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themsource · 1 year

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Hi! I'm new to fandom and I am going around asking different creators if they have any advice for me if that's okay

First off congrats, that's really awesome that you've discovered a passion for something enough to engage in the fandom space! ❤ I hope you have a wonderful experience in whatever fandom you're joining ^^ (If it's UT—YAY! XD lol)

Anywho, sure I can give some. But uh, it'll be derived from what I've experienced and won't be pretty. There's nothing guaranteeing you'll experience it at all as I have but still it has some stuff I wish I'd been told before getting heavily involved and learning stuff the hard way.

Placing it below a cut so people can easily avoid reading if they wish.

Be careful who you interact with. (People that frequently bad mouth others—make callout posts with no hard evidence.) And don't take someone's word on a person's character as truth.

You could become a victim of callout posts/drama no matter if you've spoken to the person or not. If it's someone you've been talking to a while or have only been kind to in interactions. Unfortunately people can be quick to jump on anything that has the slightest possibility of being taken negatively and spin it that way even if there's no ill intent or maliciousness behind it. Or they can paint you as negative just because.

You will face labels such as "Problematic" or "Toxic" to name a few, and once you get associated with those you'll see that a large portion of a fandom can and will blacklist you over it for their own mental safety, and/or to avoid potential drama you carry with you by probable association (such as "my idol creator hates you so I will too so they don't dislike me." or "I heard from someone that you think people that like this shipxship are stupid, and I like that ship so no bueno." Etc.)

Things I've said that people have called me "problematic" to my face for over the years:

"It's entitled and selfish for a following/fan base to get upset because the creator wants to explore a new genre the fanbase isn't comfortable with or used to, especially when they've labeled and warned so it can be avoided. Those aren't real fans or supporters."

"I ship Frans."

"The content you make doesn't matter when it comes to fiction. It's not real and neither are the characters. It's dumb if someone judges you over it."

"I don't believe hearsay without proof." (Twitter drama for example about someone)

"Denying where an idea comes from just so you can feel valid and good about yourself is wrong, especially if you're wrong in what you thought you knew and just don't want to admit it."

"I just wanted to be a Hufflepuff."

"I love pinapple on pizza."

"He said, she said, is a political debate. Because all it is is throwing words and accusations around without any evidence to back it."

"Chara is evil."

"Fluff is nice but sometimes you just need really dark unhinged stuff to balance it out otherwise it'll get bland."

"You can like content and not like the creator. And vice versa. I will always separate the art from the artist."

"I don't believe in the term 'problematic' when it comes to fiction."

"Toriel was just as much in the wrong as Asgore was."

There's probably more but these are the ones I was made aware of.

Other labels that have been pushed on me because of what was said above that fall under "problematic": P*do, Weirdo, Freak, R*p Apologist, Transp*be, and Exclusionist just to name a few.

Though none of those labels remotely align with my personal views and stances. It won't matter to a lot of people though if you've been "warned" for with those labels used. This world currently is very "Guilty until proven innocent" instead of "Innocent until proven guilty." Which means it'll be very hard or impossible to change someone's mind especially if they were "warned" by a friend.

You'll also find a lot of people will isolate and detach from you if you disagree on something such as how you view a certain creator or their work, so a lot of the time people will keep their mouth shut just to fit in or to not experience rejection, or will go so far as to say things they don't mean to appear as if agreeing. This is called an "echo chamber" and if you don't fit it, you'll likely get booted. Be prepared for people to maybe DM saying they agree with you, but ultimately not speaking up for fear of backlash for themselves. If someone does speak up? Cool! That's an awesome person and you are lucky to have found them.

So am I problematic given the examples above? To some maybe, others no, some definitely yes, and everyone has the risk of being viewed that way too. Thankfully just like most things in this world though, online you'll find not everyone will share the same viewpoint or opinion. You will undoubtably find at least one person that won't care how others label you.

I have a really small, really closed, friend group. There are six people I know for sure are lifelong friends that I've made through fandom. They took the time to get to know me, listened to my views even if they disagreed and did so amicably (as I've done too), and if there was an issue always talked to me about it. Six may not seem like much but you'll find a smaller number of people who truly understand you vs a crowd that you have to say the "right thing" or make the "right content" for is so much more fulfilling.

The golden rule is something I try to live by: "Treat others the way you want to be treated."

And the best way to determine that is through interaction. If they reciprocate the golden rule that is a positive indicator that they might be safe to interact and eventually open up to. It's best to decide for yourself what a person's character is like and if they're safe rather than having others decide for you by word of mouth, including the very person themselves because you'll find a lot of people in fandom tend to have terrible self confidence.

Unless there's hard proof like an admittance or gloat that someone can provide, then oh boy—the block button is a friend.

Personally, I've learned it's best to just post your stuff, give someone a like or reblog here and there, and answer any legit asks if they're received to try avoiding unnecessary conflict. But that's just me.

Don't get involved in "picking sides". (You're with us or against us nonsense)

This is a quick way to get you avoided and blacklisted because you'll either disturb someone's echo chamber or you'll be seen as a drama mama when people are here for content and fun, not the latest issue or gossip going on.

The world isn't black and white, and that includes the issues and viewpoints in it. It's shades of grey. By viewing it as black and white you leave no room for nuance, and people that use the "with us or against us" arguments so vocally expect 100% percent compliance or none. You're not allowed to agree on one thing pertaining to a topic but disagree on another thing on the same topic because then "you're adding to the problem".

Now this isn't to scare you into thinking that you can't trust someone you want to be friends with by opening up to them with your opinions. No, please do, that's how friendships are made, but if you feel like there is the slightest risk they'll drop you like a sack of potatoes then you probably shouldn't. It's 50/50 gamble sometimes. And if they do well they weren't your friend to begin with and you're better off without them. Bizarrely some in the "with us" camp believe having you around with a viewpoint they can't stand will somehow influence them in a way they don't want. Which is honestly just ridiculous to me because that eliminates the principle of free thought and will.

So I advise just enjoying the content you see and making it yourself if that's what you want to do. Don't turn yourself into an advertisement board for free harassment from those who actively want to pick a fight and make you look like a bad person somehow on top of it. Some get joy out of just destroying people.

Ignore the trolls

Every fandom has trolls. People who like to give shit and bully just for fun (for them) aka harassment. This can include "kys" messages or other negative things in your inbox from anons, comments on your post bashing a ship though it was clearly marked so it could be avoided, etc. These come in all ages and demographics, from minors and yes even from grown ass adults in their 40s and up. Sadly trolls can't be avoided no matter how popular you are or how wholesome the stuff you engage with is. You could be a mute virgin nun and still be attacked for something.

The only thing you can do is ignore them. If they get bad, really bad like do doxing (the exposure of your real identity), report them. They've been around since even before the invention of the internet and will be around even after.

Don't take being blocked or muted personally.

Some just block or mute to avoid content they don't like, and with how algorithms work on certain websites just you liking something without reblogging or sharing can make it show up on their feed, especially if you share mutuals or are gaining traction in a tag or whatever. This doesn't mean they dislike you personally.

And if you find someone does block or mute you over a comment you made recently or what have you, still don't get hung up over it. Chances are you probably wouldn't have a very productive conversation in the first place. Unless it's a case of misunderstanding since online text boxes can be too limited to get your meaning across, then I rec either reaching out a quick message via an alt to clear it if you truly care enough about the person.

But don't ever try to not be yourself just to please someone. If after talking they still want nothing to do with you based on differences in views, drop it. It'd just stress you out in the long run to linger over it.

And if you make an honest mistake, sometimes people will hold that against you, but it's best to just let that go too, because not everyone will hold that against you, and given time a few will get over it and even see where you were coming from after the anger dies down. Mistakes happen and they will happen. You can't hold that against yourself. Tagging can be confusing, the wrong word could be used when describing something, etc.

Just stay calm, take a deep breath, and compose yourself before you react. It's a mistake, not the end of the world. Let people block that need to block, don't take it personally because odds are they're hurt just like you are, apologize where you can, and just try to do better.

In the great words of The All-American Rejects, move along.

Don't do DNIs if you can help it (Do Not Interact lists)

I don't recommend having DNIs, I see it as a bar to what could otherwise be a good friendship so long as you simply tell them your boundaries.

DNIs can be taken as a red flag by some that if you see anyone that fits the labels you choose for your list that you automatically see them as a bad person, regardless of nuances or discussion, and that you'll likely target them for harassment if you come across them in a mutual's post or share a space for a community event. Obviously this is for the mundane labels, I've seen people list "Apple Lovers" (yes the fruit), and Vegetarians, to name a few.

I'm not saying that people who use DNIs will harass, just that I've seen it happen and have been targeted over it too as have others.

Seriously harassment can and will happen from anywhere, it's the internet, better prepared than not though.

But if you really feel you need one to feel safe. Please make sure you research the true meanings and definitions behind the labels you select. Otherwise people will stare out of confusion, or block you over more misunderstandings.

Have fun

Create and curate, for you.

Make the type of stuff you want to make or engage with without fear of judgement. Be shameless in what you enjoy because that's the only true way you'll enjoy being in a fandom. People will judge you anyways, no matter what, so don't get hung up on it.

Out of my friends there's some that absolutely loathe some of the content and ships I enjoy, so they don't follow my socials to avoid that content, but they still encourage me to be happy and to keep "doing me" with what I write or draw, because they know my character isn't reflected in my consumption. And the right people will see that with you, and encourage you if you're honest and happy with yourself even if they may disagree with it or not.

This is the most important bit of advice I want to give. Given the other stuff I know it may seem overwhelming but trust me it really is worth it in the end once you find a rhythm, and pretty soon after enough time you'll find yourself roiling your eyes over the other stuff when you've reached a place of comfort and contentment. Because once you have that none of the other stuff matters. Ultimately that's what every decent person strives for in a fandom. It may be easy or it may be difficult to reach but it's possible.

No one can hurt you when you're having fun and you're happy with yourself. Words will roll off like water on plastic after a point and trolls/bullies will largely disappear if they realize their name calling and words can't hurt you or sow doubt.

You also won't feel as lonely if you don't receive interaction on something once in a while because you'll still feel the joy from having made it. That's another thing, don't join a fandom just for attention and validation from others. That's the number one way to find disappointment and to end up dropping from a fandom in the end other than simply losing your hyper fixation after a while.

With that I wish you luck! Sorry if this was long winded ^^ and please don't take this as a be all end all guide, this is all just personal opinion and interpretation meant to help. (I also am terrible at discussing my thoughts cohesively and accurately so I apologize if anything is confusing.)

I hope you live your best fandom life, I'm rooting for you. ❤

#ask #tw: uncomfy stuff #tw: uncomfy personal experiences #tw: very uncomfy label mentions #I just rec not reading this unless you're the anon #ho ho a fandom life for me~#srsly don't read if you get upset easy

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ctrsara · 1 year

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Not Helping, DUM-E

Read on AO3 (it's kinda long for Tumblr)

@Comfortember 2022 #8 - Afraid to Ask for Help and #21 - Anxiety Attack

(I swear I saw this prompt somewhere on irondad prompts (Peter playing with Tony's hair to relax him), but I can't find it! So tell me if it's your prompt!)

Tony was trying to breathe. He’d been trying to breathe all day, but felt like there was a weight on his chest, pressing in. There wasn’t a good reason for it. Nothing too disastrous was happening. No one was in danger. DUM-E had been squeaking as he moved all day, but otherwise, nothing was even bugging him that much. He was just anxious today. Really anxious. It’s like his mind kept flashing stuff he was terrified of, but when he mentally turned to look and see what it was, it skirted behind a metaphorical wall. It stayed just out of sight, taunting him.

Pepper should be home later tonight. Hopefully not too late. She was pretty good at helping him relax. Well, when she wasn’t mad at him for not doing whatever she’d been asking him to. Even that… he couldn’t think of anything she’d been after him to do that he’d ignored. He knew he could be anxious without any real reason, but it had been quite a while since he’d experienced it. Maybe he should call Pepper. No, he didn’t need to bother her with this. He just needed to keep things quiet and avoid anything too stimulating or triggering. That usually helped. What else did he have today? Peter was supposed to come over to work on his designs for that robotics competition coming up, but that wasn’t pressing. Maybe he’d have him come tomorrow. Tony glanced at his watch. He wouldn’t have left school yet.

Hey, kid. Okay if we table lab time and make it tomorrow instead?

If you need to, yeah. I can’t come until 4 tomorrow though, because I have AcaDec

Everything okay?

Yeah, just feeling off. Not sure if I’m up to working this afternoon. We’ll do tomorrow at 4.

Peter didn’t respond.

For the next hour, Tony worked on mundane physical tasks around the lab, doing some oiling and maintaining most of the machines, even though he’d done that the month before. Busy work for his hands.

Everything was going okay, and he was keeping the anxiety at bay, when suddenly DUM-E, who had been following him around with a broom, like that was going to help out somehow, turned abruptly in his ineffectual sweeping, hitting the coffee maker and slamming it against the wall. Tony was on the ground nearly under it working on something, which meant it broke just above him, scattering him with glass and hot liquid at the same time as the crash.

Suddenly he was back in Afghanistan, crouching behind a rock as warm blood trickled down his face and dotted his hands. Even though technically he knew he wasn’t there, and that he was safe in his lab, he couldn’t clear the panicked sensation. Couldn’t escape from the sense of pure dread that he was about to die. Time slowed and almost stopped. He felt like he was both breathing too slowly and also breathing impossibly fast.

Eventually he realized that he could hear a soothing voice through the fog, close to his head. Hands stroked lightly through his hair and down his temples, and though his body was lying on the hard floor of the workshop, his head was cradled in someone’s lap. He slowly opened his eyes and stared up into the worried ones of his young protege.

“Hey, there you are. Can you breathe with me?” Peter was breathing exaggeratedly, and Tony consciously struggled to slow his rate to match. “There you go.”

After a minute or two of concentrating on his breathing, more real sensations came back to him. His arms were bent, his hands wrapped around Peter’s forearms on either side of his head, holding them there. The boy didn’t seem to mind. He could feel something digging into the back of his thigh. Probably the tool he’d been working with a few minutes… was it minutes? before. He could feel the slight breeze of the air vent above them on his face. He could feel a few sharp spots on his skin where he might have a little glass. He could hear DUM-E's worried beeping off to the side.

"It's okay, buddy. It was an accident. He's going to be okay," Peter reassured the upset robot.

“Pete,” Tony finally managed to have enough oxygen both for breathing, and communication. “What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t coming today.”

“Yeah. I just felt like I should anyway,” the boy said softly. He almost wasn’t a boy anymore, at 17, and easily the same height as Tony now.

“Maybe I should look at getting back on something for my anxiety.”

“I think that might be a good idea,” Peter said neutrally. Tony could hear the undercurrent of worry in his voice, though. “You want to try sitting up?”

“Uh, yeah. I can do that.” Tony still didn’t move. Peter was still hovering over him.

“You’ll have to move if I’m going to get up,” Tony said in slight exasperation.

“You’ll have to let go of my arms if you want me to move,” Peter replied, amused. Oh.

Tony sat up, and then eventually stood, with Peter hovering. Tony walked over and swiped a project up on his holo table, ready to jump into some work so he could try to forget about what just happened.

“Well, that’s not happening,” Peter said, firmly taking hold of his upper arm and steering him towards the workshop door.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing?” Tony asked the teenager, not fighting the pull on his arm yet.

“You and I are going to go upstairs, we’re going to eat and drink something, and then we’ll hang out on the couch with a movie until Pepper gets home,” the kid said in a no-nonsense tone.

Tony sputtered, but didn’t really have a response for that. He wouldn’t have let Peter work around all that heavy machinery after an episode like that, either. He settled for a grouchy expression and giving Peter just enough resistance that he had to pull him slightly. Very much like a disgruntled 5-year-old, actually, he thought self-awarely.

Later, when Peter had made sure they were both fed, and they were sitting together on the couch watching Furious 7 (which Tony insisted was the best movie in the franchise), Tony found himself actually drooping a little on the couch.

“Tony, why don’t you lay down?” Peter finally asked from his seat next to him.

“It’s not even 7 o’clock,” Tony protested in frustration.

“Panic attacks are exhausting,” Peter replied. “Just rest for a while. May always made me do that after one,” Tony looked at him sharply. They were definitely addressing that. Why didn’t he know about that? “and I always felt better afterwards,” Peter continued.

A little more cajoling and a little more super-strength nudging, and Tony found himself curled up under a blanket on the couch next to Peter. Man, the kid was pushy. Where had he gotten that from? Tony was sure he was just going to “rest,” not sleep or anything. Who could sleep during all those car explosions on the screen, anyway?

But then he felt a hand stroking his hair again softly, scratching lightly at his scalp, like the kid had been doing when he was coming out of the attack, and his eyes slowly melted closed. He’d just rest them, too, for a minute. That’s the last thing he remembered that evening.

#comfortember 2022 #afraid to ask for help #anxiety attacks #irondad and spiderson #marvel mcu #fanfiction #tony stark and peter parker

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thefearandnow · 1 year

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Happy New Year! 🥂

I've had this post saved for a while because since coming back to tumblr I've found it to be a really great space for setting myself accountable creatively. I've had a lot of ideas for goals I want to set for myself in 2023 so I'm gonna pin this post and keep coming back to it with progress/check ins. I'm also gonna queue this post for every month so I don't forget to revisit my list. Some stuff has to do with creating and some stuff are just personal things ✨

💀🎙 Write and produce monthly episodes of The Fear and Now

For my graduate degree I produced an analysis podcast about horror in fiction podcasts and part of changing my tumblr to The Fear and Now was partially to motivate me to make new episodes for the first time in more than 2 years. I'm basically going to reboot it entirely because I've become a much different producer since I started it but I'm excited to start working on it again. First step will be to relisten to the old episodes which is honestly what I'm most avoiding but I'm excited to do more analytical writing, research and use my improved editing skills to give it a facelift.

0/12

🎧 Write and post at least 25 Audio Drama Sunday posts

I've really been enjoying using tumblr as a way to recap my listening and get through my backlog of podcasts I want to listen to. On top of that it's been a great way to find new podcasts and support creators so I'm hoping to stay on a semi-weekly schedule but I'm also trying to set the expectation a little low 😅

1/25

🦉🌶 Finish writing the fiction podcast I started (8 episodes)

In 2022 I started writing my first ever fiction podcast, something I'd been wanting to do for years. It's been on hiatus for a few months but I want to come back around to it and at least get all the episodes in rough draft from.

2/8

✏️ Try NaNoWriMo for the first time

I discovered National Novel Writing Month (through a discord I'm a part of) this year and was a little too late to the party to try it myself but I'm really drawn to the idea of trying it November 2023. Of course, I think I'm gonna need to practice a lot to get myself prepared so I'm going to start setting daily word count goals every month.

Jan: 500 words | 75%

Feb: 500 words

📖 Read at least one novel a month

In 2022 some friends started a book club and it's really helped me get back into the habit of having structured reading time. Looking forward to reading more and keeping track of the new books I'll read in the new year!

1/12

💻 Give more feedback to writers/creators on tumblr

I've started following a few different writers on tumblr whose short stories I really enjoy and I want to get more into the habit of reaching out and telling them what I love about their work. It's one of those things that I've only recently spent much time thinking about but I think often I'm a passive enjoyer of content and want to actively be more involved as an audience member in 2023.

