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lombredanslaeu · 4 years

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someone that loves you | lee taeyong

▸ taeyong x antagonist! reader

▸ summary: everyone always gushes about the protagonist - the goody two shoes, i-deserve-all-the-happiness girl. you never had a problem with people getting their happy endings, anyway. but lee taeyong won’t be the rescuing you in a shiny, white horse; you are also not his damsel-in-distress. you are the protagonist in their love story.; word count 4,352

▸ angst, fluff.

this isn’t proofread so i apologize for any mistakes! enjoy <3

You’ve known Lee Taeyong all your life; from being lunchbox friends in elementary school to being party buddies in college. You weren’t the best of friends but you did share the same closest circle of friends in college. You both watched each other grow up, but you weren’t the type of friends to gush about their love life with. In fact, the two of you could only hold a proper conversation if it’s in one of Jaehyun’s parties. Nevertheless, you always found him attractive. He was the hot, cool junior who is currently majoring in music. He has girls trailing behind him; one of those heartthrob male protagonist in a movie or a book. You had the advantage of being in his inner circle - which means you are one step further than the girls chasing after him. You aren’t so bad yourself - you’re quite popular, your hair was always in check, you liked girly clothing. Everyone in your department kisses your ass, if you’re being honest, and you could have anyone wrapped around your finger. Everyone except Taeyong.

“What lipstick should I wear for today?” Your friend, Yeri, asked you while holding two lipstick tubes near her lips.

“This one looks great with the university atmosphere,” you replied, poiting to the one on her left. “The other one would look great on parties and dates.”

“Ugh, you are so great at choosing lip colors.” She complimented. “Speaking of parties, you’re still up for Friday night at Jaehyun’s?”

“Of course!” You exclaimed. “He always hosts the greatest parties.”

“Right?” Joy spoke in agreement. “Besides, that might be the night you finally get it with Taeyong.”

“Oh please,” Yeri interjected. “You know Y/N doesn’t hook up on the first night.”

“I’m the complete opposite of what those bitches at the online forum say about me!” You added.

“You don’t have to listen to those forums, Y/N,” Joy said. You sighed and got back to eating your lunch. Joy and Yeri are two of your closest friends. You met during the first day of your freshman year. You only knew Taeyong as you both came from the same high school, but he looked like he already had friends; that led you to no choice but to talk with the girl beside you during chemistry. It wasn’t long until you started to hang out with Taeyong’s circle of friends. The night of Jaehyun’s party came. It was the same, old thing with Lucas being extra loud than his normal self, and it was either Johnny or Xiaojun in charge of the music. Except today, two unfamiliar faces came through the door.

“Who are they?” You asked Mark beside you.

“That’s Daeun and Euna.” Mark responded. “Apparently, Taeyong and Kun invited them since they’re new in campus.”

You felt a surge of jealousy rage over you. You know you don’t have any reason to feel that at all. It’s not like Taeyong would suddenly want to date you after all the gifts and letters you gave him on his birthday for the past years.

“Do I sense some kind of tension here?” Mark commented. He must have felt the shift in your body at the mention of Taeyong’s name.

“No?” You defended. “Why would I feel some tension?”

You got back to sipping your drink and watch as one of the girls converse with Taeyong and Yuta. She looks nice. She looks innocent and cute. You weren’t one to judge other girls at all. Even if you hated all your competitors, you never resorted to sending bashful comments to them. You walked away from the scene to find Doyoung and get him to get you drunk.

Your professor called in sick for the day, leaving you with no more lectures for the rest of the week. You silently thanked your department for having its finals week earlier than the other departments. You were scrolling through your social media apps to kill time and decided to watch a view stories on instagram. The first story was from Taeyong; it showed a picture of Daeun seated across from him in the library. You were used to seeing Taeyong hang out with other girls before. You would have let it slide like the other girls, except that you notice Taeyong has been hanging out with Daeun more ever since Jaehyun’s party. You skipped over to the next story to distract yourself. As you got invested on your phone, you felt a tap on your shoulder. You looked up to see distressed Taeyong.

“Hey Y/N, are you busy?” He asked.

“Not at all.” You responded, setting down your phone on the table.

“Listen, I am terribly failing Professor Kang’s class,” He started. “He told me you’re his greatest student. So, can you coach me? We have a class debate and I need to win.”

“Okay, remember,” You said to Taeyong. You were explaining to him strategies on how to win a debate. “Analyze every argument your opponent has to say. Don’t miss out on anything.”

Taeyong wrote down on his notebook all the tips you’re giving him. Today was the fourth day you’re coaching him. You got to spend time with Taeyong even if all you did was stay in the library for two hours. During your breaks, you talked about your favorites - movies, songs, food, etc.

“If you win this debate,” You said to him. “I’ll treat you to a HONNE show on the 16th.”

“Woah, Y/N, that’s a deal,” He replied with amusement evident on his face. “I’m gonna destroy that Mingyu.”

You rushed through the hall to catch Taeyong’s debate on time. It was open for anyone to watch. You ditched the remaining hour of your psychology lecture to greet him with a huge bouquet of flowers and your promised ticket to HONNE if he wins. You saw the swarm of people exit the function hall, which means the debate was done. You wiggled yourself through the crowd in search for the boy. You spotted him near the exit with Jungwoo, Yuta, and Daeun.

“Taeyong!” You exclaimed, catching his attention. He walked towards you, smiling at the things on your hands. You noticed that your bouquet of flowers outshine the ones that Daeun gave to him. You mentally smiled at yourself for that.

“I won, Y/N! I won!” He exclaimed before slinging an arm over your shoulders for a brief hug. It may seem like a short, friendly hug to anyone but for you, it was like your skin suddenly felt what it was like to be appreciated.

“You have me as your coach, of course you would win,” You replied. “I’m sure you did amazing. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to catch it. As promised, see you at HONNE.”

He received the bouquet and ticket from your hands and gave you a smile that could light up the darkest parts of you.

“Oh Y/N, I forgot that Daeun and I had plans to catch this movie on the 16th.” Taeyong said. You felt your blood boil slightly. “It’s shows for the last time on the 16th. You can give the ticket to Johnny. He also likes HONNE.”

Taeyong’s rain check bothered you for the entire week. You really wanted to see HONNE with him; you even rejected Joy so that Taeyong could have the extra ticket.

“I thought it was Taeyong you’re supposed to go with?” Johnny said. You asked him to go with you for the concert.

“Yeah but, he has plans with that Daeun girl.” You said, rolling your eyes. Johnny chuckled at your response.

“Wow! The campus’ crush got rejected by Lee Taeyong?” He said with great amusement. “This is breaking news!”

You couldn’t believe it either. Any other guy would be begging to be the one you have a concert date with; the fact that Taeyong rain checked on you bothered you to the core.

“Hey, cheer up, Y/N.” Johnny said, his tone becoming concerned.

You sighed and force a small smile. “It’s fine, John.”

“Hey,” He spoke, facing you. “Do you really want Taeyong to be free on the 16th?”

His menacing eyes made you skeptical about whatever plan he has in mind. Johnny was always the deceitful one. He gets away with everything and anyone. For the past year of being friends with him, you’re guaranteed that Johnny’s plans never fail. The next thing you know, you’re sneaking into the university’s clinic. Your university clinic arranges a mandatory annual check up that each student must attend to. You only get one appointment every year and if you fail to do so, you’re not allowed to enter any contests/competitions for the rest of the year. Daeun was part of the archery team and they have a competition coming next month. As part of the debate varsity, you know that every team member takes the check up seriously; so does Daeun.

“Y/N, hurry up, the nurses’ lunch ends in 15.” Haechan whispered. He volunteered to be your look out. He was Johnny’s partner in crime so, you know that he’ll help you execute this perfectly. You found the schedules for the check ups for this and wrote Daeun’s name on the 16th.

You were walking back from a long meeting with your college organization. It was nearing midnight since you and your team needed to stay back and fix some stuff. The walk from your school to your dorm wasn’t very far and although it was really late, the street was illuminated with street lights. As you approached a bus stop near the exit of your school, you noticed a familiar figure.

“Taeyong?” You asked the person, who seems to be clutching his side because of pain. He lifted his face to you, causing you to see the few scratches and cuts lined with blood. “What the fuck happened to you?”

“It’s nothing, just came across some bad blood.” He replied, wincing as the cut on the corner of lips hindered him from speaking comfortably.

“This isn’t nothing, Taeyong.” You said with utmost concern. “Come with me to my dorm. I’ll help you clean that up before you catch a bus.”

You walked with him to your dorm. You couldn’t let Taeyong go inside a filthy bus with his exposed wounds. He sat down on your couch as you get the first-aid kit that the landlord placed in every unit.

“Care to tell me what really happened?” You inquired. You dabbed a piece of cotton on the cuts near his lips. Taeyong was always beautiful but he was too ethereal to be scarred with such wounds.

“I got into a fight with Daeun’s ex.” He sighed. “I overheard them arguing during lunch earlier. He threatened to hurt her if she doesn’t get back together with him so, I wait for him to finish his community service and went for it.”

Your heart winced at the fact that Taeyong got hurt for Daeun. It wasn’t the right time to compare but whenever people would comment hurtful prejudice to you, it was always the others guys who would come to your defense. Taeyong only knew Daeun for a short amount of time but he’s starting to act like her knight in shining armor. You couldn’t deny that Daeun was a sweet girl; she helped you with a physics problem once and told you that you could always ask for help. Your pride got the most of you and ignore her. Taeyong probably likes the sweet ones and you were too bitter for your own good.

“Thank you for your help, Y/N.” Taeyong said as you announced that you were done cleaning up his wounds.

“No problem.” You replied. “Just promise me you’ll get your ribs checked tomorrow.”

He smiled at you; and for the first time in quite some time, you felt like the good girl in this story.

Today was the day of the HONNE concert. You didn’t expect Taeyong to approach you since he knew Johnny will be the one you’re going with, but here he is - standing in front of you.

“Listen, I just found out that Johnny had a stomach flu and wouldn’t be able to go to the concert.” He said. You didn’t know Johnny had the stomach flu so this surprised you. “I didn’t want you to come alone so, I was hoping that his spot hasn’t been taking yet.”

You tilted your head to the side. “Don’t you have a movie to catch with Daeun?”

“Yeah but she was scheduled to have the annual check up today.” He replied.

“Great, see you at the concert.” You said, smiling at him before walking away.

“That was so fun!” Taeyong exclaimed as you both exit the concert venue. You decided to grab a drink in a bar nearby.

“Right?” You agreed, reciprocating the wide smile he has on his face. “’Location Unknown’ definitely moved me to the core.”

You settled in a booth in the bar. This bar was a great spot for concert-goers so you weren’t expecting to stay for a long time.

“Can I tell you something?” He said, playing with the bottle in his hands. You lifted your eyebrow to signal that you were willing to listen. “Daeun just said she loves me.”

You swallowed the lump forming in your throat. “And what did you say?”

“Well, she didn’t say it to my face. Taeil overheard her and Euna talking.” He replied.

“Do you love her back?” You asked. You hoped to the stars that he’ll say no.

“I don’t know.” You relaxed at his response. “But, I do like her.”

You felt like you lost your chance. Is Daeun prettier? Is she really kinder than you? Are you unlovable?

“Wait,” You held your palms up. “Why are you telling me this? We’re not that close.”

He shrugged at you. “I don’t know. After our debate tutoring, I realized that you’re actually cool to hang with. Besides, you’re not friends with Daeun or Euna, so I bet you won’t tell them what I have to say.”

“Are all of your friends close with them?” You asked.

“Yeah, almost everyone.” He replied.

Oh, so everyone likes them? You couldn’t deny that you may seem bitchy to other people. Yuta and Jaemin seems like they never liked you since the beginning, despite not doing anything to them. The fact that they like Daeun and Euna doesn’t sit right with you.

As the weeks go by, you witness first-hand how Taeyong and Daeun got closer. She was always present on Jaehyun’s parties and it seems like Daeun’s instagram stories are just becoming endless candid photos of Taeyong. You scrolled past her instgaram stories. Christmas time is coming up. You usually never give presents to everyone but this time, you were determined to be selfless. You carefully wrapped everyone’s presents. Butterflies flew in your stomach as you wrapped Yuta’s present. You knew he was never fond of your presence. He once called you “Regina George” because according to him, you fit that category. You never understood why he would label you as such. All you did was beat him during debate and spoke nothing but the truth about his shortcomings as a speaker. Jaemin, on the other hand, used to be your vice president in the debate varsity. You two got along together before; that was until someone showed you a screenshot of a tweet on his private twitter account saying that you were a bad president.

“I can’t believe you are this low.” You said to Jaemin.

“Well, you should believe that you are a bad president because you never listen to anyone but yourself!” His tone was more hostile. You were trying your best to stay calm but the comment he just gave blew whatever cool you had in you.

“Okay, you can keep talking but just now,” Your voice lowered as you say the last phrase. “I’m never gonna listen to whatever bullshit you have to stay.”

You remembered having half of the debate varsity turn their backs against you. But, it was the same old thing. You were always the villain in everything. You wanted to make amends with Yuta and Jaemin and gave them their presents.

Yuta scoffed at the gesture. “Oh please, trying to play nice since the comments about you on the online forum are starting to get into your head?”

“I’m just trying to be nice.” You said. “I know things aren’t cool between us, so I’m here to make amends.”

“Stop trying to be nice.” Jaemin spoke. “Stop proving that you’re not the bad guy when you know to yourself that you are.”

He got up and threw the present in the nearest garbage bin. You held back the tears that were threatening to form in your eyes. You’re Y/N. You never cry in front of people. You sighed in defeat and left the lecture hall.

“That wasn’t very nice, you guys.” Taeyong scolded the younger boys. He was the only one inside the hall aside from you, Yuta, and Jaemin. He excused himself from the two as he followed you into the hallway. He saw your sniffling figure near a storage room. He placed a hand on your shoulder which caused you to frantically wipe your tears.

“It’s okay, Yong.” You said.

“I’m sorry for what they said.” He started.

“You don’t have to apologize for their actions.” You replied, sighing. “Besides, apologizing for them won’t fix anything between us.”

“You’re a good person, Y/N.” He said, staring into your eyes. “I’m sorry it took me a while to realize that.”

Your heart was booming against your chest. He leaned forward and you felt his lips brush against yours. The next thing you know, your lips are moving in sync with his. You felt the universe sparkle with magic at the feeling. The boy of your dreams is kissing you. For the first time in your life, something felt ethereal. Your internal rejoice was cut short as you see the figure of Daeun from Taeyong’s shoulders. You were about to pull away but she already ran.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Taeyong.” You said, breathing heavily at the guilt.

“Why? Johnny told me you liked me?” He said. Your eyes widened at the statement.

“Yeah, Taeyong.” You replied. “I’m in love with you. For all the years we’ve spent together, I thought one day, you would like me too. But Daeun loves you, and I know you like her. You shouldn’t have kissed me just because you knew I’m in love with you. That’s not fair.”

Taeyong furrowed his eyebrows. “Did she see us?” His voice was low but you could hear it.

“Yes.” You replied. “I’m sorry. I want you for myself that’s why I didn’t pull away immediately.”

“What if I said I want you too?”

“I am the bad guy.” You spoke as you stared in the nothing. Yeri and Joy decided to take you out after what happened. “I knew Daeun loves Taeyong and yet, I let him kiss me.” ”It’s not your fault Taeyong found you kissable that time, Y/N.” Yeri replied.

You rolled your eyes at her response and before you could say anything, Joy interjected. “It’s true, Y/N. You know in yourself that you wouldn’t kiss Taeyong since he said he likes Daeun.”

You groaned as you put your head in your hands. Your phone lights up and you saw that you got a new text.

Lee Taeyong [10:57 pm]: can we talk tomorrow? pls…

You [10:59 pm]: ok.

You waited for Taeyong on the bleachers near the soccer field. There weren’t a lot of people since students started going home to their hometowns but Taeyong’s friends were there.

“Oh, you’re here to steal Taeyong again, Y/N?” Jaemin asked mockingly.

You rolled your eyes as Mark said, “He’ll be here any moment, Y/N.” and gave you a smile.

You stared at the sunset and wondered what the rest of the day has in store for you. You spotted Taeyong chasing after Daeun during third period earlier. The guilt consumed you. You were typically the type to be selfish about things. You thought you were doing something great by giving out presents but based on Yuta and Jaemin’s reactions, you felt like you can never be kind to anyone. You spotted Taeyong walking towards you. You swallowed the butterflies that tried to escape your throat.

“Hey.” He said quitely. He sat down beside you. “About what I said the other day-”

His sentence was cut short by Euna running towards you.

“Taeyong!” She exclaimed as she was approaching. “Taeyong-”

“Euna, calm down,” He tried to help her catch your breathe.

“Daeun-” Euna began. There was a small pinch of worry inside you. You were worried that something might have happened to her because of what she saw. “I don’t know what you two are talking but- Daeun is on her way to transfer to another college. If you really like her, Taeyong, please stop her.”

Taeyong looked down, conflict evident in his demeanor. He stayed silent for a while as Euna went away. Your hands turned cold. He hasn’t said anything but you knew what his decision was.

“I’m sorry, Y/N.” He whispered before bolting off towards Euna’s direction.

You didn’t realize that you were crying until you felt a tear drop on your legs. You thought you had him. The moment he said that he wants you too, made you feel like you’re up on cloud nine. But clouds disappear and the moment they do, you’ll be falling from the sky and down to the ground. You stood up and saw the look on everyone’s eyes. For the first time in forever, you saw pity on Yuta’s eyes.

News spread fast as they often do. The announcement of Daeun and Taeyong’s relationship went through your ear for the nth time today. With the guidance of chocolates and countless bottles of alcohol, you tried yourself to forget about Taeyong. As you were drunkenly singing “Truth Hurts” by Lizzo, you remembered who you are. You are Y/N. And you don’t cry for anyone.

“You’re prettier, Y/N.” Joy attempts at cheering you up. Yeri smiled at you and held your hand as a sign of comfort. You three chatted for a while until it was time for them to catch their flights home. It was the end of the semester but you were too bummed to go back to your hometown. The quietness of your town wouldn’t be a good combination with your thoughts. You figured that the city would be the best place for now. You mentally thanked Taeyong for making you believe that you could be a good person. You thanked him for the butterflies and the greatest kiss that you’ve had so far.

As you stood up, you saw Yuta standing in your direction.

“You’re a good person, Y/N.” He said all of a sudden. You tilted your head in confusion. He just smiled and walked away.

Before his figure became blurry, you noticed that he was swearing the shirt you got him for Christmas.

a/n: ya know in retrospect, this seems like ur typical cheesy teenage movie. might delete this soon hehehe anyway, feedback are always welcome!!

#lee taeyong #lee taeyong imagines #lee taeyong x reader #taeyong imagines #taeyong x you #taeyong x reader #taeyong fluff #taeyong angst #taeyong smut #nct 127 #nct angst #nct imagines #nct drabbles

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benscaligraphyset · 4 years

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Unexpected

Chapter two

Summary: What you thought was just a bad case of food poisoning, turns out to be the child of Ben Solo growing inside you. How will he react? Will you get the chance to tell him?

Pairing: Ben Solo x You

Warnings: unexpected pregnancy (?), mentions of smut but not the actual act, a bit of angst

Something was wrong.

You’d been sick before, but, you’ve never felt like this...something just felt off.

You were nauseous almost all of the time and you’d begun to anticipate the daily vomiting spells, which at least provided relief of the nausea, of only for a little while. The fatigue was almost overwhelming some days and you were barely able to get through basic training; people were beginning to notice. Today, you decided, this has been going on for too long and enough is enough. You needed to go back to the medbay.

