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absconditum-imaginaerum · 3 years

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Hyunjae | Vulnerable Words | 18.7K Genre | Fluff, Angst, Mutual Pining Notes | Female!Reader x The Boyz Hyunjae, Post College AU. Mentions of alcohol, threats, unhealthy relationships, cursing. A whole shared brain written piece of work; Rainah and I wrote such eerily similar stories without the other’s knowledge, and here’s my rendition. This is a work of fiction, and any depictions of actions, behaviors, thoughts, and personalities of characters used in this story do not reflect reality. Summary | Hyunjae’s been gone for six years, leaving his family and friends behind to escape some painful feelings. Once returning, he realizes that those six years did nothing to help his feelings, and after running into you again, he’s convinced they’ll never go away, and that you’ve felt the same way all along.

Hyunjae hadn’t spent a summer vacation—or any vacation for that matter—in his hometown since leaving for college. He couldn’t place exactly what drew him back, but his parents were ecstatic when he arrived with a suitcase in hand and a shy expression on his face, hoping he still had somewhere to stay, even unannounced, with them. There was an air about his hometown that felt like a sea breeze on his face, like a breath of fresh air, a familiarity he couldn’t seem to find anywhere else.

His mother welcomed him with open arms, always thrilled to see her little boy, especially when she was never quite sure when she would see him again outside their visits to him. A fresh face he was surprised, but happy, to see was his older sister’s. She gave him a warm smile, waiting for her turn to embrace him after finally getting past their mother.

“You’ve been gone so long, you know,” she said to him. An explanation was queued in his throat transitorily just to hum in response, but for a moment just being welcomed by his family was calming.

“I always have classes in the summer and winter, and it’s a long way for a couple of days,” he explained. His father knew his ambitions, always studying extra hard at school, and was always encouraged to join extracurriculars or take more classes if he could—so he did.

“So, then, what made you take this summer off?” she asked.

It was an inevitable question he knew would be asked, but no matter how many times he thought to himself about the reason, he couldn’t come up with one other than he felt like he should, like he wanted to, like something was calling him back. Unable to answer, he shrugged it off before trekking up the stairs of a house he once called his.

Hyunjae got settled into his old room. Most of the things he didn’t take to college or didn’t ask to be kept were gone, and his bed was a full instead of a twin now, which must have meant that they used his room for guests—which he now was. For a brief moment, he sat on his bed, taking in the reality of actually being back in his hometown and seeing his family for the first time outside of FaceTime in a while. All the trinkets and pictures he’d asked his mom to save glimmered and glowered at him—maybe it was time to go through them to see what he wanted to get rid of. He reached over and gently plucked a silver frame from the dresser which encased a picture of himself and a girl he knew from a long time ago: his childhood best friend.

Hyunjae thought about you often, about what you were doing, if school had treated you well and how your family was— you both were that type of friends, the type that was close with the other’s family, the type whose families were basically your own. After moving away, he’d thought about you a lot through college in many lights; the good and the bad.

It was late enough in the evening that fifteen minutes into feeling nostalgic about his old life and friendships made it to dinner time. He was almost startled by the way his mom softly knocked on the frame of his door to alert him that dinner was ready, and although he didn’t feel overly hungry, he wouldn’t refuse mom’s homemade cooking or dare not sit down with them at the very least.

The evening wasn’t eventful, mostly just catching his family up on what life has been like for the time he’d been away, and similarly asked about things going on around there—about how much it had changed and become more accommodating to the younger crowd and how things had shifted around and all of the infrastructure that had been built. It was so much busier than he’d last remembered, with new shopping strips of immaculate and fingerprint-less glass storefronts with fancy chrome polished doors and neon signs that lit up the night; new bars and restaurants popping up in more populated areas he’d only glazed over while in the back of a ride-share on the way to his parent’s home.

His family stayed up much later than they had back before he left for college—he only knew because it was unusual for him to be tired before the rest of them, but when he took a peek at the clock, registering quarter to twelve, he was surprised.

“You’ve had a long day of travels, you don’t have to stay up for us,” Hyunjae’s mother commented, resting a hand against her son’s shoulder to bring him back to life, somewhat, as he was dozing off a bit in the corner of the couch. After moving to get up he gave her a soft smile, bid his family goodnight, and headed back to his room.

The bed and sheets were different, but somehow the way they slid over his body, the cool sheets meeting the warmth of his skin, something about it felt like home. Maybe it was the familiarity of the shape of his room, of the same furniture in the same spots, some trinkets still here and there he had fond memories of, or the comfort of the pillows that he sunk into like a sack of bricks. Maybe he really just was that tired from traveling and the somewhat mental exhaustion of being back and still not understanding what brought him here that any old bed may have felt like this. Despite that, he couldn’t help but glance over to the picture he was hanging on to previously. You both had just graduated high school in the picture, hanging on each other with playful smiles donning your caps and gowns. He wondered what you looked like now because he knew he looked quite a bit different.

Then he began to wonder if you ever thought about him, about how once he left for college the two of you quickly stopped talking... And now that he was thinking about it, he wondered if the number in his phone was even still your number.

Audibly sighing, he rolled onto his side to face away from the dresser from which that photograph was glowering at him, or so it felt. He closed his eyes and pressed his head deep into the pillow, tucking the sheets under his arm so just enough chill of the air conditioning would make it comfortable and somehow, despite his racing thoughts, he fell asleep.

Three days of summer ‘vacation’ went by agonizingly slowly, but he’d gotten the opportunity to look around some new shops that had popped up around the area with his sister before he was looking at your number in his contacts. Was it even worth reaching out to you? Would you even want to see him? Surely if he was having these feelings, there was a chance that maybe you were feeling them, too. So, as he sat across a bistro table from his sister after ordering lunch, his finger hovered over the message button before typing something quickly so he couldn’t change his mind.

An immediate notification came back from his service provider, notifying him that the number he had messaged was no longer in service, but that didn’t seem to ease his tension any as he looked back at the message with a displeased expression—shockingly upset in a way even he couldn’t understand.

“Who are you secretly texting under the table?” Hyunjae’s sister asked, not even remotely distracted with her food enough to not notice.

Hyunjae sighed, there was no reason to lie—it didn’t even really matter at this point, all hopes of him contacting you had been thwarted by the fact that you’d changed your number who even knew how long ago.

“An old friend from a long time ago, but their number is disconnected,” he replied with a sigh and all but tossed his phone against the rustic wood table, finally turning to his flavored tea for the first sip since it had arrived, and already their food was there. “I haven’t seen her since we both left for separated colleges… I figured if I was going to be here, it might be worth seeing her if she was still around.”

She looked at him for a moment; one name clicking in her mind right away and without thinking blurted it out. Hyunjae turned his gaze away from his plate, trying to wrangle his appetite, and up to his sister. Your name almost hurt him to speak out loud, but his look only confirmed his sister’s suspicions.

“Her family still lives around the corner, their old house…” she trailed off, trying not to step on any toes if there were toes to be stepped on, “I’m sure her mom would like to see you, she asks about you a lot.”

“Mom never told me that,” Hyunjae replied, appetite completely out the window that his point even if he picked around at the side of fruit on his plate.

“At the very least, you might be able to ease yourself about it.”

So, after a few more days of hanging around at home, helping his mom with some shopping, and exploring his some-what forgotten town with his sister, he pulled on a light jacket after dinner and announced he was going for a walk. His sister gave him a knowing look, almost promising she wouldn’t say where he was going as he stepped into his shoes and left out the front door. The way to your house was emblazoned in his mind, he knew it like the back of his hand—it was close and he couldn’t even count the number of times he’d been there over the years.

The yard was the same, littered with beautiful flowers as it always had been—your mother had a knack for gardening. All the flora was nicely groomed while the outside lights illuminated the walk-way a pale yellow color that glowed in the twilight air. He approached the door, a tight knot in his stomach; he hadn’t even planned anything to say to you, if you happened to be there, which almost made him turn back if he hadn’t already pressed the bell, listening to it chime loudly through the house before a quiet voice called back.

Hyunjae shoved his hands deep into his pockets as he listened to the locks turn before the door opened to a woman he was so familiar with, a woman who didn’t look a day older than when he’d last seen her at his high school graduation. A soft smile pulled at his lips, and his eyes softened just looking at her. She smiled back, although there was a glint in her eyes that told him that she wasn’t quite sure who he was.

“Can I help you?” she asked politely.

Hyunjae’s smile faded a bit, but not enough to drop from his face.

“I’m here to see my second family, after being gone for six years,” he replied gently, hoping that was enough.

She shook her head as her gaze cast away from him, which inevitably resulted in the smile dropping from Hyunjae’s face.

“Six years pass and your son from another family doesn’t even call you mom anymore,” she teased him as her eyes came back up to meet his disappointed gaze. “You’ve gotten so tall over the years, Hyunjae.”

His smile struggled to come back, and all he knew was the warmth of her embrace as she stepped just outside the door to wrap her arms around him. “I ask about you all the time, your mother always tells me how busy you’ve been and that you don’t even come to visit them.”

Somehow it made him feel guiltier coming from your mom than his own mom—maybe that was because his dad was always chirping in the background about studying hard, about how they’d always be there for him to come back when he was ready. His hands slowly pulled out of his pockets to embrace her back with words caught in his throat, a poor excuse of an explanation about why he hadn’t come back. It didn’t matter, the thought of you loomed in the back of his mind like a bad dream, and, as if her intuition could still reach him…

“She’s out at work tonight. Would you like me to let her know you dropped by?”

Now he was really on the spot. He could feel a shiver shoot down his spine and he thought about just asking for your phone number, but that felt like too much of a hassle. His hands shook a bit, and he was sure your mom could hear the way his heart raged against the cage of his chest just trying to come up with a response to a simple yes or no question.

“Yes, please,” he finally blurted, but it sounded unsure, there was no conviction. She reeled back to get a good look at his face, to see the nerves all over it, to see the frustration knitted in his brow.

“She asks me about you, which is half the reason I ask about you. When your mom said you never come around for holidays—”

“I wish she’d called me,” he interrupted; but did he mean it?

“You both were busy! She didn’t want to bother you—if you weren’t coming home for vacation, she figured you were doing other things. I’ll let her know you stopped by, I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to hear that you’re in visiting for a bit.”

Hyunjae slowly nodded and allowed your mom to return inside and bid him goodnight before he was turning away on autopilot. A million things were running through his mind—the most important seemed to be what would he say to you when he finally did see you again for the first time? He couldn’t even come up with something good to say even on the spot with you potentially answering the door to your childhood home. For certain he knew that he would be standing there, looking like a fool, stuttering for quite some time—he had no doubt you’d just look at him with that same patient look whenever he couldn’t come up with the right words for you.

After returning, he didn’t have too much to say as he headed up to his room, the same thoughts cycling his mind like a cropped film reel, but it wasn’t distracting enough to stop him from grabbing that same silver-framed photo of the two of you and plopped on his bed to look at it, hoping it would inspire some things to say.

At least he’d have three days before seeing you, finally, but it was fairly unexpected. His family was just getting ready to sit down to eat when there was a knock on the door. As the youngest and spryest, Hyunjae stood from the table to allow his family to start eating, but they were just as curious. An awkwardness loomed the moment his eyes met yours after tugging the door open; of course, he didn’t recognize you, really—it had been a good chunk of time since he last saw you.

“Sorry, maybe I’m at the wrong house,” you tried, a plate of baked goods in your hands as you looked back at Hyunjae before taking a step back to look at the address. There was a screech of a chair across the floor as it was being pushed out, followed by another one before the doorway was crowded by his sister and mother who greeted you enthusiastically. It didn’t take long for you to come to the ultimate conclusion.

Your eyes shot back to Hyunjae’s, who was still looking at you despite all of the commotion coming from around him which inevitably pushed him out of the way of the doorway. Somehow the plate was coaxed out of your hand with a million questions being asked about it and you were being tugged into the house with insistence that you join them for dinner. You couldn’t answer, your gaze remained locked with Hyunjae until the both of them realized that he was your primary focus, and quickly the chatter stopped and silence took over again.

“Well, aren’t you going to say something to her?” his sister asked, prompting him to come somewhat back to life and he shook his head, swallowing hard, but still nothing was in there to say—he wasn’t sure what to say, so he settled with your name. There was a burning within your face that you couldn’t contain, and couldn’t help the way your eyes trailed away from his face.

“Hyunjae… it’s been so long, I didn’t even recognize you,” you finally said, but still didn’t feel comfortable just yet looking back up at him.

Hyunjae swallowed the knot in his throat, and after some prompting from his sister in the background, finally found something good to say.

“Would you… would you please stay for dinner with us?” he asked. You could feel the nerves in the shakiness of his voice, and in the half-step he took towards you which you could only see because you were looking at his feet. “There’s plenty, and you’re not a bother, and… to be honest, I tried messaging you the other day, but I don’t have your number anymore and I went to your mom’s and—”

“I’ll stay,” you replied, finally finding the heart to look up at him with a soft genuine smile. You could hear his sister and mom behind you, but still, you were focused on the grown-up boy in front of you, who had grown so tall since you’d last seen him—you weren’t even heighted anymore. Hyunjae pulled out your chair at the table and got you a plate and some utensils. Naturally, he placed you between him and his sister where you usually sat when you stayed with them for dinner when you were younger.

Conversation ensued quickly between you and the rest of Hyunjae’s family since you were still far more familiar with them. You settled in next to Hyunjae again, and although there was a lot to talk about, a lot to catch up on between the two of you, you enjoyed the fact that the rest of the family was breaking the awkwardness and allowing you and Hyunjae to chime in when appropriate.

The conversation was mostly about you, about school, about how life had been since leaving for college since you and Hyunjae had pretty much broken contact by the end of the first semester. Honestly, it broke both your hearts a little bit, and you could feel the stinging of those same pieces even now. Hyunjae told you what your mom said, about you not wanting to call him, and all of the subsequent lack of communication that led to your complete separation. Conversation seemed to flow a bit more freely between the two of you again, deep somewhere there was an understanding about the hurt that the split caused the both of you. Unfortunately, after that, dinner went quickly and although it wasn’t getting too late, you felt like you needed to go.

“Thank you for the lovely dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Lee, inviting me in so unannounced,” you began, and then addressed Hyunjae’s sister and then Hyunjae.

“It’s always a pleasure to have you over, dear,” Mrs. Lee commented with that same full smile she always had. She always made you feel like a part of the family, like her own daughter.

“Let me walk you home,” Hyunjae offered.

“It’s not far,” you reminded him.

“It’s late and I don’t want you to go by yourself,” he insisted.

He could see the fight in your eyes, the same fight from the number of years ago when he’d say the same thing, when he’d walk you home no matter how much you insisted it wasn’t necessary. The way you dug in was noticeable, preparing to stand your ground against him because, who was he to be so concerned as someone who left? And maybe that was the wrong mindset to have about him because you could feel, even in the way he looked at you, that he still cared for you.

Hyunjae gave you that look where his gaze got a little more tender and there was an almost unnoticeable raise of his brows and a head flick towards the door. It had you swallowing hard, barely even noticing the silence before it was interrupted.

“Please, Hyunjae will walk you home! It’s safer that way!” Hyunjae’s sister chimed in and took a hold of your arm to bring you back to earth. You looked at her, blinking a few times before reluctantly nodding. She gave you a tight squeeze, reminding you how good it was to see you and to not be a stranger because she would always be around and Hyunjae was home for the whole summer.

Out of old habit, Hyunjae extended his elbow to you, and, to avoid being overly awkward, you took it, but not without looking up at him questioningly as he was pulling you out of the door. You walked slowly side by side once getting off the initial porch of his parent’s home, and he reached over to cup over your hand to keep it from slipping away.

“If you don’t mind too much…” he trailed off, asking you to keep your hand around his arm as he escorted you to your home. He didn’t look at you, even when you looked up at him. It was okay, though, because you could hear something in his voice that pained you a bit, so you tightened your grip around his bicep as you moseyed along the sidewalk. The street lamps provided dim light, barely enough to see the cracks in the slabs of concrete. Admittedly, you felt better that he was walking you home anyway—ever since all of the development in the area, it somehow felt less safe year after year that you’d come home for the summer or winter.

Hyunjae was silent the entirety of the walk; the only noise he did make was an occasional rough exhale of a somewhat held breath, and in the off chance that you attempted to sneak a peek of him from the corner of your eye you could see his chest contract with that exhale. Then, you were under the familiar light of your home’s porch before you were ready. You knew the walk was only a couple of blocks, but you’d hoped there was more time with the pace at which you were walking. There was so much stuck in your throat that you wanted to say, so much that probably wouldn’t ever come out unless he spoke first; but it looked like there was little to no intention.

You could feel his bicep flex under your hand, his whole body tensing up next to you as he took another rickety breath. With your eyes still cast down at the ground, you turned your head to him before your gaze fluttered up his chest to his throat and eventually his face; he had gotten so much taller since leaving. The numbers of your address next to it seemed to scrutinize him before he swallowed hard. Hyunjae carefully peeled your hand away from his arm and held onto it as he helped you up the step onto your actual porch landing.

“Hyunjae,” you tried as you turned to face him—leaving in complete silence seemed incomprehensible, unimaginable.

“I’m sorry,” he replied quietly, but his gaze was still cast to the side of you. “I guess just actually seeing you, actually sitting down with you at the table with my family like old times just…opened wounds I didn’t know were there…”

The tone in his voice and the look in his distant gaze was like putting salt in the wounds you knew were there, you knew had been there for years. It took a few moments of silence, but his eyes eventually found yours. He looked at you with a tenderness you’d never seen out of him before, and of course, over six years there was a lot of growing and a lot of changes, but this particular look put knots in your stomach, unlike anything you had ever felt before.

“I think if we’re going to do any mending, that’s a talk we need to have,” you answered, finally noticing the way his hand lingered in yours, the way it had been for the last few moments that you hadn’t registered his fingers playing with yours.

The moment his gaze turned away from yours again, you took a step forward and your hand left his to turn his chin back towards you. “That means you can’t run away again,” you reminded him, as if his first departure away to college was him running away in the first place.

He nodded in your soft grip, but you could see the way his brow ached to draw together.

“Go home, sleep on it, get the right words… we’ll talk,” you told him, hands both dropping back to your sides.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, but this time you weren’t sure what for. Just as you were about to turn towards your door to leave him, he took you around the middle and dragged you into him, hulling you up against his firm chest as his arms tightened against you. Initially, you were surprised. The audacity, but also the guts it took to pull you into a hug when he was stumbling over his words like a dancer with two left feet. Your hands ghosted up his arms, slowly feeling his frame—tall and warm against your own—before your arms draped across his shoulders. Your head was turned to the side, pressed against his collar turned inwards towards the center, and, much to your own surprised, you relished the hug like home. This felt akin to the hug he gave you before you both departed to your separate cities, vowing that he would maintain contact which quickly disintegrated. Honestly, it had tears pricking at your eyes like you were saying goodbye all over again, but also releasing the gates on the emotions you’d stowed away for all those years with no thoughts that he’d ever come back.

His breathing was now even more noticeably rickety with your head pressed up against his chest. A few more times he apologized, still for reasons you weren’t aware of, and squeezed you even tighter for just a moment longer before he was finally releasing you.

“I’ll wait until you’re inside,” he said as you stepped back from him, and even still he wouldn’t look right at you.

“Go home safely,” you replied, stepping backward until your back unceremoniously hit your front door. You were pawing at the handle, watching him wait for you until you finally popped the door to let yourself inside. “Goodnight, Hyunjae,” you added.

“Goodnight,” he replied, and your gaze finally met his before you turned to close him away from you.

Hyunjae spent the next couple of days mulling over your brief conversation about a conversation that still was yet to be had. It was up to him to find you when he was ready; obviously, he had a lot to say to you which would undoubtedly be coupled with a bit of stumbling around for the correct words, no matter how many days he had to think about it.

At least, he attempted to think about it. He slowly kicked his way down the river-front walkway to the dock where you used to play around as kids. The river-front was full of all kinds of neat little local mom and pop shops that gave life to the town, especially when the sun was setting in spring or fall when it gleamed off the river just right and an array of purples and oranges and all the colors in between painted the sky so beautifully. It used to be an empty area, abandoned commercially with the docks left to be perfect ground to play pretend as kids.

He remembered the dock fondly as he stepped off the concrete path and onto the surprisingly preserved wooden boards that looked like they had been sanded and re-varnished recently. Maybe the dock was still in use for smaller boats, or maybe those people who owned the river-front stores kept it looking nice for tourism purposes. Either way, he was happy, because that meant he had to worry less about splinters.

The tide was out, so there was plenty of room for Hyunjae to dangle his legs off the side of the dock as he took a seat, looking out to the glittering seawater which was reflecting the aforementioned sunset colors. He recalled all the fond memories he had of this particular dock with you—it was where you spent most of your time together playing pirates and other silly little kids games and remembered one time very vividly when he was roughhousing a little too much and you ended up tumbling off the dock into the water. He was lucky his older sister was there to pull you out—you were maybe six or seven at the time; he remembered how bad he felt, how many times he profusely apologized and the way you smiled about it, laughed about it even and gave him a hard time for being too concerned. Looking back on it, he wouldn’t have changed anything.

Incessantly he gnawed at his bottom lip, doing a little more thinking of the way things used to be and less thinking about what he would say to you when the inevitable conversation came. Maybe he’d benefit from playing through his memories, and he would have continued to think of them if there wasn’t an iced drink being shaken right next to his ear.

He jumped, a bit startled by the sound, and looked over to a stout iced coffee being handed to him and followed the arm up to your face, where you smiled at him jovially with the straw of your own coffee comfortable between your lips.

“Did you know I would be here?” he asked you and tenderly took the coffee from you and scooted over to make a bit of room for you to sit next to him. You plopped down, hanging your legs off the side of the dock the same way his were for a moment, examining your coffee as you stirred it.

“I had a hunch… and then I stopped by your house,” you told him, implying that they had told you that he went for a walk, but how many places could he possibly go in a city that wasn’t his anymore.

“I’m not ready to have the talk,” he replied quickly as to not get your hopes up about it.

“That’s okay,” you said, “we don’t have to talk about that, we can talk about anything. Or we don’t have to talk at all.”

“But you bought me a coffee—”

“I could see you from the shop,” you laughed, referencing the river-front shop maybe fifty yards away.

Hyunjae just nodded, still too nervous to even look at you again since taking the coffee from you in the first place. He hadn’t even tasted it, just continued to spin the ice around the clear plastic cup as condensation built up on its sides before finally mustering the courage to thank you for the coffee.

A few moments of silence passed--if he didn’t have anything to say, that was fine, but you wouldn’t be the one to force conversation as you kicked your feet back and forth and continued to sip on your coffee. You found the nerves fluttering around in your stomach were also making it hard to look at him, which probably benefitted him anyway.

You wouldn’t, and couldn’t, blame him for being closed off, and gave him a pass for a couple of days ago, the affection and openness after the first time seeing you; the well of emotions was hard to ignore especially when the two of you used to be so close. But now that he had a few days to settle in, a few days to think about that… a different tune was expected. The imminent conversation that loomed in the background of both your minds (perhaps at the forefront of his) was only exacerbating the awkwardness you stewed in.

“Do you want me to go?” you asked after a moment; you had, after all, been the one to come second. It was his dock if he wanted it.

“No, I’m sorry. A million things are running through my mind, and I’m just trying to not say something stupid,” he replied, and finally, the blood rushing through him gave him enough adrenaline, faux confidence, to turn his head just enough to peer at you from the corner of his eyes.

“I didn’t mean to make this trip so hard on you—”

“It’s not you, it’s me. It’s one hundred percent me, and that’s the part I’m grappling the hardest with. I just…” He sighed, taking a moment to compose himself as he ran his free hand through his hair, pushing it back from his forehead just to let it flutter back into place. “You must hate me, for treating you the way I did. For never bothering to check in with you, or even come back. For just leaving you behind like you were nothing.”

His words stung, indubitably. Although that was the fact of the matter, you’d always tried to make excuses for him, but when he gave it to you in total plainness, you understood his feelings a bit better.

“I was afraid to go, and part of me felt like I would be better off if I just… forgot about here and everything with it.�� He paused for a moment, biting that bottom lip harder than ever before, and stifled a growl deep in his throat when he finally clenched his teeth together. “I’m sorry, for being such a… freaking jerk!” His voice raised volume at the end of his sentence, emphasizing the way he assumed you felt about him because that was how he felt about him. “There’s so much more I want to say to you but I just don’t… I don’t have the right words yet.”

He took a deep swig of his coffee to try to cool himself off after winding himself up, but it was mostly so he’d shut up before saying anything else harmful because he could already feel the shift in your aura that wasn’t so jovial anymore. Admittedly, his words clawed at the metaphorical stitch job over your wounds, pulling hard at the threads that closed them up, and you could taste a bit of that initial pain resurfacing. Emotionally, you didn’t want to have that coming conversation, but logically you knew that if you were going to heal completely about each other that it was entirely necessary.

“Thank you for being vulnerable with me,” you finally said after a few moments of silence. You knew how much it took to get just even that out, the amount of pride he undoubtedly had to push aside to admit fault in the first place. The fact that he openly admitted he was afraid was somehow unlike the Hyunjae you used to know.

He couldn’t even look at you again and took another sip of his coffee to effectively polish off the small cup before he discarded it to the side you sat on. Gingerly, you collected it intending to throw it away when you left, guessing it would be before him. The silence that loomed between you had you able to hear the way his fingernails scratched against the fresh varnish of the dock in frustration.

“Why are you even sitting here with me? I wouldn’t even have the patience to talk to me until it was time to hear me grovel at your feet about what a piece of shit I was and how I don’t even deserve you to still be in my life anyway and that it was foolish of me to even go to your house, to begin with, and—”

“Stop,” you interrupted, maneuvering both cups to one hand somehow just so you could set your now free hand down on top of his to squeeze it.

“But I just—”

“Hyunjae, stop!” you pleaded, and he’d finally turned to look you in the eye, entirely, for the first time since you sat down. “You’re not a piece of shit—”

“Only that could possibly do to you what I did; a spineless and weak little—”

“Enough!” you begged—now he was just making you angry, but only because you were hurt with the way he beat himself up harder than you ever would; that was something you found familiar about him. “You know I don’t think that!”

“Don’t sit here and lie to my face like this,” he almost growled. “I know what I did to you, and I would hate me—”

“Great, but you’re not me,” you fired back with matched ferocity, and so you exchanged your look between his eyes, noting the way they shimmered amber reflecting the sunset light off the water, noting the way they looked at you with such intensity, while trying to stave the tears that were pushing against his waterline. There was a bubbling against your throat, words you knew you didn’t want to say that burned like wildfire. You continued to switch between his eyes, knowing the things queued weren’t going to help the situation in any way and so, to avoid saying something you knew you’d regret, and since you knew he wouldn’t stop pushing you, you pushed up from the dock and took his empty plastic cup with you to leave him with the burn of your hand on top of his and that distinct lack of your gaze into his eyes.

Then, and only then, did the tears that threatened have room to fall. His nails scraped against the dock even harder as he clenched his fist, still able to feel the warmth of your hand on top of his as he stared through the ghost of your presence. His jaw was tight, and his tears were hot—they were angry, frustrated, discontent but not with you. The wounds were deeper than he thought, still more tender than he thought, and all that led him to a harsh conclusion—the final talk would be even worse hell than he initially imagined.

A few days away from each other allowed for a bit of cooling off. Hyunjae drafted a few notes of things he wanted to say to you but often scrapped them, knowing that it would sound ingenuous if he was reading off a cue card. Several crumpled half sheets of paper filled his trashcan, a sight that annoyed him even as he lay on his bed with his eyes closed, knowing he needed to get something to stick. It was already two weeks into summer break and while there was plenty of break left, the sooner you had this talk, the sooner he would stop feeling like complete garbage for being in the same town as you.

That’s really what it was; initially, it felt so good to see you again—although you’d changed a lot in six years, the familiar presence made home feel a lot more comfortable. But the more he settled in, the more he thought about it—thought about what you were feeling, thought about how you made him feel, thought about everything that went down before he said what he imagined was his last goodbye and quite frankly, for as much as he cherished and cared about you, the goodbye was sub-par to shit. And he knew it would come crashing down, that comforting euphoria of having you close to him again when those fateful words exited your mouth: that’s a talk we need to have.

He hated the feeling that was coursing through him now, touching every nerve ending he had, absolute dread. Now, he was feeling like it was a mistake to come back, although he was entitled to the town as much as you were as his family lived there also—the biggest mistake was trying to see you again.

A knock on his door brought him out of his thoughts and his eyes opened to look at it as it began to crack open. His sister had a tray with some cups and a kettle on that she was maneuvering through the door, pushing it back closed with her foot as she set the tray on the large dresser to the left. She looked at Hyunjae before noticing the pile of paper around his small garbage.

“What happened?” she asked, knowing it was something because Hyunjae seldom spent so much time in his room, plus he’d been off for a couple of days since he’d seen you at the dock.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Hyunjae replied, gracefully accepting the freshly poured tea his sister was handing him.

“I don’t think that’s what I asked,” she replied—she usually didn’t let him get away with that, even since they were kids.

Hyunjae sighed and blew on his cup of tea for a moment. “Just marinating in the consequences of my colossal fuck ups,” he replied with a fake smile to the emptiness of his room, although the statement was directed at his sister.

“She doesn’t hate you, if that’s what you think,” she replied and took a seat on his bed. “She’s hurt about you; I’d be hurt about you. There’s a lot to process between the two of you right now, a bit deeper than you might expect to find. It’s awkward and tense and tough to swallow, but you have to do it if you want to salvage it. But I know she doesn’t hate you.”

