.

—

The kids all fell asleep on the ride home. Spencer and Y/N each taking one of the twins upstairs first, placing them in their beds softly before returning to the garage for the others. Finding Matthew trying to carefully bring Alice inside to help his parents.

“Hey Matty it’s okay,” Spencer whispered, placing a hand on his back. “you go inside with your mom and I’ll take care of this.”

“Okay,” he replied, extremely tired as his eyelids drooped.

Y/N wrapped her arm around his shoulders, he was almost as tall as her already and she wasn’t ready for that. “Come on my baby,” she whispered as she led him into the house and up the stairs.

She helped him change into a pair of pyjamas before helping him into his bed, covering him in his adorable planet-covered sheets. She tucked him in nice a snug before sitting on the edge, looking down at him as he closed his eyes and settled in.

She brushed his brown curls off his face, making way for the kiss she was about to leave on his forehead. “Goodnight my Matty Magoo, I love you to the moon and back.”

“I love you to the edge of the milky way,” he replied with a small smile. “I’m excited for you to be home more. Dad worries about you and it makes him sad, I like seeing you both happy together.” He rambled all his thoughts out at night just like Spencer did.

She kissed his head softly, holding his cheeks in her hand as she looked into his beautiful brown eyes. “You are so sweet, have a good sleep and I will see you tomorrow. I love you.” She told him again, and she’d tell him a million more times if she could.

“I love you, too, mom,” he smiled one last time before closing his eyes.

She shut off his lamp, closing his door on the way out.

She stood in the hallway then, a hand on her heart as she thought about just how much she loved him. JJ wasn’t kidding when she said you grow a love so big you’d kill for them.

Back in the twin’s room, she made sure they were comfortable for the night, taking Harper out of the crazy dress and pants she picked out for the day. Tucking both of them into their little beds, kissing their heads before turning on their nightlight. They didn’t like the dark, and they liked to keep their door open a little so buddy could sneak in.

In her own room, she found Spencer in bed, shirtless with a book. He got sexier as he got older, it was impossible and yet it happened. Every year he looked different, in a wonderful way.

His hair was fluffy, his tummy was fuller— a dad bod as Penelope would call it. He wore glasses all the time now, having a hard time reading without them. It made him incredibly hot.

She changed into a cute pyjama set, satin shorts and a spaghetti strap top, wanting to get his attention away from whatever book he found this time.

She could feel his eyes on her as she changed, not wanting to look at him and make him stop.

He put his book down when she got in beside him, still on the right side after all these years. “What?” She asked him as he kept staring at her.

“Were you serious?”

“Yes I do think you’re sexy, I didn’t think you could read minds too?” She teased him.

“Funny,” he smiled at her. “Do you want another baby?”

She shrugged, “we could Russian roulette this and just see if it happens?”

“Seriously?” His voice dropped, softer than normal. “Because I would have 16 more kids with you if you wanted. They’re all so amazing, every time.”

“I know,” she felt her heart melt. “Matthew said you get sad when I’m not here, he worries for you.”

“All week, Harper wore her regular outfits because she likes making you laugh with her silly ones,” Spencer told her. They liked to share secrets about their kids at night. Basically profiling them.

“I love them,” her heart felt like it was going to burst.

“Come here,” Spencer requested, waiting for her to sit on his hips and look down into his eyes like she always did. She brushed the hair off his face, holding his cheeks in her hands.

His eyes are so much like Matthews, but it was Alice who looked the most like him. She had his nose, his chin, she was tall and skinny and just the most adorable copy of him. Every feature on him was in one of their kids, he saw the same thing in her.

“Are you sure?” She asked him softly.

“The only thing in the whole world that I know for certain is that I love you and this family. Even gravity is simply a hypothetical, but you and me… I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” his words soft and his expression softer.

She kissed him, pressing her lips against his for the first time in a while. It always felt like coming home, this was where she was meant to be.

When she pulled back all she wanted to do was look at him for a minute, to imagine what new little face the two of them could make together. All 4 of their children were so perfect, she couldn’t imagine a 5th possibility.

“Put a baby in me,” She whispered.

She didn’t have to tell him twice, he reached over to the night table to turn off the light before kissing her neck softly. His big, warm hands wrapped around her back, pulling her in closer to him.

He was so much different now from the first time they did this. Confident, stronger, older, but he was still her soft boy. He held her with care, kissed her like she was made out of glass. The contrast of his actions and the feeling of his rough hands on her body made her feel like she was on fire.

He pushed the straps of her shirt off her shoulders, dipping her back a little so he could kiss her cheek. He pushed her shirt down, freeing one of her breasts, holding it softly in his hands before kissing the newly exposed skin.

His tongue swiped across her nipple, making her gasp and grip his arm as she rutted into the feeling. He cradled her head in his hands, laying her back with her head now at the foot of the bed.

Still, between her legs, he pulled the satin shorts down slowly to see she never wore any underwear under them. He smirked, running his finger softly over her vagina, watching in awe as she spread her legs wider for him.

She could see how hard he was, his erection making a tent in his boxers as he teased her softly. “Still so perfect,” he praised her. “Look how tight you are, sucking my finger inside that tight heat.”

She tightened around him on purpose then, feeling his finger slip in even more. “Fuck,” he gasped. Moving down more to place a kiss on her clit.

Her breathing picked up then, even after 11 years of sex with this man, the thought of his tongue on her still made her shiver. He was just that good, always getting better every time he dove face-first into her.

Her back arched the second his tongue connected with her clit. Pushing herself into his tongue more and more as he explored her. Two fingers were inside of her now, Spencer’s mouth kissing and sucking and licking every single inch of her pussy as she quietly gasped into the darkness.

She wanted to scream for more, she always did, but she couldn’t anymore. There were 4 sets of ears just down the hall trying to have a peaceful night’s sleep, she had to remind herself of that every time.

“Fuck, Spencer,” she whispered, biting her lip so nothing else slipped out.

“What?” He whispered against her skin, kissing her groin and lower tummy.

“Please,” she begged softly, sitting up and climbing onto his lap once more. “Daddy?”

It had been years since she said that to him, not able to utter the words once he actually became a father. It lit a fire in him, pulling her in closer before he ripped the shirt off her body.

He held her against him, kissing her neck as he basically growled at the feeling. Becoming almost feral with the thought of fucking her. She was in love with the feeling, when he got rough with her it was the best.

She enjoyed every second of it, knowing she’d wake up in the morning with beard burn on her neck and between her thighs, not giving a single fuck. It was so worth it, the tickle of his facial hair on her skin beside his mouth, she craved it.

“I need you out of those boxers, sir,” she panted, holding his hair as he continued to kiss her neck.

He pulled off her, looking at her in the darkness with lust-filled eyes. “Lay back,” he instructed her.

She always listened, laying back against the pillows as he freed himself from the confines of his underwear. Crawling on top of her and hovering slightly as he looked down at her. He brushed her hair off her face, kissing her lips lightly before smiling.

“Tell me again what you want?”

She smirked, “I want you to put a baby in me, fill me up. Let me make you a daddy again?”

The noise that left his throat was enough to make her clit twitch again, it was deep and guttural and beyond sexy. He became an animal on nights like this.

She spread her legs again, wrapping her knees around him as he pulled him in against her body. “Fuck me, Spencer.”

He lined himself up with her quickly, dragging the head of his cock through her folds a few times before he began to push in. Little by little, achingly slow. Teasing her, knowing just how badly she wanted him to pound into her.

“Yes,” she sighed as he bottomed out, dropping her head back against the pillow softly.

Her hands roamed his back, waiting for him to start to move again. Digging her nails in when he finally did, pulling out slowly before pushing back in with effort.

“Ah,” she moaned softly, covering her own mouth as he started to move faster.

“Shhh,” he reminded her, kissing her neck again as he found his rhythm.

“Shut up and fuck me then,” she sounded desperate. “Please,” she added. Not wanting him to stop out of spite.

“Shut up and take it,” he ordered, placing his own hand over her mouth as he fucked her harder.

She couldn’t believe it, he was holding one hand over her mouth while his other reached for her clit, making her jolt forward at the contact. It was everything she wanted, it was rough and powerful and just the best reminder that she belonged to him.

Spencer was hers, she was his, they created this entire world together. She felt so overwhelmed, she wasn’t aware that she was crying at the pleasure till Spencer moved his hand off her mouth to wipe off a tear.

“Keep going,” she encouraged him. “Please, please.”

“Shhh,” he soothed her, “I’m going to make you feel so good bunny, you’re going to be so full, so beautiful carrying another one of our babies.”

That did it for her, she tilted her head back as she arched her back. Pulling Spencer’s fingers into her mouth so that she wouldn’t moan too loud as she came on his cock.

Spencer shuttered at the feeling, fucking into her with vigour as he tried to hold in his own moans. Sounding more like a whimper when he finally came, spilling into her with the force of a Mack truck.

He dropped against her body then, breathing deep into her neck. She wrapped her legs around him tightly, holding him inside of her so nothing slipped out. “Fuck.”

“I love you,” Spencer breathed against her skin.

She ran her fingers through his hair softly before kissing his forehead. “I love you more.”

They stayed like that for a while, only pulling apart finally to get cleaned up. Spencer turned back on the light, helping her to the bathroom quietly before stripping the sheets off the bed.

She returned to a freshly made bed and a dressed Spencer waiting for her. She put her shorts and a t-shirt back on, slipping into bed and cuddling into him once more. Having to look presentable for when the kids eventually came running into their room at 7 am.

She sighed into his embrace, smiling softly against his skin. “What was that Buddha quote you told me all those years ago?”

“When you meet your soulmate, remember that the act to bring you together was 500 years in the making. So always appreciate and be kind to each other,” Spencer replied softly.

“Goodnight, Spence,” she kissed his jaw softly as she snuggled in closer.

“Goodnight, bunny.”

the end

#hypothetically #spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid smut

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journalxxx · 3 years

Text

By Hook or by Crook (5)

“What do you make of all this?” Toshinori asked, when they were finally alone. They’d momentarily parked the kid in the hallway with a cup of tea while the hero had followed Tsukauchi in his office as he took care of the last bureaucratic dregs of the questioning.

“As I see it, there are two major possibilities we ought to consider.” Tsukauchi said without taking his eyes off the monitor of his computer. “The first is that Midoriya’s quirk is just a mutation, and he is in no way related to All For One. His father is likely a government official whose position grants him knowledge of enough confidential files to make him fear negative repercussions in case his son’s quirk was publicly known, and has therefore enforced silence on the matter. We aren’t looking at any outstanding crimes here, although this man isn’t going to win any Parent of the Year awards any time soon.”

Toshinori grimaced. Wouldn’t that be nice? “And what are the odds of this being our case?”

“I wouldn’t bet my next paycheck on it, for sure.” Tsukauchi typed something on the keyboard, and checked his phone at the same time, before sighing and leaning back in his chair. “The other possibility is that Midoriya is indeed related to All For One, maybe even his son. He’s been fostered to a trusted associate of his and kept in the dark about everything.”

That option could be more statistically or genetically likely, but it still didn’t sit right with Toshinori. “That doesn’t sound like something All For One would do though. Why not raise him as a successor, or even just an underling? Surely another All For One wielder would have made for an important asset to his schemes.”

“You forget that Midoriya’s quirk manifested only two years ago. It is possible that All For One may have planned to do so, but lost interest when the child was deemed quirkless.” Tsukauchi scratched his head pensively. “As for why he didn’t keep the kid close since his birth… we can only assume it was out of caution. Fourteen years ago you had already put a significant dent in All For One’s syndicate and influence. Maybe he was already taking precautions against his own downfall, and didn’t want his potential successor to be involved in case things took a turn for the worse too quickly.”

“... I guess that makes sense.” Toshinori nodded. As per habit, he sent a quiet thanks to his lucky star for accidentally baring his secret to a damnably honest and capable member of the force such as Tsukauchi, God knew Toshinori himself wasn’t exactly cut out for fine deductive work. “In this case, the boy’s father…”

“...Is a former subordinate of All For One’s currently employed by the government, yes. Not a pleasant scenario to work with.” Tsukauchi waited for the printer to regurgitate a disproportionate stack of documents that made Toshinori instinctively recoil. The detective flipped through the paperwork quickly before sprinkling his signature on just about every odd sheet. “Regardless of which of the two hypotheses is true, I definitely want to look into this Hisashi Midoriya. He is by far the most suspicious aspect of the boy’s account.”

“Yeah. He doesn’t visit his family for a decade and a half, he doesn’t talk about his job, he doesn’t follow basic legal procedures, and you can tell he had more of an active role in encouraging Midoriya to hide the quirk than the kid lets on... It doesn’t exactly paint a reassuring picture.” Toshinori sighed. “This isn’t going to be easy for the boy…”

“It never is, when a family member is involved in criminal activities. But the fact that their relationship seems rather distant may make things a little less traumatic for him.” Tsukauchi checked his watch as he tidied up some stationery and turned off his computer. “Well, I guess I’m not too unforgivably late for my other meeting since we don’t have to question Mrs. Midoriya.”

“...Sorry about that. And for springing this on you all of a sudden.” Toshinori said with an apologetic grimace and his utmost sincerity. “You’re a saint.”

Tsukauchi’s small smile implied that he was well aware of the fact. “I’ll drive Midoriya home while I’m on my way to the city hall. Do you need a lift? Or do you want me to let you on the rooftop for a smoke?” That bit of code speak would never not be tragically ironic, Toshinori thought.

“No, I’ve already finished my shift for the day.” All three, scant, scattered hours of it. Japan’s finest, most dependable hero, ladies and gentlemen.

“Then thank you for your hard work.” His friend gave him a quick look and a brief, firm squeeze to his shoulder before heading to the door. No pity, no unrequested sympathy, no disingenuous praise, just straightforward respect and understanding. He really was one of a kind.

Midoriya was exactly where they’d left him, busy fiddling with his phone. He perked up when he saw them return. “Uh, my mother just texted me back. She says she’ll be home in about an hour. If you still want to talk to her.”

Tsukauchi hesitated. “It’s a little too late for me, I’m afraid. I’m expected somewhere else, but…”

“I can wait.“ Toshinori immediately volunteered. “It won’t be as thorough or official as if you interviewed her yourself, but if it can lighten your workload just a little…”

“...Well, I don’t see why not. Hop in the car with us then.”

The return trip was silent. Toshinori glanced at Midoriya a couple of times from the rearview mirror, and he always caught him in an ill-concealed state of unrest. Fidgeting with his phone, picking at the seatbelt, gazing nervously out of both car windows. Toshinori didn’t like that. Why all that agitation, now that the worst of the ordeal was supposedly over?

The boy eventually locked eyes with him. “...Oh. Uhm.”

“Something on your mind?” Toshinori asked.

“Uh, well, I was wondering…” His gaze dropped to his knees. “Are you going to tell my mother about my quirk?”

“I’m afraid so. She is bound to find out anyway, eventually. The police will issue an update on your quirk registration, as per the norm in such cases.”

“...Ah.” Oh boy, now he looked like a kicked puppy. That was just depressing.

“I don’t necessarily have to be the one to break the news to her though. If it makes you feel any better, you can tell her about the incident in your own words.” Toshinori offered, hoping to soften the blow.

“I… I think I would prefer that. Thank you.” The boy quietly acquiesced.

Tsukauchi shot Toshinori a pointed look. All right, maybe that wasn’t the most proper way to go about it, maybe standard procedure demanded the officer in charge to keep mother and son separate during the questioning and explain things personally in the most objective possible terms. But Toshinori wasn’t an officer, he was a washed-up alter-ego of the Symbol of Peace acting in semi-official consulting capacity, and he’d be damned if he didn’t try to make things a little less humiliating for the forlorn child in the back. He condensed that whole argument into a meaningful glance of his own, that Tsukauchi couldn’t hold for more than two seconds lest he drove them all straight into the back of a truck. Toshinori took that as unspoken permission to proceed as he saw fit.

“I’ll be leaving this in your capable hands then.” Tsukauchi said as the two stepped out of the car. The man had a veritable talent for conveying irony while maintaining the straightest of faces and the driest of tones.

“Your trust is deeply appreciated. Drive safely!” Toshinori shut the door of the car decisively and waved him off with a dazzling smile.

“Uhm. Okay.” Midoriya said, his eyes darting between the hero and the speeding car with obvious perplexity. “Mom won’t be here for at least another forty minutes. I can fetch that photo you wanted in the meantime. I think I know where it is… probably...”

“I’ll take you up on that, thank you.” Toshinori followed him across the parking lot and up the stairs of the apartment complex. The boy’s eagerness to please was a sight for sore eyes in this cold, self-serving world. “You really did something commendable today, you know? Not many people would be so ready to relieve the pain of those who hurt them. That villain owes you more than he’ll ever know.”

“Oh…” The boy fiddled with his keys as a light redness tinged his cheeks. “It’s nothing, really. It isn’t my place to judge anyone... let alone steal from them. I just hope he’ll get better soon.”

“I’ll keep you up to date on his condition, if you want.”

“Oh, you don’t need to! It’s fine!” Midoriya’s instinctual politeness clashed against Toshinori’s no-nonsense availability. It was a fierce battle, but one didn’t become the number one hero without developing a certain skill in staring people into reasonableness. Midoriya surrendered with a small smile. “...I-It would put my mind at ease though.”

“Then I shall.” Toshinori claimed with finality. “Honestly, I wish I could have done more today for you and Tsukauchi. You two took care of all the heavy lifting and data collecting while I just stood around doing nothing the whole time.”

“You did, didn't you…?” Toshinori’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Well, he hadn’t been expecting that candid a confirmation of his uselessness. Midoriya flinched and started flailing about in obvious distress as soon as he realized he’d voiced that thought aloud. “N-No! I mean- I don’t mean that you were- What I’m saying is that you didn’t really need to come. But you did anyway! F-For my sake, I get that. Because you promised you’d help me out, even if you surely have better things to do with your time, and… I truly appreciate it. Really.”

Toshinori laughed softly. Yes, ‘truly appreciative’ was indeed the boy’s default mood whenever he was graced with the barest amount of consideration, as far as the hero had witnessed in their short acquaintance. He didn’t think it was some sort of hero-worship-related response either, the kid just seemed that sensitive to it. “Don’t worry about it. It’s part of the job.”

“Is it?” Midoriya finally opened the door and they stepped inside. He let out a small chuckle of his own as they removed their shoes. “I guess I have new insight to add to the online speculation about All Might’s decreasing workload. I guess it is to be expected if yo- if he’s taken to follow up on all his cases so thoroughly.”

Toshinori had to fight back a traitorous cough. “W-well, there is really no need for me to overexert myself nowadays as I used to do in the past.“ He started, automatically supplying his PR-certified response to any inquiry on the topic. Goodness, people really did notice, didn’t they? It was hardly a new concern, but still… “The crime rate has been decreasing steadily, and the industry is so saturated with heroes that there’s someone ready to intervene almost at any place and at any given time. And those heroes could use the money and exposure way more than me…” Toshinori trailed off as they made their way to the living room. The boy was regarding him with unnerving attention, as if memorizing his speech word for word. “There are other reasons too, of course…”

Midoriya cocked his head to the side curiously, expecting further elaboration. Then it clicked, and he fleetingly glanced at the hero from head to toe with open contrition. “O-Oh! Of course! Your… Sorry, I forgot.”

That simple sentence confused Toshinori so much that he couldn’t help but gape back. The silence grew very awkward very quickly. “...Uhm. So, that photo of yours?”

“R-Right! I’ll go look for it! Make yourself comfortable! Be right back!” The boy bolted fast enough to leave metaphorical dust clouds behind him.

Toshinori wandered to the nearest chair with small steps. He forgot. That was quite the feat, while literally standing in front of the sad, wrecked husk that Toshinori had become. Or maybe the kid hadn’t realized that his appearance was a relatively recent development. That seemed more likely. Perhaps he had interpreted his vague answer about his quirk to mean that the number one hero had always been just that, a sickly, overachieving twig in a bodysuit keeping his own skeleton in the closet for nearly forty years.

Toshinori let out a sigh. Quite the uplifting impression he was leaving with this young one.

His circling thoughts were interrupted by a yelp, and the thundering noise of some heavy objects crashing just outside the living room.

“Midoriya?” Toshinori called, jumping to his feet. The second unanswered call had him by the source of the noise in a moment.

“I’m here! I’m fine!” Midoriya’s voice finally answered, from behind a half-closed door conspicuously marked as ‘Izuku’ by a familiar blond-banged nameplate.

“What was that?”

“Just… some stuff that fell down...” Toshinori approached it and peeked inside. Even from his limited perspective, he could see the boy sitting on the floor and rubbing his forehead, next to a tipped-over chair.

“And did that stuff happen to include you?” Toshinori deadpanned, inviting himself in... and pausing on the threshold. Taking in the interior of the boy’s bedroom. Which wasn’t the priority right now. He willed himself to ignore the star-spangled elephant in the room assaulting his senses and knelt down beside Midoriya, gently peeling his hand away from the sore spot. “Are you hurt?”

“No, no, it’s just a bump.”

“You should put some ice on it.” There were no cuts or outer signs or damage, which was a good start. Toshinori’s eyes fell on the bottom half of the toppled piece of furniture beside them. “...Did you seriously try to climb on a rolling chair?”

“I do that all the time. It’s steadier than it looks!” There was no appropriate reply to such a claim, but Toshinori’s judgemental glare was enough to make the boy squirm. “I’m fine, really-”

“Ice.” He pointed sternly at the corridor. Maybe there was still a minimal chance of preventing an oversized lump on Midoriya’s forehead from outing to Tsukauchi and other responsible adults the fact the boy had nearly cracked his skull within five minutes of being left in Toshinori’s charge.

“All right. Just a second.” Toshinori kept an eye on the kid, making sure he wasn’t struggling to keep his balance, as he made his way out of the room. Room that Toshinori was now free to observe in all its embarrassing magnificence.

A soft All Might carpet. All Might-themed bedding. Walls plastered with All Might posters. All Might-patterned curtains. Shelves and shelves and shelves of All Might action figures and books.

It was always… humbling to be reminded of how much passion and care people from so many different walks of life could put in something as trivial as collecting hero merchandise - his hero merchandise, more often than not. Popularity and revenue were Toshinori’s very last priorities when it came to his job, but, despite merchandising being exactly about those, he wasn’t opposed to the practice in principle. It did help cement the reassuring image of the Symbol of Peace in the collective mind, which was definitely one of his lifetime goals. It brought a sizable influx of wealth to the agency’s treasury, which he largely redirected to charity and assorted emergency relief funds. It did seem to spark genuine joy and entertainment in both children and adults. And, when none of these arguments were enough to wash away the vague sense of guilt that came with profiting off the love and admiration of Japan’s fine citizens, Toshinori reminded himself that there were much worse, self-destructive indulgences people could waste their savings on. Alcohol. Tobacco. Drugs. Troll 2 DVDs. The like.

Midoriya reappeared nursing an ice pack against his temple. “Sorry about that. The photo should be in one of those boxes.” He gestured towards the wardrobe that sported a brown cardboard box on the top, and then towards the floor, where its twin lay sideways after a presumably rough landing. They cut through the tape of the latter and, after Midoriya emphatically assured him that he didn’t mind him browsing through his personal belongings in the slightest, Toshinori joined the kid on the carpet in their quest for the photographic Holy Grail.

“I probably slipped it inside one of these…” The boy said, pulling out small piles of notebooks and publications. Toshinori confined his perusal to dated magazines, comics and books that didn’t seem likely to invade Midoriya’s privacy. The first box yielded no result.

“Maybe it’s in that one. Let me get another chair- oh.” Toshinori only needed to raise his arms and strain slightly on his toes to comfortably reach the top of the wardrobe and retrieve the second- crap, that was heavy. How the kid planned to pull it down himself while standing on wheels was beyond him. “Thank you.”

Toshinori was sitting cross-legged and flipping through an old gossip magazine lavishing pages and pages of speculation on the meager information they had managed to scrape together on his association with Dave - ah, those were the days… - when Midoriya finally let out a triumphant Aha!

“Found it!” He regarded his prize with joy, but his expression quickly morphed into concentration and then confusion. Toshinori held out his hand expectantly, and the boy deposited the photo into it while indicating a specific spot. “It’s, uh… my father’s this one.”

Toshinori looked at the man in question.

And froze.

