Tumgik
#and not gotten a single call or email back i think i might just end it all even mcdonalds dont want me
mephilver · 2 years
Text
entry level retail job with 3 years prior experience required just tell me to kill myself maybe
3 notes · View notes
kingofthering · 7 months
Note
Your single dad Vale series is *chefs kiss*
I love this exploration of sweet domesticity and you are so fun with the writing too!
!!!! thank you, I have to say that @baking-soda and @whatwepostintheshadows’ comments in the initial post have forced my brain to think about it a little more.
I think the first time they meet goes something like this:
[I don’t have an exact moment for the fic to begin but definitely a couple of months after September at least.] [This is Valentino going to Marc after Luca’s first practice.]
The assistant he’d had on the phone had told Valentino that Luca could do one free practice for the coach to evaluate his level and then they would progress from there.
She had given him the address and the time of said practice and Valentino had dropped off Luca with an encouraging smile that hadn’t been returned. It took some deep breaths for Valentino to calm down and not take the decision personally and then some more for him to leave and not stay in the parking for the whole duration of practice.
Valentino comes back 10 minutes before the ending time he was given. He gets out of the car and settles himself in one corner of the pitch, leaning against the barrier and keeping his eyes on Luca while they scrimmage.
Luca doesn’t acknowledge him when he comes out of the pitch and Valentino swallows past his frustration once again.
It’s a good thing that the coach is dressed differently from his players (black puffer jacket around a small body and a wool beanie down his hair, plastering curls to his forehead) because Valentino’s first thought is: he looks like a fucking kid.
“Hi, you’re coach Marquez?” Valentino asks when he approaches him. “I’m Valentino Rossi, Luca Marini’s older brother.”
He extends his hand out and the other man grabs it with a “Hi, you can call me Marc,” and a smile, the fabric of his gloves soft against Valentino’s fingers.
“I mean, I’m his legal guardian,” Valentino corrects himself. “And still his brother but I’m taking care of this as his guardian. He just moved here. Thank you for letting him try out now. I hope everything was okay.”
Marc smiles, his hand briefly going for a squeeze of Valentino’s elbow. It feels nice, grounding. Valentino doesn’t even know why he’s fumbling things up, it’s ridiculous.
(He needs this to work for Luca. He really does. It’s not ridiculous Valentino, breathe.)
“Luca did really well,” Marc says. It eases a knot in Valentino’s stomach. “I didn’t hear him say a single word but he followed every order to perfection and from what I’ve seen, he has great potential. We could definitely use him on the right wing if he wants to play with us.”
Valentino might be outright beaming now, his pride evident on his face. “Yeah? That’s really good to hear.”
[And then Valentino tells Marc about Luca’s mom —well, their mom, even though his brain is still marking the difference, for some reason that’s supposedly helping right then— because even though he doesn’t want to expose Luca’s life to everyone without his permission, if that guy is going to mentor Luca several times a week, he deserves to know, needs to in order to properly understand Luca, truthfully.]
“You’re going to come back during the day tomorrow to see Chiara and deal with all the paperwork, right?”
Valentino nods. Now that he’s gotten the big thing™️ out of the water, he has to admit that Marc’s accent is a little distracting. Not in a bad way.
“Yes,” Valentino confirms. “She already sent me the list of the papers I need to bring by email, I think.”
“Good,” Marc nods. They’ve made their way to the entry of the main building and Valentino can already see boys coming out of the locker rooms, cleats traded for sneakers and a coat around their shoulders. “Ask her for my number, I’ll grab yours from Luca’s file. I promise I’ll tell you if anything happens and you can text me if you think there is anything else I should know or if anything comes up with Luca. Alright?”
Valentino nods. Marc has taken off his beanie, making his curls spill out. He doesn’t look 15 but he really doesn’t look that much older than the kids he’s supposed to take care of. Maybe Valentino can ask Chiara for his age tomorrow. He knows how to be discreet with this kind of things, usually.
Luca passes by. He stops in front of them, nods in Marc’s direction and turns to Valentino to tell him that he’s ready to go. Valentino hands him the keys of the car and Luca walks away.
“That’s my cue to leave,” Valentino says, a little apologetic even though he’s not sure exactly why. “Thanks again for the chance.” The next words tumble out of his mouth on their own accord. “Even though I have to say, I don’t know how I feel about letting a Spaniard teach my baby brother how to play football.”
Marc bursts out laughing. It makes Valentino smile again and they wave each other goodbye before Valentino goes to join Luca in the car.
33 notes · View notes
smartycvnt · 1 year
Text
The Odd Couple
Tumblr media
Pairing: Becky Lynch x Reader
Summary: You and Becky have been known to feud together, but are thrown together as a team.
Word Count: 1081
It had been a long time since you had been called into a physical meeting to hear about your next creative storyline. Most of the time that sort of thing was put into an email or occasionally a text message. This must have been something big because you were meeting with everybody. Even Stephanie and Nick were supposed to be there. You had a good feeling about this though, especially since Triple H had told you that you were in the running to become a champion again soon. It had been nearly two and a half years since you were a champion. That was a long time to not be in the title picture, especially for someone who was thought of as a staple of both big brands.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" Usually, you'd have been offended to be greeted like that by someone, but you expected nothing less of Becky Lynch.
"I'm here for a meeting, not that it is any of your business. I'm probably going to talk to Triple H about my next title run," you said. There was a hint of smugness in your voice. Becky had done her runs and now it was time for her to step back. You were glad that someone else was getting a chance in the spotlight. You had been there for such a long time, and yet, Becky seemed to be higher up on the call list than you were. Frankly, it was insulting.
"You've got to be kidding me," Becky muttered under her breath. You cocked an eyebrow at her, curious as to why she was so pissy all of the sudden. "Someone else better show up here in the next couple minutes or I swear to god I'm slapping heads off."
"What are you on about?" you asked.
"I think, and I could be wrong, but I think you're supposed to be my new tag partner," Becky said. You scoffed at the news. Putting the two of you together was a terrible idea. There was a list of women on the roster that Becky hated working with and you had easily secured that third spot. The only people she seemed to hate more than you were Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair. The only reason she didn't hate you more than Charlotte was because the company wasn't obsessed with pitting the two of you against each other for feuds. Becky didn't have to be forever linked to you like she was Charlotte.
"Nobody is stupid enough to make us tag together," you said calmly. Internally, you were panicking. Unfortunately for the both of you, Becky had been correct in her assumption. The two of you were set up on the next Raw show to join forces against Bayley and her minions. The two of you were then put on a travel list together, which you were pissed about. Over the next couple of months, you and Becky tried your best to avoid each other despite being together every single day that you worked. You kind of started ignoring each other until Rhea Ripley surprise attacked you after a match, injuring you at least a little bit.
"Hey," Becky said hoarsely as she entered the trainer's room. You had no idea where Becky had gone, but she had left you almost as soon as the two of you were backstage. You were kind of pissed about it, but pretended that you didn't mind. "How are you feeling?"
"Where have you been? And what's wrong with your voice?" you asked. Becky cleared her throat, but ended up just pushing herself into a coughing fit. Against your better judgement, you offered her a drink from your water bottle. She took it with a thankful nod and then handed it back. "You'd better not get me sick."
"I won't. I'm not sick. I was just having some words with Rhea, and they might have gotten a little loud," Becky said. Her voice sounded better, but not much. You laughed a little at the idea of Becky getting in Rhea's face and yelling at her until she was red in the face.
"And what exactly were these words about?" you asked. Becky shrugged as she shoved her hands in her pockets.
"About being more careful. She never should have hit you with the chair that hard. Technically speaking, she shouldn't have been aiming up that high in the first place. I told you guys that we didn't need a weapon, she could have just hit you with a clothesline or a dropkick. When did I become the reasonable one in this team?" Becky rambled nervously. You smiled to yourself, unable to keep the thoughts of how cute Becky was out of your mind.
"Probably when you had that kid. So, I am not allowed to leave this room until you sign me out. Can we get out of here now please?" you asked. Becky signed the paper and walked you to the locker room. You got a quick shower in, dressed yourself back in your street clothes, and then sat with Becky to watch the rest of the show. You weren't sure when you had started leaning against Becky, but she let you lay like that without complaining once.
After that night, Becky had definitely been a lot nicer to you. The two of you started to talk more on the road and learned that you had quite a bit in common. By the time that you were cleared to come back and wrestle in matches, the two of you were genuinely thick as thieves. You had planned on taking the titles earlier, but you got your WrestleMania moment during that tag team match. Technically, Becky had already quite a few, but even with your almost 18 years with the company, it was your first. You couldn't explain the happiness you had felt as you held those titles up in the air together as the new champions. You turned towards Becky with the biggest smile on your face to be met with her pulling you into her arms for a hug.
"Can I kiss you right now?" Becky asked. She looked so nervous, more nervous than you had ever seen her before. You didn't want to make her wait any longer, so you leaned forward and kissed her. The title fell right out of Becky's hand and onto the canvas as you dipped her back like an old school Hollywood kiss.
219 notes · View notes
altschmerzes · 8 months
Text
also. once a-fucking-gain The Fuckening Continues To Continue With My Fucking Dad’s Fucking Estate and the way everyone is handling it in a way that seems COORDINATED to be as cruel to me specifically as possible. sorry for Continuing Oversharing lmao hopefully this is just. done now.
to recap the previous Fuckening, i was misled in a way that feels extremely clear and deliberate by the HR lady at my - abusive, now deceased - father’s work to think i was a beneficiary of his life insurance policy. I Am Not. my sister is the sole beneficiary and im named as the contingent which based on surrounding context is something he did as a “fuck you” to me for not having anything to do with him for the last seven years. as a result of the way the HR lady spoke to me about it - grouping my sister and i together as a unit, as Beneficiaries, plural, etc - i ended up under the clear impression i was one, until a phone call with the insurance company cleared up that he basically disinherited me as directly and deliberately as possible. even so, i have been dealing with the major bulk of the stuff his work and associated accounts and estate stuff needed from the family, because my sister is too despondent to want to deal with any of it and is refusing to answer phone calls, emails, or do any paperwork. my mom is babying and coddling them about it, as per the usual approach to my sister, who it is a cardinal sin to upset in my family.
so today i get Another email from the HR woman at my dad’s work. she is like haha yeah too bad i wasn’t clearer that you don’t get anything before making you do all this work! anyways, we need xyz paperwork from you guys still :). and i just.
she is. STILL hounding me for shit i dont have and am not INVOLVED IN because my fucking sister - who by the way is a grownass adult, and i know i sound insensitive but they’re almost 24 and i know they’re grieving but im not exactly having a fucking awesome time here - is dodging all attempts to contact them.
so i email her back and say i am almost entirely uninvolved in any of this please contact my mother or sister for further assistance. and then screenshot the email and texted it to my mother and told her hey. im done dealing with this. please take point on this because my sister’s inability to answer an email has caused ME to carry the burden of all of this constantly and i have compassion for them and what they’re going through but im fucking done. but in like. lawyer speak.
mistake, clearly, to mention my sister at all bc in the ensuing back and forth where im attempting to make it clear that my sister’s consistent non-responsiveness from the very beginning have made me the only person who will answer a phone call or email from this HR lady who has important paperwork she needs to do, and i am fucking Finished and will Not be doing this anymore because for obvious fucking reasons im uninterested in doing any more work for this estate situation - and fuck this lady for effectively lying by implication to get me to chase my mom and sister down for her. and all my mom is doing is getting defensive and protective of my sister. ignores a message i sent her that was long enough it wasn’t containable in a single phone screen and sends back two brief sentences about how my sister is completely blameless for anything and they don’t even have the paperwork HR Lady wants from us. and goes around and around about how my sister has done Everything Right and any contact i’ve gotten from HR Lady is not related. despite this woman saying to me repeatedly “we have not heard from your sister” as an explanation for why she was emailing to calling me.
the whole time too im like. texting her in Lawyer Speak lmao i am writing this as if i am communicating with Combative Opposing Council.
and it just. my fucking mom. the fucking fact that my mother is prioritizing my sister over me even in a direct conversation with me when she knows well and fucking good why i might be KIND OF UPSET RIGHT NOW - and it’s something she herself seems upset! - about is just like. gd. yeah. this isn’t news but this is such a clear and fucking. ice cold reminder that she has one child she will invest any amount of energy into and it is not me and it never will be. she has room in her heart to care about One Kid At A Time - which she has fucking all but TOLD ME to my face before - and it will never, ever be me.
“i know we’re ignoring you lately but your sister needs us and the squeaky wheel gets the grease” real thing my mom said to me when i was like, sixteen. fucking incredible. nothing ever changes does it.
like i know my sister was getting really close to the fucking bastard before he kicked it and is devastated about this but does anyone want to spare two fucking seconds to consider that my father fucking died too and just because im not SAD about it doesn’t mean im not dealing with some seriously upsetting and emotionally heavy shit. like perhaps the administration of my abuser’s estate - which he CUT ME OUT OF as directly as he could without writing a will to disown me in - isn’t something i should be forced to deal with and be retraumatized by because my sister, the precious baby of the family, is fucking sad. my mom said to my grandmother at some point about all this that “[gav] and [sister] didn’t get the same dad” and the fact that she is at least that aware of how this is impacting me and is still getting defensive of my sister when talking directly to me about how this is impacting ME is like. jesus jennifer.
they can just all go to hell and leave me the fuck alone.
18 notes · View notes
satansbastards · 2 years
Note
haiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!! ur unwitness protection program thoughts. hand them over
okay get ready im about to launch them at you at mach 10
I don't have much in the way of who the individual members are because we just don't have much to go off of. Will hasn't really told us anything about them besides the fact that the group existed. (my brain just isn't letting me come up with ideas without at least SOME prior information)
I'm trying to go back through all the rolled episodes to see if I missed anything so current thoughts are based solely off of what I've been told and shown through the show itself.
Read more here cause I have a whole ass essay. Sorry not sorry.
Obv major spoilers for Prime Defenders and friends I have so many sad thoughts. Might post more after these ones but this is all the stuff that's been most on my mind about the UPP
We know Deadwood has issues with people going missing, whether or not those dissapearances are paranormal in nature or not. Who's to say? I wanna believe that while the group originally formed as a general way to investigate the spooky stuff going on around town, it ended off as a group of kids trying to find these poor souls who went missing.
I feel like they all absolutely could see spirits and monsters like William said, but in the sense of like, only being able to see out of the corners of their eyes. He mentioned everything being fuzzy and just out of sight, and I've seen stuff like that in like, John Dies at the End where average people can really only see otherworldly stuff from their peripheral vision.
William either had the best vision of the group or was just the best at investigating. Because I DO remember that in the rolled after the session zero Charlie mentioned that William had been out with his whole group and was the only one who saw the light of the wisp and ran off.
Aside from investigating missing people, he's also mentioned that they did investigate abandoned buildings and whatnot. I feel like UPP was trying to figure out just what exactly these monsters and spirits even were. Think like Gravity Falls with those journals cataloging the various creatures around the town. (this is also where the pacific northwest vibes I used to get for Deadwood before you mentioned how much better the Midwest would fit had come from.)
Give me the William Wisp monster manual Charlie you and I both know he would have made one.
Last big thing regarding the group is less of a coherent thought and more of a genuine question I have. How did they split up? I know William left because he felt he was a danger but! Did the UPP split up on good or bad terms with William?
We haven't gotten any sort of confirmation about whether or not they still keep in contact. Nothing, no texts, emails, calls. Not a single thing. Is this by William's choice or did his friends cut contact because they were afraid of him?
His parents likely have next to no knowledge about the supernatural but his friends DID. Are these thoughts William has had about whether or not he's even a person, even still himself, coming directly from him? To an extent I'd still say yes, but a very sinking feeling in my gut tells me he's had a very similar converstion before. With his old friends.
Did they ever talk to him about everything? Did they just not accept that he even COULD be William? They know people go missing a lot and don't come back. They likely knew that William also went missing, if Charlie is still sticking to his original draft for his origin.
How long was Will missing, had they given him up for dead and when he came back they assumed he wasn't the same William they knew? Did the monsters coming after Will only confirm those suspicions?
Did they ever even find a body or did William just "myseriously" reappear some time later? I can't say I even fully blame them for not trusting that if that was the case. As much as it hurts to think about, they were all scared kids and it's really hard to trust your friend who's been missing for god knows how long returning like nothing had happened. In Deadwood? With all these other monsters?
I can be upset about this possibility all I want but at the end of the day, I can see it happening. And understand where they're coming from. I just really wanna know what Will's current relationship with his old friends is. :(
That's all I've got at the moment! Feel free to rant about my thoughts and correct me on anything I misrembered or maybe stuff that was mentioned in the Rolled episodes cause I haven't fully gone through those yet! Thanks for letting me rant about this I love this so much.
17 notes · View notes
dzpenumbra · 1 year
Text
3/2/23
Today was pretty similar to yesterday - a pretty normal day with a giant leap of faith payoff at the end of it.
I spent the majority of the day working on shaping the last of the stones my mom sent me. I spent a little time trying to figure out the beads and I think I'm just tapping out from what I was trying to figure out. The problem I'm seeing is... the paint. I've been doing this teal colorshift paint (which really doesn't colorshift that great... to be honest) and coating mod podge on top. And this time I tried super thin layers of paint. I'm really trying to get a mirror smooth finish on this thing. But I think the paint itself is just... too "chunky". I've tried sanding it, it just peels. I tried lots of thin coats, it's just as textured. I tried mod podge on top of thin coats, but I can't sand it properly, and it doesn't seem to make a noticeable difference anyway. The best results I have gotten so far... was my first attempt. When I did paint pens - opaque ink - directly on the wood, then like 5 layers of mod podge on top and lightly sanded and buffed it. That took a near mirror finish. So... in the name of progress, because this project has been in the test phase for way too long... I think I'm going to do this wood bead mala in ink and mod podge - which means no "mass production", each one will have to be hand-inked, no batch painting. And if I want to do one in the future that's a bit more textured, the paint is there for that. I'm tired of trying to fight it, and I just don't have the patience to do 10 layers of mod podge, waiting for it to dry in between each one, for a single bead.
I got a big chunk of the stone shaping done, but it's doing a number on my right forearm and the top of my right hand, and I kinda need that for literally everything. So... I'm pacing myself, as much as the end is in sight. There's quartz in this one so... it might take a bit, and that's okay.
The goat skull has been calling me. It's come up in conversation like 3 times the past 2 days. It keeps popping up into my head. I think it's going to be next. I have an idea coming to me right now. So... I've been saving my incense ash for a long time, since I moved in, a few months now. And I burn 2 sticks of incense pretty much every day during yoga, there were maybe 4 or 5 days when I did this other Tibetan stick incense instead. So... 2 months of 2 sticks of incense pretty much every day? A lot of ash. And... I ordered that book... way back... and paid this dude through PayPal... and never got the book... The book about making your own inks? And other natural art supplies? That one? Yeah. Even followed up with an email and never heard back. He's probably like me and never checks his email ever. But... I was hoping to get that so I could start making my own pigments. Well... connecting the dots here? It would be really cool if I could make a pigment out of the incense ash. It's a pretty tame organic reddish brown. And my thought is to clean the skull up, then pencil (maybe pen) in a design, then carve it in, then soak the homemade ink in the carved parts, then polish the rest. The skull was originally going to be an incense burner, I have no idea if I'm going to stick with that or just have it be its own display piece, but either way it's going to have an incense connection.
So, that's all on the horizon. I want to get the stone set finished before starting the skull, because the skull is going to be a pretty long term project. The beads I can work on throughout all of it. There are... 29 of them. The guru bead is already painted, just not sealed. I'm planning on doing a red base coat, then black organic structures over it, kinda spiderweb-like. So... one pass over all the beads, full coat of red. Second pass over all the beads, black details. Then at least 3-5 coats of mod podge with drying breaks between all of them (so likely in rotations). Then sanding/buffing, if it looks like that would be beneficial. All by hand, one by one. It's... gonna take a while. But the end product will be cool. I swear, people just have no idea how much time goes into this shit when you're working solo and completely by hand. Like... say it takes me 10 minutes (that's super quick, honestly, realistically it can be twice that, especially if I'm doing any design work) per layer, per bead. 29 beads. 290 minutes = close to 5 hours. Per pass. 5-7 passes. 25-35 hours. Not including drying time, sanding or assembly, easily another couple hours. For one mala.
Now... say I want to like... make minimum wage for this work. You know, because I'm a professional artist and all that. Minimum wage where I'm at is around $13/h, but for nicer numbers lets just go with the $15/h I'd be making if I decided to go stock shelves at Michael's. $15/hour x 25-35 hours = $375-525. Just for labor costs. And I'm just gonna level here, I don't know if I'd even be able to sell this for $37-52. Which, of course, would be $1.50/hour wages. Slave wages. Americorps wages. When you see the reality of it all... it makes you really feel obliged to cut corners. "How can I batch paint like all of the beads in one go." "Can I get 28 other people to paint one bead for me for free?"
It's tempting. But for me, it kills the spirit of the project. I hope, someday, I will find someone who believes that the spirit of handmade work is worth more than me unboxing and shelving yarn.
It's such a weird world I live in, I swear. Like you constantly have to justify that your work is worth paying for, even though no one else you know would ever volunteer to do what you do, and you've spent years and years training your abilities and talents. It just... means nothing when it comes to price.
Welp... since we're on that... I brought up my freeze moment with my therapist tonight. He found it helpful to know that, I think. We didn't go too deep into the conversation on it, it was a bit late into the session. Most of the session was sorta filling him in on my family dynamics that he didn't seem to familiar with. But yeah... I said "I can see why my life is completely stalled out and the future looks bleak for me if I panic and freeze up any time someone brings up money. In a profit-driven capitalist society." And yeah, that was a bit political, I guess. But like... it's real. And what the fuck am I going to do about that? Ugh, this is all really negative all of a sudden.
You know what happened today? My therapist asked me what I was working on. You know how long it's been since someone's actually genuinely asked that question? A long fuckin time, man. I didn't even know how to answer properly.
I got chinese takeout. I watched a stream for a bit. But... it just wasn't really doing it for me. And... after a while of getting myself to the right place? I started streaming. I streamed for about an hour and a half tonight. Session. It was pretty simple. It was a bit weird being mindful of how loud I'm speaking. It's easy to forget that I just... don't speak out loud at normal speaking voice often. Just when I'm on the phone. Never after 10. And I have neighbors on all sides, so... I just want to be respectful. But....
Okay... I'm just gonna go off. My neighbors upstairs are loud as fuck. The new ones. And they have loud sex. And it's super uncomfortable. She plays really loud generic opera/classical music around dinner time often, the male is very loud and stomps around. Maybe he's overweight, I don't know, but I can definitely tell when he's there. It seems like the female is there most of the day too, so... I don't really know what their situation is, I don't know if they are students or she works from home, or what. Or if he's a boyfriend who only comes over sometimes? But when they are together, they are loud as fuck. And it has made me hesitant about streaming, even with a noise gate. Like, I can hear them with headphones on!
This... has made me much more aware of the fact that I may be making the same level of noise. Not at the same level, honestly, but like... making more noise than I'm aware. I have a neighbor below me too. So... I want to be respectful and I don't want to disturb sleep... but I also want to stream past midnight... so... how to reconcile that? No clue. I was near-whispering tonight, mic an inch away from my face. No clue if the audio was leveled correctly, no one came to the stream. Yeah, I should get to that part. So... I fired up Session and played a lot, and landed some cool tricks. But I didn't announce my stream in discord. I kinda... wanted to see if anyone noticed if I was streaming without announcing. And no one did. So I know the announcements work. That's useful information. But the stream was just... me talking to myself, and explaining to the VoD what I was thinking, how I was adjusting different movements to learn tricks, shit like that. Overall, it was perfectly comfortable.
The only parts that were off-putting were... when I pushed the "Start Streaming" button, I'm used to getting a confirmation window. I was expecting to have to summon that "courage" twice. Once to push, twice to confirm. But it just... started streaming. And I was like... "oh... oh, I'm live. Okay... better mute my mic then..." And it was done and it was fine. That was literally the hardest part and my reaction was, "oh". The other part that was a bit weird, aka "it's been a while", was doing a sign-off to no one. I talked to any potential VoD viewers, and mentioned some ideas I had for upcoming streams, and asked people to pop in the Discord and say something if they wanted anything in particular. I don't expect responses, but it's there. It was a little weird, as broadcasting to no one can be... but it was familiar and effortless.
This just brought back really vivid memories. I used to be a radio DJ in college. I loved it, I absolutely loved it. I had the late-night slot, 10PM-2AM. I would drive to campus and park in the empty back lots and walk into the studio which was in the basement under a dorm, and had creepy lighting and always smelled musty, and start up my show. And I remember I would have to prop open the door to the studio with a bucket when I went on smoke breaks because the keycard swiper didn't work after midnight if you didn't live on-campus, and I had go-to songs for smoke breaks that were exactly the right length of time for me to go out and smoke and chill a bit, then come back in and transition. Flying Whales by Gojira was the classic go-to. Here's where my brain went with this memory. I always assumed I was broadcasting to no one. I did this like... intellectual hip-hop (Sage Francis was my #1, but Atmosphere, Mos Def, etc.) aka rap that's not just about sex, money and crime... and progressive metal hybrid show. Sometimes I would do metal for 2 hours, hip hop for 2 hours. Sometimes a mix. Sometimes I would put on beats and do live performances of my shit. Sometimes I would do live freestyle sessions. But... I kinda just assumed no one was listening. That's the big undercurrent of what brought this memory back. I always assumed no one was listening. No one ever called in. None of my friends listened, I mean... it was super rare if they did, and if they did, they very rarely talked to me, called in or visited. I would sometimes go to the gas station at the 4-corners around those hours on my off-nights, so I knew at very least they had the radio tuned in at those hours. But I just kinda... came to terms with the fact that no one listened to my show. It was depressing, but it was niche stuff... and it made it like a pirate radio station or an underground thing (literally) so... I was begrudgingly cool with it.
Then... I shit you not, like... 11 years later? I had some impulse to look at old school newspapers. I think I was trying to find some news piece a classmate of mine (who tragically passed on) had done on doodling, and featured a page from one of my notebooks. I think that's what I was seeking. But instead... I found an album review. It was either the same year or the semester after my radio show. It was by this girl I had a huge crush on, like... in my super depressed, abused eyes... way the fuck out of my league. Like I picture her now in my head and I get nervous with how hot even her memory is. Shelby. Like, so hot that it never even occurred to me that I would even try to talk to her, and really chill and down to earth and creative too. Just... the full package. Like... I had a huge crush on the girl in my class that I ended up dating for 8 months, but... that crush had nothing on how attracted I was to Shelby. And what I discovered in 2019 in this newspaper article published in 2008, was an album review for Sage Francis's Human A Death Dance, which was by far my favorite album. It was my soundtrack for that time in my life. Black Out On White Night and Civil Disobedience were the songs I would listen to on my drives to the radio station, and I would drive through these fields on the way there and there were always waves of fog that would roll over the road as I drove to campus. I played songs from that album on my radio show every night. I literally didn't know a single other person who listened to Sage Francis at all at my college, he was one of my biggest mentors at that stage in my life. And who wrote that album review? Shelby.
It's one of those discoveries that's like... really sweet and heartwarming, and brutally gutting at the same time. You know?