He swallowed hard; he didn’t even want to look at his sister for the time being as he was having a hard time with the things she was even saying—they were true; he knew they were true. But about you not hating him? Maybe he didn’t believe that. He was slipping into his thoughts again before his phone started vibrating in his pocket. It was unusual, because seldom did anyone call anymore, and who would be calling anyway? He finagled it out of his pocket to look at the caller ID to see someone he recognized: Kevin Moon.

Hesitantly, he swiped to answer, leaving his sister to occupy herself about his room.

“Hello?” he muttered unconfidently.

“Hyunjae! I heard you’re finally back in town!” Kevin’s voice seemed a bit too jovial, jolting Hyunjae a bit.

“Ahh… yeah. It’s been a minute, huh?” he inquired less enthusiastically.

“A minute! More like a lifetime; you’ve been gone for six years! Anyway enough about that; I’ve planned a get-together for a bunch of friends from back in the day! You know, our high school group! When I heard you were back, I had to invite you! You should come by, I’m sure everyone would love to see you!”

It would be rude to ask who was invited, and then decide based on that; but there was certainly a handful of people he would do better not seeing again, perhaps. He had an answer queued in his throat, he wanted to say that he wouldn’t make it—

“You better go, you’re not doing anything and you need to get out,” his sister commented, loud enough for Kevin to hear.

The look on Hyunjae’s face dropped in an instant when Kevin confirmed that he heard and looked at his sister with daggers in his eyes.

“I’ll kill you,” he mouthed to her but she just smiled and sipped her tea. He composed himself with a deep breath before agreeing to be there and briefly negotiated the time and place and after Kevin hung up, he let out an exasperated sigh.

“There are so many people who are going to be there that I don’t want to see,” he grumbled.

“But there’s so many people who you do! Plus, people who would love to see you, and you can’t just mope around here all day, I won’t have it!” she exclaimed and took her seat back next to him. “You need to get out; sitting up here and thinking about what you’re going to say will make you age too fast. The right words will come, I promise.”

“I think you’re too confident,” Hyunjae said.

“I need to be confident for both of us,” she reminded him and filled her cup back up before leaving him with the rest of the pot in his room.

It was already late in the afternoon at that point, and Kevin’s party would be starting in a couple of hours. He sat on his bed with his legs crossed as he finished off the pot of tea, taking up another half an hour before finally deciding he would shower for the party and at least try to look more put together than he felt. What did the extent of the old group mean? Because you were technically part of the old group; asking about you outright would be too suspicious. There would be plenty of people there to keep you both distracted from each other especially since they’d undoubtedly seen you far more, which meant it was likely he’d be engaged the whole time.

He set the tray off to the side on his desk—he’d take it back downstairs later—and grabbed some things for the shower with a sincere hope that some hot water would help clear his mind. And perhaps he spent far too much time in there, because by the time he got out and checked the clock it was already twenty minutes passed when he thought it was. He rushed through toweling his hair somewhat dry enough to comb it a certain way and hoped it would stay, tugged on a black button-up and a light wash pair of jeans before he was heading out the door, mentioning briefly to his parents that he was going to Kevin’s, a name they were familiar with, and that he’d be back later.

When Kevin answered the door, it was nothing short of a party right there. It had been a long time since any of them had seen him, so the commotion was understandable, and then an actual genuine smile broke on Hyunjae’s face as he clapped hands with his buddy who was quickly garnering the attention of the other party-goers who had also missed him.

Hyunjae stepped through the door, a cup immediately put in his hand as he greeted all his old high school buddies amongst the dimly lit room. Kevin always knew how to set the mood of a get-together; this was no different, done up with candles and string lights that slowly faded to different soft colors with some low music in the background. There were a couple of yard games going on outside, corn hole and beer pong with tables of appetizers and coolers full of drinks of all varieties.

“Wow, Kev, you went all out,” Hyunjae commented and reached into his pocket for his wallet to try and supplement some of the cost, but Kevin stopped him immediately.

“You’re the guest of honor; you’re the whole reason I put this thing together,” he replied and encouraged him to put his wallet back. “When I heard you were back I knew the guys would be stoked to see you. It seems like you’ve been gone a lifetime!”

Hyunjae laughed nervously and hoped that he wouldn’t be asked why he never came back to visit. It was a thought he was still grappling with; a thought he knew half the answer to but the other half was something he’d rather not visit. He had mentioned it to you out loud that day on the dock and it left a burning in his throat ever since—he couldn’t decide if it was because it was the truth or because he knew he was only telling you part of it. Regardless, he tried to push it from his mind before taking a swig from the plastic solo cup in his hand: a hurricane tasting concoction that wasn’t quite right and a bit too strong.

As he expected, he was fairly occupied with the swaths of conversations, always being caught by someone new he thought he’d never see again to strike up a conversation about what he was up to and so far, he’d avoided the dreaded question about not visiting. It was safe to assume that he was just caught up in things; Hyunjae was always a hard studier; school was very important. In a fairly short time, considering the duration of Kevin’s parties typically, he’d gotten through most of the high school group who had come up to him in small circles to greet him and catch up a bit.

For a bit, he’d been roped into a couple of games of corn hole. It was fun while it lasted, although he couldn’t say he was any good at it. It was the bonding and laughing that counted, especially when someone’s throw was particularly bad and they all laughed at each other for never playing games like this in their college days—it seemed everyone turned out to be quite studious in their time at school and spent less time at frat parties.

When one of the rounds was finally over and Hyunjae’s drink had run dry, he found a replacement for his team and excused himself back inside the house to make something more his speed. There were a few small circles of people who seemed like they were all catching up—turned out he wasn’t the only one gone for an extended period. Hyunjae dug through a cooler for a can of coke to mix his own drink before he was overhearing some drama he probably shouldn’t have concerned himself with, but it was right around the corner from the kitchen and it sounded unwelcomed.

“Please just leave me alone,” a voice Hyunjae recognized sounded quietly. Suddenly his desires were conflicted when could tell they were trying not to make a scene but then recognized the voice as yours. On the one hand, he figured the two of you needed a little more space, but on the other hand, was he about to just stand by and let whoever was bothering you continue to do so?

No, he couldn’t let it go, and set his cup down on the kitchen counter, and carefully rounded the corner of the wall to find you sandwiched between it and Sangyeon, someone he considered to be close friends with at one point in time. The look on your face when you finally opened your eyes to see him was nothing short of desperate, but Sangyeon had you locked in tight.

Hyunjae wanted to verbalize his protest, but the look on your face caught his words in his throat. Instead, he stepped forward and took Sangyeon’s shoulder to pull him away from you.

“She asked you to leave her alone,” he was finally able to manage just as Sangyeon had stumbled back slightly, ready to give Hyunjae a few choice words before meeting eyes with the familiar younger male. In less than a second flat, you’d scrambled off the wall to take Hyunjae’s arm as he protectively tucked you behind him, expecting a confrontation. Sangyeon knew the history between you and Hyunjae well.

“Dude, it’s cool,” he tried, a friendly smile on his face as he reached for you.

“Dude, it’s not cool. She asked you to leave her alone,” Hyunjae fired back, taking a step back, and subsequently stepping you back.

“Babe, just tell him—”

“I’m not your babe anymore, Sangyeon. I thought that was clear,” you spat from behind Hyunjae. Although there was shock in his subconscious, he couldn’t let that display on his face. He kept his expression as stone-cold as possible as he glared down the older male who was gritting his teeth. It wasn’t hard to piece together the situation; you and Sangyeon used to date, you called it off and Sangyeon didn’t like it.

“I got it, Hyunjae,” Sangyeon tried again, as if trying to convince him that it was a situation he didn’t need to be a part of, but he could feel your grip tighten a little bit on his arm and he wasn’t about to abandon you—he didn’t care who to.

“How about you take a walk,” Hyunjae suggested, knowing what Sangyeon was implying. The older seemed shocked by his reply, and rightfully so. “She asked you to leave her alone; I don’t think she should have to do so again.”

There was an uncomfortable silence that loomed between the three of you, and you could see the look in Sangyeon’s eyes that you were pretty familiar with and so tugged yourself closer to Hyunjae. The younger raised his brow, prompting for a reply or for the older to move on. It was clear Hyunjae wasn’t going to back off, especially not as he tucked you just a little bit further behind him.

“Take a walk,” Hyunjae reaffirmed, a growl on the tail of his words and he stood firm until Sangyeon growled, attempting to glare past the other male to get to you, but Hyunjae consistently stepped in his view to make sure that would not be successful.

It hurt your pride a little bit, to be rescued from your ex-boyfriend by anyone at that party, but most particularly Hyunjae who you were not expecting to see, although you were expecting him to be there—and you really weren’t anticipating him seeing that. Surely he knew, and surely he gave you a couple of moments to decide what you wanted to do as you stood against him, against his back, waiting for Sangyeon to clear out and even beyond. Hyunjae’s rhythmic breathing was soothing as he made no moves and only looked forward; he could feel the way your hand still furled into his pressed black shirt, the way your forehead lay against his shoulder blade while his hands dangled at his sides.

“Are you okay?” he asked after a few moments. He was met immediately with a tightness of his shirt, as you gripped it a little harder. “Did he hurt you, physically?” he asked, since he could tell you probably weren’t okay, at least for the time being, and he could feel you shake your head against his shoulder.

“Let’s sit somewhere quiet,” he suggested and waited for you for a moment before you were peeling yourself off his back. You expected he wouldn’t look at you, just lead the way through the house that he had been in more times than he could count as he led you towards the back of the house, but not before being caught by a passerby. Feeling a tug on his arm as you responded to the tug on your arm, Hyunjae jolted to a stop.

“Are you okay?” Younghoon asked you. It wasn’t so far out of reach that you be put in a position you didn’t want to be in, but Younghoon couldn’t know that you’d just been rescued from one. Before you could answer, Hyunjae looked over his shoulder at Younghoon.

“O-oh,” Younghoon stuttered. Everyone around knew about you and Hyunjae. “Of course, I’m sorry,” he apologized, soothed only by the warmth of your smile as you pushed the threatening tears further and further so that you could finally get out of there as you were pulled into a back guest room—you could tell it was a guest room because of the décor and the dust on the furnishings. Hyunjae closed the door behind you as he found the light and flicked it on, giving you space to make yourself comfortable first and he would follow after.

You took a seat on the bed, first, letting everything soak in—starting with Hyunjae and your interaction at the dock for a short time before the situation with Sangyeon, how you would manage to make it through the rest of the party without more problems whether that be between you and Sangyeon, or Hyunjae. You watched as Hyunjae’s dark shoes made it into view in front of you as you looked down at the pristine wood flooring covered by an area rug.

The fray of your distressed jeans entertained your hands, picking at it nervously as you took a few deep breaths. There was an almost silent noise that came from him as he stuck his hands in his pockets, rolling his shoulders a bit before letting out a rickety exhale. He wasn’t sure what to say at the moment; between Sangyeon, Hyunjae’s blow up at the dock, the kind of bad terms you were on with each other.

“May I see your face?” he asked. He hadn’t seen it since the begging look in your eyes and he wanted to wash that away from his memory. Slowly, you raised your head to look up at him, but he wasn’t sure it was any better. The tears were cropped up against your waterline, tears you were desperately trying to fight off as your shaky fingers continued to pluck the threads on your jeans.

His jaw fell open, so many words queued at the front of his throat but none of them felt good enough to soothe the look on your face as you looked up at him, but also looked around him. Trying to decide if staying there or if reaching for you was the better option, he stood there with his fingers furled in his pockets. A few emotions swirled inside of him, feelings he couldn’t quell; he desperately wanted to avoid you once arriving, but the look on your face pressed firmly against his heart because he still cared deeply for you.

“I-I’m sorry,” you stuttered, “I didn’t expect it, him, any of it. I told Kevin, he said it would be taken care of and—”

Hyunjae gathered you into the warmth of his chest, wrapping both arms tightly around you to provide you some semblance of safety as he sat to your side on the bed.

“You do not have to apologize to me; I only wish I could have helped you sooner,” he reminded you, rocking with you a little bit before he sat more squarely on the bed and tugged you to hold you more firmly, more steadily, more securely. You hid your face against his neck, and the tightening in his throat at the feel of your warm tears against his skin was incomparable.

“I’ll have a word with Kev—”

“Please don’t,” you begged. “This was supposed to be a party for you and I don’t want it to be ruined because of me, because of Sangyeon; I should have never come, I knew it was a mistake, that there was no way it could be assured,” you explained, somehow finding your way to your feet after pushing away from him.

“Don’t…” he pleaded, reaching out to take your hand as he looked up to you now as you stood before him. “Don’t say that. I’m happy you came.” He was playing with your fingers at this point, not minding that you were looking down at that instead of at him.

“It will be getting dark soon and there will be tons of lights all over the backyard if you’ll accompany me to play some games,” he reminded you. Kevin had hosted many parties in the past with decorations just the same—twinkling multicolored lights hanging everywhere he could get them and then some to really set the mood. Hyunjae had clearly remembered how awed you were by the lights at night from the last parties you’d come to, and that in and off itself set a few butterflies free in your stomach. You looked up to him, meeting his eyes which looked at you so tenderly. It was a tough spot to be in considering, but he wasn’t about to send you back out there knowing uncertainly that Sangyeon was still looming around and would no doubt continue to cause problems if you were on your own.

He waited for your gentle nod before taking your hand fully, cupped flush against his as he guided you out of the bedroom, and shut the light off behind him to take you out to the backyard where everyone was playing games and mingling. Some conversation fell quiet as they watched you pass, others came up to speak with you more openly before he took you to a game you could play standing side by side, and he made a promise to you that he wouldn’t let you out of his sight until he knew Sangyeon was gone.

And thankfully, for both of you, the party passed pretty quickly with a handful of guests bidding farewell to Hyunjae, reiterating that it was good to see him and that he should come back and visit more often because they all missed him—you were not to be forgotten, as they all bid you farewell as well. Some whispers lingered, some sly grins and knowing gazes as they looked at the two of you, seemingly entirely blind to it.

The games had been put away as it got dark out, not even the twinkling fairy lights illuminated the backyard enough to keep the games going, but nobody seemed to mind. The fire pit was lit and a handful of folks sat around it with drinks in hand just letting the conversation flow. You were among those sitting around it, listening to the stories being shared, some about Hyunjae, but others just reminiscing about your high school times and how much some of them missed the simplicity of life back then. Sangyeon, from what you understood, had been long gone, so you felt comfortable sitting by yourself without Hyunjae’s watchful gaze as he fixed you both a drink in the kitchen before emerging with a plastic cup which was put into your line of sight in no time. You took it, looking up at him, but after his hand was emptied it continued to linger. He motioned his head out to the depths of the backyard where more lights were strung about the garden and it would give you some quiet time. Daintily, you placed your hand in his and let him lift you from the lawn chair—there was a missed beat in the conversation for a moment, but continued quickly to try and not look suspicious.

Hyunjae guided you to the exact spot at the foot of a large tree that was upending the wall that housed the backyard and disturbed some other brickwork of the nearby flower garden, but he knew a good spot where the roots dodged just enough for a plush place to sit and placed himself in it first. You looked at him, skeptical for a minute. There was a choice of where to sit, and he looked at you with no expectations that it would be like old times, so he was a tad surprised when you planted your knees in the grass in front of him and handed over your drink for a second to situate yourself, turning and placing yourself in front of him, between the cage of his legs that bent around you, and gently leaned back into the warmth of his body before collecting your drink.

“You didn’t have—”

“I could use some familiar safety right now,” you interrupted quickly, knowing exactly what he was going to say. Besides, he brought you out there for some peace which typically came from safety and you made the choice on your own.

Hyunjae hummed and leaned back against the trunk of the tree to slouch you a little deeper. Your head rested against his shoulder as you enjoyed the coolness of the evening air, the gentle sounds of crickets and other nightlife, the glow of the galaxy beyond, and the twinkling lights in the gardens around. The only unnatural sounds were that of ice melting in your cups, disturbing your drinks when the structure changed, and the way the cups sounded being moved around. It was quiet, and for the most part, you preferred it that way, but you knew another inevitable question was coming.

“You don’t have to tell me because quite frankly it’s none of my business, but what’s your history with Sangyeon?” he finally asked you. Your cup crinkled in your hand, flimsy under your grasp for only a moment while your other hand plucked a handful of blades of grass from the ground with some quiet pops. He didn’t want to make it too obvious that he didn’t like the idea of you and Sangyeon for reasons he could go on about.

“Long story short, we got together for… reasons… albeit not good ones, and he turned out to be entirely as controlling as you witnessed. I broke it off, he didn’t like it, and heard about this party and knew I’d be here… for you…”

“You should have told me,” he whispered, his voice right above your ear and you could feel the way his jaw shifted against the side of your head.

“We weren’t exactly on great terms,” you reminded him, noting the distress of his jeans against the knee, and mindlessly to distract yourself, you fiddled with the loose strands that were fraying, easy to reach with his knees bent to enclose you. “Besides, I heard there was a chance you wouldn’t show anyway. We all kind of determined that you intentionally hadn’t visited. Not that we thought you hated us, just that you wanted to move on.”

There was a tightening around Hyunjae’s heart he hated as you spoke those words. Hearing you say it hurt in a different way than him coming to grips with it himself. His legs couldn’t help but close on you a bit, a frustrated grunt squeaking from his mouth. Not here, he thought, not now. This was not the best place to be having that conversation, but little did you know that was the conversation.

“I owe you all an explanation, truly,” he said.

“You don’t, really. You have your reasons for doing things that are your own. You don’t owe anyone anything,” you said.

“I owe it to myself, then,” he retorted, “and I want to start with you. But that’s part of the big conversation and while I know you have granted me gracious time to collect my thoughts… it’s a conversation I’d rather have without prying ears as it only concerns you and me without the speculation of anyone else.”

“Hyunjae…” you trailed off, turning your head to fight against his, fluttering at the feel of the corner of his mouth and nose against your forehead. His eyes clenched tightly, once again trying to fight off the feelings, the thoughts, trying not to repeat the day on the dock. To steel his nerves, he turned to the side and took a large swig of his drink, feeling your hand wrap against the outside of his knee to tug it against your body. If it was one thing about Hyunjae you were really in tune with, it was his emotions—you tended to feel how he felt, to understand without him having to say much—and it held true even with six years apart.

“I don’t want you to feel rushed and I won’t force the conversation, but I know you want to say a lot of things, so when you’re ready…” you uttered, nuzzling your chin under his jaw. You were pushing, unintentionally, at the seams of his packaged distress. He was doing his absolute best to be there, to be the open and comforting Hyunjae he always was to you, and that was his ultimate demise. The very concept of Sangyeon put a pit in his stomach, and it didn’t even have to be Sangyeon, it just had to be anyone that wasn’t him. But how was he supposed to tell you everything? About why he left, about the things, the feelings, he wanted to leave behind without seeming insulting to you; and then how was he to address that those same issues never went away, that seeing you for the first time even after all that time stoked the same fire, if not more so.

But back then he was just a kid, and it felt stupid, all of it. The distance hurt like hell, but after a bit it became refreshing. Each year got easier to not come back; but he missed his friends, he missed his family, he missed you, but he didn’t miss the way he bit his tongue, the way he stowed his feelings, the way he’d dare not ruin the amazing friendship you had over what he called selfishness. He wanted you to be free without his burden, which ultimately started driving his choice to leave.

He never changed; he could still feel the tip of his tongue clamped between his teeth, still feel the churning in his stomach with the attempt to put his feelings away, the lump in his throat which felt like a swollen version of his heart, a hole in his chest which the alcohol wasn’t helping in the slightest.

“I think it’s about time we head home,” Hyunjae commented after a few moments of tense silence. You were trying to understand the emotions you were feeling via Hyunjae, the way he was feeling, the sudden tenseness of his body, the closed-off disposition. “I’ll walk you,” he added, a lulled whisper in your ear.

You both made your way to your feet, discarding your cups in the kitchen after bidding everyone goodnight and thanking Kevin for the hospitality. You all lived close, the same homes from the district which put you in close walking distance. Hyunjae offered his elbow to you the way he always did, and the both of you meandered rather slowly to your home where he could drop you off. You wrapped both hands around his bicep, a million thoughts running through both of your heads, putting you in seemingly different worlds than each other while walking right next to one another.

Needless to say, the two of you arrived at your front porch far sooner than either of you were ready. Hyunjae took your hand to help you up the step onto your landing, but the lingering way he gazed at you let you know that he was feeling the same way; that for some reason you weren’t quite ready to leave now that you were really alone. But it was already late, had to have been past midnight, and lingering on your landing could look suspicious.

Still, you turned to look at him, not so much at his face, but at his throat, at the undone button of his black shirt, at the way his throat shifted as he swallowed hard. His thumbs were hooked in his pockets as he stood as attentive as he could muster, waiting for you like he always did. You, on the other hand, fiddled with the hem of your shirt as you thought of what to say, what to do, if it would be best to just say goodnight and be on your way, or if you had something more to say.

Your gaze finally landed on his face, looking over his features. He must have been able to feel your gaze, because slowly his eyes flittered up to meet yours, glimmering in the dim porch light. With you up on the landing, the two of you were closer to the same height—you smiled, remembering how much he’d matured since you last saw him. It seemed like the only thing that could roll off your tongue was his name, so almost silently it did so once more. You watched his gaze shift between your eyes, his feet shuffled forward to bring himself closer to the landing. Slowly, your hands came up; an innate desire to put them against him had you placing them gently on his shoulders. His breath shuttered against your face, jaw tightening as your brow furrowed a bit.

He was so close to you, your arms were entirely folded at the elbow, you could practically feel the warmth radiate off him, his face had to be no further than a couple of inches now that his eyes were peering slightly down at you and still glimmered like the galaxy captive. It took a second for you to realize that his face was sinking closer to yours, that his head tentatively tilted just as his nose brushed against yours. You took a deep breath, fingers anticipatorily furling against his shoulders as his lips fleetingly brushed yours. He waited a moment for you to object, one of his hands freeing itself from his pocket to place tenderly against your hip while your breath was caught in your throat, but when you did not attempt to move away or verbally object, he leaned in further.

It took only a second for you to fall entirely into his grasp, feet shuffling forward just a tad as he slipped his hand around your back to put your body against his; your arms slid around his neck especially as he stepped up onto the landing, and guided you backward to gingerly press you up against your front door with a few readjustments. You couldn’t quite place the mix of flavors you were tasting, but it was clouding your better judgment—many factors were in play between the kiss, the way his fingers pressed into your lower back, the way he had you arching against him, the Sangyeon panic, the alcohol, the distance, which all made the experience surreal. But you couldn’t deny the way your chest was exploding, the way your nerves were all on end, the way it felt so right after so many years.

You almost sighed, the way his tongue flicked against your bottom lip before your subconscious was pinging on the Sangyeon panic, and your arms retreated from his neck to weakly push against his shoulders. He tugged away, the tender sounds of a broken kiss ringing in your ears like a train whistle before those same warm lips were pressing soft kisses against your jaw, and only after a successful few did you find any words to push from your throat.

“Maybe don’t,” you uttered, more as a sigh as your head tilted back to quietly hit your door, “my breakup is still fresh, and we still need to talk.”

Your voice was a whisper of the wind, but still enough for him to ease off, to pull back and press his forehead against yours after noticing your eyes were closed. His hands tugged your hips into his since your hands were still flittering somewhat across the nape of his neck. Your tongue darted out to flick across your lips, remnants of rum and coke lingered before he took a whole step away from you, and that meant the protective grasp of his hands against your hips was gone as well.

“I’m sorry,” you uttered, “I’m sure I’ve been sending you strong signals all night, and when you stepped in and… your safety and your scent and your touch and charm…”

“This is exactly why I didn’t want to come back,” he muttered under his breath, looking up at the cracking paint of your porch covering. He hoped it wasn’t loud enough for you to hear, but unfortunately, it was. You looked at him, queueing a couple of replies in your throat that never seemed to fit the situation and adequately explain how you felt at the same time. You waited only long enough for his gaze to cast back down to you, almost expecting you to say something, but you had twisted the knob to your door and disappeared into the darkness of your home without another word. Could you say it was the best decision? Perhaps not. But in that moment you feared that you would say something that would damage an already delicate situation. If you had just left it at the bit about the breakup and about needing to talk, he would have understood. Everything else just confirmed his fears about you; that you liked the idea of him. He shook his head and turned to head home, ignoring the prying questions of his sister who was surprisingly still awake and, without turning a single light on, closed the door to his room and crawled into bed.

Hyunjae was quiet for subsequent days—too quiet, really, and under the prying and watchful eyes of his sister to look for anything to start a conversation about. Hyunjae was a brick wall. As stoic as anyone could be, almost emotionless, and that, in and of itself, was enough to break the ice about it.

“What’s turned you into a zombie?” she asked, closing the door behind her as she entered Hyunjae’s room. He was reading on the bed, but maybe he couldn’t even call it reading; it was more like his eyes were scanning the same ten sentences a hundred times, never once comprehending what any of it said only to start over from square one again. His brain was scattered, the was no arguing that. But while he thought that his scattered brain would provide him with at least some thought about how to handle the situation, there was no such luck for that either. He had become zombie-like between the lack of emotion and disregarding actions.

His eyes shifted over to her—he looked tired; dark circles around his somewhat reddened eyes, but maybe that was for a reason yet to be clear. He took a deep breath, closed his book, and turned to her.

“The same reason I left in the first place,” he replied, not anticipating that she would have an immediate response—she didn’t. She wasn’t confused, she had a pretty good idea why he left even though she never pressured him to say; he had to do what he had to do for himself and no one would stand in the way of that.

“Should I tell her you’re napping, then?” she finally said.

Those few words dropped on Hyunjae like a bomb. The gears ground in his head for a moment, trying to comprehend how incredibly dire the situation was seemingly suddenly. He blinked a couple of times.

“What?” he asked.

“Did I stutter? Do you want me to ask her to leave? She’s having tea with mom downstairs, I said I would come see if you were available since apparently you haven’t been answering your phone.”

He looked over at the device on his bed, remembering the decision he made right before he closed his eyes for the night to block your number. His heart simply couldn’t bear dealing with anything you had to say, if you did even dare attempt to contact him.

A deep sigh fell between his lips as he stared past his phone and at an undesignated imagined hole in the wall. He all but slapped his book down on his bed and dropped his face into his hands, running his fingers deep in his hair just to tug at it.

“Are you serious,” he growled. Was it not enough, what happened? Was it not clear enough that he wanted to just disappear back into the night like he had never shown back up in the first place?

“Whatever problem you’re having with her, you need to solve it before you leave again, if that’s what you decide to do. If that means closing that book, then do it; but leaving it open is only going to hurt more,” she advised, reaching over to take one of his hands after it fell slack at his side. He looked over at her, but he could tell by the look on her face that she was serious. Not closing the back cover left the wounds wide open and he had already experienced once just how painful that could be.

There was a knock on the door, followed by his mother’s voice, and before he even had time to object the door was being pushed open, and there you stood, looking like you’d slept as much if not less than himself.

Hyunjae let out a disappointed and frustrated sigh as he rolled his eyes away, his sister gave a displeased growl while you looked directly at him. Although Hyunjae’s sister harbored no ill will towards you, she cared immensely for Hyunjae which made the situation that much harder. She couldn’t stand to see him like this, but she also didn’t know the whole story, just that it was about you as so many things had been in the past. She stood and turned to Hyunjae for a moment.

“Do what’s best for you,” she reminded him, glanced at you, and side-stepped you to bring her mother away from the situation.

“Great,” Hyunjae growled sarcastically as he turned to sit on the side of his bed and meet your gaze to the best of his ability. Slowly you stepped in, closing the door behind you. The last thing you wanted was for this to turn into a blowout, but you knew things were rough between the two of you, and you could tell he was suffering just as much as you were about the entire thing.

“Hyunjae,” you greeted, not pleasantly nor firmly. He could see the quiver in your jaw just saying his name, but that didn’t stave off his fiery feelings in the slightest.

He muttered your name back, a greeting somewhat in return.

“I know you don’t want to talk to me—”

“Then why are you here?” he asked, almost barked.

You sighed, slinking against his door. Hyunjae tended to get rough when he was wounded, like a cornered dog who had no choice but to bite back.

“Because I gave you as much time as I could but it obviously can’t wait anymore,” you replied, trying to force confidence into your voice. You needed to stand your ground with him, even if you were never particularly good at doing so.

“You’re right, I don’t want to talk to you. Not only that, but I don’t think there’s anything to talk about anymore. So, sorry you came all the way here for nothing, but I don’t have anything left to offer you,” he snapped, standing from his bed and approached the door, and you, and reached out in an attempt to tug it open.

You pressed against it harder, forcing against his pull to keep the door closed. He scoffed and looked to your face containing the most determined look you could muster since you had arrived. You glared up at him and growled his name.

“You’re pissed at me, and you have every right to be. But we spent many years being the closest of friends, and whenever we had a spat, we always worked it out. And even if things are a bit rocky right now, and it looks like I’m not your friend, I’m at least here as someone who cares so deeply about you—in whatever way you want to interpret that—to try and work through this with you, the way he always have,” you almost pleaded, but with a conviction that made it sound more like a statement for the first time since you’d arrived.

“I know you’re hurting, and I know I’m the cause of that. But to think that I’m here for any other reason than to try and make it right…” you trailed off with the shake of your head, gaze trailing away from his for only a moment, “you know me better than that. And if I know anything about you, you left for a reason, so let’s start there.”

“What is this, freakin’ honesty hour?” he asked, taking a step away from the door, almost attempting to convince you that this was ridiculous, but your reply jarred him.

“Yes, it is, that’s the whole purpose of trying to solve something, being transparent.”

“You want me to be transparent?” he almost roared.

“I want us both to be transparent, Hyunjae,” you fired back, although quite a bit calmer than him.

He paced for a moment, trying to figure out how he was going to approach this—the best way didn’t matter to him, he just wanted to express his feelings at the expense of anyone else’s feelings, because everything to that point had been at the expense of his. You stayed pressed up against his room door, watching him pace, watching him think, watching the frustration build on his face until he finally got some words out.

