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dreamlessinparis · 3 years

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Set My World Ablaze

Summary: Being in love with your best friend is always a struggle, especially when she has no idea. Or so you think.

Pairing: Wanda x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 3522

Warning: smut, angst, sexual tension, f/f, language, Wanda Maximoff (she's babe and thus a warning), alcohol, fluff, friends to lovers, 18+, DNI if you're a minor

A/N: This is my submission for @msmarvelwrites 2k writing challenge and the song prompt that I based this on was Dress. I'm obsessed with this song and I knew I wanted to write this story from the very beginning. It just took me a bit longer than I anticipated because I kept fighting with myself over it

if you’re a minor, please DNI!

Please do not repost, publish or translate my work. Reblogs and comments are appreciated! Thank you for reading :)

Wanda’s fingers ran through your hair, as she created an intricate updo on top of your head. Your eyes fluttered shut, savoring the feeling of her nimble fingers in your long tresses.

“You gonna fall asleep on me, lovely?” Her melodic voice questioned, her Sokovian accent sending a thrill up your spine. You couldn’t help it, you were in love with your best friend and she was the only one who didn’t know.

Ever since Wanda had joined the team, you two were inseparable. Initially having bonded over your similar powers, the friendship quickly grew. Now two years later, and that feeling of friendship had bloomed into something more. At least for you. Every day you fell more and more in love with her.

Every time Wanda entered the room, your heart skipped a beat and sometimes you found yourself staring at her until someone nudged you out of your stupors. Luckily you were able to shield her from reading your thoughts or your friendship would long have been ruined. She didn’t feel that way for you and you knew she never would.

“Honey?” she questioned again.

“Mhmm?” you mumbled, drawing a sweet giggle out of her.

“Are you falling asleep, darling?”

“Yess,” You nodded, eyes still shut.

“Well you’re gonna have to wake up because I’m all done.”

“Noooooo,” you groaned, head falling back into her lap. She leaned forward, her beautiful hair creating a cocoon around you two. “You can’t be done, it feels too good!”

Smiling, she kissed your nose and gently moved your head, so she could get up.

“I have magic fingers,” she smirked, wiggling her fingers at you. You chuckled, her playful antics were rarely present these days, the stress of all these missions getting to you all.

“Yes you do, now come back and continue your magic finger treatment,” you pouted.

She shook her hand, “I can’t babe, I promised Vision I would train with him. But I promise tonight we can have a movie night, just the two of us!”

Getting off the ground, you followed her out, walking with her to the training room

“Sounds great, but we can’t tonight. Tony’s throwing that extravagant party, celebrating that one mission we didn’t die on, remember?” The one you still had to find a dress for.

“Oh no, you’re right! I completely forgot about that!” Wanda exclaimed. She suddenly gripped your arm, stopping you. “We should go together! That way neither one of us will be alone!”

Her words hurt your heart because you knew she didn’t mean it as you wanted her to, but nonetheless, you plastered a smile on and agreed quickly, before excusing yourself.

Natasha was leaning by your door as you approached and she pushed off the wall, trailing you into the room.

“You know you should just tell her how you feel?” she said, as you plopped down on your couch in a huff.

“Tell who what?” you asked, playing dumb. Nat gave you a ‘seriously’ look and you shook your head “I can’t tell her. She sees me as a friend, that’s all. And I love her too much to lose her.”

“So you choose to be unhappy.”

“You know better than all of us, that us avengers rarely find happiness,” you joked, and she shoved you playfully.

“Oh shut up!” she chuckled. “We should find you an amazing dress for tonight, that’ll help you feel like yourself again.”

You shrugged, sure that she was right but your heart just wasn’t in it. Alas, you let her drag you out to go shopping. Armed with Tony’s credit card, she found a cute boutique that was very misleading because you knew if you looked at any of the tags, you’d had a heart attack.

Watching as she tore through the racks of dresses, you sat on a comfy poof with a champagne flute in hand. She was a menace, throwing dress after dress in a pile you knew she was gonna make you try.

Shaking your head, you stood up and began scanning through the dresses yourself, running your hand over the material. A burgundy dress caught your eye, the satiny material, cut in a deep v, tight but not too tight with a slit up the thigh. It was beautiful.

You snuck into the back without alerting Nat, and into a dressing room. The dress fit perfectly, hugging every curve of your body and for a second you imagined Wanda seeing you in this and falling head over heels in love with you. Oh, a girl could dream, couldn’t she?

“Y/n? Where did you go?” you hear Natasha call out and peeked your head out of the room.

“Back here, Nat. I found a dress,” you hollered back. She let out a frustrated huff, knowing her efforts were wasted on you. You exited the dressing room and her eyes widened as she took in your silhouette.

“Wow! I’m impressed, you did almost as good of a job as I would have,” Nat said, crossing her arms and leaning against the door frame. “Now if you let me do your hair and makeup, I’m sure we can make Wanda not know what hit her.”

You quickly threw a hanger at her, which she dodged effortlessly, laughing as she left you to change.

The shopping trip didn’t last long after that, as you came to the counter to find Nat with her dress and a pair of heels for you. She was lucky you were very dexterous, otherwise, you would fall flat on your face in those shoes and what kind of impression would you make then?

“Okay Nat, you’re overdoing it, I can feel it,” you complained, as she ran the brush along your cheekbones in feather light motions. She tsked you, ignoring your billionth complaint of the night. “Natttttt!” “Stop complaining or I will mess up and we’ll have to start all over,” She threatened. A light knock interrupted your rebuttal and you both looked at the door. “There, you’re all done,” she smiled, booping you on the nose with the brush before she took the cloth off, the one she had tied around your neck to avoid messing up your dress with makeup.

“Finally!” you said exasperatedly, heading to the door. You opened it to reveal Wanda in a pretty rose gold dress, the v of the dress was nearly down to her navel, accentuating the slopes of her breasts and tiny waist, the sequins were scattered with a few in flower shapes, all catching the light with each movement. She looked like an absolute goddess with her long hair in loose waves. The smile she gave you lit up her entire face, causing your heart to race.

“Wow, you look beautiful!” She exclaimed pulling the rather speechless you into a tight hug. You hoped she couldn’t feel your raging heartbeat. Natasha laughed under her breath, covering it up as a cough and you quickly flipped her the bird from behind Wanda’s back.

“Thank you, Wanda. So do you,” you managed to get out without stumbling over your words. A quick round of applause, ladies and gentlemen! You pulled away from her and the three of you headed downstairs.

Natasha conveniently leaving the two of you to join Steve at the bar. Bruce was in charge of drinks tonight so you knew you’d most likely be hungover in the morning. That man did not know how to portion alcohol appropriately.

Wanda scanned the room, her arm looped through yours, waving to some of your friends. She pulled you alongside her as she came to the group of couches where Bucky, Sam, and Vision sat.

“Doll, that dress is immaculate,” Bucky complimented as you sat down next to him with Wanda beside you. Vision pulled Wanda into a discussion about their workout earlier and you turned your attention to Sam and Bucky.

“Thanks, Buck! Nat and I went shopping this afternoon,” you said, smiling at the super-soldier. You couldn’t deny that he was a god of a man and you probably checked him out almost as much as you did Wanda. Bucky Barnes was a gift to womankind and he knew it.

His eyes looked you over and you leaned forward a bit, placing your purse on the coffee table, causing his eyes to wander to your cleavage.

“Well you two did a great job picking out dresses,” He replied, eyes reluctantly leaving your chest. His eyes glanced over your shoulders and widened briefly, before returning to you nervously. You turned to look over your shoulder, only seeing Wanda talking with Vision and a room full of people mingling. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Bucky still looked a bit spooked when you return to him but as the conversation flows, him and Sam have you laughing uncontrollably. At some point, Wanda brought you a drink, and another and another until your whole body felt so hot and your dress felt like it was smothering you.

You leaned back into her, her sweet scent enveloping you like a warm hug. She giggled at something Bucky said or didn’t say, you weren’t exactly sure at this point, and wrapped her arm around your shoulder, hand resting by your breast.

“And that’s when I had to intervene, you know? Or Steve was going to get his ass handed to him for the last time,” Bucky chuckled recalling a time when Steve got his ass kicked. Steve tossed a pillow at him as the crowd laughed along with Bucky. Those two were probably the only ones not hammered at this point.

“I’m gonna get another drink,” you said, your words only slightly slurred. You could handle your alcohol well, but you were still quite tipsy and as you went to stand up, you wobbled. Wanda’s hand shot out, her powers wrapped around your waist, holding you steady. You gained your footing, nodding thanks to her, and headed carefully to the bar.

“I need another drink please, good sir,” you said, leaning haphazardly against the bar. Bruce’s lip quirked up in a half-smile as he handed you a pink concoction. You took it without question and started sipping, resting against the counter as you looked around the now practically empty room. Only the Avengers and close friends were left; it was always your favorite time of the night when it was just all of you having a good time.

“I think it’s time to head to bed, love,” Wanda’s accented voice whispered in your ear, her warm breath trailing along your skin, raising goosebumps on your flesh.

“Bed?” you asked confused. “You’re going to take me to bed?” the lack of filter elevated by the alcohol in your system.

“If that’s what you want, baby,” she said, “You don’t think I don’t see the way you look at me. The way you watch me, the way you stumble over your words when I’m around.”

You backed away from her, thinking she was mocking you, that she had made it through your mental barriers. “Wanda, don’t,” you whispered, shaking your head. She tilted her head to the side, in that cute way that she does and grabbed your hands.

“I want you, y/n. I’m not messing with you. I want you too.” she reassured you, pulling you closer to her until her arms wrapped around your waist. Her fingers lingered over the bare skin of your back as she drew shapes on your skin, calming you almost instantly.

“Really?” you said, feeling ridiculous at how pathetic you sounded.

She leaned in, placing a sweet kiss on your lips and you whimpered against her lips. The kiss was electrifying, just the feeling of her against you ignited a dormant spark in you. Tugging you closer, she pressed herself against you. She tugged on your bottom lip as she separated from you. “Really, love. I almost took Barnes out earlier for the way he was staring.”

“You’re the one who spooked him?” you questioned. She nodded, with a wicked smile.

“Ever since I saw you in that dress, all I’ve wanted to do is peel it off you and if I wasn’t doing, no one else was going to.”

Lips to her ears, you said “Well good because I only bought this dress so you could take it off.”

Grinning like a Cheshire cat, Wanda grabbed your hand, and the two of you made your way to the elevator, giggling the whole way there. Oblivious to anything else. You were sure Natasha was probably smirking knowingly while the rest just stared.

The two of you barely made it to the bedroom when you pressed Wanda into a wall, slotting your thigh between hers.

“I don’t want you like a best friend. I haven’t for a long time,” you admitted against her lips before pulling her into a passionate kiss. Wanda’s hands grasped at the ample flesh of your ass, as she ground herself on your thigh.

Your hand cupped her face, holding her close, pausing for a moment to take her in, the moonlight from the window caressing the line of her throat, the swell of her heaving chest, the glimmer of her sequined dress.

Her fingers danced up your torso to the zipper on your side, lowering it with ease, before sliding the straps down your shoulders. You shimmied out of the dress and helped her slip her dress off, leaving you both in nothing but your panties.

Dresses discarded on the floor, you pulled her close, pressing your lips to Wanda’s neck. Her breasts bouncing lightly, her cheeks flushed, sweet nothings whispering from her lips, as she let her head fall back. Your lips sank lower, down to her breast, teasing one pebble-hard nipple, circling it with your tongue.

She pushed you onto the bed and you groaned as her teeth nipped at your neck. She crushed you to her, settling between your legs, skin to skin, every sweet curve at her fingertips. The red hue of her powers danced along your skin, making every part of you tingle. The added sensations made your back arch, your skin gliding along hers. Her fingertips dragged down your ribs, over the swell of your hips, finally brushing along the inside of your thighs.

A thrill sizzled up your spine and her eyes darkened at the sight of you. She was enjoying the way you were coming apart for her, unabashed and wanting.

“Wanda, I -” you panted as you felt Wanda drawing tight, firm circles over your clit with her clever fingers. She kept her pace steady, listening to you moan in time to her fingers.

It was truly like nothing you had ever known, even with previous lovers. The jolting current of her fingers combined with the soft kisses along your collarbones, your neck, your breasts. You mewled as she pulled a nipple into her mouth, lathing it with her tongue. You felt like time stood still, nothing but her teasing tongue and your breathless sighs, a heat building between your legs, setting your whole body aflame.

“Oh Wanda, yes,” you whispered.

“You like that, pretty baby?”

“Don’t stop,’’ you pleaded. She kissed you swallowing your pleas, your moans, all your sweet sounds. Her lips were like honey, warm and soft against yours. Your body writhing beneath her as Wanda’s fingers rolled over your swollen bud.

“I want to taste you,” She breathed, nuzzling into the valley of your breasts. You nodded, rapidly, the feel of her fingers making you yearn for more. You needed her mouth on you soon, before you lost it.

Kissing down your body, slow as melting ice, she ran her tongue along your sweat-beaded skin, her hand still strumming between your thighs. She pressed long, languid kisses on your belly, your hips, tracing around your navel with the tip of her tongue.

Spreading out your thighs with her hands, you laid splayed out on the bed before her. She watched you with a fierce look in her eye and her eyes drifted down to your silken softness, drenched in your slick. She moved slowly, running her tongue through your folds, flickering in and out.

You mewled and sighed, hips grinding, your hands in her hair, pulling her in tighter. Wanda moaned against you, feeling consumed by the taste of you, thirsty, starving for the flood of nectar on her tongue.

With a wave of her hand, she wrapped her powers around your breasts, pinching and rolling at the swollen nipples. The abundance of pleasure was quickly hurdling you towards the edge. You lost yourself as Wanda went to work in earnest, eyes rolling back in your head, fingers gripping the sheets blindly as you urged her on.

Your sounds made Wanda feel all-powerful, her every movement, every flick of her tongue or touch of her lips drawing out a groan, whispered pleas, a tremor running down the length of your body. With every drag of her tongue, your moans grew louder, longer until her tongue flicked over your pulsing bud, causing your body to tense up like a bowstring, spine arching. Your thighs clamped on either side of Wanda’s head, every muscle taut and shaking as your toes curled and you shrieked loudly.

Your whole body fell limp in the breathless aftermath, Wanda lapping up your release, tracing light circles over you, savoring your taste. Grinning mischievously she sank her tongue deeper into your petals, making you groan and reach for her head.

“Enough, gorgeous, enough,” you begged, pulling her back up your body. You enfolded her in your arms, your bodies melding into one as you flipped her over. Her legs wrapped around your waist as she kissed you feverishly, a long hungry kiss. You could taste yourself on her lips and you groaned, sucking on her bottom lip. Wanda smacked your ass, making you gasp and bite her lip, almost drawing blood.

“That was incredible,” she breathed out, licking her lips.

“Beginner’s luck?” you smirked down at her and she snarled in response.

“I didn’t hear any complaints,” she rebutted. “If you’re so cocky about it, love, why don’t you show me how it’s done?”

You kissed down her jawline, and she craned her head back, giving you full access to her neck. Your lips drifted down her throat, teeth grazing over her pulse point. Your fingernails traced lines of lust down her body, to her inner thighs.

“Say please” you taunted, kissing along her heated skin, nibbling marks on her gorgeous peaks. Your tongue flicked over a hardened nipple and Wanda whimpered, arching into you. You continued your descend down, situating yourself in between her thighs.

“W-what?” she panted.

“Say,” you whispered, nipping at the divet of her thigh and her sex. “Please.”

Wanda was hard-headed and stubborn, never one to bow down to anyone, but the way your fingers danced over her, light as a breeze, Wanda felt her belly begin to tighten as your tongue drew a tightening spiral around her clit.

“Say it,” you whispered again, flicking your tongue in a quick motion. The ache between her hips was a sweet agony, her heart pounding in her chest.

“Wanda, baby, say please and...” the light brush of your tongue, made her buck and shiver, “...I’ll give you what you want.”

Wanda lifted her heavy head, looking down the length of her body to you, ready to devour her. Anticipation was making it hard for her to breathe, eyes fluttering closed, she let her head fall back as she gave herself over to you entirely.

“Please.” Wanda panted.

A low, broken moan escaped her lips as you went to work, lips and tongues dancing through her folds. She had no idea where you had learned your skills, and any ex-lovers who may have had this pleasure from you, were now on Wanda’s hit list. She felt herself get wetter, her heat pulsed with every brush of your tongue. The bedsheet twisted in her fist as you slid a finger inside her, curling, coaxing, stroking against the spot that made her see stars.

The rhythm of your tongue matched your touch, and a second finger joined the first. Her back arched, lifting her hips to ground against your face, hands snarled in your hair. Wanda’s hips bucked wildly, and stars bloomed in her vision as your lips wrapped around your clit, sucking hard. The heat inside her burst into ravenous flames and she lost herself, her mouth open in a soundless scream.

Coming down from her blinding high, Wanda felt you beside her, soft lips leaving sweet kisses on her face, and finally her lips. You hooked a leg over hers, and she wrapped an arm around you, tugging you close. Nuzzled into her, you basked in her warm embrace.

“I hope you know I’m not letting you go. You’re mine.” Wanda said softly. You kissed her neck and hummed in approval.

“All yours,” you vowed, slowly beginning to doze off, her hand stroking your hair.

“Maybe next time, we’ll invite Bucky to join,” was the last thing you hear before sleep pulled you under.

Taglist:

@fuckandfluff @caffiend-queen @jobean12-blog

#wanda maximoff x reader #wanda maximoff smut #wanda x reader #marvel fanfiction #msmarvel2kchallenge #dress by taylor swift

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tryingmyves · 3 years

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Girl All the Bad Guys Want

okay i won’t lie, i remembered this song exists and i could not get the idea of a badboy!iida out of my head

this is a bit self indulgent because i was definitely that girl in hs lmaoooo

anyhow hopefully y’all like it too

PAIRING: Iida x Y/N

cw: badboy!iida

✨ tagging the iida army: @coleluuviida + @saturnity + @peachiileaf ✨

You have a reputation at UA, mostly with the male students. It isn’t something you put effort into maintaining or even something you cultivated on purpose, but you’ve gained some notoriety amongst your peers. At first glance, you don’t seem too different from your female classmates. You certainly don’t feel superior or disparate from them, but you’ve also never quite felt like you belonged with them. You don’t excel at being soft and demure, and you refuse to shrink yourself down in order to make others more comfortable in your presence. You spit in the face of all the things typically expected of a lady. And frankly, you’re more than a bit awkward when you hangout with the girls from your class. They always invite you to their sleepovers and shopping trips, and try to engage you in their conversations, but you’re always worried about saying the wrong thing or accidentally offending them. You’re never really able to add anything of value when they talk about the boys in your class - a recurring subject. Mina knows everything about everyone in class; she loves to gossip. It’s like her horns serve as antennae and pick up on all the juiciest secrets. She is always interrogating the other girls about their crushes but you just never really felt that way about anyone. Honestly, you find the conversations about who likes who to be a bit boring. You typically end up hanging out with Bakugo, Kirishima, and the rest of that squad. Boys are just easier to be around. They don’t get offended at your crass comments and your sometimes gruff disposition looks outright friendly next to Bakugo.

Your undeniably attractive appearance, unquestionable skill with your quirk, and nonchalant attitude have landed you in the sights of several of your fellow UA students. You are the embodiment of do no harm, but take no shit and something about you is intoxicating. Mina frequently jokes with you about how the entirety of the Bakusquad is duking it out to see who gets to ask you out first. You roll your eyes at her, convinced she’s imagining things. But in reality you’re just clueless. As cliché as it is, you really are the girl all the bad guys want. Too bad you didn’t want them back.

What you didn’t expect with your tough exterior, competitive nature, and tendency to slack off on class work is that class rep, Tenya Iida, would want you too. God, not even he expected it but he had fallen hard. You frustrate him. You’re just as smart as Yaomomo or Todoroki, but you skate by in class. You don’t outwardly disrespect authority, but you won’t blindly accept orders just because someone says so. He thinks the rap metal music you listen to while training is abrasive and doesn’t understand why all your favorite artists sound like they’re mad at their fathers. He finally gave up on lecturing you on the fact that the fishnets you wear with your uniform are not regulation and he was still wrestling with how he felt about learning you were one of the students caught at a dorm party with alcohol a few weeks ago. More than anything he hates that you’ve so effortlessly got him pining for you and you haven’t even noticed. Iida loves the rules! Order, structure, regulation - these are the things that Iida covets, so why was he craving the taste of your lips on his?

He is tired of silently lusting after you, and decides he’s going to try actively pursuing you instead. Tenya thinks that you like “bad boys” so as foreign as the concept is to him, he concludes he’s going to have to take on that persona. He starts off simply, making a playlist of songs he’s heard you blaring from your dorm. He eases himself into your music, starting with Linkin Park and Korn, before adding Incubus, Machine Head, and even some ICP to the mix. He’s hesitant at first… the music just sounds so hostile and aggressive to him. But soon he finds himself relishing the fierce energy the songs give him. Tenya gets why you train to this sort of music, his workouts becoming more intense than ever. They end in his chest heaving and his hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. His muscular calves throb vigorously after every run and he feels powerful. It gives him a new found confidence that he strategically channels into his interactions with you. For class today, Aizawa simply instructs you all to pair off and spar. You’re about to ask Sero to partner with you when he approaches.

“Y/N. You’re with me.” Tenya doesn’t ask, he’s telling you you’re his partner.

A small sound of surprise leaves your throat at his unexpected forcefulness, but you don’t question it. You just nod, giving a small shrug to Sero before following the class rep to a vacant spot of the training gym.

You look over your challenger, rolling your head on your shoulders a few times to loosen up. “Don’t expect me to go easy on you. You asked for this,” you smirk, bringing your fists up in a defensive stance.

Before you can even blink, Tenya has closed the 10 foot gap between you, sweeping a long leg beneath yours in a circular motion, knocking you off your feet. You land with a thud on your back and the air in your lungs is forced out with a nmph.

“Just try to keep up, Y/N.”

Oh, it’s on. Previously you found Iida’s flustered demeanor around you endearing. But this new, assertive, almost cocky disposition is irresistible. His momentum propels him in a circle while he stays anchored in place on his massive left thigh. As he finishes turning through the motion he reaches forward hoping to pin your arms to the ground, but you’re just getting started. You plant the palms of your hands on either side of your face and kick up from the ground with a boost from your quirk. The added flow of air thrusts your legs up and over your head so you are now standing once more. You are sure that the soles of your shoes connect with Iida’s face during your arch through the air.

“It’s not going to be that easy, specs,” you taunt. Now it’s your turn.

You launch yourself at Tenya, closing the small gap between the pair of you in an instant. He extends a locked arm to block your approach but you simply dip your head, gliding underneath and down the length of his limb until you are just one step behind him. You pivot on your right foot as you swing your left arm across your body. Your open palm lands just between Tenya’s shoulder blades, your natural momentum accompanied by a gale force wind. The impact knocks him off his feet and sends him toppling forward. Tenya’s speed is unmatched and his large frame is covered in tone muscle, but with the addition of the very air around you, your strikes are ferocious. Your air quirk aids in your mobility, but you’ve used it to master hand to hand combat. You dominate in tight quarters, so you just need to keep Tenya close. He’s already returned to his feet, calculating his next move. The moment ‘s hesitation creating an opening for your right shin to collide with his side. Tenya growls through gritted teeth in response to the blow and the feral vibrations send shivers down your spine. Instead of recoiling from your attack Tenya’s hands clamp onto your shoulders like vices. His brows are furrowed in smug determination, and he practically sneers “Recipro Burst!”

You are propelled backwards rapidly, the gym surrounding you flashing by in a blur, the only thing you're able to see clearly is the dark glint in Tenya’s eyes and the zealous grin on his lips. You try to activate your quirk to counter his momentum, but it’s futile, he is pushing you backwards so quickly you can’t manipulate any of the air whizzing past you. Your back is suddenly pinned to the back wall of the gym, Tenya’s large hands holding your slender wrists to the concrete wall. He places a muscular thigh between your legs so his left knee is pressed to the wall as well - he has you completely immobilized. Both of your chests are heaving, your faces no more than three inches from one another. You don’t know what possesses you but you smash your lips to his, desperate to close the miniscule gap between you.

Tenya’s body stiffens in shock for a moment before he opens his mouth, snaking his tongue past your lips. You wrench your hands from his grip, placing one on the back of his neck and tangling the other in the mess of his navy hair. You didn’t expect the class rep to be such an amazing kisser, but when he catches your bottom lip between his teeth you can’t contain the soft moan that escapes you. Tenya swallows your noises and begins to pull away. Your lips hungrily follow after him, but you’re stopped when one of his calloused hands rests on your neck with just enough force to hold you in place.

“Such public displays of desire are unbecoming of future heroes, Y/N. Come to my room this evening and we can finish this privately.” And with that, Tenya separates himself from you completely, already settling into a stance that signals he is ready to continue sparring.

#tenya iida #tenya x reader #tenya x y/n #iida x reader #iida x y/n #iida simps come and get y'all juice #my hero academia #mha #bnha #boku no hero #boku no hero academia #badboy!au #badboy!iida #by ves #mha imagines #bnha imagines #fan fic writing #fan fic blog

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alphabravocharliedelta · 3 years

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Therefore I Am | Russell Adler x Bell! Reader VIII

Series: Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

Therefore I Am | Russell Adler x Bell! Reader

Chapter VIII

Word Count: 6200+

[Chapter VII] [Chapter IX]

Summary: After somehow reconciling with Adler, Bell and the team are left to continue their pursuit of bringing down the undercover spy ring, but it proves to be more of a challenge as Bell struggles to move on from their Perseus-affiliated past.

Content Warning: mature content, vulgar language, mention of drugs, torture

Notes: As mentioned, huge time skip! I also apologize in advance for writing this but at the same time... Yeah, have fun. Thanks for making it this far though!

[Y/N] “Bell” [L/N]

January, 1984

CIA Safehouse, West Berlin

"We’re going to be a bit busy this month, Bell. Are you sure you can handle the safehouse alone?”

You roll your eyes at Adler’s worries. “It’s just one month. Nothing to worry about if you guys do your jobs, right?”

It didn't settle his anxiousness. Adler's been rather nitpicky leading up to this day, making sure nothing was out of place, and that everything was accounted for. Now, he was talking to you as if it was your first time staying home alone.

“The phone is right there." He points to the landline on the table. "Sims will be in charge of communications between us, so give him a call if anything happens. We'll try to update you on what's going on with our end, but no guarantees.”

“Fine." You close the fridge, unscrewing the cap to the water bottle you just took out. "I still don’t get as to why I can’t go along, but have fun I guess.”

“You’re not going anywhere with that leg of yours.”

“It’s healed already!”

The entire team shuffles out the door, and you could hear their vehicles start up. Adler lingers behind at the doorway, watching you gulp down some water. You eyed him curiously, before tossing the plastic away. “Don’t you have to go?”

Adler adjusts the strap of his bag on his shoulder and straightens up slightly. “I was thinking… When we come back, I can take you somewhere."