“He doesn’t…” He heard the boy say distantly, as if from kilometres away. “He looks… a bit different from the picture in the police file…”

Toshinori coughed. He was different, all right. Subtly, cunningly so. Both men had short, snow-white hair, both had relatively plain features and pale complexion, both had faintly-colored eyes that could pass as blue under the right light. They were similar enough that they could be mistaken for one another, when described verbally. But the man in Tsukauchi’s file was a stranger to Toshinori. The man in this photo wasn’t.

“This-” The hero managed, between small bursts of coughs that he couldn’t restrain. “This is the man that- told you to keep quiet about your quirk-”

“Y-Yes.” Midoriya was gawking at him with obvious concern, and it only got worse when the hero’s words sank in. “I-I mean, he didn’t- he just- we sort of agreed that-”

“And the-” Toshinori covered his mouth with his hand, already tasting iron on his tongue as he patted his trousers to find some tissues. “The last time you spoke to him was…?”

“A little less than a month ago.”

Something inside Toshinori just gave up on trying to hold it together. He erupted into a brutal fit, vicious enough to shake his whole body and squeeze his eyes shut. He heard the boy asking something in alarm, and he felt warm blood trickling down his chin before he finally got ahold of a handkerchief to press against his lips. He hacked and spluttered for an interminable minute, his throat and chest tight and sore from the effort. Eventually it died down, and he found himself hunched over and bracing himself against the floor, wheezing and struggling for breath as something shuffled beside him. He turned to check on the noise, and saw Midoriya tapping on his phone.

“Don’t.” Toshinori rasped, swallowing down the remaining blood coating his mouth and reaching out to gesture at him dismissively with his clean hand. “I’m fine.”

“N-no, you aren’t.” The kid looked on the verge of fainting himself. Toshinori followed his horrified gaze, only to notice he’d sprayed plenty of little crimson stains on both the photo and the carpet, not to mention his own clothes. Damn, that was a mess even by his standards. “B-But- it’s okay, I’ll call an-”

Toshinori unceremoniously plucked the phone from Midoriya’s grasp, made sure that he hadn’t dialed any number, and tossed it on his bed. No need to make the situation even more headache-inducing than it already was. “I mean it. It happens. Don’t worry.”

Toshinori cleared his throat as he contemplated the ruined piece of evidence anew. At least he hadn’t marred the spot containing ‘Hisashi Midoriya’. Despite the less than optimal angle, there could really be no doubt. There was no mistaking that face for anyone else’s, it had been seared in Toshinori’s mind by more than three decades of pain and regret.

...Shit.

Shit.

Toshinori collected the picture from the floor and stood up to drop it on the kid’s desk, where it sat innocently surrounded by dozens of pieces of licensed All Might memorabilia.

“...So this is your father, and he’s alive and well.” He stated it aloud and with scorn, because he felt it was important for the universe to hear that its sense of humor didn’t fly with everyone.

“Ehr. Yes. Do you-”

“All right. Okay. Fine.” Toshinori turned on his heels and headed for the door. “Excuse me, I have to make a phone call.”

“...To your doctor?” Midoriya asked apprehensively, visibly starting to doubt the hero’s mental as well as physical well-being.

“No.” He almost stamped a huge, bloody handprint on his slacks before remembering that he still looked like he’d just slaughtered a pig and devoured it raw. “Can I use the bathroom?”

“Second door on the left.” The boy muttered, too stunned by now to object to any of Toshinori’s tangents.

Toshinori washed his face, neck and hands, and rinsed his mouth. He decided he couldn’t bother to do anything about the state of his clothes. He took care of scrubbing the sink too once he was done, making sure he didn’t accidentally leave any red smears on it. He dried his hands and fetched his phone.

“Tsukauchi? Sorry, can you make it back to Midoriya’s house? Yes, as soon as you can. ...No, but we found that photo. You need to see it, it’s… it’s him.”

He closed the call and stared at his reflection on the mirror. His brain didn’t produce a single coherent thought. He walked back to the kid’s room.

Midoriya was peering at the picture intently, even though he hadn’t moved it from where Toshinori had left it. The man’s eyes fell on the scattered blots on the carpet. In his experience, there wasn’t much hope of removing them completely, but it seemed rude not to try, at least. “Got any cleaning supplies?”

Midoriya blinked at him owlishly. “In the bathroom. Under the sink.”

One short trip later, Toshinori was back with paper towels and rubbing alcohol. He waved the boy off when he made to kneel down beside him to help. He handed him the ice pack that lay forgotten on the floor, and the kid pressed it back on his forehead mechanically as he sat on his bed. Toshinori could benefit from only a couple of minutes of silence before Midoriya spoke.

“You know him.”

“...Yes.”

“You’re upset.”

Toshinori wondered if it showed on his face, or if it was just an educated guess based on the half-baked spontaneous hemorrhage he’d just displayed. He didn’t reply, his attention ostensibly focused on dabbing lightly at each smudge.

“Why…” The boy’s voice faltered. “W-Why is there a photo of another man in the police records?”

Toshinori couldn’t hold back a deep exhale. He wasn’t sure he was the most qualified person to have this conversation with the boy. He surely wasn’t the most eager to.

“All Might.” He felt compelled to raise his gaze. Midoriya was pale, his eyes wide and shiny with unshed tears. His expression was heartbreakingly imploring. “Please.”

He was going to find out anyway, at least the bare bones of it. Kindness was one thing, cowardice was another. Denying him an answer at this point felt more like the latter.

“I know him because he is known to the police. He’s a villain.”

“...A villain…?” The information bounced right against Midoriya’s shock. Toshinori gave him a curt nod. “No… no, that’s… not…”

Toshinori could track the gradual, painstaking process of acceptance the poor kid was going through from the aborted expressions quickly blurring into each other. Horror, fear, confusion, disbelief. Tears rolled down his cheeks, and he clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle a sob.

“A-Are you sure?”

Toshinori hesitated. Was there any other possibility they weren’t considering? “Are you absolutely certain that that’s the person you’ve been talking to?”

“I… I’ve never met him in person. B-But mom has, and she’s been talking to him too. She said it’s him.”

“...Then I’m afraid there can be no mistake.” It felt like dropping a boulder on the child’s chest, and the way Midoriya crumpled onto himself, cradling his head in both his hands, reinforced that gut-churning impression. Toshinori made no effort to conceal the sympathy in his whisper. “I’m sorry, kid.”

“H-He said…” The rest of that thought was swallowed into distraught silence.

“He told you he worked for the government?”

Midoriya took his time to answer, and he did so with a half-choked snort. “He… he never did, actually. I thought… He said things that… made me think…”

Toshinori grit his teeth. Figures. That silver-tongued demon wouldn’t spare even a child from his precious little mind games. “I can imagine.”

The silence that followed was only broken by the boy’s quiet sniffles, and it was so long that Toshinori believed the kid to have exhausted his reserve of bravery for further questions. He’d resumed his ill-concealed procrastination via blood-cleaning when the next inquiry dropped.

“What did he do?”

Oh, man. What didn’t he do? “He’s been involved in a variety of criminal activities, both directly and indirectly. He’s… quite the nasty customer.”

“Since when? How long for?” Midoriya gripped his head even more tightly, his fingers digging deep among his curls.

Toshinori had the distinct feeling that his well-meaning honesty was now trespassing into inadvertent cruelty. “We should wait for your mother before discussing this any-”

“Please.” Midoriya’s head snapped up, and the weight and emotion of those emerald eyes pierced through him like a blade. “Please, just tell me.”

Fourteen years of lies. Toshinori couldn’t bear to add even one more to the heap. “...Since long before you were born.”

Midoriya’s head dropped anew. Toshinori got back on his feet, unsure whether a kind word or a pat on the head could possibly ease that burden even slightly-

The ring of the doorbell made them both flinch, bursting that odd bubble of private desolation that had enveloped the boy’s room. They made their way out of the room, Midoriya quietly trailing behind the hero as the man opened the front door.

Tsukauchi opened his mouth to greet them, and froze. His eyes immediately homed in on the blood liberally splattered on Toshinori’s clothes, and on the melted ice pack Midoriya was still absently pressing to his temple.

“...What happened?”

Inko Midoriya had the same dark green hair as her son, styled in a way that made something inside Toshinori’s chest ache with nostalgia and familiarity. She had the countenance of a demure, quiet, respectable housewife that valued stability and her loved ones’ well-being above all, and would never even conceive of starting a family with anyone any less sensible than she was.

That was why Toshinori was thrown for a loop when, upon being informed that her absentee husband was a criminal, she simply closed her eyes and bowed her head with a sigh and a resigned “...Yes, I am aware.”

Toshinori let Tsukauchi lead the questioning, as usual. Inko had met ‘Hisashi Midoriya’ (under a different alias, at the time) when she was twenty-six, working as a secretary at the main branch of Detnerat. The man had been introduced to her as a representative from another support item company doing some preliminary checks on Detnerat for a potential merger.

This was unusual, but not exceedingly so. In the nearly thirty years he’d spent meticulously dismantling All For One’s organization, Toshinori had gathered evidence of him personally handling certain aspects of his schemes with surprising regularity, even relatively minor tasks or dirty deeds that could easily and safely be entrusted to his subordinates. He hardly ever found any specific reasons for All For One’s direct involvement. Toshinori strongly suspected that the bastard simply didn’t enjoy the lifestyle of the cooped-up, invisible puppeteer, and sometimes just felt like wrecking some havoc with his own diabolical hands.

Inko had been charged with supplying him with quite a sizable amount of rather sensitive data, but since the CEO in person had given the authorization, she had performed her task diligently and unsuspectingly.

Now, Toshinori had been expecting the worst to emerge while questioning the circumstances that had led Inko Midoriya to her current marital status. Without exaggerating, the very worst. Any sort of revolting account of manipulation, coercion, even human experimentation, there was no low All For One wouldn’t stoop to. They had confined the boy to his room before starting for that exact reason.

But apparently the universe wasn’t done throwing curve balls at Toshinori that day, and what they’d gotten instead was the succinct description of what seemed to be, by all accounts, a perfectly ordinary and unassuming workplace romance. One instigated mainly by Inko herself, no less. Toshinori’s strained mind didn’t quite know what to make of that baffling information, so it promptly repressed it.

“We didn’t keep seeing each other after he stopped coming to the company, but I did reach out to him when I found out I was pregnant. That was when I became aware that there was much I didn’t know about him.”

“How so?”

“He told me.” Inko replied simply. “He was... forward about it, in a way. He said that he couldn’t settle down in any given place, nor spare the time for being part of a family. He offered to let me join him in his activities, but… the way he worded it made it clear that he wasn’t talking of any sort of legal business.”

“Did he mention any details about what his ‘business’ entailed, in general or in that specific time frame?”

“No, not at all. But considering how we met, I assume he must be involved in industrial espionage.” Grief, brief but intense, shadowed on the woman’s features for a moment. “I… I resigned from Detnerat as soon as I found out. He had been asking rather sensitive questions about the inner workings of the company, and… even though I never technically shared confidential information, I felt like I had exposed it to too great a danger because of my irresponsible conduct. And, honestly… I was afraid of what could emerge if I kept working there in my condition.”

Toshinori rubbed his hands in his lap uncomfortably. No job, a son on the way, a presumably disreputable partner to deal with… What a wretched situation to find oneself in.

“You said he offered you to join him? In what way, exactly?” Tsukauchi asked from above the pages and pages of notes filling his notepad.

“...I am not sure. I didn’t ask, I had no intention of getting caught in that sort of environment. Nor did I want Izuku to grow up embroiled in dubious activities from an early age.” Inko’s brows furrowed, and her fist clenched slightly. “...I didn’t want him to feel abandoned either though. I didn’t want him to grow thinking his father had deserted him. I asked Hisashi to grant us that, at least. Financial support and the decency to call, once in a while.”

Toshinori couldn’t hold back a sharp cough at that. Inko regarded him with a mix of concern and suspicion.

He couldn’t blame her for it. He had accidentally caused her a fair share of grief when, her son having forgotten to warn her to expect guests upon her return, she’d opened the front door and found a freakishly tall, gaunt, haunted-looking, bloodied stranger looming in her hallway. Toshinori had waited in a conveniently secluded corner of the living room, trying to make himself look as small and non-threatening as possible, while Tsukauchi delivered the proper introductions and deflected the few concerned neighbors her terrified scream had attracted. Not exactly brilliant, as first impressions went.

“And he agreed to that?” Toshinori croaked.

“Yes. I was expecting some resistance, but… he agreed almost immediately.”

Toshinori gaped at the remissive-looking, soft-spoken woman who had once been capable of browbeating All For One into exercising a modicum of fatherly commitment. This whole Midoriya case was getting more and more unbelievable by the hour.

Tsukauchi cleared his throat pointedly. Toshinori scraped back together what little dignity he had left and tried to soldier on.

“Please continue, Mrs. Midoriya.” The detective encouraged.

“There isn’t much else to say, I think. I didn’t hear from him for months after that. I contacted him a few days after Izuku was born, and we’ve kept in touch ever since.”

Tsukauchi tapped his chin with his pen for a few moments, his expression deeply focussed. Then he looked Inko straight in the eye.

“You are being… unexpectedly forthcoming about all this, if I may.”

Inko let out a deep sigh. “I was never under the impression that we could escape the consequences of Hisashi’s actions forever. As soon as Izuku was born, I decided that I would never subject myself or my son to undue duresses just to keep my husband’s secrets. I told Hisashi as much as well.”

Toshinori had to stifle another wet cough with his handkerchief. How on earth was this woman still alive?

“And he had no qualms about this declaration?”

“No. It rather amused him, actually. He said that any mother worth her salt would put her offspring’s safety above that of their parents. And… something about natural selection and survival of the fittest…” Inko’s eyes flickered upwards briefly, like those of a very normal wife exasperated by the very normal idiosyncrasies of her very normal husband. “He does go off on such tangents.”

“So you aren’t concerned about any possible retaliations on your husband’s part because of your cooperation with us?”

“Oh!” Her eyes went wide, almost shocked by the mere suggestion. “Oh no, I really don’t think he’d be capable of something like that.”

Oh, how very wrong she was. Toshinori frowned, admittedly perturbed by the level of trust All For One had managed to establish within the family without ever even deigning to step in their household. Precautions would have to be taken to protect the Midoriyas from the tragic fate that usually befell all those who were deemed traitors by the Symbol of Fear.

More and more questions followed. With his habitual thoroughness, Tsukauchi pursued a multitude of topics and leads that hadn’t even occurred to Toshinori, at least not so readily. Timing and means of communications, occasional postal deliveries to and from the family, details about the sums of money regularly deposited in the family’s account, and so forth. Toshinori was rather out of his depth here, but he tried his best to help Tsukauchi sort through the reams of documents, receipts, records, and diverse paperwork Inko produced at the detective’s request. By the time Tsukauchi declared to be satisfied with his preliminary inquiries, he had earned himself two plastic bags bursting with evidence, and Toshinori had developed a burgeoning migraine.

As they finally made their way to the entrance, Toshinori glanced at the door to Midoriya’s bedroom. Amidst that cascade of new revelations, they’d barely touched upon the topic of the villain attack and of Midoriya’s quirk with his mother. Toshinori felt genuinely sorry for the difficult conversations that were sure to follow between those two.

He hadn’t realized how late it’d gotten until he stepped outside the Midoriyas’ apartment. Sunset had come and gone, and the lampposts and the bright squares of the neighbors’ windows were the only sources of light in the moonless night of that unassuming residential area. As the door closed behind his back, squeezing into nothingness the rectangular glow framing him and Tsukauchi, Toshinori felt the darkness weigh on his shoulders and seep in his bones almost physically.

He felt, suddenly, extremely tired.

“I’ll drive you home.” Tsukauchi’s wasn’t an offer, so Toshinori didn’t refuse.

“Thank you.”

They walked to the car as his friend made a couple of quick calls to instruct some agents to watch the house until the next morning. The fresh night air would have felt like a small bliss to Toshinori on any other day, but in that moment it only rattled whatever unpleasant manifestation of his unease had lodged itself in his lung earlier that afternoon and hadn’t left since. He coughed a few times in his fist, then a few more on purpose to make sure he got most of the discomfort in his throat out of his system before he settled in the passenger’s seat.

The drive was quiet. Toshinori gazed absently out of the window, letting the new awareness sink in his mind like a stone in a pond. All For One was alive. All For One was still alive, somehow. Toshinori couldn’t fathom how. They had never retrieved the body, that was true, but there was precious little they had managed to retrieve from the location of their fight back then. It was nothing short of a miracle they’d found Toshinori himself quickly enough to lend medical assistance. The only reason why they’d been able to keep the public from learning of the accident was because it hadn’t happened on the mainland, and the tiny, uninhabited island that hosted it had all but been wiped from the maps. That his foe may have survived that disaster, considering the damage he’d sustained, was almost inconceivable. Toshinori was pretty sure he’d actually caught a glimpse of the man’s exposed brain after landing the last-

“Are you all right?” Tsukauchi asked quietly.

The corner of Toshinori’s mouth twitched upwards. “I’m never going to defy New Year’s fortunes again. Moving away from Tokyo was a terrible idea.”

“This is a good thing. If you hadn’t, All For One would still be out there, and we’d be none the wiser.”

Hell. Five years. For five years they’d been none the wiser. How much strength had All For One regained in five years, while Toshinori’s own slowly went down the drain? How much of his criminal network had he managed to rebuild? How many unnoticed, unreported atrocities had he been plotting and executing, unbeknownst to all? The mere notion made Toshinori’s skin crawl.

But Tsukauchi had the right idea, there was no point in brooding over the current situation. Things could have turned out a lot worse. If Toshinori had already chosen a successor and exhausted One For All’s embers, by now he’d be powerless and useless, and the burden of facing his revived nemesis would have fallen entirely on the new, inexperienced wielder. That truly would have been a worst-case scenario. But as things stood, he could still rely on his quirk for a decent amount of time. He could still tie this dreadful loose end himself before passing the torch, and he’d spare no effort in the endeavor. He’d pursue the monster to the ends of the Earth if he had to, even if it meant wearing himself down to nothing for the rest of his life.

Or meeting his gruesome, bitter end in the process.

Toshinori shivered.

“So,” he heard himself say, “where do we go from here?”

Tsukauchi gave him a stern, silent scrutiny, then he told him.

#my hero academia #boku no hero academia #All Might #Toshinori Yagi #Naomasa Tsukauchi #deku #izuku midoriya #inko midoriya

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tinyboxxtink · 3 years

Text

"Doppelganger" *Part 23*

WHOO, y'all. I don't know what it is about this story but I am just...rolling it all out with the tragic backstory. No angst, I promise-- It ends happy chill out. But damn. Maybe I'm working out my own issues in here...lulz.

This gif will make so much sense you have no idea.

PART 22

Part 24

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------

“....And how did that make you feel?”

You tried not to laugh out loud as the question left Dr. Crestview’s mouth. Did she really just ask you that?

“...I mean it makes me ‘feel’ bad,” You rolled your eyes with a laugh while looking out the window. When you turned back to the doctor she was not laughing, and she was writing something down.

“...That was a joke,” You clarified.

“Oh yes, I get it,” She nodded as she continued writing.

“Do you?” You asked her frankly. The question caused her to stop writing and look at you.

“Mrs. Barba--”

“Ms. YLN,” You corrected. “I’m not married yet,”

“...Hmm, interesting,” She wrote something down. Seriously? She even had an insight on what-- technicalities?

“I’m sorry, was that some sort of test?” You asked sarcastically.

“Actually, it was,” She said to your surprise.

“Excuse me?” You looked at her, baffled.

“You know when most women get engaged, they start imagining their last names as their husbands. You know such as changing their signature, gathering documents, and the like,”

“...Are you serious?” You laughed again. “This is 2021 lady, half the women I know didn’t even take their husband’s last name at all,”

“And is that what you’re going to do?” She asked. “Keep your last name?”

“...If I say yes are you going to psychoanalyze that too?” You crossed your arms.

“In my experience Ms. Y/L/N, women who don’t want to change their last names tend to do so because they want to keep their independence, their…’identity’. They think taking a man’s last name is ‘giving up’ something. Giving up their identity,” She explained.

“...And?” You gestured with your hand as if waiting for her to continue.

“And in my educated opinion, it also signifies a woman going into a marriage with one foot out of the door already,” She simply stated.

“Wow,” You shook your head with a sarcastic laugh. “Did I come here to resolve my trauma, or for marriage advice?”

“I think they’re one and the same, Ms. Y/L/N,” She stayed completely calm and emotionless.

“Are they?” You raised an eyebrow.

“Given what you’ve told me in our last few sessions, you’ve given off a tone that you don’t think you deserve good things. Maybe you’re keeping on foot out of your relationship so that when it falls apart, you’ll be ready,”

“Wow....wow,” You started to stand up and storm out of the office, but she stopped you with a question.

“I’m sorry if I offended you with my observation Y/N, but be honest. Am I wrong?”

You thought about all the talks you had with Rafael about ‘not being good enough’ for him, or ‘stealing his love’. And on the one hand you felt that you were ‘connected’, you felt safe and secure. After everything you’d been through, it was almost impossible not to be, right? Right?

“....And what is your magic solution to this feeling, doctor?” You crossed your arms.

“You need to forgive yourself,”

“...Jesus Christ,” You rolled your eyes with another laugh as you paced the room. “Really? That’s your solution? Telling me something I already know?”

“No, my solution is this: You need to apologize to your parents,”

“EXCUSE ME?” You practically screamed.

“You blame yourself for their death, correct? You think that because of their desire to make you happy they risked their lives driving into the city and therefore got into their accident,” She looked over her notes from past sessions with you.

“...Right,” You looked down at the floor.

“And I don’t think that you have ever forgiven yourself for that. And in not doing so, you haven’t forgiven yourself for anything you’ve done since then. All these things you say you’ve ‘done’ to Mr. Barba that you should be ‘punished’ for-- he doesn’t see it that way. Other people don’t see it that way. Your parents' accident wasn’t your own doing, getting kidnapped wasn’t your fault. I think that you need to find closure with your parent’s death before you can even begin to ‘forgive’ yourself for whatever transpired between you and Nevada Ramirez,”

“....So you want me to apologize to my parents? How are they going to ‘forgive’ me?” You asked her.

“I think you’ll find Ms. Y/L/N that just the act of apologizing will bring about its own form of forgiveness,” She smiled.

“.....Right…” You tried not to sound condescending, but for a shrink she sure sounded crazy.

“Or don’t listen to me, I can’t force you to do anything. But that is my advice,” She shrugged.

“Noted. Thank you, doctor,” You nodded and walked out the door.

----

You walked out into the streets of the city from your doctor’s office and thinking about just how or when you’d have a chance to go to your hometown where your parents were, when you were stopped by a young girl on the street.

“Oh my god...you’re Y/N!” She gasped.

“...Yes?” You stared at her blankly.

“You’re that girl who killed Nevada Ramirez!” She squealed, causing a few people to stare and take pictures of you as they walked past.

“Oh good lord…” You muttered nervously. “Yeah well um--”

“Can I get a selfie with you?”

“Um--” You looked around, not sure of what to do. You wanted to run down the street screaming, but you thought better of it. You turned back to her with the fakest smile you could form.

“Sure!” You threw an arm around her and smiled as big as you could as she snapped a selfie with her phone.

“Thanks!” She beamed at you. “ And by the way, your fiancé is REALLY sexy,”

“Oh girl I know,” You faked a laugh and a toss of your hair as she walked away with a laugh.

It really creeped you out that girls were ‘fangirling’ over your fiancé. As if you weren’t worried about keeping a hold of him all on your own. Also how did she even know what he looked like?

The article.

You grabbed your phone and did something you told yourself you’d never do: You googled yourself.

The first thing that popped up was an article on the NYTimes.com front page:

“Fairy Tale Romance Or Horror Movie?”

...What the fuck?

The article contained your video as the main focus. Then under it the article basically dictated the video, with Tasha’s opinions thrown in here and there. Then most of the photos from the photoshoot of you and Rafael were at the bottom of the page. They were gorgeous, you had to admit. Granted you were both airbrushed to hell, but Rafael in a suit drove you nuts. Even if it was just on a screen. You dialed his number as you continued walking down the street.

“....Hola, mi amor. How is my pinguino feeling?”

“Well she’s currently feeling like she’s got the sexiest man in New York City,” You grinned.

“Oh really? And why’s that?” He asked you curiously.