You’d gone earlier when the symptoms first started and they tested you for any plausible illness, but all the tests came back perfectly fine. The droids assured you that you must’ve eaten some bad bantha and you just needed to rest, but you’d had food poisoning and it never lasted this long and it just didn’t feel like this. But, you figured they were right. They knew best after all.

Maybe you just have a bad reaction to bantha.

You never typically would eat bantha as it was usually something you’d turn your nose up at, but the other morning, the overwhelming craving for a bantha burger came over you. And so you had one. And now you felt like bantha shit.

“Hello, Mistress Y/N!” One of the nurse droids greeted you. “Are you feeling any better?”

You shook your head. “No, and I think you need to do some more tests. This isn’t food poisoning.”

“Well, I suppose we can do some more tests that we didn’t before.” The droid led you towards one of the beds. You laid on the semi-comfortable mattress with whirring machinery over your head.

“There are a few that we didn’t think would apply but could match your symptoms.”

You nodded, staring at the ceiling.

The droid bustled around bringing various machinery over and typing things into datapads. You waited anxiously, trying to control your brain from going through all the possibilities.

“We need you to stay still for all the testing,” a different droid next to your bed said. You tilted your head in question before realizing that you were fidgeting your legs nervously.

“Oh, right, sorry,” you apologized and willed your legs to stop moving.

You’d never been a fan of going to the doctors, now more than ever considering something could actually be wrong.

You took a deep breath. By the Force, you would make it through this.

A circular machine went over your body, starting at your legs and stopped moving at your abdomen. The scanner wrapped around all the way under your cot and began to make a whirring noise that signaled it was scanning.

After a few seconds, it beeped and pulled away from you. The droid went over to check the results and appeared to stare at it for longer than seemed necessary. The droid gestured for another nurse droid to come look at the screen.

“Is everything alright?” you asked after what felt like five minutes of silence.

“Forgive us mistress, but we didn’t realize that Jedi could have sexual relations so we didn’t initially—“

“They can’t—I’m not—,” you broke off and shook your head. “I’m sorry, what are you saying?”

“You’re pregnant.”

You shook your head and couldn’t help scoffing at the prospect. “I...I’m what? No, that’s not possible.”

The droid looked offended. “I assure you our tests have a hundred percent accurate—“

“Well, there’s a first time for everything. The test is wrong,” you cut off the droid. You regretted taking that tone with the nurse; you were never usually one to be snippy with droids. But, there was a time to apologize and there was a time to prevent yourself from panicking and right now you were doing everything in your power to control your emotions before they became overwhelming. You took a few deep breaths and tried to center yourself as Master Luke had taught you.

The nurse complied and brought the machine over your abdomen once more and you heard the familiar beep indicating it was done. The machine was pulled back and the same two nurses came over to check the results. They both looked over at you and then back at each other, seeming hesitant of what to say.

“What does it say?” you asked keenly.

“Positive for pregnant.”

“N-no, that’s not...”

But even as you started to refute the results, your feelings betrayed you and you knew that the droids were in fact right. You were only vaguely aware of your l shaking hand instinctively going over your womb as you began to accept it was really true.

“How far along am I?” you heard yourself ask. It didn’t feel like it was you asking though; you felt separated from your body like you were watching the scene from afar.

“Almost four weeks.”

You sighed. The day Ben had come back from his mission.

The nurse droid had told you it was going to fly in some prenatal tabs for you and you nodded numbly, not really listening. Your ears were ringing with all the thoughts that were going through your head.

Before the nurse could close the door behind you, you grabbed its shoulder. The droid whirled around to look at you.

“Yes, mistress?”

“I trust you’ll keep this confidential,” you said.

“Of course. It is in our programming to only relay medical information at the patient's request,” it answered and you gave it a small smile.

“Oh, and I’m sorry for being snippy with you earlier, this is just...a lot to take in.”

Considering you could be expelled from the Jedi Order for this, yeah, this was a lot to take in. Perhaps Master Luke would take mercy since this child would be his nephew’s, but maybe that would make it worse.

“No apologies are necessary,” the droid replied and whirled back into the room. You continued on to leave the medbay and pushed past the exit doors.

“So, what’d they say?” Ben asked, his large figure appearing out of nowhere. You reached for your belt, which was lightsaberless, luckily for Ben, before realizing who it was.

“Blast it, Ben! You scared me!”

“Sorry, sweetheart,” Ben apologized but could help the small chuckle that bubbled up his chest.

“You’re lucky I don’t have my lightsaber on me,” you snipped and Ben rolled his eyes.

“One,” Ben started and grabbed your arm to bring you behind the building of the medbay, “you should always have your weapon on you. Two, you wouldn’t have been able to get it out in time.”

As soon as you were out of sight, he looked around cautiously and, before you could reply, brought his lips down to yours, capturing you in a fervent kiss. You couldn’t help but lose yourself in the kiss, but to be fair, you hadn’t had any real alone time in, well, a month. You let his tongue slip into your mouth and you reveled in the taste of him. You realized how easy it was to completely lose yourself in lust with him.

No wonder you were pregnant.

Your breath hitched at the thought, but obviously not for the reason Ben thought. He groaned deeply and you could feel his smirk against your lips as his hand brazenly cascaded down the small of your back. You reluctantly pulled back and luckily you could blame your quick breaths on the kiss. He stopped his hand just above your ass and rubbed small, soothing circles.

“I’ve been worried about you.”

“Mm, I can tell,” you joked. “But, Master Luke could catch us at any moment—“

“He’s in his hut reading Jedi text,” Ben reassured you. You felt his irritation prickle in the Force at the mention of his uncle and you couldn’t blame him as their relationship lately has been rocky at best. You cringed at the thought of adding this situation to both their plates.

“Well, what did they say?” He asked, pushing his irritation down.

“Hm?”

“The nurse droids, did they give you a new diagnosis?”

Now that you were discussing your health, Ben’s anxiety had flared and you could feel it coming off him in hot waves.

You sighed and shut your eyes. If you were being honest, Ben was the last person you wanted to see right now. Not because he wasn’t comforting, on the contrary, you wanted to throw yourself into his arms and tell him everything...but you couldn’t, and that was the problem. You needed time to come up with a lie, to center yourself in an attempt to hide your feelings. Right now, you needed to relax or Ben was going to know something was wrong. You pushed yourself away slightly, worried he’d be able to feel your heart desperately trying to burst out of your chest.

“Uh, well no...They took a few tests and they’ll let me know tomorrow, but I’m thinking they were right and it really is just a bad case of food poisoning.”

Ben could sense you were lying, you knew he could, so, for once, you were grateful for the wave of nausea that came over you. You gripped your stomach as it lurched and you went off a few feet away from him so he wouldn’t see you like this. But, of course, Ben instantly rushed over to your side and pulled your hair back and out of the way. Blast him for being a gentleman.

“Sorry,” you apologized and wiped your mouth.

“You don’t need to apologize, sweetheart. I think I should talk to the droids—“

“No!” You grabbed his arm and pleaded with your eyes. “I just want to go to my hut...please.”

Ben looked at you skeptically but, respected your wishes and put his arm around you to walk back to the huts.

It had been nearly a week since you found out the truth and you knew you needed to tell Ben the truth and fast. You were going to start showing through your robes soon and you could no longer lie about food poisoning. No one had questioned you when you said the nurses recommended you take it easy for a few days but that could only last so long before suspicions rose.

But, you were scared. This would be the end of the line for you, for both of you. You know Ben would follow you if you were banished from the order; he wouldn’t let you be alone and it doesn’t hurt that Luke hasn’t been very encouraging about his training lately. But, you didn’t want to be the reason he had to abandon becoming a Jedi, because even for all his complaining and drifting away, you knew Ben wanted to make Luke proud as much as you did; he wanted to be a Jedi. And Luke’s disappointment was something you dreaded almost most of all. The thought of his face after hearing the news gave you a whole new wave of nausea.

But you couldn’t lie and say that the thought of running away with Ben wasn’t appealing. Selfishly, you let yourself smile at the thought of you and Ben settling down with a toddling child with big, black hair. You both could teach this child the ways of the Force in your own way, no pressure from Jedi or Sith looming over their shoulder, and Ben would no longer live with the pressure of trying to conform to the way of the Jedi. You could both be happy.

That night you dreamt of a small head with big, black, scruffy hair and a life of your own. Your paradisiacal visions were interrupted by a feeling of pure terror and you instantly jolted up in your bed. You only thought of one thing while running out of your hut: Ben was in trouble. .

By the time you got to his destroyed hut, it was too late. Ben had already fled and Master Luke was knocked unconscious in the rubble.

Oh no

(A/N: Thank you all for reading! I’m planning on leaving it here but I can be persuaded to finish it if there's a request for it! Please reply if you liked it! Reblogs are appreciated :) )

Ask to be added to my permanent taglist!

#ben solo #ben solo x you #ben solo x reader #ben solo fanfic #ben solo fanfiction #Padawan!ben #kylo ren x reader #kylo ren x you #Kylo Ren fanfic #master luke #reader insert #Star Wars Fic #star wars fanfic #star wars fanfiction

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rudjedet · 4 years

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Hey! Someone suggested i ask you a question. Youve read or attempted to read the kane chronicals right? Im into the egyptian gods and mythology and i was wondering if you could tell me how true those books are in terms of egyptian beliefs and mythology. Cause id like to know if i actually know anything true or not.

Hi! I have - well, the first one (The Red Pyramid). I posted about it before but those asks are not in my FAQ yet hahahaha I really have to get on updating it. I can only speak for TRP, but definitely take the others with a grain of salt; it’s essentially Ancient Egypt-inspired fantasy (and Riordan never pretended otherwise of course).

Now Riordan has done his research and you can tell, but he takes a lot of creative liberty. I’m assuming you already read them based on the ask, but I don’t want to take any chances, so I’ll put the spoilers under a read more.

In short: The Kane Chronicles are somewhat accurate in some ways and inaccurate in others. As a lay person I wouldn’t take the accuracy for granted at all, and simply treat it like you would treat the pantheon and mythology of a fantasy novel. Riordan did stuff a few easter eggs in there for those with slightly more knowledge than the average lay person. If you’ve read The Shipwrecked Sailor, for instance, you’ll probably recognise the one I’m thinking of right now.

So the biggest thing Riordan deviates from the original mythology is when it comes to Bast’s “job” of fighting Apophis for all eternity. Bastet, in Egyptian mythology, was a fierce protective goddess, but never came up against Apophis in that way. Ra, however, did - and when he did, Ra took the shape of a tomcat. I never got to ask Riordan, so I don’t know for sure, but it could either be deliberate creative freedom, or he could have mistaken Ra for Bastet in scenes of this type:

I’m not very clear on the finer details of the way he used the rest of the mythology, but it wasn’t perfectly accurate. It couldn’t be, to be honest, since there are a handful of millennia of religious and cultural history to cover, and the nature of Egyptian mythology is far too complicated to treat it as a monolith. There were simply far too many regional and temporal differences for that.

My personal biggest pet peeve, however, is that Seth is portrayed as the ultimate villain (can we please collectively decide to get over that tired old boot of a concept) in the first book, but then it turns out that he isn’t the ultimate villain: Apophis had him in his claws all along. That’s worse because it - pardon my French - absolutely shits in the face of everything Egyptian religion ever stood for, since Seth was the one who actively kept Apophis away from the solar barque during the perilous journey through the hours of the night. Creative freedom? Very likely. Do I like it, on a professional and personal level? Absolutely not.

The other giant thing that is incorrect in terms of beliefs, is that hieroglyphs were always considered magical. They were not. Not only is “magical” not the word you want to be using (”religious” is a better term), but the power inherent in certain words was due to the words or phrases, not the hieroglyphs of which they were comprised.

The Shipwrecked Sailor easter egg, by the way, is the giant snake skin in the uncle’s house. In that story, a man becomes shipwrecked on an enchanted island and meets a giant divine snake.

It also bears mentioning that the way Kane and the curator of the British Museum interact is not how peers in this field would speak to one another; and Kane is far too young to be an expert in that many aspects of Egyptology. The aspects he is an expert in would each require a lifetime to master.

So in general: Riordan did his research, but he also took so much creative liberty that I wouldn’t take anything in The Kane Chronicles for granted as accurate or true to Egyptian beliefs/mythology. That’s not a value judgment on the type of creative liberties he took, just a statement of fact. (Though if you did want a value judgment: I didn’t like the book, Sadie felt super stereotypical girl-written-by-an-older-man; her voice was not distinct enough from Carter’s; both their character arcs were also pretty much copy-paste; and the narrative was, I felt, too predictable and lackluster.)

Sorry this explanation is a bit haphazard; it’s extremely hot here and my 2 month old has been waking up to nurse every hour or so, so my brain has left the premises like 5 hours ago.

#the kane chronicles #oldgayjewishcat

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literaryspinster · 3 years

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Preview: Forever Yours, Iris West Ch. 11

The Ski Trip, Part II

My ankle throbs furiously between the two ice packs bandaged snugly around it. It’s a moderate sprain, according to the doctor at the small hospital in town, but there’s nothing moderate about this pain. I wince as I sandwich my phone between my ear and shoulder, waiting for dad to answer.

Since it’s nothing life threatening, our chaperone left it up to me and dad to decide whether I want to go home early, and I already know he’s about to push as much as possible and demand to come pick me up, but God help me, I think I’d rather stay. It may be because of the way Barry is hanging behind with me while the others are already back to skiing, if I go home, he’ll just want to go home too, to save face or whatever. And how unfair would that be?

It takes a good 30 minutes to talk Dad out of driving up here in the snow and taking me back home, where I'll do nothing but rest my ankle the same way I plan on doing in the lodge for the next two days. I have to tell him three times that the onsite nurse is perfectly capable of providing what I need in the meantime, and Barry, aggressively helpful boy that he is, promises to keep an eye on me too, talking loudly enough for dad to hear me on the other line.

“I don’t know Iris,” Dad says. Finally starting to crack.

“Dad, it’s not like I can ski anymore, what other danger could I possibly get into?”

He sighs deeply, and I know I’ve won. “Okay, but you better call and tell me how you’re doing every couple of hours, and if your ankle feels even a little bit worse before the weekend’s out you let me know and I’ll get you right home.”

“I promise, goodbye, I love you,” I say, pressing end in exhaustion and throwing my head back to release an aggravated groan. “That’s a half hour of my life I’m never getting back”

Barry gives me a small, guilty smile from beside my bed, and I return it. “Don’t worry, I’m better than okay,” I say.

“I would ask if you’re sure but I don’t want to sound like your old man.”

“Thank God for that.” I say, and reach for the pair of crutches the doctor provided, ready to get the hell out of here.

****

The next day, I start to realize how very good a call it was for me to stay behind. Everyone else is enjoying their second to last morning on the mountain, taking ski lessons with Sven, while I’m cozied up in front of the fire, reading every newspaper in the lodge back to front and enjoying my second cup of the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had in my life. Barry was right, the Marshmallow really is the size of a fist, and the powdery sweetness of it mixing into the chocolate is taking me someplace else.

Speaking of Barold, he’s here too, sitting on the floor next to the couch, his shoulder just grazing my foot. I couldn’t make him go out this morning. He’s watching Titanic on two VHS tapes, and the screen flickers at the top and the bottom because VCRs are obsolete for a reason.

“I still say they both could have fit on that door,” I murmur as I look up from the Style section.

“It wasn’t about the size of the door it was about the buoyancy, what’s both of them sinking to the bottom on that thing going to accomplish?” He says with surprising intensity, like this is hardly the first time he’s thought about this.

“Calm down Mythbusters, I’m just messing with you.”

He smiles and rolls his eyes before continuing to watch. By the time I’m done with the style section Jack is dead and I spot the glossy tears at the corner of Barry’s eye. He wipes them quickly, and I don’t say anything because he doesn’t seem like he wants me to notice. But to be honest, he has nothing to be embarrassed about. I like the fact that it actually gets to him a little. Whenever I’d watch a sad or emotional movie with Scott, he’d find a way to suck the air out of the room.

“Sorry, I know this is supposed to be sad or whatever but I can’t get over the acting, so extra and for what?” He’d said during the climactic death scene in Moulin Rouge.

“I don’t know, maybe because the love of his life just died,” I shot back.

“Okay, I need a palate cleanser after that one,” Barry says as the credits roll and Celine Dion sings about her heart going on. He stands up to approach the crate of movies.

“You know you can probably catch the last hour of ski lessons if you go now,” I suggest.

“Are you kidding?” He says. “Without my fake girlfriend? What kind of asshole would I look like?”

“The kind with a super chill fake girlfriend who wants you to have fun.”

“I am having fun,” he says, like he doesn’t have to think about it. And he roots through the crate like the conversation is over.

“Okay,” I say. “But how about something a little less White this time?”

“Fair,” he answers and holds up a copy of Boomerang, my second favorite Eddie Murphy movie of all time. “How about this?”

“Worth putting down the newspaper for.”

After sliding the movie into the VCR, he sits on the couch next to me, gently replacing the pillow my foot is resting on with his warm lap. I’ll allow it, I think to myself.

#westallen #iris west #barry allen #the flash #westallen fanfic

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watching-pictures-move · 3 years

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Put On Your Raincoats #14 | William Lustig Double Feature

The Violation of Claudia opens with Sharon Mitchell being "attended to" by three servants. Dissonant music plays, consisting of clashing piano, percussion and synthesizer, while distored moans are heard on the soundtrack. For Mitchell, this seems too good to be true, and alas is is, as she wakes up next to her husband, an older, inconsiderate man who claims to be too busy to give her the romantic attention she craves. So she spends her days getting tennis lessons from a sexy instructor played by Jamie Gillis, with whom she has an easy rapport. He raises the idea of prostitution ("lots of exciting jobs a pretty lady like you could do") and she abruptly leaves. Of course, Gillis proves persistent, and in a later scene when she's getting a massage, he takes over and has his way with her (as can be expected for the genre, consent proves a slippery concept), leaving his number after he's finished.

At the dinner table she tries to strike up a conversation with her husband but he's not very attentive. Frustrated, she informs him that she "had a very enjoyable fuck", to which he responds "Hmmm, that's good." (She reacts by angrily cutting her steak.) When he leaves for a business trip ("I hope the plane crashes"), she lets the maid take a few days off and decides to act on her desires. She picks up a hitchhiker who resembles John Amplas. "Have you ever made love to an older woman?" she asks, even though they look to be the same age. They make love beside the fireplace in a sensually shot scene, that seems less interested in close-ups than in photographing two attractive bodies. After this, Mitchell takes up Gillis' offer and joins his agency. She hits it off with fellow escort Crystal Sync, who proves extremely friendly in both natural (helping her try on dresses) and genre-pandering (gettin' it on) ways.

Her first client is a balding, diminutive bespectacled man who immediately searches nervously for hidden cameras. He then lays out a tablecloth, asks her to undress and lay on the table, puts on an apron and paper hat, then puts down a bunch of toppings on the table, and proceeds to put whipped cream (and other delights) on her body. (The first shot after the scene is of an ice cream sundae. "No thanks," says Mitchell.) I was a little worried when the weird looking guy showed up, but this is actually a pretty fun scene, helped largely by the fact that both participants seem to find it amusing (Mitchell giggles all the way through). Mitchell's next client is a cross dresser who wants to "sprinkle her with [his] fairy dust", at which point she decides this isn't for her and walks out. (On a side note, it is interesting how films whose purpose is delivering explicit content decide what lines can't be crossed. Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS has endless, graphically depicted tortures throughout its runtime but its heroine finds the idea of a golden shower too vile even for her.) Without giving too much away, let's just say she finally learns why her husband has been so inattentive to her.