“The other night,” he started, pausing his pacing to look at you, “when you just let me fall into a bear trap…” He laughed, but it wasn’t because it was funny—his brow was furrowed in disbelief as he looked at you, a hurt on his face you’d never seen before. “I left because I couldn’t take it anymore.”

You swallowed hard, having a good idea what he was talking about already, but you still wanted him to say it out loud—you still wanted to have a conversation.

“Couldn’t take what, Hyunjae?” you asked delicately.

“You,” he replied, jaw clenching for a moment, fists following before he took a deep breath himself. “The way we were. How… connected we were. How open and honest and upfront we were, how deep we were,” he explained, or tried.

“And the other night is related because?”

He bit his tongue, you could see it peek out from behind his teeth before he turned his face away from you, clenching his eyes before his hands found his dresser, holding him up in a sense as he leaned into it. A few deep and rickety breaths followed as he composed himself enough to say something.

“It confirmed the fears I struggled with, suffered with, that you only liked the idea of me. Confirmed the fears that you wanted me in theory, and how strained that made my ability to maintain a friendship with you. I left because it seemed easier to forget about the feelings when you weren’t right in my face. I left because I thought it would be easier to move on. You said the other day you sent me strong signals, and you did. They were strong signals; they were wrong signals—”

“They weren’t wrong,” you interrupted, “I was torn between respecting my relationship space with Sangyeon and being elated that you were back and willing to treat me like we’d never skipped a beat,” you tried to explain in return.

He spun to face you, tears already pushed off his face. His heart hurt unbelievably, fiery but in a negative way, squeezing in his chest as he formulated his reply.

“So you think it’s cool to just lead me on? To not only let me but encourage me to kiss you on your front porch and lean into it like you welcomed it, just to hit me with all that shit about my safety, my scent, my charm and in essentially the same breath tell me that I’ve crossed a line? I’ve come to terms with the fact that you’re just the one I won’t ever get over, but you don’t have to make it so damn hard for me the one time I do decide to come back!”

“Hyunjae—”

“Do not. Do not try to charm me with those pretty little eyes, with the sweet way you say my name—” he growled, unable to finish before you had something to say.

“I’m not!” you retaliated. “I am not trying to get out of what I did! I am not trying to discredit how you feel or play the victim in any way. I know my approach wasn’t great, and I will be the first to admit that. But if we could go back and redo the situation… if you hadn’t kissed me, I probably would have kissed you,” you expressed to him.

“I don’t like the idea of you, Hyunjae. I’ve always liked you. And when you left, it took me a few years to get in the game to try and move on… I got with Sangyeon because it felt, in the beginning, like he understood me. Like he empathized with my loss, which was you, and I had an aching, a pit that needed to be filled that I thought he could fill. But that pit is shaped exactly like you, and I realized that nothing else will ever fit it properly…”

You tried so hard to maintain your resolve, but the way getting all of that off your chest made you feel in combination with the look on Hyunjae’s face, you weren’t sure how long you would last. You couldn’t tell if he thought you were lying or not.

“What a jerk I’ve been to you,” you continued, “This is why I get so mad about you saying stuff like how mean you’ve been to me; like you think I thought you left without a purpose. I didn’t know, exactly, your purpose at the time, but I knew it was one you needed for yourself. So, why would I think you were a jerk for that? When you didn’t reach out, I saw the signs like freeway billboards—”

“I loved you,” he interjected. “And I was so scared that if I had admitted that to you, that I would lose you, but I ended up losing you anyway because I was too weak to swallow the fact that I did love you. That I do love you. That those six years away did nothing to help me move on,” he replied, pouring it all out for you, finally saying what he needed to say for so many years and a weight lifted off his chest, but it didn’t stop the squeezing feeling.

“I got too worried trying to respect the relationship with a man who never respected me; who took advantage of me knowing I was vulnerable without you; and if I had come to that conclusion on the landing that night… Hyunjae, I may have not let you leave. It was like my favorite coffee on a cold day, like the sun on my skin in the late spring, like the spray of the water on the dock—nothing has ever felt more like home.”

Hyunjae let out a deep sigh, blinking back the tears that pushed at the outer corners of his eyes as he slipped to the floor. His gaze looked out but didn’t find anything in particular, clouded anyway. He took a moment to reflect on the way the hardwood panels felt underneath his fingers, the way breath filled his lungs, the way his eyes stung, the sound of you sliding down to the floor yourself against his room door.

There wasn’t much else that needed to be said, so the two of you sat across the floor from each other in relative silence for quite a few lingering moments. The both of you were trying to regulate your breathing, trying to quench the fire that burned deep down.

It took a moment, but he crawled across the floor of his room to sit up in the corner of the wall and the door and asked for your hand only to coax you over to him, between his legs to rest up against him as he settled his chin on your shoulder. From then, it was a matter of time and healing, and he wanted to spend the initial healing time with you in his arms in the quiet of his room as the both of you processed everything that was said.

All that could be heard throughout the room was perhaps gentle breathing, silently the continued refusal of tears that stung both your eyes. Hyunjae dug his face in the crook of your neck, even if you were turned away from him; he didn’t want you to see it. But even if you couldn’t see it, you could feel the way his rickety breath fell across your shoulder, the way he trembled against your back, the warmth of his tears against your skin and even though things were on the mend, that, in and of itself, stung like hell.

Hyunjae’s pain had always been your pain, and vice versa—his happiness, his burdens, his struggles, his successes and triumphs; they had always been shared because of your dynamic, and it was clear things weren’t about to change. It had always been a love the both of you were too afraid to admit because there was a very real chance it would drive you away from each other.

“I love you, Hyunjae…” you muttered. It was the only reassuring thing you hadn’t said.

His arms tightened around you, fingers digging deeper into the fabric of your shirt that furled in his grasp. There was a mumble into your skin—you didn’t hear him, but you had a decent idea what it consisted of.

It was contemptuous to even consider moving for a bit. Relishing each other’s presence seemed cathartic, to a point; it felt as though as you sat there with each other, after laying it all on the table, that the healing was somewhat fortified. As the time passed, your touches against each other were different, softer in a way, more calculated, and genuine. Millions of things were still running through each other’s minds—even though there was nothing left to say, you both were over thinkers to the core, so that occupied most of the silence between you. At least, until there was a knock on Hyunjae’s door. He hadn’t realized the time, or how much time had passed, but he helped you to your feet before tugging the door open to reveal his sister.

“We’re getting ready for dinner, you’re welcome to stay…” she hesitated, noting the look on both your faces. Your eyes were noticeably still red and swollen—you never had a quick recovery after crying, even if it was somewhat tame. Hyunjae was still pushing at his own tears, too.

“Thank you, but I should get going,” you replied, a sad smile on your face as you looked to Hyunjae who understood that not only would it be incredibly awkward, but that you both probably needed some time alone with your thoughts. He nodded encouragingly, agreeing with your conclusion before he began ushering you through his door. After following his sister down the stairs, you quietly greeted both of their parents, thanked them for the offer for dinner, and had Hyunjae show you out.

“I’ll walk you,” he asserted, but you quickly shook your head.

“Your dinner is hot, you should stay; it’s still light, I’ll be okay on my own,” you replied as you turned to face him, to look up into his somewhat swollen eyes, to catch the fleeting tremble of his lip as he looked back at you. Before he could nod in reluctant agreement, you reached out to take his hand and gently squeeze it. You used that hand to pull him closer to you, the half a step distance you needed to stand high on your toes to press a soft kiss against his cheek; it was sticky but you didn’t care. His eyes fell closed as you lingered there for a moment then you drifted back to the flats of your feet, gave his hand another squeeze, stepped off the landing of his house, and turned down the street. A few trickling moments passed before his sister collected him at the door, encouraging him back inside to try and eat something even if he wasn’t hungry. Surely, he would hear from you soon enough.

It was a weird type of limbo to be in, unknowing when it was appropriate to contact the other, and sheepishly waiting around for the other to do the dirty work. This inevitably led to another few days of silence, but that didn’t stop you from calling up Younghoon—your new closest friend since your falling out with Hyunjae—to ask for his advice, since he never seemed to give it unsolicited.

Nervously, you turned your iced coffee between your hands as you sat across the café table from him. Patiently, he continued to wait for you, never forcing a word out of you or a move of any kind. When you had called him up saying that you wanted to talk to him about Hyunjae, especially considering the look he gave you at Kevin’s party after Hyunjae had helped you out of a precarious situation, he was eager to meet with you—not because he had dirt or anything to spill, but because he knew, somewhere in there, you agonized over Hyunjae; sometimes in unhealthy ways. You had always been friends with Younghoon, so he was the natural next best to Hyunjae; expressly since he’d watched your friendship at its peak and watched the way it splintered into nothing—admittedly, he was the only one with your actual best interest in mind, particularly when you concluded that Hyunjae’s absence crushed you in ways you couldn’t explain initially.

“Sorry,” you muttered, a rickety diffident to your voice with another shaky exhale.

“I’m in no rush, you know I’m here for you,” he replied. “Why don’t we start with this; you mumbled hurriedly over the phone about how things had been solved, and then unsolved,” he prompted, giving you somewhere to jump off from since it appeared you were having a hard time finding somewhere to start.

A tough swallow broke down your throat as you thought about the instance in which he reached for your arm and asked if you were okay, your hand laced with Hyunjae’s.

“About that—he caught Sangyeon being… well, Sangyeon,” you answered. Part of you figured Younghoon would be offended you didn’t tell him about the incident with Sangyeon, and you honestly weren’t even positive he’d been seen by Younghoon or Kevin for that matter.

Younghoon’s eyes perked a little bit; the situation was a little different now that he knew you had been in Sangyeon’s clutches only to be rescued by Hyunjae. It seemed right, in all fairness.

“We’d fought a couple of days before—not really a fight, a small disagreement, and weren’t on the best of terms. It was a weird situation that went from bad to good to bad all in one evening…” You had to trail off, thinking about the events as they replayed in your mind. But it was salvaged now, right? You blew off your steam with each other and found a ground with equal footing, but things were still awkward.

“The point is, I’m here because we finally had a talk, and while it wasn’t really talking and more like yelling at each other and then breaking down into mutually pathetic messes, I came to ask you what you think is the best way to approach him now. We haven’t talked in a couple of days, I think we’re both kind of hinging on the other being the first to reach out for contact,” you explained.

Younghoon sat in contemplation for a moment. There was no correct answer to your question, and he couldn’t even say there was one approach that was better than the other. Even something as simple as texting him to ask how he was doing could be enough to open the door, so he didn’t take long to come up with that to say to you.

“I suppose you think it’s weird to just text him to ask how he is.” Apparently, the situation was a little more complicated in your eyes than he initially thought.

“I had six years to do that,” you replied, your plastic cup crinkling under the pressure of your fingers furling against it.

“Of course,” he answered, understanding the situation a little better. “To be completely honest with you, you both have overcome a lot already, if you consider. Between the frontages, the distance, the coming back together, and all the drama that came with all that, you both have managed to sort something positive out, right? I’m sure there’s nothing you could say that would have a negative impact short of telling him you wish he’d leave again, and I doubt you’re going to say that.”

A slight laugh escaped from your throat, but it could have been mistaken as a scoff just as much. It was ridiculous for Younghoon to even suggest that, because he was completely right—only if you became possessed would you consider saying that to him.

“I know it feels like a delicate situation, but I’m positive it’s far less delicate than screaming at him in the middle of his bedroom about how dumb you both were being after re-shattering his still splintered heart.”

“Ouch,” you responded, even if it was true, and it was never like Younghoon to pull punches when you needed to hear something. And he had always known of Hyunjae’s feelings for you, so that didn’t make this conversation any less brutal.

“Also, I’m not saying it will be instantaneous, but I’m also certain that deep in there he’s elated to have you back, too, and in the state he’d battled with himself about for some time. You might be best off asking to meet on neutral turf so there’s no awkward looming—I know how nosey Hyunjae’s sister can be,” Younghoon laughed and took a swig of his coffee, relaxing back into his chair which, inevitable, had you relaxing back into yours, letting his words sink in as you picked up your phone to type a message to Hyunjae about meeting up the next day.

The late evening sun glimmered off the water, stretching left and right as far as you could see. The soft ripples of the water catching the light to produce a river of diamonds while your legs hung off the edge of the dock. Your phone was tucked deep in your pocket, an unread message about Hyunjae being on his way to meet you sat in your notifications bar. There was an unexplainable tightening in your chest, but maybe it was just because it was the first time you were getting to see him after the tipping point. An unreasonable voice called from the back of your mind to back out; that it had already been a rough time with him, maybe it was better to just let it go—a voice you had to really try to push away.

Another rigid breath—how many had come in the last few days, you would have a hard time counting—as you steeled your nerves, clutching the edge of the dock as you tried to wait patiently, at least until a small cup jingled with ice from the side of your face. Hesitantly, you looked over and slowly followed the arm up to a familiar face. He smiled delicately, his lips barely tugging at the corners to produce it, but it was detectable by your trained eyes.

“Hi,” he almost whispered as you faltered a bit in taking the flavored iced tea from him; it was a little late in the evening to be having coffee—not that it had ever stopped you in the past. He took a seat next to you, letting his legs dangle over the edge of the dock next to yours. To say that he was sitting comfortably close was an understatement; his hip was effectively pressed up next to yours, just like old times, but there was a new sense of comfort that washed over you from the fact, even if the nerves were bundling in your throat.

“Hi,” you choked back, eyes never breaking their contact with his being even when he settled. “I’m going to apologize in advance if this is extremely awkward.”

“Funny, I was just about to say the same thing to you,” he laughed, looking out over the water to notice the same sea of diamonds you’d been entertaining yourself with since you took a place on the dock yourself. “Can’t say I’ve been through this before, so it’s definitely new and rocky terrain.”

“You seem jovial, nonetheless,” you replied.

“One of us has to try to keep a good spirit,” he joked, elbowing you in the side, reminding you that you weren’t exactly the mood-maker of your duo, before he took a swig of his tea. You followed suit, uttering your gratitude, before forcing a bit of confidence into your bones. All of the times you’d sat on the dock with him in the past in this very setting came rushing back to your immediate memory, and with it, all the times you’d begged to loop your arm around his. So, with a bit of hesitancy, you moved your tea to your hand opposite of him and swiftly stuck your hand under the crevice between his arm and torso to wrap your hand around his bicep, additionally leaning your head against his shoulder to avoid the imminent gaze that would no doubt scout your embarrassed features in half a second flat. Hyunjae did, in fact, turn to look, a more noticeable smile tugging at his face as he pulled that arm tighter to his body, acknowledging your courageous display of affection, and gave you the satisfaction of relishing it without some signature sassy remark from him as he leaned his head against yours.

The way you clenched your hand against his bicep was indicative of looking for something to say, scrapping any ideas you had in your head a handful of times. He knew you weren’t the best with words, especially after having a fight—that’s what he’d call it, because it kind of was—but that didn’t stop him from waiting for you to say anything. Instead, you opted to nudge your head up a little bit, wedging it between his head and shoulder a little further before a somewhat exasperated noise slipped from between your lips.

Hyunjae discarded his tea gently against the finished dock, turning his full attention to you. His slender fingers gently prodded against your jaw, prompting you to lift your head from his shoulder. It was always like him to take control of the situation, and to be completely honest, you had banked on that for this entire meeting. You were pleased to look at him per his will, tilting your chin up so that his face could slip by yours and press a lingering kiss against your cheek, the way you had to his at the end of your last meeting. Perhaps the most important meeting.

Again, you wanted to speak with nothing really to say. Your eyes fluttered at the feel of his supple lips against your cheek and remained closed when his delicate fingers flittered away from your jaw and his hand cupped against the back of your neck, craning up only slightly to place another kiss against your forehead, and another against your cheek—you had to chuckle, nervously nipping at your bottom lip as you tried to read his intentions.

“Just let me marinate in the fact that I have dreamed about this for eight years, and I’m finally here,” he mumbled against your skin, knowing that you were laughing at him.

“I’m laughing at you because you keep missing,” you replied, eyes fluttering open to meet his as he pulled back. The gentle smiles fell from both your faces as your gaze teetered between each other’s eyes, noting their glimmer, their depth, the absolutely homey look you gave each other. Your breaths mingled just a few inches from each other between the two of you before you noted the way his tongue flicked out to moisten his lips—in nervousness or preparation, you couldn’t tell. When he noticed the way your eyes fell past his nose, he couldn’t help but speak up.

“Is that so?” he asked nearly inaudibly.

“As a matter of fact…” you trailed off, anticipating the way one of his hands reached across you to help you settle your tea against the dock so you could place that hand wherever you’d like as his mouth descended on yours, delicately eclipsing yours in a softly meshed kiss that felt worlds different from the one on the landing of your home after Kevin’s party. It felt like a plug had been pulled, and all the tension that culminated between the two of you was swirling away into the abyss as you melted into his touch, gingerly cupping your cheek until his lips broke away. A silent protest came in the form of an exasperated exhale, that shy smile returning to your lips noting he hadn’t pulled far enough away to be out of reach, so you took it upon yourself to lean in for another quick peck.

“Somewhere deep in the back of my mind,” he began, waiting for a moment for your eyes to open so he could look into them once more, “I had always hoped I would get to kiss you on this very dock with the sun going down and glimmering against the water, exactly the way it is.”

You placed your hand down over his, which was pinning you somewhat against the dock as he rotated to face you. The look on your face was enough, he didn’t really need a reply; everything that needed to be said had already been said. Even still, you had something for him.

“Me, too,” you replied, leaning up to nuzzle your nose against his for just a moment, “so, I’m glad you came back to figure it out. I needed you more than anything.”

Hyunjae chuckled; the thoughts he had been battling with for so long about why he was returning all suddenly made sense, like a message in the stars, a secret nudge from the universe telling him there would be something special about him coming back, pushing through the dread he had cut with your hometown. He remembered letting it marinade for a week after the idea first crossed his mind. Maybe he was feeling homesick, admittedly he missed his parents and his sister, but he could tell there was something more.

“Something in the vast infinity delivered your call,” he whispered to you.

“I owe whatever mystical message that led you back to me a great debt.”

“Why don’t you just say you missed me?” he teased.

“The way I missed you is beyond anything I could string together with words, Hyunjae,” you replied, pushing him back a little bit to put him physically on the defensive for only a second before he took the opportunity to pull you across his lap so he could have you as close as possible.

“And showing you feels a little more vulnerable; maybe we needed that all along, instead of putting on that tough face for each other,” you told him, your smile saying something different as your hand gingerly stroked through the tresses of hair on the back of his neck, tilting his head to look at you before your foreheads met, eyes fluttered closed once more.

A moment relishing this closeness was much needed and long-awaited.

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royallyprincesslilly · 3 years

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Title: Crown For Two {1}

Henry Cavill AU x OFC Xari Thornton AU

Warning: Plot, Mild Cursing, Cheesy Christmas Themes,

Words: 6.1k

Summary: Xari Thornton is a travel photographer with a blog and social media that garners some heavy-duty traffic. People tune in to see where she is and what she’s doing there, all in hopes of either living vicariously through her or to plan their next vacation.

Her slogan; “Traveling the path to the most off-beaten places, so you don’t have to.”

Her next stop on her four destination travel itinerary of “Places You May Never Have Heard Of” is Sandvell, a small European country. When her plane makes an impromptu stop due to bad weather, she has no idea where she is. It feels like she’s stepped inside of a snow globe and back in time in a modern way. It leaves her fascinated.

This bad weather forces her to stay at an Inn, The Beaux, for the night. Rather than letting the hours tick by in her room, she explores and meets the friendly locals. While taking photographs, one local in particular captures her lens with eyes as blue as the ocean and a jaw that was chiseled from stone. They strike up conversation during their time drinking at one of the local bars, Ickles. Once they separate, she gets herself into a harrowing situation.

As soon as she awakens, she realizes she’s not in some fever dream, but a palace and the owner of the palace is none other than the local she met before with the piercing blue eyes, His Royal Highness Henry Wellington Leopold Danglishton, First of his name, Crown Prince of Brexendor.

Note: All right, all right people, the ride begins. I really, really hope you enjoy this. As a note, it’s going to be fast-paced a bit, and I am gonna overload you with pictures because why the hell not, it’s a Christmas Fic. 😁 Feel free to come by and tell me what you guys think.

As always, thank you all for reading, I appreciate each and every one of you.

If you enjoyed this, please, LIKE, COMMENT, REBLOG!!! ❤️❤️

***Loosely Edited/Proofread***

***Interactive***

***Picture Heavy***

Chapter One

“You were supposed to be on your way home.”

You rolled your eyes as you scoffed. You’d mentioned nights ago that you thought you should just go home, but then you went to your next destination. It was a moment of weakness or it could have been loneliness. Your schedule took a lot out of you. No one saw it because it was all behind the scenes. All anyone ever saw were the incredible places you went to, the fun things you experienced, and the culture you soaked up. What they grasped was whatever you posted in your pictures.

“You know I can’t. I started this series, and it’s gotten the eye of a lot of sponsors, and one of them is even talking about some really big ideas at the end of it if it goes really well. that could be incredible for my brand,” you explained.

Anika sighed loudly. You knew she was annoyed with you right now, especially it being December.

“I know you’re disappointed. I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you.”

“Whatever.”

“Attention, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. It looks like we’re headed right into a storm. We’ll be experiencing a little turbulence as we veer off course a little bit as we try to evade this thing. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts.”

You sighed while buckling your seatbelt, preparing for what was coming.

“What’s happening?”

“Going through some turbulence. It should be fine,” you assured your sister.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to hang up.”

You nodded to the flight attendant and promptly ended the call promising your sister that you’d call her back when you landed in Sandvell. As soon as you hung up, the turbulence began. It started out with slight bumps, that you could sip your drink through. Then graduated to bigger bumps that had you gripping the elbow rests. When the entire plane started to shake, your heart leaped into your throat. One minute passed, then two, and after five minutes or so, the speaker came back on.

“Ladies and gentleman, your captain again. We’re going to be landing shortly. This storm is not one to be messed with. I apologize for the inconvenience, folks, but on this airline, we choose safety above all else.”

You weren’t going to argue with him. You definitely didn’t want to risk your life over getting to your next destination. What was a one or two day delay? Once the pilot got to a lower altitude, the majority of the turbulence subsided. It was another ten minutes before the plane landed, but when it did, all you could see from the window was white overcast with darkness.

When you had your belongings gathered and began walking off the plane along with the other fifty or so passengers, you tried to find cell service, but you had zero bars.

“Excuse me, where are we?”

“Uh—I’m actually not sure, ma’am. Patricia, where are we?”

The two flight attendants looked puzzled. The second asked a third, and that third asked another. None of them seemed to know. That was not a good sign, you thought. Once you’d walked down the long corridor that served as the connection between the airport and the plane, you found yourself in one of the classiest airports you’d ever been in, and you’d been inside quite a few as a travel blogger. As far as the eye could see, it was class, with the exception of the floor.

You looked around you and marveled at the detail in the design that was around you. Where most airports were mainly logically designed without lavishness. This one looked like lavishness was the first priority. The floors looked to be made from the finest paonazzetto marble. You remembered the name because of the substantial time you’d spent in Italy trying to capture architecture through your camera lens. Reaching for your camera around your neck, you began snapping a few frames of the floor. Getting lost in picture taking, you found yourself at one of the many glass windows snapping pictures of the airplanes on the tarmac.

Hearing the commotion of raised voices behind you, you looked back and saw the passengers of the plane you’d just disembarked from gathered in a huddle. You walked back toward them in time to catch a question from a concerned passenger.

“How long are we delayed? When will we get back in the air? I have to get to Sandvell.”

A man wearing a mixture of royal blue and white colors cleared his throat then spoke. “I apologize, ladies and gentlemen, for the delay. There is a storm heading right for us on the path to Sandvell. Continuing through it would be lunacy. Our only viable option is to wait it out.”

No one seemed to like that answer. All the questions flew out at once. All their voices overlapped, and you could tell that the gentleman was overwhelmed by not only the volume of questions but also their voices.

“According to our team here, we’re expecting possibly a twenty-four to thirty-six-hour delay.”

Everyone groaned in unison, everyone but you. You’d traveled enough to always expect the unexpected. Things like this didn’t bother you so much now, three years into your career. The only thing that bothered you now was that you’d have to rearrange your hotel plans as well as finding somewhere to sleep tonight.

“You said here,” you began with all eyes trained to you. “Where exactly is here?”

The gentleman cleared his throat again. “Brexendor.”

The crowd murmured as they looked at each other. Clearly, no one had ever heard of Brexendor. Some even pulled out their travel map to scour it for the country.

“So what are we supposed to do now? Where do we stay?”

“We are in the process of arranging accommodations at one of the inns within the capital. If you all would work with us so we have your names to get your luggage to you in a timely fashion so you can be shuttled over to the Inn, that would be appreciated.”

Everyone filed into a line in front of one of the four airport staff, hoping to hurry matters along while you searched your phone for any information on where you were. When you typed in Brexendor into the search engine, the first thing that popped up was a map of the country. Apparently, it was next door to Sandvell. They were considered sister countries.

“Population three million, run as a monarchy, considered one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Average life expectancy one hundred and ten years. Well, damn.”

Someone clearing their throat brought your attention up in front of you. You were next in line.

“Sorry.”

The woman with brown eyes and blonde hair smiled warmly. “It’s all right, Ms--.”

“Uh, Thornton, Xari Thornton.” You handed her your passport and boarding pass and waited as she scrolled through her tablet.

“Ah yes, Ms. Thornton. Here is your paperwork. On it, you will find where you can retrieve your luggage and the shuttle number that will be taking you to the Inn. Once at the Inn, just provide your name, and you will find everything has been taken care of. On behalf of Brexendor Aviation, we humbly apologize for this snafu.”

Her customer service training was on point, you thought. Her smile was warm, as if she really meant the words she’d just said. Finding it refreshing, you took the paperwork and proceeded to where she was motioning. Everyone you passed as you walked the fancy halls had a warm smile plastered to their face and even warmer words of welcome. You felt as if you’d stepped through into some alternate universe. You made a voice note about everything you encountered. You wanted to make sure you captured your authentic feelings and reactions in real-time. It made writing about your experience on the blog page easier. You’d even found that readers and supporters liked the play by play with your added thoughts. They commented it added personality.

Once you’d made it to the baggage claim area, your jaw dropped at the change in décor. There were Christmas trees that sparsely decorated the space, and they were all lit with the same blue, silver, and white theme. It contrasted with the latte color of the leather seats and the cream offset tables. The design gave the space an elegant but also comfortable vibe. When you slipped into one of the chairs, you released an audible moan. It was like sitting on a cloud.

After gathering your luggage, you followed instructions through a hall lined with Christmas trees, stopping every so often to take a few pictures before you made it to the front of the airport. As you stepped outside, your eyebrows shot up seeing the fresh snow cascading from the sky. The bite in the air had you bundling your jacket tighter, but it did not stop you from snapping a few pictures. One turned to ten and ten to fifteen until another person clearing their throat brought you back to reality and to the waiting bus ahead of you.

You took a break from pictures and called the hotel in Sandvell, hoping to alter the dates of your stay. What you expected to be a hassle and a long drawn out process ending in them saying they were booked and nothing could be done, turned out to be quick, easy, and painless. The Luxembourg Hotel assured you that your room would still be available and there would be no charge for the altered dates. You made another note on your phone, a point you had to stress when you wrote your piece.

You continued snapping pictures from the window of the bus with an easy mind. Everything you passed seemed like it didn’t belong. It all looked so old fashioned but so modern all at the same time. The buildings looked to have been standing since the beginning of time in the materials they’d been built in, but the displays were from the twenty-first century. It was the most exciting contradiction. The only word you could think to describe it was—quaint.

When the bus drove over a bridge, you got a semi-bird’s eye view of the town across the water, and your jaw nearly dropped.

“Brexendor? What the hell?”

The entire drive had you widening your eyes like a child seeing an insane amount of presents on Christmas morning. Buildings were decked out in Christmas lights, and every door had a wreath with blue and silver Christmas ornaments. Almost every few feet, the sidewalks were decorated with poinsettia trees that were half the average human’s height, and the way the freshly fallen snow-dusted their tops only made it even more perfect.

By the time the bus stopped, you’d taken so many pictures, and part of you was dreading having to go through them to choose the ones that would make the cut. You knew it was going to be a next to impossible decision. As you stepped off the bus, you felt like you’d walked right into a snow globe.

“Holy shit!”

You spun, taking in a full three-sixty view of your surroundings. all the glistening lights and the falling snow only made it feel even more magical. You didn’t know where the hell Brexendor was or why the hell they rolled like this, but you were excited to see more. When you stopped spinning, you realized several other people were snapping pictures and looking just as marveled as you were. After gathering your luggage, you followed instructions and walked across the street to the building that a friendly looking man with slightly greying hair was standing before beckoning you inside.

For the second time that night, you felt as if you’d stepped into a Christmas movie set. The interior was set so cozy. It felt like a Christmas cottage, and you loved it. Instinct had you reaching for your camera and taking a few shots of the Christmas tree in the corner by the fireplace and the plaid decorations on the leather couch. Even the pictures on the walls got a snap.

“Miss?”

Looking back to the owner, you smiled and approached the desk.

“Hi, I’m so sorry. This place is so gorgeous.”

“Thank you. I wish I could take the credit, but it is all my wife.”

Just then, a beautiful brunette came out wearing a bright red sweater and one of those spoof reindeer antler headbands that bounced with every move.

“Hi, there darling. Welcome to The Beaux. I’m Anita, and this is my husband, Borik. I heard all about your ordeal. I’m so sorry.”

You shrugged but kept your smile plastered on your face.

“It’s all right. Can’t control the weather, right?”

