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white-poppie · 1 year

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heyy could u maybe do a fem reader dealing with sh? with kenma, bokuto, and hinata(separate) from haikyuu. like she accidentally reveals them and they notice it and they all just comfort her? thank u and have a good day!!

You drew st★rs around my scars

A/n: HUGE TRIGGER WARNING AHEAD! So sorry for delaying this anon, life has been complicated these days, I really hope it wasn't an emergency rq. Please don't read it if you are not comfortable, I don't want to accidentally trigger anyone, stay safe :)

TW: S*lf H@/rm, scars, bleeding, crying, distressful situations, poetical depictions of scars (please let me know if I am missing anything.)

NOTE: Please, in case anything is troubling you, do contact someone you trust or the national helpline of your country. It may seem that there is no point in living, but trust me, there are always things worth fighting for. Please don't hurt yourself you are far too precious to be scarred in this way. If you ever wanna talk, my DMs are always open, I have helped people before and it wouldn't be any inconvenience to help more people in need.

FInd the helpline of your country

𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐌𝐀 𝐊𝐎𝐙𝐔𝐌𝐄

The heat dampened your skin, as sweat rolled uncomfortably, sticking the clothes too close to your flesh than you would like. The salty beads of precipitation, made you hiss in pain as they rolled down the fresh, irritated scars; it was all too overstimulating.

The urge to scratch the skin over your pants was irresistible, it was a sort of double-edged sword that was ruining your comfort.

You sighed and decided to change into some shorts instead, it would prevent the sweat build-up that would irritate your skin.

The cool air of the aircon hitting your skin made it so much more bearable.

What you had forgotten in the midst of your discomfort was the fact that your significant other was in fact about to come from his practice soon. You two had planned a pizza dinner today.

"Oi Y/N?" he called as he removed his shoes before entering. You were in a state of comfort, half-bliss at the relief from the scalding sweat, it took you a few seconds before you could respond, panicking you grabbed your pants and tried to slip them over the shorts, "h-here." you called out, puffing as your voice cracked.

But Kenma was quick, agile and laser-sharp; all too cat-like for your liking. It felt like those scenes where the perpetrator was caught red-handed.

Your pants were half slipped up, only till your knees, giving a good view of the scar on your upper thighs, that lay just below your shorts.

You prayed, you hoped, you begged that Kenma wouldn't notice from that far, that the blood wasn't seeping from the fresh scars, that your lips weren't trembling in shame, that you didn't look so utterly defeated and ashamed.

So you just sat on the ground, all the effort you had put up for months, crumbling down all because of the heat -- you were far too careless. You sat on the floor, covering your face with your hands, the pants still bundled up to your knees.

Kenma was petrified, frozen, he had no idea what to do. His heart had dropped to his stomach when he entered and saw your scars in full display. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on.

He watched you break down, his hands, shaking and itching to comfort you, to help you somehow, but he is just spell-casted.

"Y/N..." he whispered softly and tries to walk with soft steps as if trying not to startle a sleeping baby, "look at me, please."

He said as kindly as possible, as he sits next to you, his heart breaking at how you softly shake your head.

"Baby please, I promise I won't get mad," he said in such a soft voice, like you would break if he was a tad-bit too loud. You shakily look up at him, eyes red and blood-shot.

"You are okay," he whispered and pat your head, "let's get you cleaned up, alright, we won't want any infections." he said and offered you a hand.

You shakily kept your hand in his as he pulled you up, ordering you to set on the edge of the bed while he got the medical kit.

"Are you gonna leave me?" you asked a little strongly, almost hating how vulnerable you sound.

"Never," he whispered softly and settled on the floor with the medical-kit, "I would never leave you when you need me the most, and I am not saying it out of obligation, I am saying it out of love."

"You are not alone, not anymore, I promise I am never going to blame you for any of this," he said and brushed your hair back, as he sat on floor, gently applying some antiseptic on your thighs with a q-tip.

He makes a mental note to throw all the blades and keep the knives and scissors away from your grasp while you are sleeping to prevent this kind of incident from happening again.

"I love you and nothing can change that, we'll overcome this together, I promise."

𝐁𝐎𝐊𝐔𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐎

Bokuto wasn't the smartest in the bunch, but he was perceptive of emotions, he noticed when people got quiet, he noticed when someone felt left out, he is always there in the sweetest way possible, his antics are just that adorable.

But right now, you wanted nothing more than to just tell him to go away, but you can't, you can't do that to Bokuto, you can't do that to your Koutaro. Even when you are on the verge of collapsing, your vision blurring as you gripped the sink to stabilize yourself from the roar of panic that echoed deeply within the caverns of your brain.

"Angel, let me in, come on," he knocks softly on the door, "I know you are crying, I'll- I'll give you space I promise, I just need to make sure if you are doing okay."

Bokuto knows how much some people value their personal spaces, it was never a problem for him, but he respected that, he would've let you be on any other day, but seeing the way you were acting for the past one week...he is scared. He is terrified of the mere aspect of you doing something reckless that might take you away from him.

"Kou, please leave me be, I just- I don't wanna see anyone right now."

"Baby, please," he almost pleads and you know he is going into his emo mode again, "I'll break the door Angel, but I am not letting you be, not like this."

You panic frantically as you hear that he will burst open the door, “Kou wait-“

“Get away baby,” he says as he braces himself for kicking the door down.

“3…”

Your heartbeat sped up, but you weren’t sure why, Koutarou’s reaction? Being scared that he would leave you? Or the fact that he was gonna break down the door and waste money for no apparent reason.

“2…”

You breath in deeply and unlock the door, standing behind it. You let him open the door.

Koutaro hugs you. No questions asked, no word spoken; just his muscular arms enveloped around your neck as he pulls you close by your waist. His lips rest on your hairline, just kissing forehead and rubbing your back, comforting you.

He slowly pulls away, and holds your face in his hands, no words needed to be spoken, you already know what he is asking, 'baby what did you do?'

You whimper and softly look down to your arms, not uttering a single syllable, seeing the beads of bloodseep into the sleeves of your t-shirt.

Bokuto gulps and looks into your eyes and then back at the sleeves. He held the fabric genty with his thumb and index finger, "I am gonna roll it up." He says and gently rolls it, careful not to hurt you. His throat turns dry and a broken gasp leaves his his mouth.

"Baby..." he says softly as tears line in his eyes.

"Kou I'm so sorry-" you sob and groan. You had been fearing that this day would come soon.

"Its okay," he says and wipes his tears and hugs you again, tightly, "I promise you won't be pushed to the edge like this again, we'll figure something out, alright?"

"We'll talk to a therapist, we'll- we'll figure something out, alright? You are safe, I'll protect you, I promise," he says and kisses your forehead as he cries again.

"I care about you way too much, please don't do anything reckless," he says softly and cries on the nape of your neck, even if you are the one who needs comforting right now. You nod against his t-shrt, your head buried in his chest.

"But baby you gotta promise me to tell me whenever you are itching to do something like this, whenever you feel as if you need to let the bad thoughts out, somehow, you need t talk to me. Give me a call if I am not here, I'll drive to you hell even run to you, barefoot if I have to."

𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐀 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐘𝐎

Hinata felt like a fool to have believed you when you said the scars that lay on your lower-belly were cat-scratches.

He noticed them when your shirt rode up a little while you stretched. the thin scars actually did resemble cat scratches, so he didn't think much of it.

Hinata was finally concerned when witnessed how you hissed when he wrapped his arms around your waist when you were doing something, or how you pushed him back a little when he poked your belly to get your attention.

For a long time he thought he had done something wrong, until he noticed how your smile was loosing its radiant glow that blinded a thousand suns, how your eyes seemed murky and grey instead of full-of verve...he knew something was very wrong.

"Did your cat scratch you again?" he asks suddenly and you are caught-off-guard.

"What cat?" you asked and he frowned.

"Love why do you have scars on your stomach then? Is someone bullying you? Hurting you?" he questioned softly, his eyes all observant and curious.

Your heartbreat fastened at the question, thumping widely against your ribs, "just nothing..." You said and internally groaned at your awkward reasoning.

"You know I am not letting you drop it, right? I care about you, even of it means that I am overbearing sometimes, I say all this out of concern, " he sighed, "I promise I won't judge you for anything." He says reassuringly, smiling with such glee that makes you tear up.

It felt as if you were cheating him, repressing your nature in front of him, but at the same time you wanted to conceal all of it. he was just too pure and you felt tainted...in the worst way possible, the irreversible way that can't be washed away like grime.

"Shoyo, I'm sorry," you whisper, "I-I hurt myself." You say as tears roll down your face.

"It got bad, I-I- relapsed, I tried to stop myself, I really did," you sob.

"You-you did this to yourself?" he asks bewildered, as if the concept of someone inflicting pain upon themselves is a foreign to him, "why?"

"It got bad Shoyo, my headspace wasn't exactly the best- I had stopped it a few years ago, took me all the effort, but I crumbled, I crumbled under the stress," you cry on his shoulder as he hugs you tightly, careful to not to touch the scars on your belly.

"I got you," he says as his lip trembles as he hugs you tightly,"I got you, I got you."

He breaks from the hug and looks at you, "promise me you won't hurt yourself- I'll figure something out, don't do this to yourself, you are so goddamn beautiful, don't hurt yourself like this." He hiccups and kisses your cheek.

"Are they new? Did you put rubbing alcohol on them? Bandage?" he asks, panicking a little.

You shake your head and he sighed, "I- sweetheart you should've cleaned them at least, they can cause an infection."

He sighs and asks you, "may- may I see them?" He questions softly and it makes your eyes widen, as you stare at him with shock.

"i promise I won't judge you, I gotta see them baby" he says softly and waits for you to roll up you t-shirt. He examines the scars on your lower belly, his heart breaking at the sight of how much you've hurt yourself, yet at the same time he is reluved that they don't see too recent, that means you didn't hurt yourself in the past few days.

He gently holds you by your waist and kisses your scars. A soft gasp escaped your mouth as he does this.

"Shouyo what are you doing?" you question, but he doesn' move, he just kisses your scars like its his lifeline, its ticklish but its so intimate that it makes you tear-up again.

"So frickin' strong," he mumbles against your skin, "I love you so much, I swear you are the most perfect person in this entire world. Your scars only make you look cooler."

He sighs and looks up at you, "but honey, you gotta promise you won't hurt yourself anymore, scars are cool, they tell your story, but I hate seeing you hurt yourself like this."

You nod hesitantly, "I'll try."

He smiles and rests his head on your skin, it doesn't matter to him, if there is a little trail of hair on it, or the scars littlering its expanse like constellations, he just loves you that much.

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michaelsbigreddick · 2 years

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Bad at Love-E.M x f!reader

Y/n and Eddie are far from perfect but they always find a way to make it work. Or at least she thought. After a petty argument over what movie they should watch, y/n goes to apologize to eddie. Only to find out he already had company.

Warnings! Mentions of drug and illegal activities! Mdni 18+

Pairing- Eddie x female reader (she/her)

I didn't post this yesterday because I worked all day then stayed up to watch V2 and then proceeded to cry the rest of the night, so my apologies for being late.

This is pt 1 out of maybe a 2 or 3 part series:) Hope yall enjoy! <3

_________

"Robin I can't deal with what I just saw! I think its because I just can't, I can't fucking believe it!

“What happened this time y/n?” her tone was flat, tired of anything and everything that had to do with your relationship. But it didn't stop you from sharing anyway.

“Guess! Guess what happened!” you were pacing around her room. Yelling once more about your on and off boyfriend, and love of your life, Eddie munson.

She was used to it by now, the fight picking you both did because neither of you felt good enough for the other for one reason or another. Maybe you would feel insecure when some chick would try flirting with him during your trips out of town together, or he would feel like you found someone at college. Regardless of what it was, or who was in the wrong you were never on the outs for long. And when you were, Robin would have to sit there and listen. Sometimes over the phone, but when you were in town, in the comfort of her room.

She was laying comfortably in bed running ger glittery green fingertips down the back of her purring cat. A bored expression sitting her face.

“You know what? Don't guess because, Jesus it's so unbelievable you won't be able to guess it.’ you took a deep breath trying to put the words together.

“I was, I was going to Eddie's house, ya'know, like I told you I was going to. I started it this time, my turn to apologize. As im pulling up to his house, I see fucking,” the tears begin to swell in your eyes. “fucking Chrissy Cunningham!”

She sat up mouth agape. “No way. No, Y/n tell me youre joking.” she walked across her bed on her knees. “No way, are you sure it was her?” you nod your head scared you'd break into tears if you said another word.

“Maybe he was like selling her something? Or or or, god I don't know,” she started to bite on her lip looking for something to comfort you.

“No he does his fucking drug dealing. anywhere but home Robin. Why else would they go to his trailer after the game?” you sat down at the edge of her bed. She moved herself next to you.

“Maybe he forgot it?” she gave you a weak smile. You offered one back but your trembling lips couldn't hold it together for long. A sob escaped them.

You never thought it would ever end, Not really. You would yell and scream and swear it was over, but then you would both cool off. Everything would fall back into place and you would have the best make up sex imaginable.

You thought there was nothing that could ever really keep the two of you apart for long. Especially if the fight was over something as dumb as what movie you were going to put on to pretend to watch but them ultimately end up catching up on all the sex you missed out on during college.

“Its alright. It probably was just a drug thing. And doesn't she have a boyfriend? ” she tries to reassure you.

“Everyone knows she's as clean as a whistle Robin, and... I had a boyfriend when we first started hanging out too, remember?” she hummed remembering.

“Yeah well you guys are in love. He's literally stupid for you y/n! Thats part of why he's still in high school. You distracted the hell out of him last year, remember? It's a miracle you even graduated.” She wrapped her arm around your shoulder and pulled your tear stained face into her.

You sniffled remembering the good times. When things were still fresh, all the angst and build up to him finally having the guts to make his first move. You were both such bad influences for each other when it came to school. You couldn't help it, and neither could he. As cheesy as it sounded, you couldn't stand being apart from each other.

“I just, I'm really scared I finally pushed him over the edge. And God chrissy? She is easily the second prettiest girl in school.” Robin smiled, accepting that you were calling her the first.

“He couldn't go for the first of course, That's my best friend.”

“That would be crossing a whole other line.” she laughed. “Look, why don't you just call him tomorrow? Talk things out when you're a little more calm…I mean really, what are the chances he and the top chear leader are hooking up right now?”

Your stomach churned at the idea. You imagined him laying her down in the same bed you were supposed to be laying on instead of the soaking chest of your best friend. A loud sob escaped again followed by more.

“God I am not very good at this huh.” your best friend said sighing at her failure to make you feel better. She leaned you down on her bed, taking your shoes off that you were too distracted to take off earlier.

Getting into bed she sat up against her headboard, and threw the blanket over the both of you. You scooted over to her and lay your head on her lap.She begins to caress your head letting you spill out your fears and worries, and the last of your tears till you ultimately fall asleep.

_._._._

You wake up the next morning to the sight of Robin wiping last nights eyeliner off.

“Morning.” she says groggly.

“Morning.” you smile. You would apologize for coming to her house and crying so hard you stayed the night, but you were so close all you had to offer was a thank you.

After having a quick breakfast, you dropped her off in time for work. Nearing your house a knot began to grow in your chest. Three cop cars were pulled up in front of it. You were barely able to park.

Exiting your car your mom comes out of the door screaming your name.

“Jesus, Y/n honey! You're safe.” she engulfs you in a breath squeezing hug.

“Why wouldn't I be mom?’ that was when you remembered that you hadn't called home to let her know you were going to stay at Robins.

“I was at Robin's mom. You should have called hers instead of…” you looked around at the police officers. A mixture of relief and concern plastered on their faces.

“I'm home. You can all go now.” you rub your moms back slowly trying to pry her off of you.

“Thats, that's not the only reason they're here hun.” she looked at you with sorry eyes. They led you inside to your living room.

'Let's take a seat lovebug.' You sit down on your couch facing the officers across from you.

When the words left their mouth you didn't think you were hearing them correctly. You couldn't believe that the words had even come out of their mouths just then.

“We found a student of Hawkens High, Chrissy Cunningham, dead in your boyfriends trailer.”

"And so what? You think Eddie did this?" You knew you probably sounded like a delusional girlfriend. That was exactly what all the signs made it look like that, but it was Eddie. Your Eddie, you couldn't help but get defensive.

“We're not saying anything. But his uncle was at the plant all night. Can you tell us where you were again, Miss Henderson.”

“For christ's sake I told you guys once I got here! I was at Robins last night!”

“Your mother told us that you were going to spend the night with,”

“Yea well that didn't happen. If you're so concerned about where I was you can ask the Buckleys. I'm sure they heard my embarrassing crying last night.” you roll your eyes, holding on tighter to your mothers warm hand.

“Why were you crying honey?"

“Was there an altercation with Mr. Munson? If that were the case did he try,” you held your palm out signaling them to stop.

“Don't you even dare try finishing that sentence. Eddie wouldn’t hurt a fucking fly. I need you to leave my house.” you got up from the couch, dropping your mothers hand. You were trembling, with anger, fear, frustration, whatever it was it had taken over. "Get out of my fucking house!” You were confused on so many different levels. But there was one thing you were completely sure of, Eddie didn't hurt her.

You saw your brother peeking his head out of his room.You knew he was hearing everything from the other side of the wall, he wasn't dumb, and the walls were thin. Eddie meant a whole lot to him too and there was no way you were going to let them make such claims under your roof.

“Get out!” you screamed at them one last time. The slim cop with a mustache jumped, and slowly backed his way to the door. The sheriff took a quick glance at your mother then back at you. He nodded at your mother. She walked them out. You could hear them talk behind the door. The sound of them pulling away from the house followed.

You sat back down on your couch with your face in your hands. This felt worse than any feeling you had felt the night before. You couldn't keep it together. The facade of the strong older sister, the role of the supportive daughter, it was slipping away, melting off with each tear.

Your mom came back in and sat on the recliner aside from you. Dustin finally slipped out of his room.

“Y/n?" He walked over to you slowly. Maybe he was worried you'd snap on him too. Regardless he knelt down in front of you and placed his hand on your knee.

“I don't know what happened last night. Or what your dumb fight was about, which was probably the reason you went to Robins house… Whatever it is..whatever happened. It's gonna be okay.” you leaned down onto him, holding him as tight as you could.

When you get up from the couch and give him another quick hug.

“I'm going to take a quick shower then we’ll talk more okay?”

Dusting nodded. There was a loud knock at the door. He walked over swiftly to answer it. Your face softened when you saw who it was. Max Mayfield. She greeted you all quickly, pulling Dustin into his room. She looked different. Sadder even. You didn't expect her to be the same after the death of her brother. But there wasn't a touch of paranoia in her eyes that was unsettling.

“Hun, the police want you to go in for questioning. They also want to have you escorted till they find him.” your mom says pulling you from your thoughts.

“What? I told them to screw off and they want to baby sit me now?”

“They just think he might come looking for you…honey I think it's better to be safe than sorry.” she was looking at the ground when she said this. You couldn't believe she would consider the thought of it being true. She knew him. He was always so great with her. And even with your constant bickering, she knew the both of you loved each other like no one else in the world.

“ I don't think he did what they said he did, I really hope not.” she said, squeezing your hand.

“Mom!”

“Im being honest here bug. I just, even if he didn't do anything, I don't think it's a good idea to be seen anywhere near him right now. Not till things cool down.” she caressed your cheek. You knew she was doing her best. But god was it annoying that she didn't believe in his innocence.

You showered till the water went cold. Leaving the warm safety of the running water would mean that it was all real. You took even longer to get ready. Just as you were about to leave for questioning you noticed your open window. You had sworn that you closed it before going to Eddies.

You started to look around your room for anything that was out of place. The last place you checked was where you found what you were looking for. A sign of him.

You plop onto your bed. Your hands shake a single folded up piece of paper. Your name was written across the first fold.

"y/n, I really wish i let you choose that movie. You're right, you're always right. The Breakfast Club is one of the best movies to ever exist."

You chuckle knowing he was just saying that to stop the fight.

"You might start to hear some things about me. Maybe you already have. I just want you to know that whatever it is that they say, it isn't true. I know that you're able to see over everything else that they've ever said, but this is different. I wish I could tell you what happened but I don't even know what went on. Chrissy Cunningham, the cheerleader, slipped me a note after class. She wanted me to deal her something. I met with her after the game because she wanted something stronger than weed. I didn't want to carry that shit around with me. I'm not an idiot. So I drove her to my uncles so i could give it to her there. She was in the living room when I was looking for the stuff. When I came back with it, she was off, and then everything happened. I don't know how to explain it. I came here to tell you what happened, to apologize about the dumb fight. I wanted to see you one last time before whatever happens, happens. I'm scared but I'll be okay knowing you believe me. At least I hope you do. I'm going to where we had our first kiss.

Love you so fucking much

Eddie"

You were relieved that he was safe. The place where you had shared your first kiss was the lake across from his dealers house. The guy was out of town and Eddie took advantage of that. You spent a day there. Turning the music up as loud as you could, smoking and drinking, making the dumbest jokes imaginable. By the end of the day, still high and a little drunk but definitely more sober than before, he pulled out the boat from the shed and you paddled to the very middle before realizing it had a motor. You were laughing so hard you were on the verge of rocking the boat.

It was perfect the way the moment just presented itself. On the lake, both of you high enough to hear the water beneath and around you move with such a clarity, the reflection of the stars above you cascaded off the water, lighting up his pale skin, and showing you the lustful look in his eyes.

“I want to kiss you” he had said to you.

“So kiss me.” he smiled and leaned into you. His soft lips fit into yours like they were made for them. You'd never felt that before. The need or want to kiss someone the way you did him. With others it felt like something you had to do, up down, take a breath, touch their neck, maybe slip some tongue in. But with him, it was easy. No thought was necessary, you could kiss him all day if he'd let you.

Your mind went back to how he said he couldn't explain what happened. The last time you had heard someone say that to you it had to do with the upside down. You hoped to god that it didn't have to do with it. You were so grateful he'd gone so long in the dark about what has been going on in Hawkins. This was the last thing he needed.

