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aetheternity · 2 years

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What ruins the mood during sex

A/N: {I remember writing one of these posts for AOT like three years ago. How times have changed.} Ok so like when I was writing Venti and Xiao's I felt a weird sense of Deja Vu like I'd somehow read a scenario like this in someone else's work but I can't tell if it's a real genuine feeling I should look into further or if it's some kind of random emotion based on this prompt which has been done to death as it is. But if someone tells me that someone else wrote this prompt with those two and created the same scenario I would look into it.

A/N 2: Ok so like I took my sweet time posting this because I wanted to see if I'd manage to come up with an idea for Kazuha, Albedo and Scaramouche but I could not. So if you want to know why they're not here that's why. (Yes this is a repost)

Characters: Aether, Cyno, Heizou, Tighnari, Venti, Xiao

Disclaimer: Adult situations, MDNI.

Cyno: In, a quickie turned accidental creampie.

He's got such a nice pace going. Your arms wrapped around his neck, legs tangled around his waist. Eyes fluttering shut as he slams your hips into the desk beneath you.

"Cy, are you gonna cum?"

He hums a quick reply, hips stuttering forward.

Your eyes nearly pop out of their sockets, "Wait! Cyno not inside!"

He manages to pull out but not before he'd already stained your clenching walls and a couple drops along your ass. "Since when do you want me to pull out?" He groans, eyes narrowing at the cum drenching the desk beneath you.

"Ugh! I just.. didn't want to walk around like this all day! I won't be able to shower till night fall.." You sigh in frustration. Spreading your legs wider to see the damage. "I guess I should've warned you sooner but I thought about it too late."

He simply grunts, "I will help you clean up as much as possible."

Aether: In, which one of us didn't lock the door?

He's got your hips from behind. A rather long moan cresting off his lips as he gets sucked in as deeply as he can go. Your own eyes rolling to the skies as you pull him in, pressing your hips back into his with vigor.

That is until the door creaks open suddenly, Paimon's voice loudly calling. Luckily Aether was far quicker he launched a pillow at full speed taking Paimon out fast enough for him to slam the door shut.

"Not now Paimon!" He screamed over her protests.

Meanwhile you'd already taken to the floor. Stripping the blanket from the bed as you tried and failed to hide your laughter.

Aether on the other hand looks less than amused.

Xiao: In, on the edge of glory.

You'd been teaching Xiao little things about mortal sexual relations. Not so much for testing purposes simply because he'd asked. Most of the things you'd talked about got you one of two reactions: A blank stare or a disappointed eye roll. Though as much as you wanted to properly ask, you decided against questioning Xiao's sexual exploration. For at least the time being.

At some point however Xiao had slid a book in front of you. The page already flipped to a section about edging. Now your mind probably shouldn't have immediately jumped to shock followed by an internal battle over your Xiao Xiao reading a book but-

"I wish to try this out.." He mumbled, staring off into space as he spoke.

"Of course."

Seeing as you'd done at least this much before: Getting him hard and then getting him close to cumming had been fairly easy. His breaths short and heavy as you worked him up just enough to perfectly edge him. That is until you started to work him up again only for his sensitivity to win out. His body crumbling as he covered his chest and your hand with his load.

You giggle a little at how easily, he quells at even your softest touches. Which of course was logical. He hadn't exactly done this with anyone else before.

"Aw Xiao.." You peered up at him completely endeared. Your heart fluttering so hard when you saw the way his eyes were squeezed shut and the bright red adorning his cheeks. "Xiao! It's ok! don't make that face honey it's ok."

He weakly grumbles but you just continue your praise, pressing kisses into the crook of his neck and along each of his shoulders. "We can try again, I promise."

Heizou: In, injuries may occur.

The way you've got his cock sliding between your lips, so slowly, so perfectly it makes him weak. He presses your head deeper, pushing you a little faster with soft words of encouragement.

On a particular stroke you manage to press deeper than you'd ever done before. Enough to kiss his pelvic bone. The feeling so intense Heizou's leg jolts, hard enough that his foot comes in contact with your stomach.

"Man alive! I'm sorry!" He pulls your face back, straightening up to check you for discomfort. "Are you ok?" His thumb softly massages your cheek.

"It's fine Shika." You simply grin. "It was good to know you were feeling good."

"Ugh, but that still couldn't have felt great.. Allow me to make it up to you somehow."

"What do you have in mind?"

Safe to say that moment had been ruined but perhaps the "moment" wasn't.

Tighnari: In, maybe you should've just left it there..

He's barely had a moment to sneak away all day and boy does he need it with the way you've been teasing him. He's nearly reached his limit and is about to shove you against the closest tree when a small window of opportunity arises.

The rookie forest rangers have a lunch break.. and that means so does he.

He slides into you so eagerly the second he gets you alone. Bracing your hips against his desk as he pounds you so unabashedly. Little giggles and moans falling off your lips. That is until a tube of some mysterious powder rolls its way off the desk, cracking as it collides with the floor.

"Shit.." Without hesitation Tighnari pulls out yanking the tube up from where it'd dropped. Unfortunately too quickly as his head immediately slams into the table's end. So quickly and so roughly it clattered around with you atop it.

"Oh archons, are you ok?!" You slide off the desk basically dropping onto the floor beside him. Tighnari's whine surprisingly loud as he rubs the back of his head just below his ear.

"I'll be fine but agh.. ow!"

Safe to say you two should probably finish later.

Venti: In, bless you??

You cup his face, devouring any and every moan he musters as they fill your open lips. His face scrunches up and you prepare for that all too familiar full body shudder he always does when he cums.

"Almost there, Love, so close." You coo

He lets out a little noise of confusion, nose twitching and before you can even begin to question it you're immediately covered in snot and spit. A surprise that's just as soon followed by him pumping you full of cum.

"Oh wow!" He chuckles "I'm so so sorry darling, I didn't realize I still had any sneezes left from my earlier performance at the Cats Tail ehe~"

"Venti.."

"I'm still so very sorry.."

"Run."

#ok lets try this again #don't understand why this post bombed so hard before but whatever #genshin smut #aether smut #cyno smut #heizou smut #tighnari smut #venti smut #xiao smut #genshin x reader smut

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tintinwrites · 6 months

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ulterior motives | Poe Dameron x Fem!Reader (1 of 2)

A/N: Wow, long time, no Poe! And a long time without posts. I just haven’t been motivated to write (or finish what I start) and time is moving so quickly, I can’t even keep track of it. My goodness!!!!

Rating: 18+

Warning: Canon typical violence, naughty words, people assuming you were promoted for doing sexual favors and it is heavily discussed.

Word Count: 4,499, apparently!

Summary: Post-war with The First Order, your generals, Poe and Finn, promote you to commander of your squadron. Not everyone is happy about it, especially with how close you and Poe seem to be.

GIF Credit: ^^^^

You couldn’t help but smile as you hopped down from your ship, removing your helmet and tucking it under your arm, watching your fellow pilots leave their own X-wings to greet the people awaiting you all.

There was nothing more satisfying than a successful mission where nobody got hurt.

There were still remnants of the First Order, desperate people with no personality outside of the dictatorship, as well as new groups popping up. The galaxy simply couldn’t exist without someone with bad intentions wanting to rule it.

When one of your generals sent your squadron out to nip one of the groups in the bud, you hadn’t expected to be ambushed by their ships as soon as you broke the atmosphere for the planet their headquarters were on.

But, even taken by surprise, you managed to take each one of them out and suffer nothing but superficial damage to your ship and the others’. One day in maintenance and they’d all be good as new, like they never even left the hangar.

“Captain,” said a familiar voice from behind you and you nearly jumped, turning to find Poe was approaching you with a proud smile.

“General Dameron,” you breathed out, nearly stumbling over the name as you fought away your own shy smile.

He had that effect on everyone and you were certainly no exception. He was handsome already, but he’d grown a beard speckled with white since taking over as co-general and it made him so…distinguished. He let his hair grow out a bit and it was just barely graying at the temples. He was smart and strong and kind and toned and his eyes would crinkle at the corners when he’d smile at you or laugh or—

How could you not feel something? It was a little embarrassing, the way your heart would jump at the sight of him and your breath would catch when you spoke with him, and your palms would sweat just from being near him. But you couldn’t blame yourself or anyone else for that matter.

You tried your best to not reveal your feelings, hiding genuine yearning behind banter and what could possibly be construed as flirting. And sometimes you couldn’t help how you looked at him, especially when there were times where he looked at you in such a way that you thought that…maybe…

But he was one of your generals and you were just someone with a silly crush. Just like everyone else. You weren’t special, the two of you weren’t fated to be an item just because you liked him. It just…was what it was.

“Looks like Finn did a good job entrusting you with the squadron for this mission.” Poe looked around the tarmac at the other pilots, who were all animatedly telling anyone near them how intense and ‘cool’ the fight was.

You felt a touch of pride, but you just smiled. “I couldn’t have done it without them.”

You looked at him to find he was looking at you now, like he was considering something. When he didn’t say anything and you found yourself wanting to squirm beneath his gaze, you cut through the silence.

“Do I have something on my face?” You leveled him with a jokingly annoyed expression and he looked away with a laugh.

“Nothing that needs fixing,” he said offhandedly, biting his lip in thought for a moment before he looked at you again. “I wanna talk to you about something. In private.”

Your heart felt like it leapt out of your chest, mind immediately racing as it tried to figure out what he would want to talk about. Had you done something wrong? Was he going to ask you out?

You waved the thoughts away and smiled a little too brightly. “Sure! What’s up?”

“No, no, go take a shower and get changed, come to my office after.”

“Are you saying I stink, General?” Your typical banter was only slightly delayed as you tried to calm yourself.

“I’m just saying, I want to be able to inhale when I talk to you.”

Despite him being your superior, you gave him a playful shove that made him stumble back a bit, shaking your head as he laughed. “You’re horrible.”

“And you like it.” You did. Because he never meant it and just wanted to make you…make people laugh. “See you in fifteen?”

“We’ll see if I even show up now.”

——————————————————————————

You were outside of Poe’s office fourteen and a half minutes later, clean and in comfier clothes than a flightsuit; you sped through the process, both eager and nervous about what Poe wanted to talk to you about.

You took a deep breath to fail at calming your nerves before you knocked on the door.

“No one’s here!”

“Oh, then I guess I can just come back another day.” You barely made it a few feet down the hall before the door slid open and Poe was peeking out, smirking at you. “Oh! I thought no one was there.”

“I snuck by when you weren’t looking. Come in.” He nodded and stepped away, and you followed him into the room as the door shut again.

His office was simple, a desk and a few chairs, some necessary technology, a few little personal touches like toys from his childhood or cool things he found on missions. There was one across the hall for Finn that was nearly identical, but he had a lot more personal touches as he discovered new, wonderful things he enjoyed every day.

You sat in one of the chairs in front of his desk as he sat in his, and you waited for him to start the conversation. He was just smiling at you. You stared at him before you squirmed in your seat, feeling awfully hot for some reason. “What did you need to talk to me about?”

“Oh, right, uh…” He sat back in his seat, clearing his throat. “You know how Finn asked you to oversee your mission because Commander Nichos had to step away?”

You nodded. Nichos and you weren’t too close, but he was nice and you respected him, so you were concerned when you found out he wouldn’t be on the mission.

“Well, his wife is pregnant. And he wants to step down as commander so he can just have a family…in peace.” He started to rearrange things on his desk. “Since we’re not in a war and I want his kid to have a dad, I agreed.”

“That’s kind of you.” Poe was a fair general as far as you were concerned. He could get a little worked up sometimes, but it was only when it was necessary.

“But that means we won’t have a commander for your squadron and I’ve been thinking about it and talking to Finn…and we want you.”

You stared. “Want me to do what?”

“Take over as commander…but only if you want to.”

Slowly, you started to register what he was asking you and a smile spread across your face. “I…I would be honored. Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.” He rolled his eyes playfully at you.

“This…thank you!” You’d been hoping to climb the ranks with your hard work and you so loved overseeing missions and your squadron. Not to mention, you felt so accomplished and flattered, knowing Poe and Finn thought you were capable enough. “Can I hug you?”

“You know I love hugs.”

You were around the desk and on him so fast, making him grunt as you hugged him tight. You would’ve been in his lap if you didn’t keep your feet on the ground. He laughed warmly in your ear and the sound made you melt, knees buckling as his arm came around you and he gently rubbed your back.

You pulled back after a moment and his arm loosened around you, but it didn’t fall. You stared at each other and you couldn’t help admiring how handsome he was, how soft his eyes were when he looked at you. Did he just glance at your lips? Were you imagining things to give yourself hope?

“General Dameron, I— oh.” You both turned to see a member of your squadron had entered; it was Valin, a typical tall, dark, and handsome man. He was a bit aloof, but a good pilot and fighter.

“Well, your breath smells fine to me!” you said quickly, inwardly cringing as you pulled away from Poe. He looked amused, but turned his attention to Valin.

“Hey, we were just finishing up if you wanna take a seat.” Poe nodded to you that you could leave, which you did in a bit of a daze.

Both from the awkwardness of Valin’s entrance and…whatever the hell that other feeling was. It felt like a strange mixture of hope, longing, and disappointment.

You were almost certain that you wanted to kiss Poe and that he wanted to kiss you back. You did want to kiss Poe.

But he was your general! And everyone wanted him! You were being ridiculous, making things up because you were excited and he was gorgeous. So unbelievably gorgeous…

It would never work, but it was nice to flirt and pretend. Even with your logic, you still wished Valin hadn’t walked in and interrupted whatever was going to happen.

Would Poe have kissed you? Would you be the one who initiated it? Would you both lean in, only to smack your noses together and laugh and break the tension that shouldn’t have been there? It was good that Valin walked in.

Great, even. It made things way less complicated that you weren’t able to kiss one of your generals.

You tried to shift your focus to your new role as commander and how excited you were, but you weren’t sure if you couldn’t stop smiling because of that or because it really seemed like Poe wanted to kiss you.

——————————————————————————

There was a celebration the night it was announced that you were promoted to commander and Valin was promoted to captain; everyone chattered, laughed, and even danced as they enjoyed delicious food and dizzying drinks.

Everyone but Valin, but it didn’t seem out of the ordinary given the distance he always kept between himself and the others. He just stood in the corner, sipping on a strong drink. You supposed he kept his emotions about being promoted to himself.

Regardless, you were having a great time with all your friends celebrating you, and other squadron members congratulating you and telling you how right you were for the job.

Poe observed for most of the night until you - a little buzzed, forgetting embarrassment despite the heat in your body - dragged him over to dance. He didn’t mind, joining in on the fun like he wasn’t one of your highest superiors.

Things were so different with the war over. While there were still problems to be dealt with, they were fewer and farther between, which meant you had time for celebrations and access to real food instead of rations.

You could enjoy your lives to some extent.

“Congratulations again. I gotta get this guy out of here,” said Kelsa, a member of the Blue Squadron, as she helped her husband Adharan out of the room. He was a member of your squadron and he was mumbling random things all the way.

There were few people left at the celebration as the night grew late and everyone felt the true effects of what they drank. It was you, Poe, Finn, a few new faces, and Valin left.

The group of newbies left and your eyes widened when you saw Finn with one of them. You looked at Poe in question when he plopped down next to you with a groan. “Someone made a friend.”

He laughed. “He’s been looking at her like a barghest pup since she joined. It’s about time.”

“Yeah…” You stared at him, the alcohol coursing through you doing a great job at making you forget why it was good you hadn’t kissed Poe the other day.

He had such perfect lips. He was made to be kissed and you wanted to do the kissing.

You didn’t even realize you were leaning in until you felt his fingers on your lips, stopping you from meeting his. He looked like he was almost in pain. “You’re drunk.”

“Not drunk enough to not know what I’m doing.” You mumbled against his finger tips, turning your head to lean into his touch.

“Maybe not, but you’re drunk enough to not think it through. I’m not gonna take advantage of that.” He slowly removed his hand, being sure you were holding your own head up and not relying on him. “I don’t want you to regret it in the morning.”

You knew refusing to take advantage of someone under the influence was the bare minimum a person could do, but you liked Poe so much, it felt like he’d just offered you a million credits. “You’re such a good guy.”

There was a snorted laugh and you looked over to see Valin walking by, but his face was so emotionless that you figured you heard wrong. You wanted to reach out to him even if he was distant, so you stood. “Captain.”

He just stared straight into your soul, only looking away once he was approaching the door.

You scoffed. “Talk about having a stick up your-“

Poe quickly stood and slapped a hand over your mouth, pulling you to his side as he grinned and waved at Valin with his free hand. “Goodnight!”

Valin’s eyes were darker as he left and you continued to mumble behind Poe’s palm. He made sure the other man was likely out of earshot before he moved his hand away.

“-and another thing, who stands in a corner and glares at everyone when they were just promoted? You should be celebrating! And I’ve been so nice to you and you just stare at me! Why?!”

Poe pressed his lips together and patted your shoulder, gently guiding you toward the door. “Yeah, you’re not in your right mind. Let’s get you to bed.”

——————————————————————————

It was a few days later that you noticed that people didn’t seem as excited for you anymore. It couldn’t just be in your mind that everyone was glaring at you, whispering to each other as soon as you were too far to hear them.

You wondered if you’d done something embarrassing at the celebration, but you remembered all of it and the most embarrassing thing you’d done was try to kiss Poe. That wasn’t reputation destroying, was it?

You did your best to ignore it, but the more people whispered without telling you what the problem was, the more irritated and nervous you became.

The tarmac outside of the base was crowded with people as Blue Squadron prepared to leave for a mission, but all conversations hushed as you walked through. The throngs parted, friends and acquaintances and people you didn’t even recognize staring at you. You felt big and small at the same time, like you were taking up too much space for the meaningless person you were in their eyes.

You just kept walking, wanting to wish the squadron luck before going.

Kelsa was about to get into her ship, but she stopped and looked at you with pity. That was better than being stared at like you were an abomination…maybe…pretty sure…you had no idea if it was better or worse. What was there to pity?

You approached their commander, Alsafi, and did your best to smile. “Hey, I just wanted to wish you luck out there.”

She regarded you for a moment like you were a lowly creature she could easily step on, then she lifted her chin and straightened her shoulders. “You know, I was assigned as commander of the Blue Squadron because I worked hard.”

You furrowed your brow. “Yeah…you’re the perfect fit, anyone knows that.”

She hummed and started to climb the ladder to her ship, saying over her shoulder, “I don’t need luck from General Dameron’s pet.

Your eyes widened and you quickly grabbed her ankle to stop her ascent. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, come on!” She clenched her jaw and kicked you away easily, so she could hop back onto the tarmac and loom over you with her impressive height. “Everybody knows. How could he not grant you such a favor when you’ve been granting his?”

You opened and closed your mouth a few times in shock, turning to the crowd where some were staring and others quickly pretended they hadn’t been. “Is…is that what you all think? I was promoted to commander because I’m sleeping with Poe?”

