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jade-escobar · 14 days

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Opening Night | Jadrigo

Featuring: Rodrigo & Jade Escobar; mentions of Ziggy Baldoni, Leo Castillo de Leon, Jewell & Jett Clark, and others Location: Saddle River Day School; San Francisco, CA Time Frame: Evening, May 2, 2024 Notes: The opening night of Hairspray proves to be a big night for both Rodrigo & Jade @rodrigo-esc

JADE

Jade had been feeling uneasy for a few days now. Her stomach wasn't quite settled during most of the days, her breasts felt sore and what caught her attention the most was that she hadn't gotten her period since before the wedding. With plans to go to the school and help the students with vocal warm-ups before their opening performance, Jade thought it best to hopefully get some answers--or eliminate one possibility.

After a trip to the nearest CVS, Jade picked up 2 different brands of pregnancy tests and returned to hers and Rodrigo's townhouse. She took one of each test in the downstairs half-bath and rather than driving herself crazy waiting in the restroom, she washed her hands and went to the kitchen to prep some leftovers to bring to Rodrigo for dinner. By the time she finished packing up plenty of food in a container and adding a couple of plums and 2 bottles of water, she went back to the bathroom to check the results.

One test had an undeniable 'plus' sign on it which, according to the instructions was a positive. The other test had a digital screen which plainly read, "pregnant" on the small screen. Jade lightly gasped and picked up the tests. Her heart was beating fast and a slow, disbelieving smile was appearing on her face. She cupped a hand to her mouth and then, after getting through her initial shock, she took a deep breath and hastened her efforts in preparing to go up to the school. As she gathered her things, she thought about how to go about telling her husband.

After feeding Miranda and gathering her coat, purse and Rodrigo's dinner, she headed out, only making a couple of quick stops on her way to the school--her mind reeling from the good news.

RODRIGO

"Alright, guys! Michael! Michale, come here." Rodrigo gestured toward the desk full of programs that were being folded by the backstage crew. "What's wrong?" Michael, who towered over most 8th graders if not all, took one good look at Rodrigo and then burst into tears. "Oh. oh, no, no. what's wrong?" Rodrigo could tell from the moment he walked in that Michael Sin, one of the school's prodigies was not having a good day. The rest of the class stopped when they heard the sobs and rallied behind their friend, with Leo trying his best to reach Michael's shoulder to comfort him.

After pulling himself together and wiping his eyes, Michael finally revealed that his father would not be coming to opening night or any night. While the young man was already being pulled for junior varsity basketball at the most prestigious school in the district and while still belonging to the middle school section, he was finding that he also enjoyed drama with Ziggy and Rodrigo and the new friends he had made. With that, came the argument from his father that he wouldn't have time for basketball and that he'd have to choose one. Michael had suggested drama until the summer and once he began 9th grade, he'd join the team but his father didn't like that one bit. "I'm sorry, Michael. Look, you're doing what you love and that's what matters. Your father will come around. Your mom will be there and she knows you will make the best Link and she'll see the talent that we all see. Okay?" Rodrigo would have messed with the giant kid's hair to comfort him but it was already in the perfect style for his character. Instead, he offered a side hug and then let the others hug him too.

When Rodrigo looked up, he noticed Jade at the door, not knowing how long she had been standing there and before he could greet his wife, the class was already yelling her name and running up to her. "Mrs. Escobar! You're right on time! I can't hit this key!" Their Tracy Turnbland ran up to Jade to pull her.

But before Jade could be pulled in the musical side of things, Michael went up to her and hugged her side. "He's not coming." he mumbled and Rodrigo frowned before shaking his head at his wife

JADE

When Jade arrived to the school and parked, she left the reveal in her minivan for the time being and went inside of the school tot he music room. Initially, she'd heard the students buzzing with excitement but the noise from the room suddenly fell silent. Brows furrowed, Jade continued to the open door and frowned as she reached it. She saw Michael with his head hung and Rodrigo comforting him about his father. She'd heard some of what was going on with Michael and his dad during their rehearsals and deeply sympathized with him.

Jade made eye contact with Rodrigo and she gave a sad smile, with a single wave, only to have her hand tugged the moment she lowered it. She smiled a little more kindly as one of the show's leads tried to pull her towards the piano. But she saw Michael approaching and kindly resisted the tugging. "Just one moment. We'll get through our warm-ups so you'll be ready before you go on, but give me one moment okay?" Jade promised. When the girl flounced off to her friends in the ensemble, Jade turned in time to hug Michael, who was several inches taller than her--whereas most of the students were her height or a few inches shorter.

"I'm sorry, Michael. I know it meant a lot to you for him to come." She hugged him for as long as he needed and then pulled back to look at him, reaching up to wipe his eyes. "Hey, listen. I know opening night has a lot of excitement because it's the first show, but we're having the show filmed. We'll make sure your dad gets a copy, okay? And like Mr. Escobar said, your mother's going to be in the audience, right? That's such a gift and I'm sure she's going to give your dad an earful for missing tonight." She patted his shoulder and then plucked some tissues from the box on the nearby desk and said, "You're going to be incredible tonight. You've got a second family right here and we'll be cheering you on."

With an encouraging smile, she said, "Why don't you get your make-up touched up and then go by the piano for warm-ups?" She watched Michael nod and then go over to the make-up station, and then Jade turned and looked up to her husband to give him a hug. "Hey," she said to him, plenty of sadness in her voice for the young teen. "Poor Michael. I swear it's taking everything in me not to cry right now." Jade had to chalk that up to hormones since she was usually good at keeping herself composed. Lifting the bag in her hand, she said, "I brought you some dinner by the way. Leftover chicken piccata, roasted potatoes and green beans. And there are a couple bottles of water. Do you want to eat while I go through warm-ups and maybe one group number with the kids?"

RODRIGO

Rodrigo waved at his wife and waited for the kids to get acquainted with her presence. It was nice to see how much the kids had grown to love her and it's not like he could blame them. Even if she'd often counter that she didn't, Jade gave off a very motherly vibe. The kids were alone a lot of the time due to insane schedules which of course, was no fault of the parents. Others had parents who were never present, and never even tried. Rodrigo could understand why the kids gravitated towards them and the other adults at the school.

"How are the programs going?" he asked his little team of workers and they let him know that they were almost done. If not for some last-minute changes, the programs would have been ready days ago. He listened to Jade comfort Michael and when she reassured him that he was going to do a great job and that the drama program was a second family to him, he couldn't help but smile. "Hey." he kissed his wife on the cheek.

"Yeah, he's gutted. His dad is acting like this is a betrayal against him. It's ridiculous putting such high expectations on a kid especially when he is that talented." He watched as Leo comforted him and sighed. He rubbed Jade's back and leaned into her a bit. When she told him that she had brought him dinner, Rodrigo couldn't help but smile even more. "You know the way to my heart, as always. Yeah, I'm starving and it's still warm so thank you so much, honey." He sat on the desk and placed the Tupperware on his lap. "Alright, guys! Mrs. Escobar is going to run through warm-ups with you so she's the boss while I get some dinner in me!"

JADE

Jade looked to where a handful of students were folding programs, but her attention had gone back to Michael and then her husband. She leaned into the kiss on her cheek and hugged him around his middle. "It's an awful feeling. I know. And I wish there was a way to get his dad to be reasonable and supportive of all his talents." She hadn't discussed her own personal background with the students but she knew Rodrigo was more than familiar with what her upbringing was like. She could see some of herself in Michael at this moment, having been there herself with wanting parental approval and not getting it.

As much as her heart went out to Michael though, she knew that she and Rodrigo had an entire cast of students to prep. On top of that, she had news she was intending to share with him right after the performance and while the initial shock subsided, she was still very excited to tell him. After telling him what she'd brought him for dinner, Jade smiled to him. "I heated it up before leaving the house, so I'm glad it's still warm. Bon appetit, mon amour." She then went to the piano, setting her purse down on the bench beside her and taking out the Hairspray music book. After Rodrigo let the cast know she was 'the boss' while he ate, she chuckled and barely raised her voice above her normal speaking volume, "Alright, let's do some warm ups. We'll start with bumblebee." She placed her fingers on the keys, counted the students off and began playing the scales while the students went through the exercise.

Jade then moved on to 2 other warm-ups they'd previously done before suggesting, "Alright, let's do a run-through of "You Can't Stop the Beat" from the top until Edna's verse." She took out the sheet from her bag and set it in front of herself at the piano. A rise of nausea hit her but she swallowed it back and focused especially hard on the music she began playing for the students to sing along to.

RODRIGO

"I've been noticing it being an issue more lately. He's not supportive of Michael pursuing anything in the arts. He thinks he's wasting his time. I don't like that he's being drafted to older teams. He's still a kid, not yet a teenager and I feel like those boys are in a different experience bracket. I don't know, maybe I'll talk to his parents during parent-teacher conferences about it. If he wants to give him the spring and summer to train and then join a JV team when high school starts, fine but this is unnecessary." Rodrigo understood what Jade meant about it being an awful feeling. He knew that if anyone got it, it was her.

Rodrigo began eating his food while Jade stayed with the cast. He was listening with a smile on his face as he ate. She was wonderful with them and while he always thought Jade looked beautiful, there was something about her that made her look radiant today. Hearing the class run through "You Can't Stop the Beat", he couldn't help but leave his food to stand up and clap for them. "That was amazing and you know that's a high-energy number so don't forget to take your breaths, rely on one another, and just have fun with it. "You're all going to be amazing. I am so proud of you." Rodrigo wiped his hands clean after a couple of bites and walked toward them. "It is, for most of you, your second year with me and Mr. Ziggy and that means a lot of you graduate and go to the upper school. We're going to miss you so much and considering the campus is across the street, I really hope you don't forget us and come to visit often." Rodrigo smiled at his cast. "You are all so talented and I couldn't have asked for a better group of kids."

JADE

One of the things Jade especially adored about Rodrigo and his career was how much he fostered relationships with the students. So listening to him talk about what was going on with Michael really tugged at her heart. She let out a small sigh, disappointed in how his father was behaving and said, "Tread carefully when you bring it up in the conference. It'll be good to tell him but if his dad is anything like...what I went through growing up, you'll raise his defenses more." She didn't want to pile on the advise to heavily with Rodrigo. He wasn't new to teaching and he wasn't new to working at this prestigious school so he was likely to know how to handle the situation.

After the warm-ups and the run-through of the show's final number (or most of it), Jade was all smiles. The students sounded wonderful and she knew they were ready for their performance tonight and the nights that followed. Rodrigo had taken the words right out of her mouth when he clapped for them. She was touched by his words, especially with his remarks directed to the 8th graders. With the students warmed up and ready to go, Jade took the sheet music from the piano and put it back in her bag. She joined her husband at his side and had her features schooled while taking deliberately slow breaths, waiting for the nauseous feeling to subside again.

She helped to get the programs out for distribution once they were all folded, and when it came time for the students to take the stage, she told them, "Break a leg!" in clusters at a time as they left the room. With her and Rodrigo being the last ones in the room, she asked, "Do you want me to stay backstage or find a seat out in the audience?"

RODRIGO

Rodrigo agreed with Jade. He'd be careful how he addresses the situation as he knows that if he got too involved or said too much, it would end up falling on his student which he didn't want. He gathered all his things and texted Ziggy that they were on their way backstage. As he walked beside Jade and behind the cast, he placed an arm around his wife. "Are you okay?" He rubbed her back and wondered if her nerves were getting the best of her. There was a certain look Jade had that made him think that maybe she didn't feel like herself.

"You guys are going to be amazing! Take your places! Mr. Zig is backstage. I'll be joining you all shortly." He stayed behind to talk to Jade. Rodrigo pressed a soft kiss against her forehead. "Wherever you feel comfortable, honey. I made sure to get reservations in the front row for you and our friends. If you want to come backstage, there's a couch there for you to hang out. Completely up to you." Rodrigo smiled at his wife and took her hand in his. "Ten minutes to showtime!"

JADE

When asked if she was okay, Jade nodded and softly smiled to her husband, not wanting to lie to him. "I'll be okay, honey. I promise." She didn't make a lot of promises to Rodrigo, or anyone for that matter, but when she did, she meant them.

Jade listened to Rodrigo give the kids encouraging words while they left the room; she could feel the excitement and nerves radiating off of the students who had been practicing this production for months. The thought distracted her for a few seconds and then she shut her eyes at her husband's forehead kiss. She listened to his answer and weighed her options before deciding, "Okay. I'll sit backstage with Ziggy tonight. If I can help with anything, it'll be easier to do from there, and I'll plan to watch with the audience another night." She squeezed his hand while they left the room and followed the students and when she got to the couch, she took a seat. A small TV monitor was set up nearby--probably to help the students who would wait for cues to know when to go on. Jade was glad she wouldn't be completely missing the show but she also considered this the better option, especially if the nausea didn't pass on its own like it had earlier that day. She would be close by to a restroom and not so disruptive if she had to excuse herself.

Jade waved to Ziggy when she saw him and gave the show's Penny Pingleton a quick hair bow adjustment before the lights dimmed out front and the show began. Near the end of the production, she would sneak out to her car and get what she had for Rodrigo.

RODRIGO

Rodrigo was glad that the school's money was funding this production and anything that they needed. While he knew it was controversial to have such an expensive tuition, he was happy that it at least went to the arts and other important activities beneficial to the kids. As he watched Leo practice his hip twist, he couldn't help but think how proud he was that the school would be helping children like him get such an amazing opportunity too. Growing up in an underprivileged community, he knew that for a lot of his peers, it was all about resources and opportunities given to them. Rodrigo wished this type of education existed everywhere with no tuition to worry about. He cleared his throat and hugged Ziggy when the man came to topple him over practically.

"Take care of my precious cargo back here, okay?" Rodrigo smiled at Jade who had taken a seat. "I'm going to be in the pit and here so I'll be running around." Ziggy would be taking care of a lot of cues and wardrobe malfunctions backstage. Rodrigo blew his wife a kiss and then peeked out to the audience, glad to see his friends there. He took a deep breath and smiled as the headmistress made her away across the stage. "Ladies and Gentleman, thank you for joining us tonight for our Drama and Music class presentation of Hairspray! The department led by our Drama and Math lead, Mister (as we affectionately call him) Ziggy Baldoni." The audience applauded and Rodrigo looked over his shoulder at Ziggy who was hiding under his feather boa sitting beside Jade. "As of last year, we've had an important addition to the department with our English teacher, Mister Rodrigo Escobar." The headmistress waited for more applause. "Thank you both for nurturing the children's exceptional talents. And a special thank you to our orchestra and wardrobe seniors who are here volunteering their time. And last but not least, a special thank you to Mrs. Jade Escobar who has helped the children with two productions now!"

The audience applauded once more. "So now, without further ado, I present to you...Hairspray!"

Rodrigo jumped off the stage quickly and hid in the pit with the orchestra kids and the conductor. He had his eyes on the stage waiting for the music to begin.

JADE

Jade giggled watching Rodrigo and Ziggy from the couch, adoring their friendship and how they had each other's backs at work and outside of it. When Rodrigo blew her a kiss, she gave him an air kiss in return and let her eyes linger on him while he waited for the show to begin. Her adoration for her husband ran ocean deep and between the newness of married life combined with the news she had to share with him, she was feeling exceptionally emotional when it came to Rodrigo.

Once the principal spoke, her eyes went to the monitor as she listened from the speakers overhead. The acknowledgement to her was incredibly kind and made Jade go from grinning for Rodrigo and Ziggy to modestly smiling at her own name and hearing herself being referred to as 'Mrs. Escobar'. She watched Rodrigo leap out of sight and then turned her attention back to the monitor. For most of the first act, she was able to watch the students from backstage. Occasionally, her attention was pulled away to remind some students to stay quiet backstage, and once, she told their Penny not to start talking when she thought she was offstage, since her mic hadn't been turned down yet. She'd adjusted the young girl's bow again and let her know that she was doing a great job.

Early into the second act, however, Jade had gone to the bathroom and hadn't returned for some time. She'd rinsed her mouth out several times and tried pinching her cheeks a few times to not look so green and ashen. After reapplying lip gloss and getting a hold of some water, she sat back on the couch backstage and and stayed until the curtain call. During this, she slipped away to her car and returned with a colorful bouquet of wildflowers and a card embedded in the center for her husband.

RODRIGO

The kids had done such an an amazing job even with the noise backstage. Rodrigo just chalked that up to them being so excited. It was opening night after all and very much expected. He did give them a pep talk about it during intermission and was sure to check on Jade. She looked tired and he would make sure he'd give her a massage after stopping for shakes before they went home.

After the second act, Rodrigo was full of pride once the audience gave his class a standing ovation. Every cast member got a chance to dance during roll call and everyone was impressed with the children. Rodrigo had come out with Ziggy who had advised that Jade didn't look so good to him and he had been keeping an eye on her. It was probably some bug. She had been around his class the entire month after they returned from their honeymoon. No doubt she probably picked something up.

Once he gave a little speech and invited the parents to celebrate in the cafeteria with their children, Rodrigo stepped out and back stage to check in on Jade. "Hey, beautiful. Are you doing okay?" He sat beside her, waving at Ziggy who was going to lead the children downstairs once they had all changed and gathered their things.

JADE

Jade was sure that she didn't look her best when she'd come back from the bathroom and she was sure Ziggy would let Rodrigo know it. But she was glad that it was at the end of the performance at least, so thar she wouldn't have to stave off her husband's concerns. She'd stayed backstage, resting the bouquet on the couch while picking up a few things left behind by the cast. After throwing out trash and gathering some abandoned programs in a neat stack, she sat back down on the couch shortly before being rejoined with her husband. She smiled to him and then looked to Ziggy, giving him a wave as well. Rather than answering Rodrigo with a 'yes' or 'no', she handed over the bouquet to him. "These are for you."

The card she'd stuck in it wasn't in an envelope. The front read, "Congratulations!" With multicolored balloons and streamers on it. The inside had been blank but Jade had written in it, "Rodrigo, we know that you're the one who has a way with words in this family. Just know that with how special this night is, we are very proud of you and love you, always. And when I say we ...." And taped to the bottom of the card was a thin, white ribbon leading to a trail tucked carefully into the center of the bouquet. At the other end of the ribbon, Jade had tied the digital pregnancy test with a small note taped next to the screen, "I mean we!"

She waited for Rodrigo to read it and follow the ribbon trail, keeping her smile as controlled as she possibly could.

RODRIGO

Rodrigo relaxed next to Jade, glad that opening night had been such a success. Once everyone had emptied out the backstage and the audience had gone to the cafeteria, it was almost surreal that an entire production had just taken place. He was happy to be with his wife now so he could thank her for everything she had done and all time she had put in but Jade, as detailed and kind as she always was, already had something for him.

Rodrigo smiled at the flowers, leaning in to kiss her quickly on the lips before he could read the note attached. He read the passage once and then twice, wondering if they were from Jade and someone else but then he realized something was weighing it down.

He pulled the string, a smirk pulling at his lips as he wondered what this was all about but his heart was racing as he had an idea but didn't want to think too much on it just in case. At the end of the white ribbon, there it was. He let out a half-chuckle, his hands slightly shaking. "We?!" He pulled the note off the test and he read it over and over again pregnant. Rodrigo couldn't believe that it had happened so quickly. With his procedure, he wasn't sure how long they needed and if it would work out right away. He knew he wanted to try as soon as they could and now that it was happening, he felt the overwhelming happiness pour over him. "Jade! Oh my God! We're having a baby?!"

Before all of this, before Jade, before things got serious with Jade, Rodrigo couldn't imagine a life with children. In fact, he'd run away from it all but as time passed, his desire to have children with Jade grew. Talking with his therapist, spending time with Phoebe all had helped with his increasing desire to have a child someday. Now that it was here, it felt so humbling, so amazing. "We're having a baby!" Rodrigo pressed his forehead against her shoulder and smiled, keeping the pregnancy test in his hand. "Oh my God! That's why you're sick!" He looked up at her. "Are you okay? What do you need?"

JADE

Jade gently returned his kiss and then watched him take the card out and read it. Her lips stretched into a toothy grin when he gave a questioning chuckle but she didn't day anything and just waited for him to piece it all together. The moment he did, her own joy came out in the form of a laugh, nodding despite lifting a finger to her lips.

"We're having a baby!" she replied, quieter but still very excited. She had been unsure about motherhood, wanting it but denying herself that it would be a possibility or that it would be a good thing to pursue. But in loving Rodrigo and growing a relationship with him, she developed a changed heart for the better. Now, she would share that heart with more than just Rodrigo. When his forehead lowered to her shoulder, she brought her arms around him, only leaning back a little when he lifted his head to look at her. "I'm okay!" she told him through a bright smile, bringing her hands to both sides of his face. "I've been more tired and nauseous here and there so maybe we can stop at the store on the way home, but right now, I'm just... I was so excited to tell you. I didn't expect it to happen so soon. I don't think either of us did but honey, between us getting married and now a baby?" She leaned in and rested her forehead to his, drawing in a deep breath while smiling still. "At this time, this moment in my life, I really have never been happier before."

RODRIGO

He pressed a finger against his lips, chuckling softly, realizing this couldn't be common knowledge yet. Rodrigo kept looking down at the test to make sure this was real and to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

When Jade confirmed, his smile widened even more, and tears formed in his eyes. Rodrigo quickly dried them and shook his head. "I cry about everything now, I guess." he sighed and listened to Jade speak. Cradled in her hands, Rodrigo nodded gently, his smile never wavering. Their foreheads touched and he placed his hands over hers. "Whatever you need. We'll go after we're done here. And whatever you need, you just let me know. If it's pickle juice at 2 a.m., I'm your guy." He chuckled. "And I have never been this happier before either. "We're going to have a baby....a little one to wake us up a trillion times in the middle of the night." he then pulled his wife into a hug. "I love you so much. I'm going to protect and love you both so much."

JADE

Jade was so amused watching Rodrigo mimic her, and seeing him look at the positive test again made her wonder what was going through his mind in that moment. But she melted from him tearing up and felt some tears of her own pricking her eyes. Jade smiled at her husband and said, "It’s okay. I'll probably do the same soon enough." She listened to him and grinned when he mentioned pickle juice, "I've heard that it's good for heartburn. Did you know that?" Happy to be pulled into his arms, Jade returned the hug, squeezing him as much as she could. "I'm ready for that. I love you too and thank you." She kissed him on the side of his head and then stayed that way with him for a while before pulling back and saying, "I took two tests. The other one is at home and is positive too, but I should make an appointment soon too, and start learning as much as possible." She was nothing if not prepared, or at least tried to be whenever possible; it was ingrained in her and usually served her well despite the conditioning. "Did you come with Ziggy today or did you drive yourself in?" She couldn't remember seeing his motorcycle when she left their home this morning but she was also very, very distracted on her way out.

RODRIGO

He sniffled, wiping his eyes with his arm. He couldn't help but laugh at how emotional he's become but he didn't mind. He was just so genuinely happy and had never felt this kind of happiness ever. When Jade asked if he knew about pickle juice being beneficial for heartburn, he shook his head in response. "I didn't but that's not a bad craving to have since I know heartburn is common in pregnancy." He thought a moment and then added, "But I think it depends if you're having a boy or girl? I remember Luna saying something about. Damn, I'll have to ask her. And mom too. I'm sure she'll have lots of facts for us. Oh my God! Mom! She's going to be over the moon!" Rodrigo knew his mother probably had been waiting for this moment for a long time. He smiled at how tender Jade was with him and listened to her words. "Alright, well, we can get books. We'll go to the bookstore tomorrow and grab what we can." He thought for a moment as he had been wrapped up in the news. "Ziggy gave me a ride. We can go home together."

JADE

Seeing Rodrigo wipe his eyes made Jade wish she had a tissue with her for him. She gave a sympathetic smile to his tears and wiped what he missed with her thumb. "I guess we'll see if I end up craving it. Even if I'm not, I think having it on hand at home to help with heartburn will be good." After a small chuckle, she said, "I may not know a ton about pregnancy, but I know we have a while before we'll know if we're having a boy or a girl, right?" Still, she was glad he was going to ask Luna. She was sure to know. And at the mention of Emiliana, Jade was beaming again. She absolutely loved her mother-in-law and knew Rodrigo was right about his mom. "She's going to spoil this baby silly. But a trip to a bookstore sounds good. I know you have another show tomorrow so I can wait until you're done with the school day and have you back before the show? I'll probably read what I can online until then." Jade then nodded when he told that Ziggy had given him a ride today. She was happy that they would be able to leave together tonight. "Okay. Are you okay with us leaving soon? I did get a little sick earlier and I'm not sure if it's going to happen again. We still have to stop by the grocery store and I'd rather not risk the nausea getting that bad again while we're shopping." She squeezed Rodrigo's hand and then added, "And... are you okay with us waiting to tell everybody? Maybe waiting until our first appointment to know for certain, and then tell your mom and maybe Drew? And then see if everything's okay through the beginning? I just..." Jade bit her bottom lip, "If something happens before then, I think it would be easier for us to not have to go back and tell so many people."

RODRIGO

“I’ll remember that.” Rodrigo made a small mental note to have pickle juice on hand in case Jade ever needed it. When asked about the gender, he nodded. “Yeah I think it’s a couple weeks down the line or something ? Okay we have a lot of homework to do!” He chuckled. “Mom is going to be so happy. She already loves Phoebe so much and with now Phoebe will get a playmate and she’s going to be over the moon. Don’t be surprised if she spoils you even more. She’s going to make sure of it.” Rodrigo smiled at Jade agreeing they should leave soon especially since she’s been feeling ill. “I don’t mind at all. I’ll text Ziggy that we had to go. He will be okay and it gives us a head start on shopping.” Rodrigo rubbed his thumb over Jade’s knuckles as she spoke. “Of course. We can wait. That’s the right thing to do.” He rubbed her back with his free hand. “We will wait until it’s safe to tell people. For now we have to take care of you and our little one.”

JADE

"We can start a list for tonight!" Jade suggested, taking her phone out with her free hand and started a grocery list with texting a few items while listening to her husband. She paused and looked up, "Oh no, you're right. You're going to have to help me try to rein in her spoiling for me. I feel like my dad will try to do the same thing and between the two of them, that's going to be overwhelming." She smiled a little at this admission and added, "Let them spoil their grandchild 'til their hearts are content." Sticking her phone back in her bag, she leaned into Rodrigo's side and said, "Thank you, honey." She lifted her head to kiss his jaw and then said, "Ready? Do you want to go back by the music room to get anything? Your dinner was in there. Did you eat it all?" It was probably a silly question but thought she would check before they left.

RODRIGO

"That's a great idea. Are you allowed to drink tea? Oh god, I don't know anything." Rodrigo would have to do plenty of research. "I ask because peppermint is good for nausea so we can get some peppermint tea or something?" Rodrigo smiled thinking of both their parents spoiling her. "I will, don't worry." he then rubbed her back some more. "Oh, that'll definitely be a thing!" Rodrigo chuckled and wrapped his arm around Jade when she leaned into him. "Yes, I'm ready. We'll return to the music room to clean up and get the Tupperware. Are you kidding? I scarfed it down!" He laughed and shook his head. Food never lasted a chance around him. Rodrigo stood up and extended his hand for his wife to take. "Oh, crackers. Crackers would be good so you have something in your tummy if you can't keep anything else down." Rodrigo was beaming with joy. "And tomorrow we'll make an appointment for the OBGYN! Do you have one you trust?"

JADE

Jade mused over Rodrigo's tea question, "We'll Google about the tea on the way to the store because I was going to get some more ginger tea. We have some at home but not very much." In truth, she'd made some ginger tea for herself the first time she'd felt ill, before suspecting and knowing that she was pregnant. When Rodrigo mentioned straightening up the music room and getting the food containers, she nodded and then laughed a bit with him. "I'm glad that leftover chicken picatta holds up well enough." She stood after him, accepting his hand and keeping hold of it and picking up her purse and the flowers. "Crackers are great to add to the list. Just some saltines should work." Jade walked with him from the back of the theatre, heading for the music room. "Of course I do," she told him, looking up with a smile. "I've had the same doctor since I went to culinary school, Dr. Ellison. She's also the one who removed my IUD. Hopefully I'll be able to get an appointment with her early next week. I can ask for a late afternoon appointment so you won't have to take time off of work?"

RODRIGO

Rodrigo listened carefully wanting to make mental notes of all the important things. He wanted to be actively supportive for Jade and do things correctly. He was going to make sure he read all the books and as soon as they got home, he’d get to making plans on a nursery. Rodrigo was going to make sure her pregnancy was safe and stress free.

He was glad she had a doctor already. Rodrigo wasn’t sure if all gyns delivered babies or anything but was happy to hear that Jades long time doctor would be the one seeing her for her pregnancy. “That’s perfect. I want to be there for as many appts as possible and all the scans.” He was so happy in this moment, he couldn’t even explain how much his heart wanted to burst. “Okay, let’s go so we can get an early start on our list.” Rodrigo led her back to the music room and gathered their things before they could leave. He text Ziggy that he had to go which his friend already figured. This was just another one of his happiest days he could add to the list of many.

#Rodrigo #Opening Night para #Jadrigo things #//!!!!!!!!!

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gemsofthegalaxy · 9 months

Note

Hello hi 👋 if you are willing to indulge me I would love to hear any and all of your Canadian Greg thoughts!!

I am also a Canadian Greg truther but I live in America so I can’t imagine the full extent of what it means for him to be a Canadian boy™

Ooooohhhh hell yeah I love to share the Good Word about Canadian Greg at least from my thoughts

while I tend to tweak his background based on the specific fic I am writing here in there, I really truly believe Greg has moved around a lot in his life. I like to think in fact he's got American citizenship/was probably born there but after his dad (presumably) left after he (presumably) cheated on Greg's mother, they moved back to Canada so Marianne could be closer to Ewan (for better or for worse considering Ewan is....... kinda a dick imo) and now he's a dual-citizen, always an interloper, never quite Canadian enough but not quite settled into American culture.

Partially due to my own experience I think he grew up mostly in Ontario, he doesn't come across as, like, Quebecois to me tho neither do Ewan or Logan despite canonically being raised there so uh you know, and I only ever spent 5 weeks in Quebec myself. but, French Canadian peoples tend to be connected to their Francophone identities in my experience with Acadians and other Francophones in other areas of Ontario, so yeah i mean idk. It's not impossible but he feels more Ontarian, I could see some Western hcs but I've never been further West so like........... i stick him in Ontario bc it's what I know better.

On that, I think he speaks passable but not excellent French with an Okay accent, he likes and knows hockey, has a variety of Canadian slang he doesn't pull out around his US folks. He likes colour-coded Canadian money because it's easier, dammit.

I also like to imagine him spending a bit of time in small town Atlantic Canada, that is the epitome of self-indulgence for Me because that's where my own actual experience mostly lies. He has some random factoids about fishing. I like to imagine he did Little Rocks which is a curling program for kids, he was almost definitely a Scout (he might have moved to Canada young enough to be a Beaver Scout🥺) and he knows, how to safely start a fire and camping basics (i think he prefers to stay in a cabin to a tent tho lmfao), and I believe he genuinely likes some outdoorsy activities, such as hiking, but also wants to be able to retreat to a comfortable area and not be left out in the rain or anything like that.

I think he was raised Catholic which could be anywhere lmao and knows how to hunt but doesn't love it (which I think it was said he did in the scripts in Hunting, as well as Tom, but I can't recall?). I think he made friends that always felt temporary, he was often the new kid and always the weird gawky guy, but he got along with some people even if he was sometimes the butt of the joke too. He did stupid shit like putting hairspray on his hands and letting other guys light it on fire, partially to fit in and partially because "What's the worst that could happen". Not necessarily exclusive to Canada but I knew these guys irl. So.

One of the things I've noticed that is a big difference between Canadians and US Americans is we don't mythologize or adore our founders the way they do. Unsure impact that has on Greg, but part of me likes to do a little excusing for him, that he rationalizes meddling with American politics and the landscape of the News using the idea that it's not his "Real home", even though he knows damn well the US impacts Canada in a huge way. It's another one of his many excuses, like, "it's not my fault, i'll get in trouble if I don't, i need a job to survive and this one is as good as any" etc.

Finally. Another one of my Greg headcanons despite having 0 evidence canonically and in fact evidence against it to an extent- he likes a good graphic tee. Most of them are stored at his mother's. Most importantly, he owns this:

which i photographed in a real Canadian walmart.

#Greg hirsch #thank you for allowing me to rant #if you have any other questions or specific things to wonder about let me know #succession #i love greg. he my blorbo.

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eiseryn · 6 months

Text

Those Who Leave, Those Who Remain

Description: After Lei's many near death experiences in the past three days, she gets a chance to gather her thoughts a little. She reflects upon the people she thinks she's lost or might lose, and also the people she has with her now. This takes place after the epilogue of the cyberpunk CoC campaign my friends and I have been playing from Jan 2023-Oct 2023.

Word count: Approx 19k words

Warnings: Some implied suspicious /spicy things but nothing is explicit. Some swearing.

In the cheesy and trashy movies she and Gigi used to watch in the cinemas Uptown when they were bored, the couple would ride off into the sunset toward their happy ending. But there is no sunset in the Mertalline slums, let alone a sun. And in this relentlessly cruel and seemingly hopeless world, a happy ending is simply something that does not exist.

Vail drives fast and the neon-polluted city blurs to the point where Lei gets dizzy and needs to close her eyes. She presses her face to his back and holds on tightly to him as they zoom past everything. Under the many layers of his clothing, his waist is surprisingly solid with what she thinks is hard muscle.

This realization only distracts her for a few seconds. No matter how she tries to think about other things, her mind continues to drift toward Ceres. Where is she now? Is she conscious in those test tubes? Is she in any pain? But even if she asks these questions and thinks these thoughts, there is nothing that she can do.

“Where do you wanna go?” Vail’s voice pulls her out of her thoughts.

She sighs heavily. “Good question.”

She hadn’t even wanted to drink today. After resolving the war machine situation, she had wanted to see the smiles of her friends again and enjoy her evening somewhat sober. But fate, as always, has other plans.

“Silver Tongue.” She finally decides. Maybe it’s the mere exposure effect again, but she has begun to like the place, as a sort of “safe” home base. Also, she needs to return the card Maria gave her for the backroom.

After Vail parks his red bike on the street, they enter Silver Tongue together. The main colours of the bar seem to be the red of the chairs and bar seats and brown from the wooden bar and tables. Instead of harsh neon lightning, the bar is warmly lit with a more soft orange glow, although their logo is in neon red. It is still early in the evening and there are no customers except for the two of them, maybe because of how the slums were attacked not long ago. Lei enjoys this subdued and quiet atmosphere, like the calm before the storm.

The android bartender, Sebastian, is cleaning glasses at the bar. She places the card for the backroom in front of him.

Sebastian looks at her with probably programmed surprise. “Thank you. I thought we might have to get a new one.”

“I’m sorry,” she says, “I needed to leave and forgot to drop it off on my way out.”

Sebastian comments no further, but Lei can tell he doesn't quite believe her. “Is there anything you or the gentleman would like to drink today?” He asks instead.

Lei glances at Vail, who is standing beside her diligently. “One Rocky Road, no ice, and a Long Island Iced Tea, please.” She holds her credit chip out to pay.

“On it.” The bartender puts down the glass he was cleaning, and then begins to mix their drinks with practiced ease. He slides the two drinks one by one: A short square-shaped glass with dark amber liquid in it and no ice and then, her cocktail in a tall glass with a cute red straw and lemon slice.

After they have these drinks in their hand, she pulls Vail over to one of the comfy red velvet seats in the corner of the bar.

“Have you been here before?” She asks as she sinks into the plush seat. Maria and Laura, she remembers, had a conversation here just yesterday morning. So many events happened all in the span of three days it feels like a long time ago.

Vail settles into the seat beside her and nods. “Yeah, this is Rose’s favourite place for drinks.”

“Right, he was drinking here… just yesterday morning. And also in the afternoon. And also in the evening… what does he even do?”

“He’s a sniper.”

Lei scoffs a little. “A sniper? Who misses half his shots? I am no expert, but I thought that snipers were supposed to be extra skilled in shooting.”

“Really? He’s usually pretty good at his job.” Vail sounds surprised. At least Rose has one friend who believes in him.

“Unfortunately, I was unable to witness that on the mission.” Lei shakes her head. “He even had the audacity to say he had a little to drink before… ‘only a couple sips’ he said.”

“Oh yeah, he does that sometimes.”

Concerning, but alright. Lei suspects Rose might have a slight alcohol problem. Actually, she suspects Rose has a large alcohol problem and she is concerned for his liver. She’ll be pretty pissed if he keels over from alcohol poisoning before she has convinced him to speak with Ceres.

She continues on with her rant. “And he even told me that it’s “hard to fire a sniper in the darkness”. I am no expert, but if that’s a problem he should get night vision goggles.”

Vail takes a sip from his drink. “Sounds like he’s coping to me.”

Lei can only laugh. “Right? I thought so as well.” When her laugh dies off, she sighs heavily. “I should stop talking badly about him. We all survived, and that’s what matters. Maybe he really was having a bad day as he said.”

Vail nods. “Rose has been through some shit…”

She doesn’t doubt this. All of the people in their group have been test subjects to an experiment that has a high lethality rate. And as slummers, their lives must not have been easy. Rose in particular, leaving his family in the Middle district at such a young age must not have been by choice. She cannot imagine what has happened to him, but it must have been something terrible.

“But… you too, right?” She looks at him with concern.

His eyes seem to shift away a little. “Eh… it’s not so bad. I’m here right now, aren’t I?”

You’re here for now, she thinks, but how much time do you really have? Even if you agree to stay with me, how high are the chances you’ll be taken from me too?

Although caring for someone can be a beautiful thing, when you lose them, those feelings become a poison that has no antidote.

And she only has so much to lose.

She leans in closer so she can talk more quietly. “What were you busy with last night and this morning? Keeper said you were helping Lexi.”

He glances around, but no one is here to listen to their conversation. He also leans in closer so now they’re having a very private conversation — practically whispering in each other’s ears. “The Jackals told Lexi to save the innocent people who weren’t involved in the E.S. experiment at Prism HQ.”

“Prism HeadQuarters?” The words come out of her like a breathless sort of gasp.

He nods.

Her initial reaction is surprise that Tiger would provide this sort of mercy for the innocents who are simply doing as Prism tells them and have no knowledge of Prism’s true cruelty and corruption. People like Lei herself, without the kill count, of course. Tiger’s claim to have saved Lei that night in Laura’s apartment might actually have been the truth, and Tiger herself outside the Jackals might have been a kind girl whose kindness was ripped out and shredded to pieces by the corps. Lei wonders, just for a brief moment, that if things had been different, she might have been able to help Tiger and her brother.

What would it have been like? She wonders. If only she were more knowledgeable about their situation and had a voice that could reach their ears, hands that could heal their invisible wounds. If only the circumstances were a little different, maybe she could save them all. But in this life, this is only something she can speculate and something she will never be able to achieve. This happy ending they all deserve — is it something that can exist in this world? She so desperately wants to believe. But this world has crushed so many of her dreams. And yet, she will keep dreaming.

As she is thinking quietly, she remembers the person she used to know that works for Prism. Or did, to her most recent knowledge.

“Do you think you'd be able to recognize someone if I showed you a picture?” She asks, a little hesitatingly.

“Maybe.” He says with a bit of a shrug. “My memory’s not that good, though.”

She sets her gallery to “oldest-to-newest”, glad she hasn’t replaced her phone for three years. Now that she thinks about it, she hasn’t really looked at her old photos in a long time. Perhaps, she did so to forget her past that she desperately wanted to abandon, but she realizes that she abandoned Gigi with it.

The last picture she took with Gigi was a selfie in a park, where they are holding up bubble tea they picked up along the way — sesame for Gigi and matcha for Lei. They had watched a movie and did some shopping that day, and as they passed the park, they spontaneously decided to stop by. It was the spring right before she moved to the slums, and the last time she got to hang out with Gigi. Gigi had gotten busy with her promotion to an Uptown lab right after, and then Lei was demoted to the slums as well.

This picture contains the memory of the last time she saw Gigi in person, the last time she saw Gigi smile. She stares at this picture for longer than she intends to, and then remembers she needs to show it to Vail. She peeks up at him, and he seems to have been looking at her patiently all this time. She turns the screen toward him.

He looks at it for some time before shaking his head. “No, sorry. Anyone else you’re looking for?”

Her heart falls, but it is something she already suspected. After all, if Gigi was last in those salt mines where the Jackals and war machine was… It is hard to imagine Gigi having escaped, even if Lei never saw the body.

She pauses for a long time, debating if she should ask about her eldest brother. The last time she had seen him, it was for his wedding around three years ago. “My eldest brother works at Prism as well — or did the last time I saw him. I don’t have any pictures of him though.”

“What does he look like?”

Lei smiles a little bitterly, her gaze cast down to the floor, which she now sees is carefully overlaid with classy tiles that look like wood, but are clearly not wood itself. “He looks like me. He has the same hair, eye, and skin tone as me. We both look like our father.”

Vail is silent for some time. Then, he says, “I think I did see someone with eyes like yours who got out.”

Lei can’t tell if he’s lying or not. She’s not good at reading people. But since he promised to tell her truth, she will trust him.

“He’s working at HQ now? He’s been elevated from his position as a surgeon.” Lei murmurs, like she’s thinking aloud. “My…my mother must be proud…” Her voice drifts off, much quieter at the end than it had started. She continues to look at the floor, refusing to look up. She is afraid to see his expression.

As soon as the words have escaped her, she regrets bringing it up. There’s nowhere for this conversation to go and she’s left swimming in a pool of her own vulnerability. Drowning in her own pool of shame.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” There is no judgement in his voice, only curiousity.

