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#it's the black kit I am telling you
trennoandgreggo · 2 years
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I wasn't ready for this 🫣😵‍💫
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screamingfromuz · 6 months
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Hi there! I am reaching out because someone sent me a question about how to help Gazan civilians without accidentally helping Hamas or spreading more hate against Israelis. I honestly feel lost on this myself, but as far as I can tell you are someone who has done real activism in Israel. Do you have suggestions for diaspora Jews who want to help fight for peace?
So a small disclaimer to the Gaza problem. We have 2 main problems with getting aid into Gaza, the first is the limited amount of aid that is allowed in, sending more money cannot make it go in faster. Problem number 2 is that much of the physical aid ends in Hamas's hands or in the black market and there is nothing we can do with that. I have heard recommendations to wait and see who opens a field hospital on the Rafah border crossing, and donate to them. Despite that, here are some charities to help Palestinians both in and out of Gaza.
I will admit, most of my activism is focused on deradicalization on the Israeli side and solidarity work, so I had to ask around for some of those charities. Some of the groups I know of do not currently have an international donation link, so if I get more good ones, I'll make another post.
Gaza:
Medical aid for Palestinians-
Anera-
Doctors without borders-
Palestinians outside of Gaza and Peace movements:
Palestinian red Crescent- they also work in Gaza, but as the main source for Palestinian ambulances in the WB, I put them here.
mistaclim (Looking the occupation the the eye)- this group is helping to protect Palestinians from the illegal settlers
Keshet- this is a big one. they support Bedouin communities in normal times, and now they are working on getting bomb shelters to the unrecognized villages, and providing a mental health first aid line.
standing together- totally biased, as I am a member of this organization.
Women wage peace- a feminist based solidarity group
Haqel- they represents Palestinians in cases related to land ownership and access. there work is still ongoing even during the war
Center for Jewish non Violence - a diaspora org that also does a lot of work in the South Hebron Hills.
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normansnt · 3 months
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Knight in shining armor
(Hazbin Adam x singer!male reader)
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(Not my art, idk whose sorry I got it from pinterest but credits to the artist cuz he would SO wear that I cant😭)
Warnings: fist fight
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"FUCK YEAAHHHHHH THATS MY BOYFRIEND MF" yelled Adam to a random person at your concert.
He always did that. Whenever he went to one of your concerts (always, I am not kidding the man has not missed a single one) he yelled to every one of your songs because he knew them inside out and after each song he yelled to someone that you're his boyfriend.
It was sweet in your eyes he was truly your number one fan. However on more than one occasion this has gotten out of hand. Like right now.
Sometimes people get annoyed at his yelling even though it is a rock concert he is still the loudest one. But this time it was different. This time something happened that actually bothered him.
He was yelling about how much he loves you and how you are his boyfriend again when he overheard something that he didn't like.
"For real? That gorgeous singer is dating that flop no fucking way."
"I know right? I gotta say I wouldn't mind hearing the singers voice moaning my-" Adam didn't wait longer to hear the end of the sentence he straight on punched that guy.
"I fucking DARE you to finish that sentence." Adam literally growled. Even though this was heaven, assholes were present here too.
The fight got so big that you had to stop your performance and stop it.
"Adam- Adam stop" you tried to get your boyfriend off of the two guys who he was now fighting.
"Let me go babe, I'm gonna fucking murder those two mother fuckers-"
"Adam, they already had enough you won." You tried arguing with him while you dragged him to your dressing room. The two guys laying on the floor beaten to pulp.
Once you closed the door, the ruckus outside got just a bit quieter and you could finally take a deep breath.
"What happened this time?" You asked your boyfriend while getting the first aid kit and patching him up. He was much better of than the other guys thats true. But he still had some scratches and a black eye.
Adam told you the whole story of what happened and you listened intently while gently putting some alcohol at a deep cut on his nose.
"And then I was like- aww fuck babe warn me next time" he started whining because of the alcohol.
You sighed.
"Listen Adam, I appreciate what you did, those pigs said some disgusting shit and you were a great knight in shining armor but I worked really hard to get this gig and you know that" you said trying to be as gentle as possible.
"Babe, your boyfriend is the fucking Adam, tell me where you want to preform and you'll get in within seconds I can take care of that."
"I know Adam but I really wanna accomplish some things on my own." You sighed again.
Adam knew he fucked up, he sees first hand how much work you put into your music. But he just couldn't help it this is the kind of thing that pisses him off to no end. His first two wives left him for someone else and even though he might act confident he was terrified that you would leave him, too. He didn't want to loose someone he loved so much.
You put your hand on his cheek and made him look at you.
"Hey, its ok I understand." Thats all you needed to say. You knew about Lilith and Eve leaving him. And you knew how insecure he actually felt. You have been dating for almost 6 years now you knew him way too well.
You kissed him to let him know that you weren't mad. He kissed back with enthusiasm, he loved kissing you. It might be true that he has kissed a lot of people before you came along but he always said that you were his favorite kisser of all time. He just loved the feeling of your lips against his.
"(Y/N)...I- listen I mean what I said really, wherever you wanna play I can hook you up."
You chuckled lightly. You knew this was the closest thing you are gonna get out of him as an apology, the man was not good at apologizing. But you already knew that, and loved him nonetheless.
"I know honey I know." You put your forehead on his.
The wholesome moment was interrupted when you both started hearing chanting from outside.
"Is that-?"
"THEY ARE CHANTING YOUR NAME BABY COME ON GET YOUR BRETTY ASS OUT THERE"
And there he was again, your stupid boyfriend.
You laughed an snatched up your guitar.
"All right baby you wanna watch from back stage?" You asked back as you held out your hand to him.
"FUCK YEAAHH"
And with that you two walked out of your dressing room laughing.
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HE IS JUST A STUPID LITTLE MEN HELP I LOVE HIM SM IDK WHY😭😭
Hope you guys enjoyed😘~
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russellsppttemplates · 4 months
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Uh oh, I'm falling in love (Lando Norris)
Y/N and Lando both have jobs that require good sight and attention to detail and yet they're oblivious to their feelings for eachother
Note: english is not my first language. I'm in a very fluffy mood, so I got really excited when I got this request! This also makes my expectations even higher and calls me single in about seventeen different languages at once...
Thank you so much to everyone who likes and reblogs, your feedback is appreciated 🤍 and I'm taking requests so if you have any ideas or concepts you want to share, feel free to do so as I'll try to get to them the best I can!
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Tw: mentions a needle (for sewing)
Tag list: @myloverjk-blog
"Hey guys! How's everyone?", Max said to the camera as you made sure the set up was right, the screen showing his and Lando's faces on one screen and the table on the other like it was supposed to.
"As per your many, many requests, we have brought our graphic designer at Quadrant, Y/N", Lando announced as you appeared on camera, sending a very awkward first wave to the camera, "today's stream is little different than our usual programming, but it was the only way she agreed to be in one! You guys really wanted to see her, so we had to be creative!", Max said as he moved the friendship bracelets making kit into view on the table.
"Hey, Queen Taylor said we should make the friendship bracelets, so we're just following her!", you chuckled, looking at all the coloured threads and colourful beads, sorting them out and grabbing a pen and paper so you could draw your ideas.
"Since you guys wanted to get to know Y/N, can I tell them to send in questions?", Lando questioned you, "sure, I'll answer them to the best of mu ability", you smiled.
You were picking the letters you needed for the bracelet you were making when Max spoke up, "first one: how did you start working with Quadrant? I'd love to work on the team when I finish my degree!".
"I saw the job offer, and I must admit at first I didn't really know much about the company. I looked it up, looked cool enough and I sent my CV and portfolio in. So keep your eyes peeled for any offers, I guess? We have them now on the website, which was my doing, so you can check them out there if you want to be part of the team", you offered.
"I need help, guys", Lando said as he fiddled with his bracelet, the orange and grey beads with his initials sliding on the elasticated material, I can't do the closing knot on my own", he pouted as you placed your bracelet down.
"You have to flip it like this, here. Just put it on your wrist and I'll do the rest", you ushered him, your fingertips gingerly touching his hand and wrist as you quietly laced it, "this way we don't get frilly bits out and it looks pretty, see? Pretty!", you smiled, modelling his wrist for the camera.
Pretty, that's what he often thought about you. Not only pretty, but it was one of the first physical traits that came to mind.
"We should all have matching ones!", Max said as he completed his bracelet, impressively on his own, revealing the colourful beads with Quadrant spelled in white round beads with black letters, "I'll make one for each of you", he said as he watched you show your own, pink beads and a lyric he assumed was from a Taylor Swift song.
"I'll make Y/N's, she helped me after all", Lando said as one brave fan sent a comment into the chat.
He's so giddy to make Y/N a bracelet, it's a shame it will snap because of his lack of skills
Am I delusional if I say that they'd make a great couple?
If you're delusional, then what do I call myself? I still think they're making heart eyes at eachother whenever they catch the slightest glimpse!
We're joining forces, I think it's a noble pursuit!
He's a dork, Y/N, but you should give him a chance
Have you always known you wanted to be a graphic designer?
"I thought about different careers before I settled on this one, for now at least", you explained, "engineering was in the running up, but then I figured out that I was curious about how things worked, but that didn't mean that I wanted to be the one working on it. And this was a way to express my creativity, my strategy planning as well, and at the moment it's been quite good", you smiled as Lando grabbed your wrist softly, "I need to make sure this fits", he interrupted, "and it won't snap because I've learnt how to do it, thank you very much", he blushed. So he, too, was reading the comments, choosing not to dwell in them.
"Look, this way you always have a lucky charm with you everywhere you go, even if we're not together. We're eachothers lucky charms!", Lando announced as Max mafe a fake gagging noise.
.
"Are you all ready?", you said as you and Tara walked inside the room, clasping your watch on your wrist and hoping to find the boys ready.
Quadrant had been invited to a gala dinner that celebrated the companies in the same line of business, inviting five people to take part in the meal. After some team members politely declining the invitation since they had things booked already, the group ended up being Lando, Max, Callum, Tara and yourself.
The dress required everyone to up their usual style, hence the long dress you were wearing. Even though it was far from your usual everyday attire, you felt beautiful in the dress you ended up with after browsing the online shops for a while. The cut was simple, the skirt widening from your waist down and complimenting your curves as the sheen from the midnight blue fabric looked soft and sweet against your skin.
Lando seemed to think the same, trying his best to not let his mouth hang open when you and Tara walked inside their room, heels clicking on the wooden floor as you hurried them, "does it really take that long to put on a suit? I had to help Tara with the laces on her back and we still got ready faster than the three of you?", you asked, shaking your wrist to check if the dainty watch wasn't going to fall and that it wasn't too tight either.
Looking up to meet Lando's eyes, you were sure you physically and audibly gulped. No one should look that good in a plain white shirt. The cuffs were still unbuttoned, but the shirt itself was tucked in his black pants. He didn't have any jewellery, so his tanned skin caught your eye as it contrasted with his clothes.
"Lando has a problem with his shirt and we are trying to solve it", Max said, a little bit too antsy given that, at the naked eye, there didn't seem to be a big issue with the piece of clothing you had been inspecting quite closely.
"There was a loose button, and I tried to fix it, but I made it worse", Lando said as he pointed to the button on his hand, the slight movement showing you the place where it was supposed to he holding the piece together and closed.
"Three people in this room and no one thought about grabbing the sewing kit from the amenities?", Tara suggested, looking for it in the box that was the same as it was in your room, "see? Simple as that! Can you sew it, Y/N? My hand isn't fully healed yet, I can't quite grasp something that small yet".
Tara had injured herself earlier on in the week, prompting her to ask to tag out of the gala until you pleaded her to go so you wouldn't be alone, so she couldn't do it. None of the other guys seemed to even know how to pull the thread through the needle, so you grabbed the kit from Tara's hand, "sure, I'll do it", you said, "if that's okay with you, that is", you looked over at Lando.
"Sure, anything to solve this. Do I keep it on or should I take it off?", he questioned, wanting to slap himself straight after at his offer. Why would he volunteer to be shirtless in front of you? It certainly wasn't the way to go, shoving himself like that.
"On should be fine", you muttered, missing the snickers going on behind you as you wet the thread with your tongue, careful to not transfer any of the lipstick on it and ruining the piece without point of return for good, easily looping it through and adjusting the size of the ends.
"Button", you put your hand out so Lando could place it in your fingers, "I will do my best not to poke you, let me know if I do so accidentally", you mumbled at the closeness to him you found yourself in. It was the third button from the top, and as much as you loved the sight of the shirt slightly undone, the dinner required his shirt to be done up. Looping the thread on the button a few times, you moved to pierce the crisp white fabric so it would be secure, your hands dangerously close to his skin as you could hear his laboured breath. Lando still remembered and thought constantly about your fingers touching his hand and wrist when you did the friendship bracelets video for the YouTube channel, and right now, it only added to his predicament.
"It's done, all good!", you exclaimed, looking up as you cut the thread and seeing Lando's eyes on you. The intensity nearly threw you off of your balance as you stood the tiniest bit crouched down on your high heels.
Scrambling to further the distance between your bodies, you smoothed out the non existent wrinkles on your dress, storing the supplies back in the kit as Lando managed to utter out a thank you, too stunned and intoxicated by your scent to say anything else.
"I sewed a button as neither of you look any more ready that you were when we got here? We're going to be late!", you hurried, sitting next to Tara and ignoring her smirk as you scrolled through your phone.
.
"That shoot will have to wait since Lando won't be back here soon, then", you said, moving things around in the online shared calendar, "when did you say you could again? I'm sorry", you asked, rubbing your forehead and squeezing your eyes, adjusting your glasses and looking at him through the screen.
"The first weekend of the next month", Lando assured, "are you okay, Y/N?", he asked. The bags under your eyes didn't fool anyone and you looked tired. And sick, he guessed by the layers of clothing you had on.
"I had a pretty shit day, actually", you admitted, "I had to go with the guys from storage because there was an issue. The supplier sent the samples and we wanted to get things moving so I could have some ideas for the description and the social media team also wanted to prep the draft for the whole story telling, but it all went under. I also think I caught some bug, so it's been a fun day", you exaggeratingly smiled, mocking your own misery.
"You look like you need a hug, Y/N. Do you need a hug?", Lando asked as you nodded, "Actually, that would be pretty good, but I live alone. The neighbours would think I'm pretty weird if I went around like this asking for one, too", you reasoned.
Even though he wasn't next to you, Lando still managed to pull a smile out of you as he got up from the chair he was sitting in, hugging his laptop, "did you feel that hug?", he loudly wondered, "it's full of Get well soon fairy dust!", he smiled charmingly.
"Fairy dust, mate?", Callum wondered, reminding you of his presence in the videocall, "you try and spend more than a few hours with a little girl and you let me know. Mila has taught me all about fairy dust and princess magic", Lando added.
.
"How will we get out of here?", you wondered, starting to regret joining Lando, Max and Pietra when they said they were going to watch a football game. You loved the sport and you figured it would be a nice distraction after a work loaded week, but now, things were looking less than a distraction.
"We will let them space out once the game finishes, free up the roads as well because getting out of here will be a pain, too", Lando suggested.
The game granted your team a win and three points in the championship, the crowd going wild as they clapped, whistled and waved their scarfs, slowly leaving the stadium.
"Should we make a run for it now?", Pietra said, holding her boyfriend's hand as she allowed him to pull her away.
You followed Lando, thanking his choice of a colourful hoodie to wear today as it made it easier for you to spot him, "go in front of me, I'll back you up", he switched positions. You weren't having too much trouble until you were met with a ramp, people carelessly shoving others as they tried to leave as quick as they could, all with the same intent of avoiding traffic and crowded roads.
"Here, Y/N", you heard Lando as he grabbed your hand, lacing your fingers in his and pulling you along, excusing you two as you approached Max and Pietra again, "we're here", you tapped the blonde woman's shoulder with your free hand.
"Goodness, that was and adventure", she said once you reached the stadium car park, the crowd clearing up significantly as there was maybe another ten people headed the same way as you were now, "is everyone alright? I think someone stepped on my foot quite a few times, or many people stepped on it at various different times", you reasoned, walking alongside Lando still.
"Don't we need to hand the bracelets back?", Max said as he looked at the sign, taking his bracelet off and depositing it in the box in the booth, Pietra doing the same as you seemed distracted.
"Are you okay, Y/N?", Max asked, seeing you and Lando were still holding hands and, because of that, not taking off your bracelets.
"Yes, why wouldn't I be?", you scrunched your eyebrows, "we need to hand the bracelets back in, so I kind of need to have yours, too", he teased, looking at your hand still entwined with Lando's.
Removing your hand from Lando's as if it har started burning all of a sudden, you removed the bracelet, apologising quietly to the stadium employee as you thanked him, "shall we go now?".
"Dinner out?", Lando gulped, getting into the driver's seat, "Good idea, yes", Max added, sitting in the passenger's seat as you and Pietra sat in the back, your hand rubbing your other hand that had been laced with Lando's own one for a long time. Uh oh, you were falling in love.
.
The launch was finally over after an amazing response from the fans, leaving your heart happy and warm with a sense of mission accomplished.
"Is everything packed into the van?", you asked Tara, "yes, it's just this box. It has fragile things, so do you think you guys can take it in the car with you? It probably only fits at the front, so you'll have to squeeze in with the boys on the back", she smiled apologetically, "it's fine, we'll keep eachother warm like penguins do", you chuckled, holding the door open as she set the box safely.
Saying goodbye to her and the rest of the team, Max and Lando joined you, "You sit in the middle seat", Max pointed at you, opening the door ao you could scoot closer to Lando and he could get in.
"Could you tell me how long we have until get back?", Lando asked the driver, "with traffic at this hour, I'd say around 90 minutes", he smiled, turning on the blinker so he could leave the car park.
"Plenty of time for me to catch up on sleep, then!", you cheered, making yourself comfortable in the space you had, folding your scarf into an impromptu travel pillow, closing your eyes.
"Are you a snorer?", Max asked, making you blindly swat his thigh, "only when I'm sick, and lucky for you, I'm in presteen health, no blocked nose", you grumbled.
It didn't take you long to fall asleep. In the last week, all of the nights combined, you probably slept less than thirty hours, so your body was indeed in need of rest.
"And there it goes", Max said as your pillow undid itself, Lando lifting his shoulder in reflex so your head wouldn't drop drastically, landing on top of him, "Good thing she isn't our engineer, hm?", he chuckled, looking at how his bestfriend was looking at you like you hung the stars and the moon.
"I think I'm in love with Y/N", Lando whispered after he took your appearance in. You had forgone wearing make-up today, so he could see all your moles and scars, your pouty lips and the darkened skin under your eyes. It took everything in him to not bend down and kiss your forehead.
"Congrats on being the last one to find out, mate", Max added, shaking his head, "I genuinely thought you had some issue processing information, I'm glad to find out you don't.
"Now you just have to act on it, which is going to take you, what? Two, three more months?".
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randomshyperson · 4 months
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I Wanna Be Yours - Heart Shaped Series
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Chapter Summary: Once again separated, Wanda calls and brings news that changes everything, whether for better or for worse, it's still too early to say.
Warnings: (+18), making out, shapeshifting smut, intimate and unprotected s*x, creampie, fingering (both), slightly power dynamics, fluff and mild angst, avengers fighting like a family, brief mention of violence and injuries, some humor. | Words: 7.087k
A/N-> Am I getting too addicted to writing Shapeshifter Reader? Maybe. What can I do, it's so fun. Also, this is kinda late 'cause I spend the whole weekend watching Orphan Black (it's amazing). I hope you all like this, it took me some time, good reading!
General Masterlist | Wattpad | AO3 | Series Masterlist
-&-
Limping and bleeding, you kept moving. The suspenders of your uniform were unbuttoned and hanging around your waist, and you grunted in pain as you leaned against the wall of the secure apartment, needing a moment to overcome your fatigue to open the door.
Cleaning the wound in silence was the worst part; your powers were messed up by the whole thing, and even though you tried to change, the blood kept coming out and you were forced to find a sewing kit and solve the problem.
Half an hour later, on the living room carpet still trying to stop shaking, your cell phone rang.
You thought it was Valentina, wanting to know if the whole thing had worked out. You almost cursed under your breath, this checking habit of hers always irritated you; the jobs always worked out, especially if the payment was made in advance. You were a professional, and the attitude carried an insinuation that you would fail, and if Valentina continued with it, perhaps it would be better for her to find someone else for the job. 
But in a way, you knew that all this lack of patience had other reasons: with every stray bullet, every insult, and more difficult fight, you wondered what was the point of it all. You remembered Wanda Maximoff smiling at you, kissing you, and started to wonder if taking all that risk was worth anything, especially when crime made it so difficult to have moments with that witch who wouldn't leave your thoughts.
And as if guessing, it was Wanda calling. You smiled immediately, feeling a little excited for the first time that morning.
It had been so long since you heard her voice. After everything that unfolded with the Avengers splitting up and being chased, and this latest intense mission which, despite being very well paid, made it practically impossible for you to visit her. At last, Wanda was calling.
"Little witch." You greeted as soon as you picked up, only to hear a heavy sigh on the other end that made you frown in confusion. "Wanda?"
She sniffled, and you ignored the pain in your body to sit up straight. "I have to tell you something."
"Is everything all right? Are you hurt? Are you with your friends?"
"Detka, please." She interrupts you. "Just listen, okay?"
"Wanda, you're scaring me."
"I'm all right." She assures you straight away. "I'm safe, I promise. But I have... to tell you something. And I need you not to freak out, because I'm scared and if you get scared too, I don't think I can manage."
You sigh uncertainly, but end up agreeing. "I'm listening."
It takes Wanda a whole moment where the only sound is her breathing on the line. Until finally; "I think I'm pregnant." Your immediate reaction is to frown in a mixture of confusion and surprise. You don't say anything because you don't know what to say, and your silence makes Wanda sniffle again. "You have to say something."
You open your mouth, only to let out a short, nervous laugh. "I know, I just... I don't know what."
Wanda sighs, looking like she's trying to control her emotions. "Okay, I didn't expect, well I don't know what I expected. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, we, I can take care of this and then-"
"Wait, what?" you interrupt. "Wanda, take a deep breath, okay? Just give me a second to think." You struggle to get to your feet, and with the injury, let out an involuntary grunt of pain. 
Wanda grips the phone tightly. "Where are you? Are you hurt?"
You chuckle weakly. "It's nothing, I've taken care of it." 
"Detka..."
"No, that's kind of funny actually." You continue, stumbling around the apartment after your suitcase. "And I don't say this to worry you, love, but I've barely made it out of this mission. I'm losing my touch, I guess, or maybe I just don't want this anymore. And when I was shot, I just had this really sad thought that if I died on that island, no one would care. The shooter would probably be very glad, and my boss would be annoyed at losing money but would surely find someone else for the job. What I'm trying to say is that I had no reason to get up, but then I thought, if I die here, my little witch will see my picture in the news and I don't want to go without saying goodbye. Wanda deserves at least a goodbye. So I got up, shot a few more assholes, and managed to escape to this dingy apartment and sewed myself back together, all the while wondering if this is what I really want to do with my life. The answer is no, Wanda. I don't want to have hundreds of people targeting me and risk my safety for a handful of jewels or whatever other shit I have to steal from narcissistic billionaires scattered around the world. I just want to lie next to you, and watch you laugh at some joke on TV, or have meals next to you and kiss you, you know? And now you call me, to give me the best news in the world over the goddam phone. That's not how it should be." You zipper up a suitcase with a few changes of clothes safely inside. "My only purpose is to be with you, Wanda Maximoff. I don't want to have this conversation miles away from you, so just hold on. I’ll come to you.”
This time, you know she's crying with happiness. She laughs tearfully as she says, "I'll be waiting, detka. Don't be long."
"I wouldn't dream of it."
Not surprisingly, the hardest part was getting to Wanda. Being a fugitive in the majority of nations has its disadvantages. It took almost two whole weeks for you to finally arrive at the address Wanda texted you, and unfortunately, you were late.
Only a very angry black widow was there to welcome you.
"I'm going to kill that girl." Nat declared as soon as she laid eyes on you. You tried to wave but ended up jumping in fright when a man's hand touched your shoulder. 
Steve Rogers and his nomad beard chuckled at your reaction. "You shouldn't be here, kid."
Recovering from the shock, you grimaced and pushed his hand away with a pat. "Don't kid me, Mr. America. And this is a free country, I can be wherever I want."
Nat chuckled, a hologram coming out from her watch reflecting brightly in the dimly lit room. The Avengers needed better safe houses, not even in your first years of crime did you stay in such a crappy loft. 
"That's a great one coming from an Interpol fugitive." He sneers back, but you lift your chin proudly.
"And what's it like being in this position? Have you come down off the moral high ground or do you still think you're better than the rest of us, Rogers?" You challenge, and although you sigh, Steve surprises you. 
He chuckles, shaking his head. "She's just like Wanda." He says to Nat from across the room, who clicks her tongue. 
"Yep, same punk-ass attitude." Grumbles the widow, but despite the grimace, it sounds more like a compliment than a curse. "I can't believe Wanda thought it was acceptable for her to share the location with anyone."
You snort incredulously. "I'm not 'anyone', Romanoff! I'm her…girlfriend!"
Nat rolls her eyes, ignoring your protest and Steve steps out of the doorway to approach his friend. "So Nat, is the place clean?"
The widow forces a smile. "Apart from the shapeshifter intruder, yes. We've left no clues behind. And considering the agent's new agenda, we're going to have a peaceful few weeks for the time being. Wilson and Maximoff can stop moving for a while."
"Good news at last." Steve commented, but you cleared your throat.
"Any chance of me catching a ride to the place Wanda won't have to flee from?" You ask, and their expression doesn't give you any more confidence. "Okay, I'll wait for her to give me the address and I'll go by myself."
Nat chuckles incredulously, taking a step forward. "It's astonishing how irresponsible you two are." She says. "I know it must be hard for you to think of anyone but yourself, but you need to stop putting her at risk."
You snort. "The only astonishing thing here is your judgment, Romanoff. Acting like you were born a hero. Have you forgotten everything you did before the Avengers or Shield?" You retort. "You're no better than me."
But Nat snorts, nodding. "The difference is that I never had a choice. I was trained from birth for it, I didn't know any other life until Barton and Fury gave me a chance. You revel in chaos."
You don't lose posture, even as emotion begins to rise in your chest. "You know nothing about me."
"But we know about Wanda." Steve interrupts the conversation, as accusatory as the widow. "After everything that happened in Sokovia, she's our responsibility. Our family. It's not something anyone who isn't an Avenger can understand. And I know that she was vulnerable with the loss of her brother and that you took advantage of it."
You take a step forward, shocked by such a low accusation. "Take that back! I would never-"
"Oh, cut it out." Steve insists. "We all know about the kind of work you do, manipulation and lies are your specialties. Your signature is to deceive." He accuses, and for the first time, Nat flinches. Because the whole conversation could easily be handed back to her, and perhaps already has been by other people. "What's all this about? What do you want from Wanda?"
"Not everything is about work. Maybe I just fucking love her!"
Steve laughs incredulously. "Oh please-" But Nat interrupts the whole thing with an annoyed snort.
"That's enough, both of you."
The captain looks at her with some surprise. "Come on Natasha, you don't really believe she's serious." He is careful to lower his tone, like a private conversation between the two of them, an almost silent agreement about letting you go or not. Still, in that empty place, it's easy to hear what they're saying. "Weren't you the one who always says that love is for children?"