So... the common thread here? You never know if someone's listening, I guess. Because... she was listening to my radio show. I don't know the context, I likely never will. But she definitely listened to my radio show enough for those songs to stick with her, and she likely listened to the album a lot on her own too, if she was committed enough to write a review. You never know.
So... I never know if someone's going to stumble across this blog. You never know. And I had that mentality tonight streaming. I treated it as though people were already watching a VoD and just spoke to them directly. They may never go watch it, it may sit there for a month unwatched and then auto-delete. I might not even have VoDs turned on! XD But yeah... I think the idea of "you never know who might be listening in" should be taken through a lens of positivity and compliment, rather than "be careful". I think a lot of my broadcasting anxiety is like... "you never know what bots are going to report you", "you never know what jerk is going to come into chat and start some shit", "you never know what person you're going to set off with something you say and then all of a sudden you have a cancel culture lynch mob to fend off". That kinda shit. But it's super important for me to remember that... "you never know when your new biggest fan is going to tune in."
So yeah. Reliving that story just put me in a weird mood, half-nostalgia/half-"what if". The feeling is still lingering, it's very unique.
I'm gonna get to bed a bit earlier, try to catch up on sleep. Hopefully I'll test run a daytime stream tomorrow and see how it goes!
2 notes · View notes
squishmallow36 · 2 years
Text
Keeper of the Lost Prepositions - Fifty-seven
Word count: 2.5k
Tw: none
Taglist (lmk if you want to be added/removed!): @stellar-lune @gaslight-gaetkeep-gayboss @kamikothe1and0lny @nyxpixels @florida-fruity-frog @poppinspop @crystallinewalker @uni-seahorse-572 @solreefs @never-mourn-the-good @rusted-phone-calls @when-wax-wings-melt @cotyledon-tomentosa @good-old-fashioned-lover-boy7 @dexter-dizzknees @abubble125 @cherryberrybitch @blossomsxgalorex
On Ao3 or below the cut!
    Fitz hangs up with Sophie somewhere around fifteen minutes later and takes a second before yelling through the wall, “Is there anyone else you want me to hail? Sophie’s talking to the Forklenator.”
    I take a single earbud out, replying, “Try and see if you can reach Councillor Darek. I don’t want this to go through thirty-six different people before it reaches the council. They’re already idiots. We need to minimize that however we can.”
    I hear Fitz’s muffled Imparter ringing and gives it a minute before yelling back, “I got nothing.”
    “Try Elwin then.” It’s worth seeing if he’s got Darek hanging around. And if not, it’ll be good to have him in the loop. I think we all know someone’s going to have a near-death experience before the end of this. I just hope it isn’t Fitz. 
    Fitz’s Imparter rings for only a few seconds. “Hi, Elwin!”
    “Hey, Fitz. Who’s dying this time?” Elwin asks, sounding tired. 
    I roll over to the doorframe, not wanting to actually be seen on camera, but I think we all know Fitz is not a Technopath. He’s gotten better in recent weeks but I still wouldn’t trust him to build any gadgets. 
    I reply, “No one. Yet.”
    “Oh, hi, Dex,” comes Elwin’s response. 
    “We were kind of wondering if Councillor Darek happened to be there,” Fitz says, before we get distracted. 
    “Yeah, why?” Elwin asks, probably dragging him into view. Could confirm if I could see.
    Eh, being the mysterious voice from beyond is good enough for me. 
    “It’s a very long story.” 
    “I’m here,” I hear Darek say. “What do you need?”
    “Where should I start?” Fitz asks, looking at me for an answer. 
    So there’s Godzilla’s email...which doesn’t make sense until you have my double agent context...which doesn’t make sense without Tinker’s double agent context. 
    “Tinker,” I answer, nodding for pretty much no good reason. 
    “Okay. I don’t know if you’ve heard any of this but Tinker’s apparently a member of the Neverseen. We figured that out a while ago but whatever. Now she’s in Black Swan custody so Dex kind of took over, pretending to be her for like maybe a week and a half. And then he proceeded to get scared of what would happen if the Neverseen found out what he was doing. Don’t ask; I don’t know how his thought process works. So now he’s gotten himself into being a double agent for the Neverseen--”
    Fitz stops abruptly. “I realize now that if you’re working for them, it isn’t my most brilliant idea to tell you everything that’s happened recently regarding this--and Dex has gotten some vague information on what the Neverseen’s next move might be. I have already hailed Sophie.”
   “Speaking of Sophie, should I forward her the email with the details?” I ask Fitz. 
   “Not if someone can track it.”
    I smile softly, because a few months ago he wouldn’t have the vaguest idea to suggest that. Already rolling over to the computer, I call, “Blind carbon copy exists for a reason!”
    “Add Forkle onto it if you can,” he calls back. 
    I send it, and I can vaguely hear Elwin asking, “What’s in this email? Whatever an email is.”
    “Dex, you explain the techy things,” Fitz essentially yells at me, and I reluctantly roll back to the doorway. 
    “Basically the Neverseen don’t trust me because the name of the thing is not what it looks like it does to me, and that’s honestly one of the smarter things they’ve done. So a lot of this is based on the diagram with the dimensions and specs. I think it’s the technical equivalent to an Enhancer.”
    “And by ‘think’ you mean…?” Fitz asks. 
    “It looks super super similar to my ability restrictor we’ve all tried to collectively forget.”
    Fitz mutters, “And by we you mean you.”
    “Don’t call me out like that.” I smile. “Councillor Darek, do you happen to know if the plans for that whole debacle were given to anyone outside of the council?”
    “Not to my knowledge,” he replies. 
    “So, if the diagram was not shared, how do you explain the very apparent similarities between the ability restrictor and this new device?”
    “Another Technopath got into the system?” Darek guesses.
    Just a typical Councillor trying to avoid the blame. Why did I expect anything less?
    “There aren’t a whole lot of us Technopaths, so it would be plausible to believe that Tinker would be the one to do it if someone hacked the system. If they did, I would think I could find Gisela telling her to do that because they have not deleted their emails any time in the past four years.”
    I roll over to the computer, and run a keyword search for ‘ability restrictor’ that comes back with nothing helpful. Email search engines are horrible, but I think it would’ve found something. Gisela’s kind of a control freak. There would’ve been a ton of emails. I roll back to the doorway so I don’t have to yell.
    “If she’d deleted their emails anytime recently, there wouldn’t be over two thousand in there.”
    After a moment, Darek asks, “Where does that leave us?”
    Fitz answers, “Dex--and he’s convinced me so I’ll say and I--are thinking that maybe there’s a bit of a leak in the council.”
    Darek swears and Elwin probably does too although I can’t hear him. 
    “I mean, like a third of my reasoning is that I’m not sure what other options are left.”
    “Thank you for letting me know,” Darek says shakily, having regained his ability to form words that do not have to be bleeped out. 
    “I figured I could trust you.” I roll in front of the camera. “I know things.” I retreat back into the doorway. 
    “Again, I do not know what that information is,” Fitz clarifies. “But I do know that he can be scary when he wants to be.”
    “Should we let him in?” Darek asks quietly, presumably to Elwin. 
    Fitz looks at me and it doesn’t take a telepath to know what he’s thinking. Preposition. 
    I miss Elwin’s response. “How good are you with secrets?” Darek asks Fitz. 
    “I’ve had a bi too much experience lately.”
    Hey, that’s my answer to that.
    “Dex, you’re in charge of all definitions.”
    “He knows all the definitions. Not well, but he’s learning,” I mumble, which directly causes more swear words from the Councillor. 
   Fitz shrugs, transmitting, Thanks. For the outstanding confidence you have in my learning abilities. 
    I can’t stop myself from smiling. 
    Darek audibly takes a breath. “I haven’t told anyone this before…but Elwin and I have been seeing each other for a while.”
    The pieces click in Fitz’s head--he could have very easily played the ‘of course you’ve been seeing each other that’s what eyeballs do’ card--and he nearly shouts, “Oh my stars, that makes so much sense.”
    Meanwhile, Elwin is laughing so hard, he can probably barely stand. 
    Slightly more composed, Darek emphasizes, “You can’t tell anyone. You know what the council would do if they knew.”
     Fitz nods. “And also, I seriously doubt the Elvin world would be accepting of a gay relationship. Just, you know, a total guess.”
    “You’ve taught him well, Dex.” Elwin snorts. 
    Fitz turns to me, and a swarm of irrational butterflies flutters in my stomach.
    “Wait, do they know…?”
    “About me? Yeah. And if you knew that fact, you’d ask way too many questions because up until now, the list of people that know are like ninety percent queer.”
    “Who’s the other ten percent?” Fitz has to ask. 
    “Lord Cassius. Maybe my parents. But considering that they bet on whether or not I was gay, I don’t think they’re both totally straight. Just a guess though. Although they aren’t fluent in Queer quite yet, so I don’t know.”
   “Watch out. Sounds like your gaydar has been activated. Don’t go challenging too many societal norms.”
    I already broke you, Wonderboy. I’ll do it again. 
    “My gaydar is horrible. I just get told things so I look like I’m the all-knowing queer elder.”
    “And you also have Wikipedia downloaded to your brain.”
    “I’m not that bad,” I snap. “Or a cyborg. At least not yet.”
    He’s watching me, and I have to wonder what weird thing I did to prompt it this time. 
    He looks back to his Imparter. “While we’re all trusting each other with the gay secrets, I’ll throw mine into the Aurenflare. I’m bi.” His glance bounces back to me. “You know this. I am making one single attempt to be ever so slightly less closeted.”
   “You know you don’t have to do that if you don’t want--.”
    “I know,” Fitz interrupts. “But I’ve had enough conversations with you and Keefe that this morning I nearly outed myself to my parents. It was not pretty. I was very red. I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”
    Elwin mutters, barely picked up by the microphone, “And this is why I haven’t spoken to my parents in thirty years. Well, it’s like half the reason...close enough.”
    “And you wonder why he doesn’t acknowledge his last name until absolutely necessary,” Darek says. 
    “You know, getting married might fix the issue. And I know at least one mlm councillor that might be willing to help legalize that.”
    “You could just say gay and not show off your vocabulary,” Darek replies. 
    “How am I supposed to know automagically if you’re mspec?”
    “Because then I would get myself into a straight relationship and not have to deal with all of this.”
    Fitz looks at me like, I am both sitting right here very bisexually and in a gay relationship. Gotcha. 
    Meanwhile, Elwin makes a pouting noise. 
    “I love you. Stop whining,” Darek snaps jokingly. “I’m just saying this would’ve been a little easier before the whole Councillor deal.”
    “And whose fault was that?” Elwin asks. 
    Darek sighs. “Mine.”
    “Also the heteronormativity of the Lost Cities,” Fitz adds. 
    “Don’t tell him that. He’ll use it the next time we bring this up,” begs Elwin. 
    “This is a common conversation topic?” I ask. 
    They both respond yes in unison before laughing. 
    Elwin contributes, “Literally once a week.”
    “Help us. We’re disaster gays and we have a very limited list of conversations,” Darek pleads. 
    “Including and limited to whatever you and your friends have gotten yourselves into this time. After a few years, you sort of run out of things to talk about.”
   Fitz looks at me, transmitting, Preposition. Also he says ‘about’ like you do. Is this a coincidence? 
    I shrug. I don’t know how any of that works. 
    “And that’s when someone hails with a life-threatening injury. And then someone has to go run off and I have to hide in his office and hope the council doesn’t make some important decision while I’m gone. At least I’ll have a new conversation topic for the next couple of days.”
    “Since when did the council make important decisions?” I mutter, hoping it doesn’t get picked up, and Fitz snorts. 
    Darek’s Imparter buzzes, so it wasn’t, in fact, turned off, like I’d expected. “We do like to keep up that illusion the best we can, and I must go maintain it. I’ll discuss with them the new information acquired today.”
    “Ooh, somebody has his Councillor voice on. Still on for dinner tonight?” Elwin asks, clearly ignoring us on the other side of the Imparter. 
    “Yep. Do not be surprised if I am home late once again. Love you.”
    “Love you too,” Elwin replies, and I can hear the smile in his voice. 
    Aah, they’re so cute together. Curse the council and its aroace-favourable rules. 
    Elwin waits for a second, presumably until Darek leaves the room. “Is there anything else we need to talk about or are we good?”
    “Not to my knowledge,” Fitz replies before looking at me for confirmation. 
    I shake my head. 
    “Alright then. See you later,” Elwin says, probably waving. 
    Fitz is definitely waving, and I say, “Bye,” before hearing the click of the ended hail.
    I deflate with that sound, and Fitz rolls over to me, asking, “You okay?”
    I nod.
    “‘Cause you look exhausted as all get out and you were fine a minute ago.”  
    “I’m fine. It’s just dealing with people, you know?”
     “Not really. Is this another one of your Dex things? Because your grammar has done more than enough to corrupt my brain.”
    I shrug, and Fitz intertwines my fingers with his.
    Stars, I’ll never get tired of that shower of sparks. 
    “Does this mean I can get you to stop working with the threat of talking to others?”
    I laugh. “You can certainly try, but it won’t work.”
    “Exile. I thought I finally figured you out.”
    “While not directly related to that, I do have one more thing before I go pass out for a year and a half. I have to--how did you put it? Throw another secret onto the Aurenflare? I’ll start by asking: how much do you know about neopronouns?”
    “Zero. But I’m sure you’ll explain it to me.” 
    “You should know what pronouns are. We have been taking grammar classes. Take those and make them all funky. For example, I’ve adopted xe/xem into my hoard. Xe replaces the nominative case--he or she, and xem replaces the objective case--him or her, at least in the terms of the binary we all know and tolerate. But I didn’t stop there. Instead of the possessive form being xyr like usual, I’ve gone changed it to xor.”
    “You’re gonna explain it, aren’t you?”
    “Absolutely. Have we met before? So I’m sorry for the technical terms I’m about to throw your way, but basically computers, both human and elvin, run on long strings of zeros and ones, each called a bit. These bits are manipulated by logic gates. I’m not going to get into all of them, but one of them is the exclusive or gate, affectionately called the xor gate because computer scientists are lazy and that’s a lot of letters. It functions in the same way ‘or’ does in normal language. Like if you get the option to choose x or y, you can’t take both. That’s close enough to xor for today’s purposes.”
    “So you, being the Technopath you are, had to incorporate that.”
    “You are very correct. So, if you don’t mind, could you occasionally refer to me in conversations between us and/or in your head using xe/xem?”
    Fitz’s face softens. “Of course. Please tell me when I inevitably mess things up.”
    “You’ll hear about it, trust me. It may be a few years in the future. But you’ll hear about it.”
    Fitz just smiles in response, and I desperately want to know what’s going on inside that handsome head of his. Just once. 
    Figure out why he’s always so entertained by me and my weirdness. 
6 notes · View notes
kiyosamu · 3 years
Text
remember.
----♡----
pairing: rintaro suna x female reader.
genre: yandere, dark, light romance. // one shot, 4k words.
synopsis: abusive relationships can seem impossible to leave. when you open up to a classmate, your life takes a dramatic turn in the best and worst ways imaginable.
content warnings: assault, domestic abuse (not from suna), descriptions of violence, yandere themes.
----♡----
“hey, kid.” suna’s voice caught your attention as you passed by him in the university corridor. he was quiet, only speaking loud enough for you to hear right as you were walking by.
“hey, rintaro.” you stopped for a moment, refusing to look up at the tall man towering over you.
“i haven’t seen you in a while. everything okay?” he leaned against the wall and clutched a textbook to his chest. “you haven’t even been to class. kinda been missing my project partner.”
“you got my work though, right?” you asked him, partially covering your face with your hair. “i emailed it to you.”
“i did.”
“okay… good.” you cleared your throat, awkwardly shuffling and offering a suspiciously sudden goodbye.
“hey, wait-" suna grabbed your wrist to keep you from leaving. the small amount of pressure more than enough on your deep bruise to make you wince.
suna noticed your pained expression and immediately let go, stepping back.
“i’m sorry, i didn’t mean to hurt you. i just wanted to ask you if-“
“it’s okay!” you interrupted, knowing you’d already spoken to him for too long. you needed to get out of there before anyone noticed. “you didn’t hurt me. sorry, i have to go. bye!”
your behaviour was erratic. your speech was rushed; forced and strained with every word as you tried your best to appear normal.
unfortunately it was much harder to pretend everything was okay than you’d originally thought it’d be.
you quickly turned and headed down the hallway to drop off the assignments to your other professor. the last one you’d have to see for the day before heading home. you were almost there. so close you might not even run into him.
you’d hoped, anyway.
----♡----
after seeing your professor, you walked out into the fresh evening air. the cold stinging your cheeks and the wind pushing your hair out of your face.
your cheeks burned from the freezing air, but it was your black eye was that hurt the most.
“i’m sorry, i just lost my temper.” his words echoed in your head, “you shouldn’t have pissed me off.”
you nodded, essentially agreeing with him. it’s true, if he didn’t get mad, he wouldn’t have hit you. and why was he mad? because of something you did. so really, it was your own fault.
you were the one apologizing to him that night. doing anything you could to make it up to him. all of this with a deep purple bruise forming on your face.
when he finally left your dorm and went back to his, you were mentally exhausted. you fell asleep and woke up right before your second class of the day.
he had started forcing you to miss classes, to do everything at home and only go in to submit your work. this was for two reasons.
the first, you could spend more time with him due to your schedules. if yours was freed then you’d have more time together.
the second was to stop you from talking to other men. completely.
...and then he found out suna was your lab partner.
“i don’t want you working with him.”
“i have to. the professor is the one who chooses.”
“then work from home and submit the stuff online. that guy is a manipulator. he’s dangerous and will take advantage of you. i just know it.”
you’d never gotten that type of vibe from suna, but you obeyed your boyfriend because you didn’t want to know what would happen if you didn’t.
secretly, though, you missed class. you missed working with him. laughing, getting to know each other. he’d become a good friend over the past year and since you had the same majors, you two shared quite a few classes.
he was calm. funny and quiet, but definitely not timid. his energy made him come off tough, but not scary. if anything, he made you feel… safe.
just for those few hours you had together.
and whenever class would end, you found yourself missing that feeling.
----♡----
“i have to go to class tomorrow.” you said, refusing to make eye contact with your boyfriend who’d invited himself over to your dorm.
just like he does every. single. night.
“why? you gonna go talk to that suna guy?” he approached you, giving you a terrifying smile that you know wasn’t coming from a place of happiness.
“yuji… please.” your words were barely a whisper when you felt his fingers wrap around your throat. “my professor told me i need to start going. my grades are falling behind.”
his fingers tapped rhythmically against your skin. dancing skillfully as he toyed with the idea of choking you. you held your breath, expecting the worst.
“you should try harder.” he growled, digging his fingertips into your neck and you clenched your eyes closed. “get your grades back up so you don’t have to spend any more time with that guy.”
“okay, okay!” you grabbed onto his wrist and his eyes widened. “i will! i’ll get my grades up so i don’t need to see him anymore.”
“good girl.” he smiled, the evil expression he’d previously worn had melted away into a false image of a kind man. “always listening so well for me.”
yuji leaned in and kissed you. you kissed back, barely, but just enough for him to be satisfied and leave you alone.
“time for me to go.” he sighed as he heard the dorm advisor do a final walk through to knock on the doors and let the students know it was time for guests to leave.
“see you tomorrow?” he asked, tilting your chin up to look at him.
“sure…” you whispered. you trembled under his touch and wanted nothing more than for him to leave your sight.
“good. it’s a date.” he said happily and gave you another kiss, practically skipping down the hallway back to his own room.
you shut and locked your door, desperately wishing that was the last time you’d ever have to see him.
----♡----
“well, well, well.” suna cooed as you took your seat next to him. “as i live and breathe, i never thought i’d see the day. you finally made it to class.”
you nodded and pulled out your books.
“had to. my grades are slipping.” you sighed, looking around at the science classroom. “what are we doing today?”
“lab day.” suna said as he nudged an instruction sheet towards you. “should we put on our coats and get to it?”
“okay...”
you started to have an internal panic attack. your wrists were as bruised as the black eye you were hiding behind your hair.
suna stepped away to get your lab coats.
this would all be visible, and you didn’t want suna (or anyone) to see any of it.
you nervously approached your professor and she looked up at you with a disinterested stare.
“ma’am, i need to be excused from class today.”
“absolutely not.” she scoffed, “unless you want to fail my class, which i know you can’t afford to do, you’ll stay and do your lab.”
you opened your mouth to reply but she kept speaking.
“go put up your hair, roll up your sleeves and get your lab coat on. you should be thankful you have such a competent partner.” she crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair, “actually, i think the two of you should spend some time together. he’s my top student and you definitely need some tutoring.”
“i don’t think that’s necessary-“
“mr. suna, come up here please.”
suna walked up with a confused look, unsure as to why he was being brought in to the conversation.
“something i can help with?” he asked.
“yes,” the professor smiled, “i’d like the two of you to do tutoring sessions a minimum of twice a week, an hour each time. could you do that?”
“oh, sure. i don’t mind.” he smiled, “was that all? we should get to our assignment.”
you felt backed in to a wall. of course you were okay with this, you enjoyed spending time with suna.
unfortunately, you were terrified of the repercussions.
even worse, there was nothing you could do about it.
when you got back to your table, you put your hair up and silently thought of a plan. keep your head down, don’t make eye contact. maybe he wouldn’t notice.
you rolled up your sleeves and put on your white coat. it was barely long enough to hit your wrists, but did a decent job of hiding the bruises.
the first half of the lab went well. suna explained things in a way that made it easy to comprehend and you were genuinely enjoying yourself.
until you completely forgot.
you began to pour the green liquid into the tube. suna was writing his lab report when he looked up and noticed your mistake.
“oh, hey,” he stood up, putting his hand over yours to tilt the container back up. “you need to pour it slower, like this.”
when it started to pour just as he’d wanted, he let go and you found yourself missing the brief comfort of his touch.
“good job! you did it.” suna smiled and you looked up at him with an excited expression. finally. finally you were getting something right.
when the two of you made eye contact, his smile immediately dropped into a look of concern.
“what happened to your eye?”
“oh,” you stepped back, covering it with your hand. “i fell.”
suna carefully held onto your wrist and you winced in pain. his intentions were to move your hand away from your eye, but he took immediate notice of your reaction and pushed your sleeve down.
the bruises in the shape of fingerprints stained your skin a deep purple.
“what about here?” he stepped closer. you tried to read his expression but he looked completely emotionless.
“from the same fall, i’m just clumsy.”
“and your neck?”
suna pushed back your lab coat to see the same fingerprint bruises scattered around your neck.
you were suddenly thankful you’d chosen the table in the far back end of the classroom. nobody was ever watching.
“yeah.” you said, practically a whisper. “i’m just really clumsy.”
suna leaned down and looked into your eyes.
“why don’t i believe you?”
“five more minutes!” the professor called, interrupting your intense conversation and the two of you snapped back into action.
you finished your lab report and quickly packed up your stuff before rushing out the classroom door.
suna followed closely behind.
“it’s your boyfriend, isn’t it?”
you stopped dead in your tracks and turned around to look at him. suna’s expression was no longer emotionless. he was angry.
“okay,” you sighed, grabbing his wrist to pull him to a secluded space outside. the two of you sat down under a large tree, away from everyone else.
“yuji gets upset with me and… hurts me… sometimes.” you choked out. “i haven’t told anyone because i’m scared of what he’ll do to me. i haven’t left him because i’m scared of him. i’m stuck.”
you hadn’t said these words out loud to anyone, ever, and the way they were flowing so freely had you crying before you were even aware of it.
“please don’t tell anyo-“
“i’ll take care of it.”
you looked up at him. suna looked completely calm, his voice smooth and gaze held on you.
“what do you mean?”
suna stood up and ran his hands through his hair.
“i mean i’ll take care of it.” he smiled, “see you tomorrow afternoon for tutoring?”
“wait, suna-“
“later!” he gave you a passive wave before walking back towards the university building.
----♡----
that evening you waited for yuji to come by your dorm, but he never did.
you waited for him to call you, but he didn’t.
you worried about what suna had meant. maybe he was going to talk to him, maybe even threaten him. you’d hoped he wouldn’t do that, but you really didn’t know what he was capable of.
surely the rumours about him couldn’t be true. an honour's chemistry major being involved in a more sinister, underground group that nobody even knew if it was real or made up?
he was too nice. there was no way.
----♡----
after class you headed back to your dorm to get ready for your evening. suna had asked you to meet him under the same tree from the day before. around 7pm.
you debated on calling yuji, but ultimately decided against it. maybe he’d come to his senses. maybe he was remorseful, and just wanted to move on. to leave you alone and pretend your relationship never happened.
that was what you wished for the most.
----♡----
you stepped out into the cold evening air. the wind blowing softly and brushing the hair out of your face.
you clutched your books to your chest and took a short cut through the back fields separating the dorms from the main university campus.
you checked your phone, you were early. suna would be there in about 15 minutes.
you reached down to grab your phone when it was immediately snatched from your hands.
“you did this, didn’t you?” a familiar voice snapped at you. you glanced up to see yuji, sporting a similar black eye and a bandaged cut on his cheek.
“i- no, of course not!”
he rolled his eyes at your reply, clearly not willing to listen to a word you were saying. yuji grabbed your wrists, forcing you to drop your books and pushed you against the back wall of the university.
“you did. tell me right now. everything you said. who you said it to. and why.” the look in his eyes was horrifying. scarier than any other look he’s given you before.
this made it seem like his previous bouts of anger were nothing but minor inconveniences.
“i didn’t-“
yuji pulled back, immediately hitting your chin with a hard punch that knocked your head back into the concrete wall.
“try again.”
your vision was hazy. mind blurring memories together and you couldn’t even form a proper sentence.
you felt a warm, wet sensation cascading down the back of your neck and were immediately soothed by the feeling. the warmth was comfortable, even though you didn’t know what it was from.
yuji’s hand wrapped around your throat and he pressed his forehead to yours. his fingers dug roughly into your windpipe, causing you to choke out the remaining air in your lungs. you felt yourself get sleepy, closing your eyes and letting darkness overtake you as your body went limp.
----♡----
“hey, wake up.”
snapping fingers in your face had you looking around curiously. you couldn’t focus on your surroundings. it was unclear who was with you, unclear what was happening around you, and unclear why you were there.
the sounds of multiple men. grunting, panting. speaking quietly between deep breaths and harsh exertion.
what were they doing?
“hey.” the fingers snapped in front of your face again.
“what…” was all you could manage to say. your body felt heavy. weak. you were just so tired. all you wanted to do was fall asleep. you submitted to the exhaustion, closing your eyes again.
“don’t go to sleep.” a soothing voice lifted the back of your neck, pressing something soft against your head. “stay awake and listen to me.”
“ya like beatin’ up girls, huh?”
whack
“wanna put a girl half your size in the hospital, for what? to feel like more of a man?”
whack
“a real man would never hit a woman.”
whack
“a real man would beat the shit out of losers who do hit women, right ‘tsum?”
“right. maybe we’ll even put him in the hospital.”
whack
whack
“oh, he’s gonna be there once we’re done.”
you finally recognized the last voice. it was suna.
he spoke again, his voice raspy and dark but still audible from where you were.