Anita smiled and nodded. “Definitely not in Brexendor.”

“I have never heard of this place before, and I am lost how. Everything is gorgeous and so quaint. How have you stayed under the radar?”

Anita and Borik looked at each other with an all-knowing look that you wanted in on.

“Guess it’s just happened,” Anita cheerfully said.

You knew they knew something. Staying this under the radar, including from America, didn’t just happen. This took work. You wondered who in charge in their right mind would make a stupid decision like that.

“Okay, what’s your name, darling?”

“Uh, Xari Thornton.”

“Ah-ha, I told you, Borik. Once we were contacted with a list of names that would be checking in, and I saw your name, I told him I just know she’s gorgeous and look. You are a vision.”

You couldn’t help but smile widely while trying to keep your head under proper proportions.

“Thank you.”

“You must have quite the many suitors where you’re from,” Anita continued.

You snorted and shook your head. The reality was you were as single as the number one with no prospects.

“No suitors here.”

Both Borik and Anita looked shocked, as if you’d said the most appalling thing.

“That can’t be true. Borik. She’s single and at twenty-eight. Even our Kennedy was at least engaged by the time she turned twenty-seven. Here that is unheard of. A woman is usually married by twenty-four, especially if she’s a looker.”

You pinched your lips, trying to keep your laughter in. this was not the first time you’d been called an old maid. Hell, your mother said it often, especially since you flat out turned down Maurice’s proposal three months ago. She was livid.

Anita must have sensed the awkwardness of the moment because she cleared her throat and brought all her attention back to the reservation.

“Well, your room is prepared. I took the liberty of giving you one of our prettiest rooms. Would you like Borik to carry your bags up?”

“Uh—no, I’m sure I can manage,” you began.

Borik stood, shook his head, and came around to you.

“I won’t hear a thing about it. I’ll happily carry your luggage up. Follow me.”

“That’s my Borik, ever the gentleman,” Anita filled in with an enamored smile before Borik walked off, leaving her to check in a few of the other passengers from the plane.

You listened to Borik tell the story of the Inn and how it got its name. You kept one ear on his story while you took in every detail around you. The wood looked so rustic, and you guessed that was what gave the place such a warm and welcoming feeling. The higher you climbed, the more you saw, and the more you saw, the more you liked. You followed Borik down a hall, noticing that all the doors you passed had mini wreaths decked out in the same blue and silver ornaments like at the airport and throughout the streets.

“Ah-ha, here we are,” Borik said before he put the key into the lock and pushed the door open. Once he did, the scent of cinnamon and pine hit you in the face. It was like the hand of Christmas came out and smacked you.

“My wife loves the smell,” Borik explained as you stepped inside. You smiled and thanked him for his help.

“If you get hungry, you have a few options. There are plenty of places nearby you can eat some authentic Brexendorian food, but also my wife cooks every night, and dinner usually is at eight o’clock, but tonight Anette has agreed to keep some heated for anyone who would like some. It’s stew, rabbit.”

“Oh, thumper. Wonderful.”

Borik laughed loudly with that one. “I know that one, Bambi, the children’s cartoon. Good one Ms. Thornton.”

You smiled. “You can call me Xari, Borik.”

“Well, have a good night,” he said before he walked out.

Finally alone, the first thing you did was text your sister to let her know not to worry and give her an update on what was happening. After you let Anika know what was happening, it didn’t take long for your phone to ring. The next ten or so minutes were spent talking to Anika and telling her how amazing the things you’d seen so far were. You could not shut up about the decorations, the way the snow looked to have been groomed to lay on things perfectly. It was that damn picturesque. Since you couldn’t stop talking about it, Anika was the one to suggest you go out and enjoy it before you got back on the plane. It was a suggestion you fully intended on listening to.

Fifteen minutes later, you were back downstairs bundled with your camera and your purse, ready to explore. When you told Anita your intention, she gave you a map of the city and highlighted places to look at but cautioned you to hurry because stores would be closing soon, and nights during Brexendor winters could be brutal. You promised you’d be quick and careful, then stepped out, ready to explore like Dora.

Your first stop was a block down, a children’s toy store. It was decked out with all the latest toys along with some traditional things that Santa would have brought specially made from his workshop. While you were snapping pictures outside the window, a kid ran up to the window and pressed his nose to it. His eyes were wide, and his mouth matched their size. You asked the adult with him if you could take a picture. When they approved, you got one or two from a few different angles before they walked off.

As you walked through the city, enjoying the scenery, you took pictures of everything that caught your eye, ornaments, trees, people, stores, even pets. Christmas wasn’t your favorite holiday, but it was your second favorite, and being here really as inching it higher on the list.

When you felt a strong wind hit you, it stopped you in your tracks. It was strong enough to have you stagger backward a little, allowing a chill to sweep through you. You looked around and saw a few feet away was some sort of bar, and behind it was swirling snow that looked like a tornado. You hurried toward the building, being careful not to slip on any ice that may be hiding underneath the snow. Once to the door, you walked inside, and the sound of Christmas carols filled your ears.

“Jesus.”

If the scent of the Inn felt like Christmas slapped you in the face, the look and sound of this place was the one two-hitter that settled that you were in a whole nother world here. You looked around and found a coat rack along the left wall. After placing your jacket and scarf on the hook, you walked to the bar and slid onto a stool. As you waited for the bartender to come over, you looked around. Here it didn’t smell like cinnamon, but the pine was present, along with the smell of alcohol and licorice.

There were several small dark wooden tables around the bar with chairs and even booths that decorated the walls. The floors matched the tables, and those matched the walls. This place looked like somewhere you’d find in the middle of nowhere. The window to the back of the establishment showed the dark woods with tall snow-covered trees and that howling snow tornado.

When you turned back to the back, the huge elk head above the wall lined with alcohol bottles had you gasping.

“Jeez,” you said as you snapped two of three pictures of the creepy looking thing.

“That is Hogan’s prized possession.”

You looked beside you where the voice came from to see a very attractive man there. When you’d sat down, you didn’t notice anyone beside you, so to see his piercing blue eyes boring holes into you. Your eyes traveled lower to his awkwardly shaped nose. It looked like it had been broken once or twice and never quite went back to normal. You didn’t mind it, though. Who liked a perfect face, especially when looking at him, seemed like that was about the only thing that was not absolutely perfect. His jaw was carved to precision like he was specially crafted and not born. When your eyes fell to his lips, you purposely forced yourself to look away.

“Is—is that right?”

“Yes. I bet you cannot guess why,” the stranger said in a crisp European accent that was very close to British. You weren’t one hundred percent sure if it was or not, he just sounded proper as hell, and it was actually a bit of a turn on.

You shrugged while looking at the bottles that lined the back of the bar. “Enlighten me.”

Just then, a large man with blond hair in a man bun walked over. He had to have been over six feet tall, and if this were America, he’d definitely be a shopper at the store Big & Tall. The man looked to the one seated beside you, ready to speak but suddenly closed his mouth.

“Hogan, Ms--,” the stranger began waiting for you to fill in your name.

He thought he was so smooth; you thought as you smiled to yourself.

“Xari.”

His eyebrow shot up, and he smiled sweetly. “Wow, what a beautiful name.”

You smiled, and as you felt it widening, you bit onto your bottom lip to stop it. “Thanks.”

“Ms. Xari would like to know why Shandoe is your most prized possession.”

“Shandoe?”

Hogan looked behind him at the Elk’s head then smiled. “It’s been in my family for generations. It was the first thing my great-great-great-great-great grandfather ever killed for himself to feed his family. They ate everything but the head and decided to keep it as a reminder of where we came from.”

You were expecting some weird manly story but what you got was a wholesome and heartwarming tale. You smiled, raised your camera, and snapped Hogan, and as he stared at the Elk’s head with such a loving look on his face that was such a contradiction for his large frame.

“Are you a reporter?”

“No, no. Not at all. I’m a travel influencer and blogger. I go around and soak up what the world has to offer while taking pictures and writing about it on my blog for others to read about.”

The man beside you nodded, then raised his glass to his head.

“What can I get you?”

“Uh—what is he drinking?”

“The Mistletoe Bomb.”

You snorted, unable to contain yourself any longer. “What in the world is that?”

“You laugh now, but it is a blend he makes special for me. It is not for the faint of heart,” the man beside you informed.

“Oh no, well looks like I’ll be having one of those.”

Hogan looked to him, then back to you. “It is all right, Hogan. Give the lady what she wants. I am assuming fell strength is also what you require?”

“Yes, full strength. I want all the mistletoe and all the bomb.”

Hogan went to work, making the drink while you continued looking around.

“Em, I’m Henry.”

You looked to him to find his hand outstretched to you, waiting for you to place yours in it. When you did, you repeated your name as you noted how soft his hands were. It felt like he’d never done a day’s work with them. Henry rose your hand to his lips and placed a soft kiss on the back of your hand. It was one small action, but that action had butterflies flitting in your belly and your cheeks heating as if a heater was aimed directly at your face.

“I am delighted to make your acquaintance,” Henry uttered while looking into your eyes.

“Same,” you whispered.

Henry released your hand and turned back to his drink at the same time Hogan placed a mug before you.

“One Mistletoe Bomb for the lady.”

You looked at the large mug then to Hogan, who waited expectantly. When your eyes drifted to Henry beside you, he too was watching and waiting. No matter how much you felt like this was a setup, you persisted, not wanting to back down. When you took your first full mouthful of the drink, your eyes immediately bugged. Your tongue was on fire in seconds, and it seemed the longer you held the liquid in your mouth, the worse the burn was. You gulped it down and instantly knew the mistake. Not only was your mouth on fire, but now your throat and chest as it burned a fiery path to your belly.

“Holy fucking shit!”

The two men boisterously laughed, the sounds booming off the wooden walls before filling the entire room. You looked around, noticing for the first time it was completely empty.

“What the hell is that?”

“Something that will put hair on your chest,” Hogan teased.

“No, shit.”

Henry seemed to like that response; he laughed again then finished his mug.

“How can you drink this?”

He shrugged, then turned his body to you. You gave him a well-paced once over, taking in his furry winter boots, dark pants, and dark sweater to match the pants. Underneath the sweater, though, you saw peeks of a crisp white shirt. He dressed like he had money, you thought.

“I have done it for half my life. I do not even feel the burn anymore. Do you know why he calls it Mistletoe Bomb now?”

You giggled and nodded, pushing the mug away. If you drank that, you’d need to be carried out of here. As Hogan appeared to take the mug away, Henry reached for it, insisting he’d finish it while Hogan placed a beer bottle in front of you.

“Would you like a straw?”

You looked at Hogan as if he were crazy. Who drank beer with a straw? You shook your head and raised the bottle to your lips to take a swig. This was more your speed, not pure petrol.

“So you are new in town,” Henry began.”

“Kind of. My plane had to detour because of the storm, so here I am in a place I’ve never heard of and cannot figure out why.”

“Is it strange to never have heard of every place in the world?”

You thought about it for a moment as you took another mouthful of beer then nodded.

“Yes. I’m from America,” you began.

“Ah, American. Let me guess. Everything has to be discovered, and if it is not, then either it doe not exist, or it is being hidden.”

You snapped your mouth shut. He’d guessed American thinking in one try. “Well, that’s not fun,” you added. Henry laughed and took his mouthful of fire.

“I am sorry. I know America well,” Henry informed.

“Oh, so you’ve been?”

“No. I do not need to. I have spent my entire life learning it.”

You looked back at him, confused by what he meant.

“Every country gives lessons on other countries of the word, especially powerhouse countries,” he explained.

“Well, your studies have paid off.”

“Do you really believe that everything has to be discovered?”

“No. where is the fun in that? I believe that the world has to have some mystery.”

“Then welcome to Brexendor,” Henry said with a smile.

“Brexendor. What’s it’s deal?”

You leaned closer, resting your elbow on the wood of the bar as you watched him.

“Deal? I am afraid I do not understand.”

“What I mean is, the people are nice. Everyone I have encountered, including at the airport, is nice. You know airport staff can be so mean, but not here. The people who own the Inn I am staying at are so sweet. Even strangers I bump into don’t;’ seem to mind. Not to mention, this place has the whole snow globe effect down. It’s incredible. What is the deal? Is the president some fantastic guy who pays everyone well and gives them ample vacation time for them to be so happy?”

Henry smiled, dipped his head lower, then rubbed the back of his neck.

“Would that be unusual?”

“Yes. Compared to what America has going on—highly unusual.”

“Well, the first thing to know about Brexendor is, a president does not run it,” Henry clarified.

“Ah right, it is a monarchy. So does that mean there is a king, and queen, lords, dukes,” you began, then gasped, remembering more. “Princesses?”

Henry smirked, gulped his drink, then nodded. “Yes.” He continued to take another swig from his mug.

His words slowly resonated. “What!? You’re serious?”

He nodded, then placed the glass onto the bar.

“Wow. How interesting. So this King and Queen are they the good kind?”

Henry’s smile turned somber before it disappeared altogether.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“No, no. Yes, the King and Queen are the best kind,” he filled in before he took the last mouthful of his drink. “They would like you.”

You laughed loudly and shook your head. “Me? I doubt that. While all the mothers of my boyfriends have loved me, I don’t think the King and Queen would care for me.”

“Boyfriend, so uh—you’re involved,” Henry said as he avoided your eyes.

His words sounded like a statement rather than a question, so you remained quiet. After a few moments, he looked at you expectantly. You pinched your lips before you finished your beer.

“Are you involved?”

Henry took a deep breath looked forward to the bottles at the bar as a pained and confused expression washed over his features.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” you replied.

“I am not—involved,” he answered.

“You said it like you weren’t sure.”

“It is complicated.”

“Well, I am a stranger in a bar—an empty bar. You’ll most likely never see me again, and I’ve been told I’m a great listener.”

Henry smiled then turned back to you, resting his elbow on the bar mimicking your stance.

“You have not answered my inquiry.”

“Inquiry?”

Henry smiled again, then bit his bottom lip. That is where your eyes went to. He had nice lips, you thought.

“On if you are involved,” he clarified.

“I am not involved with anyone. If you ask my mother, she will tell you I’m an old maid with no prospects.”

“I do not believe that. You are funny, intelligent, fun to be around, and quite beautiful. There is no way you have no admirers.”

You smiled and began toying with your necklace.

“I’m sure you say that to all the girls you meet in deserted bars during a snow storm.”

He snorted, and you felt his breath across your cheek. It was then you realized how close the two of you were to each other.

“To be honest, I have never found myself alone with a woman in a bar. You are my first.”

You bit your bottom lip feeling more flirtatious than usual as you gazed into his hypnotizing eyes. He was gorgeous and becoming even more so with every passing minute. The two of you ordered more drinks, then drifted off to one of the booths on the wall that was more hidden and even more comfortable. You talked about nearly everything and nothing at the same time. He spoke a lot about philosophy and astronomy and the sciences that motivated a lot of the earlier theories. It was fascinating just listening to him speak. There was something about his mouth and the properness of the words he used. Never once did he use slang or even a contraction. You’d never met anyone who didn’t use contractions. The longer you sat there, the more you felt like never getting up.

“There is something about you that is so comfortable and easy,” Henry began.

“You too.”

“I feel like I can talk to you about anything. I even want to.”

You smiled, “You too.”

Your eyes lingered, and you saw him sway forward, but then he stopped only to do it again and again. With your faces were centimeters from one another, it was then you noticed the slight speck of brown in his left eye. You felt Henry’s hand gently cup your cheek; then, his thumb slowly stroked your skin. The heat from his palm seared your cheek, and every stroke of his thumb send heat tendrils down your jaw to your lips, making them tingle and yearn for his.

This had never happened to you in your entire life. You’d known this man a few hours and were ready to possibly bring him back to the Inn with you. Henry didn’t move. It was like he was giving you the last few centimeters to make a decision, but you didn’t make it. A phone went off, but you both ignored it until the sound went off. You raised your hand to rest on top of his. Once your skin touched his, Henry lightly sighed out. Before either of you could make another move, a phone rang again. This time Henry groaned before he looked away just as you did.

You cleared your throat and slid from his body as he checked his phone.

“I have to go,” he announced.

Frozen, you sat there trying to understand if you’d read this entire thing wrong.

“I am sorry, something—urgent has come up.”

You snapped out of it, then nodded. “It’s fine. I should probably get back to the Inn anyway. They say a storm is brewing.”

Both of you stood from the booth while straightening your clothes.

“I really enjoyed tonight,” Henry added.

You smiled and nodded. “Me too. It was—nice.”

Your eyes lingered again, and your bodies drifted closer. It was you who looked away first and stepped back. You reached for your purse, but Henry stopped you.

“It has been taken care of. Let us call it a tourist special, right Hogan.”

“Right your--,” Hogan began before Henry looked at him, cutting him off.

Henry ushered you to the coat rack on the wall by the door then helped you into your jacket.

“Can I drive you back to the Inn?”

“No, please. I am more than capable of getting back,” you assured.”

“Are you sure?”

You nodded then turned to walk out, but Henry pulled you to him. “I want to see you again.”

“I don’t see how. I leave tomorrow as soon as the storm passes.”

Henry looked to be thinking before he sighed. “I guess it was not meant to be,” you whispered, a tinge of sadness filling you as reality set in.

“In another life,” Henry softly said.

He came closer then placed a slow, chaste kiss on your cheek before he released you. The two of you stared at each other for a few moments, and in those moments, anything felt possible. When you faced that anything could have been possible but not for you, you sighed. A few seconds later, you turned and walked out of the bar.

Once outside, the rough wind caught you off guard. You took a few moments to bundle yourself, then continued walking back to the Inn. The swirling snow in the air made it a little challenging to see, but you tried the best you could. Several times, the wind picked up and shoved you where it wanted, forcing you to grab on to something to hold until it passed.

Suddenly a big gust of wind blew you to the right and knocking you off your feet to roll for several feet. When the wind slowed, you rolled over onto your back to spit out the mouthful of snow that you’d managed to ingest. It took you several tries to stand, but when you did, you tried to see where you were and what direction you needed to walk in. That was when the wind picked up again, making you scream. When you turned, you saw two headlights coming right at you, then all you felt was pain before you were out cold.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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#crown for two fic #henry cavill #henry cavill fanfiction #henry cavill x reader #henry cavill x you #henry cavill x black reader #black fanfiction #royalty au #slow burn fanfic #christmas fanfiction #henry cavill x black ofc #cheesy christmas fic

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neonthewrite · 3 years

Text

Washed Up Winchesters 7

The team is closing in on the solution to their mystery! What's it gonna be, dream team?!

Cowritten with @nightmares06, the writer behind the @brothersapart multiverse!

( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) ( 4 ) ( 5 ) ( 6 ) -7- ( 8 )

Story Tag

Read Time ~15 minutes

~~~~~

Jacob didn’t exit the inner roads of the city a moment too soon. A few people had started to wander closer to figure out what he was up to, despite the officer from before trying to convince them to move along. The resident giant didn’t walk among the close-packed buildings very often at all, and it only showed off how tall he was compared to everything else.

He was grateful to have passengers to pay attention to. He couldn’t think too much about his self-consciousness that way.

Once they were back on the outskirts of town, he glanced down often to get more directions from Sam or Minnie (Chase, as usual, didn’t seem too fussed about the direction they went). They eventually led him to a place well outside of town. None of the bumpiest roads even wound up out there, and the hills, covered in brush and rocks, wouldn’t be kind to most people on foot. A few dense clusters of trees formed extra barriers against travel in that direction.

“So you think these, uh, shapeshifter thingies are hiding somewhere in there?” he asked, pausing once again to consult the miniature monster hunters. “I’m not gonna be able to make a stealthy entrance, so what’s the plan?”

"Keep an eye out for any stray animals," Sam cautioned. "We don't know what their animal forms are yet, and skinwalkers are more versatile compared to werewolves like that. Whatever the pack is, anyone they bite will also turn into that animal."

"Who needs stealth when you have a giant on your side?" Dean commented, eliciting a side-eye from Sam. Likely his younger brother was remembering how trigger happy Dean had been just a few short hours back. Though considering the part that past giants had played in Blefuscu's history, it was understandable that the mini-monster hunter would feel threatened when seeing another one spring to life from the story books.

“Right?” Chase agreed. “These skinwalker thingies had no idea what they were getting into, invading Lilliput.”

Jacob’s mouth twisted into a skeptical frown. He might be big, and he’d used that to his advantage once or twice, but it didn’t make him an expert here. The monster hunting expertise all settled on Sam and Dean’s shoulders. He was prepared to help however they might need, but he didn’t like the thought of living as an open challenge to any monster that wanted to try something.

Minnie fidgeted. Her brow furrowed. “Can we just find them and get it over with?”

Jacob cupped his hand closer to his chest. “Yeah,” he tried to sound reassuring. “Just gonna …” he reached down to the tops of the nearest grouping of trees, brushing his hands over them. The young, supple trees bent back at his coaxing, though not without some creaking branches and snapping twigs, and birds swarmed away from his hand like flies.

“Can you guys tell if there’s any tracks or anything through there?”

Dean gave Jacob such a flat look that it could have dried up an ocean. Dried it up and left cracked salt flats behind. "What kind of tracks do you think we can spot from here, after you go messin' around with everything?" He pointed at the way the area had been affected by Jacob's movement.

Jacob glanced down and, in an overplayed show of drawing his hand back, let the trees spring into place with a cascade of yet more twigs and leaves. “I didn’t think they’d be climbing around in the trees,” he defended. As for how much they could have seen on the ground … he saw the point. He was too used to the Lilliputians being able to see much more detail than he ever could, and never paused to think about how high up he had everyone.

“Don’t worry, buddy,” Chase said, patting Jacob’s palm. “Ya did your best. You said it yourself, you won’t be sneaking up on ‘em.”

Jacob rolled his eyes and sighed, and some of the birds that were swarming from his recent disturbance scattered even further in the sudden breeze. “Right.”

He pressed forward, this time not paying much mind to the clusters of trees unless there was motion among them. Usually, it was a fox or another flock of birds, all irate for his presence. As he navigated around boulders jutting out of the ground and stepped over thick underbrush, he understood why no one made much use of the area. If he tried to set his passengers down right then, Chase and Minnie would definitely get themselves tangled up in something. Sam and Dean might fare only a little better.

As he crested the first hill, he paused. “I didn’t really see much in there,” he admitted. “Maybe I went the wrong way?”

It was Minnie who spoke up next, and she was staring down at a clearing at the foot of the hill. “There’s a flock of sheep.”

Chase snickered. “Jeez, Minnie, do we need to get you more lambs to look after? Sheep are on your brain today.”

She pointed at the clearing and shot him a scathing glare. “They’re on my brain because they’re there, Chase!”

"She's right," Sam put in helpfully, interrupting the siblings.

Indeed, the clearing ahead was populated with a peacefully grazing herd of sheep. Several "Baas" filtered back to the group in Jacob's hand. The giant had not gone unnoticed by the sheep, as most of them had given a wide berth to the side Jacob stood closest to.

Dean's eyes lit up with excitement. "If there's sheep, it's the perfect kind of place for shifters to make themselves right at home, especially if they're holed up for a while until they think they’re forgotten," he pointed out. "We should check the place out, see if there's any predators nearby that might be stalking the herd."

"I wonder how they all got over here," Minnie mused, even as Jacob looked for a good path down the gentle slope of the hill.

"Maybe the shapeshifter guys took 'em," Chase said. "We'll see if someone back in town is missing any."

"Just hope I won't scare 'em off," Jacob muttered. Even at his lowest volume, the four on his hand wouldn't miss his concern. Just his appearance over the crest of the hill had made some of the sheep nervous, from what he could see. He inched along towards the clearing, trying not to cause a landslide as he did.

Dean was unable to stop from bouncing on his heels while they waited, unaccustomed to waiting around for someone else to do all the work while he was stuck in the air.

"The longer you take, the more time they have to run off," he helpfully reminded Jacob, which got an annoyed look sent back at him from Sam.

"If any make a break for it, we'll just have Jake round them up," Sam said dryly.

Jacob sent a skeptical glance at his hand, but didn't argue. He had never tried to actually pick up the Lilliputian livestock before. At most, there were a few herds of cattle that allowed him to touch their backs. Mostly the animals still avoided him, and he didn't exactly blame them. Even now, his shadow over the hill crept over that green clearing and the sheep weren't any more curious about him than before.

If they did turn out to be stolen or lost, he'd probably be the one carrying them back over the hill. Hopefully the others would manage to help him keep from spooking the whole lot.

As soon as he was close enough, he crouched down, one hand braced on the ground while the other lowered his passengers to the grass. "Just gimme a shout if you spot trouble," he urged them.

Chase gave a thumbs up while he helped Minnie hop down from the hand. Then, before he could chirp out a response, he had to suppress a sneeze in the crook of his arm. "Oh yeah, I'm allergic to the air I guess," he complained.

"Just don't scare the flock," Minnie scolded.

Dean followed behind the younger pair of siblings, scowling. "We don't know where the skinwalkers are, so you two need to stick close to us," he told them sharply. "Chase, you're with me. Got it?"

"That means it's me and you," Sam said to Minnie with a smile. "Don't go out of earshot of the others, and watch my back."

“Oh, I definitely don’t plan to get lost out here,” Minnie muttered back. Chase would never let her live it down. That was another perk to having a giant so nearby. Jacob would be able to find them if they shouted for him, and he could pluck them right out of danger if they needed. Even so, she stuck close to Sam as she scanned the area for any signs of something out of the ordinary.

By contrast, Chase stuck close to Dean out of convenience more than wariness. He didn't want to get lost out there either. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s bothered this flock yet,” he noted. “Think the guys are nearby still?”

"We're here to find out," Dean said, more sharply than he meant. The fact that they didn't know for sure unnerved him more than usual. Combine that with the fact that they were well away from their familiar stomping grounds in Blefuscu, and he was on edge.

The secluded field hardly seemed the place for a dangerous pack of shapeshifters, but Dean had seen weirder in his time as a hunter. They could take no chances. Selecting a direction that led away from Sam's pair and Jacob, he took point, leading Chase into the flock of sheep to search for their owners.

"Baa."

Dean ignored the sound of the sheep as they milled restlessly around the intruders, trying to spot any color in the field of white. The sheep had to have gotten this far up the hills somehow, but he wasn't seeing any sign of their caretakers.

"Baa."

This time, the sound of an impatient sheep was shortly followed by one of them headbutting into Dean's legs. Caught off-guard, he toppled into the field and vanished among the woolly animals.

"Oh shit! Dean!" Chase blurted, a smile only briefly flashing across his face. When the determined monster hunter didn't catch himself or spring right back up, he lurched over to where he'd seen him fall over. The sheep were restless at this point, no doubt owed in part to their sudden intrusion. Chase had to sidle around several of them before he could find where Dean landed.

He patted one nearby sheep's head distractedly as he knelt down. "Scuse me." He got his hands on Dean's arm to help pull him up to a seat. "What happened?"

Dean rubbed his head, blinking in confusion. "I think... the sheep?"

The herd was growing more restless by the minute now, a multitude of baas surrounding the pair. As Dean got unsteadily to his feet, a second sheep rammed its head into his legs and sent him tumbling down again.

"Ah, jeez!" Chase groused. How Minnie could keep a whole flock of sheep in line, he would never know. "Calm down, guys!" He had to step around one uppity ram that had wandered it's way between him and Dean in all the milling around.

"They don't seem to like us much," he said, exasperated. "Maybe we oughta just go around the flock instead of through it."

He knelt down to help once again, and this time one of the sheep let out an indignant baaa right next to his ear. Slapping a hand over his ear, Chase frowned. "Oh calm down a second, wouldja? We're going!"

Dean ended up needing Chase's help to stand, surrounded by the annoyed bleats of the flock. He scowled right back at them. "Seriously, since when are sheep this irritating?"

~~~

Not far away, Sam was having similar issues.

He was unable to go more than a few steps before another sheep would try to headbutt him off his feet. However, Minnie was distinctly left alone in comparison, with all the ire of the sheep directed towards the younger Winchester brother.

Minnie frowned and scanned the handful of sheep currently swarming around Sam. They didn't look sickly, or even all that scared. They were just annoyed by Sam for some reason.

"Hey, hey," she said gently, clicking her tongue at them. "What got you all worked up?" One sheep allowed her to pat its head once before shaking her off and returning to bleat at Sam.

She glanced across the flock to see Chase and Dean having similar problems, with a sea of indignant sheep in between the two groups. One look over her shoulder showed that Jacob hadn't moved and was poorly hiding his bemusement with the sight, so he probably couldn't be to blame for the flock's upset.

"Sam, we should--" she cut herself off, seeing him still struggling to keep his feet. Like her brother, she had to sidle her way past the sheep to get close enough to help him up. "We should check around the edges first, maybe. I dunno if I've ever seen a flock get this annoyed before."

“Yeah, let’s--” Whatever Sam was going to say was cut off when a ram headbutted him directly in the ass and sent him to faceplant in the dirt.

“Sam!”

Even from across the field, Dean had seen that Sam was in the same predicament as he was. The sheep were oddly focused on the Winchester brothers, while mostly ignoring the Lisongs. Frustrated, Dean pulled out his gun only to remember that it was out-of-commission from the saltwater. “Son of a bitc--”

He was knocked to the grass yet again, surrounded by increasingly agitated sheep. Chase, standing near him, made the mistake of trying to catch his fall. It ended with them both toppling into the sea of woolly troublemakers.

Minnie huffed in exasperation. “Chaaase,” she drawled, only to glance up as a shadow neared the flock.

“Okay, guys,” Jacob murmured, finally deciding he needed to step in. The first couple times the sheep had knocked Dean over, he’d been amused, but at this rate they’d never figure anything out. He would have to risk spooking some of the herd if only to deal with them later. He leaned forward, one hand planted firmly and flattening some sheep-free grass, while the other dipped down towards the flock where he’d last seen Dean and Chase fall over.