A murmur fluttered across the group, some people saying nasty and hateful things while others begrudgingly admitted their beliefs. A few people were silent, obviously not believing the rumor, but too frightened by the general consensus to stick up for you.

That included members of your own squadron, people you’d known the longest, who’d been the most vocal about how happy they were that you were their commander.

“You all know Poe would never do that! That I…I would never accept…I…” You were so flustered by all the anger and judgment pointed towards you. “Kolb, Navi, come on, you know that’s not why!” Your fellow pilots looked ashamed as they stayed silent, so you turned to the ever stoic Valin.

Something was different in his eyes.

“Valin was promoted to captain! Poe and Finn were just moving up their best pilots to fill a space. Tell them.”

“I saw them together with my own eyes,” he said as he stared at you coldly. “And now you claim to be one of our best pilots? Better than me or the rest of our squadron?”

Your face fell. “No…I didn’t mean that…I just mean…we should trust their decisions, I…and what do you mean, you saw us?!”

“In his office, after everyone left the party…”

You scoffed and laughed nervously because, while you hadn’t done anything, you knew the position was compromising and you were filling with unfounded guilt. Or was it unfounded? You did feel that Poe liked you. Did he just promote you because he liked you?

No, he wouldn’t do that. Would he? He promoted Valin too. Maybe he liked Valin.

“We were hugging in his office because I was excited, and I was drunk at the party! Come on, you guys don’t really believe this!”

“If he was just promoting his best pilots, Valin should have been commander and you should have stayed captain,” Alsafi said before climbing into her ship.

Valin leaned in close to you as the crowd began to dissipate, their decision made. “Everyone sees how you look at each other. You think we’re stupid?”

You floundered, but couldn’t come up with a defense before he shouldered past you. What were you supposed to do? Nobody believed you.

All you could think was one thing; hide.

You ran, pushing past anyone who was left, bolting right back into the base so you could hide from their stares and assumptions, humiliated by their lack of faith in your abilities as well as them thinking you were sleeping with Poe.

You were just turning the hallway that held your quarters when you bumped into someone solid, hard enough that the two of you fell into a heap on the floor. He grunted and you gasped, panting.

“Hey, you okay?”

Your eyes widened when they met Poe’s and you quickly scrambled off him and crawled back until you hit the wall, wanting to put distance between you. You couldn’t imagine if someone walked in and found you on top of him.

His brow furrowed as he sat up. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

You didn’t know what to say and you felt panicked as tears welled in your eyes; from how much you liked Poe, and how much you wanted to be commander, and how everyone thought there was a correlation between the two. You opened your mouth and all that came out was a sob.

“Hey…” Poe softened and reached for you, but you quickly moved to your feet and pressed your back against the wall.

“Thank you, but I don’t think I should be commander.” It was like you were replying to a conversation he hadn’t been let in on, and you saw the confusion on his face before you darted down the hallway.

“Wait!” You could hear him calling after you and heard his footsteps running behind you for a moment, but you didn’t dare look back.

Part of you wanted to cry in his arms. The other part feared someone seeing you in another compromising position.

——————————————————————————

You stayed in your quarters for days, too frightened to face the stares or to wrestle with your feelings for Poe. You were also too scared to see his reaction to you turning down the role of commander.

Everyone had rations and a private refresher in their room, so you didn’t even have any reason to leave.

Maybe if you stayed there for a year or two, everyone would forget about this and Valin would be the new commander.

You peeked out from under your covers when you heard a knock on the door. “Who is it?”

“It’s Poe.”

“—no one’s here.”

“Should I rephrase that and say that your general is standing out here, in the freezing cold hallway?” When you gave no response, the door slid open and in walked Poe with a sympathetic expression. He looked around before grabbing the chair from your small desk and moving it to face your bed, sitting down. “Kelsa told me what happened.”

You groaned and pulled the covers over your head. “So you see why I can’t be commander and you agree? I’m glad we had this talk.”

“No, I see that someone started a rumor because you’re capable and deserving…and Valin is jealous, he thought he would be promoted to commander.” He tried to pull the covers down, but you held tight. “Come on, I know you. You’re gonna let this ruin something so important?”

“They think I fucked you, Poe,” you said bluntly as you shoved the covers back and sat up to look at him. “Do you know how embarrassing that is? They think I slept with you and that’s why you promoted me.”

“Who cares? You know the truth. I know the truth. And, sooner or later, they’re gonna forget all about the rumor and move onto something else.”

“They’re not gonna respect me if they think I do favors to get what I want.” You looked at your hands.

Poe reached out to tilt your chin up so you’d look at him. “I promoted you because you’re good and you deserved it more than anyone. They’ll get over it.”

You smiled a little, shaking your head. “I just don’t know if it’s right.”

“Well!” He stood and slapped his thighs. “Your squadron has a mission in a few days and I don’t plan to put someone in as commander, even temporarily. So I guess you at least gotta go for this one, or the whole squadron might be lost.”

“That’s just playing dirty.”

“Whatever gets you out of that bed.”

You watched him as he put the chair back and started towards the door, calling out before you could stop yourself, “Poe?”

You didn’t know what you wanted to say when he turned to look at you expectantly. Maybe you wanted to ask if it was all a rumor or if he did like you, if he looked at you the same way you looked at him.

But you couldn’t.

“Thanks,” you said lamely.

“Thank me after your briefing, first thing in the morning.”

——————————————————————————

The morning air was chilled as you finished packing what you needed into your X-wing, looking around at your squadron as they prepared themselves. Most of your group was being respectful and kind, though they hadn’t spoken up for you before.

The only one who didn’t seem to care for your orders was Valin. You didn’t care for him very much at all now, given how he started the rumor, but you would make sure he stayed safe.

You were just climbing the ladder when he approached you, data pad in hand. “General Dameron said he gave us the wrong coordinates, these are the right ones.”

You looked at him and then looked to where Poe was standing to see you all off, smirking a bit when he waved at you. You quickly made your expression neutral and looked at the coordinates on screen, nodding. Maybe even Valin was getting somewhat used to you being his superior, if only by doing something helpful that you imagined Poe was forcing him to do.

“Let’s get a move on, the sooner we’re out of here, the sooner we can come back!” You climbed into the cockpit of your ship and put in the coordinates before you let the canopy close, starting it up.

Poe was still watching as you lifted into the air, followed close by the rest of your squadron with Valin right behind you. You waved to your general quickly before you took off into space, surprised by how far the planet would be.

That’s what hyperspeed was for, you supposed. You were able to engage it once you broke the atmosphere and you were in the quiet expanse of stars.

It cut your travel time in half and you exited it once you were a few minutes away from the planet, pausing when you only saw one ship behind you. Where the hell was the rest of your fleet?

Your comm crackled to life and you could hear Valin, “I think they dropped out of hyperspeed too soon, this place is kinda in the middle of nowhere. We should go ahead and land, scope out the place.”

He was right about the planet being in the middle of nowhere and you knew your squadron was smart, they’d figure out the coordinates. It made sense to go ahead and get started, so you could see what needed to be done.

You took off your helmet once your ship had touched down, climbing out to take a look at your surroundings.

It was pretty barren, dirt as far as the eye could see, crumbling buildings and dead foliage. You couldn’t even hear animals or the wind.

“I think maybe we’re the ones who dropped out of hyperspeed at the wrong time,” you said over your shoulder as Valin jumped out of his ship. “I don’t think this is even livable. Maybe it was at one time, but not anymore…they wouldn’t want a planet without resources they can harvest.”

“No, I think we’re in the right place,” came Valin’s voice from right behind you.

You barely had time to register the pain of something being brought down on the back of your head before everything went black.

#poe dameron x reader #poe dameron imagine #star wars imagine #poe dameron fic

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lewkwoodnco · 8 months

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"Slut!" - Lockwood x Reader

A/N: been having a lottt of thoughts about this song. it wasn't what I expected like for a lot of ppl but this is immediately my favourite?? like idk man those hints of her rep era beginning mixed with the emotional vulnerability of being in love mannn im going to be annoying abt this for a wholeee month. Reader is a Fittes agent, wc 5.4k!!

Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 3.5 | Ch 4 | Ch 5

On paper, her employers had always commended her for her drive for excellence. What was usually glossed over was how it arose from an unhealthy obsession with perfection, not that it mattered. And yet, glowing articles about successful cases were rare and far between. She had led as many successful cases as some of her male colleagues, but those headlines were seemingly too dull for her sex. After all, who wanted to read about a woman showing up the men in her field? So the tabloids started to play dirty, spinning convoluted rumoured love stories from any and every photo of her in the vicinity of a man.

She remembered how devastating the first article was. Instead of publishing one of the many photos of her standing with her team, there was a shadowed, grainy photograph of her talking to their supervisor. She tried to tell anyone who asked her that no, they weren't kissing, not that it would have mattered if it did, but no one seemed much interested in listening. The shame burnt into the side of her face like a scarlet letter. A slut.

Eventually, she decided to just keep everyone at arm's length. Maybe if she kept her head down long enough they'd run out of knives to throw at her. And for a good two years, it somewhat worked, or at least helped. But then she met Lockwood.

She didn't think much of him at first - if anything, she resented his suave, silver tongue and how the press went nuts for his charismatic smiles. He tried to dazzle her with one when they first met, and she nearly scoffed.

"Anthony Lockwood, Lockwood and Co. And you are...?"

"Disgusted."

She tried talking to Barnes, throwing in some less-than-complimentary opinions on Lockwood, but he just waved her off. Eventually, she came around, but only because he was undeniably skilled, and it would have been unprofessional to freeze him out forever.

She remembered the first time he made her smile. Their supervisor was having them sign their case report, so she wasn't even looking at him. He whispered some inane remark which caught her completely off-guard, but it was enough to make her damage the tip of the fountain pen as she choked on a laugh. Her supervisor looked unimpressed, grumbling about the pen, but Lockwood's face had taken on an animated spark.

"Oh, good. I was beginning to wonder if you knew how to smile."

The smile is a foreign feeling on her face. Lockwood gently takes the report from her and starts talking in smooth tones that flow right over her head. She shakes herself and tries to pull herself together, trying to soothe the nervous flutter of her heart. She can only bear catching glimpses of his words and she struggles to string together coherent responses.

But then she hears the vans pulling up. Vans filled with news agencies and their bulky cameras. She's paralysed by a flash of fear and she jumps apart from Lockwood as if burnt, tripping over her words as she forces out some lame excuse of needing to check on her team. Lockwood looks mildly concerned, but she pushes it to the back of her mind.

They meet again a week or two later. She's sitting outside a conference room, waiting for Barnes to finish a meeting, and she realises with a start that the man in the room she's facing is Lockwood. To be fair, she hadn't seen him in an indoor setting before, and he seemed nearly unrecognisable with his typically crisp shirt dusty and wrinkled, with his sleeves rolled up his forearms. She watches him laugh over something with one of his associates as they leave the room, and she drinks in the sight like a man starved. There is something so desperately appealing about the vitality in his face and jaunty movements.

As the smile fades, she recognises the exhaustion on his face; the kind that made her want to do nothing more than stumble home and crawl under the covers. But then he sees her, and he gives her a teasing smile that stokes her spirits. His associate gives her a tired wave and walks out.

"Waiting for me?"

She rolls her eyes and nods towards the conference room. "Waiting for Barnes. Going home?"

He jerks his head noncommittally before sitting down next to her. He looks oddly bare without his coat, and it feels almost too intimate to have him sitting this close to her. She sits up, alarmed.

"What, you need to see him too?"

"You look like you could use some company."

"Lockwood, it could be hours before he's done. Besides, you look like death. Go home, get some rest."

"Joke's on you, I always look like death."

She shakes her head but smiles despite herself. "You're incorrigible."

"Thank you."

They sit in silence for a while, long enough until her breathing evens out. She wonders if he's aware of the way his fingers drum restlessly on his thigh, or the ash coating the side of his face, or how both of those things make him utterly irresistible.

"How do you do it? Stay so young, I mean."

He considers his answer carefully. She takes in the sight of a Lockwood without a ready quip at the tip of his tongue. "I suppose it helps that I'm not singly obsessed with the dead, though it does get close sometimes. Who do you live with?"

"Oh, my family lives outside of London." Thank god. She couldn't imagine the looks on their faces if they heard half of what London's tabloids had to say about her.

"You live alone?"

"Yeah. But it's not so bad. There's a cat that wanders in the street below my flat at night." He doesn't look completely convinced, but he lets it slide.

"Really, I owe it all to my friends - oh, you'd love them. You should come over sometime."

"That's sweet of you."

"Our weekends are generally empty."

"Oh...I couldn't. I don't know where you live."

"35 Portland Row."

"Lockwood," she admonishes. "Don't you think this is something you should run by your friends first?"

"I've done worse."

"I'm practically a stranger."

"Then how else are we supposed to get to know you?"

Her mind tears her away from Lockwood's silhouette, to troubling piles of tabloids dragging her to filth. After months of them, she isn't sure where she ends and where the fabrication begins. She barely manages a whisper.

"I think you'd regret getting to know me."

She doesn't realise how tightly her fist is clenched until he brushes her wrist, and the tension flows out of her. His eyes are liquid and his touch is golden and she's paralysed with dizziness. In that moment, it was enough to be young and in love.

"Only one way to find out."

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She takes him up on his invitation sooner than either of them expected. They had just finished a job at a house just a street over from Portland Row, and her team was walking with Lockwood & Co. on their way to the main street. She pauses as George fiddles with the frozen door while the rest of her team walk on, tiredly waving them good night. But just as she turns to leave, she slips on a patch of ice, falling into a pile of snow while Lockwood lunges for her.

"Dear god, you must be freezing. Come in and warm up."

"It's alright, I can catch a cab home-"

"Y/N, I am not above pushing you back into the snow."

Her laugh morphs into a violent shiver, just as Lucy walks over concernedly.

"Everything okay? Lockwood's not bullying you, is he?" She cracks a small smile, but Lockwood just impatiently ignores Lucy.

"Stay for breakfast. Spend the day. Lucy would love the company. Luce, tell her."

"It would be nice."

"I'm soaked through. I need a change of clothes."

"Lucy can get you a change of clothes. Luce, tell her."

"I can get you a change of clothes."

"I wouldn't want to be an imposition."

Lockwood inhales and turns to Lucy, who smacks the breath right out of him.

"I'm right here, Lockwood. Don't be ridiculous, Y/N, we'd love to have you over." Lucy exchanges a look with Lockwood, but it's so brief she wonders if she's imagined it, but it's just then that George forces the door open, and she gets jostled into their warm and dry home. Lucy helps her dry off and tosses her some clothes, including a spare oversized jumper, before bundling her and setting her down in front of the fire in the library.

It feels wonderfully cosy at first, and she only realises she's dozed off when she wakes up with a crick in her neck and beads of sweat on her forehead and neck. She pushes the blankets off her, sighing in relief as she starts to cool down. She hears the rustle of a page behind her and turns.

Lockwood is sitting in an armchair behind her, tie loosened and sleeves rolled up, a magazine on his lap. He smiles weakly at her, wincing as he rotates his neck. She was beginning to feel convinced that he ate, slept and worked in the same set of clothes. Her voice is gravelly with sleep.

"Still up?"

"Someone had to make sure you didn't roll into the fire. Besides, it hasn't been long."

She squints at the clock hung near the door. Unless the shadows were playing tricks on her, it was only a few hours from dawn. The glance he shared with Lucy earlier flashes in her mind, and she presses him about it.

"Say, you haven't told Lucy anything particularly saddening about me, have you?"

He waffles a bit. "I haven't said anything that isn't true."

"Lockwood."

"Fine...I might have mentioned how you live alone, and that you've only got a cold, dark home waiting for you. Alone."

"I didn't say that."

"So you're saying it's not true?"

She hesitates, and he quirks the corner of his mouth triumphantly. "It's no bother, Y/N. Lucy feels as bad about it as I do - George too. Just let us fuss over you for a while, I promise it'll soothe us."

She relents, but she's not happy about it. She watches him lazily flip through the pages with a becoming interest and decides that it's a nice change from the frantic energy running through him on cases. His eyes stay mostly fixed on the pages, but after a while the way he glances up occasionally makes her think his interest is waning. He looks at her strangely, and she unpleasantly realises that the jumper is likely his. She tugs at the hem, itching to take it off, but she isn't wearing a shirt underneath, so she settles for continuing to profusely apologise.

"I'm so sorry for burdening all of you-"

"Y/N, relax. As long as you're warm."

"Well...I'm awake now. And I won't stay too close to the fire. Aren't you going to sleep?"

"I'm a bit wired after the case. Might take a nap later in the day." He jerks his head towards the door. "My room's just down the hallway if you'd like to get some proper rest."

She flushes; talking about his bedroom while wearing his jumper feels too intimate to bear. "It's okay. I'd rather stay here with...you." She chews the inside of her cheek as soon as she says it, holding her breath as she gauges his reaction.

"That's a relief. I'd rather you be here anyway."

She doesn't understand how he says it so casually when she feels that she might run out of air. She tries to calm herself down, taking deep, long breaths. She could be normal if she tried hard enough. They spend the rest of the night like that, somehow never running out of topics to discuss. He tells her about Jessica. She tells her about her family. It's only as he gets up to get ready for breakfast that she asks him about the magazine in his lap. "What were you reading?"

Now it's his turn to look embarrassed. "Oh, er, I like to keep up with what's happening around town -"

"Is that...a tabloid?" She pulls out one of the magazines sticking out of the pile set to the side and blanches at the headline with a dramatically edited photograph of her. Shame burns the side of her face, and she wishes the floor would just open up and swallow her whole. She had stupidly assumed he hadn't heard of her before meeting her, but why shouldn't he have? The magazines beat her to making a first impression, just like they always have. Just like they always will.

"I can explain."

"No, no, it's fine." Was something wrong with her ears, or did her voice sound a bit too distant? "Lots of people read tabloids. It doesn't mean anything. Anyway, we should get ready for breakfast."

"Y/-"

"Lockwood. I mean it. Drop it." The cut-up look in his eyes is bad enough without an apology. What was he apologising for? For her being such For her being a laughingstock? He bows his head and shuffles out of the library. She stays there, frozen, sitting on the floor, until she hears George rattling about in the kitchen. She walks in, slightly disconcerted by the casual t-shirt Lockwood had changed into. So many of his hard edges and shadows in the the library seemed to soften into a more vulnerable outline that makes her regret snapping at him. She mumbles a greeting and George takes a long look at her. If he notices their matching eye bags, he doesn't comment on it, but while she's making tea, she hears a scuffle behind her and turns to see George standing next to Lockwood with the frying pan alarmingly close to his head.

"Eggs, Y/N?"

Lucy arrives soon after, and begins to spread jam on her toast despite George's aggrieved protests.

"Oh, Y/N, I hope you didn't spend all night on the hard floor. I didn't hear you come up to the attic."