“Maybe.” She says, and can’t help the bitter tone in her voice. “Sorry,” she sighs heavily, “I don’t have a good relationship with my family. My mother in particular, has probably disowned me. I don’t contact them anymore, but this is besides the point.”

“Don’t be sorry. You can talk about whatever you want with me.” Vail tells her.

She desperately wants to change the subject, but this topic has made her curious about his circumstances. So hesitantly, she looks up and asks, “Do you… have any family?”

He shakes his head. “Long gone. Caught in a gang turf war.”

“I’m… sorry to hear that.” Lei says quietly. That is not uncommon in the slums. She wonders if he had a good relationship with his family, and she hopes he did. This is not the place to ask, though.

“Don’t be. It happened a long time ago.” His expression seems unphased so perhaps it has been a wound that has already long been sealed — whether forcefully or not.

Even so, she places her hand over his, in attempts to be comforting. Because sometimes you don’t need words to convey your thoughts and feelings. Hers are: I am here with you.

While she’s finishing her third (and intended last) drink, the door to Silver Tongue opens and four very familiar people pour in: Zoey, Keeper, Rose, and Liam.

Since she has raised her head to look, she manages to make eye contact with all of them. Zoey’s eyes seem to kind of recognize her and Vail, but she quickly beelines for Sebastian at the bar. Liam seems to give her some sort of nod of acknowledgement before following Zoey to the bar. Keeper looks a little curiously at the two of them, tilting her head in a very cat-like manner before also going to join the others. Rose, however, seems to give them a very knowing smirk which makes Lei feel a little icky.

“Wanna go?” Vail seems to make some sort of look at Rose she can’t read, before turning to her to ask this question.

“When I finish my drink.” She’s already paid for it, after all.

Their conversation dies off a little as they watch the four of them drink. Lei is a little concerned about the rate at which Zoey is chugging bottles of vodka in a way that is definitely going to get her blackout drunk. Rose seems to be pouring Liam some sake. Keeper seems to be sipping some sort of pink fruity drink and watching the others. Lei wants very badly to pat her head, and Keeper seems to look toward her direction when she thinks this.

No, no, go back to enjoying your evening, Lei thinks toward Keeper, don’t mind me~

Keeper turns back and Lei watches Liam clink glasses with everyone and also Keeper, who seems to be a little shy about it.

I was supposed to have a drink with them and Laura, Lei thinks. But since Laura’s gone now and Liam and Rose are leaving tomorrow, those plans will have to remain forever unfulfilled. She supposes, in a way, they’re kind of getting drinks together since they’re at the same place at the same time, although on separate sides of the room. It’s a little bit of a stretch, but it is better than nothing.

“Is it a runner thing to get drinks after missions?” She asks Vail, turning back to her companion.

“Yeah of course,” Vail says, “Since every job’s dangerous, gotta celebrate when we stay alive.”

“That makes sense,” Lei sighs, “But it makes me worry for all of your livers.”

“Eh, don’t worry about us.” He says in the frustrating way he always does.

Instead of explaining that saying that makes her worry more, the alcohol in her veins makes her press her finger to his mouth. “Shush, you. Stop saying that or I’ll make you shut up another way.”

“That sounds oddly encouraging.” He smiles a little at her.

She shakes her head at him, but she’s also smiling.

Around twenty minutes later when she’s comfortably finished sipping her drink, Zoey is already very clearly plastered and now seems to be trying to get on the tables to dance. Lei hopes that someone will take her home.

“Let’s go say goodbye to them before we go and get dinner.” Lei tells Vail, who nods.

They walk over to the four of them, who seem to be enjoying their night. Or perhaps the alcohol is helping them enjoy the night.

Rose raises an eyebrow at her and Vail as they approach. “So these were your plans?” He asks, his tone a little bit teasing.

She raises an eyebrow back at him. “And you’re drinking before going on a dangerous mission? Do you always drink before going on a dangerous mission?”

“Can’t back down from a promise.” Rose gestures to the others, “the mission is future me’s problem.”

“Right…” Lei feels a little guilty about not joining them. She usually keeps her promises with people, but she didn’t expect this one to take place at the same time as when she already made plans with Vail. Technically, she thinks, they did not tell me they would be getting drinks today here, so technically I was not invited, right?

“Did you come to join us in partaking with the devil’s drink, followers?” Keeper is wondering. Keeper doesn’t appear to exhibit any drunkenness, so Lei suspects she might have been drinking mocktails. This makes her seem extra adorable to Lei. Keeper just seems so innocent and lovable, which reminds her of a certain someone…

“Sorry, Keeper…” Lei begins to say, glancing at Vail.

“We have plans, Keeper.” Vail finishes for her. “So, no, not today.”

Keeper crosses her arms. “Hmph. To think that Shadow and Envoy of Death would abandon us and sneak off elsewhere to the unknown…”

While Vail is speaking with Keeper, she turns to Liam, who is still drinking his sake.

“Doc.” Liam gives her a small and firm nod in his usual gruff voice. He seems a little calmer and more composed than she last saw him. Perhaps she should say he looks more resolute.

She nods her head back at him. “Hello Liam, hope you’re enjoying your drinks?”

He makes some sort of noncommittal, gruff sort of noise that seems very typical of him to do.

“Good thing I ran into you, Liam, I need a picture of you.” Lei says.

Liam’s mouth is set in a flat line. “Why.” His mouth is set in a line as flat as his tone of words.

Lei sighs. “To remember you in a photo where my brain might fail.”

“I don’t need people to remember me.” Liam deadpans once again.

Lei has realized Liam can be very difficult to work with, especially when it concerns his own wellbeing, health, or just any positive impacts on his life, really.

She has to be smart about manipulating his feelings, in a positive way, of course. “Well, what if it’s as payment for all those times I gave you medical attention, then?”

At least a minute seems to pass where Liam doesn’t speak and she’s forced to simply look at him. But finally, he opens his mouth again: “Only one.”

So before Liam can take those words back, Lei whips out her phone and snaps an image. Luckily, she has steady hands, so the image is clear enough. The lighting of Silver Tongue is nice too, it is not as harsh as the darkness and neon lights outside.

“Perfect, thank you~” Lei smiles, satisfied. She puts her phone back into her jacket pocket. “I guess we won’t be getting those drinks after all…”

“You look busy.” Liam says, and since Lei is looking closely, his mouth might just be quirked up with the slightest bit of amusement. Maybe he’s picked up on the fact she’s on a date, which surprises Lei, as Liam doesn’t seem to be the most perceptive of people.

“That I am.” Lei says simply, “But we can get drinks when you’re back.”

He doesn’t correct her that he might not be coming back at all this time. “Sure,” he says, “take care of my things for me.”

“I will.” Lei says, meaning it. “You take care of yourself as well.”

Liam nods, and thus their last conversation ends.

For now, she thinks. It’s their last conversation, for now.

When Lei turns her attention back to Vail, he seems to be speaking with Rose. Since she also wants to say one more (and hopefully the last) goodbye to Rose as well, she makes her way over to the two men

Rose and Vail are staring at each other in a way that makes it seem like they’re squaring off. Lei realizes that despite them calling each other buddies, she hasn't seen them interact before.

"Good luck, buddy." Rose says, giving a hearty pat on Vail’s back. It’s easy for him when Vail is shorter than him.

"I should be saying that to you." Vail answers, giving Rose a slap on the back as well.

Then they do some sort of handshake that leads into a chest-to-chest hug. They don’t say any goodbyes or “see you again”s. As runners, perhaps those things are better left unsaid.

“I feel like this is the third time I’ve said it, but take care, Rose.” Lei sighs. “We’ll see you when you’re back. With Ceres.” Because she is not a runner, she will say all the pleasantries she wants as manifestations for the future.

“Yeah, yeah, you too.” Rose says, and then his smirk returns and he pats Vail on the shoulder again, “make sure to take care of Vail.”

“Oh, I will certainly take care of Vail~ You don’t have to worry about that at all.” Lei pulls on Vail’s arm so that he’s standing beside her now. She loves that with just a gentle little tug, he already knows what she wants and does so willingly. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we have plans.”

“Yeah, yeah, enjoy your night.” Rose smiles.

“You too. Take Zoey home too, she looks like she had too much.”

On the way out the door, she catches the finger guns and wink Rose throws at Vail from the corner of her eye. She ignores this.

“You know why I like you, Vail?” Lei asks him when they’re having dinner.

He tilts his head at her. “If you put it that way, I am a little curious. Why?”

“It’s because you’re cute~” She gently boops his nose with her finger and smiles at his bewildered expression.

“Really?” His widened brown eyes are even more cute, she thinks.

“Well yes, I think you’re cute, but there’s more than that.” Lei rests her chin in her hands and gives him a little smile. “I like that even in this seemingly hopeless and cruel world where most people’s hopes are crushed time and time again, you still allow yourself to dream. That isn’t easy. It’s easier to give up and keep your head down when you’re just trying to survive day-by-day, and this is me speaking from experience”

“Ah.” He says. “To be honest, most times I don’t believe in them. I just like to imagine something better. It helps when you don’t expect anything.”

“Even so, I admire that and I love that you are a dreamer. I too, want to hope for something better for all of us, and you showed me that I am allowed to think that way.”

Especially since… you must have undergone so much pain being experimented on, and yet you allow yourself to dream. She wants to ask about this, but she doesn’t want to bring the trauma up, so she will wait until he brings it up one day. If he does at all. She is patient, she can wait.

He rubs the back of his neck a little. Is it bashfulness or something else? She hasn’t really seen this sort of reaction from him before. She hopes that she will continue to learn more about him.

She changes the topic. “What kind of dreams are you having these days? Are you still thinking of what it’s like outside the city and or slums?”

“Nah,” he says with a bit of a smile, “I promised someone I would stay here.”

Although her initial reaction is to blush, it soon fades as the words settle in and sink into the murky and dark place in her heart. “I’m sorry.”

His smile drops. “What for?”

“That we didn’t end up going to Adamawa. The Adamawa you described as a runner paradise sounded too good to be true. There’s clearly something sinister brewing there and that’s why Rose and Liam are going there. Even though you spoke well of Athena… in the end, a corp is a corp. Maybe they’ll start out as something beneficial for the runners, but corruption breeds true. In this world… I don’t believe there is such a thing as a good corp.”

Vail nods, serious. “You make some good points. I didn’t really think about that. I just thought, you know, if it were really better there, it would be nice for us.”

She nods. “I understand, after all I wanted to believe in it too when I first heard about it from you. But to be honest… after hearing about how dangerous it would be in Adamawa… I just didn’t want to lose anyone else important to me. Afterall Ceres…”

Has already been taken and is gone, Lei thinks. She tries to blink away the tears that threaten to fall out of her eyes all of the sudden.

“You know, it’s not too late,” says Vail, “I could probably still go and help Rose look for her.”

Suddenly it becomes difficult to breathe. Lei looks up at him, teary-eyed. She opens her mouth to plead for him not to go but no words come out.

“Is what I would say if I didn’t already promise you I’d stay.” Vail finishes, as if he has suddenly realized something important.

She wipes away some of the tears that have started to spill out. “Vail, I’m not sure if you understand the severity of the situation. Keeper said that even corpos have been taken, and the memory wipe has even affected CEOs. They managed to take Ceres from Paradise, which should be theoretically the safest place in this city and absolutely erase her existence from citizen records. It’s not something that can be easily solved. I want to believe in Rose and the other runners of Adamawa but…”

“We’re runners, we do all the jobs no one else wants to do or can’t do. They’ll get it done. Probably.” Vail’s tone of voice is adamant and firm, but perhaps it is because he wants to remain close to the truth he never believes in any absolutes.

Lei looks down, biting down the bitter words on the tip of her tongue, tears of frustration gathering once more. To her surprise, Vail reaches out a finger to her eyes and gently wipes them away.

“Lei,” he says gently in a tone she’s never really heard from him before, “don’t worry, we’ll figure something out.” He gently places his hand on hers.

She frowns at him and looks away, but she doesn’t pull her hand away. “You don’t have to lie to me to make me feel better.”

“I haven’t ever lied to you.” When she looks back at him, his gaze does not waver.

She raises an eyebrow at him, trying to analyze his expression, but it is truly outside her expertise and she can’t tell. “Are you sure? Slummers are great liars.”

He does not look away, his face is serious. “I already promised I wouldn’t. Just sometimes I can’t tell you the full truth. But I haven’t lied.”

She thinks about it for a bit of time, and then nods her head. “I believe you. I want to trust you, so I will.” She turns her hand over and spreads out his fingers so that she can intertwine her fingers with his.

They stay like this for some time, just enjoying each other’s presence in comforting silence.

“You’re smart, I’m sure you’ll think of something.” Vail finally continues. “Plus, Lexi and her contacts are working on something, not to mention Keeper. We’re not fighting alone in whatever this is.”

Lei sighs. “You’re right. I don’t have the time to worry when there are more important things to do. I need to start working on a better medicine for you and the others. We don’t know the long-term effects of taking Whisper and Shiver, and I’d rather not have us find out through one of you.”

“Eh, it’s fine, we’re used to it.”

“No,” Lei shakes her head. “It’s not. It may be medicine to you… but in the end, they are drugs with side effects when overused. I don’t trust the work that Prism has done… so I will be the one to create an effective treatment.”

People might say she is being unrealistic with these expectations. But if she has nothing else, she is confident in her ability to make drugs. Before she was sent into the clinic in the slums, her job focussed on research. So she simply has to return to those roots again, and she has a few ideas where she can start.

“Alright.” Vail says. “Let me know if I can help you with anything.”

Lei makes a sound of disbelief. “You’re so busy, though. I won’t bother you if it’s not necessary.”

“You’re not a bother. I can always make time for you.” His brown eyes are soft, like pools of melted chocolate. Equally sweet is his smile.

Now she definitely feels the heat creep up to her cheeks. She has to look away from his eyes. “If you answer your phone.”

He laughs a little. “When I answer my phone.”

While they’re walking to his bike after dinner, the streets are still concerningly empty. Perhaps most people are still hiding away in their homes after the attack. There do seem to be a few more people who are on the streets than before, though. As they say, the city never sleeps.

“You said I could ask you anything, right?” She asks him.

“Yeah, I did. What do you wanna know?”

“The Whisper you bought,” She whispers to him, “Is it just medicine for your condition? Or do you really have trouble sleeping?”

She already knows that both Rose and Keeper need to take Prism’s Shiver for their conditions. The Shiver Vail bought before was probably for them. He could be taking the Shiver himself, but she suspects that the Whisper is for him.

“Ah, that?” He says, “Yeah, I need to take them when I use my power a lot. I usually don’t need them.”

That explains why he hasn’t visited the Prism clinic for three months. At least, she thinks, he wasn’t getting them from someone else.

“Well,” She sighs heavily and looks down at the dirty asphalt, “I’m just glad you’re not using them to sleep. Or drugging other people with them.”

“About that…”

She immediately whips her head to look at him. “So you do have trouble sleeping?” She hopes he doesn’t mean that he is drugging people with them. Although it is ironic of her to think this way when she has done so twice herself.

“Eh…” Vail sounds unusually hesitant. “I wouldn’t say it’s that I have trouble sleeping. It’s more that I can’t fall asleep at all.”

“...” She has no words. Yet again, she has been given another piece of information that feels like cold water to her face. “Then,” she finally says after some time has passed, “How have you been getting your rest?”

“Sedatives, getting other runners to knock me out. Things like that.”

“...” Once again she has no words.

“That’s…That’s not healthy. That’s not even really sleeping but just going unconscious. Especially being physically knocked out!” She’s started to realize that Vail makes her worry about him a lot. Actually, all the people closest to her make her worry about them.

He shrugs, seemingly uncaring, or seemingly without options. “What can I do? I can’t not sleep.”

They’ve reached his red bike by now and Lei sighs heavily once again. That is another problem she’ll have to worry about as she develops a better treatment for the E.S. test subjects. There has to be something that will work on him… maybe melatonin injections or another similar hormone. Sleep after all, is one of the most important things a human body needs.

“I don’t know if those sleeping techniques are going to work anymore…” She mumbles to herself. She was thinking that he had trouble sleeping, not that he couldn't sleep at all. The teas, essential oils, massages, and lullabies don’t seem so applicable anymore.

“What was that?” Vail asks. He’s on his bike by now and is waiting for her to get on behind him.

She doesn’t reply immediately and leans forward to hug him just as she had done the day before. It only takes him another second for him to reciprocate and wrap his arms around her.

“Just talking to myself.” She tells him. After all, she still has a few more “techniques” that might help induce sleep. If nothing else, it will release some nice hormones like vasopressin, oxytocin, and serotonin or dopamine — assuming they affect his body the same way they do for others. That’s just an experiment they’ll have to conduct.

The drive to his apartment in the Middle slums doesn’t take too long. It should be an honour, Lei thinks, to be able to go to his place. It shows her that he trusts her quite a lot. But she is still a little nervous.

She holds onto his arm as they walk toward the residential building that looks identical to all the others in the area. The three drinks she’s had have all worn off by now, but she'll take any excuse to cling onto him. Whether or not he is aware of this fact, he certainly doesn't seem to mind.

“Thank you for the ride. I'll give you one later~” She is not nervous enough to not say things like these. The liquid courage in her stomach certainly helps.

"I thought you said you weren't good at driving." Vail says, clearly confused.

Am I being too subtle, or is he really bad at picking up innuendos? Lei wonders. She ends up justifying that it has been a long tiring day. She also has trouble processing information when she works overtime.

She gives him a little wink. "I'm not talking about a bike or car here."

“Ohhhh, of course.” Despite saying these words, his face tells her that he might not quite understand what she means. She’s starting to suspect that he has no experience in this regard at all.

But it’s alright, she will show him what she means. That’s a promise.

As Vail opens the door to his apartment, Lei first hears soft jingling and then very loud and adamant meowing. They quickly enter the apartment and shut the door as a small cat comes barreling toward them, screaming its lungs out. The jingling sound is coming from an ice blue collar with a silver bell on it.

The cat seems to not be fully grown, but is already quite fluffy and judging by its bushy tail, will likely be quite longhaired. Its base coat is off-white and has the darker markings around its face, paws, and tail that makes it look like a toasted marshmallow and makes it distinctly a colourpoint. Additionally, its eyes are ice blue. All in all, it looks quite like Cillin, the robotic cat she herself owns.

Vail goes to a cupboard and takes out a plastic tube of what Lei thinks is cat food. He squeezes it out into a bowl and places it in front of the cat, who has been following Vail around and meowing all the while. The cat excitedly and immediately shoves its face into the bowl, and begins to eat messily.

After slipping her boots off by the door, Lei walks over to the cat and crouches down to pet its head while it’s still eating. “When’s the last time you fed it?”

Vail seems to pause for a bit before answering. “This morning… I think?”

Well, that’s concerning. “We should get it an automatic feeder so that when we’re both busy, it’ll still get fed.”

He tilts his head at her in a confused and somewhat cat-like manner. “A what?”

Right, he seems to be bad with technology. “It’s a piece of technology that will drop food into a placed bowl at programmed times during the day. Since you're busy being a runner hero and my shifts as a doctor are at least ten hours long each, it would make sense. I like Keeper, but I don’t want her to have all the monopoly on our cat.”

The gears in Vail’s head seem to be turning, which is very slightly endearing. She wants to pat his head, maybe she would be able to hear the braincells clunking around in his skull.

She shakes her head, smiling. “Don’t worry about it, it was my idea so I will get it.”

From his position standing up, he smiles down at her. “Alright, I’ll count on you for that.”

Lei notices there’s no tag on the cat’s collar. “By the way, what’s its name?”

Vail shakes his head. “Didn’t name it yet. Since it’s your gift, I thought you’d want to name it.”

Aw, well that’s sweet. Lei scoops the cat up in her arms, who seems rather quiet and placated now that its belly is full. The cat, Lei discovers, is female, and she purrs in Lei’s arms. She seems to flop over as Lei holds her.

So cute~ Lei thinks as she uses two fingers to scratch under the cat’s furry chin. The cat closes her blue eyes and purrs even more loudly.

“Why did you pick this particular cat?” Lei asks him as they settle on the couch together. The cat is still complacent, resting peacefully in Lei’s lap, and she can feel the vibrations of the cat’s deep purrs. They both take turns patting her.

“You have a robot that looks like this. Thought you’d like the real thing.” He replies simply.

Lei is a little touched that he remembers, or cares to remember. “That I do~ But I don’t think I want to name them the same thing.”

Lei has to use all of her brain energy to think about it seriously. It sort of feels like she’s naming their child, and perhaps, it sort of is. Names cycle through her head: Whisper or Shiver? For the drug he always buys from her and sort of the reason why they met? Now that she knows what those drugs are for, it leaves a bad taste in her mouth. She could name it after insulin to match Cillin, but it doesn’t seem suitable. And she certainly doesn’t want to give the cat a human name.

“What about Meng?” She finally says. “The Chinese word for “dream”. Afterall, owning her is a dream come true for the both of us.”

He nods. “Sounds good to me.”

“Really? Are you sure? She’s our cat, so I want to make sure you like the name, too.”

He smiles at her. “Really. I’m sure.”

“Alright,” She says, resting her head on his shoulder. “If you are sure, then our cat’s name will be Meng.”

Lei then suddenly remembers that Keeper will also be a co-owner and that she should ask for Keeper’s opinion. It only takes her tired brain a few more seconds to remember that Keeper will probably give the cat a nickname no matter what. So perhaps it’s fine to not ask for Keeper’s opinion.

“She’s getting sleepy.” Vail points at the cat, whose blue eyes are starting to droop and close.

“It must be since she’s just eaten.” Lei gently slides the cat off her lap and onto the other side of the couch. She wants to make sure Meng sleeps as undisturbed as possible. Meng’s darker paws are tucked underneath her chin and her nose twitches cutely as her tail tip brushes over it.

Lei makes sure to drop her voice to just a whisper as she looks to Vail. “Can I really stay with you tonight?”

He smiles at her again. “Of course, already said you could.”

She smiles back, and then in one smooth motion, she pushes herself up from the couch and swings her knee over his thigh so that she’s straddling his lap. From her partially standing up position, she’s able to look down on him. She holds her face gently in her hands, and now her hands are glove-free, the skin-on-skin contact feels a little bit electric. “You did say that, but are you sure you won’t regret it?”

“Regret this? Never.” He’s still smiling widely, and she wants to reach out to touch his prominent, slightly-elongated canines. Maybe later, she thinks.

“I’m glad to hear that.” And then she leans down to capture his lips in a deep kiss. To her delight, he kisses back with the same passionate energy, although a little more clumsily. His hands even migrate to the small of her back, where they rest comfortably and support her position.

She only pulls away when she needs to take a breath. When she looks at his face in the dim light, she notices that she’s made him into a bit of a mess. Her red lipstick has smudged all over his lips and he’s breathing a little heavily. His cheeks are flushed a pretty pink and his pupils are dilated. She might be imagining it, but she is pretty certain she is actually sitting on a noticeable bulge now.

“Why don’t we continue this in your room and I’ll show you those techniques I talked about~” Shifting slightly, she takes one of his hands on her back and guides it toward her thigh. She presses his hand against her thigh and helps him slip a finger into her sheer thigh high socks, showing him what she wants him to do.

“Of course~ I’m looking forward to it~” He plays with the lace band. In the dim light, his brown eyes seem to sparkle.

— INSERT VERY SUSPICIOUS LINE BREAK —

When she finally wakes to consciousness again, she is afraid to open her eyes and find Vail gone from her side. She is first reassured that it wouldn’t make sense since they’re in his apartment, but then she remembers that he tends to disappear a lot. Additionally, people have been disappearing from the city in general.

But when she finally gathers up the courage to open her eyes, he is blissfully still there. His eyes are still closed and he’s breathing softly. She lets out a breath she wasn’t even aware she was holding, and then worms over to him, nestling herself close to his well-defined chest so that she can listen to his heartbeat. The steady, constant rhythm is her favourite sound in the world. It is the proof of living.

This seems to wake him up though, as he begins to stir and slowly opens his eyes. He blinks at her slowly, only opening his eyes about halfway each time.

“Did you sleep well?” She asks, and her voice comes out much more croaky and hoarse than she expects.

He nods, seemingly still sleepy, as his eyes flit between half-closed and completely closed. His arm slides over the blanket that’s covering the both of them and pulls her a little closer to him. “The best I’ve slept in a long time.”

O-oh?

“Did you?” He asks her back. His morning voice is also a little hoarse.

“I did…” Her voice drifts off and now that it’s morning, she feels a little more shy in his embrace. “Maybe because I was in your arms~”

His grip seems to tighten a little, sliding down to rest on her waist. “Then we will have to make sure that it happens more often.”

“I could say the same to you. Resting is very important for a runner hero looking out for the slums.” She places her hands on his abs and gently traces their outline.

“It sounds like we have mutual interests.” He presses a gentle kiss to her bare shoulder, which she greatly enjoys.

Both of them doze off for a little bit longer, as Lei is lulled by the comforting and consistent rise and fall of his chest, but now she’s been awake for a while, the soreness is starting to get to her.

“I need a shower.” Lei slides off the bed, picks up her underwear from the floor, and turns her head around to look back. “Care to join me? To save water and all~”

He sits up almost immediately. “Of course, you don’t need to ask me twice.”

— INSERT ANOTHER VERY SUSPICIOUS LINE BREAK —

When they are both actually clean and dressed, him in his usual black techwear, and her in his hoodie she’s borrowing, they venture in the kitchen for some much-needed food. Meng meows at them insistently as they both come out of the bathroom, clearly eagerly awaiting her morning meal.

While Vail feeds Meng, Lei peeks into his fridge, which is concerningly empty. “You don’t cook much hmm?”

“Slummers don’t cook much in general.” Vail replies. “I typically eat out.”

“It does take a lot of effort, and you do seem very busy.” She nods. “But it’s healthier. I’ll cook for you sometime. What’s your favourite meal?”

“Food in the slums generally sucks, so I can’t say I have one.”

“Well, you’re not wrong about that.” She sighs. “But maybe if you eat my cooking, you’ll change your mind~” She winks at him.

This may be just an excuse to get him to come over so that she will see him more often. But that’s her little secret.

He tilts his chin up a little and smiles. “Yeah? I’m looking forward to that then.”

“Do you prefer rice or noodles?”

“Both are fine. I’m not too picky.”

“Hopefully I can impress you with both then~”

“Oh, I’m sure you will~” He continues to smile at her, making her feel for just a moment, that things will be alright.

Between bites of an energy bar, she tells Vail of her plans today. “Elise and I are going to be setting up our clinic today. Are you free to be our muscle?”

“I’ll check if Lexi has anything she needs me to do. If not, then yes.”

Vail pulls out his phone to text and Lei notices that he types very slowly, seemingly pausing to find letters on the keyboard. Lei herself remembers she needs to ask Elise for the address, so she also sends a text to Elise.

LEI (9:34AM, Sept 21, 2332): Good morning, Elise! Where is the exact location of our clinic?

ELISE (9:36AM, Sept 21, 2332): I’m still checking on the patients in the outer slums. I’ll send you the location, but it might take me an hour and a half to get there.

Outer slums? Now that she is reminded of it, Laura’s friend Bayleaf was in one of the camps there. Even if Laura’s last words to Lei were like shards of glass that hurt something deep within her, Lei keeps her promises.

LEI (9:38AM, Sept 21, 2332): No problem. I have some business there anyways so I’ll meet you at the clinic in an hour and a half.

ELISE (9:42AM, Sept 21, 2332): See you then.

She turns her attention back to Vail, who is still looking at his phone. “What did Lexi say?”

He looks up from his phone to reply. “She said it’s fine for me to help you and Elise today.”

“Well, I need to visit one of the camps in the outer slums, so you can go help her for a bit.”

“Are we going right now?”

Lei almost nods, but then remembers Elise requested a resume from her. Elise probably was joking, but it might be funny if she actually brings something with her. However, she hasn’t been able to go back to her apartment, and she’s actually a little afraid to. So she might have to make one by hand.

“In fifteen minutes or so.” She decides.

As she pulls out her lab notebook to write a short little resume for Elise, the pages it opens on are the ones with Liam’s photos. She stares at them for some time, looking at the notes she wrote yesterday in her neat and bubbly handwriting based on the descriptions on the back of the photo.

Remembering, she thinks, is a responsibility that Liam gave me.

But she realizes, there are many more people that she wants to remember.

Lei pulls out her phone. “Vail, smile for me.”

He immediately does so. She really likes how he follows her instructions without question, as if he trusts her. As if he believes in her.

She quickly snaps an image of his smiling face. She likes his softer smiles better, the genuine ones that catch her off guard and make her feel all mushy on the inside. Fortunately, she saw some of them yesterday.

“Can we have a picture together?” Lei asks, feeling a little shy.

“You want one?”

Lei nods and with a smile as charming as she can muster, she says, “Because you’re mine now, right~?”

“Of course~” When he says things like that in that tone it makes her feel just a little weaker than she should.

“You can’t be like this with other girls, alright?” She puts her hands on her hips. “Because I do get jealous.”

“Eh, I don’t think you have to worry about that.” He smiles at her softly.

“Really?” She can’t help but smile back when he’s looking at her like that.

“Yeah,” Vail says, “I’m only like this with you. I promise.”

Looking at his face, she nods. “I trust you.”

So she goes over to his side, pulling him close to her so they’re almost cheek-to-cheek and snaps a selfie. In this image, they’re both smiling in the way she likes.

After Vail drops her off at the building, she has to walk around and ask people with the picture Laura sent her. Most people eye her with suspicion and claim they do not know, but after much effort, she eventually is sent to a room where Bayleaf is supposed to be.

She discovers the room is locked, so she knocks on the door. There is no reply, although when she presses her ear to the door, she can clearly hear the sounds of breathing and slight shuffling noises.

“Mr. Bayleaf? Laura sent me here.” Lei calls out to the closed door.

It takes a few minutes, and Lei waits patiently, but the door finally opens a little crack. The hazel-eyed man in the picture is sitting in some sort of wheelchair and he peers up at her curiously. “Who are you?” He asks.

“A doctor. Most people, including Laura, call me ‘Doc’.” Lei says simply. She doesn’t need to give her name to a stranger. “I understand I might seem suspicious, so let me play you the voice message she has for you.” After all, she doesn’t have a doctor’s coat on — as long as she can help it, she will never wear a Prism coat ever again. She’ll have to wait until she checks the clinic for any of Elise’s extras. They are approximately the same height, after all, although Elise’s clothes might be a little baggy for Lei’s very slight frame.

She swipes through her phone until the bright, almost ear-piercing voice of Laura plays out. “Hey Bay Bay~ Since your leg is all busted ‘cause of me, I sent you a doctor to look at it. You could say it’s a last gift from your girl~”

Maybe he’s trying to hide it, but Lei does notice that Bayleaf’s mouth twitches a little into what must be a smile. One he might be trying to subdue since Lei is here.

“So, may I take a look at your leg?” Lei puts her phone back into her pocket.

“I guess if she went through all the effort of sending you.” Bayleaf says, crossing his arms. “Not sure what you can do though.”

Since he’s not shooing her out, Lei opens the door and steps in so that she can properly inspect her patient. The cast proves he has already received some sort of medical attention. The only question is, how proper and how good the care was. Judging by the cast, possibly not very good.

“Did the doctor leave any notes about your leg when they treated you?” Lei has to ask.

“Doctor?” Bayleaf scoffs. “Lady, I got my buddy Jim to fix me up.”

She stares at his leg again. “Your buddy Jim is not very good at making casts. Mind if I redo his work?”

Bayleaf sighs. “Fine, since Laura sent you.”

“Mmmhmm, your girl, right?” Lei means in it a way to just try to make conversation, but she notices the slight flush of his cheeks when she says these words. She takes out her portable medical bay and lets the nanotechnology do its thing.

“Damn, nanotech?” His tone of voice suggests he’s slightly impressed, so hopefully Lei’s credibility has increased.

Lei nods. “It cost me a minor fortune, but I’d say it’s worth it. Would you mind getting on it?”

Bayleaf struggles a little, but when Lei tries to step forward to help him, he brushes her off. So she waits patiently until he’s fully settled on the table.

She takes her tools, and snips away at the shoddily-made cast. Now that she’s inspecting it, it looks like it was done in a hurry. Underneath, the flesh is horribly swollen and horribly bruised purple. She sees some stitches in, which implies “Jim” has done some surgery for Bayleaf to hopefully set the bone in place, but she is not about to open him up and check.

“You need a splint for this.” Lei sighs, and fetches the appropriate material. She makes sure the wound is clean, before applying the splint, and then starts to apply wrap his leg in preparation for the cast.

“So how did you meet Laura?” Lei asks, trying to distract him as she begins the work.

“I should be asking you that.” Bayleaf says.

“Oh, you know, how meetings go,” says Lei, “By chance.”

“You could say it’s the same for me.” Says Bayleaf.

“You’re handling this pain surprisingly well.” Lei comments.

“I’m a slummer, this is nothing.”

But Lei did see a bottle of strong painkillers on the table, so she suspects Jim hooked him up with something. She is glad, since she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to prescribe things now she’s not working for Prism.

“There,” she says, when she’s finished her work a while later. “All done.”

He stands up and hobbles back to his wheelchair. “It feels a little less painful.” He admits.

Lei nods. “Glad to hear it. Try not to take those painkillers too much, they’re opioids, very addictive. Go with an NSAID like ibuprofen or acetaminophen as soon as you can.”

Bayleaf stares at her blankly.

Lei smiles sheepishly, realizing she is used to talking to other doctors. “You know what? Just talk to Jim when you can, alright? Ask him for weaker pain meds in about five days or so.”

“Whatever you say, Doc.”

She’s about to leave, but she turns back right when she’s at the door. “Do you want the voice clip?”

Bayleaf seems to first freeze in place, and then he glares at her. “What?”

She sighs. “The voice clip of Laura. Do you want that? You can say no.”

He seems to hesitate for a bit of time. But he finally nods. “Sure.” He says simply.

So she sends it over to him: One of the last things that proved Laura was once in this city.

She shakes her head as she leaves Bayleaf’s room. See, Laura? No one told you to leave this place. You are the one who decided that yourself. And in doing so, you left some of the only people whom you formed connections with and cared for you.

Next, she goes to the camp they were at the day before, close to the Middle slums. It feels like Lexi hasn’t moved since Lei saw her yesterday afternoon. The aforementioned red-haired woman is still standing in the centre of camp, directing slummers and runners around.

“Did Liam and Rose leave already?” Then she adds an additional question, because Lexi is not the type to give extra information, if she answers the question at all. “And if they did, when did they leave?”

Lexi nods. “Early this morning.”

“I see.” Lei says.

So, that’s it, she thinks. They’re gone now. Off on a dangerous mission to Adamawa where something apparently horrible is happening. And here, we can do nothing about it except wait, and search for more information about how and why these people are disappearing, and how and why some people still remember.

She must believe that they will return. Otherwise… There is no hope at all.

“Lexi,” Lei asks, “Can I have a photo of you?”

Lexi stares at Lei. Really looks at her, and then turns back to doing her work. “Sure,” she says, simply.

It seems the slums are truly being carried upon Lexi’s back. Lei is so very glad that Lexi was not abducted, since the collapse of the slums would likely be inevitable after.

Since Lexi is very clearly busy, Lei has to take the photo from a slight angle, where Lexi is not facing the camera. The 3/4 angle she takes it in accentuates Lexi’s beauty and strength, and her red hair is like a flame that ripples behind her. She looks like the main character of those VR games people like to play in Uptown/Downtown.

Why is everyone hot? Lei sighs. It is as if everyone is blessed except for herself, which just feels a little unfair, y’know?

“Elise and I are opening a clinic, hopefully soon. So please let me know if you ever need a doctor for your work, Lexi. ” Lei says. “Especially one you need who can take shots herself.”

Lexi’s pretty lilac-coloured eyes shift to her for a second. “You and Elise should focus on saving lives. Leave that to us runners.”

That might be the longest sentence she’s said to Lei. Lei is honoured to have said something worth so many words from the Lexi who usually speaks as minimally as possible, or with actions instead.

“Sure, sure.” Lei smiles at Lexi, even if she’s not looking this way anymore. “If you have any needs for drugs, let Vail know and I’ll synthesize them for you. Or, If I can do anything else for you, please let me know.”

After Lexi nods, Lei leaves to let Lexi do her work.

She finds Keeper on the roof of the residential building, looking over the rest of the camp with her arms crossed. It wasn’t that Lei was looking for the cute little cat girl or anything, but since she was in the area anyway, she thought it wouldn’t hurt to look at someone adorable. It is to increase morale, Lei justifies.

“Envoy of death, we meet again.” Again, Keeper does not need to turn around to know who is approaching. Lei wonders if it’s because Keeper can somehow sense the brainwaves from those nearby. She can’t think of any other plausible explanation at the moment.

Lei walks up to right beside the cat-eared girl, looking down at the view as well. “Good morning, Keeper. It was nice seeing you last night~ Are you feeling better from yesterday?”

“This arbiter is as well as she could be. There is no need to worry, as this Keeper of Secrets has overcome a very minor setback.” Keeper lifts her chin up, as if she is proud of herself.

Well, she certainly sounds like how she was when Lei first met her. Although sometimes it may be a little difficult to understand the chuunibyou version of Keeper, Lei is glad because Keeper seems less in pain in this state.

“Do you want to see a picture of our cat, Keeper?”

Keeper’s bright blue eyes light up, but she turns her head away. “There is no need, when fate has allowed it, I shall meet with the beast of darkness.”

Lei shakes her head, smiling. “Let me rephrase my words: I am going to show you a picture of our cat, because I want to show her off. This is non-negotiable.”

She pulls out her phone and pulls up the gallery and holds it toward Keeper.

Keeper’s ears twitch under her hood, and finally Keeper turns her head a little toward the phone. “If my follower is insisting, then I suppose I can indulge her just this once.”

“Yes, yes, how benevolent you are~” Lei says to Keeper. In her head, she swears that she will break down Keeper’s walls in the future. She just has a strong feeling she will.

After they’ve gone through all the pictures of Meng, Lei asks, “Are people still being abducted?”

Keeper nods solemnly. “Mortals are still being consumed by the boundary as we speak. As it approached the early hour, I sensed the consuming energy coming from the skies above. The boundary of consumption still lingers. We must act soon, follower.”

Lei sighs. “We really have our work cut out for us, don’t we? I’ll have to start my work at my clinic as soon as possible and start looking into this.”

Keeper nods her head. “You will have my aid when it comes to it.”

Lei wonders if Lexi would let her borrow Keeper as an assistant for the clinic. Keeper is able to borrow both Elise and Lei’s skills, which they might need as they don’t have any other employees at the moment. Also, Lei thinks that Keeper would be excellent morale support. This is something she’ll have to ask Lexi when Elise and her have the clinic fully set up.

“Can I ask for one last thing?” Lei cannot leave until she’s obtained one more important thing.

Keeper puts her hands on her hips. “What is it that you seek from the Keeper of Secrets?”

“May I take a picture of you?” Lei holds up her phone.

Keeper shifts her arms back to being crossed. “And what is it that you would do with a mirror image of myself?”

“Didn’t you know? Seeing a cute face every day is good for your health~” Lei can’t help but tease. She isn’t really lying about this, it certainly does lift her mood when she sees cute things. Or cute people, whom she is certainly surrounded by.

“Y-your flattery does not work on a Keeper of my caliber!”

She’s even more adorable when she’s flustered, Lei thinks. She wants to tease her even more to see more of this reaction. Lei wonders if she’s blushing under the mask she wears.

“It’s not flattery~ It’s the truth~” Lei continues, giving Keeper a little wink.

“You and your mortal, silver tongue will not cause me to waver! Your insolence knows no bounds!” Keeper says, but she seems to be sputtering a bit as she hesitates to find the right words.

“I am telling the truth in that I like to see cute things everyday~” Lei says, but her smile drops a little so that she can show Keeper she’s being serious. “But the other part of the truth is that I’d like to take photos of people I’d like to remember and print them out so that they’re affected by any digital wipes… I don’t know if I’ll be affected by the memory wipe but it’s my responsibility to remember.”

Keeper seems to calm down a little and her tense folded arms relax. “So you have finally admitted the truth, follower. It is a noble responsibility you have set on your shoulders but you need not burden yourself with such trivialities.”

“It isn’t a burden at all. This is something I want to do for the people I care about or want to care about.” Lei says. “If it helps, I can offer a form of payment.”

“This keeper is beyond mortal currency and temptations.” She lifts her chin haughtily, which Lei still finds adorable. Lei finds almost everything about Keeper adorable.

“Even if it’s a shiny holographic business card?” Lei should still have some from Gigi and Elise, back in her apartment, if it hasn’t been affected. Keeper probably doesn’t have one of Gigi.

Keeper’s cat ears seem to twitch under her hood again. “Follower, you know of my mortal weakness and are causing me to toe a dangerous line.”

“I’ll even offer unlimited headpats as a bonus~” Lei adds.

“T-that is something I do not need.” She turns her head away a little.

“It’s a bonus thrown in~” Lei smiles, “No refunds. Now turn your head this way, please.”

She ends up getting the picture, although she can’t tell if Keeper is smiling under the mask or not. Maybe she’s pouting. Or maybe she’s even blushing. Only the Keeper of Secrets herself knows this little secret.

On the way to visit the black market for drug materials, Lei runs into Zoey, who seems to be holding her head in one hand, and a little bottle in the other.

Lei smiles at the blonde girl. “Oh, hello, Zoey, how are you doing? I’m glad you got home safe… you were pretty drunk last night.”

“Hey Doc,” Zoey’s voice has an underlying weak groan to it. Her high ponytail seems a little wilted, as if it is a plant that has not received enough water. “That’s why I went to get a wake up shot. I fucking hate hangovers.”