“Check out the picture I’m texting you,” You grinned as you texted him one of the photos from the spread.

“Oh Christ…” You heard him mutter through the phone, causing you to giggle.

“Oh yes, you even have your own fangirls now,” You rolled your eyes with a smile.

“No I do NOT,” He argued in disbelief.

“Yeah I’d be careful leaving your office there counselor, a group of tweens might be waiting outside,”

“Oh my god...they’re breaching the doors!” He acted terrified, making you laugh harder.

“Oh I think I see one,” You whispered as if you were sneaking up on someone. “She’s holding a ‘Barba 4Eva’ poster board,”

“You better be kidding,” He warned.

“No, in fact I think she’s right outside your door,” You bit your tongue with a smile.

“Oh well I’d better call security then,” He chuckled as he sauntered over to his office door and swung it open.

“Oh my Gooodddddddd it’s Rafael Barba!!! The sexiest ADA in New York City!!” You giggled wildly, jumping into his arms like a crazed fan.

“I should definitely look into some armed guards at my door,” He laughed as he pulled you into his arms and kissed you.

“Oh most definitely, wouldn’t want to let the crazies in,” You nodded as you kissed him again.

“Well I think it’s too late for that…” He teased you while tousling your hair.

“Shut up,” You playfully hit his hands away.

“Speaking of crazy, how was therapy today mi amor?” He asked cheekily.

Wowwwww, sexy AND sensitive, how did I get so lucky?” You rolled your eyes. “Actually, she gave me homework,”

“Did she?” He inquired.

“Yes,” You suddenly got very serious. “She um, she told me I need to go see my parents,”

“...Your parents?” His eyebrows furrowed.

“Yeah, something about needing to ‘apologize’ to them or some weird shrink thing like that,”

“....Do you think it will help?”

“I mean...” You sighed and looked out the window. “I don’t know. But I’d like to try,”

“Bueno,” He nodded walking closer to you and kissing the top of your head. “So are you going to go now or--?”

“Well I was kind of hoping you’d come with me,” You bit your lip. You didn’t know if asking him to come along on your shrink homework assignment was allowed, but you knew you couldn’t do this alone. Maybe that was the point.

“Really?”

“I mean, I met your family,” You half laughed, trying to make light.

“Right,” He nodded his head with a chuckle. “Well then, let’s go,”

“...Now?”

“Why not?” He started to walk towards the door.

“Don’t you have a job?” You pointed to his desk.

“Oh they just like to pay me to sit in here so nobody robs the place,” He joked as he grabbed his coat. “I have nothing going on today baby, they won’t miss me.”

“Okay then,” You shrugged uneasily. “Guess we’re going to Jersey,”

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

After a train ride and a taxi later, you arrived in your small town of Shallow Meadow.

“Christ Almighty, I knew Jersey was in the dark ages, but not even having Uber??” Rafael grumbled. He hadn’t been in the back of a dirty cab in such a long time, and now he remembered why.

“Alright Daddy Warbucks, chill,” You laughed as you started walking with him through town.

It was a quaint little town; one stop light, one grocery store, two bars, something out of an old movie really You know the movies where the car breaks down in the tiny shitty town and all the townspeople are flesh eating zombies or something. The people of Shallow Meadow were pretty much like that. Well, to you anyway.

“So why didn’t we just have the Mayberry Express drop us at the cemetery?”

“...Because we don’t have roads you can drive on up there,” You answered with a nervous smile.

“...Right,” He shook his head as he noticed people coming out of shops to stare at the two of you. “...Do I have some kind of weird sign on my back that says NEW YORKER or what?”

“No, but that thousand dollar suit screams “moneybags” out here,” You smirked. “Besides, they’re not staring at you they’re staring at me,”

“...What? How do you know that?”

As if it was answering his question, a girl with bright red hair dressed in farm clothing and holding a baby on her hip came sauntering up to the two of you.

“Well lookie here,” She smirked. “Miss Prissy Pants brought back herself a Prissy Papa,”

“Excuse you?” Rafael was taken aback by such rudeness by such a poorly dressed person.

“Marla back off,” You scowled at her. “Just because you’re upset I found treasure and you’re stuck with trash--”

“OH, is that what we are now? Trash?” Marla spat. “You have a lot of nerve coming back here and saying that, murderer,”

“WHOA,” Rafael stepped in front of you. “I’m sorry, what-- what did you just call her?”

“Did she not tell you the story? Oh no wait I bet she did, her version. The version where she’s the victim and we’re all just the villains. Isn’t that right, Prissy?” She glared at you.

“...I never said you were--” You tried defending yourself.

“Really?” She scoffed. “Then why did you not even bother to show up to your folks’ funeral? Their ONLY daughter, the ones they DIED for. Couldn’t even be bothered to leave her high rise in the city to pay respects to the parents she KILLED,”

“It wasn’t like that and you KNOW it, Marla! And why was I going to come back? The only two people left in this town that tolerated me were gone--” You got up in her face.

“AND WHY IS THAT, Y/N?” She got back in yours, her baby almost falling out of her arms.

“Alright lady I don’t know who you are, but you’re going to back the hell off my fiancée--”

“Oh good God, your fiancé?” Marla laughed. “You would find yourself a sugar daddy, since you killed yours,”

“Alright you know what we’re leaving--” You grabbed Rafael’s hand and stomped away towards a huge hill that had a sign reading “CEMETERY” at the top.

“I hope you’re heading up there to beg their forgiveness Y/N, ‘cuz you sure as hell ain’t getting any down here!” Marla yelled angrily after you.

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

“...Well I think we just figured out where your forgiveness issues came from,” Rafael tried making light of the situation.

“Ya think?” You nodded.

“This whole time,” Rafael shook his head. “This whole time I thought you just had it in your mind that you were responsible for their death. But-- but you had an entire town telling you that,”

“...Yeah,” You shrugged.

“Why didn’t you ever say anything, baby?” Rafael took your hand as the hill got steeper.

“Because I thought they were right, Rafael!” You said in a ‘duh’ tone. “Why would I tell you that an entire town thought that I was a murderer? That’s not really a selling point on a partner,”

“...You thought they were right?”

“...Well, yeah,” You nodded softly with a small smile.

“And now…?”

Before you could answer, you reached the entrance of the cemetery. Luckily it wasn’t that big; you were ashamed to admit you didn’t even know where they were buried. But you found them in a small corner under a shade tree. You walked up to their mutual headstone:

“Y/M/N AND Y/D/N: Beloved Husband And Wife, Mayor and First Lady.”

“...Mayor?” Rafael looked at you in surprise.

“Yeah, well--” You shrugged. “You see why they were so beloved, and I was the hellish daughter that killed them?”

“Y/N…” Rafael put a hand on your shoulder.

“I was supposed to want to ‘take over the city’, like I would ever want to be in charge of anything in this stupid backwards hick ass town,” You scoffed angrily, tears stinging your eyes.

“...But didn’t you say that your parents wanted you to go to Juliard? Pursue your dreams?” Rafael asked in confusion.

“They did! My grandparents-- they had a different view,” You shook your head. “The...the hierarchy here it’s-- well it’s not really a democracy,”

“...How so…?” Rafael raised an eyebrow.

“Because everyone just loved and accepted my family as, I don’t know, the ‘royal’ family?” You felt so stupid comparing your family to the Royal Family, but you didn’t know how else to explain it.

“The Mayor and First Lady titles were just...passed down, in my family. And not because they were dictators or something,” You quickly added the last part, you didn’t want Rafael to think any less of your family than he probably already did.

“People here are just...simple,” You sighed. “They accept things the way they are, they hate change. So it was just assumed that my family would always be... "the family’,”

“But you didn’t want that,” Rafael said again.

“Of course I didn’t want that!” You scoffed. “I didn’t want to just get a high school degree and then marry some ‘Cletus’ redneck man from here and have ‘heirs’ just to keep the family going!”

“But your parents understood that,” Rafael reiterated.

“It didn’t matter what my parents did or didn’t understand. My grandfather had more clout with the townspeople here,” You rolled your eyes. “My dad was the ‘mayor’, but his dad controlled everything. His father had been the mayor for over thirty years before he passed it onto my dad, who didn’t really want it either” You walked up to the headstone and ran your fingers over your father’s name.

“....So when he tried to ‘save’ me from that life, my grandpa wouldn’t hear it. He blamed me for...for manipulating them into giving me anything I wanted, like I was a spoiled little child. He blamed me for them giving me their life savings to go to Julliard instead of putting it back into the town treasury. Then he blamed me when they got killed, and he just reinstated himself as mayor! Which, I haven’t checked but I’ll be damned if he isn’t still rattling around his old ass bones in our house! He’ll just haunt this place forever!” You threw your hands up and looked down angrily at the town down below.

“Carino…” Rafael came up behind you and wrapped his arms around your waist from behind. You took his hands in yours and kissed them before turning to face him. You looked into his sparkling green understanding eyes for a moment, before directing your attention back at the headstone.

“....This is Rafael Barba, mama and daddy,” You pulled him gently forward. “We’re getting married soon,”

“...Nice to meet you folks,” Rafael said awkwardly.

“...Raffi they’re dead,” You smiled jokingly.

“Right, right,” He shook his head with a small laugh.

“...He’s a very good man, daddy. I know you always wanted that. And he’s very handsome, so you’ll have beautiful grandchildren mama, just like you wanted,” You smiled while Rafael softly chuckled.

“...I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to come,” You finally said with tears rolling down your cheeks. “I should have been here sooner,”

“But you’re here now,” Rafael softly rubbed your back.

“Yeah…” You nodded softly. This was the hard part.

“...I’m---I’m sorry, that I made you feel like horrible parents that night,” You tried not to cry, but the memories of that night flooded your memory the more you spoke.

“I’m sorry that you thought you needed to come see me, that you weren’t good parents if you didn’t,” Your lip trembled, you fell to your knees.

“...I’m sorry the last words you heard from me were ‘I hate you’,” You finally broke down sobbing.

“Y/N…” Rafael knelt down next to you and held you in his arms as you cried.

“Do you get now why...why I don’t think I deserve you? Why don't I think I deserve anything? Why I think I have to take everything? Fake everything? Because I am such a terrible person my own parents died thinking I hated them because I was that horrible to them!”

“They didn’t think you hated them, carino,” Rafael rocked you back and forth. “They knew you loved them, I know they did,”

“You know you’re probably right, Rafael. But it--I needed them to hear it,” You nodded at the gravestone.

“And?”

“...And I feel a lot better,” You smiled as Rafael wiped tears from your face.

“Really?”

“Yeah…Really,” You chuckled. “I guess that therapist really knows what she’s doing,”

“She should for the amount of money I pay her,” Rafael shook his head with a laugh as he helped you stand up.

“...Thank you for doing this with me, amor,” You sniffled, pressing your forehead against his.

“Of course, penguino,” He kissed you softly. “And, for what it’s worth--” He added as you two walked back down the hill towards town.

“I think that if your parents were alive, they would be proud of you,”

“Oh, I know my mother would take one look at you and be DAMN proud,” You both laughed at that.

“And I also think they would be appalled to see how their townspeople treat their daughter,” He glared at the town.

“Yeah well,” You shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Not anymore,”

“I’m glad to hear it,” He took your hands as the sun started to go down in your sleepy little town. “Now can we please get back to the city before I catch something out here?”

“Yes,” You giggled, staring at him lovingly.

“Let’s go home,”

#rafael barba imagine #rafael barba x you #rafael barba x reader #rafael barba #rafael barba fanfiction #law and order svu #law and order svu fanfiction smut #doppelganger

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fandomlit · 4 years

Text

airbenders (aang x reader)

requested by anon “Aang x Girl!Reader fic where she’s from an air bender family that survived the attack? I love you ATLA work 🥰🥰” + “can you do another thing for aang? i love my under appreciated king 🥺”

summary the gaang runs into you, an airbender part of the last surviving airbender clan. aang finds home in that small community, and in you especially.

gif cred belongs to @kataara

“do tornadoes just... appear and disppear?”

katara and aang looked up from their map to see sokka staring into the distance.

“i don’t think so,” katara said slowly, aang shaking his head in agreement. they all stared intensely into the distance. and after a minute of not blinking, dust began to rise and whip, and suddenly there was tornado whipping around a field a little ways away. but just as soon as it appeared, the dust settled back onto the ground.

“wind doesn’t do that naturally,” aang declared, rising from his crouch and grasping his staff.

“it’s man made,” toph confirmed, touching a hand to the ground. “the way it rises... i’ve only felt you do that, twinkle toes.”

“aang,” katara said warily, standing and placing a hand on his shoulder, “is it possible that airbenders survived the attack?”

“we have to go find out, don’t we?” aang asked rhetorically with a furrowed brow, unfolding the wings of his staff in a simple flick of the wrist. he took off toward where another, bigger tornado was forming.

“appa, yip yip!”

as aang neared closer and closer, he felt the air of the tornado begin to pull him in. but he stayed determined, letting the tornado finally suck him into its hold and resisted the flow of the air to finally touch the ground it was formed at. the tornado dispersed when he planted on the ground, momo swooping in to land on his shoulder. he looked around the now cleared land, only seeing fields for miles. when he finally turned to his left, he jumped at the sight of a girl in a fighting position, hands raised flat in front of her.

“who are you?” she asked strongly. she ignored appa as he touched down next to aang. “where did you get that bison?”

“you’re not.. surprised by him?” aang asked, turning his body to his flying companion.

the girl narrowed her eyes. then she closed them and dropped her hands to her sides. then she turned around to walk away.

“wait! where are you going?” aang called after her.

“that’s not our bison.”

“our?” katara asked as she hopped down from appa’s saddle. the girl glanced over her shoulder.

“our,” she nodded. she looked over their group. “you’re the avatar, aren’t you?”

“yes,” aang confirmed, expression serious.

the girl turned back around. “my name is y/n. my family is one of the only few that survived the devastation of firelord sozin.”

“there are airbenders living?!” sokka asked, jaw dropping.

“yes,” she nodded. “we keep a closed society. if you would like, we could give you shelter for the night.”

the gaang all looked to each other. toph spoke, “im sold.”

aang looked back to the girl. “can you take us there?”

she waved a hand and turned back around. “follow me.” aang ran to walk by her side.

“those were some impressive tornadoes,” he complimented. she offered him a small smile. “how’d you learn to bend like that?”

“my great grandfather was a monk and master at the western air temple,” she explained, looking over to the avatar. “tornado making was his “signature move” of sorts; passed down through my family to now. unfortunately, he was lost in sozin’s attack.”

“im sorry,” aang sighed sadly, shaking his head. “how did your family survive?”

“my grandparents and others were on their way to the eastern air temple for an annual meeting. but when arrived, it had been destroyed.” aang closed his eyes and dropped his head. “when he flew back home, it was gone, too. they had no choice but to start a new society here.” she gestured a hand ahead of them, and the gaang looked to see a small city tucked between two looming mountains, a little ways away.

“how many airbenders are here?” aang asked, looking anxiously to the city’s high walls.

“out of our thirty population, only seven,” she answered. “we’re a dying breed.” aang lowered his head solemnly. y/n placed a warm, comforting hand on his shoulder. “it was not your fault, avatar. and we do not blame you.”

he looked up at her. seeing her soft yet determinedly kind eyes, he was able to manage a smile. and possibly a little blush, too. “call me aang.”

she nodded, giving him a smile in return. it would have been a heartwarming moment if sokka had not yelled out, “and im sokka!” y/n turned to be introduced to the rest of the gaang and their stories.

when they entered the city walls, a strong man stepped forward, a teary-eyed woman by his side. “y/n, we’ve been worried sick! where did you go?” when aang stepped in, as well, all eyes were on him.

y/n placed her hand on aang’s shoulder again. “my fellow air nomads, i present to you, the avatar.” gasps resounded around the gathered village people. aang gulped as he looked around. but when he met her proud smile, all of his anxiety was lost in a single breath.

after a meet and greet around a communal bonfire, aang had been shown the house him and his friends would stay in as long as they needed. he had lost y/n at some point in the night, and he felt slightly guilty about it. but he brushed off the thought of her and instead focused on getting some sleep.

that didn’t bode well.

two nightmares in, aang gave up. he kicked his blankets off with a low growl. he tiptoed around his friends and out the back of the small house, bending air to float himself onto the wall that lined the city. he decided to walk along it and enjoy the night air until he either wore himself out or had some other idea.

his head was finally starting to clear when he heard soft music erupting. he looked around quickly, seeing a light in a barn type building near him. he floated himself off the wall and jogged over.

he peeked through the door before he entered, and saw the exact girl he had lost earlier that evening.

y/n stood with a small instrument in her hands, blowing air and moving her fingers as flying bison settled in bales and on blankets all over the barn. aang spotted appa next to her, nuzzling into her leg. she peeked open an eye and offered him a smile, letting go of the instrument to reach a hand down and pet him. she used one hand to keep the instrument floating, moving her fingers as if she were still playing it. the music continued.

“you don’t have to stand in the doorway,” she spoke, barely peeking over her shoulder at aang. “it’s warmer where the bison are.” he let out a sheepish laugh and stepped in, looking all around as he approached her and his companion.

“are you good with animals?” he questioned, clasping his hands behind his back nervously.

she nodded, looking up at him. “oddly so.”

“i don’t think it’s odd,” aang shrugged, offering her a crooked smile. she returned it with a small laugh. aang looked back to the floating instrument and to her hand controlling it. “you really are an impressive bender.”

“thank you, aang,” she hummed, raising the hand bending air through the instrument. “do you know this song?”

he went silent, leaning forward slightly to listen to the soft air coming from the instrument. after a moment, it clicked. he sang, “above black eagles wheeling.”

she giggled and continued, “all of a sudden swooping.”

“my little baby stealing,”

“sleep, little baby, sleep.”

“above black eagles soaring,”

“a crown of pearls left lying,”

“your stupid father snoring,” aang finished. they both laughed. “i didn’t know they still sang that.”

“i didn’t think you’d know it,” she returned, giggling.

“know it? im pretty sure it originated in my temple!”

they spent another two hours together in that barn, sharing stories of their people and of themselves. aang managed to rest when he returned to the house, a smile on his face and hers fresh in his mind. he was finally awoken just after sunrise by the rustling of his friends packing.

“we’re leaving?” aang asked groggily, standing up and rubbing his eyes.

“we have to keep moving if we wanna get to ba sing se,” sokka sighed, tucking a map into his bag. aang lowered his gaze. sokka walked to his friend, placing a hand on his shoulder. “i know you wanna stay longer, but now we know we have a place to come back to. any time. and if you want, you can bring something along with you to remind you of... ‘home’, or whatever.” katara glared at him.

“that was almost nice.”

“what?!”

“you just had to add the whatever?”

aang nodded anyway. then an idea clicked in his head. “i know what to bring.”

“go get it,” katara encouraged with a smile and a nod, and aang sprinted out the door. he raced around the town for a solid ten minutes before seeing y/n stoking the breakfast fire.

“y/n!” she turned around with a start. she smiled when she saw aang. but before she could say anything, aang called out, “come with me!”

#avatar #atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar x reader #atla x reader #avatar fanfic #atla fanfic #aang #avatar aang #aang x reader #aang fanfic #sokka #katara #toph #airbender!reader

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5-falsehoods-phonated · 3 years

Text

(Prompts with boxes have been taken, highlighted have been written)

Requests for this card are closed, thank you to anyone who sent in requests! If you don’t want to see these you can block the tag #false bthb. As always shoot me an ask if you wanna be tagged in future stories, whether it be for bad things happen bingo or any of the other series, one shots or in general!

I’ve been picking at this particular request since early December as the person who requested it had a lot of details they wanted put in making the writing process a bit more challenging. As a disclaimer, note that the chapter is split between present time and the past; with Logan recalling things in his past in an attempt to make the details requested for the story flow better. I received this request from AO3.

General taglist: @im-an-anxious-wreck

Experimental Socialization

Summary: Logan was raised by the government to be nothing more than an experiment and a weapon, utilizing his unique abilities as a mutant. When he finally escapes things are much different than he imagined they’d be but thankfully finds others like him willing to help guide him right where he needs to be.(Happy Ending)

Warnings: allusions to abuse, physical punishment and human experimentation, tw for weapons and fire, panic attack. If there are more please let me know

Prompt; Not Used To Freedom (requested by AngstyEmoGal on AO3)

Ships: Intrulogical, Logan x Remus

WC: 3432

“You just gotta breathe, Logan. In four, hold seven, out eight remember? You’re doing great, just keep going.”

Logan felt himself slowly coming back to reality as his breathing evening out, the raw panic that had gripped his chest easing slightly as Virgili continued coaxing him through the exercise. He felt the other slowly rub up and down his arm in a slow, steady beat that helped ground him further in reality and he smiled up at his friend gratefully and nodded to let xem know he was okay. Gripping his knees as Virgil’s voice trailed off he squeezed his eyes shut tightly and let out one last calming breath.

“Thank you, Virgil. I-” He struggled to find words, gesturing flippantly in the air making Virgil grin.

“It’s okay. Take your time, L.”

Logan puffed his cheeks out in frustration, thoughts swirling too quickly for him to comprehend anything but the apprehensive fear he held for the plans Remus had made for them later that evening. “I am- not used to being outside. Given my history and the threat I pose as a potential compromise to our place of hiding I fail to understand Remus’ reasoning for going out when we could just as easily celebrate our relationship here.”

“Hm.” Virgil leaned back on xyr hands and looked up at the low ceiling of their underground paradise. “Can’t really see the stars from here, no matter how many stickers Princey finds and puts up it can't really be compared to the real thing.”

Logan had made the mistake of going on a tirade of space facts a few months into his stay in the hideout, Remus patiently listening to the extensive infodump of constellation facts and space physics and planetary rotation. Having a limited amount of books to entertain oneself with for extended periods of time meant memorizing entire books on one subject, which Logan had used all too happily as a figurative escape from his situation in the past until he had actually managed to escape when he was 16. Hearing Logan speak so passionately about the subject had apparently made his mind up that he was taking Logan outside for their first “official” date to view the stars, which had then landed Logan in his current state of panic as he realized that date was today and he was decidedly not ready for what might lay in store outside of safety of the hideout.

“I can stay close by if you want. I won’t spy or anything and Remus won’t have to know.” Logan looked over as his thoughts were interrupted by the offer, Virgil turning invisible and reappearing a couple seconds later to emphasize xyr point. Smiling Logan shook his head, knowing the other derived as much joy from going outside as Logan felt about going himself.

“Thank you for the offer though, you’re very kind.” Letting his thoughts drift again he idly wondered when Virgil had discovered xe could disappear and reappear at will and if xyr parents had tried to hide it before the government had found out. His own parents-

-----

“Logan?” A very small Logan turned at his mother’s voice, losing his concentration which made the hidden jar of Crofters fall from its suspended place in the air and smash to the floor. His parents hadn’t known he possessed any sort of powers, and even as small as he was he still understood the position he’d put them in if they ever found out. Fearfully his hands dropped to his sides as his mother covered her mouth in shock, tears rolling down her cheeks as she took a step back.

Men in suits and long coats were there just a few hours later, speaking in hushed voices while both of his parents cried and he was ushered out the door and into an unmarked car, quiet as he understood yelling and crying would do him no good now. What’s done was done, all he could do was be compliant and hope to be treated gently.

-----

The room suddenly brightening with a flickering light brought him back out of his thoughts, Roman entering with his signature bright flame held proudly in his hand. The image of him in his rather scrapped together Princely outfit posing subconsciously in the doorway was almost enough to make Logan roll his eyes but he didn’t want Virgil to think it was because of xem so he managed to restrain himself.

“My dearest brother has been pacing in the same spot for two hours now and I haven't been able to calm him down soooo I thought to check on our resident nerd.” Roman declared with his usual flare. Logan actually did roll his eyes this time but Virgil did as well so he figured it was fine.

“The ‘resident nerd’ is doing fine, Roman. Though it's concerning to hear Remus is nervous as well considering he’s the one who suggested the date.”

Roman waved his hand at Logan dismissively. “He’s just a sap- moreso than me surprisingly. He doesn’t want to do anything to put you in danger but he wants to do something nice, so he’s worried that’s all. Remus is an idiot but I trust him with my life; believe me when I say you have nothing to worry about except his terrible sense of humor.”

Logan merely hummed in response, staring at the way the flame moved around as Roman gestured with his words.

