#and like yeah okay imagine if all of my dead wives got fun little books. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

grayhouse3 · 3 years

Text

SJTR is my villain origin story

So I finished Stalking Jack the Ripper.

Originally I told myself that I was going to just stick it out and read the next one (“Oh, it’s about vampires and Dracula. It’s probably more fun. You can forget all about the pain this one inflicted on you"). No. I got 12% of the way through and had to DNF. So here are my messily compiled thoughts on the book, basically expanded from the last post. Honestly, kind of feel free knowing I won’t be writing more about this series. (Also I am adding some TWs down below but don't know if I am doing them right!)

More on the exoticism, weirdness with Audrey Rose's Indian mother, and the British Empire:

In chapter 14, we read, "Dark strands of hair were piled atop my head, my eyes more mysterious somehow with the dark liner, and my lips were the bright crimson of freshly spilled blood … I thought of my mother and the saris she’d brought me to wear from Grandmama’s homeland. I felt just as stunning now as I did then, and the memory warmed me.” I am still trying to figure out why Maniscalco made Audrey Rose mixed race. Why is Audrey Rose’s grandmother from India? Literally, what did it add to the story? Was it nothing more than just a cute lil quirky fun character trait to her? I don’t think I missed any key moments where there were important conversations about race, imperialism, British occupation, etc., mostly because Audrey Rose’s father (a big fancy rich lord) is a white man and because Audrey Rose is white-passing. I can’t recall any moments in the book where she faces the realities/consequences of being a socially mobile POC WOMAN in LONDON IN THE 1880s. Honestly, if someone else can point out a passage I glossed over or explain some nuance I missed I would actually really appreciate it, because this drove me CRAZY.

(Audrey Rose and her brother also go visit a circus in town in chapter 15; of course these events existed purely for England/colonizing countries to exercise and display their power and to exoticize/exploit the communities/cultures that they came into contact with. Audrey Rose sees silks, beads, etc. that remind her of her grandmother’s saris, smells the foods of her family’s “homeland,” etc. Also in the same chapter there’s this great scene where her brother is describing their mother and father’s marriage: “Grandmama told me she’d refused him twenty times just for fun,” Nathaniel replied. “Said he squirmed like a cobra in a basket. That’s how she knew he was in love.” Uhhh … Is that supposed to be romantic?)

On the feminism stuff:

I am too *gestures vaguely* to write much more on this. Yeah, it’s heavy-handed. Yeah, it’s cringey. But at the end of the day, it’s not really that harmful, I guess. Here’s just a fun sampling of some of my favorite lines from the book:A few of my favorite bites from the book:

***“close-minded society” (chapter 21) Okay

***"Why turn a murderer of women into front-page news?” (chapter 15) Bro do you know how the media works

***"But what of her [mother’s] insistence that I could be both strong and beautiful? Surely Father had to be wrong.” (chapter 21) Yes girl you are strong and beautiful!

***"There would be no skirts or bustles to wrangle with anymore. I was through with things confining me” (chapter 22) Ugh down with corsets just another tool of the patriarchy amirite

On the violence against women, weird classism, and stuff about prostitution:

I was bound to be uncomfortable about a lot of this because I have weird feelings about true crime stuff, and this is historical fiction set around the Jack the Ripper murders. It was going to go sour somewhere.

Consistently Audrey Rose wants to be sympathetic, but is unable to connect all the parts of this situation together: she struggles to imagine the women (very real-life victims) beyond their lives of prostitution, poverty, squalor. When she does, we see something like this: "The women he murdered did matter ... They were daughters and wives and mothers and sisters” (chapter 28). Oftentimes she wishes she could continue to cut cadavers open in peace (women in science!) without having to think about how those cadavers came to be on her examination table: “I needed to get away from those women and their tragic lives before my emotions got the better of me” (chapter 25). Perhaps Maniscalco deserves more credit here, and perhaps I’m just being a bitch, because Audrey Rose is a very privileged girl and her actions and thoughts make that clear. It’s just that the conclusions she comes to in the name of feminism, justice, etc. weren’t at all satisfying to me.