If it wasn't official before. It was now, you were going to find him and help him prove his innocence.

#eddie munson stranger things #eddie x reader #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson fic #eddie munson smut #eddie munson x y/n

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5p7lyy · 2 years

Text

In her sweet arms

Iguro Obanai x wife!reader

Genre : fluff

Requested by no one

*Smooch*

“Mn.. Obanai ?” she blinked softly at the soft kiss that landed on her cheek, it seemed hesitant, as she knew that the serpent hashira always tried to show his love language, private.

“Yes, my love ?” He snuggles into her neck, tired from his recent mission, almost a cat switched roles with him at the spot.

“You finished your mission so fast I didn’t realize you were here…welcome home dear..” she smiled softly as she leaned to his touch, nuzzling to him.

“Oh, yes it was nothing but a simple demon hunt, it didn’t take too long for me to find its hideout.” a little smile made it to his face but was hidden under his bandages as he kissed her forehead softly, before pulling back looking at her in the eyes, “how are you doing today ? You seem happy.”

Stares at his heterochromia eyes before smiling gently “today seems like a good day, I can’t help but feel joy about it dear..”

“I’m glad to hear that..” glances shyly as he murmured softly “would you mind if we went to bed early ? I want to spend some quality time with you until i get my next mission” he said as he awaited for her answer.

She hummed in agreement as he started walking towards their shared room, leading her by his hand on her wrist.

She then went to get the futon out of the closet, readying it up for the both of them, also putting a small cloth next to the futon for the little snake Kaburamaru, so it can sleep comfortably , and lighting up some candles.

“Are you sure you don’t need anything from me today ? I can prepare some food for you if you’d like ?” He asked as he laid down on the futon, waiting for her to join him.

Shakes her head as she laid next to him on the futon, “don’t worry, love I’m all good.” She smiled softly almost showing her gratitude in there.

“Hm…then let’s cuddle for a while..” he murmurs tiredly as he pulled her close to himself, resting his head against her shoulder.

She rubbed circles on his back, as they cuddled on the futon in their shared room, it must’ve been a tiresome mission, she thought.

He sighed deeply as he relaxes into her, letting out a small yawn.

“Take a nap, Obanai, I’ll wake you up by your next mission, for now just rest..” she stroked his hair gently, letting him calm and relaxes in her arms.

He blushed slightly as he heard what she said, feeling somewhat embarrassed, “Thank you…for everything…” he whispered quietly.

She smiled as she hummed a sweet tune, as he snuggled Closer to her, laying his head on her chest “I’m sorry for letting you do such dangerous missions…” he mumbled softly.

“We fight for our humanity, so it can live through those next years, if we don’t the demons will take over us, it’s a great feeling knowing you were once a hero for this country

fighting for it with your life, even if the mission were hard, being just brave, not caring for the open wounds the one might have, just remembering the smiles of our country’s people, live with us in our hearts, so you don’t

need to apologize love, we both do our jobs like the others, protecting the humanity and finishing off the demons that roam in our country..” she smiled softly as she spoke with kindness, bravery laced with her tone and mostly love for her country.

He nuzzled to her, closing his eyes as he enjoyed the moment, “it feels nice when you speak about it like that, but there are many who wouldn’t see it that way.” He said as he opened his eyes again, glancing at his lover and wife lovingly.

She glanced at him with kind eyes as she smiled softly, “Some people may see it as a burden, scared for their lives than their country’s life, and it’s all just human feelings and nature, of course there is going to be time where we’re scared, happy, sad, angry, it’s the basics of human life, some people may be

arrogant, cold and harsh but deep inside they feel love for their country, living for it, for their love of life, for their parents, any of us would feel those moments when meeting some grave moments, it’s just the nature of humans, and

it’s a good thing it evolves by time where it’s in a good way or a bad way..” she spoke, showing respect and kindness for those that once lived and still do, to those who fought bravely for their country.

He looked up at her, smiling happily beneath his bandages, as he looked down at her face, “You’re right… I guess I have been lucky enough to meet someone who understands me, and has given me strength to carry on.”

She chuckled softly, as it was a hearty chuckle as she pointed with her finger on his chest where his heart was, “I’m glad enough, that I have someone who I can share my love for this life, my sibling nor my parents liked the way I talked about this country to them, so I’m glad I have someone like you, Obanai…”

She glanced lovingly at him with kind eyes, his smile grew bigger as he nodded happily, “you make me very happy, little one…”

“Now now, you need to take a nap, so you’re in full energy for your missions…” she smiled, looking at him lovingly.

He nodded, as he closed his eyes, ready to take a small nap, “are you going to sleep, soon ?” He asked curiously.

“I’ll stay awake, I don’t have that much sleepiness anyways, you rest, you had a rough day and going off to a mission soon later, so you have to rest to protect others..” she held him close in her arms as she gave him a closed eye smile.

“Sleep well Obanai..I’ll make sure to wake you up for your mission, now just rest..” she planted a kiss on his forehead as she glanced over to the small white snake that was comfortable sleeping on the cloth she gave him.

He nodded, soon as he drifted to slumber, she murmured softly, “lovely dreams then..” as she stroked his head gently, have a warm smile on her face.

#demon slayer #kny #iguro obanai #tomioka giyuu #kamado tanjirō #shinobu kochou #kimetsu anime #demon slayer muichiro #oneshot #kny x reader #x reader #kimetsu sanemi #uzui tengen #demon slayer hashira #kimetsu no yaiba hashira #obanai x y/n #wife reader

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ohraicodoll · 2 years

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Possession | Chapter 5 (Finale)

(gif credit tsintotwo)

Chapters: 5/5 (complete) Fandom: The Sandman (Comics & TV 2022) Rating: Mature Relationships: Dream of the Endless | Morpheus/Original Female Character, Dream/Reader Characters: Dream of the Endless | Morpheus, Original Female Character, Matthew the Raven, Lucienne, Calliope, Mervyn Pumpkinhead Warnings: 18+ Minors DNI, Explicit Sexual Content, Past Abuse, Abusive Relationships, Possessive Behavior, Domestic Violence, Jealousy, Trauma Responses Tags: Complicated Relationships, General complicated feelings, Dream is an IDIOT, they both have baggage, Past Relationships, Angst, OFC: Dahlia, 1st POV

Summary: On her terms.

Morning light poured in through my window and my tongue felt heavy in my mouth, skin feeling sticky from sweating through my night terrors and the leftover tracks of tears from our fight. My body always felt heavier in the Waking world after leaving the Dreaming, but I felt extra heavy this time. The weight of the night had sunk into my bones and I was content to let the bed swallow me whole if only for some relief. I was exhausted and drained, but at least partly some of the poisonous anger had left my veins. Blinking drowsily at the sun coming through the blinds, I groaned and shoved my face back into the warmth of the…breathing sheets? I pulled away, suddenly wide awake, and found I was half on top of Morpheus who only blinked down at me, blue eyes amused. My heart was in my throat as I tried to process that I was indeed awake and he was very much in my bed now, peacoat thrown over the chair in the in the corner of the room and black shirt under my fingers. Here. He was here. It felt almost wrong to see him without his coat, dark gray short sleeved shirt half wrinkled from me laying on it and pale arms so stark against the fabric. He was laid out on top of the sheets with the pillow propped behind him, feet bare as he stretched out over the bed. Comfortably, utterly relaxed, like a cat sunbathing. “Good morning,” his low, dark voice greeted calmly, a smirk tilting at his lips. I was still staring at him like he had grown a second head, brain trying to kick start awake and process everything. Dream had never been there when I woke up, never stayed. Most of the relationship was kept to the Dreaming, his time too valuable to be spent in the Waking and it was just something I had accepted. I had gotten used to that bittersweet moment when I would find myself alone, the lack of his presence in my normal day to day life, and the sudden intrusion- no, not intrusion, but surprise was jarring. Because he was here all the same, holding me in his arms, and I wasn’t alone for once. I wasn’t alone… “You’re in my bed,” I breathed out, sitting up more to look at him. I knew I probably looked like a disheveled mess with a nest of hair and swollen eyes, but I was struggling to even process his existence much less worry about my appearance. “So I am,” at that Dream did smirk, feline and playful and utterly relaxed against my pillows. Like he owned the place. “But-” his brow quirked higher over his blue eyes in expectation as if knowing I was about to make excuses, “You’re busy. I mean- I’m sure you have a ton of important things you need to do like…rule your realm?” My brain was short circuiting and smoke was leaving my ears, but he seemed endlessly amused at catching me off guard. It seemed to be his favorite thing at times, surprising me when I didn’t expect it. Pleasantly at least, unlike the other night. Finally taking pity on my poor brain, the Endless bent forward and kissed me. My brain screeched to a stop and and only focused on the feeling of him. The differences between kissing him in the Waking world always shocked me. He was tangible, real, warm flesh and blood beneath me and tasting of mint and honey. The magic of him never completely went away, something I could still taste on my tongue, but he felt less like an Endless and more like a man and it was comforting to be more on the same foot in this place. Morpheus' lips were soft against mine and it took a couple seconds to register before I gave myself over and sank into it, cupping the back of his neck and keeping him to me. The past couple of days had been hell and the ache in my chest at being able to kiss him easily, see his smirk, feel a lightness to his touch was almost too much to bear. His thin shoulders relaxed under my hands, black hair brushing my fingers, and I knew he was thinking along the same lines. He pulled away slowly, hand on my waist and fingers tracing the skin under my oversized shirt. “Nothing of importance need be taken care of at the moment,” Morpheus answered gently, other thumb running over my pouting lower lip and staring at me under long lashes, “and Lucienne can manage in my stead. I am better served here with you, for now…” Here with me. In the Waking world. The words hit me harder than I expected or wanted to analyze. That he was prioritizing me over any work that needed to be done, was giving me his undivided attention. This wasn't a small thing. He had shrugged off more important matters in the name of needing to work before. But for now, I was more important than all that. Heart beating fast, I grinned wide and laughed, kissing him soundly and swallowing his own chuckle as we toppled backwards onto the bed. He was here for now because he wanted to be and I was going to take every advantage of it that I could. I kissed him breathlessly, arms tight around him, licked along the seam of his mouth and he opened willingly to meet my tongue and let me explore at my leisure. I could feel his intention, that he was giving me control over what we did and where this went. This was all in my hands, my control. My heart clenched at the thought and consideration there. My legs were a tangled mess of sheets and with a smirk, he gently extricated me until my bare legs were free and I was able to straddle him as he lounged against the pillows. I’d just thrown on an oversized shirt over my underwear the night before, too tired to do anything, but now it left very little in the way between us. His fingers dragged over the exposed flesh of my thighs, drawing leisurely circles into the skin and sending tingles there. I would never be able to get enough of his touch, the slow way he seemed to enjoy savoring the feeling of skin on skin. Still touch starved after these months, finding an excuse to constantly be connected to me when he could. I broke from him, pausing, enjoying the way his lips were pink in the morning light and skin flushed and filled with color. As much as I loved seeing him in the Dreaming, he was gorgeous in the Waking in an entirely different way. Sitting back onto his lap, my fingers toyed with the hem of his shirt, “You know you said you’d make it up to me the other night.” The words were hesitant, bashful, the words dragged out of me as I forced myself to remind him. I was always the sort that if someone didn’t bring it up, I would let people forget. Even as I said it I tried to downplay it, use it as a tease while also letting him know what I wanted. The tips of my own fingers touched the skin of his stomach and the muscles there tensed at the contact, almost shivering. He sat up, letting me continue to tease the skin there, but made sure I fully met his gaze, “Little dreamer, I did not forget…and I will. Whatever you want now I give you gladly and willingly but it is not nearly enough for what I owe you….what I want to give you. That will come later.” I blushed, chewing on my lower lip only for him to rub his thumb along the chewed skin. Sharp blue eyes caught mine and he held my gaze, bright with arousal and something akin to wonder. “I am yours if you will still have me, Dahlia Morrowland,” Morpheus whispered into the quiet of the early morning, “Not above you or beneath, but in equal capacity as I wish you to be mine. Whatever that means to you, I will try and make it so...if you'll have me.” He wasn’t claiming me but offering himself and only under my terms. We had tried this before, under his idea of possession, and it had blown up in our faces. But this time, he wanted me to know we would do this a different way and only with what I was comfortable with. It was hard to breathe at those words, the pledge in them and understanding. The respect. Taking a shaky breath, I nodded with stinging eyes and gently kissed the pad of his thumb in acknowledgement of all we didn’t say. And the smile lit up his face made me want to sob at how beautiful he was. We didn't leave the room for most of the day, making up and reacquainting ourselves in the light of the day. I drank in his voice and touch and the darkness of his laughter and moans. We whispered to each other secrets and he mapped out every inch of me as if to commit it to memory. There was a subtle shift in us, a silent acknowledgement that this had moved beyond a game of attraction and into an attachment. Something not so easily discarded or broken. But we said nothing out loud, didn't speak it into words. It was fragile and new and just ours for now. We were a mess, a complicated mess in different ways. He was Dream of the Endless and also a car crash when it came to humans simultaneously wrapped in one. I was just a simple mortal who had seen hell and not given up, having happened to attract something bigger than I could ever comprehend. But we were trying to figure it out and learn and that’s all that mattered to me. Things would get better. I trusted that. _____________________________ (Author’s Note: Thank you all for reading this series! I’ll have the next story in the series up in a few days along with the Photoset/Story Masterlist as well. If you don’t want to wait, more is already posted on AO3 and I’m working on some one-shots as well! Thank you!)

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achoirofcritters · 2 years

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Rest in peace, Caspian: 2010-2022

Wanted to do a proper memorial post for him.

Caspian was born to a feral cat my neighbor fed in my childhood neighborhood, so I knew him since he was only a couple weeks old. Before he was mine, he was affectionately called “Patches” or “Patchy” and when he was old enough, I carried him across the street to my house. That was June 12, 2010. He was tiny. He also had chronic respiratory issues and funny looking eyes, so he wasn’t the healthiest little stret cat in the world by any means.

Back then, I still lived with my great-grandparents so he was an indoor/outdoor cat, definitely a hunter, always bringing live garter snakes to the porch. He was a silly boy and remained small his entire life. He gave me some funny stories with my friends over the years, and there are a world of memories.

Once I had my own home, he transitioned into an indoor-only cat and took to it well. He liked to lay high in cat trees and on top of our crested gecko’s tank over the hood light. He loved the dogs, scratched my door frames to shreds, and was Murdock’s primary playmate.

He never was too terribly social with people, not a cuddler. He would lay next to you from time to time, and he liked pets, but he preferred the quieter back-end of the house. He had always been like this, and in my old home, he would often lay in the living room with my great-grandmother, causing her to claim he was her cat, haha. After she passed, I caught him laying in her vacant spot on the living room couch.

So when he began to get sick, we didn’t notice right away that he was tucking himself into dark spaces and hiding under the bed. I only really began to think something was seriously wrong when I noticed he was extremely dehydrated after emerging one morning. We got him into one of the only vet offices that had an opening that weekend, and began diagnostics, and after quite a few hefty bills and visits, he was diagnosed with pancreatitis and IBS. We started steroid treatments and he would do well for a while and return to the cat we knew, sleeping up high, kneading blankets, scratching my doorframes, and begging for wet food, but inevitably, he would crash again and it was always so, so fast how quickly he returned to the shell of a cat refusing to eat or drink.

This last time, he had taken a 30 day steroid injection on the 5th and crashed again this weekend, not even two weeks after, and he was obviously in more pain and discomfort than we had seen him yet. There weren’t many other options, not any that wouldn’t simply prolong his discomfort, and the vet confirmed our own suspicions that it would likely be better to let him go. So we did. He went almost immediately after the injection, in my lap, just gave a big sigh and he was gone, didn’t fight it at all. I’m sure he was so tired. He had been with me just over 12 years at this point.

After he got sick, he liked to spend time with us when he was feeling “up” so I’m glad we had these last couple of weeks with him. Even today, we woke up to him laying on the couch with us, not even sure how he managed to jump up there when moving seemed to cause him to mew in pain. But I think it was the right time to say goodbye, and I’m glad he’s not in pain anymore. I wish we could have done more for him, 12 still feels too young, but we did everything we could that wasn’t simply prolonging his suffering.

I hope you’re resting easy, tiny bud. We’ll miss you.

#memorial post #caspian #my pets #cats #my cats #pet death #long post

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rambleswhatsthepoint · 1 year

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12/09/22

well hello. been a few weeks.

Yesterday was my one year divorce anniversary. amazing how the year has gone by so quickly.

The World cup has been INSANE, especially today’s games. my heart today, o.m.g. LOL

My mom is on a trip with a tour group to Mexico and is having the absolute best time! my sis and i split the cost of the trip to treat her for her 75th bday. it was totally affordable that i was worried they were going to be staying in cockroach infested hotels, but it’s absolutely no the case and i’m so relieved.

found out my ex is “in a relationship” with someone from facebook. i’m intrigued/vaguely nosy curious feeling but at the same time, don’t care about it in a care about him kind of way. i more was thinking to myself how is it that i can’t even bring myself to think about trying to date and meet people and this mofo is already FB status in a relationship with someone and also on fucking facebook which he didn’t want to use before and didn’t have any social media. ok whatever. should i be ready by now? it just all seems so daunting and like so much effort and really just like gambling... and you hardly ever win big when you gamble. ugh i dunno.

had a big fight with Leo that exploded into work. we got through it, but it was a lot of drama and waste of energy.

lastly, i lost my Alley cat on 11/19. she was 18 years old. she’d been getting thinner.... she was always a skinnier cat, she was never more than 7ish pounds even when she was younger. but i brought her in cause she had a cold on 8/27 and she was only 5 pounds. she got better after her cold but i know she wasn’t eating well still, even with giving her appetite stimulant. I brought her in to the vet on 11/17 because the night before she was kind of out of it... like wobbly and not aware of where she was. and she had tried to jump up to her food counter and she fell. and when she fell she just lay there. just lay there where she fell, the poor thing. brings me to tears just remembering...

the vet said there was really nothing more to do for her. they gave her some fluids and a b12 shot and a steroid shot to see if that could help pep her up. but really it was just buying me time to realize i had to say goodbye. i texted the ex to let him know she wasn’t doing well. he said he’d be in town in dec and if she was still around he’d ask to say good bye. i said i don’t think she has that long but i’ll let you know. the vet is closed on fridays so i thought i’d be able to bring her in to our regular vet on Saturday when they opened. of course they have this whole come sign up to get in to see them type thing so there was no guarantee they could see me right away... anyways that night she slept in the bed (per usual in her older age) and it was the worst sleep of my life. i could tell she wasn’t doing well, so i had my hand on her nearly the whole time to make sure she was still breathing. i kept praying to ask God to give me a sign of what i should do. at some point i fell asleep and then i was so scared cause i realized there was something heavy leaning on me (stella) instead of alley and i panicked, but she had just crawled a little ways away but was curled up sleeping. fell back asleep a little bit but then i heard a thump. she had fallen off the bed. i rushed to get up and turn on the light and there she was just laying where fell again :(. so i picked her up, laid her back on the bed and then got dressed, i felt like that was my sign.

i brought her to the emergency vet and she passed in my arms at about 440 in the morning. tbh they had this whole room with couches and kleenex that was dimly lit and a whole system for saying goodbye that it was a way better experience than if i had made it to our regular vet. (yet super expensive ugh) they let you do all the paperwork and payment stuff while you’re waiting. they took her in the back and put an iv in. then they took me to the nice room to explain what would happen next. they would bring her to me, i could spend as much time with her as i wanted. then when i was ready i’d push a button and the dr would come. the doctor was just the kindest angel. i don’t know how they can take seeing the pain from everyone. but i guess they know that only that much grief can come from great love. then when i was ready, she gave the first injection to make her sleepy. then when i was ready again she gave her the injection that stopped her heart. she listened for her heart. then she said i could stay as long as i wanted with her again. and when i was ready to go i would push this button thing again and someone would come to take her away. she was in my arms the whole time. she was ready.

her ashes came back the day before thanksgiving and because it’s an emergency vet, i was able to pick her up on thanksgiving day.

Roger’s doing really well and i get regular updates or see pics of him posted by his new fam on facebook.

I took my mom to see Pentatonix and Girl Named Tom on 12/1 before her trip. they were both SO AMAZING.

I didn’t make it into the Chicago Marathon via lottery so I joined a charity team. I just gotta raise 1750 by 10/1/2023. Oh, and train for a fucking marathon. good luck to me lol.

there’s a song by Girl Named Tom on their Christmas album, called “one more christmas” The first line is “these tears are years of memories all at once” and i think of that every time i cry now. Alley cat is waiting for me with all my fur babies who have gone on ahead. I’ll see them again someday.

#Online Journal #rambles #my life #sadness

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from-a-reckless-writer · 3 years

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here's me jumping into the bandwagon :D

(read on ao3)

It's just after sunset when Kara finally gives in. She veers off from her patrol down to a route she knows by heart.

The moment she lands, the first thing she notices is how the sliding doors are a fraction open. It’s a small thing, nothing to even be thrilled about, yet still, her drumming heart cannot be helped.

"Knock, knock," she says, stepping inside.

Her heart turning anxious when she takes in the sight in front of her. The room is a mess; books on the floor, drawers open, Lena’s frazzled appearance. She's standing over a suitcase thrown open in the middle of the bed, a mountain of clothes on top of it.

She was told that Lena was going on a trip, that it would probably take three weeks tops.

Packing for a trip doesn’t look like this, this looks a lot like... leaving.

Going on a trip, Kara remembers that’s what her family told her too.

You and Kal are going on a trip but you don’t have to worry, we’ll be with you the rest of the way, they told her.

A trip implies there would be a home to come back to. And Kara believed it. She believed it for a total of ten seconds before her planet exploded and a shard of her home knocked her off-course.

"Need some help?" Her voice doesn’t tremble. Kara considers that a miracle, really.

"I didn't know Supergirl helped poor hapless women pack suitcases,” Lena retorts, walking over to her and kissing her cheek in greeting. It doesn't go unnoticed by Kara how clingy Lena's been since she's been back.