“i hope to fucking god you didn’t hurt her so badly that she’s knocked out…” suna trailed off and let out a small chuckle. “because there’s nothing i want more than for her to hear you cry like a little bitch when this blade goes right…”
the sound of yuji’s sudden scream was immediately muffled by what you were sure was the hand of the other man.
“…through you.”
your eyes widened and you were starting to understand what was happening.
all you could feel around you was danger.
you started to hyperventilate. panic was taking over.
“focus on me. come on, we need to get out of here.”
“who…” your head started to hurt now. badly.
“my name is osamu.” he bent down and cradled you in his arms, bringing you close to his chest and picking you up bridal style. “hold on to me if you can.”
“i’m scared…” you whispered.
“i know.” he murmured, carrying you away from the scene and back through the field. “i’ll keep you safe. we need to go to the hospital.”
“what about…”
“the only thing you need to worry about is stayin’ awake right now, okay? it’ll all be okay.” osamu’s voice was soothing. his body was warm and his strong arms supported your body in a way that made you never want to leave his hold.
you gave him a weak nod. even if you wanted to get away, you couldn’t. so you decided to trust in this man and hope for the best.
----♡----
“hey, sweetheart.” the calm voice of a nurse slowly woke you up. “you’re finally awake.”
“where…” you choked out, your throat was dry and you could barely make out where you were. it was all so… confusing.
“you’re in the hospital.” she said as she stood on her tiptoes to change the fluids on your iv pole. “you were assaulted. your injuries aren’t good but you’ll make a full recovery.”
the nurse leaned back down and held onto your hand. “you have a real knight in shining armour, you know. your boyfriend hasn’t left your side since you were admitted. he’s going to be so happy when he finds out you woke up.”
boyfriend?
your heart started to race at the thought of yuji coming in. you looked around, preparing for the worst when you heard footsteps enter the room.
“hey, sleepyhead.”
“speak of the devil.” the nurse smiled, giving your hand a squeeze. “i’ll let you two have some privacy. please press the call button if you need anything, i’ll come back and check on you soon.”
the footsteps grew closer and you heard the squeak of a chair being pulled up next to your bed. you opened your eyes to see suna giving you a compassionate smile.
“rintaro?” you whispered, “what are you doing here?”
“making sure you’re okay.” he crossed his arms, “been here since you were admitted.”
you tried your hardest to remember even coming to the hospital, but you just couldn’t. everything was gone after your head hit that wall.
“what… happened?” you asked, your eyes pleading for him to be honest.
“someone attacked you and your boyfriend.” suna leaned in, “do you not remember anything?”
“i remember yuji being upset with me…” you blinked, your mind working as hard as it could to remember something of importance. “my head hit the wall and it’s kind of fuzzy after that.”
“i see.” suna nodded.
“wait, how did you know i was in here?”
“some people mentioned an attack on campus. i got worried when you were late for our study session, and when your phone rang and you didn’t answer i felt like something was up.” he shrugged, taking a moment to think of his next words. “i called the hospital and asked if you were here, and then came right over when they confirmed it.”
“oh. okay…” you went to scratch an itch on your scalp and were met with searing pain at the slightest bit of pressure. “ow!”
“careful.” he smiled, taking your hand away from your head. “it’s gonna be sore for a while.”
“yeah…” you trailed off, trying to make sense of the situation. “what happened to yuji?”
“why do you care?”
“huh?” you glanced at suna who’s expression had turned sour.
“why do you care about what happened to him? he could've killed you.”
“i just wanted to know if he…” your voice was shaky and you tried to compose yourself. “if there was a possibility of him coming after me again.”
“not a single chance.” suna leaned over the railing of the hospital bed and took your hand. “besides, even if there was, i won’t let anything happen to you.”
----♡----
you’d found out yuji had suffered from severe injuries almost taking his life. he was beaten, stabbed, and his spinal cord suffered so much damage he was permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
while you were relieved the abuse would be over, you constantly wondered who had assaulted him.
you remembered telling suna and him saying he’d take care of it, surely that wasn’t him, right? there was no way suna could do something like that.
----♡----
months went by while you recovered from your injuries. you’d been discharged from the hospital after 3 weeks, and suna had stuck by your side every day.
“i’m happy to say you’ve essentially made a full recovery.” the doctor smiled, shaking your hand. “i’m so proud of your progress. you’re truly a walking miracle.”
“what about my memory?” you asked, “when will i remember what happened?”
“oh, you might not ever remember. you hit your head hard and from what we gather, you were unconscious.” the doctor stood up, clutching his clip board before walking out. “it’s probably for the best that you don’t remember what happened. you should focus on moving on, now. take care.”
----♡----
“well, should we celebrate?” suna asked as you walked out of the hospital together. you stopped, causing him to turn and look down at you. “what’s up?”
“i just wanted to say thank you…” you said, feeling your face getting hot. “i don’t think i could’ve done this without you.”
“you could’ve. you’re the strongest person i’ve ever met.” he leaned down, brushing the hair out of your face. the same hair that used to cover the deep bruises, now showing your true complexion. “and the most beautiful.”
you felt your heart flutter at his sudden compliment. suna’s hands found your waist and you instinctively draped your arms over his shoulders.
“you really mean that?” you asked, looking into his eyes.
“of course i do.” he smiled, leaning in to give you the long awaited kiss the two of you had been dying for. his lips were soft and you melted into his arms. he pulled away, resting his forehead on yours. “beautiful in every possible way.”
you felt tears well up as you were being complimented. the sweetest, kindest, most handsome man touching you so delicately and speaking to you with nothing but respect.
you'd completely fallen in love with him, and it was everything you ever could’ve asked for.
----♡----
a few weeks after the two of you made it official, your honeymoon phase was in full force. you couldn’t keep your hands off of each other. you were experiencing your first true relationship that made you feel loved and you cherished at every moment.
one evening, you decided to go to suna’s dorm to surprise him.
knock knock
“rintaro?” you called out, opening the door to let yourself in. “are you home?”
“in here, baby.” he replied from the kitchen. he was sharing an apartment style dorm with two other men, but you hadn’t met them yet. they weren’t ever there when you were.
“we finally get to meet your girl, huh?” one of them cooed as you walked in. he had dyed blonde hair and smirked at you as you walked by. “damn, she’s a looker, huh ‘samu?”
samu… why did that sound familiar?
“don’t be such a pig.” the other boy replied. you realized they were twins when he stood up and walked over to you. he smiled, holding out his hand. “nice to meet ya, i’m osamu.”
osamu.
no.
“my name is osamu…”
it couldn’t be.
“…hold on to me if you can.”
no, no, no.
the memories of the night of the assault came flooding back to you.
it only took a moment to realize...
...it wasn’t a random assault at all.
619 notes · View notes
Text
Desperate Measures 1
Warnings: nonconsent and rape (miniseries); stalking, fear, intimidation.
This is dark!Steve Rogers and explicit. Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.
Summary: At first, you think it’s a joke when you get the strange messages, but when they don’t stop, you realise too late how real it all is.
Note: This was going to be a one shot but it kept going and going and going, so it’s gonna be split in 2.
Thank you. Love you guys!
Please leave some feedback, like and reblog <3
Tumblr media
Have a piece of American dream Open up, and swallow, on your knees And say Thank you I'd like some desperate measures, please
💌
The first picture was sent on Monday. You remembered it clearly unlike most Monday mornings. It was the same boring ritual; a coffee that had long turned cold, a pen that wouldn’t write, and a computer that ran as if on dial-up. 
The only bright side was that your small desk was near a window and you could look out onto the city streets, though they were hardly less miserable than your own existence. You were so high up the people were merely moving specks. You often found yourself distracted by the crowded traffic below.
You were drawn from such a distant reverie by the buzz of your phone. You kept it face down by your monitor. Despite the temptation, you limited yourself to succumbing only once an hour. You sat back and your chair creaked as it tilted beneath you. You checked the time in the corner of your screen and reached for your cell, the rubber case scuffed and scratched at the edges.
Notifications for the same emails that sat open in front of you and a few personal ones in the next bubble. Another for the game you played on the subway or when you were overly listless, several updates for your hoarded apps, and a single text. 
There was no number attached to the message, only the foreboding thick font that read ‘unknown number’. You chewed on your thumb as you leaned forward on your elbow and swiped your screen up and punched in your password. The screen flashed and you hit the last notification. No words, just a file. You hit download.
You blinked as it ate your data and the image of your apartment door appeared. You glanced around and laughed to yourself. You shook your head and keyed in your response; ‘very funny, Eva.’ You hit send and set your phone back down. 
Your old friend liked her jokes and you hadn’t missed her little ploy the last time she showed up at your place angry over her latest fling. You had thought she was getting a picture of the stain on the hallway carpet that looked suspiciously like blood… or feces… or a mixture of the two.
You went back to your work and switched the document you’d been picking at for most of the morning. Your job was as entertaining as watching paint dry then peel from age. When you applied for an editing position, you’d expected thrillers and melodramas. Instead, you got dry textbooks and educational guides.
You yawned and pushed through to your scheduled break. You dumped your cold coffee and headed down to the café to grab another. The coffee they kept in the office was cheap and bland. You ate your salad in the lunchroom as you watched the clock tick away. You checked your phone. No reply to that unusual text. Eva must’ve chickened out.
You scoffed and switched chats to send her usual number an ‘lol’. You tucked your phone in your pocket and punched back in before you headed back to your desk. A couple more hours and you’d be home to stew in the early week daze.
The last half of the day went quicker and your subway ride was uneventful; well, for New York. You walked home from your stop and pulled out your phone as you climbed the stairs. You slowed down and moved your feet blindly. You’d finally gotten an answer. ‘Eva?’
You opened the chat again and hit the image. It filled the screen and you squinted as you came to a stop. The stain wasn’t there. Your landlord had finally relented and had the entire hallway torn up and replaced with an even duller shade of grey. The picture had been taken since then; within the last month. The last time you’d seen Eva, you’d gone to hers.
Your chest clenched and you gulped. You hit the little icon in the corner of the conversation and hit ‘block’. You continued to your floor and neared your door. You looked down the hallway and back to your door. You tried the handle. Locked. You took a breath.
It could still be a joke. The stoner next door, Perry, had your number from when you agreed to feed his cat that one time. Maybe he was high or just trying to be funny. Still, it hadn’t come up under his name. Well, he might have changed his number since then.
You unlocked your door and scurried inside. You made sure to turn the latch and slide the chain into place. You tossed your bag beside the mat of shoes and added your flats to the pile. You dropped your phone on the coffee table and untucked your work shirt as you walked around the small living room. 
Nothing was out of place, not that you truly believed whoever it was had gotten past your door. You rubbed your forehead and went to the small kitchen that looked out into the living room. You grabbed a can of sparkling lime whatever and plopped it next to your phone.
You went to your bedroom and stripped yourself of your stiff work clothes and pulled on the night shirt crumpled atop your blanket. You looked down at the thin grey cotton and reached under to unhook your bra. You flung it in the corner knowing you’d be cursing yourself when you couldn’t find it the next morning.
You flopped onto the couch and grabbed your remote. You turned on some mindless Youtube video and opened the mobile game which had taken too much of your life from you. You connected three and four and five and somewhere in between your existentialism kicked in and had you wondering at the point of it.
You closed the app before it ate all of your battery and your phone shook in your hand. 
‘You didn’t tell me who Eva is.’ The message flashed over the top of the screen then disappeared. You pulled down the notification and hit it. You were certain you’d blocked the number. The other messages were gone though and ‘unknown number’ was still emblazoned across the top. You blocked the convo again and dimmed the screen. 
You plugged in your phone and sprawled out across the sofa. You stared at the television, a blur and a buzz to your frantic mind. 
It was dark already when you dragged yourself off the couch and heated up a microwave dinner. You ate it without tasting and your phone chimed to signal a full charge. You left it as it was on the arm of the couch and resumed your repose on the sofa. You fell asleep to the angered commentary of a gamer trying to fight a clam.
You awoke with a start. You blinked through your daze as your television showed stills of mountain and grassy fields. You sat up and grabbed your phone. You checked the time; midnight. Another message.
‘She’s the one you had coffee with last week.’ It said.
You gaped and dropped your phone. You looked around as if whoever it was would be hiding in the corner. You shook as you reached down and took the phone. You swallowed and began to type.
‘Whoever this is, this isn’t funny anymore. Cut it out.’
‘Funny?’ The response came quickly.
‘I mean it. Stop.’
‘Good night, sweetheart.’
You recoiled at the message and bit your lip to keep it from trembling. You checked your door again, the chain still in place, checked every inch of your apartment in your paranoia. Nothing. You let out a breath and took a blanket from your bed and huddled up on the couch. You turned on a playlist, not sure you’d be sleeping much that night.
💌
You weren’t sure when you fell asleep again but you rose before your alarm. You drank your coffee as the sky turned a duller shade of grey. You went through your usual morning dance and headed out the door with a bagel hanging from your mouth. You chowed down on your way to the subway. You felt your bag buzz as you stepped on the train.
You ignored it and clung to the bar as you counted the stops. You got off and stopped by the coffee shop. You ordered a black tea and headed down to your building. Your desk was as it was when you left it. The chair was tucked in and your mouse was hidden behind the keyboard. You sat and booted the laggy machine.
As you waited for it to start, you stirred around in your bag for your phone. You had another message. You dreaded opening it but the circle just kept spinning in the middle of the monitor. You hit the bubble and your phone unlocked.
You took a sharp breath as the image glared back at you. It was you, on the subway, that morning judging by the jacket, staring at the door as the photo was taken unknowingly. Your phone slipped from your grasp and you spun in your chair.
Everything was as it should be. Your co-workers looked just as dead inside as you. Your boss was boxed up in his office on a ‘conference call’. You shuddered and turned back to your desk. You burned your tongue on your tea and signed into your computer. Your phone vibrated beside your shoe and you bent to retrieve it.
‘You looked tired this morning’. The next message blipped on the screen.
You were quick to sweep the clock upward and type. ‘Who the fuck is this?’
‘Sweetheart. I don’t like that kind of language.’ The response was quick and sharp, even in text.
‘Tell me who you are? Why are you doing this?’
‘One thing at a time.’ The letters burned into your vision.
‘Who are you?’ You keyed in again. No answer. 
You set the phone down and watched it. Five minutes, no buzz. You hovered your hand over your mouse and tried to focus on your monitor. Your heart was so loud in your ears, your head began to pound.
💌
When you got on the subway at the end of the day, you looked around frantically as you settled into a seat, your bag hugged to your chest. You glanced up and down the car a dozen times over as you awaited your cue. Your toe tapped anxiously and you stood so fast you were dizzy when your stop came up.
You rushed down the sidewalk, peeking over your shoulder every other step. You didn’t say anything unusual; no one following you, no one watching. You ran up to your building and unlocked the door clumsily. 
You hurried up the stairs and down the hall to your apartment. The key slid in roughly and you turned it so quick, you were certain it would bend. You skirted inside and put the chain in place.
You looked down as your thin-soled boot brushed over something. A pile of flyers slipped through the slot in your absence. You picked them up and sorted through them, an envelope amidst the mess. On its face, it read ‘for my sweetheart’.
You hovered by the door, staring at the envelope. After a moment, you slung your bag down on the floor and placed the flyers on the end table by the lamp. You clicked on the light and ran your thumb along the lip. You carefully opened it and pulled out the paper inside. You unfolded it and your breath caught in your chest.
It was a sketch, quite well done, of you. You’d worn that sweater last week. You went to the park and walked around, sat by the fountain, tossed rocks into the babbling basin. They had been there, whoever it was. How long had they been watching?
And they had been at your door, close enough to slip this through the slot. You folded the drawing and shoved it back in the envelope. You stomped into the kitchen and tossed it into the bin beneath the counter. You backed up and gripped the other counter behind you. You felt a lump in your throat. 
What the fuck was going on?
💌
You started going in early to work; catching the train half an hour before your usual one. You left late and changed your route between the station and your building. You entered through the back, hopping the low concrete barrier between the apartments and the backlot.
Still, it only gave you a single day of peace. No messages, no pictures; and you thought the game was over. You hoped it was. That it was just a sick joke that had finally grown tiring. 
But Thursday saw another image of you just outside your work building. Friday, another of you on the subway.
The weekend was listless. You did your shopping quickly and on Sunday, you wore a loose hoodie to the laundromat. You could find nothing peculiar around you. The city was full of sketchy people but none seemed to be watching you. The hordes were still about their own lives; ignorant of those around them. You felt entirely alone, as if you were being hunted.
Monday was much the same as the last but how could it ever be dull again. You shut your phone off so you could focus on your work. When you were finally done, you dialed the toll-free number for your provider. You took a taxi home and spent two hours on the line but you got your new number and a sense of relief.
You kept your phone on, ringer on max, and nothing. You watched the screen rather than the television but it only lit up with emails and a random text from your mother. You slept in your bed that night,almost soundly.
You still kept your eye over your shoulder. Still searched out any sign of unusual interest. Perhaps you were clueless or maybe your lack of response had finally gotten through to them. Once their messages bounced back as out of service, they might have given up. They got their laughs, now you wanted peace.
It lasted until Friday. 
A full week and you were certain it was over. You finished work and stopped by the liquor store for a bottle of wine on your way home. You could finally let loose. Life had gone back to its usual tedium. You browsed the reds lazily but pondered a pack of coolers instead. Your phone buzzed. You slid it from your pocket out of habit.
‘That cabernet on the top shelf is on sale. Just to your left.’ You stared at the message and backed away from the shelf. You looked around but all the other customers seemed intent on their own purchases. You gulped and blocked the unknown sender.
You left emptied-handed and ran for the train. You got home an hour later than usual. You raced up the stairs and stopped dead in front of your door. The tall gift bag looked familiar; it had been hanging in the store by the till. You neared and peered inside. The golden cap of the wine that had stood in front of you; top shelf.
You bent and flipped the little card attached to the string.
‘For you, sweetheart. Enjoy your weekend.’
You stood and grabbed the bag. You glanced up and down the halls and stormed back down the grey carpet. Your feet hammered down the stairs and you burst through the back doors. You threw the bag into the dumpster and heard the shatter. Your lip trembled as you spun and sprinted back inside.
When you reached your apartment, you called Eva. You struggled to open your dresser with one hand and started pulling out clothes and stuffing them into your neon duffle. She finally picked up.
“E-eva,” you stuttered, “can I-- Can I stay with you, please? J-just a night or two--”
“Wohoa, whoa, slow down,” she said. “What’s going on?”
“I can’t… I can’t tell you now. I’m just-- I’m freaking out and I can’t stay here.” Your voice cracked and you sniffed back tears, “I-- Please. I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, it’s fine. I… I have plans but I can cancel,” she offered.
“No, no, I… don’t--”
“You’ll have the apartment to yourself,” she said, “I’ll just let Ray know I’ll be late.”
“What time are you supposed to--”
“Seven but it’s fine,” she assured you. “You okay?”
“I… Wait, you’re fucking around with Ray again?”
“Do you want the couch or not?” She half-kidded, “you want me to meet you there or--”
“No, no,” you whisked into your washroom and grabbed your toothbrush, “I’m coming right now.” You returned to the bedroom and shoved an armful in the bag. “Eva… thank you.”
“Stay on the phone,” she said softly. “Please… you’re scaring me.”
“Okay,” you zipped up the duffle, “yeah, I’ll stay on.”
💌
You hung up as you came up to Eva’s building. She met you at the door, a thick silence between you as you sensed what she wanted to ask you. You weren’t sure how to tell you. You weren’t sure if you could.
You pushed the door closed behind you as you entered her apartment. It was cuter than yours, a spiral staircase led to a loft above and the curtains were lace and matched the dainty pillows on the couch. You placed your bag on the floor and she turned to you.
“Just give me a moment,” you said. She didn’t need to ask.
She went to the desk in the corner of the spacious room and turned on the ring light of the round mirror. She fished through her make-up box and pulled out her eyeliner. She was already done her base and highlight. You neared and hovered just beside her desk.
“I don’t even know…” you stopped yourself and went to your bag. You pulled out the paper you’d shoved in the side pocket on your way out. “Look.”
You crossed to her again and unfolded the sketch on her desk. She glanced down from drawing a wing along her eye and lowered the pencil. She blinked and shrugged.
“Look, someone dropped this through my mail slot. No address on the envelope, just this.” You felt crazy. “And I thought it was all some joke. They were sending me pictures, of me, of my building… I blocked them but they just kept on. I even changed my number.”
She scrunched her lips and looked back to her mirror. She finished her other eye and set the pencil down.
“You call the police?” She asked calmly.
“I… the drawing is all I have. I just deleted the messages when they came because… well, I didn’t think much of it at first. Not until… There was a bottle of wine waiting for me when I came home. The very same I was looking at right before I booked it for my train,” you rubbed your cheek, “Eva, I’m not crazy. I swear.”
“I believe you,” she said, “why wouldn’t I but… there’s nothing you can do but keep a log of what happens from here on out. Screencap everything.”
“You think… you think the police would help if I did?” You asked.
“Not much. Stalking isn’t really something they take seriously. I knew this girl in college-- Well, the evidence can at least get you a restraining order… if you ever figure out who’s sending you all this,” she paused and glanced down at the drawing. “Whoever it is, they got talent.”
“I’m sure they’d be happy to hear that,” you scoffed and crossed your arms.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay here with you?”
You pondered her offer but shook your head.
“As much as I think you should send Ray along, no. I can’t ask any more of you.” You sighed and grabbed the sketch. You dragged your feet to the couch and flopped down on the cushions, “I really do appreciate it.”
“I always told you to get out of that neighbourhood,” she said as she searched her assortment of make-up, “but you know I never mind you hanging out.”
💌
You spent the night on Eva’s couch, alone. She didn’t get home until three in the morning and you waited until noon for her to wake up. When she did, her face was smeared with eyeliner and her hair a mess. 
You hadn’t touched your phone since the night before. You chewed your thumb as you waited for her to emerge from the shower, restless and unsure what to do with yourself. She slammed the lid down on her coffee machine and growled as she turned and crossed her arms.
“Are you okay?” she asked sharply.
“I’m sorry,” you said as you stopped pacing. You barely remembered getting up to walk circles around the coffee table, “I just don’t know what to do.”
“Well, how about a latte?” she yawned behind her hand, “my coffee machine is fucked… again.”
“Um, maybe that’s best, get out and… distract myself,” you twiddled your fingers as your stomach ached. You hadn’t eaten anything since the day before and that was just after noon.
“We’ll get lunch,” she rubbed her forehead, “soak up the wine.”
You shook your head and said nothing. She always drank too much around Ray but you didn’t have the energy for that argument again. So you stayed quiet and watched her disappear into her bedroom.
She emerged as you zipped up your purse. You didn’t bother with your phone as you waited by the door but felt listless without the device. It was like a shield you used when you went out in the world. It kept you from eye contact or awkward conversation.
You set off and headed down the street to the pub that seamlessly shifted from brunch to ladies’ night every Saturday. You ordered breakfast tacos as you sat just inside the large floor length windows that looked out onto the shady patio. The other guest lent a sense of normalcy as they carried on their own conversations and reminded you that you were just another ant on the hill.
As you got your latte in the stemmed glass, Eva pulled out her phone and scowled at the shaking. She was so wrapped up in her texts with Ray she hadn’t even mentioned the reason for your overnighter. You were happy for it and yet, you couldn’t think of anything else.
“Jesus, I told him we were having breakfast and he’s blowing up my phone,” she huffed, “just a second.”
“Eve,” you said as she stood and slid her thumb across the screen, “our foods gonna be here--”
“I won’t be long,” she promised and lifted the speaker to her ear and turned away, “Ray, I’ll be over later, promise. I barely slept--”
Her voice trailed away as she wove between tables and pushed out onto the patio and went to the short fence to chat beyond the ears of diners. You sipped from your drink and stared down at the splintered curve of the table. You couldn’t stay with Eva forever and she was hardly any comfort in her distraction with her on-again, off-again dirt bag. Maybe, if you moved--
“There you are, sweetheart,” the low voice startled you and you sat stalk straight as a figure smoothly slid into Eva’s empty chair, “you gave me quite a scare, up and leaving without a word…”
You stared wide-eyed at the stranger across from you. Well, you knew who he was. Everyone in the city, in the country, even the world, knew Steve Rogers. He smiled at you as his blue eyes glimmered. His posture was cool and confident and it was you who felt out of place.
And you knew, it was him. The shock was not enough to fuel your denial as that feeling deep down assured you of it. That little voice that told you this was your tormentor and that you were fucked.
“I…” you breathed and blinked. You couldn’t find the words, you hardly understood the storm of emotions flowing through you. You glanced through the window as Eva threw her hand up and continued berating her phone, “it’s you?”
“I hate that it has to be this way,” he said, “you know, my work keeps me out of town so much and I just wish we had more time.”
“Wha…” you gulped and gripped the edge of the table, “why--?”
“You haven’t been answering me,” his smile fell, “I don’t like being ignored.”
Your hand shook and you kept it in your lap to hide the rising terror along your spine. You sat paralysed as he sighed and glanced around the restaurant. He tilted his head and pushed his shoulders back.
“You threw out my gift,” he said evenly, “that wasn’t very nice.”
“Go…” you uttered, “go, please--”
“Sweetheart, we’re just talking,” he took a gulp of Eva’s Americano casually, “I missed you… I miss you every day and it hurts that we have to be apart.”
Your shoulders slumped and you clutched your hands in fists on your lap. You could scream but what good would that do. He was Captain America, the first avenger, a hero. 
As if your thoughts sent a banner waving, a young kid approached the table and smiled nervously as he held one of the colouring pages supplied by the restaurant in his hands.
“Um, Captain, uh, America,” the kid stuttered, “will you sign-- Will you sign my--?”
The kid smiled through tight lips and held up the colouring page. Instead, Steve chuckled and took his cap from his head and fished around in his pocket. He pulled out a sharpie and signed the brim and placed it back on the kid’s head.
“There you go,” he said.
“Thank you, Cap!” the kid almost squealed, “oh my gosh!”
“No problem,” Steve laughed and watched the kid run back to the table where his mother sat, she waved at the man across from you and mouthed a thanks. He cleared his throat and stood as he tucked away the marker, “sorry, this is why I didn’t wanna do this in public,” he gripped his hip with one hand, “but… we’ll have our time.” He slowly backed away, “I’ll text you. You’ll answer.”
He grinned one last time and strode away. He stopped before the door as he held it open for Eva and she batted her lashes at him as she gushed. You could guess at her star struck words but couldn’t make them out. He left as she finally stopped her babbling and she almost skipped over to you.
“Oh my god, did you see him?” she trilled, “I didn’t think he’d be even better looking in-person.”
“See who?” you asked dumbly as you tried to disguise your discomfort in your latte.
“Steve Rogers,” she announced, “ugh, even without your phone, you got your head in the ground.”
728 notes · View notes
egcdeath · 3 years
Text
finders keepers
Tumblr media
summary: did captain america just steal your cat?
pairing: steve rogers x reader
word count: 2.5k
warnings: tooth rotting fluff, strangers to lovers
author’s note: it’s been way too long since i wrote some pure, self indulgent fluff. this has been quite the refreshing experience for me but i think it’s back to our regularly scheduled program after this ;)
you can find my masterlist and taglist here
Miso had an air of arrogance that you admired. She took the world by its kitty balls, doing whatever she pleased whenever she pleased. Your cat left the apartment for sometimes days at a time, and frequently led male cats to your door. To you, your cat was more like a roommate than a pet, hogging up most of your bed, standing on the counter while you attempted to make food for yourself, and leaving most areas dirtier than she originally found it. 