-----

He panted as he rolled out of the way of another flamethrower, singeing the tips of his hair in the process but he couldn’t afford to slow down enough to worry about that. Years of training with different fighting styles had earned him incredibly fast reflexes but a good portion of his accuracy in knowing where to step and when was owed to him working even harder to focus his powers. Thoughts from others constantly surrounded him on a regular basis, getting more and more prevalent the older he grew. Learning to block out the constant string of stimuli was a useful skill to keep him sane but learning to hone in on specific thoughts to predict actions was what had kept him alive.

He ducked below another bullet and brought up his leg in the same motion, kicking a throwing knife to the side and sending it to clatter harmlessly between one of his assailants feet. A twirl to the side and a tilt of the head let another bought of flame boil the air beside him while another knife just barely brushed his ear. The constant bang of bullets and roar of flames and whistling of knives was overwhelming and made the air so thick he could barely draw a breath and it was becoming a struggle to concentrate the way he needed to and-

A high pitched alarm sounded one, twice, three times- a blaring flash accompanying it that left him blinking painfully. His shoulders slumped as the barrage finally ended, another successful training day completed. He watched as everyone began putting their weapons away, laughing and congratulating each other, clapping themselves on the back and discussing whatever they had planned after this. No one even spared the thing they had been firing at seconds before a spare glance, save for the director of the branch, who took long steps forward to stand in front of him only to snap his fingers and motion forward no doubt to see him back to his room until dinner. Absorbing the sounds around him he drank in as much praise as he could that wasn’t his and would never be for him; people rarely congratulated weapons after all.

-----

“Is this where we all decided to hide today?” Logan looked up to see Patton sitting cross legged on one one of the beams in the ceiling, grinning happily down at them even as their fluffy ears twitched nervously and even fluffier tail whipped back and forth in agitation. They must have come back from trying to calm Remus as well, Logan mused; Patton had never done well being in the same room as Remus who tended to voice his thoughts abruptly and without much care to how they might sound to others which always managed to set Patton on edge no matter how hard they tried not to show it.

Patton was a rare mutant in that as opposed to being born with abnormal traits or abilities they had been a science experiment from the start- an effort to create super soldiers rather than stealing them away from families and training them. Even rarer was the fact that the DNA splicing had taken extraordinarily well by pure chance as Patton was born with a mutation that left their DNA incredibly malleable- a mutation that never would have been discovered had cellular manipulation not been the reason for them being in the experimental branch that they were. They had tried cloning Patton at first to see if their power could be duplicated but when that failed to work they began trying to combine them with different animals to see if desirable traits would come forward. By manipulating them on a physical and anatomical level they were able to change some parts of them to be more cat like, intending, Patton had guessed, to turn them into a kind of stealth soldier but they got away before they completed it, leaving them with heightened agility and surgically coaxed cat ears and a tail. They were only a child when the lab had done this but somehow they were never bitter, simply preferring to leave their past alone and embrace whatever future they could make- a trait Logan greatly admired them for even if their unending optimism could be somewhat grating at times.

“Did Janus brush your tail out Pat? It looks fluffier today.” Patton preened at Virgil's compliment, their tail beginning to wave in a more relaxed manner as their mind was distracted from whatever it was Remus had been ranting about.

“He did! He found a cat brush and got it for me so I could finally get the undercoat out!” Jumping down and landing lightly on their feet they posed a little and flashed another wide grin.

“Beautiful as always, Patton.” Roman said genuinely as he lowered his hand into a barrel to light up the paper scraps and wood in it for the night, the dim sunlight that had filtered through the grated having long since died. The home was a modified branch of a sewer system, thankfully the part most removed from the city where it flowed without the stench and was sealed off inconspicuously enough that in the ten years Janus and Remus had been using it no worker had ever found it.

-----

It had been Janus and Remus who had found him, beaten and bloody from an escape attempt he had made just days before his real one. He had made a weak attempt to coax the scientists into a false sense of security, holding back the full scoop of his powers during training for a year in anticipation for his final escape. He had punished severely but had simply thrown him in his regular cell, assuming he wasn’t strong enough to do any more damage than they had seen him do already and trusting that they had beaten him down enough that it would be a while before he tried again- if he ever did. Not six days later the mangled metal of the front of his cell was tossed into a group of guards, walls torn apart in a straight line to the exit and the huge buzzing gates leading to the outside world thrown open wide and stuck there with varying amounts of heavy debris.

The outside world, as it turns out, was a lot bigger and louder and downright terrifying when you weren’t being sent out as a personal assassin or field missions or training sessions- all controlled on some level to keep him from being killed and compromised. Without the begrudged protection from the labs and moreover having to hide from said lab was another story entirely. The times they searched for him and how closely they came to his spots were random and made it incredibly hard for him to pick out their thoughts from anyone else’s in the city and figure out how close they were. On more than one occasion they passed right by him crouched under piles of garbage or laying low under a hedge, his breath held as he tried desperately to keep himself as still and quiet as possible, thoughts of what they would to him once they found him pounding against his head and making him squeeze his eyes shut to keep his terrified tears from falling.

That was how Remus had found him. It had been dark and hours had passed since the searchers had left that park he had been hiding in. He had still been hiccuping down his sobs as he rolled out from under the hedge that he hadn’t bothered to scope the area for anyone’s close by thoughts, having shut out as much as he could after they had left to try and block out any other hate fueled thoughts that may send him spiraling again. His heart had leapt in his throat so high his breath caught painfully, immediately shifting to offense as he tensed, ready to fight as long and hard as he could. He couldn’t go back- he wouldn’t. No matter what they did or promised him or punished him with; he’d go down fighting or not at all.

But Remus had only raised his hands in the air in a motion of peace, eyes widening as he locked onto the government issued bracelet that marked him as an experimental mutant. He had grinned impossibly wide then Logan remembered, briefly disappearing from his sight and reappearing a moment later, setting him even more on edge but curious nonetheless.

“I’m like you.” Remus had said quietly. “Basically I run real fast and the government hasn’t figured out how to get me yet.”

Logan had watched as he jiggled his wrists a bit for emphasis, bare save for colored chords that he assumed didn’t associate him with any government branch since they didn’t look official.

“Are you okay?” Remus had asked next and mutely Logan nodded, unsure of how to react to this fellow mutant who had never been caught by any sort of lab, apparently living as free as one could when you were as different as they were. He stepped back as another man appeared behind him, Janus he later learned.

“Liar.” Janus had hissed, making Remus reach around and smack the back of his head.

“It was a polite thing to ask that he tried to dismiss Jan. Let the adults speak for a second.”

Logan had noted the faint pout on Janus’ face though he was still trying very hard to look intimidating. And then all at once his eyes had turned cold as his attention was once again focused on Logan, glaring menacingly from beneath a black bowler hat. “I’m younger than you and yet I’m the one that has to put my foot down. He’s being chased clearly; we are not bringing him back with us.”

Remus has turned, Logan seemingly forgotten for the moment. “That’s not how it works! He needs help and we’re not leaving him to starve or be found in the middle of a park! What would Patton say?”

“Patton is a soft fool who needs to figure out where their morals stand. I myself am choosing not to compromise our place of hiding and three other people that you know those power hungry idiots would love nothing more than to get their hands on!”

Remus rolled his eyes so hard his head had lolled with it, face going pale as he watched something in the sky. It was then that Logan heard the telling sound of a helicopter flying low and getting closer but he had barely tensed before he found himself gripped around the middle and held vertically with the ground flying underneath him. They stopped abruptly and he was set down, blinking in rapid confusion as Remus grinned sheepishly at him.

“Welcome to the hideout?”

Logan’s eyes had widened and his breath had caught yet again, chest tightening as he shook his head vehemently. “You can’t- I need to go back! They’ll do anything to get me back-!”

He was stopped from going forward with a finger to his chest, his blue eyes locking with beautiful brown as Remus held his gaze. “And we will do everything to keep you safe.”

Safe. With that one word Logan was his. He hadn’t known why and he still didn’t quite understand it but he had trusted Remus with everything he had- and he still did. Even as Janus had stalked off grumbling and Virgil and Roman had kept their distance at first Remus had kept him close and showed him how much better his life could be, even if they were living in a modified sewer system.

Back in the present he looked up as a hand was thrust under his chin, smiling softly as he took Remus’ hand and let himself be led away from the others’ idle chatter. He counted himself extremely lucky in the end that Janus had eventually come around to him, seeing how happy he made Remus and how Remus made Logan feel it had been him to finally talk to Logan about it and get the two to officially talk about how they felt, going on about the being “hopeless gay idiots” when they had finally started to date officially. Logan wasn’t sure what he’d do without Remus at this point, just a year later and he was so attached to their small group of hideaways he wouldn’t trade for the world.

They approached the exit to the sewers, Remus swinging their hands between them. Logan held his breath right before they crossed the threshold, closing his eyes and letting it out slowly as his feet met grass and he opened his eyes to the darkened field. There were a few tunnels that lead out to different places depending on where they needed to go and this, Remus had told him, was his favorite because of how empty it was. The city lay far in the distance so there was almost no light pollution to block out the sky. Soft grass and flowers brushed his ankles as he scanned the area carefully, seeing nothing but trees lining the far end of the field with a road so far away he could barely, make it out in the darkness. Remus tugged his hand softly to get his attention, searching his eyes for any hint of discomfort.

“Is this okay?’

Logan took another breath and let it out, the last of his nerves fading away as he took in the quiet. “It’s perfect Remus.”

The other grinned and tugged a little harder this time, walking fast to the middle of the field where he stopped suddenly and raised Logan’s arm up to lead him into an impromptu twirl. Logan laughed quietly and then louder as he was dipped, secure in Remus’ strong hold as he reached up to grip the back of his neck. He was safe. He was free and safe and happy finally with someone who truly loved and cared for him. His breath caught in his throat again but this time in awe, Remus chuckling as he was laid down carefully tucked into his side, till with his arms around his neck.

The stars shone bright and winked lazily while swirls of color dusted faintly behind them. The moon was waning, a barely there light that let the beauty behind it show fully as the wind whisked away any clouds that dared to try and cover it. It was everything Logan had ever hoped it would be and more, excitement thrumming through him as he squeezed Remus tightly in an attempt to convey it. He felt Remus grin against his scalp where his face was buried in his hair.

“It’s beautiful isn't it?”

Logan looked back at him, light from the stars reflected in his eyes and wild brown hair framing his face. He leaned up slightly and kissed him, a faint brush of their lips that left them both grinning like the idiots they were. Placing a hand on Remus’ cheek Logan smiled at him, thumb brushing over his cheek in adoration.

“Absolutely stunning.”

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golddaggers · 4 years

Text

girl crush

pairing: best friend!harry styles x reader;

warnings: none really just a smidge of angst but plenty of fluff.

a/n: so here we are! i just ask of you to go kind on me because this is my first time, ok? and sort of self indulging. anyway. leave a comment/reblog if you do like it!

word count: about 2,8k. it’s a quick little thing.

It was a typical Tuesday, I’d woken up, drank my large-sized cup of coffee, and then spent almost five hours straight staring at my computer screens. Not that all of those hours had been any good, I searched and searched, but still hadn’t cracked just how I was supposed to solve the problem. Hell, about three times I was yelling at the machine, calling it ‘bloody stupid’ before trying another approach, still proven worthless.

Lunch had been skipped, I barely took a bite of my grilled sandwich before diving back to the code lines, analysing. I’ve always been so good at cracking things, finishing hard puzzles… At least I needn’t worry about a deadline breathing down my neck, this particular feature would only be out to the end-users on the major release.

Either way, the idea of not being able to come up with a solution bugged me. I could never leave things well enough alone if they were unsolved. It was only when one of my friends texted me about some old high school chick we both used to hate that was pregnant that I realised how late it was. My back hurt from spending too much time sitting down on my chair and I could feel my eyes tired, staring at a computer screen for so many hours wasn’t exactly too healthy.

At least it put the tornado of thoughts I’ve been having for the past couple of weeks to ease. I didn’t want to think about how I had the worst timing ever. Or how I was a big coward for keeping this to myself.

But… I couldn’t just tell him. Falling in love with your best friend seems easy in the movies, in reality, I was overwhelmed with anxiety. Harry and I grew up together, we were inseparable from the first time we shared toys in our old town’s playground. Never before I would’ve thought I’d be here, with butterflies rioting in my stomach when he flashed his green eyes at me. It’d be easy if I could just open up, only opening up meant I could lose our 20 and something years of friendship. That was just too much to lose.

Now it seemed as if I had lost my chance. He’d gone out on a date with a girl. They’d been going out for a while. She was… breathtaking. Golden hair, brown eyes, freckles, and a body I wouldn’t ever have. Harry wasn’t the easiest to commit to someone, not that he was a womaniser or something within those lines… He just had problems. Like we all do, I suppose. He seemed genuinely interested in her, though, and it killed me inside to realise it.

I looked toward a corner where a tiny pink ukulele rested and decided I could do with some singing. So I go over to pick it up, playing a couple of notes to see if it was tuned. It’d been a while since I last took it between my hands. Hadn’t enough time to do anything, if I was being honest.

Sat back on my chair, I take my time to reminisce over a song I heard him humming a few days ago. Harry had been doing the dishes, something he hated, but I’d cooked for the two of us, so it was the least he could do. He laughed like a child all the way to the sink, even put on my pink apron. It wasn’t unusual for him to do them when he was in fact at home - which happened only a few handfuls of weeks at a time.

Leaning against the counter top, I watched him. Then the humming began. One would think a singer would get enough on the stage, well, maybe they do, not him though. In the shower, sending texts, doing the dishes… Harry was always singing something. Low and more to himself. I couldn’t lie, even if I wanted to, that I love when he’s home, his entire being enough to warm up the place.

That night I had been wearing one of his old tees, he leaves them everywhere. And it wasn’t unusual for me to “steal” some for myself, besides being comfy, especially the cotton sweaters, they all smelt like him. Felt homely to be inside them, as if he were sleeping next to me.

“I’ve got a girl crush…” I start, unsure if I’ve got the tone right, “Hate to admit it, but I got a heart rush, it ain’t slowing down.”

My legs are crisscrossed as I rest further back onto the black cushion of my chair. Each note fueled the turmoil growing inside my chest. It was so true, every time I looked at her, the pictures on her Instagram were flawless… I wanted to have everything she had. Because if I did, maybe he would look at me differently, he’d see me in a different light.

The very instrument on my hands had been a gift from him. I have always enjoyed playing the guitar, I came to write a few songs myself… But I’ve never seen it as something I’d want to do for a living. Didn’t like the spotlight very much, not that being friends with a worldwide known popstar helped. Paps seemed to be everywhere. It was just annoying how we couldn’t enjoy a single outing without being awakened with a buzzing phone. My other friends texting me the several headlines saying “Harry Styles has been seen yet again with childhood best friend, could they be dating?”

Got worse when we moved in together. The thing was… We didn’t really live together, yes, the house, more like a mansion if I was being honest, belonged to him and he stayed there whenever he was in London, which, if he was working too much, seldom happened. So no, we didn’t live together. Harry just thought it’d be nice for me to stay there since it was so empty all the time and I only said yes because I needed saving money to pay off the loan I had taken to cover my university tuition. It felt like a lifetime away.

I stayed because I had grown spoiled. At first, I was annoyed he didn’t let me pay for the expenses whenever he was away, I was nowhere rich, but now I made more than enough to cover the bills, even for a house as big as this one, since most of it was inhabited. He insisted on me keeping it, doing fun things I wanted to do, and I shouldn’t worry about anything else. A couple of months later, I saw the appeal to his offer. I also knew my best friend well to know he was a stubborn son of a bitch.

Everything changed when Harry told me about his golden girl. After so many years, we had grown aware of the other’s quirks, as I like to put it, we knew how to deal with one another. My point being was… Harry could be a bit sensitive when I told him about my dates, now it lights a spark of hope within me, back then, however, I brushed it off as him trying to act as a protective big brother. He, on the other hand, never had problems when talking about the people he dated to me. Often I wouldn’t care. This time… It happened right after the fatidic Tuesday.

The pain stung like a sharp edge of a knife against my heart.

“I wanna’ taste her lips, yeah, ‘cos they taste like you… I wanna’ drown myself in a bottle of her perfume...” The notes come out soft, I can hear a little metallic sound as my hands switch the notes and I keep singing the sad lyrics, “Yeah, ‘cos maybe then, you’d want me just as much...”

“Thought I had a nightingale in this room,” His accent slipped through the sentence like butter on a warm toast, “‘lo, love.”

His presence startled me, I almost dropped the ukulele. It was way too early for him to be back home from his date. Part of me wanted to ask how it’d gone and in any other situation, I would’ve. Not tonight, though. Didn’t wanna know if she had kissed him good night. If he gave her his signature green-eyed glare when he wanted something… If he’d asked for another date. My heart wouldn’t be able to cope.

“You scared me.”

“I reckon you said I was fit like a daydream,” He stuffed his chest and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Are you actually quoting your ex-girlfriend?” Harry rolled his eyes, dismissing my comment completely, “Why are you home already?”

“D’ya want me to leave?”

“You are ridiculous,” I say as I stand up, the Fleetwood Mac tee I had on falling to my mid thighs. It was oversized because it didn’t belong to me, which doesn’t go unnoticed by him, who has a cheeky grin directed at me. “Stop looking. You keep ditching them and I just happen to like these shirts.”

“I didn’t say anything, doll. But I was looking for that one, though I settled for that old pink striped sweater of yours.”

“So it’s with you?” My indignation seeps through, “I went nutty looking for that.”

“Looks better on me anyway.”

“Nonsense.”

The laughter shakes his whole body, yet again I am plowed with our childhood memories, that right there hadn’t changed. Harry still laughed like a little child, a boy with his blue truck toy. I felt warm inside, to watch him like that. To still have, after so long, a friend like he was to me.

Harry goes quiet then, bright green staring right at me. I know what’s coming. It’s happened before - I sang about the boys I liked quite often, I suppose. So it was obvious he wanted to know who was stealing my attention this time. He wanted to know who I was singing about.

“Get your mind out of the gutter.”

“Wha’? I didn’t even open my mouth.”

“I know you,” Back on my feet, I grab my plate with the remains of what was supposed to be my lunch and head out to the kitchen. He followed me around like a stray puppy.

The kitchen is an enormous place. Wooden cupboards with just about every piece of china one could dream of, fine crystal glasses for wine and champagne, bowls, plates, even goblets could be found. Inside the several drawers, besides the silver cutlery, I had managed to fold some table sheets I bought at a flea market. Harry would lose his mind if he knew where they came from. On the left corner, a tall two-door grey fridge, with a shopping list on its door to remind me that I needed to go out tomorrow to get things. Next to the two basin sink, was an electric cooktop that had become my best friend, I loved to cook there, staring out the window - the yard was beautiful, green grass all year long, though during spring the most gorgeous flowers blossomed. I loved that place very much.

Right in the middle was an island, my lone cactus trying to make it a little less plain. Which wasn’t that hard, the dark marble surface glimmered under the led light.

After I threw out the sandwich and put the plate on the sink, I started pacing around to gather things for dinner, fresh tomatoes to make the sauce with homegrown onions and garlic. I liked cultivating my food. I got flour, eggs, olive oil, and salt. It was all I needed to make the dough.

I could still feel his eyes on me, as I moved effortlessly through his kitchen, collecting everything I needed.

“What do you want?”

“You’re too stressed,” Harry says, standing up straight and standing next to me, “Is it about the boy you were singing about? Or girl. I dunno.”

“Seriously?” Can’t help but shake my head, “That’s your approach? ’M not telling you, H.”

“Oh, you’re keepin’ secrets from me. That’s new.”

He grabs the knife on my hand, starting to chop the onion into tiny cubes. Always skillful with his hands, he was.

“‘M not keeping secrets. It’s just none of your business.”

“Ouch.” Harry pours the onion into the pan, stealing the tomatoes to start chopping them as well. I focused on the dough. “You’re so adamant about not telling me I’ll start thinking it’s me.”

The entire world stills for me when he says that out loud, and I don’t know what to say, so I keep cracking the eggs, pouring them over the flour then adding, by eye, what I considered to be enough of olive oil. At last, I put two pinches of salt into the mix.

My silence seems to annoy him further.

“C’mon, it was a joke.” He tries, gently grabbing my arm and I see myself having to stop mixing, “I really want to know, though, have to make sure you’re with someone worthy of you.”

“Why?”

Couldn’t look him in the eye, I have them glued to the bowl with the sticky batter. The hand on my arm sneaks to my back, he’s warm and I tremble under his touch, my breath comes out a bit harsher.

Harry takes a deep breath before answering, “I care about you, bunny.”

“Is that all it is?” Now I dare to look up, to find those emeralds. I liked quite a lot to look at them, they were akin to shiny jewelry and I was the dazzled child. Right now they showed nothing but a shade of confusion.

“What else?”

A tightness in my chest grows, I know right away I am about to cry and I don’t want to. Don’t want to fall apart in front of him. In the middle of cooking. When things seemed to be going amazing for the two of us. Despite my most intimate wishes, I ended up doing just that, my dirty hands falling limp as he held me in his arms, asking over and over what had happened.

His chin rests on the top of my head and I can hear his heartbeat, slow and steady. My bottom lip is quivering. I was so tired of being tough, I just wanted to be loved. To be loved by him.

“I need to tell you something,” A sniff makes me sound whiny, “Promise me you won’t be mad.”

“Never,” Harry speaks so quietly I believe him. “Could never be mad at you, bunny.”

“Okay…”

I bring his much bigger hands into my own. They warm up under his touch. If I’m being honest, I warm up completely. Body and soul. He gives a soft squeeze, urging me to speak. It’s needless to say that he’s anxious, always being the curious one between the two of us.

“The song… Well, um, I was singing for you.” It was as quiet as a whisper, “I like you.”

“Don’t be silly.” His face goes serious, “You’re not kidding me, are ya?”

“Do you think I would?”

There’s a lump at the bottom of my throat, tears still falling. I didn’t have a problem being vulnerable with him, or opening up - now I was embarrassed. I would apologise if I hadn’t felt his warm lips start kissing my salty-teared cheeks, only to finish up with a chaste kiss on my own.

“What are you doing?” I pull back, shocked that he’d kissed me. “Do you...”

“I am so glad you’ve said first, fancying you for the longest time hasn’t been easy. But I suppose it gave me quite the inspiration.”

“You’ve written about me?”

“More times than I am proud to admit.”

This time it’s me who kisses him, standing on the tip of my toes, losing my fingers into the soft curls. It seemed very much unreal to me. He never struck me as the type to keep feelings in check or to himself. I should’ve seen something. Or maybe I did and didn’t want to face that the best person I could’ve fallen for was right in front of me.

Then I think about her. The golden-haired beauty. She wouldn’t be too pleased.

“She’s just a friend, bunny.”

“Reading my thoughts now, Styles?”

“Nah, just know you too well.”

“Yeah, I guess you do.”

Harry lifts me, kissing me again. And I can’t help but feel whole. Like a bit of me that was missing had been set on its place.

Bless the will to play a song.

#harry styles #harry styles x reader #best friend!harry styles x reader #harry x reader #harry x you #harry styles x you #harry styles x y/n #harry styles fluff #a smidge of angst #just a smidge #gorgeous english boy

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cynic-spirit · 3 years

Text

The Poem Series (4) The Passionate Shepherd to His Love – John Wick

All parts here

John was ecstatic. He was to pick up Diana for their dinner tonight. The goddess had given her peasant a chance to worship her. After the small conversation at the coffee shop, John and Diana parted with Diana giving John her address. John was still in shock as he could not believe that this woman had given him a chance, to be himself. He was wooed into a promise of a new life. John had decided on a quiet and quaint restaurant. He had the resources for anything but he knew that his beloved is a woman of a simple taste and pleasure. She would rather be with a man who engages her mind and heart than be with a man who showers her with material wealth. Of course John would do that. He would do that in ways that would not crowd her. When Diana accepted his decision to not reveal what he does for work, he knew, he would be seen as a man, as John. John’s heart raced again. He put a hand over his thumping heart and listened to its brag, Diana, Diana, Diana, it thumped. John would meet Diana without his hurt, humiliation, and the unspeakable shame that he harbored inside him. He would just be John with her.

