#she knew for the longest time that there was something up with Ai and tried to help her. is probably glad Shiho opened up when she could)
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Akai Shuuichi isn't afraid of heights. Like any sane person, however, he dreads the fall.
Though he questions his sanity. Because try as he might to stay away from the edge, it calls to him. Staring into sweet oblivion sends shivers down his spine, the uncertainty of his fate a thrill like no other. Most days he trusts in himself, his ability to walk the razor's edge, but he's fallen before. And it hurt.
Of course, pain is just a part of life he's learned to live with. In his line of work, people get injured all the time. And if you can't handle that, you have to be very lucky to make it out alive. For the longest time, death wasn't an option.
(Now, it wouldn't be so bad.)
So he steadied himself, got smarter, hardier. Better at avoiding situations that result in pain. And better at shutting it out, too, when it did appear, in order to keep going.
Why, then, does his chest ache and burn?
It's quite simple.
Layers and layers of ice, degrees of separation in place precisely to protect him from pain like this, melted through by Rei's blazing heat.
What a stupid thing he's done, to get attached again.
He could've tried to resist, at the start. Before things had gone too far. Before he got to know Furuya Rei.
But maybe, by then, it was already too late. In truth, he probably doomed himself years ago, when he accepted Scotch's offer of companionship. It brought Bourbon into his orbit, and the man's never been any less than doggedly persistent. Once Shuuichi let him in, he was never going to escape unscathed.
Shuuichi let him get too close, and got burnt as a result. Could see it coming, too, for the longest time. But how was he supposed to escape Rei's brilliance? His touch, devastatingly kind? It would be like trying to block out the sun - an exercise in painful impossibility.
So he's stopped trying, and embraced the wildfire that is Rei. Of course he burns, it's his nature.
(There's some things Shuuichi will need to reevaluate about his own, now that he has time. Because he certainly never thought of himself as a masochist, and yet, despite the pain, he knows one thing for certain: he wouldn't want things any other way.)
(Not one that is available to him, at least.)
Thus, he resorts to clinging to the vestiges of patience and composure he has cultivated for years to keep working through the situation with a cool head.
To do what is right.
He's putting back together what he tore apart, unwittingly, some three years ago now. Their struggle is over. They deserve to rest and recover, nurse their wounds - together.
It doesn't matter that he feels like he's bleeding out. He's used to patching himself up, after all.
And he's glad that he can do this for his... friends. The term invokes a foreign, gentle joy. They're no longer team mates, no longer allies, no longer forced together by circumstance. That's in the past, now. They stick to each other by choice, these days. That makes them friends, right?
He's happy for his friends.
Shuuichi pours himself another glass of scotch.
.
He should've picked a different hotel than his family.
Rather, his family should've really looked into a permanent residence already, considering Masumi has decided she doesn't want to go back to Britain. It's not like mother could refuse, after all the things his little sister did for her - not least of which, coming clean to Shiho and convincing her to share the APTX antidote, when all was said and done.
They're certainly not lacking in money, and Shuuichi's sure the Hanedas have connections that would make finding a flat, or even a house, possible, even on short notice.
Then again, Masumi told him they've been living in a hotel for more than half a year - maybe they've simply grown used to the comforts. It's not for him, but he's rarely seen eye to eye with mother.
Regardless, none of this excuses banging at his door at seven in the morning, on the dot.
"Shuu, are you up yet?"
Well, if he wasn't, he surely would be, now. Years undercover have left him a light sleeper out of necessity - it's a habit he won't be able to break for quite a while, even if he wanted to.
Still, the splitting headache and nausea make him consider playing dead. He doesn't feel much better than it, in any case.
Another set of knocks shakes his door. He loves his sister, and her determination is one of her best traits. But some of these days, it's also highly inconvenient.
"One moment."
He drags himself off the barstool, checks the mirror. Can almost hear Rei telling him he looks like death warmed over. Roughly two hours of sleep half-draped over the hotel room bar certainly didn't do him any favours.
He buttons up his shirt in an attempt at modesty, combs back his hair roughly. Part of him wants to send Masumi away - she's idolised him for too long. His little sister doesn't deserve to have the illusion of composure shattered, shouldn't have to see him, like this.
But she told him, at her birthday party, trying alcohol for the first time in their family home, under his watchful eyes. Always direct, but, as it turned out, even more so when tipsy:
'When all of this is over, I want my brother back. Just...you, however you are.'
If Shuuichi waits for a time where he feels ready to talk to her, won't stain her merely by existing in proximity, they'll never get to meet at all.
(He can't have that. He's missed too much, already.)
So he drags himself to the door, dishevelled, morning breath and all. Opens it a crack.
"Morning." If his voice is a little rougher than usual, there's nothing he can do about it.
Masumi pushes the door wide open so she can step in, giving him a wide berth. Inspects him head to toe, worry clear in her scowl and the wrinkle of her nose.
"...is this a bad time?", she asks, a glint to her eyes as she notices the half-empty bottle of scotch on the bar's counter. She can't help it - a detective through and through, and not good enough at feigning nonchalance yet. The evidence at the crime scene is surely forming a rather damning picture - he really should have put the bottle back into the bar before letting her in.
She plops down on the small sofa, makes herself comfortable while he opens the window. That should at least give them some relief from the smells accumulated overnight in the room.
"No. You're just here early. Is something the matter?"
He doesn't bother with pleasantries on principle, but at this hour he finds himself even less inclined. Besides - she wouldn't be here this early if it wasn't important. At least Shuuichi dearly hopes she has more sense than that.
Masumi looks down at the floor, a little guilty. He settles on the barstool and waits for her hesitation to blow over. Must really be looking like shit, if he's managed to curb her usual enthusiasm.
"I was going to ask for a favour, but I'm really not sure-"
He gives her an unimpressed look, from up upon his perch. It's a little too early to beat around the bush.
"Masumi." A single word, aimed to cut her off with calm precision. "How do I help?"
He might not be feeling well, but he's a professional - he's worked in worse conditions, for less important reasons. He'll drag himself out of his slump, if she needs him.
"You don't have to. It's silly." She gives him a sheepish smile, fangs and all.
"That's for me to decide, once you let me know what you need. So?"
She steadies herself, looks up at him, and sighs.
"For context, it's been months now, but Ran's still down about the whole Shinichi fiasco. So, we've decided to surprise her with an outing, tomorrow night."
So far so good, although he doesn't see where that concerns him.
"It was gonna be just us girls, and I'm confident that between Ran and myself, we can handle anyone stupid enough to try and cause trouble. But you know how it is in Beika. There's always a risk."
He does indeed know how Beika has somehow overtaken Osaka in every single criminal statistic there is. If she didn't have friends here, he would suggest moving elsewhere. He hears Nagano is very lovely, all year 'round.
"So we were discussing if there's anyone we could bring for company. And, well-"
"Go on."
"Sonoko somehow - I'd really like her resources - caught wind that Okiya Subaru is back on 'vacation'. She might have suggested asking him to accompany us?"
Not entirely unexpected - miss Suzuki had taken something of a liking to him, for whatever reason. It's a testament to the improvement of his acting skills. Engaging with kids and teenagers is a far cry more difficult and involved than his cover as Rye, somehow.
"...she may also be under the inaccurate impression, you, well, he could be a potential match for Ran."
At least his sister's on the right page there. That's not happening, never in a thousand years. Even if Ran wasn't barely more than half his age, she's too innocent, selfless, kind. If something like love exists in his heart, it couldn't ever be for someone like her - not again.
"You want me to decline the offer, then?" Simple enough.
Masumi shakes her head.
"No, Sonoko's right. It's always good to have an extra pair of eyes, and I'd love to have you with us. Been too long since we last spent time together. Besides, I don't think Ran is even interested in you - or anyone, really, after that disaster..." It takes him a moment to place the bitterness in her voice, uncharacteristic as it is.
"And that is unexpected?"
"No. I get it, she needs time. But she's miserable, and I want her to cheer up already..." Masumi mumbles the latter half to herself, subdued. Shuuichi's not sure he was supposed to hear that, but, well. He did.
"You'll get through to her eventually."
Good back-up gets one out of the toughest of scrapes, he can attest to that. If his sister is determined to get Ran to feel better, her persistence will make it come true, eventually.
"I sure hope so." She smiles up at him.
He finds his lips quirking up in response. "You focus on helping her. I'll cover your back."
He's sure he'll manage not to indulge miss Suzuki's delusions too badly. Rei often let him know how off-putting he can be, after all - finally a good use for his skills.
"Thanks, Shuu."
She gets up. Stops a couple of steps away from him, hovering uncertainly. When he raises an eyebrow, he can almost see the 'ah, fuck it', and then she's hugging him. Shuichi pats her back, a little awkwardly.
"Any time", he says and means it. "If there's anything else..."
She tenses next to him, but shakes her head.
"No, it's...I'm fine. Don't worry about it."
Well, now he is a little worried. He'll need to keep an eye out for whatever's troubling her.
"Alright." He won't push her; she'll tell him if she needs to.
Masumi lets go and scurries off, fleeing for the door.
"Text me the time and place, I'll be there."
"Will do. See you tomorrow." She nods and waves her goodbye. He follows to lock the door behind her, the bolt sliding shut with a satisfying clack.
There's just one small problem. He currently doesn't have Okiya's get-up. And Okiya doesn't live in this hotel.
After dropping him off yesterday, Shuuichi had planned not to bother him for a couple of days. Well. That plan has just been tossed out the window rather unceremoniously.
It can't be helped. With a bit of apprehension, he calls Scotch.
.
Under the cover of darkness, Shuuichi scales the garden wall, dropping into the Kudo's backyard without issue. The alarms have been disabled according to the schedule he provided.
He slips in through the unlocked backdoor, shutting it behind himself. The security systems of the place are too familiar; he reactivates them on autopilot. Better to avoid unpleasant surprises, wherever possible.
Clearly, Scotch had a similar idea - Shuuichi can barely see his outline in the darkened kitchen, but the revolver he gave to him gleams in the dim light. It's nice to see he's making good use of it.
Sharp blue eyes scan him.
"The passphrase?"
Nostalgia steals the air from his lungs. Between unsafe safe houses, a trigger-happy Bourbon, and working with people best described as shapeshifters, they needed a way to identify themselves, and quickly, when they returned home.
It's been years since he's last spoken it, but the passphrase comes to him as easily as breathing.
"Eat, drink, and be merry..."
Scotch had suggested the words, years ago. The motto he lived by, when not on the job, in order to not lose his sanity. The motto he'd imposed on Rye, as well, when they became partners.
A cheshire grin in the night.
"...for tomorrow we die." Scotch finishes their creed, lowers the revolver.
"Welcome home, Rye."
.
It's always been easy to find comfort by Scotch's side. Between the greeting, making gyoza together - which goes much better than their attempts years ago - and watching mindless action movies with a glass of bourbon, ripping apart impossible stunt work, it's difficult not to fall into a simulacrum of the fragile peace they'd carved out for themselves, away from organisation work.
Only this time, the peace is real.
Despite his apprehensions about meeting Scotch, Shuuichi's glad he's here - travelling with him is one thing, but he didn't realize just how much he's missed downtime with his ex-partner. Scotch's sharp intellect and easy-going attitude make for pleasant company.
It's exactly what he needs to unwind.
Which is why he doesn't see how Scotch has him cornered until it's too late.
.
The neighbourhood of the Kudo manor is quiet, at night.
As they head out onto the balcony for a smoke in the moonlight, their conversation turns to hushed whispers. Mellowed by an evening of pleasant company and several drinks, the world sharpens into focus between them, illuminated by the glow of their cigarettes.
Standing would be too visible, so they sit on the stone floor, side by side, like so many times before.
"Hey, Akai?" His name, not his monicker. A chilling sense of dread creeps into his chest. Please, no.
"Hm?"
"Thank you."
Shuuichi closes his eyes. He can take a good guess where this is going. Thus, he takes a deep drag from his cigarette, and braces himself.
"You know. For letting me meet Zero."
He'd been hoping against hope they could avoid the topic altogether. After all, they've made it several hours without addressing it. But unfortunately, it seems his luck has run out.
(Still, having seen Scotch in good spirits all evening makes it worthwhile, just a bit.)
Maybe they can just move along quickly.
"Think nothing of it."
"No. Akai, listen. I know you had to pull some strings to make it happen, and I want you to know I appreciate that. We appreciate that - even if Zero is pissed. First thing he did was slap me; told me I was late."
Scotch laughs, low and sweet in the night air.
They both know he let himself get slapped - Rei tends to telegraph too much, when he's angry, and surely it's even more obvious for someone so intimately familiar with him. The thought stings. And yet, through it, Shuuichi can't help the help the small smile creeping on his face. That sounds like Rei, all right. He would've liked to see it - someone else the target of his anger, for once.
Scotch seems happy to just bask in the memory, but Shuuichi's curiosity has been piqued.
"Did you manage to resolve your issues?" After all, that was the goal. If they didn't, none of this was worth it - several hoops he jumped through, bureaucratic and personal, for nothing.
"It's tentative, so far, but I have faith we'll get there. We've been through too much, together, at this point. This won't break us... I hope."
Shuuichi is reminded painfully of the bits and pieces he's heard of their childhood adventures. Fishing and fighting and being friends. It must be nice, to have found love so early in life. To get to keep it, too.
"I don't think so, it's clear how much he missed you. I'd be surprised if he ever let you go again." It leaves him a little cold, to no longer be the focal point of Furuya's burning determination. Chasing him was always just a means to an end for getting to Scotch. And now his wish has been granted. Shuuichi hopes it's worth it.
When he smiles, Shuuichi is sure this is Hiro, the person closest to Rei. It burns, but at the same time he finds himself glad that Scotch shines with such utter fondness when he talks of Zero. That's what Rei deserves, after all.
"I hope so. I don't intend to leave again, anyways. Every single day when I was hiding, I missed him."
It's a quiet, gentle admission Akai isn't sure how to handle. All these emotions are a bit too much - he's not used to being thanked, unless it's with useless medals, and he's not used to being confided in. He supposes it's nice that Scotch trusts him enough to lay himself bare like this, nowadays. Still, he can't help but wish for the old times, when they were much better at keeping their feelings out of his face. He's already happy for them; isn't that enough?
Scotch turns to look at him, blue eyes burning bright in the moonlight.
"And I missed you, too."
Cold wind tousles his hair. Shuuichi stares at Scotch.
If he didn't know what to say before, he certainly doesn't do so now. How can Hiro say that so easily? It's too personal. It's one thing to have his little sister say it, who only ever saw an idealized version of him to look up to. For Scotch to say this, despite knowing what he did, who he is - it makes Shuuichi nauseous.
Because he can tell Scotch is being painfully genuine.
'I missed you too', burns in his throat. But too many conflicting emotions keep it tightly sealed. His breathing becomes difficult, requires a conscious effort to take air in, hold, breathe out. Repeat.
And Scotch isn't even done yet.
"Akai. I have to get used to that name now, huh? Feel free to call me by my name, too, if you want."
With how his mind is spinning, it's difficult to figure out what he wants at all, besides for Scotch, no, Hiromitsu to stop. He's ripping apart the bubble of warm nostalgia that was enveloping them so nicely, leaving them exposed to the present. The night is cold and uncertain, without its protection.
"...you haven't been meeting my eyes all evening. Please, Akai - let me know what's wrong. We couldn't, back then, but I'd like to be your friend, now."
It's the kindest smile he's seen on Sc- Hiromitsu yet, and it's too much. Shuuichi has to avert his eyes, can't keep looking at his former partner, all earnest focus placed on him. A shiver runs downs his spine.
There's few things he wants more, in life.
"...we are", he manages to tear from his aching throat, choked up with emotion. This is a bad idea. He's not supposed to get attached. He's just making the same mistake, over and over again. He should've kept quiet.
(If he'd told Akemi how he truly felt, would it have mattered?)
"Then why do you seem miserable, whenever you look at me? Why do you try to avoid me? Don't think I didn't notice."
Of course he did, always too sharp. So helpful, on a mission, and occasionally in private too; he'd know they were getting sick before they really felt it, start treatment with soup and tea early. Taking care of them, even then.
"It's got nothing to do with you, it's-" 'me', he wants to say. Fear and bitter envy, the brunt of which Hiromitsu really doesn't deserve to face. So Shuuichi's been trying to avoid them, and, by extension, his former partner.
He manages to catch himself in time, before he gives voice to feelings that can't be unsaid.
"Yes?" Hiromitsu's voice is calm and patient and Shuuichi hates him for the attention he's paying to him.
He manages to correct his course in time, if barely.
"You and Rei deserve some time alone, now that you're finally back together." It's close enough, only a partial lie. They're so important to each other, and he truly wants them to make up. He'd only be in their way.
"Rei, hm?" Hiro smiles at him. Of course he picked up on Shuuichi's blunder.
He's had just about enough of being cornered. Gets up and is about to head inside and maybe hide in the attic for a while. The door can be barricaded from the inside. Hiromitsu rises after him, puts a hand around his wrist in a vice grip.
"Let. Go." It takes all his patience to not just break Scotch's arm and leave.
"I'm sorry for pushing you, Akai. Please, give me half a minute more."
Unfortunately, his best glare stopped working on Scotch several years back. Shuuichi looks at his wristwatch, starts counting down. As soon as Hiromitsu starts talking, he knows his time is better spent focusing on what he has to say, instead.
"Look at me, Akai, and listen up. You can't get between the two of us. I've offered you a place at my side years ago, and Zero... well, he's come around. The offer still stands. It wasn't conditional, but if it was, you would've earned your place easily, by now. I owe you my life, and so does Zero, several times over."
"We did what we had to, and you did the same for me." For the longest time it was that simple, their relationship purely transactional, because Bourbon could only ever deal in exchanges. A favour for a favour.
It's long since stopped working that way, and Shuuichi knows it.
"Oh, please. None us had to do anything more than cooperate on missions, and yet we all chose to do so anyways. You're one of us, Akai. Stop fighting it."
And he wants to, desperately so. The thought of spilling his rotten insides for them to see has him sick to his stomach, and yet, how much worse could it be than what they've already witnessed?
Hiromitsu squeezes his arm, a burning brand of human connection. It staves off the cold, just a little.
When he speaks again, it's soft, but firm.
"You should've joined us for dinner, yesterday. Both of us missed you."
Shuuichi doesn't know what to say to that, too busy fighting his internal battles, but surely something shows on his face, because Hiro laughs at him.
"As amusing as it is to see you flush, no, that wasn't an invitation to a threesome."
...he isn't quite sure whether he's supposed to be relieved, or crestfallen, at this.
"I didn't think-"
"Yeah, I'm sure you didn't." Hiromitsu's smile is too sly and knowing. It's a testament to the fact Shuuichi's spent too much time with Furuya, because wiping it off his face in a fight sure sounds appealing, right about now.
He's always been better at expressing himself through deeds rather than words, anyways.
"Otherwise, I wouldn't need to set the record straight. Zero's furious, by the way. Count yourself lucky that I'm the one breaking the news to you. He doesn't appreciate being set up on a date with his best friend."
Hiromitsu pauses, presumably to let that sink in. Shuuichi stares him down. That is supposed to be new information, how?
"Let me be perfectly clear: I love Zero."
He says it easily, with a sweet smile. It stings fiercely in Shuuichi's chest. By now, he thinks he knows what Hiromitsu is playing at, but unfortunately that knowledge doesn't prevent it from being an effective tactic.
(If this is how Hiromitsu treats his friends, he doesn't want to be his enemy.)
"He's my best friend, I love him like a brother. But he's family. Nothing more, nothing less."
There's a small pang of guilt at the relief that floods his system, but he needs it said explicitly to really believe it.
"You aren't a couple, then?"
Hiromitsu raises an eyebrow, as if to ask 'and why would that matter to you?' But thankfully he's done teasing, or Shuuichi really would need to break something, or rather, someone.
"No. I can see how you got the idea, but there's never been anything between us. Zero says you have a brother? Imagine we presumed the same about you two, just because you're close."
The confirmation lets him breathe more freely, even if it will need time to settle. His mind is still spinning, too many thoughts fighting for control. From this mess, of all things, his long-forgotten manners emerge as the failsafe. "Sorry."
Hiromitsu waves it off with a grin.
"I don't mind too much, we got excellent dinner out of it. Thank you for that, by the way. But do make sure to apologize properly to Rei."
Hiro winks at him, then straightens, looks him in the eye.
Squeezes his arm a final time, before he lets go.
"I mean it, Akai - you're our friend. And I hope you rest a little easier, knowing the truth."
Shuuichi does.
.
He's five minutes late to the requested location downtown - through little fault of his own, this time.
Masumi's text arrived a mere twenty minutes ago, and the things PSB liaison Akai Shuuichi might get away with, such as speeding, don't apply to the civilian Okiya Subaru (though that would admittedly be a very nice perk of the job).
He can hazard a guess why Masumi didn't send the details earlier as he drives past the building in question to find a parking spot - she probably didn't want to give him time to reconsider and back out.
Because she's dragging him to a goddamn karaoke bar, and, standing in the huddle of girls waiting for him, is Miyano Shiho.
His instincts tell him to cancel, to take up position on the rooftop bar across the street - it would provide easier surveillance options.
(But he's tried to protect Akemi from afar, and failed her, miserably.)
Besides, he promised, and he really does try to be better, these days.
So he smiles, all awkward and apologetic Subaru, as he joins them. It's going to be a long night.
(He's soothed by the smell of Rei's hypoallergic fabric softener clinging to the sweater he picked. Can't help but feel that there would be a certain appeal to sharing them, if Rei were open to the idea.)
.
The evening goes better than he imagined, all things considered, even if there's crying involved - as is often the case when he meets Mouri Ran.
It's a pleasant distraction, if nothing else.
He keeps an eye on Masumi all night to see what could possibly be bothering her, but as far as he can tell she's genuinely happy to spend the night with her friends. In fact, considering she told him how it had been too long since they'd last seen each other, she pays surprisingly little attention to him.
He prefers it this way.
(Although he would've liked to ask for her advice on how to apologise properly. Alas, this is probably not the right time, or place.)
.
Mostly he stays at their table, watching the girls' drinks and the crowd, occasionally giving guys who seem to consider chatting the girls up cheerful glares. Masumi made her wishes very clear, after all.
It's a good thing he talked to Scotch Hiromitsu yesterday. Enthusiasm permeates the bar, but unfortunately confidence doesn't equate to talent. Several of the loud, out of tune performances would've been torture with a hangover.
He finds himself humming along to the classics regardless.
As it is, it's almost pleasant. Sure, Shiho keeps ignoring him when it's just the two of them left at the table, but that's better than open hostility. Probably.
(It feels a little worse.)
.
Two hours in Sonoko ushers Ran to stay with Subaru rather conspicuously.
Smalltalk is stilted between them, lacking in common ground, and it doesn't really help that their connection is through the Kudo family, the memories of which she's here to escape for the night. She's polite as ever, but without the other girls as buffer, the conversation quickly runs dry.
Thankfully, the girls' singing distracts them soon enough. A cutesy pop song about moving on, dedicated to Ran.
She seems about ready to cry halfway through, and by the time they're done she's sniffling and trying to discreetly wipe her tears. Shuuichi gives her a handkerchief and pats her back rather awkwardly in an effort to try and soothe her. He hopes the girls will be back soon to take care of this. He's woefully underqualified to handle this kind of situation.
When they finally do get back, he plans to excuse himself, but before he finds a good time he's swept up in a group hug instead.
Turns out he might have misread the situation - what with Ran being overjoyed at her friends' continued support, and needing to express that, somehow. How exactly that translates into him also being included in their huddle is beyond his comprehension, but he's not going to struggle and cause a scene.
(It's kind of nice to see her smile again - gloominess doesn't suit her.)
.
It might've been a bit too much excitement for Ran, because around midnight she's almost falling asleep at their table. At this point, the rest of the girls declare their mission a success, and the focus shifts to trying to figure out how to get back in the middle of the night.
Shuuichi volunteers to drive them home.