"Well, I wouldn’t exactly consider you poor and hapless," Kara counters.

"I may have had a slight,” Lena pinches her thumb and forefinger together, “panic over which and what to pack earlier.”

Yeah, Kara can definitely see that.

"Good thing I’m here then?”

"It's always good whenever you're around,” Lena says in such a casual way and it’s like the past year didn’t happen. As if it has always been this good. And...is this even allowed? This much affection from Lena? All the sweet words, the gentle touches, and the constant close proximity? It shouldn’t be allowed, not if it will be taken from her almost immediately after.

Unfair, is what it is.

******

“Okay, so why don’t we just move this out here yeah?” Kara voices, leaning over and hugging the lump of clothes to her chest, dumps it out from the suitcase and onto Lena’s pillows.

Lena’s fabric conditioner filling Kara’s senses entirely. For a brief moment, she considers stealing one of Lena’s shirts then and there. Something to tide her through once Lena leaves.

“Great. You’re on folding duty then,” Lena declares, “I’ll just go sort my babies, quickly. I’ll be right back.”

(Her 'babies' being the thick books lining every inch of this place.)

Lena disappears through the door. The domesticity of it all pulling at Kara’s chest.

In another world, where life ran a little differently, Kara would be packing their suitcases for a trip to Argo, or maybe one of the planets she’s always wanted Lena to see, or maybe it’d be nothing that grand. Maybe, just a trip back to Midvale. Lena would read to her on the whole drive there, her hair whipping from the winds down coastal roads.

Maybe not even a trip. Maybe in this other world, she’s assigned on folding duty, while Lena tinkers around their house. Maybe, even a dog or a cat. Maybe, something small at first, just an aquarium of fishes.

She doesn’t notice how deep into the fantasy she’s gotten till Lena speaks up from the door.

"My, my, CatCo would pay a million dollars to see this."

"Uh-"

"Supergirl found in bed, folding Lena Luthor's undies."

Kara looks down at her hand. She’s holding a lacy purple panty, she spots the matching bra laying a few inches away. She drops it lightning quick, feels her face flush.

"Oh, Rao. Lena, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to- I wasn't- It was just there and I-"

"Relax, Kara. I was just teasing,” Lena reassures her, she’s got three books tucked in her arms, she lays them down on the bed, before picking up the underwear Kara’s dropped and folding it neatly.

The contrast of the dark fabric against Lena’s pale fingers makes Kara flush an even brighter red.

Kara tries hard to exclude Lena's lacy panties in her fantasy.

She fails.

******

They give up on packing entirely two hours later. An all out pillow fight breaks out somewhere between Kara fishing out her favorite hoodie from the pile--discovering t'was not in fact missing like she thought it was--and Lena denying that she stole it.

They’ve fallen right on top of Lena’s clothes. Laying opposite each other, Lena lying upside down, her feet propped up on the pillows, toes touching the headboard, whilst Kara’s legs dangle at the end of the bed. Their heads close together.

From this angle, she can see the defined slope of Lena’s nose; stares at the way her lashes curl every time she blinks.

“So, what do you think you’ll find there?” Kara breathes out into the silence.

“I don’t really know,” Lena whispers.

“Let me rephrase then; what do you want to find?”

“I- I don’t know either.”

She tries to crane her neck to take a better look at Lena. Her eyes are closed, and it takes every ounce of self-control for Kara not to lean over and just press a kiss to Lena’s lips. It would be so, so easy. She settles for shifting just a bit closer instead, their temples touching.

It’s good enough.

“That’s okay," Kara murmurs, "not knowing is part of the adventure, right?”

She tries not to think about how she isn’t really part of this adventure. It isn’t about her, really. Kara’s decided the next three days will be about Lena. Kara will have time for breaking down once Lena leaves. The three days pales in comparison to how much Lena’s sacrificed in getting her back.

“I guess so.” she hears Lena say.

On the ceiling, Kara sees two shadows dancing with each other, tries not to look too deep into it.

And then,

“I had Jess trace down a couple of documents for me,”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. There’s an orphanage that could help me, she thinks.”

Kara’s ears perk up at that, she imagines Lena as a small child crying for her mom and then being whisked away from everything she ever knew. Kara wishes she could hold that little girl’s hand. Why did nobody hold Lena’s hand through it all? Kara wonders if somebody did, would Lena even have met her? Would she have needed somebody like Kara in her life? She likes to believe that Lena would still have met her. A reality without Lena was too painful, Kara knows all too well.

“Is that where you’re going to visit first?”

“Yeah.”

A brief silence engulfs them.

“Hey, Kara,” Lena calls out. “Do you think-”

There’s a deep exhale and a sigh.

“Do I think what?”

“Do you think my mom would want me to find her again? Do you think she’s proud of me?”

The question was so full of uncertainty and insecurity and there's nothing that Kara wants more than to just wrap around Lena and tell her how goddamn amazing she is.

“Oh, Lena," Kara whispers, "your mom would be so happy if you found her. I’d even say she’s been waiting for you. And of course, she’s proud of you!” Kara sits up at this, can’t contain all her awe for Lena.

“You’re amazing! Have you met you? Your mom would be so proud of you. I just know it, Lena.”

Lena opens her eyes, smiles shyly at her, reaches up to cup Kara’s cheek. Even though the angle is awkward, Kara feels her entire being light up at the touch.

“Thank you. You always know just what to say.”

Kara's right hand comes up to keep Lena’s hand steady, before tilting slowly to press a kiss to her palm.

She registers the up-tick in her heartbeat before letting go and laying back down again.

Kara’s beginning to understand, now. Lena doesn’t want to wonder anymore, maybe if she knew where she came from, who she could’ve been, and what kind of life she could’ve led, existing wouldn’t be as hard as it is now. Maybe Lena wanted to know that a Luthor isn’t all that she is. Even though Kara has repeated again and again that she is so much more. Lena needs to figure that out for herself, Kara guesses.

Maybe, Lena finally needs a name other than what has been ingrained in her. Maybe Lena needs to name the parts of herself she never had before.

“Maybe you came from a family of thieves,” Kara murmurs, closing her eyes too.

“Kara.” she feels Lena shift, she opens one eye to see Lena propped on her elbows leaning over her. “Are you saying you think being a hoodie thief is genetic?”

“You never know, Lena you never know,” Kara manages to say, her brain a loop of, Lena’s eyes are so pretty, so pretty, so pretty, her hair smells so nice, please kiss me, please kiss-

Kara closes her eyes again to make the chanting stop.

“You do know I'm a scientist, right?”

“Mm. Doesn’t make you any less of a hoodie thief.”

That earns her a pillow on the face.

“Personally, I think you’re some lost princess though," Kara divulges.

Lena lets out a loud incredulous laugh at that.

“What?" Lena blurts out, "You think I’m a princess?”

There’s a cheesy pick-up line there somewhere that Kara chooses to ignore.

“Well, you have the whole Snow White look down to a T, after all. Pale skin, dark hair. The whole ensemble really.”

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this," Lena groans, “but, I think you might be right. God, I even have the whole evil stepmother-stepbrother dynamic down. Does that make you one of my dwarfs?”

“Dwarf? Really? Lena, really?”

She’s glad to learn that Lena had picked up a thing or two from their Disney marathons. That doesn’t mean Kara appreciates being called a dwarf though. She sits up and leans back on her elbows too; their faces inches from each other now. Lena’s eyes gleaming with mischief.

“You turn into Grumpy when someone eats your ice cream.”

Kara gasps, clutches her heart as if wounded and falls down dramatically. Lena just laughs at her, lies down again before asking, “Think I’ll find Prince Charming there, then?”

“You don’t need Prince Charming.”

I’m right here.

“True,” Lena agrees. Lena doesn’t need anybody, although would it really hurt if she says that she needed Kara the way Kara needs her?

“Ireland seems like the best place to run off into the sunset though," Lena wonders aloud.

“Is that what you wanna do?” Kara asks, “Just run off into the sunset?”

Because, because, if it is, I can do something even better. I can fly you off into the sunset. All you have to do is ask. Her heart is galloping in her chest and she’s grateful that out of the two of them, she’s the only one with super hearing.

“No, I don’t think so,” Lena answers and Kara lets out a none too subtle breath of relief.

“You don’t have to search for a home, you know,” Kara whispers. She just- She just needs Lena to know this, okay?

“I know,” Lena answers. “I still need to do this though.”

Once Lena Luthor makes up her mind there’s no changing it, it’s something Kara’s come to know through the years.

“You’ll come back soon though?”

“Maybe. Honestly, Kara? I don’t really know about ‘soon’. How close is ‘soon’ anyway? Would there even be a good reason for me to come back?”

How Kara held her all screams in the moment Lena said that, she doesn’t know.

******

There are balloons and cake and confetti but it doesn’t feel anything remotely close to a party.

It feels more something along the lines of, train wreck and heartbreak and building on fire. In short, disaster.

She vaguely registers Kelly asking her to hover and hang the banner. Why would she want to hang a banner screaming “We”ll Miss You!” in glittering blue? Kara grabs the ends of it and hangs it up anyway.

We’ll Miss You doesn't even begin to cover Kara’s feelings about Lena’s departure and oncoming absence.

But then again, this isn’t about her.

The door buzzes before Kara can spiral down her blackhole again.

Andrea comes in through the door with a bottle of champagne, which she hands off to Kara along with her coat. Kara fumbles after Andrea.

This isn’t CatCo! I’m not your employee! And champagne? Really? What is there to celebrate?

Lena arrives shortly after and streamers are let out. They make in-jokes and everyone’s laughing and Alex keeps telling Lena to bring home ‘some of the good stuff’ and Brainy keeps asking if he’s allowed to tinker with Lena’s projects while she's away, and Nia’s handing Lena an old film camera, “Document everything for me? Alright?" and Kara’s trying, she really, really is.

Even though she can’t understand how all of them are happy and smiling at the thought of Lena leaving them.

She doesn’t even notice what she’s doing till she’s bracing herself for take-off out in Lena’s balcony, when a hand lands on her wrist.

“Hey.” Lena anchors her back to the ground. It’s a mistake to turn and meet Lena’s eyes.

“Stay? Please?” Lena asks.

Unfair, Kara thinks again. It’s unfair that she gets to ask that.

******

Kara stays.

She stays till the lights are off, the blankets drawn and Lena’s snoring in her arms.

She’s eyeing the suitcase at the corner of the room.

I forgive you, she thinks, I forgive you for taking my heart in the suitcase you packed.

She didn’t even know it was trapped inside till Lena’s zipping everything up and Kara couldn’t breathe.

“Please, please, don’t go,” she pleads into the dark. .

Lena shifts, mumbles incoherently and burrows deeper into Kara.

******

The runway is shimmering after the early morning drizzle, and Lena Luthor looks like someone from a magazine, standing there in her velvet coat and aviators. There’s only the two of them, and there’s a smug pride in Kara about the fact that Lena didn’t want anybody here but her.

She’s leaving today. In a few hours, they’ll be on different continents. Kara wouldn’t be able to trace her heartbeat anymore. Lena made her promise not to chase the plane. She’s still pretty bummed about that.

“You know I’m gonna call you everyday, right?” Kara mutters in her ear, arms wrapped tight around Lena.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from Kara Danvers.” Lena squeezes back, before pulling away.

“G-good.”

“Well, this is my ride,” Lena tells her, gestures to the jet behind her. “This is goodbye then.”

“For now.” Kara insists.

“For now.” Lena confirms, “Goodbye, for now.”

She turns to go but Kara can’t-

“Lena, wait.”

She tugs on Lena’s hand and she comes back to her willingly. Before Kara loses the nerve, she presses into Lena’s lips. She cups her face gently, feels the warmth of the sun on her cheeks, feels the moment Lena’s brain catches up to what’s happening.

It doesn’t taste like goodbye, Kara realizes. It tastes like a promise of something more.

“What was that for?” Lena breathes out, Kara can hear their hearts hammering in sync.

“Your reason to come back home.”

[special shoutout to @mssirey who gave great writing advice to this poor hapless writer（〃｀ 3′〃）i kith u on the forehead. ]

#if u see a typo no u dont #the reckless writer writes #a supercorp ficlet of sorts #here have a super self-indulgent fic before the next disaster of an ep drops #sg spoilers

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amjustagirl · 3 years

Text

Love knows not its depth (until the hour of separation)

pairing: Kuroo x f! reader genre: angst / fluff, post timeskip! warnings: a tiny smudge of suggestive content wc: 4.9k m.list ~ taglist. ~

a/n: this is my rendition of a grown up Kuroo. life has been a little hectic for me recently, so i’m only getting around to posting it now. pls be kind and i hope y’all love it <3

“I need a break.”

Kuroo continues to snore. You are unsurprised he doesn’t hear you. After all, he came home glassy eyed, smelling strongly of alcohol after yet another night of drinks with his boss before quickly falling asleep in bed. It’s what he does most weekday nights, leaving you alone at home to manage your two daughters and tuck them into bed.

“I’m tired, Tetsuro.”

You are too tired to even tell him how you feel. You have a career of your own, two daughters to raise, a never ending list of chores and errands that must be done. You are a mother, a wife, a career woman. You have so many roles to play yet there is no space for you.

You must do something, anything or risk your heart imploding in your very chest.

You cannot survive that.

The next morning, you call your boss, ask for a day off. Then you pack your girls off to your mother’s place with two little suitcases with toys and clothes enough for a long weekend before you take the train to Hakone, check yourself into the ryokan with a view of Mt. Fuji that you spent your honeymoon at - except this time, you’re alone (but then again, you’ve been lonely for so long, you hardly notice the difference anymore).

You dip yourself into the hot waters of the onsens, watch bamboo sway in the breeze. It’s been at least a year since you’ve been even able to take a bath uninterrupted. There’s always something - Aiko needing help with her homework, Fumiko whining for another piece of mochi, your boss calling to chase for yet another report, so all you’ve ever had time for is a hurried shower before placating your daughters or seating yourself in front of your laptop to deal with your boss.

Finally, you’ve stolen a day to yourself. It’s absolute bliss.

The water is kind to you. Its heat soothes your aching muscles, the rising steam steadies your breath. You walk out of the baths feeling refreshed, renewed, but when you enter your room you find Kuroo Tetsuro waiting for you.

“I’ve been calling your phone all afternoon”, he says, face pinched. “I was worried.”

“Were you?” you say before you can stop yourself. “Really?”

“Of course”, he says, uncrossing his legs to stand. “You’re my wife and the mother of my children, of course I care.”

Wife. Mother. Employee.

The roles that life has handed you haunts you again. There is no escape for you.

Your skin suddenly feels as if it’s stretched too tight over your frame. Your bones rattle, brittle. They threaten to break if you take another breath. Yet you laugh and laugh and laugh, the sound spilling from your lips filling the room, suffocating the pounding of your heartbeat in your ears.

“If you really cared, you would have noticed that your wife is broken”, you tell him between bouts of laughter. “I tried fixing myself with a break but you can’t even give me that.”

Kuroo stares at you, equal parts horrified and confused. He takes a hesitant step forward towards you before thinking the better of it, swerving over to the kettle instead, clutching it as if it holds the cure to your madness.

“Calm down”, he says, “take a seat”, and you do. He offers you a cup of tea. You accept it, even though you’re still shaking from the aftershock of your laughter. “Drink”, he says, and you bring the cup to your lips, though you wonder absently why you taste salt in the bitter tea.

“Tell me what’s wrong”, he begs. “Tell me what I can do to fix you.”

You want to tell him that you’re not strong enough to do what’s expected of you. You want to tell him that you’re drowning from the weight of being his wife, the mother of his kids, from being a working woman that he can be proud of. You want to tell him that you understand his career is important, but so is yours, and you can’t carry the weight of the world alone.

But that would take too many words, and you are far, far too tired for that.

So you say blankly - “I can’t do this anymore, Tetsuro.”

His face falls.

You should remember that Kuroo Tetsuro, first and foremost, is a child scarred by his parents’ divorce. You should remember that you made promises that you and he would never put your daughters through that. But you’ve floated beyond hysteria into a grey indifference, your mind too broken, too tired, too numb to consider him when you can barely even hold on to yourself.

You don’t even notice the hot tears soaking through your yukata. You are deaf to his pleas to give him another chance. There is nothing left in you to give because you’ve poured all you’ve had into him, into your family, into your job. You are so, so empty, and you just sit and sip your tea and wonder idly if the warmth from the liquid you’re ingesting will make you feel a little more alive, or if it’s possible to ease the dull ache in your heart.

It is only when you wake up the next day and the sun is high in the sky that you register that he rolled out your futon for you, tucked you into bed, and kissed your forehead as a goodnight and goodbye. But all of this is washed away by the relief you feel when you read the note he’s left behind telling you that he’s returned to Tokyo, and to enjoy your break.

So you do.

You relish every bite of the meals you have at the ryokan. It’s nice not having to cook or scarf down your food at your office desk for once. You fill your time flitting between the onsens and curling up in your room with a book, taking frequent cat naps until tomorrow comes around again and it’s time to check out and head home.

There’s a brief moment of surprise when the reception informs you politely that your husband already paid your bill - but you suppose that’s just Tetsuro being efficient at racking up credit card points. The bullet train takes you back to Tokyo, and a couple stops on the subway takes you home.

“Okaeri”, you call softly out of habit, not expecting anyone to respond, but Kuroo responds with an even softer ‘Tadaima’, striding over to take your bags from you and usher you into the apartment. There are pink roses sitting in a vase, but you pay it no mind.

“The girls?” you ask, already headed in the direction of their room.

“I picked them up from your mom”, Kuroo responds. “Don’t wake them up, I just put them to bed”.

A peek into their room and it settles your mind to see that your girls are safe and sound asleep.

“Thanks,” you say, back in the kitchen, checking the fridge for what you can whip up for breakfast for you and the girls tomorrow. “By the way, I’ll pay you back for the hotel room from my own money, don’t worry.”

“It’s fine”, Kuroo answers, scratching his head. His hair seems a little more rumpled than usual. “I’ll cover it. I should’ve realised you needed a break.”

“You sure? You don’t have to pay for me, I’ve got money of my own.”

“No, let me pay for it, please. It’s the least I can do.”

You shrug. “Okay”, you say gracelessly. “Thank you.”

He continues to watch you over the kitchen counter as you lay out bread, eggs, ham, cheese. It’ll do for a quick breakfast for the girls tomorrow, never mind the guilt eating away at you that you really should do better than feeding them processed food all the time. You’re so preoccupied with planning the morning rush, the best way to clear the stack of reports that must have piled up on your desk at work by now that you miss Kuroo rounding the counter to stare down at you worriedly.

“You haven’t had dinner?”

“Oh no, I had a bento on the train on the way back.” It’s second nature to you to brush away anyone’s concern. “It’s for the girls’ breakfast.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take them to childcare before work tomorrow. Sleep in and take a break.”

“Really?” You stare back at him, confused. He doesn't even take charge of the girls in the mornings when you’re sick, your mother always has to fill in your place. He only ever turns up on the first day of school each year.

“Yes, of course. In fact, I’ve rearranged my work schedule so I can take them to school all of this week at least.”

“Oh”, you say, brows furrowed in confusion. “Okay, I guess. Wake me up if you need my help.”

“I won’t”, he replies, with a cocky smirk that seems almost false. “Goodnight, love.”

You don’t think of Kuroo’s strange behaviour overmuch, falling asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow.

Kuroo continues to act strangely all of next week.

As promised, he takes charge of getting the girls out of bed and ready for school. But you’re taken aback when he starts coming home for dinner, completely floored when he hands you a whole armful of bath salts and orders you to take a relaxing, hot bath while he wrangles both the girls and the washing machine into submission.

He even calls your mother to ask her to babysit on a Saturday evening so he can take you out for dinner at a fancy restaurant that serves foam instead of food. You manage to stumble through conversation with him - a commendable effort, since it’s been so long since you’ve even held a proper conversation with him besides snatches of discussion about the girls.

At least until he states during dessert - “we can make it work if you want to quit your job and stay home full time with the children.”

The mousse on your spoon melts by the time you put it down on your plate.

“Did the guys at work tell you it’s easier to have a housewife instead of a working wife? Are you saying this because you don’t think I’m a good enough mother to our girls? Is that what this is about?”

Kuroo shakes his head frantically, reaches across the table for your hand, but you yank it away with a glare. The extra rest you’ve gotten this week has injected a little more fight in you.

“I try my best to be a good wife and mother, but I’m sorry I can’t be perfect and be there for you and the girls 24/7.” You press down on the sliver of cake with a vengeance. Clink! goes the flat of your spoon against the porcelain plate. “I’m sorry for being selfish, but I don’t want to be reliant on you.”

You regret your harsh words when Kuroo slumps back into his chair, murmuring “I just wanted you to be happy. Forget I ever said that.”

He pays the bill and you walk home in silence. He bids you goodnight with a crumpled smile.

It finally clicks when you are startled awake by Kuroo’s shout of alarm.

You roll over, grabbing his shoulder to shake him awake from the nightmare that has him in its grip. His eyes jolt open, and the sight of your face makes him sink back into the pillow with a sigh of relief.

“Thank the gods you haven’t left.”

“Why would I leave? This is my home, isn’t it?” You mumble, turning your back to him again.

You feel the bed shift as Kuroo sits up.

“No”, he rasps, voice rough with sleep. “I was afraid you left me”.

Oh. So that’s what all of this is about.

You must stay quiet for far too long, because he gingerly crawls over to you.

“Dearest”, he says, your heart suddenly aching because you don’t remember the last time you heard him use that pet name with any amount of affection. “Darling”, he tries again, pawing at your back. You shut your eyes resolutely and refuse to turn to face him.

He doesn’t give up, even though the distance between you seems to yawn wide and wider with each passing second.

“Are you?” he asks, his words small, shrunken in the still, dark room. “Going to leave me, I mean.”

No, you’re about to say, the word balancing at the tip of your tongue but it feels wrong. Your break has given you the space to breathe, the time to think. It’s made you realise what you’ve said to him in the ryokan that night remains true.