John settled on his three-piece black suit. He did not own anything else for outside. He never thought he would ever need it. He checked his cufflinks. He set his tie straight. He wondered if it was too much, but then he also knew that his outfit is the last of the reasons that would be unacceptable for his woman. He smiled at the thought. He had almost not gone to The Continental Club that day. What would have happened if he hadn’t? He would have died a tired lonely, and wounded soul. But fate had taken him there. Something had pulled him there. John sets his hair back in his signature style and thinks. How sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That is the kind of storm that Diana had started in his heart.

It was a violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, there was no doubt about it. It had cut through his heart like a thousand razor blades. John had suffered cuts. He had suffered bleeds. He had suffered wounds and bullets like all the other assassins. He had seen hot, red, caustic blood, and yet, now at this moment, without any wounds, without any cuts, John was bleeding through his heart amidst a storm. He was not the same person.

John was not the only one experiencing a storm. There was his beloved in her own house, wondering about how she was able to show the boldness that she had never shown with a man before. This man, she thought, this man, with eyes that hid a hundred secrets, had made her step out of all her comfort zones. She had gone against every rule she had set for herself about dating a man. Not only had she agreed to go on for a coffee with a complete stranger, she had accepted a dinner with him. It was unlike her. When John had said he cannot tell her what he does, she did not care about the logic of “why” but could only see the desire and sadness in his eyes. Oh! How difficult it must be for him to hide it.

The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things one gets ashamed of, because words diminish them — words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in the head to no more than living size when they’re brought out. But it’s more than that, isn’t it, she thought? The most important things lie too close to wherever John’s secret heart is buried. It was like landmarks to a treasure his enemies would love to steal away. Maybe that’s why John did not want to tell her what he did, and somehow it did not matter for her. It was a revelation for John and it must have been difficult to speak for him because he thought she would not look at him the same way. Diana was sure she saw guilt and sadness about refusing to tell her what he did and she promised herself, that she would not ask. John was an attractive man. John was a mysterious man. John was a quiet man. She knew she would love to converse with him, but she also wanted to make herself desirable for him in appearance. She wondered what she should wear in order to do so. Diana blushed at the thought as she slowly moved her hands over the outfits in her wardrobe. What would a mysterious, attractive, and quiet man like on her? A man like this has probably had women before a lot of women, beautiful women. Diana was young but she looked ordinary. At 5’4” height, she was no match for John’s tall stature. From the appearance of it, he was at least 6’2”. What did a man like him find attractive in her, she wondered. After a lot of thought, she settled on the simplest and the most elegant outfit she could think of, a burgundy blouse, with grey skirt, and heels. She adorned it with a simple necklace and decided to let her hair down. She kept her phone and some money in her clutch and now it was the long twenty minutes wait for John to arrive at her doorstep.

John looked at himself in the mirror one last time and leaves out a breath. He puts on his dress coat, bends down to pat the dog. He then gently says to his buddy, “onto the battlefield now boy”. He walks to his garage and decides to take his favorite Mustang. He is going to pick her up. He is conflicted on how he should greet her, a handshake is too formal and cold, and he is doubtful if he leans in for a kiss, he would have the control to stop. With Diana, he has lost all his control so far. He speaks in half formed words, gives her surreptitious glances, and if not these, then awkward silence wins. He wondered if he should get her flowers, if so what kind. Diana would pay attention to the flowers. She pays attention to everything. Yes, he would make a stop at the flower shop.

At the flower shop, John saw the myriad of flowers placed on different stands and pots. The owner of the flower shop was a young woman, who was not immune to the presence of John, But John was consumed by the thoughts of Diana, who had become the light of his life, the fire in his heart, his sin, his soul. He felt intruded when the flower shop owner came and asked him:

“Sir, May I help you with something”

“I want a bouquet”

“For your girlfriend?”

“Yes”

“Do you know what kind of flowers or should I make one for you?”

“Yes. I want blush roses and red roses, cornflower, sweet William, honeysuckle, ivy, myrtle, and dahlia. Two of each, and please fasten it with a silk red ribbon” John said it in one breath, simply, and like a universal truth. He felt a bit proud of himself. Several years ago, he had bound a book on flowers and their meanings, and out of some vague curiosity, he had read it. He had never thought, it would eventually come to such significance in his life.

The owner of the shop stood flabbergasted with an open mouth. Deep down she felt jealous of the woman who would receive this bouquet. She wanted to know who this woman was and deep down she wanted to be her. She makes the bouquet and hands it over to John.

“That would be 110 dollars sir”

John gives the money. The shop owner, is shocked, he didn’t bargain. He didn’t ask to reduce the cost. Everyone at her shop asks her for discount, even the best of them, but this man. Who is this lucky woman after all?

“Do you want me to write anything on the card?”

“No, keep it”

“Sorry sir?”

“I don’t want the card.”

With this, John takes the bouquet and drives off to his destination leaving a very envious and very confused flower shop owner behind.

As John drove, he felt, something. Was it nervousness, was it worry? He doesn’t know. The feelings that Diana has brought out of him are strange and unknown. They are beyond his control. John sighs and in order to distract himself, he puts on the radio.

“Hello people. How are you all this evening? It is a beautiful evening outside. The sky is clear and you can see the stars. The lovers can do it together and the people who are alone can look at the stars longingly. Much like the shepherd who desires his dame. Is our audience aware of this poem? Well, for the people who are, wonderful, and for those who haven’t heard this beautiful piece of desire, my co-host Jenny will recite now, followed by a song from Smokie”

John increases the volume. His beloved teaches literature. He definitely wants to understand it, know it, talk about it, with her. He hears Jenny’s voice narrating the poem,

“Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove,

That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields,

Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the Rocks,

Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow Rivers to whose falls

Melodious birds sing Madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of Roses

And a thousand fragrant posies,

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroidered all with leaves of Myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool

Which from our pretty Lambs we pull;

Fair lined slippers for the cold,

With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and Ivy buds,

With Coral clasps and Amber studs:

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me, and be my love.

The Shepherds’ Swains shall dance and sing

For thy delight each May-morning:

If these delights thy mind may move,

Then live with me, and be my love.”

John sighs for the hundredth time today. Perhaps he is the shepherd for Diana. He wants to bring her the world of flowers, rivers, woods, mountains, and melodies of birds. He wants to make her a bed of roses. He wants to give her all pleasures of life. The boogeyman has become the passionate shepherd. John smiles and stops his car. He has reached his destination.

#john wick #john wick fanfic #john wick oneshot #john wick x ofc #john wick x original character #john wick x original female character #john wick imagine #john wick fanfiction #john wick x oc #john wick x reader #john wick x you #john wick x y/n #the continental #continental #the boogeyman #boogeyman

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whattodowithace · 3 years

Text

My Diamond In Red (Donghun)

Title: My Diamond in red

Pairing: Donghun (ace) x Reader

Genre: Spice; Diamond thieves AU

Word count: 3021

Writer: Kpopmadness (Ju)

A/N: I left the ending open for a part two. Hopefully it should be out soon.

*****

I step out of the car into the cool night air. The large slit in my dress that extend to my thigh show my leg generously as I step out of the car.

I smooth my hair down for the millionth time. Not used to it being up in quite such an elegant due. Crowds of people walk up the elegant mansion steps, all of them reminding me of porcelain dolls with how perfect they looked. The men in crisp suits and the woman in beautiful dresses.

“Stop looking so nervous.” A soft female voice comes through in my ear, making me jump slightly. “You look stunning.”

“She’s more than stunning, Ara. She looks hot!” Another voice says over the speaker.

“Changmin, focus on the job.” A deeper voice growls.

“Sorry, Daejung.” Both voices apologize solemnly. Clearly defeated.

I chuckle over the banter going on in my ear. Those were my teammates. We weren’t just a team, but a family.

We are known as the K4. 4 Of A Kind.

A group organized in stealing. Stealing Diamonds to be exact. Those places everyone said were impossible to break into, the places that had high security and motion detectors and cameras everywhere we left bare by morning. The only thing left in the cases once containing the crowned Diamond was replaced with a gold poker chip with four spades and a heart engraved on it. Our signature. Our tell.

We were the spades, the diamond our heart.

We moved from city to city perfecting our burglary. Our faces and looks always changing with the city. Our path swept clean and untraceable. The cops never could find us no matter how hard they tried. We had begun to think they had come to admire us in a way. Our prize tonight? A mansion with a wealthy investor as its owner. Who just so happened to own something we had been desperately wanting since we started our profession six years ago.

A red diamond. Also known as Fancy Reds. This gentleman was loaded. He owned a necklace with a row of four diamonds placed inside it.

Call it diamond fever, but we wanted it from the moment we knew he had it. And it just so happened he was holding an open house party to celebrate finding four of these rare beauties. And his diamond was the highlight of the show. He wasn’t exactly smart for showing off his possessions but we weren’t going to argue.

I smoothed down my red dress and tried not to fall over in my black high heels as i ascended up the stairs.

“You all have visual, right?” I ask under my breath into the mic placed in my right ear.

“We’re all set.” Ara confirmed. She was our brains of the group. She was a hacker and got us into wherever we needed to go. She controlled anything and everything she wanted to with her laptop.

“I’m ready.” Changmin answers. He was the youngest of the group. But he was our handy mole. He was small so he fit into almost every air vent and tight space possible. He also was freakishly strong for being small in size.

“Don’t screw this up.” Daejung teased in my ear. Daejung was our oldest. He was the voice of reason and often the one girls ogled over. But he was also our equipment man. He made everything we needed for every job. We almost never had to buy things for our jobs. Which made us even harder to trace for the cops.

And then there was me. I was the one that made everyone comfortable at parties. I got peoples trust and respect before taking what we really wanted. I also was the one assigned changing roles in our jobs. I was a secretary in one job, a business woman in the next, a wealthy investor, a researcher. Name it, I’ve probably played the role once or twice.

Tonight, I was a wealthy investor. One that the man that owned the diamond knew well. And per usual, I had dressed the part.

My red low cut dress was the most flattering and fancy thing I had ever worn. It hugged my waist bringing out the curve and muscle but then flowed down elegantly to my ankles, almost dragging the floor. A slit that came up to my thigh added to the flare of the dress.

Daejung was in a sharp cut suit and already inside. He was my backup in case something went wrong. I let out a sigh and stepped inside the mansion. The room loud with people talking and laughing. Waiters in crisp white shirts and vests carried around trays of champagne and shrimp.

In the center of the room was a large glass case with blue lights radiating from it. Inside it, the fancy reds.

I smirk as I make my way down the steps leading inside the house. My job of surveying the house and checking out exits with Daejung would be a walk in the park with the diamonds sitting right in the middle of the room like that.

“To your right is the owner of the mansion and his wife.” Daejung says through the mic in my ear. I glance over to see a man in his sixties standing next to his wife. Who looked to be at least twenty or younger.

“Yikes.” I mutter under my breath. Making Ara snort.

I take a glass of champagne from a waiter and go sit down at a bar stool at the far end of the room, surveying the land.

“I don’t see much security.” I whisper, checking to make sure no one heard me.

“Because there barely is any.” Changmin answers. “This guy has the rarest diamonds in the world and he’s an idiot with them.”

I stifle a laugh and see Deajung in the far corner of the room doing the same.

“So your telling me this is an easy job?” I ask, excitement coursing through me.

“Very easy.” Daejung answers as he starts to talk around the large crowded room.

I smirk and start doing the same. Mixing in with the large crowds and acting my part. I pull away from one conversation with a group of people and smile into my mic.

“Very interesting. They don’t live here.”

“They don’t live here?” Ara repeats, “What is this place then?”

“One of their three mansions they own in the state.” I whisper as I make my way back to the bar where it was less crowded.

“They’re only showing off the diamonds here for tonight and then moving them to one of their more secure mansions.”

“So... we’re moving the date to tonight? We’re taking these diamonds now?” Changmin asks, his excitement bleeding through his voice.

I smile as I finish off my drink and answer, “Start getting things ready.”

I hear several whoops of excitement as I sit at my stool for a moment longer, enjoying the moment.

“Daejung, you ready to go?” I ask. Silence answers me.

“Daejung?” I say again, my heart picking up in my chest.

I scan the room looking for my fellow teammate when my eyes spot him. He stands in the corner of the room, his sharp jaw set firmly and his eyes staring straight ahead. A waiter stands beside him, his arm draped over Daejung’s shoulder. A smirk on his face.

I suck in a breath and curse under my breath.

“What’s wrong?” Ara and Changmin ask me in unison.

“We’re idiots that’s what’s wrong.” I growl under my breath as I rub my eyes.

“All of the waiters have masks on. And Daejung is held up by one of them right now.” I say as I continue to watch Daejungs ever tightening muscles.

“Wait... why is that bad?” Changmin asks.

“Because the waiter is Seyoon. Which means A.C.E was here before us.” I answer, a feeling of defeat and annoyance washing over me.

A.C.E was a rival group of thieves that had been hot on our tails since a job we had in Chicago four years ago. They got to the diamond before us, we stole it back from them. You could say there’s bad blood between us. Their leader especially worried me.

“He isn’t there...is he?” Ara asks, her voice weak.

I think back to the past two hours we had spent at the party. We had a feeling they would be here but didn’t think they would show up to the party. A memory flashes in my mind of when I had been talking to a group of investors and I felt something brush up against my back. I had turned to see who it was but only saw one of the waiters with a try in hand walking in the opposite direction. I had foolishly shrugged off the brush as an accident.

I let out a long sigh and lean against the bars counter for support.

“He is.” I answer gravely.

As I sit there I can now easily spot the other members. The closest to me was Jun, Chan was at the other end of the room placing drinks on a table, and Byeongkwan at the other end of the room standing motionless. His eyes surveying the area carefully.

My heart sped up when I didn’t see their leader. Because either he was busy somewhere else or...

“Have you missed me?” A voice whispers in my ear free of the mic.

Or he was close enough to me I couldn’t see him.

I let out a sigh and flick my eyes over to see a pair of dark, dragon like eyes staring back at me through his silver mask. A smirk on his full lips.

“And here I was hoping you wouldn’t come.” I retort. Keeping locked on his eye gaze.

Donghun’s smirk widens as he takes my arm and helps me up off the bar stool.

“We need to talk.” He says in a low voice so only I hear him.

“Please, take out your earpiece. I’m too young to hear this kind of talking.” Changmin begs in my ear.

“No! Keep it in! He might say something we need to know.” Ara argues, clearly excited.

“She can tell us when she gets back! But I for one don’t want to hear him flirt with her. Besides, she’s not defenseless.” Changmin whines.

“Changmin, you’re insufferable.” Ara argues, making Changmin go into a rant with her.

I turn off the earpiece in my ear as Donghun pulls me through the crowd to a more private space.

Changmin was right, I wasn’t defenseless. Knowing that much made me calmer, but what had to happen for it to work made my heart race.

“Put this on over your lipstick.” Daejung had told me as I got ready in a hotel bathroom before the party.

“What? Why?” I ask, right before Daejung stabs a long needle into my neck, making me cry out.

“Ow!” I holler, “What the heck was that?!” I ask irritability, rubbing my neck.

“An antidote to what you’re going to put on your lips.” He told me with a smirk.

“Now what did you make?” I ask, smiling a little.

“It’s a sedative.” Daejung tells me as he hands me a pink lipgloss container. “Put this over your lips. It should stay on until you wash your makeup off later. It will induce sleep for 15 minutes to anyone you get it on. But it has to be on their lips. It will take about three minutes to kick in. I just gave you the antidote so it won’t effect you.”

“Why do you think I will need this?” I ask as I start to apply the thin gloss to my lips.

“Because if you know who is there, you’re going to need it.” Daejung tells me, his smirk growing wider.

At that time a blush had spread onto my face and neck, but now I wasn’t think Daejung’s idea was so dumb after all.

Donghun pulls me onto an empty balcony outside. The cool night air feeling glorious on my hot skin. I let out a sigh as I lean against the railing, my body temperature slowly coming down.

Donghun shuts the door behind us and removes his mask from his face. I get a full view of him now. He wore the same outfit all the other waiters did. A white dress-shirt and black vest. He had undone two of the buttons on his dress shirt, showing part of his chest and collarbone. His silver hair was slicked back sharply, showing every feature of his tan face.

“You just can’t help but follow us around.” I sneer at him, genuinely annoyed.

“We were here first tonight.” Donghun shoots back. “You and your little team always show up where you aren’t wanted.”

I cross my arms over my chest, trying to ignore how Donghun’s eyes flicked down my body when I did that.

“We wouldn’t have this problem if you would go somewhere else.” I retort. My voice less annoyed now than I wanted it to be.

Donghun lets out a chuckle and takes a few steps toward me. “Do you really want me to go somewhere else?” He asks, his voice dropping several octaves.

“It would be nice.” I reply weakly. His stepping closer making me nervous.

“Really?” He asks again, his body only inches from mine now.

“Really.” I answer, locking eyes with him.

“You wouldn’t miss our encounters? We seem to have a lot in common, you and I.” Donghun says, his fingers brushing against my jawline.

I suck in a breath from his touch but try to keep my voice steady. “I may not mind them so much if you weren’t always trying to take what we wanted.”

“Maybe I want something more than the diamonds you go for.” Donghun whispers, his fingers sliding down my waist to my thigh where the slit was.

“Like what?” I press, my palms resting on the balcony’s railing as I tilt my head up at him.

Donghun grabs my thigh harshly and pulls me against him until there was no space between us as his other hand takes the back of my neck and pulls me closer to his lips.

“Are you brave enough to find out?” He whispers darkly, his lips brushing mine but his eyes locked with my own.

I smirk as I take his hand that was on my thigh and maneuver it until it was underneath the dress and rested fully on my upper thigh. His muscles tensing as his thumb rubs circles on my skin.

I weave my fingers through his hair before whispering,

“Try me.” My words a challenge and not a request.

Donghun smirks as he pushes his lips against mine. His body keeping me against the railing and him. His mouth moving against mine quickly and slowly all at once.

I place my hands on either side of his face to deepen the kiss, his hand moving up my bare thigh roughly as he pulls me against him.

Donghun bites my lip harshly, making me let out a moan as my hands slide around his neck. He smirks against my lips as he starts trailing kisses down to my neck.

“God, you look so good right now.” Donghun growls as he bites my neck but at the same time grips my leg tighter, making me shutter.

I bite Donghun’s ear, making him let out a moan from deep in his chest and hold on to the railing with his hand that wasn’t on my leg for support.

“I look better without the dress on.” I whisper darkly in his ear. My breath and words making him shutter as his claims my lips again.

I release his lips to leave a series of harsh bites along his jaw and neck, making him let out several gasp and groans as his head falls back to give me more access. His hand that was on my thigh gripped it hard enough I was positive there was a bruise forming there where his fingers pressed against my skin.

I rest my tongue against a mark forming on Donghun’s neck when I feel him sway slightly. His grip on me loosening.

I pull away from him with a smirk, “You feeling okay, baby?” I ask, my voice innocent.

“I’m... fine.” Donghun slurs his eyes growing heavy. He only just gets the words out when he collapses onto the ground, his arms barely sitting him up.

“What... you do...” He whispers, his eyes unfocused.

I sigh and bend down to take his face in my hands. “You’re a little too trusting.” I tell him as I place one more kiss on his lips.

“Have fun explaining to the boys why you can’t walk.” I tell him with a smirk as I stand and go to leave the balcony.

I smirk as I head for the front door, Daejung already outside waiting. My lips are swollen and a bruise had begun to form on my neck but he says nothing as we walk a few blocks down and opens a black van door with Ara and Changmin waiting inside it.

They flood me with questions as I change out of my dress and wipe my makeup off quickly. Daejung has to quiet them down to run through our plan.

I climb out of the van to get in the drivers seat and start the engine. I drive by the mansion to see all of A.C.E coming down the mansions stairs. Donghun has a hold on Juns shoulder as they descend, his feet unsteady.

He looks up briefly and meets my eyes as I drive past, his eyes still not fully focused. I wave at him slightly as I go past, his eyes following us until we’re out of view.

I smile against my hand, a steady throb on my thigh reminding me of his touch. Something told me that wouldn’t be our last meet up. Especially over a diamond.

#a.c.e #ace #a.c.e x reader #a.c.e imagine #ace fanfiction #ace donghun x reader #ace donghun #a.c.e donghun #ace spice #a.c.e spice #kpop #kpop fanfiction #kpop x reader #spice #fanfiction #kpop imagines #kpopmadness writings

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yamayamawrites · 3 years

Text

This December

A/N: Hi friends! Happy (almost) December! As a treat this year, I decided to write a short fic (and by short, I do mean around 40k - so not terribly short) about the Dekusquad spending a week at a winter cabin! The first chapter will officially go up on my AO3 page (you can find it here!) tomorrow, with updates coming out every Tuesday/Friday for the next 4 weeks, but I decided to post a sneak preview of chapter 1 here early!! Hope you enjoy!

Tuesday, December 01, 20XX

It’s been four years since Izuku graduated from U.A. Four years, and he’s moved three times since then – once, to an agency based in Kyoto, where he lived the longest. He worked many of the smaller cases there, the more personal ones – stopping a villain who’d kidnapped a mother’s newborn; keeping a local corner store from being robbed; catching a stray piece of scrap metal dropped from a crane near a construction site, and saving two children playing tag. He accredits most of his fame to Kyoto, and though it’s certainly not a small city, it feels small when he moves two years later to Hiroshima.

It’s in Hiroshima that Izuku takes on his first major case – ends up working beside Eijirou in the process, and both of them (already well-established and in the high twenties in hero rankings) skyrocket to the top ten after busting the case wide open. It’s a child trafficking ring, where children are abducted and sold for their Quirks. And, just following this case, he has perhaps a hundred offers to other agencies that will pay better or get more exposure. After all, Midoriya Izuku is just past twenty and he’s ranked number four, below Suneater and Lemillion from U.A., and, yet to be overthrown at number one, Endeavor. And while he still hasn’t learned Hiroshima’s roads, nor has he unpacked all his boxes yet, he uproots once more, and heads for Tokyo.

The biggest reason he leaves is because of the agency. Tokyo is crawling with them – agencies nearly on every block – but they’re small, full of sidekicks who haven’t broken one hundred yet, even. But there’s one agency in particular whose letter stands out amongst the rest, because the signature on the offer letter is his old friend Hitoshi’s, and Hitoshi knows just whose names to drop to garner Izuku’s attention – “You would be working side by side with Uravity and Ingenium, and perhaps partnering with Shouto and Ground Zero.”

And now, almost seven months since he’s become acquainted with the Tokyo agency, has climbed past Suneater in the latest ranking, he drums his fingers on Ochaco’s office door. She pops her head up from behind her monitor, still wearing her hero costume from her patrol while she types up a final report before lunch. “Oh!” she says, as though she isn’t expecting Izuku, despite the fact that they always go to lunch together on Tuesdays.

“Ready to go?” Izuku asks, hanging off Ochaco’s door, now. “Tenya coming today, too?”

“Tenya got wrapped up in a petty theft case,” Ochaco rolls her eyes. “Seriously. Who tries to steal a dozen watches in the middle of the morning?”

“People who don’t know Tenya exists?” Izuku shrugs, and Ochaco laughs, pushes herself away from her desk on her rolling chair and hops up. “I need to stop and grab my key card before we go. Hold on.”

Ochaco trails after Izuku down the hall to his office, one with arguably the best view in the building. It overlooks the rest of the city, some of the smaller agencies the size of peanuts from way up here. His door is ajar when he walks up, light still on. Along the right wall is a photograph – himself, at graduation, with Ochaco and Tenya to his left, and Shouto to his right. Behind all of them is All Might, having managed his heroic form just for the click of a camera. They all wear navy graduation gowns, though Izuku’s is unzipped and reveals his hero costume underneath. Shouto’s hair is swept back from his face, his graduation cap in his hands, and he’s actually smiling – Izuku thinks it may be the only photograph in his entire collection of pictures of Shouto where he isn’t frowning. And Ochaco and Tenya are leaning into each other, smiles bright and happy, caps on and hands clasped together.

“Can’t believe you still have this hanging in here,” Ochaco muses as she steps into the room, wandering directly to the photograph.

Izuku spares it a second glance before going to his desk and rooting through the drawers for his key card to get back into the building. “It’s my favorite,” he says with a defensive huff, and Ochaco laughs.

“It’s not a bad thing,” she says. “It’s just that my forehead looks huge in this.”

“Shut up,” Izuku chides, “you look fine. You look great, even!”