She chugs it down right after she says this, and less than a minute later, her usual energy seems to return.

“I’m okay. The slums are a mess, though.” Zoey says, now calm as ever. Lei wonders if she ever gets frazzled. “I did check my masks storage though, I have some in the Nekomata line if you still want one.”

“Anything black or white with green accents?”

Zoey shrugs. “Yeah, probably. I didn't realize before, but I have a fuck tonne of masks.”

"Uhm… that's… nice. Shall we go take a look at your mask storage?”

"Yeah, sure.”

When they go to where Zoey stores her masks, Lei realizes Zoey is not joking. The closet is almost completely filled with masks and they’re stacked up to the ceiling.

“Now where were they?” And Zoey starts to go through the stacks, one by one, in a very inefficient manner.

Lei can’t help but let out a little giggle. “Maybe next time you could set aside the ones you found.”

“Ah, good idea.” Zoey says, as she continues to rummage through the piles. “I’ll do that next time.”

While she waits, Lei inspects the room of masks closer, seeing all the assortment of shapes and colours that Zoey owns. She sees Zoey’s signature demon masks, dragon masks, bird masks, dog masks — name the animal or mythical creature and it’s probably here. She might even spot a Jackal mask, although not the exact same one the Jackals wore. “You could open a store with this many masks.”

“Funny you say that, ‘cause that’s what the store owner thought when I bought his whole stock.”

Lei is not surprised at this statement, but she does not comment.

“Found it!” Zoey pulls out a white cat mask with black and green markings. Some of the markings are even flowers. It really fits Lei’s whole aesthetic, which she greatly appreciates.

“It looks perfect~ I will take it.” Lei smiles at it, holding it up to the light to admire it better.

Since it is immune to gasses and flashes, it would be good for her when she’s working in the lab, right? Much more fashionable than a gas mask, so you could say this is a business expense.

After they make the transaction, Lei remembers that she should probably ask Zoey for a picture as well. “Can I take a photo of you?” She asks.

“Yeah, sure.” Zoey doesn’t even hesitate.

After her difficulty with Keeper, Lei is surprised how easily Zoey agrees. “You’re not even going to ask what I’m going to use it for?”

Zoey blinks at her. "Am I supposed to?"

“No… you don’t have to. I’m not going to use it for anything bad… just to… remember.”

Zoey shrugs. “You seem decent enough and Liam seems to trust you, so that’s good enough for me.”

Lei quickly snaps the photo before Zoey changes her mind — although she doesn’t seem like the type who would do that. “Thank you, Zoey.

“No need to thank me.” Zoey says. Lei’s not sure, but maybe, just maybe, Zoey’s mouth quirks up a little.

After she picks up some raw drug materials, she meets up with Vail again so that they can go to the location of the clinic together. The materials are to synthesize Whisper and Shiver for Lexi’s group. She’s decided that because her main skill is organic synthesis, she’ll make sure they don’t have to pay for the medicine they need again. Like Elise’s code of honour where she does not take money from fellow doctors, Lei’s code of honour will be that she won’t take money from Lexi’s group for these drugs they need. Well, being realistic, maybe she’ll need to ask for funds for the raw materials, as they seem to have more money than she does, but she’ll definitely do the work for free as long as she’s able.

When she sees him this time, his fingerless gloves and jacket sleeves have a few blood splatters on them. She raises an eyebrow at him, but doesn’t question it. The less I know, the better, she thinks, but she already can guess.

It doesn’t bother her as much as she thinks it would. Maybe it’s because she trusts him and she still thinks he’s a good person. After all, this world does not allow for pure and innocent people with hands that are not stained. Those who are pure and innocent, if not protected, are extinguished like a light in this world of darkness.

Elise is already there when they arrive. Clearly, she is more efficient than Lei with actual doctor work. Lei can justify that it is because Elise has six more years of experience and also does more patient care than Lei. In truth though, Lei knows she did not do that much doctoring around this morning.

Elise raises an eyebrow when the two of them walk in together. “Brought a friend, Lei?”

“Hello Elise,” Lei waves weakly, “I brought someone to help do some heavy lifting! Not... not just a friend though.”

Vail waves from beside her. “Hey, Elise.” He does not correct her.

Elise’s eyebrows rise even more. It looks like she’s caught on to the situation. “I see.” She says.

For some reason, Lei feels more nervous not seeing much of a reaction from Elise. She isn’t sure what she was expecting, but this was not it.

“Perfect,” continues Elise, “I started bringing over the equipment from the hotel, but there is plenty more that we need to fetch.”

Lei looks hopefully at Elise and can’t help but smile a little. “Did you fetch the lab cart?”

Elise nods. “It’s in the other room.”

“Why don’t you show us around first?” Lei requests. Despite everything, Lei is excited at the prospects of being able to work in a clinic/lab again. It gives her the sensation of normality after all the adrenaline-inducing things she did outside her expertise the past three days.

The clinic isn’t very big, which is expected in the Mertalline slums, but it’s a nice space. Lei has to be thankful to Tiger again. Whether or not an afterlife exists — if there is Heaven/Hell, reincarnation, or nothingness — Lei can only hope that wherever Tiger is now, she is in a better place than she was. She knows she’ll have to tell Elise about Tiger’s fate at some point, if Elise hasn’t already found out.

The main reception room has a space for their receptionist desk and chair, where they will put their computer and all the paper patient files. There’s a little room for a few chairs in case patients need to wait until they receive treatment, as well as a counter if someone really needs to lie down or if they need to administer emergency care at the door.

The reception room is attached to a hallway, which has multiple rooms. The largest room is hidden in a little alcove and Lei imagines that it will be her lab where she will be slaving away developing and synthesizing drugs. There are also two smaller rooms that are perfect for seeing patients, and two medium sized rooms where Elise already has some surgical equipment set-up. Aside from the two available washrooms, at the very end of the hallway and beside the storage room, much to Lei’s delight, is a little room where she assumes is the staff room with its own washroom. This is where she’ll force Elise to take breaks, assuming they take the same shifts. If Lei doesn’t do the scheduling herself, she feels like Elise will be stretching herself too thin.

“This is like a dream come true.” Lei says, her voice coming out a little breathless with wonder.

“It seems like a nice place.” Vail agrees.

Elise nods. “We’re very lucky to have obtained this place. It’s in a good location, too.”

When they’re back in the reception room, Lei turns to her two friends. “Vail, can you take a picture of Elise and I?”

“Of course.” Vail holds out his hand for her phone, and she makes sure the camera app is already active before handing it to him.

She walks over to Elise and places a hand on her shoulder. “Smile, Elise! We need a commemorative photo for our new clinic.”

After Vail takes the photo, Elise and Lei crowd around him to see the results.

“Vail, it’s blurry!” Lei exclaims, but she can’t help laughing.

Elise seems to be trying to hold back by covering her mouth with her hand, but it doesn’t help as giggles still escape her.

They make him take another one, laughing all the while.

When they’ve sent Vail with the car to pick up more of the equipment from Meowmare Hotel, Elise and Lei work together on moving the equipment Elise has already obtained — mostly stuff she fetched for the surgery room. Surgery might be Lei’s second-least favourite type of care, so she hopes they hire more specialists.

“So, Vail, hmm?” Elise asks with a raised eyebrow.

Lei hesitates for a little before answering. “... Yes.”

“I guess you do not need me to set you up anymore?” Elise’s slight teasing tone is back, which Lei didn’t realize she missed until she heard it again.

Lei has to look away in embarrassment. “... Please forget about that. I was very drunk. Clearly, I don’t have any cognitive functions when I have too much alcohol.”

“Apparently so.” Elise murmurs in agreement.

“You’re not going to question my choices?” Lei asks, a little surprised that Elise isn’t being more critical.

“He is not a bad person, so I have no reason to be against it,” Elise says. “As long as he is good to you and treats you well, I will support it.”

Lei smiles a little bashfully and her cheeks warm up a little. “Well then, that’s not something you have to worry about. I think he’s rather sweet.”

Elise seems to mutter under her breath something along the lines of, “we will see”. She says it so quietly that Lei is not sure. For all she knows it could have been “must make tea” or something.

“The plans I had yesterday were with him~” Lei also adds. She doesn’t need to tell Elise this, but maybe she just wants to share the joy a little. She has no other close friends to tell, after all.

Elise’s raised eyebrow returns. “Did you have a good time?”

“I had a lovely time~ Thank you for encouraging me to follow through with those plans.” Lei will spare Elise of the dirty details. She imagines Elise would not want to know. “How about you, Elise? Did you get to rest up and sleep more?”

Elise nods. “Ever since you gave me the E.S. drug, my fatigue has faded away. It’s like my body has been renewed.”

Well, that’s a little concerning, Lei thinks. Now with such a superpower, Elise may be more tempted to not take care of herself, but even a superpower has its limitations, as evidenced by the Shiver and Whisper the other test subjects need to take. But she will not regret it, never. Not when this choice saved Elise’s life. Lei will simply have to learn to deal with the consequences of these actions.

“But… you did rest and sleep, right?” Lei tries to confirm.

Elise looks away.

“Right, Elise?” Lei’s voice grows harsh in tone.

“I’m just kidding, I did.” Elise turns back and smiles cheekily. “Last night at least.”

I have my work cut out for me, Lei thinks. But she doesn’t mind that much.

When they’re cleaning up the reception room, Lei decides to ask about other employees for their clinic. After all, with just Elise and her — two people — this clinic will not be able to run. Elise had tried to shoulder everything by herself, and according to Ceres’ anecdotal evidence, was not successful.

“Elise, do you have any candidates for other employees you want to hire for our clinic?”

Elise shakes her head. “Not particularly. I could call those from my old clinic. Why do you ask?”

“I had some coworkers I liked back in Prism… if they’re still alive. I was thinking we could reach out to them… I don’t trust them as much as you and Ceres, but talking to them was bearable.” Lei says.

Elise puts down the paperwork she’s sorting behind the desk. “Who were you thinking?”

“Leon Lopez and Melissa Balm.”

“Leon…” Elise has to think for a bit. “I think I have met him before. He came to the slums only a little before you did. Based on my perception, he seems decent enough. I don’t know Melissa though.”

Lei nods, expecting something like this. “Leon is a general doctor and surgeon like you are, so I thought it would be helpful for you to have someone backing you up. To be honest, I didn’t like him when I first met him… but under his prickly surface, I think he genuinely cares about people’s health.”

“As for Melissa? She’s a synthesist like I am, and it would be nice to have an assistant, especially one who knows Prism’s recipes. She does her work competently, although we can’t have her working reception. She’s a bit like an anxious little puppy. She kind of reminds me of Ceres…”

And then suddenly she starts crying again. Even if she’s been trying not to think about it, pushing down her feelings continuously means that at some point, the pressure will build and they will suddenly explode outwards.

Elise walks toward her briskly and envelopes her into a warm hug. “It’s alright,” she murmurs, “it will be alright.”

Lei can only shake in Elise’s arms. “I miss her… I want to see her again… Ceres…”

She hears the door opening and footsteps, which she thinks is Vail, but with her face buried in Elise’s shoulder, she can’t check.

“What’s wrong?” It is Vail.

She raises her tear-streaked face up and watches him put down the Prism computer he’s carrying by the door before walking closer to the two of them. She reaches out her hand to him and he comes over. Elise shifts over to make room for him.

“You two are all I have left.” She cries as she holds on to the both of them, “Please don’t leave me too, please… please…”

But even if she is saying this to the two of them, perhaps she is begging the world not to take them away from her. She is praying, to a god she does not believe in, that no one else she loves will be taken from her.

The two of them do not say any words, but they hold her, and here in this moment, she is safe; she is loved.

When she’s calmed down a little and has wiped away her tears, she feels a little very embarrassed to have shown so much vulnerability. After all, with how the city is going to be embroiled in further chaos, she needs to remain strong. “Sorry…” She murmurs to the two of them.

Elise gently strokes her back. “Do not apologize. We will take care of each other, remember?”

Lei smiles weakly at Elise. “Thank you, Elise. I should be saying thank you instead.”

Then she dares to look at Vail’s expression. It doesn’t look angry at her at all, instead of his usual neutral and unphased expression, she might even describe his expression as worried.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine now.” She smiles weakly at him as well and reaches out to pat his head. Despite the layered look of his hair, it is quite soft, although it does feel a little synthetic probably from the blue dye.

“Now I kinda get what you mean about telling people not to worry.” He says, but he does lower his head a little for her to access it easier. Not that he needs to, he’s not much taller than she is.

She smiles more genuinely after. “Right? It’s frustrating.” She shakes her head. “But I feel better now, so back to business. Do you know any deckers? There’s a computer I want to get into.” Lei points at the Prism computer that he put down by the door.

Vail nods. “A few.”

“Are any of them trustworthy? Or at least, somewhat?”

Vail hesitates for a bit, as if he’s thinking that there is no such thing as a trustworthy decker in Mertalline. “Of the ones I know, Timberwolf seems to be okay. Her prices are a bit on the higher end and occasionally asks for favours instead, but she seems to keep her mouth shut.”

Lei nods slowly. “I’ll trust you, since I don’t know any other deckers. Can you try to contact her once we have the clinic fully set up?”

He nods. “Yeah, sure, no problem at all.”

“Sorry, I have to go.” Vail tells her a little while later. “Lexi needs me for something.”

“Don’t be, I understand.” Lei says. “I’ll walk out with you.”

When they’re walking out of the clinic and onto the street, she tells him, “Thank you for your help today. Not just helping us with the physical setup, but for comforting me as well.”

“Of course, it’s the least I could do.”

They’re right in front of his motorbike now so she impulsively reaches out to hug him. “Come back safely, please.”

“Of course,” he says, “I’ll bring the cat to you later.”

Despite everything, Lei still gets excited at the prospects of seeing Meng again. “Oh, sure, I’ll text you my address.”

“Don’t worry, I know where it is.”

Lei’s eyes widen. “You do? How?”

“You told me?”

She did not remember this event having ever happened. “I did? When?”

His eyes flit away. “You were drunk, around three weeks ago.”

Three weeks ago was when they last went out for drinks, and it is true she doesn’t remember the majority of the night, including how she got home. If he knows her address, it’s likely he was the one who took her home. Lei is worried about what else she might have said three weeks ago when she was apparently so drunk she’s forgotten things. But perhaps she doesn’t have to worry about it too much if he is still talking to her.

She quickly presses a kiss on his cheek before he puts on a helmet. “That’s for good luck.” She tells him.

He smiles at her. “Take care.”

She smiles back. “You too.”

She’s walking back toward the direction of the clinic, about to call the number of her favourite taxi driver, when she notices that a familiar yellow cab is parked on the street. She approaches it and peers into the window of the driver’s seat. Indeed, it is Flash who is sitting there.

What a coincidence he always shows up when I need him, Lei thinks.

“How’s my favourite taxi driver doing?” She asks him, smiling, but notices he’s looking in the direction where Vail left.

“Oh!” Flash seems a little surprised to see her. “I’m doing good.”

Something about his reaction doesn’t seem quite right for Lei. She tilts her head at him, thinking for a few seconds before something clicks.

“Did you… see that?” She asks him, a little hesitantly.

Flash seems to avert his gaze a little. “See what?”

So he did see. How embarrassing. That's definitely not something she wanted him to see, although she supposes it's her own fault for doing so in a public space. People usually don't pay attention, but perhaps Flash is not your usual person. He is certainly someone a little extra special.

“Can you pretend you didn’t see anything?” She has to look down a little, since she can’t meet his eyes right now.

“Don’t worry, I am good at doing that.” He makes an O.K. hand sign, which Lei sees from the corner of her eyes.

Good at surviving, not perceiving, and driving? Flash is a man of many talents.

“Good,” She says, looking back up again, “I actually have some errands to run and I might need a ride. Would you mind waiting around 5 minutes?

“Since it’s you, I don’t mind.” He smiles a little bit, but at this point she’s not sure if this is a genuine smile or simply one for customer service. She is assuming it’s the latter.

He’s probably just saying that because I give him a lot of business, but even Lei has to pause a little to properly process these unexpected words.

“Thank you, I appreciate it!” She jogs back into the clinic.

The reception room is empty, so Lei walks down the hall and finds Elise in one of the patient rooms, putting equipment into cupboards. She turns around as Lei shows up at the open doorway.

“Elise, could I take about an hour off to run some errands?”

“You could take the rest of the day off, we’ve already finished setting up the basics.” Elise smiles, the sort of fake lying doctor smile Lei can easily recognize.

Lei places her hands on her hips and gives Elise her best angry glare. “I know you’re still going to keep working even when I leave. So I’m coming back for you right before dinner time to make sure you eat and rest and then we can continue working together.”

After all, she wants to synthesize some more Whisper and Shiver for the group, and Sunshine to sell. Since she’s always making large batches of drugs it often takes her three hours. The day is too short for all the work she wants to accomplish in one day.

Lei continues speaking, since Elise hasn’t interrupted yet. “I promised, didn’t I? That I’d take care of you. So… I will.”

“I suppose this is the type of compromise you were talking about.” A smile seems to creep on Elise’s face. “We’re going to take care of each other.”

“Hold that face.”

Elise looks a little surprised, until she sees Lei pull out her phone.

“Become a photographer, have you?” Elise teases, her cheeky smile is back.

“Only to capture my favourite sights~” Lei teases back. “Now hold your lovely smile for me~”

Lei isn’t that familiar with the Middle slums, but luckily Flash is someone who seems very knowledgeable about the city and he is able to recommend an electronics store where they print photos.

She usually doesn’t mind sitting in silence when being driven by other taxi drivers, but it’s different with Flash. Maybe it’s because he’s saved her before, but she has really developed a fondness for him. Whether that is a good or bad thing, that is something that will only be uncovered in the future.

She decides to be direct about it. “Those cyber saints you talked about, could you possibly know Lexi’s group?”

His turquoise eyes meet hers through the rearview mirror just for a brief second before he turns his eyes back on the road. “Small world, eh?”

“Apparently so.” Lei smiles a little. “You are right about them being good people, though. You’re surprisingly well connected.”

“It’s a taxi driver thing.”

“I think it’s a Flash thing~” Lei says.

“You give me too much credit.” Flash replies.

“It’s important to give credit when credit is due~” She replies back.

“You’re always very flattering with your words, aren’t you?”

“Do you not like it?” Lei freezes in place. “I’m sorry, I can stop if it makes you uncomfortable.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I don’t mind.” Flash says. “Just worried if other people might mind.”

“Other people such as?”

“That’s a taxi driver’s secret.”

Suspicious… Lei thinks, but she doesn’t have any words she thinks will convince him to tell her what he might mean. Besides, he has been nothing but kind and courteous to her, so unless that changes, she has no reason to doubt him.

Lei pays Flash when he pulls up to the curb beside the electronics store, but before she leaves, she makes a small little request. “I still need a ride home… so if you don’t mind waiting for another fifteen minutes or so…”

“Anything for my favourite customer~”

“You know, I’m going to be really sad if it turns out you’ve been lying and saying that to all your recurring customers.”

“Nah, only you, I promise.” Flash smiles.

Lei shouldn’t really trust the words of a man she met only four days ago, but Flash’s demeanor makes her want to believe him. So she does. She’ll deal with any consequences if they arise. All men are equal under the bullet of a gun, after all.

“I’ll be right back.” She tells him with a little wave, and then walks into the store.

The person manning the shop appears to be an android, which is good, because she doesn’t really want to talk to anyone right now. She cautiously walks over to the self-serve photo printer, avoiding the android as much as possible. The printer machine is clearly very old and rarely used, but it seems to be working, at least to her knowledge. She might have seen this type of device in her elementary school, years and years back.

While she’s waiting for the printer to process and print her photos, she goes up to the vending machine near the door, and quickly buys a can of Spirit.

“Here,” she passes Flash the ice-cold can of Spirit when she comes back outside with the photos. “Your tip for waiting.”

He smiles. “Why thank you.”

“My favourite taxi driver deserves only the best~”

“You’ve arrived.” Flash says when he’s pulled up to the curb right outside her apartment building.

“Thank you as always, Flash.” She pays him for the ride with her credit chip, and then gets out of the car and walks to the driver’s seat window.

He looks at her questioningly.

“Could you please do me a favour?” She asks him, trying to tilt her head in the innocent way Gigi had taught her before.

His blonde eyebrows furrow a little, likely in concern. “What kind of favour?”

“Hmm… alright, maybe I won’t call it a favour. What about a paid request?” She tries her best to be reassuring. She doesn't know if it’s working.

“What kind of paid request?” Flash asks again, more slowly, and his turquoise eyes still look concerned.

Lei gives up. “A picture. I’d like a picture of you.”

“... Why?” He looks even more concerned now and his eyes begin to widen a little.

“Is it wrong to want a picture of my saviour?” Lei says. “I can hang it up on my wall as my reminder to try my hardest to survive each day.”

Now he’s frowning. “I don’t think Vail would like that.”

Now it’s Lei’s turn to furrow her eyebrows. “To be honest, I don’t think he would mind. He doesn’t seem like the jealous type.”

Flash looks at her for a bit longer. “Yeah, you’re probably right. But if he kills me, my blood is on your hands."

“Didn’t you say you were a survivor?” Lei tries to be teasing, but then her smile drops a little so that she can show she’s being serious. “I really doubt he will for the purposes I’m using the picture for, but if he does, I will be the one to save your life instead~”

Flash smiles at her, or maybe smiles at her ridiculousness. “Alright, I trust you.”

So while he’s still smiling, she takes out her phone and snaps a photo. Looking at it, Flash appears rather photogenic, and not only does he have nice eyes, he has a nice smile. “Thank you, Flash, I promise I’m not going to do anything nefarious with it. I swear on the status of being your favourite customer.”

“I’m trusting you~”

“And since your taxi rides are my favourite, I will not betray that trust~” She puts her phone away and holds out her credit chip toward him. “Name your price.”

“For you? It’s free of charge.” He throws a peace sign and a wink and then immediately after, drives away.

Lei can only watch his cab disappear down the street: He is gone in a flash.

It feels a little strange to go back to her apartment after these four days. After she presses in the electronic lock, she braces herself before she steps in, expecting explosions or an intruder waiting with a gun, but she finds the place empty and untouched. This place, which used to feel like a home, no longer feels safe.

Cillin, her robotic cat, seems to be vacuuming around the living room. The battery life on it is pretty good and it is programmed to auto charge when under a certain percentage. She leaves it be. After all, now she has the real thing.

After dropping her bag and newly printed photos on the table, she goes to her bedroom to find the pictures she has of Ceres. They are thankfully still there. At least physical photos haven’t been erased. She’s put them mostly on her vanity’s mirror, so that she can see them every day when she’s doing her makeup. There aren’t that many, only a few of her select favourites, because she always thought that she’d be able to see them on her phone.

She carefully peels the tape off two of them and brings them back to the table with her.

From a special compartment of her bag, she takes out her dark green hardcover lab notebook. It is not good lab practice, but there have been a few pages ripped out these past few days for her so that she could leave notes for people. She flips to the last page she wrote in, which isn’t hard, because it is bookmarked by other objects: photos.

The photos that Liam gave her are creased and slightly faded with age. She picks them up to peer at the writing underneath, which is slightly messy but clearly written with care.

She slides the newly-taken picture of Liam beside the rest of his family. He has his visor on, and is not smiling, but that is just like how Liam has been in those three days Lei has known him. She writes a few notes down on the thick pages:

Liam: A runner of the street samurai type who has many cybernetics embedded within him. You didn’t get along with him at first, and he was probably quite tempted to kill you in the beginning, but it turns out he is quite kind at heart — to the right people. He has saved you countless times, and you have saved him some times as well. He is a man of very few words and generally very tough and stubborn and someone you would call a survivor. He has very cutely said that you were the best doctor he’s ever had. He also apparently has a darker past that he has not told you about, but you can assume that it is very bad, since he is a true slummer through and through. The person he desperately wants to protect is his brother whose name is Alba (see previous pictures). He left with Rose to Adamawa in attempts to bring his brother back, and seems to be willing to sacrifice everything for his brother. He asked you to remember his family and to take care of the only home he’s known, which is why you began writing notes about all the other people you care about or want to care about. You should thank him for that. You have also promised to get drinks with him when he gets back.

She flips the page and slides the freshly printed photo of Rose. His smile is slightly awkward and clearly forced, as if she had held him at gunpoint or something. She struggles, she really does, to think of what she should write on Rose’s page. She has too many conflicting thoughts about him: Both negative and positive, and it is difficult to decide what she should truly say. She eventually writes:

Rose: A runner who specializes in sniping, although in the mission you took with him, he missed many of his shots (apparently he was having a bad day, which may be true). He is a part of Lexi’s group. You didn’t like him at first because he was being very sketchy and mysterious and doesn’t often tell the truth. You might still not like him that much, as he can be a little frustrating. But people say that he’s a “good guy”, and sometimes you can see those qualities from him. He’s the older brother of Ceres, which everyone seems to know about except for Ceres herself. He clearly cares for Ceres, but he is unwilling to tell Ceres that he’s her brother because “it’s best that she doesn’t know”. You think this is stupid. You think Rose is just being stupid. But that is besides the point. He left with Liam to Adamawa in an attempt to bring Ceres back to Mertalline. He has some sort of precognitive ability which means he can see the future (which is subject to change) and he is also quite good at reading people, which is also something you find quite frustrating. When he comes back, you’re going to keep trying to convince him to tell Ceres. Or maybe, you could just tell Ceres yourself, that might save you a lot of energy. It might be because something horrible happened to him in childhood that took him away from Ceres and his family, so don’t push this too much. You’re still a little thankful of how much he cares about Ceres and appreciates that he did go to Adamawa in an attempt to save her… So despite all the negative things you think about him, maybe you can come to understand him better when he comes back, if he lets you.

With the next page, she starts on the people who still remain in Mertalline.

Lexi: A runner who seems to be carrying the slums on her back. She leads a group who are runner heroes of the slums, and she is quite protective of her group. Lexi in particular, is very powerful and wealthy, and you truly admire her strength and tenacity. She is a woman of very few words and often does not answer your questions directly, but this just adds to her mysterious and untouchable air of being. In the slums, there are likely very few people who do not respect her, but this is something she definitely deserves. Without her, the slums would likely be even worse than it already is, so you are glad the slums have her. You hope that you will be able to help her make the slums better in the future.

Zoey: a runner who specializes in using shotguns who seems to be a part of Lexi’s group. She is very good at her job of destroying things, but unfortunately, is not the brightest of people. This actually makes her endearing in your eyes. She has quite a negative outlook on the world and seems to have no one she truly trusts, but it doesn’t stop her from enjoying her nights out getting drinks with her runner comrades. Apparently she likes to dance, or at least, her drunken self seems to like dancing. She is close with Liam and it seems like they’ve worked together for a long time. Her personality appears to be very calm and unphased by things. On runs, she often wears a demon mask which has many practical functions, and she even sold you one of a different design from her very large assortment of masks she’s purchased. You hope that you’ll be able to get her to open up to you more, or at least, that you’ll be able to look out for her as a doctor.

Keeper: Her full name is actually “Keeper of Secrets” and her real name is actually Yunyi. She is the youngest in Lexi’s group. There are two forms to herself: A chuunibyou version who speaks in confusing ways (it’s still cute though, sometimes) as well as her original self which appears rarely and seems to cause her a lot of pain to be in. In either form, she can be a bit of a tsundere, which you find endearing. Since she has cat ear implants and is shorter than you, she has a head you enjoy patting very much, although it is a little difficult to convince her to let you sometimes. Her ability is similar to a neurolink where she can telepathically communicate with those who are connected (within 1km) as well as borrow abilities with those people. For some reason, she seems to know a lot of information but you’re not completely sure where she gets it from. But her information is quite useful, if you understand and dissect what she’s saying, which you might get used to over time. She also likes cats and co-owns a cat with you and Vail, because apparently, she has a lot of free time to spare! Since you find her very adorable, she feels like someone you would like to protect or help. You hope that she will lower her guard around you and let you pat her head and care for her more in the future.

She hasn’t technically printed out the next picture, but she’ll definitely get to it within the next few days, so she makes sure to leave a page for this person.

Flash: A kind (and very fast) taxi driver whom you met not long ago. Not only is he surprisingly charming, he is a man of many talents: driving, surviving, not sticking his head where it doesn’t belong, and seems quite knowledgeable of the city and its people. He seems to have a talent for appearing during times when you need him or times when you’re at your worst, and has even saved your life during one of those times. For that, you are forever grateful to him. Although he has said there are “cyber saints” who are even better than him, he is still a hero and good person in your eyes for saving your life. It is an honour that he calls you his favourite customer, because he is definitely your favourite taxi driver. Since you’ve grown a little fond of him, try to give him as much business as possible.

When she was printing the photos, she hesitated to print out the next person’s picture, but she decided that despite all the years they have spent apart, she cannot deny that this person was very important to her in the past. She places this picture on the next page now, and the smiling bronze-skinned, red-haired Gigi from 2 years ago looks up at her.

Gigi Legris: A pharmaceutical synthesist who worked for Prism, specifically in research. You met her in university where she was the one who approached you and you remained close friends with when you both went to the same med school, and later, when you both got hired by Prism. Specifically, you bonded with her over your mutual love of fashion, and you went shopping with her a lot both Uptown and Downtown. She loved to work out and was always telling you of her workout routines, which she worked very hard on during her days off. Although she always called you “honey” and “darling” and was generally a very sweet person, she would not take bullshit from others and had quite a fierce temper when provoked. But you admired her strength and tenacity so much. You loved her loud, booming voice, and the way she laughed without restraint. During those years in your twenties, she was truly your best friend, and someone who helped you weather the storm. She was someone you could wake up and call at night and someone who would beat people up for you. You didn’t realize it at the time, but you loved her like a sister.

In the next two pages, she slips in the picture she took of Elise smiling, as well as the image of the two of them Vail took for them in the reception room.

Elise Amaya: A general doctor and surgeon who once worked for Second Chance before opening up her clinic in the slums. You questioned why she would give up the prestige, but then when you got to know her, you realized she is very self-sacrificial. You used to put her on a pedestal where she was your ideal image of what a doctor should be, before you found out that her hands are stained just like everyone else’s. Perhaps she is so self-sacrificial because she feels immense guilt for the pain she has had a hand in during her past. You and her have now opened a clinic together, where you hope to develop regenerative stimulants (which Second Chance has the monopoly on) as well as a better treatment for the E.S. test subjects (see Lexi’s group). And of course, to hopefully save the lives of the slummers who need it. Although she is wonderful at taking care of other people, she is absolutely terrible at taking care of herself. This is why you need to try your hardest in taking care of her by forcing her to take breaks and making sure she eats and sleeps, of which she does little. She is kind and caring and a lovely person to be around, one who inspires you to be a better doctor. You would do almost anything to save her, and you have already done what you must to save her. To you, she feels like an older sister that you wished you had.

The next two pages are dedicated to Vail. Similarly to Elise, she slips in both the selfie she has with him, as well as a solo shot of Vail smiling.

Vail: A runner and formerly a patient of yours who you were concerned about for buying a large amount of drugs, he became your friend, and later, your boyfriend. You have to acknowledge that this goes against ethics, but unfortunately it’s a little too late to go back. The reason he was buying so many sedatives and brain stimulants is because he was also a Prism test subject, so you did worry for good reason. His ability involves sending people to the shadow realm, whatever that truly means. He does seem to be rather competent at his job and he is strong with nice muscles, which are all quite attractive. He seems to have trouble keeping up with technology, although he is younger than you. He is generally quite calm and seems to have very little to no worries, which you find comforting. But be warned: He tends not to answer his phone, especially when he’s on a job. He likes cats and his birthday present for you was a colourpoint cat you named Meng, although you have to share with him and Keeper as you are all busy people. You love how he can be soft, sweet, and caring, and how well he follows your requests/demands. Most importantly, you love how he’s a dreamer who can ramble about his dreams in this world where most people have stopped dreaming. You hope that he will stay by your side for a long time.

And then her final set of pictures are two of Ceres — some of the last pictures she has of her, now that all the digital photos on her phone have been wiped. One is a selfie she roped Ceres into taking one time they hung out together. Ceres looks very shy in this image, and is trying to hide behind her hair. The other is a candid of Ceres that Lei took when they went to get drinks a few months ago. She’s smiling, looking at a painting that was on the wall of the bar. Lei would pay almost any price to see this smile in person again.

Ceres Solace: Allegedly a neurosurgeon, but you have only seen her as an ambulance driver, which is something she does very well. She is shy, sweet, gentle, and absolutely adorable. She seems to stutter when she’s nervous. She likes to draw in her free time, and has a beautiful singing voice. Her height and shape of her head makes her head one of your favourites to pat, and she tends to lean in, which makes the whole experience much more heartwarming. She has almost no confidence in herself and is very fragile and seems to have no way to fight and protect herself, which makes you want to become stronger so that you can protect her from the cruelty and ruthlessness of the world you live in. She is someone you view as the younger sister you’ve never had but always wanted. She might be your favourite person in the world, and you love her unconditionally.

Right now, she has been taken from you, but you strongly believe that her brother will bring her back. And when she comes back, you will teach her how to protect herself and help her grow stronger. You will tell her of all the stories that she’s missed in the time she’s been gone, and of all the words you could not say before she was taken from you. Those words that she deserves to hear: I love you.

Remember, she writes on the margins of each page. Remember, remember. You have to remember.

She gently caresses the last three pages with her gloved finger. She’s wanted to have a family for so long, but now she realizes that perhaps these three have been her family all along — or they will be. Only, one of her sisters is not here right now.

Her lab notebook is closed shut and then carefully placed back into its appropriate storage. She’ll have to get a new lab notebook for the new research she plans on doing in her and Elise’s clinic anyways, so this one can now be a personal notebook for the memories she wants to store. It will become her personal treasured book of memories.

She strolls to the balcony window of her apartment, where she often likes to smoke. With Ceres gone, she might be tempted to start again — or perhaps, she should try harder, so that Ceres will be proud of her when she returns.

She leans onto the railing, her hands hanging over, and watches the scenery of the Mertalline slums: dark, dirty, neon-polluted, and filled with junk: The same as always.

But the person she wants to see isn’t here.

I miss you, Ceres. Lei thinks, playing with the green emerald necklace hanging from her neck — her birthday gift from Ceres. I want to see you again. I want you to be safe and by my side again.

Ceres, who used to always follow her around, has now gone to a place where Lei cannot follow.

Maybe as time passes, this sharp pain will become a dull ache, and then later a wound with a scar on it that has healed, but not really. Or maybe the pain will be healed by the panacea of Ceres returning once more.

She doesn’t know if she’ll be hit by the green gas that has been erasing the memories of those who are abducted from people’s minds, or if she’ll be able to withstand it. But it is the responsibility of those who remain to remember. To remember, and to wait, until those who have left have come home.

[AUTHOR'S NOTES]

The title “Those Who Leave, Those Who Remain” refer to two groups of people: Those who left, and those who remain.

Those who left are Rose and Liam, of course, who leave to Adamawa because something bad will happen there and they must rescue their younger siblings.

Although she does not appear in this story, technically, Laura is someone who also left, but she is a different case because she always planned to leave.

Those who remain refers mostly to Lei, but you could arguably put others in this category. The reason I didn’t say “those who stay” is because staying is a more active/conscious choice, but “remaining” implies being left over, implies more passivity and lack of choice.

Those who stay would be more of the people who chose to remain here: Zoey, Lexi, Elise, Vail.

Keeper is kind of in the “remain” category because uh she would die if she goes and we’re not putting our fave catgirl in danger.

I’m also extra proud of the fact she started to make a little photo album with things that she wants to remember ;w; Her treasured book of memories as she calls it (which again, is a callback to the set of drabbles I wrote for her called “treasure box” of memories). She realizes that their time in this world may be short, so she wants to treasure every moment she has with her loved ones and those she has grown to care about. This also relates to the central theme in this story about “remembering” which is a responsibility she now has. Perhaps, a responsibility she placed upon herself.

Thank you for reading if you've gotten this far <3

[OTHER NOTES]

Yeah... so Lei's birthday is on Sept 17 and this post-epilogue story takes place on Sept 20 and 21, three and four days after. Imagine having a relatively decently good night and then being arrested the day after XD That was Lei's life. I also made the year 2332 to make Lei's birth year 2300 since the campaign's supposed to take place sometime in the 2300s or something. She has just turned 32!

Lei really likes younger sister vibe characters. She loves doting on them so Ceres is a great example, and then Keeper now. She might get another one, Artemis, which is my next Mertalline campaign character XD unless things change I don't plan on playing Lei again cuz she has 1/2 death rolls failed. So that's dangerous. I love her so much I don't want her to die 😭

I learned as a side effect of the E.S. experiment, Vail cannot fall asleep or dream which is why he talks about dreams so much. They don't exist for him the way they do for other people 😭😭😭 Best boi frfr

He calls her by her name now which was a request from the drunk! Lei story (Vulnerability) 🥺🥺🥺 Soft hours only in this household

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, Vail was NOT getting drugs from other doctors (not cheating on her???) in those 3 months he didn't visit the Prism Clinic. That's a 11/10 right there. We love a loyal man XD

Rizz 😎

Meng is a ragdoll cat!!! Some sort of colourpoint with ice blue eyes.

Yeah so the implied suspicious activities... welp let's just pretend it's an effective sleeping strat/ way to induce sleep. He's gotta fall asleep somehow right XD

I guess her dreams kind of come true? :') She now can run a clinic with one of her friends and a doctor she looks up to. She got her mans. But her bestie and younger sister Ceres.... she is gone. So you win some and you lose some in life. (still in pain about Ceres though)

There's lots of references to the text in the campaign which you won't see unless I copy/paste (some of which will be copy/pasted) into the vis novel. So look out for it then cuz I got high attention to detail.

The first time she admitted to loving someone (remember she struggles with the idea of unconditional love) was Ceres :') I'm so pain about this

I think her dream of family did come true in form of the people she cares about like the way she imagines she'd care about for a family. Her friends she views as sisters: Elise (older) and Ceres (younger). And her significant other Vail 🥺😭😭🥺🥺. If she and Vail lives they get their children too so Y'KNOW maybe her dream is still possible BUT WHERE'S AUNTIE CERES Y'KNOW

Really proud of the last line :) I think it envokes a sensation of hope which is what I'm trying to carry forward, and what I'd like to imagine Lei would want.

Thank you again for reading this far <3

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netmomplus · 9 months

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Touhou Ship Week 2023 Day 4: Habits/AU (Yep, a bit of both.)

“Okay, so how are we going to get you to quit?”

That was the big question of the day that Keine Kamishirasawa had proposed as she settled in for the night. Her partner Mokou, who was sitting next to her, was staring at something on a nearby table: A carton of cigarettes, as it turned out. There was a restless look on the immortal’s face, something that Keine was all too familiar with. Mokou had tried quitting cold turkey, but some habits, especially addictions like this, were particularly hard to break.

“Wild that we’re… finally doing this, huh?” Mokou just sat and sighed, her hands visibly fidgeting with the phone sitting in her lap. “I moved in with you… what, last year? And here we are, finally dealing with this whole smoking thing. It feels like we should have addressed this ages ago, and yet…”

“...it was hard figuring out how I was going to help me,” Keine admitted. “Truth be told, I’m still not sure I know. But I think if we just… start by talking through it, I’m sure we’ll figure out a solution.”

“Yeah… yeah, that’s what I’m hoping.”

The duo sat in silence for another minute or so. Keine looked up at the currently turned-off TV in front of them; maybe some background noise would help. She nabbed the remote and turned the set on, revealing a news program. Well that wouldn’t do, that’d just be too depressing; she moved over to a documentary station instead. That would work a lot better.

“Okay, so… I guess we can start with… how you feel right now?”

Mokou looked at Keine with a tired, half-lidded stare, like she hadn’t gotten any sleep in days. It was apparent from her face that she wasn’t doing well, but Keine figured she’d ask anyway just to be totally clear.

“...I simultaneously feel restless and exhausted. Like I want to sleep but can’t. Like I’m hungry but also… can’t feel bothered to eat. It’s not a fun feeling.” The immortal rubbed her eyes. “It makes me miss smoking.”

“That seems right. And…” Keine reached for a glass of water and handed it over to Mokou. “How did smoking make you feel?”

“That’s a tricky one to answer. I guess… they make me feel relaxed? They let me focus on things I wouldn’t be able to otherwise, it feels like. And then a bit later I start to feel bad again and need to go for another one. Of course I know those positive thoughts are a load of crock, but that doesn’t really change my feelings before, during and after.”

“Well thank you, that helps me a lot actually.”

Indeed, Keine was already working to take this knowledge and apply it to try and figure out the best way to help Mokou kick this habit. Very clearly cold turkey alone was giving her trouble, but she wasn’t sure if weaning would do much for her either. Maybe there were some alternate methods they could try?

“Well, maybe we can start going out more? Do you think spending some time away from home would-”

“Nope.” Mokou shut Keine down almost immediately. “Don’t get me wrong, going out more would be great, I wouldn’t want to spend time alone with anyone else. But even on the few times we do go out, I still have to deal with it.”

“...ah, right. Last time we went to eat out you had to step out for a smoke…”

Keine wanted to beat herself up for forgetting about that. Maybe she’d eaten a bit too much history lately and just couldn’t remember that day. Probably would have helped her figure things out for her first guess, but at least that was a bit more knowledge to add to the pile. So simple distractions weren’t going to work, huh? This was going to be harder than she thought.

“...Mokou?” Keine decided to ask. “Can you think of anything else that sort of… makes you feel like how those little death sticks make you feel?”