The joke is not well received. Natasha takes on a hard expression as she faces Steve. "Do you really want to discuss this, Rogers? When we're all risking our necks over your feelings for Barnes?"
Steve steps away dumbfounded. "It's not like that! We're freeing someone innocent! The right thing-"
"Would be to bring him to justice." Natasha interrupts without losing her tone. "The morally and legally right thing would be to bring the person responsible for 100 years of crimes to justice. There's no other answer, no other way around it. But he's family, and you're family. And that's why I'm here, and all the others who will stand by your side and go against the law and risk their necks, jobs, and safety. Things aren't as black and white as this right and wrong discourse and by now I'd hoped you'd be able to recognize that better, Steve."
He looks away, embarrassed and thoughtful. Nat sighs and takes the opportunity to approach you again.
"I can give you a ride. Just don't make me regret it, okay?"
For the moment, that's all Natasha offers in solidarity with you. It's the kindest thing an Avenger - excluding Wanda of course - has ever given you. It instantly makes Nat your favorite.
Steve doesn't accompany you two to the safe place. He says he needs time to think, and from the looks he exchanges with Nat, it's not hard to deduce that he's going after the Winter Soldier. You don't know where Sergeant Barnes is, but you have the impression that they do. It's not your place to question or monitor Steve Rogers' movements, so you just respond to the polite nod of farewell he gives you.
He takes the stolen airship, which is a shame because you love riding in those - Valentina's vehicles were never that sophisticated, but you've already managed to steal one of those from Shield and the ride was a lot of fun until you had to dispose of the aircraft in the Caribbean. 
Natasha gets a truck, which makes you assume that the location can't be that far away. It's an incorrect conclusion because she comments on buying train tickets.
You fall asleep in your seat. That must win you some points with Nat, who is surprised that you trust her enough to sleep because when you wake up from a very nice dream with Wanda, she starts small talk.
Accords, favorite crimes, and the morally superior attitude of some agents. Natasha giggles at one of your stories - about getting compromising items from government leaders - and you consider it a personal victory. She herself has stories about missions from her time as Black Widow which, if you don't consider the horror of her childhood, were kind of amusing. It's probably that you're the only person Nat can tell these things to without any kind of judgment. Equal to equal.
She's almost at the nearest station when, at the signal, she surprises you completely.
"I know about the baby."
You blink at her surprised eyes. "Did she tell you?"
But Nat denies it, without taking her gaze off the road now that the two of you are reaching a busier area. Even with the different appearance, the blonde hair being something to get used to, she has to be careful.
"They ran tests before admitting her to the raft. With all of us that they managed to capture at the airport, in fact." says the widow. "It was to categorize skills, check for injuries, but they ended up finding something else."
You sigh, also paying attention to the surroundings and any curious civilians who risk looking inside the vehicle. Everyone seems busy with their own problems, but you also check the streetlights for surveillance cameras.
"She must have been so scared." You whisper, and the guilt surprises Nat. You swallow dry before adding: "I should have been with her."
"What happened, happened. It wasn't really an outsider's fault."
You smile sadly, it's not exactly reassuring, Natasha doesn't seem to be very good at these things, but she's kind enough. She means that the Avengers' fight was something between them and that it wouldn't make sense for you to blame yourself for Wanda's imprisonment. Even so, you feel you could have prevented it if you'd convinced her to run away with you. But again, how different would the life you could offer her would be?
"When I heard about the Raft, she was already gone." You say. "I guess I should thank you for being so fast in getting her out."
Nat chuckles briefly, turning the steering wheel towards the streets beyond the parking lot. This car will probably be abandoned there.
"It wasn't me who got her out, so no." Retorts the widow. "You must have seen the fight on television, the way we were divided." She waited for you to nod in agreement before continuing. "The team that was left standing, Tony’s side I suppose, helped capture the others. Fighting with Steve. But when the tests were done,  General Ross got very nervous. He was afraid the story would leak, and the image of a young terrorist that the media had planted would turn against him, now that it was a pregnant woman being beaten and handcuffed in front of the cameras. His anxiety alerted the others, and well, Stark may be many things, but as soon as he knew the truth, he got her out of there. Vision confirmed the whole thing, he's got some scanning abilities or something. And I think they come up with some story and Vision was supposed to chase her after the vehicle she was in left the route, but Wanda was never found by Ross again. I know Vision and Tony help her. And then she was the first of us to catch up with Steve."
Natasha parks the car. She almost thinks you're busy absorbing the story when you pull something out of your pocket and hold it out to her.
"It was sent to me while I was in Greece. I guess this is my way of making us even." In your hand is the file of a job you rejected a few weeks ago. To track and recover a package of stolen vials, of a defector last seen in Morocco. Unknown contractor, but payment of half a million dollars in advance. 
"You should have taken it, the money was good." Nat commented as she grabbed the photo of the vials attached to a small one of her face with her hair still red, carrying market bags somewhere in Norway, the place where the last trace and possible suspect was seen.
You gave her a short smile, now that Nat had parked the car, she busied herself flipping through the old file. 
"I missed my chance." You mutter. "What about you, Romanoff? Did you miss yours?"
She mimics your smile, shaking her head. "No. This time, I finished off the bastards." She assures you, nodding. "I didn't get the chance to kill Dreykov myself, but someone who deserved it more did it for me."
You nod, respecting Natasha's choice not to delve deeper into that painful subject. You know just enough about the Red Room, and one of the few things is that General Dreykov was the leader and that Romanoff should have killed him years before. If she did it now, the mission must have been to put an end to the whole thing. 
"I kept monitoring Ross, after everything that happened. I heard you made a fool of him when you ran off alone from the team he set up for you."
She shrugged, a smile hiding the pride of her own abilities. From the car, you took only a backpack that she had prepared, and you weren't surprised to see Natasha take out a lighter and burn the files before throwing them in the nearest garbage can. 
Side by side and with your heads down, you walked to the station.
-&-
Wanda has a bit of a meltdown. It's the hormones, you're sure of it.
She jumps on your neck, expelling a sort of magical wave of excitement that makes you almost too cocky to recognize how happy she is to see you.
Natasha gets worried because the windows rattle and the last thing anyone needs is to draw more attention to themselves. She and Sam exchange a quick nod, and the widow mumbles something about the two of them heading out to restock supplies and you know it's a favor so you and Wanda have time to talk alone. The Falcon is confused by the whole thing, and you hear some distant questions along the lines of "Since when do we call the bad guys to the team" before Natasha closes the door.
Not that Sam Wilson's opinions are worth anything when Wanda pulls your face to hers and kisses you with all the longing she's been feeling.
It's passionate and intense and makes your heart soar. You break into a dopey smile like hers, nearly dizzy with love to the point of not being able to say anything. Wanda, as close as humanly possible, speaks first in a husky tone:
"You took your time."
The teasing makes you smile, and without stopping smiling, you start playing with the loops of her jeans. 
"Sorry, darling, you changed your address too quickly. You're getting good at this fugitive life, aren't you, Maximoff?" Your question almost goes unanswered when you decide to make a path of chaste kisses from her cheeks to jaw and to her neck. Wanda sighs affectedly, trying to keep her eyes open.
One of her hands goes to your hair, and she giggles when she feels it grow a few centimeters between her fingers. You nibble her ear before looking her in the eye and are greeted by dilated, curious pupils. 
"Why have you changed?" she asks quietly, her fingers still assessing the new length of your hair.
You scrunch up your nose, a gesture that has become habitual with the witch snuggled up to you. "I'm just following your friend's safety tips." You explain casually. "All I need is a cap and sunglasses and my Avenger disguise is complete."
Wanda snorts good-naturedly, knowing full well that you're making fun of the bad disguise she was wearing when you two first met. To be fair, Natasha has always believed that the simplest is the most effective, and so far, most Avengers have managed to go unnoticed with just glasses and a cap, no matter how ridiculous it may seem.
"Maybe I should follow her example." Wanda then comments, and although she seems to be focused on what she's saying, you're surprised to realize that her hands have reached down to remove your belt. "What if I get some blue highlights?"
Your laugh is a little hoarse and distracted because Wanda has thrown the belt into some corner of the apartment and is pulling you both backward, probably to where her bedroom should be. 
"I guess you either go big or go home."
She hums thoughtfully, perhaps making some mental note of the matter. You're more focused on the way she slips her hands inside your blouse and scratches your stomach, biting her lip as she feels your muscles twitch. 
Wanda closes the bedroom door with her foot, and you don't put up any resistance to feeling her lips on yours, hungry and impatient this time.
The kisses are too hot for you to think coherently, but you hear the last remnants of reason to hold a half-naked Wanda by the waist.
She, as breathless as you, looks at you with some concern and confusion at the interruption.
"Is something wrong?" Wanda asks hoarsely.
You swallow dry, your hands on her waist. "It's okay, it's just..." And suddenly, you seem very shy. You can feel your cheeks flushing, and maybe you should force your body not to have this kind of reaction, but you never do that with Wanda. You don't have to hide things from her. She looks at you expectantly, her hands caressing your shoulders as a way of reassuring you. "Hm, I was wondering, are we supposed to be doing this when you're...." And you looked down a little, at her belly, until Wanda understood.
She broke into a shy giggle, then looked up at you. "Oh, darling, you're so adorable." She declares, stealing a kiss before tenderly explaining; "It's still early, very early. I imagine it's only going to start being a problem towards the end, and well, I'm going to be a nervous, angry, horny mess by then and I think you'd better not dare deny me that kind of relief!"
You nod foolishly, panting that you will certainly do whatever she wants. Wanda's face takes on a new color, and she bites back a smile, her eyes darkening.
"Whatever I want? I like the sound of that." She retorts, leaning in to break the distance again. The next kiss is almost a shut-up, charged with naughty intentions. She sucks on your tongue and you practically whimper. It's such a submissive sound that it surprises you both for a moment. "Oh, moya lyubov (my love), parenthood has turned you into a whiny mess..."
You groan in a mixture of embarrassment and arousal, turning your face away. "And it made you quite mean, apparently." 
She doesn't allow you to be grumpy. She grabs your chin and pulls off your pout with a kiss that's dirtier than the last. You can only moan in response, and when Wanda determinedly gropes her way into your pants, not bothering with foreplay, and is greeted by a dampness so massive it could be embarrassing, it's she who breaks into a moan.
"Fuck, I almost forgot how damn hot you feel on my fingers." You even try to regain some control of the kiss, to get that cocky attitude out of your girlfriend, but there's no way to do it when Wanda sinks two fingers inside you, as deep as the position allows. All that rips through your lips is a throaty moan. Wanda giggles mischievously at your reactions. "I really can't choose, baby. Having you squeezing my fingers or buried inside me. If you can keep up the pace, do you think we could try the second one later?"
It wasn't really a difficult request to comply with - until it was, because Wanda was more insatiable than usual. The first orgasm on the armchair was not even close to being enough for her. Neither for you, to be fair.
Wanda seemed to have discovered something new - a dominant attitude that you both hadn't yet explored. As far as you're concerned, whatever Wanda wishes will work for you. You're there to please her, simple as that.
She seems to have no restrictions on the ways this can happen. With her fingers deep inside you, her tongue swirling across your clit or changing positions, and sitting on your face and coming messily until she's squirming all over the sheets.
She already came four times when you sense a change of attitude, and the connection between you and her is so intimate, that Wanda has barely adjusted herself on the bed and you're already hugging her from behind, your arms around her and your mouth busy marking her neck. She gives you a sleepy smile, looking truly ruined for the first time all night. It suddenly occurs to you that she'll tire more easily now.
You kiss behind her ear and adjust your hips. Wanda sighs as she feels the familiar hardness rubbing up against her ass.
"Don't tell me you don't have some energy saved up for your own challenge?" You tease next to her ear, grinding gently into her. The friction elicits heavy sighs from both of you, and Wanda grabs your hand that rests on her belly before entwining your fingers together.
“Just one more, dorogoy (sweetheart).” She whispers as she guides your hands into her chest. Your free one helps yourself fit into her, and the same moment you grope her naked breast, playing with the hard nipple, you bury your cock inside her. Wanda lets out a sinful moan, her velvet walls welcoming you with a breathtaking heat. You nearly came with the mere state of being inside her - the way she squeezes you takes you off orbit for a moment.
You wanna be gentle, she’s a pregnant lady for god’s sake. But it seems that Wanda expects just the opposite the second you move - She takes the lead of the movements, your hips serving as a lever for her to rock back into your cock. You have to bite her shoulder to keep yourself from coming, and her response is to hold your hand thingly against her breasts, a single request for you to keep stimulating her nipples. 
There’s no way to keep this peace for long - Wanda herself feels her body betraying her a short moment after, the deep strokes of your cock taking her to blinding pleasure now for her to do more than drool into her pillow. You found a sweet spot and she arches her back, a new wave of arousal dripping down her thighs. 
She struggles to catch a breath - trying to tell you she's close. There’s no need, really. You can feel the tightness increasing, and it’s impossible for you to hold it when Wanda finally comes. She cries out your name and her body goes stiff the next second. Your cum stays inside her, just like your cock. 
“That was… fuck…” She tries to form a thought, all tingly, with numb, tingling legs. You kiss her shoulder, slowly rocking your hips only to hear her soft protest. “Too much, babe.”
After so many orgasms, that’s not a surprise. But Wanda feels so tender, it’s so addictive. You move a hand down, to play with her clit between her fingers and she can’t help but whine.
“Who’s the whiny mess, now?” You tease and Wanda's attempt at response turns into a deep groan when you thrust into her powerfully, enough to shake the bed. She chokes into a moan next when you start to catch a rhythm. Your fingers, toying with her neglected clit almost bring her to insanity. 
The next climax comes faster than the last, and it’s harder. You have your face buried in her neck, your bodies entangled together as you move inside her. Wanda presses her face into her pillow when she comes, pleasure tears wetting the bed like her squirt. You groan against her skin when you fill her up this time, balls deep into her.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Your rusky moans in her ear prolong her climax - she can feel herself squeezing the emptiness when you pull out. A mess of white cum coming out from both of you. It’s such a dirty sexual act to stroke yourself a little longer, to spread out every drop of your pleasure into her skin. 
Everything, every drop, belongs to Wanda. It’s all hers, because of her. 
Suddenly, she wishes she could do the same. Fill you up too, and own every version of your pleasure. This thought is written into her brain and pushed away so she can call your name. Your warm arms are around her before she can miss them.
“I should get you clean up.” You whisper and she holds closer.
“Later.” It’s all she whispers back, being defeated by her exhaustion next. 
You kiss the top of her forehead once she falls asleep, a smile on your lips before you allow yourself to give up on the tiredness as well.
-&-
If it hadn't been for the memories of last night and the sweet scent you knew, your natural reaction would have been to jump away in alarm at the soft caress in her hair. But you knew it was Wanda, and instead of running away, you sank your face against her neck and felt her giggle slightly, her heart racing before settling down.
She adjusted a little a minute later, and with a husky voice in your ear, whispered; "You have to get up, darling. We should talk."
Despite the soft tension that rose in your shoulders, Wanda's request was really just that. As a matter of course, it made you almost displeased that she would hold something like that back so as not to bother you. 
You hummed in agreement and placed a chaste kiss on her neck before pulling away. Wanda watched you expectantly, but you just stretched and pulled the covers off as if nothing important needed to be discussed.
She couldn't contain her own anxiety. "Are we going to talk now?"
You chuckled briefly, glancing at her for a second before looking around the room for your clothes. "I think we need to eat something first."
"Y/N..."
"I'm not avoiding the conversation." You interrupt her sincerely, to reassure the fears she can't hide from her eyes. You offer her a smile, your hands clutching the pants you've just found. "I'm just hungry. And I know you are too. This isn't an unpleasant topic, Wanda, it's just going to be difficult. For obvious reasons." You gesture softly, signaling to the hideaway room, so different from the fancy one she lived in in the tower. By instinct or not, once your pants are on, you also gently stroke the knife scar on your abdomen. Wanda knows exactly what you mean. "I think we're going to need a real plan. But I really don't want to come up with one on an empty stomach."
She nods, trying to smile but almost grimacing. Wanda is so nervous. All the passion of last night and the excitement of meeting you again are now calming down, and reality is coming back to her. You finish dressing and offer one last smile of reassurance before leaving the room in search of something to eat, and Wanda's immediate reaction is to put a hand over her belly.
She gasps softly. Her magic is able to feel life growing there. Her eyes fill with tears. 
Looking around, she spots some mold on the walls. She notices some of Natasha's stolen surveillance equipment tucked away in a corner so they can track the agents and breaks down a sob.
How could she let this happen? How could she be so irresponsible as to think of having children in such a condition? Even before, she no longer had a home. Living with the Avengers was almost a favor, an employment contract. And what kind of mother could she be in a superhero routine anyway?
And on top of everything, her child won't be able to meet her uncle either, buried in a land she once called home.
Wanda only realizes she's in the middle of an anxious thoughts spiral because suddenly a voice is calling her name. Your face comes into focus again, and she realizes that you're trying to help her breathe.
Great, a panic attack was all she needed.
"Hey, baby, it's okay, I'm here with you. Just breathe, okay?" you guided, gesturing for her to imitate your breathing. In a corner of the room, a breakfast tray smelled very good. Wanda tried to follow your lead, naming five objects she could see. She could see eggs, bacon, waffles, and orange juice. She could see a shiny chain with a small ring around your neck.
"Where did you get this?" She asks breathlessly about the item, and you smile pleased to see that she is coming to her senses.
"China, three years ago. I was working at the time, and I had a bad habit of keeping souvenirs." You say, stroking her hair. "It was in my pocket, and I put it back while I was in the kitchen. That's why you didn't get a chance to see it last night. Do you like it?"
She hums in agreement, having to close her eyes for a moment. You wait, wiping away her tears until Wanda has calmed down completely.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She starts as soon as she can speak without crying. You mumble that it's okay, but Wanda keeps talking. "I just started thinking about how we're going to do this. How are we going to raise a child in this kind of life? We don't even have a home, let alone money. What if I end up in prison again, and they want to take my baby away and-"
"Wanda, calm down, nothing like that is going to happen." You interrupt but she shakes her head.
Just a second later, she breaks into a sob. "I'm so scared." She confesses tearfully.
You look into her eyes.“I’m scared too.” You confess in the same, a relief laugh escaping your lips now that you’re both being honest with each other for good. “I’m nearly petrified, to be fair. But it’s alright, Wanda. It is. Because for the first time in my life, I am not alone. I have you and you have me, and as luck would have it, a bunch of grumpy superheroes as well. We don’t have to be so scared, we got this. I’m here for you, sweetheart.”
She sniffles, getting shy all of a sudden. Her gaze goes to her lap before she finds your eyes again. And then she whispers: “I love you.”
You blink widened eyes at her, caught off guard. Wanda swallows, but then she smiles. She never needed words anyway; Your actions towards each other were always more than enough, not only for her but for the whole world to see exactly how much you cared for one another. 
“You don't have to say anything-”
“I love you too.” You cut her out, a bit out of breath. Wanda can feel her cheeks growing pink and it doesn’t help that yours are doing the same. But you giggle shyly then, letting her go to cover your red face for a moment. “Shit, why does that feel so weird? My chest is so warm…” Your reaction elicits a hearty chuckle from her.
“Perhaps you’re allergic to love confessions.” She teases, receiving a playful warning stare before you bring your arms around her once more, to pull her closer and on your lap. Wanda doesn’t waste time in pressing her lips to yours, smiling into the kiss like yourself.
You break apart to tell her: “Don’t get so cocky, but you’re the first person I said that to.” She hums contently, her fingers playing with the hair on your nape. You stare at her eyes for a moment, just memorizing every aspect of her face as if she would ever leave your mind, until both of you are scrunching up your noses, making funny faces at each other and breaking into shared giggles the next. 
You could marry her, right now at that second. Instead of asking, you just let out a deep breath and hug her again. The atmosphere of the room changed to a comfortable so intimate that for a second, you could believe that dirty hideout room was actually a home.
"We’re gonna be alright, Wanda." You whisper next. “I won’t let anything bad ever happen to you again.”
She sighs, breaking the hug to look at you. Her soft hands caressing your cheeks. “You can’t promise that, and it’s okay. Because I love you and I can do anything with you here.”
You kiss her briefly. “I can promise. I just did, the universe can fuck off, I’ll stand by my girl.” It’s your stubborn response before you break the distance again to kiss her.
For the first time in a long while, Wanda doesn’t feel so scared. She trusts you entirely, even if your promise is impossible and the future holds a nearly dangerous uncertainty. You’ll take care of her and she’ll do the same for you. 
She allows herself to push away real life, at least during breakfast. Sharing food in bed, giggling like two love-stuck teenagers. Making love in her bed all day, whispering sweet nothing to each other.
Until it’s time to get up and face reality.
Despite the evidence of your previous activities - matching set of hickeys and borrowed clothes - none of the Avengers pay any mind to that. Sam is clearly getting used to your presence, but he offers a grin at Wanda’s state before focusing on Natasha’s repeating security tips for him.
The widow is about to ask you and Wanda for a chat, you both can see in her expression that she wants to know how the whole baby thing will work out from now on when her cell phone rings. She steps out for a moment, muttering to whoever is on the other side - Wilson tells Wanda that’s probably Steve wanting to share locations and wondering if everything is alright. But when Natasha comes back to the room, she’s tense and serious.
She takes a deep breath and looks at Wanda.
“Clint decided to make a deal. For his family.” She says. Doesn’t take much explanation for you or Sam to understand that the Feds got him and instead of going back to the raft, he got himself some special conditions considering his service history. Wanda, out of surprise or denial, stares back at Nat with confused eyes. The widow sighs. “He’s not coming back.”
You don’t know everything about the Avengers dynamics, but you know about Wanda. And how much she cared for Clint since the man was some sort of mentor for her. That and well, Pietro gave his life for him so that has to mean something. Clint was supposed to take care of Wanda, not just turn his back on her like that. She didn’t need to join the team or this fight, but she did, at his request, and now he didn’t even bother to look after her, to make sure she was safe and well before taking deals that wouldn’t allow them to see each other for quite some time.
The saddest part is that Wanda understands it. Family comes first, after all. So even though it made her sick to her stomach, she wasn’t his daughter. Not really.
“It’s okay.” She forces a smile, trying to look “okay” for Natasha’s pitiful eyes. “Seriously, Nat. It’s fine. I hope it was a good one. Maybe Sam should try it too, he has family as well.”
Wanda is clearly taking the focus out of her, and because you can see her shaking, you take her hand. She instinctively leans into you, finding some calming comfort in your heat.
Sam scratches behind his head, a little unsure of how he became the center of attention suddenly. “Hm, yeah, but… I should wait a little. I mean, my sister is fine. She has nothing to do with any of this, so I think she can manage to be without my help for a few more weeks.”
Natasha merely shakes her head in knowledge, her attention on the witch pretending everything was fine. “Sure thing Wilson.” She mutters. “Wanda, I know Clint wanted to say goodbye, but he just… needed to make a choice.”
Yep, that definitely didn’t help Wanda feel any better. You offer Nat a look, but the widow is almost too terrible at the whole consolation thing.
“What I mean-”
“He chose his family. I got it the first time, Nat, I didn’t need it to hear it twice.” Wanda cuts off, very harshly. Hurt. “Like I said, it’s fine. I’m not a fucking child, I can understand why he did it. He was three kids and Nathaniel is just a baby.”
You try to ease the tension on Wanda’s shoulders by kissing the exposed skin of her neck. She smiles sweetly, still upset but appreciative of your gesture. The scene seems to make Nat remember something very important.
“Well, speaking of babies…”
Turns out the other Avengers forgot to mention that to Sam. He got very loud and excited.
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writingmeraki · 11 months
Text
hot & cold I
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READ PART TWO HERE !
a min ho mini series !
summary : Feeling the warm butterflies in your stomach as well as the cold sinking feeling in your heart wasn't the best especially just because of one person nonetheless you think it was worse because that person was none other than the guy you apparently hated with your entire existence.
( or you long crossed the blurry lines of love and hate when it came to Minho and were both just idiotic enough to not realise that until you had to force it out of yourself because of your stupidity.)
genre : angst, fluff, comfort !
pairing : minho x fem!reader, e2l, idiots to lovers.
warnings : mentions of alcohol and underage drinking, kissing and making out, cussing. both being dumb and too high on their ego. kinda blame it on Minho in this one I fear 😨
author's note : and as my obsession goes crazy, I knew I had to write a miniseries on Minho. I honestly have no idea how long it can be this time, it'll mostly depend on your feedback but also how long I make this but expect 2-3 parts more ?? this was written out of nowhere tbh because I had a really different idea for this. anyways enjoy and let me know what you think ! <3 ( not proofread as usual, we die like real men 😀)
based on this request !
word count : 4.3k
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"Maybe you should put that down now."
Kitty said, observing the way you tipped down the cocktail, be it a secret yet not secret alcoholic one.
You winced and shook your head as you smashed the glass down after, Kitty having to shoot an apologetic look to the temporary bartender, who wanted nothing more than to be anywhere else but a party of drunk and horny teenagers sneaking in alcohol and downing it as though they were going through all stages of grief at the moment or in moments of classical teenage stupidity.
"Oh- KAY! I think that's more than enough." She pulled your hands away from the other cocktail that was served up,despite this one now being the only non-alcoholic, she felt it was getting a lot and you whined at her, she narrowed her eyes at you.
"Y/N, you've had more than enough."
"Noooo, I'm fine I can handle ittt." Your words slurred and she gave you a blank stare, holding up two fingers, she asked
"Okay then, how many fingers I am holding up?"
You narrowed your eyes, trying to think hard and giggled as you spoke
"Kitty, Katty since when did you have six fingers?" A drunken smile sat on your face as you leaned forward pointing your finger to count the 'six' fingers.
You vision was blurry but you were still able to make out the outline of what was in front of you.
Kitty rolled her eyes and sighed softly "How much did you even have?"
You put up both your hands, all fingers up and her eyes widened almost comically, it only made you giggle at her expressions,
"TEN? please tell me TEN sips!"
"Nooo silly, of course not…it was just three glasses with that sercret ingredient." You whispered to her as you leaned in closer as though you were telling a top secret and in a way it was, your lips were turned upwards, dimples lightly peaking.
"Alright, we have to get you back to the dorms then! Let me call Q and Florian, then we'll go okay? You stay here. Don't move Y/N!" She pointed at you, her words strict but you couldn't think about anything other than how pretty she seemed at the moment, so without much thought you blurted out,
"You look so pretty, Kit, you really do." Your eyes were half closed but you could see her wearing a tight black dress, her hair done down and straight, her black heels only making her figure look leaner.
Kitty, despite knowing you were drunk, couldn't help but laugh at your words, she shook her head and told you one last time before disappearing to find Q and Florian as soon as she could.
Looking up, the ceiling was multicolored, flashes of blue and green danced across it and you looked in awe as if it was a piece of art.
You looked around you, noticing the way the entire place seemed to be overcrowded but people were having fun, either getting shit drunk or dancing as if it was their last time.
Welcome to your life
There's no turning back
Even while we sleep
We will find you
You smiled when you heard the familiar tune and lyrics, having hearing it from your roommate and also ended up falling in love with it, the beat was slightly altered to make it more party pop but it only made it more better.