🎶 Self publish a mixtape of instrumentals

In 2022 I got into a routine of posting quick little sample-based sketches and beats. In the new year I want to take the best of those sketches and make them into a proper mixtape/EP that I'll publish via Bandcamp. I'm not really sure how to track the progress on something like this but I know I just want to have what I consider a finished project by this time next year.

✏️ Try NaNoWriMo for the first time.

Jan: 500 words

✨ Explore my hair/gender expression

This one is literally impossible to quantify but it's something I want to reflect on and be more actively engaged with this year. So much of my life I feel like I've tried to ignore thinking about and exploring my own style and gender and its only recently that I've felt some regret about it. I want to buy new clothes and try new hairstyles and feel more comfortable in my own skin and I think I've found that for me I need to write it somewhere if I actually want to do the damn thing 😅 so this is me doing that lol

#pinned post #new years resolutions #2023 goals #writing goals

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tealenko · 2 years

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(WIP) Didn't Have the Heart - Chapter 5

I wanted to post something fic related, now that I'm writing again, so here goes a wip/preview for the intro of my next chapter of DHtH (Btw I still need to check grammar stuff. I mean, there's even a rew notes in Spanish lol But I think is getting close to a final product)

btw, I wanted to add a [keep reading] to cut a little the post where I wanted but Tumblr doesn't want me to because I'm using the phone app so... sorry (I'll fix it when I'm back home)

Well, here we go:

CH. 5 (intro) - Echoes from the Past

“Shepard.”

She hears her name like an echo. A whisper that retumbs through every shadow and fades on the horizon along with the rest of the scenery.

“Live… Be someone…”

Dark trees grow in thousands from her surroundings to infinity, planted through a limbo of trembling shadows and thick fog that makes it impossible to discern if there’s truly an end to the whole scenery.

“...be more.”

The air is so dense that she finds it almost impossible to breathe and think at the same time, feeling like an unknown gravity, way stronger and harsher than the one she’s used to, keeps trying to bring her down to the ground.

“Maybe in another life…”

After a few seconds of disorientation, she starts walking, moment in which the voice becomes louder, clearer and is promptly joined by many more.

“Kalahira…”

“Go back and get Alenko.”

“Someone else might have gotten it wrong.”

She crouches under the overwhelming noise, hugging her legs as she sets (fija) her eyes to the ground in a futile attempt of concentrating on something else than the many voices that haunt her past.

“First time, eh?”

“…”

She freezes in place as all the other voices are banished away by the appearance of the last one, which sounds so sharp and real that she is almost expecting to find its owner in front of her if her eyes ever dear (atreverse) to leave the ground.

Nevertheless, she keeps her sight still, along with the rest of her body, too afraid of both hearing and not hearing that specific voice ever again if she decides to move in the slightest.

“I trust your gut Dee, choose and I’ll follow.”

She shakes her head a couple of times, too tortured by the memories that are now gathering in her mind but, against her efforts, her attempt to make it all dissapear only makes things worse and, in a matter of seconds, echoes from all their past conversations with her long lost friend, start to fill the air that surrounds her.

“I’m just here because of you.” A tear starts falling slowly, unaffected by the strange force that’s keeping her down

“You already have a plan, don’t you?” She remains still, avoiding any kind of movement to see if that makes it all fade away.

It doesn’t.

“Oh, come on Dee! You don’t fool anyone... You love me and you know it!” She can hear the laugh that came along with that sentence almost a decade ago floating around her, and can almost feel the warm embrace that followed (sucedió - pasó después de) the laughter.

“Wait… That’s why? No… That’s the true meaning of that ring?” Her hand closes instinctively, trying to hold on onto the piece of jewelry that is no longer there. Hasn’t been for years now.

A second tear falls now.

And a third.

And fourth.

“How about a song?”

Shepard covers her ears with her hands while the tears keep travelling slowly across her face, in a desperate attempt of silencing the voice, with every sentence hurting her more than the one before.

Nevertheless, despite all her efforts, one last memory makes it all the way through her to give her the final strike (rematarla).

“Dee, listen… Please… Do not let me become an anchor.”

Her crying stops dead the moment she hears that, feeling her heart falling apart along with whatever was left of tears and, before she has time to think about it, her body decides to move on its own, quickly redirecting her eyes against her will to search for the source of all those words.

Unfortunately, all she finds after raising her head is the familiar wall of her room, that seems now narrower than ever after her haunting visit to the vast neverending forest.

“What…?”

It takes her a few seconds to be fully awake and come to terms with where she is.

“A dream.” She says after a big sigh, observing all the details of her cabin as her mind returns to the real world. “Another dream…”

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

My poor Mio is having a hard time (don't worry by the end of the chapter she'll be okay)

I'll leave here, just in case you wanna check it out, links to the fics related to this one.

Didn't Have the Heart -> [link] (So you can check previous chapters of this fic)

Listen Before I Go -> [link] (Mio Shepard's origin story in the Alliance, and introduction to the main character that talks to her here. Everything said in this is there or will be in the future)

Through Hell and Back series -> [link] (If you want to check the whole series DHtH and LBIG are part from, my Shenko series)

#mass effect #commander shepard #fanfic wip #mass effect 3 #pre mass effect 1

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yunessa · 9 months

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Summary:

Helping Woljif always comes with a surprise. Some more or less welcome than others, but there's always a surprise.

Sometimes we have to hold onto hope. Hope tomorrow is better, hope someone is doing well, or hoping for something else. When hope isn’t able to be held, white lies can help. Like: tomorrow there will be less locusts in the sky, maybe there will be less house on fire, or, -this one became my favourite lie in Kenabres-: “I’m not quite that special. I'm just another elf.” Mainly to avoid being forced into joining the crusades as Kenabres has a history of voluntelling people stuck within its borders to go fight the World Wound. Another normal elf was unlikely to be voluntold to go and could feasibly slip away. I’d committed myself to helping these newfound friends and the group around me until the army had come, then I’d slip away and bounce to the next town. Singing, playing my lyre for coin and getting another blessing to keep the curse at bay a little while more. It was a simple life with some complications. Sometimes a lot of them. But I was used to it, no need to change my life it if it worked, so I thought. I like to think sometimes that Woljif is partially to blame for having to reject the lie I was normal entirely. Someone being cursed in Golarion isn’t unusual. Neither is possession, weird not-children, Inquisitors, bastard nobility, angels and demons, tieflings, mongrels or even gnomish hell knights. It is the world we live in- unusual stories and circumstances happen. But a talking sword is far from normal or unusual. A talking sword is something straight from a ballad or a true heroic story you would find on a bookstore’s shelves or hear about at the inn. You can’t lie that a talking sword is normal in everyday life because the only people who possess one can’t be normal. So when I held FInnean in my hands and the shock of his talking wore off, I began to realise that perhaps, I was not normal at all. I had no idea where such a thing would see me- I never would have guessed at it- but finding Finnean made even that white lie impossible to swallow. I told Woljif once I was normal until I found Finnean and jokingly blamed him for it. Wolf responded with: Were you ever really normal though? You were already weird when you found him. The urge to tug at his head by grabbing his horns sometimes comes to me rather strongly. -Yunessa

“We’re almost there. It’s not too far, I think.” Woljif looked to the dreary sky above. “We’re lucky- with all the rain and stuff I don’t think anyone could have left.” He was nervous, as much as he tried to hide it. His tail was tense, body language stuff and his eyes kept nervously searching the dirty run down street. Houses sagged under the weight of years and patch repairs done to keep them uprightThe few sources of light illuminated the grime and dirt that the rain had failed to wash away.

Every window was dark, every door closed tight. Nothing spoke of a warm or friendly welcome to be found in the dark, derelict alley.

“Even with Kenabres under invasion, this street feels the most unsafe place we’ve been by far.” Yunessa had picked Ember up - it was no place for a barefoot child to run,even a not-child- and Soot had settled on Yunessa’s shoulder as Ember peeked from the other. Lann squinted down the street, closing his human eye- he saw better in the dark with his lizard eye, he claimed, so he would come along with. Daeran and Camilla brought up the rear as Seelah kept watch- in case there was trouble.

“We got this place cheap Chief. You can’t be picky about good real estate!” Woljif leaned over cellar doors that had seen better days. His fingers hovered over wooden planks, rapping his knuckles against the third board from the top. Two knocks and then a quick third knock followed by a fourth final knock. Woljif waited, holding up a single finger. “Two knocks. Pause. Another knock and a rap. Then after we rap our knuckles against it we wait another five… four… three… two…annnnddd one!” He tugged at the cellar doors. “C’mon Chief, they know we’re here now.”

The basement was dark, smelling of mildew. The air was unpleasantly moist and cool, not even the lit candles and lamps lied that the basement was ever warm. But it was the hostility and tension that radiated from the gathered tieflings that struck Yunessa. Woljif strode towards the tieflings, offering his snake oil salesman smile to a tall woman. She cleaned her nails with a knife as Woljif approached, her eyes moved from the five tieflings kneeling by the wall with their hands bound.

“Brother Woljif.” Her accent was crisp- Nerosyan?- but her voice was colder than the basement air as her grey eyes stared harshly at him. “You got my message then.” Daeran came next to Yunessa, taking Ember from Yunessa.

“Your sword might be needed and I won’t be useful in a bar brawl.” He murmured. “They’re detrimental to the state of my clothing.”

“Hadn’t thought of that. Thank you.” The possibility didn’t occur to Yunessa as Daeran took Ember back to stand by Camilla. Camilla looked to the tieflings on her left as her nose wrinkled. Then she looked to see Daeran holding Ember, who smiled brightly at Camilla. Camilla looked offended in the way only nobility could manage- as if she was surrounded by a stench she couldn’t get rid of.

“Sorry I couldn’t swing by sooner, Dear Sister Keresmei. It was just one thing after another. First I was in shackles, next… uhh, well I was still in shackles and being watched.” He gestured back to Yunessa. Keresmi’s grey eyes moved to Yunessa, resting over Yunessa’s hands before moving back to Woljif. “The Chief got me out, and I cam here straight away- had to go around a lot of fires though so it took a bit- where I knew you’d be waiting for me!”

“Enough.” The single word was spoken softly but Woljif’s smile froze. “If you keep talking then we’ll be here all night.” The knife in her hand was slender and delicate but she held it with experience as she used it to pint at the five kneeling tieflings. “So. We had a clear plan, didn't we. We were going to wait for nightfall, slip into the shop, grab the goods and leave. Even if nosy neighbors called the guards, there was time to get away. But what happened?” Keresmei’s eyes moved over the other Tieflings.

Yunessa could feel the ghost-feeling that was Lariel’s sword in their hand. Just waiting for Yunessa to want it to come into existence. It gave them assurance.

“That bitch Irabeth showed up almost right away. She knew we’d be there. Someone betrayed us, somebody snitched-” She said the word snitch like a foul curse. “And betrayed us, and I have a good idea of who it was. What do you have to say to that Woljif? Make it quick.”

“Do you think Woljif would have the traitor’s name?” Yunessa asked as Woljif began to open his mouth. “Why come back if not to show he’s innocent?”

“So he speaks.” Keresmei turned to Yunessa. “I thought Woljif just wanted to try hiding behind muscle if things went south.”

“Well if you want someone to be properly eloquent, you always go to find a bard.’ Yunessa said with a light shrug. Keresmei ignored Yuessa as she continued:

“Yes, he knows the name of the traitor. Every gang that Brother Woljif has been a part of has very quickly come to an end. Their hideout location would be found by the guards, or their competitors would find out where they could ambush them, or they would find out somebody cleaned them out while they were on a job. Woljif is always the one who comes out smelling of roses.If you think about it then that means you’ll reach the same conclusion we did.”

“I’d just say he was cursed finding friends among losers and screw-ups. But if he’s with us then the curse is broken.” Lann shrugged. He hadn’t moved much beyond moving to stand in front of Daeran and Camilla, just behind Yunessa.

“That depends.” Camilla began. “He was indeed most fortunate to be in a party with me. On the other hand… I’m in a party with him.”

Yunessa waved them to silence. “Why is that important now when Kenabres is burning? You could be fleeing to a safer city to be in than here Keresmei.”

Keresmi’s lips purse. “I’d be glad to leave, like the rest of my brothers and sisters. Once the army comes any jobs will become scarce and profits will be scraped off dungeon floors. However, in the Family there’s nothing worse than betrayal, and it’s something we do not forgive. We also don’t forgive anyone who would even try to let traitors go. If I don’t find the rat, my superiors… let’s just say I’ll wish I’d burned in Kenabres. I want to keep living, so I’m going to take my chances here. Until I find the traitor, none of us will be leaving and I don’t care how they get found.”

“Well, I can’t find them if I don’t know everything- tell us what happened Woljif.” Yuness raked a hand through their grey hair. Keresmei’s eyes sparkled with some thought but before YUnessa could pick out what it was Woljif began to speak. The tieflings kneeling by the wall hissed out insults softly so Keresmei’s eyes didn’t turn towards them.

“What’s there to- allright, allright Chief. I got it.” He raised his hands as Yunessa gave him a look. “About a week ago, Sister Keresmi got six of us together in this very basement.” He gestured towards the five kneeling halflings by the wall. “Sister Keresmei says we have a score: Ancestries and Wonders, one of the few places in the city nobody’s been ever able to hit, cause it’s also guarded by a golem along with the usual. But now, a powerful scroll that would knock the golem out just happened to go into our possession, that and a tip-off that the owner would be gone a certain night. All six of us know a little bit of magic, and everyone knows any enchanted junk sells for a pretty piece of gold. So we were all in.”

Woljif paused. “Oh, and the most important thing was that none of us was to be hanging out on that street ahead of time! No casing it out, no calling attention to ourselves so the golem or its master would have any idea. That was important!”

“So far it’s all true, Go on.” Keresmei gestured for Woljif to continue.

“We did everything right, with the locks and the golem. I picked the lock, I remember it clear as day: Sister Dalna ws on the lookout… brother Melround had the scroll. Doffie, Tavie, and Varnir brought the sacks. We covered the window and lit the torches. Then we started to work. I was scooping up rings and stuff, tossing them into my sack. I leaned to far and some fell out so I got on my knees to scoop them all up- it was twenty thousand golds worth of rings Chief, you can’t let free money go-. I crawled under the table to grab a really nice ring that rolled under it, and then the next thing I know- Irabeth was there! It wasn’t my finest moment, I was gonna wait it out. But when everyone scampered I tried to hide under the table and wait it out. But then those blockheads were dragging me out by the tail and put me in shackles. They took all my rings and stuff off me! I never found the one that rolled away and in the end I got busted over nothing and hurt my tail.”

“So, they caught you, poor things. Stripped you of your loot, and you didn’t even manage to stash anything.” Keresmi pointedly polished her knife, staring at the steel as she rubbed at an imagined spot. “Where’s the Moon of the Abyss Woljif?”

Yunessa looked to Woljif. “What’s the moon of the abyss?”

Woljif made a gesture with his hands looking excited. “It was an amulet! It used to sit on a little cushion in the window of Ancientries and Wonders. Sterling silver, sparkled like a star, fine piece of work. On one side there was a waning Moon, and in the middle there was a dark crystal like it was eclipsing the moo. Oldman Fyllemen was so proud of that amulet! He used to say: "I'll never sell it, it’s the jewel of my collection.” Woljif sighed. “I used to go there to see what kinds of treasures were from the rest of the world. There’s nothing else to look at in Kenabres, People said the Moon of the Abyss was a powerful thing but who knows? If you stole something like that then the guards would be on you the moment you tried to fence it!” Keresmei pointed her knife at Woljif. “Everyone knew you were always hanging around Ancentries and Wonders, drooling over the Moon of the Abyss. Did you think it could just… disappear in the commotion and keep it for yourself? Did you hope that we’d be all locked up and you’d get off scot -free?” Her voice held anger, contained tightly like a coiled snake ready to lash out. “With a fancy trinket to boot? Don’t take me for a mug Woljif, I can see right through you.”

“It doesn’t make sense for Irabeth to arrest her own informant. She’d get better use out of one if her informant wasn’t booked in jail.” Yunessa commented. “Limited use means more crime would escape punishment- for her anyway.”

“Exactly! You toook the words right out of my mouth boss. It doesn’t make any sense! If I was the rath, which I’m not, I’da kissed her hand and left by now! You know me sister! I’m a cautious fella, not an idiot.” Woljif might sell snake oil as one of his more legal forms of work but watching his voice pitch and seeing his face as he talked, Yunessa could almost believe him. “Why would I go against the Family? So the fish in the Sellen could have a nice Woljif-sized dinner? The moon of the Abyss is a pretty bauble, but it aint worth dying over.”

“Irabeth’s people would protect you, you knew you could pin the Moon going missing on them, and now you’ve come here with backup- you knew what I was going to say to you. Nobody returned the amulet to Fylleman. Are you giving Irabeth a cut?”

In the short time Yunessa had known Irabeth and her wife Anevia, it was enough to gain some idea of Irabathe’s personality and where she would fall. Keresmei turned at the chuckle. Woljif seized the moment and turned his face towards Keresmei.

“You’ve seen her before Sister Keresmei. Do you think she’d take a cut of anything I offered her? She can’t be bough- it’s like three heralds of Iomedae rolled into one!”

“I’ve known Irabeth for a day and I feel like Irabeth Tirabade wouldn’t take a bribe to save her life.” The thought made Yunessa chuckle as the mental image of Irabath’s soured expression. Clearing their throat Yunessa met Woljif’s gaze. “Is there anything else Woljif?”

“That’s the whole sorry story Chief!.” Woljif looked offended as he crossed his arms. “Some family this turned out to be. In a real family, people take each other at their word- no accusations get thrown around like that! I didn’t take the moon of the Abyss! What would I do with it? You can’t sell it to crusaders- they couldn’t afford it or they’d turn you in. You can’t wear it or it’ll get nicked. It’s nice, it looks great. But it ain’t worth the trouble!” He’d been pacing as he talked, gesturing. “If it’s that important to you Sister Keresmei, I’ll find it. And I’ll drag that traitor by the horns to you just so’s you don’t end up in the bottom of the Sellen. But if I do, you're gonna owe me an apology! Right here in front of everyone so they all hears it!””

Keresmei looked at Yunessa.

Yunessa shrugged at Keresmei before they spoke. “You said it yourself. You’re stuck here till this is settled and I took responsibility for him. It won’t hurt if you take a bit more time to wait, it'll let you get ready to head out of Kenabres.”

“...fiine.” Woljif is one of my people which is why I’m going to allow you the time it takes for us to pack up the hideout Woljif. But if you run, the Family will get you wherever you go. The rest of your life you’ll spend tossing and turning at night, fearing every cup in your meals. You’ll look at the eys of every Tiefling you ever see wondering if the Family’s come for you.. You’ll have to keep running and won’t know any peace…” Keresmei let the words trail off to give Woljif a moment to imagine it. “And when you stop to catch your breath- that’s when we’ll get you. Got that?”

“You got a way with words Sister Keresmei. It almost made me wet myself but in a good way-"

“That’s what he said.” Yunessa muttered, unable to resist.