The Violation of Claudia is almost like a softcore feature with a few extra close-ups. The sex scenes, while explicit, seem less concerned with gynecology than intimate vibes and handsomely shot nudity. Bringing to mind a smuttier Belle de Jour, the tone is unexpectedly elegant, especially given the grungy genre movies that William Lustig would go on to direct. If one really wants to reach, they can find similarities between this and Maniac in how Lustig gets inside his protagonists' headspace, but the performances by Mitchell here and Joe Spinell there, while both good in their own way, couldn't be more different. (Fun fact: Mitchell has a cameo as nurse in Maniac.) In any case, this is well acted and features nice soft focus cinematography and attractive decor, all of which make it pretty enjoyable.

These qualities don't persist in his follow-up, Hot Honey, which opens with a Lou-Reed-ish theme song while the characters walk down 42nd Street. The heroine, played by Colleen Anderson (credited here as Heather Young) is reluctant to have sex with her boyfriend, who wastes no time after she leaves in calling his upstairs neighbour for a booty call. When Anderson gets home, she gets chewed out by her brother Jamie Gillis, who is in a wheelchair and attended to by a nurse played by Serena. Anderson has a friend with whom she practices her dance routine (this is not a euphemism) and then later does the horizontal mambo (this is a euphemism). Her friend's husband is played by Herschel Savage, who at this point had a hair and mustache combo that made him look like Gene Shalit, so if you ever had a thing for Gene Shalit, this might be worth your time. (Alas, he makes no puns.)

Later Serena chastises Gillis for riding his sister. Her prescription? Riding his sister. Anderson walks in on her sexually dominating Gillis and is invited to join in. (I should note that during this scene Gillis moves his legs repeatedly, and it's not clear if he's breaking character. I will give him the benefit of the doubt.) After this, she decides to finally have sex with her boyfriend (actual honey figures in the action at this point) and in the film's climax, has a threesome with her friend and Savage. (Fans of Gene Shalit, rejoice!) To be perfectly honest, there isn't a lot to this. Most of the sex scenes feel perfunctory in their execution (the exception being the scene with Serena and Gillis, where the perversion factor gives it a tension absent in the rest of the movie), and characters are sketched out roughly at best. I enjoyed Anderson's work in Skin Flicks, but I don't think she's a good enough actress to make her arc work or otherwise ground the movie. This isn't terrible by the standards of the genre, but is only really worth seeking out for completist interest in Lustig's career.

#film #put on your raincoats #movie review #william lustig #the violation of claudia #hot honey

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artistrashofmine · 4 years

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I’m projecting onto Bakugou again, fun.

No Pairing/General, Parental Aizawa & Bakugou Mitsuki’s Bad Parenting.

Rating: Teen and Up

W/C: 3157

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24817582

Katsuki was in the hospital. Something about teaching him a lesson, or so Aizawa said. That Recovery Girl wouldn’t always be there to cover your reckless asses and Katsuki was going to be example number one to what happens when she isn’t. He only got a few scratches, some bruises. It was a damn building collapse on his way from the mall to the dorms. He went in, because of fucking course, he had his hero licence, he wasn’t about to stand back and let people perish. And who knew, it could have been a villain attack. In the end, it was some stupid experiment or gadget gone wrong, the place was owned by some sort of testing or designing corporation. Something like that, he didn’t really pay attention.

Point is, this was bullshit. Why should he spend his weekend in a hospital room eating shitty hospital food? Which did more harm than good seeing as he hardly ate a bite of it. He was perfectly fine, apparently, the excuse was something to do with chemicals or some shit that could’ve been disturbed as the building fell. Though Katsuki’s pretty sure his teacher just hated him. At least he wasn’t hooked up to any shit, though he was forced into one of those shitty gowns. Like what the fuck? Maybe it was some kind of test for his patience.

And the staff, the staff was hell, serious hell. One nurse was just shitty, but they were the most tolerable out of the bunch. He hated that other one who kept coming around. A fucking bitch who didn’t listen to a word he said.

It was all “how are you feeling, dear?” or “do you need anything, darling?”. And it was pissing him off because she wouldn’t shut the fuck up with the stupid name-calling. He had a fucking name, Bakugou Katsuki for god’s sake not fucking “honey”. The blond didn’t know this girl, and frankly didn’t want to, so she could stop treating him as if they were all buddy-buddy.

Fuck, were staff even allowed to treat a patient like this? They shouldn’t be. Seriously, that’s fucked up, as a hero you’re supposed to make people feel comfortable, even he knew that, and Katsuki was pretty sure being a decent fucking human being - or nurse for that matter - should be the same. This was far from comfortable for him.

Screw teaching Katsuki a lesson, it was these fuckers who needed some sense beat into them. And now the blond’s pretty fucking sure Aizawa sent him here cause he’s a monster teacher from hell and has it out for the hot-headed teenager. It makes perfect fucking sense.

He didn’t bother batting an eye when he came in to check if the blond hadn’t bailed, and the nurse was sprouting out them bullshit pet names. Not that it surprised him, the teacher hardly took notice of shit that troubled him. Hell, he didn’t bat an eye when his fucking hag of a mother gave him the backhand during their meeting for setting up the dorm. Nor did All Might for that matter. And no one did shit when he was strapped down to one of Cemento’s blocks and muzzled for the world to see. All to force some shitty medal that he didn’t want around his neck, well, into his mouth, but close enough. He was beginning to think all heroes were fucking oblivious idiots who all could use a good beating some sense into. Preferably with Katsuki doing the beating.

Then there was his mother, his goddamn bitch of an excuse for a parent. She didn’t bat an eye when nurse bitch came out with her arsenal of pet names. No, she yelled at Katsuki for going off at the nurse, who fucking scurried away like a fucking pussy the second their voices started to rise.

Yeah, this hospital was doing so much more harm than good, he needed out of here, he needed out of here soon or better yet yesterday. He shouldn’t have been here in the first place, that’s what should have been. Then he wouldn’t have had to put up with any of this shit. He was losing sleep here for god’s sake.

Of course, Sunday came with a high pitched “good morning honey!”

And that was about all he could take. Do you know how fucking annoying that is? To wake up and the first thing said to you, by a total stranger, in the most annoying fucking high pitched babying voice be good fucking morning honey. Yeah, good-fucking-morning, good-fucking-bye. Maybe it was payback for his own nicknames. How he hardly called anyone by their proper name, unless they earned it. Still, he didn’t call them cutesy pet names either that was normally shared between couples. And being an asshole was his thing, and they were his fucking peers, not patients.

So he yelled at her, yelled as loud as he could, he let sparks dance across his fingers, and he fucking told her, “I swear to god, if you don’t stop calling me those fucking stupid ass, pussy names, I’m going to fucking MURDER you.”

He thinks she got the message this time. He scared her off, that was for sure, the frown evident on her face. Katsuki didn’t think she would be coming back around. He was right. Though, if he were being honest, her and the one she was replaced with, he could tell no fucking difference. Brown hair instead of blond, that was about it. Same babying voice, same damn names, over and over again. He swore to god, he’d never step foot in here again, even if he were bleeding out on the sidewalk right in front of this fucking building, half dead. Never again.

It wasn’t happening, he expressed that much to Aizawa who was picking him up to bring him back to the dorms on Sunday night, his mom present only cause she had to sign him out. Damn waste of time this shit was.

“Goodbye, sweetie.” And bitch number two thought she was sly.

“I’m not your fucking sweetie.” He didn’t hesitate to holler right back.

“Stop being a pain in the ass you damn brat!” Too bad his fucking hag’s screech was louder than his, he’s pretty fucking sure his explosions partially inherited her set of lungs. Least her hands were too busy at the fucking desk to reach over and whoop his fucking ass. Goddamn, they were made of steel or something, he swears. His dad said it was just because she used to play volleyball, but he was half-convinced it was a secret quirk or something.

“Bakugou,” Aizawa drawled from behind him, the blond turning to meet the tired gaze.

He held his head up in challenge, “what you got something to say about my shitty behaviour too?”

And unexpectedly, the other only starred back, silent. As if taking back whatever he had to say. The blond narrowed his red-eyes, what was the Caterpillar getting at?

“Oi, brat, the least you could do is say bye! I came all the way out here for your ass.” He turned to sneer at the hag.

“Tch, whatever, like you have anything better to do!”

“Hah?! You ungrateful little demon. I swear to fucking christ,” it really looked like she was holding back, maybe she did have enough brains not to hit him in the middle of a fucking hospital.

Though he seriously questioned if any of the workers would do something about it. Maybe they’d have the decency to look away while it happened, but that was honestly the best he could expect from them.

“Why do I put up with your ass again?!” She shook her head, “I’ll tell Masaru you said hi. And remember to fucking call!”

Her heels clicked against the tile as she made her exit, as loud as she fucking could. Grabbing the attention of the whole fucking room, as if she hadn’t with her screeching. Un-fucking-believable, that woman.

When he turned back to the UA teacher, he was speaking to the staff working at the desk. Probably to listen in on the, undoubtedly, numerous complaints of how bad of a patient he was, how disrespectful he was, how much of a scene he has caused. Katsuki was in a rotten mood, and wouldn’t appreciate the lecture he was about to get on the way back. He shuffled his way closer to the teacher in hopes to draw his attention, that they could get this over with as long as he got the hell out of this hellish building.

“-again, I’ll press charges.” What.

What the fuck did he just walk into? Aizawa was arguing with a man at the counter, possibly some higher up they called over to handle complaints. That’s what he just walked up to. The teacher kicked some poor souls ass, Katsuki wanted to laugh in the workers face. Though he wondered what the hell caterpillar was threatening to press charges for, he wasn’t paying attention for one second and now he doesn’t know what the fuck’s going on.

Did Aizawa have some unfinished business or something? Was that why he chose this hellish place, it would make sense that the workers fucked something up and the pro was involved, at least it did to Katsuki. He wouldn’t put anything off the table. The weekend alone took a fucking year off his life span, and seeing that he was training to become a hero and already found himself smack dab in the middle of multiple villain interactions, it didn’t look like he had many years to spare.

“I’ll make sure it won’t happen again sir, do you have the names of those involved?” The man was able to keep a calm facade, it kind of pissed Katsuki off, he got on the bad side of fucking Eraser Head for god’s sake, that wasn’t something to be calm about. Though, to be fair, the man didn’t have Aizawa as a homeroom teacher so he wouldn’t understand what the other was capable of, would he?

Man, Katsuki pitied the poor foul who got on the underground hero’s nerves and envied the one who the hero cared enough to get upset on behalf of. Did he have a kid or something? It didn’t look like it, and the blond was skeptical of his abilities to care for one. Though Aizawa seemed to do fine with his class so maybe he was capable after all. Not like he could be worse than Katsuki’s mother anyway.

“Bakugou,” their attention was on the approaching blond, “I know you never call anyone by their names but do you remember the nurses who took care of you?”

“The shitty ones that called me pet names? Hell no.” He wasn’t afraid to voice his distaste, that was about all he could do, he wouldn’t give it up.

Maybe everything else was out of his control, the faith and trust that others had in his words, their ability to care, to do something, but Katsuki could control himself, he could speak up as much as he wanted even if there was no one to listen.

He was surprised not to get a scolding in return, not even a sigh, the black-haired teacher simply turned back to man, “don’t you have them on file?”

“Why sure, but numerous nurses could have visited his room, they change every shift.” Wait, this had something to do with Bakugou?

That’s why Aizawa was going off. Did the hospital do something to him? Was it those shitty nurses? They could’ve held a grudge over his attitude, but they seemed too scared to do something about it. Was it the doctor, because he was taking up a bed for no fucking good reason? They didn’t have much of a chance to do anything, maybe when he was asleep. Though the blond slept lightly, you never knew when the next attack could come. Whether it was villains, or his fucking mother, she’s done it before, pulled him right out of bed at three in the morning just because the blond slammed the door and woke the witch from her “beauty” sleep after an early morning run the previous day.

By now he seemed to have a sixth sense for people touching him in his sleep or coming near him. He could guess it started around the Sports Festival. It wasn’t pleasant to wake up from a quirk-forced sleep only to find yourself getting manhandled, getting muzzled. So he’d be surprised to sleep through some petty bitches midnight meddling. It didn’t feel like anything was off either, he might be a bit more tired and annoyed, but there was a reason, a good reason, for that. Or what he believed to be a good reason, maybe he was wrong. Who fucking knew?

“One of them was the girl who was just here.” The one who escorted them out, bitch number two? She did something?

The man nodded along, “I will make a note of that.”

“There was another if I recall, am I correct, Bakugou?” Aizawa looked at him expectantly.

“Another what?” Bitch? Because yes, yes there was.

“Worker who has been using inappropriate names.” The blond blinked, Aizawa was filing a complaint because of the pet names, on Bakugou’s behalf.

Because he was listening to Bakugou’s complaints? Hearing that he didn’t like it? And he was doing something? He wasn’t turning an eye and he didn’t see anything wrong with it, that the blond was overreacting. He was respecting what the blond wanted.

“She was the one on the shift before that other girl.” Katsuki explained quietly, collecting himself.

He didn’t need to yell for Aizawa to hear him.

“I would like to be made aware of your plans on how to handle this situation,” he turned back to the man, “I’ll be in contact, here’s my card.”

The other took it from the teacher's hand, “of course, sorry for the inconvenience.”

“I’m not who you should be apologizing to.” He turned away, “ready Bakugou?”

“Yeah,” the word was difficult to get out, he didn’t know why.

“Bakugou-san, on behalf of the hospital I’d like to apologize for the staff’s behaviour.” The man interrupted.

He stared at him with a scowl, “whatever.”

Like it mattered anyway, it wasn’t like Katsuki was ever going to come back. He already made up his mind on that, and when he comes to a decision, he sticks to it. The blond didn’t wait up, turning to march his way out of the godforsaken place, his exit was long overdue.

Aizawa was silent on the way out, silent as they got in his car and started driving. It wasn’t until they were well down the street, stuck at a light that he began to speak.

“I’m sorry, it wasn’t my intention for your time here to be that… substandard.” He started, “if something like this happens again I want you to come to me, I know I won’t be able to catch it, not all the time.”

There were already things the teacher missed , Katsuki thought bitterly. Though to be fair, All Might didn’t do anything either, actually, he played a good role in delivering Bakugou’s medal of failure. Aizawa was all bandaged up, in the booth with Mic, he hasn't said much, not until after. Katsuki was still wearing the gloves in class during the debriefing of the festival, he stayed back, was told to, he needed them off. They needed Aizawa's quirk to neutralize the sweat that poured into the gloves, otherwise, they were going to have a lotta collateral damage on their hands.

He remembers the teacher stating a grim “I don’t agree with what had happened.” before the principal had entered the classroom with the key, starting the process of removing the shit on his hands and safely disposing of the nitroglycerin-like sweat. He thought Aizawa was talking about Katsuki’s actions, how he chased after Half-and-Half, how he needed to be restrained in front of the crowd, how he acted like a petty brat who didn’t get the toy they wanted. He thought the grim expression was the teacher's disappointment. Like his mom’s when the blond had gotten home.

Now he wondered, was it Katsuki’s attitude that Aizawa was referring to? Did he miss Katsuki’s confusion? Did he miss the frustration in his eyes? The fact that he didn’t have a choice. That he didn’t want that? He vaguely remembers the conference televised during his kidnapping, how Aizawa bowed, took responsibility for Bakugou and how the blond was presented in the media’s eyes. Was that his way of apologizing? He didn’t think that deep into it, there was a lot going on during the time.

“I have another concern,” he continued, “your mother.”

The old hag, “what about her.”

“Bakugou, what’s your home life like?”

The blond's face drew up into a sneer, “nothing I can’t handle, besides we live in the fucking dorms not like I see the old hag that often anyway, she’s a bitch.”

“And your father?” he continued, seemingly taking every word seriously, more serious then the blond intended.

“He keeps her on a leash but makes shitty excuses for her tantrums.” He mumbled, he knew their family was dysfunctional, not your average loving household or whatever, but they managed. He was used to it.

Katsuki liked his independence anyways, so staying the fuck away from them wasn’t a problem. And they didn’t seem to mind either, for the most part. At least his father didn’t, his mother was a fucking bitch, all ‘don’t forget to call brat!’.

“Let’s grab something to eat before we go back to the dorms.” He proposed, pausing his investigation for now, “I want to discuss some things with you, involving you.”

“...Sure.” The blond was tired of hospital food, and it would be nice not having to cook for once, though he wasn’t looking forward to any more serious conversations, but it was better to get it over with. And maybe… maybe Aizawa would listen some more.

“Despite being a teacher, I’m not good with speaking, and I don’t like it,” that’s something they had in common, Katsuki had a feeling the other knew it too, “I remain a part-time hero with night shifts and have two cats.”

Well, that explained why he slept through the classes, but it didn’t excuse him from the gross, yellow sleeping bag, it still explained the hair all over it.

“I’m a light sleeper,” the blond admitted, “and I’ve never had a fucking cat, animals don’t like me.”

He could make out the slight, upward tilt to Aizawa’s mouth.

A month later he met Aizawa’s cats for the first time, they were clingy as fuck.

Another week later he was staying for a long weekend.

By the end of the school year he had his own room.

#bakugou katsuki #aizawa shoto #bakugou & aizawa #dadzawa #pet names but not in the cute way #bakugou mitsuki #bad parenting #bnha #my hero academia #fanfic #mha fanfiction

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kate-sinclaire · 4 years

Text

the baby announcement (maxwell x mc)

Author Note: An inspired scene that stems from my love of New Girl. I honestly couldn’t NOT write this. Anyhow. Here we go. This takes place after my last fiction. If you want to read that, it will be attached below:

hey, baby, I think I wanna marry you (maxwell x mc)

Book: The Royal Heir/The Royal Romance

Pairing: Maxwell x MC (Emily Beaumont)

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Emily and Maxwell continue to try for an heir while the gang becomes over protective of their mom to be.

NOTE/WARNING: This piece contains potential triggers, such as pregnancy concerns and issues. Please take care in reading if this is a trigger for you.

Tags: @itsbrindleybinch

Word Count: 1432

Comment or message if you’d like to be tagged in future Maxwell fics/TRH/TRR fics.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Pixelberry Studios (minus, for the most part, Emily), I’m just borrowing them. Some events, however, may not be canonical, rather imaginative scenarios. I also do not own the image. Gif found here.

“Emily, please be careful,” Bertrand sighed, pulling out the chair as the young duchess sat at the dining table. She looked up at him, eyes narrowed. Maxwell suppressed a scoff. He raised his hands in mock surrender. “I apologize, being a father has made me...protective.”

“I appreciate your concern, but I’m not pregnant yet. Coffee please?” she asked, looking up at Drake expectantly. He pursed his lips together and stared at her cautiously.

"How about some orange juice," he offered slowly. "Or um...water? You like water."

"Drake," she warned, her voice growing impatient.

"I made hot cocoa!" Hana sang from behind him, placing her famous marshmallow mountain topped hot chocolate in front of Emily as an all too innocent smile played on her lips.

Emily took a tentative sip, keeping her eyes set on her best friend. "That was convenient timing," she murmured, though she couldn't hide her blissful expression as her entire body warmed.

"I'm not sure what you mean," Hana replied casually, walking behind the kitchen counter. "I made Maxwell one, as well."

"God, you're the best," Maxwell grinned, eagerly taking hold of the matching campfire mug.

“You guys, I’m not pregnant yet. You don’t need to worry about me so much. I fought off deadly assassins.”

“With help,” Olivia chimed in with a smirk as she entered the room. “But never mind that. Emily, would you like to accompany me out of this godforsaken cabin? I promise that I’ll let you breathe all by yourself.”

Without a second’s hesitation, Emily joined her by the door and bit back a grin at the worried exchanges. “That sounds lovely, Olivia, thank you.”

“I don’t-” Drake started.

“I’m not so sure-” Liam murmured.