Standing up and stumbling slightly as you made your way to the dance floor, the world looking like it was moving fast as you also moved your body along to the crowd.
You felt as though you'd been hit so hard when you ended up colliding harshly into the person and you braced yourself for the fall, feeling as if you're flying high to come crashing hard into the ground.
Acting on your best behaviour
Turn your back on mother nature
Everybody wants to rule the world
And as cliche as it could get, you didn't feel the crash instead a stronger grip on your waist pulled you back up as the side face instead hit something soft yet firm.
You looked up and you felt the same awe when you saw the multicolored ceiling as though it was a piece of art, maybe even more, as your eyes scanned his face.
It's my own design
It's my own remorse
Help me to decide
Help me make the most
Colours shone on his face, highlighting his sharp jawline that you felt yourself get lost in, you continued to scan the bridge of his nose and his cupid's bow. You looked into his eyes and only felt your haziness increase as you felt the tug in your heart. They seemed to drink you in as you did him, and your gaze turned to the way one corner of his lips turned upwards.
The arm around your waist felt warmer than it should and you definitely felt the heat on your face, your entire body even. Your knees felt more weaker as you prayed your legs didn't give up on you, and with this the grip on your waist only got tighter.
Minho looked down at you, his gaze never leaving your face as he held you up. Staring at your lips for a little longer than he should have. The fact that he felt as if there were sparks of electricity running through just by the waist around your arm and most of your body weight on his, made him only want more. More than he should be wanting.
And again, letting your intrusive thoughts take the wheel of your actions, you lifted up one hand and brushed it along his jawline.
"Ouch…paper cut." Giggling at your ridiculous joke, you rested your head on his shoulder now, moving your arms around his broad shoulders.
Naturally, his own arms now fully wrapped around your waist and if someone, which more than a few heads turned, saw you in this position, it'd look more intimate than it should. Considering how far down you both go.
Minho smiled unknowingly, the sound of your giggles always making his heart race more than it should.
"I know you're clumsy as fuck, but I didn't think you'd fall for me this soon, I guess it would happen soon anyways considering how intelligent and good looking I am."
Your eyes moved to look up into his, noticing his lips pulled into a smirk that really only did more things unbeknownst to you,and you narrowed them before slurring out,
"You sound exactly like Minho, I actually thought it was almost you." You continued mumbling,
"But I know it's definitely not him, considering he was already busy with that…Madison." You rolled your eyes, slowly shutting them and you pushed your head back down onto his shoulders and moved closer to the crook of his neck, craving the warmth he radiated.
"Plus I'm sure he'd let me fall face first on the ground if I fell on him the way I just did." You mumbled into his neck, he felt himself control the shiver that run down his spine when your lips touched his neck as you mumbled.
Frowning, he spoke up, wanting to defend himself even if it seemed pointless,
"No, he wouldn't." He said firmly and you looked up at him as you thought of his words,
"Considering how we are, I don't think I'm wrong to assume he'd do that." Even though you were drunk, you spoke the words more smoothly as if it was a whole truth.
"Besides I don't even care what he does, he can go kiss that…that girl for all I care, no I definitely don't care if he does this with her, if he looks at her like that way."
Minho's expression turned down, his eyebrows furrowing and his lips pulled into a frown,
"What way?" He asked softly as he could see your eyes tearing up and you gulped sadly and you put on a dejected smile,
"How I wish, I wish he'd look at me, for once." You said more gently, whispering letting your vulnerable feelings speak up.
He only felt his heart sinking the more he took in the sadness and vulnerability showing on your face, he felt his guilt double than it had before as he recalled why he'd even been making out with Madison in the first place.
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He'd felt his entire focus zone in on the person who'd just walk in the place.
Even as much as he seemed to hate your mere presence, his eyes always seemed to drift towards you much to his annoyance.
His gaze felt heavy as it dragged from the shoes you'd worn to the hairstyle you'd done. Your outfit consisted of a maroon tight dress that had ended just below your knees, a teasing slit running just a little further up your left side, just enough to make someone want to see more.
Your lips were a similar shade of maroon as you smiled, depths forming on your cheeks that tugged at his heart, your hair done down and resting just below your shoulders.
You looked…you looked better than he could even describe.
Beautiful would be a word, but he thinks it underwhelms you.
Kitty was beside you in her black dress and her hair done down but his eyes couldn't stop drinking you in as if it was not enough for him.
He wanted something he shouldn't. He shouldn't be thinking about you right now the way he is.
He forced himself to look away, searching for someone else in the crowd.
He looked better than he should and you hated the way your eyes moved to the dip between his throat and shirt.
Gosh that's such an ugly fucking colour you thought yet you felt fainter as your eyes scanned the way his hair was parted, something you knew only he could pull off. Some loose strands sat on his forehead and you hated the way you felt your legs almost give up in these tight heels as you took in the way the blazer fit his broad shoulders.
Fuck he looked good.
You looked at him, observing him scanning the crowd as he disappeared away.
"Let's get this party started!" Kitty said excitedly to which you lightly laughed,
"Kitty it's already started, we are already like forty minutes late because of a certain someone but sure! Love the enthusiasm! Woo!" You chuckled as you saw her excitement bubble down and then laughing along with you.
"Let's go then girls! The best place at a party, the bar!" Q threw his arms around both your shoulders as he sloshed himself between you, now pulling you towards the bar.
The bartender served up five mocktails which you thought were too beautiful looking to be drank but you raised a toast,
"Here's to meeting new people and ending our bitchless eras!" You toasted as you giggled which was followed by the rest clinking their respective glasses onto yours as you took a sip.
"Guys,I have something." Florian spoke as he pulled a flask from his blazer and your eyes widened at the sight, knowing what it was.
"Oh My God! No way… now you're the real one for this." You said as he winked at you and opened the flask, the smell already indicating what it was as he poured in a bit into yours and his.
"Ohh me too! Me too!" Kitty said as she pushed her glass towards him and he poured in hers as well.
"The last for the best." Florian spoke as he poured it in Q's drink which made him look away and you smirked as you saw him almost blush.
"Now this is a real toast." You finally clinked your drinks for the last time, now taking in a sip, wincing yet loving the bitter taste that contrasted well with the sweetness of the cocktail.
"By the way, Y/N, I don't think you're ever going to be able to meet new people." Kitty spoke which made you turn to her in confusion.
"I mean come on, you won't be able to meet new people because you already are into someone." She continued and now looked towards Q, him nodding in agreement as you still looked in confusion.
"Oh please, don't look like a lost puppy now, we all saw the way you basically bore your eyes into Min ho as soon as you saw him like a hungry vulture or something." Q said which made Florian chuckle and you only glared at his words as though looks could kill.
"You don't plan a murder out loud now do you?" You defended yourself as Kitty rolled her eyes,
"More like you'd kill anyone who'd dare even hurt a fraction of his hair." Kitty said to which now both Florian and Q nodded, feeling betrayal as you looked at Florian, thinking he'd been on your side to which he only raised his hands in his defense.
"Look, Y/N, maybe you don't see it, but you definitely go past the so called hate line you both have." He said as he knew you surely felt more for him than the passive aggressive persona you showed when he was around.
"After all they do say the lines between love and hate tend to blur." Kitty said as she took a sip of her drink and you only scoffed, ready to reply saying you knew where you stood and you were gladly under the hate side, despising Min ho because of his unbearable personality that would make you so mad.
So mad you'd want to punch his pretty face at times.
"Uh oh." Q said suddenly as his eyes caught a sight that he wished wouldn't have but they quickly widened when he realised you were literally right next to him and probably heard him.
Naturally your eyes moved to where he was looking, and oh how you wished you also didn't see what you just saw but for completely different reasons that you couldn't put a finger on at the time being.
Minho stood next to Madison as he whispered something into her ears, which made her laugh, you saw the way his arm was wrapped around her waist, hiding her close to him.
You felt like throwing up as your stomach recoil and churn, moving your eyes, not wanting to think more of this than you should. But it seemed as though it was impossible as the image replayed in your mind.
You felt the tension in the air when your face twisted bitterly, noticing your friends also tensing up and felt guilty for suddenly changing the cheerful mood.
"Guys come one now, I don't care, now go and have fun!" You reassured them as they looked at you skeptically.
"Listen, he can go and fuck around with whoever he wants, I really don't care. We shouldn't let this ruin our moods. Now go." You bit on your tongue as put on a tight smile, no usual dimples peaking, a sign it was fake.
Hearing the firmer tone at the end, Q and Florian nodded as they held hands "Okay then, find us when you need us okay?"
Q said as you just mindlessly nodded and they also moved into the flow of the crowd.
Kitty still looked at you skeptically but you just smiled at her, now a genuine one telling her to go on and finish her agenda of meeting new people.
At least one of you seemed ready to move on.
"Thank you." You heard a voice suddenly speak up from beside you as you sat nursing the cocktail in your hands, it's coolness relieving the warmth your body felt.
"Oh someone with manners, I like that." You said putting down your drink, deciding that if he can fuck around when he wants, who were you to not as well.
The guy next to you turns towards you, him taking in your figure, a smirk forming on his face as he realised who you were.
"I'm Geon." He said to which you smiled.
"Y/N." You spoke up to which he chuckled which made you a bit confused,
"Oh I know." You raised an eyebrow at his words,
"It's an honor to have the hottest girl here talking to me." He said with a grin as you then lifted your drink to take another sip, after which you giggled at his words, even though you didn't think you would have even been phased if it weren't for the alcohol now slowly flowing in your system.
"Oh yeah? Tell me more." You leaned in closer to him with a smug smile, biting your lip lightly to which you think again, this probably wouldn't be happening right now if it weren't for the liquid courage or your mess of an emotional baggage.
This whole spectacle was being seen by someone who'd otherwise think you were both already together. He rolled his eyes, looking away as he clicked his tongue, folding his arms and a scowl of both disgust and jealousy forming on his face.
Of course.
He thought looking back at the pair of Geon and you.
"I think she's better than all the other girls, even Yuri, people say she's the prettiest but don't realize that they are wrong. And Kitty next to you looks so underwhelming but both of them are nothing but plain next to you."
And despite you starting to feel more tipsy, you controlled the urge to just flip him off.
Instead you leaned in closer, raising one hand and cupping his face, bringing your face near his ear, as though you'd whisper about how he was definitely right, a light smile forming on his face.
That's what he thought at least.
Chuckling lowly, you whispered sweetly,
"You know sweety, what type of men I absolutely despise?"
You briefly made eye contact with him when he looked down at you from the corner of his eye.
"The ones who bring women down in hopes of getting into my pants and thinking that will actually work."
You trailed your hand down his neck, fingers lightly touching, he gulped as he shivered under your touch, the grin forming on his face long gone when he heard the venom lacing your tone.
"Let alone the fact that they are my best friends, and trust me, if I wanted to I'd punch the shit out of you right now but,listen to me carefully."
You rested your hand on his collarbone,
"No girl is meant for your judging pleasure especially not for undeserving dickheads like you and if you dare talk to me again, trust me, I can do much worse than you can think."
You leaned back and patted his chest, grinning widely, but your eyes said a completely different story.
"Now. Fuck off."
And fuck off he did as he swallowed nervously, turning around and moving into the crazy crowd,mumbling something under his breath, you not really caring to pay attention to his words as you sighed out, rubbing your forehead with your fingers.
Men are nothing but disappointment, what did I even expect ?
"Hey guess what!- what happened to you?" Kitty said as she suddenly appeared from your right side making you surprised but you smiled at her reassuringly, not wanting her to know what that jerk said for obvious reasons.
"Oh it's nothing, it's getting noisy that's all." Kitty didn't seem convinced at all because she did spot you talking to Geon, not wanting to interrupt when he saw you whispering something to him,
Huh so she really was serious about the whole meeting new people thing?
But when he walked away looking a little paler, she figured it was not exactly what it looked like, deciding that she should intervene now.
"Oh-kay but you know what, I just…" You now looked forward your back facing the bar as you placed your elbows on the counter, leaning onto them, raising an eyebrow at her for her to continue,
"I am glad I came here, I'm glad we all did, I'm happy, for once and it feels so…so good to be happy with you guys who I didn't think would even be my friends."
She said smiling at you, her sitting down next to your stool, and you turned your neck, looking at her now,
You smiled, finally a genuine one and it showed when your dimples showed,
"I'm glad I met you guys as well." You told her and just as she was about to say something, her eyes trailed towards your left, narrowing to make sure she was seeing right.
She froze when she saw you look at her, naturally wanting to see what made her look the way she was looking right now.
"Uh! Well look you know I'm happy you…uh well you agreed to come here!" She pulled your shoulders a little forcefully, the rotating barstool moving and making you now face her.
You looked perplexed at her behaviour, especially how she almost knocked you out but she just smiled at you, a little too forcefully.
"I just think you should know you deserve better than you think and even if it's not-"
"Kitty."
You called out to her, stopping her rambling, moving your hands up from off your shoulders.
"What's got you so…so nervous all of a sudden?" You questioned seeing her eyes still fixated behind you, her hand stopping you again from turning around.
"I just don't think you should see this. Really." She swallowed nervously and you waved her off,
"It's not that deep Kitty chill." You said but how you wished you'd listen to her.
You went rigid, seeing the sight now in front of you and clenched your jaw.
There was Minho in all his glory, kissing, no more like passionately making out with none other than Madison.
He had his arms around her waist as she played with his hair, and you could see her smile into the kiss. His mouth moved from her lips to her jawline and you watched her giggle as he seemed to be whispering something that made her laugh only more.
Fuck.
Why did it feel like someone just ripped your heart out and smashed it right in front of you with their bare hands?
You turned towards the bar, squeezing your eyes shut, holding your head in your hands as you felt the pounding in it get harder.
You gulped harshly trying to squeeze the image out of your brain,
"Y/N." Kitty put her hand on your shoulder, her warm touch contrasting the coldness you felt.
"Ah, I should have listened to you." You laughed but it held no humour. You could feel your emotions go all over the place as you replayed everything you'd seen till now.
Both of them laughing together, him looking at her as if she was the only on there, him focusing on her as if she was the only one there, him making out with her as if she'd slip away from his hands.
"You know what maybe I just need a little drink." You raised your hand up calling for the bartender and asking for two cocktails.
You put your hand out to Kitty expectedly, her frowning at the way you tried to act as if it was all right but she could see the unshed tears on your lash line.
Before she could say anything, you asked her quickly,
"Where's that whisky Florian gave you?" Talking about the flask she'd been hiding in her purse that was given to her by Florian.
"Y/N, you can't just drink away your emotions like this, you can't even handle alcohol-"
"Kitty, I'll be fine, just…just give it to me please?"
She sighed, she knew about your tendency to avoid talking about your feelings. She just opened up her purse and removed the flask just as the bartender served the drinks.
You took it from her and poured a questionable amount but you didn't really care at the moment, wanting to feel the high rather than the heaviness you currently felt creeping in your chest.
Raising a toast to yourself, you grinned up at Kitty, a sorrowness that only made her feel more and more sympathic for you.
"Here's to the most unluckiest person at the moment, me!"
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That was now half an hour ago, and here you were now wrapped tightly around the very person who'd made you feel miserable in the first place.
"You know it's not even his fault. We don't even like each other. I'm pretty sure he hates me but why the fuck does it hurt so bad?" You whined as you pulled away from the supposed stranger's, attractive one at least, body and stood up on your own.
You pushed his arms away from you and you almost stumbles but held one hand out when he tried to hold you again to prevent you from falling,
"Y/N you'll fall-"
"No, I'm fine, I swear. I don't even know why I just dumped that weird emotional baggage onto you, sorry."
"Thank you anyways, for you know saving me from breaking my own face right there, if you want me to repay you, just come to Chemistry class first period on Monday!"
You stepped away from him and trying to not cry because no matter how drunk you were you didn't want to cry over some stupid boy.
Minho stood there, his eyes downcast as he remembered the look on your face, he ran a hand through his hair, exhaling heavily.
How do I even begin ?
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READ PART TWO HERE !
all written works as well as images and edits (unless credited) belong to pri.do not plagiarise, repost, re-edit or claim as yours. pics mostly found on pinterest.
writingmeraki Ⓒ 2023
feedback is appreciated hehe :D 💗
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randombush3 · 5 months
Text
audentes fortuna iuvat
alexia putellas x reader
part one, part two
words: 9541
summary: alexia and you as posh + becks III
content warnings: there’s some (a lot of) cheating + postpartum depression. it’s more frustrating than sad though x
notes: this covers 2019-22(ish). It was SUPPOSED to be the last part. It’s not anymore. I’m gonna do a fourth to deal w the mess I have created in a more self-indulgent amount of words than the 3k i had planned. That will probably have smut in it 😛
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“Y/n left me.” 
The limousine you are in is completely black, save for the white lines being measured out right next to you. 
“What?” says Jenni. 
“She left me,” Alexia says once more. The hotel room is a non-committal beige. They lie in the same bed, the older of the two welcoming her lost teammate wordlessly and without judgement. Tomorrow, they will return to Barcelona, losers yet another time. “She moved back to london. She took Nico.” 
“She can’t just take Nico, can she?” 
“Y/n, how’s Nico?” Your stomach turns, but whether that is provoked by the thought of the baby boy you left crying in your father’s arms or by the white powder outlining the rim of the woman’s nostrils, you don’t know. 
Your son’s creasing eyes, red face, and grabbing hands appear in front of you. He screams as you walk away. He doesn’t understand why he has not smelt Alexia in weeks, and he misses the comfort of home. 
Everyone waits for your answer. No one comments on the bags under your eyes. “He's fine,” you say with a smile. “He loves it here.”
“I think she is depressed,” Alexia tells Jenni, comforted by the arms wrapped around her waist, holding her close and tightly and reminding her that she is not as alone as you have made her feel. “She told me that she couldn’t be in Barcelona anymore, but she said that without giving me a chance to come with her. Her bags were packed before the conversation started — she might as well have called me from the plane.” 
“Are you angry at her?” 
“Yes.” 
Alexia thinks about it. 
“No.”
“No,” you say when they point at your very own line. The drug holds a place of both familiarity and hatred in your heart. The fine, white powder reminds you of greatness – of being the most successful girl group in the UK – but, also, of hospital visits. It’s not a past addiction, but it could have been. You light a cigarette instead, though it will make the vehicle reek. “I can't. I have a son.” 
“You’re not a saint.” They boo. “You’re allowed to have fun. I saw you the other day, and you had no qualms with any drugs then.” 
“No, I'm not a saint,” you reply. You regret that night — however little you remember. “But I am a mother.” 
“Is it that thing? Postpartum?” Jenni asks. “The baby blues are really shitty, I've heard, but they’re not supposed to cripple you. Maybe the relationship has other issues.” 
“I'm not angry at her, Jenni,” Alexia repeats. “I miss Nico. He looks like her. He has started to look a lot more like her now.”
“He would definitely suit those sparkly bralettes.” Jenni giggles at the thought. 
With an understandable lack of good humour, Alexia ponders something more realistic. “He would suit a Barcelona kit.” 
“He would be made for it. You are his mother.” 
“I'm not angry at her,” Alexia says for the third time, just to make herself believe it. Just to carve those words into her bones and tell herself that it isn’t anger, what she’s feeling. “I don't want to be angry at her. I think I'm going to see if I can move to arsenal.” 
“Don’t you dare.” 
“Well, I'm not angry at her.” 
“Alexia.” Jenni cups her cheek tenderly. “Ale.” She knows she shouldn’t. She’s not angry at you, and so there is no punishment needed. Not that… Not that kissing Jenni would ever be utilised as a weapon to get back at you. Or that she’d actually kiss her. 
“Daddy, I can't get him tonight. No, I don't want to stay over. Daddy, I…” You hate the baby. You hate yourself. You hate that Spain hasn’t done well, and that your fiancée is disappointed that nothing is how it was supposed to be. Alexia is probably lying awake in bed, missing her son, and missing you. You expect one of her teammates to call you soon, and tell her that she needs you. You’re her person. “I'm going to get some sleep and I'll pick him up tomorrow. Probably around lunchtime, okay?” 
“Alexia, bésame.” 
You had passively bought your house. It’s how property sale works when you’re a celebrity. People are always willing to do things for you if you know the price, and it never hurts to use your name to add a new flashy level to whatever stupid business they are running. It’s a mutual exploitation, to some extent. 
Highgate is beautiful. The house is beautiful. 
The reception room, with its high, decorated ceilings, is your favourite place to numbly take in the twisted jigsaw of your life when Nico has cried himself to sleep. The nursery is on the first floor. He is near enough for safety, but at a distance that allows you to regret all the mistakes you have made.
You watch him roll over onto his stomach, eyes trained on the baby monitor though your fingers graze the ivory keys of your new piano, attempting to compose something worthwhile. At this rate, your solo career is going to fail just like your relationship seems to be doing. 
Yesterday, while Alexia seemingly disappeared from the face of the Earth, you came out. It was an off-hand comment during the Graham Norton Show. A quick ‘my fiancée named him. She’s from Barcelona’ was all it took. You hope Alexia, wherever she may be, has heard about it. Jenni would have told her. You trust Jenni to be somewhat on your side because she always has been. 
The doorbell rings just as you sniffle, wiping away the tear that slips down your cheek. “Don’t be pathetic,” you mutter to yourself. “You didn’t pay five million pounds to sit here and cry. You chose to come back home.” 
Being in England – colder, drearier, lonelier England – has made you realise that your decision was not the right one. Or maybe it was. It has proven that you are as terrible a mother as you convinced yourself you were back in Barcelona, and it has also shoved the cavity Alexia leaves in your life when you refuse her entry right down your throat in the form of a constant lump and a dull stabbing in your chest whenever you think about anything past whether Nico has had anything to eat. You can’t even feed him properly, despite it being supposedly in your nature. You buy formula from the nearest Waitrose. 
The doorbell rings again. 
The insistence is not uncommon seeing as you are, at the minute, the English press’s number one target. You open the CCTV app on your phone so that you can decide whether or not to ignore the potential stalker, and your heart rate spikes when you see the hooded figure standing on the porch. Back to the door, it is not possible to determine the threat. A well-buried maternal instinct kicks in for once, and you ensure that Nico is still peacefully out cold before getting up to answer the door with the poker from the Victorian fireplace firmly in your grip. Just in case. 
You are a mother, in whatever capacity you have decided that role looks like, and so you undo the three latches on the door with brave, protective fingers. The baby monitor’s volume has increased, and the fuzz of white noise is audible if Nico were to make a sound. The vague repulsion at the idea of it all is only an aftertaste in your silent prayer for the hooded figure to not want to kill you. Some sick part of your brain imagines Nico dead, as well. It tortures you. 
The poker in your other hand, for the most fleeting of moments, is almost plunged into your chest. The imaginary, self-inflicted wound makes you think of the blood and how the baby upstairs would wail until someone found him. The grimace of annoyance on your lips is nothing new, but you have no more time to torment yourself because the doorbell is pressed again, rather impatiently. 
You open the door and the hooded figure is right in front of you. “He’s asleep,” you say, the Spanish foreign on your tongue. 
Alexia shrugs, and her hood falls down, revealing the brunette tendrils that hang from her slowly sinking bun. “I came for you,” she replies, so earnestly that it is as if nothing ever happened: past pain forgotten and replaced by sprouting memories of soft kisses and mornings where leaving was too hard to do. Some of them, you think, are not real. They don’t seem to be. Your blank stare is unsettling. You almost don’t believe her. “Can we talk?” she tries, and you notice the team-issued duffle on the tiled floor she is standing on. Then, from the pocket of her hoodie, she extracts a pastry box. The plastic window is filled with circles of different colours, and she holds out the macaroons to you as if to bribe her way into a home in which she is unsure she belongs to.
Stepping aside, leaning the poker against the wall by the door, you scratch at the bare skin of your neck. Alexia, while sweeping an arm down to collect her bag, fixes her gaze onto the ring you are wearing, and the diamond glistens with hope that this can all be fixed. “Would you like to come inside?” 
She swallows the whine of anguish that tears her heart open at the idea that this might never be her house to live in, too, and she follows you dutifully as you lead her through hallways far more luxurious than the flat in Barcelona could ever be. This is what you left her for – the person you are, no longer in worn clothing with messy hair, is quite the opposite of the woman with her back to her moments before she had to focus on football. The necklace draped on your sharpened collarbones is new, and she does not dare believe what she has been hearing is true. Yes, there are pictures, but she trusts you. She will always trust you. 
“Have a seat,” you say, gesturing to the wooden dining table. It is clean enough for her to determine that it is unused. Alexia places the macaroons in front of her, and aches at how you sit at the opposite end. 
“I…”
“I thought you were going to give me all the time that I needed.” It is a statement of distance, as if your location is not enough. 
Alexia, eyes widening at how unwelcome she suddenly feels, needs only to remind herself of the impending date of the wedding. It is beginning to loom uncomfortably, with the excitement of getting married drained out like a low tide on a deserted beach. “We have two weeks. If it isn’t going to happen, then you should tell me now. We have to give everyone notice so that they can cancel their flights.” Your silence spurs her on. “You will need to contact the wedding planner, because you refused to let me have a hand in any of it so I don’t even have their number. I’m sorry that you won’t be able to wear your dress. Vivienne Westwood is a big thing for you, I know. I’m sorry that it’s inconvenient.” 
“But Alexia,” you whisper, “I don’t not want to get married.” 
Her eyebrows furrow, head tilted slightly to the left. “I know. That is why I am saying this.” 
Your voice grows louder. “No, no. Sorry, that wasn’t the easiest thing to understand.” Across the dining table, your love that has faltered, that has hesitated and been reconsidered and been stamped down over the past month, extends towards her: its final destination, always and forever. Alexia feels it grab her by the throat, wrenching the words from her before she can even formulate a thought in response, and her body is so drawn to you, in such a powerful fashion, that she pushes her chair out from the table with a grating scrape and is stepping towards you with a finality that makes her wonder if she’ll ever leave your side. 
As she approaches, the idea that she is here becomes a little too real. You have played with the fantasy of it, of course, but the tenderness in her usually fierce eyes does not match the anger you had expected, and, in the most feeble fashion, you have never felt more apologetic in your life. 
“I’m so sorry,” you begin to say. Tears stream down your face with freed anguish, and the words are so simple yet they bear the weight of your entire soul. “I’m so sorry, darling. I made a mistake, and I have been met with the most crushing of realisations: I can’t do this without you, Alexia.” I still want to marry you, Alexia. 
The room seems to close in on your despair, attempting to bottle it, almost, and keep you trapped underneath a haze of emotions you don’t quite know how to sort through. “I… I’m beginning to hate him.” The confession hangs heavy over Alexia’s bowed head as she stands frozen in place, stuck in her journey towards you but unable to arrive. “I’m acutely aware of how cruel it is,” you continue, this next admission being what agonises you the most. It floods the room with guilt, and your voice trembles with self-condemnation that reigns harsher than any other voice in your head. 
“It’s ridiculous. I’m evil and I’m wrong, and I just feel like it is inherently in my nature to be like this, as though some fault has been built into me with warning signs we evidently ignored.” You struggle to breathe. “I wish I could take back the day we decided to have him,” you confess, your voice barely above a whisper, lips doused in tears, skin searing with shame when Alexia cups your cheek with a strong, calloused hand. “He should not have to be stuck with me as a mother.” 