“Let’s go Chief!. We’ll go talk to Irabeth. She knows you- likes you better too. So it’ll be better if you ask or she’ll just be mad at me. Onward! Well, when you’re ready Chief.”

“Be quick about it. Time’s running out and I don’t want to get chewed up by demons.”

“- It’ll be one less group of criminals and thieves for you to handle while this is all going on Irabeth.” Irabeth didn’t look that convinced, brows arched in surprise.

“You have enough spare time to help out thieves while Kenabres is under attack?” Irabeth sighed.

“Enough time to wander the city helping a fair amount of folks,cleaning out demons and whatever else in our path, saving nobles, found you a priest to help with healing, helping out a cart of supplies on the way to you….”

“I get it.” Irabeth sighed again. “This is just…unexpected. But you have helped out more than I ever asked for. Nevi speaks highly of you- I’ll tell you what I know. I hope you know what you’re doing to help you out." Taking a breath Irabeth thought for a moment before continuing. "To answer your question I didn’t see my informant’s face. He slipped out of a dark alley, handed me a note, and disappeared had a long cloak masking his face, darkly coloured green, I think. He had long horns that couldn't fit, even with the hood.”

Irabeth’s eyes moved to Anevia, sleeping on a bedroll not too far off by the fireplace. “The Ancentries and Wonders shop has a golem. That was the shop they tried to rob. The owner gave us the golem's codeword just in case we needed it. The golem was destroyed mostly, but the head remains intact, so you can talk to the thing and see what it saw. The code phrase is ‘Hand oof Irori. The shop’s owner might have escaped but the golem wouldn’t have been able to leave so you might get lucky with that.”

Yunessa looked over to their group. “Just in time. It looks like Ember was able to get a pair of shoes that fit. Thank you Irabeth, I’ll head out now.”

“Go. May Iomedae keep you safe.”

Before it had been trashed by the tieflings, the Eagle watch and now the greedy hands of cultists, Ancentries and Wonders must have been a gorgeous shop. Stuffed carpet beneath Yunessa’s boots couldn’t hide the broken glass, the scattered off and ends or the broken bottles of liquor. The cultists had taken their time to drink and ruin the shop. Only the magical light fixtures were untouched, embedded into the stone wall and ceiling.

Underneath the smell of liquor and soot, Yunessa could smell expensive incense. Deep and spicy. This shop sold high priced items, a quick glance to a fallen card listing a single shirt was enough to make Yunessa keenly aware of the few coins they did have..

“Let’s spread out and give this a look. If there’s anything that can be taken back to Defender’s Heart then let’s do that. Ember, be careful and avoid the glass.”

“I will be. I always wanted to go inside here- the shop owner would chase me away with a broom though.” Ember touched a polished wooden shelf in awe. She left soot behind on the polished wood, avoiding the pile of smashed alchemy vials in their coloured vials.

“Above ground shops like this are nice. I haven’t seen glass in those colours yet.” Lann commented as he moved to the opposite end of the shop.

The rest of the group split up with care. The shop wasn’t large but big enough Yunessa lost track of some of them. Yunessa started near a smashed harp, the polished rosewood cruelly smashed to splinters, and the filigree damaged from an attempt to cut it out. “That’s a shame. It must have been lovely.” By the rosewood harp was a piano, equally as damaged with its ivory keys smashed and the strings pulled out.

“What a poor end to those instruments.” If Yunessa ever had a home perhaps a large instrument would be affordable. Running their fingers over the polished wood and damaged string was enough to draw a shudder. A home large enough for a room with an instrument like those, Yunessa let themself greedily imagine the enjoyment of playing for hours with a roof over their head.

“-𝙡𝙤?”

“Huh?” Yunessa turned their head, spotting only Seelah by the door as the paladin moved around the shop.

“𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞,” The voice was muffled and Yunessa’s mind snapped from its daydream. “𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞! 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞!”

“Hello?” In the row Yunessa was in there were only smashed and overturned shelves. Adrenaline hit in a rush at the desperation they heard in the man's voice. Muffled, it seemed to come further down the row where the heaviest shelves fell.

”𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬! 𝐏𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭! 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞!”

It came from beneath the largest shelf with thick wooden boards that had collapsed on top of a display. “Hold on, I’m here.” Yunessa could barely lift it but managed to lift it just a crack, shoving a damaged book beneath it and reaching their hand beneath it, reaching for a hand, an arm- something. In the dim light of Ancentries and Wonders, Yunessa only spotted a sword amongst the rubble. "It's- where are you?"

“𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐛 𝐦𝐞, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧!” The voice came from the sword. It sounded real, alive. Maybe it was a spelled sword? Some sort of early warning alarm. Yunessa could feel their stress start to build.

“A talking sword?” Yunessa asked dumbly. “Please don’t tell me you talk.”

“𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐛 𝐦𝐞! 𝐇𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐲!” The sword somehow managed to ‘speak’. “𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭. 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞!” The fear in the voice was enough. Yunessa grabbed the sword without a second thought, pulling it out from beneath the shield. Free from the shelf, Yunessa had to prevent themself from tossing the sword as the ceramic symbol on the scabbard blinked, the single violet eye adjusting to the light and focusing on Yunessa.

“Oh. Oh no,no,no.” Lariel’s sword was one thing. The azatas were another, but this- no this was something from a ballad. Yunessa knew the signs of a promising ballad when they spotted them. Yunessa didn't want a talking sword.

“𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐨𝐤𝐚𝐲, 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐬. 𝐖𝐞’𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫.”Yunessa felt the unwelcome ghost sensation of the sword’s gaze as it continued to speak. The voice was distinctly male and honeyed, coming clearly from the sword. “𝐈’𝐦 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭!”

“A pathfinder.” Yunessa knew about the Pathfinder society. A globespanning organization based out of Absalom. The members were primarily adventurers that travelled through Golarion and beyond. Yunessa often bought the Pathfinder Chronicles to read the latest adventures and knowledge the society released. “You’re a pathfinder?”

“𝐈 𝐚𝐦! 𝐏𝐡𝐞𝐰, 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭. 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐈’𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐟! 𝐌𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐝!” The eye squinted and adjusted but missing the rest of the face made for a weird sight. “𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲? 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞’𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐧. 𝐈𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩, 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥!”

The angel sword. The azatas. Now there’s a talking sword. The Gods are laughing at you Yunessa. They’re laughing at you because they know your plans and gifted you every ballad and heroic tale inspired gift to start the story. All you’re missing is a queen or a cursed princess you get to save from a evil dragon.

The sword vibrated in Yunessa’s hands, a ripple of magic passing through the blade, startling Yunessa. “𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐨𝐤𝐚𝐲?”

“Whoresson!” Yunessa cursed. “Don’t do that!” The magic in the sword seemed to shift as if the sword was considering Yunessa’s words before it stopped. The eye on the scabbard widened in concern. But Yunessa felt the magic under their hands ease.

“𝐈’𝐦 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤.”The sword- Finnean kept watching Yunessa. “𝐈’𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞! 𝐈’𝐦 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐫, 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐟��𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫. 𝐈 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐞. 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐊𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐝, 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐈’𝐦 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧. 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐚 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐢𝐧𝐧.”

The eye of the sword- Finnean- Yunessa reminded themself- watched patiently. Yunessa’s response, was by now, becoming automatic: "I’m Yunessa. Bard by trade who’s just passing by Kenabres. We came by to uh, help one of my group and I found you here- Just a question Finnean. Do you want to shift back to your normal form Finnean?” Shapeshifting into a sword was weird, but far better than a real talking sword.

“𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥?” Finnean inquired. “𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧?”

“Well, pathfinders are normally sentient humanoid-shaped creatures. I can get you clothes-”

“𝐈 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫.” Finnean interrupted. “𝐀𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞. 𝐘𝐨𝐮- 𝐨𝐡, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐈’𝐦 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦. 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐲- 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐬𝐤! 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬. 𝐈’𝐦 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲! 𝐖𝐞 𝐊𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐲𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐧, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐜, 𝐬𝐨 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤.”

The Gods are laughing at you. Absolutely laughing their asses off. You don't even get a normal magic sword that talks. You get a magic talking sword that was somehow a person.

“But you’re a weapon?”

“𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞?”The eye watched in what seemed to be concern. “𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐞𝐱𝐡𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝. 𝐌𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬? 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧- 𝐌𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐧! 𝐈’𝐦 𝐚 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰, 𝐢𝐟 𝐈 𝐝𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟! 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐬𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐈;𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐏𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬!”

“I’ve never heard of a phantom blade.” Yunessa admitted.

“𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭! 𝐈𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐈 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝. 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐲, 𝐞𝐡? 𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬. 𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐮𝐩 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫! 𝐀𝐥𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡, 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞. 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐮𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐬.”The eye closed, seeming as pleased as Finnean’s voice sounded.

“Kenabres is under attack right now by demons and cultists Finnean. Is your uh, spirit here?” There was a small, shrinking, but not yet inexistent possibility Finean was a mage that had a spell problem.

“𝑾𝒆- 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕? 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑰 𝒔𝒂𝒘 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒖𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆, 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒓𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈… 𝒃𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒃𝒍𝒖𝒓 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝑰 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒕 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒆. 𝑰 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒆𝒓. 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒍𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒅𝒊𝒎𝒘𝒊𝒕 𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈. 𝑺𝒐 𝒊𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆’𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒅𝒐 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕! 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒈𝒆𝒕!”

Yunessa reached for the hilt of the sword and tentatively pulled the hilt, met with gleaming steel whispering sharp promises of silver. It looked normal to the eye. Finnean seemed to take this as an agreement to take him with Yunessa.

“𝐇𝐞𝐲, 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮? 𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐈 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬! 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐫, 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭? 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮.”FInnean didn’t seem unphased when Yunessa inspected the sword. It looked, for all intents and purposes, a normal steel sword. Yunessa swore they could smell weapon oil on the blade.

“Uh, sure FInnean. We can travel together.” Yunessa sheathed the sword as Finnean’s voice chuckled. It sounded like he was right in front of Yunessa.

“𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭! 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐈 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞.” Yunessa covered the eye with a hand but FInean didn’t seem to notice nor did his voice muffle.

“You found a talking sword.” Lann’s voice was low but Yunessa could hear the awe in his voice. “Holy shit Yunessa.”

Laying scattered over the tiled floor, the remnants of the golem matched the rest of the ransacked shop’s state. The gem-like eyes still shined, even in the dim lighting of the shop. Finnean had somehow adjusted for Yunessa’s belt when Yuness had tied it up, the eye watching the rest of the group. FInnean seemed to be absolutely delighted by more faces and Yunessa had fielded the questions, letting Finnean keep talking and he was now relishing being part of ‘a real group again’.

“The password for the golem..” Yunessa wiped the soot from the golem’s eyes. “Hand of Irori.”

“Codeword…. Correct.” The golem intoned, speaking in a dull, deep voice lacking emotion. “Awaiting Orders.”

“Wonderful.” Yunessa began. “Let’s make this quick.”

What felt like an eternity after, Yunessa was helping Seelah and Lann shove aside the golem’s bulky body to open the entry to the basement. When they went down the stairs it was Yunessa, Daeran, Woljif, and Lann, the lightest among them armour-wise.

The elderly gnome they found in the corner was so round he was very nearly spherical. It struck Yunessa that he would roll down any incline with perfect ease. He started to shake as soon as he saw them, shrieking in a voice that was unusually high pitched. “Marauders! Bandits! Scavengers, here to eat me alive!”

Daeran watched the gnome scream and shake, taking the time to tuck his own golden hair behind his ears, smoothing down the stray strands of hair. “And a very good day to you my dear shopkeep.”

“Yeah, it makes sense we’re here to do all of those things and much, much more!” Lann rolled his one human eye. “Before you call for the authorities, mind having a quick chat?”

“We aren’t going to do any of those things Shopkeep. We won’t rob you, steal from you or uh, eat you.” Yunessa offered the shop keep a smile. The portly gnome paused, squinting at Yunessa.

“Hmm.” His chubby face pinched. “You do look better dressed than the local ragamuffins. You came here to tell me that this nightmare was over or- no! You’re here to steal my riches! Get back!” The shopkeeper’s eyes spotted Woljif’s head of hair behind Yunessa. “You sneak thief! You’ve been sniffing around for years. Finally got the courage to rob me, did you? Get out of here! You and your thieflings have taken everything already I’m sure!”

“Actually shopkeep, Woljif is here to help the eagle watch figure out the crime. He was working with the thieflings at Irabeth Tirabade’s request and she’s asked us to handle this uh…. Issue while Kenabres is under attack.” It was a lie but the portly gnome paused, eyed Yunessa and them settled back into his seat.

“She did? Well- good to hear my taxes are paying off! I’m Fylleman Frulliatros. I’m the Owner of this shop but well…. We’ll see if there is any shop left. I’m sure there’s something left up there- I hope anyway.”

“It just needs some spit and polish Grandpa! The cultists got you but the bones of the shop look fine- a broom and a dish rage and it’ll look the same as before!”

“Have you been here since you were robbed?” Yunessa asked curiously. The basement was crammed full of foodstuffs and other supplies.

“Where else would I be?” Fylleman asked, indignant. “I was told to stay in the basement and make it look like I’d left the establishment. The watch was keen to get those thieflings, they seem to be multiplying all over the bloody continent. So of course I did everything they said and…. I’ve been stuck ever since. I knew it wouldn’t be for good because once I heard everything above I was going to wait for my cousins to come and get the golem off the basement door. I heard somebody bellowing like mad upstairs after the demons invaded! Yelling and taking advantage of my absence no doubt, thieving and stealing!” Fylleman stamped his feet on the floor.

“Which of the tieflings do you remember seeing recently? I need to know so I can help Irabeth confirm we have the guilty party- your words will be critical to ensuring the guilty party is punished.” Yunessa felt Woljif hovering behind them as they talked.

“If he doesn’t talk Chief, then just say the word. I know ways to- oof! Hey!” Oljif rubbed his ribbed where he’d been elbowed.

“Woljif is always in my shop. He’s treated it like a museum for years. He always wanted to look at my most prized necklace the Moon of the Abyss. I’d chase him out but then he’d slink back in again! If he was with that gang that swiped my shop I’d bet anything he swiped the Moon!”

“Why am I always the prime suspect? Whoever stole it betrayed everyone, that’s the guy that has the moon! I’d rather see it returned to, you get me. I don’t like the idea of other people’s grubby mitts on it…” Woljif grumbled but he remind behind Yunessa.

“Was there any other tiefling that stood out?” Yunessa asked, picking away at the information they had learned in their mind. It was like untangling threads but a welcome enough distraction.

“I suppose….” Fyllemen thought for a few minutes. “A red haired tiefling game in. Spent a long time looking around. He stared at the moon for a white and I thought maybe it was Woljif in a wig, but then he came up to me to ask questions about an aasimar-made chainmail shirt. I could tell by his clothes that he certainly couldn’t afford it. That’s when I suspected something was off because he was wrapped in a green cloak like he was freezing. But nothing was missing after,so I felt at ease.

“That’s it. I know who it is now, Chief.” Woljif’s voice spoke, breathing against the back of Yunessa’s neck. “We should go back to sister Keresmei and lay it all down for her! The traitor can’t get out of this one now!”

Yunessa nodded. “With that Shopkeep we’ll all take our leave. Do you need an escort to Defender’s Heart?”

“Me? Oh no, I have a second golem! It’s…too heavy to put up the ladder but i'll defend me just fine until the city settles again. If that wasn’t enough to help Irabeth then I don’t know what else to tell you! Now, if you’ll be on your way, I’ll enjoy the peace in my wreck of a shop.”

The five tieflings were still kneeling by the wall, looking weary but somehow they were far more angry. The dank basement smelled cleaner and Yunessa guessed the cellar doors had been open to let their good get transported. Remarkably fast as well, only two torches lit the basement now.

Keresmei hooves clicked against the stone floor as she watched them approach. Her fingers drummed against her blade, looking nervous and weary. “Well? Are you going to tell me who the traitor is? I assume that’s why you came back- otherwise you’re just turning yourself in, right Woljif? I need the name and the Moon of the Abyss that they stole- I don’t need the lost profits.”

“We’re ready- right Chief?” Woljif looked at Yunessa who gestured to the five tieflings kneeling.

Woljif walked over, looking them over a final time even as they glared daggers back.

“You’re the traitor Woljif!”

“How much did they pay you?”

Woljif ignored them, pulling back.”Alright, I confirmed it. Sister Keresmei.” he spun on his heel to point at a tiefling with red hair and green cloak. “Melroun’s the traitor! He stole the Moon and he snitched the Eagle Watch on us!”

The resulting chaos saw several things happen very quickly: Melroun shed his ropes and tried to bolt. Keresmei snapped her fingers, and her blade missed Melroun by inches. The tieflings standing guard rushed Melroun along with a tiefling that hadbeen kneeling.

“You’ll pay for this! Voetiel and Hepzamirah will get you in the end! Damn you!” Melroun screamed as they dragged him off into a side room.

“You four- watch everyone else. Nobody leaves.” Keresmei snarled and they rushed to do her bidding. “I’m going to… chat with Melroun before I send him somewhere.” When the door closed behind her all of the noise in the room went silent.

When Keresmei did come out, it was a good half hour later and she was cleaning her knife. She looked tired still, but a load seemed to have eased off her shoulders. Her earlier tension was gone and in its place was a deceptively lazy sway to her step. “He confessed. Someone connected to the Baphomet cult ordered him to steal the Moon of the Abyss, and the best idea he could come up with it was to drag the Family into it. He got the scroll to take the golem out, betrayed us to the Eagle Watch so he could swipe the amulet in the chaos. He thought we’d get nicked and he’d just go off to meet his customer.”

Woljif brightened. “You have the moon of the Abyss? Let me look at it one more time- please. I’ve always dreamed of polishing the gem, if only once.”

“He claimed it was gone by the time he got to the window display. He’s lying, of course. He didn’t get caught when the Eagle Watch came in so he clearly handed the Moon off to the buyer. Bloody Cultists!” She tossed a wadded up rag stained rust red to the floor. “Whatever. I’m just glad we got done with this. I’m not paying for someone’s mistake.”

“Did you clear everything out Keresmei?” Yunessa asked and Keresmei nodded.

“The sooner we leave now, the better. This city is dying and I don’t want to die with it. We’ve always been outsiders here- we’re not staying to fight for it now.” Keresmei shrugged nonchalantly.

“And the traitor?”

“Oh him.” She hummed in response to Yunessa’s question. Woljif shuffled as if he knew. “He’ll be sent to his distant relatives on the farm. To think about what he did. Any other questions?”

“I’ve never been to a farm.” Ember remarked. “I imagine it’s really pretty. Fields, and apple trees, and chickens….”

Keresmei eyes Ember. “Sure, lots of chickens.”

“With that done we’re all finished here?” Yunessa asked. There was a half-formed fear that Yunessa would find a talking shield or their dead mentor would fall down the stairs. FInnean was quiet at Yunessa’s belt, having seemed to have slipped into silence. But the eye was still moving.

“We are. I don’t plan on hanging around either.” Keresmei turned and gestured. The other halflings in the room quickly left.

“Wait- Aww. Sister Keresmei- everyone’s left now.” Woljif watched as the other tieflings left without so much as a backward glance. Woljif turned to Keresmei, his face flushed. “You forgot something SIster!”

