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#it’s been put into SO MANY ‘bottom Dream’ lists like DAMN way to assign my ghost dream bottom ig
poppyseed799 · 2 years
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I have a LOT to say about the reading lists my dsmp fanfic on Wattpad has been put in but I just really wanna say that the fact that it’s only JUST NOW been put into a list called “DNF” is shocking. It’s been in soooo many dreamnoblade ones despite techno not even being mentioned, but only NOW is it in a DNF one (George also hasn’t been mentioned)???? Shocking.
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ccelinewritess · 4 years
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the distance between us
pairing- draco malfoy x reader
word count- 9.7k
summary- the first time draco uses the muggle post system, it goes so terribly wrong, and a letter falls into the hands of a girl who was never supposed to see it, a muggle at that.
warnings- curse words, ptsd, anxiety/ panic attacks, depression mention of death, murder, blood and burns aswell as insomia, seperation anxiety (?) and my grammar.if these may trigger you, i suggested not reading.
a/n- this took me a while to get out, sry abt that. the reader was set to live in a canadian town called kelowna, british columbia. it takes place in readers grade 11/12 and dracos 6/7 year. i hope it’s not to self inserted, and you guys can enjoy and relate to it. big thank you to @dracodear for the help on this, love you! also thanks to everyone who left owl name suggestions, all were awesome and i ended up going with @winnsmills suggestion ‘noctua’ ! tumblrs been acting weird, so i hope it lets me post the whole thing. letters are in italics. also please note, this is off the movies timeline! i tried to fit in as many details as possible but some didn’t make it.
-
the town was widespread. wineries and mountains everywhere, the okanagan lake splitting it down the middle, reconnecting the cities halves by a bridge. little snow and tons of rain. jeep wranglers in every colour roaring around into unholy hours of the night, bustling with life yet all to lonely at times. but hey, that’s kelowna for you.
rain was running down the windows of y/ns most boring class, last period biology. she knew she should be paying attention. she had a high gpa to maintain, and couldn’t afford to fail another class besides french. the last five minutes of blabbering ended after what felt like a year.
‘you are dismissed, ill see you all monday, have a good weekend’ and with that everyone rose, heading to the parking lot as fast as possible in an attemp to dodge traffic. despite pouring rain, the air was hot, and on the ride home y/ns mind raced over every single assignment she had to complete over the next two days, while her hands tapped the steering wheel.
‘english essay, math review, history paper, business management graph’ she muttered under her breath. the town was busy, many students often blew off class to go shopping, or hit a movie, or smoke weed, the possibilities were endless. her house was cool compared to outside, and empty. no one was home, not that it was a surprise to the girl, people weren’t usually home, siblings gone to university, and parents working absurd amounts.
something caught her eye on the counter, an envelope, an ordinary seeming one, but absolutely covered in small pictured stamps with ‘england’ underneath each one. eighteen of them, all different. she knew shouldn’t open it, so she didn’t. at first. but it was irresistible. there was a return address written in the smallest writing she’d ever seen. wogshell, no, wiltshire? she took it to her room, and locked the door before ripping it open. she didn’t want the one time she had something intresting going on to be interrupted by whoever might show up.
her mouth fell open at every line of the same scroll. who was snape? why was this draco boy sending him a letter? he didn’t need his help to kill who? what the fuck was an unbreakable vow and why shouldn’t snape sign it? why was his mum going to see snape? who was the dark lord and why did he pick draco for a task? what kind of name is dumbledore?
what she already knew was confirmed- this letter was most definetly not for her. but newly- she opened a letter from a potential murderer or maybe it was a prank, a sick prank if it was one.
so instead she crafted up quite the response, whoever wrote this was either hysterical or in distress, and needed some sort of company- she thought, atleast.
-
it had been thirteen days, why wasn’t the letter back yet? the owl still couldn’t fly even about the house without damaging itself further. maybe using the muggle post system was a mistake. but better have it land into the hands of a muggle, who would likely throw it out, than a wizard who would know a death eater would soon be wondering around hogwarts.
as if on que, the door bell rang and echoed through the empty manor. on the porch sat an envelope, with only one stamp, his name in the middle and another he didn’t recognize in the corner. shit, this couldn’t be good. his eye caught the stamp. canada? fuck, this was supposed to go to cokeworth not bloody canada. no one was home so he opened it right there in the foyer.
hello, draco.
i am not snape- nor do i know who snape is. i am also very unfimilar with some of the vocabulary you used. dark lord? unbreakable vow? you seem to have quite the situation going on, if i read correctly. im not exactly stupid, but i do know that this letter was most definitely not supposed to be in my possession. i didn’t know who to send it to, id send it back to you, but you probably don’t want a copy of your own letter. i also know you likely have enough on your plate, but if you’d like someone to talk to im only half a world away, have no sort of schedule and am a good listener, well reader in this case. good luck with whatever task you’ve mentioned. p.s. you had about seventeen stamps to many, first time sending a letter? unfortunate fate, huh ? what kind of name is snape and what the heck is a dumbledore? i suppose it’s none of my business, knowing you likely won’t respond, but if you do i wrote my address on the front. have a good day/ night/ whatever time it is wherever you are.
y/n l/n
tears were welling in dracos eyes, he was floored, in a good and bad way. his task was already going downhill. the letter he sent snape had fallen into the hands of a muggle, who did not throw the letter away, but responded. and snape was likely going to bine himself into the task through the unbreakable vow, which draco was more than able to complete. he wouldn’t have been chosen if he wasn’t, right?
not only had she responded, she offered him help, well distant company, to a stranger who obviously had quite a few problems and she clearly had no regard for her own safety. he couldn’t tell her about the wizarding world. not that he could tell her about anything, she could be lying. he had a task to focus on, he couldn’t write her back.
and that was true- at the time. he had no intent of writing the girl back. and yet he found himself reading the 201 words over and over, running his hands across the paper, expecting them to fade away as he wiped. counting and recounting. he surely couldn’t talk to any of the twats at hogwarts, maybe a stranger could help numb the pain. and as long as he didn’t tell anyone- she couldn’t get hurt, she was to far.
draco was packed for hogwarts, the response at the bottom of the trunk, underneath his clothes. he’d just have to get to the damn school, then he could write all he wanted- without his parents knowledge or ridicule. his mind jumbled together what he was going to say while his friends rambled on. the train pulled up to the castle after dreadful hours and he could barely sit still during the opening feast. his thoughts did falter though, when dumbledore gave his speech, he felt guilty- the shame of his family weighing on his shoulders. he looked around, all his classmates staring in adoration at a man who would be dead ten months from now, and they were sitting in the same room as his killer.
the singular room was nice, he knew it wasn’t for lounge, but for plots of death.
before he began he started making promises to himself. if i get behind on the plan ill won’t write, if snape notices anything about it, ill stop. the list went on and on.
he couldn’t put his pen down, the words continued to fly out the end, was he oversharing?
dear y/n
my deepest apologies that my last letter found it’s way to you. im sure you didn’t expect whatever you may have perceived from it. honestly, i don’t know how it arrived all the way over there. im almost positive you have better things to do than listen to my problems, and i know you had no control over the fact it arrived, but i ask you to please not share this information with anyone. i am unsure if i will take up your offer of amity, if you were serious that is. im at school now, so if you’d like to respond, not that you have to- you can send letters back with my owl, it’ll be faster (and i won’t have to worry about stamps- thanks for the tip by the way)
draco malfoy 
and with that noctua was off into the night, and he could only hope that it would make it to her.
-
droll was running down y/ns chin and she was caught in a dream. suddenly a vigorous tapping on the window pulled her into consciousness, the sight of owl knocking her backwards in a scare. a crash sounded, if the tapping didn’t wake anyone up, that surely did. she almost considered just trying to ignore it, until she noticed a letter tied to its neck and reluctantly opened the window. she’d never seen an owl in real life before, but was aware from school that they weren’t exactly the kindest of creatures. this one just perched on the window while she removed the new enevelope, no stamps in sight. just a neatly printed address, and his in the corner.
from the new letter she learned even more- this wasn’t a prank, draco was a real person, was still in school, and whatever the first misplaced letter contained was true. he had some sort of task and didnt want help, but that was all. so with what she could, she wrote another response. it took an hour and she wasn’t exactly sure what she had written by mid morning.
draco
you’d be quite suprised actually, it gets lonely over here. i still haven’t exactly deciphered your original note, so if you would like to help me understand i think i’d be ready. and no worries about me, my lips are sealed. what is an unbreakable vow, im curious? you go to boarding school? and owls, really? what the hell is up with that? im pretty sure it’s illegal to own one here, but we are countries away, so perhaps it’s different all the way over there. send whatever you want. i do not- by the way- have anything better to do in the slightest.
y/n
-
he continued to write throughout the month of september, which bled into october before he knew it. he was avoiding questions about the task, just wanting someone to talk to. it wasn’t easy, she was curious, which draco couldn’t exactly be mad at her for that since he continued to write her, accepting the distant friendship that was forming.
he was learning a lot about her aswell. besides french, which he informed her he spoke fluently numerous times, she was a very good student. she was single, he didn’t remember how that came up but made a note in his mind- he couldn’t date her, nor did he know enough about her to be properly involved.
she read a lot of books, sappy romances mostly, couldn’t cook anything deemed edible by anyone, and her favourite colour was green, he smirked when reading that for the first time. she didn’t know what she wanted to do with her future, just not a doctor like her parents wanted.
-
y/n was sitting in english as her teacher reviewed about univeristy application requirements. only next year they would be getting accepted and denied from their dream schools. she’d spent years dreaming of it, university, and yet somehow a boy half way around the was racing through her mind. she felt horrible about it, the small crush. it was incredibly selfish, falling for a boy with so much going on, he certainly didn’t need her as anything more than a friend to talk to, but he was good with his words, and making her feel important too. her dismissal came and so did a classmate, approaching confident and cocky.
‘hey, l/n’ he said, a smirk on his face
‘oh, uh hey, will’
‘what are doing tonight?’ her mind went blank, any excuse, come on, say something
‘i have plans’ wow real specific, great job, y/n
‘like what’
‘fish funeral, real important stuff, my family is just devastated’ her voice was clearly sarcastic and that was all before she walked right out. no she didn’t exactly have plans, but waiting for dracos owl provided much more company than any date could have. the sight of dracos owl flying towards the pre-opened window was somewhat relieving, she didn’t know why, just the fact that he had not failed yet, and was still out there was nice. she hadn’t had this much company. since last year at least, when her supposed best friend started ghosting her because of some petty shit.
thankfully noctua ad gotten quite good at being discreet when delivering the letters. of all the things on y/ns junior year bucket list, explaining to her parents that she had befriended a british boy with an owl who flyed into her room while her neighbours had a clear view, wasn’t one. she also began keeping a bowl of water under her bed for the owl to drink when it arrived, knowing it couldn’t have been easy travelling back and forth.
y/n
im not fully sure you want to know the depth, yet you seem to want me to corrupt you with my villain with a task baggage. i suppose it couldn’t hurt if i told you about the unbreakable vow. it’s like a promise or a bond, but if you break it then you die. if you can stomach that i may be able to tell you more. how far away do you reckon we are?
draco
-
draco wasn’t falling behind too far, but his first attemp had failed, and panic attacks were taking up most his time. he never had any, at least not this bad until this year. at least once a day he would start sweating, no matter how cold he was, unable to control his breathing or tears, feeling like the walls were caving in upon him.
that is, besides writing y/n as much as he could. apparently she was being honest, she had no schedule of any sort besides going to school. he hated to say, but he was becoming attached, he didn’t exactly know how either, but everytime he recieved a letter a small weight was lifted from his shoulders, even just when he read it.
noctua was doing the weekly, almost daily round at breakfast with the other owls and draco watched with anticipation as a letter dropped on his lap and owl on his shoulder. he tried to conceal the letter into his robes but pansy had taken matters into her own hands. likely jealous that she’d spent collectively around six hours with him the whole year, and he never talked to her like he used to.
‘ou draco whats this’ twirling the envelope between her hands. the letter had no name, no stamp, only a small heart drawing in the corner.
‘hands off parkinson’ he said while taking the letter back. ‘a letter from my mother, if you must know’ he said knowing that neither his mother or father had written him anything, despite having all the time to do so.
he got up and left the second he was done, not wanting to draw snapes suspicion about who could possibly be more important than working on this task.
he rushed to his room, desperate for more of her words. he tried to picture her voice in his head, but had to remind himself she wasn’t british nor was she from southern america.
draco,
so you just die if you break the promise? intresting. it’s not as hard to stomach as you seem to think, very unique tradition i suppose. you are not a villain draco, you haven’t told me much about it but your to good of a person to have picked any of this for yourself. i calculated when we you were home, seven thousand three hundred something, i don’t know where your fancy boarding school where you have owls for pets is, so it may be further. im ready whenever you are.
y/n
her letter was relieving for him aswell, even in the slightest it helped, but she deserved some sort of answer for helping him take his mind off the task for a couple minutes. he could tell if she wasn’t scared off already, this would do it.
y/n
if you are sure, here it is. dumbledore is my headmaster, the dark lord is a very powerful wizard, and snape is my professor. if i don’t kill dumbledore before july, he will kill me and my family, if i can’t complete the task, snape will kill him under terms of an unbreakable vow. im not a very good villain that’s for sure, my first attemp failed, and my classmate is out cold. i understand if you dont want to write to me anymore, just don’t tell anyone about this, please.
dm.
-
the only words to describe the feeling that overwhelmed her senses as she read were devastation and shock. tears pooled in her eyes as she tried to imagine herself with that much responsibility to wildhold until july. another detail that caught her eye, wizard? what did he mean by wizard? is that the word for dictator in england? certainly he wasn’t talking about the wizards she read about in storybooks as a child. her hand shook slightly and she debated mentioning it.
draco
you’re silly if you think i’d stop writing you. you need company now more than ever. please don’t hold things back from your letters, you deserve someone to talk to. that is quite the situation, im sorry if i pushed you, you do have enough on your shoulders and i want to help you as much as i can. i hate to ask, but you mentioned ‘wizards’ and i am a bit confused.
all my love
yn
-
initially, draco went into shock. he knew he was probably oversharing, but didn’t expect to slip up in that way. he begrudgingly admitted; knowing that if this went badly he would likely be banished from the wizarding world, which didn’t seem like such a horrible punishment to him anymore. and yet she was fascinated, by the coins he sent her, the subjects he learned- which she compared to her own much less exciting ones, and everything he told her about it. he could now talk to her about much more, since both his secrets were now out in the open to her. he told her about the about the houses, and they both agreed she would probably be in hufflepuff, well he thought so, her kind and accepting nature, and she didn’t know enough to disagree. and for the first time in the long time he was seeing things differently, completely diminishing the rude behaviour he often displayed towards the house.
she even sent him a picture, the first time he ever saw her face. a large smile spread across her beautiful features, she seemed to be laughing. eyes glistening in the sun even prettier than he could have imagined. he slept with it under his pillow, and could stare at the still image for hours. no it didn’t move around, but he couldnt care less. he only had one picture of himself in his possession and he was young, about four. she was facinated by the moving image, his blonde hair and attitude shining right through. he would owl his mother for a more recent one, but didn’t want to explain why.
the letters were helping him, but the task wasn’t advancing. his second attempt had failed, he was caught sneaking into slughorns party, and harry was onto him. they were also causing him doubt. say they did get the cabinet fixed, he couldn’t see himself killing dumbledore anymore, the more he talked to her he realized he couldn’t be a killer, as cold as he was to some people, but he had to, didnt he?
most importantly every letter she sent gave him a sense of hope. that the second this is over he could move. away from voldemort, and potter, his parents even, england in whole. perhaps not to canada, but it could be a change, half way across the world with the girl who was helping him stay alive through his letters. he just needed to stay alive long enough too see her.
the seasons changed around draco, but his room stayed the same. hot from mysterious potions, for himself and some for dumbledore, he had not had much hope after the wine, though. it was lonely, not that he’d like y/n here, he’d much rather be there, all the way across the world.