Your chest heaves, and you are finished. You have never verbalised it before now, and it is impossible to decide whether it has helped remove the lead lining of your heart where it has been bolstered against your will. Her other hand steadily rises to your face, but then, with only a second of hesitation, she is pulling you upwards and enveloping you in her embrace. You feel a little bit closer to her. “Mi amor,” Alexia murmurs, tone cracked with sorrow and regret. “Lo siento mucho. Desearía haber sabido, desearía haber estado allí para ti.” 
Gently, she tilts your face upwards to meet her gaze. “You are not evil and no estás equivocada. Estoy aquí ahora, y no te dejaré enfrentar esto sola nunca más.” You collapse into her. “I’m here, cariño, and I am not going anywhere.”
The sentiment is wonderful, and Alexia makes good on her word. 
When Nico begins to cry, the sound piercing through your choked sobs, Alexia realises she has missed all of her life with you. Being separated and being apart due to work, she now knows, are two excruciatingly different things. The whiny wails from upstairs visibly jar you, though you pull away from Alexia to attend to him. “I will do it,” she declares, though her firmness is not mean. “Sit down. Eat the macaroons – they’re… ‘to die for’?” You nod with instinctive encouragement. “Sí. They’re to die for. Try. Jenni says that the pink ones are the best.” 
“Jenni picked them out?” you ask with a briefly regained humour, eyebrows raising. “Had to get your friend to choose your apology gift?” In truth, neither of you know what Alexia would be apologising for, but Nico’s crying grows more incessant and Alexia is climbing the carpeted staircase before the topic can be discussed. 
Alexia reaches her son with tears brimming in her eyes. The failure of Spain at the World Cup is amplified by the idea that she has disappointed him, though he does not yet possess the tools to pledge his allegiance to her country. In fact, Nico has been sleeping in Manchester United attire (your father has been his primary carer of late, and he does not charge you money, so the price is obviously Alexia’s sanity). She is more than glad to smell his nappy, and delighted about the opportunity to change him into something less hideous. 
“Mama loves you so much,” she tells him as she manoeuvres his chubby legs into a plain, inoffensive onesie. “I promise, petit. I am going to help her, okay? And we are going to get through this together.” Alexia forgets about the taste of Jenni’s lips and the heat between them. “Mama just doesn’t see the direction she is going in. It is like her eyes are covered, and she is telling herself that she is walking down the wrong path, but this is not true. You are the most special thing in the world to us. You are the sunrise, the sunset, and the hours of the day.” 
She pauses to stand him up on his tiny feet, hands hoisted underneath his armpits. He is heavier than when she last held him, but she is stronger than before, too. Women’s football is growing, along with her muscles. Nico babbles out a vague reply, but Alexia hears what he is trying to say. “I agree. We’ll be alright.” And, with all her heart, it rings true. 
The following day, she calls the doctor for you, script written out on a piece of paper in front of her, translated perfectly so that her concern does not waver the information she needs to tell the receptionist. The clinic is famous and discreet, and they are quick to prescribe you antidepressants before the week draws to a close. You won’t be able to drink at your wedding, and everyone might think you are pregnant again, but Alexia reassures you that it will be worth it. 
Wrapped up in your own bubble, the three of you enjoy London in a way that isn’t possible in Barcelona. 
Here, Alexia has no commitment to football. There are no training sessions she must rush off to, there are no teammates to pry, and no one else to interfere with your private little routine. You quite like it, and she does too. It is only temporary, before you fly out to Menorca and hand Nico off to Eli in order to enjoy your respective bachelorette parties and then, in exactly seven days, your wedding itself. 
“You’re still smoking,” Alexia says disapprovingly, the sleep in her voice enough to make you feel a pang of guilt. It’s late at night when Nico has finally been soothed from his aching gums, and she has been able to climb back into bed expecting to find you asleep already. “Why are you awake?” 
“I’m still smoking,” you tell her. She sighs at the way you parrot her words, but presses an affectionate kiss to the junction of your neck and shoulders despite the lingering smell of cigarettes. “If I can’t drink, I’m going to smoke. This is Hollywood.” 
“This is Highgate.” Her accent curls around the name with something a little too foreign for her to ever consider this place home. “Why are you awake?” she repeats. 
You look down at the open notebook in your lap, the pages either blank or full of crossed-out lyrics. “He was so loud, but I can’t seem to write anything either so, really, it has been quite redundant.”
“I had to get a glass full of ice and hold it to my fingers so that I could help him. I could have lost some very important assets, but it seemed to do the trick.” He’s teething. You’re telling yourself that the antidepressants are little pills of miracle, and have kicked in already. “Feel.” She presses two freezing fingers to your cheek, and you gasp, flinching away from her. 
“There’s a teething ring downstairs, you know,” you tell her. She shrugs. Maybe it isn’t clean. “Don’t give yourself frostbite. I happen to quite like your fingers.” 
Alexia’s smirk is beyond suggestive, and her lips hit your neck once more with an entirely different heat to them. “Yeah?” You push her head away. “I bet it would feel good. Nice and cold.” 
“You’re delirious.” 
She continues to kiss you. “I don’t know what that means,” she mumbles into your neck, until her lips reach your face and she is near climbing into your lap – notebook long pushed onto the floor. “Dímelo en español.” 
“No lo sé.” 
“Ah. Una palabra inteligente.” 
“Claro.” 
She laughs into the kiss she presses against your lips. She never has never felt like this with anyone else. Never this relaxed, or loved, or safe. “Me vas a matar con tu inteligencia y voy a sentirme estúpida para siempre.” 
“I love you,” you state softly. “I love every part of you.” Alexia, in that moment, decides to never do what she did with Jenni again, and to never break your heart by informing you of her betrayal. 
You’re married. 
You’re married to Alexia, a woman who bears the beauty of a goddess and the strength and will of someone who could capture the sun and tame the fire that rages on its surface. 
You admire her as she sleeps so peacefully beside you, tanned skin warmed by the sunlight streaming in through the large windows of the hotel room. Later, you will get on the ferry, go back to Barcelona, and then fly to Capri for three days alone before Alexia’s preseason starts. Aside from a few meetings with Dave, you theoretically aren’t swamped with anything. You’ll be joining her in her city with Nico with a bit more permanence than last time. 
Alexia buries her face in the covers, crawling into your open arms the minute the sunlight rouses her. “Everything is sore,” she groans, her bare skin slightly sticking to yours, the sweat from last night not yet gone. 
“What happened to ‘mi vida, one more time won’t hurt’?” you tease, impersonating her heavy accent over your English with enough drama to get her to elicit another grumble. This time, it’s something about being bullied. “Darling, we have to get up. We’re having breakfast with our parents, and apparently Nico has been upset that we got a night to ourselves.” 
“Pobrecito,” she replies with a newfound level of English sarcasm. She spent the wedding reception avoiding the dance floor, engaged in a long conversation with your father. The topics spanned over most areas of life, and briefly touched upon how you are doing now. Alexia, with much pleasure, confirmed the improvement, however miniscule it has been. She is very proud of you, and he is too. “I only want one thing for breakfast.” 
Her hands begin to roam, the band of her wedding ring hitting your pubic bone. “Mi vida, one more time won’t hurt,” she mocks you from before but in her sexier, Spanish husk, sucking at your collarbone, straddling your waist.
You replace your near moan with a thoughtful hum. “I really want pancakes. Do you think they’ll make me some?”
Downstairs, where it is brighter and impossible to conceal the hickeys on both of your necks, you greet your parents, brother, Anya, and Gio. Alexia’s mother, her sister, and Jenni are sitting at the table, too. Your baby is pretending he isn’t teething, and grinning like an angel. 
“How’s married life?” Anya asks as you take a seat opposite her, Alexia to your right. The table has a gradient of bilingualism, but Gio discovered that she picks up Spanish quite easily considering she can already speak one romance language. “We’ve already found, like, four articles talking about it.” 
“How?” you ask, but you are not offended. 
Gio shrugs. “Drones, I guess. Nothing bad, though. Some speculation about the other bride – if the article does mention that. Most talk is on the dress.” It was a bloody good dress. “And I suspect that there’ll be a juicy little question about who was your Maid of Honour.” 
“Don’t be salty,” you tell her. The MOH issue was sorted out years ago – perhaps 2015 – when you binged Friends together despite having watched it thousands of times before. Anya has been yours, Gio will be hers, and you will be Gio’s. And they say trios never work. 
“I left Mia with her dad for this.” 
“You shouldn’t have had a baby with a man-slag,” Anya says with a snort, enjoying her second mimosa and Gio’s grimace at the idea of her daughter having to put up with her father’s revolving door of one-night-stands. “You’re one to make terrible decisions. At least our girl over here’s married someone who looks at her like she’s hung the moon.” 
Alexia turns to you with a smile, as if on cue, with Nico in her lap. You glance at his rounded cheeks and shining eyes, looking back up at your friends as though to check they are still there. Alexia leans forwards so that she can whisper in your ear. “Te amo. Nico, también. Mi familia es perfecta.” 
Returning to Barcelona comes with one negotiated condition on your part. You buy a bigger apartment, where there is space for an office and extra bedrooms. Alexia says her teammates will be taking the piss out of her grand new place the minute she sees it, but she is more than content to contribute to the finances with her new-and-improved salary for this season. “It’s weird to think that I’m from Mollet,” murmurs Alexia, standing in the middle of the large lounge area, surrounded by boxes. Most are from your old flat, but a few have been flown in from London. Alexia wanted you to have your Grammy with you. “This place is so fancy.” 
“It’s half of what the men’s team get,” you remind her, holding Nico with care as he gnaws away on a frozen carrot. His saliva drips onto you, but the antidepressants are working, and the therapy has been effective enough for you to start taking childcare in turns. (You had tried to previously, but Alexia wanted you to focus on yourself, knowing that things will change for all of you once the season started.) “Hey.” You place your hand on her shoulder. She tickles Nico’s chin. “We deserve this. You deserve this. Why don’t you host one of your team’s dinners? I’ll take Nico round to your mum’s – God knows she’d love to shove some food down my throat, too.” 
She shakes her head, strands of brown unstraightened due to the stress of the move and falling out of her bun with a determination to defy her hair bobble. “They would kill me if I did it without you. They’re all far too grateful that you invited Taylor Swift to our wedding.” 
“She’s a friend.” If you hadn’t been distracted by various other happenings that night, you’d have clocked that Alexia’s side of the guests were completely up to their ears in celebrities they’d never expected to meet. “Okay, so do you want me to stay here?” 
“I always want you to stay here,” she answers. 
“Not what I meant.” 
“I won’t take it back.” 
Nico babbles an incoherent yet cutely Spanish-y noise, though his words are getting closer to being said at the old age of eight months. Then, suddenly, something in him clicks. “Mama,” he squeals, his little fist scrunching up the fabric of your t-shirt. “Mamama.”
“Nicolau!” Alexia replies with just as much enthusiasm, cupping his cheeks. She kisses his nose, and then his forehead, and then his chubby knees and socked feet. “Nicolau, sí, la mama et té a las mans! Bon noi, el meu bon i intel·ligent noi.” 
“Does that count?” 
“Mama,” Nico repeats, tugging your earlobe. “Mama. Mama.” It is easy to forget about the (lessening) resentment you harbour when he speaks. Alexia gets him to say it as many times as she can before he goes back to his carrot, but, even then, the two of you stay in that spot, marvelling at your creation. 
Slowly, she turns around in a circle, absorbing the plain walls and towers of boxes. “This is going to be good. Life is going to be good,” you declare with such a firmness that it has to be true. “Darling, let’s get to unpacking and then we can think about a date for this dinner party.” 
“We are going to plan the party?” She raises her eyebrows at you. “Is this party going to start at five o’clock?” 
“Not all of us shit yellow and red.” (In a national sense – you’d have haemorrhoids for United any day of the week.)
Alexia takes Nico off you, in a show of cultural dominance. You’re actually outnumbered, considering he isn’t a British Citizen, and though he shares no DNA with your wife, he has inherited the same ability to narrow his eyes just enough to serve absolute cunt whenever he so pleases. If you weren’t feeling so ganged up on, you’d be a little impressed. “Nico y yo vamos a hacer croquetas de jamón. Adiós.” 
“Darling, the kitchen isn’t–” But you cut yourself off, deciding that she can discover that on her own, along with the criminally empty fridge. You don’t hide your smugness at all when she finds you in your almost-finished bedroom, wearing a look of utter disappointment and mumbling out a heartbroken request for a food delivery as soon as possible. 
November marks three years of being together and, also, four weeks of having Alexia’s ‘DNA’ – a pomeranian called Nala, whose Instagram account is run by her favourite parent after you called it silly and told your wife you’d much rather attend to your own seventeen million followers. 
Towards the end of the month, after a well-spent morning and then a family outing to Barcelona Zoo, Alexia meets Jenni Hermoso in a restaurant in what Jenni calls ‘your new rich-people neighbourhood’ in her text to Alexia.
Alexia, really and truly, is happy to have her best friend back in Barcelona. She missed her last year, when Jenni had returned to Atleti, and that separation maybe made what happened the night Spain was knocked out of the World Cup just that bit more understandable. “You’re a Culer, no matter how hard you try to fight it,” Alexia had said when she had climbed back into her own bed, not wanting to fall asleep in Jenni’s arms. “It was terrible to not have Y/n or you.” 
You and Jenni: Alexia’s people. 
“How’s your wife?” Jenni asks with a grin, two glasses of wine into a pleasant evening at an expensive restaurant. “You’ve left her with Nico, so something must be working.” 
In truth, you have been determined to get better. There were articles released not long after the photos of your wedding were circulated, and those speculated a lot about how you are finding motherhood. The baby pictured, captured by long-range lenses and invasive drones, was the world’s first glimpse at what Nico Putellas L/n looks like, and reminded many of them that you had a child to care for when in London, yet were frequently spotted at nightclubs and parties. You rise to most challenges, however, and find it a lot easier to adapt to weekly therapy sessions and pills every morning when you have a wrongful image to disprove. 
“It’s as if it never happened,” Alexia says, both with pride and surprise. “She now seeks to spend time with him. She takes him with her to the recording studio – the album’s coming along well.” It’s your first on your own. Nico plays with one mixing desk, while Dave (flown in from London with the promise that the Barcelona sun will do wonders for his wife’s misery) plays with another. “And… Jenni, we’ve been talking. The clinic that we used for Nico asked us if we wanted to reserve sperm when we first had him, and now they have called asking if now is a good time. I think… I think that she is really considering it. She told me yesterday that her therapist wants me to sit in on the next session, so we can go over how we can make this time different.” 
Jenni frowns, which is not what the woman opposite her had expected at all. “Why are you two having more children? You’re only twenty-five, Ale. Isn’t this going to affect your career?” 
“The men do it all the time.” She’s done a spot of research. They are younger than her when their girlfriends start getting pregnant, and they continue to play with the added admiration that they are fathers as well. 
“Yes, but they have the benefit of getting paid millions. They don’t have to fight with their federation for pitches or pay, and they can focus on football without their career sparking controversy for even existing.” 
“Then my children will grow up with a mother who fights for change.” 
“Or they grow up with a pop star who only wants things she cannot have and a footballer who can’t spend any time with them because she is too busy speaking at various conventions so that the next league match isn’t cancelled.”
“Jenni, do you think your opinion would be different if Y/n was a man?” 
This elicits laughter from the other woman, who rolls her eyes in a way that can only be described as condescending. “Alexia, you’re forgetting that I’m a lesbian too, which is a magnificent feat.” Jenni references the kiss they shared, and what happened after that. “But, no. I don’t. I want you to be the greatest footballer in the world, and you want that too. What are you going to do when Y/n tells you she wants to move back to England? Are you going to give up your future here for her?” 
The waiter interrupts briefly, collecting their empty plates and carting them off with a mission to retrieve the bill after a sharply declined offer for the dessert menu. “You don’t even know if that will happen,” Alexia scoffs, though she is a little sad that her exciting news hasn’t been well-received. “I was going to say that I’d think about the name Jennifer if it ends up being a girl, but now I’m leaning more towards María…”
She is kicked under the table, and she has to hold in her cry of pain because this restaurant is one of your favourite places to eat. “Mapi cannot have this victory over me. She’d be insufferable. Ale, you simply aren’t allowed to do that.” There’s another kick, but it is more playful this time. 
Alexia laughs, smiling and thankful that the tension has diffused. “I’m only joking. Y/n has a list scribbled in the back of her lyric book. She’ll probably be called Elena.” That is much more acceptable to Jenni’s ears, and she files that information away for next year, when she’ll tell Mapi that Alexia doesn’t like her name.
It works. Alexia and you are lucky. The doctor tells Alexia that, if she were a man, the two of you would have to be extremely careful. Your wife marvels at your ability to destroy your body and stay fertile, but she supposes that you are not the kind of woman to be a lesbian. Sometimes, she wakes up in a cold sweat, believing that you have changed your mind and left her. 
The New Year is a fresh start. Alexia decides to fix the (not so) hidden cracks in your relationship. She confides in her newly-acquired therapist. She may have made a mistake once; the secret is sandwiched between her worries about your susceptibility to depression and how Nico is a decided food critic. 
Though the therapist, a lovely bilingual woman named Sofía, raises her eyebrows, she does not pry. She slides a paper calling card over to Alexia. The paper squeaks along the coffee table between the two comfortable armchairs of the office. “I specialise in couples. Seeing as your wife is already a client of mine, I think you should consider a joint session.” Alexia is new to the idea of mental health. Before, she had been too focused on football to care about it. Even when her father died, any professional she spoke to was only hearing how her mind worked because she knew it was what was best for her performance. “And, Alexia.” She looks up at the therapist with a small, nervous smile. “Congratulations on the pregnancy. I am sure Nico will make a wonderful older brother.” 
Morning sickness drags you out of your shared bed most days. 
Alexia asks you about couples’ therapy when you have finished your dry-heaving one morning. 
“I mean,” you begin before pausing, gulping down the sour taste in your mouth and hoping nothing else is trying to hit the toilet water until tomorrow. “Sorry.” 
“Don’t apologise.” She is dressed in her training kit, but she slings her jumper over your shoulders as soon as you shiver. “Do you think it’s a good idea?” 
“It would do no harm.” As long as Sofía does not bring up Alexia’s confession, your statement will ring true. “You book the appointment. It’ll be easier to work around your schedule that way.” 
“When are you flying back to London?” Her question is not filled with hatred for the city, but with resignation to the fact that your job involves you being stretched between here and there. 
“Not until next month. I thought that I could take Nico to an away game with my dad if I got a flight for Saturday. The rest of the week would be interviews and photoshoots.” 
“How’s the album doing?” 
So far, your songs are only written when Alexia has paid you enough attention to swirl your thoughts and blur your vision. It is in these moments that the lingering, sinking weight inside of you dissipates. “Dave remains hopeful. It won’t fail, but I need it to be better than what we currently have.” 
Shamelessly, Alexia is aware of her effect on your songs. She smirks; “Alba has been begging to babysit, you know.” With no care for your current state, Alexia’s eyes rake up and down your body. You grow embarrassed by how you are slumped over the toilet, and how she is standing above you as though she runs your world. “You look beautiful, mi amor,” she murmurs as you bashfully duck your head between your bent arms. 
“You’re a flirt.” It feels too late for her to still be in the flat. “And you’re going to miss training if you don’t get a move on. There are eggs in the fridge, and Nico definitely liked the omelette you made him a few days ago. He’ll be waking up soon.”
A small sigh escapes the midfielder’s lips, but the prospect of the things she loves most in the world appearing in her life consecutively is enough to convince her to pad her way out the bathroom, swanning into the corridor with a little grin on her face as she sings out ‘bon dia’ to an impressively multilingual toddler and heads into the kitchen with the domestic intention of getting breakfast started. She leaves an omelette out for you, which you attack shortly after Alexia and Nico disappear into their daily routine. She drops him off at preschool, and you pick him up a few hours later, taking him first for lunch with Alba, and then to the studio. 
You come home to a showered Alexia who is memorising her most recent match. She lets Nico slide into her lap without hesitation, but she stays focused on the football even when he tugs on the strands of hair falling out of ponytail. You marvel at the idea of having enough room in your heart for so much love. You decide that you are not like Alexia, though it is not necessarily a terrible thing. A further observation from watching your wife settle her son with a calm, muttered Catalan telling-off, coaxing him into loving football as though he does not already, is that you are so very content with your life at the moment. 
But 2020 kind of sucks. 
For the entire world. 
You’re cut off from your home in any other manner than a digital one, and being stuck in a luxurious penthouse in Barcelona isn’t the worst fate, but it really isn’t ideal. 
Elena, however, has the benefit of coming into the world with ever (physically) present parents, who could recite the java script for Zoom given that they spend hours on therapy calls. Elena, bright and smiley and the picture of her mother, spends the first few months of her life in a happy, happy family, protected by an entire football team and a fierce older brother. (And a yappy Pomerianian called Nala.) 
“Y/n doesn’t like the name María,” Jenni tells Mapi when Alexia sends the first picture of your new addition to the Barcelona group chat. 
“The next baby is going to be a Jennifer,” Mapi says, to both the forward and the unimpressed midfielder walking a few paces in front of such a silly conversation. “For that, I can only feel sorry for her.” 
The routine changes the following year. 
It starts with an abrupt but expected conversation. One that Alexia has been dreading. 
Your album – the first one that is just you – was released two months ago, and it has done too well. Selfishly, Alexia had hoped it would fail. You have enough money, and she is earning more and more each season. Success, unfortunately, means that this little life can no longer exist. Or can it? 
“I have to do it,” you whisper to her, tears in your eyes though the smell of sex still lingers. The quietness of a child-free apartment allows for you to hear her gulp. “It’ll be different this time, darling, but I can’t be here anymore. I can’t fly out to London every few days. I can’t leave you with a five-month-old and a toddler when you are training every day and playing matches every weekend. It’s not fair on anyone.” 
Alexia kisses your bare shoulder, hands slipping round your waist as she pulls your sweaty body into her. Her chest presses against your back, but she is only behind you in this bed. She does not agree with you. She does not support it. But, like she always does, she bites her tongue. “If that’s what you want,” she replies, and part of you dies with the thought that she does not really care. “I love you. I want what’s best for you. For us.” And she tells Jenni all about it when she goes to see her a week later – the flimsy excuse of meeting a childhood friend for dinner enough to wrap a cloth around your eyes and leave you at home with a screaming toddler and a baby whose only flaw is that she grows distraught the moment she is put down. 
In the dimly lit living room, the tension hangs thick in the air. You lock eyes. “Why can't you just move with us? Everyone will want you, darling, and life would be easier,” you plead, a month down the line. The house in Highgate has been readied for your more permanent return. 
Alexia takes a deep breath, her gaze unwavering. “Why can't you get it into your head that I'm not leaving Spain or Barcelona? This is my home.”
“What about the children? School? Life? My career? Does it mean nothing to you?”
Her eyes soften. Your heart breaks, and the piece of you that has already died somehow dies again. “I'm thinking of the children. All the time, I think of them. About the reputation of my name – their name. Putellas, the greatest in the world, or Putellas, the one with potential wasted at West Ham?”
“You're being selfish, Lex,” you snap. “This is an opportunity for all of us, not just me. Think about their future!”
“Their future is here, in the culture they know, the languages they speak. I won't strip them of their identity for the sake of a 'better' life. And my career? I've worked too hard to build what I have here. I won't throw it away.” I don’t want to throw it away. Underscored by Don’t leave me again. 
The room echoes with the weight of her voice. “Their identity comes from both of us.” It’s too final for either of your liking. Elena begins to cry in her cot. “I want to try it. I want you to be open to trying it.” 
She gestures to the suitcases by the door. “Trying it and doing it are two different things. You’re taking them from me!” 
“You’re probably going to love life without them anyway!” you shout. You feel like the crying baby, except the tears rolling down your cheeks carry much more suffering than hers. “You’ll – what? You’ll go out with your friends, and you’ll be able to go to the gym whenever you want. No arguing, no crying, no toddler to entertain, no nappies to change. You never wanted children. I forced it upon you. I regret it, and I’m sorry. We’ll go.”
“Don’t go.” 
I don’t want you to go.
“I have to.” 
You turn your back to her as you fly through the corridor, prepared to console Elena in a taxi. Alexia slips her ring off her finger, and clutches it in her palm instead. Desperately, she searches for a solution. There is nothing within her reach, not even you. 
… 
She is an island amongst a sea of happy people. She is going to be the greatest footballer in the world. It kills her to realise that she can now focus on football. 
Nico starts nursery, attending the same school you once did. He adjusts to life in London seamlessly, and Elena does not seem to care either way. He learns more English every day, and his other mother calls him nightly to read to him. 
With childcare more than sorted, you are free to be interviewed, pictured, and invited to events. You rake in the publicity, especially after laying so slow over the course of the lockdown in Spain. 
“Alexia.” Jenni’s hands knead her tight shoulders, partly teasing her. Alexia wears a frown, eyebrows knitting together with an emotion she’s not sure she can name. “Ale, it’s the same game as always. Nothing has changed.” 
“I know,” she murmurs. “I don’t understand why I feel like this.” She has continued to speak to Sofía, though your joint sessions have now come to a halt while you spend your time doubling as a singer and model. The therapist, try as she might, cannot evaluate the situation effectively enough. Eli and Alba have both tried to help, hoping that weekly dinners and the constant reminder about the invention of aeroplanes would ease the turmoil of Alexia’s mind. It does not. “I am so alone, Jenni.”
Nala is too small to fill the emptiness of the flat. Screens don’t allow for her to kiss you, or play with Nico. She is scared she will miss Elena’s first words. 
“You don’t have to be.” 
It only takes a month for Alexia to break, and it sort of works. 
In Jenni’s bed, it works. Hips keening, soft pants falling from her mouth. 
Quiet moans that stay locked in Jenni’s apartment. 
Each time Alexia leaves, though Jenni repeatedly requests that she stays, she walks out as half a woman. She blinks back her tears and she checks her phone. When she calls you – not a video call – you are never any the wiser to the scratches down her back. 
Alexia remains an island, but the sand beaches are tainted with the arrival of someone else. 
In this way, she is functional. 
She can do sex. She can deal with borderline romance. She can fill the space that you are tearing open with every passing minute spent in that god-awful country you insist on calling home. She can fix it a little bit with Jenni. 
She tells herself that it does not mean anything more than a bandage means to a wound. Who wears the bandage once the gash has healed? 
Where does she put the used bandage? 
Why is she focused on bandages?! She’s having an affair. It’s not an affair! (It is.) Alexia doesn’t… quite… wanttoadmititjustyet.
The buzz of your phone is the final push that gets you to conclude the current interview you are trapped in. Before checking what the notification is, you glance at the time. You have half an hour before you need to pick up Nico, and your parents said they would drop Elena home once they returned from London Zoo. 
Alexia: Jenni has had a really good idea 
It’s an intriguing text amongst the more practical ones that oil the mechanics of managing the distance. Tonight, Barcelona play their last match of the season. After this, she’ll be flying out to London. You have missed her. The last time you saw her in person was after Barcelona embarrassed Chelsea in Gothenburg. Elated and filled with pride, it was incredibly nice to have the biggest room in the hotel to yourselves. Her medal was almost as beautiful as her. 
You: Go on…
Alexia: Just draw a heart on Nico’s hand from me porfa. You’ll see. 
