#you trying to out sad me Sasha???? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

petpenname · 2 months

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❣��Red Wine Supernova❣️

pairing: dealer!ellie williams x introverted(f)reader c.w: weed smoking, insinuated self-pleasure Summary: modern college au, dealer!ellie x introverted!(f)reader, slow burn with some sad elements. Inspired by Red Wine Supernova by Chapel Roan Parts: 1. I Just Want To Get To Know You 2. Mini Skirt and My Go-Go Boots 3. I Don't Care That You're A Stoner + Epilogue: Falling Into Me a/n: new writer so be nice >:3 sry if the format is a lil fucked

Part One:

I Just Want To Get To Know You

Mornings are your happy place. Your room is your sanctuary, and you greet the day in your usual fashion. Floating around your space listening to music, doing your skincare and makeup, and finding the perfect outfit. This morning, however, was anything short of paradise. Today was the last day of finals week and all the studying and stress got the best of you last night as you completely burnt out of all your routines. You push the empty chip bags and energy drinks aside on your nightstand to make some room for your phone, which is dead. How could you forget to plug it in?

Opting to check the time on your computer you realize you overslept. There's only twenty minutes to don an outfit before you head to your first exam of the day. You curse yourself first then promise to have a full self care evening after finals are finished. Tossing on some leggings and an oversized hoodie equipped with the Jackson College logo. You do a quick wash of our face, minimal skin care, grab your phone, bag and shoes and you are out the door.

Thankfully, living a block from campus has its pros. You fast walk the block to campus and b-line for the cafe. Popping in and getting into the short line hoping to see someone who knows your order working. You let out a sigh of relief when you see Sasha working the cash register.

The barista greeted you, “Morning Y/N! Happy end of finals week!”

“Morning Sasha, I can’t wait for this week to be over. I'm in a rush this morning so I'll just do my coffee, no pastry please.”

“Sure thing babe” she starts writing in your order, “it'll be out in just a minute.”

You pay and wish each other luck finishing exams. Retiring to a stool on the side of the pickup area, you put your headphones in to try and reclaim some peace in your morning. After a full song plays you glance at the time and realize you have been here for a few minutes too long. Behind the barista station, you see a brown-haired girl facing the back counter. She's moving around like she doesn't know what she's doing and Sasha is watching from the side making small comments. You assume it's a new hire so you wait the extra minute for her to finish with your drink -praying that she doesn't fuck it up and ruin another part of your morning. You zone out to your music again and before you know it you hear your order being called out: “Medium mocha with half chocolate for.. y/n?”

You look up and almost choke on your breath as your eyes meet pools of emerald green. Light whips of auburn fly around a flushed face, dotted with freckles. You stumble off the stool and brush fingers with the girl as you grab your coffee, not wanting to take your eyes off her.

“Sorry it took a minute Y/N, Ellie here is training today” Sasha pipes in from behind. The girl smiles sheepishly as your eyes snap away and focus on the coffee in hand. When did you grab this?

“Oh, yeah, no problem, thank you!.” you say, trying to recollect yourself. “I’ll see you later Sasha!”

Heading out the door, the cool air whips the interaction out of your mind, as your only focus now is making it through the rest of the finals day.

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5pm finally rolls around and you let out a sigh as the fresh air hits you while leaving the lecture building. You pull out your phone to check for messages and play some music on your walk back.

You have (7) unread messages:

*H03 Hoes* Olivia: Anyone up for dinner and a movie? I need to dissociate after this week o.o Ivy: yes I'm there but only if we can get Red Mill Phoebe: I'll be at Daniels tonight :) Olivia: we know pheebs lol have fun love birds Sage: if we are getting Red Mill im gettin high Ivy: Y/N!!!? Where are youuu?? Phoebe: :D

Staring at the screen you smile in relief, just what you need after a long day; your roommates out of the house, time for yourself. Your last two exams were harder than you expected and all you want to do is order takeout, put on a show, and take a bath. You gather your thoughts and text a response;

*H03 Hoes* Y/N: staying in girls, i need some TLCOlivia: i don't blame you, this week was fucked Ivy: Want us to bring you back a burger? Y/N: that's okay, i'm ordering Thai :) Sage: oh my god you really do need this night, i'm leaving you a joint Y/N: lol thanks sage Olivia: we'll be back by midnight! Have fun ;)

Your roommates were always understanding, you really couldn't have wished for a better housing placement. House 03 was one of ten houses that were off-campus communal housing. You moved into the house a month into your first semester at school. The rest of the girls had time to bond but welcomed you in like another sister. Your introverted tendencies sometimes made you feel like a shut-in as your roommates always had something to do or somewhere to be. Sage was probably the most understanding, she enjoyed staying in also & always shared her stash with you when she did. On the rare occasion you accepted, you and she got stoned and watched shitty TV and ate takeout.

Finishing your response to the girls, you put on a playlist that you've been loving recently and put your phone away, looking up just in time to come face to face with another person. Bumping into each other you both stumble back in equal confusion.

“Ah fuck, shit, sorry!” says a honey sweet voice.

Y/N: “Oh fuck no im sorry! I was not paying attention” you take out your earbuds and catch your balance as you look up at who you collided with. Green eyes instantly meet yours. Swirls of auburn hair and freckles dance across her face as she smiles and laughs.

“Oh hey, didn't I make your coffee this morning?”

“My what?” you say in confusion.

“Your coffee! At the cafe, I was training this morning. You got like a mocha or something?” the girl rubs her temple trying to remember.

“oh! Oh yeah! That was you” you chuckle, stealing yourself away from her gaze. Holy shit, you completely forgot about this morning, how could you forget about such a pretty girl?

“That's me!" She says. "I'm Ellie, by the way.” She holds out a hand with a sideways smile.

“Im Y/N” shaking her hand, blushing a little.

Ellie: “So where are you in such a rush to, Y/N?”

You laugh, “nowhere really, home. I'm so over this week.”

“Same oh my god, I'm almost done with work I just have a drop off to do. Then I'm free!”

Her goofy enthusiasm was infectious, you felt oddly comfortable with this girl.

“Oh, cool? I'm going that way” you point across and down the street towards the College neighborhood.

“Me too! Walk together?” Ellie suggests

You nod and set off together. It was a short walk and for the first few steps, you were quiet. Everything happened so fast, the collision, the conversation, and now you're walking together?! That's no big deal, you're just walking together! You steal a glance at the girl beside you. Holy shit how long has she been staring at you? “I'm not even going to ask how your finals went if they were anything like mine!” Ellie laughs, scratching the back of her head

You chuckle trying not to trip over your own feet, “yeah they were pretty difficult, i'm just glad they are over for now”

There's not enough conversation to distract you from the growing ball of nerves in your stomach. You keep stealing small glances at the beautiful girl strolling alongside you with such ease and confidence. Before you know it you get to your house walkway, you turn to Ellie

“This is me, uh it was nice meeting you! And thanks for making my coffee” You are suddenly aware of how awkward you feel, trying not to make eye contact.

“Oh yeah no problem,” Ellie leans slightly to look behind you at the house, “you live here? Do you know Sage? I'm here to meet her.” Ellie says, pointing towards your house She's asking about your roommate? Something clicks when you realize you've seen this girl before, no you’ve heard her voice before. Whenever Sage stayed in she would call her dealer, who never came inside but Sage and her would talk on the porch for a bit during the deal.

“Are you Sage’s dealer?” you ask.

“Have you been smoking my shit?” Ellie laughs

“No I mean, sometimes I partake, but yeah Sage is my roommate, um come on up?”

“Wicked” Ellie follows you up the path and steps and waits at the door as you call into the house.

“I'm home! Sage! You have a visitor!”

“HI HOME! I'm Sage!” you hear from upstairs as the blonde girl comes bounding down the stairs. “Oh what's up Ellie, sorry you had to deal with her y/n”

Ellie scoffs behind you, “yeah whatever, you can find a new dealer”

Sage laughs, “And buy from a dude? No way, I support woman-owned businesses. How much do I owe you?”

You bow out subtly during their conversation. Before the two girls make their exchange you are halfway up the stairs. Letting their conversation get muffled as you enter your bedroom. You don’t know why you seclude yourself so much. Social interactions can be so anxiety inducing for you and you were well past spent on interacting this week.

Tossing your shoes and bag in the corner you collapse on the floor wrapping a blanket around you. Finally safe in your own space. It wasn't long before you heard footsteps coming up the stairs and Sage was knocking on your door.

“Hey babes, you doing okay?”

You get up, blanket still wrapped around you and shuffle to the door, opening it slightly before leaning on the door frame, looking like a sad puppy.

“Oh y/n it was a long week huh? Well I'll be out of your hair soon. I just wanted to give you this.” she holds out a joint, which you now know came from Ellie.

“Thanks Sage, I might actually spark this tonight.” You smoked with Sage occasionally but never alone.

“It’ll help, light it in the bath! That's my favorite thing to do” Sage beams and hands over the joint, it was beautifully rolled, you almost didn't want to ruin it. She gives you a small squeeze on the arm and blows you a kiss before wishing you a good night and skipping towards her room to get ready for the evening.

You shut the door and drop the blanket down, giving into a big stretch before locking into self care mode. This is where you really excel, you know the ins and outs of what creates an environment that lets you rest and recoup to the best of your abilities. And currently your room was in disarray from the late nights spent studying and dissociation. You put your headphones in and go to work. It takes half an album to clean up the mess from the previous week. You are feeling much better and continue on your self love ritual. Peaking your head out into the hallway you listen for any sound of your roommates.

Silence, perfect, Olivia and Ivy must have come and left with Sage while you were cleaning. You pop your headphone back in and continue your groove downstairs to get something to drink and order your take out. While on the call your phone buzzes from a text, thinking nothing of it, it must be one of your roommates. You complete your order and finish up in the kitchen returning to your room for a much needed bath. All focus on yourself.

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It's nearly an hour later, you've drawn your bath and your take out has arrived. A shitty show you’re half paying attention to plays off your laptop, propped up on the laundry basket. You finish your last spring roll feeling a little bored and you grab your phone, figure you’d scroll some socials for a bit. Flicking on your screen you see you have a text from an unknown number.

Unknown: “Do you always stay in on a friday night? ;)”

Your hear skips a beat. Your heart rate rises, confused and anxious who got your number? How do they know your home alone? Also this was an hour ago! You text back; Y/N: um, who is this?

You wait only a minute before you get a text back,

“Ellie :)”

Relief sets in, not a creepy guy or stalker, thank god. Your phone buzzes again.

Ellie: “Gosh made you coffee and walked you home, am I that forgettable?”

You text back quickly, “no sorry, hey! I just didn’t know your number. How did you get mine?”

Ellie: “Sage gave it to me, I hope that's okay?”

“Yeah, yeah that's cool!” you text back.

A little confused why Sage would give out your number without asking but your thoughts are interrupted by another text from Ellie:

“You didn't answer my question silly ;)”

You reread Ellie's first text. You do usually stay in, even on friday nights.

“Pretty much lol” you respond with another text, “I don’t really like parties”

“I feel that, good for business, bad for vibes lol” ellie responds

You stare at the screen, taken aback by how all of a sudden you are talking to this girl you hardly know for the second time today. Suddenly the bath is way too hot and wet, your laptop playing a little too loud. You close your phone, pause your show, and start to drain the tub. Rinsing off and finishing up your shower routine, you are standing at the vanity when your phone lights up catching your eye. It’s Ellie again,

“So would you like some company? I'm nearby actually” A glance at the time tells you it's 9pm, late for you, your only other plans for the night was to curl up in bed and continue your show until you fall asleep. You take a second to think about things as you put some clothes on, a soft pair of pajama bottoms, a tank top and a slouchy oversized sweater. Something in you was intrigued with this girl. It was strange for you to feel like you wanted to hang out with someone let alone someone you just met late at night.

You pace for a minute thinking, am I really going to do this? Typing out the text and holding your breath before hitting send then chucking your phone on the bed and running to the mirror.

“Okay, why don't you come over?”

You inspect your appearance. Natural beauty, your skin care routine was spot on and truthfully you loved your look the most at night after you cared for yourself. You felt a rush of adrenaline and took a few breaths to calm yourself before sliding on a pair of slippers and grabbing your phone to go downstairs. Before leaving, the joint on your night stand catches your eye and it only seemed right to bring it along, Ellie did roll it.

On the way down the stairs, there's a knock at your door, that was fast. You peek out the window to be safe, Ellie standing with her back to the window facing away from the door. Hand scratching the back of her head, it looks like she's changed since you saw her last. You open the door and catch a whiff of pine and amber as she turns to face you, the same sideways smirk on her face from before. She's wearing all black, dirty Converse, ripped jeans, and a black jacket over a green hoodie.

“Hey, whoa cute fit” Ellie laughs as she looks you up and down, “cozy?”

You move a little at her comment, noticing how underdressed you are. “You caught me at the end of my shower”

She chuckles again, “well I wasn't trying to take you out, was wondering if you wanted to smoke this with me?” Ellie pulls a joint from behind her ear, and holds it up between her pointer and middle finger.

Your nerves are going crazy but something in the way she looks at you makes you feel at ease in her presence.

“Yeah sure, I have one of yours already actually” you say as you hold up the joint, it's a little crushed as you realize your hands were clenching.

Ellie laughs, “you keep that one, we can smoke this one” she gives you that smile again. “Are we gonna stand on the porch all night?”

You snap into reality a bit and stumble over your words and yourself, letting her into the house. “no! Sorry, ya we can smoke in the back, we have some chairs out there.”

“Sweet, I'll follow you cutie”

You turn away from the comment before Ellie could see your cheeks go up in flames.

You lead her through the house to the back door and out into the small yard. There's a fire pit in the corner with a few lawn chairs around it. There's a light breeze in the air but it's rather temperate for a spring evening. You sit down in a chair and Ellie flops down next to you. Pulling out a lighter and joint. You watch as she puts the joint between her lips, lightly holding it with one hand and lighting with the other. Your eyes are locked on her while she inhales and the cherry goes red illuminating her soft features. Only when she exhales a cloud of smoke and looks at you do you look away quickly. Darting your gaze away to the joint held out in front of you.

“Here ya go y/n” Ellie's voice is low and gravely, cutting through the silence of the night.

You swallow and take the joint, breathing out preparing yourself for the hit. You can feel Ellie's eyes on you as you inhale, hold for a second too long, and exhale out in coughs, covering your face and shoving the joint in Ellies direction. “Shit, hahah, I don't smoke that often.” you get out

“Oh! That's okay, you don’t have to if you don’t want it!” Ellie takes another drag, hesitating to pass it back your way.

“No, no it's okay, the first hit is always the roughest,” you say through your coughing fit. “I usually smoke with Sage.”

Taking another drag and speaking as smoke billows out past her lips, “Okaaay you can tap out at any time light weight” She chuckles at the end of her sentence but reaches the joint back out to you. You take it, needing another hit to settle the growing nerves in your stomach, she will not stop looking at you.

You and Ellie pass the joint back and forth a few rounds in easy silence. Only a few loud conversations and music from down the block fill the air. Ellie breaks the silence after a moment.

“So I know you said you don’t like parties but there's this one tomorrow night at my friend Jessie’s house, he lives in 09. My roommate Dina and I are going, you might like it?”

Jessie… You've heard that name before, he was one of Daniel’s, Phoebe's boyfriend's roommates. A group of boys that live in House 09, down the street from you. You've actually been to their house for a party once before. It was fun for an hour until you Irish good-byed to go home and lay in bed. Texting your roommates of course, because girls always need to stay safe. Considering your roommates would be inviting you to this party as well you decide to accept Ellies invitation too.

“Oh yeah, my roommate Phoebe is dating Daniel who lives in 09, i'll probably be there for a little bit.”

Ellies face lights up, and she moves in a way that looks like she's trying to hide her excitement. “You will! Cool, I'll see you there then! Ah this thing is out.” She stubs out the cherry in the joint and tosses it into the fire pit. “Well I should let you get back to your evening princess, I have a few more drop offs to do tonight anyway.” She stands from her seat with a stretch and holds her hand out for you to grab as you stand. Her jacket got pushed up a bit and you notice a dark image on her forearm, a tattoo? It's hard to tell in the dark. You grab her hand, making a mental note of how strong and soft they are before standing fully and stepping back.

“I'll walk you out then, uh thanks for smoking me out” Your mind is hazy and calm, you barely realize that your nerves are settled, you're comfortable. Ellie follows you back into the house and to the front door, you both pause at the open door, Ellie's eyes on yours, yours on your hands.

“So I'll see you tomorrow night?” Ellie breaks the silence, making you look up,suddenly the nerves are back.

“Yeah, i'll see you around Ellie” you do your best to not shiver, and give her a smile.

The green eyed girl averts her gaze as she sheepishly scratches the back of her head. “Alrighty, have a good rest of your night!” She turns to leave but turns back,

“oh yeah, it's a decade's party, so you gotta dress up”

She gives you stupid snap and finger guns and turns away, popping down the steps and into the night. You let the cool air wash over you as you watch her walk down the street. Noticing the flick of a lighter in the night as she goes out of sight. You close the door and nearly collapse against it as your stomach begins to flutter again. Holy shit holy shit holy shit.

You take your phone out as you run up to your room, texting your house group chat immediately.

*H03 Hoes* Y/N: “Sage, why'd you give my number to a stranger?? Also… is there a party tomorrow night at H09?”

It was a little while before you got a response from your roommates, their movie must have ended, it was now 11:30pm. You shoot up from your bed responding to your roommates;

*H03 Hoes* Sage: “Ellies, not a stranger! And she asked for it ;)” Olivia: “The Decades party yeah! We were going to ask you tomorrow if you wanted to go!” Y/N: “Well yeah not anymore, she kinda came by the house and smoked me out.” Ivy: “Yo what?!!! y/n hung out with a girl??” Y/N: Hey, I'm allowed to do stuff! Lol Sage: lolol we’ll be home in a little bit! We can get ready for the party tmrw together :D”

You lock your phone and look around the room, you realize you had been pacing for that whole conversation. Adrenaline going crazy, your mind flashing images of auburn hair and green eyes. You probably had 30 minutes left of alone time in the house so you decide to end your night right, how you usually do. Stealing yourself under your blankets, touching and pleasuring yourself until your breath relaxes you into sleep. However tonight, green eyes stare back at you in your mind.

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#ellie x reader #ellie williams #ellie williams x reader #ellie smut

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hidtired · 16 days

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A Single Punch [Part 3]

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Description: The line up ended with people thinking you died. However, your recovering at Hilltop with severe injury's. How will people react to seeing you again?

2.6k words

Warnings (much angst, injury, near death, depression, recovery, typical walking dead shenanigans) [Happy ending, fluff <3]

(Daryl Dixon x Reader) Masterlist

Your POV

"They took Daryl as their prisoner."

That sentence replay in your mind as you lay in bed that night. You had no idea what they were doing to him. Not even if he was breathing in the same moment you were. He doesn't even know you still are. You had to bite down on your tongue to prevent you from getting emotional. You were struggling to exist. Adding this mental pain onto the physical, you would never recover if something happened to him. You wouldn't have the strength to try and become better.

You would die of a broken heart.

The pain medication giving to you is what put you to sleep. Waking up foggy, still with a weird compression feeling in your neck. People had started their days already. You stared as people were getting ready for the morning. You proceeded to stretch trying to regain control of your body again. You heard Sasha and Rosita talking outside, "Then let me come with you, its stupid to go alone.'' You were confused, but what else is new. But, it sounded like they were going to do something they weren't supposed to.

Sasha had promised to help wash your hair in the sink yesterday. So when she came to keep that promise you questioned her. She was preparing the area you were going to use to wash your hair (Hopefully removing whatever blood that the last time didn't.) "Where are you going?" Sasha had turned to you towel in hand, "What are you talking about? I'm not going any where, we are washing your hair." She seemed to think you were confused but your expression remained blank, "With Rosita..." Sasha pursed her lips, "You heard us talking earlier." She stated it in realization. She sighed before helping you to lay your head in the sink.

Warm water was flowing down your scalp, a relief to you. Sasha began while running her fingers in your hair, carful of the stitches. "You can't tell anybody... I just can't- can't live with it. He need to pay for what he did." You sat there and listened, she wanted revenge, closer. You released a long breath, "I don't like it. Think- of the conseq-quences. Act on here-" You pointed to your brain, "not here..." your hand rested above your heart. "I know this one is much louder." You looked up at her with sad eyes. She simply looked away for a second. You continued, "No one else, we are losing no one else." Then is when she looked down at you, "Lets get your hair dry and get a new bandage on." You only sighed but complied.

She was probably hoping you world forget what you had heard. Just because you didn’t talk most of the time didn’t mean you weren’t getting better. You felt like you were at the point of having clear cognitive abilities. Your struggle was in having your brain controlling your body. You would tell your foot to move and it would, it just wouldn’t get to where you thought it told you it was. Maggie walked in frustrated about something but you had to tell her to talk to Sasha and Rosita.

“Maggs?”

You had startled her out of her thoughts, “You need something Y/N?” She approached you while looking you over for something wrong. You could only hold your head down ashamed, Sasha said not to say anything but you couldn’t let it go. “Could you check on-n Sasha? She and Rosita, planning something…” Maggie stood there confused before realizing what they could be planning. So without a word she ran out the door to look for them.

She returned later explaining Enid told her they had already left. Jesus was going after them though. Now you could only hope they were going to be ok.

You had asked Enid to help you outside to a bench. You wanted to be near if they came back. Also maybe because the trailer was driving you mad. You could tell it was getting late with the temperature slowly dropping. The book you were reading had lost your interest. You stared out watching everyone go about there days. You hadn’t thought much about Negan. The thirst for his blood that many seemed to have. You’re sure if you sat and lingered on it you would. For now it was still a thought of terror. You would dream about the feeling of the bat. Only on nights the meds started to fade and your headache only fueled the sensation.

Then Daryl would swirl around in your head. He was shot the last you saw him. Even worse he could only think you were dead like everyone else thought. Knowing him he was having guilt eating him alive. About you and Glenn. You’ve seen how he gets with grief. You could only hope he didn’t do something stupid.

The sunset reminded you they weren’t coming back today. You attempted to get up before older lady was at your side helping you. It was frustrating being so dependent. The was no use pushing the help away because you did need it. You sulked while laying down in bed. You didn’t talk for the rest of that night going to bed early.

You woke up before anyone. You slowly moved to get out of bed. Taken small slow steps leaning on anything near you. You had managed to get out slowly closing the door. You didn’t trust going down the steps so you sat down going down that way. Making your way back to that bench all by yourself took a good half hour. The cold air was slightly warming with the sun peaking over the hills. The cold was welcome, you preferred it better then the constant burning in your aching body.

Enid was the one to wake up seeing you gone and alerting Maggie. She had found you at the bench. She feared you had fallen somewhere. She sat opposite of you, “You should had woken one of us.” Looking at her seeing the expression of someone tired and lost. “I got here, eventually.” She only looked at you displeasingly. You smiled at her before choking out,

“I’m sorry-y my current existence was at the expense of Glenn’s.”

She looked shocked, “That’s not how it-“ you were waving your hand slowly waving her off, “It’s true, I’m just telling you I won’t let it go to waste. He was one of the good things left in the world and I’ll do right by him.” It was the first semi clear thing you’ve said your entire recovery. Despite it being slower and more forced out, it was firm and decisive. Maggie stared at you with tears in her eyes, placing her hand on yours and squeezing it. She nodded, “Thank you.” The rumbling in the distance broke the moment. Maggie stood and listening closely, “It could be the Saviors again.” She ran to get up onto the watch platform.

As the sound got closer it achingly sounded like Daryl’s bike. Maggie was yelling to open the gates. You stood and slowly made your way around a corner again leaning on anything to help you. The gates were wide open as a bike and two figures on them got off. It was Daryl… he was here. He is right there! Your slow steps soon turned faster and more wobbly. You started to cry. He was getting hugged by Maggie oblivious to your presence. You ran out of things to keep your balance but continued on sloppily. Your cry’s turn louder as you yell,

“DARYL!”

Your sobbing now- struggling to catch a breath even. You couldn’t get there fast enough. Daryl quickly turned at the voice. Your brain moving too fast for your body, caused you to fall to your hand and knees. But you still try and crawl.

Daryl POV

Earlier

Daryl was making his attempt to escape again. With the key that was slipped under the door, he was headed to his bike after finding some cloths and Ricks gun in Dwight’s room. The place was empty, until a larger man rounded the corner with food in his hand. Fat Joey he had heard them call him. He startled when they made eye contact. He lifted his hands in a surrender, “L-look man I didn’t see anything, you could just go I won’t say anything.” But Daryl angrily approached the him. “No! No wait!” Daryl had beaten him into the floor. Something caught his attention from the corner of his eye. Another person, he stopped looking over to the presence.

He straightens in surprise, “Jesus?”

Jesus was as surprised to see him to. Daryl looked rough, and if the way he just watched him beat that man to death, wasn’t doing the best emotionally. He seemed on edge, and most notably animalistic. Daryl waved him over to the bike, “We gotta go.” Daryl was fiddling to start the bike as Jesus approached him. He seemed sporadic, maybe that’s why he didn’t mention anything about you. The man was already at level ten no need to push him further.

The ride to Hilltop took them until morning light to break. The gate opened and Daryl seeing Maggie made him feel like a hole had appeared under him and the only voice that could have possibly pulled him out of it rung out through the air.

“DARYL!”