“I assumed you were going to stay with your newfound friends Woljif. Nobody will mind, don’t worry. Just be happy you’re alive.”

“ No, that’s not it Sister- you forgot my apology! I was framed and you wanted to tke me into the room. Nobody else is here now but still, I deserve one and I wanna hear it. Well?” Woljif’s tail whipped back and forth quickly.

“Oh.” Keresmei shrugged indifferently. “That. So…. sorry. For being wrong about you this time. Don’t think that because you weren’t a jerk this time it cancelled out all of your record. Just consider yourself lucky you were only working contract jobs for the Family. See you never.”

“That’s the most pathetic apology I ever heard.” Yunessa commented and Keresmei’s eyes hardened as they flicked back to Yunessa.

But just as quickly she sighed. “All right. FIne. I’m sorry Woljif- let’s part on good terms.” With that she turned to walk up the stairs, cloven feet making a distinct noise on the moulding wood.

Woljif watched her go with a frown, his tail slowly relaxing. “.... better than nothing, I guess.” He said finally after she’d been gone for a minute. “Listen Chief, when we get back, let’s talk. But for now let’s get out of here. We- no. ”Horror flashed over Woljif’s face as he rushed to put his hand to the door Melroun had been taken into, preventingEMber from opening it.

“Why?” Ember inquired. “I wanted to see the farm. Is there a portal there?”

“You uh-” His amber eyes moved to Yunessa and it hit Yunessa what sort of mess was dead behind the door. Melroun had never left the room after all.

“Only people with a special invite get to go to the farm Ember.” Yunessa said quickly. “The portal’s already gone so it’s just a broom closet now.”

“Yeah! Yeah, just a broom closet. Now it's full of mould and roaches.” Woljif visibly relaxed as Ember made a disgusted expression, turning away.

“Ew! Roaches are gross.” Soot cawed from EMber’s shoulder as if in agreement and Yunessa gestured for Ember to go.

“Alright Woljif, let’s go before this rotting basement falls on our heads.” Yunessa followed Ember out, right behind her on the stairs. Woljif followed behind Yunessa, so close Yunessa could hear his clothes rustle as the thiefling quietly urged Yunessa along.

A low creaking of rusty steel sounded and Yunessa caught the sight of a single eye staring lifelessly after them as the door cracked open. Melroun’s blue eyes stared after them, his bloodied mouth hanging open.

#pathfinder: wrath of the righteous #pathfinder #lann #the commander #mature #nonbinary main character #ember #camilla #seelah #woljif jefto #woljif #daeran #finnean #finean dismar

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queenimmadolla · 2 years

Text

𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄 ─ 𝐏.𝐈𝐈.

masterlist ─ part one • part three summary: . . .after Friday night's events, you and Eddie figure out exactly where you stand.

chapter warnings: pining, angst, misunderstanding, confirmed that Eddie fucks but not you in this part, insecurity, mentions of Eddie w/others, angst, friends to lovers, tw:wilderness therapy, references to "legal" abduction, PTSD. a/n: sorry for the length, wanted to put as much angst in this chapter so we could get to the good stuff in part 3. . no keep reading tab due to Tumblr removing content from the post (if you know a solution, please let me know) whenever I utilize it so happy scrolling lol. let me know if I missed any triggers. daisy edgar-jones is who I imagine eddie's mom to look like, so you can keep that in mind when reading if you want. took some inspo from fleabag. word count: 8.5k 𝐓𝐚𝐠 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭. ─────

The sleepover was a bust. Judy had spent most of the night bummed, and so did you but you kept that to yourself as you tried to cheer her up. She hadn’t really been in the mood to talk about it. Part of you wanted to tell her about what happened—or didn’t happen—with Eddie, but the prideful part of yourself that was hurting over this demanded you keep it a secret, like telling someone else would open the flood gates. Of course, that had everything to do with the fact that you knew you’d probably tear up and then cry, inevitably making yourself even more sad. It had only been Friday night, which meant you’d have to try and survive the weekend crying instead of enjoying it. So you kept it to yourself. And still ended up having a shitty weekend because of course you still fucking thought about it. Actively thought about it. It was going so good, what had you done wrong to make it go south like that? Needless to say, going to school the following Monday, had been a lot harder than it normally was. Usually, you threw off the blankets and dove for your closet to get ready for Eddie—even though he definitely didn’t know nor appreciate your attempts at catching his attention—but today, was different. Today was full of possibilities.

The way you saw it, Eddie could have come to his senses over the weekend and approach you sometime to pick up where you left off. Of course, with your luck that would most definitely probably not happen. He could ignore you for the whole day. Which, because of your luck, would probably happen. The only neutral possibility, would be for him to continue treating you the way he had before Friday night. Just a couple of passing ‘hellos’ as he whisks past you, while you want nothing more than to stare after him.

Jesus. You were practically dragging yourself around on the fucking ground for someone who probably didn’t even think of you in his free time! You wished you could just find a way to turn your feelings off. Life would be so much easier. The face staring back at you through the mirror looked miserable as you got ready, rushing through the motions. You had woken up pretty early, but it was nearly impossible for you to ever be on time to school and this morning proved to be no different. Normally, you didn’t mind being late. You were sheepish and charming enough with your teachers to get away with, maybe it had become routine to them. But being late meant usually walking into class after it had started. All eyes would be on you as you walked through that door to first period. The class you shared with one Edward Munson. No fucking way were you about to be put on the spot like that with your mental state today. After several rolling stops, and some definite speeding, you had managed to hurry your way into class just as the last bell rang.

Most of the class was present, but still getting settled meaning no one was paying you any attention. Or at least you hoped no one was, because you weren’t brave enough to look the classroom over, making a beeline for your table towards the front of the class. Phew, crisis avoided. You’d never been more happy about Eddie’s group sitting somewhere behind you, before. Like, ever.

Your anxiety was through the roof with all this flip flopping from wanting to see him to wanting to hide from him. You didn’t want to admit to yourself that you were afraid of getting the answer you didn’t want.

The relief lasted for all of about five minutes before your teacher was asking to pass the homework up front, and you stared stupidly up at the chalkboard because you knew exactly where your homework was.

In your locker. You’d shoved most of your things in there, but in your haste to still make it to class somewhat on time, you hadn’t taken the time to gather what you would need. Fuck. Again. With a heavy sigh, you raised your hand and waited for your teacher to acknowledge you. “I left it in my locker. Can I go get it?” You couldn’t miss turning in your math homework, you tested terribly, but since you cheated on your homework, you kind of depended on it to keep your B in class.

Mrs. Boucher simply nodded, and you darted out of the class, hoping you didn’t draw too much attention. Miles Andrade wasn’t all that happy about your escape though. “Hey—why does she get to go get her stuff when she forgets it? You never let me!” “You don’t come back.” His groan seemed to distract most of the class as they laughed at him, and you smirked as the door shut behind you. Once you managed to get the stupid combination lock to your locker open (which you struggled with constantly), you shifted through your textbooks until you found your math book and tugged the assignment out without opening or retrieving the actual book. You wouldn’t be able to focus on it, anyways, so you’d just be listening to today’s lecture.

You heard the squeak of a sneaker against the ground in the distance and silently cursed yourself at the realization that you hadn’t grabbed the hall pass before you’d left the classroom. To be fair, it seemed to be an unspoken rule amongst the teachers to make the hall pass as inconvenient as possible. Mrs. Boucher’s was a traffic cone. Whatever, you figured if worse came to worse, Eden’s little sister Suzie—the hall monitor— would stop you and escort you back to class so you could prove you had permission. She wasn’t liked very much by Seniors. Or Juniors. Or Sophomores. The freshman had no choice, she used her power over them to keep them in compliance. You respected that. You shut your locker, ignoring the flare of disappointment when you didn’t see Eddie on the other side. Not sure why you had the hope that he would be in the back of your head, but it looked like like you’d probably heard Suzie after all. Maybe she’d gone down the other hall. Suzie didn’t mind chasing after runners, you’d witnessed it on several occasions, but if you could just get past the girls’ bathroom before she noticed you, you could make a break for it and beat her back to your class before she could embarrass you. With a solid escape plan, you turned to head back into the direction you came and jumped, hand flying to your chest as you nearly managed to avoid walking right into Eddie’s chest. “Oh, geez!” Eddie’s hands darted up in surrender, lips curling into his trademark smirk as he eyed you in amusement. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you. Just using the good ol’ public laboratory.”

You could only nod like an idiot, scared to voice anything else for fear of disturbing the standstill you two had going on. Or rather, that you had with him. He probably didn’t even care and that made you sad. You watched as the smirk faded away, his tongue poking out to run briefly over his top lip. It was definitely the observer in you, but for a moment, you were sure his cocky persona melted away. And suddenly, he was giving you that same look you’d cherished in the back of his van; big brown eyes wide, but fixated on you. His mouth opened once. Then twice, and he broke eye contact (you held it again!).

“Uhm, hey. So, about Friday. You don’t have to-uh. . . It was nothing. You’re all good.” His smile was nervous but still had that Eddie brightness. Wasn’t any comfort to your shattering hopes. It was nothing. Of course.

Of fucking course it was nothing, because to him you were just another walking body in the background. You might have taken notice of him, but he hadn’t really known you. You had really thought that reading a couple of the same books and noticing you in what was most definitely an attention drawing costume meant he’d payed special attention to you. So what if he had noticed your disappearance for a school year? Clearly, it had just been an observation of his. God, you really set yourself up for this one. Should’ve just left the party when you had realized you forgot your lighter. FUCK.

“Oh.” Was all you could actually breathe out. You were impressed with how strong your voice was, didn’t betray your actual emotions though you could feel something deep in you shaking, something in you unstable at the rejection you were suddenly faced with. “Okay!” You walked right past him to get back to class, trying to keep it together as you cursed yourself in your head for being stupid over and over and over again. Your assignment was placed on a pile with the others, and you slipped into your seat with an annoyed mumble. The day proved to be agonizing. You’d fought for your life to appear invisible the rest of first period, hightailing it the hell out of there the second the bell rang. The rest of your classes provided you with no sanctuary. Hadn’t learned a single thing as you fidgeted, willing the minutes to go by faster. Time wasn’t going to cooperate with you, and all the talking and crowds just made it worse. Lunch would be your deciding factor. If eating with your friends managed to make you feel better, you’d stay. You guys usually only spent a couple of minutes in the cafeteria before heading to the parking lot to hang out in one of your cars. If you still felt as manic after, then you’d just ditch your last two classes and go home. Of course, you would actually need to walk into the cafeteria to accomplish either. Staring through one of the rectangular windows of the cafeteria doors that usually remained shut—the ones directly across from them were considered the main entrance—you could see Eddie’s curly head poking out from amongst his table. You turned your head and could see Judy’s long, honey colored hair on the other side of the cafeteria, where you guys sat for your brief time there. You knew from your seat, you’d have an ideal view of Eddie and that probably wouldn’t be good for you today.

Maybe you could just wait for them in the hall. “What are you doing?” “JESUS!” You jumped as your heart nearly stopped, flipping around to face Eden. “I didn’t hear you coming, what are you doing on this side anyways?” You tried to immediately redirect the conversation before she could ask anymore questions. She raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow, eyes scanning over you. You tried to appear nonchalant, but you knew she could see right through you. “Nancy finally let us go. And this entrance is much closer. You never answered my question.” Eden was an advice columnist for the school newspaper. Her brutal honesty was good for more than just hurting feelings. “I just wanted to see if somebody was already in there, before going in. Look, I’ll tell you and Judy more later, but I’m trying to be inconspicuous here.” And you would tell them later. Now that you got your confirmation, it was time to vent. “Oh, inconspicuous,” She repeated, nodding in understanding. Then, because this was Eden, she slammed the doors wide open. You winced as you heard them make impact with the cafeteria walls, but Eden payed them no mind as she made her way over to the table. Heads were already turning in your direction, so with a quick curse, you hurried to catch up with her. “Thanks for being inconspicuous, you bitch.” You hissed, with no real malice, as you moved to sit in the seat next to her. She just laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. “You good?” Judy asked, eyebrows furrowing as her gaze flickered between the two of you. “She’s having boy trouble.” Eden answered, sitting tensely in the cafeteria chairs. Her stiff posture in public always made your back hurt. “Okay, how the hell did you know that?” It scared you how perceptive she could be, and all she’d seen was you looking through a shitty window. “I just can.”

“Is it Eddie?” Judy leaned across the table, trying to not look as interested as she was. You opened your mouth to try and steer the conversation, but Eden again beat you to it. “Munson? Really?” “Oh, yeah, they were in the back of his van together at Steve’s party on Friday.” Oh, god. “Shut the fuck up, Eddie had her in his van?” “Mhm. Nothing happened though, they weren’t all sweaty. He gave her the cold shoulder, right after, too. I went out to find her after I got into it with Steve.” “Okay!” You finally piped in, glancing at the rest of the occupants of the table. You sat with a few other cheerleaders—the guys, specifically—but other than Judy and her younger sister Clover, none of you really liked each other enough to pay your conversations any mind. Still, you’d rather not test that today. “Lets go, we are so not talking about this in here.” You all gathered your things and left the cafeteria in favor of the parking lot. Judy’s Bronco was the most spacious out of all your cars, so that’s where you spent the rest of lunch, curled into the passenger seat while Eden was sprawled out on the backseat.

“Would you guys have kissed?” Eden asked after you had told them the whole story, including today’s uncomfortable hallway confrontation. “On Friday, I mean. Before, Killjoy over here ruined it.” Judy groaned from her place, leaning back against the driver’s door. “I already apologized, and I would also like to reiterate that it was not me who forced him to act like she wasn’t even there when I showed up.” “I think so.” You could remember how close he was, how you could feel his breath on your lips, it had felt very much so like you were gonna get kissed. “I just can’t wrap my mind around why he’d act like that, though. It’s like someone flipped a switch.”

“He probably didn’t want it to be a public thing. Like with Jenna Clark.” That caught your attention. Jenna was on your cheer squad, a pretty strawberry blonde who spent a lot of time with the jocks, something you couldn’t really stomach too long considering how douche-like a lot of them were.

She also had a nice rack. You were pretty sure, they came with a recovery plan, because there was no way she grew those during summer break. “What does she have to do with anything?” You could feel that sense of dread forming in your stomach again. “She and Eddie hooked up last month. I heard her telling Sylvia about it in the locker room. Their whole thing was very mums the word, but his hook ups always are. Pretty sure he had a thing with Crystal and Andie, too.” At your silence, Judy glanced up and you could see the moment she realized maybe you were a little more invested in Eddie than you were letting on, she got this concerned look on her face, and leaned forward to take your hand. “Sweetie,” Boy, did it feel like your heart was meant to just fucking shatter today. “I’m only telling you this because I want you to be aware, I’m not trying to hurt your feelings. It’s like, it’s kind of a known thing in the squad. That he has a thing for cheerleaders. And they might think he’s a freak but… but I’m pretty sure—“ “They think he’s hot.” You finished for her, gripping onto her hand. So, the good thing was your mania had definitely subsided. Bad news, it was replaced by a sense of numbness. Maybe it was because you like to torture yourself, but your mind flashed back to all those times you’d seen him be cordial and polite to some of the girls on the squad, how you had been sure at the time it was just part of his personality to flirt, how chivalrous he was. You could remember Jenna Clark and Alyssa Peters walking past Eddie during one of his rants, and you thought you imagined the way his eyes seemed to have followed her. It had been a very brief glance, but now that you knew of his…interests, you knew better. “I,” You sighed out, leaning back so your head hit the window. “Am really fucking stupid.” Judy and Eden both protested in your defense.

“We’re not saying don’t go for it, maybe he was just giving you an out if you wanted one,” Eden offered up. “But if you don’t want an out, clearly he was interested and you meet the qualifications, so you can mess around. You can still swap spit with him, after all .” “No,” There was no hiding how upset you were, or more so sad than anything. “I don’t want to meet the qualifications, I don’t want to just swap spit with him, and I don’t want to be just another whatever to him.”

The rest of lunch was spent with your two best friends attempting to comfort you. When the bell rang, they went to class. You went home.

Your mom was a night nurse and your father was a supervisor at the plant, conveniently also at night. They usually got home right about when you and your little brother got up for school, and then they’d go to bed once you’d leave. They were still asleep when you got home, so it made it pretty easy to go undetected. You stayed in your room for the remainder of the night with the resolve that you’d force yourself to get the fuck over it. The rest of the week blurred by. Your time at school was spent avoiding Eddie at all costs, other than your shared class, you wanted no contact with him. No more seeing him in passing, no more staring at him in the cafeteria, you were cutting yourself off cold turkey. Rather than meet up with Eden and Judy before lunch, you immediately started eating in your car and would just wait for them to show. Undoing all the changes you had made to your daily life schedule so you could get little glimpses at him in the first place proved to be difficult. You had used to love the fact that you made it so you passed him pretty frequently in-between your classes, but now you had to go out of your way to avoid certain routes and time your classroom exits just right. Every time you felt like you had finally managed to find a good alternative route, he’d suddenly pop up in it. You were gonna need to bring an inhaler for the amount of times you’d had to double back and still get to your classes before the final bell.

Cheer practice was somehow worse. Down-bad-you from the past had thought changing the time you drank water in-between reps was insignificant, but as time went on, your body had become accustomed to exactly when it was you decided to rehydrated, and varsity cheer was no fucking joke, especially as a flyer. Since you had timed your water breaks to match up with Eddie leaving Hellfire, you thought it would be easy peasy to just wait for the guy to get in his van and drive off, but no. In fact, he seemed to have developed a habit of just sitting in his van for ten minutes before he left. Those ten minutes that you avoided going over to the side of the field where you all had to leave your things—including your big ass water bottle—were usually spent in the early stages of hallucination. You swore you almost passed out once.

But it was worth it, because you stuck to your metaphorical guns. Your friends were proud of you, and while you still felt shitty—‘out of sight, out of mind’ doesn’t apply to Metal Heads who go out of their way to keep you company while you’re coming down from a high and make you feel special without being creepy—you did feel better about knowing your worth, and not settling for anything less than what you deserved.

You managed to keep it up for two whole freaking weeks. The longer it went on, the easier it became to ignore the aches in your chest that stubbornly refused to go away. Home life got a little more complicated as well. For some god-awful reason, your grandmother had moved out of her old folk’s home and into yours. You would have had no problem with that except she’s the reason behind most of your trauma and a raging bitch. She was one of those women who lived and breathed the idea that men were the superior of the sexes and a woman’s place was at his beck and call. It was also apparent in her treatment of you and your little brother, Timmy.

She treated him like he was the second fucking coming of Ritchie Valens, and you like you were fucking Cinderella. Back when she watched you while your parents worked, you’d been forced to scrub the house from top to bottom, but the moment Timmy became old enough to do chores, all she did was force him to relax and watch cartoons. She’d also been the one to convince your parents to do what they did. To let them take you like that. Ugh, fuck, you were so not going down that road. You had to give up your room on the bottom floor in favor of the upstairs free room, on the opposite side of the house. With that much distance between you and the hag, you were happy to. Plus, it was on the dipping side of your large, shed style home so you could easily use the tree near your window to sneak in and out as you pleased. That’s how you had escaped your home after your parents had left for work. Saturday night found you at Betty Jean’s house, packed with bodies, beer, and some very water downed vodka. Clearly, some of the guys had been duped, but the music was spectacular, the tequila was legit so everyone was having a good time. Except you. You looked the part, lips curved into a gentle smile, courtesy of the weed you had used to hot box your bug. Not nearly enough to have you loopy, but you were slightly more relaxed.