A smile tugs at your lips. “Is that your way of apologizing for not bringing me to D.C.?”

“You can say that.”

“Is that a date then?”

“I’ll leave that up to you.”

“God, get a fucking room!” you hear Woods howl from outside.

Adler tilts his head slightly over his shoulder, slight annoyance written on his face, before resuming. "There's a couple CIA associates that's going to visit the safehouse a few days. You're technically not supposed to be here, so try to stay out of their way."

"If they stay out of mine."

He gives you a final lookover, before parting off and getting into the driver's seat of his car.

You watched as he pulled away from the driveway, waving farewell to your teammates before closing the door. Now, it was just you and the safehouse in West Berlin.

Adler, along with the rest of the team, were called back into the Pentagon to go over the upcoming operation consisting of the prison transport. You couldn't exactly tag along since, of course, since you're technically dead. Adler said he would pull a few strings to birth you a real identity and all (like he'd done before) but so far nothing led up to him fulfilling that promise… yet.

Not all of them were going to Washington though, a couple being relieved of their duties for a short vacation. Mason didn’t give you much details when he left the first week of December, confidentiality and privacy a part of it, but you knew that you, in the end, were going nowhere. You also heard that Hudson took a small leave to spend time with his family (you didn’t even know he had one).

It didn't help that you also sustained several injuries from a mission one month ago, where NATO decided to attack a Soviet missile convoy out of spite for what they did to their training facility in November. To put it short, you took a good tumble down the snowy cliffside while providing overwatch for the team, and gained a small concussion and a fracture in your leg. It wasn't as bad as it seemed, but it was enough to make you limp a couple weeks.

You weren't supposed to be there, but you managed to convince Hudson to slip you into the strike team. Needless to say, Adler had ripped you a new one post-mission upon finding you lying on the ground underneath a pile of snow.

"How the hell did you fall off?"

"Someone snuck up on me. Don't worry though, I took him with me. Now are you going to help me up?"

The lecture that followed was a long one, but obligatory. It was his way of caring, you suppose. What better way to spend the holidays than to walk around with crutches while waiting for a tiny crack in your bone to heal?

Not much was done for Christmas, but it did have its highlights. You did wake up to a brand new black bomber jacket sitting on your desk that morning, and had a gut feeling who it came from. The rest of the team that stayed behind assembled together a small barbecue dinner, Sims calling the shots. He was a pretty good cook, you had to admit (much to Woods’ opposition). It was a casual day consisting of beer and food.

Now you have a whole month to yourself.

Sighing, already bored, you span around on the swivel chair you sat on. You already did your paperwork ahead of time, and even made sure everyone else’s was well sorted and organized. If someone had given you a heads-up that you were going to be stuck here, you would have put it off.

Pulling yourself back to the table, you plopped a notepad in front of you, pencil in hand. A good amount of pages were filled out, and you estimated almost 2/3rds of it were left. The pages consisted of a multitude of things, such as notes, drawings, or translations. There were a couple of times where you would try to sketch out the dreams you had while sleeping on the job. While they weren’t great, both in context and in technical skill, you were proud of it… kinda.

The notepad was freely accessible, and Woods would sometimes write little comments about the drawings in the corners of the page. Or Lazar who would try to draw the same thing. And it just so happened that you found a note that said “Bell has a crush” in Woods’ handwriting, so you immediately ripped it out and threw it into the incineration pile.

After taking the time to eat Woods' snacks to spite him, especially that last bit of Hershey's, you powered on your Walkman, shoving in MIX 2 and settled yourself in front of the arcade machine.

When you were hungry you would check the fridge, and everytime you expected some kind of new dish to appear. But instead there were just a few bottles of German beer, some leftovers, and a stack of TV dinners that looked like it had been sitting there for a while.

0000

Over the course of two weeks, you explored every bit of the place, every nook and cranny, and read every piece of paper you could find. There were newspaper clippings of the Kennedy assasination, old mission details and briefings, as well as some unprocessed polaroids. The supply area was especially interesting, a bunch of locomotive parts lying around.

The time did come where two particular individual people had come to visit. It was dead early in the morning when they came in, and you, who couldn't get any sleep that night, almost shot them when they entered. After de-escalating the situation, they were just as surprised as you were, but introduced themselves as Carson and Ben, the two CIA agents Adler mentioned beforehand.

Coming up with a bullshit lie, they seemed to believe you, and left you alone. If you didn’t bother them, they wouldn’t bother you.

It felt a bit awkward working around strangers, as you couldn't estimate their skills and predict their next thought. Being the safehouse members made you comfortable, so to be paired up with two random CIA agents was difficult to adapt to. But, it wasn't without reason, as the CIA eventually expanded their counteractive measures against Perseus.

The majority of the time, they were too busy putting stuff up on the evidence board, as Adler said they would. You had yet to take a peek, not wanting to disturb their work and instead would check the data terminal near the red room constantly, waiting for emails notifying you about what was happening back in the states.

One past email caught your eye, seeing how your nickname was the subject line. It dated to about late last year.

>>from R. Adler, to E. Black: Re: Bell

》》I appreciate your concern over Bell, Black. But, after some consideration, and do take this kindly, but I believe it is within everyone's best interests for you to stop inquiring about them. They're fully capable of handling themselves and have proved to be able to make conscious decisions. Any further messages regarding Bell will be ignored. There are more important things to concentrate on.

Reading Adler's defense against Black made you smile unwillingly. His words in text sounded polite, yet you could imagine his bitterness as he typed it out. The simple fact that Black would ask about you was a bit daunting. He didn't as much as show any concern for you in the past, and you never even got to see his face. You never really did take a liking to Black, and after what Nikitin told you, it felt like the only people to be trusted were just the safehouse members.

Leaning back in the chair, you let it turn on its own as you gazed up at the roof, wondering how everyone was fairing. They could handle themselves without you, but you couldn’t help but feel a bit hurt and lonely without them.

It’s just one month.

Two more weeks to go.

0000

The day finally came where the long awaited phone call arrived.

You just came back from the practice range when one of the agents walked over to you, with one of the safehouse phones in hand. “You're Bell, right? They’re asking for you.”

Setting down Lazar's modified sniper rifle back in its respectful padded box, you took the brick-like phone from Carson. “Bell.”

“Damn, you didn't even tell them your name?” Sims’ jaded voice came from the other side.

You grin hearing his voice. It felt like ages hearing him speak. "Well, thanks to you, now they know."

“You're welcome. I saved you the work. How’s it over there?”

“Uh, not much. Adler’s acquaintances are finalizing the evidence board, so it should be ready when you guys return,” you inform. “How’d the missions go?”

Sims gives out a drained laugh. “Fucking tiring, I’ll tell you that. They had us jumping from state to state." You could hear some muffled conversation in the background, and you could only assume that he covered the receiver. "Sorry, Bell. Some hardass wants me to take a look at something. Can't talk for long, but…"

He proceeded to give you a quick rundown on what happened the past month, talking mainly about the prison transport conspiracy. Sims wouldn't tell you what happened with the person Stitch was interested in, but he informed you that they were currently in the middle of interrogating a few individuals, trying to get information about Perseus’ next move. You didn’t have anything else to offer, sadly, and wished them luck.

"Also, just passing a message from Hudson. He wants you to look over the evidence board as a precaution."

"Yeah, got it. Anything else?" you ask, eyeing an impatient CIA agent who also wanted to make a call.

“Adler should be returning tomorrow.”

You fought off a grin. “Sounds good.”

“...You’re not going to ask about Adler?” Sims infers, a bit taken aback.

"...Why would I?"

"Just thought you would want to check up on your boy—"

You hang up, pleased with yourself. Sims was certainly going to hold it against you, but for the time being, it was a small win.

At this point it was no secret that there was something going on between you and Adler, and whether it was romantic or not was up for their consideration. You wondered how the idea even got around, and guessed it was most likely Lazar who happened to let it slip on accident. Nothing really stayed hidden around the safehouse, and if Hudson already happened to hear about it, it didn't seem like he gave a second shit.

Passing the phone back, you look at Carson dead in the eye. "Staring is rude, you know," you reprimand, before heading over to the board.

Your eyes scanned the mass of evidence. A culmination of decades of work, intertwining and connecting with one another all leading to one crime organization: Perseus. There were some pieces you had never seen before, and you gave them a quick read. A playing card was pinned right in the middle of it all; the King of Spades, the title given to Kuzmin himself. There was also mention of Naga, whom you've come to vaguely remember. There were a few yellow stickies on there, personal notes and thoughts made by the two agents. One of them, though, you had to do a double take.

Woods BFF is MIA

"What?"

Did you read that right?

The first person that comes to mind was Mason, but you thought he returned home to be with his family. It must have been a mistake then, or it was referring to someone else. But, as far as you knew, there was no one else as close to Woods as Mason.

"Hey!" You rip the note off, storming over to Ben, who looked up in alarm upon seeing your disturbed expression. "What the hell does this mean?!"

He begins to get flustered, realizing that you knew way more than he anticipated. "I can't tell you that, sorr—"

"Bullshit! I fully deserve to know what's been going on. Is it Mason?"

"I..."

Above you, the lights flicker, but you didn't let that serve as a distraction. "Tell me."

"Like I said—"

There was a loud bang, causing everyone to flinch as a result. You could see Carson's hands slowly glide across the keyboard, keeping a keenful eye on the metal shutters. Ben, on the other hand, backed away from you, withdrawing back to his table.

Dead silence.

The hairs on the back of your neck stood up in premonition, a small shiver running down your spine. Your stomach dropped— something was telling you to run.

"Uh… Ben?"

You saw one of the computers lose its signal, and then the next, the rest of them following suit. Carson sends out a string of swears, scrambling to try reboot the system.

That was when the lights turned off.

It was pitch dark. The fans that served as background noise ceased all movement, the electricity ceasing its currents.

"Carson!" Ben yells, and you feel him push past you. "Destroy the drives! Hurry!"

"Wait—"

But, before you could take another step, everything unfolded.

One of the doors was kicked open, gunfire erupting the second after. Diving behind the table nearby, you could hear the screens shattering, the fragments falling to the ground carelessly. The two agents cried out in pain for a split second, and then you never heard them again. A couple bullets went through the desk, narrowly missing you. The sirens went off, a red light beginning to flash overhead.

Someone was invading the warehouse.

What for though? To steal info? If that was the case, then you should have taken the time to memorize all of it if they were planning to purge everything.

Reaching out, you opened one of the desk drawers, feeling around. You felt something cool brush against your hand and didn't waste a breath taking it out, the object revealing itself to be a 1911. Checking the magazine, it was fully loaded and well kept.

Peeking around the corner, you see someone approaching your side of the garage. Although it was dark, you could make out minimal details of the uniform that they wore, and you freeze at the sight of it.

Shit.

You recognized that get up anywhere. Bland and lacking color, with tundra patterned pants and hooded jackets… It couldn't be.

How did they even find this place…?

The CIA mole.

Someone knew Adler and the rest of the team was going to be out. With their best members away, it would have been a perfect opportunity to attack. After all, what the hell was one lone agent supposed to do?

Jumping up from behind the table you aim for the person that neared your position but a figure from behind knocks the pistol out from your hand. It fell to the ground effortlessly, sliding a few feet away from you. About to make a dive for it, you ran forward, only for one of the invaders to bring the butt of their gun downwards to smack the back of your head. Your face slammed onto the ground, blood bursting from your nose. Something cold pressed against your temple as you tried to move,

“Wait,” a gruff voice ordered.

The lights turned back on, the backup generator revving itself into action. Black boots appeared in front of you, a few specks of blood splattered across the leather like glitter.

You were then heaved up by your arms forcibly, the gun now pointed at your left side. A gloved hand grabbed your face, and following up the arm you were greeting with quite the sight. He had a hood over his head, and a gas mask secured tightly around his face. Even if you couldn’t see his face clearly, the voice was unforgettable. You knew enough to identify him without fail.

“Ah,” you begin, giving a scornful leer. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?"

Vikhor “Stitch” Kuzmin was not amused in the slightest.

"—Or should I say ‘eye’?"

The pressure on your chin increased with such force that you thought he would dislocate it.

You could hear the rumble in his throat as he hummed to himself in thought while you glowered at him.

“So, you’re still alive?”

His appearance didn’t show much difference when comparing them to your memories. There wasn’t a lot to look at, but the most outstanding characteristic had to be the whites of his left eye with that ugly scar Adler left as a parting gift. Around his neck hung a large metal piece of the Perseus symbol, and accompanying it was a collection of dog tags, ripped off of the body of his victims. What a sadistic son of a bitch.

Stitch lets go of your face, making up his mind.

"I would leave you here, but I have other plans for you."

He waves you off, and his colleagues restrain your arms behind your back. Any attempts to free yourself were futile, and you were dragged off.

Fuck!

You should've been more prepared. That 1911 was in great condition as well, you should have just fired it the moment you aimed it. And as a result of your lack of decision making, two people were dead and you were now a hostage.

The last thing you see is Stitch stabbing a pink flyer to the evidence board with a knife.

Your thoughts raced back to the team back at the U.S.. What was going to happen to them? It was going to be a hell of a mess to return to, and the idea that there was now a mess to clean up without you there to explain it all is going to be a hell of an issue.

How was Adler going to react?

Eyes widening at the realization, you internally screamed. Stitch's goal wasn't you, as you were just a surplus of his objective to get close to Adler.

A bag is pulled over your head, and is tightened to a close around your neck. The cloth of it was poreus enough to let air in, but it felt suffocating.

With nothing to see or nowhere to run, you were tossed into the trunk of a humvee. It wasn’t long before it started up and drove away, departing away from the mess. You tried to make a mental note of the amount of turns that were taken, but eventually lost count.

After lying down in darkness for God knows how long, Stitch’s destination must have arrived, the main indicator being a swift blow to the back of your head to knock you out, the last thing you heard being the engines of an aircraft.

0000

"You seem a bit eager to return."

Adler takes the cigarette out of his mouth and places his hands back on the wheel. Zenya gave him a mocking side grin, waiting for a response.

"After what happened in Miami, I think some suburban scenery might be fair," was the response he came up with.

Naturally, he couldn't exactly tell her that he was excited to see you again after nearly a month. Adler wasn't granted to leisure to phone you, so Sims or someone else had to do it in his stead. He couldn't help but admit to himself that he had a sense of yearning to hold you again, and it was becoming a losing battle as he fended off his urges to give you a secret kiss on the forehead when no one else was around. The past weeks have been physically draining, and Adler just wanted to rest in your presence.

But, that would have been unprofessional of him. So the closest he would get to you was under the guise of emotional support. And if he just so happened to hold your cheek, hand, or bestow you one of his mini possessions (as a comfort item) in the name of "support", then it's permissible. That kiss was… an exception to the rule. And it should only happen once.

Fucking hormones. He was almost fifty years old and there was still room for those kinds of tenderhearted thoughts? You really were a piece of work.

"Is there someone waiting for you?" Zenya prods. "I heard Woods mention this 'Bell' person."

"Classified."

"C'mon Adler. This is the first time I've seen you like this."

"You'll meet them when we get there."

Zenya gives out a groan, before waving him off. "Still stiff as always. They must have a high tolerance of bullshit if they could handle you."

"You have no idea."

The safehouse comes into view. Nothing seemed unordinary, nor was there the smell of something burning. A part of him expected you to be waiting outside with crossed arms as you tapped your food impatiently, but remembered that he didn't exactly tell you he was returning today.

As for everyone else, they were still awaiting for their ticket home or the next set of orders. It was Adler's duty to return to the safehouse and prepare for the next op, having to brief others on the evidence board and compare it with what they had learned back in Florida.

In his pocket was the souvenir Woods managed to nick for you during the clean up sweep— a keychain of a tiny jar filled with sand and microscopic shells with the embellishing of "Florida: The Sunshine State" engraved into the glass. He told Hudson it was going on the evidence board under the guise of it potentially being related to the prison escort.

It wasn't. Not by a long run.

The car comes to a full stop, and Adler takes the keys out. But, from the moment he planted a foot onto the dirt, he knew something was wrong.

Your motorcycle was parked in its usual spot, and there weren't any unidentifiable vehicles around either. He couldn’t see it, but something inside of him screamed danger.

“Nice bike,” Zenya compliments with a whistle. She rushes over in excitement, bending down to survey the components. “Damn, I’m jealous. Who's this belong to?”

“Bell’s.”

“Is that who’s waiting for you? I like them already.” The small talk was pardoned with Adler’s dour expression as he sent a quick look towards the roof, and Zenya could sense his mood shift. "What's up?"

A steady hum coming from the safehouse told him that the generator was functioning. He expected music to be blasting from the radios but it was dead silent on your end.

"Stay sharp, something off."

Adler's worries continued to increase with each passing step. Zenya followed closely behind, shutting the door of the car with a loud thud. They both stopped in front of the shutters, Adler knocking on it a couple of times to let you know of his presence.

You did inform Sims, who in turn told him, that the CIA agents settled in smoothly. Though, he was sure you wouldn't have bothered them in the slightest, seeing how you're a bit reserved upon meeting new people. But on the chance something did happen…?

After a minute passed, no one came to raise the door.

"...Shit."

Pulling out his secondary, Adler gestures to Zenya to go around the right while he covered left. With his back stuck closely to the walls for cover, he took the extra care to make his footsteps light to avoid alerting any suspects inside.

Gazing down, there were imprints on the dirt. The indents were deep and easy to make out. The owners were carrying something large, and they faced outward, trailing away from the building. There were tire tracks as well, none that he recognized.

After affirming that there was no other suspicious activity around the perimeter, he made his way to the back, where the door handle was hanging off of it.

No gunfire was met upon entry. Instead, he was greeted with the sight of two men who were splayed across their work desk, dead and riddled with holes. The paper underneath them was stained with their own blood. Flipping them over, their eyes were open, frozen in horror, and skin cold to the touch.

"Bell?" Adler called out.

No response.

He repeated your name again, trying to hide his nerves. "Stop fucking around, Bell!"

Did you kill them?

Adler perished that thought away the moment it came into existence. No, you didn't do that anymore. You may be brash, but you weren't that mentally unstable.

He waited to hear you respond back, but to no avail. Adler paced around anxiously, looking for any clues. There were only two bodies, yet there were three of you. A lone 1911 laid lonely on the floor.

Zenya returns in the form of a jog. "There's no one in the house. No signs of struggle either."

"What the fuck happened then?"

An audible crunch came from below. Looking down, Adler removed his foot from the object he stepped on, a few pieces sticking to his soles.

It was a Walkman.

The one he gave you.

Before he could even crouch to investigate, a bright pink caught his eye. Adler marched forward to the evidence board. A knife was stabbed into it, holding up a pink flyer that advertised the grand re-opening of the mall in Pines, New Jersey.

TIME WE END THIS

Clenching his teeth, fury began to overwhelm Adler, knowing full damn well who caused the mess. The entire evidence board was all about him, and it just so happened that he came to visit on the day Adler was gone.

"Stitch."

The name was cased in such hostility and loathing that it nearly made Zenya hesitate to get closer. To see Adler in such a state was seldom, and she couldn’t even recall a moment where he acted in such a way before. His knuckles were turning pure white, nails digging into his palms.

What a coincidence that this menace had paid him a visit after becoming the current spotlight within the past few months— It was time to return the favor.

“He’s trying to bait you, Adler,” Zenya advised cautiously behind him.

“No shit.” He rips the knife out, pocketing it. She was right, but nothing was going to stop him from going. With you gone, it only added to the terror he was about to unleash. “See if the lines are still working."

Adler walked over to the smashed Walkman, dusting away the fragments. Scavenging out the tape, it was still intact, MIX 2 was written in his own handwriting. Nearby was a few drops of blood. It couldn’t have belonged to the bodies, since it was a good distance away.

Bell.

His fingers pressed against the cassette, thoughts beginning to go awry. He couldn’t bring himself to rummage through the mess or check the rooms— Adler already knew what had occurred.

Stay calm.

He grits his teeth, slipping the tape into his pockets before he crushes it in his hand.

Everything may have been set up just to entrap him, but if your life was at stake, it was just a risk he had to take. He owed it to you. As much as he wanted to walk right in, the last thing Adler wanted to do was make a decision that could cost your life.

What more did they want with you?

He should have brought you along.

When it all comes down to it, these were the cards that Perseus decided to play, and Adler could only hope you knew when to pick your battles. He wouldn't hold it against you if you spilled the beans. If you were safe and alive, that was all that mattered, and anything that resulted from information being leaked could be dealt with. He'll make sure of it.

But he knew better. If there's one thing about you he came to recognize, it was that you weren't going down without a fight.

Don't do anything stupid, [Y/N].

The sensation of freezing liquid was what shocked you awake. You had to hold your breath within that moment as whoever was there was pouring a torrent of water down on you.

With a deep gasp of air as the waterfall turned into a small stream, you found yourself in an unfamiliar place. There were a few shelves, stocked with boxes of miscellaneous items. In the corner were some large blue barrels wired with bombs, the red light blinking every five seconds. "N6" was spray painted on it.

While you were bound to a chair, Stitch positioned himself in front of you, gesturing for his comrade to lay off. There was a utility cart next to him, various tools and instruments laid down on each shelf. A repugnant feeling settled in at the sight of it, and you already knew what was about to come.

“Vikhor,” you greet sarcastically, “Your interpretation of a 'welcome back' party isn't what I had in mind."

There was a sliver of panic that started to bud within the pits of your stomach, but you buried it down. Any indication of weakness was something Stitch was looking for, and you refused to give it to him.

“What did you tell them?”

When you didn't respond, you were gifted a hard punch to your jaw. Still, you were undeterred, not even flinching. It was the type of shit you dealt with before, and you lived, so you'll do it again and again, annoying your captors as a consequence of their actions. They couldn’t do shit to you— you were too valuable. As Perseus had the bounty, you had information they wanted.

"Ahh, come on. Adler did much better than that," you taunt.

"I'll ask again. What do they know?"

You glared at Stitch as he crouched to look at his work. There were bits of your blood on him, and you noticed his knuckles were beginning to get raw. You could feel your already beginning to swell from that one hit you took, blood running down your forehead.

"Perseus had high hopes for you," Stitch discloses, and remains of jealousy barely detectable. "Who knew one of his most loyal subjects would turn out to be a disappointment like you?"

You laugh. "I bet…" you began, speaking in Russian. "Kravchenko thought the same of you, before sending you to the gulag."

Furious, he stood back up and grabbed the back of your head, yanking it back. The lightbulb above you swayed in a circular motion as it blinded you. You could see double images and halos (did he inject you with something while you were out?). "I should cut off that tongue of yours."

Don't trust Adler.

"J-Just like old times, huh? If it weren't for the general, we would have been at each other's throats constantly," you remark. “I wonder if he finally decided to croak. Would you guys invite me to his memorial service?”

“You ought to watch your words.”

Sense of time was lost as Stitch continued to badger you with violence and questions, but had no success in loosening up your lips. Your mind felt clouded, and the voices were already returning whispering unwanted messages and orders. You were bound to a metallic chair at your wrists and ankles, the arm rest already stained crimson, and you couldn't even feel your legs. Stitch had already broken your left arm and gave you a collection of slashes and punches just trying to get information out of you.

Even if you were, at one point, a higher position than Stitch, there was always that deadly aura that radiated off of his person that would make you stiffen at first glance. And now that he has a complete advantage, you refused to even buckle despite the punishment you were put under. Sarcasm was a great way to cloud it, but with him, it was like prodding a bear with a stick.

Know where your loyalties lie.

“Shut up,” you hissed under your breath, sick and tired of hearing manipulative voices.

Stitch grinds his teeth at your comment, before he notices a silver glint near your collarbone. Curiously, he pulls it out from your shirt.

The dog tags.

"Disgusting," he verbally recoils, "Adler made you his."

You held your tongue.

"...Good thing that he's coming here to the mall, eh? And after I'm done with you, he'll come to discover your body." Stitch lets the tags slip away from his hand, and it returns to hanging around your neck without a care in the world. Why he didn’t add it to his collection, you didn’t know. Stitch walked over to the silver table, picking up a well polished combat knife. Brandishing it, he took a moment to let its beauty sink in, looking at both sides. "I wonder what kind of face Adler will make when he sees his precious pet broken to pieces."

“Vikhor.” He was met with a dark expression. "If even one of your fingers even touches him, I will fucking kill you."

"After all these years, you're still an annoying little brat."

Your threat didn't seem to faze him.

"Is that how you talk to your superior?" you sneer, recalling the meeting years ago. It felt enthralling to act like this, taunting the man who held your life in his hands. Seeing Stitch's muscles tense at each word, hands balled into fists, you knew he could only withstand so much backlash before finally snapping.

It was a idiotic thing to do, but the fear had to be cloaked. Keeping a cool head would be the correct approach in this scenario, but teasing Stitch was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. This was the same shit you did with Adler years ago, and you were going to do it again, unintentionally or not.

“I'll never understand why the general trusted you, out of all people, to deal with him,” his deep voice projects, maintaining eye contact with you. He Tosses the blade into his opposite hand. “Look what happened. I'm the one that has to clean up your mess."

“It fits your name though— Stitch. Fixing up everything...” You give him a derisive smirk. “Just get it over with, Vikhor. Aren't you getting bored of beating a dead horse?"

“As a matter of fact... I am.”

Grabbing your face, he points the knife directly at your left eye. The edge glistened under the light, highlighting the little grooves and bits of rust in the metal. Your eyes follow it, going to the handle where Stitch gripped it tightly, before trailing up to his face, where the look of bloodlust radiated off of him. You could tell he was just waiting to put the knife to use.

“An eye for an eye, was it?”

He takes the opportunity to let the tip of the knife dig into your skin just right above your eyebrow. Stitch proceeds to slowly drag it downward, and you grip the ends of the armrest and curl your toes as you feel your own flesh being cut open. You suck in some air, preventing yourself from whimpering.

You may have been trained and conditioned to resist all forms of interrogation, but this was just testing your life endurance at this point, your sanity just on the urge of breaking. How long have you been here?

His hand prevented you from flinching away. It was excruciating, and you had to hold your breath to prevent a blood curdling scream from coming out. You could only go down the dictionary of English and Russian swears in your mind as white seared.

Stitch stops, the blade mere millimeters from entering the eye socket. His eyes surveyed you carefully, just waiting for any reaction that would grant him some kind of sadistic satisfaction.

"G...Getting sympathetic are we?" you strain.

The chill of the metal was already lost as warm blood streaked down your face. Your index finger twitches as you feel the blade graze against your eyelid. What the fuck is he waiting for?

"To think we used to work with you," he says, voice quaking with anger. His grip around the handle tightens. His control and handling of the knife was impressive, to say the least, but his inability to make you break was a whole ordeal on its own. "Such a shame to have things turn out this way."

You drew back your lips before spitting at Stitch. "Хуй тебе́."