Now

He had turned to see if he imagined it. He saw you struggling to make your way over. He first thought that like how Rick hallucinated Lori, he was doing with you. But regardless he ran the rest of the way you couldn’t as you fell. He was breathing hard and tears were streaming down his bruised face. He reached down to pull you to your feet. He caught a glimpse of your face seeing a bandage rapped around your head. He was in disbelief as he held you. You had crumpled into him. Your casted arm going around him as your other found his hair pushing him closer to you. Daryl’s voice held a tremble, “How is this possible.”

You choked down a gasp of air before talking, “You punched him…” You pulled back to look at his face. Hand removing from his hair to caress his cheek.

“I didn’t intend to play dead but did. I passed out- and- and then heard- took y-you.” Your speech was turning more slurred harder you tried to talk. It was obvious you were struggling to keep up with yourself. Daryl could only stare. Overwhelmed by the feelings flooding through him. After feeling like he had his entire being ripped from his body, only for it to appear back to him. ‘His punch?’ He couldn’t care to think of why you were in front of him just that you were. He wasn’t a religious man by any means but he was thankful to whatever had made you fallen back into his arms.

You were crying at a small whimper now when Maggie approached putting a hand to your back. “Shhh, you have to calm down Y/N, let’s get you laid down.” Daryl was dazed, still struggling to comprehend if this was real. Maybe a dream? Was he still in his cell? He had a good look at you now. Your face all kinds of colors. Your skin pale with bags under your red eyes. You moved almost like a toddler. Just like how Judith would try to sass him and walk leading her tripping at the inability to multitask. You were in obvious pain. You had yet to pull away from him. He looked to Maggie with a panicked and questioning look, “Is she okay, how hurt is she?” He moved to sweep you by the legs to pick you up bridal style. He didn’t even care for the pain in his shoulder from the gun shot.

Maggie started to lead them to the trailer, “She has been getting better. She was much worse at the start. I’ll explain everything.” In the trailer he set you down on a bed. You had one hand still on his arm. He sat down on the side taking your hand into his turning to Maggie for an explanation. Catching the hint she continued,

“We didn’t even notice she was still alive until Sasha and I were on are way to Hilltop.”

Daryl interrupted- “Why were you going here? Rick said you had died from whatever sickness you had, but saw Gabe did a fake grave for you.” She inhaled before placing a hand to her stomach, “I thought I was losing the baby…” Color drained from his face, Maggie spoke reassuringly, “They baby is fine! The doctor who looked at me also helped her.” They both turn to you. You were fiddling with his hand in yours, seemingly mesmerizing by it. She sighed, “He said she was recovering better than he thought she would. She wasn’t herself the first few days but, she seemed to have taken most of the force to her hand.” Daryl's eyebrows furrowed and he eyed the cast on your hand.

You turn your attention to Daryl, “I’m ok… I swear.” He saw what had happened to you. The sound of that damn bat and the blood pouring out from your motionless body. Maggie movement caught his attention, “I let you two be, you’ll find me around.” She walked out the door before he could reply. You sighed at her abrupt exit and the face he was making. The face of a man consumed of guilt, “Later, you-u should talk through it with her. Your face is saying it all.”

Oh to be called on his B.S. again. To have you reading him like you had the manual to him. He probably still had the thought written on his face, ‘Your really here.' The pressure you pressed in your combined hands made him return it.

“Daryl, what did they do to you.”

A simple question really but his mind spun at the remembrance. He was covered in grime, and he is sure you noticed him being a little twitchy. The cuts and bruises to add told you a story. “Nothing worse than thinking you were dead.” He said it truthfully. You gave that god awful look that would make is heart pound. “Ar-are you ok?” Your eyes were becoming glassy. He only smiled and began to nod, “I will be now.” You slowly smiled back to him.

He went to clean up at your request, had taken a shower and cleaned some of the cuts on his face, along with his still healing bullet wound. He returned back to you and ate. He was quiet to observe you. Taken his own notes on your condition.

You were face down on top of his chest after he ate. Both soaking in each other. Daryl broke the silence, “Be my wife…” You didn’t even hesitate, raising your head to look at him and replying, “Where’s my ring at then…?” He huffed out some air having a dumb smile on his face, “In are room…” That had gotten your attention, “How long has it been there?” Marriage for Daryl wasn’t a concept he thought would be a part of his life with how he was raised. “Found it back on a run for the prison. Never found a moment with how everything went down.” Your hand reached to whip a tear from your eye before flopping back down on him,

“I’ll be your wife.”

A ruckus outside caused Daryl to investigate, removing himself from you felt like a sin. "I'll go check it out, stay here." He only looked back for a moment before heading out the door. He slowly stalked to see the gate open. Jesus appeared by him, "I was just about to get you." Daryl looked at him questioningly. He continued his approach to the gate. Daryl rounded the corner to see Rick, Carl, Michonne, Tara, and Rosita. Rick pulling away from Maggie, and all eyes falling to him.

The group he considered his family was here.

Part 4

Feedback welcomed and requests open!

Also sorry again for grammar or spelling that is messed up! Dyslexia kicks my ass on the daily.

#daryl dixon #daryl dixon x reader #daryl fanfiction #daryl imagines #daryl x female reader #daryl x reader #norman reedus #twd daryl #angst #fluff

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sherewrytes · 20 days

Text

T. A. R (Time, Appreciation, Respect)

(I'll always want you part 2)

Synopsis: Ony was calling Y/N constantly these days, trying to always reach out to talk and say his piece. Y/N wasn't sure if she was ready for it.

C.W. Angst, Black coded reader, Drug use (weed). Song links used as reference.

Fanfic inspired by the following song.

Solange: Cranes in the sky

Link for part one here

Time had passed since your confrontation with Ony on that fateful night. The sting of betrayal still lingered, casting a shadow over your every thought and action. You still find herself unable to shake the memories of everything that took place between you and Ony and the raw emotions it had unleashed.

It's 2:30 AM. You lie awake, replaying the conversation with Ony in your mind. A part of you acknowledges he may be right, yet you find it impossible to converse without being overwhelmed by emotions.

You heard Annie out on her part to play in all this but not Ony. You didn't have class until 2pm today so you had enough time to sleep some more if needed. You got out of bed, stretched, went to your desk to journal to clear your mind.

You lit the candle on your desk, opened your journal and poured your feelings into it. The pen felt heavy in your hand, similar to how your heart felt in your chest. You wrote about the confusion swirling within you, torn between the logic of Ony's words and the ache of betrayal that still lingered deep within your soul. Memories flashed through your mind of happier times, of sad times and every moment in between. You knew you should hear him out but, you couldn't decide if you were ready or not.

You closed the journal and texted Sasha to see if she was awake. You needed someone to talk to. Sasha responded almost immediately saying she's in the area, so she'd be over in a few and she has Connie and Eren with her.

You sighed and responded. You went to your kitchen to make a quick midnight snack for you and your quests. 15 mins later, at your apartment is Sasha, Connie and Eren.

Connie: "Is it okay if I smoke in here. Between Uni, my music shit and other shit. I'm stressed out."

You: "It's cool. I do smoke sometimes, well used to with Ony. Speaking of Ony. He's been calling my phone nonstop.

*Turns to Eren* He said you've been on his ass about me. Eren the fuck you on boy.

Eren sighed "Look I'm just looking out for him. Ony is taking this harder that I've seen him take anything. Him and I go way back. Ony only shows up to class, messages me for some weed well hella weed. He aint even in the studio much either."

You knew Eren, Connie, Mikasa and Ony were music majors at Paradis University which you all attended. Eren was the lowkey producer type that makes beats to rival the greats. Connie is a rising hip hop artist and Ony is a cross between Trap Soul and Rap. Mikasa was the soulful girl with a beautiful voice. You knew Ony never missed studio time for nothing, so you knew he was struggling.

"When last did he show up." Y/N asked Eren with some concern in her tone.

"Probably 2 months ago before that it was 3 months before that. Look you don't have to force yourself to talk to him or bear his wounds or help him heal from the mess he made on his own. It ain't your job to, What I'm asking is if you can hear him out even if its 5 minutes if you can't then Imma tell him to drop it."

You sat in silence for a bit truly wondering what to do, so you turned to Sasha. "Honestly I want to hear him out, I do but I need more time. I know everyone thinks I forgave Annie so easy, but Ony and I had something deeper than Annie and I had even with our years of friendship. Ya we were fighting and at odds that time but..I know I'm being dumb cause Annie is just as responsible as he was. I just need to clear my head some more."

Connie took a toke of his joint and passed it to Eren then Eren to Sasha. Sasha pulled out her phone and connected it to the speakers in your apartment and started playing L.E.S by Childish Gambino. They all passed the joint around the room you took a few hits here and there. Eren was mindlessly scrolling through his IG to see Ony posted a 15 sec video on IG with a link in the caption to his YouTube to his latest track Amphetamine.

Eren blurted out with a bit of shock, "What the fuck, Ony just dropped a new song. It looks like he changed his artist's name from Ony to Soro. I mean he mentioned the change last time he came in the studio. Yo Sasha disconnect real quick lemme listen to this real quick."

Sasha disconnected her phone to allow Eren to pull up the track. " The song is almost 8 mins WTF is Ony on" Eren says.

The beat kicks in with this smooth, laid-back vibe that immediately hooks you in. Everyone's silent giving the track a listen.

" It's like an amphetamine, how it marinate on my mind (stuck on me, yah) Got no doubt I'll be alright, if I just make it through the night."

You can hear, almost feel the range of emotions in the song. You can hear Ony's voice pouring out his feelings. The beat changes around 2:48 seconds in giving a whole different vibe to the song.

"Shawty cold as December, I still fold her, no Manila B-b-b-brr wit me baby, I hibernate, smoke the lettuce."

Everyone was vibing with the song until they heard Mikasa's voice drop on the track around 4:28 Everyone a bit surprised since Mikasa doesn't easily do features even if it's with her friends. Connie laughed a bit "He got Mikasa on this with him. Damn he really went all out. Aye Eren aint this the same beat he said he didn't want around 5 maybe 6 months ago?" Eren laughed thinking back to when he played this beat for Ony, and he said he hated it. Ony owed him big time for this, but he'll circle back to it. As the song finished. You sat with your eyes full of tears. You thought to yourself that you could feel every emotion Ony sang about in the song. The loss of their relationship, his struggles with his mental health and so much more.

Connie was the first the chime in when the song ended "Damn that was.... deep." "Yah it was Ony really flipped the script on this one." Eren chimed in.

Eren got a notification that Ony was live on IG. He clicked on it. He saw he was talking about his just dropped song and other usual shit that's going on in his life.

Ony's eyes were the newfound usual shade of slight bloodshot red from smoking and hardly any sleep. He was reading off a comment asking him who inspired him to write the song. he responded with "Someone but also no one."

Ony's voice flowed through the speakers in your apartment causing Eren to disconnect his phone to watch the live a bit easier.

He commented saying "Fire track man, wish you'd let me know you were droppin a song man."

Ony read the comment out loud and smirked and said "Sorry man. I wanted it to be a personal project, but I owe you one big time for the beat."

Ony and Eren were engaging in their usual banter in the comments of Ony's Instagram live. You were deep in thought when Ony read aloud a comment from someone claiming his song was inspired by his ex-girlfriend. Ony and you had a semi-public relationship, which is due to his rising fame as a Trap Soul/rap artist.

Ony sighed, his mind drifting back to the last time he saw you in person, when you came to return his belongings from your place. He had seen you around campus since then, but it simply wasn't the same. His response was "It was inspired by pain. Pain of loss, loss of love, loss of hopes, loss of dreams. Loss of self. She's part of something I lost in my life."

Ony paused, his gaze drifting off as he recalled the bittersweet memories. He took a deep breath, trying to push away the ache in his chest as he continued, his voice laden with emotion. "So yeah, she's part of what I lost, but 'Amphetamine' is also about finding myself again. It's about reclaiming my voice, my truth, and pouring it all out into my music."

A faint smile tugged at the corners of his lips, though sadness lingered in his eyes. "Maybe one day she'll hear this song and understand. Understand that she's not just a memory, but a muse who ignited something within me, something I'll carry with me forever."

With that, Ony concluded, the weight of his words hanging heavy in the air. The live disconnected indicating he ended it abruptly.

As the live session ends abruptly, the room falls into a heavy silence. You, sits with a mix of emotions swirling within yourself. Ony's words echo in your mind, resonating deeply with your own conflicted feelings. You can't shake the sense of nostalgia and longing that his music and words evoke. Sasha breaks the silence, her voice soft yet determined. "Y/N, are you okay?" she asks, her concern evident.

You took a moment to collect your thoughts before responding. "I don't know, Sasha," you admit, your voice barely above a whisper.

Sasha nods understandingly, her eyes reflecting empathy. "I get it. It's hard to hear someone express their pain so openly, especially when it's intertwined with your own." Eren chimes in, his tone reflective. "Yeah, but maybe that's what he needs right now. It's better than him bottling it up and tryna smoke it all away."

Connie exhales a puff of smoke, his expression contemplative. "True, but it's also a lot to unpack. Y/N, you don't have to rush into anything. Take your time to process everything, to figure out what you need and want. What Ony did was messed up"

You nod, grateful for your friends' support. "Thanks, guys. I think…I think I need some time alone to sort through my thoughts."

With that que, Eren, Sasha and Connie left your apartment. you walk through your apartment heading to your room, the melody of Ony's song still echoing in your mind. Your emotions even more confusing than when you talked to Ony earlier. You looked at the time. It was almost 5 am. You decided to shower and head back to bed, hoping to get some rest before class.

Your mind was restless, torn between Ony's latest track and his words during the IG live, you were conflicted. On one hand, you acknowledged missing him, but on the other, infidelity was something you could never condone in a relationship. You recognized a desire to listen to his explanation, yet you feared your heart might not endure his version of the events.

The weight of Ony's words hangs heavy in the air, suffocating your mind with intense thoughts. Alone amidst the dim glow of your bedside lamp, the words "Maybe one day she'll hear this song and understand." taunt you with the possibility of reconciliation and closure. You thought to yourself "How could I ever hope to understand the depths of his pain when my own wounds still bleed with the memory of his betrayal?"

Finally entering your room, you sink onto the edge of the bed, burying your face in trembling hands, desperate to silence the cacophony of thoughts threatening to consume you.

"Take your time to process everything, to figure out what you need and want." Connie's words echo faintly in her mind. With a trembling sigh, you rise from the bed, your steps faltering as you make your way to the bathroom. The steady stream of water cascades over your trembling form, washing away the tears that stain your cheeks.

"It's 5 am. I should try to get some rest before class," you think to yourself. Climbing out of the shower, your limbs feel heavy. Wrapping yourself in a towel, the fabric offers a feeble shield against the lingering chill. You dress slowly, abandoning your usual routine for the simple comfort of bed, seeking to calm your mind. Eventually, you drift into sleep, the confusion in your heart, perhaps even greater than before.

*Slight Time Skip*

You finished up her class for the evening, your Textile Science class drained your mind. you run into Eren, Connie, Armin and Pieck in the courtyard chattin it up.

"Yo, Y/N!" Armin hollered, his grin wide as he motioned for her to come over. You gave a small nod, casually strolling over as they kept chattin'. It helped take your mind off things for a sec.

"So, y'all ready for tonight?" Armin asked, his eyes sparklin' with excitement. "Tonight?" you echoed, feeling a bit lost.

Armin leaned in closer, speakin' low like it was a secret. "The party, It's goin' down at my place. everybody's rolling through." You thought about if Ony was gonna be there since going Armin's parties was one of their go to things as a couple.

You shifted uncomfortably, tryna come up with an excuse to bail but before you could say anythin', Sasha and Mikasa slid through, bringin' a burst of energy to the scene. "Hey, y'all!" Sasha greeted; her smile infectious as she pulled you into a hug.

Mikasa gave a nod, her expression serious as she peeped Y/N with concern.

"Y/N, you gotta come through tonight," Pieck chimed in, her voice smooth and persuasive. "You never show up to the parties, and it's gonna be lit." Y/N hesitated, caught between the comfort of being alone and the fear of missing out on the squad's vibe.

Just then, Ony strolled past, casting a shadow over Y/N's mood. She felt a surge of anger bubbling up inside, memories of their messy situation flooding back.

Armin, clueless as ever, turned to Ony with a hopeful grin. "Yo, you coming tonight, Ony?"

Ony glanced at you for a sec before turning back to Armin, his face unreadable. But before he could answer, you spoke up with fire in your voice. "I ain't showing if he's gonna be there," you stated, pointing your finger at Ony with a fierce look.

The air got heavy; the tension thick enough to cut with a knife. Y/N's heart raced as she waited for Ony's response. But instead of coming back at you, Ony just nodded quietly, his eyes holding a hint of regret before he dipped out.

You caught the concerned glances of your friends. You knew your emotions were a bit confusing being torn between wanting to hear him out, missing him then not wanting to be around him. Even though almost much time had passed, her emotions still felt raw.

You looked around to your friend group who was gauging your reaction to seeing Ony. Each stare, felt like a trap a push to make a decision you weren't ready for.

"I can't do this," you muttered, your voice barely above a whisper as you took a step back, your eyes darting between your friends and a mental escape route. Sasha's hand on your arm stopped you in your tracks, her grip firm yet gentle. "You can't run from this forever, Y/N, you're gonna have to address this or find the will to move on" she said softly, her eyes reflecting a depth of understanding. You stared at Sasha's face trying to gauge her facial expression and reaction "I know, Sash I know." you whispered hoarsely, your voice cracking with emotion. "But I'm not ready to face him, not yet. I don't know if I ever will be."

With that said you turned and left them there, briskly walking back to catch an uber back to your apartment.

----------------------------While you left-----------------------------------

Eren stared at Armin, scoffing with annoyance "Bro, how you gonna forget they ain't together no more? Ony straight up did her dirty with Annie."

Armin sighed and took a step back. "I know but they're both my friends and I want them both to be happy and come out more. guess I messed up by asking them out around each other. It's just that we hardly get to chill with both of them around, you know...it's tough."

Eren shook his head, his frustration evident in his furrowed brow. "I get that, Armin, but you gotta realize it's not just about them being happy. Ony really hurt Y/N, man. And seeing him around just brings back all that pain."

Armin's shoulders slumped in defeat, his expression reflecting the weight of his guilt. "I know, Eren, I know," he muttered, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "I just... I don't know how to fix this mess."

Sasha, who had been listening quietly, spoke up with a sympathetic tone. "Maybe there's no quick fix, Armin. Sometimes all we can do is give them space and time to heal, you know?"

Connie nodded in agreement, his expression serious. "Yeah, sometimes the best thing we can do is just be there for them when they're ready to talk or when they need us."

Armin sighed; his gaze heavy with regret. "You're right," he admitted, a sense of resignation settling over him. "I just hope they both find their way through this, somehow."

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#aot angst #aot onyankopon #onyankopon x reader #onyankopon x black y/n #ony x black reader #ony aot #aot x black reader #aot x you #aot x reader #black reader #black tumblr #sherewrytes #connie springer #sasha blouse #eren yeager #eren jaeger

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cultofdixon · 4 months

Text

The sky is falling

Daryl Dixon • She/Her Pronouns • When the shelf collapsed on Bob, it wasn’t just Bob under there…and he didn’t get the worse of it • ANGST/SFW • TW: Concussion / Injuries / Unconsciousness / Illness / Mentions of Nightmares / Sleep Deprivation

Requested by: Anon

“Alright. We go in, stay in formation for the sweep” Sasha stated the plan in regards to entering the supermarket a few of them spotted on a run a while back. “After that, you all know what you’re supposed to look for. Any questions?”

“Was there ever a time that you weren’t the boss of me?” Tyreese questioned his sister who couldn’t help the smirk on her face.

“You had a few years before I was born” then the group started to flood into the building.

Except Bob lingered for a moment staring at half of a walker. Y/N took note of his lag and waited for him at the doors that when he turned toward her, she gave him a questioning look in matters of if he was okay or not. All he did was nodded before the two caught up with the others.

Everyone explored the place for what they needed, and of course whatever they needed. Daryl kept to himself mainly keeping an eye out for the standard essentials: food, water, meds…the good stuff. He occasionally would stop when he would find Y/N knelt down to the floor examining something which peaked his interest but before he could go question it, Glenn stepped over kneeling beside her.

“What are you doing?” He kept his voice low, in case of walkers. They all were.

“When I worked retail we kept some overstock in bins under or on top of the aisles…I know this place was used as a quarantine base and people were in here. But it’s worth a shot” Y/N reached carefully to feel for any pull and when she felt something, she tugged on it resulting in the overstock she had mentioned. “Jackpot”

“Thank god you agreed to come with us on this run. How long has it been since you’ve left the prison?” Glenn comments while repeating the action to another 4x4 section and flagging Sasha over to do the same on the opposite side of Y/N.

“Since uhm. Andrea.” Y/N gave him a sad smile before standing up and leaving the two to rummage through everything. Glenn watches her step away and gave Sasha a concerned look.

It’s been some time in the store and Y/N went from being with the group to lingering around after she had grabbed what was asked of her. She wasn’t doing what the others were doing after they had grabbed what they needed for the community. There was plenty of interesting finds that some had grabbed but she didn’t think much of anything she saw. Except for this dorky little keychain at one of the cashier displays, it made her smile and he noticed it.

“Y/N, mind giving me a hand with something? Can’t seem to find what I’m looking for” Bob silently called for her as Y/N quickly pulls herself away to help.

Daryl quietly revealing himself from the aisle he was watching her from and approached the cashiers to take a closer look at what she was looking at. It was indeed a dorky looking keychain of a kiwi. But right as he picked it up that’s when the crash happened.

“You alright?” Daryl asked the second he came over to the fallen wine shelves that were crushing whoever was under there.

“Y-Yeah I’m alright. I don’t think Y/N is though” Bob’s voice was hoarse and in a panic as Daryl quickly ran around the other side to find Y/N facing away from him but when she heard the rushed footsteps she slowly turned her head revealing the head lac.

“Hey, hey—-You with me? You gotta stay with me” Daryl states watching her eyes struggle to stay open.

“Y-…Yeah” Y/N groaned out as she tried to push against the shelf but given her state and the instability of it. It wasn’t a good idea.

“Don’t try and move. We’re gonna get yea both out” Daryl states about to get up when he heard her cough out a ‘wait’, making him instantly go back down. “You’re okay. You’re gonna be okay”

“D-Don’t go” Y/N’s voice cracked when saying such as her anxiety made this situation a whole lot worse but her head was also pounding at an uncomfortable rate that it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that she may be concussed.

“Alright. I’m staying.” Daryl reassures as he lifts his head up finding Zack already rushing over and quickly scanned around for another body, said being Tyreese. “Hey! We need a hand” and without a second thought, the man came rushing over helping the other lift the shelf off Bob first.

“What happened?!” Glenn yells over a few aisles when he heard the crash.

“Bob and Y/N are under some shelves!” Zack stated helping secure the shelf stay upright before moving onto the one right next to the middle one, the one Y/N is under.

“I was moving fast, man. I drove right into the drinks” Bob’s voice shook as he spoke while Tyreese gave him a quick hand up.

“You lucked out. If this thing had come down on you the wrong way—-“

“It did on Y/N, now hurry the fuck up and help me get this thing up and off her as well” Daryl interrupted his anger overshadowing his worry.

Right as the three lifted the one next to the one on top of Y/N, the roof collapsed in resulting in the others flocking over to the sound.

“Yeah, uh, we should probably go now” Glenn urges hearing the archer growl in annoyance.

“Y/N’s still stuck in there. Gotta get her outta there” Daryl snaps approaching one side of the shelf as Zack, Tyreese, and Bob joined him to get it lifted.

“I’ve got you covered until she’s out” Michonne states unsheathing her katana and slicing through the occasional walker as they seem to continue to fall from the sky.

The walkers were getting too much and they had to slowly start abandoning the idea of getting Y/N out and take care of the undead coming to give them more of a window.

“damn…sky is falling…” Y/N choked out as she took note of the crawling walker coming close to her while the commotion only continued around the scene. I’m going to die kept repeating in her already aching mind.

“We have to get her out now if we all are gonna make it” Zack states picking up the shelf making Y/N shift slightly but when she tried to sit up she immediately went down.

The archer quickly grabbed the crawling walker by the ankles pulling it back before crushing its skull with his foot. He quickly then ran over to Y/N carefully picking her up bridal style while Zack kept the shelf up.

What happened next…wasn’t..pretty.

A couple hours passed and the group returned to the prison, missing one of their people due to the usual unfortunate turns of events. The news had to be broken and Daryl took it upon himself to go deliver such while the others settled back in.

Beth was writing away in her journal when she heard footsteps to find Daryl by her cell door.

“Hey”

“Hi”

“What is it?” Beth asks with a hint of curiosity but given Daryl’s composure, her shoulders fell slightly.

“Zack” Daryl clears his throat keeping his gaze to the floor.

The young Greene kept silent for a moment before asking if he was dead, only for silence to be her straight answer. Beth quietly got up from her bunk approaching the sign she has that would hang up in some companies this workplace has had ___ days without an accident and removed the three in front of the zero. Making a whole month accident free back to zero. She knew he was still standing there and gave him a confused look.

“What?” Beth quietly approaches the cell door relaxing a bit. “I don’t cry anymore, Daryl. I’m just…glad I got to know him, you know?”

“Me too…” Daryl frowns bringing his gaze back onto the floor watching her feet come into view and a small nudge from her to get him to look back at her.

“Are you okay?” Beth questions, not receiving an immediate answer and decided to ask about what she does know. “Does it have to do…with Y/N? My daddy and the new doctor checked her out. A few stitches and a bad concussion”

“Yeah. Uh. I ain’t talkin’ about it” and on that note, Daryl stepped away knowing damn well he would’ve screamed if he heard the slightest reassuring thing.