This week has shown you that Kuroo can do better as a husband, as a father if he wants to. But he’s poisoned your marriage with neglect, forced you to dress up your sadness in silence, allowed your resentment to fester and simmer into frigid indifference. If you reassure him that you aren’t going to leave him, it’s only because you’re too tired to, not because you actually love him anymore.

“I don’t know, Tetsuro. Our daughters deserve to grow up with both their parents, but I’m not sure I want them to learn from my example that it’s okay to shoulder the weight of marriage, parenthood and a full time job all by themselves. Your dreams and career are important, I know, but I’m just so tired of being alone in this marriage when it was always supposed to be a partnership between me and you.”

You hear him choke back a sob. You should comfort him, but the exhaustion you feel at being honest with him, with yourself, weighs your bones down, forces you to sink further down into your mattress.

“I’m sorry”, he finally says.

“I’m tired, Tetsuro”, you whisper brokenly, clutching the blankets to your chin. “I think I deserve better.”

“I know. I’ll make it better, I promise.”

You want to ask him how, but your eyelids grow heavy, and you allow yourself to submerge into slumber.

You’re not sure what to expect, but the ground beneath your feet shifts. Things start to change.

Kuroo continues to take your daughters to childcare in the morning on the way to work as he did last week. That very weekend, he straps Fumiko to his chest, takes Aiko by her hand, and within an hour at the department store aided by a flash of his credit card, he purchases a dishwasher and robot vacuum for the house. He loads the dishes without you asking, runs the robot vacuum remotely once a day. It buys you time to breathe, a little more time to sleep.

He doesn’t always make it home in time for dinner, but he tries his best to rush home so he can read the girls a bedtime story and tuck them into bed.

“Dada”, Fumiko lisps, chubby fists wound around Kuroo’s tie. ‘I wanna hear another princess story!”

“No Fumiko! Papa promised to tell us how he met mama!” Aiko prods Kuroo’s side with the wooden doll Yaku sent from Russia that you know he abhors. ‘Keep your promises, papa!”

“Alright, settle down you monsters. I’ll tell you two stories if you promise to go to sleep right after that.” The girls cheer. “Now. Let’s see. A long, long time ago, your papa met your mama when she decided to beat him up because she thought he was trying to steal her food.”

“You were trying to steal my food”, you interrupt, leaning against the doorway amused. “You didn’t stop til I stabbed you with my fork.”

He glances up, surprised when you sit beside him on the bed. Then he grins.

“You left it on the table, dearest. What was a guy supposed to think?”

“Mama, please let dada tell the story”, Aiko interjects with a huff.

“Hurry up, dada! I want the princess story next!” Fumiko pulls at her silly dada’s shirt, pouting.

You both laugh. There’s a soft smile playing on his lips when his eyes meet yours.

Travelling all around Japan is still part of his job as a marketing director of the Japanese Volleyball Association. But now Kuroo pares it down to the bare minimum, makes sure he’s always back by the weekend at the very least to sweep the girls in his arms and shoo you off for a break of afternoon tea with your friends or shopping with your mom.

“Will you be ok when I’m gone?”

You hand him his suitcase, a flask of his favourite tea. “I’ve always managed fine. Nothing’s changed.”

He bends down to kiss Aiko on her forehead, pinch Fumiko’s cheek playfully.

“Yes. Well. I’ll come home soon”, he says, quietly. You startle slightly as he brushes his thumb over your wrist, lets it drift over your pulse point. “Please wait for me.”

You glance up at him from beneath your lashes. “I’ll see you soon then”, you reply. His smile widens, his eyes are hopeful, bright.

On the weekends, he stops flitting off for work functions and events. Instead, now he joins you for lunches at the kaiten zushi near your house, indulging the girls by ordering yet another plate of sushi just so Aiko has another chance to win a toy from the gachapon and Fumiko has another chance at feeling grown up when she lifts the plate from the conveyor belt. He stops ducking out from dinners at the grandparents’ place - both his and yours. Your mom stops giving him dirty looks when he actually turns up more than three times in a row with sake in hand.

Once every so often, he even throws little parties for your family of four, going so far as to buy a frilly pink apron that makes your daughters giggle when he whips it out for the first time. After a few mishaps (and a number of frantic calls to Fukunaga), he masters how to make takoyaki and okonomiyaki, and in the colder months, he makes steaming pots of nabe and shabu shabu.

“Itadakimasu” you murmur, and the girls follow suit. “It tastes good”, you say.

He ducks his head bashfully, pink dusting the column of his neck.

“Thank you”, he replies. “That means a lot, coming from you.”

You start to savour the bubbles of happiness in your chest when you see how your daughters’ eyes shine when they see their papa whip out the pink apron. You learn to laugh when you hear the pitter patter of little feet, their delighted squeals and shrieks when they tell you the latest exploits their silly papa is cooking up - sparklers under the stars one weekend, a nerf gun fight, the next.

The weight on your shoulders grows lighter and lighter until one day you hardly notice it at all.

“What’s wrong?” you frown at the sight of your husband dashing out of your bedroom, hair a frazzled mess.

He whips around at the sound of your voice. “Oh. Oh.” He approaches you, slowly, carefully. “You’re still here.”

Your frown deepens. “My boss called and asked me to send out an urgent email. I was just about to go back to bed. Tetsuro, is everything alright?”

He nods. “It’s fine - I just... I just woke up and thought you were gone.”

You take a closer look. It’s dark, but the shadows of the night fail to hide the purple smudges beneath his eyes, the fine lines carved into his brow. His shoulders are bowed, his lips downturned and he looks broken, battered.

Your heart hurts for him.

“I’m here”, you say, beckoning him towards you. Physical affection has been scarce between you two for so, so long but he looks so distraught it’s only natural to pull him close, let him rest his head on your lap. “I’m here, Tetsuro. I’m not about to run off into the night – you know I don’t like the cold.”

He doesn’t laugh at your feeble joke. “Are you happier now? Are things better for you?”

“Yes”, you say firmly, combing your fingers through his hair, rubbing circles along his back. “Thank you, Tetsuro. I appreciate it. I really do.”

You can feel him sag in relief.

“You don’t have to work yourself to the bone for me. That’s – that’s never what I was asking for. If you’re tired, you need to take a break.”

He shakes his head stubbornly. “I’m fine. I can bear it as long as you don’t leave me.”

“Tetsuro –“

He sits up abruptly, takes your hands in his.

“Promise you won’t leave me”, he begs, head bowed. “I know I’ve been a shit husband to you for so long. It’s no excuse, but I thought - ” he swallows heavily, waits until his voice stops wavering. “I thought we were ok, ‘cos we didn’t fight, not like my parents did before – before my mother left.”

“I was too tired to fight with you”, you say simply.

He nods once, jerkily. “I know – I know that now. When you disappeared that day, I didn’t know what to do. I went to your mom’s place and she reamed me out, screamed at me in front of the neighbours. I took the kids back, and it made me realise how fucking hard it was for you to do it all alone.” He inhales, closing his eyes as if the memory aches. “I know it’s late but I’ve changed, I swear. The girls need you. I need you. I’ll do anything as long as you stay.”

His fingers are freezing, but you do not pull away. Not when the desperation reflected in his irises makes your heart lurch in pain.

“It was hard”, you confess, and he shudders, struck in the chest by your honesty. “It was so hard, Tetsuro. You hurt me so damn much that I think I became numb to the pain. I don’t think I was really functioning for a while. For a long while.”

“I’m sorry”, he whispers, and you nod shakily.

“I know”, you reply, reaching out a hand to cup his face, a bittersweet twist to your lips as he melts into your touch. “That’s a chapter of my life, of our marriage that can’t be re-written. We can’t rewind that. But the past few months have been so different. I – you’ve shown me you’ve changed. And I think –“

You fall silent.

He prompts you. “Dearest?”

You recall the glimmer of light in your daughters’ eyes every morning when he takes their hands to walks them to school. You hear the echoes of their laughter, the lilt in their sweet voices every night when they welcome him home. You think of the tea parties he throws, the blanket forts he builds, the frilly pink apron he wears without shame and the bedtime stories he weaves every night.

“I think”, you say, with a smile that reminds him of the rising sun. “I think we can make this work again.”

He stares at you until the weight of your words dawns upon him, and he surges forward to fold you into his arms.

“Thank you”, he whispers into the shell of your ear. “I won’t fuck this up again, I promise.”

“Don’t thank me, you silly man”, you nuzzle into his neck sleepily, draping your arms around his waist. “Thank yourself for making me believe in you.”

He laughs wetly, cradling you close as you fall asleep against his chest, soothed by his heartbeat and the tenderness in his gaze.

Fumiko wakes you up unceremoniously before the sun even rises by climbing into your lap, and you open your eyes to Aiko pouting, hands on hips, demanding to know what’s for breakfast, and dada, dada, make a ham sandwich, pretty please with a cherry on the top.

“You guys are little monsters”, Kuroo teases with dancing eyes. “Can’t even give your papa a break to snuggle up to your mama.”

The girls shriek in dismay. “Don’t be mean”, you admonish him gently.

He mock sniffs. “I’m cranky in the mornings unless I get a morning kiss.”

Aiko and Fumiko crowd the sofa, clamouring to give their papa a kiss, but he stalls them with an imperious wave of his hand.

“This morning, only a kiss from your mama can chase my crankiness away”. His tone is teasing, but his shoulders remain tense.

“Nonsense. You make it sound as if kisses contain caffeine”, you scold, swatting his arm lightly as the girls giggle.

“Yours do!” he protests, and you roll your eyes as you press your lips to the corner of his lips, laughing when he puffs out his chest and declares his day can now start, that everything’ll be as right as rain.

Some days are full of sunshine, whilst others are full of rain. That’s life – but it’s bearable, enjoyable even, now that you and Kuroo face each day together, thanking the sun when it shines, and splashing through puddles on rainy days.

Things recalibrate.

The mornings are his domain now – he’s a master at concocting the most random breakfast items to satisfy your finnicky daughters. Aiko sniffs when she informs you that she’d prefer her papa to braid her hair, thank you very much, and when you shoot a look of death at Kuroo, he can’t even keep his face straight, his trademark hyena laugh erupting from his chest.

You cook dinner in the evenings, appreciating the times when he can join you at the table, not counting the nights he can’t against him because you know he’s trying his best. The girls clamour for his stories every night, laughing when he teasingly scolds them for yanking on his tie, demanding goodnight kisses from both him and you.

Now you force Kuroo to take some time to himself, shoo him off for lunches with Kenma, get-togethers with his Nekoma schoolmates. “I know you can manage it”, you tell him archly, “but you need breaks so you don’t burn out, or worse – you’ll lose your hair and we don’t want that”. When he opens and closes his mouth without a smart retort, you smirk. You get your way.

Both of you organise parties and playdates, inviting your shared friends – Kenma, of course, is a frequent guest, Bokuto, who brings along Akaashi and his sweet tempered little son (who Aiko always manages to pick a fight with, much to Kuroo’s amusement). You host Kai, who always brings offerings of flowers from his garden, Yaku, when he’s in town with his daughter, son and alarmingly fat cat. The adults congregate in the kitchen with food and alcohol, cracking good natured jokes at Kuroo and his frilly pink apron, watching the children cause a ruckus in the living room.

But you cherish the quiet moments you share with Kuroo at night when the children are asleep in bed. The chats you have whilst soaking in a hot bath about your day at work, the snippets of stories he shares about his boss, his crazy colleagues, the warmth of his arm around you as you stay up to clear emails late into the night, the heated kisses he presses to the nape of your neck to distract you when he thinks you’re working too hard.

It’s a good life. You’re happy, and so is he.

A year slips by.

The seasons come full circle. You return to the ryokan, finding peace in soaking yourself in steaming pools, watching the bamboo sway, the sun rise over Mt. Fuji. But this time, you’re not alone. You persuade Kuroo that he, too, needs a break - deserves one, truly. So you leave the girls with your mother and take the bullet train down to Hakone.

He shoots you a smirk as you both emerge from the private bath he’d insisted on booking. You swat at him, pulling your yukata higher up your neck, scowling as he winds an arm around your waist to press you into his side.

“You couldn’t wait til we got back to our room?” you hiss at him.

He chuckles lowly in response. “Didn’t hear you complaining”, he retorts.

“We were in an onsen, Tetsuro!”

“A private one”, he says with a waggle of his eyebrows, laughing aloud when you try and fail to slap your hand over his mouth. “What d’you think I was going to do with my lovely wife? I’m not a monk, sweetheart”

You try your best to shush him, but his cackling manages to capture the attention of everyone in the lift.

“What a happy couple”, an old lady remarks, within your earshot. “They must be newly married”

You think she must be a little senile. Or a little blind.

Neither of you are in your first flush of youth anymore - there are streaks of grey in Tetsuro’s mop of hair, extra weight in your hips and lines in your faces. No one could conceivably mistake you for a pair of newlyweds.

“Nah”, Kuroo drawls easily into your ear. “Just your regular old, married couple.”

You don’t speak until you’re safely in your room.

“A regular, old, happily married couple”, you say, as he hands you a cup of tea. “That obaa-san got that part right at least.”

Kuroo chokes on the lump of emotion in his throat as you serenely sip your tea.

The tea tastes bitter (as it always does), but the kisses that follow are so very, very sweet.

#haikyuu angst #kuroo testuro #kuroo tetsuro x reader #kuroo tetsuro x you #kuroo tetsuro x y/n #kuroo x you #kuroo x reader #kuroo x y/n #haikyuu x reader #hq x reader #haikyuu romance #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu x reader angst #Haikyuucafe #haikyuucreations #love knows not its depth

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buttterknifeee · 2 years

Text

Switched- Teen Titans x Aquagirl!Reader

Masterlist

Summary: you've always wanted to be taller, but having your consciousness put in Starfire's body was NOT the way. With the girls' bodies switched, and the boys being controlled to attack you, how will you save the day? (S1 Ep7)

Word count: 4748

A/N: AHHH SO GLAD TO BE ABLE TO WRITE AGAIN!!! Sorry this has been taking so long life has just be dragging me by the ankles!!! Will be accepting episode inserts again & everything else just know that I jump around on requests a lot <333

You skip down the hallway of the Tower, humming along to a tune. It's been an awfully quiet day at the Tower and the boys are out, so you have nothing better to do. You enter the living room, finding Raven meditating and Starfire talking.

"Hey, am I interrupting something?" You grin, Starfire turns and smiles at you, Raven looking visibly annoyed. She was about to answer when you heard someone yelling.

"MAIL CALL!!!" Cyborg's voice rings throughout the Tower. Raven falls over, breaking her meditative state. The boys appear next to you, standing at the doorway. Starfire flies towards them.

"Robin! Cyborg! Beast Boy! You are back! It was… quiet while you were gone." She says.

"Not that quiet," Raven grumbles.

You go to the kitchen table to see what the boys brought back. It was a large crate, its address to the Titans Tower.

"Check it out. This was sitting by the front door. Fan mail, probably a gift from one of my many admirers." Beast Boy said smugly.

"Yeah right, " You rolled your eyes. "If you had an admirer, they'd probably be a dog. Or a cat. Or a bird. Or-"

Robin cuts you off to prevent any fighting. "Actually, it doesn't say who it's from."

"Well, one way to find out." Cyborg says, opening the lid.

"Oh my god!"

"Woah!"

"Cool!"

The six of you gaze in awe at the contents of the box: puppet versions of yourselves!

"Honestly, I was kinda hoping for chocolate." Beast Boy says, eyes ironically still locked on his puppet.

You all pull out your respective puppets and admire them. You look at yours: it had the same hair color with the two hair buns, the rashguard top and the shorts, even the gauntlets and belt had been painted on in black and yellow. The other Titans seem to have the same amount of interest in their own puppets.

"Aww, isn't that cute? Puppet Cy has a light-up eye." Cyborg says.

"Yeah. They got all the details just right." Robin adds.

"Speak for yourself. I'm way better looking than this, and taller." Beast Boy whines.

"Someone certainly has a lot of time on their hands." Raven notes.

"Even I don't pay as close attention to my outfits as this," You quip.

"I have never seen such a whimsical device." Starfire says. "Hello, Starfire! Hello, tiny wooden replica of Starfire!"

You watch as the boys start play-fighting with the puppets. Starfire seemed confused so you slid over to her.

"We can play-fight too if you want?" You offer with a grin.

"Oh wonderful!" The alien girl exclaims. She then turns to Raven, who seems unamused by the whole ordeal.

"Shall my tiny replica do battle with your tiny replica too?" She asks.

"Knock yourself out." She says, tossing the toy over to the two of you. You both watch as she leaves the room.

At night, you lay curled up in your bed, dozing off to sleep. You put your puppet on the other side of the room, propped up next to the fish tank. You suddenly hear some strange noises, like someone's creeping around your room. Your eyes shoot open and you jump out of your bed, assuming a fighting stance. A few seconds go by and you slump your shoulders, no longer hearing the noises.

I'm probably just tired, you think, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes. I should probably get a glass of water while I'm up.

You make a trip to the sink, making your way back to your room with a glass of water in hand. You turn the corner and crash! You slam into someone and end up on the floor, water spilt on the ground. You immediately get up, prepared to fight again, but a familiar green glow stops you.

"Starfire! Don't scare me like that!" You whisper, picking up the water with your powers.

"Apologies! I just heard a noise and-" She is cut off by the door next to you opening, revealing Raven. You all yell in surprise.

"Raven! You have also heard the strange noises?" Starfire asks.

"The strange noises of you two talking outside my door? Hard to miss." She says.

"We were just-" you began to explain, but a blast of energy cuts you off. You dodge the projectile, turning to see where it came from. You see Cyborg, arm cannon raised, Robin and Beast Boy behind him. They charge at you, Beast Boy turning into a dinosaur. Starfire dodges Robin's attack and Raven shields you from Beast Boys. You noticed that their eyes were glowing green, which was something only Starfire's eye did .

"Beast Boy, it's me! Don't make me hurt you!" Raven warned. Beast Boy breaks through her shield and strikes her, sending her into you and the two of you to the floor.

Robin throws explosives towards Starfire and she goes flying, straight into Cyborgs grasp. You take on Robin, dodging his attacks and using the water from your cup to strike him. You were about to deliver another strike when you faltered. Wait, why am I attacking my teammate again?

That split second hesitation is enough for Robin however; he swiftly kicks upwards, nailing you in the stomach. You double over, and he elbows you hard in the shoulder, before grabbing your arm. You struggle to break his grip, but he maintains his grasp, the area in your arm beginning to turn red.

"Friends! Why do you attack us?" Starfire pleads, her and Raven in Cyborg’s grasp.

"Oh they're not your friends anymore. " You hear a voice say. A man steps into view. Well, you weren't sure if it was right to call him a man. He looked just like one of the puppets you received today, except larger in size and well, alive. The Puppet King, you believed his name was.

"They are my puppets." He continues. "These are your friends" He pulls out the puppet replicas of the boys. You listened closely; it was muffled, but you could hear their voices from the wooden figures.

"Starfire, Raven!"

"Aquagirl!"

"Help!!!"

"Release them!" Raven orders.

"Sorry, but you're not in charge here. You don't command me" the villain says. "I command you. He held up some sort of cross, six orbs attached to it, its colors representing the six of you; aqua for you, orange for Starfire, purple for Raven, etc.

The boys all held up your wooden puppets and they started to glow. You start to glow too as you feel your soul rip out of you. Your body burns, it feels like your muscles are being pulled apart strand by strand, and your vision starts to blur.

"And with the Puppet King pulling the strings, the Teen Titans will command the entire city!" The Puppet King cackles.

"Azarath...Metrion...Zinthos" You hear Raven say, and you fully black out for a second before coming to, and wrenching yourself from the boys' grasp. You sprint down the hall, following the feet of the other two girls. You hear the Puppet King call for the boys to chase after you as you hop through a grate and into the tower's basement, surrounded by darkness.

You hear the lights click on and that's when you see the people in front of you: Raven and… you? You looked down at your hands; they were an orangish tan, and were incased in silver gauntlets. You reach for your hair, which is long and flowy and pink. You were Starfire!!!

The three of you all began to talk at once:

"I'm you!"

"You're me!"

"We're each other!"

"How did this happen??"

Starfire gasps, magic escaping from her forehead gem and shattering the light bulb, engulfing the room in darkness again.

"Oops."

It took until sunrise for you to get out of the tower without facing the boys. You found your way into the sewers and found an opening onto the streets. So basically, you were Starfire, Starfire was Raven, and Raven is you. Perfect.

With Raven's magic, Starfire tries to open the manhole cover. She succeeds, but ends up shooting it 50 feet in the air, and it falls back down in a loud clattering noise. You and Raven glare at her as she pushes it aside and climbs out.

"Oh Raven and Aquagirl! This is awful! Terribly, horribly awful!" Starfire cries, walking down the street. You both catch up to her.

"Tell me about it," You grumbled.

"Very well." She says. As she continues to walk, she flails her hand, causing mailboxes to bend from magic. "Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy have been trapped inside tiny wooden bodies, while a nasty creature called the Puppet King has taken control of their real bodies, which he is using to hunt us down, and you, Raven and I are in the wrong bodies and-"

"Starfire!" Raven yells. "You have to calm down. My powers are driven by emotion. The more you feel, the more energy you unleash."

"Yes," You agree. "Remain calm; freaking out will get us nowhere."

"But what if they find us? What if our friends are doomed? What if I am stuck looking like this forever?" She whines.

"We'll fix it. Not sure how, but we'll rescue the boys and we will get our bodies back," You promise her.

"What's wrong with the way I look?" Raven chimes in.

"Nothing." Starfire says quickly. You raise an eyebrow, but move on.

"I will try to calm down." Starfire says, closing her eyes and talking deep breaths. "Peace … quiet … tranquil--"

She suddenly sends a car into the air. It comes crashing down, setting off the car alarm in a rather quiet area. You bury your face into your hands.

"We are so doomed." Raven says. Suddenly Beast Boy appears in view, in the form of a leopard. Raven (in your body) raises an arm in front of her like you usually do, but nothing happens.