Also: OH MY GOD. Oh my god. There is this one moment that is BRANDED AGAINST THE GRAY MATTER OF MY BRAIN FOREVER and I will never forget it. At one point, Audrey Rose and love interest Thomas decide the best thing they can do is go out and—yes—stalk Jack the Ripper. To do this, they know they need to “blend in” with the crowds in East End. So … like … cosplaying as poor people? Audrey Rose manages to find and wear the dress of ONE OF THE MURDER VICTIMS (long story short her medical doctor uncle was in a relationship with this woman and when she died he acquired her worldly possessions). It’s like, so fucked up, I can’t even describe my reaction when I read it. In chapter 25 we read, "The dress was a little too old, a little too ragged, a bit too big. If I were to wear this ghastly dress out, I’d look as if I belonged in the East End, begging for work to feed my addictions … It was absolutely perfect.” Oh my god. And THAT’S NOT EVEN THE WORST PART. While they’re “stalking Jack the Ripper” on this incredibly stupid mission, the two main characters just … make out in an alley. Like, okay. People are being murdered and you’re wearing a dead woman’s dress and you suspect your father of being guilty, but yeah, that kind of stuff makes us all a little horny. Super relatable. Absolutely no concept of reality or consequences or anything at all.

Another random note on class: I noticed the only time Maniscalco writes in dialects/accents, she’s writing seedy/working-class characters. Not saying this is a problem unique to Maniscalco’s writing by a longshot, but ... something to think on. (I think it’s ingrained in a lot of author’s writing habits/minds at this point.)

Weird stuff about the dad, the brother, and what justice means to Audrey Rose:

I had to add a whole new highlighting color for this stuff!

Any growth Audrey Rose might’ve shown over the course of the novel—anything about how these women mattered, and how they deserved justice as any “highborn” individual might, simply by dint of being humans—goes away when she and Thomas come to the conclusion that the Ripper murders must have been committed by Audrey Rose’s father. She realizes her moral dilemma when she contends with the harsh reality: if her father is the Ripper, can she turn him into the authorities? Audrey Rose worries how that might impact her own moral virtue: "They’d hang Father. Given who he was, they’d make it as public and brutal as possible. Just because blood might stain his hands did not mean I wanted his on mine. No matter if it was right or wrong” (chapter 24). First of all, BITCH. You have to. You have to report this kind of thing. No ifs, ands, or buts. I HAVE to imagine Maniscalco’s intended audience would feel the same? It’s? Serial murder? Second: Audrey Rose, baby, sweetie, honey. This is just a reminder that ACAB. I actually don’t know a whole lot about how the late Victorian criminal justice system functioned, but something tells me her family's public outlook would’ve been less bleak than she imagines here.

Lucky for Audrey Rose, her dad isn’t guilty in the end—but her brother sure is. He’s a mad scientist, using the brutalized bodies and souvenirs of his victims for Frankenstein-style experiments. Ultimately, he wants to reanimate the corpse of his and Audrey Rose’s long-dead mother, and he believes he can achieve this by transplanting fresh organs into ? Her dead and decomposed body? The thing is that, this moral dilemma persists for Audrey Rose—and her dad, too. He pressures her not to bring the little matter of Nathaniel’s issue—you know, his casual murder of a number of local women—to Scotland Yard: “They’ll have your brother hanged,” he said quietly. “Could you honestly watch that happen? As a family, have we not suffered enough?” (chapter 29). Nathaniel electrocutes himself to evade capture by the authorities, and Audrey Rose and her father feel relief. The book ends by confirming that "Lord Edmund covered up Nathaniel’s involvement, I didn’t ask how. One day I’d let everyone know the truth, but the pain was too raw now” (chapter 30).

((Side note: Listen. I knew Nathaniel had something sinister going on from the GET-GO (I’m not trying to be obnoxious) because he basically started some nighttime vigilante group called the Whitechapel Knights of Justice or whatever bullshit, I don’t know. All I know is that my red flags IMMEDIATELY started going off because that sounds exactly like the terrible and awful Crusader cosplay clubs from my (bad) Catholic childhood, where everyone thinks they’re a knight for Good but really they’re the bad guy.))

Overall, kind of ...