He was taking it as his fault when it wasn’t.

The night only continued to stress Daryl out as he avoided her cell even if every fiber of his being fought against him. He took that night watch to be outside of the prison and let the cool night air try to flood the thoughts out. But it was ultimately failing.

________

Y/N latched onto Daryl making it difficult for him to try and get her in the backseat of one of the cars. He decided to just climb in with her and hold her the entire ride while Michonne took his bike back to the prison.

When the group initially returned, Rick knew of their return by the sounds of honking which they weren’t supposed to do because the wall was already weakening and the sound will only attract more to push it.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Rick asks Glenn who was driving as he quickly parks.

“Sorry we need Hershel, or Caleb. Whoever is available” Glenn didn’t even let Rick continue to scowled him as the retired sheriff nodded before running inside to get either of them while Sasha helped Daryl carefully get Y/N who about half way home started to complain about the dizziness that when she got out of the car she didn’t mean to shove Daryl off but she wasn’t about to vomit on him.

Y/N hunched over by the side of the car throwing up once more as she didn’t feel any better. Daryl stuck by her side holding her hair back as Tyreese tossed over his canteen to his sister who knelt down while opening it to try and get Y/N to take a sip. But the world was spinning for her that she tried to reach for it before failing and collapsing against the archer.

“GET FUCKING HERSHEL OR SOMEBODY ALREADY” Daryl snaps not caring for any kid within earshot of his cursing as he picked her up once more deciding to shorten the distance to wherever the docs are.

Soon Daryl found himself hovering outside Y/N’s cell while Caleb got the stitches done for her small head lac while Hershel kept asking questions that one would ask someone who’s concussed.

Do you know where you are

What’s your name

How old are you

Granted the man couldn’t ask what day it was or stuff like that because it is the apocolypse and time became irrelevant but she still answered the ones he asked.

“She’s going to be fine. But we’ll do hourly neuro checks.” Caleb states finishing the stitches and applying the bandage.

“I’ll stay with her to keep her up a little while longer just so we know she won’t hurt herself further with the concussion.” Hershel adds while Caleb cleans up.

Y/N was about to tell something to Daryl but when she looked at the door, he had walked away.

________

She was being taken care of. That wouldn’t have stopped him from also hovering but he was afraid of her slipping and losing her in the process.

Daryl was about to light his cigarette when he heard small tapping on the glass of the watchtower. He looks over and can barely see the small pebbles hitting the glass as if someone was trying to get his attention.

When he stepped out to investigate by shining his flashlight to whoever it may be. His anxiety rose when he saw Y/N standing at the surface hugging a blanket.

Y/N waited patiently for him to come down and she was prepared for his line of questioning.

“Why are you doing out here?”

“Rick came to check on me about an hour ago…told me where you were when I asked about you. Thought you could use a blanket”

“There’s…” Daryl knew she would do this, she’s done this before whenever he had watch. Come bring him things he didn’t exactly need but he appreciated it every time. “Why aren’t you in bed?”

“I…it’s..stupid” Y/N frowns averting her gaze while hugging the blanket close as Daryl stepped forward bringing him close to her.

“You can trust me”

“I can’t stop thinking about it…almost dying.” Her voice was low as she gently touched the bandage keeping her eyes still averted. “I…Uh…when the realization hit under the shelf and the roof was caving in…I just thought I was going to die and wouldn’t be able to say anything”

“…wouldn’t be able to say anything?”

“Wouldn’t be able to tell y—-“

“Y/N?” Maggie’s voice caught them both off guard as she approaches the two realizing she walked into something but saw past it for what she’s out there for. “My daddy is looking for you. To put a new bandage on”

“I could’ve done it my—-“

“Nah, go get checked by the doc” Daryl interrupts this time as he carefully took the blanket from her grasp. “I appreciate this…and we’ll talk later”

Y/N gave him a soft smile and a nod before leaving to go do such, leaving Maggie alone with Daryl a moment as she waited for their friend to enter the prison for her to speak up.

“I know how scary today was for yea. Next time, just tell her” Maggie gave him a small smile before going back to bed.

Then it seemed to only go down hill for everyone since that day. When the outbreak happened, Daryl instantly ran to where Y/N stood over one of the turned she had taken out and brought her into his embrace carefully. She quickly latched on holding onto him for a moment, or at least until they had to move the bodies and hold a council meeting.

Next to happen was turning Cellblock A into a Quarantine Zone, getting a group together to go out and get drugs, and take care of the fence. So much was happening…

That when the group were leaving the veterinary college after grabbing what they can. Bob dropped his bag into a sea of walkers as he gripped onto the strap to dear life tugging it back ignoring the others telling him to let it go. He swiped it hard enough to bring it back on the awning they stood on, the bottles clanging caught everyone’s attention especially Daryl’s.

Daryl knelt down picking up a bottle of booze slowly standing and giving Bob a glare. “You got no meds in your bag?” He shakes the bottle watching Bob try and look away. “Just this?”

Bob’s silence only started to brew the anger inside of him.

“You should have kept walking that day.” Daryl scoffs about to chuck the bottle, hearing Bob say ‘don’t’ while holding his hand over his gun.

The archer quickly got up in the man’s face keeping his ground as Tyreese and Michonne watched it unfold. The second he grabbed Bob’s vest, Tyreese spoke up.

“Just let it go, Daryl. The man’s made his choice. Nothing you can do about it” Tyreese states as Daryl releases Bob from his grasp. “Just gotta let it go”

“I didn’t want to hurt nobody…” Bob states keeping his gaze to his feet. “It was just for when it gets quiet. Would’ve never grabbed it now if she wasn’t in the aisle that day.”

That’s when he snapped and instead of chucking the bottle in that moment, his fist met Bob’s face making him drop harshly onto the fragile awning they stood on getting him dangerously close to the herd of walkers. Daryl knelt down to his level and before Tyreese could intervene, Michonne stopped him giving her friend the benefit of the doubt.

“You almost got the woman I love killed that day.” Daryl hissed out making Bob flinch as he drops the bottle by his face. “Take one sip. When those meds get in our people, I will beat your ass into the ground. You hear me?”

And with that Daryl left ahead of the others, no more words were exchanged.

#cultofdixon #the walking dead #daryl dixon #daryl dixon x reader #daryl dixon fanfiction

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alenseress · 4 months

Text

"Oh. Hah."

Elias makes his way in without much commotion to it. There's certainly enough space around Jon's somewhat limp body sticking out like a sore thumb in the middle of the doorway and he makes use of it, eventually stopping to neatly fold his coat. Jon is not entirely sure he finds it in him to be surprised. Or scared. Or, maybe, he just doesn't have enough will of his own left to feel pretty much anything.

"Take the shoes," he clears his throat out, trying to find his voice. "Take the shoes off. Georgie doesn't—"

"I know."

Of course.

"Of course," he blinks first and shuts the door second.

They go by a kind of move-stare-follow protocol while Elias proceeds to make himself at home. Although it's mostly Jon doing the staring, Elias doesn't look at all. He walks across the flat blindly, like his muscles remember the floor and the corners. Jon supposes they might, in some omniscient and messed up way.

"Charming," Elias proclaims dryly at the thin mattress Jon came to inhabit.

"Indeed," Jon echoes.

Seeing the man plop down gracelessly in his thick flannel suit doesn't have the same effect anymore. Jon used to think it was some weird corporate thing, something they'd teach you at a workshop about great leadership. Make yourself approachable. Sit down with them on a dusty curb in the back alley, share a cigarette, address them by their names. Crush a man's scull into a purée in their office. Make them feel. Make yourself human.

"Don't," Elias said softly as Jon takes a breath in.

He reaches out a hand that Jon doesn't take. Instead, he sits at the opposite end of the mattress, feeling a sudden vertigo. Elias drops the hand into his lap, palm up. "You're burning up."

Jon cracks a hysterical laugh, heavily propping himself up. He feels a tug at his chest, a yearning for a solid form beside him, spitting "fuck you" in the viper's face — a sad, childlike desire, to call for Tim like he'd make all the monsters go away in an instant. Jon squints at the hungry void across from him, all alone, he's so alone, and the monster creeps closer. Elias takes his still burning, still bubbling hand in a firm hold and tugs until the void swallows Jon whole. He watches the fall of his own body, wet forehead pressed into the wooly fabric, bones twisted in an unnatural position. Elias jolts involuntary as Jon tumbles into him but sits still for the few excruciating moments Jon needs to collect himself. Mentally, mostly, because to recuperate his body on the ground — mattress, — and push himself up against the wall proves to be easier than walking.

They sit now, shoulders and sides touching, and Jon now can't see the void. He closes his eyes to be sure and pants heavily.

"What are you doing to me?"

"Nothing. You're just dehydrated."

"Sure."

Elias sighs and runs circles over his wrist.

"I might get sick," Jon adds.

"You are."

"No, I mean." He gestures vaguely, shaking off the cold fingers. "I mean puke."

"Mhm."

Jon makes an effort to pull his knees up and double over, curling in on himself. He breathes, fast and panicked, trying to will the nausea away and the cold hand returns to pet steadily at his back. Jon feels a very particular nothing about it being there.

"You..."

Killed. A complete sentence, not even an accusations, because Jon doesn't know how to finish it. Leitner. Gertrude. Sasha. You killed me, he wants to say, even when he's still hurting and breathing.

"Time and place, Jon. There's no use to try right now."

Jon squeezes his head between his knees and wants to wail. He wants to cry more and he wants Elias to be gone. He does get away, truth be told, the mattress shifts and pangs and Jon doesn't know if this twisted delirium of his is ever coming back until Elias carefully unfolds him.

"Don't get the wrong idea," he sounds almost amused as he cradles Jon close, pushing a bottle into his hands and palming greasy hair out of the way.

Jon drinks in gulps that hurt him more than the burning and drops his head onto the bony shoulder in some exhausted kind of surrender. Elias smells like the archives. Cologne and cigarettes, too, but mostly dry rot and dust. Never sweat. Never the must of a human body. Jon feels cold terror bite at his ankles and curls up again, this time pressing himself into Elias' rigid form, nose buried in satin. He doesn't knows gods, not the way his grandmother did, but he imagines this to be the smell of those catholic statues adorn in silks and left to stale for centuries on end.

Feed your god fearlessly and without hesitation, or it will feed on you.

He feels a gentle press to the top of his head. Might be lips or something else, Jon doesn't know, but he laughs coarsely, clinging to the shirt with bloodless fingers. "Don't get the wrong idea."

He doesn't really think there are any wrong ideas left between them.

Elias hums and it echoes all around. Jon speaks again. "Is this real?"

He's not sure if he's doing the thing, but Elias scratches at the base of his skull with repulsive tenderness and answers earnestly. "It is."

"What do you want?"

"At the moment?"

"I... Yes."

"For you to sleep, preferably."

"Why?"

Jon feels his pitying gaze. Like he's a blind rat staggering in a labyrinth under a watchful eye from the above.

"There's a job to be done, Jon."

Jon pushes away with a sigh, not meeting much resistance, and buries himself into the scattered sheets. Maybe this is the kind of acceptance the underground woman felt in the face of death. He never understood it before, not before a kiss touches his temple and slips onto his cheek. He's not sure he wants the touch. He's not sure if he resents it. Papers slide across the floor, a statement he won't read, not now, not in this room. He kind of expects footsteps and shutting of doors now, but instead Elias gives them some distance and seemingly settles for good, prickly eyes creeping up Jon's spine.

"Do you want to hurt Georgie?"

"No."

"Are you lying?"

"Not to you, Jon."

Jon turns his back on the monster in his bed and doesn't find it in him to care if he doesn't wake up.

#jonelias #tma #only thing I write is people yapping pointlessly

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writella · 9 months

Note

hi, sweetie! Hope you’re doing well. I just had the cutest thought that I wanted to share. And maybe if you want to add on to it as a drabble or something please feel free:) if not, then please just enjoy todays shower thoughts lol.

I’m thinking about a friends with benefits! reader and Daryl who find themselves travelling by canoe for whatever reason. And how they might get into some petty argument or even play fight that ends with them flipping the boat and the two of them just stand in the water, soaking wet and staring blankly at eachother with disappointment. Bangs sticking to your both your foreheads as the canoe slowly floats down the river along with all your dignity.

Take care! xoxo

Rocking the Boat

Synopsis: Daryl has been back home for weeks; the first attack against the Sanctuary is complete; Alexandria, the Kingdom, and the Hilltop are on their way to freedom; but nothing is the same as it was, especially not with you and Daryl. Maybe a house boat side quest will break the ice, or really, make some waves.

Details: This is set during the beginning of season 8, it includes violence, smut, a fwb relationship but feelings are involved, mutual pining, a little bit of switch Daryl and reader, and some sweetness because I think it’s just my thing at this point. ♡

A/N + Response: Hello, lovely miss T ♡ what a fun idea!! I love the imagery you set with the canoe tipping over, especially the bangs so cute— it was one of my favorite parts to write here! This is probably a bit unrealistic and much longer than I intended, so I think I might consider this a full one-shot as well as a concept, and… it’s also a bit sad? Just a little until we get to the good stuff, I promise ;) Anyway I hope you like it; let me know what you think!!

Daryl sat on Rick’s porch, his back against the poles, reloading his guns as you sped up the steps, “I think we should go back to the boats. Now.” Your voice was hurried, you had run all the way from your house, but he didn't even look up at you.

“Why would we do somethin’ stupid like that?” His voice was low, and annoyed. You didn’t expect to be greeted kindly, but at least he sounded like anything other than emotionless to you since the first time you saw him again; since the time he escaped the Sanctuary.

“There’s no one there. I saw it before I got back home. There were people with guns sitting outside the first time we saw it, but now there aren't.”

“A couple of guns ain’t gonna help us.”

“There had to have been a reason they were guarding it before.” Your words were urgent and your eyes pleaded for him to look up. “Any amount of guns could make the difference, Daryl. You know that.” You stare at him, waiting for nothing as he doesn’t respond. “Did you and Rick even find anything before you got back?” You cross your arms, “Cause it doesn’t look like it. And I think I just did.”

You had gotten separated from the group after the first attack against the Sanctuary: you ran without thinking, just trying to get away from the army of walkers stampeding the place. Straying off the usual path to Alexandria, you accidentally reencountered a place you and Daryl only saw once before. It was a time before Negan, before the Saviors. But now, remembering their jackets, and their weapons, and how their bikes looked parked at the shore, you realized those were three Savior cabin boats— fairly sized, a bit rusty, they had a shack like feel, but it was big enough to stand and sleep in. Maybe something of use could be in there, and at least it was something to do while you waited for the final attack.

Similar to Rosita and Michonne, you also got hurt by the scavengers— day zero of the war, when Sasha died— but the girls left you here, they didn’t even tell you they were going, you didn’t even see them leave. But you needed to get out too; you needed to help. “I’m going with or without you.” Your anger started bubbling at his indifference, “And I saw you talking to Tara, I know you’re planning something, so if you want to go off with her and complete your idiot side plan-”

“You’re the one with the dumbass plan.”

“- then that’s fine!” You glare at him, his eyes still so evasive, it infuriates you. “My objective is to find more weapons, before the final attack.” You lied, you both knew your objective was to rest before the final attack, “So I’m gonna go do that.”

You begin to walk briskly. You knew he was going to try to stop you. You knew he was going to come with you when he realized, yet again, he couldn’t stop you, or… you hoped he couldn’t… Sometimes you forget how much stronger he is than you. You had a smart mouth and you knew how to get a reaction out of him, or at least you did in the past, but he could pinned you down with one hand, making you completely immobile— it’s happened before. The thought makes you walk faster, heading for the nearest car. You were trying to make a point although you weren’t sure what it was. You were just tired of sitting around, tired of his treatment— mistreatment, actually. You knew he had reason to act curtly, what he went through was unspeakable, but you were still there for him, waiting, but he never came to you. Not even late at night. Not even to simply sleep.

Just as you’re about to reach the car you feel his hand wrap around your arm, you almost let it yank you. Your breath is a heavy mix of fear and excitement as he does so. Maybe you finally got something out of him. Maybe you still have it. Maybe you still have him. “We don’t got time for this,” he hissed. Then his jaw clenched, it almost looked like he was chewing on something, “but you’re forgetting the boat.”

“It’s a canoe.” You were pushing it with the retort, he was coming.

He grunts as he lets go of your arm, it slapping down to your side. You wait for him by the car as he retrieves the canoe and paddles from one of the house garages. You guys had found it a long while ago, never knowing when it would be of use. That time was now.

The ride toward the waterfront was irritable and depressing to say the least. You wanted to be around Daryl, you wanted to stop him from going off plan with Tara, but most importantly, you just wanted to talk to him; finally and for once. You all were on the biggest missions of your life, in the biggest war of your life… who knows where your fates would lie after this, but he has yet to say anything to you that didn’t involve fighting the Saviors, and even with that, he didn’t say much. He wanted to win. He was ready to do it fast. Whatever it took. That was all.

He kept shifting in his seat, short, low grunts coming out of the side of his mouth— he didn’t want to do this right now, but he knew you were just as stubborn as him, especially when it came to him. As dumb as he felt this was, it wasn’t time for another person he cares about to get hurt.

“Stop fuming,” you muttered.

He snapped back, barking your name, “We’re in a war! We could be doin’ better things right now and got me here for what?”

“Maybe so you don’t kill people we need alive right now?” You were talking about Dwight, you did more than just see Daryl talking to Tara.

His following grunt truly said typical. “You always got your nose where it don’t belong.”

You ignore him, “We should follow Rick’s plan.”

He shakes his head, ignoring you this time. He’s tired of talking about this. He’s going to go on the boat, see if there’s weapons, get Tara, and use whatever you two find to complete his own plan at the Sanctuary. This needs to be done.

“At least it’s a little over 5 miles off the out-post the Kingdom took out,” you reason, “that must be why no one is there anymore.”

Still no response. Typical, it’s your turn to think it. You let go of talking to him for now. The rest of the drive was silent as well as when you get to your destination, starting to put the canoe on water.

You look at the three small, now unguarded, boats. Only one bike was by the land and there was blood splattered on the middle house, the biggest one. Maybe the Kingdom took out the guy that was there, but there were no boats or canoes around, no way for someone to get close enough inside.

You two get in, starting to row. “There better be somethin’ good in there,” Daryl huffed. You hoped so too. Uncertainty started filling in with the reality of your awful plan. There really could be nothing in there and you really could have spent your day doing something that mattered to the cause. If these boats held anything important, why wasn’t a Savior there already? But even worse, the realization that you were acting out of desperation just because Daryl had been acting so cold… felt even more terrible.

You knew Daryl was scarred, far more than before and you were trying to be patient. You were going to let him come to you. You knew he needed time, and he was at the Kingdom for a little bit anyway, hiding out from Negan. You couldn’t even talk to him if you wanted to because of that. But now you had been planning that first attack for weeks, you were sleeping in the same place together again, but not in the same room, not touching. And again, you understood why, but then again… you didn’t. It was so hard to gain his trust, for him to open up to you, you thought that was something you gained for keeps; but now he wasn’t even allowing you to have a friendship anymore, let alone this in-between relationship you used to have. It made you upset how much power you realized you let him have over you. You missed him so much, and now you weren’t even sure if he missed you back, or if he had reason to. Maybe it was just a fling after all.

War feels long, but it’s only a short time in truth. Nonetheless, a short time that can define who you are thereafter. This could be him, and maybe it always was. And this could be how you two will always be. Forever.

You decide to break the silence again as you row, your thoughts becoming insufferable: “That’s actually not the right technique,” you stutter, “if- if you’re curious.” You start to row based on what you taught yourself, the canoe going just a bit faster now, “I read it in a book from Deana’s old library.”

“So you read somethin’ in a book and now you think you know everything?” His eyes were annoyed. “Hmph.”

Your voice raises, “Well just because you’re so experienced in the wilderness or whatever doesn’t mean you know everything either.”

“I’m doin’ it fine.” He wasn’t. “You don’t even know how to swim.” You didn’t. “So maybe just be glad you ain’t dying today.”

You repeat yourself, “Still- doesn’t- mean- you know how to do everything… You expect me to think Merle took you canoeing? Of all things?” You cock your head, “Pretty sure he was out finding the next score.” You knew it was a low blow to bring up the dead brother, but you were upset. No talking and now insults? You could be cold too, even colder, even if you didn’t like it.

“Shut up.”

“You shut up!”

Then you screamed. A walker with gills, swimming in the water approached your boat behind Daryl. Your voice made him turn around to see it. You take your paddle to try to stab it in the head, but the walker’s hands are along the canoe rim, coming closer to you, it makes you accidently hit Daryl with your swing. “Oh- Sorry!”

“Fuck!” He yelled.

“I’m sorry!” A realization comes, “Is this the guy?”

“If it was he’s been dead for a while.” Daryl shouts, taking out his gun and you take out your knife. He’s trying to shoot the walker in the head, it’s closer to your side now. But you’re thrashing and water is flying while you try to jab them in the head with your knife. The walker has one of your arms and you’re trying to pry it away with the hand that has the knife. Neither of you have a clear shot at getting the thing, all three of you rocking the canoe far too much.

“Stay still!” He yells at you.

“Im trying!” You shout with the same force, the same annoyance, “He’s not making it easy, Daryl!”

Daryl has a chance to shoot the walker in the stomach, and he takes it, but it does nothing. The walker’s hands on you do not quit. The two of you just keep yelling at each other, riling the walker up. You can hear the biting sounds they’re making near your arm.

He shoots again, but you and the walker are still moving too much and Daryl’s loosing balance. The walker is tipping the canoe with their hands, water splashing inside. The next bullet goes into the wood, making a hole.

Their starving mouth continues to try to bite at you. You pull using all your strength to get their mouth away, trying to use your other hand to slice into their head. You two have never seen a walker like this: they can swim and they’re so strong.

Water now fills the boat from the hole as Daryl moves forward on the canoe, pushing your head, his hand quite literally covering your whole face to shove you out of the way, getting a clear shot at the walker and firing at their head. He clicks twice: Boom. Boom. Guts and water fly everywhere.

The splashing of the water and the firing of his gun overwhelms all your senses. The weight of Daryl is on your side now, neither of you have balance; both your weights pull the canoe over the edge as it flips over entirely with you under it.

You scream, but your voice is muffled. You thrash around, trying to use what little experience you have. You come above water for a few seconds, wailing, and Daryl grabs you.

“Hey- Hey- Hey!” his words snap, rough like barks until he gets you to look at him, gripping your face so it’s forward. “It’s okay,” he’s breathing almost as heavy as you are. His voice becomes even now, “It’s okay.” You realize he has you in his arms— it really was okay.

Feeling he might make a comment about you almost drowning, you force yourself to speak through water filled lungs, “Don’t. Say it.”

So he didn’t. He just holds you tight, you even feel his thumbs squeezing into you at the waist now, and through half lidded eyes, you see his arms tense, working hard to make sure you never fall, but it’s at a half arm's length, his elbows bent. You blink rapidly, your wet eyelashes still flapping shut until you’re able to open them better. You can see Daryl more clearly now.

You try to swipe some of the hair out of your face. The baby hairs at the crown of your forehead stayed slick in place while some parts of your hair started to lightly form your wave or curl pattern, but in all, you were absolutely drenched.

Your hands now hold onto his forearms just as tight as his below. It was one of those rare moments where you remember just how blue his eyes are. Their narrow shape and the way his hair lays always hides them away. But the sun was behind you, casting its light directly on him and his hair was now slick to his head as well: only some of it resting on his forehead.

If someone were to describe Daryl’s looks, they would probably say something typical like dark and rugged. They don’t see what you see. God, you forgot how uniquely handsome he was.

His hair changed colors in the light, it wasn’t as dark brown anymore, flecks of it were a more golden brown in the sun. And you loved the mole that was just above his lip and facial hair. Almost no one else in the group had something like that. And now, there was the way his button down stuck onto his skin. The color was dark enough that it wasn’t see-through, but you saw every indent, every line of his bicep and tricep as you looked at his arms, trying to avoid his face, trying to avoid his chest or anywhere lower.

On the other hand, Daryl was trying even harder to avoid looking at your soaked body, failing even worse. His eyes couldn’t help but linger on how your chest huffed as you tried to catch your breath. Your collarbones are now exposed as your shirt slides down just a bit further, the light color almost see through because of the water, and your bra didn’t help much either. It was one of those without the padding, it was the only one that fit— your supplies, food and wearable, clean clothing, were running dangerously low at home. The thin material of both top garments showed how your nipples perked up now. And the way he had to grasp tightly on the smalls of your waist, feeling your stomach inhale and exhale as you calmed yourself down didn’t help either. It was like he felt your hold body moving… similar to a way he used to feel it.

It all makes him realize now how he hasn’t gotten the courage to look at you directly in the longest. God, he forgot how pretty you are. How lovely it was to hold you. Even if it was to escape death.

Your eyes are so big as you hold on tightly to his arms, you’re still shaken up. Trying to paddle your feet like you’ve seen on tv and in videos in the past. It’s adorable.

He didn’t dare look any longer, but part of him wondered if you were looking at him the same way. And you were. Specifically, the way you could see every line and ripple of his abdomen with his button up now glued to his body. As you let your eyes trail just a bit more form his arms, you noticed how magnified his chest looked, how his nipples were just as pert as yours.

It all made you feel something warm down below and it made something inside him twitch, but this wasn’t the time. He had been feeling so many things since he returned that he didn’t even know which ones to act upon first, so he reverted back to saying nothing, or at least nothing that had to do with how he really felt, how he really felt about you that is.