-
may came in a blur, and finals were creeping up. one week y/n sat at her desk, every night, waiting for a letter that didn’t come. on the fifth letterless day she cried. not exactly knowing why, it wasn’t her that had much of a reason to cry, but dracos company had filled her lonely life up with light of its own, leaving it darker than it was before she saw the first letter. she was silly to be so attached and silly to expect him to reciprocate the feelings she had proclaimed in the last one she sent, and should have expected him to stop eventually. so she continued on with school, finding it a bit easier to concentrate now that a draco sized whole was missing from her brain, and her heart aswell.
the next week, though, a letter came, very appreciated by y/n as the whole other universe, british boy forgetting thing wasn’t as easy as it seemed.
y/n
im sorry for not writing, the classmate i mentioned all those months ago woke from the curse, and the potter twat hexed me with a spell id never heard of before. i would have tried to contact with you but i couldn’t exactly trust what my brain was planning on writing, and the cuts are still a bit sore. the cabinets fixed, but even if everything works out okay i won’t be writing very much at all. i’ll be home in july, but the manor will be infested with death eaters and i can’t let you get hurt. thank you for everything l/n.
draco
it stung a little, knowing that the empty feeling the girl just experienced would be more frequent, he didn’t mention anything about what she had said, and that this could be the last time she ever heard from him if he didn’t kill dumbledore. in hindsight, practically telling her she loved him in a letter wasn’t what he needed, she knew that.
-
he left out the fact that he the spell put a him in a huge emotinal draught. he was exhausted constantly, crying even more than before. the cuts were sore, so he wasn’t holding everything back.
the last month of school came and went all to fast for dracos liking, and death eaters now roamed around the castle, causing havoc where ever they could. his trunk had been shurken so small it looked like a small muggle toy he put into his pocket easily. the dark mark that was stretched across his left arm was now hanging in the gray sky, and the headmaster was no where to be seen. he paced anxiously around a vacant corridor until he heard a pop in the astronomy tower. he didn’t think people could apparate into hogwarts, it would have made his job much easier.
‘harry, get snape, i need snape now’ he seemed exhausted, maybe this wouldn’t be as hard
‘sir im going to sit you down okay, and then ill go get madam pomf-‘
‘severus, harry, I need severus now, go get him and talk to no one else’ he said in a shallow yet somewhat urgent and angry tone.
draco waited for footsteps to disappear, before whipping the door open with his wand already ready.
‘oh hello, draco, nice to see you on this fine evening’ he said nonchalantly, leaning his weight against the wall.
‘EXPELLIARMUS’ draco boomed, successfully disarming the man without counter attempts before glancing around to see a second broom
‘who else is here?’ he said sounding confident but feeling the opposite
‘i could ask you the same question, acting alone are you? you don’t seem supported’
‘no, there are death eaters in your school tonight, and i got them here’ he snarked ‘they’ll be up, any minute now, their fighting down below. i’ve got a job to do’
‘well done boy, if you don’t mind me asking a few questions, before you get on with it, im very intrested’ was he kidding? he knew draco was about to kill him right? wanting to stall, and not fully wanting to kill him he nodded his head yes.
‘you seem scared to act until they join you
‘im not scared, you should be scared’ he snarled, unable to contain the fear in his voice any longer any longer
‘oh draco’ he sighed ‘while we wait for your friends arrive, care to explain how you smuggled them in here? i never imagined it possible, especially not by a student’
‘i had to mend the broken cabinet that no ones used for years, there’s another one in borgin and burkes. montague got stuck in told everyone stories about it, how he could sometimes hear what was going on in the shop and sometimes hear hogwarts like a passage, and i was the only one who discovered what it meant. not even borgin, not you either, i did it right under your nose, you didn’t realize anything’ he said
‘you are right, i didn’t know that. i do- on the other hand, know that you aren’t a killer’
he raised his wand a little higher, feeling wheezy and as though his legs would give in any second
‘how you know that, I’ve done despicable things, you wouldn’t even be able to fathom’
it was dumbledore’s time to pause, glancing up at the sky and looking around the room before continuing
‘draco i know you almost killed katie bell and ron weasley. you’ve been trying to kill me all year, forgive me for saying this, but they’ve been very feeble attempts. to be honest ive wondered wheather your heart has truly been in it’
‘it has, and if you knew why didnt you stop me’
‘snape has been watching over you on my orders’
‘ it’s not on your orders, he promised my mother-‘
‘ofcourse he would tell you that, but it happens to be that i trust professor snape’
‘your losing it then, he’s a double agent, he isn’t working for you- he’s been trying to get in on the action all year, helping me and all. doesn’t matter now- he probably doesn’t even know they are here yet, he will wake up tomorrow and no longer be the dark lords favourite, he will be nothing compare to me’ confidence was building within him
‘very gratifying, we all like being recognized for our hard work, but, draco?im standing here wandless and weak, unable to defend myself, and you have not made any move to kill me, dont blame me for believing you will not, but let’s discuss your options’
‘my options’ he laughed ‘im standing here with a wand, about to kill you’
‘oh dear boy, if you were going to kill me you would have when you disarmed me, not stayed for a little chat’
‘i haven’t got any options, don’t you understand, i have to kill you, or he will kill me’
‘okay, if you don’t want to join the order with your mother where we could protect you, i only have one more question’
‘better hurry, theyre on their way’ he almost laughed which was quickly replaced when Dumbledore said his next words.
‘who is y/n l/n’ at that a tear fell down dracos face, and he lowered his wand almost completely
‘i-i don’t know who that is, odd l-last words’ he stuttered
‘draco dont play dumb now, not after we discovered you are very intelligent. we left some of the security measures from last year that Umbridge enabled, and I couldn’t help but notice hundreds of letters flowing to and from her. i looked into student files, ilvermornies too, nothing, id never heard the name, a muggle i presumed. but of all the things, that had me the most confused. i couldn’t figure out why you would be contacting her, so i did some meddling’
‘WHAT DID YOU DO’
‘fiesty all the sudden, are you? i felt bad after opening this, it seemed very personal, and i probably should given it too you sooner, but i was a bit preoccupied double checking my drinks and all’ dumbledore said handing him the letter.
draco
how is the cabinet coming? it’s raining even more here than usual, all day and night. and don’t talk like that, saying you don’t have a future. you do draco, you deserve another chance and infinite amounts of them. you are just a kid, you shouldn’t be forced to be a hero. you are protecting so many people right now, but i don’t need any. you have given my life enough light in the last few months than i ever recall, and im so thankful that letter came to me. i wish you were here with me right now, but i know you can’t be, so just stay alive, okay?
y/n
more tears fell, he hated being so weak at the mention of her, crying before he completed the blessing his father and bellatrix considered the task to be.
‘she’s right, draco, you deserve another chance’
he was speechless, and could tell Dumbledore knew he found his weakness.
‘i always pictured you and pansy, never in a million years imagined you to be in a relationship with a muggle’
‘no matter who does it, your about to be killed, and im not here to discuss my love life am i?’
‘so you do love her?’ before draco could even think he heard a door open and raised his wand, hiding the letter faster than he had ever moved.
‘shut up, they will kill her’ he said quietly and desperately
in walked fenrir greyback, yaxley, and bellatrix. they made banter of their own, but her words replayed. he couldn’t do it.
‘go on draco’ his aunt whispered into his ear, making him shiver.
‘DO IT, DO IT BOY’ she yelled, in a high pitched and annoying voice
he felt a strong arm over his chest, pushing him aside, and he saw the whoosh of snapes robes and an already pleading dumbledore
‘severus, please’
‘AVADA KEDAVRA’ snape shouted, a green flash producing from the end of his wand, hitting the old man square in the chest. draco rushed over to the edge, watching him fall. it was a long way down.
-
the rain had sudsided, sunlight leaking into her room during the day. watching the sky at night, failing to find constellations he described many times to her. her wardrobe was mostly untouched, remaining in pyjamas most of the week. the odd time she did leave, she saw her old friends walking and laughing out her car window. eating and socializing felt like a chore, and she hadn’t communicated with the boy since may. he could be dead, she didn’t know. there was no death on the ‘muggle’ news, and draco wasn’t on the top wanted list, not that he likely would be on the television all the way over here. he could be fine, in wiltshire, going to dinner parties and holding balls. or maybe, he too, was sitting in his room staring at the ceiling for days on end. she had now hung the picture of a young draco by her desk, not needing to worry about anyone seeing. her siblings were once again home, but out living their lives so much that it still felt like they were gone. for the first time she noticed his scroll on the back.
‘i was four when this was taken i believe, my hair is very similar, i was quite sassy, im sure that shows without explanation.’ she blushed while reading, it was true. his hands were on his hips whipping his head around.
-
every day was a surprise around malfoy manor. not the kind of surprise draco liked. not the feeling of butterflies in his stomach when he read y/ns letters, those were replaced by a pit as they were summoned around the large table in the dining room. the first one he attended was horrible, watching his muggle studies teacher being hung above their heads, pleading for the help of severus as she died. he bit his tongue in an attempt to avoid raging about about every comment surrounding muggle culture. each one tore his heart, as he imagined the girl all those kilometres away, the girl he had no contact with, but he looked at her picture as much as possible, and hoped one day he could make her smile again like she did in the image.
-
senior year was here, and y/n schedule picked up once again. her timetable was full, maybe it was best, a distraction, after a whole summer of thinking alone in her room. draco was on her mind at night, no matter how hard she tried to forget. she’d made friends with her creative promotions partner, logan. he was certainly not intrested in her in anyway besides friends, but company after all this time was enjoyable, just in the hour of class
-
draco had little privacy, with death eaters in every hallway, conversing with eachother. wherever he went someone was there, until he finally got sick of it and began going to the garden bench. with a book, sometimes, giving some of the sappy love stories y/n mentioned a try or even the poetry books she sent with noctua awhile back, they were okay, but his heart hurt at the feeling of relation in every line. he could only read one or two poems at a time, without tears forming in his green orbs.
sometimes he went with a pen and a notebook. he wrote about everything. the smell of the plants around him, the feeling in his chest when the dark lord called for a meeting. most of the notebook, though, was filled with poems of his own. and letters he had no intention of sending for her own safety. she wasn’t in harms way, though, other followers were preoccupied with ruining weddings and other things they considered fun. he blabbered on for pages, about how he missed seeing noctua fluttering towards him at breakfast. how he rereads the letter that dumbledore gave him the night he died. how she listened to him rant on and on, giving her support no matter how evil he felt. how he found love where it wasn’t supposed to be.
snow was falling once again, he had to dress in layers, making it hard to write often, the plants started dying as cold settled over and his mother no longer babied him like she used to before the death eaters began inhabiting the mansion. he couldn’t keep himself company any longer and gave into the pressure he put on himself. as long as they were careful, she’d be in no destruction- he prayed as he wrote what seemed to be an appropriate response after all this time.
-
like it had been decades, she flinched at the noise of the owl on the window, carrying a much larger scroll that he’d ever sent before, some parts scratched out and written above. his writing was much less tidy than she remembered, like the letters on the page were anxious for her reaction.
love,
after all this time, im sorry you are just now hearing from me. you have ever single right to be annoyed with me, after you listened to me for months, helping me emotionally in ways i never be able to repay you for. you do not need to forgive me, or write me back. i just wanted to keep you safe. but i needed to tell you everything before it might actually be to late. you’ve probably moved on and forgotten about me, like you should, but i guess im saying that i am alive. i didn’t kill him either. snape did. i thought i was going to be able to, but he started talking about you. he gave me a letter from you that he had already opened, the words repeated in my head over and over. you talked about how i deserved another chance, and how you wish I’d was there with you. right before he died he asked me if i loved you. i knew the answer but didn’t have time to say it. ive read your poetry books, they aren’t as bad as i once thought, i can’t read to many at once. i try to forget what dumbledore said that night, and that night altogether. but one day i read ‘that’s how you know you love someone, i guess. when you cant experience anything without wishing the other person was there to see it too.’ when i sit in the garden i imagine you smelling the flowers, myself picking one and putting it behind your ear. when i go on walks i imagine your hand in mine. youre in my dreams. my never ending thought. i remember the way i felt when we started talking a lot, and how I felt when we didn’t get a chance. you listened to me when no one else offered. not even my parents. i hope your doing okay, and smiling and laughing. i don’t care if we talk about absolutely nothing, i just want to talk to you. i know that’s unfair to you after all ive weighed on you. but i guess that’s all, i love you. draco ♡
well this certainly didn’t get him off her mind. she didn’t need to either. ofcourse she was going to write him back, but she needed time to think about her response. she missed the next day of school, and his owl was comfortably standing on her desk, nibbling away at the water and crumbs. she took an hour long shower, multiple naps, raided her fridge, and had to email the school pretending to be her mum, excusing her for the day. before she even knew what she was going to write, she began on a new piece of paper. she’d have thought longer, but was sure draco would be convinced she stole noctua out of anger.
draco,
wow. i don’t really know what to say. i knew you weren’t a killer, and i meant what i said about you deserving more chances. i will admit i was angry, and a bit confused. i sent that letter with high hopes. i don’t know what i was hoping for at the time, i was being incredibly selfish. but couldn’t help myself feel pained when you didn’t mention it in the next letter when you said harry hexed you. i know we can’t be together, especially not right now, but i love you too. i wish more than anything you were here with me right now, and it was you i’d be graduating with half a year from now. i wish you were in the passenger seat of my car while i drive through the city. i wish you could point out the constellations in the sky. i usually can’t read to many poems either, they get me thinking to much. im ready to write again if you are.
y/n
-
draco hadn’t felt more joy in a long time. around seven months. she loved him, and that was enough happiness for a life time. he just needed to stay alive.
they continued to stay in touch, almost as if they never stopped talking, entertaining eachother as much as possible, masking their separate misery and the distance between them. he could get time away from the reality that was his life for a while, he thought, until snatchers brought the trio he spent so long bickering with to the manor.
a very distorted looking harry fell before him, his hair tightly gripped by bellatrix.
‘well, is it him’ he knew it was harry. and yet a part of him couldn’t bring himself to letting the boy get killed.
‘i can’t be sure’ he lied
‘draco, look closely son’ lucius said loudly, getting a grip on the back of dracos neck before leaning in and whispering.
‘if we are the ones that hand potter to the dark lord, all will be f-forgiven. a-all will go back to how it was’
his father and the and a snatcher quickly got into an arguement. lucius was yelling something about the manor before narcissa calmed him with a hiss.
‘don’t be shy, sweetie come here take a closer look’
draco was know level with him. the scar was still visible on his forehead, and swollen eyes staring back at him, hopeless.
‘what’s wrong with his face’ draco said
‘yes what is wrong with the boys face’ a shrill voice repeated
‘he was like that when we got him, something he picked up in the forest i reckon’
bellatrix walked away, laughing away at something. the blonde boys eyes were still on harry, before he felt a tap on his shoulder. bellatrix began acting out, yelling about a sword, putting ropes around snatchers neck from the end of her wand. sword now in her hand she walked over to ronald weasley, grabbing his collar and demanding that the boys be put in the cellar.
a different draco would have gladly watched a mudblood be tortured by his aunt. but he flinched at every scream of hermione, unable to watch he went to the next room, resisting tears as he thought of the girl he fell for enduring the same. she had moved onto the goblin- ridiculing it about who got into her vault- and hermiones screams were now gone.
‘youre lucky, goblin, the same won’t go for this one’ he heard footsteps
‘like hell it wont’ he heard ron yell, followed by the expelliarmus and what must have been harry stupefying his father. draco rushed in, now dueling a more normal looking harry, until their attention caught on bellatrix, a knife to grangers throat. they dropped there wands, and he did as instructed, picking them up. lucius was summoning the dark lord when they heard a tittering on the ceiling, and the chandlier crashing. it all moved so fast and harry was now wrestling draco for his wand back. he tried, but harry had already pried it out of his cold and shaky hands.
‘STUPID ELF. THAT COULD HAVE KILLED ME’
‘dobby never meant to kill. dobby only meant to maim or seriously injure’ the house elf squeaked, and draco had never resisted a chuckle so hard.
‘HOW DARE YOU TAKE A WITCHES WAND. HOW DARE YOU DEFY YOUR MASTERS’
‘dobby has no master, dobby is a free elf, and he has come to save Harry Potter and his friends.’ and with that they apparated out, not without bella throwing a knife into the mix.
-
meanwhile, y/n was receiving letters of her own. not from draco either. letters from the schools she applied to. so far everything was good, except for princeton, but she didn’t have the highest expectations. she was accepted to the university of british columbia, seattle university, even ucla. she only had one letter left, and the large stuffed yellow envelope sat in her hands. she wasn’t sure about it- would she even be able to go to the univeristy of london? it was far, but draco was there, well closer to there atleast. accepted- it read. it was an option, and she still had weeks to think about it.