"The attic?"

"Yeah, where the extra bed is." She brandishes her jelly-covered knife vaguely threateningly. "Lockwood told you about it, didn't he?"

The boy in question seems a bit too busy buttering his bread to look up. She mumbles an affirmative, but notices his reluctance to meet her eye for majority of breakfast. Still, she couldn't stay mad at him for long, and it didn't seem awfully polite to, either, not after he opened his home to her.

After breakfast, Lockwood left to scope out a potential client and George headed to the Archives for a bit of light reading, so she and Lucy spend the morning playing board games and watching crappy television while painting their nails. She hadn't felt so alive in months. After a few hours, Lucy suddenly remembers some paperwork she had to complete so while she's busy with that, she wanders around the stairs and hallways, reading every newspaper clipping and looking at every picture, eventually working her way down to the kitchen.

She hears a creak coming from the inside and looks in. Lockwood's returned from his excursion and he shrugs off his jacket, placing it on one of the kitchen chairs as she timidly steps in. He seems just as much at a loss for words as her. She tries to break the ice and, surprisingly, it works.

"Seems a bit full of yourself to litter the halls with your achievements." He gives her a small smile and she revels in the glimmer of success.

"Can't help that I'm especially gifted."

Emboldened, she takes a seat at the table as he pulls out an apple from the fruit bowl and a chopping board.

"Nasty business with the press, isn't it?"

She moodily fiddles with the thinking cloth. "Yeah, well. God forbid a woman be happy."

He looks at her like he's trying to figure her out. The attention makes her fidget nervously. They watch him slice the apple into halves, and then quarters, in silence. "Is that why you're so...highly strung on cases?"

"George tell you to talk to me?"

"Er, yes, but he didn't need to. I'm sorry about earlier, by the way. I have an uncanny ability of putting my foot in it."

"I'd never have guessed." She isn't even being sarcastic. She talks to the apple rather than him. "I hate it. They say all these...awful things about me. Not that I have to tell you." She blinks humourlessly. He sets down the knife.

"Y/N, if you think I believe a word those gossip rags have to say about you, I might be seriously overestimating your intelligence."

She swallows the lump in her throat. It's the nicest thing anyone has said to her in a long while. She never fully acknowledged it because that would mean admitting she cared, that she was weak. But she couldn't help it. She lived life forever looking over her shoulder, so wrapped up in what ifs that she could barely stomach what was, forever worrying that anyone would think it was true. Maybe it was true. Her self-perception contorts and convulses, until she feels strangely formless. But that was the beauty of the moment: hidden away in the dim light of the kitchen, with only Lockwood and God as her witness, she could be anything and everything.

Her hand trembles with repressed emotion. He steadies her by carefully covering it with his own.

And for one beautiful, transcendent moment, she thought she might love him.

She walks home in a pleasant haze, her senses enjoying the reprieve from their constant assault. She ambles by a florist, and she sees a rose. It reminds her of Lockwood. She buys the rose and takes it home, even though she knows she doesn't have a vase for it. Even after a day filled with the most fun she'd had in a while, a restlessness troubles her, making her feel feverish with some invisible affliction. She plucks the translucent petals one by one, holding them up to the setting sun streaming through her windows. She wonders what they would look like in his hair. She winces when one of the thorns break the skin of her thumb. She rubs the smear of blood onto her bottom lip. Looking up at the ceiling, her hair a mess, tangled with the rose petals strewn all over her wrinkled sheets, she realises what it means to be hopelessly and cluelessly lovesick.

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She remembers the first time she cries in front of him. They were on a case at some billionaire's acres-large manor. She ducks under the tape cordoning off the area and freezes, seeing reporters unobtrusively yet steadily setting up their cameras. There had to be some sort of mistake, they're never here this early. Certainly not before they've even started the job. She feels her senses heighten and a faint buzzing teases her ears. She sees Lockwood glance at her and start walking towards her, and she all but flees in the other direction.

She stays a safe distance away from him until the rest of the agents arrive for their briefing. The billionaire's assistant hadn't arrived yet, so they were standing around one of the outdoor picnic tables in the front garden...right in front of the gathering sea of reporters. She tries her best to pay attention but there's a muffled quality to the discussion as she listens for shutter sounds, real or imagined. Her hands grow clammy and her breathing grows jagged as the ominous feeling in her stomach grows. Something very bad was going to happen and it was going to happen soon, she was sure of it.

As if in slow motion, she watches Lockwood reach across to pick up a file from the table beside her on the table, and she feels her panic reach a crescendo as she senses the ripple of excitement in the press. She flinches so badly before he completes the movement that he gets startled, backing away. The question dies on his lips as she walks away, clumsily adjusting her rapier to give her hands something to do. To stop herself from sobbing over the lenses in her peripheral vision.

The press are just as ruthless as they were the last time she made the mistake of not leaving the scene as soon as she had the chance. And still from the chorus of overlapping voices, one made her heart stop dead.

"Y/N L/N, what do you have to say for seducing London's most eligible bachelor?"

She looks around desperately, struggling against waves of despair that threatened to drag her down into the abyss. No one was safe, not even charismatic Lockwood, and it was all her fault for dragging him into her messy life. It wasn’t fair that news agencies chose her life to screw with. She loved him silly with bruised eyes and an aching liver, but she couldn't even look at him properly. She couldn't scrub the image of Lockwood's face from her mind. Hot shame spread from her spine up her neck, an unpleasant prickling sensation. She felt flayed and grotesque, a hundred different kinds of twisted and messed up. Promiscuous on paper, manic in reality, enraptured by what she could never have.

Lockwood finds her sitting on the patchy grass of the backyard, head resting against the wall with suspiciously red eyes. He thinks for a moment before sitting down next to her.

“Hey.”

She’s too busy holding back tears to respond. She despairs internally when she first hears his voice, wishing he didn't care enough about her to follow her. God, they were going to make her pay for this tomorrow. He speaks in a low, soothing voice, but there's an underlying disquiet that comforts her. She'd never have imagined him to feel rattled by the press like she did.

"It all happened so quick, even George didn't realise."

"Doesn't matter. They got what they wanted."

"We'll talk to the assistant as soon as she gets here. We'll refuse to work until they clear out."

She feels an overwhelming amount of relief, not just for his help, but just for him. Sitting here solidly, away from prying eyes, rumours and lies, he felt like a precious secret she wanted to keep. The relief doesn't last long until it gets poisoned into grief. She rasps out an apology.

"I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"Everything." She feels herself shutting down, unravelling at the seams. But then there's this warmth next to her and a solid, reassuring weight across her shoulders. She shakes with mostly silent sobs, not realising that she's crumpled his shirt from clenching it until later. She sniffles into his shirt like a child, and clings to him with the desperation of a drowning man.

He insists that she sits out for the case, and for once, she listens.

The next time they meet is a little bittersweet. She tells him she's being posted outside of London for a month. It's sobering news, even for him.

"A whole month. Well, it'll go by faster than you realise."

"I hope so."

"How're you feeling?"

"Nervous, I suppose." She was dreading it. She didn't know how she ever worked on a case before Lockwood. At first, she thought it was simply because he took attention from the press off her hands. But there was just something about his presence that made the tension coiled in her body unwind. She tries to keep her tone light, but something must have shown on her face because he sighs and throws an arm over her shoulder, steering her away from the crowd of agents, medics and reporters.

"Don't fret. You'll be fine, trust me. You'll have your teammates with you, Barnes is supervising and you know he can't stand the press, and I've yet to read a headline vicious enough to knock you down for good. You're stronger than you realise, you know." She nods glumly, dragging her feet along. She looks up when he pulls away slightly, frowning at her face. He rubs at the furrow in her brow and she feels her face heat up.

"I said to not fret. You have everything you need." That earns him a weak smile, and though he doesn't look entirely happy with it, he can see George looking around for him. She watches him walk back as he mouths 'one month' to her, trying to smile encouragingly. The sun has started to rise, and the dusk casts a soft purple glow on his hair. She mumbles her response to the wind.

"What if...all I need is you?"

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The month drags by painfully, but it finally ends. She packs her bags and takes the first train to London, just in time to join Lockwood for a case after a bit of begging at Barnes' feet. The job is at another mansion, but somehow even more extravagant and sprawling than the last one. It's bathed in a soft bubblegum pink glow, spilling out into its lawns and hedges and fountains.

She watches him explaining something to one of her colleagues, making some light sketches on the report. He looks exactly the same if a little haggard, yet older somehow, and it tugs at her heart. She had heard that this was supposed to be the last of a particularly tedious string of connected cases, and it had clearly taken a toll on him. Her heart skips a beat at the boyish glow that washes over his features when he sees her.

"...and for the Limbless George was sa- you weren't supposed to be back till Sunday!"

She flushes, beaming excitedly. Part of her wants to hug him, but another part is too scared to, so she contends with her smile.

"We finished early, and I wore Barnes down eventually. Now, what's this about a Limbless?"

The case goes more than smoothly with the extra help of her and her team, and they end up finishing comfortably before midnight, though not without a few minor mishaps. She finds Lockwood with his sleeves and trousers rolled up, dangling his legs in the pool, scrubbing at his hands.

"Wet cement," he grunts as a greeting, looking peevishly at the not-so-clearly cordoned off patch of wet cement. "Ought to have told us. Someone could have gotten properly injured."

"Oh, who'd be silly enough to fall into that?"

"Let me rephrase that: Quill Kipps could have gotten properly injured."

She laughs, turning to add her own handprint next to his in the cement. She smiles coyly as she tenderly scrapes the residue of her palm. He leans in, then stops, sniffing curiously.

"Is that...smoke?"

"Had a bit of an incident with a salt bomb. Someone threw it in the wrong direction."

"Ah."

They're interrupted by a loud whoop from the other end of the pool. A couple of Fittes boys had broken into the liquor cabinet and were now the proud owners of three preciously high-end bottles of champagne. She tried to look at them reprovingly, but couldn't find it in her.

"Oh well. We'll put that down under property damage."

One of her teammates scurried over to clarify a discrepancy in her paperwork, and she leaves to sort it out. By the time she's back, Lockwood's tie is loosened and he's swaying along to some invisible music.

"Y/N! You've got to try some of this stuff, it's grrrreat!"

She shakes her head bemusedly. "Lockwood. How many glasses have you had?"

"Oh, just one." He blinks at the glass in his hand. "One and a half." He drags her in briefly, whispering into her ear. "Besides, what happened to being young?"

Her heart hammers as soon as she feels the tug on her wrist; she's never even touched him in public before. She scans the scene reflexively, but no one seems to have noticed. She supposed getting drunk and making ill-thought-out decisions was the youngest she could be, so she decided to have a little sip.

"Clink?"

"I don't think you're supposed to say it."

He makes a face, clearly more tipsy than he was letting on. "Whatever. I'm saying it."

Still, she humours him, and he looks at her with shameless adoration. Even while well on the way to getting drunk, there was an endearing tilt to his swagger and rosy cheeks that made his youth a delectable luxury. She takes a sip, then another, and then tries to drown herself in champagne, anything to distract her from the way he stole her breath, the fizz electric under her thrumming skin.

They return to where they were sitting earlier, watching some of the more boisterous agents splash into the pool. Someone manages to switch off the harsh floodlights overlooking the pool, washing everyone's outlines with a tangerine glow from the orange neon lights. They talk about their month apart, then catch the eye of the other in a way that makes them both look away, and the cycle repeats.

"I've missed you."

She can't tell which of them says it first, only that the yearning in her voice mirrored his. The look in his eyes scares her yet appeals to her daring all at once. He doesn't say anything, but he doesn't have to.

"We...I...couldn't. It'd go horribly wrong, and you'd hate me, or they'd double down and it'd blow up in your pretty face."

"I'll take my chances." He says it so casually that it stings.

"This isn't exactly bearable for me either, you know."

The background noise fades away, and suddenly speaking at normal volume is too loud. She whispers, as if he might not hear if she's soft enough. "You give me your bed and twist your neck dozing in an armchair. You stick up for me when I'm too weak to stick up for myself. You pull me in when I'm breaking down and hold my fractured pieces together. I can't help but love you." He follows her line of vision to the camera lens peeking through the wall of foliage, not as sneaky as it was trying to be.

"And if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were in love with me."

He inhales roughly, and she recognises his unsteady breathing.

"Are you...?" Lockwood's voice makes her tear her eyes away from the lens, and focus on his soft brown tired eyes.

"...Might as well. Right?" She tries to hide how badly she needs his acknowledgement. He searches for something in her eyes she's not sure exists. Her heart is in her mouth as he tenderly covers her hand, and suddenly she's sitting at the kitchen table at Portland Row again; unsure and raw and hoping against hope for a love like his. He strokes the back of her hand with him thumb, deep in thought, as if soothing her, or maybe telling her to stop, breathe and think about this horrible decision.

"They'll publish the most horrible things tomorrow."

"I thought that didn't matter."

"Not to me. But it does for you."

"It's worth it. You're worth it."

He closes his eyes, and she watches his eyes shift restlessly behind his eyelids, as if fighting a losing battle. "They'll give you hell for it."

She whispers into his mouth. "Damned if I do, damned if I don't. They're watching either way."

His lips twitch. Her eyes flutter close. She inhales the space between them, their noses softly bumping against each other as they tilt their heads.

Slut.

She leans into him and her lips part as he deepens the kiss. She feels the tangerine neon light burn into the expanse of her exposed skin from her neck to her shoulder.

Slut.

She feels a hand on her lower back as she wraps an arm around his neck, craning her neck upwards. The kiss is equally delicious and bruising, and she feels herself getting drunk on his touch.

Slut.

The pressure on her lips fade and he pulls away, giving her the choice to back out. In the span of a second he shifts from a hazy sunset to the deep aquamarine pool in front of them, and then she's leaning in and devouring him like they could never be close enough.

Slut.

Her mind holds the whisper like a promise.

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albertasunrise · 1 year

Text

Look for the Light - Part 7

Masterlist

Summary: Four years ago, Joel saved you from certain death. In return, you followed him faithfully. Always ready to do and give him whatever he asked, despite the hurt it inflicted on you, body and soul. Agreeing to go with him to deliver Ellie to the Fireflies… this would be the last time you’d follow him… After this, your debt would be paid.

Relationships: Reader x Joel Miller, Joel Miller & Ellie, Reader & Ellie

Warnings: Like AO3, I choose to give none. Read at your own risk. 18+ (Once again... I know this took a while but I hope you like it :) Please don't hurt me... )

Series Masterlist - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

You clutched Joel's hand like it was the only thing tethering him to this world. He looked terrible. His eyes had sunken into his skull and his skin had taken on a sickly grey palette, glittering with sweat in the low light of the ward. It had taken several gruelling hours to remove the infected tissue and repair the damage the baseball bat had done to his stomach. You and Tommy had sat there and waited, each painful hour that went by leading to your dread increasing tenfold.

Then when you were convinced that the worst had happened.

The doctor had come and fetched you both.

You had been led to a small room where Joel had been set up for observation. The doctor informed you that they wanted to keep a close eye on him for the next twenty-four hours before they were comfortable putting him in the general ward.

That was four days ago.

Now you were just willing the man you loved to fight. Each day you were told the same thing.

"He's no worse... But he's not any better either."

You had lost count of how much you had pleaded with the man to come back to you. Your heart hurt with each hour he remained unresponsive. He had been pumped with as much antibiotics as the small hospital could spare and now it was all down to him.

"Ellie's started school." You piped up after a while "Already made a few friends but there's one she's constantly rattling on about." You chortled as you stood to plump his pillows a little and adjust his blanket "Some girl called Dina... Seems really taken with her.

"It's nice to see." You finished as you smooth his hair back and leant down to kiss his brow.

You jumped when you felt his brow draw together a little. Your eyes widened as you pulled back to look at him better. Sure enough, he sported a small frown.

"Joel?" You called as you cupped his face "Joel can you hear me?"

He didn't respond.

Instead, his whole body went rigid and your stomach sank. This wasn't him waking up. This was something else completely.

"HELP." You screamed as Joel's body started to thrash violently "PLEASE." You sobbed as you fought to keep the man on the gurney.

Hands then pulled you away as the doctor and some nurses took over.

"Come with me." Said a kind voice and you allowed the owner to guide you away from Joel and into the dreaded waiting room you had already spent much time in.

"Why won't he get better?" You sobbed as she guided you to a chair "I just want him to fight."

"He was very sick when he arrived here." The kind voice replied, "The doctor did everything he can to remove the infection but it reached his bloodstream." She sighed as she rubbed your back in an attempt to soothe your hiccuping cries "We have given him all the medicine we can spare and hopefully the latest supply run will bring some more but hun, even then this fight is down to him."

"I just... I just thought that with the medicine, he would just turn that corner and get better."

"Everyone hopes for that sweetie." The kind voice cooed "But unfortunately, it doesn't always go that way."

You nodded numbly. Giving her a weak smile as you looked up at her.

"I'll come and get you when he's stable." She finished before giving you a sympathetic smile.

Then, you were left alone to wait again. Tommy walked in a short while later and saw you sitting in the waiting room. His face then sported the same frown that Joel wore, it was obviously a family trait.

"Why you in here?" He asked as he jog over to you, his heart leaping to his throat when you choked on a sob.

"He had another seizure." You replied between hiccups "They're working on him now and will come get me when he's stable." You managed to choke out before your eyes dropped back to your hands.

Tommy nodded and sat himself down beside you, his eyes watching the yellowed plastic clock on the wall. Around half an hour passed before anyone came to fetch you. Your nails were bitten bloody and your hair a mess when the lady who owned that sweet voice came to fetch you again. She led the two of your wordlessly back to Joel's bedside where the doctor was standing waiting for you with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Good to see you, Tommy." The doctor said as he acknowledged the younger Miller with a nod.

"How's he doing doc?" The man asked and he was answered with a sigh.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat this." He started and your stomach sank "The antibiotics we have just aren't getting the better of the infection. Without more, I can't see him pulling through this."

"Did the supply run find any?" Tommy asked and the doctor shrugged.

"They've not returned yet." He replied simply "They're due back in tomorrow morning. I have given him all we can spare."

"So you do have more medicine available?" Tommy pushed and the doctor nodded.

"Well yes but we can't use it all on one man. There are other people here than may need it."

"May... not do!" Tommy pushed "My brother's layin' there dyin' and he needs that medicine."

"I understand that but-"

"There's no buts here Doc." Tommy growled "You better give Joel everything you can. I need to know that you are doin' everything you can to save him because if you don't-"

"Tommy." You warned, stopping the man before he said something he'd regret "Is there any way you can spare a little more?" You pleaded and the doctor sighed.

"I will discuss it with Maria and co. and see what they say." He replied, shrugging his shoulders "But I know it'll be a no."

"Maria's my wife!" Tommy argued, his eyes dark and angry.

"Yes, but she's always in charge of the well-being of this town. She can't favour one over all." The doctor pointed out "I will see what I can do but I can't make any promises."