In the end, “You better hope I can make one of those shits run or we’re fucked,” was all he decided to say.

He moves your hands onto the back sides of his waist and he starts to swim. Your legs are off to the sides and he tells you to kick as he is and hold on tight as he swims you both to the middle boathouse, the one with the blood.

You hold onto the ledge as you finally arrive, allowing Daryl to go in first, checking for walkers at each boat. He does the side ones first. No one is there. Finally, he goes to the middle house: out of all of them, it’s the biggest wreck. The place is filled with pictures, Polaroids, scattered all over the place. It’s of the Saviors. And there’s all kinds of guns scattered on the floor, but he can’t help but to stare at the faces. He knew some of those faces.

You call his name, but he doesn’t respond. “What was in the other two?” You yell for him again, but nothing. You decide to go in the middle one as well, your eyes are amazed by the mess of guns on the floor. There were even ones still hooked up to the wall. There were knives and daggers too. Even glass cases with various bullets, you wondered what they did. Was this the emergency weapons stash? Had you reached it before a Savior could? “Why aren’t you picking this stuff up?” You look up at him impatiently, shaking your head and huffing, you’ll do it yourself you guess.

Daryl continues to look around, picking up a frame. The only framed picture in the boat. It was cracked on the ground: A Polaroid of Negan.

He takes the picture out of the broken glass to look at it closer. As if this wasn’t already the attitude of much of the Saviors, whoever lived and protected this place must have worshiped him. Negan stood proudly in it, his bat on the side of his shoulders, a big rifle strapped around his back on the other. His hair and beard was all black, and that notorious, all encompassing grin plastered his face from ear to ear. Daryl turned the picture over: the words, ‘Negan — The First Savior. My Savior,’ was written on the back.

It fired him up. It made him think of the dark, of that cell, of the food that probably wasn’t even food, when he was kicked and jumped by those Saviors in the parking lot, and that damn song— the saccharine melody would live on in his brain like a siren. There would never be silence inside him again. In fact, there never was. It was only louder now. So loud and so angry he feels it in his throat, traveling to his tongue, beneath his eyes, as he can no longer keep it in anymore; but he tries, and tries, and tries, quietly holding everything in while you keep collecting weapons, putting them in bags you find. The picture crumples in his closing hand, his fist turning red as he grips tightly, ruining the shining paper.

He slides down against the boat wall, sitting on the ground biting his tongue, stopping the feelings until you're done; until you two can leave and he can do what he needs to do. It’ll be without you, without Rick, without anyone. This needs to be done. He’ll do it.

“Daryl,” you call out, not facing him, collecting the bags. “I think I counted 32, but it could be 40… I think there’s smaller ones by the wheel and I didn’t even get the swords yet. If there's about the same number on the other two, there could be maybe over 100 new weapons,” you gasp with disbelief. “Were the other two like this?“

You we’re relieved, you knew it was a dumb plan, but you came out of it with a win; it was worth it. “Daryl, come on-” you turn to him now, “oh.”

You almost couldn’t see his eyes with how much more narrow he made them, they were practically closed and his face was down. You wondered if this was the moment you would first see him cry: his lip quivered, his face was as red as his fists, and he wouldn’t look in your direction, his head was basically to the wall as you started to walk to him.

Your movements are slow as you kneel down to the corner in which he sat. You place fingers along his jaw until your whole hand wraps around the area. Your strokes are gentle, feeling the bristles of his beard on your palm. He had been so angry since he returned, hell bent on war and death, but you remembered… he must have also been so sad, so depressed too. Poor boy, you thought. Poor boy, you forgot; in some ways, he still was just a boy.

You turn his cheek to face you, but his eyes don’t dare meet yours as a few tears start rolling out. Your own emerge too. It’s heartbreaking to see him like this.

You put your forehead to his, your nose rubbing against his own, “I’m so sorry,” you whisper.

You come even closer. Your lips lightly touch his, you’re tentative at first, not knowing if it was right, but then you feel his brush against yours just as light. You decide to move in, your lips parting his own as you kiss him.

Your tongue goes into his mouth, your hand raising his chin, you’re so delicate. He holds your shoulder, you lean into his bent body and your other hand slides against his chest. You’re both still wet and cold, but his heart beats warmly.

His head leans up against the wall as you push yourself further onto his lips. You hold his shoulders and he allows you to slide him down.

You look up at him, your hands on his shirt. This is not how you expected today to go. “Is this okay?” You ask softly. His nod is just as soft, you almost don’t see it, but his hands are lightly on top of your own as you unbutton his shirt, he lets you. It’s okay.

He’s unbuckling his belt now, pushing his pants down and your top goes over your head. He starts to unbutton your own jeans. It’s quiet except for your breaths, and the clinking of belts, and the undoing of zippers.

You pull him out a little more from the corner so you can straddle him. You start grinding your hips down into him and he pushes into your clit with his finger, circling it. The bit of warmness you felt below before is now almost pooling out instantly from just the littlest touches. Your back arches, you haven’t felt him in so, so long. You gasp and it accidentally turns into a moan. You’re so needy for it, but you remember: you want to help him.

Your hands move down to his stomach, your lips kiss his neck as your hands travels up to his chest and then back down, you start kissing him everywhere there as you do so, breathing him in, it makes him fidgety, little gruff sounds irruption from his throat, he’s trying to keep it in. Then you got even lower: you kiss down his cock until you’re at the tip. You lick at the pre-cum there. You put just a little bit of him inside your mouth, sucking, stroking the rest of it. His exhale comes out as a shaky gasp, he whimpers slightly.

Finally, you move back up and line yourself up with him, sinking down slowly as you look him in the eyes. You can’t help it, you start to ride him immediately thereafter. The stretch feels so good and so big and full as if you’ve never felt him before. Your moan is light and airy, you missed him. And he groans, “-ugh, fuck” and moans, “uh- mm- argh,” right after you do so. He missed you. You know that now, it makes you smile.

You lean up against him slightly. His mouth parted and you speak into it, your breast brushing against him as you rolled onto him, your stomached touching a bit. “I’ve got you,” you pant into his mouth, he’s panting too, “always.”

He holds onto your hips as you go faster, you’re holding onto his shoulders. “Does it feel good?” You kiss him right after you ask, his tongue going to the top of your mouth, sliding in wet and deliciously, it’s everything you’ve waited for. He hums into you as a response. You feel his dick twitch as your pussy grips on him tighter.

You feel like you both could be close until he starts kissing you more fiercely. His tongue only slipping in slightly as he pecks your lips, he bites down slightly, then kissing you deeply again. Then he turns you over. You’re under him now. His hands go right by your ears, flat on the ground and he thrusts into you. Hard. It almost hurts, you can’t lie. He’s grunting, short and quick, but his rasp, and his hair flying as he quickens the pace, and the fact that pain is slowly turning into pleasure… you’re fine with it. If this is what he needs, you’re fine with it.

His next grunt is almost a yell, it’s like a battle cry. He’s angry and you know it. You hold onto his flex arms tenderly, caressing him, silently telling him you’re there, but you allow him to continue.

His movements are faster now. More irate. His body comes closer to yours, but his movements do not stop their force. His thrusts feels like poundings, you feel like the floor is moving, maybe the boat is rocking, the bags jump with it.

He looks at your screwed shut eyes as one of his hands comes to touch your chest. Trailing your breast, then to the bottom of your stomach, staying there, pressing down, feeling himself inside of you has he shoves himself up and in, he’s deep, so deep. “Mmm,” You’re whining now, “-uuh.” It makes his eyes lighten, he’s humming, low and gruff and continuous, stuttering into you, eyes open waiting to see you come so then he can. It’s right there for him, but he wants to see you, he needs it.

Your moan mixes into a whine, “Daryl please,” you beg, “Daryl please- it’s- it’s too much, it hurts,” it makes him go even faster, and he can’t help himself as he comes in you first, sighing as he does so, but it’s exactly what you need to come undone yourself.

You grab the back of his neck, holding it close to you as you squeeze your arms around him and he does the same to your waist.

You both try to calm your breaths, “Never leave me again,” you say into his ear, breathing roughly. “Please.”

“Never.” He looks at you right in the eye when repeats it, “Never.” He wipes the tears from your face as you both nod, affirming a new promise to each other. “We’ll win. Together.”

After laying for a few moments, just looking at each other, he goes to the bathroom to find a washcloth, warming it with water, helping you clean up. He takes your hand so you can start doing it yourself and he kisses your forehead before he starts to get dressed. “I’ll be back.”

Soon enough, you hear the engine in the front start to rev up. He got it to work.

“You can drive a boat?”

“Gonna learn.” He turns to you, pulling you in front resting your hands on the wheel while he stands behind, his arms over your own. “We both are.”

#daryl dixon smut #daryl dixon x reader smut #daryl dixon x reader #daryl dixon imagine #daryl dixon fanfiction #daryl dixon x female reader #daryl dixon x afab!reader #daryl dixon x y/n #daryl dixon #the walking dead smut #the walking dead fanfiction #twd smut #twd fanfiction #wonders with writella #wonderings with daryl #💌 ask answered 💌

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nightfall-kachiniko · 10 months

Text

༅ ｡ₓ AOT girls (+hange) reacts to you crying during an argument…

paring: mikasa x reader, annie x reader, pieck x reader, hange x reader, sasha x reader.

˗ˏˋ꒰ ☁️ ꒱

𓏲·˚ ͙ mikasa

- you felt your heart bang with every word that came out of your wife’s mouth. her voice riddled with irritation at your lack of understanding, as you continued to go back and fourth. “I don’t like the idea of you out there for that long!” You shouted, desperately trying to explain. “You’re being dramatic,” she said, “it’s apart of my job, y/n. Theres nothing I can do about it!” It felt like you two had been saying the same thing over and over again. “6 months? Halfway across the world?! And you’re okay with that?!” You shouted angrily. “I have orders, y/n. I don’t have a choice.” She said sternly. “And there is nothing I can do or you can do to change that!” her aggressive words hit you in the heart as you felt your eyes start to water. the air was finally quiet for a few moments as you processed everything. ‘she has to. It’s her job. i need to understand that…’ you thought. But you just couldn’t. you just couldn’t stand the thought of mikasa being gone that long. the silence finally broke in the air as your voice choked up “I just don’t want you to leave me..!” your voice broke, as the tears you’d been holding in did aswell. You choked out sobs, deep, heavy, sobs, as your voice shattered sentences of incoherent. Mikasa froze for a moment, before her gaze went soft as it lied on you. her warm embrace laced hands around your figure as it held you tightly, her eyes filling with sadness. “Oh..don’t cry love..” she whispered as your cries continued, her arms wrapping lovingly around you. “I know darling, I know this is hard.” Mikasa said, as her hand raised your face from your palms to look you in the eyes. her fingers caressed tears off your face as she helped you calm down. “I promise you, I’ll never leave you.. no matter what distance lays between us.”

𓏲·˚ ͙ annie

“You never listen to me! Ever! I mean fuck y/n why do I even bother at this point?!” Annie shouted angrily, her tone filled with more rage than usual. It started off as a dumb couples fight to now a full on argument spurring out angered insults with mindless thinking. “Oh really? You’re one to talk! That’s all you ever do is blame everything on me!” You spat back. Annie’s figure swiftly turned around to face you, “you’re the one that starts shit y/n, not me.” she sternly said. “I put up with your shit every day for the past 5 years. 5 YEARS Y/N! I’ve had to mother you! I’ve had to care for you! IM BASICALLY A GODDAMN BABYSITTER!” Her screams rang in your ears as you closed your eyes, her aggressively packing her bags.“Seriously?” You mutter out, “I’ve sacrificed friendships, I’ve sacrificed LIVES for you! I’ve sacrificed everything just to be with a warrior! I’ve done so much for you!” you screamed back. Annie looked at you, her eyes as stern as ever. “ All you’ve ever done for me is cause me problems,” her voice was serious, her voice was real. i think that’s the part that hurt the most, the fact that her voice said what her mind wanted to. and she was being honest. The anger you once had in your eyes faded to a soft gaze as you felt your heart shatter. Your eyes filled with tears as you stayed silent, trying not to cry. “That’s all you ever do.” Annie sternly said, failing to realize your soft whimpers would soon break into sobs. as you felt your world crashing down on you as tears streamed down your cheeks, your palms held your face in your hands as you cried. Annie turned back around from stuffing a shirt in her suitcase, her eyes landing on you. she stayed silent as you cried, not knowing what to do. But what she did know, that she really fucked up. Annie glanced at your figure, feeling that out of regret and guilt arise in her stomach. She softly came towards you, her arms carefully wrapping around your body as you dug your head into her shoulder, sobbing. “I’m sorry..” she whispered into your hair. “I’m sorry..” she said a bit louder. But you could tell from the tone in her voice, that she was being honest.

𓏲·˚ ͙ pieck

“Please y/n, I’m not in the mood.” Your girlfriend said, tiredness on her face. “But you said you’d stay tonight..” you disappointedly breathed out. “I barley see you enough as it is. You can’t just stay a few hours?” the woman turned around swiftly to look at you, “I don’t know how many times I have to repeat myself. I said no y/n, what part of that do you not understand?!” Her aggressive response caught you off guard, your air feeling more heavy around you. “..you don’t have to yell at me pieck..” you softly muttered out before she cut you off. “Well sometimes you just don’t fucking listen!” She shouted aggressively, taking out her anger on you. “Pieck stop! I don’t want to fight with you!” You called back, trying to calm her down. “Then stop being so needy all the time and let me rest!” She replied. Her words made you feel like a burden as you felt your chest get tighter, confused and saddened as to what you did wrong. “..fine…” you sighed out, turning away to walk upstairs. You heard pieck mutter a “finally” under her breath as your vision became blurred, tears swelling up in your eyes. You turned back around in the doorway to look at pieck. “..I’m sorry If i did something wrong..” your voice wobbled out, catching her attention. Pieck starred at you, tears flowing down your face as you slightly hummed soft cries. She was token aback by your state, clearly now realizing how she acted towards you. “Oh.. dove..” pieck softly said, “no..no no sweetie” the messy haired woman came over to you, her eyes fixated on your own watery orbs. Guilt plastered on her face as she hugged you tightly, making you take in a deep breath to stop your sobs from getting worse. “Honey, I’m so sorry dear.. I don’t know what gotten into me lately.. I’ve just been so stressed.. I shouldn’t of token it out on you love… I’m so sorry sweetheart please don’t cry..” she said, drying your tears with tissues. “I..know you’ve been… stressed.. and I’m sorry I just miss you…” you managed to get out in between breaths. “Im sorry darling..”

𓏲·˚ ͙ hange

The one night that you rarely have with you and hange alone, cancelled all because of some stupid paperwork they could get to in the morning? “Seriously Han?! Do you know how long we’ve been planning this?” You hear hange sigh from their desk as they touch the bridge of their nose. “I’ve told you y/n I have too many things to do! Why do I have to keep repeating myself like a skipping record?!” Hange scolded at you. Apparently this date meant more to you then it did to her. Way more. To the point they’d rather do paperwork than go on it. “You can do that shit in the morning! This is the one night we finally can go out and you’re telling me no?!” You angrily shouted at her. “Fuck hange! I’ve barley seen you in weeks! I wake up and your not there! I go to sleep and your not there! Why is everything about your fucking work?! Why is it never about me?!” You shouted at them, their face filling with more irritation than before. “I’m not saying it again.” They said, picking back up their pen and scribbling down on their paperwork. “Really? You’re really gonna do this to me?” You said, trying to not flip out on them. Hange didn’t reply, but just ignore you. “Gonna ignore me like you always do, huh?” You scoffed. A rage burning up inside you as you ranted. “You know why the hell are you even in a relationship if you’re commander?! You leave me out in the fucking dust! You act like I’m not even there! Is all I am just a fuck to you when you’re too stressed to function?! Huh?! Is that paperwork more important than me-“ “YES! FUCK ANYTHING TO SHUT YOU UP!” they yelled, cutting you off. You felt your heart sink as they screamed, going on about how you never listen, always complain, how they’re always too busy and stressed. Too focused on their rant to notice the tears falling down your eyes and your small shaky breaths. “AND I DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH ENERGY TO DEAL WITH Y-“ they cutt themself as they saw your shattered figure, your eyes filled with tears as they kept streaming like a river down your face, dripping onto the floor. ‘At least now they were quiet, huh hange?’ they thought, realizing how badly they hurt you. You just started at the floor avoiding eye contact as they breathed out a sigh, fixing their glasses. “I..c-come here love.” They said, their hand gesturing for you to come closer as they walked towards you. Hange sighed as they felt you collapse into their arms, not knowing when the last time they held you like this was. She let you sob, rubbing circles onto your back as she occasionally pressed kisses into your hair, relaxing into you. “I know I haven’t been the best partner, y/n. I’m not a good partner at all. I’m sorry.”

𓏲·˚ ͙ sasha

“I am doneee!!! Donee!! No more arguing i cant hear you!!” Sasha plugged her ears as you continued to pour out everything that was in you. From the late nights out, to the not knowing where she was. It was too much. You’d never get a serious answer, all you’d get is your concerns blown off with a ‘ehh you’re dramatic babe’ it was like she took nothing seriously. Not your emotions. Not your concerns. Not even your relationship. “Sasha fucking stop!” You yelled. “I’m trying to talk to you about something that concerns me and all you do is plug your ears and ignore me!” You cry out. “Do you even care about us at all?!” You say, to be greeted with a nonchalant “oh wow and now you think I don’t care?” Sasha scoffed, hopping off the counter. “You’re frustrating me! Ive already told you I’m having fun I’m safe I’m fine I’m not cheating on you!” They blurted out. “Sash that is not even my concern! Maybe you’d know what it is if you’d actually listen!!” You yelled out. “Oh trust me, I listen.” She bit into her Apple. “I have to listen to your insecurities all the time. And I have to deal with ‘em. I’ve gotta put up with ‘em!” She remarked back, making you even more frustrated. “Then why don’t you do anything about it?! Why don’t you care?!” “Damn it y/n I do!” “Then shut up and listen!” She laughed at your remark, confusing you. “Gosh you really don’t quit do you?” Sasha chuckled, making your blood boil. You had enough, you were so filled with rage and hurt. You felt tears start spurring out your eyes as you yelled and cried and sobbed, catching Sasha off guard. “Y/n?” She looked around, lost. “Hey-uh..” Sasha just starred at you and your broken figure, sobbing and crying. “D-did I really make you that upset..?” She questioned, taking in the state you’re in. “Babe..” they came closer to you as you muttered a “go away..” in between sobs. “Hey no nooo babe.. ah gosh..” Sasha said, trying to comfort you. “Ah..please don’t cry pretty, I’m sorry darlin’..” she hugged you tightly, pressing your figure up agaisnt hers. “I’m gonna do better honey, I promise.”

a/n: I AM SO FUCKING TIRED

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life-of-a-rat · 9 months

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I had a disturbing thought while rewatching through your reverse timetravel tag. S1!Jon doesn't know about the Fears and that there is one specifically related to eyes. How big of a chance is there of him to be secretly freaking out at seeing a Jon with multiple eyes on his face (you know, like spiders have) before things got explained to him?

I think he'd be so goddamn terrified about it and immediately jump to S2 mind frame (when he found out about Not!Sasha) of trying to keep his assistants safe and maybe try to save S5!Martin too (because he clearly is being manipulated or something since he has no spider attributes) but also be very secretive about it because he doesn't want anyone to worry until he has 'fixed' the issue (a la axe to cursed table style).

I mean, it wouldn't last long. I'm sure any misunderstanding would be solved quickly but... This thought has broken into my mind through a window and has been living rent free inside it's walls ever since I first thought it so now it lives rent free in yours too >:3

So I love this prompt so much and it has so much potential.

thing is, I can’t draw angst, but this is my best attempt

This comic took me two weeks because I am just a little boy who gets sad when he draws angst :[

Please someone who knows how to write angst redo this I hate it so much

I also made some silly doodles bc that’s what I specialize in (I totally forgot about martos glasses and had to draw them in after so they look awful)

+silly little speedpaint

#tma reverse time travel au #magnuspod #the magnus archives #the magnus archive fanart #tma #jonathan sims #tma podcast #martin blackwood #tma au #helen distortion #helen richardson

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luvbugs-blog · 1 year

Text

one bed? - featuring the aot boys

today, we have: jean, bertholdt, and reiner

in which: there's only one bed? lmao have fun! note that in reiner's part, you are a warrior that escaped back to marley with reiner after the shiganshina arc.

warnings: none. i have extreme paranoia when it comes to me writing smut, so you will not see some from me until i get better (i am literally touch-starved, so i feel like anything i write will be cringe)!

author's note: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me know what to write next. i'm literally out of ideas. either in the comments, or in my messages. i will appreciate ANYTHING.

jean

"alright everyone," hange says, "go to your respective rooms. we'll meet back up in the morning and explore some more!" she turns to leave with onyankopon and levi who were staying in a nearby hotel as to not draw too much attention.

you look around for jean, sasha, and connie who were also staying in this hotel with you. as soon as you went to grab sasha to room with, connie swooped in, and the two were so excited that they were going to have a "sleepover". you heave a small sigh.

"don't sound too disappointed." jean says, giving you a small smile. "sad you're stuck with me tonight?"

"never." you say, bumping your shoulder with his. "it will just be much harder to keep an eye on those two." jean's smile slowly slides off his face.

"oh yeah." not much you can do about it now. you grab jean's hand and pull him to go find your room.

"this is actually so interesting, being in marley. i can't believe they have actual cars!" you say excitedly, smiling while looking out the window. you couldn't believe how advanced this place is.

"you sound like hange now! keep it down before your dumbass gets us caught." you give jean a little smack.

"oh shut up." the two of you finally reach the room, and as jean opens the door, he stops halfway into the room.

"hey! get out of my way, horse-face!" jean turns to look at you, his face a little red.

"i think they gave us the wrong room." confused, you look around jean to see there is only one bed in the entire room.

"oh." the thought of spending the night with your best friend in the same bed also made you a little pink. much to your relief, jean didn't see because he was too busy hurrying to use the bathroom. in reality, he was trying to calm himself down, but you didn't know that.

your stomach was swirling as jean finally came out of the bathroom, his face wet, like he had washed it. you had to look away. of course you were nervous. you've had a crush on the man for quite a while now. but you'd rather die than admit that.

an awkward, uncomfortable silence blanketed the room. until jean spoke up. "I honestly think we should just share it. it's pretty big. and we've grown up together. it won't be awkward."

that's a relief. "yeah. as long as your big horse feet won't kick me in the middle of the night."

"hey! my feet are normal shaped!" you giggle, the previous tension gone. "yeah yeah."

the two of you chat a little bit before calling it a night. you tuck yourself under the covers, turning your back to jean. "i hope you don't snore."

"guess you'll find out tonight." the two of you try sleeping, and for a few hours, it was successful. until the room got incredibly cold. you shuffle closer to jean, but it wasn't helping all that much. you turn around, facing jean, who looked fast asleep.

"hey." silence. "hey!" nothing. so you start poking his face, and he flinches. "what?" now you're embarrassed.

"nevermind."

"oh no. you didn’t wake me up for nothing." he pokes your face. "what do you want?"

"can you hold me?"

"what?!"

"i'm cold!"

"oh. alright then, come here."

"really?"

"yes, y/n. now hurry up." so you weasel your way into his arms, sinking into his chest. he is so warm.

and in the morning, when he wakes up before you, he'll let you sleep, with your leg around his waist and his arms around you. maybe he will finally work up the courage to ask you out.

bertholdt

you were shaken. of course you were, you were kidnapped. the last thing you remember is walking away with armin on the wall, and you could faintly hear hange talking to moblit about titans that could dig. but you wake up on a tree, in the forest which was surrounded by titans. you see ymir awake, scowling at two men up on higher trees. is that eren over there? you have to blink because it's so bright, but when it finally comes into focus, you realize it's reiner and bertholdt. oh yeah. the traitors. you start breathing heavily, thinking about how it's your lover up there. ymir tries to calm you down, her eyes wide, but it doesn't work. how could he do this to you. was everything fake? were your friends still alive. why were you here? you start feeling faint, and feel hot tears pooling at your eyes. you faintly hear the screeching of odm gear coming closer, and you hear bertholdt talking to ymir, but it's too late, and you pass out once again.

when you awaken a second time, it's night. you have to adjust your eyes to try to figure out where you are. but all you see are stars. you're on the wall. you feel a hand on your shoulder.

"y/n?" you turn your head without moving your body and see him. bertholdt, who's eyes are red and swollen. you reach your hand up to hold his face but then think better of it. you let your hand fall.

"i'm so sorry. y/n, i'm so sor-"

"bertholdt!" you recognize reiner's voice and lift your body up, with his hand on your back. you shove his hand away, ignoring the hurt look on his face. you see reiner and ymir coming your way. while bertholdt and reiner whisper to each other, ymir comes to check on you.

"are you alright?" you shrug. which earns a sad smirk from ymir. shortly after, bertholdt returns to kneeling next to you, but not saying anything. after a while, you find your voice.

you turn your head to bertholdt and ask, "how did i get here?" he flinches at your strained tone, but softly explains what happened while reiner and ymir set up sleeping bags they found in the district below. you also find out the truth about bertholdt's background. about him being from marley, his mission, why he decided to become a warrior. he explained about his sick father and the oppression he received just because he was eldian.

and suddenly, your heart was conflicted. there was life outside of the walls. but they weren't free. they had the same blood you did, and they were being tortured for it. but they killed so many innocent people from inside the walls. those people didn't know what they were dying for. they didn't deserve to die. you wanted to yell and scream at him, but you also wanted to comfort him. so you cried. you cried and cried and fell into him because you were weak, and despite hating him for all he had done, you loved him. and he held you as you cried, and eventually he started crying with you. so the two of you cried until there were no tears left. in the silence left behind, you whispered to him, "take me with you. take me home with you." too weak to argue, he agreed. he placed a soft kiss on your forehead and wiped away your tears.