“I think you hung this one because Shouto is in it,” Ochaco jeers, because she knows it will get a reaction out of Izuku. And it does; Izuku, who had bent down to check under his desk for the key card, thuds his head on the bottom side of it when he tries to sit up too quickly.

“Th-that isn’t it!” Izuku huffs, rubbing his head. “Stop with that, you know I’m over it.”

“How come you’ve been waiting for the opportunity to work a case with him, then?” Ochaco says, and she sounds innocent, but when Izuku looks over he sees mischief in her eyes, the pure evil of a friend who’s been given explicit information to a secret crush that maybe shouldn’t have been told.

“Is it a crime to want to work alongside a friend?” Izuku says back defensively, still searching for his key card. Eventually he finds it atop a stack of reports he’s yet to take down to the accounting department – the longer he waits, the longer it’ll be until his next paycheck, but seriously, he makes way too much as it is.

“Well, no,” Ochaco says, crossing the room and perching herself on Izuku’s cluttered desk. “I mean, that’s how you ended up working here.”

“Exactly,” Izuku says as a means of ending the conversation, grabbing his wallet off his desk as well (he’d forgotten that, too, it seems) and heading for the door. Ochaco follows after him, realizes he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore, and thankfully, after being best friends for almost a decade now, she respects that.

The walk down the road to their usual noodle shop is cold. The first snow hit about a week ago, and the temperature has warmed enough and cooled again since then to freeze mounds of slush at the lip of the roads. The sidewalk is clear of snow, busy despite the cold weather with people walking around downtown.

When they step inside the noodle shop, the warmth floods their cheeks and hands. They’re regulars here, and the waitress seats them as though they aren’t the number three and number sixteen heroes – after all, she gets to have this experience every Tuesday. She does, however, comment on Izuku’s latest search-and-rescue, says she’s glad someone like him was there. And it’s the comments like these that always make Izuku proud of his profession, the ones where he’s not being gushed over for his abs or his good looks (though those still make him blush); it’s the gratitude that Izuku’s presence has made a difference on the scene of a crime, or natural disaster, or whatever the occasion. It’s knowing people are glad Izuku was there.

“So,” Ochaco stretches back in her chair after she finishes her noodles. “Tenya and I have been thinking about taking a vacation.”

“Oh?” Izuku says, folding his hands in front of him on the table. He’d finished his noodles a few minutes ago.

“Yeah,” Ochaco hums, twirling her weightless chopsticks around her fingers idly while she speaks. “We were kind of thinking of inviting a few old friends from U.A. to come with.”

“Oh, so not like a romantic getaway then?” Izuku tilts his head to the side, curious. Ochaco and Tenya have been together since their second year of high school, and vacations for the just two of them aren’t anywhere near uncommon.

“More like a, um, reunion?” Ochaco says, dropping the chopsticks now. “What do you think, Izuku? Are you in?”

Izuku blanches. Somehow, even with Ochaco suggesting friends from U.A. accompany them on their vacation, he hadn’t considered that might mean him. Which is absurd, because the three of them have been best friends since high school began – they even chatted on the phone all the time when Izuku was in Kyoto and Hiroshima. “Of course,” he says after he scoops his jaw up from where it dropped, and Ochaco laughs.

“You seriously thought I wouldn’t extend the invitation to you?”

“That’s not what—”

“Come on, Deku,” she giggles, rolling her eyes. “You can’t lie to me. I know all.”

He laughs, shakes his head. “I guess I just wasn’t expecting it, sorry.”

“Well, you’re obviously the first person on the guest list. Tenya and I have already found a place, too! There’s this beautiful vacation lodge for rent on the edge of the Kiso Mountain chain.”

“That’s almost four hours from here,” Izuku says, suddenly a bit afraid of what might happen being so far from Tokyo. “What if a big villain or something finds out we’re all gone on vacation?”

“You act like our class from high school are the only competent heroes around anymore,” Ochaco rolls her eyes. “C’mon, if anything happened Suneater and Lemillion alone could take them, not to mention Nejire-chan and that wind hero guy.”

Izuku exhales, forcing himself to nod and agree. “I guess you’re right,” he sighs, his smile a tad nervous still.

“What, worried the public will forget about their favorite hero Deku after a week?” Ochaco reaches across the table and pokes at Izuku’s cheek. “Have some faith! And learn to take a vacation! Seriously, when’s the last time you took a break? Never?”

“Never,” Izuku affirms, though in the past he’s been proud of the fact; now he’s a little embarrassed. “How much would I owe you?”

But Ochaco waves off the question, and she grabs for the bill on the table – Izuku doesn’t even remember the waitress dropping it off. “You know more than any of us that money isn’t a factor,” she says, shrugging. “Tenya and I can cover it.”

“Shut up,” Izuku rolls his eyes. “You guys shouldn’t have to pay for everything. At least let me cover gas and groceries?”

It takes a bit of coaxing, but eventually Izuku convinces Ochaco to let him cover grocery costs; the two of them make plans to visit the grocery store together the night before they leave. Ochaco doesn’t reveal the guest list, nor does Izuku even think to ask about it until after they’re walking back to the office, bumping shoulders and laughing over inside jokes from their high school days. And as they ascend the staircase side by side, Izuku finally does ask, and Ochaco laughs, and that’s the most of an answer he gets.

#yamayamawrites #this december #happy holidays #mha #bnha #my hero #tododeku #iidachako #sneak peek!#ao3

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solohux · 4 years

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The Emperor & His Consort

For Celeste ❤️

Emperor Hux/Consort Kylo, Mpreg, Fluff, 1.6k

Enjoy!

The gentle, soothing sounds of Hux humming to him rouses the pampered consort from sleep, bringing him from his joyful dreams and into the land of wakefulness so softly that Kylo feels like he’s still dreaming. Beside him, the Emperor’s body is bathed in the golden sunlight that shines through the grand window beside their ornate bed, giving him a heavenly silhouette. Absently, Kylo can feel Hux’s soft hands grazing over the plump curve of his pregnant belly, gliding his fingers across the stretched skin that carries their unborn child. Yes, Kylo smiles, he’s so content that it feels like a dream.

“I’m sorry to wake you, my love,” Hux whispers, giving his consort a kiss on his forehead. “But breakfast is here and I’d hate for your panna cakes to go cold.”

“I thought I could smell them,” Kylo sits up, finding that Hux is already hopping out of bed to fetch the tray that carries Kylo’s breakfast. “Hux. A droid can do that. You’re the Emperor.”

“And does being Emperor mean that I can’t spoil my husband?” With his golden circlet-crown atop his head and wearing his black silk pyjamas, he gently places a tray on Kylo’s lap, mindful of how his belly is in the way.

“A little,” Kylo shrugs, raising an eyebrow. “If your people saw you doing this, they’d think you were ill.”

“It isn’t my fault that they’re still obsessed with traditional views of leadership.” Hux sits back down on the bed, holding his china cup and saucer containing his favourite morning drink of tarine tea. “To them, our unborn child is nothing more than you fulfilling your duty as a consort. They care not for your happiness or your desires, only for the succession of my bloodline.”

“Thanks,” Kylo says, mouth full of warm panna cakes drenches in syrup.

“You know what I mean, Ren,” Hux reaches for a napkin and wipes a stray drop of syrup from Kylo’s plush lips. “Our child is nothing but an heir to them. It’s preposterous to them that we would be having a child because we’re in love and want one.”

Kylo knows that Hux is right: from the moment that his pregnancy was announced to the people of the Second Empire almost seven months ago, compliments flooded in from the Empire’s people of how strong Hux must be to plant his seed in such a pretty consort and how his heir will be born with their mother’s beauty and their father’s intelligence. Kylo recalls fighting back laughter at common folk talking of him as though he’s nothing more than a metaphorical oven for Hux’s buns to warm in, an incubator for heirs, a pretty face for the Emperor to merely look at. He rubs his hand over his belly, feeling terribly insecure all of a sudden.

“Kylo? Did you hear me?”

Hux’s hand upon his own brings Kylo from his thoughts, “Hm?”

“Where did you go, darling? You looked distant.”

“Nowhere,” Kylo lies but caves under the pressure of his husband’s stare a moment later. “I hate how they see me. I’m still strong with the Force, I’m still a Knight. There just isn’t a war for me to fight in at the minute but I’ll give them one if they want to see what I’m capable of.”

“We can change your title if you want to, Ren. You can be my Knight instead of my consort if you so wish. Regardless of what you’re called, you’re still my husband.”

“I want to be your consort—just that. But it’s like people have forgotten the blood that was shed by me to conquer the galaxy. I wish people weren’t so…judgy.” Kylo stops to touch his tummy, rubbing over where he felt their child kick. Grimacing, he stretches out with the Force and finds the baby’s untamed signature, faint and new, using his powers to soothe her.

“Are you alright? Should I fetch the medic?” Hux’s hand covers Kylo’s where it rests on his pregnant bump, clearly worried.

“It’s fine. She’s just…unsettled.”

“Maybe she can feel how stressed you are. She doesn’t like it when their mother is upset. But I know what will make you feel better.”

“What?” Kylo finishes the last mouthful of his breakfast and sips at his sweet tea, absently thinking of how he’s only got a few weeks left until he can have caf again.

“One moment,” Hux gives Kylo a small peck on his cheek before jumping out of bed, disappearing into the main chamber before coming back in with a tall droid following him. Its two arms are extended upwards, carrying two outfits and ensuring that their tails aren’t dragging along the tiled floor.

“Hux.” Kylo sets the tray aside, one hand on his tummy as he shuffles to the end of the bed, in awe of the clothes.

“I noticed that your current robes no longer—uh—fit,” Hux rubs the back of his neck, absently hoping that he hasn’t offended his husband. “So I had the tailor create something new for you.”

Kylo can’t stop smiling, imagining himself in his new clothes. One set of robes is dark—black, his favourite colour—in a soft material, akin to what his old robes were made out of during his stint as Supreme Leader, only fresher and cleaner this time. The next set is a deep red silk tunic, complete with a matching cape and golden clasp.

“I’m presuming that your silence is a good thing, my love.” Kylo hadn’t noticed that Hux has come to sit beside him on the bed, winding a stray piece of his dark hair around his finger.

“They’re beautiful,” Kylo says, leaning in to the touch and stealing a long kiss from his husband. “You spoil me.”

“My darling,” Hux waves the droid away, wanting privacy as he teasingly slides his hand across Kylo’s bare thigh. “It’s my honour.”

| . . . . . 3 Months Later . . . . . |

Even a month after the Princess’s birth, gifts and congratulations still pour in from the Second Empire’s people and its allies, blessing the royal Hux-Ren family with more presents than they have use for. Both the Emperor and his consort rest in the palace’s grand drawing room after another day of sending out thanks to their kind public and whilst still being new, inexperienced parents.

Kylo is nestled in the corner of the couch, knees tucked under himself and wearing the comfortable cotton-blend robes that his darling husband gifted him after the birth. Hux kneels on the floor amongst the pile of beautifully wrapped gifts—all pre-checked by the palace’s most trusted security members.

“What is that?” Kylo laughs as he asks his husband the question, amused by Hux’s face. In the consort’s strong arms lies their month-old daughter, wide awake and fussing for her mother’s attention. Cleo already has a head of soft red hair, some of which peeks out from underneath her little hat, one that matches her white babygrow. She’s still so small, able to rest in the crook of one of Kylo’s arms without too much of a problem; it’s her favourite place to be.

“I’m not sure,” Hux examines the colourful glass block in his hand, puzzled.

“Who’s it from?”

“The royal family of Exoisha Prime,” Hux reads but it sheds no light on the odd gift.

“What’s a baby meant to do with a glass block?” Kylo laughs, and it’s as though Cleo tries to mimic him and makes a gurgling sound, lifting her tiny hand. Her mother taps his finger against the baby’s and Cleo grabs it gently, making Kylo blush with glee.

“I think that’s enough for tonight,” Hux sets the block aside and sighs, rubbing his eyes. “I don’t think my mind can take much more of ‘guess the present’.”

“We’ll send out thank you notes, anyway,” Kylo shrugs. “We don’t have to be specific.”

“Good,” Hux sits down beside his husband, leaning against his arm and looking down at their daughter, finding that her big brown eyes are looking back at him. “Hello, darling. Do you want Daddy to hold you for a while?”

Cleo kicks her legs and lets go of Kylo’s finger, obviously excited by her father’s presence as she gurgles and tries to smile—still a little young yet—but Kylo can sense in the Force that she wants to be held by Hux.

“I carried her and spent forty hours in labour for her,” Kylo mutters, giving Cleo a gentle kiss on her head. “And you’re still her favourite.”

“Gingers have to stick together, Ren,” Hux chuckles, settling their daughter into his arms and rocking her gently.

“The pair of you will be ganging up on me soon,” Kylo rests his head against Hux’s shoulder, reaching to gently pull off Cleo’s hat to reveal her soft, fluffy red hair, using his fingers to gently style it until it’s all sticking up, amused with himself.

“Well, can you blame her for wanting to come to me when you make fun of her like this?”

“She likes it,” Kylo smiles. “Look.”

True to his word, Cleo is lying very still and staring up at Kylo as he plays with her hair, gently running his fingers through it to make it flat again, both parents smiling.

The fire crackles in the marble fireplace as the Hux-Ren family rest quietly together. It isn’t long before Kylo finds himself dozing against his husband’s shoulder and Cleo is sound asleep in her father’s arms, leaving Hux the only one awake in the drawing room. He daren’t move, too afraid to disturb either one of his sleeping darlings. Kylo breathes heavily, curled up against Hux’s side whilst Cleo rests in his arms and sleeps peacefully with her head against his chest, leaning into his warmth.

It’s the happiest future that Hux can ever have hoped for.

#kylux #mpreg #pregnant kylo #m:writing

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chemicalmagecraft · 3 years

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Foresight is 20/20 Chapter 15

Usagi

"I'm tellin' ya, boss, it was some kinda monster," the now one-armed bandit explained to his leader as another bandit bandaged his bleeding stump. "It did... something to Koji, and he turned into some sorta zombie."

"And did either of those monsters rip off your arm?" the red-haired woman asked impassively. Ah yes, she would do nicely. Her body was compatible enough with my power that I wouldn't have to worry about replacing it for a while and she appeared to be an awful human being, so I wouldn't have any guilt from ending her life. Despite her looks she was probably not an Uzumaki, so I had no reason to worry about that, either. I was currently in the process of extending a light telepathic touch into all the minds present, sorting through their memories to find a way to possess her, as well as stealing what procedural memories of theirs that I found useful.

He shook his head, a fearful look in his eye. Perhaps I was a bit too harsh on him... "No, Koji bit me. I ran, and..." He shuddered. "My arm... it went numb, and the same weird markings that appeared where the... thing... touched Koji started to appear on my arm. I... I didn't risk it."

"Wise," the bandit leader said. He smiled weakly at her.

An then buried one of her knives in his gut. "Don't take any risks," she murmured into his ear as he breathed his last. That poor, sweet fool. Well, not sweet. If there was any word that could describe her less, I had yet to find it from my delving into her or her subordinates' minds. My point, though, is that a zombie is much harder to kill than a normal man. The red markings sprouted from his good arm, and with inhuman speed the freshly-made monster sank its new claws into the man who was bandaging it just moments ago. The woman snarled as the markings spread across both zombies. She managed to decapitate the original, but my second zombie evaded her blade and shambled toward another bandit, which it bit.

Long story short, I let a few of the bandits survive but my small-scale zombie apocalypse led to the deaths of most of the scofflaws.

The leader of what was now considerably fewer bandits slammed her fist on the wall in rage as she surveyed the corpses left behind. "Damn," she growled as they dissolved into red dust. "At least they won't be coming back..."

"You do care, boss!" one of the survivors cheered.

"I don't care one bit about you idiots and if I hadn't just lost most of my men I'd have killed you for that moronic comment," she said coldly. She meant it, too. "We need to recruit, and that means we need more money. Secure the base, we can't leave anyone on guard." If I had a mouth, I'd have smiled. I needed the practice, after all. Their hideout was an abandoned mine, secluded and buried in a mountain. Not to mention the gold stored within, even if I would want to give some back to the villages they were stealing from. And they were leaving it for me. How thoughtful.

kukukuku~

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Neji asked me.

I shrugged and licked my lips. "Not gonna get any better at fighting by going easy," I said.

"Yeah, but you pretty much need your powers to take me down if I activate Furnace." Neji's pseudo-jinchuriki power. We started calling it Furnace because with how unique it was it pretty much deserved a unique name. Technically, his red chakra reserves were abysmal. However, we found out that whenever he exerted himself he could activate it to essentially let himself generate more, though he'd only keep it for so long when not exerting himself.

End result, his power steadily grew the longer he fought. He also gained power each time he hit or was hit. It had a few limitations and placed strain on his body the more he used it, but as far as I knew he could theoretically fight a biju if he built up enough, maybe even Kaguya. That'd probably kill him at the moment, though. And from what it seemed, it was hard for him to use it for more than just brute force. Though that might just have been from how he could only keep it active for small intervals at a time before it started eating away at his health prevented him from training his control over it much...

"And how else am I supposed to change that?" I asked. I got into my stance. "Let's do this before I change my mind."

His eyes turned red, with a white slit pupil because of his Byakugan. "Your funeral..."

A few moments later...

"Owwwww," I groaned. "My... pride..."

"I didn't even get warmed up at all," Neji smugly remarked from where he was sitting on my spine, pinning me. I didn't ask him to get up because I was sucking off the last dregs of his red chakra. For whatever reason I couldn't assimilate Furnace, but I could still steal Neji's red chakra to heal myself and stuff.

"You okay, dude?" I asked.

"As I said, I barely got warmed up. My body is fine." After he activated Furnace for the first time, he'd ended up bedridden for an hour because of the strain it put on his body. When he started to test it, he pretended he was fine even though he kept using it past his limits. He ended up too sick to stand for weeks. It was actually around that time that he managed to figure out natural energy manipulation, probably because he was stuck in bed and bored out of his mind for so long. "I probably should let myself cool down for a bit, but I'm assuming you'll want to fight me without Furnace anyways."

I snorted. "Jerk. And here I was worried about you."

He got up. He had an amused smile. "Let's go another round, then."

kukukuku~

"I'm sore," I complained as we walked through the halls.

"You hit me a few times," Neji dismissed.

"You hit me more..."

"And whose fault was that?" I rolled my eyes and lightly punched him on the shoulder. He sage-flicked me. I was about to retort, but I felt a familiar signature when I opened up my senses, so...

"Is that Ino?" I asked, jerking my head in the direction of the compound's main entrance. I knew this was going to happen for a while. I'd been keeping tabs on her in a totally not creepy way because if it. I was also keeping tabs on Sakura, but that was more to see what the effects of that strange power were on her body. She accidentally ripped a door off its hinges more than once, which would've been pretty hilarious if it weren't for the angst it was giving her...

"That feels like her. I wonder why she's here." He used his Byakugan for a moment. I pulled out a compact mirror I'd made to be compatible with my scrying jutsu and looked at her as well. "Does she have a flower?" She was walking up to the door with a flower in her hand, yes.

I sighed. "I'm not good with flowers, but I'm pretty sure that's a forget-me-not. Pretty sure she's here for me, I'll go deal with her."

Neji insisted on hiding in the background while I greeted Ino, because she wasn't exactly subtle about her childish crush. I really hoped I wouldn't lose her as a friend, though... Just in case, I used my power to try to find the best path forward. I really hoped my life wouldn't become some sort of anti-dating simulator...

I opened the door. "Ino. Why are you here and holding a flower that symbolizes true love?" I'd learned some hanakotoba from her and some other sources, but to be honest I just knew it from looking ahead in the script.

She smiled and held it out to me. "I came to confess my true love to you, Kouki."

I took a deep breath, trying very, very hard not to sigh. "Ino, no offense, I love you like a friend, but we are both four years old and you have no idea what true love is."

That confused her. "But... you saved me?"

Why do romance stories have to be so romanticized?

Don't... don't answer that...

"I'm your friend. Of course I saved you. But I don't love you like that and you don't love me like that because as I just said, we're both children."

She lowered the flower. This was a little harsh, but she needed to hear it. "Oh. Yeah. I guess I look stupid to you now, huh?"

I shrugged. "To be fair, you have a level of wisdom appropriate to our age. It just so happens that being wise as a four-year-old is an outlier."

"What?"

I poked her in the forehead. "You're a kid. You're allowed to be stupid, as long as you're not being too big of a jerk."

She thought about that for a moment. "So... you're not mad at me or anything?"

"You're my friend. Of course not." I smiled. It probably wasn't the best smile, but at least Ino didn't run in terror... "Hey, if you want, I can show you a really cool jutsu."

She nodded. "Sure!" As I walked past, I gave Neji a smug grin when I saw his jaw on the floor. I'm sure he was expecting some kind of awkwardness.

To be fair, so was I.

kukukuku~

Chikage

Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed as he returned to his room after a long day of paperwork. Even with a shadow clone, it was just so slow. Seriously, I was so bored, and I was just watching over his shoulder! I can't even imagine having to do paperwork... He closed the door, locking it. "You're here, aren't you, Kouki?" Half right. Eh, I'll give it to him.

His shadow moved to be in front of him. "How perceptive of you," my voice seemed to come from the shadow. I couldn't exactly speak when my body was literally flat against the wall, but I could very much trick people's brains into thinking I could. My arm peeled off of the floor, keeping its pitch coloration. I raised my other arm, then used them to "pull" myself off of the floor, still in the form of a shadowy Hokage. I did a few stretches. "Man, staying in one shadow for hours kills my back, apparently. I don't even know how that works, considering the fact that I don't even have a form as a shadow..." I changed back to my humanoid form and licked my lips.

"I know that Kouki is responsible in some way, but what are you?" he asked me.

"Rude," I said, faux-offended. "You don't hear me asking you humans what you are. Though to be fair I already know."

He frowned. "You're like Kouki, but not quite. Who are you, then?"

"Did I really never tell you about me?" I paused and thought for a moment. "Or would it be better to ask if we never told you about me... I'm still not sure how pronouns work with our unique situation..."

"What, exactly, is the answer to my question?"

I shrugged. "I'm Kouki and Kouki is me. We're two halves of the same whole, at the moment."

"What are you..." He frowned and closed his eyes. "Red chakra?" he said when he opened them.

I nodded. "I've been purified of almost all of my humanity, the same as how Kouki's removed most of the red chakra from her- himself for the moment. He's weaker, I'm stronger, and because we're two separate entities we have independent thoughts and can be in two places at once, as you can tell. Sorta like a weird shadow clone, I guess. And we can recombine at any time." I sat down in midair. "Call me Chikage."

"I suppose that that makes sense... That sounds like a useful jutsu. Though why are you a girl?"

I examined my clawlike black nails. "Why not?"

"And I suppose that's also why you're wearing a frilly dress?"

"It's called gothic lolita, and the best thing about being made of chakra is the fact that I can more or less freely shapeshift. Now, sit down." I gestured behind him, where I'd pulled up a chair without him noticing. I also made an illusion that made both his chair and the air I was sitting on look like identical, ornate seats. "We have business to attend to."

"The Uchiha massacre, I assume?" I nodded. A table with a deck of fancy-looking cards "appeared" in between us. I really love genjutsu.

"In one year today Itachi will be forced to kill his entire clan, with the exception of his brother." I picked up the top card from the deck and flipped it over. The Tower. "And obviously we would prefer this not to happen." I reversed the position of the Tower. "But of course, there is a problem." I flipped over the next card, Judgement.

He sighed. It seemed he got my message. "The public is being turned turned against the Uchiha, which is in turn turning the Uchiha against the public. Until we stop that all we can do is delay the massacre..." I revealed the third card, The Devil, with Danzo as its subject. "Yes. Even though we haven't tipped our hands yet and he hopefully doesn't suspect us, Danzo is still fighting us."

"There are two paths that you can take to deal with him." I reversed the position of the Devil, causing the illustration's face to soften. "First, you could make him see the light, show him how much he's tearing the village apart to 'protect' it. Maybe you can do it because you used to be friends or something, but to be honest I doubt it, which leaves the second option." A black flame sparked from my finger, setting the Devil card ablaze. It disappeared without a trace. "Either way, he needs to be neutralized. I take it he's good at covering his tracks, considering the fact that he's made an attempt on your life without retaliation?"

He nodded solemnly. "Of course. And I take it he'd use it as evidence of my 'senility' if I attempted to pin him on it without enough evidence?"