"We understand." You said softly in the hopes it would placate the situation "Anything you can do will be appreciated."

The doctor left after that and you were left to watch as Tommy sobbed over the state his brother was in. Your heart ached for him. You knew he blamed himself for this. He's told Joel that it wasn't a suicide mission and now his brother was hanging on by a thread. But if you were being honest with yourself, you blamed yourself also. If you'd done better.

The three of you were frantic as you tried to load your weapon into the horse. You had just managed to get yours secured when Ellie called out.

"Joel!"

Your head whipped around in time to see a raider sprinting towards your party. Desperately your tried to pull your weapon out again but nerves got the better of you and by the time you had managed to unfasten it from the horse's saddle, Joel was already brawling with the man.

You held the weapon steady as you watched the men tussle and then, the man grunted a little before a sickening crack sounded and the man dropped dread. The three of you stood motionless for a moment as the adrenaline from what just happened started to wear off. Then, yours and Ellie's eyes grew wide as they zeroed in on the broken bat handle that was now lodged in Joel's stomach. The man looked down at the offending item, shock settling in and that's probably what then led him to pull it out. Blood spilt through his fingers as he clutched his gut and started to waiver.

You sprung into action then. The gun was strapped back on the horse much faster than before and as other raiders started to spill from the building, you ran to help Ellie.

"Joel! Get on the horse!" She ordered when the man started stumbling "Get on the horse." She ordered again, helping keep him steady as he sat himself in the saddle and grabbed the reigns. You then jumped onto your own mount before the three of you made a run for it. Ellie shot at the men as the horses galloped away from their attackers.

You made it to some railway tracks a short while later, Slowing your horses to a walk when satisfied that your attackers were not close behind you.

"They're not following us. I think we're safe." You piped up as you looked over your shoulder before returning your eyes to the route ahead.

"Joel?" Ellie called out again and you looked over to see the man in question listing in the saddle, his head dropping just before he did.

"Joel, no, no, no! shit!" Ellie called out as she leapt down from the horse and dropped to the man's side.

"Fսck!" You exclaimed as you joined her at his side, hands then pressing down hard on the gushing wound.

"Joel? Joel? shit. Joel, open your eyes." Ellie pleaded as she tapped his cheek "Open your eyes. Joel, you gotta get up." She begged, tears falling freely as she looked down at his unconscious form "I can't fսckin' do this without you." She whispered, letting a few more tears fall before she looked up at you "What do we do?"

"I uh... Umm..." You trailed off.

Truth was you didn't know what to do. You were in shock and you had no idea where you were. You needed to find shelter. That much was obvious but you also needed to move Joel and that was where things would be more difficult. Your eyes then drifted to the blood that slipped through your fingers.

"I should have been quicker." You sobbed as you dropped your head and cried "If I had just been faster, this wouldn't have happened."

"This isn't your fault." Ellie choked and you scoffed.

You said nothing. You didn't want to argue. You knew this was your fault and you would never forgive yourself if he died. His blood was on your hands. Both literally... and figuratively.

You were sitting at Tommy's table with him when Maria arrived home. The hospital had kicked you out a little over an hour ago and so instead of wallowing alone, had chosen to do it with the younger miller. She said nothing when she entered. She hung her coat and made her way to the kitchen, placing the kettle to boil so she could make some tea.

"How's Joel doing?" She asked when she returned with the brew, placing one in front of you also.

"He's dying." You answered plainly "Needs more medicine."

"What did the council decide?" Tommy asked his wife, his sad eyes making her guilt bubble to the surface when she answered his question.

"We said no to the use of the last of the antibiotics." She stated plainly and you sobbed.

"What the fuck... Why?" Tommy asked, his expression morphing into something else entirely.

"Because the supply run group still haven't returned yet and we can't risk potentially using the last of what we have on one man."

"That man is my brother." Tommy growled and Maria sighed again.

'I know that but-"

"This ain't got nothing to do with the medicine." Tommy spat "This is to do with the fact that y'all don't like him. Ever since he arrived here you have been tellin' folk to be weary of him. That he's dangerous." The younger Miller continued "Well new flash honey... So am I!"

"It has nothing to do with my feelings towards Joel." Maria argued but Tommy was having none of it.

"Don't fuckin' lie to me." He drawled "You've made it clear from the beginning that you don't trust him. Now you're choosing to let him die because you're worried about what impact he'll have around here."

"It's not like that and you know it." Maria spat out "Yes, I don't trust your brother but I would never allow a man to die, simply because I didn't like him?"

Tommy glared at his wife as he waited for her to continue. The air in the room was so thick with tension that you were sure you might choke. You wondered if you should leave. This was clearly an issue between the two of them but when you went to move you found your limps wouldn't move.

"If the supply run returns with more medicine then I will gladly give the last of what we currently have to Joel. I don't hate him so much that I would leave Ellie without a dad. But I can't just give it to him because he'd my husband's brother." She warned, her eyes wide in an attempt to get her point across to him "There are rules I gotta follow and I can't break them." State stated plainly "Not even for you."

You were sitting on the couch in the house you'd been assigned when Ellie came in. Your eyes drifted from the fire in front of you to the teenager as she stepped into the room and plonked herself down on the armchair across from you. She seemed to be deep in though, not reacting to you when you first called out her name.

"Ellie?" You said more firmly and she looked up at you then, her expression troubled "Everything okay?"

"Yeah... well... I um, I guess."

"You guess?" You pushed and she shrugged.

"Well, I like bumped into a guy I go to school with and his brother was on that supply run." She started and already you knew this was headed in a direction you didn't like.

"Oh yeah?" You piped up, hoping to draw a little more information from the girl.

"Yeah, well apparently the patrol came back and they found them dead about a mile away. Looks like it was Raiders."

Your stomach sank at that and your hands started to shake as you leaned forward in your seat.

"Why raiders and not infected?" You asked, knowing you weren't going to like the answer.

"Cus they were like literally stripped bare." She answered "Like everything was gone. Even their clothes."

Your hand shot to your mouth as you leaned back and attempted to hold back a sob. Only to fail and grab Ellie's attention.

"They were looking for medicine..." She trailed off "Weren't they."

You could only nod. Not trusting your voice as your hands started to shake even more.

"Does that mean Joel's gonna die?" She asked and you broke down at that. Unable to keep the tears at bay as you shook your head.

"I don't know Ellie." You answered honestly "But without that medicine..."

You paused, Breathing through the tears as you tried to pull yourself together just so you could speak the truth to the girl who had come to look at Joal as a father.

"His chances are shit."

Fic updates: @albertasunrise-ficsblog

Tags: @hayley-the-comet @ajeff855 @mavericksicybabe @supernaturalgirl20 @dihra-vesa @nicolethered @practicalghost @theanothersherlockian @gallowsjoker @little-mrs-morales @sunnshineeexoxo @aliwritesfic @maryfanson @sherala007 @ayrusss @greeneyedblondie44 @elegantduckturtle @jediknight122 @goodgriefitsawildworld @voteforpedro09 @prostitute-robot-from-the-future @mishasminion360 @giggly-otter @athalien @mssbridgerton @huitzilinthebudgie3 @samanthacookieone @salome-c @radcollectivesoul @pedrohoe04 @paintlavillered @ktmadden86 @hotchlover @kirsteng42 @djjarins @balekanemohafe @misscampacyn

#joel miller #joel miller fanfiction #joel miller fanfic #joel miller the last of us #last of us #the last of us #joel miller gif #pedro pascal character fanfiction #pedro pascal characters #pedro pascal #pedro pascal gif #joel miller x reader #joel miller x you #the last of us fanfiction #last of us fanfiction

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ollie-lolly · 1 year

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The chase

Obey me Mammon x gender neutral reader

Warnings: swearing, suggestive and a bit of angst

Summary: When chasing Mammon down, things take an interesting turn

Note: I have had this idea for a while. Tell me if you want part 2! As always, constructive criticism and reblogs are always appreciated. <3

Word count: 878

"DAMN IT MAMMON" you managed you yell out as you sped your way down the hall, chasing the demon holding your precious item. Fuck, you should have known that he runs fast. He is probably used to it, with all the running he does from those witches. When you took a sharp turn, you did something that was incredibly dumb, but necessary. You absolutely tackled the hell out of him. He tumbled to the ground. Your bodies were tightly pressed against each other, which you did not notice since you were desperately struggling trying to pry the item out of his hand. He held such a tight grip on the 'notes' you made. As you were struggling you started to wonder how much he saw in that notebook that made him hold on so tight. In the middle of the hallway you managed to flip him over, putting your knees on his upper arms. "YES!" you finally managed to get it back. As you were about to scold him for grabbing the item in the first place. You finally realized the situation you were in.

Mammon had no idea how to react either. He just wanted to know what was going through your mind. Your first man has to know! He wanted to know what you thought of him, but he definitely did not want to get in this situation! He felt guilty. Especially after he felt aroused at the feeling of finally being so close to each other. He hurried to his room and slid down from his door. He groaned knowing he was probably gonna get an earful from Lucifer. Despite you wanting to ignore him out of anger, you knew it was for the best to get this stuff sorted out. Before Lucifer had to tie the greedy man upside down for the millionth time. So before Mammon's mind could run a mile a minute, he heard a swift knock on his door.

He opened it, not expecting it to be you. He quickly scrambled his mind together "Mc i am so-". "How much did you see in my notebook?" you quickly interrupted. His eyebrows perked up "Why is that so important?". "I'll only answer that when you tell me how much you saw." You had such a stern expression on your face. You tried to look in his eyes, even when he avoided your gaze like the plague. "Mammon, just tell me how much you saw. Then you can apologize so we can get it all over with'' You started to grow incredibly frustrated at his childish way of handling the situation. You took a deep shaky breath, "Mammon, first you go into my room without permission, then you look in a book where you know i have written very personal things. You have broken my thrust to get what you wanted, It is safe to say that you owe me at least basic direct eye contact." You saw how physically taken aback he was by that, but this was a low blow even for him. You couldn't softly handle these situations anymore, he needs to understand that he can't treat you this way.

Mammon cleared his throat, "I- I saw a lot of what you wrote of me"

Your heart sank when you heard that. The thing that you feared most was now a reality: A damaged image. You knew what the brothers thought of you. Kind, funny and a great person. Now that Mammon knew the truth, your almost pitch perfect image was crumbling apart. Mammon couldn't handle it whenever you were mad at him. When looking at your mixed anger and feared expression, his mind was jumping to conclusions. It stemmed from his deep rooted fear that no one would ever truly appreciate him. When he met you that fear span out of control, always trying to cover it up with his 'tsundere persona'. He more than deeply cares about you."I am afraid of how you view me now" You managed to say in a jagged breath. There was a short silence. "Fuck, i don't even know why i have said all this, i'll just-

"I- I still like you, despite what you wrote of me" You got silenced but nothing could have prepared you for the next thing he was going to say.

"This might sound weird but I like how perverted you are." Your head shoots up

"I really liked the sexual stories you wrote of us and what you imagined when you saw me while I-" "God you read so much more than I thought" you slowly sank to your knees in absolute shame and embarrassment. You heard a boyish laugh above you. "I just want to say that I am incredibly sorry, it hurts to say this but I get insecure that you don't like me. It was wrong for me to invade your privacy" he bends his knees to reach your height. "Is there a way I can make it up to you?"

"Well there is one.." you managed to say, now sitting on Mammon's suspiciously clean bedroom floor. "What is that?" he says with hope in his voice. You look him in the eyes "If we can recreate some of the things i wrote"

Began on: 30th of march 2023

Finished on: 3rd of april 2023

#obey me #obey me x gender neutral reader #obey me x reader #obey me mammon #obey me mammon x reader #obey me mammon x mc #mammon x mc #mammon x gender neutral reader #obey me fanfic #obey me suggestive

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babytarttdoodoo · 8 months

Text

in the end everything collides

((Winner of Whumptober Poll #2 | Day 6 | Made To Watch))

The whole evening had taken such a blindingly bizarre turn that even with the sound of fists meeting flesh and hysterical giggling filling his ears, Sam couldn’t process what he was seeing.

It had started out normally enough. He had been finishing some paperwork at Ola’s after closing, something he had been doing more and more of in the off-season to take at least a little pressure away from Simi.

He had been having fun, even, thanks to Jamie’s unrelenting commentary on anything and everything that popped into his head. His teammate had dropped in for a late dinner and hung around long after closing to keep Sam company when he learned of his plans.

The offer had been gratefully received and only curdled to regret when Edwin Akufo strode in like he owned the place.

His competing restaurant was not faring well, apparently, and that was obviously entirely Sam’s fault. How dare he have competent staff and a talented head chef?

Sam had sighed inwardly when Edwin’s security goons had spread out around the restaurant, gauging how much egotistical posturing and property damage he would likely have to put up with before being left alone again.

He hadn’t really considered what would happen if he fought back because he had no intention of doing so. Jamie, on the other hand, swung first.

Of course he did.

To his credit, he landed more than one solid hit before a bodyguard got hold of his arms and twisted them behind his back. Edwin had teetered between incredulity and rage for only a few moments before manic glee stole over his face.

It was not a good look on him.

“Let him go, Edwin, he doesn’t…” Sam barely started voicing his protests before he was grabbed too, held in place at the silent order of the billionaire, flicking a hand in Sam’s direction like he was an unimportant nuisance. Forgotten in the wake of this new entertainment.

“Ah, ah, what do we have here? Who are you to jump to Obisanya’s defence, hm? Another nobody with delusions of grandeur from kicking a ball?”

Jamie’s face screwed up to one side and Sam’s heart sank.

“Eh, ain’t nothing delusional about my ball-kicking, mate. Get a bit closer and I’ll show you.”

Edwin threw his head back and laughed, loudly. It was wildly out of place in the tense atmosphere and deeply unsettled something in Sam’s gut when he abruptly cut off.

“I do not think so, Obisanya’s friend. But Curtis here is more than happy to get up close and personal.”

‘Curtis’ was well over six feet tall and at least half as wide. Like all of Edwin’s cronies, he was dressed in a fine suit, though the addition of several bulky rings on his fingers seemed unique to him.

“Edwin, please,” Sam tried again, panic and desperation making his voice thin and reedy. “You don’t have to do this.”

“I do not have to do anything,” Edwin crowed, rocking back on his heels, delighting in Sam’s obvious distress. “I choose to do this, just like you chose to so rudely turn down my very generous offer. And your friend here chose to interfere. These are consequences, Sam Obisanya. A lesson for you both to learn.”

Sam pulled helplessly on the arms holding him firmly in place as Curtis cracked his knuckles and advanced on Jamie. The footballer was waiting with a smirk and raised brow.

“Am I supposed to be scared, like?”

The first blow snapped his head to the side. Sam cried out as if it had been meant for him.

Jamie just laughed, licking blood from his lip as he casually straightened up again. “C’mon, put your back into it, lad.”

The second hit slammed into his jaw, sending his skull backwards with such force that the man holding him barely avoided a broken nose.

Jamie took slightly longer to recover, head lolling forward for a moment before he looked up with bloody teeth. “You wanna really swing your hips, mate. Get a bit more momentum.”

The next punch sank into his stomach, forcing a pained grunt out of his mouth along with any air he had in his lungs. He coughed, gasping, and started to laugh again.

“My old man hits harder than that and he can barely piss standing up half the time.”

Curtis glanced back at Edwin with a raised eyebrow, clearly unsettled by his lack of impact on Jamie’s confidence. If they were waiting for him to back down, Sam realised, they would be here all night.

That was not a pleasant thought.

“What are you looking at me for? He told you to hit harder!” Edwin pointed out, annoyed but also eying Jamie’s grinning, manic face warily.

Sam couldn’t say how long it went on for; Curtis continued hitting Jamie and Jamie just kept up a running commentary, getting more and more delirious as it ran on.

There was a horror to it. A numb, dreadful feeling in Sam’s chest as he shouted and pleaded himself hoarse but the violence didn’t stop.

Until it did.

All of a sudden, Edwin flicked his hand again, a deep frown on his face that Sam had no mind to be concerned about. Both he and Jamie were released unceremoniously and he was moving to catch his friend before any other thought had time to form.

Jamie slumped into him, knees given out, still mumbling obscenities and casting aspersions about Curtis’ mother.

Edwin observed them both, making no move to stop Sam from grabbing a nearby chair.

“Your friend is clearly disturbed. You should get him psychological help.”

Sam barely acknowledged him, too preoccupied with holding Jamie up to dignify that with a witty response. The billionaire straightened his jacket with a scoff and beckoned to his entourage.

As quickly as the intrusion had sent the night to absolute hell, they were left alone again. Or, almost alone.

“Francis, I am not in the mood right now,” Sam warned the hovering man when he didn’t seem to be moving on.

“That is fair.” The evening’s events had rocked him so deeply that Sam couldn’t even summon surprise at hearing the handshake aficionado's voice for the first time. “Mr Akufo is leaving the country tomorrow. He is closing his restaurant. This… It is unlikely we will meet again.”

Francis cleared his throat, looking awkwardly out of character from his usual cool, collected demeanour. Not a violent man, Sam realised.

“Goodbye then. You can let yourself out.”

He gave Sam a firm nod, Jamie a lingering look, and did so, leaving them in peace at last.

“Jamie, are you familiar with the concept of self-preservation? At all?” Sam asked urgently, trying to judge how unfocused his eyes were. “Why did you do that?”

“I’m the only one who gets to be a prick to you,” Jamie slurred, struggling to keep upright. “‘Sides, he really didn’t hit that hard.”

Sam was justified, he thought, in finally letting himself cry.

#whumptober2023 #no.6 #made to watch #ted lasso #fic #whump vote result #jamie tartt #sam obisanya #edwin akufo #my fic #fic: everything collides #cw violence

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sweetflanfiction · 11 months

Text

Second Chances - Part 4

Universe: Read Dead Redemption 2

Pairing: Arthur x reader

Disclaimers and Warnings: If you want me to tag you on the chapters let me know! Also leave a comment with your thougts :D Not finished, not proofread. English isn't my 1st language. All I know about 1899 is from google, so inacuracies will be plenty. The reader is on the older side, and identifies as a female

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

• ··········· • ············ •

"It ran away again god damn it!" Your father stalked towards the barn, where you were, kneeling between hay stacks and feeding bags, Arthur trailing behind him, looking around the ranch.

That day marked Arthur's first day walking on the ranch. Your father took him around the farm, explaining in more detail what each ranch job entailed.

In the morning the man was quiet, sitting at the kitchen table, eating some oats and listening to you and your father babble. For about a minute or two, you had taken a few moments to study him. You had looked at his face as he ate. His cheeks were a lil gaunt and his eyes were slightly sunken, but his blue eyes were attentive to everything around him. He had a scar on his chin, where his beard didn’t grow and his hair was almost shoulder length.