Okay, maybe you were personifying your cat a little too much. But after moving out to D.C., you were unspeakably lonely. Most days, it felt like Miso was all you had, and that you were all Miso had (save for her army of cat boyfriends). 
This made things all the more concerning for you when you’d realized that you hadn’t seen your cat companion in five days. Five whole days without the comforting vibration of her purr, her ungodly hours of wakeup calls demanding to be played with, or pet. The cherry on top was that the cat food outside your door appeared to be completely untouched.
In your frenzied realization of your missing cat, your mind raced with a thousand different terrible situations your dear Miso could’ve found herself in. You frantically clicked through pictures of her on an online album and attempted to find a photo that would capture her white fur with large blobs of auburn, and her vibrant blue eyes to put on your ‘MISSING’ sign. The longer you clicked, the more that you began to worry that she had been caught and kidnapped by some terrible person with bad intentions. 
You finally threw together the poster, sending it to your phone so that you could print it off at the OfficeMax down the street. Luckily for you, you didn’t make it that far, as the moment you began to lock the closed door of your apartment, you saw the unmistakable figure of your cat. 
In the arms of your neighbor.
Now, you’d never met Steve. He was an Avenger, Captain America to be exact, and you were just… you. You’d convinced yourself that attempting to introduce yourself to him would ultimately end in failure, and an embarrassing one at that. Maybe he’d scoff and walk away, or call Tony Stark in front of you and tell him about the crazy woman he just encountered. 
But none of that mattered. Captain America was stealing your fucking cat. 
“Excuse me, sir?” You asked, stepping away from your door and approaching the Greek God of a man to the right of you. 
“Oh, hey! We must be n-“
“You have my cat,” you said bluntly.
“I’m sorry, what?” Steve seemed to do a double take
“My cat, y’know, the feline in your arms.”
“Well, maybe we just have similar looking cats. This is Arabella.”
You nearly scoffed at this, shaking your head. First, Captain America kidnapped your cat, and now he’s trying to convince you that it’s not your cat? Yeah, you’d know Miso from a mile away. And what kind of name is Arabella?
“Arabella is a great name for her,” Steve retorted, pulling the cat closer to his chest. Shit, did you say that out loud?
“Well I think it’s time for Miso to come back home,” the cat’s ears perked at this, and she glanced over at you. The sight of you made her wiggle and hop out of Steve’s tight embrace, landing on her feet and trotting over to you. The damn cat rubbed her face against your calf and purred as if she hadn’t been cheating on you for long enough to have gained a new name.
You squatted down and rubbed the back of your hand against her cheek, and shook your head at your pet, “you’re getting put on probation, young lady.” 
She didn’t seem to mind, pacing back and forth around you. You glanced up and saw Steve with a rather neutral expression on his face, as if he was masking whatever it was that he was feeling.
“I’m sorry about that, ma’am. Uh, maybe I’ll see you both around sometime,” disappointment coated his every word before he opened up his apartment door and promptly closed it behind him. 
You were surprised at how quickly he conceded, but you weren’t particularly mad about it either. You weren’t sure what you’d do if you never got your Miso back.
——
A whole day later, you’d been in your apartment typing up an email when a soft rapping at your door got your attention.
“Just a second!” you called, hopping up and hurrying to the door. When you opened it, Steve was standing in front of you, waiting with an oversized box in his hands.
“These are some of Ar- Miso?” he trailed off, waiting for you to confirm the name, and you gave him a tiny nod. “These are some of Miso’s toys. I just figured if she’s not staying at my place anymore…”
As if on cue, Miso strolled up to the door, and stretched her arms up on Steve’s leg, begging to be picked up. The man glanced at you for approval, and you gave a dismissive shrug before he set down the box, and held up the cat.
Steve frowned as he held her, and frankly, it pulled on your heart strings. You had to remind yourself that this man had been holding your cat captive for at least a week, and at most… who knows. 
She clearly had a connection with him, and that was what intrigued you most. Miso was a very picky cat, and it was only occasionally that she found someone that she genuinely liked, let alone wanted to be picked up by. If you continued to watch the display of affection in front of you, you might just cave.
“Uh, I left something in the oven for a little too long, so I should probably go get that. Thanks for stopping by.”
Steve nodded, understanding that it was time for him to exit.
——
You should’ve seen this coming the minute Miso was back in your home. You stepped out of the shower one morning to find your front door slightly ajar, and your animal nowhere to be found. 
You huffed, frustrated that just three days after you told yourself that your cat was completely indoor from that point on, she had escaped. She could literally be anywhere at this point.
In a whirlwind, you threw on a sweatshirt and pants, ready to go print out the missing posters that you had designed just a few days ago. As you slipped on sneakers, you realized something very crucial. She might just be at Steve’s place.
You groaned aloud, rubbing your temple as you thought of how difficult your cat was being. You were becoming a bit nervous to approach Steve, you hadn’t gotten off to the greatest start, and if your cat wasn’t there, things might just be awkward.
Regardless, you knew you needed to try, so you exited your own home, and knocked on the door of Steve’s.
A few moments later, he appeared with your cat in tow. 
“Hey!” he paused and trailed off, “I never got your name before.”
“That’s what you care about right now?” you glanced down at your animal. “It’s Y/N, by the way.”
“Hi, Y/N. Miso and I were just enjoying breakfast, if you’d like to join us?”
Was Steve shooting his shot? 
“I appreciate your offer, but I think I’m alright. I have to get back to work, and my cat is still in your custody,” your eyes flickered down to the animal who stood proudly by his side. 
“Maybe some other time,” he shrugged. “You work from home?”
You nodded, then squatted down to get eye level with your cat. 
“I’m jealous,” he chuckled. “Alright, I’ll stop bothering you now. Bye Miso, see you around, Y/N.”
You picked up your cat, who briefly dug her nails into the ground in resistance before submitting to her capture. As you brought her back home, you couldn’t help but wonder if you’d made the right choice.
——
Ever since you’d discovered Miso, or Arabella’s secret life, it’s like you couldn’t stop noticing her connection to Steve. 
Some days, she’d be gone until the dead of night, when she’d meow and paw at your front door until you woke up. Other times she’d be laying in bed with you, and she smelled distinctly of your neighbor. Your cat had single handedly turned a stranger into a thoroughly integrated part of your life.
It was as if Miso was now your child, and Steve your ex-husband in a Cold War style custody battle, where Miso seemed to prefer her father. It was slightly disheartening. At the very least, you knew she was in good hands. 
You held a throw pillow to your chest while you watched a rerun of a sitcom on your television, procrastinating in your work for as long as you possibly could. The sound of a knock on your door pulled you from your trance, and as you peeked through the peephole of your door, you saw a slightly distorted Steve.
Opening up the door, you gave him just the faintest hint of a smile, “what’s up, neighbor? Need me to grab you some treats for Arabella, or something?”
“Kinda the opposite,” he gestured with his head down to the cat squirming in his hands. “I’m gonna be gone on a mission for the next week or so. I just wanted to let you know that if Miso gets out, she’s not with me.” 
Steve set her down on your carpet, and she happily collapsed at your feet, “keep her safe for me, alright?” 
——
You took a deep breath as you approached his door, hoping he hadn’t left just yet. You fiddled with the sticky note containing your number, and polaroid photo of your cat in your hand, considering turning around and scrapping the idea all together. 
It was silly to think that an Avenger would ever bother reaching out to you. You were probably overstepping anyway. Steve would think you were a freak and take full custody of your beloved Miso once and for all. 
Going against your better judgment, you set down the polaroid-note combo and quickly slid it under Steve’s door. Whatever happened happened.
The next morning, you were pleased to receive a notification from an unknown number. 
Send Miso pics?
You were more than happy to oblige. 
——
Over the course of Steve’s week-long mission, you’d sent several pictures and videos of your cat doing random things. Trying to get on the table, sleeping on top of your dryer, and even playing with one of the toys Steve provided.
Surprisingly, Steve wasn’t as dry of a texter as you thought he’d be. He was eating up all of the Miso content, and would occasionally even ask for you to send more photos. 
The final night of his mission, you were surprised when you received a FaceTime request, at first writing it off as a technical error (he was from a different time period, after all), but the follow up call demonstrated his intentions.
You cautiously picked up, the knot in your stomach growing as you did so, “hello?”
“Hi!” Steve greeted optimistically, the phone just a bit too close to his face. “Any Miso sightings?”
“Yeah, she’s actually sleeping on my foot right now,” you chuckled, flipping the camera so you could show her off in your dim, lamp-lit bedroom. 
“So cute,” he hummed, “how have you been?”
“Me?” you laughed quietly, “I’m not the one on a top secret mission in god-knows-where. But I’ve been fine. How are you?”
“Honestly? I’m pretty tired. Kinda can’t wait to get home and see you and Miso,” he said in a quieter voice. 
Your brain stalled out for a second. Steve was excited to see you? You hoped that you were reading this the right way, as you were more than willing to go with whatever it was that Steve was putting down.
“We’ll be expecting an immediate visit from you, then. I’ll let Miso know that she needs to start kneading a bread loaf for you as soon as possible. Any idea of what time you’re getting into D.C.?” 
“Probably late morning, but it really depends on when Natasha gets up.”
You had a moment where you realized that you were talking to a real life superhero, and he had just referenced his friend… who was also a superhero. You paused for a second. 
“Y/N? Hey, you still here?”
“Yeah! Yeah. I just zoned out for a sec. Well, you better get here safe or else someone is going to be very annoyed with you.”
Steve laughed softly across the line, and you adjusted yourself in bed, yawning softly.
“I’m sorry, I forgot how late it is over there,” Steve apologized.
“Don’t worry, I was up anyway. One of Miso’s boyfriends is pretty upset that he can’t come in here and spend the night with her.”
“Which one?”
“I think that grey one. I don’t really know what his voice sounds like, but she’s been leading him on lately,” you responded, eliciting a laugh from both you and Steve. 
“Try to get some sleep, okay? I don’t need you snoozing while I come to visit our girl.”
“You are something else, Steve Rogers,” you said fondly, adjusting your phone one last time as you hugged a pillow. “I’ll get to sleep. See you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow. Sweet dreams, Y/N.”
You hung up, and cuddled into your pillow with a sigh. Calling your dreams that night sweet was an understatement. 
——
You seemed to be Steve’s first stop after his mission, stopping at your door with his duffel bag still attached to his arm, and wearing a slightly dirty and much too small white t-shirt.
Expecting his presence, you quickly got the door and gave him a toothy grin. 
“It’s so good to see your face without a screen,” Steve commented. Internally, you swooned. 
“I could say the same for you, Steve.”
Miso had been summoned by the sound of Steve’s voice, practically sprinting to the door and meowing at him on the top of her lungs. 
“Miso really appreciates you coming here to see her first,” you added as he lifted her up and quietly cooed into her wrinkly head. “Feel free to take her for the next few days. I’m sure she’s getting tired of me.”
Steve shook his head at you, and grinned, “that’s so sweet of you,” he briefly looked down at his wristwatch, and his brows raised.
“Shit. I have to go, but I promise to see you soon. I’m glad to see that everything is well. Take care, Y/N,” Steve began making his way back to his own apartment, and you watched him with the semblance of a frown. 
You really needed to stop longing for the unobtainable. 
——
You hadn’t heard from Steve in a few days following his return, and your brief interaction with him. Part of you wondered if he was avoiding you for some  reason. 
Your phone lit up the room as it went off, and you grabbed it to look at the notification you received.
A picture of Steve grinning with Miso sitting on his chest looked back at you with a simple message connected to it.
Wanna come over? :D
514 notes · View notes
lemonhobgoblin · 3 years
Text
A Casual Night
Mothman x human reader (gender-neutral)
Word Count: 7k
(I remember saying I would have a fic done the same week I posted my other fic. Well, that was a lie. After dealing with work, creating new wips, and editing what started as a 2k fic became this long-ass post. I tried to keep this gender-neutral, but if there are any parts thats not gender-neutral, or if something doesn't make sense give me a message and I'll fix it. Anyway hope you enjoy!)
The faint sound of your car running and the sound of the wind whipping against the surface was muddled out by old tunes playing from a random radio station filling the lonely ride home. Your eyes trained on the dark empty road ahead, your headlights on full beam, lighting your way. The subtle notes of a box of cooling pizza wafting in your direction every so often.
You were driving from a city over from where you lived, coming back from a friend’s home who was having a small get-together. It was a great time, unwinding from the stresses of work and life in general, with games, movies, playful banter, and sharing a couple of drinks. As the night progressed, things began to slow down, one of your friends passed out on the couch while everyone else turned to some lighthearted conversation. Leading the host to pipe up if they were willing to spend the night given how late it has gotten and mostly due to how much some people drank.
While everyone was willing to stay the night and continue their night of merriment. You on the other hand as well as one other person had to leave for the night due to work obligations you both had tomorrow morning.
Regretfully, you made your exit not without being offered leftovers for the ride back. But halfway home, you received an email detailing how you were not needed for work tomorrow as you were getting gas.
With this newfound information, you had the choice of making a U-turn back or continue straight home.
Rather than driving back to your friend's home, you were just going to continue your way home. You already said goodnight to them, and you were almost home even though it was still quite a ways to go. Nevertheless, they probably turned in for the night by now, and there was always next time to make it up to them.
So driving down an empty two-way road, with no lights fixture to light the road. With no other cars passing through, keeping you company. Only the trees crowding around the road giving you some sort of haunting looming audience. This was a normally busy road; however, by how late in the night it was, it was understandably dead.
Fortunately, enough, you saw your first signs of life up ahead. It seemed to be a herd of deer passing by. You honked your horn to scare them away from the oncoming danger that was your car.
Except instead of dispersing, they stayed in place, it didn’t seem out of the ordinary why else did they have the saying 'a deer in headlights.'
But what was odd, was the closer you approached the herd of deer they seemed to be floating off the pavement, apparently, they were one entity and not a group and had a pair of red glowing eyes. It stirred an unpleasant feeling in the pit of your stomach.
Promptly, an undiscernible screech erupted all around, jolting you in your seat, feeling a pang of sudden fear washing over you. Convincing yourself it was only the radio going off the fritz, peeling your eyes away from the road you scrambled to shut off the device. During your haste to bring an end to the blaring otherworldly sound, you didn’t realize how fast you were driving.
"What the fuck?!" Seeing a flash of a large dark mass smashing against your windshield - shards of glass flying around and onto you.
Swerving your car over to the side of the road, feeling the right side slope down, the bumps of the grass making you rattle and jostle in your seat. Putting your car to a complete stop.
Frantically, you scrambled to free yourself from your seatbelts, ripping yourself from your constraints, you busted out your car. Not giving a single care to the state of your car or your frazzled state. Only concerned about what or who you hit.
Jogging down, you saw a crumpled figure on the ground, he was a good distance away from where you parked. "Oh my god," You exclaimed.
“I didn’t see you coming, I’m so sorry," you yelled, hurrying to aid the individual. You didn’t get a response or see any movement - he did hit your car pretty hard.
Scared for their wellbeing you slowed down and fished for your phone in your back pocket to call for help. But before you could dial for help, you saw something that put halt to your actions. You starred in disbelief as your phone locked out.
From the figure, a wing stretched out toward the sky before folding back in itself.
What the hell did you hit?!
Cautiously, you crept forward to get a better look, you could see he was wearing a fur jacket. No. He was furry everywhere, dull in color but with an interesting print on what you believed was the wings, the pattern was similar to a moth's wing. A costume perhaps? His legs were a digitigrade structure and his feet are similar to a bird's foot arrangement. The talons of which were scraping against the road like an animal in pain.
"A moth?" Perplexed at what exactly you were looking at, it still seemed human, but it was too large in stature given it curled up on the ground. This had to be some large person in a very convincing costume. Assuming it was someone dressed up, as what you could only think of as Mothman. A random tall person dressed head to toe in an extremely convincing Mothman in the middle of an isolated road, for reasons you couldn't conjure but there had to be a rational reason as to why.
The closer you approached, the more of your rationality began to slip. Carefully you squat down, putting your hands on its back, it felt real. Too real.
The wings felt warm, stroking your hand down, you felt the ridges, bumps, and what felt like a pulse, in the wings. You noticed it had a plush ruff around its neck that could’ve been mistaken for a scarf. And there were antennas on its head, it was featherlike and twitched every few seconds. You had no desire to investigate further, yet you had a gnawing sense of curiosity that compelled you.
Besides what if was someone who was severely injured and needed immediate help. And what kind of person would you be if you just drove off without a second thought, leaving them to die. You couldn't live with yourself if that was the case.
This is too unreal. But all the signs suggested otherwise.
Bracing yourself, you gently turned him over to face you, the moment you caught a glimpse of his face, you felt instant regret surge through your veins. You stumbled backward, landing on your back, trying to push yourself away from the massive creature with your legs.
"MOTHMAN!!" You screamed.
This in turn alarmed the cryptid, flapping his wings erratically in response to your sudden outcry. It was emitting these indiscernible sounds that you had heard earlier in the car, it provoked that familiar immense fear within you.
Except, this was louder than when you were in your car, the sound reverberated through you, chills traveling up your spine. You could feel your heart palpitating within your chest, your trembling limbs growing numb. You felt your senses heightened at an alarming rate it was nauseating that you felt your mind blur. If these disquieting sounds alone could trigger your flight or fight response, without the presence of the monster. It was nothing in comparison to the full show that was in front of you, it was overwhelming in all the senses, inciting you to get far as possible.
"Holy shit!" Pulling yourself from your state of shock, you turned over onto your hands and knees, pushing yourself up and away, making a straight beeline to your car without delay.
The screeching stopped behind you. Glancing back toward the monster curious if it was making a move towards you. But all you saw was a poor incapacitated being, pitifully attempting to lift itself away. One of its wings was flapping while the other was barely moving at all. When it tried to move its stiff wing, it wouldn't fully extend before retracting it back, making what sounded like a pained low screech.
In all honesty, even in your fear-driven state, it pained you to witness this distressing scene. Pondering back and forth between taking the car and leaving, or taking your chances with the monster.
Inching toward the car, all without removing your eyes from the scene. Then you heard a more distressing shrill, stopping you dead in your tracks. You couldn't leave him.
He still needs help.
Inhaling a deep breath, you shakily walked back, each step was challenging you felt so weak in the knees and you felt lighter than usual. Your mouth desiccated of any moisture but persisted in swallowing nothing. It felt as if you were walking down to your execution and it might as well be. You couldn't predict what it would do or what it was capable of doing if you got any closer. Regardless, you tried to push your fears aside and help him, even if it killed you.
"Hold on, I'm not gonna hurt you. Just don’t hurt me please." Easing yourself onto your knees, mindful of not doing any sudden movements to provoke it any further for both of your sakes.
Bringing a hand back to where you had it before, you delicately brushed your hand up and down in small strokes on its wing. Focusing on his state and not his appearance, you saw cuts and scrapes littering its wings and body.
You grazed over an open wound, causing the creature to flinch, silently apologizing to him in a hushed tone before continuing to pet him while avoiding any more wounds.
Its breathing began to slow, quelling its jitters. You took this as an indicator of the creature growing at ease at your presence. “See I just wanna help." You whispered as the Moth creature peered up, gazing into your eyes in a sort of mutual understanding. Ensuring a feeling of reprieve within you and within him, or so you thought. It was soon to be proven wrong. The moment was short-lived when the cryptid began to thrash around again, this time trying to keep you away from him.
"Wait I thought we had an understanding there." Pulling yourself into a ball to avoid the cryptid's violent flapping wing and arms recklessly whipping around. "The eye contact we had! The eye contact!" you screamed after being betrayed by this false sense of amicable trust you thought you both had shared at that moment. But this ineffectively did nothing to fix the dilemma, merely adding more to the chaos.
"Please I want to help you." Reaching your hand out to calm him once more, without the screaming and flailing this time. "This was my fault, I wanna help and then you can go on your Mothman way, okay?" You tried to coax. Once more the monster began to quiet down, its quick shallow breathing slowed. Weary of his soothed behavior, you waited a bit before wrapping his arm over your neck.
"Okay, I'm gonna pick you up or at least try to." You said, guiding him upward into a standing position.
"Christ, you’re heavy!" Bending under the weight, propping him against your frame, so you could get a proper footing and grip on him. You struggled to the car, trudging over, but not without one of your legs giving out from under the weight occasionally. What caught your eye was how his head lulled forward or side to side, he might be disoriented from the blow. Not wanting to move his head much, you trudged much slower than you already were and stopped every few seconds.
Arriving at you your vehicle, you rested against your car, before opening the car door and easing him inside into the backseat. Tucking in any stray limbs and wings fully inside the car. Shutting the door you looked at the heavily cracked windshield. It was damaged pretty well, you summarized that you had to slowly drive all the way home. Wait home.
"Wait, I can't just bring you to my house." You said, bringing a hand to your mouth, realizing a new issue. "Someone's gonna see you." Remembering you lived on a busy street near pubs and shops, and it was Friday night you could only assume there were still people out and about enjoying the nightlife. Peering inside your car, your eyes locked on your jacket in the front seat.
"Maybe I can disguise you, and it is Friday night maybe people would be too drunk to notice."
"As long as we don't draw too much attention." You said, getting into your seat and starting up the engine. But something about saying those words aloud, felt like it was going to bite you in the ass but what’s the worst that can happen, you had him handled.
….
Here you were driving back home with the low-volume melody playing like before. However, this was different, before you were alone and you welcomed the tranquil ambiance you had riding home. But now you were riding back with an elusive creature. Creating an unsettling silence within the vehicle. What was maddening was that you were unsure what he was thinking, making you unsure of what to do besides drive. Maybe you were overthinking this but you felt you had to do something to break this disorienting atmosphere because this was too hard to fathom as reality.
"D-Do you want gum? L-Leftover pizza?" Your voice cracked, quickly clearing your throat asking again in a stronger confident voice.
No response. You tapped your fingers on the steering wheel, sucking in your cheek prompting you to purse your lips in your endeavor of finding what else to say. Flitting your eyes back and forth from the road to looking around your car on what else to offer.
"My coat?"
No response again.
Looking at your rearview mirror to get a glimpse of the cryptid only to be met with its red eyes staring directly back at you. Hastily looking back to the road and sinking into your seat, alarmed. How long was he staring at you? Why was he staring? At least he seemed less disoriented now, but you didn’t need that right now, maybe you could draw his attention onto something else other than you.
"How about some air?" you asked, hoping he would stare out the window or put his head out, anything but him staring at you all the way home. Gliding your left hand over to the window control panel on the side of your door, you pushed down a button making his window rolled down. This captured his attention, redirecting his gaze towards the open window, watching the trees and road signs passing by. O thank god. but just as he turned his head to the outside, he took this as an invitation to spread his wings to catch some air.
"That doesn't mean you can start flapping, put your wings down." Whipping your head back and forth from the creature to the road, drawing a hand at him, swinging it around to get him to fold his wings down. "PUT YOUR WINGS DOWN! PUT YOUR WINGS DOWN!" Veering your car off to the side of the road.
.....
Back on the road, after sorting out the matter. "Okay, no rolled down windows." You remarked. Mothman looking like a perfect angel in the back tapping at the rolled-up window while you were in the front with your hair messed up and arms lightly scratched. You weren't a mother, but you now had a vague idea of what it would be like and further respect and admiration for them.
Needless to say, you rode the entire way back in silence without a single word being uttered.
…..
Steering your car on the side of the street in front of an apartment complex, you placed your car in park. You turned off the engine. Street lamps and other building lights were illuminating the street. The neon signs from the local business started to shut off, looked like some of them are turning in for the night.
You snatched your jacket from the passenger seat before slipping out and making your way to open Mothman’s car door.
"We need to move, quickly." Throwing your coat over him to conceal him in the event of someone walking by. Mothman pawed at the coat and clutching it closer to get a better look and smell of the material. After gathering your phone and keys, you whirled back toward Mothman. Fussing at him to not move the jacket, readjusting it over his head. You surveyed the streets for anyone coming down or seem like they are heading out in your direction.
Once more putting his arm around you, you strode as quickly as you possibly could to the complex without either of you falling over. Mercifully, you got to the door with no problem at all or bumping into anyone.
Until you heard something you’ve been dreading on the way home, something that made your heart sank down into the deep trenches of your stomach
"Holy shit! Is that Mothman!?!" A male voice exclaimed.
You whirled your head toward the stranger who was slowly approaching you two. Fuck!
Where did he come from and what made him so confident that he’s looking at Mothman. You glanced back over to Mothman noticing that the jacket that was covering his face, was now draped over his shoulders. Drastically you scoured your brain for an excuse or some sort of explanation to counter how this wasn't a cryptid. But he beat you to the punch before you had a chance to find a solid response.
"Dude sick costume!" He said excitedly.
O fuck. Relieved that it wasn't the worse, but you were surprised he didn't question any further especially how close he was to you both. Even you would've questioned, the details and just the overall realism of said 'costume'. It didn't take long for the answer to hit you square in the nose. When a waft of alcohol invaded your nostrils, the man was drunk, and you never were more grateful.
"Thanks." You nervously laughed.
"That’s crazy good man, you did this all yourself?” He asked enthusiastically towards Mothman, beholding every bit of intricacy on the creature.
"He can’t talk right now; he drank too much to function." You interjected. “We just got back from a party.”
"I gotcha, but is it okay if I get a photo though?"
FUCK! you blurted internally, but externally with faux delight, you said "Sure!"
" 'Chad' you cool with that?" you sheepishly asked your moth friend with the first name you could think of for him. And why were you asking him? As if he could make a cohesive verbal response. But you were hoping at this moment he could magically talk, alas all he did was blankly stare.
"I'm not hearing a no." You heard the man say and you woefully agreed.
"Gimme a sec." The man pulled out his phone and tapping it unlocked.
"Okay," your heart was racing in your chest and you could feel a layer of sweat beginning to form and pool in places. But by some sweet grace of some higher being, a miracle happened right before your eyes. You heard a melodious chime sweetly ring through the crisp early fall air.
"O dang getting a call, hold on" the man answered the call, turning his back towards you.
Maybe there was a god, after all, a fucking sadist with a sick sense of humor. Either way, you were not about to pass up this chance for a free getaway.
You took this God-given opportunity to jam your key into the lock swiftly to get the both of you inside. Twisting to unlock the entrance, you could overhear the man to what sounded like him wrapping up his conservation. Turning the knob, you ushered Mothman and yourself inside the apartment complex, but not without throwing a quick apology to the stranger. Slamming your back against the door shutting it closed, a wave of relief washed over you.
"Aw man, that was too close." leaning your head against the door, desperate for a quick breath from your ordeal. You hadn't felt this much adrenaline since, since. You were so winded you couldn't even recall a memory.
Peeling yourself off from the door, feeling ready to make the final steps home. Deceptively though your body wasn’t as ready to move just yet.