“I assume you mean the positives,” Mokou said with a half-chuckle. “Give me a minute to think about that… hmmm… well, I do like sitting and looking at nature. Urbanization hitting the Human Village like a brick hasn’t done me any favors, but sometimes I’ll just walk out and find, you know, somewhere more peaceful and just relax. Why do you think I spend so much time loitering around that old bamboo forest?”

“Hey, that’s something.” Keine patted Mokou on the back and smiled. “We can start heading out there together maybe. I can be there to help keep you in check, help you feel safe… anything you need dear, I’m hear for you.”

“...thanks.” Mokou rubbed the back of her neck. “Though… what do we do if you’re busy, or I’m busy, or, uh… y’know, neither of us are really in the mood? Can’t just spend all our time loitering outside.”

“Oh, that’s a fair point actually…”

Guess that meant they needed to do some more thinking. There was probably something else that they could do to help, though what exactly? Damn it, Keine’s knowledge was all based on history, not anything like this. Maybe her knowledge base wasn’t enough to figure this out, maybe she needed to just… urgh, but…

“...sheesh, if only there was like… a pill or something for this. Is there?”

A pill? That’d be convenient, wouldn’t it? Would’ve been convenient if she’d thought about it sooner, but with her youkai blood-triggered extended lifespan, she was still pretty oldfashioned… but wait, Mokou was even older. Damn it, she couldn’t even use that as an excuse for her forgetfulness. Completely out of ideas, Keine decided to ask Mokou a question.

“Hey, can I borrow your phone? Mine’s still charging.”

“Sure?”

Mokou handed her phone over to Keine, who began making the search. As it turned out she didn’t have to look for very long, as indeed there were numerous medications available just for that sort of thing. Prescriptions could be gotten from doctors, and there were some weaker over-the-counter treatments available as well. Maybe combining those might do the trick…

“...Mokou, I think that might be the right idea.”

“Had a feeling.” Mokou lied down and groaned. “Mind handing me my phone back? I’ll book the appointment myself.”

Keine obliged and returned the phone to her girlfriend’s clutches. She looked over and watched as Mokou did exactly as she said, making an appointment with their favorite semi-local doctor. Turned out there was a slot available tomorrow, how convenient.

“It’s during your job,” Mokou admitted, “but I’ll be fine going over myself. I’ll just take my bike, told you the yakitori money wasn’t gonna go to waste.”

“Alright, dear. Even if I’m not immediately there, remember that you can always message me and I’ll respond whenever I’m able. And of course I’ll be here for you to help, even medicated I want to make sure you’re doing your best.”

“Thanks, Keine… love ya.”

“Love you too.”

With the appointment made, Mokou set the phone down on a nearby table and closed her eyes. Keine soon followed suit, and the pair would eventually drift off to sleep. Whether this would for sure work out or not, neither could confirm, but they had hopes. This habit was breakable, just needed to work at it. And by the Gods, would they work.

#thshipweek #touhou #touhou project #東方project #slash #keine kamishirasawa #fujiwara no mokou #fanfic

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grey-warden-commander · 2 years

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The New Recruit

A/N: I’ve just realized I’m terrible at summaries. Basically, reader insert fic, you’re the newest avenger having spent almost three years with SHIELD all while having no memory. You have past training in all sorts of combat, you’re quite strong and fast but no one knows because you never had a need to use your powers. Planning on making this a Natasha x Reader may turn into a Nat x reader x Wanda because I love them. This tho is just a little teaser while I sort out everything for this. Hope it grabs some attention and enjoy!

You’d joined SHIELD nearly 3 years ago, risen through the ranks due to your mysterious background and caught the eye of a few important people. Nick Fury and Maria Hill. Your bosses. Nick Fury saw how you handled yourself during Loki’s attack on New York, despite not being a hero or an agent you still jumped in to help people while staying out of the Avengers way. After, he found you and invited you to join SHIELD stating you wouldn’t need to go through basic training, seeing as how your already field tested.

Maria was impressed with your performance during a mission you went on with her, she was even more impressed when you told her it was your first. After a few more missions and both Fury and Maria keeping a close eye on you, the Director decided you’d be perfect for The Avengers program.

That was a year ago. Meeting the avengers was a bit awkward for you, they were all in the common area of the tower enjoying takeout and drinks. Must have done a good job on their mission. You thought to yourself. Fury walks you in just as Thor challenges everyone to, again, try and lift his hammer.

“Everyone, this is (Y/N), (L/N), she’ll be joining the team I know this is very sudden and none of you had any prior knowledge of this, but I’m a very busy man and this was the only time I was free. So, if you have any complaints keep them to yourselves. Welcome to The Avengers, Agent (L/N).” With a handshake and a nod to your new teammates Fury was off. You watched him make his way to the elevator at the end of the hall, briefly making eye contact before the doors shut.

You turn to the rest of the people in the room, finally noticing Agent Hill as she approaches you. “(Y/N), I’m sorry, I didn’t realize he was doing this today and he’s not the most ceremonial person. Sorta bland introduction for you on his part.” She says as she puts an arm around your shoulders and begins to guide you to stand in front of everyone before you stop her.

“Actually Agent Hill, I was hoping we could skip the introductions tonight. I just want to get settled and go to bed, if that’s alright ma’am.”

Maria looks a bit shocked, most people would be sort of star struck. Seeing all the heroes in one spot. “Uh, yeah. Sure, I’ll show you to your room. I should probably be heading out too, got an early morning tomorrow. Also, (Y/N) you don’t have to call me agent or ma’am anymore. Maria or Hill will work, even during missions. Agent is too formal, and ma’am makes me feel old.” She smirks at you.

“Okay, Maria.” You smirk back. Maria says goodnight to everyone, and you both make your way to the elevator. You went to bed that night believing you’d gone unnoticed by the heroes, but unbeknownst to everyone, yourself included, you’d caught the eye of not just one, but two avengers.

#the avengers #natasha romanoff #marvel #steve rogers #thor odinson #tony stark #clint barton #maria hill #black widow #wanda maximoff #scarlet witch #mcu #natasha x fem!reader #wanda x natasha #wanda x reader #wanda x fem!reader #wandanat #wandanat x reader #natasha x reader x wanda

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tofumedic · 3 years

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Solomon Crushing HCs!

(MC is gender neutral!)

summary: a mix of hcs and small paragraphs about Solomon being tested about how much affection he can take before his composed disposition breaks!

It actually takes very little from you to ruffle up poor Solomon's feathers

A gentle touch or squeeze to his shoulder while you're not wearing any kind of glove, even if its over his robes or uniform his blush settles in

However, to get such a soft reaction from your companion it would have to happen alone or if you aren't feeling the best. if it happens in front of the brothers it helps boost his confidence before he shortens the affection not wanting to get hurt by your 7 demonic bodyguards

Solomon's hands are pressed into the flat of your back and against the nape of your neck, supporting your posture of you folding your body into his. He's leaning a bit down only by lowering his face to check your breathing, his ear close to yours and yours to his, letting you also hear his own for however it may ground you.

The way he holds you is protective by every right, the hand on your back is spread as far as each of his digits can reach and pushing slightly into you instead of just acting as a shell, reminding you he is actually there and that you can feel as much as his presence as possible. The hand against the back of your neck is more gentle to the sensitive bone underneath, not pressing but covering as much as it can, slightly upwards to start to cup the bottom of your hairline as well so you don't strain your neck too far.

He almost feels quite guilty, reveling in you picking him for comfort having to be pushed to be thoughts he remembers so he can currently focus on keeping you grounded, calm. You had left and came to him in Purgatory Hall, purposely leaving possible comfort from the brothers to seek out his specifically. It was an honor, you wanting to be held by him, wanting his warmth to protect you from whatever snapped the final thread keeping you together for the day. It wasn't completely necessary, he would have come as immediate as he could've if you had asked but it did make the slow process of moving you to sit on the edge of his bed quite easier as he presses gentle kisses against your hair, certain you'll forget about them the next day.

He enjoys sharing things with you, always confident and composed when he is the one to initiate, yet when you do it he needs a few seconds of hesitation to restart his internal systems.

He further enjoys showing off whatever you two share, maybe a new set of matching keychains or a necklace. Certain brothers more outwardly jealous than their counterparts call him out for being arrogant yet are too busy to recognize the softness in his eyes of having a piece of you with him.

You had woken up from your small nap with all of the gross qualities of crying before the rest, rubbing your eyes and needing to seek out something for your nose. But in the slowness of waking up and further coming to your senses on where you were, you recognize the room style and suddenly it clicks back.

Going to Solomon, wanting his specific hold and no other as it wouldn't be the same as the texture of his clothes pressing into yours or the same density of muscle holding together the pieces of you threatening to break. No one would keep you whole the same way so you had sought him out, now only being left alone in his room with his robe at the end of the bed and the door slightly open to show his leave is quick.

The robe was free real-estate at that point for you to settle into like a child's sleeping bag as you cocoon, wrapping it around yourself and holding it tightly wrapped from holding it on the inside. Like it was programmed to recognize being stolen, Solomon just peeked into the crack in the door with some water in hand not wanting the door to creek if you were still resting.

Yet there you were, resettling into his bed in his robe in his blankets. His face was lit up as if painted in the pink as he speaks up.

"I'm back. Ah, were you waiting for me to show up?"

He's embarrassed, his face is blotchy and after he takes a step in and closes the door goes to rub at this face as if trying to scratch it away. He didn't expect you to actually put on his robe and cuddle into it like that, don't get him twisted he did put it there just in case you did wake up and he wasn't there, he just clearly was not mentally prepared for the image.

Something he can't handle is your pleased smile with the similar glint that reached your eyes to be directed at him alone, especially when it was still sleep ridden and clearly extremely comfortable.

"Just kidding, don't look at me like that I'll get the wrong idea."

Solomon has this thing about making plans with you, or making plans for you

He will plan out every time he gets to see you, trying to have words ready for what he will want to say. He plans out walking with you to classes, to lunch, to inviting you out places just to imagine how it will go after you say yes.

Even if it doesn't go exactly to plan since you tend not to follow his, always so full of surprises, he doesn't get upset by any means if you're the cause

Especially when it's something subtle, you reaching out to pat him if he's busy in a conversation wanting to give a quick hello, or you possibly being on of those who like to lean into others when they laugh

Stuff like that sends him out of wack, he builds off of what energy you give him like any calm response he had to welcome you back with gets replaced with something more genuine as you rush over, having caught his gaze with a grin when you found him

You unwrapped your robe burrito of sorts, your arms outstretched and waiting. His footsteps stuttered looking at your changed position beckoning him to look at your face to make sure he wasn't misunderstanding. His blush had yet to disappear as he chuckled, setting your two glasses on the small bedside table.

You are the first person he lets himself be so genuine with for a long time, something about you other than your abilities is just so special.

He's missed this, such a feeling of genuine love that fills him completely that he feels connected to every part of his body, that no space is empty yet instead inflated pumped full of pure bliss. It is hard to remember if the last time he felt something like this if it's true or was just a bad copy because this and you feel so unique and new and fresh

Solomon is full of love in a way he didn't know was truly possible, it was true and genuine and you two shared it.

He settles into your side, arms caging your middle and yours in turn wrap around him to further press him closer, and he gives a pleased hum. It was strange and perhaps narcissistic but this felt like you had turned to comforting him instead compared to him comforting you earlier, though he understood this probably helped you too he couldn't help but to feel special like that.

Maybe this wasn't a misunderstanding on his part, maybe it was alright to test the waters, this theory.

"I just can't help but to think you might like me too, no?"

#someone stop me from using dialog from homescreen interactions and right actual speech oh my gof #i cant believe i was able to write something like this??????#obey me #tofus blurbs!#obey me solomon #om solomon #solomon x mc #obey me scenarios #obey me headcanons #obey me imagines #solomon x reader #solomon imagine #me: aw yeah im scheduling this for tomorrow its gonna be so good #me less than 10 mins later: I WANT PPL TO SEE IT N O W

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tainted-wine · 4 years

Text

Subject: RAPTOR

Nomu!Hawks x Reader (NSFW)

This GIANT is the lovechild of this amazing fanart and this ask:

I twisted the shizznit out of that ask, but the inspiration is still there. A thank you to anyone who makes it through this very long ride.

This fic does takes some liberties in the creation of nomu. Some factors will deviate from canon.

Words: 20k+

You can also read this long-ass story on AO3 if that’s more comfortable.

Heed these warnings: Blood and Death, Teratophilia/Monster-Fucking, Breeding, Mutant Genitalia, Unethical Experimentation, Mutilation, lots of handjobs and cum, LOTS of long tongue action and I’m ashamed, Brief Suicide Ideation, and Shitty Science

——–x——–

Fertile nomu were the greatest breakthrough that the villains could ever hope for. Breeding saves so much time and resources, as opposed to artificially creating each specimen from scratch. There were two major “programs”, as these sick bastards insist on calling them.

The Mating Program, where the nomu were paired together, one with male sexual organs and the other with those of a female, though there was also the occasional subject that managed to possess both. It was an unpredictable process; miscarriages were common, sometimes the offspring dies minutes after birth, or the fetus develops too rapidly inside the womb and the birth becomes a violent bursting out of the parent’s body. Weaker nomu, usually the ones incapable of rapid regeneration, have been killed from such incidents. “What a waste,” those bastards in lab coats would say.

And then there was the Milking Program, in which semen was collected to later be frozen or artificially inserted into ‘other creatures’. Yeah, they say it as if ninety percent of those creatures weren’t humans.

You were an unwilling member of the latter program, but the assholes sure did love making it sound like they were doing you a favor.

“This entire precinct is yours,” they said. “Your very own farm of all-powerful beasts!”

Gee, thanks. Just what you always wanted, to jerk off abominations and collect their cum. To be fair, it could be worse. At least you weren’t one of the unlucky ones being impregnated. Your possession of a quirk, albeit a mostly useless one, probably saved you from that fate. Those without a quirk had a higher chance of passing down all of the Nomu’s abilities. Just another addition to the long list of Why Being Quirkless Fucking Sucks.

The weaker and simpler nomu aren’t an issue. A sort of imprinting drives them to obey your every command. Hell, jerking them off isn’t even needed — you can literally just order them to ejaculate, and the damn things are spewing out their putrid seed before you can even prepare your containers.

The most troublesome part of your “job” was the High Ends. They are powerful, sentient, and God help you, have an actual sex drive. They were obedient to an extent, but you can’t hold complete control over something that was specifically designed for independent thinking. You were responsible for only five of these advanced nomu, and that was too many. The touchy bastards always wanted more than just a handjob, vocalizing their lust through distorted throats. The long, beastly groans of “inside” and “give pussy” echoed in your head throughout the day and into the night.

These things can literally pound you into mush, and the very thought of carrying their horrifying children makes your throat burn with rising bile. You don’t believe it’s worth risking your life just to please their monster dicks.

That was all before they introduced you to a new ‘pet’. You stood in the hallway of your assigned area of the old hospital and watched two approaching figures. Ugh, another damn High End to make things more difficult, but this one made your heart skip a beat.

Most of the creature’s body was a solid black, just like the rest within its tier. It was more slender than the others, upper body leaning forward with the support of long legs with joints that reminded you of a bird. Both its hands and feet were covered in scales and ended in large talons. A grand pair of ebony wings were folded behind its back, and a muscular feathered tail swayed with its movements. Overall, its appearance was a mixture of avian and reptilian.

The feathery wings were a huge hint, but absolute certainty struck you when you made eye contact, gold-filled eyes with a bird-like slant on a face that still managed to stay youthful after so many alterations to its body. You listened in on the villains’ conversations whenever they were around. With no access to any kind of media in this place, it was the only way to stay up-to-date with everything happening outside of these cursed labs. You remember hearing about their latest victory, how they managed to overpower and kill the number two hero of Japan, dreadful news that you refused to believe. But the beast that was eyeing you curiously gave you no choice but to accept the truth.

Hawks has become their newest nomu.

The doctor accompanying him smiled proudly, commanding the monster to take your side. You gulped and tried not to flinch in his presence; you were always extra tense around new additions that didn’t know you yet. “Hawks is dead,” the doctor said calmly. “Say hello to our latest work: Raptor.”

You think you’d rather stick with ‘Hawks’. The doctor doesn’t wait for a response before continuing. “We expect samples from this one daily.”

The shocking demand has you speaking before you can stop yourself. “Why?”

The man’s impassive eyes darkened and you shrink back, considering an apology but deciding that it was best to just keep your mouth shut. Prisoners like you followed a set of rules, the most important one being ‘No Questions’. They’ll feed you to the very beasts entrusted in your care without batting an eye.

Lucky for you, this man was willing to give you a pass. “Analysis, fertilization, storage for future plans…many matters that don’t concern you. Expect me every morning to take it in for testing. Until then, get it settled and collect the first sample.”

You shuddered, sneaking a glance at Hawks, who was busy looking up at the occasional flicker of the ceiling light. It was careless to underestimate how observant the High Ends were, but this is the first time you’ve seen one so openly curious. Normally they would just absently stare at nothing when left idle.

Only when the doctor turned to leave did you finally give the newcomer your full attention. “Hawks?”

He continued to watch the blinking bulbs with great interest.

“Um…Raptor?”

You nearly jumped from how quickly his entire body turned toward you, completely still and waiting for whatever instructions came next.

You scratched at your head nervously. “Right, I guess that really is your name now. Well, come with me.”

He followed you down the old hall and past the rooms where others of his kind rested, talons tapping against the tiles with each step.

x---x---x---x---x

Raptor’s exposed frontal lobe throbs.

He doesn’t remember anything before his awakening in that cold and wet chamber. Was there anything before? Had he just been born?

Perhaps…but it just didn’t feel right.

x---x---x---x---x

Like all the other nomu, Hawks’s private space was nothing more than an emptied patient room. Their loyalty was the only thing keeping them from breaking down the old doors or tearing through the worn walls. Every minute spent alone with these superhumans was a gamble with your life.

But again, the newcomers make you extra nervous.

You stood at the door while Hawks examined his new home. He sniffed and pawed at every nook and cranny like an animal in unfamiliar surroundings, straightening his flexible spine to touch the ceiling before lowering himself on all fours. He seemed just as comfortable crawling as he was with walking; you can only imagine how incredible his agility has become. The beloved wing hero was best known for his swiftness in defeating and subduing villains, and it looks like the mad scientists sought to maximize his talents. The average nomu was built to be an indestructible powerhouse. Hawks was built to be an even more efficient predator than he already was.

As much as you didn’t want to interrupt him, you had a job to do. “Raptor…”

His head whipped around to pin you with a sharp stare, molten yellow slits revealing the red irises that only appear when focused. You tensed, but he made no further movements.

You cleared your throat and took a deep breath. Nomu respond best to a confident and assertive voice. “Just relax and stay still. It’s time for me to collect some sperm, if you even know what that means.” You grab the jar that you had already prepared in the corner.

He shook his wings and soft mane of hair, leaving his head a poofy mess. Well that was…cute. You approached him before setting the container back down and reaching for the pathetic rags they called shorts. It’s beyond ridiculous how these sadistic doctors are willing to completely violate and alter a person’s corpse, yet they force the abominations to keep their junk covered as some form of decency.

A low rumble vibrated from his chest as you dropped to your knees and pulled down his only article of clothing, allowing the not quite human-looking cock to spring free — a thick base with a curved shaft decorated with scale-like ridges on the top and bottom, then tapering to an arrow-like head, twitching and growing each second. You’ve seen stranger dicks, but it still catches you by surprise. Was Hawks’s dick always like this?

Is that a distasteful question? He is technically dead.

The moment your hand made contact, a loud hiss rushed past his teeth and he stepped back, wings flapping as he backed away until he hit the wall.

“Calm down.” His reaction startled you, but your voice remained steady. He wasn’t showing any signs of aggression, his widened eyes and timid posture gave the impression that he was just caught off-guard. “Calm,” you repeated more softly.

A few seconds pass while his breaths slow and he stands straight again to give you access to his fully hardened cock.

You try to move more slowly, at first running just your fingertips along his length to ease him into the feeling. You smiled at the sight of his face relaxing; he was surprisingly expressive. “See? It’s not so bad, is it?”

His mouth opened to give you a glimpse of sharp teeth that could easily shred your flesh, but the only sounds that come out are several choked peeps. He winces and brings a clawed hand to his throat.

“Can’t talk yet, huh? Don’t worry, it usually takes a few days for you guys.” You closed your fingers around his shaft in a firm grip and began to stroke him.

The soft purrs must mean that he has fully given in. He thankfully hasn’t made any grabs at you yet; only staring down and watching you explore every inch of his pitch-black meat, taking his leaking pre-cum and smearing it all over for lubrication.

His wings shiver and his tail begins to swing wildly—you flinch at each loud thud whenever the powerful limb whacks the wall or slams into the floor. You briefly wonder if the feathers on his tail are capable of becoming sharp blades like the ones on his wings.

The purrs become low growls as he begins to bend over your kneeling form, muscular thighs quivering around you. His cock was twitching under your quickening pace, notifying you that it was time to grab the jar and get ready. “No need to hold back. Go ahead and cum.”

He obeyed with a high screech and two sets of talons seized your shoulders, tearing through cloth and digging into your skin. You yelped, but didn’t halt your milking of his cock, ensuring each spurt of cum landed inside the container. Blood can be felt trickling down your arms, his grip on the verge of crushing bone until he finally lets go after his final spasm. You release the breath you didn’t even know you were holding as you sealed the jar and stood up. “Good, now rest,” you said through clenched teeth and turned to leave.

A distorted chirp is heard behind you; you twisted your head to see Hawks rushing forward, and your heart jumps into your throat. Fuck, what did you do? Did turning your back excite him? Running wasn’t a smart option at this point. You held the fresh warm sample close to you as you shut your eyes and braced for whatever the nomu had planned.

But when he was close enough for you to feel his hot breath against your back, nothing happened. Then there were fingers, the same fingers that pierced your flesh with their hooked claws, lightly tracing over the bleeding wounds. It was a touch that was way too gentle for a monster created to kill.

You heard the choked sounds again, and you take a look at his face as he strains to form a word, eventually giving up and mouthing it instead. What you read from his lips was something that hasn’t been said to you during your entire time in this hellish hospital.

‘Sorry.’

He retreats to a corner and curls up his entire body like an animal sleeping in the cold.

You felt like the one unable to speak now, mouth opening and closing in search of a response. Eventually you were able to collect yourself. “It’s alright…I guess. Not the first time one of you has handled me roughly. First time one of you showed any regret, though…it’s honestly really freaking me out.” You giggle uncomfortably and decide that you need to hurry up and treat yourself before the scratches get infected. “Rest,” you make sure to command before rushing out of the door.

The restroom held a shabby but functional shower that will rid you of the blood, and the workers were at least generous enough to give you the bare minimum of first-aid along with extra gowns. A couple excruciating dabs of alcohol on the open wounds should clean them up just fine.

You’ll have to think about Hawks’s odd behavior later. You still had other nomu to tend to.

x---x---x---x---x

Subject: Raptor

Field Test

Quirk #1: Fierce Wings

Notes: As the host’s original quirk, we don’t expect Raptor to experience any difficulties with Fierce Wings. It should serve more as a refresher for his memory. With a brain more advanced than any other nomu so far, he should still be quick in attacking and reacting. His slightly enlarged wings will allow for greater endurance during flight, and of course, a bigger arsenal of feathers. The feathers on his tail are also to be tested.

The room that Raptor stood in the center of was filled with targets everywhere—some static, some moving in fixed patterns. The humans in coats were a safe distance away and watching him closely.

“Raptor, strike the targets with your feathers.”

He didn’t even have a chance to see which one gave the order before his body was already reacting. It took only seconds for him to pin the locations and time the movements of each target. In a flash, black sharpened feathers darted in multiple directions and pierced every mark in the room.

He didn’t care about impressing the Coats, but he still released a pleased hum after hearing his entire audience gasp. The whole situation felt familiar for some reason. Completing such a test felt so natural to him, he could probably do it blindfolded.

“Again, but this time use only the feathers from your tail.”

He obeyed. With his body lowered and tail raised, it only took two seconds longer to hit each mark.

Several more tests took place. He chopped objects of different materials and varying thickness, sliced apart a combat robot while using only his tail as a blade, and showed off his speed and aerial maneuvers during a small obstacle course.

His brain pulsed painfully. He doesn’t understand why taking so many commands was such a painful struggle.

He didn’t mind the tests much. At least he can actually do something in these test fields, as opposed to sitting in his empty room all day. After the very pleasant time spent with you, it was nothing but hours of pacing, scratching, and grooming out of boredom.

You mentioned there being others like him in those rooms. How do they handle having absolutely nothing to do for so long?

“Its mind tends to wander, doesn’t it?”

He turns to the source of the voice and finds a pair of Coats that stared at him like they were trying to probe his mind with just their eyes. The rest were scrambling about, discussing the excellence of his performance and scribbling notes.

But these two only seemed interested in watching him get lost in his thoughts. He stared back, waiting to see if they had any commands to give.

One of them only smirked as the loyal creature stood at full attention. “Yes, not very hostile, either. Not only is he capable of higher levels of thinking, he is the first High End that doesn’t host the body of some brutish villain. A more complex mind often comes with very human...quirks.”

Raptor blinks. They really enjoyed saying that particular word.

x---x---x---x---x

When you stepped into Hawks’s room for the second morning, you were ready to step right back out when you saw the state of it.

Claw marks everywhere, covering the walls and floor like webs embedded in the surface. Hawks was looking at you closely while stooped low to the floor, but his body appeared relaxed and not ready to lunge.

Not a single hair on you moved when you spoke. “Are you alright?”

He tilted his head at the question, releasing a puff of air through his nostrils before returning to whatever he was trying to do to the floor. He wasn’t violent with his movements. The talons scraped across wide curves, long lines, other patterns with seemingly no goal in mind. Looking around at the other claw marks, you realize that none of them are the angry slashes of a beast throwing a fit. They all looked to have been drawn in a calm matter, twisting and turning into random non-specific shapes.

“Raptor, are you…bored?”

He paused his carving to look at you again and releases a long and drawn-out groan, throat vibrating along with the vocals. Was that a whine?

All of the High Ends had traces of their original personality, but this was on another level. It wasn’t unwelcomed, however. “You know, when the other High Ends don’t have anything to do, they kinda just…I don’t know, it’s like they put their brains on a power-saver mode. You can’t do that?”

His brain responds with several strong pulses. Gross, you’re never going to get used to that pink-gray matter moving around. After what was apparently deep thought, Hawks gave a softer groan and shook his head.

You couldn’t help but laugh humorlessly at this entire situation. “Incredible. You’d think that these smartasses would know that making a creature of extraordinary intelligence—I bet that’s what they said—would mean that your big gross brain needs regular stimulation. Geniuses, my ass.”

Hawks gave a beastly snort. Seems like he agrees with you. You don’t mean to sound like those insane bastards, but it truly was incredible to see a High End that showed interest in casual conversation, not just commands or any opportunity to cause destruction.

Feeling confident that he won’t maul you out of boredom, you finally approach and kneel in front of him. “Sorry, there’s not much I can do about that,” you said with genuine sympathy. “Not like I have any entertainment of my own. My room sucks too. But—“ You held up your fresh new jar. “Maybe we can kill some time together again? God, that makes me sound like a sex worker for you guys.”

You don’t know if he has a sense of humor, but he clearly understands your hints and perks up. He stands so that your face is leveled with his groin, black scaly hands tugging at his shorts until a loud rip causes him to grunt in frustration. You giggle and decide to help tear the rest off. “They were just shitty rags, anyway,” you said.

He was already growing right in front of you. Your hand wraps around him for a second time, thankful that it doesn’t startle him again. He tenses for only a moment, but quickly relaxes when your stroking begins, a large pair of testes swinging freely now that there was no cloth to contain them.

“Wow,” you couldn’t help but gasp. “You’re not even built as big as the other nomu, but those are still impressive. I guess you’ve got plenty of samples to give, huh? Good, ‘cause I’ve gotta do this every damn day.”

You received a purr and a swish of his tail in response. It was a one-sided conversation, but it was still pretty refreshing. Milking the other High Ends was an uncomfortable task, one where you always had to be prepared with a loud and strong “No” or “Stop” whenever their excitement evolved into aggression. Every minute was tense, and despite your occasional wish for release from this shitty life, you didn’t want a violent end at the hands of these sex-hungry monstrosities.

His reactions weren’t too different from yesterday; he was being more vocal and less shy about physically expressing his pleasure. The massive black wings blew your hair back with each powerful beat, and his tail was thrashing about even more wildly.

His deep purrs weren’t unpleasant, slowly changing into higher mewls as he got closer. “Come on, just do what you did last time.”

And so he did, delivering another fresh sample straight into your container with a warped cry. His hands lingered right over you, clenched in tight fists that surely had those sharp talons digging into his rough palms. You couldn’t be sure, but it looked as if he was trying not to grab you this time. Would he really care about that without being told?

Hot, tired breaths blew into your hair as he recovered from his climax. Then, with his head reared back, he let out a yawn. You even heard a faint little whine similar to a dog escape him. It would have been pretty endearing if it weren’t for just how widely his mouth was opened, displaying the scary set of teeth within. Does he really use those in combat?

With his still-dripping member going flaccid, he returned to the spot he was scratching at, lazily tracing the markings that were already made. The thought of him doing this for another ten hours or so made you frown. They probably wouldn’t care if you stayed in this room a little longer than usual, would they?

Shrugging, you kneeled down again, this time resting beside him. Hawks stopped and looked at you curiously.

“Sharpen one of your feathers and give it to me,” you ordered.

Almost immediately a feather appears right in front of you. You grab it, taking care not to cut your fingers on the razor-like barbs. When’s the last time you’ve held a writing utensil? Shifting awkwardly next to the large nomu, you took the quill and began scratching lines into the floor. The hot heavy breaths and overall warmth from his close presence was hard to ignore. You’ve never been this close to a nomu for any reason that wasn’t jerking them off. He remained calm, watching your hand closely until you finished drawing a small grid.

“You know how to play tic tac toe?”

He blinked.

“…Okay, it’s pretty simple. You fill a space with either an ‘O’ or an ‘X’…”

Somehow, teaching a killer monster how to play a common children’s game was weirder than making him jizz. He caught on quickly, favoring X’s. You were winning each game at first, but once he figured out all of the possible patterns, every game was ending in a draw. You drew larger grids, sometimes having both of you move to a different spot for more room. Most matches were still draws, but he will sometimes catch you by surprise and scratch a row of three X’s that you didn’t notice in time, his tail swishing out of what may have been pride or enjoyment.

After a while you decided to show him other shapes. Maybe he can experiment with them more when you were gone. Who knows, soon he might be drawing more than random lines. He wasn’t bad company, to be honest. Then again, your standards have taken a nosedive ever since you winded up in this facility of unethical science. It was nice to spend time with anything that didn’t want to just tear you in half with a massive cock.

Only when you felt like you overstayed your welcome and stood back up did you realize how much of a mess you both made of the floor and walls.

“Oops, it looks like a bunch of kids got in here,” you said while looking at the collage of shapes and lines. Hopefully the doctors won’t find this too strange; he was pretty intelligent, after all. “Well, it’s about time I take my leave. You keep practicing your doodling skills, I guess.” With the jar of white fluid back in your arms, you headed on out, but a large hand grabs onto your arm.

Hawks’s yellow eyes were wider than usual, a scraping, guttural noise leaving his throat as he toyed with his voice.

“Sss…..aaayy…” Just like the other High Ends, his vocals were warped and all-around unsettling, but you could hear it, traces of the playful and smooth-talking hero that you used to watch during interviews and talk shows. It was barely there, but it was still there.

“St…aay.”

You couldn’t help the sad smile that graced your face. He was looking at you like a puppy. “Sorry, but I don’t know what they’d do if they notice me staying here for too long,” you explained.

He winced from the strain of his vocal chords. “Come…back?”

You shook your head. “There are cameras in the halls. I shouldn’t be going in and out of your room.” You tensed under his grip, afraid that refusing him like this will anger him. He has been very docile so far, but you don’t know what it takes to set him off.

Thankfully, he lets go of you and backs away with another one of those whines. For God’s sake, were you really feeling bad about leaving one of these...things?

To be fair, in the two days you’ve known him, Hawks was already much different from the others. Hell, he hasn’t even shown any true signs of aggression yet. The other High Ends are always expressing some desire to attack or break something. You thought it came naturally with all of the engineering. For something that was apparently supposed to be their finest specimen yet, Hawks’s behavior wasn’t fitting for his job at all. You just played tic tac fucking toe with him like two kids on a sidewalk.

That’s probably why you found yourself trying to reassure him. “We can play some more tomorrow. Don’t worry.”

An odd clicking noise was made—he sure had a variety of sounds reminiscent of birds—and he returned to his favorite corner, hooking his talons into an empty spot on the wall to begin yet another drawing.

The slightest hint of warmth could be felt in your chest as you left him to his creative tasks. This place sucks and has deprived you of everything good in life for…you’ve lost track of how long. You’ll take whatever you can get to make things more bearable around here.

And if that ‘whatever’ turns out to be a former top hero who was killed and resurrected into a horrid experiment, then so be it.

x---x---x---x---x

Subject: Raptor

Field Test

Quirk #2: Reptile

Notes: The Reptile quirk will make for a great upgrade to Raptor’s physical capabilities. He may possess wings, but the ability to climb almost any surface will be helpful in enclosed areas and improve his overall performances in stealth. A flexible spine allows him to comfortably be both bipedal and quadrupedal, the digitigrade legs granting him greater speed and jumps.

Also, someone needs to send in a request for a new pair of shorts for the damned thing.

There were many more instructions to follow this time. The Coats were bombarding him with one command after another.

“Climb up here.”

“Slash this with your talons.”

“Crush this with your hands. Try again with your feet.”

His head throbbed painfully as the voices took hold of his movements. They pushed his endurance to the limit when they made him run on a machine, first on his legs, then again on all fours. He was only running in place, but it was much more satisfying than pacing back and forth in that boring room.

It turns out that he can scale walls and ceilings with little effort thanks to the pads on his hands and feet. Maybe he can try drawing on the ceiling when he returns to his room. The only downside was that you wouldn’t be able to sit up there with him.

The Coats observed behind the (assumed) safety of a wall of thick glass. Each one possessed a small microphone so that their voice can still be heard clearly through the speaker on his side of the room.

They always watched him with cold and calculating eyes, and only spoke to him when telling him to do something. You feared him; his feathers easily sensed your tension, unsteady breaths, and quickening heartbeats, yet you still took the time to be friendly. And what you do with those hands…he wishes you’d make him feel that good all day. Yes, his room was small and boring, but it did have you.

“Raptor, to the opposite end of the room,” a Coat ordered. The sensation of being pulled by his entire head forced him to take his place at the wall, staring straight ahead at the door.

His wings twitched from a powerful approaching presence, feathers instinctively sharpening at the possible incoming threat. The door was opened by a small Coat to make way for a beast, a beast with a large powerful form and exposed brain just like him.

Vacant eyes stared straight ahead, looking right through him like it was dead on its feet.

“This is one of Cloner’s spawn, yes?” A female Coat spoke with her mouth close to the mic. He supposes that they don’t care if he hears them.

“Yes. His offspring always turn out even more unstable than him. This one can’t even produce a single proper clone, and no additional quirks were inherited. It’s useless.”

“Well, at least it’ll help us in its final moments.” The man leaned into his mic. “Raptor, kill the nomu. Do not use your wings.”

The woman followed up with her own order. “Nomu, kill Raptor.”

Blood was suddenly rushing through his body twice as fast, the reds of his eyes appearing and locking onto the target that was already charging at him with a horrifying wail.

Kill it.

He ducked under the bigger creature’s closing arms that would have likely trapped him into a crushing hug, causing his opponent to lose balance and fall forward. His hand shot up and dug his talons into thick flesh, slicing it from its chest all the way down to its stomach as he ran beneath. Rising from under the nomu’s legs, he turned to see his gruesome work.

Instead, he sees the blur of a fist right before it smashes into his face and sends him flying. His back colliding hard with the wall accompanied the shattering of his jaw. There was no time to wait for his vision to clear up, scrambling out of the path of the charging silhouette before it slams into the now-empty spot, the impact shaking the entire room.

The pain only intensified when his face and spine began to shift, mending itself back together while he tried his hardest to keep his eye on the much more violent beast. A ghoulish moan was heard as it straightened itself, and Raptor could see the large gash that should have easily disemboweled it already closing up.

Ah, so they can both heal.

It was already charging straight at him again. The thing was fast and powerful, but it was acting like it had a one-track mind, sticking to a simple strategy of running towards him and dealing whatever damage it could.

His wings twitched, but there was a barrier in his mind preventing them from moving. Damned Coats.

The fight became a game of evasion, darting and dashing around the bigger and stronger nomu’s swings and countering with deep slashes. Wearing it down was impossible with such rapid healing, every cut he brought upon its skin was quickly sewn shut.

His only chance was to attack its brain, but the nomu had enough sense to protect its one true vulnerable spot, nearly crushing Raptor’s arm into paste after an attempt to sink his talons into the soft matter.

So he kept dodging, and dodging, until something inside the creature just...snapped. Perhaps it was out of frustration in failing to land any hits, but its haunting moans and wails soon became full on screams. Tightly clenched fists pounded into the floor, the stone floor crumbling under the sudden tantrum. Raptor stood and watched, wings tensing from the burst of tortured emotions.

“Hm, you weren’t exaggerating about the meltdowns,” he heard one of the Coats say, her voice as dull as ever.

“What an embarrassment. Damn thing can’t even carry out a simple fight.”

Raptor looked behind the glass of spectators and saw faces of disappointment.

“A complete waste.”

“Cloner’s children are all wasted potential.”

“What a sad display.”

“Pathetic.”

He looked back at the creature that was now writhing and flailing, its skin oozing a blob that throbbed and squirmed, like it was trying its hardest to take a shape.

But the bubbly pulses stop and the dripping mass melts into a lifeless puddle. The nomu continues to scream after its failed attempt at using its quirk. Raptor’s gut twists with pity.

A sad display, indeed.

“Raptor! Did you forget your orders? Kill him!”

The sharp command smothers all feelings of sympathy, and before Raptor knew it, he was running toward the tormented creature, each feather on his tail sharpening with every step. Ducking under a blind swipe, the black spear thrusted forward and pierced its brain with a sickening shlunk.

The thrashing was reduced to short spasms as the nomu choked out its final groans, its terrified eyes glazing over when the last traces of life faded.

The tail was yanked out and shook off the blood and spongy brain matter to splatter on the ground. Raptor gave a soft whine of distress.

“Well, that was all rather underwhelming.”

“Yep, that didn’t exactly challenge Raptor at all.”

“I’m concerned about his lack of aggression. Did you all see him hesitate?”

“Most likely just confusion and caution after witnessing such a sudden breakdown.”

So many voices, so many comments; Raptor paid no attention to them. His mind was on the corpse that continued to bleed heavily from the large gash in its head. Raptor was the stronger nomu. He won.

Was he supposed to feel proud? Victorious?

“He’s a very smart one. Did you see the markings in his room? He and his harvester have been...bonding.” That voice...Raptor recognized it as the Coat that showed up every morning to retrieve him from his room to enter these test rooms. “I can’t decide if I like the idea of a friendly nomu.”

The woman dismissed his worries. “As long as he knows to kill when he’s told, his behavior shouldn’t matter. But it might benefit us to test his relationship with his owner after we’ve finished observing his quirks.”

His throat vibrates as a low growl passes through.

Raptor doesn’t like it here.

x---x---x---x---x

Maybe it’s just because Friday (you’re pretty sure it’s Friday on your self-made calendar) tends to be your busiest day of the week, or that your wrist is beginning to wear down from the many giant dicks you’ve been stroking. Or maybe it’s just one of those days when you remember just how shitty this life was. Whatever it was, you weren’t in one of your best moods today.

That’s why you felt just the smallest hint of excitement when you reached Hawks’s door. Yes, it’s weird, but he was the closest thing you had to a companion around here, alright?

The last thing you expected was to open the door to an empty room, at least it appeared that way until you saw the black creature resting on the ceiling.

“Aah!” You yelp and drop the jar out of fright, causing Hawks to jump from the sudden noise. You curse and quickly pick up the container and scan it for any cracks while he gracefully twists his body to drop on the floor with a thud. He was as graceful as a cat...a cat that can comfortably sit upside down.

Relieved to see the jar in one piece, you turned your attention back to the waiting High End. “I didn’t know you could climb like that.”

His wings fluttered at the comment and he raised his palms right in front of your face. Ah yes, a hand. Very lovely. But looking more closely, you could see a difference in texture on the rounded pads of his fingertips. “Ooh, little sticky hairs, huh?”

He gave a click of what you assumed to be approval, tail swinging behind him.

“So I guess you’re not just born knowing everything your body can do. Sounds troublesome.” There’s something you wanted to do, something you wouldn’t ever consider doing with the other nomu even in your dreams. “May I, uh, touch them?” You held up your own hands innocently.

Hawks cocked his head, a gesture that you’re always going to find kinda cute, before grunting and bringing his larger hands to yours. All ten of your fingers made contact, and the slightest shiver shot down your spine.

It’s the first time you’ve ever touched one of these monsters outside of jerking them to collect semen. Your curiosity was always there, but the disgust and fear you often felt when in their presence fueled the overpowering desire to hurry up, get the damn job done, and get away from them as quickly as possible.

You never imagined that you’d be standing face to face with a High End, feeling the surprisingly soft pads on his scaly hands, his breaths deep and hot against your face as those red irises watched your expressions. He was still very intimidating with his tall form, glowing glare, and the large imposing pair of wings. But those eyes—they contained too much intelligence and emotion in them.

Too human. It was as uncanny as it was fascinating.