Judy couldn’t get out of her shift at the arcade, and Eden was babysitting her siblings with her boyfriend, Argyle. You weren’t keen on spending your valuable weekend time with that old bitch, so you’d decided to stick with a couple of the other girls from cheer that you could tolerate. They’d been droning on and on about who was gonna ask who to the winter formal—still months away—and who would be crowned snowflake queen and king. You had just started zoning out when a girl brushed past you to get to the chips, the smell of weed wafting into your nose. Not just any weed; some very strong smelling weed.

That could only mean Eddie was nearby. Suddenly, the entire atmosphere felt stifling as you feared a possible run in. What would you do? What would you say? Nope. You abandoned the gross beer you’d been sipping on the counter and pushed your way out the front door, taking a few moments to calm yourself once outside. Betty Jean had a huge front yard complete with a water fountain that put most malls to shame and just so happened to look like a really nice sitting spot, so you helped yourself, staring down at your moonlight enhanced reflection. It was a pretty peaceful atmosphere. The music was muffled, there was a nice little breeze going on, could have turned out to be a good night after all. “That’s three parties, now.” Came a voice from behind you, and your heart once more seized before restarting once you recognized who the voice belonged to. “Jesus, Eddie!” You shifted around to face the house and the boy leaning against it.

He gave you a small smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Sorry. Guess, I’m used to treading lightly.” It was so bad, but you couldn’t help the way you wanted to smile. You didn’t because you weren’t going to give him the satisfaction, but you wanted to. An awkward silence followed, and your gaze dropped to the grass as a sense of uneasiness filled you. You had thought it was just you who felt. . . some kind of way about your predicament, but there was tension coming from him, too. It’s why you couldn’t look up at him, you knew if you did, you’d find him staring daggers into your soul. “How are you?”

“A-Alright, I guess. How are you?” God, it was painful. “You’re avoiding me.” Okay, that’s definitely not an answer to your question. You hadn’t even expected him to notice.

You opened your mouth, ready to deny it and maybe gaslight him a little when the intensity of his stare stopped you. It was a face you were familiar with, and not in a good way. It was the unreadable one, the one he’d quickly morphed into when Judy had yanked open those van doors, bursting in on your moment. Guarded. He knew you were going to lie. Was expecting it. No point in it now. “Yes.” Eddie didn’t say anything right away, just kept staring at you. Then he nodded, finished with whatever mental conversation he’d been having with himself. “Was it something I did?” He finally asked. You thought about lying again, then remembered he’d see right through it, somehow.

“Yes.” He didn’t look happy with the answer, and before he could respond, you continued, spurred on by a burst of bravery. “It didn’t feel like nothing. You said it was, but it didn’t feel like that to me. I’m not naive enough to say that it was like fireworks or something, because we haven’t even physically touched, but it felt a lot like something was gonna happen. Not nothing. Even when you couldn’t look at me after, it still didn’t. Of course, now I know why it meant nothing to you. Just another cheer skirt, right?” Eddie’s guarded expression fell away, surprise taking its place as he soaked in the words you couldn’t take back. At least you hadn’t told him about your little admiration problem. “What? No!” You scoffed, turning back around to face the fountain. “I know all about Jenna and Crystal and Andie. If you want to make your way through the cheer roster, that’s fine, good for you really,” Though in your head, you begged him not to do that, it would hurt your feelings really badly and probably have a lasting impression on you for the rest of your life. “But I’m a little too invested in you to just bend over and stand up every once in a while. So, that’s why I’m avoiding you.” You got up, ready to make a dramatic exit. You didn’t even get to take two steps when he had you stopping. “I didn’t know about your investment.” “What?” “You said you’re too invested in me to just fuck, right?” Oh, god. Sure, you had implied it but you didn’t say it. You had to get away from him and you had to do it fast. “I didn’t know that.” He used his foot to push himself away from the house, towards you. You couldn’t move. “I don’t know if it’s something about the hair, but I just seem to attract girls who force merriness on people. I’m not trying to go through the whole cheer group-’’ “Squad.” You corrected. “-squad. Jenna and Andie happened. But it was purely transactional with Crystal. Not that kind of transactional.” You knew he was a dealer, but for some reason your mind went flying to prostitution. “And I might attract them, but they didn’t really wanna parade around with the school pariah, you know? It was just sex. Whatever it is we had going on, they wanted it to mean nothing, which I was fine with. And I-uh, assumed, you would too. Only I could tell you were ignoring me the second you walked into Mrs. Boucher’s on Monday. Then, when I caught up to you in the hallway, you didn’t even look like you wanted to talk to me. So I figured you weren’t interested.”

Oh, how wrong he was. You played with the rings on your fingers, nipping at your lower lip. “I wouldn’t say that.” You gaze returned to the water fountain as he neared you. If you had kept your attention on him, you would have seen the the subtle change in him, would have seen him perk up.

“I think you’re really cool, Eddie. I always have. Thought you might have thought the same about me in the van, then you got taken over by the pod people when Judy came around. Figured you might have been embarrassed of me or something, so I tried to avoid you at school after. Only it’s surprisingly hard to.” Your heart fluttered when he chuckled. “I’ve been chasing you around since.” He admitted, now right freaking in front of you. “I know I said it was nothing, but it wasn’t. Not to me, either. See, the thing is I’ve had this crush on you since my sophomore year. It only got worse when you started acknowledging my existence when we’d pass each other or see each other at school. When you stopped showing up, I thought you’d moved away and I was so fucking sad, man. Then you came back, suddenly the world had light to it again.” Eddie didn’t mention how you seemed to lack that light when you returned to school; how his outbursts got more frequent that year in an attempt to make you laugh since you looked to unhappy. “All those little hellos, waves, and smiles? They got me through a lot. Hell—if you weren’t in first period now, I wouldn’t even bother showing up.” Your brows furrowed in confusion. “Don’t you need to graduate?” “Well, yeah. But I’m pretty good at mathematics, I don’t really bother with the homework, usually just ace the tests she gives. Yours truly has a B in that class. It’s the rest that fuck with me. I show up to see you, not to do any actual work.” You shook your head, lips stretching up into a smile as you turned away from him in an attempt to keep him from observing it.

“I didn’t think you’d want your friends to know. That’s just how it usually goes.” He continues, his voice sounding unusually quiet, timid.

The urge to comfort and reassure him is too strong. Despite the racing of your heart—desperately hoping for something to happen, no doubt—you didn’t move away. In fact, you met his eyes and the vulnerability in them took your breath away. He wasn’t guarded anymore. Not right then. Not with you. They were pleading for you to understand. You did. You’ve seen what he’d been subjected to, the cruel and unwarranted (mostly) treatment and taunting. A few physical fights and more harassment than most people would ever experience. The occurrences had dropped significantly that year, but still. The Social Hierarchy is something that Hawkins would probably never be able to outgrow. You couldn’t blame most people for being victims to it, either. You had once been swept up in it. Had he been interacting with the sophomore year you—the first time, not the second—he would have been correct. You’d been engulfed in the popularity construct. Not necessarily popular, but desperate to save any kind of face. That meant you wouldn’t have been able to be seen with Eddie in any sort of public setting. That wasn’t you anymore. “I don’t care if people know. Besides, my friends aren’t the kind to care about the kind of stuff.” Eden was also considered an outcast and a frequent victim of Payton Alabaster, the meanest bitch (and you meant ‘mean’ in a mediocre mean girl type of way, you had no trouble putting her in her place) in school. Labeled a ‘basket case’ for her defiance against her family’s religion as well as all the dark clothes she wore, Eden was also one of your best friends and you‘d be damned if you let anyone’s wrong opinion of her keep you away. She actually reminded you a lot of Eddie.

“That’s a first for me.” Eddie finally choked out after a few moments of silence. He slipped past you, making sure to brush against your side, as he took a seat on the fountain. You watched as he pulled a carton of cigarettes from his pocket, slipping one out and between his lips. He gestured to the spot next to him as he lit it.

Despite your hatred for the smell of cigarettes, you sat down next to him, eyes dancing over his illuminated features. Who knew when you’d get the chance again? You were definitely still a little high, if you were being this brave. “What are you doing?” He asked, smiling around the cigarette.

“I’m admiring you.” Like you’d done so many times from afar. It felt like you were healing something in you to be able to do it this close. “Admiring me?” He sounded overtly incredulous as he pulled the cigarette away to exhale the smoke into the night air. “What exactly is there to admire this time around?” Initially, you wanted to play coy. You were never one to feed a mans ego, most of your affection was shown through your teasing, and honestly you didn’t like being vulnerable. But you had a feeling Eddie had rarely received praise.

“A lot, actually. Beyond your edgy fashion sense, and your pretty hair, your eyes are the first thing that catch my attention. They’re stupid pretty. Like illegally so. There’s this saying that eyes are like the windows to emotion or something, and I always thought that was fucking stupid ‘cause I can hide my emotions really well; however, when I look at yours, I can get a read on how you’re feeling. They give you away. And they’re so very Bambi like.” His eyebrows quirked up as the corners of his smile stretched impossibly wider. The cigarette was dangling between his fingers. He wouldn’t be able to keep it between his mouth with how hard he was grinning. As distracting as it was, you didn’t let it stop you. “Your face is very expressive, too. It’s always fascinating to watch you talk about something; even if I can’t hear what it’s about, I can tell how much you like it or how much you hate it, just by the faces you make. Your dimples are pretty endearing, too.”

Holding eye contact with him proved to be a little intense for you, your palms began to sweat the longer he stared at you.

“A-And you gesture a lot.” Your hands weaved around in the air, in a gesture that meant nothing. “With your hands, like this. It-It’s really something because, I’ve heard you speak before and you never seem nervous, more like you’re sure about what you’re talking about so the fact that you can converse with both your mouth and your hands—at the same time—is just really fascinating to me. Because I can’t. I’ve got to do one or the other, really. Usually, I just start talking and hope for the best, you know? I don’t even fully think of what I’m gonna say. Or I ramble. I start to ramble, like I’m doing now. The point is: you’re really pretty, Eddie.” You breathed out, shaking your head to try and bring some sense back. “Sorry for the monologue.”

The music from the house provides some background noise to fill the silence as Eddie ran a hand over his face, hand pausing over his mouth as he grinned like a mad man into it. “Well, goddamn. You got me blushing, Trix. Again.” It feels like you’re picking up right where you left off that night in his van. You’d been trying to let him know you noticed him then, too. You groaned at the use of the new nickname he’d bestowed upon you. “You’re never gonna let me live that down, are you?” “How can I? You don’t know how fucking cute you looked in that costume.”

You felt your stomach turn in the most pleasant of ways when he called you cute. Those damn butterflies.

“We’re talking about you, not me.”

“Fine, then please tell me more about my Bambi eyes.” “Out of everything I said, that’s what caught your attention?” He lifted the cigarette back up to his lips. “Well, yes. See, apparently, I have my mom’s eyes. And much like the young prince of the forest, mine is dead, so the similarities between us aren’t lost on me. Hearing you talk about them like that, I don’t know—I guess it makes me feel kind of proud.”

He shifted around, pulling his wallet from his back pocket. From one of the slots in the sides, he pulled out a small photo, running his thumb over the subject before he offered it to you.

You made sure to handle it with a gentle touch as you looked it over. The photograph’s edges were frayed, and there were numerous creases but the subjects were still clear. It was of a woman, holding a toddler up to her face. Their cheeks were smooshed together as they both beamed at the camera—though the toddler was obviously mid laugh. She looked surprisingly young, she couldn’t have been older than 25 in it, with brown hair and a fringe framing her face. Her big brown eyes gleamed with happiness, the same eyes as the child she held. The resemblance was uncanny, you would’ve been able to tell she was Eddie’s mother even if he hadn’t told you they had the same eyes.

“You don’t just have the same eyes, Eddie. You two practically have the same face! She’s so beautiful.” You couldn’t tear your eyes away. “Thank you.” For some reason, you hadn’t been expecting him to respond, so you looked up at him and were once more caught by surprise to see that tender look on his face—the same one he had when he’d been close enough to kiss in the confines of his van. “What’s her name?”

Eddie licked his lips, swallowing hard at the way you didn’t refer to her in past tense, like it didn’t matter that she wasn’t around anymore because she had been at one point. “Penelope. Everyone called her Penny, though.”

“Penny,” You echoed, nodding once the name rolled off your tongue. “Yup, that sounds like it fits her.” Eddie laughed. “Alright, whatever you say, Thumper.” “Stop referring to me by various rabbit characters!” You handed the photograph back to him, trying to ignore the tingle that shot up your spine when his fingers brushed against yours. “No can do. I’m the freak, you’re the bunny. Labels stick, sweetheart.” He put out the stub of the cigarette against the stone of the fountain seat before throwing it into the water. “Think I can make a wish off of that?” “No, Eddie. I don’t think wishing on trash is a thing.” He let out a dramatic sigh before shrugging his shoulders. “I don’t need it, anyways. Things are starting to look up.” You hands moved to rest on either side of your thighs as you nibbled on your lower lip.

You could hear Human Nature begin to play inside, and it amused you that Michael would be the soundtrack to your little trauma story. He’d shared something personal with you, maybe it was only fair to do the same. Be as exposed as he had allowed you to see him. “My grandma recently moved in with us. I’ve never really wished bad upon anyone before—like okay, I mean death—but I wouldn’t mind if she expired already.” You knew how bad it sounded, normal people didn’t want their grandparents to die. But those people didn’t have her for theirs’. “We never really got along, she’s very dated. But she’s got this iron chokehold on my dad, always guilts him into shit. My mom doesn’t say anything because she knows how much my dad loves her but, uhm, I never really conformed to her idea of the woman I should have become. In fact, we’d argue a lot. The beginning of my sophomore year—the first one—we got into this huge fight at a family dinner. It was pretty bad. I didn’t think much of it because I figured my parents knew how she was and they knew how I was so they would just let it settle. But they didn’t. She convinced them I was like, out of control or something. That I would spiral into a life of drugs, sex, and instability.” You took a deep breath, willing your voice not to shake. “Then one day, I woke up in the middle of the night to strangers shaking me awake. At first I thought someone broke in, then I saw my parents watching in the doorway. They dragged me out of the house, locked me in a car, and a twelve hour drive later, I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, with a bunch of other teenagers who’d also been taken. They’re called wilderness therapy camps, or something like that, for teens. Cut you off from the world. You get to hear from your family once a month, if even that." You could feel the wetness pooling at your waterline as you remembered every single detail during your forced stay in the shitty ‘camp’. All they did was make you feel isolated and work you to the bone. By law, you hadn’t been kidnapped. But for six months, you’d been forced to do whatever a group of strangers said or risk punishment, forced to smile in pictures they sent to your family after you’d spent the entire night and day crying, and wishing for nothing more than the comfort of your home. “Jesus fucking christ, how is that legal?” The anger in Eddie’s voice came as a shock to you. His whole body was tense, his jaw locked as he listened to you recount how your parents had allowed strangers to abduct you from your bed and hold you in the wilderness against your will for months.

“I don’t know, but I wish it wasn’t.”

Eddie was fuming, and berating himself for not having known you sooner. Hell, if he had even known the reason you stopped showing up to school in the first place, he would have made it his mission to find you, to break you out of there and bring you home. “I tried running away a couple of times, but I’d just get lost. And there were mountain lions in the area.” Your first encounter with one had scared the shit out of you since you thought it’d kill you. Ironically enough, you were hoping for that during your last encounter with one. Anything to end the misery that had become your zombie like existence. But it hadn’t been in the mood. “My parents had some sort of breakdown over it, and they demanded me back six months later. School was still going on, but the year was almost over and I was so behind in work. I didn’t really feel like . . .” Living. Existing, “. . . going to school. So I just started over in the fall.” “Fuck—C’mere.” Eddie sounded broken as he pulled you into his side, arms wrapping tightly around your frame. Judy and Eden had offered you comfort when you’d finally told them about what happened, but something about Eddie’s embrace felt different. You melted immediately into his arms, inhaling the scent of him, even the cigarette smell that lingered on his clothes was appealing to you. Only because it was him. It was comforting. He was. He let his head lean up against yours as his large hand rubbed up and down your back, warming you even through the fabric of your clothes. The song had switched to something much slower, something gentle that you couldn’t recognize and you recalled your earlier thought about the night turning out nice. Eventually and very reluctantly, you pulled away. Climbing out of his lap somehow felt more intimate than when he had pulled you onto it. You were all too aware of his hands settling onto your hips to ensure you remained balanced, and for a moment your mind wondered what they’d feel like over your bare hips, fingertips digging into your sweat slick skin as they’d guide you ruthlessly up and down on his— “Guess the grass isn’t greener on the other side, huh?” He commented, eyes still honed in on you as you snapped out of your terribly timed fantasy.

“No,” You cleared your throat, willing your body to cool itself. You're grateful for the breeze. “No, I guess not. But it’s always nice to spill your guts to a stranger. Metaphorically.” “A stranger? I tell you about my dead mom, and you refer to me as a stranger?” Eddie placed a hand over his chest to appear wounded as his mouth dropped open, eyes wide in amusement and disbelief. “I told you about being practically abducted!” It was so fucked up given the subjects, but you couldn’t keep the grin off your face. “Still doesn’t mean you know me well!” “Did you happen to hear anything about the crush I’ve had on you for years, or are we ignoring that for creative purposes, too?” That little tidbit of knowledge would NEVER be lost on you. If tonight proved to be your last night on earth, you’d go willingly knowing Eddie Munson had a crush on you. “Maybe you liked the idea of me more than the actual me. The same could apply to how I feel about you.” You mused, though you were positive that wasn’t the case. There wasn’t much he could do that would change how you felt about him, and that kind of terrified you. Watching him from afar was one thing, but now you were in the danger zone. You’d gotten a little taste of the hurt that could come from this when you thought he’d just been messing around with you, this guy could do some serious damage to your emotions. Eddie rolled his head one way and then another, cracking his neck as he sighed. He hadn’t really known where this was going to go when he’d decided to confront you. Actually, he thought you’d tell him to fuck off, maybe throw an insult his way before disappearing from his life completely like he noticed you were already attempting to do. When you hadn’t done that, and instead had confessed that you liked him in a romantic sort of way—you hadn’t really said that but Eddie wasn’t a moron, he could read between the lines—he was ready to skip to the kissing and living happily ever after but you were right. Other than the growing affection, you two didn’t really know each other. He hated that. “So, what happens next then?” It was scary, giving you all the power but so much of it had been taken from you in regards to your life. If he could give you just a little more sense of control over your life, even if you decided that he wasn’t worth it, he’d gladly suffer. Just for you; he’d give you the chance to break him, like so many others had in one way or another. He watched you with bated breath as you stared intensely into the water of the fountain, plump lips pursing in consideration. You were torn. There was a part of you that wanted to throw caution to the wind and yourself at him, grab him while you could and run. But what if he didn’t end up liking you as much as he thought he did? What if it didn’t work out and you were left feeling stupid for getting swept up into some teen angst? You’d barely started talking to him but you found him so winsome. You were positive you could use someone like him in your life, but were you willing to risk losing him in the future because of some break up? You’d never been able to be friends with you exes before, and despite how charming he was, there was no way you’d be able to be around him if you’d fallen in love with him at some point only to break up. “I’d really like to be your friend.” You whispered, raising your eyes to lock with his. Eddie could feel the disappointment sinking into his bones and weighing heavy on his chest. He hadn’t expected you to just pick him. For some reason, it still hurt. But he’d take you any way he could get you, and if you wanted to be friends, then he’d become your best fucking friend. Maybe there would be a chance for the two of you in the future. His tongue licked over his top lip as he nodded a couple of times. “I’d like to be your friend, too.” Despite the bittersweet circumstances, you both smiled as you held your hand out to him. “Friends then, Bambi?” You teased, waiting for him to shake it.

