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thetravelerwrites · 3 years

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Henry (Part 2) Lemon

Rating: Explicit Relationship: Female Human/Male Naga Additional Tags: Exophilia, Monster Boyfriend, Naga, Amphiptere, Friends to Lovers, Best Friends to Lovers, Demisexual, Graysexual, Content Warnings: Cam Worker, Cam Model, Sex Worker Words: 4467

The reader breaks a rule and meets Henry’s family, where awkward questions make for an awkward dinner. Please reblog and leave feedback!

The Traveler's Masterlist

After two and a half months, Henry finally had the money he needed to open up the second location even without renting out the opposite apartment, and the two of you were scouting for the new place. You’d decided that you would run one of them and he would run the other. You were sad that you wouldn’t be working together anymore, but the two of you lived together now, so at least you’d be able to spend time together at home. Henry was also talking about hiring on additional employees if the second location did well, so the two of you wouldn’t have to work so hard.

“What do you think of this place?” He asked. “It’s a little small for what I was thinking, but it’s right next door to a popular wedding venue. We could do special deals for the weddings.”

“That would generate a lot of business, even in the slow season,” You replied. “And it wouldn’t matter if it was small if we had two locations. We could just deliver what we didn’t have here from the main building. It’s only ten minutes away.”

“Right,” He agreed. “So? Is it a yes to this one?”

“Well, it’s your decision, babe,” You said. “It’s your money, your business.”

“And you’re my girlfriend,” He said, pulling you into his arms. “And my business partner. You input matters to me. We make all decisions together.”

You smiled at him fondly. “God, I love you.”

He grinned down at you. “I love you, too. So?”

You looked around one more time and said, “It’s a yes. I like this place. It’s got character.”

“Right? It’s charming. We can work with charming. I’ll pay the deposit on Monday.” He picked you up and swung you around, as well as he could with his long tail in the way. “I’m so excited! Owning my own shop was my dream, and I never expected to be able to expand!”

“I’m so happy for you, babe,” you said, kissing him. “For both of us.”

He kissed you back twice and set you back down on your feet. “So, you’re still up for this weekend? Meeting the parents and everything?”

“Of course, I’m dying to meet them,” You said. “Do… they know about your side job?”

“No, they don’t,” He said firmly. “And I’d like to keep it that way, please. I mean, you know I’m not ashamed of my job, but it’s still my parents. All parents know their kids jerk off and stuff, but they definitely don’t want to talk about it.”

“This is slightly different, don’t you think?”

He shrugged. “It’s still embarrassing to tell them that I take my clothes off for money, even if there’s no touching involved.”

“Well, they won’t hear it from me, then,” You said. “Your secret is safe.”

“Thank you,” He said, smiling. He took your hand and led you out of the vacant building and toward the bus stop. There was a bus for larger non-humans that came twice a day.

“Have you told them much about me?” You asked, sitting on the bench to wait.

“I never shut up about you,” Henry said ruefully. “I’ve been talking about you for years, even before we met. I think they knew I was in love with you before I did. My sister literally told me to shut up once, because I kept gushing about you.”

“That’s sweet,” You said.

“You don’t talk to your folks much, do you?” He asked.

“Not really,” You replied, sitting at the bus stop with him sidling up to coil next to you. “Lots of stuff went down when I left that my parents weren’t cool with, and they said a lot of things that I wasn’t cool with, so we’re just not cool with each other in general.”

“Hmm,” He said. “Well, my sister will like you.” His eyes narrowed. “That may not be a good thing. She keeps trying to steal my girlfriends.”

You laughed. “Well, she doesn’t have a chance. I’m over the moon for you.”

He grinned at you. “That’s good to hear.” He lay his head on your shoulder briefly. “I’m madly in love with you.”

“Yay,” You said softly, kissing the top of his head, careful not to stab yourself on his horns.

“Can we go home and have celebratory sex?” He asked.

“Absolutely. Then we’ll order dinner and play a round of Final Fantasy XIV.”

“It’s a date. I do have a cam session later tonight, though, so I have factor that in.”

“Oh, if that’s the case, we should wait on the sex,” You said, looking down the street and seeing the bus approach. You stood up. “You should be fresh for your clients. We can have all the boning we want afterward. Anything fancy planned?”

“Nope, just a show and share, standard stuff. But it’s a new client, so that’s typical. ”

“Have you dropped a client? You usually don’t take new ones unless one either stops buying slots or you ban someone.”

“One of my old patrons moved on, so I held an auction for his slots. The money from that auction was the final monetary push I needed for the new location,” He said, following you to the curb as the bus stopped in front of you.

“Well, thank you to that person,” You said with a laugh, getting up into the bus. Henry followed you.

After getting home, the two of you ordered some sushi and played video games. Around eight o’clock, he set the controller down.

“Time for the session?” You asked, powering down the game console.

“It will be soon. I need to get ready. Want to help out?”

“Always. That new purple bolero would look lovely, and we can put some spray glitter in your hair.”

“That shit takes forever to get out!” He whined.

“Yeah, but it looks so cute! And I’ll help you wash it out later.”

“Promise?”

“Yes, I promise,” You said. “Come on, I’ll get you all dressed up and looking pretty for your new client.”

“You’re the best, babe.”

You had gotten pretty adept at getting him ready for his shows quickly, and honestly it was a great bonding moment between the two of you. He stayed still and obedient like a puppy while you were doing in and he always looked like a total snack when he was done. Not that he didn’t normally, but the costumes were a great garnish.

When you were finished, you kissed him, said, “Have fun,” And left him to his work.

He’d moved his camming desk and rig to the bedroom so that the two of you could set up his and hers gaming stations in his old office, where the two of you spent a lot of time.

You’d just sat down to play some Among Us with friends when you realized that you’d left your phone in the bedroom. You swore at yourself for being so thoughtless. The number one rule was never interrupt a camming session, it could cost him clients if they found out he had a girlfriend. Some might even want you to participate, and that was not something you were up for.

But you also didn’t want your phone to ring while he was in a video chat. You were usually so careful, so this made you really mad at yourself. Henry couldn’t afford to lose customers right now, with opening the new location. He’d need every penny he could earn.

You knew he kept his Discord up when he was working, in case any emergencies arose and you could notify him, so you pulled it up and typed, >I forgot my phone in the bedroom. Can I come get it?

He typed back, >Sure, just try to be quiet, please.

You tip-toed to the bedroom and pushed the door open gingerly. Henry was talking to his new client playfully. He flicked his eyes over to you and gave you a quick wink before returning his attention to the screen.

Henry’s desk was circular and facing inward toward the wall, so there was be a solid background rather than showing his clients your bedroom. Your phone was on the nightstand next to the bed-nest, out of frame.

“So, tell me a little about yourself, sweetheart,” He said sultrily. “What do you like? What do you like having done to you?” Henry was wearing an earpiece through which the client responded. This prevented you from having to listen and the client from hearing you rattling around in the apartment. “Mmm, that sounds fun. You want to show me, or would you like me to show you first?”

You stealthed across the room and picked up your phone, turning it to silent. When you turned back around, Henry had removed the bolero jacket and was touching his chest suggestively and biting his lip.

“You look so pretty when you do that,” He said with a low-pitched growl in his voice.

Watching him in his element was… kinda hot. Instead of leaving, you sat down quietly on the bed-nest and watched him. He flicked his eyes over to you again for a millisecond, and you heard him typing.

>What are you doing?

>Admiring you. You responded. >You look so sexy.

>You’re breaking the rule.

>Then tell me to leave.

You could tell he was suppressing a smirk, but he didn’t tell you to leave.

>Just be as quiet as possible and you can stay, just this once, He texted you.

>Promise.

He continued the session with you reclining in the nest, watching him work. Normally in the first session with a new client, he didn’t go all the way, so to speak. It was more of a peep show and less of a full service. Usually it was a strip tease and some light touching to entice them to continue their subscription.

The way he was putting on a show for the camera, the exaggerated movements, the low, husky voice, the touching, the sly smirk on his lips, did things to your body. You squeezed your legs together and squirmed slightly, but he didn’t notice.

How much would he let you get away with, you wondered? Slowly, you let your hand slip into the sleep shorts you were wearing, spreading your legs a little.

This time he noticed. A minuscule flick of his eyes made them widen slightly, and he turned back to the keyboard while still engaging with the client.

>Stay quiet, He said. >Don’t make a sound.

He lowered his lashes and took a covert look at you, and you nodded.

He continued with his flirty introduction and laid the flattery on thick to the client, while every once in a while stealing a glance at you. You rocked your pelvis against your hand, massaging your pearl and biting your wrist to keep silent, all while watching him. You saw him pull his tail around under the desk and began stroking his slit in circles, the heads of his dual cocks just starting to peek out.

Just as you were getting to your first orgasm, Henry said, “Well, darling, our time is up. I hope I’ll see you again. I had a wonderful time with you.” He dipped his head down and looked up through his eyelashes, pouting slightly. “Come back soon. Until then, you take care, okay darling? Good night and sweet dreams.”

You came hard, gripping the sheets in one hand as you struggled to stay quiet. Henry exited out of the video chat, tore his earpiece off and threw it onto the desk, and darted toward you, pulling your hand out of your shorts and over your head.

“You…” He said with a dark, gruff tone. “You have been very… very… bad.”

This was a new side to sweet, cuddly Henry. “And what will you do?” You taunted, feeling a little thrill up your spine.

Without warning, he flipped you onto your stomach and snatched your shorts and underwear off. He pushed himself into you, not in a way that hurt, but definitely hard and unceremonious. Since you had climaxed already and were a bit sensitive, it was almost sensory overload, but it was so good, and you gave yourself over to it.

He took both of your hands and held them behind your back with only one of his while he used the other to grip your hip to pull you harder against him.

“Don’t be quiet now,” He growled at you. “Make noise. Moan for me, scream for me, let me hear your voice.”

You were happy to obey, being a little louder than you normally were. You grunted and groaned as he pounded into you roughly, a way he’d never been with you before. He was always gentle and affectionate, and you loved it, but this was on another level. It was hot and passionate and wild, and you were enthralled. You loved Sweet Henry, but Feral Henry was incredible.

Henry came violently against you, growling, and withdrew, thrusting the second cock into you and going full-throttle again. You were used to Henry’s stamina by now, so you could hang with it. Another burst of pleasure crashed into your body, and you screamed his name.

“That’s a good girl,” He snarled into your ear.

A third orgasm, and then a fourth, and by the fifth, you were getting tired. He released one last shot inside you and let you go, collapsing next to you in the nest. You lay face down and gasped.

After a moment or two, he got up on his elbow and stroked your back.

“Are you okay? Do you need some water? I didn’t hurt you, did I?” He asked softly.

Ah. Sweet Henry was back. You loved Sweet Henry. He was the best.

“No, I’m okay, babe,” You turned your head to look at him. “What was that? You’ve never been like that with me before.”

“I don’t know,” He said, looking a little shocked at himself. “I’ve never been like that with anyone before. Was it bad?”

“No, on the contrary, it was amazing,” You replied, turning on your side to face him. “I was just playing with you, I didn’t know I’d bring that out.”

“Me neither,” He said ruefully, laughing self-consciously and scratching the back of his head. “You’re sure I didn’t hurt you?”

“I’d have said so if you did, you know that,” You said, reaching up to stroke his face. “I won’t sit in on sessions again, I know it’s bad for business. But… maybe we could roleplay Feral Henry one night. That was fun.”

He grinned wickedly at you, kissing the inside of your hand. “I look forward to it.”

That Sunday, the two of you took a trip across town to see his family. Despite living in the same city, you hadn’t actually met them yet. They traveled often for work, as they owned an advertising company and worked with businesses across the country. Their daughter, Henry’s older sister, was their secretary and did most of their scheduling.

Henry didn’t want to be an executive with the company and preferred to stand on his own two feet… so to speak. Thankfully, his family was understanding and didn’t object when he decided to follow his dreams instead of staying with the family business. After all, the advertisement company had been his parents’ dream.

You and Henry took a large-race cab service out to the richer end of the city, where his parents lived. They’re house had been built with nagas specifically in mind, so it had been built all on the ground level, but it was huge. There were at least six bedrooms, as far as you could tell.

Henry’s parents, Ruth and Richard, met you at the door. Ruth’s scales were a solid bright blue from waist to tail. Her skin was a burnished bronze and her eyes were gold in color. She had a long, lovely set of wings in blues and gold. She wore a long halter top in a deep brown that matched her tumbling hair and complemented her skin tone.

Richard, on the other hand, did not have wings and as such, wore a simple button up shirt. He was grey in color, both scales and skin, with black rings along his tail and grey horns jutting up from the top of his head out of his pitch black hair.

Naga women didn’t have mammary glands, since their diet at birth was strictly meat, transitioning to other foods as they aged, so nagas often didn’t feel the need to wear clothing. Henry didn’t typically wear clothing unless he was camming or in the shop, in which he wore a basic white t-shirt specially made with a panel in the back to accommodate his wings. Sometimes an apron, if he was feeling fancy. Otherwise, he went without clothes. Today, he went super posh with a blue t-shirt, since this was a special occasion and everything.

“Henry!” Ruth said, rushing out to meet her son. “You look so handsome!” She hugged her son tightly, their wings touching lightly. “And is this your girlfriend? She’s so lovely! Come and give me a hug, sweetie!”

You walked into her muscular arms and she gave you a warm, motherly hug that felt really nice. Since you weren’t speaking to your own family, this was a type of touch you really missed.

“It’s so nice to meet you!” You said as you stepped away. “Henry has told me all about you.”

“Likewise!” She said, cupping your face. “Gosh, he’s talked about nothing else besides you for years!”

“Honey, don’t embarrass our son,” Richard said, coming out to shake your hand. “It is lovely to meet you at last.”

“You too, sir,” You replied.

“Oh, please, call me Richard. Come in, come in, dinner is almost ready,” He said, putting a hand behind your back, stopping just short of touching you, and ushered you inside.

You could smell a savory smell that made your mouth water as soon as you came inside. You followed Richard into the kitchen, where there was a large, high bar in place of a dinner table and a single barstool.

“We actually had to buy a chair!” Ruth said. “That was exciting. We did measurements and everything.”

Her excitement made you smile wide and feel a little shy. Henry grinned down at you and took your hand, leading you forward toward the barstool. You sat down and looked around the enormous, beautiful kitchen.

“Is she here yet?” A voice from the doorway said. Henry’s sister, Rea, entered unclothed, looking much like her brother but having her mother’s coloring.

“Rea, put on a shirt! We have company!” Ruth said.

“No, really, it’s okay, I’m used to Henry not wearing clothes, so it’s totally fine.” You hopped off the chair and went over to greet her and introduced yourself.

“I’m Rea, it’s great to meet you.” She looked you up and down. “You weren’t lying, Henry, she’s as hot as you described her.”