To his surprise, the sheep didn’t scatter in all directions from his shadow. At best, the ones near Dean and Chase bleated angrily and shuffled out of the way, giving him the space to scoop them both off the grass.

Before Jacob could do so, Dean bounded to his feet, fed up with the entire situation.

"That's ENOUGH!" he bellowed, yanking out his silver knife and brandishing it at the flock. "The next sheep to headbutt me gets its wool sheared off early!"

That somehow riled the sheep up even more, though they didn’t charge at him while the shadow of Jacob’s hand hovered overhead. Chase managed to regain his feet, suppressing a few sneezes from falling in the grass. All around the pair, the sheep bleated and a ram stomped just outside of Dean’s reach.

Jacob saw it before Dean or Chase did. While the ram in front made its odd show of defiance, another one edged towards them from behind. “Okay,” he muttered, “this is getting ridiculous.”

He reached down and plucked both of them up, gently herding them towards his palm before whisking them up. Once they were hovering over the heads of the many indignant baaas of the flock, he focused on Sam and Minnie.

The sheep still didn’t want to let Sam up, especially after Dean’s outburst, and they’d managed to shuffle Minnie away from him. Two fingers scooped under Sam’s middle to haul him up before the sheep smothered him or started to bite at him or something. Once he deposited Sam with the other two on his hand, he finally offered a hand up for Minnie and explained his hasty actions. “This isn’t working. You guys are gonna get trampled if this keeps up.”

Finally free of the sheep thanks to Jacob's intervention, Dean was able to bring himself to stand on his own two feet, with no fear of getting butted over yet again.

"What is with these sheep?" he demanded angrily at the air. "Don't they know we're trying to help? If there's a pack of wolves around, it's only a matter of time for them!"

That was when it clicked for Sam.

"Holy shit," he breathed. "Holy shit."

#mywriting #collab #washed up winchesters #chase in lilliput au #chase lisong #minnie lisong #sam winchester #dean winchester #jacob andris #supernatural fanfiction #gullivers travels fanfiction #g/t #g/t handheld

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hollenka99 · 3 years

Text

A God Walks Into a Temple

Summary: The Blood God is someone to be feared as much as revered. So that is why he is going to raise this baby he just met to be a soldier, definitely not for any other reason. Prologue of Blood and Feathers.

If you were to research the cultural history of piglins, perhaps one of the most prominent figures you will encounter is the Blood God. This deity can be found mentioned as far back as their records go. He likely predates any ancient literature they have. There are disputes, as with anything from that far back in history, as to his origins or his true role. Some say he is simply a war god for a race that easily become hostile. Others argue he is Death personified while a handful speculate he is specifically the patron of those who die bloody. Whatever attributes he is labelled as, be it war, bloodshed, death, chaos or vengeance, it is clear the Blood God is not an individual to be messed with. A significant piglin settlement is rarely devoid of some sort of effigy pertaining to their god, especially the ruins of old cities. A common sight is a golden statue portraying a grand piglin dressed in armour and armed with a sword, typically in a stance suggesting he is rallying his forces to fight and potentially fall in his name. The only method known to kill the Blood God is causing him fall in battle. Even then he will not be quashed for long. Within weeks, he will be reborn amongst his piglin brethren. His bloodthirsty nature will reveal itself before too long and his years of harsh yet necessary training will begin so he may lead his followers into battle once more. The last time the Blood God was defeated was centuries ago. The days of his youth in this life are faded memories. The blood that he has witnessed with these eyes alone has been enough to replace vast bodies of water. He has admired each tribute to him, dilapidated and well maintained alike, countless times. He's not even sure of the quantity that have been sacrificed in his name by this point. Functional immortality can get dull, repetitive even, with enough time. So perhaps it’s a good thing he finds himself passing an avian settlement that night. The valley is populated by a small city. The architecture is tall, practically dominated by skyscrapers. There is a temple a fair distance away at another point of the rim surrounding the place. In the darkness, he can just about make out a series of stairs leading up to it, all well lit by lamps. The local area up here is full of farmland. However, it would seem the year's harvest has been collected by now. A small gathering exit the temple. They disband with some flying home and others ushering themselves down the stairs reminiscent of defeated troops. That is the least of his concerns though, especially given his divine visitor who lands beside him with a swoop. "Well well well, this is a rare sight. Bit far from the Nether, aren't you, Blood God?" "Perhaps. And you are? Sky goddess undoubtedly but which one? There are a few of you." She gives him a thoughtful smile. From her hair, she retrieves a yellow flower which she proceeds to twirl within her fingers for a moment. "Celandine. Perhaps you are more familiar with my mother, Aderyn, the Mother of Birds." "Sure. You're all the same anyway." "Oh, is that so?" She laughs in mock offense. "Then I suppose all piglins and Netherworlders are of the same breed too." He grunts in acknowledgement that she has spoken but gives her words no further attention. Instead, he gestures towards the temple and asks "What's going on down there, some ritual?" "Ah." She gazes in the same direction as him. "Now that would be the Offering of Hatchlings. They do this every year. As you may or may not have noticed, the wind have been growing colder recently. They've gathered the year's harvest and it is time for them to temporarily migrate to a warmer climate. But, of course, they want us to ensure their journey is a successfully safe one. For whatever reason, they've convinced themselves the way to sweeten the deal is to leave two of their children that were born in the past 12 months behind for us along with other gifts. Come, I'll show you if you'd like." "Well, I got nothing better to do. Lead the way." The interior wasn't anything significant. White walls surrounded them without a ceiling. What did surprise the Blood God, however, was how there was more room to walk around than the view from outside gave the impression of. That said, the centrepiece of the room is, by far, the large sculpture that resembled a nest, filled with cushioning. Surrounding it are gifts like samples of freshly yielded crops, gems and gold ingots. Situated on top are two winged infants in white gowns that had been abandoned as part of the ritual. On the left was a girl with hair as dark as her complexion and light purple feathers that may grow richer in tone as she ages. She bawls from fresh abandonment but the empty air is yet to pay her any notice. Then to the right was her companion who was seemingly slightly older and far calmer. The boy stares up at him with blue eyes that match the gradient of his wings. He does not cry or murmur despite the ceremonial desertion of his parents or the oversized figure (even by piglin brute standards) of a god looming over him. The infant... even breaks into a tiny smile at him. "They just leave them out here? Surely there must be some parents that get attached to their child." "Oh, of course, all the time. Some see it as a great honour but others do view it as a great loss, yes." She sighs. "I have made it my vocation to watch over their community and ensure these chosen children are kept safe. I even bless them with longevity so that they may endure far into old age. There is another town far from here where I send them. There's always someone who is willing to raise a new arrival." "I see." He does not know nor understand why the notion appears in his mind. He has no reason to care about some dumb baby, especially not one who isn't even remotely the same species as him. Caring about living things isn't on brand for him either. Nah, he was more the type to make things stop living, not ensure their survival. Although... he could use this as an opportunity to raise a warrior whose skills were on par with his and those of his greatest recruits. Maybe if this experiment produces successful results, he will consider home growing armies' worth of overworlder children. Oh, who is he kidding? He simply wants a change of pace, a new experience. As far as he can recall across the spans of all his lives, he has rarely troubled himself with trivial distractions such as a family or passing his knowledge based of vast years of experience to the next generation. Who says he can't break that pattern? "What if I took this one with me, the boy?" She raises an scrutinising eyebrow. "Are you sure?" "I have lived eons. How difficult can one child be to maintain?" The incredulous look towards him persists before laughter unfurls from her mouth. She comments something about how he is setting himself up for more than a few surprises. It bears no consequence since she complies with his request regardless. As Celandine advises him on the basics like how to hold the boy and gods above, no, you cannot feed him cow's milk as to compensate for a lack of his mother's own. Shortly before the pair depart for their new life together, he is told the child's name is Phillip. He see no reason to change it.

#mcyt #dream smp #technoblade #philza #kidza #my writing #blood and feathers

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thebookwormfairy · 4 years

Text

Daminette/Maribat Fairy Tail Au Part 1

Marinette grew up in a world filled with magic

Although Marinette's own parents weren't wizards, but bakers, she inherited her Gramdfather Fu's magic, celestial magic

She was able to summon spirits to help her with the help of silver and gold gate keys

The silver gate keys are pretty common, as far as gate keys go

The gold keys were a lot more rare as there was only 12 of them

Marinette already had 3, Tikki spiritof creation, Plagg spirit of destruction and Wayzz spirit of protection

They were her Grandfather's keys and he passed them down to her when he retired.

She also had a magic yoyo gifted to her by Tikki after her Grandfather had given her Tikki's key when he started training her

So when Marinette turned 16 she decided to follow in her Grandfather's footsteps and join a boarding guild

She ended up joining the Miraculous Moth guild, a guild that had a large amount of members, but nothing like Justice League, who had almost half the amount of members, but was about 10x more powerful

Their guild stamp was a pointy looking moth

Marinette had decides to get hers on her left shoulder in red

The guild master was Gabriel Agreste

Nobody was really sure what type of magic he had, but there were always a new rumor floating around that said something different.

Some said he had transformation magic

Others said he had solid script magic

Few thought he had absolutely no magic at all

And het there was some who whispered that he was a celestial wizard

Marinette didn't give the rumors much thought

She was too busy getting to know her new guild mates

She made some great friends and even made up a team with Adrien (Gabriel's son), Alya, and Nino

They were a pretty good team

Adrien was an equip mage

He can summon different weapons and armor

Alya was a solid script mage

She can create create materials by writing words out in the air

And finally Nino was a sonic mage

He can produce and control sound waves and use it against enimies

They were called Team Adrien

Marinette joined their team a week after joining the guild

The three had already been a team before hand for a couple of years

So because of this Marinette felt like a stranger looking in sometimes

Either way they made a good team

Though they were a little destructive

Luckily for them Tikki can fix everything with her miraculous ladybug spell

They had a pretty good team for about a year than somebody new joined the guild

Her name was Lila Rossi and she was an illusionist mage

She claimed to be a great independent wizard and even was offered a spot at Justice League

She told stories about saving villages and people from evil wizards and monsters

Everybody was so amazed by her, but Marinette has her doubts

She couldn't explain it, but it was just a gut feeling, but Marinette tried to do her best to push that aside a welcome her with open arms

She even joined Team Adrien

And that's when stuff really went down hill for Marinette

Lila started to make sly remarks about Marinette and celestial wizards in general

Stuff like how she didn't really contribute to fights and instead just let her spirits do all the work

Even though Marinette fights whenever she can using her yoyo

Or how Marinette is the weakest on the team

Even though Marinette could now summon 2 spirits at once something most celestial spirits can't even dream of doing especially with golden keys

She tried to ignore it, but as time went on it hurt more and more

And when her friends started to join in she tried to change that

She started to try and cast star dress

Which would allow her to share her powers with her spirits

And gave her a cute outfit with that

Her team mates didn't seem to understand or appreciate her attempts to gain more strength

They started to leave her behind for missions

They cut her part of the rewards down claiming because she didn't do as much work as the rest if them so she doesn't deserves an equal amount of the reward

Sometimes they were just abandon her to finish a job by herself then demand their part of the reward even though Marinette did all the work

The final straw came after a very dangerous mission

They were going up against a dark wizard who was kidnapping young women and selling them them into the slave trade

They took the job because the reward money was ridiculous and a golden gate key

So the team decided to use Marinette as live bait

Because she would get such a great prize for the mission

Which she was okay with

And she was successful in luring him out and was going to fight him until she realized her yoyo was gone

She then checked her keys and they were gone too

Marinette panicked and tried to hold the dark wizard back the best she can while yelling for her teammates

They didn't show up

In a last ditch effort Marinette tried to use star dress magic

Marinette: STAR DRESS LADYBUG!

Marinette felt a rush of magic fall over her

It had work

She was now wearing a read flowie dress that fell a couple of inches above her knees with a black ribbon tied around her waist and black fingerless gloves

Her hair was now down with a red headband and black flats on her feet with a new red and black pock a dot yoyo

She used her new yoyo to tie the creep up and her team finally showed up

Marinette: WHERE WERE YOU GUYS AND WHO HAS MY KEYS?!?!

Alya: Chill girl Lila pointed out that the wizard wouldn't go after somebody with magic items on them so we just grabbed them before you left

Alya held out Marinette's keys and yoyo and Marinette snatched them out of her hands checking everything over

Marinette: THAT IS SOO STUPID!!! YOU GUYS ALMOST GOT ME KILLED OR WORST

Adrien: Calm down Marinette

Marinette: DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!

Lila *tearing up*: Come on Marinette we weren't that far away

Marinette: I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT! I'M SO DONE WITH ALL OF YOU RIGHT NOW!

Alya: Stop being such bitch Marinette you're fine and look you finally did that stupid star dress thing you were trying to do

Nino: Yeah dudette if you're going to be like that maybe Lila should get that gate key instead of you.

Marinette just glared at the group and used Plagg to help her drag the wizard to the Grand Council gourds that were posted in the town

She dropped him off got the reward money and the gate key

It was the Key of Illusion Trixx

When her teammates asked where their shares were Marinette just glared at them again

The whole trip back was her team criticizing her about keeping the money for herself

Marinette remained silent during the whole ride back

When they got back to the guild Lila cried to anybody who would listen about how mean and selfish Marinette was for keeping the money

Marinette ignored her and walked up to Gabriel

Marinette: Sure I would like to resign from this guild

Gabriel: Are you sure Ms. Dupen-Cheng?

Marinette: Yes after today I don't feel welcomed her any more

Gabriel: Well it'll be a shame to lose a wizard with such assets. Are you sure about this?

Grabiel looked down at the keys rested on Marinette's hip before looking back at Marinette's eyes

Marinette: Yes I'm sure

Grabiel snapped his fingers and Natalie, his second in command, removes her guild mark

Marinette walked out of the guild receiving sneers and nasty remarks from her ex-guildmates

She walked out and never looked back

She went to her home town to live with her parents and help out with the backery

She needed a break from guilds and other wizards

So she and sometimes her spirits would help her parents out

Well Tikki, Wayzz and Trixx did Plagg mostly just ate all the cheese pastries

Marinette kept training though she even made it so she can do Dtar dress with Plagg and Wayzz

Her bound with Trixx wasn't strong enough to complete star dress with him yet

After a couple of months Marinette was walking through town when she bumped into 2 boys

Both boys had black hair and looked around the same age

But one had blue eyes and was paler than his partner whi had green eyes

Damian: Sorry miss but you'll have to come with use there's no time to lose

Damian grabbed Marinette's hands and continue running with his partner Jon

Marinette: What's going on?

Jon: We're wizards on a mission to stop a dark guild who's top members are currently chasing us, so we're trying to lead them away from the populated area to avoid casualties

Marinette: Okay there's a short cut to outside of town, This way!

Marinette pulled Damian down an alley with Jon following the 2

Marinette could hear the sounds of crashing at the entrance of the alley assuming it was the dark guild members

They burst out of the alley into the open field next to the town

They made it to the end of the field before they had to face the evil wizards

Marinette looked over the group of eight wizards

Each one looking tougher than the last

Damian: Get out of here miss we can take

Marinette: No way there are way to many people for the just the 2 of you

Jon: what can you do to help?

Hearing that lit a fire in Marinette

Marinette: This! Open gate of creation, Tikki!

Damian and Jon watch with surprise as Tikki appeared in front of them

Tikki: I'm here to help

Marinette: Tikki we're going against a team of dark wizards be ready for anything!

Damian: You're a cestial wizard?

Marinette: Yep and that's not all I can do. Star Dress Black Cat!

Marinette was surrounded by a bright light

When it faded she was wearing black combat boots with neon green thigh high socks

Black shorts with a neon green belt

And a black tank top with a hood attach that had cat ears on it, with the inside of the hood being neon green

Her hair was still in pigtails but now were resting in front of her shoulders

In her hands laid a bo staff

Damian in wonder and Jon a little scared: Wow

With Marinette's celestial magic, Jon's fire God-slaying magic, and Damian shadow dragon slaying magic they were able to take down the wizards with ease and soon all the dark wizards were capture

The group of teens handed over the wizards to the guards before they finally have a proper introduction

Marinette: I'm Marinette by the way, Marinette Dupen-Cheng.

Jon: Nice to meet you Marinette, I'm Jon Kent and this is my partner Damian Wayne

Damian grabbing Marinette's hand and kissing the back of it: It's a honor to meet such a powerful and kind wizard

Marinette blushing: O-oh I don't know about that, I'm not that powerful and anybody would have jumped in

Damian: I'm not so sure about that

Marinette ended up inviting the two back to the backery for a free lunch

They continue to talk just getting to know eachother

And a good amount of flirting went on between Marinette and Damian

They were laughing and joking around and Marinette felt like she gained something she lost when she left her team

They continue their conversation as they make it to the backery

Marinette introduces them to her maman and papa before taking them upstairs to make lunch for all of them

They continue to laugh and joke around and Damian insisted on helping Marinette cook

Jon: But you're an awful cook, you go around eating people's shadows before you cook.

Marinette: Eating shadows?

Damian *blushing*: Yes I'm a shadow dragon slayer, so when I get hungry I can eat shadows or darkness

Marinette: I thought all the dragon slayers were in the Justice League guild

Jon: Yeah that's our guild

Jon pulled down his shirt to show his blue guild mark which looked like a J and L put together with a star in the middle

Damian rolled up his sleeve to show his green guild mark on his left forearm

Marinette: You guys are a part of Justice League?!?! Oh no I must be holding you guys up! I'm so sorry!

Damian: Oh no, not at all! We're really not that busy! Right Jon

Damian gave Jon a pointed look as if it say not to upset the cestial mage

Jon: Right! We have plenty of time especially with the help you gave us today. We thought we would have to be here another week at least, thanks to you we can leave tomorrow

Marinette turning around to continue cooking: Well I'll be sorry to see you go

Damian grabbing Marinette and turning her around holding her by her shoulders: Then why don't you come with us? You said yourself you don't have a guild and you're way too talented just to stay here all your life

Marinette: I don't know I don't think I'm powerful enough to join Justice League

Damian: Are you crazy? You're more than powerful enough!

Jon jumping up: Yeah! And you can be apart of our team! If we stick together nothing can stand on our way!

Marinette still wasn't too sure until she felt her keys warm with encouragement from her spirits

Marinette: Okay I'll join you!

Damian and Jon smiled and Jon raised his hand for a high five, which Damian didn't reciprocate but Marinette did

Marinette turned back to continue cooking as Damian continue to pester her to help

Marinette finally relented and told him to chop the veggies

After lunch the two boys left for their hotel telling Marinette to meet them at the train station tomorrow at 11

That night Marinette told her parents her plans and they were over joyed for her

To them Marinette started to look like a cage bird staying in the bakery longing to spread her wings but start in a small cage

The next day Marinette packed up all her things and met the boys at the train station

The trip was long it felt even longer because poor Damian had motion sickness like all dragon slayers

At one point he ended up resting his head on Marinette's lap which seemed to help him a bit so Marinette's just let him stay there

As soon as the train stopped Damian perked up

They made it to the city of Gotham just in time for dinner

Jon dragged Damian and Marinette down the streets of Gotham determined to get her to join as soon as possible

Damian: Calm down Kent I want her to join just as badly as you do, but I don't think pulling her arm out of her socket will make her move any faster

Jon: I'm just so excited! Just wait until you meet everyone Marinette they'll love you! One of the guild master's mother was a celestial wizard like you, even owned Tikki before

Marinette: Guild Masters?

Damian: Yeah our guild instead of having only 1 master has 5. Because we have so many powerful members they felt it wouldn't be right for 1 person to have so much power, so instead we have 5

Marinette nodded her head in understanding

The rest of the walk to the guild was filled with Jon's babbling about Justice League and what Marinette could expect

When they made it to the front of the guild hall Marinette froze

All the bad memories from her old guild came flooding back

And with that all her worries about being accept came back with

Marinette was spiralling until she felt another hand engulf her smaller one

Marinette looked up to see Damian with a soft look on his face

Damian: Don't worry Angel you'll be great, and no matter what you'll have me and Jon right by your side

Marinette blushed at Damian's nickname for her looking over at Jon when she feels him take her other hand

Jon: He's right Mari you have us, no matter what

Marinette smiled squeezing the boys' hands before letting go of Jon's, but keeping a hold on Damian's hand

Not that he minded or planned on letting her hand go either

They opened the doors to the guild and found utter choas

There seemed to be some sort of brawl going on among the younger members

The guild hall was two stories and as Marinette looked up on the second floor she can see the older members of the guild calmly eating and chatting ignoring the antics of the younger members

Marinette stared as Damian and Jon maneuvered her around the guild pulling her down to avoid the bodies being thrown and Damian lifted her up to avoid one of the guild members who were sent skidding along the floor

They finally made it the bar area were Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, and Diana Prince stood watching the choas

Damian: Hello Father I have brought a new wizard to join the guild

Dick from across the guild: WHAT?!?!

Tim from another part of the guild: DAMIAN BROUGHT A GIRL HOME!

The members cheered and Marinette and Damian stuttered saying it wasn't like that

But it was too late Damian got pulled into the chaos by his brother loudly protesting and somehow joining in the brawl

Bruce sighed: So you wish to join Justice League Ms...

Marinette: Marinette, Marinette Dupen-Cheng

Jon talking to Clark: And she's really powerful dad, she helped us take down that dark guild we were sent to stop

Diana: And what magic do you wield little one?

Marinette: I'm a celestial wizard and I can also preform star dress with some of my spirits

Diana impressed: And what keys to you have?

Marinette: I have a few silver one, the clock and the cross, and I have 4 golden keys, Tikki, Plagg, Wayzz, and Trixx. I can do star dress with all of the gold ones except Trixx out bond isn't strong enough yet.

Diana: That's very impressive. You know my mother used to hold Tikki's key before she retired and gave it to her dear friend Fu Cheng

Marinette smiling: He's my grandfather, sadly he passed a couple of years back.

Diana: I'm sorry to here about your lost, but if Fu entrusted you with Tikki and his other spirits you must be a powerful wizard. I vote we let her join

Marinette: Thank you

Clark: If my son says she's worthy that's all I need, I say yes to

The two guild masters looked over to Bruce waiting for his answer

Bruce: I can sense a large amount of magic and magic potential in you. It's a yes from me to, and since that makes a majority we are pleased to welcome you into Justice League. As soon as Damian escapes his brothers he can help give you a guild mark

Marinette looked around scanning for Damian giggling when she finds him in a tousle with 3 other boys who she assumes are his brothers

Dick was holding Damian in a headlock as Damian clung to Tim's back pulling his hair as Tim tried to pin Jason to the floor as Jason tried to pull Dick down with him

Jon laughing with her: Yeah those are our dragon slayers. You of course know Damian. Dick is the one putting him in the headlock, he's a light dragon slayer and a great acrobat. Damian probably gets along the best with him out of all his brothers. The boy who's getting his haired pulled out by Damian is Tim he's a lighting dragon slayer, but can also do solid script magic and barely sleeps. I swear one time I saw him eat straight coffee beans. Finally the boy with white streak in his hair trying to pull Dick down with him is Jason. He's a metal dragon slayer who prefers to use his magic to make weapons. He's the only one of the brothers who isn't on a specific team. He usually just tags along with whatever team he feels like or goes on solo missions.

Damian sensing Marinette staring at him looks towards her blushing

He shakes his brothers off him trying to make his way over to Marinette only to be stop by Jason

Jason grabbing Damian's waist: wait a moment Demon Spawn we're not done with you yet!

Damian thrashing around: Release me Todd!

Tim messing with Damian's hair: Aww are we embarrassing you in front of you girlfriend?

Damian: stop it Drake!

Dick stepping in: All right guys that's enough we don't want to ruin Hatchlings (a/n: Get it because they're dragon slayers) chances with his girlfriend

Damian finally breaks away from his brothers rushing over to Marinette and Jon

Damian: Sorry about that my brothers are idiots. How did it go?

Marinette: They said I could join, Mr. Wayne said you could help me with my guild mark

Damian: Of course come with me

Damian grabbed Marinette's hand pulling her towards a side room as Jon went to go talk to his brother Connor

Marinette decided to get a pink guild mark on the top of her right hand

Marinette seemed to fit right in with the rest of the guild

There was no adjustment period like with her old guild she seemed to be able to join in right away

She learned when a brawl was about to start up and how to avoid flung guildmates

Though Damian still insisted on lifting her over skidding bodies

She and Diana formed a close bound that started with Diana telling her stories about her mother and Tikki and it evolved in a mentor/mentee relationship

Marinette also joined Damian Nd Jon's team helping keep them focus on missions and stop the few fights that broke out between them

Sometimes Damian's brothers would "kidnap" Marinette to go on missions with them which usually lead to Damian running after them and Jon following Damian

Marinette became close friends with Dick's girlfriend Kori, Barabra, and Stephanie

They would sometimes go on girl only missions together

When they return they would often find Dick, Tim, and Damian sulking that they were left behind

That's the end of part 1, I hate to do this to you guys, but I learned there is a limited to dots and it's 250. I'll do a part 2 soon because there is still more to tell. Part 2

#maribat #daminette #marinette x damian #fairy tail au

780 notes · View notes

walkerwords · 4 years

Text

“Firehouse Blues” Part 1 of 2 - Negan x F!Reader

PART II

Request from anonymous: can you do a negan imagine where the saviors find a woman who's living alone in a huge building and has a lot of supplies and guns and the saviors try to take the supplies but she used to be a engineer and has a strong security system so no one can access the building. and one day she meets negan and agrees to a trade. thanks :)

Word Count: 3448

Warning: Swearing

Song I Wrote To: “It’s A Man’s Man’s World” by Jurnee Smollett-Bell

Note: Another two part request! I was originally going to post this as one, but I wanted to post something for ya’ll so here you go. I had a lot of fun with this one. Mostly cause I love writing flirty Negan! Part 2 will be up soon! Thank you!

Reminder: If you want to be added to my main taglist or individual lists, just let me know!

------

The first time you met the Saviors, you had given them a single warning.

It was early morning when the trucks first rolled up to your firehouse. You had been living in the old fire station for about a year now and it had quickly become a fortress. With a mixture of scavenging and inventing, your home was not only well-armed but equipped with sophisticated security systems that included both machinery and the Dead. Being an engineer before the Turn, when you found the firehouse, it quickly became your new project.

A multitude of traps, alarms, and mirrors was placed around the property. From certain vantage points, you could see every entrance and it would be a miracle if anyone or anything could breach your walls. The collection of Dead was your most recent idea and so far it was working. It had taken you a few weeks to get everything perfect, but soon enough, you kept at least ten Dead ones confined within the entrance area of the firehouse. If anyone was to get through the front door, they would have to get through a group of the Dead that you could release with a single pull of a lever.

When you heard the caravan of vehicles approaching your home, you acted quickly. With a few adjustments and two pulls of a lever, two large hoses deposited gasoline out front of the building, ready for you to ignite it if necessary. The entrance to the main yard out front was lined with two large fire engines that blocked the other traps that you had set up, two tripwires that would activate a loud siren, calling any Dead within a few miles towards the building. You were safe behind your brick walls, but your enemy wouldn’t be so lucky.

Sliding down the fire pole that was just off your makeshift bedroom, you crept towards the main area of the station. In the main garage, you could hear your Dead on the other side of the door as they waited in the administration area. It had taken you a while to get used to the noise, but now if you didn’t have the constant groans of your hungry companions, everything felt too silent.

Climbing up one of the fire ladders, you looked through one of the windows at the top of the accordion door. In the bright sun of the morning, five trucks parked just behind the fire engines. Armed men and women exited the vehicles and gathered around your barrier, looking up at the firehouse in confusion.

You were aware that there were groups in the area. Some were considered safe havens, but of course, there were those who wanted what others had. Based on their weapons and how each of them carried themselves, you were certain they were the latter.

You climbed down from the window and ran for your armory. You kept your weapons in many different places throughout the station, never all together in one place. In the garage was where you kept most of your smaller pistols as well as your explosives. Grabbing two pistols, you slid them into your holsters. You also grabbed your parabolic listening device. You had found the long-distance microphone on a run a few months ago. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked great when listening to conversations that were right outside your home.

Making your way to the top level, you checked your traps along the way. Your Dead were secure, the tripwires fully ready, and every door was reinforced alongside automatic weapons that could be triggered with a few tugs of a rope. You then headed for your main “nest” as you called it. On the top floor of the firehouse, you had a full view of those who threatened your home and that is where you waited.

Peering through a rifle scope, you watched as a man with a rather impressive mustache exited the last truck. He walked with a swagger and a cocky grin on his face. He stared up at your fire station with gratification as if he had just won the lottery. Switching on the microphone, you held the disc towards the slightly open window and you listened.

“You know, when our new friend said this place was well-guarded, I thought he meant by actual men,” the man said. A woman to his left followed his line of sight with a frown.

“Maybe he was wrong, Simon,” the woman said. The man, Simon, shook his head and walked between the fire engines, gauging his surroundings. You watched on in silence.

“I don’t think so, Arat,” Simon said. “He said this place was a fortress. A fortress with guns,” he said with a wicked smile. At his words, your stomach turned. You knew who he was talking about. You had invited someone into your home a month earlier. His name was Justin and he had been starving, weak, and in need of shelter. He was a former Sailor with the Navy so you had offered him sanctuary. Clearly, that had been a mistake. The bastard had betrayed you and brought these pirates to your doorstep. “Spread out!” Simon ordered. “Find a way in.”

The men and women nodded to their leader and began fanning out over your property. You ignored the teams that went to the sides of the building. They would need a bulldozer to get through your doors and even then, you were prepared to take on any intruders. Your main focus was the man with the mustache. He seemed too confident in trying to take your place by force.