Only when his eyes close and he begins to croon softly do you realize that one of your hands have moved up to touch his face. The black skin feels extra thick when you gently press his cheek, strong and leathery. He leans in and brings his head closer to give you better access, and you can’t help but reward the reaction with scratches against his jaw and chin.

“You know, you’ve been doing a shitty job of acting like the ultimate killer,” you said when he purrs happily.

The purr morphs into a disgruntled whine. “Don’t...like.”

Your hand pauses, hoping for him to elaborate as well as he could. “Don’t like…?” You encouraged him.

He was still struggling to work his vocal chords, but at least he seemed to be showing less pain. “Don’t like...k-killiiing.”

What?

“Raptor, that’s...you know...the very thing you were made for, and you don’t like doing it?” Not that you’re complaining about his gentle nature, but hearing a damn nomu say that he dislikes killing might be the most ludicrous thing you’ve heard here, even more so than the first time you were told to make an abomination cum.

His entire body stiffens, and you couldn’t help but tense up as well. “Maaade-” He makes a harsh hacking sound. “-to kill?”

Shit. You panic and attempt to backpedal. “Not to actually kill. You’re supposed to be, you know, the strongest creature that’s capable of killing whenever he wants...if you, uh, wanted to.” Yeah, that sounds good enough.

It appears to do the trick, his body relaxing again. “Don’t like,” he repeated more smoothly this time.

“I know, I know. Killing sucks. Just don’t tell the assholes in labcoats that, alright? Now calm down.” You return to your ministrations, this time using both hands to rub and scratch his face. His eyes drift shut again as your hands trail down to his slightly elongated neck, brushing past his steady pulse.

Reaching his collar and then his chest, you discover that he’s solid muscle everywhere. He may not be on the verge of bursting out of his own skin like the others, but he could no doubt snap you like a twig just as easily. You feel his chest heave from a deep breath, the strength emanating from his body making you shiver. You shush him when he jolts as your hands reach his pronounced abs, pushing against the hard muscle until you finally arrive at his groin.

You snorted at the new pair of shorts. “Another pair, huh? At least these look a little less ragged.”

You pulled his large member out for the third time. Why did you have to do this daily? What could they possibly be doing with so many jars of jizz? Making cakes?

Sighing, you brushed off the soreness of your arm and wrist and began to pump his ridged length. “Just do me a favor and try to cum quickly, alright?”

He made a rather sad groan at that, curling into himself so that his face was close to yours. His sharp breaths were loud in your ears.

You couldn’t help but smile even through the strain of your muscles. “What, you wanna make this last? Do you know how many dicks I’ve had to tend to today? Cut me some slack, we’re gonna be doing this everyday, anyway.”

Hawks purrs before that monstrous voice shakes your body, his hot breath warming the side of your face and neck. “Feel gooood.”

The primal lust dripping from him triggers a pulse of warmth inside you. You...can’t remember the last time you’ve felt that, and it’s just a tad strange that a nomu caused it. Were you really that starved for attention? “I-” You cleared your throat after an awkward voice crack. “I know, handjobs tend to feel good. But please be a good boy and help me out here.”

He gives a puff that blows your hair back, but he complies. The big sweaty face that buries itself in your neck is so distracting that you almost forget to get your jar ready and fill it with the incoming spurts of semen. There, the final sample of the day has been collected. Now, if you could just push the panting fiend off of you before he starts drooling on your shoulder.

Something warm and slimy touches your neck. It has you pulling back so quickly that you almost fall and spill the vile essence all over you before the jar could be properly sealed.

Hawks shrinks back and quickly withdraws the indigo tongue into his mouth, looking down in what appears to be shame. You touch the licked spot, the thick saliva coating your fingers.

“Sss-sorrry.” Regret can be heard clearly in his droning voice.

“No, it’s...it’s okay,” you stammer. The sensation lingers, and then ignites a spark somewhere inside you.

A sick, disgusting, and absolutely fucked up spark. The next thing you say should horrify you, but instead you feel nothing but a twisted form of anticipation. “You can...um...do that again, if you want.”

His tail slapped the floor in excitement before he slowly closed the distance again, cautiously looking into your eyes before his tongue slithers out and caresses the same wet space.

The smooth muscle is hot against you, extending to inhuman lengths to explore your neck. The slick sounds as it slid across your skin should have grossed you out—all of this should be grossing you out, so you don’t understand why you tilt your head back to give him more room. He licks up and down your throat slowly to savor your taste, breathing heavily and releasing a stale stench from his open maw. You imagined the breath of a previously dead man to smell a hundred times worse, frankly.

With your neck completely drenched in his cooling slobber, he ventures upward, purring louder than ever as he tastes the flesh of your jaw. The tapered end of his tongue begins to curiously flick at your earlobe before circling around the shell of your ear. He seems to take a liking to the flabby cartilage and laps at it playfully while giving the occasional nip and suck and god, it’s all heard so fucking clearly, every schlick and smack traveling right through your canal and setting off questionable reactions all over you. Your hands are clenched and held against your chest, but you don’t tell him to stop.

‘What the hell is wrong with me?’

The licking moves to your cheek, lapping at it shortly before moving to your pursed lips.

‘This is fucked up beyond words.’

You flinch when the clammy tongue brushes over your lips, at first smoothing over them lightly, possibly testing to see how you’d react. His face is so close, your noses almost touching. To allow a nomu this close to you, touching you like this…

When you make no move of resistance, he gets braver and laps at your mouth with controlled eagerness. Your eyes close to hide from the otherworldly gaze, but your lips feel even more sensitive to the weight that continues flicking and pressing at them, covering them in hot saliva. Several times does it briefly part your lips and graze your teeth, making you swallow at the thought of…

‘Don’t do that.’

Hawks pauses when you open up for him, but gives a gleeful chirp and snakes his way into your inviting mouth.

‘I’m really letting him do this.’

Clawed hands grab your arms a little too tightly and hold you in place. It hurts, yet all you can focus on is the flexible muscle exploring your mouth. It rubbed against the roof, pushed at the inside of your cheeks, and eventually stroked and curled around your own tongue.

‘You’re sick.’

But you’ve been sick ever since you got here, haven’t you?

When his grip loosens, you take the opportunity to place your hands around his head, digging your fingers into his...hair? Plumage? Was his hair always this feather-like?

A high-pitched sound of surprise leaves him when you try to pull him in closer. He quickly complies, closing the distance until his lips and mouth are covering yours.

It completely smothers your senses. You see his black wings expand to slowly encase both of you. You hear the wet friction of his tongue and the hungry growls that roll from his throat. You smell sweat and blood, briefly wondering just what exactly was he made to do during those ‘tests’. You taste the thick and flavorless saliva that makes you gag at first, but becomes easier to swallow as you take in more. And most of all, you feel him slowly moving in and out of your wide open mouth, the thrusting motion forcing your thighs to rub together in response to the growing heat threatening to consume you.

You snap out of it before that can happen.

Hawks pulls away when he hears your choked sounds of protest, your hands suddenly on his chest and pushing. Fresh oxygen rushes back into your lungs when his tongue leaves your mouth and retreats back into his. The warmth between your legs doesn’t fade away. Everything that just happened, everything you just allowed this monster to do fully sinks in.

And you fucking enjoyed it.

You back away from him as quickly as you can, ignoring his confused groans. A wave of nausea sweeps over you like a powerful gust that churns your stomach.

“Rest. I need to go.” It was all you said before you picked up the forgotten jar and fled the room, refusing to falter from the sorrowful whines behind you.

The urge to spew the little food you’ve been fed throughout the day all over the hallway floor is strong, but you manage to hold out until you reach the toilet in your room, quickly kneeling and hurling. It wasn’t much, but it still left you teary-eyed and with a burning throat.

What did you do? Just what the hell did you do that warranted getting kidnapped, having your nice comfortable life stolen from you, and the only way to cope was by making out with a horrid creature? You jolt from a painful mix of a sob and a hiccup. It’s been weeks since your last breakdown, but this new discovery was another hard blow to your sanity and pride. You let the tears flow as you flushed away your mess, moving over to your bed and collapsing onto the thin mattress. Fuck this facility. Fuck the scum that created all of this.

And fuck the throbbing wetness between your legs that still won’t go away.

Your sobs transform into humorless laughs. You’re going to have to get rid of the throbbing yourself, aren’t you? They won’t arrive to collect all of your samples for about another thirty minutes, so that should be enough time...

You pulled down the thin blue pants and rubbed your fingers over the slick that had gathered from what had transpired in Hawks’s room. It’s true, you’ve been doing nothing but sick shit since you’ve been tossed into this new life. Why do you even still hold on to feelings like shame and disgust? What good will they do you here?

So you try to drown out the voice of your conscience as you laid back, succumbing to the wonderfully twisted thoughts of a nomu’s tongue.

x---x---x---x---x

Subject: Raptor

Examination

Quirk #3: Regeneration

Quirk#4: Heat Resistance

Notes: Our most advanced specimens deserve the best healing quirks we have to offer. Raptor is no exception. It will also make up for his lack of weight and hard muscle, not that he should ever be mistaken as frail. Most importantly, this should accelerate the regrowth of his feathers and supply him with an endless arsenal. We do not want to risk his regeneration being hindered by burns. After all, it was fire that led to the host’s death. This is why we have added a quirk that should make it almost completely fireproof.

The only people that Raptor disliked more than the Coats, were the Masks. The Coats saw him as nothing more than an attack dog that is expected to obey every command. But the humans in masks...to them, he was just a fleshy object to be dissected and analyzed.

They were poking and cutting to their heart’s content. His mind screamed to get away from the assortment of blades and needles that hovered over him, sinking into his skin in various places while he could only writhe against the cuffs of the metal table he was strapped to. He doesn’t believe it’s their intention to test every ounce of his willpower, but that sure as hell is what they’re doing right now as he tries, really tries not to use his feathers out of desperation.

“Excellent. The cuts begin healing the moment they’re made,” one of them observes. “Try deeper incisions. Maybe I should try removing one of its eyes.”

Raptor’s heartbeat was booming in his ears after hearing those words.

A younger Mask has been flinching from every one of the nomu’s movements. “Shouldn’t we sedate it or something? What if it lashes out?”

“Stop panicking. A nomu won’t hurt anyone without orders, though his responses to pain are stronger than I expected. We may have to fix that.”

Raptor wouldn’t mind that at all. He hisses and howls as he’s taken apart and mended back together in a torturous loop. His brain is throbbing so strongly one would worry that it might burst. He fights to think through all of the agony.

He thinks of your touch. He thinks of your taste. Were you repulsed by what he did that morning?

Sharp pain shot through his wings when his feathers were being forcefully yanked out, his teeth on the verge of shattering from his tightly clenched jaws.

“Perfect! Look at that, they’re already growing back in.”

They were. He could feel the fresh plumes pushing through his skin. The regeneration did well in preventing any real damage, but it didn’t make the violent tearing of his feathers any easier to bear.

The cruel assault on his wings and tail eventually ended, black fluff littering the room’s floor. He remembers when you mentioned other nomu being capable of shutting down whenever they wanted. What he wouldn’t give to just turn off like a light switch right now.

“Alright, it’s time to move on to his heat resistance. Get the torch.”

The what? Raptor searched the fragments of his knowledge; most words were familiar to him, they just took a while to be remembered from...something. He doesn’t understand how he already knows so much, even though his subconsciousness needs time to dust everything off.

One of the Masks was holding a small object that ended in a tube. With a push of a button, a small blue flame appeared.

The glowing yellow eyes that were normally slits were suddenly wider than he thought possible, every part of him hyper focused on the small fire that was getting too close to his sore wings. His mind recovered a new piece of information:

Blue flames are to be feared.

He was thrashing the second the searing pain was felt, fighting to escape, to get away from the blue death that threatened to incinerate his wings again. He has felt this before. He doesn’t want to burn again.

Panic consumed him, unaware of how much his feathers have sharpened as he beats his wings and tail against the table. He can barely hear the Masks’ frantic voices over the ear-splitting screech, a screech that he realizes is coming from his own strained throat.

“–ptor, I SAID STOP!”

“–y arm! Fuck, my arm is bleeding bad–”

“–old you he’d attack! Why is he reacting so–”

“–atives! Into his neck! Hurry!”

Needles are being jammed into his neck, the chemicals working quickly in sapping away his strength, limbs becoming too heavy to move, and his thoughts were too cloudy to even continue panicking. The scorching heat was still present in his wing, but he can still feel the presence of all of his feathers. There was no foul smell of burnt plumage.

“Aaaugh, my arm...” In the corners of his vision, Raptor saw one of the Masks hunched over and clutching a blood-soaked arm. He didn’t mean to hurt any of them.

“Shut up and go patch yourself up.” An older man motioned the rest to come closer to the calmed nomu, which they cautiously obeyed. “Do you all see it? His feathers aren’t damaged at all. Perfect.”

“But why didn’t he stop resisting after you ordered him several times? And why was his reaction to pain so strong?”

The elder grimaced behind his mask and shook his head. “Its pain tolerance is laughable. There’s no use in a nomu having such sensitivity. We’ll need to perform an operation that will dull his nerves.”

They scrambled around the table, gathering new tools and focusing the creaky hanging light on Raptor’s face. He was too doped up to even react to the harsh brightness.

“And if he ignores us like that again, we may need to alter his brain and ensure his compliance in the future.”

The nomu tried to make a sound of protest, but in his dazed state he could give no more than a pathetic whimper. He was rather thankful of the drugs for making him unable to notice just how many needles were sinking into his brain, or the blades that opened up the rest of his head, keeping the tools in place to prevent his skull from instantly healing. It still hurt, a lot. But as they tweaked his pulsing organ, injecting unknown fluids inside, the pain began to dim. Raptor would have celebrated and attempted to wag his tail in relief.

But it wasn’t the only thing that was fading. The coldness of the metal at his back was becoming distant, the chill in the air of the room was suddenly so faint that it no longer made him shiver.

He wanted it all to hurt less, but he still wanted to feel.

He has no idea how much time had passed once they finally finished and allowed his bone and flesh to close up. The old Mask stared down at him, gloves drenched in thick crimson.

“That should do it. Going by your weaker reactions, the operation was a success and you now feel less sensation. Good.”

‘No. Not good.’ It’s what he was tempted to say, but Raptor didn’t want to utter a single word to anyone besides you, and the cruel man’s recent threat of robbing him of his free will ensured that he keeps his mouth shut.

Raptor hates it here.

x---x---x---x---x

There were fresh claw marks covering the walls of Hawks’s room, and this time they were angry. The drawings and games you made together were literally slashed out, with spots of blood spread out all over the floor.

He was curled up in a corner, wings concealing most of his shaking form.

“Raptor.” Firmly addressing him is usually all it takes to gain his full attention, just like any other nomu, High End or not.

Hawks doesn’t respond at all.

That’s new...and very unnerving.

You called him again. The mass of feathers didn’t budge. You swallowed a lump in your throat. He had clearly just thrown a violent tantrum, and you don’t know if he has fully calmed down yet. Approaching him is too risky, but the damn nomu won’t even acknowledge you. So you’ll have to get through him in a more natural way.

“Raptor, is everything alright? Do you, um, need some space? I can come back a little later...maybe another thirty minutes or so.” You offered, your body slightly twisting toward the door, ready to bolt if he decided to attack. You ignored the cold hard fact that the door and your legs would do little in protecting you from him.

His tail slowly uncurls like a timid snake, wings following suit and revealing his shrunken form. He was hugging himself tightly, talons peeling the skin off of his biceps. His head hung low, but you can see the spot of red in each eye looking right at you. He looked like an angry and frightened child, and his pitiful plea didn’t help matters.

“Don’t...go.”

His vulnerable state quelled your fears, but you still took caution. “Can I come closer?”

He looks down at the floor for a moment, seemingly pondering the question, before straightening his posture and nodding.

You follow the routine you’ve been getting used to with him, setting aside the jar and taking some time to talk. “Now tell me what’s wrong.”

It was supposed to compel him to instantly explain the issue, or at least attempt to with his awkward speech. You instead see him flinch and growl lowly, as if he didn’t appreciate you making demands. Just what is going on with him?

Your anxiety was probably visible since he quickly switched back to a less aggressive stance. You wince when he drags a claw through his flesh, blood leaking out for only a second before the wound instantly repairs itself. “Can’t feel.” He weeps with cracks in his unnatural voice. At least he’s dragging out his words less and sounds less like a moaning zombie.

“You can’t feel?” You repeated, edging closer and placing a hand over the healed spot. Another growl, louder this time, scares you into pulling away. But his bigger hand seizes yours and presses it hard onto the black skin. You feel the tremors that begin to wrack his body and try to stay calm in the wake of his growing distress.

His voice becomes only more broken. “Can’t feel it! Can’t feel you!”

You find yourself shushing him, holding your free hand up like you’re trying to calm a panicking animal. You cup the side of his face, but that seems to upset him even more. “You can’t feel my hand?”

He shuts his eyes and shakes his head, squeezing your hand tightly enough to cut off circulation. How freely he can emote still freaks you out a bit, face looking on the verge of shedding tears. Everything about him continues to be so surreal.

“Raptor, you’re a shitty nomu,” you told him with a small smile. “Not that I mind.”

And there goes that cute head tilt. The thought of him being released in a city to wreak havoc, just like the one that attacked Endeavor and...him, feels less possible after every meeting.

He was still powerful and potentially dangerous, if the state of the walls were anything to go by. You really shouldn’t be pushing your luck or his temper. On the other hand, you did decide yesterday that from now on, you are going to embrace the depraved dumbass within you. Hawks stiffens and starts to slowly pull back, but your hand makes its way to the back of his head. “It’s alright, it’s alright,” you soothed him. “I just want to see if you can feel any of this.”

With no more hesitation, you pressed your lips to his, feeling his shock through a surprised grunt. For a minute, you simply cover his rough lips with kisses while he stays completely still, eyes looking on the verge of bulging right out of their sockets. It looked downright silly. Why was he so shocked by a simple kiss anyway, after the way you let him ravage your mouth yesterday?

Your lips pause when you remember the distraught sounds he made that morning as he watched you rush out of the room. That’s right.

“Hey,” you murmur against him. “Sorry for taking off like that last time. Just...don’t worry about it, okay.” He released a hot breath onto your face. Your trapped hand is finally freed from his iron grip, numb and stiff, but you keep your attention on the motionless nomu. “We’re not exactly supposed to be doing this, but I want you t-mmf!”

He suddenly went forward and attacked your lips, aggressively mimicking your movements with enough force to bruise. You try to keep up and calm his pace, sighing into his mouth once his lips finally begin to slow down. He’s clumsy like you expected, but his intelligence shows when he tries to follow your lead and quickly learns the intimate dance of your mouths. The occasional swipe of that blasted tongue across your lip makes you gasp, and then you feel big strong arms wrapping around you and pulling you close, the beats of his excited wings, the throaty growls that rattle your entire being…

You can feel yourself heating up again already.

“Mmm, Raptor...wait,” you manage to say between kisses, your hands pushing against his chest. He gives a grating sound of annoyance, but pulls away like you wished. You were suddenly hyper aware of his size and strength – this monster that was holding you closely and taking care not to harm you. If any other nomu had you like this, they undoubtedly wouldn’t have stopped.

“So, did you feel any of that?” Your hand travels down to his groin and rubs at the bulge that still had a lot of growing to do. “Do you feel that?”

To your dismay, he shakes his head. “No,” he groans as his wings droop closer to the floor.

It has you stumped. How are you supposed to please him when his whole body is numb?

“But…” He licks his lips slowly. “Can still taste. Tastes so good.”

When you let him lap at your lips again, he twitches beneath the ragged cloth.

You put two and two together, and the realization makes you gulp. And ache.

Remember, shame is useless here.

He allows you to back away and create some distance. The sight before you is frightening on its own: The sharp stare of the raven-winged fiend while surrounded by the deep marks of its outburst would do well in intimidating any sane individual. Remembering what exactly he is makes you pause only for a second, your hands grabbing the bottom of your thin blue shirt and lifting it before your pesky conscience can even get a word in.

Hawks’s wings flare out slightly when your breasts are revealed to him, talons clicking against the floor as he shuffles about, at a loss of how to react. Relieved that you haven’t been pounced on immediately, you lean down to remove your pants next, ignoring the trembling in your hands as you pull the garment down and step out of them. They never supplied you with underwear, so with your two articles of clothing removed, you were completely nude in front of the dangerous nomu.

At first you both just stared at each other, until he finally came forward to scan your body more closely, mindful of how nervous you were. The tension made you almost choke and cough on your words.

“I-if you want to…taste more of me, go ahead.” You didn’t mean to squeak out those last two words. You blame it on the chilly air.

The hands that take hold of your hips feel extra hot, along with the breath that grazes your chest. The blue tongue slides past his lips and extends to press against the spot right over your pounding heart, then moving smoothly up the column of your neck and your cheek in one long swipe, the wet trail making you shudder. The mouth ventures close to your ear to utter the word that you remember repeating to him on the first day you got him off.

“Calm.”

It’s followed by a rolling purr that eases you into doing just that. The humming continues while he eyes your breasts, nipples already pert from being exposed to the air. Even in your more relaxed state, the sudden lick across your tit makes your breath hitch. He seems to enjoy your response and repeats the action, giving it several more laps before wrapping around the entirety of the soft globe like a tentacle, squeezing gently.

“Ah, Raptor,” you moan when the tip of the tongue flicks at your nipple, sending the tiniest of jolts through you. “Damn, where did you learn to do that?”

He answers with nothing more than a groan as he continues to show off his tongue’s flexibility. It coils and swirls around the skin until every inch of it is covered in his saliva, making you even more sensitive to the cold air. Satisfied with his work, he moves on to repeat the motions with your other breast.

The pleasure was soothing, like a massage…if the masseuse had sticky boneless limbs. You close your eyes and wrap your arms around him, letting yourself enjoy the vile act of a monster sampling your taste.

His mouth suddenly engulfs you, the damp heat adding to the ongoing feeling of his tongue dancing around your tit. The purrs abruptly become a powerful vibration that electrifies your skin and brings forth your moisture to drip and run down your thighs.

But Hawks suddenly pulls away and stares at you intensely, the glower snapping you out of your daze.

“What is it?” You were getting nervous again. Did one of your reactions irritate him?

He breathes in, again and again, sniffing at the air for something. The swaying tail hints that whatever he smells is exciting him. His head lowers in pursuit of the scent and stops at your womanly mound to take a long whiff at the spicy aroma emanating from your cunt.

With his breath now blowing right against your sex and increasing your arousal, your juices trickled freely onto the floor and for him to see. The clawed hands on your hips held you steady, preventing you from collapsing from the nerve-racking anticipation that had you shaking all over. At no point in your life have you ever felt this exposed, being ogled by a pair of eyes in which the irises were bigger than you’ve ever seen them, mesmerized by the source of the delicious smell.

The tongue slips between your thighs before you could even prepare yourself, stretching across the entirety of your lips, over your entrance, nearly reaching your ass before it pulls back toward his mouth, the rubbing of the silky muscle creating buzzes of pleasure. Looking down gives you the unpleasant view of his brain, but you also get to see him swallow and savor your taste, humming deeply in approval before salivating with the need to drink up more.

“Good.”

He doesn’t wait for your response – his face is already being shoved into you, and you’re suddenly bombarded with delightful hot sensations all over your pussy. The ravenous organ travels up and down your folds, collecting every drop of your sweet nectar while you could do nothing but spread your legs to give him more leeway – God you’re such a whore – and cover your mouth in the hope that no passerbys hear your moans in the room.

When your legs officially become jelly and can no longer support you, Hawks tires of holding you up and allows you to fall back a little too hard onto the floor, the impact making you wince. Any other time, he probably would have at least made a sound of apology, but your sopping wet pussy has stolen his attention. He wastes no time in lifting your hips up toward his waiting mouth, now utilizing his lips along with his tongue to loudly slurp up your essence.

His vicious hunger has you seeing stars. Wings open up and expand around both of you like black curtains that darken your vision, like a bird of prey mantling over a hard-earned meal. The only thing you can clearly see between your legs are the eerie glows of red and yellow; the glare of a demon that seeks to devour you from the inside. He starts to suck your folds dry, growling as he inspects every inch of the ravaged honeypot until his lips brush against your neglected clit.

A muffled “fuck!” passes between your fingers, both of your hands tightly clamped over your mouth. The reaction surprises him, and to his delight, it triggers more of your nectar to flow. The most efficient gag wouldn’t have been enough to suppress your scream when he sucked hard on your sensitive bud.

You couldn’t help it. Fighting past the paralyzing pleasure, your hands blindly grab at his head and accidentally bury your fingers into a soft squishy brain. The discomfort makes him shake his head and groan in irritation, raising his head and narrowing those menacing eyes at you as a silent warning.

“Hah...shit...I’m sor–AH! Fuck-oh my god....” He’s already attacking your clit again before you can finish your apology. All he cares about at the moment is your taste, and not even you were going to interrupt him. The surrounding wings occasionally twitch and shudder around you, vibrating along with your approaching climax. But the second you feel dangerously close, his lips leave the perky little pebble and move back down to lap at your fresh flow. It tears you away from an orgasmic finale and brings you back to that sensual middle ground. The audible licks were amazing, but you need to reach that edge. Your hand drifted down to your pussy, right over his tongue where you can give your clit the stimulation needed to cum…

“Hwrrrrrrr…”

You felt the terrifying snarl more than you heard it, shaking you to your very core. The other core, not the one on the verge of bursting. You immediately pull away and freeze, shivering and breathing quickly at the sight of his bared fangs. For a brief moment, the tent of feathers showed off a faint sheen, like they all suddenly sharpened. A quivering, fear-fueled gasp left you.

It felt like the staredown went on forever, but Hawks was eventually convinced that you weren’t going to distract him from his feast again and returned his gaze to the fragrant pussy before him. However, after a few more licks, he grunted in frustration. You weren’t secreting your precious juices fast enough; your body simply couldn’t keep up with his newfound greed.

The insatiable tongue keeps poking and prodding at your opening until it pushes in just enough to slightly stretch your walls. You struggle to stay relaxed and keep your hands to yourself. Hawks was currently as unpredictable as any other nomu, and you didn’t want to piss him off.

When the hot thick muscle is suddenly shoved into you, you don't even have time to cover your mouth and block the next scream that is ripped from your throat. There’s no time to adjust to the completely foreign sensation. It squirms inside of you like a living creature, massaging your pussy in ways you didn’t even know were possible, sometimes hitting that special soft spot.

Your molten center spreads its flames across every nerve. This is far beyond what you fantasized on the night you touched yourself. His tongue was able to fill you completely, all while moving around more freely than a cock or even fingers ever could. Too soon does it leave your pulsing walls and back into his mouth, where he swallows every drop he’s gathered before shooting his tongue back out and penetrating you again before you can even complain.

He was moving with more force, enough to create a visible swell in your stomach that moved along with his tongue. You can’t look away from it, even as he begins to push in and out at a steady rhythm, the pleasure building up to new heights while the bulge in your belly moves up and down. You’re tempted to ask him to move his wings to allow more light for a better view, but interrupting him now is probably a stupid idea.

He pants loudly from his open mouth as he fucks you thoroughly with nothing more than a long powerful tongue, his thrusts moving faster and deeper in search of more of your savory wetness.

Meanwhile, you were dizzy. It was uncomfortable at first. It’s been so long since you’ve been fully stretched, but it all quickly melds into pleasure you have long since forgotten – no – you hadn’t even known. Your interest in sex has greatly diminished during your stay here. Hell, you were certain that your libido was officially dead. But Hawks….

This abomination was going to be the death of you.

Your g-spot is suddenly struck again, and again. Most of your words were incoherent, and the ones that could be made out were nothing more than endless encouragement. “Gah-hnngh, fuck, Hawks, you want more, don’t you? Ah, I’m about to give you more. Keep going Hawks don’t fucking stop.”

Talons are biting into your skin from his tightened grip. With a low bellow of excitement, his mouth moves to cover your entire sex, prepared for the incoming downpour, and thrusts his tongue into your most sensitive spot repeatedly without mercy.

The pressure within explodes violently, completely overshadowing that laughable orgasm you gave yourself yesterday. Each contraction adds more white that flashes in your eyes, moving in from the corners of your vision until it becomes as blinding and unbearable as the bliss that washes over you. There are noisy gulps between your legs, the parched monster happily taking every rush of fluid directly into his mouth and down his throat until he finally has his fill.

Even through your spasms your walls try desperately to clamp around his tongue as it leaves, but to no avail. The looming wings finally move away and return to their usual resting spot behind his back while he sets your lower body down and licks his lips for any remaining traces of your slick. The talons never broke your skin, but they did leave some glaring marks on your hips and ass.

You still tingled all over from the waist down while your muscles make the greatest effort to respond to any of your commands. No use. You decide to lay there covered in the monster’s spit. The work of that amazing specimen of a tongue almost made you forget that this was being done to arouse him. You should probably check to see if he was hard. He may not be able to feel your hand anymore, but he still might be excited enough to cum from the act. Stupid science bastards, making your job more complicated.

“Hawks.”

The single word uttered from the nomu clears your mind instantly. Your weakened arms push you upright to properly face him. He was still crouching, scaly toes supporting the weight of his body like a gargoyle without a perch.

“You say Hawks. What...is Hawks?”

What? When did you…?

Oh. Shit. Your mouth was moving on its own while he was eating you out.

Your mind was zipping in several directions at once, hoping that he wouldn’t find anything odd about your eyes darting about, looking everywhere except at him. You settled on a simple and dismissive answer. “Oh...don’t worry about it. I was just babbling while you had me on cloud nine,” you said with a crooked smile.

Black lips twisted into a frown, accompanied by a quick beat of his wings and then...eww. His brain is pulsing way too much, so much that he shakes his head in agitation, which only adds to the disturbing visual as the organ jiggles slightly in his head. “Hawks...don’t know...I know…” His words jumbled over his inner turmoil. The long tail lifted and began to swing quickly.

You sat there, nude and bewildered. Every High-End still carried traces of who they once were, expressing some of the same behaviors and habits they presumably had before death.

This is the first time you’ve seen one with any sort of recollection of their past life, even if it’s something as minor as feeling a connection to their name. You have a feeling that’s not supposed to happen.

You shouldn’t tell him anything; nothing good will come out of it. He needs to shut up and start being a bloodthirsty killer before the doctors decide that he’s more trouble than he’s worth.

“Raptor,” your shaky legs move slowly, shifting until you’re resting on your knees, face to face with the nomu that still looks interested in your naked body even as his head throbs. “It’s not important. Stop thinking about it.”

The look he gives you is one of hurt and dammit, this is exactly his problem. “But...Hawks. Want to know what-”

“I said stop thinking!” Your volume shocks both of you, but Hawks actually recoils from the unexpected shout. You don’t care, all it does is confuse you more, anger you more. “Why the hell aren’t you listening to me anymore? That’s what you’re supposed to do! Do whatever we tell you! What, did you break?” A full-body chill reminds you of the state you’re in. You were seriously having an outburst while still completely naked with Hawks’s saliva glistening over your thighs. You groan and turn away from the troubled hybrid to grab your clothes and dress yourself, not giving a damn if you pissed him off and he decides to kill you right there. He’d be doing both of you a favor, really.

But it shouldn’t be a surprise when you see that he hasn’t budged from his spot, making no move to retaliate. “I like you, Raptor,” you admitted. “Somehow, you managed to be the only welcomed company in this fucked up hospital slash prison, but you shouldn’t be. What we just did...that shouldn’t have happened. Fuck, I – I should’ve been terrified, and I kinda was, but, I shouldn’t have felt that good!” Your doubts, your conscience, they both return with a vengeance. But this time it’s not you they’re worried about.

“If this is how you act around everyone else, you’re not going to last here.” You hold his face in your hands, a tender gesture that shouldn’t be possible with the likes of him. “These assholes are gonna get rid of you if you don’t do what they want, and they’re going to ask for horrible things. I know you don’t like killing, but if you keep up all of...this, you’re going to lose more than your sense of touch.”

He doesn’t make a sound, only staring at you before gritting his teeth and nodding in your gentle grasp. His compliance both relieves and hurts you.

“I’m sorry, but no more questions. Please? The less you know, the better.”

“No more…questions.” Dammit, you hate how clear the sorrow is in his eerie voice, like the mournful moans of a lost soul. “No more.”

You give him a smile of thanks, it’s the least you could give him. You try to bring the atmosphere back to its usual awkward yet friendly vibe. “Now, let me see if your, um, tasting did you any good.” You move to pull down his shorts. That is, until you notice the large damp spots and stains on the cheap material. Oh, he did not.

“Welp, it obviously worked. Now how am I gonna scrape this shit off?”

x---x---x---x---x

Hawks.

Flames.

Decay.

Death. Everywhere.

But, somehow, he knew it wasn’t his doing.

Maybe he did kill a few...he wasn’t sure. It’s all so blurry and nauseating.

Was he killing people? Was he…trying to save them? A monster like him, saving people?

“No more questions.”

Your voice echoes, bouncing across the shattered fragments of his mind. Raptor tries to obey. He doesn’t know what this Hawks is, or why it keeps plaguing him.

Whatever Hawks was, it’s gone. Raptor wants it to leave him alone.

x---x---x---x---x

Subject: Raptor

Field Test

Quirk #5: Camouflage

Notes: As you know by now, Raptor differs from other nomu in that he is designed for agility and stealth. An invisibility quirk will not only make Raptor into the perfect phantom, it can also assist in infiltration and spying. While the quirk may be called ‘camouflage’ mainly due to how it changes skin pigmentation, it does much more than match the colors of the environment. It hides the user’s entire form as perfectly as any true invisibility quirk. Raptor should be more than capable of destroying targets without ever being noticed.

You were right. It was strange how he doesn’t discover these ‘quirks’ on his own. It was an understatement to say that he was a little lost when a Coat ordered him to activate his Camouflage. Raptor was prepared to feel those words bind his limbs and move him against his will. Whenever his brain was under the Coats’ control, he was capable of doing whatever they asked, even when he himself didn’t understand what they were asking for.

So it was worrying when he felt nothing. He heard the order loud and clear, yet it didn’t wrap around his brain like it always does.

So it wasn’t just you. His mind no longer submitted to anyone’s commands. He would have chirped in celebration if he didn’t have an audience that was still waiting for him to follow through, giving looks and comments of impatience while he stood there.

He can’t let them notice that he was unaffected. The words of the Mask that stole his touch repeated in his head along with the memories of cutting and burning, every nerve seething from raw pain until all feeling began to fade.

“If he ignores us like that again, we may need to alter his brain and ensure his compliance in the future.”

Alter...change...he doesn’t want them to change him. So Raptor tried to pretend, another thing that felt natural to him.

The process of finding his new quirk was difficult to describe; it was more like willing himself to blend in until the rest of his body got the message. All of his muscles tightened, and he almost panicked when black skin began to disappear before his eyes. His wings, his tail, every part of him looked as if it was dissolving, but he can still move and feel the weight of each limb. Once his body relaxed, he was fully invisible. The Coats kept him pinned with their stares, however.

“Completely hidden. Very good,” one of them said, writing something down. They’re always watching, always taking notes on him, always judging. This all felt familiar as well. “Now, walk from that corner to there, and keep a hold on your quirk.”

There was no pull, no sudden fuzziness or loss of control. Nothing. It’s a strange feeling, following orders because he actually chooses to. It will take some getting used to, but it shouldn’t be too difficult.

Has a monster like him ever acted before? It sure feels like it.

He performed several different tasks: running, climbing, flying, and shooting feathers. All while unseen by the naked eye. The feat even earned him a round of applause from the Coats.

“I can picture it already. He could slice apart an entire group of targets, and they wouldn’t even understand their deaths. A flurry of invisible blades!” One of them exclaimed with a smile that was way too wide given the subject matter.

“Don’t worry, we’re going to get a taste of what this is capable of right now.”

Right on cue, the doors opened. Every feather on his wings and tail bristled instantly, ready to shred whatever possible threat that may enter. They wouldn’t be able to see him. It would be so easy, just like the Coats said.

But instead of another nomu that was simpler and more violent than him, a woman was shoved into the room hard enough to make her stumble forward and fall, the door slamming shut behind her. She was dressed like you, wearing only a thin blue shirt and pants. What did they bring someone like her in here for?

She was already back on her feet, scanning the area with wide eyes and shrunken pupils before moving her gaze to the humans that continued to observe from the other side. The fear in the air was so thick that Raptor could nearly taste it as she shook uncontrollably – he wondered if her knees would collapse from the trembling alone.

He was still camouflaged; she couldn’t see him at all. The urge to reveal himself is strong, but one: the Coats had yet to order him to deactivate his quirk, and two: knowing that she was in a room with a nomu will most definitely only terrify her more, so he stayed where he was, motionless and quiet.

For a suffocating minute, the only sound was her rapid breathing until one of the Coats finally spoke up.

“Kill her, Raptor.”

“What?” The woman’s voice was constricted by anxiety. She looked timidly at the man, who only stared back expectantly, waiting for something. “W-what?” She choked out again. She switched her attention to the door, still distressed and shaking. When no horrid beast entered the room like she expected, her panic increased even more, stuttering so badly that it was a challenge to discern what she was trying to say. “I-I-I w-I won’t...I’m s-so...p-p-please.”

Her head whipped upwards to a vent in the ceiling. Nothing happened. The confused woman was now spinning around looking for something, hysterical with the knowledge that her impending doom was coming, but not knowing where or when. The weight of her dread was making him anxious.

The same Coat, however, only sighed in annoyance at the sight of the trapped panicking animal. “Don’t dawdle, Nomu.” The final word dripped with venom. It reminded him of his place: a puppet that should have no will of its own. Raptor didn’t want to kill, but if he defies them, then they will dig into his brain again, and the woman will probably be violently killed by a more enthusiastic nomu. He’s afraid of what they might take from him next. He can’t let that happen.

The shrinking woman is still whipping her head around in every direction as her bare feet take a step backwards, then another, completely unaware of the larger creature that stood right behind her. He can’t guarantee a painless death, but he can make it as quick as possible for her.

Raptor added an edge to some of his feathers, but reconsidered. That would require pinpoint accuracy, not worth the risk with a target that was moving so erratically.

His tongue curiously ran over the points of his teeth, checking their sharpness. No, that would leave too much of a mess.

His hands clenched into fists, and that’s when he practically heard the ding in his head. A simple method, but it should work just fine.

He was originally going to wait until she backed all the way into him, but that would be rather cruel. Killing her before she even recognizes the danger is a greater mercy. His hand struck with the swiftness of a snake, grabbing the back of her neck. The delicate spine could be felt beneath.

Raptor was not as strong as other nomu. That didn’t mean he couldn’t crush a human’s bones with little effort.

He felt her jolt, but that’s all she had time to do before the sickening snap and crunch sounded throughout the room, then she went limp with nothing more than a few final twitches.

Some of the Coats audibly gasped, while others clapped excitedly at the kill they couldn’t even see coming. From their perspective, an unsuspecting woman’s neck was suddenly crushed by an invisible force like an aluminum can.

One of them didn’t look very impressed. “Eh, a bit anticlimactic, don’t you think?”

“We’re not watching a bloodsport,” another one snapped. “Raptor is designed to handle matters quickly. A cervical fracture is fast and effective.”

“She was so terrible at her job. I think she deserved a terrible death in return,” another said.

Their babbling continued while Raptor placed the body on the floor more gently than his audience would have liked. Her eyes were still wide open, frozen in that moment of realization just a millisecond before death. Still, things could have been much worse for her.

“I still think we should have used his harvester instead. She’s becoming a nuisance.”

Raptor has grown to really dislike that voice, the voice of the man that takes him away every morning. He always stares at him like an expensive possession that turned out to be a waste of money. It’s an effort to keep his lips from curling over his teeth whenever the bastard’s around.

An older lady spoke. “Her relationship with the nomu is unique and warrants its own set of experiments after we cover the basics here. We already told you that.”

“Yes yes, I know. But her sample this morning was pathetic. It’s like she’s forgotten her job, too busy turning our greatest achievement into a softie. Call me petty, but I’d get a good laugh out of watching her be devoured by the nomu that she’s decided to become friends with.”

Anger.

“You are petty, and short-sighted. Do you understand just how extraordinary this relationship is?”

Another Coat butted in. “Sure, but what use is sentiment to a nomu? This was supposed to be a cold lethal predator, not a child that likes to draw on walls. I agree that the bond with its harvester is holding it back. It would be better off without her.”

Raptor hates it. He doesn’t want any of them talking about you. To think that they’d consider something as twisted as offering you to him as a helpless prisoner to execute, just like the one whose spine he had just snapped.

How dare they.

The lady was suddenly staring right at him with a look of shock before her aged lips curled into a smirk. Actually, everyone was staring at him now, and they all showed varying levels of discomfort. That’s when he noticed that he can see his hands in front of him again, along with his feet, wings, and the rest of his body. His fury made him lose his hold on the Camouflage quirk. They had all just seen his face of hatred.

And yet the lady continued to smile. “I don’t believe he agrees with you two.”

She then whispered something, lips forming what looked like the word ‘magnificent’ while her eyes bore into him. Even his rage was nothing more than a fascinating process to be examined.

Raptor wants to get out of here.

x---x---x---x---x

You’re alright. You made it out. You were bruised, but you made it out.

That High-End nearly broke your fucking arm when it came. It was always a pretty rough one when you jerked it off but for god’s sake, why did it always have to squeeze you like a stress ball? Thankfully, your painful shriek of “STOP!” was enough to penetrate the horny shield over its brain and it released you.

It wasn’t your first injury, but it’s been a while since you’ve gotten such a scare. It could’ve been worse – it could always be much worse.

The fact that you feel elated when you reach Hawks’s room shows how close the two of you have gotten in less than a week. Two prisoners who agree that this place can go fuck itself; one was pumping cocks on the daily, the other failed miserably at being a ruthless monster. They ought to make a movie out of this.

