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#⊵ Eternal Darkness | Special Interaction ⊴
harmcnia-gropius · 7 months
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[@axhroma] Colress isn't sure how the weird.. link.. thing.. he has with Lady Yamask works, but he needs to speak with her. Here goes winging it. The attempt happens around the same hour, adjusted for Paldean time, that every other occasion occurred. He focuses on the Rotom phone on his worktable. The only noise around him is the faint humming of machinery. "Um.." Arceus, just kill him. "Miss Yamask?"
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A beat of silence. "I want to better understand your motivations behind this whole.. thing."
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Her voice started as a gentle static, almost quiet enough to make your ears ring, not enough to make out without equipment professional ghost trainers used, an EVP recorder perhaps?
Had she always begun like this? Denial would makes these subtle things easy to ignore, surely..
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"You are a brash one, Doctor."
Like a droplet into a pond, she finally speaks in a volume you can understand, though her tone has a hint at true malice in it this time.
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"Weren't you too deep in your web to tell the insects apart? Decided to unbury your head to assist my plight, or just to save your skin?"
She seems a fowl mood, her visage flickering like a horror film on the tiny screen.
If your device's Rotom was in control, it might complain of an overwhelming heat. Spirits need energies, and you've offered her a phone battery on what seems to have been a very bad evening.
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galedekarios · 8 months
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thinking about how gale's love language is acts of service.
people have talked at length about how he cooks for everyone at camp.
"the hand that feeds is the hand that's loved. it'll never leave your side now."
but that's not all of it, and it's a red thread that weaves itself through almost all his interactions throughout the game.
"magic is... my life. i've been in touch with the weave for as long as I can remember. would you like to experience this?"
gale shows the protag his world, his life, trying to connect them to the weave as he had once been, when he was still a chosen, still an archmage. it's not quite the same, it doesn't come quite as easy. still.
"i'm so very glad you came. to share this with me. i know this is all unreal, but i created it for you. you must know that you're... that you're very special to me. if things were different, if we were home, i'd have taken time to do things properly. to say it all better. but time is short. i'm in love with you."
gale knew he was living on borrowed, he knew it would run out eventually, even well before elminster came to deliver mystra's instructions.
he can't give the protag something different and they aren't home and they're not going to go home at the end of this. he knows this. time that once seemed so infinite when he was young is now whittled down to a single last night.
a last night that he uses to turn a dark and cursed land into a beautiful forest, northern lights dancing across a starry sky. he can't go home, he can't take the protag home, but he can give them an illusion of the centre of his universe, with all the well-loved things in it. there's no pretention here. books strewn across the floor, across the desk. sculptures, paintings, music. a view of home. the smell of the sea breeze.
baring his heart as well his soul in the little time he still has left to use how he sees fit.
"let me show you more. when you wake, it will be back in our small, dirty, bloody patch of existence. but stay with me now. there are endless worlds out there. countless ways to declare love. infinite ways to express it. too much for one night... but we shall try."
let me show you waterdeep, let me show you my home, my universe. let me show you how it would have been, could have been, if i did have time. let me show you more. let me show you how much i love you in the one night we may have left together.
let me give my soul to you, in confidence.
"i'd actually been thinking of introducing the two of you anyway. over a sumptuous home-cooked meal, if that sounds at all to your taste? i make it to my mother's recipe."
he wants to give the protag a chance to get to know tara, the one constant in his life, the one who became his only friend, his safe haven in the storm, the one that bore witness to his greatest triumphs and most abject failures. he wants to cook for them. he wants to take them home so very badly—
and yet he knows he won't make the date.
"then have me, but have the best possible version of me. [...] think of what i offer: the vastness of eternity to explore, the weave at our fingertips... you would really prefer me as i am?"
he could be more for the protag, if they wish him to be. could be more, could be better.
without all the flaws, without all the things that make gale only who he is. the things that sometimes simply aren't enough. he could be everything that plain old gale dekarios, that even the wizarding prodigy gale of waterdeep, could never be.
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a-spes · 7 months
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T H E D O G ' S F A L L - One shot.
Words count - 5,2k.
Tags & Warnings - mob boss!Natasha Romanoff x fem!Reader, angst, harm/comfort, manipulation, mentions of blood/past abuses, human trafficking.
Summary - Anyone that can beat her in a fight will earn her, and Natasha intends to be the one, working hard to get what she thinks is hers. A dog can't fight for eternity, can it?
Moodboard here.
N/A - It's the longest os I've wrote so far, took me a lot of time but it's enventually here so I really hope you'll enjoy it! If it's the case, don't hesitate to let me know by interacting with the post :)
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It is at the back of that popular night club that everything is happening, where no one can see your distress except the one that enjoys it, where everyone is too busy having fun to pay attention to the veritable purpose of this building. On a dark corner that light never reaches, a man is guarding the most important secret of that place, and very few are the people he lets through; only rich and influential men and women get their ticket for this special spectacle that takes place here every night.
Down there, the loud music is replaced by the shouts of excited men that makes her sigh; why do they have to scream like animals? If she gets a few glances, no one dares to say anything as the infamous Black Widow is walking through the crowd to get to her place. She has blood on her back, people are whispering, some from admiration, others from fear, but no one stays indifferent - how could they? One of the most important mafia bosses of the city, but also one of the most discreet, is here. She has her reputation and, even if she is rarely seen, she is well-known, so none of the men dares to protest when she decides to take place in their lodge, chasing them out of the room. 
From here, she has a perfect view of the cage and, most importantly, of the Dog.
It is obvious that there is no way out of the ring, that you are trapped in that cage until one of these men’s victory - or your last breath - but, somehow, you still believe that defeating them will lead you out of that basement. So, not caring about how many of them are daring to step in your cage, you beat them, one by one. You watch the man you just defeated being escorted out of the cage so the next one could take his place - it gives you a few seconds to catch your breath. 
The world is spinning, you can’t even see the faces of your opponents, but you don’t give up. Even if the only thing you want is to curl up in the corner, crying for your mom, you can’t. You can’t because it will mean giving them your life. No, you need to be stronger than them, to pretend that you don’t feel the pain inflicted by their blows, to pretend that you are not bothered by the metallic taste of the blood in your mouth, they need to believe you could do that all night. But you are not foolish and you know damn well that you won’t last long. 
It is hard to focus on anything, even on breathing, because you are overwhelmed by a crew you can't even see, blinded by the lights; you are the spectacle. They all came to see the Dog fighting, hoping to witness its fall. They are shouting, mostly insults in Russian, whistling and clapping everytime something exciting is happening during a fight, but it won’t be enough to save you from that place. 
Oh, at first, they were cheering for you, but it slowly changed, people getting tired of seeing your pretty face every night. They thought you would be easy to break and hated to be proven wrong, and you perfectly know that the stakes have changed. It is no longer about giving them what they want, entertainment, it is purely about surviving and you noticed how the attitude of your opponents changed over the weeks, becoming more aggressive.
You were a champion, now you are just a little bitch they need to get rid of. 
The organization that threw you in that rat hole understood that as much as you did and, tonight, they changed the rules. Tonight, it'll be only you against the world, until they are tired of it. No break, no help, everytime one leaves, the next one is already stepping in the ring, as an endless torture. 
Tonight, she will be one of them. She has been looking at you hungrily since the first time she came here, and she knows that you will be hers by the end of the night, after all she came just for that, to take you home.
Even if she is here every night, you never had a chance to notice the woman. She was always sitting in the last row, observing you from her balcony, where she is hidden by the shadow, but she noticed you for sure. The time she came, it was only because of one of her associates that wanted to meet here specifically, she never left since. From the moment her eyes landed on you, she was unable to think about anything else, the way you were looking so innocent but so feroce at the same time got her heart. 
She sent a few of her best men, knowing they would lose, as a test, waiting for the moment it would be her turn to enter the cage. She never expected them to win and she would have killed them if they had the audacity to: she is the one that is supposed to defeat you, the only one that has the right to own you. The urge to possess you only grew stronger over the weeks, being deeper every time she came here, she wants to see you as you are breaking under her effect, to control every aspect of your life. 
So she patiently waited for the right time to come, she always liked a bit of challenge anyway, having a soft spot for things that are hard to get. She worked hard to get you, spending weeks observing every of your movements: she learned how you are fighting and your habits, she learned to read your body and face as if she was on your mind, and that’s the difference with the others: if you are a game for them, for her, you are a goal she must reach at all costs. 
As soon as your eyes laid on her, you knew she wouldn’t back up, somehing in the way she stepped in the cage already made all the difference. It is her confidence. It is the smirk on her face, a cocky one. It is the way her hands are stuck in her pockets while she is observing you. It is the slight sigh as she gets rid of her leather jacket. It is all these details that give the impression that she is just here to settle a formality, already certain of her victory.
Even the way she is moving has something unrealist. Every step, every look, is calculated and almost imperceptible. Usually, you would step forward, ready to fight even before they entered the cage to show them you are not afraid, but this time? You can’t help but instinctively step back when she enters. The movement was slight, as you were already leaning the grid but she noticed it, the way her aura is pressuring you, and she loves it.
As soon as the door was closed, your fate was sealed.
It all happened really fast because she knew exactly what to do, she prepared for that moment. You quickly realized that you were right: the woman had nothing in common with the men you were fighting against earlier, you never stood a chance to win that fight. The realization is more painful than the blows she is currently throwing at you. Every punch you try to land, she knows exactly how to dodge it. As if she was on your mind, she knows exactly where to hit to get you weak, stealing your breath and your strenght, having you on your knees then laying on the floor in less than a few minutes. 
At first, you tried to get up, to fight, but she is faster than you are, and wiser, and stronger, and more trained. She is being pretty much better in everything. Soon your vision is so blurry that you can’t see anything, you are feeling so weak that even moving your fingers or keeping your eyes open is just too much. 
"Stay still,” she quietly ordered when she noticed you were struggling against her grip - she had you pinned down on the ground by pressing her foot on your back and grabbed your hair to lift a bit your head. "You're going to be mine no matter what, so don't make things harder for yourself, honey." 
One. 
Two. 
Three. 
You hear the countdown but, this time, it is not your victory that is announced, it is hers. As soon as her name is shouted by the crew, her grip releases your hair but you simply don't have the strength to move, the news leaves a void in your chest. The pain, but mostly this feeling of emptiness, is keeping you frozen in place. She owns you, and this simple idea is sending shivers through your whole body. You don't realize yet what is happening, thinking that, maybe, it is just a cruel joke on you, and it explains the lack of reaction when she asks you to get up; she needs to grab your arm and lift to get you on your feet. 
You stumble, fighting the urge to vomit. Your brain can barely process what is happening, especially when you realize that your feet are not touching the ground anymore. In her arms, you are nothing more than a rag doll, silent and motionless, barely having the energy to keep your eyes open. 
"She is not for sale,” she coldly said, her voice bringing you back to reality. As she was on her way to get out of the night club, some men were offering the woman outrageous amounts of money in the hope of getting you, they all backed up once she coldly glanced at them. "No one will ever take you away from me, do you hear that, love? You are safe as long as you’re with me," she then whispered in your ears. 
You drift into unconsciousness as soon as the car starts, despite the woman that kept begging you to keep your eyes open, the way she was cadling you not helping. You just had enough time to notice the men sitting at the front of the black van, both armed and intimidating, before falling into darkness. 
You opened your eyes again when the car stopped in an alley. It is late, the sun gave its throne to the moon a long time ago and, even if you can't tell what time it is, you know it is the middle of the night. How many hours did you spend down there, fighting for your life? The question makes you sick because the only answer is too many. All these hours for nothing because, no matter how hard you triee, you loose. You were never supposed to win their twisted game, you never got a chance and you slowly realize that the promised freedom was just a lure. For weeks you believed them, you played along their rules, thinking it was the only way to get your life back.
And here you are, in the arms of your new owner, a woman you know nothing about but that now has every rights on you, even if you will live depends exclusively on the redhead's choices. The fear twists your stomach, the humiliation clenches your throat and the exhaustion makes your eyes burning, tears threatening to roll down your cheeks.
Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, you repeat in your head, but you don't know for how long you will be able to keep your tears for yourself.  
The woman is not looking at you at all, she is concentrating on not falling as she is walking to the house, barely seeing where her feet are landing. You, however, can't help but observe every detail of her face, noticing how serious her expression is. You are trying to guess how your life is going to be by her side, but you can't, she is a complete mystery and you hate that.
A part of you wants to go back in that basement. It may have been a living hell, but you had your habits, you knew how to survive, now you will have to learn everything again. 
You notice that two armed persons are guarding the front door and, when you pass by them, they exchange a few words in Russian. You can't understand a word of what they are saying, but you guess they are greeting the woman, beside some insults, you don't know a lot and only because that's how they used to call you.
The inside of the penthouse is exactly as you imagined it: expensive, tidy and minimalist. You never felt comfortable in that kind of environment, it always reminded you that you will never have a place in that sphere, you are nothing more than their animal, a dog that does everything they want. 
Once inside, you almost expected her to drop you on the floor but she didn't. Her grip is strong, as if she doesn't want to let you go, that's because she is scared too. She exchanged a few words in Russian with a woman before heading upstairs. 
Your eyes closed because of the light, you don't see much more of the house, nor of where you are going. You can feel that she climbs the stairs, takes a few turns and walks through a door before she eventually lets you go. It is with care that she sits you on the floor of the bathroom. 
"Here we are," she whispered, "you can open your eyes, love," she added when she noticed they were still closed. If you can't see her smile, you can feel her hand brushing your cheek. 
For weeks you didn't see anything else than pitch darkness and the dimmed light of the basement where you were fighting, it is great to eventually be able to see something else. She even made sure to not turn the big light on, only a small one in the corner that diffuses a subdued light. Somehow, she knows exactly what to do to make you feel comfortable. 
"Let me help you," she said, coming closer to kneel in front of you when she realized you couldn't take your bath alone.
On the way home, she sent a message for one of her maids to run a bath for you to enjoy when you arrived. The mirrors fog up and a scent of jasmine fills the room, but even if the idea of taking a bath sounds good, you don't move. You are curled at the exact place she left you in, your knees against your chest.
You are like a dog, but nothing like a fighting one, she thought when she saw how you tried to back up when she reached for your shirt.
"I am not going to do anything," she quietly said, trying to sooth you by using a gentle tone and caressing your cheek with her thumb. "I am going to help you to get rid of those rags so you can get a bath, okay? Then, we can clean your wounds and have a good meal, does this sound good?" she asked and you slowly nodded. 
She helps you to get rid of your clothes that are closer to rags honestly as they have holes in them, the fabric being soaked in dirt, blood and sweat, sticking to your skin. You never felt so vulnerable than right now, under her serious gaze, what is she thinking about? It is impossible to guess but you can feel her eyes on your body as she looks you up and down. A quick glance which allows her to take a mental note about all your injuries.
"What are you doing?" she chuckled, when her eyes didn’t land on your chest but on your crossed arms - you were trying to hide, how cute. "How silly you are,” she whispered when noticing you didn't seem to understand what she was talking about, "thinking you can hide like that."
Her tone sounded too sweet for it to genuinely be and there is something behind her gentle tone that is rigging alarms in your head. You can't tell what it is exactly, but there is that weird feeling, your instinct screaming at you to be careful when your body just wants to give up and be in her arms, ‘cause what could go wrong?
She takes your hands to pull them away from your chest so you can’t hide from her anymore. Her grip is firm, just a little too strong so you understand that, despite her sweet smile, she won't hesitate to be harsh with you if you don’t behave. However, she still seems to be extra careful while moving you, as if you were a porcelain doll, because for nothing in the world she would hurt her fragile princess. She  slowly takes your arms away so she can give a glance at all your injuries. What she sees makes her sigh, she seems about to say something but keeps her words for herself ; you should have been more careful. 
She helped you to get in the bath and it was a nice moment, a few minutes you got for yourself because, surprisingly, she let you bathe yourself alone. Oh, she wasn’t far away, just at the other end of the room, keeping a close eye on you at every time, but dealing with something on her phone. She would occasionally comment on the way you were doing things, talking you throught it so you can shower the proper way, her way. Once you are done, she wraps you on a soft towel, bandages your wounds and gives you clothes that are hers, a hoodie and a short, and you can’t help but notice how good they are smelling, how comfortable you are feeling in these.
"Did you say something?" she genuinely asked, turning to you because she was sure she heard you mumbling a few words. 
She was talking about your life here, talking almost alone as you weren’t really talkative, but thinking she would miss the words you whisepered was a mistake because she never misses anything.
"Nothing important," you replied, but this answer doesn't seem to please the woman, something twitching in her eyes, coming from soft to sharp.
"When I ask you a question, you reply to it, am I clear?” she said, immediately leaving what she was doing to come close to you and grab your chin.  “You are not the one that gets to decide what’s important, your small brain can't handle big decisions and that's why I am here. I mean, see how it got you to be by yourself …" she continued, looking at you with disdain, as if she was thinking that it is only your fault if you ended up in that rat hole, caught in human trafficking. “I am here to give you a second chance and you better take it ‘cause it may be the last… so don't talk to me like that ever again, did I make myself clear enough?"
The only answer you are able to give her is a whining accompanied by a sniffle and she obviously doesn’t like that. Even if you tried your hardest to not let those tears rolling down your cheeks, you can’t help it, her harsh words only making things worse because you are already hating to disapoint the woman. 
"If I knew you would cry, I would've sold you ..", she sighed in annoyance, her nails digging into your skin, "I hate cry-babies, understand?" she asked, but it wasn’t not a question: it was a warning. "The fighter I saw in that ring must be here when I am back," she coldly added before releasing the pressure she was exerting on your face.
She leaves, slamming the door shut so you easily understand that she is upset with you reacting that way. She has done everything she could in order to help you to be comfortable here : she gave you a bath and clothes, cleaned your wounds, promised you a meal and a bed, even gave you comfort but it still doesn't seem to be enough because you were crying as if she was some sort of monster, and she can't bear that vision. She tried to repeat to herself that you are just tired, that things are going to get better with time but it doesn’t calm her down. Whether you want it or not, she will make sure that, one way or another, you will accept her and she won't hesitate to use the hard way if she has to. 
When she comes back, she notices that didn't move an inch, scared by what the woman could say and impressed by the bedroom. But it didn’t prevent your eyes from wandering around the room. It is really minimalist, there is nothing that could give you a hint about the person she is, everything is exactly where it should be, not a speck of dust and no personal objects. It feels like a hotel room more than hers.
When you hear the door, your gaze settles on the woman. Your knees are bent against your chest as if it could protect you from all the dangers of the world. She probably left you for only five minutes, but they felt like hours. Your thoughts had time to run while waiting for her : what about trying to escape? But it never worked, it’s always a dead end, a path to regrets because they always find you, making sure you won’t even think about doing it again and, if they do not find you, it's someone else. You learned that there is no escape and gave up on going back to your old life a long time ago. It is not even the fear of the armed men that is keeping you here, it's the void in you when you think about what you would do if you were free again, nothing. Nothing because you forgot how to live on your own. So you didn't move, not even a finger because she didn't ask you to do it, only being a dog that lives for its masters' will.
But what piques your curiosity is more the tray in her hands than anything else. As soon as she enters the room, closing the door behind her with her foot, a pleasant smell spreads through the room. You can see many things on the tray she brought back : a glass of water, some pills, a bowl of steaming soup with bread and a plate with rice, vegetables and chicken. When was the last time you ate a real meal? Long enough for you to not remember what it was.
"Eat." she said as she put the tray on your knees.
It smells good. That's the first thought that crossed your mind when you saw the plate. For a moment, you forget about the past hours; when was the last time you got a real meal? You can't remember, not even a fragment of a memory. 
You would eat what your owners give you, eat quickly before they come back, never knowing what you are eating nor when the next meal would be; you learned to not ask too many questions. At first, it was difficult to accept such a fate: you would refuse to even taste the food they were giving to you, but it didn't last long. Eventually, you started to eat - inhale - anything you were given without thinking twice about it.
Tonight, for the first time in years, you are going to eat something else than the leftovers of someone you don't even know. Tonight, you won't have to be scared about your food being stolen. Tonight, you can even see the smoke, a sign that your meal is still hot, freshly cooked and maybe homemade.
"I-," you started, but she didn't let you finish your sentence, your lips barely had time to move that she already cut you, leaving no place for an argument.
I am not hungry, you were about to say, and she somehow knew it. She also knew it was a lie, your stomach has been painfully twisted because of that sick feeling for days, but the knot is also caused by your fears. 
It all feels a bit too perfect. It feels like a trap, a way to encourage you to let your guard down only to break you after, making the fall harder. Some did that in the past, why not her? She doesn't look less cruel than the others. Yet, when she is talking, she seems more genuine, you could believe her when she says she only wants what's best for you, that she cares, she just has a twisted way to show it. 
"Yes, you are, so eat, now," she ordered you with such a cold tone that you don't dare to argue. There are all these warnings she doesn't say out loud but you can read in her eyes: just do whatever I tell you, pretty girl, they say. 
And, for sure, you don't want to face the consequences of your insubordination. So you slowly take the fork, not glancing away for one second, your eyes into hers. You are looking at every detail of her expression as if it would change, telling you that it is a trap, except it doesn't and her expression stays stern. It is impossible to read anything on her face, not even a hint of how she is feeling.
You take the first bit, carefully swallowing and… nothing happens. You don't feel weird, it doesn't taste bad and she doesn't snap at you for a small imaginary mistake you would have made. It is the complete opposite. The food is really good, melting on your tongue, and you start to eat quickly, not because you have to, but because you want to. For the first time in years, eating is a pleasure. 
She sighed when she noticed that you were inhaling your food, but she didn't say anything; she will have all the time later to change that habit of you. So she just stood there for a few seconds, observing you in silence, with her arms crossed, before sitting next to you - that's when you broke eye contact, once she was sure you would eat everything. 
As you are eating, she is barely paying attention to you, at least that's the impression she is giving. One of her arms wrapped around your shoulder, her hand is absently drawing circles on your skin while she is on her phone, dealing with something serious - you can hear her frustrated sighs from time to time.
Except she sees everything and your mistake was to not be careful enough around the woman. A little because of your clumsiness, mainly because of how fast you were eating, you dropped a bit of your food on the floor. You didn't think it was a big deal, picking it up to put it back on the plate. Three seconds rules, dropped on a clean floor, you don't have very high standards anyway - but she does. She turned to you the moment she felt you were moving, a curious, but disgusted, look on her face.
"What are you doing?" She asked, her hand grabbing your wrist before you could drop the bit of food on your plate. She moves your hand on the side of the tray, far from your plate, before you even get a chance to reply. "Drop it," she ordered to you, "that's gross, hope you weren't going to eat that." 
You shake your head, too scared to do anything else, but she knows you are lying; of course you were about to eat it. You spent the past years living like a fighting dog, you would eat anything she would give you, you might even eat directly from the dirty floor if she asked you to. She winces in disgust, not letting your hand go.