He looked up suddenly while you inspect him, probably sensing your eyes on him. You jumped a little, but held his gaze, smiled, and kept glancing at his eyes until he looked down.

Now he was walking behind your father, a burrowed hat on his head, his face blank, probably confused by what was happening.

“Again?” You asked, straightening up and stretching your back a bit.

“Yeah.” He exhaled. “That goddamn horse is gonna kill my fucking patience.”

Now, Albert Graham wasn’t a cursing man, but when he did, it rolled off of him like water from a fountain. You found it funny, but that horse was a troublemaker and everyone’s patience with the beast was wearing thin.

“How did he run this time?” You inquired, taking off the gloves you’d been wearing and grabbing your own hat.

“Shit if I know!” You sucked in a chuckle at your father’s tone. “I swear to God, that horse is as agile as he is stubborn.”

“Alright, calm down old man.” You patted him on the shoulder and walked towards the stables. The ‘finding that damn horse’ dance was one you already knew by heart. “I’ll get Dusk. You warn the others.”

“Take Mr. Callahan with you.” He pointed with his head to the tall man and you smirked, nodding.

“Come on, Stranger. Let’s get you a horse.”

• ··········· • ············ •

For Arthur, everything about this was like looking at the world through a different set of glasses. Ever since he woke up, half dead and half alive, on a bed that wasn’t his, he felt something snapped in his brain.

He remembered the day he stepped into the St. Dennis doctor's office, like it was yesterday. He remembered how he looked at him with pity and sadness. The news wasn't encouraging, he told him. And after that he started making sure he had crossed his T’s and dotted his I’s. Trying to undo all the damage he did throughout his years as an outlaw. From Mrs Downes to John. It was all he could do at the time and it felt right. When Dutch left him to die on the rocks, he didn’t resent him. He was dead anyway, no need to carry him around any longer.

But, he wasn’t dead. Far from it, it had been roughly a month. Here he was, walking around a big ranch, feeling the hot sun on his skin, hearing the wind pass through the leaves.

When the woman told him he could leave, his first instinct was to push her down and run to the door. But something stopped him. A voice in his head, a gravelly voice, that had talked to him a long while ago.

‘Sometimes, the bravest path is the least obvious...’

And then she gave him a choice. A choice for him to make. It wasn’t an order. It wasn't a mission. It was an option. The older native’s voice returned.

‘...and also the gentlest…’

And he stayed.

Albert Graham seemed like an honest, non-nonsense man, with a side of caring and gentleness behind his eyes that Arthur knew would disappear if something threatened him. Or his daughter. His savior. Much like her father, there was a calmness in her that Arthur hadn’t felt in a while. Conviction on the path she walked on. But there was also defiance, as she showed him when he caught her staring at him at the breakfast table.

He kept quiet as Albert showed him the ranch yesterday and explained what needed to be done today. Listening to what the man said but also observing his surroundings. Two stables, one big barn, a house and some farming plots. Another two farms could be seen in the distance.

He jerked slightly when the older man cursed as they reached the horse stables. It was a big one, with 4 boxes on each side and 6 horses in total, one being the one the woman rode on. A tall Shire horse, black with a white stripe that started on his nose, ran through his mane and ended on his tail. It was a tough looking work horse, but seemingly calm where he stood.

He didn’t have enough time to inspect the other animals as he heard Graham curse and turn on his heels, his tour and lesson completely forgotten. Arthur looked at where the man had been standing, an empty box, the gate broken.

After being asked to follow Miss Graham, he accompanied her back to the stables, silently. He noticed how her dog followed her, looking at him periodically.

She was wearing brown pants, a plaid shirt and suspenders, something far from womanly. However, what caught his attention was her tailored clothes. He remembered how Sadie's pants, jackets and other apparel were always too long for her, since she would borrow them from the men on camp. But the pants fit the woman next to him.

They entered the shadowed stable and she grabbed her saddle, pointing to another one and then to the horse.

“I wish this had a little more of a ceremony, you choosing a horse and all. But animals don’t tend to care about what us human folk want.” She looked at him, placing the saddle on Dusk. “There’s an extra saddle there and you can pick whichever horse you want, aside from those three.”

He looked at where she pointed. One of them was obviously a very pregnant mare and the other two seemed too fussy to be ridden. With the horses he was given it was an easy choice to make. He saddled the gray Arabian and clicked his tongue, the horse doing his bidding.

“Ah. The old reliable Grey. Nice choice!” She said smiling.

Something tickled him every time she smiled. There was gentleness behind it, like she meant it every time.

“Come on Mr. Callahan, we have a horse to find.” She urged her horse forward and they rode out of the stables.

• ··········· • ············ •

He looked around at the greenery surrounding them. A sudden pang of recognition crossed his mind. He stopped the horse and looked around. The familiar rock formation was higher up on a hill but he knew where he was. Arthur's mind could almost make out two shadowy shapes up there.

"You know…" he heard her say in a light tone "I do believe I performed a small miracle that day."

He turned his gaze to her and saw her mouth turn up. He raised his eyebrows as she tilted Dusk towards him.

"I got you down from up there." She pointed up, her fingers slowly trailing down the path. "To down here. Without one scratch. Just with a few twigs and a couple of feet of rope."

It felt strange to him how someone who had never seen him, heard him, hell ... met him before spoke to him like they were the oldest of friends. But here she was, sitting looking up at the rocks, nodding as she recounted her adventure.

Her father had been the same, although there were some hints of defensiveness and distrust in his demeanor that the older man couldn't quite hide. But if she was hiding it, she was a pro.

"I didn't ask for it." Arthur said slowly, moving the horse to resume their mission.

"Well, next time put up a sign or something. 'Please leave me to die. Thank you kindly. Arthur Callahan." She laughed, which somehow angered him.

"I just wanted to die peacefully." He said, spitting the words out, as if she was to blame. "I was ready for it."

Arthur immediately regretted the way he spoke, after the words came across rougher than needed. She was quiet for a little while, until he heard a heavy sigh from next to him.

"Listen Mr. Callahan." The jovial tone was gone from her voice. "I am truly and mighty sorry that I took you from your peaceful demise, but in the end I would have been the one to lay my head on the pillow at night and try to sleep with the thought that I had left someone behind. If you really must, you can blame your second chance on my selfishness. In any case, there ain't nobody stopping you from taking that horse and galloping out of here. The saddle bags have food and water for one or two days. You are free to leave and die peacefully anytime."

The girl sounded sincere and free of judgment, which Arthur found surprising and refreshing. She leaned into the horn of her saddle, something Arthur noticed was a habit of hers.

“Go on then…” She mentioned it to him again, egging him on.

• ··········· • ············ •

@photo1030

#arthur morgan #arthur morgan x female reader #arthur morgan x reader #rdr2 #rdr2 fanfiction #red dead redemption 2 #fanfiction

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deadweightwritings · 6 months

Text

MARCH. TWD S4. [snippet]

TWD + Dixon!Reader [S4 Spoilers]

МАРШ - IC3PEAK

YOU CAN’T SEE THE HORIZON BEYOND THESE FENCES.

“Liar.” TWISH. The flying noise of the speared weapon. A squelching sound of an arrow meeting skin echoed on the field. The katana stayed in the Governor’s hand, never meeting Hershel’s neck. Merlot blood squirted and pooled down the Governor’s face, straight from the arrow hanging out the front of his forehead. His body sank to the ground and dropped dead.

“Dead before they hit t’ground. Jus’ how I like it.” Kit whispered to herself in the trees as she prepared to aim again.

Everyone on his side looked behind them, and there was no one to be seen. Kit likes to fuck people up from the trees. Nobody moved as their leader was just shot dead from a fucking shadow in the woods behind them. Now or never, Dixon. Flicking down the welding helmet for protection, Kit strapped her weapons in and dropped to the ground. As everyone on either side of the fence stood still, a roar of a motorcycle echoed across the field.

“Hershel! Michonne! Duck!”

Straight out of the wood shot Kit Dixon on her uncle’s motor vehicle. A machete in her hand, a belt of bombs ready to chuck, and hell of a vendetta. Hershel and Michonne hit the ground below them. Her arm flung out to bite under the mask and roll two grenades below the tanks and cars settled on that side of the fence.

BOOM.

The blast of the explosion almost knocked her off the motorcycle as she veered around, back to Rick on the other side and facing the damage in front of her. 2 of the 3 tanks are on their side or on fire, the ground is smoked to all hell. And people are dead in piles.

Michonne is already equipped with her sword, and throws a rifle to Hershel as she helps him up once the smoke clears.

“KIT!” Screams Rick, and she whirls her head to face him and sees him pointing frantically to her left and right. Two cars are coming toward her hot. Her hand finds her trusty pistol and in three shots, she shoots the two front tires out and the windshield. There’s gunfire all around her and the car to her left is taken out by her dad and Maggie. She looks beyond and finds one tank coming straight at her.

“GET THE FUCK OUTTA THERE!” Daryl’s voice splays through the field, anger and worry carrying his voice. Revving up Merle’s ride, she looked at the hole in the fence that lead to her people and her dad, whilst the other lead to Hershel and Michonne. Releasing the clutch, she swerved around the tank, the main gun pivoted to follow her movement and her heart jumped. Not a cool way to go out, Dixon. Kit started swaying in her path, making a ‘Z’ in the way she was riding toward Hershel. Kit knows a modern tank can turn 360 degrees but goes against all odds and bolts to get her people. An explosion sounds behind her, and she knows one of the towers had been knocked clean down. Huffing, she’s still cruising to victory.

Pounding of adrenaline in her veins kept her flying towards the pair surrounded by the dead she killed, skidding to a stop, she motioned for the two to climb on. Michonne refused, wanting to take care of the walker’s about to sprout up. Hershel got on the back of her motorcycle, arms around her and she sped off. Hold on, Hershel. Kit pivoted so hard she though she would have tipped them both over, she rocketed to the hole in the fence where her dad was crouched, shooting a machine gun like no one’s business. She felt a bullet ricochet off the motorcycle and peered behind her, seeing a man with a rifle and shot him point blank with a pistol. POW.

Sliding past the broken fence, she skidded to a stop, kicking up dust as Beth and Maggie got to Hershel’s side. Kit sadly let the vehicle tip to the dirt as another explosion hit a wall behind her, throwing her through the air, into the fence. CRASH.

“Kit!” Ripped through Daryl’s throat. 20 second’s pass. Dazed and confused, Kit blink’s as she tastes dirt and blood in her mouth. Half the world is blocked out by her shot down ear from childhood. She barely hears that man call and scream for her, as ringing and pops fill her senses. Kit rolls onto her back, blood running down her forehead into one of her eyes as she winced and hissed. She still saw the blue sky above. Man, I’m beat. The eyelids flicker over the stone-colored eyes and—

“Girl, you get ter yer feet right this instance! I ain’t gonna ask you twice!” The loudest fucking voice just ripped through both her ears, yes both, and Kit shot up. Merle stood over her, hands on his beltloops and sour look on his face, she was sure he was going to spit at her, looking so pathetic.

“To hell wit you if you think you can die after a stunt like that, honey!” She swore to whatever God above that he grabbed her by her shoulders and hoisted her up to her feet, ears and body buzzing. After that she found her legs stumbling for cover,

“That’s it, Kit, keep walkin’.” The world around her was made out of blurry blocks, shit shooting everywhere and almost no noise reaching her ear. Except her uncle yelling at her.

“Grab the rifle, grab a weapon, dammit girl!” Reaching for her back, she messily swung the rifle to her front, nearly losing her grip of the gun. Kit felt a weight on her shoulder, and she liked to think it was Merle guiding her dazed ass through the prison grounds. Kit shook her head multiple time, trying to see straight but it didn’t do shit. Why is Merle here? Where’s my dad? Where’s Rick? Where’s anybody?

“To your left, kid!” Whipping to that direction, her eyesight fully locked on 3 walkers charging toward her. Lining the weapon up, she fired. BANG. BANG. BANG. Those three shots nearly made her black out, Kit is so fucking exhausted. The way she moved, she told herself she practically looked like a walker. Almost made her laugh out loud.

“Good girl, Kit. You better stay alive, missy.” Those words made her blink hard, hearing her uncle’s voice say that to her, caused her to wake up. Still dragging her feet, she jogged to where the fence was—BOOM. A wave of boiling heat washed over her face, as if she wasn’t already fucked up right now. There’s fire and smoke coming out of a tank, and she sees the dirty angel wings on the back of a jacket. Now she’s running to them. She’s next to them and her dad whirls around,

“Jesus Christ, Kit!” He grabs her ashen arm and pulls her along, her feet slap against the ground because she’s so weary and everything is wishy-washy. They dodge, duck and shoot their way through until they run into Beth.

“Maggie! Have you seen her, Daryl, Kit?!”

“No, Beth, we have to go! We gotta go!” Kit slings her arm around Beth’s shoulder’s, making her duck as they bolt out of the prison and into the woods. The crunch of the leaves hit their boots, they’re not worried about being quiet, they’re worried about surviving through this war the Governor brought on. The quarry is split even further, and Kit doesn’t know if they will ever reconvene after this hell.

You better stay alive, missy.

WHO IS OUT THERE IN THE STREETS BESIDES THE COLD?

#TWD #the walking dead #rick grimes #daryl dixon #merle dixon #twd fanfiction #beth greene #maggie greene #daryl x reader #twd x teen reader

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corvusalbus93 · 1 year

Text

Aftermath

Return to Pabu

For all of you, who need a bit more closure, since it will be some time before season 3.

There will be two shorts around the events following the season 2 finale; this one is about the Batch returning to Pabu and telling Phee. The second will concern Hemlock; I’ll add a link (here) as soon as I’ve posted it.

...

The engines hummed peacefully, as the Marauder left Ord Mantell far behind. Even Hunter could barely hear another sound, and the near silence was eerie, a painful reminder of their loss. He looked to Echo, alone in the cockpit, and then to Wrecker, still cradling the broken goggles Hemlock had given them.

For a moment Hunter’s eyes lingered on them and it felt as if a cold knife was digging its way into his heart. He should have stayed firm, stopped them from going. They should never have rushed this. Or maybe they should have found another way out, even if that had meant climbing down that blasted mountain. That explosion… Hunter’s eyes narrowed. Saw Gerrera.

If he hadn’t been there none of this would have happened. Now both Omega and Crosshair were out of their reach, and Tech was gone. If he ever saw that man again, Saw would wish he’d died on Eriadu.

Hunter took a deep breath to calm himself. No, he had to focus. Blaming Saw wouldn’t fix anything, not bring Tech back and it didn’t diminish his own guilt. He had made plenty of wrong decisions since the end of the war, and everyone he loved was paying for them.

Of course Hunter was a soldier; death was something they all were familiar with, a constant shadow looming ahead. But they had always beaten the odds somehow. Perhaps their luck had finally run out.

He clenched his firsts. It didn’t matter. Tech had sacrificed himself to save them, and Hunter would be damned if he let his brother’s final act be in vain. They would get Omega back. Even Crosshair if it was possible. And he would make sure no one else had to pay with their lives; he wouldn’t lose what was left of his family.

“Hunter?” Echo’s voice broke the silence, pulling Hunter out of his thoughts. “Do we have a plan?” He was looking at Hunter with a grim determination, despite the pain that was all over his face.

“We’ll stay Pabu for a while; with our injuries there is nothing we can do right now. We need to recover and carefully plan our next move. If we make another mistake...” Hunter left the rest unsaid; he couldn’t get the words over his lips. Not today.

The other clone nodded. “I’ll try to get in contact with Rex, while we’re there. He’ll want to know and honestly, I don’t think the three of us can do this alone.”

“Do it.”

Wrecker turned his head, for the first in a long while taking his eyes of Tech’s goggles. “What about Phee, Hunter?”

“...I’ll tell her.”

...

“Ah, perfect.”

Phee took a step back to admire her work. With the most essential parts of lower Pabu repaired, the hobby archaeologist had turned to fixing the artefacts damaged during the earthquake. Most were fine, but a few had taken damage, though thankfully nothing unsalvageable. Over the last two days Phee had fixed an ancient vase and was now satisfied to see that the cracks were all but invisible. With the right light no one would even notice.

A breeze found its way through a little window into the Archium, and Phee turned to look outside. It was a beautiful day again, now that the rain clouds had disappeared. The tiles of the square were glistening, not having completely dried yet in the afternoon sun and a few of the children were jumping from puddle to puddle, trying to create the biggest possible splash.

Phee sighed. Truth be told the square looked empty without the Marauder.

Several days had passed since the Batch had disappeared, and admittedly the pirate was starting to worry. First Echo’s sudden return with some juicy, encrypted data and then all of them went off to some covert mission not even Omega would talk about. It just didn’t feel right.

She rolled her shoulders and headed outside, needing some fresh air.

It was probably just a serious mission that required time. Phee wasn’t familiar with military operations, but from her own experience she knew that even raiding ancient, unprotected ruins could be a time consuming process, especially when some structures had collapsed.

Maybe she felt this way, because of her last conversation with Tech. Nothing wrong with going slow, she would give him the time and space he needed, but it had stung that he hadn’t come to say goodbye or informed her of their imminent departure, however he would have put it. Phee chuckled. His way of expressing himself never failed to endear him to her.

Maybe figuring out just how serious she was with her flirtation had freaked him out, given how he’d shifted around and avoided eye-contact. She would have to watch out for that to avoid similar situations in the future. Like an ancient treasure: handle with care.

Bright sunlight welcomed Phee outside, and she closed her eyes to appreciate the warm rays upon her face. What made her open her eyes again, was the sound of engines.

Her heart did a little leap, when the very familiar silhouette of the Marauder blocked out the sun for a second, before taking its rightful place on the square. She stopped herself from walking too fast, not wanting to appear too eager, but unable to help herself from skipping over one of the puddles just once. Last thing she wanted was to make this more awkward than their semi-proper goodbye.

When the Marauder’s hatch opened there was no sign of them for a moment. Phee frowned, wondering what was taking so long, expecting Omega to be the first to jump down the stairs. The girl wasn’t the first, however. Instead Echo emerged from the ship followed by Wrecker, Hunter and a droid Phee was sure she’d seen at Cid’s.

No one else came.

Only then did she notice their injuries, their faces, the look in their eyes, and she felt her insides twist painfully. Despite the warm sun, she suddenly felt very cold.

The boys stopped in front of her, Hunter the closest, his expression a mix of pain and sorrow, despite his obvious attempts to remain collected.

“Hunter?” Phee could feel the slight tremble in her voice. “Where are Tech and Omega?”

He took a deep breath and grasped her wrist. Very gently he turned her hand and Phee’s heart nearly stopped, when he placed a pair of broken goggles into her palm.

No.

No, no, no, no, no...

“I’m sorry,” he finally spoke. “Tech didn’t make it. He gave his life…to save us.”

“What?” She’d heard him, but it was as if part of her mind refused to process his words and her voice grew louder. “Hunter, what happened? Just who were you going after? What about Omega?” Phee looked to Echo and Wrecker, but their faces told her enough.