It landed right on his mask. The brute didn't even flinch or budge, but his eyebrows were deeply furrowed, a vein popping out on his forehead. To see that you got him to such heights of vexation was an accomplishment. Using him as a doormat to let loose verbal insults and taking him lightly was no easy feat, especially with your own life on the line.

Sorry, Russ. I guess I am damaged goods.

In the last few seconds, you see the muscles in Stitch's arm tense, the hues becoming visible just as he delivers your comeuppance in an instantaneous swipe.

#bet you didn't SEE that coming #lmao so anyways ill see myself out #call of duty x reader #russell adler x reader #russell adler x bell #bo:cw #adler x reader #cod black ops cold war #black ops cold war #call of duty #fanfic #bell #russell adler #abcd briefing #having one eye in call of duty is a fashion statement now #but hey bell and stitch are twinsies now awww #text #call of duty imagine

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duskandstarlight · 3 years

Text

Embers & Light (Chapter 9, Cassian POV)

Notes: I had a lovely anon this morning ask for a POV from Cassian’s POV in E&L when he rubbed salve onto Nesta’s back. So, here you go, folks. As usual, apologies for any typos etc etc.

And for those needing a reminder of what happened in chapter 9, you can read it here.

Waiting outside of Nesta’s bedroom door was torture. Not just because Cassian would soon be touching Nesta’s bare skin, but because he knew she was trying to relinquish control by making him wait. And Cassian had been waiting for a long time now. Much longer than was necessary for Nesta to remove her nightgown and wrap herself in a towel.

Cassian bit back the snarl that wanted to emit itself from his throat, because rising to the deliberate wait would give Nesta too much satisfaction. And this was the game they played; continually trying to get one up on the other, riling and prodding and poking until they hissed and snarled and flames sparked between them.

So, Cassian waited patiently. He scented the chamomile salve wafting under the door and—Nesta. More intense than before. Jasmine and vanilla and her. Intoxicating and fiery and steely at the same time, as if she were forged from something entirely different from anyone else in the world.

It was addictive and exhilarating. It woke Cassian up, as if he had only been slumbering before. Nearly five hundred and fifty years of floating through life until Nesta Archeron came along and disrupted the course of things, like a knife thrust through the heart.

Footsteps sounded across the carpet and Cassian straightened, before he decided that a relaxed posture against the doorframe would irritate her more. He only just had time to arrange his expression into one of bored disinterest before the door opened.

Cassian cocked a lazy eyebrow as if to ask what took so long, but Nesta only turned immediately on her heel. He trailed after her into the cold room, trying not to stare at the creamy expanse of her back that peaked beneath her loose golden brown hair—the wings of her shoulder blades and the three freckles which dotted down the far too prominent nodules of her spine where they met her neck.

When Nesta turned back to face him, her pewter eyes were brimming with challenge, daring Cassian to comment on her lack of clothing. But he only twirled a finger—a silent order.

For a moment, Cassian thought she’d deny him, but then she obeyed—for once.

“All over?” he asked, making his voice deliberately practical rather than playful.

Slowly, Nesta dipped her chin. A long pause followed, as if she had forgotten that she had to relinquish the towel. But Cassian did not taunt her. Remained silent and patient, until she seemed to realise it for herself.

When she pulled the towel around to her front, that scent intensified. And when Nesta pulled her hair around her shoulder to expose her neck, Cassian’s nostrils flared.

Fucking hell, sometimes Cassian wondered how he controlled himself around her. Even his blood thrummed beneath his skin, pushing towards her, to the name that beat and chanted on the wind and in the back of his mind, always: Nesta, Nesta, Nesta.

His eyes snagged on that column of skin, and the temptation to bow his head and sink his teeth into her flesh was suddenly so overwhelming that Cassian almost took a step backwards.

But then a glimmer of apprehension fluttered down the bond and that urge vanished, as if it had never existed at all.

“Let me,” Cassian murmured, stepping towards Nesta so he could help to move the remaining tendrils of hair that tumbled down her back over her shoulder.

He ignored the electric sparks that shot through him as he swept his calloused fingers over her bare skin. And when that unblemished skin pebbled under his touch, Cassian realised just how freezing the room was—he wouldn’t have been surprised if his breath misted in front of him.

“Sorry,” he said softly. “I'll be quick, I know it's cold.”

“Just get it over with,” Nesta replied. Beneath his hands, her body was ramrod straight—so preternaturally still it was unnatural even to Fae.

So, Cassian tried his best to set Nesta at ease as he rubbed the salve between his palms, warming it before he dared touch it to her skin. “This stuff is good,” he said conversationally. “I use it a lot. I know humans usually have the worst muscle pain on their second and third day, but Fae bodies recover more quickly. You’ll be sore tomorrow, but it shouldn't last much longer than that.”

Beneath his hands, he felt every inch of her skeleton. Nesta’s body was so thin it felt as if her skin was like paper—as if the bone might pierce through if his touch was too firm.

The knowledge made his stomach clench so fiercely he wanted to smash his fist into the wall. He had let this happen. He had let—

“Good,” Nesta clipped in response, but the sound was coarse, pushed through gritted teeth as his hands skated over what he had guessed earlier to be a sore spot between her shoulder blades.

“You need to start eating right, too,” Cassian dared to say, as his hands traversed down her lower back. He wasn’t sure where the confidence came to comment on her weight, not after she had spat at him when he had pleaded for her to eat at breakfast the other day. “And lots to gain back the weight. I can tell—”

Hot, sharp anger stabbed through him so fiercely that suddenly Cassian couldn’t breathe. Because across the lower curve of Nesta’s back was four silvery scars—claw marks made by ragged nails that raked their way underneath the nightgown pooled at her hips.

The air between them shuddered.

Free of siphons, Cassian’s Killing Power was untamed and unchecked. And that trembling… that was what happened when Cassian was furious enough for his magic to tumble out of him before he could stifle it.

He could not remember the last time it had happened. Not for four hundred years, at least.

“How old is that scar?”

His words were low and fucking dangerous, he knew that. His hands had stilled on her skin, but as he spoke, his left hand moved on instinct rather than logic.

Nesta stilled when he brushed his fingers over what must have been deep gauges. Gently, he traced the path of each cruel line—

“What scar?”

Cassian paused at the thick quality to Nesta’s voice, as if she had wrangled the words out of her throat lest they become lodged there.

That fury spiked again and the windows rattled. “Nesta, is that scar new or is it from that human?”

The way he spoke was too forceful and too commanding. He knew that before the mist started to spark from her fingertips. Before his magic began to roar in his veins at the sight of her power.

The way in which Nesta whirled on the spot was so fast that Cassian thought he’d blinked and missed it. “You said you would do this quickly.”

Despite the hiss, Nesta could not conceal the vulnerability that flickered in her eyes. It was that rare glimpse into that normally closed off tunnel that allowed Cassian’s roiling anger to still for long enough for rationality to kick in.

Slowly, Cassian loosed a long breath and dragged the back of his hand over his forehead in an attempt to smooth away his twisted expression. “I’m sorry Nesta, ok? Just… let me do this. Turn around.”

Those mercury eyes stared him down but Cassian did not balk. Instead, he scoured that beautiful, steely face. Never had Cassian witnessed Nesta smile, but even without it she was perfection. The Cauldron could not have Made someone more stunning and deadly. Even as a human, Nesta had been more breathtaking than any Fae Cassian had ever set his eyes on—would ever set his eyes on.

Nesta must have found something in Cassian’s expression, because slowly—with a final, deathly glare—she turned her back to him.

It was a sign of trust and one Cassian did not take lightly.

Scooping up some more salve, Cassian silently continued his task, gliding his hands over those taut, sore muscles. When he reached those scars again, his hands ghosted over them in a way that was too tender. The skin was ridged and Cassian dared to run a a calloused thumb over the raised bumps.

To his surprise, Nesta did not bat him away or set him alight.

“I’ll kill him for you, if that’s what you want,” he murmured darkly.

That haughty chin tilted upwards. “Why should I let you? It would take the joy out of knowing I can do it myself whenever the mood strikes.”

A low laugh skittered out of him. “Whilst that is a good point, the offer still stands. Or perhaps I can come with you, when you do decide to pay him a visit."

Screwing the lid back on the salve, Cassian placed it on the dresser, averting his eyes as Nesta quickly pulled her nightgown back up. Her skin was covered in goosebumps from being exposed to the cold air, and Cassian glanced towards the open, unlit hearth stacked neatly with pine logs. “I’ll get a log burner installed for your room this week.”

Nesta’s head snapped to look at him. She had been staring longingly at the heaps of blanket on her bed.

It was obvious she was desperate for him to leave.

“I —“ she started, but then she broke off. For a moment, silence fell, and Cassian knew she did not know how to concede—to say thank you.

So, he shot her a crooked grin and said, “I’ll see you bright and early for round two. Don’t be late.”

Tags: @arinbelle @superspiritfestival @sayosdreams @perseusannabeth @mylittlebigplanet @biggestwingspan-az @bellsqueen @ekaterinakostrova @bookstantrash @prophecyerised @rainbowcheetah512 @awesomelena555 @wannawriteyouabook @iammissstark @lovelynesta @melphss @nestalytical @darkshadowqueensrule @laylaameer01 @a-trifling-matter @grouchycritic7794 @thalia-2-rose @champanheandluxxury @swankii-art-teacher @princessconsuela02 @lavendergoomsltd @little-diyosa @princessofmerchants-reads @jeakat @sjm-things @imwritingthesewords @nestable @inejbrekkxr @silvernesta @inyourmindeye @amelie775 @iwastoowildinthe70s @helen-the-weirdo @pizzaneverdisappoints @wishfulimaginings @trash-for-nessian @my-fan-side @sophilightwood @hatemecozuaintme

#embersandlightfic #acotarfanfiction #nessianfic #nessian #nesta x cassian #nestaarcheron #cassian #acosf #acofas #acomaf #acowar

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mintvender · 3 years

Text

BTS’ Reaction to Y/N Arranging a Banquet For Their BD + Nobles Disrespecting Them

Harem!AU

A/n: I apologize to the anon that have asked for this. I accidentally deleted the ask along with the post. Devastating I know. Had to restart the entire thing so I at least those that you’ve enjoyed it 🌿🌿

Warnings: Nothing

Masterlist

White Heather: The bell-like flower signifies protection while also meaning that wishes will come true.

Kim Taehyung

Despite his prestigious status, Taehyung would prefer to celebrate his birthday with those he trusts. Spending time with you is better than any materialistic product he can ever receive.

However, as much as you like to indulge in this fantasy, it would bring you more harm than good, especially to Taehyung. If you didn’t arrange a banquet for Taehyung’s birthday, it would silently hint that your relationship with him have soured, and that he is losing your favour. This would not cause him to slowly lose his control over the harem but attract more reckless people to his doors as well.

To be honest, very few people would dare to actually insult him, especially in front of your presence. By now, you would expect that everyone in the palace would understand how capable you are.

Though, if someone has the guts to even comment on how ‘lavish’ the banquets is. I guaranteed that they will soon become the joke of the palace. Not only will they be on your bad side, everyone would naturally avoid them to not receive your distaste and hate.

However if gets to the point of infuriating you and embarrassing Taehyung then chances are that person would disappear from the face of Earth without a trace. It’s what they deserved for their stupidity.

“ Mhm? What did you say? Please do repeat what you just said.”

Kim Namjoon

Even without your prestigious statuses, you both prefer to celebrate Namjoon’s birthday like any other family meeting. Bonding with each other while sharing the same meal would be a simple yet meaningful event on his birthday.

As an intellectual, Namjoon would greatly appreciate getting gifts that would nourish his curious mind. From books to scriptures, to mysterious herbs, it would definitely satisfied his constant overfilling library and study.

As some of this items are quite rare and precious, it must also come with a great price tag. Knowing how Namjoon dislike gossips and such, make sure to burn or get rid of any evidence of you giving such gifts to him.

Despite you not wanting this, it must be done since you don’t want people looking at you both weirdly the day after his birthday.

However, if word somehow got out about you ‘spoiling’ Namjoon, either you or Namjoon would come up with a quick answer to shoo their suspicious gaze away from you both.

“ How did a mere servant like you enter the Empress/Emperor’s courtyard? You sure have guts.”

Jung Hoseok

To everyone, Hoseok’s birthday is similar to a festival. Everyone literally does not have time to rest with the constant pressure from both you and Minister Jung. Hoseok’s father have probably bribed some of the servants to make sure that his son’s birthday is the grandest of the noble consort’s.

Regardless of his intentions, Hoseok is actually quite confused to what was happening around him. With how rushed everything feels, he might not even realize that today is his birthday.

Thankfully, you were quick to remind him by spoiling him with various treasure from the various times you see him longingly staring at blueprints for too long.

“ Thank you, your majesty. I apologize for the disturbance. Please continue.”

Min Yoongi

If you were to plan out a banquet for Yoongi’s birthday, a lot of people will gain benefit from this. People from the previous dynasty would see an opening to do everything in their mean to gain more control. However, that it another subject for another time.

I don’t see Yoongi as a person who would prefer lavish material things but he will be so flustered to the point of not being able to produce coherent words if you indeed gave him something — which you should. Though, Yoongi would be more than happy to learn and experience what he could not as a harem child. I can’t really imagine him being a hard to please person.

However, with all the positive things, negative things will also follow it right? Manipulation will definitely be this event’s antagonist. Yoongi’s self esteem will drop drastically with how manipulative everyone would become the moment he gain favour. As a result, arrange a celebration that is worthy of him but not too overboard, that would cause the destruction of Yoongi’s position within the harem.

“ What? ... You want to say something in front of the Empress/Emperor?”

Jeon Jungkook

Like Namjoon, you can’t really organize a banquet with the big gap in your guys’ status. It would not confuse people but also create unneeded rumours about you guys’ potential affairs.

As a result, what you can do is sneakily spoiled him on his big day. Ranging from being nicer and more attentive to his questions to even gifting him custom-made weapons from your clan. It really depends on where you guys’ relationship is at this point.

Spending time outside of the palace while stuffing yourselves with various street food, and ending the day with stargazing or attending a nearby festival would be a nice framework for you to follow.

Even just practising your swordsmanship for hours would satisfy his crave for closeness. As long as you guys do activities that are unique to your guys’ relationship, Jungkook would be satisfied even if it’s the most basically things.

“ Please refer to the Empress/Emperor whenever they are available, official.”

Kim Seokjin

The most hard to please person I would say out of all the candidates. Unlike all of them, Seokjin have more than enough money and power to get whatever he wants so giving something materialistic is already a rough route. Though, I think gifting something that is custom and only made with him in mind would satisfy him greatly.

Maybe arranging a banquet under the cover of celebrating the country’s alliances with the coincident of Seokjin’s birthday in the mix so that people don’t suspect the intimacy of you both. Though, would that really be able to get people not to suspect anything? I’m not too sure of this myself.

I don’t think that Seokjin will be the kind of person to just ignore insults coming towards him so before you could even react, Seokjin would already be retaliating with all his might. Usually, after a round of his speech, the person would be too embarrassed to say anything else.

“ You! Yes, you. Who do you think you are? A mouse dare to challenge a lion? You jest!”

Park Jimin

Not much can be said about Jimin’s taste for presents except for picky. Granted, that’s probably a reasonable reaction when jewelry and money was constantly at his disposal and that’s all he gets as rewards for béhavioriste properly.

I would suggest starting out with that thought in mind, and as your bond get stronger and Jimin becoming much more comfortable with you, then begin to explore other territories with him. Regardless, the idea of having you arrange a banquet all for him really excites him than he like to admit.

I can already him eyeing every potential wealthy person but still stick to your side — he’s all bark but not bite so if he cast those flirtatious glances, he will still be loyal to you. However, what he didn’t expect was an outright insult on his ‘behaviour.’

Beneath all those smiles and flirts, his broken self would still offense and would want to retaliate. This would cause him to quiet down but still try to go back to what he was doing.

Since you want to both stand up for him but also not cause that much gossip, just silently command some people to make the person go bankrupt and that should be a good ending. While you’re at it, transfer some of that person’s asset to Jimin’s monthly allowance and I will guaranteed you that he will like love you even more.

“ ... What are you looking at?”

#anon asks #bts imagines #bts scenarios #bts reactions #bts Seokjin #bts yoongi #bts Hoseok #bts namjoon #bts jimin #bts taehyung #bts jungkook #bts #bts rm #bts x reader #reader insert #bts x y/n #bts harem au #mintvender

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majormaxam · 4 years

Text

won’t you bring me an angel? part II

Part I

Pairing: Jasper Whitlock (Hale) x Reader

Summary: You find yourself to be a victim of Maria’s growing newborn army in Southern Texas. Maria finds your ability more than special, but a weapon. What she doesn’t expect is for you to be as defiant as others and to Maria’s dismay, you just happen to grow close with Major Jasper Whitlock.

Warnings: Mentions of death

Word Count: 5K

Author’s Note: Please let me know if you would like to be tagged for the next update.

Tags: @okbillyhargrove @whitlockswhore @savingprivatecass @trashysara @actuallyedythecullen @xplrreylo @liviasaugusta @basically-hayley @woodhousesemma @missmaskedwriter @nekee-lilac02 @carmalcandylover @it-is-rebel-owl-ma-dudes @mental-breaker-74 @vviptop @sfs143 @themihala@bsnsasusval @thecaptainsgingersnap

The first week of being a newborn was spent in silence as (Y/N) refused to say a word to another newborn, while refraining to share a glance at the Major. He tried everyday to work his emotions over her in hopes of easing her into this lifestyle, but she fought him. Every time. It didn’t seem to bother Maria, she fed off gaining attention from the newborns and Jasper. She didn’t take issue with it… until (Y/N)’s third week. She was not only refusing to join the combat teachings of Jasper’s, but she also began to starve herself for three weeks without a drop of blood.

It was difficult to withstand that pain withering inside her body, especially when the other newborn arrived back with blood stained garments. Fresh blood causing the hair on the back of her neck to stand up as the raging burn in her throat heightened. She would clench the sides of her hips as the pain was difficult to withstand… and it was clear by the way she carried herself.

Jasper took note of her starvation on the third night of arriving to her new home, but he believed she would eventually give in. He could hardly believe three weeks of starvation lasted further, her black eyes were burning a hole into Maria with one swift glance. He could feel Maria’s temper being tested as (Y/N) refused to feed and fight… she would’ve killed her off by now, but her power was valuable. However, he had a strong connection with the newborn, even if it was through silent stares and forced smiles.

He liked her.

Maria was beginning to lose her patience with her and Jasper felt it intensifying. The third week began to test the extent of Maria’s patience, which was slim to none.

(Y/N) stood in the empty field behind the barn with your eyes focusing on the sky as the moon began to rise above. It delivered a message to the newborns cravings blood and the excitement of the darkened sky only festered their hunger. It was difficult to ignore the feverish craving as well, but she restrained herself by biting down on her lip and counting the stars.

“She needs to feed.” Maria spat as she looked on at the challenging newborn, who stood yards away with a defiant chin holding her up. “She can’t fight at her finest if she’s starving herself.” She was speaking to Jasper as he followed her gaze across the land. “… what has she told you about herself?”

Jasper raised an eyebrow at hearing Maria begging for questions regarding the new-born and he immediately answered. “She’s quiet… hardly speaks to anyone and if she does, it’s to the youngest here.” He could feel Maria yearning for more by the emotions racing through her body and he longed to deliver. “If you wish for me to grow closer-“

“Please do…” Maria eased into Jasper’s side with her hand placed on his waist drawing him in. “make her trust you before we are forced to deal with it.” She then rested a gentle kiss on his lips before making her way towards Lottie to discuss a matter at hand. Her whispers were faint as she demanded the blonde vampire to head into town, but if successful, she would have the newborn melting in the palm of her hand.

She eventually found herself plucking the spring wildflowers growing underneath the sweet grass, slowly creating a bouquet. It seemed Indian paintbrushes were even prettier under the silver moon as babies breath scattered into the orange. She hated nights like these most as they reminded her of what she used to have… a family.

“Will you be joining them for a feeding?” His question was answered by her silence and she didn’t bother to even steal a glance, but his presence followed her as the bouquet of flowers grew in her hands. “I don’t want you to get hurt (Y/N)… which is where it’s leading to.”

“Is that from Maria’s mouth or yours?” She felt his eyes shifting from her to the newborns gathering to leave. “Will she be the one hurting me… because if so, I will feed to gain strength.” She seemed to draw out a small laughter, but also witnessed the protective streak as his eyes turned cold. “She certainly has charmed you, hasn’t she?”

Jasper was taken aback by the comments (Y/N) continued to make as he followed her path in the open clearing, but paused as her threat struck him as humorous but wilful. He knew she was right, he’d been under Maria’s spell for quite some time and he found it difficult to force himself out. He didn’t answer, nor did he break his gaze from hers.

She felt the bitter laughter hesitate in the back of her throat as watched the newborns disappear into the dark night. It began to strong wave of heat to run up her throat as she imagined hunting herself and immediately, she directed her thoughts elsewhere.

He watched as her eyes loonily stared into the night as the vampires continued on, but she fought hard to ignore the powerful cravings desiring more. In the years time of being a vampire, Jasper had never experienced hunger this intense. He himself struggled with his own, but he took on the other surrounding newborns… but hers were three weeks overdue. Jasper’s body stiffened as wind whistled through the trees and allowed human scent to travel along, causing her throat to tighten and the flowers to crumble under her grasp.

“You’re in pain.” Jasper’s comments were forced out as he felt the ability of his attempt to calm her down. He watched as her head turned the other way, avoiding the truth of his words. “too much pain to withstand one more night, (Y/N).”

(Y/N) clenched her tightened jaw as he attempted to sympathise with her under the painful hunger, but his empathy ways were causing him to experience it as well. He was right, but she wasn’t going to follow along if it meant Maria controlled her. “Just leave me be… you don’t need to feel this either.”

“I am not leaving.” Jasper knew he was supposed to manipulate the young newborn, but in this moment he couldn’t find it in his heart to do that. “I have used my gift on many newborns… but not a single one has endured this type of pain.” He felt her eyes brush over her shoulder as he refused to leave her side and instead, shifted the topic of conversation. “When you were human what was your worst injury?”

She noticed him attempting to distract her from the pain coursing throughout her body and for a moment, she appreciated him. “I used to climb the big oak tree beside our home. My mother, she… she would get so angry with me because ‘young maidens aren’t to do that in a dress.’” Her voice mocked her mother’s tone and found herself laughing with sweet tears in her eyes. “My brother and I used to race to see who could get the highest. He always beat me,” She smiled as the memory of her older brother calmed the pain. “when I was nine, one of the tree branches gave out once I got too high,” She paused as she bent down and drew up the skirt she wore. “I tried holding onto the tree, but the bark wasn’t too kind.”

Jasper listened intently as she began to open up to him about her childhood, tears gracing her eyes as she wiped them away with a forced smile. He expected her to say something as simple as skinning her knee, but the moment she hiked up her skirt he caught the scar on his mid thigh. It seemed her skin had caught the bark as she was sliding down the tree, causing the skin to open up. He was quite surprised as well because women were scorned to show even their collarbones.

“My mother was so mad.” She glanced up to catch his eyes running up and along the scars gracing the inner thigh. “I landed on my back and the wind was knocked out of me, but I lived to tell the tale.” Her fingers released the skirt dropping it back down to her ankles. “Care to share a tale of your own, Major?”

Jasper found himself snapping back to the sound of her voice and shared a smile of his own before sighing. “I have many scars.” Without hesitating he rolled up his sleeves to reveal the countless bite marks gracing his skin, while his emotions steadied he felt the impact of hers. She felt sorrow at the sight of bite marks and immediately frowned. “You don’t have to feel sorry for me.”

She felt her throat tighten as his comment left her shaking her head. “Is this from teaching newborns?” She watched as his eyes attempted to brush off the pain, but she could feel almost every bite covering his skin. “You don’t deserve this, Jasper.”

“Jasper?” He couldn’t hide his smirk as he unrolled the sleeves to hide the bite marks once more. “I believe you only knew me by Major.” Jasper felt her saddened eyes burning into him as he attempted to cover up his emotions as he did the scarring. “You don’t have to worry (Y/N).”

“… and yet, you worry for me?” She questioned him as he began to cover up the battle wounds and glanced the other way. (Y/N) two stood alone as most of the newborns had gone to feast and Maria had left with them. It might’ve been the only time to speak to him without anyone interfering. “I have seen you teaching them, they seem to be rash.”

Jasper raised an eyebrow as she spoke of fighting the newborns. “You have been watching then?” He tilted his head to the side before shrugging his shoulders. “You must learn as well, if we find ourselves having to fight others you will lose your life.” He wasn’t surprised to find her not resounding to his comment, but even more surprised for her to long for that. “… what is the reason behind not feeding, (Y/N)?”

“… You can feel my emotions, can you not?” She watched as Jasper’s eyes narrowed on her before his chin raised to give a stiff nod in response. “I know the only reason Maria has allowed me to stay is because of my gift, am I correct?” His silence again answered her question and so she continued. “I am sure she would’ve ended my life by now if I was without it.”

She seemed to silence Jasper with the rather striking comment, his eyes running over her own before breaking the gaze. He seemed dazed by the shocking accusation but she didn’t hesitate when the truth seemed to rattle her core. (Y/N) struck a nerve as tension rose between both of them at the mention of Maria ending her life. However, it didn’t seem she were wrong either.

“I can help you get stronger with your gift, (Y/N).” Jasper wasn’t surprised to watch her gaze break away from his at the mention of his helpful hand. “And I’m speaking without Maria’s input.” Her eyes carried up into the stars as he mentioned Maria once more. “It’s difficult to gain control of your powers when you don’t understand them.”

She didn’t want to gain control of her powers, not when it strengthened Maria’s chances of having a stronger army. It wasn’t just her murderous streak and slashing her family apart, but witnessing her controlling and manipulating ways over Jasper sickened her. (Y/N) carried guilt for Jasper as he seemed charmed by the stunning vampire… and she wished to end her life for it.

“I don’t believe you.” You whispered as Jasper’s eyes then widened at your response and as you stepped back away from him, his speed beat you from going any further. He now stood beside you with crimson eyes burning into you while a snarl left his lips. “Move out of my way.” You demanded as the anger inside you was attempting to be shoved away by Jasper’s strength, but you weren’t having it. “Quit it before I do something I regret.”

Jasper didn’t want to harm the innocent newborn, not when he found himself fond of her, but the moment she began to speak as if she knew him. He’d lost it. He kept his stance right before her, not daring to move an inch but her anger radiating off him with his attempts to calm her. “You need to calm down or else-“

(Y/N) had enough. She effortlessly shoved Jasper a few yards back as her strength overtook his, but he regained himself faster than her as she attempted to run. He followed her into the wooded area, only for her to make it a couple hundred yards before he had her pinned against a large oak tree. She wanted to fight him, but the moment her met his eyes… she couldn’t find it in herself to strike him.

He felt her submission as his hands held her by the collarbone and pressed her into the tree, his eyes filled with rage as she attempted to fight him. However, Jasper noticed her unwillingness to fight the moment she raised her eyes to him. He understood… the moment he tried to lay a hand on her, he ended up regretting it moments later.