“Hey,” Henry said warningly, coming up behind you and hugging you close to his chest. “She’s taken.”

“For now,” Rea said to her brother, smiling slyly. He growled.

“Don’t fight,” Ruth said. “Come now, dinner is ready.”

Henry helped you pop back up on the stool and the naga family simply sat back on their tails. Dinner was rare steak and garden vegetables tossed in a homemade dressing and a dry white wine.

“Are you both amphiptere?” You asked Ruth and Richard.

“Yes,” Richard said. “But it’s less likely for the males to have wings than the females. Even among our own kind, Henry is rare.”

“Aww,” You said, patting his cheek. “That doesn’t surprise me one little bit. He’s special.”

“In the head, maybe,” Rea said, shoving a large piece of steak in her mouth. Henry shot her a dry look, but his mouth was too full to retort.

“Well, I’m glad he finally found someone who understands and appreciates his value,” Ruth said. “We were beginning to think he’d never get married.”

Henry choked on his wine, spitting it across the table. His parents and sister had to shield their plates.

“Mom, we’ve only been dating for a few months, it’s too early to be talking about marriage.”

“Oh, please, it’s inevitable, you’ve been in love with her for years!”

“Yes, but she wasn’t aware of that until recently!” He responded. “This is all new for her.”

“But you love her, right?”

“Mom, for the love of God,” Henry groaned, massaging his temples. “Yes, I love her, but it’s still basically the beginning of our relationship. You’re going to scare her off.”

“Well, what do you think?” Ruth asked, turning to you. “You’d marry him, wouldn’t you?”

You opened your mouth, taken aback.“I…”

“You don’t need to answer that,” Henry said. “Mom, really, don’t make her feel uncomfortable. Neither of us are thinking about marriage right now. Can we please talk about something else?”

“Mom, really, leave Henry alone,” Rea said.

“Alright, alright, I’m just saying--”

“Honey,” Richard said stiffly. “Please.”

Ruth sniffed and sighed, but fell silent. What followed was a rather awkward dinner.

As the two of you were leaving, Ruth apologized for being so pushy, having thought about her words over the strained silence. You told her it was okay, and that you were looking forward to seeing them again.

Back on the taxi heading toward town, you started thinking about it. Did he really not think about getting married one day? You were kind of hoping that eventually you would. Not soon, but eventually.

“Don’t worry about my mom,” Henry said, taking your hand. “She has that mom habit of not knowing when to stop.”

“No, it’s totally fine, she just caught me off guard, is all,” You replied.

“You sure you’re okay?” He asked, tilting his head down a bit to look at your face. “You seem bothered by something.”

“It’s just…” You tried to think of a way to phrase it that wouldn’t spook him but failed. “No, it’s nothing really.”

“No, no,” He said, bumping your shoulder with his lightly. “Come on, I know there’s something on your mind. I’m your best friend, right? You can tell me anything.”

You sighed. “Are you really not thinking about marriage at all? I don’t mean right now or anything, but like in the future? Maybe a few years from now?”

“Well…,” He began, his brow furrowing. “I mean, yeah, of course I am. I’ve been thinking about marrying you since before we ever met. But our relationship is new and I didn’t want to put that kind of pressure on you. And we’re opening a new shop! Who knows how long it’ll be before the chaos of that subsides long enough for us to even begin to plan a wedding? It could genuinely be years.”

“So… it’s a possibility, then?”

“More than a possibility, I’d say,” He said with a gentle smile. “But we need time to feel this out. Just because we love each other is no reason to rush into something we aren’t necessarily prepared for, you know? Marriage is… a lot.”

You nodded. “Yeah. And I agree with you, but I was just worried that you weren’t even considering it.”

“Well, don’t worry. It’s definitely on my mind.”

“Good.” You laid your head on his shoulder, linking your arm with his. “Do we still have ice cream at home?”

“Nope, I ate it earlier.”

“Boo, you suck.”

He chuckled. “We’ll stop at the store on the way home. Mint chocolate chip and some cookies?”

“You know me so well.” You raise your head and puckered your lips, and he bent down to kiss you.

“I do think that before we start talking seriously about marriage or anything like that, I want to stop camming.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, when I got into it, I never intended to be a career, it was just a side job to help me pay bills. It’s fun and I like it, but I don’t want to do it forever. There is a risk to it, and I worry that you might be affected by it, and I don’t want that.”

“Risk?”

“Yeah. In fact, I think I’m going to end the camming early this year. I’m booked through the month, but I think I’ll make a post tonight saying that I’m going offline for the season. We’re going to be run ragged getting the new place set up. Some people will be upset about it, but they can deal with it.”

“People will be mad?” You asked. The taxi stopped and he took your hand, escorting you out and down the sidewalk toward the small store near your home.

“Yeah,” He said. “A lot of people get that I have a normal life outside of my side job, but some people can be obsessive. Usually, they just wait until next season opens up and book all of my openings they can afford, but some get personal. I block the ones that are too aggressive or start trying to get too close.”

“Too close?”

“Trying to find out who I am and where I live,” He replied.

“That happens?” You asked, alarmed.

“It’s only happened twice. One of them got the hint when I got angry and I didn’t hear from them again. The second one I had to call the police on. I still have a restraining order out against her.”

“Jesus,” You responded. “I didn’t realize it was so… dangerous.”

“It usually isn’t,” He said off-handedly. “That’s the beauty of anonymity and the internet. But I am a rare breed, so it’s easy for people to match my face in real life if they really dig. I mean, you did, right? I have a VPN and pretty hardcore protections on my computer that prevent hacking it remotely, but people can be persistent.”

“That’s… scary,” You said, frowning.

“Don’t worry,” He said, flexing his arms and stomach muscles. “I can handle just about anything.”

“Just about,” You echoed under your breath, and followed him into the store.

Since my work is no longer searchable, please do me a favor and reblog this story if you enjoyed it. Help me reach a wider audience! To help me continue creating, please consider buying me a Kofi, becoming a Patron, or donating directly to my PayPal!

Thanks for reading!

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The Exophilia Creator’s Masterlist

#Exophilia #Monster Boyfriend #Naga #Reader Insert

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wyrmy-fics · 3 years

Note

Okay, Worm. Wormy. What race and class would the Mysmes characters play as in WoW? Feel free to give any other headcanons too. 🤲

hi hello I’m currently working on other requests at the moment but this one seemed fun to do while I take a break from homework!

Anyone who knows me is well aware of the fact I’m a big fan of anything WoW related and have been for years, so let’s go 👀

Reblogs are highly appreciated. :)

RFA on WoW

Includes: All RFA Members + Saeran and Rika

Warnings -> N/A

Type: Headcanons.

Zen:

Blood Elf - Paladin.

It was the only race that had options to make it look like him.

Genuinely thought they looked really handsome/pretty while looking through the characterization screen.

He also felt like it would have been fun to try something on the Horde; a little different from the rest of the RFA.

Zen almost chose a warrior for the class but liked the idea of having the ability to heal as a Paladin.

Profession - Jewelcrafting.

A very rare profession in the game by now, but Zen assumed it was fitting for his character.

Prioritizes armor looks over actual stats.

“Where did all of your gold go—?”

“... Transmog...”

Yoosung:

Troll - Hunter.

Wanted to join the Horde along with Zen and guide him through it.

Couldn’t decide on a race at first but enjoyed reading up on the Troll story and statistics.

Gets way too attached to his pets and takes time naming every single one of them.

So many pets with the stablemaster. So many.

Accidentally killed a mob while trying to tame it; cried for about an hour. (Zen had to cheer him up until it respawned.)

Focuses on PVP way more than storyline.

Profession - cooking!

His bags are constantly full of food and potions.

Also just thought the campfire option was really nice. :)

Jaehee:

Night Elf - Monk.

Mr. Han wanted to be a Night Elf, so she was “kindly demanded” to join him.

She ended up hooked reading the description for monks and gets excited when a new ability pops up.

It reminds her of Judo a bit, even though they’re very different, but she compliments the animation on their stance.

Isn’t one for games most of the time, but starts reading up on the Night Elf storyline while on break.

A little down about the fact she’s on the opposite faction as Zen. (“Don’t you think he would look great in a show about these characters?”)

Profession - Inscription.

Also a very rare profession, but puts unwanted items and recipes to use this way.

It’s also a decently fast profession to complete during the day, so one she can enjoy after work.

It also goes well with Jumins profession.

Jumin:

Night Elf - Mage.

His first option was a Human, actually.

But Zen teased him about it being a very basic choice. (So, why not go with the second basic option?)

It’s canon that Jumin is interested in magic and witchcraft, so a Mage was the next best thing.

Specifically enjoys the talent of Arcane mage, but regularly switches to other elements. (Named the Elemental pet “Elizabeth the 4th.”)

Tries to get in contact with the developers to sell cat related products with in-game references.

Profession - Enchanting.

Doesn’t actually know how to use the profession and gets Assistant Kang to do most of the work.

She also has to trade a lot of materials if he asks. (Please just... use the auction house.)

Tries to somehow use enchanting in real life. Upset it doesn’t work.

Seven:

Gnome - Warlock.

Ah, yes. The most hated race in the game. That’s why he chose it.

Ends up attached to the little guy and gives him the wildest characterization options.

And, of course, the classic yellow engineering goggles were a necessity.

Ends up finding a rotation with Warlocks easier than anything else and finds out how to cast his spells all at once.

Has been suspended multiple times for that, though.

Profession - Engineering.

Not too much of a surprise but when Seven found out he can make stuff in-game, he was all over it.

Ends up making certain inventions in real life for his personal enjoyment. (And Vanderwoods demise.)

May or may not catch up with Yoosung in PVP to completely annihilate him. Bonus points if it’s in open world too.

Jihyun:

Human - Warrior.

Swears he would try another race next time but wanted his first to be a Human.

Also tries to make it look like himself somehow.

Didn’t realize he could have been any other class than a Warrior. It was the default and looked interesting.

Can’t tank very well but overall likes the idea of damage control. Even if it’s just... Pressing buttons.

Explores more than actually questing since the areas are really nice to just sit and enjoy sometimes.

Has taken a few screenshots for artistic references before.

Profession - Archaeology.

Most people with the profession just do it for XP or reputation points,

But this man will sit down and read every. Single. Site. It’s nice to hear him get excited and interested in his findings, however. (Same, Jihyun.)

Saeran:

Undead - Rogue.

Ray thought they looked a little creepy at first, but Saeran overall empathized with their story.

They’re the misunderstood outcasts of the game - why wouldn’t he play them?

The rogue was an interesting choice. The idea of stealthing around and using quick attacks was intriguing.

Doesn’t play too often but somehow levels faster than the rest of the group.

Ray will focus more on exploring, Suit enjoys PVP, and Saeran will actually pay attention to the plot.

Ironically dislikes Sylvanas.

Profession - Herbalism.

At first didn’t like the idea of actually picking the flowers in game before realizing that’s how you learn about them.

Makes a little section in his book specifically for these fictional flowers and their meanings, plus what they’re used for in-game.

Rika:

Draenei - Priest.

Not only envied their devotion but also their outlook on helping others.

Would eventually switch over to Lightforged Draenei once they’re unlocked, but gets attached to her original character.

I’m trying really hard not to make a “Light” joke or connect anything to the Naaru....

Is the teams healer and does an amazing job at it. Not too fond of actual combat.

Spends a lot of time in the Priest campaign hall doing dailies and class quests.

Profession - Alchemy.

The art of crushing an item down into dust in order to turn it into something else more useful for her character.

Doesn’t use the profession all too much unless absolutely needed, though.

Overall a fun player to work with and everyone’s go-to healer.

And that’s it! I hope you enjoy reading. :)

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taizi · 4 years

Text

it’s a better place since you came along

the adventure zone taako & angus mcdonald 7k words

read on ao3

“So, you must be here about the job,” the old man goes on. “To tell you the truth, I’d just about given up on finding a decent nanny. When can you start?”

Taako stares at him. There’s an alarm klaxon blaring in the back of his brain, along with a shrill inner voice advising him to “abort, motherfucker, abort!”

***

In which Taako answers a general “help wanted” ad that actually changes his entire stupid life.

There’s a baby crying somewhere.

Taako, left waiting in the foyer by a harried maid, has nothing else to do but tap a foot, twist one of the rings on one of his fingers, and count the long seconds that the plaintive wail continues to echo through the cavernous house.

Listen, he may not be a very good dude, just in general, and for a healthy plethora of reasons—but there’s a prickling sense of unease growing in the pit of his stomach, as one minute passes into two, and the sounds of distress go unheeded.

What in the fresh fuck, he thinks, when another member of the house staff drifts through the room without any sense of urgency. If he knew shit about magic beyond a few travel-handy tricks and the occasional intuitive transmutation, he’d assume this was some sort of elaborate illusion. Maybe a sort of test played on unsuspecting hopefuls who came to answer the help-wanted ad.

Unfortunately for Taako, he remembers all-too well what it feels like to be an unwanted child, outcast and always alone. As it turns out, he has a very particular Achilles’ heel and he’s not overly thrilled to discover it.

“Well, I didn’t need the job that bad,” he tells himself, as he gets up to single-mindedly fail this stupid test. And nevermind that he kind of really did.

‘Confidence is key’ and ‘fake it till you make it’ are two mantras that Taako could live and die by, so it’s with long, unchecked strides that he crosses the grand foyer and chases the miserable cries up some stairs, down a long corridor, and finally into an out-of-the-way bedchamber at what must have been the back of the house.

The cries stutter when the door clicks open, and Taako gets a glimpse of a tiny round face peering at him through the bars of an ancient-looking crib. The sudden appearance of this strange elf in his nursery seems to have surprised the little human, but not for long. After about two seconds, he screws his face up and screams with renewed vindication.

Taako winces, his sensitive ears twitching back at the onslaught. This is way above his paygrade, but he used to babysit younger kids in the caravans while their parents were busy or drunk, in exchange for a hot meal or a few coins. He’s not totally out of his depth here.

“Hey, little man,” he says by way of hello. “Trying to bring the roof down, huh? No, I dig that. I wasn’t gonna say anything, but this house of yours is ugly as hell.”

Taako doesn’t raise his voice, because what the hell would be the point? There’s no way he’s winning that contest of wills, and nobody wants some lunatic shouting at them when they’re this fucking distraught, anyway. He just crosses his arms on the side of the crib and leans down to get a good look at the kid.

The baby’s face is tacky and snotty, dusky skin flushed darker with exertion, curly hair a tangled mop. But he’s a cute little guy despite himself, probably a year old or thereabouts, not that Taako is in any way a decent judge of that sort of thing. As Taako talks to him in a conversational tone, his awful, heaving sobs peter out.