-
draco was very hesitant to write after the incident at the manor, the screams of Hermione, and the terrifying looking potter still vivid in his brain and nightmares. he often woke from sleep in a sweat, yet freezing cold. whispers of the war around his house also haunted his mind and soul. he’d walk to the window and look up at the the stars, they were under the same sky, at least. eventually he had to write her, it had been half a month and he couldn’t leave her hanging alone again.
y/n
love, im sorry for being hesitant, but there is going to be a war. i hate to leave you contact-less, but i need you to be safe now more than ever. i couldn’t live with myself if you got hurt. potter and his friends were brought here to the manor, it didn’t last long- they escaped within the hour and a half. with that doped elf, and a goblin too. if you don’t hear from me again, remember i love you. and always will.
draco
of all the letters y/n had recieved, from draco in all, that was probably the most displeasing. a war? like with tanks and bombs? tears were shedding down her face as she wrote the shortest response yet. knowing he most definitely didn’t have time to listen to her talk about schools, and how she got accepted to london, but her parents deemed it to far, ubc would have to do, she’d find her way to him eventually, if they were meant to be.
draco
stay safe, i love you.
yn.
-
draco now stood at snapes new office, dozens of corpses on the floor, pooled in blood. the dark lord speaking parsel tounge to nagini. no one needed to speak it to know that the man was infuriated about something potter had done.
-
the information he left was lacking, was he serious? what did wizarding wars even look like? her graduation date was set, June 6th, but it all seemed irrelevant, suddenly picking out a dress didn’t seem as fun as she thought, same with getting portraits taken. should she have said more?
-
next thing he knew the protection spell was countered and he apparated in, grabbing zabani and goyle by the collar. rushing them into a corridor and waited for the door of the room of requirement to completely vanish before approaching himself. they successfully found harry, opening a box carefully before finally drawing attention to themselves.
‘well well, what brings you here, potter’ draco said, softly, much to his surprise as he meant it to sound snarky and rude
‘i could ask you the same’
‘i believe you have something of mine, and id like it back’ was he becoming… kind?
‘whats wrong with the one you have?’ harry replied
‘it’s my mothers, powerful but different, doesn’t fully understand me, im sure you know the feeling’
‘why didn’t you tell her. bellatrix? you knew it was me, and you didn’t tell her’ he wasn’t exactly sure what to say, nor did he know. harry really didn’t have anything to do with his feelings for y/n, maybe he should have just turned in him when he had the chance, it would all be over if he had.
‘don’t be a wuss draco, just do it now’ goyle whispered in his ear, making him chill the same way bellatrix did on the astronomy tower, almost a year ago.
‘expelliarmus’ hermione half shouted, causing narcissas want to fly out of dracos hands and run the other way.
‘avada kedavra’ goyle missed and weaslebee started chasing after them, yelling something about his girlfriend. turning back around after goyle unsuccessfully casted the fiendfyre curse.
fear was making his body almost rattle as he desperately climbed bookcases in an attemp to outrun the flames. he watched goyle fall, into the orange. yes, he was a complete and utter twat, but wasn’t a half bad friend during dracos bullying peek. his foot slipped, now just his hands were keeping him up, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold on. in the distance he saw the three, zooming off to safety in the distance, leaving them their to die. not that he blamed them, after anything he did to them, he would have probably left himself there aswell.
but potter was flying towards him, arm out-stretched, grabbing onto his own and hoisting himself on the broom. had he already died? must not have, because the heat had finally caughten up. feeling as though he was going to pass out, he gripped tighter onto harry, maintaining his position on the broom. so much for staying safe. the second they made it out, they crashed onto the ground. he wanted to thank harry, but found himself running off instead.
explosions and hexes were being sent everywhere. people dying left and right. giants and trolls and spiders helping, he found himself in the slytherin common room. partially because he wanted to say goodbye, as he never wished to return to the building again once he had the choice. and partially as he was now aware of a large burn on his arm, and he felt a need to put off fighting until absolutely necessary. he entered through the portrait, for the last time. it felt like an aquarium, looking out upon the lake filled windows, merpeople and the giant squid often zooming by. he sat down upon the sofa, where he spent countless hours avoiding homework, plotting against potter and swimming in lust of his pure-blood status that now felt like a curse. he went up to his dorm, where he did very similar things. he wondered as to what he would be doing if he was a muggle right now. picking out a suit for graduation, buying a corsage for his date, but he wasn’t, so he best get going. running his hands along the furniture before leaving, not looking back.
the noise in the entrance courtyard had completely been diminished and draco found his way into the crowd of students pooling in. death eaters swarmed towards them at a painfully slow place, his mother and father near the head of the group. he noticed hagrid, towering above them, carrying what could only have been harrys corpse.
he watched carefully as they approached, trying to wedge himself inbetween and behind other students.
‘harry potter is dead’ voldemort paused ‘from now on, you put your faith in me’ silence fell over the hundreds of people who were know gathered. he swished his robes and turned backwards facing his followers
‘HARRY POTTER IS DEAD’ obnoxious and deafening cackles erupted
‘and now is the time to declare yourselves. come to our side, or die’ even more silence fell.
‘draco’ his father hissed before repeating ‘draco’
he felt eyes fall all over him, gazing expectantly. tears ran down his face.
don’t talk like that, saying you don’t have a future. you do draco, you deserve another chance and infinite amounts of them. was this what she meant? he’d been looking for another chance, maybe this was it.
he shook his head no, and noticed his father had fallen a shade of pale he didn’t know existed.
‘Draco, DRACO’ he yelled, clearly enranged, but before he could continue - a movement shifted in hagrids arms, and harry fell out. in a heartbeat draco threw his wand to the scar faced boy. he caught it, looking grateful as he could while casting some sort of spell at nagini. death eaters were disappearing into the air- including lucius, narcissa being dragged with him.
draco didn’t know what to do with himself, he was wandless and he couldn’t fight, unless he wanted to engage in an actual physical duel, which he didn’t. he found himself in the great hall, asking professor sprout if she needed help patching those up, she pulled him into a hug, unexpectantly. he never recalled such contact or connection with a professor. he spent the rest of the battle helping healing wounds with dittany, and caring for those left in the wake. it was a nice distraction from the fact he would most definitely be disowned, left a family-less orphan at 17.
-
y/n couldn’t blame him for not writing, he clearly stated that it might be the last time. but every night she cried until she couldn’t cry anymore, or until she fell asleep. how could she like him so much? they’d never even met. she didnt really need to see him to know him, his letters told him enough about him. and she could only hope- that if he managed through his six year without killing his headmaster, he could make it through the war.
-
he delayed going back to the manor for as long as possible, until he decided to apparate directly into his room. he considered packing his things up, but realized no one was home. he was thankful, he don’t think he would ever be able to fully confront his parents again. he fell asleep in his bed, and slept for 48 hours straight. he slept through very vivid dreams, ones of y/n being tortured the same way as Hermione, ones of the dark lord coming alive once again and killing his mother because of his choices. he couldn’t bring himself to sleep again purposefully, no matter how exhausted he was. the days weren’t much better, his mind raced at unbelievable paces. he saw the dead bodies laying around the great hall, the unrecoverable ones. maybe he should have just fallen into the fire, surely that would have been easier. he was slowly becoming thinner, and always needed multiple blankets to even stay at a somewhat warm temperature, his heart beat faster than normal. he often felt pains in his neck, and his eyes were almost always puffy from crying. he spent so much time in bed he almost didn’t hear his owl flutter onto his nightstand mid afternoon, a small package tied loosely around his neck.
he opened it to see a letter, muggle candies and a worn book. suddenly he felt more awake, and be shot up a little to fast then he should have, sitting on the edge of his bed.
draco.
i don’t know where you are, or if youre alive, if youre reading this now. i hope this doesn’t arrive at a bad time. but your 18 now, so happy birthday. if you are seeing this, i still love you. i think about you all the time. i hope you are okay, and safe. in case you don’t end up writing me back, i just thought I’d give you some random information to keep you company and away from your mind. i graduate tomorrow. i look at your picture everyday. I remember what you once told me about following my dreams, so instead of medicine, im going to study literature and business next year. im staying in kelowna aswell for now, hoping maybe you’ll be able to visit someday. im sure you’d like it. my favourite colour is still green. i don’t know what else to say.
always here to listen if you’d like to talk. yn.
was it actually his birthday? had it already been a month since the war? it felt like a year but the visions played over and over like it was yesterday. it took him awhile before it clicked. the war was over, Voldemort was dead and there was no one to stop him from seeing her. he completely disregarded the lightheaded feeling he got when he stood up to fast- and rushed to his wardrobe. it took him a bit longer than he thought to pack up all his clothes, including the thousands of letters he kept hidden in a large drawer. the trunk was a bit heavier than he may have thought, and he ended up needing to take a car, in fear that he may not be able to apparate successfully to the airport without injuring himself. he quickly found out that muggle travelling was harder than he thought, and security and customs were also apparently a thing that all people needed to get through.
he wrapped himself in his cloak and didn’t get a drop of sleep the whole plane ride. it was nighttime when they flew over montreal, and then toronto. the sun rose as they crossed through winnipeg, regina, and calgary. he didn’t know this himself ofcourse, but he aggressively hit the map on the screen in front of him, desperate to know where he was. he only got an hour of half decent sleep before he felt rattling of the plane landing, and he gripped tightly onto the arm rests. he struggled for half an hour before he even got sight of his luggage on the moving thing that went round and round. compared to London, kelownas airport was very small and easy to navigate. the air outside was hot, making draco feel even more self concious about his clothing choices.
-
y/n put her hair back into a twist with a clip taking a suprising amount of effort to make sure it looked okay. her makeup was natural looking, nothing crazy but she looked gorgeous none the less. she slipped into her black romper, some canadians didn’t wear their fancy dresses to convocation, only something simple to go with the cap and gown. she arrived at the ceremony, seeing everyone, with excited smiles and laughs, conversing amongst themselves. and every memory came rushing back. they sat in rows on a stage, listening to the heartfelt and extremely cheesy speech the staff made every single year. she’d never noticed how many kids were in her age group until they were being called up one by one.
‘alex can’
‘ruth lee’
and the list went on and on until finally
‘y/n l/n’ the moment had come, and she shook everyone’s hand, receiving her diploma and flipping her caps tassel to the left. ‘y/n is staying around next year, and attending the university of british columbia okanogan, good luck l/n’ her principal said and claps continued like they had and the rest of the list finished sooner, or seemed to go by faster, she wasn’t sure. 
-
draco had never had to find a taxi by himself, but once he did he gave the driver the only place he knew, the address he saw on the top corner of her first response almost two years ago.
-
y/n pulled away from the school grounds, watching them disappear in her rear view mirror. it was hot with a breeze, but she smiled the whole way home. she’d done it, made it through every assignment and class, dealt with attention hungry bitches, and crappy teachers. the next door was truly opening. pulling up to her house, and closing her car door as she hopped out, she watched her feet carry her up to the house. turning the corner, she saw him, sitting there on her steps, a present wrapped horribly in his hands, looking very out of place in his black cloak. she stopped in her own steps and he hesitantly stood up, before she launched herself into his arms breathing in his cologne, finally together after all this time.
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another-stark-sub · 4 years
Text
Interruption - Tony Stark Imagine
Summary: You interrupt your fiance’s research, and Tony loves you for it. Natasha just had to call him in the middle of it all.
Warnings: no actual sex, more fluff than smut really, mentions of bondage, little bit of exhibitionism
Word Count: 2044
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Being Tony’s fiancee came with weird moments. First off, he was the Iron Man, one of the legendary Avengers who saved the world, and sometimes the universe, on a weekly or monthly basis. So, you had your fair share of poisonous experiments locked in the house or random robots appearing. And you wish you were lying when you said one time you found a rock alien Tony forgot to tell you he was housing in the kitchen. 
However, what was before you was still weird. Not superhero weird, just weird, and very out of character.
Your fiance had been holed up in the lab for more than many hours. You let the first ten hours slide, but when sunrise was approaching, you had decided it was time for some sleep. 
And when you were at the lab’s doorway, you saw Tony talking to one of his suits. Not too weird. That was a common thing to see in the Stark household. But, what was odd was that Tony was on his knees, on one of the throw pillows that had gone missing months ago, and his hands were tied in an intricate knot.
 “Ok, now pull that,” Tony instructed.
The suit pulled. 
“Harder.”
It pulled Tony forward enough that if he moved a little bit, he’d definitely fall, face flat on the ground. Tony hummed and said, “Now, wipe the knot’s instructions from memory and try to untie it. Friday, time it, please.”
“Yes, boss.”
Baffled, you called out, “Tony?”
He turned to you and smiled. “Hey, honey. Just lemme get out of this, and I’ll be in bed soon.”
You scoffed. “You can’t kick me out of here, not when I’ve seen that.” You crossed your arms and sighed. “Uh, what is this, anyway?”
Tony opened his mouth just as Friday interrupted, “Twenty-three and a fourth.”
Tony inhaled through his teeth. “Ok, considering human error, twenty-eight, nine-ish seconds. Add it to the list, Friday. I’ll work on it later. Note that scissors might need to be used.”
You blinked a few times. “Would it be dumb of me to ask what you’re working on?”
His attention was back on you, and with a warm smile, he approached you and held your hands. “Never dumb.” He kissed your forehead and caressed your cheek before explaining, “I’ve been trying to see what knots we could use next time, but I don’t think I like any of the ones I’ve found.”
“Knots?” You laughed a little. “Like during sex, you mean?”
“Yes.”
“And what are you testing?” You didn’t really have a preference, honestly. You were just fond of bondage. Did Tony just prefer some ways to tie you up?
“Different things. Oh!” Tony let go of your hands and held them up above his head. “Friday, take a picture and record it under effects.”
“Done and filed away.”
“Thank you.”
You gasped and took his hands in yours again. Examining his wrists, yellow-ish purple bruises were already forming from the rope. “Your wrists.” You sighed. “Shouldn’t you be keeping these things safe, for superhero-ing and inventing? Not for BDSM trials?”
“Well, I need to make sure it doesn’t cause you too much pain.”
Just like that, your heart swelled. “You’re testing different knots for, well, for me?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “Gotta make sure that my girl’s gonna be ok when I fuck her senseless, right?” With a swipe of his hand, the other still holding yours, a hologram popped up in front of you two. It resembled an excel spreadsheet. A name, a picture of the knot, description, time to tie, time to untie, both adjusted for human error, a picture of Tony’s various bruises from it. “See, I need to make sure I can tie it, that I can untie it if we don’t like it, see how much it hurts you or not.”
He kept babbling on, saying how it was important for him to know how it feels and to make sure you were safe, but you only heard part of it. You heard enough of it, because damn, your fiance was never more sexy in your eyes. And not only was he doing this for your safety and pleasure, but he was also doing it because your safety made him happy. 
How were you so lucky? A wonderful man, a genius, a hero was your fiance. He shared your kinks, respected the rules you two agreed upon, and went out of his way to make sure that the things that restrained you in the bedroom were things that wouldn’t hurt you when you didn’t want it to.
So, in the middle of his rant, something about the technicalities of it all, you grabbed his face and kissed him. 
Tony pulled away from you, his forehead still resting on yours. “Not that I’m objecting, but what?”
You laughed. “Cause you’re too good for me, and I think” -you bit your lip- “you deserve some sort of gift for that.” Before he could object or argue or say you were too good for him, you pulled him closer to you and kissed him, softer and sweeter, and when his hands finally held your hips, you hummed and asked, “Bedroom?” Plus, after some laborious exercise, he might sleep at a semi-appropriate hour.
“What’s wrong with here, sweetheart?” He mumbled against your lips. He kissed you again, his hands roaming down to squeeze your ass before lifting you up and wrapping your thighs around his waist. 
Just as he set you down on one of the lab tables, Friday’s voice pierced the air, “Ms. Romanoff is-”
“Put her on hold,” he told him. Tony moved to kiss your neck, and you moaned. You tangled your fingers in his hair, already drowning in the feeling of his lips on your skin and his body between your legs.
“She insists that it’s urgent.”
Tony didn’t say anything. He just smiled at you and kissed you. 
Natasha was calling him, insisting it was urgent. It must’ve been important. “Tony,” you mumbled.