"Run!" You yell, grabbing the two girls and escaping into the alleyways. You try to jump while running, seeing if you could somehow get yourself off of the ground by doing so.

"Come on! Fly!" You yell in annoyance. You eventually slow down, due to losing Beast Boys tracks.

"We cannot fight them again. I do not wish to, and in our present condition, we would surely be defeated." Starfire says, sulking.

"Yeah" you agree. "How are you supposed to fly anyways? I've never done this before."

"You must feel flight." She explains.

"Uhhhh what?"

"When you feel the unbridled joy of flight, you will fly."

"OK yeah but I've never even felt flight, let alone unbridled joy."

"Look!" Raven exclaims, breaking your conversation. Beast Boy was back, still in animal form, his eyes glowing in that soulless way.

"How do I use starbolts?" You ask.

"Righteous fury and boundless confidence!" She says.

"Right. OK. Thanks." You mumble. The three of you run back the way you came from instead of fighting. You continue to run until you come across Robin, holding his staff.

"And how do I use your powers, Aquagirl?" Raven asks, in a fighting stance.

"You, uh, feel for any sources of water and channel your energy and emotions towards your arm and let energy flow through you!" You explain, except you've never had to explain your powers before, so you're not sure if she got it.

"What energy???" She asks. Beast Boy catches up to you, blocking off your other pathway.

"Of like- the water?" You say.

"Nevermind." She says, and Beast Boy and Robin charges towards you. You side step, and the two boys crash into each other. They crumple to the ground and the three of you run down the alleys.

"You'd think as soulless husks these boys would be smarter." You laughed.

You quickly slid into the side of the alley, Raven pulling Starfire with her as she followed your lead.

You breathed a sigh of relief as the two boys passed you. Suddenly, two large arms shoot out from the brick wall behind you. You three scream, running away. You make your way down the alley, but skid to a stop in front of the dead end.

"Do you think you can fly yet?" Raven asks you.

"I-I still don't know how!" You say, backing up. The three boys find you and close in.

"Starfire, you're going to have to levitate." Raven turns to the girl. She quivers, which is something you'd never see from Raven herself. "You know those words I always--?"

"Yes!" Starfire exclaims, excited to say the magic words.

"Wait! You have to focus!" Raven yells.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Starfire shouted. She grabs you two by the hands and you shoot straight upwards into the sky. You see the boys stare blankly at you as they grow smaller and smaller on the ground. You soon change from flying upwards to flying sideways as Starfire begins to lose control.

"I wish to stop! Please tell me the way to stop!" She screams while barreling through the air.

"Look at the ground and imagine--" Raven began, Starfire immediately craning her neck towards the ground. You all crash into a pile of trash. You land with a grunt, tired from all the running you've done today. What's the point of having the power of flight if you don't even know how to use it??

"I smell like dog s-" you groan, but Raven shushes you. The boys were walking by you, so you hid behind the pile of trash bags. You watch Starfire struggle to stay in control.

"Peace, quiet, tranquility...peace, quiet, tranquility." She whispers to herself.

"They're almost gone," You whisper back to reassure her. You peek over the wall of trash and spot Beast Boy, in the form of a green rat trying to sniff you out. You quickly take cover back in the trash and signal for the other girls to stay quiet. You could hear Beast Boy sniffing around, waiting to sense your presence. Suddenly, you hear a voice.

"Enough!" You hear the Puppet King say. "We will catch the other half after the ceremony is complete."

You peek over the trash bags. The oversized Nutcracker is standing there, holding the puppets that contain the souls of the boys.

"Ceremony?" Robin asks.

"What ceremony?" Cyborg asks.

"Just a little spell that will destroy you three, and make your bodies mine forever." the villain jeered. "Come, my puppets."

They all eventually leave, and you finally abandon your hiding place. You try to untangle your long, pink hair from the trash.

"How can you stand having this much hair?" You mumble, yanking a fish bone from her pink flowing hair.

"Quickly! Our friends are in danger! We must follow and-" Starfire begins but Raven cuts her off.

"And what? Save them with my unusable powers while your unbridled emotions blow us to bits? Nice flying, by the way." Raven says pessimistically.

"At least I am able to use the powers that I have been given! You have gotten nowhere!" Starfire raised her voice.

"Well not every power is as easy to use as mine! And I'm not the only one who hasn't been able to use our new powers." Raven snaps back. Why is she pulling me into this??? you thought angrily.

"Well I'M sorry that I've never had the privilege of flying before so I cannot learn as fast!" You yell.

"Even a child on my home planet is capable of flying!" Starfire yells back, now turning to Raven. "And perhaps you have been unable to use Aquagirls powers due to being too rude to feel anything AT ALL."

"Maybe you haven't noticed, but my emotions are dangerous." Raven says. You hear a tune of pain behind her words. "I can't afford to feel anything. You may have my body, but you know nothing about me."

You stepped towards Raven and gently put a hand on her shoulder. "You're right." You say, catching her and Starfire off guard. "We don't know anything about each other, and the only way we can get through this is if we learn everything about each other. So how about we share?" You offer. The other girls looked at each other and smiled.

"Alright." Raven said. You all sat down and Raven began to talk.

"I was born in a place called Azarath. It is an interdimensional world that focuses on a non-violent lifestyle. There I learned my skills and how to control my emotions." Raven began. You listened with fascination.

"My mother was a priestess, but my father was evil, and because my powers are from him, when I can't control my emotions my powers become out of control." She explains.

"The one from your mind," You recall, remembering your adventure with Cyborg and Beast Boy into her mind.

"Correct," Raven confirms. "I had to leave Azarath due to his growing power, so I came to Earth, and found you guys.

Starfire clapped at the end of Raven's story. "Oh thank you for sharing my friend! Is it my turn to explain my background?" Starfire asks. You nod with a smile.

"Alright, I shall begin. I come from the planet called Tamaran; in which my people use our emotions to strengthen our abilities." She says cheerfully. You internally chuckle: one girl needs to repress her emotions to stay safe and the other freely expresses them to become stronger… no wonder they aren't close.

"I have two siblings; Blackfire, whom you already have met," You all cringed at the mention of her name. "And my brother, Wildfire, whom we had to send away a while ago."

"My planet came into conflict with another race known as the Gordanians, a ruthless army that was soon to defeat Tamaran."

"We remember them," Raven says. You reminisce to the time you have to help Starfire escape them; ruthless didn't even begin to describe them.

"As a result of war, I was taken by them to become a slave; and during transportation I escaped, and arrived here on earth!" She finishes with a grin. You clap, knowing that it's your turn next.

"Yeah, OK I guess it's my turn." You say, rubbing the back of your neck. Your origin is super underwhelming compared to theirs.

"I was born here, on Earth, like south of Jump City. I lived near the beach all my life, so I grew up swimming and surfing and stuff," You try to say nonchalantly, but you couldn't help but notice how attentive the girls were to your story, which made you nervous.

“Then one day I wiped out while surfing and ended up at the bottom of the ocean. I woke up and was presented with a necklace. I ended up on the shores of Jump City with new powers and joined you guys." You finished. The girls stare at you.

"Is that all?" Starfire asks.

"Um yeah, do you want me to talk more?"You ask. The girls look at each other then nod.

"Well, I have a mom and a dad and two little siblings at the house," You continue. "I went to school where I lived before I joined the Titans, but now I go to school here in Jump City."

"Wait, you go to school?" Raven asks, surprised.

"Well yeah, defeating villains isn't going to teach me Calculus." You shrug. "And it's a great alibi so my parents don't find out about this Titans thing."

"Your parents are unaware of your activities??" Starfire asks.

"Yeah, they're a little overprotective; they'd kill me if they found out. So I enrolled myself in Murakami High, had Cyborg hack the attendance file to make it seem like I'm present everyday, and the days I'm free I go." You say. "You never noticed I was gone?"

"I just thought you were sick quite often." Starfire mumbled, causing you to chuckle.

After sharing about yourselves, you all felt more connected and understanding of one another. You were ready to face the puppet king.

You find the villains hideout; which was a run down theater on the other side of town. You peeked from behind a fountain at the entrance, which was guarded by Beast Boy.

"Safe to say we're not walking in through the front door. We'll have to try the roof." Raven whispered. Starfire turned to you.

"Agreed. Now, do just as I instructed. Close your eyes and think of something joyful."She said. You nodded and thought hard. Well, I'm always joyful when I surf, I guess. OK no, let's think of something else. The team! I've had some of the best memories with the team. Going out for pizza, defeating villains, and Robin-

You open your eyes and look down. You were floating up in the air, holding Raven and Starfire with you. You smiled and continued thinking. Well, all my teammates have been so nice to me, especially the boy wonder. He tells me his thoughts and I tell him mine; we keep nothing from each other. You gently landed on the roof. The two girls joined you.

"Very, very good! What was your joyful thought?" Starfire asked. You blushed.

"It was.. the team! And all our adventures," You say, your face turning a little too red. Starfire continues to smile, but Raven squints at you. Fortunately she changes the topic

“Starfire; your turn. Find your center. Focus your energy on the lock.” Raven says.

You watch intensely as Starfire closes her eyes and lifts her hands . You see magic swirl around her hands and she opens her eyes, which are glowing white.

"Azarath...Metrion...Zinthos."

She swiftly brings her hand down and the lock snaps in half.

"Nice work" Raven says, not an ounce of sarcasm in her voice.

"Success!" Starfire cheers. A spark of magic flies from her hands and towards the trapdoor, flinging it open and creating an echoing boom. You sigh, looking into the theater. It was your average run down theater, random ropes and sandbags attached to the ceiling with a ton of catwalks suspended in the air.

"Search and destroy." You hear the Puppet King say from below. The three of you quickly jumped down onto one of the catwalks and watched the villain. He hung the puppets over a blue toned fire. You watch him towards the fire and uncorked a mysterious tube.

"I do not want an audience. Well, Titans ...time for your grand finale." He pours the contents of the tube into the fire, resulting in a spark. "It's going to be a real showstopper."

"No.." You whisper. He holds the puppets towards the fire, and you could hear the pleas of your teammates.

"Hey!"

"No!"

"Stop!"

"Help"

"Don't worry. I'll take good care of your bodies. After all, they'll be mine forever." The villain chuckles.

“Raven! You need to block his arm! Remember: embrace your power.” you whisper shout to Raven. She stands with her arm out in front of her, eyes closed. When they open again, you see a familiar blue glow in her eyes. A fissure in the ground cracks open, and a jet of water blows up in the Puppet King’s face. He shrieks, dropping the puppets. Starfire catches them with her telekinesis and floats your wooden teammates up to the catwalk. She catches the three puppets in her arms hugging them tightly.

“My friends! You are unharmed” she giggled.

“Starfire?” Robin asks. You realize that the boys have been stuck in puppets for the past few hours and haven't seen you three switch bodies.

"It's a long story." You say. You notice the Puppet King staring up at you, anger seething out of his wooden eyeballs. The three Titan’s soulless bodies come back from patrolling the outside and stand near the villain.

“My Puppets! Capture them!” he shrieks. You see them immediately take off towards your location. You three start to run, Starfire still clutching the puppets. You run down the pathway but Beast Boy stops you, in the form of a bat. You gasp in surprise and turn to run the other direction. Robin jumps onto the other side and you skid to a stop, unsure of where to go. Suddenly Cyborg appears on the railing of the catwalk, firing his sonic cannon at you. You try to dodge his attack but it hits all three of you, sending you and the puppets flying off the catwalk and onto the ground. You concentrate, thinking of the things that made you happy.

You slow down midair, Starfire at your side. Raven manages to grab onto a hanging rope to stop her fall. You fly through the air, trying to escape Cyborg chasing after you, swinging through the ropes. He grabs you and pulls you onto another catwalk, your back slamming into the metal ground. You pulled yourself up as Cyborg warmed up his sonic cannon. ok, you thought. If there's any time to use the starbolts, it's now.

You try to remember what Starfire said: embrace your emotions and feel the righteous fury.

"Righteous fury, righteous fury," You mumble to yourself as Cyborg for ready to attack. You thought about villains, and how it made no sense that they wanted to hurt you all the damn time. I mean, some guy took control of your friend by removing his soul and he wants to do the same to you! It wasn't right.

You feel your body getting warmer, especially in your hands. You looked down at your hands; they were flickering green. You look back up just in time to dodge a blast of Cyborg’s sonic cannon. He fires again and you jump up onto the railing to dodge. Suddenly, Raven leaps onto the catwalk and punches Cyborg in the face, sending him over the edge.

"I will never take flying for granted ever again." She huffed. You looked over the rail; Cyborg was falling straight to where the puppets were.

"Starfire!" You yell, pointing to where Cyborg was falling. She sees and uses magic to stop his fall, pulling him to the side before getting attacked by Robin again. You almost breathe a sigh of relief when Beast Boy shows up out of nowhere and tackles you in the form of a lion. You grunt as you hold his face from taking a bite out of you. You managed to throw him off of you and Raven hit him with a blast of water.

"HELP!" You hear Starfire yell. You look down to see her being attacked by Robin and Cyborg. You grab Raven and fly the both of you down to Starfire. You let go of Raven and grab Cyborg, ready to continue fighting.

"Not me!" She yells, confusing you. "Them!" You turn and see the Puppet King holding the three puppets over the fire. Your blood boiled. Without thinking you dropped Cyborg and held your arm out in front of you.

"NO!!" You screamed, a brilliant green light forming around your hand. And bolt shot out of it, blasting the puppets and the Puppet King back. The cross-thing that the Puppet King has been using to collect your souls flew up into the air and into the fire.

"My control! NOOOOO!!!" The Puppet King screamed, light pouring out of his eyes. You watch as the souls of the boys are released from the puppets and flow back into the boys.

You black out for a moment, feeling your own soul leave Starfire’s body, then open your eyes to you being back in your own body, and holding Robin like he's a damsel in distress. You blushed and quickly set him down, immediately joining the other girls.

"I am me!" Starfire cheers. "And you are both yourselves.

"And we're us!" Cyborg exclaims.

"Thanks to you girls. " Robin smiles.

"We have done it!" Starfire says, pulling you both into an extremely tight hug. Raven mutters what's probably a threat, but you just smile and pat her on the back.

Back at the Tower, you walk into the living room to get a book, but find Raven and Starfire sitting together.

"Hey, am I interrupting something?" You ask, approaching them.

"Oh join us friend Aquagirl in the meditation!" Starfire smiles; Ravens face surprising calm.

"Alright!" You say, sitting down next to Starfire.

"After this…" Raven says, eyes closed from the meditation. "Would you like to go to the mall?" You both nod and hum in agreement. Then you continue the meditation together.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos… Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"

201 notes · View notes

highdramas · 3 years

Text

the billboard said the end is near | b.b.

𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝'𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞 | 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

pairing: bucky barnes x fem!reader

warnings: language, possible tfatws spoilers, canon typical violence, bucky is soft and loves his doll and will do anything to keep her safe

word count: 2184

summary: bucky is protective over what has given him solace.

note: here's tawlb part 4! you don’t have to read these in order, they stand independently, but they do all work together! PLEASE leave feedback/reblog! this is extremely helpful for me writing future parts to know what everyone likes or doesn’t like!

enjoy! <3

chaos has always controlled your life.

in all of the best ways, and all of the worst ones, too. in the best ways, it has allowed you to not take life too seriously. it has allowed you to let things roll off your shoulders and keep your easy breezy demeanor. you like to think that you don’t allow the little things to affect you-- you also note that it’s because the big things have been so all consuming.

who knew that turning to dust for five years would turn your life into such a shit show?

the five years hadn’t felt like five years to you at all. it felt like one day, you had been laying on your couch watching tv, and then five years later you were appearing in someone else’s apartment. all of your things, gone.

you will never forget their screams as they watched you materialize from nothing.

of course, you can’t blame them. and it wasn’t just this apartment. the screams and the chaos broke through the entire building. people busting from doors, crying and scrambling to use their cell phones, to see if this was really happening.

the couple that had moved into your apartment after you dusted had been kind, all things considered. the woman had held you and you could feel her crying and she kept saying do you have family? do you know their numbers?

finally, you couldn’t help yourself. you had asked, “what happened to me?”

“you’ve been gone for five years, honey.”

these sorts of revelations had ruled your life for the months since you came back.

like when you called your boyfriend only to find out that he was engaged.

like when you found out that you certainly didn’t have a job anymore.

like when you found out that you had no apartment, no savings, no anything. nothing left.

it has been over a year since the blip and you are still feeling the repercussions from it. you are still feeling the hurt of having your life upended, you are still feeling the hurt of missing a life that went on without you. it’s hard not to daydream about what could’ve been. what could’ve stayed the same.

then bucky looks at you, and you’re reminded that not all change is bad.

change is hard but you know that he kisses you and it makes your brain fuzzy, he lays you back on your mattress and he stays with you until the sun rises. change is hard but you introduce him as my boyfriend, james to every new person you meet and you watch as he smiles and pride lingers in his eyes and he carefully places his arm around your shoulders. change is hard but he doesn’t wear the gloves around you anymore.

change is hard, but bucky is better than any of it.

he’s been gone more than normal lately.

of course, you understand. and, really, you think it might be good for him. not the fighting-- while you understand the benefit it has for him, the purpose that it gives him, that’s not the thing that you believe serves him best. no, it is sam. it is sam’s family. it is knowing that there are other people out there in the world who are looking at him the same way that you look at him.

okay, maybe not exactly the same.

bucky had sent you a text from that stupid dinky flip phone that morning, saying that he would be home that night. the implications go unsaid.

you and the winter soldier have formed quite the routine-- he has a key to your apartment on his keyring (it’s a disney princess key. it’s the only spare that you had, and the laughter that erupted from you had made him relent in trying to barter for the cat printed key you have). he’s going to let himself in, probably around ten. you’ll already have the chinese takeout spread out on the table. you’ll spread your arms out and do little jazz hands towards the food and you’ll say, “ta-da.”

and you will watch as the tension in his shoulders starts to ease and he sets his duffel bag down in your entryway and he will cross the room to you. his arms will snake around your waist and his face will be buried into the crook of your neck. he will sigh and you will stroke his hair and you will say, “welcome home, buck.”

but now, it is nine. it is nine and you are curled up on your couch and kitty rests in your lap and you feel yourself growing antsy waiting for bucky to come home. she looks up at you and lets out that little trill as you scratch her head and you smile.

the smiling doesn’t last long.

the building that you and bucky live in is not swanky by any means. it was built in the 40s, with creaky floors and ugly carpeted hallways. the walls are thin and you can hear everything-- really, everything. and the shouting and commotion is certainly not typical.

you move to stand just as the door bursts--or explodes, you’re not sure which is the better word-- open. a scream leaves your lips and you hold onto your cat for dear life, scrambling back into your bedroom and clicking the door behind you. your limbs are shaking and you nearly trip over your dresser and your cat nearly claws your arm off.

you hear bucky before you see him.

“you really think i wasn’t gonna find out about this little stunt?” you’ve never heard his voice like this-- so low, so full of absolute rage. “you’re out of your fucking mind.”

the other person is stammering and though you don’t see the blow that bucky lands on their face, you do hear the aftermath. bucky is talking to someone and you finally set your cat down and you hear bucky on the other side of the door. “doll, it’s me.”

you open the door and look at him with a pounding heart and shaking hands. he looks just as shaken, but more than that-- he’s angry. his fists are clenched at his sides. “buck--” you lay a hand on your chest and you try to gain control of your breathing and you can see that he is doing the same. “what happened?”

bucky hesitates. you watch the gears turning in his head, and it makes your head tilt to the side. “bucky, i’m not kidding-- tell me.”

“we were on our way back and sam got a tip from torres that the flag smashers were--” he cringes even at the thought and he shakes his head. “they were going to try and--”

you watch as he struggles to say it, to really say it, and you touch his face. the touch seems to open him up. his hand takes your wrist and he rubs his thumb along the bone. “they wanted to take you as a hostage.”

a hostage.

bucky opens his mouth to say something else as you blink, trying to wrap your mind around the fact that someone wanted to take you as a hostage, but sam interrupts him. “sharon’s got the guy in cuffs downstairs,” he says in your doorway. when you look, you can see that a mess has been made of your living room-- and not the sort of mess that you create. no, it is a mess of destruction and chaos. “i’m gonna head out. call me if you need anything, i’m staying in town.”

bucky nods and you muster up your best smile to sam and then you look at bucky and you say quietly, “can we go to your apartment?”

he nods and you scoop up kitty and you pad down the hall beside him, still in your loungewear and fuzzy socks. you notice that he constantly keeps a hand on you. whether it’s his fingers tangling with yours or his arm around your shoulders or his palm pressed into the small of your back-- you know exactly what it is that he’s doing, and you lean into every touch, hoping that the contact whispers i’m here, i’m here, i’m here, and you are not losing me.

kitty drops to the floor and, surprisingly, it’s bucky that speaks before you do. “you’re gonna move in here. with me.” he stares at you firmly. “i’m gonna make sure that you’re safe. and the safest place you can be is with me.”

you open your mouth to reply but he continues. “i can’t--” you watch the gears in his head turning, the scenarios turning over and over and over again in his mind. “i can’t lose you.”

“buck…” you move over to him and you place your hands on his face. his eyes are fixed on the wall behind your head, and you watch as guilt overcomes him and you can practically hear him saying if i hadn’t been there in time… “bucky, you’re not going to.”

you feel his hands fist into the material of your t shirt and he holds you even closer. “i’ll move in with you,” you finally whisper against the stubble of his jaw. “and not just for safety. because i want to live with you.”

bucky pulls away and he looks at you with a wobbling lip and you shush him. “i’m okay,” you whisper and you lean your forehead on his. “i’m okay, and i’m here, and i’m staying.”

“okay.”

his hand caresses the back of your head and you touch the place where his heart is. you watch his shoulders rise and fall, you watch his eyes flutter shut and you see some of the tension finally seep out of his pores. he opens his eyes at you and he looks so tired.