The tearful gulps are better. The way he lifts pudgy arms up to be held, not so much.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Taako says, casting a nervous glance over his shoulder. “I’m not even supposed to be in here. You have no idea how culturally insensitive people are when it comes to elves and babies. Your mama walks in and sees me holding you, and then she’s calling the guard, and I’m getting hauled off for attempting to spirit her little heir away, and we both perpetuate an archaic myth that all elves are equally capable of and greedy for voluntary childcare. Let me just say—from personal experience—that is not the fuckin' case.”

But he reaches a hand into the crib and lets the little human clutch at it. Tiny, clumsy fingers wrap around Taako’s much bigger ones and hold tight. The baby’s eyes are wide and curious now, soaking up Taako’s every word without a damn clue what any of them mean.

Taako almost forgot he knew how to do this. It’s been months since Glamour Springs, since Sazed ditched him on the road. Taako’s been living a half-life, made up of odd jobs and never staying for too long in any one place, and for all that it’s absurdly one-sided, this is the longest conversation he’s had since then, too.

“One of us is pretty fucking pathetic,” he confides. “And it’s not the screamy baby.”

“Ah, this is where you’ve gone,” a voice from the doorway says.

Taako jumps in alarm, and looks around in time to watch a man step into the nursery. He bears a striking resemblance to the baby in the crib, though he’s graying at the temples and his face is lined with too much age for him to be an immediate parent. Grandparent, probably. Distinguished, dressed in a suit that probably cost more than the entire cumulative worth of everything Taako currently owns, leaning heavily on a walking cane.

He doesn’t look as though he’s about to ring the alarm, but Taako is still a little keyed up. Given the way he’s been living, the feeling of getting caught, even for a moment, activates his fight or flight response.

“Sorry,” Taako says lamely. “I heard him crying.”

“I don’t doubt it. His parents, my daughter and her husband, died recently. An accident on the road,” the man says. There’s some sorrow there, but it’s pushed back and away. Compartmentalized. “He came to live with me, but the transition hasn’t been an easy one. It seems as though all he’s done is cry.”

Taako doesn’t melt even slightly for the poor kid, because he’s made of sterner stuff than that. But he does let him hold onto his hand for a little while longer. It’s not hurting anything.

“So, you must be here about the job,” the old man goes on. “To tell you the truth, I’d just about given up on finding a decent nanny. When can you start?”

Taako stares at him. There’s an alarm klaxon blaring in the back of his brain, along with a shrill inner voice advising him to “abort, motherfucker, abort!”

It wasn’t a nanny ad. It was just a ‘general help wanted in exchange for room and board’ type of deal. He wouldn’t have shown up to take the job in the first place if it had specified providing 1) cooking, 2) companionship, or 3) childcare, and that’s for damn sure. He believes in playing to his strengths, and while vapid charm is certainly one of them, being personable and likable for any extended period of time is not.

And Taako absolutely doesn’t know what to think of this old rich guy who seems to be operating under the illusion that thirty seconds is plenty of time to get enough of a read on some rando to then trust your child to them. For real, and from the bottom of Taako's heart, what the fuck?

He’s only been acquainted with this particular child for about five minutes, but his ears go back and his hackles go up at the idea of someone just walking in off the street to take charge of him.

Maybe there’s some crucial insanity element to parenthood that Taako just isn’t fucking picking up. Maybe total and complete willingness to just ditch your kid at a moment’s notice is part of the package. Sure would explain a few things about Taako’s childhood.

But… this old manor house is clearly in the middle of nowhere. Two hours from the nearest settlement, where the job posting was hiding beneath other flyers on the board in the square. Taako wandered the woods all afternoon and almost gave up finding the place before the chimney smoke tipped him off.

It’s remote. Safe. And, at a glance, more comfortable than any of the inns and caravans Taako has lived out of since his auntie died.

He’s not qualified for this position, but since when has that ever stopped him? It’s not like he went to culinary school, either, and for awhile he was one of the most famous chefs on the continent. A baby can't be that much work.

Fake it till you make it, he thinks, and then faces the old man with a smile.

“Hell, I’m already here. Might as well start now.”

Aside from Taako, there are three other members of staff on the books, and none of them are full-time. The maids come in every other day to do the cleaning and the laundry and bring in groceries, that sort of thing. The groundskeeper only works the weekends.

They like Mr McDonald well enough, the girls confide in Taako over tea on his first night there, and the pay isn’t bad, but he’s forgetful. Doesn’t think to eat until he feels hunger pains, that sort of thing. Don’t be surprised if you get paid twice some weeks, or not at all others.

“He’s just not interested in running a household, I think,” the older of the two imparts, ancient at seventeen for all the weariness in her eyes. “I’m glad he finally found someone to take care of the baby. I felt bad about him crying all the time.”

Baby Angus had seemed to surprise both teens by being agreeable and downright adorable, perfectly content to be tucked into the crook of Taako’s arm and soothed to sleep by the rumble of his voice.

Did any of you try, like, holding him? Taako wants to ask acidly. Seems a little fucked up that Taako, of all people, is more on top of this than anyone else. But the maids are little more than kids themselves, and it seems as though grandpa isn’t completely with it.

About a month after Taako first wandered in, grandpa proves it.

“It was before Angus was born,” Mr McDonald says, digging through the many drawers in his study, looking for some expensive rich person thing he’d acquired at auction four years ago. There’s an empty crystal tumbler sitting on the liquor cabinet, next to a half-empty decanter of whiskey. “We went to Goldcliff for a charity fundraiser. Marquis proposed to my daughter that night. You remember, Taako?”

Taako, halfheartedly poking through stuff on the desk while Angus chews on the end of his braid, replies, “Sure do, homie. Hell of a party.”

He finds a photo in a stack of letters and pauses. Two humans are pictured with their arms around each other, handsome smiles on their faces for the camera, a baby cradled tenderly between them.

At the bottom, in looping handwriting, someone wrote ‘Marquis, Angela, and Angus.’ There’s a little heart drawn under the names with such care that it, in itself, is something of a revelation.

Angus’ parents wouldn’t have let him cry himself sick in a faraway room. They wouldn’t have let some stranger be holding him now. They abandoned him, but not on purpose. Not the same way Taako’s family did.

This kid was loved. He’s due love. And all he has is an absent grandpa and a shitty elf looking after him.

“Check it out, Ango,” Taako says quietly, holding the photo up so the baby can see, carefully out of reach of those sticky fingers. “Your genes are killer. You’re gonna outshine the whole damn world.”

He pockets the photo with a sleight of hand he perfected at ten years old, and then guts some ugly painting in the service hallway in the name of repurposing the frame, and then he and Angus stage a tactical retreat.

The nursery was too depressing, just in general, so one of Taako’s first acts as nanny was to move all the baby stuff in with his. He had his pick of any of the second floor bedchambers, and he chose one overlooking the overgrown gardens, with a pretty bay window that it only took like two hours and a handful of stubborn Prestidigitations to scrub clean.

He enlarges the photo, slides it into the frame, transmutes it to look like a more professional job, and then sets it in place of pride on one of the empty shelves.

“Gang’s all here,” he says. He bounces Angus a few times, eliciting a toothy smile from the kid.

Lordy, Taako thinks, she’d be laughing her ass off if she could see me right now.

The thought comes out of absolutely nowhere and disappears just as quickly, sliding right out of his mind like water through a sieve. Then Angus makes a sudden dive to grab one of the charms hanging off the brim of Taako’s hat, and he has more immediate things to worry about.

Living in a house is weird. Having the run of the place is even weirder.

Taako is certainly not the type to sign up for extra responsibility, and he’d be the first to say as much to literally anyone who asked. Keeping himself alive has always been trouble enough, and now he has a whole ass extra person he’s in charge of, too.

But as time drags on, he realizes he’s been pretty solidly assimilated.

When McDonald forgets to give Catherine the grocery allowance before he fucks off on one of his bi-monthly business trips to Neverwinter, Taako forks over his own gold without feeling the sting of it too badly. He practically writes his own checks around here, anyway. He can make up the difference whenever.

When crotchety old Boniface came in from the gardens looking for an answer about the freshly broken fountain, he bypasses McDonald’s closed office door entirely to demand guidance out of Taako instead. Taako is in the library, laying on his stomach to supervise Angus’ painstaking and artistic destruction of a probably priceless but unfortunately racist oral history Taako found on one of the shelves, and gives Boniface the go-ahead to gut the old eyesore.

“If it dies, it dies,” Taako says plainly, passing Angus a new red crayon. Boniface, pleased that he’s allowed to demolish something, makes it a point to ask Taako about these things first from then on.

When Ezra shows up in Taako’s suite one morning with tearful eyes and an ugly burn from the temperamental furnace in the basement, neither of them stop to question why she ran all the way up here. They’re both reasonably intelligent people, after all, and Taako is quick to cast a nonverbal Helping Hand. He doesn’t need to overthink it. The burned skin on Ezra’s arm is shiny and red, but repaired.

The girl surges forward to hug him, visibly rethinks it, and then changes course and scoops Angus up for a hug and a noisy kiss on the cheek instead. Angus shrieks in bald delight, and Taako finds himself smiling.

So, yeah. It’s weird, the whole thing is weird, but he wouldn’t say it’s bad.

McDonald is a kind but largely absent presence in their lives. When he’s home, he’s shut up in his study. Angus hardly seems to recognize the man anymore, only watching him with solemn brown eyes from the comforting circle of Taako’s arms. It doesn’t really sit well with Taako—he didn’t take this job to upstage any relatives or be a replacement parent—but he’s already nanny to a precocious two-year-old, he can’t also be nanny to a seventy-something-year-old retired scholar. If McDonald wants to be a part of Angus’ life, that’s on him. It can’t possibly fall on Taako’s shoulders.

“And even if it did, I have a bad back,” Taako informs Angus. “You’ll have to do the heavy-lifting for me, sweetpea. How’s that sound?”

“Okay, Taako,” Angus says gravely. If there’s a tiny part of Taako that’s fucking delighted every time this tiny miracle says his name, he squashes it down good and hard and no one is the wiser.

It feels a little bit like nothing exists outside this spacious manor house. The extensive grounds might as well be a magic barrier between Taako and the rest of the world. It won’t last—nothing good ever does—but for now he allows himself to pretend that it will.

Taako and his little shadow swing into the kitchen around noon one day to find Catherine in tears.

This is so far from the norm that Taako actually draws up short in the doorway. Angus toddles right into the back of his leg, loses his balance, and plops down hard on his padded bottom.

“What’s this all about, darling?” Taako asks warily.

Catherine is sharp in all the places Ezra is soft, and while it makes her much easier to understand—a girl after Taako’s own black, shriveled heart—it also makes her approximately one million times more difficult to comfort, as likely to bite at a helping hand as accept one.

At the first sign of her vicious temper, he’s gonna grab his kid and bail. There’s fruit and bread in the larder that’ll see them through to dinner, and if not, he's not above bribing Ezra to run interference.

But Catherine just lifts her head out of her hands and says, “I burnt the stupid soup!”

Taako blinks. He stands still so Angus can use one of his legs as leverage to pull himself back upright, and cups the back of the boy's head in silent praise when he manages it on his own.

“Okay,” Taako says slowly. He can piece this shit together. “The soup is burnt. And you’re cheesed about it because…you feel really strongly about soup.”

“Don’t be stupid,” she snaps, but it’s without any real heat. “I just. I can’t get anything right today.”

Ah. Okay. So it’s one of those.

He hesitates for a moment, and then leans down to scoop Angus up and balances him on a hip. Angus knows not to toddle into the kitchen unsupervised, and rarely gets to toddle in at all when there’s cookery going on.

Taako himself rarely goes in. It feels too much like tempting fate. But his feet carry him forward, and he leans over the pot of thick and creamy chicken and dumplings, and right away he can smell the problem. It caught on the bottom of the pot and scorched.

He’s never worked in this kitchen—and he never will—but he remembers the steps. It’s mise en place. He reaches into the spice cabinet and withdraws a small tin shaker.

“Cinnamon,” he says at length, offering the tin to Catherine.

She stares at him, losing some of her steel for a moment. “Really?”

“Really,” Taako says, and firmly steps back. The six-second exchange has left him feeling tense and sick, his appetite fully and completely fucking out of the picture.

Angus is a perceptive little monster, and settles more heavily into Taako’s arms. He heaves a very pointed sigh, something he started doing to communicate that he’s feeling particularly safe and content. It makes Taako’s chest hurt in a much different way than impending panic attacks tend to, and he presses a kiss to the kid’s curly head.

“Thanks, angel,” he says.

“You’re welcome.”

“Holy shit, Taako,” Catherine says, looking up from the soup with awe in her eyes. As he watches, she tries another spoonful, and then she actually laughs out loud. “It worked!”

He finds himself searching her face for—sickness. Shortness of breath. Something.

It’s stupid. The people he killed in Glamour Springs didn’t show signs of death for days.

“I didn’t know you cooked,” Catherine goes on. “Could you teach me?”

“I don’t,” Taako blurts. It comes out sharper than he meant for it to, sudden and a little bit too loud. Catherine’s smile tapers. Angus lifts his head off Taako’s shoulder. Breathe, idiot, Taako tells himself. Be a fucking person for two seconds. “Cook, I mean. I don’t cook. Or, uh, teach. I’m kind of useless. Pretty, though.”

He flips his hair. It makes Angus giggle, but Catherine isn’t an easily-amused toddler, and she’s not buying it.

Her eyes are sharp, and seem to peel through layers of Taako’s bullshit like a knife. And then she scoffs, and mimics his hair flip with her wrist even though her hair is only about two inches long, and the tension drains out of the room like someone pulled a plug in the floor.

“You’ve been teaching Mango to read,” she says dryly. “And Elvish. And magic. But okay, Mr I Don’t Teach.”

“He’s my fucking protege. That shit’s different!”

“Shit!” Angus agrees cheerfully.

“Whatever. Now that I know you’re secretly a fountain of knowledge, I’m dragging you in here the next time I fuck up a recipe.” She studies him for a moment, and adds, “You don’t have to cook, Teach. If it bothers you. I just…I need help sometimes.

Taako feels himself relenting. This house is turning him into a fucking pushover.

“I know, Cat,” he sighs. “Try to find one person who doesn’t.”

“Alright, little man,” Taako says, tugging Angus’ collar straight. “What are the rules?”

“Hold your hand, don’t talk to strangers, aim for the eyes if I can reach them, knees if I can’t,” his boy recites gravely.

Next to him, Ezra stifles a snort of laughter. Boniface, waiting by the loaded carriage, looks reluctantly amused. Catherine says, “Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to give you a kid?”

“Uh, your boss,” Taako says without looking at her. He stands up from his crouch as the front door closes, and they all turn as McDonald comes down the steps to join them in the crumbly courtyard.

“Are we ready, boys?” he asks with a smile. “Neverwinter is waiting.”

Honestly, Taako has been sick with dread over this trip for the past two weeks, but he wouldn’t know how to go about explaining that. And he sure as hell isn’t sending Angus off alone with his absent-minded grandfather. The kid probably wouldn’t make it home.