You enter the room to see him resting in the center while several feathers carve into different areas of the walls and ceiling. His understanding of shapes was becoming more complex at a rapid rate, if the current drawings were anything to go by. They looked to be unintentionally abstract faces, varying greatly in size and structure, but one thing they all had in common was oversized eyes. Every face was furiously scratched in, the sound of chiseling surrounding you and adding to the ominous aura given off by the etchings that lacked skill but teemed with raw emotion.

The scattered claw marks from yesterday are still as visible as ever. Everyday, this place looks more disturbing even with the not-so-hostile creature that occupies it.

Something prompts his feathers to stop abruptly and return to him, followed by him quickly standing up and hissing. The badly-timed hostility makes you jump back. “Raptor? What is it?” You tried to stay calm as usual.

He drew closer, eyes narrowed and teeth bared at the purplish welts on the arm that held your gazillionth jar. Oh, of course. You waved with you uninjured one. “It’s alright. One of the High Ends was being a little heavy-handed. It stings, but it’ll get better.”

Hot air hits you when he releases a snort. While he studies the bruise, you continue to examine the newest artful additions. “So...what do all of these mean?” You ask.

He follows your traveling gaze and mutters. “Watching. They’re always watching.”

He said it so smoothly that it gave you chills. “You’re tripping up less on your words. That’s, uh, good.” When a grunt is his only response, you keep talking. “Are these the doctors?” He nodded. “Did you...have to kill again?”

A beat. Then he nods again, more slowly this time. “It was easier.”

You’re not sure what to say to that, deciding to instead rest a hand on his arm. For some reason, what he said didn’t scare you. It was you who asked him to act more like a nomu, anyway.

You both stayed like that for a few minutes, standing side-by-side in the middle of the room’s crude composition that illustrated his short life. Innocence, rage, and now a feeling of powerlessness. You can relate; your progress here was very similar except that the ‘innocence’ part can be replaced with ‘grief’, having lost contact with everything you were familiar with.

“You know, maybe I can add my own additions to this sometime, if you don’t mind. Make this place our own little mural.” You giggle when his tail swings at the proposal. “There’s no way they haven’t noticed how odd of a duo we are by now. I wonder how those assholes feel about all of this.”

You’re grabbed and pulled into him so quickly that the jar slips out of your grip, rolling away as you’re pushed into a hard black chest. The tight embrace squeezes your swollen arm painfully. “Shit, that hurts!”

He whines apologetically and loosens his hold. Pain and lack of oxygen aside, it’s oddly comforting. You haven’t been hugged in ages, and here you were being held by this. A song of soft coos calm you, but there is a noticeable sad tone to them. You look up at him, chin resting on his pecs. “Raptor, I know it sucks here, and I don’t really know what to say to make things better, but I’ll keep trying to hang out with you for as long as I can, alright?” You reassure him while rubbing his chest. “Remember, you’re kind of the best thing that ever happened to this place. Not that my standards in this shithole are very high – they’re actually lower than a regular nomu’s sex drive – but it’s still an achievement you should be proud of.”

Your words did their job, if his lighter hums are anything to go by. His comforting heat was gone too soon when he gently pushed you back, following up with a press of lips against yours.

There’s no more clumsiness in his movements. He switched from light brushes that had you craving more to deep smooches that took your breath away. There wasn’t much else you could do except follow his lead. The teasing licks against your lips never fail to get you going, and he probably knows that by now. Unfortunately, you had to break apart for a breather, allowing him to cradle you as he waited.

“Who the hell have you been kissing while I’m not around to learn so fast?” You joked.

You didn’t expect him to look away and hesitate to answer before uttering, “I...remembered.”

If he was expecting that to upset you, it didn’t. You can’t stop his brain from working, and he no longer automatically gives in to any demands. You still don’t know what’s up with that. “Right,” you sighed. “Are you remembering anything else?”

“No...same things. Hawks...fire...death...I want to forget.” He pulls you in again, this time taking care not to add too much pressure to your bruises. His strangled attempts at speech have become smoother over the days, but hearing the winged hero beneath the layers of grotesque sounds that create his voice is going to take a long time to get used to. “Can...you...make me forget?”

A twinge of sadness and pity. Are his final moments the only parts that keep playing in his head, in a cruel loop? You direct all of your strength into your voice and speak. “Forget about it. Forget about Hawks and all of those foggy memories.”

He sits there and blinks with no clear sign that your words had any effect.

Then he wilts and groans in defeat.

“No good, huh?” You shrug. You truly did wish you could help him. “There’s not much else I can do, sorry.” A pause. “Must feel like nightmares, I guess. I get plenty of those.” You rest in his hold while recalling some of the fears that manifest in your sleep. “Dreams about what they’ll do when they don’t need me anymore. I never had the guts to put myself out of my misery – don’t have many options to work with anyway. Maybe I can ask a nomu to chomp my head off.”

“No.” The word was growled out, felt all around you like a small quake. You quickly try to calm him by raising your uninjured arm to hold and caress his face. You know that he couldn’t exactly feel it anymore, but the memory of your touch is probably what still managed to soothe him. It was an intimate image, touching him so lovingly while in his arms.

“Don’t worry, I’ll stick around. We can make things easier for each other.” Without a second thought, you straighten up and begin pushing down your pants, Hawks already chirping in excitement and fumbling with your shirt, his talons ripping the cloth. You were naked in front of him once again, and the memories of yesterday already have your pussy lubricating itself in preparation. Samples...semen….you weren’t thinking about any of that. You just wanted him again.

“Let’s help each other forget.”

And just like that, you were devoured. His mouth was everywhere and you happily took it all. You were addicted to his touch as much as he was addicted to your flavor. The dark blue tongue moved gracefully across your face, the small grin and lidded eyes telling you that he quite enjoyed the sight of you covered in his saliva. You opened your mouth wide as an invitation that he gladly took, the strong muscle charging straight into your mouth and hitting the back of your throat. It makes you gag and has tears pricking at your eyes, yet you continue to throb between your legs.

He fucks your mouth so fast and roughly that you’re forced to only breathe through your nose. You’re clinging onto him as you gurgle around the ravaging muscle, your nails unable to pierce his tough hide no matter how hard you grip.

Something solid rubs right against your sex, grazing your clit and leaving you moaning into his mouth. His hips were bucking into the air with a very prominent tent that constricted his growing cock.

It’s the first time a nomu’s dick actually touches you there.

And it makes your walls clench.

You get closer for more friction, trying to grind against the massive erection while he finally removes his tongue from your mouth. That’s when he notices just how hard you’re trying to get off on his bulge.

Heat is rushing to your face at his puzzled expression. “You-” You gasp, still catching your breath after having him squirm down your throat for so long. “You feel pretty good.”

He simply watches you continue to rub against him – you don’t even notice that his hips are no longer moving, you just press closer to him and grind harder in desperation. His wings flutter and the rest of his body shakes lightly, his breaths coming out in short huffs.

He was laughing.

The look of amusement is so unexpected that it has your hips stopping out of embarrassment. And here you thought nothing else could leave you flustered at this point. “You don’t have to laugh. Trust me, you’ve looked way more desperate than I have,” You tease him.

He clicks his tongue, then with a yank and a loud rip, his shorts are in tatters and his cock springs free right onto your belly. Another short round of huffs are heard from him when you squeak in surprise. Just where did this attitude even come from?

Beads of precum ooze from his pointed head and drip onto your stomach. Maybe it’s your lust-tinted lenses, but his cock is looking much more attractive than usual. Its curved perfectly to hit all of the right spots, and those ridges probably feel amazing when moving inside you.

“Want more?”

The low-pitched voice right in your ear has you shaking, like it was a question from the Devil himself. Thirst aside, you don’t know what you should say. You trust that he won’t fuck you to shreds like the other High Ends would, but the biggest issue…

“I don’t know if I should risk that,” you murmur, a hand reaching to rub the textured flesh. “As tempting as it is right now.”

His confidence is replaced with disappointment. That is, until he immediately perks back up and grabs your hips.

“Wait what are yoooo-whoa!” You’re being lifted off the floor, legs dangling uselessly as he holds you easily, your body hovering right over his twitching dick.

Panic begins to set in. “No! Nononono I said-”

“I won’t.” He says softly. As softly as he can with such a voice, at least. “Calm.”

Instead of penetrating like you feared, he lowers you until your flushed lips are resting on the length of his scaly shaft.

And then, slowly, his hips push forward.

The bumps and creases slide against you in all of the right ways. “Oooh fuck.” You adjust yourself to ensure that he rubs your clit as well. The sensation has you shuddering in his hands as the pressure inside you builds quickly. Your slick makes his dick smoother after each thrust, and when Hawks sees that you’re comfortable and lost in the rhythm, he begins to speed up.

Your legs are swinging madly at a complete loss on how to handle the electrifying friction, but the nomu grunts and takes hold of your thighs. They close around his cock, greatly increasing the pressure as he continued to fuck past your thighs. “Stay there.” The vibration from his deep raspy voice only arouses you more. His hips collide with yours after each buck.

As amazing as it feels, your hazy mind recalls that Hawks shouldn’t be able to properly revel in this outercourse. “I-I thought...you couldn’t feel this.” You say shakily.

Hawks is eyeing your bouncing form with great interest, his hips not missing a beat as he answered. “Can’t. Just watching.”

He presses down on you more, slowing down his pace with his eyes still locked on your face. His tongue quickly swipes across your forehead to taste the sweat that has mixed with his saliva. “You look good.”

Goddamn him.

You felt close, so close, but even as your limbs tingle from the pleasure, your orgasm remained out of reach. The most severe ache that had yet to be sated, to be given any attention, was inside you. You have never throbbed this much in your life, you didn’t even know that your muscles down there could even contract this tightly. The dragging of his cock against your drenched lips isn't enough. You don’t care about risk anymore. Not after feeling what he has to offer.

There’s no voice telling you how stupid you’re being right now. It already gave up on you.

Good.

“Haw–shit–Raptor, inside. I need you inside.” You beg between your moans. He stills completely, which has you whining and squirming even more.

“Inside?”

Hearing him say it sobers you up a bit, but not enough to kill your desire. “Just pull out before you cum, alright? Think you can do that?” You ask.

He nods eagerly, wings and tail moving with glee as he lifts you off of his dick that was already lubed up by your natural fluids. He angles himself until the head is pressing at your twitching entrance.

You can’t tell if you’re trembling from excitement or fear. Probably both.

The fine tip already has you being stretched wide, burning and stinging in spite of your pussy’s preparation. It makes you wince and want to close your eyes – to create some distance between you and the pain – but your curiosity has you looking down to watch him enter you, inch by inch. You can once again see your stomach distend as it attempts to accommodate the large intrusion, much bigger than the slithery tongue that previously invaded it.

But it’s exactly what you craved, the unique texture feeling even more delicious when inside of you. Your toes curl and legs quiver from his girth; not as meaty as the other dicks that you’ve treated, just enough extra thickness to give you a stretch that you’ve never experienced, without causing serious harm.

He reaches the end of your cavern with a few more inches to spare, and the drawn out moan slipping past his lips surprises both of you. You try to relax around him while he fights the urge to move. Black shaky wings expand behind him.

“Feel…” He gasped and choked, one would think that he was trying to learn speech all over again. “Can feel...squeezing. So gooood.” The last word came out as a strong rasp against your face.

The new discovery has you smiling, one of your hands rubbing at a much larger one around your waist. “You can feel it? You feel how tight I am, Raptor? How badly I want you to stay inside me and never leave?” He may not be able to feel your heat or your dampness, but it looks like he can’t escape the pressure from a cunt’s death grip.

He twitches inside, making you jolt. Oh, how quickly the tables have turned.

You scratch under his chin. Numb as he is, he still tilts his head like a pet dying for affection. “Then I want you to fuck me. Stop thinking, and just move...” You bring your face close to his, pulling off a seductive look and tone even when impaled on him. “...Just like a good nomu.”

Perhaps Hawks had a submissive kink when he was alive. It would explain why that riled him up so much that he was already slamming into you with absolutely no warning.

It hurts. It hurts so fucking good. Every thrust tears a helpless cry out of your body. The scales grind against every nerve around your hole, while the ones deeper inside nudge your velvety walls as they move in and out, in and out.

You couldn’t talk between your screams, not with how violently he was pounding you. Your arms and legs wrapped around him and hung on for dear life with your face buried in the crook of his neck. His own muscular arms wrap around you in a deceptively loving embrace, pumping into you with a rhythmic smack smack smack. All you can do is reap what you sow and take it.

This wasn’t just for you, this was for Hawks as well. You gave him something that he could feel again. What began as whiny gasps for air soon became rolling growls that vocalize a need for more.

Your orgasm barely sticks out of the continuous blinding pleasure as he plows harder through your spasms, your contracting muscles wrestling with the merciless cock to hold it inside.

His tone is dark. Vicious. “Tight. So tight!”

It makes your greedy body want even more. “Oh, good job, Raptor. Such a good boy.” You praise him, feeling the brief falter in his movements. He really does like that. “Go ahead and take it all, as much as you need-ah. Don’t worry about me. Fuck me until I can’t think.”

The violent sex stops and you’re being ripped away from that wondrous cock in the blink of an eye. Before you can even question what’s happening, your world begins to spin until you’re suddenly on the floor. You’re getting adjusted onto your hands and knees right before being pierced again with a force that shoves you forward.

Your thoughts struggle to keep up with the lightning-fast sequence of events, hindered even more by the warmth of the body hovering right over you. Hawks too was on all fours, though he looked much more comfortable and natural, wings fully spread out in a proud and dominant display as he throbbed inside of you.

His hips snap forward, already at a rapid pace that rocks you with each hard impact and soon has you howling again. The floor was filled with uneven cracks and scratches that scraped your knees, not that the discomfort was easy to notice while you were being drilled into. As you latched onto one of his arms for support, you noticed right in front of you, was your first game of tic tac toe.

Drool dripped down from the snarling jaws above you and onto the innocent group of lines and shapes.

The mounting beast humped you with every ounce of energy he had. Your aching pussy couldn’t take it. Too hard...too big... you’re cumming again around his pistoning cock, moans melting into defeated sobs. The huge pair of swinging balls occasionally smacked right into your oversensitive clit. You were losing the will to hold yourself up, gripping his supportive arm more tightly while your thighs quivered. Even if you had the strength to, you had no plans to ask the feral savage to stop.

He currently wasn’t anything like the gentle experiment you’ve befriended in just a few days. Right now, with his head thrashing around and flinging spittle everywhere as he barked, and wings beating hard against the floor, he was terrifying. Powerful, hungry, and single-minded.

So this is what it’s like to give in to a nomu.

It’s scary.

It’s thrilling.

Every fast agonizing stroke right against your cervix takes your breath away, your mouth eventually just hanging open in an attempt to capture whatever oxygen it could into your lungs. Hawks curls into himself so that he can crane his neck and look at you, saliva flowing freely down his chin. Each breath came out as a throaty growl wafting against your sweaty face. He takes one look at your parted lips, and stuffs you with his tongue.

If your thoughts were more coherent at the moment, you’d wonder how the hell the muscle was strong enough to be able to move into your throat as hard as the dick that continued to wreck your insides. His hips assisted in gagging you even more with each thrust. The threat of asphyxiation only brought you closer to your next orgasm.

Your mind was empty, save for the immoral thoughts that have long since driven off their more honorable competition.

Just use me.

Your entire body was on fire, getting pummeled from both ends.

Just use me however the fuck you want.

Hawks is suddenly bombarding your cunt with short and speedy ruts of his hips, and that does it. Your limbs give out and leave you to plop onto the floor as your pleasure blooms all over. But his long tongue follows you, still pushing into your whimpering mouth to deprive you of much-needed air. He simply lowers himself and proceeds to fuck you hard into the ground, pressing your skin into his many carvings.

His tongue leaves...your eyes rolling back….

Hawks releases a horrid cry that sounds like both a roar and a bird-like shriek.

Exhaustion…

Hawks is too lost in the surprising sensations, dull but still intense, to realize that he’s shooting his thick load into your womb

Warmth...full...sleep.

x---x---x---x---x

“Get up.”

The voice is muffled as you slowly come to. Whatever you’re resting on doesn’t feel like your bed.

“I know you’re awake. Hurry and get up.”

You’re surrounded by warmth, by something breathing. Pain shoots through your back and legs when you stir. When you open your eyes, you see the golden eyes of a High End.

The fear does well in masking your aches as you scramble out of the arms of what turned out to be Hawks, who was lounging on his side like a giant cat.

And standing at the door, was the damned doctor that you had the privilege of seeing every day.

His stare looked even more judgmental than it usually did. Full-on disgusted, actually. Realizing that you’re still naked, you grab one of Hawks’s wings that were splayed out on the floor to shield yourself.

He simply shakes his head. “I’ve already seen enough. And heard enough.”

Oh shit.

“I-I…” you stammer, panic rising in your chest as you’re unable to come up with any sort of explanation. You even turn to Hawks, like he’d somehow provide you with the answer.

“I normally don’t care what deplorable methods you people use to collect your samples, but going by the filth between your legs...” That prompts you to look down, and the second you do, you already feel a dense fluid oozing out of you and running down your legs that were stained with white. “...you actually allowed Raptor to inseminate you.”

His words, along with your accelerating heartbeat, thunders in your ears. Hawks is watching his seed leak from your raw pussy. He remains still and quiet, uncertain of how to act in the presence of a doctor.

“To think that someone would deliberately let a nomu breed them. I know that the two of you have gotten close,” His eyes skimmed past the many images and markings in the room. “But just how depraved do you have to be to go this far with a nomu?”

If this was before the days you allowed Hawks to touch you, you would have felt embarrassed. You are scared. Not only did he cum inside you, you’ve also been caught right after the act.

But any sort of shame?

You had the nerve to huff, still hiding your body from him not out of shyness, but because the asshole didn’t deserve the view. “I guess we’re all sick fucks around here,” you retort.

The glare on his glasses add to the intimidation factor of his glower. He takes a step forward and gives a quick tilt of his head. “Get dressed. You’re coming with me.”

Both you and Hawks are taken back. “For what?”

He scowls even harder. “Still asking questions? You’re lucky that you’re valuable right now. You have most likely been impregnated. This is an unexpected opportunity to observe one of Raptor’s offspring. We’ll be watching over you until the birth.”

You don’t move, still soaking in every word. This most definitely was a mistake. Not only are you going to be taken away from Hawks to be cooped up in a room with constant surveillance, you’re going to have a...fuck.

You feel the wing in your grasp vibrate softly, Hawks sensing your distress and attempting to silently reassure you.

“I said get dressed,” the doctor ordered impatiently. “Or are you still basking in the afterglow?” He snickered at his own joke before walking forward, ready to take you by force.

That’s when the nomu in the room finally stood up to step right in front of you, standing tall in all of his naked glory and easily towering over the man.

You had to give the guy credit for not looking phased by the very dangerous creature blocking his path. Then again, maybe he was just so sure that Hawks wouldn’t harm him in any way.

“Out of the way, Raptor.” Strong and firm. It’s the tone that ensures a nomu’s obedience, but you know by now that Hawks’s mind has grown beyond that.

As expected, Hawks doesn’t budge, still looking down with eyes of liquid gold.

The doctor only looks more annoyed, not afraid. “I knew you were defective,” he sneered. “Always hesitating during tests. Such wasted potential, yet the others insist on keeping you around. To do what? Decorate rooms? The idiots should have altered your brain by now.”

What?

Hawks still didn’t move. The lack of reaction was beginning to get to the man’s nerves, his hands balling into fists as he contemplated what action to take next. You stayed mostly hidden behind Hawks, anxiously looking past his wings.

When he accepted that the nomu wasn’t going to move, and forcing his way past him was too dangerous of an option, he smirked. “Fine, then. You’re only making yourself look worse. I’m certain I can convince them to move forward with that operation after they see how defiant you’re being right now.”

No! You feel so damn useless. The bastard wanted to change him into something more compliant. How much would that change Hawks himself? You don’t know if there’s anything you can do that won’t just end with you being thrown into the lion’s den.

The doctor placed two fingers to his temple. Fuck, his quirk.

“Backup needed in South Hall, room five o’ ni-”

He stopped. Pure shock took over his face, words replaced with the faintest choked sounds. You truly considered asking if he was feeling alright.

Until a thin line of red appeared at his throat, blood oozing out, the bleeding getting heavier by the second.

“What. The. Fuck?” Your breaths were becoming too short as you watched him crumple, the liquid crimson quickly pooling around him. “What the fuck is going on?”

The confusion and fear was making you delirious. God, you were going to pass out again, this is too fucking much, this asshole was about to take you away because you have a monster growing inside you and then he was going to turn Hawks into a regular High End but now he’s dead but who the fuck killed him and what’s about to happen to you-

“Calm.”

A large hand on your shoulder grounds you, steadying your breathing and expanding your tunnel vision. Hawks is in front of you, releasing soft coos.

“Wha–how–wha…” Your shaky lips are unable to form words, but he seems to understand. Something materializes right in front of you. Small, black, and sharp. It’s a feather, floating between the both of you. “What?” You finally spit out.

“Camouflage,” that’s all he says, as if that explains everything. Since when was he able t-

Whatever. There’s too much shit happening right now.

Still shaking, you look to see the doctor still bleeding, some of the blood flowing into the engravings and painting them red.

“Y-you killed him?” You whisper.

He nods, staring apathetically at the body.

“But, I thought you didn’t…” You trailed off, too stunned by everything that has happened to finish.

He turned his attention back to you, red irises – as red as the blood that continued flow – staring into your frightened eyes. “It gets easier.”

Once again, you’re not sure what to say to that.

He looks to the door. “More coming soon.”

Right, whoever the doctor was contacting must be wondering why his telepathy was suddenly cut off.

“I want to leave.”

“Leave? Like, you want to escape?” Another nod. “That’s...I don’t know if that’s possible. There are villains around here. Strong villains. Shit, they might release some of the nomu on us!”

“You want to stay?”

Your mouth opens, then closes.

“I’m strong, and fast.” His wings unfurl and sharpen every feather, his tail curling around you so that you can see the knifelike plumes on it. “Can heal very fast and blend in. Can do a lot.”

The display and simple explanation reminds you that you haven’t seen any of his combative skills firsthand. This is what they made him for.

Well then…

“Right, then how about we give them a final test?” Just when you were finally calming down, adrenaline is already being pumped back into your veins. “Let’s show them how unstoppable their latest work is.”

His little peep of agreement nearly ruined the moment, but it reminds you why you’ve grown so fond of him.

He turns around and crouches, motioning you to climb onto his back and wrap your arms around his neck. It was awkward, mostly due to the wings that you were squishing under you, but when you voiced your worries he just gave you an “It��s fine.” He warned you to hang on extra tightly whenever he gets low to the ground. He’s a much faster runner on all fours.

Stepping over the corpse that has bled dry, he stopped at the door and braced himself.

“Ready?”

Your arms and legs were secured around him. You breathed in through your nose then out through your mouth.

Breath in. Breathe out.

A lot of death and destruction is probably about to come your way.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

It would be great if you never had to fill another jar ever again.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Your clammy skin hasn’t felt sunlight in fucking forever. Are the heroes even still alive out there?

Breathe in. Breathe out.

You try not to think about what’s happening in your womb.

“I’m ready.”

The door is pushed open.

x---x---x---x---x

Targets first spotted at 12:50

The old surveillance cameras flicker and lag. It makes noticing the running black figure all the more difficult. On most screens, you’ll see nothing more than a blur. There will be the occasional confrontation with villains, sometimes accompanied by researchers with incapacitation quirks. More often than not, the escapees easily outmaneuver them, crawling and leaping on every surface and zooming past their potential captors before they can even follow.

Some of the stronger villains and nomu slow the duo down only briefly before they collapse from an unseen force. The recovered bodies possessed deep cuts across major arteries or accurate punctures in their major organs.

Some footage shows the two sometimes climbing into vents, temporarily escaping the cameras.

The woman on the High End’s back was injured during the fatal showdown at the hospital’s exit, enraging it to the point where it swiftly killed everyone in its vicinity, including fleeing researchers that were only caught in the crossfire.

Targets escaped facility at 13:09

x---x---x---x---x

Subject: Raptor

SUBJECT HAS ESCAPED. NOMU IS HIGHLY DANGEROUS. TAKE EVERY PRECAUTION IN RETRIEVING IT.

Some things are too good to be true. It turned out that Raptor’s brain has, shall we say, faulty wiring. Several observations have noted him hesitating upon certain commands. This should not be a constant problem with any High End. I don’t understand why they did not immediately work on this issue. It’s possible that they feared irreversible changes to his unique mind.

I personally believe that many of these flaws are the result of a compassionate host. The hero Hawks was unmistakably a gifted combatant, probably the most gifted individual the facility has gotten their hands on, but his attitude did not translate well into the role of a nomu. On the bright side, I never thought I’d ever see nomu, let alone a High End, show such genuine fondness over a human. I believe it’s worth another try in the future.

But for now, we should stick to what works. There are more than enough lowly criminals to go around.

#Hawks #smut #nomu #noumu #terato #monster fucking #hawks x reader #shh the doctors don't know about shirakumo #happy october?#tw blood #tw death

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cipheress-to-k-pop · 3 years

Text

Supernova (Chapter 7)

Pairing: Dick Grayson as Robin x Reader

Warnings: None! Lmao finally

Word Count: 3.9K

Summary: As the daughter of Wonder Woman, you always knew you were destined for something more than the life of a mortal. It seemed like your wish for a life of adventure came true but whether in the form of a blessing or curse, you didn’t know. All you know is that you were the sole witness for a chain of murders that would begin. It’s up to you to find out who was the murderer before it’s too late……

A/N: It's a sweet chapter ya'll. I promise.

Supernova Masterlist

“You’re sweaty.” Robin murmured when you rested your forehead against the nape of his neck. You both were exhausted after training and you were a shower away from passing out in your bed but you both still needed a few minutes to catch your breath, leaning on each other for support. Even though he was complaining about you sweating, he didn’t seem to do anything to get away from you, even going so far as to wrap an arm around your shoulder.

You felt him swallowing the gulps of water against your skin before scoffing and wiping your skin with a towel, “As if you’re any better, my eyes are stinging from your sweat.”

Then you both dissolved back to silence, quietly enjoying each other’s company as the night slowly bled into day.

“Do you ever wonder what smoking feels like?” You asked and Robin laughed, making you whine when he began shaking, moving your body in tandem with his because of it. Even though you pinched his side to get him to stop laughing, it was useless since it made him laugh even harder, slugging you off his shoulder as your back hit the training mat.

“It wasn’t even that funny.”

“It was random."

“I was just thinking about it. I can hardly breathe when someone else is smoking beside me. I wonder how it feels actually inhaling the stuff.” You wondered, now getting comfortable on your back and he lay down beside you, “I guess some people enjoy it.”

It was silent again and you yawned, waiting for your body to cool off. The unfortunate thing about living at Happy Harbor was that the weather was unusually hot during the summer, so hot that even the water ended up getting to a scorching temperature. If you went for a shower straight after training, you’d be slowly boiled to perfection.

But the more you waited, the sleepier you got.

Robin spared you a glance as you yawned once again, stifling his own. The training had been taking a toll on him, since he would come to the cave right after patrol instead of sleep at the Manor. Partly because he liked seeing you improve in combat and get better each day and partly because he just liked seeing you.

If he caught you on a good day, you were fun to be around, cheerful and funny. Your energies mixed together well, fitting together like two puzzle pieces but he never lingered on that thought for long. For now, Robin just wanted to be supportive and a good friend. He’d seen firsthand how much you could change when things hurt you and he never wanted to push you towards that again.

His mind drifted back to the day in the interrogation room, the way you didn’t have any remorse for Thelma when she cried and screamed in front of you. It was so unlike you and for a few brief moments he wondered if he ever knew you at all.

He looked at you again, noticing the way you were smiling at nothing, the sheen of sweat on your face and neck before rethinking. He knew you; he was sure of that. And he liked you for it too.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Just that prom is next week at school. Before Valerie I would’ve pleaded to go but I don’t think I’d want to return to school after this.” You said thoughtfully, suddenly thinking about what you would do if you made out of all this alive.

“Maybe you should transfer to my school.” He said absentmindedly. It wasn’t really a suggestion that he thought you’d accept but he actually liked the thought of you going to his school.

You sent him a teasing smile, “Oh? Boy Wonder actually goes to school? Not some advanced intelligence nerd program?”

He laughed at this, “You’re one to talk.”

It was silent for the next couple moments once again while you both rested comfortably. This was the thing he appreciated the most about your relationship; when it was silent, he wasn’t scrambling to find some conversation piece to fill the silence. He wasn’t unaccustomed to awkward silence but it never felt awkward when he was with you. It was just silence.

He could stay beside you and just stay silent and that was enough. He liked that.

“What color are your eyes?” You asked again, curious.

“Like I’d tell you.” He sighed, sounding way too comfortable for his own good. You kicked him lighter than you were intending to.

“They’re brown, aren’t they?”

“Why brown?”

“Because I feel like any other color would give you an unfair advantage.”

He settled in further, wanting the training mats to suddenly feel like his mattress back home, “Well I’m no swim team captain but.”

“Jealous?”

“Sure.”

The sweat was making the mats stick to your skin and you felt it aggressively peel from your skin when you turned on your side to face him. Now you were made painfully aware about the cold sweat pooling below you and realized you were in desperate need for a shower.

You rubbed his arm gently, wishing him a good night even though you knew that the sun was up. Robin returned the gesture with a smile, telling you to get a good night’s sleep. As he watched your receding back, a thought came to his mind and he stopped you in your tracks.

“Here’s a thought, why don’t we do something on prom night? Have our own little thing right here? We could watch a movie or something.” He proposed and your brows furrowed, “Don’t you have prom too?”

He did. Which was planned and decorated with the money his father had generously donated. But Dick didn’t feel an ounce of remorse for missing it. He also knew it was the only night that the others wouldn’t be home, all at their own prom. As long as he would get to have a fun night with you.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t planning on going anyway.” Alfred had already pressed his suit and had a special corsage ordered. He was going with Barbara, as friends, but cancelling on her seemed like a small feat in the moment.

“Are you sure?” “Definitely.”

You smiled slightly, nodding before waving goodbye and continuing on your way to the showers. When he heard the door shut, Dick realized just what he had gotten himself to and flopped back onto the mats, ‘What did I just do?’

He’d have to cancel the limo without his dad or Alfred finding out. He’d have to cancel the reservations at the restaurant. For goodness’ sake, he’d have to take a rain check on Barbara. Still, Dick wasn’t able to wipe the smile off his face.

***

You were oddly looking forward to hanging out with Robin tonight. Everyone had already left for their own proms, Zatanna was in a dress that she had borrowed from you. Even though you knew that the prom dress you had been planning to wear would’ve been the best for her school theme, you had a weirdly hard time parting from it, considering it was just a piece of clothing.

All three girls spent a couple hours primping with you, trying their best to include you in some of the fun. You even managed to rope Artemis into getting glammed up. She protested a lot at first but once she got in the chair it was like you had tamed a jungle cat. They had time to style your hair as well and you barely had any idea what was happening while Doja Cat played and you had a sheet mask on. After getting that off, you felt like a new born baby.

You sent all three of them off after taking a ton of pictures and they told you to have a great night too, smiling like they knew something you didn’t.

Now that the cave was completely empty, even Aqualad had left that morning to pay a visit to Atlantis, you were left alone with Robin and were excited about it. You weren’t going to do anything special anyway, other than watching a movie and stuffing your face with food but you were still happy to spend some time with him when you both weren’t sweating like pigs.

Even the thought of sitting beside him on the couch while a movie played had a skip in your step.

Just as you saw the doors to the main hall and a familiar head of hair, you picked up the pace until you stopped walking all together, shocked.

Because there stood Robin waiting by the door with a shy smile on his face. Dressed in a suit and tie.

You chocked out a laugh, not quite sure why it felt like the wind was knocked out of you before walking up to him, gently pulling his fingers away from the tie he was fidgeting with and straightening it out, “A little over-dressed for a movie, don’t you think?”

“Change of plans, we’re going to have our own prom night, right here.”

You giggled, reclipping the tie clip before straightening out the corsage in his breast pocket. You spared a glance up, meeting his eyes and you realized just how close the both of you had gotten. If he didn’t have the sunglasses on, you would’ve been able to see your reflection in his—probably— brown eyes.

You cleared your throat, stepping away from him not before smoothing your hands down the lapels, smiling at just how handsome he looked.

“Wish you would’ve told me. I would’ve matched what I’m wearing to your tie.” You teased.

“Actually, you can.” You raised a brow at this and the red began crawling up his neck, “I asked your mom to drop your dress off. It’s in your room.”

The uncomfortable conversation with Wonder Woman about why he wanted the particular dress that her daughter of the same age was planning to wear to prom was completely worth it when he watched your eyes light up like the sun before throwing your arms around his neck, “Oh my god! I love you!”

The dress fit you like a glove, even though the last time you wore tried it on it had been a teeny bit snug. All those hours training with Robin probably made it fit a little better even though you didn’t look any different. You stood in front of the mirror and couldn’t stop twirling; the dress was just so beautiful and you were over the moon that you got to wear it.

When you met Robin by the door, it felt a little too good to be true, the way he smiled at you just as your eyes met and then held out his arm for you to take. Your heart was sure to stop beating tonight at the rate it was thumping in your chest. You could barely hear him over the sound of it, filled with too much adrenaline and excitement. You could’ve gone for a 100-mile run with the amount of energy you suddenly had.

“You look pretty.”

You grinned and curtsied in an old-fashioned way, tipping an imaginary hat, “Why, thank you. You look pretty dapper yourself.”

He laughed, “Dapper?”

“It’s a word, look it up, tweetie bird.”

“And now all the magic’s dead.”

“Oh? Because I was expecting you to pull out a bouquet from your sleeve there.”

“Actually—” He smiled, pulling out a matching corsage from his suit pocket and holding it out to you, “I went all out.”

He helped you fasten it around your wrist when you struggled to do it with one hand and your breath got caught in your throat. It was awkward, to say the least, the energy between the both of you. In fact, there was so much tension that you felt like you could choke on it. Even though your first response to any kind of distress was to hide underneath the blankets in your bedroom, you still stayed by his side.

“So, what are we waiting for? What movie are we watching?”

It seemed like he finally remembered why he was standing outside the hall in the first place and smiled shyly, a blush faintly painting his cheeks. It felt like he was stalling the more you thought about it, lingering at the door for way too long as if something would explode or jump at you if he put his hand on the handle.

“Actually—”

He opened the door and you gasped, “You need to stop saying ‘Actually’ because every time you do, I get a heart attack.”

How he managed to get all this done in a day was beyond you. The table was filled with snacks and drinks that you knew was meant to be left over for Wally to finish. The TV had a blanket fort in front of it, looking so cozy that you suddenly wanted to take a nap. The holo-computer was projecting something similar to a carnival game, with a couple targets levitating mid-air, labelled with different points.

Your heart fluttered when you realized that Robin had gone through all this just to make sure you’d have a fun night and suddenly your eyes felt alarmingly wet.

“You’re not gonna cry, are you?” Came his incredulous response and you gave him the weakest punch you could possibly muster because you knew any harder could give your date a hairline fracture, “Excuse me. It’s a perfectly healthy emotional response.”

“Yeah, but you cry a lot, have you realized?” He teased, pulling you toward the holo-computer, giving you a simulator stun gun and then picking one up for himself.

“You don’t cry at all, Mr. Roboto,” You cocked the gun and pointed at him playfully, “But no matter, you’ll be crying once I beat you to dust.”

His signature laugh was the next thing you heard and you blushed, embarrassed that you liked it more than you cared to admit, “Let’s just see about that.”

***

“And then she goes—Word for word, I’m not even kidding—” You told, picking up a tennis ball and using it to imitate an apple before pretending to take a bite out of it, “Young lady, eating is simply not allowed on school premises. *crunch* These rules obviously apply to everyone. *crunch* No one is above the rules. *crunch*”

Robin was laughing at your horrible British accent and the way you tried so hard to sound all hoity-toity, had Alfred been here he would’ve been appalled. To be quite honest, you weren’t even sure if the lady was British or not, but it seemed fitting and the way Robin was laughing made you embarrassing yourself a teensy bit worth it.

“Not to mention she’s spewing apple chunks all over me. I can never unsee that image.” You shuddered, shaking your head and his laughs dulled down to chuckles.

“That’s not that bad. Once, our health class teacher was covering contraceptives and such. And he stands in front of the entire class and, with absolutely no hesitation, asks ‘So boys and girls, what are your favorite condom brands?’” You burst into laughter at that hiding your face in your hands as tears began blurring your vision.

“Oh, my goodness, I can’t breathe, stop talking!” You interrupted his story, clutching your stomach and flopping on your back from laughing so hard. He laughed, watching you writhe on the floor, unable to stop the choked chortles that were leaving your lips. Your stomach felt like you had just done an ab workout.

The movie that was playing had long gotten over, the credits frozen on the screen as you both continued to talk, recounting all the hilarious stories you could remember as music played in the background, “Alright, so it’s an all-girls program and all of the girls are chattering about and have their own little groups in the auditorium. And my principal goes, ‘Why are you all standing so close? You all are straight girls, are you not?’”

“Not as bad as a girl volunteering to sing during a school assembly before serenading me in front of the entire school. Even though we’ve never actually talked.” He blushed, remembering just how embarrassing the situation was. You threw your head back, missing the moment Robin took to admire you.

“You little Casanova. Are you really complaining about being a heartthrob?” You teased, nudging him playfully and he rolled his eyes though it was hidden by his glasses.

Eventually the stories and laughter begin to die down as your ears tune into the music playing in the background. Just as a fun, rap song that you weren’t paying attention to but were sure had something to do with sex ended, you heard the familiar tune flow through the speakers and smiled as the singers’ voices filled your ears.

“Ahh, I love this song.” You smiled, listening to the first verse. It was a pretty love song that always got you singing when you heard it playing in the car. It was the song you listened to on repeat when you read a romance book to give you the right feels. Closing your eyes, you recalled the last book you read to the music, smiling as the feeling of giddiness began to flow through you.

“Care to join me for a dance?”

When you opened your eyes, Robin was holding a hand out for you, a gentle and reassuring smile on his face and you didn’t hesitate before taking his hand. If he had asked at the start of the night, you probably would’ve blushed and felt nervous just by holding his hand but after spending a couple hours together, you were finally in tune with each other.

You didn’t mind resting your hands on his shoulders as his floated around your waist before you began swaying to the rhythm. You had spent the whole day together, more or less in the same way; resting against each other while watching the movie, holding his hand when he attempted to throw a ball with your lacrosse stick and failing before you stepped behind him to show him how it was done and finally feeding each other food as you attempted to play the guess different foods while blindfolded.

You giggled at the way Robin squirmed when the petals of your corsage tickled his neck, still swaying out of beat to the song but it didn’t really matter, you were just trying hard not to trip over the slight train of the dress or on his feet.

“It’s occurring to me that I haven’t actually thanked you for all of this.” You began, eyes darting around the place as you took in just how much he had done for you today and your heart swelled in your chest, smiling softly without even realizing it. His fingers tightened their grip on your waist slightly and the light blush crawling on his cheeks was the only indication that he was feeling slightly embarrassed.

You looked him back in the eye, well at your reflection in his sunglasses, “I’m really touched, Rob. No one’s ever done anything like this for me and I really don’t know what to say to make you understand just how much this means to me. Thank you.”

Thank you didn’t even begin to express how much you felt for him at this point, dancing with you in bare feet across the hall. A night you had been dreading for a while, a night you thought would be spent all alone was made one of the best ones since you opened your eyes on the planet just because of him. You couldn’t tell him how grateful you were for that.

He felt embarrassed that you were putting him on the spot this way. You had said so much and a simple ‘You’re welcome’ didn’t seem right to say. It felt awkward and distant and off-putting, how would you continue the conversation after he so rudely shut you down without any other way to continue?

His hands were slightly sweating against your dress and if you noticed the increase of warmth from his palms, you didn’t say anything. So, he said the only thing he could to sort of fill the silence, “It was nothing, really. You really don’t have to thank me; I didn’t do much. Besides, I hardly think any of this could compare to your real pro—”

He was cut of by your hands slowly sliding to delicately cup his cheeks before slanting your lips over his in your first kiss. He inhaled sharply against your lips, fingertips digging into your waist. The kiss itself wasn’t much, just a silky brush of your lips against his without any pressure before you pulled back and gave him an endearing smile, “Thank you.”

He returned it, pulling you a teensy bit closer so he could hold you against him but still far enough so you couldn’t feel his heartbeat thrumming against his ribcage.

***

Not even twenty minutes after the two of you had parted with whispered goodnights, you climbed up the stairs to Robin’s nest, with your makeup freshly washed off and dressed in comfy pajamas. You saw the tip of Robin’s head peek out from the beanbag and smiled. Your heart was slowly sinking to your stomach with the thought of talking to him.

“Hey.”

He turned around, seemingly surprised to see you which he never seemed before. Usually, he could hear you from a mile away. The tie around his neck was loosened, the top button undone and his suit jacket lay wrinkled beside him, though he was still wearing his glasses.

Nonetheless, he gave you a gentle smile, scooting over a little so you could plop beside him on the beanbag, “Missed me already?”

“Yeah.” The honesty in your voice caught him off-guard and he found himself blushing and avoiding your eyes as he waited for you to speak again and tell him why you came up here. Of course, his heart leaped at the thought that you were up here just to see him, even though you spent the whole night together.

“Listen about earlier,” He turned his head to you but this time it was you who wouldn’t look at him, playing with your fingers in your lap, “About the kiss; I’m sorry.”