“i sleep on the floor,” he blurts it as he pulls away slightly. for a moment, it looks like he regrets it, the way that he winces slightly. “i don’t like… i don’t like sleeping in the bed. it’s too… soft. i always slept in your bed when i stayed over because i didn’t want you to wake up and i wasn’t there.”

“bucky…” you lean into every single place that he touches. “i’ll sleep on the floor with you.”

an incredulous sort of laugh leaves bucky as he stares down at you. he shakes his head a bit. “i don’t want you to do that.”

“i don’t care,” you say with a steely resolve and confident defiance, jutting your chin up at him. “because i’m sleeping next to you. tonight, and every night after. i don’t care where. i’ll never care where.”

bucky’s exhale is shaky and broad arms encircle your waist entirely, drawing you in closer and closer. his face presses into your neck, the exact way that you had imagined him coming home to you hours earlier. you can feel his lips pressing into your skin, can feel the sheer need in it. “i don’t deserve you,” every movement of his lips against your neck is entirely felt, sending sparks through your limbs. “i don’t know what i did to get this lucky.”

“shh,” you rake your fingernails down his scalp and you can feel his fingers gripping you tighter. “if you say that stupid shit again, i’ll kill you. you deserve me.” you tap his chin and he fixes his gaze on you. “and i deserve you. we deserve each other. we deserve to be happy. together. and i’m tired of people thinking otherwise.”

bucky finally cracks a smile. “you’re very stubborn.”

“i thought you liked that about me.”

“i love that about you.” he takes a beat. “among other things.”

you bite down on your lip and finally lean up on your tiptoes. “i promise i’ll be a good roommate.”

“that’s bullshit,” he says and his hands find the curve of your waist once more, traveling to your hips. “i’m going to be cleaning up after you every damn day.”

“yeah, probably.” your hand goes to the back of his head. “it will feel safe. staying here.”

bucky’s nose trails up the side of your face. “good.” he presses his lips to your jaw. “i’m sorry about your apartment. that fucker would’ve been dead if you weren’t there.” he grows more serious again. “i would never let anyone get away with anything like that. i will never let it get that far again, doll. i swear to god.”

“bucky,” you breathe. “i know. it’s okay.” you take his hand and you pull a few blankets off his couch, toss down a few pillows. “let’s go to sleep.”

there’s a twinkle in his eye as he watches you shuffle around his apartment, putting together a makeshift bed on the floor. you fluff the pillows before setting them down and you give him a smile that tells him everything is going to be alright.

even though he says you moving in is about keeping you safe… he sleeps that night on the hardwood, holding you, and he feels safer too.

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes angst #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes series #bucky x reader #bucky x you #bucky imagine #the world's a little blurry #my writing

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asthmark · 4 years

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❝ 10 things i know about you ❞ l.jn

synopsis → there are ten important things you learn about lee jeno during your time in quarantine.

request → “if you're still accepting requests, can u make a domestic roommate!jeno? 🥺🥺 thank you and have a nice dayyy”

word count → 7.1k (bruhhh)

sharing an apartment with lee jeno isn’t ideal.

it’s not that he’s a lousy roommate or that you disliked him in any way; you just didn’t know him. you had first met through a mutual friend. they knew jeno was looking for someone to split rent with and that you happened to need a place to stay. they promised you he would give you privacy and assured jeno you were excellent roommate material. with that, arrangements were made and soon enough you moved in together. of course, it was a bit awkward at first but you two eventually got used to each other’s presence. although you were never in the same room for too long and oftentimes went days without speaking, you coexisted.

for a long time, you only knew a couple things about your roommate. for example, you were aware of his strong love for cats, especially his pet calico, seol. you also knew he kept the freezer stocked with pizza rolls that he would use as energy when he stayed up all night playing video games.

what you didn’t know, however, was that you would be spending the next couple months locked in your apartment with him. on top of that, you would begin to learn more things about him—his life, his personality, his feelings.

there are ten important things you learn about lee jeno during your time in quarantine.

1. he’s a heavy sleeper.

at 10:28 in the morning you find yourself seated at the dining table in the kitchen, spooning froot loops into your mouth. as you stuff your face, you scroll through your phone for entertainment. you decide to open instagram first but you quickly find that to be a mistake. as soon as you open the app a picture of lucas and who you thought was his ex-girlfriend greets you. if that was bad, the caption hits you like a ton of bricks.

@lucas_xx444: should have never left you

in only five words, lucas has completely erased the months you spent dating. it meant nothing to him. sure, things hadn’t ended things the best way but going right back to his toxic ex and even admitting to missing her—now that was a new low. was this his way of getting back at you? his way of making you hurt just like he had throughout your entire relationship? the thought alone leaves you feeling sick.

you decide you’ve already had enough social media for one morning so you decide to check your messages instead. your friends usually left a couple of them overnight. to your surprise, you find that your main group chat has accumulated 241 messages.

[10:48 am] you: good morning i see u guys have been vry chatty

[10:49 am] yeji: ur finally awake!

[10:50 am] yuna: we thought u died lol

[10:50 am] lia: YUNA

[10:50 am] lia: NO

[10:51 am] ryujin: the timing for that joke could not be worse

[10:52 am] yuna: humor is my coping mechanism leave me alone

[10:52 am] you: ??? what happened

[10:53 am] chaeryeong: we left msgs for a reason dummy read them!!

[10:53 am] you: umm there’s over 200 and im not abouta read all that

[10:54 am] yuna: well then lemme break it down

[10:54 am] yuna: the world is ending :)

[10:55 am] you: welp it was about time

[10:55 am] lia: why r u guys like this

[10:56 am] yeji: there’s been a covid-19 outbreak and it’s spreading like wildfire so the government issued a stay at home order :/

[10:57 am] you: omg WHAT

[10:57 am] ryujin: ikr it’s crazy we literally can’t go anywhere

[10:57 am] chaeryeong: and we can’t get boba today either ;( i was so looking forward to that

[10:58 am] ryujin: let’s pls take a moment of silence for all the current and future boba dates that will have to be cancelled

[10:59 am] yuna: no way am i gonna let some wannabe flu make me go boba-less i’m still going out >:(

[10:59 am] lia: ...ur joking right

[10:59 am] yeji: what color casket do u want yuna?

before the groupchat can distract you any further, you place your phone down on the table. you sit back in your chair and let the newly revealed information sink in.

you were stuck inside.

you sigh before standing to clean your dishes. as you’re scrubbing away at your bowl, you feel something brush against your leg. you smile, not even having to look down to know it was seol. the cat would often wander into your room or sleep next to you when you watched tv on the couch. in fact, you were pretty sure you spent more time with seol than his owner.

you gaze at jeno’s room. as always, the door is shut. you wonder if you should let him know what was happening. you two usually kept your distance but you figured that the circumstance you found yourself in was an exception. you quickly dry your hand and shuffle towards his room.

you knock once, quite softly. you assume he’s asleep so you try again, this time a little harder. still, no avail. the third time you put even more force into it. by this time, seol has found his way beside you and claws at the door.

“jeno?” you knock a fourth time. “jeno! lee jeno!”

after more shouting accompanied by incessant meowing, you hear some muffled movement. moments later the door knob twists open and there stands your roommate with disheveled hair and a robe that had obviously just been thrown on his body. seol has taken the open crack in the door as an invitation inside the bedroom.

jeno blinks a couple times as he watches the feline get himself comfortable on his bed. he turns back to you, looking slightly disoriented. you’re not sure if he’s half asleep or your sudden presence has thrown him for a loop. his voice comes out raspy when he asks, “was he, um, bothering you or something?”

you shake your head, vigorously. “that’s not why i came. it’s just that my friends told me that there’s been some kind of virus outbreak and we’re supposed to stay home. so, i thought i’d let you know.”

his face softens. “oh, cool.” suddenly, the look changes. “not the virus thing! that’s totally not cool. i meant, it’s cool that you let me know and stuff. you just saved me a huge freak out so, uh, thank you.”

you smile and nod. “no problem.”

jeno’s eyes linger as you retreat back into your room down the hall. the sound of his door shutting is heard only once you’re out of his eyesight.

2. he can cook better than you.

most of the time, you would go out to eat dinner with your friends in the evenings or at least stop by a drive thru. obviously, this was no longer possible in the midst of a pandemic. you found that to be incredibly frustrating as you sat on your bed, stomach empty. no matter how badly you wished to fix it, your laziness had gotten the best of you. apart from that, you already knew how unlucky you were when it came to cooking—the memory of burning noodles at lia’s house one night had been permanently seared into your brain.

you almost believe your mind is playing tricks on you when you catch a whiff of pasta in the air. for a moment you think it’s your next door neighbor, taeyong, cooking again. you knew he was quite the chef. but, the smell is getting stronger by the second and you decide it must be in your apartment.

you wander into the kitchen, only to find jeno standing over the stove. he’s stirring red sauce in a pot when he notices you watching him.

“oh, hey,” he greets with a polite wave.

you can only stare at the rest of the kitchen—pots, pans, and ingredients all over the place—in utter awe.

he chuckles, awkwardly. “yeah, sorry about the mess. i’ve been told i’m a decent cook but i can never seem to get the tidiness down.”

“no, it’s not that. this just all seems so... professional.” you sniff the air once more. “smells amazing, too.”

he smiles, sheepishly. “thanks. are you a fan of spaghetti?”

you nod.

“good. i wanted to make something you’d like.”

“you really didn’t have to,” you say, leaning against the fridge. “i mean, i’ve never done anything for you.”

he uncovers a pot to check on the pasta. you watch as hot steam rises out of it. “what about this morning?”

you can’t help but laugh. “that most certainly does not count. you’re making an entire meal. that takes a lot of effort.”

he waves a hand, dismissively. “i used to cook a lot with my old roommate, doyoung. the guy was an asian gordon ramsey, i swear. so, yeah, this is nothing too crazy. and i really do enjoy it.”

“well, i’m still gonna repay you.” you fold your arms.

he looks away from his dish to raise a brow. “is that so?”

you nod in confirmation. “definitely.”

“tell you what, if you wash the mountain of dishes that are gonna be left over, we’ll be even.”

you stare at the sink that’s already overflowing with dirty kitchen tools. that wasn’t even half of it. “uh, sure, sounds good.”

he laughs at hearing the uncertainty in your voice. “that’s the spirit.”

3. he’s allergic to cats.

the familiar sound of soft purring is what pulls you attention away from the movie playing on your laptop. already knowing exactly who it is, you launch yourself off your bed to allow your furry guest inside.

“hey seol. what’ve you been up to?”

the calico meows, almost as if he were responding to your question. you close your door and go back to your original position. you notice seol sitting directly in front of your bed, looking up at you with wide eyes.

“come on up.” you pat your sheets, invitingly.

he obeys and stretches before laying down beside you.

“have you ever watched ‘avengers’?” you ask, eyes going back to the explosive fight scene on the screen.

this time, seol doesn’t even bother humoring you with a meow. he stays silent with his head tucked into his paws.

you scratch his head and his tail wiggles. “i’ve gotta stop asking you questions.”

both you and seol’s heads snap towards the door when you hear a knock.

“come in!” you call out.

jeno swings open the door. his eyes briefly scan the room before landing on the furball on your bed. the unmistakable look of adoration shines in his eyes when he sees how lovingly you caress him.

“seol! what are you doing in here? bothering y/n?” the cat jumps off your bed and towards his owner standing in your doorway. jeno scoops him into his arms and faces you. “i’m so sorry. he saw me running a bath for him and bolted.”

“it’s all good. he’s a great movie buddy. besides, i could always use the company.”

jeno curiously glances at your computer screen. “is that ‘avengers’?”

“yep. i’ve seen it like a dozen times.”

“same here.“ he pauses. “hey, if you ever need a movie buddy—like you know, one that talks—just let me know.”

your face lights up. “i’m gonna hold you to that.”

”i hope so. well, if you’ll excuse me, i’ve gotta give this guy a bath.”

seol yowls as if he understands the meaning behind the words and attempts to escape jeno’s grip.

“here we go again,” he mumbles under his breath.

you snicker at the sight. “looks like you could use some help.”

“oh, no. it’s fine. he can just be a little bratty someti—seol!”

in the blink of an eye, the feline has successfully hopped out of his arms and made a run for it.

jeno gives you an exasperated look before rushing off to catch his runway pet. you find yourself caught up in the excitement so you follow him, the two of you now in pursuit of the calico. you’re sure the image of you both chasing the fluffy animal around the apartment looks like something straight out of a comedy. even you and jeno can’t contain your laughter when he finally catches seol only for him to slip out of his hold a second later. this exact situation repeats itself a couple times before you finally get lucky.

“i got him!” you screech. “jeno! oh my god! what do i do?”

“bathroom, bathroom, bathroom!” he chants in response.

you head in that direction with jeno trailing behind you, ready to catch seol if he somehow manages to get out of your death grip. you bend over the bathtub, slowly lowering the cat into the water. it’s clear he doesn’t have a problem with making a fuss as he wails and flails his limbs around.

after a while, he finally calms down enough that you can lather him in shampoo. jeno insists on scrubbing him, arguing that you had already done way too much. you sit back on your heels, observing the way the seol leans into his delicate touches.

“looks like he likes it now.”

“he likes to make a big deal but he ends up enjoying it every—“ jeno cuts himself off with a sneeze.

“tissue?” you offer.

he shakes his head. “that’s okay, thanks. i’m used to it. i’m just surprised my allergies haven’t acted up ‘til now.”

“allergies?” you echo.

“yeah, i’m allergic to—“ another sneeze. “cats.”

your eyes widen. “really? and you still have seol?”

“i could never get rid of him. he’s too good of a boy. isn’t—“ sneeze. “that right?” he tickles seol under his chin.

“wow. you must really love him.”

“so much.”

“he’s lucky to have you.”

“what about you? you get both of us. doesn’t that make you the luckiest?”

you snort. “i guess it does.”

4. he makes a good shopping buddy.

“i have officially cooked everything we have.”

“i can order some takeout, if you want?”

he juts his lower lip out and gives you puppy eyes. “but i like to cook for you.”

you laugh at his expression. “oh god, you look like that one pouty emoji people use when they try to be cute.”

he sits up. “did it work?”

you nod and pinch his cheek.

he yelps. “ah, stop! you’re acting like my grandma!” he manages to get out of your grasp. he rubs his face, soothing the spots you had squeezed. “seriously, though, we really do need to stock up on food.”

“i’ve already been looking into it.” you show him the screen of your phone. “says here you can still go shopping as long as you wear a mask and try to stay six feet away from other shoppers.”

he cringes. “i don’t know if i like the idea of being so close to so many people.”

“i can go by myself, then,” you suggest with a shrug.

he doesn’t hesitate to deny you. “no way are you going alone.” his possessive tone has you staring at him curiously so he adds, “you know, in case you can’t reach something on the top shelf.”

the teasing comment paired with his innocent smile makes you gasp in disbelief. “lee jeno! that’s low! and to think i almost thought you were worried about me.”

“who said i wasn’t?” he smiles at you again before standing up. “i’m going to find us some masks and then we can head out.”

once you arrive at your local grocery store, you find it to be packed. everyone seems to be in a hurry, grabbing things left and right.

“wow, it’s already gotten crazy,” jeno mumbles, stopping to stare at the flood of people that rush by.

you don’t hesitate to scold him. “well, don’t just stand there! we gotta get our stuff before there’s nothing left!”

without another word you slip into the frenzy of people. jeno struggles to stay behind you. after almost losing sight of you a couple times, he walks a little faster to catch up and places his arm firmly around your waist once he does. you look up at him, your mask covering your slightly agape mouth.

being the gentleman he is, he apologizes. “sorry but i don’t want us to get separated.”

you can only nod and mumble, “good idea.”

jeno pushes the shopping cart with his right hand and holds your figure with his left. once in a while, you’ll break apart from each other to grab an item you need but once it’s in the cart, he’ll make sure you end up in the same position. after an hour or so, you’ve grabbed enough and you decide it’s time to pay.

despite the mask she has on, you can tell the middle-aged woman behind the cash register has a big smile on her face once she catches sight of you and your roommate.

“well, just look at you two.” she sighs. “how cute.”

“oh.” you glance at her then jeno then her again. “oh, no. it’s not like that.”

you attempt to move yourself away from jeno only to find his grip to be so incredibly strong that you almost begin to think he’s trying to hold you in place. once you finally detach yourself from him, you begin loading your groceries onto the counter for the employee to scan. she does so, but not before giving you a displeased look.

“oh really? he holds you like that because you aren’t together?”

jeno assists her in placing the scanned items in bags. “i didn’t want to lose her.”

she pauses scanning a can of tuna to stare him down. “darling, that sounds like a line from a cheesy hallmark rom-com.”

you can’t help but chuckle. “what he means is that there’s a lot of people here and we didn’t want to get separated.”

jeno adds, “desperate times calls for desperate measures.”

the woman adjusts her glasses. “well, you do certainly seem desperate to have her close to you.”

jeno doesn’t say a word as he continues bagging but his smile reaches his eyes.

5. he works out.

why did the pandemic have to hit in the middle of summer?

you often asked yourself this, complaining about how inconvenient it was. especially on the days that made your apartment feel like it was on fire. the days that required a thin tank top and shorts. even then, you found yourself to be drenched in sweat.

you sprawled your arms and legs farther on the sofa, the leather material proving to be very uncomfortable. it was either that or your bed with the warm cotton sheets that stuck to your body. just thinking about it brings you discomfort. the only relief you could think of was a cold shower. you would have already taken one if jeno hadn’t been hogging the one bathroom in the apartment.

“jeno!” you yell.

silence; other than the sound of the water running.

“lee jeno!”

the water stops, temporarily for him to shout back an answer. “what?!”

you wipe at the sweat that has accumulated on the bridge of your nose. “hurry up! i’m melting!”

the water starts back up again and you groan. hoping to distract yourself, you pull out your phone. the group chat with your friends is surprisingly silent so you go to instagram for some entertainment. this time, your ex-boyfriend’s post isn’t the first thing you see. it takes you some scrolling but you do end up seeing another one of his pictures.

it’s simply two intertwined hands with a black and white filter. you identify the one on the left as his and although you aren’t as familiar with the one on the right, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out who it belongs to. contrary to the last, this photo has no cheesy words for a caption, just a red heart.

but, your stomach doesn’t drop. you don’t feel hurt, either. obviously, you still don’t enjoy seeing him just because of all the awful memories that came with it but other than that, you feel unaffected by the image.

in fact, you feel so confident in yourself that you block him.

you’re surprised you hadn’t done it sooner. you had known you didn’t need him in your life any longer so why keep in contact? you feel like a huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders when you press the red button that would keep him and his girlfriend out of your life. you knew with your whole heart that you didn’t need to see either of them.

before, a bit if you had felt the need to keep an eye on him. to see how he was handling the breakup and torture yourself with the fact that he didn’t seem to care. now, you could say you truly didn’t either. you didn’t need him or his stupid pictures. you had other, better things.

your friends.

your cat (yes, you considered seol to be yours).

your roommate.

you had to admit, jeno was the best thing on that list. quarantine had brought you and him significantly closer and you were over the moon about it. he was so wonderful that you kicked yourself for having lived with him for so long without ever really getting to know him. but it was easy to say you two were making up for lost time seeing as you spent every waking moment together. the record long showers jeno took being an exception, of course.

the moment the door to the bathroom opens, you rush into your room and quickly grab an oversized t-shirt and loose pajama pants to change into after your shower. you nearly drop them when you’re met with jeno’s soaking figure in the hallway.

his hair is damp and you can clearly see how long it had become. his skin looks healthy and moisturized, lotion among other skin care products had probably been applied. what really has you in a shock is the fact that the towel barely hangs below his waist. the droplets of water that fall from his hair and down his neck trail down his chest and toned torso towards the only area he has bothered to cover up. his bulky arms are also slightly wet, his veins popping noticeably. he shakes his head in an attempt to rid his hair of any water. then he runs his fingers through it, his muscles flexing ever so slightly as he does so.

“dude!” you exclaim, without a second thought. “you’re ripped!”

he smiles, his round cheeks growing at the unexpected praise. the way he could have such a rugged body but soft-featured face puzzled you to no extent. “thank you. i lift sometimes.”

“sometimes?” you repeat. “don’t be so humble! you’re basically hercules!”

he clicks his tongue. “ah, c’mon. i’m just an athletic person.”

you keep admiring his physique. “clearly.”

“oh god,” he groans, obviously flustered. “you’re looking at me like you’re gonna eat me or something.”

you hold yourself back from making a less than appropriate innuendo. “no comment.”

his eyebrows shoot up in disbelief. “quarantine is really making you go crazy.”

you point a finger at him. “you try being stuck inside with your hot roommate!”

“trust me, y/n, i know all about hot roommates.”

you tilt your head, acting purposefully oblivious. “are you talking about doyoung?”

“what? no i—“ he sighs. “you know what, just take your shower.”

6. you can’t say no to him.

jeno ruffles his black locks with his hand and frowns.

you give him a disappointed look. “knock it off, you’re gonna get dandruff in your soup.”

he ignores your comment. “i look like a hobo.”

you pause, spoon halfway to your mouth. “this i know.”

“y/n, this is serious!”

“okay, okay. what’s the issue?”

“i already told you! i’m a bum!”

“you? a bum?” you pause to think about it. “i mean, mentally? maybe. but physically? no.”

“my hair, though. it’s so long.” he grabs a strand of it and pulls it to emphasize his point.

you shrug. “if having lots of hair is the standard for being a bum, i think most of the population is.”

“i want to cut it,” he announces.

“you should,” you say, pointing your spoon at him. “wanna know why? because if you mess up, no one will ever know. other than me, of course. but if you pay me enough i’ll let you forget it.”

he smiles at the joke for a moment before he leans forward and his face goes serious. “will you help me?”

“what? no way. i’ll mess up. and it’s only funny if you do it.”

he pouts. “please?”

you stir your soup around. “just watch some youtube videos. after three, you’re automatically a professional.”

“i want you.”

the statement has your neck snapping up from your bowl to him. the smug grin on his face lets you know that he was well aware of the double meaning behind his words. it was clear he was trying to fluster you enough to get a yes.