"My eyes don't show it, meaning there's no possibility of us attempting it. Probably, though." I cocked my head. "If I were to, I don't know, figure out a way to take other objects with me when I shadow travel and use that to steal all kinds of incriminating evidence, would that work?"

He nodded. "That would work. I'll proceed assuming you don't, with how that was a hypothetical, though."

I sighed. "Yeah, that's about right. If we fail, though, I have one last idea." I revealed The Hanged Man, reversed, with Uchiha Shisui modeling for mister four-legs. "If we stop Danzo's attack on Shisui, then he can use Kotoamatsukami on the Uchiha. It's not ideal, but hopefully it'll work."

"Yes, that sounds good. Unless there's anything else, you may leave."

I faded into the shadows, taking my illusions with me.

kukukuku~

Usagi

"Alright everyone!" one of the bandits shouted, waving a weapon. "You know the drill by now, your money is ours! Give it up easily and we won't kill you!" The townspeople were afraid, but they'd clearly been through this before.

"Will you really?" I asked, walking into the village. "You may find some trouble with that."

"Who are you?" the leader asked me.

"You would already know," I said as I strolled across the road to her, "had you not murdered my puppet."

"Ah, so you're the monster he talked about." She sneered at me and drew her daggers. "You killed my men."

"I did nothing of the sort," I retaliated. "I mutated them, controlled them. You were the ones who killed them."

"All the same, you'll die."

"To be honest I am not entirely sure I can die." I slowly removed my gloves from my hands and placed them in the bag under my cloak.

"I'll test it for you, then."

"You may be able to destroy this body, but my essence has already soaked your hideout. I believe I should be able to resurrect myself there, as it were."

The woman smiled a sadistic smile. "I'm fine killing you over and over again until it sticks." She lunged at me, daggers flashing. I yanked back my sleeve and used my bare arm to block. I wasn't going to be needing my arm much longer, but I wanted to preserve the cloak. Her daggers sank into the stone of my arm, as I had made it softer. I wanted the knives as well. I capitalized on the bandit leader's momentary confusion to take off my mask and jam it onto her face. The last thing she saw before her life ended was a glowing red pearl on the backside of the mask.

I retrieved my new knives from my old arm, then took my cloak for my new body. Luckily, my new body wasn't too much larger than my old one, so the cloak still fit well enough. Along with the cloak, I'd palmed the other blood pearl (the extra-compressed pearl-shaped demon gems I was using for my Usagi persona) from my old body, causing it to crumble back into dirt within moments of me putting the cloak back on. I took my bag from the dirt and shook it off.

"Boss?" one of the bandits asked. "You okay?"

I slowly reached up to my mask and grasped the bottom. It cracked at the mouth such that the entire bottom was smoothly removed. I stored the bottom back in my bag, though, just in case I should come to need it. With my new mouth and the bottom of my nose uncovered, I took a deep breath, as if my first in a century. "No, I do not believe she is," I said. "For one, her mind and soul have been wiped from this body."

"What the hell even are you!?" one of the bandits asked.

"To be perfectly honest I'm not quite sure. I do know one thing, though." With an organic body, I no longer had problems with agility. And in particular, this new body was trained for rapid movement. As such, the two bandits nearest me were bisected in a flash with red-glowing knives, as if a hot knife through butter. Their bodies dissolved into the same red dust that the other bandits' corpses had. "You are dead. Now, are the rest of you willing to fight, or will you run in terror?" They ran in terror. Wise.

"Who are you?" a villager cautiously asked me a few minutes after I sheathed my knives. The villagers were understandably quite afraid of me.

"My name is Usagi." With the bandits gone, I'd switched to a small, personable smile. "If you wait, I should be able to bring you the money those bandits took from you."

The villager bowed to me. "Thank you so much."

#fanfiction #naruto fanfiction #naruto #Foresight is 20/20 #F20 CH15

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c-atm · 4 years

Text

Dance in the Pale Moonlight chapter 1

Based on @meku95 awesome Witchanddemonau

She groaned as she walked out of the Delmarva public library finishing her shift and not just because of the idiocy she endured all day. Not even cause of her co-workers, who at times are annoying as all hell. No no...The source of the young witch in training groans, stood on the steps of the library surrounded by curious and flirty females and males.

Wearing his signature dark pink three piece suit, victorian-style bubblegum pink shirt, diamond collar pin, black loafers stood Steven Diamond Universe. In addition to his normal standout attire he placed on a pair of shades to cover his eyes and a hood to cover his ...other features(despite being able to 'glamour' them away.) On his shoulder sat a purple owl.

She sighed at the sight of his rabid fandom and the whining they made when he pushed pass them to get to her side.

"You're looking quite lovely today, My lady."

She grimaced at his slick tone slightly, before leading him around back into an alley for some privacy. When it was clear that no one was following them She growled at him.

“Steven.. Why are you here?”

“Can’t a familiar see his beautiful summoner, without summoning?”

“Not when said familiar is a demon with horns and such.”’

He chuckled as he pulled his hood and shades off, ignoring his lady’s protest, revealing..His slight tan skin, human like eyes and slight freckled face..completely human-like and teasingly smirking.as he folded the hood over his forearm. .

Connie turned away feeling her face grow a bit warm.‘ Sheesh. His playing is gonna kill me.’

“So why are you here, again?.” She folded her arms above her chest as she arched an eyebrow at the person in front of her, trying to ignore the budding affection that seems to grow just a bit every time they meet.

“I was just...around the area and figured I’d stop by.”

She kissed her teeth at his very weak answer.“Uh-huh…” With a nod, she looked at the dove on his shoulder and with a sweet smile she asked.

"Amy. Why are you and your 'Big Bro' in the city?"

"He got into it with Pearl again!"

"Amethyst!"

"Steven, really?"

He stiffened at her slightly dissatisfied tone, his pride of a familiar wouldn't allow him to look bad in his mistress's eyes.

She sighed tiredly. It was common but still she rather not her master in witchery and her friend and partner... be at odds with each other so often.

."So..What was it about this time?"

As the purple bird was about to answer, he pressed his index and middle finger on her beak, keeping her shut.

"Nothing to concern yourself with, my lady. Just a bit of a hiccup on a mission is... ah!

He waved his index finger in pain as Amethyst flew from his shoulders to the lightly chuckling Connie's.

"You kind of deserved that, Steven."

"Mean! That was mean Big Bro."

Steven only snared in response as Connie rubbed the birds under belly caringly inciting a smug look on Amethyst face.

"So...What happened on the mission?"

Steven and Amethysts looked at each other before Steven sighed in defeat, nodding.

From Amethyst story, The Crystal Witches found the whereabouts of a demon who uses music as a weapon, lurking in North Delmarva. It was supposed to be relatively weak, enough for two of them; Steven and Pearl..Amethyst tagged along as well.

The demon had been masquerading as a street performer and had set up in the very center of a shopping market. It was said that the demon was targeting humans, bewitching them, making them it's slave and stealing their vitality for power...Specifically it was targeting humans with aptitude for magic.

When they arrived they saw evidence that the information was correct. The residents were passed out appearing to sleeping peaceful and bodies with an unnatural tone of gray to their skin. They decided to split up Steven and Amethyst to the west and Pearl to the east, agreeing to inform the other when they made contact.

The market was completely under the demon siege, the deeper they went in finding more of the same. Steven and Amethysts stopped when they heard a lullaby being played on a ukulele, before running towards the music, they paused as they watched the purple hooded demon slowly drained the vitality of a group of young teens. The good thing is that at the time, they had the element of surprise; it seemed it was too engrossed in it's meal and performance to even register them.

Seeing this as a perfect chance, Amethyst attacked the demon first..and was unceremoniously kicked back to Steven side. Steven attacked almost immediately in a ready to send the demon back to it's world, harshly..Only to be obstructed by a small condensed forcefield of vibration keeping Steven back. With a strum of it's instrument the barrier explodes throwing Steven, and A few unlucky bodies back. He landed hard headfirst through a pole, Amethyst was able to catch the humans that were thrown in the explosion and get them to relative safety.

By the time Steven was done shaking the cobwebs out of his head and Amethysts was done checking on the humans, Pearl was steadily beating the demon back, exhausting it's borrowed strength with quick spells and hand to hand combat. Steven and Amethysts watched as Pearl broke the instrument In the demon's hand with a stab of her staff, the gathered vitality returning to the people. The demon growled before leaping back and vanishing in a purple mist, leaving a musical note in the form of energy before that too disappeared.

After they made sure the humans were indeed gonna be alright..Pearl and Steven got into it.

Pearl reprimanding them both for not calling her when they found the demon, sloppy fighting, and being foolish enough to try to fight it alone and putting the demons victims in potential danger..

Embarrassed Steven retaliated, stating they saw a chance and took it..Also they forced the demon to use a great amount of it's stolen power before her arrival, allowing Pearl to get the upper hand, and even then she couldn't finish it off.

From there it deteriorated to petty insults towards each other all the way back to the temple with Amethyst trying to play peacemaker. It was when they were at the temple things got more heated and personal.

"That's enough Amethyst, no need to talk about it anymore."

Steven interrupted as Amethyst before she said too much. Connie turned to her familiar, looking concerned at his dark tone.

"Ah!..I..I'm sorry bro."

"Not your fault. She was just mad…" He turned his attention to Connie and gave her a sly smile. "As to why we are here? Garnet stated that she saw our 'friend's is somewhere in the city. I was hoping to have you join in our investigation. "

Connie sighed tiredly, but smiled nonetheless. "Sure, but I haven't felt anything around her though."

"Neither did we, but Big bro just wanted you by him. He was worried!"

Steven smirked and shrugged..She wasn't lying. "Demon hunting is second priority when up against even a moment with you, my beloved lady."

Connie groaned at his flirting, her face hiding it's red. "Let's just get going, can we do that?"

"Lead the way, my lady."

"Can we get some food while we demon hunt, I want a torta!" Amethyst squawked on the young witch's shoulder, making Connie winced at the loud sound.

"Amethyst get off Connie shoulder, yeah? Cover yourself with the hood."

Amethyst with a disappointing groan leapt from the witch's shoulder and down to the ground, when Steven tossed the hood upon Amethyst, covering her completely.

The sounds of bones cracking could be heard as the purple bird shapeshift into a body of a robust female human, short in stature. Under the hood was plump lips,a button nose, amethyst stone freckles, purple hair covering the left of a pair of violet eyes, and light almond skin with purple streaks. Overall she was what some would consider exotically attractive.

She gave the witch in training a smile before giving her a hug around the waist.

“Can we get those tortas now?”

Connie had to giggle at the childish request before nodding, returning the hug as well.

“My lady! Where’s my affection?”

Connie scoffed at Steven complaining as she pet the smaller girl's head. “You be quiet and let’s go search.”

Steven whimpered teasingly but followed along closely behind giving a chuckle towards the witch; one that Connie couldn't help but blush at.

As they walked off the property grounds a regular walked by glancing at the trio from their right peripheral, suspiciously. Steven locked eyes with them for a moment before giving a slight grin and continuing on his way.

As they walked the populated city, Connie couldn't help but smile at the adorable actions of her demon cohorts. Amethyst stopped and looked at almost every food shop, magazine and comic stands and toy store. Each time smiling brightly.

Steven, for his part, took a more attention towards the task of actually trying to find the demon presence at each stop. She watched as his eyes always narrow for any magic signature. As his nostrils flexed for any non-human yet familiar smell. As his ears twitched for any sound with an unearthly presence. She had to admit, her familiar was impressive when he was determined. It was an begrudgingly attractive trait.

That didn't stop him from joining his 'little sis' in window shopping though, or taken his mistress's hand and leading her into a shop they found interesting. Her protest usually ignored to the point of her allowing it..To the point of her almost interlocking hers with his. A few hours into their investigation/playing and with the sun setting...

They didn’t find any demon.

Amethyst did get torta though..So that was one victory.

Connie found herself sitting on a bench as stretching a bit tiredly, as the demon duo found interest in a clothes boutique.

'This..This was a great way to spend the afternoon actually..'

Connie allowed a smile on her face at that thought. she actually needed this she realized. If it was any other day, she probably would have headed home. Get some witchcraft training, read a book..All alone in her home.

"Probably would have summoned Steven just to kill the boredom." Her smirk was a bit cynical.

Her home was almost always empty but that isn’t very new, comes with being orphaned against your will..that and becoming ' the quiet, cold. occult girl' as she heard people around the village she lives at called her. The little snickers and sneers about her being too weird, too uptight, too self-centered and such behind her back..It seeped under her skin for some reason. Her smile dropped into a frown.

“Whatever..They're just idiots, who doesn't know anything about the truths of this world. .. Who cares about them?” She hated how sadden her voice sounded. She leaned back before looking back at the troublemaking demons. Steven trying to get Amethyst to stop taking clothes off of random mannequins with little success. A small smirk on her face as she looked at her familiar, reprimanding his ‘little sister’ actions, before whispering something in her ear. Getting a smile from Amethyst ,who seemed determined in whatever the task he gave her.

She felt a small heat in her cheeks when he looked at her from the corner of his eyes.and waved towards her.

“Silly demon.”

She was a bit surprised at warmth in her voice as she waved back before watching Steven smirk and walk out of view.

It was then that she felt a chill down her spine..and not the delightful she gets from Steven at times..No this one was caused by the feeling of being observed. She stood up, fist clenched as she looked for any sign of an enemy.

The seal on her right glowed and surged with magic as she looked around. Her senses heighten and more sensitive to magic signatures. She looked at the billboards..nothing..The arcade..nothing…

' Steven come to me.'

The Crest glowed at her thought and almost instantly, rising behind her from the shadows stood Steven. His face determined, and still glamoured as a human but his eyes took their original black and dark pink.

"My lady?" His voice was cool with a bit of a worry but low.. A whisper.

"Is Amethyst still with you?"

"She's staking out on the wall..It's definitely somewhere in this area.."

"No kidding..I feel like it was watching me. just for a moment."

His lady's abashed tone caused the familiar clenched his fist in rage..

' To cause discomfort to my Connie..I'll see this demon dead before dawn'

He grinned gently towards his contractor, his eyes still vigilantly searching.

"Admiring your beauty to the point of losing concentration..Can't blame them. Your visage is quite distracting, my lady."

Connie lighty smirked, grateful for the attempt at humor.

"Not enough it seems..It's back to masking its presence."

Steven was about to agree when a female scream was heard to the west. Steven quickly crouched in front of her, looking back expectantly, who nodded before climbing on..

Steven knew it was serious but.he couldn't help the warmth he felt having her so close..Arms around his neck, knees and calves squeezing his sides, and his hand folded behind him as a makeshift seat for his lady. The fact that she always seem to instinctively press against him too was bonus.

He leapt from street lamp to street lamp heading towards the growing crowd and the presence of a fading heartbeat along with its magic.. The closer they got, the stronger the scene. They stopped on a tree limb above the crowd, watching as the police and ambulance scattered the crowd and the paramedics went to put the body in a bag or at least attempt to .as soon as the body was touched..It broke and shattered like brittle brimstone.Though it did give Steven enough time to confirm the identify the body through smell..along with other traits.

"It's the demon, we were chasing..Someone got to them first."

The way he spoke compounded the concern in Connie. She expected him to be more relaxed but, she could feel his anger radiating off him

“Isn't that a good thing? Wasn't that what we set out to do?"

He glared deepened just a bit.

"It's not the result...t's the method."

They got a quick glance at the body before it broke..and it was a sight he wished his lady didn't see..

The demon..It suffered..The look of pure torment on the corpses face told him that much. It was gray.. stone gray and hellishly thin...much different from the last time they met..signs of being drained of spirit and magic.

Rather it was the landing from the drop, which Steven figured due to the splattered blood..or its executioner; the body was mangled like a rag doll. Its bone snapped and pushing through its thin skin, ligaments torn open by what seemed to be claws..jagged claws..all for the world to see. The demon was used an example or an exhibition, to whom..Steven couldn't say, but they were certainly relished in their brutality and by the tightness of Connie's grip. She felt the same discontent at the visage.

There was one other thing he got as well. The residual presence of magic from a human and a non-human.

"This..we need to inform the witches of this..."

Connie voice wasn't that of fear but of resignation. She would have loved to investigate and try to find those responsible, but the look on Steven face said it all...They might be over their heads. She got a nod of affirmation from her familiar.

"Amethyst"

Almost instantaneously the limb above them shook and the demoness poked her head out of the foliage. looking quizzically at the duo.

"Yes Big Bro?"

"Go home and inform the witches."

His voice left no room for argument or questioning.

Amethyst still did the latter though. " What about you?"

He smirked before nodding his head towards Connie. "I'll be accompanying my lady home.Before heading back here."

Connie grimaced, faced red. "Hey now! I didn't agree to that!"

"Well, how else will I be able to protect my beloved lady?"

Connie gave him a gentle tap on the back of his head. A love tap. "I'm quite capable, thank you."

Steven gave her a small smile."Of course..But I need to be sure your safe,Connie. It'll calm me."

'He's hiding something...His eyes, there's worry in them.' Connie thought with a frown on her face at the false smile. "Sure.."

He nodded as he turned to Amethyst. "Hurry up, now. I'll be there later."

Amethyst, a bit disheartened at her Big bro somber tone, nodded reluctantly. Before she left though she whispered into Steven's ear, who eyes widen in thought…

"Take it with you..I'll collect it later Now go home and mask your magic."

Amethyst smiled a bit at his usual mischievous tone of voice. With a nod the demoness threw the hood to her brother, before leaping from her branch before transforming into a owl..with a box in its beak.

He watched for a moment before turning to Connie. who nodded.. They climbed down from the tree slowly, unnoticeably, blending into the busy streets..

Or so they thought. Not to far from them, someone watched with longing, envious eyes behind a chain link fence. On there palm was the crest of a contract.

#connie maheswaran #older characters #older connie #older steven #witchanddemonau #connverse fanfic #steven and connie #connverse #writers on tumblr #steven universe fanfiction #steven universe #rebecca sugar #meku95

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yue-muffin · 4 years

Text

Time Raiders (2016)

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3

In my quest to consume the entirety of the DMBJ franchise available in English, I have decided to start with the non-canon movie because at least this one has an ending, unlike the train wreck that is Reboot/Chongqi’s pacing. I will probably be bitter about that for all eternity, but I digress. I heard good things about the movie from the bird app, and as I am a Pingxie shipper at heart, I decided to finally watch this one.

P A R T O N E

The cut-in animation to the title was gorgeous, I do so love the qilin in every adaptation. It’s particularly striking here with the gold outline and geometric, maze-like lines. It looks like the cards at the very beginning were being arranged in the image of this qilin.

My first reaction upon seeing white people in a dmbj adaptation is: oh no, the English, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear perfect English that matches the actor’s lips! What a miracle, haha. I remember The Lost Tomb 2 being the worst for how many lines had to be in English, sob.

These look so cool. I see we start off with a good old “seeking immortality” antagonist, and an obsessed collector who has dedicated his whole life to this apparently. As usual, he is a scumbag threatening the locals.

The old guy’s accented English is also better than TLT2, ha. The breathy/nasal quality is not at all uncommon. I don’t know what language the locals speak though.

Me, immediately: Zhang Qiling already??

I know he appears in rather early in TLT1, TLT2, and Reboot/Chongqi, but he’s so often mysteriously absent or stuck behind a gate (or in Reboot’s case, put on a bus) that I got excited, ok.

My favorite Zhang Qilings are the cold-looking pretty boy types in terms of my mental image of the character, but this one is also very easy on the eyes and as usual, unfazed in the face of danger coming at him with a knife. This is the only series in which I’m not bothered by the constant cast change between adaptations (unlike Ever Night), I suppose since it’s been this way from the start.

I’m interested in seeing how the backstories differ from canon. It’s actually rather interesting that this is pretty much an official AU, like that’s kind of wild as a concept. I’m used to the late 1990s/early 2000s anime adding new characters and changing plot points and endings everywhere, but Time Raiders takes it a step further.

Zhang Qiling being an ultra-competent badass who doesn’t even need a weapon to take the bad guys down never changes, no matter the universe. He steamrolls everyone, no questions asked.

Did he- he break the blade with his bare hands hahaha. Oh, yup, and a Zhang Qiling with a weapon is even more dangerous. I see those severed fingers. Such a good fight scene and we’re not even 5 minutes into the movie.

I love how he could have simply fired the arrow while he was still on the statue, then jumped down, but he had to be Extra and fire while he was jumping off haha.

It- the divine piece was right there?? By “beneath the statue” I would have thought it would at least be under it, not in a convenient little slot on the side of the altar area haha. So Zhang Qiling’s mission is to destroy the divine piece(s)? To, um, save the world apparently.

WHO ARE YOU? What an excellent question to ask a Zhang Qiling (and that staring into the mirror shot, too.)… I wonder if this one even knows - it’s possible he doesn’t have his signature amnesia here.

Wait- a gate? I think it’s in a cave or something in the novels, but gates have significance in DMBJ. The cinematography is really nice in these mountain shots. I know nothing about film, but I like the shots in the snowy mountains.

This Zhang Qiling knows and practices martial arts on screen! You would think he’d pull some moves normally, but in the drama-adaptations he tends to just beat people up as efficiently as possible. Sometimes with his sword. Other times he just fights ‘em. I have to admit Jing Boran looks excellent going through some forms. He nailed the force and power underlying every movement, then exploding outward with a strike. I do like the impression it leaves.

I, on the other hand, am an absolute noodle and look ridiculous when I do martial arts.

What in the world is happening in this flashback scene with the weird CGI qilin. Ah, it’s when he received his tattoo. That was super dramatic.

Wushanju is looking real edgy with the heavy iron gate on the interior, haha.

He is puzzling (ha!) over those cards so intensely you’d think it was a thousand piece puzzle instead haha. You’re almost there! Just a few more to finish the qilin!

Aw, is this our Wu Xie? Haha his facial hair is- hm. But I love his voice it’s so soft. Really fits that “Mr. Naive” vibe.

Is that. Is that the author of the series. I found out that he makes cameos in almost all (if not all of) the adaptations!

NO. ONLY I CAN FINISH THE PUZZLE. HANDS OFF BUDDY.

Why are there so many pigeons in here. Who let them inside.

A writer, who came to hear his story and turn it into a novel- HA yup it’s the author.

“This should be a story about me and him.”

Ahh I’m loving it already. DMBJ is the ultimate bromance story. Fair warning, I do ship Pingxie so my shipper goggles will be on throughout the movie. But even without shipping, you do have to admit the series is a bromance underneath all the mystery – between the Iron Triangle, between Wu Xie and Xiaoge.

This Wu Xie is a photographer and that is sort of adorable. Already there’s a theme emerging of needing to record events and telling stories. Interesting that he wants to turn his memories into a novel to record his experiences, because otherwise he’s afraid those memories might turn into a mere story in his own head. Wu Xie, that’s a worrying mindset.

Those ancient mask things always make me crack up, I don’t know why.

Ooh, background about Wu Xie’s birth into the Wu family. I’ve never read up to the part in the books where they go into his place in the family in detail. To be fair, his grandfather had three sons and only one of them had any kids – and Wu Xie is his parents’ only child. So, he becomes the only one who can really carry on the family legacy. Aw, I really like seeing his extended family present though! In the dramas we only ever get either his Second or Third Uncle, and he rarely ever mentions his parents even though they’re alive.

And there’s his namesake! The origin of his nickname, and the irony once the story gets into the Sha Hai timeline.

Wu Xie was a bit of a rascal as a kid, haha. To be fair he has a pretty sharp tongue in the novels and is mostly a pure cinnamon roll in the early dramas.

Little Wu Xie in a suit is so adorable. Nooo kid don’t go into locked up abandoned places. He’s already so adventurous haha. Seems that it’s not actually abandoned judging by all the lights on, but.

UH. MASKED MAN BEHIND YOU. I think he wants that item back. This is why you don’t go into abandoned places, kid. He definitely does not learn his lesson though. Also why are you still holding onto that thing, just drop it, I think he wants it back.

Haha he kept one of the coins.

WOAH. Every month someone in your family dies?? That’s uh- sort of traumatic. Also that would be a really good first line for a novel…Just saying. I do love the singing though.

Oh, the Nine Families exist in this universe too! They even give a quick explanation about the ranking system.