“I don’t want this Jasper.” She felt the heavy wave of emotions of her own doing hit her stomach as if she’d been punched, but stood strong as his hands fell from her collarbone. “I can’t control this anger she brings me, I cannot withstand that woman since I found my mother…“

Jasper had been forced to endure the flood of emotions from countless newborns in the past, but her suffering was more than he could withstand. He kept his hands along her collarbone with his touch turning soft while her trembling chest made it difficult for her to stand, her cries continuing as she held her head down ashamed of her actions. She wasn’t ashamed to fight him, but the weakness of her tears being seen under his watch.

“I don’t wish for you to fight this, (Y/N).” He watched her eyes dart up to meet his as he then sent restful waves throughout her body. Jasper was more pleased to see she wasn’t fighting him, nor using her powers to stop him or fight him off. She relaxed under his touch and soon her last tear fell. “I am not asking you to forget what Maria has done… that is not possible.” He meant what he said when regarding Maria’s malicious actions, but knew he had to tread carefully. “I am asking you to feed because you will only hurt yourself in this.”

(Y/N) felt the weakened body of hers slump against the large oak as the overwhelming scent of dirt hit her nostrils, but left her wrinkling her nose instead. He was right… she was craving blood more than anything and her body was betraying her for it. His own hunger was intense, but her added taste for blood was drawing him near the edge of unbearable. “… and you.” She lifted her gaze to his and watched as he understood the meaning behind what she said.

Jasper was taken aback by her caring streak but slowly nodded as his head as he struggled to withstand her concern. He felt it… she craved for him to take the edge off of his own hunger, but even more so for herself so he wouldn’t carry it as well. He felt her genuine tone strike him as odd, but stood blind to it because Maria’s was manipulative and he didn’t want to admit that. “I’m sorry?”

“You’re baring more pain because of my hunger….” She watched his head hang in shame as he finally had another vampire understanding his struggle. “I can only imagine what it’s like with the rest of them around you.” She referenced to the other newborns missing at the moment. “Maria knows you’re in pain, yet she doesn’t care.”

Jasper lifted his head to speak and defend Maria, but he had no words. You were right and he couldn’t fight you on a singlet hing regarding her self-serving ways. It made you sick to know that such a selfish creature stood stronger than most.

“She does.” His words fell flat at her feet while the forced laughter fell from her lips, causing his dark eyes to meet her own. He was surprised to see her poking the dangerous game of fighting Maria.

“Look at you…” She grabbed him by the arms at his side and pulled the sleeves up to his forearm, revealing the bitten marks along his skin. His eyes following the abrupt behaviour. “you’re branded by her demands, are you not?” He didn’t flinch under her touch, nor did he break away from her heavy gaze. “I have not once seen Maria attempt to heal your wounds or stop them. She calls you hers, yet she sends you to fight her battles whether or not it means death.” He forced his wrists out of her hands before she mindlessly shook her head.

Jasper told himself not to listen, not when Maria had whispered to him many times of newborns attempting to feed him with lies. He had to believe her… she changed him for a reason. “Maria is my mate.” He was falling himself with that statement and when he forced her to drop his wrists, she watched her eyes glisten with disbelief. “You’re right. She changed you for the sheer pleasure of gaining another newborn, but if only she knew how moronic you were before.”

The insult her hurled hit her directly in the stomach as if a sharp punch had been delivered by his hand. She stiffened as the idea of his statement made her force a bitter chuckle. “… I’d gladly be moronic over delusional.” She pushed past him with ease and made her way back towards the barn.

He felt her anger as she dared to spit those words at him and while he wanted to lash out with a strike, he refrained. Jasper wasn’t provoked by her last statement, nor the statements before that but the gut-wrenching truth he wished to deny. His despair wasn’t matched by the anger as he found himself slamming his fist into the oak tree before him, causing it to snap in half and tumble into the soil below.

He told himself he would never be able to admit the truth… until (Y/N) slapped him directly across the face with it. Jasper hated himself for even believing Maria used him as an upper hand, he felt as if he was betraying her by entertaining that thought. However, he recalled that night three weeks ago when out hunting for a human and ever since his gut feeling changed with time.

Through all of this anger, Jasper took off running into the darkened woods with his mind racing back to the three nights. He could recall every moment from beginning to end. He’d found himself battered with bites and deepened hunger and his emotions peaking as hunger took over pain. For once, he’d found himself furious with his sire.

Maria didn’t bother to teach the newborns after Jasper’s fresh wounds were healing and his hunger raging, so he withstood each painful infliction. He’d found himself at the end of his rope and went out to feast off humans, but by his third killing, he craved something else.

Jasper came to a stop over a peak mountain and let out a harsh breath, his eyes running over the small town below and catching the fresh scent of blood being spilled. He was fully aware of Maria’s army running wild below and glanced away in shame, while his own head raced with memories.

When the third human dropped at his feet Jasper cleaned his lips clean of blood, not daring to take another glance at the human. Instead, his eyes caught the stars up above and made his way out towards the woods to rejoin his clan. He knew he needed to return before Maria came searching, but he stopped short at the idea of returning to hell. Jasper was tired of the bites, the fighting, and the manipulative whispers of Maria in his ear.

He craved more than what she forced him to be… he wanted to leave, yet he knew he couldn’t.

Jasper stood near the Texas woods with his eyes closed at the idea of returning to screams and torture. He desperately craved inner peace and serenity to surround him through this mayhem swarming his mental health.

He found himself begging for someone to grace his life and calm the madness… he prayed for an angel.

It was the exact moment the scent of fresh lavender fills his nostrils and human blood mixed to cause his eyes to see red. He’d never been so drawn to blood before but he craved it even when his hunger had calmed itself with the death of three humans. Jasper sped through the woods with intent as he followed that scent, not daring to break away from it. He couldn’t when it matched the marks on his skin and been embedded in.

He didn’t travel any further when he found himself standing by a small cottage on the edge of a family farm. Horses filled the land with fresh flowers trailing along the edge, but he searched for the scent he traveled for. It was then she appeared under a large oak tree with her eyes wide on the stars and hair braided with flowers in between the waves. He watched from afar as she sung sweet lullabies and plucked the lavender with bare feet brushing into the greens underneath her toes.

It was in that moment Jasper felt as if his prayers had been answered. It was (Y/N)… and it frightened him more than Maria’s alluring power over him.

An hour had passed since Jasper returned back to the barn and when hiking back towards the trail, he found himself returning to (Y/N) ’s screams. He felt the coursing pain of hunger return as he stood at the barn doors and once looking inside, he caught onto why. It seemed Maria was more desperate than he believed.

A human sat before (Y/N)’s feet as Maria forced her closer with the scent of blood heavy in the air. Bite marks scattered along the body as the weakened pulse left all of the vampires thirsting for more, but not nearly as much as (Y/N). Her legs were buckling underneath her as Maria’s hand tugged her closer towards the human.

“Unhand me you vile, egotist-“

Maria’s laughter cut her off as she attempted to pull herself away, but her weakened state wouldn’t allow her to fight to her ability of a newborn. “You think you can undermine me?” Her anger was clear under the strengthened grip on her arm. “I am one step ahead of you.” She nodded her head towards Lottie, who stepped closer to the human and dared to open a flesh-wound.

Jasper felt the exhausting pain (Y/N) was withstanding and once catching onto Maria’s doing, he stepped in. He immediately grabbed Lottie’s arm and jerked her back, displeasing Maria who looked on in horror to see her lover betray her.

“Jasper… love, please do step aside.” Her lavish voice was enough for Jasper to weaken, but in this instance he felt his blood boiling as she attempted to outsmart him as well.

He forced the dagger in Lottie’s hand to drop as he then tossed it aside and shook his head. “I agree she needs to feed, but on her own time.” Jasper watched Maria’s eyes switch to complete shock and anger as he dared to speak out. “forcing her will only-“

“Will only what?” Maria snapped as her nails began to dig into the skin of (Y/N) who didn’t dare flinch at the pain when her body nearly felt numb. “I know what it will do, it will cause her hunger to binge, but what choice do I have? I need her for a future battle and I will NOT let her-“

“Die?” Jasper questioned her once again with a raised eyebrow and shook his head. “You don’t want her dead because of a disadvantage to your upperhand. She’s more than that Maria.” He spat with meaning as Maria’s reddened eyes narrowed onto him with complete anger and bafflement.

The barn fell silent as Jasper’s comment angered their sire, but most of all surprised most of the clan as they gathered around to watch the scene playout. Maria’s threatened eyes watched as Jasper glared into hers with complete terror and festering mess, but out of retaliation she sunk her fangs into (Y/N)’s scarless collarbone and let her fall to the ground. Her pain settling into the withering pain coursing through as she kicked her aside and stepped towards Jasper.

“… she’s nothing to you, do you understand me?” Maria spoke with her hands at Jasper’s throat and her nails now piercing his skin without a care. “I made you, you’re mine and she’s nothing but a power. Is that clear?” Her silent tone causing Jasper to truly see her anger that was for once directed at him.

Jasper felt her anger as her hand graced his neck as he stood without flinching under her touch, but he didn’t dare let her know he could feel her power over the others slipping away. Maria was growing weaker and the others sensed it. It was because of (Y/N). He simply nodded his head and felt Maria’s hand release his neck, then placing a softened kiss on his cheek. He shuttered under her lips and stepped away. His eyes meeting (Y/N) as she laid on the ground, her soft cries breaking him as he knelt beside her to help her stand.

Maria glanced over her shoulder to catch Jasper’s helping hand and immediately, she wished to act on it but instead she stepped further away gesturing for Lottie to follow. She was boiling inside as her anger was festering with time and now exploding. Once outside the barn she turned to Lottie with her eyes burning with rage. “… we can’t afford to lose that power of hers… but we need to break her.” She received a nod from the blonde haired vampire and continued. “You mentioned reading over a journal in her home, correct? What was written?”

“… She’s quite dull.” Lottie realised her answer wasn’t pleasing and continued. “she mostly wrote about her adventures with her father, but aside from that she mentioned her brother returning from war soon and-“

“Brother?” Maria’s eyes gleamed with venom as a smirk curled into her upper lip. “When is this brother due to return?” Her plan for demise fell into her lap as she listened intently to Lottie’s descriptions of (Y/N)’s older brother returning home to death.

Inside the barn, (Y/N) was struggling to stand on her own two feet as the venom struck her nerves once again. However, Jasper’s strong arm helped her walk over to rest on a haystack. She slumped against the prickly hay and struggled to wither under the pain, but Jasper’s touch helped relieve it. “Please… you can barely take this.” She whispered under her breath.

“I’m stronger than you believe me.” His charm worked as she chuckled under the cold grip of his hand. “… you need to feed (Y/N). Even if it is just a bit.” Jasper spoke with care as he glanced away from her and attempted to brush off the eyes following his every move. He watched your eyes glance towards the nearly dead human as the scent of his blood carried thick in the air. “please (Y/N).”

She was hesitant to give into the hunger, but she felt his emotions of empathy working over her as the powers opened her eyes to him. It happened faster than she expected as her body craved the humans blood; she found yourself digging her teeth into the humans skin and feasting off the littlest blood touching her tongue.

Jasper released the newborn as she began to feed with her hunger no longer depriving her of further hunger. However, he hesitated to draw himself further away as her red eyes came to normal and glanced out the barn doors… she was debating for more blood lust.

“I will follow you if you wish.” His words sent shivers down her spine as he seemed to care for her well being. She shook your head and with the strengthened body, she stood on her feet and wiped her lips of any excess blood.

“I’m fine.”

The Major felt her lies imprint into his skin as she glanced away to deny the hunger, but he was quick to react by drawing a smile and leaning closer. “Follow me.” He moved towards the sliding barn doors, ignoring the stares and glares from the others as she trailed close behind. She were shocked to find no sight of Maria close, but she didn’t allow that to stop her.

(Y/N) attempted to ask him where they were headed, but she didn’t bother as she trailed further and further from the barn. She felt enlightened by the newfound energy coursing through her deaden veins, but she also hesitated to go further as she was frightened by her own self. It wasn’t until Jasper stopped dead short in the middle of the woods that she found her voice.

“What are we doing here?”

Her question left Jasper giving a smile as he carried his eyes back to her with an eager curl of his lip. “You mentioned you used to climb trees with your brother…” He removed his army jacket and placed it by his feet. “I imagine you’d be pretty damn good at it now.” He watched her eyes widened with excitement as he began to roll up her sleeves. “… that is if you can beat me.”

She felt joy rush to your heart as she glanced up at the large oak trees surrounding the land of forrest. “First one to break a branch loses.” His eyebrow raised at the rule she delivered and immediately, she tilted her head to the side. “I truly hope you don’t mind losing… Major.”

“I think I can handle that.” Jasper expected her to give a little more with her new-found energy, but her tongue lashing was enough to make him laugh as she dashed up the tree before him. He hesitated in the flash of a moment as the happiness in her eyes was enough to make him fall back down to reality. He began to understand why Maria despised (Y/N)… it wasn’t because of her natural beauty or her ability to manipulate powers without trying.

She threatened Maria’s power over the entire army, but most importantly her Major.

#jasper hale #jasper whitlock #Major Jasper Whitlock #jasper hale x reader #jasper whitlock x reader #twilight #the twilight saga #twilight imagine #twilight fanfiction #imagine twilight #Jasper Hale Imagine #Jasper Whitlock Imagine #Bella Swan #edward cullen #Alice Cullen #Rosalie Hale #Emmett Cullen #Esme Cullen #Carlisle Cullen

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depressedacadamia · 3 years

Text

The Anatomy of the Sun

Chapter II: One more Hour

A/N: Here’s chapter 2! I think I will be updating this around every 1-2 weeks because the chapters are really long. Anyway, here it the second chap, I hope you like it and please comment!

Word count: 17K

Warnings: Kissing (more like making out), a tad of angst, r!pe mention (the patient is a victm), some mental illness references if you squint.

Chapter I

Tagging: @showtunesandsolangelo

It’s all about lines.

Jason was feeling good, he could feel it- today was going to be great. He finally managed to correct the cute barista who kept on calling him Jack and he had found the perfect parking space. He was excited- maybe he’d even get into an OR today and take back his 007 status. That was until he was almost hit by a motorcycle. He watched as the rider swerved from side to side until finally, they pulled up, leaning their motorcycle to the side as they pulled off their helmet. He watched as Hazel shook her head back and forth, letting her dark curls bounce about as she stretched her neck. She ran past him, shooting him a respectful nod as she entered the hospital with her motorcycle helmet in her gloved hands.

The finish line at the end of residency.

Roommates. Nico was officially putting up a poster for roommates. He didn’t know why he didn’t just ask Hazel but at the same time, he did. Asking Hazel was a portal into too much family drama than he could handle. Having to attend family dinners with his family was bad enough, he didn’t want to start arguing with Hazel. Besides, he just wanted 2 complete strangers that he didn't have to interact with. He pressed his thumb into the pin, securing the poster.

Waiting in line for a chance at the operating table.

And then, there’s the most important line. The line separating you from the people you work with.

Juniper was waiting to get the lift, her bag swinging in her hands. She had made a bad impression on everyone so far- maybe it was because she was a model. She couldn’t lie, people had lacked respect when talking to her in particular and she had a feeling that it had something to do with her ex- career. Finally, the lift pinged and its doors opened, only for it to be full of people. She could tell they were all staring at her, not because she looked spectacularly bad that day (she had not slept properly in a month) but because they clearly all knew of her previous occupation. Juniper mumbled something about taking the stairs and decided to keep her head up high.

At least she wasn't under tons of crushing debt.

Hour 1

Nico slipped off his boots, trading them for some worn out trainers that were much more safe. The boots were old but he hadn’t worn them often due to their uncomfortable nature but for once, he had decided to wear them. Did he know why he chose them? No, he had just decided to slip them on.

“I would ask how last night went, but I think I know and I really don’t want to hear details,” Hazel said as she walked past Nico to gain access to her locker, referring to the bruise at the base of his collarbone.

“You’re just jealous that you haven’t scored an attending yet. I’ll bet you I’m in trauma today,” Nico bragged as he pushed his boots into the already overcrowded locker. Hazel rolled her eyes at her brother's typical behaviour.

“You know that he might think you guys are dating?” Hazel added, slipping on her white coat. Nico snorted as he pulled on his scrub shirt over his long sleeved t-shirt.

“I’ve made it very clear to him that we are not dating,” Nico scoffed, “ Now all I have to do is wait for the chase.”

“The chase?”

“The chase, you know? The whole trying to pursue this person you like. It gets to a point where I will have all the power and he will do anything I want,” Nico explained. Hazel raised an eyebrow at his boastful tactics but decided to make no further comment. She did however want to make a comment about the roommates poster he had put up.

“What's up with the roommates poster by the way? Since when did you want people living with you?” Hazel asked, slamming her locker shut, just as Nico closed his. Her hair was frantic, similar to her brothers who's olive skin was particularly glowly today- she did not want to know what from.

“The place seems empty and I need other people paying rent to afford it,” Nico complained. Now it was Hazel’s turn to snort. It wasn’t quite as big a knowledge that the Di Angelo’s were also extremely wealthy than it was knowledge to know of their surgical legacy- Well Bianca’s surgical legacy. Hazel, who was not in the mood to have a confrontation with her brother, simply nodded and left.

“Please! I’d be the perfect candidate! I’m super quiet and I won’t make a mess!” The intern opposite Nico begged as she told him all the things which supposedly made her a good roommate. Nico disagreed. There many reasons that he did not want her living with him but it came down to one which was she was much too young.

“No,” he concluded unsympathetically. He was about to get up and leave when he heard another plead from the intern.

“But why?”

“Where were you when the challenger exploded?” He turned around, slightly annoyed but nonetheless, still intimidating as usual.

“What?”

“The space shuttle, Challenger- where were you when it exploded?” he challenged.

“Uh, I think I was in kindergarten,” she looked up, trying to remember.

Nico huffed out, “Exactly.”

“Percy! We’re going to be late! We aren't going to be late, we’re already late!” Annabeth shouted as she stood by the door in her scrubs, her bag in hand. Percy, with his bed hair, rushed out of the kitchen in his scrubs, grabbing his jacket from the sofa before heading towards Annabeth and placing a soft kiss on her cheek in hopes of lightening up her mood.

“Come on Wise girl, we gotta go,” he grinned cheekily as he grabbed her by the hand opening the door of their house. Annabeth, unable to stay mad for so long, sighed before giving in and heading to the car.

“We are never having morning sex again if it means we’re going to be late,” Annabeth warned. Percy, feigning mock offence, held a hand to his heart and gasped.

“Your words wound me!”

Annabeth slapped his shoulder as she started the car towards the hospital. Percy stopped mucking about and placed another chaste kiss on her cheek to make sure all was well.

Juniper and Jason were both complaining. Nico didn’t think he could handle one of them complaining, let alone trying to deal with both of them- that was a challenge. They were all leaning by the stairs right next to the nurses station which were next to the elevators.

“But Nicoo, why would you put up a poster for roommates if you don’t want roommates? I swear, I’m a great chef and I clean obsessively!” Juniper argued, slumping her arm slightly on Jason.

“I do want roommates but we’re working together 100 hours a week, you want to live together too?” he shot back. He held 4 mocha latte’s in one of those 4 cup holders you get at a coffee shop. Without asking, Juniper snatched two, shocking Nico.

“That’s for not letting us be your roommates,” Juniper pouted as she handed one to Jason who nervously accepted. Jason leaned forward, trying to convince Nico,

“Please, I have to live with my sister and she blasts her music so much. I’m pretty sure my eardrums have popped,”Jason begged. Hazel, in this exact moment, joined them, giving Jason a sympathetic look before noticing the coffee in Nico’s hand. She casually took one from Nico, not caring about his reaction- she had taken his food before on several occasions (although the Happy meal incident did not go over well).

“Why aren’t you taking one?” Hazel nodded her head towards the last coffee in his grasp as she sipped hers- she frowned. Nico never ordered mocha latte. She had expected to be tasting coffee with way too much creamer or a hot chocolate but instead it was the distinctly strong taste of coffee.

“It’s not mine,” Nico hummed as his eyes searched towards the elevator, waiting for it to open. Hazel knew that Dr Solace was already here so what was Nico so invested for? It can’t have been Percy but perhaps the resident who would come with him

“Oh, you’re bringing bribes now?” Hazel pointed towards the coffee, thinking of Dr Chase.

“It’s not a bribe,” Nico defended, looking away sharply as he listened to Jason and Juniper continue to slander his name due to his lack of compassion with them living with him.

“Look, I just want to live with two total strangers that I won’t have to talk to or be nice to!” he confessed, throwing his free hand about in exaggeration. Unexpectedly, Dr Chase made her way down the main stairs (which surprised everyone as they expected her to be downstairs not upstairs). She quickly assigned them all tasks.

“Jason, you’re running the code team* today. Nico, take the trauma pager. Hazel, deliver the weekend labs to the patients and Juni- you’re on sutures,” She announced before heading back up the stairs, only to be stopped by Nico.

“Dr Chase, I was hoping I would be able to assist in the OR today, maybe even perform a minor procedure. I think I’m ready.” He thrusted the mocha latte into her direction, “ Mocha Latte?”

Dr Chase accepted the drink slowly before taking a small sip. It slightly burnt the tip of her tongue but she appreciated the gesture- however, unfortunately for Di Angelo, this did not mean that Dr Chase had accepted his request for surgery.

“Wait, if he gets to cut, then I wanna cut too!” Hazel insisted.

“So do I!” Juniper squished in between the interns. Jason, off to the side mumbled something about how it would be nice to get a second shot. However, this simply irked Dr Chase even more. She held her hand up signalling silence- at least the interns got this sign right.

“Stop talking,” she started, “Every intern wants to perform their first surgery. That’s not your job. Do you know what your job is? To make your resident happy. Do I look happy? No. Why? Because my interns are whiny. You know what will make me look happy? Having the code team staffed, Having the trauma pages answered, having the weekend labs delivered and having someone down in the Pit doing sutures. No one holds a scalpel until I’m so happy, I’m Mary freakin Poppins!”

The interns, as clueless as ever, all stood staring at her with hopeful eyes as if they were baby birds expecting Annabeth to just feed them. She climbed a few steps before turning around and calling out,

“Why are y'all standing there, move!”

Quickly, all the interns scattered to their assigned jobs.

Hour 2

Will was waiting for an elevator as he noticed a short mop of black messy hair pick up a few files off the floor and clumsily place them on top of the overwhelming pile they already had in their small arms. Nico going to an elevator. Trying to not turn around and offer his help, Will kept to himself, smiling slightly at the small grunts the doctor beside him made. Nico finally managed to take a few more steps into Dr Solace’s eyeline, so he was standing next to him instead of behind. He tapped his foot as he decided to further his plan along.

“New york has ferry boats. There are also ferry boats where I come from. I didn’t know there were ferry boats here,” Nico mused. Will, slightly amused by Nico’s lack of geographical knowledge, retorted.

“New York is surrounded by water.”

“Hence the Ferry boats,” Nico concluded before admitting, “Now I have to like it here ya know. I wasn’t planning on liking it. I’m from Italy- genetically engineered to dislike everywhere- except Paris.”

“I have a thing for Ferry Boats,” Will decided to add, smirking slightly as they entered the empty elevator. Nico being the stubborn person he was, attempted to press one of the buttons with his elbow and Will had to practically force the floor level out of Nico. It involved a lot of bickering back and forth until they finally agreed and the elevator doors closed.

Out of nowhere, Nico quickly said, “I’m not going out with you.”

Will, already wounded that his attemp- could he even say attempts? Nico had cut him off before he had even gotten a chance to say anything but he was determined to get to Nico.

“Did I ask you to go out with me?” He turned around, smiling slightly so he only showed some of his sparkling teeth, “Will you go out with me?”

“I ain’t dating you and we aren’t sleeping together again. You’re my boss,” Nico decided to cut to the chase.

“I’m your boss's boss.”

“You're my teacher, and my teacher’s teacher,” Nico pretended to resist only resulting in Will mocking him.

“I’m your sister, I'm your daughter.”

“You’re sexually harassing me.”

“I'm riding an elevator,” Will protested. Nico glanced at the back of Will’s head and thought

His hair looked particularly neat today- it would be such a shame if it got messed up.

“I’m drawing a line. The line is drawn. There’s a big line. Don’t cross the line,” Nico breathed heavily, as if he was holding his breath. Will, still hellbent on teasing the cute intern, turned around, with his arms crossed and his hair as perfect as ever.

“So this line, is it imaginary or do I have to get you a marker?” he smirked, his voice low and teasing- Nico could tell. His crystal blue eyes were going all hazy and his baby pink lips were slightly tilted to the side as if they were just mocking Nicp by being there. They looked soft, no they were soft- Nico knew that from experience. He could see a small mole on the side of his neck as well as a purplish bruise that he may or may have not left there.

Overcome by his lack of impulse control, Nico flung himself onto Will, dropping all the files in his arms and mashed his lips on his- a gesture that was returned just as harshly by Will. The files flew across the elevator floor as Nico’s hands came up to desperately weave themselves into Will’s hair. They fought for dominance in the kiss slamming each other into the elevator- it was hot, needy and totally inappropriate. But it seemed that neither of them cared. Their lips just couldn’t get enough of each other. It was like a fire was getting ignited, a fire that couldn’t be put out. It was in both of them, absolutely raging, uncontrollable. Will was tempted to tell Nico, mind the hair but just then Nico slightly bit at Will's bottom lip, pulling it backwards gently and sucked ever so slightly, before returning to the kiss that had Will plastered against the elevator wall.

So you want to play dirty Di Angelo?

Nico was not going to give Will the chance though. Absolutely consumed by the kiss, he slightly pulled at Will’s hair evicting a small, but low, growl out of Will’s throat. Nico wasn’t sure if he heard that correctly but just as he was about to test it again, he heard the ping of the elevator. The fire within was smaller but it hadn’t died. Nico quickly pulled away and started scrambling towards the floor, trying to grab at the files as the elevator door slowly pulled itself open. Will, still a tad shocked, also helped, trying to organise the files into the right cases before handing them over to Nico. They stepped out of the elevator in sync, just like their pagers. Since Nico was also in trauma, he figured that whatever Dr Solace was getting paged for, he was also meant to be helping.

“I’ll join after I finish with these files,” Nico called out, as Dr Solace nodded and hurried off. Nico smiled to himself as he noticed that Dr Solace’s hair was sticking up in several different directions.

As Nico made his way into the Pit, he noticed a large crowd of doctors all looking slightly concerned- he hoped it was not for his patient- the more gruesome the injury, the more surgery required. However, the second he was told that it was a rape victim, he understood the facial expresions- they were disgusted at the crime, not the injuries attained.

“Dr Solace has gone to prep for surgery along with Dr Jackson,” a nurse informed him as he entered the room.