I think one of my biggest issues with this ending was … You have already stepped into a realm of fantastical revisionist history here in writing such a fictionalized version of these real-life events. (I know Maniscalco is far from the first to do it.) That means that the rules you are playing by are essentially your own—evidenced by the liberties she points out in her Author’s/Historical note (dates changed for convenience or storytelling purposes, real-life individuals changed for narrative purposes, etc.). So WHY would you not conclude this fantasy retelling of the Jack the Ripper murders by meting out some form of justice? I hear the counterargument: "Well, because we still don’t know the culprit today. This book would ring hollow if it named someone since historians, forensic scientists, etc. still don’t know who committed these crimes." My question: is that really a problem though? This is a work of fiction. Nothing in history happened the way it is written here. Is it crueler to the women who were murdered and who remain spectacles for true crime junkies and authors like this, less satisfying to readers who want some more concrete kind of closure, to not offer that up? I am asking this in earnest here, because I don’t know. Maybe it is insensitive to make up a murderer, to fill in the gaps in order to make sense of the violence that happened. But in my brain it feels almost like a responsibility at this point, since these murders served as the backdrop for the romance between Audrey Rose and Thomas, for the background to Audrey Rose’s empty feminist diatribes, and as inspiration for a book that went on far longer than it needed to. To me it kind of feels like the least an author could do, but I have no clue.

Anyways, I'm just glad I get to put this series to bed. No more.I truly lost sleep over it this weekend. Onto something better, please, for the love of god.

#mnc reads #mnc writes #stalking jack the ripper #sjtr #I dont know what to tag this as but I dont want to leave anything out!#tw death #tw suicice #body horror #violence #classism #I guess #racism #maybe #I dont know #Im sorry

6 notes · View notes

timeisacephalopod · 6 years

Text

Ironbat

Just a little Bruce Wayne/ Tony Stark thing because I felt like it lol. (Also Fun Fact about this: Bruce and Tony accidentally end up with like 6 kids in 2 years because they keep bringing home strays though, in Tony’s slight defense, Peter still has May so he’s only half adopted). Also ignore the hella uncreative name of this D:

Natasha considers Tony for a long moment and its fucking creepy, she doesn’t even blink. It probably doesn’t help that when she first came to America she told him if anyone smiled as much as Americans in Russia she’d punch them in the face but since everyone here does it she keeps that urge to herself. Tony honestly thought smiling was polite but okay.

“What’s he like?” she asks finally.

Oh, she wants to know about Bruce of not the Banner variety. Because they all know what Banner is like. He sighs and Rhodey’s soul dies, Tony sees it, because he knows Tony well enough to know he’s going to say something stupid. “I’m going to give a description and I need you all not to laugh or judge him, okay?” Because Bruce is sweet, and generous, and yeah he’s so dramatic he makes Tony look like an unseasoned chicken breast in comparison but he’s a great guy. He shouldn’t be judged for his dramatics. They don’t judge Tony for his dramatics.

Actually Stephen told him last week that his cars were ostentatious and if Stephen is talking about Tony’s cars being ostentatious they really must be something.

“He’s a damn furry, isn’t he?” Rhodey says and Tony resents that. Mostly because he wonders if the Batman thing constitutes as being a furry but he doesn’t think so. It is, as far as he knows, just a LARPing thing and its fucking hilarious because no one knows its Bruce Wayne under that dramatic ass cape.

“No he isn’t a furry, T’Challa is a furry,” he throws out there just to make Rhodey cringe. Sam and Rhodey basically worshiped the guy only to find out the dude dresses up like a panther on the regular.

“That is a religious thing, it’s exempt,” Sam says, throwing out his shitty rationalization that they all know is fake.

Tony rolls his eyes, “sure, bud. Anyways, Bruce. Don’t judge him okay, he’s a great guy,” he starts but Rhodey cuts him off.

“If you need to preface this with so much ‘don’t judge him’ he probably sucks,” he points out.

Pepper frowns, “we preface Tony with a lot more than this,” she says.

Tony is offended, truly. “Okay you know what, Bruce is the kind of guy who would say ‘hello darkness my old friend’ unironically and yeah that’s needlessly dramatic but we’re all needlessly dramatic here so no one should judge him for it,” he tells them all.

They all start laughing immediately like a bunch of twats. “What the hell, Stark?” Bucky asks and Tony squints at him.

“You texted everyone in our group chat ‘I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory’ when your cat stole your garlic bread. Rhodey, you drove a whole ass tank into a military bunker as a fuck you to your superiors. Stephen had that weird ‘sorcerer supreme’ phase and forced us all to call his cape a cloak. Natasha got memes banned in Russia and North Korea. Steve has told half the members of congress to fuck off to their faces and Sam made an AI he named Redwing because Bucky refused to let him get a falcon. Not a single one of you have a place to judge Bruce,” he tells them.