You slide into the driver’s seat of your newest self-indulgent car; a Porsche. Momentarily distracted by a camera flash, your turn onto the main road is a little risky, but you manage to make it to the school in time to collect your son. 
“Was he good?” you ask his teacher as she hands you Nico’s book bag. You take in the sight of him: hair messy, school uniform stained though they require the little ones to wear aprons for most of the day. “It’s a little different here. I’m hoping that he’s enjoying himself.” 
“Our new assistant is from Spain,” says the teacher with a small, tired smile, batting her long eyelashes at you. “We had to pry him off her.” 
You let out a laugh. “He misses his mum.” 
“He’s extremely intelligent. He knew to speak Spanish to her and English to us.” Though your grasp of Spanish is near-fluent after such reluctance from your wife to try English, you know that the two-year-old has a talent for juggling the three languages he is growing up around. You’re proud of him. “You shouldn’t worry about him. And, speaking of, we have a parents’ coffee morning just around the corner. It’s always great for the parents to get along – it helps the school feel even more like a family. Will it just be you attending?” Nico’s teacher is around your age, and you can smell her rose perfume that mingles with the soft hint of ready-mixed paint. She has deep, brown eyes, and she is definitely flirting with you. 
“Next week, right? I’ll have to check with my wife.” 
It’s then that a toddler-sized hand grips your fingers and tugs. “Mama, me voy,” he groans; something akin to Alexia’s impatience. It reminds you of when you used to go shopping and she’d herd you out with the threat of getting in the car and driving away. “Venga.” 
“One sec, sweetheart.” There are countless ways in which you miss Alexia. “My wife and I would love to come.” 
Her smile does not falter on her lips, but there is a greyish disappointment that dulls the warmth of her irises. You smile as you turn your back and lead Nico to the car. You are so excited for Alexia to complete the broken puzzle. 
You melt when she kisses the heart drawn onto her hand when celebrating her goal. Nico copies her, lips pursing and sloppily mimicking the action on a similar heart. “For you, sweetheart,” you tell him as he settles back into your side, careful not to jostle Elena who has fallen asleep on your chest (the therapist did wonders for you). 
“It was for you,” Jenni tells Alexia after the match. Her goal is now serving as the move Alexia feared she’d make. They have changed and been massaged and done the media the are required to do (women’s football is growing): they are free to roam Barcelona if they so wish. 
Her flight is tomorrow evening – “I have a flight tomorrow evening.” 
“Come over tonight.” It isn’t a question, yet it is not quite a command. Mapi passes the two of them, eyes narrowing at the way Jenni has wrapped her hand around Alexia’s wrist. The defender is aware that something is going on, though it breaks her heart to imagine Alexia ever doing that to you. Not knowing they are being watched, Alexia steps in; cups Jenni’s face, brushes her cheekbone with a stroke of her thumb Mapi knows is meant for her wife. Mapi’s stomach lurches. She feels sick. 
“I need to…” It’s not a ‘no’. “Jenni.” She hates that it is not a ‘no’. 
“Ale.” There’s a beat. Mapi blinks twice, shakes her head, and backs away. “I’ll miss you, you know?” 
… 
Jenni doesn’t seem to mind when, the next day, blurry pictures of you on a family outing make rounds through the tabloids she usually doesn’t read. The fact that, up until now, no one has known that your wife is Alexia Putellas has no effect on her. She was stupid for thinking the last six months meant something. Winning together, losing together. Sleeping together. 
In this deal, Alexia has fucked over both women who love her. Except, you don’t know. She hasn’t told you, though Jenni had hoped for it secretly – hoped Alexia chose her – and it is obvious. Obvious to Jenni, who is well acquainted with the blonde hair in the wings of your concert at the O2. Obvious to Jenni, who refuses to think of herself as the other woman. 
She consults Mapi. 
Mapi, who she has come to shamefully realise already knows. 
“I can’t believe the two of you.” The defender is clear in her distaste and disappointment and, honestly, her disgust. “But I am not going to be the one to break that poor girl’s heart.” 
“I’m not asking you to.” 
What is she asking? What does she want from this utterly useless conversation? 
“Mapi.” Jenni closes her eyes, but she sees two faces instead of darkness. Nico. Elena. She’s Elena’s godmother. You decided that – convinced Alexia to choose her best friend over her younger sister, told your wife that there’d be another for Alba to corrupt. “Mapi, I love her. I don’t know what to do.” 
“She loves her wife.” The next sentence proceeds to brutally remind Jenni who that isn’t. “Tell her you’re done. Find someone else. Anyone but her.” 
That is Jenni’s resolve, because she knows that Mapi is right. 
… 
June, July, and August pass with bliss. 
Everyone says that you are a beautiful couple with beautiful children. Alexia beams with pride as she flaunts her practised English, and gladly claims ownership of Nico when he wins a prize on speech day. Every child in Reception is awarded something but that doesn’t stop her from boasting.
She explores the country with the children while you shack up in the recording studio, and brings hugs and kisses (and Red Bull) every evening after dinner. The visits are what reminds you of the sun Alexia brings, especially as the warmth follows her from Barcelona and London is blessed with golden days. Dog days. 
“This isn’t permanent.” Alexia looks up from her phone, comfortable in your bed. The house in Highgate has flecks of Spain woven into the decor now, and you like it that way. 
You climb into the bed beside her, and her arm lifts so that you can snuggle into her chiselled stomach (wow, she has been working hard this season). “What’s Jenni saying?” you ask, following your statement and hoping you’ll get her attention. She presses her phone screen into the duvet before you can translate the message – it is too long of a paragraph for you to handle. “Anyway, I wanted to tell you that this isn’t permanent.” 
Alexia, over the past few months, has been the most affectionate, loving, amazing person with the same smile and giggle you married. You thought she had disappeared and was replaced with stern, career-focused Alexia Putellas, jugadora del fútbol. You were wrong. 
“I’m thinking January is when we’ll come back. Nico’s English will survive.” Your parents are going travelling. They’ve never been on the Orient Express before. “I want to be with you.” 
It is a good thing Jenni has just broken up with her. 
“I love you,” you continue. “So much.” 
Alexia hums. Her heart breaks, and she does not know for whom. “¿En serio?” She is happy, she thinks. Certainly, she is glad that the four of you will be reunited. 
 You are. 
January 2022 ruins things for Jenni Hermoso. She calls Pachuca back. 
530 notes · View notes
halcyone-of-the-sea · 6 months
Text
Black Metal and Bourbon (II)
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AU MASTERLIST || PART III
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PAIRING: Biker/Mechanic!Simon 'Ghost' Riley x F!Bartender!Reader
WORDCOUNT: 10.7k
WARNINGS: Alcohol consumption, smut, NSFW, sex & intimacy, praise kink, brief thoughts of exhibitionism, p-in-v, fingering, hand job, some sub/dom dynamics, sub!Simon for a bit, soft!Simon, property damage, bike crashes (wear helmets everyone), violence, past toxic relationship, sabotage, attempted murder, protective!Simon, etc. (18+ mini-series)
*I do not give others permission to translate and/or re-publish my works on this or any other platform*
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Your fingers tighten around Simon’s waist, the helmet you’d been given pressed into his shoulder as the both of you slice through wind—an engine roaring below you from the Honda Rebel 500. The fit was a tight one, Simon not having a proper second seat beside the passenger kit he’d been quick to install not a few hours before when you’d hesitantly asked for a ride into a neighboring town. Your body was directly above the back tire, and Simon had been firm in his words when he’d been adjusting the back suspension in the bustling shop.
“You’re not lettin’ go until we get there, copy? I feel your grip loosen, I’m pulling over.”
You had begrudgingly agreed, needing the high-quality art supplies a twenty-minute drive away. The stores here didn’t have what you needed, and, not owning a car as this town was entirely walkable if need be, this was your only option. 
Once you’d gotten on that bike though, Simon hadn’t needed to reiterate himself about holding on—you did that all on your own. Yet, that wasn’t to say you weren’t enjoying this.
Lips peeled back into a smile, your eyes stare out across the unfolding hills and mountains in the distance; fields of verdant grasses and trees. The vibrations of the Rebel left your head jittering, but this view was the clearest you’d ever seen. 
Chuckling, the driver under your rib-cranking hold blinked at the nearly missed sound, only able to tell from the movement of your chest at his spine. Simon’s sunglasses glinted over the thin sliver of flesh that would otherwise be the only piece of his face visible, and his fingers twitched as he stared ahead at the open road. The man had given you his leather jacket, taking a spare of black coloring like an all-dark cat, his boots and pants matching the theme that carries over. 
You shout above the whipping of the airways. 
“This is amazing!” Simon puffs a laugh at that, though his heart patters ever faster like a dog at the turn of a key. He doesn’t answer, even if his lips itch into a smirk to tell you he’s appreciating the spinal re-adjustment you’re giving him. 
Your laugh echoes out through the scenery, and your heart has never been more full. 
It had been a decent amount of time since Simon and the others had come into town—three weeks since you’d been hired on your off days to go and paint the mechanic’s shop. A base coat had already been applied, then the secondary and the final with the help of a very animated Soap saying that no one could get to the tops of the walls better. Gaz had seen him hit himself with the soggy paint roller not five minutes later after trying to flip it, and that had been the end of the interference on your work.
All that was left was to start the mural.
There hadn’t been a peep from Graham or his goons—they’d even left you alone on your walks back home. As much as you wanted to be elated about it, there was a brief stint of paranoia in the days that had followed the party. Graham Whitaker was a coward, but he didn’t…let things go. 
But holding onto Simon Riley as he pulled into the nearby town made that sharpness at the back of your mind flee in an instant. The mountains and fields dissipate to tiny houses and long stretches of connected businesses—sun-washed bricks surround you as Simon shifts the tires to dodge potholes. 
His head moves slightly to the side, and you hear the call through your borrowed helmet. 
“Where am I headed?”
“East side!” You rest the bottom of the helmet on his shoulder, seeing a sliver of his October browns through his sunglasses as he rips his eyes back to the road. “Look for the rose bushes!” 
“Makin’ me go deaf,” Simon mutters to himself, but he does as you instruct. Parking in the street outside of the art shop, he moves out the kickstand with one foot—the other resting on the ground so you don’t tip. He gives you a look over his shoulder to get off first as the engine cuts and the jungle of keys comes to silence inside of his pocket.
Giggling, you let go of his hard waist and step out to the concrete of the sidewalk, turning around and fixing the strap of your carry bag with a hidden grin. 
“I think I just found a new form of transportation.”
“Then you can forget about it,” Simon smirks, taking off his sunglasses and sticking them to the neck of his compression shirt. “Helmet, Sunshine.” He reminds, looking around for a moment. 
You slap your hands to the side of the item around your head as you continue to giggle like a child, elated and feeling the throws of wanderlust—you’d never felt so alive than when watching the world pass by at your sides. How quickly you can form a routine of boring days, one after the other. You felt…light again. 
A finger grabs at the visor, flicking it up as your crinkled eyes come into view for the gruff man and his raised brow. 
“You drunk?” Simon stares, tilting his head as he looms closer, studying you up and down. 
“No, Brown-Eyes,” you roll your eyes teasingly, waving his hand away as you unclip and pop the helmet off before it’s leveled back to him. He takes it and holds it loosely in one grip, blinking at you slowly. “I’m excited. Can I not be excited, then, huh? Not happy seeing me enjoy your company?” 
“Let's get this over with, yeah?” Simon shakes his head but his amusement is heard, slipping past as you eagerly follow after, expression airy. 
You hum, leaning into him and smirking. 
“C’mon Simon, you’re completely taken with me—I can see it.” There was no question that the two of you had become close. There was rarely a night when he didn’t come to visit you at the bar; had even taken up walking you back home too, though there was little need to. Simon had said it was because he had nothing else to do, but you doubted it. Since the shop had opened, there had been no shortage of work.
The man grunts as he opens the door for you with a shoulder, sending you a blank eye. “Taken aback.”
“Fucking jerk,” you grin at him as you slip inside, face loose with banter. Simon chuckles lowly and follows, standing behind you as his boots clop to polished tile floors. 
This place was exactly how you remembered it—holding an old feel with the beams in the ceiling and the raw brick walls. There are tables with paints and brushes, all neat and orderly with unique looks and designs to them, even the wall has shelves of old wood holding hidden nicknacks and unique wonders. 
Simon gazes around with a glint of interest in his eye, understanding now that the painting was better off in your hands. He has to wonder how you managed to find a place like this. 
“Over here,” you say. Walking to the very back, your hands are already reaching for the quality brushes you’d need for the mural. Simon’s hands slip into his pockets, stance casual in a way he’d thought he’d lost a long time ago. 
It was no secret that Simon trusted very few people. It wasn’t just because of his past military experience, it was his life in general—each turn led to something that could go wrong like a gun in the hands of a criminal. But you had been nearly sly in the way you’d grown on him. 
The quick-witted comments, the way you spoke and carried yourself; your light and unapologetic attitude. He was ashamed to admit how many times he’d stared at the bar from his shop’s garage—under the body of some car with grease up to his elbows, legs dangling as his back was on top of the creeper. Brown eyes that can pinpoint your form before his mind blanks and sweat pools at his collarbone. 
It was something that Simon was afraid to name.
“Bloody expensive,” the man mutters in the present, fingers pushing at the price tag of some paints nearby. “You sure you need this shit?” 
“It’s not shit, Riley,” you scoff, grabbing two large brushes and three smaller ones from wall buckets, pointing one at him. “But I have to agree on the expensive part. You should see how much I would spend when I was really into art. You’d puke your blackened guts up.”
Simon hums, giving you his attention as you peer at a table of rich paints in smaller cans a few feet away.
“Why’d you stop?” He asks, the soft tinkling of piano music coming from somewhere in the back. 
You pause, your back turned to him as you look at the label of a small aluminum container of enamel paint for vehicle detailing. Licking your lips, you clear your throat and ease out a nonchalant, “Graham,” and end the conversation there with less blood spilled. 
Your Ex had almost sucked all of the individuality from you—you’d barely made it out as you are. 
Simon’s eyes darken, clenching his jaw after a moment as looks away. It's only when you put back down the enamel paint can that he speaks again. 
“He wasn’t worth your time,” he eases out, giving firm advice like orders. As if he wants you to believe what he’s saying to the fullest degree. “You know that?”
You snort, turning back around. “Yeah, I know it. Why do you think I threw the guy out? He ran through women like a damn kid with a stack of new playing cards.” 
Simon blinks from over his mask as you walk to the counter, putting down your brushes and adding in a few containers of nice pigment. As your fingers ding the bell up front, your free hand digs for your wallet. 
Before you can pull out the wads of cash that you’d need to pay, smelling of booze and all, a credit card hits the table. You stare at it in silence for a moment. 
“Simon?”
“You’re putting it on my wall,” he rolls his shoulders to dispel tension from the previous conversion as the employee comes out from the back. “M’not going to make you pay for the tools to get the job done. Not a fuckin’ heartless bastard.” 
“Heartless? No,” you tease, though your face burns and crashes with a fiery inferno of adoration. Inside of you, your stomach flips and your throat tightens. Oh, it was coming on bad, wasn't it? “A bastard…?”
“Shut it,” Simon glares from the corner of his eye as you raise your hands innocently. 
“Alright, alright. A very handsome and generous bastard, better?” You hear a hum, a huff of breath. 
“Getting there.” 
The ride back was much the same, but it still filled you with awe. Your hands were looser now, even with the added weight from your filled bag, but that didn’t mean you weren’t aware of Simon’s presence. Once more your helmeted head was set at his shoulder blade, resting as your lungs pulled in fresh air even if it was a bit heated from the barrier. Simon had pushed the thing back onto your head the minute your leg was about to straddle the bike, firmly grabbing your chin and tilting your face forward as he shoved it on.
“Safety first, Sweetheart.” You had sworn you nearly went weak-kneed at that. 
But the sturdy presence before you made a very comfortable headrest even if the longer ride was beginning to make your legs ache and give you a migraine from the noise. 
Your hand was flat to the man’s covered flesh, the oversized jacket around your frame, and in that moment you discovered that you were almost entirely submerged in Simon Riley until it became impossible to remember who you’d been before him. You were drowned in his scent—his presence an ever-present weight of purpose and prospect. 
Blinking over the view and feeling Simon’s pulse under your fingertips, you realize with a start that Graham had never made your stomach fill with butterflies over a simple word; never made you pause or have to re-think your thoughts because you’d entirely lost them when he entered a room. 
With so much going on, and at the same time so little happening…what exactly were you supposed to make of it? There was no question you liked Simon—there was no question he liked you, either. It was obvious by the looks Price would give the two of you when you came by with lunch for them all; free drinks. 
How the both of you would sit and talk, exchanging stories while Simon showed you the adjustments he had made to his bike. The issue was that you and Brown-Eyes were stubborn. Pigheaded.
Emotionally constipated.
Your eyes drag along the view, but they always shift back to the body that’s stuck in your grip; how his heat moved through his clothes, warming your wind-beaten hands. You’re right there at his back, hanging off him and you feel…good.
There just had to be something to make one of you snap.
Entering the garage, Simon once more parks his bike and lets you get off first, and you unclip your helmet and slip the object from your head with a puff of air. 
“Thank you, Simon,” you breathe, watching him stand. “Drinks on me tonight, okay?” 
“No need for that,” his brows pull in, confused. “If I didn’t want to, I would have told you.” 
Your hands pass the helmet, which he takes as your fingers brush one another's lightly. You repress a sharp inhale, scoffing playfully at him as your eyes soften.
“I’m not going to leave without saying thank you and you taking it, Brown-Eyes.” 
“Well, then I just took it, Sunshine.” Simon motions his head outside. “Now get going ‘fore I come to my senses.” 
Laughing, you shrug and take your leave, all of your items safe in your bag for a time when you could use them next. 
“I’m already gone,” you breathe, and a soft brown gaze sticks to your form as you cross the street and slip inside to clock in. 
A truck parked down the street has its window glinting in the sunlight. It seems to agree.
Simon tipped back the last of his bourbon and sighed, putting it down on the bar top as you polished glasses. 
“Anything happen today?” He asks you as you put the sparking material to the light, tipping it to try and find smudges before it passes your acute inspection. 
“Nothing interesting,” you respond, humming. “Had to kick a few guys out, but it was nothing big.” 
Simon’s interest makes his eyes shift to you like a wave, head tilting to stare as the warm light cascades over your figure. He waits for you to continue, but when you don’t, he prods with a slightly concerned undertone.
“Why?” Your lips twitch as you turn to look at him, exasperated. 
“Put a cork in it, Big Guy, it was just a few who had too much to drink—I cut them off and sent ‘em home.”
Simon grunts, “That’s a girl.” 
You ignore the way your heart jumps to your throat and the tingling of your arms. “Anything with you?” Your voice is higher than it should be. “Beat off any bartenders from your property?”
“Can only think ‘o one,” he speaks slowly, his voice wafting about as the both of you were the only people here. Your chuckle makes his heart constrict in on itself.
“Oh,” you tease, face pulling in with mock confusion. Your body moves closer as it leans into the wood. Simon’s lips twitch from where they're visible, the fabric of his balaclava pulled over his nose. “Tell me about her.”
“Yeah?” He speaks in a low murmur, eyes half-lidded in that dead-and-buried kind of way—only he could pull that off and still look so handsome. You had said once that he felt like danger, and you suppose that had to be true. Simon Riley was danger, and you had taken those snake fangs and put them directly in between the cross-hairs of your neck and your pulse, waiting, wanting for that fatal strike. 
You had bet that the sting of those fangs might just be the best pain you’d ever felt.
Simon Riley was unabashed freedom.
 “She likes to think that she’s the bloody boss o’ me,” Simon grunts, scars, and tattoos on full display; there’s blackened grease on his fingers, under his nails. You listen with bated breath. “Comes ‘round all the time now, hangs like she’s under a noose. I can’t figure her out. Not for the fuckin’ life of me.”
Simon doesn't know what he’s saying, but he can’t quite help himself when you’re looking at him like that. Your eyes going wider, your usually snappy and quick tongue silent as you take his words in like law. It was addictive to see you gobsmacked—the man has to stop himself from thanking Graham Whitaker for being such a fucking fool even if the thought of ever being near that man again made him want to clench his fists.
“And?” You push, trying to force your mouth into a playful smirk, but anyone can see it for what it is. Your faked emotion falls short, leaving behind only that which Simon can claim to be the sole owner of. 
Astonishment. Admiration down to its base form—a woman gazing at something that should not be, and yet is here among the ashes and ruins of broken earth and open roads. A sliver of sky between the rain clouds.
“And?” Simon mirrors, that numb mock. 
The both of you are closer now, puffs of air hitting the other. Everything in this bar became a backdrop, shifting colors and images like some dream. The dart in the ceiling was nothing to you—the tables that needed to be buffed, the bottles restocked; even the trash that you usually took out at this time was only a shape in the corner of your vision. It all blurred around him, and while you spoke again, Simon understood that he had left the city for something new; something that he could revel in and worship like he had his guns and his duty. 
Your sentence is whispered. 
“Why did you come here?” To this town? There was no answer for that. It was picked at random—even Price knew that. It was nothing special, not even to the bugs. But here…
Simon parts his lips and utters on the lightning of the air particles, all rushing past as if he was still on his motorcycle with you—your hands around his waist and your nails digging into his flesh.
“For a bartender that keeps making my damn head spin.” 
For a long minute, there’s nothing that happens. The AC whirs and the lights outside flicker over the stretch of the empty street. In your chest, your heart hammers with the strength of the Titans. A mechanic, a veteran; a man with broken, October eyes. 
How could he be the one thing you were looking for? 
Your eyes stay locked, those shredded flecks of color holding secrets that you want to know instantly—you want to learn his tattoos and the way he thinks, know Simon's dreams and aspirations. To you, that was better than any physical destination or journey because it was one in and of itself. 
Simon was an enigma. 
“Keep talking,” you mutter, lips so close now that they brush the man’s own. He doesn’t blink as he watches you, his lungs unsteady in his chest as he takes down a deep breath. 
“Why’s that, Sunshine?” His voice is raspy, and his accent makes you shiver. 
Simon’s tongue comes out to lick at the corner of his mouth, sneaking back in as your gaze flickers down to watch pupils blown. “Because I like it when you speak to me like that,” you have to admit, a whine trapped in your throat that you won’t let out.
There’s a low chuckle that makes your legs close together, moving like honey through your veins. 
“Can do more than talk.”
This is a game—a test—can either of you go this far? Is it more than lust, is it more than some strange attraction between two people who don’t belong here? A relationship of need rather than want?
You don’t care enough to test it, because if there’s one thing that this town taught you, it's that you don’t need to worry about the future so long as there’s something promising right in front of you. 
And Simon Riley was as promising of a man as you had ever met.
Your lips meet his, and his hand is eager to snap to the back of your skull, pushing you into him as your eyes pull shut and the edge of the counter digs into your guts. Air is exhaled from your nose, mouth heavy, and skin hot as it digs and molds to the rough scrape of Simon’s stubble. His fingers pulse into your scalp, waves of something sawing you open as he stands quickly from his stool and pulls away only to push right back in. 
Your hands move into fists on the counter, stuck in this dance of wet lips and shaky legs. 
Simon groans into your mouth, shifting his head as a purr emanates from his chest and makes you respond with a silent gasp that he takes advantage of. A tongue slips to run over your own as the lights glint outside, pushing itself in before retreating just as swiftly before teeth nip at your swollen bottom lip. Your eyes snap open, locking with deep wells of brown that seem more endless than the depths of space. 
You both breathe heavily, the bar silent to the two souls that seep into one another. Not once do either of you look away from one another. 
The man seems hesitant, and before he speaks, the rasp in his voice is felt as he blinks. 
“These parts in me have been shuttin’ down, Sunshine.” Your brows slightly pinch in for a moment, confused at this turn in tone—cocky had gone to still-stone as if Simon had laid eyes on Medusa herself. 
But you know what he means. You’d seen it in his stature and how he spoke to others; you knew nothing much of his past beyond a handful of stories from his service and none of them had been pretty. And of his childhood, you knew nothing. 
You know it can’t have been good. 
Your head softly tilts, a small, delicate smile forming the words of some long-lost deity.
“I’m sure you have the tools to fix them, Simon.”
He blinks at you, fingers still stuck to your head. “Don’t know if I remember how to use ‘em.” 
Simon’s giving you a way out of this if you want to take it; you know that he thinks you should. 
“...Then you’ll just have to teach me, won’t you?” You whisper, stubborn as always. “I told you I was good at keeping secrets, right?” He hums, eyes the most open and soft you’d ever seen them as he melts—forehead connecting to yours as your smile grows wider, truer. “Then I’ll keep yours closest, Brown-Eyes.” 
You both kiss once more, more delicate as the man takes a deep breath of you. Your smirk pulls along his flesh like a brand as he holds in a quiver. 
“What’s a bartender without a bottle of Bourbon on her shelf?” He growls into you, and not wasting a moment rips his lips from yours and wipes at his face with the back of his arm. 
“Such a mouth,” he mutters, moving as you stand there to push open the half-door to let him get to you. You stand waiting, pulse wild and lips tingling. “Cameras?”
Your head shakes without you knowing it, and a finger is hooked under your chin, maneuvering it as he sees fit. Another grabs onto your hip, kneading it slowly as you melt into him. Your hands grasp into the back of his belt and his eyes spark—hips canting instinctually.
There’s a hard prod at your inner thigh. 
“Only one at the door.” You set your chin to his chest, gazing up. “Back room?”
“Won't have you on the floor,” Simon says bluntly, unphased. Your core pounds, stomach tightens as you have a sudden need to get rid of your pants and touch yourself as dampness pools through your underwear. 
“Such a gentleman,” you’re breathless, voice airy. “Guess I’ll have to be on top.” 
Simon’s breath gets caught as you slip past him, sauntering to the back door and pushing it open as you slip inside. You had already started fumbling with the zipped on your pants as the man pushed on the barrier just before it could close, coming in and letting it slam behind him as the click of a lock could be heard. 
With your shoes off, you can feel Simon’s eyes burning into you as your fingers send the zipper down your navel, the sound of the metal teeth being separated from one another a call to action. When your thumbs hook the top, ready to send the fabric down, you let the man watch before your eyes shift back up to lock together. 
Simon’s gaze was intense—unblinking and unmoving beyond the slam of his heart and the pulse of the erection in his pants, begging to be palmed as you stood only feet away. The man’s hands clenched, knuckles going white. 
While holding eye contact, you let the pants—and your panties—drop to the ground with a whoosh of fabric. Simon tenses, but doesn’t look away.
You smirk, taking a few steps forward.
“I’m surprised.” Your hand captures his waist, one moving to stroke along the prominent v-line that’s hidden by his shirt. Simon’s heavy breath meets your head as his blown pupils make his eyes look black entirely. He’s almost in a trance. “Usually I’d be having to snap my fingers.” 
“Better than that,” he grits out raggedly. You have to agree. 
Your mouth finds his neck as he leans back against the door, letting you do what you wish as his hands settle on your hips once more, rubbing up and down as your own eagerness drips from you. Simon clenches his jaw as you bite down, taking and sucking on the skin as he hisses when you give him hickeys, eyes fluttering. 