"Give me that," she snarled and you can feel how her grip tightened on your wrist to force you to give the fork away.
She then takes the tray that was in front of you to put it on her side of the bed, you are looking at her, scared she would definitely take your meal away. You are about to protest when she notices it and glances at you, daring you to say a word, you don't. 
"Come here," she said, gesturing you to come closer, she even grabbed your arm to guide you when she noticed you were hesitant to move.
She sits you between her legs and you are clearly uncomfortable, wiggling, but if she notices it, she doesn't seem to care. She is so close to you that you can feel her breath tickling your skin, but she keeps acting like nothing is weird here. When she leans to cut your food, you can feel her chest pressing against your back, the contact making your heart races. Too focused on how close you are to the woman, you barely noticed when she approached the fork from your mouth, waiting for you to open. It takes one more second for you to understand what she is waiting for and, when you do, you blush in embarrassment. She takes advantage of you opening your mouth to say something to feed you, and you don't dare to push her away. 
"Can't even eat alone, hm?" she whispered in your ear while you were chewing the bit of food she just gave you, "but that's fine, I am here now," she added, and there is something in her tone that makes you shiver.
Once she made sure you ate everything, she wrapped her arms around you, laying a kiss on your temple. It is strange how safe you are feeling in her embrace: for a few seconds you forget she is the one that beat you earlier. Right now, she is just someone that cares for you, with whom you feel at peace. You can't remember the last time someone made you feel that way, you can barely remember your life before entering the human trafficking circuit.
You don’t really know when you fell asleep, but your eyes were quick to close under the effects of her fingers running on your hair and of her voice whispering sweet words in your ears. At some point, a maid came to take the empty tray away and the woman layed the both of you in the bed, under the covers, trying her best to not wake you up. This night, you slept in a comfy bed, feeling protected in the arms of the woman despite the things she did, not even thinking one second about pushing away her hands that found their way under your sweatshirt, resting on your stomach. 
The Dog fell right into the Black Widow’s web.
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wint3r-h3art · 8 months
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The (un)Invited | Vampire!Miguel O’Hara
Summary: Your new and mysterious next-door neighbor turns out to be more than you think he is.
WC: 4.5K
Warnings: Contains horror & dark themes like dub-con and blood. Predator/prey play, possessive behavior, biting, oral sex (female receiving), breeding kink, vaginal fingering & vaginal sex.
18+ ONLY | MINORS DO NO INTERACT
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A/N: The first entry of my Carpe Noctum event for the month of October! Special shout out to @galatially for beta reading this. thank you so much for your amazing feedback, and you may have planted some ideas for a possible part 2 🤣
***Do not repost, copy, or translate my works anywhere else. Please support by commenting/reblogging. Banner by @cafekitsune
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Petrichor permeated the air as the last breath of the sun fled the sky, drenching heaven with inky blackness. The rain had just stopped after many days of brutal heat waves, soaking every dry crevice with a new sense of life. 
Miguel crouched down on the large branch of the tree, balancing his large body with just the ball of his feet. His crimson eyes burned like candlelight in the silent darkness; the air felt sticky and heavy with a hint of sweetness.
With his eyes closed, he could hear the rushing of footsteps, running and trudging atop the wet, muddy forest floor. Miguel licked his lips tentatively, revealing his sharp, pearly canines. He ran his tongue over his fangs as thirst traced its cold fingertips along his spine. The familiar ache radiated from the base of his throat. His gum was aching and throbbing as the sweet scent filled his lungs. Saliva flooded his mouth at the prospect of his sinking his teeth into the sweet, warm flesh. He imagined what it would feel like to have that blood gushed into his mouth, satiating that ache and filling him with nothing but that sticky, sweet crimson liquid. 
He had tasted you before—the salty sweetness lingered on his tongue and felt like a stimulant upon his senses. Soft and warm–like the way the sunlight kissed upon his skin many centuries ago. It was like a punishment and a salvation for him–blurring the fine line between his hunger and want. He knew then and there that he got to have you. 
A deep, guttural growl emitted from deep within his chest at the thought of spending his eternity with you. A small yelp followed by a soft thud pulled him from his reverie. 
You were so naive and so trusting, inviting him into your apartment without a single thought in mind. He knew from the very beginning about the attraction you felt for him. Your eyes told him everything he needed. The magnetic pull you felt at that moment your gaze landed on him was instantaneous and strong. Every molecule in your body yearned for him–it was all built-in for a creature such as himself. He was meant to tempt, to lure and to trap his prey where he wanted them. 
From exchanging glances  when you invited him into your apartment for coffee to the way his voice would drop an octave or two lower when you converse with him–hell, even the way he smelled, they were all meant to trap you in his web. 
Two weeks to gain your trust and two weeks to get you to need him–to want him so much that you would go crazy. He knew from the moment his lips touched yours that it would be an end game. It was unlike any hunger he had ever felt before. He swore he almost moaned out loud when his lips molded over yours in a slow, sensuous kiss. His large palm trailed to the nape of your neck, holding you there in place as his tongue twisted and flicked with yours. It took every ounce of his control then and there to not fully initiate the mating ritual because as much as he had the upper hand, he wanted you to want him–to crave him to the point where you beg for him. 
Falling for him was easy when Miguel was so intune to your every need, whether it was in the bedroom or not. You were a little bit suspicious of course when he only wanted to spend time with you after the sun went down, but that little voice that was in the back of your mind was weaker than what your heart desired. It wasn’t as if he was hiding you–hell, he took you to places you’ve never dreamt of going, yet…it felt off.
You have never seen him work nor go out–hell, you weren’t trying to spy on him. You were curious. He always stayed in during the daytime, all cooped up in his apartment and not answering your text. He always made it up though with lavish gifts and attention that you never dreamt was being given to a man as attractive as Miguel was. Looking back now, you felt a pang of regret for trusting him this much.
You didn’t even bother protesting when he invited you to spend the long weekend with him at a cabin he claimed his family owned in the woods. Any sane person would have asked him more questions, especially when you only knew him for a month. With your cockdrunk brain thought, it only took a little convincing from him to get you to where he wanted you: secluded from prying eyes.
His true nature fully came out when he had you under him on the couch. He was more impatient than usual, and you only thought that it was because he was needy from not seeing you for the past three days, but something was off about him.
He was rougher than usual. Every time he grabbed your thighs and pulled you toward him, he wasn’t being careful digging his nail into your skin. There was a sense of urgency in the way he kissed you. He would let his teeth graze the delicate skin of your lips, and at times it felt like he did it intentionally to break the skin open. His tongue would then lick over that same spot, and you swore you could taste the faint salty, metallic taste on his tongue when he plunged it down your throat.
But all it took was a glimpse into his bloodlust eyes. 
Somehow, underneath the amber light, his eyes seemed to glow blood red as he was kissing the space between your breasts. You were, of course, stuck in a haze when his mouth did such a sinful thing to you–licking and kissing his way down your body while his large palm covered your soft mound. There was no hesitation of course when you let out a  terrifying scream as you tried to scurry out from beneath him, but Miguel had you in a grip. And from the way your scent changes, he knows that you have figured him out. 
Miguel slowly sat up as he gazed down at you. A thin trail of crimson liquid ran down his chin. His tongue darted out to lick the traces of your blood, flashing you a small glimpse of his fangs.
You were delirious and frantic at this point. You could feel a surge of adrenaline coursing through you as every cell in your body told you to run.
“What the fuck are you?” 
Miguel didn’t miss the way your voice trembled as you took a step back, hand clutching whatever article of clothes you had. He also couldn’t ignore the way your heart surged, beating so hard against your ribcage as if it was about to burst through your chest cavity. He also couldn’t deny the intoxicated smell of your blood that was pumping through your veins either. His gum ached just from the desire to sink his teeth into your skin while he fuck you deeply. He had never wanted anyone in his life before–hell, he had never wanted to mate with anyone this much in all of his existence. The thought of feeding you while he bred you was driving him mad.
“You know the answer to that already, love. Do you want me to spell it out for you?”
Miguel took a step towards you, and you retreated. In the confinement of the cabin, his stature appeared larger inside the cabin. He could have easily snapped you in half if he wanted, but that was far from it.
He was right. You knew exactly what he was. Your brain could piece together the little clue. The red glowing eyes, the sharp fangs, and those talon-like nails–you knew exactly what he was.
“A-Are you going to kill me?” 
Miguel laughed in reply, and you took another step backward. He knew you would want to run, and that only made this little thing a little more fun for him. 
“Hmm…originally,” he replied pensively as he ran his claws through his messy, brown hair, letting some traces of your blood coated his strands. It was true. His original intention was to devour you, but for some reason, the more time he spent with you, the more he craved you in a way that feeding you would satisfy him.
“But you turned out to be far, far better than a one-time meal for me. You see, I was searching for someone that I could spend the rest of my eternity with. I’ve never thought that I would find someone as perfect as you are, but by hell…” He chuckled as if he couldn’t believe that someone like you could be real. 
“You were so eager to have my affection and so eager to be with me. Not to mention how fucking perfect you are for me. Your scent–every time you came, the smell of your blood felt like some sort of stimulant to me…like a drug that somehow I can’t get enough of, so I gotta have you, sweetheart. All we need to do is perform the mating ritual, and we shall spend the rest of our eternity together.”
“You’re insane,” you managed to utter the words out. “You are fucking insane…you did all this just to make me into some sort of your little pet for you to feed on.”
Miguel chuckled again. “Hmm, I mean a nicer term would be my mate. A great deal if you ask me because the alternative will be me draining you dry until you are nothing more than skin and bones. And if it wasn’t me, there are others that are far worse than I.”
“You’re insane,” you sobbed as your back was now flushed against the cabin door.
“Hmm, am I? I thought you wanted me. You said that the last time we made love, did you not.”
You gasped out loud as you remembered that one night that he had stayed over. It was the middle of your fucking of course. You were clearly under the influence of lust to even think straight. 
“You clearly said you wanted to be mine. You said that I can take you, and here I am, taking you up on that offer.”
His smile slowly turned sickly sweet. You were horrified of him of course. 
“Please let me go,” you pleaded with your hands behind your back, trying to slowly turn the door knob. Miguel knew of course, but he had been a patient man. He could play along a bit more. It wasn’t like you can run far.
“Hmmm, why would I do that when I have spent so much time getting to know you?”
“Please?” you begged again, this time you knew that once you got him distracted you could bolt right out.
“No.”
You swallowed as you watched him, making sure that you could catch him off guard, and you bolted right out the door.
You ran like hell. The icy cold wind bit through your skin, as your legs burned. It wasn’t ideal to run with your bare feet, but you didn’t have a choice. You didn’t even bother to look back to see if he followed you or not. 
Miguel leaped from one tree branch to another, eyes and ears pin-pointed to your location. Even at the slightest movement within his property, he could hear you. It wasn’t like you could run far, he thought to himself as he breathed in your lingering scent again. Miguel licked his lips as if the smell had invigorated him or something.
There was no time, you thought again. You have to run, you told yourself when suddenly your foot got caught by the mud and toppled you over with a soft thud. You yelped out in surprise as pain shot out from your ankle.
“Fuck, fuck fuck…” you mumbled in between your breath as you tried to pull yourself out of this predicament. Your clothes are stained with mud and dead leaves. The smell of dead vegetation filled your nostrils.
“This can’t be happening,” you sobbed as you dragged yourself forward, crawling atop the muddy forest floor. Every moment was slow as you struggled. Tears soaked your face as you heard faint footsteps following you not too far behind, stalking, observing. You didn’t dare to look. You just knew who it was, and you didn’t dare to think of anything else other than to escape.
You could barely hear what he was saying in Spanish when your heart was beating so hard against your chest. It was almost deafening by the way you were practically hyperventilating as panic set it. You didn’t want him to catch you, but damn your stupid ankle, and damn your stupid self for believing his lies. You should have known that this was too good to be true. No good men in their right mind wanted you. The thought only made you sob harder because hell, you really believed him.
You were at the point of exhaustion as Miguel continued to observe you not too far behind when hands were in his pocket. It was a pitiful sight indeed, but you were too damn stubborn, and he somehow had to teach you a lesson or two first. 
“Are you done?” Miguel asked, kneeling next to you. Of course, you instinctively flinched away from him and didn’t answer, but he chose to ignore that. 
“Look at what you’ve done to yourself…we could have been civilized, you know,” he said as he slid his arms underneath you and picked you up. You felt his smell enamored you as he pressed close to his chest. Why did he has to smell so fucking good all the damn time?
“You wanted to kill me,” you said in between hiccups of your sob.
“No–now, you are just being unreasonable. I wanted you—not to kill you. I want to have you, there’s two different things, sweetheart.”
“The same frickin thing,” you said in between your sobs. “I’ll end up dead regardless.”
Miguel didn’t say anything. He simply and quickly made his way back into his cabin and headed straight to the bathroom. You watched him carefully as he placed you on your feet. He turned on the shower to the warm setting and waited until the water came to the temperature.
“What are you doing?” you asked. You realized your voice was hoarse now from all the crying and screaming.
“Cleaning you…do you want to stay in these muddy, wet clothes?” His dark brows quirked as he looked at you with his crimson gaze. 
“Stop pretending like you care about me when I am nothing more than your meal.”
Miguel let out an exasperated sigh. “Oh, but you are not,” he reassured you again as he crouched down until he was at your eye level. His deft fingers worked quickly with your tops and pants. “I’ve told you before, I want to have you.”
“The same fucking thing!” 
Miguel huffed as his anger boiled over. He suddenly grabbed you by the nape of your neck, forcing you to look at him. There was no denying that he was furious. 
“If you’re going to treat me like a fucking monster, I’ll show you a monster.”
With that, his mouth crashed into yours with a ferocity that was unlike anything you ever felt. His hard body pressed against yours almost too much. His arm snaked around your waist, constricting you. You could feel his fangs scraping your skin every now and then. His tongue plunged into your mouth, licking and sucking at your tongue.
Miguel was relentless in his quest to break you–to mold you into his perfect bride. Long had his search been to find the perfect person, and long had he been, enduring years of loneliness and drowning himself in the sea of bloodlust. But now, he found you, and he won’t stop until you become his.
He grabbed you by the ass and hoisted you up. He brought you under the hot water, your back pressed against the cool wall as his lips trailed down to your neck. You could feel his tongue licking along the column of your neck. Miguel would press his sharp fangs against your neck enough to elicit a whimper out of you, but not enough to pierce your skin just yet.
“Tell me you want me,” he said, his voice vibrating against your neck as you shudder in his arms. You could feel his cock pressed against your stomach. “Beg me to fuck you and fill you.”
You whimpered, unable to vocalize or rationalize anything.
On one hand, you wanted him. In such a short period of time, you felt like you found the one person that want you without judgment, on the other hand, he lied to you–hell, he was a fucking vampire. 
Miguel groaned as he slowly ground his hips against your bare core. His large palm squeezed at your ass cheek firmly before slapping it. 
“Say it!” 
The growling sent chills down your spine as you let out a somewhat incoherent whimper.
You were practically sobbing in his arms as he nibbled against your skin. You were clearly scared and helpless, and Miguel could tell by the way the sickly sweet scent filled the bathroom. He had no desire to force you, but your insistence on insulting and running away from him made him this way.
Taking a deep breath, he stopped and simply stood there with you in his arms, allowing the hot water to wash dirt and grime off you. He had to tell himself that you needed time to process all of these. But time wasn’t the luxury he had right now. The mating needed to be tonight. He cannot endure another full moon without you.
After a long moment of calming himself, he finally spoke with his forehead pressed against yours. His crimson eyes were no longer glowing. 
“I have no desire to spend eternity with you resenting me, so I will give you a choice of coming to me willingly. ”
“The alternative?” you croaked. “What if I don’t want to change?”
“You know the answer to that,” he said somberly as he put you down. “Clean up and don’t you fucking dare think about running again.”
*****
You finished showering and limped out of the bathroom to find Migule sitting at the edge of the bed, his eyes never faltering from you as you slowly approached him. You noticed that he was holding a pouch of blood in one hand, which was already half empty. His lips stained a deep shade of red, glistening with the liquid that he was drinking. Fear traced its way down your spine.
Miguel noticed your concerned expression and spoke. “I’m trying to feed myself so I don’t take too much from you.”
“That’s very considerate of you,” you mumbled with arms crossed over your naked chest.  
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Miguel said. His warm smoky scent filled the room. The air felt so thick that you felt like you were choking on it. He held out a hand–an open invitation for you to take.
“Eternity is a long time,” you said softly. “I’m not sure if I can do that.”
Miguel closed his palm around yours and pulled you in until you were straddling him. His forehead pressed against yours again. You could feel his sickly, sweet breath brushing against your skin as you stared at him. “You’ll figure it out. I’ll make sure you see my reasons.”
With that, his lips closed against yours. This time he was gentle and slow and deliberate. It felt like the Miguel that you came to know–perhaps the visage that he had put on to make you fall for him. He trailed one hand up and down your spine, while the other held you firmly in place. 
His tongue swept across your lips, then along your jawline. Licking and tasting every inch of your skin. You were practically breathless at this point as your body felt weaker against his barrage upon your senses. 
“Tell me you want me,” he mumbled against your breast. His low, baritone voice sent a tremor straight through you as his crimson eyes watched you. “Beg me to take you.”
“P-please take me…” you said in a haze as your lashes fluttered from the wet sensation of his mouth against your breast.
He grunted and bit down slightly on your right breast. A small gush of your blood flooded his mouth as he drank you in. Every inch of his body felt like it was set ablaze as the sweet taste of your blood coated his tongue. He felt his cock hardened as every part of him filled with nothing but you. 
It should have hurt, but your fucked up brain was far too gone. Instead of pain, you felt pleasure as your pussy felt like it was gushing out even more slick.
“Fuck,” he growled as his tongue darted out to lick the small puncture wound on your soft mound. “I’m going to fuck you so good, baby. I’m going to drink you, fill you, and breed you until you’re filled with nothing but me.”
You whined as he had you on your back. His large body hovered over yours. You were practically delirious at this point. Miguel still licked his lips, savoring the way your blood still lingered on them. It took everything in him to not initiate the ritual then. He wanted to enjoy you as a mortal first, taking his time a bit before changing you.
Miguel licked two of his long, thick fingers, wetting them first before he brought it down to your nether lips. His fingers brushed against the fold, allowing your wetness to coat them before he plunged them right into your soppy pussy.
Your body jolted instantly as he was knuckled deep inside you. The soft, squelching sound filled the room as he pumped his digits in and out with intent. Miguel’s thumb pressed and swiped against your clit, bringing you raw pleasure. Your body responded in such a way that you didn’t understand. You were practically grounding your hips against his arms, fucking yourself on his fingers needily. 
“Miguel…” you moaned, but he didn’t verbally respond. Instead, he bent his head down and licked the same spot where he had drank from you. 
He suddenly added a third finger and he suddenly sped up his movement while his mouth was around your stiff nipple. Pleasure bombarded your senses. 
You moaned out his name again. 
“You like that, hmmm?”
You nodded frantically. “Yes, yes, yes,” you chanted under your breath as you watched him with a hazy gaze. 
“Hmmm,” he said before withdrawing his fingers from you. A protesting whine left your lips, but you soon found yourself gasping again when he swiftly moved down. His mouth was practically devouring your pussy. His tongue pressed and toyed with your clit while his vice-like grip held you in place. 
A deep rumbling noise emitted from his chest and vibrated straight through your pussy. Your clit was throbbing to your frantic heartbeat. Your pussy clenched and unclenched at the emptiness you wish he would fill you with. It was like a never-ending hell as he tore you apart and put you back together simultaneously. And it wasn’t long when you came with a strangled cry.
Miguel continued to plunge his tongue into your needy hole, lapping at your essence. You could feel his sharp fangs traced against the skin of your inner thigh. And without a thought he sank his teeth into your flesh once again, drinking you slowly. It was like a burst of adrenaline shot through his veins as your sweet taste coursed through his body. As if his cock weren’t hard already, whatever the fuck your blood was doing to him was like some sort of drug that made him mad.
“I’m going to fuck you so good, baby,” he mumbled as he moved to kneel between your legs. A trail of thick blood ran down his chin as he looked at you. He was wild, terrified, and hot all at once, and you felt your reservation slowly slipping.
His arms slid between under thighs, lifting them over his forearms as his body moved closer so that his knees were now close to your chest. He adjusted his hips and pressed the fat tip of his cock against your wet entrance. His crimson eyes never tore away from you. 
Miguel slowly pressed forward, entering you with a slow and precise movement. Your eyes closed as he stretched you out deliciously, filling you with that long, thick cock. You could barely have your eyes opened as he began to move, driving himself into you with a ferocity that you’ve never experienced before. 
Miguel was dangerous alright–not in the way that he was a vampire, but by the way he knew how to make you feel far too damn good. He was your heaven and hell wrapped up into one.
He sank deeper, lowering his weight until you felt like you couldn't take anymore. Every thrust made you breathless. You could feel his balls slapped against your ass every time he slammed into you, making you moan louder. 
The smell of smoky, sweet scent filled your nostrils as he dipped his head and pressed his lips against your neck. You could feel his every grunt reverberating through you from the effort of his movement alone. 
That familiar warmth ran down his spine and straight through his balls. He knew he was close, and by the way your pussy was clenching around him, he knew you were close too. 
Without a thought, he sank his teeth into you and drank you in as he continued to fuck you. Rapture tore through you with a newfound sensation, unlike anything you felt before. Your body felt like it was floating as coldness seeped through you. 
And then an intense, salty coppery taste coated your tongue, filling you and drowning you with it. You realize that Miguel no longer moved as he allowed you to drink from his wrist. His blood filled you, choking you until the darkness took you over.
He sat there, watching as your body lay limp. Anxiety filled him as he waited. Perhaps he took too much, or perhaps he didn’t give you enough.
A faint thud pulled Miguel out of his thoughts. And then Another, and another.  
Miguel watched pensively as you slowly opened your eyes. His lips stretched into a smile.
“Welcome to your new life, my love.”
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dreamofjoys · 8 months
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𝙄 𝙒𝘼𝙉𝙉𝘼 𝙓𝙓𝙓𝙓𝙓𝙓 !
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♡ A/N: Hello to everyone! I am excited to announce that I will be participating in kinktober 2023! This is my second time participating, so Im quite excited for it. There's a lot for me to write so I seek your understanding that I might not post them on the day itself (school is starting mid october eek but I will try and get it done). Last year's kinktober was focused solely on twisted wonderland but this year there will be other fandoms as well, and it will also be more plot focused? Hopefully that makes it more interesting. Only posting on some days
♡ Brief C/W: Dark themes, kidnapping, drugging, dubcon, pregnancy, double penetration, stalking and many more (will update as it goes by but will state in more details at the start of each fic). Everything is strictly character x fem/afab readers only
♡ General rules: Minors DO NOT INTERACT, No mean or rude comments (why read when I already stated the warnings and synopsis?Just block if don't like or uncomfy) and lastly, DO NOT ASK FOR PART 2.