“Yeah?” He went back to litter kisses on your neck and collarbone. Your button-up shirt was already being undone, and the part of you wanted to push him away so he could take that call was silenced. His lips were insistent and that nonchalant attitude was intoxicating. Plus there was a heat building in you, and if you stopped now you’d be dissatisfied. You didn’t want that. 
“Ms. Romanoff says she has Vision with her, and she will disable me if you don’t patch her through.”
Tony paused. He gazed up at you, in awe of how flushed you were just from a few of his kisses. 
You had to blink a few times, too focused on Tony’s chest moving up and down, so out of breath from kissing you and touching you. His hair was messy from your tugging and gripping, a few strands falling onto his forehead. Subtly, his hips went from lightly touching you to pressing up against you. 
Shaking your head and closing your eyes, you said, “Take the call.” You took a deep breath and reached for your shirt, but Tony stopped you. He smiled and leaned in close before pressing a kiss against your lips. “Stay.”
“Tony-”
He shook his head. “Stay.” He kissed you again and continued to unbutton your shirt until it was all undone. “Friday,” he said between kisses, “patch her through, videochat.”
Shocked, you pushed him away from you, just enough so his lips weren’t sealed against yours. “Tony, what-”
He silenced you with another kiss. His hand went to your thigh, caressing it and hooking it around his waist so he could grind his hard-on into you. 
“Tony.” Natasha’s voice came through, void of any emotion.
Tony pulled away from you. With a smile, he swiped thumb past your bottom lip, admiring how swollen they were.
You heard Natasha’s voice, you did, but with Tony in front of you with that damn smirk of his and his thumb gently grazing over your lip, you had no intention of listening to her. It was too hard to listen to her. Too drunk on him and his touch and too tired of holding yourself back, once his touch left your lips, you surged forward, aiming for a kiss.
Tony gave him, kissing you once before telling his teammate, “A bit busy here, Red.” Your fiance pressed his lips against yours and moaned loudly. Whether it was because he was that pleased by you or because he wanted to piss Natasha off, you didn’t care. You just pulled him closer, desperate to keep kissing him.
“You need to come in. We’re in need of your expertise, and Shuri’s out on another assignment.”
“Banner,” Tony mumbled against you.
“Off planet.”
As he moved to kiss your neck again, he said, “Kid’s smart.”
“On vacation.”
“Keener.” Finally, his hand came up to squeeze your tits over your bra.
“Tony!” you moaned.
Natasha rolled her eyes. It wasn’t the first time she had to witness the two of you like this. “Harley’s currently taking a three-hour exam.”
He growled. More frustrated at his fellow geniuses than you. Because, god, you looked divine. He pulled your bra down and latched his lips onto your nipple and sucked. 
You threw your head back, trying to catch your breath, and whined.
“Tony, you think I’d interrupt the two of you if it wasn’t important? Riri and Shuri and both out on missions, and Vision hasn’t been able to do it.” Natasha groaned. Her eye twitched, and she pulled a card she rarely pulled. “So, has your fiancee seen the previous versions of her ring yet?”
You squinted at the screen, half your attention still on the pleasure Tony was giving you. “What, ah, previous versions?” You smiled, dazed.
Tony groaned against your chest. “Baby,” he whined. He nipped at your nipple, and although he got a gasp from you, you still were thinking about your ring. The one he proposed with was your dream, not too gaudy, not too simple either, and crafted and designed by Tony, but there were previous versions?
You smiled at Tony and, even though you still craved his touch and the heat of his love, your daydreams of Tony working his ass off to build a perfect ring turned to reason, and reason won out. With a soft giggle, you reached out for your fiance. The poor thing had rested his chin on your chest, pouting. 
“You’ve got a job, Tone.”
“So?”
You buttoned up your shirt. 
“What? No, please,” he whined, reaching for your hands. 
You slapped him away and finished the last button. “Don’t worry.” You jumped off the lab table and kissed his cheek. “We will resume later. I need to thank you for being so good to me after all.” You nodded to the suit in the corner. “Go.”
Tony sighed. He readjusted his pants and kissed you quickly. “Love you.” He turned to the monitor. “Hate you.” And just like that, he was suiting up.
Natasha laughed. “Ah, my life’s complete. Sending you coordinates.”
“Will do.” He stopped his mask from covering his face to say to you, “Wait for me?”
“No promises.”
He smiled. “Good.” With a wink, his mask came on, the exit from the lab to the outside opened, and he was off.
You turned to the monitor and crossed your arms. “I expect to see whatever previous designs he showed you.”
“Will do.” The agent sighed. “Would it be too much to ask to have you two act professionally sometimes?”
You shrugged. “Me, not much at all.” You laughed. “It’s Tony you gotta convince.”
Natasha tilted her head. “I’m pretty sure you’d be hard to convince, too.”
You shrugged. “What can I say? I am Tony’s girl after all.” You flashed her a smile before hanging up. With a thoughtful hum, you said, “Friday, send a message to Tony for me, please. Tell him” -that familiar heat you ignored was steadily coming back- “that I’m starting without him.”
“He wouldn’t like that.”
You were practically bounding up the stairs to your bedroom, some toys you could use already in mind. “Planning on it.” 
“Ah, I see. Message sent.”
“Thank you, Friday!”
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itsanerdlife · 5 years
Text
Chasing The Dream 2/10
Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader (High School/College AU)
Warning: Angst. Underage drinking. Jealousy. Language. Heartbreak and arguing.
A/N: This is the series, the prequel of Chasing Dreams One Shot. They do overlap so if you need to read it I can link it when time comes.
Your father always warned you about musicians. They’re never good news, but Peter Parker is everything you could want. The other half to your groupie, rocker baby soul. Peter and the guys have big dreams to be rock stars, you couldn’t be a bigger fan of theirs. But your dad’s got a different path for your future, one that doesn’t include Peter and his band. But can Fame and dreams coming true really keep the two of you apart? Is this just a high school love? Or will you make it through the struggle of chasing your dreams?
Tag List Is Open!!
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High School –
Peter (There’s Always a Wild Side to An Innocent Face)
He sat in the desk across from her and one back. The class was discussing the book they’d been assigned to read. They were supposed to take note on the topic for the next test. Peter’s notebook sat open, the pen in his hand, and the page blank. The one thing he was noting was Y/N, the way her waves laid across her shoulders, that her hand shot up more often than it was down, she clearly did the homework and was scribbling notes in her black notebook.
Every so often she would glance in his direction, she’d roll her eyes and shake her head slowly before going back to her writing. She wasn’t what he expected, from the drunk girl in the sober ride with him. She was a straight A student, her father was a musician, but she was polite and sweet, never truant. She put up the good girl front, but underneath that, her notebooks were covered in lyrics, she had chipped grey nail polish on her fingers, and under the little dark red cardigan she wore she rocked an old school black, Ozzy Osborn T-shirt and jean shorts.
When the bell rings, she rips something from her notebook, picking up her books she stops next to him. She places a few folded pieces of notebook paper on top of his books. Looking up his brow connects, she laughs.
“I assume if you got any notes, it wasn’t on the book.” She smirks.
“I have a few notes.” He grins at her.
“On me or the book?” She was bold. He stood up shrugging, his books hung at his side in his hand. He leans in closer to her, taller than her she glances up at him.
“That’s a good girl front you have Y/N.” He smiles walking backwards away from her, she stares at him. “Thanks for the notes by the way.” He chuckles, turning leaving the class room.
---------
They stood in the garage, the massive barn style doors cracked open for a breeze. Steve was bitching about Sam staying in key. They heard someone laughing outside, the four of them look around at each other.
“Fine I’ll do it.” She was bold, he grins as the door pulls open and she’s standing in his garage grinning at him. A tight black tank top on, cut off white jean shorts and those sneakers.
“Told you.” Nat laughs looking at Wanda.
“Ladies.” Buck grins, leaning forward on the crate he sat on.
“Keep it to yourself.” Y/N smirks at him.
“Damn.” Buck winks at her.
“Wanda’s parents are leaving for the weekend. We’re throwing a party.” Nat nods.
“Is that so?” Peter chuckles.
“What?” Wanda’s eyes grow wide. “I can do that.” She nods.
“You look terrified.” Steve chuckles.
“Well I’m not. I’ve had parties before.” She folds her arms over her chest.
“So what has you looking like you’re about to run from this garage screaming?” Peter laughs.
“I’m not.” She swallows, blinking rapidly. Nat laughs into Buck’s shoulder. Sam strums on his guitar, Steve groans.
“I don’t hear the difference.” Sam defends himself.
“It’s not the same.” Steve strums the exact same cords, it’s slightly different from Sam’s.
“I don’t hear it!” Sam was trying to not laugh.
“Here.” Y/N puts out her hand, everyone looks at her. “What? Because I’m a girl?” She rolls her eyes walking over to Sam she takes his guitar.
That isn’t what shocks Peter, it’s when she places herself right in his lap. She’s right there suddenly, guitar in hand, as she tunes it, Peter freezes confused. Suddenly unaware of what he’s supposed to do with his hands. She pauses, looking up for a second, his hands go from the side of his legs, to his hips, and to the edge of the chair. Steve’s grinning, trying to not laugh, Sam looks confused, Wanda looks on in Aw and slight jealousy.
“It’s off by a hair, don’t move.” Y/N glances back at him. He nods, watching as she tips her head, the ponytail her waves are tied up in flips over her head. She smells like mangos and peaches, he could see the defined tan lines across her skin. “Here you go.” She leans over handing the guitar back to Sam, who strums it looking at Steve.
“Maybe we should add her to the band.” Steve and Bucky laugh.
“Ask.” She hisses at Wanda. Whose eyes grow wide again. Y/N gives her a stern look, Wanda gives her head a curt shake.
“Chicken.” Nat hisses.
“Fine.” Y/N shrugs. She turns in Peter’s lap, facing Sam.
“Y/N.” Wanda hisses with fear.
“Sammy.” Y/N tips her head, grinning at Sam.
“Y/N.” He chuckles.
“I’ll kill you.” Wanda stomps her foot.
“I need like a huge favor from you.” Y/N laughs, as Wanda moves towards her, Nat jumps up from Buck’s lap, grabbing Wanda.
“Is this like risk having Pietro beat my ass, or be the get away driver?” Sam laughs.
“A little of both?” Y/N shrugs.
“Fair enough.” Sam nods. “What do you need?”
“Well Nat got a bunch of alcohol and a couple kegs.” Y/N waves her hand. “So would you be willing to use your truck to help us get it?” She smiles sweetly. Peter grins, shaking his head watching her.
“Yeah I can do that. Friday after school?” Sam looks around.
“Great Wanda will meet you in the parking lot.” Nat jumps in, Wanda looks a little like she might pass out or throw up.
“And we’ll see the rest of you boys at the party.” Y/N suddenly stands up bounding over to her friends.
“We’ll be there.” Steve laughs, patting Peter on the shoulder.
“What’s so funny Parker?” She wiggles ever so slightly as she moves backwards toward the doors.
“Told you that good girl front.” He shrugs, still grinning.
“Hasn’t anyone told you Peter Parker?” She stops, her teeth raking over her bottom lip.
“What’s that?” He leans forward resting his elbows on his knees.
“Good girls are just bad girls who haven’t been caught.” She shrugs, spinning on her toes she walks out, hips swaying and waves bouncing behind her.
“No, no apparently they haven’t been.” His voice low, and only the guys in the garage heard him, as he chuckles, shaking his head.
“School just started and it’s already getting interesting.” Buck laughs, watching Peter.
“This school year might be one for the books.” He grins.
--------
He was shoving his books into his bag, standing in front of his locker. She was suddenly leaning on the locker next to him. Her lips are pushed together, eyes watching him, but there’s that mischievous glint in them.
“Need me to walk you out?” He chuckles zipping his bag and shutting the locker.
“Answer me something.” She skips next to him. She wore a plain white T-shirt and a black floral printed skirt; the black cardigan was three sizes too big for her.
“Ask me something.” He grins, ushering her out the doors of the school he held open for her.
“How did you know I had a good girl front?” She walks in step with him.
“A few things gave it away.” He laughs.
“Like what?” She looks up at him curiosity in her eyes.
“Like the lyrics on your notebooks, they aren’t girly ass pop music and they sure as fuck aren’t bible quotes.” He chuckles, moving behind her as they walk. Her back to his chest, his hand pulls out the notes she’d given him. “Your notebook pages have old ass, Ozzy, Kurt, and Jimmy quotes on them.” He holds the pages in front of her. “I also don’t know many good girls who listen to Ozzy, get wasted on the weekends and wear dark nail polish and like when it chips.” He had leaned down closer to her ear.
“You think you have me all figured out, don’t you Parker?” She pauses at the curb but doesn’t move to put any space between them.
“Your comment about your dad warning you about Musicians says you know you should stay away from me, but instead you place yourself right in my lap and your excuse for it all is. Good girls are just bad girls who haven’t been caught. But see I caught you, you’re not a good girl at least when adult supervision is away.” He chuckles. She turns on him, grinning up at him.
“So does this mean I don’t have to be a good girl around you? I mean you already see through the front.” She grins, Nat honks making the two of them look over.
“Have you been a good girl? I haven’t seen much of it outside of class.” He winks at her. She laughs, shrugging and skipping off the curb and into the parking lot.
“Let’s find out Parker.” She calls over her shoulder as she reaches Nat’s car.
Everything Peaches 2/6/19: @xmtd5 @mo320 @courtmr   @all1e23 @izzy--lee @irepeldirt @dumblani @crist1216 @alyssaj23 @allyp1023 @joannie95 @kolakube9 @rileyloves5 @sarahp879 @sea040561 @sexyvixen7 @pcterpvrker @pigwidgexn @doctoranon @abschaffer2 @nickimarie94 @teller258316 @wandressfox @amandab-ftw @henrietteoaks @nea90sweetie @circusofchaos @itsagalaxystar @bettercallsabs @miraclesoflove @lucifersnipnips @queenkrissy11 @sadyoungadult @destiel-artemis @paintballkid711 @iwillbeinmynest @sweet-honey15 @chanelmadrid13 @mellxander1993   @spookygrantaire @geeksareunique @supernatural508 @sammysgirl1997 @itzmegaaaaaaan @booksbeforebois @mariekoukie6661 @pure-princess-97 @capsheadquaters @samanthasmileys @youclickedthislink @futuremrsb-r-main @lovemarvelousfics @petersunderoos96 @loving-life-my-way @booktvmoviefangirl @supernatural-girl97 @fanfictionjunkie1112 @abbypalmer14-blog @meganlikesfandoms @awkwardfangirl2014 @supernaturaldean67 @xqueenofthecraziesx   @queenoftheunderdark @writingaworldofmyown @supernaturallover2002 @sprinklesandsugarcubes @whothehellisbucky-1930 @verymuchclosetedfangirl @for-the-love-of-the-fandom​ @ocaptain-mycaptainmorgan @wonderlandfandomkingdom @crazy-little-thing-called-buck @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @stupendoussciencenaturepanda @jamesbarnesappreciationsociety
Peter Parker: @ml7010 @ariminiria @dkpink123 @little-smurf @boltsgirl919   @everthenerd @ms-rogers06 @crayonwriting @baebeepeach @bellamouse16 @honey-bee-holly @kiss-the-stars-goodbye
Chasing The Dream: @del-rcys @gabile18   @robin-writes @raven-black102
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irkimatsu · 5 years
Text
This is probably the closest I’ve ever cut it, but here it is! My final thoughts on this year’s Eurovision entries!
I’m a little antsy about getting to see it this year. You know that post I made about having off on Tuesday and Thursday? Apparently my schedule’s getting changed, and now I don’t know. And I’m not gonna know about Saturday until Monday – I could easily be in work for the entire final. Here’s hoping adult obligations don’t keep me from my Europop! (And that I don’t even have this job this time next year, although my ideal job would probably keep me away from both semis… eh, win some lose some.)
I tried to find a sorter so I could rank these more thoroughly, because I’m bad at doing that by hand, but I didn’t find one, so I’ll be doing my usual thing of listing alphabetically by country and sorting each song into categories. My categories are thus:
Favorite: My number one pick for the year! Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean the song I think is objectively, artistically best, or even a song I think is going to escape the semi – this is just the song I get the most enjoyment out of. You’ll see why I felt the need to clarify that in a bit.