“I feel like-” Hanna winced.

“Enough!” Olivia exclaimed, slamming her palm on the table, sending echoes throughout the kitchen. The entire group startled. “Emily Beaumont is a strong, self-sufficient woman. She does not need to be coddled like an infant just because she is trying to have one.” Emily stared at her, stunned, and then looked back at the group with resolve.

“Thank you, Olivia. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go run errands with my best friend.”

“Well I wouldn’t go that far-”

“Bye gang!” Emily grinned, grabbing Olivia by the arm and closing the door behind them. Everyone exchanged concerned glances.

“Is it just me or is Olivia really scary when she’s protective?” Maxwell muttered after a moment of silence, taking another drink of his cocoa. Everyone collectively nodded.

After walking a bit, Emily stopped and let out a sigh. Olivia glanced at her curiously, stepping beside her. “Can I be honest about something?”

“As opposed to what you’ve been doing since I met you?” Olivia smirked. Emily rolled her eyes in response and Olivia sighed with a nod.

“I’m scared that I’m not going to get pregnant.”

“What?” Olivia asked, genuinely shocked. “Emily, you can’t be serious. You just started trying.”

“Well, it’s been a...a while. And everyone has been treating me like I should be pregnant by now. I notice everyone’s worried glances, especially other nobles’. Last time I saw the paparazzi, I got hounded about my fears regarding the pregnancy or...lack thereof. And honestly, I’m kinda freaking out a little bit.” Emily’s eyes started watering and she quickly wiped away any trace of her tears. “God, sorry, I didn’t think I was going to break down.”

“You just started trying, Emily. I don’t know if you remember this, but Liam asked you to produce an heir a month ago. Do you realize how sudden that is?”

“I guess...”

“And it takes some couples longer than others to conceive. It’s not abnormal for you to be experiencing this kind of thing.”

“But we try so much,” Emily sighed. “Like...so much.”

“Okay.”

“No, really. So much.”

“I get it.”

“I just feel like if it isn’t going to happen now, maybe it won’t ever.”

“I don’t know what you’re going through, Emily, but I can promise you this: no matter what happens, you have...” she winced and swallowed hard. “Amazing, loving friends who will be there for you no matter what. Including me. And you have...Maxwell. Who I’m sure loves you very much.”

“He does,” Emily sighed, wiping her eyes again.

“You don’t have anything to worry about. Okay?” Olivia’s voice softened for the first time in...ever since Emily had known her. She sniffled and nodded, wrapping her arms around her neck. Olivia let out a startled sound before hesitantly returning the hug. “Now, let’s forget about babies for a bit.”

“Where are we going?”

“The only place I can go after comforting someone: shooting.”

Meanwhile, back in Valtoria...

Maxwell let out a sigh as he played with Pip and Pup absentmindedly in the sun room, his gaze roaming to the mountaintops ahead of them. It was weird being away from his wife at all, these days, and it felt...lonely, even though he was with his friends and two adorable, cuddly creatures. Drake nursed a whiskey over by the telescope and looked over at Liam who stood reading a novel at one of Emily’s bookshelves.

“This is boring,” Max finally said.

“Thanks,” Drake replied with a scoff.

“No, I mean. Who even were we before Emily came into our lives?”

“Bored,” Drake agreed.

“Incomplete,” Hanna nodded.

“Lost,” Liam added, something flickering over his expression. Something Maxwell chose to aptly ignore.

“Exactly. And now here we are without her and we’re nothing. She’s the glue that holds us all together.”

“I think that’s a little dramatic,” Drake replied. “But you’re right. It’s not the same without her. And it’s our fault. We scared her away with our worrying.”

“You guys did. For the record, I’ve been a rock through this.” Max smirked, prompting a collective eye roll. “But yeah. It sucks. Maybe we should call her and apologize.”

“We can’t, she left her phone,” Hanna pointed at the table.

“What?” Panic began to race through him. “What if she gets into trouble? What if I get into trouble? I’m always in trouble!”

“Maxwell, calm down,” Liam laughed. “She’s fine. She’s perfectly capable of handling herself. And she has Olivia with her, remember?”

“That almost makes it worse!”

“Maxwell, she’s fine-”

As if on cue, Emily’s phone rang. Maxwell cautiously approached it and shook his head. “I can’t answer.”

“I will,” Hanna smiled dutifully. “Hello?”

“Hello, Lady Beaumont? This is Doctor Ramirez. Congratulations, you’re pregnant!”

“WHAT?!” Hanna squealed. “Oh my god!”

“Wait, who is this?”

“WHO IS IT?” Maxwell practically screamed.

“This is Hanna Lee. Sorry, can you pretty please call back so I can let Maxwell answer?”

“Why isn’t Emily answering her phone?” the doctor asked, confused. Then she sighed. “Okay, I’ll call back. Wait, why can’t I just talk to him now?”

Hanna hung up and grinned, handing the phone back to Maxwell. “I think you’ll want to answer whoever calls next.” He squirmed under her constant smile.

“Okay...”

Sure enough, the phone rang again and he winced. “Hello?”

“Maxwell Beaumont?”

“The very same.”

“This is Doctor Ramirez. I called to tell you congratulations! Your wife is pregnant.”

“EMILY IS PREGNANT?!”

After a long day of archery and blade throwing, Emily followed Olivia back to Valtoria with a renewed sense of self. “That was exactly what I needed, thank you.”

“Violence is what everyone needs,” Olivia nodded, knowingly. Emily laughed and jogged ahead. “Wow, you’re happy.”

“I am! We never get to hang out.”

“Yeah, it’s almost as if someone crafts that perfectly...”

“You know, you talk a big game but I think you like hanging out with me.”

“Think what you like, Emily,” but a smile played at Olivia’s lips.

When they both got back, Emily walked in with a grin. “Honey, I’m hoooome.” Silence. Olivia and her exchanged a look and then she called again. “Maxwell, I’m hooooooome.” Still nothing. She glanced down and noticed rose petals trailing from the kitchen to the bedroom. Confused, she followed and her eyes widened at the sight of Maxwell with three bouquets in hand along with about a dozen others scattered throughout the room.

“Max..?”

“I’m pregnant.”

“What...?” she looked around and then he shook his head with a grin.

“We’re pregnant. You’re pregnant.”

Realization dawned on her as she stepped back. “We’re...pregnant...”

“We’re pregnant!” he pulled her into his arms and spun her around. Emily laughed as the tears came down her face. “Doctor Ramirez called and Hanna picked up. Then she called again and I picked up.”

“Oh my god, we’re pregnant.”

“We’re pregnant.”

#pixelberry #trh #the royal heir #the royal romance #trh fanfiction #trh fanfic #trr fanfic #trr fanfiction #trr maxwell #maxwell x mc #maxwell beaumont #maxwell fanfic #maxwell x mc fanfic #maxwell x mc fanfiction

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kristallioness · 4 years

Text

Primary care

Summary: Aang acts as a primary caregiver to Katara while she's suffering from the flu.

Word count: 10,168

Author's note: This one-shot idea came from a scene in the "My Family" series (season 2 episode 5). Susan, the mother in the family, was sick with the flu and she lay in bed when her husband Ben came home. He tricked her into thinking that he was gonna kiss her, but then he did something else that surprised her. So I thought how this would be really cute if Aang did the same to Katara. Now it's 10k+ words of Aang nursing Katara back to health. So.. much.. FLUFF!!! Here's an "official" illustration, too. Thanks goes to @thecaroliner for providing me with some ideas! There's a continuation from an old fic of mine inspired by @katarapy's post (yes, I'm tagging you so you'd definitely see this and know that you can read it any time you want). Also, I went to my very first health check this November and I was a bit anxious, but the doctor was really sweet and the way she talked to me helped me relax. She did something that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and, at the same time, soothed me. So, of course, I added a tidbit in the middle of a scene that I thought was already planned out here. It became cuter. Whoever guesses correctly gets a cookie from me. Plus, I translated some Estonian lyrics from a very beautiful song and wrote them into the dialogue. If any of you guys can figure out which sentence it is that Aang says to Katara, you've earned two cookies! *waiting with a tray of cookies*

----------x----------

Katara rolled onto her other side. She could hear someone coming up the stairs, faintly. To be honest, she wasn't sure whether she could rely on the precision of her ears right now. Given how heavy her entire noggin felt.

She opened her eyes and stared at the bedroom door as her husband returned from the kitchen. Aang had a mischievous smile on his face as he approached their bed.

"It'll be another 10 minutes before the soup's done."

Katara's stomach growled at the mere mention of food. She found it hard to keep anything down for the past day and a half. Sometimes she'd get sick from simply smelling something she couldn't stand thanks to her upset tummy.

"Mmm.. thanks," she mumbled, covering her mouth for a second to cough. Otherwise, she remained hidden under the blanket.

Aang began fluffing the pillows she was surrounded with while they waited for lunch. He and Yee-Li, one of the first members of the air acolytes, had been busy preparing a simple noodle soup just for her.

The airbender did most of the cooking, but the young nun was more than happy to help keep an eye on the boiling water and stir the ingredients while he went to check on his wife. She'd promised to bring the soup to their bedroom herself, even after Aang had insisted that it wasn't necessary.

Katara propped herself up on her elbows for a second so he could fluff the pillow under her head.

"I know what would make you feel better."

She quirked an eyebrow as she lay back down and her husband perched on the edge of the bed.

"Really? And what would that be?"

Aang nudged closer to her, running a hand over the corner of her mouth.

"How about a quick kiss?"

"Aang, no. You'll get sick, too."

As if to prove her point, another short coughing fit hit her. She turned her head the other way and held a hand in front of her mouth until it stopped tickling her throat.

"See what I mean?"

"Please? Just humor me," he begged.

Katara shrugged her shoulders, but played along. She closed her eyes and puckered her lips, slightly leaning forward to prepare herself for the kiss. She didn't expect a glass tube to intrude her mouth instead.

"It's okay!" Aang said when she clearly startled.

"I just wanted to take your temperature."

He caressed her cheek to calm her down. Katara stared at the thermometer between her lips, after which she giggled and sucked the tip further in so she could tuck it under her tongue.

"Well, that did cheer me up. Thank-sh!"

"You're welcome!"

He chuckled at the way she hissed her 'S'-s now. But he couldn't really blame her since she had that stick of glass protruding from her mouth.

Aang reached for the small piece of cloth on the nightstand. He dipped it into the bowl filled with cold water, then pressed the damp rag against her hot forehead. The cooling sensation helped ease her headache.

Katara shut her eyes and waited for the thermometer to do its work. She seemed so weak to him, ever since that fever broke out yesterday, along with the accompanying fatigue. Usually she was the one treating everyone else's ailments. But who'd be there to take care of the best healer in the world during her time of need?

She didn't even notice those five minutes go by when the airbender was already carefully pulling the thermometer out of her mouth to check the measurement. He barely got to fix where the silver line of mercury pointed to when she ducked over the edge of the bed and threw up into a wash basin.

Aang grabbed her loose hair so it wouldn't fall down in front of her mouth. Using a scrunchy to fasten most of it near the nape of her neck was a good call after the first time.

"There-there.. let it all out."

Those were leftovers from last night's dinner, which her stomach hadn't digested properly. He gently patted her back until she finished, or felt like there was nothing left to force back out. He rewarded her with a nice back rub instead while she remained dangling over the edge, waiting for more to come out.

Katara wiped at her mouth and climbed back up onto the bed, plopping down into the sea of pillows. Aang used some of the water from the bowl to waterbend the remnants of the vomit off the back of her hand. Then, he picked up a jug and poured some drinking water into a glass.

"Here, sweetie. Drink this."

While she was busy cleaning her mouth from the bitter taste, he managed to find out how high her fever was. 38.2 degrees, it was no wonder she felt so poorly. He didn't really notice how badly she was shivering until she'd sat up to drink.

"Are your chills getting worse?"

Katara raised one of her bare arms in front of his nose to show off her goosebumps.

"Uh-uh, I think so. My f-fever must be rising."

Great, stammering meant that it was about to get much worse for the next hour or two. Aang intended to stay by her side for as long as he could during this period. His fingertips rubbed the edge of their shared blanket.

"Isn't our blanket enough to keep you warm?"

"No. S-stupid thing's too thin.." she muttered under her breath and averted her gaze, annoyed that her body couldn't tell the difference between hot and cold.

The airbender scratched his beard for a few seconds before he flicked his fingers.

"I have an idea. How about if I helped keep you warm? Just until your fever starts coming down again."

Katara put her empty glass on the nightstand and gave him a slightly puzzled look.

"What do you have in mind?"

He stood up and pulled the blanket off the bed in one go, leaving her uncovered.

"Aang! Are you t-trying to make my fever worse!?" she exclaimed as she crossed her arms and pulled her knees up to her chest to keep warm somehow. Her anger dissipated when he wrapped his arms around her and the blanket fell down her back.

"No, I'm trying to make it more bearable for you."

Katara frowned and hung her head a bit while he made sure her shoulders, along with her sides, were covered. She grabbed the edges of the blanket to hold it tight around her upper body.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scream at you."

"Apology accepted."

Aang offered her a smile before he crawled onto the bed and sat down cross-legged right in front of her. He scooted closer and took a hold of her hands.

"Come here."

She inched forward until she got close enough for him to slip a hand under her thighs, the other one supporting her from her back. He helped her hop onto his lap, after which her body fell into place perfectly.

Her bottom fell into the empty space between his legs. She locked her legs around him, as if she was straddling him. At first, she wrapped her arms around his neck to embrace him. But when the blanket fell off, she instinctively snaked them around his chest instead. His red shawl fell down on her bare arms and he covered her bare feet with his long cape of the same colour.

"Oh, so this is what you had in mind," she remarked.

"Do you like it?"

Katara felt how he adjusted the blanket higher on her back and brought the edges over her shoulders again. Not only was she fully covered now, she was also being heated up by the warmth radiating from his body.

"Y-yes. Very much."

She nuzzled her nose into the crook of his neck and closed her eyes to take it all in. To take all the warmth in. But if she was taking it all in, she had to be giving something in return, right?

Shivers. Aang could feel her entire being tremble from every inch that touched his body. It was scary. He wished there was something he could do to make it stop. If only he had healing abilities like her...

That thought sparked another idea. He placed his hands on her back and began rubbing it in slow circles, similarly to how she'd do it with waterbending on a person's forehead to bring their fever down.

"Aang, c-cut it out," Katara interrupted him.

"What?"

"With the firebending. I'm afraid it'll make my f-fever worse."

"Oh, sorry!" he apologized and quickly took his hands off her back, as if he was close to breaking her spine or scared of hurting her if he held them there a second longer.

"Do you want me to cool you down with some airbending instead?" he offered, but he could sense her shake her head against his shoulder.

"No, just k-keep me warm."

"So, I should just.. hold you?"

"Yes. Hold me," she pleaded.

And he did. Aang hesitantly laid his hands on her back again to hold her close like she'd asked. He gently bumped his head against her own and let her be for a while.

Or he would've let her be if he hadn't heard a faint crackling noise behind his ears. That disturbing sound seemed eerily close by. It didn't take long for him to figure out the pattern he heard matched another one he could feel against his chest.

"Is.. is that your breathing?"

"Yeah-"

Katara couldn't even finish her answer before she had to cough and clear her throat of the phlegm. She glanced over her shoulder and spat it out into the basin, almost with the same accuracy as Toph would've done it.

"Do you want me to check if it's gotten worse?"

"No, not yet. Give me another 10 minutes.. P-please? This feels really nice."

She shuddered and hugged him tighter, her chin falling back on his shoulder. Aang chuckled and pulled her back into his embrace. She sensed how he planted a light kiss into her hair.

"Sure, anything you want."

Katara hummed at that. She enjoyed the silence and the feeling of his arms wrapped around her, keeping her safe. The only sound that accompanied them was her noisy breathing, and occasionally, her coughing.

Her breathing did sound terrible now that she was so close to him, chest to chest. More so that he was an airbender, and the way she was controlling her breathing didn't sound right to him.

Aang could tell she was burning up since she squeezed him harder once every minute or so. Besides that, her intense chills ran all over her body. He wasn't sure whether it was contagious or not, cause sometimes he couldn't distinguish her shivering from his own shaky movements.

"Don't be scared. I'm here. Doctor Aang will take good care of you, okay?"

His attempt at consoling her wasn't in vain. She mumbled something incoherent to him, then continued shivering. At least she'd heard what he'd said.

He wished there was a way for him to help her fight such a high fever. He settled for rubbing her back instead, without the firebending, to let her know that he's there and he could feel her suffering.

A couple of minutes later, the airbender looked over his shoulder when he heard someone coming upstairs and hurrying down the corridor. Yee-Li came to ask him if she should bring two bowls of soup, one for each of them. She slowed her pace and stopped behind the door, knocking three times against the wood before peeking inside.

"Avatar Aang, I'm sorry to disturb you-"

She was met with the sight of the airbender sitting in the middle of their bed, his wife cuddled in his arms and seemingly napping on his shoulder. Katara stirred a little after the disturbance, but her eyes remained closed. Yee-Li pointed a finger at the waterbender.

"Is she awake?" she whispered.

"Yeah, her fever's making her weary is all. Would you leave the soup on the stove for another 20 minutes or so and come back then? Katara wants to rest a little bit longer before she can eat."

"Of course! Take all the time you need. I'll be back in half an hour to check on you two, if that's okay."

"Yes, that suits us just fine. Thank you!"

The nun bowed to him before she left. Aang turned his attention back to Katara as she smacked her lips and wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth into his collar. She really had dozed off for a couple of minutes.

"C'mon, it's time for your midday healing session," he declared and tried to get her to sit up straight, but to no avail.

"Noooo.. I don't wanna.." she whined and curled up like a baby koalaotter. Aang attempted to untangle her hands from his sides, but for someone who was sick with the flu and drowsy, she had a pretty strong grip on him.

"You're so warm."

"Thanks, but flattering won't work. You told me not to fall for it."

She'd also told him that she wanted him to examine her condition thrice a day - in the morning, at noon and in the evenings. That way she could keep mental progress of her recovery and teach him how to act in case her condition got worse. It was no secret that she took full advantage of the pampering.

"Just 5 more minutes, please?"

She'd already stopped stammering, so that was a good sign. And her chills weren't as frequent anymore either.

"How about until we hear the next bison growl?"

Katara pondered for a second, then agreed to his terms. She nestled herself against him and shut her eyes, trying to make the most of it. Barely a minute passed before they both heard one.

"Darn it."

Her husband stifled his laughter while she unwillingly pushed herself off of him and stretched her arms, releasing a long yawn. Aang supported her from her back while she did, then adjusted the blanket back on her shoulders after that.

"Feel better?"

"Thanks. A little bit."

Katara shuddered for a second, but continued to freshen up. She waterbended some of the water from the bowl onto her palms, then splashed her face with it. She patted herself dry with the corner of their blanket. Aang cupped her cheek once she'd dried up.

"Look at me," he coaxed. She blinked and stared into his eyes while he did the same. His thumb gently grazed her cheekbone, pulling her lower eyelid down a bit.

"Are they still red?"

He inched closer to her face to check her other eye. She looked around the room so he could see the sclera from all sides, but it didn't matter where she looked. Aang nodded.

"Yeah, they are. Do they still ache, too?"

"Mhmm," she hummed and nodded in return. He caressed her cheek with gentle strokes a couple of times.

"At least you're still a sight for sore eyes."

He earned a giggle from her with that punny compliment.

"Aww, I'm flattered. And since you think so.."

Katara searched for one end of her white waistband and slowly unwrapped it from her middle. She put it aside on the bed, then grabbed the collar of her tunic and, with tiny wiggling movements, slipped it off her upper half.