♡ Participating fandoms: Genshin Impact (Neuvilette, Wriothlesley, Zhongli, Ayato, Alhaitham), Honkai Star Rail (Luo Cha, Jing Yuan, Blade, Nanook, Dan Heng, Dan Feng), Twisted Wonderland (Malleus Draconia, Lilia Vanrouge, Leona Kingscholar)
♡ P/S: Everything is subjected to changes! Some fics are still in progress of brainstorming.. you can try to req and I'll see if I want to take up the idea. Just putting out the masterlist early to test and see how things go. Might make some changes here and there but it honestly just depends on my situation and mood. Also teasing you guys and adding some sneak peaks lol (I genuinely hope it's good) You can literally guess who will be in the fic base on the title. Will only open taglist if there's a demand.
DREAMOFJOYS KINKTOBER 2023 COLLECTION
DAY 1-7 ; 7 minute in heaven? More like 7 days inside you!
— Characters involved: Malleus draconia(TWST), Wriothlesly(Genshin), Ayato(Genshin), Nanook(HSR), Luo Cha(HSR) — Synopsis: After getting officially married, you and your husband decided to finally go to your long awaited 7 days honeymoon in a resort at private island specially reserved by your husband! Those 7 days were meant to be fun and relaxing, but why are you so tired by the end of it? — Story parts: 1 / 2 /3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7
Day 9-11 ; The Demons of Xianzhou
— Characters involved: Jing Yuan, Blade, Dan Feng (HSR) — Synopsis: There has been a legend of demons existing and residing in Xianzhou for a long period of time. Surely, they can't be one of your closest friends, right?
Day 13-15 ; In the name of Justice
— Characters involved: Neuvilette, Wriothelesly (Genshin) — Synopsis: Two of the most well known men in fontaine has fallen head over heels for you. They claim that everything that they do is for the sake of justice
Day 18-19 ; Egg Incubator
— Characters involved: ? — Synopsis: A young maiden was chosen by her village and was sacrificed as an offering to appease the 5 dragon gods who were terrorizing their land. She plots to escape from them, but can she really succeed?
Day 20 ; The General's Slave
— Characters involved: ? — Synopsis: ?
Day 23-24 ; The Princes's Sin
— Characters involved: ? — Synopsis: ?
Day 25 ; The Acting Grand Sage's Filthy Secret
— Characters involved: ? — Synopsis: ?
Day 26 ; The Destruction of Nanook
— Characters involved: ? — Synopsis: ?
Day 29-31 ; Briar Valley's Eternal Ruler
— Characters involved: ? — Synopsis: ?
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lets-go-hurt-someone · 3 months
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I love Shadowheart. She was my bae throughout my first (unfinished) Tav run. I abandoned that run because Astarion convinced me I needed to restart as Durge for him, but Shadowheart forever holds a very special place in my… well, heart.
I’ve been thinking about the contrast between them and their arcs and the way fandom interacts with them.
They both start off as characters that by D&D standards are “evil.” Shar is an evil aligned goddess, and vampires are evil aligned creatures.
However, Shadowheart isn’t evil. She disapproves of actively evil decisions and approves of kindness to animals and the helpless. She just doesn’t like it if you seem to be putting do-goodery above your search for a cure to the tadpoles. She is fine with killing the grove, but the contrast between her at the tiefling party and the goblin party shows pretty starkly how she really feels.
Astarion starts off the game evil. I will fucking fight anyone on this. He has very very good reasons to be evil, but so does Shadowheart… and she’s not. Astarion enjoys chaos, he likes murder, he likes hurting people. He thinks being “good” is weak and stupid and that might be a trauma response, but it is how he genuinely feels at that point in his story.
And yet. AND YET. For some reason, I have never seen anyone complain about making Shadowheart a Dark Justiciar. If she likes you, you actually have to encourage her to kill Nightsong. Even on my evil run, she spared Aylin if I didn’t tell her not to. You have to either not care about her or intervene to make her evil, and right up to the end where she kills her parents and Shar wipes her memory again, she is just so miserable and resigned to what she’s been influenced to be.
But people do it to get the hotter sex scene or whatever and that’s fine.
But Astarion? The man who spends the whole fucking game begging you to help him take over an evil cult and murder his “family” so he can become a living vampire as soon as he realises it might be an option? The guy who will throw a fit and leave you if you don’t either succeed in a persuasion check or help him eternally damn 7007 people— no matter how close you’ve gotten to him?
Apparently you’re an evil piece of shit if you find his “bad” ending compelling or, dare I say it, hot.
I don’t really care which ending you prefer for either character— I think the game does a great job on its own telling you what you should think and it’s fairly nuanced for both characters. I just don’t understand why Astarion has to be so woobified and his “bad” ending fans vilified as if they’re naive morons with no media literacy.
Shadowheart, the character, hates her “bad” ending way more than Astarion, the character, hates his. And fandom can’t reflect this because I don’t know…
Oh god. It’s sexism isn’t it?
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odyssean-flower · 9 months
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Yandere Neuvillette + Phantom of the Opera
I posted about this a while ago
Don't have any plans to write a full fic about this in the near future. feel free to take these ideas and expand on them if you like (credit me first tho)
warning: it's very long and rambly. i really should work on that
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neuvillette is one of the last remaining dragons, if not the only, in the world. his kind has long been hunted into extinction by humans. he can keep a mostly human form, but he can't hide his tail, his slitted pupils, or his horns, so going outside is out of the question
neuvillette spends his days beneath the opera house (which is built on the water of course), surrounded by ancient ruins and other sea creatures as his only company.
neuvillette is a brilliant man with the most beautiful voice anyone has ever heard, but because he is who he is, he can never show these skills, or be appreciated for them
even though he's pretty much immortal, neuvillette feels like he's already dead, with nothing to look forward to but an eternity alone
he has the powers to bring the opera house down (and possibly the world), but doesn't because...what's the point? what good will that do?
so neuvillette is resigned to his fate, until...you show up
you are a new member of the chorus, innocent and naive with big dreams of one day having a lead role. your voice is nothing special, but you keep practicing
progress is slow. it feels like you're in a rut. you feel like you'll always be in the background. no one understands your feelings, and you're told to be content with your position
one day, neuvillette hears you practice and is entranced. even though your voice was unpolished, it contained a lot of emotion and passion--things that had long become foreign to him. he sneaks a peek at you from a hole in the wall just in time to see you stop and break down crying after you went off key. you tearfully wonder out loud if you should just give up singing
that alarms neuvillette. once he heard you sing, it's as though he became addicted. hearing your voice was like seeing the sunlight for the first time after being in the darkness for ages. he needs more
he decides to politely introduce himself as the "angel of music" and offers to teach you how to sing. after you get over your initial shock of some random disembodied voice talking to you, you agree enthusiastically. have i mentioned that you are very innocent and naive
and so your private lessons begin. at first you were somewhat apprehensive about this, but your "angel" is so kind and patient, and such a good teacher, that your doubts are quickly dispelled. you can feel yourself improving drastically in a short time
meanwhile, neuvillette finds himself falling in love/becoming attached to you. he knows that he shouldn't be interacting with you, that you will probably be afraid of him and reject him like everyone else, but he impatiently looks forward to your private lessons every day. he likes to hear you talk about your life (he himself is less forthcoming about his own life), he likes how much you respect and idolize him, he feels like you two are kindred spirits
you would occasionally ask to see him in person, but he always declines, fearing your rejection. he becomes tempted as you spend more time together. what if...you'll accept him as he is?
a few months later, you audition for the lead role in a new opera and stuns everyone with your angelic voice. you receive a standing ovation when you finish your first performance. there's a new opera star in town now
neuvillette knows he should be happy for you, but seeing you being showered with attention and gifts from people who (in his view) have more sinister and impure intentions than simply admiring your voice sparks a jealous rage within him and a deep sadness that he can't court you like they can. he'll be forced to watch you shine from the darkness, and eventually you'll leave him
you notice that your angel has been speaking to you less frequently, which makes you sad. you had come to see him as your guardian angel, the one person you could confess all your hopes and fears to. you've got plenty of friends and admirers now, but they're not the same
eventually, you beg to see him, apologizing to him (though you don't know why). he finally obliges to take you down to his realm (insert "phantom of the opera" here) (actually i might try to write this scene)
you are amazed by the beauty of this underwater realm, and even more so by the beauty of your "angel". his draconic features didn't frighten or put you off at all. you fondly remember your favorite childhood stories about the hydro dragons, and how sad you were when your parents told you that they were all dead
neuvillette is hopeful. will you stay down here with him? you are reluctant and return to the surface.
as your fame grows, the waters around the opera house become unsettled and stormy. waves crash against the building. the opera house starts to get flooded very quickly
just as the staff plans to evacuate, your "angel" speaks to you again. he sounds very different this time, though. he tells you that this is all his doing, and that you can put a stop to it by giving yourself in marriage to him (he already has the wedding dress and everything). Would you be so cruel as to leave your friends and coworkers to their deaths? Neuvillette know what you will choose. your soul is as familiar to him as the waters he resides in
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kaledya · 1 month
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When were Constantine and Charlie born?
How many languages do both of them understand?
Why did Lucifer forbid Constantin from learning souls magic?
How is Lucifer and Lilith's relationship like (i mean, give me an example of how they interact with each other?
And finally...why didn't they have children sooner? Or what made them want children?
Love your art and your AU, i really am looking forward to it, and I don't care if you are not a good writer, I need a full fanfic for Sinner's Symphony
1.
Constantine was born in 1812
and Charlie was born in 1818.
2. Both Constantine and Charlie know a spell that allows them to understand all human languages, but without this spell they can speak the angelic language, the demonic language. Constantine speaks Latin, Italian, Spanish, Scandinavian and Japanese.
Charlie learned Japanese and Italian because it interested her.
3. They are kind of like Gomez and Mortica, Lucifer was the first person to treat Lilith with respect, and they became very close friends after spending time together in the garden, and then they became friends, and they both made each other very happy, and then they fell in love, and after the fall they became each other's confidant and the most trusted person, because they were the only light they could find in that dark prison. They ruled their kingdom together and ruled together and ruled equally. And for 10,000 years they have had a marriage based on respect and love and they still love each other.
4. Lilith and Lucifer wanted children after establishing their kingdom, not because they wanted a future heir, they were both almost immortal, but because they wanted to start a family, they wanted to create a light in this eternal dark prison, but it was not that easy.
The reason they had children after 9,000 years was because Lilith kept miscarrying.
‘’there is a reason why Constantine and Charlie were born almost nine thousand years later. lilith and lucifer tried many things but lilith's blood was corrupted after she became a sinner lucifer's blood was pure because he was one of the 7 angels even though he fell
(in my AU also angel blood is like acid for demons it burns them directly) so the baby died before it was born. lucifer and lilith searched for centuries to find a solution and finally they came up with a solution (this idea is still a wip so I'm not sure) 
if during lilith's pregnancy maybe both of them would transfer some of their life energy to the baby continuously maybe the baby would be able to hold on to life maybe that way the two bloods would balance and even though. 
this would weaken them a lot during this 9 month period they took this risk and it worked. That's why they shouldn't exist, their blood should kill them but it doesn't. In fact it makes them stronger, in a way they are an anomaly. 
''someone who shouldn't exist, who shouldn't be alive. but look what fate has done, I'm in front of you, upright and standing. and God only knows what I'm capable of.-''
I'm still thinking about how Constantine and Charlie have blood. I want to think about a special blood for them.maybe orange ıdk’’
---
I am very happy to hear that you like my drawings! I am also very happy to hear that you want to read my AU fanfic!
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tvccreator · 3 months
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Shadow Milk Cookie Headcanons
I've been working on a few stories with Shadow Milk, so I thought I would compile some of my headcanons to share with you all. Hope you enjoy! (It's a bit of a long read, so I apologize. ^^')
Personality:
Shadow Milk is a massive theatre nerd and poetry buff. He constantly makes theatre metaphors and will sometimes be caught quoting famous poets and plays.
He's dramatic as all hell. Shadow Milk thrives on being the center of attention and gets insanely jealous if cookies aren't paying attention to him. He'll often create havoc with his puppets just to get someone to notice him.
Shadow Milk's emotions tend to jump wildly between extremes if he gets worked up. He can easily go from calm and collected to raging psychopath in the span of milliseconds.
He loves to terrorize cookies. If he believes that he can get a reaction from you, you'll quickly find yourself being targeted by the Beast of Deception and his mind games.
His greatest weakness is his pride. He's completely egotistical and sees himself as above other cookies, especially due to his status as one of the five Beast Cookies. Flattery and praise will immediately distract him from what he's doing, and he's a sucker for discussing literature and theatre with anyone who approaches him asking for advice.
Shadow Milk is a naturally baked storyteller, and it shows especially when he's interacting with children. He can easily entertain children for hours on end if need be, and he'll even team up with Eternal Sugar to lull the rowdier children into sleep. (Although you really shouldn't have your kids near Shadow Milk in the first place.)
He's extremely stubborn. While not necessarily the leader of the Beast Cookies, the other four can't tell Shadow Milk what to do or when to do something... with a slight exception.
Eternal Sugar is the only cookie Shadow Milk will listen to, but even then, she only really ever tells him to calm down when he's going on a rampage.
On rare occasions, Shadow Milk will lock himself away in a private space and spend hours simply writing poetry or creating new screenplays. If you haven't heard from Shadow Milk for over thirty minutes, he's most likely working on a project. However, do not disturb Shadow Milk under any circumstances when he's writing. Whenever he gets interrupted, he has a 90% chance of losing his train of thought and will immediately attack the person who interrupted him.
In Battle:
Either a Bomber-type or a Ranger-type, in the Middle position. He specializes in hitting multiple times and in quick succession. While he's not all that strong physically, he makes up for it with his speed and stamina.
Since Shadow Milk used to be the Virtue of Knowledge before his corruption, he is insanely smart on the battlefield. He doesn't like going into battle personally, though, instead opting to sit on the sidelines and relying on strategy and his own silver tongue rather than brute-forcing it (like Burning Spice.)
Shadow Milk will try to use his power to send the entire battlefield into darkness. After all, it's a lot easier to lie to other cookies if they can't see the truth.
If he's rendered desperate enough, Shadow Milk will join the battle himself. However, if he does, consider yourself crumbled. He's not known as a Beast Cookie for nothing; his strength, speed, endurance, and stamina are inhumanely (un-cookie-ly?) high thanks to his former power as a Virtue, and once he enters the battlefield, Shadow Milk won't hesitate to drop all of his lies in favor of bashing cookies' heads in with his staff.
If he's fighting alongside the other Beast Cookies, he tends to tag-team with either Eternal Sugar or Burning Spice. When he's with Eternal Sugar, he uses his powers of deception to get cookies to lower their guard so Eternal Sugar can ambush them. When Shadow Milk and Burning Spice team up, Shadow Milk uses his reality-warping abilities to manipulate the landscape for Burning Spice to cause as much destruction as possible.
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deansapplepie · 3 months
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MarchWeres Day 8
Prompt: Loyal
Pairing: Werewolf! Daryl Dixon x Reader (actually his name isn’t mentioned, so you can read with your favorite character)
Word Count: 403
Warnings: torture, male violence against female, violence, hostage-taking. MINORS DO NOT INTERACT.
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You had already lost the track of time, how long have you been locked in thag dark room? You didn’t know, it felt like na eternity specially when you were being tortured… the time ran so slow…
They knew about him. They wanted him, and they knew you were the way to get him… or at least they thought it. It had been already three days and you didn’t open your mouth yet.
The door grated and a strong light hit your face, blinding you. 2 men entered the room and turned on the lights. “Is today the day you’re going to tell us what we need, sweetie?” The one that seemed to be the boss said.
“I already told you, you better kill me.” You smiled, what contrasted a lot with how you looked at the moment, dry blood all over you, bruises and cuts on your face.
“You better tell where that monster is, or we’re going to continue torturing you.” The disgusting man said. “I’m not one to beat women, you know? But Bob here is. And you know he can have a good time with you.”
“So let Bob show me what he can do. I don’t care, I’m not saying anyth…” Before you could finish you felt a sharp pain in your leg, son of a bitch Bob had stabbed you.
You screamed, but no word left you.
“Where’s it, sweetheart?” Bob asked you while he separated his tools in the order he would use on you today. You were already well acquainted with them.
“On your ass.” You answered receiving a strong punch on your face. You felt blood in your mouth.
“Not much of a talker now, ain’t you?” He curved himself, his face in the same height as yours and a gross smile on his face. “You don’t need to be so loyal, the monster isn’t…”
He was cut off by your bloody spit on his face.
“You bitch!”
He raised his pulse one more time to hit you, but before he could do it, screams were heard coming from the corridors, shots and furniture being thrown. The man stopped. You heard a loud growl and you knew it… he came to rescue you.
“Starting to regret your actions already?” You asked a smirk on your face and a scared look on their faces.
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Wanna be added to my tag list? Let me know. (Please tell me if you want to be tagged on everything or just specific series) Everything Taglist: @lilyevanstan1325
Mdni banner by @cafekitsune Cute paw divider by @lazyneonrabbitt
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diorsbrando · 2 years
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HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS. ( a. h )
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pairing ! ━━ aki hayakawa x fem! reader
cw ! ━━ minors/ageless blogs do not interact. reader is black + thick coded but you don’t have to imagine it that way. basically boyfriend!aki who is very soft for his princess we luv him for that <3 lots of fluff and like…introspective moments? suggestive themes. descriptions of smoking.
word count !  ━━ 3.7k
notes ! ━━ this is an expanded version of this ask & the art used came from this post. ive been wanting to write this for a while, but ive been putting it off bc i wanted to start/work on other things and wasn’t sure if this would even be any good. but the akirot has fermented and here we are <3 i love writing soft love scenarios (i’ve been a sucker for them lately) so this is what this is. i hope y’all enjoy ! REBLOGS ARE HEAVILY APPRECIATED!
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AKI HAYAKAWA WAS A. . . PERSONAL MAN. he cherished every little thing that he was blessed with very profoundly, and held them close to his heart, where they would be safe within its hardened, cold exterior. he protects these things— these emotions, these ideas, these people—with all his might, because he knew very well, maybe even better than anyone, that tomorrow was never promised.
he values the things he’s received even on a subconscious level, where he doesn’t actively realize that’s what it is: him caring to such an uncanny extent. it was like that with the first cigarettes he ever received from himeno, it was the same regarding his friendship with denji and power—
and it was ultimately the case with you. especially with you, matter of fact.
this explains why the two of you were pressed up against each other in a yearning embrace. aki had comfortably sandwiched you in between the wall and his firm body, while just a few feet away was the front door, where his devil-like subordinates waited outside.
he was very personal about you and the relationship you shared with him, the trust and the genuine connection that tethered both your hearts and souls to one another. he didn’t even want mere glances from the likes of denji and power to taint this special thing he held so tenderly in his big, calloused hands. their teasing of aki being “so whipped” for you fell on deaf ears the moment his closed your door with his foot and his fingers came in contact with your skin.
it wasn’t exactly a lie, he supposed.
the kiss was drawn out. longing, and wistful. it was slow enough for you to savor hints of every delicacy that clung to the walls of his mouth, and he did the same to you, low sounds of pleasure threatening to escape his throat. you tasted the spearing blanket of peppermint that coated the other flurry of flavors on aki’s lips and tongue, like the stale aroma of the cigarettes he smoked an hour ago, and the tangy cocktail he drank with his meal. and you loved it. 
the dark-haired male sensually swiped his tongue across your bottom lip, effectively licking off most of the lip gloss you wore. gently, he tugged on your bottom lip with his teeth, before letting the pink muscle slither in between the barrier known as your lips; you tasted the gloss that you’ve been wearing all night.
you whined into his mouth when aki tugged at your bottom lip again— a little firmer and more yearning this time—and you followed his movements, perfectly in sync with one another. you melted into his taut chest when one of the hands that held onto your waist slipped past the material of your long, fitted cardigan and found its way under your ribbed tank top. his hands felt like ice against your warm skin and caused you to shudder at his touch. his palms gently squeezed and unclenched at your fleshy sides as a way to ground you back to him.
after what felt like an eternity, the rest of the world around you completely muted, aki finally pulled away from the kiss, his forehead dipped slightly to your height and rested against yours. your breathing patterns became harmonized with each other’s after a few seconds.
this. . . moments like these were precious to aki. it was personal to him, and it was all his.
“fuck. . . . . i’ve been wanting to kiss you like that since the moment we picked you up earlier” he confessed in a breathy voice. it was almost unusual to hear your boyfriend be so forward or use expletives so casually—he was usually such a composed man— but you found his words arousing, and you bit your lip to contain the giggle that wanted to escape. perhaps it was that fruity alcoholic beverage he drank, and the four subsequent glasses he consumed afterwards that made him so. . . so—
another chaste kiss on the corner of your mouth pulled you out of your thoughts. and then another a little farther down. then a third and fourth back on your lips. you couldn’t help the loving smile that morphed onto your face, finding his affections extremely endearing.
letting your fingers ascend from his shoulders to the back of his neck, your french tipped fingers numbly scratched at the back of his head. the dull sensation on his scalp was almost relaxing, but it also made his heartbeat continuously skip several beats. if aki were a cat, he swore he would have purred. 
“hmm, aren’t you too cute?” you cooed teasingly, earning you a faux irritated roll of his eyes from him. “but don’t you have to get up early for work tomorrow? you and others should get going, it’s getting late.”
your boyfriend let his eyes flutter close, inhaled deeply, and threw his hand back to exhale, a soft groan getting caught in the mix.
“yeah, i do . . . . but i’d honestly rather not go back with those two. working with them is one thing but living with them on top of it is something else entirely. they’re complete pigs, it’s disgusting. and having them in my personal space feels like hell every day.”
you chuckled airily at his childlike complaints, while allowing your other hand to shift to cup his face. “i totally understand. it can be hard, but just take it one day at a time, okay? and be patient with them.” you put extra emphasis on the word patience because you knew how aki could get if provoked enough.
the devil hunter groaned again, letting his head hang until it fully rested on your shoulder. he still wasn’t fond of denji and power being placed under his care or being in his space, but he didn’t mind you in his. matter fact, it’s something he’d grow to crave more and more as the days went by. it was unbecoming for a man like him, but he couldn’t find it within himself to care all that much. 
“now go! denji and power are waiting for you,” your voice trailed off and morphed into a more sing-song tone, which aki didn’t find amusing. but still, he sucked it up and stood at his full height with a heavy sigh. 