"ok."

what felt like hours later, reiner came to drop off the sleeping bag.

"i'm sorry, but we could only find three." while bertholdt starting insisting you take it, you just stand up and take the sleeping back from reiner, giving the man a hug, which surprised him.

"thank you. one is enough. we can share." and so you did.

you held onto his long ass body and just held each other, oozing comfort the both of you needed.

reiner

while porco and pieck were mocking him from behind, you were at his side, giggling at his little pout. you intertwined your arm with his and put your head on his shoulder, causing the two goons to laugh and mock even more. but the two of you didn't care. you guys were considered pretty close before, but after returning from paradise, the two of you were inseparable. the two of you walked along the festival, reiner occasionally having to stop to pay for gabi and the others, but never separating from you.

"oh, reiner!" pieck says, "don't forget about the meeting we have tomorrow." the both of you sigh.

"we haven't forgotten pieck," he replies. you detach yourself from reiner when you see porco beckoning to you. while reiner and pieck chatted, you were able to talk a bit with porco. the two of you wandered for a bit before reiner came to pull you away, looking a bit jealous, which porco wouldn't let him live down.

the two of you follow the children around until they get too tired and full from all the festival food. while reiner is dragging gabi around, the two of you talk about the trek you will have to make for the meeting.

"we should rent a hotel room. that way we won't have to get up too early tomorrow to travel."

"good idea!" so after dropping off the children at their respective homes, the two of you hitch a ride to the hotel nearest to HQ where the meeting was taking place. when the two of you check in, you only ask for one room, but two separate beds.

however, when the two of you went to go to sleep, there was only one bed. although, it didn't bother you two that much, as the two of you often slept over together.

so when it was time for bed, the two of you crawled in together, immediately cuddling together. you lay your head on his chest and he holds you. this was how you often found comfort when the two of you first got back from the island, often crying about bertholdt, annie, and the comrades you considered friends. and the two of you haven't stopped this little routine, even years later.

but this time felt a little different. reiner was holding you more tightly than usual. but you couldn't bring yourself to ask why because you were too tired. as you were falling asleep, you hear him whisper, "I love you." not that you would know this, but he had been telling you this for a long time when you were sleeping. so it quite surprise to him when you opened your eyes and smiled.

"I love you too." you slowly press a kiss to his lips and he graciously returns it.

author's note (again): will there be a part two? idk yet. let me know if y'all want one in the comments section. (and i know you saw my author's note up top. *suspicious side eye* you better tell me what to write next)

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strawberryblue-blog · 2 months

Text

Goodbye, Ruben. —Ruben Dias.

summary: You see Ruben again after breaking up and you realize that you never got over him

warnings: none. depression, mention of alcohol and smoking, angst.

word count: +4k.

The darkness of the night embraced you as you watched the group of people outside. You had arrived a few minutes ago at the restaurant where Jack's birthday was being celebrated but you were still outside, undecided if you really wanted to go in.

In your hands you held the present you had bought for your friend, Jack, your legs shivered in the cold of the city (or out of anxiety about facing your biggest fear). Manchester was a cold city in winter surrounded by small snowdrops that adorned the surroundings and the houses in the neighborhood. You liked Manchester, the neighborhood reminded you of your daily trips to the city center.

Many feelings crossed your mind when you saw the picture in front of your eyes, your closest friends, Jack and Sasha hugging each other while you could see the others chatting and laughing around the table. But you could especially see the new couple at the side of the table with their backs to you, chatting animatedly.

Disappointment and sadness gripped your heart and you sighed wistfully looking at them. The reason for your hesitation in coming had clearly been because of them. To think that a few months ago it was you who was under their arms in that same situation but now everything had changed.

You perked up when you saw the birthday boy get up from the table and see you standing out there. Jack smiled cheerfully inviting you in with his hand, which you had to obey taking all your thoughts away. You walked through the door and the warmth of the place greeted you, plucking up the courage to take off the jacket you were wearing and start walking towards the group of people partying.

"Hello Jack" you greeted with a smile to the man who opened his arms welcoming you in a warm embrace.

"I was just about to send someone for you" he said wrapping his arms around you.

"The subway had a delay, I apologize for making you wait" you apologized sincerely.

The truth that dealing with the tube in Manchester was a bit busy these days and after work, there were usually delays or lots of people trying to get home and it got complicated.

"The boys could have come through for you, I told you to let me know and I'd arrange everything" he continued as he broke off.

"I'm already here" you laughed and lifted the gift to reach for it. Jack shook his head with a big smile thanking you.

"Y/n!" you heard a shout behind him. Sasha appeared with her splendid aura and that gleaming smile.

She hugged you tightly and behind her you could see a few faces turning to look at you, as her scream had caught the attention of a few. Shyly you smiled a little towards them, stroking Sasha's back.

"We were waiting for you" she mentioned taking you by the hand.

You felt a little bad, they were probably hungry and tired after training but they had been kind enough to wait for you, even when you were making time out there not to come in. Sasha led you in and sat you down between Ines and Isabel, who greeted you kindly when you joined them.

You had known everyone for a few years, you had been friends with Jack since high school and Sasha always invited you to games, practices and anything that included fun. You were very grateful to them, because they had been your friends forever.

"How have you been?" asked Ines interested.

"We haven't seen you for a few months" Isabel followed her.

"Work has me busy and I'm also applying for a promotion, I have to work hard" you said trying to sound happy.

On one hand it was true, on the other it was a lie. You had already received the promotion at your job and now you were on another schedule, something you had to work hard for but you were no longer going out with them or going to see Jack for another reason.

A reason that only you knew.

"When you get the promotion, you'll have to come back and hang out with us, we miss you" Isabel mentioned and you nodded smiling.

They were very nice to you, they all were. Even the girls that you didn't have much contact with or didn't know but because they were friends with Sasha they sometimes hung out together. They always came up to you and included you even though you were nobody to them.

Your eyes met the pair of brown eyes a few feet away from you, you quickly dodged their gaze pretending to see something else. Your heart broke into a thousand pieces. The hollowness in your chest echoed and you wanted to run away but you forced yourself to keep your posture.

Ruben Dias, was sitting a few feet away from you. He looked different from the last time you had seen him a few months ago, his hair was longer not to say long, his beard was a little darker, he had even changed his style of clothing. He looked beautiful, just as you remembered.

But now he was a complete stranger.

You stirred in your seat, turning to the girls to stop feeling their presence. But it was impossible.

How were you going to pretend you didn't know him when he was all you thought about? How were you going to get over him when you guys had never had anything? How were you going to act like everything was okay when next to him was a young, beautiful woman?

You took a sip from your glass, wine was something you had never liked before but after so much sadness and loneliness, you had started to drink often when you had slumps. So you hoped that at least chatting with the girls would take the focus off their presence. The conversation became more bearable and you listened to Ines talk to you about her pregnancy, her excitement was admirable and you were happy for her. But you were starting to feel more anxious as you felt the stares on you and the pressure in your chest for not being able to get over it. So after a while of chatting you excused yourself to go outside for some air.

You put your coat back on and your bag, opening the door of the restaurant to go out into the silence. You walked down the sidewalk waving to them as they saw you smile and you reached into your purse. You grabbed the box of cigarettes and the lighter, bringing one to your mouth to light it. You had quit smoking a few months ago but lately your vices had returned and you blamed it on your depression and anxiety, something you were treating with your therapist but still couldn't quit.

The sensation of the nicotine in your system made you shiver and tears threatened to spill from your eyes. You quickly wiped them away as they slid down your cheeks.

Thoughts came snatching back against your mind when you heard Ruben's laughter above all others. Something inside you stirred and made you vibrate. He sounded just like you remembered, manly, strong and warm. And then you knew you weren't over him.

You weren't over Ruben Dias and you weren't sure if you ever could be.

How were you going to explain to your heart that you weren't who you used to be? How were you going to trick your heart into telling him that you never had anything serious? How could you believe that he could ever be in love with you? When you had clearly been a distraction to him.

Because that's how you remembered your relationship with Ruben. A distraction. Only for you it never had been.

It all started when he broke up with his last girlfriend, you already knew each other but you weren't really friends. Jack started to invite him more to your get-togethers, he even tried to get you two to go out but he was just getting out of a relationship and you weren't interested in going out at that time. But you began to grow closer with every time you saw each other, chatting animatedly and then meeting up to get to know each other. Coffee mornings, tea afternoons and delicious dinners. Which led to one thing leading to another and after so many outings together, you slept together.

You had both agreed not to tell your friends, it was obvious it had been a one time thing but then you kept doing it over and over again. Not once, not twice. You met when you could, two or three times a week, at his place or yours. Big mistake. You should have put a stop to it when you could but you decided to keep going and thought this would last.

And now you definitely regretted it.

You had really believed that Ruben would choose you. You had really believed that he would fall in love and you would be together forever. You had been deluded. You thought you guys would live in a princess fairy tale, that you had found your prince charming and all that crap.

You had never pretended that he saw you as a girlfriend, you weren't like that. But you didn't think he saw you as anyone else either. You knew he wasn't ready for that yet, he had come out of a relationship of years but at least you believed you had something real. He looked real next to you.

But now you were in a gray story, where there were no good mornings or good nights, only endless days where the only thing you wanted was to erase all your feelings for him and disappear.

Because you really fell in love with him. You had spent the whole summer seeing each other on the sly but when winter came, it was all over. Winter brought disappointment, sadness and coldness.

You hated to admit that you had fallen in love and that the idiot had been you, believing that you had something serious when you had only been a friend to Ruben. A friend he used when he needed and discarded when he found someone else. Because that's how you felt, abandoned and dirty, like you were the plague itself. There was no explanation, no reason, he couldn't even tell you to your face. He just sent a message saying you couldn't see each other anymore and then ignored any sign of you, leaving you to lie in wait with all your feelings.

But it was your fault.

You had made up this story all by yourself. There was no love, no reciprocity. You were just his fuck buddy, the one he had left with his heart on his sleeve and broke it when a week after ignoring you he showed up with his new girlfriend. A famous, gorgeous, brand name model, good body and emotional stability, everything you had been lacking. Definitely the perfect person he had replaced you with.

You were embarrassed and humiliated to come here tonight, knowing he would be here. That's why you had stopped going to games and dinners, excusing yourself with anything. You couldn't even look him in the eye without thinking how stupid you were to try to fix things between you. Which you couldn't do because he had never seen you otherwise, just his distraction when he needed it most. And you had really come to think that he was in love with you because of how he looked at you, how he pampered you, how he took you to fancy and nice places, because every morning he woke up next to you and made you breakfast, because you ran away from his friends and kissed behind his back. Because he knew everything about you, what made you strong and what made you weak, your pleasure, your personality, your essence.

You had given him your being. All of you, even though you didn't expect anything from him. And you didn't really get it. You got nothing but a harsh message and a terrible end for you.

Tears streamed down your cheek as you kept puffing on your cigarette, it was the second one you had lit and you had never been like this before but you couldn't calm your cravings. You weren't going back in there and it was heartbreaking to leave Jack and the girls but it didn't make sense anymore.

You had never really belonged to that world.

You were a simple young woman who worked for a living, barely made ends meet on her salary and didn't have many friends. You weren't pretty, you weren't slender, you weren't famous, you didn't even know if your personality matched. Maybe all this time you had been forcing something you knew wouldn't work but wished it would and it hadn't. How could you expect a top soccer player to fall in love with you? He was rich, famous and handsome. He had everything at his feet, including you.

That was what love was like. That was life. All that was left was to live.

You threw away the cigarette butt and lit your coat, determined to leave. Then you would find an excuse and tell them, it wasn't like they noticed your presence much either. The party was still going on in there and everyone was enjoying themselves happily but you were tired of pretending.

"Won't you say goodbye?" you stopped dead in your tracks when you heard the question.

You didn't want to lie down and let him see you like that. You didn't want to feel his pity or worse, for him to treat you indifferently. You couldn't feel it all over again, it was going to kill you. You didn't say anything, you just lifted your shoulders.

"Sasha won't let me go if I go back inside and it's already late, the last train is in ten minutes" you mentioned with a half smile, trying to sound polite.

Ruben nodded. "I can give you a ride, if you want" he said.

Your heart clenched in your chest. Of course you wanted, you wanted everything from him but you couldn't accept anything else.

"I don't mean to intrude, thank you for offering" you thanked him walking to continue your journey.

Every second that passed you ached to see him there.

"You know Jack would never forgive me if I let you go by yourself" he insisted following you and with every step behind you, you heard voices saying 'don't leave him'.

What the fuck did he care now? If he was trying to be polite and kind, he shouldn't. He'd hurt you enough without caring now. He hadn't even bothered to say why he was breaking up with you, he didn't have to care now when you were nothing anymore.

"Goodbye, Ruben" you said in a whisper.

You wanted to make it clear to him that you didn't need him and that this was goodbye, at least from you.

At least one of us knew how to say goodbye.

Your feet moved on their own, leading you away from the place. You weren't going to look back and sighed when you heard your name called but you walked away quickly. You crossed the empty street feeling the tears stinging in your eyes but they refused to come out as you were in a hurry to get to the subway. You needed to get home so you could cry in solitude and in your peace. Everything was empty, few people trying to get to their homes and you were one more as you sat in the lonely train car. You snorted as you felt the train start to move, soon you would be home and you wanted nothing more than that.

The reflection of the glass reflected your silhouette inside the carriage, outside, the cold Manchester night. The silence was intermittent, accompanied by your agitated breathing and the noises of the train. Through the reflection you saw the silhouette of someone walking behind you in the aisle, silently, sitting a few feet behind you. You didn't think much of it.

You didn't even want to look. The person's face was blurred by the lighting in the carriage but you could see a male figure. Your eyes imagined the unimaginable, your mind remembered what made you ache the most, you could smell his scent, hear his breathing, you even felt his presence. You denied noticing the illusion you were living.

You were really crazy. The lack of sleep, your depression and your mess were making you see things that weren't really there.

The lack of Ruben in your life was starting to hit you hard and you had never gone through anything like this before with a broken heart. Because you were really shattered, completely broken with an illusion that you yourself had created. Now you imagined him next to you, sitting there, holding your hand. Nothing was real, you didn't even know if your feelings were real anymore. It had happened so suddenly, you had let yourself be carried away by your love for him, you had lost everything.

It was silly to think you knew everything about him, his favorite food, his favorite perfume, you knew his tastes and pleasures, his dreams, his goals and his cons. You knew perfectly what he felt after losing or winning a game, every smile when he was called up or every cry when he was injured, you had been in his best moments and his worst. All in secret. Without telling anyone, being like friends all this time, only you were the one who acted.

He knew everything about you, or so you liked to think. You had come to think that he really knew you, that he really belonged to you, when he would pick you up after work or take you home after games, when he would knock on your door with your favorite ice cream flavors, when he would ask you every morning if you had rested well or how he encouraged you to apply for the promotion. Now you couldn't even tell him that if you got promoted, I'm sure he'd be proud, since he always said it. But nothing made sense anymore.

He wasn't here, he wasn't beside you, he wasn't behind you, he wasn't even thinking about you. It didn't matter anymore, you wanted to forget him.

What starts wrong, ends wrong. Many people used to say.

But you were going to forget him.

For your sake and his, you had to.

You closed your eyes and leaned against the window, trying to calm the tears that kept coming. You were tired, you just wanted to sleep. Maybe when you woke up it would all go away.

The sound of the loudspeakers announcing the stop made you jump out of your seat, you had closed your eyes for a few seconds and lost yourself in the feeling of warmth. You stood up from your place and turned around when you noticed everything empty, you had already arrived at your stop. You reached a little way out into the aisle when your eyes caught sight of a piece of paper on the empty seat next to you.

Confused you reached out to take it, you didn't remember if it had been there when you came anyway it was your responsibility as a citizen to throw it where it belonged. So you took it and opened it at least to see what it was about.

I don't expect you to be able to forgive me, i wouldn't do that. I just want you to move on, i don't deserve your pain. I am so sorry. R. D.

You read and were stunned.

You stood there in the aisle of the empty carriage with the note in your hands. How had it gotten there? Had Ruben really been sitting a few feet behind you? A tear spilled down your cheek, your heart turned over in pain. You hadn't imagined it then. You had sensed his scent, his aura, his being.

Why hadn't he told you more? What did that mean? Although you already knew perfectly well what that message was about.

It was a farewell. He was letting you go and he was asking you to let him go.

Maybe it was the right thing to do.

To let go of everything that dragged you down.

For you, for your heart.

You crumpled the paper and walked out of the car, dropping the note in the trash can.

Goodbye, Ruben.

#football imagines #football one shot #imagine #ruben dias x you #ruben dias x y/n #ruben dias x reader #ruben dias #manchester city

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kyleoreillylover · 5 months

Text

Monster

Roman Reigns x Fem reader (platonic) & Jey Uso x Fem reader (friends to lovers)

Summary: ᴀꜱ ʀᴏᴍᴀɴ'ꜱ ʀɪɢʜᴛ ʜᴀɴᴅ ᴡᴏᴍᴀɴ ᴀɴᴅ ʙᴇꜱᴛ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ, ɪᴛ ᴡᴀꜱ ᴏɴʟʏ ᴀ ᴍᴀᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴏꜰ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ʙᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ꜱᴀᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏɴꜱᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄʀᴇᴀᴛᴇᴅ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀɪʙᴀʟ ᴄʜɪᴇꜰ. ɴᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴅᴇꜱᴛʀᴏʏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴠᴇʀʏ ᴍᴏɴꜱᴛᴇʀ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄʀᴇᴀᴛᴇᴅ. ʏᴏᴜ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴛᴏᴘ ʜɪᴍ ᴡʜɪʟᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ꜱᴛɪʟʟ ᴄᴀɴ, ʙᴇꜰᴏʀᴇ ʜɪꜱ ᴘᴏᴡᴇʀ ᴅᴇꜱᴛʀᴏʏꜱ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ɪɴ ʜɪꜱ ᴡᴀᴋᴇ, ɪɴᴄʟᴜᴅɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ. ᴀɴᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ᴡɪʟʟɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ʀɪꜱᴋ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ᴅᴏ ɪᴛ. ʀɪꜱᴋ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄᴀʀᴇᴇʀ, ʟɪᴠᴇʟɪʜᴏᴏᴅ, ʏᴏᴜʀ ʟɪꜰᴇʟᴏɴɢ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱʜɪᴘ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʀᴏᴍᴀɴ. ʙᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏɴᴇ ᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴊᴇʏ ᴡᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟᴇᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ʀɪꜱᴋ ɪꜱ ʏᴏᴜʀ ꜱᴏᴜʟ.

Trigger Warnings: Manipulation, cursing, wrestling related violence, allusions to smut but no actual smut written, Roman Reigns being toxic but you’re just as toxic, etc.

A/N: This idea came to me literally by watching the Bayley vs Sasha and Jey vs Roman HIAC matches, and the inspiration just hit. I tried to base off the toxic friendship between you and Roman kinda off of Baysha, toxic and loving yet can betray each other at any moment. But I made you and Roman more lovingish? Jey is just a cutie pie as always. I worked really hard and long on this, so I hope you enjoy!

Word Count: 18,893

tag list: @southerngirl41 @venusesworld (If you wanna be a part of my tag list let me know!)

You are intelligent. Precise. You never do anything without a motive, without a deeper reason. Every move you make has a hidden agenda, built by the intricate thread of your thoughts and the smart calculations of your actions. Nothing you do is without a purpose.

Which is why Jey couldn't wrap his mind around what the fuck you were thinking. He barged into your locker room, walking over to you with the speed of an angry bull. "Are you fucking insane?" he yelled, frustration etched in every line of his face. "What the fuck are you thinking?"

You glanced up from packing your bags, your expression unreadable, but Jey knew you better than you knew yourself. He could see the storm of emotions swirling in your eyes- determination, sadness, but most importantly, anger.

Yet, you met Jey's gaze with a calmness that contradicted the turmoil inside of you. "This is between me and him, nobody else." You stated firmly, your eyes darkening with an intensity that sent a shiver down Jey's spine before you looked away from him to resume packing your belongings. "We'll settle this, trust me."

Jey scoffed, nose snarling at your words and your nonchalant attitude. "Settle this means talking that shit out, not fucking challenging him to a cell match!" His eyes bored into you before narrowing at your stuff, hand darting out faster than lightning, but you were faster, grabbing the paper and stepping back so he couldn't pull it from you.

"Give me that fucking contract! Are you tryna get yourself killed? Huh? He's twice your fucking size! Why are you doing this?!" You calmly let Jey yell at you and take out his frustrations on you. You knew he would react like this once you laid down the challenge and came to the back, but it was necessary. That didn't mean you enjoyed being yelled at, but you understood his concern.

"I'm not trying to get killed, Jey," you responded evenly, holding the contract closer to your chest. "I'm trying to get him to understand that his actions have consequences, and unless I push him, he won't listen. This is the only way I can make him listen to me."

You softly looked at Jey, hoping he, out of all people, would understand you. But he just looked at you like you had lost your damn mind, and you couldn't blame him.

"Oh, so now you tryna stop him, huh? Be a savior cause your feelings got hurt?" Jey tried to snatch the contract again, but you evaded him, your unreadable expression dropping at his words, hurt flashing across your features. "You ain't in the right mind, you too angry to push away your fucking pride." Jey continued, his tone accusing. "I know you hurt, but you can't let that pain blind you. This ain't the way, and you know it."

You glared back at Jey, the hurt in your eyes replaced with a fire he'd never seen directed at him before. "Fuck you! This isn't just about that, and you know it." Your mind traveled back to a couple days ago. The blood. The pain. The tears in your eyes as you stared up at Asuka holding your title, that she beat you for. She might've cheated with her mist to get it, but there was no spinning it how you put it. You lost.

But you lost more than just a title. You lost a part of yourself too. You knew that being apart of the Bloodline meant owning up to your shit and taking scrutiny from Roman, but as his best friend, the very person who built up the Tribal Chief in the first place, you foolishly thought you were exempt from the harsher side of it.

That illusion shattered last week, when he tore you apart verbally in the middle of that ring, claiming that you turned complacent and weak, using your friendship as a crutch and throwing back your loyalty and insecurities in your face. Then he rubbed it in that he was looking out for you, and to do that you couldn't get another title match until he deemed you worthy.

Your heart burned with anger and humiliation, but you let him run his mouth, uncharacteristically staying silent and let him 'look out for you', accepting the hug he offered after the verbal lashing, even if it felt more like a gesture of dominance than genuine comfort.

But Jey saw the look in your eyes as you hugged him back. He saw that glint of anger, the spark that you wouldn't let die out, and he tried to calm you down before you let that fire burn and did something reckless. He let you cry into his shoulder for the first time, let you unveil your emotions behind that cocky facade you yielded that he knew deep down was just a crutch you used to not get hurt.

And he let you cry into his arms when Roman did it again, and again, and again, pushing you into a corner, not deeming you worthy of standing in his corner, claiming you would cost him and the twins a loss since you knew so much about losses. And when he did let you in the ring during his promos, he would make snipping comments about you, throwing you insecurities back in your face again. But he always said he did it out of love, to toughen you up, to make you- his best friend- realize how great you really are. And that- and Jey always holding you back with his arm and his knowing warm gaze- is what always stopped you from snapping at him and holding your tongue.

Until last week, when after the twins lost last week he blamed it all on you for being in their corner even though you were ejected. You were about to just shut your mouth and let him yell at you, but he then told you to take off your Bloodline and give it to him until you were ready to have it back.

And that was the last straw.

You don't know what took over you- but it was like the ghost of Satan took over your body. You screamed at Roman, the rage you'd been bottling up for so long finally boiling over.

"You want this?" You ripped the jacket from your body, throwing it at him with intensity and marching over to him with so much anger Jey thought you were gonna throw a punch at him.

"Fuck you, Roman! Fuck you!" Your voice shook with hurt and sadness, and a thousand other emotions you felt take over all your senses and sting your eyes with tears as you moved closer to Roman with speed he didn't even know you had- to punch him, to slap the taste out of his mouth, to simply try to physically show him how much he hurt you, you didn't know.

But Jey grabbed you before you could do anything, wrapping his arms around you tightly and holding you back.

"Take your stupid fucking jacket, and shove it up your a-"

"Hey, hey, calm down babe," he murmured, trying to soothe you as you struggled against his hold, holding you with a strength that matched your anger.

"No, I won't calm down! You wanna keep on fucking doing this? Keep on fucking blaming for everything? Every fuck up? Treating me like shit even though I've been nothing but loyal to you? Hurting me like my feelings don't mean anything to you? Like I don't mean anything to you?!" You shouted, your voice quivering with emotion as tears unwillingly streamed down your face.

"Like I'm not your best friend! Like I'm not the one who always been by your side before you became the Tribal Chief, always had your back, always gave you everything and poured myself into everything that made you happy, always believed in you before you even believed in yourself?!"

Roman's face was still stoic as he sat and took in your outburst, but his eyes were filled with a mix of surprise, anger, and realization- like he knew how far he was pushing you. He watched as you tried to claw at Jey's arms, desperately attempting to push him away to break free and let out your hurt directly onto Roman. But Jey just held on tighter, holding onto your kicking and struggling form to stop you from doing something you would regret.