“Okay, we’ve got a 25 year old female, found down at the park, status post- trauma. She came in with a GCS* of 6. BP* is 80 over 60. Exam is significant for blunt head trauma, as well as unequal breath sounds, her right pupil is dilated and she’s ready for X-ray,” the nurse recited as Nico entered the room. He scanned his eyes across the room before his eyes landed on something familiar.

Were those his boots?

No, they were obviously not Nico’s boots, but they were the same boots. He wanted to shudder, knowing a potential rape victim was wearing the same shoes as him the day she got attacked. It was weird right? It felt weird, it was like there was some weird unknown connection and that in a way, these 2 people were very much connected- as if they were the same people who were living parallel versions of each other's lives. During Nico’s quick zone- out session, a nurse continued to try to call his attention- something he only noticed when they snapped Dr Di Angelo!

He quickly nodded as he grabbed his flashlight from his pocket and pulled her eyelids open, looking for a reaction from her pupils.

“Call ahead to clear a CT, let them know I’m coming,” Nico commanded, “Load up the portable monitor and call respiratory for a ventilator*. I will get X-rays while I’m down there.”

As he helped wheel the patient out of the trauma room, he glanced back at the boots identical to his. There was a blood splatter at the front of it, the laces where messily undone and the heel was the same height. He wasn't acting paranoid right? He couldn’t help but think that this was a weird coincidence.

Nico was slightly surprised to see Dr Zhang scrubbed in on the surgery with them rather than Dr Mclean- after all he was the head of Cardio and she was the head of General surgery- but even then, why any other attendings other than Percy and Dr Solace were required, Nico truly did not know.

“What is she? 5’2, 180 pounds? And she took a beating like this,” Will mumbled.

“They should castrate the guy,” Percy announced from the other side of the table, trying to stop the swelling of her brain

“Look how shredded her hands are, she tried to fight back,” Will pointed out.

“Tried to? The rape test came back negative, she kicked his ass!” Percy told them. Nico was invested to see how Dr Solace was repairing her hands while the 2 attendings talked about the bravery of the patient.

“So we have a warrior among us, huh?” Dr Zhang joined in. Nico couldn’t help but feel a tinge of annoyance. She had a name. She was a person. He didn’t know why he felt so strongly about a patient all of a sudden but he had a faint feeling that it had something to do with those boots.

“Allison… that's her name…. Allison,” Nico cut in the conversation. All the attendings stopped to look at him. Percy, being as supportive as ever, smiled and nodded before returning to fixing her skull. Will looked at Nico, his eyes calm, like the ocean at rest. To an extent, it reminded Nico of Percy’s eyes- something that could always calm Nico down. He watched as Will’s lips slowly parted as he murmured Allison's name under his breath. Dr Zhang took a pair of clamps from the nurse before slowly pulling his arm back.

“I think I’ve found the cause of our rupture….more suction.” As he drew his arm back, the surgical interns and residents crowded by his arm to have a look at the cause of the rupture. However, once the foreign object was removed, the surgeons became more and more confused- what exactly was this, a tumor? A mass?

“What is this?” Dr Zhang turned towards the doctors. They all scooted closer to get a closer look. Nico took a glance for a couple of seconds before opening his eyes wide in horror as he realised what exactly he was looking at. He was in a state of horror and curiosity.

“Oh my god… she bit it off,” Nico started hesitantly. Dr Zhang, Dr Solace and Dr Jackson all looked to him, stopping their individual procedures, waiting for Nico to continue speaking.

“Well, come on- spit it out!” Percy told Nico. Utterly conflicted, Nico decided to just spit it out- just as Percy had told him to.

“That's a..that's a…. um that’s a penis.”

Almost on instinct, Dr Zhang called for a kidney bowl and practically flung the castrated appendage away from himself. Will couldn’t tell if he should laugh or be alarmed at how Nico was the only person able to identify the penis.

Hour 5

The water ran over the surgeons hands as they scrubbed between all the crevices in their hands with soap. In between fingers, around thumbs and nail brushes scrubbed at fingertips. Dr Zhang and Dr Solace both stood side by side as they washed their hands practically in sync- just like their miraculous surgical skills.

“I can’t believe she made it through that surgery,” Will began as he switched off the tap by nudging it slightly with his elbow.

“She has a long road to recovery. Fighting off infection, physiotherapy and not to mention therapy itself,” Frank, in his honest nature, responded. He copied Will, turning off the running water with his elbow as he reached for some paper towels to dry off his hands.

“And she needs to wake up in the next 72 hours if she wants a chance at fighting. She’s a fighter, I believe she can make it.”

“Speaking of making it to places, we should get a drink later and you can tell me the long story of what makes a hot shot doctor leave a big apple for New York,” Frank offered as he threw his paper towel into the bin.

Will shrugged slightly, “It’s a short story really- your Chief of surgery made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

“Chiron asked you to come?” Frank asked, genuinely shocked.

“Yeah, why?” Will turned around looking at Dr Zhang. He watched as Frank’s expressions twisted before he shook his head, gave a small smile and mumbled never mind.

“Do you know what the Code Team does? They save lives- yeah, I know. I shock a heart and another patient gets to live to see another day, pretty cool huh?” Jason slightly bragged, trying to make conversation with Hazel - who he knew was overly competitive. He was leaning over the shoulder of Hazel who leaned over the desk at the nurses station, organizing the patient files and lab results.

“Bambi, don’t say another word until after the hunter shoots your mother,” Hazel’s voice drawled with boredom. Jason practically speechless only managed out a meek,

“I don’t like you.”

Hazel sharply turned around, “You know, I have a BA* from Smith, a PHD* from Berkeley and an MD* from Stanford and I'm delivering lab results. It's gonna take me ages to get through these-”

“-Well then you better get a move on with it,” Dr Chase walked past, surprising the doctor. Hazel slightly intimidated, tried to protest that she wasn’t complaining but it seemed that Dr Chase didn’t really care. A doctor behind her with thick curly hair and a smug expression stood, trying to keep his expression neutral.

“This is Dr Underwood. Lucky Valdez got to get rid of him so now he’s got Mccaffrey and I’ve got Underwood on my service. Levesque, have him shadow you and show him how we run things on my service,” Dr chase commanded before walking off, slightly sashaying.

“Hey, I’m Grover Underwood, nice to meet you.” He held his hand out to Hazel who looked at it and recoiled slightly before looking at it in disgust. Jason was still trying to figure out if he liked this guy, he seemed quite polite so far but he truly wondered what Underwood did to get kicked off Valdez’s service- he had heard that Valdez was a pretty chill resident, getting kicked off his service would seem pretty hard.

“You’re the pig who called Nico a nurse.. Yeah, I hate you on principal,” Hazel admitted looking him up and down.

He did what? Jason thought as he eavesdropped on the conversation beside him.

“And you’re the pushy, overbearing kiss ass… I hate you too,” Grover grunted.

Okay, I defo don’t like this guy, Jason decided.

“Should be fun then,” Hazel sarcastically smiled as they both set off just as Jason's pager beeped signalling another Code Blue.

Jason ran around the corner, nurses following him as he found the patient's room. Immediately, he introduced himself. He had become more and more familiar with this procedure and while it had taught him that Hades was enjoying his job a bit too much, he was also hopeful for the patient in every room he had to run to.

“I’m Dr Grace and I’ll be running this code. What do we have?”

“57 year old male with an asystole pulse*,” A nurse from beside the bed answered. Jason ordered the defibrillators to be used as he had another person put on compressions, another on the ambu bag and someone administering drugs.

“Charging to 200, clear!”

The Pit was quite full as Dr June walked in, searching for her next patient. She picked up a chart from the nurses station that was positioned next to the emergency entrance and flipped the page to see the name. Mrs Lu, Bed 3

“Hi Mrs Lu, I'm Doctor June. I'm gonna sew up your wound, you’re going to need around 6 stitches.” Juniper turned around to start setting up the equipment from the tray only to hear a frantic cry of words coming from behind her. She only recognised the chinese word for hurt but even then, she could not decipher what Mrs Lu was saying. She sighed, wondering how long it would be until she could get a hold of a translator. She was tempted to ask Dr Zhang but she knew it was selfish and plain old rude of her to assume that Dr Zhang would be able to help her. She decided to wait for a translator.

Nico and the penis in a box. Yes, you read that correctly. Nico was holding the penis in a box or how he would like to put it, the forgein object in a cooler. They were making their way towards the office of the Chief Of Surgery. He slightly remembered the walk up to the room, the carpet and walls seeming familiar, like a second home. As he walked into the office, he was surprised to find Secretary Hedge there instead of Chief Chiron. He rapped his knuckles on the door gently, grasping the attention of the man sitting in the chair.

“Hey, I was told to leave this with the Chief.” He raised his arm with the cooler in his hand.

“Is that it?” A seriously over eager Secretary Hedge asked. Nico slowly nodded, trying to not fuel the secretaires curiosity. In a complete turn of events, Hedge asked,

“Can I see it?” Hedge watched as Nico struggled to keep his facial muscles under control- laugh or cringe, Nico did not know. Just as Hedge muttered a small, forget I asked, Chiron walked in with his white jacket and a large smile on recognising Nico.

“Nico! It’s good to see you!”

At this, Nico smiled. He had known Chiron for very long but the mass majority of the time that he had seen him, the attention was entirely focused on the potential for his sister- not much for him. He felt a bit guilty that he was enjoying the shine of her mentor while she was struggling but he finally felt noticed.

“How’s Bianca? I heard she was leaving the Mayo Clinic. Is she going back to the UN?” Chrion asked almost immediately. Nico could feel all the happiness and life in him slowly drain.So nothing had actually changed. He was still in his sister's shadow despite the fact that she wasn’t even here. Gods, she wasn’t even in this time period! Bianca was in a nursing home thinking she was reliving her surgery days and here was Nico somehow still under her shadow. If Bianca’s mentor wasn’t willing to see Nico’s potential as a surgeon- how many other Doctors thought that he was only here due to his Di Angelo status? Percy? Dr Chase? Did Doctor Solace think that?

Why does it concern me the most if Dr Solace doesn’t see past my status?

Nico decided that it must be because Dr solace was the head of his favourite department- Trauma.

“Uh, no. She’s taking time off-”

“-To write another book I suppose?” Chiron cut in, smiling as he picked up some papers off his desk and moved them underneath a folder. Nico simply attempted a smile in return, a gesture that did not alarm Chiron- he had known Nico Pre-Bianca and her alzehmiers. That Nico had been a very smiley person. Nico, who could have sworn his facial muscles were deteriorating as he smiled, decided to move the conversation to the matter at hand- the penis in a bo-

- The foreign object in a cooler .

“Well, I’ve got it,” Nico said half heartedly, lifting the cooler in his hand up slightly. Chiron turned to his secretary, conversing a few words with him, as if Nico had never entered the room.

“Uh, Hedge, how long did the cops say they’d be?”

“You know how slow they always are so he better take it with him-”

“-Take it with me? You want me to take a penis around the hospital with me?” Nico cut off Hedge, with growing anxiety- he did not want to have to babysit a penis. Gosh, being on Solace’s service was meant to result in fun, not this!

“It's the chain of custody rules. All medical matter in a rape must stay with the person who collected it until its placed into police custody,” Chiron ,who was secretlty relived to not have to keep the penis, recited.

“So I have custody over a penis,” Nico deadpanned. Sheepishly, the secretary nodded trying to not laugh at the poor kids' situation.

“Until the cops come from it, of course,” Chiron reminded Nico, as if knowing that the police would take their sweet time was any more re- assuring.

“And what am I meant to do with a penis?” Nico frantically asked, his cool persona falling and being slowly replaced by one of panic and desperation. Chiron and Hedge simply gave obscure looks at Nico’s question before looking back down at the papers in their hands.

Hour 10

Hazel sighed. She had been sighing all day. Every patient either had a benign tumour* or a condition of no interest to her. When was someone going to be seriously ill? They were surgeons for god's sake, not lab running rats! Both Hazel and Grover made their way to the next patients room, seriously disappointed. On entering the room, they both saw the family crowded round the patients bed, holding their hands together like there was a prayer commencing.

“You have a disorder called multinucleate cell angiohistiocytoma. It's not a cancer or a sarcoma, it's very rare but minor. You will be discharged today,” Hazel, slightly bored, attempted a smile. The family, still taking in the good news, were catatonic for around 5 seconds before all hell broke loose. There was crying, cheering, claps and laughs. Grover and Hazel both looked at each other with the same expression- Get me out of here .

“Wait wait, does this mean I don’t need surgery?” The patient ,still propped up by his elbows in his bed, inquired. Hazel simply nodded before getting pulled into a bear hug, against her will may I add, and practically almost suffocated to death. Her eyes widened as she stared into Grovers soul trying to get him to help her. Unfortunately for Hazel, Underwood was much more invested in watching her uncomfortable encounters.

Jason was sitting in a chair, letting it spin it around and round. The nurses station was quite empty with only the occasional nurse in and out. He stopped his spinning to bury his head in a very interesting chart that consisted of a case to do with a-

- Clink!

Nico set down the cooler on the desk with a loud sound that jolted Jasons’s head out of his head before letting his eyes land on the cooler. Jason, curious and wanting to engage in conversation with Nico began questioning the contents of the cooler. Nico who really did not want to tell Jason attempted to warn him

“Ooh, what’s in the cooler?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

“No.” Jason got up from his seat and came to stand next to Nico, “ No, I do wanna know.”

Nico, who really wasn’t about to greatly resist, decided to tell Jason. Afterall, if it ruined Jason’s day as well, it would mean he wouldn't be the only miserable person moping about in the hospital.

“It’s a severed penis.” Nico shrugged quite nonchalantly as he gained amusement from the horrified expression slowly growing on Jason’s face. He watched as Jason's expressions contorted between fascination and disgust, trying to figure out which emotion to settle on. He wanted to prove Nico wrong but at the same time didn’t want Nico to not like him.

“I don’t think I wanted to know that.” Jason looked back down at his book, with a meek expression and his head slightly bowed as if he was praying. As Jason entered a world of truly unnecessary overthinking, Grover and Hazel came in arguing, what about, Jason did not know and in all honesty, after what Nico had told him- he did not want to know. Deciding he wanted to shift his discomfort to someone else, he looked to Hazel.

“Do you know Di Angelo is babysitting a penis in a jar?” he pointed towards the cooler sitting on the table top. Hazel, with piqued curiosity, quickly made her way over towards the cooler and opened the lid, taking a quick peek at the bitten off contents before shutting it.

“It’s a cooler, not a jar,” Nico whined slightly, not really directing his comment towards anyone.

“Talk about taking a bite out of crime,” Hazel commented as she picked something out of Nico’s hair. Nico didn’t really know whether to thank her or to resist the gesture. It felt weird- right? It was weird that Hazel was filling Bianca’s void. It was weird that Nico first thought about Hazel when people talked about his sister. It was weird that Nico was completely okay with this. He felt it was simply not right but at the same time, he didn’t want it to stop. Was he being unfaithful to Bianca? Was he betraying her? Or would she want him to move on from her, grow closer with his family who were actually lucid.

Jason watched Nico’s facial expressions with intensity- such intensity that had Nico not been stuck in a hole of problems, he a hundred percent would have noticed and even been creeped out by Jason’s intense stare. Despite only knowing Nico for around a month, he cared deeply about him. He wanted to know what was so concerning to him so much that he froze up and his eyes went all glazed like he was on autopilot. Nico was a closed off person who wore all black and covered up his secrets with wicked smiles and sarcastic quips but Jason could see the vulnerable child within Nico. He felt responsible for him and everything that happened to him.

“Hey, are you okay?” Jason asked tenderly, making Nico lift his head- effectively stopping him from daydreaming. For a second, when Nico lifted his head, Jason saw a glitter in Nico’s eyes that reminded him of innocence. Youth, life and calamity- instead of the empty, cold and lifeless onyx eyes that could give even Lucifer nightmares.

“The rape victim I had today, Allison, she had the same shoes as me. And ever since… It just doesn’t sit well with me, ya know? I never wear those boots normally because they’re so uncomfortable And it’s… stupid and I’m tired so nevermind, just leave it.” Nico batted his hand, dismissing the subject. Jason raised his eyebrows at the abrash statement and gesture before attempting Nico’s wicked smile.

“Do you know what you need?” Jason wiggled his eyebrows, letting the secret into the open like a breath of air. Immediately, Nico caught onto what Jason was talking about. He was offended and shocked that Jason had been doing it without him- This was their thing and Jason was doing it behind his back without him? The betrayal was heartbreaking. What next? Solace sleeping with someone else?

“No! It’s sick and twisted and we said last time was the last time,” Nico firmly said. He watched as Jason’s face contorted between guilt and excitement.

“You’ve been doing it without me?” Nico released. Jason shuffled his feet together nefor mumbling a ‘maybe’.

“Do you know what would happen if anyone knew?” Nico huffed out but Jason had made up his mind.

“I’m doing it- you can come with me or you can sit here and be miserable,” Jason confirmed as he dragged Nico by the white collar, which was considerably easy when you realised that Nico was an entire head shorter that Jason- and some would argue even more.

Nico and Jason had their faces pressed up onto the glass staring at the cute babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or as the doctors would simply call it- the NICU. Nico couldn't help the overwhelming smile that made his way onto his face as he stared at the cute babies as they attempted to talk, throwing their limbs about cluelessly. He listened to Jason who urged them with non-existent words and funky sounds that was considered the universal baby language. Nico looked at Jason- his platinum blonde hair and faintly light blue eyes reminded him to an extent of Will but at the same time- there was a clear difference. Will had faint freckles that decorated his face like a cake being decorated by icing sugar- whereas Jason had a pale complexion. Will’s hair was more of a golden blond and reminded of Nico of sunrise on a summer morning- hot, warm and some may even say beautiful and then there was his eyes-

- Why was he reciting this like he memorised it in the shower for fun?

Nico decided to put Wil- no, Solace out of his mind. He listened to the absolutely adorable sounds that Jason was making- he reminded him of Bianca when she used to babysit Estelle- Percy’s younger sister. Estelle was absolutely adorable and Nico considered her to be his younger sister as well, considering the amount of time she spent with the Di Angelo’s- especially during Percy’s med school and residency years when he was meant to be babysitting Estelle and had instead handed her to Nico and Bianca.

“You are such a softie,” Nico said, giggling slightly at Jason who was still cooing at the babies. For a couple of moments afterwards, Jason froze. Was Nico complimenting him? Or was it an insult? What on earth did the word ‘softie’ mean here? Did Nico like sofites? Or was ‘Softie’ Nico’s equivalent of ‘ absolute loser’? However, before Jason was able to come to any sort of conclusion, his pager beeped, signalling another Code Blue that he had to respond to.

“Ah shit, I’ve got a code to run, I’ll catch you later.” Jason waved before breaking into a jog and leaving. After Nico said his goodbyes to Jason he continued watching the babies for some more time. He was fascinated- how did humanity get from there to here. The babies were pure and new and hadn’t been exposed to the harsh realities of the world- how will they turn to what Nico has become? How did they get from Point A to point B? As Nico pondered over these philosophical thoughts, he carried watching the babies but something caught his eye. He could have sworn that baby he just saw went blue momentarily. It was crying and thrashing about but maybe Nico was only seeing things. He was tired, sleep deprived and if he had to be honest- this wouldn't have been the first time Nico saw things that weren’t actually there.

He watched it again, more intensely. With an analytical fine tooth comb. There- the baby turned blue again! So he wasn’t hallucinating! He rushed into the room, quickly taking out the chart of the baby and scanning his eyes over the info. He was aware that if he was caught, the consequences would not be great. That was probably the understatement of the year. After finishing with the chart, he set it down and took his stethoscope and started listening to the heart of the baby- something there wasn’t right, Nico could feel it. Nico did not often have such strong feelings but he had learnt that when they occurred, they were never wrong.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing here?” a doctor with pink scrubs walked in.

“There were no tests ordered and the baby has a heart murmur-” Nico began, taking the stethoscope out of his ears.

“-I know and you’re surgery, you are not authorised to be here. Do you know what could happen if you were caught?” The intern pressed on but Nico refused to step down here.

“Are you going to do any tests to confirm?” Nico asked, his tone clearly one of concern.

“It’s a benign systolic ejection murmur*. It will go away with age.”

“So you aren’t doing any tests.” Nico realised that he couldn’t win this in any way- well for now. He started to make his way towards the door before the intern decided to slam another attempt at a guilt tripping insult at him but in reality just made Nico doubt their abilities. He seriously felt bad for the Valdez resident if these were the meatheads he had to teach.

Hour 15

Frank felt betrayed. He had to say, he was never truly familiar with such a feeling. He had experienced the odd chance of it but in reality Frank was used to succeeding- in fact he had dedicated all his life to it. Many people saw him as soft, simple and easy to beat opponent but in reality that was one of his greatest strengths- people underestimated him until they met him. To an extent this had made Frank slightly arrogant- but he wouldn’t say it wasn’t necessary. The truth is, every surgeon has to be arrogant to believe that they can cut open another human and somehow fix them as if they were a god like deity but right now, Frank wasn’t thinking that he was arrogant, no. He was thinking that Chiron was being arrogant- believing that he was all so big and mighty and could just throw Frank about with his lies and schemes.

“Oh Chiron! So you asked Solace to come here?” Frank confronted, his hands resting on his hips.

“Yeah, Solace was an old student of mine...” Chiron trailed off, unaware of the purpose of the conversation.

“Oh so he left a private practise in Austin, Texas just because you asked?”

“Yes.”

“No other reason? Just a favour for an old professor,” Frank said with a hint of sarcasm lingering behind the words.

“It will be years before I retire,” Chiron began to reassure, understanding the nature of the conversation of the root of Frank's passive aggressive attitude.

“ Chief of surgery is mine, you told me so,” Frank reminded him.

“It was yours, now I'm not so sure.”

“I am the best surgeon here! I have the lowest mortality rate, you can’t just bring someone-”

“-Ask me why. Ask me why I'm not so sure of you," Chiron repeated, trying to get Frank to understand his motives. Chiron liked Frank, they had done a lot for each other. In fact, it had been Chrion who had helped Frank get over his low self- esteem, something that had bothered Frank for almost his entire life.

Frank, feeling defeated, almost stormed off. He knew he shouldn’t feel guilty but he couldn’t help letting a bit of it creep in as he remembered how somehow, he led Chiron, his mentor, to believe that his low self-esteem no longer existed. Maybe it was Chiron’s great desire to no longer see Frank suffer that made him see past it but Frank knew better. He wasn’t mad because the job may not be his, no- he had only wanted the job due to the benefits that came with it. Frank was mad because Chirom bringing in another ex-mentee of his simply brought his low self-esteem back all over again.

It was like med- school except this time, there were actual lives at stake. Did Chiron truly feel that he wasn’t good enough- that Solace would be a better Chief of Surgery better than Frank? He didn’t want to admit it, but Frank knew that he had become somewhat arrogant in an attempt to lie to himself and hide the lack of self esteem. The arrogance had only started when he was in residency but over the years, as he saved more lives, it accumulated. Yet, somehow, Frank still did not think it was good enough. Clearly Solace was. Why else would Chiron bring another threat to Frank’s anxiety if Chiron didn’t believe Frank's anxiety had gone? Surely Chiron wouldn’t do this knowing how badly it would hurt Frank.

Would he?

Hazel was bored. She knew it, Grover knew it and so did every nurse in a 1 metre radius of the stretcher that she sat in with the charts of her patients in a stack in front of her. This was New York Presbytarian! They were meant to have the best surgical residency in the country and here she was delivering lab results to over joyous patients- none of which had any sort of interesting condition. You’d think that someone in a hospital would be close to dying but no, it seemed that all of her patients were in ‘tip top’ condition.

“People need to get sick because I refuse to spend my residency doing this,” Hazel complained as she flipped the pages of the chart.

“Exactly. How can we be in the OR if people are just gonna live?” Grover agreed. They continued complaining, depressed about their current state. Hazel wanted to get this done and over with. The quicker she finished the job, the quicker she could get into a surgery. She took the 20 case files and separated them into 2 piles, each with 10 files.

“Here.” She handed one pile to Grover as she got up, “ You take 10, I take 10. We go in, we go out- no hugging, no laughing, no crying. Don’t be slow,” she instructed.

“Slow? If anything you’re the slow one,” Grover retorted as they made their way to the hallway.

“You wanna bet?” Hazel challenged, stopping a second to look at Grover. He mumbled a ‘You’re on’ before they both ran off, trying to finish first.

“You literally aren't letting anyone live with you!” The psychology resident complained. Nico turned on them.

“Favorite 80’s band?”

“That has nothing to do with this!”

“I’m still waiting.” he tapped his foot impatiently.

“I don’t know, the Bangles?” They shrugged cluelessly while Nico scoffed.

“Yeah, absolutely not.” Nico began walking away- he had to babysit a penis after all.

“Is there even a right answer?”

“AC/DC, The rolling stones, Guns N’ Roses,” Nico called out, not looking back, as he walked away.

“You will be free to leav- OOF!” Grover was cut off by an enormous bear hug from almost the entire family. He wanted to push them all away from him- after all, 3 families had hugged him so far and he had only visited 4 of the 10 patients he had. If he continued at this rate, Hazel was for sure to win.

“You have a cyst on your lymph node- but tests have confirmed that it was not cancerous which means you probably have some sort of infection- we will put you on broad range antibiotics before discharge tomorrow,” Hazel recited as she dodged a hug aiming for her resulting in 2 family members in an embrace. She quickly slipped out of the room without notice and smiling to herself- 5 down, 5 to go.

“Clear!” Jason called again, it had been 26 minutes into a code without any reaction to CPR, drugs or shocking. Jason knew what was coming next. He could feel it, like it was hanging over his shoulder waiting for his patients to walk into their arms. Death hung at the shoulder of every doctor as their guardian angel- something he remembered Nico saying. When he had said it, he didn't remember. He put his arm out, signalling the nurse to stop CPR. He took a shaky breath.

“Time of death, 15:45.”

Hour 20

Nico watched as the heart monitor stayed stable, reaching the apex before dropping and repeating. Allison. Attempted rape. Boots. Those were the words just floating around his head. Here she was on a vent, alone, like a vegetable and only hours ago she had been alive- smiling, talking, fighting.

“I've called every hospital in the country. Sooner or later the guy who did this is gonna seek medical attention and when he does, that penis you’re carrying around is gonna nail him,” a voice coming from behind Nico said. He turned his head slightly to see the golden curls that he had messed up this morning. Nico’s eyes were cast back onto the lonely woman. How could anyone so vulnerable be so alone?

“Where's her family?” The words slipped out of Nico’s mouth before he could stop them. Will shook his head slightly, his hair bouncing slightly from the impact.

“Doesn't have one.”

“No siblings?” Nico asked, thinking of Hazel and Bianca.

“Nope, both parents are dead. She moved to New York 3 weeks ago. Welcome to the city,” Will took a bite out of an apple miserably. Nico too was miserable- they both had good reason to do so. What kind of world did they live in where the system was so disadvantaged to anyone who wasn’t white, male, heterosexual and neurotypical? What kind of system forced minorities to work in society's most unwanted but vital jobs? What kind of system forced women to be terrified of walking home alone- day or night?