"Nope wait." still trying to catch your breath. Doubling over, leaning forward, and resting your hands on your knees. Mothman all the while just tilted his head at you, confused. While you were over there feeling like you were going to be sick. The wave of nausea quickly fading away allowing you to straighten yourself out.
"Okay, we're good." You said as you grabbed his hand leading him up the stairs. Unbeknownst to you, the large creature was zoning in at the unfamiliar contact.
During his entire time with you, he was just as wary of you as you were with him. He wasn’t one to present himself to people, only as a forewarning of what was to come or an indication that Mothman will be the very last thing they would see. He trailed and stalked others like you in your car but was never hit, that was a first for him. Albeit though, him getting hit with your car, leaving him cut up and bruised did give him another reason to be extremely defensive and antsy around you.
Yet, you were gentle, loud but gentle with him when he wasn’t. Risking your safety in an effort for him to get mended. Lightly ghosting his thumb over the soft skin of your hand, tightening his hold on you. But you didn't notice, you were too preoccupied with climbing higher up the stairs, vigilant for any neighbors.
"Come on we're almost to my place." Giving a reassuring hand squeeze.
"Try to stay quiet a little longer." Peering back at the cryptid flashing him a quick warm smile, before looking back straight ahead. The creature looked directly at you, then to stairs, and back to you again. He came up with a grand idea to help with your effort. But first, he had to gain your attention and for this to work, he had to disregard everything you told him not to do earlier. The cryptid started to emit his screech directly at you to get your attention. And to you, he was making a ruckus, that was echoing through the entire stairwell and halls.
"What part of stay quiet do you not understand?" Grimacing at the noise. You stopped your movement, aiming to cover his mouth with your free hand, you felt his mandibles tickling underneath your palm.
The creature pulled your hand away and into his own, clutching both of his hands close to himself, bringing you into him. This gesture was unexpected and left you feeling warm in the face by how close he was pressing you into him. But it didn't last long when he began to bend his knee and flap his wing readying himself to fly up.
"Wait don't" Pushing yourself away from him, you freed yourself from his grasp to stop his actions. He was still injured this would only cause more harm to him and to you if he tried doing what you thought he was about to do. In your effort to stop him, Mothman tried to reach out for you again, only for his wing to smack into you causing you to land on the hard edge of the concrete stairs; headfirst. “Shit."
Groaning, "Well, I deserved that." you brought your hand to your head, you winced at the touch. As you yanked your hand away you caught a glimpse of red in your peripherals. Bringing the hand in your line of vision you saw blood smeared on the tips of your fingers.
Mothman immediately brought his actions to a halt when he saw what he had done to you. His antennas drooped down, he came close, giving you a hand up. Gladly accepting the gesture, he brought you up to an upright position, he felt bad for what he had done to you. Tentatively, he brought a hand up, lightly swiping his claws over your forehead making a low pained screech.
“It’s okay, you just wanted help didn’t you.” He nodded in response, you pressed a hand to the wound preventing the blood from dripping down. You couldn’t be mad at him he didn’t know better, and you did hurt him first, it only felt fair. Disrupting this tender moment, you heard yelling and heavy footsteps approaching one of the doors on the floor you were on.
"Let’s go!" you rushed up the stairs, luckily for you both it was the final flight of stairs. Reaching the top of steps in record time when you heard the front swing door open.
"What's with all that commotion!?" A neighbor yelled upward toward the sound of your feet stomping up. Coming to an abrupt halt at your door, you whispered for Mothman to stay where he was, while you dealt with the matter below. But he decided to follow behind instead, not wanting to leave your side.
"Sorry I was just goofing" You admitted, showing your face over the rail, outing yourself to your neighbor.
"Sorry my ass, I got work early tomorrow, you expect me to sleep with this fucking racket outside, and now this." They argued back, and rightly so, who wouldn’t complain about an unearthly ear-piercing screech penetrating through the halls along with banging sounds hitting all around the walls. But you couldn’t help but feel annoyed
"I’m sorry, it won’t happen again, promise." You leaned forward resting against the rail while one leg was kicked up behind you, preventing Mothman from coming toward the railing. You exchanged a few more words with your neighbor to avoid the landlord getting involved. Finishing up, you pulled yourself away calling it wraps on the conversation as the individual below continued spewing profanities at you and about the building.
You unlocked and opened your door “In! In! In!" You shoved the imposing cryptid inside, already getting peeved by the neighbor's continuous rambling. It wasn’t anything new they hated everyone in the building, but it wasn’t something you grew used to though.
"Jesus Christ finally." you sighed, kicking the door behind shut.
Slipping off your shoes, leaving them by the entrance, your feet ached in relief from its constructing confines. Dragging yourself through the small hall leading the way to the main part of your home, it was small but cozy.
"Here we are home sweet home." you chimed, leading Mothman further into the living room, grabbing the jacket from him and tossing it to the couch. As well as turning on a lamp to properly illuminate the room. It didn't take long for Mothman to be drawn to the light fixture like the moth he was. He grabbed the lamp hugging it towards him, looking directly at the bulb. Chuckling at the sight, you could’ve given him a flashlight on the way home if he was going to be this mesmerized. You proceeded to make your way to the kitchen for your first aid kit.
"You can make yourself comfortable, but don’t wreck anything please," you shouted from the room over, but Mothman was unbothered, he was solely transfixed on the soft light, eyes wide and grabbing at the lampshade. "I'm gonna go find my first aid kit to fix you and my cut." You really hoped nothing else gets broken, there was already enough screaming and thrashing for the night.
Shuffling through the kitchen, trying to remember where you last placed the kit. You rested and slid a hand over the cool smooth linoleum counter, looking between cabinets for any sign of a small box. Coming to the last cabinet, you rummaged through before finally pulling out your first aid kit.
But you couldn’t help but stop and think about tonight’s events. It started as a fun night, then filled with pure dread, mothering, and now what felt like taking care of a drunk long-time friend. Except, what really dominated your mind was this odd feeling you started to feel, you recounted back in the hall the way he held you close. It made you feel bashful, to say the least. Up to now, you saw him as a friendly harmless dare you say, an unexpected friend. But that didn’t accurately describe what you were feeling. Shaking your heading, you had other pressing matters to attend to.
"Got it, let's see." And not to your surprise you saw the tall cryptid sitting on the couch, clutching the lamp close to him as if it was his lifeline. You contemplated whether you should take the lamp away. But he looked to be enjoying the light source, hearing faint happy chirps emitting from him. Sadly, you decided to ruin his fun, seeing as there were wounds you needed to tend to on his chest and you needed the light to properly see them.
You attempted to pull the lamp away so you could have better access to examine his injuries. In response, he chittered in objection to his lamp being taken, and nothing was going to separate him from his precious lamp. He was going to soon learn that the lamp was barely holding onto the outlet. Hugging it closer to himself, the plug came out, extinguishing the light. Perplexed as to where his light disappeared to, he presented the lamp towards you hoping you would bring the light back.
“I’ll bring it back, but only until I get a look at you.” He nodded vigorously as you grabbed the lamp and setting back on the mini table, blindingly trying to find the plug and inserting back into the outlet turning on the lamp again. You sat on the couch next to him, motioning for him to come closer so you could get to work.
......
"I don’t see any major cuts or anything broken." Scouting out the state of the injuries, they were honestly not that bad, you guessed it was probably due to the now dried flaky blood around his cuts gave the appearance that they worse than what they were. He got pretty lucky but it was probably due to his build that he was capable of taking on more than a couple of hits.
"Only just a sprain and a couple of cuts, that’s a relief" Thinking to yourself glad it wasn't any worse, you couldn't imagine the stress of trying to keep him at your apartment while he heals, and away from your neighbors’ eyes. The fear of him getting caught and taken away and dissected. Being bombarded by officials and Mothman lovers. And getting questioned or probed, maybe even both. You didn’t know if they would, but you knew deep in your heart they would probe you for answers. Stopping your paranoid-filled train of thought from delving any further. You finished tying up a couple of loose ends and sticking on on salve on minor areas.
"See all better. Don’t move too much, it'll heal quickly that way" Gathering any trash to throw away. Everything is fine now; you don’t have plans tomorrow so you could probably sneak him back out the next night.
Huh.
Letting him go. The idea of it should have given you some relief and yet you couldn’t help but feel conflicted. Would he come to visit again? No that would be reckless. Or you could convince him to stay longer to heal, no that would be irresponsible and selfish of you. He deserves to go back, and you're going to help him get back on his feet and let him be on his way. You walked back to the room.
“Feel much better?” you inquired to Mothman who busy was playing with the bandages on him.
He looked directly at you and nodded in response.
"That’s good, the sooner you get better the sooner you can leave," you told him, seating yourself back next to Mothman who hasn’t kept his eyes off of you. You peered up to catch a glimpse of what he was doing, only to capture him looking directly at you with his head tilted.
Not this again. you thought.
He’s certainly not making this any easier. You looked away trying to focus on anything else in the room before you resorted to looking at the floor.
"You know it’s still kinda crazy, that this is even real. Like I feel like I’m going insane," you jokingly confessed to Mothman, laughing to yourself. But you thought about it more, maybe you were, "O my God is this what a psychological break is?" You looked back at him, having an unfazed look on him.
"Can I?" you asked reaching a hand forward. He stared at your hand for a bit, until he leaned forward giving you permission to proceed.
"So soft" allowing yourself to fully feel him, combing your hand through his dark fur and traveling up his ruff. It was surprisingly plush for how it looked, it felt you were touching a cloud but with some tiny debris within it. You gathered more courage to let your hand wander up to his face, giving a couple of brushes before stopping your motion, cupping the side face. His eyes were a brilliant red color comparable to a lustrous gem.
"You really are real." You muttered, stroking a thumb over his cheek.
Mothman brought a clawed hand to your face in a likewise manner, curious of your own features. Where for him he found them peculiar and to other individuals such as yourself they found it normal. The universe was messed up, making it much harder for you to separate yourself from him when the time comes for him to leave, but you allowed this, forgetting your initial plan.
Feeling a sharp claw gliding up against your skin, perfectly capable of nicking you or doing so much worse to you than you could imagine. But he had no intention to do so, merely entranced by you.
His hand wandered up to your forehead, where your gash was, flaky and dried the blood was chipping at the edges. His antennas lowered and chirped in response, for what he did to you back at the stairwell, he didn't mean to. Even if you said it was alright, it still didn’t make him better, bringing a hand to skim the wound, you flinched at the sharp pain of your forgotten injury, knocking you out of your trance-like state.
Mothman drawing back in his seat, alert and worried thinking he hurt you again.
“It’s okay, you did nothing wrong.”
You reached a hand out to calm him, you aimed for his arm but managed to miss and land your hand on his thigh. Wow, that’s great! you internally cringed feeling a blush rush over you, instead of pulling back you still tried to alleviate him by patting his leg, telling him it was the injury that was hurting you not him.
Instead of defusing his concerned mindset, he only tried to push away from you to avoid causing you any further harm. Hand still anchored on his thigh, you launched yourself trying to stop him from hurting himself more.
Fortunately, with your luck, you ended up top of him, Mothman laying on the couch while you hovered over him, with both of your legs planted on either side of his thigh. Your left knee was alarming close to his crotch if you moved an inch closer you would be bumping your knee right into it. Your hands rested squarely on his chest, finger splayed out as you looked down at him with a similar wide-eyed expression.
You gotta be fucking kidding me.
Maintaining your effort of trying to console Mothman, you coughed to clear your throat and your mind of any dirty thoughts from springing up. “Hey, I know you didn’t mean to, and if you did, I would tell you and- and I’m sorry that I gave you the impression that you hurt me and I’m sorry for hitting you with my car, I feel like saying it doesn’t do justice for what I did.” You panted after your long-winded speech.
“Also, I’m sorry for tackling you down that wasn’t my intention. So, you good? I didn’t hurt you?”
He slowly shook his head, as a response that you didn’t hurt him. Startled yes. Hurt no. Bobbing your head in understanding, you carefully crawled off him.
"Well, I guess I should go get the blood washed off, I'll be right back." You informed the still cryptid who made no effort of getting up, just continued to lay on the couch staring straight ahead in shock.
Walking off to clean off the blood and to regain your composure. You were just going through too many emotions than you should for the night. On your way to take care of your problem, you could’ve sworn you heard something akin to a cat purring where Mothman was. But you blew it off and justified it as hearing the blood rushing and the beat of your heart pounding in your ears.
Striding down a hall and into the bathroom you turned the faucet on allowing the water to flow into the sink and onto your hands. Water pooled in your cupped hands before splashing the cold water onto your face, the water, and dried blood dripping together down around the curves and grooves of your face into the porcelain bowl below. It was a satisfying contrast to your heated face, splashing another round of water at your face but an intrusive memory replayed the moment that happened a few seconds ago. Leaving your face buried in your hands, groaning from sheer embarrassment. Fucking hell why am I like this?!
Unwillingly you slid your hands off and look at yourself in the mirror you looked like the accurate personification of a hot mess. You weren’t going to think too much into this, you are going to pretend what happened didn’t happen, you were going to disinfect and stick a bandage on your cut and not dwell on your emotions around the situation at hand. Allowing him to leave as soon as he is better and not have any other affiliations with him again.
Opening the medicine cabinet for an alcohol wipe and unwrapping the wipe from its small packaging.
"Now for the worst part." Quietly hissing at the contact with the antiseptic. Finishing up on cleaning the wound, you foraged through the cabinet looking for a bandaid. Noting there wasn’t one to be found, you sighed.
Guess I need to go find one.
Turning toward the door to walk out, you looked up and saw Mothman standing at the doorway, watching.
How long was he standing? And how the hell is he so silent for such a big guy and why wasn't he like this before? You were about to question him what he was doing here or if needed something when you noticed he was fiddling with a band-aid in hand. Slowly he brought it up, placing it over your cut.
"Thanks." Laying a hand over the band-aid, feeling not just your cheeks warming up but now a butterfly feeling in your stomach, solidifying your emotions for him.
So much for my plan.
Weaseling past him, before enthusiastically asking him, "Well, we got time to pass, so what do you want to do?"
…..
The sun rays bled through the curtains lightening up your home, the light seeping past your eyelashes and into your eyelids forcing you to wake up. Blinded by the light, you groaned in discomfort, pushing yourself up hearing a couple pops in your back. Rubbing a hand up and down your face trying to wipe away the sleep.
What the hell happened here? Why was there glass everywhere? Looking up you saw your window smashed in with only a few jagged pieces in place around the sides. Turning your attention away you looked around the room, wasn’t there someone else here. O yeah.
But the question was, how did you end up falling asleep on the floor, and where was the large cryptid. Wait a minute.
"No, you can't go out, you're still hurt." Trying to hold him back from going through the window. Everything was fine, you both were sitting on the couch, watching whatever, and snacking on fruit, and next, you found yourself asleep but woke up to a ruckus, the tv still on, and seeing Mothman trying to rip the curtain off the window nearby. Jumping to action to stop him, he successfully pulled off the curtains along with the rack, you assumed he was trying to leave even though he wasn’t better or so you thought.
And here you were struggling to hold him back, you thought he was difficult before but now that he fully adjusted and patched, you fully experienced that he was pure indomitable power.
"At least wait till the street is clear." You insisted, noticing some people walking or jogging down the street in the dark early morning. But he didn't listen he was adamant in making his exit. So, you made the decision to let him go.
"Okay, okay at least let me get the window, I don’t want glass on the floor." Racing in front of him to slide the window open. A quick gust of wind whipped against your face, causing you to squint your eyes in response.
"There! AH-!" the last thing you saw was Mothman coming at you and the last thing you felt was his frame bulldozing you down by fast approaching torso.
"O right." That explains how you ended up on the floor and the glass strewn all over the floor. More incredibly, even when you opened the window, the creature still managed to break the window in its haste to leave. Your head was pounding, he really is a force to be reckoned with. Bringing a hand to your head, you winced at the contact to your forehead but noticed something else. Delicately raising a hand back to your forehead and skimming along the surface. There was the band-aid from the stairwell and on the other side was another. You didn’t remember adding when did you?
Oh.
……
"My window," you muttered groggily, your vision fading out not before the moth creature gave his assistance to you for the last time and a thanks to you by sticking a band-aid on your sure-to-be bruised noggin as you lulled into an unconscious state.
……
At least bug boy was nice enough to get you another band-aid when he put you out cold, before making his exit. Slowly standing up to get started on assessing the mess and knowing full well that you needed to inform your landlord of the window. You peered out the window, curious of any indication of Mothman to spot, unfortunately, all there was to see the was hustle and bustle of the city around and below.
Turning your attention back to the mess, maybe you could make a fib of some large man drunk man pretending to be Mothman breaking into your home believing it was his. Sighing, you went to grab a broom to clean up the mess, at least you were able to encounter a real living and breathing legend. Made you wonder if other cryptids exist, but you’re pretty sure handling one creature was enough for now after last night.
Finishing up, you gathered all the shards and brought them to the trash. You didn’t have work for today, which gave you the opportunity to get a breather and get things done. Making your way to your room and getting ready for the day.
As you were getting clothes on and getting a good look at yourself in the mirror. There square above your eyes and your right eye was a bruise evident from last night's escapades. Shaking your head, laughing to yourself you weren’t going to be able to cover up the contusion. Bringing a hand to your head, you couldn’t help but smile at the cryptids' cute gesture. Walking out of the restroom deciding to let the shiner shine, ready to do some damage control.
Grabbing your keys, and heading out the door, and yet you couldn't stop thinking of that little moth guy. What are the chances of seeing him again? Probably unlikely, a mere once in a lifetime chance but you were grateful to encounter a sweet bug boy like him.
319 notes · View notes
kaunis-sielu · 3 years
Text
Schoolyard
You’d first met him in second grade. Your dad was a high ranking military man and so your family moved around quite a bit. He had been rowdy but he’d always been nice to you.
You’d become close friends with him and his little group of friends, going to the school for kids whose parents were government officials gave you all kind of a weird perspective of the world. One that was from a more political perspective since many of the kids in your school will end up being involved in the government somehow.
You’d been so close that you’d even had a mock wedding, his best friend knew all the wording for a Nordic wedding and all through middle school he’d joked about being your husband. Even after you’d left Asguard you’d occasionally get emails from him that always started “To my Wifey” but you don’t see him again.
It wasn’t even until you had moved to a new boarding school that you’d even realized who he was. Your new roommate Jane had seen a photo of your friends and had promptly freaked out. She couldn’t believe that you knew Prince Thor, the hottest actual prince in the world.
You’d stayed in touch over the years, through high school and graduation but once college hit you both kind of drifted. You got busy with getting your MD and he, well you suppose that he got busy with learning to run a country.
You know he hasn’t married yet, Jane keeps you updated on that. There have been a few women he’s been spotted with but none seem to actually be dating him or even in the running. Jane always teases you about Thor still being your husband, you still have the little mood ring that he’d given you.
You’ve got about an hour before Jane comes for your monthly pizza night. So you order pizzas and change out of your work clothes into a pair of sweats and an old college tee shirt. Girls night is about being comfy and watching Disney movies so you’re able to catch up without missing anything in the movies.
Jane has her own key so she just lets herself in when she arrives.
“Hey Dummy. When’s the food gonna be here?”
“That’s rich you calling me a dummy. I’m the only real doctor in the apartment.” You fire back and you hear Jane laugh loudly from the living room. “But in all honesty I think it’ll be here in the next ten minutes or so. Pick a movie.”
“Wine first!” She yells and you come out of your room with your hair up and glasses on. Jane is also in a pair of sweatpants but her shirt is one that you’d made her a couple years ago.
“How has your month been?”
“Good, busy. We may have found a new star!”
“What! Jane that’s amazing congratulations!”
“We just have to track it for a bit longer to see if it repeats what it did last year and some other boring shit.” You laugh as she passes you a glass of wine, “How about you?”
“One of my patients came back cancer free the other day!”
“Oh yay!” There’s a knock at the door and Jane sets down her glass before bounding toward it, cash in hand. “Pizza!” She cries just before flinging open the door. She stands in the doorway gawking and you laugh.
“Dude what are you doing? You look like a psycho.”
“Not pizza.” Jane manages to say and you start toward the door eyeing the baseball bat propped against the wall.
“No, not pizza. Had I known you were waiting I would’ve brought some with.” The male voice in the hallway says. It’s accented and familiar but that doesn’t really help you.
“Jane you’re freaking me out.” You tell her scooping up the bat on your way to the door. “Who is at the..door?” You blink up at the large blonde man in the doorway. “Thor?”
“That’s Crown Prince Thor.” A man grumbles from behind him. Thor waves the man off and you understand why Jane is acting so weird now.
“Hi, I’m sorry I should’ve called but I didn’t have your number so that would’ve been hard.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I needed to talk to you about some things.” He looks good, his hair is short and he’s got scruffy beard going on that isn’t quite a full beard but not a five o’clock shadow. He’s got a dark blue peacoat on but those bright blue eyes are the only thing that haven’t changed. “Can I take you out tomorrow night? To dinner somewhere?”
“Oh, um that would be fine. Seven?”
“Excellent, it’s a date. We will come pick you up.”
“We?”
“Oh, Volstagg and me.” He gestures to the man standing in the hallway behind him. “Odin insists now that I have a bodyguard.” He says with an eye roll, this is so reminiscent of your childhood that you can’t help but smile. “Sorry for interrupting your night.”
“It’s okay, it was nice to see you.” The pizza guy comes up and Thor pulls out his wallet and pays before you can stop him. “Thor you don’t have to.”
“I know.” He says with a wide smile before passing you the box. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Right here at 7.”
“Sounds good.”
“Could I get your number just in case anything changes?”
“Oh, yea sure.” He pulls his phone from his coat pocket and hands it to you. You punch in your number and hand it back, “Let me know who you are when you text okay?”
“Okay. Bye.” He and Volstagg leave then and after you shut the door Jane looks at you and whispers,
“What the fuck?” Then she yells, “What the actual fuck! You have a date with a fucking prince.”
“Oh my god Jane could you chill please?”
“No!” She cries, “forget pizza and a movie we need to find you a dress! I have more fancy dresses than you. We should go to my apartment! You always looked so pretty in that black swoop neck one that I have, or maybe a blue one so it can match his eyes. Have you ever seen eyes that blue.” As she rambles you head to the couch with the pizza then place it on the coffee table. You grab both wine glasses from the kitchen counter and bring them to the coffee table too.
“I am going to sit here, watch a movie, drink wine and eat pizza. You can do whatever the fuck you want.”
“But-but-you have a date with a Prince.”
“It’s not a date.”
“He literally said it was a date!” She protests.
“Turning the movie on now.” You tell her and she lets out a long groan. “Besides I have the black dress here.”
“Oh. Okay.” She sits down on the couch and reaches for a piece of pizza.
You’re actually able to get Jane to focus on something other than meeting with Thor tomorrow. You do wonder what he might need to talk to you about that was so urgent that he needed to come here unannounced, and after so much time.
When the movie is over you watch one more before Jane decides to head home. She hasn’t mentioned your ‘date’ since you’d started the second movie. But when she turns on you at the doorway you know she hasn’t forgotten.
“I want every. Single. Detail.”
“Okay okay, every detail.”
“No, no, every single detail.” She repeats emphasizing the single and you laugh.
“Copy that. I mean who knows I might have to sign a NDA.”
“Ooh, scandalous.” She teases with a raised eyebrow and you shake your head at her.
“You’re such a nerd.”
“Takes one to know one.” She calls as she heads down the hallway.
“Let me know when you’re home!” You call back and she gives you a little wave of acknowledgement.
Now that she’s gone though you’ve got plenty of time to think. What was it he needed to talk to you about? Why couldn’t it wait? Why didn’t you get his number too? You don’t even know how nice you need to dress because you don’t know where you’re going.
You get ready for bed, washing your face and brushing your teeth. You lay in bed for a while, you and Thor had always gotten along well. Now that you knew he was the Crown Prince of Asguard things might be a little, weird, but he’d seemed normal enough other than the bodyguard. Like he wasn’t putting on airs or being all posh, if you didn’t know he was the Crown Prince you’d have thought he was just some hot dude. Which, he is, those damn ocean blue eyes could convince you to do just about anything when you were kids.
Probably still could.
Tag list:
@abschaffer2 @dsakita @dramadreamer14 @thesassmisstress @eralen @andahugaroundtheneck @loving-life-my-way @thefridgeismybestie @killcomet @dumblani @im-just-another-monster @mywinterwolf @scuzmunkie @biskwitmamaw @geeksareunique @paintballkid711 @lumar014 @also-fangirlinsweden @connie326 @inkedaztec @valsworldofcreativity
114 notes · View notes
pocketfulofrogers · 3 years
Text
To Outlive the Devil
Pairing: Jay Halstead x Reader
Summary: A good save and a case practically solved leads to intelligence almost losing one of their own. Can you get out before it’s too late?
Notes: Canon violence, nothing worse than a typically dark episode. This is a past and present cut together story and it’s just shy of 4k. 
Tumblr media
Now
Your bleary eyes open up to a cold and damp bedroom. An abandoned… apartment? The peeling wallpaper had given way to yellow stained drywall. From the small window on your left, it appeared as if you were several stories in the air, but there were no distinguishable landmarks that told you if you were even still in Chicago.
As you begin to come to your senses more, you feel the thick rope tied around your wrists and ankles. The rough material burns against you skin and you notice you already have sores.
How long have I been here?
Your memory is fuzzy and your head throbbed violently. It isn’t until you shift uncomfortably that you realize it’s a heavy metal chair you’re tied to.
Slowly your body begins to pick up on the danger your muddled brain had managed to identify and your pulse begins to quicken. As much as you try, your heartbeat continues to pound in your head as you try to twist your arms free.
The pain that responds is only a small price to pay for even the chance of freedom. Desperately, you continue to twist and pull until one of the knots manages to loosen up enough for you to squeeze your hand out. It’s just a short sprint to the front door in front of you.
You will your frozen fingers to work faster as you pinch and tear at each knot and then internally scream at your stiff muscles to carry you forward just a little bit more.
When your hand reaches the doorknob and it isn’t locked, relief floods your system. But when you’re able to wrench the door open, the person behind the door barely registers in your mind before everything goes black once again.
Then
Jay leans against his fist on his desk and tries to keep his frustration at bay. They’d been at this for two days straight and had been on the case for the last three months. “That’s two bodies in as many weeks. Is no one else starting to think…”
“That maybe hunting Chicago’s very own Criminal Minds level serial killer couple is out of our depth?” You interrupt, tilting your head towards him. “Doubt it.”
In fact, over the last two weeks, it’s the only thing you could think about. A younger woman named Madison roped, at least you were hoping she wasn’t a willing participant, into a horrific and violent life by a man you had yet to learn the identity of. You’d spent many nights pacing your bedroom, ranting and theorizing to Jay when all he wanted was just a bit of sleep.
The further you dove into it, however, the less hopeful you became for a quick arrest.
Voight had about ripped your head off when you suggested passing the case to the FBI and got to hear the ‘this is our city’ speech once again. But the truth was you were running out of ideas, running out of leads to chase down the rabbit hole, and running out of time.
“I hate to say it, but Voight’s right.” Antonio almost looks pained, but he continues on before you can question him. “The first time these two surfaced five years ago, CPD went full force. They shut it all down, had every uniform pulling overtime, and tried to smoke them out. Instead, it scared them into hiding.”