It’s not as though Taako has been sequestered in the manor house for the last five years. He’s ambled into the settlement with the girls now and then, has gone farther up the road to buy from caravans for Candlenights gifts, has let himself be bullied, cajoled, blackmailed and bribed into helping Boniface lug imported plants home from the train station.

But this is fucking Neverwinter. The Jewel of the North.

“Taako? You okay?” Angus says from somewhere near his elbow.

“Just dreading three hours on the road playing I, Spy with you, boychik,” he lies smoothly. “Go pet the horses so we can get that out of the way.”

Angus looks mulish for a moment, but he does insist on petting the carthorses before they take the carriage literally anywhere, so he lifts his head and crosses the courtyard with great dignity. Taako watches sharply until Boniface rolls his eyes so hard Taako can practically hear it and hefts Agnus up in one huge arm to better reach the giant creatures without running the risk of getting fucking trampled.

“I’m making the salmon at home tonight,” Catherine says abruptly, a non-sequitur that takes Taako by surprise. “If I don’t fuck it up, I’m gonna cook it here, too. So don’t be late, Teach.”

“I’ll a hundred percent eat your share if you’re late,” Ezra adds. Her smile looks a little strained.

Taako has not been subtle. He’s been freaking out right out loud where anybody could see it. Get it together, asshole, he coaches himself helpfully.

“Cat,” he says earnestly, “your salmon is literally the only thing I have to live for.”

She groans and pushes him away from her. Angus has finished with the horses and returns to Taako at a run, even though they’re all going to be walking back across the courtyard to the carriage in like one minute anyway.

McDonald is handing out a few last minute instructions. They’re mostly things that have already been taken care of, errands that have already been run, the ushe. The girls nod along politely, but there’s a level of uncertainty lingering above them like a cloud. They look as nervous about Taako leaving as Taako feels.

Now, Taako is many things—an elf, a failed chef, a murderer, a dime-store wizard, and one lucky nanny—but he is not some mercurial fairy tale creature. He’s not going to vanish from their lives the second they lose sight of him. He could if he wanted to, and he will if he has to, but he doesn’t want to. For now, he doesn’t have to.

So he lifts a hand and says, “Back soon.”

But for some reason, it fucking hurts.

The trip is about everything he expected it would be: long and boring. Angus gets bored with I, Spy within about ten minutes, the interior of the carriage is a little too tight to practice his cantrips, and Boniface seems to be aiming for the roughest parts of the road on purpose. Taako tries reading aloud from one of the Caleb Cleveland books, but McDonald keeps interrupting every time they get to the good, mysterious parts, so Angus and Taako trade a loaded glance and wordlessly agree to save it for later.

Still, it’s not awful. Angus at six years old is bright-eyed and relentlessly clever. He wants to be a detective like Caleb, and has taken to solving little mysteries around the manor house, like who left the jam out on the counter (Taako, and what are you going to do about it, pumpkin?) and who tracked the mud inside the undercroft (Boniface, obviously, that’s where all the booze is, and he literally works in mud all day. You didn’t have to put on your detective cap for that one).

Needless to say, Taako would burn the whole world down for this kid.

With no choice but to spend time in his grandson’s company, Taako can see Angus’ innate charm going to work on McDonald. There’s something wistful in the old man’s eyes, affectionate and more than a little bittersweet. He stops interrupting as Angus starts to describe his latest case in great detail—the mystery of the missing tarts!

The tarts are wrapped up and waiting in Taako’s bag for when they inevitably get snacky during the trip, but he's not going to tell. He kinda wants to see how far the kid takes this one.

By the time they board the train, Angus is tuckered out. The excitement of a trip so far from home is wearing off after hours in a carriage, and Taako ends up carrying him into their sleeper car and putting him to bed in one of the bunks.

McDonald takes a seat at the small table and watches without commentary as Taako extracts the boy’s hat and glasses and wand without waking him, pulling the blanket up to his shoulders. And then, out of habit more than anything else, he murmurs the only Elven blessing he remembers, quite literally ‘sweet dreams.’ He remembers Auntie saying it to him, and…someone else, maybe? He remembers that it always made him feel loved to hear it.

“Hiring you was the best thing I could have done for him,” McDonald says suddenly.

Taako turns with a trademark smile on his face, only as charming as it needs to be. “Hiring me was the best thing you ever did, period.”

His boss smiles back, but there’s an edge to it that Taako can’t translate. This is the most present and aware he’s looked in the last five years. Taako isn’t sure he’s ever had this much of McDonald’s attention.

“There’s another reason I wanted to take the two of you with me this week,” he says.

It’s ominous as fuck, and as the train lurches into motion, pulling away from the station, Taako realizes that he’s effectively trapped here, in a way he never was at the manor house. Some of his thoughts must show on his face, because McDonald’s smile warms a bit, and he gestures at the other chair.

“It’s a good thing, son. No need to be nervous.”

Taako sits in an irreverent collapsing of limbs to prove that he isn’t nervous, actually. McDonald pulls a bunch of papers out of his briefcase and sets them on the table. They look official as fuck. McDonald’s signature at the bottom draws Taako’s eye—huh, so that’s his first name. After this long, it would have felt a little awkward to ask. Beneath that is the signature and seal of a notary.

“What am I looking at here, Charlie?”

McDonald’s lips twitch. He probably cottoned onto the name thing.

“Well, this isn’t an easy conversation to have, and I probably could have picked a better time for it, but.” He glances over Taako’s shoulder at where Angus is sleeping. “It’s probably better if the boy doesn’t overhear until it’s sorted.”

“I hear ya. That little bugbear is all up in everyone’s business all the time,” Taako says proudly. “Just the worst.”

“He’s amazing,” McDonald says. That sorrow swims into his eyes now, an ancient, ruinous thing. “He reminds me of my daughter every time I look at him.” Oh. “It’s been…hard to look at him sometimes.” Oh.

Taako carefully reevaluates his opinion of Angus’ absent grandfather. Not too much, because the dude still should have been around, but, you know. Some.

Taako tries to imagine losing somebody, how much it must hurt. He tries to imagine looking like somebody, a family resemblance, a belonging at face-value. He’s never experienced either, but there’s still a bitter pit in his throat, a feeling like if he swallows too hard he’ll start to cry. So he sits very still instead.

“But still, he’s my only grandson, and I want him to be taken care of when I’m gone,” the man goes on. “I’m getting on in years, and I probably don’t have much longer left—oh, Taako. It’s alright.”

Taako is certain he didn’t move. He’s still doing the sitting-very-still thing. Then he realizes his ears betrayed him, pressed back flat against his head. Goddamn things.

“No, it’s uh. Taako’s good, don’t. Just.”

It’s the human age thing. He doesn’t want to think about it. He waves McDonald on, a tight rolling gesture. They really need to power through the rest of this conversation while Taako still has enough self-control left to not do something really embarrassing in front of his boss, like have a whole emotion.

McDonald takes pity. Thank fuck.

“It’s normal to want to get your ducks in a row,” he says. “I’m not planning on kicking the bucket any time soon.”

“Alright, let’s organize these ducks,” Taako says with unwarranted enthusiasm. He’s trying to trick himself into it. “Fucking ducks, am I right?”

“Angus is my heir. When he’s of age, he’ll get the estate and everything that goes with it, as well as his parents’ properties,” McDonald says, once again reminding Taako that he’s a rich old fuck. Istus. “But that’s still more than a decade away. If something should happen to me, I don’t want him to end up a ward of the state.”

Taako blinks. In the back of his mind, he realizes that he has become one of those elves that would one-thousand-percent kidnap a human baby if it came down to it. Leave Agnes in an orphanage? His Agnes? It would literally have never occurred to him.

“Custody cases can be so long-winded. The easiest way to circumvent the whole mess would be to adopt you into the family,” McDonald says, super nonchalant about flipping the world upside down. “That way Angus has an immediate next of kin that no one would question.”

He looks up when Taako doesn’t say anything and frowns at whatever Taako’s face must look like.

“You don’t have to use the surname if you don’t want to. It’s mostly just for the sake of paperwork.”

“I can’t,” Taako blurts.

“Of course. I wouldn’t insist that you change your family name if it’s important to you—”

“Not—not that, who gives a fuck about my family name,” Taako says too loudly. Angus shifts around for a second, like he might wake up, and Taako snaps his mouth closed so hard it hurts his teeth. In a whisper, because it’s all he can manage without giving into the urge to scream, Taako forces out, “I—I’m—I can’t.”

In the nightmare scenarios that still sometimes plague him in the middle of the night, when everyone else is asleep and he’s alone with the voice in his brain that fucking hates him, the choices always boiled down to either leaving Angus behind or taking him on the run. Both choices were fucking awful for a myriad of different reasons, and left Taako pacing his room tirelessly trying to think his way out of an unsolvable problem.

The idea that he could become a legal part of Angus’ family as simply as signing a piece of paper is so far-fetched and ridiculous that he can’t wrap his mind around it.

But bringing all his shit into Angus’ life? Signing up for this only to get snatched away the second the paperwork goes through and the militia finally finds him? Leaving his dirty laundry all over the front yard like the worst fucking house guest imaginable, and then peacing out to spend the rest of his long-ass fucking elf life in jail, while Angus was left to just…deal with that?

He couldn’t. He can’t. Every single option is bad. He shouldn’t have stayed. He should have known he would fall in love with that baby on day one. It’s really fucking stupid that he stayed.

“—aako. Taako.”

Taako jerks his head up. His ears are twitching and his hands are shaking and McDonald has probably been saying his name for awhile.

The man’s eyes are bright and steely. They look exactly like Angus’ do sometimes, when he wakes Taako up from a miserable meditation, when it’s just the two of them in a huge house surrounded by a crumbling garden.

“Tell me,” the man says sternly.

At a fucking complete loss, Taako just…does.

When he’s finished, McDonald looks at him really hard for what feels like a long time. Then he pulls a pair of reading glasses out of an inner pocket of his coat, poises the business end of a fountain pen against a fresh sheet of paper, and starts asking questions.

It’s a business-like, no-nonsense exchange. Taako is wiped out, emotionally he is the equivalent of a damp rag wrung out to dry, and he has no wherewithal left to lie or deny or deflect.

When they’re done, McDonald has filled three notebook pages of blocky handwriting, and Taako is swaying in his seat. He watches somewhat vacantly as McDonald nods to himself and rummages in his briefcase for a stone of farspeech.

“We won’t reach Neverwinter until morning. Get some sleep,” he says, and his voice is kindly again, the way it was before. Taako stares at him. “And don’t tell me elves don’t need it, please. I wasn’t born yesterday, and you nap twice as much as my grandson ever did.”

Well, it would be nice to get one last unnecessary snooze in as a free man, Taako supposes, and he doesn’t hesitate to climb into Angus’ bunk. It’s a familiar ritual. The kid squirms to accommodate him without fully waking. Taako tucks an arm around him and buries his nose in that riot of curly hair.

He hears McDonald say, “You’re not much more than a kid yourself, are you?” but that might have just been part of a dream.

He hears someone else say, “That can’t be broken or lost or taken away, it’s always going to be so important,” but Taako thinks that, whoever that was, they were very clearly wrong.

Taako wakes up to a six-year-old’s warm brown eyes. They’re crinkled at the corners in an urchin sort of way, and it’s the only tell Taako needs. His kid has been up to some mischief.

“Grandpa said you were tired and I should let you sleep,” Angus reports cheerfully. “He also said that there was a nice lady selling flowers a few cars down, and I ought to go buy a few!”

Ah. Taako glances down at the ruin of his hair. It looks like about a hundred snowberry blossoms were worked into the thick flaxen braid. It’s going to be an absolute pain to brush out later. He’ll probably find bits of plant in his hair for days. He loves it.

He risks a glance in McDonald’s direction.

The man looks amused by their whole general existence, which is fair. He also doesn't look like he's about to summon the guard to have Taako hauled into the brig, which is a fucking relief and a half.

“The world changed while you were asleep,” he says significantly. “Would you like to sign the papers now or with your pardon?”

Angus says, all in one breath, “You should sign the papers first! Grandpa says then you’ll be my family! I mean, you already are, so I’m not sure what the point is, but it must be important. Look at how official they are!”

Taako feels about four cups of coffee behind this conversation. He scoots off the bed, spilling into one of the chairs at the table, and folds his hands.

“Charlie. Buddy.”

“I stepped out for two minutes,” McDonald says defensively, “and I thought he was asleep!”

“That’s the oldest trick in the book,” Taako mutters. His heart is doing something really complicated and largely unnecessary, fucking backflipping in his chest, at Angus’ thoughtless ‘you already are.’ Like it was a given. What the fuck. “Can you go back to, uh—the world changing? A pardon? What’s up with that?”

“An old friend of mine is a cleric,” he says pushing a steaming cup in Taako’s direction. “Level nine, or thereabouts. She owed me a favor from when we were in school together, when I—well, that’s not important. What is important is that she was happy to cast Discern Location to find your old stage manager.”

Taako fumbles the cup, almost drops it. He sets it down hard.

“What the fuck? No, hold that thought. Angus, I love you. Get lost.”

He’s really banking on the kid being more stir-crazy than curious, and sure enough, Angus hops right off the bunk and sprints for the door.

“Okay, I’ll be in the dining car! You’re not s’posed to take food back with you, but I’m gonna see how many pastries I can fit in my pockets so you won’t be hungry when you sign the papers that make you my family! Love you, bye!”

“A three-hour carriage ride followed by six hours on a train was the worst fucking idea,” Taako says severely. “He’s gonna be on eleven when we roll up to Neverwinter. They might not let us in.”

“He’s just excited,” the old man says, with the tranquility of someone who isn’t going to have to child-wrangle all day long. “I told him I had good news for you.”

Taako is fidgeting, turning the cup of coffee around and around in his hands. It’s leaving a ring of condensation on the table.

“You found Sazed?” he asks, and hates how small his voice sounds.

“We did.”

“He probably hates me,” Taako mutters. “I ruined his life.”

McDonald takes the cup from him and sets it down on the other side of the table with a firm clunk.

“Pardon my language, but you didn’t ruin crud.” Taako mouths ‘crud’ in bewilderment, but McDonald isn’t finished. “I was suspicious of your story when you described the way those people died. Those aren’t the typical symptoms of deadly nightshade, and I’d never heard of a transmutation spell failing in that way before. So I looked into it. Or, I should say, I had a few friends look into it.”

“Are you in a cult?” Taako asks. He can’t help it. He’s one part genuinely curious and two parts hardwired to deflect any time someone tricks him into having a serious conversation. “We frown on cults in this family. Mysterious shadow organizations are never a good thing, no matter what greater-good shit they’re peddling.”

“I’m very rich and belong to very elite social circles,” McDonald says dryly. He’s unmoved by Taako’s general everything. “This whole thing took about three calls. I wish you would have told me about this five years ago, but I do understand why you didn’t.”