“The Empire still has one of our brothers. We tried to find him, but we were compromised. When we attempted to escape the facility, we got trapped. Without Tech, none of us would be here,” Hunter explained, his voice more weary than she’d ever heard it before. “We went back to Ord Mantell to take care of our injuries, but Cid informed the Empire…and they took Omega.”

“Cid? Why did you go back, she threatened you!” Phee exclaimed, her mind racing. “If I get my hands on her…!” The rest of the sentence went unsaid, as she made a fist and suddenly something sharp cut into her fingers. She glanced down, despite knowing. Tech’s goggles.

Phee’s vision turned blurry, as everything suddenly hit her like a tidal wave, all her simultaneous thoughts grounding to a halt and getting swept away.

Gone. He was gone.

The other hand covering her mouth did little to muffle the sound as she just started to sob, hot tears running down her cheeks. It couldn’t be. No. Not yet, not like this.

Phee flinched, when she felt a big hand on her back. Vaguely she made out Wreckers large frame beside her, and though somewhere deep inside she knew he was trying to be comforting, his gesture made her fall apart even worse.

With her legs feeling so very weak, she let her head sink against the big guy’s chest plate, her free hand searching for purchase on the smooth surface, needing to hold on to something, someone. Finding none, she wrapped her arm around him as best she could, feeling his hand squeeze her gently as she cried against his armour.

The goggles she pressed against her own chest.

Phee felt the broken pieces of glass dig into her hand once more, not enough to pierce her skin this time, but enough to inflict pain. She couldn’t care less right now.

She had no idea how long they remained like this, as Wrecker let her get it all out. He didn’t stop her, nor did the others speak, every one of them giving her the time she needed.

Why? Just, why? There was so much she hadn’t told him. So much she had wanted to show and share with him. Now they would never have that chance and it left a hollow feeling inside her chest. She shouldn’t have let him leave just like that. She should have made sure he knew how she felt, what he meant to her.

Just a hug. A little peck on the cheek for good luck. A real goodbye.

Something.

Anything.

She took a shaky breath, still crying. It wasn’t fair. He deserved better. Better than dying so young on some far away planet.

Had he been afraid? In pain? She dreaded to think about it and she didn’t dare to ask.

Eventually, fewer tears came and though she wasn’t feeling alright, Phee found herself calming down a little. Perhaps she just lacked the strength to keep going. Only now did she notice the slight tremble of Wrecker’s hand. The others were probably not faring much better. Just how heavy did this loss weigh on their hearts? Their brother dead, their sister taken. Oh, Omega. Now, when she needed her family the most.

Phee swallowed, trying to find her voice again, and wiped away the tears as best she could. She looked up to Wrecker, but only managed a nod and a weak smile as thanks. He looked close to tears himself, and biting down on his lower lip, gave a nod in return.

Taking a deep breath, Phee turned to Hunter her voice still throaty when she spoke. “Whatever you need, I’ll get it for you. I’ll come with you when you go rescue Omega…”

“Phee, it will be dangerous. We’re going to fight the Empire. There is a chance none of us will make it.”

She shook her head. “I know that. Hunter; but I can’t sit around or go back to life as usual. I need to do something. Let me help....please.”

To her relief he nodded. It wasn’t that he was agreeing here and now to her coming along, but an acknowledgment. For now that was enough.

Phee looked to the goggles in her hand, fighting to keep her eyes from welling up again, but to no avail. Just a little more time. Was that so much to ask?

Tech.

The first tears fell on the broken glass.

He hadn’t even said goodbye.

#the bad batch #bad batch #star wars #tbb #phee genoa #tbb tech #tbb hunter

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bobaandasiandramas · 2 years

Text

Here it is, finally. Chapter 2; I wanted it to be longer but I also don't want it to be too long. I will be working on the Tale of the Nine Tailed chapter 9 next. Thank you to @caroline-directioner for the kind words of understanding.

Find Rest for your Soul

Y/n is found unconscious by Hoseok and rescue owner, Sejin. Y/n is a mysterious Omega with no real memories and is trying to understand the warnings in her head. What or who is after her?

Alpha, Beta, Omega x F. READER

Pairing: OT7 x F. READER

Rating: M+

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

Sejin rested against the wall of the clinic treatment room, arms crossed as he watched over the female again. She had taken a turn for the worst when they got her into the building. Her blood pressure dropped dramatically, which caused the normally calm and collected Namjoon to go into a frenzy. As soon as the doors opened he started barking orders to the helping volunteers of the rescue. One of the volunteers ended up getting teary eyed and had to be dismissed. Namjoon’s stress made his patience nonexistent as he tended to his patient.

Yoongi rushed over to Namjoon with two injections that the doctor had ordered. One was phenylephrine to help with the low blood pressure while the other was a tranquilizer in case the woman woke in a panic. The skilled doctor found a vein quickly and administered the blood pressure medication.

Once stable enough, Namjoon started working on assessing and addressing the damage done to her body. He began with her head first, cleaning out the wound on her skull and placing three small stitches to close the gash up.

“How did you find her?” Yoongi asked. He took a wet cloth and started wiping the dirt and grime from the female’s face.

“Hoseok found her.” Sejin stated. “He had this feeling that something was off and he went to check it out. When I was ready to turn back he just kept going ahead and found her on the ground.”

“And she was all alone?” Yoongi asked.

Sejin could hear the concern in Yoongi’s voice. He knew Yoongi was always more guarded than the other alphas of the pack, but he had good reasons with his background before the rescue. It took more than a sweet face to gain his trust.

“Yes, it looked like she walked there.” Sejin answered.

The room was quiet for a moment before the woman started to twitch on the table. It started as small jolts, like little zaps of electricity and then her body began to violently jolt and shake in quick spasms. The doctor was reading her vitals, watching the lines skyrocket but he didn’t understand the reason why. Sejin pushed away from the wall, ready to jump in and help if needed while Yoongi waited, guarded to attack.

The woman’s eyes shot open, she threw herself into a seated position as she gasped loudly. Reaching out, she clamped onto Yoongi’s forearm, her nails slightly biting into his skin. The male let out a warning growl but the female either didn’t care or didn’t hear it. Her frightened eyes found his own as fear rolled off of her in thick waves instantly making the room sour.

At the same time, Namjoon grabbed her free arm before she could use it in any negative manner. With his freehand he grabbed another sedation syringe, ripping the cap off with his teeth before sinking the needle into the small plush of her upper thigh. Quickly, he pushed the plunger to inject the liquid knowing it would take effect quickly.

The female was still staring at Yoongi, a whimper passed her lips as the needle pierced her skin. “Don’t let them get you.” She whispered to him, her hand gave his arm a light squeeze before her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she fell against the bed.

The three males stood still, staring at the female, waiting for her to rise again. Instead the steady beeping of the heart monitor filled the dead space of the room. Once they were sure she wasn’t going to surprise them again the all relaxed a small amount. “What the hell was that?!” Yoongi asked lividly, throwing his arms in the air. He wasn’t comfortable about the whole situation already and then those words came out of her mouth. He felt extremely protective of his pack. To him, the woman posed a threat but at the same time he did feel bad for her. She looked completely terrified, there was hope in her eyes, she had accepted whatever she was afraid of was going to get her.

Namjoon could sense Yoongi’s paranoia, the scent of it was quickly overpowering the scent of fear from the omega. Joon shook his head, unsure what to make of everything. There was a sinking feeling in his gut. The omega gave a warning, consciously or not - he wasn’t sure, either way it bothered him. He didn’t like trouble, especially since their lives have been easy going since each of them had been rescued by Sejin.

“I don’t like this, Namjoon." Yoongi stated as he watched the doctor look her over again. "Did you notice this yet?" He pointed to the silver bracelet with the blinking green light. "This looks like a tracker to me. Danger could be coming right to our door as we speak." Panic was stirring into the pot.

The doctor looked over at the other alpha. "Yoons, I understand what you're feeling and saying but if you don't calm down I will sedate you as well." The doctor took the bracelet off and looked it over. "I can't say it's not a tracker, but it looks more like a monitor. Like it's tracking her heart rate and blood pressure.” He placed the bracelet back on her.

Sejin had heard more than enough, he wasn’t going to be helpful in the treatment area. “I think Hoseok and I will go back out there and see if there are any more clues about where she came from and who she is.”

Both alpha’s grew stiff and growled at his words. “I don’t think that’s the best idea. You heard what she said. There could be someone else out there.” Yoongi stated as he shook his head.

“Okay, but I’ll have an alpha with me. Everything will be fine guys.” Sejin rolled his eyes at them. He wasn’t a hybrid - but they considered him as part of the pack, though he also had no real authority over them. “I think you guys are just overreacting a little bit.”

"Definitely not, Sejin." Namjoon lifted the girl's arm and pushed back the sleeve of the light jacket that was put on her. It revealed that her slender wrist has a dark bruise encircling it. “Do you see this mark?”

"This wrist shows the same trauma." Yoongi said as he pulled the other sleeve up, careful not to touch the potential "tracker", to reveal the other bruise.

Both alphas alerted suddenly and snapped their eyes past Sejin toward the swing doors. Behind the rescue manager was their omega, Jungkook, sneaking in quietly so as to not disturb the room. He locked eyes with Yoongi and then Namjoon, offering a small smile before his eyes drifted toward the exam table.

The young one couldn't help the gasp that passed his lips. He stepped forward and looked at the female closely, taking in her unnaturally pale skin, the cuts on her face and the dark bruises. "She looks…sickly." He pointed out with a whimper and Yoongi moved in front of the girl, blocking the young one’s vision. Jungkook’s urge to comfort the fellow omega was overwhelming to him. "Joon…" He snapped his eyes to his other alpha. "what happened to her?"

"From what I can assess is that either she has been in the woods, wandering lost for a while now or whomever she was with didn't take good care of her. Weight loss is obvious to anyone. This isn't something that happened in a few days. This is weeks of starvation. But these," Namjoon gestured to her bruised wrists again. "come from some sort of restriction; most likely being tied down. The body never lies. There's evidence all over her." He felt himself getting angry as he thought of an alpha doing this to an omega. Now he couldn’t prove it was an alpha - it could have been a human but he was angry either way. Omegas weren’t usually strong enough to defend themselves.

Jungkook suddenly found it hard to look at the unconscious girl on the table, he averted his gaze to somewhere else in the room. It felt nauseating, like he was invading her privacy. Each cut and bruise was a violation, a story that was screaming to be heard. He whined with sadness before he felt hands land on his arms and he was pulled into Sejin’s embrace. He tucked his head into the human’s chest and peeked over to the female on the bed again.

Yoongi turned his attention back to the patient, pushing his feelings aside to help Namjoon take care of her. He slowly began to work the light jacket off the female's body so Namjoon could continue treatment. He growled suddenly at their new discovery; track marks made by needles all over her arms. His thumb ran over the multiple puncture marks soothingly. It was becoming more and more evident that this omega was in need of help for a long time. He felt his emotions mix,the alpha in him wanted to protect the poor omega but the rational side of him wanted her far away from his pack.

Namjoon looked over her arms and sighed. "Someone has been injecting her with something. Maybe a sedative."

Sejin frowned, he didn't know what to do anymore. He was originally so curious about the female, but now seeing her condition made him feel sick. He couldn't stare at the shell of the female whom he assumed was on the brink of death. "How do you know it's not self-inflicted?" He asked as he started thinking of other rescues who could help a stray with an addiction problem. He wasn’t prepared for the situation of an addict.

"I can just tell from how the wounds look, she is not shooting up, the angle of the piercing is wrong, and there is bruising as if she was trying to get away from it, so you don't need to worry about that."

Sejin sighed with relief.

"What can I do to help, Joon? I want to help." Jungkook asked desperately. He wanted to get closer to her and hold her hand, scent her and throw her into a nest. Omegas always help each other, maybe he could help with any pain she was feeling, but he didn't want to get in Namjoon's way.

"Nothing for now Jungkook. I'm actually going to need everyone who isn't hands on to leave. I have to remove her clothes and give her a complete exam.“

Sejin nodded and placed a hand on Junkook's shoulder, already steering the pup from the room. He was happy to have an excuse to leave, he wasn't sure if he could handle looking at the broken body on the table much longer.

Once the two were gone, Namjoon turned to Yoongi. "Can you pass a gown for her to wear after? Her clothes will have to be thrown out. Maybe she can wear something from Jimin if need be until we can get her proper clothes again."

***

Sejin gave Jungkook a pat on the shoulder as he left him next to Jin, who was sitting on the couch. The Omega climbed over the back of the sofa and cuddled into the Beta. The manager looked back at the two before stepping into his office. While the rescue was doing good, he didn't know how many more broken souls he would be able to take in and put back together.

The alphas did most of the work when the actual healing came but he still felt the intensity of it all. He watched Hoseok grow a little darker on the inside as he found each new wolf hybrid. Namjoon pours all his knowledge into healing them physically and sometimes had to do so mentally if they couldn’t find a psychiatrist to help. Yoongi gets more and more quiet with others, only being social with his pack. Jimin was the only alpha who didn’t seem to change too much since coming to the rescue.

Sejin sat down in the chair at his desk and looked out the window. He needed some time to collect himself. If Yoongi was right and this female was being tracked by someone then they would come to his rescue facility and that could endanger everyone here. He didn't want to kick her out, he's never said no to someone in need before. Plus, he highly doubted Hoseok would allow him to do that.

Maybe he will call a meeting tonight. Or should he wait until the female is more stable? Decisions need to be made. He would have to have a meeting with the alphas.

Namjoon could see yet another set of eyes from behind the glass of the treatment area doors. Word had spread quickly about a new omega had been found so naturally other members of the rescue were curious if this omega would be joining any of their packs.

***

Yooni was getting annoyed with all the foot traffic that he finally got to his feet and stomped over to them. The three beta’s from another pack shuffled back as he swung the doors open. “The last time I checked this was a treatment area, not a zoo.” He didn’t need to say more than that, the three scrambling away from the scary alpha.

Namjoon summoned Yoongi back into the room. “I have her stable for now. I just don’t know what else to do for her. She just needs to rest and recover.” The alpha was stressed. “I’m going to chart everything in my office, you don’t need to stay.”

“It’s alright Joon, I’ll watch over. I have to make sure no nosy bodies come in.” He watched his fellow alpha dipped into the office before he looked over to the female again. His eyes softened, he felt bad. He really did but he needed to keep his guard up for his pack. He hoped he was overreacting and she was really just lost. He moved to sit closer to her bed, bringing a stool to sit on. “What happened to you out there little omega?”

"Doesn't it bother you?" Hoseok spoke quietly as he walked.

"What?" Sejin asked, his feet weren't as quiet as Hoseok's, leaves crunched under his shoes loudly in comparison.

The alpha stopped moving and in return so did Sejin. The human was about to ask what it was when Hoseok finally spoke. "That. The silence is so loud it's almost deafening."

Sejin looked around trying to find any birds or furry woodland creatures that he would normally find. But he was met with the silence Hoseok spoke about. "I mean that doesn't make sense, yeah it's quiet but how is it so loud that it's deafening?"

"We're so used to hearing things. Wolf hybrids more so since our senses are enhanced so think about it. You hear nothing, absolutely nothing. That silence has swallowed everything up and you hear nothing, it must be like being Deaf."

"I never thought about that. But now that you pointed it out I am bothered. Where are all the wildlife animals?"

"I don't know. I've never been this far before. The whole area seems abandoned. This doesn't feel right to me." The alpha could feel his metaphorical hackles raise.

The terrain was rough; vines, fallen trees, a maze of trials throughout the forest. The air was muggy, causing a thin sheen of sweat to cover the foreheads of the two males.

"You haven't asked yet. Are you going to?" Sejin spoke softly, worried his voice would echo in the quiet.

Hoseok stopped and looked back at the human. "I want to know, but I'm worried about the answer." He took a deep breath and turned away from the manager. "How is she?"

An image of her flashed in his head and he had to resist the urge to shudder. He remembered how light she was in his arms, as if he was carrying a large carnival plushie instead of an omega.

"Not in the best shape. There was a nasty gash on the back of her head that Joon stitched up. And there were other injuries that indicate that maybe there was some abuse that she had endured. Before we left I checked in with Namjoon and she's stable but who knows what can happen."

"That bad?" The alpha knew it was bad, he just hoped it wasn't. He stepped over a fallen tree as he pushed on forward.

Sejin nodded his head. "It's nothing short of a miracle that she's alive. That's all thanks to you. You found her, Hobi. Who knows how long it will be until she recovers but at least she is safe now." He decided to leave out the warning the woman gave. They could discuss it at home with the other alphas.

Hoseok nodded his head. "Well, I suppose we should keep our guards up just in case.”

It wasn't much longer when a loud rushing noise could be heard. It was soft at first but was getting louder and louder, almost like something was running toward their direction. Hoseok went on high alert and took a protective stance in front of Sejin.

"What is that?" Sejin asked as he realized the severity of their new situation. Unfamiliar territory and something rushing at them. The manager feared they entered another's territory and another alpha was on the way to fight.

Snarling noises could be heard with the rushing stomps of feet smacking the forest floor. Whatever it was, it was moving through the foliage at such a rapid pace that Hoseok was sure it would be there any second. He braced himself as it moved into the clearing.

Two hybrids, a male and female, came tumbling out into the small clearing. One obviously tried to run from the other but it was deemed useless, the female latched onto the male's back and started slashing. The male wailing in agonizing pain, tried to roll over to fight the female off.

Hoseok was frozen, not in fear but was worried if he made a move then the female would turn her attack toward him and Sejin. The male wolf was able to kick the female off, and something changed in her brain. The male was no longer on her radar. She looked at her arms and then her chest before crying out viciously and attacked herself.

Sejin couldn't watch, the scene was nauseating, there was blood everywhere. He peeked from behind Hobi at the male on the forest floor, basically bleeding out before he turned his attention to the female who seized up suddenly and dropped to the ground, foam dripping from her lips.

There was a moment of calm, the only sound was the male on the ground who was sobbing. When deemed safe enough Hoseok jumped into action, he went to the female first and double checked that their wasn’t a heartbeat. She was in fact deceased and so he turned and knelt down next to the rogue male. "Hey, we're gonna get you help. Hang in there."

Sejin called the rescue again - informing Jin of the new hybrid coming in and to inform Namjoon that they would be on the way. He glanced back several times to Hoseok who was carrying the injured wolf on his back. Sejin could tell from the look in the Alpha’s eyes that he was pretty sure the wolf wasn’t going to make it, but he was pushing on anyway.

At some time the unidentified wolf had passed out making it seem like dead weight on Hoseok’s shoulders. The alpha hoped that they could help, but it really didn’t look very well. Taehyung was the one to meet them outside this time. The Omega opened the doors and helped carry the weight of the unidentified wolf to the medical unit. There Dr. Wang was ready to look over the new patient.