It's crammed in his little Subaru, but the girls manage, and once he's dropped off Sonoko, things quiet down considerably.
Masumi makes him swear not to tell their mother how long they were out.
He agrees, of course, knowing he got up to much worse as a teen - back when he was still susceptible to peer pressure and living abroad in a fraternity, alcohol made him do very stupid things indeed to prove his worth.
If this is how Masumi chooses to defy their mother, he'll take it - she could be up to so much worse.
She's arranged to stay with Ran; thus, he's released from his services for the night. He watches as they help each other up the stairs, leaning in close, whispering and laughing to each other.
He would make an assumption, now, but Hiromitsu's words are still clear in his mind.
So for now, he refrains, and is simply glad they're supporting each other.
.
In the end, predictably, Shiho is the only one left in the car.
"Didn't dare to join us wearing your own skin, cousin?"
He shrugs. "Masumi requested Subaru."
"Well. At least you didn't creep on us from several buildings away. Baby steps." 'But progress, nonetheless', her small smile says.
He doesn't know why he says it. Maybe because it's late. Because Scotch Hiromitsu has chipped away at his protective tissue. Because it's Shiho.
"Staying away didn't save her." He doesn't need to say who - the same wound is carved into Shiho's heart, after all. And judging by the songs she chose to sing today, it still bleeds just the same.
She sighs, long-winded and too world-weary for a girl her age.
"No. No, it didn't. All it did was rob us of the time we had with her. Utter idiocy, in retrospect."
Shuuichi hums in agreement. Lost opportunities they'll never get back, all thanks to lies and the wish to protect her.
"I tried to push her away, you know? I was too involved - maybe, if she didn't know what I was doing, she could retain her innocence. Maybe she could even leave, one day, I'd hoped. But she clung to me stubbornly."
Never backing down from what she wanted, from those she loved. That's the women he fell for.
Shuuichi finds himself smiling, somewhat pained.
"She loved you dearly, to the bitter end."
He hands her the flip phone that has been his constant companion for almost a year now. Past the lockscreen waits Akemi's last message to him. With its P.S., asking him to protect her dear little sister, if the worst should come to pass.
He never got to reply to her, to promise that he would, of course he would.
It's short, so Shiho doesn't take long to read it. She attempts to hand it back, eyes glistening, but not crying.
Always composed, in front of him.
"Keep it."
It hurts to let go of it, but Shiho deserves to have assurance of Akemi's love, even in death.
(Unlike himself, who only ever lied to her.)
She looks up at him, uncertain, but what she reads on his face seems enough to convince her. She snaps the phone shut, cradles it to her chest.
Smiles grimly at him. "Thank you."
The rest of the car ride passes in silence.
They split up in front of the Kudo mansion.
"...I was planning to visit her grave on the weekend. You should come."
.
Shuuichi knows where Akemi's ashes have been laid to rest - he was the one to pay for her funeral, after all.
(Once upon a time, he'd dreamt of a future with her, of being family. Cruel irony, how that turned out to be true.)
Since her parents were never officially buried, and he hadn't been able to reach Shiho, he'd made the selfish decision to have Akemi's ashes stored in the Sera family grave.
He hasn't had the time to visit, yet - first, things had been too dangerous, then too busy, and by now, he's really just been unable to face her, alone. He's glad he doesn't have to, now.
Shiho sets down an incense stick, and some cut flowers - white gladioli. Shuuichi squats down next to her, puts down his flowers - lilies, also white - into the vase and lights the incense.
"Hey, sis. Look who I managed to drag along."
"Hello, Akemi." Sorry it took so long.
They stand, side by side, in silent prayer.
He's had days to prepare himself, to think about what he wants to say to her. But as he stands before her grave, all that's left is sorrow, a hollow in his chest where she should be.
(Filled with regret, and someone else. Jodie's right. He's a terrible partner.)
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry I couldn't tell you the truth.
I'm sorry I left you behind.
I'm sorry I couldn't protect you.
I miss you.
The gentle smile when she talked about her little sister. The sweet blush when he'd kissed her hand. The way she'd awkwardly apologize for flipping the pancake she was making for breakfast into the sink. The ikebana arrangements she'd spend hours and hours on, decorating her flat. Her kind hands, mending his body and soothing his soul. The way the sunlight would turn her hair into gold.
A thousand small joys she gave to him, and all he had for her in turn were lies.
He doesn't remember the last time he cried - maybe as a child, when he fell and scraped his knee. It feels so far away.
His body doesn't remember how to, either - otherwise he surely would be, now.
How cruel. Even in death, he can't show her his honest feelings.
Shuuichi shows her cold comfort, instead.
Takes out a plastic evidence bag he requisitioned from the PSB, and places it on the altar as an offering. In it, the shattered scope of a rifle, splattered with its owner's blood. Gin's. It was found by his side, together with his Beretta, the instrument of his voluntary destruction. As the PSB forces had closed in on him, he'd chosen to kill himself, rather than surrender.
When Shuuichi lies awake at night, it irks him that Gin had a choice, at the end, where he took it away from so many others. He didn't deserve that kindness. A part of him is furious that he wasn't there to see his enemy's dying breaths, preferably through the scope of his rifle.
But it was probably for the best - if he'd been there, he's not sure he could've reigned himself in. Might've murdered Gin with his own two hands, and become the kind of monster he swore to hunt. (And if he's completely honest, there's another possibility: caught in a struggle with his enemy, he might have lost sight of his surroundings and slipped up. Facing Gin, that would've been a death sentence.)
Instead, and he's got the boy to thank for that, he was tasked with keeping their allies - Rei - alive and breathing. He can't help but feel like that matters.
I'm sorry I couldn't avenge you; you deserved better.
But he won't be making anyone miserable, anymore.
It's over, and they're still standing, in defiance of the bloodlust of their enemies. He's managed to keep one promise to Akemi, at least.
I'll continue to watch over her, if she lets me.
Shiho claps beside him, done with her prayer.
Thank you for everything.
The incense stick's stump turns to ash and scatters in the wind.
I hope your spirit can find peace, Akemi.
.
When he lights himself a cigarette to calm his mind, Shiho holds out a hand, wordlessly, expectantly.
He regards her with mild curiosity, but offers the pack regardless.
"What. You think I haven't done worse?"
She snatches his lighter, and with a hiss of flame, lights up her own cigarette.
"Akemi used to tell me to stay away from drugs, but I deserve this for bringing you here."
She takes a deep drag, managing not to cough. It's clear, from her posture and practiced ease, that it's far from her first foray into smoking.
"I hated you, you know? For the longest time. For playing with her, breaking her heart, leaving her behind, all alone. Leaving her to die."
It burns his lungs, to have his own thoughts voiced out loud, by Shiho of all people. But he deserves every cruel word dropped from her lips - she speaks nothing but the truth, after all. He needs to bear her judgement.
Shiho smiles, grimly. Doesn't look at him, focused on the grave instead.
"But not Akemi. She saw through you, and loved you still. Forgave you, even, because that's the kind of person she was."
A cold spring breeze plays with her hair. The sweater and cap protect him from the worst of it, but it still bites at his face, makes his eyes sting.
"I don't think I can ever be as forgiving as she was. You were, and still often are, an unrepentant jerk."
She turns to look at him, eyes as hard as steel. So familiar his eyes burn. He can't look away.
"But her death is not your fault."
It's cloaked in insults and pain. But it's an absolution he could never have asked for, one no one else could have given him. His breathing stops, then comes a little easier.
"Neither is it Kudo's. Did he ever tell you? He was there, watched her die. For the longest time, I blamed him for not saving her. He's brilliant when he puts his mind to it. Did he care so little, as to not even try?"
She shakes her head.
"It is a cruel thing to begrudge him for having witnessed her death. He was just a kid - small, powerless, afraid. Up against enemies that tried to kill him, too, only failed through sheer luck. I had to first be put into the same shoes to understand that."
As if she's not just a kid now, too. Neither of them should have gone through what they did, and yet it happened, has left them weathered and worn, tired beyond their years. They're still young - he hopes they can recover from the worst.
"I'm trying to tell myself it's not my fault either. She died for me, for us, trying to get us out of there. But I didn't know. She kept it from me, in case something went wrong. And I lie awake, going over conversations, wondering if I missed any signs. If I could've warned her or stopped her. If she could still be here, that way."
He's familiar with the spirals and hypotheticals, repeating the scenario over and over, to look for a way out. It never changes the facts.
"That kind of thinking gets you nowhere."
She gives him a sharp glare, a wordless threat to 'shut the fuck up'. He takes a step back, raising a hand in surrender.
"I know it's useless. Because she is dead, and no amount of analysing can bring her back. At least the one person who truly is at fault will not be a problem any longer. That's a small comfort."
She glares at the scope with barely concealed hatred in her eyes.
"And that's all there is. Akemi was proud and strong-willed - she chose her path. Not reaching out to any of us for help was a choice she made. I can't take away her agency in this matter."
Shiho smiles, pained and beautiful in the setting sun.
"The worst thing is that if she hadn't done what she did, I might still be a prisoner of the organisation. I'd like to think she didn't want to die to achieve it, but she'd be so happy to see me living in the sunlight, once more."
"She would be overjoyed." It's an obvious and simple truth he can't help but confirm.
Oh. Shiho's crying, now, quiet tears trailing down her cheeks, reflecting the sunlight in streaks of gold. It shaves years of her worn face, makes her look as young as she truly is.
He gives her a handkerchief, is glad to see her accept it. She wipes her face, smudging some of the make-up - he'll need to let her know before they return to the public. She doesn't usually like it when people can see past her composure. Shuuichi's pretty sure he, too, shouldn't be here to witness this.
But she doesn't hide from him, today, so he'll take all she gives to him, and treasure it.
"I brought you here because I'm trying to be better. I got a second chance at life, and I want to take it, all of it, for myself and for Akemi. But I won't be able to, if I hold on to useless grudges."
She looks at the handkerchief in her hands.
"You're a jerk, but you're not horrible. And you're trying to be better, too."
She holds out her hand.
"I want to get to know you, Akai Shuuichi. Maybe we could start with meeting for coffee?"
He waits for her to take it back, to reconsider.
She just looks at him expectantly, raises an eyebrow too when he doesn't comply immediately.
Shuuichi is many things, but he tries not to be a coward.
So he fights the vertigo, takes a leap of faith.
"I'd like that."
And shakes her hand.
.
Sweater Weather AU masterpost
#working title: akai shuuichi and the mortifying ordeal of being known#man. hiro is cruel. showers akai with love to make him confess his silly misconceptions#knows full well the stupid thing akai is agonizing over but still makes him say it...#okiya has been adopted as one of the girls™#not me looking up popular japanese karaoke songs and then not putting them in there#Ran's singing Dry Flower for sure#(Shiho's picked Lemon for Akemi. Akai finds himself quietly singing along)#Masumi Sonoko and a somewhat grumpy Shiho dedicate PonPonPon to Ran#(also I presume Ran is mostly fine with Shiho because she's not her childhood friend/boyfriend who lied to her while living with her.#she knew for the longest time that there was something up with Ai and tried to help her. is probably glad Shiho opened up when she could)#shiho after all of that angst in the end: we're not going to talk about the incest thing ok? ok.#sweater weather AU#you thought Rei slowly getting over his sweater fixation would be the end of it? joke's on you - he's infected Akai#the rich inner life of akai shuuichi#iris writes fic#akam#long post#dcmk#akai shuuichi#miyano shiho#sera masumi
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Right time to analyse this shit because god dammit I have been silently making theories about this show the second I saw the premise I’m about to become the most annoying person on the planet on god so LETS GOOOOOOO-
First things first the animation looks fucking phenomenal (let Kevin Temmer cook, that man can do no wrong). Also Caine the guy ever, he is the silly and I love him wholeheartedly, he’s just a fucked up little guy who’s living his best life fr.
And also NEW CHARACTER HELLO.
They do be circling though.
THE SILLIES ARE HERE LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOO 🎉🎉🎉
Smiling Gangle spotted ten seconds before disaster, no thoughts head empty indeed.
ALSO I WASN’T EXPECTING STUFF OUTSIDE THE CIRCUS BUT IT’S A WELCOME SURPRISE WHOA
They have come to steal your credit card information.
The thoughts I had of Ragatha being the lone brain cell keeping everything together were completely correct I CALLED IT- (it has been said by Gooseworx that she has been there the second longest so she’s probably gotten used to the zaniness by now…maybe)
A door that leads to a void?
Maybe it has something to do with this room in the teaser trailer? Possibly.
Tumblr sexyman spotted.
''If there was a way to leave I'm sure we'd have all left by now''
They're ✨suffering✨
This caught me off guard when I first saw it lmao (holy FUCK I love Zooble's design, they're everything to me).
''Welcome to your new home...AND your new body...''
So they're aware that they were human before they entered the circus? That's interesting considering what happens in a few seconds (I'll get to that soon). It's also worth mentioning that Gooseworx has stated that their clothes ARE a part of their bodies.
Case in point...
At the end of the character introduction compilation Gooseworx posted to their YouTube channel Pomni is heard saying something along the lines of
''How do I...take this...headset off?!''
I saw a few people theorizing about her talking about a VR headset and that was how she entered the circus to begin with (I had the same thoughts until very recently). However, considering how much of the visuals and character designs are based on old media (also a teaser image was set up as the menu screen for a retro game), I'm beginning to think that this isn't the case.
So it's incredibly likely that Pomni is actually talking about her jester headpiece since she can't take it off.
This scene is probably the first time Pomni sees her new body, pinwheel eyes and all.
''I'm fine with whatever, as long as I get to see funny things happen to people''
I love him he's so unbothered.
I'm sad that we didn't get to hear any dialogue from them but I can't wait to see them in the pilot! Kinger is love, Kinger is life.
''After a while you start to realise that you really can't leave, and constantly chasing an unattainable goal will start driving you a little crazy''
She's a little fucked up actually wow who saw that coming.
It sounds like Ragatha tried to leave a few times and just resigned to her fate after a while, her description DID say that she was the ''sweetest little optimist in the digital circus'', so maybe she's told the others that escaping is impossible and that they should make the best of their situation instead? (Also the framed picture of the right looks like some kind of void, a lot of void imagery here).
Also, Gooseworx released this image a short while ago and it has the same background that Ragatha had while she was talking so she's DEFINITELY talking to Pomni here.
''OH GOD! WHY CAN'T I REMEMBER MY NAME?!''
EXCUSE ME? Okay time for some more speculation. I knew that their names definitely weren't their real ones but I wasn't expecting them to forget them!
Now, since the premise is said to be centred around Pomni and the others getting messed with by AI and their traumas, maybe instead of forgetting what their names were, they actually REPRESSED their memories from when they were human due to the trauma they went through? (Which would include their names)
I don't buy that they've COMPLETELY forgotten who they were (Zooble is aware that the body they're in isn't the one they used to have so I'm guessing everyone else knows that too.)
I'm guessing that their human lives absolutely SUCKED and they've now repressed their trauma to the point where they can barely remember who they were in the human world, this is just speculation.
''Thank goodness this is all a dream, right Pomni?''
What a sassy little guy (it's so weird hearing Michael Kovach sound so reserved, he's normally feral as hell playing these kinds of characters). The little mannequin symbol on the door is probably there for when new people stumble into the circus.
She's definitely seen some shit, I wonder what it could be though?
OH MY GOD THERE'S MORE OF THEM 😭
Wow this background looks...oddly normal. The only thing I can think of this being is Pomni witnessing a flashback of her human life before she showed up in the circus.
''You completely lose sight of who you are and why you're even alive and when you reach your breaking point something REALLY terrible can happen''
OH? Okay speculation time again. This is the closest hint we've gotten to what exactly one of the gang's traumas could be. Ragatha may have forced herself to stay positive in really shitty situations during her human life which likely lead to a lot of negative thoughts which eventually lead to her doing...something, I'm not sure what though, maybe it lead to her losing an eye? (Maybe her new body represents that?) I'm not sure. Maybe this is why she's been in the circus for as long as she has, instead of dealing with her feelings and existentialism, she instead continues to try to be someone who's more adjusted than they actually are.
Again, this is all just speculation, maybe it's just an Infinity Train type of thing where they can't leave until they learn to accept what they went through and how to work through it healthily idk.
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? Well, I'll tell you what I think it is.
I think it's this weird tar like tentacle thing from the teaser trailer, I don't see what else it could be.
And I'm 90% sure that whatever it is, it's connected to this room, and I think that THIS is gonna be where we'll be seeing what the gangs traumas are (Ragatha looked TERRIFIED when she was grabbed so if this was the case I wouldn't be surprised). I'd also like to speculate that this could possibly be another AI. There's Caine, Bubble, and whatever the hell those little shape creatures are, so it's very likely that other AI does exist, we just haven't seen them yet.
But who knows? I'm probably looking too much into it.
Woah new background, he is angy.
I would go into another theory I have about how their designs may hint at what trauma they have but I've spent over an hour writing, compiling trailer screenshots, and speculating every individual frame while suffering with chest pains I wanna go to bed
Holy shit that took WAY longer than I thought it would. I cannot WAIT to watch the pilot, this show has become one of my most anticipated projects of the year over the last few months and I can't wait to see what it has in store.
TL;DR: The trailer looks fire 10/10 can't wait for the inevitable Pomni plushes.
#karm rambles#the amazing digital circus#damn this is long#tadc#i'm so normal#glitch productions#gooseworx#i have gone insane
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A Returning Heart - Alcina Dimitrescu x Male Character
Summary: The Bloodline of House Dimitrescu has been destroyed by Ethan Winters, but will it remain that way? A cloaked figure approached the castle with one thing in mind - Can love transcend death?
Quick Note: The Explosion didn't destroy the Castle or that area of the village. Also, the male will not be given a name.
"Here are your purchases, My Lord." The Duke smiled as he handed 4 horizontal boxes out to the cloaked figure before him who took them in his arms but set the 3 smaller boxes down before opening the longest box. The cloaked man opened the long box - the Duke could see a long smile on the man's face as he gazed into the contents of the box before sealing the lid on it again.
"Perfect. What can you tell me about the other lords? Do you have their remains as well?" The man asked.
"But of course - after Ethan Winters killed the lords, he sold their remains to me for a fair amount of Lei. Would you like theirs as well?" Duke asked with a smile.
"Not at this moment. Once I make sure everything is in order, I shall come back for the remaining lords. And what of Miranda & the mutamycete?" The man asked.
"No longer in existence, My Lord. Ethan Winters and his company completely destroyed them - as well as the other Lords' Domains with the limitation of Lady Dimitrescu Castle and the Central and Northern Villages." Duke said.
"I'll take care of that as well." The man said as he reached down and gathered all of the boxes in his arms and started his way up the path to the grand castle that still stood.
"This is going to be interesting," Duke said as he got his notebook to make note of this. "It's not everything someone like that comes to the village."
[At Castle Dimitrescu]
The figure pushed the metal door of the castle open with one hand while the other held the boxes to his side. He looked around the room he now stood in before cracking a smile.
'Not much has changed.' He chuckled to himself before he made his way through the castle until he reached Castle Dimitresc's Hall of the Four (The Location where the masks go.). He opened the first box and gazed upon its contents before reaching in and pulling out the crystalized remains of The Royal Dragon - Alcina Dimitrescu, herself. He smiled at the crystal remains for a while before he placed them in the center of the room before going back to the other 3 boxes and opened them - showing 3 crystals torso that was small than Lady Dimitrescu's but each one had a gem placed in their chests - the first one he picked up bore a red gem.
'Bela.' the man thought as he placed the red-gemmed torso next to Alcina's. He back to the other two and picked up the second one - which bore a yellow gem.
'Cassandra.' He thought before placing it next to the other two in the center of the hall. He rose to his feet again and gathered the last one - a green gem in the chest of its chest.
'Daniela.' He echoed in his mind before placing it with the others.
Once they were all in place - he lifted his right hand which was engraved with runes of an unknown language. He cleared his throat before he spoke in Romanian.
"Din amurg până în zori. Din carne, sânge și os. Din aceste fragmente fragile, poruncesc - întoarce-te la care ai fost odată și mergi din nou pe acest pământ." The runes on his arm began to glow a blinding white light when a circle surrounded each of the remains and consumed them in a pillar of blinding light. The man watched and waited until he saw the remains float and take new form - this made him smile widely.
[About 3 Hours Later.]
A feminine groan filled the air of the Castle Main Hall has eyes began to flutter open, revealing a gold hue. The woman allowed her eyes to readjust to see - she was on a familiar floor. She pushed herself off the ground before groaning again and placing her hand on her head.
"My head...What happened? The last thing I remembered was..." Her eyes widened as memories began flooding back in her mind.
The meeting with her family.
Her daughters bringing her that Man-Thing.
The man-thing escaping and killing her eldest.
The pain she felt of loss.
Hunting that man-thing over and over again before he killed her last two daughters.
Tracking him to the chapel but getting stabbed with the dagger.
Then...dying.
"He killed me... I know he did, but then..." She looked at her hands. "How am I alive?" Alcina wondered as she tried to find an answer. Sudden movement at her right made her eyes dart and widen - instant tears filled them.
"My head...What happened?" the young girl asked.
"BELA!" Alcina said as she scurried to her daughter and engulfed in her a hug; surprising the girl who returned the hug.
"M...Mother?" Bela asked as she looked into Alcina's golden eyes.
"I'm here, little one; Momma's here now." Alcina said as she held her daughter more.
Bela looked behind her mother and her eyes widened.
"Mother - Cassandra and Daniela!" Bela said making Alcina look behind her to see her middle child and youngest also wake up. Alcina and Bela gathered the other two in hugs and all of them hugged and cried for at least 30 minutes before rising to their feet.
"I don't get it." Daniela began. "That man-thing killed us. How are we here?" She asked.
"Dani's right - I remember dying." Bela said.
"Then I ended up dying trying to avenge Bela." Cassandra said.
"And I died the library when that man-thing got the Iron Key." Daniela finished.
"That accursed man-thing stabbed me the Dagger of Deaths Flowers and managed to defeat my dragon form. How are we all here? Did Mother Miranda bring us back to life?" Alcina asked.
"I'm afraid Miranda had nothing to do with this - she can't do anything now that she's dead." A male voice called out. The women looked at the top of the stairs leading to the foyer and saw a figure dressed in a cloak with his face covered - only having the lower part of his chin showing.
"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my castle?!" Alcina demanded as she called forth her dragon's claws.
Broken Truth: That's what I like to call them. The whole 'A Rat can't escape the dragon's claw' was one of my favorite lines in the game; along with 'CASSANDRA!'.
"Calm yourself, Lady Dimitrescu." the male said as he raised his hand to silence her but that only made her angrier.
"You don't tell me what to do in my own castle, you stupid man-thing!" Alcina snarled.
"Geez and here I thought you would be grateful to the one who brought you and your daughters back to life." That made all their eyes widen.
"You brought us back?" Bela asked.
"Wait - why would you do that? Where're the other lords? Where's Mother Miranda?!" Alcina demanded to know.
"As I have said before - Miranda and the other lords are dead, just as the mutamycete no longer exists. Ethan Winters killed you, your daughters, and all the lords before taking out Miranda and destroyed the mutamycete before taking back that which was his." The man said from his place at the top of the stairs.
"That's impossible... All of our hard work - undone by a stupid male?!" Alcina snarled. "That doesn't explain why you brought me and my daughters back to life." Alcina said.
"Let's say - I was bringing back that which was once mine." The man said as he slowly started his way down the stairs. "A long time ago - I took up residence in this place as a loyal servant and became something more but short-minded humans came here to destroy you and those you held dear but I refused to let that happen and to save 4..." the male stopped at the bottom of the stairs and pulled the hood off - revealing his face: short brown hair, with emerald green eyes, and a familiar scar across his face. "I threw myself on the blade to keep my loved ones safe." He smiled at the wide eyes on the daughters' faces, as well as the tears that began to build in the dragon's eyes. He held his arms open in a welcoming manner. "I've returned to you, my family."
"FATHER/PAPA/DADDY!!!" The shouts of the daughters rung out as they ran into the male's arms, who held them as if they were something precious.