Taako doesn’t have a cup to fuck around with anymore. He stopped wearing jewelry when Angus was a baby and literally everything smaller than an apple was a choking hazard, and he never really got into the habit of it again, so he doesn’t have rings to twist around his fingers, either. He wrings his hands instead.

“If it wasn’t the elderberries,” he chokes out, and doesn’t make it any farther.

“It was arsenic,” McDonald says. His voice is kind again, but not so much so that it’s painful to hear. “Sazed was questioned within a Zone of Truth. He admitted to—okay,” he cuts himself off, putting a hand on Taako’s shoulder. “We’re done talking about it for now. Just take it easy.”

Taako doesn’t uncurl from his chair until the door rattles open and Angus’ voice fills the room. He’s found a dozen things to talk about in the ten minutes he’s been gone, and is very proud of himself for all the contraband pastries he managed to make off with. There’s a cheese danish wrapped very carefully in a napkin, only slightly squished, that he presents to Taako with a showy flourish that he really only could have picked up from too much time around one particular idiot.

Taako accepts the danish, and then hauls Angus up onto his lap, and then says, “Charlie, baby. Pass me that fancy pen.”

For the first time in almost eight years, Taako is cooking for an audience again. His hands are shaking, but as long as everyone else is politely pretending like they don’t notice, he can do himself the same favor.

I fed those people their death, but it wasn’t on me, he recites inwardly for the seven millionth time, a nervous mantra. My magic was good. My cooking was good. I was good. It wasn’t on me.

He looks up from the counter where all his tools are laid out and his ingredients are arranged. Ezra is bouncing in her seat, Boniface is lingering in the doorway like he doesn’t care but he also isn’t leaving, and Catherine’s eyes are wide and moonlike and younger than Taako has ever seen them. Angus has place of pride, a seat on the counter by the sink with the best view in the house.

“Okay,” he says. “What are the rules, pumpkin?”

“No swiping ingredients, no magic in the kitchen, and no taste-testing until you say it’s okay,” Angus rattles off promptly. “Autographs at the end of the show are three gold apiece, photos are ten, and the overall experience is absolutely priceless.”

Over the sweet sound of the rest of his audience groaning at him, Taako goes on blithely, “And what are we cooking today?”

“Macarons!”

“And who’s your dude?” Taako asks, pointing a whisk at him. Angus giggles, and Taako’s hands aren’t shaking anymore.

In a month, Angus is going off to a summer camp out past Rockport. It’s Caleb Cleveland-themed, and the whole thing sounds extremely nerdy and book-cluby, and Angus is desperately excited. He’s also desperately nervous about being away from his family for three whole weeks but he’s trying to keep that on the down-low. He’s very grown up at nearly ten years old.

Taako can respect that. He also bought the kid a stone of farspeech, because actually fuck that.

And while Angus is off having his first away-from-home adventure—since the girls think that Taako’s just going to be useless and mopey the whole time, and Boniface already threatened to bury him in a flowerbed the first time he whines about literally anything—Taako is going to go do something cool, too. There’s always some interesting jobs posted on Craig's List up in Neverwinter. He’ll be able to find something to occupy his time.

But for now, he’s gonna make some goddamn desserts.

“Come on, Ango,” Taako wheedles, “who’s your dude?”

“You, papa.”

I’m good, Taako reminds himself. He looks at his kid, who only deserves the best this piece of shit world has to offer, and thinks, I can be good.

#the adventure zone #taz balance #taako taaco #angus mcdonald #taz fic #my writing #better place #ladies i dunno but i gotta work in like 3 hours and i wrote this instead of sleeping

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themetaphorgirl · 4 years

Note

(1/1) This is at_the_chamber_door from A03. I've got a Boarding Alternate Universe headcanon--study groups! Maybe if everyone's loaded with work, projects, or upcoming tests, they'll get together at night (preferably at a round table, ha) and work. Well, work-ish: The only people actually working the entire time are Hotch, Alex, and JJ. I'm running out of characters so I shall send another ask with a part 2!

drabbles are supposed to be short. this is about 2,000 words. oops.

I hope y’all like it though! I love these kids with my whole heart.

my writing tag | the boarding school AU

----------

JJ rifled through her piles of papers, frowning. Her biology info packet was in there somewhere, she just knew it. But maybe she could wait and work on biology later, maybe she should work on history first.

“Okay, you guys, I’m starting to freak out,” Penelope said, knocking over her stack of rainbow-colored gel pens. “How bad are midterms? Like...really. What should I expect?”

“They’re not bad, as long as you study,” Hotch said absently.

Penelope dropped the gel pens she’d started to pick up. “I’ve forgotten how to study!” she shrieked. “Oh my god! Everything in my brain has been erased!”

Spencer perked up. “Ooh! It could be lacunar amnesia!” he said. “That’s when-”

“Spencer, no,” Hotch sighed.

“Take a breath, baby girl,” Derek said, scooping up the pens and handing them back. “You’re smart, you’ll remember stuff.”

She set the pens back into rainbow order. “You say that now,” she said. “What if I do forget? Or I forget which exam is at which time? Oh, god, what if I sleep through them!”

“You’re not going to sleep through them,” JJ reassured her. “I’ll wake you up.”

She turned back to her own piles of notes and worksheets. This was the sixth time that Penelope had freaked out in the last two hours, and doubtless she’d freak out a few more times until midterms were over. At least since they were studying together, other people could chime in and help calm her down.

They’d agree collectively to spend Sunday studying together for their respective tests. As a group they had overtaken the seventh floor common room, lounging around in their pajamas, piling up textbooks and coffee cups and snacks. Hotch, Alex, and Spencer sat at the round table while Dave sat between James and Emily on the couch; Penelope and Derek sprawled on the rug in front of the silent television. JJ had claimed a corner of the room for herself, spreading out her papers in small piles.

James pulled his binder close to his chest and frowned. “Dave, are you copying off me?” he asked.

“No, never,” Dave said. He ate another handful of pretzels. “Absolutely not. I’m copying off Emily.”

James squinted at Dave’s mostly-empty notebook page. “You are copying off me!” he accused. “Do your own work, Rossi, Jesus.”

“Okay, then I will copy off Emily,” Dave said. “And she won’t know because she’s listening to music.”

“Fuck off,” Emily said absently, her airpods still tucked in her ears.

“She’s not even in any of your classes,” James pointed out.

Dave shrugged. “Whatever, it’s fine,” he said. “I’ll get into college either way.”

Penelope dropped her sticker-covered composition book. “Oh, god! What if I don’t get into college?” she said.

“You’ll get into college, Pen,” Alex said. “Don’t look so far ahead. Focus on this week’s tests.”

Penelope huffed in frustration. “JJ, do you have your notes from biology class?” she asked.

“Uh...yeah, somewhere,” she said. She rummaged through a stack. “Hold on…”

“JJ, can you find anything in there?” James asked. “It looks like everything you own exploded.”

“I have a system,” she explained.

“You can borrow my notes!” Spencer said. He leaned forward to stretch across the table; Alex caught him before he could tip out of his chair. “Here! Do you have any questions?”

Penelope frowned. “That’s it?” she said. “A single piece of paper? And...your handwriting is completely illegible.”

He shrugged. “It makes sense to me,” he said.

“Spencer, sit down before you fall on your face,” Hotch said. “You’re going to give me a heart attack.”

Dave threw a pretzel at Emily. “Hey! She’s not studying!” he said. “Repeat, Emily Prentiss is not studying!”

“Narc,” she shot back, scooping pretzels off the couch and throwing them back at his face.

“Everyone!” Dave said, cupping his hands around his mouth. “Emily Prentiss is online shopping! Shopping for-” He leaned over her shoulders. “She’s bidding on a seventy-five dollar tee shirt on eBay.”

Emily slammed the lid of her macbook shut. “That tour got canceled after three stops, it’s a collector’s item!” she said.

“Emily, didn’t your mom say that she was going to cancel your credit card if you got below a C on your history midterm?” Alex asked, tapping her pen against her chin.

“Just the Amex,” Emily shrugged. “Also, that pen isn’t capped.”

“Oh! Shit.”

Spencer frowned. “Can I borrow somebody’s computer really fast?” he asked. “I don’t think this source is correct.”

“Here, munchkin,” Emily said, holding out her macbook. “Just for Miller’s satisfaction, I’ll study for my history test. You can borrow it for now.”

Hotch caught the laptop from Spencer’s small hands and set it down on the table. Spencer squinted at the keyboard. “Where’s the control key?” he asked.

“It’s a macbook, squirt, it’s a command key.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “God, see, this is why I stick to my chromebook,” she said. “Everything makes sense.”

“Your chromebook is the size of a novel.”

“I know, it’s easy to carry.”

Spencer scrunched up his face, pecking at the keyboard letter by letter with his index fingers. “Can somebody type this for me?” he asked. Hotch silently pulled the laptop closer and typed as Spencer spelled out his question.

With Emily distracted by her argument, JJ stole her pillow from the couch and propped it up with her piles of papers, getting comfortable. She bit back a yawn. Studying was exhausting work.

“Okay, I’m done,” Spencer announced. “You can have your computer back, Emily.”

“Thank god, there’s only ten minutes left in this auction and I need this shirt,” she said. Alex rolled her eyes and put on her headphones.

Derek pushed himself off the floor. “Pretty boy, if you’re taking a break-”

“Oh, it’s not a break, I’ve memorized everything.”

“Show off,” Dave grinned.

“Okay, since you’ve memorized everything, you wanna go down to the vending machine in the lobby and get more drinks?” Derek continued. Spencer frowned. “You can pick out something for yourself.”

“Deal!” Spencer said. Derek handed him a handful of crumpled dollar bills.

“Hold on, caro,” Dave said. He dug out his wallet and handed him several more dollars. “Get enough for everybody.”

“Thanks!” Spencer said, and he took off, his little socked feet thumping down the stairs.

“Walk, please, before you faceplant again!” Hotch called. The footsteps faded, but did not slow down. Hotch sighed.

“Derek,” Penelope said. “Derek. Derek Morgan. Chocolate thunder. Pay attention to me.”

“What?”

She thrust a folded paper fortune teller in his face. “Pick one!” she said.

“Pick one what?”

“You have four options, pick one!”

JJ raised an eyebrow. “You’re making cootie catchers?” she said. “I thought you were worried about getting into college.”

“First of all, where I come from, we call them fortune tellers,” Penelope said. “Second of all, I’ve decided I’m not going to college, I will never be able to pass these tests, so I will never get a college degree, so I will just play my ukulele on street corners for the rest of my life.”

“You can always get a college degree and play your ukulele on street corners,” Dave pointed out.

“Derek, please, pick one,” Penelope begged.

He looked at the phrases. “Uh…koala bear, I guess,” he said.

“Now pick a number.”

“Um...three.”

Penelope unfolded the fortune. “You will fail your midterms, flunk out of school, and play the dulcimer in Penelope Garcia’s busking band,” she read. “Oh, that’ll work out nicely.” Derek shook his head.

Spencer ran up the stairs, arms laden down with soda cans. “I’m back!” he said. He dumped them on the floor. “Maybe don’t open them right this second. The carbonation-”

“We’re cramming enough knowledge in our heads today, we don’t need an extra lesson,” Emily said, scowling at her history textbook.

Spencer’s lower lip dropped in a pout. “Don’t make that face,” Hotch warned. “We’ve talked about how sometimes it’s a bad time for facts.”

“I’m not pouting. And there’s never a bad time for facts.”

“Yes, there is,” Derek said. “Like now, when we’re all trying to study.”

“Except me, I’m going to join the circus,” Penelope informed them.

“I’m trying to study too, you guys,” JJ called from her fortress of papers and books.

James rubbed his temples. “Guys...please…” Dave threw a pretzel at him. “Goddammit, David.”

“I was just trying to explain that the carbonation-”

“No!” Emily said, tossing a pillow at Spencer. It bopped him in the face and knocked him backwards.

“Jesus, Emily!” Derek exclaimed.

Hotch buried his face in his hands. “For the love of god, you guys, stop.” he said.

“I’m sorry!” Emily said. “Spencer, wait, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to smack you, you were just really getting on my nerves, please don’t tell Alex.”

Alex looked up from her chromebook and took out her earbuds. “Hm?” she said. “What’s going on?”

“Emily hit-”

“Penelope said-”

“David threw-”

“Oh my god,” Alex said. “Okay, okay, stop. Just...stop, everybody. One at a time, please.”

Hotch dragged his hands over his face. “I just want a little peace and quiet,” he mumbled into his palms.

“Spence, I’m sorry, really,” Emily said earnestly. “Are you okay?”

Spencer sat up. “To quote Anne Shirley...I am well in body but distinctly rumpled in spirit,” he said, rubbing his eyes.

“What’s the translation?” Emily asked.

He pushed himself up off the floor. “You threw a pillow at my face, and I think I’m mad about it!” he accused. “And yes, I know I’m pouting, and I don’t care!”

“Oh, now you’ve done it, Prentiss,” Dave said.

Hotch got up from the table and stomped over to them. “That’s enough,” he said. He picked up Spencer under his arms and plunked him down on Alex’s lap. “Emily, you are six years older than him. Chill.” Dave snickered. “Dave, stop making it worse.”

“Penelope, you’re not going to busk on street corners or join the circus, if you take a second and stop freaking out you’ll realize that you know more than you think you do,” James added.

“Yes! Thank you,” Hotch said. “Derek, you need to take this seriously. You have to keep your grades up or they’ll move you from varsity down to JV. And Wallace will get your spot.”

Derek scowled. “Fuck Wallace,” he grumbled.

“And JJ…” Hotch paused.

“What?” she said. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“No, you’re the most well-behaved, but...why are you upside down?”

JJ blinked. She hadn’t realized how she got there, but sure enough, she was lying on a scattered heap of worksheets with her heels propped up on the wall. “I don’t know, these things happen,” she said. Hotch sighed.

Emily scrambled off the couch. “Okay, okay, I know tensions are running really high right now,” she said. “And I know some of it is my fault-”

“You knocked me over like a bowling pin,” Spencer sulked.

Alex adjusted him on her lap. “I think you’ll live,” she said, and he crossed his arms.

“Stop reminding me! Jesus, I’m trying to apologize!” Emily said. “What if I order pizza for everybody? It’s almost dinner time anyway and we’re all stressed, we should take a break. Will I finally be forgiven?”

Spencer opened his mouth to argue. “Yes,” JJ said immediately. She rolled over to sit up, shifting her papers around. “Oh my god, yes, please.”

“I’ll always vote for pizza,” Derek said.

Penelope looked down at the half-a-dozen fortune tellers scattered around her. “Maybe a break will help me focus again,” she said sadly.

Emily crouched down next to Alex’s chair. “Spencer?” she said sweetly. “Am I forgiven?” He huffed, blowing a lock of hair off his forehead. She poked him lightly. “Am I? Am? Am I?”