Love: If I ranked these, these would get the 2nd – 5th spots. I adore these songs, and would be more than happy to see any of them win.
Like: Didn’t quite make the top 5, but I still enjoy them a lot, and don’t want them getting booted out of the semi.
Okay: Nothing objectionable, but doesn’t mean much to me personally. I get a little bit of joy when I listen to it, then it fades immediately after.
Indifferent: I don’t care for this song at all; it’s just not in a style that means anything to me. If I still can’t remember how it goes after two months, that’s a bad sign.
What: This song’s existence confuses me too much to give it a proper placement.
Biased: My opinion on this song is based on factors that have nothing to do with its intent. (aka the “song reminded me of fandom” category. Haven’t used this in a while. Good to see its return!)
Yet again, the “Hate” category has been cut, since nothing actively gets on my nerves for the second year in a row! (…except one, maybe, but that one has enough background info that… well, you’ll know when you get to it.) Songs in “Like”, “Okay”, and “Indifferent” are prone from shifting up or down one within that range depending on how I’m feeling that day; “Favorite”, “Love”, “What”, and “Biased” are locked.
Ranking under the cut!
Albania: “Ktheju tokës” by Jonida Maliqi – I can feel the effort going into this one, but… nah, not my thing. It’s so rare for me to be invested in an Albanian entry, huh? Sorry, guys. Indifferent.
Armenia: “Walking Out” by Srbuk – I don’t know how to describe my feelings on this one, unfortunately, but I do really Like it. Maybe it’s the head-held-high attitude that has me interested?
Australia: “Zero Gravity” by Kate Miller-Heidke – If this doesn’t have a completely batshit performance, I’m gonna be so disappointed. Her voice is certainly impressive! But overall I’m going for an Okay on this one. It’s fine, but I think the stage show is going to outshine the actual song.
Austria: “Limits” by PÆNDA – Oof, this one is so close, yet so far. It reminds me of some artist I listen to a lot, though I can’t place it… but it just seems… thin? If it had something else to it, it could have really been something, but as it stands it doesn’t leave much impact. Indifferent, and that feels like such a waste. Good vocals, maybe if it had better music. (Then again, maybe the sparseness is the point… but if that’s the point it’s not for me)
Azerbaijan: “Truth” by Chingiz – I dunno, I just really like the imagery here, of a man arguing with himself about a relationship that he knows is damaging, but it’s just so much easier to deny it. I particularly like the “Shut up about it!” element, adds to the self-argument thing. I love the concept, and as a song it’s not half bad, either. Like!
Belarus: “Like It” by ZENA – Oh, fuck yeah! A good way to tell if I’m going to enjoy a song – are people insulting it by saying it sounds 15 – 20 years out of date? If so, then it’s probably exactly my jam! It’s such a fun song I can’t help but dance to, and sometimes that’s all I really need. I don’t just like it, I Love it! (oh that was terrible)
Belgium: “Wake Up” by Eliot – It’s a nice beat! But I don’t think it really stands out among the competition. It’s fair enough, there’s just so many other songs I like better than it this year. Okay.
Croatia: “The Dream” by Roko – OH MY GOD WHAT IS HE WEARING. Indifferent, this is not a good song, but god damn I am so looking forward to the stage show, this is going to be the cheesiest shit
Cyprus: “Replay” by Tamta – This sounds a lot like last year’s “Fuego”. This is mostly a good thing! I loved “Fuego”! But the repetition does slightly knock its chances to land in my top 5. Still a firm Like, though.
Czech Republic: “Friend of A Friend” by Lake Malawi – It’s not easy to follow up on the sheer campiness of last year’s “Lie to Me”, but Lake Malawi put forward their best effort, and I appreciate it highly! The song’s pure, campy fun that gets stuck in my head every time I listen to it. Like! …though I tend to overthink the lyrics. What, they hear someone fucking in the next apartment and the singer’s first instinct is to swear she’s only a friend? Jumping the gun a bit much there, dude? =P
Denmark: “Love Is Forever” by Leonora – It’s a really cute song, and I appreciate all the language changes. But realizing what it’s actually about it what landed it in Like – at first I thought it was just a love song, but then I realized the call for peace and optimism and it hit me in the fuzzies. I know the political, Important songs usually irritate the cheese out of me, but I feel like this one actually put effort into the music, rather than trying to ride on their message to guilt trip a vote out of you. I admit it’d probably be in the lower range of Like if I actually ranked these properly, but it really is a good song!
Estonia: “Storm” by Victor Crone – I love how this one gradually transitions from a country song to an EDM song; I always miss the exact part where it does it, it just flows so well. The optimistic lyrics are up my alley, too. It’s a really good one, and I hope it does well! Like!
Finland: “Look Away” by Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman – As a huge 90’s/2000’s European electronica fan who teethed on “Sandstorm” back when no one really knew what an Internet meme was, I nearly shat myself when I heard Darude was going to be representing Finland this year. I have no idea who Sebastian Rejman is, but after this song, I’m gonna have to look into him! This song has such a powerful beat that hits right in my gut, exactly what I love from my music. Firm Love!
France: “Roi” by Bilal Hassani – It’s a cute little thing that I can’t help but appreciate on some level! I think it’s just an Okay for balance purposes, but it creeps into Like on occasion. Also I find the singer weirdly cute. I dunno, as a package it’s just endearing!
Georgia: “Sul tsin iare” by Oto Nemsade – I can hear the passion in his voice, but… no, this isn’t for me at all. People who have read my Eurovision posts before know by now that slow + non-English tends to equal a death knell for me. Sorry, stupid American coming through. Indifferent.
Germany: “Sister” by S!sters – I hate the artist name so much, let me get that out of the way right now. As for the song itself… I don’t think I’d care for it at all if I didn’t have an association with it, but, well, here I am – this song is so, so easy to assign to the Hikawa twins from Bang Dream. Sisters in constant competition who don’t want to be? That’s their entire arc. Admittedly that’s mostly on Sayo’s part, which kind of ruins the duet aspect, but… damn it, if I can’t imagine them singing this together and playing their guitars while members of their bands provide the rest of the accompaniment, what’s the point of living? I’m going Biased on this one.
Greece: “Better Love” by Katerine Duska – I have no idea why I’m having such a hard time clicking with this song, but it’s just not working for me. I’m sure it’s objectively good, but it doesn’t do a damn thing for me. Indifferent.
Hungary: "Az én apám" by Joci Pápai – A returning artist from 2017! Too bad I didn’t care too much then and I really don’t care now. Just like Georgia, this just isn’t my style, and no amount of objective appreciation can fix the sad fact that songs like this always sink to the bottom of the pile for me. Indifferent.
Iceland: "Hatrið mun sigra" by Hatari  – …right. Oh boy. Okay. Look, when I first heard there was gonna be an industrial song in this year’s Eurovision, I was fucking pumped. This was one of the two songs I looked into before properly listening to the finished playlist, along with Finland. I’m not always into industrial music, but when it’s good, it’s fucking awesome! I started it up, heard the music, was so ready for this to be a real contender…
…aaaaand then the vocals started up. I don’t think this is just “I don’t like industrial growling”, they really do sound quite bad. I still love the instrumental, and the chorus is nice, too… but those verses. No.
And then I looked up those edgelord lyrics, and started hearing stuff about the band, and I am 110% convinced this is a troll song, firmly destined for the What category. This is what you send to Eurovision to let everyone know how much you hate Eurovision. I figured it had no chance of getting out of the semi, at least partially because of the feeling that if it does, the band will feel like they failed.
…but I keep seeing it rank high on others’ lists, so… I have no fucking clue what to expect from this one!
Ireland: “22” by Sarah McTernan – It’s pleasant! But that’s about it. I used to listen to folksy stuff like this as a kid, so I guess there’s some nostalgia for it… but I haven’t been into it in a long time. Low Okay.
Israel: “Home” by Kobi Marimi – I often hear jokes about how winning countries will send non-impacting garbage just so they don’t have to host the Contest two years in a row, and songs like this are exactly why I believe them. There’s nothing wrong with it, the singer’s voice might even be good, but as a whole package it’s just so boring. It feels like it’s so much longer than three minutes – such a slog to get through. Indifferent.
Italy: “Soldi” by Mahmood – Oh, I really like this one! The “come va” bit always burrows itself in my head, and I do respect how personal it seems to the singer, with the blending of cultures. (I know I don’t always respect the personal aspect, but I love when “personal” doesn’t have to mean “bland-ass acoustic guitar ballad”.) Like!
Latvia: “That Night” by Carousel – One for the bin of “I can’t remember how this goes”. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just so forgettable. I’m trying to find something about it that stands out to me, but… nah, it’s just mush. Indifferent.
Lithuania: “Run With The Lions” by Jurij Veklenko – Even more mush. I can remember bits of it, at least, but the bits I remember don’t mean anything to me. Indifferent.
Macedonia: “Proud” by Tamara Todevska – I know I normally crap on ballads, but… I think I heard this song at a time I really needed to. I love the self-acceptance message, as corny and played out as it can be. I Like this one, it’s sweet.
Malta: “Chameleon” by Michela – This came so, so close to my top 5! I really do love the hell out of it! Such a good walking song. Like, but could have so easily been a Love if not for its competition.
Moldova: “Stay” by Anna Odobescu – Oh no. This is the first year I haven’t been head-over-heels in love with the Moldovan entry, and I feel like such a jerk about it. They finally decide to take themselves seriously and send something with a lot of passion! …and all I can do is sit here disappointed! I’m sorry! Low Okay for the “objectively great, I’m sure, but not my genre” thing. I know a lot of people love it, but I don’t think I would have cared for it from any country, and it being Moldova is just disappointing for me. They can of course do whatever they want, and good for them if it works out, but let me pout in peace
Montenegro: “Heaven” by D mol – This is the most I’ve ever unironically liked a Montenegrin song since I started watching the Contest in 2014, as cold as a compliment that is. It’s cute! But cute is really all it has going for it. I’m going with Okay, though that’s mainly from comparing it to everything else I’ve heard from Montenegro; if another country sent this, it could have easily landed lower.
Netherlands: “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence – I don’t get it. I know a lot of people have been heaping praise on this… but I don’t get it, and I feel like the arcade metaphor is insanely cheesy for the mood it’s going for. I can’t take it as seriously as it seems to want me to. Indifferent.
Norway: “Spirit In The Sky” by KEiiNO – I adore this song. Great music, great imagery, I feel like it’s gonna be a good stage show! The joiking took me a bit to get used to, but once I did, I do feel it adds a lot to the song. I cannot wait to see this song performed! Love! In a better world where I have taste, this song would be my Favorite, and even as it stands I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite song that has a chance in hell of actually winning. But as for my actual Favorite… we’ll get to that later.
Poland: “Fire Of Love (Pali Sie)” by Tulia – Little confession for those who were around in 2014 – I regret choosing “We Are Slavic” as my favorite song back then. I admit that I wasn’t really taking the Contest seriously and was somewhat choosing based on meme potential. Whoops. But the good news is, this song proves that I wasn’t entirely going on meme potential. We’re taking traditional Polish singing far more seriously this time, and I still like it! It’s a unique little song that stands out in a good way, and I love the shout singing. I’ve heard complaints about it, but I got used to it right away. Maybe because I’ve been listening to shouty rave stuff for such a long time? I’m used to this style of singing, and pleased to hear it working with a more traditional musical backdrop. Like!
Portugal: "Telemóveis" by Conan Osiris – Haaaaaa oh my god what the fuck. By all rights, this should be dumped in the “What” category and never talked about again… but this weird little song charmed me somehow. I have a bad history with never remembering Portugal’s entries, with them making so little of an impression on me that I always forget if they skipped 2016 or if their entry that year was just that boring. And as weird as it is, I don’t feel like it’s quite strange enough for me to dump it in the same category that I tend to reserve for unapologetic camp. So, you know what, for breathing some bizarre life into a country I wrote off a long time ago, I’m giving it an Okay. I flirted with the idea of putting it in Like just by comparison with everything else the country has sent, but that implies I actually want to see this in the final, and I’m not gonna go that far.
Romania: “On A Sunday” by Ester Peony – By sound, I think it’s just an Okay, but a respectably placed one. I do like it more than, say, Ireland or Moldova. But I’ve been listening to it a lot recently… mainly for shipping reasons. (JyushiHomu, for the curious.) But I also decided it was a fine song even before I made that connection, so I don’t think it belongs in Biased? I may be shooting low on this one because I’m afraid of my shipping goggles impairing my judgment. Maybe it really is a low Like, I don’t know. I’ll leave it here. It’s a nice song!
Russia: “Scream” by Sergey Lazarev – Oh, man, I was so hyped to see that Sergey was back! “You Are The Only One” was my favorite entry from 2016, and I’ve listened to his English Best Of thousands of times!
…so imagine my surprise to hear that it’s a ballad. Keep in mind my usual tastes in music, and my other favorite Sergey songs – “Take It Off”, “Stumblin’”, “In My Lonely Life”. I love him for the fun club nonsense. I’m shallow, I know. But then I managed to shake off my biases and listen to “Scream” for what it is and not just what it could be, and… yeah, it’s a good song. Sergey’s got good producers and a great voice. It’s still a Like. But I feel like if they gave this song to someone I didn’t recognize, it’d land lower.
Not like the other competitor here who’s returning from 2016…
San Marino: “Say Na Na Na” by Serhat – Oh hell yeah. When I first saw that Serhat was back, after I stopped laughing, I clicked it fully expecting some camp bait to throw at Karamatsu, drop in the What category, and spend the next two months gleefully taking the piss out of.
…that is not what happened. Instead, I instantly fell in love with it. Serhat may not make a convincing Casanova, but he sure as hell knows how to party! This feels ripped right from a 2000’s Europop act that leans on disco energy, and that is exactly my type of thing. I’m so sad that this is probably going to get stuck in the semi, because I am so wildly in love with it. I can’t believe that out of the two returning artists from 2016, I fell in love with Serhat, not Sergey! Instant Favorite, I accept my place as the only person in the world who actually wants to see this win. Party energy, optimistic lyrics, how am I supposed to put this below anything else?
Still throwing it at Kara, though
Serbia: “Kruna” by Nevena Božović – Remember what I said about songs I forget the instant they end? Yeah, this is one of ‘em. I just can’t think of anything to say here. Indifferent.
Slovenia: “Sebi” by Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl – Kinda reminds me of a forgettable t.A.t.U album track. That’s not really a high compliment. I do like the vocals, but it’s one of those songs I can appreciate in the moment but don’t really seek out actively. Okay, and a low one at that.
Spain: “La Venda” by Miki – Just typing the title for this one is making me want to party! God this is a fun one to listen to. Party song about not being a bigoted dick! What’s not to Love? Looking forward to an entertaining stage show on this one!
Sweden: “Too Late For Love” by John Lundvik –  …you know that feeling when you think you should really love a song more than you do? There’s nothing wrong with it, I actually do almost like it… but I don’t seem to adore it like so many other people do, and I feel like a jerk about it. Okay because I don’t love it as much as everyone else does, but I won’t be upset to see it perform well. I don’t know what it is that isn’t resonating with me! I’m sorry! It’d probably get a Like if I wasn’t being influenced by other rankings!
Switzerland: “She Got Me” by Luca Hänni – Oh, this is a nice, fun little thing. I think I like it for a lot of the same reasons I like “Friend of A Friend”. It just sounds like the people recording it are having such a good time! Like!
United Kingdom: “Bigger Than Us” by Michael Rice – Nope, sorry. Grand ballad, yay, good for it, not my thing at all, nothing that stands out. Indifferent.
SUMMARY:
Favorite
San Mario
Love
Belarus
Finland
Norway
Spain
Like
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
France
Italy
Macedonia
Malta
Poland
Russia
Switzerland
Okay
Australia
Belgium
Ireland
Moldova
Montenegro
Portugal
Romania
Slovenia
Sweden
Indifferent
Albania
Austria
Croatia
Georgia
Greece
Hungary
Israel
Latvia
Lithuania
Netherlands
Serbia
United Kingdom
What
Iceland
Biased
Germany
4 notes · View notes
thesammtimes · 6 years
Text
Going Live II- Kai (M)
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Pairings: You x Jongin Rated: M Genre: Camboy AU Description: User kinkykai is now live. Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
You hated the first day of classes. The anxiety that came with finding the right classroom, choosing the right seat, finding out if your professor would be a total jerk or not. You were in a prerequisite class; accounting. You hated accounting and pretty much anything to do with numbers in general. However, you were stuck here for the next Monday and Wednesday for the time being.