They all look properly shamed except Pepper, who grins. “I am not needlessly dramatic like the rest of you so I have all the right in the world to judge,” she tells them and Tony snorts.

“Oh hell no you do not. You’ve decided you hate fellow CEOs so much that you refuse to address them, only their wives. You once told Justin Hammer that you would rather drink paint thinner than spend another second with him. You punched Aldrich Killian into a pool because he made me uncomfortable. You once told a reporter that people fear you because you have the energy of a Lovecraftian monster. You are not exempt,” he tells her.

Sam laughs, “I remember the Lovecraft thing. You ended up being a lesbian meme for awhile after that,” he says.

Tony remembers that too, it had been around when the Babadook was a gay meme. Monsters were a thing that week.

“Is Bruce seriously that dramatic? I thought he mostly read to kids and whatever,” Rhodey says and yeah, he does that too. And a lot of charity work in orphanages. It’d been how they met- sometimes when Tony is sad he goes to hospitals and holds babies and Bruce happened o be donating money to that particular hospital and found him crying over a small premie that was so sweet and precious. They hit it off pretty easily but yes, Bruce is so dramatic he may give Stephen a run for his money.

“Yeah, he is one hundred percent that dramatic. You’ll find out,” he says. Granted most of Bruce’s dramatics went to his Batman character- Tony struggled not to laugh out loud when he heard Bruce unironically say ‘I am the night’ but he’s dramatic elsewhere too.

“Find out what?” Bruce asks, coming up behind them, smiling. Tony has never had a thing for classic Hollywood hot- too fifties for his tastes, but Bruce makes it feel different. Maybe its because nothing about him aside from his classic looks remind Tony of the past or maybe its something else, he doesn’t know.

“Holy Christ, are you even in there anymore?” Bucky asks, jabbing him in the side with his finger. Tony smacks his hand away after jumping a little.

“Yes, now keep your fingers away from me,” he tells him. “We were talking about you being dramatic,” he tells Bruce for reference.

Bruce’s eyebrows draw together, “I’m dramatic?” he asks. “Don’t you have a friend who insisted you called him ‘sorcerer supreme’?” he asks.

Right, Tony forgot about that too. “Yeah, Stephen got a little in character and none of us knew what the character was for but he’s mostly okay now, he’s chilled out a little. Come sit,” he says, shooing at Bucky to get out of the spot beside Tony. Bruce tries to move towards the only empty seat that is, for some damn reason, beside Sam but Tony pulls him back and continues to pester Bucky to go sit beside his damn boyfriend.

When he discovers they’re currently in the middle of an argument he’s not surprised, he’s watched the two of them get into it over Steve’s cat that died when he was ten of all things, but he’s damn annoyed to discover that this particular fight is about Sam not finding bats cute. Bruce lets out a small shiver and Tony holds onto him a little tighter, knowing about his fear of bats.

Honestly that only makes Batman that much more dramatic because Bruce fucking dresses up as his worst fear. Jesus, he really does have a talent for finding people who are so dramatic they could blend into a comic book easily. Bucky moves his ass finally and Bruce sits next to him and looks around. He pinpoints Rhodey as the most important at the table easily and Tony will never understand how he does that. It takes him ten seconds flat to find the person at the top of any food chain and he can figure out how to exploit them in another ten seconds. Its actually useful in business and Tony is surprised that Bruce’s success comes from reading people so well. But then Bruce thought he could do that too and had been surprised that Tony was just following math no one else saw. Pepper can do it now too so that’s neat, usually he can’t teach for shit.

“Tony has told me about your military career, you recently got promoted, didn’t you?” Bruce asks and Rhodey leans into it easily, going off on a tangent about his recent promotion and how he got it. Bruce smiles and listens easily, asking all the right questions because he’s freakishly good at people if they weren’t in a relationship with him. If they were, well, Alfred told Tony he has a fear of being close to people thanks to that time his parents got shot right in front of him as a kid. Tony thinks he deals with it well, or at least well enough that Alfred gives him advice and he’s seen how protective the old man is of Bruce. He’d chase Tony out of the mansion without a second thought if he thought he was a bad choice on Bruce’s behalf.