His mouth tilted. “Can I tell you the facts I was going to say?” he asked.

Emily sighed. “Yes,” she said. “Go ahead, Dr. Reid. Tell me everything you know about carbonation.”

“You brought this on yourself, Prentiss,” Hotch pointed out.

“I know. I know.”

#au: patron saint of lost causes #criminal minds fanfiction #caitlin writes things #spencer reid #aaron hotchner #david rossi #jennifer jareau #james blake #alex blake #emily prentiss #derek morgan #penelope garcia #these babies are so precious #spencer keeps ending up on alex's lap and I don't care #emily is a terrible role model #jj is an organizational disaster

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imaginetonyandbucky · 4 years

Text

The Buy In

Chapter 10: Epilogue

by @dracusfyre

"I feel like you're going to try to sell me a time share," Bucky said, studying the bland conference room Tony had reserved. It looked like probably every other conference room Bucky had ever been, as if they were all ordered out of the same catalogue; beige walls, carpeted floor that had the feeling of being beige while actually having flecks of red and blue in it, and the tables and chairs with wheels on them so they could be moved easily. Tony had even pulled down a screen and to all appearances, was setting up for a powerpoint presentation.

"It's all about presentation, Mr. Barnes," Tony said. He picked up a clicker and a red dot appeared on Bucky's chest, then started moving around in what Bucky eventually recognized as a heart shape. "Gotta know your audience and what they'll respond to. Too fancy, and they'll be scared off. Not fancy enough, and they'll feel like they're being scammed. A hotel conference room fits neatly inside that middle ground."

"You've put a lot of thought into this," Bucky said. He glanced at the clock, saw that they had a few minute before people were supposed to arrive and dipped his head for a quick kiss.

"Well, yeah," Tony started, but then there was a knock on the door. Tony opened it to see that part of the security detail started bringing in the refreshments for the meeting, coffee and donuts and croissants and other breakfast-style food that people would probably pick at and leave mostly untouched. "Natasha helped," he continued, poking at the refreshments table and rearranging everything slightly. "She's better at that side of things, the headology, as she calls it."

"I can see that." Bucky watched Tony putter. Looked like Tony was nervous, which was kind of adorable. "So you can't even give me a sneak peak at what you're talking about today?"

Tony shook his head. "For right now, you're a potential investor, not my lover."

"Ok, ok," Bucky said. He realized he was following Tony around as he puttered aimlessly and made himself stop. "So I got to see KT today. Brought him his laptop so he could start catching up on homework."

That made Tony stop rearranging the plates and napkins and turn to Bucky with a smile. "Good! So that mean's he is doing well?"

"Yep. Should be out of there soon. Any update on Rumlow?"

Tony's smile turned evil. "From what I hear, he's had a run of bad luck lately, such a shame. He lost his service pistol, which, you know, big no no. And did you know someone stole his patrol car, spray painted it, and left something unmentionable smeared on the seats? Then did the same with his personal car, which was found laying upside down in front of his apartment building?"

With a force of effort Bucky kept his face blank. "Strange."

"Very strange," Tony agreed. "Insurance didn't even pay out, mysteriously enough. Apparently they had dropped his coverage the day before and he hadn't gotten the notice yet."

"Crime in this city is getting really out of hand," Bucky said seriously. "He's lucky it wasn't something worse."

"Oh it will be, give it time."

There was that smug look again that Bucky loved, and he started to sneak another kiss when there was another knock. This time the security guard was escorting people inside, a middle-aged Black couple that looked around cautiously, like they were expecting the conference room to contain something nefarious. Bucky straightened immediately, trying to look professional, and smiled at them as Tony welcomed them inside, calling them by name and offering them a warm handshake. There was a steady stream after that, until the conference room was about half full.

"Hello everyone, let's get started," Tony said, taking a head count and looking at the clock. "All of you are here because you either were recommended by a friend or a family, or I sent you a personal invitation. Thank you for being willing to join me today for this presentation, and please save your questions for the end. As you all know, my name is Tony Stark, genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, and in this presentation I'm going to ask you for money." Tony grinned as almost everyone laughed. "Then I'm going to tell you what you're going to get for your money, and then I'm going to explain how you're not even going to notice that your money is gone."

As interested as Bucky was in the presentation, he kept getting distracted by watching Tony effortlessly charm the room, making eye contact with each person and joking just enough to keep people interested without derailing his speech. It was a warmer, more authentic show than what Bucky had seen at the Policeman's Ball and it made Bucky's heart turn over with affection as he watched. KT had been right when he said that the buy-in speech could make you a believer; not just in the astonishing amount of benefits that Tony offered to people who agreed to the buy-in, but because Tony's enthusiasm for the project was contagious.

"So why do you need our money?" One guy interrupted. "If you've got so much of it?"

"Good question," Tony said. He leaned against one of the tables, putting his hands in his pocket and crossing his legs at the ankle. "Yeah, the majority of the start-up money came from me. Since this organization is technically a nonprofit, I get to write it all off of my taxes, the way rich people often do. But I ask for your money because if I paid for all of it, then it would belong to me, wouldn't it? The whole point of this enterprise is to build ownership and equity in the community. You own the health clinic and the child care centers, the retirement homes and the apartment complexes. Not only does it mean you get to decide what to do with them, but it means that you start having a place at the same table that all of the billionaire developers and well-connected real estate moguls do."

"But the stuff about the taxes and stuff, where we just hand it all to you, that's tax fraud, isn't it? Which is illegal?"

"Well, yes, in a way," Tony said honestly. "You avoid paying taxes the same way rich people avoid paying taxes, by finding loopholes in the tax code and driving semi-trucks through them. But also, I'm the criminal, not you. If we get caught, I'm the big bad con artist that scammed honest folks like you out of your hard earned savings. There will be a class action lawsuit after the criminal proceedings, my lawyer will fight hard but not too hard to defend my assets, then they will eventually get divided up among all my victims in the kind of feel-good, good guys win story that is made for Hallmark TV. In the mean time, my job is to help the community fund the type of social welfare projects that the government should be doing but isn't, by taking from people who don't deserve it and giving it to the people that do. Which the government should also be doing but isn't."

"So this is like, socialism," a young woman said in accented English. "Instead of paying the government taxes, we give that money to you, and you like, do all this stuff with it."

"Pretty much. Grassroots socialism with a capitalist veneer. I like to think of it as stone soup, from the kid's story."

"But why?"

"Because it's the right thing to do," Tony said, like it was obvious. Bucky hid his smile in his hand and hoped he didn't look too besotted; he'd sat all the way in the back for a reason. "I don't know else to say it. Why should I have so much when others have so little? I give a lot it away, because there really are so many problems that can be solved by throwing money at them, but some can't. Some need systemic change, which means empowering people, which is what I'm trying to do. That's why it's a buy-in, and not a handout." There was still some obvious reluctance among the group, and Tony's smile turned a little sad. "Look, I get it. You are used to people promising a lot and not delivering. And you think this sounds way too good to be true, right?" No one really answered, but the way they kind of avoided Tony's eyes said a lot. "Let me tell you a story.

"So I've been donating regularly to the free clinic on 17th for a while now. A few years ago, there was a kid volunteering there because he wanted to go to medical school. But he was in a shit position - his parents made too much money to qualify for the grants and needs-based scholarships, but not enough to actually afford tuition or even qualify for good student loans. So the doctor in charge of the clinic emailed me and told me to do something useful with all of the blood money I was getting from Stark Industries, and so I did. I paid for his entire education, and he came back and is currently the head physician at the rehab clinic. So if you want there to be a catch, if you need there to be a catch so that you can believe what I'm telling you, then that's the catch - you have to try to give back at least as much as you were given."

There was a long, thoughtful silence after that, and Tony wisely let it sit for a while instead of trying to fill it with words. "You don't have to answer now," he said after a few moments. "The forms that you would need to fill out for the buy-in are right here," he added, tapping a stack of papers next to him. "Take one with you, and think about it. Any last questions?"

"Yeah, I got one," the young woman said. "I heard you stole Jeff Bezos' car, is that true?"

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

A/N: If you enjoyed this story, come find me over at @marveltrumpshate where I will be participating in auctioning off TWO fanfics! One auction is a fic with art (with @massivespacewren) as WrenFyre and the other is a solo fic as Dracusfyre. All the money goes to a good cause of your choosing, so I hope to see you there!

#tony stark #bucky barnes #tony x bucky #winteriron #no powers au

47 notes · View notes

hkshirayuki · 4 years

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STEALING GOLDIE'S HEART BY ACCIDENT

Overhaul x Thief Reader

Genre: Fluff

Slither a. K. a Y/n l/n is a well known thief on the underground organization, as she can be an Ally or an enemy. She stole precious information or expensive stuffs.

Her Quirk was still a mystery as they only know about the thief is that it's gender.

A grand party was held for all leaders of the underground. As there will be meeting and auction. Overhaul the young boss of the Shie Hassaikai.

Shie Hassaikai is one of many Yakuza groups that ran the criminal underworld in Japan. A man known only as "The Boss" originally lead this organization and raised Overhaul into it. The Boss believed that gangsters would only follow a boss with a code and morals. Following the former boss of the Shie Hassaikai way. Overhaul expand his territory using brute strength and power. He overpowered them.

“It was a Great honour for us to be in your presence, Overhaul-sama” Someone Clearly trying to buy his favour.

“...” Overhaul didn’t respond. As his subordinates only understand.

“My Apology Gentleman, but Young master doesn’t want you around him, Mind leaving us alone?” Chrono said with a smile but quite threathening as the man who talk casually just try to stay calm not trying to show that he was scared. Overhaul only give him a look that could make everyone shiver.

“Excuse myself” He lastly said before leaving in a rush.

“Tch...that guy should know his place”Mimic said.

“Remind me, Why are we here again?” Shin asked.

“To attend a meeting, Remember” Chrono said and Overhaul just look at there way to quiet down. Which they all shut there mouth.

“You All, are too loud” Overhaul irritated said as he was clearly uncomfortable.

He requested a room which is less people in it. Which they comply as they wanted to be in his good side. He was known of having a germaphobia, Which he gets hives from any physical contact that he think is dirty.

“What the hell do you mean! someone just steal it! what are you idiots! doing here then! Go look who the rascal took it!" The leader of the auction said as he ordered his men to capture the thief.

“Yes Boss!”

Slither have steal the ancient jewelry that supposed to be an item for the Auction. As they get alarm from the sudden disappearance of the Rare item they have. Slither just thought of how she should slip to there tight security.

But she doesn’t know that someone who is Quirk can see who is guilty. After she was track down easily. Now they are chasing her down.

That’s how she cross paths with Overhaul who just happen to bump with her.

“What the—Kiss me” Overhaul said but he was interrupted by Slither as he doesn’t know what’s going on. He was sure, he get himself some hives from the sudden contact from a stranger but in a blink of eye. In a corner of the place, His mask is remove and his lips is attach to the person he bump into.

He didn’t get any hives from the touch as they share a passionate kiss, But what the hell is this kissing a Stranger. Overhaul just hold one of her legs and pull her close to his. Overhaul is staring the person who is he kissing and thought. He is under some kind of spell. Well his not that wrong, He is currently under the Quirk of Slither. Her quirk is Command words, which she command and there is no way, the person who she command can break it off.

That’s why she always careful with her words, When she bump into Overhaul who is ready to hurt her, She is not aware of how dangerous is the person she is currently kissing.

This is her first kiss, She never expect that to escape from the people, who is chasing her down, She have to sacrifice her first kiss.

“Well at least, I’m lucky to get a Good looking guy as my first kiss” She thought as she is still focus on keeping up on how good he can kiss her.

Overhaul kiss her as what she command, Slither just put her arms around his neck as Overhaul used his hand to support her in the waist and the other is still holding her leg make the gown she is wearing who have a slit on it, Revealing her leg. Those who is chasing Slither just saw them sucking faces and notice it was Overhaul so they didn’t dare to disturb,

"Search somewhere else!"

"The thief is not here!"

"Yes sir!"

They know that Overhaul is Someone they never wanted to mess with. When they were gone, Slither was going to command him to stop but then there something between them that they keep going on. But Slither know it will only last for five minutes. But they been kissing for like a minute and it’s getting out of her control. Overhaul who is having his first kiss get carried away.

“So this is how it feels like kissing someone, She have a delicious soft lips” Overhaul thought as he is looking at Slither.

Slither and him just made a eye contact.

“His eyes is beautiful like gold” Slither thought to herself.

The two just stare at each other and then Slither was the first to snap from it, She have her mask around her faces. She only put back Overhaul’s mask to where it is and whisper to his ear.

“Your a Good Kisser Goldie” She said and left him.

“Goldie!?” Overhaul thought to himself.

“Who the hell you calling Goldie!?” Overhaul wanted to say, but he is very aware he is restrain by your quirk.

Slither fucking leave him still unable to move from the sweet rendezvous they both shared. When Chrono found Overhaul, He never saw a disheveled appearance of him. Before.

“What the hell, Happen to you, Overhaul-sama” chrono and follow by the rest.

Slither who slip from the security, thanks to Overhaul help distracting them.

The pursuers of slither just reported that they lost her.

“We saw Overhaul making out with someone, and didn't check that person, We got distracted, We’re very sorry boss” they say cause only Overhaul's kissing partner is the person they couldn't check on.

“YOU BUNCH OF USELESS PEOPLE!!! GETTING DISTRACTED BY SOMETHING LIKE THAT!” There boss just throw a good fit of tantrums at them.

When Chrono was still questioning Overhaul.

“Let’s go back to our Headquarters” Overhaul said, He was never been humiliated like this and when he get home.

“Oh? what happened to you, This is very rare to see you in this kind of state, Kai” His old man said to him. Seeing his clothes full of wrinkles.

“...” Overhaul didn’t respond to him. He just thought of cleaning himself. Cause your lips still lingering. Every part of his body. Your lips, chest, legs. he is now more irritated at you.but his much more irritated by how his body reacts to a Stranger like you.

When Overhaul remove his mask that cover his face. His old man and Chrono and the others just have a widen eye expression.

“Did you just kiss with someone, Kai!?” His Old man asked.

“What no!” Kai denying said.

“Don’t go denying it, Why do you have a smeared lipstick in your lips then?”

They never seen there young boss who is always aloof and calm just make a face that he was caught red-handed.

“Our Young boss just got laid!!!” Mimic said.

“I never expect someone have able to touch you, Much more a very heated kiss!?” Shin said.

“HAHAHA” There former boss just laugh at Chisaki Kai also know Overhaul, For some reason he found it funny to see his Son. Definitely got harrass by someone and also How?

"OUR VIRGIN OVERHAUL-SAMA HAVE FINALLY SHARED HIS FIRST KISS" Chrono his childhood friend and right hand man. Just shout and teasing him to no end. There former boss, of course, didn't let it slide.