You found the class fairly empty and chose a seat towards the middle. You had found it made you seem more open to learning, and the professors were less likely to call on you for the dreaded class participation half of them required. You settled in, pulling out a folder and notebook that you had designated for this class.
You watched someone come in from the corner of your eye. They paused in the doorway for a moment before heading right towards you. You felt them sit next to you and sighed inwardly. Who the fuck sits next to someone when they classroom is still mostly empty?
You spared your neighbor a glance, startled when he looked up at you at the same time. He smiled and it was the most beautiful smile you’d ever seen. You tried to return it, although yours was significantly more awkward. You both turned back to your desks and you swallowed down a huge sigh. He was hot. Ridiculously hot, it was unfair for anyone to be that attractive.
You distracted yourself with your phone until the professor walked in and began the class. It was the normal first day of class discussion. A syllabus was passed around to go over together. No phones, no food, no cheating; every class was the same. You eventually drowned the professor out in favor of doodling on the corners of your notebook with hearts and flowers.
“On page six there’s an important assignment we’re going to discuss today. I want you all to pair off into groups of two. Each group will be assigned a business and as we complete certain chapters of the book you will have assignments to complete. Eventually this will build up into a financial analysis of the business. This project is your total homework and final exam grade, so please be mindful of this.” She droned on a bit more details, but you couldn’t hear her over the sound of your own panic in your head.
What kind of professor still assigned partners and did group assignments? The worst professor, that’s who. This was your nightmare, you were far too socially awkward to try to speak to anyone.
“There are an even number of you in here so this should work just fine. I’ll give you ten minutes to find a partner and exchange contact information with them. Set up your first meeting as the first assignment is due next Monday.”
You felt the blood slowly draining from your head. You wanted to pass out from anxiety. You watched people begin pairing up and you weight your options of dropping the class altogether.  
You heard someone clear their throat next to you and you turned to find the hot guy smiling nervously at you.
What the hell was he nervous about? Maybe you looked worse than you felt.
“You want to partner up?” He asked you.
Did you actually pass out? Were you in some weird unconscious dream right now? He was staring at you expectantly and you realized he was actually waiting for your answer. You finally got it together and nodded. “Yeah,” you answered him, “Yeah that would be great.”
He smiled broadly, he seemed relieved. You thought you must have imagined it, but then he laughed to himself and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Sorry, I’m kind of awkward. I hate group projects.”
You felt yourself relax slightly, “Me too.” You told him honestly. “Do you want to exchange numbers?”
He nodded and pulled his phone out. He unlocked it and handed it to you. You added yourself, telling him your name as you did. You handed him your phone and he proceeded to do the same.
“I’m Jongin.” he told you with another heart stopping grin.
“When are you free?” You asked him. “I don’t have anything after this class, but Tuesdays and Thursdays are full for me.”
He mulled it over, “I can’t tonight, I have to work. I can do Wednesday though. Want to go to the coffee shop next to the library after class?”
You nodded, “That works for me.”
He smiled at you again, “I like your drawings by the way, they’re cute.” He lifted his own notebook. The first thing you noticed was his awful handwriting. The second was the little bear he had drawn on the top of the page. It was crying and had a small speech bubble that said “I’m hungry!”
You laughed out loud, “Aw,” You looked up at him and smiled teasingly, “you should have had breakfast!”
He chuckled, “I’d rather sleep in.” He admitted.
“Honestly? Same.” You said.
The professor announced that she was moving on to chapter one and you both turned your attention back to the front of the room. Your nervousness had almost gone completely in the process of talking to Jongin. There was something about him that seemed familiar, but you couldn’t place it. Perhaps it was his modelesque good looks that had your head swimming and confused.
Regardless, you couldn’t complain too much about group projects when your partner looked like that.
Since Mondays were such a slow day for you, you were looking forward to going home and enjoying some afternoon alone time. After this first week of classes, you’d be drowning in homework once again. You needed to take advantage of the quiet time while you had it.
You wished you hadn’t gotten in the habit of checking kinkykai’s page, but it had become a part of your routine now. Had he updated or posted anything new? He hadn’t been on instagram in awhile, you wouldn’t admit to being disappointed in that fact.
You hadn’t been expecting anything, but were pleasantly surprised to find a message on his profile.
Hey guys! Since school has officially started back up for me, I won’t be on as much. So tonight I’m going to put on a special live, one that has been highly requested. See you tonight--Kai
Your heart rate increased in excitement. What was this highly requested video? There had been so many good requests you’d seen in his comment section. Any of them would drive you crazy to watch, but really the man could do anything and it would get you off.
You noticed that he would be on in 30 minutes so you quickly set up your laptop and bed, making yourself ready for whatever show he’d put on for you today.
When the notification of him going live popped up, you were quick to click on it At first he wasn’t on the screen, but then you watched him walk in wearing a pair of loose basketball shorts low on his hips. He was adjusting something above the screen, his arms moving in a way that had your stomach churning already.
He wasn’t even doing anything sexual; you were so far gone.
Suddenly you could hear something very clearly rubbing against a microphone before you saw the mic enter the frame. Kai sat down at his desk, the end of the mic sitting right in front of his perfect pink lips. You couldn’t see his face, but that was perfectly fine with you. The rest of him was gorgeous enough, you weren’t sure you could handle seeing his whole face.
He seemed to be adjusting a few more things before he finally smirked playfully towards the camera. “Hello.” He whispered, “You guys wanted to hear my voice in ASMR, right?”
He paused, clearly reading the responses in his chat, he chuckled lowly. “To be honest, this is my friend’s mic. He let me borrow it, he’d throw a fit if he knew what I was using it for.” His words were nothing but low whispers. He wasn’t speaking in a sexual manner, but you were already wet just listening to him.
“How was my first day of classes? Boring to be honest.”
You loved the idea that you both started school on the same day. Your schedules and life seemingly matching up just a bit.
“So….what do you want me to talk about or do?” He had a hint of his innocent side, but he was clearly trying to keep his voice low and steady.
“Dom or sub? I fancy myself a switch.” “Favorite kink? Sensory play on me or my partner. Also edging.”
You smiled, anyone could have guessed the edging.
“Do I have a favorite porn genre? Not really. I’m not one for porn to be honest. I like being on this side of the lense.” he bit his bottom lip and chuckled, “Maybe I should add exhibitionist to that kink list.”
You did something you had never done since watching Kai; you opened the chat. It was flooded with comments and spam and you wondered how he was even choosing questions to answer.
“Do I like dirty talk? Sometimes.” A pause. “You want to hear it? Maybe in a bit, be patient.” He was smirking again. Damn, what a slight tilt of his lips could do to you.
“My favorite color is green.” “I don’t drink.” “I’ve had three sexual partners.” “No one in my life knows I do this.” “I’m not ashamed, I just like the anonymity of it all.” “My favorite food is chicken.” “I don’t have any tattoos.”
“The kinkiest place I’ve had sex was a restroom in a dingy bar….I do not recommend it. It was pretty gross.” He laughed at himself and you took that moment to be brave.
What’s your favorite pet name to use? You clicked send and watched it get swept away with the handfuls of other questions and comments.
“My favorite pet name? Honey.”
Your breath caught in your throat. He saw it. He saw it and he answered it. Your fingers shook as you typed once more.
“Why honey?” He answered your ask almost instantly, you were shocked. “All my friends call me a bear. Bears love honey.”
That was so cute what the fuck was this guy? You shut off the chat, your heart unable to handle interacting with him anymore.
“Let me ask you all something.” His tone changed, and you waited eagerly. “Are you guys sweet like honey?” He lifted his arm, adjusting the camera angle until it only showed his chest and lap. The mic was lowered, you could still hear his light breathing as he shed himself of his shorts, leaving him naked before you.
“You wanted dirty talk? Here’s what we’re going to do.” His fingers slid up and down his thighs softly and you watched him come to life. “You are going to do this with me, understand? Take your pants off, but don’t touch yourself yet.”
You obeyed him without a second thought. Pulling down your shorts and panties, tossing them off your bed to deal with later.
“Did you do that for me? You listen so well, honey.” His soft whispering voice was almost like a purr, it sent goosebumps over your skin. “You like watching me touch myself don’t you?”
You shuddered, you wouldn’t be in this exact position if you didn’t. You closed your eyes for a moment, imagining him there with you as his words echoed in your mind.
“Touch yourself for me.” He whispered.
You did as you were told, sliding a hand in between your legs and finding yourself wet already. You teased your clit slowly, knowing he had started stroking himself by the sounds coming through your earbuds.
“Mm...just like that, honey. Go slow, I want you to feel everything I’m doing to you right now.” You kept your eyes closed, enjoying the sounds and letting your imagination run wild. Imaging him there, imaging his hands in place of yours, imaging his lips near your ear as he whispered dirty things into your ear. Your hips rocked against your fingers as you kept the touches light and slow.
“You’re so good for me,” Kai kept going. He moaned lowly, “You make me so hard. I just want to be inside of you.”
You slipped a finger inside of you, quickly bringing in a second to fill you further. You had to bite your lip to keep quiet. He’d never talked this much before, and not watching him was doing more to you than it ever had before.
“Do you like that?” He whispered, “the idea of me buried deep inside of you?” He moaned, louder this time. “You feel so fucking good, honey. So so good for me.”
You whimpered, either he was good at dirty talk or he was enjoying this just as much as you were. You didn’t care how many other people were watching. It felt as though it was just you, you gave yourself the luxury of imagining it. Picturing it just this once. Him and you, his beautiful cock filling you up so perfectly as he thrusted in and out of you.
You moved your hand to the sound of his, he was already going so fast, you had a feeling he wasn’t going to last as long tonight. You didn’t care, you were close too.
He groaned, “God, you’re so soft. Moan for me, let me hear how good I make you feel.”
You couldn’t, your roommate wasn’t supposed to be home for another couple hours, but you didn’t want to risk it. You wanted to though, you’d scream for him if he asked.
“Do you want to cum with me? We can cum together. I want that, I want to feel you clench down around me as I fill you up.”
You arched your back as your fingers curled inside of you. God, you wanted that too. You were so close, you could barely catch your breath as you continued moving your fingers inside of you.
“Fuck,” He whispered, “I’m so close.”
You could hear his hand sliding over his erection over and over. You matched his pace and you really weren’t sure you were going to last any longer.
“Fuck fuck, cum with me. Cum now.” He spoke louder, following it with a guttural moan and the sound of his hands moving stopped. You let yourself go, swimming over the edge of bliss with him, imagining him inside of you, his cock twitching with release. Your body froze in the feeling of euphoria, your back lifted off the bed, and you had to cover your mouth to keep from making any noise.
Your eyes blinked open, adjusting to the light of your bedroom as you listened to Kai catch his breath.
“You did so well, honey.” He whispered softly.
You whimpered again, this man was going to be your death.
You finally looked back to your laptop to see him slouched back into his chair, clearly spent. He suddenly snorted and pulled the mic down. “Oh shit, my friend is going to murder me.”
You watched one of his fingers swipe a bit of cum off the mic and he wiped it across his abs. He started giggling, actual giggles. You couldn’t stop your own smile from spreading across your lips.
He finished cleaning off the mic and pulled it back up to his lips out of frame. “I hope you all enjoyed that.” He laughed shyly, “I’m not that good at dirty talk, you flatter me.” He whispered.
You rolled your eyes, he was back to shy boy and you really didn’t understand how he had just given you one hell of an orgasm.
“I’m sorry I’m not sure when my next show will be, but I’ll keep you posted, okay? Thank you guys for all the compliments. I hope you have a nice week!” He signed off, leaving you breathless and mind blown on your bed.
School was hard enough without some sort of release, you were kind of bummed that your best release just logged off with no date of return.
362 notes · View notes
missingverse · 6 years
Text
Missing  Chapter Thirteen
Thank you all once again for the reviews I've gotten. I am a very busy person at the best of times, and this time of year is especially hectic, but every review I get reminds me that someone is waiting for another piece of the puzzle and it is very powerful motivation. Thank you for reading thus far and thank you again for sharing your thoughts with me.
…..
Three days until:
The rainy season had well and truly hit, and Helga's stomach ached as she trudged down the road, pushing her bike beside her. She was muttering darkly to herself, as if that would do any good. The mystery illness was having a relapse since she'd been home and the baseball diamond was rained out so she couldn't go burn off some anger there all week.
And then, because misery comes in threes, her front tire was flat.
She had about fifteen minutes to get to school before the bell rang, and it was still a half hour walk. She'd probably get detention, and that meant navigating around the hills in the dark once she was finished. That's if she didn't stop for food somewhere first.
“Need some help there, sweetheart?”
The voice made her jump, just a little, because as pleasant as it was she hadn't heard a car come up behind her. It was a quiet back road, there wasn't anyone else around. Where did this guy come from?
“Let me guess, your tire's flat and you're late for school?”
Cautiously, she nodded and moved closer to the road bank, near the trees. The stranger was keeping the car at an easy glide, matching her pace. He was an ordinary-looking guy; if you'd asked her to pick him out of a line-up, she probably couldn't. His accent wasn't Hillwood, not even rural Hillwood. His presence dug into some uneasy space inside of her but she didn't quite know why.
“Why don't you hop in, I'll take you there...”  
He smiled when she shook her head, but it didn't reach his eyes.
“My friend's mom is coming this way to pick me up, I'm just going to meet her,” Helga explained, gesturing with her cellphone.  “Thanks anyway.”
It was a lie and he knew it, she could tell.
“Smart girl,” he laughed. “You know better....well, how's about I fix that tire instead?”
Before she could refuse, he'd stopped his car and taken out a pump and some rubber solvent. He patched up her tire, and as he worked she surreptitiously dialed 911 on her phone, just in case.
“There you go, good as new,” he said after a moment or two. Then he was back in his car and driving away just as suddenly as he'd arrived.
“You take care now,” he called from his window as he left.
…..
“...did Helga ever lose any teeth?”
Phoebe abruptly stopped eating and fixed Arnold with a baffled look.
“You mean permanent teeth?” she asked. “No, I don't think so...”
He said nothing, just went back to miserably stirring his uneaten pudding. The gap in Helga's mouth had been tiptoeing around in his brain ever since he saw it.
“Why, is she missing some now?” Phoebe asked, quietly, leaning over the lunchtable to him. They'd been overheard once, by Rhonda, and they didn't want to risk it again.
“Sort of,” Arnold said.
“Arnold,” Phoebe growled low. “We went through this already...”
“Well, I don't know? Who's to say she didn't lose them before she went missing?”
“How many?” Phoebe asked, frowning. “And where?”
“Two, I think. On the bottom row.”
“Then no, I would have noticed,” Phoebe answered.. “She was careful about her teeth, you know? Her dad wouldn't put her on the dental insurance so she only ever saw a dentist once, when my mom brought her in for a filling. She played baseball with a mouthguard in.”
They lapsed into another unhappy silence. The cafeteria was unusually quiet that day too, so the silences lingered on for what felt like hours.
“I've been thinking,” Phoebe began again after a while. “Black Gulch Ripper or not, the person who took her would have to be someone who got her picture from the internet. Is there any way we can get a list?”
“Why do you figure that? There's just as much chance it was an opportunist....”
“No, there's not. Whoever it was got hold of one of her pictures and asked Rhonda about her. He picked her because he knew Bob wouldn't call the police until he'd gotten rid of the evidence, which would give him a head start on getting her out of Hillwood.”
“Bob didn't call the police,” Arnold said. “You did.”
“Not until two days later,” she told him. “At that point I just figured her cellphone was off, I was worried but not that worried. Maybe he thought Bob would never call the police because he couldn't without getting himself in trouble.”
“The Black Gulch Ripper's victims were all runaways and prostitutes,” Arnold wondered out loud. “People who wouldn't be missed right away.”
“Exactly,” Phoebe said, pushing her glasses up on her nose. “He targeted her, for whatever reason. And he had to get her picture from somewhere.”
For a moment, Arnold was hopeful. It felt like a breakthrough, but it was gone again a moment later.
“No,” he sighed. “From what I've heard, those kind of pictures get traded around a lot. Like, one person buys them and then passes them on to his contacts, and then they do the same...it makes them almost impossible to fully trace.”