“‘Such a mouth’ you said,” you comment, hand falling lower to hear the jingle as you unclip his belt. He stares off as your hand rests and cups him, sharply inhaling when you rub your palm over the large tent. Simon fights the sway of his hips, but the widening of his legs is telling enough, pelvis knocking forward as you groan, a line of slick falling down your thigh. “I’d bet you’d like my mouth, Brown-Eyes, wouldn’t you?” Your joke and your teasing of his dick—your hickeys and your sly eyes—they all at once snap something inside of him. 
You find yourself manhandled with a squeak of shock and a jump in your gut as your legs dangle, moved back, and pressed into the very door where Simon had been moments before. Your feet settle as his figure descends.
“Your mouth, Sunshine?” Brown eyes glint, staring you down from where he taps your legs open to the air, kneeling with an open belt and pre-cum staining his pants. “Want to see what mine can do?”  
There’s no more than a dangerous smirk before his face slots itself into the clutch of your pussy. 
You gasp, hands going down to his covered hair as his nose slides along your clit, making lightning go up your spine as you push down on him, grinding as a long stripe is licked, tongue flattening out at the nerve before a loud groan makes Simon’s mouth vibrate as it attaches itself to you. 
Giving you your own medicine, teeth lightly bite, tongue flicking as your cunt clenches over nothing, fingers grasping guilty as your head knocks back with a loud whine.
“Fuck,” you gasp, toes curling as your hips move back and forth. 
Your body can feel his smirk, your juices leaking out to drip at his chin, falling down his throat as this beast of a man sucks and mewls around your clit like he’s possessed. Hands grasped your thighs, holding them open. Well, one anyway. 
Lost in the movements of his mouth, cursing and gasping as he keeps trying to build you up to the point of rapture with every hard flick and measured nip, there’s no way your dopamine-addled brain can comprehend the fingers at your cunt before they’re already inside and curling outward. 
You moan out his name pleadingly, the pace of your hips instantly increasing as Simon’s chuckle makes your lungs constrict. A separate heart-beat lives in your navel, skin sweaty and slick making its way down his fingers. 
“Being so good,” your voice breaks as Simon’s wide eyes from below meet you as your head lolls forward. He stutters, hearing the wet squelching of your pussy as his movements cease for a moment. You whimper, face pulling in, and he instantaneously gets back to it with increased fervor and ferocity as if he’d never just felt his cock twitch in his pants and his abdomen bunch up.
Your eyes widen, rapturous moans falling from your lips in blown-limpness as his mouth and fingers do sinful things to you.
The sounds coming from below were feral and animalistic at best, sopping wetness and loud groaning—it makes it all so much better. 
“So thorough for me, Simon. Making me feel so good Brown-Eyes,” you babble, tightening your core and palming hands shoving him impossibly farther into you. “Such a fucking perfect mouth—perfect fingers, knew you could make me cum on ‘em, please, Simon, fuck, oh God right there,” you break off of the praise into desperate whines. Your quivering body shakes and ruts faster, Simon’s stubble making it all burn in such a way that leaves you gasping, back begging to arch as everything comes to a tipping point.
Simon can feel it by the way your walls flex and pull in, how their slipperiness gets so loose it’s not even a problem to finger-fuck you even as your cunt bares down like a noose. Your fluids drip past his elbow, falling to his pants as his pelvis involuntarily tries to get friction from his zipper by humping the air in broken intervals. 
He’s breathing heavily, but not as much as you are, broken up by groans, grunts, and his open mouth licking of your engorged clit. He’d never admit to you how much your praise was making him want to bust in his own fucking pants. 
“S-Simon,” you knock your head back into the wall, eyes going glassy as the knot in your navel goes painful, a vile itching so very close as your spine begins to arch for the man’s viewing pleasure. “So close, oh God, so fucking good. Need it, Simon, need it from—”
Your breath hitches, fingers twitching into tight fists of fabric and the hair underneath as your walls clamp down. 
Orgasm ripping through you, your voice lets out broken, airy, moans of Simon’s name like a prayer, hips continuing to spasm and toes curling inwards. Not letting up his assault, the smug man’s tongue and fingers draw the entire experience out until your legs are too weak to hold you, having to be pressed back into the wall by white knuckles and fingers stained with your cum. You hear it drip to the floor and see it when your half-lidded eyes blurrily make out the ragged appearance of an arrogant Simon, clear beads falling off of his chin and his lower face decimated by your pleasures. The bottom of his balaclava is stained—sopping with absorbed juices. 
You both stare—you, lust-blown, and Simon, ready to grasp at himself and stave off the near-painful erection that needs to be taken care of. 
But you’re true to your words.
Not seconds after your release had flooded him, your hands pushed at his chest and shoved him to the floor. Simon grunts but lets your hands quickly fiddle with his zipper and send it down. Not a moment is wasted, and the man’s hands move your hips higher as you pull his pants and boxers down just enough to let his dick spring free and slap his abdomen. 
Your hand curls around it and he groans long, pushing up into your hand as you stroke him quickly and mercilessly with the spread of his weeping tip. Simon’s words come out as a way to steady himself, but the work of your hand is easy to get lost in as his voice is a growl.
“Tase so bloody good, Sunshine, yeah? Be needin’ that every day,” his mouth is taken in a kiss, and you tase yourself on his tongue as he shakes and his fingers flex into your flesh. “Fuckin’ hell,” he says as you lick his lips, panting below you as he quickly loses himself. “Not gonna…”
Simon’s orgasm builds incredibly fast—and not once does your hand slow in its course. He blinks in a blind panic, mouth letting off soft sounds of confusion as he looks down to see his red cock and how you play with it like a toy. You chuckle at him as his sounds get louder, legs rising, and the slapping of skin on skin addictive. 
“You are good with your mouth—and your hands. Should have guessed really, you are a mechanic after all. Got yourself all worked up.” Simon's hand comes up to your head pressing your lips back to his as his abdomen tightens and quivers, thighs shaking as his hips try to meet your break-neck pace but just can’t.
What were you doing to him? Why can’t he last longer than a few mere minutes? 
You break off and connect your forehead to his, brown eyes fighting to not go blurry and his mouth open with fast breaths. You push out as you feel his tip twitch and spurt prematurely, “Be a good boy and cum, Simon.”
He groans loudly, eyes fluttering as they try to stay locked to yours before the wet splatter of his rapid ejaculation layers yours as well as his abdomen sticky and soaked. It keeps going, not stopping until Simon’s eyes have come back down from where they had fled to the back of his head and his small grunted whine lets you know you should stop pumping him so violently. 
You release his member and go to rub along his abdomen, massaging the skin and laying kisses on his clothed chest slowly. His hands loosen on your hips, thumb pulling back to carefully run circles into the flesh as you hum in appreciation. 
Simon's quivering slows to a stop.
“You sure you only work a bar, then? Bloody fuckin’ hell.” Simon hisses, looking down at himself. “Made a fuckin’ mess, yeah?” 
“Only fair,” you mutter, moving up to press your lips together as you both sigh. Simon’s breath hitches as your stomach rubs him. “I like having you under me. It’s nice to see you look confused.” 
“Don’t get used to it,” he mutters, and a red sheen comes to his flushed face. “Won’t happen again.” 
Your face goes mischievous, head tilting. Simon growls a weak, “Don’t.” You chuckle and hide your face into his neck. 
“Don’t test it?” You ask into his flesh, your body still pulsing and needy at the display you’d managed to pull from the stoic man. Your tongue licks over your placed hickey with a newfound appreciation for the black and blue mark, blowing on it as Simon feels himself harden again. “Or don’t acknowledge that Simon Riley has a praise kink and when a woman tells him what to do he—”
Your spine settles to the floor, hands stuck on either side of your head and digging into the wood. Simon’s eyes glint primarily, and you keen to him as your arms move to wrap around his neck as your cunt tightens.
“Thought you said you didn’t want me on the floor?” He grasps your chin, moving his face to be above yours so he can speak plainly and dead-like. A surge of power takes over his voice, and you yield with a rising of your legs and a shiver as his fluid-slick abdomen slides over top of yours.
“That was before you made me cum in a matter of fuckin’ minutes by just stroking my cock. Now,” he breathes, “now I’m going to fuck you how you deserve.” 
He grasps your legs and pulls them around his waist, locking them as he lines up his half-hard dick and bullies it inside of you, your arching back bends into him, but your shocked moan is cut off as Simon starts to move. The pressure inside of your pussy is tight enough to feel like it could snap—your gummy walls taking the curve of his veins and the grate of his head as the tip curves upward. On girth and size, Simon is the largest you’d ever taken, and your face pulls in with a mix of pain and pleasure before the latter takes over completely. 
“Get me to be your toy, eh, Sunshine?” Simon keeps your chin grasped, not letting you look away as you try to garble words over the heavy slap of wet skin. “Keep me ‘ere so you can play with me like you’ve been doin’ from the start?” 
“So full,” you seem to have lost that edge, staring up into brown eyes as your spine digs into the wood below you, your cunt taking the fast slaps of Simon’s prod as it reaches every part of you that you could ever ask. Every trust makes your legs tighten, clamping down to keep him there and ring pleasure like water. “Such a big cock, Simon.”
He huffs, but his pace increases, panting at you as your lips meet for a sloppy and slobbering kiss of teeth and saliva. Sweat falls from both of you, coating your faces and lower halves with more liquid to make this dance easier—staining already ruined clothes. 
“Splitting you open, am I? So tight,” Simon grumbles, grunting as his elbows shift to stay beside your head. “Gettin’ me off so easily, need ta return the favor for making me feel so good, Sunshine. Bloody perfect cunt, takes my cock like it was made for it. Hear that?” Your skull moves to push into the side of his face as he bites at your neck, ravishing you as the forward and backward motion of his body makes your mouth hold back mewls of raw need. So many sounds—so loud and wet it was lewd, borderline obscene with every pump of the man’s hips that more just spilled out of you, pooling with every back and forth spreading of your hole. 
Simon bites a long whine back and angles himself higher, making you shout and cry as a burst of white light explodes in your eyes.
“Making me want to fill you full of myself. Over and over, make you drip with it—go until you can’t walk. You’d take it too, yeah? You’ve got such a good look on your face, you bloody love it when I stretch you open like this—takin’ my dick so well, Sweetheart.”
You were both animals trying to get fix after fix—drunk off scent and a biological urge. 
At the words, your pussy tightens around him even more, Simon holding back a loud groan and letting your little puffs of air grace his ears along with the ravaging dig of his fucking.
“You like that?” You whine, face burning as a hand descends to play with your clit. You gasp loudly and moan, not hiding the way your hips jump and rut and fight to keep Simon’s cock taking you raw.  
“Simon!” You call loudly. “I like it—fuck I love it, Brown-Eyes. Keep touching me, please, please keep going. Keep talking, love it when you talk like that.”  
“Makin’ fun o’ me,” he scoffs, “but the little temptress has the same bastard kink, eh? It’s alright, then. I’ll just help me get you off—”
The front door of the bar opens from beyond the wall. 
The both of you stop all carnal desires instantly, wide eyes snapping back and locking with each other. A pin could drop, fast breaths and fast hips held back even as you both quiver and your nerves plead to keep going. The need doesn’t last long. Simon's fat hand covers your mouth as your eyes glint with panic before getting right back to it. 
You try to speak, to get the words out that you should go out there, but it’s all cut off by the way he rubs you every right way. Your hand anchors to his back as someone walks around the bar, their voice muffled just like yours is, but this person has no idea you’re getting railed in the back room by the mechanic from across the street. 
Simon’s eyes are dark and urgent, but his hands can't as the slap of skin that’s still incredibly loud, and the wetness that follows all but telling. Your moans and whines are hidden, kept back by a tight palm as he smirks down at you. His hips are bruising yours and you can feel the hard bone of his pelvis as it slots itself fully into yours.
“Good girl,” he whispers, accepting the words with hard thrusts that make you whine like a dog, pawing at his gargantuan shoulder blades. “Keep quiet. I’ll make you feel good.” 
Your heart hammers, walls flexing and clamping at the words. Outside the walking continues, searching for you, no doubt. Simon's hips increase, almost cruelly, and your cut-off cries spill from between his fingers. 
The bastard chuckles and watches, letting your hips meet his as your release builds with the added need to finish quickly. 
It was rabid now your back arched, how the person outside mattered so little to you now, in fact, maybe you even wanted them to hear you like this—being fucked so perfectly to the point where you had tears in your eyes and your body was growing numb; mind blanking to only pleasure and the grating press of a foreign entity all the way to where it digs at your cervix and makes you see starts with every addictive thrust.
You can’t hear anything over the previous sounds, that and rough breathing are the only things in this hot room—the air tense and ready; anticipation a drug of the highest order. 
“C’mon,” Simon grunts into your ear, hand flexing as his lungs burn. He wasn’t far away either. “Let me see it—how your face screws up all nice and pretty for me.”
Struggling to keep your eyes open, you can only stare at the ceiling as the door of the bar slams shut once more, whoever there leaving. Simon releases your mouth and you fall apart with a spine-breaking arch and a high, feral, keen.
Your release is subsequently followed by Simon’s own, his body spasming as he gives three more violent pumps before the warmth of his cum seeps into your womb with a loud groan and a pound of his fist into the floor. He grinds you both through the aftershocks, the sparks of electricity that make both of your hips jerk just a few more times before you fall limp and useless. 
Simon stays inside of you as he shifts to the side, hooking one of your hips over his thigh as you stay face-to-face as your bodies gasp and pant for air. 
When the two of you come back to yourselves, some delirious minutes later, the first thing that you both notice is the tightness of your clothes and skin. Glancing down at the mess you’ve made of yourselves, you both slowly look back into each other's eyes, pausing.
You’re the first one to snort, before you have to hold your loud laughs back behind your hand. 
“Well, I sure do have some more secrets to keep,” you say through your fit, knocking your head to Simon’s chin. The man is smiling, his eyes crinkled and mouth jerking in a series of chuckles.
“Proper few.” The laughter died down to a simmering emotion of amusement. 
You smile at Simon, and he stares back, a hand coming up to touch your cheek delicately before it traces the lines of your face.
“You know I meant it, right?” You ask him, and those browns blink at you in question. “What I said before we decided to fuck. About keeping your secrets.” Simon’s face gets slightly more serious. Your hand cups his cheek, feeling the stubble on your fingertips. 
“Simon,” you say, “I don’t want this to just be a one-time thing, okay?” 
He watches you for any glint of hesitation—of a lie. But there is none.
“Why,” Simon asks. Your answer is simple as you smirk, recalling words from a while ago. 
“You’re just going to have to stick around to find out.”
Simon shoves his lips to yours and drags you back on top of him.
You both exit the back room two hours later, clothes ruffled and bodies far dirtier than ever. You have a limp in your step, a pulsing ache between your bruised legs, and yet you’d never felt better. 
Simon presses a kiss into your temple. 
“Walking you home,” is what he says, and you sigh through an adoring look. You were tired, incredibly tired, and you hoped that Simon would share your bed tonight so he could hold you like he did back there. 
“Deal,” you wink, and the man huffs a chuckle, back to that same stoic mechanic that you knew. 
It’s only then that you realize that Celina had never shown up for her shift. Pausing behind the counter, you blink and look around, confused as you flatten out your clothes. Simon catches on quickly, brows pulling in with concern. 
“Something wrong?”
“Celina,” you tell him, “she never showed up.”
A beat. 
“...Probably kept away,” Simon tries to lightly say, implication enough to make you scowl. 
“No,” you utter. “She would have tried to break the door down if she actually came in. She never would have walked away.”
The man hums, pulling down his balaclava and looking about. 
“What do you want to do about it?” It wasn’t mocking—he was being honest. Your lips thinned out in thought. 
“Well…I can’t leave the bar unattended, she needs to be here in order for me to go home.” You motion a hand helplessly, shaking your head and walking forward. Through a sigh you grumble, “I guess I have to call her or I’ll—” A shadow darts from across the street and your head snaps to the dark window. 
Words coming to a swift stop, you gaze outside with blank eyes, mouth open in confusion. Simon stands taller, not having seen the strange event but not liking the shock on your face as he pivots to the view to study it. 
Brown darts over the street lamps and the closed body of his shop, along the sliver of the obsidian street and the tops of bushes in the plant boxes. But there was nothing there and Simon glanced back at you from over his shoulder with furrowed brows. 
“Thought I saw someone in a…” you frown, eyes not leaving the window as your heart tightens. “In a mask.” 
“Mh,” Simon watches for a moment before he grunts and tension seeps into his muscles. “Mask?” 
“Like yours,” you say quietly, suddenly very still. “Without the skeleton.” 
Simon moves back slowly, one foot backing up before he’s behind the counter again and shifting nearer to you—your eyes flicker upward but swiftly return to the view. He pulled out his phone from his wrinkled pants, and no sooner had he put it to his ear that you saw the individual again. This time it wasn’t just one shadow, it was three, and there wasn’t just a flash of black mist and then poof gone again—it was worse than some schoolyard prank. 
There was a bat. There was the swing of a strong arm. The glass explodes with a resounding shatter and the shrill yell falls from your mouth not milliseconds later.
Getting tackled down, Simon keeps your head to his chest as he shifts to hit the ground first, body sliding slightly before you’re forced under him and protected by his bulk. Grasping at him, you clench your eyes shut as large projectiles are hurled through the broken window and make contact with the bar shelf right above the two of you. 
But Simon doesn't move for a second. Not as the bottles shatter and drown him in alcohol and colored glass, not as the bricks fall back from gravity and strike his spine with a loud thump. He holds you to him, curled over your body as if in reverent worship, grunting as he takes the beating without thought to anything else but your safety. Loud shouts and laughter echo in from outside, but your wide eyes only stay and focus on Simon, his fingers gripping across your back and creasing your shirt. You flinch as a spec of glass knicks your arm, slicing through it with a sharp drag of an uneven edge. 
Simon growls into your scalp, but as he attempts to squish you farther into him, the barrage, just as it had come, entirely stops. 
Staying there, breathing heavily and your mind panicked, you have no time to think before Simon shoves himself up and snaps his enraged eyes forward. Like a large beast, his hands are in shaking fists, alcohol dripping from his shirt and glass pinging against the wood. You can smell blood. 
“Simon,” you say in concern, moving to stand up quickly as you try to get your breath back.
What the hell had just happened?!
“Stay there!” he barks, eyes tight as they dart back and forth to nothing until they find something. 
No one was there anymore, but in that absence, the true damage was brought to light. You ignore Simon’s words and shift until you can peek over the top of the counter, fingers shaking and mouth dry. The man beside you is stone-still, his darkened eyes lighting like fire and brimstone as the anger can all but be tasted in the air. 
The mechanic’s shop across the street. Seen through the broken remains of the bar as if a tornado had come through on the dusty air. 
It had been ransacked.
The illumination of the police lights takes over everything, pushing the dark away as Sheriff Russel tries to get statements from the two of you. But your attention keeps getting brought back to the stiff-standing presence of Simon. 
He hasn’t spoken beyond clipped sentences, even when he’d called Price, Johnny, and Gaz to explain the situation. 
“Can you explain what you saw?” The Sheriff eases, and your attention is drawn back. 
“It wasn’t much,” you stutter, shaken. “Shadows—men wearing masks. One had a bat and hit the window before they started throwing bricks.”
Simon’s eyes shift over the damage, numb gaze finding more broken glass, thrown paint, and dents in the garage door. The front had been trashed with garbage, and the lobby was ruined—it was by some miracle that the bikes had been left alone for whatever strange reason. 
It didn’t make him any less full of wrath. 
Your hands are still shaking, and your arm still leaking small droplets of blood down your flesh. Simon’s injuries were worse; he’d taken the brunt of it, but he didn’t seem to care at all, even as the crimson liquid stains his wet back.
“Simon needs medical attention,” you speak lowly to the Sheriff, head moving forward. “Can we do this later at the station?”  
“I’m fine,” the man in question grunts, voice deep with anger before turning and walking back to the two of you. Not once do his eyes stop searching the area; on high alert even now and not eager to be out in the open. Those old instincts were creeping back over him, and he wanted to get you somewhere safe so he could handle this situation himself.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know who was responsible and while property was one thing, your comfort was another. 
How dare anyone do something like that to you. 
“You’re bleeding,” you explain, eyes tight. A hand brushes over your arm, taking it up and inspecting the small cut that you wear. 
Feet shift, and through a clenched jaw Simon utters, “So are you.” 
“You know what I mean, Brown-Eyes,” you try to make him listen, but it’s fruitless. 
“Don’t worry about me,” the Sheriff walks to assess the damage, letting the two of you speak in hushed whispers and firm looks. 
“You sound stupid,” you hiss, and Simon’s fingers rub your skin softly, his study of your body taking place in a slow sweep. “Of course I’m going to worry.” 
“Need to stop shaking.” Your face creases at the comment. 
“I’m not shaking.” Simon grabs your hand and puts his fingers through yours, raising it between you so you can look. Your eyes shift down, and your limb can clearly be seen vibrating like an engine in his hold; the fingers unable to close fully. 
Not speaking, Simon cups it with his other hand and presses, grounding you as your lungs take a deep breath before you can clear your throat. 
“I’m fine,” your words barely make it to the air. 
“...Now who’s sounding like me?” The man mutters eyes creased as he stares. “Breathe.” 
You listen, taking another deep breath and staring at Simon’s chest.
“Up ‘ere,” a finger moves out to tap under your jaw, making you tilt your head up to lock with his browns. “There we are, then. Focus. M’right here.” 
“You’re good at this,” you grumble, put off by your own separation from your body. 
Simon tilts his head. “Had to be.” 
You spare a strangled huff at that. 
How quickly things could go wrong—you had thought that tonight would be the best night of your life, but now it was just one single instant that things had made sense, the rest a stain on your memory. 
“You know it was Graham and his friends?” Simon nods, still watching you and making sure you’re calming down properly, waiting for that adrenaline crash. He knows. “What are we going to do about it?”
“Right now?” The man pauses. “Nothing. You’re coming down with me to the Bed and Breakfast. Staying there.” 
So that was how Simon shifted his priorities, walking you down the road as more and more police showed up—there would be more talking in the morning, you had given them everything you’d known so far. It was also how you were mobbed by three more concerned mechanics as you entered their temporary living situation until houses were purchased, blue and brown eyes blinking at the two of you quickly. 
“What in the bloody hell is going on?” Gaz had asked, but you were much too tired to speak beyond leaning into Simon’s shoulder and grunting. 
“Steamin’ Jesus,” Johnny had muttered, only in boxers as he’d shoved out of his room. “Heard the sirens—what’s been happenin’ without me?”
Price had been the one to finally settle everyone and push out a stiff order to leave Simon and you alone for the night. With various glances and tense looks, you were both allowed into your room with little more trouble. 
It was tiny but clean, and Simon had locked the door with a grumble and moved you over to the bed so you could sit, moving off to run a bath. 
You heard the pipes squeak—the whoosh of water as it entered the tub. 
Your mind has still not entirely caught up to itself as Simon leads you forward and begins undressing you; taking off your top and letting you shift out of your own pants. The bathroom tile is cold, and you wrap your arms around yourself when you’re entirely bare as you can’t find the words to speak. That is, before Simon takes his shirt off and you see the damage that’s been done. 
You gasp, hand reaching out but stopping above the cut skin surrounded by a million bruises and large welts. 
“Oh my God,” you whisper, delicately touching the skin. None of the slices were deep, but the horror was still there. “Simon…”
Brown eyes soften, and the balaclava is removed as well before a kiss is dug into your forehead. The shade of his hair matched his eyelashes, and now with the full picture, he was as handsome as you imagined him to be, though to all others the scars and the crookedness of his nose might be a shock. You hadn’t expected anything different. 
“Just bruises, Love,” he pets your neck, thumb running over your pulsepoint. 
“You’re all cut up,” your eyes water, but your stubbornness holds them back as you try to take everything in from his willingness to show you his face to the events of tonight. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know that he would do something like this, really, he was always a jerk but he was never…never bold like this.” 
Cupping his cheeks, you kiss his jaw, salty water tracking down your face as you hear Simon take in a breath. He pulls you closer and hugs you tightly, curling over you as if another barrage of bricks was imminent. 
But there wasn’t going to be any danger here. Not with three other veterans down the hall.
“He ever…?” You shake your head, shakily uttering a quick response to Simon’s trialed-off question.
“No. No, I’d never stand for that.” The man’s broken body loosens, a long sigh exiting his nose in blatant relief. 
“Good,” is all he says. “Deserve better.”
You sniffle, getting a reign on your emotions. “I’ve got better.” 
During the shared bath, you clean the others’ wounds, your back to the wall as you run water over the stretch of Simon’s shoulders, washing away the blood. Your nails drag over his skin as he shivers, not looking back at you as he reaches behind and takes one of your hands into his. The black stain of his tattoos rubs along your bare arm as fingers intertwine, your limb moved and held to his abdomen as you kiss one of the knobs in his spine softly and hum to him. 
“Thank you,” you whisper into his skin. 
Simon doesn’t respond, only leaning back into you more. 
Two days pass with no sign from Graham or his friends—Celine, either. Everyone in town was on edge, and in that time you’d been put on paid leave from the bar on account of your involvement and the potential involvement of your coworker. So, you spent most of the time at the shop with Simon, as he’d asked you to so he could keep an eye out.  
You had thought that maybe this was a one-time event, and had believed it, as well. Graham had made a point, and being the idiot that he was, he’d pay for it. If he was smart, he’d be out of the country by now—there was no mistaking Simon’s vendetta now. Price had to reel him back in the day after the vandalism. 
You’d woken up to an empty bed, having been fitted into one of Simon’s incredibly large shirts and sweatpants for pajamas, and heard arguing. Feet padding like a cat, you had pressed your ear to the door and listened with held-back breath, as if only a peep would make the heated conversation stop.
“He made her bleed, Price. He put her in danger!” 
“Get your head on, Simon, you aren’t in the service anymore,” Price had hissed, shadows slinking along from under the door. “You can’t do anything about it.”
There had been a low growl, an aggravated breath. 
“I can’t sit ‘ere when he’s waiting like a fucking robber. This is my responsibility— happened on my watch.”
“Since when did that fucking happen, Simon, eh? What’s been going on with you two?”
A pause. “...It’s complicated.”
“Then un-complicate it—you’re thinking like a damn soldier.” 
So here you are, fixing the streaks of miscolored paint that had been spattered over the mechanic’s shop as Simon comes out, wiping his hands with a rag. 
“Good thing I didn’t start on the mural yet,” you comment to him, stepping back and putting your roller down. The rag is offered and you take it with a small smile while you slide it over your fingers. “Else I would have tracked him down myself.”
“Would ‘ave helped.” October eyes flicker along the drying paint—the marks still visible. “M’sorry.”
“If you won’t let me apologize,” you raise a brow in challenge. “I won’t let you either.” 
Simon’s eyes crinkle from behind a new balaclava, missing the skeleton details. “Cheeky.”
“It’s called being truthful, Riley.” You sigh through the tilt of your head. “But the bad news is that I had to use up the paint, and I’m not even halfway done with this. It didn’t help that they used a darker color than what I wanted as the backdrop.” 
“Want to take a drive out, then?” The question is swift and honest as it's aimed at you like a distraction from the anxiety. Simon motions his head to the garage. “Got a bit before I’m needed, m’sure you could use a break, yeah?”
“You don’t have to,” you utter, moving to rest a hand on his bicep. He almost purrs at the touch, leaning in. 
“Want to,” Simon grunts slowly. “Bikes are still good. Bastards knew I’d skin them if they touched ‘em.” 