Oh yeah, I love how Wu Xie is such a nerd for all this knowledge of ancient texts and tombs. And YES HE FINALLY DOCUMENTS STUFF FOR ONCE.

Uncle Three looked dead for a moment there, scared the shit out of me too.

VAMPIRE MOTHS? Oh I hate bugs I would not be okay lol. WHOOPS. You guys are really good at reading ancient texts on the fly lol.

That’s the mask he has in the beginning of the film, isn’t it. NO DON’T TOUCH THINGS IN TOMBS. AHHH. So you just put it on your face?? Well that was a stupidly simple way to open the door. I’m guessing the creator didn’t care if anyone opened it.

This guy just severed his own arm, ok…and how many years later is his hand still clinging to it? UH. THIS IS WHY YOU DON’T TOUCH THINGS IN TOMBS. Then he proceeds to steal the box thing.

Ah the white dude again. I am so happy there is GOOD ENGLISH though haha.

Oh, hi Zhang Qiling. Just hanging out on a rooftop I see.

He looks so melancholy. Someone give him a hug! This adaptation makes him more human, less stoic robotic superhuman, I noticed. You rarely see him eat or drink anything in the other adaptations, but here he’s just chilling on a rooftop having some drinks haha. It’s ok. I love all the Zhang Qilings.

WHAT THE HELL, LIGHTNING? What the hell is this high tech machinery haha. Eight days? Coincidentally eight days after sitting in a tomb for how many years.

That is a very Extra bookcase to hold a book that apparently has ALL the secrets.

WOW that is a fancy notebook. It looks so beat up in the other versions haha. In this one, it even gets its own hidden shelf in a giant portable bookshelf!

The props for this franchise are so cool and detailed. I always wish they would show more of the creative process in the BTS, I’m such a nerd for that stuff. The Longest Day in Chang’an was pretty good at that, which is half of my enjoyment of that show haha!

I’m also still pleasantly surprised they bothered to incorporate other languages. I’m not sure what the Snake Lady and the old man in the beginning were speaking, but at least the English is good.

I can’t believe they worked in a steampunk chastity belt this movie went all out, huh. Also with these weirdly high tech structures and lightning and moving tomb structures.

And all the pieces start coming together! So that’s why it’s believed they hold the secret to immortality. What a steampunk-looking key.

Is that a writing desk??

Oh, they’re getting a team together to go tomb raiding! Ha, forget money! You may or may not end up dying on this adventure, so who cares about money, right.

He’s so cute standing there with his camera. Look at the little smile as he watches everything going on!

It’s a desk and a storage container?? Oh, there are ~qualifications~ to going on tomb raiding. Makes sense. That is the oddest looking sword.

Must appreciate Zhang Qiling’s fingers in every adaptation. They look very strong and steady here. Let’s not talk about the slooow trailing across the handle.

Wow did you really just throw sand in his face. Have we not learned not to mess with Zhang Qiling after he trounced that first guy who attacked him. I love the fight scenes so much after the bore-fest that was Reboot/Chongqi’s second half of Season 1.

Super pretty, but why did it cause him to stop and stare in the middle of the fight?

This is like a Final Fantasy sword haha. Also I think you should stop while you’re ahead, why did you think a table would stop this dude. (Hey, it’s Da Kui! He was in the novel but not TLT1.).

It’s HERE. Their first meeting. How did he know the coin was on that cord? It wasn’t visible, I don’t think. But uh. That was a hilarious move on his part, he is so Extra?? He just casually flicks the necklace off with his big-ass sword and it drops into his hand. Then casually goes “oh, here, you dropped this” as if he wasn’t the one responsible for it coming off in the first place!!

HERE IT COMES. The unnecessarily long eye contact. Pingxie in every adaptation needs a Staring Into Your Eyes scene.

Real smooth.

Ahh this Wu Xie is such a cutie. He’s like a puppy.

WHAT. Third Uncle, I can’t believe you let him tag along so easily haha. In the beginning he was scolding Wu Xie to never get involved in tomb business, then what happens? They’re going tomb raiding!!

Next Up: to the tomb we go! This can’t end badly or anything what are you talking about.

#daomubiji #time raiders #dmbj #盗墓笔记 #image heavy post #perhaps don't view on mobile #in which i lose my mind for 2 hours #the muffin's liveblogging adventures

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spiderman-gets-squished · 3 years

Text

Pawns Of Paternity, Chapter One

Warnings: Cursing, being tied up with duct tape over the mouth, technical kidnapping, mentions of being “owned”.

I take a deep breath as I recite my optimisms in my head, slowly nearing my next target, a large phone in someone’s back pocket.

I am optimistic that no one will see me take the phone. Even if I wave it around! I’m optimistic they will think it’s just my phone.

I gently bump into the woman and grab her phone, sliding it into my pocket in one fluid movement as I turn around, my face apologetic.

“Ohh my gosh I am so sorry!” I laugh, light enough to reassure them nothing is wrong, and not to heavy to make them suspicious.

I am optimistic they will brush it off and laugh with me.

The woman does just as I thought, and I cross the street at the next possible moment, not wanting to be around her for too long.

Barely a minute has passed before I spot my next target.

Short, male, very expensive watch.

This is why I love walking through the rich part of New York. People practically begged you to take their shit.

I am optimistic that I will be able to quickly take his watch. I’m optimistic that when he notices later he will think he just forgot to-

I start to do my signature bump and grab, but the man grabs my wrist tightly and whirls me around to face him, the watch still on his wrist.

“Shit.” I breathe out, because I am facing the one and only Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man.

“No need to get handsy kid.” He says smoothly. “But now I’ll need to know why you thought you could take my, of all people’s, watch.”

“I’m optimistic you will let me have the watch and go.” I say, hoping that he would stop trying to break my arm. Normally saying my optimisms out loud is super effective, but it just makes Tony Stark laugh.

“Optimism isn’t getting you out of a visit to the police station.”

Quickly, I grab his wrist and turn, forcing his arm to move down and let go of me. Rushing away, I duck into the nearest building and beginning to run up the stairs, hoping he didn’t have the time to see where I went.

As I race up to the roof, I yell my optimisms as loud as I dared. “I am optimistic there is something on or below the roof that will allow me to escape. I’m optimistic nothing will harm me!”

Panting for breath, I push open the door at the top of the stairwell and stumble onto the roof, hoping to see some planks I could use to get to the next building, or a hiding space.

Instead, I see the one and only Spiderman, looking over at me in shock.

“Fuck, man.” I breathe heavily. “Today is not my day.”

“No it really isn’t.” A loud sound of metal clashes with the roof and I wince, turning to see Iron Man behind me in his full suit.

“I didn’t even take your watch!” I back away carefully, keeping my eye on Spiderman as I do.

“But, I bet you have plenty of other stolen goods on you.” Tony Stark crosses his arms and clunks forward. “If you didn’t know, stealing is a crime.”

“Mr. Stark, I’m a little confused on what’s going on right now.” Spiderman admits.

His voice sounded way to young for the Avengers, it had to be modulated. And I had found my optimism.

“I really don’t want to threaten you but I’m optimistic that I can tell the whole world Spiderman’s secret identity.”

“You use optimism a lot when you talk.” Tony Stark notes. “Did you have a bad past, depression maybe? Lead you to a life of crime?”

“Stop trying to read me!” I say loudly. “I am optimistic that Spiderman will agree to let me go.”

My words hung in the air, and Spiderman freezes, before stepping between Tony Stark and I.

“Listen Mr. Stark, maybe we should let her go. She didn’t even take your watch.”

I breathe a sigh of relief.

Tony Stark stares at Spiderman, then at me. “How did you do that?” He asks cautiously. “You some kind of witch?”

I shake my head. “Just optimistic.”

I could practically see the lightbulb over Tony Stark’s head. “Optimism. Okay, you’re coming with us. Underoos, I’ll race you to the tower.”

“Oh no-!” I shriek as Spiderman nods and wraps an arm around me, shooting a web to another building and jumping off the roof.

My words get stuck in my throat, the only thing I managed to do was scream. Luckily, Spiderman’s careless swinging through New York didn’t last long, as we weren’t to far from the tower. As soon as our feet hit the ground outside of Avenger’s tower I crumple down, practically hugging the pavement parking lot.

The once more un-suited Tony Stark strides out of the building and pulls me up, practically slapping duct tape onto my mouth and tying my hands behind my back.

“Mr. Stark?” Spiderman cries out incredulously as he starts to pull me into the building.

“Get inside,” Tony Stark gestures to Spiderman, who nods and starts to climb up the building.

I watch him go, then turn to face Mr. Stark nervously.

“Oh, don’t worry.” He shakes his head. “It’s not me you have to worry about.”

I gulp as we enter the building, and anyone who was in the lobby stares at me as we go straight to the elevator.

I hide my slight surprise at the talking elevator as we slowly move up to the floor below the very top, and Tony Stark leads me down a hallway into what looks like an interrogation room.

“Now would you kindly,” He sits me in the chair facing the two way mirror, and straightens up. “sit patiently and wait for Black Widow to come speak with you.”

My eyes widen and he stifles a laugh as he leaves, shutting the door behind him. I look at myself in the mirror and close my eyes.

I knew there was probably already people looking at me.

I didn’t care.

I’m optimistic that the rope will break.

I wriggle my arms around, smiling behind the duct tape when I feel the small cuts in the rope. Continuing to move and tug my arms, the rope slowly whithers, before snapping, and I rub my arms to get the circulation back in them, ripping the tape off of my mouth in disgust.

The door opens and the one and only Black Widow walks in, slamming it shut behind her.

“You can do that in your head.” She states, not really a question.

I nod. “It’s more efficient if I say them out loud.”

“But you said them out loud for Tony, and nothing happened.” She notes, sitting down across from me.

“At first I only thought the normal stuff. But he’s a super genius. He’s not as…Malleable.” I look over to the two way mirror and smile apologetically. “Sorry, Spiderman.”

“Why did you try to take his watch?” She asks.

“I didn’t know he was Tony Stark.” I answer honestly. “I couldn’t do it to him.”

“Could you do it to me?” She tilts her head slightly.

“No.”

“Could you do it to another Avenger? Besides Spiderman.”

I think for a moment, then nod. “I’m pretty sure.”

Natasha muses over my answer, then nods towards my backpack. “Take out anything you stole. Your pockets too.”

I huff and pull it off my back, taking the stolen phone out of my pocket and spilling the backpack’s contents onto the table.

Earrings, phones, bracelets and watches, broaches, necklaces, and rings all pile up.

I have the decency to feel guilty.

“Are you guilty that you stole or guilty you got caught?”

Man, this woman doesn’t miss anything. “Both.”

“Do you,” Natasha picks up a broach and studies it, “sell these, or are you a klepto?”

“I sell them.” I admit, my voice quieter.

“How?” She looks up at me. I remain quiet. Natasha nods and sets the broach back down, getting up and leaving.

I breath out and drag my hands through my hair anxiously, hiding my face in my hands.

What feels like an eternity passes, before Tony Stark and Black Widow re-enter the room.

“You are going to write down your name and address on this pad.” Black Widow instructs firmly, setting a small notepad and pen in front of me. “And Stark is going to go to your house and tell your parents that you have been chosen to be one of his personal interns. We are only doing this because we clearly can’t take you to the police. But you will come here after school every day and work, and we expect you to find every single person you stole from and return their items.”

My eyes widen at that last bit, and I stare at the notepad in shock before pushing it forward. “No. I’m not giving you my name, and I’m definitely not giving you my address.”

Tony Stark rolls his eyes and steps forward. “Listen kid, we aren’t gonna tell your parents about the-”

“My parents are dead.”

We lock eyes for a brief second and Tony Stark freezes, before pinching his nose in frustration. “Ohh Jesus Christ every time.”

“What?” I look over at Black Widow, who stares up at the lights, an unreadable expression on her face.

“Well, who do you live with?” Tony Stark finally says in exasperation. “An Aunt?”

“If I tell you that you’ll be able to track me down.” I remain just as firm as they are. “I am not putting the people I care about at risk.”

Tony Stark storms out of the room and as the door shuts I hear another door open, and raucous laughter from inside.

My brow furrows slightly in bewilderment, and Black Widow sits down across from me.

“Listen, kid.” She stops and lets out a long sigh. “I promise you nothing bad will happen to whoever it is you care about, okay? We can keep them safe.”

“I can’t be here after school every day, okay?” I admit. “I have people that need me. This isn’t about worrying about the people that own me find out I’m a petty thief-”

“I wouldn’t say petty.” She interrupts me, eyeing the pile.

I look down at it and wave my arms in reluctant agreement.

“Wait…” Natasha looks at me. “Did you say own?”

“I said what I said and I stand by it.” I cross my arms. “If I’m coming here everyday after school…Then I need my foster siblings to come with me.”

“We’ll need to discuss that with Stark, and your foster parents.” Black Widow tells me.

I shake my head again. “No, you can’t ask them. They won’t care.”

“If they won’t care, then why can’t we ask them?” Tony Stark asks smartly as he once again re-enters the room.

“Because, they’ll be curious as to why I’ve all of a sudden got an internship with you and you’re just allowing them to tag along?” I raise an eyebrow.

“How many foster siblings do you have?” Tony Stark asks quickly.

I wince. “Ten…”

His eyes practically bulge out of his head. “No fucking way. Does this place look like a daycare center to you?”

“I’m sure if you looked hard enough you’d find one between the indoor pool and bowling alley.” I snark.

Black Widow actually snorts, and Tony Stark shakes his head.

“We’re going to talk about this, and you’re going to write your name and address down.” Black Widow decides, pushing the notepad towards me again.

Tony Stark looked like he was about to yell some real obscene language as Black Widow whisks him out of the room, and the door shuts once more. I stare down at the pad and pick up the pen, tapping it on the table in a fast rhythm, before I shut my eyes and scribble my full name.

Charissa Kristine Kemp.

It looked so weird on paper. I add my address and shove the notepad away from me like it was on fire. As I wait for them to come back, I whisper my optimisms to myself, for good luck.

“I am optimistic that they’ll let my sister’s come with me to where ever I’ll be going. I’m optimistic they’re not gonna decide to just chuck me in a cell and-”

“Congratulations.” Tony Stark’s annoyed voice speaks from the open door. “They can come.”

Words: 2095

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babbushka · 4 years

Text

Winter Wonderland

Flip Zimmerman x Reader ; 2k

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening

In the lane, snow is glistening

A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight

Walking in a winter wonderland

Flip’s got butterflies in his stomach, as he fixes his hair for the fourth time in front of the mirror. It’s the first night of Hanukkah, and your parents are out of town, leaving you all alone for the holiday. Being your newly agreed upon boyfriend, Flip can’t have you all by yourself, not when he’s finally gotten permission to hug and kiss and hold you. He plans on hugging and kissing and holding you for eight nights straight, if he can get away with it.

But he’s nervous, it’s the first holiday the two of you will spend together as boyfriend and girlfriend. He grins in the mirror just thinking about it, about the way those words sound in his head. He feels a little too old to be somebody’s boyfriend, but he’s yours.

And so, he’s fixing his hair, and grinning like a lunatic, and he’s two steps to grabbing the keys on his dad’s Oldsmobile, when his mother appears in the hallway, seemingly out of thin air.

“Chamudi, where are you going?” She asks, a bemused smile on her round face.

“I’m going to go pick up (Y/N).” Flip replies.

“So early! But dinner isn’t for another few hours.” His mother raises a brow, and Flip blushes.

He had asked his mother if you could spend the holiday with him, and she was, of course, ecstatic. But he wanted some time alone with you before subjecting you to the havoc that was his family. It was a selfish desire, to keep you all to himself, he knew that. But he couldn’t help it, you were everything he’s ever wanted.

“I know Ma.” He ducks his head and scratches the back of his neck, afraid she’s going to make him help with dinner, cutting his hand on the potato-grater instead.

But he’s wrong, and she just clasps her hands together and Flip can already see the happy wobble in her chin when she realizes that the look on his face is love.

“Philly!” She starts, rushes over to him and pulls him down by his ears, presses a big kiss to his cheek.

“Ma, please.” Flip is blushing proper now, and he’s worried his face will still be red when he shows up at your door, so he lets out a nervous chuckle or two and his mom gets the hint.

“Okay okay, go along.” She puts her hands up in surrender and just gives him a look of pure joy when she says, “Oh Philip I’m just so happy to see you so happy.”

“We’ll be back in time for dinner.” Flip says instead, bashful that it’s so obvious how much he cares about you.

Gone away is the bluebird

Here to stay is a new bird

He sings a love song as we go along

Walking in a winter wonderland

When he shows up at your doorstep, he runs his hand through his hair again. He rings the doorbell and squares his shoulders, wanting to look nice and, well, he didn’t know. He wanted to look nice for you. You were so beautiful, all the time – and his jaw drops when he sees you in your holiday outfit.

You’ve got on all white, a sweater-dress that’s hidden by a white fur coat, a matching fur hat keeping your head warm. He can’t stop blinking, stunned by the way your blush creeps up into your smile, as you look at him looking at you.

“Chag sameach. You look really pretty.” He blurts out, and then immediately kicking himself, not wanting to insinuate anything, so he tries to backtrack, trips all over his own tongue, “Not that you don’t always look pretty! But – well – you look – ”

You cut him off by rising up onto your tippy-toes, shutting him up with a kiss that has the tips of his ears burning. He’s got this tight feeling in his chest, this loud thumping in his ear, every single time you kiss him. Every time, it’s like the first time – that disastrous date where he burned all the food and pretended that Chinese takeout was his own cooking. Every time, he’s on cloud nine, and all the tension drops from his shoulders as he pulls you into his arms fully, kisses you properly, right there on the front step.

“Thanks Flip.” You say softly, eyes fond and sparkling with mirth when you pull away and ask, “What are we doing today?”

Flip hadn’t told you, he had wanted to keep the whole thing a surprise, and now that the time has come, he’s terrified you’re going to think it’s a stupid idea, that you’re going to give him one of your signature really, Phil? looks, and this whole thing will be a bust.

“I thought that before the candles and dinner, you and me could take a walk.” He says, offering you his arm, escorting you to the Oldsmobile that he kept running so the seats would be nice and warm for you.

You laugh brightly, but not at him, and that makes Flip feel a whole lot better about the date.

“A walk? Flip it’s freezing out.” You hold out a gloved hand and let a flurry of snow fall onto your palm, holding it up to him as evidence.

“Yeah but I figure, you stick real close to me, and then you won’t get cold.” He says, all nonchalantly, and you laugh again, huddling closer to his side for the warmth he’s promised.

“Oh is that so?” You ask playfully as he opens the car door for you like the gentleman his mother raised him to be.

And when you’re sitting safely inside, he closes the door, walks around to the driver’s side, and kisses you once more, lips tingling and plush and he nods, “Yeah it is.”

In the meadow, we can build a snowman

Then pretend that he is Parson Brown

He'll say, "Are you married?" We'll say, "No man"

But you can do the job when you're in town

The drive to the park is short and filled with laughter. You talked about everything that had happened to you since you saw him last, and he listened intently, chiming in with related stories of his own past few days.

The park itself was kind of crowded, all sorts of families out and about, enjoying the winter snow. It really wasn’t so cold outside, and there wasn’t any wind, so the sound of children’s laughter rang through the place, as the kids who were lucky enough to have their school canceled were playing in the field.

You and Flip didn’t play, not today anyway. Instead you were walking arm in arm, your head resting on his shoulder. He couldn’t get those damn butterflies to quit, especially not when you pressed your whole body right up against his side, when the two of you walked in time, slowly meandering down the paths that had been cleared.

Every now and again, Flip would steal a kiss. He’d press one to your temple where he could reach, and you’d hum happily, a little laugh that couldn’t be anything other than love, plain and simple. He wanted to tell you, wanted to shout it out right then and there, that he loved you.

But he was afraid, didn’t want to go too fast, didn’t want to scare you, make you uncomfortable. So instead he stole those small kisses, little reminders of his affection, his adoration that he felt towards you.

You passed kids making snowmen, snow angels, winning and losing in snowball fights. You watched kids with sleds, both homemade and fancy department store bought ones, sliding down hills and rolling into big piles. People ice-skated on the frozen pond, lovers hand in hand or arm in arm, spinning and grinning like the two of you were.

He’d have to take you ice skating one day, he decides.

He’d have to learn how to, first, he reasons.

“You know what I was just thinking about?” You ask softly, face turning towards his like all the flowers that bloom in spring, how they turn towards the sun.

“Hm?” He smiles, tucks a strand of hair behind your ear, lets his heart thump wildly when he sees you wearing the small diamond earrings he bought you for your birthday.

You sigh dreamily, looking out at the kids playing and laughing.

“One day, we’re going to have a big house of our own, and we’ll be inviting your family over for dinner that I’ll cook.” You say, and Flip swears he’s going to have a heart attack.

“Don’t you mean that we’ll cook?” He tries to pass it off with humor, but you just give him your signature, really Phil? look then.

“No.” You say, before the two of you burst out into laughter, the prospect of him cooking entirely too funny to be taken serious, and you both know it.

“Yeah that’s fair.” He concedes, before the laughter dies down to chuckles, before he licks his lips nervously and asks, “You want a big house?”

“Yes, a big house, for all the kids.” You reply like it’s not some grand declaration, and all of Flip’s worries about moving too quickly immediately get thrown out the window.

“Okay.” He nods, grinning, because really he’s so overwhelmed with joy that he doesn’t know if he could say anything else without tripping over his tongue again and making himself look like a fool in love, even though he was, he really was.

“You’ll have to marry me, you know.” You grin right back at him, and he can see relief in your eyes too, which is something that catches him off-guard.

He realizes in that moment, that it never occurred to him, that you would be afraid of rejection. He never would have guessed that you had doubts about him, about how stupidly, madly, deeply he loved you. To see you so pleased, so happy, that he would want to spend the rest of his life with you fills him with a bittersweet pride; you both could have had this a year ago, if only he had been brave enough to ask.

“Can’t I take you to dinner first?” Flip asks this now instead, because a year is a year, and it’s nothing compared to the rest of the time he’ll get to spend with you.

“I suppose so.” You tease, bumping your hip against his as he bumps yours right back, making the two of you laugh and laugh because how could life get any better, when you were with your best friend?

Later on, we'll conspire

As we dream by the fire

To face unafraid, the plans that we've made

Walking in a winter wonderland

When the sun begins to set, Flip steers you both in the direction of a beautiful lights display the park had set up. Jimmy had told him about it the day prior, and he knew it was the perfect way to end the date before going home and having dinner with his family, and beginning the celebration of the festival of lights.

He turns to ask you what you think about it, about the day, about everything, when he sees you subtly trying to wipe away tears with the back of your gloved hand, and his heart thuds wild wild wild again in his chest.

“Was this a good idea?” He whispers, feeling like he’s completely ruined it, like he’s ruined everything, but then you’re laughing, and you’re smiling up at him, and he realizes your tears aren’t from him screwing up.

“Yeah, it really was.” You nod, pulling him down and kissing him deep.

It’s not until later – years later, when the two of you are married and you do have a great big house that he built and fixed himself, when the two of you do invite his family over for a Hanukkah dinner that you cooked yourself, when you are expecting the first of many baby Zimmermans to be running around in the snow – does he realize those tears were the realization that that date was the first time that things felt more real than they ever had, the first time you knew the two of you were soulmates.

But in the moment, he’s just happy to see you smiling, happy to see you look up in wonder at the lights that flash, even if they don’t flash in colors for the holiday you celebrate.

And while the kids play and the ice skaters skate and the lights twinkle, the gentle music of Bing Crosby croons from speakers around the park, a warm fuzzy crackling that has you humming along.

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening In the lane, snow is glistening A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight Walking in a winter wonderland

Walking in a winter wonderland Walking in a winter wonderland…

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Tagging some Flip lovin’ friends! <3 @dreamboatdriver @kylo-renne @callmehopeless @kyloxfem @formerly-anonhamster @thepilotanon @solotriplets @fullofbees @spinebarrel @bourbonboredom @driverficarchive @rosalynbair @redhairedfeistynerd @glitzescape @adamsnacc-kler @ladygrey03 @venusianmaiden marvelous-blog-221 @edwardseyelashes @softcrybabykid @tinyplanet-explorers @magikevalynn @scheherazades-horcrux @whiskey-bumblebee @riseofkylo

#reader insert #flip zimmerman x reader #flip x reader #my writing #12DoO #12 days of oneshots #hanukkah fic

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