You watched him carefully, gauging all his reactions and how he scanned his surroundings. There was a moment when you considered taking him out. A single bullet to the heart would kill him and allow you to add him to your collection downstairs. However, you had a feeling that if you did, the cavalry would return and conflict was not what you were aiming for here.

Simon picked his way towards the front of the building. You were surprised to see that he noted your tripwires almost instantly. He didn’t bother to disarm them as he stepped over each one and placed his hands on his hips. “I know you’re in there!” he sang, smiling up at the windows you sat behind. “Why don’t you come on out and we can discuss this like friends?”

Your eyes went to the gasoline that shimmered in the sun. Simon noticed it as well and toed it with his boot. “Careful, Simon,” Arat said, still behind the barrier the wires provided.

“Something tells me, we aren’t going to get the full welcome wagon,” Simon sighed. “Okay then! Guess we will have to do this the hard way!” Simon then whistled and three of his men approached with a battering ram. You were annoyed when they also took care to avoid the wires. Clearly, you had to do a better job at camouflaging them. The men placed themselves at your front door, ready to take it down, but all you did was smile. Reaching over to your left, you pulled up on a yellow-painted-lever and released your Dead.

As soon as the ram broke down the door, ten lumbering Dead men and women attacked your intruders. You heard the screams first. Two men went down as the Dead converged on them. “Fall back!” Simon yelled, running back to avoid gnarled hands and teeth. In his hurry, he didn’t avoid the wires this time and instantly your home lit up with a fire siren.

Simon and the others panicked as the Dead began appearing around corners. You had purposefully baited them with dead animals whenever you could. You found the Living avoided highly populated areas of the Dead so it played in your favor. Panic ensued instantly as the men and women retreated to their vehicles. You pushed open your window and leaned out slightly, making sure Simon could see you. Meeting your eyes, he glared, cursing. You smiled widely at him and then lifted your middle finger to the sky.

“You might wanna hurry up!” you hollered at him, “I don’t think they’ve eaten in a while!” you shouted, gesturing to the Dead that stumbled towards his people. Simon looked as if he wanted to shoot you right there, but he made the smarter choice and ran for his truck.

“Go!” he yelled, jumping into the passenger seat and slamming his hand against the roof. The trucks raced away from your home, firing at stray Dead as they did. You couldn’t help but laugh as you watched them flee. However, it was then that you realized you had to reset all your traps and you sighed in annoyance. The Dead would be easy to replace, but it was always a hassle to reset the wires and disperse the hungry bodies that surrounded the area after the siren.

Speaking of which, you ran to the other side of the room and slammed your hand against the emergency shut-off button, turning off the deafening sound. Listening to the increased groans of the Dead, you picked up a length of chain that hung on a hook. “This is gonna take all night,” you said with a deep sigh, but you knew it was worth it.

You were considering adding more than ten this time. The only thing that would make the situation better was if you could get your hands on Justin and hang his traitorous ass on the front gate as your first warning. Perhaps one day you would get the chance, but for now, you had work to do.

--------

It was two months later when you finally met the man in charge.

You were on a run for parts to fix a radio you had found in the boiler room when you heard the sound of clashing metal. Running towards the sound, you saw a supply truck tipped over on its side and the Dead circled it like sharks after prey. You thought about turning away. It wasn’t rare for people to come through your area of town. They would get into rough situations and either they lived or they didn’t. You never felt as if it was your duty to intervene. However, when you saw who exited the truck, you reconsidered.

Climbing out of the passenger side window, a tall, handsome man slid to the ground. In his hand, he held a barbed-wire-wrapped baseball bat, and as soon as he got his bearings, he swung it, crushing in skulls immediately. You watched this man fight through the small herd of Dead as they attempted to make him their lunch.

His leather jacket was splashed with black blood and it seemed as if he was limping heavily. You figured he was injured from the crash, but it didn’t seem to stop him. It was clear to you that he was a survivor and that was what made you pull your weapon.

You ran towards the man, firing on the remaining Dead. He turned to you in surprise before going back to swinging his weapon. Neither of you spoke as your dispatched the rest of the corpses. You then found three feasting on a body that hung limply out of the truck’s windshield. You pulled your knife and took them out, stabbing each of them in the back of the head.

When all was quiet, you turned to find the survivor bent over, leaning on his bat for support. “You alright?” you asked, slightly out of breath.

“Am I alright?” he asked, slightly amused. “Shit, Darlin’, you’re the one who went all fucking Rambo on these dead assholes. I am more than alright considering how much badass I just witnessed,” he said and you found his deep voice incredibly soothing, even when he was swearing like a sailor.

“Your injury,” you said, pointing at his leg, “is it a bite?”

“Nope, just your average big ass cut,” he said, pulling up the leg of his pants. The wound looked deep, most likely from a piece of metal. Looking around, you made a quick decision.

“I can patch you up if you want. My place is just around the corner,” you said, already regretting it. He looked at you for a moment before shrugging.

“Figure I don’t have any other options,” he said, “Lead the way.” You went to his side and pulled his arm around your shoulders, giving him support.

“Ya got a name?” you asked as you pulled him towards your firehouse.

“Negan,” he grunted, clearly in more pain than he first led on. “And what can I call you, my white knight?” he asked, smiling down at you.

“(Y/N),” you said, “and I’m no white knight. Just figured you’ve already had a shitty day. No need to make it worse.” Negan laughed, a broad smile encompassing his bearded face.

“I’ll take it,” he said and you smiled slightly. You took Negan through a back alley and then down the main street that led to your home. As you got closer to the fire station, Negan swore under his breath.

“What is it?” you asked, suddenly on alert for any danger.

“You’re her, aren’t you?” he asked.

“You’re gonna have to be a bit more specific there, bud,” you said, hauling him down the pavement.

“The firehouse chick,” he explained. “My men tried to take this place a couple of months ago and you unleashed a shit ton of corpses on them!” he said, extremely exuberant. “Simon said you were a spitfire, guess he was right after all.” Hearing Simon’s name, you jerked away from Negan, throwing him to the ground. “Shit!” he swore. You pulled your pistol and aimed it at his head. “Whoa there!” he said, raising his hands.

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t shoot you and mount your head on my wall?” you asked him, releasing the safety on your weapon.

“How about the fact that you’re all about defense and not offense?” Negan offered as he stared down the barrel of your gun.

“And how would you know that?”

“Simon said that everything that happened that day was all bells and whistles. Shit worthy of a badass and a badass you are,” Negan said.

“Your men tried to rob me, take my weapons, and they didn’t seem to care about whether I had people inside,” you told him.

“And did you? Have people?” he asked, his eyes flashing between the gun and your face. With a sigh, you dropped the gun.

“No, I prefer to be alone. Tried to have someone with me once and well, he went and told your boy Simon about my place. Haven’t seen him since, but I plan to gut him from head to toe when I do,” you said, holstering your weapon. “Do I have to do the same to you?” Negan grinned once again.

“No, ma’am,” he said, wetting his lips with his tongue. “I’m quite fine with whatever you decide to do with me.” You rolled your eyes at his innuendo.

“If I bring you inside, are you gonna try to take my shit?” you asked, your hand still resting on the pistol at your side.

“Wouldn’t dream of stealing from the woman that is offering to nurse me back to health,” he said, tilting his head to the side. You offered your hand to him.

“I’m holding you to that,” you said and he took your hand. You helped him to his feet and resumed your earlier position. “I meant what I said about mounting your head.”

“I have no doubt that you did,” Negan said. “All the more reason for me to behave,” he said with a wink and you tugged him along with a jerk that had him tripping on the buckled sidewalk.

------

Arriving at the station, you took him through the side entrance.

Negan leaned against the brick wall as you unlocked the steel door with a series of latches and the help of a small crowbar. “What the hell did you do before all of this? CIA?” you looked up at him, annoyed.

“I was an engineer, genius,” you explained, and with a kick, the door opened. You grabbed his arm again and hauled him into the building.

“Yeah, I guess that makes more sense,” Negan said, leaning heavily on you. You closed up behind you and then took Negan down the hall towards the stairs.

“If you fall, try not to take me down with you,” you said.

“Have some faith, Darlin’,” he said as you started to ascend the stairs. “So, why a firehouse?” he asked.

“It was convenient,” you explained. “And I like the area.”

“Prime apocalyptic real estate, huh?” he joked.

“Something like that,” you said as you finally made your way to the top level. You dragged Negan over to your bed and dropped him. “You’re a lot heavier than you look,” you panted.

“It’s my big...personality,” he said with a suggestive smile.

“More like your big ego,” you said before heading over to the cabinet on the wall. Negan peeled off his jacket, dropping his bat by his feet. You grabbed your first aid kit and a bottle of water and went back to him. Negan leaned back against the wall and you sat at his feet, prepping a bandage and antiseptic. “Roll up your pant leg,” you said. “And no, you do not need to take your pants off,” you said before he could say the lewd remark that you knew was on the tip on his tongue.

“Damn, you’re good,” Negan said, but did as you asked. Placing a towel under his calf, you cleaned the wound the best you could. You were right before, it was pretty deep.

“Needs stitches,” you said, grabbing the sewing kit.

“Go for it,” Negan said, placing his hands behind his head. As you stitched his wound closed, he almost seemed content with the situation.

“You don’t get a lot of downtime, do you?” you asked.

“How can you tell?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Because you’re practically asleep while I tug your flesh back together.”

“I got people to lead,” Negan explained. “Doesn’t allow much leisure time.”

“Right, the people that you lead to steal the supplies and homes of others,” you said bitterly as you soaked the freshly stitched wound with alcohol again.

“We all do what we have to in order to survive,” Negan said, his tone more serious.

“You don’t have to be a looter,” you said, wrapping his leg. You tightly secured his wound and then gathered up your supplies. You gave Negan the water and got up, turning your back on him.

“Why are you alone?” he asked after a few minutes. You leaned against one of the steel columns and stared at him, trying to make your mind up about the man before you.

“I stopped trusting people years ago,” you told him, “And every time I decide to try it again, they screw me over. No people, no problems.”

“Sounds lonely,” he said, his eyes softening.

“You get used to it,” you said, pushing off the column and going over to your work desk, fiddling with pieces of tech. You were bent over the radio, trying to rewire it when you felt his presence behind you. “If you rip your stitches, I won’t redo them.” Negan laughed and took a seat in the chair by your desk.

“I want to offer you a deal, (Y/N),” Negan said, watching you with curious eyes.

“I nearly killed your man, Simon, what makes you think I want to make a deal with you?” you asked.

“Look, Simon, he means well...sometimes and while he is my right-hand, he’s not me. My men do many things in my name, but when it comes down to it, I’m the one who should be shaking hands and kissing babies.”

“And that’s what you want to do with me?” you questioned.

“I think you and I can have a very beneficial relationship,” he said, running his hand over his chin. “Strictly professional, of course.”

“Of course,” you mocked. “Negan, I appreciate that you want to make some kind of deal, but I don’t deal with people that prey on others.” Negan leaned forward.

“Darlin’, I am more than happy to go by your rules,” he said slowly, “but I want you to hear me out. Who knows, maybe you’ll find I’m not that bad after all.” You leaned towards him as well, staring him down. He glanced down to your lips. Quirking a brow, you smirked.

“Don’t hold your breath, Darlin’.”

TAGS: @thanossexual

#the walking dead imagines #the walking dead imagine #the walking dead #negan imagine #badass reader #reader x negan #reader insert #walkerwords #twd imagines #twd pre season 7 #Simon #Arat #Saviors #walking dead fic #walking dead fanfic

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standbi-ghost · 3 years

Text

Burning Bridges

Part 4 of the Dying for Dummies series: 1 2 3

Words: 1,564

TW: detailed gore, implied underaged drinking (though could be replaced with gasoline since it’s not explicitly stated), technically suicide and major character death (is it major character death if he’s already dead-ish and continues to die-ish?)

AO3 as always

A seemingly invisible branch smacked him, like a slap to the face. He bit back a curse as he tenderly rubbed the injured spot. He shot a glare at the offending branch before walking off, shattered ego in hand.

It had been a long day for Dash.

To start off, it was a Tuesday; the worst day, in his humble opinion, of the week. A mockery of the seven-day week system. Mondays always went by quicker than anticipated, maybe because your mind was still laid out on Sunday’s bed and hadn’t fully woken up. Or maybe just because of the bad stigma surrounding the day. Up for debate. Wednesday offered the relief of being smack in the middle, a sign that you were halfway through the week. Plus, how could anyone hate the iconic “pink / hump day”? Thursday’s a reminder of what’s to come. Friday is just around the corner and Thursday was it’s biggest cheerleader, and who could deny a sexy cheerleader? Did he even have to explain the weekend crew? Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were the A-listers of the week, but with less criticism and more fun. But Tuesday? Tuesday laughed in the face of students. You’re awake, aware of what’s to come. Tuesday roundhouse kicked you in the gut and called you all kinds of slurs.

Tuesday also marked the date of his Physics exams so he may be a little biased. He could never wrap his head around the subject. Give him a poem to analyze, a historical event to write a report on, hell, even a sonnet to play, but ask him Newton’s laws and he’ll respond with a blank face. It wasn’t like he didn’t study either. He had weekly study sessions at Fentons’ house, and while Danny had been a huge help, that didn’t stop him from failing this exam.

Speaking of Danny.

Their relationship was slowly, but surely, getting better throughout the years. After being dragged to therapy by his family, he’d gathered up the balls to not only stop the tormenting of his fellow peers but formed a well-versed apology- his magnum opus, to Danny. The kid just waved his apology off, as if it were the least of his worries, water under the bridge, but that only served to fuel his need to get closer to him- no one waved off years of bullying that easily.

To say Dash worried for Danny was an understatement. While the bullying ceased at the end of Freshman year, the daily bruises Danny wore didn’t. There was a higher probability of winning the lottery than to catch the kid without some kind of injury.

And he was skinny. Deathly so. Malnourished more likely than not.

It could be neglect. Hopefully not abuse. Dash knew the Fentons were over-indulged in their work, gluttonous even. He really hoped that, amidst all of their work, they set aside time from their children. Ghosts were important, sure, but why have kids if you don’t look after them. And by the looks of Danny-

But Jazz was a different story. She seemed to be the mirror image of her brother, both siblings passionate and wise beyond their age, but that’s where the similarities seemed to end. Jazz was the perfect everything. Perfect student, perfect daughter, she was beautiful and graceful and seemed to light up the world around her. Where Danny was cold and distant, Jazz radiated warmth and greeted everyone with open arms. Where Danny was pale, gaunt, and sharp in his features, Jazz was vibrant, bright, and soft. Jazz was a compassionate canine; Danny a cornered cat.

That alone raised so many more questions. Did the Fentons favor Jazz? Did they feel that Danny hadn’t lived up to the legacy Jazz left behind? Did they hate Danny? It sure seemed like they did. What could Danny- sweet, dopey but kindhearted Danny- have done to garner such fierce hatred towards him? From his parents no less.

He pushed the thoughts away as he trudged past the park’s populated hiking trail into a more obscure one.

One of the activities he picked up from his therapy days was hiking (although hiking was a generous term to describe the early morning and nighttime walks he went on). It allowed him time away from all the drama at school, all his responsibilities. Out here, it was just him and the trees.

He knew these trees better than he knew the bottom of his bed. This coming from the kid who used to be afraid of the monsters in his closet and slept under his bed countless times. Take that as a metaphor if you’d like.

The trees were his family, the trees were his home, the trees listened to his rants and tears and joys all the same. This time venting his frustration over the taunting 50 he’d earned. And they were usually alone, just him and the trees, but Tuesday seemingly had it out for him. Among the trees was the boy inhabiting his thoughts- Danny.

He was dressed in his usual dark jeans and oversized NASA tee, a flannel draped loosely over his arms, threatening to fall at any sudden movement. Combat boots dug into the dirt beneath him with his weight pressed against a Rum Cherry tree, he was the blueprint for nerdy punks across Amity Park. Stealing glances at a notebook held tightly in one hand, he was taking swigs of water out of a pastel pink hydroflask. He looked- peaceful.

Feeling like a creep, Dash continued to watch as he let his notebook fall from his hands as he drunkenly fished in one of his flannel pockets. Horror washed over Dash’s senses as he watched Danny pull out a matchbook and strike one. Mischief lit up his eyes. Before he could take even a single breath, he watched Danny fill his mouth with what he was now convinced was definitely not water, before taking the flame to his lips.

In an instant, flames licked up his face and Dash ran on autopilot. He dug his own water bottle out of his backpack and spent no time rushing up to his burning friend, dousing him in liquid life. Conspicuousness be damned.

“Fuck”

Concern flooded Dash as he took in Danny’s appearance. His face was glazed, like the grease off a re-heated pizza slice. The pepperoni blisters only further drove their likeness. Singed hair wilted only to be pushed back up by a somehow conscious Danny, only to reveal a melting eyeball. Like a goblet of wine, it dripped lazily, hypnotizing Dash for only a moment before feeling a tug deep in his stomach. He was caught in a battle between wanting- no needing to throw up and rushing to help his friend.

He didn’t win.

“Shit, Dash, how long have you been here?” Danny gurgled out, words swishing in his mouth, meaning only salvaged by the sheer luck of Dash’s presence. If he hadn’t been there-

“Dash?!”

Maybe it was because it was his name and it was familiar, but he could’ve sworn his name spilled out in a much clearer light. He didn’t want to look up. He didn’t want to take the chance of throwing up again. Vile still stained his tongue as he asked,

“Are you okay?”

The question was stupid, obviously he wasn’t okay, but it still hung in the air for a few excruciating seconds. Dash squeezed his eyes shut and turned to Danny’s general area and opened his mouth to say something, anything to cut through the ugly tension between them. Danny cut first.

He had the nerve to ask, “Are you okay?” and Dash blanched. He didn’t know what to think of Danny. Was he selfless for asking, or just plain brain dead?

“Am I okay?” he drawled out.

“I mean you kind of just ruined my shoes with your puke, like, how am I s’pose to wash this out?” he said. This time he didn’t imagine it. His words were much easier to decipher. Not oozing with moist vowels and quivering consonants, but clear and coherent thoughts. And, was he teasing him about the throw-up? The same throw-up caused by his near-death experience?

“You set yourself on fire!? In the middle of the park no less! You could’ve died! You could’ve-“ mid-way through his little speech he dared to look up only for the words to die on his lips. Danny looked fine, generally at least. His face was now adorned with light scar tissue where previously dark burns marred his fair skin.

“Uh, that was kind of the point?”

At that, the tug at his stomach returned. Tears threatened to spill from his eyes at the very thought of witnessing Danny’s suicide attempt. It was much worse than he thought.

“Danny-“

“Wait no, that came out wrong.” Danny sighed and ran a shaky hand through his now unkempt, but otherwise fine, hair. “look Dash, you might wanna sit down for this one.” He gestured to the tree he had, just minutes ago, been resting on. He shakily took a seat on one of the tree’s massive jutting roots. Danny followed. In minutes, his view of the world shattered. Everything he thought he knew about ghosts was thrown out the window and he found himself back in school Freshman year, back at seeing a ghost for the first time.

He hated Tuesdays.

#Danny Phantom #Danny phantom au #danny phantom fic #Dying for Dummies #Danny Fenton #Dash Baxter #Dash is trying to be better #Dash and Danny are friends and probably seniors now #Im so proud of this ngl

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tracybirds · 3 years

Text

Don’t talk to me about timelines XD lockdown 3.0 was an unpleasant surprise but it did give me some fun fodder to play with. Missing from this were the stream of Valentines to Covid that spread around my section of NZ social media XD I was tempted to make Scott write some, but alas it didn’t fit. Obviously plenty has been fudged, it’s definitely not meant to be taken too seriously and more allows me to collect together some of the mixed emotions of getting a five hour countdown to lockdown D: That was not fun lol like far out, and we had to prepped for remote learning by 9am the next day. Scott is not allowed to complain further in his swanky apartment and no job XDD

In all seriousness, this is Scott’s story for FabFiveFeb2021, hosted by the ever lovely @gumnut-logic (Happy Birthday! still the right day in Aus, I didn’t miss it right :0 either way *hugs*** and I hope it was a nice day :DD)

Prompt used was “Are you kidding?” - it really resonated on Sunday evening ahaha (okay I will stop rambling in my defense it’s post midnight and I have feverishly pummelled this out in a couple of hours, it had been itching at me all day.... I missed that feeling :DDD)

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

Scott was International Rescue through and through, but in the murky waters of the central business district, he thrived.

It was a closed meeting, stretching into the long shadowy hours of the evening. Legal advisors quibbled over clauses while Scott exchanged pleasantries with the company representatives, talking up his local ties to New Zealand’s City of Sails.

“My Dad taught me to sail, right out there in the harbour, you know.”

A casual remark but carefully designed to make himself seem approachable and down-to-earth, just another “one of the guys”. His associate had also sailed once, a national representative in his youth, although time and his new habit of lunch meetings had left those days long in the past.

Personal connections made more money than the lawyers in the background ever could, and Scott prided himself on the homegrown touch.

“Mine too,” said the jovial, middle aged man. “Although I reckon it wasn’t near as pretty a yacht as yours. I’ve read up on you as well, you know.”

Scott laughed, clapping the man on the shoulder.

“Len, I knew we’d get on. What do you say to dinner? This has been going on for far too long.”

“I know a great place that keeps a table reserved for me. Even on Valentine’s.”

“I’m flattered.” He nodded to Van Zyl briefly before addressing the small crowd.

“Ladies, gentlemen. You’ve done some good work, and it’s been a long one. We’ll leave it here for the night and reconfer in the morning.”

He acknowledged the tired smiles and leaned back and listened as the chatter evolved from the dry intricacies of patent law into cheery conversation of dinner plans and family time ahead.

He turned and looked out at the city, lights starting to turn on in the early evening light. The sun wouldn’t set for another half hour or so and he wanted to make the most of what they had left in the day.

So did the rest of the Auckland population it seemed. Cars were flooding into the area, people starting to stream into office buildings.

“So, Federal Street?”

“Len, what’s going on down there?” he asked, jabbing a finger down at the street below.

“Sorry?”

He and Len watched, dumbfounded as the office buildings lit up one by one, lights turning on and off again mere minutes later.

“Mr Tracy! Mr Van Zyl!”

“Charlotte, what is it? What’s happening?”

“Oh, Scott, I mean, Mr Tracy, sorry sir.”

“Charlotte. Take a breath,” commanded Scott, letting the authority of Thunderbird One bleed into his voice. “Tell us what’s happened.”

Charlotte shook her head, her hand creeping up over her mouth. She handed him her tablet.

“It’s a civil defence lockdown, effective midnight.”

A cold dread crept up Scott’s spine.

“Tonight?!”

Len pulled out a comm beside him and started dialling. The person on the other end picked up at the first ring, and dimly Scott could hear her calm, measured voice transmitted through the device.

“Can I help?” he asked, still staring at the stark words on the page.

“I… uh... help? Sir?”

“With the civil defence response, with the company, I don’t know!” He looked up, desperation in his eyes. “What can I do to help?”

Charlotte shook her head, pressing her lips together tightly.

“Mr Tracy, we have an isolation response in place, at your father’s request. Leave the board to organise the company, you need to get home and…”

“No.”

Charlotte’s voice pitched up a near octave.

“Sir, I must insist…”

“There are lockdown protocols on the island as well,” snapped Scott. “I can’t just go home, risk my family, my Grandma.”

She shook her head again.

“You can’t help here. They’ve done it before. It’s Level Three, people will be able to collect gear tomorrow if needed, we’re set up for remote offices and the last thing people need is you dilly-dallying in the top office.”

A loud shrieking alarm pierced through her final words and Scott flinched at the sound.

Len yelped next to him, dropping his comm with a curse.

“Damn emergency alerts, don’t they know the whole country has heard by now? Why do they just SHUT UP!” he bellowed at the still beeping comm. “It’s so unnecessary, the first time we went under, I thought we were about to evacuate for a volcanic eruption. Staying home, it’s hardly an emergency.”

Charlotte did little to hide her scorn, but Scott smothered a smile as he read through the full message.

“Okay, fine,” he said at last. “I can bunker down at the apartment for a few days.”

“Weeks, I’d be prepping for,” interrupted Len. “Hard to say of course, but they keep extending them.”

“You know why we do it,” said Charlotte, coolly.

He shrugged. “Doesn’t mean I have to pretend it’s a holiday like everyone else seems to do.”

“Well, there never was any rest for the wicked, they say,” quipped Scott.

Len barked a sudden laugh.

“You’re alright, Tracy. Shame about how this ended, I’d have liked a bite with you.”

“Well, there’s always next time. Maybe we’ll find time for a shared celebration after all this.”

“My treat, Tracy, my treat,” he said with a chuckle. “Take care now.”

Scott nodded a farewell and turned back to Charlotte.

“You’re going to be fine?”

“I’ll go stay with my Mum,” she said, easily. “She doesn’t like to be in her house alone, and I can’t say I blame her. Holotech’s just not the same as being there, you know?”

“I certainly do,” said Scott, thinking of his brothers, hundreds of kilometres away. “Thank you, Charlotte, I’ll be seeing you.”

“Good luck, Scott.”

***

The downtown apartment was a mere fifteen minute walk from Tracy Tower, but with Charlotte’s words echoing in the back of his mind, the thought of potentially weeks stuck in an incredibly well furnished, yet incredibly unstocked apartment plaguing him, he opted to swing past the local supermarket. Located at the heart of the city, it was never quiet at the best of times but this was unlike anything Scott had ever seen.

The tension in the packed shop was thick as the throng that filled it. Over half the customers were already wearing masks, glaring suspiciously at those who had gone without and Scott self-consciously tugged his rain jacket higher.

Essentials, he thought wildly, just eggs and milk and bread and….

There was no bread. No flour either and the confectionary aisle was already looking sparse. He grabbed a few chocolate bars and threw them in the basket.

“Excuse me,” he said, waving down a frantic and wild-eyed shop assistant. “Do you have any bread out back?”

“No way man, haven’t you heard? Lockdown hits in like three hours, people are going mental.”

“But I don’t have any food at home, I was meant to be flying back tomorrow morning.”

The shop assistant, Ariki as his name badge proclaimed him, grimaced in sympathy.

“That’s hard luck that is. You don’t live in Auckland?”

“No, I don’t. But I won’t be able to get home now either.”

He nodded, like he’d heard it before.

“You’re thinking this is like last year, aren’t you?”

“I, uh, yes.”

“Right,” said Ariki, still nodding along with him. “Right, well it’s not quite the same so don’t stress out. Look, you can still get takeaways this time, we’ll be restocked tomorrow and all the real crazies–” he nodded towards a pair who were arguing over what looked like the last can of baked beans, “–yeah, they’ll be tucked up at home, refusing to take a step outside, it’ll be sweet as.”

Scott stared at him, then looked over at the line snaking through the frozen food aisle, between the meat and dairy and coiling up in the sad looking and so-called fresh produce.

The two chocolate bars and eggs he’s managed to grab hardly seemed worth it at all.

“I can put those back if you want.”

“Yeah,” said Scott, dazedly. “Yeah, thanks that’s be great.”

Ariki smirked a little.

“We’re reopening at seven, yeah? I’ll see you then.”

“Thanks again,” called Scott as he hurried from the shop.

The rain that had been threatening its arrival all weekend was starting to appear, and Scott hurried home, ducking his head down and shoving his hands in his pockets. He knew there’d be enough food for at least his dinner tonight and Ariki was right, he could sort the rest in the morning.

A swipe of his keycard, and he shut out the world with a muffled slam of the door and a sigh.

He shucked off his rain jacket, not bothering to hang it up, and trudged into the kitchen. It wasn’t like there’d be anyone around to complain for a while and he was starving. Lunch, the little afternoon tea nibbles they’d provided, even his last coffee felt like it had been drunken in another life.

Dinner, then finally he’d call home.

He didn’t doubt they already knew what was happening, was probably wondering why he hadn’t called, but none of them had even been swept up in the chaos of lockdown preparations.

He stared blankly in front of the fridge, the cold, bluish light illuminating him in the dark room. The sun had fully set by now, and the last vestiges of twilight had given way to the true, deep night with the onset of rainfall.

His carefully defrosting steak wasn’t on the shelf, and he looked around him in confusion, wondering if he’d accidentally left the meat out on the bench. He was hungry enough that he didn’t think he’d care and his stomach was well practiced at digesting the indigestible, bug and all.

On the kitchen counter was a neat pile: a plate, used utensils and cooking equipment all stacked together, waiting to be washed.

Scott blinked.

“Oh, hey, Scott,” called Gordon’s cheerful voice from behind him.

Scott whirled around, gaping at his younger brother, suddenly in their New Zealand apartment and not where he ought to have been – namely a thousand odd kilometres north east of the kitchen they were standing in.

“Are you kidding me?”

“What?”

“You,” Scott shouted, jabbing a finger towards Gordon. “You ate my dinner!”

“Oh, crap.”

Gordon bolted a split second before Scott charged at him, yelling wildly with all his might.

“Scott, I’m sorry, it was – shit, I mean – come on, it was past nine, I thought you’d been out, and I, oh damn, I, Scott, damn it, I’m not dressed.”

“I don’t care, you ate my food, have you seen the grocery stores? It’s absolute chaos, you traitor, you can go out and get me something, put some pants on and move.”

Gordon yelped as he dove over the couch.

“Okay, I can see there’s been some errors in judgement here,” said Gordon, panting. “I’m sorry, Scott, I really am.”

Scott glared.

“Not good enough.” He paused, eyeing Gordon as he cowered behind the sofa. “What are you even doing here?”

“Uh, excuse me?”

“Here. What are you doing in Auckland?”

“Happy birthday to me too, love you bro, congrats on surviving another year.”

“You came to Auckland for your birthday?”

“Yeah.” Gordon sat up cautiously. “Couldn’t exactly see Penny, and it’s not like there’s many other places that will let us in.”

“I thought we counted as a US territory.”