“Five girls in three months, Dawson, they’re escalating.” You take a breath before looking him in the eyes. “I can’t keep notifying parents.” There’s a certain pang in your voice only those who have had to watch a parent’s life crumble around them can hear. Jay reaches out to squeeze your forearm for just a bit of comfort and you run your fingers over his.
It’s enough.
“Then we end this.” Voight’s eyeing you, sympathetic to where you’re coming from, but not willing to give up yet. “Let’s find these monsters and make them pay.”
Pinching the bridge of your nose, you nod and turn to Adam. “Ok, let’s go over everything together, see if we can find something we missed.”
“Since it’s all we have, let’s revisit the address on Madison’s unemployment file.” Jay suggests.
Adam looks confused. “The house was condemned last year, torn down in the spring.”
“I know, but what about the name on the house, did anyone look into it?”
“Figured it was a stolen identity.” Kevin pipes up. “Clara Knight, died in 2012 of a heart attack at 66. No other properties in her name.”
“Knight?” Mouse perks up and starts shifting through his files. “I found a few erased emails from a Robert Knight, but I couldn’t find any relation or connection.”
Adam is already typing ferociously. “Got a death certificate for a Robert Knight, 68, died a few months ago. Seems like the guy barely existed.”
“Any children?”
“A daughter.” His face is grim. “Murdered in 99, she was 16.”
The hairs on the back of your neck prickle. “Pull up a picture of her.” You don’t need to see it to confirm what you already feared, but still the image of her face churns your stomach. A beautiful blonde girl with the hope of the whole world in her smile. “He’s been at this a lot longer than anyone thought.”
“Any property still in his name?” Voight asks.
Anxiety rippling through your chest, it feels like an eternity before Mouse nods. “His nephew Isaac put his house in Roseland on a tax form.”
Now
When you come to, the first thing you notice is that your restraints have been changed to zip ties and for a moment you’re concerned about your circulation. You’re worry is cut short by the cup of water on a table to your right, the plastic straw close enough for you to reach it.
The sudden realization of the searing pain in your throat and the cracked skin on your lips lets you know it’s probably been about two days. It’s the dryness of your tongue that overrides every single rational thought of concern that maybe the glass beside you isn’t safe to drink. But, fifteen minutes pass with no incident so whoever it is probably wants to keep you alive.
The thought sends ice down your back.
Alive for what?
“What do you want from me?” You scream into the empty apartment.
Then
“We need a vacation after this.” Jay declares as he leans the seat of the car back a little. “Somewhere warm with water so I can look at you in a tiny bathing suit all day.”
You roll your eyes, but he doesn’t miss the small smile you give before bringing the binoculars up again. “We’ll see what we can do about that.”
“Hey lovebirds.” Adam calls over the radio from the car down the street from yours. “Have you seen anything yet or are you too busy staring into each other’s eyes again?”
It’s Jay’s turn to roll his eyes. “Didn’t you just take your third piss break?”
“Hydration is very important.” He defends.
“I told him to wear the diapers.” Alvin adds. Adam tries to defend himself, but you can barely hear him over Kevin’s laughter next to him.
Just then, out of the corner of your eye, you see the movement of a curtain, the flash of blonde hair, and the air shifts. Jay immediately catches the tense set of your shoulders and starts asking questions.
“They’ve got a girl up there.” You tell him through gritted teeth.
“Are you sure? I didn’t see anything.”
You nod and get out of the car despite the hushed protests from Jay as he follows you. To do what? You weren’t sure yet but you had felt so powerless these last few months that maybe you weren’t being the most rational right now.
The curtain moves again and, rather than getting caught, you quickly spin around and push Jay against the car before crashing your lips to his. Other than a noise of shock sounding from the back of his throat, he doesn’t miss a beat.
“North corner window.” You mumble against his lips and slide your hands up his chest, tilting your head to the side to give him a better angle.
When he pulls away, he brings his phone up and looks you in the eye. “We’ve got confirmation on the nephew Isaac, but he’s got another girl up there. If we bust in, he might get spooked and hurt her.”
It’s quiet longer than either of you would like.
“What should we do, boss?” Adam asks for you.
“Do you think you can get in quietly?” Voight asks.
Jay waits for your nod. “We’re on it. Going silent.”
Picking the lock was nothing. Sneaking around a house you know nothing about except for a quick glance at a blueprint from 2005 was the difficult part. Jay splits the two of you up, sending you upstairs while he clears the lower level. Circumstance didn’t allow you the option to argue with him that splitting up in a situation like this is the worst thing to do.
He was your partner and it was your job to always have his back, as difficult as he makes it, but he’s rounded a corner into the living room before you get the chance to cuff him to you.
Your breath catches in your throat when a step on the stairs creak, but you keep moving until you find a girl in the second room you clear. She’s blind folded with on leg tied to the bed. She tenses when you approach, but relaxes once you’ve gotten close enough to whisper who you are.
“Tracey.” She says he name with a whimper and your heart breaks as you cut the rope and take off her blindfold.
When she sees you’re really who you say you are, she throws herself into your arms and begins to cry. There’s nothing more you want to do than to sit here and comfort her, but your ears picks up on a man’s voice you don’t recognize.
“Ok, Tracey, I know you’re so scared, and I can’t imagine what you’ve been through, but I need you to be brave a little longer.” You pull back and look her in the eyes. “My partner and I came in here alone. I need you to tell me where the man and woman who took you are.”
She nods. “I don’t know where she went, she left a while ago. He’s here, downstairs I think, in his office.”
There’s a crash downstairs, the sound of broken glass and your blood runs cold. Immediately, you look for any other way out, but there’s nothing. No balcony, no window, nothing. Voight’s on the radio already, but you silence him.
“Stay directly behind me.” There’s a kind of urgency in your voice that puts her even more on edge.
Creeping down the stairs, you can hear Jay struggling in the kitchen, but it sounds like he’s holding his own.
“Bringing the girl out.” You whisper into your radio and glance back at Tracey. “As soon as we get down, I want you to run to the door. Do not stop. When you get across the street there are people who will help you.” She nods but she looks terrified. “I swear I won’t let him get anywhere near you.”
It’s the door opening that alerts Isaac that something else is going on. You round the corner with your gun drawn and the scene before you makes your knees weak.
Jay is bruised and cut up, struggling against the man behind him, the arm around his neck, the gun pointed at his head.
“She said you were cops, but I told her she was paranoid.” Isaac snarls.
“Madison? Is she here?” You ask, your voice as level as your gun trained on his head. Voight is yelling over the radio, but you tune him out. “I’d love to meet her.”
He snickers and smiles wickedly. “Even if she could be caught, neither of you will be alive long enough to see it.”
He only manages a twitch before you pull the trigger and land a shot right between his eyes.
Jay falls forward, breathing heavy and you rush towards him. “Jay’s hurt!” You call out when the door is broken down. Adam kicks the gun away from the obviously dead suspect and you let them handle the scene.
“Where does it hurt? Did you get hit? I told you it was stupid to split us up! How’s your breathing?” Your hands are frantically searching every inch of his body. He has to grab your hand and grip it tight in his to stop the assault of questions rapid firing from your lips.
He sits up with a groan and kisses your knuckles when he sees the panic on your face. “I’m okay. Because of you it’s just a few cuts and bruises.” He manages a smile and you almost cry right there.
Voight places a hand on your shoulder. “Tracey is on her way to Med. Medics said she’s going to be okay. We’ve got another bus on the way for you. Nice work you two.”
Now
The creak from the front door opening pulls you from a daze and you wince at the sunlight flooding the room. A blonde woman stands before you with a duffle in her left hand and a gun in her right.
She tilts her head to the side. “You’re still alive. What a shame.”
You struggle to focus your eyes from the concussion you’re assuming she must’ve given you. “Maddison.” You croak out. “What are you doing?”
She drops the duffle next to you and grips your hair to pull your head back, pushing the barrel of the gun into your temple.
“I’m going to make you suffer.” She hisses and roughly lets you go. “I tried to warn him that you were watching us, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“Isaac?”
“Don’t say his name!” She screams and the sound cracks through your skull. “He told me to get some supplies, but when I cam back, I watched from the back window as you murdered him.”
You shake your head and try to reason with her. “Maddison, he was hurting people. He was going to kill my partner.”
“Partner.” She repeats sarcastically. “You mean Jay Halstead, your boyfriend of 3 years?” Maddison moves in front of you to revel in the fear that has filled your eyes and smiles sinisterly. “Yeah, I know who he is.”
You start quickly, the panic in your voice betraying the training you were struggling to hold onto. “If you want to kill me fine, do it. But don’t hurt him, Maddison. Please, he’s done nothing.”
She tsks as she opens the duffle and begins to pull out long metal pieces until finally, a long-barreled shot gun. “Why would I kill you when the alternative is so much better?”
You begin to struggle against the restraints as your mind starts to put together scenario after scenario of awful images. Maddison pays no mind to you begging and pleading to see reason. Instead, she pauses from building some contraption to walk over to you and jam a needle in your neck.
When you come too again, she’s sat casually in front of you. “I thought hitting you in the head again might actually kill you, and that’s not what I’m going for, so… you’re welcome.”
You glance around again and notice the barrel of the shotgun behind you just to the left of your shoulder. “Yeah, thanks.” You deadpan looking back at her. “What’s with the ‘Saw’ set up?”
She raises a brow. “Hold onto that strength while you can.” She points out the wires and hooks running along the floor and ceiling to trace it back to the door in front of you. “I used to be a STEM major. Did you know that?” She doesn’t stop long enough for you to respond. “Turns out I still remember a few things.”
You stare past her towards the door and then look quickly back to the gun, beginning to piece together her plan.
“Yes.” She coos. “It’s exactly what you’re thinking. The first person that opens that door, if he happens to be the right height, will get a life ending shot to the face. And I’d like to ask you what the chances are that anyone other than your boyfriend will be the first through the door.”
None.
For the first time you feel utterly defeated, hopeless. Madison watches closely, soaking in every moment of your anguish.
“Now you’ll know what it feels like.”
Then
You phone buzzes for the fourth time in the last hour. “Yes?”
“He’s actually insufferable, where are you?” Will speaks quickly, his tone seeping in irritation.
You laugh. “April already sent me out to get him food because he was whining so much. I am in route with a burger and some other stuff from his favorite place. Should be there in 15.”
“Thank god.” He says quietly. “Would you give it a rest? She’s 15 out with enough food to hopefully put you in a coma so I don’t have to.” You laugh as Will continues to yell at his brother.
“I almost died! Where’s your compassion?” You hear Jay yell back and only laugh harder
“You have ONE bruised rib and a concussion. I’ve seen high school football players handle worse with less complaining!”
“If it’s not so bad, why won’t you let me leave?!”
“I’m stepping up the pace, be there soon.” You laugh and hang up.
The Chicago night was chilly, but something else causes the hairs on the back of your neck begin to prickle. You don’t stop walking, don’t even pause a single step. Instead, you glance in a shop window and catch the reflection of a woman, a flash of blonde, not too far behind you.
Casually, you switch the bag of food to your other hand, but before you’re able to grab your gun, there’s a pinch in your neck and everything goes black.
Now
Jay had forced his way back to work sooner than anyone recommended. You’d been missing for 5 days. Disappeared with no trace other than your cell phone and a bag of cold diner food spilt on the sidewalk. If it were up to him, he would’ve been at his desk the moment 30 minutes hit and you weren’t there.
Alvin called two hours later telling him what they found and Adam and Antonio had to physically restrain him, Will almost sedated him. Voight promised him that they’d find you, and Jay knew they’d do everything they could, but he needed to be a part of the search.
“Did she have any enemies?” Alvin asks and he doesn’t flinch when Jay begins to laugh sarcastically.
“Any enemies? Do you hear yourself? She had tons. We all do. But let’s stop pretending like her being taken the day we closed that case isn’t connected.”
Alvin tries to sympathize with him. “We have to ask. You know the drill.”
He throws his hands up in exasperation. “Are you seriously going to treat this like any other missing person? It’s Y/N, Al! Y/N!”
“We know.” Voight says from his office door. “I made a few calls, Jay, we know where she is.” For a fraction of a second, Jay is frozen, but the thought of what you could be going through right now moves him. He’s grabbed his jacket and is in the car before anyone else has moved.
“I thought only the CIA had access to things like that.” Adam whispers lowly in the car into Kevin’s ear.
He shrugs. “Do think it’s out of the question that he’d break several constitutional laws to save any one of us?”
Adam sits back in his seat with pursed lips, nodding.
You struggle against the restraints long after Madison leaves you with only a gag in your mouth. The multiple cars pulling up and all the people shouting told you that you were running out of time. As of this very moment, you were locked into your fate of watching the man you loved die.
This was not an option.
The hard plastic digs into your ankles and wrists, your movements quickening with each door you hear them break down. You try to scream, to warn whoever was on this floor that there was a danger they couldn’t possibly see, but your muffled cries wouldn’t carry.
Tears soak the bandana shoved in in your mouth and you try to scream again.
No! Stop! It isn’t safe!
You hear Voight’s voice a few doors down and begin to try and rock the chair back and forth. It was considered heavy for a good day, and today was not that. Having not eaten or really moved in so long had left you weak and foggy. The adrenaline coursing through you veins only aiding a little in your efforts.
The sound of the front door breaking down sends a jolt of energy through you and you send yourself flying in front of the gun just as the bedroom door opens.
Jay raises his weapon at the sound before his brain can register what has happened. His wide eyes find yours just before you’ve hit the ground.
“Y/N!” He screams and rushes towards you. Frantic, shaky hands move quickly to remove the bandana and zip ties before applying pressure to your shoulder. “I need a medic!” He calls franticly over his shoulder, but when he turns back to you, he has to shut down the thought that you might not make it that long.
“You found me.” You try to say, but instead sputter blood onto your cheek.
“Oh, God.” He gasps. “You’re okay, you’re going to be fine.” But the more he says, the less you hear him.
“I love you.” You try to reach out to his face and graze his cheek, but your fingers won’t cooperate and only leave smudges of blood across his skin.
When your breathing starts to quicken and become more raged, he knows time is running out. So, in defiance of the orders and suggestions coming in through his ear piece, he lifts you up to cradle you to him and runs.
**
An annoying, incessant beeping is the only thing you can hear, but when you move to reach for it, a shooting pain stops you cold. You groan softly and pry your eyes open only to see both Will and Antonio hovering too close to your face.
Will starts to wave a flashlight in your eyes and you push him away. “When was the last time you guys brushed your teeth?”
Antonio chuckles softly and places his hand atop your head, his thumb brushing softly. “We got her.” He says quietly. “She couldn’t help herself. She stayed close to the scene to see the fallout and Kim caught her.”
Will nods his head towards Jay who was sleeping soundly in what you had to imagine was a very uncomfortable position. “We’ve been keeping an eye on him as well as you. Do you want me to wake him?”
You look back over at him and smile before turning back. “Better not. These are the last few moments of peace I’ll get for the next year at least. You would think someone would be a little more grateful towards you for saving their life, but I can already hear how mad he’s going to be.” Only a small part of you is joking.
“Well, I’ll get shot next time and we’ll see how you feel.” Jay’s sleep riddled voice carries from the corner, but he hasn’t opened his eyes yet. “I’ll give you an hour.” He adds before settling back in.
Now that’s the love of my life.
232 notes · View notes
xavadak3davrax · 3 years
Text
Crisis of lust /George Weasley
Lawyer!George
Summary: Fred and George are the most powerful lawyers England has seen in years and y/n is fresh out of college and looking for a place to do her internship. What happens when George decides to hire her? A lot of things.
Warnings: Smut (18+), daddy kink, dom/sub (Dom George) and if you squint very much dom y/n for mere seconds. Spanking, female receiving oral, male receiving oral, unprotected sex (because somehow I find that hot lol).  There’s angst and fluff and mentions of things such as anxiety and more sad moments but nothing extreme!
a/n: this is lawyer George, it’s 11.7 k words. I got carried away and ended up making this in only one part aha. As always English in not my first language, any mistakes or wrongly worded phrases, please excuse me. Titles are not my thing so yeah this is just horrendous. As a lot of people around tumblr say: don’t be shy, reblog! Thank you so much to everyone who even takes time to read my stuff. Love you all!
⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘
Weasley’s Law Firm was the most famous law firm in whole England. They were known for hiring the best of the best. They also got the worse of the cases there is. Fred and George worked extremely hard on those cases and that’s what got them where they are today. Every murder case there was they were the first, people came to.
They had all the knowledge, all the experience, all the fame. Although they started small, they very quickly became who they are today because they are that good. Now both of them only take on the biggest cases and usually they came from very famous people, otherwise they keep themselves busy by taking their firm a step further.
While Fred was busy working on a case from a famous singer who was now being accused of murdering his wife and a whole lot of love affairs in between, George was working on another very important thing.
Interns. Every year their firm hired at least two interns. Becoming an intern for them was extremely difficult, and the skills required were almost never met (reason why they either ended up with one intern, or none at all). The type of work they needed from them was not fetching coffee or take some copies of some documents. They required their help all the time and their knowledge. Last year they had taken two, top of the class and they showed to be so good they recommended them to another very good law firm that took them in that moment. How could they not? Coming from the Weasley Firm they were the best of the best.
This year however things were proven to be a lot more difficult. It looked like anyone wanted to join them, people with so little qualification that George wondered how they even met the requirements to apply to their firm. Universities usually advised certain students, who they knew not to be good, or had the necessary demands, to just not attempt their chance at it.
George’s headache was even stronger now, and it only had been two hours since he started.
“Mate need your help.” Fred’s voice took him out of his trance and made him look at his brother. George nodded and Fred put the documents on his secretary. Pointed with his head towards them and George picked them up and had a look.
“Oh shit.” George said, laughing a little loudly. “She was involved with his assistant. That does make him suspicious. Finds out his wife his sleeping with his assistant, feels betrayed, takes his chance when she’s in the pool, makes it look like an accident.” George looked at his brother who nodded.
“I mean yeah, but to confirm that theory we need acces to the cameras he has displayed around his house. He’s been refusing that since the beginning, told him how that makes him a suspicious and that he should just give us those, since we’re trying to help him not get convicted. Any advice?”
“Ginny is very good with persuasion, maybe we should give her a call? She’s always our best chance.” George suggested, and when Fred widen his eyes, he knew he had had a brilliant idea.
“Yeah thanks mate. I will. By the way still looking for interns?” Fred nodded to the papers in front of him. He had to look through every curriculum.
“Yes, this year is proving to be hard. Everyone thinks they can get in, almost everyone had a bad average grade.” He brough his hands to his red bright hair and pulled at his hard, letting a groan leave his mouth. “Can’t take this shit anymore.”
Fred came around the secretary and leaned down next to him to get a better look at the people he was looking at. All of sudden his hand came to the table and pointed at girl. “Look, she finished top of her class, with 20.” George opened his eyes and looked at where he was pointing.
“How did I miss her?” it came out in a whisper, only because George was a little loss at her beauty. Sure he had seen a lot of beautiful girl applying to his firm, and he had a lot of them working for them, but he never saw anyone like her.
He tried to pull if thought out that. She was no minor, after all she had finished college and was looking for a place to do her internship at, but that didn’t mean it would not be wrong.
“I don’t know, but you did. And let’s look at the rest…” Fred said in a wondering voice his finger coming over the list of names. “You also have, his name is Elias, he’s in the same situation as y/n.” He looked at his brother, then got up from the crouched position he was in. “You were making a big fuss. I mean I clearly understand your point, besides these two no one else is even close. But I found you the interns. I have to do your job and mine.” He joked in the end earning from George a punch in his arm. That made Fred groan.
“Go on about your day asshole, I will take care of the rest. But thanks for the help.” George screamed the last part a little because Fred was already exiting the door and closing her.
So George arranged his secretary so the only things in front of him was y/n’s and Elias resumes and applications so he could read them and actually decide if they were to be hired or not. And if yes proceed to send an email to them to tell them the news.
Some people might think they would prefer to give this job to their secretaries and let them do this. But one year they did that, and ended up with some of the worse people they could find, just didn’t know how to do the simplest of jobs. It might sound mean, but they had a reputation to maintain.
So every year they alternated had to who had this job. This year it had been him. And after an hour of so of reading everything, he did decide to hire them. So he proceed to write their acceptance email.
y/n was sitting in her sofa, a tub of her favorite ice cream in her hand. She was in her last week of collage (ever) and she was patiently waiting to receive any type of email from the firm she had applied to do her internship.
She would be lying also if she said she hadn’t receive some emails already accepting her. The problem? Well they were all last options, those were she said to herself ‘if I don’t get in it I will need something to cushion the fall’ her mother had told her that expression and it stuck with her to this day.
y/n really, really wanted to work for The Weasleys. They were the best of the best, everyone was racing to get a place in their firm. She wanted to be confident, with her grades how could she not? But she also knew a lot of people were had good has her, she for sure would be competing with the best of the best.
She was close to answering one of the emails of the firms she already got an email from.
She sighed. Looked at the pot of ice cream and then got up to go get her computer. When she had it she came back to the sofa and slumped on the couch and groaned quietly. That stupid horrid anxious feeling coming down on her. Every time for the last few days when she was to open her pc that’s how she felt. That desire to see an email from that firm.
When she opened it for a few seconds she didn’t get any notifications.
“Fucking stupid computer.” She muttered, sometimes her pc didn’t connect to the Wi-Fi and she hated that. Because then she would get millions of notifications that she didn’t get because she wasn’t connected. But it connected a few seconds later and she was flooded with messages.
In between all of those if she wasn’t paying any attention she would’ve missed it, probably deleted it too. The email she was so dreading. She didn’t know how they worked. Did they sent an email if you didn’t get in? or did they just sent if you got in? some firms would do both. Not that y/n had gotten any, every single one was accepting her and very eager to work with her.
With trembling fingers, and her breath caught in her throat she open the email, but closed her eyes quickly before she could read what it said.  
“breath, everything is going to be ok. Even if you don’t get in, you have a lot of other option.” She pepped talked herself, and then after what felt like an eternity to compose herself, opened her eyes and started reading.
Her mouth moved but no sound came out as she read through every word. The words “congratulations” “we’ve accepted you” “we wait for your response for further meetings” making her mind go dizzy. And then a scream left her lips.
“I got in, Oh my god I got in.” She almost threw her computed on the ground from how happy she was. Every night she didn’t sleep, every night out she had denied her friends, every hour in the library and every cent her parents had spent on her was worth it.
Her parents weren’t rich or even close to it, but they had promised her and her siblings that they would pay for their education until they could. When she had entered the best university and the most expensive she told her parents she would find work and pay for everything. They told her no. Her mom and dad found each a second job and payed for it, even finding a small flat in the middle of nowhere but still close to where she attended, for her to stay in. And now, everything they ever did for her was paying of.
After calming herself down she started to formulate a response to the email. And then proceeded to call her parents, steric and with a smile they were sure they could hear and see from the other side of the phone.
She started today. Although very happy and grateful for the opportunity she couldn’t help but let the nerves consume her. Some money she had money a little while a go from some old clothes she sold, she decided to spent it on a new suit. She didn’t very much like dresses, and skirts. In all the important meetings and presentations she had throughout her years in collage, she always wore suits.
But for her first day on the firm, and to give a good impression she couldn’t just wear one of the old ones. So she bought this black suit. The pants were all black and a little tight and came to rest on her ankles. The jacket of the suit had a little cleavage and was supposed to not be worn with anything underneath. She had only her bra in, one you wouldn’t be able to see. The jacket closed beautifully around her, and made some of the nerves subside. Her confidence radiating all over her. ´
She looked at herself one last time in her mirror and then picked up her purse and rested it on her shoulder.
“You can do this.” y/n murmured as she closed the door of her apartment and made her way to catch the bus. A bus were if her plans were correct, she would arrive 30 minutes earlier, but she didn’t care. She wouldn’t have to get in until the hour they had arranged, but at least she knew she would be there at said hour and not be late on her first day.
Can you imagine, being late on your first fucking day and give her (hopefully) new bosses that impression? They would deny her right then and there and she would not have the chance to show her potential.
As planned she arrived early. Their firm was one of the biggest and modern building in the city so it wasn’t hard to miss. She decided to get herself a little comfort drink while she made the time pass. When only five minutes were left for her interview she entered the firm. Everything was spacious, and very open and they got all the light in here that was possible. She felt small in such a big space. Although taking and studying law, she always had social anxiety. The friends she had were the most amazing people and took her right under their wing and always made her feel safe. She wishes they were here to help her.
“Hi, my name is y/n y/l/n, I’m here for an interview, I-“ her words came a little shaky. She took a deep breath and smiled at the lady behind the big counter, her face had a smile that made y/n a little less nervous.
“You’re here because you are the intern right?” she completed her sentence and then wrote something on her computer. “The other intern is also here. You both will be interviewed at the same time, Mr and Mr Weasley will both be in there to talk you through everything.” She gave her something of a smile. “You can take the lift, they’re in the last floor. Iris, their personal secretary will instruct you when to come in.”
“Thank you so much.” y/n said, bid her good day and then went on her way. When she got to the second floor she was met with a beautiful modern entrance that had some very good looking and comfortable chairs in. In the middle a glass table with some law magazines. ‘of course,’ she thought to herself ‘what else would they have here’ she laughed a little.
She she looked better she found a tall, blonde guy sitting in one of the chairs. The white button down he wore had hugging his muscles very well, y/n might’ve felt drool pulling in her mouth. It only intensified when she looked at his pants and the way they hugged his legs. His black necktie made everything look together. He didn’t wore a jacket that’s why. The jacket was hanging in the arm chair.
“You must be y/n.” he said, getting up from his position to come and greet her. His hand stretched out, the veins in his hands very prominent. She had to put herself together, she was here to work.
“Yes, and you are?” she was a little lost, the lady downstairs hadn’t told her his name, but told him hers.
“Elias, it’s a pleasure.”
“pleasure is all mine.” She smiled.
“The lady at the front told me to wait here, she will call us when they’re ready for us. Do you for any reason know how they look?” He asked quietly trying not to bring attention from the people working in this floor. From what y/n understood, their offices were here, and their secretary was also here but some other people worked here to. Potential important lawyers?
“Ahm… no, not really. Tried to look them up but no photos. Very private aren’t they? Wonder how they do it, being so well known among everyone. Specially famous people.” y/n said when she brought her thoughts to focus on Elias again. She sitting next to him and they chatted for a little, until they were called.
“They will see you now. You can go down the hall, and it’s the last door to your right. It’s the meeting room.” Iris spoke eloquently, and that made y/n and Elias share a worried look before they got on their merry way.
“That made a little nervous, I mean, didn’t expect much less from someone who works with such big people, but… you know what I mean?” Elias spoke, worry in his voice. Not being able to form many words do to her being nervous, y/n just nodded.
“Do the honors.” y/n managed to let out, a small and brief smile on her face. Elias opened the door after knocking and hearing a ‘come in’ from inside.
The table wasn’t full of people but fore sure y/n would have a hard time, until they introduced themselves, knowing who Fred and George were. They had invited other lawyers, she assumed, from their position and all, she had to be. She was now regretting accepting this.
“Please com in and have a seat.” One man with spiky, red hair pointed to the chairs that had y/n’s and Elias name. They proceeded to do just that.