"It's okay, girls. I'm here now."
"I don't understand..." Alcina said as she tried to hold back her tears. "I saw you die - you threw yourself on the sword to save me from getting killed." Alcina said as she walked over to the group.
"I've been reborn since the time I lost you - while in this body, I attended a school and learned about dragons; that reminded me of you, awoke the memories of my past life and my bond to you. I was determined to return to you but I knew I had to become more so I trained myself in the arts of magic. It was a good thing too - when I learned about what happened, I had the skills to return that which I lost back to the world of the living." He explained.
Alcina looked into his eyes - those eyes darker than the tree's leaves during summer - the last time she saw them, they were as dull as sandstone but they were before her again.
He was here.
He was with her again.
And he gave back what she lost.
"MY LOVE!" Alcina fell to her knees and hugged the man and her daughters in one hug. She didn't want to let go of him; scared that this was all a dream and she was never going to see him again, that all of this would fade away and she would be back in the nothingness again.
"Shh...It's okay, Alci." He said as he began to wrap his arms around her neck to hug her for the first time in centuries. "I'm here, My Dragoness, and I shall not leave you or our daughters again." And this time - he was intending on keeping that promise.
Translation
"Din amurg până în zori. Din carne, sânge și os. Din aceste fragmente fragile, poruncesc - întoarce-te la care ai fost odată și mergi din nou pe acest pământ." - From dusk until dawn. From flesh, blood, and bone. From these fragile fragments, I command - return to which you once were and walk this earth again.
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Spooky prompt: avengers pumpkin carving contest
LISA HI! Omg- this one turned into feelings. I was originally going to write it to be a silly, crack type fic but then... my brain decided feelings had to be had. So here is some Bucky and Clint (with the team) goodness, and I hope you enjoy. (1689 word count)
If y'all want to send me spooky season themed prompts, I'm still open to doing them. =)
“Going to join in?” Clint asked Bucky, tilting his head over to the layers of plastic wrap on the floor constructed in a large circle, pumpkins all around.
“I… don’t know,” Bucky answered honestly.
“I’ll save you a spot, just in case,” Clint said with a wink before he walked over to the group that was assembling. Clint placed his forearm and elbow on Bruce’s shoulder, looking at the scientist and smiling.
“You know… it might not be a bad thing if you tried,” Steve pointed out. Bucky nearly jumped, not expecting Steve so close. “If you want, you can help me with my pumpkin.”
“I think I should sit this one out,” Bucky said.
He knew Steve wouldn’t push. None of them would. It was only a few months since Bucky had started his stay at the Tower and there were just some things he wasn’t ready to do just yet. Going out on Avenger mission, training with them- even holding knives could make him start to panic a little, worry that something, somewhere, deep within him would come back out. He couldn’t shake the idea that the Soldier sometimes had more control than Bucky did, and it was terrifying.
“Let me know if you change your mind,” Steve said, patting his shoulder before he walked by. “Alright guys- ready?” he asked. “FRIDAY, are you taping this?” Steve asked.
“Of course, Captain,” the AI system said.
“Alright guys, Rules for the annual Avengers pumpkin carving contest. You may only use the tools in front of you. No additional knives, no lasers- nothing.” Bucky was pretty sure Tony pouted. “We have one hour to recreate the pumpkin that auto generates on the screen. Whoever wins gets the entire month of November off from training. All agreed?”
“Agreed,” was the common response.
“Alright then. FRIDAY, the count down please,” Steve said.
A handful of months and slowly Bucky was learning about the people who stayed in the Tower nearly full time. He knew who he could go to when he needed to get his mind off of things, and who he could sit with when he just needed some quiet time. He knew who was up for the most fun, and who would really rather be alone themselves without someone nearby. But it seemed like no matter how they liked to live their lives, everyone came together for these monthly “family night” events and would just… breathe. They would all find enjoyment out of each other’s quirks and sometimes those moments transcended into their daily lives.
Still- Bucky wasn’t ready to be fully involved yet. He was still working out if he felt like he deserved it, which was harder when Tony became visibly worried of Bucky’s presence in the room, especially if he was around knives. And while Bucky knew he couldn’t take the blame for things he didn’t have control over, that didn’t mean he couldn’t take the emotions from it and hold them close.
He walked around the room and watched as everyone worked on their pumpkins. He was beginning to see who were the artistic types and who wasn’t solely based on how well their Haunted Houses turned out. Natasha might not be the best artistically but she was by the far the best with wielding a knife, although Clint was a close second. Steve was arguably the best artistically, Sam fairly good himself, but neither of them could wield the tools in front of them quite like Clint and Natasha.
“Hey,” Clint said, looking up from his pumpkin with a smile.
“Hey. Having fun?” Bucky asked.
“Eh. It’s pumpkin carving,” Clint answered honestly. “Wanna sit?” he asked. Bucky couldn’t see the harm of sitting there, so he did. “Spooky season. How do you feel about it?”
“Well.. at one time in my life I would say that there wasn’t a point to it because monsters weren’t really,” Bucky answered. “Now… that’s a hard argument to make.”
“No joke,” Clint muttered.
“What about you?” Bucky asked.
“I love everything Halloween,” Clint answered. “Magic might not be my favorite thing, but I like everything else. Corn mazes, hayrides, pumpkin spiced everything.” He was leaning over, the back of his shirt riding up as he did so. “But growing up in the circus- you get to see Halloween every day. I used to hate it for the longest time because the season reminded me of my life before SHIELD and the Avengers. Now I can kind of separate the two and go back to loving the season again. Haunted houses and all.”
Bucky knew there was a point to this conversation. Clint didn’t open up about his life before SHIELD to anyone without there being a reason. So when Bucky didn’t answer, Clint looked over at him and held the smallest of the knives out to him. Bucky looked down at his hand, covered in chipped away pumpkin and tiny little scars before he looked back up.
“You can still hate what they put you through. But you get to decide how to move forward and what you get to love again. And maybe carving pumpkins can be one of those things,” Clint said. “Your choice though.”
Bucky nodded and took the tool out of Clint’s hand and pulled the pumpkin over between them. “Never carved one before,” he admitted. “At least not that I can remember.”
“That’s okay, my pumpkin looks like shit anyway,” Clint replied.
Bucky turned it around and snorted. “Did you even try to make this a haunted house?” Bucky asked, looking at the stars and the arrows Clint had etched into the pumpkin.
“Nah. Not with the shit food I eat all the time. I need that training in my life,” Clint answered with a grin. He scooted closer to Bucky and set the rest of the tools between them. “Your move, Barnes.”
The hour passed much too quickly before the fake air horn sounded. Bucky startled and looked at the others before he looked down at the pumpkin in front of him. Arrows and stars, a moon, planets, swirls- the pumpkin he shared with Clint looked like a mess of anything and everything they could think of. Bucky glanced up at Clint, who was all smiles, leaning over and talking to Sam, checking out his pumpkin and laughing. Bucky looked back at the pumpkin and the tools that were set between them.
“You alright?” Natasha asked.
Bucky looked over, Natasha leaned over his way in one of those rare moments she was willing to extend the olive branch, just a little. “Yeah- I’m alright,” Bucky admitted, finally setting that small tool Clint had handed over down. “I… think we might have lost the contest,” he admitted.
“If it makes you feel better… Steve always wins,” Natasha said before she leaned back and away.
Each pumpkin was turned around when Steve called out to them. Thor looked mighty proud of his attempt, which wasn’t half bad if it wasn’t for the fact that half of the house looked like it had toppled over due to a misplaced cut. Tony’s and Bruce’s looked almost exactly alike- both simple in form, but to the point- Bucky wondered if it was because they could look at blueprints and space things out easily. Natasha and Sam’s looked like completely failed attempts, just like Wanda and Vision’s attempt, but none of them seemed to care.
“Alright you two- how did it go?” Steve asked, looking at Clint and Bucky.
“Ta-da!” Clint said loudly, proud of their work as he turned the pumpkin around. “I am calling this one- friendship!”
“Wow. Masterful art piece. We should encase it,” Tony taunted with a smile. “It’s very early childhood-esque. It make you feel-”
“Ew, don’t museum me. That’s what Steve is for in real museums,” Clint scolded playfully.
“Did you even attempt a haunted house anywhere in that?” Sam asked with a grin.
“Who would do haunted houses when you can do arrows?” Clint asked. He sighed dreamily and let himself fall back, Bucky’s arm reaching out quickly to prevent him from hitting the ground. “I love arrows.”
“You’re a dork,” Natasha said through a laugh.
“Honestly- is anyone surprised by bird brain and Terminator’s pumpkin?” Tony asked. There was a small chorus of no. “Alright Steve-”
Bucky watched as the team argued and bickered about who’s pumpkin was best. Clint had leaned forward again, throwing himself into the conversation, grinning and laughing with the others. Bucky looked back down at the pumpkin that Clint and him made, still trying to figure out how he felt about it until he realized that this was the closest he had been to the team since coming along. That warm feeling started to push its way in as he realized for almost an hour he was lost in something other than his thoughts, and that he was part of this small community.
Looking up, Bucky caught Steve’s eyes on him before Steve smiled and looked down at the pumpkin. Bucky nodded and smiled himself before he glanced over at the person who helped make it happen. Clint stated how he needed the training because his diet was shit. Maybe Bucky should start going to the training sessions now- needing them to help him settle into this community. Maybe he was finally ready for it.
“Rigged! This contest is rigged! Clearly my pumpkin is the best!” Steve shouted.
“Sorry Stevie- the voting has concluded,” Clint said in a very serious tone. “Brucie has the best pumpkin.” Bruce’s face was starting to turn red and Natasha had leaned over, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.
“It's okay to lose sometimes, Stevie,” Tony taunted, reaching out to pick at Steve, who pushed his hands away.
“Collusion,” Steve muttered.
“Collusion,” Sam repeated in a high pitched tone, straightening up as he laughed, his hands over his stomach. The whole team was laughing now. Clint knocked over, pressing against Bucky’s side to keep himself upright. Bucky looked at him and smiled before he looked at Steve.
“Sorry Punk,” Bucky offered.
“Yeah yeah- it’s alright,” Steve said. “Happy Halloween, team.”
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you’d come back to me
chapter four: robotic
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Summary: Seto Kaiba has been presumed dead for four years after the events of Dark Side of Dimensions. His return causes both unresolved feelings of grief to be brought to the surface and the past to be dragged right back up. In hopes of helping Seto move on and reintegrate back into society at large, Mokuba asks Yugi to work on Spherium II with Seto. Never one to leave a friend hanging, Yugi agrees. Over the course of the project, Seto and Yugi both come to terms with their mutual grief and grow towards a better understanding of each other.
Rating: T
Ships: Yugi Mutou/Seto Kaiba, Mokuba Kaiba/Rebecca Hopkins, Katusya Jonouchi/Mai Kujaku
Warnings: aged up characters, grief, references to suicide
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Despite Reiki’s insistence on continued meetings, Seto had been cleared to go back to work for part time hours. He was certain full time hours were being dangled like a carrot in front of him to make sure he kept going to therapy. Despite this annoyance, he was given the chance to escape Rebecca’s general judgemental stares. It seemed like she was purposefully studying at the dining table just to glare at him. As a bonus, he was able to dodge Pegasus’s phone calls.
He wanted to look at his old projects. Maybe now he could finally objectively examine the AI he’d been working on rather than being so…. What was the word he was looking for? It didn’t matter. Seto had other concerns on his mind. He went back to the room that housed the AI, frowning as he realized the setting seemed to appear different. It was so much more golden now. The false stained glass had a more natural light streaming in from it. And he was surprised when the AI entered. The Pharaoh no longer looked as he did when he possessed Yugi.
Instead, he was regal as he had appeared when Seto met him in his court. He might not have been that tall but he was still imposing nonetheless. Seto’s eyes were drawn to the Pharaoh’s arms, where there was smooth dark skin over taunt muscle. The familiar ache pressed in his chest upon seeing him. He forced himself to look at the Pharaoh’s face. The Pharaoh had an easy going smile on his face, tilting his head slightly. “Been a while, Kaiba,” the Pharaoh stated, a smug look on his face. “Couldn’t stay away from me, could you?”
Seto was a little surprised but figured that it only made sense. He had no frame of reference for how the Pharaoh actually looked in life when he’d last Dueled this AI. Now he knew how the Pharaoh actually looked and the system must have updated with his memories accordingly. This was, after all, as designed. It was supposed to be as close to an actual living person as technology could get.
“You say that as if you can sense the passage of time,” Kaiba remarked, a frown on his face. Could the AI sense the passage of time? Was he better than he thought? Seto nearly rolled his eyes at himself - of course he was that good. At least Seto was being reminded from the jump that he was good at what he did. “Are we going to Duel?”
The Pharaoh smirked and Seto tried to ignore the odd feeling in the pit of his stomach that gave him. “Impertinent as always, Kaiba,” he said as he activated the Duel Disk on his arm. “I’ll let you start first. Give you a fighting chance.”
A surge went through Seto as he activated the virtual system. Still operating smooth enough though he knew it could be better. Almost anything he created could be better. “Fine by me,” he said as he examined his starting hand. Could also be better. He’d need to reexamine his Deck again. There was an option, though. “I’m activating Cards of Consonance, discarding The White Stone of Legend from my hand to draw two new cards. I’m going to end my turn by summoning Maiden with Eyes of Blue! Make your move, Pharaoh.”
“You know,” the Pharaoh said as he drew a card from his deck. “I like your move so much, I think I’ll copy it. I activate Pot of Greed!”
Kaiba raised a brow. “That card’s banned,” he muttered to himself. Was the AI malfunctioning? Or had the banlist changed while he was gone? Perhaps he should give his programming the benefit of the doubt. After all, Seto’s programming tended to be perfect. He should probably simply reexamine the banlist again. “What are you playing at?”
“You’ll see. I’m also activating Terraforming and using it to put Chicken Game in my hand,” the Pharaoh noted and once again, Kaiba was confused. Another banned card? The AI wasn’t supposed to be able to have banned cards in his deck, so Seto decided that he must take another look at the banlist. “I’m activating the effect of Chicken Game, paying 1000 life points to draw a card.” He looked at the card and smirked. “And now I activate One Day of Peace. We both draw.”
“Fine,” Kaiba said, annoyed. One Day of Peace would prevent him from doing any damage to the Pharaoh the next turn. “Can you hurry up, already?”
“Patience is a virtue, Kaiba,” the Pharaoh teased. Seto instantly froze at the sly smirk and raised brow on the Pharaoh’s face. He was certain that he didn’t remember the Pharaoh being this capable of melting him that quickly. Any retort he had died on his tongue. “I’m summoning Witch of the Black Forest and equipping her with Wonder Wand! Now I activate Wonder Wand’s effect, destroying both her and the equipped card, allowing me to draw two cards. Not only that, Witch’s effect activates, allowing me to search a card out from my deck.” He then raised a brow. “And I have bad news, Kaiba. I’ve won.”
“What,” was all Kaiba could get out. “That’s not possible. You just… oh… oh no.”
“You realize what’s happened, don’t you,” the Pharaoh said as he set the five pieces of Exodia right onto his Duel Disk. Exodia the Forbidden One. How the hell did that happen? Kaiba tried to go over the moves in his head before realizing just how obvious what he was doing was. “Exodo Hell Flame!”
Seto’s entire mind was reeling. Surely this was just based on his memories of the Pharaoh doing this exact move to him during their first duel. Yet… no. It was just an improved version of the Exodia stall that he’d done to him already. Surely he was just thinking about it and the program reacted accordingly, even providing the updated strategy. Why was he so uncomfortable now? “End program,” Kaiba shouted, unable to properly modulate his voice. He had to just calm down, right?
That was exactly it. He was overthinking this simply because the program had dredged up an old wound that never fully scarred over. If he could simply relax, then maybe he could come back again to practice properly tomorrow. Maybe he should look into getting a hotel room tonight and attempt to remotely access the code to make sure he was right about his assumptions. He didn’t want to see Rebecca’s judgemental face again - even less so when he was obsessing about something new.
Of course he’d run into Yugi trying to get out of Kaiba Corp. ‘Run into’ was a fairly apt description as he’d more or less crashed into Yugi. “Watch where you’re going,” Yugi snapped as he got up from the floor. Unfortunately for Seto, Yugi had his sleeves rolled up, revealing that he, indeed, had nice arms. “Are you just gonna stare at me like an idiot or are you going to get up?”
Must Yugi be so insulting? Surely he wasn’t staring at Yugi for that long. “You could have moved,” Kaiba retorted. “Why didn’t you move?”
“I was walking the hallway the way a normal person does,” Yugi said, still having to stare upwards to properly look Kaiba in the eyes. Sure, Yugi was no longer five foot even. Seto, however, was still six foot one and had a height advantage still. Seto was grateful for that. He didn’t know if he could have handled it if Yugi could look him right in the eye without craning his neck upwards. “You were the one who came running down the hallway like a madman. What are you in such a hurry for?”
“I’m not,” Seto said, unhappy that he was obviously blushing. He was, indeed, in a hurry to get out of here. He needed some alone time to think. “I just… have to go.”
Yugi tilted his head and Seto was a little annoyed at how similar it was to the Pharaoh’s head tilt. Must they both have such similar hair? Such similar features? It made it difficult to tell if the feelings Seto was having was simply because of how he’d felt for the Pharaoh or because of something uniquely Yugi.
“You just got here only a few hours ago,” Yugi said, as if trying to puzzle something out. Seto felt instantly exposed. “Why would you rush back home when you’d spent so long trying to even get these part time hours? You know, Mokuba seems to think you and Rebecca don’t get along. Is that not the case?”
Why was Mokuba telling Yugi about how he and Rebecca were getting along? Why would Yugi care? It was none of his business. “It’s none of your business,” Seto snapped. “You shouldn’t be poking in other people’s business.”
“It’s my business if my friend’s girlfriend and my friend’s brother aren’t getting along,” Yugi said, a vaguely amused look on his face. “You know, friends tend to care about things like that. Have you forgotten that Mokuba and I are friends?”
It took Seto awhile to realize that “my friend’s brother” referred to him. There had once been a point when Yugi would visit him when he was in the hospital. This time, Yugi had only visited once and it had been with Mokuba. Had Yugi given up on him? He didn’t know why that thought hurt. “No,” Seto said, clipped. “I hadn’t forgotten.”
“Then are you and Rebecca getting along?”
Seto paused. The truth of it was that Yugi was absolutely right - he and Rebecca were not getting along well. In fact, he’d been considering getting a hotel room for the longest time now. Unfortunately, he had to wait to get his credit cards reissued and a new ID. He’d gotten the new ID yesterday. It had felt strange to look at his passport and see that it claimed he was twenty-one. Time had passed for the rest of the world and stood still for him. Yugi and he were now years apart. Mokuba had grown up in his absence and was now eighteen. It tore him apart. It was unimportant.
“We’re getting along just fine,” Seto said. He wanted to ask why Yugi no longer considered them friends. He was scared of the answer. “Are you done prying?”
Why were Yugi’s eyes like that? He swore that the depth of them might drown him. He swore Yugi knew more than he ever let on. “Suppose I am,” Yugi said. Seto tried to avoid noting the shape of Yugi’s lips when they formed words. He wondered if Yugi was still as good at Dueling as he was four years ago. “You should tell Mokuba you’re leaving early.”
He couldn’t get out of the building fast enough. Maybe it was weird to show up at a hotel and demand a room for the night without any luggage but Seto couldn’t find it in him to care about the optics. The room they’d given him had a single bed and was as empty as any hotel might be. He threw himself onto the bed, looking up at the plain ceiling as the thoughts swirled through his head. He couldn’t stop thinking about the AI taking on the proper form of the Pharaoh and it was an uncomfortable thought. He thought about the thoughts he never tried to think about. The ones that entered his head when he was all alone with no buffers.
Seto hated that these thoughts still had control over him. He refused to let them hold him. He wouldn’t let them hold him. And yet… he couldn’t help but go right back to the thoughts of the Pharaoh’s arms… wondering how his hands might feel on him. A weakness he might never be able to get rid of. He was alarmed when the fantasy managed to warp as the memory of Yugi’s sharp, all knowing eyes came back up. Yugi, who could always see right through him. He didn’t care. He wouldn’t care. Why didn’t Yugi consider them friends anymore? At one point, Yugi had been so insistent on shoving friendship upon Seto. So insistent that they were friends regardless of Seto’s objections.
Now he ached for what he didn’t realize he’d miss. Had he lost out on any chance of fixing that relationship? All he knew was that he desperately needed a cold shower right now.
“Kaiba left early,” Yugi said as he entered Mokuba’s office, tossing the new proposal for Spherium II onto the young CEO’s desk. Mokuba actually looked a little tired. He wondered if the stress was finally getting to Mokuba. “I got the new proposal done, by the way.”
Mokuba glanced up from his computer. “I guess he didn’t appreciate the adjustments you made to the AI’s deck,” Mokuba remarked. “I’ll take a look over the proposal. Did you decide on a new deck for the AI?”
“How did the AI work with the Exodia deck,” Yugi asked as he flopped right into one of the chairs Mokuba had for guests. He didn’t know how this office looked when Seto occupied it but Mokuba had touches of his personality all over the place. The glass cases were filled with hundreds of Capsule Monsters and the oak bookshelves had comic books which Mokuba had been collecting since he was a kid. The chairs were all the same - comfy and oversized. “If it can’t handle the Exodia deck, then we can’t start on more complex archetypes.”
“Seems it pulled off a first turn kill against Seto,” Mokuba said as he turned the monitor around so Yugi could see what was on it. A recording of Seto’s duel played and Yugi’s heart constricted as he noted that the AI now looked exactly as Atem did in life. He tried to ignore that as the AI immediately pulled through the draw combo, obtaining all five pieces in exactly one turn as Mokuba said. “What were you thinking for the next deck?”
Yugi grinned as he looked over at Mokuba. “There’s a few decks that I’m sure will keep Kaiba from noticing anything amiss for the next time he Duels the AI but… there’s one archetype in particular that I’m certain Kaiba will just love.”
Seto knew that he wasn’t making good choices right now but it seemed like every time he dueled the Pharaoh now, he was getting more familiar with the current cards. He found that the AI was rapidly improving in its ability to play other decks. This was something Seto was excited about. Something in his code was responding well to being given new decks to use. It was like Dueling an actual, living person that was capable of understanding card advantage and how to best use the cards in the deck.
Coupling this with the fact that Seto was still trying to get back into the swing of things, he had a perfect excuse for why he needed to keep Dueling the Pharaoh. After all, it’d been four years. He needed practice to get better at the game. If he ever hoped to return to the tournament circuit, this was what he needed to do. That was what he told himself, anyway.
He had a long list of excuses as to why this made perfect sense to do. Sure, kc_blimp had a lot of helpful insights as to what the new meta was but… as far as Seto was concerned, the best way to learn the new archetypes was to actually Duel them.
That was all there was to it. As usual, the Pharaoh was smirking when Kaiba entered the room. This time, however, the room was the palace throne room where Kaiba had challenged Atem. He’d long accepted that the room seemed to change. He made a mental note to examine the code later to see if he could make it more stable rather than randomizing locations from his memories.
“Kaiba,” the Pharaoh said with a slight nod, his earrings twinkling in the light and making quiet clacking noises against the gold on his neck. “I see you’re here for another beat down. You know, you’ve gotten worse at Dueling.”
“Shut up,” Seto said, his cheeks turning pink. It was hard to remain stoic when he knew that the Pharaoh had a point. He hadn’t managed to actually beat any of the modern control decks he’d given the Pharaoh. In this new meta, he discovered aggressiveness was indeed better but the Pharaoh was prepared for this strategy. This was actually useful, however. The Pharaoh was, after all, the best Duelist Kaiba had ever known. It pushed Kaiba to do better each time and sometimes, he got close. Close enough where he knew the fault had been that he’d misplayed his hand. “Maybe if I go first this time..”
“You’ve tried going first already,” the Pharaoh reminded him, raising a brow as he activated his Duel Disk. “Are you ever going to give up?”