“John cleared it with someone, I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Didn’t want to be stuck at home for my birthday. And look how that turned out.”

He did look extraordinarily sorry for himself.

Scott sighed, and reached out a hand.

“Go get some damn pants on,” he grumbled. “And go look for Virgil’s emergency snacks, I know he stores them everywhere.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“I mean it, don’t you dare come back unless you bring me food.”

Gordon snorted.

“Sure, wouldn’t want to provoke the wrath of a starving Scooter.”

Scott jerked his body towards Gordon, and smirked as he bolted up the stairs towards the bedrooms, before sinking down into the cushions and closing his eyes.

The comm beeped gently, a stark contrast from the blaring alert from earlier.

“Hey,” he said, opening an eye as Virgil was projected in front of him.

“Tell me you’re not–”

“Oh, I am.”

“Gordon too?”

“Yep.”

“Damn.”

“Tell me about it.”

They were both quiet for few seconds, thinking about how rapidly the world had seemed to shift around them.

“I suppose it’s only for a few days,” began Virgil, but Scott was already shaking his head.

“We gotta do the full two weeks. After that, we ought to be able to clear an exit with the harbourmaster and the coast guard, even if it’s not over, but we can’t come back earlier. The only reason we could move freely before without our helmets is because–”

“Preaching to the choir, Scott. I get it.”

“You gonna be alright without us?”

Virgil shrugged. “Rescues are down what with more people staying at home. Alan and I can handle the small change, and Kayo’s been itching for some POD practice recently. We’ll manage. Besides, you’re the one stuck with Gordon.”

“Hey!”

“Food,” growled Scott and Gordon threw a muesli bar and a tube of M&Ms at him.

“Is that mine?”

“Gordon ate my dinner and the shops were out of everything,” grumbled Scott. “Blame him.”

“It’s my birthday, I don’t deserve this.”

“Cry me a river.”

“Alright, don’t kill each other before the two weeks is up. John’s already organised a betting pool, don’t give him the satisfaction of winning again, he’ll be insufferable.”

“Oh, he’s on,” said Gordon, grinning. “Tell him I put fifty bucks on Scott tipping me out of bed or off the couch by the end of the week.”

“Got it.”

“You can’t bet against us,” said Scott, mumbling around the chocolate. “I thought you were on my side.”

“You tried to murder me over a steak.”

“The jury would have never convicted.”

“Okay, I can see you two are going to have a fun time,” said Virgil, loudly over their bickering. “See you in two weeks.”

He didn’t wait for a response. After all, two weeks was a smidge outside even his patience.

#scott tracy #thunderbirds are go #gordon tracy #virgil tracy #sometimes i fic

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sapphire-strikes · 3 years

Text

Greed's Not Good, But It's Not So Bad Either.

So much for a hiatus I guess but I've been writing some for fun in my freetime and FMA just so happened to be what's currently holding my interest.

{A long trip away from Amestris makes your return a rather welcome one, even if some have a strange way of showing it.}

Chapter 1

Central City was usually so busy. Its massive size and dense population were what kept the ever-energetic atmosphere alive even when the nation was shaken by the fall of King Bradley.

It was as hard to believe now as it was then that the nation's capital was once home to a force that would have brought an end to Amestris altogether; the entire city and its central command acting as a subterfuge for the pulsating evil that plotted under the feet those that lived and walked these streets.

Perhaps that's why you felt so satisfied when you stepped through the gates for the first time in so long. Now you could walk these streets confident that central was finally what it was originally founded to be, a beacon of what Amestris stood for and the home of a leadership that cared for it.

You couldn't have picked a better time to return either, spending the last few days at an inn just within city limits as you awaited the arrival of Mustang and the Lieutenant. Neither of them knew of your return to Amestris yet, but Kain had informed you that they would be back in Central within the week and with this being your first official stop after traveling for so long, you didn't mind waiting. Central City certainly wasn't short of things to do either, so you allowed yourself time to shop, stock up on supplies, and relax.

As charming as the atmosphere of the city during the day was, you had to admit there was something so appealing about walking the city at night. The way the streetlamps warmly lit up the brick pavement of the roads and the way the late-night shops and restaurants kept the midnight from ever feeling desolate.

The few nightguards that patrolled the streets also offered some comfort. That wasn't something you'd usually think about the looming reminder of authority, but at least for now, it was different as you offered each of them a polite nod when their hands shot up in a salute as they noticed you. These were the men and women that fought for the millions of lives that otherwise would have been stolen two years ago, and even those that switched sides during the heat of battle when the truth was made clear to them. Thoroughly vetted by Mustang and Grumman, these were people that genuinely cared for the lives of those they had sworn to protect.

You trotted along the well-lit streetside of a small shopping district, happy to window shop until one of them stuck out to you enough to lure you inside. Getting something to eat didn't sound like a bad idea now either, you thought as you looked ahead, lazily scouting out your options from a distance. You weren't too familiar with the city, but there was certain to be something open right now, if not a restaurant then one of the pubs had to at least serve something edible.

Like the shops not a hundred feet away, there were more than several options to choose from, all neighboring each other. It was late, so you weren't surprised by the few bumbling drunks currently being escorted away from the area by the guards. You were no stranger to these kinds of disturbances by now but seeing as you were out to enjoy yourself tonight, you didn't mind putting in a little extra footwork to find one less crowded so you continued down the street, your eyes glossing over each name and glancing inside the few that had windows in front without coming to a stop.

They all shared a similar atmosphere, the insides dimly lit, not much brighter than the streets outside with music that could be heard as you passed each door. By the time you'd reached the end of the strip, you'd become more fascinated just looking them over and hadn't put much thought into choosing so you decided to loop back around to where you'd started and choose from there.

You'd almost made it back when your content stride came to a sudden stop after your gaze unconsciously flicked across the road.

Opposite the street from you and one or two buildings down from where you'd been shopping sat a little hole-in-the-wall pub. You'd most likely missed it thanks to the way it didn't stand out against the other bars. It also occupied a small strip of the street without any other establishments directly adjacent to it, the buildings at its sides looking more like apartments that stood tall beside it, adding to the way it blended in with the rest of the street.

The Devil's Nest

The familiar name was displayed on a small sign above the entrance in bright, red, neon letters, and you had to do a double-take, wondering if your memory was serving you right. You'd heard that name before, you were sure of it, but its context here in central is what had you confused.

While you couldn't see all that much from where you stood across the street, there was a large windowfront to the left of the door and you could make out some tables as well as a bar at the back and the movements of a small crowd inside confirmed that it was indeed open.

What originally began as surprise quickly faded to objective reasoning as you came to terms with the fact that it was most likely just a coincidence and you felt somewhat silly for getting as excited as you had. Regardless, it seemed to suit your needs just fine and you figured that you'd spent too much time pondering on it to not check it out now. You were half tempted to inquire of the name as well, it was entirely possible that tales of a bar in Dublith once run by a homunculus were spread around and the name was taken as a kind of gimmick, so coincidence or not, you couldn't help but be curious.

The street was clear and the only cars that could be heard were out of sight, so without much thought, you took your first step off the curb to the other side, only for the unechoing bang of a gunshot shot to pull you back.

Quickly scanning your surroundings, there was no one else around besides those dining across the street and those that were shopping had turned their heads in the same direction as yours. It was close but not out in the open. The bag you'd been swinging around up until now was dropped to the ground as you sprinted in what you thought was the right direction.

Getting more than a couple of strange looks from those that you passed, you scanned alley after alley without stop until skidding to a halt at the obvious sound of a struggle and rounding the corner to find the source of the commotion down a near pitch-black section of alleyway.

Spotlighted by the flickering light of a building's back door stood a central guard attempting to restrain someone. The man was drunk, yelling profanities and from the sounds of it, crying, as the guard gripped both of his wrists. That's when you noticed the weapon in his hand, immediately explaining their strange position as the guard wrestled to keep the weapon pointed away from himself. Another gunshot was then fired, this time aimlessly into the air and you jumped into action. It took only a second to close the distance, and before either of them had a chance to notice you, from behind you gripped the wrist that was holding the weapon, positioned your other hand onto that same arms should and with a swift kick, brought your foot up to the small of his back, twisting his arm and bring him to the ground in one fell swoop, the gun firing one last time as it clambered against the cobblestone.

And like that, the night grew silent once again, the man's initial struggling devolving unto drunken sobs as he went limp in your grip. At first, the guard appeared shocked, taken aback by your sudden presence until you turned to look up at him.

"Are you alright?" You asked, readjusting your hold on the downed man to scan the guard for injuries.

"N-no, I-" Quickly composing himself, he stood up straight, saluted you, then took a frantic bow. "Thank you! I apologize for your needing to intervene!" He was panting heavily, clearly worn from the struggle with someone so much large than himself. You very well may have had some trouble yourself without alchemy if you hadn't had the element of surprise.

"It's...no trouble at all." You started speaking slowly but a comforting smile soon crossed your face. "And, please, no need for that. I'm on leave right now anyway so you guys don't have to be so formal, you know."

"Of course!" As if he missed the point of what you said entirely he stood back up straight, saluting you once again with his quick response.

With a snort and a playful roll of your eyes, you glanced back down at the drunken man and then back to the guard. "You wouldn't happen to have cuffs would you?"

"Oh! Yes, of course! I apologize, please allow me to take over." He quickly unhooked the cuffs from his uniforms belt loop and you stepped off the man, holding onto his wrists until they were secured. Once he was restrained you finally released him and stood back up, allowing the guard to pull him to his feet and the two of you began walking him out of the alley.

"Let's hope he has something good to say for himself when he comes to his senses." You joked and the guard only nodded firmly.

You'd almost made it to the end of the alley when he turned to you again, giving you one final salute. "Thank you again for your assistance, you have my gratitude!"

"No problem." You assured, giving him a kind smile.

"I promise you I can take it from here, please, enjoy the rest of your night."

"I will, thank you, and good luck." You thanked him and he responded with another firm nod, turning to begin heading towards what you assumed was his official vehicle. "Hang on, aren't you forgetting something?" You asked and he spun around quickly, nearly knocking the drunk man over as he was spun as well.

"A-am l?!"

Deciding not to make him guess you held out the gun that had been left in the alley and his face went pale, only to quickly turn red with embarrassment a half-second later as he reached for it.

"Y-yes, of course! I apologize once again, please, don't let my actions here tonight reflect badly on my district in your eyes!" He took another exaggerated bow and you raised a hand in reassurance, letting out a small laugh.

"It's alright, you did excellently. And like I said, don't be so formal, you've got nothing to worry about." While he was still obviously embarrassed at having made such a mistake your words did seem to ease his worries somewhat as he stood back up.

"Thank you..."

"Oh, but I do expect you to vouch for me when they find my fingerprints on that now, okay?" You joked again and he finally smiled, nodding once more.

"You have my word!" The two of you shook hands, and you watched him off, offering one final wave after he loaded the man into the back of his car and took his place behind the wheel. He paused to wave back, being interrupted by what you assumed was the clamoring of the man in the back seat. The guard turned around to yell something at him, shaking his head in exasperation before finally waving goodbye and driving off.

You couldn't help but chuckle to yourself as you watched him off. He seemed like a nice guy, you'd have to find out what station he worked for and bring them donuts or something before you left Central. Speaking of donuts, your stomach growled silently and you were reminded of why you were wandering the streets, to begin with. As you made your way back through the alley you began to wonder if your abandoned shopping bag had been pilfered by someone else by now and picked up the pace.

"Well, well, well..."

A voice echoed above your head and you came to a sharp stop. Your guard was forced back up as you spun around in the alleyway, looking for its owner. "Look who it is~" But as they continued, the expression on your face softened when you began to recognize it. "Can't help playing hero, huh?"

Finally, a thud against the pavement pointed you in the right direction as a figure dropped down from above, landing in the darkest stretch of the alley, and began slowly walking towards you. Soon, their face came into view as they stepped into the light, stopping once they were sure you could see them.

There stood a tall man with dark hair, the way his red eyes practically glowed behind his dark glasses, and the way his sharp teeth curled into a snarl as he stepped closer gave away his identity. And just as you were about to respond he rushed forward, stopping not three inches from your face to glare down at you. "You've got a lot of nerve just showing up like this."

A small sound left your throat in surprise at his sudden appearance and your dumbfounded expression seemed to please him as his frown curled up into a satisfied smirk. "Now, I think you've got some-"

Before he could finish, your surprise changed to delight as your body finally caught up to your mind and you wrapped your arms around him in a tight hug. "Greed, it's so good to see you!"

This time it was he who made the confused noise, going stiff in your embrace.

"What are you doing all the way in Central City?" You asked, taking a step back to better size him up in the light. The spitting image of the emperor of Xing, if the emperor of Xing got an undercut and dressed like an edgy teenage boy. "Is Grumman still giving you a hard time about being a homunculus?" You were mostly joking, but there was a bit of concern in your voice.

"Hey, I wasn't done talking!" He half collected himself, this time continuing much more angrily as he balled his fists and threw his arms down, stepping closer to you once again

"Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead!" You apologized.

He was obviously mad, your attitude not at all giving him what he wanted, but he took a deep breath, his frustration deflating back down to a much cooler but he continued to glare at you. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Like, recently or?"

"Do you think you can just disappear for that long and I won't notice? Then when you get back you've got the nerve to stare right at me and run away without so much as a hello. I don't think you quite understand the position you're in."

"A hello?" You parrotted. "This is the first time we've seen each other since I've been back."

"You kidding, right? You looked me straight in the eye back there when you were gawking through the glass."

It took you a moment to understand what he was talking about, and then it clicked. "Oh, were you inside the bar? I didn't notice you, I'm sorry. But to answer your question, I've been traveling outside of Amestris these last four months, everyone knew. I've been exchanging letters with the rest of the gang through Kain, I thought you would have heard something."

"Well, I sure as hell didn't! Not until you were gone! Doesn't matter if I did either, you're friends with Greed the Avaricious, you know what that means? That means you're mine, you report to me and me alone." He pointed a thumb inward at his chest, a low growl coming through his teeth.

While it's not that you weren't used to this attitude by now, you were just always at a bit of a loss as to how to respond to it. And while it was unintentional, you covered your mouth stifling a small laugh.

"Oh?" Slowing reaching up, he gripped the rim of his glasses and pulled them down, his red eyes narrowing to finally make direct contact with yours. "You think that's funny, huh?"

"No, just you."

"Well, you know what you have to do with your possessions when they start going missing right?" His wicked smile returned but you only raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Naturally, you've just got to start locking them up."

Before you could offer a snarky retort, he bent over and charged into you, efficiently wrapping an arm around the back of your knees and standing back up as you were forcefully keeled over his shoulder.

"Whhaat are you doing?!" You questioned in surprise as he nonchalantly adjusted his hold on you, tossing you more securely onto his shoulder with a bounce.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" He smirked, and without so much as a running start he leaped up into the fire escape of the building to your left, acrobatically ascending his way to the roof with you still in tow. "I'm taking back what's mine."

While it was a bumpy ride from where you were sitting, he held onto you firmly and you didn't even think to protest, too busy watching the alleys pass by underneath you as he leaped from rooftop to rooftop. "Where are we going?" You asked innocently, letting out a small yelp as he made a rather far jump and clung to the ladder on the side of a rather tall building before climbing it quickly, even with his other hand used to keep you steadied over his shoulder.

"I guess you'll find out when we get there." The shit-earing grin was clear in his voice even if you couldn't see his face as he took one final leap off the side of the tall building he had just climbed and you instinctively closed your eyes, only opening them once he had successfully landed. He'd finally stopped moving as well and you quickly recognized your location, even from your strange vantage point on the roof.

"So this place is yours!" It was a rhetorical question that he didn't bother responding to. You could see the various other bars and restaurants you'd passed while looking for a place to eat earlier across the street and the roof you stood upon was shouldered by two much taller buildings.

Still silent he turned toward the back of the building and you watched the street get farther away until he jumped off the ledge, landing on a small balcony that protruded out of the back of the bar's second floor. With a hard kick, he opened the door and after stepping inside he spun around, roundhouse kicking the door shut in one harsh motion.

"Here..." He began, cutting himself off with a heave as he lifted you off his shoulder, finally setting you down, "...we go!"

You were still a bit shaken from the ride here so you stumbled for a moment, taking a second to regain your footing before shaking yourself off and looking around. Greed stepped around you, his sly smile still in place as you turned to follow him with your gaze. "Make yourself at home!" He grinned, leaping onto a long crate not far from the door and laying back as though the hardwood was no different than a cot. It looked to be some kind of storage room, wooden crates, barrels, and boxes lined the walls in a disorganized state with an odd few lanterns sitting atop them that provided a dim but warm lighting.

You took a moment to brush yourself off, eyeing your surroundings with a raised brow in an attempt to figure out what exactly he wanted from you. "I was in the middle of something you know."

"That so?" He questioned with mock interest, as he absent-mindedly picked at the claws of his shielded hand.

Rolling your eyes you took a step towards him and the door. "Listen, I'm happy to see you too, I am, but if there's something you need from me you can just say so, otherwise, I kind of left all my stuff in the middle of the street back there." But you stopped in your tracks as he kicked the side of his foot against the door with a hard thud and held it there.

At least you had his full attention now as he finally looked at you, but the dark glare he was giving actually caught you by surprise and you took a step back. "Okay...maybe later."

A small grunt left his mouth as he laid back down and you relented, finding a place to sit on a crate of your own that sat by the wall to the left of him. Judging from the outside of the place, there had to be nicer rooms in here than this one, which was clearly just for storage. You could sit here all day and wait for him to get over his moodiness and finally tell you what he actually wanted. He'd done this before for sure, just to a much lesser degree, but for now, you were stuck waiting with him until he decided he wanted to move things along and tell you what was upsetting him.

A few moments of silence passed between you and he eyed you every so often, looking away when you caught his gaze, but you finally broke the silence.

"So...you cut your hair, huh?"

He eyed you once more, sitting himself up somewhat to slouch against the wall in a still rather relaxed position. "Yeah, the princely locks weren't gonna work for me forever." He grinned proudly, unshielding his hand to run it through his short-cut hair in demonstration. "Made a few more changes too~" In a rather crude gesture his stuck his tongue out through his fingers, displaying a small piercing in the middle of his tongue and you scoffed, looking away in half-exaggerated annoyance.

"Real classy...."

Slapping his leg he guffawed loudly at your reaction then threw his legs over the side of the crate to lean towards you, resting his palms on his knees as he grinned. "Gahaha, not a fan, huh? Would you prefer I still looked just like that airheaded prince?"

"He's actually the emperor now, you know." You commented slyly.

Greed scoffed, "Trust me, I know...."

"I actually got to spend a month in Xing while I was gone."

He raised an eyebrow in interest. "And how'd that go for you?"

"It was a lot of fun, I've never been treated as an honored guest before, so I felt super awkward at first, but I even got to stay in the palace!"

Greed grimaced for a second then jumped to his feet angrily, making you flinch as he shoot his fist in the air. "Must have been nice! I show up just to visit for old time sakes and he has guards stop me at the border and escort me everywhere like some sort of criminal just for kicks!"

Now you're the one laughing at the thought of that. That sounded just like something Ling would do. "Sounds like your trip wasn't as fun as mine then.", You joked and he crossed his arms and looked away embarrassed. "Ling does such a good job acting like an emperor but he's still as big a goof as ever behind closed doors. Do you have any idea what kind of looks I got as the strange foreigner the emperor invited into the palace and followed around like an excited puppy? I'm sure there are all kinds of rumors going around about me in Xing now, but it's nice to know power hasn't changed him."

"Tch, I guess..."

You decided to change subjects, even if his pouty attitude was kind of funny. rolling your eyes with a fond but exasperated smile. You glanced around yourself once more then back to him, finally deciding to ask him about your location. "So I'm guessing this place is yours, huh?" You questioned, motioning around the room vaguely. "I saw the name earlier, but I thought it might have just been some weird coincidence... When did you move to Central?"

As if your question caught him by surprise his brow furrowed and then he shrugged. "Eh, we finished setting up about three months ago. Business is good here and it makes Grumman's little check-ins less of an inconvenience." The current fuehrer's name seemed to roll off his tongue with spite, enough to bring his usually consistent smirk back down to a scowl. "Darius and Heinkel seem to like it too, being so close to their old stomping ground that is, so I can't complain too much. Their ex-military, so their working here brings in a lot of guards that are off duty. Solider types tend to flock together, I guess."

You perked up excitedly at those names. "Darius and Heinkel are here too?!"

"Yeah, Dar handles my deliveries, unloading supplies and stuff as well as bouncing for the place when it gets rowdy, and Hein runs the bar downstairs." He tapped his pointed finger downward against the crate when he mentioned downstairs.

"That's awesome!" You jumped to your feet. "Can we go see them?" You asked, scanning the walls for a door that would lead you to the first floor. Eventually, you caught sight of one directly adjacent to the one that led out from the balcony you'd entered through. Turning back to Greed to usher him to follow you, you paused when you saw the way he averted his dark gaze to the floor. "...Greed, is everything okay?"

"...."

You closed the distance between you, stopping directly in front of him. "Greed?" You questioned worriedly, watching as hands shielded themselves and he dug his claws into the crate beneath him.

"You sure seem excited to see them, huh?"

Your eyes just widened as you weren't entirely sure how to respond to that. Of course, you were excited to see them, you were excited to see him too and you might have shown it a little more if he hadn't been so unpleasant since you'd run into each other. Deciding to stand your ground you answered honestly. "Yes, I am. Are they here right now?" He didn't answer right away, continuing to glower downward. "I guess I'll find out myself then." You began to head towards the door when he finally spoke up.

"Out that door, all the way to the right and down the stairs, they should both be somewhere on the floor right now."

"Thank you." You thanked him, nodding as you turned the knob and stepped out into the hall. You did hesitate to shut the door behind you looking back to see him still averting his gaze from you, when he finally looked up you nodded toward the stairs with a smile, hoping he'd get the message and come with you, but instead, he rolled his eyes, jumped to his feet and stomped out the door to the balcony, leaping off and away without a giving you a second glance.

'I guess we'll...catch up some more later then?' You thought hesitantly to yourself. He was being so distant. He'd almost been one to hide how he was really feeling, you knew that, he must have been jealous that you'd stopped in central first instead of coming to see him right away. But it worked out didn't it, since he was here anyway, even if you hadn't originally known that? You'd make a note to apologize for that later, he didn't seem to have the patience though.

There were several doors adjacent to the one you'd just exited but you followed his instructions and headed right. There seemed to be quite a few rooms just on the second floor alone and you figured that Greed, Darius, and Heinkel all probably lived and slept on the second floor of the bar on top of working here. Greed owned the place and he'd always been fond of keeping his people as close to him as possible even when they weren't on duty. The thought of that inadvertently caused something unpleasant to form in the pit of your stomach but you quickly pushed it aside.

As you grew closer to the end of the hall, slowly you could hear the stirring of people and the sound of music growing louder as you reached the stairs, descending them with a bounce until you stopped at the final step. They lead right into the bar, coming down into the back right corner of the room. It was relatively busy, tables filled with half-drunk groups of friends just enjoying the atmosphere. Greed was right, you could see a handful of uniformed officers among the tables as well, letting loose at the end of the day with a couple of drinks.

One, in particular, sat at the bar, talking happily to the bartender. The bartender that you recognized instantly. Heinkel stood behind the bar, drying out a glass. He even raised it to the light to inspect his work before crouching to place it under the back of the counter, offering the man in front of him a nod or a small laugh every so often in reaction to whatever story he was telling.

A wide smile crossed your face and you couldn't hold back your excitement any longer, eagerly calling out to him with a wave. "Heinkel!" The blond man glanced in every direction but yours at first until finally spotting you at the staircase. A look of surprised confusion crossed his features, like was trying to figure out what you were doing over there until the fact of your presence sunk in and he dropped the rag he'd been holding and abandoned his post behind the bar to walk towards you.

"Well, I'll be, Y/n!" Pausing before he'd stepped around the counter entirely, cupped a hand around his mouth and called out towards the door. "Hey, Darius, come see who it is!"

On cue, you turned in the direction of the door to see the man in question, currently gripping the shirt collar of what you could assume was someone who had one too many and refused to take their cut-off policy seriously. With a questioning grunt, he looked towards Heinkel, who motioned towards you and the burly man's previously intimidating expression perked upwards into an excited smile, and the thug was quickly tossed out the door before Darius began making his way over to you as well.

Greed always made fun of the way the two of them had such a soft spot for you compared to Edward Elric, but you knew they cared for him all the same, they just had a different way of showing it with the young blond's hot-headed personality.

You jumped off the final step to meet them halfway, running into Darius first who you promptly greeted with a hug as you leaped up to wrap your arms around his neck. "I missed you guys so much!" He caught you easily, hoisting you up off the ground from under your arms in a playful motion as Heinkel came to a stop beside the two of you with a smile.

"What's brought you back to Central City?" He asked while you and Darius laughed.

"I could ask you guys the same thing!" You were quick to retort with a grin as you were finally set back down. "But in all seriousness, I'm back in Amestris for now, Central is just my first stop. I was planning on visiting everyone individually but imagine my surprise when I run into you guys!"

"We didn't think you'd back so soon or we woulda' cleaned up a bit, sorry you had to catch us in the middle of work." Darius apologized with a bashfull rub on the back of his neck.

"No worries, sorry if I'm intruding on anything, it's nice to see you guys found something for yourselves like this!"

Heinkel seemed to glance at you then back to the stairs. "Speaking of which, have you run into Greed yet? He's usually around the place somewhere and I can't imagine he just let you walk in without stopping you first" As he finished that sentence, he and Darius shared a look.

"Yeah actually, he's the one that "brought" me here." You accented the brought with air quotes as you motioned upstairs and Heinkel nodded in understanding. "He seems like he's not too happy with me though, I'm glad to see you guys aren't giving me the cold shoulder."

"Course not!" Darius nodded. "Course, we also knew you were going..." He said that last part a lot more quietly, enough that you didn't get to process it.

"Greed will get over it eventually, just give him some time." Heinkel stepped forward catching your attention. "I'm sure you're tired, how about something to eat? Or drink even if you're feeling it and you call tell us how things have been."

"Honestly, that would be amazing. Give me just a second, I ran into a bit of trouble earlier and left my bags out front, but I am starving so literally anything would be great right now...."

"I'll go grab 'em for you, go ahead and take a seat, kid." Darius offered and you graciously accepted, taking a seat at the bar. He returned a few minutes later and you were glad to find your goods were still intact, thanking him with a relieved sigh. Heinkel resumed his position behind the counter to begin fixing you something and Darius took the stool to your left as the three of you spent the rest of the night catching up. You told them about your trip to Drachma and Xing in great detail, remarking how you had souvenirs for everyone back at your hotel.

You knew the two of them had reunited with Greed a little while before your trip and you were happy to hear that things had been going good for the three of them. Greed could be difficult but he was a good boss. Apparently, it had been all Darius and Heinkel's idea to set up shop in Central City and Greed just went along with it, re-establishing the Devil's Nest in honor of his old comrades. You were half tempted to make a joke about how Greed seemed to be drawn to chimeras but withheld out of respect, even though he wasn't here at present.

Eventually, the place began to empty. You'd been so absorbed talking to them that you were surprised to turn around and find that you were the only three left in the building. "Whoa, what time is it?"

Heinkel glanced at his watch and you finally noticed what he'd been cleaning and putting away dished this whole time for. "About 2 am, we closed at 1, so we're just about done cleaning up."

"Crap, I'm sorry, guys, I didn't mean to hold you up or anything!" A firm slap on your back knocked the worried expression off your face.

"No worries, hun. Almost finished, you just kept it from getting boring." Darius assured.

"Still, I should probably get going. I'm going to be in Central for a while though, so I can stop by tomorrow. I'd hoped Greed would be back by now too, but I'll have to talk to him some other time."

Drying and setting aside the last of shot glasses that had previously filled the sink, Heinkel turned to you. "Why not just stay here tonight, that way you can talk to him in the morning?"

"Do you think that would be okay? As I mentioned, I don't think he's too happy with me right now, so maybe staying here wouldn't be the best idea..."

The two of them once again shared a knowing glance then Heinkel spoke with a confident grin. "Trust me, kid, besides, we wouldn't feel right sending you out in the middle of the night." You raised an eyebrow at him and he continued. "Even if you can handle yourself just fine."

Thinking on it for a moment, you decided you did want to talk to Greed as soon as you could and nodded. "Okay, thanks, guys. I'll take you up on that then."

It only took them a few more minutes to finish closing up, you even helped where you could, upturning the chairs with Darius as Heinkel wiped down the counter. Once they were done they led you back upstairs, stopping at the first door on the right.

"This one's yours. Darius' is right next door and I'm right beside his. Greed's room is the farthest down and right across the hall from his is the bathroom. Storage room is also right beside it, but you shouldn't need to go in there unless you need to use the fire escape. Oh, there's also a bathroom downstairs if this ones occupied and you don't feel like waitin."

"Awesome, thanks, guys." You slowly turned the knob of the door in front of you. "I'm surprised you guys have an extra room though, Greed's not really one to accommodate strangers, even for a night."

"Ha, you got that right, it's almost like he had someone else in mind when he was setting this place up, huh?" You might not have thought much about that comment, but something about the way he said it had you looking towards him curiously. "Well, it's about time we hit the sack."

Darius nodded in agreement, heading towards the door beside yours. "Just yell if you need anything."

"Will do." You nodded deciding to sweep Heinkel's comment under the rug for now. "I'll see you guys tomorrow, night!"

After exchanging quick goodnights you finally, turned the knob and stepped inside what would be your room for the night. The way the door screeched told you it must not be used often, but regardless of that, it appeared to be well kept and dust-free. The interior is what really caught your attention though. There was a desk against the wall to the left, fitted with a typewriter and what appeared to be a ham radio. This definitely piqued your interest but you decided you'd best not mess with anything. There was also a full bookshelf against the back wall that you did stop to inspect. There appeared to be a little bit of everything shoved together with no sense of direction whatsoever. Books on alchemy, technology, gardening, cooking, history, and a whole lot of fiction. Simply raising an eyebrow as you passed it you turned your attention to the bed, setting your bag on the floor beside it.