“Ah, Jackson. Thank you for coming in to help Namjoon.” Sejin smiled at the alpha. Jackson was a part of a different pack, they had also moved out of the rescue but Dr. Wang still came in to help with patients.

“Of course. Joon called me to discuss the female that was brought in and then Jin informed us about the new wolf you were bringing in. I told him I would take over this case so he could organize the female’s charts.” Jackson was looking over the male wolf, frowning at the condition his body was in. “He’s not doing good. He lost a lot of blood, we’re going to need to type and match him for a blood transfusion.”

“We can move him into the surgical suite and I can grab what we need.” Sejin stated before Taehyung and him rolled the patient into the surgical room.

Hoseok watched them get the patient into the surgery room before he turned his attention to Yoongi. “Has there been any changes to the female patient?”

Yoongi glanced over his fellow alpha, he watched the blood drip off his jacket and onto the floor before he shook his head. “No, she hasn’t even moved since Namjoon sedated her earlier. Her body isn’t healing properly - she’s too weak right now.” The alpha looked toward the other. “You did good today Hoseok, you found two rogues who needed help.”

“Technically, there were three that we found today. The third one attacked the male patient before attacking herself. I was going to go back out and retrieve the body, maybe Joon can figure out what caused her to do that.”

Yoongi looked surprised at the news Hoseok shared. “Why would -”

His question was cut off by loud yells from the surgical suite. The two alphas jumped up and raced to the door. Inside the patient was thrashing on the table, claws protruding from the skin, wolf fangs bearing as the wolf side tried to break out.

Jackson tried to hold the patient down to the table before the whole body went limp and the monitor indicated a long beep of a flat lined heart. “Damn it!” Dr. Wang started chest compressions, Namjoon raced into the room and between the two doctors they took turns trying to revive the patient. After 33 minutes of compressions they made the call.

Jackson pulled a white sheet over the male’s body and informed the proper rescue members to transport to the morgue. “It’s unfortunate that he didn’t survive, he might have known something about our Jane Doe over there.” He shoulder’s fell in defeat.

“Don’t beat yourself up, from what I see, it was a very slim chance that he was going to make it. It doesn't surprise me that he succumbed to his wounds.” Joon turned his attention to his fellow pack alpha. “Hoseok, I heard you found a third person as well.”

“I did.” He explained what had happened during their search and explained how he wanted to go and collect the body.

“I understand, but it is late and if Yoongi is right about the dangers he is concerned about then we shouldn’t be going into unfamiliar territory at night. Finding any other clue or even the body might be highly improbable. Let’s be logical and wait until the morning. Plus, you should wash up.”

Hoseok frowned as he looked at his bloodied outfit. “You’re probably right. I’m gonna head home with Jin, Jungkook and Taehyung. Yoongi are you staying here?”

The alpha nodded his head. “Yeah, I’ll help Jackson and Joon with the female.”

“Okay, if there are any changes, please let me know.”

***

Joon sat in this office as he started over the body scans on the John Doe wolf. “I don’t get it Jackson. I don’t know where these rogue wolves are coming from. The body injuries between the two are so different. She shows signs of abuse, while he shows none. All I see are the injuries that he acquired from the attack that Hoseok and Sejin saw.”

Jackson had pulled out two glasses from the cabinet and carried a bottle filled with dark amber liquid. “Sounds like it’s time for a drink.” He placed the glass on the desk for the other doctor before bringing his own glass to his lips and taking a sip enjoying the sudden warmth that filled him.

“I don’t think I can relax just yet.” His eyes moved to the open door where his patient laid, still out for the count while Yoongi watched over her.

“Joon, there is nothing more you can do for her tonight. Have the nurses watch her and get to your pack at home.”

Namjoon frowned. “She’s very weak. I don’t know if she’s going to make it. I’ll probably stay the night and keep track of her vitals just in case anything changes.”

“I just have a good feeling that she’s going to be fine. I think Hoseok found her in time. Go home, get some rest. Doctor’s orders.” Jackson winked at his friend and Joon rolled his eyes. “Seriously though, if you want I’ll stay the night and take over the case for now.”

The alpha knew his friend wouldn’t let it go. “Okay, sure. Maybe with a clear mind I’ll be able to think of a better treatment plan.”

“Go. Home. Joon.” Jackson grabbed his shoulders and pushed him out of the office door. “Yoongi, make sure this one goes home and relaxes for the night.”

***

The following morning Hoseok walked to the rescue with Jimin, who had a bag of clothes with him, nothing much, just a few t-shirts and two pairs of sweatpants. Once the smaller alpha heard about the female Hoseok found he wanted to help however he could.

BamBam, an omega from Jackson’s pack, came running out the clinic doors heading over to the two alphas. Hoseok could feel his heart rate spike suddenly as dread started to fill his mind. Did things take a turn for the worse? He knew Namjoon left early to take over the case from Dr. Wang - his leader would have called him, wouldn’t he?

“Is she awake?” Jimin asked as he noticed that Hoseok froze.

BamBam started nodding his head as he caught his breath. “Yeah. Dr. Kim asked me to keep an eye out for you to return. When the patient woke up, she scratched Dr. Wang in the face.” He whined at the words that left his lips, sad for his own alpha. “I was there when it happened.” He recalled the inhuman scream that escaped the female’s lips as she woke to see the unfamiliar face of Jackson leaning over her. “I personally think she’s dangerous…” He trailed off as he realized that he was being disrespectful. He tried to get himself back on track. “... but Dr. Kim feels otherwise as of now.”

The omega walked back to the medical clinic with the two alpha’s. Hoseok was pouring waves of anxious vibes as they made their way through the hallway. He wondered what kind of answers they would get from the female. He made a mental note to call Yoongi and give an update after.

Hoseok and Jimin entered the treatment room to see that Dr. Wang was sitting on an exam table while his beta, Jinyoung, was standing next to him. The two had unhappy expressions - brows furrowed in confusion as they looked warily at the female across the room. Joon was a few feet away from her, kneeling down with his hands up in submission. He meant no hard to her.

As for the female, she was curled up in the corner of the room, back pressed up against the wall and her knees drawn tightly to her chest. Her expression was practically feral; her eyes wide and her pupils appeared to be dilated.

Hoseok couldn’t blame her, waking in an unknown place and surrounded by unfamiliar faces wasn’t exactly ideal for most people. He stood there observing the scene for several seconds before he realized that she was talking. Her voice was so hushed he almost didn’t hear it.

“Three. Six. Hide. Escape. Right.” The words fell from her mouth like a mantra.

Bambam was still standing between the two alphas when he spoke again, his voice was a hushed volume. “She’s been saying that ever since Dr.Kim tried to talk to her. I think she’s trying to remember something.”

“I think she’s lost her damn mind.” Dr. Wang commented through gritted teeth as he turned to Hoseok, exposing the scratches from her nails. They ran from the corner of his eye to his mouth, they would eventually heal but it would take a few days. “I understand why they tied her up.” He referred to the bruising on her wrists. “She’s out of control.”

Hoseok frowned at the words that reached his ears. He didn’t want to believe them, but the scene before him wasn’t convincing him otherwise. She looked like she was having a mental breakdown.

#BTS #OT7 x F Reader #namjoon x reader #jimin x reader #jungkook x reader #jung hoseok #kim namjoon #kim taehyung #kim seokjin #jin x reader #park jimin #hoseok x reader #taehyung x reader #min yoonji #yoongi x reader #Find Rest for your Soul

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tf2workbench · 1 year

Text

I love the Cow Mangler

[charging noise]

[firing sound] [silence] [mini-crit noise] [ding-ding-ding of fire damage] [death sound]

I love the Cow Mangler. Its charged shot is so absurdly satisfying to land, whether it’s right up close or at a huge distance. But sometimes it just feels unfair, like when I launch it without looking and an enemy just walks into it at the wrong time. It’s satisfying, but I feel bad for that enemy, because there isn’t much they could have done.

My bleeding heart is one thing, but I’ve also seen people get frustrated at how powerful a charged shot can be. And, heck, I’m not super fond of walking into them either. Let’s look at it from a design perspective.

Cow Mangler 5000 (+) Does not use ammo (+) Alt-fire: Charge up a special shot that consumes your full clip to mini-crit enemies, set them on fire, and disable buildings for 4 seconds (-) Nearly immobile while charging (-) -80% damage vs buildings (-) Mini-crits when it would normally crit (-) No random critical hits

The Cow Mangler, to me, is one of those weapons that has huge upsides and huge downsides. You can’t underestimate the power of the charged shot, which is dangerous even at long range because mini-crits don’t have distance falloff. It demands attention, especially for light classes that can be cleanly taken out by the initial hit and the fire damage.

At the same time, using the charged shot is a huge risk. It takes about two seconds to fully charge, during which you’re moving painfully slowly, and you can’t cancel the charge once you start it. More than once, I’ve been picked off by Snipers while charging - if they’re quick, they can get two shots off before I’ve launched.

Moreover, once you’ve used the charged shot, you have a long, painful reload in your future. If you get ambushed, you’ll be almost defenseless. I carry a shotgun, but getting your full Mangler clip back will take over three seconds.

My best success with the Mangler comes from playing far back, launching charged shots when my sixth sense (or a friend) tells me enemies will be coming. To do this, I usually keep low and behind cover, taking advantage of the fact that you can still jump while charging your shot. It’s good to have teammates in front of me to keep the enemies away and distract them so they don’t see the big laser blast coming at them. (This works surprisingly often.)

The good news is that the Mangler still allows me to play aggressively with its regular four-shot clip, although I will admit that it’s less satisfying than landing charged shots. The bad news is that its weakness versus buildings can sometimes keep me locked down - shotguns are nice, but they don’t break sentries very well. The better news is that the disabling shot is a unique asset that allows me to work with my shotgun and my teammates, provided I can talk to them. Overall, I would say that using the Cow Mangler is really fun!

But some of the people I’ve played against have expressed, uh, frustration with my antics. You could blame this on their inattention, which is arguably true, but when someone is vaporized by a mini-crit they didn’t see coming, their first reaction is not usually “ah, I wish I had been paying attention” - it’s more like fear and frustration. We’ve established before how one-hit kills can cause a lot of frustration, as can fire and other damage-over-time effects. Although less common, Engineers don’t usually like temporarily losing their buildings, particularly since they can’t effectively deal with the charged shots without a teammate nearby.

So, if I were to revise the Cow Mangler to be a little more enemy-friendly, what would I do?

Cow Mangler 5000 Iteration 2 (+) Does not use ammo (+) Alt-fire: Consume a full clip to charge up a special shot that has a 70% smaller blast radius, but flies 80% faster and mini-crits targets (-) Nearly immobile while charging [1 second] (-) -80% damage vs buildings (-) Mini-crits when it would normally crit (-) No random critical hits

This revision mostly solves the problem of random, long-distance shots scoring kills on surprised enemies. Careful aim is the name of the game here, since the charged shot behaves somewhat like the Direct Hit (and I reduced its charge time to allow for more spontaneous use). It serves to punish enemies that move predictably, but the key is that it’s much less likely to score “random” kills.

Let’s briefly take a look at another angle:

Cow Mangler 5000 Iteration 3 (+) Does not use ammo (+) Alt-fire: Consume a full clip to charge up a special shot that deals 50% more damage (-) Nearly immobile while charging [1.5 seconds] (-) -80% damage vs buildings (-) Mini-crits when it would normally crit (-) No random critical hits

One of the reasons the Mangler is so dangerous at long range is because mini-crits don’t have damage falloff. Eliminating the mini-crit and the fire damage means that charged shots are less useful at a distance, even though they can be outright devastating in close range.

If this version has a problem, it’s probably that close-range shots are too powerful. Charged shots have a base power of 135, which can ramp up to 169 in close range. In the current Mangler, charged shots will deal about 122 damage (plus fire) on a direct hit at any range. 169 isn’t completely unreasonable, but it does allow the Mangler to one-shot Medics, a significant milestone that the current version can’t always do because fire damage is countered by the Medic’s natural regen. We’re pushing the envelope of what feels fair, is what I’m saying.

There are a couple of routes you could take it from here:

Reduce the base damage and re-introduce fire damage, but with the burn duration based on distance;

Use a fast-moving, small-radius projectile with the damage bonus, but no mini-crit;

Give enemies a way to effectively block a Mangler shot without having to take out the Soldier outright; or

All or some of the above.

These are more specific changes that would likely be done in playtesting, which is beyond the scope of this blog. I find them very interesting, but without game experience, I can’t say which “feels” best for both the user and the opponents. I would be interested to hear what you think, though, especially about the current Cow Mangler!

#tf2workbench #tf2 #team fortress 2 #soldier #primary #cow mangler 5000

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senterya · 1 year

Text

Uh... so anyone remember this guy?

He's still alive and kicking! I admittedly had very little patience, but I didn't abandon the pacifist-permadeath challenge I started like...... a year ago.

For the sake of restoring some sanity points, I changed some of the original challenges because fun >>> rules.

I'm allowing myself to mount up in major cities or on very boring, long and safe roads. However: only raptor, no jumping across ledges, and I have to dismount immediately if I take any sort of damage and escape on foot. It's only for a minor speed boost.

Kepp's outfit is now upgraded with heating pads and water resistance, so he can wear it all around Tyria.

I can do hearts that wouldn't 100% canonically make sense for him (e.g. infiltrating the court to pet dogs, or collecting some charr landmines. Let's say he's just a very versatile and talented lil guy, ok?)

bit of a gray area, but I pushed through the "applying conditions" achievment by dragging some mobs around with spectral grasp and applying chilling. Technically not damage, and being able to get some xp from adventuring guide 1&2 is nice, so I allowed it for myself.

He's currently lvl 20, has taken several water samples from most major cities for his research project and is currently on a long foot journey from the Citadel to Hoelbrak to collect his last samples before returning to his lab. It may take another two years, but hey, we're getting there.

Bonus birb picture because I'm in love with this mount currently:

#leveling kepp #I'm very fond of this boy actually #I just wish I had more patience!

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candied-cae · 2 years

Text

And Who Are We At The End Of The World? - It's Going To Be Okay

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]

Word Count : 5,217

Chapter 4/? - - - Read it on AO3

Summary: They all made it to the hospital, but Steve's out for the count. It's up to Robin and Nancy to make sure everyone makes it through the rest of the night without further issue. And maybe it's not just the kids they need to watch out for... perhaps, they might need a little comfort, too?

((For the record, the canon for this fic is that Steve did have the "Six Nuggets" monologue with Nance, but I was more about him just wanting to talk, less trying to worm his way back into her heart. And he never told her that line about "The dream? It's with you. It's always been you." If that makes sense. Aka, Steve really does care about Nancy, but he's not leaning into a romance with her or anything, so keep that in mind as we continue.))

More ST Fics

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When Steve went down, everyone flinched. He was up one second, talking like he was fine, and suddenly he was on the ground, being swarmed as additional staff flowed into the emergency room. When they got him into a hospital bed and pulled off the fabric from Nancy's shirt, they all saw the damage.

He had been bleeding little by little for a while, probably since about the time he got Eddie loaded on his back in the Upside Down. His adrenaline probably just bottomed out and - after running on empty for so long - he was out. Nancy watched and remembered tying the rope around his waist tightly to shut him up before he got him and Eddie through the gate, and there’s a pang of guilt that follows the memory. Thoughts that ask if she opened those wounds further.

But the people who were looking him over said he was really going to be alright.

"Just needed some stitches, new bandages, and to take it easy for a little while. He’ll heal up just fine."

In the meantime, it was up to Nancy to give them the information on The Party. She ran over all their names and any house phone numbers she knew, so they could call family about medical information and inform the guardians where they all were. But when she mentioned Eddie’s name…

The woman was taken aback and began to ask, in her thick southern accent that made her sound a little out of place,“ That means- Ain’t he the boy on the news who-”

“No.” Nancy quickly came to his defense,” He didn’t do what they say he did.”

The nurse tilted her head, disbelievingly so, “Now, the police called him a prime suspect-”

“I know they did, but they’ve got it wrong, I swear,” she pleaded, becoming more and more unsure as to how she was supposed to convince all of Hawkins he was innocent when she couldn’t even come up with an answer for this one person.

“Then what were y’all doing that got each of you so hurt? These are not normal injuries from an earthquake, and if that Munson-”

“We were running from Jason!” Robin jumped in. It was only a half lie, at best, anyway.

“The Carver boy?” the nurse’s expression turns more confused than doubtful, and at that moment they know they had it. She could buy this story, it was reasonable, made sense, and from what Lucas told them, they could connect him to all of it quite easily. They could play this angle. They could exonerate Eddie like this.

“Yes!” Nancy confirmed, quickly catching on,” Some of us knew Eddie, my brother and his friends, so when they noticed he was missing after something happened at his place, we all wanted to find him and help bring him in safely so the police could clear up what happened.”

Robin came in right where Nancy was leaving off, without even a second between the beats,“ But then, everyone started going crazy, you know? Jason was rolling around with some of the basketball boys trying to find him, hurting people for information-”

Nancy cut in to point out,“ And the police had already made up their mind on what happened. No one wanted to listen to the truth. The town just wanted him executed.”

Robin nodded to her as she concluded,“ And then we found out that Jason announced a city-wide manhunt, in complete defiance of Chief Powell no less… and when we found out that people were actually listening to him instead of the officers? We had to find a way to get Eddie to the station through all the hicks and crazies that wanted to kill him. We tried to hide in the forest until we could figure out what to do. But Jason found us anyway.”

Nancy pulled together the most desperate, pleading expression she could, pushing the honesty in her words,“ We just wanted to set things right. Make sure Eddie got a fair chance to tell the truth and make sure the real guy who killed all those kids faced justice. I swear, ma’am, that’s what happened.”

It was beautiful the way it all clicked together. The way the two of them put the pieces into place like it was a puzzle they just found the cover to. They moved their words together in an almost effortless way, immediately knowing what the other needed to fill the gap in the story. It was a masterpiece.

The nurse looked between the two of them and said,“ I’ll have to call the authorities.”

Nancy nodded back to her,“ We completely understand. Just, once everyone gets set up in rooms, can we stay with them? We need to know we're all okay.”

“It’s against protocol to place a bunch of friends in their rooms, especially after hours…” she said. But they looked so beaten to hell and they still held on to each other… they were kids. And it would’ve been crueler to separate them, wouldn’t it have been?

So, with a sigh, the nurse decided,“ We’ll put the boys in a room together, and the girl just across the hall. The Harrington kid should be getting moved up once they finish his dressings. I’ll walk you all in then. Just- sit tight, while I make the calls I need to make.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Nancy agreed.