Of course not. Seto was nothing if not stubborn. He had a plan this time, however. He’d recently added Call of the Haunted to his deck, a card that had been at the suggestion of kc_blimp for a beatdown deck. And yet, when he drew his first hand, he knew this was going to be an uphill battle. He remembered that kc_blimp said that if he couldn’t summon any monsters on turn one, he'd basically already lost against a turn two deck. Kaiba already had experience with that kind of humiliating defeat against the Pharaoh already. “I set a card,” Kaiba said, well aware it wouldn’t be enough to set a trap. He needed a chance to summon. “I end my turn.”
“Is that really all you have, Kaiba? I expect better of you,” the Pharaoh said with a jovial smile that made Seto’s heart skip a beat. He reminded himself that this was just a Duel with no deeper meaning to it. “In that case, I’m going to set a card. I’ll activate this card, Dragonmaid Welcome. With it, all my Dragonmaid monsters gain 100 attack and defense for each one I control. That’s not all it does but, well, that’s all you need to know for now. Next I summon Laundry Dragonmaid!”
Kaiba had never heard of any of these cards before. He didn’t recall giving this deck to the Pharaoh but he must have. He was surprised when Laundry Dragonmaid was… a girl with dragon features in a purple outfit. He assumed that she might’ve been considered attractive to someone that happened to like girls. In fact, he noted a lot of the newer decks featured girls that Seto assumed were meant to be attractive. She giggled and winked at Kaiba. He recoiled.
“Is that all,” Kaiba asked, surprised to note that the boost only gave her a 600 attack and that she was a level two monster.
“Oh Kaiba, you know better than to assume that’s all there is to my turn! Her effect activates, sending the top three cards from my deck to my graveyard,” the Pharaoh remarked and discarding the top three cards from his deck.
Was milling part of the Dragonmaid strategy? He remembered kc_blimp stating Lightsworn and Twilightsworn heavily relied on milling and that many newer decks had floating graveyard effects similar to cards he’d used in the past. “Next I’m discarding Dragonmaid Tinkhec to activate her effect and give Laundry Dragonmaid an additional 2000 attack! Now, she’ll attack you directly!”
Laundry Dragonmaid’s gleeful demeanor was perhaps the worst part of the direct attack. It hurt and she laughed as she managed to dig her claws deep into Seto. “So you got a new dragon girlfriend,” Seto hissed as he doubled over, holding his chest while his life points went from 8000 to 5400. He wasn’t doing great and he was livid that part of it was simply because of a poor starting hand. He needed to further examine his deck to see how to best avoid this in the future. “Am I supposed to be jealous?”
“Interesting takeaway,” the Pharaoh noted with a grin and a wink at him that sent a flutter in Kaiba’s chest. He hated that even now, the Pharaoh continued to have an effect on him. “Last I checked, she was definitely flirting with you. I end my turn, by the way.”
Seto growled as he drew a card, examining it. Protector with Eyes of Blue. “Fine,” he said. Laundry Dragonmaid blew him a kiss. Once again, he was irked. Maiden with Eyes of Blue was never this unprofessional. It took him a moment to realize he was berating the behavior hologram of a trading card. Who programmed these Dragonmaid cards? Did they all act like this? He made a mental note to look into who programmed them and have them fired.
“By the way, I’m activating my continuous trap, Dragonmaid Downtime,” the Pharaoh remarked casually, as if asking what Seto planned on having for lunch. “With it, I can bounce your cards back to your hand by simply bouncing my own back to my hand. I’ll return Laundry Dragonmaid and bounce your set card.”
It was then he was reminded of another thing kc_blimp said about most traps carrying floating graveyard effects, thus the desire to avoid actually destroying them. In the same message, kc_blimp also claimed that people should not expect to be able to activate traps on their turn. That it was apparently too slow of a strategy to work and Seto was starting to see why. His card returned to hand and he had no hope of activating it this turn.
“Fine,” Seto said again, noting that Protector’s effect might actually be useful… if he had another Light Tuner or a Blue Eyes White Dragon in his hand. It did, however, have more attack points than the Pharaoh’s Dragonmaid. “I’m summoning Protector with Eyes of Blue to the field!”
The Pharaoh raised a brow, a sly smirk on his face. “Nice card,” the Pharaoh teased. “I would think that your type would be a little more dragon and a little less knight, however.”
“Shut up,” Seto said reflexively, knowing that he shouldn’t attack because he didn’t know the full effects of either continuous card on the field. For all he knew, they could stop him from attacking directly. At the moment, Seto didn’t care. He was flustered and angry. “I’m attacking directly!” To his great surprise, Protector’s direct attack landed, dropping the Pharaoh from 8000 to 7200 life points. Seto gave a light ‘tch’. “Surprised you let me do that.”
Of course the Pharaoh hadn’t even flinched from the attack. He merely shrugged. “I thought I would even the playing field a bit.”
“Whatever you say, Pharaoh,” Seto huffed, unsure what the Pharaoh had planned next. This archetype was unfamiliar to Seto and he still was trying to figure out how the effects synergized without knowing the rest of the decklist. He needed to figure out the win condition of this deck. “I end my turn.”
“My turn, then.” The Pharaoh drew a card, a raised brow appearing on his face. “I’m afraid you’ve been playing right into my hands, Kaiba. I’m discarding Dragonmaid Ernus to activate her effect, allowing me to special summon Laundry Dragonmaid back to the field, leaving me a normal summon! Say hello to Nurse Dragonmaid!”
This time, a low level girl with dragon features in pink appeared, giggling and leaning over to whisper something to Laundry Dragonmaid. Both of them had 800 attack, meaning neither of them could destroy Protector with Eyes of Blue without destroying themselves. What was the Pharaoh playing at? Suddenly, Nurse Dragonmaid winked at Kaiba as Laundry Dragonmaid laughed. “I still have the upper hand,” Kaiba responded, clipped. “You’d have to crash one of your monsters to get my life points and that would reduce the other’s attack by 100.”
Both Dragonmaids looked offended by this statement of fact. “Looks can be deceiving, Kaiba,” the Pharaoh responded. “I’m entering my Battle Phase and that causes Laundry Dragonmaid’s effect to activate, special summoning Dragonmaid Nudyarl! Now Dragonmaid Downtime activates, bouncing Nurse Dragonmaid back to my hand and sending your set card back to your hand!”
Kaiba was surprised as he watched Laundry Dragonmaid transform before his eyes into the massive purple dragon, swirling in front with a snarl. Nurse Dragonmaid gave a cheek wave as she dissolved and Kaiba’s set card once again bounced back to his hand. So much for battle traps, Seto thought acidly. The dragon’s stats were good - a level seven with 2700 attack that could easily destroy his monster. “I see,” Seto said. It seemed that the girls themselves were not there for attack but instead to bring out these new monsters. “Clever.”
“Nudyar, attack Protector with Eyes of Blue,” the Pharaoh said. Instantly, Nudyar’s mouth opened, a stream of water washed away Protector and destroyed him. Kaiba gave a soft ‘tch’ as his life points drained down from 5400 to 3500. He was already calculating in his head what he would need to do to counter something like this. “That ends my turn.”
Kaiba drew and was semi grateful for what he grabbed. “I activate Cards of Consonance to discard the White Stone of Legend,” Kaiba said as he started thinking about the best way to handle what the Pharaoh had out. “That allows me to draw two. And because I discarded the White Stone of Legend, I can add a Blue Eyes White Dragon to my hand. Next, I summon Maiden with Eyes of Blue!”
Maiden appeared, flipping her long white hair over her shoulder and glaring down the massive dragon in front of her. As per usual, she was strictly professional. “You really like your Blue Eyes cards, don’t you,” the Pharaoh remarked, a raised brow. “Just like Priest Set did, actually.”
Seto’s blood went ice cold at the mention of Priest Set. He’d met some of the Priests when he’d journeyed to the afterlife and yet… he still felt a disconnect from the reality of the Pharaoh’s existence. It meant that magic was real. He pushed it aside again. “Whatever,” he responded as he set Call of the Haunted and Rage with Eyes of Blue. Perhaps he might stand a chance. “I set two cards and end my turn.”
“My turn! I resummon Nurse Dragonmaid. And now I activate Dragonmaid Welcome to add Parlor Dragonmaid to my hand. Next I’m discarding Dragonmaid Lorpar to negate Maiden,” the Pharaoh remarked and instantly Seto internally swore.
“You targeted Maiden,” Seto said, well aware that Rage with Eyes of Blue cannot activate now. “Her effect activates, summoning Blue Eyes White Dragon to the field.”
The familiar look of the white glow filled the field from Maiden and Blue Eyes White Dragon came out onto the field, snarling at the Pharaoh. “Ah,” the Pharaoh remarked, a raised brow. “In that case, I’m entering the battle phase, activating Nurse Dragonmaid’s effect to special summon Dragonmaid Enrus! And now I discard Dragonmaid Tinkhec to boost Ernus!”
Dragonmaid Ernus was a dragon of a similar shape to Dragonmaid Nudyarl and unfortunately, when boosted, she now had 4800 attack - more than enough to end the duel. At least now he understood the win condition of the Dragonmaid archetype. Seto closed his eyes, and whispered, “Of course.”
“Enrus attacks Blue Eyes White Dragon,” the Pharaoh said and Seto refused to watch as his Blue Eyes White Dragon was destroyed. Even if he activated Call of the Haunted, it wouldn’t matter. Maiden had 0 attack points and her effect was a hard once per a turn. The effect had been used up and now she was defenseless. Seto had no way of redirecting the attack. “And now Nudyral destroys Maiden!”
“End program,” Seto said quietly as his life points hit 0. When he opened his eyes, he was standing in an empty room and left with only thoughts of how to best rearrange his deck. Focusing on that helped as he turned and walked out.
#rivalshipping#rivalshipping fanfiction#dm rivalshipping#duel monsters rivalshipping#dm rivalshipping fanfiction#myfanfic#fic: you'd come back to me
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what are your thoughts on nao as a character?
Anon, I'm delighted that you asked me about Nao! I've wanted to write something about Nao for the longest time, but it's hard to find the words. The thing is, I love Nao so much!! She is a character who hits close to home for me. I feel like I knew lots of Naos growing up, and I'm a bit like Nao myself. The people I grew closest to in school were the shy artist kids. If I were in the Death Game, I hope I would be brave like Reko, but...then I see Nao, and I see the more vulnerable parts of myself reflected back at me.
I think Nao is difficult for me to analyze because she has no filter. I’m more guarded with my feelings, even when I’m frightened of the world. You could call Nao crazy or hysterical, but the problem isn't with Nao; the problem is with the Death Game. We could even say that Nao is the only one reacting properly to being trapped in a Death Game. Isn't this the perfect time to panic?
When I first saw Nao, I immediately assumed that she would die. Out of all the characters, I was most certain that Nao would not survive. Sure, she might get to be comic relief for a while, but I couldn't imagine her being anything more than that. A punchline. An easy target.
Imagine my surprise when Nao became much more than that! "Nao is a strong person," Sara says near the beginning of Chapter 2. Sara admires Nao's maturity in being able to process her grief for her beloved teacher. She contrasts this with her own inability to get over Joe. I thought that was an astounding moment, for our brave protagonist to praise the young woman consistently derided in the narrative as weak. It meant a lot to me that Sara would look up to someone like Nao, when Nao is fully aware of her own weaknesses. But Nao is braver than she knows, and Sara readily points that out to the player.
While Nao always wears her heart on her sleeve, she also makes a serious effort to be a useful team member. She wants to be helpful. She cares about her companions and thinks of them as her friends, especially Reko and Sara. One of the bravest decisions Nao makes is to kill Fake Reko so that Sara won't have to carry that awful burden by herself. It was a painful decision, but it was the only way she could save either Gin or the real Reko. No matter what Sara chooses, Nao is there to take responsibility in the end. Nao is a good friend.
Nao shows us how far she's grown when she secretly teams up with Shin to defeat the Rogue Mishima AI. It was a risky plan but they pulled it off. And it's a fantastic reversal of how Nao was pitted against Shin with the frying pan in Chapter 1. Nobody is using her now; Nao has agency and she's using it however she wants! For Nao to trust in Shin shows that she believes in people's capacity for change, which is an admirable quality. Additionally, she is able to inspire others to believe in Shin as well, which was integral to the escape plan--a plan that nearly worked.
It's easy for me to draw parallels between Nao and Shin, since they are both deeply emotional people. However, Shin hides those emotions and refuses to trust in people, while Nao embraces her emotions and tries to trust in everyone. It wasn't an easy path for either of them. But they were able to find a balance in their hearts for a short time when they formed an alliance. They were both growing as stronger people, more open-hearted yet wiser.
But growth isn't always linear. By this time, I was enthralled by Nao's character development and I had started to believe that she would survive. So the reveal that she was going to die anyway devastated me. Even though Nao had worked so hard to be a braver person, receiving the Sacrifice Card shook her to the core and made her feel weak again. In her weakest moment, Nao asks Sara to leave the others to die and escape with her. While completely understandable, the narrative contrasts Nao's selfish request with the selfless requests of both Shin and Kanna. Nao is here to remind us that humans are often weak-hearted. It’s hard to be brave.
If Sara takes Nao's hand, then Nao once again insists on taking responsibility herself, just like she did with killing Fake Reko. I think Nao's insistence on taking responsibility isn't simply bravery; it also reflects her low self-esteem. Nao doesn't want a worthy person like Sara to suffer from guilt, but Nao doesn't view herself as a worthy person.
If Sara refuses Nao, then Nao feels a burden lifted from her shoulders since she avoided hurting anyone else. However, she spends her final moments screaming that she doesn't want to die. Out of everyone, Nao's death breaks my heart the most. Other characters die with dignity or heroics. Nao has neither. She was just a shy art student who wanted to live. It didn't matter how much she grew when the game was always rigged against her.
Nao is a character who means a lot to me. I love her weak heart because it's deeply human, but that makes her brave moments that much more meaningful. I wish that she had lived, but her death was a pivotal moment in the narrative for me. I had gone from assuming this character would die to being shocked that she could die. Even though her fate was tragic, I'm grateful to Nankidai for creating her.
#yttd#your turn to die#kimi ga shine#your turn to die spoilers#nao egokoro#mine#meta#asks#sou and nao
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Pieces
My Masterlist
Part four to Cracking a Code; Previous Part
Pairing: dark!Steve Rogers x Reader (fem)
Warnings: Swearing, gaslighting, stalking, aftermath of noncon, noncon touching
Summary: The next day can’t be real, can it? Or where y/n goes into work and gets hit by a strong sense of deja vu.
Word count: 2k
A/n: I’m so sorry that this a) took so long and b) has so much plot not much else, but well I promise it’ll get creepier next chapter!
~*~
The next morning you woke before your alarm clock, which was good because it gave you time for the world’s longest and most thorough shower.
And was also terrible because you woke up and it was still real.
It happened.
The intensity with which you scrubbed down your body was straight out unhealthy and you only stopped when you realized how close you were to breaking skin. He’d hurt you, but you wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of hurting yourself over him. You were hurting enough as it was.
While that mindset stayed with you, you were also shaking the entire time it took you to put on clothes and get to the office. Leaving your apartment was harder than you had ever imagined it being. For the first time in your life, you could understand those people you sometimes saw on the television, who hadn’t left their homes in years. You’d give anything for a reprive of having to live what was now your daily life. You knew it wouldn’t end and hiding in your apartment sounded oh-so-appealing, if – in your case – completely useless.
You used the short elevator ride down to your apartment lobby for some breathing exercises, put on a smile for your doorman, and in front of the double doors leading out into the Brooklyn sunshine you froze.
You knew Steve wouldn’t be there to follow you around. No, he wouldn’t stoop that low. But then again, he didn’t have to. You were terrified as his words rang in your ears: Good thing I had Buck accompanying you home. As you stared out into the busy street before you, you knew without a doubt, in your heart, that Bucky Barnes, the fucking Winter Soldier, was out there waiting for you. Watching you. Never leaving you. You were fucked. There was no running away.
“Miss? Are you alright?” You turned your head to the porter approaching you from behind his desk where he kept guard over his proverbial sheep, unknowing that you’d been torn by the wolf already.
You forced a smile: “Yes, thank you, uh, “ your eyes flew to his name tag, “George. Work has been keeping me so busy lately I’m turning into the weird professor guy from the movies!” you laughed and George chuckled but eyed you worriedly. “I’ll see you later, Miss. Please take it easy at work today. Tell Mr. Stark to cut you some slack!” You smiled and nodded at him: “Will do. See you tonight” and with that, you pushed through the doors and the pit in your stomach. Out into the bustling life of New York City.
You didn’t look behind you as you briskly walked down the street to the subway, but you could feel Bucky’s eyes on you like the fog creeping in in early October. It was an all-consuming feeling, creeping in from the sea to swallow you whole.
But you kept your head up high. You weren’t a stranger to being afraid, to being bullied. You had been the smartest student in every class you had ever taken and men didn’t appreciate being beaten by a woman. You hadn’t backed down when you were a kid, you wouldn’t bow down now, not to Captain America and most certainly not to the Winter Soldier! You knew you were putting up a façade but if you didn’t you wouldn’t have made it out of bed this morning, maybe never have left it again, but that wasn’t you.
‘Oh yes, the times are changing and those boys better get with the program’, you thought grimly as you stepped into a subway car and crossed your arms, staring at the open doors, waiting for your shadow to make an appearance.
Bucky entered through the doors to your left. You almost missed him, but now that you knew you weren’t looking for blond and beefy but brunette and murdery it was a lot harder for him to play invisible. He was good, but you were better.
But by God was he confused when you approached him. “Good morning, Mr. Barnes. I don’t know what Steve told you about me, or what your involvement in all of this is, but here is what I am telling you: Fuck off. I don’t want to see you or him again, so make sure he gets the message?”
Before Bucky could reply you moved away from him and slumped down in between two elderly ladies, the perfect shield from anyone getting close to you. Even Bucky knew not to harass a woman in front of two NYC ladies. They’d beat him to death with their shopping bags. You smirked at the mental image you had created in your mind, escaping reality even if getting away was only temporary.
Once you were sitting, the pain you had ignored so diligently came back with force. Your lower half was cramping and sore and you wanted to cry from the pain of it, but no, not while Bucky was there. Not ever again, while any man could see. ‘When had you turned to hate men for what one had to you?’ you wondered.
Bucky disappeared one stop before the tower and you were relieved that he seemingly had realized how dead-serious you were.
The second you entered the tower, you were utterly, abnormally calm and finally stopped shaking. You didn’t have a plan yet, but you knew you’d have to get away, away from this place and Steve and all the pain he’d caused you. After all, you could barely move without hurting.
You could go and teach at any university in the country. They’d love to have you. All you needed to figure out how to quit without seeming suspicious. That was going to be difficult because Tony knew you loved your job. But you couldn’t tell him the truth. No one would believe you if you told them the real reason and you had worked too hard to now be labeled as a crazy fangirl/stalker-lady. You huffed. If only they knew who the real stalker was.
You smiled at your secretary, thanked her for the coffee she had bought for you on her way to work. You squared your shoulders and open the door to your office ready to start your day.
When you entered your office you were hit with a strong sense of déjà vu, you started to shiver again and felt all color leave your face. You almost dropped your coffee.
Steve was in your office again. But luckily – blessedly even – so was Tony. What the actual fuck? You cursed in your mind but tried to smile. It didn’t work judging by Tony’s expression.
“Y/n, are you all right?” he asked while crossing the room towards you. “You don’t look too good.” Before Tony’s outstretched hand could touch you, you took half a step back. “I think I’m coming down with something. The flu, I guess,” you mumbled.
“Then why didn’t you stay home?” said a sincerely concerned voice – Steve’s. Sincerely concerned? No, it couldn’t be! Your creepy-man-radar must just be off, right?
“I… I… I promised Jarvis to teach him about the code. I forgot yesterday” you murmured turning to the super-soldier, whose brows were drawn up in concern and he was leaning forward, looking you over as if to check for injuries or signs of your alleged flu. ‘What was going on?’
“Is there anything I can do for you gentlemen?” you asked. Steve smiled at you at that. His smile was stunning. So… open and kind. And WHAT THE HELL??? No! His smile wasn’t kind! He was your rapist! Except that it was. There was no denying that. If your entire body hadn’t been hurting maybe you would’ve started talking yourself into the fantasy that yesterday hadn’t happened, but it did. But his smile was nothing like yesterday. His smile made you want to trust him.
“Well, y/n, I just wanted to congratulate you and Stevie here wanted to thank you for your speedy work. We were able to arrest 20 people yesterday because of the intel you decrypted.”
“Yeah? That’s great” you forced out and turned back to Tony, but your eyes kept straying to Steve.
“Were you working late again, Gaia?” Tony suddenly asked. Shit. Tony had been on your ass to get a life. “No, no, why?”
“Because you look, and please forgive me for being frank here, worn out and really sick. I told you to take better care of yourself. Work isn’t everything, you know?”
You were about to call Tony out on that, after all, he was famous for his work benders, but Steve never gave you the chance.
“Jarvis, when has Ms y/l/n left her office yesterday?” Once more he sounded concerned. ‘Oh, that bastard’ you thought. Steve knew - of course - that you’d lied to Tony. “At 9 p.m., Captain, 4 hours after her workday usually ends, Sir.”
You wanted to strangle the AI at that moment.
“Well Tony, if you don’t mind I will take y/n home, then. She obviously needs to rest and I need to head to Brooklyn anyways to meet with Bucky.” Steve sounded offended that you’ lied, so righteous.
“Yes you do that, champ” Tony agreed, absentmindedly, not noticing that Steve had no right knowing where you lived. “Say hi to Buckeroo for me, will ya?” Steve nodded and added “Tony, you can’t work your employees that hard. We talked about this.” His voice was imploring, and a little disgruntled. What was happening?
“Well with this one it isn’t my fault” Tony replied flippantly as he walked to the door. “Take care of yourself y/n, okay?”
“Tony, I’m fine. I’m an adult, I can decide if I am fit to work or not!” You wanted to sound assertive, but you were rather aware that you begged. Tony just smiled at you and grinned: “What the Captain says goes, young lady, trust me it’s for the best.” And with that, he’d left your office, leaving you alone with your tormentor.
You were done for. You knew it. Steve would now pounce on you and break you to pieces and… fuck. You were getting wet. Your brain knew that this was a self-defense mechanism to your body, but your heart felt ashamed. There was no denying that the sex had ended spectatcularly.
You jumped a mile when you felt a gentle hand on your shoulder, ripping you out of your thoughts. “y/n?” Steve’s voice was soft. “It’s time to go home, come on.”
“Don’t touch me” you replied, your voice hoarse with unshed tears.
“Don’t worry, I can’t catch the flu, you could even cough on me, doll.” Steve joked, as he took your coffee from you and placed it on your table. “Any aches, pains or other flu symptoms?” For the first time since Tony left you, you dared look into his face. He seemed so concerned that you couldn’t help yourself and nodded. “Yeah. “ You sounded defeated even in your own head. “Both.”
“It’s okay, angel. I’ll take you home and take care of you.” Steve wrapped his warm, strong arm around you and moved you out of your office. Everything started to blur together, as he called out to your secretary that you were sick and he was taking you home and he moved you into an elevator and finally maneuvered you into a car. You let him. You let yourself be manhandled. You still didn’t understand what was happening. Where was the man who had almost fucked you to pieces yesterday night? At the thought, more wetness gathered between your thighs and you blushed scarlet as Steve got into the driver’s seat next to you. If any of the rumors about his enhanced senses were true, he’d be able to smell you by now.
As Steve pulled into the crazy Manhatten traffic he said: ”Bucky told me about your little argument this morning” His voice was so soft it lulled you in even more, “and quite frankly darling, I don’t appreciate the language you used nor how unappreciative of my protection you are. I know this must all be difficult for you, but there will still have to be consequences for your behavior,” ‘he sounds like a well-meaning teacher’ you thought confused. “but for today, I think you earned yourself some aftercare for taking my cock so well yesterday.” You felt like you’d been hit by a truck. Steve still sounded absolutely casual, but you froze at the slight mention.