“fine.” if you squinted hard enough, it almost looked like he was pouting. “gimme a kiss first.” he mumbled with a titled head, trailing his hands up and down your waist.
your chest tightened in glee when his already deep voice grew darker, just a little heavier, that you could feel it’s weight on your waist where his hands rested; you were obsessed with his voice, especially when it was unable to conceal his obvious desire for you. happily obliging to his request, the both of you leaned in for a sweet peck, the noise of your lips softly smacking and then finally separating tugging a rare smile at aki’s lips. just as you were about to pull away, aki’s ample hands immediately grabbed the back of your neck and held it in place so you couldn’t move.
“wait, one more baby” his grumbled again, his tone thicker than before. how could you deny him when he looked at you like that and asked so nicely? so, you gave what he (and you) both wanted.
“mmm just— just one more. this is the last one, i promise.”
it was, in fact, not the last one. he’d say ‘one more’ five more times (and you’d give in every single time) before you had to literally pry him off. as you ushered him towards the door, with his hand on the doorknob, he assured you in a soft voice that he’ll come to see you the following weekend, because this week was supposedly going to be very busy for him.
“i’ll see you soon, alright? stay safe. call me if you need anything.” he planted one final, gentle kiss on your forehead. it was his own personal way of saying ‘i love you’.
maybe he’ll work up the courage to actually say those three weighty words one day. a part of him wanted that day to be sooner rather than later.
“you’re the one who needs to be careful, out here killing devils and shit everyday. but anyway, i’ll see ya later, handsome.”
your subtle compliment made aki’s body stiffen for a moment, and you were able to see his ears redden in real time as he exited your apartment. 
the fond contentment that surrounded the sword-wielding hunter was snatched away from him the moment the door closed behind his heels, and the crisp, cold air embraced his figure. 
denji and power immediately flooded his ears with questions, ones he didn’t care enough to answer. they were too personal for him. as far as he was concerned, they didn’t need to know what went on in his relationship. like second nature, his face returned to its naturally stoic state, and he pulled out a second cigarette and lit it as he walked away from the two devils, who were still pestering him with obscene inquiries.  
in that instance, he once again left his beating heart in human form behind on the ninth story of the apartment complex.
one could assume this might have been why aki hayakawa was so frigid all the time. the warmth of your love, of your being in itself that set fire to the blood in his veins, was pulled away from his grasp, causing his skin to harden and freeze in solitude and indifference. it ultimately contributed to overall icy personality, which seemed to be more steely than usual. each time his thoughts pondered on your tasteful figure —even for a moment— or the memory of your honeyed voice kissed his mind’s ear, he would have to stifle of groan of longing and annoyance, because instead of being in your bed, cradling you in his strong grasp, he had to be out here instead: his suit stained with the blood of some repulsive devil creature, dealing with all these. . . people, he thought in vague disdain, and dreading the paperwork he’d have to fill out for makima. 
the week seemed to have weights on its feet, with the way it dragged on day after day, ever so slowly. it was too slow for aki and work, as well as his eccentric roommates, were driving him up the wall.
aki’s skin grew too cold, it resembled too much like solid ice, where if you came to close in its vicinity, its frost would bite you. he had been without the warmth of his heart for too long. 
this realization would soon lead the dark-haired male to sneak out of his own house in the dead of night, an unfathomable gravitational force deep within his being pulled him to the little slice of heaven in this hell he had to live in everyday: to you. 
aki understood the impulsivity and recklessness of his actions and was well aware of the risks of walking around alone at night, knowing that there could be devils lurking literally anywhere. he didn’t care though; nothing else mattered when you were involved. he also knew that he really should be in bed, resting so he can be ready for another grueling day at his job tomorrow. 
but he just couldn’t seem to drift off into a dreamless slumber that his body so desperately wanted. not when you lingered and danced in the forefront of his subconscious.
it was an ungodly hour, most likely past two a.m., and lucky for aki, you were awake to feel the buzz of your phone in your palms. your closed laptop laid idle on the desk next to your bed, feeling the crushing weight of an assignment you were dreading lifted off your shoulders as soon as you pressed the submit button. now, you were currently going through your ‘watch later’ compilation on youtube, slowly but surely making your way through the list. 
that’s when you saw the notification from your boyfriend drop down from the top of the screen. reflexively, your heartbeat quickened, and your finger twitched as you read his rather straightforward text. 
you up? if you are, come unlock the door for me 
it’s a marvel how he seemed to know that you were awake at this hour. for all he knew, you could have been fast asleep, enjoying your ride to dreamland. 
but you supposed that just proved how attuned your man was to you. it was frightening sometimes, like he knew you better than yourself. 
and it would make sense for someone to be in tune with such an important organ more than anything else because of course, it was the one that gave them life and one wouldn’t be able to effectively survive without it. 
aki’s began to drown in the sea of his own thoughts, he didn’t even realize that the door was already open, and you stood there waiting for him. your soft spoke snapped him out of the daze he was in. you couldn’t stop the faint, cheeky grin that pulled at your facial muscles the longer you stared at your lover. 
if aki leaned close enough and looked hard enough, he might be able to see the hearts in your pupils. something about him coming here in the dead of night— randomly, no less — felt so adolescent. it felt like the two of you were some starstruck lovers in high school that couldn’t stay away from the other for too long. and something about the fact made your body temperature increase. 
you noticed that aki’s hair wasn’t tied up in its usual top-knot style. it cascaded freely in dark waved across his face, acting as a shadowy curtain over his lashes. the onyx stud earring’s he always wore glimmered in the refraction of the singular light that hung over their heads in the hallway. his katana was slung lifelessly across his back on top of the black hoodie he wore. 
aki’s face was mainly expressionless as he stared back at you, and yet, he still managed to look effortlessly beautiful. 
you’d never know that thoughtful stare could prove to be too much for him sometimes. the man found himself quickly tearing his gaze from yours after a few seconds, deciding that your eggshell white painted toes and silver anklet were far more interesting. and they were, because they were so pretty looking. everything about you was so pretty. 
he opened his mouth a little to say something, but then immediately closed it again, swallowing whatever thoughts he was going to share. concern briefly flickered in your brow at the minimal action. “aki? is.... everything okay?” you asked him carefully, knowing that he wasn’t the type to wear his heart on his sleeve or open about anything so easily.
he would need to warm up first to do that. 
aki took several moments to reply, and in the silence, his feet took control of the rest of his body and took a step forward. then another, and then another, until he had your back up against the wall, just like the other night. your breath slightly hitched at the memory, your chests brushing against one another.
“. . . everything’s fine. those two just. . . can be so fucking loud sometimes, even when they’re sleeping. can’t stand it.” his voice was rough and full of complaints, but his hands were gentle, finding their way back home on the flesh of your waist, and used it as leverage to pull your hips against his. you could feel the heat of his crotch on yours/
“one of these days, i’m actually going to kill them in their sleep and dump their bodies on the street.” and there it was again, that dip in volume that made his voice sound more like a sensual rumble in this throat. you started to wonder if he was aware of it or not.
the flicker of his intensifying gaze from your eyes to your lips seemed to be the catalyst in the two of your moving your faces closer together. both of you were so close he could feel the air escaping from your mouth when you let out a chuckle. “so dramatic. so...you came all the way here, because they were snoring too loud?” your eyes were lidded now, teasing him with faux offense embedded in your tone as you wrapped your arms around his neck.
aki all but hummed, not caring enough to reply at the moment, because he now became too busy pressing a much-anticipated kiss on your lips. this time, it was saccharine. it was eager, bordering on desperate. but most of all, it was warm. aki sighed and groaned into your mouth, relishing in the warmth of being here with you, in your house, in your arms, thawing the cold barrier that surrounded his veins. 
as the kiss grew more fervent ━ one of his hands gliding up the valley of your breast to comfortably latch onto your throat, and your hand that was clasp took root in his soft hair, giving it a little tug ━ neither he, nor you, could suppress the shudder that crawled up your spines.
the need to properly breath soon became too overwhelming, and soon enough the both of you pulled away from one other, panting softly into each other’s mouth, him resting his forehead on yours. 
“yeah...” he spoke slowly, trying to remember the question before the two of you kissed; his head was still fuzzy from the sheer euphoria of it all. “they’re....too loud. anyway, let’s go to bed, baby. ‘m tired.”
with one final peck on your lips, he slipped out of your loose grasp and padded his way to your room, with you following after him. you plopped on your bed and got comfortable as you watched your boyfriend maneuver back and forth between your room and bathroom as if he lived here. it felt very...domestic and you had to bite back the grin that wanted to pull at your lips and contain your giddiness.
as you connected your phone to its charger and set it on the nightstand, aki’s taller frame climbed into bed next to you. his clothing was reduced to his boxers and t-shirt, presumably wearing it under the hoodie he arrived in. instinctively, your bodies were pulled towards each other underneath the blankets: your head against the crook of aki’s neck and one hand on his chest, while his lanky, muscled arm was draped across your back, his palms rubbing miscellaneous patterns along your sides and thigh.
“you mind if i smoke a little before we sleep?” he broke the silence that filled your bedroom, remembering to be courteous whenever he came over.
you hummed sleepily, not realizing your own exhaustion as soon as you snuggled up against your boyfriend. “mmm, g‘head, baby. just open the window when you do....don’t want the smell to linger.”
it was amusing to aki  that while gave him permission to get up satisfy his smoker habit, you still you nuzzled yourself against him, holding him close like he was your own personal teddy bear. chuckling softly, he slithered out of your grasp and out of the comfort of your bed to grab the pack of smokes and his lighter that were in his hoodie pocket. 
remembering that you kept an ashtray in one of the drawers━ just for him; his heart pounded at the thought━ he placed it on the nightstand, and like second nature, pulled a pale white cigarette from its container with his teeth. with a few flicks of his black lighter ━one, two, three ━ the orange flame he’d come to be very well acquainted with sprang out from its plastic cage and kissed the end of his cigarette. wispy, white tendrils of smoke escaped from the end of the cigarette and idly floated into the atmosphere. inhaling and exhaling, as if he were breathing regularly, aki rested his back against the headrest of the bed, and blew out the toxic fumes, letting excesses of smoke lazily dribble past his lips. 
the man’s dark, cerulean eyes drowsily shifted from the blank ceiling to your now sleeping form next to him. he took comfort in the way your body gently rose and fell, and the way your facial muscles relaxed into complete bliss, not having a care in the world. 
the veiny hand that wasn’t holding the cigarette came to gently stroke the apple of your cheeks, then shifted so he could stroke your soft lips with the pad of his thumb. even in your sleep, you sensed his touch and leaned into his rugged palm. his chest ached and stomach churned watching you do that and God you were just so cute. so pretty and so soft and all his. every time he saw you, he liked the sound of that more and more.
this moment, it was comparable to a husband and wife sharing a bed. the thought made his cheeks and neck burn, almost causing him to choke on the smoke he was inhaling. aki wished all his days could end like this. he wished every day could begin and end like this, until the end of time. 
after a few more minutes, aki snuffed out the cigarette on the ash tray next to him, got up to brush his teeth and gargle mouthwash for a second time this evening, and climbed into bed with finality. pulling your figure into his once more. his now warm hand glided up and down the canvas of your spine, and both of your legs became entangled with each other.
this particular thing, his relationship with you, was very personal to aki hayakawa, indeed. he cherished it admittedly more than his own job and he wanted to show you, as well as tell you, how much you meant to him everyday for the rest of his life.
that’s probably why he placed one last tender kiss on your forehead before letting slumber take over, and against your skin he mumbled something that had been weighing heavy on his chest and his mind for longer than he realized.
“i... i love you, princess. sweet dreams.”
aki closed his eyes before he realized your own eye that had peeled open at his thick, sleepy voice, suppressing a dreamy smile at his love confession.
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2af-afterdark · 22 days
Note
do u have any dark hcs for whb? and please go wild with it
You sure? You absolutely positive? I have quite a few that cover various topics so... general content warning. I just... do not have the head space to list them all, but assume that this will cover sexual themes, eating things, violence, and the like.
I admit that... these are more of a... dark au sort of thing than actual headcanons. I do think whb has some potentially dark content, but I am just going wild here and throwing out the whole fucking mess in my head. It's not everything, but it's a start.
If you click the read more, that's on you:
Devils have been making deals with humans for millennia and not all of those deals are fair. In fact, I would argue that very few of them are far. Devils don't lie about their end of the deal, but they can sure as hell twist what the truth is. Think about old school fae and their carefully worded deals.
That said, since all things in the human world originate from Hell... that must include tragedies. I think that some tragedies are the result of devil interference, whispering to humans to do awful things. Note: not all terrible things are the result of devils. Humans are just... fucked up like that.
Consent is... optional for a lot of devils. Since devils are honest with themselves, that includes their desires. I think many devils just sort of... don't think of non/dubcon as that big of an issue. Some of them definitely buy into that "isn't it a compliment" mentality.
Cannibalism! Okay, technically it's only cannibalism if a devil eats another devil (and I'm sure some do out of curiosity or because it's a delicacy) but I mean to say that devils definitely eat angels and humans. Heck, there are probably restaurants that specialize in human meat and serve it without a second thought.
On that same note, at least one of the Avisos devils is going to feed MC some questionable meat without telling them what they ate. They would probably learn what they were fed later when another devil either slips and says something, or when someone like Glasyalabolas wants to fuck with them.
Listen... you've seen some of the kinks already in this game. I have no doubt that some devils have far worse or more gross kinks. I will not elaborate because... the thought of some of them makes me sick. Not all of them are gross as much as they are... strange. Point is, I think the devils probably cover the gambit of kinks.
For our yandere lovers... a devil will get far crazier than any human ever could, to the point that it isn't sexy or fun anymore. Some yandere will surely want the best for you, but others will literally break and mold you into their ideal, some are quick to sawing off body parts, some will use punishments more than any kindness, some will beat and torment you just for the fun of it.
Making a deal for immortality? Worst possible move. I don't think many devils can make that deal, but the ones that can? You should be worried about them. Immortality makes you the perfect punching bag and toy. After all, if you never specified that you want eternal youth or to live a happy life, you are at the devil's mercy.
Devils can very easily snap a human in two. Literally. They have so much more strength than a human that it is not a contest.
Psychologically tormenting other living creatures is just a fun little game. Like "who can make someone commit suicide first" is a game that devil school children play.
Angels are just as bad as devils, but humans are brainwashed to think they are better and moral, which is somehow worse.
Angels are a little murder happy when it comes to humans who do not follow God, but they also try not to have too much interaction with humans because...
Angels see humans and devils as a lesser life form. Think... humans are basically ants to angels. They think themselves so above it all but also are aware that humans are an important part of the ecosystem. Doesn't stop them from crush humans under their heels or seeing them as pests though.
Angels picked up this attitude from God. God probably didn't see humans as anything more than cute pets or entertaining wildlife. Solomon was the one exception and, like, that's the angel equivalent of a very illegal kink I will not be naming. Yet the angels blame Solomon for tempting God...
Angels are also cannibals! They prefer devil meat though.
Since angels and devils cannot have children within their own species now that God and Lilith are missing, they will have to start breeding with other species. Again... consent is optional. I actually think Devils are slightly better is this department, but only "better" in the sense that devils are least see humans as a sentient and sapient species in the same sense as they and probably lean more into dubcon (instead of straight noncon). Also, they will at least like the children both from those unions. Angels though? Neither humans nor devils are on the same level as them when it comes to sentience or sapience, so... everything they so is disgusting in their own minds. And those kids? Those poor kids will be absolutely looked down upon, even if the angels thought it was necessary.
Genocide! But that's just canon. I mean... fuck. Angels committing genocide is just canon.
That's all I'm gonna say for now. It's a good start. Remember, some of these are more dark au than actual headcanons I actively hold... some of them are actual headcanons though.
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moodymisty · 8 months
Note
Hello, I hope you are doing well. And summer ends on a joyful note✨
Roboute Guilliman/reader-eternal(can she be related to Malcador?👀) Maybe NSFW?🤭I'm sure most primarchs have a breeding and pregnancy kink🤔 But Roboute is a special case: he had a good family and loving parents. He himself wants to be the same as Conor. He has a legacy to pass on. And if these inclinations of his had previously subsided, then now that he has a reader who can endure, nothing stops him. How would his Astartes react to the possibility of their primarch having a child of his own? How do they treat the reader?
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Author's note: There's a lot here, so I thought it would be best to format my thoughts in my usual headcanons with a small drabble at the end way to make sure I could speak all my thoughts. I hope that's acceptable to you ;3 This one ended up not having any overt sauce because I got so distracted by sweet Guilliman, but if you desire the full NSFW, you're always welcome to send in another request because I'm a dolt xD
Relationships: Roboute Guilliman/Fem!Reader
Warnings: Some vague mentions to NSFW things but nothing overt, Tokophobia/Pregnancy mentions, Typical 40kness
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I'd agree that a good amount of the Primarch's have that sort of kink, but it manifests in very different ways depending on which Primarch it is.
Lorgar wanting to corrupt purity or fall victim to primal temptations, Vulkan's desire for family, Magnus wanting to share his teachings; Guilliman's is more of the traditional sense.
For as long as he can remember, he's tossed away the idea of ever having a family. Given his lot in life, his duty to humanity, that isn't a thing he can indulge in. He has no time for such selfishness.
He's resigned himself to fighting for others to have that gift, not himself.
When you arrive in his life, Guilliman suddenly remembers how hard it had been to push and keep those thoughts down, now that you serve to constantly remind him.
He has many fond memories of training or hunting with his adoptive father, and one day he would like to have the same with his own child, if the galaxy would let him be so selfish.
When you do tell him you're with child he's an absolute mess though. You're both treading into unknown waters, after all. No matter how strong you are he still worries about your health.
The Ultramarines definitely have their qualms about it though.
Keep in mind they were raised from kids to be stalwart killing machines, so the kind of thoughts and dreams their Primarch is having are... weird to them.
They have more interaction with baseline humans that say the Dark Angels however, so they aren't totally out of touch.
You did disturb one of Guilliman's men when you keeled over in pain and he attempted to make sure you didn't fall, and he felt your child kick his palm. His disturbed face is forever seared in your memory as one of the funniest things you've ever seen. You're pretty sure the marine's squad still beats him up about the whole thing.
Mostly so, his captains and commanders worry. They know that you serve as a weakness (speaking in a logistical sense) to Guilliman that can be taken advantage of.
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He's exactly where you expected him to be.
The green haze of the hologram map shines against his skin, having been growing palid over the past weeks. Guilliman often times works himself into an awful state, pushing himself to the mental limit before finally taking respite.
You can't stop him from doing it. So the least you can do is enjoy a few moments of time with him alone before he goes back to the bridge of the Macragge's Honor to hear any updates from his commanders.
When he notices you in the doorway, his face perks up considerably.
"You should be resting." He instantly comes at you with, and you can't help but sigh.
"Not even a hello?" You come closer, and it's his turn to sigh. You walked all the way here, it's the least you can get from him. He puts a hand on your shoulder and presses his lips to the top of your head.
"Hello. You should be resting." There's papers, scrolls and plastic flimsies spread across the edges of the hologram table, clearly a mess done by him.
"I just wanted a few minutes alone with you, is that so wrong?" He sees the small hint of a smirk on your face, as he pulls away to lean on his hands pressed against the holotable. He takes a glance towards your belly.
"How are they?" You're well past showing at this point, and it will only be a few months until you're finally face to face with your child.
"Finally asleep, it seems. They stopped kicking my stomach."
He lets the smallest smile on his face.
"Yearning to fight, even bef-"
The door suddenly opens, revealing an unfamilar to you Ultramarine captain. A hand rests on the pommel of his chainblade, helmet tucked into his elbow. He also has the worst timing in the known galaxy, interrupting your private moment before it even had a chance to truly begin.
"Lord Primarch, You have a vox. Legion Captain Hektor holds news of a new world." The captain looks in your direction and nods his head.
"Apologies, Legion Mother."
You'll never get used to that title. One of many you had thrust upon you when you'd entered into a relationship with Roboute, even if they technically were not official. You were not bound by law as of yet, but the Chapter had taken to calling you Legion Mother none the less. It becoming official was less so a possibility, and more so an inevitability. The Captain bows and takes his leave, and the both of you are alone once again.
"Will I be attending this diplomacy meeting as well?" You joke, looking up to the Primarch.
"If you can do so without straining yourself, then possibly." Guilliman won't deny that you have a knack for diplomacy, no matter how much you might say otherwise. He wishes for worlds to surrender peacefully; He also wishes for you to remain in good health.
"Now go rest. The both of you."
You feel an armored hand gently press against your aching belly. Carrying a Primarch's child hasn't be easy on your body in the slightest; Even more so than a normal human child. You'll happily indulge in the rest, with one exception.
"As long as you come and join me once you're finished. Please?"
Even if you can get him to take a few minutes of respite, you'll consider it a victory. Roboute sighs as he looks downward.
"I will try." You just barely hear him mumble underneath his breath, as his hand still on your stomach. It moves slightly as he kneels.
"Be easy on your mother. She wasn't meant to carry someone like you."
His sentence makes you think for a moment, before he pulls away and lets you leave.
Guilliman did technically join you; But it was only after you'd already fallen asleep. He stepped into the room and gently sat down onto the massive bed, still in his armor. He didn't want to wake you and simply watched, hand sitting close to your leg. His eyes fluttered closed for a moment and his lips parted as he took a few deep breaths, and then took one more look at you- both of you, before standing and leaving again.
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Text
"They say that in the highest tower there is the
heart of the castle of Roseeste"
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Uniform made by:
1 image: The king dorm uniforme
2 image: all other studants dorm uniforme
Roseeste Castle is a magical castle that exists in the middle of an eternal winter. Outside, there is a garden of blood-red rose bushes that blend in perfectly with the layers of deep snow. These same rose bushes climb up the castle walls, dominating it with their thorns and magical roses.
In the centre of the courtyard is a bewitched statue of the Rose Princess and the Beast King. Both are eternally dancing, and occasionally the king, who is a Beast man, takes on his cursed bestial form.
Inside the castle, you'll find a cosy atmosphere filled with the same roses as the garden. The furniture changes place at the request of the students, and its doors open and close automatically when a student approaches, as well as some objects communicating softly with the students by offering them tea or reminding them of the timetable.
Various armours move around the castle, the students say they are the eyes and ears of the king of the castle, but at no time do they interact with the students, no matter how much they try to communicate. All the armour only listens to its king and princess.
In the direction of the dormitories, in the west area, you find a corridor full of photographs of former Roseeste students. They weren't of formal moments, like graduations or anything like that, but of birthdays or small events within the dormitory where everyone smiles with honesty. It was genuine.
The students' rooms have a small balcony. Their rooms are completely customisable to their wishes, but the wooden beds have carved roses with thorns running down to the floor.
The housewarden's room, which is in the east wing, is significantly larger than the other students', being on the other side of the castle in an area forbidden to any student without the housewarden's permission. There, you find a large staircase magically connected to the housewarden, which takes you to the highest tower in the castle. What's up there is a secret that not even the vice-housewardens know about.
In the castle there is a large ballroom, the ceiling of which has a painting that moves smoothly on its own. The place seems to be made of marble and solid gold, and there's a huge balcony where you can see the entire length of the rose garden.