“I’m sure,” you chuckle, teasing him through a smirk. “Big Bad Simon Riley.”
“Fuckin’ hell,” he breathes at that, turning back around as you follow after, laughing. 
You both get onto the Rebel, and the brown leather jacket moves your way along with the helmet, slipping it over your head not seconds later as Simon grabs his spare. 
“Are you sure you shouldn't ask for another helmet?” You had brought it up the first time as well—the prospect of a crash. 
“Only a small ride—I’ll go slow, Sunshine.” Knuckles tap the top of the helmet in reassurance. “Matters more that you’re the one wearing it.” 
Your face creases up, but you sigh and nod, wrapping your hands around Simon’s waist and tightly holding on as the engine starts rumbling below you. Moving your feet up to the rests, you scoot closer as the man pushes off the ground, flipping the kickstand back up before he leans forward slightly and lets the bike do the work.
As before, the two of you get out of town and nature opens up—but as soon as you really start to let your worries slide away and focus on Simon’s pulse and the freedom he gives you, there’s a cold wind from the west. Coming up and dragging along with it, a dark rain cloud sits over you both about a seven-minute drive in.
“Should we pull over?!” You shout in question as raindrops begin to patter off your helmet. The bike makes a strange chirping sound, and you blink over Simon’s shoulder until your attention is taken away by his answer. 
“Soon!” You nod, trusting him to know, and ease back. Your fingers trace the small bulge of scars at his waist, shivering. 
One minute later, you’re about to say you can see the town ahead when that chirping starts again. Brows furrowing, you grunt in the back of your throat and yell, “What’s that sound, Simon?”
He glances back briefly, unable to hear you.
“The sound!” Simon’s fingers flicker, head moving down to the bike below him—the hum of the engine was too strong up here, he can’t hear anything out of the ordinary. 
“What are you—?!” 
There’s a great shriek of black metal, and the Honda Rebel 500’s front wheel breaks off from the motorcycle fork and the bike flips. 
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lovelycupid47 · 6 months
Text
Lies, Love, and Lullabies | Yandere! Cheater! Jungkook One-shot
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a/n: This took longer than usual and it is kind of everywhere. Also a little inside of what my mind comes up with.
pairing: Yandere!Cheater! Jungkook x pregnant! housewife! female reader. Slight Taehyung x female reader
warning: cheating, miscarriage, yandere behavior, obsession behavior, blood, murder, physical assault, manipulation, kidnapping, gun involvement, mentions of attempted murder, suicidal thoughts, and inconsistent pace. (unedited)
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Since you were little, you had a dream of meeting the perfect husband and having a happy family with two kids and a dog by your side. The picture-perfect family you always wanted. You thought you did. You met your husband during college and have been married for 2 years after graduation. You are now 7 months pregnant with his child and you couldn’t be happier than ever, but things never last long.
For about a month, your husband, Jungkook, has been suspicious. Leaving the house early, coming home late, and asking for two portions for lunch, his phone has been buzzing non-stop, and made sure that he had it in his possession at all times. His excuse was that he had been working overtime to provide more money for the baby, you were a little hopeful but noticed the lack of intimacy that you were craving.
You tried initiating some intimacy but always claimed that he was tired and that he wasn’t in the mood which was off since he always had a high sex drive. Now that you are asking for it, he doesn’t want it anymore. Really increases your insecurity when you are growing a human being inside you causing stretch marks and extra fat on different parts of your body. You were starting to think that Jungkook doesn’t want to look at your body anymore. 
However, there would be times when he is his sweet lovable self that you fell in love with. He would be talking to the baby late at night and would rub your bump to feel your baby kicking. Things like that erase his past actions, but it never lasts for long. 
One day, your husband forgot his lunch, and being the good wife you are, you decided to surprise him at work and bring his lunch. He has been working hard for the baby and it felt right to make sure he has his meal. 
You waddled out of your car with lunch kit in hand and hand on top of your belly. You were heading towards the receptionist and asked for your husband. “You can right ahead in, Mr. Jeon should be on lunch break now.” She told you where the lunch break room was at and you headed straight toward the room and saw that your husband was there along with a woman that is tall and you can tell from the window door, that she had a better figure than you did. She had a skin-tight black dress with red stilettos heels and had perfect wavy hair. Neither of them can see you since their back is against the glass door.
You were about to open the door when you saw Jungkook, your husband, gently cupping her cheek and having an arm around her waist. You can tell they talking to one another and the closeness is making your heart beat faster than ever before. Tears were silently streaming down your face and you were near breaking down any moment.
It was when you saw your husband slowly lean in and leave a kiss on her lips and that is when you broke. You slammed open the door and looked directly at Jungkook who was so shocked that he immediately stepped away from the women. 
 “Honey! What are you here?” He exclaimed while trying to walk towards you. You didn’t scream, you didn’t shout, and you definitely didn’t give the reaction that he was expecting. All Jungkook saw was tears streaming down your face and with barely any emotions. 
“Hi honey, I was just bringing you lunch. Just being a good wife I am.” You said as you slowly took out his lunch box from the bag and opened the box showing him the cute little bento lunch you put all your love and work on. 
“Listen, it is not what you think.” You looked at the woman and back at him with quirked eyebrows.
“Really? What were you two doing that is not what I was thinking then. Please enlighten me Jeon Jungkook. Tell me what is ‘really’ going on that I can be wrong of thinking.” Your voice started to rise as you slowly walked towards him, with the bento still in your hands. 
As expected, he didn’t give an answer and you weren’t going to accept that. Before anyone knew it, you slammed the bento into his nice pristine suit that you ironed this morning, leaving a huge stain on his clothes. Jungkook and the woman were so shocked that they didn’t acknowledge that you already left the room and started heading towards your car. It was a struggle since you were caring about a 10-pound baby, but you managed to make it in your car, locked the door, and sat there in silence. You were so shocked that you didn’t register that you started the car and headed to your best friend, Kim Taehyung’s, apartment. 
When you knocked on his door, he was not expecting to see you and your red tear-stained face. All you did was just hug him as much as possible you can and start sobbing in his arms. 
“Y/N? What happened? Are you okay? Is the baby okay?” He kept asking, but all you did is sob even harder. 
Once you both settled into his living room, cuddled up with each other in silence. He waited until you spoke up, he didn’t want to ask too much because your hormones are haywire due to your pregnancy.
“Jungkook… Cheated on  me.” You finally spoke, leaving Taehyung flabbergasted. He was angry but didn’t want to overwhelm you. You explained from that past month until now how Jungkook was caught in the break room.
“What are you going to do? Whatever you decide I’ll be right there for you.” Taehyung was ready to be there for you and even perform any task that you needed to do.
“That is the thing, I don’t know what to do. I’m a housewife who is 7 months pregnant and the majority of my items and furniture belong to Jungkook, my parents are on the other side of the world, and I have no money. I’m stuck.” You were already thinking about going back to Jungkook. He is your rock. He promised that you won’t have to work anymore and to always depend on him. Looking back now, you wished you would have argued more about that rather than being naive and accepting the lifestyle. 
“Stay here with me.” Taehyung offered, looking directly at you, “I’ll provide for you and the baby. Heck, I’ll take the extra shift at the bar, if it means to make sure that you don’t go back to that scumbag.”
“Tae, I can’t have you doing that. You won’t be able to afford another human being. Then when the baby comes out, that would be even more expensive.” Tears started streaming down your face again. 
“I don’t care. I love you so much, and I don’t want you to go back to that asshole, who clearly doesn’t understand that you are perfect. I’m willing to make sacrifices just to make sure you stay with me.” He leaned his forehead against yours and at this point, you can’t say no to him when he is willing to do everything for you.
Suddenly they heard a rapid knock at his door. It was already late and Taehyung wasn’t expecting anyone to come over. The knocking wouldn’t stop and you could tell the person on the other side was impatient. 
“Taehyung! It’s me Jungkook! I need you to open up.” You look at your best friend and can tell he doesn’t want to answer the door. 
“Go to my room. Make sure he doesn’t see you. I’ll handle this.” He slowly got up from the couch and approached his door. He looked back to make sure that you were in his room out of sight before opening the door. 
There he saw a disheveled Jungkook with a brown stain button-up shirt, impatiently knocking on the door.
“Taehyung, have you seen Y/N. We kind of went into an argument. I’ve tried calling her and messaging her but she is not responding.” Taehyung kept a straight face, making sure his facial expression did not give anything away.
“No, I haven’t. The last time I contacted her was last night.” Both of them knew that was a lie. Jungkook can be obvious sometimes, but when it comes to Y/N, all senses come back. 
“Really? Are you sure?” Jungkook straightened up and was advancing towards Taehyung. Jungkook had always disliked your best friend since the first day you introduced them, but Jungkook wanted to impress you and held his grudge against you. Now that you aren’t here, he was ready to release hell on him.
“Listen, dude, I’ve never liked you one bit and I know you don’t like me, but right now I just want my pregnant wife back and I KNOW for a fact she is here because her car is parked outside your apartment.” In reality, he put a tracker on your phone and followed it from his phone. 
“Look, you are not allowed to see her. I don’t care if she is your wife, but the shit you pulled on her, you don’t deserve her. Don’t worry about the baby because at least it won’t know who their true father is. An asshole douchbag that only wants to get his dick wet by some lousy coworker.” Taehyung was ready to shut the door, but Jungkook burst through and grabbed him by the collar. 
“You know what, I can just kill you right here and take my wife with me. No matter what, I’m getting my wife back with you alive or not.” Jungkook started choking him while Taehyung was struggling since he wasn’t the most muscular out of the two.
“JUNGKOOK! Let him go! Please!” You burst out of the room and grabbed his shirt from behind. Jungkook didn’t want to let go, but for your safety, he let go and grabbed you. He held you against him as gently as possible because of your bump.
“Honey, please, I’ve made a mistake, please can we work this out? I want to explain everything and we can start all over. Please don’t leave me.” He had his head nuzzled in your neck feeling his tears. 
“Jungkook, please let go. I can’t do this right now, I need space. All of this is too much to handle right now.” You tried distancing yourself from him, but he tightened his hold on you not wanting to let go.
“No! I understand it is a lot, but we can go through this together. I’m not leaving you with him of all people.” 
Taehyung was getting irritated. “Leave my house! Before I call the police for trespassing.” When you think he is going to let go and leave, but before anything happens, Jungkook swings his fist at him and starts beating him up. 
“This-” punch, “Is-” punch, “Your-” punch, “Fault!” Jungkook was out of control and only seeing red. Instead of blaming himself for this situation, he was blaming Taehyung for his own mistakes. The way he saw it is, if Taehyung wasn’t around, you wouldn’t have a place to stay, you wouldn’t have anyone to depend on someone else other than him, and most importantly you wouldn’t have someone protecting you other than him.
“JUNGKOOK, please let him go- AHH” You suddenly felt pain in your abdomen and you bent over clutching your bump.
“Y/N!” Jungkook let go of Taehyung rushed over to you and gently set you down on the ground. You were feeling immense pain and couldn’t even stand. Then you felt a warm liquid coming out of you and you were thinking of the worse. 
“Jungkook, the baby, something is going on with the baby.” Jungkook carried you bridal style and rushed towards his car and sped through traffic towards the hospital. It was all a blur for you. All you can do is pray in your head to hope that nothing bad happens to the baby.
Once at the hospital, you were rushed into the ER room and that was the last Jungkook ever saw you. It wasn’t until a nurse came up to him in a rush and asked him the question he thought he would never be asked, “ Sir, we need you to save on, your wife or the baby?” He was at a loss for words, he loved them both, but he had to make the ultimate sacrifice.
4 hours later, you woke up in a hospital room with Jungkook beside you holding your hand. Once Jungkook felt movement, he put his forehead against yours and started crying, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, but I had no choice.” You felt one of his hands pressed on your now flat belly and you knew what he meant. 
“Why? You could have saved it… WHY?” It has been a stressful day and the baby was the only thing that was going to give you happiness.
“I can’t lose you, I just can’t.” He started pressing kisses all over your face, “I know I made a mistake, but now I’m here to redeem myself. Please Y/N, don’t give up on us. Please….” He looked at you with his doe-like eyes that you love. They were still a little red from the amount of crying he did, but he didn’t take away the beauty that you adored.
“I need time to think. I just found out the love of my life was seeing another woman, tried killing my best friend, and now I lost my baby. I need to think Jungkook because everything is too much to process.” He laid his head on your shoulder and knew that everything that happened today took a toll on you.
“Okay, I’ll give you space, but I want you to know that I always love you. No matter what. I’ll fix everything. I promise.” He kissed your lips before he walked out of the room. 
Everything was just too much for you. You were hoping that the baby would be your own source of happiness, but now that it was gone, you lost all hope for even living. You wished that Jungkook would have saved the baby other than you, you would have finally been put out of your misery. You don’t think it is even possible to live a complacent life where your mind blames you for Jungkook cheating and the death of the baby. You wished that you could wake up and hope that everything was just a dream and you were still happily married with a healthy baby on the way. Why did everything have to change?
Jungkook kept his word and stayed away from you until the day of your discharge. He was happily pushing your wheelchair toward his car and kept blabbering about how he made some changes to the house and that you would love it. You kept quiet. You didn’t even want to go home. The house of how you wished everything would go back to how things were, but you have no choice with how fragile and weak you are. 
Once you and Jungkook arrived home, he directed you toward the front of the supposed-to-be baby room.
“I know you don’t want to go in, but I have a surprise for you that would make you forgive me for my past mistakes.” He opened the door and all you saw was darkness. You were confused and stepped in with Jungkook behind you. There was a terrible smell surrounding the whole room that made you gag. Once you both were in the room, Jungkook closed the door turned on the lights, and revealed a horrific sight that could make you throw up on the spot.
There in the middle of the room was Taehyung and the women from Jungkook’s workplace, tied up to a chair that is facing back against each other. They were both covered in blood and with cloth covering their mouth and their eyes. 
“Do you like it, honey? I decided to take care of our problem. Obviously, it's a work in progress, but I thought I could show you what I have done.” Your eyes widened and faced Jungkook who looked at you expecting praise or any positive words coming from you.
“JUNGKOOK! What is wrong with you?” You rushed towards Taehyung and uncovered his eyes, you shook him awake and you could tell he was barely even conscience. You see many punctured holes in his abdomen, and bruises that develop on his face. You can’t believe that your husband did this. 
“But honey, if it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t be in this situation. They are the reason we lost our baby. For that, they need to be gone, so we can go back to the way it was.” Jungkook was now confused. He believed he did the right thing. If it wasn’t for them two, they wouldn’t have lost their baby in the first place. 
“Jungkook, it was neither of their faults. It was YOU. If you hadn’t cheated on me, NONE of this would have happened. If YOU kept your dick in your pants, we could have gone back to normal. So stop blaming people for your mistakes!” You were done with all of this nonsense. 
“Y/N….” You turned back to Taehyung and started untying him, “It’s okay Tae, I’m right here, and I’ll drive you to the-” You heard a click behind you and you froze. You turned around and saw Jungkook pointing a pistol at Taehyung. 
“Step away Y/N. Or I finish him.” 
“Jungkook, you are losing it. Let him go!” You raised your hands up high.
“What are you talking about honey? I’ve always been like this, I’ve just never shown you this side of me.” He approached you with the gun still pointing at your boyfriend. Jungkook eyes weren’t the same doe-like eyes you used to love. They were blank as ever with barely any void of emotions. His stare at you was cold, not the same loving stare he always gave you.
“I should have known you were this crazy,” Taehyung spoke up and next thing you know, Jungkook shot him in the leg making him scream in pain. Blood started seeping out on the floor and you were close to passing out. 
“Please stop! You are hurting him.” You tried grabbing his arm but he had you pressed against his body preventing your arms from moving. 
“Listen, honey, you have two options. You obediently stay with me and pretend that nothing ever happened and we can start over while he lives or you stubbornly reject and I kill him right here right now. So what are you choosing?” He pressed the gun towards Taehyung’s head.
“Don’t listen to him, Y/N. He is bluffing.” Jungkook looked at Taehyung and brought the gun to the woman behind his chair and shot 2 rounds into the woman’s head. Then brought the gun back to Taehyung.
“Am I bluffing now?” You were at a loss of words, he just killed a person right in front of you and now is waiting for your response to do the same thing to your best friend.
“Jungkook, let’s talk about this-”
“1.”
“PLEASE! You are not thinking-”
“2.”
“OKAY! I’ll stay. Just please don’t kill him.” You were sobbing into his shoulder, stuck and weak in this moment. You had no choice.
“That’s what I thought.” He gently rubbed the gun against your head scaring you even more. Jungkook couldn’t be more proud to have you vulnerable in his arms. This is exactly what he wanted, scared, vulnerable, and helpless. Only reaching out to him, and no one else.
“It’s okay honey, I’ll fix everything just like how I said.” He kissed your dry lips and your forehead. This is your new reality. Being in the arms of a psycho killer that you call your husband.
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ghouljams · 27 days
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I come bearing an angsty thought at this late hour! (Because it's like 2am here but I feel the need to share my sad with someone and you're my unwilling sacrifice of the day)
Anyway, I was thinking about how since Simon has experience as a butcher before he joined the service, in his cowboy era he would probably be more than happy to volunteer for butchering duty when someone brings something back from a hunt or one of the animals is slaughtered for dinner. So, it's the first time he's doing it since joining Price on the farm, probably has Goose chatting with him as he works since she's not squeamish when it comes to skinning an animal, and everything is going well.
But then, Simon goes to hang some of the meat up on a meat hook and it's like everything comes to a screeching halt. His whole body locks up, and although he logically knows that he's not in any danger and he's done this hundreds of times before, he hasn't touched a meat hook since Roba... The hook is swaying slightly in the wind, and it looks so, so sharp, and just thinking about how easily it can tear through skin and muscle-
Goose probably needs to go get Price, because Simon is not okay.
Oooh, I love hurting the boy. Early-ish days, the first time Ghost needed to butcher anything at the farm.
"Usually we send bucks to the butcher," you tell him, "but we've got set-up for dressings at least."
"Field dressed it, just need a clean space and some decent knives," Ghost supplies, hauling the buck out of the truck bed and over his shoulder. He doesn't need to, could always pull the truck around properly, but he likes the way your eyes follow the flex of his muscles. It's not a far walk, and he can shoulder 200 pounds easy.
You're all sweet smiles and laughter, asking for the worst deer blind jokes of the day; Ghost doesn't know how you can be so... yourself. You pull the cellar doors open, easing each one to the ground and giving Ghost the heads up to watch his height on the way down. Ghost keeps his eyes on the steps, careful to keep the buck from scraping the low clearance as you click on the lights. He glances around the old storm cellar when he gets his feet on the dirt. It's cool, good for storage, there are already cans lining the shelves along the walls. There's a table in the middle, butcher block. Ghost smiles to himself.
"Whose kit?" He asks, dropping the deer on the table.
"My uncle's," You toss it over your shoulder, moving towards the back, "he was the butcher of the family, Daddy's a good hunter but he sure as shit ain't cutting into that with anything stronger than a steak knife."
Ghost chuckles, tugging his own hunting knife from his belt. "Not for everyone," He calls back, "but better than 'aving someone else take the best pieces."
"Says the man giving away backstraps," You grumble. Ghost shakes his head, he hopes you never let that go. Sweet thing. Some day he'd work up the nerve to propose, find some reason to give you that was better than just himself.
"I'm not 'earing you complain about that, am I?" He jokes, glancing back over his shoulder, watches you give a sharp tug at a ceiling beam and rip down a hook. It hangs in the air, curving its horrible point back towards the heavy chain that holds it in place, the metal black with dried blood. Ghost's breath catches in his chest, his vision narrowing onto a singular point.
"Get away from that," Ghost tells you, his voice short, his eyes darting over the metal. You say something a thousand miles away, and wrap your hand around the hook. Ghost's breath bursts out of him like a gag, heaving out of his chest, his ribs throbbing with the memory of hanging. It's like he can't get enough air it, it all comes out too quickly, and the whole room smells like iron. Iron and dirt. You hold your hand over the point, speaking again, gibberish, garbled nonsense, your accent is too close to a memory he wants to scrub himself clean of. It's when you press your fingers against the mean edge of the hook that he really finds it in himself to move.
He's too sure that you're going to spear yourself, that your stigmata might mirror his own, holes punched in your body from the same terrible instrument.
Ghost's hand grabs your arm and rips you away from the meat hook, his breath coming fast and wild. He can see it, he can see the way it would happen, he can feel the blood under his nails. The process of being lifted like meat onto the hook, the blinding pain of the sharp tip piercing through layers of fat and muscle, the curve of it forcing its way through his body and around his ribs. He can still feel the metal under his hands, the links of chain that he tried to pull himself off of. He can feel each slippery, blood soaked, attempt to free himself.
He can see the way he'd lift you onto the hook, can feel the weight of you under his hand, the way you struggle against his bruising grip, the thump of your hand against his chest. He could add another scar to your body, inflict it on you himself, you could match, you could hate him, you could know, and he could save you the way he couldn't save himself. He could hurt you. Does he want to hurt you? Why does he want to hurt you? He doesn't. He does. He doesn't. He's-
You grab either side of his face and drag him to look at you. Ghost feels like his eyes might vibrate out of his skull, his vision blurring, aching with the lack of focus as it darts to and fro. "What has five toes and isn't your foot?" You ask him.
Ghost's brain grinds to a halt. What? What are you asking him? What does that have to do with-
"My foot," You finish, giving him a little shake. Something bursts out of Ghost that isn't pain or shock. He barks out a laugh, the tension in his muscles squeezing it out of him. It bubbles up from his chest and boils over, his body shaking with the release of it. His breath is quick still, something tightening in his core that doubles him over and forces his hands onto his knees as his laughter gives way to shaking sobs. There are no tears, he can't feel any tears, can't feel much of anything.
He can hear his heart racing, his blood rushing in his ears, as he stares at the dirt floor. No blood, no wounds, no bodies. He grabs his chest, feels the joined skin over his heart, the cold beat of it, dry. Your feet move like you're going to leave. He grabs you again, swallows down the beg for forgiveness, and instead squeezes your hand tight.
"I'm gonna go get Daddy," You tell him quick.
"Don't." Ghost tells you, trying to stifle his breathing, trying to reign in the heaving of his chest.
You sound apologetic when you touch his cheek and tell him, "I have to."
He knows you do. Ghost squeezes his eyes shut, feels your hand slip from his grip. He's never going to be as strong as he needs to be, is he?
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jobean12-blog · 3 months
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In It for the Long Ride
Pairing: Joel Miller x female reader (Biker!Joel AU)
Word Count: 1,656
Summary: Joel is out for the night and when he returns early and wants you to leave work and come home you know something isn't right.
Author's Note: Just because I love him and missed him and this seems like something that could really happen when you're with a biker. PS our sweet little black kitten Ink is here too- she's getting big and just loves Joel of course! Thank you all so much for reading! Much love always! ❤️❤️❤️Divider by the lovely @firefly-graphics thank you Daisy! 🥰
Warnings: soft and sweet fluff, little angst sprinkled in here and there, mentions of blood but very light
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Pedro Pascal Character Masterlist
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“Joel just text me that he’s here.”
You look at your friend Jade with worried eyes.
“What’s wrong? Isn’t he going to come in?” she asks.
“He said he can’t come in. He wants to know if I can leave now.”
“Of course you can babe,” Jade says quickly. “Dan and I will be fine tonight.”
“Are you sure…I don’t know what’s goin…”
“Don’t worry,” Jade assures you. “Just go to him. I’m sure everything is fine.”
You nod with a hard swallow and rush to the back to gather your things, texting Joel as you go that you’ll be right out.
Your legs are slightly shaky as you approach the door, a feeling of dread weighing you down with each step.
At first you don’t see him but then you hear the rev of his engine and your gaze is drawn to his bike. He’s parked across the street with his headlights off.
“Joel?” you question when you reach his bike.
He holds his arms out for you and you rush into them, burying your face in his neck.
“What’s going on?” you mumble into his skin.
“Let’s go home,” he says quietly.
You pull back to look at him and let out a gasp.
“Oh my god, what happened? Are you ok?”
“I’m fine darlin.’ Really I am. Just need a little help gettin’ cleaned up.”
Your eyes instantly well with tears and you lift your finger to gently brush it across his bruised cheek.
“Aw angel, no tears. I promise it’s nothin’.”
“But Joel…you’re bleeding and bruised…”
The tears roll down your cheeks, hot and wet, and his hands cup your face, thumbs sweeping across your skin to wipe them away.
“Are you ok to drive? Should we take the car? Do you need a doctor?”
Your questions come out in a rush and your voice is high pitched with worry.
He shakes his head no and the side of his mouth twitches with a smile.
“No. Just need you.”
You study him, your eyes lingering on his face until you whisper, “ok, let’s go home.”
He takes his helmet from the handlebars and secures it on your head before unzipping his leather jacket and draping it over your shoulders.
“Let’s zip this up. It’s chilly tonight,” he says.
“Shouldn’t I be taking care of you?”
“You always do darlin’.”
He kisses you softly on the side of the mouth and then helps you onto the back of his bike.
The ride home is short, less than ten minutes, but in that time the wind picks up and sky opens up with rain.
As you near the house the headlights from his bike reflect off the growing puddles on the street and you shiver against his back.
He pulls over and kills the engine, holding out his hand for you to hop off. He tucks you protectively under his arm and walks you to the door.
“I hope you didn’t get too wet angel,” he says.
“I’m fine,” you say as you walk in and turn on the light.
You turn to him and fresh tears fill your eyes.
“Let me just get us towels and the first aid kit. Don’t move.”
You rush off to the bathroom just as Ink hops off the ledge of the front window. She meows at Joel and then starts to rub between his legs.
“Hey, you,” he says as he picks up the small black cat.
Her tiny pink nose delicately explores his chin before she reaches up with a paw and softly presses it to his cheek.
“Don’t be worried like your mama. I’m fine,” he tells the cat.
“She knows you’re hurt,” you say when you return and find the two of them standing by the door staring at each other.
You take his free hand and walk him toward the couch.
“You might have to set her down for a minute. I want to get your wet shirt off.”
He puts the cat down on the couch and then grabs the hem of his shirt.
“Wait,” you say quietly. “Let me. Please.”
He drops the material and looks at you with big brown eyes.
“Ok angel. Whatever you want.”
“Lift your arms,” you instruct him as you start to peel his shirt up and off.
Inch by inch his wet skin is revealed, his tattoos along with it and you find yourself inspecting every inch of him for more injuries before gently pressing the towel to his chest. You do nothing to hide your shameless perusal of him and he’s clearly enjoying it, his eyes sparkling and his lips turned up into a boyish smirk.
“Anything else hurt?”
“Nah, but you can keep checkin’ all ya want.”
He winks at you when you look up at him with narrowed eyes.
“Ok sit and tell me what happened.”
He sits with a plop and extends his arm to pet Ink while you start to work off his boots.
“I can do that angel, it’s no…”
When your eyes meet his he clamps his mouth shut, only opening it again to explain that some out of town biker gang had started some trouble with him and the boys. No of the boys were hurt more than some bumps, scrapes and bruises but the other guys weren’t as lucky.
“Thank goodness it wasn’t any worse,” you sigh. “I got so scared when you said you wanted me to come home and all. I figured you would come in and have a drink…”
“I know darlin.’ I’m sorry I scared you. I knew I couldn’t go in the bar lookin’ like this though.”