"You are my best friend." Roman finally spoke up after what felt like hours, clenching his jaw and staring at you with a hardened glare that you couldn't decipher, that you couldn't recognize, and it dawned on you that you couldn't recognize him, couldn't recognize the man that you cared for more than you cared for yourself.

He stood up, and you gradually stopped struggling as he came closer to you, his blue eyes starring daggers at you as he softly cupped your face, his calloused hands touching your cheeks, the contrast between his touch and his cold glare jarring. "And sometimes you need to show the ones you love the truth so they can understand the pain they cause."

Roman's voice was chilling, but his eyes were tangled with emotions that felt foreign and unsettling, and your skin crawled at the unfamiliarity in his demeanor. "And once you do that, hurt them before others do to help them, you protect them from further pain."

You moved away from his touch as if it burned you, glaring at him with rage you hoped burned him from the inside out. "You really think I'm stupid? Think I don't see what you're doing? Trying to pretend your doing this out of the goodness of your heart so that I'll fall in line? Well, newsflash, I was already supporting you before any of this tribal chief bullshit even got to your head, before any of this meant anything to you. I didn't need a title to show you loyalty, I just needed you to be my best friend."

Your voice turned somber, your heart still hurting but the anger giving away to sadness, and for a moment Roman gazed into your eyes, really looked at you, like he was staring at your soul. Seeing the pain reflected in your toffe-colored eyes, the tear stains on your cheeks, your trembling form, the scars he etched into your soul with every callous word and cold gesture He saw it all, all the anger you wanted to unleash on him. But he also saw your guarded vulnerability, the part of you that just wanted to hug him and just forgive him, tell him everything would be okay, the part of you still hoping this was all a bad dream.

But that moment passed as fast as it came, and your face dropped into an unreadable gaze, and you wiped your tears, straightening your back and wiping your face and heart of any vulnerability you allowed him to see. You felt Jey's breath against your back, and you looked up at him, asking him the silent question to let you go. Jey's concerned brown eyes were boring into yours, and he didn't need to say anything, he understood everything you meant. He slowly let you go, backing away from you, giving you the freedom you needed.

You took a step back, never breaking eye contact with Roman. This time it was him who couldn't recognize the look in your eyes, but he knew one thing. It didn't mean anything good.

"You think you're the only one who can hurt others? Hurt them with what they love?" Your voice was scarily calm, each word measured as you faced Roman with a piercing glare. "You wanna play the game I taught you how to play in the first place? Then let's play."

A bitter laugh escaped your lips as you turned to the door, your gaze never leaving Roman.

"Trust me, we're gonna see who really is the Head of The Table. And once we do, you'll have no one to blame but yourself."

With that, you slammed the door shut behind you, not looking back at the concerned and stunned look Jey was wearing and the scornful yet regretful expression Roman wore as he watched you leave.

Jey didn't know what that threat would carry out, what you would do, but now standing across from you, seeing it blaze out of control, he feared he was witnessing the unraveling of your carefully crafted self-control. He couldn't let you destroy yourself to prove a point to Roman, no matter how much he understood your pain.

"This ain't the way, and you know that. You guys can talk this shit out like fucking adults but instead you want to get him to sign the shit too you can kill each other in that cell, and for what? Huh? To prove a point? To satisfy your ego?"

You clenched your jaw, moving closer to Jey, your eyes ablaze in anger. “You think I'm doing this because I enjoy it? Because of my ego?" You scowled, the intensity of your gaze burning through him."I admit, I have an ego, but at least I have the balls to own up to my mistakes! Roman acts like he is perfect, like he is untouchable. But I'm gonna prove that nobody is above the consequences of their actions, not even him."

Jey paused for a moment, his eyes boring into yours, and you could see the gateways of his emotions through his eyes. You saw the anger that mirrored yours, his protectiveness of you shining through his brown beautiful eyes that seemed to be made for staring at you, but you also saw the stubbornness, and you knew he wasn't gonna let this go without a fight. Jey searched your eyes for any sign that you were willing to back down, and when he found none, he groaned in frustration, running his hand across his face, heart torn in two different directions.

"You're proving to him that he has control over you." Jey's voice turned softer, eyes staring at you with understanding, he knew what you were feeling. Helpless. Out of control. Powerless. He knew even you would snap sooner or later, no matter what he did. But he didn't think you would risk your career, your life, your bond with Roman, to show him your retribution.

"Come here." Jey beckoned you, his arms open as he waited for you to make a move, hoping to stop your spiraling, to reach deep into your soul and mend the shattered pieces and help you piece them back together.

You stared up at him, your anger slightly softening as you saw the concern and care in his eyes. Jey saw the change in your demeanor and pounced, making the first move and enveloping you in his warm arms, and you finally felt at peace for the first time in what felt like forever. You breathed in his woody scent, shutting your eyes and relaxing into the crook of his neck, feeling some of the tension start to release from your body.

It felt calming. Jey was calming. He was gentle. Like the waves of an ocean lapping against the shore, slowly eroding the jagged edges of your anger.

Jey gently slid the contract out of your arms, setting it down on the table and sliding a hand up your body, stroking the back of your hair gently, as if he could mend your emotions with a single touch.

"Remember Hell in a Cell, when I went through all that pain, all that suffering, just to prove something to Roman? To prove I was worthy, to prove that I can bleed for this family, that I can be the guy for the family?"Jey's voice broke through the comfortable silence, his arms tightening around you at the memory.

You nodded against his neck, recalling the match vividly. The anguish, the pain, the brutality, the utter disconempt and fear of that night etched into your memory. The absolute hurt on Jey's face as you watched him watch Roman force Jimmy into a chokehold, forcing him to watch his brother in agony, screaming I quit over and over again until Roman finally let go of Jimmy, making Jey shake his hand before officially becoming Tribal Chief.

Rikishi doned him with the red flowers around his neck, Jey's heart heaving with pain and hurt as you shook Roman's hand in congratulations before making a beeline for the cell, your smile dropping as soon as you turned to the Twins and took in Jey's pained and saddened features, the bruises on his body making you want to shield him from anyone and anything as you dropped to your knees and hugged him so tight he almost couldn't breathe.

You and Jimmy helped him to the back, and it was that night you truly saw how twisted you have made Roman become by pushing him to become the Tribal Chief.

You wanted the best for your friend, for the family, but at what cost?

Jey pulled away, cupping your face in his hands, forcing you to meet his gaze. "You remember how it felt, right? The pain, the helplessness. Do you really want to go through that again?"

You shut your eyes, trying to ignore his logic and just focus on how you felt. On how Roman made you feel. But Jey wouldn't let you make the same mistakes he did.

"Open your eyes, babe. This aint just about you and Roman. It's about the whole family. You're not just putting yourself through hell; you're putting everyone through it. You're putting me through it. You're putting Roman through it. Hell, you're even putting Jimmy and the others through it. And you know what that's gonna accomplish? Nothing." Jey's hand firmly gripped your chin, making you open your eyes, and the raw sincerity and honesty in his eyes cut through the haze of your emotions.

"Because at the end of the day, this is what he wants. He wants to push you to your limits, to see how far you're willing to go for him. And if you go through with this, he'll think he's won. He'll think he's broken you."

You swallowed hard, your mind racing at Jey's words, his eyes penetrating the stubborn walls you had built around yourself like he had done a thousand times. Roman could get under your skin with ease, but Jey could do something he couldn't and that was reach your heart.

You couldn't lie to yourself and say Jey didn't have a point, he did. But the darker part of you craved the satisfaction of proving Roman wrong, of making him regret ever thinking you were a pawn in his game that the could just play. You wanted to hurt him the way he hurt you, tear his ego to fucking bits, and if you had to take his title and put your body through hell to teach him to not bite the hand that fed him, you were more than willing.

"He can't break me, because I'm the one that built him. I'm the reason he's Tribal Chief in the first place." You pulled back a bit, looking at Jey defiantly. "I made him, Jey. And now I'm going to unmake him if I have to and show him that I created him, and I could destroy him just as easily."

Jey's expression softened, and he let out a frustrated breath as his hands traced your jawline. "Please… don't do this. He'll sacrifice anything for power, and you will do the same. You guys are so similar… But where he's lost himself in that power, I've seen you fight to keep hold of who you are. You didn't let the power consume you, take over you. And I won't let it, no matter what you say."

Jey pulled away from you, his hands dropping to his sides. "I ain't letting you destroy yourself for him, let him do to you what he did to me. I love you too much to let you do that." He grabbed the contract from the table, crumpling it in his fist and ripping it to shreds, moving from you when you tried to protest.

"Jey, I'm doing this for you, for all of us, for Jimmy. But most importantly, I'm doing it for Roman." Your soft gaze turned back into an unreadable glare as you moved away from Jey and zipped up your bag, throwing it over your shoulder and watching Jey as he threw the contract in the trash. "And I'm not gonna let you stop me."

Jey stared into you, your eyes, your heart, your soul, and saw the stubbornness in you, the anger in you, the same fire in you that he had. And he knew your mind was set.

"I don't care what you say, I don't care what you do, and I don't care how mad at me you're gonna get. I ain't letting you do this, no matter what." Jey could be just as stubborn, his eyes turning determined and voice hardening, firm and final.

You casted Jey one last look as you threw your bag over your shoulder and made your way to the door, your hand on the door handle.

"I love you, but this something that needs to be done, something I have to do. And this is your official warning to not stand in my way Jey, or you'll regret it. I don't want to hurt you." You spoke with a chilling resolve, your skin prickling with the way Jey stared at you, like he had already lost you before this all begun.

The door creaked open, and you walked out, leaving behind a heavy silence in the room. Jey sighed in frustration, grabbing the nearest chair in his path and throwing it against the wall.

“Fuck!” He screamed out in frustration, rubbing his temples, his blood rushing in stress.

Jey knew that if you got that match official, that if you poked and prodded and got Roman to sign that shit, which you most definitely would, it meant war.

And Jey wasn't gonna let the war happen, because it would take your soul away in the process.

But you were willing to sacrifice your soul for the devil if that's what it took to bring Roman to his knees and burn his ego before it burned you.

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"I can't thank you enough for training me, you are one of the best so this is an honor." You giggled at Bron's compliment, giving him a blinding smile as you walked through the hallway, ignoring Roman's pointed glare you knew was on you as you passed by his room, wrapping an arm around his waist and moving closer to him.

"Oh, trust me, the pleasure was all mine. I can tell the future is in really good hands. I'm really interested in how your career will pan out in NXT." You took his hand in yours and laced your fingers with his, enjoying the way his pupils widened slightly with surprise and delight at your touch.

"Are you just interested in my career or something more?" Bronn smirked, squeezing your hand gently. You couldn't help but chuckle at his comment, it was so easy to get these guys to become putty in your hands with a few simple words.

"Maybe a bit of both." You replied, licking your lips, making his gaze drop to your glossy lips, and you knew it was time to strike so this can be over as soon as possible. "I heard you can spear pretty good, even better than Roman. Maybe you could teach me how to execute it perfectly?"

Bronn chuckled, " I might be able to show you a thing or two. But be warned, it's harder than it looks."

"Then maybe you're just not as good as you say you are."

You smirked at the intrusion, turning to the new voice and seeing Roman standing behind you both, his arms crossed over his chest, his steely gaze fixed on both of you. He looked unbothered, man bun slicked back to perfection and red Bloodline jacket showing off his muscled frame. But you knew him better than that, knew he was ticked off, his jaw was set, and you could see the flicker of annoyance he tried to hide in his eyes.

"Ro." You gave him a sweet smile, but he could see right through it, rolling his eyes when you made a point to show. him your interlaced hands. "Did you need something? I'm kinda busy here."

Roman smiled right back, but it was anything but sweet. It was deadly. "I need to speak with you. In my office. Now."

You smiled even wider and pretended to contemplate it. "But, me and Bronn were in the middle of something important here. Right Bronn?" You batted your eyes at Bronn, making him swoon and Roman internally groan.

"Yeah, we wer-"

"No one cares what you think. I was asking to speak with her." Roman sharply interrupted Bronn, his tone firm as he locked eyes with him. Bronn's gaze hardened, but before he could do anything you gave his hand a gentle squeeze, making him look at you.

"I'll catch up with you later, Bronn." you said with a reassuring smile, hoping to diffuse any tension he was feeling.

Bronn looked between you and Roman before reluctantly nodding, letting go and walking away, shooting Roman another glare.

"You didn't have to scare him away. He was nice."

“Baby, we all know you don’t like nice guys. Now are you coming?” Roman's voice held a note of impatience that you loved to cause as he arched an eyebrow, waiting for your compliance.

You gave a playful shrug, a smirk curling your lips. “Sure, but make it quick.” You tossed a teasing wink towards Roman before following him down the hallway, anticipating flooding your senses.

Roman held open the door for you as you entered his office, his blue orbs never leaving your face. You could cut the tension with a knife, neither of you wanting to give the other an inch as you sat across one another, neither one of you not wanting to give in. Whoever talked about the problem first loses.

“I see you’ve lowered your standard’s recently. Bron, really?”

You scoffed at the disappointment in Roman’s tone. “What, are you jealous? Mad that he’s everything you wished you could be at his age?”

Roman chuckled darkly, shaking his head slightly at your attempts to anger him. "You know jealous isn't my thing, sweetheart. But being honest is."

He leaned back in his chair, clasping his hands together with a knowing smirk on his face. "You really think I wouldn't notice you trying to replace me with a wish version of me? Please, don't insult me."

You raised a brow at the dig, relaxing into the chair and fiddling with your fingers, not giving him your undivided attention. "Ro, you really think that low of me? I would never do anything of the sort. I thought you thought better of me. Thought highly of me." You finished your sentence with a roll of your eyes, but Roman could hear the thinly veiled pain in your voice. Pain that he caused. Pain he needed to be caused in order to make you feel no more of it in the future. He just wished you understood that.

"I do think highly of you. Why would you say otherwise?' His tone was confused, but you knew better than to pretend he was playing dumb. He was baiting you in, trying to see if you would be the first to crack.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you aren’t acting like you do?” You snipped at him, trying to mask your hurt with annoyance.

Roman sighed as if he was tired of all of this even though he was the one who caused all of it. He picked up a remote from his desk, then leaned back in his chair, turning on the TV, his smirk never leaving his face. “I saw your promo last week.”

Your eyes flickered to the screen, seeing the footage of your emotionally charged promo airing on the screen. You watched your words play back, the anger palaphable and spreading over the arena. The two of you watched it in deadly silence, and once it was finished you turned back to him, the contract in your hand that you waved around while challenging Roman resting in his hands.

“Are you asking me to take back my words? Cause if so the answer is no.”

Roman turned off the TV, his smirk dropping as he turned to you with a serious glint in his eyes. “I’m not asking you to take them back. I’m asking you to reconsider them.” He dropped the contract onto his desk, and you noticed his signature void from it. “I’m not signing it.”

Your jaw tightened at that, picking up a pen from his desk and sliding it towards him. “Maybe you should be the one reconsidering your words.”

Roman chuckled and took the pen from you, never leaving your eyes as he shot it in the trash can. You think this is a joke?” You met his stare with a hard glare, not flinching from the sound as he leaned forward, his gaze intense as he stared you down. “You think shit is a joke?”

You leaned forward, matching his intense energy. “ I think you're playing a game, Roman. And I'm just trying to keep up and win.”

He let out a frustrated groan, slamming his hand down hard on the table. He cracked first. Bingo.

“You want to talk about winning? You’re playing a game you can’t win, sweetheart. And that’s because I make the rules. And unlike you, I don’t have time to play games.” Roman’s voice was menacing, an angry edge threatening to spill out.

You straightened in your chair, meeting his gaze head-on, not intimidated in the slightest. “Then prove it. Sign the damn contract. What’re you scared of?”

The two of you stared each other down, neither giving an inch in hopes of making the other give in. The two of you were mirrors of each other: Manipulative, stubborn, driven by your own motives. The difference between you both was that you were loyal by a fault.

And he wanted to test how far he could push that loyalty.

Roman’s face turned from impassive to sadness in a fleeting moment, a hint of regret crossing his features. He shook his head slowly, not matching your challenging gaze. “I’m scared of hurting you.”

You blinked at his words, taken aback by the switch of emotions but not willing to admit it, letting him continue. “You think I don’t feel? That I don’t feel hurt when I have to be the guy to punish everyone, to set the rules, to make tough decisions? Sometimes I don’t forgive myself, but I do it to protect everyone, including you. I thought you would understand that.”

Roman paused, his gaze flickering to the contract on the desk, a pained expression haunting his features. “But my father taught me to never lay a hand on a lady, on those who are loyal. And you’re more than just any lady, you are my best friend, my right-hand woman, the one person who helped me build myself up when no one else would help me.”

Your heart softened despite the warning signs going off in your head, the caution you tried to put up against his words. He was playing the game he was too good at, trying to appeal to your loyalty, and you were struggling to not give in.

He leaned forward and extended his hand towards you, his gaze pleading. “I can’t sign that, and you know why. But you also know I’ll always have your back. I’m just asking for yours now. Asking for my best friend to understand. Asking for the person who helped build me to not try to destroy me.”

Your was face stoic but your eyes telling a thousand words as you narrowed them at his hand, not speaking for what felt like an eternity until finally, you slid into his, his calloused hand enveloping your smaller one and testing the waters by squeezing it gently, smirking internally when you let him. You finally cracked.

“Ro… I’m not trying to destroy you.” You squeezed his hand back in return, waiting a beat before giving him a smile laced with dynamite. “I am trying to destroy the person you’ve become.” Roman’s smugness quickly faded away as you snatched your hand away from his, standing up and grabbing the contract from his desk.

“But since you don’t want to play ball with me, I’m gonna have to make you sign this contract the hard way. See you on Smackdown, Ro. Watch your back. You'll regret not making things right with me."

Your hand went to twist the knob to storm out, but Roman's voice cut through the air, stopping you in your tracks.

"You can't destroy something you made."

You froze at the door, the weight of his words sinking into your heart. Roman sensed this and stood up from his chair, his soulless blue eyes fixated on your form. "You made me, and I made you."

You turned back, meeting his intense gaze with an unwavering storm brewing in your eyes, the tension crackling between you both like electricity. "Then get ready to watch me tear it all down, Roman."

The door slammed shut behind you, leaving Roman staring at the closed door, wondering if that would be the last time he'd have a chance to reason with you, the last time he would have a chance to have you keep on being the glue that held the Bloodline together, held him together.

But he knew one thing.

He selfishly wouldn't let you leave him no matter the cost.

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"If you're gonna tell me I'm stupid, I'd appreciate it if you'd just get to the point."

Naomi giggled next to you where you both sat in the tiny corner of the bar, the neon ights casting a warm glow over the both of you, drinks in hand as you relaxed for what felt like the first time in forever.

"I wasn't gonna say that, but thanks for the permission," Naomi teased, nudging you with her arm.

You chuckled, taking a sip of your drink before leaning back against the bar. Naomi saw the sad expression that flickered across your face and turned to you with concern.

"I hate seeing you like this." She grabbed your hand, offering a reassuring squeeze. "Talk to me."

You sighed, meeting Naomi's gaze with a mixture of frustration and sadness. "It's just... things have been so stressful. Especially with Roman. He's just... not the man I used to know. He keeps hurting me, and I didn't know how to handle it anymore, so I just blew up. Now I have everyone telling me how dumb I am for challenging him. I can't take it."

Naomi listened to your word vomit, squeezing your hand again to comfort you. "Look, I know he's your best friend and all... and he cares for you in his own twisted way... but you have every right to look out for your self. Be selfish. Don't let no man walk all over you, not even him."

She paused, her gaze searching yours, wishing she could take all your pain away. "Maybe I can get Jimmy to leave early, talk to him, sort all this out?"

You heart warmed at the gesture, but you instantly shook your head in rejection. You knew Jimmy would drop anything for you, you were like the little sister he never had, but he was finally seeing his family after months of being on the road, and you didn't want to bother him.

"I appreciate it girl, but I can handle this on my own. I need to do this myself." You replied, offering Naomi a small but appreciative smile.

Naomi nodded understandingly, her gaze still filled with concern. "Okay, but promise me you'll call me if you need anything, okay?" You nodded with a smile, grateful for her support. She was the sweetest friend you could ever ask for.

You nodded with a smile, grateful for her support. She was the sweetest friend you could ask for, and you couldn't be more thankful she was here for you right now. "I promise."

She let go of your hand and gave you a reassuring smile before picking up her drink. "Alright, then let's forget about our problems by drinking them away tonight!” Naomi raised her glass, and you followed suit, clinking them together in a toast.

“This is why I love you!" You drank it all in one go, fully determined to let go for one night and forget about everything. What could go wrong?

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You threw back another shot, waving your arms around and grinding on a man that had been trying to sweet talk his way into your pants for the past half-hour. The music blared through the crowded club, drowning out your thoughts, making you focus on the alcohol pulsing through your veins instead.

Naomi left a few hours ago, but you opted to stay and dance the night away. The man whose name you forgotten turned you around, his hands resting your waist as he smirked down at you. He wasn't bad looking, hair slicked back, a chiseled jawline, tall and muscular. "I'm gonna get us some more drinks, babe. Wait for me?"

You nodded, a mischievous smile playing on your lips. "Hurry back, handsome."

As he disappeared into the crowd, you found someone else to dance with, it wasn't hard with your confident attitude and red dress showing off just the right amount of skin. You threw your arms around the new distraction, peering up at them through your lashes, your lips parting in a sultry smile. He smiled down at you, arms sitting on your waist, hovering over your ass.

You danced with him for a while, until you yelped when he brought you closer to him, grinding against you more aggressively, licking his lips at the sight of you. "Mind if I kiss you?"

You leaned in, your lips just a breath away from his ear. "I don't mind at all." You leaned in to close the distance between the two of you, so so close to his lips, your own lips almost brushing against his, if you moved just a bit closer you could lose yourself in them-

"Wow, this is a new low for you."

A arm wrapped around your waist and yanked you away from the stranger. You spun around, slightly disoriented, looking up to see the man you had been trying to forget all night- Roman. His eyes were dark with disappointment as he stared down at you, and that made all the feelings you've been trying to ignore rush back. How dare he be disappointed in you when you've done nothing wrong?

You jerked away from his grip, scowling up at him. "You would know about low's wouldn't you?" You spat, the alcohol fueling your anger.

Roman's jaw clenched, his gaze piercing into yours. " And I guess you know a lot about lows, considering the company you're keeping tonight." He retorted, turning to the stranger who was still standing nearby.

"You are going to leave her alone, and get the hell out of here, now." The stranger quickly raised his hands in surrender, not wanting to fight for some drunken encounter. He mumbled an apology before making a fast exist, leaving you alone with Roman.

"Guess I'm following in the footsteps of my tribal chief." you sneered, crossing your arms over your chest. "I would say best friend, but he doesn't seem to remember what that means anymore."

Roman's expression hardened, his nostrils flaring with barely contained frustration. "You're embarrassing yourself. What the hell are you doing?"

You scoffed, his words hurting more than you'd like to admit. "Embarrassing myself? Says the guy who parades around, claiming to be the big, bad Tribal Chief. Maybe I'm just trying to see how it feels to be a heartless asshole, just like you."

Roman's eyes narrowed at your low blow, and he pulled you to a quieter corner of the club, away from prying eyes and judgmental stares. The music still thumped in the background, but the tension between you and Roman was louder.

"I don't want you to be me. I want you to be you." Roman growled, his voice low and intense.

"But this? This isn't you. The person in front of me is an embarrassment, is a disgrace, a mockery of everything I thought you were." His eyes scanned over you, as if he was looking into your soul, searching for something you didn't know existed. "You are better than this."

You laughed bitterly as his last sentence threw a dagger into your heart, a harsh edge to the sound. "Better than this? Better than what, Roman? Better than being the friend who stands by while you tear me apart?" You yelled at him, your voice attracting the attention of some curious onlookers, one of which pushed past people to get to the two of you. Roman's gaze didn't waver, and he stepped closer, the heat of his anger radiating off him.

"You don't get it, do you?" Roman shot back, his voice edged with frustration. "I tore you apart because I care, because I saw you losing yourself, becoming weak. I did it to make you stronger, to make you realize your potential. But you just can't see that, can you? Can't see how weak you've become. "

Your fists clenched at your sides, the alcohol mixing with the swirling emotions inside you. "And you wanna know what I see?"

You got into his face, your breath hot with anger, and you could see every emotion relfected in his eyes. "I see a power hungry man who is a shell of a person he used to be. I see a man who so desperately wants to be accepted, to be loved, to be respected, that he is willing to leave behind his morals to achieve it, to be come the monster he used to despise. You are a monster."

You moved closer to him, your breaths with each other, the air so suffocating you could taste the tension. Feel your two manipulating minds clashing against each other. mingling with his, the air thick with tension. "And you know what's the saddest part? I created this monster. I pushed you to become the Tribal Chief, and now I have to destroy what I made."

You could see the hurt in his eyes that you loved to be able to cause and throw right back in his face, his jaw tight. He matched your energy, glaring you down with an intensity that made your skin burn. "I became the man I needed to be to lead this family. I became the Tribal Chief. If you can't understand that, then maybe you never really knew me."

You chuckled darkly, your eyes never leaving his. "You're right." you said with a bitter laugh, the taste of regret lingering on your tongue. "But you never knew me if you think I'm just going to stand by and watch you destroy everything we built together."

Silence. The silence suffocated you more than the loud music ever could. Everything else faded away as you looked in the eyes that used to hold so much warmth.