“you think you’re flirty enough to straight up brainwash me into doing stuff?”

“well, i wanted to say that to you anyway but... kind of?”

you feel a smile creep onto your lips at hearing the genuine tone in his voice. you down your last few spoonfuls of soup and quickly stand up. jeno looks up at you, eyes hopeful.

“finish your dinner. get the scissors. meet me in the bathroom.”

not even ten minutes later, jeno practically dances into the bathroom, a pair of red craft scissors in his hand. he sits on top of the toilet lid, figuring that’d be the easiest way for you to reach him. you walk in moments later.

“i’m pretty sure we’re not supposed to be using these types of scissors for hair,” he mumbles as he hands you the sharp utensil.

you twirl them in your hand. “oh, definitely not. do you want to wait then?”

he shakes his head, his shaggy bangs swaying with the movement.

“alright, let’s get this going then.” you thread your hands through his thick locks to collect some of it in between two of your fingers. you bring the scissors forward and snip the small amount just to test the waters.

you slowly begin to get more comfortable and once you feel like you’re in your element, things begin to speed up. you move and cut faster but with efficiency. you do the spots on the back of his head and work your way forward. when it finally comes time to touch up his bangs, your small bathroom proves to be an inadequate spot to be doing this.

you end up standing balanced inches above jeno’s thighs that he’s pressed together tightly in an attempt to give you more room. you’re constantly readjusting your stance and when he notices, his hands go to your hips. you know he’s just trying to help you stay upright so you do a decent job but you still inhale sharply at the feeling of his hands on you.

not long after, you’re standing next to jeno as he inspects himself in the mirror. his fingers flick his newly shortened bangs around.

“not bad.” he tilts his head in a new angle and nods. “looks super good to me.”

you tuck the scissors into your back pocket with a relieved sigh. “oh thank god. i didn’t want to tell you before we started but i only watched two youtube tutorials on trimming hair.”

he runs a hand through his hair with a chuckle. “now that’s truly worthy of praise. and a tip.”

you raise a brow. “oh yeah? what’s th—“

he cuts you off by pressing a chaste kiss to your forehead. he pulls back and drags his thumb over the skin that has come into contact with his lips. “thanks again.” with that, he leaves you standing in the bathroom, eyes wide and face warm.

7. he has six best friends.

“can i borrow your laptop?” asks jeno, from outside your door, nearly breathless.

you look up from your book. “uh yeah, sure.”

he rushes in your room and takes the item off of your dresser. “do you happen to have zoom on it?”

you shake your head and he groans. without another word, he disappears, running off into the living room. you hear his frustrated sighs as the minutes pass and he attempts to download the application. you finally decide to go check it out once it becomes too much to bear.

“it sounds like you’re in pain over here,” you comment.

he runs a hand through his hair. “i’m supposed to meet with my friends through a zoom call but it’s so complicated.”

you put a hand on your hip. “bet you five bucks i’ll be able to get it in five minutes.”

“are you kidding? i might be technologically challenged but i’m not stupid. i know you can do it fast, just help me out already, would you?”

“alright, grandpa.”

you type and click away at the screen, jeno watching you do so, entranced but equally as lost.

“well, i was wrong,” you say after a couple moments, leaning back in your chair.

“you couldn’t get it?” asks jeno, worriedly.

“no, it’s not that.” you click something on the screen and the app opens. “turns out i could do it in three.”

he rolls his eyes and shoos you out of the chair. he sits down and enters the code and password for the zoom meeting. it takes a minute, but he finally connects. you count six other people in the call. they all immediately cheer at seeing jeno and you hear them excitedly exclaim his name.

“hey guys,” he says, a smile already reaching his eyes. “it’s so good to see your faces.”

they all nod to agree. you get a good look at each one of them and realize they’re all boys. your eyes read over each of their display names.

mark me in ur heart

hyuckie~~~

moomin enthusiast

nananananana

chnele

lil huddy

“nice name, jeno,” ‘moomin enthusiast’ guy comments, snickering slightly. “glad to see you finally came to terms with it.”

‘jenojam’, his name reads. the rest of the group laughs, also teasing him about it. you assume it’s some kind of inside joke.

the self proclaimed ‘lil huddy’ furrows his eyebrows. “wait, did you choose that name yourself?”

jeno simply nods in response.

he glares into the camera. “donghyuck, you told me i had to put this as my name or else it wouldn’t let me connect!”

donghyuck—or ‘hyuckie~~~’, you presume—shrugs. “oops. guess i was wrong.”

you laugh at the humorous exchange. it seems like the sound has drawn some attention to you when ‘nananananana’ speaks up, eyes trained on you.

“um jeno? don’t you want to introduce your guest?”

jeno beams, dragging you closer into the frame. “i’m sure you all know about my roommate. say hi, y/n.”

you do so, waving and smiling politely at the group.

“you know, even though we used to always hang at jeno’s, i don’t think we’ve ever actually seen your face,” ‘chnele’ says, tilting his head.

you agree. “me neither. i’ve mostly just heard you guys.”

the ‘mark me in your heart’ boy sheepishly rubs his neck. “sorry. we tend to be a little loud.”

‘chnele’ lets out a high pitched screech of a laugh. “only a little?”

“i recognize that laugh!” you blurt. “i would hear it all the time!”

”that’s our little dolphin,” coos ‘hyuckie~~~’.

“oh god, stop. i hate that stupid nickname.”

“it’s well deserved.”

“i think you should apologize to y/n for being a nightmare to her eardrums.”

“and ours, for that matter.”

“what about all your little freestyles? i’ve had to sit through hundreds of them and i never got an apology!”

“because they’re not bad! could you do any better?”

“you’re a soundcloud rapper, i think anyone could.”

jeno turns to you as the bickering on screen gets louder and louder. “this is gonna be a long call.”

once the group has moved on from roasting the life out of each other, you’re able to engage in some good-natured conversation. jeno teaches you the names and the other basics about the group. some points that stand out about the group is that mark is the oldest, renjun specializes in contemporary dance, jaemin inhales six cups of coffee on the daily, and chenle is insanely rich.

“what about jeno?” you ask them. “anything i should know about him?”

“he’s allergic to cats but the idiot still adopted—“

“she already knows about that, renjun,” jeno chuckles.

“oh. well. that’s pretty much the only interesting thing about him.”

jisung pipes up. “oh wait! he works out religiously too!”

you and jeno share a look. you burst into laughter and he simply glances away, slightly embarrassed. “oh yeah, i know that all too well.”

“and what about the unhealthy cooking obsession?”

you nod at mark’s question. “that too. he cooks dinner almost every night around here.”

renjun purses his lips. “he already cooks for you? wow. he must really like you.”

“you think?” jaemin asks. “didn’t you read any of the messages in the group chat? he’s practically in love with her. his words, not mi—“

“okay! i think it’s time for us to go! bye guys!” jeno doesn’t even give you a chance to say your own goodbye before he’s clicking the ‘end call’ button in the bottom right corner.

you give him a confused look. “what was that all about?”

“they’re crazy.” he laughs. “well, if you need me i’ll be in my room screaming into my pillow for the next couple hours.” he dashes off leaving you standing alone, trying to comprehend what had happened.

8. he‘s a great listener.

jeno has officially replaced seol as your movie buddy, not that you have a problem with it. you thought it was nice to have someone you could actually converse with but of course, you make sure seol still sits in.

“what i’m saying is that iron man just wants to protect his team.”

“well, if they sign the accords, they basically surrender themselves to the government.”

“and?”

“you don’t see a problem with that? see, captain america knows what he’s doing. he’s literally an avenger—“

“so is iron man!”

“let me finish! so, he’s an avenger, right? he has the best judgment because he’s saved the world countless times. he knows how to operate his team and do the right thing.”

“okay but there’s casualties. and that’s what iron man is trying to fix.”

“how do you save the world and not have casualties?”

“you just—“ your phone rings mid argument and you raise your finger towards jeno. “this isn’t over.” you put the phone to your ear, not bothering to check the caller id. “hello?”

“sweetheart?”

you feel a chill go up your spine. was it him? no, it couldn’t be. you had blocked his number shortly after you did so on all your social media.

“baby, don’t be so shy. i know you’re there.”

you can’t hold back. “please don’t call me that.”

he chuckles, breathlessly. “oh, c’mon. you used to love it. you still do.”

“no, i don’t. actually, i don’t want to hear your stupid pet names or stupid voice or see any of your stupid posts. just go bother your girlfriend and leave me alone.”

you notice jeno perk up beside you out of the corner of your eye. he must have been caught off guard by your irritated tone.

as always, lucas is unaffected by you. “i’m being nice and giving you a second chance. i even called you behind soyeon’s back.”

“is that something i’m supposed to reward you for?” you scoff. “congratulations, you’re now awful, toxic, and a cheater.”

he growls. the sound was familiar. in your relationship, if you heard it you knew he was going to snap at you until he had the satisfaction of making you cry. “i know you miss me so don’t say things you’re going to regret later. because even when you’re back in my arms, i won’t let you forget it.”

the thought of being back with him made you feel icky. but the fact that he sincerely thought you would crawl back to him set your entire body on fire. “are you joking? i was always aware of the fact that you treated me like the dirt you walked on but do you seriously think that lowly of me?”

you’re rendered speechless and apparently, so is he because the other line stays silent.

“i wouldn’t go back to you if you were the last person on earth,” you spit. “you treated me horribly, wong yukhei. i won’t ever forget it. move on. i have.”

you glance at jeno, his expression more serious than you’ve ever seen it. his eyebrows are furrowed and his eyes are trained on your cellphone. the glare he gives the device is so strong you wouldn’t be surprised if even lucas could feel it, wherever he was.

you hang up and block the number, wishing to never talk to him again. you toss your phone onto the sofa with an exasperated sigh. you find jeno’s gaze to still be focused intensely on it.

“if you gave lucas that look, i’m pretty sure he’d cry.”

he breaks his concentration, eyes going to you instead. his entire face softens. “all i’m going to say is he better pray we never cross paths.”

“well, if you happen to, call me up. i wouldn’t mind helping you beat the crap out of him.”

jeno chuckles for a second then lowers his voice to a whisper. “he was really bad to you, huh?”

you nod. “he messed me up. i hate to admit it ‘cause i know i was stupid to stay with him for as long as i did.”

your roommate shakes his head. “don’t say that. it’s not your fault he messed up the best thing that would ever happen to him.”

“i thought i was the problem for so long, jeno. i was so blinded by love. then, i realized there was no way he truly cared for me when he treated me like i had no heart to be broken.”

jeno scoots towards you and rubs soothing circles into your arm. “you have such a big heart. and i can’t tell you how sorry i am that he took advantage of that. i’m sorry that you were stuck with someone so insecure and ignorant. please, don’t think about him anymore.”

you hold in your tears. you refused to cry over someone like lucas. “i know. i try so hard not to.”

jeno holds your head into his chest. his arms are placed securely on your back. “oh, baby.”

when jeno uses this pet name on you, it feels so completely different from lucas. you could tell me meant it. he wasn’t using it to make you stay a little longer, to assure you he loved you. strangely enough, you do not need to be convinced of that. you feel like you have known it for a long time.

9. he likes to be the big spoon.

you’re not sure how he’s done it but you end up falling asleep in jeno’s arms. you assume it had been so long since you had been cradled and rocked so delicately that the foreign yet extremely delightful sensation knocked you right out. even seol is deep in sleep, laying down peacefully at your feet.

you relish in the feeling of jeno pressed right into your back. he fits so perfectly against you that it reminds you of a puzzle piece. to be exact, the moment when you connect the last two pieces and the full picture becomes complete. that was how you felt—complete.

with jeno’s soft breaths tickling the back of your neck and his soft snores filling your ear, you know there’s nowhere else you’d rather be. his arm that is wrapped around you makes sure you can’t escape his embrace. you are positive that even if you had the liberty of doing so, you would stay exactly where you were.

you lean farther back into your pillow, closing your eyes. you let every thought fade away as you try to fall back asleep as soon as possible. you wanted the moment you found yourself in to last as long as possible.

10. he has feelings for you.

jeno mumbles sweet nothings into your ear as he toys with your hair.

it just seemed right to him. like something he was meant to do with you. he had seen these types of things in films and shows before. it was intimate and touching, the scenes were always meant to tug at the audience’s heart strings and show how in love the two characters were. perhaps, even though you lay asleep in his arms, he wants you to finally know.

“honestly, being inside with you all the time is kind of the best. i know the whole virus situation is less than ideal but being able to spend so much time with you... that’s all i could ask for.” he pauses. “isn’t it so crazy how before this we were all weird and awkward around each other? well, i guess we still kind of are. that’s mostly my fault so... sorry. i just don’t know how to act around you sometimes. we’re barely getting close and i’m already this attached to you. as jisung would so kindly say, ‘i’m simping’.” he chuckles to himself. “all jokes aside, i really do like you. ever since you moved in here all cute and nervous, you’ve taken your own little place in my heart, as cheesy as it sounds. and these past few weeks, you just keep on taking up more and more room in there. not that i have a problem with it. i just...” he stops as if he doesn’t know how else to express his feelings. “really, really like you.”

“thanks.”

you feel him jolt then abruptly stop stroking your hair. there’s silence until he asks, “you don’t happen to be a sleep talker, do you?”

you shake your head.

“and did you hear like, a lot of what i said?”

“only the important stuff. like how awkward you are and how much you like me.”

“o-oh.”

“but don’t worry. it’s mutual.”

you feel his relieved breath hit the skin of your neck. “that’s the best thing i’ve heard all day.”

you tilt your head back and stare at him, confused. “what, did you seriously think i wasn’t into you?”

he shrugs. “i was too busy simping, i guess.”

you can’t contain your laughter at the use of the slang. “park jisung would not be proud.”

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redrobin-detective · 3 years

Text

sleep like the dead

“And now, I, Technus, shall finally have my electronic vengeance on you, ghost child and conquer this puny human world!” Technus shrieked, exiting the portal in a suitably dramatic fashion. The various weapons around the lab shook and trembled from his power and static from his core crackled, raring for a fight with his favorite enemy. Only the Phantom didn’t appear.

“Hmm, maybe I wasn’t loud enough,” Technus mused before starting up again. “Pathetic Phantom! You can only hope your miniscule half human strength will be enough to take on my squiggling mess of the tangled wires of terror!” He threw back his head and cackled loudly, waiting for his nemesis to show and the battle to begin. His laughter petered out after a bit and the lab became silent once more.

“Well, now he’s just being rude,” Technus fumed, floating up through the ceiling. “Don’t ignore my threats, child. I know you’re here, I can feel your cold core.” He stopped once he reached the ghost boy’s human lair, hovering a few feet from the bed where his rival was sprawled out, sound asleep.

“Come ghost boy, it’s time for fisticuffs! I have some new moves and some great catchphrases I’m ready to try out on you!” The technology ghost exclaimed in excitement, miming some punches. Phantom didn’t answer, just kept laying there barely moving save for his soft, shallow breaths. Technus watched as his breath fogged with each exhale, his core’s ghost sense but it still didn’t awaken him. “Child? Have you expired?”

He leaned forward and gently poked the boy’s cheek. It was squishy but firm unlike a ghost’s exterior and he could feel the dense bone underneath. Phantom didn’t so much as twitch. Technus drew back his hand, unsure of what to do. He’d surprised the child while he was in bed before but he always woke up and they fell into the usual routine. But now he’d changed the script and if there was something ghosts didn’t like, it was change. He flew back down to the portal and sped into the Ghost Zone at top speed, searching for someone who would be able to help him understand.

“Wow, baby pop whooped your butt that fast? Either he’s getting better or you’re getting more pathetic, my bet is the latter,” Ember teased as she strummed to herself from a floating rock near her lair.

“The ghost child won’t wake up and fight,” Technus said in a rush. “I went to the human world but no one answered my challenge. I went to his human lair and he was just lying on his bed thing and he wouldn’t move, even when I touched him.”

“That’s not like him, he’s usually more hopped up and ready to fight than a groupie on coke,” Ember frowned, setting aside her guitar. “Well come on, sparky, lets go check the kid out.”

They developed something of an entourage making their way back to the human portal. A few of the locals had heard that the infamous half ghost child was behaving differently and well, curiosity didn’t stop when the cat was killed. Skulker chuckled menacingly under his breath, Youngblood bounced around the adults. Johnny and Kitty had been going to the real world anyway and decided to tag along.

“Were his folks or Jazz home?" Johnny asked, riding his cycle slow enough to keep pace with the group.

“Who?” Technus questioned, “er no, the annoying children always with him were not around for once.”

“Annoying yes but they don’t live- uh occupy the same lair as the brat,” Johnny explained. As a younger ghost who’d held onto his humanity more than some, he had a better grasp of human culture. “His parents, the crazy ghost hunters in the blue and orange jumpsuits. Or his sister, Jazz. She has red hair and is kind of a know it all. They’re his family, they live with him.”

“Oh those weirdos,” Youngblood said wrinkling his nose. “Always loud and shouting about ripping apart ghosts. They’re not even good hunters.”

“Obviously, they haven’t noticed they got a ghost living with ‘em,” Ember added with an eyeroll.

“It’s a very stressful situation, Danny was worried about what they’d do if they found out,” Kitty frowned before sticking her tongue out at Johnny. “Danny’s a good guy, at least he talked to me about things that mattered.”

“Good target practice, you mean,” Skulker declared as they entered through the portal. Instinctively they all looked up to where the ghost boy’s core was humming but sensed no movement. “Alright, I will admit that is weird. Let’s see what the whelp’s up to.”

It was a bit cramped, the five of them crammed into the small room especially when they were keeping their distance from the room’s only living occupant. He had not moved since Technus had last been in here. At their entrance, his breath fogged again and he shivered for a second before settling back down.

“Well, he’s alive at least,” Johnny shrugged before leaning in close to examine him. “Kid looks wiped though.” He picked up the boy’s bony wrist which had been dangling off the bed, his fingers brushing the floor and held it up before dropping it. His knuckles rapped against the ground but he didn’t stir.

“Johnny, leave him alone, he’s trying to sleep,” Kitty hissed, yanking her boyfriend back by his ear.

“Come on, I’m not doing anything bad,” Johnny defended. “But, come on, how often are we gonna get a chance like this?”

“Hmm is human sleep that interesting that the ghost child would ignore all of us?” Technus asked, floating over and laying himself down on the bed. He laid there on the bed next to the boy for a few moments. “I do not believe I’m doing this correctly.”

“Nah you gotta close your eyes and go off to dreamland,” Youngblood said, grabbing a sock off the floor and then some papers from the desk and began stacking them on the half ghost’s head. The boy still didn’t react in the slightest.

“Is dreamland close? Another pocket dimension like the Zone?” Technus, ever the scientist, asked curiously.

“No, you idiot,” Ember sighed before tentatively reaching out and laying a hand on Phantom’s chest. “Yow, man that’s weird.”

“What?” Skulker asked, having been mostly content to watch until now. Youngblood had now piled several more items on the ghost boy’s head but he slept on, unawares.

“It’s just,” she scrunched up her face as she looked for the words, “I know what ghost cores feel like and I’ve been around enough humans to know the signs of life but he’s got both at once. His core flares and fades opposite his heart beat. It shouldn’t work but it does, somehow.”

“He is a most curious specimen, I rarely see Plasmius in his human skin so it’s hard to compare,” Skulker commented. “Of course Plasmius I can understand. He acts like a ghost, thinks like one. But the child, he’s certainly a ghost but he’s also decidingly... human.”

“That’s why we should be leaving him alone,” Kitty frowned, plucking Youngblood out of the air and moving him away from the sleeping teen. “If Danny isn’t waking up with all of us causing a racket then clearly he’s exhausted. We bother him enough, let him rest and fight him some other time.”

“But I wanted to fight now,” Technus whined, rolling over on the bed and resting one arm over the ghost boy’s body. “The Phantom surely wants to hear my latest monologue on how I’m the supreme ruler of everything electronic and beeping.”

“I know I don’t,” Youngblood shrugged.

“Me neither,” Johnny scoffed.

“Or me,” Ember muttered, putting her hands on her hips.

“Just let him rest,” Kitty said shooing the others back and gently brushing some of the kid’s hair out of his face revealing sallow features and dark marks under his eyes. “It’s hard enough being human much less a ghost on top of that; between fighting us and trying to have a normal life I bet he hardly gets any sleep. The least we can do is give him a break before he breaks.”

“I suppose it’s not sporting to kill a sleeping prey,” Skulker pouted. “And it’ll make his defeat more meaningful if he’s well rested and not uh,” he gestured to the Phantom’s general state of disarray.

“Better appreciate it,” Ember sulked for a second, kicking away some pajama pants from the floor. “His stupid human life. I’d give anything to sleep again, just for a minute.”

The ghosts sat in quiet contemplation for a moment, the dead looking enviously and curiously on the silent, sleeping boy, on a world they could only watch but not engage in. The moment was shattered by the front door slamming open.

“DANNO WE’RE HOME AND WE BROUGHT CHINESE!” Resonated through the house. Startled awake, the ghost child leapt out of the bed and hovered about a foot above it for a moment before sinking back down.

“Darn it Dad, I was napping,” Danny grumbled before he opened his eyes and saw several of his ghostly enemies standing awkwardly in his room. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Technus lounging on his bed. “What the-”

“Oh good, you’re awake!” Technus tittered happily, leaning into his personal space. “Ready to hear my spiel?” The temperature in the room dropped rapidly as his core ramped up and spilled over into his eyes which were no doubt glowing a fierce green.

“Get out of my room!” He shouted, reaching over to grab his emergency under the bed thermos but a sock falling from his hair into his face distracted him.

“Hey, just stopping by but we were just on our way out, sleep well, Danny sweetie!” Kitty said dragging the whole group through the floor. His core thrummed in agitation until he felt them cross the portal into the Ghost Zone. He sat there for a moment, shaking and panting from the adrenaline rush before he decided he really didn’t want to know. He flopped back onto the bed and reached over on his nightstand for the bottle Jazz had given him the other day.

“The heck is in this stupid sleep aid?”