"Finally my Son have found someone he is interested in"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Kai annoyed and irritated said to his group who only smile sly at him.

"so that's why you requested a room, Never thought of you being a bold type, Overhaul-sama" Mimic said.

"So you two did it in the room?" Shin asked.

"I never thought this day will come"

"say one more thing, and I kill you all" Chisaki said threatening them. And left to take a shower. Slither's perfume was rub to his chest. As he can still smell you. While taking a shower his mind just play the memories of the heated first kiss. He touch his lips and quickly remove it.

"Tch... I find you, Woman and make you pay for this humiliation you put me into" he said while scrubbing every inch of his body.

Two months later

"y/n!" Camille said as she was pointing at someone. Y/n who is currently undercover just look at her friend. And where she is pointing at.

"what is it?" Y/n asked as she is still staring at where her friend pointing at.

"isn't that guy, looks to hot?" She said while y/n thought indeed he is, but I don't have time for fawning on someone.

"yep, he is?" Y/n carelessly said to her friend who is currently fangirling at the guy.

"Look at that body posture, is he a model or something?"

"yeah, sure" y/n said still cleaning.

"Oh My God! His entering our shop!"

"huh?"

The guy that Camille fawning around just entered there shop.

"Good morning, sir, how may I help you?"

He just look around the shop.

"Good morning, I'm wondering if you have a brand Windex for cleaning?"

"Oh it's over here, sir" y/n taking to where it is. She admit his handsome. But Goldie is more handsome, that's the nickname she made up for the guy her first kiss is.

Y/n observe the man, he was a slim man with short, light-colored hair that he wears parted with bangs hanging down his forehead.

"I will buy, all of this, how much for all of this?" The man asked. While y/n was surprised but then assist him. Of course Camille, who laid her eyes on the guy, was jealous that y/n is the one assisting him not her. But y/n just sigh at her and let her assists the gentleman.

"Good morning, sir! I be the one assisting you" Camille said and the Gentleman just raise one of his eyebrow at her.

When shin was busy, Overhaul just entered the shop as what shin said it have the brand he wanted. Y/n who welcome her customer.

"Good morning sir, how may I help you?" She said with a smile. But when Chisaki and y/n's eyes met.

She will never forget that Beautiful Gold eyes.

Chisaki Kai just narrowed his eyes on the person that greeted him. As he feel he heard that voice and much more her eyes.

Suddenly the kiss flashback to his head. And it click that eyes and voice is all to familiar.

After two months always haunting him in some way, Finally he will hunt you down.

Chisaki Kai just go to find Shin.

"Chisaki-sama" Shin said.

"Shin, I want you to do something for me" Chisaki said.

Chisaki just thought of making you confess if it really it's you.

So he tell Shin to used his Quirk on you. Camille just fawning around the two guys who is a eye candy for her.

"I would like to pay for this" Shin who smile at y/n. She feel uncomfortable as she saw Goldie.

Her mind was occupied when Shin asked her something.

"Are you the one who kiss Overhaul-sama, Two months ago at the grand party?" Shin asked after he gesture to Chisaki standing in front of you.

"yes" y/n bluntly said. Wait what's going on. She thought.

"then you are the one, well-known Slither aren't you?" Shin continue asked.

"Yeah, I am" y/n said saying her secret identity to a subordinate to Goldie. This is bad.

"that's enough, Shin, we should take her with us" Chisaki said.

"As you wish, Overhaul-sama" Shin said as you finally snap out of it.

"What was that for Goldie!" Y/n said and Chisaki just glare at you.

"Don't call me Goldie!" Chisaki said.

As he grab you and carry you like a sack.

"y/n! Where are you taking her?!" Camille said as she watch in horror.

Of course they threatened her that she agree immediately not to tell anyone.

Y/n is abducted by Chisaki Kai, Shin was surprised and shock that Overhaul is holding you.

"Let me go! Goldie" y/n demand asked that he stop and put her down.

"what did you do to Overhaul-sama!" Shin asked using his Quirk on you.

"I used my Quirk on him" y/n said.

Chisaki know that you have a Quirk that you put them under your spell.

"what kind of Quirk do you have?"

"Command words"

"what does it do"

Y/n tried to stop herself by uttering the info about her Quirk.

"S... St.. op.. u.. sing.. yo.. ur.. quirk... On.. me" y/n said and now two of the guys is under her Quirk.

Shin obeyed her and Chisaki is still standing while y/n pat herself. Not noticing Chrono behind her that put a handkerchief on her nose that have a chemical that make her lose consciousness.

"Who is this?" Chrono asked and Chisaki and Shin is free from the Quirk.

As you are unconscious.

"take her to the headquarters" Chisaki said as he try to play it cool.

"Is this the lady you share with your first kiss?" Chrono asked and he was answered by a glare and he only tries to stop his laugh.

"Better stop that or Overhaul-sama will be pissed off" Shin said to Chrono.

Chrono was going to carry you, when Chisaki hated the thought of Someone else touching you. He only snatch you from Chrono and carried you near the office and of course put a gag on your mouth. He have notice that your Quirk is Similar to Shin.

"Have you seen that, Shin? Overhaul-sama just carried someone in his arm, by himself?!" Chrono disbelief asked and Shin agree at him.

When y/n woke up, she found herself in a place, she doesn't know. she can't used her Quirk on anyone as she is muffled by the Gag that Chisaki put.

"Good, your awake" Chisaki said while staring at her.

She have a handcuffs on her wrist and a gag. His old man sudden enter to see y/n in that state.

"Kai!? What are you doing to this young lady?" He asked with a Stern tone.

"Pops, We need to put restraining stuffs on her, or she will escape" Chisaki said.

His old man just sigh and sit infront of you.

"you shouldn't treat your Woman like this"

"She is not My woman!" he said.

"whatever you say, Chisaki Kai"

Y/n just watch them talk to each other.

She was trying to talk, but Chisaki glare at her.

"Use your Quirk on me again, Your dead" Chisaki threatening said as he give her a sample for her to see how capable his Quirk is.

"try and you be like that" he said. Y/n know when to fight or not. So she just nods at him. Removing the restraints off her.

"First, your name" Chisaki said.

"y/n, l/n" she said.

"I see... So Y/n-chan, are you the one who kiss my son? Two months ago?" Pops asked and y/n was surprised.

As Chisaki was irritated on why they keep bringing up the past.

"What's your purpose abducting me?" Y/n asked and His old man approved her.

"I like her, Kai, she got guts and beauty, You got good taste on picking a girl, Son"

"Pops" he sternly said making him chuckles at him and excuse himself.

"alright, alright,I leave you two, and I want a grandchildren as soon as possible" he said and y/n blush at that statement and chuckles.

"Don't Tell me, you fell in love with me from that kiss? Goldie?" She said.

"No, I didn't, I'm not stupid, and don't call me Goldie, how many times do I have to tell you that"

"Well I already tell my name, and you haven't so..."

He sigh and said "Overhaul"

"Overhole? I prefer Goldie still"

"Sass me more and your body will be splattered everywhere"

"okay, okay, I shut up now, Mister"

Now Overhaul have no idea, why did he abducted you as well, Just like what you said. You two sat down for good 30 minutes. No one doesn't make any noise. until y/n speak.

"You seriously don't know, why you kidnap me, seriously?" Y/n said.

"..." Chisaki really is thinking so hard.

"I'm sorry for stealing your lips, Mister, but that's only one time, Ever heard of one night stand? That's how our relationship is" y/n said.

"That was my first kiss and personal space, you occupied, don't think a simple sorry could save you"

"... Really?! Your first kiss, cause it doesn't look like that, you were a good damn, Ugh kisser, Honestly that was my first kiss not you " y/n annoyed said as she recalled keeping up on there heated kiss.

Chisaki just smirk under his mask but clearly in his eyes, he was.

"That! Was my First kiss though" he said.

When he insisted that fact, y/n started to laugh.

"you telling me, you good looking guy, never kiss Someone before?"

He got irritated at how you say that, is it normal kissing someone and much more he kiss a total stranger.

You were still laughing.

"Never thought, you are a virgin, Goldie-sama" y/n said and that was the last straw of his patience.

"Wanna fucking test it on the bed?" Chisaki sound like he want to prove that he can do it, Even without experience.

Y/n stop laughing as now she look like a deer caught in traffic light.

"whoa, whoa, easy there" y/n said.

"What's this? Awhile ago, you were laughing at me, now your running away? Scared?"

"pfft...for your information" y/n tries her very best to not fall to his taunting, As she is very aware she be drowning.

“For your information what? Your mocking me being a virgin, when you, Yourself also a Virgin” He said with a smug smirk plastered in his face. Y/n just sudden feel embarrassed by this guy.

“Well Mister Goldie, I have my own reasons, Why I stay virgin”

He only chuckles at you.

“Never thought of the well known Slither have no experience at all”

“Don’t laugh about it, You may hurt yourself too”

“The Well known Thief is still a virgin and pure, Unbelievable”

Y/n just frown at him, This is so childish, It’s not like he isn’t the same boat, When Even himself is a virgin. So why he keep mocking her.

“Your also Unbelievable, Your the same boat as I am”

“I have my reasons”

“Same goes for me, End of topic”

“You really quite a sassy type, Slither”

“I don’t know, what’s your main reason of abducting me, Goldie”

“I said it’s Overhaul to you, I don’t know, If your playing dumb or you are dumb”

“If I’m dumb then your Childish” Y/n said as she just want to win the conversation they have. Forgetting that part of this person, she is talking with is her kidnapper who is also dangerous.

Never ever Chisaki Kai thought in his life he will have a conversation like this, It’s so silly and casual. It’s very different from all conversation he have.

“Oh come on! you two aren’t kids anymore, Go ahead and suck faces already” Rappa sudden said and make the two glare at him.

“Do we look like doing that shit!” They both said in sync.

“And how long have you guys listening to our conversation?” Overhaul fix himself.

“Well your guys topic is quite stupid, You are both Virgin period” Rappa said.

“Hahaha, he doesn’t mean it, Overhaul-sama” Tengai said as always babysitting the big guy. While Chrono was struggling to contain his laugh along with pops, Who really found y/n funny and well match with his son.

“Y/n-chan, Right?” Pops asked and the others quiet down.

You just nod and feel mentally exhausted.

“Can you be his bride?”

Y/n just look at him with a look “You gotta be kidding me”

While Chisaki reaction massage his forehead, Questioning his old man decision for him.

“I don’t want her as my wife, Shitty old man” He curse at him which is very rare of him and pops just smile at you and smirk at his denial son.

“Well you never find someone like her, And beside isn’t only her have touch you once and you didn’t get hives”

Now that he remind that incident, He want to test out, why he doesn’t get hives from your touch.

“Hives?” Y/n asked as she listen to them.

“You see y/n-chan, my boy here have a germaphobia which he dislikes physical contact, So we are surprised your still alive after kissing this boy, Who will go berserk from a simple touch” The Old man said as he mess with Kai’s hair.

Y/n sudden feel the pressure of danger from a kiss.

“If I know then, I haven’t drag him to do that and used my Quirk on him” Y/n thought. she regretting that move, Now she is in deep thought of how to escape from this Yakuza gang.

“Oi, Give me your hand” Chisaki said as he wanted to know,Why he isn’t bothered by your touch.

Y/n was startled by the sudden suggestion but know she can’t decline the man who can kill her anytime he want. So she just play along and give her hand to him.

They look amaze on how Chisaki didn't have his usual Pop, Ta-da Hives... Like that.

"Maybe, your phobia is already healed" Chrono said with a uncertain tone.

"Chrono, Come here and touch kai" Pops said and Chisaki just agree.

As soon Chrono almost touch him, Hives come Popping out to his skin where Chrono almost touch.

"Seriously!?" Chrono thought to himself. If he get hives, he thinks your dirty.

"Tch... How filthy, Shower, I need to take some shower now!" Chisaki said as he leave the room in rush. Leaving y/n to his comrades that interview her in such a friendly way.

"so how did you do that?" Chrono asked.

"beside the kiss, did you do it?" Pops asked.

"Finally our Virgin young boss got laid by a pretty person" Mimic said.

She was used to serious intimidating people interrogating her. But this kind of approach is really unexpected. For her. They approach her very friendly and quite frankly, childish with no interest to threaten her life, Just why did they even kidnap her for, so even they are like that, she didn't let her guard down. They keep asking Silly Question

"Are you two have a thing for each other?"

"Is he a Good kisser?"

"Tell us how Young boss react?"

There Questions are all related to there Boss, Who make his subordinate worried since he never interact with opposite gender before.

"Were glad you came, we thought maybe our boss is g—" Chrono whisper said.

"Is what Chrono?" Chisaki threatening said as he entered the room the moment he is finish taking a shower and hearing how lively they are. To a stranger and they are asking stupid question. Put him into a foul mood.

"You mean Goldie is Gay?" Y/n asked not really oblivious but it's funny.

"I'm not and Fuck you" Chisaki calmly said.

"We haven't done that, we only did French kiss, You know Goldie" y/n retort back and you can hear a quiet Ohh.

"Tch... I don't have time for Filthy person like you, Slither"

"Then why did you even kidnap me?"

"..."

"Still doesn't know? Why? Are you sure you didn't fell in love with me? Or something Goldie?"

"Will you stop Fucking calling me like that, My name is Overhaul"

"My bad, Overhole"

"Are you deaf and stupid, It's Overhaul not Overhole"

The Subordinates and pops who watch the two argue just thought they are match made in heaven and Funny. So they trying there best not to laugh.

"Man, I really like this Lady to be your wife, Kai" pops said. And they both stop arguing and look at Pops.

"Are you insane? Old man/Pops" Chisaki and y/n both said.

He only chuckle at the two who spoke in sync.

"Maybe, I am, cause I can see, how you two are in sync"

Chisaki just massage his forehead, Y/n just sighs and doesn't want to argue back to someone who Kidnap a person, without a reason.

"this is must be one of his hobby" y/n thought to herself.

"Your staying here and that's final" Chisaki said.

"what?! You can't just do that"

"but I already did"

"your really childish, Goldie" y/n last said before shin took her to a guest room.

"this will be your room" Shin said and left soon he is done with his duty.

Y/n just thought she can't escape cause they are guarding her.

She stay with them for a week. Until Chisaki barge in her room.

"Accompany me"

"Huh?" Y/n respond as she thought to herself, "he can't just come to me after imprisoning me here for a week and sudden tell me to accompany him somewhere"

"I said, Accompany me" Chisaki said.

"so are you going to finally let me go?"

"No, were going somewhere" Chisaki said, These past days your image never left his mind and keep distracting him. Chrono and his pops always speak about you. He was frustrated about it, just what the hell did you do to him. He even can't let you go. He just reason himself that if he let go of you, It will tarnish his reputation as a cruel person.