Now they were cold, unrecognizable, filled with a distance you never thought possible between the two of you. You waited for a response, for some sign he understood, stared into his soul, waiting for a glimpse of the friend you used to know to emerge from the shadows that you had created.

It felt like an eternity before he spoke up, your breath catching in your throat as he leaned in closer to you, his lips hovering over your ear, his scowling face mere inches from yours.

"I love you, and I always will. But don't mistake my love for weakness." His lips brushed against your ear as his growl vibrated against your skin. "You can't destroy what you don't understand. I won't let your emotions cloud my judgment, unlike you, let it destroy what we've worked so hard for. And after this is over, you will thank me for saving you from yourself."

Roman pulled away from you, and you swore you saw a flicker of sadness in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a steely resolve you taught him how to perfect.

You didn't know what you were feeling. Sadness. Regret. But when you looked at him, all you felt was the hurt that he had inflicted on you, the hurt that had pushed you to this point, the hurt you wanted to cause him.

You glared at him, pushing him away from you, the lights of the club flashing in patterns all around you, making your skin glow with anger and your eyes iridescent. "The only person who needs saving is you." The bitterness in your voice matched the taste in your mouth. "And if I take the very thing that is making you lose yourself, then maybe you'll thank me when you realize what you've become."

You stared down at Roman, hoping to see a crack in his stoic facade, a sign that your words had penetrated his defenses. The man who offered to get you drinks earlier walked over to you, but you didn't talk to him, your eyes never leaving Romans as you just snatched the drink from the tray, ushering him away.

Roman's chuckles rang in your ears as you stared at his breaking of the silence, his laughs low and mocking.

"You can't even hold onto a man for a night. How do you expect to hold onto my title?" You knew he was just trying to get under your skin, and it was working, having you play into him, but you didn't care.

Roman groaned in pain as your drink burned his eyes, your grip on the glass bruising as you threw the remnants of the drink in his face, reveling in the satisfaction of finally getting a reaction out of him.

"Fuck you!" You screamed, releasing all your aggression on him, pushing him into the table. "You finally broke me, congratulations! Is this what you wanted?"

You readied yourself to throw your glass cup at him, but a hand grabbed yours, stopping you mid-motion. You turned to see Jey, his concerned eyes pleading with yours, his grip on your hand firm but gentle.

"Baby, listen to me." His brown eyes bored into yours, worry etched on his face. You turned back to Roman, but Jey's voice made you still, and he could tell you were listening to him. "He ain't worth it. He ain't worth all of this." He tugged on your hand again, and your grip loosened slightly but still clenched with rage. "Let go of the glass, calm down, and we can leave, go back to the hotel, put on that movie you were bugging me to watch, and I can make you feel better. Let me make you feel better, okay?"

You never stopped looking at Roman, your eyes pleading, hoping, begging him to stop you, to say something, to do something. But he never did, Jey wanted to spare you from the realization he never would.

Your eyes met Jey's when his free hand cupped your jaw, making you look at him and his calming stare, his shimmering brown orbs grounding you in reality. He gently stroked your cheek with his thumb, trying to coax you into calming down. "Please, calm down. For me?"

Roman watched the interaction with intrigue, raising an eyebrow at the way you and Jey interacted with each other, how you looked at each other like you were the only two people in the room, how you gave into him like it was natural.

He stored the information into his brain.His lips curved into a smirk, though it was masked by the remnants of the drink in his eyes as he watched Jey wrap and arm around you, glancing back at Roman, a silent warning in his gaze before leading you away to a secluded corner.

You swallowed hard, the effects of the drinks and the argument with Roman making your throat close up with emotion. You tugged on Jey's arm, making him turn to you with concern etched on his beautiful face.

"I-I need a minute, Jey," you managed to choke out, the emotions that you've been trying to suppress for so long now threatening to spill over. You didn't wait for a response as you bolted for the bathroom, the only one open being the family restroom that was empty at the time.

Your reflection in the mirror showed a face etched with pain; broken, tired eyes stared back at you, tears brimming on the edge, messy hair cascading down your face. The facade you had tried to uphold shattered in that moment.

You splashed water on your face, trying to wash away the anguish, but it lingered, clinging to you like a heavy cloak you couldn't get rid of. Roman was right. You looked like an embarrasment. You were mess. You were a disgrace. You called him a shell of a man, but now you realized you were becoming a shell of the person you used to be.

The first tear came, falling silently down your cheek, followed by another, and soon, you were trembling, sitting down on the dirty floor and silently sobbing into your hands. You deserved this. You weren't innocent, and you knew it. You happily let him hurt others in hopes of making him happy, gloating about your own power over people, only to end up hurting yourself in the process. You deserved this, deserved the karma coming over you for all the hurt you've caused. You let out a muffled cry, wiping at your face.

A knock on the door made you stop in your tracks, the sound pulling you out of your head for a moment. "Can I come in?" a soft voice called out.

You took a deep breath, trying to compose yourself before responding. You didnt want anyone to see you like this, so vulnerable. "No."

The knocking stopped, but you heard the door handle twist. "Let me rephrase that, I'm coming in." It was Jey's voice, and he didn't wait for your response before gently pushing the door open and stepping inside.

He immediately spotted you sitting on the floor, tears streaming down your face, and his heart clenched with concern. "Hey," he murmured softly, crouching down beside you, his warm hand landing gently on your back.

You tried to wipe away the evidence of your breakdown, but Jey caught your hand, stopping you. "Hey, it's okay," he reassured, his voice tender. "You don't have to hide anything from me."

You shook your head, unable to meet his gaze, feeling utterly exposed and vulnerable. You hated feeling like this, and you hated showing it even more. But something about Jey made you want to let your guard down, let him see you for you, not for your cocky facade.

"Am I a bad person?" You sniffled, the question lingering heavily in the air as you looked up at Jey with teary eyes, begging for reassurance, begging him to heal your heart.

Jey's expression softened even more, his eyes full of empathy as he looked at you. "Nah, you not a bad person." he said firmly, his voice laced with sincerity. You scoffed, shaking your head in disbelief, not fully convinced by his words.

"But I am Jey." Your voice cracked as you peered up at him, tears streaming down your cheeks.

"I've done things… I've hurt people, I manipulate everyone… I'm cocky, and egoistical… I lash out at the ones I care about… I'm just like him. And I don't know how to stop, Jey. I don't know how to fix it." You wiped at your face furiously, but the tears kept coming no matter how hard you tried to stop them. "Please… help me fix it."

You felt your hands being pulled away from your hands, and you tried and failed to look away as you stared up into Jey's comforting eyes that never failed to make you feel like you were in another universe, filled with compassion he reserved only for you.

He cupped your face gently, his touch warm and reassuring. "Look at me," he urged softly, waiting until your eyes met his. "You are not a bad person. You're just human." His thumb traced a soothing path over your cheek, wiping away a stray tear. "You ain't nothing like him, you hear me? You ain't. You everything he wished he was." Jey leaned in closer, his voice barely above a whisper. "You think I don't know the real you you hide behind that tough shit, but I do, and you can't hide it from me. The real you is caring as fuck for those she loves, kind as hell, and the most loving person I know. You got a good heart, sweetheart. You're just lost right now. But that don't make you bad. It just makes you real."

You stared up at Jey like he was made of starlight, his words making you want to believe him, make you want to look past any sense of darkness that had engulfed your heart. No one had ever seen through your facade like he did, and it gave you hope.

"Jey…"You whispered hoarsely, your voice barely audible above the soft hum of the club's music."You really think that? You really believe that I'm not a bad person?" You leaned into his touch, even though you felt like you didn't deserve it. "I didn't even try to stop him when he hurt you, though. I only cared about myself, I only-"

"Hey." Jey's voice was firm yet gentle as he interrupted you, his hand still cradling your face. "You did care. I told you that you can't hide anything from me."

He leaned closer, his forehead touching yours. "I saw that look in your eyes when you held me in that cell, when you held me that night. You fell deep into his words, his eyes, so deep that you didn't even realize that Roman was using you to get to me. And you know what? That's okay."

You savored his words and his warm skin on yours, the guilt churning inside of you slowly diminishing. "Okay?" You echoed, your voice barely a whisper.

Jey nodded, his comforting gaze never leaving yours. "Yes, okay. Because you're not a bad person for caring. Protective, yeah. A bit petty, sure. Stubborn as hell, fuck yeah." You giggled at his words despite the tears still lingering, and Jey smiled at the sound, glad to have brought a hint of happiness to you. "But bad, no. You're just you. And I wouldn't like you if you were tryna be anything else."

The tears finally stopped, and Jey wiped the remants of them gently, before pulling you into his lap, his arms massaging your back soothingly, your head against his chest, his heartbeat calming your racing thoughts.

"I know, baby. I know." Jey soothed you as you clung to him, seeking comfort in his loving arms. His arms always made everything better, and you closed your eyes, breathing in the scent of his cologne and burying your face into his chest, relaxing into the warmth and security he always provided. "I know baby. I got you."

Jey let you stayed like that until you were ready, and finally, after what felt like an eternity, you pulled back slightly, still resting against him. You gave him a small smile, a glimmer of gratitude and hope shining in your eyes. "Thank you." It was a simple sentence, but it spoke volumes. "I don't know what I would do without you, Jey."

Jey smiled softly, a genuine warmth in his eyes. "You ain't gotta do anything without me, okay? I'm here for you, always." He brushed a strand of hair away from your face, his touch gentle and reassuring. "Now, how about we get out of here, hm? Go back to the hotel, get you cleaned up, watch that movie you were talking about, and just relax?"

You nodded, feeling a sense of happiness wash over you. "That sounds perfect. You're perfect." His smile widened at your words as he helped you up, wrapping his arm around your shoulder protectively as he led you out of the restroom and through the club.

The uber ride back to the hotel was quiet, with Jey’s hand on your thigh, his gaze never leaving yours as you leaned your head against his shoulder, lost in the city lights passing by.

Jey’s arm never left your as he guided you through the hotel lobby, your feet going on autopilot as you let him take the lead. You barely even realized when you arrived at your room, the door clicking shut behind you. Jey gently guided you to sit on the edge of the bed, and you snapped back to reality when he cupped your face in his hands, his thumb wiping a bit of mascara that had smudged under your eyes.

"I'm gon' run you a warm bath, then we gon' relax in the bed, then you gon' go to sleep and forgot about everything that happened tonight and be happy cause that's what you deserve, ai'ght?" Jey softly caressed your skin, and his voice was even softer.

You nodded, giving him a small but appreciative smile. Jey smiled down at you before letting you go to go to the bathroom, but you pulled away slightly, catching his hand. "Wait." Jey turned back, concern flickering in his eyes. "What's wrong?" You hesitated for a moment, before continuing. "How did you and Roman know where I was gonna be tongight?"

Jey's expression softened, and he sighed, a sense of regret crossing his features. "We didn't plan it, not exactly," he admitted, running a hand through his hair. "Naomi texted me to not bother you guys, and Roman saw the text and found out where you were. I tried to get him to leave you alone, but he wouldn't listen to me." He paused, his gaze meeting yours, searching for any sign of understanding or resentment. "I knew I couldn't leave you alone with him. And I was right."

You nodded slowly, processing his explanation. "You didn't have to worry about me, Jey," you murmured, gratitude and guilt swirling within you. "But thank you for being there, for looking out for me."

Jey's expression softened even further, his gaze unwavering as he met your eyes. He wanted to scream at you how crazy you had to be to think he wouldn't worry about how, about how much he cared for you, how he couldn't beat the thought of something happening to you, how he wished he could protect you from every hurt in this world.

But instead, he smiled softly, his thumb gently caressing your cheek.

"You don't have to thank me. I'ma always look out for you, baby." He gave your hand a reassuring squeeze, and your heart skipped a beat at the way he was looking at you- as if you were the most precious thing in the world. He smiled down at you once more before pulling away and stepping towards the bathroom. "I'll get that bath ready for you, okay?"

Jey heart pounded in his chest as you smiled back brightly at him, and again when at the end of the night when the movie credits rolled, and you had fallen asleep in his arms, finally looking at peace, the worry and pain of earlier washed away from you.

Jey stayed awake a little longer, moving you so his back was to the bed, keeping you safely cradled in his arms. His gaze lingered on your face, feeling a mix of emotions- protectiveness, relief, anger (at Roman, never at you) and a sense of love he didn't dare label. He pressed a gentle kiss to your forehead, his heart swelling with tenderness as he whispered softly to you, "Sleep well, baby. You deserve it."

The anger swelled even more the longer he looked at you. This is where you belonged. In his bed. In his life. In his arms.

And he wasn't gonna let Roman take you away from him, even if it cost you everything.

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𝚂𝙼𝙰𝙲𝙺𝙳𝙾𝚆𝙽-𝙽𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃 𝙱𝙴𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙴 𝙷𝙴𝙻𝙻 𝙸𝙽 𝙰 𝙲𝙴𝙻𝙻

You fidgeted with your bracelet as your eyes burned with how intently you were watching the TV, waiting for the right moment to pounce, waiting for Roman to show his conceited ass out on TV for his weekly shit talking in the ring. This was the last chance you'd have to get rid of the thing that had been destroying everyone, the last chance you'd have to get him to sign the contract that would relinquish his control.

You took a deep breath, putting aside your emotions. You couldn't let your emotions get the best of you, you had to let them fuel you.

A text message alert flashed on your phone, breaking your concentration. It was from Jey.

I'm stuck in traffic, gon' be late. Please don't do anything while I can't stop you.

You sighed, eyes flickering to the TV and your phone. Another text message came, this time more urgent.

Don't do it. Please. I can't let you do this.

You looked up at the sound of Romans music, his smirking face and confident swagger mocking you as he made his way to the ring, Paul Heyman by his side. Your jaw clenched, the fire within you igniting as you watched him boast about how good he was, his dominance, his power, forgetting to mention the fact you helped him get the power he now yields.

You sighed resolutely, pocketing your phone and storming out from backstage, grabbing a mic from a stage tech and marching towards the ring to start the end of all of this.

Roman stopped talking at the sound of your music, his smirk dropping and Paul's eyes widening as they turned to see you striding down the ramp, contract in hand and the usual cocky smirk on your face replaced with an angry glare.

Paul attempted to intervene, but Roman shot out a hand, halting his movements, letting you enter the ring unhindered. You strutted over to him, and even across from each other, the tension was electric. Roman sat up from his chair, standing over you with a challenging stance, not surprised in the slightest at your arrival.

"What, not happy to see me?" You taunted, your voice dripping with sarcasm as you stared back at him with the same challenging glint in your eyes.

Roman's gaze bore into yours, unreadable yet intense. "I'd be happier if you acted like my best friend and supported me instead of trying taking me down."

You scoffed, the bitterness rising within you. "Oh, spare me the sentimental crap, Roman. I have always supported you. But you said it yourself." You leaned in closer to him, the fury in your eyes never fading. "Sometimes you need to show the ones you love the truth so they can understand the pain they cause."

Roman's expression hardened at you, and you saw a flicker of uncertainty beneath his stoic facade. "And you think you can handle the pain?" He challenged, his voice low and dangerous. "You know more than anyone what I've gone through. You've seen it all. Helped me through it all. Saw how it ate at me." Roman came closer to you, his presence comannading and overwhelming. "But you still wanna take this away from me."

You held your breath, your heart torn between what you needed to do and want you wanted to do. You wanted to hug Roman, tell him it was all a mistake, to take back the words you said, but you couldn't. Not when you've reached the point of no return.

"I'm not here to talk about my pain. I'm here to end yours." You held out the contract, your hand shaking slightly. "End the madness. End the hurt. End the pain. End it all."

Roman stared at the contract in your hand, his eyes flickering at the contract in your hand, his eyes flickering between the document and your determined face with a mix of emotions—confusion, anger, and a hint of something that resembled hurt. A tense silence fell over both of you as you stared at each other — the same look in both of your eyes; clash between your egos and your love.

"You really gonna do this to me?" Roman broke the silence, his voice determined yet on the edge of pleading.

His eyes were broken, a vulnerability shining through the mask of the Tribal Chief. It was a look you hadn't seen in a long time, one that made your heart ache with guilt and conflict.

"I love you! I love you so much I gave you everything you ever wanted, everything to make you happy! You're the one person I've trusted with everything. You're the one person I gave my everything to." His words pierced through you like daggers, each one stabbing you in the heart.

Roman backed away from you slightly, a frown creasing his beautiful face, the pain smacking you in the face. "You are supposed to be by my side! Supposed to rule by my side like we planned, like we always wanted." He rubbed his face, like the words he was saying were causing him physical pain. When he looked up at you, his eyes were glistening with unshed tears, pleading for some kind of understanding, some sign of reconciliation. "Please, don't do this. Don't do this to me."

Your heart wrenched at the sight of him crying, at the raw emotions pouring out of him like a faucet, and you were the cause of it. Memories flooded your mind—the smiles you shared, the laughter he always pulled out of you, the shared dreams that had brought you two closer together that you were now living out. You looked at him, really looked at him, his soul, his love, the love in him that was broken.

"Roman, I…," you started, your voice wavering with conflicting emotions. You swallowed hard, fighting back the tears but they slowly came out, but you didnt bother wiping them. You stared at him for an agonizingly long moment before shaking your head, throwing the contract to the ground next to him and backing away, silently sobbing into your hands. "I love you too. I won't. I won't do this." You couldn't bring yourself to finish the sentence, your words catching in your throat as you crumbled under the weight of your emotions tearing you apart.

Romans face shifted from desperation to happiness, the tears still shimmering in his eyes as he watched you break down. He slowly made his way towards you, his steps deliberate and calulcated as he approached you. You moved your face away from your hands, and he could see your tears under the lights, see the same hurt in your eyes.

"Then don't." You peered up at him to see Roman with his arms outstretched, waiting for your answer. Paul, who had been silently watching the ordeal with concern, now had a tooth grin on his face as he walked up to the two of you, his eyes on you.

"You see Miss, the Tribal Chief loves you, he would never want to hurt you!" Pauls voice was loud with excitement as he was literally jumping up and down at the prospect of the two of you making up. He knew just as well as everyone else on the roster the two of you together were a dangerous duo and everyone else would be happy to see the two of you tear each other apart then tear apart the entire roster, and he couldn't let that happen.

"You see him, how he loves you, how you love him. Hug it out! Hug it out! Hug it out!…" Pauls annoying voice seemed so far away in your ears as you stared at Roman, your heart torn between the love you felt for him and the pain that had consumed you.

It felt like hours before you suddenly jumped into his arms, clinging to him tightly, your tears soaking his shirt as he caught you easily and held you close.

Roman's hand gently cradled the back of your head as he held you close. "Shh, it's okay," he whispered back, his voice filled with love and understanding. "I forgive you."

You nodded against his chest, relaxing into the moment and his arms, into the man you trusted the most, not noticing the smirk on his face as he held you just as tightly as you were holding him. You finally pulled back slightly, your voice muffled by your tears. "I know."

You gave him a dazzling smile, caressing his face gently. "But you might not forgive me." You didnt give him time to think about your words before you were giving him a DDT, slamming his head into the chair.

You stood up, wiping your tears away with ease, as if you'd never wept them, staring at Roman's half-fallen form before grabbing the chair and slamming it into his back, making him finally fall down, his mouth groaning in pain.

Paul's mouth dropped in shock and horror as he stared at you, his mouth agape as he tried to moved towards Roman, who was slowly stirring, but a menacing look from you stopped him in his tracks and made him run right out of the ring.

"Forgive me?" You scoffed, your voice holding a cold edge, a stark contrast to the vulnerability you had displayed moments ago, walking towards him, throwing the chair aside and bending down to his level.

"I did nothing wrong accept believe in you! Believe you actually cared about me!" You fishing out a pen from your pocket and glared down at him. "I told you I was gonna do this the hard way." You dropped the pen in front of him with the paper and dropped down on top of him, grabbing his arm and wrenching it back in a submission move.

Roman immediately started to struggle against your hold, grunting in pain as you applied pressure to his arm. "Sign it, Roman!" You wrenched back even harder, and he yelled in pain, his face contorted in agony, but he refused to give in easily. "Sign it and I'll let go!" You pushed him towards the paper, the strain evident in your voice as you applied more pressure to the submission hold. "Sign the fucking paper!"

Roman grunted in pain as he struggled against you, gritting his teeth to try and endure it. "I'm not signing a fucking thing!"

You gritted your teeth, the desperation and anger in your eyes mirroring his determination. "You're making this harder for yourself!" you snapped, your voice laced with frustration and a hint of sorrow.

"Just end it, Roman. Sign the contract!" You gritted your teeth, the desperation and anger in your eyes mirroring his determination. You intensified the pressure on his arm, causing him to cry out in agony.

Roman finally was cracking under the pain, and you cranked up the pressure, finally making him push his free hand out towards the pen and paper. With a gritted jaw and a pained expression, he scrawled his signature across the contract. You didnt let up until the pen dropped from his hand as he collapsed, writhing in agony, clutching his injured arm.

You let go of him, taking a step back and watching him writhe in pain, the sound of his pained groans piercing through your conscience. You took the contract now bearing Roman's signature in your hands, your mind at peace with the chance to end things but your heart achds at the sight of the man you called your best friend in agony. But you knew if you wanted to keep him in your life you needed to do this.

Your head snapped back when you heard Jey's music play, his familiar eyes staring back at you as he raced to the ring, trying to stop what has already started.

But you quickly bolted out of the ring, escaping his grasp, as he lunged forward, his fingers just inches away from reaching you. You clutched the contract to your chest, the thudding of your heart matching the rhythm of your hurried steps.

Jey didnt even look at Roman, didnt even look at Paul who was yelling at him to help Roman. He just stared at you like you were the only thing that mattered, his heart wrenching with each step you took away from him.

"Don't do this!" He screamed with anguish, tears spilling down on his face as he yelled for you, the desperation in his voice making you freeze mid-step, staring at his face that held so much pain that you caused, causing an ache in your chest that matched the one in his.

"Jey...don't." You begged him, your voice cracking with emotion, your lip quivering as you struggled to form words.

Jey would understand. He always did.

"Please, don't do this to him. To us. To me!" His voice wavered as he pleaded with you to come back to the ring, to come back to him.

But you just stood there, your feet frozen in place, tears streaming down your cheeks matching Jey's. And it wasn't the fake one's you shared with Roman.

You couldn't fake anything with Jey. It was real, it was raw, and you hated every second of it.

You took a step backward, your eyes locked with Jey's, silently apologizing for the pain you were causing, for the wounds you were about to inflict.

Jey's voice cracked with agony as he watched you slowly back away. "I ain't letting you leave me!" His words were hauntingly sad, yet had a warning edge in them as you walked away, your eyes filled with tears that blurred your vision as you walked to the back, clutching the contract as if it were a lifeline, not seeing him go to the corner of the ring and clutch the ropes, burying his face in his hands and sobbing his heart out, every cry echoing out his need for you.

Your heart felt like it was being torn apart, but you knew this is what you had to do. And as you delivered the contract to Adam Pearce and got ready to go home, your mind was swirling with many thoughts, but one stood out amongst the rest.

You were going to be the one to end the monster you created, and you weren't going to let anybody stand in your way.

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You laid in bed, but your mind was far away from the comfort of the sheets and the quiet of your room. You couldn't sleep, despite the exhaustion that weighed heavy on your body. Everything that happened was playing on a loop, repeating over and over and over again, each moment etched into your memory.

The echoes of Jey's cries and the heart-wrenching look on his face haunted you. You couldn't shake off the image of his tear-streaked face, pleading for you to stop, to come back to him. But now you knew he wouldn't even want you to come back to him after this, wouldn't want you after this.

And that was the worst part of it all. You were losing the two people you cared about the most, and you couldn't even do anything about it.

Your eyes were dry from how hard you were crying all night, but now you wished you had more tears to cry, to distract yourself from everything you were feeling. You laid on your side, closing your eyes in a futile attempt to get some rest, to force your body to let you relax for once.

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

You bolted upright, jolted out of your thoughts by the insistent knocking at your door. Rubbing your tired eyes, you staggered toward the door, feeling the turmoil of the night clinging to your every movement.

As soon as you swung the door open, you were met with lips smashing on yours, catching you off guard. The force of the kiss pushed you a step back, and before you could fully register what was happening, you found yourself being lifted off the ground. Your arms instinctively wrapped around the person's neck, the passion of their lips on yours sending a pleasurable jolt through your body.

It took a moment for your brain to catch up and recognize the person kissing you. It was Jey. His lips were desperate against yours, sloppy yet intense, chaotic yet loving. It was as if he was trying to covey everything he couldn't express in yours through his lips, and you followed suit, matching the fervor of his kiss, pouring all the emotions that had been bottled up inside you. Lust. Passion. Love.

He broke the kiss, his intense gaze locking with yours, his breaths coming out in erratic huffs, mirroring the pace of your heart. His eyes were red and puffy, matching your own, and your heart fluttered at the sight of the raw emotions swirling in his eyes.

"Jey, I-" Jey's finger silenced you, pressing against your lips gently, preventing you from saying anything else. His eyes were stormy with emotion as he stared at you, his expression a mix of love, anger, and desperation.

"You don't get to talk right now," Jey interrupted harshly, his voice strained yet firm. "I need to say this before I lose my fucking nerve."

He lowered you gently to the ground, his hand never leaving your face as he caressed your cheek, his touch both tender and intense. "I watched you leave, and fuck… I was about to lose my mind seeing you walk away… seeing you leave like that… I couldn't take it." Jey's voice quivered with sadness, his grip tightening slightly as if he feared you might slip away again.