His right hand settled on your thigh. “Breathe, darling, deep breath. It’s gonna be alright. I’m gonna take care of you from now on out.”
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Wangxian + 45 (gift)
Five Times Wei Wuxian Was Hungry + Once When He Was Not
1
It was Wei Ying’s favorite spot to scrounge. The morning’s cook cut the vegetables carelessly-- there was always a good few mouthfuls to gnaw off the cabbage and radish ends, the onions and peppers. He remembered having roasted potatoes before, with his mother and father, but it was hard lighting fires. And as soon as things started smelling good, other people came, or dogs.
Raw potatoes though-- they were barely sweet, crisp, and grainy. He chewed them more for entertainment than because they filled him up. He’d gotten a good instinct for which mouthfuls went the longest ways. Some things stuck to the ribs.
Wei Ying curled up in a different hollow each night, a different rooftop or alley or meadow or tree, and ran his fingers over the curved ridges of his ribs. He counted them and thought of his mother teaching him arithmetic, moving little twigs and stones into place beside a fire.
2
“Dinner was delicious.”
Wei Wuxian managed not to flail off the roof. “Jiang Cheng, you’re so mean.” Past his brother’s ugly face, the moon was setting low over the wide, still ponds of Lotus Pier.
“Well, dumbass, don’t piss off mom next time.” Jiang Cheng scooted slowly down the roof tiles. One day, they would have this down to an art, play light-footed games of tag at midnight. One day, they would huddle on these same tiles and watch their parents bleed out, holding hands. Wei Wuxian dropped down onto the wooden pathway, reaching up a hand to help, which Jiang Cheng ignored. “I tried to sneak you out some bao, but First Uncle caught me.”
“So you do love me!” Wei Wuxian grinned at him, all of twelve and gangly with it.
Jiang Cheng shoved him. “If you starve to a skeleton, who will be around for me to beat at swords?”
“Who will be around to beat you, you mean--”
“Both of you!”
At the hiss, Wei Wuxian latched onto Jiang Cheng’s startled flail of his arm. The ponds past them were still, painted with moonlight and pockmarked with lotus.
Jiang Yanli waved at them from the open door of her room. “Come on, in here. You both tiptoe like elephants.”
“It’s Jiang Cheng,” Wei Wuxian explain, slipping into the room behind her. “I mean, he ate too much at dinner and now he’s going to bust through the floor into the lake.”
“Sit down, sit down,” Jiang Yanli said. “I’ve been waiting for hours, listening for you.”
“I was going to head down to town,” Wei Wuxian said.
“No need for that,” she said. She lifted the lid off a clay pot on her desk. Light pork flavor wafted up and Wei Wuxian’s stomach grumbled. He poked at it, betrayed.
“Have as much as you want,” Jiang Yanli said, reaching for the ladle. Her voice was soft, but it was always soft, even when they weren’t sitting in the dim light listening for creaks in the hallway.
“What about me?” Jiang Cheng demanded.
“You, too, A-Cheng,” she said. “If we run out, we’ll make a brave expedition to the kitchens to acquire more mission materiel.”
Her eyes sparkled even in the low lights. Wei Wuxian liked this so much better, the slyness in her eyes as she teased her brother, than the way she sat quiet in the daylight, peeling lotus seeds with shaking fingers, while her mother rose up like a bonfire.
There was a creak from the hallway. Wei Wuxian would have counted it for a mouse in the night, but Jiang Yanli’s head shot up. “That’s mother, coming to check up on me. Quick, both of you, out the window. Sorry, I-- quickly, now.”
That night, Wei Wuxian lay in bed with a still empty stomach-- an old feeling, a familiar one. He’d last til morning, easy, he knew that.
But this was unfamiliar, even now: his palms still felt the ghost of heat, of a warm bowl cradled in them, smuggled through the darkness and meant for him.
3
“Ai, Lan Zhan, you didn’t think to pack anything to eat? So thoughtless. Even those Qishan bao would be acceptable. I mean, I know I told Nie Huaisang they tasted burnt, but that was mostly lies. And if we’re stuck here much longer, I’d even eat that terrible bitter Gusu soup!”
Lan Zhan’s head was tipped back against the rough stone of the cave, eyes closed. Firelight played softly over the ridge of his jaw, the column of his neck. He didn’t respond to Wei Wuxian, not even to the bit about the soup.
Wei Wuxian sprawled where he could, trying to find a comfortable bit of ground while keeping an eye on Lan Zhan. “I ate every bowl I was given, when I was there,” he told Lan Zhan. “So I know what I’m talking about. Your clan doesn’t know how to eat. One day, I’ll take you to Lotus Pier, and you’ll see.”
4
At first the noise distracted him from the emptiness-- from the hunger, yes, but also from the quiet lack where his golden core once had been. It felt silent inside of him, that void under his belly, the way he hadn’t felt silent in years.
Spirits called for vengeance, for justice and fury, for freedom and power. Beneath the black cloud of that rage, there were quieter voices too-- asking for rest, for remembrance, for respite.
Beneath it all, though, he still had a body, however empty. He found water dripping down the cliff face. He dug up roots and caught rats. He lit fires to roast them. He figured that everything that could scare him already knew how to find him.
He remembered how it felt to wither, day by day. He watched his body shrink and hollow, familiar.
The spirits called for vengeance and he agreed. The spirits cried for justice and he promised it. His body begged for sustenance and he told it to wait. There were more important things.
5
Lil Apple reached out his neck, trying to snap his big ugly teeth at some greener grass growing off the path. “Ah, yeah, you hungry, you spoiled beast?” Wei Wuxian said, trying to tug him forward. “I gave you my last bit of melon this morning.”
Wei Wuxian managed to drag the donkey a few strides further before he gave up, sagging against a tree while Lil Apple waded out into greener pastures. He brayed again and Wei Wuxian hoped it was joy, but suspected it was something a little more vengeful.
“You’re lucky you can eat grass,” he called after him.
They’d left a town with a water spirit problem five days ago--well, a town that had previously had a water spirit problem. They’d given him a bag of apples, a stack of flatbread, and a big meal before he’d left. He rolled the memory over his tongue-- creamy eggplant and salted fish, spicy enough even to satisfy him.
It was days ago now, and that old familiar ache was curling under his heart. But there’d be a village around any corner now, a farm with a blight, or a merchant caravan looking for some peace of mind.
Even if there wasn’t, he could go far longer than this without a shake to his legs or to his smile. He had.
Even if the land was barren for miles, at the end of it he’d wash up in Caiyi town in time for loquat season. He’d climb the mountain by foot, palming the jade pass in his sleeve, and there would be a hot meal waiting for him when he arrived.
But for now, the crickets were calling from the grass. Heat beat down from a wide, clear sky and Wei Wuxian closed his eyes.
His body whispered for sustenance and he told it wait, wait, but this time it was a promise cradled warm and soft in his palms.
+1
“You’re not busy, are you?” Wen Ning said.
Wei Wuxian glanced up from gnawing on the end of his calligraphy brush. It wasn’t an old bad habit of his, but he thought it might have been one of Mo Xuanyu’s. Also, the first time Lan Qiren had caught him doing it, he’d gone red in the face, so Wei Wuxian had rather leaned into it.
“We don’t want to bother you,” Wen Ning went on, bobbing his head. “I know you’re doing important work…”
“If I haven’t figured out how to balance this talisman yet-- and I haven’t,” Wei Wuxian said, wrinkling his nose at the crumbled papers beside him, “then it’s not going to happen tonight.” He leaned back, elbows on the wood floor of the inn. “What’s going on, Wen Ning? You and Sizhui get into trouble in the market?”
“No, we had some good luck.” Wen Ning stepped finally through the door. “If you could come down to the…”
“Did you find something on the case?” Wei Wuxian leapt to his feet.
“No, no,” Wen Ning said, following him down the stairs. One of the inn staff caught one look at Wen Ning and threw himself backward into an open room. “We just, I mean, I hope it’s not overstepping.”
Down on the ground floor of the inn, Lan Sizhui looked up and smiled to see them. He rose from the table where he’d been laying out four bowls. “Wei-qianbei."
"What's this, now?" Wei Wuxian said, glancing over the table.
“Wen Ning has been telling me stories of when I was little,” Lan Sizhui said, settling his hands gently on the lid of the pot. He did most things gently, that kid, and it didn’t come from Lan Zhan, who was deliberate in every movement but rarely soft in the public eye, or Lan Qiren. It certainly didn’t come from Wei Wuxian.
Wen Ning settled down opposite Lan Sizhui at Lan Sizhui’s encouraging nod, and Wei Wuxian realized-- it was his uncles. It was the way Lan Xichen had used to move quiet and kind through a crowded room. It was the way Wen Ning was so careful with his strength.
“He told me about a day when he carried a little bowl of soup miles home from Yiling, so I could try it. It was cold by the time he got there, of course, but… I don’t remember it really.” Lan Sizhui pulled the lid from the pot, the rich scent rising up. “But helping Madam Wang in the kitchen, the smell-- I think I do remember, a little.”
“We found lotus root in the market,” Wen Ning said. “And pork ribs, and the landlady here has a cousin from Lotus Pier. We thought…”
Wei Wuxian dropped down into a seat at the table, heavy and silent. He closed a hand over Wen Ning’s wrist, softly.
“Have as much as you want,” Lan Sizhui said, reaching for the ladle. His voice was soft.
-
When Lan Zhan got back to the inn, he found them still there, leaning over empty bowls and laughing about radishes.
He paused in the doorway to take in the sight-- Wei Ying with his head thrown back; Wen Ning waving his hands while he talked, like he'd forgotten to shrink himself down; Lan Sizhui soaking it in like he had years of family to catch up on.
Lan Zhan crossed the room to join them, Wei Ying spotting him when he got close. He was smiling already, but he smiled wider. "Ai, Lan Zhan, you're here! Sit down, sit down. We even saved you some soup."
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I let an AI write Will and Grimsley's love story. It went wrong.
I let an AI write Will and Grimsley's tragic story (title included). It wasn't supposed to be tragic, but oh well. I used my headcanon family btw. This is the horrifying result. Enjoy:
WHISPERS OF MY DESTINY
Grimsley had been trying to confess his love to Will for three weeks, but it wasn't until that day that he decided to tell him how he felt.
"I love you."
Will responded by telling him he loved him, and then Grimsley asked, "But don't you have a wife?"
Grimsley was talking about Lily, and Will ran to the room and began crying, recalling Lily's death.
Will turned away from his headmaster and sat against the wall with his head in his hands, crying.
Grimsley tried to get him up and to continue their lesson, but Will couldn't even look at him.
Grimsley understood what was happening. Suddenly, however, a stray thought occurred to Grimsley: maybe he would have some sort of ulterior motive.
Maybe he was being his usual jerkly self in order to test Will.
The next morning, Grimsley entered his house and proposed to Will.
Will was befuddled, so Grimsley explained that he would win the election with the students' support if he promised to leave Will alone.
Grimsley told him that Lily would still be in love with him, but Will wanted to start a new life with Grimsley.
Will finally agreed, and it seemed like things had gone smoothly.
Little did they know, they were about to hit a major snag.
The first place Grimsley visited was his home.
He found Will's wife Lily, or rather her corpse. He smiled because he knew it was because of his own misdeeds.
Everything had gone according to plan.
Just as he thought, Will's heart wasn't broken, but dead.
Of course, Grimsley was shocked by what he had done, and he couldn't stop crying for the longest time, but he continued pretending to be happy and innocent.
Grimsley wanted Will to be happy again, so he tried to cheer him up and pushed him to continue on with his life.
Will cried for him when he left. Sometime later, Will attended his first date with Grimsley, whom he thought was a real doctor.
Years later, once they were already married, Grimsley confessed his crime to Will. He had killed Lily, Will's wife.
Will was in shock.
"You're the murderer?!"
Will started to cry, but Grimsley told him to stop.
"That's just part of the reason I love you."
Will didn't believe him at first, but soon he did and decided that he would find a way to put Grimsley away.
But he wasn't able to, because Will still loved Grimsley.
Years passed by, and Grimsley continued to woo Will and beg him for his forgiveness.
Will eventually forgave Grimsley. They ended up having four children. The oldest was a boy named Tom, followed by a girl named Reyna, another girl named Hannah, and the youngest child, a boy named Akashi.
Unfortunately, their happiness was about to be marred again. The sons decided to go into politics, and they were given the same office as their father.
One day, they all went to the beach and a terrible accident happened.
The lifeguards dove in after Tom and Reyna fell into the water, but only Tom was found, and he was killed.
Reyna managed to survive, but she was badly scarred.
Reyna could never forgive Grimsley for not saving his brother's life.
Will and Grimsley were devastated at their son's death, so they stayed to look after Hannah and Akashi.
Will managed to sell their house to a wealthy family who lived in Huddington.
One night, Will started thinking about his daughter Reyna, who had become a recluse ever since Tom's death.
He realized that the whole time he had been blaming Grimsley for not helping Tom, instead of himself.
After Reyna finally died, Grimsley decided to move to California, and Will followed him there.
There they met two girls by the name of Amy and April, who had a black fox named Edward.
Amy is very fond of animals, but she never told Will and Grimsley what kind of animal she really had.
Will and Grimsley had been oppressed by Amy and April for the past few months for being gay.
They couldn't even visit Lily or Tom's grave without people calling them perverts or killers.
One day, Will decided to visit Lily and Tom's grave.
It was under construction and the family was devastated because the mayor had decided to build a building where the graveyard had been, and now Will and Grimsley's son's corpse, as well as Lily's, were lost.
Will felt guilty and distraught.
He returned to Amy and April's apartment only to see that they were engaged to be married.
He asked Amy how she was going to marry April when they had been oppressing Will and Grimsley for being gay before!
Amy screamed at Will and told him that she was so sorry, and that she had told April everything about them.
But when she told April, April was not in the mood to talk to her at all.
Will giggled and forgave her.
A few months later, Will tragically and very painfully lost his right leg when a Sharpedo attacked him while Will was trying to protect Grimsley.
He was rushed to the nearest hospital, where he learned that the loss of his leg was fatal and that he only had a week to live.
Grimsley did everything he could to save his husband's life, but... Would Will su rvive?
Was that week enough for him to forget that he had loved his evil brother?
If Will didn't survive, Grimsley was going to be alone again.
A week passed, and Will miraculously survived, after having lost his leg to the hospital.
He was going to leave that hospital, with very few things.
Grimsley and the rest of his family were shocked and worried, but he wanted to see the pokémon that his youngest son had caught for him, which was a Fearow named Blaze.
After Will left the hospital, he decided to leave for Sinnoh, where he had made a promise to Lily's brother, Max.
Max was evil. He was afraid to be in a marriage with his soon - to - be - wife, Chelsea, and didn't want to take responsibility for the family when she died.
So he decided to run away and join Team Rocket, leaving his friends and family behind.
Meanwhile, Grimsley temporarily left his job to take care of his husband, Will, and their two remaining children.
Will's leg was still recovering, so he could only use a wheelchair.
Grimsley tried to work from home, but the accident made it impossible for him to do that.
He was going crazy, and so was everyone.
The children were traumatized. Blaze the Fearow was the only sane creature remaining now. Luckily for Will, his family and husband (and Fearow) were there for him.
Grimsley heard rumors that Team Rocket was looking for new recruits.
He quickly told the children that he would train them to be strong, so they can go to their mother's grave and set her free.
Then Grimsley remembered that the kids didn't have a mother because Will and himself were their gay parents.
The children were horrified at the mere thought of having a dead mother somewhere, so Grimsley and the children went for a walk.
They all talked about Grimsley's sudden decision and how hurt they were.
The Fearow and the children decided to sing a song, which they wrote while looking for their apparently dead biological mother.
The song was... interesting. It said: "Only a mother can sing a lullaby". They soon heard a voice.
It said, "Will, Blaze, Hannah, Akashi, Grimsley, thank you for coming here.
Don't be sad, or be happy!
When you get to the pokémon center, a nurse will take a look at Will's leg... or what 's left of it."
The voice was very mean.
All three asked what the voice meant, and it said, "Fearow, it means we're on the right path."
The children and Fearow were amazed.
They decided to set out to catch their own Xatus, because they were also traumatized beings.
Akashi caught a Xatu. He looked into his Xatu's eyes and saw the deepest darkness, which frightened him.
Grimsley caught a Xatu as well. But couldn't bear the pain that the vision of his child's death was bringing him.
Eventually, Grimsley decided to do something morally gray and he forced the Xatu to grow wings on its back.
Then Grimsley instructed it to fly him to Lily's grave, so he could set his mother free.
Fearow didn't like this idea, because it reminded him of his dear Spearow, which was waiting for it back in its nest.
Grimsley finally decided to stay with Will, who was still traumatized at the loss of his right leg.
Grimsley gave him a wheelchair to use and became the parents of Will's kids, Hannah and Akashi. The girls soon evolved into Pansage.
And that is the ending of this amazing story.
You made this for your friend, but he didn't want you to post it.
So I decided to post it.
By the way, I have no idea who the f*ck Lily is, but apparently she's Will's ex-wife now 😂
#gone wrong#pokémon#elite four grimsley#elite four will#wildcardshipping#this is art#i'm laughing so hard
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Not Another Mummy!
Chapter One
First Chapter will be on Tumblr only until more can be written. Story originated thanks to this thread. One hundred percent @magellan-88 ‘s fault.
Pairing: Stucky | Word Count: 2001
Warnings: Language, mild angst, takes place after CA:TWS
Rick O'Connell was a mummy hunter.
It hadn't always been his job, but he fell into it rather naturally. Well, Evie fell into it by way of raising Imhotep from the dead, damn near dying as the sacrifice to return his dead lover Anck-su-namun to the living, and then banishing him to the underworld.
Twice.
As he was the (often) put upon hothead Yank to her more stoic (stiff upper lip, Chaps) British ways, her colleagues rolled their eyes at her but always out of Rick's line of sight. Still, there was no one better when it came to weird, ancient woo-woo crap.
So when a telegram came from a woman named Pegs, Evie had dropped everything to run to her side.
It didn't matter they were crossing warzones or dragging their seventeen-year-old son with them to occupied France, Evie was going.
That was how Rick O'Connell met Steve Rogers, the Captain America, and his best friend, Bucky Barnes, and learned there was such a thing as kindred spirits.
Because Steven Grant Rogers was a punk with balls the size of Texas and no sense of self-preservation, and while Rick would never comment on the size of Evie's metaphorical brass bangers, the first time Bucky Barnes groaned with all the dramatics of a putout housewife and screamed, "Steven Grant Rogers! What the hell are you doing? Get down from there; you shit little punk!" Rick knew he'd finally met someone with his own Evie.
For Barnes, Rogers was a bit like watching Evie, Alex, and Jonathan all rolled into one, but he at least had Peggy and the Howling Commandos as backup. Rick only had himself - and occasionally Ardeth Bay - to keep his troop of walking disasters from falling into pits, and waking the undead.
In France, the Howlies helped them clear out the spookables in the castle where Pegs had found the books she knew Evie would want to preserve, and the O'Connells and Howling Commandos had parted ways.
Over the next few years, they occasionally crossed paths, and Rick developed a lasting friendship with Bucky Barnes built on saving their idiots and loving them with their whole hearts.
So when the news came that Barnes had died, Rick took it hard. He tried to find Steve, but the war was too hot, and any commiseration of grief would have to wait.
Still, he drowned himself in liquor for a week straight, and Evie, lovely, wonderful Evie, his very own Steve Rogers, poured him repeatedly into bed, where if Rick cried out his grief against her, she never told a soul.
Then, with the news about Steve, Rick was both saddened and a little at peace. At least they were together. They could spend their afterlife as they had their life. Together. Best friends and, if Rick wasn't mistaken, something a little closer to what he had with Evie than either man shared publicly.
Rick didn't mind. He'd seen them together. Love like that, what did gender matter?
Decades later, when the news splashed across the screen that Steve Rogers was alive, Rick again cried for Bucky Barnes. Seventy years apart. How cruel was this world?
Things had changed by then, some for the better, some worse, but when Steve Rogers once again took up his shield and defeated the enemy falling out of the sky, Rick knew the world hadn't lost both heroes. Steve was still there, still fighting, still a symbol of hope to a nation desperately in need of it.
When the giant of a man showed up at Rick's door, after the Battle for New York, Rick was one hundred and ten years old. The look of surprise on Steve's face made Rick chuckle, even as he welcomed him inside and shuffled back to his recliner.
They didn't talk about Bucky, though they did chat about Peggy, and Steve asked after Evie, gone now almost thirty years. A long time to be without his soulmate. They'd lost Jonathon before Evie, surprisingly to something as benign as a heart attack, not the loan sharks Rick always figured would do him in. Alex was eighty-six, but that hadn't stopped him from continuing the family business, hunting down artifacts and saving them and humanity when such was required.
Steve smiled softly before saying, "Thank you. People always know what I do or what I've done. They see me as a hero, but you and Evelyn, Alex and Jonathon? You saved the world a couple of times yourselves, but no one knows."
Rick shrugged. "I didn't do it for the world."
Two years later, though Steve didn't visit much, he kept in touch via email or text, which both surprised and touched Rick. He'd moved back to the States after Evie's death, mostly because he couldn't stand to be where she wasn't and had made a life there with Alex hovering.
Then one night, Steve showed up on his doorstep in the pouring rain, still healing from the bruises and broken ribs.
"He's alive."
Rick didn't need to ask who. Just led Steve into the house where the man fell to his knees beside Rick's chair and cried against his thigh like his soul had broken.
Or maybe it was like the broken bits were slowly forging back together, a beautiful work of Kintsugi, his fractured soul now filling with golden lines of hope.
When Steve left, it was with determination and purpose Rick hadn't seen on him since the forties. It was like he became a man possessed, determined to find what he'd lost, and Rick wished him every bit of luck. If Rick had the chance to get Evie back, there would be no stopping him.
Two more years passed, Rick aged a little more, and finally, a knock came at his door. He was one hundred and fourteen when he saw Bucky again. One hundred and fourteen, when he opened the door to a man haunted by trauma Rick couldn't even fathom.
Still, he opened the door to a grinning Steve, but it was the scowling Barnes he looked at.
"Jesus fuck you got old," Barnes muttered.
"Bucky!" Steve gasped.
Rick laughed so hard he made himself wheeze and waved them in. They joined him in his living room, where he sat, unable to stop smiling. "Good to see you haven't lost your sense of humour."
"Lost some good chunks of memory, but some nice people helped stuff them back in."
The harsh, cold blue eyes weren't the ones he remembered, but Rick could see him in there. He knew the stories, had heard all the reports. Longest living POW. Assassin. Killed JFK. Some said, war hero. Others cried, villain.
Rick knew it was likely a little of both in Barnes' mind.
But Steve still looked at Bucky like he hung the moon, and Bucky occasionally linked his pinky finger through Steve's when he thought Rick wouldn't notice.
"It's nice to see you boys back together." He jerked his chin at Steve. "That one mopes around something fierce."
"We're figuring it out," Steve said, enough force in the sentence to make it clear he was tired of Bucky running. It had taken two years to get the man to stop. "We've worked things out with Stark. Tony's a hothead, he's angry, but he gets Bucky wasn't in control as the soldier."
Rick watched Barnes' flinch. "No, but it was still your hands, right, Buck?"
Blue eyes darted to his and then away. "How the hell are you still alive?"
"Jeez, Buck!" Steve growled.
Rick chuckled, enjoying the role reversal. "Clean living."
They both snorted.
"Clean my ass. I've never seen anyone out drink Dum Dum before. What gives, O'Connell?" Barnes muttered.
Rick glanced at Steve. There was a pink flush to the man's cheeks, a clear indication this was something they'd talked about, but Steve had never asked. Rick had always wondered if it was out of self-preservation. Maybe he thought asking would jinx whatever link Steve had left to his past.
"Alex?" he called out. "Could you come in here?"