Natasha watches Bruce’s exchanges keenly because she’s as good at people as he is but when he gets to addressing her- right after congratulating Pepper on her recent multimillion dollar deal that no one else thought was a good idea but Bruce did for the exact reasons she did- he manages to find her soft spot too. “I’ve read about your rat rescue- I had no idea you could buy rescue rats but I suppose they might need it more than most. Its not like people care if rats are mistreated- people mostly want them dead,” he says.

She perks up, “and they’re very clean contrary to popular belief,” she says.

Bruce nods, “I used to have rats as a child. They’re smart as hell too, probably a little too smart for their own good actually. They were both escape artists and Alfred, my butler, was not impressed to find them in the kitchen more often than not,” he says and Natasha laughs. With that he somehow manages to win her over too despite the fact that she’s impossible to please and probably wants to punch him because he smiles.

And Bruce thought this was going to go badly.

Bruce is sure he’s managed to screw everything up given how utterly silent Tony has been through the whole dinner. Tony isn’t normally silent- he errs more on the side of dominating the conversation if only by accident but through this entire thing he’s said next to nothing. So by the time they leave he’s worried he’s somehow managed to say something wrong but he can’t for the life of him figure out what it is. He did his research- all of Tony’s friends are as impressive as he is in their own right and he made sure to acknowledge that- the fastest way to impress Tony was to recognize worth in others and Bruce finds it both telling and strange.

He’s never met someone who’s so attracted to the ability to recognize talent in others but Tony has a clear... thing for it. Maybe because he recognizes potential in the strangest of ways and in odd areas too- its just part of the way his mind works- and Bruce seems to be the only one who picks up on this aspect of Tony’s personality. And the potential Tony sees. Tony thinks he’s bad at people but he isn’t, he just sees them differently and this isn’t really odd considering he sees everything differently. What Tony is bad at is finding conventional ways to relate to people and Bruce likes that about him. It makes him feel less dangerous, somehow, like maybe if he’s different this relationship will be different too. He’s never been good at relationships, Selena knows that better than most.

“How the hell do you manage to do that?” Tony asks when they leave.

Bruce has no idea what he means and his gut twists a little, worried that he’s managed to botch this too. For the first time since... he hasn’t felt like running and he doesn’t want to do something to make it end. “Do what?” he asks.

Tony frowns, “win people over like that. I’ve never met anyone who managed to make Natasha go from suspicious to smitten like that ever,” he says.

Well, it might help him to know Natasha isn’t smitten, she’s just convinced that Bruce isn’t horrible. Its the best she’ll ever think of him most likely, she’s not the kind of person who would ever fully trust another person, but Bruce already knew that when they met. But he does at least relax because he hasn’t done something wrong, Tony is just impressed with his people skills again. Its an odd trait to hone in on, but its that, his generosity, his love of children, and his ability to disagree with Tony that draws him in. That’s probably the strangest combination Bruce has run into but he doesn’t dislike it either. Those happen to be the traits, minus his ability to manipulate people, that he finds most admirable about himself too.

“I just did my research, Tony,” he says. Its all he’s ever needed to do.

Tony smiles and leans into his side, “yeah well, was ready to write you off and now he thinks I’m lying about how dramatic you are so obviously your research paid off,” he says.

Bruce wraps an arm around Tony’s waist, “Tony he doesn’t think I’m dramatic because he doesn’t know about Batman and you’re not going to tell him. If Cobblepot finds out who I am he’ll use it against me,” he says and Tony bursts out laughing.

“I love you, but this LARPing thing is ridiculous. Endearing, but ridiculous. You do know Cobblepot works in a bank, right? He’s not nearly as impressive as The Penguin even if he sucks at names,” Tony says.

Yes, Bruce knows that already. “I’m aware of all my foes, thank you. Harley Quinn is a psychiatrist who’s real name is Harleen Quinzel and her girlfriend is Poison Ivy,” he says. Pamela a botanist and a very well known environmental activist too, Tony has read her work when considering his green energy projects, actually.

“Jesus Christ, this is so dramatic. How the hell did you get half of Gotham involved in a LARP?” Tony asks.

Well, that’s just an exaggeration. There’s certainly not that many people in the game and frankly Bruce doesn’t care if he’s winning.