“It’s ok. Just promise me you’ll always be careful.”
“Always,” he whispers.
After you have his boots off and dry socks on you stand and straddle his lap, settling your knees on either side of his waist and taking a smaller towel to run through his hair.
You then comb your fingers through the wet strands and give it a slicked back style. He raises a brow when you smirk and drag your teeth over your bottom lip.
“What?” he asks.
“Looks really good.”
“Yeah angel? Even with the blood?”
“Somehow it makes it even hotter…but I’m still so upset you’re hurt.”
“I’m ok.”
“You keep saying that.”
“But I am darlin.’ Honestly, couldn’t be better at the moment.”
His hands slide along your thighs and then settle on your waist. He pulls you closer and runs his nose along the column of you neck to breathe you in.
“Don’t you dare,” you gasp. “I have to patch you up first.”
“Mm hm,” he murmurs as his lips press to your skin and his fingers dance higher.
You flatten your palms on his chest and give him a light shove, giggling when he looks at you with pouty lips.
After a soft kiss you get the first aid kit and start to clean the cut above his eye and the one on his lip. When you press the antiseptic to the wound he winces, leaving his eyes closed as you continue to carefully wipe each spot.
You inspect every area of his face, especially focusing on the skin beneath his beard, lovingly caressing the gray spots as you go. He relaxes into your touch and you let your fingers gently trace his features.
“All clean,” you whisper.
You hand him the small ice pack you got from the freezer. “Hold this on your cheek.”
“But my hands are busy,” he sighs.
His hands graze the skin beneath your shirt, calloused thumbs caressing the softness before they inch higher.
“You only need one hand for this,” you lightly chide.
His eyes pop open and he gives you a stern look. “Fine.”
You bat your lashes at him and wait until he has the ice pack pressed to his cheek.
“Just until I finish up.”
You put medicine on the cut above his eye and one butterfly stitch then clean up the dried blood on his knuckles.
“You must have gotten a pretty good punch in.”
You can see his muscles tense when you press the pad to his bruised knuckles.
“You bet I did angel,” he boasts. “And that’d be plural…punches.”
When you meet his eyes he winks again and throws you a smug grin.
You kiss it right off his lips then smudge some medicine on his knuckles. He immediately puts down the ice pack and places his hands back on your body.
“That could probably stay on a bit longer,” you tsk.
“Later,” he murmurs.
Ink walks along the back of the couch and sits herself down right behind Joel. She blinks at you several times then starts to swat at the curls of hair at the back of his neck.
“She likes them almost as much as I do,” you tease.
“She’s just wantin’ attention,” he grumbles. “Gets that from you too.”
You shoot him an incredulous glare and then give him one more once over.
“Think I did a pretty good job,” you state.
“I feel brand new,” he says as he drags you closer and smooths his hands along the curve of your back.
When your lips meet you’re mindful of his cut but he doesn’t seem to care at all and dances one hand higher until he grabs the back of your neck and kisses you harder.
He moans into your mouth and tugs at the hem of your shirt. Your hands delve into his damp hair and then slide down to his shoulders. His bare skin is warm and when you feel the steady beat of his heart beneath your fingers you ease away and battle with the reminder of what happened, your eyes glassy.
His large hand cradles your cheek and he smooths his nose along your jaw, bringing his lips to your ear.
“Darlin’,” he coos. “It’s all right. I’m fine…let me prove it to you.”  
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@hiddles-rose @lorilane33 @littleseasiren @blackwidownat2814 @kmc1989
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ladykailitha · 2 months
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Icarus Part 3
Hello! If you haven't seen it yet, I've got a set schedule for what story posts on what days now (as seen here) and this one as well as Well Met By Moonlight, Batshit Soulmates, and Never Hold Back Your Step... will still be posting just on rotation until I can finish some of my WIPs. (I may be stretching myself a bit thin having six going at the same time.)
In this one we have the concert. Eddie stumbles on something big and doesn't know how to deal with it all. And Uncle Wayne is bestest as always.
@emly03 @redfreckledwolf @itsall-taken @rozzieroos @mira-jadeamethyst
Part 1 Part 2
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The day of the concert dawned abhorrently cheerful and bright. Not a cloud in the sky or any accidents that would prevent Eddie from having to take Dustin to this event. He wouldn’t deign to call it a concert. He had heard the album and seen their posters, but he refused to wander over to YouTube and watch videos of their concerts, interviews, their music videos.
He didn’t want to be even more disappointed that they were all flash and no substance then he was sure he was going to be for the next two hours.
Dustin rolled his eyes when Eddie parked in the huge concert parking lot.
“You’re just salty because I like them as much as I like Corroded Coffin,” he huffed getting out the car. “You have to concede that Abaddon’s vocals are killer.”
Eddie scoffed. “Do not. I haven’t heard them live. Way too many artists use autotune too much these days.”
“You sound like that meme,” he sneered, “‘Old Man Yells at Cloud’.”
Eddie swatted at him playfully. “Am not.” Dustin raised his eyebrow skeptically and he threw his arms in the air. “I’m not. I am a very serious musician, Dusty. The last thing metal needs is some band that can’t write or even play their own instruments. This isn’t pop.”
“You are such an asshole,” he said and turned toward the entrance, leaving Eddie to jog to catch up with him.
Eddie sighed and put his arm around Dustin’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I am being an asshole. I turned into the person I swore I would never be. Those shit for brains critics that hated Corroded Coffin when we first got on the scene. And that was wrong of me.”
Dustin sighed, too. “I just want you to like them too. They are so good if you’d just give them a chance.”
Eddie breathed out through his nose. “Yeah. I can at least give them that.”
They got to their seats and Eddie was a little impressed at Claudia Henderson’s Ticket Master foo. They weren’t front row, but they were only a couple of rows back so you could actually see the stage without having to strain their necks and smack dab in the center of the row.
Dustin would have the best time. And now it was up to Eddie not ruin it for the kid. Because yes, he was still a kid as far as Eddie was concerned. Twenty-one was so fucking young. That was how old most of the band was when they got their record deal, after all. They weren’t prepared for what came next, that’s for sure.
They got settled into their seats and Eddie watched as the rest of the crowd shuffled in. They were all about Dustin’s age with very few exceptions in either direction.
There seemed to be a color theme going on with the girls in the audience though. They were grouped in clumps of red, black, blue, or white. Which made sense if each band member stuck to a certain color palette.
Well he was about to find out, he supposed.
The lights dimmed. The crowd quieted down. The spotlight lit up the drumkit first. And Eddie knew that Gareth would be drooling over it. It was all black with black metal fittings. The kit seemed to collect light almost like a blackhole.
Then from the ceiling, a man dressed all in black being lowered onto the stage with large black raven wings on his back. He wore a black hooded coat over what, Eddie couldn’t tell. It was all black. The shirt, the pants, the boots. Even his mask was all black with even the eyes appearing closed. His feet touched the ground and the crowd went wild.
“Azrael!” the announcer called out.
Azrael settled on the throne and picked up black drum sticks.He counted time above his head and played a wicked solo to the adoring crowd’s absolute delight.
Dustin jumped up and down, screaming.
The spotlight moved to the right side of stage and the next band member descended from the ceiling. Large bat wings adorned his back and he was dressed in red leather fetish gear. Complete with tight leather pants that looked painted on and a matching harness highlighting his bare chest, peeking out from the red leather hooded coat.
His guitar was fucking gorgeous, though. A Warlock, much like Eddie’s own. It was custom painted red with black flames licking up the neck.
Eddie rolled his eyes, but it seemed he was the only one who thought the whole thing was over the top judging from the screams from the girls in the audience.
He didn’t just land gently on the stage like the drummer did, oh no. He fucking stomped onto the stage with a howl.
His wings, like the drummer’s ascended back into the rafters as the announcer shouted, “Asmodeus!”
And then Eddie really did roll his eyes. The demon of lust. Of course he was.
But seconds later Eddie’s jaw dropped to the floor as the man wailed on his guitar driving the crowd further into the frenzy.
Once he finished his solo the crowd quieted again and he could see why. Because just then, descending on gossamer wings that shimmered like starlight, was their bassist.
Everything about him was midnight blue and shimmering like the night. His mask was the face of the moon. He had his own hooded coat, but it was like the night sky, with some kind of crystal or gem sewn in to make the coat glimmer like stars.
His bass was something that Brian would have sold his own mother for and they were as thick as thieves. Eddie didn’t know much about basses considering his sweetheart was an electric guitar, but he could tell it wasn’t expensive but was perfect for his style. A style he showed off with gusto to the audience’s obvious delight.
“Astraeus!” the announcer cried.
Eddie decided that this one was his favorite. It played up the whole mysterious thing without the over the top flash of the guitarist or the sheer void of the drummer.
The audience hushed as the three members of the band began to play what was clearly the lead singer’s entrance music.
And holy fuck was Eddie screwed. This man was descending like a fucking angel sent from God, Jesus pose and all.
He was all in white with an opaque lace mask that had his mouth and chin cut out for him to sing. That surprised Eddie somewhat. He figured that the guy would have his whole face covered like everyone else in the band and that he could lip sync.
But nope. Apparently no one in this band did anything by halves.
The lead singer was wearing a sheer mesh crop top under the hooded floor length coats the whole band was wearing. Only his was white with a silk powder blue lining.
Eddie winced in sympathy. They must get boiling under the lights with those things on.
A few feet from the stage floor there was an explosive pop! And the feathers from his wings flew out into the crowd who was now screaming as if their life depended on the sheer volume coming out them. He looked over at Dustin who was no different.
When Eddie could see the stage again, this angel’s wings were now skeletal and gothic.
He landed in front of microphone whose stand had been decorated with a scarf in each of of the band members’ signature colors.
“Abbadon!” the announcer yelled for the final time.
And Eddie was in love. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Dustin must have seen his expression because he was suddenly tugging on Eddie’s arm and screaming, “I told you!!”
“Indy!” Abbadon growled, grabbing the mic. “Thank you so much for having us! Let’s get this started.”
Then he began to sing and yeah, Eddie knew that the guy had charm, but this was a whole new level of epic. He was enthralled.
He didn’t utter a fucking word for several songs. But then it happened. Eddie couldn’t believe it. He hurried to snap a picture to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.
But there it was it in living color. He turned to Dustin to see if he saw it too, but the kid was too busy screaming and jumping up and down.
Eddie’s jaw fell.
That couldn’t be right, couldn’t it? That Dustin didn’t know? Eddie looked back up on stage and a lot of the puzzle pieces started slotting in place. His heart sank a little.
He shook his head to clear it of dark thoughts. He didn’t know the reason for any of this and leaping to conclusions would only get a shit ton of people hurt. Especially the boy next to him.
Eddie let the music wash over him. Let the magic of metal soothe his soul. Soon he was jumping up and down and headbanging with the rest of the crowd. Right hand flashing the devil’s horns, left hand out to steady himself he let himself enjoy the band’s stage presence.
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To say that Eddie’s mind was fucking blown would be an understatement. He pestered Dustin all the way home with rapid fire questions. Where did the band tour last time? What was their schedule this time? Was it a six month tour or an eighteen month tour last time?
Dustin answered each question with growing excitement, thinking that Eddie had finally grown to love this band as much as he had.
Eddie on the other hand felt a growing sense of dread. Well... maybe dread was the wrong word. It was certainly a sinking feeling. One he really had to exam closely.
At least he could honestly say that he fell in love with the music before he found out his little secret.
And fuck what a secret it was.
He dropped Dustin off at home and drove out to the ranch that he had gifted to Wayne when Corroded Coffin first made it big. It was a beautiful, sprawled out home surrounded by acres of land and Eddie loved it even more than Wayne did.
Eddie stumbled through the door and was surprised to see Wayne drinking hot chocolate and reading a sports magazine in his expensive recliner. And yet, at the same time, not really that surprised.
“You do realize I’m no longer that fucked up kid with anger issues,” Eddie huffed on his way to the kitchen to grab a beer, “that were almost as bad as the troubles with the law, right?”
Wayne chuckled. “Maybe so. But you’re still my boy and I’ll keep worrying about you until the day I die.”
Eddie popped open the can of beer and sat down on the sofa. He leaned his head back on the back cushion with a heavy sigh.
Wayne raised an eyebrow. “What’s stewing around in that head of yours?”
Eddie slowly raised his head. “What would you do if you accidentally found out something about a friend that they were keeping from everyone they knew?”
Wayne set down his magazine. “That would depend on the secret. Is it hurting anyone?”
“Is what hurting anyone?” Eddie asked. “The secret?” Wayne nodded and Eddie frowned, really thinking about it.
“Maybe some feelings,” he said after a moment. “But it’s not dangerous like they committed a crime or anything. It’s not even about their sexuality.”
Wayne hummed thoughtfully. “And is it a big secret or a little one?”
Again Eddie was forced to think hard about what that meant. “I guess it depends on the person, but in my eyes it’s pretty big.”
The elder Munson nodded. “Do you feel hurt by this secret?”
“Yeah, yeah. I guess I do.” He bowed his head and let out a shuddering breath.
“Is there a reason you think he wouldn’t have told you?” Wayne pressed.
“Of course no–” Eddie stopped as his brain caught up to his mouth. “Shit.”
Wayne raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Yeah,” Eddie admitted shyly. “There’s a pretty good reason why he wouldn’t have told me. And now I feel like the shit friend.”
Wayne stood up and pulled Eddie into a big hug. “Maybe so, but you have the time to course correct and show this friend that you are worthy of his secret.”
Eddie nodded. “Thanks, Uncle Wayne,” he mumbled into Wayne’s neck.
“I’m just glad I could help.”
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Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8
Tag List: @spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @messrs-weasley @danili666 @chaoticlovingdreamer @maya-custodios-dionach @val-from-lawrence @goodolefashionedloverboi @i-must-potato @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog @justforthedead89 @vecnuthy @irregular-child @yikes-a-bee @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @anne-bennett-cosplayer @awkwardgravity1 @littlewildflowerkitten @genderless-spoon @cinnamon-mushroomabomination @dragonmama76 @scheodingers-muppet @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @disrespectedgoatman @eyehartart @dawners @y4r3luv @cryptid-system @thespaceantwhowrites @tinyplanet95
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ghulehcirice · 5 months
Text
Lavender Fog [Phantom X Reader]
[A/N; am I posting a self indulgent fic for all my other phantom simps out there? Yes, yes I am. HE DOESNT GET ENOUGH LOVE:( also I see the ghouls as demonic pack creatures, AND NOT THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE MASK. Also this is really short but if if people like this I’ll write more]
Edit; please note that I published this when I was sleep deprived so there was no Beta Reading
Warnings; none really, Possessive?Phantom, this was supposed to be puppy!phantom but oh well!
Word count; 479 Words
———
Being a sibling of sin often had you busy, but you still had time for indulging. You had managed to befriend the nameless ghouls. The demonic summons brought up from the pit to aid papa with The Ghost Project, one of these Ghouls, Aether was retiring to stay back with some of the surface born ghoul kits and another, Sunshine was going to stay back with him, atleast for now.
This called for new summons. You were lucky enough to be close to the ghouls so they asked you to come and help them get used to humans. As of now you were sat outside an empty room in the section of the Abbey reserved for the ghouls. Waiting for the go ahead from Papa and Sister Imperator to come in, you had so far been told about the new rhythm guitar ghoul, who had allegedly been referring to himself as Phantom. You had been told by the other that newly summoned ghouls can tend to be alittle rough, something akinned to a puppy learning how to play. They just warned you to not appear like a threat.
Eventually the other ghouls go to meet him in groups of twos, you were being introduced last so he could accumulate to the idea gently. At last your brought in by Aether and you see Phantom sat in the middle of a nest, watching the door with caution. You make eye contact and all of a sudden it feels like your brain stops, you meet his lavender eyes, contrasting against his splattered black and white skin, you felt surrounded by a mist of lavender matching that of his eyes. Finally your trance is broken by phantom standing from the nest and stomping over to you, you attempt to step back, praying to Satanas you had done nothing wrong, but instead you are taken up into his arms , and being brought into the nest before he curls his spaded tail around you waist and enveloping you in his chest
You tried to look to the other ghouls for help only to find them seemingly snickering at your situation, gently trying to manuver out of his arms your pulled back in, quickly finding yourself being kissed by Phantom, Aether and Mountain come over to attempt to help you, shouting about how it’s not appropriate on the surface only for them to be growled at the ghoul who held you close, quickly collapsing into the soft embrace of the nest whilst still atop you.
“H-Hey guys can anyone tell me what’s going on?!” You should out from your rather warm, seemingly purring(?), prison. You can’t help but hear Sodo and Swiss laughing their asses off, before the ever motherly Cirrus speaks out
“I think you and phantom appear to have a kind of bond, my dear. It’s not.. common to happen like this..”
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babeydollx · 3 months
Text
Take Care of Eachother | Rafe Cameron
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❀ 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒: cursing, mentions of violence, mentions of blood, very slight mention of drugs, mentions of sex MDNI.
❀ 𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆: Rafe Cameron x Female Pogue Reader
❀ 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘: In which Rafe comes to Y/N after getting into a fight. Y/N tries to take care of him and clean him up but, Rafe also has other ideas.
❀ 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓: 1k
❀ 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄: I'm not sure if I am going to make a part two to it or not, I might if enough people want a part two.
© Maybanks-Luver 2023, please do not steal, copy, modify, repost, or translate my work.
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You listened to the sound of the thunder and the rain patter on your bathroom window as you did your nightly routine. As you were doing your skin care, you herd someone knock on you door. The knock was loud and a little frantic. You put your moisturizer down and hurried to the front door. You grab the curtains that were attached to the window that was beside the door and peeked out to see who it was to decide if you would open the door this late at night or not.
To your surprise the person behind the door was none other than your boyfriend, Rafe Cameron standing out there in the rain and he looked pretty hurt. You felt your stomach sink when you saw him in this condition. You quickly unlocked the front door before gently pulling him inside. You cupped his face and looked up at him. He had a black eye and a busted lip. You used your thumb to gently wipe the blood off his chin. He also had a pretty bad bruise on his cheek along with other cuts and bruises on his body.
"What the hell happened to you?!" You asked frantically as you checked him all over, making sure that there was nothing severely wrong. All of his injuries seemed minor but still looked pretty painful. "I just got into a fight with these two guys, it's not really a big deal." He said as he winced slightly when you checked his bruised eye. "Sorry.." You said softly, trying not to hurt him as you checked the injuries on his face. "Here, how about you sit down and let me take care of you. Then you can stay here with me for the night. You shouldn't be out there anyways in that bad storm." You said softly as you helped him over to the couch.
You disappeared into the bathroom before coming back with your first-aid kit. You sat down beside him on the sofa and began to gently clean his wounds. His winced and hissed a little as you did so. "Sorry, I'm trying to be as gentle as I can." You said with a small frown. "I know, it's okay princess." Rafe said with a small smile. "So how did this fight start anyways?" You asked as you began to wrap his arm with a bandage since he had a kind of nasty cut on his bicep. "Please don't tell me it was over drugs again." You said with a sigh. "No no, not drugs." He said as he shook his head. "Then what happened?" You asked.
"It's just- it was about you." He said. You stopped what you were doing to look at him. You were shocked that the answer was you. "Me?" You asked in confusion. "What do you mean about me?" You tilted your head. "Those two guys.. they had a thing for you." Rafe said as you could see the rage coming back in his eyes slightly as he spoke of what happened. "Which, obviously I can't blame them but, they knew that you are mine." You felt butterflies in your stomach when Rafe said that you were his out loud. "They were saying so much sexual things about you to me just to rile me up but, they also meant it so... I beat them up." He said, almost sounding proud of himself.
"Well as much as I appreciate you protecting me like that, you know it didn't have to end in a fight baby." You said softly as you ran a hand through his hair. "I- I know.." He sighed. "It's just.. I got so enraged and I couldn't help myself." He said. You smiled a little and kissed his cheek before he looked at you. "I love you, Rafe." You said as you smiled more. "I love you too, Y/N, so much.." He said as he leaned in and kissed you. The kiss was soft and loving. You pulled away eventually and looked back to the first-aid kit. "Well, I better get you fixed up." You said and he nodded.
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You finally finished fixing your boyfriend up and he gave you a kiss on the cheek as a thank you. "Well there you go, all better." You giggled as you gentle kissed his nose causing him to scrunch his nose slightly. "Now that I took care of you, we can get ready to go to bed." You chuckled as you went to get up but, Rafe gently pulled you back down onto the couch. "I- baby what are you doing?" You asked as you looked over at him. "You took care of me, now let me take care of you in my own way." He said with a smirk. You laughed and shook your head. "You need to rest, love." You said with a smile.
"And I'd say fucking you tonight.. getting to have you all to myself so I can have my way with you is a pretty damn good way for me to relax, wouldn't you say?" He said with a wicked grin. You giggled and bit your lip. You couldn't lie, the idea of him having his way with you did turn you on but, you just didn't want him to over do it. "Are you sure you are up for this baby, I don't want you to do too much." You say softly, your voice laced with concern. Rafe smiled before cupping your face and kissing you softly. "I'll be fine, princess." He said with a smile. "Okay." You smiled back and nodded. He leaned in and kissed you again but this time the kiss was rough and passionate. This was going to be a long, pleasurable night and you couldn't wait.
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Author's Note: tysm for reading, lovies!
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gabessquishytum · 4 months
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Something is getting into Hob's back garden and trash cans. It's an animal to be sure, and to be subsisting on trash and old veggies, it's most likely hurt. This is backed up by the dried blood on one of the garbage cans.
Hob has seen a black streak speed by when he turns on the back porch lights, and most people would tell Hob not to do what he's going to do --- leave out fresh protein for the animal. Yes, Hob is aware he's probably just feeding a large raccoon, but something is out there, hurt. Hob can't just do nothing.
Morpheus is a large cat shifter (I'm thinking https://tinyurl.com/Black-Serval or https://tinyurl.com/BlackJaguars) who broke out of his containment (Burgess: zoo/research facilitiy/cage) and he doesn't know where he is or how far away from home he is, and he got hurt in the escape. He ran and hid in the first place that smelled safe.......this backyard. Hob's backyard.
Morpheus doesn't know what to think when fresh water and chicken are put out, but he won't be captured again.
Wahhh yeah I'm soft about this concept.
For days after Hob starts putting out the water and chicken, his mysterious yard visitor refuses to touch it. But Hob isn't giving up so easily. Every day there's fresh meat and fresh water, and he even takes a nibble from the food to show that it hasn't been doped. And after a while... Morpheus eats the chicken, and drinks the water before streaking off to hide again. It's progress, Hob thinks.
One day he comes out to put the food out as usual, and he's shocked to find the huge black feline sitting and waiting for him. It's claws are out and it looks warily at him, but it turns enough to reveal the severly damaged hind leg. Hob runs for his first aid kit immediately. He's able to treat and wrap the wound, but there's only so much he can do. It would be easier to bring the big cat inside, but it clearly doesn't like that suggestion...
Hob begins to understand why, when he finds a naked man shivering in his yard the next day. He recognises the sharp blue eyes and the midnight black hair. Morpheus shies away from Hob but desperately sticks out his leg, which looks even worse in human form. "I am too tired to turn back." He explains. "If you try anything, I will still claw your eyes out."
Morpheus is eventually persuaded to come inside, on the condition that the doors and windows are left open. Hob is happy to oblige. He's quite relieved when Morpheus dozes off on his sofa, full of chicken pasta and antibiotics.
Next morning there's a cat in Hob’s bed. Not quite purring, but obviously grateful. And despite his determination not to held or captured... Morpheus is quite glad to find a place that he'll never have to leave.
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diejager · 3 months
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Crediting @cobwebs-in-autumn for the prompt
Simon Says Cw: stalking, protective!Simon, collar, pet names, obsession, tell me if I missed any.
Part 3
“ ‘Tis Simon?”
His low rumble left his throat, deep and domineering. This was the voice that scared Johnny so much? It was almost laughable how corny and cocky the other person sounded, the drawl in their voice when they said his name. They sounded too comfortable and too familiar to be a coincidence, to be an act out of pure coincidence (SImon knew it wasn’t, not with the dozens of calls made in the past week alone, or the scarily precise quirks and details about Johnny).
He glared out the living room’s window, a growl lashing out to the caller, searching for any signs of being watched. He didn’t necessarily know what he was looking for, knowing neither what nor who he was glaring at. If he went by the voice he was listening to, he’d imagine a man, perhaps broad and strong like him, or small and lean like Johnny. His eyes scanned the front porch, then he turned to the kitchen, stalking his way to stare out the glass panels, the light in the backyard porch out just like the rest of the house. It left their home dark and moody, eerily silent when Johnny wasn’t chatting his ears off.
“What are you doing, kitten?” He sighed, running his fingers through his hair, cut short and choppy, utilitarian despite fitting him so well, turning his rugged and haunted face into something enviable —handsome.
He heard a click from the other side, before they spoke up, a cheeky laugh ringing in his ear.
“Having fun, like you told me to, Si.”
“You’re having a bloody amazing time, aren’t you.”
He knew you were nodding, hearing your clothes rustling with the vigorous act, and your sweet, sweet laugh that made his knees weak. He knew you were doing this as per his plans - his orders - to spook Johnny, to have him fall further into his arms until he found the right time to introduce you to him, cementing you as the second pillar of normalcy and safety. You were strong and dependable, someone who he’d put his life on the line for, someone who he trusts with his whole being —just as you did with him, repaying him with a sick sense of devotion and love that he easily returned.
“Am I doing well, Si?”
He revelled in having the monopoly of both your attention, being the man that you and Johnny would come for affirmation, to feel accomplished and praised. He was drunk on this power you gave him, your breathy and whiny voice, asking for him to praise you with small gestures and words. You were the reason he left John half of the time, to find you in your little flat, collar tight around your neck and bell ringing when you greeted him at the door. Your little smile and skip in your step made his worst days brighter, turned the dark and haunting tolerable in his mind when Johnny was unavailable. You were an integral piece of his life that he needed to keep —needed to have.
“Wonderful, love,” he gave you the praise you so wanted, a small grin curling the corners of his lips when he found you crouching behind a bush, your white mask peeking over the greenery.
He loved your attire, a white mask mimicking the moment of a scream, curved cheek bones and a thin sheet covering both eyes and mouth. It was your way of feeling closer to him whenever he was away while you worked, dressing in tactical, yet aesthetically pleasing garments, completely black and grey to easily melt into the shadows. He watched you wave at him, fingers curling at him in a teasing greeting and the other holding your phone - the one he gifted you with - under your leather hood. If he stared hard and long enough, he’d be able to see the crease of pure pleasure and glee in your eyes, gleaming so brightly that it would’ve blinded him.
“I think it’s time, kit.”
You perked up at his words, body moving to show him your excitement and joy that he finally thought that it was time.
“Remember to lock the window when you’re out.”
“Of course! Of course!” You nodded eagerly, nearly falling on your hands and dropping the phone in your little dance, “See you tonight, Si.”
part 4
Taglist: @sae1kie @yeoldedumbslut @bvxygriimes @distracteddragoness @konigsblog @havoc973 @im-making-an-effort @daisychainsinknots @0alk0msan @danielle143 @dont-mind-me-just-existing-sadly @tuttifuckinfruttifriday @kaelysian @notspiders @brokenpieces-72 @petwifed @aldis-nuts @randominstake
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