"You sure, Dad?"
Steve and Bucky both stiffened and exchanged a look, likely surprised they hadn't known Alex was there.
"I thought you said Alex was still in London?" Steve frowned.
"I lied," Rick smirked. "Yeah, boy. Get your arse in here."
He trotted down the hall and into the living room. "Highya, fellas!"
Bucky and Steve stared, gaping from Alex to Rick and back.
"Shit," Bucky hissed. "They got you too? How come no one knows?"
Alex leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, grin wide, his face as smooth and unwrinkled as it had been at twenty-five, the year he stopped ageing. The bright, burnished blond of his mop of unruly curls, something he'd inherited from Evie and only recently allowed to grow out, fell over his forehead and into his eyes.
"He's not a super-soldier," Rick explained before either man could have kittens. "Seems there was a side effect to the Bracelet of Anubis no one knew about."
Alex spread his arms and gave a cheeky grin. "Looks like I'm immortal."
Rick slapped a hand to his face. "Unageing is not immortal. You can still die, dumbass!"
"That explains him, but what about you?" Steve asked.
"Something to do with the temple." Rick shrugged. "I went through the door with him. Some of the power rubbed off. I age, just… slower."
"Hence the reason you look a spry eighty?" Barnes mumbled.
Rick chuckled, reached up, and pulled the prosthetics from his face. "More like a spry fifty."
"Jesus!" Steve's eyes went wide. "I never even guessed!"
"Alex is good with the face paint. We've had to be. And that's another reason we moved back here. People were starting to remark on the uncanny resemblance of my grandson to my son."
Steve and Bucky exchanged a look.
"What?" Rick murmured. "Surely, this isn't too much after witches, aliens, and giant green Hulks?"
"No. No, it's not that," Steve said, quick to reassure them. "It's just…"
"Punk had a second reason for coming today. The Avengers found some woo-woo shit. He wanted you to take a look at it. Stark's fancy AI can tell us lots, but she ain't you."
Rick leaned forward, his back cracking, thankful to be straightened. "I'm no Evie, but squirt over there took after her for smarts. She was always the brain. I was just the muscle."
"Come on, Dad." Alex sauntered in and nudged him. "You learned loads from Mum. Plus, that Warrior for God thing comes in handy on occasion."
"Warrior for God?" Bucky asked.
Rick worked the cuff off his right arm, showing them the tattoo hidden beneath it. "Sorry, fellas. Didn't tell you everything that happened with the Scorpion King."
"Yeah. Like how we used the Book of the Dead to bring Mum back to life," Alex grinned.
"I'm sorry. You did what now?" Steve asked.
Rick laughed and shook his head. "All in good time. Alex, get the whiskey. Let's see what you've got."
Steve rose and returned to the door where he'd left a backpack, while Alex grabbed four glasses and a bottle and dumped an unhealthy amount into each one. The bag clanked when Steve set it on the floor between his feet, and Rick arched a brow.
"This is what we found." He placed the golden box on the coffee table.
Rick gave a low whistle. "Jonathon would have liked the look of that."
"It's really brilliant, isn't it?" Alex mumbled as he crouched to take a closer look. "Look at the way the rubies are inlaid. It's like someone wanted it to appear as if it were dripping blood." He spun it slowly, taking in the images and raised glyphs. "Shite, Dad! Do you know what this is?"
Rick didn't get a chance to answer no as Alex was already running out of the room.
"So, is he as reckless as Evie?" Bucky asked, the first semblance of a smirk since his arrival twitching the man's lips.
"Worse. He's got a nose for treasure like Jonathon and my stubbornness," Rick chuckled. "Then, there's his mouth."
"Which he definitely got from you," Steve chuckled.
Rick didn't dispute it.
Alex returned and dropped a book as thick as Steve's arm on the table, causing it to jump, the chest to skitter across it, and only the reflexes of two super-soldiers to keep everything from going sideways.
"Alex! Calm your enthusiasm!" Rick barked.
"No! No, calming!" The manic gleam in his eyes never boded well for any expedition. "Look!"
He wrenched the book open, sending dust and the scent of musty pages spinning, but it opened on an illustrated page of a female warrior standing over the bodies of the slain.
"Ah, no," Rick groaned. "Not another mummy!"
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Homeless/runaway au
So here is the first part of the fic from the idea i proposed yesterday!
Let me know how much of this you want to see! (And also I wouldn't be mad if anyone wanted to help me with a title)
Tags: (thank you for your encouraging words on my post yesterday!) @cagestark @starkerflowers @kittenruby @smidnite @symphonicrain95 @peterbparkner
**
If there was one thing that Peter understood, it was rotten luck.
His entire life seemed to be one big circle of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. His parents when he was four, then his uncle when he was twelve, and then finally his aunt when he was just shy of fourteen. All gone. Taken from him by some cruel fate he deemed ‘Parker Luck’.
The bad luck only continued once he was in the system. In just under two years he had been through nine homes. Some had been nice but hadn’t seemed to be able to click him into their family, others had been right out of his nightmares. The shortest he had been somewhere was a week (it was a long story).The longest he had stayed was eight months. The adoption papers were just about to go through, too.
Then the matriarch of the family was killed in a hit and run and the father decided that the timing wasn’t right anymore and he wouldn’t feel comfortable raising a teenager on his own. That one really stung. But it had only cemented into Peter’s mind that he was cursed by his family name to never really have anyone.
He was forced to be on his own. A modern medusa, killing anything he looked at. It sucked. He hated it more than anything,
Then he was with the Osborns. It was just a father and son, the mother having passed away a few years prior. And they were nice enough. At least the son, Harry was.
Norman seemed to become someone entirely different at night, his words hateful and cruel to the boy he had taken in.
After just under a month of being there Peter couldn’t take it anymore. So he packed up the few possessions he had left and slipped out silently into the night. He knew that he wouldn’t be missed.
And that was how he lived for five whole months, with no one but himself to hold his hand through the journey.
***
Four months. That was how long Tony had been on the streets. Four whole months he had been away from his old life. The days seemed to crawl by.
His dad had decided he had enough of having a child. Apparently he had gotten tired of breaking Tony down with his words and ridiculing every single action his son made. So he kicked him out. Maria had tried to argue, but there was only so much she could do.
That afternoon Tony had come home from school to his parent's car in the driveway. That was the first sign something was off. Then he walked inside and they were sat down on the couch. His mom had obviously been crying. He was sat down and told that he would no longer be allowed to live with them. He would be given until the end of the hour to gather a small amount of his things. Then he had to go.
There weren't even tears. Not from him, at least. His mother was another story. He personally would have rather died than let his parents see how scared he was. He was determined that he would be fine. He would be much better off without them. Which was probably true.
So he wordlessly gathered a small duffle bag and his backpack and began packing. He walked around the house a couple of times as though he was memorizing it.
He realised with a sharp turn in his chest that he wouldn't be able to have his AI, Jarvis, anymore. That probably hurt him more than anything else. His lab would likely be stripped of anything his dad could use and the rest would go in the garbage. So he quickly reprogrammed his watch, transferring Jarvis to the small device. There. Better. Then he paused, grabbing a pair of sunglasses that housed nanites of a prototype of an amour he was working on. It wasn't quite finished, but he didn't want to leave it. Then it was time for him to leave.
The last thing he got from his mother was a teary kiss on the forehead and an envelope with as much cash as she had managed to sneak away from Howard. It wasn't much, but it would help.
Since then he had been alone. The media hadn't forgotten about him, but his disappearance from the spotlight was played off as a rebellious teenager running away from home. Nothing out of the ordinary. And he wasn't completely miserable, some people would recognize him and give him a warm place to stay for a day or two at a time. But those people had been rare as of late. His name was less important in the mouths of people that seemed to matter. Tony Stark was a name of the past, it seemed.
So he began selling himself out when he really had no other choice. There were still some people in the word who wanted to be conquered by or wanted to conquer a Stark. It made him decent cash, even if he hated himself afterwards.
And he was alone, living on the streets or in a seedy motel room when he could afford it.
He and Peter were both alone.
Until their two lonely and scared worlds collided.
#starker#peter parker#tony stark#starker fic#tony stark x peter parker#peter x tony#tony x peter#homeless tony stark#homeless au#homelessness#foster kid peter#runaway/homeless peter parker#runaway#runaway peter parker#my writing#mention of prostitution#death mention#parker luck#let me know if i need to add any tags
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Trektober 2020, Day 17: Other Trek Crossover
for @trektober-challenge; Day 17, other trek crossover:
Mariner & co take some shore leave on Deep Space Nine, but they forget their latinum. It’s not nearly as fun as they thought it would be.
If you liked this, read more at Open Mic at Quark’s. There will be a sequel to this, where they finally get to Vic Fontaine.
“Mariner! Look at me when I’m talking to you,” Captain Freeman scowled. “I mean it this time. No trouble. No running amok in the Klingon restaurant. No tongo at Quark’s. Don’t even think of even touching the dabo tables--”
“What?” Mariner laughed. “But now I can’t stop thinking about it, it’s autosuggestion, duh. If you really wanted me not to play dabo you shouldn’t have even mentioned it.”
Captain Freeman paused and bit back her initial instinct to bark. She had spent this girl’s entire lifetime trying games of reverse-psychology and had started losing around the time she turned five. She was not going to play into it. “I mean it, Ensign. No trouble. Or as little trouble as possible. We want Bajor to join the Federation, and Commander Kira Nerys has little patience for bullshit.” Mariner smirked. Captain Freeman decided she didn’t want to know. “Now, get out of my office!”
“You summoned me here!”
“Dismissed, Ensign. Dismissed!”
Mariner grabs Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford on her way down to the transport pad. She’s excited, she hasn’t been on Deep Space Nine since she and Amilia were still a thing, and shore leave on Bajor had been pretty great even though they had to pawn the necklace she’d gotten her in Jalanda City to get their shuttle back from Quark. She’d been pretty lucky her mom never found out about that, but she’d cared a bit more about covering her tracks back in the Academy. Now, what was the point? Starfleet was Starfleet, and sometimes, the Ferengi had a point.
The Cerritos docks on the station and Mariner tells her friends excitedly, “Yo, so this guy Quark, he’s got this holoprogram that just runs. With this sentient AI host called Vic Fontaine, who’s based off this Earth singer from the 1950s. And it has like random encounters, but it’s got real stakes, because you can totally get Vic and his friends fucked up if you don’t pay attention, and he’s like unofficially a station counsellor, so people will get pissed off if you don’t help him cheap the Mob--that’s like the Earth version of the Orion Syndicate.”
“Oh,” Tendi says, “that’s easy then. Let’s do it!” Tendi shakes her fists eagerly and leads the charge onto the Promenade. Rutherford cheers, and they all take off, Boimler protesting as he followed that none of them had any latinum, and wasn’t Bajor not on the credit system? Or at least the station? They headed straight to the bar, almost knocking over a vedek. Mariner slams her hands down on the bar, and Quark turns around and brightens.
“Mariner!” he says. He pulls out a glass. “What can I get you? Your usual?” He smirks. “You still owe me from that tongo game, you know. How long are you on leave?”
“Haha, nice try, Quark,” Mariner says. “I pay my debt in full and you know it, and I have it in writing and witnessed by station security. No more tongo. Just want in on that holoprograms, what’s it called, that Vic Fontaine thing? Yeah, we want a night in the casino!”
“Casino!” Tendi cheers.
“Night in the casino!” Rutherford echos, and they slap palms.
Quark rolls his eyes: Federation brats, always just cheerful to be alive. “Fine. That’ll be five strips of latinum--each. And I’ll need you to sign a liability form, if you destroy anything in the lounge, you’re paying for it.”
“Five strips of latinum! C’mon man, that’s way too much,” Mariner protested. “We’re Starfleet, it’s not like we’re made of money.”
Quark stared at her. “I know. Which is why it’s each. I remember what you and your friend did to my tongo set, I’m taking all precautions. Five strips of latinum each, a liability contract, and if you break it you pay for it.”
Boimler snickered. “Damn, you do have a habit of breaking things, Mariner. Maybe we should just...spin the dabo wheel or something.”
Rutherford groaned. “No! No dabo! Vic Fontaine is like the longest running AI program running in three quadrants. And he runs a casino, and sings, and does therapy. I’ve been dying to pass my tricorder through that holoprogram, not even Chief O’Brien at the Academy knew what made it tick.”
“Well, pass all you want,” Quark said, “but if you hurt him, you pay for his medical bills. It’s set in 1950s America, you pay those prices. And that’ll be five strips of latinum. Or leave, you’re crowding up my bar.”
“I am not paying that!” Mariner crossed her arms and dug in. “You’re just trying to get back at me because I got Brunt all up your ass for embezzling the interest.”
Quark smiled beauticiously. “Liability contract: sign here.”
Mariner said sourly, “This blows, man. Let’s just go look at the wormhole or something.”
Boimler said, “You forgot your wallet, didn’t you. Because I don’t carry latinum. Do you?”
Tendi said, “I’m Orion. We don’t need latinum.”
Boimler eyed her nervously. “Right. Okay. Let’s go before Quark tries to buy our souls, okay? I heard what he did to Harry Kim, let’s get out of here.”
Mariner got in Quark’s face. “I will be back,” she said threateningly. “And I will enjoy my holoprogram. And you will not overcharge me.”
Quark laughed. “Beat it, kid, before I call station security. Or your moo-ooom,” he singsonged.
Mariner gasped. That was a low blow: and a good one.
#trektober#trektober2020#trektober 2020#star trek#star trek fanfic#fanfic#lower decks#deep space nine#ds9#deep space 9#other trek crossover#5lazarus#hes5thlazarus
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OTP tag game.
Tagged by @captainjowl. You know for sure than I'm struggling to pick only 10 & fit them in here. But hell, that’s fun, thank you <3
Rules: Choose 10 OTPs BEFORE reading the questions, and then get to answering
1) Harry James Potter & Sirius Orion Black
2) Daniel Le Domas & Grace (Ready or Not 2019)
3) Samuel & Nathan Drake (Uncharted 4)
4) Corvo Attano & The Outsider (+probably Emily Kaldwin; Dishonored series)
5) Steve Grant Rogers & Bucky Buchanan Barnes (Marvel)
6) Tony Edward Stark & Peter Benjamin Parker (Marvel)
7) Handsome Jack & Rhys (Borderlands video game series)
8) Damon Salvatore & Elena Gilbert (TVD Books & a tv show)
9) Batman & Joker (in every universe, really)
10) Adam Jensen x Francis Pritchard (Deus Ex video game series)
1. Do you remember the episode/scene/chapter that you first started shipping 6?
I believe it didn't hit me before Spider-Man: Homecoming. Civil War was about Steve & Bucky for me, but when I saw that growing up Peter with Tony, their dynamic, chemistry. Tom & Robert are really just like that.
2. Have you ever read a fanfic about 2?
Lmao. I've read like 50% of the tag on AO3, I wrote my own & started a few wips on them. They are amazing. Plus, with that shitty canon? We didn't get enough of them & they deserved better, so it's only logical to save yourself with fanfiction.
3. Has a picture of 4 ever been your screen saver/profile picture/tumblr screen saver?
I was living with The Outsider icon on my twitter & tumblr. That one is still my Google profile picture I believe. Don't remember about having an icon with the two of them. Also had The Outsider as my lockscreen on my smartphone for a while.
4. If 7 were to suddenly break up today, what would your reaction be?
Funny how it fits canon, lmao. Rhys literally tried to erase Jack's AI in TFTBL, so I guess another day on Pandora, nothing new. They torture each other, they kiss each other, they kill other people in the process. It'll be fiiine.
5. Why is 1 so important?
I love them since the first time I met them, which was much more than 10 years ago, I don't even remember when. At some point they were the reason I was waking up & forcing myself to eat just to read more fanfiction & feel something. Even if I was drowning in pain (I was extremely depressed), it was still something. I read every fic I could find at that time. The depression that Harry went through, all these feelings, his love for Sirius. I was living through it, I could relate.
I'm currently drowning in these two again, though in a much healthier & happier state. I see their flaws & I know as much as I can. I see them differently as an adult. They saved me, they keep being my number one, I still consider making a tattoo of Padfoot/Sirius or of both Harry & Sirius together. I have many headcanons, ideas, I write fics about them. They are everything, you see? They were my choice when there was nothing, no one. They are HOME.
6. Is 9 a funny ship or a serious ship?
Both. There goes the dynamic of Jack & Rhys: torture, fighting, flirting, a lot of trauma. I'd definitely say that they are wild and comical sometimes, but they are definitely serious. With the Asylum, the mental health issues. There is so much more to it, the complexity of their relationship. The struggle of loving who you probably shouldn't (but hey, when does it work like that?) Thinking about Tettlate's Batman, about Batman: Europa & how Joker was: "You must be crazy, putting me in charge of the plan, letting me decide. Okay, well..."
Nah, they are entertaining, but this is a serious ship.
7. Out of all the ships listed, which ship has the most chemistry?
Are you kidding me? They are all the definition of CHEMISTRY. I'd say 5, but then go 2, 6, 7, 8. Come on. I'm not choosing. Most of they are WILD.
9. How many times have you read/watched the 10’s fandom?
The fandom itself? Idk. I found one of my favourite artists through this fandom. If it's about the characters themselves, I played the first game with the DLC from start to beginning, looking around every corner. Spent more than 60 hours in there. Watched a second game (my laptop can't run the game) and the DLC (obviously), since Francis is in the DLC & not in the main game. I have a tag for them on tumblr, I read fanfiction, I tried to write my own. I still follow Elias & want a third game. Elias liked my tweets about Adam and Jensen being an actual couple a few times. I'd say I interacted with all of this a lot? Still do, actually.
10. Which ship has lasted the longest?
5. Best friends since childhood, fought & died for each other, still found their way back to each other. "It would break your Captain's heart, to see what they did to you." That only the MENTION of Steve can pull Bucky out of this brain washing(ed?) state, distract him in the middle of a fight. When Steve died in the comics because of Sharon & Tony sent Natasha to take Steve's shield from Bucky because even Tony knew how much Steve means to Bucky. And Bucky was like: "Oh, I see what he did. Not happening!" Fought Natasha (that is his ex in the comics) & kept going for Steve's sake.
Well, you see the point, I can go on and on.
11. How many times, if ever, has 6 broken up?
They're not actually canon so none? They had a few fights: In Civil war (the comics), in Homecoming (the movie). That only means that they’ve got history & love each other.
12. If the world was suddenly thrust into a zombie apocalypse, which ship would make it out alive, 2 or 8?
As fierce Grace is, they wouldn't stand a chance against Damon & Elena. Those two had to deal with worst thing than brainless stupid zombies. On the other hand, if there were no alive humans to drink their blood... It's either an animal diet that Damon hates so much or I don't know? Still, they're faster & more powerful. Their bodies have advantage of healing the wounds as well.
13. Did 7 ever have to hide their relationship for any reason?
From some people, yeah. Don't tell Athena, don't tell Vaughn, don't tell Fiona. Though Rhys wasn't very subtle about it & Jack just doesn't give a fuck. You will probably end up dead if you disagree or bore him, or if you're useless.
"I can take you to the top, but you gotta know where the top is" & Rhys doesn't tell anybody until Jack makes him the President for like whole 20 minutes lol.
Fiona & Sasha: "This can't be happening." Sure it can, darling.
14. Is 4 still together?
I have a headcanon about The Outsider finding Emily & Corvo after Billie frees him from the Void. He doesn't have anybody & they are his only friends aside from a potential friendship with Billie. And if we don't consider TOTO dlc, they definitely are! The Outsider visits them both when they sleep & takes them to the void sometimes. How could he not?
15. Is 10 canon?
Not really but also sort of? Let's say that they really care about each other in canon, despite Adam pushing Francis away because of his trauma & fear that Megan caused him. :/
16. If all 10 ships were put into a couple’s Hunger Games, which couple would win?
Can you imagine wizards fighting extremely powerful vampires? Superheroes with venom in their bodies that make them super strong with people that made a deal with the Devil himself (hi Le Bail)? 5000 y.o. God and his lover that share his powers and an augmented human protecting his tired IT guy? Combine mental health issues to that, Jack and Rhys with Batman and Joker. Corvo & The Outsider would probably slay them all as Corvo and Emily did in both games with entire islands, though it will still be a slaughter anyway.
17. Has anybody ever tried to sabotage 5’s ship?
All the fucking time, lmaooo. I’m not even talking about it.
18. Which ship would you defend to the death and beyond?
I feel like I already did with Steve & Bucky after many Marvel movies (we're not even mentioning Endg*me, I fucking died & was dead for full 4-5 months).
19. Do you spend hours a day going through 3’s tumblr page?
I used to do that a few years back, but not anymore. There is not much content since the trilogy is finished.
20. If an evil witch descended from the sky and told you that you had to pick one of the ten ships to break up forever or else she’d break them all forever, which ship would you sink?
1 already went through it & fandom lives, so I'd say maybe 7? Rhys will find a way to bring Jack back & they are both so wild. It’s what happened in canon anyway. Jack kidnapped Lilith & forced her to do Angel's job, so I'd like to see that witch try at first. Jack is an immortal bastard. <3
Now that I think about it, Corvo would also deal with her in seconds as she waits to curse them.
As a conclusion: no one breaks up forever, we're killing the witch.
I tag: @ianmillkovichgallagher & @aledbr
Whoever else wants to join the game, please do.
#otp#me#tumblr#harry x sirius#delena#corvosider#rhack#tony x peter#batjokes#jensard#steve x bucky#ready or not#drakecest
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Father’s Day
Irondad & Spiderson
Word Count: 2947 (My longest fic :D)
Warnings: Sick Peter at the end. Implied smut between TONY/PEPPER. St*rker is absolutely DISGUSTING
Summary: Peter has a whole idea for celebrating Father’s Day with Tony, and most of it goes right... Just not in the way that Peter had planned.
Also, HUGE shoutout to @irondadbxtch for all her help on this fic! Literally she is super awesome
* * * * *
Pepper Potts has a lot on her plate.
Between managing Tony's and Peter's publicity, she rarely has free time on her hands. Add to that all the general CEO duties? Now she's in negative hours of the day. However, when a certain Spider-Teen is calling her, she gives up that little free time in an instant.
"Ms. Potts! I need to talk to you. It's urgent!" Peter springs into the older woman's path as she tries to make it to the kitchen in one piece. Pepper doesn't answer right away, so Peter is fully prepared to back track.
He doesn't have to though, as a warm smile make its way to her face, reassuring him. "Hey Pete, is everything alright?"
Pepper sits down at one of the red leather covered stools at the island. Taking a testing sip of her hot tea, she pats the empty stool next to her.
Peter just stares at her for a minute before he remembers what that gesture means. "Oh! Right, sorry." Awkwardly, the teen stumbles into the seat. "So, life or death wise, everything is fine. But something else is not." Pepper squints trying to find out what he means, but Peter doesn't give her a chance. "Tomorrow is Father's Day, Ms. Potts!"
"Okay..?" Pepper nods slowly, still not understanding Peter's exasperation. "Why does-"
"I wanna do something for Mr. Stark!" Peter blurts and immediately slaps a hand over his mouth. "Oh, um. Yeah. I guess."
Pepper flashes him a knowing smile and says, "Ah, I see." She sips her tea again before setting the mug down and says, "Well what do you need me for?"
"Ms. Potts, can I tell you a story?" Peter asks, trying not to make contact with the older woman. He knew she would just read him like a book. "Just a quick one. I know you have a lot of work. And i should go, I didn't even think. I'm-"
Pepper reaches over and grabs his hand briefly. "Go ahead, Peter."
The boy's shy smile comes back quickly. "Okay, so once upon a time, there was this kid. His name was Peter." Pepper lets out a short breath of a laugh and nods. "Peter had a rough time growing up. His dad passed away with his mom. So there's Father #1." He pauses and looks at Pepper to gauge her reaction.
Her eyebrows are furrowed in confusion, but she nods, telling him to continue.