#bruce wayne x tony stark #ironbat #fanfiction #alternate universe #writing

287 notes · View notes

lorilane33 · 7 years

Text

Done Settling

Summary: Tom Hanniger and the reader run into the guy who raped the reader in high school. SO much fun ensues. (Sarcasm).

Pairing: AU!Tom Hanniger x Reader

Word count: 2,240

Warnings: Mentions of past rape, Tom being a protective and supportive AMAZING boyfriend, maybe a punch? I don’t remember. BUT ALSO FLUFF BECAUSE TOM HANNIGER IS A PRECIOUS PERSON WHO LOVES SO HARD AND DESERVES THE WORLD.

A/N 1: I don’t know why I didn’t put this in my author’s note the first time around. I had a really shitty day when I wrote this, and I needed to find some way to beat this dick without actually coming into contact with the scum myself. Next best thing? Have my favorite psycho do it for me <3 Most of you know my story by now, and if you don’t then I suggest you read January 24.

A/N 2: This was written for @dustycelt’s Follower Partay Challenge. She knows that my heart belongs to Tom Hanniger, and I’ll always grab a chance to write him. :) She gave me the gif of Tom telling Axel that Sarah settled for him. It’s the second one used! Thanks love!

A/N 3: Okay, so since I don’t really write Tom that often, I went ahead and used my regular tag list. I probably won’t write him more often than this, but if you want to not be on this list when I write Tom, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! :) I know he’s not someone people normally write about, but I quite enjoy Jensen in this role to be honest. :) He’s a crazy cutie patootie and I love him. <3 (also. @dustycelt and @deansdirtylittlesecretsblog are AMAZING enablers of this love of mine)

Your relationship with Tom Hanniger was one for the books. The two of you had been through a lot in the time since getting together. He suffers from PTSD due to a crazy whack job murderer in his hometown of Harmony, and you have your own set of issues as well. He knew from the beginning that you were a victim of rape and that the effects of what had happened affected you more than you let on sometimes. When you’d told him though, you made him promise not to do anything like going after the bastard. Reluctantly he’d agreed and the two of you had moved on from that conversation and have been happy together since.

Friday nights with Tom have become the nights when you two are usually hanging out with some of your friends at their places or enjoying a night in with Netflix. Tonight though, you find yourself walking through the aisles of the grocery store with your fiancé, preparing for a Saturday night game night with some of his work friends and their wives.

“Hey Tom, do you think we should get a bigger container of potato salad this time? Last time we took it to Stef’s it seemed to be a big hit and was gone so quickly; what do you think?” You ask him, a pen and grocery list in hand as Tom pushes the cart just beside you.

Looking over at you he smiles. “That’s a great idea, babe.” You take the pen to your list and your face scrunches up as you try to mark out potato salad. Tom reaches forward to push a stray piece of hair out of your face. “Man. How on Earth did I snag such a smart woman?” He chuckles as he leans over, and places a kiss to your cheek.

You find yourself blushing at his compliments, even after the years you’ve been together. “Tom, you sir, are a sap. Did you know that?”

“Hey! You love my sap if I remember correctly,” he grins as he sasses at you.The two of you turn down the next aisle as you look back to your grocery list.

The second the two of you are around the corner, you freeze and your eyes go wide. Frantically you turn to Tom with a look of fear in your eyes. “Shit. Um… Shit. Tom, let’s not go down this aisle, I can, um. I can go get-”

“Baby, you okay? What is it?” He searches your eyes, trying to figure out why you’re suddenly panicking.

As subtly as possible you sneak a glance at the guy at the opposite end of the aisle as the two of you. Quietly you ask. “Um remember that one thing I told you about that was really bad that happened in my life when I was in high school?”

Still confused, Tom furrows his brow and nods his head. “Y/n, you’re scaring me. Why are you thinking about that now?”

Your breathing starts to become shallow as you feel the beginnings of a panic attack coming on. “That guy over there? The one with the tattoo on the back of his head?” Tom looks down the aisle, sees him, and turns back to you with realization on his face.

“Y/n, is that– is that him?” He barely catches the nod you give him as tears well up in your eyes.

“Please, can we just go before he turns around and sees us?” The two of you turn around and start walking back the way you came.

“Yeah, of course babe. We can even come back another time if you’d like,” he says, reaching out to place his hand on the small of your back.

You smile through your tears and go to answer your fiancé when you hear it.