Phoebe dropped her apple on her tray and folded her arms, dismay etched all across her face.
“If we want to get on the right track, we need to focus on Pocaselas,” Arnold offered.
Phoebe snorted and rolled her eyes, a gesture that reminded Arnold of Helga and caused a little stabbing sensation in his heart.
“The Ripper's been giving the police the slip for nearly two decades, Arnold. What makes you think we can do any better where they failed?”
“We have Helga,” he answered. “They didn't.”
…..
He knew it was a dream, straight away. It had that stillness to it, that sluggish air and the colours were tinted as if by a photo filter.
Knowing it was a dream didn't help.
She was standing in the middle of the road, cars rocketing past her, clutching her skirt with her hands and nervously looking around. She was younger than she was when she vanished, about five or six years old.
Why weren't the cars stopping? Why weren't any of the people on either side of the road trying to get to her? They didn't seem to see her at all.
He tried to reach her, but for all his steps towards her he didn't get any closer. He tried to call for her, but he was mute. If he didn't reach her, she would be hit by a car; he knew that much.
And then just as he was getting frantic, she looked up at him.
She tried to speak, but a torrent of blood came rushing out of her mouth instead.
And just as she took a step towards him, one of the cars finally got her.
…..
Arnold woke with a full-body spasm, his muscles seized, his hands still outstretched to try and pull Helga away from the road. As he blinked and focused, gulping in shaky breaths, he could feel the fabric of his own t-shirt on Helga's body clutched in his fists.
“...Arnold?” Helga's voice spoke quizzically into the dark. Just hearing it put him at considerably more ease.
“Bad dream, nothing to worry about,” he mumbled.
“Are you sure?”
He drew in one deep breath, held it, and sighed it out.
“Yeah, I'm fine,” he said. “Sorry I woke you.”
“That's okay. I've been sleeping too much lately anyway.”
She was warm beside him. He remembered when she first appeared to him that she had been cold to the touch, barely there. Now she was practically alive again.
He was already covered with a thin film of cold sweat, and now a new dread occurred to him.
What's going to happen to her if we find her killer?
She would vanish. The only reason she was back at all was to find some closure, or so they thought anyway, and once she had it there would be no reason for her to stay.
Eleven-year-old Helga, distant as she was, left a hole in Arnold's life when she disappeared. This Helga, this warm, solid phantom who lived in his house and did his homework and wore his clothes to bed every night would tear a much bigger hole, one he wasn't sure he could recover from.
For the first time, he questioned whether he really wanted to find her killer.
“Hey, I had a thought...” he began.
“Wow, one whole thought. Congrats.”
Her snippy wit will be gone forever.
“Very funny,” he half-laughed. “Things have been kind of heavy lately, I think we need a break. How would you like to go to the movies this Saturday? They have a run on those old horror movies you like.”
“Sounds good to me,” she agreed, sounding half-asleep again already. “And you don't have to buy me a ticket, win-win.”
“Yeah, you make a cheap date,” he laughed.
He could feel himself blushing at the idea that he had called it a date, and then he was sad again because it wasn't a proper date and she would never have one.
“I'll have to finish your English paper first,” she said, punctuated by a yawn. “Tell Mr whatever to stop giving you the crappy plays.”
“Did you go off-topic again?” he said, trying to sound stern but failing because he was smiling too hard.
“Yep,” she answered, and then she was asleep again.
…..
Friday was boring, a long stretch of nothing. Arnold was tempted to pass on Helga's disdain for the plays Mr Coveny was assigning them, just to liven up the day. He and Phoebe ate lunch together, but didn't say much. He was tempted to invite her along on their cinema date, but decided against it. He'd just end up relaying messages between the two of them.
The only oddness throughout the day was that his phone kept ringing from numbers he didn't recognize, and when he did answer between classes nobody was there, just the background echo of traffic and people on the street. He passed it off as a crank caller.
But on his way home, he spotted the police car's flashing lights before the boarding house even fell into his line of vision.
Grandpa.
Another stroke, or a heart attack. They had been waiting for this. It didn't stop Arnold's heart thumping painfully.
But Phil was on the stoop, talking to the officers, hands waving around and clearly distressed. He looked worried, but that was a damn sight better than dead.
“Grandpa?” he said, tossing his bike to the side. “What's going on?”
“Oh Arnold, thank God,” Phil gasped. “Your Grandma's gone AWOL. The police are putting out an alert...”
“Son, did you notice anything off about your grandmother's behavior today?” an officer cut it.
No more than usual.
In a way, it was a miracle this had never happened before. Arnold stole a worried glance at Phil. He was pale, wheezing.
If anything happens to Grandma...
“Grandma gets mixed up sometimes,” he told the officer. “But she's never wandered off before...”
“She left her coat behind,” Phil said quietly, almost to himself. “And her shoes.”
“Is she taking any medication we should know about?” the officer asked.
“Yeah, hang on, I'll get you a full list....” Arnold answered.
Rummaging around in the important documents box for Grandma's prescriptions, he felt eerily calm. Grandma was a tough old girl, and the weather wasn't that cold, and she only wore shoes when it suited her anyway...
She's nearly eighty-five. It's getting dark.
Or maybe Arnold was just so used to disaster that he was finally numb to it.
Just as he was staring helplessly down at a handful of medical receipts, his phone rang again. Another unrecognizable number. He answered it anyway.
There was a tapping noise, and very faintly he could hear someone muttering, along with distant traffic sounds. But the muttering sounded familiar, he strained to hear it.
“...Grandma? Grandma!”
She wasn't at the phone, but just beside it. He could hear her, but she couldn't hear him. And then suddenly, there was a sound of breaking glass and a shop alarm going off. He could hear his Grandma fretting, and the tapping on the receiver again.
Oh.
Someone had been trying to message him. All day.
…..
They found Gertie almost five miles out of town, standing beside a furniture store with a broken window. She was cold and she had cuts on her feet, but she was otherwise fine.
The payphone the call had been made to was nearby, but checking CCTV footage from nearby showed that Gertie had neither made the phone call or broken the window. The officers were baffled, but they were just glad to have the old lady safe and with her family. They drove Arnold and his grandparents to the hospital where Gertie was checked in to wait for a consultation the next day. Phil sent Arnold home.
He took the bus, gripping the seat in front of him hard enough to tear the fabric. That had been a very close call.
Once he was home, he went straight upstairs.
“I'm so sorry, I couldn't get the phone to work and I didn't know what to do....” Helga began.
She was cut off with a surprised grunt when he grabbed her in a fierce hug.
“Thank you,” he sobbed into her hair.
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aoi-midori · 7 years
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Brotherhood Chapter 1
new chapter, new narrator. i’m really glad people liked the prologue, but this one is a lot more interesting imo. also it’s just more exciting overall. if you guys want to read the prologue but haven’t yet, or you have no idea what i’m talking about, i’m going to post the link here right before the read more!
Chapter 0 (Prologue)
Chapter 1: First Mission [Minami Cho]
I was thrilled to be back with ETMA after being gone for so long. It felt like I was waking up from a long-ass dream, only to find myself in a familiar setting again. I was finally at home.
The first few days back on base went pretty well in my opinion. Out of the twenty of us called in, fourteen were new to ETMA, so all we had been doing since then was training. A few of us, myself included, had each been training several of the others over the years, so everyone was pretty skilled when it came to using their powers. This exercise though was mainly thought of as an icebreaker, to get to know each other more. So all in all, things worked out well!
As for that day… Ugh, one thing that I definitely did not miss while I was gone was the early morning schedule. While I was away from ETMA training new recruits, I was in charge of the whole enchilada, so that meant that I could pick and choose all the training times and everything. Not anymore, I couldn’t! So that morning, I was forced to wake up at the crack of dawn, and it was a real pain in the ass.
“Hey! Cho, time to get up!”
I slowly opened my eyes and raised my head up to see my roommate, Sammie Phoenix, prodding me on the shoulder. “Ugh… What time is it?”
“Ehm…. About 7 AM?”
“... Oh hell.” I threw myself back into my pillow with the full intention of going back to sleep. But before I knew it, I was shivering all over - Sammie had pulled the covers off of me.
I put my arms around me and curled myself up into a ball as Sammie shook my shoulder. “Come on Cho, we’ve got to get moving!”
“Says who? And why the hell are you so damn chipper?”
“Shuuhei sent out the assignments for the first mission he’s having the mages go on. And we both got picked!”
“Oh yay… Woo,” I groggily gave her a high-five. “Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to get some more sleep.”
“You can’t go back to sleep, we have to leave!”
“Augh…” I turned over onto my side and looked her in the eye. “Right now?”
“Well… Shuuhei did say to meet him in the briefing room as soon as possible, so yeah.”
“Fuck.” She had me at the word ‘mission’. Despite how early it was, there was no way I could pass up the opportunity. After all, I was actually kind of hoping I’d get the first one anyway. So how could I say no?
“Alright, alright, I’m up.” It took me a few seconds, but I finally managed to sit up onto the mattress. Yawning, I raised my hands to my face and worked to rub the sand out of my eyes. “Augh, I can’t function this early in the morning, I don’t know how you do it.”
“Heh heh, well it just takes some getting used to. You’ll get back into the swing of things before you know it! Now how about this: you go ahead and get yourself ready while I’ll go and grab us some coffee. Sound good?”
“Sure, sure, fine. I’m goin’.” Even after Sammie had left, it took me about five more minutes for me to actually get out of bed. So I went through the usual morning routine - shower, hair, teeth, clothes - as fast as I could at 7 in the morning, which was definitely a lot slower than normal. And about 30-40 minutes later, Sammie and I were on our way to the base’s main building with hot coffee in our hands and a sports bag slung over my shoulder.
“Okay,” I took a swig of coffee as I pulled up Shuuhei’s e-mail on my phone. “Let’s see what we got here…”
And the e-mail was exactly what I expected it to be- a shit-ton of words. Shuuhei did love to ramble when it came to anything, but I didn’t have the time or the patience to read it all, so I just skipped down to the bottom to see everyone assigned to that mission. Sammie and I were there obviously, and so was Joe; including him, that made three veterans going on the mission. Then three of the new recruits were coming too: Al Smith, Emma Parker, and Ren Witten.
“Huh. Okay then…” I scrolled back up to the middle to find those three names in the team roster. I knew that Ren went way back with Shuuhei, Al was one of Joe’s kids, and I remembered Emma from training. But the thing I was looking for in the e-mail was their abilities. After each name, their ability and mage classification were also listed. And according to that…
Well, Al was a water Elemental; hadn't seen many of those in a while. Then Ren was a Tectonic with bio manipulation- didn’t know what the hell that was, but whatever. The thing that got me interested though was Emma’s. She was listed as a fire user, which would’ve been pretty normal if it weren’t for the one word right next to it: Tecmentic. As to how a fire user could be a Tecmentic in the first place, I didn’t have a clue, but I figured I’d find out soon enough.
It turned out that it’d be a lot sooner than I thought. Sammie and I had reached the briefing room, and Shuuhei was waiting for us in there along with both Al and Emma.
“Morning!” As soon as I walked in, Shuuhei brought out a box of doughnuts as if it were a peace offering. “I brought breakfast!”
I eyed him suspiciously. “Uh huh, I see what you’re doing here. Don’t think you can pull one over on me, Shuuhei.” Of course, I said that as I grabbed two doughnuts and stuffed one of ‘em into my mouth.
“I know, I know, but it’s the least I could do. The fact that you all got here early shows your dedication, so you deserve this!”
“Thanks. But goddammit Shuuhei, does the mission have to be this early in the morning?”
“Eh… Kind of, yeah. You’re going overseas for this one, so it’s absolutely necessary.”
With my mouth full of doughnut, I set my sports bag down on the floor and plopped down into the seat nearest him. “Figures.”
“Well… I guess you don’t necessarily have to go. I can always assign someone else to go in your place if you’d rather sleep-in.”
I shook my head vigorously. “No no no, I’m fine! It’s all good!” I still felt like I was gonna pass out any minute, but I sure as hell couldn’t let Shuuhei down. He specifically asked for me, so I was gonna do everything in my power to deliver.
“Alright, if you’re sure…”
I leaned back and slid down in my seat as I looked up at the clock on the wall to check the time. It was almost eight, but Joe and Ren still hadn’t shown up yet, so I figured I’d kill some time until then.
“So,” I looked over at Emma and caught her attention, “you’re a Tecmentic, huh?”
“Hm? Oh yeah, I guess I am! But I’m not sure what that means though…”
“Yeah, I’ve also been curious about that,” Al nodded his head as he pulled out his phone. My guess was that he was pulling up that e-mail of Shuuhei’s from earlier. “I know that these are supposed to be mage classifications, but could someone at least explain what those are exactly? We weren’t really told anything when we first got here.”
“That is an excellent question!” I became fully alert when Shuuhei spoke. I had always dreaded hearing those words from him. “Now where should I start… Oh, right! You see, the magi-society-”
I bolted out of my chair and shoved my hand over his mouth before he could say anything else. “Don’t even think about it!”
“Come on Cho!” Shuuhei actually managed to say that and still be loud enough to hear despite having his mouth covered. “I have a really good answer for this!”
“Hell no. No one wants to hear your dissertation on ‘the Fundamentals of Mage Classification.’ We’d be stuck here for days if we let you talk!”
“But-”
“No buts! If anyone’s gonna do the talking, it’s gonna be me.” I figured we were safe at this point, so I moved my hand away. “So pipe down already!”
“Aw…” Not surprisingly, Shuuhei looked pretty disappointed there. “Well, alright.”
“Thank you.” I turned away from him to face Emma and Al. “Okay, so think back to training- both from the past few days and with Joe. You use your powers, but at some point you reach your limit and start getting really tired and can’t use your powers anymore. Am I right?”
“Yeah…” Al nodded, “But then eventually you gain all that energy back.”
“Yep, that’s right. But here’s the question you should be asking here: how? Where does all of that energy come from?”
Both of their faces were blank, which was my cue to grab a dry-erase marker and start drawing on the whiteboard. “Mage abilities are typically powered by three different sources. And as such, it’s these sources where the classifications come from.”
I started off by drawing five small circles grouped together, each one labeled with the thing it represented. “First up are these guys- the Element Spheres. There’s some big myth about it, but I’ll spare you the details, unlike somebody I know.” I looked over at Shuuhei to get my point across before turning back to Al and Emma. “Anyway, the gist of it is that the Element Spheres supposedly carry all of Earth’s magical energy or somethin’.”
I pointed with my marker to each of the circles on the board. “Each sphere represents one of the classical elements: fire, water, earth, wind, energy. So naturally, it’s these guys that power up mages with elemental abilities. It’s kinda obvious really. But yeah, we call these guys ‘Elementals’. They’re probably the most common type of mage around to be honest, since there’re so many of ‘em out there.”
"Okay," Al raised his hand slightly, “so would that also apply to mages with abilities that aren’t one of those five elements in particular? Like my dad, for instance? He can control darkness, so…?”
“Basically saying, yeah. I mean, you’re gonna have a lot of stuff that branches off from one of those main five elements. Like sand. Sand is another form of earth, and I know at least one person who can control plants. And then darkness is definitely a sub-form of energy… Point being, Elementals are really common.”
The second thing I drew was my lousy representation of the earth. “Okay, mage type number 2 is the Tectonic. They’re powered by… you guessed it- plate tectonics. Don’t ask me why, that’s just how it is. Anyway, Tectonic mages have abilities that have something to do with the physical body, whether they affect themselves or other people. More often than not, the user is affecting their own body.”
“Like my brother, right?" Emma spoke up this time. "I think the e-mail said that he was one…”
“Your brother? Yeah, let’s see…” I quickly looked through that e-mail again and found his name in the list. “Will Parker, right? Ah, so he’s an endurance-type, interesting… Yep, that definitely fits! He’s basically like a tank; you know, super resistant to physical and magi-attacks and all that. Pretty convenient!”
“But anyway, there’s a lot of variety when it comes to Tectonic abilities. Super speed, invisibility, shape-shifting, and a whole lot of other things. They’re not as common as Elementals, but still pretty common all the same.”