"Yeah, so then Peter went to live with an Aunt and Uncle. Time skip to nine years later, his uncle dies. That was Father #2." Peter frowns and his mouth sets in a firm line. He takes a breath and says, "Three years after that, Peter is officially part of Tony Stark's life. Consistently. Not just once a year after Germany." He doesn't even realize that he's saying the next part. "Mr. Stark is the closest thing that I've had to a dad ever since Uncle Ben died." He's vaguely aware of Pepper grabbing his hand again. "I just want to tell him that."
Pepper nods and sighs a bit. "You know, I think he already knows that's how you feel." She smiles slightly and says, "He told me you called him dad at putt putt the other day." She winked at him when Peter's eyes opened wide.
"He noticed that?!" The teen was immediately rambling. "Wait, was he mad? Oh gosh, I'm just some random kid? Did he seem weirded out? Oh my gosh. Ms. Potts, is he gonna stop talking-"
"Peter! No! He thinks of you as the son he never had." Pepper's smile is small, but it's there. The teen's shoulders easily relax and he thinks for a minute.
"Oh my God! Pep- Ms. Potts! I have so many ideas!" He starts going on and on about breakfast in bed, a nice card, a gift, and a ton of other stuff he wanted to do.
"Mr. Stark, please just go with her." Peter asks his mentor to leave for the third time since he came up from the lab that night.
Tony grumbled and shook his head. "No until you tell me why?" Crossing his arms over his chest, he puts on his best dad-face. "Why do you want me to leave my own living quarters at, " He checks his watch and then continues, "8:39 PM?"
Peter blushed, getting flustered. Luckily he doesn't have to come up with an answer, because Pepper walks in.
"Tony, he's asking for me. We were talking earlier and I told him how we haven't had a nice date night in too long." It wasn't a complete lie, that WAS mentioned. "Peter has made it his duty to change that." Pepper grabbed the collar of his baseball tee and pulled him into her. She places a gentle kiss on his lips and says, "Come on, Tony. I miss going out on the town with you."
The older man glances at Peter and gives him the 'I'm watching you' signal before nodding, and smiling softly at Pepper. "That sounds good, sweetheart. Fancy of not fancy?"
"Hmm... Fancy." Pepper nods, her smile more genuine now. When Tony leaves to get changed into something nicer, she winks at Peter before going towards her and Tony's shared room.
When they eventually left the compound, Peter was sprinting into the elevator, almost running into the back wall. "FRIDAY, to the lab!"
Yes, Mr. Parker, though I would not advise working without the Boss.
"It's fine. He trusts me." Peter says confidently, even though he knows the AI is probably right. "It's okay, just take me there please."
He hears the elevator gear up before it starts moving, accompanied by a 'yes, Mr. Parker' from the artificial intelligence system.
Peter got into the work space a few minutes later and immediately jogged to his corner of the lab. Tony had put in another (granted smaller) table on the other side of the room when Peter had started coming over to tinker more often. There had been a long conversation about why their tables couldn't face each other, and Tony's reply was simply 'Because I would not get any work done with you ogling me.'
Grabbing a few different pieces of metal and wires, he walks back to the smaller table on the far side of the lab. He hums to himself and then says, "FRIDAY, can you play that one Led Zeppelin song that played on Happy's jet?"
I can Mr. Parker, however the song is actually 'Back in Black' by the famous band AC/DC. They have been popular since 1973 and-
"Okay, whatever. Play that song please?" Peter interrupts quickly, knowing that Tony probably programmed the AI to give him all the information if he ever mentions it. The song starts playing and he smiles, bobbing his head to the beat. "Thanks FRI."
Peter pulls up a holographic image of blueprints that he starts fiddling with. He mumbles to himself as he goes and about ten minutes in, he thinks about a possible problem. "Hey Fri, if you alert me when Mr. Stark pulls into the driveway, would I have enough time to close up shop and get upstairs to my room and the common room before he gets inside?"
After a few seconds, the AI answers.
According to my calculations based on you running at a general jogging pace, you would indeed make it before Boss get's back into the building.
Smiling widely, Peter cheers a bit. "That's great. Okay. I better start soon then." He realizes that his plan won't work without wire trimming, because he can't just leave the wires open.
About an hour and a half later, Peter had created a ‘PeterBot3000′ and had half of a holographic father's day card done when FRIDAY gave him the alert.
"Oh shit!" He starts scrambling to grab the supplies that he needs and the two pieces of technology.
Language, Mr. Parker.
He huffs and says, "Are you kidding me?"
No Mr. Parker. There is a protocol in place-
"Of course there is." He runs into the elevator and yells, probably unnecessarily loudly, "FRI, you know where to go!"
The AI takes him up to the floor that his room was on and he ends up with exactly enough time to hide the things in his closet and then run out to the common room to turn on the TV. "Can you put on the 6th Star Wars movie please?"
FRIDAY doesn't respond, but she streams the movie on the large TV mounted to the wall and even has the decency to skip ahead for as long as Tony and Pepper had been out.
Peter doesn't tune into the movie, instead he focuses hard on listening to Tony and Pepper. He doesn't hear much, but he scrunches his nose and stops listening after what he does hear.
"So Pep, was your night out everything you'd hoped it would be?"
"Mmm. Yeah it was. But you know what would make it even better?"
"No actually. I can't seem to think of anything."
"Well maybe I should enlighten you?"
"Yes. Please do. Enlighten- Uhng. Oh shi- Pep..."
"Ew! Oh my God. Gross. FRIDAY volume up to 20!" groaning is disgust, Peter shakes his head and really tunes into the movie now. Eventually he dozes off, his head hanging low in front of him. He'd probably be snoring if his chin wasn't firmly pressed against his chest.
A few hour later, Peter vaguely remembers being re-positioned on the couch in a much more comfortable manner.
"Mmph. Mis'r S'ark?" He asks without opening his eyes. His voice is muffled by the tan couch pillow and the fuzzy blanket that he's curling into. After a soft chuckle, a quiet voice speaks.
"Yeah, kid. It's me. Now go back to bed."
"M'Kay." Peter rolls into the back of the couch and is snoring withing a minute.
The next morning, Peter wakes up with his alarm at 6:15. He knows Mr. Stark likes to be up and moving by 7:00 most days.
Last night about a have an hour after Tony had tucked him in, Peter woke up remembering that he had to finish the card. SO burning the midnight oil like his Da- Mr. Stark, he finished it. And then he went back to bed, but coughing all night, you don't get much sleep. Really, the kid only got about four hours last night, but it is totally worth it if Mr. Stark likes his gift.
That being said, it's no surprise that he woke up feeling just plain gross. He blamed it on the lack of sleep and how he couldn't remember the last time he ate. If Peter was being honest, he's surprised that he hasn't passed out from his fast metabolism yet.
Peter stumbles into the kitchen, sniffling once or twice as he rubs his eyes awake.
"Okay, so Mr. Stark's favorite breakfast is waffles." He thinks and adds, "Or was it pancakes? Wait- Did Ms. Potts say french toast?"
Mr. Parker, Pepper Potts did indeed say 'waffles'.
Nodding to himself, Peter's head lurched forward in an attempt at keeping bile from rising up in his throat. In surprise, he drops the bowl that he had just grabbed from the cupboard— luckily plastic— and all but sprints into the nearest bathroom, which happened to be his private one. Groaning, Peter falls to his knees and effectively empties anything that had been in his stomach into the toilet. He stay hovering over the toilet with his eyes closed, a string of spit dripping from his mouth. He really puked a lot for not having eaten much lately.
What even is that? Is that and intestine?
Peter is so caught up in his childish thoughts and mild discomfort, that he doesn't even hear Tony walk in.
"Pete? You okay, kiddo?" There's a hand on the back of his neck now. The coolness of it soothes Peter slowly. He spits into the toilet and wipes his mouth as he nods. He sits up slowly, only mildly aware of Tony steadying him by the shoulders.
"I'm fine." Peter sighs and starts to stand, but the spinning room seems to have other plans and he slides back to the floor. Exhaling softly, he rests his head against the wall and closes his eyes, brows furrowing in uneasiness.
"Nope. That's not acceptable. Okay, kid, let's go." Tony scoops Peter into his arms as if the boy weighs nothing, despite the teen's protests to being carried. "FRIDAY, open all the doors between here and Peter's bedroom, please?"
Once he has Peter settled laying on his bed, Tony hums to himself and puts the back of his hand on the kid's forehead to try and test for a fever. He felt a little warm, but Tony wanted to make sure.
"Can you also ream me Pete's temperature, FRI?"
100.2 as of now Sir. Not warranting medical attention yet.
Peter huffs from his spot curled under his covers and grumbles, "Well this blows." He reached out of the blanket burrito and grabbed his Iron Man plushy, bringing it to his chest in a tight hug.
"Why's that?" Tony sit's on the edge of his kid's bed. "And that the hell were you doing will eleven eggs at 6:30 in the morning?"
Peter frowns despite the obvious amusement in Tony's voice.
"You're gonna think it's dumb." Peter sniffles again and wipes his nose on the dark blue blanket.
"No I won't." When Tony get's an unbelieving look from Peter he adds, "I promise."
Peter sighs and looks at the plush toy before meeting Tony' gaze. "Well first of all, I have a huge and amazing plan for today. Ms. Potts and I were talking yesterday, and she told me that you're favorite breakfast food is waffles. So I got up early enough that I'd have time to make them before you woke up." Peter shakes his head and drops eye contact with his mentor, instead preferring to stare intensely at a lighter blue swirl in his blanket. "Except I don't know how to make waffles, so I just grabbed all the eggs I could find." Frowning, Peter continues. "That's not even the best part."
Tony finally caught Peter's gaze then and the kid saw that he had a soft smile on his face. That fact had the teen already a little bit happier.
"Oh it isn't? I don't know what else you can do. Eleven-egged waffles seem like a top notch plan to me." He picks on Peter fatherly as he ruffles his hair.
"Go look in my closet." Peter commands, subconsciously leaning into the comforting touch. "There's a box labeled 'For Mr. Stark' in it."
Tony gives a skeptical look, but follows the instructions nonetheless. Pulling out the box, he opens it, finding a card first. His face lights up with blue LED lights that were used in the hologram. The card doesn't say much, but its a Spider-Man webbing the front of the card, opening it for Tony to read. Inside there are a few sentences, and just as many inside jokes.
Dear Mr. Dad,
Thank you for being there for me even when I am a 'little Peter bot' whatever that means.
Now open the rest of the thingy!
Love,
Kid
Peter has conveniently hidden under his snot-filled blanket, so when Tony turns, beaming at Peter, the kid doesn't even see it. Tony carefully lifts the divider that Peter had placed between the card and the heavy gift at the bottom of the box. Tony has no idea what to expect, but it certainly isn't an actual 'PeterBot3000'.
The older man laughs then. Out loud. That was something that Peter had never seen before, something he rarely even heard of. So naturally, the kid had to peek out from his hiding spot and see what was happening.
By the time he opens his eyes though, the laughter has stopped and been replaced with the widest smile Peter had ever seen on Tony's face. Better yet, it was aimed at him. Before he knows it, his mentor, was motioning him to come here. Peter nodded with smile, sitting up to meet the hug. It was warm and happy. Tony just holds Peter close and speaks when he pulls away from the teen.
"Thank you so, so much, kiddo." Tony smile still hasn't faded.
"You're welcome." Peter smiles and then a blush forms on his cheeks. "Dad?" He tests the waters, not sure what the result will be.
"Yes son." Tony emphasizes the new name. "Dad it is." Tony looks down and inconspicuously wipes at his eyes when Peter isn't looking. He thinks for a moment and a confused look appears on his face. "Wait. When did you make all of this?"
Peter smiles sheepishly. "You know how Ms. Potts said I made it my goal to get you guys on a date?"
"That's what you were doing?"
"That's what I was doing." He smiled at Tony's evident happiness.
Tony chuckles and says, "I guess I'm going to have to teach you how to make waffles before next Father's Day, aren't I?"
"Definitely." The young boy laughs and says, "By the way. Since you're my dad now, you are completely obligated to cuddle." Peter holds his arms out expectantly as he yawns, waiting for his request to be filled.
"Alright Pete." Tony sighs happily and lays back down, pulling Peter onto his chest. Gently, he runs a hand through the boy's hair.
"I love you dad." Peter says as he sniffles again before closing his eyes.
Tony's heart clenches happily and he smiles. "I love you too, son."
#irondad#spiderson#longest fic#i'm proud#go me#anyways#fluff#sick peter#spiderman#fathers day#dad!tony#pepper potts#peter parker#tony stark#FRIDAY#ai#fun stuff
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I Am Burdened
Loki Laufeyson
Masterlist - Join My Taglist!
Requested: Yes
Request: Loki was always misunderstood, he didnt want to cause harm, (basically hes a big kid!) he just wanted some fun. I think it would be awesome if you could make a one shot from his point of view and maybe how he perceived the events of New York and things after that (it would be interesting considering he was being controlled by thanos at a time). Maybe cannon divergent - something that happened before New York? A guy he met ;)? Or after end game? Something angsty would be awesome but something fluffy would be just as good if not better??? I cant decide. Honestly I just love everything to do with Loki!
Summary: I combined this into one big fic (seriously, my longest yet!) and went with Loki's POV during the battle of New York and then what happens right after. Canon-divergent from when Loki gets shot off his Chitauri chariot by Clint. Little bit of angst, little bit of fluff, little bit of humor, little bit of romance. Loki is dealing with the Battle of New York and seeing the irreparable damage he's causing the city (and his relationship with his brother) when he gets the sense knocked out of him. A handsome Midguardian cop comes to his rescue.
Word Count: 4,234
Category: Angst and then fluff
Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.
"Look at this! Look around you! You think this madness will end with your rule?"
I stared out at the Midguard city of New York as it burned, locked in a fight with my brother. I had done this. It didn't feel real; how had I gotten to this point?
This was far beyond mischief.
I wanted to listen to my brother, to do something about the madness he spoke of, but the pounding in my head was unbelievable, and any time I tried to find a solution it doubled in its intensity.
"It's too late," I panted, tearing the words from my body. The statement felt more honest than anything I'd done in days. I hoped my brother would understand. I hoped he could hear the regret in my voice. "It's too late to stop it."
"No. We can." My brother stared intently into my eyes, and I returned his gaze. "Together."
For a brief, shining moment, I was going to go with him. We would fix the city and stop the invasion, together. Be the heroes the Midguardian people so desperately craved, together. We could return home, victorious, together.
But then the pounding in my head got worse. My brother's look became a threat. It felt like I was burning up along with the city, and before I knew what was happening, I stabbed my knife straight into his chest.
He fell back, clutching at the wound, and suddenly I was back on Asgard, decades and centuries ago. My brother was young, traipsing through the forest without a care in the world, laughing as he ran with a wooden toy sword. I laid in the grass, waiting for him.
Thor knew I could shapeshift. He'd known for ages. I'd even done this to him before. Still, when my brother came across a snake in the grass, he couldn't help but stoop down to investigate. He picked me up, and before he knew what was happening, I transformed back into myself and jabbed a little knife of my own into his side.
"Blargh! It's me!" I yelled, laughing as he stumbled back in the grass. Thor was getting stronger and faster every day, and trickery and smarts were the only way I could get him anymore.
"Father!" Thor yelled, running back off to the palace. I didn't waste a second before turning into a bird and flying to my mother's room as quickly as I could. She wouldn't be happy with me, but she would protect me from the worst of my father's rage.
My vision faded, and I was looking at my brother on the ground again.
"Sentiment," I managed to whisper. It was the only thing I could think to say.
Before I knew what was happening, my brother was up and kicking me through a pane of glass. I couldn't think clearly enough to fight back; he picked me up and lifted me over his head, and for a moment everything froze. Then, time sped up as Thor hurled me to the ground. I landed hard, and the pounding in my head was joined by a ringing in my ears. I groaned, but then a tiny whisper in my head told me exactly what I needed to do.
I moved like I was trying to get up, then before Thor could stop me, I rolled off the edge of the Tower.
I fell through the air with nothing to stop me, and for a moment I thought this was the end. That whisper in my ear finally decided to kill me. But then, I turned and caught the handlebars of an empty Chitauri bike as it flew underneath me. I grabbed the handles and situated myself, and a squadron of Chitauri warriors flanked me as we flew through the buildings of New York.
It was too late to go back. My brother offered me an olive branch, and I denied it. The pounding in my head got worse the more I thought about him. About Asgard. About mother.
About the home I could never return to now.
If I was stuck playing the villain, I might as well do it right.
I marshalled my troops as we let loose on the streets of New York. The Midguardians ran and cowered in fear, and I flew over the rest of my brother's new friends. There was nothing they could do to stop me now.
I passed the Avengers, as they were apparently calling themselves, and rained down another round of fire on the Midguardians below. They scattered and scrambled for cover like rats. I barely knew what I was doing as I fired again and again and again. Nothing seemed real, except the pounding in my head. And every time I did as the whisper bid, every time I fired another shot, the pounding got just a little bit better.
I felt like I was watching myself from outside my own body as I swept through every street in New York. I had no idea how long I'd been doing it, or how much longer I was going to do it.
Eventually, I caught sight of my brother again. He and his friends had apparently overcome their differences, and were standing back to back, as a team, with the corpses of my army surrounding them. The next words out of my mouth felt like an instinct.
"Send the rest." I breathed the words, barely above a whisper, but my command was still heard. A fresh wave of soldiers and monsters flooded through the wormhole, and surely it was too late now. Powerful as they were, my brother and his friends would never be able to stand against this.
I looked down from my seat aboard one of the chariots. It was surely hopeless now, but still, everyone below kept fighting.
For some reason they just weren't willing to give up.
I watched them fight, but no matter how many soldiers they defeated, two more replaced them. As long as the portal remained open, they had no hope.
All of a sudden, one of my brother's new friends caught my eye. The redheaded one who spent so long trying to get information out of me had stolen a chariot and was heading for the top of the Tower at full speed.
I had to stop her. I was moving and shooting before my brain caught all the way up with my actions.
We flew through the streets at top speed. For someone who had no idea what she was doing trying to drive a Chitauri chariot, she certainly was a fast learner. Unfortunately for her, she had no gunner.
As we rose through the sky and came around the corner of a larger building, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. Her archer friend was trying to get in my way.
I caught the arrow he shot without even looking. Even through the pounding in my head, that felt good. I looked at the archer to make sure he knew how sub-par he was. Then suddenly, I was blasted out of the air. Knocked straight off the chariot, I fell down, down, down. I hit the edge of something, I think Stark's building, but it did little to slow my fall.
I hit the ground hard, lying in a pile of rubble. If I were anything but Asgardian, I would surely be dead.
As it was, I was knocked senseless. The pounding in my head was replaced with an intense dizziness, and the Midguardian ground seemed to swim beneath me.
I staggered to my feet only to collapse in a heap again. What was wrong with me? My whole body felt weak...
"Hey!" I heard a yell, but from where I was laying on the floor I couldn't be bothered to look up and find the source. "Hey, buddy, you okay?"
I was rolled onto my back, and suddenly the face of a handsome Midguardian appeared above me.
"Hey, stay with me, okay?" he asked, looking me over and moving a finger back and forth in front of my face. I groaned and swatted his hand away, but he just chuckled. "Ha, looks like you're doin' alright. Somehow."
As he spoke, another massive piece of rubble fell right next to us, spraying us with shrapnel and dust.
"Although if we don't get movin', neither of us may be alright for long. Can you walk?"
"Of course I can walk," I scoffed. I sat up, apparently too quickly, because my head and the room started spinning again.
"Easy there buddy, no need to push yourself." Before I could protest, the Midguardian—apparently a police officer, if his uniform was any indication—put one of my arms over his shoulder and one of his arms around my waist, then hauled me to my feet.
I didn't want to rely on a Midguardian to walk, but no matter how hard I tried to lean away I couldn't.
I felt weak. And I didn't like it.
"Unhand me!" I demanded, trying to look at my captor as he dragged me through the rubble.
"You know, you've been talking so normally, I figured you didn't hit your head that hard, but if you're trying to get me to leave you in the rubble to get smashed? You must've really gotten a good whack."
I scoffed, but truthfully, I didn't know how to respond. Who did this Midguardian think he was?
"I'm Alex, by the way," he said, almost as if he'd read my mind. "What's your name?"
"I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened—" I cut off mid-sentence. It started as a reflex, like I had no other choice to describe myself. Burdened with glorious purpose. That just didn't seem right anymore... why would it have to be that way?
I was ripped out of my self-reflection by the Midguardian—Alex—releasing a snort of laughter next to me.
"What exactly is so funny?" I demanded. "Are you laughing at my suffering?"
"Sorry, sorry, no, it's just... I don't think I've ever heard a guy answer 'who are you?' with 'I am Loki and I am burdened' before. What a statement." He couldn't hold back more peals of laughter as he finished speaking, and all I could do in my current state was roll my eyes. Midguardians.
I didn't say anything else, and neither did Alex. We just kept trudging through the rubble, further and further away.
After a few more minutes there was a large explosion from behind us. I managed to look back to see the portal closing, dead Chitauri warriors falling out of the sky. I knew I shouldn't, but I felt relieved.
My brother was right. He managed to stop it.
The world started spinning again, and like the end of a Midguardian movie, everything started fading to black. I swayed a bit more on my feet, and I tripped over some rubble that I couldn't see anymore.
"Alright, we should probably get you to a hospital... hey, you still with me? Hey!"
Alex kept talking, but his voice was sounding quieter and quieter every minute. His voice faded entirely, along with all the rest of the noice and chaos coming from the city. Everything went dark.
****************
I came to with a pounding in my head again, and I wanted to panic. The pounding that had been driving me for days, the pounding that disappeared when I hit my head after falling to the bottom of Stark's ridiculous building, had returned.
As I woke more fully, however, I realized this was a different kind of pounding. My head hurt, but there was no endless beat driving me forward, to do things I couldn't fully understand. It was more of an ache, like something had been forcefully removed from the cavity in my skull.
My sight came back and feeling returned to my body, and I sat up. I was laying on a bed in a small room without much in it. I could hear sirens and see flashing lights coming from outside, which surely meant the Midguardians were still dealing with the emergency. So how had I gotten here?
"Hey, you're up. I was starting to think you mighta been a goner."
I turned to locate the source of this new sound and found Alex standing in the doorway, holding a cup of coffee. He no longer wore his Midguardian uniform. Instead he was dressed in a simple t-shirt and jeans, and he looked as tired as I felt.
"Where am I?" I asked, getting straight to the point. Surely my brother and his friends were looking for me, and I had no idea why this Midguardian officer hadn't turned me over to them yet.
"Spare bedroom of my apartment. The city's a mess, and it was closer than any of the nearest hospitals. One of the EMT's said you didn't have any injuries, somehow, so I figured I'd bring you here and give you some space to recover while I dealt with some other problems in the city."
Alex sipped his coffee as if his answer were perfectly normal. I, on the other hand, still had questions.
"Do you know who I am?"
"Yeah, uh, lemme see if I can get this right... you are Loki and you are burdened."
I covered up a laugh with a snort.
"Surely you're not that thick. You must know by now exactly who I am, and what I've done. You're a Midguardian police officer, for Odin's sake."
Alex sighed and walked over, sitting down heavily on the bed.
"Alright, fine, I know who you are. So what?"
"So why haven't you turned me in."
Alex didn't answer right away, instead taking a long sip of his coffee. I got the impression that he didn't fully know the answer to my question himself, so he was taking some time to think about it.
"I don't really know," he started, staring off at the other side of the room. "At first, you were just a hurt civilian, and it was my job to rescue you. But when you said your name was Loki... well, I'm not stupid. I watch the news, and I knew exactly who you were.
"Then you started into that stupid speech you gave in Germany, and I was all ready to call the Avengers and do my civic duty, yadda yadda yadda. But then you just stopped. And I don't know, you looked so lost, like you couldn't remember why you'd said that speech in the first place... I don't know. I'm probably crazy, but I wanted to give you a chance. I wanted to see if my cop instincts were right about what that hesitation meant, about why you didn't finish your sentence."