They all remained seated as she turned back to the front desk to call the police department. Nancy couldn’t overhear much, but she listened intently and caught her rattling off their names and mentioning that there were tons of injuries among them. While Nancy was focused on the nurse, Robin was watching Steve. There were two doctors, one on his left and one on the right, carefully suturing the bites together, bit by bit. The bleeding was slow, and they didn’t seem worried. They were probably right; it wasn’t a big deal and Steve would just have to deal with a bunch of scars the next time he wanted to flash his abs at the pool. But he’d be fine. Robin wouldn’t have to learn to live without Steve Harrington in her life again, because he was going to be fine.

She was at least able to assure herself of that until they finished wrapping him up in bandages and Steve got wheeled away.

When he was gone, it was harder to be convinced. It probably shouldn’t have been as scary as it was. Robin felt silly the way her heart rate spiked when he went out of view. But they’ve all been together for almost every second these last five days, and now three of them - including her best friend - were separated. They fought to hell and back, quite literally, and now they were just gone. It shouldn't have been that scary, considering they were in a hospital and actively receiving help, but it was. Robin wrung her hands together, trying to stave away the nerves when Nancy reached over and held them in her own.

“It’s going to be okay.”

And she said it so easily. Like it was second nature for her to comfort Robin against the racing fear her mind ran with.

Robin was frozen for a moment as she looked down at their clasped hands.

Nancy continued her ministrations without needing to hear Robin ask for more,“ We all made it here, we’re all still breathing, and now we’re getting all fixed up. We are going to be okay. They are going to be okay.”

“I know. I know…” She shook her head, like it’d do anything to the anxiety buzzing around in it, before looking up to meet Nancy’s eyes,” I know it’s ridiculous to get worked up right now when this is a vast improvement to where we were twenty minutes ago. Logically, I should be elated and going so far as to plan a victory party to celebrate the fact that none of us died on the battlefield tonight. But...”

“But, just because we ‘logically’ should feel fine, doesn’t mean we do.” Nancy understood.

“I just-” Robin screwed her eyes shut to continue,” can't shut off the stream of thoughts that says that, every second I don’t have my eyes on them, something bad is going to happen.”

Nancy deflated just the slightest bit and responded,“ I know the feeling.”

Robin’s eyes opened, and without even needing another word, it clicked for her: Nancy was thinking about her brother.

“Oh my god, you haven’t even been able to check on Mike in days. And here I am about to fall apart because Steve went down a hallway. I should be the one telling you everything’s okay, not the other way around.”

“No, no. Don't feel bad. It’s seriously terrifying that I don’t know what’s going on with him,” she admits,” but I'm scared about them, too.”

Nancy looked at the corridor the others disappeared down in silence for a second before she faintly added,“ But, maybe, you could still tell me this is going to be okay in the end anyway?”

Robin looked at her like she was something new again.

Nancy Wheeler was someone so different than she assumed she was all those months ago. And even still, as she’s learned to adjust her expectations, she was still surprised by all the sides to her. There was the Nancy who was smart and collected and just so perfectly sweet like how every mother wants her daughter to be; there was the Nancy who was an endless pool of ambition and determination to be who she is and get everything she wants out of the world; there was the Nancy who was a badass with a steel heart and courage to beat back monsters to protect the people around her like she was built for it; and now she sees the Nancy who wants to lift a friend’s spirits even when she’s feeling defeated herself, who sometimes needs to ask for support because she can’t always give to herself what she gives to everyone else.

Nancy Wheeler was a hundred different incredible things. And if one of those was Robin’s friend who needed her help? Then Robin would provide it with everything she had.

“Yeah. Yeah.” Robin scooped her hands around Nancy’s to hold them in turn.

”Everything’s going to be fine. I am sure of it. We’re all going to get set up in absolutely killer cots and spend the night making sure dingus and the other two are okay. And then we’ll call the Byers in the morning and Mike is going to answer, probably super grumpy because you’ll phone him at the crack of dawn in California time. And he’s going to say something like,” she put on a gruff voice in an attempt at an imitation,” ‘Oh my gosh, Nancy, chill out. We’ve just been super busy having fun and Joyce’s phone company had some issues. What? What do you mean there’s stuff happening in Hawkins? Oh my gosh, I’m on my way.’ And then he’ll hang up on you, which will make you, like, a little bit pissed, to be honest. But, you’ll be overall super happy that he’s fine and feel like a thousand times better afterward.”

Nancy had a smile pinching her cheeks,“ Yeah, that doesn’t sound half bad.”

Robin nodded at the approval and remembered her duty as Steve’s best friend to be a good wingman. Even if he was currently unconscious, and had yet to officially say he still had feelings for Nancy… There was no harm in using him for a laugh and maybe giving him a leg up in winning Nancy back, right?

She leaned back with a wide grin and continued,“ And then everyone will wake up, including Steve, who will look stupidly handsome considering he hasn’t showered in a few days and nearly bled out twice. And we can all get back to being assholes to one another while you’re all embarrassed trying not to stare at him and-”

“No, I won’t,” she interrupted to dispute that point.

“Oh, please-” Robin rolled her eyes,” I saw you eyeing him up on the boat-”

“I was not-”

“Shirt off and proposing an act of heroism and athleticism? It was one of his finest moments to date, so I’m not criticizing you-”

“I didn’t-”

“And you were all tense towards both of us until you believed there was absolutely nothing between us-”

“That wasn’t-”

“You can deny it all you want, but I’m on to you, Wheeler.”

“No, you're not. Because I’m with Jonathan and- and Steve and I gave it a try before. It didn’t work, and we found out that we just aren’t right for one another.”

“You might’ve not been right for one another back then, but I don’t think any two people have changed as much as you guys have. I mean, King Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington, turned world’s greatest babysitter and hopeless romantic? And Prissy Nancy Wheeler, now a badass who keeps two guns in her bedroom and marches into battle with a sawed-off shotgun? No one could’ve guessed that.”

Nancy decided to move past the fact that Robin just called her prissy and instead confirm that she and Steve would not be happening,“ Well, you’re wrong.”

“I don’t think I am. But I’ll accept your apology when you figure it out, too,” she said with a smirk like she’d seen the future and had it all figured out.

Nancy groaned at the smugness but found herself laughing anyway. It was silly, after all. Steve and her? Just because he’s grown and she’s grown? It doesn’t mean anything. Sure, he can be vulnerable now. Acknowledging when he’s been wrong and thanking her for, what she can honestly admit was, an awful way to break up. But that? That doesn’t mean anything. Especially not when she’s with Jonathan.

They had something. They have been by each other's side since before they even got together. They planned to stick together through whatever else the world threw at them. So, it didn’t matter. End of story: she was with Jonathan, and they were going to work through whatever weirdness was happening between them right now, and they would keep being happy. They would. There was no point in entertaining anything otherwise.

The nurse returned shortly after all the teasing, and Robin noticed that Nancy didn’t pull their hands apart when she did. She first told the staff working on the kids to start keeping a very careful record of the injuries for then the police come in. They’d probably be stalled due to the earthquake, but they’d probably want to come in before long to question all of them. Then she turned back to Robin and Nancy.

“I’m going to give you both one last look over, and then we need that vehicle moved out of the ambulance bay. Pronto. We are expecting a lot of people coming in, sooner rather than later.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Nancy nodded and turned to face her directly rather than how she’d been angled towards Robin.

Her left hand was pulled from Robin’s grasp while she did so, but her right remained, carefully lain in her hold. Nancy squeezed Robin as the nurse prodded around the mark on her neck from when the vines tried to choke her lights out. Robin squeezed back, to remind her that she was there for her. Once she was done with Nancy, it was Robin’s turn. Nancy copied Robin’s position, putting her hands together around the other girl’s, as she went through the same treatment she did.

The nurse wrote down some stuff and checked off a few boxes on her clipboard before dismissing them. It wouldn’t take too long, and maybe only one of them really needed to go move the RV… but when Nancy stood up, hand still holding Robin’s, Robin stood with her. She trailed just behind as they ran out the entrance and climbed into the front seats of the metal giant. And she sat transfixed as Nancy effortlessly flicked two of the exposed wires against one another like she’d been trained to hotwire just as Eddie had. The real story was that Eddie did pretty much all the heavy lifting, and when she sat in the driver's seat the first time, she just figured that the two cords not wrapped together were the ones she needed to spark. She’d been right, of course, and her confidence in doing it a second time was a sight.

A sight that Robin chose to tuck away any feelings about. Because, come on, it was Nancy Wheeler. She might’ve been the whole world’s dream girl, but that didn’t make her any more likely to look at anyone who wasn’t a prom king or Tom Cruise. It didn’t hurt though. It wasn’t necessarily a sad truth, or at least Robin wouldn’t have called it that. It just simply was the truth. And, in much happier news, they were friends. Nancy even asked for that official confirmation, like it was such a privilege to be Robin Buckley’s friend and not the other way around. That was more than enough.

In no time at all, it seemed, Nancy had the RV moved and parked in the lot just beside the emergency entrance. As they climbed out for what would probably be the last time before the cops took it back where it belonged, she noticed the clouded breath as it left her mouth. The orange hue of the streetlights around them almost could’ve fooled Nancy into thinking it was warm out. But it was barely Spring and just after midnight, so warmth wasn’t something Hawkins was gracing them with.

“Thank God for Warzone jackets.” Nancy huffed as she pulled the material tighter around her and they walked back towards the doors.

“What? Battling monsters in an alternate dimension is fine by you, but late night chills are where you draw the line?” Robin nudged against her shoulder.

“What do you want me to say? I run cold!" Nancy giggled through her defensiveness.

"I'd offer the last of the molotov cocktails to get a nice campfire going, but I'm pretty sure I dropped it back at the Creel House when the world started shaking. So I guess you'll have to fend for yourself.”

“If it was up to me, I’d be wrapped up in my bed, sleeping like it was just any other day.” Nancy says with a blissful grin as if she could actually imagine being bundled up at home instead of walking along a hospital sidewalk,” Course, the Upside Down never bothered to ask when I would prefer to deal with all its issues.”

“Funny thing, I never got that memo either. Who do you think it was that decided Spring Break was the perfect time for all of this to crop back up?”

Nancy rubbed her chin contemplatively with a melodramatic hum as they crossed the automatic doors back into the florescent lights of the ER. When the nurse spotted them, she waved them on back, where she stood watch over Dustin and the Sinclairs. The jovial question abandoned, they came to a jog as they rejoined the four of them. They’d given Dustin a crutch, Erica’s arm was in a sling, and Lucas’s face was peppered in white stripes of medical tape to hold the small cuts closed.

“Alright kids, follow me.” the nurse said before she started walking down the hall and loaded them into the elevator.

”We’re expecting the emergency room to start getting very busy, so we’re going to technically admit you all overnight for observation and move you all up into inpatient while we contact family. They’ll be allowed to visit first thing in the morning, but we have to keep the hospital for emergent cases as they come in right now. This also means I’ve made sure the authorities understand that you aren’t to be questioned until you’ve been officially discharged, they’ll most likely be in tomorrow morning, or they’ll contact parents and make arraignments. But for tonight, you are all to get some rest. We’ve got some cots set up in two rooms so we can keep you all together.”

When they arrived on the second floor, she showed them the rooms, right across from each other as she promised.

“Max Mayfield will be getting brought into 237 when she’s done in surgery, and Eddie Munson will be joining Steve Harrington in 238 when they finish blood transfusions and running his labs. You guys can divide yourself up between the rooms however you want, just make sure no one goes wandering off. There are bathroom's in the rooms, and more on the right past the nurses station at the end of the hall, with the vending machines and water fountain. If you need anyone to the room urgently, the call button’s the little one under the red light at the head of the patient beds. It’s only for emergencies. If there's anything else, one of the nurses can help you out.”

“Thank you. We’ll make sure they get settled.” Nancy said.

And with a solemn nod, the nurse went back to the elevator and left them to themselves.

They spent a little while running over Robin and Nancy’s plan for the cops before they could get caught in different versions of the story. Lucas and Erica supplied more details from their night that they were able to work into it. It was solid, and honestly, the details lined up in ways that almost made it too easy to pin on Jason. There was a little bit of a guilty feeling about it. The guy did really believe he was doing the right thing by chasing after the devil in Chrissy’s name… but he was wrong, his crew hurt their Party, and Jason wasn’t even around to face the consequences. The ethical quandary didn’t sit in their hearts long, to say the least.

Either way, it was getting to be about time everyone turned in. There were three cots in what was going to be Max’s room and two in Steve and soon-to-be Eddie’s. There were probably a lot of ways they could’ve split themselves up, but the only way that made sense for them was to put Lucas with Max - along with his sister and Nancy - and to set up Dustin and Robin with the boys. There were sheets, blankets, and flat hospital pillows already laid out. But even with it all ready for them, it didn’t feel right to sleep. They were all still so restless, unsettled. Too many questions were unanswered to feel like they could turn in. But eventually, the children found themselves helpless to their exhaustion.

Nancy wasn’t so lucky. Sleep wouldn’t come. After half an hour of trying, she sat up from the temporary bed and stepped into the hall where she saw Robin on the floor. Sat with her back to the wall, picking at her painted nails.

“You couldn’t sleep either?” Nancy said as she slid down and sat opposite her.

Robin looked up from her hands at the girl across the hall and answered,“ Nope. Don’t think I will be able to until those two are at least brought into the rooms.”

“I was thinking the same thing…” Nancy admitted before looking into the other room and quietly asking,” How does he look?”

“A little banged up, but overall pretty peaceful. He’s got one of those faces that just completely relaxes when he’s asleep, apparently. I’m pretty sure he’s having some great dream, like sunbathing on a beach or something. Of course, he’d rather be there instead of joining the interrogation strategy session.”

“Of course,” Nancy said as she looked down at her own hands.

“Is there something else on your mind?”

“I just…” she bit her lip for a second before meeting Robin’s eyes,” can’t stop thinking about how we failed. I mean, usually, after it’s all over, we’re all beat up to hell, and it’s not very satisfying... but we win. We end the day knowing we fought back whatever was coming. We know that we did good and it was worth the bumps, the bruises, and the trauma because we got to live and save the world. But this time…? It feels like we’ve barely delayed it. We threw everything we had at it, and it wasn’t enough and- and I don’t think we can do it without El’s powers, without Hopper, without all the government suits who used to come and clean things up. And when Vecna comes back - because I can just feel in my bones that he will - I know what he's going to do. I saw what he wants to do. He wants to end everything. Like wipe the slate clean and start civilization over again in his idea of perfection. And I don’t know how we fight that. I don't think I know how to get back up when we’ve been beaten this badly. To face it again anyway? I just don’t know-”

“Hey,” Robin kicked her foot out to nudge Nancy’s and bring her out of her own head. When Nancy looked back up at her, there were tears brimming her lashes ready to fall.

”Remember what I said about your I don’t know’s?”

She looked up to keep the tears from spilling over and let out a pitiful huff,“ They seem to go well?”

“They seem to go pretty freakin’ well.” Robin corrected,” And I have only gotten more and more sure of that fact in the time since I originally said it. Now, I’d go on the record to say they go pretty damn well."

That earned a smile and Nancy wiped around her eyes to get rid of the saltwater that gathered as she listened.

"We’ve got a plan for Eddie. And we’ll put one together for Vecna. Just, not on our own. When we have everyone together again, we’ll figure it out. We just… have to get through tonight.”

Nancy repeated it back to instill it in herself,“ We just have to get through tonight.”

“Exactly.” Robin agreed, flashing her beaming grin at Nancy in some way that just made the world a little less terrifying.

She felt better. In the past, when Nancy began to stew in self-doubt or difficulty, it always felt like nobody knew what to say. The kinds of things Steve, Jonathan, or even her mother could come up with, were never the things she needed to hear. But Robin was an expert already. She just… got it. In some strange way, Robin understood how she felt and had so much confidence that things would get better. That Nancy had the capability to make things better. And she was so sure that she was able to make Nancy remember how much she believes in herself.

Nancy Wheeler does not just let things happen to her. She does not accept disrespect or intimidation. She was smart, she was strong, and she does not go down easy. She has won before, even when no one wanted to listen to her, she found ways to make herself heard and did the job that needed to be done. And that night sucked. It really sucked. But they were still kicking to get back into the ring when the sun came back up.

That’s what mattered: getting through tonight and getting back in the fight.

“So,” Robin chimed in, feeling the need to lighten the mood,” You ever figure out who told the Upside Down to start all this shit up during Spring Break?”

Nancy smiled at the joke and returned, playing at seriousness,“ I’ve got some theories, but no solid leads yet.”

“Oh, come on, Nancy. All that investigative journalistic instinct and you haven’t cracked the case yet?”

Nancy liked the way Robin called it “investigative journalistic instinct”. It wasn’t a joke like the rest of the question. And it wasn't a joke like when the Reporters called her “Nancy Drew". She could tell Robin meant that part. Inside of the banter about scheduling apocalypses… Robin respected her abilities and how she strived to hunt down the truth in all the weirdness that happens in Hawkins.

“Do you have it all figured out?” Nancy threw back.

“Don’t deflect onto me- let’s hear your theories!”

“Alright…” Nancy began, pushing in off the wall to lean in towards Robin, the other girl leaning closer too, and she brought her voice into a whisper like she was trading state secrets,” So I know Dustin wasn’t specifically in the position to need it to come down right now, but he has a prior for keeping secrets that lead to big end of days shit, so it’s not out of the question. And it could’ve been Mike. It is super suspicious that everything happened as soon as he was on a plane to another state. In that same vein, any of the Byers are suspect because they didn’t have to deal with it after they moved.”

“Oh wow, you weren’t kidding, you’ve got some leads.”

“Are you going to help me narrow them down or not?”

Robin raised her hands in surrender,“ Alright, alright. So about your Dustin theory…”

They passed the time mock debating the why's and why not’s of just about everyone they could think of. Robin even tried to pin it on Tom Cruise for no other reason than to poke at Nancy’s obvious favor for the actor. It was a more than welcome distraction while they waited to see the two missing from their group brought back.

Among their conversation, they watch people filter in as commotion rises from the floor below. Injuries and casualties of the “earthquake” were filling up the hospital just as the nurse had suggested they would. Just after 1:30 am Eddie is wheeled in and moved into the bed by the window. It takes a while longer, but around 3 am Max finally joins them too and gets settled into her room.

And they both breathe a little easier because, finally, all their ducks were in a row. They were all gathered back together again, heartbeat monitors serving as a constant assurance that they were still alive despite how close they came. And maybe it was because they were all gathered, or maybe it was because they got to talk through their fears and find some silly joy… but Nancy and Robin finally felt like they could fall asleep.

They stood up from their spots in the far too bright hall and turned into their rooms with a final “goodnight” to one another. Both left the doors to the rooms open just a crack, mostly falling into soft darkness with exception of that little line of light. And somehow, the darkness didn’t feel as frightening as they thought it would after the night they had.

Robin got to listen to Steve’s soft snoring to lull her into her sleep. Nancy had Lucas’s breathing amplified by his broken nose. And before long, all seven of them were just a little better off. Happily tucked in the comfort of their dreams.

All of them, except for Steve.

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