In the south area, near the fireplace room, there is a library that is larger than the school library itself. There aren't enough words to describe the beauty of the library, where there is a large stained glass window of the Rose Princess holding a dark pink rose. The beauty of the place is as fascinating as the exorbitant number of books. Theorists say that every book ever published can be found there.
To the north, outside the castle, there is a special greenhouse with several different plants being cared for there. The students are responsible for these plants, which are unaffected by the castle's spell and easily wither if not looked after properly.
There is gossip among the students, things said by fourth-year students who have long since graduated, that the castle has several secret passages. Passages link every room in the castle, even the highest tower. To this day, however, no student has managed to find them.
Extra information: The housewarden is called the "King" and their vice is called "princess".
《Previous
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footprintsinthesxnd · 2 years
Text
No Matter What
Pairings: Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw x Reader
Summary: Rooster supports you after your father dies.
Warnings: mentions of death, grief
Special thanks to @callsign-phoenix for proof reading this for me.
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It was loud in the Hard Deck. Music playing from the duke box in the corner and the normal laughter and chatter had gotten louder as the evening progressed. The noisiest corner was once again reserved for the Dagger Squad, who were currently arguing over the pool table as you approached armed with enough beers for everyone on a tray.
“Guys come on pack it in ok. We all know that Bob won Hangman, give him a break poor love.” You said, absentmindedly stroking Bob's hair as you did so. The poor aviator had turned bright red under your touch. Although you were all around the same age you felt a motherly instinct towards Bob and you were often seen telling Hangman off for his antics.
“Leave him alone ,Hangman.” Rooster chimed in, coming up beside you and wrapping his arm around your waist, pulling you into his side. You moved your hand from Bob’s hair to place it on Rooster’s chest.
“How’s my beautiful girl.” He asked, leaning down and placing his lips softly on your forehead.
“I’m good.” You smiled at him as he looked down at you, his eyes shining in complete adoration for you. A stern cough behind you bought you back to reality.
“Lieutenant Kazansky. Could you come with me?” Cyclone looked at you, his face unreadable and Warlock stood next to him.
“Sir?” You asked, you had never seen Cyclone at the Hard Deck before.
“I need to talk to you outside Lieutenant.”
By this point, all of the Dagger Squad had noticed the interaction and watched curiously as you followed the two men outside.
“What’s that about?” Phoenix asked, coming up next to Rooster.
“I have no idea.” He said, watching worriedly as you followed the two officers out of the door.
“Lieutenant Kazansky your mother has been trying to contact you.”
“She has?” You pulled your phone out of your back pocket and realised you had 16 missed calls from your mum. It must have been so loud in the bar you didn’t hear your phone ringing.
“Why? What happened? Is she ok? Is my dad…?” The look on Cyclone’s face said it all.
“I’m afraid to inform you that your father passed peacefully this evening. We came here to find Maverick to inform him but we promised your mother we would inform you. She’d like you to go home. I’m very sorry for your loss Lieutenant. Your father was a great man who I deeply admired.”
“Lieutenant if there’s anything we can do…” Warlock began.
“I need Rooster. I just need Bradley.” You whispered, your breathing becoming laboured. You felt yourself slide down to your knees hot tears running down your face. “ I just need Bradley.” You kept repeating. One of the officers must have gone in and gotten him because before you knew it a strong pair of arms were wrapped around your shaking frame.
“I just need Bradley.” You cried.
“I’m here baby girl. I’m here. I got you.” He pulled you into his lap, caressing the back of your head, rocking you as you cried.
“He’s gone.” You sobbed.
“I know sweetheart. I know. I’m so sorry darling.” You squeezed your eyes shut, pressing your face into his chest, letting your tears flow freely. It felt like an eternity before your tears subsided and only soft whimpers remained. You pulled away from Bradley, looking up into his eyes.
“I… I need to go home. I need to be with mum.”
“Ok, darling. Let’s get you home. Come on.” He lifted you bridal style and made his way over to the Broncho. He placed you in the front seat and you sat perfectly still, completely in shock. Your dad was gone. You were never going to see him again. The pain in your chest swelled as the agony spread through you. You didn’t even notice Bradley getting in the car or start driving until you were outside your family home.
“We’re here darling.” He said, bringing you out of your thoughts. You looked up and towards the house. It was dark, except for a single light in the kitchen. Your mother's shadow moved around the room slowly. You turned to look at Bradley, seeking comfort.
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“No. No, I need to do this alone. Thank you though… for everything.”
“Of course love. I’m here whatever you need, whatever time day or night. Always ok. I promise.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too baby. I know how hard this is and I can give you all the time and space you need. I’m there for you no matter what.”
“Thank you. Goodnight Brad.”
“Night darling.”
You made your way slowly up the familiar steps to the door. You knew this day was coming but it didn’t make it any easier. Nothing the Navy taught you could prepare you for this and for now you’d have to face it. But you knew you weren’t alone. Bradley was going to be there through thick and thin. He was the love of your life and you knew he’d be there no matter what.
Rooster watched as (y/n) made her way up the steps. He knew first-hand how much pain she was in, he was still battling his daily. He looked at the dog tags hanging from the rearview mirror.
“Talk to me Dad.”
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jo-harrington · 2 months
Text
As Above, So Below - Chapter 6: Revelation
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Previous Chapter: Chapter 5 - Via Domus
Summary: More secrets are revealed to you as your reunion with Eddie comes to a close, and in their wake, a covenant is made between the two of you.
Word Count: 18.2k
Pairing: Eddie Munson/Fem!Original Character (Written in 2nd Person POV - You/Your - No Use of Names of Physical Descriptors)
Warnings/Themes: Van Helsing Inspired, Kas!Eddie, Religious Themes, Criticism of Religion/Catholicism, Fate vs. Free Will, Death and Injury, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Mentions of Major Character Deaths, Discussion of the Upside Down, Supernatural Encounters, Gore, Body Horror, Angst, Smut, Fluff, Monsterfucking, Slight Pain/Discomfort/Injury due to Monsterfucking (short lived), Unprotected PinV Sex (he's undead it doesn't matter), Oral Sex (M Receiving), Bloodletting, Defiling of Religious Grounds/Paraphernalia, Biblical and Other Literary/Media References. Dead Dove: Do Not Eat
Note: On March 27th 1986, Eddie Munson was left to his fate in the Upside Down and a year ago today I began this journey with Hell, the story of how he was left to his fate under Vecna's control. Now here we are, finally able to "see" what he became. The man turned monster finally revealed in his entirety. And all the...trouble that entails for him and his love, the Knight. Thank you to everyone who has read this series so far, who has listened to me rant and rave, who has stuck with me for this long. I love and cherish you. This one--hell, the whole story actually--is for you.
This series will not be for the faint of heart, nor is it something that was written with a general audience in mind. Please check the above warnings and ask yourself if you are in the correct headspace to proceed. I am happy to answer any questions via PM or Ask.
You can find my masterlist here.
Please do not interact if you are not 18+.
Enjoy!
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“And I’d choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I’d find you and I’d choose you.”  - Kiersten White, The Chaos of Stars
November 6, 1983 October 15, 1987
It was dark and, although it wasn’t a place you would choose to rest, there you lay.
It was a welcome rest. All rest was welcome when you hadn’t had any for an eternity.
Countless days and nights you’d spent trying so hard to save him. Save yourself. Where did it get you?
Back into the darkness once again.
Fate was cruel.
And you were lost.
“Sweetheart?”
You could hear his voice faintly, and tears involuntarily escaped the corners of your eyes; he never called you sweetheart anymore.
"Angel, come on," he cooed softly, closer now, and closer still the longer it took. "Time to make the donuts, open your eyes for me. Please."
You took a rattling breath and you trembled all the while, as the fear that your mind, or maybe even this place, might be playing tricks on you became overwhelming.
Hands grabbed for you reverently--hands, not claws--and pulled you over and up, til you were sitting, and then a solid form slid behind you. The gentle soul let you rest back against them, and then caressed you.
You whimpered as those hands and fingers paid special attention to the most wounded parts of you, as they willed some kind of healing, and made you whole again.
You felt it slowly fill you. The light. So soft and pure.
It was something that you'd long since resigned to losing someday, your light, but here it was again. Not yours but made to be yours, because he was yours. Just like you were his. The light, given freely, returned all of the pieces of you that were missing, bit by bit.
The piece that had vanished from your sternum, the gaping hole that was taken from your side, the jagged incisions at every joint. They were filled and sealed and suddenly you were like new again.
Your eyes shot open, and you released a startled gasp as your lungs were allowed a full breath for the first time in ages.
And just like an infant experiencing the overwhelming majesty of the world for the first time, you sobbed.
"Shhhh," Eddie whispered into your ear. His nose and lips gently brushed the shell of it, and he left a kiss there when you finally relaxed against him. "I've got you. It's alright, it's gonna be ok. I’m here. I've got you."
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November 6, 1983
“…and there’s this ice cream cake called Viennetta.”
“Sounds fancy.”
“It is! It’s…vanilla and chocolate and the ice cream does this swirl thing.” You waved your hands for dramatic effect. “It’s delicious. Nonna got to try it before she passed. Said it was better than tiramisu.”
“Fuck, I miss ice cream.” Eddie groaned and tilted his head back.
It wasn’t said in a bitter way, more for dramatic effect.
You'd been shut away in the secret little house in the Upside Down for a few days now; making love, talking, and eating the little snacks that Wayne had brought Eddie previously. When he’d gone to bring you more sustenance from the kitchen after that first night of sex and reconnection, you’d asked him if he could eat normal food. He explained that he had never thought to try. All he craved was blood. But it was the idea of food that he missed more than anything. The variety. The choice.
You'd squirrel that thought away for later.
For now, the two of you lavished in the comfort of each other and you regaled Eddie with the less-adventurous aspects of your life--and he his--that you'd both missed out on.
Topics jumped back and forth between lazy kisses and frantic fucking, sometimes even right in between, interrupting your most intimate moments. It felt reminiscent of those early days together, where you couldn't get enough of each other and couldn't get enough of talking to one another.
Especially when it came to the things in life that passed him by while he was stuck in this infernal dimension.
People and events.
"This...nuclear reactor almost exploded."
"What the fuck? Like Ten Mile Island?"
"Worse."
"How much worse?"
"Like the Vatican almost wanted to send the Knights in to investigate."
"Damn."
Food and music.
"Van Halen is back together."
"Oh shit, they are?"
"Yeah."
"Soon as I'm out of here, I'm challenging Eddie Van Halen to a guitar duel."
"They have a new lead singer though. I think you'd hate them less now to be honest."
"Fuck David Lee Roth. Remember when I got you to admit you had a crush on him?"
"I was coerced. It was said under duress."
"If I had your phone number when I found out that they had broken up, I would have called you and laughed right in your fucking face, sweetheart."
Television and movies.
"There's a new James Bond movie coming out," you broke a heated kiss and pushed yourself to sit upright on Eddie's hips, groaning at the change in angle as you sunk further down onto his cock. He stretched his neck and then grabbed at your hands to kiss your knuckles as you took the lead in both the pace and the conversation. "And a new James Bond."
"No more...what's-his-face?" he asked, panting. "Roger Moore."
"No, Timothy Dalton," you said, looking at his face expectantly for some type of reaction. You rolled your hips into his roughly, almost as punishment, when you got no response other than pleasure. "You remember, the guy from Flash Gordon? You made me watch that movie a hundred times. Prince Barin? What about Jane Eyre?"
He stilled beneath you, brow furrowed in concentration.
"You made me watch that one a hundred times."
"No, there were just a hundred episodes. Remember I said you would make a good Rochester? And you said it was because you were..."
Eddie grabbed your hips and canted up into you, a feral grin on his lips now, fangs glinting in the low light.
"Because I'm handsome and mysterious," he recalled. "And a desirable bachelor."
"And I said no," you collapsed back against him again, lips brushing against his. "It was because your name is Edward."
You reconnected for a bruising kiss before he got the upper hand once again and got you beneath him.
It didn't matter what or when, every moment and every word was of the utmost importance; the actions that they were preceded or punctuated by simply added to the depth of your reunion.
In those private little moments, between silly banter and declarations of your devotion to one another, you promised never to be apart again.
"Once we get you out of here," you said, words hushed against his cold skin. "We can go to concerts and see movies, drive anywhere you want. Get the hell out of Hawkins and never look back."
"Once I get out of here," he parroted as he broke away from his intense feeding. "We'll go everywhere and do everything. Start a new band together or just find a place with a nice couch to sit and never leave. I never want to let you go."
"All I want," you and Eddie echoed to one another over and over, "is to be with you forever."
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It took three days before the two of you emerged from the peaceful solitude of Eddie's childhood home.
The watch on your wrist beeped at some supposed midnight every night signaling the end of another day, and Wayne's visit was soon upon you. You figured, instead of just asking for Wayne to fetch your bag, you'd just return to Hawkins with him and get it yourself. Maybe some books you'd abandoned in the trunk of your car too.
Then you could really get to work remedying this whole situation, and getting Eddie home.
Eddie was loath to let you go, though; he watched as you got dressed in your ripped and stained clothes, arms crossed behind his head comfortably while enticing temptations leached from his lips.
"I can just go," he offered. "Wayne'll have fresh food for you and then you don't need to leave until three days after that. How does that sound? Stay with me just a little longer."
"Eddie," you groaned. "I've already been gone long enough. As nice as that sounds, I'm sure your friends--hell, my friend--is wondering where I've disappeared to. They've found my car by now too."
"I can send Chrissy or Fred to tell them you're ok."
"That'll go over well," you rolled your eyes.
You shrugged your jacket on and in a blink, he was standing before you, still naked, eyes wide.
"Jesus," you jumped, startled.
"Guess again," he teased tensely.
"You're...fast," you squinted your eyes at him, motioning between him and the mattress.
"I have a few tricks that I take advantage of when I'm in the mood for them. Some things Vecna showed me; y'ain't seen nothing yet sweetheart."
You hummed a noncommittal response and just stared at him, let your eyes rove over his form once again, taking in as much detail as you could before you left him.
"Pretty sure I'm seeing a lot of you, actually," you told him, voice laden with appreciation for the sight before you.
You reached out and ran a finger over one of the seams along his skin, around his wrist; so much time over the past few days had been spent reacquainting yourselves, and you wondered if you spontaneously lost your sight, would you recognize him by touch alone?
So much time had been spent with the phantom presence of him around over the years, though, that it really didn't matter either way; your soul would sing simply by having him nearby.
"Alright," you sighed lamentingly. "Put some clothes on Romeo. Time for me to go back to Verona."
Another blink and he was on you. His hands cupped your face, fingers splayed across your cheeks and jaw, edging the exposed bite wounds.
"Promise me," he muttered and leaned closer so your noses brushed and breaths mingled. "Promise me you'll be back."
"I promise," you agreed.
"Tomorrow."
"Yes."
"When the watch beeps at midnight again, I need you back here," he pleaded. He pressed the lightest kiss to your lips. "Please don't leave me here."
"I won't," you said with finality, as you looked into his eyes with the fire of promise and determination. "Nothing could keep me away."
Satisfied, he moved in a blur, and then stood before you again, fully dressed in a new pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He shrugged his jacket back on and then gestured for you to take the lead.
The walk back into the Upside Down's version of Hawkins seemed quicker this time. Probably because the two of you actually talked, a continuation of the conversations you'd started over the past few days.
Eddie was more eager to show you the sights around Hawkins again, less fond memories and more "could have beens" that turned into "will be one days."
"Some days."
It filled you with hope.
You were also much more comfortable with the creatures that roamed around. The bats overhead and a herd of demogorgons that ran alongside you at one point; they largely ignored you and so you ignored them too.
A curious little demodog approached you though; well, it approached Eddie, jumping and whining to get his attention. He let go of your hand and knelt down to give it a few pets, and then even took your hand so it could sniff and receive a pet from you on its slimy head, which it eagerly accepted. The creature was much friendlier than the demodogs you'd encountered previously, and you wondered if it was Eddie's influence that affected it, much like Dustin and his pal Dart.
You weren't nearly as hesitant as you had been with the bats; you trusted Eddie, which meant you had to trust them too. And he was just as gentle with the demodog as he had been with any of the cats or critters around Forest Hills, like Lucy and her kittens.
"Cerberus," he grinned proudly as he introduced his friend. "Not the first of his name, unfortunately, but a loyal friend nonetheless."
Once Cerberus was on his way, you both continued.
"Wish there was a faster way to get around here," you commented about halfway through the journey, feet starting to ache in your sneakers. "Do any of these cars work?"
"I, uh, never tried them," he admitted. The corner of his mouth twitched as he fought a smile. "I honestly get around quick enough."
"Uh huh," you rolled your eyes. "Mr. Speedster here. Who runs faster, you or The Flash?"
"I'm more partial to the Reverse Flash, actually," he reminded you.
"Nerd."
Before long, you arrived at the dry waste that was this world's Lover's Lake and stared at the glowing, smoking fissure that originated at the center and ran towards the center of town.
"Where'd all the water go?" you wondered aloud.
"I dunno, the lake was dry when Nancy and the Wonder Twins and I crossed over way back when," Eddie sighed. He got that sly look on his face again. "I could try to open the gate a little wider. See if I can drain the real Lover's Lake?"
"Don't you dare," you backhanded him across the arm, but he pulled you into his embrace.
"Just say the word and I'll do it."
"No!"
"I'll give you anything you want."
"Stop."
"What is it you want, Mary?" he quoted, taking on Jimmy Stewart's vocal cadence. "What do you want? How about the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down."
"I hate you."
"You love me," he grinned proudly and then kissed you again.
It felt like a kiss of finality, a goodbye kiss, like the one you shared when you left Hawkins; it was bittersweet and left a painful ache in your chest, even though you knew you'd be back in a day. Eddie must have felt the same though, because when you pulled away and looked into his eyes, you found they were wet with tears, just like they had been then too. He blinked and one lone tear--made of thick blood instead of water--rolled down his cheek. You reached up to wipe it away, and he grasped your wrist so he could kiss the droplet.
"And I love you," he whispered against the pad of your thumb. "Love you so much I'd give you the moon."
"I'll take it."
"Well look at that," a groan of a familiar voice interrupted the sweet moment, and you both turned to find Wayne pulling himself through the gate at the shore of the lake. You quickly rushed forward to help him to his feet, as he stumbled and wheezed and coughed. "Fancy seeing you here honey. Guess the cat's out of the bag."
"No thanks to you," you ribbed him good-naturedly.
"You figured it out on your own, otherwise you wouldn't be here," he teased and then looked past you to Eddie. "Good to see you kid."
"Hey Wayne," he greeted his uncle.
"Looking more like yourself," Wayne nodded appreciatively.
"Feeling more like myself."
"Hmmm," Wayne clapped a hand on your shoulder and then winked at you. "Wonder why. Makes me feel almost silly that I'd had the brilliant idea to bring some of Rick's old tapes over today."
"C'mon, you know I'll take whatever music I can get my hands on. Everything here is pretty much covered in gunk anyway."
You watched their interaction fondly as they bickered back and forth like they always had. Eddie clapped a hand on Wayne’s shoulder and made him laugh, and Wayne cupped the side of Eddie’s head affectionately, the closest they would get to a hug for now.
Eventually, Wayne hefted the backpack from his shoulder and unpacked all sorts of items for Eddie: clothes, food--more of Eddie's favorites--tapes, and a new book.
Suddenly what he said back at Rick's the other day made a lot more sense.
"Shit, what's a guitar gonna do, or snacks, or...or a t-shirt? When he's stuck in Hell?"
He hadn't been talking about what he'd done when Eddie was wanted for murder and was then believed to be dead; he was talking about this right here. A futile effort to bring Eddie comfort while he was stuck in the Upside Down.
That sinking feeling that you had felt when he'd said that to you was back, worse now knowing that it wasn't just grief he'd experienced, but the constant reminder of his failure to run with Eddie while he could.
You found yourself even more determined to fix this; not just for Eddie, or for you. But for Wayne too.
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October 16, 1987
It had taken a little time.
A little elbow grease, a little prayer, a lot of Wayne's mechanical knowledge and jumper cables, but before long you were back in the driver's seat of the Marquis, headed for the Harringtons.
Driving through town had a different weight to it now. There was no insidious evil lurking beyond sight and understanding, it was just Eddie.
Yes, there were still many obstacles to face before things were made right again. But it wouldn't be such an impossible, herculean task anymore to fix things, would it?
But people still died. There were still dark creatures roaming about. Eddie was stuck in the Upside Down and had still resurrected any number of people, which was a big deal in and of itself.
And you were still burdened by your family's curse.
"Right," you muttered to yourself. "All of that. Fuck."
What you wouldn't give to return to the bliss of Eddie's arms right now instead of face that ever-growing list.
"One thing at a time." You nodded and tried to keep your eyes on the prize. "First let everyone know you're alive, then figure out how to get Eddie out of there. The rest will follow."
If only things could be that easy.
You almost--and quite literally--ran into Steve's maroon BMW at some point on your drive. Tires screeched, curses shouted, and then you followed the gang back home. Dustin and Robin bickered in the back seat of Steve's car and you watched their animated expressions, arms flailing as they did. It warmed your heart, made you realize how much you had come to care for them and miss them, even in a few short days.
You beamed brightly as one specific scathing remark from Dustin made Steve turn around in the driver's seat to give a warning glare.
By the time you parked behind Steve at the Harrington's, Dustin had bolted out of the car to greet you and, in a full 180 from his behavior in the car, essentially tackled you in a hug.
"You made it back," he sounded relieved, "We were getting worried."
"First off," you scoffed and flicked the bill of his hat. "I wouldn't expect any less, you little worry wort, especially after three whole days. And second, mister, you have some explaining to do."
“Three day—wait,” he stumbled over his words. “Me? I have some explaining to do? Why? What’d I do?”
He twitched and shifted nervously, then his eyes roamed over you, really taking in the beaten, bruised, and bitten nature of your appearance. His eyes widened and he opened his mouth to say something when a car door slammed heavily and another voice chimed into the conversation.
“Actually, I think it’s you that owes us an explanation,” Nancy announced, arms quick to cross over her chest. You could feel the ire come off her in waves. “Did you think Claudia was gonna keep Billy a secret from everyone else just because you decided to stay with Wayne Munson instead of here?”
Maybe it was the reunion with Eddie that made you more patient. Forgiving. You already gave Nancy the grace that she, understandably, didn't seem to have for anyone else outside of her inner circle, and you thought, once again, about how much the two of you were more alike than different.
Maybe in a different world, you might have been friends.
Instead here, she very much felt the need to be your enemy.
Because the entire world was her enemy thanks to the shitty hand it dealt her.
You could be whatever she needed you to be until she saw that you were not against her, the way she believed you were.
"It's good to see you too Nancy," you deadpanned. "I didn't think it was going to hide the truth from everyone if I left."