Then I went on to draw some stars and a few bigger circles. “The last source is the stars and planets, and they’re responsible for powering up Psychics. These are the guys with ESP. So telepathy, precognition- all of those’ll fall under that. And Psychics are pretty rare compared to Elementals and Tectonics. I’m not exactly sure why that is, but most of the Psychics you’ll come across will likely be top-notch. Heh, I actually have a friend who’s a Psychic. Really powerful and all that! But she hasn’t been around for a while…”
I didn’t know why I mentioned that in the first place. All of a sudden, it just came right out of my mouth without me even realizing it. And then there I was, thinking about her along with those other two friends of mine all over again. ‘Seph, Hans, Derek- how long had it been since I’d heard their voices, seen them smiling, laughing? I really missed those days, but nothing was the same anymore, not since that time…
It was Al’s voice that brought me back to reality. “Are you okay?”
“Huh?” I grasped the back of my neck and massaged it gently. “Sure sure, I’m fine.”
Sammie saw right through me though. Before I could say anything else, she placed her hand on my shoulder. “I’ll take it from here,” she whispered into my ear.
I nodded and handed the marker over to Sammie. As she continued the mini-lecture, I moved away from the whiteboard to sit down on top a nearby table. After taking one long sip of coffee, I noticed Shuuhei standing there in front of me. Despite that blindfold hiding his eyes, I could easily tell the look he gave me was an understanding one.
He handed me another doughnut. “Here.”
I took it almost immediately. “Thanks.”
Shuuhei sat down next to me as I took one huge bite from the doughnut. “Anything you want to talk about?”
“I don’t know… I mean, it’s been seven years since the incident. That should be more than enough time for me to move on and shit, but I still haven’t been able to get over it. And it’s like everyone completely disappeared off the face of the earth! ‘Seph I could care less about, but Hans and Derek? It’s been ages since I’ve heard from them, and I haven’t been able to get in contact with them at all!”
More doughnut and more coffee. “It’s just so damn frustrating. They were my best friends, and now they’re all gone. You and Sammie are all that I’ve got left.”
There really wasn’t much else to say about it, at least with Shuuhei. He knew, he’d heard it all many times before this, and he listened every time I brought it up. Because of that, I could always rely on him when I needed that kind of support.
True to form, Shuuhei wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled himself closer so that our sides were touching. “Well, there isn’t a whole lot I can say that’ll make you cheer up, but things like this definitely take a long time to finally move on from. And I know I’ve told you this about a hundred times already, but I’m always here for you. If you ever need to talk about anything, you just say the word. I’ll drop whatever I’m doing if it’s you.”
That was exactly what I needed to hear. I leaned in against him and rested my head onto his shoulder. “Thanks Shuuhei.”
We just sat there in silence for a few minutes, eyes closed and leaning against each other. Then eventually Sammie spoke to us after finishing up with the mini-lecture. “Hey, what time were we supposed to start again Shuuhei?”
“Around eight. We’re just waiting on Joe and Ren now.”
“Well, this is Dad we’re talking about,” Al sighed as he checked his phone again. “If it’s after eight, then he’ll probably be here any minute.”
And sure enough, as if right on cue, Joe appeared in the doorway. “Good Morning! I hope I didn’t keep everyone waiting too long!”
Al rolled his eyes without even looking up from his phone. “And what do you know, there he is now.”
Coming in after Joe was a girl with short brown hair and blue eyes, and I assumed that this had to be Ren. “Sorry Shuuhei! I wanted to be here like fifteen minutes earlier, but someone just couldn’t be bothered to leave until after eight o’ clock.”
“Oh come on, I’m just having some fun. Relax!” Joe clapped her on the back. “You’re way too uptight.”
Ren sighed as she sat down in the chair opposite me and Shuuhei. “Maybe. But if there’s a specific time that I need to be somewhere, I like to get there ahead of schedule and not be late!”
“Don’t worry about it Ren, it’s not a big deal,” Shuuhei assured her. “And now that everyone’s here, let’s get down to it, shall we?”
We both stood up; while I found the chair with my sports bag and sat back down, Shuuhei remained standing. “So, we’re takin’ down a Chang-Lo op?”
“Yes,” Shuuhei nodded. “Over the past several weeks, we’ve been working to stop one particular operation of theirs involving illegal drug manufacturing. We’ve been able to uncover most of their distribution facilities and take those out, but recently there have been a few problems concerning that.”
“Meaning Melisma?”
“Yes, exactly. While those missions were successful in the long run, our agents had started to struggle completing them efficiently once Melisma mages came into the picture. And that was only with about two or three mages stationed at each facility.”
“But anyway, back to your mission. Just the other day, we finally found the location of their main factory, where they actually make the drugs. I’m almost positive that this place will be very heavily guarded with Melisma mages, so that’s why I’m sending the six of you to do this.”
“So, what do you need us to do exactly?” Sammie asked him. “Are we actually going to be destroying the factory?”
“No no, that shouldn’t be necessary.” Then he looked over in my direction. “I mean, as long as the source of the drugs has been taken care of, then that should be satisfactory enough, I think.”
I nodded. “I gotcha. So you want me to find the source and blow it all up, am I right?”
“That’s the idea.”
I smiled and got to my feet, slinging that sports bag of mine over my shoulder. “Well, blowing stuff up is my specialty! So what’re we waitin’ for?”
“Right,” Shuuhei looked between the six of us. “Well, if there aren’t any other questions, then let’s get to it.”
He pulled out from his pocket a light-blue sphere about the size of a golf ball, which Sammie, Joe and I all knew was a portal sphere. Ren at least looked a tiny bit familiar with it, while Emma and Al, unsurprisingly, had never seen anything like it before. Shuuhei caught on to that too, since he immediately went to use it and made… a portal to our destination. “A portal sphere,” he showed them before pocketing it again. “It makes travelling instantaneous! Pretty neat, huh?”
Emma nodded very enthusiastically as she followed Sammie and Ren towards the portal and stuck her head in. “Whoa, yeah! This is awesome!”
“Yep, it sure is!” Joe then motioned to Shuuhei. “And I’ve got my own for the trip back, so don’t worry about us.”
“Noted.”
“Wait a minute,” Al stopped just before the portal and turned to face Joe. “You have one?”
“Yeah. I’ve had it for several years actually.”
“.... Well if that’s the case, then why did we have to take a plane to get here?! We could’ve just used that!”
Joe turned Al back around and guided him to the portal. “I figured that it would be better if we got to spend some more quality time together. You understand, right?”
“Augh, whatever, I don’t care. Just don’t mention it to Lex, okay? She’ll be pissed as hell if she finds out.”
Eventually, it was just me and Shuuhei in the room. “Are you sure you can handle this one?” Shuuhei asked me with a concerned look. “You did only just get back and all…”
“Shuuhei, relax! I’ve got this!” I pulled the strap of my sports bag up a little to draw his attention to it. “This baby should take care of everything!”
“Alright then. Well, good luck! And just call me if you need anything, okay?”
“You got it!” I gave him a thumbs up before stepping through the portal myself and joining back up with the others. Then as soon as the portal closed up behind me, I took a look around our new surroundings.
The six of us had come out onto the roof of a large run-down looking building, apparently in the middle of nowhere. It was nighttime, so we had to be in Asia, most likely somewhere in China since it was the Chang-Los we were dealing with here. “Okay,” I sighed as I placed a hand on my hip. “Now where can we drop down…”
“There’s an open window over here!” Ren was crouched down near the edge of the roof and was looking down the building’s backside.
The rest of us approached her quietly. “Is it wide enough to pass through?” Joe asked.
“I’ll check, hang on.” She climbed down so that she was hanging from the roof, and then she swung herself through the window. After a few seconds of silence, she poked her head back out and nodded.
One by one, the rest of us out there did what Ren did and climbed down carefully until we were all safely inside the building. The window we had just come through was part of a bare empty room that we all soon left in any case. Soon enough, we came out onto a metal walkway that wrapped around the entire inside of the building. Down below on the ground level were a whole lot of machinery along with a couple of guards patrolling the area.
“Okay,” Sammie whispered, “So how do we want to go about this? Keep the stealth game up?”
Joe shook his head. “No, I think we’d be better off if we just go in guns ablazing. Besides, the Chang-Los aren’t a threat here, but Melisma is, so we’re going to need to find those mages as quickly as possible.”
“Alright,” I fingered the strap of my sports bag, “what do ya got in mind?”
“We should split up.” He gestured to himself, Al and Emma. “I’ll take these two, and we’ll act as the distraction and flush out the enemy, get as many of them onto us as possible. Then you guys can go for the drug source without too much trouble.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Al looked over the railing. “So how should we get their attention then?”
“Leave it to me.” Not even a second later, Emma had sent a fireball down to the ground, and boom- all the nearby machinery had caught on fire.
“Works for me.” Al followed Emma over the railing and down to the ground level.
Then Joe climbed onto the railing himself. “Well, good luck!”
“Yeah, you too. Don’t be too rough on those guys!”
As he jumped down after Emma and Al, Ren called down to him. “Be careful, alright?!”
“Sure, sure!”
Making sure my sports bag was secure, I started running down the metal walkway along with Ren and Sammie. “Okay! So where should we look first?!”
Sammie was the first to come up with something. “Well, this is supposed to be a factory, right?! Whatever we’re looking for is probably going to be in some kind of big container, or tank, or something like that! And it would definitely be on the bottom floor for safety reasons!”
“Alright, so we’re lookin’ for some huge-ass tank then, sounds good to me! But we should probably get as close to the other side before heading down there! We don’t wanna get in Joe’s way!” And as if right on cue, we could hear screaming enemy guards beneath us followed by lots and lots of fire.
“I’ll scout on ahead!” And just like that, Ren was dashing off at the speed of light.
We couldn’t argue with that. So Sammie and I kept pressing on down the walkway at our own pace. We ran into a few Chang-Los along the way, but they were a cinch to take care of; we didn’t even break a sweat. But something was just a little off.
Looked like Sammie thought so too. “Okay, I know that most of the guards are going to be downstairs, but why haven’t we seen anyone from Melisma yet?! You’d think they’d come for us right off the bat, right?!”
It seemed that we were tempting fate there, because right that second some flying guy appeared a few feet in front of us. “Ah, there we go!” I stopped in my tracks and got the Melisma grunt’s attention. “Hey you! Ya wanna fight, let’s go then!”
Sure enough, he came right for me. I was ready for him though. But before I could make my move, Ren came right out of nowhere and jumped straight onto the guy from above. And then just like that, she shoved him face down onto the walkway.
“Aww, come on! I was gonna get that guy!”
“We don’t have time! Let’s just get this thing over with!” Then she motioned for us to follow her. “Come on, this way! There’s a stairwell up ahead!”
We did as she said and followed her down said stairwell so that we were finally on the ground floor. And luckily for us, there just so happened to be a giant tank right there in the center.
But before we could get to that, we had to take care of some minor nuisances first. Some more Melisma grunts had shown up, including one who could control wind. Anyway, this guy sent some wind blasts my way, which to my disappointment was not even enough to shift my footing.
I shook my head very unimpressed. “You call that wind? Here’s some real wind!” I retaliated by sending a mini tornado at the guy, and it swept him up along with a few of his friends in the process. Anyway, the thing sent them flying aways back, leaving my path to the drug tank perfectly clear.
“Alright you guys, cover for me for a minute, will ya?!” I shouted over my shoulder to Sammie and Ren. “Also, once this thing blows, we’ve gotta hightail it outta here, got that?!”
“Sure thing!” Sammie replied. “I’ve got your back!”
“Thanks!” Then I went to work. I knelt down on one knee as I let the strap of my sports bag slide down into the nook of my arm. I unzipped the bag, and without further ado, I pulled out my primary weapon of choice: the green bazooka.
“Augh, the blowback’s gonna be a bitch, but who gives a shit about that now?” After pushing the now-empty sports bag back over my shoulder, I braced myself as I took the bazooka and aimed at the tank. I didn’t know how tough or sturdy that thing was, so I figured multiple shots should probably do the trick. Also, the tank itself was still pretty far away, so we’d definitely have enough time to make a break for it.
Without wasting any time, I fired three consecutive shots of energy, and a few seconds later, they gave me that explosion I’d been hopin’ for. I quickly got back up with the bazooka in hand and shouted out to the other two. “Okay you guys, let’s move it!”
They didn’t need to be told twice. The Melisma grunts scrammed once the tank blew, which left me, Sammie and Ren free to head back to the other side of the facility where the rest of our group was at. We were probably about half way there when all of a sudden, some sort of shockwave hit the ground and sent the three of us flying, through the nearest window and several feet all the way outside.
“Owww,” I groaned as I slowly got back up on my feet. Surprisingly enough, the bazooka hadn’t been blown out of my hand. “How’s everyone?!”
“Okay, I guess!” Sammie replied with a wave of her hand. She had been able to break her fall with some sort of rock wall, so she didn’t look too bad.
Ren, on the other hand…. Well, we had landed pretty close to each other, and the first thing I noticed when I went to check up on her was that her foot was bent backwards. “Holy shit, are you alright?!”
“Yeah yeah, I’m fine! Don’t worry!” She went to touch her injured foot and, wincing, was able to twist it back into place. And then at the same time, any scratches or bruises she had previously gotten were now completely gone. “There, see? Good as new!”
“Well, okay, if you say so.”
Sammie then joined us and looked back over towards the facility. “What was that anyway? It couldn’t have been from the explosion, could it?”
Ren shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure someone did that deliberately.”
“Well whoever it was, they just pissed off the wrong person!” I marched forward a few steps and fired the bazooka at the building, not even caring where I hit it. It ended up blasting a huge hole in the wall, which worked out just fine for me. Who the fuck cared about property damage anyway? Not this chick, that was for sure!
In no time at all, the three of us made it back to the building, and with me taking the lead, I stepped through the hole back inside. “Alright, who the hell did that?!”
I spotted Joe, Al and Emma right away, and then not too far away from them were two other guys. My guess was that one of them was responsible for the shockwave earlier. “You two! Who’re you, and what do you-”
Then I saw their faces. I hadn’t seen them for years, but I recognized them immediately. “... H-Hans? Derek?”
It was them alright, no doubt about it. And they sure looked surprised to see me too. “Cho?! Hey! Long time, no see!” Hans was beaming and waved at me, but Derek looked on edge. It was as if he didn’t want us to have met, and that got me suspicious.
I kept a firm grip on the bazooka as I took another step forward towards the pair of them. “What are you guys doing here anyway?!”
“Hm? Oh, well we heard there was some trouble over here, so we came over as fast as we could to help out!”
Again, that look on Derek’s face was making me a bit uneasy, and for good reason. I hadn’t heard from them in ages, and now of all times they decide to show up? Without any warning at that. Something was up…
I raised the bazooka and pointed it in their direction. “No, this is a Chang-Lo operation. So what are you doing here?”
The smile on Hans’ face faded, and he moved to scratch the back of his head- the one surefire way to tell when he was anxious. “Well, you see, umm….”
That got me thinking. They had come there to help? But how did they know about what was going on there? Unless…
“A-are you with Melisma?”
It was then that both of their faces went pale. “We need to leave,” I heard Derek mutter to Hans.
“Wait, what? B-but what about Cho?”
“We can’t stay now, we’ve said too much.”
“Hey! Are you with Melisma?! Answer me!”
As soon as I started making my way towards them, a portal appeared behind them. Then I noticed Derek holding a portal sphere. “We need to go. Right now!” He pushed Hans through before he could say anything else.
“Hey wait! We’re not done here yet, get back here dammit!”
I was too late. By the time I had reached the place where the portal was, it had already closed up behind Derek. They were gone.
From somewhere behind me, I heard Joe whip out his phone and dial a certain number. “Shuuhei? Yeah, we’ve got a problem. No no, the mission was successful, but we weren’t able to apprehend anyone. Well, because… Hans and Derek interfered, and it turns out that they’re with Melisma now.”
All I could do was stand there, staring at the spot where the two of them had been seconds earlier. At first, I couldn’t place my head around it. Why the hell would they join Melisma in the first place? They had been with ETMA for so long, and even after they left, they still had some incentive to come back one day. But then for some reason, they just abandoned that idea and went off to join an enemy organization. So why…
But then it got me thinking. While I was sure they still held a lot of respect for Shuuhei, there could only be one explanation for them joining Melisma that made any sense to me at all. Maybe they didn’t join because it was an enemy organization. What if it was because of someone they really cared about? Derek’s behavior pretty much confirmed my suspicions for me. He looked uneasy because he knew that whatever their reasoning for joining was, I wouldn’t like one bit.
What if, the leader of Melisma was… “‘Seph.”
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