#danny phantom #another flash is the pan DP fic #just something about Danny being so tired (also ODed on Nyquil) that he just misses his ghost sense going off #and the ghosts being there and without all the threats of death #just kind of hanging around #looking over him curiously snooping #how often do they get to like see him up close?#he's a freak! lets look him over also stack shit on his head!#and the weird space where you just cant remember being human and what sleeping is like but also being so envious that you cant do it anymore #((also just a note that Danny had all his enemies in his room and slept soundly but woke up in a jolt when his parents got home))#((take that as you will))

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insomniamamma · 3 years

Text

Safe: Ezra x f!reader w/Cee

A/n: What can I say? I'm hormonal and all my shit hurts and if I cannot get snuggles IRL then I will write something super soft and self-indulgent to make myself feel better. Part of the Prickle AU. Set sometime after Sacellum.

Warnings: Oh no! There's only one bed. Soft!Ezra. Language. Cee's best friend on The Pug is non-binary and also named after my little boy's favorite stuffy. Maybe the slightest bit of angst. But mostly super soft.

"You did this on purpose." "Right hand to Kevva, I did not. I asked for double occupancy and they must have misunderstood and--" "You don't have a right hand," "Let's go back to the reception desk," says Ezra, "We may be able to negotiate more appropriate accommodations." "Errgh," you groan. Reception had been a nightmare, three freighters worth of traffic trying to secure berths all at once. It was a lot of people. Too many for your liking. Cee was staying with Kit and their family. Kit and Cee had practically tackled each other right there on the dock, everyone else forgotten, walked away arm in arm. "We shove off in three cycles," Ezra hollered at her retreating back, and she flapped a dismissive hand at him. You had to smile. For three cycles Cee gets to be a normal teenager hanging out with her best friend without worrying about points and pulls and overhead costs and fuel margins. "I don't wanna go back down there," you say, "Too many people. I think twice the population of Falnost was waiting in that fucking line." You brush past him and into the suite. The ceilings are low and slightly curved and it feels strange to be under this much grav. The outer rings of Puggart Bench have something close to terra-normal gravity, but after so much time spent on little moons and worldlets, this much G feels weird and you have no desire to trudge back down to reception. "You sure?" Asks Ezra. "Yeah," you drop your day bag and press a hand to the mattress. "Look at the size of this thing. It's, like, five crash-couches wide. This seems above our pay grade." "They're overbooked," says Ezra, "We're paying the same points for the berth we should have gotten. I made sure of it. I can sleep in that recliner if--" "No." "No?" "Kevva, Ez, we're both adults," you say, "I think we can share a bed for a night without exploding."

Your suite has a real, honest-to-Goddess shower with a generous 15 minute timer. You scrub as fast as you can and then just let the water hit you, let the pressure pound on your tense back muscles until the chime sounds and the water cuts off. You towel off and dress, soft clothes you sleep in, and pad out into the main room. Ezra is reading, face far off and serious, and you just look at him for a minute, illuminated in the warm lamp-light, absorbed in his book, little furrow between his brows and then he looks up, all knowing smirk and dancing eyes, he's caught you staring. "Your turn, Ez," You say and turn your face away. Kevva. This man. You've been trying to keep things professional, but it's a losing battle. His flirtations make you flush, but he's never tried to push you, never tried to leverage the fact that it's his name on the ship's title, that you signed a contract, that you are junior-most crew. You feel safe with him. And, from your limited experience in the fringe, that is a miracle in itself.

Ezra sets his book aside and heads for the bathroom. You peel the sheets from the other side of the bed and settle in. There's a media player bolted to the wall, but you just want quiet. You switch off the lamp on your nightstand (we both have lamps, we both have a nightstand, how weird is that?) The sheets feel deliciously cool against your skin. To be clean and sleeping in clean sheets...if Heaven isn't like this Kevva's got some answering to do. Ezra sings in the shower. You're barely awake and you smile. Ezra can't carry a tune in a bucket, singing fringeling songs and reels, stories of mercs and pirates and ghosts and you drift off to the sound of him, the sound of the water running.

He sees you soft and loose and asleep. No rail-gun, no body armor, no thrower under your pillow. Your face slack, snoring slightly. You've kicked out of the blankets and lay curled as if chilled. "Hey Artichoke," he murmurs, pulls the blankets up and tucks them around you, "Let's get you warm, yeah?"

Ezra wakes. Bleared red numbers of the clock saying that this is still the deepest ditch of local night. Ezra is warm and confused. He feels you pressed against him, your chest to his back, an arm hooked around his middle, your legs entwined with his. You've sought him out in your sleep and folded yourself around him, your breath slow and steady against his nape. Ezra's eyes prick with tears. He can't remember the last time he's been held like this. He's had lovers. He has payed for sex on the less reputable Benches of the Great Arm, but for someone to hold him? For someone to touch him without payment, without trying to press some advantage, gain some kind of leverage, without priming him for the inevitable backstab? He is overwhelmed. He tries to wriggle away from you, but your arm just tightens around him. "...fixed the transponder," you mutter against his neck, "told you we didn't need...told you..." He pats your arm and relaxes against you. "Okay, Artichoke, okay, sweetheart. Go back to sleep."

You wake enfolded, Ezra's good arm wrapped around you. You feel the steady beat of his heart beneath your ear, the slow sussurration of his breath, the snores that catch in his throat and turn to murmurs, the rise and fall of his chest beneath your cheek. You've tucked yourself against him in your sleep. Your hand rests on his sternum. Oh Kevva. What are you doing? You go rigid. Your first impulse is to wrestle out of his hold, take one of the blankets and install yourself in the recliner that you wouldn't let Ezra take, but part of you wants to stay right here in the combined warmth of your bodies, feeling his breath, his heart, his calloused palm spread against your shoulder. You shift, making the smallest effort to pull yourself away and his arm tightens further, a low, sleepy chuckle reverberates through his chest. "Hi Ez," "Hi." He strokes the pad of his thumb along the exposed curve of your shoulder. "I'll get up," you say, even as he shifts and cups the back of your head in his palm, tucking you closer. "You don't have to," he says, voice rough with sleep. This gesture pricks at your heart. Coming up on Falnost has made you hard, guarded, there has been precious little gentleness in your life, pulling rocks out of the parched ground since you were big enough to lift a shovel. Learned to fight and shoot to chase water-thieves from the homestead. He strokes the back of your head like one might pet a skittish cat and your heart squeezes. "Ezra?" You hate how small your voice sounds, you hate the uncertainty you hear there, "Are we okay?" "Of course we are," he says, "Why wouldn't we be?" "I wrapped around you like a Bueller's world python and I did it in my sleep-" "The wrapping was mutual-" "You're not mad or uncomfortable or anything?" He laughs again, gentle huff of breath against the crown of your head. "Mad about waking with you in my arms? The day I'm mad about that you can just shoot me in the head and send me to Kevva because I will surely have lost my ever-loving mind." You smile against his skin and relax some, your hand unfists and you curl your arm around his soft belly, feel his breath hitch. "Tickles." "Sorry." You feel yourself drift, skirting the edge of sleep. He is warm and solid and you let yourself relax against him. “This feels...safe..." you say, so close to sleep that you're not sure if you've said it aloud or if you've just thought it. And you're not sure if you hear his response or dream it, one word. Always.

"She's late," says Ezra. "We still got a sixteenth to button up and board," "Still," says Ezra, "Yon freighter will leave with our pod wether we're strapped in it or not." You see Cee and Kit, trailed by Kit's parents, weaving through the crowd. Cee is beaming, her blonde hair has a brilliant streak of blue, and Kit has a matching streak in their hair. "Hey guys!" Cee hugs Ezra and then hugs you. "How was your shore leave, Little Bird? I like the fancy hair." "Isn't that cool? We've got matching streaks," says Cee. "It's semi-permanent," says Kit, "We'll pick a different color next time!" You have to smile. Cee looks revitalized. Three cycles spent with her friend, just doing normal kid things has been good for her. "Check this out!" says Cee and pushes a laminated drawing towards the two of you. Ezra makes a show of looking carefully. "I recognize you and Kit," he says, "I am not familiar with these other people, though." "They're from The Streamer Girl, dumbass," says Cee, "Here's Clo and Reive and Lily and Auri. See? Kit put us right in the story." Ezra gives Kit his best smile. “You drew this? You are very talented." Kit smiles big. "Thanks!" says Kit, "I'll put you guys in the next one! Maybe you could be professors at Bowsun Academy or something." "I look forward to it," says Ezra. "Time to go, Cee," you say and Cee and Kit exchange one more enthusiastic hug. "Later fringeling!" Calls Kit. "Piss off, stationer!" Cee calls back. Ezra curls his fingers around yours and squeezes. Cee tells you all about her three cycles with Kit, the movies they watched, the Real Food they ate. How Kit's little brother wanted a blue streak in his hair too and Kit's parents said no and how mad he got. I wanna be cool like Kit and Cee. ��"I told him he's got plenty of time to be cool," says Cee, "And he told me that I don't understand how the world works. He's like, four." Ezra laughs. "Wise for his years." Says Ezra. And the three of you fall quiet. You find the pod much as you left it, towed to the Polly Jean and clipped in, transferred by the station's tugs. You settle in and do a full systems check. Calling out the checklists and making sure everything is good for transit. "What are you guys so happy about?" asks Cee. "Whatever do you mean?" asks Ezra. "You been all smiles since I hit the dock," says Cee, "Both of you. Did we score a really good job? Did we win the Puggart Bench lottery or something? What aren't you telling me?" "That," says Ezra, "Is for us to know and you to endlessly speculate about." "Hmph," says Cee.

Tagging: @oonajaeadira, @grogusmum , @honestly-shite, @writeforfandoms, @ladyvengeancesposts, @the-blind-assassin-12

#ezra x f!reader w/cee #ezra prospect x f!reader w/cee #ezra and cee #soft!ezra needs his own warning #don't look at me #this is so soft

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l4verq · 3 years

Text

fight back | b.b

bucky barnes x enhanced!reader

in which bucky won’t lay a hand on you no matter what :(

tags : a little brawl, fluff cause icanthelpmyself, mentions of blood, john walker (idk if we're supposed to like him now ??) bucky is a cat lady okk

fic : one shot

a/n : inspired by that scene in the final ep of tfatws when karli is screaming at sam to fight back lol😳

|| gif by @unearthlydust ||

one world, one people.

you repeat it in your head one more time, when he comes into view, vibranium gleaming onyx with loops of gold.

you know that he knows you’re here, back to the wall a few feet away, peeking at him.

he doesn’t know that you let him know.

doesn’t know that you laid out a trap and just like the foolish mouse, he walked right into the lion’s den.

although you’re not sure who the fool actually is, when you meet his eyes, knees almost buckling at the sight just cause of how long it’s been without them.

“y/n.” he breathes out, almost in disbelief.

it’s been fourteen months since he woke up to an empty bed and a handwritten goodbye letter folded in a clean white envelope, tucked under a pillow still marked by the soft indentation of your head.

fourteen months since you took off in the dead of night, pulling your- his hood over your head, the cold wind nipping at your skin, almost like it was punishing you.

maybe, it saw what you did.

oh, but fred definitely saw what you did, that damn cat always followed you two around even though it’s owner was the blonde next door. her name wasn’t even fred, bucky came up with it after the third time it snuck into the apartment.

he swore he hated it but always seemed to have a treat lying around in case it did come.

and it did, a lot. neglected by it’s owner, it chose to seek comfort in the couple next door, and sometimes a meal or two.

“sorry, no treat today bub.”

fred scowled - honestly, you wouldn’t be surprised if an actual human was living in it - mewling as it came up to you for the usual chin rubs and cooes.

you sighed, caving into it’s antics, squatting to pet it.

cradling it’s head into your palm, she was purring, a very uncommon sight. fred doesn’t purr, she scratches and hisses at anything and everything that moves.

“you’re particularly nice today.” you commented, getting up. it mewled even louder this time but you turned on your heels and headed for the stairs.

you were already late.

your legs picked up pace quickly, easily crossing multiple blocks over in a few long strides owing to the blue serum coursing through your veins.

though your mind remained stationary, fixated on a single face, how it’d crumble at the sight of the letter, how he’d probably end up hating you.

“took you long enough.”

her auburn locks were tied into a loose braid that curved around her neck, the tip sat just below her collarbone, a piss poor job held together by a thin maroon colored band.

it was quintessentially her, the lack of utter patience to spend two minutes looping three knots of hair one over the other.

you jogged over to the other side of the black suv, noticing a stark white rectangle where a liscence plate should be.

“he’s knocked out cold,” you asked as soon as you grabbed the door handle open, “how?”

lazropthalein.

it came in the mail in a brown package, no return address. bucky wasn’t home, he had a scheduled therapy session down the block.

just a pinch is enough.

the text from the unknown number read.

it had no odour, a clean, white colour to it that blended in seamlessly with the flour.

“you baked without me?” bucky gasped, dramatically, hand covering his gaping mouth. his other hand carried two plastic bags, filled to the brim, a purple razor was poking out the top.

he even had to drop the poor bags on the floor, just to emphasize the utter shock he felt.

“i got bored.” you giggled, wiping the countertop with a wet cloth, remnants of flour on the sleek marble turning goopy under it.

“traitor.”

“it’s just cupcakes.”

“still a cake.”

you sighed, “you’re a five year old.”

he huffed, trudging towards the living room, shoulders hunched to really hone in on just how devastating this was for him.

“don’t i get a hug?” you held your arms out, making grabby hands, following him.

apparently, the devastation was to the point where he had to bring out the big guns, the sad baby blues.

the act lasted for another minute? at best. hours later, he was happily munching away.

“i know why it tastes so good.” he moaned, smacking his lips.

your smile faltered a little, did he kn- no, there’s no way he could have known. you burned that little plastic bag as soon as you dumped a pinch in.

“yea?”

he grinned, popping the last bit left in “it was made with your love.”

“how did it work?” your voice rose several octaves higher, amplified further by the cool, silent night.

drugs and sedatives don’t work on supersoldiers yet a certain blue eyed one was back home, unmoving even if you screamed right into his ears.

“dr wilfred, he invented it. the power broker wanted something to balance out our,” she flared her hands at both of you, “super-soldierness, so that we don’t have an upper hand when all’s said and done.”

would the either of you even be alive when all was said and done?

“look, i know you didn’t want to do this but james, he won’t understand. he’s not one o-..”

“yea, can we jus- let’s just get out of here.” you get in beside her, whipping the seatbelt over your torso.

the car was stuffy, felt like a choke around your neck that only seemed to tighten more and more.

“if we go now, there’s no coming back.” she glances at you, hand curled over the gearstick ready to position it in place.

she was giving you an out, one last chance. karli was a lot of things and having a heart inside that cold, bitchy exterior was one.

“i know.”

you sunk deeper into your seat, the hoodie had a faint smell of burnt toast and that cologne which was on sale, almost half off if you cut out the taxes.

it smelled like him, too much like him.

until it didn’t after a few days. but you still slept with it, just outright refusing to wash it despite karli’s snarky remarks about hygiene.

hygiene could go fuck herself, for all you know.

compared to the motels and basements you guys shifted around in, that hoodie was a doctor’s scrubs.

when the moon hung low on the black sky, you tried not to think about him too much. the silence didn’t help, you needed something to drown out your thoughts. that’s when the ‘socialising’ with the other flag smashers started. they were nice.

nice cause you were the leader’s little sister. but also a huge fucking liability because of a certain supersoldier hot on their heels in search of you, ruining every goddamn plan so their niceness was.. limited.

karli was a natural when it came to it, all of it. the talking, rallying of supporters - fuck, she just had a way with words. she could make you believe she hung up the stars in the sky.

probably how she convinced you that holding a room chock full of council members hostage right smack in the middle of nyc was a good idea.

the only idea, more precisely.

you guys had the upper hand, more than a handful supersoldiers at your disposal, capable of taking down the entire military force if you so pleased.

the only playing card they had was one supersoldier, who was better off distracted, kept off the field.

so who better to send to do the deed than the love of his life.

“fred had a baby. multiple babies, spawn of the devil if you ask me. always running around, thrashing the place up.” he takes small steps towards you, slow and calculated, as if a lion stalking around a prey.

“you shouldn’t be here.” you lie through your teeth, a tiny white compared to the ones that’ve rolled off your tongue before.

“i think the neighbours call me a cat lady now,” his eyes shift around and he leans in to whisper, “they haven’t even seen my knitting skills yet.”

“stop.” you think you said it or much rather whispered it, your voice was failing you. he’s getting close, too close for your liking so why aren’t you backing away from him?

“fred misses you, you know. she wonders where you went.” he smiles but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

the hairs on your neck shoot up, a slight twitch of your brow. the way bucky’s ear perk up, you realise it’s not just you and him here anymore.

someone else has arrived.

“i’ve got it handled, john.” bucky turns around, plants him directly infront of you, blocking john’s view of you.

sure enough, it’s john limping in, a nasty gash across his chest.

your blood runs cold because this isn’t how it’s supposed to go.

john isn’t supposed to be here, he’s supposed to be fighting.. oh god. you notice the various splatters of blood on his cowl, on his boot, on his shield.

it’s too much blood from a guy who’s barely bleeding.

“really? i was thinking you should do more than just talk.” he spits on the ground and wipes his mouth.

you notice, the spit’s all blood too.

“i’m giving you a chance to walk away, right now.”

john snorts, leaning sideways to get a view of you, neck craned out.

“and leave this prize all to yourself?” he grins, “i’d be an idiot.”

“you have a death wish then.” you lift your chin a little higher, praying your quickening heartbeat doesn’t give away your calm exterior.

john whistles, grimacing as he straightens, “so, she does talk.”

you scowl, crossing your arms.

he’s in bad shape. he has no chance, not that he ever did even in his best shape. he knows that too yet he’s still here. that sends a chill up your spine.

“go, i got this.” bucky tips his head, glancing at you.

“i don’t need you to save me.” you hiss at him, which comes out a little harsher than you intended. an apology dies in your throat as he flinches just the slightest.

“trouble in paradise?” john’s barely finished saying it before he’s reached behind his back and swinging the vibranium

you hear it before you see it stopped mid air by a gloved hand. then you charge.

it’s all a hazy mix of blue and red until your fist connects with his jaw, sound of something breaking ringing in your ear.

something pulls your waist back, a grip far too strong to be just flesh.

“go, i’ll ta-..” bucky’s barely said anything before an upward cut from john connects to his neck, violent coughs ensuing.

you grip john’s arm before he’s even retracted it back, jump up his back, settling around his neck and twist until you hear a crack and a bloodcurling scream following suit.

he whips his head back right into your stomach, seizes that moment when the wind knocks out of you to pull you by your hair off him.

“i told you to go.” bucky growls, kicking john right in the shin that makes him kneel and you almost fall off but you keep your fingers tightly looped around john’s hair, pulling as hard you can.

but he’s relentless.

your head hits something hard and you realise you’re on the ground now, legs loosely around john’s shoulders, him also on the ground.

it’s like the both of you realise at the same time but you’re quicker. your legs tighten around his neck, against the spot where a thick neck muscle throbs. he claws desperately around, straining for oxygen

soon, his hands lull down, the dull thud on the ground confirming his unconsciousness.

“are you hurt?” bucky’s hovering over you, seemingly unfazed by john’s neck in a chokehold by your legs right now.

you reject his hand he extends and push yourself off the gravelly concrete on to your feet.

“this was a mistake.” you trail off, saying it more to your own self.

you weren’t the lion, you were the stupid fox who thought it was.

stupid enough to believe you were over bucky and that everything wouldn’t come rushing back as soon as you laid eyes on him.

he whips you around by your hand and before you know it, he’s already caught your other fist heading for his sternum. you barely feel the grip, it’s soft, just so incredibly soft and fits so right.

you hate it.

rage bubbles inside you, mostly at yourself. partly at him because he’s not screaming at you or slamming you against the wall or jus- anything.

you wrench your hand away, land a swing which he does nothing to block. his grip on your other hand loosens and he still does nothing when another hit to the jaw leaves him staggering,

instead, he looks at you softly as if resigning himself to your anger, to let it simmer off.

“fight back!” you scream, outstretched palms pushing him back.

he stumbles a few steps back, hands reaching out to yours resting on his chest, fingers intertwining yours tightly.

“stop.” it’s a soft plead, tears spiking the corners of his eyes.

“hit me!” you’re practically begging at this point, thrashing your arms around.

his hands grapple at your shoulders, bringing you to his chest, “it’s okay.”

he smells so sweet, just so sweet that you almost believe him.

“i drugged you and i left you and i-,” you inhale sharply, “i killed so many people, bucky.”

the last fourteen months had escalated quickly from doing what’s right to doing what’s needed, lines blurred between moral ethics and survival.

“it’s okay.” he repeats, hand patting your hair, gentle and soothing. your body betrays you, sinking into his touch, his warmth.

“you should hate me.” you whimper.

you wouldn’t blame him if he did. you doubt he could hate you more than you already did yourself.

he pulls back, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear, “i couldn’t if i tried.”

god, why does he have to be so.. bucky?

frustated, you spit out, “this? this was a distraction to separate you and sam.”

you don’t say it but it’s understood, understood that you wouldn’t have met him if not for it.

the inner corners of his brows angle up slightly, a ghost of a smile on his lips, “i know.”

your breath hitches, if he knows then wh-

“then, why..?”

you finally look up at him, vision blurry because of the stupid tears pooling at your eyes.

his thumb wipes away a tear dribbling down your cheek, the coldness of the metal a clear contrast to the warm moisture, “you know why.”

a/n : this one’s been sitting pretty, collecting cobwebs in my drafts so thought i’d take it out lol, also haven’t been posting fics in a whileeee cause im dumb and i’ve been working on multiple things all at once lol yea this is me rambling and also i just wanna say that i. love. folklore. sm. that whole album has me crying and sad and just :((

#bucky barnes #bucky #bucky x reader #bucky x you #bucky x y/n #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky fic #james bucky barnes #bucky fanfic #bucky imagine #fatws bucky #fatws #flag smashers #marvel #mcu

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