"So you just wanted to leave the others to the consequences of your decisions rather than face them yourself," she accused.
"No I thought it would be easier if you all didn't see my face every day, especially with how royally I was fucking everything up," you told her. "See? I can admit when I fuck things up. This isn't the first time. It happens a lot actually."
Her face crumpled in a scowl.
"I know it isn't a surprise," you continued. "Because you seem to think I'm the one who continues to bring misfortune to Hawkins but we both know that it's been here regardless of my presence or not. Just like Kas would still be around whether or not I was. Isn't that right?
"Or should I say Eddie would still be around?"
Steve, Robin, and Dustin stared at you with wide eyes, but Nancy smirked and threw her hands out with a sarcastic laugh.
"Thank God, now we don't have to keep that secret anymore."
"I don't know why you thought it would be ok to keep it a secret in the first place," you shook your head. "As if I wasn't going to find out at some point."
"It was me," Dustin insisted, stepping between you and Nancy with his hands out to placate you both, as though you were about to lunge for her or something. Or maybe Nancy was going to lunge for you.
Whatever foresight he had, it was unnecessary.
As was the ashamed look on his face.
"I didn't want you to know what he's become," he explained. His voice was low and he refused to meet your gaze. "I didn't want you to know--"
"He didn't want you to know Eddie's an evil monster," Nancy chimed in. Steve and Robin both shouted her name in shock. "Am I wrong? Look at everything he's done? Done to Hawkins? Done to us."
"He helped us!" Dustin argued. "Helped us defeat Vecna."
"And look how many people died Dustin! How many people he killed?He's a monster! Don't tell me you'd rather have him back. Don't tell me you never thought that he should have just stayed dead in the Upside Down, instead coming back to kill everyone we love."
"Hey!" You shouted at her now. You stomped your foot, hard, against the concrete driveway and drove enough of your power into the ground to cause it to shake. The reverberations threw Nancy off-balance for a moment, and she fell against the car for support. "That's enough! Don't be an asshole!"
"Yeah," Dustin nodded his agreement with a glance back at you, before he turned back to Nancy to restart his own onslaught.
"You either," you pushed his shoulder to get him to stop. "Fuck, we're not gonna fix this if we're too busy arguing with one another."
"Fix this?" Nancy scoffed. "You think you can fix this? Fix Hawkins? What's next? Can you time travel? Go back to 1955? Kill Henry before he can become Vecna? What else? Can you bring back the dead?"
"I can, actually," you said, a shocked silence falling over the driveway. "Maybe not in the way you think. Maybe not everyone. But Eddie brought the dead back, didn't he? Brought Max back. Eleven did too. So is it really a stretch to believe I might be able to.
"I can't bring back all of your loved ones, but maybe I can help fix this. Put this town right. Close those gates for good. Help you get closure. Move on with your lives, instead of being under this constant...shitstorm of death and destruction."
Nancy recovered from her shock and took a few calming breaths.
"And what does that all entail?" she asked. "You gonna bring Eddie back to this world too? Fix him? Does he get a clean slate? A fresh start? In spite of everything?"
"Not in spite of it," you told her. "Because of it. Everyone gets a fresh start. A second chance."
"Forgive me if I find that a little too good to be true."
She turned on her heel and stormed into the house with Robin hot on her heels.
You let out a relieved breath and relaxed your posture.
"I'm running out of these motivational speeches," you said aloud.
"You're really good at them," Steve offered as he joined you and Dustin. "Better than I am."
"I usually just tell people to run and they listen."
"You're really good at that too," Dustin added. You put your hand on his shoulder and squeezed it.
"You could have just told me about Eddie," you said to him gently. "Honestly, I think it probably would have worked out a lot better if you did."
"I didn't...I didn't want to hurt you," he sighed.
"First of all," you let out a self-deprecating laugh. "Clearly I needed help figuring it out. And second, I hurt myself more by trying to fight an invisible enemy than if I just knew he was Kas. I could have started fixing it from the get."
"Can you fix him?" he asked hopefully. "Get him out of the Upside Down?"
"I can try." You jumped at the sound of Eddie's watch beeping on your wrist. You looked down at it and frowned; the display read midnight...but it was the middle of the afternoon. Weird. You pressed the button to silence the alarm. "I just need to get back."
"You, uh," Steve pointed at his neck. "You've gotta fix yourself first. Need a little first aid there bud?" You had half a mind to flip him off.
"Yeah, Jesus," Dustin reached up and pulled at the collar of your jacket to reveal your bite wounds; he blanched at the sight of them. "Did...did Eddie do that?"
"Uh," you nudged his hand away. "No comment. But yes, uh, maybe some first aid. And some dinner. Then I can head back to Wayne's for a good night's sleep. But uh...a good shower and some disinfectant cream would be great."
The three of you headed inside.
"We just set up a makeshift infirmary yesterday, actually. Pretty well-stocked and everything," Dustin announced matter-of-factly.
"Oh yeah? What for?" Both boys stopped in their tracks and you felt the guilt oozing from them. You shot them with what you were sure was a withering stare. "What's the infirmary for, guys?"
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"What do you mean you got struck by lightning?"
"I got struck by lightning," Mary Victoria shrugged from her place in bed.
She was propped by many pillows, had a stack of comic books beside her--courtesy of Dustin--and was scribbling in a fuzzy purple diary when you walked into the room the two of you had been staying in. She looked relieved to see you for a literal second until she saw the worried look on your face, and then immediately devolved into making excuses and saying she looked worse than she felt.
But truly, she did look terrible.
Her neck and the visible part of her right arm were bandaged up, eyes concerningly bloodshot, and the ends of her hair singed.
You offered to heal her one moment--and she denied you, claiming she'd have a cool scar to show off and guilt people with--and then demanded the story the next.
The story, unfortunately, seemed unbelievable.
"I pissed God off, and he smited me," was her explanation. Simple as that.
Great.
"That's not a thing," you scoffed.
"Are you sure about that?" Mare narrowed her eyes at you in suspicion.
"Alright, it sort of is, but," you sighed. "It's not God. It's usually some...I don't know...other being of higher power. Angels...Jesus Mare, you're a nun. Sodom and Gomorrah. You should know this."
"I never claimed to be a good nun," she shrugged then winced. "You know this."
You reached across to take her hand and you willed a sense of soothing from your body into hers; not enough to heal her wounds, but to give her some relief.
"So...an angel smited me then," she shrugged again, easily this time.
You snorted for a second thinking of Gabriel, bored of watching your eternal struggle and smiting Mary Victoria for fun just to spice things up a little bit. He didn't have that much of a sense of humor though.
“I’m gonna bank on it being coincidental; what did you even do to incur some holy wrath?”
“Called Him an asshole.”
“You’re fine. I do that all the time.”
“You’re also doomed to Hell. So I don’t think smiting is gonna do much to change you.”
She closed her eyes and leant back against the pillows.
"There's something else," she announced.
"Ok..."
“I know I’m already here and it’s already too late, but what if I don’t want to be a Knight?”
“Then you don’t have to be,” you told her immediately with a gentle smile.
She popped one eye open and then frowned.
“Seriously?” She asked incredulously. “Just like that?”
“I mean, you didn't take an oath or anything, and yeah you're here. It's not like I can send you home so we need to see this through but," you tilted your head back and forth. "You're allowed to choose. Everyone is allowed to choose what it is they want. All of the Knights made a choice, even me."
"But I think this is why I got struck by lightning. Because I changed my mind. I chose to come with you, I left everything behind, and I still chose to change my mind."
You opened your mouth to speak, to refute her belief and spout something that she'd already heard from you a hundred times--how fate was stupid and God didn't have some master plan--when Eddie's watch beeped and interrupted that train of thought.
You glanced down at it and pressed the button to silence it.
Midnight again.
There was a split second where you thought it was funny; either time was moving slower, or the watch was moving faster. But that led you to another thought, more relevant to the conversation at hand.
You sighed and let it roll around in your head for a moment, let it marinate, before you spewed some bullshit on your friend.
"I'm gonna say something a little hypocritical," you offered. "And you can take it any way you want. What if...what if the lightning wasn't a punishment. It seems like a punishment, that's how you're choosing to believe it. But what if it was a sign that you're making the right choice by deciding you don't want this life."
"That's kind of a funny way for the universe to tell me I'm doing the right thing."
You looked back down at the watch.
"I guess it's all just a matter of perspective."
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You left Mare to her thoughts as you went to shower, tend to your wounds, and change your clothes. You took your time with it too, hot water be damned; you deserved the time to yourself, to take care of yourself.
The sustained damage and grime of several days in the Upside Down made the shirt and jeans unsalvageable; however, the sentimental side of you couldn't bear to part with your jacket. You hand washed it in the sink, wrung out as much of the dirt and sweat and blood and muck as you could, and laid it over a chair in the dining room to dry as you shared a hearty meal with Dustin and Steve.
They waited to eat with you, instead of the other inhabitants of the house, who--as Nancy had revealed--all knew of the situation with Billy and were less than pleased with your involvement or your return.
So the boys spared you another bombardment of questions and accusations, and chose to eat with you instead.
It was...normal.
Or as close to normal as you were gonna get.
And it was nice.
"You need a break," Dustin said as he scooped now-cold mashed potatoes into his mouth. "We all do, honestly."
"Mmm, I don't think my boss is gonna let me have that," you snorted a laugh. "But it's a nice thought."
Conversation flowed easily, and of course strayed to Billy, who you learned was doing alright, but was still tied up in the garage for the time being.
"News travels fast through the Hawkins grapevine," Steve said with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. "But, uh, now Max knows he's here."
"And she wants to come and talk to him," Dustin added.
"So, you should let her," you suggested.
"I thought we already established that wasn't going to happen," Steve argued.
"Hey," you held your hands up defensively. "You brought it up. All I know is, something is going on with Billy...some side effect of his resurrection. Maybe even his death. Maybe seeing Max...talking to her will help him work through it."
"I brought it up so you could ask Eddie to undo whatever the fuck it was he did to bring Billy back in the first place."
"Uh huh." You pursed your lips and dragged your fork lazily across your plate. "I'll add it to my to-do list."
"I'm surprised that you hadn't asked him about Billy already."
"You know, my boyfriend who I haven't seen in 3 years, who I thought was dead for the last year and a half...asking him about Billy Hargrove wasn't a top priority."
Steve groaned and made a gagging noise. Dustin turned in his chair and wrapped his arms around himself as he made kissy noises to mock you and Eddie making out.
You laughed and thought of the many times Gareth or Mickey would do the same things--any of the guys really--when you tagged along with Eddie during their hangouts or band practices.
You missed the feeling of belonging, of having these pseudo younger brothers. And you knew Eddie must be missing them as well, Dustin especially.
You had half a mind to ask them where the Corroded Coffin boys had disappeared to, if they knew Mickey or Jack's families, if they were still in town--
Beep beep. Beep beep.
"What's that?" Dustin asked as you groaned and hit the button to silence the alarm. "S'that Eddie's watch?"
Midnight again.
"Yeah he gave it to me to...I dunno, prove this point that he only sent the creatures to feed every third day," you shook your head and then did some mental math. "So I guess they should have hunted yesterday. Right? Sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth. But the watch keeps saying it's midnight. I don't know. I think coming through the gate fucked it up and now it runs fast. It's the nineteenth and the watch says it's the twenty-first."
"Today's not the nineteenth," Dustin frowned. "It's the sixteenth."
"No it isn't. It's the nineteenth, I was in the Upside Down for three days. Maybe four?"
"That's why you said three days earlier?"
"Why else would I say three days if I wasn't gone for three days?"
"You were gone for a day," Steve explained. "Barely a day. You left last night before it started raining."
"No I didn't, I--" Your words fell short when Dustin shoved his own wrist in your face, and you looked at the flashing digitized date and time.
"You know," he swallowed thickly. "Way back when, we figured out that time is stuck in the Upside Down. Like, it's perpetually stuck on the day Will first disappeared. November 6th, 1983. And for a little while, before Vecna came back, we thought that we could...restart the timeline or something. Save all of our friends who died. If only we could...I dunno, access the past."
"I've seen a lot of shit," you muttered. "But time travel definitely isn't one of them."
"Obviously, it didn't work," Steve deadpanned.
"No shit!"
"But maybe," Dustin continued over your and Steve's quick bickering. "Maybe it didn't work because time isn't really stuck in the Upside Down. Vecna manipulated the Upside Down. Will did too--"
"And Eddie," you cut in. "He...he created a house from his memories. From when his mom was still alive."
"So the Hawkins in the Upside Down is stuck in the past, but time is actually moving faster."
You could feel the electric buzz as the three of you considered the implications of it all.
Time moved faster, which meant Eddie might not have just been stuck in the Upside Down for a year and a half...but years. Your heart ached at the thought of him there, alone except for the creatures and Vecna. Years. Maybe decades.
And you...you'd only been there a few days, sure. It felt real. The hours, the days...they had felt real. You slept, you got hungry, you ate. But in this world it was only one.
You looked at Eddie's watch again, and your heart dropped into the pit of your stomach.
The watch had beeped three times. Signaled midnight three times.
"Fuck!" You bolted to your feet and grabbed the still-damp jacket from the chair beside you. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
"What? What's going on?" Steve shouted.
"I need to go," was your only explanation. You briefly considered grabbing extra supplies--food and first aid--you thought of the books in your trunk, and your bag full of clothes. But it didn't matter in the end. You threw the jacket on and ran for the door. "I need to go. Don't wait up...I'll be fine just...fuck, I need to go!"
You were not precious about getting in the car or backing out of the driveway, and you might have even clipped the Harrington's mailbox as you threw the car into drive to race to the nearest gate.
It didn't matter, nothing mattered except for getting back to the Upside Down.
Because you had told Eddie you'd be back tomorrow. You'd promised him.
But to Eddie, you'd already broken your promise.
To him, it had already been three more days without you.
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November 6, 1983
Crossing from the Upside Down into the real Hawkins with Wayne had been difficult.
He'd warned you about what to expect before he led you through the gate back home, and he was right, it had been strange. It felt like a weight was slowly lifted off your shoulders, but something invisible pinched at the backs of your arms and legs all the while, trying and failing to get you to stay.
It was worse crossing back through, though.
That heaviness settled back onto you, heavier than the load you already carried, with your bag laden with books and weapons that you'd taken from the car; the weight of an entire dimension and all of the beings that resided within ripped through the membranous barrier and settled onto you and into you as you forced yourself through to the other side.
No wonder Wayne had struggled to stand when he had crossed through earlier in the day.
The toll you needed to pay to enter this world was almost too much to bear.
Still, you made it through, wearily.
Your body ached, your half-healed wounds throbbed, and something deep down inside of you felt almost...abyss-like. Suddenly a little emptier than it had been just minutes before.
But you made it.
Thanks to a bit of foresight, you crossed through the gate at the Creel House, figuring it would be your best bet to find Eddie right away.
The towering pillars--now empty of their inhabitants--the mangled silhouette of the house behind it, and the swarm of bats that circled overhead made you a little nervous, though.
Not from fear, necessarily, but worry and doubt.
Maybe Eddie thought you'd cross back at Lover's Lake and was there instead; there was no reason for him to expect that you'd cross through here, especially since you had departed with Wayne. That would be a trek to walk all the way to Lover's Lake, and you knew you wouldn't be lucky enough to find a bicycle or something. And you might have been on this side of the time warp, but that didn't mean time was on your side.
The bats, surprisingly, gave you hope.
If they were here...did that mean that Eddie was nearby? You had seen how fond he was of them, and vice versa. Maybe he was just inside? Or, if anything, were they flying overhead looking for you?
There was only one way to find out, and you were motivated by a singular focus.
A singular thought that was riddled with guilt.
It. Had. Been. Days.
You dropped your backpack and shook off the heavy, weary weakness that the Upside Down had imparted upon you and began the trek into the house to see if you could find Eddie.
You retraced the steps that you'd taken during your initial descent through the Creel house the other day, trying to ignore the frightening flashes of movement that occurred in your peripheral vision.
You knew they wouldn't hurt you, so you couldn't get distracted; you were on a mission.
Distraction, however, was inevitable; you found that, although the path you had taken still remained, the vastness of the maze of rooms had only grown. Grown in size and in scale. In how convoluted the entire house seemed to be, like something out of a horror movie.
Or maybe something out of the Munsters, really, because as unsettling as it all was, there was an air of...humor to it all.
And that brand of humor screamed of Eddie Munson.
Sure there was a living room and dining room--several of them now, actually--and each one was more elongated and warped than the last, like reflections in a house of mirrors. Funhouse mirrors. You passed a bedroom where the bed floated from the floor and then settled on the ceiling. And beside it was a room with a closed door that seemed to expand and contract as though it was a living, breathing creature.
Had he done all of this to the Creel house in boredom? Morphed it into something comical and new as he waited for your return.
What was not comical, though, were the sounds. An unsettling ambience of hissing and grumbling and groaning that only got louder and clearer as you ascended levels and hopped across the cavernous breaks in the stairs.
It was promising at first, then concerning, as the sounds morphed and seemed to sound like words.
They weren't any words you could understand or fathom; you were pretty well-versed with languages--if not through speech, through recognition, at the very least--and this didn't sound human. They were words in some infernal devilish language made to accommodate many teeth and tongues and mouths that stretched wider than a human's could.
Some language that originated here in the Upside Down. Made of chittering and clicking and screeching.
You finally reached the landing at the bottom of the steps that led to the attic, and you tip-toed over the vine-laden floor, only to halt in your tracks by a sudden cacophony of roar and screams.
A shadow suddenly flooded the wall that followed up the steps, and you watched as the contrasting darkness and light fluttered like a wing, then stretched into a clawed hand whose nail scratched along the length of the banister. You could see the sharpness of that claw with such clarity that you were almost shocked that the wallpaper didn't split as it moved.
Finally, the shadow turned into the silhouette of an elongated figure.
"Do you see what happens," came a muffled voice above. "Do you see what happens when you fail me?"
You frowned; the voice sounded familiar.
Eddie?
"How have we failed?" Another voice this time, easier to identify: Patrick.
"She's out there, and you've yet to find her."
Guilt crept in again; were they talking about you?
You could have gone up there, could have made your presence known but you were curious--
Alright, you were nosy.
--but in your curiosity, you were frozen in place.
"She isn't out there." There was a broken, slurred quality to this speech, but you could still tell it belonged to Fred. “You’d know. We would all know.”
"She's lost."
"She left you," Chrissy hissed, her voice having the most clarity of all three brides. "You're just in denial Eddie."
There was that roar again, and you startled at the sound, but Chrissy's simpering whimper cut through the roar, and it stopped abruptly.
"Don't fear me," Eddie sighed. "Everybody else fears me...please I need the three of you on my side."
"We are on your side," Chrissy continued with bittersweetness. "The only ones. You made us, you healed us. We'll always be on your side. But your little knight...left you here. Again."
"She's lost," Eddie repeated insistently.
"She left you all alone to bask in your loneliness. Tricked you into thinking you were alone without her, when you have us Eddie. Left you here with nothing but the smell of her on your skin. You stink of her."
"Then it should be easier for you to find her," Eddie shouted, rage returning.
The shadow moved from the wall and the infernal speech began anew, with the screams and screeches quick to follow.
Until, Eddie's voice boomed with finality.
"You will go out there and find her! And you won't rest until she's back here. Nothing is as important as bringing her back to me."
"Nothing," Patrick groaned. "Do we mean nothing to you?"
"Are you really such a heartless creature?" Chrissy questioned.
"Yes," Eddie hissed.
The ceiling shook above you as a booted foot stomped overhead.
"I have no heart. Without her."
Stomp.
"I feel no love without her."
Stomp.
"I feel no joy." Stomp. "No sorrow." Stomp. "I am hollow. And I will live here--be stuck here--forever."
The roar emanated again, loud enough where you had to cover your ears. When it was over, there was a flurry of wings as, you could only assume, the brides took flight through the cavernous hole in the attic.
You broke from your reverie, and took a step forward; your sneaker-covered foot caused the floor to creak.
You winced and froze again as the shuffling overhead stopped.
The infernal speech sounded once. Then again. Then the stomping crossed the attic towards the stairs and you swallowed your hesitation to speak.
"Eddie?" you called out. "That you? Are you up there?"
"Sweetheart?" he responded, relief obvious in his muffled voice. "You're back."
You took another step upwards.
"I am. I'm sorry, I didn't realize--"
"Stop!" He shouted. "What are you doing? Stay there."
"Why?"
"Don't. Move." He groaned.
The sounds that followed were sickening.
Crunching and stretching and clicking; you could hear him groan for a moment before an agony-filled cry echoed through the stairwell and caused goosebumps to erupt along your skin.
Whatever hesitation you had was gone; it vanished as soon as you believed Eddie to be in pain. In danger.
You took the steps two at a time until you found yourself just feet away from Eddie's heaving, hunched form, teetering near the cracked precipice in the floor that split the attic in two. You crossed the distance and knelt beside him; your hand found his shaking shoulder and you pulled him into you, away from the dangerous edge.
"What happened?" you questioned frantically. "What was all that; what's wrong?"
"How much did you hear?" he ignored you to ask instead, voice weak and dry.
"Does it matter? What is this? What happened?"
"Nothing happened," he breathed out. "The others...I'd sent them out to find you, I thought--"
"I'm here." You interrupted him. You snaked your hand around to cup his cheek and lifted his head so he could look at you. His eyes were blood-red and shined with a wet glassiness. "There's just...there was a misunderstanding, but I'm here now."
"Don't go," he muttered desperately, turning his face into your touch.
"I won't."
"You were gone for so long. You promised. Don't leave me again."
"Eddie I promise--and this time I swear I will keep it--I'll never leave you again."
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November 6, 1983
You woke the next morning--or at least, you thought it was morning; it was never actually daytime in the Upside Down, it seemed--alone.
Eddie had broken the news that the two of you needed to stay at the Creel House for the night, and despite your hesitations, you were also tired enough that you couldn't object. Any bed seemed appealing enough, after several days of little to no sleep. Even if it wasn't that makeshift bed in his childhood home, that cozy safe haven he'd made, it was alright as long as he was there.
But you'd spent the evening talking, discussing the time warp between the Upside Down and the real Hawkins.
Eddie had a hard time understanding at first, and he confessed that his feelings were affected by the belief that you'd either gotten lost or hurt or abandoned him again. But after a stretch of pensive silence where he squeezed you tightly and ran his nose along your hairline, he admitted that it made sense.
"I used to think time didn't exist here," he whispered, voice thick with emotion. "First it was...the endless suffering and torture Vecna put me through to make me into this. And then it was endless waiting. It felt like an eternity."
Your throat tightened at the thought that it felt like an eternity because it probably was.
"I guess that just means," you spoke in a hushed and hopeful tone. "That just means we have more time to figure out how to get you out of here. More time together before I need to go back."
And that sent him into a panic, because you'd just promised him that you'd stay.