Eddie took your much smaller hand into his, and you were surprised by just how soft his palms were, despite the roughness of his finger pads. The metal of his rings felt cool against your skin. “Friends, Thumper.”

“Friends don’t refer to friends as animal characters.”

“You literally just called me Bambi, you raging hypocrite.” He pulled his hand away to poke at your shoulder. “That doesn’t count, you compared yourself to Bambi; therefore, you accepted his title.” “It’s cute how you waited until after I agreed to be your friend to reveal that you’re actually incredibly manipulative.” “You’re lucky I didn’t wait until after the wedding.” You joked, nearly pissing yourself in relief when he laughed at it because you’d wanted to shove it back into your mouth as soon as it came out.

You had a feeling being friends with Eddie would be challenging, but you could do it.

Or at least, you really hoped you could.

────

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parkerpeter24 · 2 years

Text

as it was

pairing ➳ tasm!peter parker x reader

warnings ➳ mentions of death, angst, strong language.

w.c. ➳ 2.6k

summary ➳ after the death of uncle ben, peter figured he couldn’t bear to lose any more loved ones so he pushed you away. seems you cannot be replaced

this is a highschool!au for @spidervee’s april is for aus event. i hope this isn’t too rushed ahhh

Everything changed after the misfortunate event of uncle Ben’s death. Peter wasn’t as he was since that day. You knew nothing was the same as it was.

His shoulders were always slumped and the world seemed to weigh him down as the days passed. Even Flash had withdrawn from giving him a hard time. Peter used to meet you everyday, either at your apartment or in school– whence he was running late– with a flower or a coffee. It used to be a routine but now as you shut your locker, you missed the smile that played on your boyfriend’s lips when he saw you. The way his eyes would light up without a miss. It all made you feel special but now you felt selfish, wanting to have nothing more than one glance from the brunette who seemed busy on his phone. He wasn’t paying attention to you or the screen, probably too lost in his own thoughts.

You cleared your throat but Peter remained indifferent, “Peter? Let’s get to class.”

“Right behind you.” He muttered.

You sighed and made your way to your first class, checking once in a while if the sullen teenager was indeed following.

It wasn’t like you hadn’t tried to get Peter to talk, or for him to feel better. It’s all you wanted but in honesty, you never knew loss like Peter did. Still you tried your best to make him feel your presence, every day that he agreed to be at your place, or have you at his. He was busier than before and you noticed the various bruises lining his features.

You brought it up one day when he was sitting on the carpeted floor of your room, nose buried into the Physics book. You sat down beside him, placing your hand over his, which was fidgeting with the pen. He looked up at you, and then immediately down, avoiding your eyes.

“Peter?”

“Hm?”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He nodded, still keeping his face shielded with his hood.

You gently pulled it back and cupped his cheek with your hand to make him look at you and you gasped as he did. His face was littered with cuts and the black eye really worried you but he pulled back from your touch quickly, “Peter, how did you-”

You started to only be cut off by Peter mid-sentence, “I said I was fine.”

His cold demeanor wasn’t a new concept but you just couldn’t take it anymore. All you wanted was to talk to him. And before you knew it, you were yelling out, “That doesn’t look fine!”

Peter’s expressions softened a little, your eyes were filled with concern even though your tone indicated differently, “Don’t worry about it, (Y/n).”

“I can’t not worry about it, Peter.” You sighed, “You’ve been impossibly far and I-I’m worried about you.”

“(Y/n), I-” Peter found himself speechless at your words but was saved by you continuing your own monologue.

“Where have you been going? May tells me you come home super late and I-I just wish I knew what you were going through but if you need to talk to me, I’m here. I want you to know that I’d always-”

Your ramble was interrupted by the book being closed shut. You looked up from your lap to find Peter packing up his stuff, “I gotta go.”

He got up without another word, slinging his bag over his shoulder. You followed him up to the door, getting hold of his hand to try to make him stay, “Can we just talk? Please.”

He pulled his arm out of your grasp, looking around to you one last time, “You should worry about yourself more than about me.”

After that evening, you didn’t get to see your boyfriend– you weren’t even sure if that’s what you were supposed to call him anymore– for as long as four days. The next time you witnessed Peter in the hallway, you avoided him like the virus.

Then you rarely saw Peter anymore. He would either be out of school, doing whatever he did, or even if you did stumble upon an opportunity, the doe-eyed boy brought something in the way and excused himself. It seemed like there was nothing to say between you and him anymore.

Peter, however, had concluded that his powers were as much of a curse as a blessing after he was snatched of the one person he had fallen for.

He told himself that he’d done good by letting you go. That by letting you slip through his fingers, he was keeping you safe from danger. He was keeping you safe from the consequences that were faced by people who made the grave mistake of loving him.

On the other hand, you were unaware of how long this silence between you and Peter would prevail. One thing you were sure about was that you missed him deeply. Even though you haven’t seen him in over a month. Sure, you saw him in the hallways here and there and even caught him looking at you in a few classes that you shared, but that didn’t mean that the two of you shared words. Peter was still distant but you were starting to feel like you would be okay if he never talked to you, or so you told yourself.

You made your way into the Public Library and went straight to the novels section. Today was not going to be about Peter. You surfed through the ‘Adventure’ section for a mere distraction until your eyes fell on a rather appealing book. You picked it up and examined it before deciding this was it.

The gravity of the situation was holding Peter back from meeting your eyes even though you were sitting so far from him. You probably hadn’t even noticed him sitting three rows across from you in the library. You were busy reading your book and Peter, not wanting to draw attention, sat stiffly on his chair without moving a muscle.

Three hours later, with no progress done on his work, Peter was finally looking for a chance to leave the place when you got up and walked to one of the shelves, giving him a perfect opportunity. He rushed to place the book clutched into his hands in its original place before making his way out.

Peter didn’t have any big plans for the day so he spent his day going around the city, making sure everyone was safe and enjoying the warm pleasant day. A few stars were lining up the sky when Peter saw you again, walking through the streets of Queens, with the same book you were reading in your hands. He found you still occupied with it, as your eyes roamed the pages.

“You know, you shouldn’t read and walk.” Spider-man landed in front of you suddenly, making you jump as you looked up at him.

“I- uh, sorry, I didn’t notice you…” You chuckled nervously, looking at the masked vigilante. You didn’t expect to find a superhero in the middle of the street on a peculiar day.

“Just take care of where you’re going.” Peter said, suddenly losing all sass as he looked at you softly, thankful for the mask covering his face, “I wouldn’t want you getting hurt.”

“Thanks,” you gave him a smile, “that’s really sweet of you.”

“It’s my responsibility.” He shrugged, walking backwards a few steps, and you assumed he was leaving until he waved you over, “Aren’t you coming?”

You rushed after him, placing your pointer finger to mark the page in your book. This was obviously unprecedented. You walked beside Spider-man, matching your steps with his as a silence fell between the two of you.

“It’s okay for me to walk you, right?” You heard Spider-man say just before it could get awkward, “The place is really dangerous at night. Not that you need me to protect you!” He waved his hands around in the air, “I’m sure you’re capable to-”

“It’s okay, Spider-man.” You chuckled softly. Sure, you’d been starstruck because of meeting the friendly neighborhood superhero out of the blue but there was something oddly familiar about the guy. Maybe it was your mind playing tricks on you but for a moment a possibility that Peter was- no! Peter can’t be Spider-man. You shook the thoughts out of your head, concentrating back to whatever Spider-man was saying.

“And it’s always a pleasure to walk with a pretty girl like you.”

You felt your cheeks warm up at his comment as you mustered up a small smile.

The two of you stopped in front of your apartment building, “This is me.” You smiled at him, pointing to the building.

“Well, then.” Spider-man took a few steps away from you, even though Peter didn’t want to leave, “I should get going.”

“Yeah,” You nodded and looked at him simply standing there, “you must be really busy.”

“Sometimes.” He said, reciprocating your nod, then retraced his steps, “Actually, can I talk to you about something?”

“Oh, sure.” You said, lips parted in surprise. What could a superhero possibly want to talk to you about?

“Can we go somewhere… more private?” He looked around and said.

“Um where could we-”

“The roof? I can take you.”

“Well, the lift is broken and the stairs creak a lot so I think-” Before you could complete your sentence, Spider-man was already wrapping his arm around you. The next second, the ground disappeared from beneath your feet and you were in the air, being pulled up as a shriek escaped your mouth.

Spider-man held you securely until the two of you were on the roof of your apartment building. You were clinging to him like your life depended on it, and it kinda did for you, even though Peter obviously knew he wouldn’t have let you fall.

You opened your eyes when you sensed him standing and pulled away completely, detaching yourself from the maskhead, “What do you think you’re doing!?”

“I’m sorry, just please hear me out (Y/n)-”

“No! You freak! Stay away from me.” You warned, taking a few steps back from him as your hand went into your pocket to search for your phone “I will call the police.”

Peter’s hand quickly went to his mask and pulled it off, holding his hands up in surrender. “(Y/n), it’s just me, it’s me. Don’t call the cops.”

“Peter…” All air left your lungs as you trailed off, watching what couldn’t have been, happen right in front of your eyes.

“(Y/n), I-”

“You’re Spider-man? Why are you here? Were you stalking me?” You asked, sounding colder than you intended to.

“I thought I’d-”

“I thought you didn’t want us to see each other anymore, why would you be here?” You muttered.

“I wanted to talk to you, (Y/n), please.” Peter pleaded.

“Well, I don’t. You should go back.” You sighed, turning away from him to leave but his hand grabbed your wrist before you could go.

“Just give me one more chance.” Peter whispered into your ear softly after a moment, making you turn around to face him.

“You left me, Peter. You went away and you left me alone.” You reasoned.

“I tried to push you away. I tried to protect you, I busied myself with work and Spider-man but I can’t do this anymore. I cannot replace you even though I tried.” Peter sobbed, panting heavily and you just stared at him. The wind was cool against your face, which was burning as your eyes welled with tears.

You still couldn’t wrap your head around anything that was happening. Peter really was Spider-man. Why was he telling you this now, “W-why are you telling me this now?”

“(Y/n), I’m the biggest idiot for pushing you away, I thought I was protecting you by pushing you away, and some part of me was protecting myself from the hurt. I-If anything happened to you, I don’t know what I’d do.” Peter’s voice transcended to a mere whisper. He felt as if he’d lost all his powers then and there, stripped off of whatever pride he held and the longer you remained silent, the weaker he felt.

You saw the tears in Peter’s eyes and let out a broken chuckle, “I thought you just stopped loving me.”

The brunette shook his head promptly, “Never. Not for one second.”

There was a moment of silence between the two of you as Peter watched the reflection of the moon in your eyes, “You did what you had to.” You nodded to yourself, “And I can’t stay angry with you for long.”

A little hope ignited within Peter at your words, “I don’t want you to be angry with me.” He took a few steps towards you.

“But it can’t go back to the way it was.” You quickly uttred, feeling your throat tighten when Peter stopped in his tracks.

As much as you wanted his arms around you, you couldn’t forget how much it hurt to not have him around. You feared it would go back to him avoiding you.

“I’m sorry,” Peter said, fiddling with his mask, “for everything.”

You gave him a little smile and held out the palm of your hand, “Truce?”

“Truce.” Peter gave you a little smile as he shook your hand.

And as soon as Peter was out of sight, you rushed back inside, down the stairs until you were in your room. You slammed the door shut, not paying mind to your mom’s call to make sure you were alright. The answer wouldn’t have been pleasing to her anyway.

You tried to steady your breathing, sitting at the edge of your bed, thinking about your encounter with Peter. All his injuries seemed obvious to you now that you knew that he donned a spandex suit and went out to save the world.

Peter was Spider-man. He was the one who saved everyone, the one who fought robbers everyday, the one who got into a dangerous fight with the creepy lizard you’d heard about a few days ago. The boy who didn’t know he needed saving himself was the one who protected the whole neighborhood.

Your thoughts were interrupted by an impatient knock on the window. You looked around to find Spider-man, Peter, perched up on your fire escape and rushed to open it for him, “Did you… did you forget something?”

He crawled inside and took off his mask, discarding it to the floor, “I did.” Was all he said before striding towards you, just to wrap an arm around your waist and pull you in for a kiss.

And you kissed him back. How could you not when it was all that you wanted. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders, pulling him closer as if you needed him to breathe.

Peter kissed you hungrily yet tenderly. You could have melted into it but you kept up with the pace, biting his bottom lip gently, drawing a soft whimper from him.

When the two of you parted, resting your foreheads against the other’s, you opened your eyes to meet his, and he was already looking at you. Both of you shared a little smile,

“Can I stay-”

“You should stay-”

The two of you said at the same time, making each other laugh, “Yeah, I would like that.” Peter muttered softly, pulling you in for another kiss.

And everything would eventually be the same as it was. It has to be when it’s just the two of you.

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

taglist | masterlist

tagging : @httphollands // @spideyspeaches // @prancerrparkerr // @hollandslittlekoala // @deepika-padukone // @theglitterymess // @quaksonhehe // @lowkey-holland // @hollandbroz-n-haz // @spooky-season-bitch // @piscesparker // @alexcrumblescompletelywhenicry // @wildxwidow // @samaraaaaaa // @kelieah // @badassbabeparker // @annab-nana // @enchantedlaufeyson

#peter parker #peter parker x reader #tasm!peter parker #tasm!peter angst #tasm!peter x you #peter parker blurb #peter parker imagine #peter parker angst #tasm!peter x y/n #tasm!peter imagine #andrew garfield #andrew!peter angst #andrew!peter x you #april is for aus

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chronosaurusnot · 3 years

Text

Headcanon: skz in a party

warnings: +18 but not really any, suggestive maybe?

note: so i’m back after two rough months with a really soft headcanon! i actually wanted it to be kinda smutty at first, but i don’t know why it ended up being more about the kissing that anything else lmao. btw i’m already working on a smut that i’ll post as soon as i finish it, so i hope you wait for it cause i promise i’ll be really good (or at least i’ll try lol)

as always, i’d like to clarify that english is not my first language, so please let me know if there are any mistakes, and feel free to give me suggestions, cause i think it’ll be cool if you like any part of this thoughts and want to give me ideas for smuts out of them!!

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Bangchan

he is the one to organize the night with the guys, asking for a vip table and everything, and probably will stay there the whole night.

he is the humble popular boy, everyone wants to be with him and he will be nice with all of them.

but he already has the eye on you; you are his goal of the night.

he will get close to you by playing the nice guy and saying silly stuff to get your trust. after a chat he will offer you a drink, and here is when i drive CRAZY

we all know he has the most beautiful hands and this bitch knows his power. so he will take his wallet off his pocket and play? with it to get your attention to his hands. “what do you wanna drink sweetheart?” he’ll literally buy you every drink you want. not because he wants to get you drunk but because he wants to show you how a big pleaser he is.

after a drink he’ll be like “can we dance?” and he will be suuuuch a teaser. he’ll get closer and closer every time, holding you by the waist. and just when you feel you are about to kiss or something, he’ll be like “i’ll go to the bathroom, i’ll be back”.

but when he’s back he will kiss you just like that. a goood and long kiss, while the rest of the night is full of soft touches and teasing.

type of kisser: the soft and slow one, full of soft touches on your waist and back, his other hand always on your cheek, neck or hair. he can read the timing so well, he just know when to use his tongue, when to bite your lip, when to heat it up.

Lee Know

he is that kind of guy who enters the party at the last minute cause he don’t wanna get attention. but with his look that’s impossible, so everyone looks at him as he gets in the place, eyes rolled back to play like he doesn’t care.

but the most important part is, he also goes with a target for the night. and as soon as he sees you, you become his goal.

his plan is to pretend like he hasn’t see you cause he loves to play the hard to get, but he’s dying to get your attention.

and you notice he also loves the way you try to avoid him by the way he smirks when you look away after he catches you looking, so you wait for him to come to you.

after watching you from the distance, he finally gets to you. “do i have something on my face, sweetheart?” he teases you with a smirk on his face. and you can tell he’s dying for you to tell him how you’re feeling because of him.

if you follow his play by being a little bratty, he’ll be even more into it.

while dancing he would be soo gentle, getting closer and closer to you in every step.

he’ll turn you around all of the sudden, “for how much longer you’re gonna keep teasing me, honey?” he says to you while caressing your lips.

type of kisser: depending on his mood basically? like i feel he doesn’t have a type actually, but i just know he’s a big fan of kissing in front of people, just to brag to yourself how you pick him up among the rest of the people. and loves any kind of touching...

Changbin

yes i’m gonna say he’s the cool rich boy who goes to parties the whole time, im sorry.

but hear me out, he’s just so humble and sweet with everyone. he’ll have the vip table with his friends, and will pay for that one friend who has no money cause he just wanna have fun with them.

we all know he is a really flirty man, so that’s even worse in parties. he’ll check up on everyone he finds attractive. but as soon as he sees you that’s over; and he won’t give up until you’re his.

he’s really confident about himself, so he’ll go straight to you. “how are you princess?” he’ll keep casually chatting with you, with a smirk on his face. he’ll also ask with who you came with, you know to see if one of your friends could be with one of his, he likes to play the cupido lmao.

he’ll ask you to dance and you won’t even know how it happened but you are sooo close to him. your bodys so close, he’l tease you so much to give you a kiss cause he wants to see you desperate.

type of kisser: sweet and soft at first; hard and rough as the night goes on. he has no hurry, could be all night long with slow kisses cause he pays more attention to touches. so… he’ll caress you sweetly at first, but then he would touch you more and more.

Hyunjin

we all know he’s the cool boy who everyone looks at during the whole night. he could be dancing and laughing with his friends till he gets sleepy, cause he just wants to have a good time.

but when he goes to the bar to get some drink, that’s when he pays attention to his arounds. and there he finds you looking at him, smiling back with a smirk.

i just know he is soo into looking and exchanging smiles and guilty looks from the distance, so he’ll take his time till he finally gets you.