“Y/n?? Y/f/n Y/l/n, is that you??” Tom tenses up beside you as he hears it too.

Your eyes are wide with fear as you turn to Tom. “Shit.”

As the two of you turn around you come face to face with the one person you never hoped to see again in your life. The guy who put you through the ringer emotionally, and the guy who scarred you for life with what he had done to you.

Tom can tell that you’re having an internal battle with yourself about what’s about to happen so before the guy gets to the two of you he places a kiss to your temple and whispers, “You can do this, I’m right here. Let’s show him how strong you are, okay?” Your left hand reaches up to find his on the handle of the shopping cart and you let it rest there as the guy reaches you.

The smile he gave you turns your veins to ice. “Wow. Y/f/n Y/l/n, it’s been years since we’ve seen each other or even spoken. Last we talked was, what? Seven years ago?”

Plastering on a fake smile, you respond as kindly as you can. “Yeah, it’s been quite a while. You seem to be doing well.” Your feel your hand tightening on Tom’s as his other hand comes up to rub lightly at the small of your back.

“Oh you know, doing the best I can. My girlfriend is back at the house and needed some last minute ingredients for dinner tonight,” he throws you a half smile, rolling his eyes in an attempt to joke with you. Looking back at you he continues. “Well, look at me being rude. I don’t think I’ve met this guy, here. Hi, I’m Johnnie.” He eyes go to Tom as he reaches out his hand to shake hands with him. “Y/n and I here go way back, don’t we?” He throws you a wink as he chuckles to himself.

Tom instantly tenses next you. Unlike Johnnie, he doesn’t reach his hand out to shake. His jaw clenches as he glares at Johnnie. As coolly as possible he replies, “Yeah? I think I remember Y/n mentioning the name Jimmy, but it was a really long time ago and only came up once. So I really don’t remember if it was you or not.”

You see a minute flash of anger appear in Johnnie’s eyes, but it’s gone almost instantly. He forces a smile and looks to you. “Aww, come on, Y/n. I’m hurt. I’d think after those years we spent loving each other you would at least tell him about us.” His smile turns into one of smugness as you let him think he has the upper hand.

Intentionally you grip a little tighter onto Tom’s hand with your left, effectively letting your ring catch the light. Johnnie’s eyes flicker quickly to your engagement ring and then back to your eyes. Smiling back at Johnnie, you respond. “Yeah well Tom and I have been busy the last few months planning our wedding. So I’m pretty sure I may have mentioned you at some point, but we’ve hardly had time to even breathe since the wedding planning has started. It’s all been such a whirlwind.”

Now you can tell that Johnnie is trying to bait you into admitting you loved him at one time. “Well congrats, you two. I guess that means no more golden opportunity for us then, huh sweetheart?” He winks again at you, and then looks to Tom. “I should probably warn you though, this one’s got a hidden kinky side, so watch yourself.”

Johnnie’s comment makes you blush furiously, knowing that the two of you had planned to get together over the years, but the two of you could never find a window of opportunity. You take your left hand off of Tom’s now and place it around his waist. He’s been quiet through most of your interaction, but you can’t even imagine how hard he’s trying to keep his cool. You gently run your hand across his back as the two of you stand there.

Once again Johnnie looks to you, gauging for any type of reaction he is hoping to get out of you. He watches the flush take over your cheeks and smiles because he knows he’s hit a nerve.

Before you can even begin to think of a response, you hear Tom clearing his throat next to you. He looks Johnnie dead in the eye and gives him a half smile and asks, “Is there a reason you’re being so disrespectful towards my fiancée?” Johnnie’s smile falters just enough for Tom to be satisfied and keeps going, full on smirking now.

“You know she settled for you, right?” He wraps his arm around your waist and presses a kiss to your head as he continues.

“Y/n is the most beautiful, fearless, and relentless woman I know. She’s fought tooth and nail to be the kick ass woman she is today, and there’s nothing sexier to me than seeing her this happy.” Johnnie’s eyes flicker to you, a flash hope filling them, hoping you’ll offer him some help. “She’s told me her story, shown me her scars, and all I have to say is that you’re lucky I’m marrying her because if I wasn’t engaged to the most stunning woman I’ve ever met, your face wouldn’t be intact right now.”