"And exactly what do you think that reason is?"
"I don't think you knew what you were doing. Not fully, at least." Alex turned to look me dead in the eye this time. "And maybe that's just wishful thinking, but my instincts are usually right."
"You'd really believe that?" I asked skeptically. It seemed far too good to be true.
"Hey, aliens just came down from the sky and tried to overrun New York. Anything's possible."
I sighed. I had no idea why I was getting so lucky, being found by a Midguardian who didn't want to immediately turn me over to my brother, but I figured I at least owed him the truth in return for his help.
"Alright. I suppose you're not entirely wrong," I said, looking anywhere but at Alex. "A while back... it's not really important, exactly how I got there or what happened, but I think... well, I had a run in with someone I didn't know existed until it was too late. He was..."
I shuddered, thinking about my time between worlds. With him, on his ship. The Sanctuary Two. I didn't even want to think his name.
I took a breath to collect myself. No matter what had happened to me, it was unbecoming for a Prince of Asgard to be rendered so helpless.
"Well, let's just say he was rather unpleasant, and far stronger than me," I finished, finally making eye contact with Alex. He was listening intently, his kind, crystal blue eyes never leaving mine. "I'm not quite sure, since most of my time there was a blur, but I think he may have done something to me. Gotten inside my head, perhaps quite literally."
Alex nodded thoughtfully, giving me time to keep talking if I wanted to. Once he was sure I was done, he spoke.
"I've seen that before. I have a buddy who works with S.H.I.E.L.D., and well... he's seen plenty of torture and mind control. He never gives me the details, but we're like brothers, so he comes to me to get a break when it gets to be a little too much."
I stared holes into the bed sheets around me. Torture. I'd never thought the word before, but there could be no other description for what I endured at his hands.
How did I end up in a place like this?
"So, I have to ask... are you feeling better now? Mentally, at least?" asked Alex. I looked back at him.
"You mean, do I still feel the urge to fight, kill, and rule Midguard?"
Alex breathed a small laugh. "I sure wasn't gonna put it that bluntly, but yeah."
I took a deep breath before answering, trying to assess how I really felt. My head hurt, my body ached, but I didn't feel that rhythmic pounding driving me forward anymore. I didn't feel like stabbing my brother any more than I did when we were children, no matter how angry he was sure to be at me.
Finally, I turned back to Alex. I had my answer.
"No. I feel mostly normal again, for the first time since... well, in a long time."
Alex smiled, and it sparked a warm feeling in my chest. What in the nine realms was that?
"Well good, I'm glad. If you're feeling up for a short walk, I made dinner. It's all ready to go in the kitchen if you want some. Assuming, you know, intergalactic beings like you and Thor actually eat that kind of thing."
I chuckled. "Yes, we do. Dinner would be wonderful."
"Great. Here, let me help you."
I was about to protest that I didn't need help to walk, especially not from a weak Midguardian, but as Alex wrapped his arm around my waist to help me walk, the words died in my throat.
"You good?"
I cleared my throat. "Perfectly fine, thank you."
We walked to the kitchen together, and the small dining table was set with places for two. I raised an eyebrow as Alex helped ease me into my seat.
"I was hoping you'd be up by now," explained Alex as he sat opposite me.
"Well, I'm glad you were right." I surveyed the food, and Alex sitting across from me in his little apartment. It all seemed too good to be true. "So, when are you planning on turning me over to my brother?"
Alex looked up from his dinner to give me an incredulous look.
"You seriously think I'm still going to turn you over to your brother?"
"You're a police officer, aren't you?"
He sighed and set down his utensils, looking me dead in the eyes to make his point.
"Look, I get that I should turn you over, but I'm not going to. Don't ask me to explain it because I don't really want to, and I don't even really get why, but just know that you're safe while you're here."
As little sense as it made, I believed him.
I smiled to myself and started eating. What a strange place I now found myself in. Good, at least so far, but strange.
"So, Loki, tell me about yourself—"
Alex was cut off by a knock at the door. His face dropped, and he stood up quickly, looking extremely stressed.
"Stay here and don't make a sound."
He left the room without another word, but of course I wasn't going to listen to that. I was a very curious person, and Midguardians were not allowed to order me around.
I cloaked myself using magic (which was thankfully still working) and followed Alex to his front door. I found a hiding place and dropped my veil, since it was too hard to hold in my current state.
To my horror, Alex opened the door to my brother and his overly patriotic friend standing at the welcome mat.
"Can I help you?" asked Alex, looking calm despite the visitors at his door. My heart raced. Were my senses truly so messed up that I didn't catch this Midguardian lying to me?
"We're looking for my brother," said Thor, not wasting any time. "Some of the other Midguardian rescuers said we should talk to you."
"I can't help you buddy, sorry," said Alex, shaking his head. My heart started racing. He was lying to Thor for me. "I just got off duty, I honestly just sat down to dinner."
"Anybody else in there with you?" asked Captain Spandex, craning his neck to try to see around Alex. "Couple of people said they saw you bringing someone else into your apartment."
"Yeah, my boyfriend," said Alex, sounding slightly annoyed now. "We've both been through a lot today and we were sitting down to a nice dinner, until the two of you knocked on my door."
I had no idea if it was the way he stood his ground against my brother and Captain America, how easily and confidently he lied on the spot, or being called his boyfriend, but I felt my heart start picking up speed as I continued to watch Alex.
Thor started to leave, but Captain Stick in the Mud, damn him, wasn't so easily convinced.
"Do you mind calling your boyfriend over? We're in the middle of a global manhunt, and it would be great to talk to him too."
Alex started to speak, probably to tell the Captain to go to hell (making him instantly more attractive, if that were possible), but I stepped in before he could. It took a lot of effort, but I managed to summon a disguise and hold it. Now no one would be able to recognize me. Not even my own brother.
"Alex? What's the matter?" I asked, coming to the door. Thankfully this Midguardian was just as sharp as he seemed, and he quickly caught on.
"Just telling our city's heroes that Loki's not here. Just me and you." Alex wrapped his arm around me, and I planted a kiss on his forehead. All in the name of a convincing disguise, of course.
"Sorry we couldn't be of more help," I said simply. The Captain and my brother excused themselves, Rogers still looking suspicious. But it didn't matter. There was nothing they could do, at least not right now.
The door closed, and I let my illusion drop. Alex and I started walking back to the dinner table.
"Nice trick," he said, sounding much more nervous now that the danger had passed. I knew that adrenaline dump well.
"Likewise. You're a very impressive liar." Alex grinned as we each took our seats. "And boyfriend?"
Alex flushed an adorableshade of red, and I made up my mind. I liked this Midguardian.
"Well, I mean, they were right at the door, and I had to come up with something, so—"Alex was stuttering, so I cut him off.
"I like the sound of that."
Alex stopped mid-word and looked up at me, a grin to match my own slowly spreading across his face. What started as one of the worst days of my life may yet turn out to be one of the best.
If, someday, my brother and I managed to patch things up, I would have to tell him how terribly wrong I was for mocking him when he fell for the Midguardian.
#marvel#loki#avengers#au#loki imagine#loki fanfic#avengers 2012#loki laufeyson#loki oneshot#request#prince of asgard#god of mischief#chitauri#loki fluff#loki angst#marvel fanfiction#marvel imagine#marvel one shot#asgardian
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SkyFire 1: Chapter 22
The Columbia University Shooting - September 29th, 2015
Word count: 3.7k
SkyFire 1 MASTERLIST
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CW/TW: This chapter contains a mass shooting and the aftermath of that event. It includes details of injuries and blood. None of the main characters die, but please proceed with care if this is something that can be difficult for you. If you want to skip this chapter message me for a summary of the key points
A month into the start of her 3rd year at Columbia, Aurora was sitting in the library with a few friends from one of her painting classes. It was the end of September and they were talking about the fact that she would be at the CMAs in a little over a month. They were chatting happily when the first sound of gunfire rang out, at initially she didn’t realize what it was. Her first thought was that someone had set of firecrackers in the hallway outside the library and then realization dawned. Rori saw the fear in the eyes of other students around her as everyone scrambled for somewhere safe to hide. They’d all run through the drills countless times over the years and every one of them knew what to do, stay away from windows, hide behind something solid and stay quiet. When she’d first moved to America the concept of an active shooter was so foreign but that had been years ago now and there had been countless school shootings across the country since. She could feel her heartbeat in every limb, her breathing rapid and her hands were trembling as she cowered under the table in the library beside her friends. She remembered watching a documentary on the Columbine massacre and let out a small whimper as she remembered those kids also hiding under tables in the library.
Aurora reached for her StarkWatch on her wrist, scrolling through the menu to pull up the panic button Tony had shown her when he’d first designed the product, the same button she’d used the previous year the night that she’d almost been mugged in central park and first met Peter. She hit the button, knowing that JARVIS would alert any Avenger in the state. “J activate Eyes and Ears protocol,” she whispered, ensuring that the AI was now recording everything that the microphone picked up, while muting any and all notifications so as not to draw attention to herself. “Send the following alert to Avengers; There’s a shooter on campus. I’m in the library and they sound like they’re close to…”
She was cut off from continuing her message as a girl let out a shriek of fear nearby when the doors were thrown open and the sound of gunshots echoed off the walls, deafeningly loud. Rori whimpered, clasping one of her hands over her mouth to muffle the sound, the other reaching out to hold onto one of her friends beside her. She listened in horror as the unknown gunman moved from one table to the next, indiscriminately shooting everyone they came across, and eventually their blood stained shoes came into Rori’s view. Her cheeks were damp with falling tears when he ducked down, locking eyes with her as he raised his weapon.
“Please don’t,” she begged helplessly, raising her left hand in front of her as if it could shield her from what came next.
The pain was excruciating, beyond explanation as blood ran down her arm, pooling on the ground. A second wound blossomed across her lower abdomen, quickly soaking through her pale grey sweater. More gun shots continued to ring out as Aurora’s vision became hazy and she fought against the desire to rest. She slumped backwards on the floor as still more blood continued to pool around her, a lot of it her own, but more still coming from her friends.
She was barely holding onto consciousness when Steve found her. He hadn’t even taken the time to suit up when the alert rang out through the tower, sparing only enough time to grab his shield before he was running for the balcony, Tony meeting him there in the Iron Man suit. They flew together, covering the distance in mere minutes, arriving on the campus to hear the discharging of an automatic weapon and the screaming of victims. The police arrived hot on their tales and the couple shared a brief moment to coordinate before heading into the sprawling campus. Tony would seek out the shooter, while Steve would head for the library to find their daughter. The live broadcast from Aurora's watch was playing out over their comms link, so Steve could hear the injured wails surrounding his daughter. His heart had lurched when he’d heard her beg for her life, a sound he knew he would hear in his nightmares, but since then she had been silent. He tried not to think about what that meant, pushing his muscles to the extreme as he sprinted across the campus.
He found her curled up beneath a table, blood soaking through her sweater and her left hand a mangled mess of flesh and bone. He sucked in a deep breath, pushing aside his torment as a father and focusing on the scene as a soldier. He slipped his arm through the straps of the shield, freeing both of his hands and bent down, scooping her up and cradling her against his chest, his white button down shirt instantly turning red with blood. Aurora’s eyes fluttered open briefly as she moaned in pain.
“Pops?” She mumbled, squinting up at him from where her head rested against his shoulder.
“Shhh, I’m here bug,” he soothed, already exiting the library and heading for where the triage point had been set up. “Everything’s gonna be ok.”
xXx
Harry was sitting with Niall on a sofa in the green room of the O2 Arena in London while Louis and Liam were playing table tennis across the room. That night’s show was set to start in a little over 2 hours and there were plenty of people coming and going from the room as the boys relaxed before they had to go out on stage. Harry was laughing at Liam’s failed dive to save a shot when a member of their management team, Dan, rushed into the room.
“Everyone not in the band, out, now!” he yelled. Confused looks were exchanged before the order was followed and within a few minutes the room was empty of everyone except the four boys.
“What’s going on,” Louis asked as he and Liam walked over to join the other two on the sofa.
“I’m not sure how to break this so I’m just going to say it,” Dan said, his gaze nervously flitting to Harry before he looked away. “The news is reporting that there’s been a mass shooting at Columbia University in New York.”
The silence that followed his words was thick in the air. No one moved, barely even breathing as the words slowly settled between them. Louis was the first to recover, quickly looking to Harry in dawning horror as Harry pulled his phone from his pocket, already dialling Aurora’s number. Liam also pulled his phone out, pulling up the latest news report. He gasped in shock when the first article included a photo of Steve carrying Aurora out of a building, blood soaking through both of their outfits.
“Haz,” he whispered, unable to make his voice any louder but not needing to in the dead silence of the room. Harry looked towards Liam, his phone still pressed to his ear as it continued to ring and ring and ring. Liam turned his phone around to show the others the photo, watching as all the colour drained from Harry’s face. He hung up his phone, knowing now that there was no one to answer his call.
“I…” he stammered. “I need to be on a plane.”
“You have a show in 2 hours,” Dan replied.
“Fuck the show!” Louis shouted, causing everyone in the room to jump in response to his outburst. “Get him on a plane, we’ll deal with the show later.”
xXx
The flight was the longest 8 hours of Harry’s life. He’d tried to call both Tony and Steve before he boarded the plane, but when neither answered he’d opened up the JARVIS app that Tony has installed on his phone when he last visited the tower. He informed JARVIS of his flight details and asked the AI to let both of Aurora’s parents know that he was on his away and then he turned his phone to airplane mode and ran his hand over his face, exhausted but unable to sleep. By the time he reached JFK, Harry was unsure how he was still on his feet. He was beyond tired and scared to the point of being sick as he walked through the terminal, his duffle bag hanging from his shoulder, grateful that there weren’t any fans to stop him for a photo. He recognised Happy once he made it to the curb and slipped into the backseat of the town car, closing his eyes as he lent his head back against the seat for the brief moment it took Happy to round the car and climb into the driver’s seat.
“Any news?” he asked.
“She was in surgery last I heard,” Happy told him, swinging the car out into traffic and heading for the hospital. “How are you?”
“Terrified,” Harry said honestly. “Tony and Steve?”
“About the same,” Happy replied.
They lapsed into silence for the rest of the drive and when they finally arrived, Happy walked Harry passed the media camped outside the front doors, waiting for any updates on the survivors.
“They’ve got a private waiting room set up for you guys,” Happy told him once they reached the correct floor. “It’s the second door on the left up there. I’ll go take your things to the tower and then I’ll check in with Pepper.”
“Thanks Hap,” Harry said, offering the man a tired smile before slowly walking down the hall.
When he opened the door, he found most of the Avengers team sprawled out across the hard, unforgiving seats, a few looked up at the sound of his entrance and offered him sad, exhausted nods in greeting. It was Steve who stood and made his way over to Harry. Tony remained in the seat next the one Steve had just vacated, his head buried in his hands, somewhat oblivious to anything around him.
“Harry,” Steve said, pulling him into a hug. “Thanks for coming.”
“Of course,” Harry replied, patting Steve’s back before the pair stepped apart. “How is she?”
“She’s been in surgery for the last few hours and we haven’t had an update yet,” Steve explained, walking Harry back over to where Tony had still yet to move. They both fell into the empty seats on his right. “She was in pretty bad shape by the time we got her here, but the doctors seem pretty confident that she’ll be ok.”
Harry didn’t realise he’d been holding his breath until he heard Steve say that Rori would be ok. He let the air rush out of his lungs as a sob burst from his lips. Steve placed a comforting hand on the younger man’s shoulder as he finally let out all the built up emotion that he’d been desperately holding back since he’d first seen the photo of Aurora ,unconscious and blood-drenched in her father’s arms. His sobs echoed around the room, filled with all the fear that had been building for hours and the relief that his worst nightmare had not become a reality.
“I thought I was gonna be too late,” Harry confessed when he finally regained enough composure to speak. “I was terrified that by the time I got here she’d be gone.”
“She’s gonna be ok,” Steve promised, wrapping his arms around Harry and hugging the young man again. “Our girls a fighter.”
“I love her so much, Steve,” Harry whispered. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her.”
“We know,” Steve replied, his voice also soft in the quiet room. “Everything’ll be ok. You’ll see.”
xXx
A few more hours passed before a surgeon came out to explain Aurora’s condition to them. She’d sustained serious damage to her left arm below the elbow, with much of the limb needing to be reconstructed with future surgeries. She had also been shot in the upper arm and shoulder, both wounds being less severe through-and-throughs, however her collar bone had been broken, as had her shoulder blade. While most of her injuries were confined to her left arm, one bullet had pierced her lower abdomen, causing a wound that had been the main focus of her time in the operating theatre. The surgeon explained that given the circumstances that she had been incredibly lucky that none of bullets had impacted any of her vital organs and that she was now being transferred into a recovery ward.
A nurse had come in half an hour later to escort them to Aurora’s room and the rest of the team had headed home. Tony, Steve and Harry were slumped in uncomfortable plastic chairs at Aurora’s bedside when she finally awoke from the anaesthetic.
She was disorientated at first, groggy from the anaesthetic and confused by the harsh fluorescent lighting. All three men surged forward out of their seats as she started to wake, rushing to her side immediately. Her eyes flitted from her fathers to Harry before she burst into tears. Harry reacted quicker than either of the other two men, gently wrapping his arms around her, cautious of her injuries, and pulled her against his chest as she gasped for breath.
“I thought I’d never see you again,” she sobbed.
“I’m right here,” Harry soothed. “You’re ok. I’m here. Everything’s going to be fine.”
“I love you Harry,” she continued. “I love you so much, I was so scared.”
“God, I love you too,” Harry replied. “More than anything. I love you, you’re safe now. I won’t let anything else happen to you. I love you.”
He kept whispering his promises and confessions of love until her breathing finally calmed and he loosened his hold on her just enough to turn her towards her fathers.
“Please don’t scare me like that again kiddo,” Tony begged, his own tears welling in his eyes as he gazed at his daughter. “We can’t lose you, ok?”
She nodded silently, tears dripping down her cheeks as she leant away from Harry’s chest and reached her uninjured hand out towards her dad, urging him to move forward and pull her into a hug. Steve added his arms around them both and Harry watched on as the small family held each other close, trying not to think of what the alternative scene would have looked like.
xXx
For the next 3 days following the shooting, Aurora found herself meeting with one surgeon after another, first discussing the recovery process for the abdominal wound and her broken collar bone and shoulder blade, and then they were making plans to reconstruct her hand and forearm. The initial surgery had merely stopped the bleeding and stabilized the bones to avoid further damage but as the doctors explained, more surgeries would be needed if she wanted to regain use of the limb. 2 days after the shooting Aurora went back into the OR to have a steel rod inserted where her radius and ulna used to form her forearm and countless plates, pins and screws were imbedded into her hand to stabilize the shattered bones and torn muscles.
While she was in surgery, Steve and Tony went back to the tower to shower, change clothes and update the team while Harry remained in the waiting room having refused when both men had tried to convince him to go with them. Instead he used the time to call Louis, filling him in on everything the doctors had told them and getting updates on the status of the tour he was currently missing. They had 2 shows out of 6 to go in London when Harry had left, and those along with the Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham shows had all been postponed. Louis told Harry that they were rescheduling the shows for the week following the Sheffield shows that were originally slated to be the end of the tour. This left Harry with 2 weeks in New York before he needed to fly back, although Louis promised that if he needed longer, they would make it work.
The morning after her second surgery, Aurora was sitting up in hospital bed, checking social media on her phone, while Harry sat on the side of her bed with her and Tony and Steve sat against the nearby wall in the uncomfortable plastic chairs. They were interrupted when a nurse came in to start the paperwork for her discharge and Tony followed her out of the room. Once he was gone Steve announced that he was going to go get everyone coffee and he invited Harry to join him. At first, he had declined, arguing that he would stay with Aurora until she pushed him to go.
“I’ll be alright for 10 minutes while you get coffee H,” she said. “Go stretch your legs. Promise I’ll be here when you get back.”
Reluctantly Harry had agreed and followed Steve out of the room and down the hall.
The moment the door closed behind them; Aurora burst into tears. She’d been holding it in until that moment, knowing that if she cracked in front of any of the three men hovering over her, she would only cause them to worry and she knew that they had worried enough in the past few days to last a lifetime.
Aurora was crying softly when Tony walked back into the hospital room and at first, he didn’t say anything. He just sat down next to her on the bed and let her lean into him, his arms wrapping around her and holding her gently as she gasped for breath. By the time she pulled herself together, Tony’s eyes were shut, and he was humming softly, his lips pressed into her hair.
“Every time I close my eyes, I’m back in the library,” she whispered, “and I feel like I can’t breathe, and my chest is so tight it feels like my heart’s about to burst.”
“Sounds like a panic attack,” Tony told his daughter. “I had them after the wormhole.”
“You did? How come I never knew?”
“I didn’t want to worry you,” he admitted, “and I was ashamed. I shouldn’t have been, but I was. I thought I should have been stronger, and I was scared to let you see me be weak.”
“What made them stop?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper but hope clear in her tone.
“It’s still there,” he admitted. “I’m not sure it will ever fully go away, but it got better when I talked about it. Wilson’s offered to help. You know he worked at Veteran Affairs back in DC helping soldiers with PTSD?”
“I’m not a soldier,” Aurora replied.
“But you did experience something pretty traumatic.”
“You want me to talk to him, don’t you?”
“I want to help you get through this.”
“I don’t know how to talk about it. I don’t even want to think about it.”
“We don’t have to do anything right away,” Tony promised. “Let’s get you home first and then you can sit down with Sam and just see how it goes. Sound like a plan?”
She nodded in agreement, pressing her cheek back against his chest, finding comfort in the soft hum emanating from the Arc reactor lodged next to her ear. By the time Harry and Steve returned, Aurora was sleeping soundly, and Tony was reading up on PTSD treatments on his phone. Steve passed him a coffee, placing a kiss on to his temple before slipping into the seat next to him. Harry sunk into the empty seat on the other side of Rori’s hospital bed, pulling out his own phone to update the boys on Rori’s condition and letting them know that she was being discharged later that afternoon.
xXx
Aurora was relieved when Happy pulled the town car into the tower’s underground carpark and she let Harry help her out of the car and into the elevator. She leaned heavily against him as Tony and Steve joined them and the car slowly ascended to the penthouse apartment. She was exhausted and was grateful for Harry’s strong arms holding her up by the time the doors opened. They stepped out together and slowly made their way over to the nearby sofa. After helping her to ease herself down onto the cushions, Harry excused himself for a moment.
“I’m just gonna go grab something from my bag,” he announced heading off down the hallway to where his bag had been left in Aurora’s room. Tony helped Rori get herself comfortable on the sofa with her legs propped up on the edge of the coffee table and a small cushion placed between her arm and stomach to take the pressure off of her sutures. Steve pulled a soft blanket off the back of the sofa and draped it over her lap and when Harry returned to the living room, both Steve and Tony excused themselves, leaving the young couple alone.
“You get whatever you needed?” Rori asked her boyfriend, watching as he stepped up to stand between the coffee table and where she sat, but instead of sitting down next to her like she expected him to, he dropped down on one knee. Rori’s breath stuck in her throat as Harry held the ring box open in front of him, a soft smile stretching across his face, making his dimples pop and his eyes shine.
“Aurora Louise Stark, I love you so much,” he began softly. “Loving you and being loved by you has made me the happiest and the luckiest man on earth. I’ve wanted to ask you this for so long now and I was waiting for us to be together again at Christmas to finally ask you, but things haven’t gone the way any of us expected. I spent 8 hours on a plane fearing that by the time I got here I’d be too late, and I just kept thinking that I couldn’t lose you. I couldn’t imagine my life without you, and I don’t ever want to find out what that would be like. I want to spend every minute of every day of the rest of our lives making sure you know how much I love you. Rori, will you marry me?”
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#skyfire#skyfire fic#aurora stark#dad!tony#iron dad#step dad steve rogers#stony#stony fic#boyfriend harry styles#harry styles fanfiction#superfamily#harry styles#tony stark#school shooting#mass shooting
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