“i was actually waiting for you to come to me, sweetheart”. he’ll introduce to you just like that but with a sweet tone in his voice and face. and such an intense look.

yes, the whole dancing is full of teasing and constant eye contact. he’ll get so close to your body and then all of the sudden we will get a little apart, enjoying you frustrated and confused face. but after that, he’ll hold your waist to get you close to him to kiss you all of the sudden.

type of kisser: the surprising one, who kisses you when you least expect it. so soft and slow, he just knows how good his fluffy lips must feel. i feel like he’s the type to smile after the first kiss, but in a hot way if you know what i mean. a fan of holding you by your neck and hair; and if you touch his, you’ll drive him crazy.

Jisung

he loves to party and its the clown of the group, but we already know how shy he actually is.

when he sees you, he can’t keep his eyes off of you. and when you notice, he gets sooo shy and cute.

he’ll keep looking at you and smiling, and you can tell he isn’t gonna take the first step, so you get to him.

he’s aware he looked like a coward, so he’ll go in a joking way “you couldn’t wait for me, princess?”. and it’s so cute to see him play the cool guy when it’s so obvious he’s really nervous.

but that attitude disappears after a couple minutes, and you can’t really understand at what moment he’s become so confident ?? smirking at you, talking in a flirty way, getting closer to you as the time goes by.

he’ll dance with you if you want to, but he just prefers to talk and flirt with you in that kind of way. and when he feels confident enough, he’ll play the “i can’t hear you well, the music is really loud, do you wanna go somewhere more calm?”.

type of kisser: he’ll play with your hair so much before kissing you, holding your face and neck with both of his hands. he likes wet kisses and loves to receive soft touches from you. but when things get heated up, he’s the most touchy one. i mean, that’s why he’ll always ask you to go to a place where you can have more intimacy.

Felix

i feel like he’s a mix of hyunjin and jisung. the cool pretty boy who everyone looks at, very confident about himself, but as soon as he sees someone he likes he gets super shy.

he loves to be dancing, and when he notices you’re looking at him he smiles at you. but as soon as you invite him to come over he’ll get so shy about it that you could see him gaining strength to make the first move.

“would you dance with me, honey?” he’ll say to your ear with his deep and soft voice, making you shiver. he was looking all shy, but as soon as you start dancing there is no space between the both of you.

his touch is so soft and hot at the same time, he just knows what he’s doing. one hand will always be holding your waist, and the other one will go changing places. if you’re a little shy, he’ll take your hands and place them around his neck, smiling with a mix of sweetness and desire for your touch.

type of kisser: so so so soft and sweet at first; slow and steady. so much tongue, but in such a pleasing way. his hands always moving to caress different parts of your body. and when it gets heated up, that’s just worse: prepare yourself for a lot of touching cause this man has no shame in being seen.

Seungmin

he gets miscarried as the shy boy cause he is calm, but he is actually really confident. the kind to be quiet and dangerous.

as soon as you look back at him he’ll go to you, and offer you a drink. he pays attention to every gesture you make, and uses the chat to try to analyze what kind of person you are; what you seem to be into. also aware of his pretty hands, so if he sees you looking at them he’ll find the way to keep you staring.

he’ll chat with you in such a flirty way. he’ll find always the right moments to praise you and tell you how pretty you are.

before kissing he’ll get closer to you by touching you in ways that make you believe he’s just about to do it, but it’s actually just more and more teasing.

type of kisser: slow and rough, just so so hot. one hand always on your neck, finding the way to show you who is the one with the control over the whole situation.

Jeongin

he’s the kind to play confident but he’s actually so so shy.

he has his eye on you since the beginning, but he’ll take his time to come talk to you.

he’ll get to you offering you a drink, to later on ask you to dance.

he’s desperate for your touch, smiling at you when you hold his neck for dancing, taking that as an invitation for his touch.

a fan of holding your waist, getting you closer and closer to him. you can feel how nervous he actually is, but at the same time he looks so hot. cause, after all, he’s letting no space between you two.

type of kisser: soft and sloppy, but he gets the rhythm. his problem is he over thinks the whole thing, so instead of letting go in the moment he’s firstly worried about what would you like the most. but after those thoughts vanish, he’ll kiss you so good you can keep going forever. also really aware of his pretty hands, using them to hold you by your neck most of the time.

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moemammon · 3 years

Note

Since you're open for requests, how about a MC who cannot die no matter how much you try? The anime my sister was watching yesterday (I think it's Rezero or Re:zero, I'm not sure which one) had a character like this, apparently she comes back out of nowhere each time you kill her, no matter how. It's kinda creepy, but I think a MC like this would be very interesting!

MC Just Can't Be Killed! (Feat. The Demon Bros)

(Took some liberties on this one and tweaked it so MC just conveniently manages to escape with their life-)

Lucifer

He knew something was up the moment you first avoided being killed by Levi-

He thought it was dumb luck and pure chance that you could always talk your way out of things, or how you were always rescued by someone. But then he started getting suspicious.

How can you, a human, possibly survive so long? Not that he’d allow you do die while under his care, but even HE was impressed when you managed to bounce back from being clapped into the shadow realm by Belphie.

And then you just... kept narrowly escaping death. You crawled out of the jaws of Cerberus, completely unscathed. You tripped on a path (with Mammon) and went tumbling down a hill... and off a cliff. Yet when he went to get you, you were fine. You ate Solomon's cooking and lived to tell the tale.

What are you.... he demands answers...

Mammon

Probably?? Doesn't notice for a REALLY long time how many brushes with death you've had. Literally thinks your survival is all thanks to his great supervision skills.

When in reality, he's sometimes the cause of a few of your mishaps. Like the other day, when he playfully tripped you on your way out, and thought he fucking murdered you.

And the time he let you help him advertise a shady 'youth potion', and a couple of demons thought you were part of a promotional sampling platter.

How you were still in one piece after all of this was beyond him but hey, he's not asking questions! As long as you're alive, Mammon is a-ok!

Though, he seriously wants to know how you survived that thing with Cerberus. Can you give a guy some tips on how to avoid teeth-induced puncture wounds?

Levi

What kind of infinity lives glitch are you exploiting and how did you implement it in real life-

Levi knows a hacker when he sees one and he's NOT letting you off the hook. The moment he realizes that you haven't died despite being manhandled in every sense of the word, he's watching you.

But also hella thankful?? He wouldn't know what to do if you ACTUALLY died.

It's probably because you're so amazing that you keep managing to do impossible stuff, huh? As expected of his best friend!

Still lowkey worried though, and tries convincing you that you're less likely to die if you just stay in his room with him all the time.

Satan

Inch resting....

Satan would definitely notice right away that you seem practically unkillable, considering how you walked away from every single brother completely unscathed.

You were a human, attending a school for demons, sometimes completely unsupervised, and you were STILL alive?? Yeah, some thorns me not adding up.

He would purposely lead you into dangerous situations, just to watch in awe as you get out of it without so much as a paper cut. Until he starts catching feelings, of course.

As interesting as it is to test out your lucky abilities, the anxiety that swells in Satan's chest when he sees you doing something dangerous is enough to make him want to protect you. Isn't it safer to just sit down and enjoy a good book?

Asmo

Asmo literally tried putting you in Lucifer's way in the beginning so you'd get hurt, so he definitely notices how not hurt you are after a while.

But now that he loves you, all's well that ends well! He's sooo glad Lucifer didn't tear you apart like he thought he was going to! Mwah mwah, no hard feelings ❤️

Seriously though, how the hell are you managing that?? You keep being tricked into eating things they're poisonous to humans, and the most that happens to you is bad indigestion. And that time Asmo forgot the hot springs were too hot for you? Yeah, somehow you didn't die that time, either.

What were you made out of??? Were you secretly magical like Solomon and didn't tell anyone?? Or maybe you were super lucky???

Does that mean you're especially sturdy? If so, then maybe he could introduce you to a few "activities" that are bound to keep you out of trouble~

Beel

What have you been eating that's making you so sturdy?? Actually, what HAVEN'T you eaten at this point..? The fact that you didn't die after eating Solomon's cooking is enough to tell Beel that you might not need his protection.

Though, that doesn't stop him from following you around. Even if you miraculously bounce back every time, he's getting kind of worried for like.. your overall health?

At this point he's tempted to just zip you up in his jacket to keep you safe. You're like a danger magnet and it's giving him anxiety.

He doesn't mind your adventurous side, but can't you slow down a little? At least make sure he's with you when you decide to do something risky.

If he feeds you enough, you'll get tired and just want to rest. That'll keep you out of trouble. So get ready, because Beel's bringing over a ton of desserts from Madame Scream's.

Belphie

Yeah uhhhhh he was fucking SHOOK when you came back from the dead after he clearly sent you to heaven with his bare hands??

So yeah. He's convinced you're unkillable for now. But as curious as he is to test those limits, he's realized that you're off limits as far as killing goes. And he might.. like you a little too much to try anything.

Just kidding. He makes it known that he likes you, and once you're comfortable with it, he'll make jokes about how you're immortal. Maybe you're a demon in disguise? Or an angel even?

Doesn't make it known, but he quietly watches over you to make sure you don't kill yourself through one of the millions of ways to die that the Devildom offers for free. Might not be the best bodyguard since he falls asleep all the time, but he's doing his best.

You know what would really keep you out of trouble? Napping with him. So every time you even think about something risky, he's dragging you off to the attic for some quality z's.

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cjsinkythoughts · 3 years

Text

Windows Down, Music Up

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Reader

Word Count: 3730

Warnings: !FATWS Spoilers!, Cursing, Lotsa Fluff, Slight Angst, Talk of PTSD/Flashbacks, No Seatbelts at One Point (WEAR SEATBELTS!)

A/N: The Part I didn’t know I needed. I started writing and this is where it got me. I needed these soft moments after the intensity of the last few parts. I know I said there’d only be one part left, but…I didn’t know this Part would be so long. So three parts for episode 5 it is!

I hope you enjoy this! I know it’s not really a part of the show, but I love the idea and I think both Bucky and the Reader needed it. Plus the show has a lot of leeway this episode because time passes but they kinda skip over traveling and stuff, so I thought I’d give you a glimpse of what it looks like in mine!

Not beta’d, as per usual! All mistakes are mine and please excuse them! Be kind to yourselves and others! Enjoy this part and stay tuned!

FATWS Masterlist

cjsinkythoughts Masterlist

!SPOILERS UNDER CUT!

******************

“So what’s next?” You questioned, your feet hooked onto the bar below the bar you were sitting on so you didn’t fall. Not that you could - Bucky was right next to you, his hand flying to your thigh every time you shifted even a little bit to keep you steady. “Walker’s been arrested, we have the shield, Karli’s in the wind…where does that leave us? Do we have any leads on Karli right now?”

“The GRC is conducting raids to try and find Karli, but so far they’ve only found her followers. They’ve searched this camp, and just like the last camp, nothing. She’s gone. And we’ll never find her.”

You huffed at Sam’s words, rubbing your temples as you grumble, “way to look on the bright side.”

“What bright side? There’s not one here, cher. Not this time.”

“Hey.” Bucky snapped. “Back off, Sam.”

You grabbed his forearm and squeezed reassuringly. “Hey! You got your, uh, you got your sleeve back!” You turned at the familiar voice that caused Bucky to scoff lightly and shake his head.

“Torres!”

The kid smiled at you, waving as Bucky pushed off the bars, helping you down (he’d been refusing to let you do anything on your own since you woke up) and started walking towards the door. “Hi, Y/N. It’s been a while.”

“Are you off to take care of Zemo?” Sam questioned, making Bucky look over his shoulder at the three of you. The former assassin raised an eyebrow at you. You nodded, and he turned around to leave.

“Alright! Good to know you survived!”

You snickered a bit at the kid. “It’s good to see you.”

Torres turned back to you and grinned. “You too. I really am glad you survived.”

“I know you are, kid.”

Sam looked at you questioningly. “Are you gonna go with him?” You pursed your lips, chewing your cheek, and nodded. “Alright. C’mere.”

You frowned as he lifted his arms, but walked into them anyways. “What’re we doing right now? This isn’t goodbye. We’ve still gotta find Karli.”

“For now.” He responded, setting his chin on your head, careful of your shoulder. “But we don’t have any leads and I’m sure we’ve been benched. So, until we do and we meet again, stay safe. And take care of yourself. And for the love of God, please have that conversation with cyborg, now.”

A small puff of laughter came from you and you nodded. “Okay. I’ll see you later then, Sammy.”

He pressed a kiss to your head, before letting you go. “Later, cher.”

“Bye, Y/N!”

You smiled, waving to Torres. “Bye, kid. Keep out of trouble.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

You chuckled, shaking your head as you walked out the door Bucky disappeared through earlier, turning down the hall to exit the building.

When you got outside, you found Bucky leaning against a wall, narrowed eyes watching the police as they finished the raid. “Do you agree with it?”

“What?”

“These people getting arrested.”

You shrugged, shoving your hands in your pockets. “They harbored a criminal.”

He looked at you with a frown, eyebrows knit together and forehead creased. “We harbored a criminal. We broke him out.”

“Technically he broke himself out.” Your joke fell flat, Bucky’s head dropping. “Buck…” You sighed, eyes following a lady as she was shoved into the back of a car. “No. I don’t. I think these people have been through enough.”

“But?” His eyes grew sad as you met his gaze again, making you smile softly at him.

“But we can’t do anything about it right now. So we need to focus on doing what we can and finding Zemo.”

He nodded, reaching for your hand as he straightened and started walking off. You grabbed his fingers, jogging slightly to fall into sync with his strides. He seemed to notice and slowed down slightly. “We already know where he is, though. Don’t we?”

You hummed, thumb brushing over his knuckles. “Where else would he be?”

“Anywhere.”

You shook your head. “No. He’s there. Question is…how are you going to take care of him?”

“Sam thinks I’m gonna kill him.”

His blunt statement made you raise an eyebrow. “Are you?”

Licking his lips, he looked down at you, eyes set with certainty. “No.”

Your lips pulled up at his answer, leaning closer into him, shoulders brushing. “Good. Not that I’m an advocate for never killing people ever…it’s just,” you chewed on your cheek, thinking about the previous day’s events. “Revenge and justice are two different things.”

“Yeah.” He agreed softly. “We kinda witnessed that.”

“Yeah…we did.”

He let go of your hand to wrap an arm around your shoulders, tenderly avoiding your wrapped wound. “Good thing I contacted Ayo while you were sleeping then, huh?”

“You did?” You looked up at him with a smile as he nodded in confirmation.

“Yeah. And…I’ve been thinking a lot. Since our conversation about Wakanda and Zemo and Sam. You were right.”

A smirk graced your lips, an eyebrow quirking in amusement. “Pardon me? I don’t think I heard you correctly. What was that?”

He rolled his eyes, reaching over with his free hand to shove your head lightly, making you laugh. “You are such a punk sometimes. I’m serious though, doll. I-I’ve been…I dunno…I haven’t been thinking straight. The whole thing with Zemo was wrong and-and Sam didn’t deserve what I was blaming him for.”

You froze in your steps, tugging him to a stop as well, staring at him thoughtfully. Just since that phone call a couple weeks ago he’d grown so much. You could barely believe what he was saying - that he was finally saying it. He was a stubborn ass sometimes, so to hear him say that? It just stunned you. You knew he was a good person, but this…you felt yourself falling more, which you thought was impossible.

“Doll? Why’re you lookin’ at me like that?”

Your arms raised around his neck, tugging him down into a hug, your lips pressing to his cheek. “I’m just proud of you.” You murmured softly, kissing his temple. He ducked his head, leaning against your shoulder, arms wrapping tightly around your waist. You held him like for another minute or two, before kissing his temple again. “We should get going. Gotta get to Sokovia before the Dora do.”

He hummed in agreement, pulling you tighter against him and squeezing you slightly, before letting go. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

“Question.” You said once you two started walking again.

“Possible answer.” He replied, making you elbow him as he chuckled.

“How’re we gonna get to Sokovia?”

He blinked, tilting his head. “Uh…plane? Unless you wanna have a road trip. The plane would only take a couple hours at most and a car, well…I could have us there in under a day with some broken traffic laws.”

You giggled, shaking your head. “Know what? I could go for a road trip right now.”

“Yeah?” He grinned at you.

“Yeah. And yes, you can drive. Just don’t get us in the middle of a high speed chase.”

He winked, kissing your head. “No promises.”

**********************

Bucky was actually a very good road trip partner. He made sure you had plenty of your snacks and let you control the music, turning up the volume for your favorite songs, shouting the lyrics to the heavens as you danced in your seat, the windows rolled down, wind ripping through the car, ruffling both of your clothes and hair.

You grinned over at Bucky, bobbing your head to the beat as he stared back at you, his eyes soft and sparkling. “Watch the road, dork!” He chuckled as you shoved his face.

“I’d much rather watch you.”

You felt yourself heat up despite the cool breeze moving through the car. “Have you ever stuck your head out the sunroof?” You suddenly asked him.

He gave you a weird look. “What?” Feeling a bit mischievous, you smirked and unbuckled. “Woah, woah! What are you doing?! But your seatbelt back on!”

“Oh calm down!” You stood on the seat after opening the sunroof, the top half of your body outside the car. He laughed as you whooped and hollered.

“Alright, alright. Sit back down, doll.” He tugged you back in, shaking his head. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this.”

You smiled, putting your seatbelt back on and plopping your feet on the dash. “Like what?”

He turned to look at you, his teeth pulling his bottom lip between them contemplating. “Carefree. Relaxed, even.”

You shrugged, leaning back in your seat. “I don’t get to do it often. But it’s so hard to care right now.” You gestured out to the gorgeous landscape you were moving through, the sunsetting on the horizon. “The wind, the music, the open road. Nothing feels more like freedom.”

“Yeah…yeah. I guess. I’ve never really…been on a road trip. Unless you count going across Germany in that little blue car-”

“Ha! That was not a road trip! That was Steve being a reckless dumbass driver for a few hours.”

He laughed. You’d heard him laugh before, but this was different. Something about the freedom you were talking about made it different. It was nice. And you’d do anything to hear it more often.

“I’ll take you on a real road trip once this is done.” You vowed. “We’ll hit all the states. Even go through Canada to get to Alaska. Nothing but us in a car for weeks. Wherever we wanna go.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that.”

You winked. “You do that.”

Conversation died after that, the only sounds being you and your music with the occasional chuckle from Bucky at your over dramatic dancing. You made a few stops at gas stations, getting food and drinks, before you felt yourself start winding down as the stars came out, winking down at you. You didn’t even realize you drifted off until the car jostled, waking you up.

“Sorry, sleepyhead.” Bucky apologized. “There was a deer. Maybe if you put your seatbelt on you would’ve stayed asleep.”

You rolled your eyes, rubbing at them and blinking. It was still dark out, no hint of the sun peeking out yet. “They’re uncomfortable.” You grumbled, shifting and wincing at your leg which was still asleep. “What time is it?”

“Almost two.” Bucky answered. “Are you okay? Is your shoulder hurting?”

“No. My leg’s just asleep so it feels weird and it’s aching. You want me to drive so you can sleep?”

“Nah, it’s fine. We’ll be there in a few hours. I’ve got it.”

You hummed, sitting up and digging through your bag for some food. “Hungry?”

“Uh…I’ll just take a bag of pretzels.” Nodding, you grabbed one of the bags and handed it to him. It was quiet, the radio now turned low on some jazzy station you were sure Bucky turned it to once you fell asleep. “I’ve been thinking-”

“Hope you didn’t hurt yourself.” He shot you a bemused look, making you giggle. “Sorry. Go ahead.”