A look of utter disgust settles on Tom’s face. “Now if you’ll excuse us, Y/n and I need to finish our list so we can get home.” You can’t believe that the two of you handled yourselves so well and as you turn to walk back down the way you came, you feel Tom’s reassuring presence right beside you. Suddenly the two of you hear one last remark from behind you. “Yeah, well Y/n was always a little slut anyways. We weren’t even together and she was letting me grab her ass and tits whenever I wanted!”

That does it. Tom freezes in his tracks as the two of you look at each other. Anger is rolling off of him in waves as he turns to walk back to Johnnie. Before Johnnie can even figure out what’s happening Tom stalks over to him while rolling his sleeve up.

Suddenly there’s the sickening sound of bone breaking as Tom pulls back and slugs Johnnie in the face. You flinch as Johnnie drops to the ground like a rag doll, and Tom leans over him, grabbing his collar.

“I said you’re lucky I’m marrying her because she’s what’s keeping me from tearing you apart right now, but I’m definitely not above giving a piece of shit kid, who takes advantage of women, a warning. And I’ll admit, this is a very generous warning. Don’t come near Y/n again.” He shakes Johnnie a little. “In fact, you so much as think about her again, I will hunt you down and castrate you with a bottle opener.”

Tom roughly drops Johnnie to the ground and walks away. As he comes back toward you, he shakes his fist out and rolls down his sleeve. By the time Tom gets back to you, he’s smiling.

Before you can ask though, he speaks first. “Well, Miss. Y/l/n, how about you and I get out of here before people start putting two and two together?” He winks at you and places his arm around you, effectively spinning the two of you around to walk to the exit.

After the groceries are bought, you find yourself buckling your seat belt of the passenger seat as Tom slides into the driver’s seat. You look over to him to find him smiling.

You smile back and tilt your head. “Tom, you just punched my rapist. Why are you smiling like that?”

He reaches across the center console to lace his fingers with yours, slowly bringing your fingers up to his lips to kiss them. “You know, Johnnie was right about one thing.”

Your eyebrows shoot up into your hairline as you look up at him. “Ummm. What?! Why would you even th-”

Tom’s lips suddenly cover yours, shutting you up. He gently sucks on your bottom lip before gently pulling away. “Hey, pretty girl.” He smirks at you as his green eyes look deep into your y/e/c ones. “You didn’t let me finish. What I was going to say, was that he was right about one thing. He was so right about you having a hidden kinky side. He was just wrong about me not knowing about it.”

He winks, leaving you gasping at what you’re hearing. You also pull away and playfully roll your eyes. “Mr. Hanniger! Why, I never!” You cross your arms. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He chuckles as he pulls back into his own seat and starts the car. “I’m sure you don’t, babe.”

You catch yourself laughing too. Tom was an incredible human being who loved you through everything. He put you back together when you were barely holding on, and he was going to spend the rest of his life with you. You smile just thinking about the possibilities.

Suddenly you lean back across the seat and gently bite down on his earlobe, and place a kiss just below his ear. Then, as you place your hand on his thigh you whisper, “Since I’m such a kinky woman, let’s get home and explore some of those kinks, shall we?”

Once again, if you’d like to be removed from my tags just let me know! :)

TAGS: @bringmesomepie56 @aorma22 @torrentmgc @savetheimpalaridedean @vaisabu @madithemagicalfangirl @dancingalone21 @anokhi07 @green-love-red-fantasyhearts @smoothdogsgirl @superromijn @my-own-paradise-fuckers @wevegotworktodo @i-dont-know-how-to-write @rattyretro-blog-blog @arryn-nyxx @sis-tafics @jalove-wecallhimdean @dustycelt @supernatural-jackles @deansdirtylittlesecretsblog @27bmm @pinknerdpanda @emilywritesaboutdean @just-a-touch-of-sass-and-fandoms @babybrotherdean @babypieandwhiskey @nichelle-my-belle @iwantthedean @dreamingintheimpalawithdean @ravengirl94 @eyes-of-a-disney-princess @demondean-for-kingofhell @wantingtobekorra @saxxxology @akshi8278 @captainemwinchester @pie-not-cake-you-assbutt

#dustycelt follower partay #jensen ackles #Tom Hanniger fan fic #Tom Hanniger au #Tom Hanniger x reader #Tom x reader #Tom Hanniger #My Bloody Valentine #My Bloody Valentine fic

147 notes · View notes