His hands clutched you tighter, tips of his clawed fingers biting through your clothes and the slightest bit into your skin. He pressed his body further into yours, as if you meld the two of you together.
It took a lot of soothing, a lot of explaining, to remind him once again that you had very human needs. Like food, and sleep, and hygiene.
"There's not exactly running water here Eddie," you joked and he huffed stubbornly. You let your eyes roam about his skin, somehow not covered in grime like the rest of the dimension. "I don't know how you keep so clean."
"I could show you," he teased seductively, lips brushing against yours.
It was obvious he was trying to change the subject, trying to make you forget the idea of leaving him. And you let him, let him kiss away his worries and yours.
Lying awake now, though, you considered what the consequences would be if you simply stayed.
You observed your body, really honed in on your sense of self. That heaviness that had settled on you upon entering the Upside Down hadn't faded yet; in fact, you'd felt it when you'd woken up the first time, but had simply attributed it to the Brides' attack on you.
Would you get used to it over time? Had Eddie gotten used to it? He seemed comfortable in his skin, in this realm; there was no heaviness about him. Had whatever...transformation he'd undergone at the hands of Vecna contributed?
There was just something about him though that seemed extreme; he'd always had very volatile emotions--normal for a young adult, just like you--now it seemed he teetered back and forth even more than you were used to. Happy and affectionate one moment, distant and miserable the next, and sometimes...there was nothing at all.
What had he said to the brides? He was hollow?
You certainly felt a little bit of that hollowness, but then again...you had for quite some time now. Since you had left him in '85. And it hadn't gone away until the moment you were reunited.
Maybe it was just the connection you had, your reliance on each other and your love for one another, that made it feel this way.
The door to the bedroom creaked open and you startled, then quickly relaxed as Eddie crept inside; the hollowness in your chest suddenly seemed a little lessened thanks to his presence.
Yes. That's what it was; what it had to be.
"Morning Sleeping Beauty," he whispered as he shut the door behind him.
"Gross," you whined with a giggle. "When did you become such a romantic?"
"Excuse me, I've always been romantic," he said, hand flying over his heart with mock insult. "You, my love, have never even gotten me a Valentine's Day gift."
"We've never spent a Valentine's Day together dingus." You stuck your tongue out at him.
He hemmed and hawed for a minute and then his figure blurred across the room as he closed the distance and jumped onto the bed, smothering you in kisses and raspberries and little affectionate nips. You squealed and tried to bat him away, with no real force or effort, until he cupped your face and gifted you with the sweetest kiss filled with as much loving reverence as he could.
Your heart soared and that hollowness faded more and more with every second. Faded, but didn't disappear altogether.
And you realized it wouldn't be gone until you made this all better; until you could really be together.
In the real world and not this...purgatory.
"Speaking of conformist, capitalist holidays only meant to sell cards and candy--" Eddie broke the kiss and you flicked his ear.
"I have to have a lecture now? Instead of more kisses?" you scoffed.
"Yes, because you said it's October. And we might not have had a Valentine's Day together, but we've definitely celebrated Sweetest Day together."
"Is that even a thing?" you narrowed your eyes at him. "Sounds like something you made up."
"No," he shook his head back and forth. "I promise. We have had a Sweetest Day together. Remember I told you about the Sadie Hawkins dance at the middle school once upon a time? It was on Sweetest Day."
"Uh," you tried to recall him saying something about it at any point in your relationship. "No."
"I tried to butter up Principal Coleman to get Corroded Coffin to play at the dance?"
"Doesn't ring a bell."
"And he said no."
"That sounds familiar."
"But then we spent the day together anyway and I got you McDonalds breakfast? Angel, come on."
"You got me McDonalds breakfast a lot of times," you giggled. "Get to the point!"
"I'm trying to ask my girlfriend out on a date," he rolled his eyes at you. "But she is the least romantic person on the face of the earth, if not in all of time itself."
You ignored his dramatic insults and instead fawned over the sweet gesture with some confusion.
"A date? Eddie...what date? We're in the Upside Down. We gonna go out to the quarry and makeout? I'm sure there are cars parked up there, even frozen in time like this, if we wanted to fuck in the backseat."
He froze for a second and looked a little embarrassed, and if not for the low light of the room and the deathly pallor of his skin, you were sure he'd be turning red.
"I, uh," he coughed and tried to recollect himself. "No, not the quarry. Something better. Something perfect just for you, specifically."
"Do I need to wear a dress?"
"Do you have a dress?"
"No."
"Good, neither do I," he laughed. "And I don't have a tux either. So jeans and t-shirts it is."
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"Uh, Eddie..."
"Hey listen..."
"...when you said romantic date..."
"...hear me out..."
"A church wasn't the first thing that came to mind," you finished and stared up at the steepled structure before you.
You pointedly avoided anything religious when you lived in Hawkins; Eddie had asked you about it when he'd first seen your cross necklace. You had told him you wouldn't be caught dead in a church, and at that time, it had been true. Because of that, the two of you had mocked Hawkins Presbyterian Church with its pristine white exterior, and its attendees with their John Winthrop-inspired holier-than-thou exceptionalism.
This church, though, was certainly not like that. And although your faith was still shaky at best, begrudging at worst, you felt more at ease here.
Maybe it was the fact that you were in the Upside Down, and maybe because it was clearly a Catholic Church and the stained glass window felt familiar. But aside from the window that reflected all manner of colors at the distant lightning, it was unassuming. Quiet and square and austere, with dull brown bricks that made up the small chapel's exterior, and a steepled bell tower that didn't even look like it had a bell.
Much like you did with Nancy, you felt some kind of kinship to this forgotten little building.
Still, it wasn't your ideal location for a date.
"I knew about this place before I even met you," Eddie explained. "Out past the plant, been abandoned for years. Mickey and Jack and I used to come and throw rocks at the windows. Even broke in once to see if there was anything cool inside."
"Seriously?" you laughed at him. "Yeah, no wonder people thought you worshiped Satan."
"No one ever knew," he held his hands out innocently. "Not even Wayne. And we didn't even steal anything. But uh, I dunno...after you left...I even thought about coming here to pray once. Not even to pray for you to come back. Thought about your grandma all of a sudden one day; drove out here. Couldn't find it in me to get out of the van."
"Maybe that was around the time she actually got sick," you wondered aloud.
"Like I had some psychic powers or something, even before all of this?" he gestured to himself with a laugh. "Hey, stranger things have happened."
He cleared his throat and led you inside.
Although didn't look much better inside--peeling plaster, overturned pews, and the chains to hang a cross over the altar but no cross itself--the interior at least didn't seem to be touched by the vines and tentacles and muck that covered the rest of the Upside Down.
"Maybe God does exist after all," Eddie laughed as he walked backwards down the aisle, responding to your observation almost like he read your mind. "Or maybe Vecna was just afraid of churches or something; places of worship like this...are generally left alone."
"I'm sure religious trauma isn't that far of a stretch to assume with Vecna," you agreed. "My power is a little strained in the Upside Down though; makes me think if...I dunno...there even are any higher powers here."
"I'm sure there's gotta be something out there. Like the Force in Star Wars."
You snorted and shook your head as you followed him.
Contrary to your previous statement about your abilities, you didn't hesitate to ignite the remnants of candles in the votive racks beside the altar. You conjured the warm, ever-present burn of the core of the earth and the wicks lit aflame, bathing the chapel in a warm, illuminating glow.
It was with this new light that you noticed the blanket and pillows that had been set up in front of the altar table, along with a pile of snacks and a puzzle.
A perfect little date, just like you used to have camped out in the living room of the trailer.
You felt your own loving glow emanate from within, as you were filled with adoration for Eddie. That he would try to bring you some normalcy, even if your lives were anything but normal.
"I found a World's Best Boyfriend mug when I was exploring once," he said matter-of-factly after you voiced your gratitude for the setup. "There's not much to do here when we aren't actively feeding or fighting. But, uh, you can give it to me as a gift if you want; I'll even act surprised."
"I'll definitely keep that in mind," you promised him, and then settled on the blanket.
Eddie started organizing the pieces of the puzzle as you dug through the snacks--more of Eddie's favorites, courtesy of Wayne: slice soda, Hostess pudding pies, cool ranch Doritos and...
"Wha--" you hesitated at the items hidden at the bottom of the pile. "Ok, I know we're in a church but all joke's aside, seriously?"
You picked up the bottle of sacramental wine and package of communion wafers.
"I found them while I was setting up," he shrugged and laughed. "Saw the crosses on the packages, thought it would be a good pun. I'll even try them if you want, food aversion be damned."
"I doubt they're any good."
You were about to set them aside so you could open a can of soda, but then a wicked little thought wormed its way into your head. You bit your lip to keep yourself from giggling, but Eddie was quick to notice.
"What? What's that look?"
"Nothing," you tilted your head to the side and contemplated telling him. "It's nothing just...I don't know if I ever told you...probably not but...I've never had communion before."
You explained the principle to him, the way you were denied your own First Communion in favor of the revelation of your family's curse, how you still would take your Nonna up whenever you'd go to mass with her...but were never even offered the absolution for yourself. Even by the priests who didn't know who and what you were, as though there was a stain on your soul that they could simply tell would never be washed away by a simple mouthful of bread and wine.
"To quote my mom, that's a bunch of horseshit," Eddie laughed. "Everyone deserves to be forgiven. You're telling me Loudmouth Linda who curses at the waitress at lunch after church on Sunday's deserves it more than you who's literally fighting evil every day? Baby, if you don't open that pack of crackers and eat one right now I'm gonna have to hand feed one to you."
"Well," you hummed, "this is supposed to be a romantic date. Ed--Eddie I was kidding."
He snatched the packet of wafers from you and sliced it open with his claws without hesitation; he brought the package up to his nose to sniff it and then plucked one wafer out and held it in front of his eyes.
"It looks plain," he noted.
"It's supposed to be plain."
"And it smells stale."
You took the package from him and sniffed gently for yourself.
"Yeah," you agreed. "That's what they smell like."
"Then I don't know what all the commotion is about," he announced dismissively. "I mean...damn I thought it was pretty metal, actually. Everyone going someplace every Sunday to eat someone's flesh and drink someone's blood in a ritual. But it's just...this."
You couldn't help but laugh at him.
He cleared his throat and knelt before you; he held one hand over your head and spoke your name aloud. He projected his voice and it echoed throughout the chapel, the deep reverberation penetrated deep into your bones.
"Eddie," you muttered. "What are you doing?"
"I'm forgiving you," he spoke normally for a second.
"You...you can't," you laughed in disbelief.
"Who said?"
"Uh, I don't know," you scoffed. "Only every priest, bishop, cardinal, pope everyone in my family has ever met. We have to earn our own forgiveness. End this curse ourselves. And it's gonna end with me, one way or another."
"Well, I think that's bullshit because it sounds like no one has ever tried." He closed his eyes and held his hand out again.
"It's not even gonna do anything," you argued. "The wafer is symbolic."
"I'm channeling my holy energy sweetheart. I can't hear you."
"Alright," you waved dismissively. "Whatever, go ahead and try."
He hummed deeply and recited the monks' chant from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, complete with smacking the top of your head with the palm of his hand. He even had the audacity to shush you as you giggled.
But the longer it went, the more he waved his hands and whispered blessings from this book and that movie, the more you felt...something.
Something inside of you stirred, felt different, lighter. Even the weight of the Upside Down wasn't as prominent. And you knew, logically, that nothing had changed in you, that the curse would still be there after whatever-this-was was over.
But in the moment, you couldn't help but close your eyes and bask in the feeling, especially as you started to feel the sting of tears in your eyes.
"Alright sweetheart," Eddie whispered after a few more moments. "Open the hatch."
You snorted and opened your mouth, hands coming together in prayer almost instinctively; he laid the wafer on your tongue and then cupped your face in his hands.
"There," he whispered and pressed the lightest kiss to your forehead. "You're forgiven."
You choked a sob and opened your eyes to look at him, tears immediately running down your cheeks and over his fingers.
"God," you sobbed and laughed simultaneously. "Fuck."
"I'm not God, I'm Eddie." He shot you his idiotic, crooked grin and then thumbed over your cheeks. "You ok?"
"Yeah, I'm ok. Sit down now, before you ruin our date even more," you hiccuped.
You silently wiped the tears away and tore into the snacks, joking that the junk food tasted a lot better than the wafer did. Eddie hesitantly put a wafer of his own into his mouth and then immediately stuck his tongue out and scraped the remnants of it away.
"God, I really can't eat real food, can I?" he lamented once he'd spat out the taste of it enough times.
"I think it just tastes like that," you offered as a consolation.
"Expectation almost never meets reality, I guess. You should try the wine too; prove that grape soda is better. Or maybe don't, that way I don't have to miss it that much."
You laughed and swatted at him, and then got an idea.
"Hang on," you got to your feet and held your hands out to stop him from following you. "Hang on, don't go anywhere, keep working on the puzzle, I'll be right back."
You skipped back past the altar to the little rectory hallway that led to the sacristy. The door was already cracked open and although it was mostly barren, there was a small pile of cloth that must have been vestments, and...
"Bingo," you muttered and crossed the room to grab your prize. You blew dust off of them and then turned back the way you came.
"You know," you exclaimed when you arrived back in the chapel. "When I say you're an idiot, you really are an idiot, Eddie Munson."
"I'm not disagreeing with you," he responded. "But what did I do to earn such an honorific?"
"You come to a church in the middle of the Upside Down, you set up a picnic for us, you even find holy bread and wine for me. And you don't even bring us the proper drinking vessels."
You held out two golden chalices, ornately etched with crosses and flowers and vines.
"You know," you dropped to your knees and placed them on the blanket. "You and I spent an entire weekend way back when making chalices for Hellfire club; I'm honestly surprised if you went pillaging for goods for this picnic, you didn't immediately cream your little nerd pants at the sight of these. Something might actually be wrong with you."
"Excuse me, I was only trying to find the best things for you, your highness." He did an exaggerated bow as he sat. "Wasn't thinking of finding any treasure for myself. But now that you mention it, these could be an awesome addition to the Hellfire repertoire. If only I..."
He trailed off and cleared his throat as you opened the bottle of wine and began to fill one of the chalices for yourself.
"If only what?" you asked. He shrugged dismissively and refused to meet your gaze. "What? If only you get to play with the guys again? You will. I'm getting you out of here. Or I'll die trying."
"Don't say that," he hissed, head snapping back towards you. "Don't."
"Then don't be such a negative Nancy," you said, intentionally thinking of your would-be-nemesis back in Hawkins.
"It's more than just getting out of here, alright? I've done things. Terrible things, actually, speaking of Nancy.
"You know I killed her boyfriend? Jonathan Byers. He was the first one. The worst one. But Vecna wanted me to send a message, so it had to be him. I killed her dad too. And this kid Lucas' dad. Both of them in one swift slash."
He jutted his arm out, hand curled in a claw, talons razor-sharp and glinting as they cut through the air. His eyes were wild, pupils blown, mouth wide open in a hiss, fangs extended.
Then there was a beat and he seemed to realize himself; he drew his arm back against his chest and cradled one hand in the other. He clicked his claws against one another pathetically and then sighed.
"I killed Mickey," he murmured, voice so low you could barely hear. "I killed Rick. Watched the life leave their eyes. And I think...I know...I enjoyed it."
The chapel was silent after those words, save for the roar of lightning outside, and your heavy, pensive breaths.
Your heart ached. Ached for Mickey and Rick, but more for Eddie.
You knew that feeling. Knew that guilt. It was an old friend.
You looked down at the chalice filled with wine, and then at the other one, which you were about to fill despite Eddie's lack of need for food and drink.
And you were struck with an idea.
You set the bottle aside and scooted closer to him, you took one of his hands in yours and ignored his questions as you leant down and kissed his palm and each of the pads of his fingers.
You then maneuvered his hand so his clawed thumb pressed into the meat of your palm, and then dragged it deep through the middle of it. You created a cut deep and long, despite Eddie's protests, and then let the blood drip down into the empty chalice.
"What are you doing?" he snapped at you. "What is this?"
"You forgave me," you answered, voice heavy with determination. "And now I'm forgiving you."
"Sweetheart, you don't have to--"
"Don't have to do this?" you repeated your own words from earlier. "This isn't going to work? Eddie...just...if I'm not doing this for you then I'm doing this for myself."
He looked like he was about to argue again, but you weren't going to let him.
"You never know," you quickly stopped him. "This could get us a step closer to getting you out of here."
He closed his mouth with an audible click of teeth, and motioned for you to continue.
You didn't have as much theatricality as Eddie had before. You simply let the chalice fill to an acceptable amount of blood, and then grabbed it with both hands and held it slightly raised before you.
"This is my blood," you recited words that you'd heard thousands of times. You looked at Eddie and shared a shaky smile as your eyes locked together. "The blood of a new and everlasting covenant. It has been shed for you, Eddie, so that your sins may be forgiven. Now and forever."
You lowered the chalice and tried to pass it over to him, but he backed away quickly. Quicker than the eye could see.
He was suddenly across the room, pacing with his head in his hands, shaking.
"What is it?" You watched as he muttered to himself and shook his head. "Eddie, what?"
"I don't deserve this," he said. "I don't deserve...your forgiveness."
"Yes you do. You said it yourself, what makes you any less deserving of forgiveness than...I don't know...than me, than Nancy Wheeler, than anyone?"
"Because I'm a liar!" He turned back to you and shouted. "I'm a liar, I'm a coward, and I'm a monster."
"Don't say that."
"I am."
"You're not! You're my boyfriend. You're Eddie Munson. You're...the silliest, stupidest, bravest boy I know. You take care of everyone you love, much more than you think to take care of yourself, and you...you were lost. And all of those things that you did...you did them when you were lost. So you deserve a chance to make it alright. You deserve forgiveness."
"I'm not talking about what I did when Vecna was still alive," Eddie told you through gritted teeth. "I'm talking about now. I'm a coward now. I'm a liar now. I'm a monster now."
"Eddie..."
"And you'll never know how much I don't deserve this," he waved at the altar, at the chalice, at you. "Until I show you what's become of me. Who I am now. What I am now."
You were stunned silent as he shed his jacket, as he kicked off his boots, as he took several breaths.
And then he screamed.
You tried to get to your feet, tried to get to him, but the sight before you prevented you from moving at all.
His clothes ripped first, then his skin; they stretched until they couldn't stretch any more. The seams of his shirt, of his jeans--the seams that you'd traced along his limbs--all split as his body bulged and stretched in an utterly inhuman way.
But where his clothes shredded and tore gave way to thread, his skin just made room for more skin, more bones.
His legs elongated, raised him higher off the ground, and his feet practically uncurled to become longer, more dexterous, with claws of their own that could slash and grab like his hands.
And speaking of his hands and his arms, they were next; you felt sick to your stomach as you listened to his bones snap into pieces, as he groaned with each snap. But they were quick to shift into new places, and soon he stretched to find comfort in this new, elongated wingspan that matched his towering height; he flexed his fingers, now sporting longer, knife-like claws, and extra phalanges that could bend in any direction he chose.
On and on it went, as his shoulders got wider and broader, as his torso stretched and rippled, as his neck became unfathomably long.
He threw his head back and the seams of that scarred Glasgow smile ripped open anew, dripping blood down his cheeks and throat. The unsettling smile he now sported wasn't complete though, not until rows and rows of fangs--not just the two sets you'd seen and grown used to as they smiled and bit into you--grew and settled along his jaw. Razor sharp, glinting in the firelight, promising to bring about a creature's demise if they weren't careful.
And finally, just when you thought it was all over, the skin along his abdomen rippled. You had thought there was something wrong there, when you'd run your hands along his ribcage over the past few days as you'd held each other in bed.
There was something wrong. Something terribly, horribly wrong.
Eddie fell to his knees, and his talons anchored into the stone floor of the chapel as he hunched over. The scars you had felt along his back split, and from them grew two massive, bat-like wings, unfurling from where they'd been tucked away in the cavity of his body. They were made of bones and muscle and a thin, veiny, membranous skin that you could practically see the light of the votives through.
Eddie twitched on the ground and the wings flexed and flapped; the droplets of blood that had coated the wings sprayed around the chapel; onto the altar and the pews, dousing a few of the candles with a steamy hiss, even pelting your skin, causing you to flinch.
At the end of it all, when this metamorphosis was complete, and something new had emerged from the body that had once belonged to Eddie Munson, he rose.
With a great wide mouth and clawed hands raised to the heavens, the creature roared.
It was an ear-splitting sound, bellowing and shrieking all at once.
And then it turned to you.
He turned to you.
Eddie turned to you.
Because you might have made the mistake of thinking him a creature once, but you vowed never again.
All of the thoughts that had halted as you watched the spectacle with unblinking eyes suddenly flooded your brain. All manner of logic and emotion, fighting and contradicting one another, as you struggled to reconcile what you had seen, what you had felt, and what you knew all into one truth.
How many things had you faced like this before, with too many teeth and claws that slashed and tore? How many countless names of creatures had you memorized over the years, not just of being a knight, but of being alive? You could name them all now, if you dared, but no name would ever match up to what was on display before your very eyes. Nothing like this.
But what was this?
This...it...he...was your boyfriend. The love of your life.
He wasn't just what he was once or had ever been; this was what had become of him, what had been done to him in the name of evil. This was the result of his trauma, but also his survival. And because of that, or maybe in spite of that, he wasn't inherently evil himself.
Contrary to your instincts--contrary to what had been taught to you all your life, all you had ever faced or ever known--you knew he was good. In fact, good was all you ever knew him to be, even during the brief stint where you believed there was a Kas, a dastardly nemesis who'd vowed to kill you.
This image certainly could conjure that belief...but it simply...didn't.
You thought back to something that you had told Mary Victoria. That Eddie was good, but you didn't know if he was good enough for Heaven.
Heaven, though, was not just a place for good people. It was a place for forgiveness, a place of peace. And didn't Eddie, by the grace of all the atrocities that he had been a part of, that had been imparted onto him, also deserve that peace? Deserve that forgiveness.
You stood on shaky legs, chalice still held in your wounded hand, and approached him.
His shoulders heaved with labored breaths as he watched you, and he flinched as you got close enough.
"Please," he growled, and you recognized the muffled quality of his voice from the previous night, talking to the Brides, and you realized that he had to talk through the mouthful of his teeth. It was different, but still his voice. "Please I don't want to hurt you.
"You won't," you assured him, shifting to try to meet his gaze; you had to crane your neck to look him in the eye at this new height. "I trust you. I believe in you."
"I'm a monster. I told you."
"No...you're..." You paused and let your eyes roam over him again, closer this time, and you were able to see the small details now, illuminated by the candlelight. The throbbing of veins, the texture of his skin, the ripple of muscles, yes...but also the soft curl of his hair, his musicians fingers--even with the claws--and the bulbous tip of his nose.
He was still Eddie.
And Eddie Munson was many things.
But not a monster, not a creature, not a beast. No.