Another shiver ran down her spine now that she was only wearing her sarashi. Her long, loose hair provided some warmth on her back until she quickly pulled the blanket back around herself.

"It's okay, I'm in no hurry," Aang assured her. He rubbed her arms while she took a couple of calming breaths and the sound of her teeth chattering quietened down.

"Brrr!"

Katara shook the last of her chills out of her system. She took a hold of either side of the blanket and put it in his palms.

"Cover me."

Aang held it up high enough to hide her near-naked form from the surroundings. This was the smallest and narrowest changing room she'd ever used.

She stripped to the waist by pulling the sarashi over her head, throwing it next to her waistband. Next, she took a hold of either side of her tunic, slipped her arms through and pulled it back on, leaving her chest slightly exposed. Just enough room for his fingers to dance around on.

Katara adjusted the edge of the blanket over her shoulders again, after which she untangled the fabric from his fingers. Once she had a firm grip on it, she laid her hands on his shoulders, forming a makeshift drape around herself.

"Okay, I'm ready."

Aang grinned at her before summoning a stream of water, which he used to lift her stethoscope off the nightstand and bring it to him.

There was a lot of basic doctor stuff he could do, and he could do it well. At least, that's how Katara thought of him as a physician. Among other things, he'd learned how to tie a sling around a broken arm and bandage up wounds, simply by observing her. Her teachings of modern medicine compensated for his lack of healing abilities.

She watched him put the earpieces into his ears and warm up the metal by blowing on it and rubbing it against his palm. He pressed the chestpiece below the collarbone on her right side to listen to her heart.

As if on cue, she coughed a moment later. Aang did his best to hide it, but the crackling inside of her made him grimace.

"How bad is it?" she whispered, a tad breathless.

"Sounds like you've just finished running a hundred laps around the island."

"That's pretty much how I feel, too."

He chuckled and moved the chestpiece to her left, hovering over the second listening point. Of all the things missing from her usual, cheerful self, at least she hadn't lost her sense of humor.

"Your heart is beating nicely."

He didn't see it, but the corners of her mouth curled into a smile. She found it comforting when he told her what he could hear in a hushed tone. She guessed it was another manner he'd picked up from all the times she'd been his doctor. Or, healer, to be exact.

Katara slouched a bit once he began listening from the middle of her chest. But the movement unintentionally made him worry that something's wrong, or that she might need to throw up again.

"Are you okay?" Aang wondered. She didn't look up and simply nodded.

"Yes. It's just, when I bend over a little, my heart falls closer to my ribcage and then you can hear it better."

"Oh.. I didn't know that."

She smiled at him as she laid a hand on his own, the one that was pressing the stethoscope against her chest.

"Well, now you do."

Mission accomplished, she'd managed to teach him something new. Katara withdrew her hand when he moved a bit southward, but she didn't break eye contact with him. Aang noticed her still smiling from the corner of his eye and he couldn't help but laugh.

"What? Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Nothing.. I'm just admiring how focused you look like. And, looking into your eyes helps me calm down."

"Are you sure it doesn't have the opposite effect?" he teased, leaving her with a slightly dumbfounded look on her face.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, I can tell you it isn't working. Your heart's still beating pretty fast."

She pouted and huffed out a breath, which provoked another coughing fit. Aang rubbed her right side with his free hand while she turned around a bit to spit the phlegm out into the basin.

"Do you want something to drink?"

"No, no-no.." she said with a wave of her hand, then coughed once to clear her throat so she could speak normally.

"I'm fine. You can finish examining me."

Katara rested both her hands on his shoulders to pull the drape back up. He took her word for it and continued by brushing her tunic aside.

She didn't look, but she inhaled a tad sharply when she felt him press the chestpiece gently under her left breast. He'd gone through the pattern in the correct order according to her teachings, finishing with the M-point, where her heart murmured the softest rhythm into his ears. Hence the letter 'M'.

Katara averted her gaze to her bare chest while Aang looked at her face. She'd been really pale before she threw up earlier, but now the blush on her cheeks began to return. Whether she was aroused or it was just her fever showing, it was a good sign that she was feeling better at the moment.

"Do you want me to check your breathing, too?"

"Mhmm," she practically pleaded. Katara let him snake his hand against her left side and spread his fingers over her ribs. She took a couple of deep breaths so he could hear how her lung sounded, and waited until he repeated the same on her right side.

Aang grinned at her proudly while removing the earpieces from his ears.

"Good girl. You were a very obedient patient."

He tucked her chest in by pulling her tunic closer together, then leaned forward and rewarded her with a kiss on the forehead. She released a short giggle and booped his nose with her finger.

"And you make an excellent doctor, sweetie."

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and blushed a little.

"Thanks!"

"So did you hear any murmurs? Wheezing? Anything out of the ordi-"

Katara covered her mouth and looked away until she finished coughing again. Aang gave her some time to catch her breath.

"..ordinary?"

"No, not that I heard of. Unless you wanna check for yourself."

He offered the medical instrument to her, but she laid her hands over his own and slowly pushed them back.

"No, I believe you. After all, you have bigger ears than I do."

She pinched one of his ears as Aang blushed even more furiously at that comment.

"True, but I don't have the knowledge that you do."

The short fuzzy hair of his beard grazed her fingers as her hand skimmed over it and she began stroking his flushed cheek to comfort him. There was a sparkle that glinted in her otherwise tired eyes.

"You'll learn. You've been a good pupil so far."

"So, I still have hope for becoming a healer?"

Katara pursed her lips and stared at him from top to bottom.

"Mmm.. maybe not a healer, since you don't have healing abilities.. yet. But you have all the qualities of a good doctor. You're very caring.."

She rested a hand above his heart, her fingers scratching over the red fabric of his shawl.

"You have gentle hands. You don't rush your patient, and you helped her feel cosy and relaxed during the exam."

His smile grew with each compliment, just as his pride swelled in his chest.

"Aww, shucks.. Thank you, sifu healer!"

"But there's one more thing a good doctor does before his visit ends."

The airbender quirked an eyebrow.

"And what's that?"

"He prescribes medicine, or a specific kind of treatment to help the patient get better."

Katara glanced behind her shoulder and nodded towards the bottle of cough syrup on their nightstand. Aang picked up on her hint. He dropped the stethoscope on the mattress and bended a stream of water to lift up the bottle, along with a spoon next to it.

"Let's see if we can cure that nasty cough of yours."

He uncorked it and poured some of that special golden, honey-tasted syrup onto the spoon. He hesitated for a second and decided to have a tiny taste with the tip of his tongue.

"Aang, that's not meant for you!"

"Sorry, I can't help it! It tastes so sweet.. Okay, I promise, this next one's for you."

He poured some more to fill the entire spoonful this time.

"Open wide.."

She obeyed and let him feed it to her, swallowing the medicine with a loud gulp once he'd pulled the spoon out of her mouth.

"Good girl," Aang praised by running his free hand through her hair. She chuckled and laid her hand on his own, bringing it onto her warm cheek. She shut her weary eyes and let him stroke her for a minute, a content hum escaping her vocal cords.

That's when they heard someone coming up the stairs. Katara swiftly pulled one edge of the blanket over the other to cover her chest and make herself more decent. She smiled when she saw Yee-Li appear from the hallway.

"I hope I didn't come too early, but it's been almost half an hour.."

The air acolyte was carrying a tray of food in her hands, approaching them slowly in order not to spill anything. Her face lit up once she lifted her gaze from the tray to the merry couple in bed.

"Oh, Katara! It's good to see you up and about."

"I don't know about that.. I still feel pretty weak."

She released another wet cough, as if to demonstrate how sick she was. Aang held onto her shoulders while she bent over the edge of the bed and spat the phlegm out. Yee-Li knitted her brows in concern.

"I see your point. It's a good thing your husband helped me prepare this hot soup for you to help clear your airways. Where do you want me to put it?"

"Just put it on the vanity over there. We'll start eating in a minute," Aang said, pointing to the empty table with one hand while he rubbed Katara's back with the other.

"Sure! Do you need me to bring you guys anything else?" Yee-Li wondered as she dropped the tray off. The airbender had a quick look around, noting the food and water on the table, his wife's medical instruments and drugs scattered around them.

"Nah, I think we're good for now. Thanks for all the help!"

"You're welcome, Avatar Aang!" she said with a bow to him. Before leaving, she stepped over to his wife and tenderly stroked her head.

"Feel better soon, Katara!"

The waterbender giggled, but had to cover her mouth with the blanket when she started coughing again. She offered the young nun a grateful smile once she'd caught her breath.

"Thank you!"

After Yee-Li had given them some privacy, the two untangled their legs so they could move freely. Aang hopped up from the bed to go have a look at lunch.

Yee-Li had brought them two separate bowls filled with noodle soup, as well as two spoons and cups of tea. There was a single banana next to the tea. He sniffed either cup and could tell which one belonged to Katara. Everything on the tray smelled delicious.

"Okay, let's get you more comfortable," he declared as he stepped behind her. He piled a couple of pillows against the headboard, then helped her scoot backwards and lie down against the heap.

Katara watched how he fetched her ginger tea. She sat up a bit before he handed her the cup.

"Thanks!"

While she breathed on the steamy liquid and took the first couple of sips, the airbender had also grabbed her bowl and dropped the spoon inside. He perched on the edge of the bed and shifted closer to her.

"Aren't you gonna eat yours?"

"No, I wanna get some of this soup into you first. Your tummy must be really empty after, err.. spewing up last night's dinner."

Katara laid her free hand above her stomach as it growled. She agreed with a nod, then allowed him to feed her. Aang stopped and lifted the spoon straight up before he could.

"One more thing. As your doctor, I'd like you to show me your throat before you can have some soup."

She playfully rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue, blowing a short raspberry to that. Her husband laughed.

"Good one, sweetie. But that's just your tongue. Open wide!"

This time, she did as he asked and let him press her tongue down a bit with the spoon.

"Is it sore?" Aang wondered in a more concerned tone, withdrawing the makeshift tongue depressor from her mouth. She shook her head.

"Nope. I would've been begging for tea a long time ago if it was."

Katara was telling the truth. Besides the fact that it didn't look red, she couldn't have sat still for so long if she had a sore throat. If she did and she was too weak to move about, she would've asked him to boil more tea. During her worst days, she could gobble down more than 20 mugs of tea in a day. 20.. whole.. mugs...

But Aang was satisfied with her answer, hence he finally began catering to her nutritional needs. He breathed on each spoonful to cool down the broth before feeding it to her, so she wouldn't burn the inside of her mouth.

"By the way, how high was my fever?" she asked while he was busy lifting more noodles onto the spoon.

"38.2, but that was before you threw up and started to have chills. We can measure it again, if you want."

Katara chewed on the noodles a little bit and swallowed before answering.

"Yeah, I do."

She placed her small tea cup on the corner of the nightstand and he laid the half-empty soup bowl next to it. Having pushed the covers off and brushing her tunic off her right side, she raised her arm a little. She gave him a sly smile, her eyes half-lidded as she watched him tuck the thermometer under there.

Aang pulled her tunic back on her bare chest and wrapped the blanket around her for extra warmth. He did feel sorry for having to stop her subtle flirting, but her well-being came first.

"Cover up, sweetie. Don't want you catching pneumonia."

Katara let out a short giggle as he tucked her in, after which she let him feed her the rest of the soup while they waited. She reached out her hands when the bowl was practically empty.

"Gimme."

Aang obliged, watching while she pressed her lips against the round edge and slurped all of the remaining broth down. She wiped at her mouth and belched.

"Sounds like someone's full. At least I won't have to hear the sounds coming from your empty stomach for a while."

"What do you mean?" Katara asked as she handed the bowl to him and he put it aside.

"I could hear your tummy rumbling when I listened to your heart from here."

He pressed his index and middle finger on the lower half of her chest, right in the middle between her breasts. That made sense, he'd been close enough to hear what was going on in her stomach.

"It was practically begging for food. You really had me worried."

Her brows furrowed similarly to his as she let him rub small circles above her belly. She rested a hand on his own and joined in.

"I just hope I can keep the soup down long enough to digest most of it."

Her husband leaned over towards the tray to grab the banana. He offered it to her, but she crinkled her nose and shoved his hand away.

"No, please. I don't think I can stomach anything sweet right now, other than cough syrup."

"Okay, but let me know if there's anything else you'd like for dessert."

"No, not right now."

She licked her lips as she watched him take a bite out of the yellow fruit. If her stomach wasn't acting up, she would've gobbled it down in one go. She offered him an apologetic smile.

"But.. thanks, sweetie. I appreciate the offer."

Aang grazed her flushed cheek with the back of his free hand while he began eating his own lunch. Once he was done with the banana, he grabbed his bowl of noodle soup and slurped the still lukewarm broth.

Katara used the opportunity to check the measurement herself. After about five minutes had passed, she pulled the thermometer out from under her arm. The silvery line reflected back when she slowly tilted it in her hands.

"Well?"

"38.0."

"Not much of a change there," the airbender claimed with a shrug of his shoulders.

She swung the thermometer in the air a couple of times to get the measurement back to a normal 36.6 degrees, so they could use it again the next time. She wasn't too happy with that result.

"I could've sworn it went down a lot more than that."

Aang pressed a hand against her clammy forehead to check.

"Katara, you have the flu, not a cold."

She narrowed her eyes.

"Oh? And since when do you know the difference between a flu and a cold?"

"You told me yourself: 'High fever equals flu, low brings a cold to you.'"

Her expression melted into a proud smile. She tickled his chin with her finger for remembering the clever rhyme she'd made up.

"Like I said, you've learned well."

The airbender looked away shyly, his grey eyes fixing on the remaining broth in his bowl. He slurped the liquid down in her manner and then gathered the dirty dishes back onto the tray.

He also grabbed the stethoscope from the mattress and took the thermometer from his wife's hand, placing her medical instruments on the nightstand to clean up their surroundings a little bit.

Katara had curled up in the meantime. She wriggled her toes, the only part of her feet that stuck out from the blanket. She didn't flinch, but she blinked and looked up when her husband laid a hand on her temple once more. He smiled at her lovingly.

"Hey.. do you wanna go take a shower? You haven't changed clothes today. It'll help you feel a little better. That is, if you feel up for it."

She shut her weary eyes and nodded into his palm.

"Mmm.. A shower does sound nice."

Aang gave her another peck on her forehead, then squatted down in front of their vanity and opened the drawer containing her clothes. He picked out a light blue tunic with the same pattern as her current one, along with a clean pair of undergarments and a sarashi.

Katara had already managed to get herself up and sitting while he arranged her changing clothes next to her on the mattress. He offered her a hand, but she refused.

"Thanks, sweetie, but I can walk by myself."

That's what she claimed, but her actions spoke louder than words. She groaned the moment she had to push her achy body up on her feet, and she nearly collapsed after her first step. Aang quickly snaked an arm around her and held onto her hand to offer some support.

"Oh, I guess not."

"You're too weak. Please, let me carry you to the shower. It's the least I could do."

Katara thought for a second longer, then gave in before her muscles could. He scooped her up in his arms bridal style and started walking towards the bathroom.

She instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck to steady his balance, but it didn't help much since they fell right back down in her lap.

"You must be really tired."

"What makes you say that?"

"You don't even have the strength to hold onto me."

She let out a quiet chuckle, which turned into a cough. Her heavy noggin fell against his chest and she closed her eyes to enjoy the ride. He'd left out the comment about her slight wheezing after the mild exercise of getting up from bed.

Once they reached the shower, Aang carefully lowered her bare feet to the ground. As she stood up, his hands remained on her sides, slightly tickling her while she attempted to move closer to the stall.

He wasn't fully aware of it, but Katara was a master at holding all of the discomfort in. Every single movement was making her body scream for her to stop and just go back under the blanket. Without his presence, she would've called it quits halfway down the corridor and plopped straight back into their bed. But right now, he was her pillar of strength, literally.

She turned the tap and found enough strength to stand on her own while he slipped her sweaty tunic off her shoulders. She pulled her undergarments off and threw them in the basket of dirty clothes.

She startled a little when her husband stood behind her and slid his hands up along her sides, all while the water was already running.

"Aang, what are you doing? You're gonna get wet."

"I think you forgot that I'm a waterbender, too."

He handed her a bar of soap, orange and peach-scented, after which his hand landed back underneath her armpit to support her. Katara began untangling his fingers one by one from her other side.

"I can wash myself," she protested.

"But you can't stand for yourself. Now it's my turn to beg. Please, Katara, let me hold you."

She ceased plucking his fingers off her ribs, seeing that he planted them right back onto their original gaps. She heaved a sigh in defeat.

"Alright."

Aang smiled, gratefully. He found the courage to take another step closer to her, even though his arms were now getting soaked with the running water. He didn't care. All he cared about was taking care of her.

And to be honest, Katara also felt grateful that he didn't leave her side. She loved the way his hands skidded along her skin as she bended forward to splash her legs with the water. It tickled when she stood back up and his fingertips softly squished into the slight fat on her belly.

He gave her more room when she squatted down a bit to wash her intimate area. While she was busy rubbing the soap under her arms, Aang combed his fingers through her wet hair and down her back. She gave him a sideways glance, along with a smile. He considered it as a silent 'thank you'.

Katara didn't take too long to finish. She didn't want her flu to get worse, hence she had no intention of staying under the water any longer than she needed to.

The airbender left her standing on her own for a couple of seconds while he fetched her towel from the peg. She used the opportunity to wring the majority of the water out of her hair, and waterbend herself drier.

The sudden lack of warmth that came from the running water made her shiver. Until her husband approached her from behind and wrapped her into the fuzzy indigo towel.

"Here you go," Aang murmured as he tucked one side over the other on her chest.

"Thanks."

Katara grabbed his hand and lifted it up to her mouth, leaving a tender kiss on the light blue arrow on the back. After he'd waterbended the soapy water out of his own robes, she let him escort her back to their bedroom.

"Let's get you back into bed. Doctor's orders."

He wasn't sure whether it was her giggling, or a wave of chills that ran down her spine and made her tremble as they walked down the hallway side by side. She could've sworn his hands barely left her sides the entire time she was up on her feet.

It wasn't until they made it to the bedside that he gave her some space to dry up. Having rubbed her back, Katara let the towel fall down, using one half to pat her chest and tummy. Aang took a hold of the other half and softly stroked her back with it, as well as her backside, just in case she missed a spot.

He hung the damp towel on the corner of the bed and watched as she started dressing up in her changing clothes. He inched closer once she was wearing her underwear, and carefully pulled the rest of her loose hair out from the binding straps of her sarashi.

Katara puffed her hair and stretched her arms as she saw him grab her clean tunic from the mattress. She let him slip her hands through the sleeves, tucking it together on the front, and waited for him to tie a white waistband around her middle.

"How are you feeling?" Aang wondered. She hummed in thought, letting him finish the knot on the small of her back to keep the tunic together.

"Refreshed, not so sweaty.. but still pretty tired."

Her answer made him chuckle.

"Then the shower was a good idea," he stated proudly.

Like an exemplary gentleman, he lifted the blanket and helped his wife climb into their bed. Once Katara had settled down, Aang reached for another drawer in their vanity.

"Do you want some peace and quiet after such a tiresome morning, or are you up for playing some cards?"

He pulled out a maroon deck of cards and began shuffling them, a sly smile decorating his lips.

"Because, I'm not sure whether boredom is a fatal illness.."

Katara snorted as she began laughing a little, but she had to cover her mouth once her giggles were replaced with coughs.

"N-no-oh.. it definitely isn't fatal."

The airbender dealt five cards for both of them.

"What was the score again? Four to two, your advantage?"

Katara had felt really awful last night, so in order to cheer her up a bit and get her mind off her upset stomach, they'd started playing cards. The catch being that, whoever lost had to do something pleasant for the other.