“Nico? Are you okay?” Will’s soft and concerned voice broke into Nicos thoughts. The question left him speechless- was he okay? The cynical, sarcastic and natural answer was No- obviously no. But for some reason, Nico did not want to say no, but rather leave his own pain to himself- not burden anyone else with it.

“Yeah.. I just gotta do something.” With that, Nico ran off looking for Dr Zhang.

Nico found Dr Zhang climbing the stairs. The hospital had a comfortable endless buzz, something that all the staff were used to- Frank was hoping to get a calm and perhaps even silent moment to himself. Instead, he got an intern.

“Dr Zhang, there’s this patient. It’s a baby in peds and they had a tetralogy spell with a heart murmur,” Nico started, his legs struggling to keep up.

“Did Ped’s ask for a consult?”

Nico stayed silent, partially because he didn’t want to feel guilty for lying and partially because he did not have a lie on him- not one that he could pull off at least.

“Di Angelo, you’re a bright kid but we can’t just walk in there without a Peds consult. It’s not like I’m the Chief of Surgery,” Frank said sympathetically as he walked off.

“Hehehee, you’reee hott,” the drunk slurred as they leaned slightly forward in a terrible attempt to flirt with Juniper. Juniper still stood in the Pit, it’s fluorescent lights giving her a headache- along with the noise levels and annoying patients. Slightly disgusted by the stench of alcohol on their breath, she pushed them back gently, making sure they didn’t flop onto the stretcher.

“You’re drunk,” she deadpanned as she prepared the sutures, “And you also need to hold still.”

Juniper was sick of the Pit, she was sick of the flourecsant lights that made her skin look like puke and most of all, she was sick of her patients; drunk and disorderly were the mass majority and since the morning, not one major casualty had come through those doors other than the rape case Nico had been assinged to.

“I know you! You’re that lady from the magazine with the red bikini..” they trailed off, their voice in a musing and questioning tone. Juniper had to physically stop herself from scoffing- It was a pink bikini. She didn’t hate her fans but sometimes people made it weird, especially drunk ones who enjoyed invading her personal space a tad too much.

“It was a pink bikini.”

The seats by the hospital doors were the perfect place (other than the vending machines) to hide from your residents- so naturally, Nico and Hazel were there, camping away during lunch. The penis in a box sat in the chair next to him as he nibbled at the rainbow sour gummy strips.

“Watcha doing?” Hazel asked as she made her way towards him.

“I’m sitting with my penis.”

“Which one?”

In response to this, Nico scrunched up his face in a sarcastic, sardonic smile that read No <3.

“I kissed McDreamy...in an elevator. I was having a bad day,” Nico started with his voice relatively quiet.

“So what do you do on your bad days, make out with McDreamy?”

“Yeah that and carrying around a severed penis just makes everything so shiny and happy,” He retorted in response to his sister.

“Jason said Allison was wearing your boots.”

“…. It's weird right? “

“It’s weird that you care so much. They’re boots and popular ones too- anyone could have them,” Hazel argued. Nico opened his mouth to respond but in that moment a bunch of frantic shouting cut them off. Behind them, right outside the hospital a man had pulled up. His skin was sickly pale, there was blood all over his legs and groin and he was struggling to move.

Nico looked at his facial features and did not expect for the man to look… well normal. For some reason, he had envisioned the man to look evil- to resemble hate itself but he just looked normal. That's when it hit Nico- rapists don’t look like rapists. They look like average people because that's what their best advantage is- the trusting nature of humanity. They don’t look evil because they need to fit in, to gain the trust of others and protect their reputation. They look normal because anybody could be a rapist- they don’t wear posters pointing it out and it’s not written on their foreheads. That's what they do best- hide.

Nico and the transport staff rushed the man in the gurney towards the operating room, their legs moving as fast as possible. The police were going to arrive soon but for now, he would have to be handcuffed to his bed. The rapist was found, Allison was alive, now what? There was no way they’d be able to re attach the penis and honestly, Nico did not want to- in his eyes, the rapist got exactly what he deserved

“Call reception and tell them we need security up here ASAP,” Nico ordered, finally taking charge. As the gurney was charged into the surgical department, Dr Chase caught on.

“What dya have Di Angelo?”

“Take a look for yourself.” He nodded towards the middle of the man's body, more specifically his groin. Annabeth quickly lifted up the drapes before letting them drop- here eyes widened and she looked at Nico with disbelief painted across her face.

“Page the Chief and Solace and tell them we’ve got the rapist,” she commanded as she took Nico’s position on the gurney and continued wheeling him to an OR.

The heart monitor was beeping steadily. The heart was moving- beating. Nico and Hazel, stood side by side watching Dr Chase performing surgery- unfortunately, they weren't assisting however they were still getting tested on their medical knowledge. The OR had it’s regular flicker of lights, the smell of antiseptics and the hues of blue across the room.

“I saw Allison, you can't believe the beating that she took and then you see this!” Nico whisper-shouted towards Hazel.

“It's like that old saying- you should see the other guy.” Hazel nodded.

“Why aren't we attempting to re-attach the severed penis?” Annabeth's stern but questioning voice cut through their conversation.

“Teeth tear not slice- you can only reattach when there's a clean cut. If she had sliced it off with a knife, perhaps then we could re-attach,” Hazel quickly recited.

“And the digestive juices didn't leave a lot of the flesh to work with,” Nico added on.

“So what are we doing?” Dr Chase asked, a hint of boredom lingering in her voice.

“Sewing him up minus a large part of the family jewels,” Nico snorted slightly.

“What will his outlook be?” Dr Chase asked while holding her hand out for the nurse to take the instrument out of her hand.

“He will be urinating out of a bag for a very very very long time,” Hazel said, slightly pleased.

“Not to mention he will never be able to have sex again,” Nico said, not in least bit sympathetic.

“Oh too bad, what a shame,” Hazel drawled.

“Let's all take a moment to grieve,” Annabeth said sarcastically before immediately asking for a clamp.

Hour 25

“Chief!” Frank jogged, trying to catch up with Chiron while waving frantically. He had taken time off and realised if he wanted this, he had to think about everyone- not just himself. He needed to learn his faults and how to get over them.

“Frank.” Chiron nodded, “Do you need something?”

“Why can’t I be chief? You helped me before, you believed in me, what changed?”

“You really want to know?” Chiron sighed looking at Frank who nodded. “You’re too comfortable in your job. You never go the extra step. Your arrogance isn’t impressive- if you want to be chief Frank, you have to earn it.”

The words knocked Frank back- My arrogance isn’t impressive? If I recall correctly, you told me to be more arrogant and now it’s a problem? You tell someone to do something and then you tell them to do the exact opposite. What in the name of Pluto is his problem?

The interns were all pretty different but they could agree that they hated their job. They were sitting on the stretchers by the vending machine (which at this point had become their hangout away from the attendings) and were complaining- which apparently makes up 80% of all human conversations.

“My head hurtss,” Grover groaned, throwing backwards against the wall.

“Maybe you have a brain tumor,” Hazel said after sipping some coffee.

“No, you want me to have a tumor.”

“I'd personally rip your face off if it meant I got to scrub in,” Hazel confessed, not feeling guilty in the slightest. Juniper made her way from the vending machine, holding a snickers bar like her life depended on it.

“I've been suturing all day, my hands are numb and I'm regretting not taking foregin languages in high school,” she sighed as she plopped her bottom onto the stretcher, leaving space for Nico and Jason.

“At least you’re helping people,” Jason called as he put his hand up the vending machine in an attempt to retrieve his chips which had decided to not obey the laws of physics and get stuck. Nico who stood behind him shuffled Jason out the way, gave the vending machine a violent kick before the packet of chips fell out, directly into Jason's hands- that was until Nico literally stole them from him.

“At least you get to practise freakin medicine!” Grover called out, sick of delivering lab results to patients.

“Mrs Lu, the chinese lady, I had to send her away. I mean I stiched her up but she stayed camping in the Pit- she left in the end though,” Juni said in a defeated tone.

“The police can't send some crime person down so I have to spend the night with a penis,” Nico complained before looking over to Grover, “ Grover don’t make the joke.”

Grover tutted, “It was too easy anyway.”

Finally, Jason cut in the conversation. They were all sick of being used and not actually learning. Gosh, did the hospital not realise that they were also doctors- not useless med students who couldn’t find their heads from their ass!

“Who here has no idea what they’re doing?” Jason cried. Everyone, except Grover, shot their hands up. Nico was not ashamed to admit he did not know what he was meant to be doing- saving lives or babysitting penises?

“Are we meant to be learning something? Because I don’t think I'm learning anything!” Jason added as he slumped further in the stretcher that they were all sharing.

“Except how not to sleep,” Juniper retorted.

“It's like there’s this wall and the attendings and the residents are over there being surgeons and were over here being-” Hazel started passionately but was cut off by her brother.

“- Suturing, code running, lab delivering penis minders,” Nico finished.

“I hate being an intern,” Grover concluded. Nico seated beside him grunted in agreement. The interns continued their mindless complaints until Dr Chase walked in, her expression stern and her arms resting on her hips in a manner that screamed And what exactly do you think you’re doing? All it took was a raised eyebrow from Dr Chase and the interns were scrambling off the stretcher and rushing off back to their jobs. She snatched the unopened pack of chips that Nico had left on the stretcher and helped herself.

Nico often made very bad decisions. It was something the people around simply expected of him at this point- if it wasn’t Bianca then it was Hazel or Percy (but normally Percy would also join in on the bad decisions). Despite being warned not to, Nico found himself staring at the baby from the NICU earlier. As Nico looked up slightly, he saw 2 people cooing towards a baby and Nico could only assume that they were the parents. He could feel the dumb and stupid thoughts brewing and bubblinmg in his mind. He tried to stop them, he tried to tell himself to not move towards them but he couldn’t help himself- he never could in all honesty. While Nico was a very patient person sometimes, some impulses just couldn’t be left on stand-by.

As Nico finished explaining to the parents what he believed to be wrong with the child, the intern in pink scrubs from earlier who had specifically told Nico to leave walked into the communal area. Nico was absolutely busted- car lights on, bambi style busted.

“I warned you to not come back here,” They snarled before beheading into another room and practically grabbing Leo Valdez by the arm. Leo slowly retracted his arm out of their grasp before dusting it lightly.

“Hi, can I help you?” Leo started, his lips parted in a gorgeous and genuine grin- something that even Nico had to admit was cute.

“If our baby is sick, we want him treated,” The parents started, their voices thick with worry and concern. Nico could practically hear the tremble in it.

“Of course, which child is yours?” Leo asked with his professionalist front- he’d have to deal with the interns later.

Frank hated the interns. He hated Chiron and he hated his life. Not necessarily in that order. He was used to the incompetence of the interns. He was used to them making mistakes or hesitating but the one thing he wasn’t used to was pure disobedience. He had directly told Di Angelo to not approach peds or any of their cases. So what exactly Di Angelo was doing with Valdez and his intern talking to a pair of seemingly very concerned parents, Frank honestly did not know and would have liked to have kept it that way.

“Dr Valdez, can we speak for a second?” Frank asked. He and Leo were good friends, he knew that Leo wouldn’t get offended or turn it into a scandal.

“Sure, I’d like to know what on earth is going on though. No offence, but your intern shouldn’t be here,” Leo started, his hand brushing his curls out of his face.

“I told you earlier to not come back and look who’s here!” The intern snarked in Nico’s face.

“The baby had a tetralogy spell* earlier and a heart murmur- they aren't consistent with a benign systolic ejection murmur!” Nico argued. Frank turned to the intern, he could already see them faltering. He wouldn’t call himself scary- it was mainly just him being tall and built like a marine, not that he really cared.

“How sure are you? How sure are you that it is a benign systolic ejection murmur? 100 percent sure?” Frank turned to the intern. He watched as their face twisted, like they had just realised that they had been a fly trapped in a spider's web.

“Are you 100 percent sure about the diagnosis?” Leo turned towards his resident, a look of hesitation and slight horror creeping up onto his face. His previous interns from the past 2 years were so much easier than this. Everyone listened to him, barely anyone died and there weren’t sneaky, semi- famous italian legacies sneaking into his department. Not that he blamed Nico, in fact he had to admit that he was secretly impressed with the doctors observation skills- especially considering he was an intern. But after all, he was a Di Angelo.

“I dunno...like 75 percent..” They mumbled towards the floor. Gods, if his intern was wrong, it would be on his ass! How on earth was he about to mess up so badly? This was his 3rd year in residency- he couldn’t afford to screw up.

“Can I see the patient's chart?” Dr Zhang held his hand out towards the intern who hastily handed it over- as if it was a ticking time bomb. Dr Zhang flipped through a few pages, pretending to read them. In reality, he had already made up his mind and was just humming the tune to Stayin alive .

“Valdez, the patient's on my service now. That chill with you?” Frank concluded. Leo gave a thumbs up, slightly relieved to have some sort of work off his back but also slightly saddened that an interesting case was snatched out of his hands by his ignorant intern.

“I want an EKG*, chest X- ray and an Echo*, let's make it quick, we don't have all day,” Frank told Nico, who nodded before quickly running off.

“He can do that?” They whispered into Leo’s ear with an astonished tone.

“Yeah, he's attending.”

“So is your girlfriend.”

“She is not my girlfriend!” Leo protested as the intern raised an eyebrow. Leo did not have a strong case here, considering Calypso was always seen with him or vice Versa. In fact, they often arrived and left the hospital together, worked on similar cases and they knew each other's coffee orders like the back of their hand. It wasn’t like anything could happen between them. In reality, they arrived and left together due to their apartments being in a close proximity, they had similar cases co-incidentally due to their specialties and well, the coffee orders… Well that was hard to explain- how would Leo say Oh yeah, I just watch her everytime she orders her coffee because her lips look very very nice and soft and when she takes a sip, her eyes flutter a bit and it makes her eyes look magical and then there’s when she’s getting mad at me because I’m taking ages to leave my apartment and she just looks like she’s about to implode but in a very sexy, cute and beautiful way.

Yeah, no way was he saying any of that.

Hour 30

Was there anything left to do? Juni had been here for so long she could practically feel the fluorescent lights in her head. The Pit was empty, the blue stretchers all cleaned up with no patients walking in. There was officially nothing to do- empty emergency and waiting room. For the sake of checking, Juni walked into the waiting room one more time, looking around for any injured souls- alas, there were none.

Except Mrs Lu, who stood in the middle of the hallway, waving her hand towards Juni as if she was gesturing for her to follow her. Juni looked around- it wasn't as if there were any patients here, what could go wrong? She tiptoed outside into the brutal thundering of the rain, which plastered her hair to her face and her white coat to her scrubs. The wind was chilly and strong- whispering to her temptations and desires. The wind was always so ethereal- it could destroy but it could also be beautiful.

“Mrs Lu? Where are you taking me?” Juniper called out as she jogged blind in the dark while the wind whipped around her face. She found herself crouching behind the large industrial hospital bins. A young girl, barely into her early 20s sat there with a large bloody wound across her forehead. On viewing it, Juniper immediately hissed. The gash looked deep and Juni could already see the edges of it forming a scab. There was blood stuck to her face, some infiltrating the tip of her eyelids and the girl herself was trying to not screw her eyes in pain.

“Oh my gods…What.. What happened?” Juni was speechless.

“A big machine in the factory.. it .. it fall on us,” the girl explained. Juniper was relieved- she knew a bit of english, enough for Juniper to understand.

“It’s going to be okay now, you can come inside an-”

“-No! No, no inside. Here!” The girl protested frantically, shaking her head back and forth which made Juniper think Ouch .

“But, I need to stitch you up and she went inside.” Juniper pointed to Mrs Lu.

“She allowed, me not allowed! I will go jail!”

Juniper realised what she was trying to tell her. Mrs Lu was a legal immigrant but the girl was an illegal one. An overwhelming amount of sympathy and admiration surged inside of Juniper. The amount of bravery this poor girl must have and all the stuff she must have gone through. Juniper knew that if she helped the girl and was caught- everything would be over. A small voice in her head was telling her to help- she was doctor after all, she took the hippocratic oath which stated I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required

“The injury is deep but I think I can fix it. I need to go and get some stuff first so you have to stay here okay. Stay here.”

The girl nodded, the corner of her lips turning into a grateful smile, “Thank you.”

As Juniper was about to jog back to the hospital, she remembered she did not have one piece of information that she got from every patient- illegal or not.

“One question, what’s your name? I’m Juni,” She asked.

“Nuwa. Nuwa Lu,” the girl responded with comfort settling onto her face.

Nico didn’t like that he was short. He constantly had to push to the front of crowds, people were often belittling and it also meant he had to walk twice as fast to catch up with people who were like 6’4- Like Dr Zhang. He was not afraid to admit that he was short- he simply didn’t like that for some reason it was a bad thing; if anything, it meant he was an eco-friendly version of a human.

“Dr Zhang,” Nico sounded slightly out of breath, “ What’s the diagnosis?”

“It was the tetralogy of fallot with pulmonary atresia*. I’m booking an OR,” he confirmed.

Nico stopped walking as Frank stood by the elevator. Normally, Nico preffered to simply nod at people when they expected a thank you. It was just 2 words that he would never expect to come blurting his mouth and honestly he did not expect the words Thank you to come out when he spoke to Dr Zhang so of course, he did not say thank you. Yes, he was grateful but Thank you? To Nico, that was almost as close to I love you on the list of forbidden words.

“I appreciate you backing me up here-”

“-Nuh uh. Listen kid, you were right one time but what you did, going behind another doctor's back and speaking to the parents, trying to steal a patient from another service. Don’t ever pull that again, you got it?” Dr Zhang reprimanded him. He knew that Di Angelo had a lot of potential but if he was gonna think with his head in his ass all the time, there were going to be problems

Nico knew this was Dr Zhang's version of- you did good but also you did bad. In all honesty, Nico couldn’t care less. In fact, he was so smugly obsessed that he was right that he was very much beyond okay with being told off if it meant he was right, it was worth it. Especially since that smug little intern thought that they were so right in their gloriously pathetic little mind.

Will did not like feeling like this. He had been lucky to avoid it all his life but for some god forsaken reason, depression had started to chase him. So he took a job where he would have no time for depression- if you’re working 24/7 you don't really ever get the chance to listen to your thoughts. But as he sat down at the desk by Allison trying to focus on his charting, he could feel himself slowly losing all motivation. The beeping on the heart monitor, which normally drew a large smile across Will’s face, wasn’t helpful- it was depressing. The entire room felt bland, empty and he could feel his mind and thoughts going numb. He was trying to hold his head up, trying to be strong for his patient, trying to finish the day without having a slump. His eyes flickered back up towards Allison, whose eyes had remained closed- as if she was vegetable.

“Okay, you’re all sewn up!” Juni finished up the last touches of the stitches of Nuwa’s forehead before rolling back the squeaky old chair that she was sitting on.

“Nuwa, you might have a scar and you have to come back in 5 days okay? I need to take out the stitches and clean the wound to make sure it doesn’t get infected. So you need to come back. We will meet here, same place at 7pm. 5 days okay?” Juniper informed, trying to not rush her words all out in a panic. She watched as Nuwa gave a small nod with a shy smile indicating she understood. As Juniper packed up, she realised she had to remind Nuwa of something else.

“Oh but you can’t tell anybody that I helped you outside the hospital. I might lose my medical license and my job. Do you understand?”

“Come back in 5 days and dont tell.” Nuwa nodded eagerly towards Juni who gave her a brief hug.

“Dr Chase, do you think I’m too confident?” Dr Zhang anxiously asked. He didn’t think he’d ever have to ask such a question. To him, it seemed obvious- no. Frank recalled all his life, simply never having the confidence to do things and sure, he had boosted it up a slight notch by becoming a surgeon- a world renowned one none the less- but he wouldn’t call himself overconfident.

“No,” Annabeth answered bluntly but Zhang knew her better than she thought he did.

“Don’t lie,” Frank mumbled slightly.

“You are my boss,” Annabeth retorted. Anyone who had been nearby would have immediately snorted at such a comment- When did Annabeth Chase actually care about her bosses opinions?

“Fine, in the next 30 seconds anything you say, I will not take to heart, starting now.” Frank raised his watch before diverting his eyes to his resident who immediately started talking.

A bit eager, Chase?

“I think you’re cocky, arrogant, bossy and pushy. You also have a god complex,” Annabeth started which caused Frank to frown. God Complex? Since when?

“You never think about anybody but your damn self- “

“- Hey wait a-”

“-I have another 22 seconds and I am not done.”

Frank scratched his head while rethinking his life decisions. The most prominent thought at hand was-

Oh shit maybe this wasn't a great idea

The interns were serving their last hour on call and it had gotten to the point where they were all desperate for their lives at work to come to an end. Jason, Juniper and Hazel were all in the locker room, freshening up and looking forward to leaving the hospital.

“I need a drink, a man or a massage or a drunken massage by a man,” Hazel mused. A short ‘ew’ came from Juniper as she brushed through her knotty hair. Jason on the other hand, did not respond and instead was violently harassing his teeth with his toothbrush. Hazel took one short glance at Jason before an alarmed look creeped onto her face.

“What's wrong with you?” She asked, slipping on a new scrub shirt.

“I lost 5 patients today and I feel like the angel of death,” he spat his toothpaste out, as if he had a deep vendetta against it.

“Hey at least you're not the actual angel of death. I’m pretty sure there’s a serial killer with that alias,” Hazel responded thinking about her conversation with Nico. For some reason The angel of death reminded her of some conversation they’d had.

“Charles Cullen- convicted of 40 murders, suspected of more- currently in prison on life sentence and is 60 years old,” Nico recited as he walked into the locker room. Juniper and Jason both stopped dead in their tracks, slightly alarmed at the information that was spilling out of Nico’s mouth like he memorized it for fun.

The best part was he actually did memorise it for fun.

Casting her eyes away from her brother, who in no way surprised her with that information, Hazel sighed, “Jason, 95% of code patients can't be revived. Most are already dead by the time you get there.”

“What! Why didn't you tell me that when I was going on and on about how great it was gonna be!” Jason cried, embarrassed about his bragging. Hazel took a deep breath as she made her way to exit the room.

“Because, you’re Jason and I’m Hazel.”

Hour 40

Nico was getting really sick about the penis in a box. It literally had to follow him everywhere and worst of all, people asked him what was inside it. What kind of conversation starter was ‘oh, just a bitten off penis’? So when Nico saw Dr Solace still in the room of Allison he felt slightly relieved- at least Dr Solace wouldn’t ask him what was in the box; mainly because Dr Solace was in the surgery where the penis was retrieved.

As Nico approached Dr Solace, he noticed that he wasn't really there. His eyes seemed less alive, less sparkly and more like the dull blue hues of the hospital. It was just something about the way his hand had propped up his face as if he had no further energy to continue anything that made Nico slightly alarmed for him.

Alarmed? You’re just worried that he may pass out because then it would mean no more surgeries.

At least, that's what Nico told himself. Besides, he had other things to worry about- like how he was going to lead Solace on. Afterall, there was a reason he was putting up with him.

“Hey, how’s Allison?” Nico asked, standing directly behind Will. Will, depressed as ever responded in a small tone.

“So far, nothing’s changed.”

“Have you been here all night?” Nico asked in slight astonishment and borderline concern.

“Yep. I have 3 brothers and a sister. They’re all doctors as well. If I was in a coma, they’d all be here- I’d want them here because having nobody… I can’t imagine that.”

“I can.”

Nico hadn’t meant for the small comment to slip out of his mouth. Wills face scrunched up immediately as he turned his head to look at the intern.

“What are you on about? What about your sister?”

For a fraction of a second, Nico was horrified at the thought that somehow Will had figured out that Hazel and Nico were siblings. But then Nico remembered that Hazel levesque was not an infamous name within the world of doctors and Bianca Di Angelo was.The first person to come to mind was Hazel, not Bianca. The guilt was overwhelming- did this mean Nico was forgetting his sister? He couldn’t do that, not when she needed him! Hazel was just a girl who happened to make sarcastic quips like him, who just happened to stand up for him, who happened to be slightly related to him. So what? Did it make them family? No! In Nico’s eyes, they weren’t even siblings. Just 2 people who had to get on with each other for the sake of others around them, Bianca was his real sister.

“That’s true, I do have my sister,” Nico said but even as the words left his lips, he knew he wasn’t talking about Bianca.

“She’d be ordering surgeons around and flying cowboys* from Prague to do amazing medical procedures,” Will continued as he got up to throw a wrapper in the bin. When he returned, he leaned against the door frame slightly, as if he was a bad boy in one of those high school cliche films.

“So we’re kissing but we’re not dating, huh?” One of his eyebrows raised slightly resulting in a ridiculous face that Nico believed to be hilarious- not that he’d ever let Solace know that he thought that. Nico fell back into scheming mode- if the conversation was heading where he thought it was, he needed to have his manipulative little plan out and ready.

“I’m all for the kissing. In fact, there should be more kissing,” Will hummed.

“I don’t know how or why it happened,” Nico admitted.

“Is it gonna happen again?” Will asked before lowering his voice, “ I need to bring some breath mints. Put some condoms in my wallet.” Will winked and Nico could physically feel the blood rushing to his cheeks. He had never blushed this badly in his entire life- not even when Percy winked at him.

Abort! Abort! This was not part of the plan. Why are you blushing you incompetent good for nothing nincompoop!

“There’s this baby upstairs in peds. It’s new and not neglected. It hasn’t been disappointed by anyone or rejected. How do we get from there to here? Alisson is wearing my boots and someone has beaten the crap out of her and here she is with nobody.” Nico was practically counting down the minutes left before he could leave at this point. However, before Will could respond, a rapid beeping came from one of the machines hooked up to Allison. Will scurried forward in a panic.

“Her ICP* has doubled. Page Jackson and get an OR ready- tell them to prep for a craniotomy*. Hang a mannitol and take a blood gas*!” Will shouted over the frantic beeping of the machine.

Nico was pacing back and forth. He felt like he was Allison’s mother. There she was in surgery all by herself and he- someone who had never met her- was pacing back and forth like they had known each other their entire lives. His head practically shot up as he saw Will and Percy come through the doors he had been waiting in front of. Solace shot him a sympathetic smile as he walked past- Percy on the other hand had stayed in front of Nico and his expressions looked grave.

How was Percy meant to say this? This was his childhood best friend of his entire life and he was somehow meant to tell him that his patient was most likely now a vegetable. He didn’t know why it was going to be so hard- Nico was someone who knew how to take news. Sure, Nico never took it well and would often just isolate himself until someone forcefully dragged his butt out but he would never break down. Well, Percy had never thought he had.

“I had to leave a flap of her skull open until the pressure and swelling in her brain goes down,” Percy confessed nervously, ruffling his messy hair that had been matted down under his scrub cap.

In a pained voice, Nico whispered, “She isn’t gonna make it.”