You reached out to grab one of his hands and you wrapped his elongated fingers around the rounded bowl of the chalice.
His red scleras shined wet with tears and he took the chalice from you fully; he raised it to his mouth, then tipped his head back, and drank your blood in one exaggerated swallow.
Was this what happened when someone looked upon the true form of a God? Were they fully unprepared for the sight before them? Was that the true test, to see something so unfathomable and horrific and still find it...
"Beautiful," you muttered. "God...Eddie, you're beautiful."
He was quick to grab you, quick to haul you into his arms and run the edges of his claws along your face and down your neck reverently; he made quick work of your clothes, ripping the seams of them like his transformation had ripped the seams of his. With you, however, there was surgical precision.
He was almost too gentle in this new form, not wanting to hurt you, but you'd welcome the hurt, crave it, if it meant you could be one with him quicker. You desired it now, desired him, all of him, every part of this new version that he had revealed to you.
How many times, before the Upside Down, before Vecna, had he been ridiculed and mocked because of his appearance? Because he seemed rude or dangerous or rowdy...evil. But those closest to him--the people he belonged to, that belonged to him--always saw the true him. Recognized it, celebrated it.
Now, it was only amplified; the startling appearance, the danger, the fearful exterior. But it was still Eddie.
How could you not embrace him entirely? Want to bask in him? Consume all of him? You'd changed entirely in his eyes--maybe not in appearance, but in fundamental definition--and his want for you never faltered.
It was still Eddie, and he was yours.
And you were still you, and you were his.
Body and soul.
You swatted his hand away from you so you could touch him for yourself, so you could explore and caress him, kiss him.
You were hesitant at first, running your fingers gently along his lips, then further back along the cavernous maw that had been revealed.
"It hurts you," you noted; not a question, an observation. "To do this...it hurts you."
"It's easier to hide it," he tried to make the excuse. "They don't look at me like I'm...a monster when I still look like Eddie Munson."
"You still look like Eddie Munson, though," you tilted your head to the side in quiet contemplation. "Same eyes, same hair, same dumb jokes...just a little more..."
"Metal?"
"Bitey."
You touched the tip of one of his fangs with a finger and watched how easily it punctured your skin as a droplet of blood pooled there. The corners of his eyes crinkled, the apples of his cheeks round and pleasant; he nipped at your fingers gently, playfully as his shoulders shook and there was a hissing, chittering sound that rattled inside of his chest along with a deepened chuckle. You listened in awe, and basked in the sound of his new laughter.
When you couldn't hold yourself back anymore, you leaned forward and pecked a kiss to the bow of his upper lip. He huffed and you kissed it again, and again, until he shifted his jaw and was able to kiss you back properly.
It was a strange sensation, feeling the contrasting plush of his lips and the unforgiving hardness of his fangs just below; strange to navigate, actually, but it made for an interesting time. Just when you thought there couldn't be many more new or first experiences together, this change presented so many possibilities.
Possibilities that you both seemed eager to discover.
The kissing was something mastered quickly, which was relieving as you seemed to always want your lips on him, or his on you. His teeth nipped and cut when the excitement overwhelmed you both, but it wouldn't matter really. You'd heal, just like all of the other bites and wounds he had inflicted on you in the past few days slowly healed. Eddie was incredibly apologetic though.
That was where his tongue came into play.
At first you thought he licked the cut that had carved your bottom lip to lap up the bit of blood that pooled there, and you had half a mind to offer your neck to him to feed, or your wrist or some other part of you. But soon it became soothing, and you almost craved the calming back and forth over the stinging wound, as you stared up into the deep, warm, blood-and-chocolate abyss of his eyes.
But he didn't stop at your lip.
You offered for him to feed from you, as you had intended, and he had laid you down on the altar in order to do so comfortably. Comfort was not the word that you would use, though; the sensation of more fangs piercing your throat was almost troubling, and the pain was borderline unbearable, but you resolved to soldier through it for him.
Anything for him.
His tongue made itself known once again, and your eyes, that you had shut to keep stinging tears at bay, shot open as you tried to fathom the sensations you felt.
His teeth had punctured your skin, and he drew mouthful after mouthful of your blood, but then there was his tongue, snaking over the bite wounds as well, pressed against his teeth from the inside of his mouth...and then the outside.
"Eddie!" you exclaimed in shock, and with a wet squelch, he pulled away from you and you saw it.
Long and wet, patchwork and mottled, his tongue was elongated and lolling out of his mouth; it began to retract, back into his mouth, and his throat seemed to bulge with it.
"I'm sorry," he muttered. "I didn't mean to scare you."
And you should have been scared; instinct told you to feel fear. Especially because the image he presented right in this very moment--the combination of the teeth and tongue and his wings extended behind him--conjured thoughts of the manananggal.
The creature that killed your father.
"I'm not afraid," you told him truthfully.
You weren't.
There was that dark little whisper inside of you again, only this time, it basked in some invisible triumph over your father. He had faced countless dark creatures and failed. Perished. And here you were, despite everything you had been through because of him...facing the dark and dangerous thing Eddie had become and still seeing the good, the light, the love in him.
You and Eddie were basking in something greater than the light of "God's forgiveness," you were basking in the light of each other. A forgiveness you crafted together.
You reached out to Eddie to bring him to you again, so you could soothe the worry that he'd scared you; however, he took the gesture to mean something else.
He lowered himself to you again, rubbed his nose along yours gently, only this time, he allowed his tongue to snake back out. You watched, entranced, and allowed yourself the moment to get lost in the feel of it, lapping at the still-weeping bite on your neck, then down the valley of your breasts, the soft slope of your stomach, right down to the core of you.
You gasped and Eddie's cold breath fanned across your face as he huffed in triumph.
You let him play with you for a moment, tease your clit, your weeping slit, but just as he was about to breach your entrance, you stopped him.
His tongue retracted as he pulled back, and his brow furrowed in concern.
"You don't want that?" he teased. "Don't want me to eat your pussy; you always want that, sweetheart. Fuck, I always want that."
"I want to take care of you," you confessed with wide-eyed wonder as you trailed a finger along his arm. "I want to learn everything I can about you, want to explore every inch of you."
Like a great adventurer exploring a new and unknown world.
His eyes shifted back and forth between yours--nervously and full of uncertainty--and then he melded your lips together again, a desperate kind of gratitude emanating from him through the kiss.
You switched places then.
Him laying comfortably on the altar, propped by the pillows he had brought for your comfort.
But not before you got a full glimpse of him.
Tattered clothes shed, he stood there for your pleasurable observation, proud and preening and practically purring as you circled him like the predator he was meant to be.
You found that all the bleeding wounds that had split open during his transformation had healed now. And the scars, the seams of him that you attended to over the past few days and had been susceptible and weak before, were now strong; yes still scars, but mountains along the topographical map that made up his skin. And where the scars were mountains, the visible veins were rivers.
You stood on your tip toes to kiss along his spine, and that was when you found his wings to be especially sensitive. They fluttered at your touch, and he chittered and shook again, spoke your name with a delicious groan.
Amused, you tried the move again, but he seemed to have enough. He flapped his wings in several great beats, the power of which carried him forward, toes just grazing the stone floor. He turned as he settled into the little love nest on the altar to give you some faux withered stare, and that's when you got to see the effects of your attention.
His cock stood proudly against his belly.
And as arousing as it was to know that he was hard for you, because of you, the mood was effectively ruined momentarily as you snorted, all sense of seduction gone.
"What?" Eddie chuckled along with you, clearly happy to see you smile. "What is it?"
You shook your head and stalked forward, finding the perfect seat upon his thighs as he leant back into the pillows.
"All of these...upgrades," you tsked. "And Vecna didn't touch your dick."
The chapel suddenly filled with laughter as the two of you shared in the absurdity of the moment.
"Can't mess with perfection sweetheart," Eddie winked at you, and you stuck your tongue out at him.
"Did you tell him that?" you teased. "Was that a formal request?"
"If I'm being honest, I don't even think he had a dick."
"Seriously?"
"He walked around naked. Never saw one."
"Huh."
"Yeah."
"Maybe that's why you're stuck here. You're not adhering to the uniform requirements of King of the Upside Down."
"Castration?" he asked.
"Nudity," you clarified.
"Is that a formal request from you now?" He licked along the seam of his lips and then grinned that unsettling, feral grin. "Because I can make it happen just for you, angel."
"I know you're joking but you forgot one thing," you leaned closer to him, stretching so your lips could brush his. "I like your cock."
You suddenly rivaled Eddie for speed as you denied him a kiss and shifted further down his body to take the head of his cock in your mouth, fingers squeezing the length of him, making him choke on the sudden and unexpected pleasure. The noises that he made as you devoured him were sinful, feral, guttural though, and you couldn't help but feel an arrogant sense of pride about it.
Great strategist that he was, he should have known better when it came to your escapades. Your seductress tricks, as he’d called them once.
You closed your eyes and savored the taste of him. The taste of his skin and sweat, remnants of whatever detergent or cologne that clung to his clothes...but conspicuously no musky taste of sex.
You considered, once again, the cleanliness of his body.
And the lack of water in the Upside Down.
And then that impossible tongue.
You hummed as you released him and then kissed down the side of his shaft so you could glance up at his face; he usually liked to watch but his eyes were wrenched shut, nose scrunched, as he panted. A clicking purr roiled somewhere deep in his chest.
"Naughty boy," you hummed and his eyes shot open. "Licking yourself clean like a cat."
You emphasized your accusation by running your tongue, flat, up his length. Then you flicked at the head once, twice, three times until he had the good sense to look bashful.
"W-what else w-was I supposed to do sweetheart?" That naive schoolboy routine wouldn't work on you. No silly crooked smiles while he sported so many razor-sharp fangs.
No puppy eyes, no innocent act.
Especially not when waves of guilt and desire emanated from him implicitly.
He knew exactly what he was and what he did.
Perv.
You snorted at him but went back to sucking the head of his cock; then, ready to make him beg, your teeth scraped ever so tantalizingly until his breath hitched. You let up to lave at him to relieve the slight sting...
"That's enough of that," Eddie hissed at you and pried you up and away from his cock, despite your whining protest.
You were underneath him before you knew it, and his teeth were buried in your shoulder, pad of his thumb working at your clit to pull an orgasm from you at the same rate that he pulled your life's essence from the bite.
The mixture of pleasure and pain boiled in your veins as you climbed higher and higher and you were sure that Eddie could taste it on you, because every hitch in your breath, every moan, was parroted right back at you from him.
A hiccup matched with a huff.
A soft yes followed by a delicious snarl.
And the moan that ripped from your throat as you came was answered with a roar as he released you from the bite and stretched to his full height, head tossed back towards the heavens, announcing his victory to whatever demon or deity dared to listen.
Your euphoria was short-lived though, as he positioned himself at your entrance and drove into you. He grabbed you and hunched over to press his forehead against yours and began thrusting wildly.
It was sweet for a moment.
But you weren't ready.
You weren't ready for his trusts, the raw power that he possessed in this body that he couldn't seem to control after his frenzied feeding, or the way he pistoned into you so roughly that your hips knocked yours in a way that would bruise.
You weren't ready for his talons to puncture your skin and the flesh of your torso, digging painfully deep into you, tearing through muscle and sinew and organs in an otherwise-devastating way.
You weren't ready for your own blood to drip from his fangs onto your own lips and into your mouth as you opened it in pain and shock.
You weren't ready and neither, it seemed, was Eddie.
It only took seconds of the rough uncontrolled fucking before instinct kicked in and you shouted. Your hands grabbed him and your body channeled the surrounding flames of the half-dead votives to burn deep into his skin and the meat of his shoulders.
He pulled out and away from you with a cry that echoed yours; his wings propelled him backwards and across the chapel instantly, where he crashed into the pews and crushed them.
There was a beat of tense silence, as you collected yourselves, and then you stared at each other in shock.
"What was that?" you asked in tandem.
You wrenched your eyes shut even further, brow furrowed in concentration, and dug deep to try and channel the healing energies within. The flesh of your sides and your palm began to knit back together, any bruising and internal injury healed instantaneously, and the bleeding of the bites sluggishly stopped.
But the bite wounds themselves remained, just as all of the bites you'd endured remained; healing at a glacial pace. And that worried you more than any of the injuries you'd sustained, or how they came about.
You took a few deep breaths and returned to the present, opening your eyes to find Eddie's concerned and guilt-ridden face before you. You startled, and so did he, but you shushed him as the apologies fell from his lips and bloody tears began to leak from his eyes.
"Sweetheart, please," he stammered. "I'm sorry, I didn't...I didn't know, I didn't realize."
"It's...it's ok," you nodded.
"It isn't," he shook his head. "I hurt you. I'm a beast, I'm a monster." His clawed hands came up and his fingers buried into his hair.
"Stop," you shushed him and grabbed his wrists to try and get him to let go. "Stop it. You're not."
"I am."
"You didn't know," you told him.
"I knew I could hurt you if I wasn't careful and I did it anyway."
"And I'm fine. I'll be fine. I'm made of tougher stuff. And you stopped; I was hurt and you stopped. A monster wouldn't stop when they hurt someone."
His chest heaved but he nodded and let you pull his hands away and into yours, held tenderly between you.
"You drank my blood Eddie," you reminded him. "Blood shed for the forgiveness of your sins. Now and forever. It'll be ok. We'll be ok."
Your gaze shifted from his eyes to his shoulders then, to the shape of your hands burned onto his skin.
"Besides I hurt you too," you muttered with a tense smile. "So I guess we're even here. Does it hurt?"
"It doesn't matter."
"It does."
"They'll heal; it doesn't matter."
"Do you know how to heal yourself?" you asked. "Or does it just happen?"
Eddie was silent.
"Let me heal you then," you told him softly. "It'll go much faster."
You held his clawed hands tightly in your smaller ones and instructed him to close his eyes. You felt a brief and sudden doubt; he wasn't human anymore, not entirely, would it be any different?
What if it didn't work?
If you were going to fix this momentary hiccup, if you were going to fix all of him, you at least needed to try.
"Do you feel me?" you asked him. "Do you...feel my presence here?"
"I do," he nodded, and then his mouth quirked in a smile. "Your light."
"Good," you nodded and shifted closer. You closed your eyes and reached out to feel him too. "Do you feel us together?"
"Hmmm, yeah."
"That means you can feel yourself. Shut up, I can hear you laughing."
"Means I'm not upset anymore," he argued.
He had a point, still you weren't going to let it go.
"When you resurrected..." you hesitated.
"My brides."
"I'm not calling them that." you scoffed. "When you resurrected Max...what did you feel? Did you feel her light? And yours?"
"I did." He snorted. "It was silly. I imagined a pitcher pouring into a cup."
"That's a good way to think about it," you encouraged him. "Healing is such...a special act of goodness, act of light and love. When you...resurrect someone, you take part of yourself and you use it to spark the light in them. It's like...jumpstarting your car though. All the parts need to work right if you're gonna bring someone back. Their body. Their soul. Otherwise...otherwise it's like they're driving around without a windshield."
"Like the Marquis."
"Focus Eddie."
"Sorry."
"To heal someone, like I'm about to do to you though...it's easier...and it isn't. You just...shine your light on them. It fills them, warms them. You share a part of yourself with them, like sharing a blanket. There's a hole in them--"
"I think there's a few holes."
"Alright you're fine then." You tried to pull away from him but he gripped your hands tighter and pulled you closer again, practically onto his lap. "You gonna interrupt me again?"
"No, I promise."
You loosened one hand from his grasp and, on instinct, laid it over the burned handprint on his shoulder.
"When you're hurt, there's a hole that needs to be patched up. And your body can heal in time, but sometimes it's easier for someone to pour their light into you."
Just like you had with Mary Victoria the previous day, you willed the light inside to stir, to pour into Eddie, and to heal the burns. You opened your eyes and released his shoulder, and the burn was gone, the skin pristine, save for the scars that had already been there.
"There," you announced with a smile. Eddie opened his eyes and stared at you. "How does it feel?"
He inhaled deeply.
"You..." his eyebrows knit together. "You feel...I still feel you."
"I'm sure. It'll linger for a while."
"But I feel that way whenever I'm with you," he continued. "I think I've always felt that way with you, even when you weren't next to me, when you left...when I was still alive. When I was still me. And when you...when you left the other day and you went back to Hawkins...I needed you...I was desperate for you."
"I thought you said I've always been there with you," you reminded him.
"This is different," he whispered as softly as he could, and it came out as a rasp. "I need you more than anything now. I feel like I'm empty. And I need you to fill me back up."
Your breath hitched as you thought about the weight of the Upside Down and the hollow feeling; was that what he felt too? And you lessened that feeling for him, just as he had done for you?
Yes. That must be it.
"I need you too Eddie," you agreed. "In whatever way, shape, or form I can get you. Man...or monster, I need you."
He leaned closer, pulled you closer too, pulled you to straddle his lap. He watched you, you assumed, to see if you would flinch or push him away. But you never pushed him away.
You let him take your lips with his, let him kiss you, let his claws rasp along your skin again, trace along the very spots that he had pierced. You let him maneuver you, drag your center along his length to get you both ready for this connection once again.
This union.
This promise.
Just like the promises you had made since he returned to you; like the promises you made since the moment you met.
He broke your kiss and looked to you for reassurance, for consent, before he pulled you onto him, before you moaned in tandem at the feeling of being joined together once again.
If there was something about Eddie, he was a quick study; the things that had hindered you just moments ago--the sharpness of his claws, the untethered power of his body, the strength of his wings--suddenly became tantamount to your fucking.
He anchored those claws deep into the sturdy softness of your thighs, no vital organs at risk; his long arms wrapped around you so you'd feel safe in his embrace despite the ever-present sting as he maneuvered you up and down his shaft at a steady pace.
When he grew bold, he used those wings to propel you both forward, back to the altar, to cradle you in the soft safety of the nested blanket and pillows. He used the strength that this body belied to drive himself home within you over and over, twisted and contorted his body to bring you to the height of your pleasure repeatedly.
All the while he vowed to give you his sweet devotion.
Words spoken in hushed tones and then desperate shouts and then world-altering roars as his teeth snapped just inches from your face.
But there was no danger, no fear, no doubt.
Only love and worship and reverence and awe.
And then the moment came where you and Eddie reached the peak of your bliss, and your bodies ceased to exist. The moment where, in one instance he stilled deep within you and you clenched around him, and then next your beings melted together in a whining, chittering, quivering mess of light and being and consciousness.
When you returned to the universe, renewed once again by the presence of one another, Eddie fed from you again, from your wrist this time. He didn't even have to ask; you hues knew. You sensed that need within him, a hunger you wished to satiate, and you urged him to take what he needed.
It was the gentlest that he had ever bitten you; you barely felt a thing. Until he pulled away and you saw the matching, gaping, red wounds of your wrist and his mouth.
You pulled him to lay against you, and you carded your fingers through his hair as he thanked you repeatedly, whispered and kissed his gratitude against the skin of your chest.
You realized, as sleep began to overcome you, that something was different now, and you wondered if you had even descended from the height of your climax yet. Or if you were still there in the afterglow.
And if you were, was Eddie still with you?
Then you had another thought.
Was this what being normal felt like? Was this the outcome of his forgiveness? Had he really broken the curse?
You closed your eyes and figured that you might never know, might never make it to Heaven.
But this moment here, with Eddie, was the closest you would ever get.
And it would be enough.
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It was a dance.
Quite literally.
A dance with Eddie. Just you and him in this place deep and dark and hidden from the rest of the world.
Well alright, that was not quite the truth, not when there were thousands of glowing eyes and glinting claws and mouths dripping with hunger along the perimeter of the room. But it might as well be just the two of you; your love was enough to protect you. They didn't dare cross the veil of security while his hand held yours and you circled one another.
No music could be heard, no rhythm to speak of.
Just you and him. Jumping and head banging and twirling. He spun you, dipped you. Made a joke for you to dip him too, which caused you both to tumble to the ground in a fit of laughter.
Unadulterated joy.
You felt whole. Healed. Complete.
And you knew he felt the same.
This was where you belonged. Together.
"Let's try a waltz," he suggested.
"I don't know how to waltz, how do you know how to waltz," you laughed.
"PE, obviously. I can square dance too; you wanna do that instead?"
"No, no, show me how to waltz, Mr. Rochester."
"Gladly, my beloved Jane."
He did some wild and intricate bow, over exaggerated in the way only he could, and all the while you appreciate the sight. Full of life and energy and love, and it glowed from within him, practically illuminating the room.
He took your hand in his, grabbed your waist with the other, and led you with gentle instruction and encouragement. Once you had the steps down, he urged you to move, to spin, to traverse around the room, practically flaunting your invulnerability to the monsters that lay in wait on the outskirts.
Your combined laughter overwhelmed the clicking and hissing from beyond the dark veil.
"Alright, let's try this," Eddie instructed you with a chuckle. "I'm gonna dip you again."
"Oh Jesus ok, I'm not ready for that I don't think," you tried to dissuade him.
"You can't do any worse than Jeff did. Come on."
Unfortunately you did, your combined momentum from a spin was too much, and as Eddie went to dip you, you both fell in a soft pile of limbs and giggles and love. You rested your head back against the cold ground as Eddie rolled to the side, and when you opened your eyes you saw it.
A grand mirror, the frame of which was a dull and tarnished gold and layered in vines and slimey excrement. The edges of the reflective glass were scratched, but in the center, there you were.
The laughter and joy died in your throat as you stared at yourself, alone.
No monsters, surely, but no Eddie either.
You felt a familiar panic settle within you as your eyes darted back and forth around the reflection. A familiar hopelessness. And dread filled you because you knew, instinctually, that Eddie was still behind you...but was he?
"Sweetheart what's wrong?" Eddie questioned softly.
What if you turned around and you were alone again?
Lost again?
"Talk to me." You felt his hand on your shoulder, saw the indent of his touch in the reflection...but didn't see him. "What's going on?"
You wrenched your eyes shut as he fully grasped you by the shoulders and hovered over you.
"C'mon baby please," he sounded desperate. "What's wrong? Nothing's gonna happen. It'll be ok. I promised you, I'm here, it's gonna be alright. Trust me. Have faith in me."
Faith.
Was this a test of your faith? A test full of temptation? You taking the place of Orpheus as you sought safety in this underworld? And Eddie your Eurydice, continued existence hinging on that fragile string of faith?
But you knew deep in your heart, if you didn't have faith in anything else, you could have faith in him.
You slowly opened your eyes.
And witnessed a terrible sight.
Eddie, your Eddie, your soul and your salvation.
Broken.
Bleeding gashes on both sides of his neck, a slash on his wrist, a tear in the side of his shirt revealing a terrible wound, and lips that bubbled with blood.
"There you go," he muttered as though nothing was wrong. As though there were no droplets spattering onto your face as he spoke. "There's my girl."
You screamed.
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"But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.” - Galatians 5:1
Next Chapter: Chapter 7 - Exodus
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