If Aang lost, she'd get to pick a chore or something else that he had to do for her to make her feel better. Given that the score was four-two, he'd already lost quite a few times.

The first thing she'd asked him to do was bring her the pair of yellow woollen socks she'd knit for him during their first winter together as a couple. Since Aang had lost twice in a row, the next logical thing she'd requested was a relaxing foot massage to stimulate the blood flow.

If Katara lost, she'd have to eat something healthy that would help her fight against that flu. The third time didn't turn out to be a charm for her. So she was half-forced to pluck a couple of grapes from the bunch he'd brought for her from the kitchen. And she unwillingly ate them all. Of course, he'd given her lots of praise afterwards.

Katara eyed the two fire cards tucked behind her thumb. A Queen of Fire and an 8 of Fire. The element of fire was chosen to be the trump card for this game. She had four cards remaining in her hands.

Aang defended her attack with another water card, then waited for her to add another one on the table. Or, on the blanket, to be precise.

"Don't have anything else to throw down?"

She hummed in thought for a moment before her fingertips grabbed the corner of the smaller fire card. Slowly tugging at it, she decided to put it on the table. The airbender groaned and picked up the entire pile.

"Ha-ha! You were asking for it."

"Yeah, I guess I was a bit of an eager lemur."

Katara released a short cough and, keeping in mind what he'd picked up, she chose that tiny air card for her next move. Aang defended her attack with ease and since she couldn't add any more, it was his turn again.

Now she only had two cards left. The Queen of Fire and a 5 of Water. Aang played a Jack of Earth on the sheets. She had to decide whether she'd take the risk and defend it with the fire card, or pick it up right away. She went for the risk.

Katara pressed a finger to her lips as she waited for his next move. But it never came. Aang looked at his hand a second time, then shook his head and let her throw those two into the pile of used cards.

"I win! You're the fool, again!" she cheered as she threw her final card onto the table. The airbender accepted his defeat with dignity and grace.

"Okay, okay.. so what do you want me to do for you this time?" he asked while tidying up the pile into a deck. The waterbender had a look around the room, humming in thought as her eyes eventually fixed on the floor.

"Hmm.. maybe you could wash the basin and refill it with some clean water? The smell is kind of making me sick," she claimed as she pinched her nose. She wasn't too fond of having to stare at her own vomit every time her gaze dropped to the bedside.

Aang agreed with her reasoning. He stood up and lifted the basin into his hands, already making his way towards the door when Katara tugged at his cloak to stop him for a second.

"Would you take the towel back to the bathroom while you're at it? Put it up on the peg to dry."

"Hey, no fair! That's two things at once."

"Please?" she begged, tilting her head a little. He started to feel sorry for her since she seemed so poorly. He couldn't say 'no' to her slightly reddish puppy eyes.

"Oh, alright, sweetie.."

The airbender dropped the basin and swiftly spun around. He cupped her cheek and leaned down to leave a soft peck on her temple. His thumb ran over the blush on her cheek.

"But next time you lose, you gotta eat two different things at once. Okay?"

"Okay," she murmured.

Aang ran his fingers through her hair before he went to pick up the towel. He threw the damp thing over his shoulder, picked up the basin and began heading towards the bathroom.

"And maybe you can take the tray of dirty dishes to the kitchen, too?"

"Katara-aa.." he groaned from the hallway. He could hear her quiet snickering.

"Alright-alright.. you can take the tray with you the next time you lose," she shouted in return, then plopped into the bed.

Speaking of dampness, the waterbender ran a hand over her forehead, wiping off a few beads of sweat. Something that injected more contentment into her sore limbs. Her fever was going down again, even if it was by a few tenths of a degree.

Katara pushed herself closer to the edge and reached for the small rag, dipping a corner into the bowl of cold water. She softly patted her face with the wet part to cool herself.

Once she was done, she carefully put it back on the edge of the vanity, among all their other piled up stuff. She pulled the top drawer open and wriggled her fingers through the narrow gap to grab her comb.

Her hair, especially the loose half below the scrunchy, was a bit of a mess after a restless night. She removed the scrunchy and pulled the hair loopies out of the bun, letting the entire mass of locks fall freely. In hindsight, it might not have been the best idea.

There were several nasty knots near the nape of her neck, where the bun had kept everything together and neat. As she began attempting to soothe them out, the long strands from the sides and the loose hair loopies started falling in front of her eyes. She snarled a couple of times as she tried to brush them aside with the back of her hand, but to no avail.

By the time Aang returned, she looked like someone had been playing around with the octopus form.. on her hair.

"Wow, you look worse than before. What happened?"

"I tried to comb my hair, but it just kept getting more tangled up," she admitted, almost on the verge of tears. She lowered her head in shame as the airbender put the basin of clean water down on the carpet, right next to the bedside. The wavy reflection of herself only made her feel worse.

Aang perched on the edge of the bed and attempted to comfort her by stroking her head. He gave her a warm smile.

"Well, let's see if we can fix that. First, let me find your pretty little face behind these strands."

His smile grew as he brushed the loose hairs aside and revealed her flushed face. In turn, her anger dissipated as her vision became clearer with each stroke. She smiled back at him, gratefully.

"There we go. That's what I like to see. My beautiful, sick, but happy waterbender."

Katara chuckled at that. She averted her gaze shyly, letting him graze her cheek with the back of his hand a couple of times. She felt how his other hand manoeuvred past her fingers and grabbed the comb from her palm.

"Here, let me help you with that. Why don't you shuffle the cards for the next round, hm?"

"Okay," she agreed in a much calmer tone. She sat up a bit so that Aang could inch closer to her side from behind.

While her husband was busy untangling the knots in her hair, she shuffled the pack and dealt five cards for both of them. The element of water happened to be the trump card.

"Shall we play? Or do you wanna finish up back there?"

"Hold on.. just give me a second to tie this up. And then we can play."

He didn't have enough time to redo her hair loopies, so Aang fastened all of her loose hair into a wolf tail by using the scrunchy. He fluffed the thick bundle a couple of times before he stood up to sit back down opposite to her.

To his surprise, he couldn't get his eyes off her as he slowly fell onto the mattress and faced her. Katara took notice.

"What?" she asked, leaving him speechless for a second.

"Oh! Nothing, it's just.. you look beautiful when you wear your hair like that."

She patted around her head and touched the scrunchy up on the back.

"Like what? Like a wolf tail?"

A rather thick and long wolf tail, he would say.

"Yeah. You should do it more often. It makes you look fierce, like the rest of the Southern Water Tribe warriors. Maybe you could ask Sokka to borrow his helmet and uniform some time? You'd look amazing in it with this style."

Katara blushed a little bit more. Now that he put that image into her head, she couldn't get rid of it anymore. And she liked it. She looked away, a loving smile on her lips.

"Thanks!"

Aang picked up his cards, after which she regained her composure and did the same. They began playing the second round of fool for that day. And this time, the odds were in the Avatar's favour for a change.

He played the King of Air and watched how Katara defended it with a 7 of Water. He laid another king next to that one. The waterbender bit her lip and remained in thought for a couple of seconds before she defended that one with a 10 of Water.

"You got anything more?"

"Hmm.." the airbender pondered, then pulled out a card from the middle of his hand and placed it on the blanket, in the same row as the other ones. It was another king, and she didn't have anything to defend it with. She had to pick up the whole pile.

"Sorry, sweetie, but.."

Aang only had two cards left. He threw the Ace of Water on the sheets first, forcing her to pick it up as well. After that, he revealed his last card, a 3 of Fire.

"I win!"

Katara feigned a groan as she dropped her huge, losing hand in her lap.

"Well played, sweetie. You win fair and square.." she said, gathering up the rest of the cards into a neat pile.

"So I guess it's my turn to boss you around for a change."

The waterbender lifted a hand to her mouth, like she was preparing for the food wanting to come out of her stomach the wrong way. She gulped.

"What are you gonna force-feed me this time?"

"Oh, I have a few things in mind.." Aang claimed, a cheeky grin on his face as he stood up and began creating an air ball to ride down to the kitchen. Katara tugged at his cape before he could jump on the sphere.

"But nothing too sweet, okay, sweetie?"

He smiled back at her, laying a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

"I'll see what I can find."

And with that, he hopped on the air scooter and hurried downstairs.

Katara shuffled the cards around for a while, to get her mind off the fear of choking up everything she'd managed to keep down so far. She put the deck of cards away on the only empty corner of the nightstand.

The rumbling inside her stomach contradicted her thoughts. She was craving for all kinds of sweets right now. That darn organ just happened to be really picky when she was sick.

She was busy running circles above her tummy when her husband returned. He gracefully hopped off the air sphere and let it dissipate in the hallway. She eyed the medium-sized bowl and the jug in his hands.

"What's that?"

"Oatmeal with blueberries, and milk, if you want."

He perched on the edge of the bed and scooted closer to her, offering her the bowl and spoon.

"I thought that since you didn't have anything for dessert earlier, and everything that tastes too sweet makes you sick, then maybe this would be a delicious alternative."

She picked up the bowl from his hand and simply stared at its contents for a few seconds before she looked at him, begging for some encouragement.

"Just try it. I'll eat the rest if you don't wanna."

She gave him a faint smile, then lifted a small spoonful into her mouth. Both to his, and her own surprise, her face lit up.

"Mmmm!" she hummed before swallowing it.

"Do you like it?" Aang wondered, watching how she lifted a bigger spoonful this time and ate all of it. She nodded while munching on the oats.

"Mhmm! Thi-sh ish really good, sh-weetie!"

He laughed with joy and rubbed her cheek with the back of his hand.

"That's great! Now you can quit being on a dessert diet."

She giggled in return and lifted more spoonfuls to her mouth, taking the time to actually chew through the solid food and enjoy it for once.

"Now thi-sh ish the kind of dessert I can sh-tomach."

Aang felt proud. Proud that he'd managed to find something in the pantry and prepare it into a presentable and edible dish on such short notice. But more importantly, he was relieved that she was able to eat her meal without much reluctance. She really seemed to enjoy it, and he loved seeing her this way. Being happy.

He poured some milk on the oats when she asked for more, after which he put the jug away. Aang sat right next to her and urged her to scooch forward.

"Tell me if you start feeling sick, okay? I'll hold onto your hair so it won't fall in front of your mouth when you have to lean over the bedside."

She finished chewing and swallowed the mouthful to speak.

"I will. Thanks, Aang."

He carefully removed the scrunchy and let her hair fall freely again. Next, he began combing her hair into strands. Once the comb didn't get stuck in any bigger knots anymore, he could grab a thick bunch from the middle to roll it up into a bun.

Katara felt like she was being given a massage on her head. With each stroke of the teeth that ran along the right spots, a pleasurable shiver ran down her spine.

"Look this way," Aang coaxed her to tilt her head to the side. She blinked when his fingers came close to her left eye, but he styled her hair with utter care. From the corner of her eye, she saw him slip a blue bead through the thinner strand, fixing the tiny piece of jewellery up near her temple. He did the same on her right side, thus forming the two hair loopies, which he attached to the bun.

Before he could start braiding the rest of her loose hair, Katara used the opportunity to get up and put her empty bowl on the tray of dirty dishes from earlier.

"Do you need some help?"

"Nah, I'm good," she said, taking those couple of steps back to the bed. She did look stronger when she walked around, but the airbender still took her hand in his and supported her from her back as she climbed under the sheets. He joined her and welcomed her into his embrace.

"Aahh.." the waterbender sighed contentedly as she settled down between her husband's legs and rested herself against his chest. Her fever had fallen, she was wearing clean clothes, her tummy was full of yummy food. She could laze around the rest of the day for all she cared.

"Are you full?"

She answered with a loud belch.

"I take it that's a 'yes'," the airbender chuckled and rubbed her belly together with her. Katara released another hum.

"Mmm.. that dessert was so good. Thank you, sweetie."

She raised their entwined hands and brought them closer to her lips, leaving a soft peck on his tattoo. He lifted it higher to graze her flushed cheek.

"I feel as if I'm hugging a fireplace."

"What do you mean?" she mumbled while he ran his fingertips down the side of her face, tenderly stroking her temple a couple of times.

"You're so warm. I could be your thermometer."

"No offense, sweetie, but you wouldn't be the most accurate thermometer."

"I can be accurate enough. See?"

He touched her forehead to check her temperature.

"Diagnosis? Too hot."

Katara snorted and burst out in laughter, but it was soon replaced with another horrible coughing fit. She rolled onto her left side to spit the milky phlegm out into the basin.

"Feel better?"

Aang rubbed her back before she plopped back down against him. She hacked a little bit to regain her voice and get rid of the excess mucus that hadn't come out of her throat.

"Yeah. I'd feel even better if I had something to drink right about now."

The airbender obliged by waterbending some cold drinking water into her glass. Her cosy seat inched further away for a second when he had to reach for the glass, but she was rewarded with a refreshing beverage.

"Here you go."

"Thanks!"

Katara took a bigger sip and rinsed her mouth of the bad taste. She felt his cool palm land on her forehead one more time. She received a tender kiss behind her left ear after that.

"Can you sit up for a minute? I haven't finished your braid yet."

Some of her hair remained stuck between her back and his chest, but he needed more space to do the beginning of her braid.

So she finished her drink and let him put the empty glass away, then propped herself up. Aang looped his arms under hers when she groaned from the discomfort. Her legs might've been stronger, but her arms were still achy.

"Atta girl.." he praised, supporting her until she was sitting upright. The waterbender patiently sat there like that for another few minutes while he weaved the three strands over one another. He allowed her to rest against him once the braid started to take form.

She snuggled into his lap and pulled the blanket higher. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, to see how his hands fastened the scrunchy to the end of her braid. Maybe being sick occasionally wasn't so bad after all. Not if she had a doctor like Aang around to take care of her.

The newly built clock on his island chimed three times. She'd probably get to relax for another hour or two, before her fever would start plaguing her again. Or until the next time she'd feel the need to vomit again.

And then they would repeat the same routine in the evening. And the next morning, a couple of hours later around lunchtime, and again.. It sounded tedious, but she enjoyed every minute of it. To Katara, he was her best healer in the world.

#Kataangtag #Kataang #Aang #Katara #ATLA and TLOK #my fanfiction #mine #shards of Kristal

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scullydubois · 5 years

Text

thoughts on Kill Switch (5x11)

Written by William Gibson and Tom Maddox Directed by Rob Bowman

It’s almost 1am, I’m tired and should just go to sleep, but I gotta get my daily episode in! And let’s be honest, it’ll be more fun if I’m delirious

What kind of black market activity

14th and Arlington

I just zoned out...no clue what’s happening, but access granted

What the hell was that CD about to do

Mulder and Scully? I love them

Big fancy Silicon Valley guy

“Mulder, that’s evidence.” “Yeah, so?” Stellar FBI skills at work here

Twilight Time and flashing car lights? It’s called romance!

The Lone Gunmen are the shit

Absolutely iconic email server

Dana Scully literally caught up to the girl and tackled her...amazing work

Mulder sarcastically says home sweet home as if his own apartment doesn’t look just like that

Invisigoth? I’m here for her

I want to live in a storage unit

Scully, do you want to freaking die?

I mean...is it that serious

This episode is pretty

Also, Scully pulling over and getting out of the car to talk is such a power move

They all look so good in this episode

Twilight Time is the kill switch

Damn Gillian, I saw that

Can Invisigoth marry one of the Lone Gunmen please

Mulder WTF...climbing power lines again???

Invisigoth, I liked you, can you not point a gun at Miss Scully

“You are correct, sir” her saying it like that is sending me

Aww Invisigoth, don’t cry

What kind of trailer home

Oh what the fuckkk Invisigoth’s AI speech is really romantic and my delirious brain is losing it

I feel like I’m really overreacting to this episode and it’s probably not as good as I think it is, but I like it a lot so far

Ew RIP guy in trailer

Yeah, Mulder should not be alive

Oh fuck we’re actually doing the ambulance thing

Bitch I cannot take any more trauma from this show right now

“If we’re gonna save him” save him??? Save him?? Bitch?? That implies that he’s dying and uhh

“My arms hurt” this isn’t funny but at 1am yes it is

Is this a dream or some shit

He said call Doctor Scully!!

What kind of wacky ass hospital

So he only has one arm now?? The wackiness of this is sending me

On second glance, why is his nipple so high up??

The nurse smothered him with pillows...

Scully and Invisigoth are everything TBH

I can’t imagine this is a critically acclaimed episode but I’m finding it extremely entertaining

BITCH she’s doing Kung fu

It got better

I AM losing it, thanks for asking

I am so fucking happy I watched this episode, it fits perfectly with my current level of delirium

Hot

AI Fox Mulder be wildin!

Scully said no mercy

He can’t hear you, he has AirPods in

This is an extremely aesthetically pleasing episode

Gillian said I AM earning my 2nd Emmy and I am earning it RIGHT NOW

Oh fuck this is interesting

Invisigoth what are you about to do that’s going to make me hate you

I’m literally on the edge of my seat

Also, them putting Twilight Time over this scene after I noted how romantic is was earlier...god tier

So Ester and the other guy...ended up in AI world together

FUCK they nailed the ending

And the boys in the trailer park, with a trailer watching them..hmm

Whoever wrote this episode is so tonally on par with how I like my X-Files episodes, thank you William Gibson and Tom Maddox (apparently they’re sci-fi authors...makes sense)

Consensus: I really really enjoyed this.

5 out of 5 stars

#the x files #txf #season 5 #5x11 #kill switch #william gibson #tom maddox #rob bowman #5 stars #gillian anderson #dana scully #fox mulder #david duchovny #thoughts on

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mylovelylittleobsessions · 5 years

Text

I’d like to point out that I wrote this instead of interacting with polite society. Ya know, as you do.

Rated E - contains D/S relationship, sex toys, light bondage, praise kink, and Alec Hardy being called “baby” frequently (not like that). Gender-neutral reader PoV, 3,331 words

Based on these two prompts

You were seated on your couch nursing a glass of Cabernet when you got the text message. It was simple, just three words: “You busy tonight?” You glanced at the name of the sender and smiled.

Alec.

You’d met Alec in a pub a few years ago. He’d been the one nursing a drink then, a single malt on the rocks. You’d taken in the slumped shoulders and careworn face and slipped over, buying him another round. The two of you had gotten to talking, learning about each other: you, a wages clerk, him with the police (you hadn’t wanted to press for details). The night had gone on, and you’d eventually invited him home. He accepted the invitation, and the night had been wild and unforgettable.

After that, you’d seen each other off and on, trying out different things, finding each other’s likes and dislikes, until you stumbled upon what he really needed. You and he came to a new arrangement, and set up some necessary boundaries. You became his caring, watchful Dominant, and he your overworked, stubborn Submissive.

You fired back a reply, setting on a time in the early evening for him to drop in, then set to arranging your playroom Just So. You both preferred it cozy, with closed drapes and dimmed lights. You fluffed up the pillows on the bed tucked in the corner, perfect for cuddling in after, when he was coming out of subspace and needed some tender recovery (your favorite part, if you were perfectly honest; there was something special about those sweet moments when Alec was blissed out and touch-hungry). When you deemed the setup perfect, you went to the kitchen and had a light supper.

It wasn’t long until there was a sharp knock on your door. You padded over to the door in house slippers and opened it. Alec stood in your doorway, and the tension was palpable. He looked so drawn and weary, you just wanted to scoop him up and shield him from the world forever.

You reached out and tangled your fingers in his hair, pressing a tender kiss to his forehead. He melted into your touch, and the sheer relief on his face gutted you. Whatever he was going through must be especially awful. You had your work cut out for you tonight.

“Come on in, love.” You led him inside and shut the door behind him. Taking his coat, you sent him over to the couch, a hot cup of tea waiting for him on the side table. After hanging it up, you walked into the sitting room and sat down next to him. You gave his free hand a little squeeze. “You wanna talk about it?” He took a sip of his tea and shook his head.