“I’m George, this is my brother Fred, and these are some of our best lawyers. Please don’t be frightened we just like to make sure the interns we are giving a chance have actual potential and are not just ‘grades’, that’s why they are here.”
y/n had to swallow very hard and hope to not be heard. If she was gonna have to work here and look at that all day was she gonna be able to do it? God helped her. If she thought Elias was attractive mere ten minutes ago… what did she thought of these two men, who were clearly twins but somehow had differences that made her more attractive to the one who was speaking.
“We are going to make a series of questions, from all of us and see how you answer and handle very specific situations. “ It was Fred speaking, he held what she expected to be a smile on his face, while his brother had a way more serious demeanor.
They nodded, not knowing if they should speak or not. George held his eye on the girl slightly longer than he did on Elias. She was more beautiful here than in the picture she had presented in her portfolio.  How could he handle that? And if they kept her she was to work on their floor all the time? He needed to control himself, now.
The questions started and they alternated between y/n and the boy next to her, making sure the majority of the questions were different for both of them, to actually see their potential and not some copy of the others answer.
When it ended y/n felt like her heart could be heard by everyone around her and that it would come out of her chest. She didn’t have a very good perspective on things, in a way, if they were good or bad. So she didn’t know if she had done a good job, the faces everyone had at the table didn’t help a little.
Elias gave her a look, a reassuring one. And under the table, like they’ve knew each other for years he squeezed her hand gently.
“I think you both did an amazing job, I think everyone agrees?” Fred gave a questioning look around, starting at his brother and then to their co-workers. Everyone was nodding. “So I think this is all, you are hired as our interns.”
She could scream again, like she did when she had gotten the email saying she was accepted. But she controlled herself. Gave Elias hand a squeeze back and when everyone got up they both followed them.
“I think my brother will now sort with you both every last detail. I won’t be present mainly because I have an import case to work on, but we trusted each other with our lives. So you won’t miss me.” Fred tried to loosen the mood with a small inexistent joke.
Everyone started to leave and only left George, y/n and Elias there.
“If you would follow me please, my office will be a bit more comfortable than these chairs.” He passed through them and like lost puppies they followed to his office.
They spent hours talking about everything. George wanted them to be on the same page, and following everything precisely. y/n tried her best to memorize every word he said, but it started to get harder when after a while George felt bored of his position and dragged his chair away from his desk and then crossed his right leg over his left knee, leaving him in a powerful and extremely hot position that made y/n have to cross her legs and try to be as discreet as possible while trying to alleviate some of the pressure she had.
Why was she acting like a stupid teenager? For heavens sake, this was her work place, that was her boss, and she should not even thinking about him as other than that. But when his hands came to rest on his crotch her attention switched to the very prominent bulge he presented. Her eyes were not there for even a minute, but she still felt guilty when she looked up to see him looking at her. She looked away fast. He continued with what he was saying.
y/n hoped Elias was oblivious to the situation.
After while George got himself of that position and looked at both of them.
“This is everything, if for any reason something comes up you can always ask Iris, or any other thing, email me or my brother or ask Iris to speak with us. Right?”
He popped his tong and proceeded to get up when everything was settled.
Their first official day started the next day. And then after that is was smooth sail for a while. y/n helped Fred a lot in his cases and he loved how she was just so vibrant to have around. Took him a while to get her out of her shell, to show her she could treat him as a friend rather then her boss. He felt like he somehow could trust her a lot and when they were very concentrated on a job and they were both tired he would tell her bits and pieces of his life. Usually about his girlfriend Angelina and how they’ve been tighter for years and he is thinking of proposing. Or how he feels old and wished he could be an intern all over again. To which y/n would say:
“Aren’t you considered the youngest and most successful lawyer of all time?” Those were facts, Fred and George were in fact all of that. At twenty five they had a massive empire, that they built from scratch and with only the help of a very few close ones.
He would share small details of his childhood, of him and George. Usually those gave y/n some hope that George would one day be to her what Fred was to her. But until now all she got from him were small short and cold answers from anything she was working on. Usually Fred asked her to go bribe them out of him. Elias was the one who worked more closely to George and even him was usually in other lawyers offices doing close work with them.
“George is stubborn and weird sometimes. He always loves to work with you lot, I don’t understand why this year is different.” Fred stated, looking at y/n for a moment and shrugging when he couldn’t find an answer to it.
“Mister knows everything and everything needs some closure, is now left speechless.” y/n joked and they both laughed a little loud. His office door open because the case they were working on required y/n to leave all the time in search for answers. They didn’t notice George at the door.
He cleared his throat. Fred looked at him, and y/n that on the other side of the desk, back to George turned around to also look.
“Elias is sick and had to go home, I have come important matters to take care of, would it be a nuisance if y/n could do it?” She noticed he spoke more to his borther than to her.
“Sure, what she was doing can continue tomorrow or whenever Elias comes back. Right y/n?”
“Yes of course. Mr. Weasley you just have to show me what to do.” She got up and showed herself ready to work. After her first day her clothes were a little bit more casual, but she still wore pants, but George still had dificlty in not imagining those beautiful legs wrapped around his head.
‘Get your head out of your gutter George’ he always thought to himself when these thoughts came, ‘she’s young, and working for you.’
“Yes, come with me.” He instructed and turned around to leave. y/n waved to Fred and closed the door after she left. She knew her work with him wasn’t nearly done, but without Elias she would have to split herself in two and help both of them. Since Fred always had her help, he would have to to what he could for the time being without her.
“We have to through all these voice messages, the case calls for it and four ears are better than just two.” His voice was always so serious how could he work like this? Elias never complained to y/n on their lunch break or when they decided to do something outside work, that almost always ended up in work talk. They just didn’t have much in common besides that.
“yes sure, can you give me paper and pen or a pencil will do just fine.” George gave her a puzzled look “Well with Mr. Weasley every time there’s voice calls or something we take notes to pin point important stuff.” George knew that by Mr. Weasley she meant Fred but she knew that outside she called him Fred, they were that close. She had only ever heard Mr. Weasley came out of her mouth when it was related to him.
“Yeah you’re totally right. Here. Have this.” He gave her the notebook in front of him, the one that had all the important notes on the case. She sat down on the chair in the same place of Fred’s office and waited for him to start the audios.
She placed her head on her hand, and her elbow was resting on the desk. She looked at George who just started the audios and the tried to concentrate. Silently throughout all the time she was there she took many notes, George was a little taken aback, what was he missing that she clearly wasn’t, when it ended she looked at him. He barely had time to start something because she started first.
“So according to the first call, the lady in question didn’t know the person on the other side, but that person knew her very well, otherwise how could they be so sure of such personal information. The thing was she wasn’t paying attention and didn’t notice any of the signs of what was to come.” y/n started, and when she continued talking and demonstrated so well everything he didn’t dare to interrupt her. Although by the end he knew the girl in front of him has just solved him the case. He was also a little embarrassed because some of his notes were not has good as hers.
“You just solved me a casa.” George said astonished with what had just happened, his mouth opened in surprise and the look y/n gave him was brilliant.
“Did I? Really?” She couldn’t hold her happiness, although working here for a while and helping, and having done so much, Fred usually referred that she had done much more than any other intern they’ve had, she hand’t actually solved a case by herself. Fred and her always came to conclusions together.
“Yes, yes you just did.” George couldn’t believe that the case he has been working on for the last week and a half, and that he was getting to a road with no end was just solved. When he decided to listen to the audios he didn’t expect much from them because he thought he had worked through everything. Well, he guessed wrong. “Do you have any idea what this case might’ve costed me hadn’t you just solved it?” George wondered out loud. She denied, not being able to form words. The way he was looking made her panties soak, which is a current occurrence because every time she see him even from a far he manages to do something to her.
“It would cost us millions of dollars and very bad fame. You see we are working with some of the most influential people England has. Winning is very important.” George said.
“I thought every person you worked with was influential and important?” It came out a genuine question.
“These people can manipulate everything around them, if they wanted to end mine and Fred’s career, they could with a snap of their fingers. Winning them this case on the contrary, will give us something in all out time working he never had in this scale.” He stated. “Thank you so much for your help.”
Well that was first, y/n never heard him say a ‘hi’ to her, and a ‘thank you’ to anyone else.
“You can go have your luch now, I’ve kept you here for… oh for a long time.” He said when he looked at the hours. Two o’clock was away past their lunch our. Fred hadn’t come knockinh why? They always had lunch together. “How about had as a thank you I offer you lunch?” What a bold fucking move George Weasley, what will people think if they see you out and about with your little intern ahm? ‘Fuck that’ George thought to himself.
“Is it appropriate?” way to ruin the opportunity y/n, she thought.
“Lunch as co-workers of course. Celebrating early the win.”  He persuaded, now that he was all in, might as well convince her. When she nodded he continued. “Well have you ever tried the Italian on the main street?”
He meant the beautiful restaurant that looked straight out a movie? The one she’s been eyeing since she started working here, but the prices have kept her way because lord forbid her of spending fifty pounds on a fucking meal?
“I was thinking maybe something more on my price range?” She suggested, trying not to offend him, or look poor in front of him. She wasn’t and the money she received working for them was good but she started to pay for her stuff now, to relieve her parents of the bills and so money was always a little tight on her side.
“None sense, I will pay for us both. No one needs to know. Now come on, or we will eat our lunch when we’re suppose to be snacking” He was already getting up, got his jacket of the back of the chair in a swift motion and walked to the door.
No one was to be seen in the hall, which was weird given the hour of the day. Everyone came from lunch and this was the hour of chatting a little bit, drink a coffee or something else and going to the bathroom before resuming their work. Some forces where on their side because besides Iris, no one saw them leave together. And Iris was nice enough to keep everything to her.
The restaurant was to the brim. y/n thought they would have to wait hours or not even have a place. But the very nice employee at the front, as soon has he saw George swiftly pull them in and into one of the best tables they had.
“I’m a regular.” He justified, when they were seated and her eyes weren’t on him for once but instead on the menu.
“yes of course.” She wanted to had, and the most powerful man there is, but she kept that to her.
“If you have any doubts choosing I would suggest the chicken marsala.” Did he think, even though she had just solved his case, that she was dumb? The tone in his voice suggested everything but a suggestion. It was almost a command. What type of fifty shades was this? Although she did like the dominant side he radiated to her.
“Sure, I’ll have that.” And George gestured to the employee working around the tables on the place they were before starting their request. And while they waited they talked. In just few minutes he felt like he was Fred in there. Because y/n was talking openly and so freely that he couldn’t believe she was doing that to him.
It felt nice for her hear her talk like that, like she had no worries and that she felt safe in speaking to him like that. He also talked and y/n was surprised he even wanted to share something with him.
“I also lived in a flat while studying, me and Fred shared one I mean.” He corrected. “Two teenagers leaving alone in a apartment after coming from a big family? Sweet, we were in paradise.” When y/n laughed he had do contain the smile that was to appear on his face.
“I can’t even begin to imagine what two boys would do all alone.” Her tone was suggestive. George coughed a little trying to hide the smirk in his face. If she was trying to rile him up and get something out of him it was working.
“law if difficult, but we never studied they way some of our pears did. We partied, and people were impressed because they never expected the best parties to come from law students, yet, they did come from us. Took us a while after collage to build our reputation to what it is today, a lot of people didn’t take us seriously. Then Fred hit the jackpot with a giant case and things just grew from there. I had my big moment a few months later.”
Now that was all information y/n had no idea about. Fred never shared that with me.
“Fred shared a lot of things with me but never that. I’m shocked.” When George looked at her accusingly but in a joking manner she found herself correcting what she said. “I mean, it’s just… I’m sorry, but you both have this like dominant strong image around you that it’s hard to think you ever did party. There’s zero photos of you on the internet, all of your cases have closed doors. I mean? People create an image, even if not the correct one, about you.”
“You have a point there. You have very good points that I didn’t have any idea about. But then again Fred took you all to him so it’s hard to know anything.”
“Mr. Weasley just likes the way I work.” She felt the need to justify herself almost immediately.
George rolled his eyes a little. “Still, you are working for both of us and although Elias does a good job I found out only today how hard working you are.”
If he was trying to make her feel guilty or sometime of thing it wasn’t working.
“Well, Mr. Weasley, I never worked for you because first, today was the first time you actually felt the need to call me and only because it was urgent and Elias wasn’t there and because every time I try to ask you something, for Mr. Weasley’s work you always answer me shortly.” She stated. George lost words at that, but only for a brie moment.
The next words that came from George were fast and wouldn’t have made any sense if y/n didn’t have all her attention on the beautiful man in front of her.
“I don’t have you work for me because, “he stopped for a moment, thinking his brain might stop him there, but was wrong, “because it is wrong to fantasize about someone who works for you, someone who is your boss. Is it not?”
Her cheeks started to feel warm, and her body was next. She squeezed both hands together and crossed her legs tighter tightly, the warmth from earlies mixing with we warmth from now.
“It is profession to crush on your boss?” She wanted to come out like is words hadn’t just affected her, but it came out shyly instead. George’s breath came out uneven and he put both of his hand on top of the table and closed is hands into fists is knuckles turning white from the force. He breath very deeply, y/n watched his nostrils flare and his eyes turning a very dark shade.
“It is. But I guess we’re both bad at keeping things professional.” He wanted to ass more but their food arrived and he was forced to tidy up is posture and look like he wasn’t hard under his pants.
They ate in silence. And when they finished George paid for their food, and when they got up he put a hand on the end of her back, almost at the curve of her ass.
“We should keep things professional.” y/n got way from his touch and looked at him. “Wouldn’t want to loose my job because I wanted to fuck my boss no?” The smile she gave him made him know that wasn’t scared of what they had said at the table. And that if both of them found it hard to hide the sexual tension before, now that they were both made aware that it was returned, it would be even more difficult.
George ended up winning the case that same week. Fred had made Elias and y/n work very little that day and in their floor they did a small celebration party due to the fact that this was major win for them. Everyone wanted an interview with both of them, their phones hadn’t stopped ringing. Iris had to put it on hold so she could come celebrate with them since they had insisted. They were in the meeting room, and although they were known around, Elias and y/n stayed in a little corner, champagne in their small cups a little bit of cake in their hand. Elias had chocolate and y/n had red velvet.
“You know we are not alone in this room right?” Fred asked his brother, coming up next to him and bumping his shoulder. George looked at him questioningly. “You know other people will notice if you continue to look at her like you wanna rip her clothes of.” Fred joked and laughed when George mumbled angrily under his breath. He was regretting telling George what had happened at lunch and even more so telling him the crush he’s had on his intern since she started. Although Fred stated, and very well, that of the crush he already knew. If any of the thing either one or the other did that made him have his confirmations. It was small things Fred would notice. Like every time George came into his office and almost every time he had nothing of interest to say, he would find a stupid excuse that Fred was always to nice to snitch on him in front of her. Or how her looked lingered a little to much when she was in his presence, and how Fred had to call her name various times before she looked at him again.
How George only seem to need something from him in the hours y/n was in his office. How, if she wasn’t there, George would be caught red handed with nothing to say or do, because he just wanted to look at her.
“Shut up.” He said angrily. “Stop trying to make me do something irrational. It’s wrong. And we’re not in the right place to have that conversation.” He wanted this conversation to be the end of it, however Fred was not done.
“You know I don’t mid right? If things are done correctly I wouldn’t mind.” Fred looked at his brother. They were both tall, taller than almost everyone in the room, so they both had a good look over y/n and Elias at the end of the meeting room, close to the door.
“What is there to be done correctly? Haven’t you understand she works for us? And let me also tell you from what I’m seeing when her year long internship ends that the possibly of us hiring her is big?”
“If someone else doesn’t hire her first.” Fred said only to tease him. He was very much planning on hiring her, and planning on giver her a notice before the internship ended so they could assure her position in the firm.
“They won’t. We are the best of the best. And as you said before she had other opportunities but waited for ours. Do you think she would be stupid enough to say no?” George scoffed and then moved his head from side to side, his eyes still on the girl in green. She brought a suit today, she knew today was gonna be big and she had spoken briefly to George the other day and told him about it. She was gorgeous.
“Elias and her are alone in the corner, why don’t make yourself useful for once little brother and go talk to her. Oh look just faith speaking.” Fred said the last part when Elias was pushed to the side by one of his colleagues, a lawyer who was been working on a small case.  
George composed himself the best he could and made his way to her passing some people who were congratulating him again, and wanted to talk but he had her on his mind.
“May I just say, you were very impressive today, Mr. Weasley.” She beat him to it, speaking first. George had invited y/n and Elias to watch firsthand, front row seats at court. She was very thankful for such a big opportunity, she hoped one day she would be where George was, and be has amazing has he was presenting all the facts and making everyone subdue to him and his ever brilliant knowledge.
“Thank you. Couldn’t have done it without you y/n. You were brilliant, and I wish you could’ve been there. Be the one to defend.” He had his back turned to everyone in the room and since he was tall he covered y/n a little. He was lanky to she could still be seen.
“I think I will have many opportunities no? I mean working for your firm will give me a very good profile, and people will want me, that is, if you give good recommendations.”
“We could always skip the recommendations and hire you.” She looked at him her eyes big and shiny, having him say that made her heart beat a little faster. If she could work for them permanently and be a lawyer to them? Dream come true.
“That would be very nice, yes.” She tried to keep her cool, and then closed the distance between them, but trying to not make it to noticeable for other people not to see. Her mint scent hit his face and his teeth came to rest on his bottom lip, her closeness made him nervous. “Working for you permanently would be a challenge no?” she had her arms crossed, but uncrossed them to rest on hand on his arm and squeezed it. She was about to cross the biggest line there was.
“I could do so much more than working couldn’t I Mr. Weasley? I bet I would look good working on my knees, under your desk, only for you so see.” She spoke almost inaudible, only he could hear it and with the noise everyone was making he was sure they didn’t have a clue what she just said. To everyone else they were just chatting about his win.
George trembled and he had to put all his willpower into not doing something stupid. He had no words. And didn’t have time to say, Elias came up behind her and called her, and he lost all her attention. People had the nerve to always be interrupting them. She left, because they both had to work on something Elias needed help in, and y/n always ready to please, offered to.
After that, if they thought they had ever felt sexual tension, then they weren’t expecting to go through this. Fred couldn’t take George anymore, everyday in his office going on about how he needed to get laid. How lately he just felt like everything was building up and the work piling on his desk wasn’t helping.
“You should just go to y/n, I think she would be more than willing to help.” Fred hadn’t meant for his words to sound wrong and George understood where he was coming from. Fred felt y/n’s sexual tension before he even hit the floor at 8 am every morning. He even asked Angelina for some advice on how to try and make them understand that he was ok with them.
George wanted to scream at the top of his lungs. “You are no fucking help, ever. I might as well visit my ex.” He stated. In that moment y/n was knocking on the door, she was speaking before she was looking and knowing George was there. “Fred I brought you what you asked, and also some ideas for presents for Angelina.” She said, and finally looked up, every word she was gonna say next. She has just called him Fred in front of his brother. She would only say that if he was alone. Fred didn’t seem to mind.
“Thank you so much y/n. My brother here was just leaving right George? Me and y/n have some things to do.” He looked at George who huffed and left without another word to y/n.
“Sexual tension still?” She questioned, bold question to make to anyone but her and Fred were more than co-workers, they were friends now and he didn’t mind.
“Yes. You two should meet up.” Came Fred’s voice sounding uninterested, and y/n rolled her eyes as she sat in front of him starting her work. Fred looked at her when she wasn’t looking and wanted to laugh at the annoyed and very frustrated face she had.
When five hit the clock Fred got up, after staring to organize his desk minutes before.
“I’m going, don’t wanna be late to my date with Angelina. You’re staying?”
“Yes, there’s still so much to be done and the lady hasn’t stopped calling Iris today asking for anything we might know. This is going to take while.” y/n stopped what she was doing for a moment to look at Fred. “Do you want me to leave? I can go to my desk or the meeting room?” The desk she barely used, it’s only use now being of support to her bag and computer.
“No, you can stay I trust you. Just please don’t stay up to late. Tomorrow we can give her something to occupy her mind.” She nodded, and said goodbye as he left and closed the door behind him.
y/n only got up two hours later to turn on the light in room because it was already dark, but her brain so focused on what she was doing that she didn’t think much of it.  
“Fred are you seriously still working?” Came a sudden voice that scared her and made the pencil she held drop to the floor. “Shit sorry, y/n? Where’s Fred?”
“Mr. Weasley left sometime ago, a date with his girlfriend. He let me stay because I have to finish this.” She pointed to the papers in front of her and the proceeded to pick up the pencil. George came in and closed the door behind him. She had to prepare herself to bask in his presence, his knowledge and his extreme intelligence. y/n was not only fisically attracted to him, but also mentally. He was just so intelligent it was scary sometimes to work with him, even though she had helped him solve that case a sometime ago. It was still hard because she was afraid to make any wrong moves.
“Well I thought it was just him in here and was gonna tell him to drop his work and go home. It’s not him but it applies to you to. Besides I had to stay up late too, I’m the only one here and the security will want to close everything up in a short time. I bet if they had done their patrol already that you wouldn’t be here.”
“I will leave when they come here, but for now I have to really finish this.” She turned to her work again, trying to ignore his presence completely. He came closer to her and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Well I have nothing to do at home, I can help you with what’s left. Two heads are better than one.” He said. He pulled a chair from a corner and put it next to hers. She gave him some papers for him to analyze. “Surprising that Fred stayed with this case, i usually take care of financial stuff.” He said more to himself than anything but y/n heard.
“I think he only took it because I told him I like this type of cases and could help him. I’m doing most of the works, he’s working on the arguments and such.” She looked at George. Being the end of the day, he has his shirt unbuttoned, his tie was hanging from his left pocket of the jacket and he just had a tired look on him.
“Ah I see, stealing you all to himself.” y/n denied with her head. “Unfair, seen as he knows very well I’ve been meaning to talk to you since the party the other day. Or did you forget what you said?”
Shit, y/n wasn’t expecting him to act on it. But oh boy, how she was happy he did. Every dream she’s had since that day was of her on her knees sucking him of until he cums in her mouth. While he calls her little pet names and makes her stay with his cock in her mouth because it’s warm. And then in her dreams he would slap her ass, slap her little clit until she trembled and made her call him ‘daddy’. The name would come out shy at first and then when he was destroying her it would come out more strong and sure.
She swallowed hard and pressed her legs together.
“Penny for your thoughts?” He put his hand on her leg and pulled them apart, so her legs were separated and he looked at her sternly. “Keep him this way.” He demanded.
“I thought you were gonna help” she whispered, hand coming to rest on top of his and caressing his long fingers. Shit, they would hit every spot inside her so good.
“And I am, aren’t I? I’m attending to a more important and demanding matter.” His hand came up from her knee to her thigh and then leaned inside towards her core, he could feel all the heat radiating from there. She nodded and guided his hand to be right on top of her still clothed pussy.
“Please, help me.” She said sweetly and seductively, any doubts she had and concerns if the should even be doing this in the first place all melting away.
“Yeah? Want my help baby girl? Since you like to be so bossy and know it all, tell me, what do you want me to do?” George pressed his fingers, quickly finding her clit and letting the pressure there for a moment, a moan coming from her mouth.
“Undress me, and please touch my pussy. I’m so wet.” She pleaded.
“Then get up, come on now, be a good girl.” He sair almost impatiently, and saw her get up and fumble with the buttons of her jacket and then with the button of her pants. “Shit.” George was amazed how good she looked, the black panties and bra she had made her look even more delicious if that were possible. The panties were laced and so her wetness could be seen from them. “On the desk.” He instructed, and y/n without thinking did what he asked.
If Fred ever found out they had sex in his office he would never see the end of it and he might as well think about creating his own firm because… wow.
“I’m so wet.” She brought her hand to his hair and pulled on hit the groan that left George was brutal. “Please kiss it.”
George didn’t need to be told twice, he brought his lips to her covered pussy and kissed, although mixed with the fabric of her panties, he could very much taste her distinct, sweet, taste. He kissed it again, and again until she was restless enough to pull his head back her eyes a darker color.
“Take them of.” She order, George looked amazed at her commanding tone.
“be careful there little thing, might just stop here.” He had taken his hand to move her panties to the side exposing her engorged and redish clit, asking to touched. She mewled, her hand coming to rest on her belly and her fingers digging a little.
George took his mouth to her clit and sucked it gently, gaining from her the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. He sucked again so have that reaction again, her legs came to rest on his back pulling him to her. She moaned his name.
“Sound so fucking good moaning for me princess, just love it so much.” He took the moment she was distracted to rip her panties open, she gasped.
“What the fuck George.” She looked at him incredulously.
He slapped her thigh and squished it. “Watch you language there or daddy might just leave you hanging.”
The fact that not only had he used the word ‘daddy’, the word she so dreamed of him calling, he had also called himself that. He couldn’t be real.
“No please.” Any dominance she might have tried complete disappeared at his words. Two of his fingers played with her wet hole while his mouth kissed the inside or her thigs, kissed just above her pussy, above where she wanted to be touched the most. Her eyes closed and one hand was behind her, to support her and the other still on her belly.
He entered the two fingers, slowly, looking at her, at the way her head fell back, his name fell out of her mouth, and the hand on her tummy came to push him agains her cunt. Non verbally stating where she wanted his mouth to go.
HE wasted no time attacking her clit with his tongue, his fingers moving slowly in and her out her allowing to fill her, to be close to her.
“Daddy, shit.” Her legs slid down his back almost to his butt, they were shaking a little.
“You just so good baby girl, so sweet, fuck, I’ve been imagining this ever since I saw you. How tight you would be, how sweet, how responsive to your daddy.” He moaned, he was so hard the zipper on his trousers opened a little. His free hand came to unbutton and in a very messy way he pulled his boxers down and freed his cock.
His cock was swollen, red, and we was leaking the stinky susbstance y/n wanted to taste. It came slapping to his belly, rock hard. He put his hand on it stroking slowly letting some moans slip out of his lips, which came shocking against her clit and she shook.
“Fuck. Are you touching yourself daddy?” She asked innocently, pulling some of the red hair that had fallen onto his face to have a better view of his wet swollen lips, from mounding at her pussy.
“I am baby, I am, you just, taste so good, feel so warm and squishy.” All the vibrations from his voice were crashing on her clit making her even more sensitive.
“I- I’ gonna cum, George, fuck.” She was so close, so so close, but he stopped, seized his movements at her pussy but his fingers still buried inside of her.
“You’re gonna come, with me deep inside that little pussy, yeah baby?” He asked, moving away from her. Pulling his fingers, she sighed happily, and took his hand as soon as it was out her. Bringing her face close to his hand and putting his fingers in her mouth, sucking feverishly on them.
George groaned, the hand on his cock pressing his tip and he felt like he could come there at sigh.
“I wanna suck you cock daddy, please.”
“Since my girl asked so nicely, I can’t say no.” Hearing him say ‘princess’ ‘my girl’ made her stomach feel with butterflies, and her heart skip a beat. Shit this crush was way out of hand.
She bounced of the desk, and pushed his chair a little, the wheels helping her do so. She came down to her knees, the view making George think the most sinful things.
Her hand took his out and put it in his thick thighs. Her mouth close to his where she left small wet kisses. Her hand started to stroke him, coming from the base all the way to the rudy red tip. She took the pre-cum that was coming out and used it had lubricant making the sensation so much more intense to him.