He could hardly hear anything other than his heartbeat when he heard the tone in your voice and he knew that something bad was going to come. Were you going to tell him that it was a mistake and that you regret it? He wouldn’t hold it against you but his heart tore at even the thought.

“I shouldn’t have done it without asking for permission first, I’m sorry. I was just reliving it and I realized that I never actually asked if I could, you know? It’s just I really like you and got caught up in nerves and emotions and all—” Somehow you managed to catch yourself rambling and stopped, taking a deep breath, “Anyway, if it made you uncomfortable, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

You glanced back up at him with a shy smile, “Are you gonna say something or, do you want me to leave….”

If it was possible, you looked even more beautiful barefaced and hair pulled back from your face than you did in the most beautiful dress he had ever seen you in before.

“Could I kiss you? Please?”

Your breath got caught in your throat and you found yourself leaning in before you could even think of saying anything.

Who were you to say no?

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v-hope · 3 years

Text

One Way Ticket

Pairing: Kim Taehyung x Reader (ft. Yeontan bc Family)

Genre: Flufffff, established relationship, long distance relationship (not for long), and like, slight angst at the beginning if you squint your eyes and do a backflip

Word Count: 4k

Summary: Long distance relationships are never an easy thing, and although you and Taehyung had managed to make it work for four years and were used to not seeing each other that much already, he couldn’t help but feel like his birthday was ruined at the news of you being stuck at the airport due to a bad weather flight delay. However, although things didn’t quite go to plan, it only took for you to arrive two hours before the day was over for it to be his happiest of birthdays so far.

A/N: Hellooo, well, obviously this is for my man’s birthday 🥳💝 This story takes place in my Red Flags series’ timeline since one of you requested it and I thought it would be really cute, but you don’t need to have read it to understand what’s going on here. I hope you guys enjoy! please let me know your thoughts~

“You were supposed to be here today” Taehyung reminded you, unconsciously tightening his hold on the phone as his low voice did a good job at letting you know just how upset he was.

You sighed, that alone letting him know you weren’t having a good time with said fact that was just not happening anymore either. “I can’t control the weather, love…”

Now, he knew that. Of course he knew that. But right then, he really fucking wished you did control the weather. That way you wouldn’t be stuck in another continent still due to a snowstorm that had delayed, if not cancelled, all flights that week — a stupid snowstorm that was keeping you away from him for longer than you should have.

It was a joke. It had got to be a joke.

That was what Taehyung kept telling himself throughout the whole phone call, and continuing to believe —to wanting to believe— so even after you hung up.

You were supposed to arrive that night. That had been the plan all along. All his schedule he had rearranged so he could make sure that particular night he would spend with you. Just you and him. Since the very next day, also known as his birthday, he would have to go to rehearsal for BTS’ presentation on the 31th like every other year, he was looking forward the most to this night. He had it all planned out. Your flight would arrive at 8pm, he would pick you up and then the two of you would have dinner together back at your —now— shared place. You would wait up until midnight, have some cake afterwards, and then stay up late so you could, well, catch up on a few coupley things you had been missing out on for a good while now. After all, you had not seen each other in nearly five months.

It was funny, how he used to always say he would never be able to do long distance relationships when he was younger, yet here he was now, four years —and going strong— into one. It was hard as hell, he could not deny it, but he wouldn’t have had it any other way, not as long as he got to be with you in the end. And at the end of the day it was all worth it, for you had finally graduated uni back home, managed to find a job in Seoul, and were now moving in with him like the two of you had agreed on a long time ago, once you realised you were most definitely sticking together for as long as your lives allowed you to. So, even if he had to wait a little longer to see you, this time it was different, for you had only gotten a one way ticket, and he would never again have to drop you off at the airport and cling on to you like his life depended on it, somehow being harder for him to let go of you as the years went by.

Nevertheless, it sucked. Right then, it really fucking sucked. Five months had gone by without seeing you already and turns out he would now have to wait one or even two more days than planned? Bullshit. And that if he was being optimistic, because he swore to God he would lose his shit if you had to spend New Years Eve on a plane, alone. Not like you were spending it together to begin with either, since he had that thing to attend to, but you would at least have a good time with some of the friends you had made during the time you had stayed in Seoul for your uni’s exchange program, and who had now invited you over to a party you had oh-so-excitedly told him about.

That night, Taehyung went to bed late. Still wanting to believe with everything in him you were just pulling a prank on him like you loved to do every now and then, and that you would walk through the front door anytime with that tired face of yours after the long ass flights to Korea he was so used to by then — the same exhausted face that would light up as a bright smile took over your factions instead at the sight of him.

However, that night, you did not make it home. What you did make it to instead, was to be the first one to congratulate him on his day. Over the phone, yes, with the airport’s background noise and not in person like he had wanted to, yet there you were being once again the first one to do so, at exactly 00:00. And somehow, that alone was enough to make him happy before going to sleep. Not as happy as he would’ve been with getting to sleep with you in his arms, of course, but happy nevertheless.

He did not lose faith, though. The next morning, as he got ready to head out to rehearsal, he kept glancing at his apartment’s door over and over, still waiting for it to burst open anytime and for you to walk inside right after.

When that didn’t happen, he looked forward to the moment his members brought him his birthday cake as they waited in the dressing rooms for their turn to rehearse. Now, the guys hadn’t told him they were bringing him cake, but after all these years it was pretty much a given. And it would only make sense that you were there, right? Whether it was bringing the cake to him as everyone in the room sang the traditional birthday song to him, or showing up as a surprise right after.

Once that didn’t happen either, he couldn’t hide his disappointment anymore — still being grateful to everyone else for trying to make his special day a memorable one, yet not being able to fully enjoy it without you there. Even falling in the cliché of wishing for you to be there as he blew out the candles. That was truly all he wanted, after all.

And once his schedule for the day was finally cleared up, his last hope was walking into the apartment that night and seeing you already there waiting for him.

Again, that didn’t happen.

Biting the inside of his cheek as he walked into an empty apartment, although Yeontan was there to excitedly welcome him back home and had managed to bring a weak smile to his face, he couldn’t help but feel his eyes well up with tears. Telling himself over and over how stupid it was to be upset over something neither of you could control, he contemplated calling you for a few seconds, shaking that thought off with a tilt of his head and deciding to go take a hot shower instead. No matter how bad he wanted to, if he did call you, he knew for sure he would end up being even more upset than he already was, and then you would end up being upset as well, and that he did not want.

Not even bothering on drying his hair later that night, he changed into his pyjamas and called Tan to go keep him some company like it was usual by then. Watching the fluffy dog make himself comfortable on the mattress, Taehyung turned the lights off so he could get into bed for once and for all — wanting nothing but to sleep that day off so you would hopefully be there by the morning. Although it would no longer be his birthday, he wished he could at least get to spend some time together before he had to head out once again.

Before he could completely doze off, however, he felt Yeontan snap up from his sleep and effusively wave his tail from side to side as he ran to the closed door of the bedroom. Letting out a tired groan, Taehyung glanced over at the clock on his nightstand, staring at the number ten on it for a second before he turned the lamp on and fixed his eyes on his excited pup.

“I already fed you,” his voice came out hoarse at the lack of speaking, catching Tan’s attention for a second there before he was back at barking at the door. “Don’t tell me you want to go to the b—”

That’s when the sound of a key making it inside the front door’s lock caught his attention. And, you see, only two people had a key to the apartment. One was his, of course, and the other one, much to his excitement right then, was yours.

Not even having time to catch his breath, he jumped off the bed and opened the bedroom’s door, watching Yeontan sprint down the already illuminated hallway as you had just turned its lights on — a huge smile parting his lips at the sight of you, not being able to hold back a giggle of his at the way you had panicked and closed the door harder than you had intended to, so Tan wouldn’t be able to run out of the apartment.

“Tan-ie bean!” you excitedly greeted the pup first thing as he reached your side.

Struggling to move past your suitcase, you managed to kneel down to pet the cute ball off fluff with one hand as you held the other one as far up as you could, holding a strawberry cupcake with a single candle on it that you had already lit up right before coming in — maybe not your brightest of ideas.

Staring up at your boyfriend, who was still on the other end of the hallway, you smiled brightly and stood up straight as he came closer. “Happ—”

Before you could even finish what you had initially planned to sing and had by then settled for cheerfully chanting instead, Taehyung had already pulled you into his arms — unintentionally blowing out the candle as he had rushed over to you way faster than he’d like to admit.

“I missed you” he mumbled, wrapping his arms tighter around your figure and burying his face in the crook of your neck as he felt his heart at ease.

You smiled sweetly, wrapping your arms around him as well —being careful enough not to stain his designer pyjamas with the cupcake’s icing— and pressing down a small kiss to his shoulder.

“I missed you, too” you cooed, hearing him giggle when you planted a kiss on his neck this time.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were getting on a plane already?”

“Because I thought I would get here before you came back from rehearsal and I’d surprise you. You know, wait for you with dinner and whatnot…” you pouted. “But then of course I had trouble with my luggage and got here way too late. So I got you a cupcake and a candle instead!”

Taehyung giggled at the way you had ever so cheerfully said that last part, pulling slightly away from your body so he could glance at the cupcake in your hand you had just raised up in a victorious way.

“You could’ve just showed up barehanded, said ‘happy birthday’, and I would’ve been the happiest”.

“You interrupted me when I was about to tell you ‘happy birthday’, though” you huffed over dramatically.

Letting out a light laugh, he securely cupped your face in his warm hands and rested his forehead on yours, smiling blissfully as ever at how close he was able to have you right then, at how he was able to feel your warmness in his hands after all those months. “You can say it again now”.

“But you already blew out the candle” you pouted, bringing the treat closer to him so he could see your point.

“I guess this is the moment my wish comes true then”.

“You didn’t even get to make a wish, you idiot” you rolled your eyes.

“Oh, I did” he nodded his head determinedly. “Earlier today. And not to brag about it, but it already became true”.

“Was it perhaps for me to arrive today?” you coyly batted your eyelashes, earning a very visible roll of eyes from him.

“Cocky, aren’t we?”

“I mean,” you shrugged, taking a step back from him and his hold. “I can always go back home and send your actual wish ov—”

“Yah,” he stopped you as you dramatically turned around to pretend to leave and Yeontan followed right after, pulling you back to him by your wrist. “I didn’t spend pretty much my entire birthday wishing for you to get here so you can leave me just like that” his eyes turned softer, yet still held that playful vibe in them. “Besides,” he pulled you closer, this time by your waist. “Funny how you said ‘go back home’ when this is your home now, baby” your heart skipped a beat at his remark, appreciating the way he looked up and puckered his lips as he pretended to fall deep in thought. “Hm… Maybe I misheard”.

You giggled at the way he had copied your overdramatic ways, bringing your free hand up to sweetly caress his cheek. “My bad, love”.

Taehyung smiled, with that boxy smile you fell in love with years ago, and nodded softly to let you know it was alright. “Can I get my birthday kiss now?” he murmured, ever so faintly brushing his longing lips against yours. “I’m kinda dying over here”.

Shaking your head in amusement as you laughed, you bit your lower lip. “Just kiss me already, you dork”.

So he did, not even dreaming of wasting another second before his lips hungrily crashed against yours. He had missed you like crazy, he always did, but right then, as your soft lips were pressing on his and your hand made its way from his cheek to the back of his head, entangling your fingers in his still damp hair, he realised just how bad he had craved your touch, how bad he had craved you.

Having him deepen the kiss, you couldn’t help but take one step back as you had lost your balance — his hand being quick to bring your body right back to press against his, later resting on your lower back to keep you steady as his other hand firmly cupped your cheek.

“Happy birthday” you mumbled against his mouth when you had pulled away to catch your breath, feeling the corners of his lips curve up before he pressed them to yours once more.

“It is now” he hummed, drawing tender circles with his thumb on your chin and not being able to hold back a giggle when it was you the one to steal a kiss from his mouth right then.

Your breath hitched when you felt his hands made their way down your body, letting out a squeal when they grabbed your thighs and picked you up without a warning — your arms wrapping tightly around his neck and legs around his waist as his hands were firmly placed on your ass to keep you from slipping down while he walked the two of you out of the hallway and into the living room, having Yeontan run past you two and go lie on the couch.

“Yah, I just got here and you’re already going for second base?” you teased him with raised eyebrows.

Taehyung shook his head, cockily raising one of his own. “I’ve earned my right to all bases a long time ago, I don’t know what you’re talking about”.

“Don’t get too cocky, Kim Taehyung” you warned him as he sat you down on the edge of the counter, being careful enough not to knock down one of the pictures of the two of you that were neatly displaying on it. “I might revoke all your rights”.

“You wouldn’t” he daringly squinted his eyes. “Not on my birthday”.

You threw your head back, letting out a loud laugh and placing the cupcake down on the counter before you went back to his eye level. “Only under two hours until it’s over, so...”

“You wouldn’t” he repeated confidently.

“What makes you so sure, old man?”

Shaking his head in amusement and deciding not to comment on the taunting name you had just called him, he didn’t even try to hide the smirk that was curving up the corners of his lips as he leaned in. “I just know”.

Not even trying to play it hard anymore, you met his lips in the middle, humming contentedly when he placed his hand behind your neck so he could take control over the kiss he was not quite willing to let go of yet. And neither were you, which is why your eyes remained closed and your lips slightly puckered up —clearly wanting more— when he suddenly pulled away one minute later.

“Okay, now tell me my birthday present!” he demanded.

Still being too stunned by the intoxicating kiss he had just given you, it took you a second to open your eyes after hearing his muffled yet excited words against your lips — eyes locking with his excited ones as his hands unconsciously rested on your thighs.

“Oh, it’s in my bag!” you jumped up once you managed to understand what he had meant. “Let me go get it”.

Although your words were meant for him to move aside so you could get up on your feet and rush over to the forgotten suitcase on the hallway, Taehyung did not move an inch — if anything, tightening the hold of his hands on your thighs to keep you from going anywhere.

“Not that one”.

Your eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “The cupcake?” you offered, earning a light laugh from him, along with a small shake of his head. “Sex? Because I know I was just threatening with revoking that right, but since it’s still your birthday, I mean...”

Taehyung laughed wholeheartedly, once again shaking his head no as he brought his face closer to yours. “Although I would love that and will take you up on that offer later,” his bold words managed to bring some heat to your cheeks. “That is not what I meant”.

“What did you mean then?”

“Just want you to tell me something...” he hinted, gently caressing your sides. “How long will you be staying, baby?”

You rolled your eyes when it finally hit you what he had meant all along. And you couldn’t help but laugh lightly at how such simple things were the ones that made him the happiest. “Well, considering I only got a one way ticket over here this time,” your heart sped up at the way his smile grew wider at the sound of that. “And that the rest of my stuff will arrive here in a few days… I’d say I’m staying for quite a long, long time”.

“How about forever?” he smiled brightly.

You giggled, tilting your head up in anticipation as you felt him lean in to press his mouth on yours. “I like the sound of that”.

“I love the sound of that” he agreed, pressing another kiss to your smiling lips.

And you truly did, for although you were leaving everything behind, your family, your childhood friends, your culture... it was easy as long as you had him. And even though you knew there would be times homesickness would hit you like a truck, especially when the time came and Taehyung would have to go on tour with his group, you were ready to start your new life here with him. You had already lived here once for a year, after all, the only difference being you now got to live with your long term boyfriend, and, of course, that you wouldn’t have to count down the days until you had to go back home and away from him anymore.

“Everything alright?” he wondered, catching up on the way you had momentarily spaced out.

“Mhm…” you were quick to reassure him with an eager nod of your head. “Now eat your birthday treat before I do” you threatened, grabbing the cupcake that had been lying next to you all along and bringing it up to his face.

Taehyung chuckled, pressing a lingering kiss to your neck that was sweetly followed by another one. “But I have my birthday treat right here…”

Although flustered by both his words and the way his lips kept peppering soft kisses all over the sensitive skin of your neck, you stood your ground. “Pretty sure I’m your girlfriend, but oh well”.

He chuckled once more — before you could react, dipping one of his long fingers on the icing and spreading a good amount of it on your lips. “Now you’re both”.

You didn’t really get to fully laugh at his playful antics before the sound of it was muffled by his mouth sucking on your bottom lip, his fingers holding onto your chin to keep you from pulling away as he deepened the kiss — making sure to remove every last trace of icing on your mouth before he slid his tongue into it.

Breaking the kiss for a brief second for what he thought was to catch your breath before bringing your already swollen lips back to his awaiting ones, he found himself letting his jaw drop when you opened your mouth not to kiss him once more, but to bring the infamous cupcake up to it and loudly bite down on it.

“Yah, that is my strawberry cupcake!” he called you out — although trying to act mad, having a hard time hiding his smile at the way you had just covered your full mouth as you laughed whilst trying to chew right then.

“You weren’t eating it, so…” you shrugged.

Before you could take another bite, however, he grabbed your wrist, quickly moving it up to his mouth instead and shoving the entire baked good into it in just one go.

Petrified after what just happened, you stared at your now empty hand — amazed by the way he had managed not to bite into your fingers with how fast and forceful his mouth had been, before your eyes fixed on your full-mouthed boyfriend as he struggled to chew the whole thing down.

“Mine” he stated, not minding to cover his mouth as he was almost done with it already.

“I tend to forget how big your mouth actually is” you admitted, mindlessly sucking the remains of icing from off your fingers.

Taehyung scoffed, rushing to swallow down so he could properly speak. “You out of all people should know what my mouth can d—”

“You know,” you cut him off before he could pronounce that last letter and bring his cocky point across. “Booking a return plane ticket sounds really tempting right now”.

“Oh, yeah?” he tauntingly raised one of his eyebrows, pulling you closer to the edge of the counter and making you wrap your legs around his waist. “Good thing from now on those return tickets will bring you right back to Seoul”.

That was what made him the happiest. After all those years of buying ticket after ticket, all those years of having to drop you off at the airport so you could go back home, all those years of having to wait for endless months just so you could see each other for a few days, all of that, was over now.

From that night on, this was your home. You, him and Yeontan, and of course, the eventual additions that would be made in a couple of years.

And that was the best part. No matter where you travelled to from now on, you would always just go visit abroad and return right here, back to him — never again being almost about to miss his birthday, for you would both go to sleep and wake up right next to him during all the upcoming ones, just like he had ached you to do every single day ever since you got together four years ago.

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randomshyperson · 3 years

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The Scarlet Witch Prophecy - Chapter 13 - The Sixth Year (Part Three)

My dear friend @abimess, I keep stealing your gifs and making updates without telling you. I hope you never get tired of it.

Summary: As the youngest daughter of Howard Stark, you have ordinary expectations for your years at Hogwarts. Little do you know what adventures await you when your destiny is intertwined with the legendary Scarlet Witch.

Warnings: +16. Adaptation of the Harry Potter Saga, Magical Thematic, Prophecies, Mentions of Violence, Torture and dark magic, Language (swearing and minor/major offenses), manipulation of will, Underage kissing, insinuation of smut with minors, Smut (overage), descriptions of death, aggression, obscurity, angst, fluffy, soulmates analogies. || Chapter Warnings: Magical torture with minors, cursing, angst, ptsd, derogatory thoughts and behavior, dark magic.

Chapter Words: 8.486 K

A/N> Yes, I've gone for a month without warning anyone, and yes that might go on, but at least i'm near ending this (I'm already writing chapter 21). Once I'm finished, I'll just programe tumblr to upload them all for me because i'm lazy. I hope anyone like this yet, i don't even know what i'm doing anymore. Good reading!

Series Masterlist || Read on AO3 || All Works Masterlist

Chapter 13 - Part XIII - The Sixth Year (Part Three)

Gossip really starts to irritate you when you go to lunch after potions.

"You want to say something to me, girl?" You charge impatiently when you hear the giggles behind you again, coming from a group of students sitting at Ravenclaw's table.

The group turns around with wry smiles on their faces, and you notice the editions of the Daily Prophet in the hand of one of the boys. It is Hope Summers, your classmate, who speaks first:

"We're just sharing some theories, Stark." She says in a provocative tone. "Some of us find it an interesting coincidence that just now that Mephisto is back, you and Maximoff are losing control of magic."

You frown.

"What are you talking about?" you ask in surprise, referring to Wanda, but Hope thinks you want her to keep mocking you.

"It's just suspicious that no one knows what happened to you in that dungeon, or at the ministry of magic." Hope counters. "And now you two are blowing things up, and we have a dark wizard on the loose."

"Fuck you, Summmers." You curse as you stand up, leaving the girl in shock at your aggressiveness.

The same auror from the first day stands in front of you as you try to approach Slytherin's table.

"Students must respect..."

But you interrupted his speech with a loud shove that sent him staggering backwards, and drew the immediate attention of several people.

You were seeing red by now, the man's wry smile only making you more irritated.

He drew his wand, but so did you. And the room held its breath.

"Put your wand away, Miss Stark." Warned the auror angrily, but you didn't.

Wanda stood up as she noticed the confusion, rushing to reach you, but the auror put his arm in her way.

"Now, miss." He warned again, and you grunted in irritation.

"Get your hands off her." You retorted, feeling your body fever with hatred.

"Stark." The man said, his arm reaching down to push Wanda back, and you exploded.

You didn't even finish thinking about the spell, the magic exploding out of your wand.

The auror masterfully blocked it, and you dropped your wand to jump on top of him.

It was a confusion of shoving, other bigger students pulling you away from the man and he away from you.

" Never fucking touch her again!" You warned snorting in anger, Thor Odinson stopping you from jumping on the man's neck.

"I just pushed her away from the line of fire, you crazy bitch!" The auror retorted indignantly and angrily. "Go to the headmaster's office now!"

"Fuck you!"

Thor pulled you out of the hall as the crowd of students whistled in celebration, excited about the whole fight. The auror was too busy dissipating everyone to follow you.

"Hey, hothead, calm down." The blonde warned as he released the grip of you by the courtyard. You grunted angrily, wishing you could break something.

"Fuck this school, fuck that asshole." You complained aloud, as Thor looked at you curiously.

"You have quite a rage, Stark." He comments, and you grumble in irritation.

But Wanda catches up with you the next moment, and she looks even angrier than you.

"What the hell was that?" she asks and you roll your eyes, running your hands through your hair.

"I think you are going to be fine for now on." Thor comments, smiling at the thank you Wanda says to him before leaving you two alone.

"So?" Wanda insists, arms crossed. You bite the inside of your cheek as you look at her.

"What do you want me to say?" You retort angrily.

"You just started a fight for no reason! Again!" She accuses. "Only this time it was with a wizard who could kill you. I want to know what's going on!"

"I don't know, Wanda!" You exclaim angrily. "Why does everyone expect me to have answers? I don't know! Do you understand that? It feels like I'm going to explode in frustration any second, neither you or Gamora seem to get it. I don't understand what's happening to me!"

"Because you won't talk to us!" She shouts back, just as annoyed as you are. "You're pushing everyone away! Even me! We can't help you if you don't talk to us!"

You grunt impatiently, turning around. There was a strange throbbing in the back of your head, a strange whisper. Like a voice telling you that no one was telling you the truth, that your friends expected too much of you, that Wanda didn't care...

This last thought made you sob. Wanda softened her expression immediately, taking a step toward you and touching your shoulder, but you pulled away from her touch as if burned, wiping your tears away quickly.

"Leave me alone, Wanda." You mutter between teeth. She hesitates, raising her hand toward you again.

"Please."

"I need some time from you." You insist, pushing her hand away, and walking away.

A part of your brain is begging you to go back and make things right, but there is a cloud of anger and irritation that keeps you walking.

//-//-//-//-//

You roll over in bed in discomfort.

Nightmares. Again.

It has only been five days since you had your fight with Wanda, and you are getting worse every day.

With Summers' teasing, you end up noticing other things too.

How the school really found the theory that you and Wanda were somehow related to Mephisto, because the minister had covered up what happened in the dungeons and in the ministry, and everybody thought it was strange that two students were showing an increase in magical potential with the return of a dark wizard.

Unlike you, who were failing considerably in any simple execution of spells, Wanda was demonstrating exceptional abilities. Kaecilius was more than willing to make her the face of progress at Hogwarts, you heard the gossip about bringing in reporters to share the news of the new direction.

You know that the only reason Wanda hasn't come after you yet was because you're running away from her like the plague.

And you couldn't even explain why.

You were also blocking out your real health condition from her. Just like you two practiced during the summer.

Besides hiding this from Wanda, you have kept your friends away too, isolating yourself from everyone else in search of a little rest, only succeeding in taking a nap when you are running away between classes.

And the detentions with Kaecilius keep increasing as you skip classes.

You begin to consider learning to write with a different hand, just so the bruise has time to heal, but at this point you don't even care about the scar anymore.

"You really must like pain." Loki teases wryly as you sit in an empty room, waiting for the aurors' shift change again after your detention.

You don't ask him what he's doing on that floor again, and he doesn't ask why you haven't spoken to your friends in two weeks.

"Sure, that must be it." You joke back, massaging your injured hand.

He assumes a pensive expression for a second.

"Are you sure you haven't been cursed by someone?" He asks, causing you to frown in shock and confusion.

"Excuse me?"

He gives a little chuckle, settling himself better against the wall.

"Everyone's been talking about you being sick." He says. "I heard some of the Ravenclaw people theorize that you became a werewolf over the summer."

You laugh helplessly, massaging your temples lightly.

"I guarantee that's not it." You say making Loki smile.

"If you are sick for no reason, it could be a curse." He says. "I wouldn't be surprised, the way things are."

"But how do I find out if I've been cursed?"

Loki takes a thoughtful stance.

"I don't know." He says. "But I'm sure you can learn that in the no longer reserved session of the library."

You laugh at the joke, but soon you both return to silence. When that hallway's shift ends, Loki sighs, getting up and helping you to stand.

"Still can't perform spells?" He asks, already drawing his wand.

"Only if I want to blow things up." You scoff making him laugh.

"Fine, I'll enchant you." He says. When you are transparent, he looks at you with an amused expression. "See you next Saturday, troublemaker?

"Don't worry, I plan on skipping DADA, maybe I'll be here tomorrow." You retort in the same tone before turning to leave.

//-////-//-//-//-//

It takes three more days for Wanda to finally corner you.

You are skipping class in an empty room on the seventh floor, trying to doze off, and almost fall out of your chair with fright when the door opens and Wanda comes in, looking annoyed.

You grunt impatiently, without lifting your face from the desk.

"I told you I needed time." You complain, but tense up when you notice the tears in her eyes as she moves closer to sit at the table next to yours.

" You want to break up with me?" She asks in a whisper and you raise your head immediately, feeling your chest tighten.

"What? What are you talking about?"

Wanda gives a humorless laugh at your expression. "Why are you acting like this is an absurd idea? You've disappeared. You've been avoiding me, not even talking to me anymore."

You shake your head quickly, feeling the urge to cry.

"I don't want to break up with you." You say. "I..I would never want to be away from you."

"You just said you need time away from me." Wanda retorts with annoyance, and you feel your stomach clench as she sighs. "I don't know what's going on with us. And I miss you, but you won't let me near you."

You are exhausted. So you cry.

You rest your head on your arms, and let your sobs fill the silence, hoping that the tears will take this bad feeling away.

It's Wanda's gentle touch on your back that helps.

"Babe, tell me what's wrong." She whispers to you, her tone concerned.

It takes many minutes for you to calm down. But when you do, Wanda holds your hand, kneeling on the floor beside the chair you are in.

"I can't do magic." You breathlessly tell her from crying, "And I can't sleep. I've been sick for weeks, and I'm angry all the time. Healer Cho doesn't know what's wrong with me, but everyone at school seems to have a theory about it. I think I'm going to suffocate, Wanda. I'm messing everything up. Between us, between my family, and at school." You sob as you finish and Wanda shakes her head, her hand coming up to your cheek.

"Don't say that." She urges. "You didn't ruin anything. Hey, look at me. I love you. Your sisters love you, your friends love you. We'll figure out what's going on."

Wanda hugs you tight, and you sob, shaking.

You want to believe her words, so you push the intrusive thoughts away, and believe it.

//-//-//-//

Wanda takes you to a door in that same floor you two were before, but you have never seen that door until that moment.

And you are very surprised to realize that it is a bedroom.

"How...?" You ask confused as she closes the it.

"Welcome to the Room of Requirement." She says with a smile, pulling you by the hand around. "We hold our Avengers meetings here." She counters and you frown.

"In a bedroom? Interesting choice." You comment and she giggles.

"No, my love." She says. "That's how this room works. It is charmed to meet your needs. That's why I asked you to come in first."

"Oh, that's pretty cool." You say looking around. Wanda smiles at you, and then you both reach the bed. "The room thinks I have to sleep?"

"I do too." Wanda retorts, pushing your shoulders gently for you to sit on the bed. "Go on, nice dreams."

You hesitate. "You gonna leave me here alone?"

Wanda denies with her head, pointing to the chair that probably just magically appeared next to the bed. You frown.

"Can't you sleep in the bed with me?"

She giggles. "We don't have much time for you to sleep. If I lie down, you'll want to kiss me. So I'll be sitting in that armchair, studying as I should." She explains seriously, and you pout.

"Stupid rules." You grumble moving your hands up to her waist. "Lie down with me."

"Babe..."

"Please."

Wanda sighs, then nods. You smile, quickly removing your shoes as she does the same. You quickly adjust yourself on the bed, opening your arms for her to lie on top of you, and she gives a little giggle before doing so.

"Are you cozy, sweetheart?" You murmur against her hair, and Wanda squeezes her arms around you.

"Yeah, your boobs are good pillows." She teases, making you laugh with reddened cheeks.

Your eyes begin to heavy quickly, fatigue catching up with your body relaxed by the comfort of the moment.

"Go to sleep, babe." Wanda whispers. "I'll be here when you wake up."

You smile with your eyes closed, surrendering.

It's the best sleep you've had in weeks.

The problem is that as soon as you start to wake up again, you are feeling sick.

You touch the emptiness in the bed, mumbling softly. When you open your eyes you find Wanda sitting in the armchair, the darkhold in her lap.

"Damn it, Wanda, this book again." You complain in a hoarse voice, but she just sighs.

"Why the attitude?"

"I hate that book." You grumble sitting up in bed, massaging your face lightly. "Why do you keep reading it anyway?"

"It's interesting." She says, closing the item to look at you. "Agatha really told me a lot, but there are also things I didn't know."

"For example?"

Wanda bites her lips, appraising you.

"Scarlet witches are forged, for instance." She says and you frown in confusion. Wanda sighs. "Many powerful witches, born scarlet witches, never got to fulfill their destiny because the forging didn't happen."

You straighten your clothes uncomfortably, pensively.

"What exactly does that mean?"

"What the headmistress did last year was my forging." She clarifies and you swallow dryly, feeling your stomach turn. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" you ask confused.

"Everything." She says upset. "I know we've talked about this, but it seems like all I do is cause you problems. With the bond, and with the forge. If Agatha didn't want my powers, she wouldn't have taken you to the dungeon and you wouldn't have suffered."

You poke at the knot of your tie, feeling yourself suffocate slightly. Wanda is speaking, you blink to focus on her words.

"I'm sorry, could you say that again?" You ask out of breath, sweating. You blink to find Wanda's concerned gaze on you.

"Babe, what's wrong?" She asks worriedly, her hands around your face.

You feel your head spin, and everything goes dark before you can answer.

//-//-//-//

You smell the scent of grass when you wake up.

Then you blink in confusion, getting used to your surroundings to realize that you are in what looks like a ward bed.

"Hey, all right, take it easy getting up, Miss Stark." Asked Professor Strange with one hand on her shoulder. In the other he held a potion that you imagined he had given you.

"W-what happened?" you mumbled confusedly, sitting up in bed. Only now did you notice Professor Munroe and Wanda standing in front of the bed, both with worried expressions.

"You passed out, but you're better now I imagine." Stephen explained gently, but you were still feeling very weak.

"Professor, she simply blacked out." Wanda commented in a tearful voice. " Don't you have any idea what's wrong?"

Stephen sighed, and then pointed at the chair, the darkhold.

"Where did you get that book?" He asked, and Wanda frowned, taking a step toward the chair in a defensive posture.

"What does that have to do with my question?" she retorted dryly, and Stephen looked at you one last time before standing up.

"There's a reason it's called the Book of the Damned, Miss Maximoff." He says."It damns its readers."

"That's ridiculous." Wanda retorted, crossing her arms. "I've been reading it for weeks and nothing has happened."

"Not with you."

Wanda hesitates, widening her eyes. And then she takes a step back, swallowing her cry as she reaches out to grab the book and hand it to Stephen.

She turns her gaze back to you, and lets the tears fall.

"I am truly sorry." She says with a mixture of guilt and shame before turning to leave the room.

You call out to her about three times, but she leaves and you don't have the strength to go after her.

"Damn, couldn't I have said that in a different way?" You complain angrily to Stephen, who just sighs, exchanging a look with Professor Munroe. "How come you two are here anyway?"

"It was Wanda." Professor Ororo replies. "She asked the room for someone trustworthy to help her with you. Then there was a door opening in the potions room. Stephen was there with me, and we both came."

"Great." You mutter annoyed, thinking about how you are going to talk to Wanda and convince her that you were not angry with her. "Would either of you happen to know how to make me better now?"

"Sure." Stephen comments by raising the book in the air, and with a wave of his hand, the item dissolves into several pieces until it is gone. "I didn't destroy it, if that's what you're thinking. I just put it away, to prevent something like that from happening again."

"Congratulations." You grumble wryly as you straighten up in bed, the same migraine from before is now weaker, but it's still there.

"You know, you had a better attitude when you didn't have a magical doom on your spirit." Stephen complains, causing you to frown, but Professor Ororo gives a chuckle.

"Thanks professor." You comment wryly, making him laugh. He sits back down beside your bed, and pulls out of the cover a small notebook.

"Now that Miss Maximoff has stopped reading the book, I suppose you will get better." Stephen says, making you sigh.

"You suppose? That's encouraging." You say moving to stand up.

"Where are you going, Miss Stark? You need to rest." Warn the professor, but you ignore him, and ignore the weakness in your body as well.

"What I need, Strange, is for people to stop lying to me."

"No one is lying, Miss Stark." Professor Ororo states next. "We really don't know the extent of the magic the darkhold carries."

"And why is that I imagine?" You sneer. "Because someone omitted the truth from you, and it's been passed down for generations, isn't it? Well, that's over now. Because we've finally studied everything in this place, including a book that condemns anyone who reads it." You exclaim impatiently, stooping down to put on your shoes. "If you two will excuse me, I'll figure out how to get better on my own. But first I'm going to explain to my girlfriend that none of this is her fault."

Ororo and Stephen are silent, but you wouldn't have been paying attention to anything they said anyway.

Soon you are up and out of the requirement room looking for Wanda.

//-//-//-//

She seems to have disappeared from the castle, so you must concentrate to use your instincts.

The hardest part is dodging the aurors, but you finally reach the astronomy tower.

You're a little out of breath from the run, but it's the image of Wanda standing on the edge, the sunlight in her hair that leaves you breathless.

"Hi." You say in a low tone, your hands in your pockets as you approach. She startles slightly, wiping away tears as she keeps her gaze forward.

"What do you want here?" she asks in a husky voice. You sigh.

"That you stop hating yourself and listen to me." You say and she lets out a short laugh.

"And what do you think you can say?" She questions turning her body toward you. "All I do is hurt you."

You shake your head, but Wanda lets out a tearful laugh.

"No you don't understand." She says. "Since I met you, you have only brought me good things. Affection, happiness, hope. You've been that kind warm feeling that I need on my worst days. Hell, you're even the memory for me to cast a patronus." She confesses with emotion, her face wet with tears. "But me? All I bring you is pain and suffering. And now I even bring sickness. This is wrong, I hurt you. You need to see this, and understand that we can no longer happen."

"Don't say that." You ask, reaching up to touch her face, wipe away her tears. "That's not true, Wanda. I love you, you make me..."

"Stop it." She interrupts with a sob. "Don't make it any harder than it already is."

"Please, Wanda, listen to me." You plead, resting your forehead on hers, your hands on her cheeks. "You make me happy, you are the only thing that makes me happy, I love you, please..."

Wanda kisses you hard, and you respond with the same intensity, both of you gasping into each other's mouths.

But then she is pulling away, thrusting you farther apart.

"I'm sorry." She cries, taking a step back. "We're over."

And she's running away again, and this time you don't go after her.

//-//-//-//-//

Without Darkhold's being consumed, you really start to improve in terms of physical health.

The only problem is the emotional ditch you find yourself in.

Gamora, Nebula and Mantis find you, again in the Room of Requirement, skipping class.

"My god this is worse than last time." Gamora remarks as she looks around at the mess of junk food and pillows. The room had been transformed into a "comfortable place", which basically had the appearance of a living room, with several soft armchairs, and lots of unhealthy food. "Why did you guys break up this time?"

"Please don't talk to me." You grumbled, your voice coming out muffled because you were lying on two soft puffs, your face buried in the pillow, your hand inside a bag of muggles snacks.

"I bet you five bucks they'll be back together before the end of the month." Nebula commented and you sniffled against your pillow, hearing a noise that sounded like Gamora hitting her sister.

"We talked to Wanda." Mantis said. "And with Professor Stephen, too. We're sorry about everything, but have you decided you're not going to study anymore?"

"I don't care about school." You grumble against the pillow. "Leave me alone, I want to cry."

Nebula gives a short laugh, and Gamora elbows her.

"Stop hitting me, you crazy." Nebula complains loudly, moving away from her sister to approach you, taking the bag of snacks you have, and making you complain softly. "And you stop being such a drama queen. Aren't you two like soul mates or some shit? It's just a fight, you'll work it out. You're acting like you've never broken up before."

"Your sensitivity is admirable." Gamora scoffs, pushing her sister away to sit next to you, stroking your back until you look up at her. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

You feel the urge to cry arise again. "Wanda thinks she is bad for me." You say. "And she doesn't want to be with me anymore, and I want to die."

You start crying again, stuffing your face into the pillow as Gamora strokes your hair.

"How did this happen anyway?" Nebula asks, confused, chewing on salty snacks."You barely slept at home over the summer to be with her, and now you guys are breaking up. It's hard to keep up with this relationship."

"Merlin, Nebula shut up." Gamora asks impatiently, and her sister raises her hands in surrender with an ironic expression. You want to scream against your pillow, but all you do is try to control your crying.

"You can't keep disappearing, sweetheart." Gamora says as she runs her hands through your hair, trying to calm you down. "Kaecilius has already noticed. He's trying to figure out where you're going, and eventually he'll figure it out since you can't stay here forever."

"Maybe I can." You mumble making Gamora laugh softly.

"Come on, I'm sure you miss a decent meal." She says. "Why don't you join us for lunch?"

"I can't sit at your table."

"Who said anything about a table?"

This is how you end up on the edge of the great lake, at a picnic.

Mantis gets several dishes from the house elves, and since lunch is a free social hour, nobody seems to mind that you are eating outside.

Your sisters are not the only students who, over time, have learned ways around school rules.

You grumble slightly as you feel the sun on your face, but lie back on the grass, closing your eyes.

Your mind wanders back to last summer immediately, the memories of Wanda, and you feel horrible. You just want her back. And then you swallow the urge to cry again to accept the juice Mantis offers you.

"We wanted to tell you that we've found a way to help you, too." Gamora says after a moment, causing you to raise your eyebrow. "About the darkhold, and the eternal damnation thing."

"Light topic." You sneer, throwing your arm over your face. The day is hot. "I appreciate the help, of course."

Gamora giggles. "Merlin, I had forgotten how grumpy you get when you're upset."

"I'm not upset, Gamora." You retort angrily. "I'm frustrated."

"Sexually." Nebula sneers, making you grunt in anger, but Mantis holds back a laugh.

"What's your problem with my feelings lately?" You accuse the girl with irritation.

"Not everything is about you, you know." She retorts and you sit up quickly, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Nebula laughs, rolling her eyes. "In case you haven't noticed, there's a war going on." She says. "We're all stressed and scared. And the three of us have been in the same classes as you, having to watch the same things. But you only have time for Wanda. And now you've broken up, again, because there's some mortal danger, again, that she's caused for you. So, I don't know, but maybe she is right to break up. Ever since you guys started dating everything has been about her, and the trouble she causes!"

"Fuck you, Nebula!" You exclaim angrily, advancing against the girl in front of you. Gamora and Mantis quickly separate you.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Gamora shoves you. "Were you really going to hit her?"

"Fuck this." You curse angrily, taking a step away. "I didn't ask any of you to come after me. I don't need you. I just need Wanda. Fucking leave me alone."

You turn back to the castle, cursing the wild on your way.

//-//-//-//

Loki is the only friend you have now.

You wouldn't call him a friend exactly.

Kaecilius has put you in detention for three days a week, including Saturday, but mostly you just clean the castle. But when he takes you to the seventh floor, and makes you scrape sentences against your own skin, you don't worry about being alone anymore, because Loki is always on that floor.

It takes a week for you to tell him about the requirement room.

" You could have mentioned it earlier, we would have stuck around here." He comments without sounding upset.

Soon it doesn't take long for you two to start seeing each other even when you're not in detention.

You are not surprised that Loki also skips classes, he has always been quite mischievous, but the reason is different from yours.

He knew dark magic. Much more than you or your classmates. And he has no interest in practicing it in class.

"It's stupid." He comments as you are sitting in the armchairs. "Most people will never have the courage or willpower to cast a death curse. It's useless to learn."

"Is that the only reason you don't agree with the teaching at Hogwarts now?" You ask in surprise, setting up the chessboard for yourself as Loki shrugs his shoulders.

"I feel like you're judging me, Hufflepuff." He sneers but you smile, rolling your eyes.