“I’ve been thinking of that fight. With Walker.”

You tensed, clearing your throat as you munch on your snack. “Oh?”

Glancing at him out of the corner of your eye, you saw him lick his lips, setting the bag down on the middle console, his grip on the steering wheel tightening. “When you were fighting him…why-why’d you hesitate?”

“What do you mean?”

He glanced over at you quickly, forehead creased. “You had the shield. You were holding your own. I’m sure Steve taught you some stuff…but then…” He trailed off, seemingly trying to find words. “It was like that first fight. On the semi trucks. You hesitated. Got distracted. Why?”

You shrugged, turning back to your food nonchalantly. “I guess I just had a lot on my mind. That’s all.”

“I know you better than that, doll. Please don’t lie to me.” Turning to the window, you just noticed that yours wasn’t down anymore. You look over to his side to see his was only a little cracked open. “I didn’t want you to wake up so I rolled them up. Answer the question.”

Letting out a sigh, you shrugged again. “I’ve been having…flashbacks.”

“Flashbacks?”

You nodded, sipping on your water bottle. “Yeah. Kinda like PTSD, but it’s not. Not really. They’re never traumatic or anything.”

You could see the gears in his head turning, his jaw clenching. “What are they about then?”

“Steve.”

The tension in his shoulders slipped, his head ducking while still keeping his eyes on the road. “Oh…why…why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t want anyone to worry about me with all the other problems we’re having-”

“Hey.” Your eyes snapped up from where they fell at his sharp tone, his gaze meeting yours. “Don’t ever think that. Ever. You’re not a fucking burden, Y/N. You’re important to me. I-” He cut himself off, shaking his head and looking back out the front. “Does Sam know at least?”

You pursed your lips. “I-I told Sharon?”

He groaned, head falling back against the seat. “Sweetheart…”

“They’re just memories. It’s not a big deal.”

“It is if it’s affecting you on the field. And if it’s gonna get you or someone else hurt-”

Crossing your arms, you shifted in your seat, feeling the ache in your legs from sleeping in that position too long. “What? You don’t trust me now?”

“No! That’s not what I’m saying!”

“What’re you saying, Buck? You can’t have me watching your back because my mind’s messed up right now?” The car came to a halt and you sat up, looking around worriedly to see if any cars were coming. “James, we’re in the middle of the street-”

“Look at me.” You turned to him, only to look away at the intensity of his eyes. “Doll. Look at me.” He repeated tenderly, grabbing your chin between his fingers, making you face him. “I trust you.” His tone was nothing but genuine, and you’d never seen him look so sincere. “With my life, I trust you. But if your head isn’t in it? It’s okay, you just need to tell someone. When did you start trusting me?”

“At the airport in Germany.” You answered quietly.

He tilted his head. You kinda missed his long hair - the way it used to get in his eyes and you’d have to brush it behind his ear. “Even though I could still get triggered?”

“Well, yeah. But that’s different! You wouldn’t have been in your right…mind if you were…triggered…”

He raised an eyebrow as you frowned. “Trusting you and trusting your mental state are two different things. I’d know. Sometimes our brain’s do stupid things and we can’t stop it. But we can get help.”

You sighed, hanging your head. “Okay. Alright. I got it. You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Just…tell me about it.”

You nodded, before looking at the road. “Okay, okay. But can you drive? We’re still in the middle of the road.”

He chuckled and nodded, starting up the car again. After a moment, he glanced at you. “So?”

Another sigh left your lips, before you told him. You told him what’s triggered you so far and what the memories were about. How it feels when you slip. “It’s like, I remember something and my mind latches onto it and won’t let me out until I relive it again.” He just nodded, never interrupting as you explained what was going on.

It felt good to finally get it off your chest. And it felt good knowing he wasn’t freaking out and pulling you from the mission like you thought he’d do. It was something you hadn’t done in a long time. The last person who sat down and listened to your problems was Steve and the fact that you felt comfortable enough around Bucky to pour out your soul made you realize that Steve was gone. But Bucky was here. And maybe it was time to let go.

Bucky looked over to you when you stopped talking abruptly, cocking his head to the side. “Sweetheart? You alright?”

You lunged forwards, hugging his shoulders, burying your face in his neck. Fortunately for you, he had great reflexes, or else you’d probably be wrapped around a tree. You couldn’t care about the what ifs though. Sniffing, you closed your eyes, a couple tears leaking down your cheeks and landing on the skin connecting his shoulder to his neck.

“Thank you.”

It was so soft and muffled by his shirt, you weren’t sure if he heard it. But then he set his cheek on your head, his hand coming up to run through your hair like you did to him when he needed comfort. “C’mere, cuddle bug.” He cradled your head, shifting you easily so you could lay down comfortably, your legs curled in your seat, your head in his lap, taking extra care that your shoulder wasn’t agitated. “Try to get more sleep, doll. We’ll be there soon.”

You nodded, sleep taking over you once more with Bucky’s fingers in your hair, soft jazz still floating through the air along with the slight whistle of the wind from the crack in his window.

****************

You leaned against the hood of the car, crossing your arms, watching Bucky pull on a shirt. You had stopped at a rest stop to clean up and change, just a few more miles until you got to the memorial.

“Ayo’s there already.” Bucky spoke, shrugging on his jacket. You pushed off the hood of the car to pull him closer by the sides of his jacket, your fingers moving to button it. “I just…I want a couple minutes alone with him.”

You nodded. “Okay. I can do that.”

“You trust me right?”

“More than anything.” You confirmed, looking up at him, smoothing his jacket down with your hands.

He nodded, leaning forwards to kiss your forehead. “I just - I just need you to know…I’m not gonna kill him.”

You nodded back, smiling softly at him. “I know.”

“Okay…let’s get going then. Get this over with.”

It didn’t take you long to reach the memorial, only a few more minutes down the main street and then going off down a side road.

Just as Bucky said, the Dora Milaje were already there, waiting for the two of you to show up. Bucky and Ayo had a conversation in Xhosa - which you were really regretting not learning anything more than “hi”, “please”, “thank you”, and “where’s the bathroom?” - before he turned to you.

“Stay with them. Just...I just need a couple minutes.” You nodded, eyes flickering down to the gun he pulled out from his coat pocket. He hooked a finger under your chin, lifting your gaze back to him. “Trust me.”

“Sometimes our brains do stupid things.”

He shook his head, kissing your forehead. “Not this time. ‘Cause I have help.”

Pursing your lips, you nodded. He gave you a reassuring smile, before stepping away, out of the trees to face Zemo. You couldn’t hear what was being said, but you had to admit that when Bucky lifted the gun, your heart skipped a beat. But he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. He promised.

The quiet click of the gun seemed to echo, a pressure lifting off your chest as the bullets spilled from Bucky’s hand, clattering against the ground.

You figured that was the signal, considering Ayo led her badass women out to grab Zemo right after the bullets hit the ground, so you followed them out. You stopped next to Bucky, his hand slipping out of his pocket to wrap around your shoulders, tugging you to his side, your arms wrapping around his waist.

“I was listening to your heartbeat. You get nervous for a second, doll?”

You hummed in response to his question in your ear. “I trust you…but that doesn’t mean you don’t raise my anxiety levels.”

He snickered, kissing your temple, before straightening to listen to what Ayo had to say as she stepped towards you. She informed you both that Zemo would be going to the Raft and told Bucky to stay away from Wakanda for a while; both very fair statements that you weren’t surprised to hear. What you were surprised to hear was Bucky’s next sentence.

“I may have another favor to ask of you.”

Ayo raised an eyebrow, signaling for him to go on. Bucky caught your eye and his lips twitched up into a small smirk, before he faced her again and started speaking Xhosa, making you groan.

After their conversation, Ayo nodded. “We will drop it off here tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you.”

You pouted as Ayo turned to walk to their ship, Bucky starting to lead you back to the car. “You’re not gonna tell me what that was about, are you?”

“Nope.”

You huffed. “You’re the worst, you know that?”

He chuckled. “You’ll find out.”

“Soon?”

“Depends.”

“On what?”

Bucky shrugged, pulling open the passenger side door for you. “On when Sam wants you to see it.”

You narrowed your eyes, a smile spreading on your face. “You got Sammy a present?”

“Maybe.”

You groaned, sliding into the car before he shut the door, watching him jog to his side. “You’re so annoying.” You spoke once he got in and started the vehicle again.

“If you feel that way, you don’t have to come to Louisiana with me to drop it off.”

Scoffing, you gaped at him in disbelief. “You’re kidding, right?”

He shrugged, turning in his seat and putting his hand on the back of your headrest to back out of the spot he parked in. “If I’m so annoying-”

“You’re so dramatic!”

“I thought I was annoying?”

“You’re both!”

He grinned at you, before looking through the windshield, blinking as something occurred to him. “I dunno where we’re going. We have to come back tomorrow morning-”

“Just drive, Buck.”

He blinked at you, eyebrows raising in slight shock. “What?”

You shrugged, nodding your head to the road. “Drive. Wherever we want, remember? Just until tomorrow. We can go back to reality after we pick up Sammy’s gift, but for now-”

“Just drive?” He guessed, the corners of his lips pulling up.

You smirked, shooting him a wink before propping your feet up on the dash again, turning up the radio, and linking your hands behind your head. “Exactly, Buckaroo.”

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slothspaghettiwrites · 3 years

Text

Let's Marvin Gaye and Get It On

Story Rating: Explicit, 18+ only

Kink: Car Sex - having sex or performing sexual acts in a car.

Warnings: Car Sex, bird nonsense, ‘mating’ season, fluff, pining, a little messy and sloppy, hand jobs, I'm sorry about your car.

Relationships: Harpy!Sam Wilson x Male!Reader

Word Count: 2008

A/N: Harpy - A rapacious monster described as having a human's head and body and a bird's wings and claws or depicted as a bird of prey with a human's face. But make it soft and sweet and silly.

This work has Adult Content. By clicking “Keep Reading” you have agreed that you are over the age of 18 and are willing to view such content. My work is not to be copied or translated onto any other platform. I have discontinued my taglist - follow @slothspaghettilibrary to be notified of when I post new fics.

He was beautiful. The way he moved through the air like it was by the grace of the gods, like the sky was so lucky as to have him there amongst the clouds and breeze. A whirlwind of feathers and skin shining under the later afternoon sun.

Sam landed on the training paddock with a flourish, shaking out his wings and removing the new field gear you had requested he test out. The newer, lighter pack and boosters helped to shield him from gun fire and return fire while in flight. He knelt down to remove the training weights from his ankles and sighed, stretching out his talons before giving you a smile that set your heart fluttering like hummingbird wings.

"So what do you think? Anything need adjusting?"

“Dude, you ask me that every time, what do I always say?”

“Yeah, yeah,” you said, a sheepish smile on your face recalling all the ways Sam has praised your craftsmanship, compared you to Tony Stark even.

You took the gear from him and turned to head back into the compound. You wanted to talk to him more, the start of conversations forming on the tip of your tongue but falling short. Sam was a busy guy, he had stuff to do, hero stuff you were sure, and you shouldn’t keep him away from that. Soft feathers tickled your neck when he wrapped his arm around you, your whole body stiffening at the contact to avoid melting into his warmth and safety.

“So tonight, all the cool people are going out for drinks, and you should definitely come along.”

He smiled at you, the one that was blinding and cheeky and, you hoped, flirty. You’d been trying very hard to not fall into the pit of doom that was an office crush, but Sam Wilson was impossible to deny. You practically dove head first into that pit after the first time you were assigned to upgrade his flight gear. He was kind, hilarious, unfairly gorgeous. How could you not fall for him?

You agreed to meet up at the bar with everyone after the end of your shift. Coworkers enjoying a few beers to destress after a long week at work, bros hanging out, you could do that. Nothing about the invite implied anything remotely romantic, but it didn’t stop you from fussing in your rearview mirror before getting out of your car.

The team was easy to spot inside, easily the biggest and loudest group. Clint and Bucky were already arm wrestling, Natasha and Sharon had a small crowd of men around them, and Sam was nowhere in sight. You weren't going to let that get you down though, quickly joining Scott and a few other lab techs and engineers who tagged along. It was easy, chatting with friends about different projects and getting caught up in Scott's magic tricks. You were completely distracted from what was happening in the far corner of the bar.

"All right, all right, all right everybody! Tonight's first round of karaoke will be performed by the one, the only, The Falcon."

A round of applause erupted as Sam took the stage. As the music started to play, Scott shook your shoulders, giving you this look like you were supposed to know what that meant. You looked back up at the stage to cheer on Sam and he was looking directly at you.

"Tryin' to hold back this feeling for so long," he sang.

Oh.

Oh gods.

Sam pointed directly at you, "Let's get it on."

You were on fire, surely. Your crush was serenading you. In public. In front of his friends. His voice was deep, angelic, and soaking your brain in those warm fuzzy feelings that made your insides turn to mush. He started dancing slowly to the music, some of his feathers flared, wings and chest puffing out. Heat rose in your cheeks as he continued to sing to you, completely ignoring the men and women fawning over him closer to the stage. All of the team was looking at you with sly smiles, Clint wiggling his eyebrows at you and Scott giving you a thumbs up.

As the song came to an end you rushed up to the stage and grabbed Sam's hand, his longer talons circling your hands. It was easy to drag him out to the parking lot. It was easy to let Sam pull you into a kiss before you could even unlock the car doors. It was easy convincing Sam to get in the back seat.

It wasn't easy convincing yourself that maybe the parking lot of a karaoke bar was the best place for your first time with Sam. Not that you were really ready, or prepared. Your back seat wasn't really where you store lube and condoms anymore. This kind of stuff didn't really happen with how busy your work shifts were nowadays and-

"Fuck," Sam groaned, rolling his hips into yours, pressing his hard cock into your hip, talons digging into your shirt. "I've wanted to ask you for two damn mating seasons to go with me. Jus' didn't know how, but now, gods, I can't get enough of ya."

Every heated confession he moaned against your skin sent shivers down your spine. You sealed your lips to his, fingers dipping into the feathers that decorated his shoulders, until it wasn't enough. You needed to feel Sam everywhere. He seemed to agree just as much, but he didn't seem to be as considerate as you in the moment.

A talon sliced through the front of your shirt, your chest stuttering as the tip grazed your skin. His eyes were born wide, gaze stuck on the way your body reacted to his. Only when you said his name did he look at you, that smile you hoped was always flirtatious on his lips.

You kissed his lips, soft and plush against yours. His desire was euphorically grounding, like finally the right amount of gravity was resting on you. It was your turn to roll your hips with him pinning you down like that, show him how much you wanted him and needed him right then. Months of pining and trying not to think of his talons digging into the flesh of your ass were coming to an end. You were going to know exactly how that felt, how his feathers would feel tickling all of you and not just your neck, how his cock would feel.

"Fuck, Sam, if you don't fuck me right now I might explode."

"You have lube, dove?"

You pause, catching breath while his question seeps into your brain. "You sing me that Marvin Gaye song and you don't bring lube, Wilson?"

"I honestly didn't think I'd make it this far, every time I flirted with you, you didn't flirt back."

"Oh my gods," you groaned, your head falling back against the fake leather seat and closing your eyes in embarrassment.

Sam laughed, a deep rumbling sound that came from his chest and shook the whole vehicle. His forehead knocked against yours lightly, his nose tracing yours until you opened your eyes. Gods, he was beautiful, pure fucking light and joy. You pulled him down for another kiss, whining when his talons wrapped around the back of your neck.

You moved your hand down his naked chest, fingers dancing over the expanse of muscles on his stomach. His body was so warm, feathers around his hips softer than you thought they'd be. He nipped at your bottom lip before biting and kissing at your neck. The need for more, more touching, more action, made your hands shake as they undid Sam's pants.

At the first touch of your hand running through the short feathers to grab his cock, Sam's wings puffed and slammed into the front seat and back window of the car. You laughed when he grumbled, an apology falling from your lips even when his other hand undid your pants.

While you didn't nearly jump out of the car, you did whimper when Sam's taloned hand wrapped around your dick. It was ecstasy, warmth pooling in your belly while sparks shot up your spine and made your head feel fuzzy. And when he started moving that hand, sharp claws teasing your delicate skin, it was almost too much. You wished you could see it. How different, and yet the same, his body looked next to yours, how his cock looked wrapped in your hand, how his hand looked wrapped around your neck.

He shuddered as you started to move your hand to the same rhythm.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," he groaned, pushing his face into your neck, mouthing at your pulse. "Jus' matin' season makes everythin' really intense."

"Just let me know if it's good, we can stop-"

"I swear, I'll molt all over this damn car if you stop," Sam hissed.

He fucked into your fist now more than you were stroking him. His cock leaked over your fingers, dribbling down and coating his own fingers still wrapped around your cock. The tip of his cock kept pumping into yours, a moan catching in your throat each time the wet tip touched your heated skin. More, more, more, you needed more and you needed it now before you both completely lost it.

"Fuck, Sam,” you grunted, hips grinding up to meet his, throwing your head back and hitting the arm rest. “Shit.”

“That’s right, dove, c’mon, wanna see ya make a mess,” he whispered against your ear, breath hot, panting against you.

He moved his hand from your neck and gripped the seat, his other hand letting go of your cock. You whimpered at the loss of friction and tugged at the feathers at the base of his skull, wordlessly demanding he touch you again.

“Hush now, dove, I got ya.” He pushed himself, smiling deviously before he moved your sticky hand away from his cock as well.

Sam took both cocks into his hand, the slick glide against your sensitive skin the more you were desperate for. He slowly moved his fist up, a talon catching the little dribble of the precum leaking from your cock. You moaned into his mouth, your lips right there to kiss him, but not sealing it. Not yet.

“Gods, fuck, faster, I wanna cum, please, Sam, please.” Your sticky hand grappled for something to use as leverage, anything just so you could rock your hips harder into Sam’s.

Arousal burned in your gut, your cock covered in the slick leaking from Sam, his feathers taunting your exposed skin. Sweat clung to your skin, making you slide on the seat with each thrust of your hips. It didn’t matter, you were so close you just wanted to cum, wanted Sam to cum all over your stomach. Your hand slipped off the center console, forcing you to fall back against the seat and Sam to move too hard and fast, gripping your cocks hard to steady himself.

"Sam!"

You squealed, a sound you didn't know you could make, but quickly forgotten as cum painted his fist. Your cock dribbled out all it could while Sam moved with more urgency. Every other word out of his mouth now was laced with praise and desperation.

"So fuckin' gorgeous, damn, wanna hear you screaming my name over and over again, dove. Fuckin' music, shit, I'm gonna cum, I'm gonna-"

His lips slammed down on to your slack mouth, tongue swiping across yours, when he came. It coated your stomach and chest, hot and sticky. Sam's cum covered the both of you, ropes of it gluing you together. You broke the kiss off with a contented sigh, a lazy smile on your lips. He kissed your face, your neck, anywhere he could reach before he finally settled his forehead against yours.

The sound of fabric ripping forced you to come down from the clouds and open your eyes.

"Sorry," he winced, flexing the talons on his hand.

"Next time, we are doing this in your car."

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