Y/n just narrowed her eyes and sighs to herself, she just thought that she did accidentally stole Goldie's heart, without her knowing. But, wait a second, outside it won't be heavily guarded. This is her chance to escape!

#bnha chisaki #chisaki kai #chisaki kai x reader #reader x overhaul #overhaul x reader #bnha fanfiction

92 notes · View notes

ogbonnaohakwe · 3 years

Text

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Most of these sites have both free membership and paid memberships. Once you find one or two that have a layout and system that appeals to you, get a free membership and start bidding on projects. You should be able to get a job or two and this will be enough to let you figure out which site is your favorite.

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A lot of people are intimidated by the idea of getting onto a bidding site and competing with other freelancers for work, but you really shouldn’t be. It is true that you won’t win every project – in fact, you may only get one in every five or ten – but the important thing is that you bid what you think you are worth. Some freelancers think that in How To Make Money Freelancing, undercutting everyone else is the best way to win jobs. But most buyers are more likely to go with the provider who gives a reasonable bid and crafts a good proposal than the provider who just has the lowest price.

As you complete jobs and get the feedback you will become more comfortable with your timetables and prices. This will make it easier and easier for you to get jobs. How To Make Money Freelancing 2021 guides

This also applies to the other common method of finding freelance work – having your own website. By creating a website or blog about yourself and the services you offer, you are basically setting up a sales page for yourself. Many freelancers will say that their website is their most important tool.

READ ALSO 5 Best Ways to Make Money Blogging for Beginners In 2021

You don’t have to have a website right away, especially if you are still figuring out exactly what kind of services you want to offer. But you should consider getting one as soon as possible. This is because you can reach out and introduce yourself to potential clients as well as stay in contact with established clients.

While becoming a freelancer may seem like a big challenge, the fact is that it is something that anyone with selling skills can do. If you start small and on a part-time basis you shouldn’t have any trouble finding your strengths and moving up to bigger projects and paychecks.

Some people may ask these questions on hot to make money freelancing online:

How can I make $100 a day on the internet?

Here are the sure ways to make $100 a day online freelancing: Start a dropshipping store Run a print-on-demand store Sell custom products online Sell handmade crafts on Etsy Sell products on Amazon Create digital products Start an affiliate marketing business Build online courses Sell freelance services

How can I make money right now?

Start a Shopify ecommerce store and sell dropshipping products online Sell virtual assistant or freelance services on websites like Fiverr or Upwork Sell used stuff on Amazon, eBay, Craigslist, or Facebook Marketplace Do micro-tasks on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk program Tutor kids online in English Rent your unused space on Airbnb Drive for Uber or Lyft Create information products Become a Tasker on TaskRabbit Trade in items on Gazelle or Amazon for gift cards

There many ways you can make money online in Nigeria from freelancing and doing affiliate marketing.

Important Steps On How To Make Money Freelancing Online In 2021

Discover the most crucial steps on how to make money freelancing online, although there are too many steps to take, below are the listed and most comprehensive steps to follow to make money freelancing online in Nigeria.

Advertise on Existing Websites:

How to make money freelancing online in 2021 is by advertising your skills on an existing website to attract clients to your profile and work. People who already have their own website can easily generate more money each month by advertising on it. There are a lot of potential advertisers that will pay website owners to advertise their brand or product. This could be a blogger giving away free products that the company sends in or simply putting up some banner ads. When more people click on the banner ad, more money will be made. Website owners who use advertisers that will target their regular visitors have really good earning potential. A good example of such site you can join in Nigeria is Expertanire.com

READ ALSO How To Get Google AdSense Approval On Your Blog In 2021: Tricks And Best Practices In 2021

Join a Freelancing Website:

Freelancers can easily find new jobs by joining websites that are designed for them. These are free for most members to join, although there might be fees associated with jobs once they are completed. People who need work done will post their job up on the site for all freelancers to see. Individuals who are interested can easily bid on the project if they are qualified. The poster will then be able to look at the profile of the freelancers who bid on the job to see who the best choice is. Although this can be competitive, it’s a great way to make money online for anyone who has a special skill.

Start a Website And Teach:

Anyone who has special skills can easily teach others how to use them online. Like my website, you can see that I offer different services and mentorship programs, you might want to check it out. This could be via a newsletter or even through video sessions on Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, etc. Most people are willing to pay for these things because they are less expensive than taking a real class in person. Freelancers who are skilled and can teach others will have a lot of earning potential online. When more people find out about the classes this will increase the number of people who desire the service.

Become A Writer

There are a lot of different websites that allow freelance writers to join for absolutely no cost to them. They can then find people to write for and get paid whenever the articles are accepted. These websites vary in how they work. Some writing websites are meant for writers to find random people to create articles for. Other sites are meant for writers to find regular people they can work for all the time. The pay will vary based on the types of articles that are written, how long they are, and a lot of other factors. An example of such a site is Fiverr.com

Selling Products

Some freelancers can turn their knowledge of how the internet works into large profits just by selling things! There are a lot of different websites that allow people to sell products to people all over the world. This could be through an auction site like eBay or a marketplace like Amazon; there are a lot of different choices out there. If someone is good at selling and knows how to navigate through the site, they can end up making a lot of money.

There are even photography websites where photographers can sell their pictures to websites or just list them for buyers to find. In addition to this, there are art websites where artists can sell their creations to buyers who want unique items. The best part about these is that sellers can set their own prices for each of the different pieces. A lot of people have made businesses out of these types of websites.

Like in this my website, I created a space where I sell all my digital products, from courses and books some freelancers or digital marketers do create a section on their blog where they sell eBooks and Videos as well, I think you should give it a shot, it worth trying

Read more: https://ogbonnaohakwe.com.ng/how-to-make-money-freelancing-online/

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unsettledink · 4 years

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So I'm offering a Starker (or Spiderio or any combo of the three) fic, min 5k, for the Marvel Trumps Hate charity auction. I know I'm not exactly well known in this fandom, but hey, here's a chance to get some custom made fic! (The auction ends Saturday the 24th!)

I know browsing the auctions for things I want bid on, I've had some moments of 'but what specifically would I want to read?'. Maybe others are having that thought too? So I thought I'd put out some of the ideas sitting around, waiting for me to write them, in case one catches someone's interest enough to donated $10 to charity! (I've got one of these for Spiderio too, if that's appealing.)

I'm kind of grouping these because it got long. (Smut, smut + feels, fluff, oh no the sads)

Just the smut! (Ok some feels):

Continuation of Hang Up – so what does happen the next morning after that phone call? (Sex. Probably more phone sex.)

Peter is dumb online – Peter decides to auction off his virginity online. Of course Tony finds out immediately. Of course Tony buys it to keep Peter from getting hurt. Of course Tony decides to meet up and teach Peter a lesson about being safe – wait. That might have been a mistake. (It's not.)

Actually, Peter doesn't like it rough – miscommunication piled on top of miscommunication because they're both idiots who are desperate for each other, until a tipping point is reached. Happy ending! Fluffy ending!

Gag reflex training – pretty much what it sounds like. Tony having a lot of fun with Peter; messy, noisy, hopefully hot.

Experienced Peter – Peter hasn't been waiting around for Tony to be the first, and he's had time to figure out some of his preferences. Like topping almost exclusively, among other things.

Civil War pick me up – after the airport, Tony goes to check on Peter and is in desperate need of something nice. Peter really, really wants to be that something nice. Could be underage, could be not.

Continuation of Gift Wrapped – (Peter/Tony/Pepper) there's a lot more sex happening for Tony's birthday than I had time to write for kinktober.

But you want me to be safe, don't you? - Peter's hit with sex pollen, but it can be taken care of without outside help. Peter would still really like it if Tony would help. Or would at least keep an eye on him. Or at least stay in hearing range! He won't be able to resist if Peter's noisy and saying his name while he gets off, right???

Armor Kink - I mean, basically what it says on the tin. Peter’s been having fantasies about the armor forever. Tony is absolutely willing to help him with that.

ABO forced presentation – Peter doesn't know what he'll end up being, and that's bad for Reasons. He convinces Tony try forcing a presentation (not noncon type forcing) and things get weird. Playing around with the idea of how non-binary might go in ABO. Possible Tony/Peter/Pepper endship. More than likely somewhat underage.

Avengers orgy – Peter's finally old enough to join in the tradition! While he's having fun with everyone, Peter and Tony keep gravitating to each other, winding up with things getting a little too emotional when Tony finally gets his chance. Potential for Tony/Peter/Rhodey endship.

The spider bite did what?!? - Peter starts having really weird cravings when he's around Tony. Weird as in blood, and Tony is going to help him figure this out. Even when it turns into a craving for sex (and bloodplay). Even when it turns into terrifying (for Peter) egg/medical kink.

Smut! Oh wait, where did all these feelings come from?:

Toybox – slightly darker Peter decides if Tony won't fuck him, the least Tony can do is pay for Peter's toys, and watch while Peter enjoys them. No touching allowed since Tony doesn't want him, after all. Which is a rule that gets harder and harder to keep in place; feelings, so many feelings everywhere.

Pain kink Peter – what it says on the tin, lol. “Oh Mr. Stark, maybe you should supervise this slightly dangerous sex thing I like.” I think we can guess where it heads from there.

Call boy Peter – what it sounds like! It's an accident that Tony gets him; good thing Peter was blindfolded! Bad thing that Peter's senses are enhanced and he knows from the start who it is. Good thing that Peter's not going to say anything so he can keep this reliable customer?

Evil Ex D/S verse – Peter's pretty insecure about being a good sub for Tony and it's not helped at all when one of Tony's ex subs tells him he'll never be able to take what Tony wants to dish out. Well, Peter's going to prove him wrong! Tony really doesn't understand why Peter is making himself miserable for something Tony doesn't even want, and things almost break before they get fixed.

Fluff! (Crap there's not much):

Follow up to Seiche – mostly fluffy 5 times +1 where the emotion sensing bond causes (minor) problems

Fluffy D/S verse – all the fluff! All the outside POV! Everyone assumes that obviously Tony is a dom; after all, that's how he's always presented himself. Everyone is wroooooong. Tony's never been happier.

Nail polish – little bit of Tony finding it incredibly appealing when Peter wears nail polish

Oh No + all the feelings, heavy on the bad ones:

Soulmark AU – Tony finds out first and isn't going to do anything due to the age difference. Peter finds out and thinks that's bullshit + horribly hurt that he's being rejected. Things are forced when Peter gets hit with a drug that messes with that bond and they both have to figure out how things are going to go. Possible bittersweet ending.

Screw soulmates, actually - Post CW and Tony dealing with soulmate rejection (that’s a WHOLE other fic). Peter’s become convinced Tony’s a blank like him, and then doesn’t understand why Tony’s soulmate wouldn’t want him. Peter does! They get their happy ever after without being fated for each other, and Peter gets a chance to tells Tony’s soulmate what a dick they are. All the satisfaction!

Untenable – sequel to Indefensible and … horrible. The ABO underage incest continues, Tony hates himself, Peter is distressingly happy. Mpreg makes everything ten times worse; endgame makes everything 100 times worse. Going beyond that would be spoilery, but uh. Everything becomes 1000 times worse by the end! Yay! Yikes.

ABO accidental bonding – the worst abo version, heads up. Underage Peter, omegas are treated very poorly, Peter and Tony don't know each other beforehand and don't do great getting to know each other afterwards. Biology continues to fuck Peter over, and Tony really doesn't get how desperately Peter wants Tony to like him. Mountains and mountains of angst and sad before the happy ending.

Copy - After IW, Tony makes a Peter clone/android/whatever. Unfortunately, it just makes things worse because it’s just enough off to make it super obvious it’s not Peter. And fake!Peter knows it too. He’s just enough like real Peter to fall in love with Tony too, and he can’t figure out how to make Tony care about him instead of real, dead Peter. Not that it matters when he snap is reversed (Tony lives) and fake!Peter isn’t needed or wanted anymore. (Will probably have a sequel where real Peter finds out about all this, probably happy ending for everyone.)

Nothing sticks around - years after the blip, Peter discovers Tony, alive - only Tony has none of his memories. Tony doesn’t want anything to do with these people Peter tries to reintroduce him to; he trusts Peter and wants to stay with him. And does, for quite some time, things turning into a relationship, and even if Peter feels guilty about it, he’s happy. Right up until Tony suddenly remembers everything ... except what’s been going on the last few years with Peter. Undecided if there’s a happy ending or not.

I hate time travel - once Tony figures out time travel, he decides he needs to find out if this works by hopping forward and seeing if Peter is back. And then maybe he should hop forward a little more just to check on him. Keeps doing this, about once a year, and while Peter is so glad to see him, it’s destroying Peter to basically go through Tony ‘dying’ over and over. Pretty soon it’s fucking up Tony too, after he accidentally shows up when Peter’s in the middle of sex. Very bittersweet ending to maintain the timeline.

Fuck you, Beck - Beck goes about getting the glasses in the worst ways, and Peter finds out a little too late - way too late when it comes to sleeping with him. Not that he’s going to ever tell anyone about that. Not even Tony, when Tony comes back. Not even Tony, when it turns out Tony is interested. Okay, maybe he’ll have to tell Tony when Peter’s reactions to sex become a problem. Happy ending but lots of ouch on the way.

Sequel to Dormant - so what exactly does Tony notice the morning after? And what exactly does Peter do about it? (Spoiler: A lot more than Peter thought he would, and nothing good.)

Don't punish people like that – as much Tony/Obie as Tony/Peter, maybe pre-Tony/Peter. Obie decided to deal with Tony's wild streak by punishing him in an especially awful, painful, dehumanizing, sexual way. Tony's managed to handle how awful that was by pretending it was helpful (nope!). When Peter will not stop misbehaving, the last resort Tony can think of is what was done to him. It helped, right? (He can't bring himself to in the end, which sets off a cascading failure of repressed trauma, woot!)

Sex Pollen Non-Con – Tony's hit with some sort of fuck or die stuff; only problem is that he 100% refuses to let Peter do anything, and there's no one else. Peter, convinced that Tony's going to die, stops giving Tony a choice. What's that, the trauma Tony was hoping to spare him is replaced with way worse trauma from basically raping Tony? WHOOPS. (Probably happy ending!)

Secondhand verse – following after this, things growing steadily worse, hotter, and more complex between Peter, Beck, and Tony. Bad decisions all around! Unexpected feelings all around! General unhappiness at having feelings that can be hurt all around! Probably a series of fics.

12:00 - follow up to 11:59, Tony and Peter finally getting it on and Beck being an ass in the background. Also the prequel that’s primarily Peter/Quentin, and possibly a sequel where Tony decides that maybe it wasn’t the worst thing in the world, watching Beck fuck Peter - and Peter liked it, right? Everyone’s down for a totally uncomplicated round two, right?

(And feel free to talk to me about anything here, I love an excuse to ramble.)

#starker #tony x peter #tony stark x peter parker #idea dump #idea squad #marvel trumps hate

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