She opened his legs to fit in between them and looked up at him for a brief moment, her pussy pulsing around nothing wishing to be touched. He had his head back, both hands at his thighs kneading the flesh there. His mouth opened looking like his was gonna moan but no sound came out.
She understood them we was trying to control himself.  
“Moan for me daddy, let me hear you. Let me know I’m making you feel good.” She squeezed his tip tightly and his hole body shook, a moan he couldn’t control of her name.
“You’re making me feel so good, shit, your hands are so small and can barely wrap around my thick shaft isn’t that right pretty princess? And why don’t you put that dirty mouth of your to work.” Her mouth came to meet his tip and engulfed it in her lips, sucking softly on it, her hands massaging the rest of his cock for now.
Her tongue playing with his tip and then she not so slowly took more of him into her mouth. Her hand resting on his balls and massaging them. And then coming up again twisting around the part of his cock she didn’t have in her mouth.
He put his hand on her hair, making a pony tail out it and helping her guiding her movements, even thought she didn’t need that, he just wanted to feel in control.
She breath in deepley and relaxes her throat and before he knew it she was taking him all of him in, hitting the back of her throat, gagging around him, her spit and his come dripping down the corners of her mouth.
“Sucking my cock so messily baby, but so fucking good- ah fuck” he cried out his legs feeling numb from all the pleasure. Her hand moving more vigorously on his balls. She pulled out slowly, her free hand not touching him, touching her needy clit.
“Come on, up you get.” He was out of breath, pulling her by her hair and instructing her silently to sit on the desk again. He got up, one hand spreading her thighs apart and the other stroking him, the color red spreading from his head all the way thru his length from the way he was feeling.
“Next time, daddy, I’ll suck your cock until you come. I won’t let you pull out.” y/n said, hands coming up to knead her breast thru her bra.
“Take that off, want you naked while you make a mess on my cock.” He smacked his cock on her clit the sudden touch making them both shudder. With trembling fingers she tried to pull open her bra, and with some difficulty she eventually managed.
George filled her up nice and slowly letting them both ride the high of feeling each other so closely. George feeling her up all the way, her pussy adjusting to his size. He was big, long and thick and y/n hadn’t had sex in a long time and no guy she was with was that big. George was way above average and she could feel it very well and would feel it even more the next day.
“Daddy shit.” Her feet met his ass and pulled him towards her, George wasn’t all in but her sudden movement made him do just that, fitting snugly in her pussy, brushing her sweet stop that made her spasm around him.
“You are just perfect all over aren’t you baby? So perfect and angelic but the dirtiest whore for your daddy.” His hand took the hair that still fell on his eyes and his other hand touched her clit and pressed it, sinful sounds coming from her, her clit touched and played with along with the pressure and size of George’s cock making her senses stop working and her loosing every train thought she had.
“I’m gonna love to play with this pussy.” He started moving his hips, taking his hand of her clit and taking both her legs in his hold. He bent her legs at the knee and close tho her chest the knew position made her scream. He hit her g-spot right there and then, and her legs became gelly.
“Found it baby, now touch you precious clit for me.” He instructed and she did has she was told, all the pleasure she felt becoming to much, her pussy was throbbing, her nipples were hard from all the pleasure and his cock inside her felt heavenly. He was so smooth, and heavy. She made rapid little motions on her clit while George sped up his movements his hips meeting hers ever, bottoming out with every thrust and touching every little part of her cunt.
When her legs started to quake powerfully in his hold he knew she was starting to get close. She had been teased and denied one orgasm, and she would do it again if he demanded, but the way her breasts moved with power of his hips and strokes, and how she clenched around him swallowing him holy he knew he would be mean to do that.
“You gotta ask for permission.” He slapped her hand way from her clit to pus his there, to control the pressure and the little up and down movement.
At first she couldn’t form words, her vision was going white, the shots of pleasure thru her body to much.
“P-please can I cum?” A gentle whimper came from her mouth as the waves of her orgasm become stronger.
“Yes baby, go ahead soke my cock.” His hand moved even quicker on her clit and that’s when they both felt it. Her orgasm rippling thru her, strong waves of pleasure felt all over her body, her legs quacking, her arms stretched out beside her, her pussy convulsing, her juices coating his cock deliciously.
“Squeezing me so tight baby, I’m gonna fucking come.”  She puts her head in a way that she can look at him, all destroyed and proper fucked out. He doesn’t have time to warn her again before his climax comes crushing down on him. He almost looses his balance for a second, so strong that everything in his body paralyzes. He buries himself to the hilt in her pussy letting his cum shot deep in her and falls on top of her, his arms don’t give him much support but allow him not to crush her. He hides is face in her neck.
“We really did it ahm?” came her voice, sounding still a little afar since he was still recovering from his strong orgasm. He just nodded unable to form any word.
She waited a little, her hand gently brushing his back making goosebumps appear on his skin. The gentle and sweet gesture making his heart flutter.
“We did.” Came out after a while, finally regaining his posture and picking himself up, pulling out of her. The movement making them moan a little, the emptiness she felt felt weird. She was somehow already used to being full of him.  
He pulled her by the arms so she could sit on the desk and not stay laying down.
“Does this change anything?” She asked shyly. He nodded.
“It does, because, I’ll be dammed if I don’t make you mine.” Intertwining their fingers he brought to his mouth to kiss. She smiled britlhy. “If you want me, that is.”
Her answer came in an attack of kisses all over his face and ending up in his mouth.
“We didn’t even kiss thru all that shit. And you kissed my cock.” He joked and she punched him gently on his chest.
“Watch your mouth. And also how we will explain to your brother this?”
“What he doesn’t know doesn’t hurt him.”
They got dressed, both of them taking their time because their bodies were still not at the maximum potential. A knock on the door startled them.
“Mr. Weasley are you still in there?” It was the guard. George made a gesture with his finger over his mouth for y/n to keep quiet.
“Yes Augustus, be out in a minute.” George said a little loudly and finished up getting dressed and waited for y/n to do the same, and then proceeded to organize the mess they made so Fred wouldn’t know about anything.
Opening the door Augustus was there waiting, a few feet from the door he smiled at George, did he knew it was George now that he could see him? Or did he still think it was Fred? Wouldn’t look good if he did, Fred is probably at home with his girlfriend.
“Augustus, my brother gave us some last minute work and we completely forgot the time. I’m so sorry.” George apologized. Augustus understood then is was not Fred. He only nodded, looked at y/n and also nodded and then watched them leave, their hands intertwined while he heard a little laugh coming from the girl.
Next day y/n came in at the same time as always, but neither Fred or George were to be seen. She sat at her desk and started to work on the things she should’ve done yesterday but got a little to busy to do so. Fred came in first.
“Good morning y/n. Already working on the case?” He asked bewildered, stopping in front of her desk. She nodded, now that she was seeing him, after what she had done in his office words were hard to come out her mouth. “Good, well when George comes in can you please tell him to come to my office? Iris is coming in later today so I can’t leave her that warning. You can also come in with them for us to work on the case.”
She nodded again, her words still not forming. About half an hour later came in George, way later than usual since he came in at the same time as Fred or a little after. When they made eye contact the smile he shared with her was so big and bright that made some of the nervous feeling she had subside. She had spent all night overthinking if that was a mistake, but by the looks of it wasn’t.
“Mr. Weasley your brother wishes to speak to you.” With some of the lawyers doors opened she had to address him like that.
“Thank you y/n, gonna put this in my office and then I’ll go right in.”
And when he came around she got up to follow him. Silently she spoke to him.
“he said to come in too, so we can work on the case.” She felt the need to justify herself.
“Ah yes, the case you should’ve worked on yesterday I am correct? Got a little to distracted no?” He put his hand on her back and pulled her to him. He kissed her lips gently. If her hands weren’t full she would’ve put his face between them. They were lucky that they in a part where no one could see.
“Ah fantastic that you both still know how to follow some orders.” Fred said, when he saw both of them enter his office. y/n swallowed hard, that sentence had a lot more meaning to it.
George tried to hide his smile, he thinks he might know what could come out of this, but how did he know?
“Next time you both decide to shag, which mind you I have nothing against, finally actually, do it at home, in George’s office somewhere… but please not my fucking office.” He looked at both of them trying to portrait himself as mad but failing terribly. A smirk resting on his lips.
y/n wanted to hide so badly, dig the biggest hole ever and burry herself there from how embarrassed she was.
“Hod do you know?” George asked incredosly, one thing they refused to have were cameras in their offices, it was a private place for them.
“Well my dears there’s a thing called a fucking phone.” He pointed to the phone he had on his desk, it was used to call around the firm, but Fred had his house number on there in case Angelina needed anything and couldn’t reach his personal phone. “Having my girlfriend pick up the phone, and come in the bedroom saying ‘someone is having sex on your office’ sure makes you both have a good impression. Lucky me I was at home with her when that happened.”
George looked at y/n who was feeling hot and embarrassed all over. Shit, it must have been her in the moments of pleasure she might’ve pushed some button. Fuck, shit.
“Just that. But finally you both decided to do it, I was done earing from one or the other just plain bullshit.” Fred rolled his eyes, continuing to write what he was doing. “Even Angelina was happy, not about the phone sex, about you two getting your shit together.”
y/n looked at George and took his hand in hers again.
“So are we together?” She asked him.
“Yes, but to make it official let me take you on a proper date. Today, sound good?” She nodded.
“Great you two, but please don’t let it end in office sex.” Came Fred’s voice again, making the three of them laugh.
301 notes · View notes
verai-marcel · 3 years
Text
Forever and Always (RDR2 Fanfic, Arthur x F!Reader)
Summary: You reminisce about your life and have a sweet moment with your family.
Author’s Notes: I was listening to a podcast about wedding dress design and got inspired.
Tags: pure fluff, Arthur x F!Reader
Word Count: 1644
AO3 Link is right here, darlin’.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Twenty-five years.
A quarter of a century.
Funny how time flies, and all of a sudden you're nearly fifty years old. Looking back, you can see the crazy turn of events in your life like some kind of movie, detached and yet feeling every single emotion as if you were there in that moment.
***
Fresh out of college, you remembered the night you found your partner sleeping with your roommate. The white hot rage and cold grip of disbelief sent you fleeing into the rain, into the streets, into a bar in the middle of the night. As you meandered between sadness and anger, a bartender had given you a cold glass of orange juice, soda water, and a bit of ice, with a shot of grenadine.
"Here ya go, sweetheart. On the house."
You had looked up and drowned in eyes the color of volcanic springs, finding the same warmth and comfort in his kind gaze. Taking a cautious sip of the drink, you found it to be the perfect drink, not too sweet, and took your time savoring it.
"What brings you here tonight?" he had asked.
After a moment of silence, he held up his hand. "You don't need to tell me if you don't want to."
He leaned in close. "But I'm happy to listen, whenever yer ready."
His sweet smile undid you, and you poured out your heart. He seemed to nod along with your story, as a stranger would, but there was a steadily growing fire in his eyes. After a while, after a few interruptions from other customers ordering drinks, you had finished venting, nursing the last of your drink and debating what your next move should be.
"Alright folks, last call!" the bartender shouted. A few people came up and got one last drink before he started to clean up.
"Well, thank you for listening to me," you said, dropping a tip on the bar. "I really appreciate it."
"I didn't catch yer name."
You told him.
He smiled. "I'm Arthur. Could… could ya wait a bit? I'll walk you home."
You slumped. "I don't want to go home."
Arthur raised an eyebrow at you. "Where were you goin' to go, then?"
You shrugged. "Walk around until sunrise, I guess. Not feeling sleepy."
He tilted his head as he observed you. After a few moments, he shook his head. "If you don't mind, you can come sleep on my couch. You need some rest, darlin'."
"Um…" As sweet as he was, you had just met him.
Arthur pulled out a pen and scribbled something on the back of a bar coaster before giving it to you. "Here's my address. You send it to someone you trust, so they know where you are."
Touched by his offer and his understanding of your hesitation, you agreed. You texted his address to your best friend who lived a city away and told her that you were staying with a new friend and that you'd call her in the morning and tell her everything.
Then you waited until Arthur was done with his shift and followed him home.
***
That was years ago. He had helped you deal with the whole situation with your ex-significant other and ex-roommate. He stood outside as backup while you confronted the two of them and told them that you were leaving. Then you found yourself temporarily moving in with Arthur, bunking on his sleeper sofa for a couple of weeks while you searched for another place to live.
And then you slept in his bed. And your temporary move became permanent.
Life continued. You slept together, in the adult sense of the term. You got pregnant. You dated. You gave birth. He proposed. You got married. He finished college. You became the breadwinner while he worked part time and took care of your daughter.
Nothing went in the 'normal' order of things, but what was normal, anyway?
Looking at the photos of your wonderful daughter when she was a small child, you smiled as you heard the doorbell ring.
"Hey Mom!"
"Hi Avery!" You greeted her with a warm hug. She was twenty-three now, working hard during her first year out of college. You got to see her a couple times a month, and each visit made you smile, no matter how grumpy she might be.
Today the two of you were just hanging out, having tea and going through some of the old boxes in the attic, when she pulled out an old scrapbook.
"Wow, didn't know you did scrapbooking."
"I didn't, I only made one for my wedding."
Together the two of you looked through your silly notes and hand picked photos, telling her the story behind each one, and who each person was.
"Do you still have your wedding dress?" she asked after seeing the photos of you and Arthur, dressed up in a tuxedo that barely fit his broad shoulders.
"I do, somewhere."
After some time searching, you found it, brushed it off, and held it up to your body. "I don't think it'll fit, I've gotten a bit wider since I wore it."
"C'mon Mom, just try it!"
Smiling, the two of you went to your bedroom and you managed to shove yourself mostly into the dress. Except for the shoulders.
"I've gotten more buff," you joked as you pulled the dress off yourself. "You try it."
Avery took the dress, stared at it for a moment, and with your help, pulled it on. It looked like it fit, until she moved her arms.
The sound of a seam ripping made you both pause.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry–"
You patted her shoulder. "It's fine, sweetie. It's just a dress, it can be fixed. And you look beautiful in it."
Your daughter grinned, and you could see Arthur's eyes and smile on her face.
After she spun around a few times, she took it off and handed it back to you. Out of curiosity, you checked which seams had torn.
"It might fit you now," Avery joked.
"Sure, why not?"
You pulled it back on, and sure enough, the seams that had torn were the very ones stopping you from fitting your thicker arms through. You turned around and looked in the mirror. Twirling around a bit, you suddenly felt young again, remembering the first time you had tried this dress. Your two closest friends had been by your side, encouraging you to buy the dress because you were so pleased with it.
And you remembered the last time you had worn this dress, walking down the aisle with Arthur, hand in hand, the two of you grinning at each other as if there was nothing else in the world, just the two of you, happily in love.
"Let's take some photos outside!" Avery suggested, her eyes lighting up with enthusiasm.
Smiling at your daughter, you walked through your house and out to the small backyard that Arthur lovingly cared for, with a small waterfall and herb garden.
He was there, kneeling in the dirt, planting some new basil plants. He turned around at the sound of the back door opening.
"What're you two doin'–"
Arthur's words stopped abruptly as his jaw dropped. He hadn't seen you in that dress since the wedding, and for him, time stopped and all he saw was his beautiful lady, dressed in white, smiling like a goddess.
He quickly washed his hands with the garden hose, wiped them on his jeans, and came towards you.
"Beautiful, just like an angel," he said in awe.
You went to him, holding your hands out to him. He took them and brought them close to his heart before lifting your hands to his lips and kissing your fingers oh so so tenderly.
"Amazin', I feel the same as I did on our weddin' day, seein' you like this."
"I'm a little wider now…"
"That don't matter none," he said, leaning closer to you. His forehead touched yours and he looked into your eyes. "Yer always lovely."
"Awww!"
Avery's exclamation brought the two of you back to reality. She had her phone out and had been taking photos of the two of you, a giant grin on her face.
"I'll send these to you later, after I touch them up a bit," she said. "I, uh, got an errand to run. Bye Dad, bye Mom, I'll catch you later!"
She left, giving you a conspiratorial wink. You looked back at Arthur to find that his eyes hadn't left you for a single moment.
He was in his late fifties now, streaks of grey in his hair, giving him a sophisticated appearance. He smiled much more these days, finding happiness in tending his small garden and being outside in the sunlight. He was still strong, still broad shouldered, but he had filled out a little from your delicious home cooked meals.
And he still looked at you like you were his entire world.
"Should we go inside?" you asked with a mischievous smirk.
"I got mud on me," he said, although he didn't resist when you pulled him into the house.
"I'll get you all clean," you said. "Then we can get dirty."
"Darlin'," he said as if he was chastising you, yet he was chuckling softly as he let you lead the way.
***
That night, looking at the photos Avery had emailed, you realized how the two of you appeared, so deep in love. You both looked younger in her photos, and you wondered if it was because of the photo editing.
Showing Arthur, he just smiled and kissed your cheek, his whiskers scraping your skin lightly as he nuzzled you.
"See? Told you my feelin's fer you would never change." He pulled you into his arms and held you close.
"You'll always be my shinin' star."
--------------------
End Notes: I started with a small idea and it kinda got longer. Oops.
89 notes · View notes
metalheddie · 3 years
Text
Are You Lonesome Tonight?
summary: Reader and Spencer's relationship is on the rocks, but they manage to work it out.
tw: light swearing, arguments
word count: 2.3k
genre: angst/fluff
a/n: This is a songfic after "Are you Lonesome Tonight" by Elvis! This one is honestly one of my favorites to write :0 and don't worry, it's not super sad, just a little :)(Reader goes by she/they)
Tumblr media
This has been going on for far too long now. Y/n couldn’t take it anymore. They felt alone in their own lovers’ arms, he was like a stranger, a ghost of the man they once knew. They loved him still, so much, but he was distant and he never talked to them about the things he was obviously stressed or drained from.
Y/n just wanted to help him but he never gave them a chance to, they’re actively being pushed away and it’s a pain that they never thought they would experience in this lifetime. So they decide to talk to Spencer about it.
“Spence…?” She calls from his bedroom doorway. He’s sitting on his bed cross-legged surrounded by piles of books, and his head in his hands.
The case he had just gotten back from was a difficult one, to put it mildly. Teens held hostage by another student, who was a lot like Spencer. Too smart for his own good and always overlooked by his peers. He couldn’t save them all and it was eating him up inside. He didn’t look up from the page he was dwelling on. Re-reading and trying to fit all the pieces together that he missed. You hated seeing him like this. Broken and isolating himself, throwing himself into his work where he would eventually drown.
You walk over to the bed and place your hand on his knee. He flinches back away from your touch. He’s never done that before and it breaks your heart. You retract your hand and sit on the ottoman next to the bed. You both sit in the uncomfortable silence for a little while before you say,
“Spence… I know you’re having a difficult time right now, but I really think we should go on a walk or something, just to clear your head-”
“No, y/n. I’m fine. I don’t need your help right now. Just leave me be.” He said with venom in his voice. He’s never talked to you like that before, and it hurts like hell.
“I- ok I will, but Spence at least let me get you some water or something, please just let me help-” you tried to reason with him.
“I said get out! I don’t need you here!” he shouted. That was the last straw for you.
“Fine! I’ll leave you here for the next week and a half dwelling on all the things that you could have done when you should be trying to recover from all this. All you do is push people away when you’re upset and you never think of the consequences or the people you hurt in the process.”
You lost your cool then. All the pain you’ve been feeling for the past couple of months spilling out like a dam bursting.
“The BAU’s Golden boy who could do no wrong, huh? Well, I think that’s bull. Don’t call me until you put your big boy pants on and want to talk about what’s going with you.”
Y/n could see his jaw clenching so hard his teeth might split, but at that moment they could care less. She was done being the subject of his emotional whiplash. With that, you left with tears streaming down your face and a heart so heavy you thought you would collapse from the weight of it.
~
It’s been a week and 4 days since y/n has talked to Spencer. There hasn’t been a call, text, email… nothing. She misses him of course, but she has to stand her ground. It’s so difficult not being able to pick his big beautiful brain for ideas for her songs. Y/n realized she depended on him more than she thought. She wants to pick up the phone and call him so badly, to tell him that she’s sorry and that she went too far, but pride is holding her in an iron grip and it’s almost suffocating.
All y/n has been doing is working on their covers and desperately trying to find inspiration for their next song. They haven’t had any luck so far, their mind is too preoccupied with how Spencer is holding up after what happened that night. To try and distract themselves from their own mind, they put on their favorite oldies playlist and lay on their floor.
The first few chords of their favorite song play and then,
Are you lonesome tonight
Do you miss me tonight?
y/n closes their eyes and lets a few tears slip past their lashes. Oh, how they miss their lover so…
~
Spencer hasn’t left his apartment all weekend. Wading in the guilt he felt over hurting the most important person in his life. He hadn’t meant to snap at them like that...or any of the other times it happened over the last few months. He’s pacing his apartment trying to distract himself from his own mind.
On Monday as he walks into the bullpen, he tries to keep his microexpressions in check so the team doesn’t try to profile what he’s going through. All he wants to do is get his paperwork done and go home. To do what? He’s not sure, especially because his partner won’t be there with him. Just thinking about it like that makes him tear up. He’s eventually able to pull himself together with a few deep breaths, but not without Derek catching on at the last minute.
Derek looks up from his paperwork right as Spencer hangs his head in an attempt to stop the tears from falling. Derek knows how private Spencer is when it comes to his love life, hell he’s only met his partner once the whole time they’ve been dating. He knows something’s wrong and he cares about the kid, so he walks up to him and says
“Hey, boy genius, what’s on your mind?”
Spencer turns to him, trying to keep it together. “Just thinking about this case….” He held up (what he thought to be) a random file.
“You sure about that, kid?” Derek said while reaching for said “file” which really turned out to be a loose page of his handheld calendar with a red heart around one of the days.
Derek only had to look at it for a moment to know exactly what was wrong. He was having relationship problems and suddenly he was floundering. Derek knew that feeling all too well, knowing that the job had put such a strain on his past relationships.
Spencer whips around and stares at the page, tears welling in his eyes that threaten to spill. He grabs at it and takes it back without a word. He’s embarrassed and upset and this day isn’t going as smoothly as he’d wished. Derek pulls up a chair and clears his throat to get his attention. Spencer turns to him with a look he can’t quite read. He says,
“Look, kid… I know relationships can be tough, especially in this line of work, but we have to push through the bad stuff to get to the good parts that we’ll remember forever.
Spencer sat in silence, contemplating his words.
“Do you love her?” he asks, even though he already knows the answer.
“Yes… A thousand times yes. When days and cases get really bad, she’s the only thing that keeps me going…” tears glistening in his hazel eyes.
Derek nods and leans forward. “Go to the place you think she might be… you mentioned she sings at that jazz club uptown right?”
Spencer nods, knowing where he’s going with this.
“Ok, so tonight you’ll go and see if she’s there.” Giving Spencer a small smile and pats him on the back.
He leaves for his desk and leaves Spencer alone with his thoughts once more. He would do anything to see his lover again...
---
That night Spencer found himself at the Black Rabbit Jazz Club, all by his lonesome. Sitting at the bar waiting for open mic night to start. He was replaying their fight over and over again in his mind when he heard the first chords of Y/n’s favorite Elvis song flow through the speakers. Then he heard it… The voice he’d come to know and love, filled with honey and gold.
Are you lonesome tonight?
Do you miss me tonight?
Are you sorry we drifted apart?
He turns in his chair to see Y/n, in a sleek black cocktail dress with fishnets and 40’s style heels. She’s always had an affinity to dress to the club’s feel. Her hair is situated to frame her face beautifully and the spotlight she’s given makes her look like an angel, his angel.
Does your memory stray to a brighter sunny day
When I kissed you and called you sweetheart?
They’re scanning the crowd to find a spot, or someone, to focus on to pour their heart into. Suddenly a familiar face appears to them in the crowd.
Spencer
It takes everything in them not to jump off the stage and run to him. Instead, she chooses to pour her heart out to him the only way that would seem to fit, through song.
Do the chairs in your parlor seem empty and bare?
Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there?
Is your heart filled with pain, shall I come back again?
Tell me dear, are you lonesome tonight?
At this point, Spencer is in awe of his partner. Holding eye contact with her as she sings, knowing how much emotion is behind those words. He’s shed a few tears at this point, but she’s not finished.
She steps off the stage with the mic and walks through the tables and chairs in the audience gracefully. She says,
“I wonder if you're lonesome tonight, Fate had me playing in love with you as my sweetheart. Act one was when we met. I loved you at first glance,”
She was looking right at him now, baring her soul to him while he stared in awe into hers.
“You rambled your facts so cleverly and never missed a clue. Then came act two. Honey, you lied when you said you loved me, and I had no cause to doubt you. I'd rather go on hearing your lies, Than go on living without you.”
At this moment Y/n had let go just enough to let a single tear fall past her lashes, creating a faint trail of mascara with it. Though it was getting tough to hold it together, the show must go on.
“Now the stage is bare and I'm standing there, with emptiness all around, and if you won't come back to me then make them bring the curtain down.”
Spencer dropped his head to hide the tears falling from his eyes then. Seeing them so emotionally exposed in front of him like this was rare. Especially after putting up with so much.
By then Y/n had made their way back onto the middle of the stage and sang the ending lines of the song while staring at their lover.
Is your heart filled with pain, shall I come back again?
Tell me dear, are you lonesome tonight…
She reached out to him as she sang, and as the ending chords played she placed her hand on her heart.
After the song ended there was roaring applause, for the performance and the show she put on as well. She thanked the audience and exited the stage. She made her way out the door and Spencer followed. He rushed after her so fast he barely missed her leaning on the brick exterior. She looked up at him, slightly startled. They gazed at each other, wondering who would make the first move. After about 2 minutes y/n reached for his hand, hoping he wouldn’t pull away.
He meets her halfway and they start on the walk home. It’s wordless, but there’s no negative energy, no tension to be felt. As they arrived at Spencer's apartment door he went to unlock it and y/n wrapped their hands around his waist and leaned their head on his spine. A subtle gesture to let him know that they loved him. After going inside and sitting on the couch together, Spencer finally speaks.
“I’m so sorry. For everything. I’m sorry for not being there when you need me, I’m sorry for putting my own insecurities and self-doubts before your feelings, and most of all I’m sorry for being selfish, y/n. You deserve so much more than being cast aside. I love you so much.”
y/n’s bottom lip quivered as she tried to hold herself together so she could speak too. She took a deep breath to calm herself and said
“I’m sorry too. I should have never said those things about you and your job. God, you're wonderful at what you do and I should have never used it against you like that. I was being stupid and I wasn’t thinking. Can you forgive me, even after all of that…?”
He took y/n’s hand and kissed the back of it, he pulled her in close for a tight hug and cuddled into her. She quietly cried into his shoulder as he whispered sweet affirmations in her ear to help her calm down. After a while, her breathing evened out and her sniffling stopped. She moved to be face to face with him and gently placed her hands on the side of his face and pulled him into the sweetest kiss he could have ever imagined. If she claimed her lips were made of honey, he wouldn't doubt her for a second. After a beat or 2, they pulled away and decided to order in and watch Doctor Who, and all was well.
Fin~
68 notes · View notes