Percy hadn’t heard Nico use such a voice since his mother had passed away. Nico had been a bit different after that- as one would expect- but the tone that he had adapted when the tragedy occurred was a tone that truly inspired fear in Percy. It was the voice of calamity combined with pain. It was like destruction without the anger, it was like love without the trust, it was like a human with no soul. It was heart wrenching.

“She’ll be fine,” Percy insisted as he pulled Nico into a hug, letting the shorter boy rest his head on his shoulder. Nico wondered if Percy was right. He liked the possibility, the chance that it was true.

But Nico realised that she’d only be alright if she ever woke up.

Nico and never been happier to sign off the custody of something away from himself. Finally, the penis he had been carrying around owud no longer be his possession- he already had a dick, thank you very much. Just ask Solace.

Will and Percy did not really interact with each other much. It wasn't anything personal but they just both run such busy departments that hanging out was something much easier said rather than done. Despite this, they were together as they stormed into the room of 312. Percy and Will were not violent people- they were surgeons, doctors, sworn under the hippocratic oath to do no harm. But it would be an understatement of the year if one were to say that they did not look like terrifying bloodthirsty hungry beasts as they slammed the light on and snarled as they walked into the room of the rapist.

Will slammed his hand onto the side of the stretcher. Once, twice and a third time. It startled the man in bed to jump awake. Threateningly, Will slammed his hand above the man in the stretcher so he was practically leaning over him while Percy stood on the other side with both hands resting on the other handle of the bed.

“We have good and bad news. The good news is that my unbiased girlfriend who is also an exceptional surgeon managed to stop you from bleeding to death,” Percy snarled.

“The bad news is we’ve given your penis to the cops. Have a nice life,” Will growled as both men left the room with Will slamming the door so hard, the hinges rattled.

Nico enjoyed watching the babies. He however, did not enjoy watching the babies with Jason, Juniper and Hazel. Watching a cooing to babies was a very private matter- if word ever got out to his attendings that this happened… well Dr Zhang had already warned him. As he watched them, he realised they get the chance to start afresh. They may have no knowledge but they give people the chance to start afresh, to be something else and change opinions.

“All right, you guys can move in,”Nico groaned, giving up. Jason and Juniper squealed, jumping up and down celebrating.

“I can't believe I caved,” Nico admitted.

Hazel snorted, “I blame the babies.”

Hour 48

The world felt groggy as her eyelids fluttered. This wasn't her cheap New York hotel room, the lights wouldn't be on. She wanted to breathe but she couldn't do it alone-she could feel something obstructing her throat. It felt like something had been forced down there and immediately memories had come flooding back. The rapist, how she had been forced to her knees, the beating. She realised this must be the hospital and if she could think and her eyes were open, then she must be alive. She watched as a doctor with curly blond hair looked at her with astonishment before grabbing the arm of another doctor- with sea green eyes and a mop of balck hair on his head.

The elevator always took ages to arrive and always took even longer to get you to the floor you wanted. Will did not mind this. Nico on the other hand, definitely minded this. He had beds to sleep in and mythomagic cards to nerd out with.

“It's intense, this thing I have for ferry boats again,” Wills voice cut straight through Nico’s thoughts. Nico turned his head to look at the source of the voice.

Of course it's you

Nico knew what would happen if they climbed the empty elevator and he was tired. Part of his plan was revived around Will Solace pinning after him and this was the perfect chance to start it.

“I’m soo taking the stairs this time,” Nico decided.

“You have no self control!” Will called out knowing Nico’s reason for not boarding the elevator, “ It’s sad really!”

Hour 49

“Hey Reyna, pass the coat next to you,” Percy asked as he grabbed his bag off the floor and kissed Annabeth on her head. Reyna tossed the coat towards Percy before grabbing her backpack and zipping up her jacket. The attendings and residents filtered out slowly, one by one leaving Leo in there by himself. Leo didn’t mind being alone. In fact, he enjoyed it. There was something about being able to hum songs while you worked with no distractions that simply appealed to him. He was currently humming a song his Tia Callida had taught him when he was little.

“Are you humming?” A voice came from behind him. Normally, Leo would have ignored the voice or made a snarky remark but he recognised this voice.

“What! Uh, no?” He shrugged sheepishly as he turned around to look at Calypso who had her eyes half closed as if she was enjoying the tune.

“Oh don’t try lying to me Leonidas . I liked it anyway,” she admitted as she leaned forward to access the coffee machine. Calypso was the only person who knew Leo’s full name and the only person he’d ever let get away with calling him that. Leo could feel a rush of butterflies from Calypso's compliment. While it seemed minor, Leo rarely got compliments- so he appreciated them but he also did not know how to properly take one without blubbering.

“What are you still doing here?” Leo asked.

“Hoping to get rid of me I see?”

“No! No, it’s just we came in at the same time and your shift is over so you’re probably tired so you should probably go home and relax,” Leo rambled.

“You also came in at the same time you know. You shouldn't be here as well.”

That shut Leo up. He sat himself on the sofa, not wanting to move. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t tired and sleep sounded so nice right now but he did not want to go home. Every time he went back to his apartment, the nightmares would come rushing back and he would wake up covered in sweat. It was like he was cursed.

“Are you okay?” Calypso’s voice sounded concerned.

“I should be asking you that mi amor.” Leo winked before mentally slapping himself. Why on earth did he call her that? Everyone knows that mi amor means my love- it's practically common knowledge!

“You aren’t going to sweet talk your way out of my question Leonidas.” Calypso’s eyes narrowed slightly as she sat on the sofa next to Leo. He sat with one leg slightly bent on the sofa and the other dangling off it whereas Calypso had both her legs crossed as if she was back in nursery.

“I’m tired Callie. Aren’t you?”

“We’re surgeons. It’s what we signed up for. And I’ve seen you tired before Valdez, you aren’t like this.”

“Like this?”

“So… distant. You’ve barely gone on any rants or tangents since forever. You only order black coffee or an almost suicidal amount of espresso now. Everytime you smile, you only do it because someone just approaches you, otherwise your face is unreadable or miserable!” Calypso cried, throwing one of her arms up.

“Just because I’m less talkative Callie doesn’t mean there’s something wrong. I need to coffee to stay awake,” Leo defended himself calmly, holding both of Calypso’s hands to help keep her from exploding.

“What is keeping you up that you need so much caffeine? Is it work, family… a partner?” Calypso’ face physically scrunched up at the idea of Leo losing sleep over doing the deed with another person.

“I...I’m just not getting as much sleep as I should be getting. You know how tough work can be on residents especially because I’m looking for a peds fellowship,” Leo lied through his teeth. He could feel the empty pit of anxiety inside of him calm slightly as he saw the stressed out facial features of Calypso relax. While he felt guilty for lying, he felt better that it wasn’t stressing her out so much. It was only then that he noticed how close their bodies were. They weren’t extremely close but they weren't exactly far away either.

“I've got to tell you about this couple I had today. So the mother is all excited because she wants a boy and the dad is really really excited because he wanted a girl and they’re both arguing back and forth about which one the baby will be. So I do the ultrasound and guess what!”

“What?” Leo asked, practically smitten with her features. The way her eyes widened with glee as she talked about her patients, or how her smile was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Her cheeks had these dimples that would appear every time she spoke but when she smiled, the ones under her eyes would show up and it was always endgame for him then. Her eyes were like pools of honey- sweet, delicate and magical. There was just something about the way her curly hair would always be in a tropical hairstyle as if she was on a beach that made him want to kiss her.

“They had twins! Yeah, so it was a case of twin to twin transfusion syndrome* and one was a boy and the other a girl. So in the end they both got what they wanted and I got myself a very very interesting case!”

Leo chuckled as he watched her rant. As they fell into conversation about their patients, they got closer and closer until they both had their arms leaning on the sofa and were gazing at each other's faces. Calypso’s eyes drifted downwards towards Leo’s rolled up sleeves- as they always did. As her eyes traveled upwards, she spotted something by Leo’s collarbone- like a flick of ink. She didn’t know if she read it right but it looked like it said Bad Boy Supreme with a small fire around it.

“Is that.. Is that a tattoo?” Calypso asked, her hand reaching forward to pull at his shirt slightly to gain a better view. Caught slightly off guard, Leo froze before remembering that he did in fact have a tattoo. He unbuttoned the first 3 buttons to give her a better view.

“Leonidas… did you actually… oh my gods.” Her hand had accidentally pressed on Leo’s chest which was surprisingly muscle. Leo looked scrawny, wasn’t the tallest (still taller than Nico) and didn’t hang out with any other people beside his colleagues so Calypso was not expecting a firm plate of muscle to be directly underneath her palm.

“Yep. You said I should get Bad Boy Supreme tattooed, so I did,” he said rather shakily. Could you blame him though? You try talking normally while the girl you’re in love with touches your chest and has her face up so close against it you could feel her breath.

“I did not think you had it in you,” she confessed, her face still close to his chest with her finger now tracing the art.

“ Mamacita , I’m offended,” he huffed jokingly. She raised her head slightly to raise an eyebrow only to be slightly alarmed at how close they were. If she moved one millimeter upwards, their lips would touch. Her hand was warm on his chest and she could feel his heart beating slightly faster as she traced the words of his tattoo. Her other hand was in his hair- the luxurious chocolate curls which obstructed his face bothered her- she wanted to see his eyes. She pushed them back ever so slightly. She was so close to his face, she could see the different shades of brown that pooled in his eyes- in a sort of chaotic manner that made his eyes look majestic. She couldn't help but stare into them and draw herself close to him- his eyes were honey and she was a bee. She dared to move her head slightly higher so that their eyes locked. They knew what each other were thinking. They could feel each other's thoughts.

Leo kept his gaze on Calypso’s eyes which had darted down to his lips. She watched as he swallowed and his lips parted softly. She raised her head and moved slightly forward and they could each other breath dancing on their lips. Their lips brushed, like a painter's first stroke on a canvas. They were slow, not desperate- it was like they had all the time in the world. Their lips were barely touching like butterfly wings. Leo could feel her warmth and inhale the coffee on her breath. Just as they were about to truly kiss, Leo’s pager started beeping making them both scramble backwards away from each other.

Without another word, Leo got up and left the room.

All the things that have a little * by it will have definitions down here! Code team: The team on call who are required to respond to a code blue which is when someone's heart has stopped GCS: Stands for the Glasgow Coma Scale. It measures a person's level of consciousness after a brain injury- it measures the function of the eyes, body and speech. BP: Is an abbreviation for the 'blood pressure'. Ventilator: Is a machine that essentially provides air for your body when you cannot do it yourself- often patients who suffer extreme injuries will be put on a ventilator. BA: Stands for bachelor of Arts which is an undergraduate degree- please keep in mind that it's not a literal degree in art, it's just called that. PHD: Stands for Doctor of Philosophy. Once again, this isn't a literal doctorate degree in Philosophy. MD: Stands for Doctor of Medicine- now this is a degree that is literally in medicine. Asystole Pulse: In the most basic way I could put it, flatlining. That means that the heart has completely stopped. Benign tumour: If a tumour is benign, it is harmless or not posing any threat to the body. Benign systolic ejection murmurs: Is normally a harmless condition where the heart makes a murmur because something is obstructing the valves in the heart. Tetralogy spell: When there is a quick drop in oxygen in the body and it makes the skin appear blue. EKG: Stands for electrocardiogram which is when those wires are stuck to your chest so that they can measure your heart's electrical signals. An EKG can also be called an ECG. Echo: An 'echo' is an abbreviation of echocardiogram- not to be confused with electrocardiogram. An echocardiogram is basically an ultrasound of the heart. Fallot of tetralogy with pulmonary atresia: This is a very complicated condition but essentially, it's the result of the 5 defects that this condition causes in the heart. Cowboy doctor: Is a doctor who is so definite in their diagnosis, they refuse to consider any other options. ICP: Stands for intracranial pressure which is just the pressure in your brain. Craniotomy: Not to get confused with a craniectomy, a craniotomy is when a piece of skull is removed temporarily to expose the brain. Mannitol: Mannitol is a sugar alcohol that can be used to decrease the intracranial pressure. TTS: Also known as Twin to Twin transfusion syndrome is a rare condition where twins in the womb share the same placenta- the result of this is one child getting more oxygen and nutrients than the other.

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krsnbgirl · 4 years

Text

Fly High! || Kageyama x Fem!Reader || Part 7

Summary: The first day of training camp has come to an end and the night is still young. After thinking about the boys’ current status at the camp, you spend some times with the rest of the managers. The topic of boys come up and you can’t help but spill your secret to them. As the night goes on, you end up at the gym and try to get in some personal training in when Kageyama shows up. You finally get to have a moment with the one person who has recently been taking up all of your thoughts.

Pairing: Kageyama Tobio x Fem!Reader

Genre: Rom-Com, Slice of Life, Sports

Warnings: None

Word Count: ~2.5k

Author’s Note: As promised, here is part 7! I appreciate any interaction with this story, but it really does help if there is some feedback on it! Also, for anyone who is curious, the tag list is still open! And as always, this will be cross-posted on AO3 <3

Taglist: @misnmatchedsox @monviemoo @love-beyond-words

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || Part 5.5 || Part 6 || Part 7 || Part 8 || Masterlist

You bit your lip as you walked out of the girl’s bathroom with a towel wrapped around your neck. Your wet hair cascaded down as you mindlessly began to dry it. Your mind was elsewhere as flashbacks of the boys during their last match took up your attention. You were mentally going through your observations of the rest of their practice matches and compared it to how they were then to their current status. You knew that their loss against Seijoh was heavy on their minds and seeing how the other teams were really strong, it would obviously take a toll on your boys. Of course, that meant using this camp to their advantage to better themselves. You just winced every time that they had to do diving drills as punishment, which was basically the whole day for them. You wished there was something more that you could do and the boys always reassured you that it’s just a part of the process. But with Kageyama and Hinata in the mix, it gives you some relief to know that they could get some wins under their belt. Hinata’s change in attitude was worrying you as you remembered noticing that his head wasn’t in it as much as usual. You had followed his gaze at some point during their Nekoma match to find that Lev had caught everyone’s attention. He was a new power to reckon with on the team of cats, but you hoped that it wouldn’t stump your friend as much as he let on. Sighing, You gripped your towel in worry, wondering to see if the change of pace would ruin the boys’ team dynamics. Thankfully, the first day had come to an end and everyone was winding down for the night. You pushed away your worries and mentally reminded yourself to wake up earlier than the call time to work on some new strategies for the team.

“Welcome back, (Y/N)-chan!” One of the managers from Shinzen High greeted you.

“How was your shower?” Shimizu asked as you put back your things into your bag.

“It was good, haha. What have you guys been up to while I was gone?”

“We were talking about the boys!” Suzumeda Kaori, one of the managers from Fukurodani, grinned as she hugged her pillow.

The other girls in the room giggled as you raised an eyebrow at them. “Oh? So we’re starting now, huh?”

“I mean why not? It means we have more time to gossip about them as the camp continues.” The manager from Ubugawa added.

“They aren’t wrong, (Y/N)-chan, so let’s enjoy, hm?” Shimizu smiled at you.

“I guess…” you grinned and got comfy in your futon.

“(Y/N)-chan, do you have a thing for Kuroo or Bokuto? We saw you playing with them earlier!” one of the girls asked.

You laughed so hard you had to clutch your sides. You frantically waved your hands and shook your head as they looked at you with questioning looks. “Nah, they’re like my brothers! Just like Nishinoya, I grew up with them.”

“Eh? So that means they’re free to flirt with!” one of the girls cheered.

You shrugged and said, “Tetsuro can be a tease with girls but Koutaro is very oblivious, it’s like the only thing that goes on in his mind is volleyball.”

“What about you, Kiyoko-chan? (Y.N)-chan? It could be from another school or even your own, but has anyone caught your eye?” Shirofuku Yukie, the other manager of Fukurodani, asked with a cheeky glint in her eyes.

Shimizu shrugged and readjusted her glasses. “Not really, not at the moment anyways. They all share one brain cell so none has appealed to me in that way.”

“Eh~ you’re just trying to act cool like always Kiyoko-chan!”

The girls giggled and the attention was turned back towards you. You awkwardly glanced down at your hands and pursed your lips in contemplation to share what’s been on your mind.

“Oh? I think she does like someone!”

Shimizu grinned to herself as she had noticed you interacting more with a certain setter during practices. You sighed before looking down at your pillow and muttered his name underneath your breath.

“What was that? We can’t hear you~” Kaori teased.

“...K-Kageyama-kun…” you muttered just loud enough for them to hear.

The girls shrieked as you hid your face behind your pillow and Shimizu comfortingly patted her shoulders. You felt your entire face warm up and groaned when you heard all of the comments from the girls.

“That’s so cute!”

“Aw and they’re both first years.”

“Wouldn’t that be hard though?”

You shrugged and smiled to yourself, setting your pillow on your lap. “I know it’s still pretty early...but I’m okay with just being friends with him because I know how much volleyball means to him. I can just continue rooting for him as a manager and fan.”

“That’s so romantic!” the girls said together and you laughed.

The night continued on as the girls continued to talk about the boys and tips were shared on how to keep all their rowdiness at bay. Soon enough and one by one, the girls began to fall asleep. You sighed as you got up to turn off the lights after stuffing your phone in your pocket. You were the last one awake and still didn’t feel like going to sleep. Even after a long day like today, if your mind wouldn’t let you sleep, there was no way to relax.

Slipping on a pullover hoodie, you quietly made your way out of the classroom and figured you might as well continue to work on your knee. You leisurely headed towards one of the gyms and turned on its light. ‘Thank goodness no one is awake…’ Grinning to the thought of finally having the entire gym to yourself, you went into its supply room and grabbed a jump rope and resistance band. Getting back onto the floor, you set the resistance band on the ground as well as the water bottle you brought with you. With a tap on your phone, you let music play and began to do some reps with the jump rope to warm up in the middle of the court.

“Um…” you heard someone say behind you.

You stopped jumping and turned around in surprise to find Kageyama looking back at you. He was wearing grey sweats and a black hoodie with his hood on. You smiled as he looked at her set up and you shrugged.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“Me neither.” He replied and slid his hood off, stepping into the gym.

“Are you going to practice your serves?”

He nodded silently and quickly made his way towards the basket that held the volleyballs. A comfortable silence fell upon you two as you each got into your zones. You had moved on to using the resistance band for some squats and stretching. Kageyama couldn’t help but keep an eye on you as he served, making sure that the balls never hit your corner. Once he had settled in with the basket, you had walked off and settled in the corner closest to the door so he would have to space. While doing his own practice, Kageyama couldn’t get over the fact that he missed seeing you in action today all because he failed his exam the first time. With a sigh he focused on the ball that was in his hands and began to serve as usual. He watched as it went towards the other side of the court, but was surprised to see you receiving the ball.

“Shouldn’t you be stretching out your leg?” he asked in surprise.

You shrugged and said, “I’m basically in the final phases. Ever since I became manager, I’ve been taking my treatment a lot more seriously. My therapist and doctor gave me the okay to slowly get back on to the court, just not as intense as I was before.”

Kageyama nodded and you met his gaze before smiling at him. He watched as you walked towards the serving line and he unconsciously began to analyze your movements and positioned himself ready to receive the ball. But before he could fully register your serve, the ball had already flown right past him. You cheekily laughed at his reaction when he looked at you then at the ball in surprise.

‘What speed and control…’ He thought to himself as he blinked back at you.

“Surprised?” you asked.

Kageyama cleared his throat while he picked up the ball. Taking a deep breath, the setter readied for his turn as his gaze changed. He picked up on the challenging tone you gave him and if anyone knew him, they knew that he enjoyed being put up to a challenge. You smirked while silently watching his whole demeanor changed before your eyes. This was one of the sides of Kageyama you enjoyed because this was when he shone the brightest in your eyes.

“First to three?” he asked.

Your eyes glinted in confidence as you stretched out your arms. You smirked and quickly braided your hair so it could stay out of the way while shaking out your legs. Finally with a determined smirk, you nodded. “You’re on, Kageyama-kun.”

You gave it your all against each other as each served then hit the ball to try and beat their opponent. You managed to gain the first point as Kageyama missed to hit the ball he dove for. He tried to not let it affect him and playfully rolled his eyes. You gave him the peace sign and he shook his head in amusement.

“I hope you’re not going easy on me.” You snickered.

He clicked his tongue and in the midst of your gloating, served the ball and aced it. Your jaw dropped and he smirked. “As if, shorty.”

“Shorty?! And you cheated!” you huffed before jogging to grab the ball.

“Remember to always stay alert on the court.”

You rolled your eyes and shook your head with an amused smile on your face, “You will certainly be the death of me, Kageyama Tobio.”

He simply shrugged and readied himself as he watched you close your eyes and walked up to the serving line. He doesn’t remember the last time he felt so relaxed yet challenged at the same time. It’s been so long since he was able to play against someone that lived and breathed the game just as much as he did. Of course there was Hinata, but the kid still had so much to learn. With the girl in front of him who smiled with calculated eyes as he ran and tried to spike the ball to score, Kageyama couldn’t help but crack the smallest smile as she ran towards it. The ball had bounced back over to his side and as he ran to hit it, he couldn’t believe he was actually having fun for once.

You continued to play and eventually, Kageyama arose as the victor. Before he could stop himself, he pumped his fist with a bright smile on his face. A small ‘yes’ escaped his lips and you smiled to yourself as you watched him enjoy his little moment. Walking off to the side, you grabbed your water bottle and yawned. Kageyama approached you with a warm expression on his face after putting away the ball and said, “Good game, (L/N)-san.”

You huffed as you checked the time on the wall and said, “It’s only because my knee started to act up that I couldn’t get the last one.”

“Well we were tied for a while.” he muttered and looked down to see if her knee had swollen up. He lifted up the edge of his shirt to wipe away the sweat on his forehead and when you noticed, you immediately looked away and hoped he didn’t notice the light tinge of pink on your cheeks.

You passed your water bottle to him without saying anything and he wordlessly grabbed some water for himself while you busied yourself with your belongings. After straightening up from gathering the workout equipment, your eyes widened as you watched Kageyama drink some more water.

‘Does he know that we just had an indi-y’know what, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?’ Shaking your head rapidly, you put on your hood and quickly muttered that you were going to put away the stuff you brought out.

Kageyama gave you a confused look before picking up your phone for you and decided to wait for you by the entrance. You had returned with your hands in the pocket of your hoodie and you gave him a grateful smile for holding your things.

“Thanks Kageyama-kun.” you muttered and grabbed it from him before you guys walked towards the building where the girls were sleeping in.

“I didn’t know you could play like that.” he said after walking for a bit.

You looked up at the sky as the moon shone brightly and he matched your pace. It felt so refreshing to be able to almost play as how you did before. Your game with Kageyama surprised you since you didn’t even remember when was the last time you had a one on one with someone. Shrugging, you smiled and said, “I didn’t know I could either until my body moved on its own.”

“...I’m glad we got to play together.”

“You are a formidable opponent, Kageyama-kun. I hope to someday play against you and Shoyo-kun and receive that quick myself at my best potential.”

He had the smallest smirk on his face as he imagined that scenario. A two versus two match with the annoying tangerine against you and whoever you pick at your best? Now that was something he could look forward to. Kageyama wanted to see you in action because you were better than most players he’s come across. You also had the same look he has on the court while he reads the players and tries to figure out what’s next. During the small game, he felt like you were both playing a game of chess to see who could outsmart the other. It was also probably why he found himself becoming more comfortable around you. You were both very similar on the court when it came to decision making. You chuckled as you looked up to find Kageyama lost in his own thoughts. A new spark could be seen in his eyes as you slowly approached the entrance of your building.

Kageyama stuffed his hands in his pockets and watched as you made your way up the stairs and you turned around to smile at him. Tucking a few strands of your hair behind your ear, you bit your lip before bowing.

“Thanks for tonight, Kageyama-kun. It was fun getting to play with you.”

“...Tobio.”

You tilted your head to the side as Kageyama looked to the side, his hand rubbing his neck as he blushed.

“...Call me Tobio.” he said a little louder.

You couldn’t hide the wide smile that had managed to break out behind your hands as you tried to hide your burning cheeks. Kageyama met your warm gaze and relaxed as he looked into your eyes. He sighed and gave you a small smirk.

“I don’t want to lose that small tangerine.”

You giggled and nodded as you gripped the bottom of her hoodie. Rocking on your heels, you smiled at him once more.

“Alright then...goodnight Tobio. Sleep well.”

He waited for you to open the door before saying, “...Goodnight (Y/N).”

#fly high!#haikyuu!!#haikyuu #Haikyu!!#haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu x reader #kageyama #kageyama tobio #kageyama x reader #kageyama x fem!reader #kageyama x you #kageyama x y/n #kageyama fluff #kageyama fanfiction #kageyama series

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tarithenurse · 3 years

Text

Nightingale - 24

Fandom: Naruto Pairing: Hatake Kakashi &/x Fem!OC Contents: Bit of everything – fun, challenge, angst, feels, fluff, confusion, fear, violence. A/N: A long chapter for once o.O As usual, ASK or REBLOG for tag!

Ch. 24

Kakashi's mind is pendulumming between serene quiet and something similar to a wasp nest. One that has been kicked. As someone who's used to logical thinking, he finds the status quo unsettling...but also strangely invigorating despite not carrying any direct risks as supposed to many of his past experiences. Perhaps, at least this once, something can dull the ache he has known for years? Looking at the monument with its sharp lines defining the stones – a design befitting the weight of loss and memories – guilt rears its ugly head.

"Surviving while others pass on can be a burden sometimes," the creaky voice of the Hokage interrupts, "but perhaps our very duty is to do more than just survive. It's to live...because they cannot."

"Hmm." I refuse to forget them even if I one day move on.

The silence between the two men is not enough to stop the rustle of the wind as it rushes between the leaves.

Four days have passed since Kakashi found out he was the warden of Uguisu and he has been doing his best to pay attention to both her and Team 7 and keep their focus on training – a task that's annoyingly easy with the former. Where the trio barely contain their curiosity, the woman has become withdrawn. A logical reaction, the jōnin reminds himself often, but one that leaves him awake most of the night with a head full of worries and nightmarish scenarios.

"She never got to mourn her loved ones, Kakashi. A lone survivor, stranded in the middle of a war-to-be. Our new comrade will need time before she can recognize friend from foe," the old man wisely ponders."

"Haï." I can't push her. Only wait and be ready.

...

Two out of three genin are paying attention to the exercises, refining their techniques to minimize waste of chakra. The last, however, is obviously ogling the fifth person in the clearing and as a result earning his sensei's disapproval.

It isn't the first time Uguisu joins when she's finished her lessons at the Academy. In the beginning, she would sneak closer in the cover of the forest and sit down in a partially obscured spot where she could observe from. To Kakashi, it had brought a sense of familiarity. From the kids, once they noticed her, the primary reaction would be insecurity and it had forced her out of hiding and eventually into training along side them even if her focus had been on other techniques.

The kunai zips past the fox boy’s face and slams into the trunk of the stump with a thud.

“Hey!”

But the boy’s complains fall on deaf ears. “Stay aware of your surroundings at all times...without losing focus of the task at hand, Naruto.”