“Can’t.” He muttered apologetically. Must be an open case, then.

He set the tea down and rested his head on your shoulder with a sigh. You reached over and started carding your fingers through his hair, scratching his scalp with your nails. The petting soothed him a little, but you can still see the stress in his half-lidded eyes.

“What is it you need tonight, Alec? How can I help?”

He sat up and looked at you, desperate and almost lost. You could have wept, it was so intense. “Make me forget.” He practically begged. “Just make it go away.”

The poor thing! You sighed and cupped his cheek in one hand, and he leaned into it, eyes drifting closed. “Of course I will, baby. You know I’ll make everything better for you.” You brushed your thumb against his cheekbone. “Do you have any plans for the weekend?”

He shook his head.

“Then stay here with me. Let me take care of you. You work yourself damn near to the bone; you deserve to be taken care of.”

He was blushing just a little. He was fine with sex, but he was weird about the feelings aspect. “Y-ya promise?”

Oh, that sweet little stutter! You couldn’t help but smile and kiss his lips. “Of course I promise! I’ll take such good care of you, Alec. Just stay. Will you stay?”

He nodded, still blushing.

“Good!” Now, down to brass tacks, as it were. You crooked a finger under his chin and tilted his head so he was looking you in the eye. “Go ahead and prep yourself. Supplies are in the washroom. Then, meet me in the playroom. I want you stripped and kneeling, with your hands behind your back. Understood?”

He nodded, blush fading and pupils dilating. He knew what was coming, mostly. You usually left some elements of the scene as a surprise; nothing that broke his hard limits, of course, but always something that made no two scenes exactly identical. He stood and walked down the hall to the washroom and shut the door. It would take him some time to get ready, so you had some time to settle on exactly what he would be getting into tonight.

You picked up the teacup and set it in the sink. No pain this time, not with that look he had. Sense play might be an option, but nothing extreme. No, it would be pleasure tonight, nothing but pleasure. He needed to feel good and, damn it, you were going to make sure he had nothing but bliss!

(Well, maybe a touch of agony, but only enough to make the pleasure sweeter.)

After a bit, you heard the washroom door open and footsteps head into the playroom. You took a moment to compose yourself, then walked down the hall to the open playroom door.

Alec was obediently kneeling before you in the center of the room, head bowed. His clothes were tucked into a corner, folded, but not all that neatly. Ah well, no one was perfect. You smiled and walked over to him, and tilted his head up to look at you.

“Very good, Alec. I love it when you’re a good boy.”

Alec smiled back, just a little, almost bashful. Almost. He licked his lips to dampen them, then opened his mouth to speak.

“You have a question? Go ahead.”

“What... um, that is, erm...”

“You want to know what the plan is? What I’m going to do with you?”

“Yeah.”

“Well,” you purr, trailing a finger down his jaw, “I told you I was going to take care of you, didn’t I? That’s the plan, baby. I’m going to make you feel so good, gonna make you explode with how good you feel. Gonna make your brain drip out of your ears from the sheer pleasure that’ll be coursing through it.” You seized his chin in a little pinch, just to hold his attention. “That sound good to you, baby?”

If you’d thought his pupils were dilated before, they were absolutely blown now. You’d managed to hit all his buttons with that little speech. “Oh, fuck yes.” He rasped.

“Mm, good boy. I’d hoped you’d say that.” You let go of his chin and walked over to your toy cabinet. You had an arsenal in there, and now you were going for the big guns.

First, a blindfold. You plucked out a black silk one from a drawer and set it where Alec could see. Just a little taster of what was to come. Next, cuffs; a joking nod to his profession, and something to keep him still. You debated over two sets before selecting the lambskin-lined pair. You set them on top of the blindfold and heard him make a noise. A whimper, perhaps?

You chuckled. “Patience!” You cooed at him, sing-song. Was he getting needy already? Maybe you’d laid it on too thick. Oh well, too late now.

A gag next. That was no hard choice at all. You found the black ball gag immediately and set it on the table. You stopped before looking for anything else. That definitely was a whimper. You turned with your arms folded, mock-irritated, with the blindfold in your fingers.

“Alec, are you going to behave yourself, or am I going to have to put this on you early and take away the big surprise?”

He shook his head frantically. “I’ll be good!”

You smiled indulgently then padded over to him again to tangle your fingers in his hair, giving it a small tug, just enough to sting. “That’s what I thought. I know you’re just so eager to feel so good.” You happened to glance down at his crotch and smiled wider. “Ooh, and already getting hard for me! Don’t get carried away just yet, okay?”

He nodded, gasping just a little.

“Good boy. You want a collar to go with the cuffs tonight?”

He thought about it, then shook his head. “No, thank you.”

“Such good manners!” You kissed him on top of his head and went back to the cabinet. “That earns you an extra reward!”

(A reward you’d already been considering, but you could keep that to yourself.)

You put the blindfold back on the table, then rifled through the small box of bottles and tubes on the inner shelf before pulling out one in particular with a triumphant flourish. “Here you are!” You set the bottle of lube down where Alec could see and winked at him. Like everything else you’d selected, this one was his favorite. It warmed him up very quickly, just the way he liked it.

Now, for the big finish. You pulled a large crate from the lower section of the cabinet and pushed it next to Alec, who looked at it with confusion. Unsurprising, since you’d never used it with him before. You reached in and pulled out your sybian from the crate and set it next to him. It took a minute for it to dawn on him, then he swallowed and bit his lip as he put all the pieces together.

“Let’s just get everything ready for you, hmm?” You plucked the lube from the table and uncapped it before coating the sybian’s dildo attachment with it. It was good sized and ridged, and shaped just right to fill Alec up the way he liked. You heard him moan. “Just a moment longer, baby, then it’s all yours.”

Once you’d finished, you helped Alec to his feet, then guided him over to the sybian. “Just ease onto it, Alec. You don’t want to hurt yourself. Take your time.”

Obediently, Alec knelt, then slowly worked the dildo in until he was fully seated. He jolted just a hair as he did so.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.” He muttered, flushed. “I just, um, bumped into my—”

“Your sweet spot?” You purred into his ear.

He nodded mutely.

“Excellent. That’ll make it even better later.” You grabbed the rest of the things off the table and knelt down next to him. “Wrists first, Alec.”

He recrossed his wrists behind the small of his back and you locked the cuffs onto him, pressing little kisses to his shoulders and neck. “That okay? Nothing pulling?”

“No, it’s good.” He murmured, starting to slur. Oh, he was starting to slip under already, and you’d barely started!

“Stay with me just a little longer, baby, then you can drift for me.” You picked up the blindfold next. “Eyes closed.”

His eyes sank shut and you slipped the blindfold on. He was already rock hard against his belly, and you gave a teasing flick to one of his nipples. He yelped at the sensation, honest-to-God yelped. “Just checking.” You cooed soothingly, kissing his cheek.

Lastly, the gag. “Open wide.”

Alec opened his mouth and you set the gag in, before strapping in closed at the back of his head. “Now,” you said firmly, “do you remember what to do if it becomes too much?”

He nodded emphatically, then snapped his fingers three times behind his back.

“Good boy.” You purred, stroking his hair. “I always have to check, no exceptions.”

He hummed through the gag as you stood up to plug the sybian in. “Now, we’re gonna build this up bit by bit. All you need to do is just sit there and feel good. Easy enough, right?”

“Mmmm...” he moaned, muffled.

“Very good, Alec.” You sat down in a chair next to him and gave his hair a little pat. “Now, if you want to be really, really good for me, you’ll draw this out for as long as you can. Just keep yourself on the edge, let yourself go higher and higher until your brain just snaps. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?”

“Mmmm-mm!!” He moaned, nodding.

You grinned wolfishly. “I thought you might.” You picked up the remote and reached for the dial. “Here we go, baby.”

You turned the dial to the lowest setting, and the sybian purred to life. Almost instantly, Alec was writhing, bucking his hips as the vibrations started driving him wild.

“Oh, that feels so good, doesn’t it? That just rocks your world?” You leaned in close to purr in his ear. “Baby, we’re just getting started!”

You flicked the dial up to the next setting, and the sybian grew louder, as did Alec. He strained in the cuffs, trying to break out and, if you had to guess, touch himself. You ran a soothing hand down his back. “Easy, baby! Don’t hurt yourself!”

You kept stroking his spine as he thrashed. “I know, I know it just feels amazing, and you wanna stroke your pretty cock, but you don’t need to. You just let me take care of everything. Just let me take you higher,” you turned the dial up again, and the vibrations increased, “and higher, Alec. Just let all that pleasure melt those bad feelings away.”

Alec damn near screamed in ecstasy as his thrashing made the dildo brush against his prostate. He rocked his hips like mad, precum already dripping from his cock.

“Slow down, you greedy thing!” You teasingly chastised. “All things to those who wait.” You turned the dial down a level, and Alec whined at the loss. “Aw, I know! You wanna keep chasing that high. I’ll turn it back up, but only if you promise to take your time. Can you do that for me?”

Alec nodded wildly, and you turned the dial back up. Though it seemed an effort, Alec managed to not immediately grind his prostate back onto the dildo. Instead, he wriggled into a halfway point and just rocked into it as slowly as he could.

“Good boy, Alec. That’s so good.” You stroked his hair again with a smile. “You deserve this. You deserve to feel this good. You deserve to have someone take care of you.” You clicked the dial up again, and Alec whined. “Do you think you can manage this for a while? Do you think you can sit here for ten minutes and not cum your pretty brains out, just savor these sensations?”

Alec nodded, but you could tell it was a hardship. “Good. Just ten minutes, then I’ll turn it up all the way, and you can just bliss out.”

What came out from behind the gag sounded like a mewl. “Oh, do you like the sound of that? I bet you do!” You pressed feather-light kisses against his ears, his cheeks, and his neck. “God, you’re so beautiful, all trussed up like this, an absolute live wire. I’d paint a portrait of you, if I could. You’re an absolute masterpiece!”

You could see his legs trembling with exertion as he stayed seated on the sybian. His muscles were probably so sore. You hoped when he came, he wouldn’t pull anything; that wouldn’t be sexy, that would be painful. “You’ve been kneeling so long, baby. Do your legs hurt? Don’t worry: I’ll give you a nice, long rub-down later, then I’ll fuck you nice and slow, all comfy and cozy. Won’t that be nice?”

Alec nodded, but it was slower, almost vacant. You suspected that if you peeked under the blindfold, Alec’s eyes would be absolutely glazed. There was a fine line of drool spilling out from a corner of his mouth. You smiled. There was the moment you’d been waiting for.

“You’ve gone under, haven’t you? You are just floating right now. Your brain is just stuffed with cotton clouds, isn’t it? And doesn’t it feel so good?”

If not for the gag, you knew Alec would be smiling. As it was, you got another vacant nod. Ooh, he’d gone deep. Time for the home stretch.

“Okay, Alec, it’s been ten minutes. You’ve been so good, baby, so good.” You flicked the remote up to the last setting, then knelt down next to Alec as his hips started to rock faster.

“You’ve earned this, Alec. All that pleasure is just melting you down, and you’re loving every second. You deserve this, all this sweet bliss.” You leaned in to whisper in his ear. “Now, you be a very good boy, and grind on your sweet spot again. Just keep it there until you cum and cum and cum.”

Obediently, Alec rocked his hips perfectly into place for a good fifteen seconds before his spine arched, and he came hard. All the while, you whispered encouragements to him, telling him how good he was, that he was doing so well, that you were so proud, and to just cum out all that stress.

When he was finally spent, you dialed down the sybian level by level until it was off. With great care, you helped Alec off the floor and out of the gear, piece by piece, then gently walked him over to the bed. He wobbled like a newborn animal, to the point you had to carry him over, then gently wrap him in a thick, fluffy blanket. After tucking him in, you reached down next to the bed to grab a bottle of water from the mini fridge.

“Alec? I need you to drink this, baby. Just sip it slow.”

He managed to sit up and sip the water while you fished out a tube of muscle ointment from the first aid kit next to the fridge. You preferred the kind that didn’t reek to high heaven and, frankly, so did Alec.

“I’m gonna take care of your legs now, okay?”

Alec nodded, and you gently untucked his legs to massage the ointment into his aching thighs and calves. Noting a few small abrasions on his shins, you made a mental note to put down pillows next time. As you tucked his legs back in, Alec hummed drowsily.

“Erm, c-could we...hold off th’ slow f’ckin’ till t’morrow?” He slurred. You smiled gently and stroked his hair.

“Of course, baby. Anything you want. I didn’t think you’d be up for it tonight anyway.”

Alec hummed, sleepy smile plastered on his face. “Feel really good...” he mumbled into the pillow.

“I’m so glad to hear it.” You replied, rearranging the covers so he was cozy. “You want me to put on some music, so you’ll sleep better?”

He nodded, so you picked a soothing playlist on your phone and hit shuffle. The sound of Debussy filled the room, thanks to a few strategically placed speakers. Alec nestled deeper into the pillows. “Tha’s pretty...”

You set the phone down and carded your fingers through his hair. “You were so good, Alec. Such a good boy. Now, you just settle down and have a nice, long sleep. Don’t worry about getting up early. You can have a lie-in, and I’ll bring you breakfast in bed. Okay?”

“Okay...” He murmured, eyes already drooping closed. “Jus’...hold me?”

You leaned in and kissed his temple. “Anything you want, baby.” You snuggled up close, and let his head rest on your chest. The heady mix of your heartbeat and the piano blended into Alec’s own private lullaby, and he easily drifted off to sleep, safe and sound in your arms.

#mine #fanfic

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indieviolet · 5 years

Text

the truth

notes: an alternative to the series finale, staff room scene. What might have happened if Charlie had told Duffy?

—————————

Duffy was walking down the corridor when she heard the staff room door slam shut. She smiled to herself. The amount of times she’d slammed the same door as both a staff nurse and a ward Sister. Duffy was trying to find Charlie anyway so headed in the general direction of the staff room.

Charlie was lent against the table, his mind whirling with Connie’s revelations. She was the one who said it was Duffy, blamed Duffy’s condition. He looked up as he heard the door open and smiled sadly.

“What’s wrong?” Duffy asked closing the door behind her.

“Nothing.”

How could he tell her after today? She’d been so positive, she glowed. He didn’t want to ruin that.

“It must be something. You seem to be pretty worked up.”

He didn’t say anything as he caught her gaze. Duffy touched his cheek.

“Talk to me?��

She wiped away the trace of the tear that had rolled down his cheek.

“It’s Connie.”

“I heard. Is she ok?”

He swallowed hard. Right now, he refused to break down and cry. He wasn’t sure what betrayal was worse. The fact Connie had blamed Duffy for her mistake or the fact Connie had lied to Charlie and made him believe he was losing Duffy quicker.

All those years of regrets and missed opportunities were just eating away inside of him.

“She lied.”

“What about?”

Charlie met Duffy’s gaze. “You. She lied about you.” He took a minute to pause before elaborating, “She admitted the syringes weren’t labelled.”

For a minute Duffy didn’t say anything. She knew she wasn’t going completely mad just yet!

“Where is she?”

“Duffy—-“

“Where is she?” Duffy repeated, a hint of anger in her tone. Over the years, Charlie had learnt not to try and talk Duffy out of something. He also knew not to get on the wrong side of her argumentative side (even though it turned him on!)

“My office.”

Charlie sighed as he watched Duffy storm out of the staff room and towards his office. A part of him wanted to follow her and talk her out of it. On the other hand, Duffy was perfectly capable of looking after herself.

The door to Charlie’s office flung open and Charlie rubbed the back of his neck. “Ah shit,” he thought. He didn’t want to be in Connie’s position right now. He’d been in that position several times in the past.

“You bitch!”

Charlie and Connie’s eyes both widened. Maybe Charlie should intervene after all?

“He told you? I’m—”

Duffy cut her off, “don’t you dare say you’re sorry!”

Connie sighed, “I didn’t—“

Duffy laughed, “didn’t mean for it to happen? Just an accident?”

Connie didn’t answer, if she was honest she was slightly taken aback by Duffy’s behaviour. She’d never seen her this way before.

“Charlie trusted you! He was probably the only friend you ever had.”

Connie flinched inwardly. Wow, that hurt.

“Do you even have any idea of what you’ve done?”

Connie didn’t reply and Duffy continued, “you destroyed every last piece of confidence I had in myself.”

“I’m—“

“Don’t!!” Duffy shouted which caused Connie to flinch. Connie opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.

“My dementia was a convenient excuse for you. Who would believe me over you?”

“It wasn’t like that—“

“Don’t insult my intelligence! I know exactly what was going through that selfish mind of yours!”

Charlie exhaled and stepped into the office, hoping to de-escalate the situation before it spiralled.

“Don’t start sticking up for her!” Duffy said to Charlie even before he could open his mouth to speak.

Connie looked between Charlie and Duffy, feeling a little awkward in case they were about to start a domestic.

“He—“ Connie began but Duffy’s famous glare (the one that worked so well on Charlie) soon silences her. Charlie sighed again. He felt like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“He was your friend, Connie! A friend and this is what you chose to do! You saw how much my dementia diagnosis was effecting him but you still lied to save your own skin!”

She took a few seconds to pause, “you were and always will be a selfish bitch.”

Duffy turned to leave the office and reached the door. She stopped and turned back around to Connie.

“In time I might be able to forgive you. However, I know Charlie never will.” There was a silence, “I hope it’s worth it being alone.”

Duffy slammed the door shut, just for added effect. Charlie rubbed the back of his neck. Gosh, he hadn’t seen that feisty side in a very, very long time. She was hot.

Without a word to Connie, he left the office and went to find Duffy. He wanted to take his wife home. Maybe now they could try and move on, after all - they had a while longer just yet.

#bbc #casualty #charlie fairhead #lisa duffin #charlie #duffy #chuffy #alternative #series finale #connie beauchamp #fanfic #fanfiction #the truth #part one

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whiskynottea · 6 years

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The Ripple Effect

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Previously Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14

AO3

Chapter 15. A daughter, a mother.

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Women are supposed to have a biological clock.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick- time to have a baby.

I always found this concept of the woman’s body functioning as a time bomb rather unsettling. And sexist. Men’s bodies grow old as well, but I never saw an ominous future without reproduction hanging low over their heads.

I never felt that clock ticking. I never felt that I had to have a baby.

It wasn’t that I didn’t dream of a family – it was always there, at the back of my mind. Happy voices in a bright background, fairy tales read to serene faces with sleepy eyes and rosy cheeks, loud giggles when fingers found soft skin to tickle. It would eventually happen, somehow. But I never believed that the sole purpose of my existence was to have children. There was so much more to be done.

Now I was a thirty-four-year-old mother-to-be. And with a swift move, the balance of my life had tilted towards one direction, making every thought roll towards the same destination.

My baby.

Our baby.

“Christ! I will be an auntie!” Jenny’s high-pitched voice went right through my brain when I told her the news over the phone. I could hear Ian in the background, explaining to young Jamie why his mother behaved like a loon. It took just a few moments for his cheery voice, louder than his mother’s, to come through the line. “A boy! Atie Caile make boy!”

I ran a hand on my stomach, smiling. “So, I see the baby orders have already begun.”

“Aye, they have. I vote for a girl, Claire, since we’re talking about it. And where is my clotheid brother?” Jenny asked, the elation clear in her voice.

“He’s right here, next to me.” I replied, feeling Jamie’s arm around my waist as he pulled me closer to him in our bed. Bending his head, he placed a soft kiss on my neck and took the phone. The grin on his face as he heard his sister congratulate him was so broad, that I felt my heart squeeze with a bittersweet feeling; happiness and loss. I was grateful for the family we had, but a part of me deeply wished we would have a few more people to share the news with. His parents, mine. Hugs that we’ve lost to soil and thin air, still sorely needed in sorrow and happiness.