"You're so fucking stubborn, so fucking determined, it drives me insane. And that's why I love you."

Your eyes widened at Jey's confession, and you opened your mouth to speak, but Jey's eyes pleaded with you to let him finish. "I fucking love you. There, I said it. I needed you to know. I need you to know that you mean everything to me, that seeing you leave tore me apart, that I can't lose you."

Tears welled up in your eyes again, and you were speechless. You didnt know what to feel. What to do. How to act. All you knew was that Jey's lips on yours and his arms around you was something you always wanted to feel.

"I don't… I didn't…" Your voice faltered, emotions choking your words as you attempted to articulate your thoughts. You searched for the right words, the perfect response to the whirlwind of feelings rushing through you. "I love you too." With that, you pushed your lips against his.

You felt Jeys smile against your lips, relief flooding through him as he depeened the kiss, pouring his love into it. Your hands found their way to his hair, tangling in the locks as you kissed him fervently, trying to convey all the feelings you couldn't put into words, his taste addicting and intoxicating, and you wanted more of it.

This time it was you who broke the kiss, your forehead resting against Jey's as he looked deep into your eyes. His fingers traced your cheek, sending shivers down your spine as his touch ignited a rush of love and lust within you. "I meant what I said. I ain't letting you go. Not now, not ever." His eyes were soft at the sight of you in his arms, punctuated each word with a gentle kiss against your lips, making you giggle softly in response.

"You are so possessive." You teased, a playful grin tugging at your lips as Jey chuckled softly. "It's hot."

Jey's eyes held an intensity at your words that made your heart skip a beat. "Why you actin' like you don't like it?" Jey smirked, his voice husky with desire, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he spoke. His hand caressed your waist, pulling you closer to him, making your heart race with anticipation.

"Oh, I like it," you whispered back, a playful smirk dancing on your lips. "In fact, I think I love it." You leaned in, capturing Jey's lips with yours in a slow, passionate kiss, your tongues tender against one another, slow and addicting before breaking apart.

"I love you." You gushed out affectionately, heart swelling for the man in front of you.

Jey grinned widely, his eyes twinkling with happiness. "I love you more," he whispered, his breath warm against your skin as he held you close, savoring the moment. "And I ain't letting you slip away again."

You smiled back at him, letting him kiss you again and again and again, let him lead you to the bed and show you just how much he loved you, show you just how much he was holding back from you, showing you just how much he cared for you.

And when the dust settled, and your souls merged into one, you found yourself wrapped in Jey's arms yet again, your head resting on his chest as the rhythmic beat of his heart lulled you into a peaceful slumber.

As Jey gazed down at you for the second time in his arms, he knew you were it for him, the person for him.

And he promised himself that if he had to protect you from yourself to keep you, even if it hurt you, he would.

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𝙷𝙴𝙻𝙻 𝙸𝙽 𝙰 𝙲𝙴𝙻𝙻

"You're up in 10." A stage tech tapped you on the shoulder, pulling you out of the focus of your thoughts.

You nodded in acknowledgement, taking a deep breath to steady your nerves.

Tonight was the night you'd finally get your best friend back, finally get the man you trusted with your life back by taking the very thing he loved the most: His title.

Your thoughts went back to Jey, as they always did as of late, and especially since last night. The two of you didnt really talk today, not because of any arguments but because you both knew what was coming tonight.

You bluntly told him that as much as you loved him, if he waved those puppy dog eyes around you while you were trying to get in the zone, it would only make things harder for you because you'd want to do nothing more but do everything to get back in his arms, which would mean give up on your plan with Roman. You wanted to win, to defeat Roman, and to make things right again.

You straightened yourself out before making your way to the entrance ramp, your heart racing with determination and nerves. You had to do this. You had to win. You had to save him.

That was the mantra running through your mind as you stepped out into the arena, your music blasting through the arena as you put your game face on, strutting down the ramp toward the steel structure looming in the distance with a cockiness that masked the whirlwind of emotions inside you.

You stood in the ring, staring up at the steel structure, the gravity of the moment sinking in as you waited for Roman's arrival. His music hit- and you turned to face the entrance, your gaze fixed on the titantron, awaiting the appearance of the man you once trusted with everything, the man who had become the very source of the pain within you.

Roman came out, the Universal Championship draped over hs shoulder, smirking and exuding the confidence and dominance you taught him as he stepped out and made his way down the ring. Your eyes met, and your gazes locked in an intense standoff, the tension that always seemed ever-present overwhelming you as you stared each other down, emotions running through both your eyes. Hate. Love. Determination.

You finally shifted your gaze away from him, your eyes flickered to the figures behind him- Paul of course by his side, doning a scared expression on his face at the sight of you- and Jey, wearing a guilty expression as he stood in the background, conflicted and anxious at the sight of you glaring at him. You told him to stay back, to stay out of this, that he would be a distr-

You noticed Roman's smirk widened at the sight, and you scoffed internally at his arrogance, realizing his plan. If he thought Jey being here would shake you up, he was sorely mistaken. You were gonna take Roman down, no matter what.

Roman finally made his way into the ring, standing across from you, pride and arrogance written all over his face, almost challenging you to make a move as he held the title high. You smirked back at him, challenging him right back.

The ref's introductions went by in a blur, and before you knew it, the bell rang, and the ref was sealing you both in the unforgiving cell.

You stared at each other for what felt like hours, until suddenly Roman slipped out of the ring, making you scoff as he made his way to the door, snatching the keys from the ref.

"I'ma lock this damn thing myself, cause I'm in control! I'm the one who decides when this ends," Roman boasted, his voice echoing through the arena as he locked the cage, slipping the key's to Jey, who took them with a questioning and guilty look on his face.

"Keep these safe for me, Jey." Roman winked at him before slipping back into the ring, his smirk slipping off as he ran right into a slap across his face from you.

The sound of your palm making contact with Roman's cheek echoed through the arena, and you smirked at the look of shock on Roman's face, as if he really expected you to lay down and let him pin you?

"What's wrong?" You mockingly pouted down at him, sarcasm dripping from your every word. "Get up!"

You pushed him down onto the floor, laughing at the angry expression on his face. "I told you to get up!" You grabbed him by the hair, dragging him up and pushing him into the corner, backing up wisely and enjoying the look of shock and anger contorting Roman's face.

Roman chuckled darkly, wiping the corner of his mouth and looking up at you with a twisted grin. "You wanna play?" He taunted, his voice laced with a hint of amusement despite the pain that flashed across his face as he stood up, stalking towards you like you were his prey.

You watched as he strided towards you, an equally twisted grin on your face. You beckoned him to come closer with a daring look in your eyes. The air crackled with tension, each step he took mirroring your own until you were standing face-to-face, mere inches apart.

"Let's play, Ro."

Let the games begin.

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦✦•······················•✦•········

Pain.

All you felt was pain as you gasped for breath, the kendo sticks raining down upon you with unforgiving force. The sharp sting of each strike left your body aching, and you laid on the mat, trying to shield yourself with your body, trying to crawl towards the ropes.

WACK. "You made me do this!"

WACK. "This is your fault! Why are you making me hurt you!?"

WACK. "You made all this happen, everything happening to you right now, you can blame YOURSELF FOR!"

Roman's cocky voice haunted you with every strike, his words digging into your skin deeper than the kendo stick. Tables and chairs were strewn all around the ring, blood coating the mat.

Roman was surprised, he wasn't expecting this much of a fight from you. You had given it as good as you got in this brutal match, countering his strength and towering height for as long as you could with your agility and in-ring intelligence, and his busted open face was the evidence of that.

But you couldn't put it off forever, and with every passing minute, your body screamed with pain, each breath as agonizing as the last. Your vision blurred, your muscles protested with each movement, and yet you refused to submit, refused to give up.

Roman stalked you as you took shelter in the corner, your knees buckling under the excruciating pain coursing through your body. He sauntered over to you, fully prepared to give you another strike, but the tears in your eyes seemed to give him pause.

For a moment, his expression softened, a flicker of something resembling regret crossing his features. He hesitated, the kendo stick poised mid-air at your face.

"Please..." You begged, sobbing against the pain, your voice barely audible between your sobs. "Stop this, Roman... please... I give up."

Roman's grip on the stick loosened, and he saw the desperation in your eyes, the genuine pain that resonated in your plea, and for a brief moment, a pang of guilt shot through him.

He hesitated, the kendo stick wavering in his hand as he looked down at you, your vulnerability piercing through his hardened exterior. "You give up?" He smiled, and Your voice barely made it past your trembling lips as you nodded weakly, the effort to speak taking every ounce of energy you had left. He studied your face for a moment longer, trying to see if you were telling the truth.

And then, unexpectedly, Roman dropped the kendo stick to the mat, stalking you with a mix of emotions on his face—anger, frustration, and a hint of pity.

He finally made his way towards you, and you peered up at him, struggling to meet his gaze through tear-filled eyes, your body trembling from the pain and exhaustion. Roman crouched down in front of you, his expression unreadable as he looked at your battered form.

You gave him a nod that spoke volumes, outstrethching your arms apologetically, signaling your surrender. "Please…" Roman studied you a moment longer hesitantly before he made his way closer to you.

When he hesitantly got close enough to you, you sat up and in one swift motion, pushed him harshly into the waiting table on the outside, sending him crashing down hard, the table splintering on impact.

You pulled yourself up weakly, sliding out of the ring and dragging yourself to Roman, staring at his broken form, staring at your broken best friend, knowing you had to break him again to save him.

You ignored Jey’s pleading eyes staring from outside the cell as you had been all match as you hauled Roman up from the table, using all your strength to pull him. “This is it, Roman," you hissed through gritted teeth, dragging him to the ring. "It ends now.”

You pinned his crumbled form, praying he would just give up now, praying he would listen to you for once.

ONE

TWO

THR-

You cried out in frustration when Roman pushed you off of him just before the final count.

Roman rolled away, panting heavily, his eyes locked on you with that same cocky defiance he had the entire match, and you couldn’t take it anymore.

You scrambled to your feet, desperation clawing at your throat. This had to end. You couldn't let it continue any longer. Your body protested every move, every breath, but your eyes flickered towards to the kendo stick laying next to you, and you staggered towards it, gasping as pain shot through your body.

All the guilt, all the regret that flooded your body since the bell rang washed away when you gazed at Roman, at his soulless eyes, in his heart that you no longer recognized. You needed to get it back. You needed to save him.

SLAM! Roman let out a pained groan that the strike at his mid-section, trying to shield himself from you, peering up at you and seeing the same soulless eyes he had staring right back at him.

SLAM! SLAM! SLAM! You slammed him with it, on his ribs, his legs, anywhere you could hit, over and over and over again, the pain in your heart matching the agony etched on Roman's face with each strike. Tears mixed with sweat, your breaths ragged as you continued to rain down blows upon him.

SLAM. “You made me do this!” you screamed between sobs, striking him in the stomach.

SLAM. “You should have listened to me!” You cried out, tears streaming down your face as he yelled out in agony as you smacked in in the jaw with it.

SLAM. “Why won’t you just stop and come back to me!” You sobbed, the kendo stick landing blow after blow, as if trying to beat some sense back into Roman, your voice breaking with every word.

Roman laid there, unable to stop you from releasing your emotions on him. Unable to stop you from releasing your pain on him, releasing everything onto him, making you feel everything he made you feel, until you let out a final guttural scream, throwing the kendo stick down and tugging your hair and collapsing in the corner, staring at the destruction you caused.

Everything that led up to this moment flashed every emotion, every choice, every regret, and every sacrifice you made. And as you looked at Roman, the confidence of his earlier gone and replaced with hurt, you knew you had to make the biggest sacrifice of your life.

You slowly walked towards him, his eyes trained on you, preparing for a blow. But you gripped his chin, forcing him to look into your eyes, a well of emotions swirling through both your orbs. Tears stained both your faces, a poignant silence in the air .

“I'm sorry, Roman," you whispered hoarsely, your voice trembling with regret, and determination. You pressed your forehead against his, tears mingling, and for a fleeting moment, time seemed to stand still.

That moment passed, and you hauled yourself up, sadness turning into a determined glare as you stared at him. “This ends now.” You pushed him down to the mat, using your weight on his back to evade his strength and grabbed his arm, wrenching it behind his back in an excruciating hold, the pain etched across Roman's face evident as he struggled against your grip, his cries echoing in the cell.

"Please give up Roman, please." You shouted, your voice cracking with emotion as you strained to maintain the hold, your entire body trembling from the effort and exhaustion.

“I need you back. I need you to come back to me!” You pulled even harder, begging him to just give up this one time.

“I am with you!” Roman finally screamed back, voice cracking with the same emotion as yours, shaking his head at the ref, refusing to tap out. He used his strength to push himself up with you on his arm, pushing himself out of the ring and hoping you would be dumped on the outside from his weight.

But you held on, holding on for dear life as the two of you dropped in front of the cell doors, dragging him back down and wrenching back as hard as you could. Your eyes locked with Roman's, pleading silently for him to end this, to give in and put an end to this.

Suddenly, after what felt like an eternity, Roman's arm finally tapped against the ground, and you let go, but the ref yelled from in the ring that the match couldn't end outside the cell.

Your eyes widened in shock, but your face turned into a snarl as you watched Roman crawl back in the ring. It was now or never. All you had to do was crawl and lock in the submission and you’d wi-

“Stop!” Jey’s pleading voice made you freeze in your tracks, realizing you were standing across from him, the cell doors separating you. You turned towards Jey, your chest heaving and your breath labored, your body screaming with exhaustion. Your gaze met his, and your heart dropped saw the anguish and fear in his eyes as he stood there, watching everything that happened unfold.

"Please, don't do this," Jey pleaded, his voice filled with desperation. He reached out towards you, his hand pressing against the steel structure that separated the two of you, as if trying to bridge the gap between your hearts.

“Don’t go through with this. Don’t do this to him. I can’t let you be like him!” His hand clutched at the steel bars, his eyes teary and his heart pleading for you to stop.

Your resolve wavered, torn between finishing what you started and the overwhelming pain in Jey’s face. The image of Roman, right where you wanted him, battered and vulnerable, flashed through your mind, intertwining with Jey's tear-stained face. And you knew what you had to do.

You turned to Jey, giving him a sad smile, your hand resting against the cold steel beside his. "I have to do this, Jey," you whispered, your voice barely audible over the pounding of your heart. "I'm sorry."

Jey shook his head in disbelief, his eyes begging you to reconsider. "No, you don't. You don't have to do this. Please, come back to me. We can figure this out together. I can't lose you like this," Jey pleaded, his voice cracking with raw emotion.

Tears welled up in your eyes, conflicting emotions swirling within you. “I’m sorry.” you repeated, your voice quivering. You couldn’t bear to look at him any longer, and turned away slowly, your body begging you to just go into Jey’s arms-

SPEAR!

Jey looked on in horror as Roman flipped your body over with a sudden spear, capitalizing off of Jey’s distraction and knocking you down onto the steel ramp outside the ring.

Roman's fierce gaze pierced through Jey as he towered over your, the vindictive triumph in his eyes sending a chill down his spine.

“That’s why you’re my right hand man!” The guilty look on Jey’s face came back as Roman gave him a beaming smile, pointing at him with a smirk.

"You da man, Jey!" Roman laughed twistedly, relishing in the sight of you lying in pain, the once familiar and loving face of his best friend now reduced to a pained grimace. Jey's heart sank as he watched his worst fears come true, watch as Roman crawled into the ring, a wicked smirk on his face as he stood over your lying body, reveling in the pain on your face.

Roman slowly kneeled in front of you, taking your chin in his hands, the softness in which he held your face contrasting the dark tone in his eyes.

"Look at me." Roman's voice was menacing yet soft, a malicious edge cutting through the air as he glared down at you, his fingers tightening around your chin. "I said look at me!" You looked at him through teary eyes, your vision blurred from the pain and exhaustion. His grip on your chin was tight, forcing you to meet his gaze, the intensity of his stare unnerving you and making your skin crawl.

"I didnt want to do this. I don't want to do this." Roman's voice was laced with scorn, his face contorted with anger. "You made me do this! You made me hurt you like this!" He snarled, shaking your head with force, the pain searing through you with each movement.

You tried to speak, to reason with him, but your voice faltered, barely a whisper escaping your lips. "Please, Roman, stop this… I had to"

He laughed bitterly at your plea, his laughter echoing through the cell, sending shivers down your spine. "Stop? Why would I stop? You have to do this, right? This is what you wanted, isn't it? To see me like this, to feel what I feel!" His voice was a venomous hiss, punctuated by the fury burning in his eyes.

You reached out, a desperate attempt to reason with him, but Roman seized your wrist, his grip like a vice, his face contorted with pure malice. "I told you I was gonna save you from yourself, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do." he growled, pulling you up harshly, making you cry out in pain as he dragged you to the center of the ring.

"And if you do what I'ma know your stubborn ass is gon' do, then I know I was right." He pushed you to the ground, putting his entire body weight on you, praying you'll pick the right choice as he pinned you.

You proved him right by barely kicking out at the last second, his body pressed hard against yours, the pain almost unbearable. Roman kissed his teeth and tutted apologetically.

"I was right, I'm always fucking right" he muttered, his expression a mix of disappointment and anger.

"You're really gonna make me do this, huh?" You struggled beneath him, trying to catch your breath, your body aching from the relentless assault. Roman leaned down, his face inches from yours, his hot breath brushing against your skin as he spoke. "You'll thank me later."

His voice was cold, devoid of any emotion and you knew you weren't gonna be able to manipulate his emotion anymore. You braced yourself, knowing what was about to come, and it was worse than anything you'd endured in the match so far.

You gasped for air as Roman pulled you into a guillotine chokehold, squeezing tightly around your neck, cutting off your air supply. You gasped and wheezed, struggling to breathe as panic set in, your hands desperately clawing at his arms, trying to break free from his vice-like grip, but it was no use.

You tried to hang on, scratching at his arms with your nails, trying to break free, but your strength was fading rapidly. The world around you faded into a blur, darkness encroaching at the edges of your vision. Your thoughts spiraled, flickering between moments of pain and memories of happier times, almost all of them including the man who was hurting you. You fought against the encroaching darkness, desperate to stay conscious, to resist the overwhelming urge to succumb to the blackness that threatened to engulf you.

"Just quit!" You could barely shake your head at Roman's screams fading away in your ear, only able to feel the air squeezing out of your body. You didnt know how long it had been, but you could feel Roman's anger increase the longer you refused to tap out by the tightness of his grip increasing. Just fucking quit!"

It could've been hours, days , or mere moments—time lost its meaning as your vision was turning to black as you fought to hang on, the sound of your own heartbeat pounding in your ears. Your body fought desperately for air, the lack of oxygen making every movement feel sluggish and labored. You were on the verge of blacking out, the edges of your consciousness dimming. "Just fucking quit, god damn it! Why won't you quit?!"

Just when you thought you couldn't endure it any longer, your body weakening and the world spinning, the pressure around your neck suddenly released.

Gasping for air, you collapsed to the mat, coughing and sputtering, drawing in deep, desperate breaths, not even having enough energy to open your eyes, let alone move any part of your body. The pounding in your head was deafening, your body felt as if it had been through a grueling war, every muscle aching and protesting with agony.

You lay there, your chest heaving, and it took you a few moments to realize someone was shaking you gently, calling your name over and over again. The voice was faint, barely audible over the ringing in your ears, but it was persistent.

"Come on, wake up. Please, wake up," the voice pleaded, the desperation and fear evident in every word. The shaking became more insistent, and you felt a hand on your shoulder, urging you to move.

Slowly, painfully, you managed to pry your heavy eyelids open, your vision blurry and unfocused. As the world came back into view, you saw Jey's worried face hovering above you, his eyes wide with concern and fear.

"Hey, hey, look at me." His voice was shaky, filled with emotion as he cradled your face in his hands. "I got you, baby. I got you."

You struggled to speak, your throat raw and parched, but you managed to croak out a weak, "Jey?"

Tears welled up in his eyes as relief flooded his features. "Yeah, it's me. Thank God, you're awake." Jey softly caressed your face before letting you go and turning away from yo , and that's when you noticed the keys in his hand, and Roman with an angry expression on his face, pushed far away from you.

Jey must've not been able to take anymore of the match and used the keys to come in and push Roman away to save you. Your eyes widened in realization and you tried to push yourself up and speak, but your body protested vehemently against any movement.

You winced, feeling the pain coursing through every inch of your being, and all you could do was watch as Jey made his way to Roman, who was sitting on the mat, the angry look on his face fading into a unreadable glare as Jey kneeled beside him, tear stains marking his face, his eyes downcast as he took Roman's hand, hoping Roman still had some sanity left to listen to him.

"Please Roman..." . Roman seemed to resist at first, pulling away slightly, but then seemingly softened at the begging tone in Jey's voice. "She won't quit... take mercy on her. She loves you. She's doing this because she loves you. You know that! And if you love her, you'll stop this!" Jey squeezed his hand tightly, putting his forehead on his, praying in his entire being that Roman will finally listen to him. "And I love her... so please... stop this."

Roman closed his eyes, the arena lights casting shadows on his face, and for a moment, he looked like a man battling his inner demons. Not the tribal chief, not an invincible power hungry individual. Just a man.

Roman finally opened his eyes, staring at Jey- not as usual like he could see through him- but like he was seeing him for the first time. His eyes were no longer soulless, they were vulnerable, they were hurting; they were human.

Roman squeezed Jey's hand back, a gesture that spoke volumes more than any words could convey. He nodded against Jey's forehead, and it was like they had a silent conversations they spoke through with their eyes in a language only they could understand.

Jey's eyes lit up, and he squeezed Roman's hand back again in acknowledgment before bringing Roman into a one armed hug, all the feelings that got them to this point washed away as Jey buried his face in Roman's neck, holding onto him as if he was afraid to let go.

Roman cradled the back of Jey's head gently, time standing still as they embraced in the ring. Roman was the one who ended up pulling away, gently breaking the embrace. He looked at Jey with emotions he couldn't put into words, but Jey understood it, understood what he was trying to say.

"I love her too, Jey." Roman whispered softly, as if he was revealing a secret he had long kept hidden. He leaned in close, so close that their breaths mingled, his hand still on the back of Jey's head. Then the vulnerability vanished. The emotions washed away. And any remants of humanity were wiped away.

"And that is why I have to do this."

Roman's understanding expression was replaced with a dark smirk on his face that made Jey's smile drop, and his lungs seize as Roman pulled him into the guillotine hold, any hopes Jey had dying down as he gasped for air, his body being pulled down to the mat as he clawed Roman's arm, desperate for release. Roman'e eyes were now cold and determined, the arena lights flickering, reflecting the conflict within Roman's eyes, torn between the man he could be and the tribal chief he had become.

You gasped for breath as you watched the horror happening right in front of you, Jey's eyes pleading for mercy as he gasped for breath, the arm that wasn't clawing at Roman desperately being held out to you. It felt like deja vu- your mind going back to the way Jimmy had cried out, pleaded for mercy, reaching out to Jey just like Jey was doing to you right now.

And just like Jey, you couldn't do anything about it. You couldn't fight back, you couldn't manipulate your way out of it, all you could do was watch on helplessly, moving your tired body closer to Jey's and intertwining your fingers with his outstretched hand, the desperation in his eyes mirrored your own feelings of powerlessness.

'This must've been his plan all along' your brain screamed at you as you squeezed Jey's hand with all your might, your body screaming at you to do something as you watched Jey cry for mercy. Bringing Jey out here...giving him the key... making him watch everything unfold.

Roman knew Jey knew you wouldn't give up no matter what, and that would eat at him, and he used that against the both of you. The realization hit you like a punch to the gut, but a little voice in your brain couldn't help but respect him for how far he would go as a sickening feeling settled in the pit of your stomach. You knew what you had to do.

"I give up!" You yelled out, gripping Jey's hand tighter as you shouted, your voice echoing through the arena.

"I quit! I quit, Roman! You win! You fucking win!" Your free hand tapped rapidly against the mat, tears streaming down your face as you pleaded for Roman to release Jey and spare him.

Roman's gaze shifted from Jey to you. There was a glint of satisfaction in his eyes as he watched you tap out over and over again in submission, begging him to stop as the bell ringing to signal the end of the match. He didn't stop until his name rang from the speakers, and then finally, he released Jey from the hold, letting him collapse to the mat, gasping for air.

You finally found the energy to move and rushed to Jey's side, kneeling beside him as you gently cradled his head in your hands. Jey rolled over, breathing heavily, eyes filled with pain and sadness as he collapsed on top of you, his body shaking you held onto him, running your fingers through his hair soothingly, whispering comforting words even as your own tears fell.

Roman stood tall in the center of the ring, the Universal Championship slung over his shoulder, a smile playing on his lips as he gazed at the sight of you and Jey, him engulfing your body in his bigger frame protectively, comforting each other with a tenderness that seemed to contrast the brutality of the match.

Roman's eyes shifted from smugness to happiness as he slowly walked out of the ring, the arena lights casting a sinister glow on his face. He finally got his best friend back, got his person back right where you belong, by his side, and made sure Jey was right there with you. Roman was sure that even if you didn’t get over this-which you would-he knew that you might have tried to beat his ass, but you wouldn’t let anyone else touch him no matter your anger. Paul brandished him by his side as he casted you one last smile before making his way up the ramp.

Jey was feeling that same happiness, despite the pain and exhaustion, despite all the shit that happened. Despite all the odds, despite Roman destroying everything in his path, Jey fulfilled his promise whether you liked it or not. He didn't let you let Roman destroy your soul.

And that's all Jey ever wanted for you.

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