"Honestly, I don't give a damn."

And you really didn't care.

Wanda was avoiding you in the halls, and you were doing the same with your friends and family.

When Iron delivered the mail to the Slytherin table, including Nebula's birthday presents, you wanted to throw up, but all you did was walk away from the Hufflepuff table toward the requirement room.

Without the darkhold, you didn't feel sick, but the anger didn't go away.

Your magic hadn't stabilized, and you were failing at everything, but you couldn't bring yourself to worry about it.

Erik wrote to you, commenting on the importance of you and Wanda practicing magical balancing together, and you burned the letter while crying on the carpet.

And at this rate, time went by.

It was almost the middle of the school year when things started to take a turn for the worse at Hogwarts, and in the wizarding war as well.

Mephisto is getting stronger, and the order is losing. And Kaecillius must be under some pressure from the ministry, maybe for answers from organizations like the Avengers, which are forbidden, because his detentions get too horrible.

It is Saturday again, and you drag yourself to the room where you are supposed to fulfill your detention, but unlike the other days, Kaecillius locks the door.

You only notice because he seems tense and distracted, and there is no feather or book.

"Professor, what will my punishment be today?" You ask confused, and he is nodding to the center of the room as he stands in front of the desk, a few feet from you.

"Miss Stark, today I want to ask some questions and I expect honesty." He declines as he turns to you.

You hiss softly, putting your hands in your pockets.

"Shoot."

Kaecillius doesn't even mind your lack of formality, looking at you with an impassive face.

"What is Mephisto's location?"

You choke in surprise and disbelief. "Excuse me? Why do you think I know that?"

"The ministry has reason enough to suspect that the Order of the Avengers is nothing more than a cover for the death walkers.Your brother, whom I had suspected of being part of that order of delinquents, is no longer at Hogwarts, but you will have to serve." He speaks and with each word you become more outraged. "Now answer me, where is Mephisto?"

" Did you just fucking call my brother a delinquent?" You mutter incredulously. "I have no idea where Mephisto is, what's your problem?"

But you widen your eyes when the professor draws his wand, and you barely have time to swallow dry before the spell hits you in the chest.

It's the cruciatus curse. You know the second it hits you. The sharp pain fills every cell in your body and you scream, not having the strength to stand or with your eyes open, hugging yourself.

"We must not tell lies, Miss Stark." Kaecillius says as soon as he stops enchanting you, the pain disappears in the same instant, but you continue to tremble.

In complete shock and fear, you sob.

"I will ask you again, where is Mephisto?"

You let the tears flow, and shake your head. "I don't know, professor."

Kaecillius lets out a sigh of disappointment. "Some cases are more difficult than others." He comments somberly, taking a step toward her. "Did you know that the record for enduring the Cruciatus curse before madness is six hours? Incredible, isn't it? It happened during the first war, with a muggleborn. You're a half-blood, maybe you can take longer"

He has a devilish grin as he finishes, and you clench your jaw at the threat.

"I don't know where Mephisto is." You repeat, but the professor points his wand at you again.

"My bet is seven hours."

And then the pain returns.

You don't know how long you stay in that room.

But it is long enough for your consciousness to begin to fade. The pain gets so severe that it gradually fades away. You begin to gasp breathlessly, not even able to scream anymore.

Someone help me. Please, help me. Help me. Wanda.

Between the tears you see the floor of the room, and between a twinge of pain, a red light. And everything is dark again.

//-//-//

“Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Warcraft and Wizard is arrested in flagrant by aurors from the ministry of magic this week, full coverage on page..."

You blink confusedly, your eyes getting used to the clarity, while the headline of the Daily Prophet was the first thing your vision caught.

And then you shifted in bed, realizing that you were in a hospital room , and whoever was reading next to you put the paper down when they heard you, and you could behold the curious look on your brother's face.

"Tony?" you whispered confused, and he smiled as he stood up quickly, the newspaper forgotten on the armchair.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" He asked as his hand reached for the loose strands of hair on your face and put them back. "You scared the hell out of me."

"What happened?"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

You thought, and then sighed, closing your eyes for a moment.

"Kaecilius."

Tony bit his lip nervously before speaking.

"I'm sorry." He said, lowering his hand to his own. "I came here as soon as I got the howler from Professor Strange, but honestly, I didn't even need it, because all the newspapers are talking about it."

"What...?" You started in confusion, but Tony hurried to explain.

"Wanda found you, Y/N." He told. "She, well, wasn't exactly happy about the whole thing. I think she lost control. Kaecilius is lucky to be alive if you ask me. She almost destroyed the seventh floor, it was a huge mess. And then the aurors interfered, and soon there were reporters everywhere. I guess now everyone knows she's a scarlet witch."

You widened your eyes, straightening to sit up and grumbling a little in pain. Tony looked at you with concern, asking you to take it easy, but you were already asking about Wanda.

"She's at the ministry of magic." He clarified. "Kaecilius is going on trial for torturing a student, and she will answer for putting everyone in danger."

" What?" you ask incredulously, and Tony sighs.

"Yeah I know it's unfair." He says. "But the minister of magic seems to be looking everywhere for people to blame for his lack of control. The problem is how much of that information will get to Mephisto. The whole ministry seems to be full of walkers."

You ran your hand across your face, frustrated.

"I'm so tired, Tony." You confess in a whisper. "It feels like everything is falling apart around me, and things are only getting worse."

Tony squeezes your hand. "I'm sorry, I really am. This whole situation sucks, and I wanted to help you. I'm trying, sister. I haven't been talking to you as much as I should, but I didn't want you to think you're alone. I'm working on breaking the bond. To free you and Wanda from the prophecy, and the wizarding world from dangers like Mephisto. I'm sorry I haven't been by your side."

You swallow your cry, and nod, trying to smile at Tony. He reaches up to hug you, and you gasp softly, taking a few seconds to relax and let the tears flow.

When you calm down, Tony tells you that he is going to get a Mediwizards to check your situation.

You lie down again, sighing softly. The memories come back with full force, and you choke softly, feeling your body tremble.

It's as if you can feel the curse again, sense the pain on your skin. Opening your eyes and shaking the memories away, you swallow dryly and reach for the glass of water on the nightstand.

You just want Wanda by your side telling you that everything is going to be okay.

//-//-//-//-//

You stay under observation for two days.

Doctor Hank makes a joke about you enjoying St.Mungus more than you should since you keep coming back, but Tony doesn't laugh.

Then you' re going back to Hogwarts by train, because the doctor thinks you shouldn't use magical means of transportation for a few days, and it's weird to take the empty express, but as soon as you arrive at the station, Gamora and Nebula are waiting for you with boxes of candy bought in Hogsmeade, and tight hugs.

You are not surprised by the stares you receive from the other students, but you ignore them as your sisters escort you around the castle to the Hufflepuff communal hall.

"Did you get to talk to Wanda?" Gamora asks as soon as you sit down on your bed, sighing with exhaustion from the train ride. The mention of the other sorceress' name doesn't help.

"Not yet." You say. "And I wouldn't be surprised to hear that she's ignoring me."

Nebula exchanges a look with her sister before sitting down on Mantis' bed, who is hugging her knees and looking at you.

"Honestly, I just want to finish this year without any more problems." You confess as you take off your jacket. And there is a moment of silence before you swallow dryly. "I also wanted to apologize to you guys."

Gamora frowns slightly, but says nothing. You take a deep breath.

"I know I was under the influence of an evil book, but that was still no excuse for treating you guys like that." You begin. "Tony told me about how things are in the wizarding world. Everyone is going through something, and it was selfish of me to think that only my problems matter. I'm sorry."

"Really, Y/N, it's okay." Nebula says, surprising you a bit. "We were all stressed, and well, I think an evil book is a pretty fair excuse." She jokes, making you smile. "Maybe things will get a little better now that Strange is the director."

"Oh, that's right" You comment just then remembering the things Tony updated you on while you were at St.Mungus. Like Kaecillius' resignation, and the position being passed on to Professor Stephen. "But honestly, I won't be at peace until I hear from Wanda."

"The trial isn't until Friday. And the way things are going, we won't get any news until it's over." Gamora warned as she sat down on the bed next to you. "I think the Maximoffs are probably too busy to write."

"What do you think will happen to Wanda?" You ask as you tug at the loose strands of the comforter. Mantis sighs lightly.

"I don't have a good feeling about things, Y/N." She confesses and you frown in concern. "And the stars never lie."

"Thank you, Mantis." You mock softly, and Gamora runs her hands through her hair.

"Let's not be pessimistic, okay?" she says. "Maybe the predictions are about, I don't know, the school finals? It doesn't mean something bad is really going to happen."

You grumble unhappily, grabbing a pillow and sinking your face into it. Gamora strokes your back.

"I'm sure things will work out, Y/N." She says. "Wanda will write as soon as she can."

"Do you guys think Kaecilius will be sent to Azkaban?" Nebula asks next, making you raise your head curiously.

"I wouldn't be so sure." You grumble. "I was actually surprised that he was put on trial at all."

"Well, with the whole mess that happened, it was bound to happen." Gamora said. "More than half the school became aware that he used the cruciatus curse on you, and then the daily prophet. And I didn't even know they were in the castle."

"It was because of Wanda really, wasn't it?" Mantis added. "Kaecillius caused his own ruin. He called the journalists to show what he called progress and decided to torture a student while they were in the castle. Then Wanda destroyed the entire floor and the next morning his arrest was all over the pages."

"I'm just really outraged to know that if no one had seen it, he would probably still be at Hogwarts." Gamora says angrily, and you sigh, agreeing as well as the others.

"Well, you must be hungry, shall we go to the great hall? It's almost dinner time." Gamora comments next, pulling you by the hand. You grumble softly, but agree, and soon you are leaving the communal hall to join the rest of the students.

//-//-//-//-//

You are tapping your fingers gently against the desk as you wait for the History of Magic class to begin.

It is Friday, finally.

You have barely slept because of anxiety about news of Wanda's trial.

Things at Hogwarts have changed a lot this week, all because of Strange's administration.

He restored the old classes, banned the teaching of dark magic, the scandal at the Daily Prophet being enough of an argument that the Minister of Magic no longer had a defense over this kind of teaching at Hogwarts. The restricted session of the library was also put back, and the seventh floor was off-limits because of the destruction Wanda caused, and you unfortunately lost access to the Requirement room.

Mantis was writing what looked like a lunar calendar for the divination class while Professor Okoye didn't arrive, and you started whistling distractedly.

And then Thor Odinson was poking you in the back to get your attention, and you turned around in your chair.

"Hi, Stark, what's up?"

"Fine." You grumbled suspiciously. "Can I help you with something?"

Thor looked almost unsure. "I was just wondering if you know of anything going on with Loki."

You frowned. "Excuse me?"

"I mean if you know if he's sick or something." He explains. "We had a fight, and well, he's not talking to me. And I've noticed that you guys have been kind of close lately, and I was curious if you knew anything and..."

"No, Thor, I'm sorry." You interrupt with a sigh. "Maybe you should ask him that."

Thor assumes a sad expression. "I would, but he's ignoring me. I think it might be about our mother."

You make a confused expression, and Thor looks surprised.

"Our mother, she...died earlier this year, Y/N." Thor counters, and you widen your eyes. "Our family is a name of reference against Mephisto. With the war, the walkers came to our home. She was there while we were here, and Dad was at the ministry."

"I'm so sorry, Thor." You whisper to him, still shocked by the information. He shrugged.

"I thought Loki told you."

"We don't talk about things like that, I guess." You say. "Sorry, I wish I knew how to help you."

"No, it's okay." Thor says with a sad smile. "You being his friend this year is more than enough. I don't like seeing him all alone out here."

You nod lightly, settling into your chair as you notice the teacher entering the room.

Mantis exchanges a look of understanding with you, having overheard the conversation even if accidentally, but she says nothing, and soon you are hearing about the witch hunt in the United States, and you try to focus on that rather than curiosity about how Wanda's trial is going or Loki's current emotional state.

//-//-/-//-//-//

As soon as lunchtime begins, you join the Slytherin table, where some of the students have placed a radio on the table, equally with other students from the other houses, to listen to the trial.

You are not surprised that a student's trial is such an interesting topic for everyone, but after the school started talking about Wanda being a scarlet witch, and the theories circulating around the halls, it was to be expected.

So you sit back while biting your fingertips and listening.

"And now directly from the Ministry of Magic, the trial of seventeen-year-old witch Wanda Maximoff, daughter of legendary witch Erik L-"

Your attention is slightly diverted from the narrative when loud laughter catches your ears.

They are Gryffindor and Slytherin students, exchanging coins. You don't need to hear the conversation to know they are gambling about the trial, the mean laughter and glances in the direction of you and your sisters are enough.

And as if she could feel your growing fury, Gamora touches your shoulder gently.

"Just ignore them, Y/N." She urges and you clench your jaw. " Everything is going to be okay with Wanda."

"I hope you're right, Gamora." You grumble, turning your attention back to the radio.

The narration of the newspaper is generic, and you discover that the audience has been closed off to the reporters.

You take a deep breath, concentrating.

No strange feeling, so Wanda is safe.

You wonder if Erik and Pietro are by her side during the whole thing.

It is only at the end of lunchtime that you have the result.

"It's amazing how things unfold in the ministry this afternoon." Counted the reporter with almost excitement. "After a unanimous vote, the witch Wanda Maximoff was found guilty of endangering her fellow students by not registering as a scarlet witch to the ministry of magic, after it was proven that her father, the sorcerer Erik Lehnsherr knew of her condition, as well as the affiliation with the criminal, Agatha Harkness was also mentioned. The ministry finally decided on Wanda Maximoff's expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizarding"

You felt your stomach plummet.

And everything became a little muffled around you, a soft whistle in your ear. You think Gamora and Nebula were calling for you, but you were getting up, feeling the room getting too small.

Stumbling out, you loosened the knot of your tie, finally stopping in the courtyard as you leaned your body against a pillar.

Wanda had been expelled from Hogwarts, publicly exposed as a Scarlet Witch, and tried as a criminal. You wondered if they would break her wand. Banned wizards led horrible lives.

Your sisters and friends caught up with you quickly, and you let them hug you.

In a few minutes Director Strange is catching up with you as well, and you release Gamora's grip to talk to him.

"Professor, I need to..."

"You cannot leave Hogwarts, Miss Stark." He interrupts with a wave of his hands and you frown in confusion, ready to protest but he is already speaking. "Tony sent a patronus as soon as the results came out, he already figured you'd want to see Miss Maximoff. The ministry is a mess, and Wanda will be staying with her father there for the minister's final decisions. You should stay here, where you are safe."

"That's not fair!" You squawk angrily. "Wanda needs me, I must-"

"She needs you to be safe." He interrupts again seriously, and then lowers his tone slightly as he notices the curious looks of the surrounding students. "Be rational, Miss Stark. Now that the Wizarding community knows the nature of Wanda's powers, how long before Mephisto has enough information and discovers your identity as protector."

You swallow dryly, clenching your fists begrudgingly. Stephen is right. You look away, and he sighs, placing his hand on your shoulder.

"Wanda will be fine, even without her NEWTS, she is an extraordinary witch." He says. "And the year is coming to an end, soon you will be able to see her again."

"She needs me now." You grumble annoyed, turning away from the professor's touch. He looks at you for a moment and then clears his throat.

"I'll see what I can do, Miss Stark." He says."In the meantime, focus on your studies, and be careful."

You frown at Stephen's words, but he is already turning and leaving before you can ask.

As you turn to your friends, Gamora has a worried look on her face.

"Are you okay?" She asks, and you sigh, agreeing to hug her again as you mumble no.

"I can feel how upset she is, Gamora." You grumble against your sister's shirt, wishing you could hug Wanda now. Gamora squeezes you against her arms, and you thank her for her intention even if it isn't enough.

The next few days are like a blur for you.

Many letters arrive, as do many editions of the Daily Prophet.

When the picture of the day Wanda's wand was broken comes out on the front page and you see her tired face, you have to run out of the common room to keep from crying in front of your colleagues.

Everyone writes to you, even Carol, everyone but the Maximoffs.

It is frustrating, and honestly, it breaks your heart in many ways.

The news of a Scarlet Witch after a century is almost as bombastic as Mephisto's return, and you're not surprised that many of your colleagues would start to comment on the possibility of Wanda working with him or against him.

It's overwhelming how everyone talks about her, but all you can feel is how much you miss her around the castle, around you.

You couldn't even remember that your magic is stable, and with everything that has happened, you haven't had time to figure out how to fix things.

Stephen tried to help, but he didn't know what was going on. At least the theoretical part of magic you were able to master, and you hoped to get at least an acceptable score in some subjects.

Only almost a week and a half after the trial, Professor Strange interrupts the potions class to talk to you.

Ignoring the curious stares and whispers of your classmates, you ask Professor Munroe to excuse you, and leave the room.

"What is wrong, professor?" You ask curiously as you close the door, watching Stephen with his hands in his pockets.The dungeons feel emptier without the ministry aurors around the castle.

"Saturday, in the Astronomy tower, nine-thirteen at night." He says as he hands you a small gold key, causing you to frown in confusion. "You will have exactly one hour, Miss Stark. Not a second more."

You stare at the object in your hand, and understand. A portal key. To Wanda.

"Thank you, Professor." You say, and Stephen nods before leaving.

You turn back to potions, the object in your pocket. You could barely contain your anxiety.

//-//-//-//-//-//-//

Tag list> @imapotatao / @aimezvousbrahms/ @ensorcellme/ @helloalycia || @mionemymind / @abimess / @stephanieromanoff / @yourtaletotell / @tomy5girls / @justagaypanicking / @thegayw1tch / @idek-5 // @myperfectlovepoem // @helloalycia // @ENSORCELLME // @AIMEZVOUSBRAHMS // @drpepperobsessed // @sighsam // @olsensnpm // @sxfwap // @table57 // @madamevirgo // @causeitswhatjesuswouldfreakingdo // @emptysince18x // @xastrydx || @yuhloversxx || @ymzki-haruki || @wouldirunofftheworldsomeday || @lostandsearching || @lezzzbehonesthere || @musicinourlips || @chaekhan || @diaryoflife || @nervoustrack || @aquamarinescarlet || @cristin-rjd || @idamaemann || @fortunatelynerdylight || @iliketozoneout || @blackwow34 // @tiny--freak || @spongebobtentacles || @cyberbonesworld ||

A/F/N> Place your bets for my next comeback (a week, a month or tomorrow?). If I delete the blog, and you're in love with this story for some reason I don't know about because there are so many better things to read, know that I'll post everything on AO3 if I ever do.

#wanda maximoff x reader #wanda x reader #scarlet witch x reader #marvel imagines #The Scarlet Witch Prophecy #elizabeth olsen x reader #harry potter au

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helloalycia · 3 years

Text

teenage dirtbag [three] // wanda maximoff

summary: Wanda's boyfriend continues to be an aggravation in your life, causing some distance between you and Wanda

warning/s: none

author's note: i really appreciate the feedback you guys gave in the last part – it’s always motivating to read your reactions/comments 🥰

Sorting things out with Wanda made everything return to normal in no time. So much in fact that she decided I was worth inviting to her and her brother's birthday party.

Never in a million years did I expect the most popular girl in our grade to know who I was, let alone invite me to her birthday party, so to say I was surprised was an understatement.

"It's not a big deal if you can't make it," she said when she handed me the invitation in class. "I mean, I'd love it if you could, but yeah, no pressure."

I was in awe, accepting the invite and reading it quickly. It must have been a pretty expensive party if she was giving out special invites, that's for sure.

"You want me to come?" I asked, still unsure whether this was a joke or not.

"Only if you want to," she said quickly, eyes darting around the room and anywhere but at me. "Like I said, you don't have to. It's not a big deal and– I– yeah." She pressed her lips together and stopped rambling, offering me a small smile.

"Thanks," I said quietly, slotting the invite in my notebook. "I'll, er, I'll think about it."

She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and faced forward, nodding. "Yeah, sure, no rush."

After that awkward conversation, I discovered she'd also invited Y/BF/N, the two of them developing a little friendship the more she'd hung out with me. He didn't mind going, but only wanted to do so if I went.

"I feel like I kinda don't wanna go," I admitted to him after school as we were studying in the library.

"Oh?" He rose an eyebrow. "And why's that?"

I played with the pencil in my hand. "I don't know, it's just– it's gonna be full of all of her other friends. And they don't really like me. Plus, her dick of a boyfriend is gonna be there. I just think she might have invited me to be nice. Like she might have felt like she had to because we sit together, y'know?"

"I think you know that isn't true," he said knowingly. "Maybe, just maybe, she actually wants us there, wants you there, to celebrate her birthday."

I chewed the inside of my mouth, giving it some thought. But the idea of going to Wanda's house party and seeing a bunch of people I didn't care about getting pissed wasn't comforting. Besides, even if I went, I'd probably see Wanda once before she'd get scooped away by Nate. What was the point?

"Nah, I don't think I'm going," I decided. "She won't notice. I'll just get her a present instead."

Y/BF/N sighed, clearly not impressed with my answer. Nonetheless, he said, "Okay, suit yourself."

"You can go if you want," I added, knowing his presence wasn't linked with mine.

"No Y/N, no party," he said with a dismissive shrug, and I couldn't help but smile.

"Such a good friend," I said teasingly, but there was truth to my words. And I knew he knew that.

When I saw photos and videos of Wanda and Pietro's party all over my social media the day after, I knew I'd made the right choice in not going. It was the same visuals of everyone getting drunk, doing stupid shit and making a mess. Call me a loser, but that wasn't really my scene. Pietro and Wanda both seemed to enjoy it though, judging from the pictures.

Instead, I bought her a birthday present, knowing I didn't have to but I kind of wanted to, and planned to give it to her when she turned up to class. It was her birthday today, despite throwing the party over the weekend, so I hoped it would make up for my absence (thought I doubted she noticed).

She showed up and settled beside me as I was writing the date in my notebook, making me look up to see she'd made an extra effort to dress up for her birthday, looking fancier than usual. I couldn't help but smile at the giant '18' birthday badge pinned to her jacket.

"Happy birthday, Wanda," was the first thing I said when I saw her. "You look amazing."

A bashful smile appeared on her lips. "Thank you, Y/N."

"I hope your party went well," I said, giving her my full attention whilst trying not to drool over how beautiful she looked.

Surprisingly, her smile faded and her eyebrows knitted together. "Yeah, it did... could you not make it? I tried looking for you and– yeah..."

I opened my mouth to speak, admittedly a little embarrassed that she'd caught me out. I was sure she wouldn't notice – the pictures made it seem like there were loads of guests, I'd definitely have blended in if I were there – but clearly I was mistaken.

"I just thought–" she began, before shaking her head. "Never mind."

"Sorry, I thought–" I started, but like her, didn't know what to say. "Parties aren't my thing," I admitted truthfully. "But it looked fun. You enjoyed it, right?"

She nodded, a small forced smile on her lips. "Yeah, right. It's cool. No biggie."

I swallowed awkwardly. It seemed like a biggie and now I felt bad.

"I, er, got you a gift," I blurted, hoping to change the subject. Reaching into my backpack, I pulled out the terribly wrapped present and held it out nervously. "I hope you, er, like it."

Her eyebrows raised as her eyes flickered between the present and I. "Oh? You didn't have to. I wasn't expecting anything."

Was it hot in here or was it just me?

I pulled my collar away from my neck, hoping to circulate some air. "I wanted to. It's not a big deal."

She accepted the gift, fingers brushing mine and making me even more nervous, before opening it up. Her eyes sparkled with delight as she revealed a brand new leather paintbrush carry case.

"The one you always carry around is tattered and falling apart, so I thought I'd get you a new one," I explained, feeling like I had to. "I mean, unless the other one has some sort of sentimental value, then in that case, I can just return this."

"Are you kidding? I love it!" she exclaimed, looking to me with a grin. "It's beautiful, Y/N. I don't even know what else to say."

My shoulders relaxed, a relieved smile tugging at my lips. "Good. Th-that's good. I'm glad you like it."

Without warning, she moved forward off her stool and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, pulling me in for a hug. I was startled, unable to think straight with her body pressed so close to mine and her floral perfume wafting into my nose. Why did she have to smell so good?

"Thank you," she muttered, pulling away but not quite letting go. Her eyes were glowing as they watched me carefully, accompanying her weak-in-the-knees smile. I was sure I'd melt. "It means a lot."

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak for fear I'd say something stupid. I resisted the urge to look down at her lips, which were pulled into a small, appreciative smile. She let go of me, looking to the case again and unravelling it. I caught my breath meanwhile, my senses still on override as her perfume lingered.

She was just so damn beautiful.

—

"Okay, how about this – robotic or organic aliens. Which would you rather invade our planet?" Y/BF/N asked.

I chuckled at his question. "Definitely haven't thought about that one, but let's see..."

We were hanging in the bleachers out near the football field as we waited for football practice to end. Y/BF/N had a Film project to do and needed to film the field, so I offered to help like the good friend I was.

"Probably organic," I answered as I balanced on the bleachers, standing up and tiptoeing down them like steps. "At least we could reason with them if they tried to kill us because they'd have a conscience. Robotic aliens would just be programmed to take over and that's it."

Y/BF/N seemed against the idea as he played with his camera. "Yeah, but if they were robotic, all we'd have to do is launch a missile at them and they'd explode. You can break metal. It's harder to break organic matter."

I stifled a laugh. "You've given this much thought, I see."

He gave me a knowing look. "You telling me you don't think aliens exist?"

I stopped tiptoeing and stood still as I looked down at him with humoured eyes. "You know I know aliens exist."

He waved his hand like that was enough reasoning. "There you go then!"

I laughed, wondering how he thought of this stuff, then continued to balance as I walked down the bleachers. Probably the wrong choice as when I heard a voice call me, I looked up, saw it was Wanda, then proceeded to miss a step and fall onto my arse.

"Oh God, Y/N, are you okay?" she asked, moving forward to help me.

My face heated up as Y/BF/N laughed his arse off beside me. I accepted Wanda's hand and let her pull me up, before letting go immediately when I could handle it myself. Her presence always made me nervous, but this was just terrible.

"Yeah, I'm good," I said, glancing at her and freezing at her piercing gaze and suppressed smile.

"You sure?" she asked, glancing at Y/BF/N, before trying to hide her own laughter.

Fuck me, why was I such a mess whenever she was around?

"Very sure," I said, though my back began to ache from where I hit it. "What's up, anyway?"

Y/BF/N finally shut up, to my relief, and Wanda minimised her laughter before scratching her head.

"I'm waiting for practice to end so I can take Pietro home," she said, nodding to the field. "I saw you both sat here and thought I'd say hi. Are you guys watching practice?"

"Not really," I answered, before tilting my head to Y/BF/N. "We're just waiting for it to end so Y/BF/N can film for his project."

"Ooh, that sounds interesting," she said, intrigued and looking to him now. "What's that about?"

As he caught her up on it, I found myself checking Wanda out without realising. She was animated as she listened to Y/BF/N talk about his assignment, eyes giving him all of her attention, and a permanent smile was fixed on her lips as she listened to him. Though it wasn't directed at me, I felt butterflies swirling a storm in my stomach and clutched it, hoping they'd go away. I loved and hated the feeling all at once.

Breaking me from my reverie, a football flew past all three of us and hit the bleachers, startling us all. We looked in the direction it came from and saw the football team looking back at us, some laughing and some disgruntled. Two players ran towards us and when they got close enough, I made them out as Pietro and Nate.

Nate was laughing as he looked between us all, before his gaze fell on me. "It's Y/N, right? I feel like I'm always throwing that thing at you. Sorry about that."

But his constant laughing and lack of guilt refuted his words. I merely clenched my jaw and narrowed my eyes his way, not that he seemed to care nor notice. I was a mere fly in a world that revolved around him. He'd never notice.

"Babe, I'm sorry, I didn't even know you were over here," he added, looking to Wanda. "You okay?"

Wanda crossed her arms and seemed frustrated. "I'm fine, Nate. Just get your ball."

He shrugged and grabbed his ball. Before leaving, he pressed a kiss to Wanda's cheek which made me wince, but she made no attempt in enjoying it. He didn't seem to care as he took off running back to his team. Pietro smiled apologetically at the three of us.

"I'm sorry," he said genuinely. "He can be such a dick sometimes."

That was the understatement of the century.

With that, he turned and ran back to his team to finish up. Wanda sighed, running a hand through her hair, as Y/BF/N and I exchanged glances.

"I should get the car running," she said awkwardly, pointing a thumb over her shoulder and towards the car park. "Good luck with your assignment, Y/BF/N. And I'll see you tomorrow, Y/N."

Waving goodbye with an awkward smile, I watched her leave and wondered the same thing I always did whenever Nate decided to make an appearance in my life.

How could she be dating such a dick?

—

Apart from the birthday party I didn't go to, I'd never been invited (or had a reason to go) to Wanda's house. I'd seen it, rode my bike past it, but never actually been in it. So, when she invited me to her place to work on a project we'd been assigned in class, I was unsure how to feel. She was adamant though and I had no reason to say no, so the only thing left to do was say yes. Even when she offered to drive me there after school.

"This is your car?" I asked with disbelief.

I knew absolutely nothing about cars, but I wasn't blind. Hers was a gorgeous deep red colour with a convertible roof that was currently lowered so anyone in it would feel the sun on their back and wind in their hair.

"Yeah, you like it?" she asked as she got into the driver's seat.

I gulped and sat in the passenger's seat, throwing my backpack at my feet. "It's so nice. You sure you don't mind me drinking in this?"

I had a Pepsi bottle in my hand and was deathly afraid of opening it now in case I spilt it and the cleaning bill would be more than I made in a year at the pizza parlour.

She laughed, already pulling out of the car park. "Of course. Don't be silly."

I glanced in her direction, trying not to get distracted by how good she looked in the driver's seat. She was wearing a red leather jacket, funnily enough, matching the exterior of her car, and she had dark eyeliner around her eyes, accentuating the shape and colour of them and leaving me speechless whenever she looked my way.

"There's CDs in the glove compartment," she was saying as she focused on the road. "Or you can mess around with the radio. It's up to you."

"CDs?" I asked, it piquing my interest. I reached into the glove compartment, adding, "What is this, the 2000s?"

She rolled her eyes playfully, accepting my teasing, as I flicked through the small stack of albums.

"I don't know, I guess I just like having the physical version," she said with a shrug. "It's kind of like a collection."

I chuckled at her need to explain herself, watching the way she rubbed her neck nervously, smiling with embarrassment. Looking back to the albums, a particular one grabbed my attention and I plucked it out with raised brows.

"Oh my God, you like Paramore?" I asked, looking to her with surprise. "Now it's definitely the 2000s."

Her cheeks flushed as she grew flustered. I nudged her in the side gently, getting her attention briefly.

"I'm kidding," I reassured, tilting my head her way playfully. "I actually love Paramore. They're my favourite band."

"Really?" she asked with surprise as I put the CD in her car. I hummed in response, to which she continued, "Have you ever seen them live?"

As For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic played quietly in the background, I nodded my head. "Yeah, once. It was a few years ago, but the tickets were shitty and I could just about make them out on stage in the distance."

Wanda laughed, the sound making my heart skip a beat. "No, that's so sad!"

I chuckled in agreement. "Yeah. It was, but oh well. They have a tour coming up this summer, right? Maybe I can get better tickets this time 'round... what about you? Have you ever seen them live?"

She hummed, making a turn at some traffic lights and chewing her lower lip as she focused on doing so. It was definitely the wrong time, but I found myself admiring how attractive it was, especially when her jaw tensed and her defined jawline was on display.

"Yeah, I saw them a few times," she finally responded, pulling me from my stupor. "Some really good seats, some really shitty ones." She giggled at the end, making me smile. "Maybe we could go to that concert in the summer. If you're up for it?"

This seemed like one of those times where you made plans with a friend that you knew would never happen, so to not cause an awkwardness in the conversation, I nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, maybe."

She glanced at me and I mirrored her smile, the flash of excitement in her eyes knocking me breathless.

When we reached her house, I was awestruck at how big it was from the inside. I mean, it looked huge from the outside, but the inside was even better. Her family were rich, I knew that, but this was some other level of rich.

"Here, c'mon, I'll get you a drink, then we can go into the dining room to start," Wanda said, failing to recognise my amazement and instead leading me to the kitchen. "We have tropical juice, apple juice, water, Sprite, Cola... which d'you want?"

I settled at the island, taking a seat and subtly admiring her kitchen. "Er, apple juice is fine with me."

She smiled brightly before pouring me a glass, whilst pouring herself some Sprite. Standing opposite me, we both took a moment to have a drink, but didn't get chance to exchange words as her mum entered the room and noticed me instantly.

"Y/N, it's so lovely to see you again!" she said kindly, patting me on the shoulder before heading to the fridge. "You girls hanging out? Studying?"

"We have a project," Wanda filled in as I nodded in agreement. "We alright to claim the dining room?"

After grabbing some water from the fridge, Wanda's mum pressed a kiss to her daughter's cheek. "Sure thing, sweetie. If you need anything, just let me know." Smiling once more at me, she said, "It's good to see you, Y/N."

"You too," I said with a friendly smile before she left.

"Come on," Wanda said, motioning for me to follow. "We have tons to do."

The next hour and a half was spent with Wanda and I planning out our project, our work sprawled along the dining table messily. We were making progress, until she got a call suddenly. It seemed serious as she gave me an apologetic glance and excused herself. I let her go and leaned back in my seat, wondering what I could do as I waited for her to return. That thought was resolved quite quickly when Pietro popped his head in the doorway and spotted me.

"Y/N! What an honour to welcome you to our humble abode," he exclaimed, entering the room fully. "What brings you here?"

Pietro's presence always brought an amused smile to my lips. "Wanda and I are working on a Chemistry project. She's just nipped out for a phone call."

He tutted dramatically, crossing his arms. "Well, well, well. We can't have that! Wanda needs to learn to entertain her guests. C'mon. I was about to head to the gaming room and could use the company."

I was visibly surprised. "You have a gaming room? Dude, that's awesome!"

He laughed. "C'mon."

Joining Pietro, the two of us headed to this so-called gaming room and I was not disappointed. There was a huge TV with a PlayStation and Nintendo Switch connected to it, a snooker table, a foosball table, a dart board, some old arcade games – it was amazing, any gamer's biggest dream.

"What you feeling, princess?" he said with that flirtatious smile of his.

I rolled my eyes playfully. He was being overtly flirty, more so than his sister was – was it a Maximoff personality trait or something? – and I wasn't sure whether he meant it or was just being his usual self.

"Are you flirting?" I deadpanned, tilting my head curiously. "I can't tell."

He pocketed his hands, swinging back on the heels of his feet. "That depends. Is it working?"

Despite my lack of interest in him like that, I felt my face heat up at the attention. "Pietro, I must tell you that any moves you attempt to make kind of won't work."

"And why's that?" he asked, sitting on the edge of the snooker table with a cheeky smile on his lips. "Am I not your type?"

"Unless you change into a girl, then no," I played along, making him flush with embarrassment. "Hate to break it to you, but I'm gay."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense," he mumbled to himself, before sighing and meeting my eyes. "We can still be friends, right? Or is that forbidden since you're already friends with my sister?"

I laughed and approached him. "Friends works. I don't think Wanda will care. I certainly don't."

He grinned. "Awesome! Well, d'you wanna play a round of foosball?"

"Sure," I said with an amused expression. "Bet I can kick your arse."

He pushed himself off the table and feigned surprise. "Oh? Game on, Y/L/N."

I didn't realise how long Wanda had been on the phone until I managed to get through three rounds of foosball and was in the middle of a snooker game with Pietro.

"You may have beat me at foosball, but you're terrible at this," he pointed out with stifled laughter.

I'd missed my third shot and it was more funny than it was embarrassing.

"Your talking distracts me," I said dismissively, before lining up the next shot with my cue.

He watched as I tried to take my shot before sighing loudly. I glanced at him with a quirked brow.

"You have a thought you'd like to share?" I asked playfully.

He hesitated, moving forward to correct my posture. "Look, if you just aim it like this–"

"Don't even think about it, Romeo," I said jokingly, standing up straight and pushing him away gently. "I know what you're thinking."

He laughed. "What? I was just going to help you aim!"

I gave him a knowing look. "So holding me close is just a bonus?"

"Fine, take your shot without my help and see what happens," he said dismissively, waving his hand.

"I'll do just that," I said with confidence, before bending down and taking my shot. The ball hit the other and neither were pocketed, which was an achievement as I'd got the cue ball in several times before, but still pretty shit as I didn't score any points.

Pietro smiled with satisfaction, leaning on his cue. "You happy with that?"

I held in a laugh as I looked to him. "Shut up."

He chuckled before bumping me out the way. "Now for the professional."

Bending down to take his shot, he pulled back his cue before hitting the balls. They rolled around on the table and one ball was about to go in, but I quickly grabbed it before he could get the point.

"Y/N!" he shouted between laughter. "That's cheating!"

"Technically we didn't establish rules," I pointed out, before moving backwards as he tried to grab it from my hand. "What do you say to calling it a draw and playing something else?"

"I say that's a childish way to admit you've lost," he responded, before moving forward quickly. I dodged his attempt and he pursed his lips. "Y/N."

"Pietro."

He smirked. "Seriously?"

I grinned.

He tried to grab it again and ended up chasing me around the room as I avoided giving in. Taking the piss out of Y/BF/N enough times had prepared me for moments like this, so I was able to avoid Pietro long enough to run into whoever walked through the door.

"Shit, Wanda, I'm sorry," I said between laughter, steadying both me and her.

She smiled with confusion, about to speak, but Pietro caught up to me and lifted me up, throwing me onto the couch before I could protest.

"No more cheating," he said sternly, as I lifted my head from the pile of cushions on the couch to look up at him.

"You're an arse," I said, pushing myself up off the couch.

"And you're a sore loser!"

We had a mini staring competition before the two of erupted into laughter.

"You're not half bad, Pietro," I complimented as he helped me up.

"Thank you, princess," he said, the flirtatious smile on his lips again.

I shoved him in the shoulder playfully before looking to Wanda, who was chewing on her lip as she looked between Pietro and I with an unreadable expression.

"So, what prompted you to leave Y/N alone for an hour?" Pietro asked, wrapping an arm around my shoulder, making me shove him away. He grinned at me before looking to Wanda.

"Nate called," Wanda responded carefully, arms crossed as she continued to look between us. God, I hoped she didn't think Pietro and I liked each other. That would be embarrassing.

Pietro scoffed from beside me, making Wanda sigh with annoyance.

"Don't start, Piet," she said and gave him a look which he seemed to understand.

By the sounds of it, Pietro didn't seem to like Wanda's dick of a boyfriend either. That was strange since wasn't impressing the brother the first part of being in a relationship with someone? And they were on the same football team, so I figured he'd at least tolerate him.

"Are we alright to get back to studying?" Wanda asked, directing her stare to me. The annoyance she held for Pietro was still present in her eyes and I suddenly felt nervous when she looked my way.

"Yeah, of course," I said, before giving Pietro a half-smile. "Rematch at snooker next time. Sound good?"

"Try to keep the balls on the table and we'll see," he teased, before nodding to Wanda. "You should get back to your project before Wanda kills us both with her deadly glare."

I smiled awkwardly, looking back to Wanda as she was indeed glaring at her brother. Clearly there was some sibling rivalry going on here, and I definitely didn't want to get in the middle of it, so I headed to Wanda, signalling I was ready to leave.

The two of us headed back to the dining room in an uncomfortable silence. I felt like I'd done something wrong and she was giving me the silent treatment which was strange. Then I figured it was probably something with Nate that made her annoyed, so didn't question it too much.

We sat back down and I looked at what we'd done so far to try and pick up where we left off, but then she spoke out of the blue, taking me by surprise.

"Do you like my brother?"

It was so abrupt that I took a moment to acknowledge it, blinking. "What?"

"Pietro," she clarified, saying it with such dismissiveness like it wasn't a big deal. Her attention was on the books before us as she continued, "Do you like him?"

I tried not to laugh as I shook my head. "No, Wanda. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's a great guy. But yeah, no, I don't like him like that."

She chewed her lip, nodding, but I swear I saw a hint of a smile on her lips. I hoped it wasn't the thought of Pietro and I that made her annoyed. I wasn't that bad, was I? I know she cared about her brother and was probably overprotective, but me being his girlfriend couldn't have been that bad, right?

We got back to work in no time, getting a lot done. I didn't realise how late it was getting until Wanda's mum poked her head in, asking if I wanted to stay for dinner.

"Dinner?" I asked, eyebrows raising with surprise. I checked my watch and realised how long I'd been here. "Damn, maybe I should head back."

"Nonsense, you must stay," her mum insisted. "Y/M/N won't mind. A daughter of hers is a daughter of mine."

"You can even sleepover if you want," Wanda offered, and I almost choked on my own spit. "It's getting pretty late."

I shook my head, forcing a small smile so they wouldn't get offended. "Honestly, it's fine. I can head back."

"Please?" Wanda asked with a hopeful expression. "It's the least I can do. I kinda wasted your time for an hour earlier..."

"I should ask my mum," I said, chewing on the inside of my mouth.

"Oh, I'll ring and let her know," Wanda's mum said breezily, before looking to Wanda. "D'you think you can clear your things up? Your brother is gonna set the table."

"Sure, mum." Wanda smiled her way as she left, before looking to me. "I've got clothes and a spare toothbrush you can use tonight."

I smiled awkwardly, nodding. Sleeping over at my crush's house wasn't how I thought I'd be spending my Wednesday evening, yet here we were.

#wanda maximoff au #wanda maximoff x you #wanda maximoff x reader #wanda maximoff imagine #wanda maximoff #elizabeth olsen #marvel imagine #mcu imagine #marvel #mcu

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