We have each other, I thought, and snuggled closer to Jamie, savoring his musky smell, mingled with soap and cinnamon from the apple pie we’d made. His voice reverberated in his chest under my ear and I closed my eyes, dreaming of the same voice calling our baby’s name, tiny socks in my hands and the powdery smell of a newborn in the room. Jamie’s hand moved slowly from my waist to meet mine above my belly, his large fingers intertwining with mine, silently offering protection.

Geillis noticed the difference in me from the first five minutes we spent checking medical charts next day in the hospital.

“D’ye have anything to share, Claire?” She asked, placing her hands on her back, enhancing the effect of her protruding belly.

“Well, I thought I shouldn’t leave you grow huge and become a balloon all alone.” I smirked, leaving the chart on the desk. I felt my heart swell sharing the news, and my hands clasped hers tight.

“I knew yer Scot would take much stronger precautions against you leaving him again!” Geillis winked, smiling broadly. “I mean, the ring is verra beautiful, but with a baby he’s keeping ye with him forever.” Squeezing my upper arms with both her hands, she pulled me closer for a hug. “Congratulations, Claire. Ye too deserve some happiness.”

After discussing all the details about the pregnancy test, how Jamie reacted to the news, and making plans about our babies that would be born only with four months difference, we moved onto the serious conversation. A good obstetrician. Geillis lived in Glasgow almost all her life, and she new far more doctors than me. Most of the male doctors though, she knew much better than needed. Nurses and doctors wasn’t a new concept anyway.

Ten minutes later, with a tiny note featuring a few hastily scribbled black numbers in hand, I made an appointment with Geillis’ obstetrician, Dr. Dunsany. Geillis would swear by her doctor - the third one she visited during the first four months of her pregnancy and hopefully, her last one.

I knew, more or less, what the first visit to the doctor included, and I couldn’t wait to confirm the result of the pregnancy test. Apart from being a little anxious on Geillis’ choice of a doctor, I didn’t think about it overmuch.

At least not until the night before the appointment.

‘How I met your mother’ was playing on Netflix and Jamie and I cuddled on the couch, a plaid blanket with the Fraser colors – Jenny’s gift – covering almost all my body and half of Jamie’s who insisted that it was far too hot for this plaid.

I hadn’t realized that my mind started wandering and I had stopped watching the show. The TV colors became moving images without meaning, the actors’ voices a background noise that didn’t reach my ears.

Closing my eyes, I thought of life I cradled inside me.

Until a few days ago, I was a daughter.

Even if I wasn’t a conventional daughter, and all I had from my parents was blurred memories and pictures with dull colors saved in pale colored albums, that didn’t make me feel less of it. I may had never walked into the house after school, to plop myself onto a chair and announce that I’m hungry, waiting for a plate of food to miraculously land in front of me, and I never had anyone to call and ask which detergent is stronger to remove wine stains, but I was still a daughter for a simple reason; I wasn’t yet a mother.

No one’s hunger was my own responsibility. No one’s wine stains depended on me.

Now everything had changed. From the moment I saw that second pink line on the pregnancy test, that daughter had died.

I was to become a mother, and I had no family to share this with. I had no mother to call in the dead of the night, if didn’t want to scare Jamie with my foolish thoughts. I had no siblings to call and announce that they would become uncles and aunties.

It was the first time the absence of siblings hit me under such a light.

And then a darker thought followed.

Why didn’t I have siblings?

I’d spent countless days of my life wishing I would have a sister or a brother. Someone to share my life with, someone to know me and love me without questions. But now it was the first time I wondered about the reason behind this misfortune. I was five years old when my parents died. Most people already have a second child when their first reaches the age of five. My parents didn’t.

Why?

Were there any complications when my mother was pregnant with me?

Did she have a miscarriage later? Before?

Would my baby be safe, if I carried the incapability of being a mother in my genes?

I closed my eyes, trying not to panic. My breath became swallow, my throat dry, my eyes wet with unshed tears. I didn’t quite nail the ‘don’t panic’ thought.

What would I say to the doctor, once she asked me about the medical history of my family members? That I don’t know? That I have nobody to ask? That I have no mom to be by my side during this journey? To tell me stories of her pregnancy, to hold my hand when the final – terrifying – moment of giving birth was to come?

Was I good enough, to become a mother, anyway?

It was the first time in my life that I so desperately wanted to be a daughter. Not to avoid responsibility, but to have a mother smile to me when tears would be all I could see. To have a mother tell me that I would be a great mom, because she just knew it.

I didn’t know what mothers do. I didn’t even know if I could provide a proper environment for this poppy seed-sized baby to grow.

Jamie’s loud laughter startled me and I jerked against him, coming out of my reverie. My jolt and the absence of any trace of smile in my face made Jamie’s laughter stop abruptly.

“What is it, Sassenach? D’ye feel uncomfortable? Are ye nauseous again?” He made to stand up and carry me to the bathroom, but I stopped him with a tight grip on his arm. His abrupt moving actually made me nauseous, but that was the least of my problems.

“I’m fine.” I said, swallowing back the lump that formed in my throat. “Stay here.”

“What is it then?”

“Nothing. I’m perfectly fine.” I turned my eyes towards the TV, my gaze unfocused, lost in the bright colors.

“Ye have a perfectly fine frown formed on yer face, Sassenach. And I ken ye well enough to know that when ye say ye’re perfectly fine, ye never are. Plus, Barney just threw the girl’s leg in the fire and ye didna laugh!”

“Oh, it was that scene.” I said, realizing why Jamie had laughed so hard. I felt a smile slowly forming on my face, even though the muscles moved with effort, my mind asking them to do the impossible. The recollection of Ian’s terrified face, however, was strong enough to overshadow my previous thoughts. I could almost see his reaction that first time we watched the episode, as he glanced at his prosthetic leg, murmuring, ‘Great, more ideas for Jen to threaten me.’

“Aye, that’s the smile I was looking for.” Jamie planted a kiss on my forehead and held me tight. Held us tight.

Please, please let that baby be safe. Let me be enough to carry it safely.

“So?”

“Ye won’t speak to me, Claire?” His question was painted by a mix of sadness and indignity.

No. I can’t lose you, too, now. You are all I have.

I took a deep breath and searched for his eyes. His blue pools were there, waiting for me, kind and honest. Jamie ran his hands up and down my arms, tracing paths with heartbreaking tenderness and leaving goosebumps behind.

“I’m afraid.” I whispered, as if admitting it loudly would make the monster eating my soul stronger.

“About what, my Sassenach?”

“About the baby. I don’t know, Jamie. I can’t guarantee that everything will be alright. If I –”

“Mo chridhe,” Jamie interrupted me, cupping my face with both hands. I felt his warmth sipping into my skin and his calmness flooding my heart, even before I listened a single word from what he intended to say to reassure me. “No one can do that. D’ye hear me? We canna be sure of anything. But we’ll do our best, for each other, and for the baby.” He paused, somber, his eyes boring deep into mine. “We’ll be the best versions of ourselves, mo ghraidh, and we will hope for the best.”

“But if I –”

“Claire,” Jamie placed his index finger over my mouth. “Ye’re enough. And I love ye. More than anything else. Ye ken that, aye?” He bent his head, replacing his finger with his lips. His kiss was slow and reassuring, settling the waves of fear that threatened to swallow me whole.

“What will I say to the doctor about my family’s medical history? I know nothing.” I was close to breaking into tears the moment I felt the air sneaking between us again, cooling my lips where he warmed them.

“We’ll say that we don’t know, Sassenach. We’ll do as the doctor says and everything will be alright. Whatever comes for us, we’ll handle it together.”

I placed a hand over his heart and he grasped it, fingers interweaving rapidly in their own dance. I felt each steady beat under my hand, pulsing blood into his body, and I snuggled closer to him, his skin hot under my cheek. My heart followed the rhythm set by his, as my lungs inhaled the air he gifted me. Slow, calm, strong. Jamie kissed my forehead, holding me flush to him. “And when the baby comes to our little world,” he whispered between my curls in a dreamy voice, “We’ll learn how to be a family, the three of us, together.”

I closed my eyes and a smile came to tug my lips up. Easy, effortless.

I might not be a daughter anymore, but I finally had a family.

My family.

Chapter 16

#the ripple effect #modern au #jamie x claire #outlander fanfic #outlander fanfiction

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hvllanders · 6 years

Text

wanderer part 3 (college!peter x reader)

pt. 1. pt. 2. pt. 3

summary: in which you clean up peter’s mess and receive an unexpected phone call

warnings: language

a/n: ahhh part 3! thanks for all the awesome feedback, i’m so psyched to see where this story goes...:) this chapter has a bit of a different feel...no peter in these scenes BUT we will see him more in the future, and someone else may make a surprise appearance...

“Oh my god. Did you murder someone in here while I was gone?”

The noise snapped you out of your thoughts, causing the rag to drop out of your hand, heart racing erratically. “Jesus, Gwen. You scared me.”

You roommate just raised an eyebrow, long blonde hair tied back and swinging, chewing on a piece of gum like mad. “I scaredyou, huh? You’re not the one who returns home to her roommate scrubbing blood off your couch.” She set her bags down on the kitchen counters before rifling through the fridge. “God, do we have anything to eat?”

You didn’t look up from the current stain you were scrubbing. “There’s Goldfish in one of the cabinets. I think?”

“Mmmm.” She continued rustling.

Your phone buzzed, and you looked up, half-expecting (hoping? foolishly?) to see a text from Peter. You weren’t sure what you wanted it to say (“Hey gf! Sorry for crashing at your place for the night while severly injured! xoxoxo). But it was just an email from the local pizza place reminding you to use your rewards points before they expired.

“Pizza points.”

“What?” Gwen sat carefully on the non-bloodstained part of the couch, Goldfish in hand. You extended the phone towards her, email open. “You make no sense when you’re upset,” she finished. “And we’re not using the pizza points tonight, we just got pizza.”

“That’s why we have the points,” you told her. “Because we’re frequent pizza eaters. And you have to use them within two days or they expire.”

Gwen’s lips pushed into a thin line. “Are you going to tell me what all this is?” She motioned to the scrubbing, the blood, the bleached cushions. “Or do I have to guess? Because I can guess, but I’m going to guess like mob ring or secret assassin or something.”

You sighed, putting down the anti-stain solution. It wasn’t really helping anyway. “It’s kind of a long story.”

“Well, I’ve only got three finals, a lab write-up, and a term paper to do. Hit me, baby.”

You smiled ruefully at the sentiment, wringing the rag through your fingers. “What do you remember me telling you about Peter Parker?”

Gwen’s facial expression didn’t change, but you swore there was a knowing gleam in her eyes as she said, “Only that he was your first kiss, first love, first ‘Damn, we don’t really work now that we’re all grown up.’”

If only it were that simple. “Yeah. Well. I saw him last night.”

Gwen’s eyebrows shot up as she surveyed the couch damage once again. She said nothing, chewing vigorously on a Goldfish. Waiting.

“He had…he had gotten in an accident. Fell off his motorcycle.” How had it been so long, and yet lying for him to your best friend came like second nature?

“Mmmhm.” Gwen’s face was impassive. “And you didn’t…I don’t know…bring him to the hospital? Get professional help? Put a tarp down on the goddamn couch first?”

“He doesn’t have insurance.” That could be true. Although, with Stark…well, maybe. It could be true.

“Okay.” Gwen’s eyes were still moving in-between the bloodstains and the rag in your hands. “But he’s alright?”

You scrubbed at the stain again. “I think so. I wouldn’t know.”

“Oh?”

“He was gone when I woke up.”

Gwen let out a cynical laugh. “Figures.” Her face softened, though, as she looked at you. “How are you doing about it? It’s been, what, a year since you’ve seen each other?”

“Two.”

The girl shifted so she could take the rag out of your hand, squeezing it instead. “I’m sorry, babe.”

“It’s fine.” But your voice shook when you said it.

“Listen, don’t worry about the couch, okay? I’ll get us a new one.”

You shook your head, pouring more stain remover onto the rag. “You don’t need to do that. I’ll fix it, really, I promise.”

“Y/N-”

“It’ll be good as new.” You couldn’t look at her as you said it.

“Babe, I’ll get a new couch, it’s okay.” She squeezed your hand again. “To be perfectly honest, I don’t want a couch that someone bled all over. Even if it was your extremely hot ex-boyfriend.”

You rolled your eyes, but you felt the knot in your stomach slowly unraveling. “He’s not extremely hot.”

“Well, I’ve never seen pictures of him! I wouldn’t know! Plus, you’re blushing, so I don’t believe a single word you’re saying.” She shifted backwards, grabbing her phone from the coffee table. “Let’s get that pizza after all. You choose the toppings. We can even splurge and do deep dish if you want.”

She smiled deeply at you, wiping a tear off your cheek. You hadn’t even realized you’d been crying.

***

Finals came in their usual flurry of stress and manic studying, manic non-studying. You were sitting in the living room of your apartment surrounded by papers as you “reviewed” Organic Chemistry with Gwen.

“This makes no sense,” she was saying, frowning down at her textbook. “Make sure you study this key point! Well, no shit! I’m trying to study this key point, but I can’t understand a word of this jumbled mess!”

You snorted in agreement, continuing your age-old studying diversion of taking Buzzfeed quizzes. So far, you’d learned you should move to Amsterdam immediately, and that you’d get married in thirty-six hours. “Exactly. That’s why I gave up like thirty minutes ago.”

Gwen let out a long-suffering sigh. “God. We were such foolish mortals to let those finals-free days escape us! Curses!”

You laughed. “Come over here and see what breed of dog best matches your feelings about cookie dough ice cream instead! I got Corgi and I don’t really know what that means for my life trajectory, but it feels pretty important.”

“Aww, I miss my dog.” Gwen’s bottom lip stuck out as she surveyed her notes. “I can’t wait to visit my parents and see him again.”

You nodded, returning to your quizzes, but Gwen narrowed her eyes suspiciously towards you. “And what exactly are you doing over break?”

“We’re eloping in Rome.”

The new voice made both of you jump as Blake, gangly and long-limbed, picked his way through the mess of papers littering the living room floor to plant a kiss on your lips. “It’ll be incredibly romantic and unexpected and so Millennial or Gen Z or whatever they’re calling us these days.”

You rolled your eyes as he flopped on top of you into the chair. “No. You’re going to Rome withoutme, because you’re an incredibly important person who has family to visit on the other side of the globe for some terrible reason.”

He pecked you on the nose. “You know I’d bring you with me if I could, right?”

You sighed. “I know.”

“Excuse me,” Gwen interrupted. “But, Y/N and I were actually doing some studying.”

“Oh, were you?” Blake raised an eyebrow towards your phone. “You know, I do seem to remember Corgis and cookie dough being crucial to a key understand of Orgo.”

“Fuck off.” You shoved his shoulder, but you were grinning, and he knew he had won. “Okay, okay, I was taking a break, but Gwen was, I don’t know, trying to be a good nursing student-”

“Trying is the key word,” Gwen interjected, looking desolate from the floor. “Blake, how did you get through three years of nursing without wanting to die because I’m trying and failing.”

“The trick is to accept the wanting to die feeling,” he grinned. “Embrace it, and then accept that it is your new reality.”

Gwen groaned, collapsing backwards into the crunch of papers to closer her eyes, fingertips coming up to rub at her temples. “Okay, okay, fine, that’s cool, that’s great, I love it, really, I do, I love it.” She opened her eyes to look at you, “Y/N, you happen to have any painkillers lying around?”

“Sure. Check my bathroom.”

“Cool. Awesome. Time to go drug up.” You watched as your roommate disappeared into the other room, trying to ignore Blake’s persistent gaze as he twined your fingers together.

“What are you doing over break? We haven’t talked about it.”

A shrug.

He shifted so that his hand was cupping the back of your head, running a thumb over your cheek. “I don’t want to think about you moping around this apartment by yourself for a whole month.”

You didn’t meet his gaze.

He sighed, squeezing your hand tight in his. “Bunny, why don’t you go back with Gwen? I’m sure she’d love to have you.”

You squeezed his hand back, focusing on the way his fingers looked intertwined with yours. “That’s not what I’m worried about.”

He searched your face. “Then what…what is it?”

“I’m not sure I can describe it,” you whispered, which was the truth. “But I just…I feel like I need to go home.”

Whatever he was going to say in response was cut off as your phone vibrated. The caller id sent an electric jolt down your spine, and you were suddenly scrambling to your feet, pushing Blake off as he gave a confused, “Y/N?”

“I have to take this,” you told him, and you could only judge by the expression on his face that you looked as rattled as you felt.

You pulled yourself into the privacy of your room, hearing Gwen ask, “What’s wrong?” to a confused response from Blake before you held the phone up to your ear.

“May? What’s wrong?” Your left hand was clenching and unclenching itself into a fist as you waited. You felt that odd pulsing, the adrenaline rush of standing on a live wire, a kick through your whole body, but-

“Sweetie, nothing’s wrong. Everything’s fine.”

“What?” You sat down on your bed, a marionette with your strings cut, body not quite keeping up with mind. Fist still clenching, unclenching. “What do you…why are you calling me then?”

“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” May said, and you could feel her concern through the phone. The tension in your body slowly started to unwind, though your fingers were still twitching in your palm, in out, in out. “I just wanted to talk to you. It’s been too long.”

You let out a breath you hadn’t realized you’d been holding. “I…I’m sorry. I overreacted, it’s just-”

“I know. It’s okay.” Just hearing her voice again slowed your heartrate considerably. “It’s okay. How’s school going?”

“It’s…going.” You let out a breathy laugh. “Finals week is finals week, but I’m nearly done. Just a few more exams.”

“I know you’ll ace them.” You could almost hear May smiling through the line. “You were always so bright, and you’ve done so well in school. I’m really proud of you, Y/N. You know that, right?”

“Good. Now listen, there was something else I was wondering.” May paused, and you felt your heartrate kick back up. “Are you coming back to Queens over break?”

“I’m…I’m not sure.”

“Do you want to come back?”

Wasn’t coming back what you wanted? But, suddenly, nothing seemed certain, and you felt incredibly out of place, not here in your apartment, Blake and Gwen laughing at some joke outside your door, not back home, back where memories were nestled in every stoplight and magazine stand. “I’m…I don’t have anywhere to stay.”

“Of course, you have somewhere to stay.”

“May, I couldn’t.”

“Yes,” May’s voice was kind, but firm. “Please, Y/N. Just think about it.”

You sighed. “I’ll think about it.” You couldn’t do it. You wouldn’t do it.

“May?” You just couldn’t help yourself.

“Hmmm?”

“You don’t…is…is Peter okay?”

There was a long silence. Too long. “Sweetheart, I haven’t seen Peter two years.”

pt. 4

send me an ask and lemme know what you think! also lmk if you would like to be added to the tag list!

tags: @ceruleanparker @underoosstark @webfluidbih@yourtomwritings @spideykisses @gqtom @demigodscum @bethanyleerose @infamous-webhead @starkravingparker @transnerdparker @freeheat @infinityonfiction @sighspidey@tornadoxx @lovelyh0lland @hollandahlia @hollandlovely @starksparker @supernaturalpllfan1 @petertomparkerholland @k0h04 @nobledoritoman @freeheat @totallyreadyforthis @tomhollanduniverse @beterbarkerbooty @ohmypcter @mayhemmeg @tremendousstudentartisanfestival @spo0derman @notimeforthemessenger @pensysto @jet122 @comfiecorner@dontpanc

#peter parker #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker x reader #peter parker fic #peter parker imagine #peter parker x y/n #peter parker x you #my writing #hvllanders wanderer

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