It was neatly made and you almost felt bad undoing it. Folding the comforter back and kicking off your shoes, you undressed enough to be comfortable before climbing underneath. The sheets and blankets were cold but quickly began to warm with the heat of your body, retaining and returning that heat after a few minutes. This mattress was definitely nicer than the one at the hotel you'd been staying in.

It always took you a while to fall asleep in unfamiliar places, but the muffled sound of what you assumed was Darius and Heinkel yelling at each other through the wall made you giggle to yourself as your shoulders untensed and you rested your head back against the pillow. This was nice, you missed spending the night with friends, even when a majority of the nights you'd spent with them in the past had been out of necessity while on the run; it was a distant feeling of safety.

Original, you'd only stopped in central to see Mustang, Hawkeye, Kain, and the rest of the gang still serving. You might, emphasis on "might", stop to see Grumman, if only to see how things with the other reformed human chimera were doing, since you knew that was something he paid special attention to personally. After that, you had planned to return to Dublith to visit Greed and these two, but it looked like you could cut that part out for now and spend some extra time in Central. The Elric Brothers were still traveling so you wouldn't be able to see them just yet, but Alphonse had assured you through his letters that they'd both be back within your return.

So for now, you had plenty of time to kill, but even with that thought, you couldn't help the growing anxiety that you should have something planned for after all this, staying in motion kept your mind occupied and now that you were finally back, you were once again fighting the urge that you should be doing something right now. Something to help those that were still recovering and using your alchemy to its fullest potential, otherwise what's even the point of having it?

Maybe it was because you were so tired that that anxiety was easier to repress than normal, or the continued sound of bickering through the walls that put your mind at ease. At least for now, you had nothing to worry about, you were staying here with a purpose, invited by your friends while you waited for Greed to get over himself and talk to you.

So for now at least, you just had to close your eyes without worry and wait for things to play out before you were back on the road again.

#fullmetal alchemist #fullmetal alchemist brotherhood #greed #fma greed #fma writing #fma #fmab #This is meant to be platonic #but there's enough there that it can be read as romantic if you'd like #he's my favorite #there still won't be a lot on here but I'll post when I manage to finish something

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1234-waystodie · 3 years

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The Israeli-Palestine conflict

*for the disclaimer - this message was written by an Israeli citizen who is following what happens in Gaza closely from news all over the world*

Thank you for reading this message. I will start with the fact that I’m not going to refer to the start of the conflict (who the land belongs to, who was here first) because it’s not relevant to the point that I’m trying to get to. This message talks about the present-day - Israel is a state, Gaza is not. Israel is a democracy, Gaza is being controlled by Hamas, a terrorist organization. Those are facts and you can look them up at Google if you don’t believe me. Okay so - let’s talk about the present conflict, “Shomer Hachomot”. It all started with what happened in Jerusalem. Frankly, I’m not going to get into this either because you can look at this both ways but I will say this - nobody shot anybody just because they were in a certain place. Jerusalem is a very complicated story and I’ll admit I didn’t really dig about what happened there. The fact is that after what happened in Jerusalem a group of Israeli-Arabs radicals who lived their whole life in peace with their neighborhoods, Israeli-Jews, made violent acts across the mixed cities (Lod, Ramle, Jerusalem, Haifa)... Cities that just a couple of days before were safe and happy for both sides became war zones - Arabs (again, radicals, there are a lot of Arabs that are against the way others act) lit things on fire, broke things across the city, tried and killed a citizen that was on his way home and made a lot of damage both to the city but more importantly to the trust of their neighborhoods who did nothing wrong.

Just for those who don’t understand how bad things got - my father bought a week before everything went down in Ramle meat from a nice Arab man who gave coffee and a warm welcome as my father was new to his shop. I used to get into Umm al-Fahm, An Arab village, to buy stuff. Now people are afraid to walk the street - a jew that lived all his life in that mixed city was killed when he drove through it, people broke his window, took him out of his car and hit him with a brick to his head and he died. Murdered.

So, as “support” Hamas started firing rockets from Gaza to Israel and that’s how “Shomer Hachomot” - the current operation started. Now, the drill is this - Hamas is firing rockets at the citizens of Israel. Israel tells them to stop and if they don’t they fire in Gaza and that’s the part you need to read closely.

Israel is not firing at civilians. It’s a fact and if you don’t believe me you can look at videos such as https://www.facebook.com/ynetnews/posts/10159905254995572 Translation: “Check if there are any children here.” “There are kids here, they are moving fast.” “Wow, we think there are kids here. We are stopping this.” “Right? there is a big one and a couple of small ones.” “We are suspecting that there are kids and we will not do it, we wouldn’t risk their life.” “Yes.”

So, why Israel was planning to fire in that place in the first place? Simple this is the point that I feel that most of the world doesn’t understand. When Israel fires at Gaza it doesn’t aim at civilians. Hamas is firing missiles and building headquarters where the civilians are so when Israel will come and kill Hamas members the citizens will be in the crossfire as well and then they would say “Israel is killing civilians!”

Now you would say “this is not an excuse they are still firing at civilians!” Wrong.

Israel is giving a couple of hours’ notice before they are attacking a building with civilians in it. Just a couple of days ago a big news tour was brought down - one of the reporters, from the Gaza side, who worked there wrote a breaking story about how they got a short notice, about how he couldn’t get most of the things he holds dear out. About how people that are leaving there are homeless. What he ‘forgot’ to say was that the building was the headquarters of Hamas, and they were the target of this Israeli raid. All the citizens by the way are well and alive because, as I said, Israel always tells beforehand so that people wouldn’t get hurt.

A couple of days ago we saw the picture and video of a young girl (6) that was rescued from the distraction of her home after an Israeli raid destroyed a building close to hers. Tragic. Again what the media left out was that Hamas build tunnels underneath the city so he could hide from civilians and Israelis alike and when Israel destroyed a building that was related to Hamas the tunnels underneath collapsed which, unexpectedly, led to homes of innocent civilians collapsing as well - hence what happened with this 6-year-old. Israel doesn’t want innocent civilians to be killed and there was no way to know this would happen - a thing that Israel by the way said and apologized for as it was not planned to happened.

I don’t remember when but sometime in this operation a rocket that was fired from Gaza and was supposed to lend in Israel landed in Gaza and killed kids. Do you know what the media in Gaza did? That’s right kids - they took pictures and posted that Israeli rid killed those kids. Because that’s easy to blame the enemy when the whole world thinks it’s their fault anyway so why not make things worst? Another point that makes people hate Israel is the Iron Dome. Fewer people in Israel are getting killed because of that - for those who don’t know what the Iron Dome is, it’s “is a mobile all-weather air defense system[8] developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries.[7] The system is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) to 70 kilometers (43 mi) away and whose trajectory would take them to an Israeli populated area.[9][10]” (taken from Wikipedia)

That is the face of Israel - defend and protect citizens while Hamas is doing everything he can to attack Israeli citizens without thinking twice about the life of people in Gaza.

Funny story, did you know that Israel gives Gaza food, fuel, electricity, medicine, aid, money, and far more? Every month? Yes, taxes from people like me and my friends go to Gaza to help them. My money goes to help Gaza citizens, my government tries to help Gaza citizens and it’s been happening for the last 20 years.

Now let’s talk about what happened world-wild. When things are bad for Israel do you know who the rest of the world blames? Jewish people. Notice how from anti-Israeli the hate became to be anti-Semite. In London, my favorite place on earth, people called out to “rape all the Jewish girls.” In Montreal people are looking to find Jewish houses to attack the people in the house, my friend told me that she knows a girl our age that is afraid to go out of the house. They called a mutual friend of hers who is Christian to threaten her if she doesn’t give them her location so they could hurt her friend. Only a month ago a citizen from my city was murdered in the US for being Jewish. He was there to celebrate the wedding of his family and was murdered. For being Jewish.

Believe me when I say that non of the citizens of Israel are happy for how people in Gaza are suffering. It’s awful. But, and it’s a big but, it’s not Israel’s fault it’s Hamas. So yes, #freeGazafromHamas is the hashtag that needs to go around, it doesn’t have to be Israel VS Gaza, us or them, life if not black and white, it needs to be #IstandwithIsrael while also saying #freeGazafromHamas.

To sum up - please read more than one source and don’t believe everything that the media is saying. I know it became a trend to hate Israel because a lot of celebrities see what’s on the media and decided not to question anything and hate a country that is just trying to protect itself. And please, god please, stop hating Jewish people who have nothing to do with what happens in the middle east. If you have any more questions or if you want to make a civil conversation you can always write me <3

#israel #standwithus #conflict #standwithisrael #gaza #טאמבלר #ישראל #freegazafromhamas #stop the hate #jewish #Jewish people

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twinkleimagines · 4 years

Text

✨lost and found✨

Tom is in AtlantA filming for spider man 3 and he takes a walk at night. Since he avoided his agents instructions to strictly not go anywhere without any protection, he ends up walking down the wrong road and gets bombarded by a group of people who don’t have the best intentions. Luckily you were watching and came to the rescue.

( I’m from Clayton county and am very familiar with Atl and how some neighborhoods are up there so if anyone is from Atlanta and gets offended on how this story goes , well sorry. )

Tom POV: “ I just feel so overwhelmed today” Tom said over the phone to his best friend Harrison. Tom had spent all week long shooting for the film ‘ Spider-Man 3’ and it felt like he was continuously had someone over his shoulder telling him what he can and can’t do.

“ go for a walk mate clear your head” Harrison responded trying to comfort his friend.

“ they’d never let me, not alone at least” Tom whispered, trying not to let anyone ease drop. He was in the hotel room alone but he usually had someone on the outside of his door making sure no one else got in.

“ disguise yourself up, make up an excuse and when the coast is clear go “. Tom contemplated for a second before agreeing. He figured if he disguised himself enough, plus with it being far outside . How hard could that be , right?

“ alright I’ll call you if I make it out” Tom said before hanging the phone up. Tom didn’t do too well of desguising himself unfortunately, all he had put on was an oversized hoodie and a black hat, placing the hoodie over the top of his hat. What did benefit him though, was he could see the entrance to the back door to the hotel, and there were absolutely no paparazzi or anyone at that matter waiting for him.

“ you need something?” One of his body guards asked as Tom opened the door to his hotel.

“ just ice” Tom said shaking the empty container for ice. The man reached out for it but Tom quickly pulled away.

“ c’mon man it’s just down the stairs I just want to walk alone for a second and I’ll be right back” he stated ‘ sincerely’. I mean he wasn’t lying.

“ alright , just hurry” . Tom nodded enthusiastically before speed walking his way to the elevator before the guy changed his mind. He couldn’t believe the guy was this stupid to let him go but at the same time he was beyond thankful. Tom side heavily as he open the exit door the cold breeze hitting his face. He immediately started walking , his head lowered some so no one close by would recognize him. He had even turned his phone off so no one could bother him. It had been a long time that he could walk in a overpopulated city like this and not be bothered, and it had been probably the most peaceful walk he had had in a long time to be in fact . The way the building lit up the sky, the groups of people passing by as if he was just another pedestrian , all of it just molding together perfectly. He hadn’t even noticed how long he had been walking , and at this point - he was lost.

Toms eyes roamed everywhere, trying to see something that looked familiar but at this point he couldn’t recognize a single area. He wasn’t paying attention, he was zoned out, his mind everywhere else and now it’s cost him his way back. Tom quickly turned around , walking back in the direction he came from holding he’d see something he remembers but there was nothing .

A few minutes went by , Toms heart racing with each step , fear going over him . The last place he wanted to get lost in was this big over populated city. He knew he had plenty of fans and eventually he was going to get spotted. Thankfully though Tom noticed a bus stop.

“ this has got to be it” he said out loud before turning down the street next to him.

What Tom didn’t register though was that he walked passed the bus station, but continued straight at first , but this time he decided to turn , taking him down a neighborhood like road. Tom calmed down as he walked , feeling a bit more confident in his decision, that is until someone across the street yelled at him.

“Hey!” They yelled, walking across the street to the side walk Tom was on. Tom did his best to keep his head down ignoring the girl but unfortunately it grabbed everyone else’s attention. “ hey you in the hoodie!” She yelled again , causing Tom to look up directly at her . The face she made when he made eye contact reassured him that she knew exactly who he was. “ oh I fucking knew it bro!” She beamed excitedly yelling back at her group of friends. When Tom looked over , he could tell he was more in the ghetto area. There were at least four guys, tatted up, a lot of flashing jewelry, their pants a little below their waste, and the other girl that was with them was dressed the same as the girl who spotted Tom. She had the basic biking shorts and t-shirt and definitely some expensive kicks.

“ yo ain’t you that spidey guy?” One of the guys asked. They had all managed to circle Tom at this point, looking him up and down.

“ yeah yeah That’s me” Tom said nervously . They all looked at each other and laughed when he spoke with a British accent , surprising them.

“ oh man you far from home for real aren’t you” the guy replied back. Toms heart was pounding at this point as the crowd circled closer and closer .

“ nah man we are filming here but I was just -“

“ I bet you some millionair huh?” One guy spoke up, everyone agreeing with him. “ man how much this watch cost you?” One guy asked reaching out for Toms wrist but he pulled away.

“ look I don’t want any trouble “

***

Y/n POV:

“ y/n set the table for grandma baby” your grandma said to you from the living room. You were visiting your grandma for the weekend at her place in Atlanta, just to get a break from home and school. It was just you and her thankfully giving you a relaxing weekend.

“ okay grandma” you said before setting the place mats out.

“ hey!” You heard someone from outside . Just your curious self, you peaked out the kitchen which was looking out towards the street. You saw a young guy getting surrounded by a group that looked to be up to no good. Within seconds they were grabbing at his belonging .

“ I think this guy is about to get Robbed grandma!” You said heading towards the door. She tried warning you to stay clear that You didn’t need to be a hero , but you were already out the door before she had finished.

“ hey!” You shouted running up towards the crowd with your phone out. “ back the fuck off!” You yelled out , recording them. “ if you all just walk away I won’t report you for robbery , and I’m recording you all so they’ll know exactly who the suspects are”. The group hesitated before turning around and walking away.

“ you okay?” You asked grabbing onto the guys shoulder. He looked like he was about to throw up from fear but something about him looked so familiar.

“ honestly I’m not “ he stated shaking his head, breathing heavily. “ I’m completely lost and if it weren’t for you I would’ve been - I would’ve been screwed.” He stated . You smiled a bit feeling accomplished- and at the extremely attractive British accent. “ well my grandma just made dinner, would you like to come inside and eat and we’ll try to get you back to where you belong” you offered. The guy stood for a second, contemplating, but something about your face being so friendly made him feel comfort and safe . He nodded before following you inside.

“ this is my grandma , Grandma this is... what did you say your name was again?” You asked. He quickly took his hat off before walking up and shaking her hand.

“I’m Tom Holland ma’am “ he said. You scrunched your face up. Why does that sound so familiar ?

“ I Honedtly cannot thank your grand daughter enough ! I don’t know what would’ve happened to me out there if she wouldn’t have come to the rescue.” He stated.

“ oh sweet boy, are you hungry ? It’s just the two of us” she offered , patting the back of Toms hand.

“I don’t want to intrude “ he stated shaking his head .

“ oh no , join us. It is the least you could do” she said referring to you just rescuing him. He nodded in agreement before walking into the dining room with the two of you.

“ I was going to ask if you went to school here because you look so familiar, but given your accent I’m sure you don’t. “ you stated sitting down in your chair.

“ oh yeah- no I’m from England” he stated placing his napkin in his lap.

“ England?” Your grandma questioned. “ you really are lost” she stated , placing the food down on the table .

“ oh I’m suppose to be here in Atlanta for filming I just wasn’t suppose to be here. “

“ filming?” You asked, drawing his attention back to you. He nodded taking a sip of his drink . “ are you an actor or something? “

“ yeah I’m filming spider man 3”. It was like a light bulb went off in your head.

“ I knew I recognized you!” You beamed feeling accomplished for finally putting 2 and 2 together, ( even though he basically already told you) .

“ yeah “ he chuckled at your excitement. “ unfortunately that’s how I ended up in that jam out there” he stated . “ they knew who I was and i guess they thought I had a lot of money- I mean I have a lot of money.. that’s not what I meant I just mean me being an actor I mean I-“ you laughed out loud watching him fumble through his words trying not to sound conceited.

“ I know what you meant “ you said with a sincere smile following. Toms cheeks turned red, blushing as he couldn’t help to think how cute your laugh was. Most of dinner went on with you and him asking questions amongst each other, getting more and more comfortable with each other.

“ alright baby I’ve got to get me some sleep, it was nice meeting you Tom honey I hope you can get yourself back safely” your grandmother said before giving you a kiss goodnight.

“ listen I’ve got a car, I can drive you back to the hotel” you stated looking back at Tom . He nodded, almost as if he was saddened at the thought of leaving. You both had managed to get in the car safely, without anyone noticing. “ yanno” you spoke up after turning the key in the ignition. “ we can take a detour “. Tom grinned, excitement running through him.

“ A detour?”

“ yeah I know a few spots” you beamed before backing out of the driveway. The first area you had taken him to was the Fountain of Rings.

“ my grandma use to bring me here a lot when I was a kid” you stated as you both watched the holes on the ground light up while shooting water out. �� she thought it was so funny to watch me try to dodge the water” you laughed, reminiscing on your childhood. Tom smiled, his eyes not leaving your face. He watched in awe as the colors from the fountains lit up your face, and sparkles in your eyes almost as stars. You could feel his stare, and if it wasn’t for the colors beaming on you he would’ve seen that your face was becoming cherry red.

“ would you like to do it again? But with me?” He asked, holding his hand out. giggled before Tom dragged you out towards the fountains. For the most part it was laughter coming from the both of you as you managed to dodge the water, the sprinkles damping the both of you up. Someone close by sitting on one of the concrete bench started playing music from their speaker, causing you to twirl around dancing with your arms in the air. Your dampened hair swirled around you with each turn, and Tom couldn’t take his eyes of you.

Each time you spun, your eyes landed on Tom, who had the biggest smile on his face, going ear to ear. Your smiled dropped as you realized Tom was standing just a little too close to a fountain that had just lit up.

“TO-“ before you could even finish with your warning, water shot up out of the fountain, catching the whole right side of Tom.

“ oh my gosh!” He shouted out, frozen in shot as half of his body dropped with water. You fell to your knees in laughter , holding onto your stomach. Tom ran over to you, shaking his head splashing you with water from his hair . “ I can’t believe you didn’t tell me “ he stated jokingly while attempting to squeeze out as much water as possible.

“ hey i think I did enough saving tonight” you stated jokingly referring to earlier. He nodded agreeing before putting his soaking wet arm over your shoulder .

“ well where to next darling?” He asked . You lowered your head blushing . “ I figured we could ride on the Sky view before you go back. “ you said pointing at the big lit up Farris wheel in the distance . “ it will definitely help dry you up” you laughed .

“ oh thanks” he laughed before grabbing your purse for you. “ so do you have a boyfriend ?” He asked, his hands now in his pockets. You shook your head no, grinning at the question.

“ no one has really grabbed my attention “ you stated. “ people our age seem to be only interested in flings. No one seems ready for commitment. “ he nodded , his headed lowered watching his feet glide across the side walk.

“ why about you though?” You asked nudging him with your elbow. “ any lovers back in England ?”

“ nope” he said popping the ‘P’. Instant relief flooded through your body. You couldn’t understand though, after tonight he would eventually go back to his normal fame life and forget all about you. “I was in one for a long while, but as my fame grew it was harder to hold the relationship.” He stated looking at you. “ it’s hard because relationships require a lot of attention and the more I did for my career the less attention I gave her and she just , I guess wasn’t cut out for it “ he stated.

“ when you really love someone , you should be supportive even if it doesn’t benefit you or isn’t convenient to you. Or at least that’s what I think.” You said pushing your hair behind your ear. Tom smiled.

“ I was thinking the exact same thing” he stated. You could feel butterflies forming in your stomach as you both stared long at each other . He had Argumentally the most beautiful brown eyes you had ever seen. your stare was cut short when you noticed his face become extremely lit up.

“ where here” you stated, looking up at the Sky view. You both sat down in one of the gondolas , the cold breeze now causing you to shiver.

“ here” Tom said scooting ever so close to you, wrapping his arm around you.

“ you won’t do much good with your close wet” you laughed, but the gesture was much appreciated. He laughed before looking back at your face .

“ y:n” he said softly . You looked over at him, realizing he was blushing.

“ yeah?”

“ I just want to thank you” he said sincerely . You smiled looking down shyly.

“ it was no problem” you stated shrugging your shoulders.

“ no seriously” he said lifting your head up with his chin. “ not only did you chance taking in a complete stranger into your home , but you rescued me, and you made this entire night make me feel..” he paused for a second, questioning how he was going to describe what he was feeling. “ you made me feel so normal. Not some celebrity. “ you chuckled slightly . “ really Y:n. I wanted to get away tonight because it’s always , interviews, filming , the press , paparazzi following you everywhere, ‘ Tom do this or do that’- I mean I just never get a break.” he stated looking down at his lap. “ but tonight you took all of that away . I was able to enjoy stuff without a thousand photos being taken . I was able to conversate without feeling like I had to worry about what I said without someone selling it to a reporter . I just feel normal.. and safe with you” he said before taking your hands in his.

“ honestly Tom, you make being a celebrity sound horrible” you both laughed at your response before it got quiet again.

“ well without a doubt I would take this night over any of my nights of fame in a heartbeat” he stated . Before you cpuld respond, Tom leaned in, pressing his lips against yours . Your hands immediately found their way to the back of his head, tugging slightly on his hair. His hands were pressed on your lower back , pulling you closer towards him. You let a slight moans as he squeezing your bottom giving him access to place his tongue in your mouth. You had shivers and goosebumps all over your body, even though the cold might breeze did play a hand in that . Eventually though you both had to breathe , pulling away from each other , giggles following shortly after . There was a peaceful quiet between the both of you, neither of you wanting to actually go separate ways.

“ you won’t forget me with you?” You said quietly , looking down at your hands nervously. Tom scoffed .

“ I wouldn’t dare” he responded grabbing your hands again. “In fact we can exchange numbers “ he said pulling out his phone, turning it on. “ just don’t go selling my number ok” he said jokingly . You laughed , quickly interrupted by the sound of his phone non stop notifications going off.

“ wow, you were definitely missed” you said watching notifications pouring . Tom shook his head .

“ it’s mainly my agents freaking out . “ he said Reading through the messages .

“ do you think they’ve reported you missing or something ?” You asked, worry running over you.

“ oh no they wouldn’t . That would put me in serious danger. Thiusands would be searching me and not all would have good intentions” he said typing on his phone . “ I told them I was with a friend and that I’d be there soon so they would calm down” you didn’t respond, only lowering your head down sighing heavily. “ but I’m in no rush” he said reassuring you. You smiled before leaning back in, kissing him.

“ I really hope we can stay friends after this “ you stated as you both got off of the ride .

“ y/n- I for sure want to be friends with you , and definitely keep in contact”

***

You had made it back to the hotel, standing at the back door that Tom had originally snuck out of.

“ can’t believe I’m back here. Tonight was crazy” he said turning around smiling at you, only to find a frowning face looking back at him . “ what wrong darling?” He asked placing your cheek in the palm of his hand.

“ it’s just , you’re so famous, you have thousands in your face daily screaming how much they love you. You have so much on your hands.. A-and I’m so happy for you I just feel sad. I feel like I’ve bonded with you so well already and I just don’t see how you’ll remember little me “ you stated messing with the strings of your hoodie. Tom wrapped his arms around you.

“ I could never forget someone like you. “ he stated pulling away from the hug. “ and whose to say if you’re not busy you couldn’t come see me wherever I’m at” you smiled nodding widely .

“ I’d love to-“

“ TOM” someone shouted from the door. “ get inside ! If the press got pictures of you hugging a girl you’d be the center of attention for the next month!” Tom sighed, nodding.

“ goodbye y/n, I’ll see you soon” he stated before walking back inside. You stood there watching him through the glass doors walking down the hallway with presumably his agent before turning a corner , disappearing. It was an instant wave of sadness hitting you, tears filling up in your eyes. You knew Tom was sincere with what he said but how could he possibly have time for you? You knew if things were to progress with him you would keep to your word and be supportive even in long distance , but was Tom really interested in you? Or just the night you had provided for him? When you went to open your car door, you felt your phone vibrate in your back pocket .

“ look up” you read from a new number . Your heart fluttered as you looked up, to see Om 3 stories high staring out his hotel room window , waving st you. You smiled waving back before wiping the tear away.

You had gotten home and you and Tom FaceTimed, him telling you about the hour long lecture he had with his agents, explaining why he did what he did . By midnight , Tom was asleep, slightly snoring on the mic, you falling asleep shortly after .

It had been three months while Tom filmed in Atlanta, and today they would be leaving to film in a different location. You both managed to spend as much time as possible together , you had even gotten to sit on set with them on film a few times. It hadn’t become official but the two of you were almost inseparable, but today was dreaded. Things were great when you were just a few miles away from him, but how were things going to work out if you’re states away? A thousand thoughts were running through your head as you drove to the Atlanta filming arena , where you would say your goodbyes to Tom. You dressed up in a laced tight white dress, it fluffing out at the bottom just above your knees. You had your hair waved, it propped up over your shoulders and light make up on. You had made your own photo album of the photos you had taken together over the 3 months together as a ‘ don’t forget me’ present to Tom.

“ Pass please?” The security guard asked as you drove up to the gates.

“ I just came to see Tom” you responded . The guy laughed .

“ right I can’t just let you in on that comment , you know how many fans come here daily trying to see Tom ?” You sighed heavily, knowing that was probably true.

“ well can I call him and get him to come here? “ you asked. The guy nodded before pointing to the side , telling you to park on the side . You had tried calling Tom but he didn’t answer so you messaged him asking to let you in . It had been a few minutes before he had gotten it approved for you to go inside, but of course when you did make it in, he was standing in the parking lot smiling widely at you.

You quickly squealed jumping out of the car, landing in his arms seconds later.

“ I missed you” he said softly in your ear . You giggled before leaning your head back , pressing your lips against his.

“ I brought you something” you beamed taking a step back.

“ oh yeah ?” He asked excitedly. You lifted up your gift bag, pulling out a heart of chocolates handing them to him. Next you pulled out your hand made photo album labeled ‘ forget me not’. You had decorated it , mostly with Spider-Man themed stuff . He blushed grinning widely .

“ this is the cutest thing I’ve ever gotten” he beamed looking through the photos you had taken together .

“ that way when you’re missing me or forgetting me , you could look at this and remember me and remember what we had “ you said looking up at him. He furrowed his eyebrows together closing the book.

“ stop saying that” he said with frustration. “ I’m not going to forget you “

“ I’m sorry” was all you could say.

“ listen I wanted to talk to you about that” he said taking a step back. “ I want us to be official. And I want you to come with me as much as your schedule allows it” you gasped, before jumping in his arms , happy tears running down your face .

“ yes baby yes” you beamed out as he hugged you tightly .

“ come back to my trailer, I’ve got something for you” he said setting you down, before leading you to his trailer.

When you walked in there was pink and red rose petals trails on the floor, leading back to his bed. There were also lit candles trailing on both sides as well. “ go ahead” he said , pointing back to the bed that you were staring at nervously . There was a heart , with a piece of paper in the middle on the bed. You picked it up, realizing it was a plane ticket to California.

“ come with me “ Tom said softly in your ear, his arms wrapping around your waste. “ today” .

You turned around .

“ what about my grandma?” You asked . After the weekend you and Tom first met, you had moved in with your grandmother. Not entirely because of Tom but because she was all alone and didn’t live in the best neighborhood.

“ we could look into putting her Into something better , she’s okay she’s a very independent woman and she can take care of herself , but we can get her in a better home and neighborhood if you’d like “ he offered . You nodded excitedly turning around hugging him.

“ I’d love that” you said before pressing your lips against his. Things got heated quickly, Tom laying you down against the bed. He pressed his body up against yours, his legs in between yours. You could feel his bulge against you as his hands roamed over your breast . You quickly pushed him off of you, him rolling over onto his back .

“ I want you” you moaned out as you placed yourself on top of him, your hips slowly grinding against him. Toms hands were placed on the lower part of your bottom, squeezing tightly with each grinding motion you did on top of him.

“ take this off” Tom said , lifting at your dress. Your quickly pulled the dress over your head , revealing you were only wearing red things. This was Toms first time seeing you like this , his face turning pink while he stared at your hardened nipples.

“ woah” he breathed out before sticking one of your breasts in his mouth, his tongue going in circles around your nipple . You moaned out loudly as your grinded harder on to him, feeling him jump under-

Bang bang bang

You and Tom jumped quickly as you heard someone banging on his trailer door. Thank god Tom locked it .

“ Tom come on buddy you need to get ready for our last scene so we can wrap up and head to LA” Tom sighed heavily sitting up.

“ be out in a sec” he stated before standing up.

“ I guess I’ll get dressed “ you said standing back up grabbing your dress.

“ y/n “ he said stopping you by grabbing your hands. “ please come with me” . Tom placed the plane ticket in your hand, looking at you with pleading eyes. You nodded excitedly. “ oh yes!” Tom said before kissing you once again. “ go home, pack up and meet me back here okay? “ suggested before kissing you on th lips one last time before walking out of the trailer.

This was going to be one adventurous journey.

#tom holland #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland smut #smut #tom holland fan fiction smut #tom holland imagines #tom holland imagine #Tom holland imagine smut

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