A mix between a scoff and a laugh slips from Sasuke, causing his team mate to cringe.

In a way, it feels like Kakashi has been in charge of the four “students” for years because he has already figured out their strengths and is trying to find ways to amend their shortcomings. And as the session comes to an end, bringing about sweet free time for the kids, the sensei has made a decision concerning Uguisu’s training.

“Iruka tells me you’re a diligent student,” the jōnin admits as they watch the trio leave, “not much for him to do but fill in some voids and have you polish off the theory. That’s good.”

“Thank you, Kakashi-sensei.”

It’s strange how a title he’s heard before without blinking can morph and affect him all of a sudden. The heart beats a little bit faster. The air is a slightly stuffier under the mask. And something in his pelvis tightens enough to tell him he’ll have a different task at hand later.

“Yeah...well...” He pulls out a little bell from a pocket and ties it to one of his belt loops. “I’m maybe more critical.” She arches an eyebrow as an unspoken demand for an explanation. “Genjutsu. Ninjutsu. They’re not the problem...taijutsu is. It made sense for Orochimaru to teach you according to your role off the battlefield and so close combat really isn’t your forte, is it?”

Uguisu scowls. “I can defend myself.”

“I’ve seen. But can you attack?” Gut tightened, Kakashi hates himself for what he’s asking of this woman who has been through hell and finally is beginning the long way back.

Maybe to the untrained eye, the change in her stance wouldn’t be noticeable – it is to any shinobi worth their salt. A slight inwards rotation of the right foot, knees bending a smidgen, hands flexing before summoning the hardness needed to land proper blows. Show me what you’ve got.

Planted solidly, he easily dodges the first blows by bending and twisting, but then Uguisu buckles down to the task. Step. Jump. Parry. They are reflexes rather than active decisions. All too obviously, she prepares for a roundhouse kick which Kakashi can avoid by back flipping away.

“You’re wasting energy with the big movements. Keep it tight and clean -” the jōnin instructs and exemplifies -“to minimize your opponent’s chance to read your actions beforehand.”

Returning to a defensive role, he observes as she tries to implement the pointer. Precise...yes. Pushing a flurry of jabs aside, Kakashi steps around her with ease. And at least she’s quick to orient herself, he admits while scrambling backwards because the student has followed him.

“The perfection of your defence -” he leaps over the woman before continuing -”is what you have to bring into an assault.”

The thin line of her mouth is probably the result of biting back some snarky comment, and Kakashi smiles behind the mask. Fear can lead to fight, flight or freeze...but anger and frustration, on the other hand. So to taunt her, frustrate her, he presents the body language of a bored person and offhandedly blocks and dodges anything Uguisu throws at him.

“Umph!”

Although the strength behind is lacking, the kick still sends the man stumbling backwards, sucking in deep breaths of air to replace what was forced from his lungs. It carries the scent of damp earth, bark, and cotton.

“Ha!” Uguisu triumphs briefly.

“It’ll take more than that.”

A single sign is all it takes for a second Kakashi to appear next to the real one in a puff of white smoke.

“Cheater,” she smirks, seemingly unsurprised by the added figure.

You’re smiling now... Already, he hates himself for what he’ll be doing and the only comfort is the sparring that precedes. Throwing himself into the battle (and keeping the copy on the sidelines), the jōnin coaxes and coaches is student through the moves she has trained on the dummy targets day in and day out.

Slowly, her confidence grows. Not perfect, but better.

“Come at me like you mean it.”

She manages a wry smile. “Intent to kill?”

Yes. A glint of steel in the lowering sun is the only warning the warden has, but he doesn’t mind as long as they follow his plan (one of them without knowing). Kakashi chooses to cheer the woman on instead, finally having to defend himself in earnest although she isn’t on the top 20 of dangerous opponents.

As if in a dance, they circle and move with each other. Step, and leaps, and rolls create a pattern in the trampled grass while continuously bringing the sparring partners closer to the Shadow Clone. Now! The smoke bomb obscures the entire area and forces the combatants to separate until the cloud has blown away – somewhere, Uguisu is using the pause to regain her breath and calm the nerves while the jōnin applies the disguise he’s prepared.

The smoke slowly dissipates, revealing how Uguisu has backed off and prepared herself for anything – almost anything as it turns out when she lays eyes on the adversary and her face contorts in fear. Don't freeze. But how can she not when the mask and wig resembles Orochimaru?

"Take a moment to refocus. Calm down." At least the voice isn't that of her former tormentor. "Breathe."

A kunai shakingly reflects the low sun, knuckles are white from the tight grip on it even as the woman's immediate reaction morphs into bitter resolve.

Kakashi barely manages to dodge the trio of shuriken and is granted no respite as he finds himself under a powerful assault. Pent up hatred swirls and coalesces to drive the blue-haired fury forward – and he lets her for a while. Counting each unused opportunity, the jōnin keeps tracks of how many times he could have fatally wounded her for a while.

"Enough!" A kick to the midriff sends Uguisu tumbling backwards, landing on her butt. "If you want to beat him, you've got to keep your wits!"

She's panting and sweating from the fruitless efforts, but the pallor of fear still clings to her skin. "Haï."

Looks like she means it. Kakashi's own view is restricted more than normal, but he recognizes the way a fighter would evaluate their target: dark eyes are identifying the weak spots, the disadvantages of the opponent. He can see, she has formulated some sort of plan as she pushes to the feet.

"Cheap trick," the woman comments, "but I get your point, sensei."

This time, both of them give as good as they get and the disguised man tries to push every single button he can in an effort to test Uguisu's mind and skills. Hmm, he parries a kick, technique's lacking. Too often, the strikes aimed at him are deflected, resulting in a waste of energy and a gain in frustration. As he begins to outmatch her efforts, he can see the fear return along with the dangerous openings. Using one of those weaknesses, Kakashi strikes quick as a snake, his fingers brushing the delicate skin on her throat before she evades him.

Twice more, similar near-finishes happen.

Finally fed up and pushed to her limits, Uguisu charges. Ignoring any inkling of self-preservation, she attempts a feigned attack towards his right flank followed immediately by a punch which could have broken his nose if he hadn't moved in time. Guiding the woman's movement into a spin, the jōnin leans into her back, a hand on her shoulder to illustrate a potentially fatal situation.

"Never rush in mindlessly." His voice is muffled by the Orochimaru-mask.

Under his hand, Uguisu is tense and shivering, her breath superficial even if she tries to control it enough to say, "I might've left myself open, but at least it's a draw."

"Huh?"

A slight pressure to the inside of Kakashi's left thigh makes him look down between them to find a kunai resting against between the creases of his trousers at the groin. Femoral artery. A slight jangle catches his ear from their other side.

"You used your frustration to distract me and let you close enough," he comments with an unseen smile.

"Hm-m. Now let go and get rid of that hideous stuff!"

...

Uguisu is silent as they walk side by side back to Konoha. I might have gone too far. Still pale, lips reduced to a thin line, the woman appears to be swept away by thoughts, and her warden is loathe to leave her alone in her current state.

"How 'bout a bowl of victory ramen?" he offers quietly.

Nodding silently, a strand of blue hair disentangling itself so she has to push it behind the ear, the girl follows.

It's not until they're sitting with each their own bowl of steaming hot noodles that the usual healthy colour returns to her cheeks although she remains quiet.

...

Kakashi can't sleep.

Again and again, he replays the evening's test and categorizes everything he has learned throughout it. As suspected, close combat isn't the woman's forte although there's hope for further improvement. What worries him the most, however, is the emotional burden she carries. It'll become a lia-

A gentle tap on the windowpane disrupts his thoughts and he turns to see a familiar silhouette perched outside which he waves to welcome in. The jōnin wants to reach out to her when she has settled in the window sill, wants to take her hand and apologize for the hardships and the trauma lingering. Instead, he lies quietly with the hands behind the head and watches her squirm for a while.

"Can I sit on the bed?"

Even without the small, shaky voice, he would have agreed in an instant and scoots over. Uguisu waits until he's in place once more, then she comes to sit in silence.

One minute. I wouldn't have to stretch my arm to reach her hand.

Three minutes. When does her breathing calm?

Eight minutes. Is that...? A thin path down her cheek glitters in the moonlight breaking through the clouds randomly. Shit. This is my fault. A logic thought protests against the claim to blame but is immediately drowned.

"Ugui-"

"Please, don't talk," she interrupts.

He shuts up not just because she asks him but because she reaches out and grabs his hand, sending a bucketful of nerves into overloading as they race to relay the input. Warm. Soft, despite the expected patches of callouses that match his own. A slight tremor runs from her to Kakashi and only diminishes as he caresses her knuckles with a thumb.

"Is't..? Would..?" Her blush is unreasonable adorable when combined with the meek stammer.

Pushing the pillow sideways, Kakashi tries to contain a giddiness. "You don't have to ask, just make yourself comfortable."

"Carte blanche to do anything I want?"

"Well..." He contemplates the possible risks. "Yeah."

Uguisu insists that he keeps the pillow as she lies down on the side with an arm under her head instead. Knees tucked towards the chest and a hand still clasping his, she finally seems to find a sort of peace. I should apologize. But as he formulates and discards a variety of sentences, the woman's eyelids grow heavy and soon, she's sleeping. It's a light sleep, disturbed by dreams that furrow her brows and the slightest movement by Kakashi – when he tries to reach over and pull the covers around her, she's startled awake.

Through the night, the jōnin doses on and off, comfortable with the sound of the second heartbeat travelling through the mattress and into his ear. Finally calm.

...

Maybe it's the cold, emptiness of his hand that wakes Kakashi...at least it's the first thing he registers, quickly followed by the awareness that the mattress is only giving in to the pressure of his own weight. When he opens the eye, the weak dawn is battling against clouds and the mind of the jōnin takes time to theorize that they grey layer won't recede during the day. Something else adds to the shadows still filling the room: Uguisu is standing by the window.

"Mrug'shu?" At least the curses are clearly articulated in Kakashi's mind.

A sad smile tugs at the woman's cheek, softened by the light. "Go back to sleep, 'Kashi...and...thank you."

"Always."

The window swooshes as it slides back and forth in the rail, cutting off the connection between the two of them. Whyyyyy? Rubbing his face hard and scratching the white hair until his scalp tingles, he's left with no answers and only the scent of cotton that lingers in the sheets next to him. That's it...the unbeatable Copy-Ninja has been defeated. I'm done for! If anyone was watching him, though, they'd see the mask pulled askew by a goofy smile.

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eimagines · 5 years

Text

trouble // kai anderson

pairing: kai anderson x reader genres: smut summary: reader makes kai jealous. kai doesn't like this and he proves to reader whos in charge! warnings: NSFW - daddy kink, swearing, manipulation, choking, degrading and other v kinky stuff I don’t know how to define! word count: 3500

a/n: prompts “did you call me daddy / fuck fuck fuck / you’re in so much trouble” requested by anon. will I ever write bedroom smut? probably not lol. dedicated to the first member of my tag list @theharvestgirloffire

Kai had been frustrating you all week.

You knew Kai used sex as a form of manipulation and was sexually active with almost all members of the cult and usually, it wouldn't bother you; the increasing disregard of you and your work, however, as well as the increasing time spent with Meadow had started to annoy you.

You sat silently slumped in your chair, your brows furrowed and your teeth chewing at your nails amongst the group as they discussed their next move, the buzz of their last kill still lingering throughout the room.

Every time Meadow spoke you watched as Kai would smile at her, his eyes lingering on her slightly before he would continue to talk. It annoyed you. Admittedly, you were jealous.

Rolling your eyes during this meeting had become aggressively obvious to Kai as he secretly flicked his eyes over you, your silence and disregard for the next steps in his plan unusual.

He knew you. He knew how excited for plans you would be, how informed you would become on their targets, how insightful and intelligent your inputs to their discussions would become. Your silence was deadly and he could almost feel the aura of rage radiating off of you.

“Anything you would like to add [Y/N]?” Kai asked, turning to face you with a blank look on his face, “You’re being awfully quiet tonight. Something on your mind?”

“It’s nothing.” You sighed, shifting in your seat as the cult members turned their eyes to you. You gave him a glare, a silent warning to drop what he had started.

“You’re not having regrets are you?” Meadow asked, the tone of her voice in your ears causing a pang in your chest and heat to rise to your face.

“No, of course not.” You responded in annoyance, your eyes still locked on Kai’s own, wishing he hadn’t brought up your clear disinterest in front of the entire group.

“Are you sure?” Meadow asked again.

“Yeah, you have been a little off today [Y/N],” Winter added, her tone softer but still judgemental to your ears.

“Drop it, okay?” You seethed. Kai noticed the way in which your fists tightened against your thighs and how you spoke with your teeth tightly together.

“Well, we can’t all help but notice it, [Y/N], if you're off-put by the whole idea you should just tell us. I mean you certainly didn’t seem to want to get involved much with the whole killing,” Meadow said.

You couldn't help yourself. You felt your blood boil beneath your skin. There was only so much tongue-biting you could do before you snapped at her.

“Shut your mouth before I shut it for you Meadow.”

“Woah! Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.” Harrison commented with a smirk.

“You don’t know shit about what I did to get all of you in that fucking house.” You shouted, getting up from your seat, “Y’know what? Fuck this. Fuck all of you.”

Your legs were shaky as they took you to the kitchen, storming out of the room and leaving the silent group to share glances behind you. The adrenaline and rage that pulsated through your veins caused your hands to shake as you poured yourself a glass of water. You were fully aware of what the people in your cult were capable of if you pissed them off enough, but you were capable of the same, equally, if not more, dangerous and powerful - and it was you who was pissed off first.

You had worked so hard to infiltrate the Changs. You had spent the past couple of weeks watching over them, gaining inside knowledge, codes to their house, the time they would wake up in the morning and the time they would fall back asleep. Nobody had acknowledged it. Not once. Kai had acknowledged how Meadow had slashed their throats, however. It was almost as if your work that put her in that position wasn’t as important. You felt futile. You felt unimportant.

The sound of a door closing from behind you made you jump a little as the soothing taste of water hit the back of your throat.

“Do you want to explain what that was about?” Kai asked, a tone of genuine concern in his voice.

You sighed and turned to face him, your back against the kitchen countertop. Your eyes scanned over his blue hair, slicked back into a bun with pieces that stuck out to frame his face, his arms crossed but dark eyes soft. He was wearing a soft beige jumper and looked positively radiant against the white hues of the kitchen tiles.

“Leave me alone Kai, I’m pissed off.” You responded lowly, hanging your head.

“Talk to me.” Kai approached you slowly, closing the gap between you and him. He stood in front of you, trying to get a glimpse of your face that still looked at the ground beneath you, “Hey. Look at me. What are you feeling?”

You shook your head and looked up at him, his frame close to yours, his eyes looking down at you.

“It’s nothing.” You said, annoyance straining your voice.

“It didn’t seem like nothing,” Kai responded, “You upset Meadow.”

“Is that all you care about? Am I not visibly upset?” You raised your voice at him again, not feeling threatened by Kai’s usual manic controlling demeanour what-so-ever.

“Of course it’s not. I care about you all equally. Would I be here if I didn’t care about how you’re feeling?” Kai crossed his brows and spoke back at you seriously.

“Yeah, we're all equal.” You responded sarcastically.

“Is your problem with Meadow, or is it with me?”

“I have a problem with all of you.”

There was a brief silence before Kai spoke again, “Honesty, [Y/N].”

“I did so much fucking work for this to go to plan Kai!” You started, “I spent hours and hours watching those fucking do-gooders drink vegan coffee and water their fucking plants. I hacked into their security camera and their phone line and what thanks do I get? Absolutely nothing! Meadow slit a guy's throat and suddenly she’s this, this Goddess! I worked on this for weeks! Was my job not bloody enough to get you all off, huh? I did all this work for you all to completely disregard it!”

Kai looked at you, his lips pursed together tightly as he took in your words.

“Just cause I didn’t stab anyone doesn’t make me weak. You all think it! And I’m sitting there thinking how I would love nothing more than to rip her head off and prove you all wrong and she disrespects me and my hard work like that and you all say nothing! You don’t defend me at all. I’m not your equal Kai!”

Kai sighed and looked to the floor, “I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“I said I’m sorry. You’re right. I haven’t given you the credit that you deserve.”

Kai moved to tuck a strand of your hair behind your ear and gently cupped your face in his hands, “I haven’t appreciated everything you do for us. For me. You’re so brilliant, and I have let you down and caused you unnecessary anxieties. I’ve let them take you and your hard work for granted. You are not weak, and I wouldn’t let anyone weak stand by my side, you know this.”

He watched you look at him, “I am glad that this happened, though. Your rage is beautiful, and you should let it out more.”

You sighed slightly, tempted to roll your eyes at his false appraisals. You removed his hands from your face delicately.

“I will believe that when I don't have to ask to be approved, Kai.” You turned away from the blue-haired man and picked up your mobile that was lazily tossed on the kitchen countertop.

Kai watched you confused, a seed of anger at your rejection bubbling from deep within the pit of his stomach. You flicked through your contacts on your phone, searching for anyone within close range and a car.

“What are you doing?” Kai asked, his form close to yours, lurking over your shoulder as he watched you click on one of the many names in your phone book.

“Calling a friend to pick me up.” You explained, a little quieter than normal. You could feel how close Kai was behind you.

“What friend?” Kai spat out, his tone unusually uneasy to your ears, “Where are you going?”

“Anywhere but here.” You scoffed as you held the phone to your ear, turning around to face him with your back facing the kitchen counter again. The ringing on the other side of your phone was loud but the glare Kai was giving you felt like it was even louder.

“You can’t just leave halfway through a meeting, [Y/N]. Who are you meeting?” Kai’s voice raised slightly, desperation and annoyance written plainly on his face.

“Oh so now you care what I do?” You challenged him with a smirk, not knowing if it was completely safe to do so but simply not caring anyway, “It’s none of your business.”

You moved past him towards the white wooden doors of the kitchen, Kai’s dark eyes watching you as he following your every footstep. You opened the door only slightly before Kai’s hand slammed it shut, his arm next to your head, trapping you against the only escape you had.

“It is my business,” Kai spoke lowly, his tone deep and guttural. It sent shivers down your spine and a ball of nerves to coil up in your chest.

You slipped your phone in your pocket and turned to face Kai, his arm trapping you between him and the door. You almost wanted to laugh at the rageful look on his face.

“Are you jealous, Kai?” You smirked.

His hand was wrapped around your neck in an instant, tightly pinning you against the wooden door, his fingers squeezing at your soft skin beneath as he brought his body closer to yours.

“You’re in so much trouble,” Kai whispered in your ear, the feel of his hot breathe on your neck as you gasped for air, the way he had his body pressed onto yours tightly. You let out a choked moan, his shift from anger to arousal surprising you and turning you on instantly.

“You think you can just take off and leave? Leave me here? With these idiots? Huh?” Kai asked, his dark eyes staring into yours, his grip still around your neck causing you to choke out a little. You give him an exited smile, shaking your head.

“I’m sorry, I can’t seem to hear you.” Kai replying, his fingers relaxing around your throat a little, “I said, do you think your allowed to leave?”

“No.” You choked out.

“No, what?” Kai asked, his stare still dark and dangerous.

“No daddy.” You gave him a smirk.

Kai wasn’t expecting that, the name. He had expected ‘Kai’ or maybe ever a ‘Sir’, but definitely not ‘Daddy’.

His eyes raked across your body excitedly, a smirk on his lips, “Did you just call me Daddy?”

His chest heaving up and down from heavy breathes, you bit your bottom lip between your teeth as you looked up at him, his face so close to yours, his eyes lustful and fingers now lonely gripping your throat.

His fingers let themselves travel up to your neck, the delicate touch of his finger tips against the sweet spot he knew well in the dip between your shoulder causing your lips to part a little. Kai took this opportunity to place his own lips on yours. His hand then tangled in your hair, his fingers gripping it loosely as he suckled on your bottom lip.

Still pressed between the door and his frame you could feel his erection, hard and excitedly throbbing through his jeans against your inner thigh. You moaned as you kissed him back, your hands at either side of his face pulling him deeper into you.

Both hands roughly found their way to your ass as he began to pepper kisses on your jawline and neck, moving slowly to tease you even more. You couldn’t help it when he sucked harshly on your neck you shakily moaned out again, “Daddy.”

He stopped when he heard you and chuckled darkly, once more the lustfulness evident in his gaze on you as he continued to attack your neck, leaving purple bruises across your skin.

Between kisses you were panting heavily. Kai began to slide both his hands up underneath your shirt, caressing your skin and playfully grabbing at your nipples.

“We can’t do it here, everyone is still sitting next door.” You said quietly, bliss written on your messy face as he forced your shirt over your head and onto the tiled kitchen floor, “They’ll hear.”

“Let them.” Kai said, as he took off his own shirt, his lust clouded eyes took in your revealed skin and made his pants feels even tighter. He let out a low growl as he picked you up in his arms, your legs naturally wrapping themselves around his waist as he cupped your ass and began to carry you towards the kitchen counter.

Goose pimples rose to your skin as Kai uncharacteristically kissed down your chest, pulling down your bra and took your left nipple into his mouth, biting and sucking delicately. You moaned again as he hurriedly unbuckled his pants and began to wiggle off your jeans, your ass cold on the kitchen counter.

You were always in awe at how breathtaking his body was, and he was in awe of your body too. He wanted to use you and you were ready to be used.

Kai pulled at your hair harshly, forcing you to look him in the eyes as he traced his hands delicately across your wet heat. His jeans were now around his ankles, his thick length standing tall against his boxers.

“Look at me you little slut!” Kai almost shouted.

You looked up at him as he traced delicate circles on your clit through your underwear.

“God, you’re such a dirty little whore, wet for me already?”

He grabbed your hair tighter in his fist causing you to hiss, “You want me to fuck you? Huh?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?” Kai’s face was angry, you were a little intimidated as he spoke through clenched teeth.

“Yes, Daddy.” You replied shakily.

“What do you want Daddy to do?” Kai enjoyed this. Maybe too much.

“I was you to-to fuck me Daddy.”

He easily pulled away your underwear roughly with one hand leaving you exposed and dripping for him to see.

“You're a good little slut for Daddy aren’t you?” He whispered, as he shoved two of his fingers into your un-stretched and wet entrance causing you to gasp, buck your hips into him and moan his name loudly.

Kai removed his fingers immediately and wrapped his hand around your neck, “If you don’t start doing as I say you’re going to be in even more trouble [Y/N].”

You nodded, the pressure around your neck, his warning voice and his teasing fingers sent shivers to your core.

Kai had had plenty of sex before but never like this, never this dirty or crude or raw. He ached for your tightness to be wrapped around him. He wanted to hear you moan and come undone at his doing, for everyone to hear you both.

“Please Daddy, Please...”

The site of you, a quivering begging mess made him throb. So, he continued to fuck you with his fingers, curling them inside you and stretching you out. Your heavy breathing turned into panting as Kai picked up the speed of his fingers inside of you and stroked his thumb over your sensitive nub. He didn’t want you to cum, not yet. He waiting until he felt your pussy become tighter on his thick fingers and your moans to become higher pitched and more frequent to know that you were about to orgasm before he pulled away from you, leaving you needy and desperate.

“Fuck, no, Kai, why would you-”

You couldn’t even finish the protest before Kai had moved away from you, pushed you over onto your stomach and dragged your ass further back towards him. The cool marble of the kitchen counter burned as he pulled you, your nipples hardening against it. He smacked you ass hard, the connection echoing across the room. You expected to be punished, but you didn't think it would feel as good as this.

“What did I just fucking tell you?” He raised his voice.

He smacked you again, your ass cheeks red under his assault.

“I am in charge.” Another smack. A pathetic moan escaped your mouth.

“Such a disobedient whore.” Another smack.

The sight of you dripping pussy, you slightly bruising ass stuck up for him was almost too much.

“I’m gunna fuck you and you're gunna let everyone know I am. I am in charge. I tell you when to cum. You got that, you little slut?”

You nodded, your face pressed against the marble, “Y-yes Daddy.”

Kai grabbing your arms behind your back and held them there, using his other hand to guide his newly freed length to your wet womanhood. You whined as Kai stroked his dick up and down your entrance.

He shoved his dick deep inside of you, both of you moaning loudly at how tight the fit was. Kai didn’t care if it hurt you, he was a selfish lover and in this situation he would not go slow or easy on you. His thrusts started hard, pushing his size into you all the way and dragging it back out just to drive it back in again. Kai watched as every time he pulled out your walls hung to him perfectly.

“Fuck, Daddy, fuck me harder,” You moaned out, enticing the blue haired man. He freed your arms and grabbed onto your hair, using it to pull you up and drag you onto his dick deeper.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Kai groaned loudly. The noises that escaped his mouth as he fucked you into the counter made you ever wetter.

You tried to cover your mouth to keep from screamed and when Kai noticed this he smacked your arm away.

“Let them hear you, let them hear how Daddy’s fucking you right now.”

And you did.

He slammed his hips into your ass over and over, watching it as it bounced up and down under the force of his thrusts. The kitchen was filled with sounds of skin slapping, moans and the cupboard doors under the counter shaking violently. The thought of everyone listening in on your activities just getting you both off even more. You were both dripping with sweat, both your hair sticking to your face, enjoying the sounds Kai’s thrusts were making as he fucked you roughly.

“Daddy. I’m gunna cum.” You whined as he ploughed into your pussy mercilessly.

“No. Don’t you dare fucking cum yet.” He warned you, pulling out of you and flipping you back onto your back. He grabbed at your neck, his fingers digging into the skin of your ass and neck harshly. If there was one thing Kai loved it was choking.

He slid between your legs and fucked back into you easily, keeping his pace the same. Watched you as your eyes rolled and you used one of your free hands to play with your clit.

You knew you would ache tomorrow. You knew you would have to wear polar necks to work and struggle to sit down without wincing but as you lay against the cold of the kitchen counter, watching as Kai drove his length in and out of you, you truly did not care.

You focussed hard, breathing deeply and trying not to let your impending orgasm overtake you but being so lost in pleasure it was difficult not to. You could tell Kai was close too now and you didn't care, you chased the familiar pleasure just as much as he did. His speed was picking up, his hips were off slightly and his groans were louder and shakier than they were before.

Kai let out multiple curse words, his hips snapping into yours hard, the sight of your fingers playing with your pussy as he fucked you in his kitchen. The sounds you both made were enough, but watching you sent him over the edge. Feeling an orgasm wash over him he groaned into your ear, “Cum now, fucking cum for me you little slut.”

And with that you let go, your orgasm pulsating through you, cumming all over Kai’s dick hard. You could have sworn you blacked out for a minute from the overwhelming feeling. Kai came just after you, emptying himself deep inside you, rocking his hips into you as you both rode the pleasure out together.

You were still moaning, a smile on your face from the intensity of the high when you both heard the front door close with a slam.

“Oops.”

A/N: So I’m back, not sure if i like this one all that much but feedback is appreciated! I have been really ill but excited to start writing again!

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